Now I have the distinct honor and pleasure of introducing Arno de Borshkrav, who will lead the next panel. Arno needs no introduction. He's a legendary journalist, as you all know. He's the director of the Transnational Threat Project at CSIS, as well as a senior advisor at CSIS. A 30-year veteran of Newsweek at the age of 27, made senior editor a position he held for 25 years. Was later the editor-in-chief of the Washington Times, president and CEO of UPI. A man whose list of accomplishments, publications are just boundless, so I recommend his bio to you. It's really been an honor for me to be a part of CSIS as a senior advisor and to work with Arno and to learn from him. He will lead the next panel. It's really a pleasure to introduce him. And I will say one thing about Arno. He has always been ahead of his time, whether it's his publications, his writings or his work, he's always been on the forefront. So without further ado, Arno de Borshkrav, thank you. His Highness Prince Turkey Al-Faisal and Ambassador Negroponte. Great privilege for me to introduce two dear friends of very long standing. Prince Turkey Al-Faisal directed, as you probably know, his intelligence service for 25 years. He then became ambassador to the UK and later to Washington. He is also founder or co-founder of the King Faisal Cultural Foundation, which straddles the past and the technological future. He is the son of the founder of the kingdom, grandson of the founder of the kingdom, king known as Ibn Saud or Abdulaziz, and he is the son of the late King Faisal. And as for John Negroponte, I first met him in Vietnam when he was a very young diplomat in the mid-60s. And he went on, as you probably know, to play a very important role in bringing about a settlement in Vietnam, way ahead and working for Henry Kissinger at the time. John has been ambassador in all sorts of important places. He was the first ambassador to liberated Iraq. He was the ambassador to the United Nations, ambassador to Mexico, ambassador to the Philippines, Honduras, and I think I may be missing one. He was deputy secretary of state. He was deputy national security advisor. And more lately, he was the first director of national intelligence. I think we'll start it off. Prince Turkey told me he had a few things to say before we get into questions. Thank you, Arnault. A slight correction on Arnault's introduction. The intelligence service was not my intelligence service. It was the kingdom of Saudi Arabia's intelligence service. Ms. Napolitano put it very well when she spoke here this morning in saying that terrorism did not begin with Al Qaeda, nor will it end with the death of Osama bin Laden. And from that context, I have just a few remarks to make about the report that was mentioned in the previous session. These remarks I sent to Arnault, which I'm sure he shared with them, had to eliminate recruitment to terrorism. It takes a lot of effort. But the most important thing is to try to resolve the issues that operate as recruiting tools for the terrorists. And these are mostly political issues, in my view. Mention was made of things going sour, let's say, in Saudi Arabia or Pakistan. But I think what is important is that we live now today such issues as in Kashmir, the Caucasus, Palestine, the Horn of Africa. And one has to find ways of resolving those issues in order to pull the rug from under the recruiters who if you watch the cyberspace appeals that are put out by these recruiters to young people, they mainly rely on scenes depicting these problems in these areas. So I hope that the report will focus on promoting solutions for these problems. The other thing that the report did not mention, which I think is very important, is the need for an international center for counterterrorism. This has been on the table of the international community since 2005 when a conference on counterterrorism was held in Riyadh, Miss Townsend, I believe, was attending that conference. And one of the main recommendations there was that there should be a counterterrorism center where not only information is pulled, but also know-how. Many of these countries in the world where the terrorism operates from whether it is in Yemen or in sub-Saharan Africa or in some Asian countries simply don't have the capabilities of a financial or human to challenge the presence of these terrorist groups that operate from them. And in order to get those things in hand, we need to pull, as I said, not only the information, but also the know-how. Being here so few days just before the anniversary of September 11th, that event weighs heavily on my shoulders as a Saudi. 50 years from now, 100, 200 years from now, whenever September 11th comes about, Saudi citizens will be the ones mainly blamed for the event. And that is a heavy weight for any citizen of a country to bear. A slight consolation to that in my view is that the kingdom has been the leading country in fighting al-Qaeda and eliminating the cells and the other structure of al-Qaeda, not only within Saudi Arabia, but also by sharing information and know-how with our allies in the United States and in Europe and in the Middle East. Hopefully we can help in eliminating that scourge from the world. We have successfully dismantled and eliminated al-Qaeda cells so that now for the past six years, I think, or five years, we've had absolutely no terrorist, successful terrorist operation in the kingdom. That's a blessing from God. Doesn't mean it's not going to happen. It might. We still have to face that problem when it comes. But one of the things that we learned from our experience is that you have to treat with al-Qaeda holistically. You can't simply use security measures. You can't simply use political measures. It's not a matter of buying off people with money. It's not a matter of simply using one or another or a third. You have to use all of these methods. And in that effort, the kingdom, I think, has successfully combined all of those things in fighting al-Qaeda in the West, in Saudi Arabia, but hopefully in other parts of the world. And I'm reminded in this of last year's aborted mailpaper bombs, mail parcel bombs that were coming to Chicago via the Yemen when Saudi Arabian intelligence tipped off American and European intelligence services on these parcel bombs, and they were intercepted. Fortunately, and thankfully before they caused any harm anywhere. The other thing I think I would like to mention is that the people in the country are the key. Terrorists like Ladin or others would like to present themselves as either liberators of people or as saviors somehow providing a solution for their problems. And if they succeed in doing that, then you're lost. But fortunately, if you can get the people on your side, they become your first line of defense and your early warning system. Many terrorist attempts in the kingdom were forestalled because of citizens picking up the telephone and calling the local police station and saying, I see suspicious activity in the neighborhood, whether it is a house or a person or a car. And that leads to investigation and that investigation generally has succeeded in disrupting these terrorist activities. This is what I have to say. Thank you so much, Prince Turkey. Ambassador Nigroponey, would you like to say a few things? Yeah. Can we get into questions? Thank you, Arnaud. Thanks for the introduction and your heinous pleasure to be here with you and to see you again. Arnaud, you say we go back a long ways. I think we first met in 1964 in Saigon. Arnaud was a fantastic war correspondent. Still hard. Goes out to some pretty challenging places to cover local situations. I stand in awe of how well you still do that. Just a couple of points. I think there are two key issues. Prince Turkey raised the question of the root causes and getting to the bottom of whatever gives rise to terrorist activity. And I couldn't agree with him more and I also agree that the remedies have to be holistic. There's no silver bullet that's gonna solve these problems for you. So that's one side of the issue. And then I think related, but I find it a fairly universal problem and that is the issue of governance and particularly, and governance of course has to do with the ability of a state or a country to come to grips with root causes, but specifically competence in the security area. I mean, it's one thing to stand there with a uniform and a gun. It's another to really know how to solve problems of terrorism and that is a skill. I think a skill that, where there's been substantial improvement during the past decade or so, but where there's still a long ways to go and I think that if you look around the world, it's in places where these problems of governance and of inadequacy of security forces that there's probably a greater likelihood that terrorist activities of various kinds might be successful. So those would be two points. And the only other point I would make is that obviously this problem as has already been said and I'm sure will be said repeatedly didn't start with 9-11 and it won't end there. But when Arno reeled off the different countries to which I had been ambassador and had served, I mean, every single one of them, we've had terrorist activities of one kind or another to deal with. So regrettably, these kinds of activities have not spared any particular part of the world and are not unique to any particular location, although at the moment they seem to be concentrated in certain particular areas. Well, Peter Bergen, who is one of the best-known experts on al-Qaeda, who was quoted recently saying it's time to call off the war on terror. And then we had Defense Secretary Panetta on his first trip to Afghanistan in which he said, it's now just a question of killing seven, eight, nine or 10 more people and it will be over. I take it you both disagree with that. I certainly do. And I don't know what the context was of either of these gentlemen's comments were, but terrorism will be with us, whatever the circumstances. People will find excuses to commit these horrible crimes for whatever reason they may divine in their minds. Sometimes it's megalomania, sometimes it's political ambition or whatever. But Belladon is not the end of the terrorism. What I think is important though, is that the death of Belladon, particularly in this country, which I'm very glad that it happened as a result of his own sort of nihilistic and really vicious and barbaric killing of people and justifying them with high moral principles. The killing of Belladon has not gotten the accolades that it deserves, not just throughout the world, but even in this country. And I think the war on terrorism between quotation marks, after September 11th, I remember President Bush saying, we're going to get him dead or alive. President Obama reiterated that sentence almost word for word during his campaign and after he became president. And I think it should have been given more value, if you like, or worth by the American people and by the rest of us in the rest of the world. And I say that because I've been advocating for the last few years, that the United States should kill Belladon or arrest him and then declare victory and withdraw from Afghanistan. Now I know there are those who will say, oh, we can't leave Afghanistan in the way that it is. And I don't mean withdrawing your embassy or your economic aid or your other support, but having troops on the ground in Afghanistan has never succeeded, starting with Alexander the Great, going on through all of the conquerors that followed him, the Soviets are the recent example of that. And I'm afraid America will come at a time, whether it is next year or the year after, or the year after that, when it will inevitably have to withdraw. And this would have been the perfect moment to declare victory and to leave with a victory behind and not to go on and sort of continue in this endless measure of strike, counter-strike. The Afghan people will not accept foreign troops in their country and they're gonna fight them. And more and more, as I read in your press reports, it's not just the Pashtuns who are fighting back against American soldiers.  