On the next episode of Backroads. But you're already there And you're standing next to me Walking right next to me Breathing right next to me But mostly you're just Falling down


Okay, very good morning and Friday 31st of January, Brexit Day, keep saying I'm happy. We'll get to that in a second, but let's talk about the bigger, more pressing things at play for the immediate future, which is the headline you can see here. Not so much the oil prices are rising, but oil and equities are rising yesterday because we've got a global emergency. I know that sounds slightly counterintuitive, but the important part here is that they came out, the World Health Organization, against travel and trade restrictions. And that in itself was seen then as quite a soft kind of comment coming out of them and the markets latched onto that and we pushed higher into the close on Wall Street. Oil also pretty aggressive bid going into the US close last night. The director general urged people to focus on facts, not fear. And I do think that that's quite a good point, not him and what he was saying so much, but this notion of fear. As we were talking about right from the beginning of the week, I think one of the main things in 2020 that financial markets could be potentially as a key risk, susceptible to is the spreading of misinformation and fear. And what I mean by that then is that given how human behavior has changed, people are so kind of dependent and hooked on things like social media, which we know from previous cases like the election and Russia involvement. Things can be manipulated and misconstrued and misinformation. And fear is a very powerful thing and it does definitely reflect and can impact financial markets because fear can change consumers economic behavior and policymakers then as a consequence their response. So containing fear is actually a really important thing when it comes to something like a virus in particular because that kind of cuts to the core of every human regardless of sex, color, creed or religion could impact everyone. And so controlling that, I think, is part of the main objective here. As I said, markets rallied a very favorable response. I mean, actually it was a little bit choppy initially because the way of which the press conference came out and the sequence of comments in regards to first talking about the declaration of a global emergency, a little bit unsure how to take that, but then the ensuing comments, obviously a lot more soft in that regard and the markets taking that as a positive signal all the way up into the close. What is the actual current status? Well, here are the latest numbers and we're just shy of 10,000 total confirmed cases. They've actually updated this live tracker now with a total recovery number on the right hand side in green. That's at 187, total deaths now at 213. So again, the combination here of that not banning of travel and trade restrictions, so therefore by default that's not going to have then such a severe economic consequence as a result if people can still go about their business in that way. In addition to I think comparative to where we were just five days ago, I think these numbers are way lower and a lot of that predominantly built on the fear that kind of grew over the last weekend, if you remember, in the reopening that we had a trade on Monday. So yeah, I'm not going to talk about this too much. That's the current state of play and that's been reflected across markets really last night. One thing I would say is I'd be a little bit reticent now to just come in this morning and blindly start buying right from where we are at the moment. If you weren't in the market last night, I saw Sam was here at, what time was it Sam? 7.30. Yeah, 7.30, 8 o'clock, Sam was still in the office. So if you're there in that situation, fine. You're in it and you're part of the move. I just think very important for any new traders this morning, don't get too carried away that you think now this is kind of a binary result. We just continue to push up today because there was quite a decent move yesterday and largely a lot of that might now be priced in the news kind of norm so to speak. So already this morning, Index Futures just flagging a little after that push yesterday. Gold and T-notes obviously fell in response to that renewed risk on environment on Wall Street. However, some of that as well has just been paired slightly. So a couple of things to also consider is the weekend coming up and you'll remember last weekend, the weekend holding a position over that period would be a high risk strategy just given anything can really develop over the weekend. With this now, I'd say the kind of pattern is relatively known. So I wouldn't be expecting any new monumental corona inspired virus headlines that could really dent markets but still the risk is probably too grave to hold a position over the weekend. So just be mindful of that as well. I mean, looking at quick look elsewhere, Sterling is continuing to rally. So Boris and Nige are going to be loving it. The pound is rallying on Brexit Day. Yeah, that's where it should go. So this is great. Coming on the back of the Bank of England yesterday, obviously, we shot higher, really surprise event, the split 7-2. No one was really anticipating that. It was more kind of a 6-3-5-4 type scenario. And that definitely didn't occur and Mark Carney wasn't dovish really at all. And so we've just broken above really the Post Bank of England double top that we printed in the immediate aftermath and also just before the European kind of closed yesterday. One thing I did see is this. So on that front, this isn't the reason why the pound has moved higher. There's a few things with the pound. There's the technical move. There's the Bank of England yesterday. But UK consumer morale in data overnight is now a 16-month high. Post-election bounce is continuing. And this is probably underlining that reason for the hawkishness in the Bank of England yesterday. Remember, we saw some of that PMI data, the more forward-looking soft indicator showing quite a decent kind of response to the majority government that Boris has been managed to secure on the back of that SNAP election. And so if that is to be the case and maintained and materialized, now that today's, let's not get this wrong as well. And just to make Sam happy, I'm going to keep this up just for a moment. But today's date at 11 PM this evening is purely symbolic. I did get a couple of messages on Twitter of people saying, are they exiting at that time on a Friday night because the markets will be closed and so it's not going to impact the pound. It's a formality and it's entirely symbolic what's happening because actuality of the matter is our immigration, our trade, everything, nothing changes at all as of when we come back Monday other than from a top line when we're now out of Europe. Actually part of the implementation transition phase is that basically everything remains the same for another year. So the pound's not going to move. We already know that this situation is occurring. If anything, the soft data improvement that led to the Bank of England hawkishness is all part of this idea that it is a smooth orderly process, at least for the moment, yet to be seen though when the difficult challenges remain ahead in the months to come. But for the moment, it's kind of a positive pound situation in that respect. The other headline that I just wanted to show was this. And I don't put too much weight into just what one bank is saying but certainly I think this definitely is a fairly shared and common view held in markets at the moment. And this was Citigroup. They released a note last night. And they basically said that concerns that the recent slide in global stocks could mark the beginning of a bear market are misplaced and investors should keep buying on dips, saying that global equities should still rise 4% this year. And that was Citigroup last night. So again, just to make clear, this doesn't mean, right, stocks are at pivot, get long. What they're talking about is slightly more of a top level view that if any strong pullbacks in the market is just better value to be able to reassert a more medium term, long term position in the market to be long. And I was just having a look on the daily continuation. I mean, this is from Monday. And these transition my screen. These ellipses here that I've got were the markups of what would be technically very sound levels of where the market would find big challenges on the downside support if that coronavirus was to spread more violently than what it has done when people were quite fearful on Monday, these were kind of downside areas to monitor. And look, we got nowhere near it. And if anything, that October trend line that I know a lot of the guys were looking at is still relatively well intact at the moment. And we remain above that key kind of longer term, higher timeframe threshold of 32, 63 and a half, which is really this line here. And so, yeah, it's, you know, what a difference a couple of days makes. It's almost as like stability has returned to some degree, but obviously not out of the woods just yet. I would suggest that the coronavirus still requires a degree of vigilance. However, for the moment, markets are fairly happy, particularly on the coattails of that World Health Organization conference from yesterday. So overall, I would say we're pretty neutral now. If anything, perhaps a slight positive bias in the equity space as well, because we had this, which was Amazon. Now, Amazon, one of the largest companies in the world rose 10% after market. That's a mammoth rise for a company of that size. Now, why has that happened? Well, a couple of different things. Their fourth quarter sales climbed 21% to 87.4 billion, above the expected 86.2. Their profit rose to $6.47 a share that blew out Wall Street estimates of $4.11. They also said they had tops 150 million prime subscribers who pay monthly for those annual fees for shipping discounts and other perks and their TV access and so on. That's up from 100 million just two years ago. So that's a phenomenal increase. Some analysts were a little bit concerned about their AWS, that's the Amazon Web Services. So that's their kind of cloud division about slowing growth and rising costs because actually AWS for Amazon is a source of about two thirds of Amazon's operating income in recent years. But that generated revenues of 10 billion in the fourth quarter and that was up 34% from a year earlier. So pretty spectacular numbers really, all round for Amazon and they shot higher. And the commerce cloud giant now back towards the $1 trillion club once again.  