Hi, I'm Susan Lloyd and I'm Kim Ward that would make me Keith go slant and welcome to all things LGBTQ We are taping on Tuesday, January 23rd All things LGBTQ is taped at Orca Media in Montpelier, Vermont that we recognize as being unceded Indigenous land and a quick shout out to Ann and Linda and hope that they're enjoying California We're not jealous. No We're not bitter. No, we're not bitter never Thank You Keith. Uh, so speaking of bitter I'm gonna jump right into it West Virginia has a bill that will label trans people as obscene in A horrific development barely three weeks into the new year a Republican lawmaker in West Virginia has introduced a bill that if Signed into law would ban transgender Exposure experiences or displays to minors Effectively prohibiting transgender people from countless public spaces in the state the bill blatantly portrays the existence of transgender people as Dangerous and fuels our ongoing state of emergency that we're continuing to sound the alarm on There's a couple of other articles From Washington as well that for example the Missouri General Assembly has been has slated to discuss eight transgender bills from regulations barring discrimination against health providers who refuse to perform gender affirming care to an exclusionary bathroom bill and 17 days into this new year lawmakers in Congress and state houses across the country are considering more than 275 anti-trans bills according to the trans legislative tracker and the ACLU The result of all of this is of course a crisis for millions of LGBTQ plus people many of whom have been forced to flee their home States to access basic civil liberties the 2024 attacks on freedom are already accelerating maga politicians are already doubling down on the agenda to strip transgender people of life-saving care banning books censoring curriculum and wielding state statutes as a weapon against people's freedom to exist as their authentic selves and there's there's a lot of different bills on Young people and when they can actually apply for affirming care There was some good news There was a huge Debate around drag bans the LGBT community and allies continued to show up many dressed in drag at the end of the nights and There was a woman who said that in Missouri a lot of these attacks didn't actually wear work in the 22 and 23 mid-term elections most of the people that ran on those anti-trans campaigns actually lost their seats So while people aren't specifically running on this issue Many people who opposed the trans anti-trans legislation actually ended up winning their race So the truth is that LGBTQ plus people have been in this situation before with even fewer allies and fewer resources and They believe that they will they won then and they will win again now Something a little happier. Okay JLo Jennifer Lopez Made an appearance at a West Hollywood gay club called the Abbey over the weekend Thrilling fans and stunning a drag performer who was on stage dressed up JLo Singing and she and the drag artist Joe Lopez had just finished performing a number to the singer's new single can't get enough When JLo walked on the stage Onto the stage and surprised one of her biggest fans. She snuck onto the stage Draped in a full length fur coat and was greeted by chairs from the crowd and a stunned scream from the drag Love that. Okay more fun I love this a UK woman shared her decision to engage in the growing trend of platonic Co-parenting with her gay best friend. I love this The decision felt natural for Nicholas Lawson who considered having a baby on her own in the mid 30s But was worried about the financial burden and she I love this She said many people throw themselves into dating, but I hated the idea of hunting for a man just to have a baby with Nice it felt really forced and I heard too many horror stories of women settling and feeling deeply resentful if they broke up Having to co-parent their children with someone they really wished wasn't the father So she heard about platonic Co-parenting and after extensive thought decided to work up the courage to ask her single gay best friend Tom Hayes if he would be interested in taking the plunge to her surprise He was excited about it from the start after much research discussion and contemplation. They decided to go for it They like to joke that no baby has ever been discussed as much or considered so much in advance So both of their parents are on board and have been supportive and This is they can't believe this is really happening and she's doing the spring. So that's exciting. We have a strong history here in Vermont of platonic Parents yeah joint adoption. I love that and it's never been contested. It's never been challenged. I love that So other things the GLAAD awards are coming out the GLAAD media awards to honor media for fair accurate inclusive Representations of LGBTQ people and issues. There's a whole long list that I'll spare you of things that are in the running But it may be nominated. We are definitely up there. Yes. Definitely. It will be in the at the Beverly Oh, they're gonna have two ceremonies in Los Angeles at the Beverly Hilton on Thursday, March 14th and in New York City the Hilton Midtown and Then what else speaking to an enthusiastic crowd inside San Diego's Aaron Space Museum in Balboa Park? Democratic State Senator Tony Akins the outgoing president pro tempore of the state Senate and now she's running For governor. She's an out lesbian lawmaker. She's entering into a crowded race against fellow Democrats And of course those other people that we won't talk about What else the national LGBTQ task force on Tuesday called for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip They are quite adamant that the roots of this conflict are based in fascism white supremacy and colonialism and the collective Trauma experienced by these oppressive measures keeps us from moving all towards liberation I think Keith you and I were talking about this a little bit earlier in a historic move Bobby Brooke Arnold a transgender Female has been approved to be placed on the ballot as a candidate Representing West Alexandria in her chosen name and gender identity Despite the strong Republican majority and conservative stance on these issues And so she she went through a lot to get to this point She's been Started transitioning nine years ago and part of that was her name there was an old statute that you had to use your dead name or show evidence of what your current name was and It says that democracy thrives when it reflects the diversity of our community So it's a big move forward to be able to be on the ballot in such a conservative area and Then one more real quick. Yeah Hmm South Carolina Charleston activists from a South Carolina chapter of Moms for Liberty a Group best known for opposing LGBTQ rights are pushing for the removal of library books fighting racially inclusive curriculum And now they're starting their own charter school The new school will be fully taxpayer funded funded but is structured in a way that avoids any state oversight I like that they get the money, but they don't they're not held Accountable There's a curriculum. They call these ironically 1776 curriculum, which you would think would be Liberty and freedom, but actually Nutjobs is really what it is The first head of the school the person they want to head the school Got a grade of an F from the last school that he was the headmaster at man. They have his school failed in math 23% people passed their math standardized test and only 12% passed in science So this school is not a political project. The new headmaster said we're just trying to provide the best education So in a continuation of good news this week This past week has been filled with a lot of good news from countries around the globe I seem to have a handful of things from of all places a couple of them are from the church tonight As well as some Vietnamese soccer I've got of course as usual a new term to share with people new to me So in terms of from the rainbow it's so we'll see so I'm gonna start with first up Pope Francis Recently announced that priests can now bless same-sex couples.   Oh, wouldn't that be great now I've seen the outfits. It's not that far. Come on. It's not a stretch. I mean it. Yeah, they do wear dresses So Pope Francis has announced that priests can now bless same-sex couples though They so will not be allowed to be married in the Catholic Church Vatican statement still made it clear that marriage is exclusively exclusively between a man and a woman They announced it in the New York Times a rare and important type of Vatican document on Monday It elaborates on the October letter the Pope issued in which he responded to five Conservative Cardinals who asked him whether or not he would permit priests to bless same-sex unions at the time He wrote that while the church only recognizes marriages between a man and a woman Catholic priests could consider same-sex couples for blessings on a Case-by-case basis The most recent declaration from the Vatican maintains that the church remains firm quote-unquote on the traditional doctrine of the church about marriage While same-sex unions are now eligible for blessings The declaration stresses that these blessings are not equivalent to marriage and should not be confused with any kind of liturgical Right, so that's kind of an interesting step I feel like he's trying to maybe step them towards some things But maybe not these blessings can be imparted upon those who recognize themselves to be destitute and in need of God's help according to the declaration Interesting So what does he actually think about queer trans people? He established himself as one of the most boundary-pushing popes the church has ever had when he came in And there are several stances. He's held He's widely understood to be one of the most progressive popes to hold the position and in recent months He has taken steps to provide LGBTQ plus people with increased access to the church He has said that trans people can be baptized and become godparents if doing so does not pose a scandal risk I don't know what that means. He also ate lunch with trans women at the Vatican For the church's World Day of the Poor and revoked a retired anti LGBTQ plus Cardinals access To a Vatican apartment and salary because the Cardinal had become a source of disunity So there's some mixed messaging going on obviously by challenging the pontiff's softening of the church's LGBTQ stance So he's that's not mixed message. I apologize. So he revoked this Cardinal's access for challenging what he's doing That being said the Irish State Minister Jack Chambers has become has come out as gay in an Instagram post He said as I look forward to 2024 I'm sharing with you something a little different, but it's something I wanted to do for a while as a politician it can sometimes be difficult Life and that can lead to things drifting. However, it's important for me to be true to myself firstly and to you all in my public service role Starting out 24 by telling you I'm gay. So good for him Road trip