What is going on guys welcome back to the channel and I do appreciate you being here today I am back with another destiny 2 community highlights video and damn a zero second Outbreak perfected clutch absolutely unbelievable guys, but if you do enjoy the video I would like to show you support can by hitting that like button if you have any amazing clip You'd like to share with the world send it into the email. I'll just linked at the top of the video description Well guys, hopefully you enjoyed the video and hopefully I will see you on that next one Dude look he's up in the sky. Do you see him at all? Yeah, I see him. What is going on with that guy? That was pretty amazing Dude, I hate jolt on so much this dude literally it's such a trash weapon It's all in the water No, the stadium is on the floor. The stadium is 3 centimeters. How? He expands? No, he walks What?  Six would be proud. Two down. Three opponents down. You use your ankle well Zone C captured. Zone advantage is yours Oh heavy heavy heavy Hey, hey, they started it They started it Oh, guess what? I'm marked for vengeance.  Get paid The boss is down anyway I got him Yeah, I got the boss Wow, two forehand tokens Come on Oh, Exo I got a catalyst I got two risks I got a catalyst and a script


So today we're gonna talk about when and why you should be utilizing brining in your cooking. Brining basically just means to soak a food, usually meat and a salt solution for an extended period of time, which helps to tenderize the meat and allows it to retain more moisture during cooking. Now keep in mind that the liquid doesn't have to be water, so you could also use something like buttermilk for a meat that you plan to fry, or even juice to add a little bit of extra flavor and browning from the sugar. So to understand why brining is useful, let's first take a look at what's actually happening when meat cooks. Essentially as the meat heats up, it's muscle fibers contract, causing the liquid contained within those fibers to be expelled. So as you can imagine, if too much of that liquid is expelled, the meat can become overly dry pretty quickly. But when meat is brined in a salt solution, the solution actually dissolves some parts of the protein structure of the meat. So in turn, those muscle fibers can't contract fully, and therefore they retain more of their moisture during cooking. And in addition to that, as the proteins break down, the meat also becomes more tender overall. So both of those factors combined lead to an extremely tender and juicy result. Now, before we go any further, let's also address marinades, because if you're like I was, you may not be 100% clear on what the difference actually is between a brine and a marinade. So as we've discussed, the purpose of brining is to tenderize the meat and lock in the moisture. But with a marinade, the primary purpose is actually to add flavor. So marinades will typically contain some form of acid, like vinegar or citrus juice, whereas brines generally don't. And marinades also tend to contain a lot of spices and herbs. And while you can incorporate those into a brine, the effect of doing that would be pretty subtle since brines are generally a lot more diluted. So as you can see, brining can provide some great benefits, but that doesn't mean that it's ideal in all circumstances. Specifically whether or not you should brine is highly dependent on the type of meat that you're using. Generally leaner meats like chicken breasts and pork chops are gonna benefit the most from brining because they don't have that fat there to help them remain juicy. So for the same reason, you may also want to brine a pork tenderloin, other chicken parts, or even turkey depending on how you plan to cook it. But when it comes to skin on poultry, you may not want to use a traditional brine because the brine can cause the skin to become soggy, which then prevents it from becoming crispy during cooking. In that case, it's better to use a technique that some people refer to as dry brining, which basically just means salting the meat in advance, then letting it rest for anywhere from about one to 48 hours, depending on the size of the cut of meat that you're using. So for a steak or something like a bone in skin on chicken thigh, you'd want to sell at least one to two hours in advance, whereas for something like a whole turkey, you'd want to sell all the way up to about 48 hours in advance to make sure that the salt has time to penetrate all the way through. And one other disadvantage of a wet brine is that it can cause your meat to taste slightly less flavorful since the meat retains more water. So for that reason, you may want to consider using a dry brine in some cases as well. But generally I do prefer to use a wet brine for very lean meats like pork chops, pork tenderloin, and boneless skinless chicken parts. Then I'll use a dry brine when dealing with skin on poultry, along with all types of