Uzbeks and Tajiks and even Hazars are joining the fight against NATO and the United States. So killing Miladian, I thought would have been the perfect moment when your president can say we have been victorious and this is the timetable we set for, we draw all of our troops and goodbye and good luck. But it hasn't happened that way. I hope that it will. Prince Turkey, you are one of the few who dealt with Mullah Omar, the head of Taliban. I think I'm the only journalist who ever interviewed him which was three months before 9-11. Do you think a deal with him is possible? I think now, frankly, Mullah Omar is extraneous. All the information that we see is that he's probably somewhere in Pakistan, not even in Afghanistan. And it is becoming more of a nationalist resistance movement to the presence of foreign troops there. So Mullah Omar would be one of many, whether regional, tribal, or other leaderships within Afghanistan that are conducting the resistance to these foreign troops. John, where do you come out on this? Well, I think in a way the solution that to our true presence that Prince Turkey described is sort of what we're doing, but we're doing it in slow motion. And in a way, my reaction to Mr. Panetta's statement was exactly that. He was saying that in reference to the continued presence of our forces in the region. So yes, terrorism will continue, and the quote-unquote, if you will, war on terror, which people have a lot to say about whether that's a misnomer or not will go on. But the question is whether you need to do it with the deployment of regular military forces. And I see us inevitably withdrawing from Afghanistan and I see us doing it somewhere around the 2014 deadline that has been stipulated by NATO. And I interpret, rightly or wrongly, the deployment of Ambassador Ryan Crocker to Kabul as having been sent there to try to negotiate with Afghanistan something similar to the withdrawal agreement that he negotiated with Iraq. When I was deputy secretary, I told Ryan, I said, Ryan, the great thing about your status of forces agreement and Henry Kissinger's Paris Peace Accord, which was called the agreement to end the war and restore peace in Vietnam, is that neither of them accurately describe what was in fact agreed to, which was the withdrawal of United States forces. And I think Ryan is uniquely qualified to negotiate a similar agreement with the Afghan government. So people are always talking about, well, can you negotiate with Mullah Omar or the Taliban? I think we're gonna end up negotiating with the Afghan government. When I was born, there were two billion people in the world. Now there are seven billion. And we have, I think it's four billion cell phones of one kind or another. Two billion people are online. We have WikiLeaks, we have social media. How is all this changing the game of nations in your judgment? Definitely it has changed it. Just look at what happened recently in the Arab world. I remember at a conference early this year, the American representative there invited us all to attend a ceremony in the White House in which he said President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton and other dignitaries would be there, as well as Facebook and Twitter and Google and others. And I had to raise my hand and say, are you sure it is safe for the president to be there with the Secretary of State and all the government officials while Facebook and Twitter and the others are operating? And so yes, it has changed the way things are done. So-called people power is the operating factor here. And people can connect directly with each other now more quickly, too quickly for government authorities to either prevent them or even sometimes to trace them. One of the irony of course is that in Egypt of course and in other countries governments or authorities try to shut the services for internet and other such facilities. And now we see that even when riots broke out in London, the only recourse the government had was to look at possibilities of shutting down the internet and services of Facebook and Twitter. That's, I think that's an indication of where the people as it were have gained the upper hand in this particular situation. And I know that when I look at my children for example and see them operating all of these things, it's a different world from the one that I grew up in. John? But the flip side, I agree with everything that Turkey said, but the flip side of course is that I think if you look at what happened in 9-11 and then subsequently is that the power and the power that this information technology also puts into the hands of our intelligence community in terms of abilities to discern and detect what's going on, sorting out relevant from irrelevant information, targeting terrorists. When you think of the multiplicity of information technologies that have been used to track down people like Abu Musab al-Zarkawi in Iraq, this was in effect a tribute to the utility of these modern technologies also encountering some of these terrorist activities. So it works both ways. We see a prominent member of al-Qaeda, Abdul Karim, I think, forget it, Nezad or something like that, he is now in charge of the military establishment in Tripoli, he's a former al-Qaeda type who was tortured under rendition in Bangkok and who said on television yesterday I'm not holding any of that against the United States which of course elisted quite a few chuckles. Don't you think that this is helping al-Qaeda what's happening in Tripoli today, what's happening in Syria? Is that a plus or a minus for al-Qaeda? The presence of this particular person, I don't know much about him in the fight against Qaddafi, may have ramifications which people better informed than I am can judge. But I think al-Qaeda is on the losing side of history today as a cult, as a philosophy and equally importantly as a political and military if you like, organization. Because of the damage that they have caused universally, their bloodthirstiness and their viciousness have been quite universal. And if you like democratic, they were willing to sacrifice everybody for their ideal. And this has of course created a counter attack on them from people in general. So I don't think al-Qaeda is winning anymore. As I said, that doesn't mean that there is going to be an end to terrorism in whatever name or banner or under any banner that people may raise. But the al-Qaeda's way of doing things, I think now is passe. John? Yeah, not to mention that their agenda, if you take it seriously, isn't exactly what 99% of the world aspires to. It's not the way they aspire to live. On the point about what's happening in Libya or what happened in Egypt or what might happen in Syria, I think we have to take our chances. Clearly in all these situations, particularly I think Libya and Syria, there's a similarity with Iraq in the sense that natural political life, if you will, has been suppressed for so long that it's not that easy to tell what's going to emerge once the lid is taken off and in Egypt, certainly. And in Syria, you've got pretty strong Muslim Brotherhood movement, so you don't know how that's going to evolve. Which direction are they going to take once they're free to express themselves? But as opposed, as compared with the existing situation, I mean, I think Syria really needs a political change, number one. Number two, I think that the demise of President Bashar al-Assad would lead to the likelihood, not the certainty, but the likelihood that Syria would lose, that Iran would lose its only real Arab friend. And I think that would be an important geopolitical development. I have a question from the floor. How do we get people, the citizenry, on our side to address his Royal Highness's point in an American climate where trust in government is low and the political climate is so hostile? I wouldn't dare speak for America. And I'm not sure I want to on this, except to say that it may not be quite as bad as we sometimes describe it. And I think that there's still a pretty high level of confidence in our security institution. Certainly the military is popular. And I think people understand that we made a lot of improvements in law enforcement and intelligence during the past 10 years. How do we deal with some of these issues? Of course, we don't face the most serious internal terrorist threat as compared to other countries, but I think good governance, which we've already mentioned, and a little bit of prosperity wouldn't hurt. I mean, the world's gone through some, particularly the West has gone through some bad economic times. I wonder if we wouldn't talk and think a little bit differently about all these questions if we started getting back to a period of robust economic growth, which I sincerely hope can happen sometime in the not too distant future. But as far as we can see into the future, there are growing shortages of almost everything, water, number one. Doesn't that indicate that there will be permanent friction, tension and terrorist activities as far as we can see into the future? Well, I mean, oil can be an abundance of oil can be a curse, a shortage of it could also lead to adoption of other technologies and necessity is the mother of invention. I think certainly in the United States, the greater problems we face and there's a whole national debate now being undertaken as to how to get the economy growing again has to do with a lot of other factors including education, training, helping the workforce adapt to modern circumstances and so forth. So it too, just like dealing with terrorism needs a holistic approach. Let me just say something here. America has been an example to the rest of the world and how Americans do things. And I come from a country that is relatively young in age and that looks upon the experience of America as a study case for where we want to go and it's a fascinating experience to watch how America deals with its problems. Sometimes successfully, sometimes not so successfully but I think America will remain that example that people look to learn how to avoid pitfalls but also how to progress and to go forward. Your technological achievements are unparalleled anywhere in the world. When I was ambassador here, I was struck by the workaholic nature of your people. You know, from seven o'clock in the morning until seven o'clock in the evening, it's work, work, work, work. You go to lunch and you work. They even have breakfast work sessions and reception work sessions. And so everybody is working all the time and it's not just in Washington. And I used to visit in various other places. The energy expended by Americans in the effort to gain a livelihood is exemplary. You're only outshone by two people that I know, the Japanese and the Koreans. And otherwise, you spend more hours working than all the rest of us. How that energy and that expenditure of effort allows you to have economic problems or medical problems or shortages in other things, a bad highway system, that is still a puzzle to me. And I'm waiting to see how you're gonna get out of that. Prince Turkey, another question from the floor with so much at stake, is it possible to overcome political, religious, and cultural differences between the US and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the fight against al-Qaeda? Well, there are no differences between us in the fight against al-Qaeda. Where we may have differences that we've had historically, whether it is over Palestine or other issues like that, we've overcome them. We stood by each other over 60 years of tough situations. The young people in this audience don't remember when the so-called red menace threatened the world. Insurrections and assassinations and upheavals throughout the globe were the mark of those years and the Kingdom was a