road. Yeah. Well in the Prime Minister in Ireland as well. Yeah, so Kudos to them the Greek Prime Minister Kiriyakas Mitsutakis should be that three times said that a bill to legalize same-sex marriage will be moving forward in Parliament in the next few months So that's kind of cool. See we're taking notes of where we could visit Road trip. Actually, that would be an ocean trip. Greece's Center, right? Government will soon submit legislation on allowing same-sex marriage despite reservations from its lawmakers on the country's influential and the country's influential Orthodox Church So he stressed that the proposal Proposed law would not extend the right to parenthood through surrogate mothers to same-sex couples an issue that has divided Greek society What we are going to legislate is equality in marriage Mitsutakis said we will remove any discrimination Concerning sexual orientation in the issue of marital Relationship, but he added we won't change the law on assisted parenthood the idea of women who are turned into child producing machines on demand That is not going to happen. It's a little extreme Several lawmakers from the right wing of the governing new democrat new democracy party have expressed opposition to any overhaul of Greece's marriage and parenthood laws To include same-sex couples So Mitsutakis said in Wednesday's interview would state run ERT television that he would not force them to back the proposed Legislation seeking cross-party support to get it approved I will be leave. I believe I will be able to secure the bill's approval Some people will benefit considerably in the sense that we will solve a real problem for them Some people may disagree with the law, but they do not stand to lose which I think is a valid point Also in Vietnam a female soccer player became the first female sports player in the country to marry a partner of the same sex Although this marriage was only symbolic It is notable first. It's a notable first for the country as they continue to take more steps towards equality So this is the first weekend of 2024 saw 33-year-old defender Tron Tia to Who played for her country in this 2023 FIFA World Women's Cup marry her partner new a tea twang So I knew a tea twang and they were in Ho Chi Minh City And so how good is that vn express international reports that this is the first time a female Vietnamese football player has Publicly married the same sex sex partner Although they don't recognize it in Vietnam right now. It is a symbolic public event. So Who does to them for doing that? That's the wishes to us the wedding was a great success. They said So Vietnam success success of reaching the world cup for the first time when they qualified in 2023 was overshadowed when they lost the match They had played but there's a wedding involved. So that's happy. All right. So that's what I have so far. We like happy endings That's all I got. Oh, okay So what I have to start with is trivia and they were so close That almost there out in the mountains January 1996 This was the front page Feature article and it was about the queer town meeting three and The bulk of the article was talking about the keynote speaker who was Keith St. John Who holds a unique position within lgbtq plus history? And I as I continue to talk as Coleman plays with the camera What is that unique place in our history and They were almost there so looking at events and we keep promoting this Typewriters doll houses dogs descendants This is Diane Fitch's paintings and drawings that are at the gallery Highland Center for the arts in Greensboro and It is running through February 11th, and we will continue to promote it until the exhibit has closed So and there will be a poster that will come up and you can appreciate You know the work that's going to be on display Rainbow umbrella the women's discussion group continues the book discussion groups You can go on to the Facebook page to get details and Find out what the book is Fox Market in East Montpelier You came to mind Right. Well, wait till you hear Friday February 9th at 7 p.m. Do you know this? Erotic poetry. Yes, I do. Yes anonymous dirty love notes written by you on site. Yes Are we all going there? Wow, and then I thought you were gonna say speed dating Well, thanks. No, that's no that's our that's our history. We don't talk about that in public. Oh, sorry So see but also on Saturday February 24th starting at 7 p.m. Is queer poetry poetry No, but they've been doing regularly at Fox Market. It looks so every month. It's every month Yeah, rabbit and wolf is running those. Yep, which is it's just a phenomena a phenomenal space to read poetry and it's and it's queer poetry with No judgment. It's a lovely space. I'm Outright Vermont and I want to put a plug in and I'm going out on the limb, but if there's one queer organization to really support right now It's outright looking at how our youth I'm looking at and stories that I'll have coming up are targeted. So But a reminder Friday night group here in Montpelier February 9th 6 30 p.m. At the UU church in their meeting on the second Friday of each month So keep that in mind. There is still an every Friday night virtual group that you can go online And it's at 6 30 There is still an in-person Friday night group in Burlington each Friday starting at 6 30 at the outright office and Then I know Morrisville Third Friday of each month 6 30 p.m. At the Clarina Howard-Nickel Center. That's huge doing good work out in the 802 On Sunday February 2nd, they're doing their potluck brunch You can go on to their Facebook page or website to get details. I'm told the food is very good and then if it's Thursday night out in the 802 is Sponsoring a happy hour somewhere. That's right Burlington St. John's Berry St. Albans and And we thank them that the one in Burlington is fun because it's at Lincoln's Where it's literally like an old speakey. So you have to knock on the door to get let in So I'm letting you go again, and I thank you. I'm hoping you have at least one good story in this segment Oh, yeah. All right. Yeah. Yeah, because that'll make up for some of the things I'm not started with it. So don't put too much pressure, but my final story is is I hope is uplifting Well, first of all the Santas dropped out of the race, that's huge, right? Can we just all pause for a moment and celebrate that are we now like no because he dropped out, but he supported Yeah, I know. Well, yes, it's good that he dropped out But the results of a new poll released Sunday showed a shocking number of registered voters actually agree with former president Donald Trump's channeling Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and his Immigrants are poisoning the blood speech. Did we hear about this? Grant he delivered last month at a rally in Durham, New Hampshire 53% of the voters Disagreed but 47% agreed that's messed up people So In other news human rights campaign president Kelly Robinson addressed the rise in political violence and threats targeting LGBTQ and other marginalized communities during a speech at Charles Kettering Foundation's conference in DC and What I liked about this is she said there's there's threats in front of us and trying to get us to back away Go back into the closet and our answer is hell. No Progress is happening and then she said just a couple generations ago 40 years ago you could be fired for being out at work if you contracted HIV or AIDS It was a death sentence took out a generation of gay men The idea of marrying the person you loved was a dream let alone planning for it and having a reality show that follows You around while doing it. I love that In conclusion, she said there are two powerfully important things that we can do together Starting today that can make change one lean into the hard work and conversations because Democracy has always meant being at the table with people you disagree with and therefore. It's necessary to humanize the fight for progress by being unapologetically visible and to use your political power Robinson said Speak out boldly in public use your relationships with influential business organizations associations and elected officials strategically a Little lighter news. I have to go home and see this because I haven't seen this but fans of Max's Our flag means death. Have you guys seen our flag means death? Have taken to the internet on moss to demand that the streamer save the beloved pirate comedy our Chirical popcorn and we got to watch this all right watch the dismay of the show's loyal and queer cult following Who resonated with the central romance between gentlemen pirate steed bonnet my saying that right? And Edward Blackbeard teach max announced last week the series had officially been canceled after two seasons They didn't cite a reason a spokesman thanked the dedicated fans Given that both seasons attracted widespread critical acclaim fans were Understandably devastated to see the show's queer pirate crew stories cut short and they've already received 53,000 signatures to bring it back This is also uplifting I got a dig deep here people sir Elton John became the 19th person for an e-gut He won an ME for did you guys see this the farewell from Dodger Stadium tour? It was good. Check it out Yeah, it was on Disney Plus, but if you know somebody you can steal their password. Whoops. I didn't say that You can go to their house and watch it. That's what I meant to say he's won two Oscars He's won a Tony and of course five Grammys, so that's pretty cool and apparently he wasn't there Somebody woke him up in the middle of the night to tell apparently he screamed like a girl or something of course No, it his husband his husband accepted the award, okay, and then Was it live on TV that he That was funny, okay, but I think I think there were some news out was that yeah It said it says in the notes that he woke up and screamed What else the Massachusetts State Senate unanimously passed a bill Thursday to repeal several Archaic criminal laws that were still on the books including the state's sodomy law That is amazing that that would still be on the books when they have We never had one yeah And then there was also a law that critics have dubbed the walking while trans law. Is that like driving? Driving while black I'm just really happy that it passed and I hope it will pass seamless lady said Tanya New Zealand the executive director of mass equality Despite law and being considered a leader in passing progressive legislation for LGBTQ rights Massachusetts is one of 12 states that still have laws banning gay sex in its criminal statutes This criminalizes the abominable detestable crime against nature and unnatural and lascivious acts And then another person see that for the most part straight man that I've dated to the only ones Wednesday the Florida board of State Board of Education implemented strict regulations against the use of public funds for diversity equity and inclusion programs this Made my head explode. They replaced the course wait for it principles of sociology They said that was too inflammatory Principle with a comprehensive