TONY KAKKO сообщил о том, что его новый проект, получивший название HIMMELKRAFT, нашел лейбл:

«Мир! У нас есть контакт! Himmelkraft очень рады присоединиться к команде Reaper Entertainment и наконец-то выпустить этот проект в свет, чтобы избранные могли услышать, увидеть и... поучаствовать в нем.

Это был ОЧЕНЬ долгий путь, чтобы добраться до этой точки, но теперь мы здесь. Мы делаем первый из, надеюсь, многих, многих шагов. Я искренне надеюсь, что этот альбом понравится вам так же сильно, как Himmelkraftians наслаждались его созданием. Они обязательно вас услышат».

В своем дебютном альбоме Tony Kakko приоткрывает завесу над своим странным новым миром под названием Himmelkraft ровно настолько, чтобы вы смогли впервые взглянуть на то, что лежит за его пределами, и сразу же захотеть большего. Kakko — мастер повествования и шаман музыкальных эмоций. В Himmelkraft его фирменные черты представлены в совершенно новом, неожиданном и захватывающем виде.

Премьера первого сингла намечена на 22 ноября, а выпуск альбома на март 2025 года.

Состав:

Tony Kakko as Unu O’Four - vocals, keyboards
Pasi Kauppinen as Du O’Four - bass
Timo Kauppinen as Tri O’Four - guitars, banjo
Jere Lahti as Kvar O’Four - drums & percussions
#HimmelKraft

MARTY FRIEDMAN в интервью China's SKYline ответил на вопрос о том, какой бы он дал совет молодым музыкантам:

«Техника, безусловно, важна. Вы должны уметь играть на инструменте. Так что, конечно, практика в любом деле — это хорошо. Но я всегда говорю, что вы должны играть перед другими людьми. Неважно, начинающий вы, средний или суперпрофи. Когда вы играете перед другими людьми, ваше тело говорит: "Я должен играть как можно лучше, потому что я не хочу облажаться перед ними". Это давление, из-за этого вы начинаете играть намного эффективнее. Когда вы один и делаете ошибку или играете плохо, то нет никакого давления, никого это не волнует, ничего не происходит, но когда вы играете перед людьми, ваше тело заставляет вас работать усерднее. Это связано с контактом с аудиторией и вашим личным страхом выглядеть идиотом. Вы не хотите выглядеть идиотом. Поэтому, когда вы это делаете, вы становитесь гораздо более эффективным во время практики. Это значит, что нужно тренироваться перед сестрой, братом, семьёй, друзьями. Скажите: "Я сейчас попытаюсь сыграть новую песню. Послушайте". Это гораздо лучше, чем играть в своей комнате. Даже если вы играете в совсем начинающей группе, старайтесь устраивать небольшие концерты. Играйте в парке, в маленьком клубе или ресторане, потому что тогда то, что вы делаете, ваше тело запомнит».
#Marty_Friedman #MartyFriedman #HardRock #Hard_Rock #SymphonicRock #Symphonic_Rock #InstrumentalMetal #Instrumental_Metal #HeavyMetal #Heavy_Metal #IndustrialMetal #Industrial_Metal

В рамках недавней беседы у GARY HOLT'a спросили, что он помнит о своем первом выступлении в составе SLAYER, и чувствовал ли он какое-либо давление:

«Первым выступлением был фестиваль Soundwave в Австралии, и я не чувствовал никакого давления. Я был невероятно готов. Я просто вышел на сцену, сделал свое дело и устроил отличное шоу. Это было потрясающе. Я имею в виду, что, возможно, в глубине души вы чувствуете небольшое давление из-за того, чье место вы пытаетесь занять. Чье место ты греешь, я бы так сказал. Но я был готов. Я был готов к этому на 100%».

На вопрос о том, действительно ли фанаты SLAYER так безжалостны, как о них говорят некоторые, Gary сказал:

«За все мои бесчисленные концерты со SLAYER у меня было только два ненавистника. Два хейтера из тех, которых я заметил. Большинство зрителей смотрели на мое участие в духе: «Выздоравливай скорее, Джефф», и я сам тоже именно так это и воспринимал. "Но пока есть такой вариант, что ж, круто. Я видел, как SLAYER и Gary Holt играют вместе. Давай заценим это. Будет классно". Так вот, у меня было два настоящих хейтера, первый в Германии, парень с ужасным скаллетом. Он был внизу и тыкал в меня средним пальцем на протяжении всего шоу. Обычно я очень толстокожий — меня такое не беспокоит. Но в этом конкретном случае я уже послал вниз менеджера с рацией, и они уже собирались выгнать парня нахрен, потому что он начал реально портить мне шоу. И тут парень допер что сейчас случится и быстренько слинял. Черт, чувак, ты знаешь, что моё участие не было неожиданной подменой. Ты знал об этом до того, как билеты поступили в продажу, и всё равно купил этот гребаный билет. Так почему ты здесь, если всё действительно так плохо?

