the radical fundamental principles of freedom rational self-interest and individual rights This is the Iran Brook show All right, everybody welcome to Iran Brook show on this Tuesday, it's a little weird because yesterday was kind of a holiday, but not really, but it is Tuesday It is getting to be late June. O'Conn is just around the corner Next week we all had a lot of us head out to O'Conn. Hopefully some of you will be there Please come up and say hello if you are and That'll be great. All right Today, we're gonna do our news roundup Remember if you want to ask questions you want to contribute to the show you want to contribute to the Continuation of these morning news roundups. Please use the stick up or the super chat for that. All right Breaking news, although it's it's still not completely confirmed and and there's still not a lot of details on this But it looks like Hunter Biden has cut a plea deal with the prosecution Regarding this five-year investigation into his dealings Basically, he's agreed to plead guilty On two misdemeanor tax charges and to admit to a felony gun possession I Don't think he's gonna sit in jail for anything Not exactly how this is all play out. We'll probably know in the next next couple of days exactly how it plays out, of course the rate is already saying this is favoritism and this is this is you know, this is Nothing as compared to what he actually did and this is not going after him for the bribery accusations in Ukraine and in China and everywhere else And that is that is all all true part part of the problem. I think has been that it's really has been very very difficult to To prove the bribery accusations the the audio tapes of conversations between the barisma People and Hunter and Joe Biden have never materialized. We've never seen those audio tapes They've just been discussed as existing somewhere, but as much as people have looked for them, they haven't found them It's very difficult to To prove, you know a case of bribery if I put, you know, if a company puts Hunter Biden and the board of directors It's very hard to prove that then they get a pretty quote-quote if they didn't get some favors from The American administration, you know from Joe Biden as vice president in exchange those kind of connections are impossible I think to prove unless you have Recordings or something in writing or something to show the connection The same reason why you can't go after the drum kids for getting a bunch of favors from the Saudis or whatever so This is just this is just kind of entrenched government corruption. It's it's horrific It's a kind of corruption. I think exists and permeates the swamp in in Washington It's something That can only I think ultimately be dealt with With a separation of state from economics as long as you have a mixed economy this kind of corruption that's these politicians become rich I Think is inevitable As long as politicians have lots and lots of favors to grant. I mean lots and lots of favors to grant Some politicians will grant them from for some Thing in return So so what they've got him as on relatively minor things I guess in 2017 2018 He didn't pay taxes a willful failure to pay taxes. He since paid the money paid fines the felony gun charge is associated with a drug charge and So so he's gonna plead guilty for that as well or maybe he's not gonna plead guilty for that But he's there's some deal around that as well. So that's where we are. There'll be a lot of talk There'll be a lot of yelling. There'll be a lot of energy around this bit at the end of at the end of the day You know the corruption in Washington DC and the corruption in our governing institutions is Far deeper than any case like this is gonna uncover and far more extensive and effects You know, it really is a swamp in Washington It really is a swamp of favor giving and and in exchanging of of goods and favors and money and While it's rare to have suitcases of cash being transferred or though it does happen it You know, it's There's corruption massive corruption there and and it needs to be cleaned up But but not Biden and not Trump but not anybody like that can clean it up It needs somebody with real principles somebody with a vision somebody with an idea of how come government could be Not just how government is All right kind of a scary story is the story about China and Cuba And this is a story that two parts of the story really I think it was last week where first Some news broke about some reports about spy Facilities buying facilities that exist on in Cuba that he used to spy on Americans The Biden administration came back and said well those really existed for a long time. They've been around for about 10 years Which made me feel a lot better But you know, there's a there's a not surprising the Cubans are Always looking for who they can sell their soul to and who they can get to fund Their communist experiment. They used to have the Soviet Union who regularly used to send them checks and support Then Vin Venezuela had money because of the oil and and Chavez was around They used to get a lot of support from support from Venezuela Venezuela's poor Soviet Union is non-existent. Well, how they gonna how they gonna survive? well One way is to is to go to China and ask for Chinese support, so It looks like China is becoming more and more involved in Cuba Cuba gets the benefit of Investment and money and financial support China, of course, this is where it gets really interesting gets the benefit of having A spine facility and now this morning They're talking about a new joint military training facility on the northern part of the island and an expansion of the Intelligence gathering facility. Remember, this is just a hundred miles off of the Florida coast This is within the Monroe Doctrine You know that America is responsible for kind of the Western Hemisphere and takes responsibility And and takes the authority over this hemisphere, although it hasn't been practiced in a long time You know, this is putting Chinese potentially Chinese troops Chinese weapon systems other there hasn't be talk of that certainly Chinese Listening devices and other espionage means right on the shore of the United States And of course the Chinese will say well, just like you have Guam and just like you have Taiwan We now have Cuba and really that is the purpose of this the purpose of this is to is to give China Some leverage over the United States To to present the situation in Cuba is similar to the situation In in Guam and maybe even Taiwan not so much Taiwan, but Guam Ultimately the Chinese will I don't think they can afford to do it I don't think they have the capability to do it. I don't think they have the capacity to do it Remember, I mean Cuba is hard to get to for the Chinese But the idea would be whereas China is very easy for the United States Well, it's at least speaking to get to we just have to cross the Pacific They have to cross the Indian Ocean and then the entire Atlantic will go through the Panama Canal not easy for them But Cuba gives them a strategic location, right? on off the shore of the United States and You could imagine they would love to have some aircraft there and a little port there so that they can so that they can Launch theoretically they could launch attacks in the US from there I don't think any of that's gonna come to be but the very presence of the Chinese in Cuba is meant to send a message to Washington We are a global power. We're you know, we can get to your doorstep You're not the only ones who can get to ours And you better take it seriously as you know Blinken was just in China starting to Trying to start a new page turn a new page start trying to Get a renewed direct communication between the US and Chinese military With the idea present preventing any accidents preventing any false alarms He didn't get