fattier meats, like pretty much all cuts of beef, and especially those tougher, fattie cuts that are typically used for braising, like pork shoulder, beef chuck, short ribs, and so on. And it's also worth noting that in general, brining is really only necessary for your dry cooking methods, like roasting, grilling, pan searing, and frying. It's really not necessary for something like a braise because in that case, there will be plenty of liquid there during cooking to keep the meat moist. So now that we know what brining is and why you should do it, let's get into how you should do it. So most brines range between about a three and 6% salt solution, depending on the size of the cut of meat you're using. Personally, I always like to use a 6% salt solution and then just vary the length of time that I brine, depending on the meat that I'm using. Now that's 6% by weight, or in other words, 60 grams of salt per liter of water. And if you don't have a scale, you can just look at the nutrition label on your salt container to convert from weight to volume. In my case with the Diamond Crystal brand kosher salt that I use, 60 grams comes out to a little less than half a cup. And this amount of salt will easily dissolve at room temperature with just a bit of whisking. Now, if you want to add sugar to your brine for some extra browning and flavor, you're welcome to do that as well. Personally, I don't like to add sugar when I'm brining chicken, but for something like a pork chop, I think it can be a nice addition. If you do that, you'll want to use equal parts sugar and salt. So again, that's 60 grams of each per liter of water. But of course, since the sugar is optional, you can use less than that too, if you prefer. Either way, once your brine is prepared, you can just toss in your meat, making sure that everything is completely submerged. And in this case, I'm using some boneless skinless chicken breasts along with some bone in skin on chicken breasts in order to demonstrate the differences between the two, which you'll see in a minute. For pieces of meat this size, I'd recommend brining for at least three hours, but it is pretty forgiving. So you can even brine up to overnight without worrying about them becoming too salty. Now, if you were to brine something larger like a whole pork tenderloin, for example, you'd want to let it go longer, more like eight to 16 hours, depending on the size. But of course, you'll also just want to experiment and see what you like best based on your preference for saltiness. Now, in my case here, after removing the chicken from the brine, I just added a few herbs and spices for flavor, then baked it at 300 degrees until it reached an internal temperature of 155 degrees Fahrenheit, which leads me to my next tip that'll help you to achieve much juicier chicken. You've probably always been told that chicken should be cooked to 165 degrees Fahrenheit, because that is the point at which 99.999, 99% of all harmful salmonella bacteria are killed instantaneously. But it's not quite that simple because as Kenji Lopez all explains in the food lab, the bacteria aren't just simply alive below 165 degrees Fahrenheit and dead above that temperature. They actually start to die off as low as 135 degrees Fahrenheit, but it just takes much, much longer at that temperature.  And as most of you know, meat will maintain its internal temperature for quite a while after being removed from the heat, far longer than 45 seconds. And in a lot of cases, it'll even continue to rise in temperature after it's been removed. In my case, the chicken actually remained at my target temperature for about a full five minutes, far longer than the 45 seconds required to reduce the bacteria to a safe level. So the general recommendation of 165 degrees Fahrenheit was meant to be an extremely conservative food safety measure, which is why the USDA still uses that number, but it tends to result in dry and stringy chicken. So for those of us that look a bit deeper into it, we know that that number is overkill and we can actually cook our chicken to 150 or 155 degrees Fahrenheit without any worries. And keep in mind that this only really applies to the white meat. So for the darker meat of the legs and thighs, it's still best cooked to around 175 degrees Fahrenheit in order to achieve the ideal texture. So as you can see, applying this knowledge in combination with the salt water brine results in a beautifully tender and juicy chicken breast. And similar results can be achieved with the brined skin on chicken breast. But as you can see, the skin isn't quite as crispy as it could be. So for that reason, I do prefer the dry brine in that case. So if you want to apply the principles that we talked about today, be sure to check out my chicken tender video in the bottom right corner of the screen where we'll use a simple buttermilk brine to create some incredibly tender and delicious fried chicken.


