And Mr. Bartle, a tale well calculated to keep you in... Suspense. He could all begun so harmlessly, that's the devil of it. You see, I'm a widower. My daughter Diana was happily married, and I'd been living alone for the last eight years. It wasn't exactly an ideal existence, but I wasn't unhappy either. There was my job with Hickston and Trosebury. I was a senior bookkeeper now. And of course at home there was my garden. I remember it was a Sunday, and Diana had unexpectedly come by for a little visit. How do you like this one dear? Isn't she lovely? Going to be champion this year. We might even take best in the show. Miss hybrid tea and I? I'm sure you will. Father, I came over because, well, and I have been sort of discussing it lately about your retirement next year. Oh? We've been wondering if you've decided what you're going to do with yourself. Of course you can always come and live with us, but... Oh no, my dear, that's awfully good of you, but I wouldn't think of it. Two's company, you know. Besides, it just wouldn't seem natural not having my garden. But you can't garden all the time, Father, and without your job to occupy you, well, you might find it getting a little bit lonely. What about a companion, Father, marrying again? Marrying? Yes, you probably know it doesn't eligible women if you'd let yourself think about it. Really, Diana? Who would want to marry me? Anybody would and be happy to. Will you think about it, Father? No reason on earth why you shouldn't. Well, I really don't know. If you want me to, I suppose it won't hurt to think about it. That's all. Thought of preparation for retirement. Remember, Two's company. Diana was quite right. But marrying again? However, I promised Diana I'd at least think about it. I found myself still thinking as I walked down to my train the next morning. Morning, Mr. Bottle. Hmm? Oh, Constable Wiggins. You let me get into the station down this street, Mr. Bottle. You're going the wrong way, sir. Wrong way? Why so I am? First time I've seen you turn the wrong way in 15 years. Everything all right, sir. Nothing wrong with those lovely flowers of yours, are you? Oh, no, it's nothing like that. There comes your train now, sir. Better hurry along. My train? Yes. Thank you, Constable. I rode into London still dutifully thinking and left the station walking my usual route to the office. Having done it every day for the last 25 years, the process was quite automatic. I was just crossing Shopsbury Avenue when... You all right? I think so. Let me help you out. There we are. You sure you're all right? Yes. Thank you very much. I'm most terribly grateful, Miss... Mrs. Magwitch. Ethel Magwitch. Mrs. Magwitch, I...  Now, you sure you're all right? We shouldn't try our wings too soon. Shock you, though. My office is just around the corner, you see. Fixed in in Shrewsbury. Fixed in in Shrewsbury? Why, of course, I should have guessed you'd be with a final firm like that. You're so distinguished-looking, you must be the office manager. No, nothing like that. I'm merely a senior bookkeeper. Senior bookkeeper? Well, I just knew it was something important. Your wife must be awfully proud. Well, no. That is, I'm a widower. Now, isn't that a coincidence and myself a widow? So the faithful, like you might say. Yes. Well, thank you again if you'll excuse me.  It's Bottle. Elden Bottle. Elden? Oh, such a nice name and so the theme. If there's ever anything I can do for you, Mrs. Magwitch. Oh, why, that's perfectly sweet, Elden. Why don't we just have lunch together? Lunch? Well, really, Mrs. Magwitch.   I'll be waiting outside 6th St and the Shrewsbury at noon. Now, tell me all about yourself, Elden. You hardly said a word. Well, I don't think there's much to tell. Now, you're just being modest, but I can tell. There's a certain dash about you, Elden. You're just imagining. What was the first thing I noticed? He doesn't want to cry. You live here in the city? No, in Watford. Oh, in Watford? Oh, I do. When are you living out there in the country away from the dirt and the grime? It's just a bit of heaven. I know it. Yes, I find it quite pleasant. Oh, it's such a lonely life living alone in the city. You've no idea, Elden. Ever since Mr. Magwitch passed on, it's been lonely, lonely, lonely. In fact, I wouldn't tell this to just anyone, but there's been times when I thought I'd do away with myself. Oh, I'm dreadfully sorry, Mrs. Magwitch. Yes, but I've hung on. Something inside kept saying, hang on, Ethel Magwitch. You're going to meet someone with a certain dash one day, someone who needs you, and you'll both be happy forever after. Elden, do you believe in fate? Fate?  Don't you see? Fate's knotted us together, dear Elden, with mystic hands. We couldn't escape now if we wanted. No, Mrs. Magwitch, I don't think that... I mean, fate... Well, all that's happened is... Exactly, I knew you'd see it. Oh, Elden, I can't tell you how happy I am. Please, Mrs. Magwitch, I... No, I look at the time. Oh, it's just flown back to work now, dear. Tomorrow, dear Elden, I'll be waiting right outside at noon. I've never been sure which hit me that day, the car or Mrs. Magwitch. The next noon, she was waiting faithfully outside the office and we went to lunch again. I knew perfectly well what she was aiming at, but she was like an express train bearing down on me and I was powerless to get out of the way. The days that followed are quite hazy. I don't even recall proposing, but I must have some way or other because suddenly, we were married. Immediately after that, I had an inkling how life with my new companion was going to be.  Small. That's what I think, Elden. Not at all what you led me to believe. Oh, I'm sorry. I've always thought it quite roomy. Margaret and I were... This furniture's helped us too. What's outside those doors? Oh, they lead to the garden. Come along, I'll show you. I was saving the best for last. There you are, my dear. Oh, Elden. Yes, I thought you'd be surprised. There's something about flowers. My happiest hours have been in this garden. The biggest waste of property I ever saw. A waste of time and property, that's what it is. Mucking about in the dirt for a lot of coloured weeds. You don't like flowers? Not at all? You might as well know it now, Elden. There are going to be some changes around here. I have some plans. Plans? We're not going to argue about it. We'll discuss it at the proper time.  It's lunchtime. Marriage, that is a successful marriage, is based on compromise. So I let Ethel have her chromium furniture. It was hideous. It was only the beginning, though. Our first six months were a whirlwind of changes. My clothes, musical case, everything. The only link left to my former home life was the garden. I retreated there whenever I could. One evening, I came home to another surprise. Oh, Charlie. No, you don't mean it. Now, this is really funny. Ethel? Oh, so you're home. We'll just look who's here, Elden. Charlie. So this is Elden, eh? Hello, Dad. Dad? You mean this is your son? Well, of course he's my son. What's the matter with you? I told you about Charlie. Don't you remember? Sorry, my dear, but I'm afraid I don't. Elden, I distinctly told you about Charlie. You've tried to embarrass me. Now, calm yourself, Mum. It's nothing to get in a row about. I'm here, that's all that matters to Dad. Isn't it, Dad? Well, yes, of course. Of course.  