Hey guys, Thundie East here and welcome to our true wireless budget roundup for the month of August 2020 Now I'm going to jump right into their earbuds We have got five really good ones for you to pick out from some of them older some of the newer But I've just got a chance to play around with them. I'll let you know We include audio samples from the earbuds as well as microphone samples. So the very first pair are the J labs Audio go-air the go-air $30 what I like about them is first of all design is pretty slick You've got something that looks like this It's a really nice and simple case the earbuds also fit really well and they come with some really solid battery life 20 hours within the case five hours of the earbuds. So that's almost standard industry again for $30. Now charging is with a built-in USB Cable so that's something you can easily use and I like that idea especially something this cost-effective and cheap Make it as simple for everyone to use now. You've also got a Preset EQs built into the earbud triple tap is to change between the EQs and It's a it's actually pretty nice. They've got the J lab signature, which gives you some really I think it's probably the best thing to give you the burst robust sound I would say the highs are good The mids can be a little bit muddled the lows also as well, but things come up pretty clear now I'll give you a quick audio sample from the headphones and then we'll also listen to the microphones as well Okay, so these are the J labs go-air we're using them indoors seen how the microphone sounds indoors And then we will do the same thing outdoors as well giving you a sound sample there So J labs go right. So these are the J labs go-air We'll see if it gets a little bit windy See how well it sounds outdoors walking into some wind New York City, there might be some honking, but you get a general idea of how the outdoor Microphone sound is on these pair of ours So in terms of audio you could clearly hear how well it sounded like I said There's some there's some meddling there, but it still is good when you actually listen to them in your ears Now the microphone is actually surprisingly decent for its price point I'll put it that way and that's something you should take a look at so for me the J lab Audio go-ares are solid at $30 and something you should take a look at so next up are the earphone airs Now the earphone airs are priced at $60 They are a really interesting pair of true wireless buds now first off $60 comes a wireless charger right there off the bat. They have a very simple looking design Of course, they've they've got that long stem to it But it's got a bunch of features IPX and raining, which means of course it will last You know if you're running working out or even in within the rain You've got seven hours of playtime and 20 out 28 hours within the case a lot of Just a lot of Battery life for you as well. You can use of course each earbud independently and you've got of course touch controls with them Now in terms of audio, I do like the audio from them The the highs are good the mids are okay The lows are built a bit off but a really nice clean sound from the earphones As well So let's take a listen to the audio and then we'll also listen to the microphone off the earbuds for conversation so these are the earphone air and Reason of indoors with the microphone see how it sounds and then we will take this outdoors as well But a quick microphone sample indoors and then course out the microphone Okay, and these are the earphone Heirs and we're using them outdoors a little wind coming in Maybe some honking some just residual noise. We're outdoors here in New York City. So a good idea of how the Air fun air actually sound So as I mentioned with the audio again, it's clean sound when it comes to the microphones themselves I think the microphones are good indoors outdoors can be a little bit hit or miss but again pretty solid sound all around You've got also multiple ear tips to pick from as well But at $59 you really can't go wrong with the earphone air. So the very next pair are the J labs JBuds air executive the air executive have that stem design and they've got an interesting case So J lab loves to do the USB cable connected the case I think it's a nice idea. Some people may not like it, especially if you damage that cable But again, it means you can charge your device directly. So there's no USB type C port or anything Also has wireless charging built-in. It's again. It's about 59 60 69 dollars depending on which color you get So that's nice wireless charging built into this as well now in terms of battery life You're looking at 24 hours of battery life roughly about six hours within each earbud So you've got that there as well. You've got auto connect if you use each earbud, you know individually They've got cloud foam and they've also got those custom EQs again with J labs I suggest you use a J lab signature. I like that the best. I think it gives you a much more robust sound This of course is a step above the J labs Audio go and this gives you a much cleaner sound stage a little bit cleaner sound stage The mids come out a bit more the highs are still good. The lows can be a little bit muddled, but you really will enjoy them Now here's a quick audio sample and then we'll listen to the microphone All right So we are indoors with the J labs and executive using the microphones indoors Yeah, well these sounds and then we'll carry this conversation outdoors to see how well the microphone sounds there as well Okay, so these are the J labs there executive a little windy It might be some honking going on but you get a good idea of how well it sounds in a windy environment outdoors less of that indoors environment and again J labs So the microphone sounds good indoors really is is clear It's good enough outdoors it noise canceling really kicks in try to cancel out a lot of the background noise So you get some of that artificial filter there, but I think for audio calls again really solid here in terms of audio quality It's uh 59 69 dollars depending on where you get it Solid buy the next pair of earbuds are the Tronsmart Apollo Bolt now interesting naming here. These are really unique pair of earbuds because they have a ton of features They've got active noise cancellation at 35 db. So you've got 30 hours of playback with 10 hours within the earbuds So you've got a long time using the earbuds so you can use them at least for a long period of time It's also got Qualcomm Actek aptX codex with the qc C 5124 chipset. So you've got aptX hd as well It's got six microphones, which they talk about for good quality Altogether now 10 minutes of