victim of those efforts and working with the United States was always a boon to us. We as Saudis never forget how you stood with us in those years, particularly at the time when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and seemed to be ready to invade Saudi Arabia. Those are issues where we came together to face certain situations. Of course, we had our differences as well. So it's an up and down affair between us but it's a strategic alliance I think that we have with each other and especially on the issue of terrorism. And the example I gave in my presentation about the parcel bombs that were intercepted was one of many other examples that could be pointed at where either information from America to Saudi Arabia helped abort certain bad things from happening in the Kingdom or vice versa. There's one more question from Prince Turkey. You spoke of the need for shared intelligence and know how in countries and intelligence agencies, does this require agreement? What group should be classified as terrorist organization? What happens when a group such as Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by some countries such as the United States and Israel but not by others? Well, that works equally well. I think if you say from an Arab point of view that some Israeli actions are considered terrorist actions. The destruction of homes, the targeted killing, the incarceration of thousands of Palestinians in prisons without trial, et cetera. That should not hold us back from sharing information on what we clearly see as common threats to us all. And already when I was in intelligence in my career, we used to share information with the US and with other people. The problem today is that communications have become so quick and events inevitably will go on and not wait for somebody to verify a piece of information that came from here or who's the source of that information. So holding back on intelligence from others, I think is harmful and detrimental. That's why the need for this center to pool information and know how is essential. And the kingdom made that proposition to the United Nations whereby everybody can join together in sharing that information and know how. And that's the only way I think you can face threats of terrorism and whoever is behind them. So the Arab Israeli problem is not an impediment in your view about in terms of counterterrorism. No, I don't think so. John? I would just qualify that slide. I'd say it's somewhat of a problem. I remember when I was ambassador to the United Nations, we worked on these, there's four or five conventions or treaties concerning terrorism, terrorism against aircraft, terrorism against this, that, and then there's one on where we actually had to define terrorism. And I think that treaty, that draft treaty has been hung up for 25 or 30 years because we've not because of, I think in some measure, because of the Arab Israeli dispute, we've been able to agree finally to what a definition, a technical definition of terrorism. It comes down to a couple of words that are disagreed. If I could just go back one moment to the earlier question about understanding between Saudi Arabia and the United States. I do think one of the consequences ultimately of 9-11 was a bigger effort in this country to understand the Arab world. And I certainly see it, I saw it when I was director of national intelligence and deputy secretary of state in terms of the amount of training and the number of people that we mobilized to study Arabic and so forth. I mean, most of us who've traveled around the world know that in other countries, there's a much greater knowledge of the United States than we ever have in terms of a corresponding knowledge of the country that we're visiting. And sometimes we're stunned to find out the level of detail that people know about our country. But I think we're moving in the direction of trying to better understand the rest of the world. I think certainly that applies to the Arab world. Prince Turkey, I think this is gonna be the last question because I'm getting a signal that we're almost out of time. Tell me about your view on what seems to be the beginning of robotic warfare with the predator strikes in the federal tribal areas of Pakistan. We now have already testing a submarine without a crew of fighter planes without a pilot. We seem to be moving in a whole new phase, but this of course has impacted very unfavorably on public opinion in Pakistan. And I was wondering how it's seen in the other parts of the world where you travel. The problem with the predators, particularly in Pakistan, I think is twofold. One, the Pakistani government has been rather equivocal in its allowing predators to strike in Pakistani territory and flying out of Pakistani territory for one reason or another, mainly because popular sentiment in Pakistan would not like them to allow those strikes to take place, especially because they come from America for all of the reasons that you have discussed earlier and I'm sure we'll discuss later. So every time there is a predator strike, in my view, it undermines the authority in Pakistan in having to stand up and defend itself against those critics within Pakistan who would like to see these strikes ended. And by doing that, as I said, the undermining of the authority of the Pakistani army particularly creates dissension and pressure points within the armed forces and in the government. The other drawback of these predator strikes, no matter how successful they are in eliminating individual al-Qaeda members or so-called Taliban leaders, is the collateral damage that comes with them. Unintended consequences, the killing of innocents, whether children, women, old people, sometimes by mistake as well, eliminating 10, 15, sometimes 30 people at a wedding party or at a funeral or something like that. And that adds to the anti-American sentiment in Pakistan and in other places where these strikes take place. I hope you will join me in thanking these two formidable characters here. I'm sorry, I had a time. I would have liked to answer that, of course. Thank you.


Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the video. Salah Mike, 33 Barbell, good company. Today we got a topic that's a little bit more controversial. Talking about the trans community in competition and sport and in particular USA powerlifting, the USAPL as we all know it. The probably biggest tested federation on the planet. A lot of us competed in it. A lot of us have friends or coaches in that space. And Fox News reported over the weekend, or yesterday I believe, on a hearing that was ordered to allow transgender women to compete with biological female in the women's division after losing this discrimination case. I want to start off by, you guys know me, I believe in good company, I believe in community and culture and the beauty of the barbell and the beauty of fitness. It doesn't matter who you voted for, it doesn't matter your income, who you love, who you don't love, what you look like, who your partners are, or what you believe in. We can all get better in the gym and we can all be a community under the same roof, getting stronger and getting healthier. That to be said, I rarely talk politics, but when it interconnects with what we are doing, I think it's worthwhile to have the discussion. I'm not the most educated on the topic, although I've followed it for multiple years now with the Olympics and CrossFit and other federations that have gone through similar cases. But I do think that it deserves a conversation. The only way to get better as a community and to handle hard things and hard topics is to talk about them. The more we ignore them or the more we just throw hate or words to the world, rather than trying to understand each other, the less likely we'll be to actually grow together. So I'm gonna try to do that the best I can. Know that I mean no insult to any one person group in the world if I misspeak, it's out of doing this in one take. Because I think authenticity and being genuine as I can and being me is most important rather than reading from a prompter. If you see me on my phone, it's because I'm gonna read some blurbs from Fox News themselves. And otherwise I'm just gonna give you my opinion on the matter. I would love for you guys to comment below, but if it gets too weird, we'll probably turn off comments because I just don't want anything negative in there. You can have your opinion, you can share your thoughts and we can have discussion, but there's no room for hate or anything weird to happen.  We don't need it on my channel and we don't need it in this sport. So we were literally coming back from the Arnold and we saw a tweet out by Fox News. I guess this was reported on by Sage Steel ESPN and she says, yes, this is unfair to women in a response to Elon Musk on Twitter. The irony of this decision being made is that it's happening at the beginning of women's history month, which is true. We're now sitting at like the sixth or seventh of March. It sounds like she was the only one at ESPN to really start to speak about it. I did scroll around on Twitter itself and there was a lot of bigger names making comments, left and right, Zuby Music was starting a thread, as well as Elon Musk himself. This news has traveled fast, which is sad that this is the way that our sport and our community has to get a light shine on it is controversy and people bickering and fighting. I wish she was over something more positive, like the competition at the Arnold. Shout out to Avilu, our lifter who won it and a lot of fun things happening there. Michelle Tafoya says, transgender women have a wide chromosome, biological women do not. There are genetic differences. Women's sports needs to be protected. USA powerlifting must let transgender athletes compete in women's division after long discrimination case. She reposted the Fox News as well. I think one big thing for me, speaking from the knowledge I have within sports, strength and conditioning, nutrition, powerlifting, is that Wada, who runs the anti-doping and a lot of the drugs around the Olympics, made rules a couple years ago that I believe after transitioning you have two years and then you can compete as a transgender athlete in the Olympics or at least try to get yourself there. We have the most popular stories I believe are the New Zealand weightlifter and then Fallon Fox I believe is her name who made big waves in women's MMA a couple years back and there's a lot of talk around that. I've heard of again of similar lawsuits happening within the US APL and also CrossFit over the last decade. So this is no new matter, but this ruling I believe is one of the first to hold up and enforce a federation or a league to allow transgender women to compete. I don't know if that goes for transgender men, which is a whole nother discussion, right? It is much less likely that we see that happen and that's because I believe that there are large biological differences that allow us to compete at the highest level as any sport. Let me first off say that powerlifting is unlike any other sport where there really isn't much of a professional scene. Some people call themselves pro-paralyptors. Some people get paid, but that is literally one out of 50,000 and I know the odds to get paid in any sport are rare, right? The basketball same thing, the chances are to get to the NBA are very rare, but in this sport in particular, it's not driven by money, it is driven by the community. I say and mention all that, that I believe that the beauty of powerlifting is that it is for everyone, any age, any circumstances or background. I think that anyone should be able to participate in the sport of getting stronger and put themselves on the line to test their strength in front of judges in whatever federation they like. I do believe the competition portion of it should probably be biological and I mean no offense to anyone when I say that, but there are such large