We're celebrating dear Charlie's release, Elden. Release? Eh, from the Navy, that's what Mum means. Don't you, Mum? Navy? Oh, yes, of course, that's what I mean. How about a nip for you, Dad? Ah, say one. Oh, thank you. I don't drink. Don't drink? That's right, Charlie. Most ordinary little man you ever saw. Well, now we're going to talk about Charlie. We're going to help Charlie, Elden. Oh, we are? In a business way, Dad. Now that I'm living with you, Mum thinks I ought to be doing something. A little business, all nice and legitimate. Mum told me about a plan. I think it's lovely. Plan? I told you I had plans, Elden. First time I saw this place. I just never, you mind. It's for Charlie. That's right. No sense in trouble and noodle. We get it all worked out. It's going to be a regular gold, Mum, Dad. Gold mine. Charlie and I will handle it, Elden. Yes, but I'd like to know something about it. At the proper time, Elden. Yes, my dear. Elden, you're being trying again. Now you run along out to that garden of yours. You may not have it much longer. That's right. Dad, you're going to see some big changes around here. So enjoy it while you may. Now, I was a firm believer in compromise. But it was dawning on me. I was doing more than my share. I resolved that whatever their cryptic plan, it was not going to include my garden. Since they refused to discuss it in my presence, I was forced to discover it in my own way. The opportunity came one evening a few days later as I was spraying my roses for insects. I told them, distracting them, beast. From the corner of my eye, I could see Ethel and her son by an open window in deep conversation. I moved toward the window carefully. Now, Mum, I don't think it'll be fresh that way. The bar should be over there against that wall. Well, I'm afraid that wall's a bit small for the bar, Charlie. No, we don't need a big one. Mum, with all the tables and chairs we're planning on... Well, don't forget now we're extending this room out over the garden. No sense in clamping ourselves. You're right, Mum. But any way you look at it, we're going to have the sweetest little tavern this side of Buckingham Palace. Couldn't have picked a nicer bit of property. You know your mother, Charlie, always married with an art of business. When do we inform the little gardener? You know, he might throw a bit of a fuss. Him? All right, him around the little finger. I couldn't believe my ears. There were only two words to describe my reaction. Something snapped. This monstrous express train of a woman that had crashed into my life was now aimed at my garden. Any feeling I might have had for... And I was capable of the most drastic means. Later that evening when we were alone, I gave her one last chance. Ethel, I have something to say to you. What? It's about your plan for the house. I've told you, Eldon. I'll discuss it with you at the proper time. I already know about your plan for this nice bit of property, my dear. Oh, you do. Just what have you got to say? Don't try it, my dear. You'll see now. That's exactly what I didn't want you to know. You're just not a businessman, Eldon.   I'll give you one chance, Ethel.  Either you agree to a divorce immediately, or I advise you to agree. You advise me to what? Do you, or don't you? Let me tell you something, Eldon Bottle. I love you. Try and divorce me, and I'll break every bone in your body. Then there is nothing more to say. By the way, my dear, I'll be spending tomorrow night in the city. Why? It's the annual audit of the books. I'll be working quite late, so I usually spend the night in a hotel. Otherwise I hardly get home before I have to be at work again. All right, Eldon. Business is business. Charlie's up till the end of the week, too. Oh, he is. You'll be all alone. Oh, don't worry. I'll enjoy myself.  As I left the room, I turned to look at her, seeing her for exactly what she was. A monstrous female beetle perched on a chromium chair. It was only a matter of extermination. I awoke the next morning calm and resolute. I left the house carrying my small bag of overnight things. Lying on top was my pair of sharp pointed garden shears. It was poetic in a way, but also just the sort of handy weapon an unknown housebreaker might grab up and use. As I neared the station, I made casually sure that Constable Wiggins noticed me. Morning, Mr. Vottle. Good morning, Constable. Lovely morning. Looks like you're going to spend the night out, Mr. Vottle. Oh, you mean my bag? Yes, it's my annual audit, you know. The one night I spent in London. Oh, don't tell me it's that time again already. The time certainly flies. Yes, doesn't it? Well, have a good night, sir. Thank you, Constable. I shall. The rest of my plan was simplicity itself. Proceeding to the office in my usual manner, I would immerse myself in the annual audit. At dinner time, I would check into a hotel, then return to the office and work until 9 p.m. Returning to the hotel, I would slip out the service entrance and go directly to the station. The train to Watford ran all night. With reasonable luck, I would be back in the hotel by 12. As I planned, I arrived in Watford at 10.05. There was a moon, but I cautiously kept to the side streets and made my way unseen. It was all working perfectly. I slipped into the garden and crept up to the garden door, took the shears from my inside pocket. I thought you were staying in London. What's the meaning of this? You're not a human being, Ethel.   You're going to what? Put down those clippers this instant, Elton. What do you think you're playing at? Jack the Ripper? They never caught Jack the Ripper. Did you know that, Ethel? I'll give you just five seconds. I am sorry, my dear. Elton, stop it.  I'm going to Ethel.  And for the street, the only safe place with London. It was hardly a surprise when I arrived at work the next morning and saw the police outside the building. It was useless to run, but I preferred giving myself up to Constable Wiggins. I went to a phone and called him. Oh yes, Mr. Bottle Willough. The police to pick you up. I've just seen them outside the office. It won't be necessary. I'm returning to Watford on the next train. Don't worry. I'll come right to the station. In a moment, we continue with the concluding act of... Begin both from here. We will now commence our lesson in stereophonic reproduction. Listen to the call of the spotted bill snicker on ordinary stereophonic growth. Obvious difference, what? The Columbia stereophonic system really causes all others to blush. For it is not composed of just a few separated speakers. Columbia is the originator and exclusive purveyor of stereo projection. Only Columbia fills every inch of a room with real, life-like sound. Now, when I was bird-watching with the Duchess of... But let that pass. You simply must hear the Stereo One phonograph by Columbia. Ask your Columbia phonograph dealer for a demonstration. And, chaps, portables are priced as low as $39.95. Consoles commence at $1.29.95. To make it easy on you, but the circumstances make it impossible. It's very kind, Constable, but I quite understand. Could we just get on with it? Oh, yes, sir. Your wife's still quite nervous. You know Dr. Penrose, don't you, sir? Hello, Mr. Bottle. Good morning, Doctor. You mean my wife's still here? Oh, yes, sir. Now there are two things, Mr. Bottle. Maybe you'd better explain the medical part, Doctor.  