charge will give you You know an hour of use all that fun stuff Really nice pair of headphones to use the other quality is good Bassy if you love bass, this is probably the pair you want to go with it gives you a lot of bass That's something that i'm not too fond of but it does give you some nice clean bass now It doesn't take away from soundstage the bass itself as well as the a and c You can still hear those vocals that really come out and they do a really good job Now let's take a listen to some audio and then we'll also take a listen to microphone off via a polo bolt So these are the tront smart a polo bolt. I'm using them indoors. They've got six microphones So see how well they do well in here and then we'll move outdoors for of course some audio sample as well All right, so i'm using the tront smart a polo there's some wind coming in It's not honking yet, but okay people are honking now So you get a good idea of how it sounds like noise when outdoors in the open if you're using of course these So like I mentioned other qualities it's good bassy, but good the the microphone Really does a good job Indoors and outdoors the six mics really come into play You can hear some of the noise canceling features of the microphone Trying to just kind of eat themselves out, but they come out pretty well I think at $99 you really can't go wrong with these If you're a bass lover, that's the one thing i'll quantify really adds into that bass sound and appeal Last but not the least are the brand new samsung galaxy buds live now the buds live as you know Are true wireless buds from samsung have a very different design and shape these are open back true wireless buds So which means they allow a lot of pass through of background sound so you can hear surroundings around you They've got that kidney being shaped in terms of the look and design But they fit really well where you're working out anything. That's not a problem Now the other thing over these earbuds is also they have of course Wireless charging with them. You've got about 28 hours Of use and you've got about six hours With ansi and eight hours without now ansi for me is a non factor in these earbuds I've mentioned them in my review. I don't think they actually work well But that's just something to take note I'll put it there in terms of the audio quality soundstage is pretty loud It's a really loud soundstage really Good highs Mids the solid and also some really nice bass without bass stock actually pushing things through So i'm gonna leave you with some audio and then we'll look at listen to the microphones as well indoors and outdoors So these are the galaxy buds live using the microphone indoors for a conversation Giving you a good example and then we'll take it outdoors. So see how it sounds there with some wind and New york noise all that fun stuff. Okay, so i'm outdoors using the galaxy buds live it's a bit windy and Giving an idea of what it sounds like outdoors some wind Maybe some honking as well and you get a good idea with all that noise if the microphone actually picks up So yeah, audio is pretty solid as you expect and the microphones do a really good job I think when you're looking for true pair of wireless buds, you will find something that will fit you quite well here on this list Hopefully there's something for you to pick from whether it's the jlabs go or the galaxy buds live And which of course are priced at $159. So if you have any questions in the comments, let me know guys Or for otherwise, don't forget to like share subscribe and always enjoy your entertainment


This videotape may disturb some of you. If you're disturbed by blood and guts and stuff like that, I can only assure you that the blood and guts are not belonging to the gentleman on the table. This gentleman was chosen out of an audience lined up outside to see the Carson show some years back. And this is a demonstration of, in fact, a much better demonstration that I do than the psychic surgeons in the Philippines do. This is a racket that's been going on there for generations now, where people, even today, get special-chartered flights that leave out of Seattle and out of San Francisco going to the Philippines for spiritual means, they say. They can't advertise psychic surgery anymore, but that's exactly what they're going there for. And they are operated on, and the substances upon analysis afterwards turn out to be either chicken blood or betel juice from the betel nut. It looks very much like blood. I remember that in a Seattle radio, a television station, pardon me, they interviewed a minister there with a big smile on his face, and they said, but Reverend, it turns out that the blood from the underclothing of this person, who's subject to what he died of the tumor, the abdominal tumor, that was supposed to have been removed by the psychic surgeon, it turns out this was chicken blood, and the minister said, yes. He said, but isn't that strange to you? No, no, no, it's only proof of God's power.  That's the exact words from this minister, whose church had sponsored this group to go off to the Philippines and be operated on. I'm not going to show you a demonstration that I did on the cards, it shows some years ago. It's better than what the psychic surgeons in the Philippines do, but they don't have to be good because they're real, you see? And I'm only a fake magician. Let's see that tape, if you please. OK, I wanted to ask you to tune in, a little word of warning here, if you have a queasy stomach, a side of blood, bond issue, we suggest you don't watch this. This is James Rand, he was going to give you an idea of what the psychic surgeons in the Philippines actually do, who want people to go down there and pay good money, you all set? And be part of our patients, it's all yours. Now, this is the time to walk away if you need to because it's going to get the story from now on. The psychic surgeons in the Philippines are pretty heartless folks, they just don't much care for the feelings of people that don't serve to care for their health at all and of course they're not in any way trained to do this sort of thing, they just act as if they are trained. Now what you're about to see is a bare-handed operation which appears to take place by actually penetrating the body. Believe me, what you're seeing is strictly special effects, it's slight of hand and nothing more. And this is the way it looks. It actually did take place. And this is a surgery where you say, gee, I know it's play acting. It's not play acting when they go by the tens of thousands every year. Sanford, I want to thank you for being a wonderful volunteer. I think it deserves a lot of applause.