differences in the capabilities and especially in this sport where don't be offended by powerlifting friends, but the skill is very low. It is almost purely strength. Yes, their skill to the sport, but when you compare it to something like golf, baseball, football, the skill portion, the technique portion of this is minuscule. That being said, right? What we're born with, musculature, ligaments, tendons, all matters a lot. Water, when they start to look at things, they tend to look at hormones a lot. And yeah, testosterone is an anabolic hormone that males have a lot of and allows us to be a little bit stronger, but there's other biological necessities that allow you to be stronger and perform differently in athletics. Bone, ligament, tendon strength, all have genetic factors and gender or like biological factors. Angles of hips and joints, something that's commonly known as the q-angle, which is basically the angle of a hip to knee. Often biological women have wider hips and their knees go inwards, so you'll see a slant in their thigh when they're standing. This actually tends to be a detriment to a lot of athletes as more women, biological women tend to rip ACLs and MCLs based on that instability and that angle when cutting. Beyond that, there's muscle fiber types. And again, going back to powerlifting being a skill very low on the skill scale and very high on the pure genetics or strength scale. It is a sport of strength. That muscle fiber types can be trained and you can grow different muscle fiber types, but we're born with a certain amount. Men, biological men tend to have more muscle, fast twitch muscle types in their upper body than biological women. And that's just fact. We can run it on the science. For those to say, again, that I think anyone should be able to sign up, participate and enjoy the community and the sport, but for those to compete at the top end, just doesn't make a lot of sense to me. That's to say that I can draw analogies from any other sport. I don't believe that the NBA should have to have a limit on height. There's no reason why we don't want the best of the best competing against the best of the best. Just because I was born 5'9", it obviously made my chances a lot harder to go to the NBA. I played basketball for 15 years. I played in pro amateur leagues, played in college against pros all over the place. And I wasn't good enough to go to that next level. And that is simply based on genetics or my height. And I don't think that, I think we should have an equal playing ground when it comes to participation and especially like a sport like basketball where it is more hobby driven, a community driven, that doesn't mean that everyone should have an equal chance to win or compete for money or the more prestigious events or competitions. There's a couple of tweets here just from random folks. I'm on a random blog that whipped all these together and I'm just gonna talk about them a little bit or read some off. Just again, hopefully spark conversation and insight into the depths that this conversation is very cloudy. I know it's sensitive for a lot of people and I try and to navigate it the best I can. I'm no expert in this topic by any means. Again, I've just done research over the years as it relates to sport. Tyler Todd, Ty Romper on Twitter says, I love all people. If you're an adult and want to transition, I wish you well. But this is so anti-woman. There will be biological females that trained and sacrificed their entire lives crushed by this nonsense. Men and women are different. This isn't hard. J.C. Cooper, a transgender athlete won a discrimination case against the USA Powerlifting last week after the Federation banned her from competing in female events. With Cooper's victory comes a mandate the Federation ceased and desist from all unfair discriminatory practices because of sexual orientation and gender identity. This organization must revise its policy related to those issued within two weeks, meaning trans athletes will be able to compete in the women's category after previously being banned. Cooper filed a complaint in 2019 with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights alleging the organization violated the States Humans Rights Act by banning her and other trans athletes from competing in female competitions. She then filed a lawsuit against the USA Powerlifting in state court in 2021. The harm is in making a person pretend to be something different, the implicit message being that who they are is less than the ruling said. That is the very essence of separation and segregation is what the MHRA prohibits. Again, I know a lot of us have strong beliefs in this area, one way or the other, but I do encourage you to read. I do encourage you to truly listen. Don't just hear people when you're speaking and I'm gonna try to do the same. So if you have constructive criticism, constructive thoughts below, let's keep it to ourselves, not in terms of I would like you to share it, but let's not bicker, let's not fight, leave your peace, read your others, read your peers, we're all in this together. And I do think that for the advancement of the sport and the community, we need to look at ways and things that we can all participate and we can all get involved. I appreciate you guys so much for diving in on this more deeper topic. We're gonna try to add more videos a week. So if you wanna get involved in Discord, goodcompanydiscord.com. That's where you can get exclusives, sales and things on Merch, a like-minded community, but we also have a tab on the left for React content. So if you wanna leave, whether it be fitness, TikToks, fun or the otherwise, articles, videos, I'm gonna try to react and open some conversations on some more lighthearted stuff or the deeper stuff as we go forward here again. I know it's not fun and so not always easy, but I think it's something that will overall help us all to understand each other better and to grow the sport as a whole is an ultimate goal so that we can improve our health, our fitness and our mindset through the Barba. I appreciate you guys, 3sb.co for all your clothes, Salamite, goodcompany, Thursree Barba, Sacramento. Catch you guys in the next one, we're out of here.


Section 22 of my first book by various authors. It was far indeed from being my first book, for I am not a novelist alone, but I am well aware that my paymaster, the great public, regards what else I have written with indifference, if not aversion. If it call upon me at all, it calls on me in the familiar and indelible character. And when I am asked to talk of my first book, no question in the world but what is meant is my first novel. Sooner or later, somehow, anyhow, I was bound to write a novel. It seems vain to ask why. Men are born with various manures. From my earliest childhood it was mine to make a plaything of imaginary series of events. And as soon as I was able to write, I became a good friend to the paper-makers. Dreams upon reams must have gone to the making of rathilate, the pentland rising, footnote, ne pas confondre, not the slim green pamphlet with the imprint of Andrew Elliot, for which, as I see with amazement from the book lists, the gentlemen of England are willing to pay fancy prices, but its predecessor, a bulky historical romance without a spark of merit and now deleted from the world. End of footnote. The king's pardon otherwise park whitehead, Edward Davon, a country dance and a vendetta in the west, and it is consolatory to remember that these reams are now all ashes and have been received again into the soil. I have named but a few of my ill-fated efforts, only such indeed as came to a fair bulk ere they were desisted from. And even so they cover a long vista of years. Rathilate was attempted before fifteen, the vendetta at twenty-nine, and the succession of defeats lasted unbroken till I was thirty-one. By that time I had written little books and little essays and short stories, and had got patted on the back and paid for them, though not enough to live upon. I had quite a reputation, I was the successful man. I passed my days in toil, the futility of which would sometimes make my cheek to burn, that I should spend a man's energy upon this business and yet could not earn a livelihood. And still there shone ahead of me an unattained ideal. Although I had attempted the thing with vigor not less than ten or twelve times, I had not yet written a novel. All, all my pretty ones, had gone for a little, and then stopped inexorably like a schoolboy's watch. I might be compared to a cricketer of many years standing who should never have made a run. Anybody can write a short story, a bad one, I mean, who has industry and paper and time enough, but not every one may hope to write even a bad novel. It is the length that kills. The accepted novelist may take his novel up and put it down, spend days upon it in vain, and write not any more than he makes haste to blot. Not so the beginner. Human nature has certain rights. Instinct, the instinct of self-preservation, forbids that any man, cheered and supported by the consciousness of no previous victory, should endure the miseries of unsuccessful literary toil beyond a period to be measured in weeks. There must be something for hope to feed upon. The beginner must have a slant of wind, a lucky vein must be running, he must be in one of those hours when the words come and the phrases balance of themselves even to begin. And having begun, what a dread looking forward is that, until the book shall be accomplished. For so long a time the slant is to continue unchanged, the vein to keep running, for so long a time you must keep at command the same quality of style. For so long a time your puppets are to be always vital, always consistent, always vigorous. I remember I used to look, in those days, upon every three-volume novel, with a sort of veneration, as a feat, not possibly of literature, but at least of physical and moral endurance and the courage of Ajax. In the fated year I came to live with my father and mother at Kinnaird above Pitlochery. Then I walked on the red moors, and by the side of the golden burn. The rude, pure air of our mountains, inspirited, if it did not inspire us, and my wife and I projected a joint volume of logic stories, for which she wrote the shadow on the bed, and I turned out Thrawn Janet, and the first draft of the Merry Men. I love my native air, but it does not love me, and the end of this delightful period was a cold, a fly blister, and a migration by Stratheadle and Glenshee to the Castleton of Breymar. There it blew a good deal, and reigned in a proportion. My native air was more unkind than man's ingratitude, and I must consent to pass a good deal of my time between four walls, in a house lugubriously known as the late Miss McGregor's Cottage. And now admire the finger of predestination. There was a schoolboy in the late Miss McGregor's Cottage, home from the holidays, and much in want of something craggy to break his mind upon. He had no thought of literature. It was the art of Raphael that received his fleeting suffrages, and with the aid of pen and ink and a shilling box of watercolours he had soon turned one of the rooms into a picture gallery. My more immediate duty towards the gallery was to be show-man, but I would sometimes unbend the little, join the artist, so to speak, at the easel, and pass the afternoon with him in a generous emulation, making coloured drawings. On one of these occasions I made the map of an island. It was elaborately, and I thought, beautifully coloured. The shape of it took my fancy beyond expression. It contained harbours that pleased me like sonnets, and with the unconsciousness of the predestined I ticketed my performance Treasure Island. I am told there are people who do not care for maps, and find it hard to believe. The names, the shapes of the woodlands, the courses of the roads and rivers, the prehistoric footsteps of man, still distinctly traceable uphill and downhill, the mills and the ruins, the ponds and the ferries, perhaps the standing stone, or the druidic circle on the heath. There is an inexhaustible fund of interest for any man with eyes to see, or tuppence worth of imagination to understand with. No child but must remember laying his head in the grass, staring into the infinitesimal forest, and seeing it grow populous with fairy armies. But in this way, as I paused upon my map of Treasure Island, the future character of the book began to appear there visibly among imaginary woods, and their brown faces and bright weapons peaked out upon me from unexpected quarters, as they passed to and fro fighting and hunting treasure on these few square inches of a flat projection. The next thing I knew, I had some papers before me, and was writing out a list of chapters.  