The Narcissist knows they're exploiting you.  They already know that they don't belong there. This is why they're so covert, they hide themselves.  All the while they know they're not deserving of you. They know that you are out of their league. That's why they're drawn to you. They're not drawn to people who aren't about anything. They want to be around the best of the best. People who make stuff happen, and that is why they targeted you. Because you're about something. You have power. But as you've probably already witnessed, they're not skilled to experience enough to deal with you. They just manipulated you into a relationship. They strung you along. They sold you a dream. While knowing that they could never make it a reality. While knowing that they didn't even have the means. And that is why the relationship moves to the devaluation phase so quickly. Where they're underestimating your worth and importance. And they're putting you down. Or they're treating you as though you're beneath their consideration. Because they already know that the opposite is true. They know that you're too good for them. They know that you could run circles around them. They know you could outperform them by a great margin. So then it's just all about managing your perception of them. And promising you something in the future while they're already making their exit plan. Because they already know that even if they try to accomplish something. You wouldn't be satisfied with the result. They depend on their manipulation so strongly. Because that's all they've really got. As I've said before, the best you will ever get from a narcissist is the illusion. And when you're pressing them for something else or something more. All they can do is distract you or divert your attention. Because they already know that they're out of their heads. They know that what they're doing is very strange and foolish. They've put themselves in a situation where they're extracting so much value from you. But they could never reciprocate any of that back to you. Because they've depended on their manipulation their entire lives. Where they're intended to mislead and cheat people. And they're prone to behave in an untrustworthy and fraudulent way. Where they're unjustifiably claiming or being credited with. Particular accomplishments or qualities. Where they haven't even done anything to earn it. They've never attained or achieved anything in their lives. And yet they have this arrogance and sense of entitlement as though they have a right to something. They have this belief that they are inherently deserving of privileges and special treatment. As though what you're doing for them is morally good justified or acceptable. When at some point you've just got to take a step back. And ask yourself what have they ever done for you. That makes them so deserving of what you're giving to them. Because if you look back you will realise that you've done far more for them. And that your life would probably be far greater and easier without them. Because they act as a hindrance to your progress and success. They provide resistance, delay and obstruction to you. They're not improving your life in any shape or form. If anything they're just holding you back from being a better version of yourself. Because you're giving your power away to them. You're giving them the ability to define you and make decisions for you. But they're not doing anything for you in return. They're just a leech. A freeloader. A bottom feeder. The lowest of the low. A person of the lowest status. Because they're sponging on you. They're feeding from you. They're taking advantage of your generosity without giving anything in return. But many of you make the mistake. You assume that they're not reciprocating for a reason. As though you need to be better and you need to do more for them. When in fact it's because they're incompetent and ineffective. They know that even if they try to accomplish anything you would be satisfied with the result. Because it would measure up to even a fraction of what you've been doing for them. So if they did one thing for you, you'd just be looking for the next thing. You'd be expecting something more. Which is why the only thing they can do in this situation is to not give you anything at all. And instead switch it around and act as though you owe them. Or as though something is wrong with you or you're not good enough. Which is why they never acknowledge who you are or what you've done for them. All the while they're feeding from you. They never compliment or praise you. Because otherwise you would instantly realize that you're making a big mistake by being around them in the first place. Because they're a liability. They're putting you at a disadvantage.  Someone who just talks but doesn't do anything for real. Which is why the last thing they want is for you to start estimating their value or importance. Because then you would leave. Which is not what they want. Because they need you far more than you need them. They just tricked you into believing that you need to depend on them. By exaggerating and their worth and importance while acting like you're nothing special. All the while they're taking whatever they can get from you. Which is how they're already fully aware that they're exploiting you. That's why they hide it. It's why they invalidate you.  To confuse you and make you question yourself. And this is also the reason for the smear campaign.  When you've probably done far more for them than anyone did in their entire lives. You've done more for them than they could ever do for themselves. And yet they're getting you to question your worth. Which just shows you how fake they really are. Because it's either that or they're completely delusional. But even after they've drained you of everything you have and given you nothing back in return. And they've started a smear campaign against you. Sometimes they will still try to come back. And they'll oppose as though they are separate from it. Or as though they don't know anything about it. Because they're still not satisfied with the result. They're hungry. They're wanting more. So they see this tactic as a way of them to get in and gain more from you.  Or you reject their Hoover attempts. That's when you will see just a crazy dysfunctional degree you are. Because it will trigger their court abandonment wounds. And it will trigger their abandonment anxiety. Even though they never seem to care about you while they were with you. They never talk to you.  As long as they were getting what they wanted from you. But even then they could never be satisfied. They always wanted something else or something more. But this is all just a disguise. They're not playing with a full deck. Because what they're really afraid of is having to go it alone without you. Because they don't believe that they can make it on their own. They're heavily emotionally dependent on you to regulate their emotions. They have this obsessive attachment to you. And just the thought of you moving on with the person that you are. And when you're able to start again. It really kills them inside. Because they already know that you're going to live a much better life without them. They already know that they're garbage. They already know that they're no good for you. And that's often the only reason why they're even there.  They know that by default all they can do is weigh you down. They know they're not going to be any good for you. Just look at their lives before you got involved with them. Their lives are in shambles. They're falling apart. You're like the only hope that they have left. And that's the only reason why they're with you. Because they have nowhere else to go. There may not be anyone else who wants them. So they're constantly coming around you and taking up your time. Because they've got nothing else to do with theirs. Their time is not valuable. And yet they're coming around you with no intention of building anything. And then we wonder why our lives are falling apart. Because we have a leech. A bottom feeder. The lowest of the low. Which is why they're so controlling. Because they're very insecure. They already know that they're not worth anything. So it's all about managing your perceptions of yourself and of them. It's about minimizing your worth and accomplishments while exaggerating theirs. It's about brainwashing and indoctrinating you. And making you believe things that are not true. So that you continue to keep them around. Even while they're not serving you. Even while your life is deteriorating and becoming progressively worse. But even though their mere presence is enough to burn something to the ground. They will desperately try to hold on to you. They will place financial hooks in you or they will take things from you. When it's just a desperate attempt to form an attachment. To make you think that you need them or as though you should value them. When even then they're still just doing it for themselves. They're still just doing it to get something out of you. But even then they're still not satisfied. It still isn't enough to complete them. Because they lack empathy. So they never fully attached to you. They can never fully experience you as a person. All they get is the crumbs. They only get bits and pieces of you. Which is not really what they want. Because they want to consume every inch of you. They want to become one with you. And they want you to become one with them. Where there is no difference or separation. Where the two of you are indistinguishable. Because deep down they despise themselves. They want no part of who they are. They want to own you. They want you to be an extension of them. So that they can live vicariously through you and how you see the world. Because that's far more fulfilling for them. But even if they did have you and they could fully attach to you. You wouldn't get bored. You would realize that there's nothing interesting or unique about them. You would realize that they're just a carbon copy of you. And then they would end up mistreating you and running off to someone else. Or you would likely get rid of them once you discover what you're dealing with.  They're completely undesirable. They're the worst type of people to be around. And that is why they're so obsessed with you. Because you're like a lifeline for them. You're someone they depend on. Someone who provides them with a means of escape. But they're no good for you. They're not even real people. They're missing the key components of what makes us human beings. Which is why they're so needy and desperate. They will do anything to hold on to you without ever actually connecting to you. Or bringing anything of equal value or exchange to you. You will always get the short end of the stick because they feel inferior to you. They believe that life is unfair to them. They feel like if they could just be you and live your life then everything would be okay. So they try to take bits and pieces off you. They take up your time and their energy. Which is contradictory. It doesn't fit their narrative. Because if you really dislike someone enough to devalue or discard them, you would probably want things to resolve very quickly. You wouldn't want to be around them. Yet instead they will use every trick in the book to keep you along for the ride. Where them is leading you and stringing you along. They use denial, projection, blame-shifting, gaslight and even the double binds. Whatever it takes. Because they're just a desperate person who doesn't want to let you go. Which is why they will drain you and take things from you. To keep you holding on to them for as long as possible. Or they will even put you in a situation where you've had to borrow something for them. Or they will leave things in your cart while you're home.  But all of these attempts to manipulate control and gaslight you only reveal one thing. They do not want to let you go. They need to communicate with you. They need your attention and validation. They need bits and pieces of you. Which is why they can never let you know your worth. They can't even give you a thank you. Or merely acknowledge your existence. Because they typically hate and envy the very people they're trying to emulate. In their minds it's unfair. They think they're more deserving of being you or having what you have. They always have some reason or excuse. But they actually need you far more than you ever needed them. And in fact, you never needed them. You would have been in a much better situation without them. And they know this.  Because they never had those needs met when they were children.  And so you're supposed to take care of them. Because they actually believe that it gives them power and control. When in fact the opposite is true, it makes them feel very insecure. To where they become very bitter and resentful towards you. And it actually disempowers them. It causes them to become less powerful and confident. They assume confidence in the feeling of being in control of their lives by controlling you. When it just makes them even more insecure. Because while they think they have power and authority over you, who has authority over them? Who has the power to give them orders or enforce their obedience? Since they're not even doing that for themselves. Which is how they live in a life with no purpose or direction. They have no mastery. They have no comprehensive knowledge, skill or accomplishment. There is nothing that makes them superior. It's all then in their mind. They're just sponging off other people. And it has a very damaging effect on them. It disables them. It renders them powerless. It makes them ineffective. And it's because of this belief that they have of them not being enough on their own. Because if they believed they were enough, they wouldn't need you. Or they would at least find a way to reciprocate something of equal value back to you. But they can't. Because they're insufficient. They're inadequate. And even when they start a spear campaign against you, this belief just spreads. It becomes widespread because it's contagious. And it indoctrinates people into denying themselves of their true power. Which is the power to stand alone and to be self-sufficient. Whenever you see a group of people who aren't achieving or accomplishing anything productive. And they're just picking on an individual target. It's because they believe they're not enough. That's why there's so many of them. Because they don't believe they're good enough on their own. But they believe that more people means more power. When in fact it just puts them at an even bigger disadvantage. Because all they have is more idiots, more fools, more people of low intelligence.  And further reinforce their feelings of inadequacy. Which only makes them even more obsessed and addicted. Because the last thing they're ever going to do is look themselves for the answer. They already believe that they're not enough. So why would they ever do that? They believe that whatever they're missing or deficient in is within you. So they hold on to you. As though you're this Messiah, this leader or savior of their group or cause. When at the same time they never listen to you or take your advice. It's like they're completely blind to their own actions. Because they lack self-awareness. They can't see the forest for the trees. They fail to understand or appreciate a large situational problem. Because they're only considering a few parts of it. And that is why they're eternally doomed. Accountability is the key to our success. Which is why we tend to discipline our children. Because we know that a lack of accountability and discipline will not lead them anywhere good. And it's the same thing for these narcissists. They will hold on to their flying monkeys and enablers for as long as they can. But it will always get them in the end. They have no empathy or compassion for other people.  Because if they even cared about their own people. They would never use them to do their bidding. They would recognize that they're just tearing communities apart. They're subjecting and disposing them to unnatural situations. Where they resort to manipulation and gaslighting. Because something is eating away at them. They're very miserable. And this isn't something that just took place with you. It's not something that happened overnight. They were already that way to begin with. They just knew how to hide it and pretend to be normal. But they find these groups. Because they feel like they're not enough on the road. That's what it comes down to. They feel inadequate and defective. They feel insecure. And then looking outside of themselves for tools that feel superior and all powerful. Which just ends up being a breeding ground for narcissism and even psychopathy. To where people are just doing anything they can to feel like they aren't enough. They're more than enough. When they're never actually doing anything productive. They're just feeding off their target. Which just nurtures their narcissism even more. Because it's encouraging every trait of NPD in the DSM-5. And this isn't just in smear campaigns or gang stalking. This is something that's being pushed on the youth. Through television and movies, social media and deep denapsed. People are being encouraged to present a false version of themselves. To evoke attention and aberration.  Which in the end only ends up disempowering themselves. Narcissism is not empowerment. It's disempowerment. It only leads to destruction. It may momentarily give them the opportunity to influence other people's behavior and the cause of events. But what about their behavior? What about their future? Where is that going to lead them? If they've already assumed that their power comes from controlling people outside of them. Which is why narcissists typically end up lonely and miserable. They're dissatisfied with their lives. They never find what they're looking for. It's as though they're just waiting for someone to save them. But nowhere ever does. Because narcissism typically attracts other narcissists. So they're surrounded by people who are just like them. And their target wants nothing to do with them. And it's just a very lonely existence. Because they can't generate their power or energy from within. They end up chasing after a target who doesn't even want them. Someone who doesn't even know that they exist. And yet they know everything that there is to know about them. When their target is just going in the opposite direction they're just trying to get away. But narcissists are so insecure that they will often end up deluding themselves into thinking that their target wants them. And that's when they get obsessed. They become stalkers because you're like their lifeline. After everything has been destroyed.  Thank you for watching. If you found this video helpful please give it a thumbs up. Share your thoughts in the comment section. Hit the subscribe button to receive the notifications. If you would like to support the channel you can donate at payable.me.srsnarks.viva. You can book a one-on-one with me on my website. It's Narks.viva.co.uk. Thank you for watching and I'll talk to you soon.