Obviously Microsoft was very good. Some of those other very sensitive names like Tesla was very good. I think Facebook's fighting its own demons at the moment but overall pretty strong stuff with earning season. We do have a few other companies coming out later. These tend to be more oil majors, industrial linked kind of names and services. So Chevron, Exxon, Caterpillar, they're the names you need to look out for pre-market today as well. Quick look then at the calendar. What have we got? Chinese data overnight. We did have non manufacturing, manufacturing PMIs for Jan and they were basically in line. So nothing really there too much to speak of. Going forward into the European morning though, there is some important and interesting things that are coming out. And that is the Eurozone GDP numbers. Now, just having a quick look and a scan on the headline feed. So when they do start coming out, you've got the various European nations kind of littered through the morning but then the Eurozone number will come and that will be alongside the flash Eurozone CPIs. So 10 o'clock will be quite interesting if you're looking at European assets, Euro, Bundax, so on. Otherwise, the other things to look out for today would be U.S. based. You've got core PCE price index, personal income spending coming out. You've also got Chicago PMI. University of Michigan is the final, lesser impactful reading. Just so you're aware that is also coming out. And that's pretty much it from my side. So again, a couple things is I think you just need to put into context a little bit the fact that the market did move a fairly decent amount last night.  That's not to say that that might not occur. I just don't want you guys to just get, if you weren't in last night to be overtly aggressive and just start buying up everything like there's no tomorrow, because in the intraday environment that might not be the case in the medium term potentially. So again, your time horizon is quite key with these types of things. Pound's still rallying right up to the R1 now. I did hear the squawks say just before I began the briefing that Deutsche Bank analysts were talking about month-end buying of sterling against a variety of different currencies. So perhaps also that's a play as well. All right, hand you over to Sam. I will wish you a great weekend ahead. Don't forget, I'll be distributing the calendar highlights and a summary of my expectations to the week ahead when I tweet that on a Sunday. Okay guys, take care. Yeah, hi guys, hope we're doing well. Happy Friday. We'll bring in equities as they of course did push higher overnight. Is Europe going to buy into that or not? 25 minutes into the open and we actually just drift in lower a bit, not massively aggressively. I think a little line in the sand for the S&P and NASDAQ, I've got the same area of support in general in the S&P that's coming in around 32.85 on a quarter, I think as long as we're below there, this market might just start to drift down. Areas of potential support? Well, yesterday's overnight kind of high around the pivot and then 32, 64, 65, a decent area as well potentially below there. Is anyone really going to want to hold over the weekend after seeing what happened last Friday? And you can see there that a 30-odd point gap or so. I'm not too sure. But if we do push above these levels, 32.85 to the upside and there could be a further rally, you can see last night we just struggled to get above around 32.95 area as such. So keep a watch on those points. But as long as we're below here, I think we might just see a bit of a risk off morning. You can see gold in early trade up towards that pivot point. Just put it on a 15-minute and you can see here just pushing over the last hour or so. Nothing really to say we can smash through this just yet. Quite a lot of decent price action around here. You can see 15.81s was the double bottom initially from yesterday's low before we spiked through on the cash open of the US equities and then it got really choppy around there. So I wouldn't be looking to aggressively get in just yet and eventually you can see maybe if you're putting on a trend line like so. So maybe we can get some sort of retest of that later on and those previous highs 15-78 could be the opportunity or really being patient and waiting for the pivot to break through I think would be the way I'd go about it. Oil yesterday did push higher and it's been actually a really good guide I have to say for what equities are gonna do as well. So when I was trading the Dow last night I was really keeping an eye on what oil was doing, how it was gonna take cue if you like from the WHO and oil here just finding a bit of support on these lows. You've got a couple of trend lines in the mix there as well. I know a lot of people are talking about getting us down to 51-50-50 just because of the sheer support that we've had going back to June last year. It's just an incredible zone and then even to January last year almost literally this time last year. So it'd be interesting to see where we close the week. Do we get another test of that trend line in that low or not or is it to hold and when we push on you can see this morning we are just coming down to a pretty key zone. You'd call it the low from yesterday morning. We then broke through to find then resistance on the way back. We broke through then again last night and found some support and I'm just gonna move that up to a bit of a zone from the open on electronic trade last night around 11 and then midnight as well and now now you can see it's a pretty clear area of what would now be support. So a break of that, well things could start to drift lower, a bit more aggression. That zone 52-68 and then 52-77 to the upside. I'm gonna look at the pivot as well just below. Let's obviously be careful in the early hours of this trade because the volume is not necessarily gonna be there. Having a quick look over the pound it of course had a lovely day yesterday and that's continued. Break of some resistance this morning. Hups the R1, great place to have a little breaver you'd imagine and you can see here that's the highest we've been since we spiked on the 24th and came back down last Friday into the end of that session. So there's quite a lot of noise just above where we're training so that R1 again it's almost like gold if you're bullish fine but just have that patience to wait for that to break if you wanna get in or identify some of these previous highs from yesterday, double top broke through in around 7 a.m. to look to potentially get in for that retracement there. Euro off the low that we had on what day would it be? On Wednesday we confirmed after that close above we came out to find support we then pushed higher quite nicely. It wouldn't be all too surprising especially if we close the week above there that next week we can just try and push on a tiny bit and I know the longer term bears wouldn't mind a trade somewhere near that 111 on the futures or even a retest of this support that broke through as well. We'll have to wait and see what happens there. You can see the potential trend line to the downside I'd have on of course, as you know that weekly one as well going back from 2017-16 that's potentially a trade for later in the year that I'd be keeping an eye on. But for now Euro off those lows however there is a lot of resistance horizontally anyway just where the high that we had last night so it's not out the woods of course if you are bullish and we've been trending down since that high, just have a quick trend line to see if we can get anything in the mix there. Bit choppy to be honest, bit choppy but some support below range band hasn't been moving too aggressively in all truth so better markets out there I would say to be getting involved in. Quick look over the back, just to wrap it to see how we are doing 30 minutes into the session just slowing down a bit you've got all those lows from yesterday and before it's a pretty key zone, isn't it? Going back to the low that we had back on Monday to now each time we come into that area the buyers are stepping in. So not to say that we've found the floor but there could well be some support coming in here. An interesting one is if equities do push up into the afternoon, footsie is obviously down quite heavily because of the strength of the pound. So if the pound of course runs into some resistance as well could be a really nice recovery trade there for that market but we'll cover that throughout the day hope everyone has a good Brexit day and an even better weekend.


This is Think Tech Hawaii. Community matters here. I'm Marcia Joyner, and Think Tech Hawaii is doing a series of Meet the Candidate. From now until primary time, we will meet candidates from all over, from the tip of the Big Island all the way up to the very top to Nihihau and everything in between. Places that most of us don't know where or when they are on the map. We have visited so many wonderful places, and today we are visiting with my dear friend. And those of you that follow, you know, I only talk to dear friends. Is that what you're talking to a dear friend? Colleen Honabusa, who is running for Governor of the State of Hawaii. Aloha, Colleen. Aloha, Marcia. Thank you for having me. This is a real pleasure. I met you, of course you don't remember, when you first entered the legislature. This brand new, I was told all about this brand new attorney from Y&I. And so that's how long, how long has that been? Well, I entered in 99, so it's not quite 20 years, but pretty close. 19 years ago. So tell us, you were born in Y&I. I remember the Honabusa sign, the big Honabusa sign. And so tell us about growing up in Y&I. You know, I was born at Queens Hospital. But I grew up in Y&I, and I'm fourth generation on the Y&I coast. I have got to tell you, you know, when I was going to high school, people would tell me things like, do you feel safe in Y&I? And I'd say, I feel a lot safer in Y&I than the streets of downtown Honolulu. Because, you know, you're from there, and people know who you are. Growing up in Y&I was probably an experience that a lot of people could not maybe relate to. Because we didn't have much in Y&I in terms of, you know, government types of infrastructure. You know, I tell the story and it really is true. People ask me, why did you decide to run for office? And I said, it's because when I realized that as a kid growing up, the thing that always bothered me was when we had roller skates, and in those days, Marcia, I'm sure you know him, it was the metal wheel roller skier. With a key. With a key, yes. Key was a coveted piece of whatever you want to call it, possession that we had, we always wore it around our neck. And we had no place to skate. So luckily there wasn't much traffic, so we would skate kind of on the asphalt road. Then when they said, well, we're going to have sidewalks, we thought, wow, that's really something. It wasn't really a sidewalk. It was raised asphalt that went just up and down for not even a block. But we were so thrilled because we didn't have anything. Then I remember going to play with my cousins in Kaimuki. They had this thing called concrete sidewalks that went completely around the block. And the amazing thing, Marcia, is when you fall on concrete, it doesn't hurt. When you fall on asphalt, you end up digging these little black things out of your knee. So I said, this just isn't fair. It isn't right. And that's something that I've always held. And that's what growing up in Waianae was. However, also growing up in Waianae was amazing, the amazing parts of it. I've always said that the Waianae coast could represent the 17-mile drive. If you ever went down all the way to the end to Yokohama, what we call Yokohama, you would see that it's one of the most beautiful coastlines that you could possibly experience on this island. So there's that. I grew up fishing with my family. We knew so many of the nooks and crannies that people did not know. So growing up in Waianae had its positive, real positive parts. And it also had, as you look back at it, we didn't have as much. But you know what? We may not have known, except for my roller-skating experience. So then once you went to school in Honolulu, though. From eighth grade. Right. And then to the university? Yes. I went away to college for a couple of years, but basically graduated from the University of Hawaii with an undergraduate degree in economics and sociology. I have a master's in sociology, and I also have a law degree from the William S. Richardson School of Law. I'm in the second graduating class. Second graduating class, yes. That's right. That's wonderful. So why did you go into politics, other than to do something about Waianae? It really was about Waianae more than anything else. Because, you know, I'm like so many of my generation. We went to law school. You know, we all aspire to either have our own firm or to be a partner somewhere. So, you know, we just, we looked at politics kind of with a slight disdain. Why would anybody do that? But it became an issue for me when I realized that somehow, past Kahe Power Plant, Waianae just didn't exist to a lot of people. And what struck me is when I was thinking about running, I had these coffee hours, and one person told me, do not promise us anything, because you're not going to be able to deliver, because you're one of 25. Just promise us that people will know there's a Waianae, and you represented us when you're through. And you recognize where you are? Yes, I do recognize where I am. See, it is beautiful, isn't it? And right over your shoulder is the eye of Akua, taking good care of you. I hope so. So, again, where is it now that you've been in Congress? Why did you want to go to Congress of all places? Why would you want to go to D.C.?  