much. He came back pretty empty-handed, but it was the highest level meetings held by Chinese and and American officials in a very long time the Biden is definitely interested in easing the tension The tension is getting a little scary I think for everybody and he's interested in easing those tensions You know the US government as always is dealing with China as it deals with all foreign policy issues from a completely unprincipled unprincipled perspective It's in and and not a perspective that's gonna Generate much results. So it's not clear what Americans interest exactly are And so Biden has been tough on China much tougher than Trump and at the same time Is also trying to be soft on China and how how actually they navigate that policy without any principles Without any standards for foreign policy without any ideas for a long-term relationship between China and Russia at China and the United States You know how to tell it's just everybody's just shooting from the hip and trying whatever and seeing what sticks and and kind of kind of hoping for the best but there's There's no strategy. There hasn't been strategy in American foreign policy. I Believe since World War two, but certainly in decades decades All right, no questions zero 12 minutes into the show. That's surprising. Usually I have a few questions So anyway, you can use the super chat to ask questions. Please do or just support the show. Thank you Robert by the way all right Canada Canada is experiencing the largest in migration of new immigrants into the country of any Country in the West indeed Canada's population is growing percentage wise faster than any country I think in the West it's indeed the population growth in Canada is Approaching the population growth in some of the some of the higher growth countries and places like like Africa Where they still have a lot of kids. So Canada is growing Significantly and and this has become going to become a cultural and political significant cultural political issue in Canada Canada has just reached 40 million people it is accepting about a million people a year of Immigrants into the country about half of those are on the skill workers program and about half of them are I think students and Asylum seekers and so on so at least the students are not necessarily permanent But Canada is much better than the United States and helping students stay in Canada and not indeed leave after they get a An education in Canada subsidized by Canadians Canada of course So Canada's population is growing GDP GDP generally is is growing quite nicely as compared to European countries. It's a little slower than the US faster than most of Europe Canada has the same problem as the rest of the world really has if you take out the immigrant population Population in Canada is getting older It's they're not having kids. So if you take out immigration that the population of Canada is indeed shrinking or will shrink over time and The solution Canada has and they have a massive labor shortage and the solution for that Canada has embarked on is significant increases in Significant increases in immigration And and of course With that what you're seeing is Demand for housing significant consumption You know people people are immigrants are getting jobs So so production is going up and this is why GDP is expanding most of that GDP expansion is population driven rather than productivity driven and of course the big challenge for Canada is there's not a lot of productivity growth and and GDP per capita that is the actual wealth of Canadians Is not increasing dramatically, but that to me is is kind of You know, it doesn't really represent what's going on because what's going on is For the most part is that Canadians are already they're established on everything Their GDP per capita is going up or their wealth is going up because they have more customers And and and there's just more people to trade with But what's happened is that a lot of people coming into the country are poor and They wealth is So it's not evenly spread GDP is going off GDP capital is not but but the GDP is not evenly spread to bringing in people who are poor and and and You know, so the wealth effect is is significant right is significant Housing is going up because so so Canadians already have a house if the value is going up But it is an interesting experiment and part of the problem in Canada and why productivity is not going up and why GDP is not going up even faster is The Canada's as we all know is over regulated over taxed over controlled so You know the real challenge If Canada wants to really take advantage of the Substantial immigration that's coming into the country if it really wants to take if you really want to take advantage of that if well Not just if they want to take advantage just of Their potential for economic growth. It's a country with 40 million people the size of the US now granted In my view Canada all of it is not habitable. It's just too cold But some people like the cold so people live there You could have a lot more than 40 million people and they could be quite wealthy and quite rich It has huge amounts of natural resources the real thing Canada needs is Entrepreneurship Innovation. Oh, one of the exciting things Canada just happened in Canada is Microsoft is moving its AI artificial intelligence research lab from China To Canada and it's moving all the Chinese scientists with it So Canada is benefiting enormously from Chinese from Chinese immigration Hong Kong immigration, which is very high in China and Microsoft is establishing this lab I think in Vancouver, I think and That of course ultimately will be productive in enhancing because that's really tech right into Canada and can enhance Canada's ability I think to produce Entrepreneurs and more innovation, but what they really need is Deregulation deregulation deregulation and deregulation They could start with their healthcare industry, but Just if they if they want to grow and I want to see productivity growth business business business just deregulate everything Unlikely it happened, but it is an interesting experiment and I know the border and it will be interesting to see culturally How Canada responds to this politically how does this affect the politics in Canada is the right in Canada? going to run on an anti-immigration platform or Or is Immigration pretty much Something both the right and the left. I'm bracing and as the immigrants become more More of them will they be a right-wing backlash as There has been in Europe One of the really interesting phenomena is going on in Europe and this is I have to say this is Validation of one of my thesis, right? I have told you over and over again, I guess that as Work becomes more dominant the culture will reject woke and it will It will latch on to something. I think as bad if not worse, which is kind of a far, right? new right nationalist conservative agenda and In Europe, you're seeing exactly that playing out exactly that playing out Europe is as embraced a Leftist policies the European Union is run by by leftists who want to regulate and control But also who are brought to the continent All the woke nonsense that exists in the United States and in addition Europe has been flooded by immigrants and that combination of immigrants and woke is something it turns out most people don't want and The solution to that is the rise of far right new right political parties in Europe The latest one is is the the political party Vox in in Spain it is a it is a far-right political party that is now The together with the center-right party has formed coalitions all over Spain Basically to govern provinces and cities all over the country. It is a nationalist anti-immigration, but you know central planning You know kind of kind of national conservative Movement and it looks like they can be Spanish