Zyndrain International Samuel Chouquez was on target for Villareal as the visitors trashed Switzerland's young boys 4-1 in their Champions League group stage. Jeremy Pino and Gerard Moreno scored early goals for Villareal as they claimed a first Champions League group stage win in 13 years when in 4-1 in a thrilling game at the Wankdorf stadium on Wednesday. The Group F victory moved the Spanish side into third in the standing points or rather on 4 points from three games behind leaders Manchester United 6 and Atalanta 4.


through the whole pipeline, through the heart of my country. And I'm here to speak for millions of people who are already suffering, the effect of climate change. We are calling on you to take whatever action you can to pressure or engage Total to invest in alternative as opposed to the anti-created OCO fuel industry. It is really impressive that they work to understand the need for clean energy. That if you want a peaceful, sustainable world, it is time to make the energy transition. We need to win away from the use of fossil fuels. I want Total to stop funding our destruction through the ECO project. I want the people to join us in this fight to stop ECO. And I want the politicians to stand on the good side of history for the people and the planet. Justice is against Africans, Asians, Latinos, and the rest of the global south. Why don't you give us a chance to live? Uganda does not need ECO. Uganda needs climate justice. ECO is about profits, not people. And that's why we need you to join us. We can make a difference if we come together because the power of the people is greater and stronger than the people in power. Do we want it? When do we want it? People, non-profits. People, non-profits.


Hello and welcome to This Week in the City. Highlights brought to you from the Public Relations, Media, and Marketing Department with the City of Columbia. I'm your host, Alicia Yeatsy. Please be reminded that City offices will be closed on January 1st in observance of New Year's Day. Also that includes the Charles R. Drew Wellness Center.   And on Thursday we will return to a normal schedule. As we roll into the weekend, get ready to cuddle up for the Cuddle Up Pet Adoption Special on January 5th. All pets can be adopted for only $6.00. And also during the weekend, don't forget about Columbia's Holiday Ice at Columbia Center which will be open until January 21st. Now that's it for This Week in the City and we hope you have a great one.