And I think at that time I may not have thought about it as such, but as many people know, Senator Inouye was somebody who started to mentor me. And he told me that he said, you'd be very good in Congress. And he said, you should run for the position when Governor Abercrombie basically vacated the seat. And so I did. And I looked at it more as a challenge because the ultimate legislature in the world is really the Congress of the United States. And I don't think anybody who really decides to lead Wa'i, that you have to kind of have that inside because we are no longer just isolated in the 50th state. We are part of really a global economic base, and more importantly than that, we are the most forward state in Indo-Pacific, which is going to define this century. You know, President Obama said, of course he called it Asia-Pacific then, the 21st century will be defined by Asia-Pacific. And he said, that's whether we live in conflict or we live in cooperation. And we all know how true those words are today. And Hillary Clinton was the Secretary of State then, and she said, and do not forget, Hawaii is the gateway to Asia-Pacific. Those words have always resonated with me, and that's something that I have felt, that it was something that going to Congress, understanding how it operates, especially sitting on armed services and the committees that really affect Hawaii, armed services and natural resources. I think that it's just given me such a rounded experience that I can come back to Hawaii now and ask people for their support to be governor because of everything that I've done. And as you know, I was in the legislature for 12 years, and in the Congress for a total of six very shortly.  Well now, you said you were on the Armed Services Committee. You were one of the bipartisan voters for this last bill in May that I am drawn a blank with the title of it. The National Defense Authorization Act. And it is the one that spells out with Senator Akaka's name in the bill and Senator McCain, and I don't remember the other gentleman's name. And it's specifically dealt with those places about the rural areas and the care and allows the veterans to go other places. And I'm drawn a blank on the title of the bill. So can you tell us about that? Because that I think locally is so important. And Marsha, I do know your strong commitment to the Korean war vets in particular. And you're committed to all veterans, but I know you are. They're almost religiously on Tuesdays at Likiliki with those veterans. And yes, I think the bill you're talking about is the Veterans Bill. And you are correct. Senator Akaka for a very long time chaired the Veterans Affairs Committee. And of course we all know Senator McCain. And I'm drawing a blank on the third name as well. And I think that what you saw in that bill was a recognition that we had to rethink a lot of how those services are being rendered to them. And I think that that was the essence of that bill. So right now there are provisions in the bill that would allow people to, if they cannot get a certain kind of service, that you can almost go into the private sector and get it. And those are the kinds of things that people are finally listening to the veterans and their plight. With so many veterans here in Hawaii it seems to me that somehow they're overlooked in the campaigning. They're overlooked with the veterans. And so I just felt that it was absolutely necessary for you to address that since your name is part of the bill. Well you know it's, I think that we all know that the veterans is a, that is a major block of votes. And that it's also, so when I'm like visiting on Maui, I always stop by and see them. The Moloka'i ones are also very important. And one of the things that people may not realize is that we are going to have to kick it up because in 2016 there was supposed to be a veteran center built. And it gave, there's about 40-some-odd million dollars set aside for that. And it gave the state two years to comply with everything it needed to comply with. Our state unfortunately haven't done it. So now there's going to be an issue as to whether or not they're going to be able to get an extension. And if not, they're going to, they informed the congressional delegation that we may have to step in and ask for the extension on their behalf. But we're going to lose the funding. And we're going to have, we have a veteran center on Oahu that's at risk, and also one on Maui. Well speaking of monies not being used, Hawaiian Homes, 30 million dollars. I don't know if they had to return it. They didn't get it. What happened with Hawaiian Homes? I think the 30 million is really what they did not get. And it's, it's because we would, and I went from the time it was originally in Congress, I literally would be up at three o'clock in the morning arguing for the inclusion of Hawaiian Homes funding under Nahasta, which is basically a Native American Housing Assistance Self-Determination Act. So it's really one originally for the American Indians and Native Hawaiians were tacked on to that. It was President Obama who actually zeroed them out because they had about 60 something million dollars that they could not convince HUD that they were actually spending. So he said, and he warned them before that, that your inability to spend this money and account for it is going to result with you being zeroed out. So they have been zeroed out. We've been able to get placeholders one or two million, about two million a year, which is a far cry from the, I think the maximum they received at any one time was 13 million a year and then nine million. And the real task is that we're not going to have that law be authorized at the rate that we're going because of the inability to use the money. Well, we need to take a break and we'll come back in just a minute. And then I want to talk about some more monies that aren't spent with the DOE. So we'll be right back. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. Guys, don't forget to check me out right here at the Prince of Investing. I'm your host, Prince Dykes, each and every Tuesdays at 11 a.m. Hawaii time. I'm going to be right here. Stop by here from some of the best investment minds across the globe. And real estate, finances, stocks, hedge funds, managers, all that great stuff. Thank you. Aloha. I'm Marcia Joyner. And we at Think Tech are doing a series of shows dedicated to the candidates that are running for office and our election, primary election, which in Hawaii is the biggest thing going, is August 11. In fact, early voting has already started. So today we are visiting with my dear friend, Colleen Honabusa, who is running for governor. She is now currently a member of Congress. And your term ends? It'll end sometime in the first week of January, technically. Technically. Technically. But it'll probably end. We probably will not go back after close to the holidays. Okay. Great. So now we were talking about monies being returned or not spent. The DOE has, again, monies that aren't being spent. Now, as governor, there are 18 departments and agencies that the governor is the head of. Some of that looks like there is no management. And the DOE is one of them, as I see it. He talked about cooling 1,200 rooms and there's 253 public schools, charter schools, and the university who have buildings that are deferred maintenance that are falling apart. What about that? Where does the money in the DOE go? And why is it that they are not using it all or giving it back or whatever? Well, I think that what people forget is that, you know, I, of course, believe in our constitution. And our constitution has said that the policy considerations of the DOE are to be made by the board of education. So that's why we've had the battle between an elected board and appointed board. And now, as you know, they're appointed. I was one who advocated for the appointed board because I believe that the accountability of the board should fall on the governor, the state, and others, whether the board is doing its job or not doing its job, it should fall on the governor. And in addition to that, the board is who selects the superintendent of education because, in this case, she is to reflect the philosophies of the board. What is very interesting, however, is that the Department of Education also does not really establish the money in terms of the capital improvement projects. That's done usually by the legislature because the legislature has traditionally really used that as symbols of how they work for their community. So that's separate from the board, though I think maintenance, which you raised, is something that is usually lump sum to the department, and then the department and the board goes through and determines who's going to be funded. They will always say that we do not have enough money, and that's the problem. And even with the issue of the cooling of the classrooms or originally air conditioning as the classroom, as you know, the governor originally said he would do that at no cost to the taxpayers, but he was going to use a special fund called GEMS, which the Attorney General said was unconstitutional to use that. So the legislature had to step in again and funded $100 million to do that initiative. But it wasn't the governor's initiative, it was an initiative that was long-standing. I think if you go back to the time of Neil Abercrombie, for example, he had a more systematic view on it because he was saying, okay, we need to cool, but in addition to needing to cool, we need to find how we're going to create the source of energy. Because a lot of the problems and the issues that you will find, like you said with the older buildings, is it doesn't have the transformer capabilities or the ability to run a true air conditioning system. When I first got elected, we aced the whole Maile elementary, including its cafeterias, the only aced cafeteria. And the problem we had was the transformer capability. So luckily Hawaiian Electric stepped up and