The final item of business is a member's business debate on motion 3, 777, in the name of Bob Dorris, on MND Scotland, report No Time to Lose, addressing the housing needs of people with MND. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put. I invite members who wish to participate to press the request-to-speak buttons now or as soon as possible. I call on Bob Dorris to open the debate for around seven minutes, Mr Dorris. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. In today's global MND awareness day, people affected by motor neurone disease all over the world will remember those who have loved and lost to this devastating terminal disease. Here in the Scottish Parliament as a community, we will be no different. There will be friends and loved ones no longer with us and during the course of this evening's debate, we will no doubt hear about some of those people. For some colleagues in this chamber, that will also include Gordon Aitman, who has lost his style very felt in this place. This evening's debate is focused on housing and how we better support those with us today living with MND. On that front, I am sure that we will agree that there remains much still needing to be done. I would like to thank the many MSPs who have signed my parliamentary motion until I meet them to secure this debate this evening and addressing the housing needs of people with motor neurone disease. I also wish to thank MND Scotland for their powerful, very sobering and challenging report No Time to Lose, which gathers much of the vital data and, importantly, captures the crucial lived experience in reality of individuals living with MND and their families. My thanks to the families who have shared their stories, including Marie, whose husband Ian had MND, Beverly, whose husband Alan had MND and Lynne, whose father-in-law Drew had MND. They played pivotal roles in this research and in the public gallery here this evening, and I thank them for their attendance and for their contribution. That is exactly where the debate must begin. I want to quote two lived experiences direct from the report. The first one that I raised at First Minister's Questions a few months ago, Marie, whom I mentioned earlier, told MND Scotland. My husband lived in the living room with no shower facilities at all. We were washing him out on the decking with buckets of water. No dignity in that whatsoever. 11 per cent of people affected by MND reported waiting more than a year for a wet room. For some, the wait is longer than the time they have left. We should just let that sink in. We must do better. Of the local authorities who responded to MND Scotland, the average waiting time for wet rooms to be fitted in 2020-21 was 158 days. However, one local authority reported an 80.7-day average waiting time at another, it was 256 days. That is three months compared to eight and a half months. Every local authority must strive to do better, but the regional variations demonstrates that improvements can surely be made by learning from best practice. On requiring a ramp, a family member of another MND sufferer said, we got in touch to apply for a ramp and we were asked by the local council if he could still walk. He said yes, and so they said, we will not look at it until you can't walk. He asked how long the waiting list was and it was nine months, so they wanted us to wait nine months from the point that he couldn't get out. There has to be a better way to deal with adaptations like this. It needs to be proactive, not reactive or heavily delayed. People cannot be prisoners in their own homes. For ramps, there is an average waiting time of 149 days. However, one local authority said that they had an average waiting time of just 23 days, with another local authority has an average waiting time of 475 days. Again, the regional variations are stark. It cannot be right to have a way of 15 and a half months to have a ramp installed when the average prognosis for someone living with MND following diagnosis is just 18 months. There are various recommendations in the MND Scotland report regarding adaptations. Understandably, MND Scotland has called on the Scottish Government to acquire local authorities to formally fast-track applications for adaptations for people with MND. They have suggested that certain social security forums can be used to underpin such a scheme. That is a powerful call. Of course, there may be resource implications and increased investment in resource may be required. I do not doubt the challenge in identifying and securing that resource. We should not pretend otherwise. However, with a cross-party purpose, I very much hope that we can find a way forward. We also need to ensure that, even if a property is not externally accessible, that can not be used as a justification not to adapt the property internally. MND Scotland has reported that that happens far too often. It is hardly surprising that MND Scotland has called the report no time to lose. Anything that we can do in this place to live as much of the precious time that those living with MND have left to make invaluable memories with loved ones, rather than having a prolonged fight to have their housing needs met, we must do it. The properties that we built today must be future proof to be fit for the purpose in years to come. As our life circumstances change, including our health, we must increasingly have housing stock, which is accessible and easily adaptable. That should be dealt with at the design and build stage. Looking for imperfect housing solutions to support accessibility both internally and externally, which can be difficult to resolve, we must increasingly become a thing of the past, so must having to move properties in the first place. I know that that is something that