OTAN, Outreach and Technical Assistance Network. Hello, everyone. I am Melinda Holt, and I'm a project specialist with the Outreach and Technical Assistance Network. I'd like to welcome you all for joining this OTAN Tech Talk, using technology to help students set, monitor, and achieve goals. Anthony Burick, another project specialist for OTAN is the presenter for this OTAN Tech Talk. Anthony, it's all yours. Thanks, Melinda. Hello, my name is Anthony Burick. I am a project specialist with OTAN. And this is my Tech Talk, using technology to help students set, monitor, and achieve goals. You can find my resources for today's Tech Talk at the website, b-i-t dot l-y slash capital O-t-t, lowercase goals. These include my slides and a handout with information about the resources that I will share today. Please visit the OTAN website at otan.us for more resources that adult educators can use in their classrooms and in their adult education programs. Here is our agenda for today's presentation. I want to tell you about the inspiration for this Tech Talk and talk about goals in general. Next, we will talk about students and their relationship with technology and preparation for using tech tools for goal setting. We will spend some time talking about nudges and how these help our students. We will then cover a number of tech tools for you to consider using to help students set, monitor, and achieve their goals. Finally, we will look at some ways to acknowledge student achievement. Again, the slides and a handout are available at the website, b-i-t dot l-y slash capital O-t-t, lowercase goals. So why are we here today? A few years ago, I participated in an adult school back-to-school training as an OTAN trainer. And in between my presentations, I had a chance to attend a session on setting goals with students with one of the adult school teachers. She did a great job explaining her process and how to get started setting goals with students using some teacher-developed handouts. There was a moment, though, when I looked around the room at everyone with their phones, tablets, and laptops, and there was a bit of a disconnect. I started to ask myself some questions, namely, what happens to the paper handouts once the goal setting is over? How does the teacher put all of this information together into something usable after the first few days of the term? And is there a way to integrate technology in this process? We should acknowledge here that sometimes goal setting doesn't really happen at all. Perhaps it's only done at intake or during registration process to fulfill data accountability requirements, and that's it. Maybe this information from the office is sent to teachers in a report, and the teacher gives it a once over and files it away. Other teachers will make the effort to learn about their students' goals, but then they are not able to circle back to the monitoring piece because the day-to-day requirements of the class have taken over as the priority. Because of the open entry, open exit nature of many adult ed programs, if students are not present during the first few days, the focus is on quickly integrating those students who join the class later into the flow of the class, and there's no time to have students do some of these extra activities. Maybe teachers do have a plan to revisit the goals named by students at a later point in the term of the semester, but it could be too late for some students. They are already off track. These are just some of the considerations and challenges that adult educators face when embarking on goal setting with students. So knowing that goal setting is so important for adult ed students, I started to wonder about using technology for goal setting, and I just felt that there had to be some options for adult educators. I've been thinking and learning about how to introduce technology into this process, and there are probably still some tools out there yet to be discovered, as keeping up with technology developments is a never-ending process. Goal setting is a powerful activity for our students as this quote will attest. The primary incentive for learner persistence is the learner's ability to set a goal and see progress in reaching that goal. There are a number of things that schools and programs can do to attain an equitable environment. Goal setting and paying attention to this process for each student is one of them, because we are prioritizing student needs, perhaps in ways that students have not experienced in other educational settings. We know that students come to our programs for different reasons, and being able to capture information about why they attend and what their goals are and make it actionable for students and the teachers and staff who support them will help create that equitable environment. When we have these conversations with students about their goals and how we can assist them in reaching those goals, students get the sense that the school or the program is invested in their success, and that the school or the program is willing to assist students in a variety of ways, depending on the circumstances of the students. Monitoring the goals to keep students on track tells students that we're not going to give up on them, even though there may be speed bumps along the way. And highlighting success gives us a chance to show how student achievements are as important as other accomplishments of the school or in the program. One of the silver linings in these COVID times is that we have started applying technology in ways that we didn't think were possible or hadn't explored as an option. This is certainly the case with goal setting and monitoring. If you have a paper-based system and it works and students persist in and achieve their goals, that's better than no system at all. But as we'll discuss, there are tech tools out there to consider. It is important to adopt a goal setting framework. Many teachers are already familiar with SMART goals. SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time Bound. And the SMART goals framework helps an individual bring a lot of clarity and focus to a goal. There are lots of SMART goals, handouts, and suggestions all over the internet. In the notes on my website, I listed two examples that have been customized for use in programs with educators and tutors who work with adults. And they're a bit more thorough than many other handouts out there. Educators will probably need some training and practice themselves before using these with students and doing the goal setting activities. So I do feel that looking at these handouts on my website as a whole give educators a good sense of what to consider and how to help students craft goals that are going to be solid. As this slide indicates, there are a number of items to explore in terms of understanding students' connection to technology. COVID has given instructors a much better sense of the technology that students possess and some of the challenges students face when using technology. As I suggest, you will want to find out about student tech devices in and outside of the school, where and how students are connecting to the internet, student technology ability and use, and where students are on social media, what their favorite apps are, et cetera. Surveys are a great way to gather this information. If your program or school already administers a digital skills survey, then maybe it's just a matter of revising what you already have rather than starting from scratch. I also think that these COVID times give us an opportunity to take a second look at these types of surveys to make sure we're asking the right questions and getting the right feedback. With the wholesale move to distance learning in the last year, we probably want to rethink what staff and student access to technology, connectivity and digital ability really means moving forward. There are a lot of technology tools to make use of when working with students. So don't feel limited to only one or two tools alone. The next item to discuss is nudging. And a good book to read on the subject is Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein. Nudging is based on an understanding of where each student is and what each student needs on the road to actually achieving the goal. Nudging lends itself well to a student-centered approach to goal setting. Different students are going to need different nudges to help them stay on track. I think that in general, educators as a profession are more in tune with how to nudge students in respectful ways that acknowledge where students are at any given moment. Nudge suggests how to look at the complexity of nudging and how you craft nudges with a variety of factors in mind and what might appeal to a particular student depending on where they are in their process. One of the central ideas in Nudge is what the authors call choice architecture. Choice architecture has six components that provides a framework for adult educator communication that encourages students to make good choices and not be deterred in reaching their goals. Here are the six nudges components for choice architects or in this case, adult educators to consider to prevent students from straying from the path of reaching their goals. Incentives, understand mappings, defaults, give feedback, expect error and structure complex choices. So let's look at each one. According to Thaler and Sunstein, sensible choice architects will put the right incentives on the right people. The most important modification that must be made is salience. Do the choosers actually notice the incentives they face? A teacher should present an incentive unique to that student and help the student recognize the incentive being presented even in the midst of a difficult situation. For a person who uses the treadmill, perhaps a better incentive would be to know how much exercise it would take to work off the cookies they ate during the day rather than looking at a bunch of numbers flashing on the screen. According to Thaler and Sunstein, a good system of choice architecture helps people to improve their ability to map and hence to select options that will make them better off. One way to do this is to make the information about various options more comprehensible. Students can get bogged down and become frustrated deciding between options. Teachers can help students chart a path through options that make work on their goals and life manageable. Much like working through a menu helps a customer decide on a meal from a variety of choices. According to Thaler and Sunstein, many people will take whatever option requires the least effort or the path of least resistance. If for a given choice, there is a default option, an option that will obtain if the chooser does nothing, then we can expect a large number of people to end up with that option, whether or not it is good for them. Most people don't think about changing the timing of their screensaver from the factory setting to something that might work better for them. The historic default for many adult students is to drop out or give up. So students need to know that we can change the default settings to something that makes more sense and is better suited to what we desire. According to Thaler and Sunstein, the best way to help humans improve their performance is to provide feedback. Well-designed systems tell people when they are doing well and when they are making mistakes. We should always strive to provide clear, meaningful feedback for students, much as our devices give us instantaneous feedback on the quality of our photos. And if we've caught someone with their eyes closed when we took the picture, to prompt us to try again. According to Thaler and Sunstein, humans make mistakes. A well-designed system expects its users to err and is as forgiving as possible. Just as our car beeps when we forget to fasten our seatbelts, we gently remind students that mistakes are natural and a part of the learning process, although they may not see them that way. According to Thaler and Sunstein, when we face a small number of well-understood alternatives, we tend to examine all of the attributes of all of the alternatives and then make trade-offs when necessary. But when the choice gets large, we must use alternative strategies and these can get us into trouble. For students unaccustomed to goal-setting and achieving, this may seem like a tall order in their minds. One of our primary tasks is to help students structure their big goals into manageable chunks.  We'll come back to nudging shortly, but let's talk about some tech tools to explore when it comes to goal-setting. The first tool to discuss is called Lifetik. The web address is lifetik.com. Lifetik is based on smart goal-setting, so it's right in line with what you're already doing as you work on goal-setting students. In addition, an educator, counselor, or other school staff member can also sign up and become a supporter of the student, which provides access to what the student has created in the app and here's the monitoring piece of the process. I also have the ability to message the student via the app. So here is where I can nudge the student on what they are currently working on, also part of the monitoring process. There is a free version of Lifetik that should be adequate for educators and their students as well as a paid subscription if you're interested in exploring other features of the app. Here is a screenshot of the information the student provides to create a smart goal. On the left side, you see that there is a question for each of the smart goal components. On the right side, there are two additional questions that address why the goal is important to the student. A student completes this questionnaire and saves it in their account. You can also set up notifications or reminders from Lifetik that are meant to help the students stay on track. The student has some schedule options for when the notifications are sent, for example, daily or weekly. Setting up some kind of a notification system is key. This will help especially with the monitoring part of the process. Students may be on different timelines for completion. I'm thinking about students in an HSE prep course who plan on taking the tests at their own pace and in their preferred order, versus a CTE course where the students are moving together in a cohort. But the point is that the notifications are going out according to some schedule. That way we don't lose sight of the goals and what the students need to do to stay on track. I'm thinking of some of the HSE students who have a plan or schedule in their minds to take and pass the tests, but they are missing the deadlines or they don't have a retake plan if they are not successful with one of the tests. They probably were not realistic in the timetable they had created to achieve their goals, which monitoring could have helped identify early on. Notifications can prompt the educator to check in one-on-one with each student, or if the student doesn't feel like they're on track, this could prompt them to check in with the teacher. When the student creates a goal, they can also add a supporter who is able to see the goal that the student is working on and can also send messages via the app. This is where a well-placed nudge can make a difference and help keep the student motivated to continue. One of the great features of Lifetik and other tech tools is this interactivity between the student setting the goal and the educator monitoring the goal. As a supporter, I can see the goal named at the timetable established as well as the subtasks. Notifications can go out and I can communicate with the student in the app. These are all features that keep the educator engaged in the student's process. We can't always leave the burden of goal setting, monitoring and achieving entirely or mostly to the student. We have to be a partner in that process and technology is a tool that can help us establish and maintain that partnership. Strides is another tech tool to explore. It has some limitations compared to Lifetik, but it's also easy to create and pay some attention to smart goal setting. There's a free version of Strides as well as a paid subscription. When you get started setting a goal in the Strides app, make sure to select project to track the goal. You were then able to create a goal with subtasks and assigned due dates similar to Lifetik. The Strides app bears a lot of resemblance to other to-do apps, which are very popular with people who set daily goals for themselves, although Strides has more of a smart goal orientation. Goalscape is a visually oriented goal setting tool that pays some attention to smart goals. To get started, a student can create a free account. The strength of Goalscape is being able to organize the goals and tasks visually, which you can see by the divided circle in the middle of the screen, which may appeal to certain students as well as adult educators. Goalscape is similar to Lifetik in that a student can add a supporter who is able to view the goals and tasks and communicate with the students in the app. GoalInforcer is another visually oriented goal setting tool. You can download a demo version of GoalInforcer to try it out, but purchase is required to allow the user to save their work and return to their goal to monitor progress. Finally, another tech tool adult educators might consider is GoalsOnTrack, which pays attention to smart goals, but is only available with a paid subscription. Another option for staying connected with students is to set up a private Facebook group to keep all activity within the class. A Facebook group can be used to share information with students for learning activities to learn more about students and to encourage students to create connections and build relationships. A teacher can use a Facebook group to nudge, monitor and keep students on track. And with other students in the group, peers can encourage each other towards achieving everyone's goals. Many students are already familiar and comfortable with Facebook, so this might be a particularly appealing and easy tool for the class to use. One benefit of a Facebook group is it might include some previous students who have been successful, who can provide perspective to current students on how they overcame barriers to be successful in reaching their goals. That peer interaction is particularly effective because many students are similarly in the midst of their own goal achieving work. So students can better relate to the experiences of their classmates. Sometimes we teachers forget or have forgotten what it's like to be a student. Another possible option for monitoring student goals and nudging students is through a learning management system such as Moodle, Canvas, Schoology, or Google Classroom. The first step would be to see if the LMS has an add-on, a plugin, a module, or some other component that is useful for acknowledging, establishing and monitoring goals. Barring this, it is going to take some work and creativity to think about how to help students set, monitor, and achieve goals within the LMS. One option, for example, is to consider exploring calendar groupings, meaning a group with the teacher and the student, and settings to schedule events and push event notices out to the students on the calendar. Another option would be to set up a discussion forum or a board for more informal communication between students and the teacher, but don't be so teacher-y in this forum where students can check in with one another, get encouragement, ask questions, seek assistance, et cetera. Typically, when we think about student success, we think about graduations, earning high school diplomas, becoming citizens, and the major accomplishments. But what about intake and registration to show adults taking the steps to better their lives or in the classes showcasing student work and projects? Highlight the first day of class, the good work going on daily, the aha moments our students have, particular barriers students have overcome, as well as how the Adult Ed Program or School is a catalyst in the community for adults to better their lives by working on and reaching their goals. There are various opportunities to communicate to the outside world all of the great work going on at the adult school. And students appreciate the recognition, which is so important to validate their hard work and struggle in many cases to succeed. Using your website and social media are tools that can acknowledge the effort students are making in reaching their goals for a wider audience. As the following slides demonstrate, you can publicize all kinds of achievements in the Adult Education Program. Don't leave all the recognition until the end. Remember the beginning and the middle too. Social media is a great way to let the world know about student success and acknowledge the hard work that students are doing and have done. This first slide is a Twitter post with a nudge for those adults who would like to earn their high school diploma, which they can do at the adult school. What about students coming to campus for the first time? Adult students doing the work every day is an achievement to acknowledge. The adult school is also a place where we can help students with their learning needs, which is an important message to convey. I particularly like this slide and the next slide titled Working on a Goal and Working on Goal Setting, which demonstrate how the school is attentive to student goals and sharing how students are making progress and telling the world about it, which helps to promote the school to a larger audience. In this slide, we see student Javier telling the other students about his goal and how he is working on creating his dream project. In this slide, we see how the school has set up a goal setting display for everyone to visit and draw inspiration from. Celebrating is the fun part, right? I'm active on Twitter. I follow adult programs across California and I see all kinds of ways that schools and programs are sharing celebrations. Accomplishments and celebrations are definitely important, but again, just part of the great work the adult school is doing for its students. I also want to point out one of our efforts at OTAN to document student success, the California Adult Education Student Succeeds Program. The web address is adultedlearners.org. These are powerful stories that are documented and can be shared in so many ways. These stories that we all have at our adult schools are stories that are incoming and current students who are struggling and thinking that they are the only ones who have ever gone through their particular struggles, need to hear how others before them face similar challenges and overcame them. I think that it gives students hope that they too can be successful based on the success of others. We can create written stories with photos or make them video stories, which social media and other users are more likely to watch. And try to get previous students to come back and share their stories. Every time I've heard about a school doing this, I've heard nothing but how great this was for the current students to listen and ask questions and get encouragement. These visits can also be turned into news items that are shared with a larger audience. So to wrap up, celebrate achievements starting with the first day of school and use achievements to promote the good work happening at the adult school. One other benefit is to consider the various pieces of information you now have available, which can be used to follow up with students for real reporting purposes. We've reached the end of this tech talk, but before we go, take a moment to reflect on three things you've learned today, two things you will share with your colleagues and one thing you will try. Whether you choose to try out some of the tech tools mentioned or work on beefing up your print goal system, the most important step is to help students write down their goals and create a system to help students stay on track. Persisting with their goals is going to lead to student success. Hopefully COVID times have prompted us to be open to the possibility of technology for functions like student goal setting that we haven't considered up until now. Thanks for attending my OTAN Tech Talk today and Melinda, back to you. Thank you, Anthony, for a great presentation. For all of those viewing, if you would like to present a tech tool or have some tips to share with your colleagues in adult education, send OTAN an email with your OTT idea to support at otan.us. We'd also like to encourage everyone to subscribe to the OTAN YouTube channel where other archive videos like the tech talks can be found. You can also check out the OTAN website for even more resources for adult education at otan.us.