My wife? Yes, the medical name is Perinoia. Specifically, she's suffering from a fixation that you were at home last night and attacked her with a pair of garden clippers. I'm afraid it's quite severe. You mean you think? I know it's a shock, but there just isn't any other way of seeing it, Mr. Bottle. Oh, she was just wild last night, Mr. Bottle. If I didn't know you was in London, I'd have half believed her. She's that sure of it. It's a good thing it happened here in Watford where we all know you, sir. Saves you came at her saying you were Jack the Ripper. Oh, she did? Yes, she's quite convinced of the fantasy. They always are, you know. Now, I don't like mentioning commitment, but I think you'd understand when you see her. Do I have to? I think you should. This way, Mr. Bottle, we've had to keep her under restraint in one of the sails.   Well, open it, let me go. What are you waiting for? My dear, I'm so sorry. It just breaks my heart.  He came at me. Tell him, Elton. You'd better leave her now, Mr. Bottle. He came at me. He said he was Jack the Ripper. Mr. Bottle, it would be dangerous if you weren't. Yes, Doctor, I'm afraid you're right. And if you just saw in these papers, I'll call the sanitarium. It's fine. How long will it be before she's released? I don't think I can predict until another examination. Now, there is a second problem, Mr. Bottle, but I don't have to tell you now. Quite all right. Please do. I've found a circular from the Liverpool police. It seems they want a certain Ethel Magwitch for bigamy. Bigamy? It seems she buried two other chaps and did them out of their property. That's what the circular says, sir. I'm very sorry. I know it's an added shock to you, but... Oh, Mr. Bottle, maybe you better go home, sir. Yes, I think I will. My flowers need watering. Oh, Chep, those are two terrible blues, Constable. Yes, sir. But it's a funny thing, Doctor. I could have sworn I saw him smile. You've been listening to The Beatle and Mr. Bottle by Richard Tandley, included in the cast where John Gibson is Mr. Bottle and Kathleen Cordell is Ethel with Mason Adams, Patricia Baxter, Ian Martin and Guy Rapp. Two weeks from today, Room 202, another tale well calculated to keep you in. Spence on CBS Radio.


So, in the previous learning dialogues, you have gone through different multimedia principles that help you to be able to create engaging learning content for your students. Such principles include the Lydandas principle, Modalist principle, and multimedia principle. Now, in this learning dialogue, we are going to discuss about some more principles that will help you even create more engaging content for your students as well. But before we proceed with this learning dialogue, let us start with the following reflection sport. So, Mr. Joe is a baroji teacher. He has created a 15 minutes learning content for his students and he plans to use this content for his students during Fripti classroom. But whenever this content is playing, there is a background music that comes at a slow note. And Amina is one of his students who uses this content and she says that this content is okay for her to be able to learn better. However, Kavita is another student of Mr. Joe who says that this sort of background music is actually distracting her from learning better. Now, what is your opinion about Amina and Kavita?  You might have given different suggestions about the effect of the background music in Mr. Joe's class. And some of you might have said that, okay, for me, this type of music or background music is actually important because it helps me to be able to learn better in some situations. And some of you might have said that, okay, this type of content which has background music of this sort at a slow pace could be something distracting. And in some cases, I get distracted when I hear how I fall such lessons. And others might have said it differs from situations and situations depending on the type of content that you are learning and where you want to use that content itself. So now let us see what cognitive theory of multimedia learning says about the effect of background music in different contents for U.S. students to be able to learn better. Now, cognitive theory of multimedia learning says that all humans have two channels. One is used for all the information related to visual or pictorial representations, but again another channel is basically used for all audio or verbal information that you process. Now, but all these channels are actually limited in terms of capacity and therefore the more you add information to it or the more you overload it, it becomes hindrance to some process of learning that may happen in your head. And therefore in some cases, some background music may be distracting for some learners where learners get it difficult to be able to move forward as they use that content itself. So in most cases active learning occurs whenever the content is engaging and it allows this cognitive process to be able to happen in your own head. Therefore, and this is one of the mistakes that common instruction designers or e-learning content developers make to use non-related background music in such contents which becomes a hindrance to some of your students to be able to learn because in some situations this may not be a good practice in general. Therefore, we can generally say that background music may not be suitable in some situations, situations such as when the content is actually new to your new students or to your learners, but in some situations where probably the content is actually being spoken or being taught at a pace that the learner cannot be able to control or in situations where the learner cannot be able to follow the speed at which the content is being displayed. So in such cases the background music may not be actually of importance. So generally whenever we are including background music in some content it may affect the learners to be able to learn better because of the noise that comes up and because you are actually overloading your working memory. Now this brings us to a discussion about coherence principle. Coherence principle says that use less materials for your students to be able to learn better. So what do we mean by this statement is that do not include extraneous words in your content, do not use extraneous graphics in your content, but do not use extraneous sounds in your content. Always make it simple, use only less materials to be able to engage your students and be able to learn better in such situations. And this is evident in the example we have given about the effect of background music in your content. So the first rule of coherence principle states that whenever you are creating any content, whenever you are creating content for your students that involves a lot of channels, make sure that you are avoiding all these extraneous sounds that may affect the human brain or may affect the human memory to be able to work better. Because whenever you are adding