elections in the summer It looks like this coalition between the far-right Vox and the center-right popular party Is going to dominate and Vox just a few years ago was considered Beyond the pale a kind of political party that nobody would form a coalition with not even not not not even the center-right parties Would form a coalition with well now They're becoming stream in the sense that they're big enough They're powerful enough in the center-right has even moved to the right to an extent where they're not that crazy and so you're seeing New right nationalist Industrial planning type Put the state before the individual centralized control and an anti-woke an Anti-immigration parties rising all over Europe You've got that in Greece. You've got it in Denmark You've got that in Italy, of course with the with the brothers of Italy victory With your Gina Miloni winning by the way all these parties. I forgot to mention this, but it's important all these parties also brandish the The idea of the importance of Christianity in politics the importance of Christianity in culture and They're bringing forward of a Christian ideal as part of their political mission as part of their political agenda so You've got the Finnish national coalition party Which is which has formed the coalition with the new right? New right Finns party. You've got alternative for Germany, which used to be shunned by the mainstream parties as New or fascist now is likely to form a form after the next election a government with The center-right Christian Democrats again because they have moved into the mainstream. They're getting enough votes that that they become normalized by the culture country after country in in in Europe is Shifting to the right and shifting not to an old Not even not to a free market right, but shifting to a Christian to a Christian nationalist right You know a Miloni for example in Italy Emphasizes and stresses her Catholicism and and is committed to being in that Catholicism into governing How exactly they do that harder to oh one other country where this is done is of course Sweden and You know like the Swedish Democrats Sweden Democrats And again a party that used to be connected somehow with with the fascist right now is Moved a little bit away, but generally is does not be mainstreamed and created So the greatest beneficiaries of world culture the greatest beneficiaries of Leftist ideology of complete subjectivism Other right now it also has to do with xenophobia it also has to do with You know with with real nationalism that is that is leading to the rise of these political white parties anti-immigration stances are big part of this in all these countries, so though Tell lies because they haven't stopped the in migration because Europe would go bankrupt if it actually stopped The migrants are coming in but they talk to talk they talk to talk So as the left becomes more powerful and becomes more crazy That only elevates the rate which tends to dominate. I wouldn't be surprised in the next five You know Marilla Pan is right now the most popular politician in France. I wouldn't be surprised if in five years Europe has generally shifted dramatically to the right. I've just been invited actually I got an email today to do a debate in Europe with a national conservative at a conference of a center to new right political thinkers and think tanks in in Madrid in September we'll see if I can go I'm not sure if I'm going to go but I Would represent kind of what they call liberal national nationalism versus conservative nationalism and That would be the debate This is the topic everywhere. This is the topic everywhere is discussing in Europe And I think of course in the United States as well This is this is a big a big deal Ian asked about Brian Kaplan. That's happening as far as I know September 18th, so this national conservative debate would be a few days after that All right, let's see Yeah, one of the kind of interesting interesting story is AI companies the big AI companies Open AI Google Microsoft adobe and others Other people working on AI are starting to meet with media companies I mean there was this real issue that the AI these You know language programs They learn and I put learning quotes here would put learning quotes They learn by scanning information available on the internet much of that information on the internet is Provided by media organizations and the media organizations saying well, wait a minute We own this stuff. There's some there's a copy right here You can't just scan it and use it and nobody's ever gonna go to the New York Times Website because I'm gonna just chat ask my chap GPT. Hey, what are the headlines from New York Times today and? Read to me. I mean, that's it right. We completely disengage From the actual media source because a chat GPT becomes intermediary They can provide us with all that information without ever accessing so it kind of the the models that exist Fall apart and of course some of that is behind paywalls like the New York Times Some of it is not paywalls are obstacles to AI. I would like to access those. So what do we do? so these AI companies are meeting now with media companies and they're trying to cut a deal the same thing by the way with image companies Cut companies that own huge libraries of images AI companies are starting to meet with them and they started to figure out a pricing mechanism By which in order to use your website to learn AI is gonna have to pay you something and It's gonna be really interesting how this evolves. How you know, is this behind some kind of paywall? Is it public? But companies pay anyway Always it, you know, so it's really interesting. This is something to watch. I find it interesting because these are new forms of Kind of property rights new forms of contractual agreements New ways in which to think about copyright Which I think are fascinating something to watch and and I certainly will be following. Okay, finally Again, just broke a few little while ago Andrew Tate in Romania and his brother Have both been arrested You know after they were in house arrest But now they've been I guess taken into custody and they've been charged with rape Human trafficking and forming a criminal gang to exploit women so Romania's anti organized crime agency said prosecutors filed the charges against the brothers who are and the two brothers and two additional Romanian woman and We'll see and this will go to code this will go to court, I guess and we'll see I don't know, you know, I I don't really have a strong opinion about what this means I've I I don't have a high opinion of Andrew Tate's and in that whole attitude and the whole approach to masculinity or to life or to women certainly But I you know, I don't know if these accusations are true or not and do I trust the Romanian Justice system not particularly It's pretty corrupt. I You know, I'd be more inclined to think that Andrew Tate could pay his way out of it. So I'm surprised So given that they're actually charging him It's not clear what the incentive is But I mean if they were completely corrupt, so They probably got a pretty solid case now again. Do I trust them? Do I trust all that? I I don't I Don't know I Not really All right, Frank has been asking me this question. I keep answering it on the on the chat But he never seems to see my response Frank I asked me if I can if I can go see Indiana Jones at Ocon with a bunch of YBS fans. Unfortunately, I cannot my schedule in Alcon is stacked They've got me doing events fundraising meetings Breakfast lunches dinners One day is also my wife's birthday. So I'm taking her out to a nice dinner It's just this this particular icon, but Ocon is generally I'm Giving one talk. I'm also gonna be I think on a panel. I'm speaking at the fundraising events or certain events during the week It's just it's just