Hi, this is Pastor David Rosales of Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley, California. Recently, a television evangelist made the bold claim that he needed $54 million to buy a new private jet. He already has convinced naïve followers to purchase three jets for his world-wide ministry, but apparently it is time to upgrade to a Falcon 7x, which is able to fly close to the sound barrier, but has noise limiting technology. It also has a Bluetooth-enabled entertainment center and an optional in-flight shower. When questioned about this, the evangelist made it clear that he is trying to reach, quote, every soul of the seven billion people that now inhabit the earth, making sure that each one has an opportunity to know the real Jesus, approachable, personable, compassionate, full of joy, the way that he knows Jesus, end quote. Another well-known prosperity evangelist told his congregation and television audience that he, quote, needs one of the most luxurious private jets made today in order to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, end quote. Finally, a third so-called evangelist insisted that he and other prosperity evangelists need private planes because, quote, the mess that the airlines are in today, I would have to stop. I'm being very conservative. At least 75 to 80, more like 90 percent of what we're doing because you can't get there from here. That's why we're on that airplane, he said. We can talk to God. He said that he used to travel with Oral Roberts who flew commercial and it got to the point that it was agitating his spirit. He complained of people coming up to him and them wanting him to pray over them, went on to say, you can't manage that today.  So this is where the slippery slope has brought the church. It has come to the place where charlatans can claim that God wants them to have multi-million dollar jets so that they can travel nonstop throughout the world to preach a false gospel. And millions of people will support them financially and argue with any, especially fellow Christians, who would dare to question the reasons and motives of such materialists. This kind of financial manipulation is not something new. False leaders in the Old Testament were chastised for harming God's people.  You slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. Ezekiel 34, verse three. In the New Testament, Paul told the Romans that the false teachers did not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech, deceived the hearts of the simple. We are in a time when the quality of a person's ministry seems to be judged by the clothes that they wear, the smooth style of their speech, the size of their following, the coolness of their attitude and how important others think them to be instead of their love for Jesus, their fear of God, their faithful and proper teaching of God's word, the humility of their lives, and the moderation, love and holiness of their lifestyles. Are we at the place where we accept what is untrue and on our false teachers because our lack of discernment and knowledge of scripture is so massive that any message that purports to come from God is willingly received? Some would say that they like the teacher's personality and the message is appealing and feels right. They go on to say, didn't Jesus teach us that we should not judge? After all, the person is using the Bible. So what gives you the right to say he is wrong? Perhaps we've forgotten that Satan also quotes from the Bible and had the arrogant goal to even quote it to Jesus. The biblical fact is Christians are to make righteous judgments. Jesus said in John 7 24, do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. He did not command us to refrain from judging, but instead to judge in a proper and righteous manner. He actually commanded us to use discernment and to judge righteously. Those who argue that we are judging a brother or a sister when we warn others concerning the error of false doctrine have not been taught the whole counsel of God. And obviously do not read their Bibles.  Thank God the driver heard me yell, saw him and stopped in time. My son was not injured. I assure you that I was not smiling when I cried out the warning. And I don't think that I am an unloving man because I didn't give the warning quietly and gently. There are times when the warning must come loudly and it needs to be given with concern and passion. It seems that we forget that one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the gift of discerning of spirits. And perhaps we forget that Paul said in First Thessalonians chapter five verses 20 and 21, do not despise prophecies, test all things, O fast, what is good. Obviously we are commanded to exercise discernment and to practice righteous judgment. We are to test whatever purports to be from God instead of simply swallowing it because it sounds good and makes appealing promises. How do you make righteous judgments by comparing what is being claimed with what scripture teaches? Does scripture teach that every believer is to be rich enough to purchase multi-million dollar airplanes to live in a 35,000 square foot home to have a net worth of 45 million dollars? Does the Bible teach that one man needs to travel around the world in a jet to preach the gospel because after all that one man is more important than the average believer? Does the Bible teach us not to travel on airplanes with non-believers because the airplane is filled with dope filled people and demons? This nonsense is beyond tragic. It is sin. This may be offensive to some. Perhaps many who are listening to this broadcast, my exhortation to you is to search the Bible and find out where I am scripturally wrong. The fact is I'm right and I'm concerned for the body of Christ as every genuine believer ought to be. I was saved during a genuine revival with millions of people coming to faith in Jesus. Some of my friends were also saved during the revival and went on to pass through some of the most God honoring and Bible loving churches in the world. We were not taught to idolize men. Or to use material possessions as measuring rods of success. We were taught to love God, to serve Jesus, to love others, to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. We were rightly taught that the true answer is not found in one superstar preacher. But in Jesus, our Messiah, we were taught that the body of Christ is made up of many parts with various gifts, but that each of us was important. We were taught that no one gift or office is greater than any other, but all are necessary. We were not taught that we needed one evangelist to do the work in the world, but that we all should do the work of an evangelist. There are people giving money to these superstars who do not even preach the whole gospel. And because they donate to these ministries, they do not give to their own home fellowships. Many do not even have a home fellowship because they are busy traveling from church to church looking for a hero to follow or some outlandish story to hear on Sunday morning. My encouragement to you is to find a home church that teaches the Word of God, has a humble God-fearing pastor and ministerial staff get plugged in. Attend studies, fellowship with fellow believers, share your faith with others, serve in your church, financially support your home fellowship, pray for your pastor, let them know that you love him because he often thinks that you don't care if he's there or not.  To be honest with you, I don't want to know Jesus the way he knows Jesus. I want to know Jesus the way Paul, the apostles and every true believer has known him. I want to worship him in spirit and in truth, the way he wants me to know him. If this has offended you enough to get you into the word to prove me wrong, I praise God for that, because when you do so, you will get a picture of the true Jesus, the one who gave up his life for us and made heaven available to us and to all who would trust in him. This is Pastor David Rosales, Calvary Chapel of the Chino Valley, California.