А потом мы выступали в Милане (Италия), и там в первом ряду, в самом центре сцены, стоял парень и кричал мне „Fuck you!“ на протяжении всего выступления. А в конце шоу я спрыгнул на сабвуферы, буквально в метре от его лица, и спросил, есть ли у него что сказать мне сейчас. И у него не нашлось никаких слов. Он реально выводил меня из себя. Более молодой я мог бы ему и втащить. [Смеется] Первый ряд, зажат, ему некуда было деться. Знаете, 5000 человек позади него. Но ему всё равно было просто необходимо пробиться в первый ряд, чтобы высказать свои мысли.

Ты заплатил за билет. Ты долбаный идиот, если потратил деньги на то, что ты так ненавидишь. Но это были два человека из совершенно бесчисленного количества концертов. По-моему, неплохой послужной список!»
#Slayer #ThrashMetal #Thrash_Metal #HardCore #Hard_Core

BUCKCHERRY 17 января выпустят специальную версию альбома 15, приуроченную к его 20-летию. Группа также планирует в 2025 специальный тур, в ходе которого будет целиком исполнять материал этого альбома.

Трек-лист:

LP 1

Side A

01. So Far
02. Next 2 You
03. Out Of Line
04. Everything
05. Carousel

Side B

01. Sorry
02. Crazy Bitch
03. Onset
04. Sunshine
05. Brooklyn
06. Broken Glass

LP 2

Side A

01. Sorry (acoustic)
02. Brooklyn (electric)
03. Pump It Up (Elvis Costello
cover)
04. Back In The Day

Side B

01. Crazy Bitch (newly recorded acoustic)
02. Onset (newly recorded acoustic)
03. Sunshine (newly recorded acoustic)
#Buckcherry #AlternativeRock #Alternative_Rock #HardRock #Hard_Rock

JASON BONHAM опубликовал следующее сообщение:

«Я хотел бы воспользоваться моментом и объясниться по поводу своего отсутствия в последние несколько недель. Как многие из вас знают, моя мама столкнулась с серьезными проблемами со здоровьем, и это было невероятно сложное время для нашей семьи. Я с благодарностью сообщаю, что она идет на поправку и ее выписали из больницы! Сейчас она дома и восстанавливается, что приносит мне огромное облегчение.

Было очень трудно покинуть тур «The Best Of All Worlds», когда осталось всего четыре концерта. Энергия, общение и впечатления были просто невероятными, но я должен был быть рядом с мамой во время ее борьбы за жизнь.

Я рад сообщить, что JBLZE [JASON BONHAM'S LED ZEPPELIN EVENING] снова отправится в турне, которое начнется 19 ноября! Мне не терпится увидеть всех вас и снова разделить это незабываемое странствие.

Спасибо за ваше понимание и любовь. До скорой встречи!

С большой любовью, JB».
#Sammy_Hagar #SammyHagar #HardRock #Hard_Rock #AcousticRock #Acoustic_Rock #Hard 'n' Heavy #_Hard 'n' Heavy

"Lakonic", новый альбом группы THYRATHEN, доступен для прослушивания ниже.
#Thyrathen
Видео: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UGwHbag13s

Joseph Zampella по случаю Veterans Day представил сольную композицию "The Fields".
#Life_of_Agony #LifeofAgony #AlternativeMetal #Alternative_Metal #SludgeMetal #Sludge_Metal

SMILE EMPTY SOUL опубликовали официальное видео с текстом на песню "We All Fall Down", которая взята из нового альбома Swan Song, релиз которого должен состояться в этом году.
#Smile_Empty_Soul #SmileEmptySoul #GrungeMetal #Grunge_Metal
Видео: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnJyX1cSpOk

Limbo, новое видео SYPHA, доступно для просмотра ниже.
#Sypha
Видео: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDh0pfzFIPI

But Fear Not, новое видео YOTH IRIA, доступно для просмотра ниже.
#Yoth_Iria #YothIria #BlackMetal #Black_Metal