not possible. Now. I will Be doing at least one show from Ocon So hopefully you guys can all come and sit there live and listen to the show ask questions live right there and and I will and I will be free to chat and just to say hello and to But but yeah, I mean if the YBS group Goes out and does stuff together that'll be cool. Let's let's let's create a YBS brand We should have YBS conferences. We should have YBS events ultimately We'll get to that. We'll get to that Part of the big growth plan for for the future talking about growth to grow. We need to make our targets We can't grow if we don't make our targets. So We are Way off so it would be great if you guys could could Support the show, you know, three bucks from everybody three bucks on everybody listening right now would get us the way we need to be Again value for value and of course if if nine people want to do like $20 questions We can get there as well Right now. I've got only got three questions. I'll take these three and if that's it Then we'll make this a short show and that'll be that'll be fine But it would be nice if we got some stickers Antonio. Thank you. I appreciate that Appreciate the support Robert says what's the one question you prepare to You'd prefer To not be asked at the Ocon You're famous Admirably approachable at conferences, but is there any topic you've just had about enough at these events? I mean, I Don't know. I mean It's the same topic. I don't like to be asked here Don't ask me about I don't know All the different people out there all the different Conflicts gizms people I talked to people I don't talk to don't ask me to evaluate I don't know different intellectuals out there. What do I think of this what I think of that? What I think of this guy's conference that person's conference these events those events I I'm not interested in these conflicts. I'm not interested in discussing the public I'm not interested really in discussing them privately unless there's a really good reason to do so I want to put them behind me and just focus on the future and focus on on growing the objectivist movement growing the YBS platform and And and trying to create a better future for all of us. So what I'm really interested is in figuring out how to Best use my time my abilities my resources To have an impact on the world All right, thank you Robert Let's see Mark. Thank you Paul. Thank you Darlene. Thank you Really appreciate the stickers if everybody did a sticker like this We'd make the goal easily. All right Hunter hunter. I think the 13th amendment would be a better federal holiday than Juneteenth Juneteenth only ended slavery in Texas Which is why I It was a state holiday There were still two Union states that that legal had legally had slaves after the war really I didn't know that I Thought the the emancipation proclamation basically ended slavery Once the north had won in the entire place I'm fine with that. I think there are a lot of things that could be celebrated I'm just saying celebrating the end of slavery Whatever date you put it however you want to call it ending Slavery is a worthy thing to celebrate that I guess that's the only thing I commented on whether this is the right holiday or some other holiday is You know is less less of interest Thank You John really appreciate the support Yeah, I mean I think Not enough us know the history well enough. I it's certainly sounds like I don't and it'd be good, you know holidays like this are good opportunities to catch up on on your history to learn more about something really really important about About the US and about our history and about how we overcame some of the biggest challenges we had All right John says Still not much new information out of Ukraine. Yeah, I mean there's some Ukrainians are making progress They're taking ground Not a lot of ground, but they are taking ground. It still feels like they're prodding the Russians They're systematically figuring out where the different ammunition places are massive A missile attack on on a huge ammunition depot in Gilson province in the south a couple of days ago They're looking for breakthrough areas. They've done this before they did this in the fall. They just haven't The Russians are not the right. They're also testing out the Russians new tactics The Russia is definitely introduced new tactics new tactics to the region Including a much better use of drones much heavy heavy use of artillery which they've used all through but much better use of drones and of course the Russians had months and months and months to put minefields everywhere and to and to have Trenches everywhere. So the Russians are in a much better position right now to defend The Ukrainians are still prodding, but they are advancing. There's there's an advance every day There's another village taken every day, but there's no big breakthrough and I don't expect there to be a big breakthrough anytime soon Most of the Ukrainian forces have not yet been deployed most of the new equipment tanks and And personnel carriers have not yet been deployed There I think they're kind of waiting in the background to see where the weak point is so they could they can rush forward a Lot of casualties on both sides. It seems like A lot of Russians and a lot of Ukrainians are dying So while there's not a lot of new information a lot of death is happening a lot of destruction And and we will see so it it really is hard to tell at this point. I don't have any special intelligence It's clear where the Ukrainians would like to make progress and that is in the south They would like to break through and be able to reach the out of sea That's off the off the Black Sea which would then cut off the troops in Gilson and Cut off the the land bridge to Crimea. It's not gonna be easy The Russians have known this is the Ukrainian plan for a long time and have been building up again the defenses over there There's a lot of Russian troops Russian again Russia has a much bigger army still than Ukraine but I Still believe the Ukrainians can do it. I think they still believe the Ukrainians will do it I just think it's gonna happen on a timescale. That's a little different than maybe some people's expectations All right, Paul. Thank you Darlene. Thank you John. Thank you Rand. Thank you Katherine. Thank you really really appreciate it We've passed a halfway mark So I appreciate that Thanks, all right. Thank you John. All right, Charles, but what about YBS t-shirts? I Was supposedly working on that. I don't know happened what happened with Christian But Christian was working on YBS t-shirts. They were Supposedly going into production and we were gonna start selling them. So I'm not sure what happened to them I'll follow up and try to ask but Christian had Christian Jackson or action Jackson did have some designs was working on some designs and They were supposed to be Launched soon. He was having some problem with the printing process. I think but okay, let's hope that the t-shirts come out soon should be Frank says so the trailer for the new Indiana Jones film seems to be to make a comment about capitalism is stealing from another Why do they say property is theft? Well, because that's a standard leftist category that property is theft It goes back at least to so if not earlier than that you know the noble savages the Wandering around the wilderness picking berries and eating nuts and and stuff like that there was no real property and You need property and that's what humanity is at its peak which is so and leftist ideology and has been for a very long time and Why Indiana Jones would embrace that in any kind of way? I don't know but I can't say I'm surprised can't say I'm surprised given given the kind of Ideology that exists today on the left and the kind of attitude and And and how has dominated and infiltrated Hollywood? Okay guys, we are done we have About a hundred dollars short So if people want to step in and get us over the hump that'd be great We've got seventy six people watching live. So it's only a buck something but But in any case, I you know No more questions. So I think I'll call it a night and morning. There will be a show tonight It'll be I think focused on cancer culture. So join me tonight and 8 p.m. East Coast time I don't have the title of the show, but I will post that up Later this afternoon. All right. Thanks everybody. I will see you tonight And have a great rest of your