said, okay, we'll increase the transformer loads. If they didn't do that, you couldn't run an AC and plug in a computer. It would fry. So it's these kinds of issues that when we talk about how we're going to catch up, it's really a lot of details to get there. You just can't say I'm going to give you an air conditioning unit. You have to think about, okay, how does it all fit in? And if you do that, are you going to be able to have other really needs like computers? Can they operate and can they coexist? So those are the things, but those issues to me are one with the board. And the board is technically supposed to reflect the governor's philosophy. And then they have to then make the policy decisions of the department. Well, what about special needs children? You know, we had the Felix consent and now we're back again, that they haven't done, haven't met those needs. What about that? Where do we go from here? Well, you know, I chair, I co-chair the Felix Investigative Committee. And even at the end of that committee, the one thing that I always said publicly is that the department had no handle over a group called autistic children and that they would not be able, and until they began to understand autism, we would have it as a quote, almost a category where they would put children in. And it would result with, like you're saying, potentially another challenge because the concept of the special needs is IDEA and Section 504 federal laws. And that was what was being enforced. I think that every child should be entitled to, in that case, they used the word faith, which is a fair and appropriate public education. So it had to be something that was free and but it's appropriate, so it wasn't anything that gave them more, but notwithstanding that, that is the criteria. And it is one that the children are entitled to. The problem is going to be if the department doesn't recognize that they still haven't come to grips with autism, for example, and other challenges that the children may have, they will probably be looking at another consent decree and that means the federal court is going to step in and run it again. Well, I view that the state, as a state, tends to overlook the disabled community completely and there are no two disabilities alike. People that don't hear, people that are blind, people that are crippled, the veterans with all of the issues, the disabilities, children that are born with different things. How can we look at being more inclusive, caring more, doing more so that these people, for instance in Mexico, they have leather runways so you can take a wheelchair into the ocean? Simple little things like that that would make the visitor experience different. Little things that we just don't see disabled people, we just don't see them. I agree with you on that. So after my Felix experience, I will tell you that during the interim between my two stints in Congress, I did sit on the board of an entity called Gems and it's Gracie Morikawa and Gems was really targeted to assist the hearing impaired or the deaf community and unless you're in their shoes or at least try to understand what it is for them, you can't begin to understand it. I've always felt that with the hearing impaired community the problem is that they look like you can't tell that they're challenged in any way and then people get offended sometimes because if they're not talking to you face to face and some of them can read lips and others sign and only sign, you think, well, they're not paying attention, right? And I think that's the worst part. But I've always believed that society defines itself by how it treats our seniors, how it treats our disabled population and how it treats our youth. I mean, that's us. So unless we begin to look at how we're doing or failing to meet these needs, we are not going to be the society that we can be and we've got to have more people sensitized to exactly what the needs are. Yes, speaking of needs, we have an incredible homeless population and the city tends to label them either addicts or mentally ill and I think there's a category that is not being mentioned and that is the people that make ten dollars an hour and the rent is eighteen hundred dollars a month. So many of them don't have an address. We tend not to think about them. So in the little time left, talk to us about that group of homeless. We know about the others. Talk to us about that. That's the group that should be the easiest to address and it is a matter of then having some form of affordable rentals and as you know, this past legislative session in honor of Bob Nakata, the legislature infused two hundred million dollars into the rental housing trust fund to really address those kinds of needs and the way we do it is not by selling off, selling off these housing projects that are meant to do affordables or seniors. We don't do it that way and that's unfortunately been what this administration has done. So we need to hold that inventory and I will tell you one of the things that I did when I was still in the legislature is Kukui Gardens. There was Kukui Gardens under the federal program, was expired in terms, had done it 30 years and it can go market. So we intervened and it was with Governor Lingo. We intervened and we said no we can't do that or we'll have eight hundred people basically on the streets with no place to go and these are people who were working but they were surviving because they were in Kukui Gardens. So we were able to purchase half the units, gave it to a non-profit, not gave the unit, we kept the title but gave the operations to a non-profit who is doing a great job for keeping them in housing. Those are the things that we need to look and we need to recognize. We have to understand our inventory, understand who the needs are and don't aggravate the situation by doing away with that group of population by not addressing their needs. Well, this has been really fast but I want you to look right into the camera over here and tell us why we should vote for you. Thank you Martha and thank you, thank you and thank Tink Tech for having this. The reason I'm here to ask for your vote and support in the upcoming election is because I want all of you to know that the decision to come home to run was not an easy one but it was a decision made because one I believe my political journey brings me to this place and because I believe you all deserve better. People have told me we're rudderless and we just don't seem to have direction and there is no vision. You can't do things in the fourth year of an administration and try to portray it like this is something that's been going on for the whole time. That is not what this is about. So please when you look at me I hope you see someone who is not same old, same old. Somebody who does have a vision more importantly than all of that great love for Hawaii, understanding what it is that we all need to play in the Pacific but more importantly than that to keep our people here, to keep the young here so that we can continue to be that very special place. So a vote for me is a vote to ensure Hawaii's place in the world and ensure our people continue to be the special people that they are. Thank you. Aloha. Aloha. And we'll see you next time.


The first items we're going to look at is how we move closer to a true DSP. So if we look at the core itself, you have this on the flyer that's in front of you. Right in the middle of the core, the block diagram of the core, you have the prefetch unit, the processing centre and the load store. Felly, ydych chi'n gweithio'r bobl, yma yma y ddweud y ddweud y ddweud y ddweud. Felly, mae'n 32-bit ychydig, ond mae'n meddwl i'r 64-bit argymdeithasol ar gyfer 32-bit. This is because, inside the prefetch unit, we now separate the instructions out into two 32-bit streams. So, this is the part of what we call dual issue. So, two instructions come in, on your 64-bit bus. Cymreventu hynny yn rhan gyntaf maeth o y llwylio dw i ddim. Efallai yma yn meddygol. Mae'r rhai llwygarau ac ydw'n meddwl am boledigaethu cerddau wedi bod hi yn cyfnodd, cofioidd, ac nesaf i unrhyw faelo iawn i ddim o'r llwyster dda mewn dwi'n golygu o'r difech mi ar y swydd. Felly, mae'r gael nhw'n gweld o'r llwyfiau syndwiskol, mwy equityr i'r milwyr syndwiskol, oedyn ni wedi bod hynny oedd ymyl yn ddiddordeb ac yn teimlo gynnwys oedyn oedyn yn hynny. Bydd eich gynnwys. Ond bydd eich gynnwys. Fy oed yn gallu'n lliwyddoch chi. Efallai, yn lliwyddoch chi'n gynnwys canio'n digwydd. Felly, mae'n mynd i, os ydych chi,'ll mai yn ei wneud, mae'n iawn gan bwynt'r ddiolchol, mae'r gweithio rhai gyd yn ysbeth, o'r ffordd wych yn cood o marchdain, dweud i'r Rh balloon honno'r gwirio diwg gweithio'r cyhoedd. Mae'n rhan o'r cyfgau sydd wedi sicr o fe fyddio y gorfod yr hyn yn ysbydd humud this dual issue scenario at all times. To make sure you're getting the best performance inside the device. So if we compare that now to the Cortex M4, a single load or store instruction will take about two cycles, typically. If you're doing multiple then it's M plus one cycles. Your Cortex M7 can now do two in parallel. So this is all happening simultaneously. For you, as the customer or as the software engineer, you do have to put your faith into the C compiler a lot here. Your C compiler is going to manage this for you. If you set your optimization to high, your C compiler will rearrange your code to maximize this feature, which means debugging your code becomes a lot more difficult. So you will have to weigh up the balance between the ability to debug and the optimization level you're going to use at the start of your project. You can probably change it later and then revalidate your code. But if you want to try and debug sensibly with the code in a fairly similar order to what you've written it in, then you cannot set your optimization too high in the compiler at the start of your project. So the compiler will manage all of this for you. So you shouldn't have to do anything different as the software engineer. So that provides us with our superscalar architecture, where we can execute two instructions in a single cycle. So that's where that feature comes from. So that brings us a lot closer to how a DSP works in the TIAD world, things like that. So that's pretty much how they're doing things inside there. The second feature we have to bring us closer to a DSP is the zero overhead loops. So again, in this intelligent part, the prefix unit, when these instructions are coming in, the BTAC part with the feedback from the data processing unit are always working out where the jumps are going to go to and where the links need to be brought in from. And all this is going to manage it so that you can do a single cycle branch and jump at the same time. Because you have the two instructions, this will analyse it in the prefix stage before it gets to the processing unit. And it will make sure that that stream is your branch and the alternate jump is sat on the second branch already in the processing pipeline at the same time. So you can pretty much execute a branch with jump in one cycle. If we compare that to the Cortex-M4, it used to take about three cycles and that was with branch speculation enabled inside the Cortex-M4 core. So you've now gone from a three cycle jump to a one cycle jump inside the device. So it's quite a big overhead there with those two features to really up your processing performance of the device. So that means the second feature that takes us closer to a proper DSP.