Last week there was a press release you might easily have missed. A Distributed Autonomous Organization (DAO) called OrangeDAO is cooperating with a small seed venture fund called Press Start Capital to establish the OrangeDAO X Press Start Cap Fellowship Program for new Web3 entrepreneurs. Successful applicants get $25,000 each plus 10 weeks of structured mentorship plus continued access to the more than 1200-member OrangeDAO network. In exchange, OrangeDAO and Press Start get to invest in the resulting companies, if any, produced by the class.  Big deal, it’s Y Combinator Junior, right? Wrong. It’s Y Combinator on steroids.   This second-generation YC has been released in the wild where it will replicate and grow unconstrained. Expect to see more deals like this one. A Distributed Autonomous Organization […]

The post Paul Graham’s Legacy first appeared on I, Cringely.






Digital Branding
Web Design
Marketing

I first arrived in Silicon Valley in 1977 — 45 years ago. I was 24 years old and had accepted a Stanford fellowship paying $2,575 for the academic year. My on-campus apartment rent was $175 per month and a year later I’d buy my first Palo Alto house for $57,000 (sold 21 years later for $990,000). It was an exciting time to be living and working in Silicon Valley. And it still is. We’re right now in a period of economic confusion and reflection when many of the loudest voices have little to no sense of history. Well my old brain is crammed with history and I’m here to tell you that the current situation — despite the news coverage — is no big deal. […]

The post What about the layoffs at Meta and Twitter? Elon is crazy! WTF??? first appeared on I, Cringely.






Digital Branding
Web Design
Marketing

My son Cole, pictured here as a goofy kid many years ago, is now six feet six inches tall and in college. Cole needed a letter of recommendation recently so he turned to an old family friend who, in turn, used ChatGPT to generate the letter, which he thought was remarkably good. As a guy who pretends to write for a living, I read it differently. ChatGPT’s letter was facile but empty, the type of letter you would write for someone you’d never met. It said almost nothing about Cole other than that he’s a good kid. Artificial Intelligence is good for certain things, but blind letters of reference aren’t among them. The key problem here has to do with Machine Learning. ChatGPT’s language model […]

The post If you want to reduce ChatGPT mediocrity, do it promptly first appeared on I, Cringely.






Digital Branding
Web Design
Marketing

I’ve been following the press and social media coverage of Apple’s pricey new Vision Pro Augmented Reality headset, which now totals hundreds of stories and thousands of comments and I’ve noticed one idea missing from all of them: what would Steve (Jobs) say?  Steve would call the Vision Pro a “hobby,” just as he did with the original Apple TV. You know I’m correct about this. And the fact that Apple hasn’t gone for the H-word and no other writers are suggesting it is the topic of this column, not the Vision Pro, itself. It would appear that nobody at Apple has the balls to call the Vision Pro a hobby, which is to say it is not expected to make a profit for the […]

The post Apple’s Vision Pro headset is a hobby. Why won’t Tim Cook say that? first appeared on I, Cringely.






Digital Branding
Web Design
Marketing

В Auto Bild перечислии возможные варианты продолжения карьеры Мика Шумахера, и их по-прежнему несколько...

Логан Сарджент, минувшим летом уволенный из Williams, готовится к своим первым тестам в IndyCar, на которых ему предстоит работать 19 ноября...

Have you ever found something you started writing but never finished? Here's something I started in October 2014. I've just rediscovered it in July 2020....

Shinichiro Watanabe compares COWBOY BEBOP to LAZARUS but admits nothing beats his experience on SPACE DANDY in this interview.

The first volume of Eden of Witches releases on Nov. 12.

This week's Top Comics to Buy for November 13 features buzzy books like Absolute Batman, G.I. Joe, and more!

Papercutz has announced Flash Gordon: The Girl from Infinity, which reimagines the iconic character, for release in 2025.

The Small-Animallike Lady is Adored by the Ice Prince is a brand new romance manga from Yen Press. This first volume takes us to a familiar setting where there's a royal arranged marriage involved, and some frozen hearts are melted along the way!

Dylan Mars Greenberg crafts a homegrown fantasia of magic, action, and anti-conservative provocation.

How has Doctor Sleep fared 5 years since its release?

Due to demand from vendors, The Brooklyn Independent Comics Showcase (BICS) is going to a two day show in 2025

When we wake up to who we are, something happens. We stop identifying with our egoic selves because we realize they are impermanent and only that which is permanent can be who we are.