Good morning guys. We are on a startup. We've got a cooler and a freezer. Haven't done this brand too much from what I'm hearing It might be something new to me. We usually do heat crafts. So it might be kind of interesting, you know You always love working on some new stuff. Let's go ahead and get started. All right, so these are rustles It's kind of electronic expansion valve here. Got a pressure transducer. This little thing was loose I don't like the way they put that right in there Look at that. That's gonna be, you can see it's already rubbing against it. That's not a good design That should have been moved back further. Looks like probably ECM style Simple wires there. No communications in between. So I'm wondering if we're controlling it through the power wire I have to do some research on this Got a sensor on the back here Looks like we got a limit back here just like a traditional one. So it ain't nothing major from what I'm seeing We got a cool little display right there. We'll do a little bit of read-up on this real quick So we know what we're doing and then we got a cooler here Now that one there's a little bit better That's back a little further Hopefully that's wired with the fans getting killed and shutting the whole system down Yes, I really don't like that. Otherwise Got a fancy cop this time What we got to do now is get these pumped down so we can get it Get these removed those are the old ones our new ones are right there the inside board controls super heat and Has a few other miscellaneous controls and then there we've got our green heck Make-up air unit that we got to get kind of set up and running then they're gonna kind of some professional air balancers Come in and do their thing This is a unit. I did at a video. I don't know last year. I Insulated it. I'm not much of an insulator, but it held up Hasn't fell off now. It's even after them moving this cooler. I'm bad for an amateur Taking a look inside here There's no clocks or anything. So they've got it pretty much already set up for the Digital controller downstairs to do most of the work. What it's gonna do is it's gonna accumulate runtime 360 minutes default so after that 360 minutes of runtime, it's going to go into a defrost When it does that it's going to pump down with the electronic expansion valve kick on the heaters Or if it's a cooler, it's obviously just gonna let it run the fans The fans step up and down based off of the ECM controller. It's just gonna Make sure everything's wired up, right? kind of go through the controller and Make sure my pressure switches this stuff are set up. Looks like we got liquid injection there on the compressor from what they told me the Unit is pumped and dumped to a point. They pulled a vacuum on it and Yeah, good that valve's open and they gotta remember I'm sitting here thinking and recording at the same time My fingers are about ready to go numb.  You can see the ice Yeah, I think that's great The unit's been evacuated and they dumped enough refrigerant in there to take it out of a vacuum So they need charged up yet. Alright, so like I said, I haven't done Many of these evaporators, which the condenser for the most parts exactly the same But you know when you don't know for sure instead of just half-ass in it and hoping for the best your best off Just kind of read through some of these things and just make sure So I read through the book and they have a door switch that you can wire up What I'm gonna do is the door switches. I'm gonna put that on here I'm gonna undo the high voltage out of the switch and just let it junction on through and then when you flip this That's gonna be a bullet to a door switch Okay, so what I'm doing is we're going into these digital ends and a one and B one or one B They're gonna come down here to the switch. That's gonna be kind of high-program it normally open my clothes took the Power out put it on in to the junction here. So we're inside the box Then we'll be able to set everything up here and that way if they want to shut this down when they're working They flip that this is gonna go into a 30-second pump down and it'll shut down the same thing with the other that way the power stays on and The outside unit shuts off.  They walk away Just too many problems to worry about. All right It has no idea what's going on outside.  So we've got up and downs selects so here's your setting Set point. Yeah, I don't think they need that Should be plenty Select boom simple as that baby go to the next list system enable it means it runs equipment select Group man, I don't know what that means Cooler freezer every go select. Oh, no, that would have been probably easier. Huh select boom. It would have switched it automatically refrigerant You should kind of skip around a little bit. Aren't you there we go? Yeah, well, we still have it we're single coil train sensor now sensor no That's about defect there default there evaporator superheats that point Usually we don't run that low Let's try eight Let's go ahead and go set point two three differential Maximum defrost 60 minutes sounds fine for a cooler. I do not like this I'm not sure how that's gonna work out, but 60 minutes of accumulator runtime. I do not like runtime accumulative that I suppose you can adjust that down Defrost termination 40 degrees. I suspect I'd be fine They said no and a compressor make them run time two hours Door switch configure. Yes. Now it is on. Oops I'm gonna close normally open. Okay, normally open I'm gonna close so we got it on So that's gonna be normally closed okay, and Door switch time zero seconds So we can make it boom 30 seconds zero seconds five minutes So what I did is I wired the same with the door switch. We're just gonna go ahead and put it at zero that way They don't it'll be immediate when they do it What else we got in here? This might actually be pretty doggone simple compared to that other one we did Yeah Single well, this is pretty brain dead man. I like this. This is sweet The network thing according to what I was reading earlier. It's number one normally Group member I feel like that means now the pump down thing on this one since we don't eat we're not using heaters We're gonna go none but on the freezer We're gonna do probably a one minute that way it gives a time to pump down and shut off before the heaters come on It just seems to be smart that way other than that everything else should be good to go Not quite sure why the fans aren't running yet, but other than that We should be good to go All this is 120 volts or 230 volts flip your switch right there to set it what it is all these are on their own independence circuits So these are this one's done. Now. We're gonna do the freezer Which we're gonna do exactly the same thing Go ahead and get this wired up real quick. Yeah, we get the freezer here. You got status Sensors select space temp if I have temp Oxygen re-sensors so you get those section pressure train to See if you have a few different things there. You can double check out of there go to your inputs This is so much simpler than some of the other ones. I've seen This Honesty and blows the doors off of the way the craft one is honestly. I kind of like it so switch input Like I said, they just put a holding charge in here So what I've done is I'm starting to dump the liquid in through the high side. I pulled the disconnect here We're gonna get as much as we can get in there for being 25 degrees out today I don't think a bunch is gonna get in there But we're gonna get as much as we can and then we're gonna go ahead and start it up The EXV is actually open I can tell because it was calling when I went away So it's kind of boiling it off as