Glasgow City Council has been keen to see, having championed the Glasgow standard for developments, attracting public subsidy and also seeking to ensure that 10 per cent of new properties are wheelchair-accessible across all tenures. I should note, though, Presiding Officer, that I could not get data in relation to waiting times in Glasgow, and I looked to meet them as soon as we can work in partnership with them and housing associations to get that data and to drive improvements there. I also acknowledge the work of the Scottish Government in this area. With around £16 billion being invested by the Scottish Government to deliver 100,000 additional affordable homes by 2032, with a minimum of 70 per cent of those being for social rent, there is a real opportunity to make sure that we future proof all new properties for families across all tenures. I know that that is something that the Scottish Government is keen to see happen as it develops a common housing standard as part of its work on housing to 2040. In the meantime, however, there remains significant issues over agreed definitions of what constitutes an accessible home in the first place, and in various other matters, more must be done. Likewise, much more needs to be done to ensure better alignment between the various allocation policies of councils and various housing associations, and we need to ensure that they are more consistently taken into account of the housing needs of those living with MND within those allocation policies. For my part, as I have said, I will be arranging to meet colleagues at Glasgow City Council to see what more they can do in partnership with housing providers to better meet the housing needs of those living with MND. I know that the First Minister pledged the Scottish Government to take the time to consider the various recommendations that are contained within the MND Scotland report No Time to Lose. I look forward to hearing the thoughts of colleagues this evening on this, as well as an update from the Cabinet Secretary on how the issues contained within the report are being addressed. In particular, we need robust, reliable, comparable and routinely collected data on the wait for adaptations across all 32 local authorities. We need to see the waiting times to reduce and the significant gaps in performance across local authorities narrow. That needs to include fast tracking, as required also. We need similar meaningful comparisons on how local authorities and housing associations use their allocation policies to support the housing needs of those living with MND, and we need to build homes fit for the future. I know that there is much good work on going. As I am conscious, the title of the report is No Time to Wait. In conclusion, for some of the people in the gallery here today, time ran out for them and their loved ones, but together, across party and across parliament, we must do better. I thank you for taking the time to listen to my contribution here this evening. Thank you very much indeed, Mr Doris. I now call Graham Simpson, who will be followed by Mark Griffin for around four minutes. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I start by congratulating Bob Doris for securing this very important debate? Indeed, for his speech, which was very considered, I know that he feels strongly about the issues. I also want to thank MND Scotland for giving a presentation to the cross-party group on housing, which I am looking enough to convene about this report, No Time to Lose. It was a very powerful presentation indeed, and I welcome MND Scotland and their guests to the public gallery as well. Now, as Bob Doris has said, today is Global MND Awareness Day. Well, actually, every day should be MND Awareness Day because we should be alert to the issues all the time, full stop, and be doing something about it. We shouldn't need a special badge to do that. The report raises a number of issues, and there are some stark statistics in it. There's a 1 in 300 risk of getting MND in your lifetime. That sounds quite high to me, as Bob Doris has said, the average life expectancy after diagnosis is just 18 months. That's a really short period of time, and that tells you that when you are diagnosed, you need fast action. Really, in too many parts of Scotland, we're not getting that. In the report No Time to Lose, which was carried out in 2021, a number of points were made. There are extensive waiting times for adaptations, ramp waiting times are particularly lengthy. The wait across local authorities was, on average, 149 days to get something done to your property. One council reported an average wait of 256 days to fit a wet room, which is vital. 11% of people with MND waited for a year for a wet room. People with MND faced barriers to accessing adaptations. I want to, as I come to a close, just mention something in my own patch, some figures from north and south Lanarkshire. Before I do, I watch with interest. Bob Doris mentioned Marie, that's Marie Cartwright, and she featured on the BBC actually talking about her own situation with her husband Ian. I remember she stood outside her house and she was demonstrating how she had to throw buckets of water over Ian to wash him outside, which was quite heartbreaking when you think of it, that someone actually has to do that. When north and south Lanarkshire were asked, what is your definition of accessible housing, north Lanarkshire do not reference external documentation, south Lanarkshire referred to housing for varying needs, what percentage of your local authority or social housing stock is accessible or wheelchair accessible, north Lanarkshire says wheelchair livable properties 0.45% only of council stock and 0.34% of all social housing stock, not really good enough, south Lanarkshire 