Anthony, how much of a battle did that 13 pitch at bat feel like in the first inning? It was definitely a grind.  When you pull balls foul, usually for home runs in this league, it usually ends in a strikeout. And to pull four or five of them foul, just kind of kept saying to myself, just stay locked in, stay inside of the ball, and ended up working a walk there. And it was one of those at bats that you feel good about afterwards. Jamison Tyone just said that he was actually excited for your second at bat for you to see him again, because he felt like you were really on pitches. Just how did that first at bat help you heading into the second at bat where you did wind up homering? Yes, seeing all of his pitches there helped out. And he threw some good change-ups that at bat, laid off a couple of them, fouled off one of them. He threw a good cutter in his fastball. So whenever you could grind a pitcher like that, I feel like it always goes the advantage of the hitter to work a walk and then seeing the next time. And just he left one over the middle there and put a good swing on it. Brendan Cutty, you have the next question. Also on Tyone, he said that you've come in and seemed like a leader right away. How easy has it been for you to integrate into this clubhouse? It's been fairly easy. The guys have just, everyone's super professional and just very welcoming to us.  It's been fun getting to know the guys and just continuing to talk baseball. The baseball talk has been really nice. And even the personal stuff, you start getting to know guys on a personal level. So it's all new and it's all fun. And just continuing to be myself and talk the game and give some of my experiences and learn from other guys' experiences. Go next to Justin Shackle. Hey, Anthony, this team was consistently winning series. All right, you've arrived. Now they've won five of six with you in action for them. How would you describe what the energy is like in the clubhouse now? Series continue to be won. It's a good feeling. I think you just take it day by day. And the Orioles beat us up pretty good the first game. We come back and win the next two.  And it's fun. You get some momentum going. But the day to day grind doesn't stop. It doesn't matter. Win or lose, you got to come in the next day and prepare for that next day's pitcher.


What's up everybody? Jason here for jazby's case breaks.com 2019 Petunia National Treasures football just sold out. This is a one box break Two random teams each number two. So again, this must have been from a sealed case I'm assuming since we've only done one box for number one and this is be number two So you get two random teams guys in the NFL per spot.  You got all the teams there. So let's roll the dice And we got a four and a five for nine times. So good luck nine times one two three four five six seven eight nine Rory down to Kevin nine times One two three four five six seven eight nine Pittsburgh Steelers down to the San Francisco 49ers So Rory with the Steelers Danny with the Dolphins Aaron with the Atlanta Falcons Danny with the Bucks Aaron with the Rams kind of with the Chargers and Bills Aaron with the Texans Jason with the Bears Chris from my Eagles Steven with the Jaguars Rory with the football team Aaron you have the Vikings Pete with the Colts Steve with the Titans Zachary with the Saints Jason with the Jets Aaron with the Raiders Christopher with the Panthers Alex with the Cowboys Aaron with the Lions last bomb Zachary with the Packers Kevin with the Broncos Ravens Alex with the Seahawks Pete with the Bengals now with the Patriots Alex with the Giants Matt Buckley you have the Cardinals Alex with the Browns Kevin with the Chiefs and the 49ers So if anybody wants to trade guys, I'll give you guys about a minute. So one box break NT guys High risk but high reward of course get the right rookies and their patch autographs The truth we got to sell that last filler So if I had to guess it gets an estimate once we sell the 12 spots Probably starting the mixer by like 830 Pacific So after this I'm gonna do the first filler and then I'm assuming by like 830 We should have that second filler done and then we should break that basketball mixer But once this sells out then I can break it and the same boat for the football mixer guys We sell this one right here first and we do one more and that's it. That's how close we are We sold out all the spots straight up But basketball is closer because it's the last one. It's already down to 12 So if you missed out on the basketball mixer, or you want to win a spot for a fraction of the price You can grab a spot on that filler. All right guys, let's close the trader window Yeah, does it feel does the it feels much better than the last one of them What what did they put in it? All right time one two and three box numbers Let's see if I can Roll a die So if I roll a one or two, we're gonna go with box one if I roll a three or four We're gonna go at the middle five six with the bottom box Five so one two three four five six with the bottom box here So I'll post up another one of these boxes guys and we can run it back There'll be a half case remaining of NT crack. This is the last year.  I never seen an NT case this stuck Stuck mojo. All right first one we got is out of 76 treasured moments or 75 sorry Ben Rothesberger. Oh, really better than 75 Alrighty, let's go with out of 50 Reggie White Eagles Because of her Sanchez on my Eagles. Yeah, I think so too. I don't know if she got it to actually play her to resell it She does a lot of a lot of that kind of stuff 60 to 99 Jared Goff We have Jordy Nelson and Green Bay Packers to 10 2 out of 10 You may package one of Zachary We have Marlon Mack Indianapolis Colts Pete that one Wow Look at this guys look look what's been hiding here this whole time in NT How about a one-of-one NFL player tags of Josh Jacobs? Devon Singletary David Montgomery and my boy Miles Sanders. That's a one-of-one. Whoo. That's gonna be a big randomizer Kenneth with the bills You have Christopher my Eagles you have Raiders Aaron Clark and Bears Jason. That's a quad Relic one-of-one randomizer coming up Very nice We have Damian Williams 40 or 4 out of 49 sorry Chiefs with that one Kevin Hall We have a will Greer 37 out of 49 that is for the Panthers Christopher we have Harrison Smith to 99 or 49 sir Minnesota Vikings going to Aaron Pettit last fall mojo and Last one is a RPA Devon Singletary. That is 66 Or sorry, no 68 out of 99 To go the patch and autograph and then it's going to Kenneth and the bills So Kenneth you're for sure at least getting this Let's see if you can actually get that a quad relic one-of-one and there you go guys, so Very nice box. Of course the biggest hits gonna be that one-of-one Which is quad players? tag Of all of these teams right here So let's switch scenes and let's go to the randomizer and see who's gonna get that So we got Raiders Bills Bears Eagles So good luck guys, let's roll the dice and we got ourselves a six and a three for nine times Number one gets that quad relic one-of-one tag six seven eight nine one two three four five six seven eight nine Goes to the bills after nine times six and a three Bills congratulations Kenneth You just got this quad relic as well add it to your Devon Singletary patch auto and there you go guys That was NT football one box break ran a two-round team number two We still have half a case remaining not sure if there was a big rookie patch autograph pulled in the first half or the first box Devon Singletary is a good running back in this class but you got to think that there's gonna be a nice potentially quarterback RPA hiding or Maybe something veteran crazy. So I'm gonna pose of the next one that we can run it back guys Jaskies case breaks.com