But there seemed elements of success about this enterprise. It was to be a story for boys, no need of psychology or fine writing, and I had a boy at hand to be a touchstone. Mine were excluded. I was unable to handle a brig, which the Hispaniola should have been, but I thought I could make shift to sail her as a schooner without public shame. And then I had an idea for John Silver, from which I promised myself funds of entertainment. To take an admired friend of mine, whom the reader very likely knows and admires as much as I do, to deprive him of all his finer qualities and higher graces of temperament, to leave him with nothing but his strength, his courage, his quickness, and his magnificent geniality, and to try to express these in terms of the culture of a raw tarpaulin. Such psychical surgery is, I think, a common way of making character. Yes, it is indeed the only way. We can put in the quaint figure that spoke a hundred words with us yesterday by the wayside, but do we know him? Our friend, with his infinite variety and flexibility, we know, but can we put him in? Upon the first, we must engraft secondary and imaginary qualities, possibly all wrong. Upon the second, knife in hand, we must cut away and deduct the needless arboressence of his nature, but the trunk and the few branches that remain, we may at least be fairly sure of. On a chill September morning by the cheek of a brisk fire, and the rain drumming on the window, I began the sea-cook, for that was the original title. I have begun and finished a number of other books, but I cannot remember to have sat down to one of them with more complacency. It is not to be wondered at, for stolen waters are proverbially sweet. I am now upon a painful chapter. No doubt the parrot once belonged to Robinson Crusoe. No doubt the skeleton is conveyed from Poe. I think little of these, they are trifles and details, and no man can hope to have a monopoly of skeletons, or make a corner in talking birds. The stockade, I am told, is from Master Munreddy. It may be, I care not a jot. These useful writers had fulfilled the poet's saying, departing they had left behind them footprints on the sands of time, footprints which perhaps another, and I was the other. It is my debt to Washington Irving that exercises my conscience, and justly so, for I believe plagiarism was rarely carried farther. I chanced to pick up the tales of a traveller some years ago, with a view to an anthology of Poe's narrative, and the book flew up and struck me. Billy Bones, his chest, the company in the parlor, the whole inner spirit, and a good deal of the material detail of my first chapters, all were there. All were the property of Washington Irving. But I had no guess of it, then, as I sat writing by the fireside in what seemed the spring tides of a somewhat pedestrian inspiration. Nor yet day by day after lunch, as I read aloud my morning's work to the family. It seemed to me of originalist sin, it seemed to belong to me like my right eye. I had counted on one boy, I found I had two in my audience. My father caught fire at once, with all the romance and childishness of his original nature. His own stories, that every night of his life he put himself to sleep with, dealt perpetually with ships, roadside inns, robbers, old sailors, and commercial travellers before the era of steam. He never finished one of these romances the lucky man did not require to, but in Treasure Island he recognised something kindred to his own imagination. It was his kind of picturesque. And he not only heard with delight the daily chapter, but set himself acting to collaborate. When the time came for Billy Bones's chest to be ransacked, he must have passed the better part of a day, preparing on the back of a legal envelope an inventory of its contents, which I exactly followed. And the name of Flint's old ship, the Walrus, was given at his particular request. And now, who should come dropping in, ex machiner, but Dr. Japp, like the disguised prince who is to bring down the curtain upon peace and happiness in the last act? For he carried in his pocket not a horn or a talisman, but a publisher, and in fact being charged by my old friend Mr. Henderson to unearth new writers for young folks. Even the ruthlessness of the united family recoiled before the extreme measure of inflicting on our guest the mutilated members of the sea-cook. At the same time we would by no means stop our readings, and accordingly the tale was begun again at the beginning, and solemnly re-delivered for the benefit of Dr. Japp. From that moment on I have thought highly of his critical faculty, for when he left us he carried away the manuscript in his portmanteau. After then was everything to keep me up, sympathy, help, and now a positive engagement. I had chosen, besides a very easy style, compare it with the almost contemporary merry men. One reader may prefer the one style, one the other, tears an affair of character, perhaps of mood, but no expert can fail to see that the one is much more difficult and the other much easier to maintain. It seems as though a full-grown, experienced man of letters might engage to turn out Treasure Island at so many pages a day and keep his pipe alight, but alas this was not my case. Fifteen days I stuck to it and turned out fifteen chapters, and then in the early paragraphs of the sixteenth ignominiously lost hold. My mouth was empty, there was not one word of Treasure Island in my bosom, and here were the proofs of the beginning already waiting me at the hand and spear. Then I corrected them, living for the most part alone, walking on the Heath at Waybridge in Dewy Autumn Mornings, a good deal pleased with what I had done, and more appalled than I can depict to you in words at what remained for me to do. I was thirty-one, I was the head of a family, I had lost my health, I had never yet paid my way, never yet made two hundred pounds a year. My father had quite recently bought back and cancelled a book that was judged a failure. Was this to be another and last fiasco? I was indeed very close on despair, but I shut my mouth hard, and during the journey to Davos, where I was to pass the winter, had the resolution to think of other things, and bury myself in the novels of Monsieur de Boigobot. Arrived at my destination down I sat one morning to the unfinished tale, and behold, it flowed from me like small talk, and in a second tide of delighted industry, and again at a rate of a chapter a day, I finished Treasure Island. It had to be chance scribed almost exactly. My wife was ill, the schoolboy remained alone of the faithful, and John Addington Simmons, to whom I timidly mentioned what I was engaged on, looked on me as scant. He was at that time very eager I should write on the characters of Theophrastus. So far out may be the judgments of the wisest men. But Simmons, to be sure, was scarce the confidant to go for sympathy on a boy's story. He was large-minded, a full man if there was one. But the very name of my enterprise would suggest to him only capitulations of sincerity and solicisms of style. Well, he was not far wrong. Treasure Island, it was Mr. Henderson who deleted the first title, The Seacook, appeared duly in the story paper, where it figured in the ignoble midst without woodcuts, and attracted not the least attention. I did not care. I liked the tale myself for much the same reason as my father liked the beginning. It was my kind of picturesque. I was not a little proud of John Silver also, and to this day rather admire that smooth and formidable adventurer. What was infinitely more exhilarating, I had passed a landmark, I had finished a tale, and written THE END upon my manuscript, as I had not done since the Pentland Rising when I was a boy of sixteen not yet at college. In truth it was so by a set of lucky accidents. Had not Dr. Japp come on his visit, had not the tale flowed from me with singular ease, it must have been laid aside like its predecessors, and found a circuitous and unlamented way to the fire. Purists may suggest it would have been better so. I am not of that mind. The tale seems to have given much pleasure, and it brought or was the means of bringing fire and food and wine to a deserving family in which I took an interest. I need scarcely say I mean my own. But the adventures of Treasure Island are not yet quite at an end. I had written it up to the map. The map was the chief part of my plot. For instance I had called an islet Skeleton Island, not knowing what I meant, seeking only for the immediate picturesque, and it was to justify this name that I broke into the gallery of Mr. Poe and Stole Flint's pointer. And in the same way it was because I had made two harbours that the Hispaniola was sent on her wanderings with Israel hands. The time came when it was decided to republish, and I sent in my manuscript and the map along with it to Mrs. Castle. The proofs came, they were corrected, but I heard nothing of the map. I wrote and asked, was told it had never been received, and sat aghast. It is one thing to draw a map at random, set a scale in one corner of it at a venture, and write up a story to the measurements. It is quite another to have to examine a whole book, make an inventory of all the illusions contained in it, and with a pair of compasses painfully design a map to suit the data. I did it, and the map was drawn again in my father's office, with embellishments of blowing whales and sailing ships. And my father himself brought into service a knack he had of various writing, and elaborately forged the signature of Captain Flint, and the sailing directions of Billy Bones. But somehow it was never Treasure Island to me. I have said the map was the most of the plot, I might almost say it was the whole. A few reminiscences of Poe, Defoe, and Washington Irving, a copy of Johnson's Buccaneers, the name of the dead man's chest from Kingsley's at last, some recollections of canoeing on the high seas, and the map itself with its infinite eloquent suggestion made up the whole of my materials. It is perhaps not often that a map figures so largely in a tale, yet it is always important. The author must know his countryside, whether real or imaginary, like his hand. The distances, the points of the compass, the place of the sun's rising, the behaviour of the moon, should all be beyond cavill. And how troublesome the moon is! I have come to grief over the moon in Prince Otto, and so soon as that was pointed out to me adopted a precaution which I recommend to other men. I never write now without an almanac. With an almanac, and the map of the country, and the plan of every house, either actually plotted on paper, or already and immediately apprehended in the mind, a man may hope to avoid some of the grossest possible blunders. With the map before him, he will scarce allow the sun to set in the east, as it does in the antiquary. With the almanac at hand, he will scarce allow two horsemen, journeying on the most urgent affair, to employ six days from three of the Monday morning till late in the Saturday night, upon a journey of, say, ninety or a hundred miles, and before the week is out, and still on the same nags, to cover fifty in one day, as may be read at length in the inimitable novel of Rob Roy. And it is certainly well, though far from necessary, to avoid such croppers. But it is my contention, my superstition, if you like, that who is faithful to his map, and consults it, and draws from it his inspiration daily and hourly, gains positive support, and not mere negative immunity from accident. The tail has a root there. It grows in that soil. It has a spine of its own behind the words. Whether if the country be real, and he has walked every foot of it, and knows every milestone, but even with imaginary places, he will do well in the beginning to provide a map. As he studies it, relations will appear that he had not thought upon. He will discover obvious, though unsuspected, shortcuts and footprints for his messengers. And even when a map is not all the plot, as it was in Treasure Island, it will be found to be a mine of suggestion. End of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson And end of my first book by various authors