0.8% wheelchair accessible housing, and that includes sheltered housing, really poor figures. I could go on because I'm well aware I'm over time, but the figures across both councils in my patch are really not good enough, the postcode lottery has to end, I think government and councils have to work together to address this problem so that we do not have to put up with this any longer, thank you. Thank you very much Mr Simpson. I now call on Mark Griffin who joins us remotely who will be followed by Elena Whitham for around four minutes Mr Griffin. I'm grateful to speak in today's debate on global MND awareness day. The work of MND Scotland in driving the issue of the availability of accessible housing up the agenda is fantastic. Their report, No Time to Lose, has been vital in understanding the changes that are needed to secure accessible housing and adaptations that fit for purpose ahead of the promised review of the housing for various varying needs design guides. I also thank Bob Doris for getting the debate to the chamber today so that we can all talk about it this evening. It's certainly disheartening, though, that the report's recommendations are not already a reality. The postcode lottery of support people with MND are struggling with, just to get the housing that works for them, while battling rapidly progressing neurological illness. Some of their final months are nothing short of cruelty. I hope that when the cabinet secretary speaks, she can confirm that the Government is working across Government and with partners to pursue these badly needed changes. The fast-track applications have a common and consistent definition of accessible housing, a 10 per cent target for wheelchair-accessible new-built homes, and real increased resources for adaptations across Scotland. The research that MND Scotland conducted for the report is so valuable to understand the task, and I do not think that the Government's own statistics are up to the job. Like the patchwork of policies, the data is inconsistent and itself requires a real overhaul if central Government wants to truly make our housing system accessible. In my own region in central Scotland, MND Scotland found that, in Falkirk, just 1 per cent of stock is wheelchair-accessible. There is only an aspiration to build accessible properties in new-builds, but there is no target for people who are terminally ill, for people who are terminally ill and are not prioritised. The average weight in 2020-21 was 675 days, almost two years. The game Simpson previously cited the situation in North and South Lanarkshire, while it only takes 272 days for a disabled person to be housed in North Lanarkshire. Last year, it took two and a quarter years in South Lanarkshire. Those are devastating figures for disabled people and people with MND. Longer than 18 months from a diagnosis, underline just how important today's debate is. As a party, Scottish Labour has gone into the last two elections, committing to a 10 per cent target for new homes to be wheelchair accessible. I welcomed the Government's commitment last week to deliver a target for all 10 years, but I would be interested to hear whether there have been any discussions across Government, particularly with the planning minister, so that we could secure that target in the upcoming MPF4, which is making its way through Parliament at the moment, and looking specifically at making a requirement in the affordable housing supply programme. There are amazing contributions by being made by some RSLs and councils up in the country to build more accessible homes, but it needs national co-ordination and doing it through the affordable housing supply programme would be one way to do it. The idea of fast-track allocations and adaptations is an excellent one, and it is commendable of MND Scotland to pursue that. Building on the successes of MND Scotland during the passage of the Social Security Act 2018 to get fast-tracked benefits for those who are terminally ill, I am pleased to see that the charity is now pushing this concept further. It is an absolute necessity for fast progress in MND Scotland, and it is an area where national and local government can make strides in providing a real impact in supporting people. We can all agree that the last thing that someone who is terminally ill needs to be doing is battling with public sector bureaucracy, but the work done by MND Scotland and the recommendations that we have been able to debate today will undoubtedly have benefits for all disabled people in Scotland, especially those requiring wheelchair-accessible housing. I hope that the Government can undertake to make sure that more support comes in time for people with MND Scotland. Thank you, Mr Griffin. I now call on Eleanor Whitham to be followed by Gillian Mackay for around four minutes. First, I thank my colleague Bob Dorris for securing this important debate. I recently had a meeting with MND Scotland to discuss their report No Time to Lose, which addresses the housing needs of people with motor neurone disease, and to hear of the lived experience of my constituent Lynn McCartney, who is the surviving daughter-in-law of MND's sufferer, Drew McCartney. I welcome Lynn McCartney to the public gallery today. At this meeting, I heard of how too many people with MND cannot get adaptations or an accessible home quickly enough because systems are not designed for people living with a rapidly progressive terminal illness, and that some local authorities waiting lists for adaptations in accessible housing are longer than the average life expectancy for somebody with MND, which we have already heard is approximately 18 months from diagnosis. As a consequence of that, people with illness can be trapped in unsafe homes, sometimes in a single