We aren’t our bodies, we aren’t our memories, we aren’t our thoughts, we aren’t our feelings… We aren’t any of these things, so we stop identifying with them. What happens is that detachment develops. An aloofness or distancing from everything that occurs. We wake up to the fact that life is an extended dream and a relaxation is able to set in. It’s a sense of calm or a feeling that ‘all is well.’

We lose our identity with our lives, thoughts and feelings, so we witness them but we don’t engage with them. We notice them, but we don’t create stories with them. Since we don’t create ... Read More »

The post The Paradoxical World of Spiritual Enlightenment: We are nothing but we are everything appeared first on Enlightenment Podcast.

Years ago we were doing some work in the roofing business. In one study, we were working on the asphalt shingle roofing manufacturing business. At the time, this was a terrible business. Returns were low, growth rates were modest, at best, and there was a good deal of overcapacity in the industry. Then the industry caught a break. A shortage in asphalt developed. This shortage of asphalt rolled through the asphalt shingle plants and restricted their output. Immediately, prices jumped, returns became attractive and industry participants breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, this asphalt shortage did not last very long. The industry shortly returned to its previous hostile condition. (See the Perspective, “What Ends Hostility?” on StrategyStreet.com.)

A shortage in any component, or labor, will restrict industry capacity and tend to raise prices. A labor shortage is, in part, responsible for some of the high prices in mining today. Miners work in areas that are often hard to reach. They also are skilled employees. The run-up in commodity prices, especially those related to ores such as silver, gold and copper, has increased the demand for these skilled miners. In addition, the mining industry faces competition for skilled workers from the oil and natural gas industries, which are also growing.

Mining companies are now going to great lengths to attract and retain these skilled workers. Some of these miners are now earning 25% more in compensation than they were a year ago. Some companies are flying workers to and from remote mines. For example, BHP Billiton plans to fly 500 workers from Brisbane, about 500 miles away, to a coal mine site that they are opening and then fly them back home after a couple of weeks.

If this commodity boom continues, the industry’s total capacity will be determined more by labor availability than by its more traditional measures of capacity. (See “Audio Tip #117: Capacity Constraints and Pricing” on StrategyStreet.com.)

Recently, Apple rejected a digital book application from Sony. The disagreement here is over how and when Apple collects for its services. Apple is playing a dangerous game.

In theory, Apple has the right to insist, under its terms for developers, that any app, which offers customers the ability to purchase books outside of the app, offer the ability for customers to purchase within the app at the same time.

Here is the rub. In its application, Sony sends customers to its own web site where they complete the purchase of a book. By routing the customers to its own web site, Sony is able to avoid a payment of 30% of revenues to Apple.

Others, including Amazon, with its Kindle, and Barnes & Noble, with its Nook, have been able to sell e-books by sending users to the companys’ own web sites. Apple simply was not enforcing its policy requiring developers to use its in-app purchasing feature to buy new content.

A 30% charge on revenues is a high price to pay Apple. Apple may be setting itself up for future loss of market share by enforcing this policy. If the Android platform does not put the same requirement on its app developers, the developers will have a strong incentive to avoid the 30% charge by encouraging customers to purchase using an Android device rather than an Apple device. Alternatively, the application developers may charge a higher price for purchases through Apple.

Apple’s unique strength has been its superior list of available applications. Apple’s enforcement of this requirement to purchase inside the app so that Apple can collect 30% of the revenues puts at risk its major advantage. Apple needs to compromise here by charging a lower price or no price at all. After all, it already makes high profits on its hardware and software product combination. It also makes profits on many of the downloaded apps. The application developers are customers too. Why make their life difficult? Does the benefit Apple provides a seller justify 30% of revenues? Sounds pretty rich.

The United Autoworkers (UAW) is on a new campaign. The union plans to organize workers in hither-to non-union foreign-owned automobile plants in the United States. This campaign may or may not work, but in the long run it will prove futile unless the union can compete in the international market, against all international auto workers.

There are 575,000 autoworkers in the U.S. Nearly 20% work for foreign-owned plants. All of these plants are non-union. The foreign-owned plants were intentionally placed in right-to-work areas, many in the South.

The UAW is likely to have some difficulty succeeding with this campaign. The non-union workers already earn highly competitive wages and benefits. To date, these U.S. workers in plants owned by Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai and Honda have shown little interest in unionization.

Why would the union be so interested in this initiative? To preserve its membership. The traditional problem with unions is less the rate of wages they demand and more about the work rules they impose. These work rules reduce the productivity of the unionized plants. That has certainly been the case in the U.S. auto industry. As a result, the UAW is losing membership as UAW auto plants in the U.S. close under the onerous costs the UAW plants carry. If the union can succeed in unionizing the domestic foreign-owned auto plants to the same extent they have unionized the domestic manufacturers’ plants, they will be able to impose the same work rules and produce roughly the same productivity. The result should, in the union’s eyes, be a reduction in the rate of jobs lost in the union.