Do you ever wonder what happens when the police leave? Crime scene cleaners are private companies that handle the cleanup after the police are gone. Spalling Decon is one of the nation's largest cleanup companies handling the aftermath of homicides, suicides, decompositions, hoarding, and much more. These are our stories. We were five minutes from home doing a de-comp in an RV. Nobody has any type of information. We just got the call from the repo company that they found this kind of mattress. Found her. Oh, wow. Well, hello, everybody. We were five minutes from home. Literally, we're right up the road from our office in downtown E-board. Doing a de-comp in an RV. It's kind of weird because it doesn't smell like a typical de-comp. So we don't- nobody has any type of information. We just got the call from the repo company that they found this kind of mattress. So we're going to grab the indicator really quick and make sure that it is a de- Like, we're in here, no respirators, just because we're like- It smells like an old stagnant, like smoky RV. So it's not- we don't smell anything other than like stagnant smoke. So we're going to grab the indicator really quick and spray her up and down and make sure that this is, in fact, an actual biohazard before we suit up and we don't just need to remove them just basically in any mattress. One's going to spray. Yeah. So it, in fact, is a de-comp. It doesn't smell like a de-comp, which is the weirdest thing. I mean, we don't even know how old this is. So, I mean, it could just be indicating because it is body fluid that is a year old. You look so happy today. So it's really important because of the different types of jobs and stuff that we do from mold and biohazard to just like C. diff and things like that, that we always clean our respirators. I know you guys never see this side. We just take alcohol swabs and we literally do an awesome douching on our respirators just before we put them on so that way they're fresh and clean. I just take it, go around like this and then I also go through the inside. This is actually my third one just because they're so small and flimsy and you can see kind of how discolored they are. It's a good practice to get into after your job cleaning them and then just like, wow, you're getting ready to go into your next job and prepping and things like that. Oh, no! All done? Done. Oh, perfect. Go home. Let's go home. Let's do this. How many flies? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. First time in our life. I've never. Never. So, hold on, hold on, hold on. So for the first time ever in our life, that is all that's seeped through. I don't even know how I feel about this. If I indicate that, that looks like urine. Wow. Just like went one down one rabbit hole and they went four. Oh, yes. Pretty much went through. This is the only spot. That's where that blob was. There we go. It's only indicating just a little bit around this area. I'm going to just pull out. Don't want to lose the tools. It's such a tight space. My claustrophobia is going nuts right now. There is zero indication. Maybe a little bit. Founder. Oh, wow. Pretty sure these are x-rays. We just started to overheat a little bit. It's really hot. So we decided to take a break. We haven't the top part of the match was done. But we're starting to overheat just because it's 78 degrees here right now outside. The trailer's been sitting in the sun, so it's probably like 90 to 100 degrees. And we have our tie-back suit, so we might have only been in there for 25 minutes. I don't want to be here. I'm just kidding. I love this. So we're going to remove, resanitize the top, the spring. So we're going to slide this outside so it's not super, super tight corners. And then we'll be able to focus on the plywood as well. We just moved the mattress outside so we could breathe a little bit. This is the only spot that's left that's contaminated. So it's easier for us since we sanitize the other side to just bring it out here so we can have a little bit more maneuverability. We don't have to worry about flipping it back and forth upside down. Here, come here. Look, I'm going to cut it out because I forgot to wait because my impatience got the best to me. I'm going to be like, I'm just going to take it.  All done. Okay, we're going to throw everything else in the... I'm just kidding. So Juan's going to grab a bio bag real quick so we can put this guy in there. And then... ooh, it's crunchy. And then I'm going to cut this out on camera since I just got yelled at for being impatient. I could clean up a whole big mess. Okay, are you ready? Ready? Okay. So it's super wet for those of you that don't like the word moist like myself. There's still no idea, like there's still no odor. How long this has actually been sitting for, which is the weirdest thing.  And then it's probably been here for a little while. Other than that, we have no idea on anything else. I'd buy it and place the mattress and be good. I'd live in it. I was just informed that my nose is broken completely. Like, I don't smell bad things ever. This kid says why you don't do drugs. So I don't feel like it smells. I don't know if Juan feels like it smells. Hey Juan, do you think it smells inside? He don't think so. And his nose is not broken. So I'm going to stand by my word.  What is this? Yeah? Sure. They're all attached, remember Mike? Don't take us two seconds if we run into improvising. Because I forgot the generator. So we have to just improvise. Yeah, that's easy.  This is the bottom side of the plywood. There is zero bio. It didn't go all the way through. I probably did it just seep through the first layer of the plywood. And we're completely clean. So the job is completely done. We're going to go in and we're going to leave a couple of odor discs that I always have in my job box. And we out of here. Yeah, we good, we good. So before we get all stripped down and everything like that, I just spray all of our chemicals. I just spray all of our tools that we've used on the job. That way they have a few minutes to dry. We don't really have to worry about anything. Any sharp objects like this. We put back in the sheath so that way we don't get hurt by anything. This is literally what we do on every job at the end of every job. Restock anything that we need. Good thing is today we don't really, we don't need to restock anything. Just unload the bio, lock her up. And then we'll dip to go home and cook some awesome food or... Probably. Or buy Chinese food. Or buy Chinese food. Because that's kind of what I was thinking. It's like Chinese food tonight. So... Thanks for watching guys. Don't forget to like, share, subscribe, and ring that bell to be notified of the next episode. That's it guys. On to the next.


This year we've got similar things that we've had in the past we're hoping to have an antique snowmobile display again we'll have tubing horse drawn carriage rides are part of the equation again we're this year new to the thing is actually a real sculpture contest that's being put on by the arts bus and then we've got a few things also that are new one of them is called the Fars Hills which are going to be climbing hills for the kids to climb on and that also has another component that's kind of a surprise that I'll share with you more down the road so Randolph Winterfest is a little vision that was created with some communications and some discussions that are in town had this concept of trying to do some kind of winter carnival because we were talking about doing events in the community I was able to come up here with a snowcadded and I had plenty of snow to work with I was able to create the whole event you know all with all the natural snow that was here the second event 2020 we ran into a little trouble mother nature wasn't cooperating so I reached out to you know one of my friends in the ski industry who I've worked with through our events company Rainer Shine and asked him I said who's got mobile snow guns he says nothing on the east coast so I said okay great what's the cost to buy one so he ran me some numbers and he said well it's not just the gun you got to buy the pump turns out the pump is more than the gun


What's going on infinite family welcome back to another video if you guys are new to the channel Make sure you guys hit that subscribe button turn on your post notification But leave a positive comment down below for a chance to get a wha for just get a shout out in the next video That is right guys, so babe. Let her know what we doing today today We are going to fast food places and trying their holiday menu items. We about to get stuffed. Yes Yeah, this is gonna be crazy. So what spots are we hitting up? So we're going to do Starbucks McDonald and Duncan real quick guys make sure you guys hit that subscribe button and drop down below Any other food challenges you guys want to see vlogmas is not over yet. We're about halfway through We're still growing strong for vlogmas shout out to us, bro. We've been putting in a lot of work Yeah, I hope you guys are enjoying the content that we're putting out, but let's go Hi, can I have a one sugar plum cheese Danish one cranberry bliss bar? And can I get one tall apple crisp oat milk frappuccino? All right, can I get a tall peppermint white chocolate mocha frappuccino? And can I get a tall caramel brulee frappuccino? I got beef with Starbucks, bro They never have anything every time. They're like we're out of this the next time we come we're out of that next time We come we don't have this Just a lot of business. I was really excited to try the apple crisp because like I've never tried anything like that I kind of lucked out. Actually, I'm not mad anymore. What do you mean? That sounds like it'll be nasty No apple crisp frappuccino sold out that must mean it's good I mean I guess but 90% of people don't have taste nowadays. Oh, yeah, whatever. He's talking about me So we got all the items and we're going to start trying which one do you want to try first what the drinks? Yeah, I'm doing this the peppermint. This is peppermint. Yeah Now try it really just because it looks so cool Like I don't know if you guys can see that has like the chocolate like little flakes on it Yeah, that is pretty cool, but I like this one because that's a freaking a ton of caramel on it I love caramel. I'm gonna like this already. I don't even need to try it. What is that one again caramel brulee? What makes a brulee?  All right. Here we go. Cheers three two one. No, I don't know I don't know if I like it It's not bad. This has like a really interesting coffee taste. I actually do like it. You do mm-hmm. Let's try that Do you like peppermint? I do like okay, so you're gonna like that because it tastes just like that Oh my god Show them the straw it has lipstick on it. Look at that. I don't focus on that You guys probably can't tell she has just a blop of freaking. Oh my gosh.  