general education core course in American history Because that's real American history cuz they've cut no, but also diversity No out the window They said that higher education has to return to its essential foundations of academic integrity in the pursuit of knowledge Instead of being corrupted by destructive Ideologies and we will not spend taxpayers' monies to support DEI and radical indoctrination that promotes division in our society Several hundred LGBTQ rights activists gathered to disvoice their displeasure All right Also equality Florida has come out and said they will not be scared out of their state They will you will not make laws to remove me or my dreams I was raised on an America that believes that freedom will ring Said the Angelique Godwin coordinator for trans related events. We are not pawns in your political game We are people with a right to dignity equality and a life free from constant slander and discrimination Participants mocked Governor DeSantis, of course, they did second-place showing Rate the numbers they said your policies don't work in America. They don't work in Florida We don't like them either banning books doesn't ban LGBTQ people and it will not eliminate them Restricting access to black queer and other diverse media does nothing to protect our children It actually harms them a child should not have to feel fear from their parents because of who they are a Connecticut town council voted to ban the rainbow LGBTQ pride flag They voted in a meeting to ban all flags except for the US flag the Connecticut state flag and military flags Somebody on the council said the real reason you're doing this is that you are You know homophobes But this you'll like this Keith Tom Tyler interim town attorney claimed that if the pride flag was allowed Isis could come in and demand we fly their flag because that's gonna happen because the terrorists always show up with their homemade flag Rainbow flag in the back of their shirt, but but this is the argument that the conservative right is using To ban the flags. They really don't like it's if we allow Then you have to allow all these others. So we're just limiting it to They're just angry because we banned the Confederate flag. Yes, that's right My final story which I hope tell me if I can do this Keith. It's a tick-tock video, which I would love to Send the long is it it's like a minute. Okay. Yeah, it's tick-tock, but I'm gonna give you that I'm gonna give you the content.    It's happy again. I loved that.  Yeah Yeah, but moving on. Yeah, oh, I can't see though now that we're moving on. Yeah, so who's gonna give us new language So I was very excited to see on Sunday morning on CBS this weekend that retired Bishop Jean Robinson Was just interviewed because in November of this past year We just hit the 20th anniversary of his celebrating his consecration as the first out gay Episcopalian Bishop whoo-hoo so very excited about that. He is got to be one of the sweetest people and in the coming months he Will be you know, he's celebrating in different places about this He's been interviewed in a few places and it's there's already been two events So the Sawani of the University of the South they received he received an undergraduate degree in American Studies and History there and so they awarded him an honorary doctorate and They had a whole anniversary celebration and an interview in early October Happened with the diocese of New Hampshire and the Episcopalian group So they said to recognize how brave and courageous The diocese of New Hampshire and the Episcopal Church as a whole were because it's hard to remember how Controversial this was in 2003 And he actually got death threats almost immediately and it was interesting to hear that the Vermont state police Called him almost immediately the day of or after to say we've received a death threat for you We want you to be aware Trying to let him know so there is a really sweet story on Sunday morning if you want to watch it and it's just Pretty amazing to think that he opened up the door for people and they've been telling him You know, you're gonna be sainted and he's like, oh my gosh, please. No, you know I am the least stately person ever, but he's done so many things But that's why he should that's why he's good and like is he still practice it? He's retired. Oh, he's retired. So he's retired, but you know, he is doing some good works, of course They did talk a little bit about the fact that he Was approached by Matthew Shepard's family and they put Matthew Matthew Shepard's ashes in The special spot in the church where you know, he can never be Desecrated because they were worried about even burying his this is that's the cathedral Washington DC Yeah, I don't have the name of it. That's why I was kind of vamping. But yes, so that's pretty amazing I love it. So in a new in my usual style Here's the new term that I came across recently Yes, and I will tell you briefly the background which was I was ruminating on why everyone's this is I do often Why everyone only uses the Kinsey scale to talk about queerness the Kinsey scale, which was Alfred Kinsey and yeah, Wardell Pomeroy. It was like numbers, right? He came up with a ranking for sexuality zero to six if you're straight or gay Yeah, yeah, and the Klein scale is never mentioned in it and it was kind of like why is it never mentioned Robert Klein? Who came up with a later grid, which was multi-dimensional? His client he's he calls it the KSOG In the 78 book the bisexual option talked about sexuality over time and how it can change and added more dimension to whether you're amorous toward or like people Not just sexuality, right all these attractions and then I went to this kale and I said oh my god You went down a rabbit. Also the Klein scale needs updating now because I began to read it And it says are you attracted to men or women? Do you like men or women men or women? So it has none of the updates for really all of our thinking that he's evolved over gender and I thought okay Well, so we need a Kim Ward scale apparently I'm gonna make But I need to interview people I'm gonna have to do a lot of interviews, but in the interim of Going down that rather behold. I found a lovely story by Emma Flint With the term Abro-sexual have you ever heard the term? No, but we were talking last time I was here about gray sexual and gray sexual wheel is actually how I identify Okay, I'm not by I thought it was I call myself by grace be I grace bisexual gray sexual You didn't know I didn't know I thought it was it like old people old people But it wasn't so if you were to guess Abro-sexual Abro What it means is I'm gonna sort of Abro-cadabra Abra-cadabra So those who don't know what it is in lay person terms It simply means when someone's sexual identity fluctuates and changes which is how I got down that rabbit hole now for some people It could fluctuate over a short period of time or a long over the night Yeah, well it could it could right I'm thinking of Holly near Holly near absolutely at the point is that Oftentimes people are told and this woman who wrote the article when she came out of Zabra sexuality People were saying just make up your mind You're confused that was me. That was me in the 80s and that happens when you're bisexual as well, right? That's me now people go why you were married to a man TMI keep this like not made it was clear so I thought it was very interesting to have a term that talks about the fact that Sexuality can fluctuate and that that is okay. Well, how does that fit into our Because all this all the Literature out there is so as you said so dated well I was gonna say that the recent panels that I've been invited to speak on for our youth Our message is don't try to put a label on yourself. Yeah, and basically this theory of Things will change over your lifetime. There are emotional. There are physical. There are spiritual Relationships they all have different dimensions different compositions different complexities Don't okay. Don't don't box yourself Allow that to happen if you talk to young people like my daughter who's under 20s They don't use any of those terms.  They're just like we're just who we are And yeah, well, that's the extension of that initial conversation is we keep coming up with all of these different terms To box well, no, so we can finally get to the point where we don't need terms at all bingo That's the key. And we're not any of them. Yeah. Yeah, I love I loved coming up with somebody said look I never know what was going on with me until I came up. Oh Abro-sexual and you know But now you said abrogay, so you're that's multi-dimension abrogay. I said yeah by grace a group by grace Bisexual gray got a sexual. Okay. It's very complicated. Okay. All right. Okay. We're gonna have to read the book ace read the book Hey, I don't know. Hey, John. Chen's an actor. It's a different chin But I'm so many chance a c e a c one of the last shows that what I had reported on was a term being used by people doing research where It is not the gender to which you're attracted. It's the Relationship and that you only have an erotic response based upon the Relationship, I mean, that's that's what people have been for years. It's not about the yeah, but that's not about the Say, oh my god. Look at that hot person whoo and some people don't have that reaction It has to be the emotional. There you go. That is all I have. Oh, oh, it's good that we get to chat a little Yeah, well, and we're gonna have more time to chat for videos, okay? I Or we could create our or we could just channel and and read some I'm gonna start I'm gonna start with Maine Okay, because Maine has introduced a bill a LD which is legislative directory 1735 and the intent of this is to make Maine a transgender Sanctuary state It is putting in place all of the things that would allow Healthcare for transgender youth That if you are if you are fleeing because of the repressive Statutes policies in your state you are safe in Maine if they issue a warrant We're not gonna honor it. We are not Send sharing any of our information With wherever it is you came from so so if you're coming from Texas and they said oh we want these health records That apply for abortion to Is there some medical underground railroads? Yeah that we have to do this, but of course the right wing Is pushing back saying oh my god This will become a haven.  