But there is a problem here. The UAW has already seen that it was unable to stop new non-union plants in the U.S. How will it stop future non-union domestic plants? O.K., let’s say they can do that. Will they also be able to stop all foreign non-union plants from becoming established and growing? Certainly not. Unless the union membership can compete on an international basis with competitive costs and productivity, this unionization effort is wasted money. If it succeeds, the U.S. loses more plants to plants located offshore. Union membership still falls.

It seems that one of the problems for unionized employees is one of definition. Union members often call their compatriots in competing companies “brothers and sisters.” These are certainly not brothers and sisters. In a marketplace they are competitors. Union employees have to be able to beat, or at least stalemate, these competitors or lose their jobs. This is true as long as the UAW can not control the entrance of other less expensive competitors, either in the U.S. or elsewhere.

The long history of the DRAM semiconductor market illustrates this. The U.S. manufacturers of DRAM semiconductors faced intense competition from the Japanese in the 1980s. The domestic industry succeeded in slowing the Japanese by using the International Trade Commission. Then arose new and equally troublesome problems. These problems were DRAM semiconductor facilities in Taiwan and Korea. Eventually, the U.S. industry evolved to the point where it had only one domestic producer of DRAM chips. Intel was one of the early competitors to get out of that market to focus its resources in the more complex, and much more profitable, domestic micro-processor business. SX4MBURBCAJQ

The figures are in for U.S. auto sales in 2010. The biggest winners in percentage growth were Hyundai, at 24%, and Ford at 20%. Toyota lost .4% and Honda grew a mediocre 7%. The Japanese struggled in 2010.

Earlier we wrote a blog about Ford’s ascendency and Toyota’s problems (see Blog HERE). Toyota is paying the price for failing its customers. Honda appears to be getting painted with the “failure” brush, though I doubt its punishment is deserved.

I am actually using the word “fail” to mean something specific here. A company fails its customers when it is unable or unwilling to do something that at least half of its competitors can, or will, do for customers. Toyota’s troubles with accelerators, floor mats, and so forth, received extensive media coverage. This coverage clearly has had a negative impact on Toyota this year.

Toyota’s struggles illustrate the win and fail dynamic. In our terms, a “win” occurs when a company is able to do something that the majority of its competitors either can not or will not do. Wins account for a good deal of market share growth in a fast-growing market, but are less important in more mature markets. In a more mature Stable market and, especially, in all Hostile markets, failure moves a significant amount of market share.

Here is what this means. The decision to change a supplier is really two decisions. The first is the decision to leave a current supplier and the second is the decision on which new supplier to take on in your relationship. In the average Stable and Hostile marketplace, more market share moves on failure than on wins. This means that before an established customer will change suppliers, its current incumbent supplier must “fail” the relationship in some way. This failure, then, opens up the customer’s relationship to competition among other potential suppliers. Whichever supplier gains this customer’s volume really did so only after the incumbent failed. We call this gain a “weak win.” The “weak win” would not have happened on a straight-up comparison of performance and price of the new supplier versus the old. The gain only happened after the incumbent clearly failed the customer and then opened the relationship to someone new.

Toyota’s failure was largely a failure of Reliability. It clearly lost share. The companies that gained this share from Toyota, Ford and Hyundai among them, enjoyed some degree of a “weak win” in the domestic automobile market. They may have “won” market share as well, but my guess is that most of their share gains from Toyota fell to them from Toyota’s “failure.”

Over the last several years, we have studied many examples of cost reduction initiatives to improve productivity and create economies of scale. In simplest terms, there are four actions that improve productivity and economies of scale. First, reduce the rate of cost you pay for an input. Second, reduce the inputs that do not produce output. Third, reduce unique activities or components in products and processes by redesigning the products and processes. Fourth, spread fixed cost activities over new product output. The cellular telephone carriers are introducing measures to reduce their costs by redesigning the product.

The wireless carriers use cellular towers to broadcast their signals. The cellular product design offers signals traveling long distances, primarily for voice and for relatively low data speeds. A cellular tower is expensive but capable of sending a signal for several miles.