room, living without the dignity and care that every person is entitled to. I heard first hand from Lynn about the challenges that she and her family faced when trying to secure suitable accommodation for her father-in-law Drew when their own home was deemed unsafe. Of the immense anxiety and stress that caused the family during the precious time that they had after Drew's MND diagnosis, which was regrettably an all-too-familiar experience, the McCartney resorted to residing in their towing holiday caravan without central heating or running hot water outwith their local authority area and support network for nearly a year. Some of you may remember that this was on the news in order to provide the most accessible accommodation as quickly as they could once it became apparent that, with many external and internal stairs, their own home was no longer safe. Drew and his wife Helen were eventually rehoused in a lovely accessible bungalow back in Cumnock near family where he was able to live his remaining life to the full, surrounded by friends and family. His daughter-in-law Lynn was at pains to explain to me that Drew got many more months than the average MND patient and had that not happened he could have well have passed away whilst living in that caravan. I cannot escape the valid points that my constituent and MND Scotland make with regards to the housing struggles people who receive an MND diagnosis face and I am particularly struck by the desperately short life expectancy of 18 months from diagnosis. I raised this family's plight to the cabinet secretary's attention and she advised me that the housing to 2040 strategy sets out our vision for housing in Scotland and we have a route map set out to help us achieve this and the aim is to ensure that everyone has a safe good quality and affordable home that meets their needs in a place that they want to be. This includes all aspects of housing and independent living for disabled people. I am glad to note that actions being progressed include improvements to streamline and accelerate the adaptation system and that part of that work, the adaptations process will be made simpler and quicker, including options for fast tracking those with MND and other life limiting illnesses. There will also be a focus on promoting awareness of and greater use of the scheme of assistance to fund adaptations and consideration of passporting, grid practice and allocations processes that offer options to directly match people with MND and other life limiting illnesses to suitable accommodation. Additionally, that review work will also consider the requirement for a consistent nationally agreed definition of what an accessible home is and progress in delivering wheelchair housing targets. We have heard across the chamber that that is a postcode lottery at the moment and we really do need to have an agreed definition. I am also pleased as Mark Griffin has pointed out that our new adult disability payment from Social Security Scotland will ensure that those who face this illness will be financially supported in a respectful and dignified way. I have also been engaging with the newly appointed head of housing and communities at Eastershire Council who has agreed to work closely with MND Scotland to ensure that their next housing needs and demand assessment, which informs their local housing strategy, has MND fully in mind. Those living with MND have no time to lose and it is incumbent upon us in this place and across our council chambers to find solutions that will enable them to spend what time they have left pursuing what makes them happiest with those they love the most. I thank Bob Doris for bringing this debate to the chamber. I spoke in his member's debate on the last MND awareness day and I recognise Mr Doris' efforts to raise awareness of this condition. As others have said, MND is a rapidly progressing condition and average life expectancy is just 18 months from diagnosis. Diagnosis of MND can be devastating for people and their families who have to come to terms with the fact that their loved one may lose the ability to walk, talk, eat, drink or breathe unaided, sometimes in a very short time frame. According to MND Scotland, most people with MND will need adaptions to their homes such as handrails, ramps or wet rooms. If those adaptions cannot be made, they may need to move into another more accessible home. However, as we have heard, there are major issues around the availability of accessible housing. According to Inclusion Scotland, many disabled people in Scotland do not live in a home that meets their needs and 86,000 households in Scotland that include a disabled person need an adaption but do not have one. Waiting lists can often be longer than life expectancy for people with MND, which means that people are spending the time that they have left with their family and friends fighting for accessible housing that meets their needs, with some unfortunately dying before they get it. In the report No Time to Lose, MND Scotland emphasised the importance of early intervention. Too often, local authorities are fitting adaptions reactively. People are being asked not to apply until they need them and then are faced with a long waiting list. The report highlights that adaptions that we know someone with MND will need such as wet rooms, ramps or handrails to form part of forward planning from the point of diagnosis. However, although there is evidence of good practice across some local authorities, the current coast code lottery means that some people are being told that they are asking for adaptions too soon. Given the rapidly progressive nature of MND, there should be no such thing as too soon. MND Scotland is calling for improved understanding of the condition among people working