extra information such as extra background music or extra sounds it actually overloads your working memory and therefore it prevents you from the process of learning better for your students or from the process of learning better whenever you are creating the content for your students. Now here is a scenario. We are talking about Mr. Joe again the same biology teacher who teaches now who is teaching about flowers. So he has created a content about flowers for his students and he wants the main objective of this content is actually to students be able to understand and identify the parts of the flowers. Now he has created the following content as you see here that the students need to go through and be able to learn and understand about the parts of the flower. Now take a moment, take a few seconds, look into this image here and then think of what is wrong with this particular image that you see on this side. So as you can see this image is full of text. You can see that it has a lot of text on the left side of the image but again you have the flower being put on the left side of the image. So this amount of information or text becomes a little bit cumbersome for students to be able to follow to be able to learn better and this is actually what you call the second rule of the Quarellis principle which states that avoid extraneous words to any learning content that your students need to undergo. Now if we look into this image here we can be able to see that all the text that has been there in the previous image have been reduced in the sense that students can now be able to learn better and you can see that the flower itself has different parts that are shown and each part has been labeled by a little bit of a diagram and a little bit of details and again in this way we can also therefore be able to reduce the amount of text that has been shown in the previous image to this new image and this makes easier for lenas to be able to follow up the lesson much more easier and it allows the lena to be able to pay attention to all the details of the flowers as it is shown. In this case therefore you allow your lenas to be able to learn better. So this is an example where the principle of Quarellis has been applied on rule number two which says that always avoid extraneous words into your content so that your students can be able to learn better and digest better the information that is put on that particular image. Now let us look into another example where we speak about Mr. James who is a physics teacher now. So Mr. James is a physics teacher who prepares a lesson about light bulbs. His main objective for his students is actually to be able to identify the parts of a bulb and then be able to locate them and then look into this picture here and take a moment think of the picture and image and then think of what is wrong with this particular image here. Now if you look into the image you see that the image consists of two parts. One has a picture of Thomas Edson who is the inventor of the bulb and the other part has a picture of the bulb itself with different parts. Now if you look into the objective of this lesson we see that the objective of this lesson was actually to allow students to be able to identify the different parts of the bulb. Now there is an extra graphic that has been added this picture of Thomas Edson which was not important to be put in this particular image here. So adding such information or such details or such graphics into a lesson may hinder the process by which your students can be able to learn because it actually adds a load to your cognitive capacity and therefore overloading of your memory may lead to less learning and therefore preventing the learner to be able to learn. This is actually rule number three of Coherence Principle which says that always avoid multimedia lessons that have extraneous graphics. So omit all graphics that is not important to be put to be part of your lesson so that learners can be able to grasp the information that is required at one time allowing them to be able to follow the lesson in a much easier way of learning. So now look into the following image and see the difference. So if you look into this image here it shows therefore that we have removed the image of Thomas Edson it only remains the image of a bulb and its part. So in this case it becomes much more easier for the learner to be able to follow because you can be able to see that it's much more clear and less information and less graphics which makes it easier for the learner to be able to follow the lesson. So and this enhances the ability to be able to learn better which implies therefore that cognitive load or your cognitive processes are not overloaded by the information or the graphics that's put and this is how Coherence Principle actually works. Now these are the takeaways from this particular Coherence Principle. So in all cases whenever you're creating your content you are creating alien content for your students or for many applications. Remember always to be able to avoid extraneous information into that content. Do not involve too much of graphics in your content. Do not involve too much of words and text into your content. Do not involve too much of sounds or background music into your content because all these can be able to overload your memory, your working memory which implies therefore that learning may be affecting your process. So always remember to avoid these information that you're putting and always remember to make sure that you are not including any unnecessary material because the principle of Coherence says that use less materials for better learning and therefore avoiding all these materials or content that you add enhances your learning for your students and this makes it much more easier for them to be able to understand the content easier. So generally whenever we are adding these contents extra materials we could be able to see that first of all it brings destruction to your students they are not concentrating on the content and therefore they have to switch here and there looking to all the information that is put on that requirement. But again these extra information that we are putting may be distracting in a way that your students may not be able to learn better or build appropriate connections to the previous knowledge to the current knowledge and therefore in such a way and in such cases try to avoid these extraneous materials as much as possible. Then again in some cases this content that we are adding as extraneous materials may also bring about the concept what you call seduction which is something that is climbing inappropriate existing knowledge by your student bringing them to be able to connect to what they are actually seeing. For instance when you see that image of a bulb students could start thinking of other things that are not connected to this content and therefore making it much more complicated for them to be able to learn and connect to what they are actually learning in this process or in this lesson that is existing at this particular time. That's all about this lesson in the next lesson we are also going to discuss about other principles like segmenting principle and also personalization principle.