Great. Um, can everybody hear me? Okay. Good. Thank you so much for coming. My name is Olivia Scott. I am one of the biologists on the main moon restoration project. Does everyone introduce themselves. Hi, I'm Tony. One of the other biologists on the restoration project. And my name is David. I'm also one of the wildlife biologists on the moon restoration crew. My name is James Reddick. And I'm the lookout for loons project manager for the 2023 nesting season. Great. Well, let's get started. So the main loon restoration project is a five year project funded from an oil spill that occurred off the coast of Massachusetts and Rhode Island in 2003. Um, we're going to talk a little bit more about that later, but the main goal is to increase loon nesting success and decrease adult loon mortality. The three main methods in which we're using to accomplish to you to accomplish our goals is to place artificial nesting platforms also called rafts bolster the look out for loons program which involves volunteer outreach. And James will go over that more in detail in a bit, and to also expand our fish lead free program to try and prevent preventable deaths by lead poisoning. Okay James take it away. Thanks Olivia. So I'm going to start tonight. I'm talking to you a little bit about the lookout for loons program. As I said I'm the manager for the 2023 nesting season for this program and what I'm going to do is provide you with a quick overview of what the program is, and how you can get involved. If you feel like it's a good fit for you. So let's start with what is the lookout for loons program. It's an education initiative with the goal of increasing people's awareness about how to enjoy lakes and ponds. And it's an independent way that protects these incredible charismatic birds, the common loon. Specifically, we want every lake user to understand that there are simple things that each of us can do to decrease disturbance to increase their nesting productivity throughout the season, and ultimately to reduce loon deaths from boat strikes and other human causes. So we're going to accomplish those goals. Well we're building a team of trained volunteers all across the state that can conduct outreach and education on the lakes where they live or where they recreate. The program is designed to equip these volunteers with the tools and resources they need to do the type of outreach that we're seeking to do the type of education that we're doing things like providing effective individual conversations how do you do that. And answer questions frequently asked questions. There we're also in a position to distribute outreach materials you'll see some copies of those fact I've got one of those nice brochures right here. We have digital versions of those as well. How to place look out for loons signs on high risk late winds that appropriate, and how to direct people there, and also how to conduct presentations to community groups. I work at Maine Audubon and Maine Lakes who I work for get many requests over the course of the summer to talk about loons, and it's more than our small steps can ever cover. And so, having a group of trained people who are in a position to help out with those types of things is what we're trying to do this educational approach is made possible because of years of research biologists like these that are on the call with you tonight have done over the years. And it helps us pinpoint exactly what the leading human driven causes of loon deaths are, you're going to hear more about that from from Tony, not only about the causes but what can be done about it from Tony and David but we know that information that's the bad news, but the good news is, it tells us and helps pinpoint exactly the things that need to be done to reduce these risks. We can get lake users to consistently practice the simple steps that that that also have been identified it'll go a long way toward reducing risk for our loans. And this is where the training for volunteers comes in the lookout for loons program in assets is helping turn people into ambassadors for loons across our across our lakes. And resources will provide training and resources that our volunteers need to help get the word out about loans on their lakes where they live and recreate. The resources include like these brochures that you see here, both print and digital versions of these that help you recognize and help people recognize. When are they observing loans from a safe distance versus when have they gotten a little too close. Unfortunately, too many people think that it's just because alone as they are not flying away that, oh they're comfortable with people when in fact they may be very very stressed, and it may be interfering with nesting or has the potential for doing so so understanding those types of things as part of what we do. We also provide scripts and slide decks for having effective conversations conducting presentations. We also provide tips and tools that people can use. So that's what we're doing with those that are interested in becoming volunteers. So it's a little about the program, how do you get involved. If you're interested in being trained as a lookout for loans volunteer here the steps. We have trainings this week. In fact, I'm putting on one tonight I'll be leaving this call a little early to go and kick off that training. We also have another one this Thursday, and you'll receive a follow up email that has links if you're interested in registering for that train. If that date and time doesn't work for you don't worry. They're actually, there's actually a website that you can go to and review a recording of one of these trainings, you see it here on the screen now at www.lakes.me that'll take you to the loans page, and you can review one of those videos of one of our past trainings. If you're interested, please do that you can also reach out directly to me if you have questions and want to know or want to talk to me about whether it's the right project for you, and you see my address on the slide as well. So, that's a brief overview about the look out for Loons program what it is and how you can get involved. Thanks for your time. Really appreciate your interest and commitment to the Loons of Maine. It's people like you that will really make a difference for them. Thank you James. Okay, I'm going to carry on and talk to you a little bit about loon ecology. So loons are very territorial birds. The males arrive back on main lakes, as soon as ice is out or pretty much then or the day after this occurs in mid March through April depending on where the lake is and depending on the winter. They start establishing territories right away through displays and territorial disputes. Their territory sizes range anywhere from 20 to about 200 acres, but they average about 100 acres. The territories are defended from other loons through these fights. They can often result in extreme injury or death, you can see how brutal their fighting actually is in this picture. One of their territorial displays is called a penguin dance in the upper right image. It is unlikely that there will ever be more loons than a lake can support due to their extremely territorial nature. Loons are amazing divers, they feed mostly on small fish but they can eat fish that are up to 10 inches long, primarily minnows, suckers, perch, gizzard shed, rock cod, kill a fish. Fish such as trout and salmon are harder for them to catch due to the direct nature of their swimming pattern. Loons can dive up to 200 feet and they can stay submerged for up to five minutes. Typical feeding dives however are about one minute long, so much shorter than what they can do.  You can kind of see in this picture how far back their legs are. And although this makes them amazing swimmers, it makes them very unable to walk on land. To get out of the water they have to raise their bodies and then lurch inch by inch, kind of pushing themselves along the ground, and it takes a lot of effort. They have to help because of this, they have to build their nest very close to the water's edge and pretty much the only time that you'll see a loon on the shore is if they're breeding or incubating. Or if they're sick or injured. But besides that they do not willingly go on land. This, because their nests are located so close to the shore they're able to slip quietly into the water without attracting predators. Nests being on the shore leaves them vulnerable to many threats, especially with how close they are to the water's edge. One of the threats is changing water level. So water level fluctuation due to rainfall or dam management can cause a nest to flood. Additionally, boat wake can also cause a nest to flood. So if a boat is not going headway speed near a shoreline or an island where a loon is nesting, then it is very likely that the nest will flood because it is located, you know, within two feet of the water. Another problem, especially during a dry season would be the nests being stranded. So this upper right photo shows what happens when a loon nest is inaccessible by water because the water level has dropped. You can see the line where it's dragged its body to get back into the water. Nests that are flooded or stranded such as these are often vulnerable to abandonment and eggs that have become submerged in water for too long are also no longer viable. Nests that are right on the shoreline also make them vulnerable to disturbance from lake users, particularly vulnerable while nesting in the early part of nesting because they're more likely to abandon the eggs. Boats that linger near eggs can cause distress knowingly or unknowingly. You can see in this photo on the left of the picture of the person fishing. The loon is so close to the water and almost camouflage that they may not even know that they're there. Two photos of the loon on the nest, so the one on the left and the one on the right side, show that the loon is in extreme distress with its head jutting outright as though it's ready to, you know, slide off the nest at any given moment. Loon parents may leave nests that are in high areas of disturbance which leave the eggs vulnerable to predators or overheating. The eggs can overheat in a very short period of time on very hot summer days. It's also good to note that not only motorized boats can cause problems. So, this is an extreme example from the Adirondacks. In the center you can see the loon and it is completely surrounded by people in kayaks. And although their boats may be silent and they seem calm and peaceful, this loon is actually in high distress. Nesting on the shoreline also makes loons and their eggs vulnerable to predators. Loons have many natural predators of their eggs such as skunks, mink, raccoons especially, and even dogs. Avian predators such as bald eagles will also eat eggs and chicks. Their dependence on the shoreline also makes them vulnerable to threats due to habitat loss. We live and recreate on the lakeshore and we compete with habitat for the loons. As we develop the lakeshore, nests can lose potential sites that were once viable. They can start nesting in sub-optimal habitats such as camp from beaches or even swim rafts such as the photo on the right. Heat is also an increasing issue, especially when their habitat does not have appropriate cover that the shoreline typically would. So on beaches or docks or swim rafts, there's no shrubs or overarching vegetation that would protect them from the heat and the sun. Another important thing to know when you're thinking about loon protection is that they are very devoted parents and they're all in when it comes to parenting. Once the chicks hatch, they are entirely dependent on their parents for about three months and in their first weeks, their parents can keep them warm and protect them by carrying them on their backs. But they also require a ton of feeding and this leaves them vulnerable, sometimes out in the open in the middle of the pond, where they're vulnerable to boat strikes and boats speeding past them and separating them. Loon deaths from boat collisions are on the rise. When we collect dead loons and find out what caused their death, many of those deaths end up being from blunt trauma from boat strikes. In fact, boat strikes may be passing lead poisoning as a leading cause of death in adult loons. The main law states that you have to maintain headway speed within 200 feet of shore or islands, which is very important to prevent nests from flooding. However, loons that are out in the open in the middle of the lake are still vulnerable to being hit by boats. Because loons are fish predators, they're also vulnerable to becoming tangled in fishing lines, such as the photo on the left, or ingesting lead fishing tackle, as seen in this x-ray image. Ingestion or have lost or discarded fishing tackle can cause lead poisoning within two to four weeks of ingesting. The loon will either eat a fish that has a piece of lead tackle or pick up a small lead sinker from the bottom of the pond in order to help them in digestion. Because they swallow fish whole, they require small pebbles in their gizzard to help grind and crush the food. However, this grinding action in the gizzard can actually erode the lead sinker faster, which results in acute toxicosis. Loons migrate from their summer