in local authorities. Good understanding can mean that people with MND miss out on support that they are entitled to and can be traumatised by having to explain their condition over and over again for multiple key workers. When good practice is taking place, it is often because an individual practitioner such as an occupational therapist has a good understanding of the condition and how it progresses and has pushed for adaptions to be installed more quickly. I want to highlight that the report did find that some key workers such as occupational therapists were doing great work in that regard and acting as excellent advocates for their patients. In community awareness and understanding of MND, only more people will receive that level of support. As I have said, where adaptions cannot be made, people with MND may have to move to other accommodation. Leaving your home can be a very stressful emotional time and we need to support people through that process where it is necessary. However, the report highlights that applying for an accessible home is often an arduous time-consuming process. To quote the report, people are left spending time and energy fighting for homes that meet their accessibility needs and requirements. For many bereaved family members and carers, that meant that there was less time spent with the person diagnosed. Instead, navigating forms and arguing for needs took up time that they did not have but timely from doing things together and making memories. The report for people with MND who are applying for adaptions or new accommodation must be greatly improved. Processes should be streamlined where possible and people with MND and their families should be supported by well-informed key workers to appreciate the rapidly progressing nature of the condition. It will help people to spend time that they have left with their loved ones, not fighting for housing that meets their needs. Thank you very much indeed, Ms Mackay. I now invite Shona Robison to respond to the debate. Cabinet Secretary, for around seven minutes please. Thank you very much and I welcome Global MND Awareness Day and to thank Bob Doris for bringing this important debate here today. I'm really pleased to be able to respond on behalf of the Government and try to address as many points as I can. I think that this Parliament has a proud record of raising issues around MND and, more importantly, making progress on them. Of course, Gordon Eaklin was a pivotal figure in doing that. Bob Doris was quite right to pay tribute to his work. The important contributions that we've heard today have all raised awareness of MND. We've also heard about the work that MND Scotland, and particularly its report No Time to Lose, addressing the housing needs of people with MND. A very significant report indeed, and members have highlighted the housing needs and aspirations of those diagnosed alongside their families and carers. We want everyone with a life-limiting condition such as MND to be given the support that they need to live at home or in a property that meets their needs. I recently met Rachel Maitland, the chief executive officer of MND and her team, to discuss the recommendations of the report. It was a very helpful meeting, certainly from my perspective and, hopefully, from there as well. I got some very useful feedback about some of the good practice around, for example, speedy access to adaptations and the practical approaches to finding suitable, accessible homes for people with MND. What is important is that we replicate that good practice. I plan to discuss that with the new COSLA team to ensure that we continue to support the spread of good practice across Scotland. I am very clear that we need to make improvements. I have heard a number of members make those points this evening. I am aware of the complex cases where people with profound mobility issues of whatever nature have struggled to find suitable, accessible affordable housing. There are lessons to be learned from those experiences so that our homes can fully support our changing needs and expectations. I thank the cabinet secretary for taking the intervention. She said that she will be in discussions with COSLA, which is entirely right, because most of the recommendations in the report relate to councils, it seems to me. However, there are some that are aimed at government, one of which is that the Scottish Government should establish a common and consistent definition of accessible housing. Can she say which of the recommendations she will be able to take forward? Many of those are already being worked on. I am happy to provide updates to that. Of course, I will come on to two of those in a second. On the point of being able to live independently, it is what we would want for ourselves and our loved ones. Living independently helps ease the pressure on services as well as family members. To support that, our homes should be accessible, flexible and easily adapted to changing needs. We have set the strategy housing to 2040, which sets out our long-term vision for housing, which includes the delivery of homes built to housing for varying needs. That guidance remains central to our affordable housing supply programme. We are reviewing the guidance to ensure that it continues to be ambitious and meets the needs that it needs to meet. That will help to inform a new 10-year neutral housing standard for Scotland, which was included in housing to 2040. Initial engagement with stakeholders is already under way, and we aim to produce a draft standard next year and to progress legislation after that. As you know, local... Bob Doris. I thank the cabinet secretary for giving way. It is a really good work taking place, but I know that this can be prolonged when there are consultations, drafts