No, you're going in the wrong direction I want you to think about how the alt-right creates an emotional fear-based response Vert is a thoughtful intellectual response I'm gonna be in so much trouble for that one, but They're promoting this they're trying to do this bill so they can snatch your children Because a provision in this bill would allow the court to take custody of the child If need be I'm 16 17 years old I am fleeing because my parents and my state will not allow me to receive gender affirming care that I need So i'm in Maine They're trying to get me back Maine can step in and say If if the youth can prove That they would be subject to abuse or neglect The state of Vermont will take custody State of Maine, I'm sorry. Well, no, hold on to that thought though. Yes, the state of Maine will take custody So the alt-right thinks that that they're gonna use this to steal their straight children and Well, they think that steal our children and allow them to be trans. Yeah, that's what I mean That's what I mean like steal our That are actually trans that are trying to flee Their home and this has got a really good chance of being enacted It would make Maine the 15th state to impose to to pass such legislation Vermont like a safe harbor kind of thing is what we're Vermont We did it when we were doing the constitutional amendment on reproductive liberty. Yeah, that's right We did the bill and it included the abortion rights. I haven't seen where this bill does Okay Is there Maine is just focusing on the transgender aspect? Is there a worry that that's something at the national level? We'll try to undermine the state's I Yes Is it isn't anybody worried? Well, no at this point in time Whatever the u.s. House passes the u.s. Senate is not going to go along with And the current administration would veto so yeah, but And it's similar to prop five what prop five meant to do when it started Which is let's protect this state before anything Problematic and so we've got things in place Okay, so the last show I reported that there were things in the legislature that I was watching that I had concerns about and one of them was The house education committee was going to hear from legal counsel about the alliance defending freedom suit on behalf of the mid-vermand Christian academy And it is as bad as I had thought It's a 71 page document. Please don't put yourself through reading it because How they open Is that this civil rights action seeks to protect a christian school and its students and parents From unconstitutional religious discrimination and hostility They throughout their 71 pages States that vermont is created a hostile environment against them and that we are promoting This agenda And that the state of vermont has adopted its own orthodoxy on human sexuality and gender Simply put the state believes sex is mutable and biological differences do not matter The state is entitled to its own views, but it is not entitled Nor is it constitutional hold that in mind To force private religious schools across the state to follow that orthodoxy as a condition To participating in vermont's tuitioning program and the state's athletic association The backdrop to this is there was a case that came out of main called the mark and decision That the us supreme court said If you are allowing public To public tuition You have to give an even playing field to all schools public private religious What vermont has tried to do is to say, okay, if you're an independent private or religious school You are eligible to be designated to receive state funds If you agree to abide by vermont state statutes are non-discrimination statutes public accommodation and in In their summation Where they don't say this is The relief we are seeking they call it their prayer for relief Well, they want the court to rule that the state of vermont can in fact not do that That it is their constitutional right of freedom of speech Freedom of religion and you cannot impose this upon them And they have the right to decide Who they hire who they educate and who is eligible for their I think that's all true as long as you don't want state funding like you can do whatever you want as a religious institution But if you want taxpayer and town and state funded money, you have to follow The rules that's bullshit what the alliance defending freedom is saying that that argument you just made is unconstitutional Well here i want to get back to constitutional though because doesn't our constitution separate church and separate church and state vermont had a ruling that upheld that The mark and decision overturned that The mark and the market but that was in man. No, no, no the mark and decision It was okay, so you asked supreme court. I followed i'm there when did that come down? Uh, two years ago. I don't know. So there's the current in a single Supreme court decision made since this recent change in that Makeup that I have Agreed but the I was going to say the conservative court, you know there we are so The other thing that I was looking at is What did the principles association and the board of education say these are our priorities? I was pleased slightly disappointed all of them said This type of action We have to put in place Legislative protections that would Protect our students and ensure that we have a nondiscrimination education System that meets all of the needs Everybody gets to play Yeah, everybody is participating. Everyone's held accountable and This was from the vermont NEA the vermont NEA believes that all matters of public policy must be built upon in services of creating equity for all vermonters Regardless of their race ethnicity national origin religion gender or sexual orientation Systems of oppression exist in all areas of our social economic and governmental structures They have been created over time and will take intentional work to dismantle and correct To that end it is our intention to work in strategic solidarity With those impacted to events public policy matters That make vermont in our communities inclusive and empowering to all citizens and basically that Philosophy is echoed in everyone's statement the one piece that I was hoping for And I didn't see Was going back and working on harassment and bullying Right, which is gonna be lost in the shuffle bingo But but the senate is looking at Act one, which was we passed several years ago Ethnic social studies standards And what the board of education and other people have said is There's some lack of clarity in the language. Could you please Be very clear about what your intent is What do you want us to do? Who do you want us to include and some of this has to do with A choice of using language other Of either underrepresented communities Or disenfranch communities and communities that have endured genocide So there there needs to be Something worked out there There was that case though keitha when I was here last time that that school Was being sued and that went to the supreme court and the EEOC stepped in and said that the school was at fault for not Protecting the rights of that kid that was being harassed and bullied. I want to say it was up somewhere near like fairfax or up that way Fairfax or chanel and up that way and the they at the vermont. I thought supreme court ruled that the the school Did in fact violate the rights of those kids They were gonna uphold that but but but that's not the problem. The problem is What the standard is for what constitutes harassment and bullying? Okay, you did not meet the current But that doesn't go far enough is what you're saying and part of the reason it doesn't go far enough is It's only counted and that case only made it to the u.s. Supreme court Is if they have met the standard or there's some action that's been taken If you are reporting harassment and they don't think it meets the standards It doesn't show up on anybody's radar and it doesn't show up as a reported incident, right? So that's what we're looking. Okay. Now we are starting to run out of time. No We can always talk about it. Well, no the I want to report on the first bill that passed the vermont house was age 27 And this was the bill about expanding domestic violence for coercive actions huge and It passed On 106 to 31 to 13 vote. No hold that. Wow yet 31 people opposed it All republicans messed up like how do you I'm I'm for violence The entire republican caucus that was in the chamber that day voted against it And nobody would comment on why I went and read The language And this is the last paragraph that what would be included as You are deserving of protection Controlling the reproductive autonomy of the plaintiffs through force threat of force or intimidation Including placing unreasonable pressure on the plaintiff to become pregnant Deliberately in fear interfering with the plaintiff's contraceptive use or access to reproductive information Or using coercive tactics to control or attempt to control pregnancy outcomes I think we have our answer. I'm for coercing women. Yeah. Yeah. Here we go. Okay. House general is taking up age age 363 Discrimination based on certain hairstyles. This is what's called the crown act and there are 20 states that have already enacted it And it would prohibit discrimination based on hair types and styles associated with a particular race and going to One of the stories that you said house government ops Is going to be talking about h 806 A prohibition of book bans by public and school libraries the general assembly Further declares it be the policy of the state to protect the freedom of libraries and library systems To acquire materials for the exchange of ideas and cultural growth of the community And to be protected against attempts to ban remove or otherwise restrict access to books or other materials How about the drag queens? Can they come in and read the books? Absolutely And then senate education is going to again is going to be working on language for How do you qualify to become an independent school under fromant statutes? So they're then entitled To tuition money I would expect that whatever gets passed the lines to defending freedom is going to challenge it in court And we're going to find ourselves appealed all the way to the us supreme court level So As we dwindle down with our time And thank you for being here. Thanks for having me for having us. Yeah, and and you're on the list to come back This is the first time we've subbed together. Yeah We'll be waiting for your comments. Yes, I'm sure we'll get some The feedback please keep those cards and letters coming in So and again the trivia question there were so close So close so close because one of the comments that may have been made by the keynote speaker Keith st. John was Looking out at this auditorium filled with people and said This looks like a really white group of people Vermont isn't really that white To which the people of the audience said Unfortunately, yes, we are And that should have been the hint Keith st. John was the first openly gay african-american public official elected in the u.s And he was elected in 1989 to the albany new york common council What was more Interesting when I was reviewing the article is his keynote focused on The right-wing movement has taken the lead in organizing against the most fundamental principles of democracy equal protection equal participation And self-determination Back in 89. He saw it coming. Does that sound kind of familiar? So with that as linda would say we all need to remember to resist