You take your tainted straw. Your straw is tainted.  I think I'd rather do this one. I'd rather do this one really has really strong coffee flavor This one. Yeah It really does. That's why you like it because he drinks coffee every day. This tastes like um, it's a liquid peppermint Yeah It kind of like I don't know makes my stomach feel weird Yeah, but I like this I feel like this like mint chocolate chip ice cream. Mm-hmm. What is this a sugar plum Danish? Yeah, that sounds so good low key. No, it don't No, it don't all right. Let's try that one first. Okay, that's what it looks like All right, it's literally like just I don't it's a Danish with just cheese on it Oh, it is regular cheese. I thought it was cream cheese. No. Oh, that's weird Hold on. All right. How do you want to do this? Just break it in half. All right. It was slimy. That's what she said That's not hey, you know, go ahead take it. No. No, you gave me all of it. All right ready. Oh my gosh, okay? Three two one What's wrong with it? Oh What's wrong with it? Take this piece. Tell me I have everything you have that is No, you don't Bro bite this Bite this Cuz it has like, I don't know. Ew. I don't like that texture. That texture is gross. Okay. Well, I'm not a big fan of it I mean the jelly tastes good, but I don't know what that cheese is It's not regular cheese and it's not cream cheese. That's what's bothering you the cheese. Yeah, it's like it's like a Wow, like I don't know that one is the cranberry bliss bar. It does look pretty, right? All right. Oh, that's look really pretty. That's what it looks like guys.  All right. So you bite it first. How is it? It's not bad. Put back and back. I Like that that is good take a mixture between a scone and a cheesecake. Yes, that's really really good That's probably well, that's really good, right? I'm not a lot out of all the things on the menu Not just the holiday things out of all the things on the menu. That's in my like top three food items Yeah, like I would get this again. I just feel like the cranberry gives it a good like that's a nice good sweetness right there Yeah, like it's not too sweet because it like balances out with the sourness of the cranberries So that's really good. So we're done with Starbucks. That was a 10 out of 10. Yeah, definitely a 10 out of 10 But where we're going to next Duncan. Yeah, we're gonna go to Duncan We're gonna try some stuff over there some drinks and food items and then we're gonna take it to McDonald's I'm so excited for McDonald's. Me too. I'm hungry Oh man, we fat All right, guys, so we lied we said we were going to go to uh, Duncan donuts We're actually at McDonald's right now. So uh, forgive us, but it was closer. Hi, can I get the Christmas family box? You mean the 40 nuggets and it's a lot of fries? Yeah, whatever the box comes with that family Okay, the 40 nuggets and it's a lot of fries. All right, what else? Uh, sweet and sour and honey mustard Okay, what else can I get for you? The does that come with drinks or no? No. All right, can I get a medium sprite with that? Okay, ask him is that the one with the pies and the Big Macs? And can I get uh, two holiday pies? So apple pies? Yeah, the holiday ones. Those are it, right? Yeah, it's the apple pies Okay Okay That'll be it. All right, I'm going to go to the person now. Thank you. Babe, I don't think that's right. What do you think is right? What do you think is wrong? Babe, that box is supposed to come with uh, two Big Macs, 40 piece nuggets, two fries and two pies He just said 40 nuggets. That is not the right one Um, I'll ask him. We'll be right back We went to two different McDonald's And they both told us the same thing that they don't have any Christmas box But I check online and it says that it's available everywhere So I'm confused like they had the spooky baskets So I'm assuming they should have this but they said we don't have any Christmas boxes yet She said we didn't get any yet So it's probably Florida's behind. I don't know But I don't think we're going to be able to do McDonald's Which sucks because we both really like McDonald's versus any other fast food places And I don't think anyone else is doing any like Christmas items or anything like that So we're still going to go to Duncan. So that's what we're going to go do now And we're going to try to find one more for you guys I'm going to do some research to see what we have in our area that has any holiday items and then yeah We'll get back to you on that But you got anything you want to say to them? My heart hurts right now My heart hurts too I was still going to order McDonald's like I was going to go through with their order and then Good afternoon.  That's fine Okay, do you want cream and sugar? Sure Okay, what else can I get for you?  And can I get a box of six donuts whatever holiday ones that you guys have you can just throw it in there That'll be all Thank you You're welcome He had a cranberry orange muffin. Did you see that? Cranberry orange muffin. What the heck is Christmas like about that? Orange? Yeah, orange An orange muffin that sounds nasty I think he didn't order because he was trying to avoid I didn't even see that It was right in the front. Don't be lying Bro, you have my word that I did not see that you have my word. I am not lying Geez man And guys real real quick like we've been putting in mad work for vlogmas Can you guys just do us one favor?  That's all I want Yeah, this has been this this has been a struggle This video like I'm going through rush hour traffic school just got out to and I had to go to multiple McDonald's my heart's broken because of that I know I really wanted to taste some nuggets I don't even know where I'm going after this but we got to find one more just for you guys We're gonna do it and Yeah, man, like let's say I'll talk to you guys. We're gonna get the food I don't want to talk to them Finally getting somewhere we have what is this again the cookie butter cold brew But I'm sad because they said they didn't have any cookie butter foam and you take that one Oh Stingy I was gonna show them Look, look nice right nice. You got cookie crumbles on top and I'll show you guys can see he's so greedy Man, I'm not greedy I just want to try first because you don't put your lipstick all over and this is the toasted white chocolate signature latte That looks good to it. That looks like it has a cinnamon on top. Yeah, I was gonna say that looks like a lot of cinnamon I like dunking now. I don't know I used to hate it We gotta show them what we got I was gonna do your eye. Go ahead. So we also got a box of donuts And they have all these holiday items That looks so good. So we're gonna try that. You like Dunkin Donuts donuts. Yes I like Dunkin Donuts over Starbucks period guys one fact I haven't had one of Dunkin Donuts donuts in a long time Dunkin Donuts donuts Sounds weird. All right ready ready three two What's your opinion? Um, I will say though Dunkin Donuts compared to Starbucks Dunkin Donuts puts a lot of coffee in there stuff. Yeah, no, this is this if it weren't for the cookie crumbles up top This would be way too strong for me and I like coffee Well, maybe what if you try a straw because like their syrup is at the bottom No, it's still it's just mad coffee I think that tastes like coffee that I used to get like in high school and I was like addicted to coffee Okay, I like that actually so ready. Yeah, I'm gonna try with this. Does this one taste like heavy cinnamon? No, I don't taste cinnamon at all. It tastes like a coffee light and sweet. Okay. Here we go three two one It doesn't taste it just tastes like regular coffee to me Doesn't I don't there's nothing. I don't know doesn't scream anything. I prefer that one over this one though This has like jumpy pieces at the bottom jelly. Yeah, I just feel like it tastes like really strong coffee both of them Yeah, definitely, but I mean what else is Dunkin for you know what I mean the cookie crumble one Definitely is stronger. The other one is more on the sweet side.  Yeah, really? I like Dunkin's like chocolate munchkins. Is it the same? It's just not glazed the munchkins are glazed that has chocolate frosting But I don't like regular doughnuts Well, then sweetie, I don't know. Well, it doesn't matter. Honestly, I'm not eating the whole thing So I'm going to go ahead and try a strawberry one because I've never had a strawberry one with sprinkles Really? Yeah, who is making all that noise because I'll start revving my car right now. Oh my gosh All right, so I'm going to try this one first All right, ready. You're just gonna bite it. Yeah, man.  Maybe ready I can see why I didn't get strawberry why I never got strawberry. I'm not a fan of it I'm a chocolate person. This is dry Well done. It is It's good though. It's good, but I don't prefer I don't know. Let me try a piece For you to eat the whole thing. No, that's too big I like this one. Yeah, good. I just don't prefer I'm not gonna try the other frostings. I've tried those before. Yeah, but we're trying it on camera That's the point. These are holiday ones. They have sprinkles. Maybe I tried that one before though Babe, it doesn't matter. This is for the video. I can't act like I didn't have that all right I'm gonna act like I've never had these. Okay, so you try them. Okay, fine I'm gonna act like I never tried this before. Okay, guys. It's a vanilla donut. Ready? Yeah, but the sprinkles are different. Wow. Oh my That's so good That's so good I like this one. It was the best donut I ever had Sorry, I'm gonna be choking. I didn't even do nothing. That's why you're choking karma All right, that's good though. I'm gonna try the last one because I never had chocolate either I don't really go to Duncan like that if I do I'd be trying to put you on a Duncan, but you don't want it. It's for munchkins only. Did you just say Duncan is for munchkins only? I only go for munchkins All right, so how's that? It's good, isn't it? Come on It's okay It's okay to agree with me It's okay It's good No It's not good Really? I just think you need a much more. I like the strawberry the most Then the vanilla then the chocolate then the complete chocolate left You just don't like chocolate in general. I don't that's understandable. Yeah, but I don't know. I like the donuts strawberry one I don't prefer the drinks. Eh Starbucks got it with drinks But food items Duncan donuts will always have my heart with the food items food. Yes, but not donuts All right, so you want to tell them what we have next what you set up? No, we gotta show them when we get there All right All right, babe. Give the infinite fam their Christmas box. All right. This is so heavy. That is a really big box Like that's big. All right. So the closest place to us was pizza hut It was the only place I was offering like holiday stuff Like it was either that or mcdonald's and mcdonald's is on some dumb stuff right now So this has three things in it. I'm not sure what's in here, honestly Um, he asked me what piece of toppings I wanted and I just said pepperoni for him And then I said plain for me. So I don't know they look whole medium. All right. Hold on. That's hot. Yeah, like really hot I got something for that. Hold on I thought I had something for that. I don't all right. So then what are we gonna do? All right, open it up Let's see what it is first of all. All right. So oh my god. It's this hot. All right, so I'll hold it You open it up. This is number one Oh That is pepperoni pizza that looks delicious. All right. All right. What's in the other boxes? I'm about to dog We'll have to close it before he starts salivating. Oh, please close that box What you oh, that's right. You don't like the feeling of cardboard. Oh my god. I'm getting such bad fringes right now Okay, what's next next one Is this one? Another medium pie. So I think this is plain cheese. Yep. That's a plain Bro, that looks like the Chuck E cheese. Oh my god That looks like Chuck E cheese. This the pizza had by us in jersey was not like this. It wasn't oh my god Oh, everything's better in florida except the drivers. I'm like y'all can't drive out here All right. So the last one I'm curious about here take that. All right. What is this last one guys? Do you see like me stacking the pizza boxes? This looks crazy. All right, ready? All right. What's this one? Oh, look at that. Do you smell that? Look at that. Wait, what is this this part? Is that breadsticks, but it's like with parmesan guys screw the breadsticks. Look at this. That's oh my gosh Baby, what's this remind you of all right? All right, so we're not gonna lie and sit here like we never had pizza before Okay, however, we've never tried the I don't think I've tried those breadsticks and those cinnamon's from pizza So I think we should have a little slice first And then go ahead and try that because the pizza looks different over here. I give it that I know I just don't know which one I want. I don't know if I want pepperoni or plain because the plain is really good Like you gotta do pepperoni man. You gotta do Come on, bro. All right, you know what? I give it to you because the plain does look like like chunky cheese Exactly. I want the plain one All right, babe. Go ahead. Take a slice. Take a plain slice.  