it goes. It's not a humongous deal there But once I get a little bit more in here we're gonna go ahead start the compressor up get the pumping going and See what this thing holds. We're gonna weigh it in we're gonna mark it on the inside that way if we ever have a major leak We'll know exactly how much it holds. We won't have to go through Calculating things up and we should be good to go as you can see we've got our trap right there It's only about five foot seven foot away same thing here with our freezer which we'll get this done here in a second we'll go on in and tune up our Low-pressure cutouts make sure those are set accurately. There's a trap there once again still like seven foot five foot away So it's not a very long run. Like I said, this is the first time I have Started one of these ones up usually we do bone, but it came with the Box I guess they kind of did a package deal. I'm not done a lot with Russell I've seen more like the Taco Bells things like that Sounds like they worked with a ream on some of this stuff according to what I was reading But we are Right now about four pounds area. So we're just about there this coil is Copper so we're good there on that So I went ahead and got about the five pound mark in there kicked it on Kind of bothered that our side glass is completely full I'm gonna go down make sure that that coil sends some temperature I have a feeling that it has to sense the temperature drop to get the fans are going This is the cooler not the freezer, but just it seemed like the way the logic was working. That might be the case Have about a 25 degree suction The outdoor pressure. Yeah, it's not exciting. This is a headmaster control device Which the fan is shaking. I'm not We can get into it which Latritions kind of don't know about screws and stuff like that.  They've completely covered up our panels Can't see Data sheets and things so I always get in there and check that Hot gas valve there make sure it's tight that tends to leak And we'll make sure that the service valve and the receiver is good to go I'm gonna go downstairs and see where we're at on that I've got it Good on that Not shaking too bad It's like it's feet. I can feel it coming through This may not hold as much as what I thought it did we may I've got the charge set up much right when I was there Look through that chart again. Like I said, I can't read my Data plate here now this box is covering it. I get a serial number. It's probably it Might get lucky and I don't think they put it on that so Got her thing ran a copper which is unusual usually use plastic The ET should have went through there That's gonna get damaged Probably should want the stopper there to keep that from happening See what our XP's doing see how good this thing is when it's not even a box temperature Let's go into Status, let's see how this thing's doing XP select current position a hundred percent, so she's cranking Next one superheats 21 degrees 20 degrees, so it's doing its best Preheats that point. That's weird. I didn't set it that high You must be doing some of those algorithms here I'm assuming To read through later and see how there's more to it Superheat Then you got a super accept point. I did not set that high. I Swear I don't think it ain't Whatever we'll watch it for a while We eat down a box temperature. We'll see if that's changed at all I just have this funny feeling that it might have Adjusted itself kind of weird Like I said, I haven't started this one up for So far really easy I'll a lot easier to negotiate through the panel here than what it was to do The heat craft thing I did.  I just I was not happy with that thing at all Other than the condenser shaking up on the roof Did notice they used metal here on the freezer. That's gonna be problematic. I'm gonna bring that up to the Sales guy usually leaves plastic for that now. This is cooler. We use metal on that. It's fine But on the freezer usually you don't want to transfer temperature through it'll cause it to sweat more So usually is plastic on that Plastic I should say nine one of some sort But it's good with this thing run a little bit And when am I setting here my vibrator set this eight degrees. So it is Only made it with a three degree differential in there There's like a facet space to which we're dropping that's pretty crazy. I Should all seem like it's dropping that quick but I have to see how that goes It's not very big cooler.  You see the suction first So we came back out here and the sight glass was slightly flashing which I think it probably still is Flash earlier. So anyhow, I went ahead and added another 10 ounces. We're going to get that thing solid now Once we get done we'll go ahead and add just a little more for winter We're already close to winter charge because it's running obviously at 25 degrees But we do get down to zero sometimes negative 10 on the craziest of days So we'll probably add an extra you know calculate upper total usually add 10% to that just depends You know, that's kind of based off your you know a warm day But we'll add a little extra for that We could always do the pump down check the receiver levels because I still have to do my little Makeup air unit over there. So once we get that running. So the freezer same thing. It's currently got 23 degrees super heat Like I said, you select that positions at a hundred percent So super heat is at point 10 I have it set for six so it's modifying a cell file It's getting down to temperature box temperature. So it's actually changing itself as it's Pulling down, which is kind of neat that it's protecting itself. That's what I'm seeing here Got it's a solid liquid had added a few more pounds to it Got a foam call things kind of got busy there with that but so far so good. This thing's falling down Got the heat tape working. That's on the same circuit, which is nice Kind of went in there and tripped it made sure that kicked it on So we're good on that Here's the Being pretty good. You can see what I would say is your coil sensor right there See it right there So it's very similar to the usual sensor placements 55 degrees since the termination temperature. So I mean for the most part everything seems pretty pretty normal back over to the cooler here And it popped down it doesn't set off an alarm or nothing like that Flip it back up. So I kick it back on again reacts Make sure it comes back on There we go Should go here stick on here in a second This one had zero delay. Yep. I can hear it now. So yeah, it's working good Well, it's able to get that cover off the cooler. Like I said, it's not like bestest of locations is there Thank you, Mr. Electrician. I said something to him about it. So hopefully it's Maybe maybe they'll think about it. I doubt it, but you know, it is what it is So anyhow one ahead went through here made sure all these are tight, which every one of these was fairly loose So we got all those tightened up. It's kind of neat that they Put an extra valve there, which is how they're charging it.  So that's there. I gotta do the same thing to the other one I've checked the fan blade here. This one I thought had a little bit of a wiggle But when you watch the fan you can see that every one of the fan blades is right in the same location Nothing's been out. Everything looks to be fairly tight. I think it's just a the way they designed it There's not the greatest. It don't have as They stay in as stiff as what it could be. I think but Everything for the most part is good to go on that This one over here ended up hitting temperature Got all the way down to the negative 10 area. This is coming up to negative Five or seven that was negative seven and it came on came back up here Made sure my sight glass was full added an extra half a pound of this So technically this one here right now is currently around seven pounds This one over here is right on six and a half, which there's quite a size difference here So I'm gonna when I get it apart here. I'm gonna go ahead and check my receivers see where I'm at Level wise.  The other one's much bigger so I'll probably Double-check it with my heat gun. That might be the same size. It's hard to say But that's gonna wrap these ones up. Let's see if we can't get the green hex over there running and then wrap this day up