Hi there, today on Typical Books it's a little more of a wrap up on House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielsky. So if you do recall I've finished reading House of Leaves and when I was finished I had taken a few more videos while I was reading it and a few more of my thoughts, thoughts on the font, things like that. So I'll play those for you in a second. But do know that I got to the end of this book. I had my camera handy, my phone and I turned it on and I looked at it and I stared and no words really came because I think that the words weren't wonderful. I didn't really, I like I enjoyed reading it, I enjoyed parts of the story but it was so much of a tour and I had a lot of negative things at first. Aside from my one initial summation of the entire story which is a spoiler to a certain degree so I'm going to put that at the end of this video but and with a warning so you can skip it or whatever. So don't stop yet. I got a few videos on my thoughts at toward the end and I had to put it down for a little bit before making this video so if you've been waiting I apologize but hey I did like it and I really do think this is a lot like grave encounters so if you like that sort of ghost hunting stuff, if you like the puzzle geometry, if you like an escher architecture to a house that you can have people in, then oh yeah like this has aspects of that. If you enjoyed something like Jesse Pinkman's character, if you enjoyed the books like Less Than Zero, if you like that sort of Bret Easton Ellis struggling character that is their own worst enemy, then you will like the Johnny Truman aspects of this. If you like to see how the two things coalesce. If you like things like Memento or The Endless where we're in a world that is very familiar but slanted and warped in very subtle ways and it's that subtlety that gives you that cosmic horror terror feeling. If you like that then this will be for you for certain. I'm not going to go really really deep in this. Suffice it to say that I had very conflicted thoughts about this book when I was done it. Definitely swaying to discontent and all of the things that people say negatively about this book definitely bubbled around in my head alongside I liked it. It was a fun read. I also didn't like reading it because of all those things that people say are very very true about this book. He asks a lot of his reader too much in fact for what this story contains. And it's something that I say often about books and stories and movies and things like that is that it could have been shorter and I feel like it's such a cop out when I say that but I would love to see an abridged version of this if there are coals notes for House of Leaves let me know because that would be fun to revisit sometime. But yeah I've often joked to myself that I wish The Horror Show with Brian Keane had a Brian Keane headlines podcast that went along with it that was maybe five minutes long that just cut out all the important headlines of stuff that he talked about as far as comics books, his new releases, other people's work and what's going on in the horror scene. That would be so cool but same sort of thing I wouldn't mind House of Leaves headlines book. So here are some of my thoughts from oh I don't know it's probably the last fourth of the book probably where I'm grappling a little more with the storyline and talking a little bit about what is being presented in the last portion of the book.  Okay so yeah still reading the gigantic tome that is House of Leaves and a couple little things. I am starting to enjoy Johnny Truman's story a little bit probably because his mind has deteriorated to a point that I can relate to. We've been watching Breaking Bad. I've never watched it before but I've been very aware of the story of Breaking Bad but um Jesse Pinkman's character reminds me quite a bit of what Johnny Truman was up until the time that he started compiling some panos, navits and record kind of cocksure and a bit of a party ass and kind of a frat boy that'll never ever grow up sort of thing with extra street wise party edge very strange individual but he reminded me of Jesse Pinkman quite a bit and actually Jesse Pinkman from Breaking Bad has a higher standard of morals and ethics than Johnny Truman had at one point I believe and that's probably why I didn't like him as a person but now that he's deteriorated so we're hitting sort of like a common denominator of humankind at its worst I can relate to him a little better and I'm enjoying what he has to say. We're also hitting a point of dreams and dream interpretation to a certain extent and I had mentioned in previous videos the dreams that I used to have quite often and what is kind of enchanting to me about House of Lease is finding of secret rooms, passages. I would often dream that there was a closet or something that would open to another room if you've watched Futurama and see Bender's apartment that looks like a little closet for a robot to sleep in but then there's a wall behind it which is where it's a full apartment okay, Supri lives in the full apartment that Bender never used. That sort of thing is what I would often dream of or finding like hey let's move this bookcase, oh there's a door there and open it and there's a duplicate of the house behind it sort of like a duplex but no one knew what was there or and this is one that I've seen on Reddit when you look up recurring dreams of houses and secret rooms, secret passages. People will dream of finding a room or an attic with all their childhood toys or old furniture of their parents or their grandmother's house and stuff like that like yeah I'd have those dreams quite often not so much lately but from time to time. One dream that I used to have a lot was Rickety Stairs and I know it's not really related to House of Lease but it had come up in my previous video and I don't have them anymore but I used to always have Rickety Stair dreams and who knows maybe someday I'll get into a large story time about why I could have possibly been having those sorts of dreams but they do signify not being able to progress in your life to a place you feel you ought to be or are striving toward and there's barriers between you and it. The hidden rooms dream is sort of similar in that you are progressing in life and you're unlocking new things and you're discovering new things. I probably have those dreams a lot because I'm constantly learning, teaching, researching and especially as being a writer and a journalist learning all sorts of crazy stuff so that makes a lot of sense for me. Interestingly it sort of does tie into what's going on in this book just the general idea of finding a secret room and where that leads. Maybe this one isn't so good. Another thing that I had noticed in this book quite finally I understand there are coded sections within this and I was really enjoying reading one of the first I guess I don't know if there's other ones letters from Navitson to Karen after the fact after the incident in the house. I'm trying to stay away from spoilers here but there was a like a love letter so to speak a very dark and twisted love letter he admits he's drunk when he writes it but it's quite long it's interesting it's rambling it gives you some insight into his