A conversation that Maddie and I had several weeks ago was about a chart that you had put up in the school and that people were adding to and different ideas were showing up on the chart. And the way I understand the conversation is that you notice when you looked at the Ed plan and I don't think this was just students but I think as an educational community. I said well there's lots of holes in here, there's a lot of things that aren't set which is yes that's true by design. And then took the initiative saying well how would we fill those in? What can other districts and schools take from your experience and say well that's interesting, I think we can do that. And not say well that's only possible in the Gulf Islands. I think it's what you were saying about ideas being transferable. I think they are, all of them are in a way. There's no reason why we shouldn't be able to make every single thing we're talking about applicable to anybody who is inspired and driven to accomplish it. And I think what's great about our island is it's like a catalyst. We might drive it and we might because of where we live in our life we might have some of the ideas and are able to work in this kind of grassroots situation. But there's no reason with the right team why everybody shouldn't be able to prosper from these ideas. Getting up close and finding out what their passion is and witnessing the sparks fly and then supporting those sparks to keep flying. It's just a, I think it just starts at the beginning of just helping them to get close to questions about what they're really interested in. They come in what is an ideas. It's where you design your own course and your own program and you study it as like a class. That's your class you go to your class that you've designed yourself to study something that you're personally interested in. How do you structure a school that has a huge number of students pursuing individual areas of interest? When a school is structured and the structure is the difficult thing. If the structure is organized in a way that the learning can happen, beautiful. But it's difficult to do that. 600 people, 35 staff, the number of rooms, the size, how many chairs, tables, things you need. So the structure is tricky but ideas are structured in one way which is fantastic but I think group learning is key. There's the time where you need to go deep and there's also the times when you need to be in a very social collaborative kind of a situation because great learning happens there as well. It's not 600 kids off doing their own thing. We're not working on it. I think it's definitely a progress. There needs to be more development in the balance in this hybrid learning. This balance between answering questions and asking questions and between independent flexible learning and between collaborative and group learning. We've run into different situations where kids have a whole whack of time that they've got and they just don't really want to do anything because they don't know what to do. So I thought it would be better in previous grades to have a sort of system where you go very, very broad, very thin over everything to give kids an idea about what's out there. I thought it would be cool to have a sort of system where in the beginning of the year you're given a great big test deal where you get lists of all these different areas you could go into, all the different jobs or different sort of categories of how to live your life. When you give this to the kids and the kids would give a paragraph and write a paragraph about what this is about and whether they'd like to learn about it or not. And if the kid knew that he knew what this sort of subject was and he knew that he didn't want to do it, then he wouldn't have to do it. He wouldn't have to learn about it at all. If you didn't know what it was and you still didn't want to do it, you'd still have to take it because you got to know at least a little bit about what it is because you might actually enjoy it and you just don't know because you've never tried it.


They say the early bird gets the worm. Well, this is true for more than just animals. Plants like to get an early start, too. White top or horry crest is an invasive weed that is one of the first to bloom in the spring. As the name suggests, white top has numerous white flowers. It's in the mustard family, so the flowers have four white petals. The seed pods are heart shaped and each contains two seeds. The plant can be up to two feet tall. White top is an incredibly aggressive weed because it can spread by roots and seeds. The roots can be three feet deep, but have been recorded to 30 feet deep in the Pacific Northwest. A single plant can spread 12 feet in diameter in one year. That same plant can produce 1200 to 4,800 seeds, all of which can germinate anytime in three years. White top likes to live on sunny, disturbed ground and grows well in Wyoming's alkaline soils. If white top was a good plant, all of these characteristics would be favorable. Unfortunately, it's unpalatable to most livestock and wildlife, spreads rapidly and creates a monoculture pushing out more desirable native species. You'll probably see this white flower early in the spring, but you won't be fooled by its beauty and charm. You'll know that white top is a nasty rangeland invader causing devastating natural resource and economic damage. From the University of Wyoming Extension, I'm Mae Smith, Exploring the Nature of Wyoming.


What's up everybody, Jason here for JazbySkatesBase.com. We just sold out 20-22 diamond icons, one box break number, pick your team number 31 with this random number block here guys that holds the Royals, Rays, Tigers, Blue Jays, White Sox Cubs, Marlins, Brewers, Twins, Gardens and Rockies. You get a piece of these teams via a serial number break and if they do hit, we're gonna distribute them like that going by the first number on the left side of the serial number dash. Now since it's sold out tonight, we're gonna give away a free spot. So Dustin down at Barry only sold nine. We're gonna randomize those nine names and then paste in the winner coming at number one. That'll make 10, then we'll have numbers and then we'll randomize names and numbers. Touchdown.  All right, here we go, dice roll it. Four to one, five, one, two, three, four, and five.  Exposed. Still a big time catch though, man. Is that Travis Hunter? He's back, right? All right, four to one, five, five, perfect. One, two, three, four, five. I know that's what I'm gonna say, you literally just had a chance to live here. William down to Dustin, five, one, two, three, four, five. Three down to two. Hopefully it's just more like the wind knocked out of him because you know, just expose those ribs. All right, so five, we got fives all around. Now let's see how we match them. So we'll with three, as well as five.  Eight, and any redemptions. Remember, zero gets all redemptions no matter what. Marry with four and a cold seven. Dustin with nine, six, and two. So there you go guys. So again, coming up next in a separate video guys, it's gonna be the break and I think we have one more box after number 31. So I'll post up number 32. That'll be the last box break of the case. But good luck to you guys here. There should be some nice stuff popping out of here. Thank you guys.


A model is a story we tell about our data. It's always different from the data itself. It's a simplified version. A cartoon picture. It's got bold edges and even shading. There are always a lot of stories that can be told using the same data set. When we're building a model, we're making the assumption that our data has two parts. Signal and noise. Signal is the real pattern. It's the repeatable process that we hope to capture and describe. It's the information that we care about. The signal is what lets the model generalize to new situations. The noise is everything else that gets in the way of that. It's the imperfections in our sensors. It's typing things in wrong. It's variations driven by forces that we can't or don't try to model. It's just all the other stuff. It's easy to picture the difference between signal and noise if you imagine listening to your favorite playlist in the middle of winter while there's a heater blasting nearby. The music's the signal. That's the thing that you want to track and absorb. The heater fan is the noise. It's the additional variation piled on top of the signal. And if it gets too loud, it becomes impossible to follow the flow of the signal. It's the goal of models to describe the signal despite the noise. A perfect model describes the signal exactly and ignores all of the noise. If a model fails to capture all of the signal, that type of error is called bias. If a model captures some of the noise, that type of error is called variance. Too much bias in our model means that it will perform poorly in all situations because it hasn't captured the signal well. You may also hear this called underfitting. This was the case when we fit a straight line to our temperature data. It didn't capture the underlying pattern well, and because of that had a much higher error than the rest of our candidates. A linear model fit to this data has high bias. Too much variance in our model will also cause it to fail. It won't generalize well. Instead of capturing just the pattern we care about, it will also capture a lot of the extraneous noise that we don't care about. The patterns in the noise will be different from situation to situation. When we try to generalize and apply our model to a new situation, it'll have extra error. This is also called overfitting. The more complex our model, the greater the risk of overfitting. This was the case in our connect the dots interpolation model. The way to protect against underfitting is to try several different types of models. Each model has its own strengths and weaknesses, things that it's good at, patterns that it finds more easily and more accurately than others, and other patterns that it struggles with. By trying a variety of models, we have the best chance at pulling out the patterns hidden in our data. Our best defense against bias is a rich pool of candidate models. To protect against overfitting, we make sure to test how well each trained model generalizes. After training it on one set of observations, we then use it to predict the pattern in another set of observations. If the predictions are accurate, then we know our model is good and our variance is low. But if it makes much worse predictions on the test data than on the training data set, then we know that the model overfitted the training data, that it captured a lot of noise rather than just the signal. Okay, we are really getting warmed up now. Next in part three we'll consider the question that can make or break our model selection. Choosing the right error function.