Oh, this looks oh wow, okay. Let me know. Yeah. Yeah, let me know how it is Is it better than like in jersey like how it looks? Oh, look at that cheese. Oh my god. God. I'm so jealous right now. Like I'm my mouth is watering Bro, this is so good. No, I'm so jealous Give me this what you want. You taking the whole pie. Yep You didn't take the whole pie. Ask me if I care. I'm gonna take the pepperoni bar. This is so good guys All right, let me see you covering the whole infinite fan man. It's a big box. What do you want?  Thank you Jesus. Wow, you know whoever invented pizza Shout out to the italians, right? We love you They kept it really hot for us too We're gonna finish this up and then we're gonna get to the center buns Go ahead. You take the first one. Wait, we're not gonna try the breadstick first Man, I guess if you want to do that first, we'll break it in half. I'll hold it. Go ahead. Don't you gotta do it? Can you break it in half? Do you want the sauce? Nah, no, I like dry stuff of course Can't believe feed me babe. Seriously, I'm holding the box How's that? Oh my god, it's good. The flavor on that Give me another bite Damn, take my finger. Damn. All right, ready? The flavor on that bro That good stuff right there. That's garlic parmesan, baby You shouldn't have told me that Now he doesn't eat garlic parmesan. I eat garlic, not parmesan. No, but do you see how good this is? It is but now you told me it's parmesan. Now I'm not gonna like it. That's amazing That was actually nasty. Now that I think about it. Whatever. See, he's such a hater All right. Now send him in roll. Go ahead. Yo, oh my god.  Do you like it? Oh my god. I don't know. I'm Are cinnamon rolls really that good? Mm-hmm. That's fire. It is warm too. I need some milk You don't like it, right? I know you so well. You don't like it. I know you I know you so well. It tastes like a honey bun. It does not taste like no honey bun Yes, it do. No, it don't. It tastes like cinnamon And I don't like cinnamon. Yeah, I don't know about this one. Okay, that was good. That was good Okay, so now you guys are probably thinking like what are they gonna do with all that food? I'm gonna eat it. Best believe in Janice will tell you I'm gonna eat it. So what we're gonna do is Isaiah's grandfather staying with us. So he's going to assist in us eating. He'll probably take one pie I'll probably take another pie and then we'll probably split the other desserts. Seriously, but um, go ahead, babe Get yourself settled then we'll close this out. All right guys. So that is it for today's video We hope you guys enjoyed it. It was a little hectic. I'm like, I like it was a little stressful trying to drive to this McDonald's that McDonald's and then they tell us that we don't got this we don't got that and I don't want to get into we're gonna keep it positive. All right So with all that being said, it is the end of the video and if you guys enjoyed it Like I said, make sure you guys smash that thumbs up button Comment down below any other food challenges you want to see it is not time for today's post notification shout out Today's post notification shout out goes out to a mod a reef. Thank you so much for your love and support Isan, I love you if you want a post notification shout out Oh, you gotta do is like comment share and subscribe turn on your post notification bell So you notify whenever we post a new video and with all that being said we will catch you in the next vlog this video I want another slice


In October of last year, my best friend Dan was hunting for a job. He'd arrive at my second-story flat each morning to borrow a suit. I'd open the door to see his lopsided grin, his shock of unkempt hair, and put on some toast while he got ready. We'd sit at my skinny, laid kitchen table that he accompanied me on the Ikea trip to buy and chat about his options. The thing about Dan was that he didn't know what he wanted to be. A fairly normal problem that made for a fairly hectic job search. Sometimes we'd do mock-up interviews over a coffee in the morning. He'd look at me, trying his best to seem professional, with his tie undone and collar unbuttoned, chewing on some buttered toast. His responses were quick and sharp, but always seemed to lack some sort of enthusiasm. I'm sure that's why he struggled for so long, being unemployed. Who'd hire someone who clearly didn't want the job they were interviewing for? Nevertheless, he showed up day after day, week after week. His resolve never wavered. He might not have wanted to work, but he knew he needed to. I think his landlord was starting to breathe down his neck a bit with late rent, but he never spoke properly to me about that. It was always too serious for us, or too off-topic when he was trying to get into an interview mindset. Dan was human. It took a toll whether he liked it or not. I can see in my mind's eye how tired he was in those last few months, how he was losing hope, losing hope, but never his resolve. He kept trying, on and on. He told me when I asked how he could keep going after nothing but rejection, that something his father once told him played in his head every time he didn't hear back. It had been when his father had been going through a similar period of unemployment and had gone to the job center day after day, as doggedly as his son was now. Dan had asked a similar question to the one I'd asked him. How can you go on trying, dad? Well, son, the way I see it, if I've put in all this time and then choose to give up, how will I ever know if I was one try away from getting it? I can't put my efforts to waste like that in a good conscience. When Dan told me that, I'd nearly laughed, I could see so much of the man he described sitting right across from me.  He'd put his plate in the sink and walk out. Little did I know that would be the last time I ever saw my friend. A few hours later, he'd call me, excited as I'd ever heard him. You'll never guess what. I got hired. What for? I'd replied, barely able to keep the surprise from my voice. It's a dream job. He replied happily. I'll send you the details. I gotta go. I'm getting on the train. I'll see you soon. A job listing appeared in my email inbox moments after he'd hung up. And that was it. I never got so much as another message from him. When he didn't show up for a couple of days, I was upset.  That lousy bastard's taken his time, I told myself. After about a week, I started to worry. I called him daily, more often as time went on. I called his family, who said they hadn't heard from him either, but hadn't begun to worry yet. After that phone call, I'd taken the train down to his flat. It was a journey I hadn't done in a while. He'd been coming to me for so long that I guess it just hadn't happened that way for a while. When I arrived, I grabbed a coffee from the little shop in the station. The girl behind the counter was cute, long blonde hair, big eyes. I smiled at her, my mind emerging from the worries that had been drowning in for weeks. In a moment of clarity, I asked her if she recognized a photo of Dan that had been my phone wallpaper for years. A picture of us with our arms around each other beside the lake that ran alongside our hometown. She'd said yes, but unsurprisingly she hadn't seen him for weeks either. As I made my way towards his building, my body started to ignore me as if it didn't want to know the truth about whether Dan was okay. It felt like my blood started to freeze. I wanted nothing more than to stop moving, to sit here, tell myself I'd done everything I could and just turn around. I plowed on. A neighbor let me into his flat. It wasn't hard to convince her. She remembered me from a visit long ago and she herself had begun to worry about him having not seen him for so long. She led me in and I heard her gasp before I saw the scene before us myself. The rooms, not too large but not tiny considering how much rent cost those days, were completely empty. There was nothing. We walked through each of them, praying to see at least a remnant of the man we both knew. But there was nothing. Or almost nothing, I should say. It was her that saw it. In what was his bedroom, there were built-in wardrobes across one wall. Each of them were thrown wide open and were empty, but one. In the last one, closest to the wall, hung up neatly on two separate hangers, was my suit. I walked back to the station in a haze. The neighbor had asked me to come in for a drink, but I had hurriedly excused myself and practically ran for the train. I even forgot to see if the girl in the coffee shop was there. I'd meant to update her. She'd been interested after hearing my questions. Oh well, too late now. On the train, my phone buzzed. It wasn't a new message, but an old one that I hadn't thought necessary to open. It was the job listing that Dan had got. I clicked on it. Under the big green box that read, post-filled, it said, looking for a young person with good communication skills willing to work long hours, was the tagline. The skills it asked for were all fairly standard, confidence, teamwork, things that had been on thousands of applications across time. I kept scrolling, hoping for some clue as to where he was, who he was with. Not there at the bottom was a line that made my blood run cold. Must not have any close friends, family, or other acquaintances who might bother you in times of low communication. Neighbors or similar will be questioned. What an odd line. I couldn't imagine why having those things could be a bad thing, but I was damn certain it was bad that they didn't want you to have them. That was enough for me to make my first call to the police. Of course they found nothing, and no reason for concern. A man's allowed to up and leave if the fancy takes him without an intentional manhunt, one detective told me after an interview. But I knew something was wrong. A few nights ago, after another frustrating police interaction, I went back to the listing. I was laying in bed on my phone, desperate to find another lead to check to find him. What I did see surprised me. At the top of the page where it had read post-filled, it now read vacancy in a big red box. I suppose the sensible thing to do would have been to ignore it. But I was desperate to know anything. I just wanted an answer. I clicked the button, and I applied. The moment I did, my lamp flicked off. So did my phone. My room was completely black, even the moon seemed to be blotted out. It was the most intense darkness I'd ever felt. I didn't have time to concentrate on that though, because I could hear something, sense something in the room with me. I could hear it move around. Once I felt it touch me through the duvet I've been hiding under, it's been days now. At least I know what happened to Dan.