If I took a bite of an apple and then said there's no reason we can't be civilized. What movie would it be? Tarzan.  That was Leonidas for 300. Instagram, Twitter for more juicy content. It's so juicy. I was on a personal YouTube channel. Yeah. Hello.  You babies. Got a exciting video. Exciting? What are we talking about Corbin? How exciting is your mom in it? The Village Cooking Channel. Yeah! This time the cooking mutton brion.  So obviously we really enjoyed if you haven't seen that one. Obviously we saw them cook butter chicken, right? Yes. And I did figure out, I think the creator of this is the cinematographer. And so he's like a filmmaker. No kidding. And from what I'm told he was the guy that was saying everything, his son. So unless I'm wrong. So the internet's never wrong. That's true. But at that guy I think they said the creator is his son. This is his village. And they always give the, this is his channel. They always give the food to either an orphanage or an old person's home. Beautiful. It's a wonderful channel. I'll put their link for their channel in the description. 8 million subscribers. Keep on growing. Love their last video. It was probably my favorite food when we watched. It was gorgeous. Looking for more of that. Here we go. That's a sack on that one. That's what she said. Once again, vegetarians. Yeah. Trigger warning for the vegetarians. I apologize. Really apologize. That's a sharp frickin knife. You ever gone hunting in Texas? Yeah, I went hunting. I saw them. You weren't actually... Rick loves mutton. Especially when it's nice and lean. Nice and lean. You can feel the coolness of that water. Don't drink that water. Yeah, I know. Do not drink that water. I would love to participate. And just be there and help them. Just do that. Show them all the ingredients. You're gonna like this. A lot of you have made the alarm out of what I said last time. Wake up your mother! Sorry. That's your new alarm clock. Briani is a complex dish. You didn't put someone inside it. Lemon juice, yeah. How's your mom? She's good. That was so wrong. That was so wrong. Making your own crispy onions? Yeah, that's the way to make it. Homemade. Homemade ghee. Look at all that. They're not messing around. I love it. Grade up looks like it doesn't get any better than this. Seriously? How could it get any better than what you're looking at? What do you have to talk about? Briani's favorite part of the show. I've never seen anybody in my life get so excited over rice. It's been in Briani. It's adorable. Shit. So gasp. I love rice. Yeah. That's a cool way to strain it. Yeah, you got to layer it now. I can't imagine how good that is. How good that is. Glorious. This food porn. Do it again. I just thank all of this for two guys. It's really amazing, isn't it? Does these two guys eat all that? Yeah. It's a brand. Those should be Big B's tasty nuts. It's a million dollar brand right there. Steam in its own goodness. All of these things, the little details and recipes always amazed me. It's falling out of our bones. I'm expecting some guy to come out of the middle of that. Both eggs just piled on top. Going to town, guys. Okay.  It's funny.  But I do have that particular mouth sound thing that can cause rage. You love doing that, don't you? Yes. Do you see how quick that came out? I bet it is. So great what they do. Yeah, it is. Awesome. Do you get that sense? Yeah, rose cookies. Rose cookies. I love that they have 8 million subscribers. Love everything about these guys. This video has 41 million views. Oh, that's good. And it makes you want mutton briyani. No joke. Briyani is so good. Yes, mom. Hold on. Let me check the door. Still here. That made me want to take a bath in briyani. Or right now. Unfortunately briyani takes a long time. Like you saw. It's a whole process. I had a whole pot and you get layer and layer and layer and layer and layer and layer and then white even more for it to get how you want it to look. Oh, it's so good. I'm going to have to find that truck. Is it open everyday? Yeah, they move around. But I should do every Friday night in chats where if all the food trucks line up in that spot they're go to instagram and follow them the bollywood kitchen um because they got briyani on the menu you should go get that yeah anyway what else can you say that was wonderful that was glorious i'm so hungry right now let us know what other their videos and other food videos we should react to down below


I'm going to start straight away by simply introducing Dr. Rachel Davis. Her university career has taken her from Chapel Hill, North Carolina to the University of Edinburgh where she completed her doctorate in 2020. She's now, among other things, working on Astles Scottish Seals, which were published in the Antiquaries volume Vettusta Monumenta. And there's an online scholarly edition facsimile and comments being edited by Noah Herringman of the University of Missouri. And she is working on the heraldic seals in Scotland. So it's with very great pleasure that I hand over to you, Rachel. Thank you, John. Just get my PowerPoint up. Okay. So before I begin, I would like to thank the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, who partly funded my PhD research on women's seals and charters in late medieval Scotland. I would also like to thank the Scottish Historical Review Trust, whose bursary has funded research for this paper. Some of the seals and ideas I'll be discussing here today also appear in a forthcoming article I have titled, material evidence, re-approaching elite women's seals and charters in late medieval Scotland, which is due to be published in volume 150 of the proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, later this year in November. The seal of Isabella Countess of Fife features a tree from which two branches extend downward. Shields hang from these branches on either side of the tree. The dexter right shield bears a lion rampant, the arms of Fife, her natal lineage. The dexter shield on the left bears a fest chequey, the arms of Stuart, one of her marital families. The seal design differs from what we might expect of an elite woman's seal in the Middle Ages. For one, there is no female figure. A predominant feature of women's seals on the continent and in Britain in the 12th and 13th centuries. However, when considered alongside other elite women's seal designs from the 14th and 15th centuries in Scotland, the ways in which her identity was constructed bears similarities to other extant impressions belonging to elite women from the late medieval period. The paper aims to move discussion beyond what Brigitte Betos-Rezac termed the semantics of the female image and show that female use of heraldry in their seals is a significant and rich vein of further research into the ontological meaning of sealing in medieval Britain. The paper is guided by two overarching questions. First, how do women's seals show evolution in heraldic convention and sealing praxis in Scotland in the 14th and 15th centuries? Second, was women's use of heraldry formulaic? Investigating these