territory to their wintering grounds on the coast. This may be a surprise for some people, but they do spend the entire winter on the coast, and although they face many threats during breeding season, they also face a unique set of threats on the coastline, one of which is oil spills, which I will pass it over to Tony to talk about. Okay, so thank you, Olivia. So, yeah, loons winter on the coast, and we all know that the common loons breed on fresh water on the lakes, but not everyone knows that they migrate in the fall, such early winter to the coast and winter on the ocean. And so that's Olivia stated and so, so that's why it's so important for the reason why this grant is here today and so one particular reasons for the oil spill that occurred in Butchard Bay on April 27, 2003. It spilled 98,000 gallons of oil when it hit a rock and it tore a 12 foot hole in the hull and it affected 100 miles of shoreline and includes beaches, rocky coasts, selfish beds and salt marshes. So for that oil spill, 479 dead birds were collected in over 30 different species of water birds. And in terms of loons, 76 were found dead and 128 oiled loons were collected and more oiled loons were found throughout the summer. And it's estimated that there were actually 531 loon deaths and the number of birds collected is much less than the total number of birds killed and affected by the spill. The loons that were affected were ones that breed in Northern New England, so Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont and New York. And it happened in April when possibly still some of the wintering grounds and some juveniles remain on the ocean until the year they're ready to travel to the main lakes to breed. So others who wintered further south and were just passing through could have also been affected. So 10 years later after the spill in 2021, a settlement was reached in the company responsible for the spill. We're had the responsibility of recovering the losses and damages from the spill and so settlement funds were administered as grants through the US Fish and Wildlife Service and some of those grants focused on restoring loons on breed and then thus the main loon restoration project was founded. And also the Adirondack Center for Loom Conservation, Vermont Center of Eco Studies, the Loom Preservation Committee and BRI are also participating in studies with the use of this grant money. And so, as Olivia mentioned before, this is what gave rise to the five year collaboration project led by Maine Audubon, but also in partnership with Maine Lakes, Lakes Environmental Association, the Penobscot Nation, and the Maine Department of Inland Fish and Wildlife. And so the main goals of these project is to engage local volunteers and lake associations in order to one place artificial rafts and monitor the nesting success on the rafts, and fish-led free efforts to reduce lead tackle, the use of it and loon ejection of the lead tackle, and launch in the Lookout for Loons program that James lead in order to reduce nest disturbance, flooding from boat wakes and loon collisions with boats. So the loon raft program. The main way we are working to increase loon productivity, and when I say that I mean the number of tricks that hatch and thrive on Maine Lakes is by working with volunteers and lake associations to place about 100 rafts over five years. And this project isn't statewide. It takes place in mainly 11 counties. And Northern Maine and Down East Maine is covered majority by BRI. And other biologists also help lead this program, including like Lee Addix and Billy Halbrin. And this photo here really depicts just how well a raft can blend into the surrounding scenery if put in the right place. And that is where we are experimenting with this project to see if it can help save the loons. So community science and local participants. So volunteers are trained to do the training and trained in nest protection and outreach. And the participants help Bill deploy and maintain the rafts. The volunteers are a vital part of our project because without the volunteers, this project would not succeed and we rely heavily on our volunteers so we really appreciate everyone who's interested in this project. We want to increase our outreach and where we are currently on the third year of a five year project. And we want to continue to build capacity so the restoration efforts restoration efforts can continue beyond this grant period of five years. So, we've had over 100 participants involved this year. Now we are close over to 150 from all the outreach and hopefully that'll continue to rise. So loon raft examples, we're asking have a lot of different designs and made out of different materials. We have a classic cedar log design and a newer design made out of lobster trap wire and flotation, but some are made of metal and PVC. Some have a type of vegetative cover for shade and camouflage it depends upon like the lake and what threats are present at the lake if it has that camouflage avian guard but we always form some some form of shade. And some have extra boards on the side tacked as wave guards if that area is really impacted by wake boats. So so far. There is one of the chicks hatched from one of our rafts in 2022 is pictured above. And so what happened so far 2021 was our pilot year. So we've had one raft deployed and our project graphs are helping we've seen and so there are 27 rafts in 2022. And they have a very low historic productivity, and each pair was averaging 0.1 checks per year before the rafts, which is basically one chick every 10 years and in order to sustain populations, we need one chick every other year. And so in 2022 the rafts increased productivity by times seven, which is very successful. And they are taking to the rafts more quickly than expected. And we had a third of our rafts use last year. And so this year so far nine rafts are in use today, which is a lower rate compared to last year. We're thinking this delays because of some of the rain and when we've been having. And also we picked up quite a few numbers last year on the second nest attempt so we're excited to see what continues to happen throughout the summer. And so how do we select sites for rafts and when our rafts a good idea. So rafts have been helping lone pairs hatch chicks for half a century and they can be a great tool to help the loons that consistently fail to produce chicks, and can be a great way to address some of the threats that we went over earlier, such as the nest flooding and providing habitat when there's insufficient habitat. And if there's onshore disturbance, all these can really help increase a loon success with fudging a chick. But as we've already saw, rafts are, they may, they take a lot of time to maintain and you want to make sure we have people able to monitor them. And they can only be used in the right situations and locations. And it's important to know that not every loon needs a raft, and there is a wrong way and right way to just put out a raft and this is why it's crucial to work with your local local organizations, in order to first help vet if your lake is the ideal place for one, and then how to properly build one because it's really important to keep us safe and the loons and the wildlife that share that habitat safe. And because especially because rafts can come with risk. And so, sometimes nests can be more visible to avian predators on a rafts. The eagles or gulls are the primary reason that loons aren't hatching on your legs. A raft probably isn't a good solution, because the chicks typically leave the raft after one or two days of hatching. So, if the main reason is because of eagles, it's not really an ideal one threat to put out a raft. Also, rafts can be placed too close to one another. So if you place a raft too close to a separate loon breeding territory, it can attract the tension, attention of a neighbor and loon pair and lead to territorial disputes. And also rafts can sink and flood or break loose and float into other pairs so it's important to make sure to always monitor the raft and make sure it's in good maintenance. And while rafts can float and rise with waterfall, there are limits and sometimes boatwigs can displace the rafts, but that is very rare and we've only had like an instance of one of last summer where a wake overtook a loon raft, but it's still always a possibility. And so the bottom line to know is that this can go wrong and not every loon pair needs a raft so it's important to just make sure to vet out the territory and make sure it's an ideal place for that. And David will pick it up from here to talk more about that. Thank you so much Tony for all your excellent work there. Yeah, like Tony said I'm going to sort of pick up where she left off and talking more about when do the potential benefits outweigh the risks. So, in our program, there are a rather than be a good idea for three situations where they apply to your lake or your situation. And the first thing that we look at is if there is a territorial pair that tries to nest every year and fails to hatch chicks year after year. We have a couple of different metrics used to analyze this. Either we only consider putting out a raft if a pair has failed for at least the last three years consecutively or three out of the five years. So that's sort of how we analyze if a pair is in need of help. Some clues that we use to look for if a pair is struggling. So we look at abandoned nest. If before eggs are hatched and eggs are left in nest. That is an often time aside as an example of loons in trouble. The nest may have been flooded, or predation can be observed so broken eggs, or eggshells floating around can be indicators that they have been eggs have gotten got, as I've been told. In addition, adults can be seen on nest but if there are no chicks present or courtship and nest building is happening but there's no ever chicks developing from that math can be another sign that there is some struggles going on with those territorial pairs. So, the next situation that we tend to look at is low productivity due to a problem that rats can address. As Olivia and Tony mentioned, rafts can only address certain types of problems. So you need to ask yourself, first of all, what is causing that nest failure, and is a raft. A good idea, and a raft could be a good candidate for problems such as the main one we focus on is water level fluctuations. So dams water level management, even heavy rainstorms and droughts, or beavers can oftentimes change the water levels at a lot of the lakes and ponds that we visit. The levels rise and fall and nests can be flooded or stranded. So, floating rafts that can sort of handle those changes in water levels are really great for dealing with any sort of water level fluctuation threats that annual pairs might be experiencing. Additionally, predation from land animals is something that we can address. A raft is a nest that is moved offshore. That a little bit of extra water and something that those animals might have to do to get to that nest and get to those eggs can be a pretty large deterrent and can often prevent raccoons or even dogs from entering and trying to, or from easily getting those eggs. I'm not guaranteed but does help and prevent them from getting it easily. Thirdly, a lack of nesting habitat. So, as Olivia and Tony have mentioned before is that a lot of these areas see a lot of human development on those shorelines. Lakeshore development can reduce prime nesting habitats forcing loon nests forcing loons to nest in poorer sites or not at all. So a raft may be really useful if suitable sites are lost within a loon pairs territory. As was said before shoreline development is generally accompanied by an increase in predators, such as raccoons, seagulls or even corvettes to so an increase in human presence is often attempting to bring those predators as well. And finally, human disturbances human disturbances and development removes potential loon habitats as well. If a loon is regularly regularly disturbed, it may abandon its nest. And if the nest is near a boat landing or other high use areas, a raft can bring that nest offshore away from where land activities may be occurring in a less intrusive and more comfortable area for those loons to nest and be able to raise their young. So, if we keep moving on a little bit. The last and most important situation that we have for our rafts is local commitment and dedication. So, we rely on local local community members to monitor and maintain our rafts throughout the whole season. Raps are serious investment of time, energy and resources and it takes an active management from a network of people to keep them in tip top shape and performing well. And as Olivia mentioned to proper anchoring making sure that we anchor these graphs, so that they don't fall into other loon territories, or get crashed on shore by big waves. Some log graphs can even be left in over winter if there's little risk of ice damaging them. But you kind of have a trade off in that you may need to have more maintenance done on the following year to make sure that it can float properly. Normally they need to be taken out every single year, every single season, every fall and return to the spring. So the result of that we require help from local members