How do we create the conditions so that the solutions actually become real? So one issue that has been raised in this is that we are moving from the globalization to de-globalization, or some form of re-globalization. And as Jean-Marie Pogambure, the WTO, you've been looking at these issues. You're right in the center of it. Can you give us a little bit of your sense of what's actually been happening in this phase? All the facts we're telling us, and how do you see the process moving forward? Well, thank you, Masoudan. Good morning, everyone. I think your microphone is not yet on, but hopefully it will be. Can you hear me? I was saying thank you, Masoudan. Good morning, everyone. On your first question, what do we see? We don't really see de-globalization in the figures, at least in the trade figures. I'm leaving aside investment or finance. Of course, there are trends which have been observed like an apparent slowdown of the rate of openness that is trade over GDP, but it can be explained by many statistical phenomena such as variations in commodity prices or also the compositions of the GDP, which is more led by services, why trade is more led by goods. So there is not really the feeling that there is a structural ebbing of globalization as far as trade is concerned. There is also a slowing down of trade in the second half of the decade, which probably has to do with some maturity of the value chains development. There is a sort of plateau, but here again we don't see that moving back toward a reduction of the contribution of world trade to GDP. What is happening is that there are new forces which are going to shape this globalization and make it probably more complex and generate more transaction costs for businesses and also for government. There are three of those which are really clear. The first one is of course the return of what we may call generically strategic trade policies, which has to do with industrial policy, and this is very documented. Now we see a lot of increasing of the intervention of the states to create comparative advantages. This has to do with the Cheap and Science Act in the US or the Inflation Reduction Act, the projects of common European interest in Europe, of course China 2025 and also in Japan there are some of these. So it's quite documented that the OECD, you see at least for instance the level of subsidies, government subsidies increasing, that's one. The second one is what I may call quite naturally decoupling policies which involve a vast array of policies from the worst, which is war and sanctions, to the least, just the second one, trade war. Basically the one which has been unleashed by President Trump against China or the softer concept of open strategic autonomy. You don't know exactly what is lying there. But there is this idea that you will have a world-shaped, a world market will be shaped by a lot of politics. And if you take for instance sanctions, it was not really a systemic issue when it was dealing with small economies, if I may call them like that. But when you are dealing with the eleventh world economy like Russia, then you see that there is the beginning of a global impact. And also recently in Brussels there was a forum on export control and the figures were astonishing because for instance for the UK it's minus 97% of export towards Russia and closely the same for the EU. So this decoupling is quite a new trend. We have been modeling that in the WTO, imagining a world just like in the old days, separated in two blocks and that would mean according to our economists a reduction of GDP of overall GDP in the long term of 5%. And the third trend of course is decarbonisation. And we know that when it comes to net zero strategies different countries and players are adopting different strategies. For instance to put a price on carbon the EU has been choosing a market exchange of emission permit, other are choosing taxes, other are moving towards regulations like the US. So you do not have an equivalence of that and it's even worse when you try to start measuring carbon. Just take the steel sector which is representing more or less 8% of the global emissions. You already have more than 20 standards measurement in the world. So these are trends which are going to make it more complex. Are our institution for international cooperation capable of dealing with that? Well, we in the WTO have been buried so many times that I think even this morning I heard that we were already dead but I don't think so. We have quite a mixed situation. The first one is that there is a quite a reasonably strong capital about the core principle which are articulating the world trading system. These are transparency, good face and non-discrimination. And you do not see radical contestations or radical dispute over those principles even in a worse situation like the one with the Trump administration. Nobody has been walking out of the WTO. So you don't see really disagreement on the fact that we can cooperate on this basis. And in fact we even had some successes this year. I may come back to it. What we face and we are confronted with is several trends which all the institutions are dealing with. The first one is obviously the divergences in values and government systems which translate into difficulties in the negotiation. The second one has to do with how do we manage commons and the legacy for commons. This is the very big debate over climate change but in the WTO we faced it also in the negotiation on fisheries about the prohibition of subsidies which were contributing to overfishing and then you have developing countries saying, guys, why should I restrain the development of my fisheries? You have been taking all the fish historically. So this is really complicated. These legacies issues are complicating the negotiation and they are very hard to cope. And of course there is a difference in capacities to tackle with new trends of decarbonisation and digitalisation. So I think we will do some stop and go. We will have some successes in emergency circumstances. For instance, regarding how to cope with the food crisis today, I think that if I look at the half-empty glass, the response of global institutions is quite reasonable to a certain extent effective. I'm not saying that we are off the hook. It's a very difficult situation but there is an answer. And in many cases we will just face tail-mates on core issues. So we'll have to deal with that but do not throw the baby with the bath water. Thank you very much. Thank you for talking about the trends. Also raising this question, which I think we will come back to maybe even in the next panel, which is, are the institutions that were created, many of them going back 75, 80 years now, up to the job of dealing with the trends and issues that they are now being forced to deal with, and also do the main shareholders, members of these institutions have confidence in them? Because what I find quite interesting to look at is that all the heads of institutions are busy defending themselves against their own shareholders more and more who are busy criticizing what they are doing and that's a difficult situation in which to find yourself.


We said now we waited to manufacturing if you go for manufacturing of polycarbon polycarbon is very expensive. So, we tried can we use fluted boards because you know these boards are used for shelters have you seen this it is used in bus stops this up dual walled polycarbonate sheets which are there. So, we took the sheets and we made one quick model and we found that it is not working. Here we realized that the efficiency model is so narrow for us that any experimentation is taking us back to the drawing board. The transitivity in this is reduced by 20 percent and even 20 percent reduction in transparency is not allowing us to go forward. So, that is a very big lesson for us. So, this you know picture shows you how we texted it and we did not work and our temperatures are as low as 60 degrees 60 is just warm water not in boiling water. Then Abhinash called for a brainstorming session they are engineers there, researchers there, there are designers not working on the product will join in and when you have this group discussion there are some interesting ideas which can come up during your you know brainstorming session itself. You start even worrying about how will you transport it, how will you fix it in people's houses, how will they receive the product, where will they buy it from, who will manufacture it, what materials you use, will it be economical or not. So, you take care of all the aspects in your brainstorming session and map all of them together. Look at the type of options rigs we made for various trials, then we also had this doubt will a smaller volume be better, smaller box the better is the conduction and heat evaluation. Then came the breakthrough we went to Prasak Kedare, Kedare is our head of the department of energy science. But here we did a mistake we went very late and Prasak Kedare gave us some wonderful insights of what happens and we cleared all our doubts but he gave us full idea behind science behind the thermal conduction, the value proposition of each material in the product we are using, how conduction happens between the hot plate inside the oven to the utensil having the rise. So, we did all the studies and we also did thermal analysis using softwares to check out in different conditions in the country. You can create different environments, you can create different temperatures, we did all that and we actually came up with the parameters of the material thickness which is very critical. We looked at the cooking temperature by constant measurement and the volume to surface ratio was also very critical. In comparison you should understand that you are talking about cooking right. So, we checked about temperatures for various food requirements and then here I had a very interesting encounter with a businessman in Surat. So, I asked this person, what do you think, he said do not sell as a solar oven, sell it as a rice cooker, see it is such a good insight, if you sell as a rice cooker everybody will buy and nobody will complain saying the dal is not cooking, if it is so smart you are using a solar oven so you just call it a rice cooker and then by the rice is cooking you can do other cooking in a regular gas stove and you are still saving huge amount of fuel and in three years you get the cost of your solar oven back, look at these calculations I never thought about all this, he said I am going to sell it and tell them in three years they are going to get the cost back and they are going to get good health because slow cooking is very good for health and it is tasty food, so multiple levels start coming in, so that is the realization which happened then we went back to the drawing board, we checked out what is happening in various you know aspects of locations and workability, we checked out the temperatures ranging in different locations, we looked at the thermal simulation results, we got some very good simulations done and in the simulation we actually you know got very good temperatures of around you know 98 to 108 degrees then we went theoretical studies, follow whatever temperatures we are getting in Bombay, what are the temperatures we are getting elsewhere and we then know in 90 degrees you can cook rice.