Hey everyone, welcome to the city of Columbia, my hometown. So I am a native. I'm always excited to share that fact. And I have to go off script a minute because looking at the pictures from 1994, Irene and Matt, I was a college co-ed pledging my sorority in the spring of 94 at the University of South Carolina having a really good time. And who knew that I would end up going to law school here, stayed here for that. The law school did not look like the picture that you saw. So that's another fundamental thing that shows all the change, all the growth, all of the building that has occurred since my time growing up in Columbia in a suburb of Columbia, but chose to stay here. And I know that you will hear me recommend talk a lot about what that means, that impact and retaining talent and maybe not growing up here but keeping people here like he chose to stay here when he was in school at the University of South Carolina as well. So that was a good little memory moment for me. So thank you, Matt and Irene. And thanks to all of the participants who've come here today from Georgia to Maine is what I was told. Again, I'm Teresa Wilson, the city manager for the city of Columbia. And we are here to welcome you. We want you to enjoy yourselves. I heard you had some great tours, some of you did today to see all of the wonderful things happening in our city. We're here to share the information and learn, continue to learn so that we can continue to improve and grow. I hope the information that you gather and the relationships that you're able to build during this three-day conference strengthens your knowledge of the industry and guides you to do great things in the future. And in turn, I hope you come back to the city of Columbia to be a part of all the great things again that are happening right here, right now, and in our near future. One of those great things is a new mayor, my friend, Daniel Rickerman, who brings a new energy and a new focus on development. We want everyone to know. And he will talk about this as his brand, his language. And he is the most energetic person that I see be bopping up and down city halls. Sometimes I'm in my office, and he'll come in, because I see it in his eyes. He's having another idea. And I'm like, hey, I didn't get this word done. Here he comes. But he's back and forth across the hall, because he's just so excited about the possibilities. But he's going to tell you that we are open. That is something that he says a lot. He means it. That was the brand he wanted, the tagline he wanted that from day one. Mayor Rickerman is a longtime resident of Columbia, South Carolina. Once he attended school here at the University of South Carolina, he fell in love with this city. And it really changed his life. He found his bride, Dr. Laura Rickerman, a wonderful person and friend. And they never left. They decided to start their family here. They have two beautiful daughters. And they started their businesses. She started her practice here in Columbia. And it led to even more opportunities in our ever-growing business community for them. Mayor Rickerman has served on city council twice before becoming mayor this year. Previously, he represented the city in an at-large role and more recently in his home district, District 4 here in Columbia. Mayor Rickerman has always been an advocate for business, owners, and the business community. He has a passion for economic development and wants Columbia to develop, grow, and to continue to retain and attract, as I said, the best and the brightest in every community of our city. I'm seeing with him of late and in our discussions, his passion, not just to continue his focus on economic development, but to push that towards true community development initiatives as well. You will sense his excitement, as I said, and his energy when you hear him speak. And with that, I give you the 45th mayor of the city of Columbia, South Carolina, Mayor Daniel J. Rickerman. Well, welcome. Come on, y'all can do better than that. Y'all have some coffee, come on, let's welcome. I gotta get some formalities out of the way. First of all, I wanna welcome each and every one of you on behalf of the city of Columbia. All my fellow council members excited to have you here. I do wanna find out the person who's here from Maine because we have this thing in the south, you're supposed to bring something, and I've been looking for lobster rolls all day long, and I haven't seen them yet at my office. But I did wanna thank y'all all for being here today and being part of this in here, especially in Columbia, South Carolina. This is an exciting time for us. I'm excited about the opportunities we have before us. You know, as a capital city that has struggled with growth, we're really excited about the opportunities and the excitement that came along and people in-engage in being part of the process. You know, we know the southeast is the fastest growing region in America, but we wanna grow healthy, we wanna grow smart. We wanna bring jobs, we wanna create wealth, we wanna lift up every corner, every part of our community. But we have to do that with smart growth. We have to think as we move forward and how we plan and how we move forward and adapt with each one of those situations. You know, investment in our community means that we end up with better roads, better infrastructure, connectivity, but most of all, better schools as well. Here in Columbia, as the city managers, I've embraced openness. Openness to me is the key to everything that we're moving forward. We're open for business was our tagline, but we're really open for collaboration. We're open for ideas. We're open up for investment, and we wanna be open arms for anybody who wants to locate or be part of that. And part of that is helping us get over the struggles that we've had and the hurdles that we have. We're trying to be transparent. You know, we're identifying our problems. We're talking about them, but we're also talking about how we see there are resolutions to that, but also harvesting and using our community. We're embracing. We're in a city right now, like most cities, which is having employment issues, but we also realize that we have an incredible opportunity to embrace small businesses, to fill those gaps and grow those businesses. So what a better way for us to grow a business, make an investment, but also solve a problem for our customers, which we've learned that our constituents are our customers. Most importantly, we're open to new ideas. Embracing collaboration and partnerships in a government town has been a struggle in the past. But right now, there's this new spirit out there. They're folks engaging. We have tech companies here looking. We're talking with our builders and our friends in economic development going, how do we fill these gaps? How do we end up growing? How do we take the hurdles out of the way? Reduce that red tape that makes it easier for people to do business. You know, we've worked with ULI in the past to come up with plans to make Columbia more connected. Past efforts have been brighter statewide discussions around identifying our problem areas, but we've talked about east to west connections between our neighborhoods and how communities that compliment each other get connected. There's discussions about proving the connectivity from the VISTA and the university to neighborhoods in the north. I think you heard Irene talk about our commitment to finish so that you could leave here one day from right here and end up at Lake Murray and then go to dinner in Lexington and then be back at your hotel room that evening with never being on a major road. That's the kind of connectivity that we're invested in. We're talking about issues broad, national panel drilling down to our problems, updating our zoning ordinances, revising our tax structure that has