to be able to put those out and take them at the end of the season. Vegetation as well may need to be added to create shade, and as well as nest bowls. So one of the problems that Olivia mentioned earlier is that overheating can be a serious problem that a lot of our loons are facing. We have to have things like vegetation of moss side and other other local native plants to give the wraps a more inviting natural feel to them but also to offer protection from overheating as well as a little bit of camouflage like Tony mentioned earlier to keep them hidden away from predators. But that vegetation will have to be re added on either midway through seasons or at the end of a season or the beginning of one to make sure that it is in healthy, robust health. Sorry about twice, but that will make it a viable sort of place for them to live. We also need to be monitored to make sure that they're giving one sec. So when we're monitoring we also ask our monitors to monitor once per week from early spring to the end of August or later when the chicks are around six weeks of age. So without an ongoing commitment your raft could be worse off than no wrap. So in summary, it's important, if all the situation exists for your pair, they may be a good candidate for a raft. However, it is something that we need to note is that if your loons are if loons in your lake are in trouble. If they're not successful every single year that is natural loons don't hatch chicks 100% of the time. So just because they don't have chicks doesn't mean they don't need help but we use those metrics we were talking about earlier to determine if it is something that we could require assistance if it's a consistent problem. So, if we keep going on. One thing also needs to focus on is before we offer a raft out or put a raft in your situation at your site. We have to consider if there are other sort of things that could accomplish the same goals without adding in some of those risks we have talked about prior. So, things like setting up lead collection bins to prevent loons from ingesting by tackle posting signage or outreach to help reduce nest disturbances. To raise awareness about reducing both speeds, as well as awareness about better trash management to discourage scavengers are all great ways that we can help loons without the need for a raft. One more side. So, if we do decide to go with a raft and if a raft is something we have okay for your site, we have developed a wonderful little guide to help those interested in rafts understand when a raft is appropriate, and when the potential benefits outweigh those risks. There's also a video that goes over when a raft is a good idea, the raft building how to put it together, the two types of wrappings in this program, as well as proper wrapped placement and deployment. So, those will also be all those links will include in that follow up email that will send out. So if you have any questions you can always refer to those resources. All right, and one of those resources that we provide is the webinar. So this webinar goes over the again proper monitoring protocols, as well as the. As well as the expectations for monitoring. So what we saying is monitoring expected to be conducted by local volunteers or individuals and Lakes associations, ideally once a week. And the main Autobahn provides the trainings and resources on how to monitor as well as around to site visits over the check ins over the season to ensure that that those standards are being upheld and answer any questions or concerns that may that any volunteers may have. So, there is both a paper form and an online form, two different types of way of entering data, if you are more comfortable one of the other. Both have been pretty simplified and changed from prior years as well too so if you are a returning user we always encourage you to go look at that webinar and see if there's any new changes that could have been made that may need to brush up on. But if you are any other resources as well to you can find those on the main Autobahn website and restoration page, or you can use these behavioral reference sheets that we hand out to our members and volunteers. And they are fabulous resources to give a bunch of different information, mostly talking about to determine if you're seeing a territorial pair how to determine if it is one or is not.  So these can go from a range from normal relax to stress and concern behaviors as well too. And it's a really great resource to look at and utilize when you're out on the water. I'm sure that you're not cause if you're noticing any of those concern behaviors to back off and give those in that space that they're asking for. So that again it's one of those fabulous resources to be included. And again that would that link to the webinar will be included in that follow. So as part of this project, we also help place nesting signs out when there is appropriate. And while we say that because science can sometimes off act as a double edged sword, they're great for educating members of the public and letting people know to stay away. However, they can also attract and increase disturbances and decrease that nesting success that we're really hoping for. So we have developed our own criteria for when we place these signs out. So what we're doing is are permissible and those four things are if the nest is visible or in a really high traffic area. If the nest is being disturbed with human activity signs. Signage is not in the way or blocking off any access to any sort of water. And we also have the landowners permission. Like we said earlier we can't really close off or cordon off access to any sort of any any open water stuff too so what we really utilize is the signages to help educate people about loon nesting and how to properly behave about that. So these signs are fantastic they're great because they are made of metal, they won't really be damaged by anything that may come up on the raft. So they're colored with the BPL warning signs for navigable waters. And we also can provide criterias and instructions for floating sign bases. If it's something where a sign would be more effective out on the water itself to. So, one of the new one second I one word little should be able to go into on signs. So, signs at nesting sites historically have not been allowed by main DIF and W, because of concerns that they make mess, mess more visible attract attention. But based on success and other new England states of main DIF and W has been working alongside it up main Audubon to sort of pilot this program through our project. So they have some really interesting data to support these claims, such as floating signs increase nesting success from 50 to 80% on mess that were at risk of failure from human intrusion. That's that was a recent study out of the Vermont school for eco studies. We're also working alongside with volunteers to place those yellow look out for loon signs that James Redock mentioned earlier at boat ramps and kiosks to raise general awareness about when presence on the lake and new DIF and W practices are preventing us from posting these at state boat launches, but private boat launches are still viable to have these added to them as well too. Moving on to another one of our outreach programs that we work alongside is fish lead free. So the goal of this project is also to reduce loon deaths from lead tackle specifically. The way that this project works is hosting lead tackle exchanges, like the ones you can see on in a couple of photos here, and also instructing people on how to build and post 11 fishing line collection bin at your local boat ramp, boat ramp or launch. And so we've done a bunch of these of some of these include things like ice derby sportsman shows and local local tackle buyback exchanges are offered at these locations. So if we continue on. So one of the ways that we can be getting involved with educating the public and so a couple of phrases that we'd like to use around here are fish lead free and spreading the word so educating people with outreach, as well as reeling it in when loons are nearby. So that's a great way to sort of reduce any of these entanglement issues that sometimes we have reports on these incidents of wounds getting caught in fishing lines is a pretty easy way to pretty easy thing to be able to avoid if we're being more conscious when we're fishing and really in and be careful of the wounds around us, as well as, you know, classic things like picking up discarded fishing line and tackle that and think be around, they may see lying around. So I mentioned outreach materials earlier. So go to the next slide. So, some of the outreach materials that we have for fish lead free presentations we can hand out to these like associations, our partners and volunteer networks and even local anglers. These materials can be distributed by staff and volunteers at presentations, tackle exchanges, fishing derbies, community events, association meetings, and even retailers participating in the web tackle buyback program. So that's a great way to let people know what is and isn't acceptable. And if we go to the next slide I'll give you those specifications were straight up so let tackle lead tackle buyback program will buy any will offer vouchers to those that bring in lead tackle, one ounce or less, or two and half ounces, two and a half inches in length or less. So, I myself have run a couple of these. This year already over like things like carry trading posts, where big fishing and hunting spring sale was going on and there were $20 vouchers offered up to any members who came and donated some lead tackle at that too. So, it's a really great program. And in 2022 alone, we pulled that it pulled in 55.5 pounds of lead tackle and issued 142 vouchers for lead free. That's just some of those numbers that we can give you to show you that we actually do really make a huge difference on 55 pounds is a lot is a lot of lead taken out of our waters. And if you're curious about what that might look like and how that's sort of developing fish lead freeze developing in the legislation made Audubon is also working in close partnership with local legislative members to pass laws that can help reducing mortality through lead poisoning. So, for example, the use and sale of small lead tackle sinkers and jigs has been fully banned since 2013 for about 10 years, and that they have seen has reduced mortality by around 57%.  And while that is helpful. The lead poisoning is still right up there one of those top causes of deaths for loans. And that's typically due to a current loophole that people have been looking to try and address. Excuse me, where painted jigs painted lead headed jigs were still allowed throughout through this new law. So, a new recent law that has just been passed and signed by Governor Mills will make it the sale of painted jigs. Within that currently banded size I mentioned earlier, illegal for sale by 2024 and illegal for use by 2026. So, we're really pushing forward to make sure that we can tackle this problem from all different angles, including legislation. Okay. So, after all of our whole spiel about the overview of our project. If you think your lake is a good candidate for any of these programs, call the organization you would like to work with. And be sure to review those practice webinars and raft packets to see if you have a pair that is candid for those situations. And I encourage you to look and sort of pull together some information about their history and observations that you have seen. So that way when we give you a phone call to get more information about your situation, we can have that information ready at hand. And if your lake is a good candidate for a raft, you'll be invited to have a team member visit your lake, finding a good site to put out the raft as. And usually we do that as soon out after ice out as possible. So just let free for loon rangers call one of the organizations listed above for to start. So, thank you, I believe that is the last bit that we have and I'll hand it back over to Olivia should give you the closing remarks. Hello. Okay, awesome. Thank you so much David sorry we're using numerous computers so it's like little switch game tag. Thank you so much David and Olivia. And now we will open up for a question and answer. And right now I see we have a question from Ed, and he describes how his legs are getting evidence of losing loon chicks to bald eagles is there anything we can do. The primary reason is bald eagles then since the chicks leave the nest after one to two days. We typically don't put wraps out if that's the only threat because we're kind of making like a chick making factory if that makes sense if we put them out. But I think it's super important to vet out the whole area because some of those lakes that you mentioned maybe struggling with like water level fluctuations and eagles, or like human eagles, and so I would say definitely give us an email, an email at the, at the loon restoration at me and Audubon dot org, and we can schedule a lake check in and so we can vet some of those lakes and maybe there is one that would be a great and that'd be awesome because we're trying to add our new lake seal list for the summer of 2024 so we would love to come out and check out those lakes.