We made our own hair toy. We made our own hair toy. We're going to show you how to make one so you can play too. I'm going to make my person's hair into a braid so she can go to school. And I'm going to make mine as a bun so she can go to a fancy party. First you need an empty jar. It could be glass or plastic, it just has to be clear. The jar is going to be the head. Then you need to give your person a face.   How big should they be? Medium. That's medium? Yeah. That's perfect. How about you add the smile, Gianna? When you give it some freckles, that looks cute. That's good. Put your face that you drew in the jar so you can see it. Make sure it fits so it actually looks like a hair. Then you need lots and lots of yarn to make the hair. Here's an easy way to cut the yarn. First you get a book and you get a lot of yarn. Gianna's going to hold the top of the yarn. Then I'm going to wrap this around as many times as I can to make the hair. And when they cut the hair, it's all going to be the same length. Keep on wrapping until you're satisfied with the amount of hair that you have. The book helps you measure the same size piece. And if you want short hair, you can get a smaller book. Looking good. I think that's enough. Yeah, that's enough. Cut the yarn at the top of the book. It's a little tough. The yarn gets pretty thick and hard to cut, so you might want to ask a friend or an adult to help you. Got it? Now that's perfect. Once you have lots of yarn that is cut, put it across the top of the jar. You want the hair to go in all directions, but you don't want it to be too short on one side or too long on the other. So it's all balanced out. I think that's pretty good. And then you put the lid on top of the yarn. Then you flip the front hair over the lid and put the rubber band to hold it in place. And then you're ready to play. I kind of tie, like, twist my person's hair into a bun. I'm going to put her yarn hair into three bunches so she can braid it. I'm almost done with my bun. I'm just tying it. After this, I'm going to put some clips on her. I'm going to put clips too. There's your hair toy.


Japan expresses concern over Russia-China joint bomber flight. Japan has voiced its concerns to authorities in Russia and China via diplomatic channels over joint patrols of the two countries' warplanes near Japan's territory on Wednesday. Chief Captain Secretary Yulkazu Matsuno told a news conference in Tokyo on Thursday. Matsuno emphasized, the intensification and expansion of such activities near our country raises serious security concerns. He also said that Japan had told China and Russia via diplomatic channels about its concerns. On Wednesday, the Japanese authorities reported that two strategic H-6 bombers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and two suspected Russian aircraft flew over the Sea of Japan. No violations were reported, but Japanese fighter aircraft scrambled in response. The joint staff on the Japanese Self-Defense Forces published a report saying that the two suspected Russian Tu-95 bombers were seen flying near the island of Tsushima while on a patrol above the South China Sea and the Sea of Japan. The Russian Defense Ministry told reporters about a joint patrol by a group of Russia's Tu-95MS, strategic bombers and the Chinese H-6 strategic bombers above the Sea of Japan and the South China Sea. Russia's top brass said, the flight lasted about eight hours and was conducted in strict compliance with international law, with no intrusion in two foreign air spaces.


All right, welcome. Good morning everybody to this presentation at the Blender conference about our path to a high-end 3d vehicle visualization which I gracefully subtitled a year of a journey through this preferred mess Who are we we are a design company based in Austria with three other subsidiaries in China the United States and Germany We are specialized in the field of Transportation design and product design brand development and all of these things we connect that all up under the hood in one roof and To do that we are actually more than 200 creative people at the moment in our main office Coming from 30 different nations the company name if I didn't mention it is Kiska So where have we been one year ago? We have already been doing for our main client, which is the KTM sports motorcycle company 3d visualizations for online Configurators you might have seen them around if you went on the website and tried things out now a Year ago approximately they approached us if it would be possible to actually generate Let's say more sophisticated more higher resolution material for them they were aiming at replacing the photo shootings for the Prescott material so the informative material that's printed in folders and all that kind of stuff and they were challenging us constantly with an animation of a competitor which they asked us if we could do something which is Similar to that at the same quality level We had some time to kill and we came up with the animation which hopefully plays in a couple of seconds here Don't worry. There is no audio to it. We just focused on the visuals We took the 3d dataset which we already had in place for the configurators Put it into an environment and rather rendered out this 30 seconds clip, which is a simple box mapped animation So that's where we already Where one year ago now a lot of the presentation here is going to be about choice vodka We met The guy actually never in person. We just happened to be in contact with him via email and via chat rooms But how come we even knew about the name? last year I gave a talk here about using blender in design business and At the end I posted a wish list for the blender developers the last point was actually regarding the documentation and Half as a joke. I put his name into the presentation. I was asking if he's in today I was hoping to actually meet up with him and discuss a few things which we went which we came across during the visualization process his name came from two of the most important Wiki pages regarding color management in my opinion at the blender wiki one is about color management in general and the other one about handling the alpha channel which was really giving us issues all the time and While reading through the pages we had the impression that this guy seems to have the answers to the questions which we still had So he wasn't at the the conference itself and I went back home to Austria But one week later he happened to actually send an email to our reception asking to to make contact and Answer a couple of the questions a Little sidestep to film it blender itself The first thing which I was able to trace down in the history was as a question Which was asked on blender stack exchange by a user called set again The link is actually posted here and he was actually asking about How to render a wide dynamic range in cycles how to properly handle it? I was a bit curious about the question because I wonder what's wrong with it Actually, I had no idea what the what the real issue is and In the answer you can see a couple of these images, which I'm presenting here One thing which is a big problem about the implementation of was until 2.7 9 Was that what's called default view transform? It's an sRGB transform which basically does the nonlinear part of transforming the pixels on the image But it doesn't handle the higher level scene referred data at all It basically clips what's happening on the top of it Now filmic is actually using a much higher dynamic range as many of you already know, I guess and is mapping a Much much higher top value to the 1.0 scene referred value that you are going to judge on the screen And the main issue with that default view transform is basically that if you're using it you are basing your Lighting decisions when you're creating an image on something which in terms of scene referred values has been lit by candlelight So it's you're using far too low intensities. The shaders never actually do what they were coded for The second thing which filming at blender addresses is the desaturation part And desaturation we all know this effect from taking a photo We overexposed it by accident or on purpose and we get these huge white blown out areas But if you think about this from a mathematical point of view, it's actually really complex Because think about an RGB triplet which only has an intensity in one of the three channels like 0.80 or 0 given in this example Raise it up really high throw any kind of any number of curves at it It's not going to change in any of the other two channels. It cannot it's mathematically impossible Now filmic is resolving that by using a three-dimensional lookup table Which is stored somewhere on your system once you have it installed and it's calling that whenever the intensity values are rising To a certain level. This is a comparison from the same question on the same topic top Is the default view transform you can see here the value ranges of scene referred 0.4 0.8 1.6 So now the pixels are getting really hot But the colors do not change at all this they put they are just the same When you use filmic and you run the intensities up first of all, you don't hit the 1.0 red that that quickly But second of all when you raise it further it turns into white and white is only achievable if you change all three channels at the same time So down the rabbit hole we went If you know Troy, you know that he's got a chat room on stack exchange, which he titled the rabbit hole It's solely Purpose is to discuss color and color management issues So we hooked up with him and one of the first questions that he asked to me is what does that mean? RGB 100 what what's the meaning? If you would need to guess what would you say? red color red color This is the main answer which you get if you're asking that question, but actually The the sad thing is it means absolutely nothing Unless we know the metadata behind it So if we know what the chromaticities of the three primary colors Which we are using to represent color if we know where the white point is and if we know what kind of view transform has been used to map those colors into the value range then we know if it's a red or not and Especially we know and that's the question which you need to ask yourself which red So unless we know these three information We don't even know if we are within a color space because if you're working linear, you're not in a color space. I Come to that in a little second What you see here is a XYY color chart. It's got a super intrinsic name which has got an explanation goes back to an experiment Which was done in the year 1931 the main thing to point out is Our way of mixing color has three primary colors Which are at a certain location in what is known the absolute color space and There is a white point that they refer to and if you're dialing these values you are basically shifting your Target point inside of that triangle around The main thing to know is you cannot get outside of the triangle No matter what value you put in unless you put in negative values, which is which is anyway a bad idea If you are within the triangle, you can say that your color is within gamut if you are outside of it It's outside of gamut Outside of gamut is an issue because you cannot mix the color This is just a reference image of a of a second color space the black triangle outside It's actually the ultra HD HD TV one, which is 4k resolution Then the inner one is the one that you're actually seeing today. That's an sRGB transform Just for reference. So why do we have all of these color spaces? Each kind of monitor that we use has got a certain hardware that hardware is mixing the colors using LEDs And those LEDs have got primary colors Now by definition if you are on an sRGB monitor, they need to