made us uncompetitive, but we've identified the problem. We invested in a tax study, so we know what our problem are. Now we're working together with our community partners to face that and fix that. We're moving forward. It's a new day. The neon lights on. It says we're open. We got new attitude, new energy. Part of it is an election. We have four changes in council and a seven member count city council. We have four new members in positions which has really uplifted the city and the engagement, y'all. I just, I can't begin to tell you. Every day it drives me when I wake up. Every day I get up and I've got more energy than I did the day before. It's because every phone call I make, every person that comes to visit has an idea or they wanna help. I haven't felt that in 35 years that I've lived here. And when I came to school at the University of South Carolina, I didn't plan on staying for us four years. I ended up staying here because the conditions were really right for young people. People were jobs were abundant. People were starting businesses. I think the majority of my friend group either started a business like I did or they were working here. So we had this real sense of community. I want that same opportunity for our kids and our grandkids. We're working with the contractors as we talked about working on modernizing our business regulation and our processing. But we're also really focused on how to unite and make our city stronger. And that's the engagement part. That's the connectivity. Now you heard everybody talk about Assembly Street. Well, let's talk about Marion Street. Why do we have a side street that's four lanes long? How are we connecting the businesses on one side to the other? How do we connect the historic neighborhoods of Elmwood and Cotton Town to Bull Street and everything in between? How do we make North Main the place that a young business guy or gal would like to go and invest in their business? There's not too many places in America that you can stand on Main Street, own a business as a young person and point at the state capital. We have these type of assets. We're trying to tell our story. You heard about the University of South Carolina. Well, the University of South Carolina is one of our college and institutions. We have two historic black colleges, Allen and Benedict. We have a women's college, Columbia College. We have a seminary and a Christian university. We have 60,000 plus students. You heard about Fort Jackson. That's 40,000 recruit, 45,000, excuse me, the Brigadier General corrected me yesterday, 45,000 recruits that come through there. We have almost 6,800 families that are part of the training and permanent. So between those two, you're adding 110,000 people that are here and taking part in our community. But we haven't engaged them. When I talk about engagement, it's engaging those students, using them as a tool for our growth. As a matter of fact, when I leave here today, we're announcing our Mayor's Council, an advisory group made up of students from each one of these campuses. Because one of the things that we recognize, we're losing a lot of raw talent. They're going to Charlotte. They're going to Raleigh. They're going to Greenville and Nashville and Atlanta, Lexington, Kentucky, Columbus, Ohio, all cities that have seen double digit growth. We want to engage them. We want them to have the opportunity here to be part of the process, to help us make sure we retain that talent. That we're focused in understanding what their long-term expectation is the need for them to stay here, to either start a business, be part of a business, raise a family, and be part of this community. And we can't do that without conversation. We're excited about the brightest days being ahead, folks. The staff here in Columbia is helping us move the ball forward. Since we've been here, I've only been here 45 days in Mayor's office. So I have to tell you, I'm fresh in the hot seat. As they say, I'm still drinking out of a fire hose. But every day that I come to City Hall, I have an opportunity to have a discussion with our staff and everybody's open to ideas. They're bringing things, they're embracing that we're looking at things from a different lens and an angle. That we're looking how we can uplift the community, take out the hurdles, and move things forward. It's not the way we do business anymore. Even how we recruit, we're looking at how we recruit employees differently. You know, recruiting for the job, not for the criteria. Making sure people know the benefit about working with a great city. Working under a city manager that actually cares about not only their citizens, but their employees. We've made a commitment to invest internally at the city because if our service is not good and we can't provide an easy way for people to invest and do business and have a clean, safe, investment-ready city, then we're not gonna be able to compete in the future. Look, 6% growth in the Sun Belt. Expected double-digit growth. We wanna have every part of that here in Columbia, South Carolina. And I can't thank you all for enough for coming here and choosing and being part of this because it gives us excitement because we like to show off. We don't tell our story. And so part of that theme of being open is telling our story, exposing folks to what a great quality of life we have. But we're always learning. We always wanna improve. We don't have one path. I live by the rules when given choice, take both and makes it a lot easier.  I hope you'll embrace reaching out and going to see those four corners. If it's a go to five points. Most of you who've been in college in the Southeast have been there at two in the morning. Don't lie, I know you have. Everybody knows it. Take a look at North Main and see what's going on there. Our Main Street, when I came to school here in 1988, you could bowl down Main Street on a Friday evening and nobody would be in your way. Now you can barely walk down it. This weekend we had an incredible weekend where we had not only three days of concerts, some of you widespread panic fans maybe still be here from that concert. But we also had home basketball game, we had women's basketball, college game day. We had parents here for parents weekends for various sororities and fraternities. And if you had been at Soda City, y'all saw a picture of it earlier, you've been amazed at all the people that were there embracing all the different cultures represented all the different foods, the small businesses all up and down four blocks of Main Street. This is what Columbia is about. We're going to continue to tell our story. We're going to continue to improve. We're going to continue to be open. So any ideas you have, believe it or not, my cell phone is on the website. You can call me directly. I do answer my own phone. I made it real simple because I have a 13 letter last name. My email is just plain, mayor at columbiasc.gov. I'd love to hear from you and I appreciate you being here and thank you for you organizers for setting this up. This is really exciting to be here. And I hope to see all of y'all again. We have 15 million visitors that come through Columbia, South Carolina, five million stay overnight. I'd like y'all to be part of the next five million so we can get to 10 million. Thank you.


In Belgium, NATO allies send Finland and Sweden's request to become members of the military alliance to their legislatures for approval. Russia pushes deeper into Ukraine after capturing the last Ukrainian-held city in the industrial area of Luhansk. In the U.S., police in Highland Park, Illinois arrest a suspect in a shooting Monday that killed six people and injured at least 30 during a July 4 Independence Day parade. And U.S. forces Korea announces the arrival of F-35A jets in South Korea as the allies increase joint military exercises.