character and a few little mysteries so far but at the end of it in one of the footnotes it says straight up there's a line and there about it being coded and how all of the greatest love letters are coded for the one and not the other. I don't have the time to look up codes in this I'm not gonna go reading the first letters of lines or eliminating every w and seeing what I get like I know there's some codes in this after I read this book I'm gonna go and look at all the hard work other people have done on it but at the end of that it does explicitly say there's a code and I sort of idly scanned it and I'm like I don't have time for this um I enjoyed the letter it kind of ruined it for me by mentioning there's a code to look up I don't know if I'll ever have the time in my golden years to revisit this and dig through it that way but knowing that you can is interesting to me having it dangled in front of me and knowing that because it's being dangled in front of me it means it probably isn't there makes me feel kind of foolish for looking at all so I don't know if anyone else has really found all the codes and if anyone has spent a year reading this book um I'm very interested to hear your insight um I do see how someone who is susceptible to puzzles could probably get very lost in this I am susceptible to puzzles to a certain extent but this one I'm drawing a big lines I'm drawing big big lines to keep myself from being sucked in when I can read it at my leisure and then go and see what other people have investigated that sounds like fun to me but yeah okay so I haven't been really referring to things online while I read this because I think that that's something best left for when I'm done reading this book so I haven't really looked too much stuff up but I do have my iPad with me just in case I did look up the actual photo of a girl with a vulture and some other Pulitzer prize winning photos just because I got sidetracked and that's part of why I'm not doing that there is still a struggle for me reading this book because it's just so much that feels like useless information I'm trying to convince myself it'll all come together at one point right but yeah so I've enjoyed that I've enjoyed quite a bit of the duality in talk of mothers so far and I've discovered my favorite page it's this whoa not that but those diagonal pages are just fun to read it's it's fun some of the going through a particular hallway for those that have read it it is kind of a hard no it's not climax it's hard for me to say because I'm not done yet right but that was fun but as soon as I hit those diagonal pages it just it just felt neat to read but yeah so yeah that feeling of reading something neat a lot of the other scattered typography has just not appealed to me but that page certainly did so I can see that appeal and addendum to that last notable my favorite page is that it's also the only time I've had to turn this book over entirely to actually read something it's that loss where I've been denying the book that joy for so long by not turning it all the way over I've finally been defeated I've finally lost and it's a satisfying loss it's also the subject matter of these particular diagonal pages that I do enjoy quite a bit you'll have to forgive me my absolutely ridiculous hair right now it's been up it's been down it's a hot it's a hot night here in Canada land okay I've got a different hair do today entirely don't I uh yeah I am getting close to the end I'm at the I've finished the book I'm into appendices but as I said previously I count that as all part of the book so I'm just uh I don't know I've got maybe an eighth left or something like that I've read Johnny Trun's diary entries near the end and I'm into Zampano's diary entries in the appendix and I find them interesting I like that I like the slight mirroring within the story I like uh Johnny's journey to sort of discover some of the origins of this and his meeting with the band those aren't spoilery things and I'm um pretty sure I won't give a spoilery anything that's what I'm really hoping to not have to do it all here but uh when I say I'm enjoying it it's it's despite feeling like um I'm being dragged through reading it so it's not like I don't know I'm gonna try and assign a star rating to this um so I don't know how skewed that'll be but I'm probably you know if it ends up being over four stars I'm just gonna give it a one-star handicap because I just I I'm not enjoying reading it I'm enjoying the story and I'm enjoying the characters but I'm not enjoying reading it finally I've reached the point in the book with Johnny's mother's letters I feel like I've hit that part in a show like um Requiem for a Dream where everyone's balling their eyes out in the winter act fourth act fourth season uh the darkest part although this feels strangely uplifting and I think I owe a lot of my joy in reading the sections so far is to the font choice I don't know what it is like a bookman or something like that it's really a very pretty font the font in question was Dante go figure uh font I've never really used and I can see why it reminds me a lot of children's books go figure those are two reasons it's a perfect choice Dante Inferno and it's great for children's books that seems like a weird thing but yeah lovely stuff reminds me of Winnie the Pooh now if you recall like I said I had next emotions about reading this I would recommend it to those who enjoy cosmic horror enjoy things about people being their own worst enemy don't have any trouble with drug culture stories and things like that it's it's interesting it's very interesting and if you've looked at it as a challenging read if it is on your bucket list so to speak go for it you know it's uh it doesn't take as long you can assign reading to it and there are other people's plans for that it's not as long as it looks and you will find that you like once you get it and you flip through it you will read the first maybe quarter of the book very normally it's very dense it's very normal the next quarter of the book will fly by in an afternoon the next quarter of the book depending on your interest level can go quick or slow depending and the last quarter of the book if you're uninterested in what you've read so far could go by very quickly or if you are interested and wanting to absorb and untangle a lot of this it can go pretty slow but in the rewarding way so before I get spoiler-ific or anything I did run this through the book score thank you very much to heartbeats and the trees for developing such a wonderful tool and wow this is probably the lowest scoring book it's like a 2.5 stars I scored like a 42 or 43 and I stopped actually dinging it because I thought I was being too mean because there were things I enjoyed think of all the things that you can enjoy about a book and this wins that Unenjoyment Award of 2020 but I really did enjoy the house itself I enjoyed the mystery of what was going on in the house I enjoyed the descriptions of the house I enjoyed when they were deep down in the house I enjoyed that feeling hence my constant allusions to Grave Encounters the movie I enjoyed De Zampano the character who had compiled the Navanson record in the first place who only makes very cursory appearances in a third-party regurgitation we never really actually meet Zampano and I loved that character Johnny's mom I liked that character that's somebody who we only really meet through a third-party or for her epistolary appearance in the end of the book so it's book ended by these really cool characters I like and in the meat of it all is this setting that I really like but that's not really what it's about and there's not enough time spent there and if it were it would be a very different book it would be a story with a beginning middle and end not um this spiral staircase running up