have a very certain shade of this color Unfortunately in reality due to manufacturers Tolerances how many how much money you need to put into this LED it can differ quite dramatically So that's why when you buy a monitor you sometimes see in the chart this monitor has got 80% coverage of sRGB That's a cheap monitor. I quickly browse over a skip over this one because All I really want to say about it is seen referred data I used to think of the energy values when you are rendering So when you're doing a rendering in cycles and you get some values back, which you then hopefully output to an open XR image Those values are the scene referred energy values of the pixels that you get The display referred data at the bottom is the result of this data Which has been run through the display transform sRGB is a display transform filmic is a display transform So the display referred data is at the end of that chain and in our case. It's mostly non-linear Color that we are using So it was time to to really go down to it and ask Troy some questions things which were bothering us all the time and most of the questions actually were more about the alpha channel less about color And what we also learned is how I answers that question now I'm referring here to a question which is also asked on blender stack exchange by a different user It's the exact same question which we had and we didn't find the solution ourselves But with the help of Troy we figured out Imagine this you have got an object with a shadow catcher behind it You've got a background of an arbitrary color non-black and you want to alpha over that in blender You need and you get this image looks great. That's what you want Then you save that out as an 8-bit image PNG So you have got an alpha channel in the image you save it out You get this when you load it up in Photoshop or in our case It was the web browser, which is the most painful compositing application. You can imagine You give it the same background color you use alpha over by using layers and you get this Who of you has rammed into that issue none of you a few maybe yeah one in the background great Did you figure out why? Great, this is your day so we were coming back to him asking him that question and The first thing he asked us I can see your renderings online. Somehow you are handling it. How do you do it? and we said Basically, we split out color information on alpha channel and then we manually color manage the alpha His answer was quite specific on that because by definition alpha channel is always strictly linear There is no non-linear transformation thrown at it ever. It doesn't matter if you're an 8-bit or in something else It's always linear a few days later. He came back to me and said this is amazing. What a puzzle you gave me I don't understand why I didn't come across this earlier and it's so fascinating But because it's so fascinating. I'm not going to give you the answer You should figure out yourself But I give you a few hints So he was giving me the hint about what I said earlier that alpha is always strictly linearized and This is the key to understand what the problem is. I'm not going to bother you with the formulas because There's there's not so much to say about them The only thing why I put them there is if you put in the values of a shadow catcher object and you do the math You will figure that in both cases you get the same result. It's absolutely identical because the RGB is always black And I said I still can't figure it out and a few days later. I had this moment where I actually realized what's what's happening Now if you look at this graph here, I tried to schematically explain what it is We have a background color. We have a linear image By the way, the top line here is the linear composition if you use blender compositor, for instance and if you just look at the schematic view here and and Judge the the data the image RGB data is linear the alpha channel is linear So we have a linear image we alpha over that over something linear and then We run it through the sRGB display transform and we throw it at the screen everything's good When you save out that image you actually save it out at this location Because the image has the non-linear transform burned into it Then you open that in Photoshop or in the web browser but the components which you get are a non-linear RGB and a linear alpha because by definition it's strictly linear You take that your alpha over that over the background and what you get of course is a shadow Which has been composed linear and the pixels which have been composed in sRGB space And that's why the shadow is darker and the only really chance you have is before you save it out Do exactly what we did hand the color manage this channel. There's no other option It's not the nicest of all fixes, but it's pretty much the only one with which works But keep in mind this only works if you are an sRGB color space if you have another color space You need to handle it according to that Another thing we came across is this We always had a couple of render layers which were basically masking out each other So the red dragon is masking out the metal one the metal one is masking out the red one We use alpha over to merge them and then we alpha over that over the white background and we get ugly white seams Now if you think that's a blender problem try the same in V-Ray and use nuke as a compositing application It looks exactly the same It's not a software bug. It's actually in this case a simple user bug. We are doing the wrong thing When we set up render layers like that the alpha operation to merge those two is not intended to be alpha over in In fact, you simply add all the components together The node group in the in the schematic view down there actually shows how to do it Alpha A plus alpha B gives you a perfect alpha in the end Which you can then use to alpha over the result over the background and the seams are gone More information about these ported of compositing Nodes is actually linked in here and one side comment if you're using natron on nuke as a compositing application They have in the merge node a mode which is called disjoint over which does all of this for you You just need to switch it and it works Briefly about monitor characterization profiling. That's also something we did together with him, which is quite ridiculous So a guy sitting in the in in Vancouver I believe is telling us remotely how to correctly calibrate our monitors and it worked out The only thing I want to point out here is this image, which is actually also in the blender wiki Now if you look at those lovely blue and green colors And stare at them for a few seconds And then you take a closer look at it You will realize that this Chart here perfectly blends with the top and perfectly blends with the bottom Because it's the exact same color It's an optical illusion, of course and the effect is called chromatic context The reason why I put this in here is for for two scenarios one Sometimes people think they just throw up an image and then hand style their monitors and that's the calibration Please don't These hardware devices are really built for a reason Because your eyes are relative and they always take surrounding colors into their into the judgment And the second thing is if you are running ever into the issue that you rendered something overnight You start color correcting it in the morning you go for lunch Two hours later you come back you start color correcting again, and you think my decisions in the morning were all shit You start to counter correct that and you counter correct and counter correct Then you go for for dinner But unfortunately your client wants it for tomorrow, so in the night you counter correct what you did in the afternoon and The next day you actually start the process again because what it did in the night is not correct If you happen to run into this check the lighting conditions at your office space Because chromatic context has an influence on that if it's tungsten light or neon light or daylight or morning light Does make a difference? More information can actually be found on this Stack exchange question here, which explains you how to do the profiling and how to actually handle it The ICC profile which you get is not used by blender by default This is actually correct handling because other application in the via VFX industry also don't do it The question linked before actually explains you how to properly implement Your ICC which you get because you need to do something to it Cool that was the first part of the presentation now. I believe it's time to look at some output examples Everybody's still awake Okay Now let me start with the KTM adventure 1290s. I put this project in on purpose. It's a bit more than a year old actually and And the reason to put it in was this was the last project we did without filmic So this is default blender view transform at its best compositing was done in nuke and There was a lot of color correction actually done to it But what you what you see is the result is not bad But you always have the impression that there's a high number of light sources pointing from all directions at it And this is the effect which you usually see in the older blender renderings which which are around Now when you start When you start looking at the higher intensity areas like this area here You will notice that there is just white left There is just no color information that could have been used And this is always the death you needed to die when you use the default view transform either you focus on nice darks and Skip the bright areas or you focus on the bright areas and you totally lose the black ones With filmic that actually changed So the 250 and the 390 Duke which comes later Were the first projects where we actually used it in production it's the same guy who did the renderings and The change of the result we could see after a week of using it It was really amazing how how much it it actually influenced and here at the 250 Duke I actually want to point out the white parts Together with the black parts, especially when they are together like in the reservoir bottle down here or in the spring This albedo color and this albedo color and this albedo color can finally be the same This is what this was not possible before we had to cheat all the time a shot at the display Things which are not so much obvious, but which you also get with filmic is these beautiful soft roll-offs of Smooth surfaces when it comes across Is something that looks much more natural than it has been before Yeah, and also details like again white part white part bright areas chromey in in the in the headlight And the white spring and it's all the same thing So you need to color correct of course still because not every lighting decision that you take is going to be correct But it's just much less hassle and the things just behave You know when you when you try to change the exposure by dramatic values you still get something that works One last thing to point out what we learned when doing these renderings is when you do press kit stuff There is actually legal conditions linked to it So you're you cannot just fake some some text which is on the tire anymore.  