This cellular technology worked well until the evolution of the smart phone. The growth of the smart phone has put very high demands on the cellular tower infrastructure because of the heavy data usage it brings to the market. Since 2010, data has taken over the majority of network traffic from voice communications. Now the carriers and, in particular, AT&T with its Apple iPhones, is having difficulty keeping up with the growth in demand.

AT&T today and, likely a few others in the future, has found a potential innovative solution, adding Wi Fi access points. These Wi Fi access points are ideal for heavy data traffic sent at high speeds over relatively short distances. Wi Fi access points transmit signals over a few hundred feet. The Wi Fi access points are smaller, easier and cheaper to install than are cellular towers. This low-cost approach appears to make sense in areas with high density of users. AT&T has placed them in New York’s Time Square and Rockefeller Center, in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina, in neighborhoods surrounding Chicago’s Wrigley Field and in San Francisco’s Embarcadero Center.

But there are some drawbacks to Wi Fi access points. Sometimes, a user has to take several steps to connect to a Wi Fi access point. Signals from the Wi Fi access points may interfere with one another, if signals come from multiple networks. Some smart phones do not have Wi Fi capability. These disadvantages have, so far, held back Verizon Wireless’s adoption of this apparently low-cost approach to providing service.

AT&T is leading this cost-saving innovation experiment. Their network strains force it to be creative and experimental. AT&T saves costs by redesigning the product itself using a less expensive technology with some shortcomings. If the AT&T experiment proves both cost effective and acceptable to cellular customers, every other wireless carrier will be forced to adopt it. And since a Wi Fi access point is largely a fixed cost, the wireless carriers with the highest density of membership within the Wi Fi area will have the lowest cost per unit. In most areas of the country that is likely to be either Verizon or AT&T. They will end up getting a unit cost advantage over their smaller competitors…if this works.

The government deregulated the airline industry in 1978. Since that time, the basic pricing in the industry, as well as airline fortunes, have been more or less continuously on the downward slope. It has been a very long trip down.

The industry may be heading up again, though. In the third quarter of 2010, the average domestic airfare was 11% higher than a year earlier. Profits returned to the industry in 2010 behind higher prices. In some part, these higher prices were the result of the additional fees that most of the domestic carriers charged passengers for checked baggage, better seating, rerouting and so forth. Still, the industry was able to hold its higher prices.

These prices are holding because the major industry players are less enamored of discounted flying. All of the big airlines are finding ways to extract prices from industry customers. Now that airline capacity utilization is high, the industry is more careful about capacity additions. Higher prices are here to stay.

The consumer still is far ahead. Even at these higher prices, ticket prices are a bargain. In fact, ticket prices, adjusted for inflation, are 20% below the levels of 1995. The industry has continuously stripped benefits from the base product in order to save costs. In 2010, the industry added back a few of those benefits (for example, economy plus seating) for an additional charge. We may see more of that over the next few years.

Another world building exploration with AI… this time a floating bubble city.

The post The Floating Bubble City appeared first on Stuck in Customs.

More from the MidJourney archive…

The post Another Gallery of Ideas appeared first on Stuck in Customs.

Hey awesome blog reader… can you help me with an experiment? Below you’ll find five of my favorite videos from my YouTube channel. A mix that covers photography, travel, post-processing, AI and Machine Elf. I’d love it if you’d pick whichever one appeals most to you and watch a bit. That can be a minute […]

The post Can You Help Me With an Experiment? appeared first on Stuck in Customs.

More image musings from the @trairatcliff account…

The post The Next Gallery appeared first on Stuck in Customs.

An AI forest exploration…

The post The Fantasy Forest appeared first on Stuck in Customs.