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So again, thank you for, thank you for joining. Let me, let me start with a promise or rather a fantasy. Imagine a new economy that runs on blockchain where businesses can form networks and validate each other's transactions where they can describe their business deal or a contract in computer code in smart contract. The smart contract then settles in fiat currency. And this fiat currency businesses don't have to hold in bank accounts. They can hold them in their digital wallets. And this fiat currency has properties of cryptocurrency. They have individual numbers so that you can trace them. You can assign attributes and you can run them in, and settle them in smart contracts. Now this has been a promise of enterprise blockchain for many years and it has been a motto of this great organization Hyperledger to create blockchain platform for business. And we've built amazing technology that supports that. We have enterprise platforms that allow businesses to do just that, form networks, deploy smart contracts, issue tokens and so on. Now what have been missing is the legal framework for that. A legal framework that will make every smart contract legally binding. A legal framework that will make, for example, if a business issues a token with a promise that will make this promise legally binding. So we have technology and we have a legal framework for that. Well, in Russia we do. We live in exciting times and they have been two major developments recently that give us a hope that we can build this new economy. Last year a much debated federal law and digital financial assets came into force. This law allows us to do just that. It allows businesses to issue tokens, to raise money, issue tokens that represent their goods or materials so that they can trade tokens instead of physical goods. And most importantly, it gives a legal framework for blockchain platforms where businesses and users can deploy smart contracts, issue tokens and run a new economy. Another major development, and you've seen this around the world, are central bank digital currencies, CBDC. And our central bank of Russia is developing a digital ruble, which is a claim on central bank. It's a fiat currency that has properties of cryptocurrency. You can trace it and most importantly, you can use it in smart contracts on other platforms. So what we have now is technology, rather mature platforms, and we have a legal framework. Are we ready for that? And we at SBIR Bank are ready. We have built a blockchain platform that is almost ready for production. We're in the final stages of getting a license from Bank of Russia. And this platform allows businesses to do what I just described. It allows businesses to issue tokens. Those tokens are called digital financial assets, and it allows developers and businesses to deploy smart contracts and settle smart contracts in fiat currency. How did we do that? We use Hyperledger Fabric as a technology core. We have enhanced it. I'll talk a bit later about that. We made it available via our cloud offering. We've created basic functionality that lets users issue tokens and deploy smart contracts and we build products on top of that. Our main product is the platform for digital financial assets that is open to our clients. And we expect our clients to be businesses, corporations, financial institutions, and most importantly, developers, fintech developers or software vendors that we see a large interest from them and we hope that they will create smart contracts and applications that use smart contracts and settle in fiat currency. Now, a few words about who we are. SBIR Bank is the largest bank in Russia and in Eastern Europe. It's one of the top European banks by capitalization and it has a huge customer base. We have almost a hundred million retail clients, almost three million active corporate clients. And most importantly, SBIR Bank is the center of SBIR ecosystem. SBIR ecosystem is comprised of almost 50 businesses in all different industries from food delivery to taxi to video streaming. And most importantly, it's technology offering. I already mentioned the SBIR Cloud, SBIR Cloud is our cloud offering and part of that the technologies that are SBIR Bank laboratories, laboratory for artificial intelligence, robotics and SBIR Bank blockchain laboratory that I have. So in our laboratory, we've developed this platform, tokenization platform and our main product is a platform for issues of digital financial assets. Now, what this platform is, it is open to our clients, our corporate clients via a familiar user interface, the interface that they use every day to manage their accounts, to move money. But now it has a window into our blockchain platform and they can issue and create tokens, simply by filling out the form in their SBIR Bank business online application. So they can issue tokens that represent their goods, for example, grain or metals that they produce or it could be a monetary claim, it could be a commercial paper. So we see in this new functionality, the new economy where a business no longer needs to go to an investment banker to organize an IPO or to issue commercial paper or a bond. They can do this all in forms of tokens that they issue on the platform. Once the token goes through all the AML and KYC requirements, it becomes available to investors. Investors can buy the token, trade it. And what's important is that we as operator, of course, we provide governance of the platform, but we also provide a settlement coin on the platform. So when an investor buys a token, it actually exchanges a stable coin, which is tied to fiat currency, to Russian rubble. And we provide a smart contract that provides for delivery versus payment. One atomic transaction where you exchange a token with a token representing money. What is this stable coin? Stable coin, of course, is stable. It is tied to a Russian rubble. It is controlled by smart contracts. You can validate these transactions by connecting your own node, your own server to the network where you can spawn your node in SberCloud and our blockchain is a service offering. And what's important is that this coin and the movement of this coin is integrated with the bank's backend so that the movement of the coin represent movement of fiat currency in our client's bank accounts. What's important here is that unlike perhaps other stable coins which are perhaps algorithmic or stable coins that are backed by metals or other reserves, this stable coin represent actual money in our users' accounts. So in order to transact on the platform, a user, we will lock this amount of money in our user's bank account and we'll create Sbercoin or stable coin on the platform. And then our users can use it to buy other tokens, to trade or to send it to the smart contract. So this stable coin is a native currency of the blockchain platform just like Ether is a native currency in Ethereum. And just like in Ethereum, you can send Sbercoin to a smart contract. A very simple smart contract that we present to our users, to our clients, to businesses could be as simple as a three-party contract where there's a seller, a buyer and a third party. Almost an escrow or a letter of credit contract. Of course, contracts can be written in computer code in chain code in hyperledger fabric and can be of any complexity. You can describe a financial instrument, a bond or swap or exotic derivative in the computer code. And what's important is that it can settle in stable coin in fiat currency. And the new legal framework gives legal binding to this new instrument described in code. Now, not every business wants to describe the contract in code or have an ability to do that. So for that, we created a smart contract modeler or a smart contract constructor, as we call it, which is a graphical user interface that can cover actually a vast majority of supply chain or trade finance contracts. Two or more parties can come to an agreement and sign their agreement with the private keys, the digital signatures. And they can describe conditions of delivery, conditions of the straight deal and many stages of payment. And each stage of payment can be tied to a certain event or a certain action by an inspector or how we call it in blockchain an oracle. So you can, like I said, you can describe a vast majority of supply chain or trade finance contracts by this visual GUI. The platform is open to developers where they can upload their smart contracts, they zip up their chain code, they add their own web application and they can either spawn a node in our blockchain as a service, use the GUI interface to upload the chain code archive, upload the web application and they can make this application available in the App Store. The App Store is curated by us and we hope that developers will create new applications and create new financial products and make it available in App Store for our clients and for their clients and start selling their apps. Now, this blockchain is a service. I mean, you have this offering in other cloud solutions in Amazon and until recently, Microsoft as well, but what's important is that we also offer a native currency for this smart contract. So simply by importing a library in your chain code, you can start using the stable coin to settle your smart contract and that's what makes this offering unique because this offering is not only from our cloud solution but it's also from the bank. So what is the platform made of? It is based on Hyperledger Fabric 2.3 protocol. We have adopted it for our local cryptography in Russia just like in China, there's a different standard for elliptic curve cryptography. So we use Russian cryptography to sign transactions so that our users who already have digital certificates, big AI certificates that are issued by a government party, they can sign their smart contracts and sign their transactions. And you can trace every transaction, every signature to a government certificate authority. We have also enhanced the consensus protocol of Hyperledger Fabric by replacing the transaction ordering mechanism from Kafka, which is a CFT protocol with a variant of a BFT protocol, a smart BFT that allows us to offer a true blockchain consensus mechanism to our clients. Why is it important? It's important when I describe it to the clients, I give them the minimum number of nodes. Let's say there's spare bank and three other independent validators. Now, if it runs a true consensus protocol like smart BFT, then we can server our nodes, bear banks node, or God forbid we can throw in invalid transactions and the consensus algorithm will weed out those transactions and will not let them propagate. So when you have 10 nodes, then it's spare bank and at least two other nodes that they can exhibit business and behavior to know of their service and the network will still continue operating. And that is the basis of this new decentralized economy that we hope will be our future. Again, in this future, a smart BFT protocol will allow our clients not to trust our name, but trust the cryptography and consensus algorithm. Since we have independent validators, they need to validate transactions. They cannot see the details, the transactions because they hold confidential business details. For that, we use the mechanism that we developed and call confidential non-fungible tokens. What validators validate is an atomic exchange of one token to another and a transfer of one token to another. And the token does not reveal its details. It has, of course, a unique ID. It is tied to a specific owner by its public key, which is a one-time public key. And it has its whole body encrypted in an encrypted payload. And the content of the token, which is a promise of the token, it's quantity, what it represents, be it a financial instrument or a shipment of goods. It's all encoded so that the validators cannot see its contents. Part of the platform, of course, is the wallet. We're fortunate by that businesses in Russia have already have digital keys. They have their private keys on USB sticks that they sign their tax documents and other documents. And we reuse these tokens to sign smart contracts and to sign their user transactions. So all users need to do is to go to their familiar user interface, as Berbank Business Online. Again, the application that they use every day. And they use the same private key, the same digital wallet that they'll let us just out of the box offer our clients offer the businesses ability to issue tokens and run smart contracts and operate on the platform. And of course, major work went into integrating the platform for the bank's backend. Of course, this needs to be done if you need to, if you run a real stable coin, which is tied to a user's account. Like I said, this has been a major work because it needs to adhere to all the security constraints and all the regulations. But it allows our users to seamlessly represent money that they have in their bank accounts by stable coins, use the stable coins to settle trades in tokens and also send the stable coins to smart contracts. And once they're done trading, or once they've made money on using smart contracts, they can withdraw their money into their fiat account. And again, this has done the major integration work with the backend. Now, how does it look to the user? Those are the screenshots that our users see when they issue tokens. So they can create a type of a token. A token can have, of course, a sticker, its name, its logo, and it can have many attributes that are specific to this issue, right? If it's commercial paper, it's principle and rate. If it's grain, it's the quality of grain and so on. And they can keep issuing tokens every time they need to. Now, we'll already use this functionality on the platform for the issuance of renewable energy certificates. They do not fall under the law of digital financial instruments, assets. And we started trading in this REC certificates or renewable energy certificates in December last year. So the platform is already open for business, trading very soon. We hope to get licensed by the Bank of Russia so that our clients can issue full-fledged financial instruments in tokens on the platform. Once you've issued the token and it has been approved, of course, you can transfer it or you can offer it for sale. And then it is available for investors to buy in order to buy tokens or trade them. Investors, of course, need to represent their money in stable coin. And that's what they do in this user interface. Now, before we're licensed, before we open for business in digital financial assets, we've opened a test map for developers. It consists of the minimum of four independent validators, four nodes. Four nodes, of course, they run on our variant of Hyperledger Fabric. On Fabric, we've created a public channel and we've deployed a CNFT smart contract. And of course, it's open outside the API. Developers can use a simple JavaScript bundle to build web applications on top of that. Web applications use a limited subset of API calls like issue, transfer and redeem. And of course, you can build a full-fledged application, your own application with middleware, database, your own UI. And for that, we have another Java bundle or a JVM bundle to use. And of course, you can create your own custom chain code. This chain code, you can upload to the network, to the platform. And like I mentioned already, this custom chain code can already use libraries that move tokens and most importantly, that libraries that move stable coins. So you can write a smart contract that moves stable coin. And of course, this is for now on test map, not a real ruble, but once you've tested, you can migrate it to a real production system and create a new fintech application. This concludes my presentation. I hope that it's been entertaining. We live in exciting times and I think we're ready for this exciting times. Thank you. We have a few minutes for, we have eight minutes for Q&A. Yes, thank you, Oleg, and great hearing you. So we have two questions for Oleg White. First, Fabrik now prefers the raft service to Kafka. Have you looked into raft? I believe we have. We made a choice with Smart BFT. Mm-hmm. Well, the reason that Smart BFT is a business in full torrent that that's what we rather offer to our clients, not a crash full torrent consensus. Right. So also Matthew was asking a while ago, the extension to Fabrik, will this be contributed back? Yes, they will be. Now Smart BFT is already available in GitHub, it's a great work of former IBM developers that we're using, and yes, we will open source integration of Smart BFT into Fabrik, together with another, I will not name the names, but another major contributor. Great. Thank you. And there are two, three questions. So another question was, as a Fabrik maintainer, primarily of the chain code libraries, would very much like to get your thoughts on how you develop smart contracts? How do we develop smart contracts? Yes. Well, there are different smart contracts for different applications, and Fabrik supports several languages for that, and for some applications, you use Golang, for some, for example, if you need to use some, let's say financial libraries that are not available in Golang, you would use Java, so it's a different approach every time. Yeah. I hope your answer is your question. Yeah. There was a question about how do you get access, how does one get access to the test net? Well, that was my last slide, we have a simple email, blockchain at the sparebank.ru. So simply write us an email and we'll get you set up. Great. That's very easy. Kamleis is asking, most people prefer Ethereum and related projects for tokenization. Why did you choose Fabrik? Do you have any specific reason? Well, there are several reasons. Well, first off, we needed an enterprise blockchain platform that was developed for the enterprise from the ground up, from the ground up. Most importantly, a platform that would have a consensus mechanism, not for public and anonymous networks, but for validators who know each other and for limited subset of validators. Basically we cannot use Ethereum because it uses proper work. And if we have four or 10 validators, a small network then we cannot really use Ethereum. But another reason is that Hyperlegio Fabrik is, well, perhaps, well, not perhaps, but it is the most popular enterprise blockchain platform and we really need to target as many developers as we can, so simply by popularity. I know Ethereum is also popular with public protocols. That makes total sense. I'm checking if there are any more. No, there are not many, there aren't any questions. If anyone has questions, please feel free to ask. Hyperlegio, Besson, Quorum also are also an enterprise blockchain with built-in built tokenization. So that could also be a choice. I'm guessing the answer here is that you've been working on this way longer than Besson or Quorum were around in Hyperlegio. That is true, but we're not, I mean, our main goal is to offer products to our clients, right? So we're not tied to a particular platform or a protocol. So if, and I think it's only logical to start offering different protocols, let's say Hyperlegio, Besson or Quorum or Polkadot as stage two, three and so on. What's important is in this network that we're building, independent validators and integration with the banks and integration of issues of tokens with their own backends. So at the end of the day, you may want to choose different blockchain protocols for consensus and to validate transactions. And it's perhaps even less important than the tie to the real world that you have. So integration of your blockchain node to the bank system is more important than a particular protocol that the nodes talk to each other, but so that's, so the short answer that, yes, it's very likely that we will use Quorum as our next step or other Ethereum derivative. And I mean, we have two more.  Thank you, Kamish. How can an application in your app store earn money? Well, that's a good question that we, to be honest, don't have an answer for. We have, well, rather we have several answers, right? You can charge by an Apple model, right? You can charge by transaction, but also don't forget that the bank makes money of transactions. So another model is also very much possible. We are FinTech developers, developed applications. They host them for free. We don't charge anything for the sale of this application, but we continue making money of transactions. Yes, a band. Okay, that's great. My question is probably much more loaded, so I'm not gonna ask it. I'm gonna ping you about it after the conference because it would take too long to answer. Well, thank you so much for presenting. It was a pleasure as always and thank you for sharing all of your insights. If anyone wants to chat with you or comes up with questions after this session finishes in 30 seconds, how can they reach you? Are you interested in having some offline chats or breakout sessions? I just posted our general email in the chat. It's a blockchain. It's bearbank.array. And of course we answer every email and you can continue this conversation via email and we can move to another channel. Okay, sounds like a plan. Thank you so much and enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Bye bye. Thanks.