It's called Reinseik and I didn't find a proper explanation for it for us They are a bit like color graders what they do so if you slide across that this is the rendering that we give them and That's what they make of it So that goes out for printing the folder So what you can see is it's really color correction its intensity correction at a small Level which is happening, but there is no like cables photoshopped in no detail added all of that is in the render already And that's only possible because using film it actually gave us the time to do that Next project is the 690 Duke R. It's also special because That was basically revising an old set of data and trying a few things out for us So what did we do first of all? This is the first bike where we used the principle Jada The other ones were done using our own PBR implementation, which were great and everything was fine But the principle Jada actually Congratulations to all people who contributed to it. This one is really really good Also in terms of noise clear up behavior when you wait for a couple for a few seconds It's really consistent. It's better than the the old components which we had at least I feel The second reason to to do this project was to test out if you could use natron as the compositor Now we are not using for the Prescott image deep render compositor Because we really need the OCIO color nodes for the output section. That's why we use either nuke or natron because there you have it and Yeah, it worked out Was it fun? It depends on the resolution. I mean, this is 6k by 4k in the original material You need to wait some time. Let's put it this way Yeah, finally What we can say is that using filmic really brought back the fun to the compositing stage because you've got so much room to play You can really change things last minute and that was something that we had a hard time doing before I think you can see in the results Last project that I want to show is the 1290 super dugar. It's also a bit of an older project But there was a funny story about it because this one happened to be featured in the red bulletin Which is a magazine published by Red Bull They usually only focus on racing stuff So if you built the next rally they put it in if you put them all build a motor GP It's for sure in that magazine if somebody jumps out of space and onto the earth. They put it in but not production bikes This one was the first one that they ever printed in their magazine as far as I know at least and I'm not sure if the guys knew that what they were printing was actually a blender rendering Through and through so finally what is there to say a huge? Thank you to all the developers which are developing this awesome tool blender is fantastic What they did in the last year is is an amazing journey Thanks for the shadow catcher to everybody who contributed. I Put in vodka for Sergei asking me yesterday which one he wants and he tells me he doesn't drink vodka need to find something else The principal cheater amazing tool denoiser has changed the game and Also everything that went into ID remapping because we use that through and through we use it really a lot and at the time when it stopped you Losing just about everything if one reference hasn't been found That was a day. We marked red in the calendar Also, big. Thank you to try some vodka because he was supporting us for the year in in every way that he could gave us really a lot of insight into topics which we only heard about before but Yeah, really great to have these conversations. I was in the chat room a lot with him In the evenings at night and my girlfriend already thought I was having a secret love affair or something No, it was just color discussion And finally, thank you for coming and joining this presentation. I hope you learned something. I hope you enjoyed it Thanks a lot


Hey guys, Thundee here, and yes, this is a video you guys specifically asked for to find out which is better between the Galaxy Buds Live and the Galaxy Buds Plus. Yes, the brand new Galaxy Buds Live are here, I've got them in-house, and how do they stack up against the Galaxy Buds Plus, which a lot of people love and like. So let's start off with some of the specs here. Both of them, of course, have USB Type-C charging, which is great, so there's some similarities that they do have. The Buds Live has 5 minutes of charge, gives you an hour, and I believe the Buds Plus, it's 10 minutes of charge, gives you an hour of usage. Now when it comes to wireless charging, the Buds have wireless charging, so that's also a good plus there. And when it comes to battery life for each one, with the Galaxy Buds Live, you do have 29 hours of battery life with 8 hours on the earbuds, if you have active noise cancellation off, and 6 hours with active noise cancellation on. While the Galaxy Buds Plus come with 22 hours, but it's 11 hours with the earbuds, and then of course an extra 11 hours on the case. So battery life here, the Buds Live have definitely more in terms of battery life. Now let's look at design. Now this is where they stand out quite drastically and differently, even from the case. So the Buds Plus have the traditional pill-shaped case, which the original Buds had. While the Buds Live have more of a trinket-style case, which again, they're both small, they're both portable, come in different colors. The Buds Plus have plethora colors, there's a BTS purple color, there's a red, which I like, I have right here. While the Buds Live come in mystic bronze, white and black, right? Now when you look at the design of each of the earbuds, they look very unique and different. The Galaxy Buds look like a traditional Buds with a nice surface area for the controls, and of course a more intrusive ear tips, which give you a really solid seal. One of the best seals you will have for any true wireless Buds out there. While the Galaxy Buds Live have a bean-shaped design, yeah, they look like a pair of beans, but this is to give you a less intrusive fit. It's also got an open back feel, so basically design, I call it a semi-open back, and it's also got a different design feature set there. So the internals are different in terms of drivers. The Galaxy Buds Live are running 12 millimeter drivers and they also have a base dock, which the Galaxy Buds Plus do not have. The Galaxy Buds Live have three microphones and also has a brand new VPU unit, which detects your jaw when you're about to talk. So the microphones can activate and then capture your voice much better, which we'll get to in our mic test. And also, of course, it's also got a pass-through so that you can hear your surroundings much better. So design is different. Again, it's your choice if you want a complete seal or you want something that is a little bit more passive, especially if you're in a working environment. Now let's get to the big thing, of course. For me, it is audio. Now this is where the Galaxy Buds Plus has done a really good job of the years, and I think it's still a solid pair where you've got some really nice highs, decent mids, the lows not so much, but they are available right there on the Buds Plus. You can use the EQs on the app to basically customize what you're trying to listen to. While on the Buds Plus, the highs are much better. It's got also a bigger soundstage down the Buds Plus and your lows really come up because of that base dock. So there's more oomph to some of the songs you're listening to. And I say in terms of audio, overall, the Buds Live sound much better to me. Now again, with that open back feel of design, it feels really spacious with the Buds Live. So that's something I like about it there. Now, when you talk about active noise cancellation with the Buds Live, as I said in my other video, not so much. It does cut out some noise on the lower ends, but not much, and doesn't cut out in the traditional sense. Do you think enough? Because again, these are open back, semi open back headphones. So which means it's slightly off, but not what you probably desire. While the Galaxy Buds Plus have a really good seal, so it cuts out a lot of noise. And again, when you're trying to do music, you really can hear much. So in terms of noise isolation, noise cancellation, it's the Buds Plus there for me. Now, let's talk about the microphones. Now, without even wasting any more time, I've got a new microphone test for you to check out. I'm going to show you some indoor mic tests, some outdoor, and then one outdoor windy test. So you guys can see between the Buds Live and the Buds Plus. Okay, I'm recording off the Galaxy Buds Live using it here to capture sound. And I'm up here. It might be a little bit windy. There might be some noise from cars, but this will give you a good idea of how the microphone sounds, especially while you're walking and talking on the road. So some winds coming in. This should be a good capture point in terms of what this microphone can actually do. So let's check the others. Alright, so we are doing the microphone test, and this is the Galaxy Buds Plus. As you can see, they're red in my ear. And you're getting to hear the microphone off this camera. So I'm re-recording this because it got a bit windy. And I wanted to capture the microphone with more wind coming in. And of course, a little bit more noise. Just to see what the Galaxy Buds Live actually do with a windier or louder environment. Okay, so we are testing the microphone on the Galaxy Buds Plus. The red one's here. It's windy. It might be some honking. Giving you a good idea of how... Here's a quick microphone sample of the Galaxy Buds Live. And this is just to show you how it sounds while capturing and having a conversation indoors. And yeah, there you go. Alright, here is the microphone capture of the Galaxy Buds Plus. And this is a capture indoors of the microphone to see how it sounds indoors. Again, with a fan on and a few things. Same settings as you'd expect. So, there you go. Wow, so that was quite interesting. The Buds Live sound really, really good. Outdoors, indoors as well. It makes a lot of sense why Samsung really touted the connectivity with the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra in terms of pairing and using as a microphone. And the Buds Plus do sound good. They're not bad. They actually handled, I thought, pretty well in terms of the windy conditions. And they sounded good indoors as well. So, the Buds Plus do a really good job and have experienced them over phone calls. But the Buds Live clearly have a much better microphone and also that VPU comes into play as well.  Wow, as I mentioned, once 29 hours, one is 22. But you have a different use case scenario here. With the Galaxy Buds Plus, you've got 11 hours on the Buds themselves. So, you've got a longer amount of time while listening to audio. While the Buds Live, you've got 6 to 8 hours. And it depends if you're using active noise cancellation. So, you're going to find yourself, if you're one of those people who wear them for a pretty long period of time, you're going to have to charge in between at some point. But I have to say, though, it really comes down to what you're trying to do and listen to. I've got to say, as a whole, the Galaxy Buds Live really impressed me, minus the active noise cancellation. And I think that's more because Samsung just didn't accept to say these are open back headphones. And I understand that it's going to be very different. But as a whole, the audio is great. Really solid battery life. The microphones sound really good. And I think it's an overall great pair. But remember, they are open back headphones, which means sounds going to get through. So it's great for a work environment or if you've got kids at home and you still want to have a phone call or talk and make sure you know where they are and also maybe listen to your boss if you eventually go to work. So that's great. The Buds Plus give you a much better isolation seal. And I think that will work well for people who are trying to cut off more noise altogether. So there you have it, guys. That is it. And I think to me, the Buds Live take the slight edge here in this one. But I definitely still like the Buds Plus. If you have any questions or any comments, let me know. If you want to pick up any of these two bad boys, use the link down below. Don't forget to like, share, subscribe and always enjoy your entertainment.