and down as it were I will say there is an our huge communities devoted to this book which has just celebrated its 20-year anniversary of being a book right so if you are like me and want to save time there's a few puzzling things within this book that are explained for you elsewhere online it is a keystroke away so you don't need to take the time but you can actually if you don't mind writing in your books with a pencil you can circle things and figure the small easy puzzles out yourself very rewarding if you're into that so it is fun if you don't want to destroy your book you can find the things online you can take a picture with your phone and mark things up on computer or on your phone that's probably the most convenient way if you want to preserve your copy now that said you can enjoy this book without the puzzles but there is one a letter a letter I won't spoil it any further than that where you will need to get the full contacts and the full gut punchery of it all you will need to do that one puzzle everything else is you don't need to follow footnotes around the book like a maniac you don't need to do any of that to get the story you can read this in the laziest manner possible and in the most straightforward manner possible and treat it like a damn book and you can still get everything you need to get out of this you don't need to have it destroy your life for years or whatever it is because that's the idea I get of the way that some people treat this book that it's gonna ruin them or whatever it's not it's it's an interesting book and that's it okay so on that note it does ask a lot of a person for a very simple story so if that's not your cup of tea if you don't want to be run around a book for a very simple story then go and watch other people's more in-depth reviews and you'll get what you want out of it if you're very interested like I was and these sort of videos I've spurred you on and you want no spoilers you want no the key to this all then I will thank you very much for watching and if you enjoyed this or read or I'm going to read House of Leaves let me know in the comments below I will have another moment here to spoil the book and it won't take long so you're not missing out much if you're tuning out right away I'm giving you a big long rambling warning here in a five four three two one method that if you don't click away I'm going to spoil the last page of the book so yeah it's Ragnarok that's it it's Ragnarok that's what this story boils down to the last page Iggdrasil I somewhat recognize that and I'm like oh it's Norris it's about Ragnarok and after you know I thought that after reading the word Iggdrasil I thought oh my god the house is a tree of life it is the multidimensional thing that is upon what worlds collide at the end leaving a male and female alive to repopulate and carry forward with a new brave world it's Ragnarok that's it it's Ragnarok so that's it I had fun with it it was sort of a letdown once I read the Iggdrasil page and I thought oh my it's that's it those who say it's a house of leaves in that the book has the pages and the pages of the leaves and the book is the house get it I think that's sort of uh dumbing it down to a certain extent and and kind of misrepresenting the whole book for people so I hope that those reading don't uh hang on that punny explanation for this book too much and I don't know what the author has to say because like I said earlier I'm interested to have finished reading this book so I can go and read other people's extrapolations from this book and see what the author himself has to say about it uh it's not necessarily a house of leaves it's Ragnarok and that's kind of neat I don't know I give it that it's neat so as I said before thank you very much for watching if you've read this if you have any input on that let's leave Ragnarok out of the comments as best we can I might be completely wrong if you think I'm completely wrong we could speak in code I don't know in the comments or something like that you could just tell me straight up that you think I'm wrong you're entirely entitled to do that I could be just simplifying it even more than those who alluded to this as the house itself so yeah that is my take on house of leaves interestingly uh I'm glad I read it definitely it will stick with me to a certain extent more so for its reputation than the story and the house itself as it's described in such short sections that it is actually a horror novel that has scary creepy ideas it will lead me to other stories and books and nightmares of my own that have a lot more effect and impact I'll just stop there hi there today on typical leaves what


It almost seems like a lifetime ago. But just how much did you think that 11 pitch at bat to start the game really set the tone offensively? Yeah, it was awesome. When he was up to about eight, just spoiling pitches and stuff, I said, I really like these at bats. I really like it when they end well. And it was just a really good at bat, where he was able to see a lot. Everyone else was able to see a lot. You know, it was not an overly hot day, but it was still pretty muggy out there. So I'm sure there was some wearing down there of Shohei and then a no doubter there, but set a really good tone for us. What have you thought of Glabour's consistency offensively to start the season? It's been exciting. You know, I feel like it's been a lot of good at bats in there. Again, going back to when we talked the other day about it, even when he wasn't getting results there, maybe that second or third week of the season, you could see the quality of the at bat was there. And now he's gotten results. And obviously he's gotten a lot of big hits for us. Erin, oftentimes you have a couple of guys in a rotation that are throwing the ball well, but it seems like every guy in your rotation is doing well. What is the feeling like when you come to the ballpark knowing the type of outings you typically get from a starter? Yeah, I'm excited about where they all are. They're all pitching with a lot of confidence. They're close. You know, they, I think they lean on each other a lot. There's a lot of cohesion going on there within the staff itself, but then you sprinkle in the catchers and the staff. And I think they have a really good thing going on. And I think they want to go out and be the next guy to go throw out a really nice start. And that's what they've done time and time again so far. Brendan. What are you hearing in terms of the weather? I hear we're good. Yeah. Brian, to the left. Erin, it's twice now. You've knocked around. Otani, why do you think you guys have had such success against him? You know, last year was a little weird. If I recall, it was a super hot day and he had that just long ending and we're able to get to him a little bit. Wasn't sharp, wasn't really throwing strikes and our guys controlled the zone on him. So probably just one of those throw away, just not great outings. And you almost got the sense, like I remember last year, I remember it being so hot and it was obviously a big story and he warms up and comes out and hits in the top of the first, goes back in and it seemed like took something out of him and then the guys really controlled the zone. Today, I think our guys just capitalized on some mistakes against him and threw up some really tough at bats, you know, both right and left handed. So, you know, maybe he didn't have his best stuff today, but I felt like this was a little bit different than last year. Meredith.


Q-Sanger is a new technique for quantifying DNA variation from mixed-sanger sequencing reads. It can be used to measure single-base natural polymorphisms or de novo mutations at reduced cost and labor compared to conventional methods. This article was authored by Satya Prakash, Adrian Rakavita, Teresa Petrucci, and others.