Everton have released their new 2022-23 Awake It. The kit pays tribute to the iconic Prince Robert's Tower with a modern twist. The Await Shirt in the eye-catching rose-blue pink features a distinctive H's blue pattern inspired by the angled roof of the tower in the club crest and amplified into a cool geometric print for 2022. The Await Shirt is complemented by a tonal club crest and a round Patriot blue neckline with a pink trim and block sleeves. Midewing the home kit, the traditional four Homo chevrons down the arms are paired back to two, providing a striking contrast with the sleeving. The back of the neck also features the famous Prince Robert's Tower motive, which forms an integral part of this overall kit branding. Blue shorts see the two chevrons from the jersey replicated, this time in pink, with the Homo logo moving from the front to the back of the right leg, providing a clean fresh look. Short and mid are the shirt side panels via pink mesh inserts. The socks are rose-blue and pink with Patriot blue trim featuring two Homo chevrons on the front and the tower on the back. The 2022-23 Await Gulkkeeper Shirt, only available in short sleeves, is black with a fuchsia pink pattern which starts from one side of the jersey to the other, indicative of destructive movement patterns and agility. The shirt has plain black short sleeves with two fuchsia pink chevrons and a tonal club crest. Short and socks are black with future pink trim and feature the two Homo chevrons on the front and the tower on the back. The shirt is available right now and Everton will wear it for the first time when they play Minnesota United in the USA on Wednesday, the 20th of July. Make sure of your ordering the new Everton Await Kit to click the link in the description to help Toffee TV.


This is so lucky. I love when you arrive and the tram is already here. It's perfect. Dude. Are you kidding me, man? How? Come on! Dude, I'd be like, really? How does that happen to me? How?


Welcome folks, we have the Nasdaq industrial trading down 199, Nasdaq is off 392, S&P is off 60, that's a downdraft inside the Nasdaq folks, composite of 2.5%, 1.3% of the S&P's and 5.10% of 1% in the Dow industrials. Gold, gold contract down $1.50 straight at 18.13 We have silver down 20 cents, $22.85 an ounce, light sweet crude, up 67 cents, $77.67, a barrel, notes and bonds. The 10 year down 14 ticks, the 30 year off 14, 10 years trade in 128, 26, 30 years trade in 156.12 and King dollar. King dollars down 89 ticks, trade in 96, 174, the Euro is trading at 113, the Yens 116, the British pound is out here at 135 to 1 US dollar. We get open, we take a look at the spy, what you have here folks, okay, there's no doubt, you know, we get that ABC structure up in the spy. First you broke the consolidation, then you had an ABC structure on the way up. That being said, guess what folks, you're back inside the range again. Once you come back inside 473, it's like, okay, you're going to have an expansion of volume out here, we'll see, it's going to get out of the lower end of this consolidation. NDX100, we take a look at the NDX, the three cues, same type of setup, now the cues never made it to the highs, that's the bottom line. The cues made it up to the 404, the high out here was the 40871, you're coming down, bottom line is that you're actually still coming down with light volume. What you have here is this, is that you have, you're down to 53 million shares, however you're going into 82 million, as well as 78 million. So you're going to need a lot more volume in order to crack the lower end of this, but I do expect, what you're going to see on this lower end is the 378 is wide open now, we're at 386, and what I do expect we're going to see though, this is going to get intriguing here, to see as we come into the close, NQH, because what we just did, intraday, now if you use ABC structures intraday, we've hit the intraday ABC structure on the way down, a one to one, bottom line hasn't done a thing yet, that's the bottom line, it's down to 407 ticks inside of the NDX100, stay right there folks, we'll come right back.