I'm Tom Merritt from the Daily Tech News Show. Want to save some money? Here are the top five ways to save money on your next tech purchase.  Upgrading your old tech should be fun. You get new stuff. But if you pay full price, it's a lot less fun. Worry not though, because here I have for you the top five ways to save money on your next tech purchase. At number five, just get last year's model. When a new model of something like a phone comes out, companies know you're going to get FOMO. They play it up. They want you to want that new expensive item. But it does mean they're going to have a harder time selling the previous model. So they drop the price on that one. Now, if you do that, you forego the new features, the hot new features, of course, but you add the feature of a smug feeling of satisfaction from saving all that money. Up to number four, look for sales and discounts. I mean, I know this one seems obvious, but the trick is timing it. How do you get a sale on the thing you need when you need it? Of course, there are the big ones. If you can hold off till Black Friday, or Prime Day, or Singles Day, then you can get a discount on those days, but I don't know, maybe you need it now. Another option is to take advantage of discounts.  If you have a membership card in something, use it. Coming in at number three, buy refurbished. Don't let that word scare you. If you really want a specific model, look for the refurbished category. You can sometimes even get the current model for cheap. And don't confuse refurbished with used. A refurbished product is reconditioned or inspected to ensure it works like new by the manufacturer. And sometimes they're not even refurbished. They're new items that were never even opened, but they're not allowed to sell them as new, but they're basically new. And whether it's refurbished or not, if it's called refurbished, unlike buying used, you get a limited warranty and support. Sliding in at number two, trade in your old stuff. A lot of companies are now trying to burnish their green credentials by talking up the facts that they take trade-ins, and you get the cash. Apple, Samsung, a lot of retailers like Best Buy, they all offer the ability to get a discount off buying a new model by trading in the old one. Now, you won't get as much as if you sold it yourself on eBay or something, but you'll often get a decent discount and you don't have to go to the trouble. At number one, something called the gray market. Gray market items are just products that are sold outside of the manufacturer's approved distribution channels. Now, don't worry, it's not illegal. It's just not authorized by the manufacturer. Because of that, some manufacturers won't honor the warranty on products sold this way, so be aware of that. Or the item might have been meant for another country, so you might have to make some software or even some hardware tweaks to make sure it works in yours. Yes, I know, Grandpa, you can save the most money by just not buying something new in the first place, but if you have to or you just really want to, hopefully these tips can ease the strain on your wallet a bit. And if you want more great tech news and info, it's free. Subscribe to our channel at youtube.com slash daily tech news show, get the podcast at dailytechnewshow.com, and if you're flush with all that money you saved, you can give us a little cut of it at patreon.com slash dtns. I'll see you there.


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You can hope you can just sit in your feminine energy and hope and hope and hope and be that broken clock and get lucky a couple of times. But if you don't address the traumas and wounds and in your life, then you're not going to be prepared to. All right. So many of you know I've met somebody a month ago. And it's a long distance dynamic and most you know I can't stand long distance. So I want to share why I despise long distance. I want to share the ingredients of making a long distance work. And in the process, I'm going to share a little bit about the person I met and where we're at at this moment in time. So why do I despise long distance relationships? Now this is a number I made up because 90% of the time they are fantasies for most women versus most men. Let me repeat that. It's a fantasy for most women versus most men. Why? Most men are emotionally immature and have terrible relationship skills and they're driven by their penis. So long distance relationships offer an opportunity to build a bit of rapport with someone, fly out, drive out, fly across the country, get laid. And let me just share with you. They can love bomb in the beginning over the phone.  So these are the faults within it. So this is why I despise them.   They could be hiding something in their life and you'll never know about it. There's an easy exit plan for the guy most of the time. The easy exit plan is I can't do long distance relationship. Or worse, you could be talking and talking and talking and talking and talking and never meet. People spend years talking on the phone in long distance relationships and what they find is that they're actually in a cyber relationship and not an actual relationship. As a coach, I've had women reach out to me, Jonathan, I need help in my relationship. I go, great. They go, it's long distance. How long have you been seeing each other? Nine months. And I go, well, how often do you see each other? And a woman will say, I've never met him. I'm like, and so what's the problem in the relationship? Well, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.  That's not a relationship. That's a cyber relationship in the grown up world. For those of us who are grown up, a grown up relationship looks like this. Social activities, hobbies, mutual interest, spending time with family and friends, traveling together, teamwork, building skills, both in our personal and our professional lives. Intimacy, both physical and emotional intimacy, leading towards either moving in together, getting married or something. That's a real relationship. Thank you, team. Really quickly. I want to thank that super sticker for $20. I appreciate it. So I've met someone. Now let me give you a little bit of the backstory. We met online literally 364 days before we actually met. She happened to be in Los Angeles. She lives in Chicago. She happened to be in. She said, I have a daughter lives in Los Angeles and I'm thinking about moving out to be with my daughter. So I was searching. This is match.com. And I was searching and I came across your profile and I loved what you said. Your profile had so much depth.  But we ended up getting on the phone and we talked on the phone. She's going to kill me for saying this now. And I didn't like our first phone conversation. You know, to spare her, I won't tell you why, but I didn't like it. So I reached her. So she reached out to me about 10 days later. This is again a year ago. And she said, hey, how's it going, blah, blah, blah. And I said, I'm going to be candid with you. I didn't like our first phone conversation for these reasons. And what happened next impressed me. She said, I've heard that before. So she, I was, I felt safe enough to tell her. And she didn't get triggered by me being honest with her, or at least my truth. So it actually led to a deeper conversation. We ended up having a four hour conversation. This was roughly a year ago. And we agreed to become Facebook friends and keep in touch. So every little once in a while, there'll be a Facebook post, I'd see her pop up, I'd send her a message. You know, we jumped on the phone a multiple times throughout the last year, maybe a half a dozen or so times, we'd have one of these conversations for a couple hours because we liked each other's profiles. And it got to the point where we were just joking. Well, if neither one of us find someone where we live, oh, and she hadn't made a plan to move to Los Angeles. So we said, if we don't find someone in six months, let's get married. It was like a joke or something like that. Well, it turns out I had a reason to go to Chicago and reached out to her and she agreed to meet me. And we went out to dinner. Great restaurant. It was one of those romantic kind of restaurants that was overlooking the river in Chicago. It was a beautiful evening that night. I got lucky. It was a perfect evening. She got a great table at the bar, high table at the bar. Minute we locked eyes.  