AS FEATURED IN

First off, I want to thank you for your interest in my product. I aim to give you the absolute best quality product that exists, as well as the best possible technical support for all of your questions, concerns, and comments.
I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself and tell you a little bit about my new Muscle Building Program.
My name is Ben Pakulski , the author and creator of MI40. I will start off by answering the question most commonly asked. What is the significance of the name?
The name, MI40 - “Mass Intentions” is significant to this program because it is representative of the conscious INTENT, to create TENSION in the muscle, as well as the pun of overall mass creation.
The number 40, is the most important number in this program because it is the number that has the most scientific significance in MI40. 40 is representative of the number of days in the program (40 days), the amount of time in a set (40 seconds), the rest between sets (40 seconds), and the number of exercises used in constructing this muscle building protocol.
Many of you will immediately recognize the scientific significance of all of these numbers and some of you may not. The number 40 was chosen because of it being the MOST optimal number for many of these variables.
As will be explained in the program, 40 days has been proven to be the most optimal amount of time to adapt to any new training program (6weeks). 40 seconds is the ideal amount of “Time under Tension”(TUT) to illicit muscular hypertrophy. 40 seconds rest is the ideal amount of time to allow your CP and ATP Glycolytic energy pathways to recover before the next set (these are the energy pathways that drive muscular contraction of fast twitch muscle fibers which are responsible for growth!).
To tell you all a little about myself, I am a graduate of the University of Western Ontario. My areas of study were primarily Kinesiology, and Biomechanics.
My passion for health and fitness is second only to my passion for helping others improve their lives. I live my life by the acronym “CANI” – Constant And Never-Ending Improvement. 1% Improvement Every Day.
I have never viewed myself as an overly blessed individual, which is why my life is always centered on learning the best information, from the best resources and brightest people that exist. 14 years of seeking the best information and applying just about every possible technique on myself , has brought me to where I am today. A very successful, happy, healthy, motivated -professional bodybuilder, author, public speaker, nutrition coach, celebrity trainer and success coach. Sounds like a lot of hats, but they all tie into one balanced life…. Sometimes! ☺
The 2 main principles (or as Vince would reference them – “hooks” and Unique Selling Propositions) set forth in MI40 are the concepts that I deem to be most greatly contributing to holding people back from achieving their goals! “The WEAKEST LINKS!!” Here are the two problems MI40 Solves:
1) Most people have no idea how to feel how to “feel” their muscles, and therefore have little idea how to exhaust and build these muscles. ‘Intentions’ the ideal tool to assist them in doing so.
2) Then there is the idea of creating sufficient overload to stimulate a muscle to grow. Many people spend way too much time in the gym trying to “train” and exhaust a muscle group.
NOS has been designed to get the MAXIMUM efficacy in the shortest amount of time. It will fatigue the muscle faster and create the most optimal hormonal environment to illicit the growth response. Keeping the workout time shorter, means less cortisol (muscle breakdown) and therefore better body composition and muscle growth!
As many of you may already know, in a manner consistent with my approach to all aspects of life, I have gone out and sought “the best”. I have hired marketing genius and fitness pro, Vince DelMonte as my campaign manager for MI40. After spending quite a bit of time with Vince in prepping him for his competitions in 2011, I knew Vince was the guy to help me launch my muscle-building baby to the world! Vince is becoming renowned for his consistent low-to-mid 6-figure launch records. I believe in the product I have created, and I want to share my knowledge and expertise with as many people as I can.
I truly believe that this product has the science, the practical basis, the structure and format to help anyone that comes in contact with it. I want your help in spreading this knowledge and passion with the world!
Yours in fitness, health and passion, Benjamin Pakulski

A short message from your launch manager… Vince Del Monte

We have more than one – earning it’s rightful tag line, “Twice The Muscle, Half The Time!”
First, MI stands for MASS INTENTIONS and INTENTIONS is Ben’s trademark technique that addresses the problem of not being able to go heavier and heavier with your weights unless you wish to carry more risk than reward.
Going heavier isn’t your best option, especially after a few years of lifting, if you want to stimulate muscle growth and you most look to other solutions. With INTENTIONS you change the angle of pushing or pulling by means of a technique almost imperceptible to an observer. You push inward or pull outward with your hands or feet as you perform an exercise. I was introduced to intentions in December 2010 and ever since, my body has never looked the same. You’ve seen my pictures! Intentions literally RE MOLDED my body. On lat pulldowns as I pulled the bar down, I tried to pull my hands apart. They didn’t actually move on the bar, but that different motion made my lats fire in a different way, and my back was more sore the next day than it had been in months.
In the MI40 DVD, Ben teaches you how to apply INTENTIONS to virtually every exercise, not an easy task if you’re untrained in biomechanics and kinesiology (Ben holds a degree from the University of Western Ontario in Kinesiology). On barbell presses for chest, for example, you try to push your hands together. One thing is certain: Forget about using your normal weights. Typically, I do work sets with 180 to 230 pounds on lat pulldowns to the front; at that recent back workout I didn’t need to go any heavier than 150. As I said, though, the feeling in the lats was completely different.
We often play around with grip widths and experiment with pushing and pulling angles, but with intentions you introduce a variable that can awaken dormant muscle fibers and stimulate them in fresh, new ways. Pakulski has used intentions to get more out of exercises like leg presses, squats, barbell rows, bench presses and overhead presses—really anything that has you pushing or pulling both limbs at once on a bar or roller pad. It’s helped him become ripped at 270, place Top 10 at the Arnold Pro Show, Top 5 at the Flex Pro show and on his way to qualifying for the Mr. Olympia next year! INTENTIONS is 100% unique and will breath new life into your workouts. More important, it stimulates new muscle growth based on science and biomechanics, not bro science.