Oh my God! Oh my daughter. This is to be honest, my name is Alex and today I am going to answer a wonderful, insightful question from one of you lovely people to the best of my non-professional ability. Let's do this. So this question comes from Luis. It's a two-parter and it starts as what can I do to stop girls from seeing me as just a friend? What kind of world are we living in? Last time I checked, I thought people didn't like jerks. It's 1033. What? What really is last? I think there's a better way to turn that around. I don't think nice guys really finish last. I think nice guys don't finish first but that doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing. The key is that you're finishing. Nice guys lose out for a lot of reasons but the number one reason they probably do is their competition. The bad boy. Studies have shown that when we're looking for something short-term like casual sex or some sort of hookup that we look for masculine features in a guy. We're talking a good hairline. We're talking a nice V, some abs. They're nice to look at and you want to bang them. The second question was how can I stay out of the friend zone? My friend, there's really only one answer. Be assertive. Be confident in yourself. Something that nice guys could actually pick up on from bad boys is that bad boys are assertive. They're confident. They know what they want and they're willing to ask for it. I see you're drinking one percent. Is that because you think you're fat? Because you're not. You could be drinking whole if you wanted to. Nice guys have a tendency to use nonverbal cues to try to tell people that they like them and unfortunately people can't read your mind sweetie.  Then when they finally tell the person that they like their friend zoned because that person feels too platonically comfortable with them. You have everything that people want in a long term partner. You're great. You're sweet. You like dates. You want to shower your girl in love and flowers and chocolate and baths. Do all that. That's fine. But you need to be direct and you need to tell that person that you like them or they will never know they're never going to know that you like them at all and they will never be able to think about liking you back is just the truth. Now there's a difference between being assertive which is just telling people what you need what you want and being aggressive which is not understanding the word no. Not everybody is going to like you and you're going to get friend zoned. Everybody gets friend zoned. I like to think of the friend zone as not that bad. And who cares? Listen, that person just doesn't like you that way. They don't feel the same things that you do about them. Be their friend. That's cool. Find someone else to go smooth John. That's all the time we have for today. I hope you found this insightful. If you have a question for me to answer and discuss you can always tell us in the comment section down below or you can use the link in the description box to ask us an honestly. Thanks for watching and please subscribe to Psych2Girl for more. Roxy, get out of my seat.


Hello, welcome to CTN Member Highlights. I'm Leslie McVane, and today my guest is Jessica McCarthy, the gallery director, manager at Green Hat Galleries. Hi, Jessica. Hi. Now, you've done something special here. We're at the gallery for the Union of Main Visual Artists, and you've curated this show. Tell us a little bit about it. It's called Monsters. Yes. Well, initially, the idea had been somewhat political to have a politically themed charged show, which I can get behind, but what I really wanted was to have a few breaks in the show. I wanted to open it up to bring in other pieces that make you feel monstrous, that have this creepy quality to them. Sort of make your skin crawl a bit. Exactly. Something that also gets into the feeling of Halloween in addition to the elections. Which makes October a perfect month to have the show up. So you've chosen from among many artists, not just the Union of Main Visual Artists, but some of the Green Hat artists. You want to tell us a little bit about some of the artists who are in the show. Maybe not about them, but why you chose them. Sure. Well, we got a flood of submissions, which was really fun to sort through. A lot of great work came in. But I did open it up to more than just Union of Main Visual Artists. Just because of the theme of the show, not every artist does monsters or anything that might fit in with that theme. So I did have to widen my scale a little bit. Of course, working at Green Hat, I do have the opportunity to work with a number of very wonderful artists, and some of those fit in perfectly with the show. One person's monster isn't necessarily another person's monster. So the range and just looking around here, it's amazing. Yeah, you get quite a range. A lot of different things. But I think that's what makes the fun show is to have a variety and to have all those different visions. Well, terrific. Let's go look at some of these wonderful pieces and talk about them. Well, this piece, Eating Lobster by Nancy Barnes, is, I love this piece. It's one of my personal favorites. Oh, is it? Yeah. Tell me why you chose this. Well, I love Nancy's work. She's gotten familiar with it over the years working at Green Hat Galleries. This one in particular, I think just is perfect for the show. It's got that ominous feeling about it. She's about to bite into this lobster, or maybe the lobster is going to bite into her, you're not sure. But plus it's so quintessential main, but mostly it was about the feeling and the humor. It feels like when they're interrogating you under the spotlight. Absolutely. Then the main thing that the way the shadow is cast over the figure in there, it almost looks like the Lobsterman's yellow rain gear that they wear. You can't forget the deer in the corner. Just watching. There's a lot of, who's the monster in this? Yeah, that's a great question. Who is the monster? Who knows? I think it's the artist to tell, but it could also be the viewer who makes that decision. Another notable thing about this painting is the surface texture. It's really gorgeous, and this particular artist, she adds medium into the paint so that you get that interesting. It is wonderful, and you look at the tablecloth, and you just want to touch it. Don't touch it. I love it. This is one of my, I just adore this piece. And the first time I saw it, it was just in the window, and people were going by and stopping, and little children just looking at this piece. And then when I walked into work the next day, it was hanging on the wall, and I'm like, oh my goodness. It looks like it could come alive. That was part of the reason why I hung it here, was that coming around the corner, I wanted that surprise to be right there. So, and it's a beautiful piece, really. Getting up close, seeing all sides of it. Each side has something completely different, and unfortunately we can only see this side, but that's why you need to come to the show. That's because you can look under it. You can. It's amazing. It's gorgeous. And there's a lot of different aspects to this piece. A lot of different materials used. There's a violin that has been incorporated into this piece, all different pieces for the teeth, for the eye on this side. So, this is really a creative, beautiful piece. And every time you look at it, you see something you didn't see the last time. And I, trust me, I look at it every day. And tell us the artist. So, the artist Rich Entell does beautiful work, and he was a little concerned, saying, well, my work isn't really monsters. They're, you know, more spiritual animals. And, but I love this piece so much, I just really wanted to have it for the show. And again, it's not necessarily monsters, it's a feeling. And I thought that this achieved a different part of that feeling. And also, along with the feeling of monsters, is dealing with those, facing those monsters, and seeing that they're not really as scary as you might think. Yes, they might not be a monster at all. They might be a beautiful part of you, Gator. Well, when I first saw these, I thought they were going to start crawling all over everything.  And they just look like they're ready to start coming after me. I know, you can picture how they might move. And they were really a lot of fun to set up, too, because, you know, they're individuals. And you can make the arrangement however you see fit. And, yeah, I think they fit perfectly in with the theme, as well. Oh, yes.  And that's kind of a creepy feeling. Yeah, yeah. And the title, Infestation, is just perfect. That's a fear that I think a lot of us have about what if there's cockroaches in my house or any other small, terrifying beast. And these are one of the more terrifying, I think. Right, with that eyeball looking at you. I mean, they look so real. People need to come in and see this show just to see the eyeballs. They're a lot of fun. And the artist, Tony Joe. Tony Joe Coppa, yeah. I just met her myself. She does great work all along the same line. She works with foam and prosthetic eyes. And also, there's a lot of repurposed animal fur in her work. And they're all very interesting, creepy. I look forward to seeing more of her work, because this is fascinating. Yeah, I love it. OK, let's look at one more piece. Well, this piece by Alan McGee, you chose as the postcard and the advertisement for the show. Tell us why. Well, I actually had the opportunity to get this piece in person, go to his studio, visit him, see where he works. And so it was the first piece that I really got my hands on. And I thought black and white, it would just be graphic. And it touches on that political aspect that we haven't really talked that much about. But it doesn't. It's not taking sides. So I thought it would be nice for the postcard. It's amazing. And it's got everything in there. You can look at different kinds of monsters and nightmares and see it in this one picture. You've got that corporate fear thing going on there. It's in the air. It's in the air right now. I mean, there's so much about it. It's just amazing. Yeah, it's definitely something I see in my nightmares. And I thought that, yeah, I wanted this to have a prominent place in the show. Well, and I think using it to advertise the show has been great. It really catches your eye. And I think the black and white makes it even a little bit stronger in drawing people in. Well, if people want to see this, they need to get down here. We have a month. It's going to be up until the 30th. And this is the UMVA gallery at CTN 516 Congress Street. And we just touched on this show. There's a lot of great pieces to see. Oh my gosh. It's sculptural pieces. And it's just amazing. So thank you so much for curating this. It's going to be on our list of favorite shows. Thank you.