And I share that because we had built rapport with one another. We built rapport with one another. And it was built on without an expectation. It wasn't me love bombing her.  You're so amazing. You're so amazing. There was no like future rising or anything like that. I just was meeting a friend. But with something more.  And then I invited her to the wedding I was going to. So we got to spend a little bit more time together. I found myself genuinely missing this person. I found myself appreciating this person. There was a strong bond between us. So what and I mean that initial chemical chemistry kind of bond that wasn't lust or limerence. It wasn't just that she's beautiful and attractive. There was something more. There was something like an energetic connection between us. Just for the record, I'll show a picture so you guys can all see. And here's a picture of the two of us at the wedding. Okay, you can see that. And this was our first night out. I'll just lift that up so you can see us out. She's dropped dead gorgeous. She's got a sweetheart. One of the ingredients was this strong connection. And I'm going to say there was a sexual attraction between the two of us. Number two. So we made a plan to visit again and she came and visited last weekend. That's why I've been off the grid for the last couple last five or six days. And she came to visit me to stay for a few days and I had an idea. And that was, I put, I don't know if you know what a back jack is, but it's a way to sit on the ground with like, it's like a little back support for your back. And we sat down in my living room overlooking the ocean. And we talked for 10 hours straight. We had what I call radical honesty, radical honesty. To include laying all the cards on the table. We laid all our cards on the table. We shared our values. We shared, we shared the nooks and crannies of our lives. And we just didn't do this for one day. We did this two days in a row. We just, it wasn't romantic dinners. It wasn't a bright bright on the beach. It wasn't anything fancy. We just sitting and genuinely getting to know each other warts and all the good, the bad, the ugly, the nooks and crannies. And the more we were communicating with each other, the safer and safer we began to feel. And we also leaned into our childhood wounds and traumas and our adult traumas, which includes our marriages. And we shared the pain that we experienced in our marriages. We shared the, in our, in our relationships. And I've had a half a dozen relationships in my lifetime and likewise for her. And we shared the individual challenges, taking ownership of our part in it.  We weren't blaming the other person. We were building genuine intimacy into me you see. And if you're not familiar with the book by Robert Masters, read the book Emotional Intimacy. And little by little we began feeling safer and safer. And we found each other. We found ourselves sharing some of our deepest secrets to each other. Because we felt safe because we were radically honest. We were vulnerable. We are authentic and we were transparent. And the reason why I think this might work is because we have a flexible lifestyle. She's retired. I can work from wherever I want. So we've already got our next visit planned. And we even have a trip. I mean, if it works out a trip to Mexico plan. But more importantly, we genuinely communicated our individual desire, our true desire for commitment and what commitment looks like for us. What does that look like? And so ladies, when you're speaking to guys, whether it's short distance or not, understanding what commitment looks like and what it means to a person is a critically important radical question that needs to be asked before the penis ever goes inside the vagina. And at the end, we agreed to my dating vows. And many of you know my dating vows. The dating vows go like this. We mutually said this to one another. We said, I agree to explore the process of getting to know you with the intent to declare something serious within the next three to six months. I agree to be monogamous sexually while we're having regular sex together. I agree not to actively seek to meet and date others while we're in the dating process, which includes taking down my dating profile. Again, we're mutually saying this to each other. We agree that if this isn't working, we're going to speak up instead of pulling back ghosting or disappearing. And lastly, we agree to invest regular time in the process to get to know one another. And we already find ourselves spending hours on each day talking on the phone. Folks, let me just tell you something. As a person who does spend most of his day talking on the phone professionally, the last thing I want to do is talk on the phone. And yet I find myself absolutely smitten by this person. I find myself feeling a sense of trust. I find myself with enthusiasm and I appreciate that she's showing up the same. So I want to share one more piece with you all, because the reality is, is I'm the expressive one in this relationship a little more so than her. I mean, I'm just more. That's because I've been doing this work over and over and over again. I've been reading these books like nonviolent communication by Marshall Rosenberg. I read all these books. And particularly I'm reading the book by Gary Zukoff, Spiritual Partnership. This is a great book to get into the meat and potatoes of what it takes to have genuine intimacy in the relationship. And I'm leading the process. But folks, I'm a unicorn because I do this for a living. Guys don't, they're not connected with their emotional side. So you have to lead this process to have any chance to have real intimacy. So whether it's distance or not, you need to have a strong bond right from the get go or it isn't going to work and not lust or limerence, because that's a, that's a, that's like, that's like crack cocaine. You need to have a connection beyond the physical. You need to be radically honest with one another because without it, you're not going to get to true intimacy with a partner and you need to be with an emotional grown up. She has done life spring. She's done personal development workshops. I've done the Hoffman process. I've done insight. I have over 3000 hours. I have a neuro linguistic programming certificate. I've done Reiki 3000 hours of workshops and trainings and videos. It's going to take some work to become empowered. If you need some additional help, go to the back of my book. I lay out all of the teachings right there. You can see all of the teachings I use to get to where I'm at. And I invite you to do the same because if you want to have that juicy, delicious, healthy relationship, ladies, you are the emotional leaders in container of the relationship, not the guy. You can hope, you can just sit in your feminine energy and hope and hope and hope and be that broken clock and get lucky a couple times.  And because I've done this work and she's done this work, we're in a much greater chance of success. And while I'm not a big fan of long distance, I'll be candid with you. I'll be candid with you. I kind of like it because I like my alone time too. So anyways, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. So I'll spend the last minute or two taking questions from anyone. We'll take a look at the questions. If you have a personal question to ask me about this, and again, please, I know I'm the guy that says long distance is bad and I explained why they're bad. And I also shared today why I think it's good. So we've got a question here from Ouija.