questions will show significant changes in women's seal design from the late 13th to mid 15th centuries. The evidence demonstrates women's participation in the emerging practice of marshaling arms to accommodate their complex and varied relationships to elite lineage and landed titles. I will argue that women's use of heraldry was by no means formulaic. Rather, the arrangement of arms within a seal communicated a woman's personal identity as a member of the aristocracy in so much as we can say this was an indicator of the personal self. We might think of elite seals as an extension of an individual's public facing self, thus the iconography included even if personal was used to communicate links most advantageous to an individual's exercise of power and authority. This project sought out impressions and cast belonging to elite Scottish women from around 1296 to roughly 1460. Thus far, I have identified 54 seals. I began my research with the Scottish seal catalogs compiled by Henry Lang, William Ray McDonald and John Horne Stevenson and Marguerite Wood. I also consulted the catalog of British Museum material compiled by Walter de Grey Birch listed here on the left. I used these catalogs as a starting point, and then I further consulted materials held in the following archives listed here on the right. It's worth noting that further repositories were consulted with negative results, including private collections identified through the National Records and Archives of Scotland, the Manuscript Commission reports, PIS, SCRAN, Canmore and Treasure Trove Holdings of the National Museum of Scotland. It's also worth saying that Scottish Sigalography, the seal cast produced by Lang, that for Scottish Sigalography excuse me, the seal cast produced by Lang in the 19th century and Stevenson and Wood in the early 20th century remain a vital link for historians in Scotland as impressions affixed to documents survive precariously. While the findings presented here today take in the heraldic devices of women seals surveyed in impressions and casts. And in one instance an illustration, I want to note that there are subtle differences in these types of source material. This paper specifically is going to trace women's use of heraldry. I won't go further into methodological concerns here, but I have dealt with this more broadly in my work, and I'm happy to answer any questions relating to this after the paper. The title of Stevenson and Woods 1940 volume conveys a sense of comprehensiveness, even an exhaustion of the archives to indicate the extent of Scottish seals, particularly when it comes to heraldic ones. However, recent work on the part of Adrian nails and David and Bertie has demonstrated the possibility of quote new seals, not included in Scottish seal catalogs. Bertie and his work on Scottish Bishop seals has further observed issues of inaccuracy within the descriptions of seals in these catalogs. My work as well has indicated errors in description when compared to physical evidence. So far I've identified six new seal impressions belonging to Scottish women from the 14th and 15th centuries, which were missed out in earlier cataloging efforts. These are included here on the left. I've also identified two casts, not included in Scottish catalogs but do appear in the catalog for British Museum material listed here on the right. I mentioned this to highlight the still untapped potential for further study into Scottish ceiling and the seal catalogs and that the seal catalogs by no means represent the fullness of surviving material. I think it's worth noting the differences between current research interests and the past motivations of catalog compilers. While heraldic devices employed by women were noted by catalogers in the 19th and 20th centuries, they were not necessarily considered significant amongst amongst Scottish seals. Illustrative and photographic plates more often featured examples of men's seals, particularly those belonging to royals, magnates and important bishops, rather than the seals of women and those of the lower nobility, with even less attention paid to non-elite seals. I would argue that there's still much more to be gleaned from the meaning of seals using heraldic devices and how this iconography was employed by women to communicate political and personal links. If we begin with the seals on the left of Margaret Brinsason and David Gila Crawford, which survive attached to homage roles to Edward I from the 1290s, we can see the shifts in heraldic and ceiling convention by the mid 15th century, with the seal of Mary Stuart, Countess of Angus and Lady of Logrum on the right here. The comparison of these seals side by side highlights these changes in Scotland. First, we notice a change in shape with the 13th century seals using an oval shape. This shape of seal for women seems to have fallen out of fashion fairly early in the 14th century in Scotland, with women's seals using a round shape like the 1459 seal of Mary Stuart more often. We also notice a difference in iconography. The earlier seals use the female figure compared to the armorial seal of the 15th century. In addition, the heraldry has changed. We see single, albeit in distinct shields in Margaret Brinsason and David Gila Crawford seals, whereas we see the marshaled arms of Mary Stuart on the right. The stark differences between the seal designs of the late 13th century and the mid 15th century show the evolution in ceiling praxis and heraldic convention amongst Scottish women in the later Middle Ages. The rest of this paper will trace these evolutions. The 54 seals that make up this study are armorial in that they use a heraldic device in their visual field, as well as other iconographic elements from older ceiling conventions. Of these seals, only two feature heritable insignia not on a shield, meaning they use iconography that is associated with heraldry, but it's not within the visual field of a shield. I viewed these as seal casts taken from seals attached to charters dated before 1340. The remaining 52 of the seal impressions and casts incorporate one or more coats of arms to display women's connections to different elite lineages. Most commonly women represented their lineage in their seals through the display of a single shield, although this was not as straightforward as it may appear. The number of single scoochians found in the seal designs of elite Scottish women reflects the proliferation of marshaled arms during the later 14th century in Scotland, which allowed elites to express their complex relationships to lineage and power more succinctly. We might return then to the seal of Margaret Stuart from our previous slide to demonstrate this. The Countess's seal features a single shield, but in fact shows three lineages. The right side of the shield shows quartered arms with the lion rampant at the top representing Angus and a heart and chief three stars at the bottom representing Douglas, both of which were families she was related to by marriage. On the left side of the shield we see a lion rampant within a double Tresura, the Royal Arms of Scotland, which were her natal lineage. The use of heraldry by elite women in their seals has been interpreted as largely formulaic. When interpreting seals using the female figure, the woman has been described as a bodily link, a conduit between two lineages represented by the shields on either side of the body. Maybe a scholarship particularly on English material has suggested this fallout of formula. Within this formula, the right shield featured the arms of a woman's natal kin, awarding primacy to her natal lineage. The left shield then featured the arms of her marital