Good evening. Today is November 14th, 2021, the 20th anniversary of the PS2-exclusive co-op campaign Half-Life Decay. To celebrate this, another creator named Purple Colonel and I are going to be covering the game's two female leads. He's already covered Gina Cross over on his channel, so allow me to now give you the scoop on the most obscure protagonist in the Half-Life series. Dr. Colette Green is the second character you take control of in Half-Life Decay. Donned in her own Maroon HEV suit, she's a 31-year-old woman with a PhD in electrical engineering and robotics, and an insatiable lust for blood. See, Colette has a tendency to laugh during her rampages, which makes her seem a little unhinged in comparison to the calm and collected Gina Cross. In fact, her flashes of excitement while killing zombies are oddly reminiscent of the Mad Monk Father Grigori from the second game. And speaking of the second game, if we have a look at Half-Life's PS2 user manual, which is where most information about Colette comes from, we can see she had a work relationship with Dr. Isaac Kleiner. According to this schedule, Kleiner was set to train Colette on handling anomalous materials like Gordon does only two days before the residence cascade occurred. This training session was postponed until June, however, and thus obviously didn't happen due to the nuclear annihilation of the facility. Kleiner's presence in this game's plot adds more ambiguity to the conundrum of whether the Gearbox games are canon to the series as a whole, but that's honestly a topic deserving of its own video. With all of that exposition out of the way, what does Colette do, and what impact does it have on the greater story of the Black Mace incident? Well, during the incident, Colette is not only present in the Sector C anomalous materials lab with Gordon, but is directly below the test chamber during his experiment, and even personally responsible for initiating the anti-mass spectrometer to run at 105%. After the residence cascade occurs, Colette teams up with Gina to fight aliens and escort Dr. Richard Keller to the surface, where he contacts the military to ask for help. Of course, they all quickly find out that the military's idea of helping is slaughtering all Black Mace employees, and realize that they're on their own to try and end the alien invasion. Keller hatches a plan to try to close the dimensional breach, which he describes as a resonance reversal, then sends Colette and Gina to the Black Mace air control building to prepare a satellite for Gordon to launch. Yeah, that's right, Black Mace has an air control building in a runway. I'm going to be honest, I always found this game's ending sequence to be explained pretty poorly, and despite having played through it a couple of times and scouring through the overwiki while writing this video, I still don't feel like I have a thorough understanding of how Gina and Colette's actions during the latter half of Decay meaningfully impact the rest of the incident or the game's greater story. But the gist I've gotten is that in this closing chapter, Gina and Colette attempt to close the portal that's letting Xen creatures in. This attempt fails as the Nylon holds the portal open. However, their efforts did apparently weaken the Rift enough to slow the invasion, and if it weren't for that, the death tally at the facility would have likely been much higher. But I mean, if their goal was to close the Rift, they failed. So I don't know why Dr. Keller says otherwise. I've noticed a lot of talk about how Corporal Shepard is a forgotten Half-Life protagonist who was unjustly neglected by Valve. But quite frankly, Colette makes Shepard look like a star of the series. This weird ending sequence with Keller is the last we ever see of Colette, and it takes place during the Half-Life 1 chapter on a rail or maybe apprehension. That's less than halfway through the Black Mace incident. At this point, there's still 12 chapters worth of time left in the original Half-Life. And while we do find Gina's corpse in opposing force, as covered in Purple Colonel's video, we still have no official media to give any clue as to what happened to Colette after Decay's ending. However, we do have off-hand Twitter commentary from one of the most unpopular developers in the video game industry. Gearbox lead Randy Pitchford, who worked on all the Half-Life expansions including Decay, was asked about Colette's fate on Twitter in 2018, and all he had to say was, I think she might be in G-Man's freezer with Shepard. If that's the case, then she's actually got it worse than Adrian. Let me explain. Since the HEV suits voice is that of Gina's, Colette would not only be stuck in an empty Black Void for Eternity, but would also be haunted by the disembodied voice of her dead best friend. But if you think about it, though, Colette being in Stasis is probably the most positive outcome fans could ask for. It would be nice to think that she escaped the facility like Rosenberg and Calhoun did, but by the time Decay ends and Colette escapes the harmonic reflux she's stuck in, those two are already driving out of the facility in their little Black Mace SUV. It's hard to believe she would be able to fight her way out before the nuke dropped. And if she couldn't escape the facility in time, then there's only two places she could have gone. In G-Man's freezer, as Pitchford suggested, or in Zen, which doesn't bode very well given the fate of her friend. Now I wouldn't want to end this video on a sad note, so how about some trivia? Colette is voiced by Lanny Manella, at least I hope that's how you pronounce her name, a veteran voice actress who has starred in hundreds of games. She's provided voices for characters in Super Smash Bros, Super Mario Bros, Fire Emblem, Sonic the Hedgehog, Professor Layton, Skyrim, Amnesia, Soul Calibur, Mortal Kombat, Borderlands, and many more. I find it strange that an all-star voice actor like her was chosen for such a minute, forgettable role in arguably the most obscure game in the series. And how about fan-made stuff? I dug around on ModDB to see if anyone had made an attempt to flesh out Colette's story after the events of Decay in a mod, and to my surprise they have. The first one I found was called Half-Life Emissions and it was abandoned in May 2012, go figure. The second one, Half-Life Recovery however, had its most recent update post on April 30th, 2020 with the lead dev active as of July of this year. Man, this one looks really nice. You can tell this guy knows his way around the Gold Source engine. So go check the ModDB page out if you like what you see. However, unless Valve pulls a rabbit out of their hat, it looks like this last scene of Colette on the floor is as far as her official story goes. So that's all I've got on the most obscure protagonist in Half-Life. Uh, Richter, I think you're forgetting someone? No, no, no, no. Colette is the most obscure protagonist.  Oh my God, that's right. There's a playable character more obscure than Colette. Two of them actually. If you earn an A grade on every mission in Decay, you unlock a chapter called Zen Attacks in which you play as two Vortigaunts named X8973 and R4913.  You got to play as an alien. These two vorts are sent back to Earth during the Resonance Cascade by the Nile with the task of taking back two Zen crystals from the Black Mesa facility.  These guys can't use guns, obviously, but they can use their claws and even do their signature charged electric attack. It's a shame of full campaign where you play as one of these vorts was never officially produced. But a majority of these mechanics were recycled for the 2003 Half-Life 1 mod, Point of View. So if you played this and want more FPS Vortigaunt action, I'd highly recommend that. Anyways, while these Vortigaunts do dethrone Colette as the least known playable characters in the series, she does remain the least known playable human protagonist. And since these Vortigaunts serve Zen, it's hard to make a case that anything they're doing here is morally good. So if nothing else, Colette is still Half-Life's most obscure hero. And no tricks, no japes, that's all I've got for this video. Thank you for watching. Follow me on Twitter.