Ben already explained this but lets review it once more to ensure you know exactly what you’re endorsing. You and your list are going to LOVE the simplicity of the mechanism that makes MI40 so effective.
40 days!
40 second sets!
40 second rest periods
40 minute workouts!
40 exercises!
40 foods!
40 day meal plans!
This is the exact workout I followed in prep of the WBFF World Championships and here’s a reminder that it works!
As you can see, MI40 did not transform my body, it literally RE MOLDED it and it’ll do the same for you.



Aside from Ben’s trademark technique Intentions and the science behind the number 40 (we can explain why 40 is scientifically optimally for every variable above), we have…. NOS!
I’ll let Ben explain NOS to you…
Join the NOS revolution:
For years, I had been searching for the best way to overload my muscles each and every time I go in the gym. I know you can relate to those days when you worked “hard” but still feel like you could have done more. Leaving the gym feeling like there was more in the tank or maybe getting home and regretting not pushing harder?! I CRAVED something that would ensure that my muscles are taken to their limit, and CREATE NEW GROWTH!
This is when I discovered NOS!
My training partner and I had been coming up with creative ways to inflict pain on each other during leg workouts for years. I remember daydreaming of ways to make workouts harder. My goal was to leave the gym knowing I had BLASTED every last muscle fiber, and to have my training partner talking about how he had never experienced muscle pumps and growth like this.
“Straight sets” just didn’t seem to do the trick anymore. Ya sure I felt a decent pump, but it just didn’t seem to be the type of intensity that I KNEW I needed to grow!
FACT: A “straight set” will NEVER cause the type of neurological adaptation, hormonal response, and thereby GROWTH that a NOS set will.
NOS WAS BORN ON A LEG PRESS!
Being a research junky I had always read about overloading the muscle and overloading the nervous system to stimulate new muscle and strength gains respectively. Time under tension was proven to be the number one factor correlated with muscle growth and overload!
Something clicked in my brain! Time under MAXIMAL TENSION! This had to be better than just time under tension!! And so, my GROWTH BABY was born!
If I could use the maximum amount of weight I could handle for strict form for the greatest amount of time possible, growth was inevitable! The only catch is, that ITS HARD!
NOS is something that I have been using religiously ever since. Perfecting its components. I use it to get ready for my contests and in my offseason. Straight sets are now a thing of the past.
The science behind NOS: Neurological Overload Set.
The NOS system has been specifically designed to ensure a maximal MUSCLE OVERLOAD! The greatest number of muscle fibers are broken down or exhausted. Taking your muscles to such an exhausted state also causes the highest possible release amount of growth hormones and growth factors within a working muscle! Without these, you can train all day and eat a perfect diet and expect ZERO growth. This is one of the main reasons why so many people train often, train “hard” and see minimal results. They never reach that “overload-anabolic state.”
GREATER OVERALL STIMULUS=GREATER MUSCLE GROWTH!
Now this Math I LIKE!
How to: NOS
NOS is completed by performing an “extended set”.
The goal here is to extend the set for as long as possible while maintaining tension on the working muscle, and perfect form!
Start the set with a weight that you can use for a strict 8 repetitions. After completing your first 8 repetitions, decrease the weight by 20%(if youre using 100lbs, you would decrease by 20lbs, etc.) Immediately continue to perform as many repetitions as you can with the second weight (usually 5-8 reps). Repeat this process 4 times total. (You will complete 3 drops, therefore 4 “sets”-100,80,60,40lbs).
DO NOT allow your form to stray in an attempt to complete more reps. If anything, decrease the size of the Range of Motion (ROM) (“partials”), just make sure to be initiating the movement with the working muscle from a fully stretched position.

FRONT END OFFER:

Component 1
The 40 Day MASS Intelligence Training Manual
Component 2
The 40 Day MASS Consumption Nutrition Manual
Component 3
The 40 Day MASS Instruction Workout Videos
Component 4
The 40 Day MASS Proportions Exercise Demo Guide
Component 5
The 40 Day MASS Prescription Printable Workout Sheets
Component 6
The 40 Day MASS Pursuit Calendar
Component 7
The 40 Day MASS Supplement Stack Protocol
Component 8
The Sciene & Story Behind NOS & Intentions Audio Interview