kin. When I applied this supposed formula to Scottish women's seals featuring the female figure, it began to break down quite quickly. The shield, Mary de Montemer, Countess of Fife, for instance, shown here, shows a reverse of the pattern promoted by historians of Chivalric display. Her seal is particularly useful in disputing this proposed formula, as she was the Countess of Fife, the premier Earl of Scotland, but also a member of the English nobility, and a descendant of the King of England. I suspect this proposed formula to appear in her seal, as it has been argued to bear out in English women's material culture. Rather than a passive link between Scottish and English lineages, we see her as the literal embodiment of her royal lineage dressed in robes here bearing the arms of England, three lions passant. The left shield features the arms of Fife, awarding primacy to her marital kin, and the left shield bears the arms of Montemer, uneagle displayed. She was not a female heir, the only criteria that past scholarship is cited as exceptions to British Segalographic formulae for women. The example of the Countess of Fife seal suggests that these proposed patterns ought to be thoroughly tested. I used the formula against seals from my data set featuring the female figure. So this was a total of 22 seals. I found that when they were analyzed 13 featured the marital arms in the dexter or right position, and nine featured arms in the sinister or left position. With regard to female heirs, the designs were evenly split with five featuring the marital arms in the dexter position, and five featuring them in the sinister position. What emerges from this analysis is that there are no clear or formulaic patterns in the arrangement of coats of arms in women's seals in Scotland. This suggests that the seal designs of women were curated to suit their individual circumstances and relationships to noble lineage. These findings align with the arguments Elizabeth A new and Philip R. Schofield have made, which have asserted individual choice as a key element in British ceiling practice. I will now trace the evolution of seal design and the proliferation of marshaling arms during the latter half of the 13th of the 14th century, excuse me, which moves us beyond what Betos Rezac termed semantics of the female image. Bruce McAndrews work on Scottish heraldry has shown that marshaling of arms in Scotland occurred in the 14th century. I would like to trace here the female contribution to the emergence of this practice. Marshaling is a practice of displaying more than one coat of arms on a shield in order to accommodate more than one lineage lineage and or associated estates and titles. Early marshaling can be seen in impaled arms, which showed two lineages on a single shield. William Ray McDonald observed in his 1904 seal catalog that the design of Isabella Randolph, which featured a shield bearing impaled arms and attached to a charter dated to 1351 or 1352 was the earliest earliest instance of impaled arms being used in Scotland. The fact that the earliest example of impaled arms can be traced to a woman suggests that women were influencing innovations that accommodated their relationships to multiple kinship groups. This can be attested by the number of marshaled shields featured in the seal designs belonging to women in the present study. 32% of the seal design feet 32% of the seal designs in the study feature marshaled arms, most often per pallet to represent natal and marital lineages. We could maybe think of the impaling of arms, creating a visual shorthand for the bridge that the female figure what once represented in seal design. Let's turn to the evolution of marshaling arms that culminated in quartered shields, like the ones we saw in like the one we saw in the seal of Mary Stuart Countess of Angus dating from 1459. Earlier our memorial seals kept the shield shields representing women's lineages and territorial claims separate. I have several examples here. I've got the seal of Eleanor Unforbill Countess of Angus, which dates to the early 14th century. The seal design shows four shields meeting conjoined at their bases in the center of the seal. Each shield represents her lineage acquired by noble birth and marriage and expresses her personal identity as a representative of these lineages. We can further compare this design with other seal casts from the 14th century, including the seals shown here, belonging to Mary Debregan Margaret Fraser and Mary Ramsey. The seal design of Agnes Randolph Countess of March can be read similarly to these seals and how they articulate her individual identity as a Scottish noble. Again, we see four shields arranged crosswise, coming to a point at the center of the seal. Top clockwise, we see a lion rampant within a double Tresora, the Royal Arms of Scotland, three cushions within a double Tresora, the Arms of Murray, and two shields featuring a lion rampant in a border charge with eight roses, which represented the arms of Dunbar and March. Interestingly, she treats Dunbar and March as distinct lineages when they were one in the same in terms of associative properties and title. The arrangement of these arms expressed her personal claims to power and authority as a Scottish elite. While the claims of Murray are perhaps exaggerated, as she asserts herself as Countess of Murray in the Charter and the legend of her seal. She did not have possession of this earldom. It still can communicated her connection to Murray by birth as daughter of the Earl and member of the Randolph family. The line of her seal articulates her relationship to each lineage with the conjoined shields at their bases at the center, creating a visual focal point alluding to Agnes as this focal point between them. Further to this, the arms represented in the seal corresponded to the title she claimed in the Charter to which the seal is attached. The arms that are Agnes Randolph seal and the others discussed as a precursor to later practice of quartering arms. We can compare the seal to the seal of Janet Dunbar Countess of Murray, Lady of Fendroff and Crichton, which was in use in the 1450s. I have that here on the right. The arms are quartered and express her ties to each lineage designated in her Charter. This is the name of the seal of Janet Dunbar, Murray, Fendroff and Crichton. When considered together the seal designs of Agnes Randolph and Janet Dunbar demonstrate the evolution and heraldic convention taking place in late medieval Scotland and how women made use of and potentially influenced these emerging emerging practices as they sought to represent their personal claims to multiple elite lineages acquired during the female life course. I was mentioning here that elite Scottish women did not mention their life course stage and their seal legends in that they don't list whether they're a daughter wife or widow. They only list their titles. I would argue that this is because this is parsed efficiently enough by the inclusion of heraldic device, which would have been understood by their contemporaries and tied into the titles and relationships elaborated on in the text of the Charter. The three of matrix gives us a unique glimpse of the making process and identity construction in late medieval Scottish stealing practice. The matrix found during the 1974 to 78 excavation of three of castle, a 14th century tower house belonging to the black family, possibly depicts a design for Margaret Stewart Duchess of terrain, Countess of Douglas, Lady of Galloway and Annandale, who operated out of the three during the 1420s as wife and then widow of the Earl of Douglas. There is a debate around what arms are represented in the Sir to position, compared to the eventual seal design of the Duchess pictured here. The later seal featured an impaled shield, but the right side of the shield quartered from right to left it bears the four titles associated with the estate holdings of the black Douglas family. Three floor to leave reflecting the newly acquired Duchess of terrain, a heart in chief three stars the arms of Douglas assault or in chief the arms of Annandale, and a lion rampant crowned the arms of Galloway. After the shield, we see her royal lineage as Princess of Scotland represented with a lion rampant within a double Tresora. This differs from the arms represented in the three of matrix, and I would like to particularly focus on the representation of the floor of terrain. In their 1981 article discussing the three finds GL good and CG Tabor ham, dated the matrix to around 1406, and suggested that the Sir to arms represented three mullets or stars, communicating the Murray of both well arms which was the natal family of the Duchess's mother in law Joanna Murray Countess of Douglas and Lady of both well. While the acquisition of territories associated with the Murray of both well family was important to the Duchess's father in law, through his man marriage to Joanna Murray Bruce McAndrews research has shown that the Murray of both well arms did not feature in subsequent seals of Douglas including the Duchess's husband, the fourth Earl Archbold. This cast out on good and Tabor ham's argument that the arms are represented here in the matrix. Given the size and condition of the three of matrix, there is still room for interpretation about what the arms are actually depicting in the Sir to shield. I would propose that the matrix states instead from 1424 or later, and the arms represented in the Sir to shield are actually three floor to Lee, which would represent the Duchy of terrain. Visually, I think the device resembles the floor to Lee, more than three stars seen on the previous slide. While it's difficult to read in its present condition, it is relatively easy to see that the device lacks the five pointed star that feature in the Murray of both well arms. Further to this, the Duchess does not mention both well in her charters or in the seal legend of her eventual seal. The Duchess of terrain was a significant acquisition for the Douglas family in 1424, when the Duchess's husband was granted the Duchy for his service to the king of France in the hundred years war. Katie Stevenson has drawn attention to the importance and significance of the acquisition of terrain, particularly in Scotland, as no other foreign noble had received a doacle rank from a late medieval French king. The fact that Margaret Stewart made you made use of the doacle title in her charters and eventual seal, I would suggest the matrix may be a prototype and part of the design process as the Duchess adapted the terrain heraldry into her seal design. The three matrix gives us further insight into the construction of identity through seals and the ways in which women participated in this process to express their personal ties to the prestige and privileges afforded by noble lineage. At the start of this paper I posed to research questions that would guide my discussion. First, how do women seal show the evolution and heraldic convention and sealing practice in 14th and 15th century Scotland. In regard to sealing practice, there was a shift in the 14th century and preferred seal shape from Ovoid to round. We might link this shift in shape to evolution of heraldic convention as the symbology of heraldry offered a concise way to express complex relationships to multiple elite lineages with the emergence of heraldry's arms in Scotland in the mid 14th century. These findings also corroborate Helen Geek's argument made last week here that shape of seal ought not to be considered a marker of femininity as it has been in past scholarship. The question I posed was whether or not women's use of heraldry in their seals was formulaic. I have hopefully demonstrated that this was not the case, at least in late medieval Scotland, and that the arrangement of the arms within a seal design communicated with heraldry's personal claims to elite lineage and associated privileges and resources. As such, the heraldry deployed in seals offers us a rich vein of further research into the ontological meaning of women's seals beyond what Beto's termed the semantics of the female image. Far from formulaic, women's use of heraldry in their seals communicated the accumulated links to lineage that was unique to the female life course and further influence sealing practice in late medieval Scotland. Thank you. Thank you very much, Rachel. That was excellent survey of the whole subject and thank you very much for it. Now, it's 1434, we've got a few minutes for questions. Beautifully timed, thank you. One from, oh, can I start by asking what the material of the three matrix is? It's lead. It's lead? Yes. Oh, right, right, yes. Thank you, thank you very much. That's very, very interesting. Also, it's also quite small. It's quite small. And the, I didn't have time to talk about it here, but the legend is also very succinct, it just says Sig Margaret Douglas, and that's it. Without her titles. Without her titles, which it also makes me think it was a prototype, figuring out how to incorporate the new title into her, into her seal design, rather than actually in use. And presumably the seal was lost in her castle or in the grounds of her castle. Yeah, she owned it. It looks as if it might have been a trial piece, you know, a later thing. Yes. It's very interesting. Anyway, I mustn't hold questions. Alex Maxwell Finvater has said the seal of Isabella counters of five does not seem to have a Stuart Fess. The first one. Yeah, the very first one right at the beginning. That seems to be a statement rather than a question anyway. Yeah. Okay. Right. Elizabeth you and says, are there any differences between the use of heraldry between women of Scottish and English birth. Is there a difference in the use of heraldry if you were born of an aristocratic family in England and married into a Scotch. Right. I think that's an excellent question. It's one of not. I'm not probably thought about as fully as I could, mostly because the seals that I look at kind of as we go forward in time, tend to be belonging to Scottish women that are born in Scotland. As well. So I think that's a really interesting question to think about for the earlier seals, belonging to Eleanor of Humphreville and Mary de Montemer and how maybe their, their English, their Englishness, as well as their, their kind of Scottish marriage might be influencing design there. Right. Then that's good. Yes. Then there's a comment really from Katie Hawks about formulas and formulaic. A long question I won't read out but seems to say say the formula or frameworks the individuals play with formula and themselves established new new formulae at the same time. Yes, really sort of expanding on your interpretation of the individuality of decisions being made. I think, I think the most important thing to take away from the evidence is that there's, there's a lot of choice involved in how to represent themselves in seal design, and that kind of trying to break it down into kind of easy to understand patterns doesn't really work because each person's individual circumstances are going to influence the way in which they're representing themselves in their seals. Okay, right. There are one or two other detailed heraldic comments that you and the others can note and perhaps I think really respond to perhaps in individually or again.