and legislation before things become statutory. Will you be working in partnership with all housing providers in the construction sector and planning authorities so that those draft standards, even though they may alter, will be aiming to implement them at the earliest stage even before they become statutory? I am happy to do that. I think that it would point me, Mark Griffin, about using all the leavers such as NPF4, for example, on new housing developments that are coming forward. Of course, the importance of the affordable housing supply programme, I will come back to that in a second. Local authorities, as people have recognised, are responsible for assessing the housing needs in their area quite rightly because they know their local areas and, importantly, setting out in their local housing strategies how that will be met. Our guidance for councils to assist them with preparing those strategies ensures that specialist and accessible homes are central to their housing planning and delivery process locally. Informed through the joint working with partners, including MND Scotland, we have put in place requirements for local authorities to set targets for the delivery of wheelchair-accessible homes across all tenures. I guess that is a case of us, leading from the centre, working with local authorities to make those changes. I am pleased to say that 28 of the 32 local authorities have identified wheelchair-accessible targets and the remaining four are in the process of finalising targets. That is important. Increasing the supply will support more choice and flexibility for people. Of course, it is fairer as well. Backing that up in terms of the affordable housing supply programme is, of course, the £3.6 billion that is being made available for this parliamentary session. Housing providers have had those five-year allocations, so they know what they have. What we need to make sure is that the range of homes that are built through that investment are able to meet everybody's needs. We need the plans locally. We need the targets to be set based on local needs. Most importantly, we need those targets to be met. However, we know that the majority of people in Scotland do not live in social housing, so although we are making progress with the affordable housing supply programme, we need to make sure that everyone, regardless of tenure, has a home that meets their needs now and into the future. We know that there are issues with the way that adaptations are being accessed and delivered locally. We are considering how the process can be streamlined and made easier for people who need adaptations when they ask, not months later. That is really important in terms of the fast-tracking for people who, where time is literally of the essence and there is no time to wait for months for those adaptations to be done. We understand that, and we need to make sure that action is taken to address that. We also know that technology is now playing an increasingly important role in supporting people's independent living. The ability to remotely control household action through the touch of a button can make life so much easier. We want to ensure that advances in technology and the responses to the recent consultation on community equipment and housing adaptations, the draft guidance, inform our work to improve the adaptation system. Meantime, through our housing strategic partners grant, we provide funding to organisations such as Housing Options Scotland and Care and Repair Scotland to provide specialist advice to people with disabilities to help them to find the right house or to make relevant adaptations so that they can live in a home that meets their needs. I encourage people to use those sources of advice, because they are really, really good. We know that the best way to resolve the disconnect between adaptations and timing is to ensure that housing, health and social care services are working together to streamline and accelerate the adaptation system. Embedding the person at the centre is essential. That will be essential for the new national care service as it goes forward. Obviously, significant steps on the creation of the national care service have been taken this week, and we need to get that right to address many of the issues. I can tell you that Kevin Stewart, as a minister responsible, is acutely aware of that need. You need to wind up. Yes, I want to close the debate by thanking those who have contributed all of the examples and to assure you that the Scottish Government will give full consideration to the report's recommendations to improve the housing outcomes for those living with MND. Thank you very much indeed. That concludes the debate, and I close this meeting of Parliament.


This paper examines the economic profitability and environmental benefits of heat pump investments in Finland, finding that they are already profitable and create major benefits for residents. The cost of heating and heat pump investment does not vary between locations, but neighbourhoods with lower housing prices have less motivation and capability to invest into heat pumps. Potential subsidies should be allocated into areas with lower housing prices to guide energy efficiency investments, while awareness should be increased in areas that do not need subsidies. This article was authored by Jucivim Pari.


It's not a Christian virtue to be happy all the time. Let that sink in. You are not obligated as a Christian to feel happy all the time. Do you feel that? The pressure's off. Happiness as the world understands it is a fickle thing, but what God calls us to is everlasting joy in Him. Joy is something deeper founded in who God is and what He has done. The important thing is that you are not a bad Christian when you feel sad or depressed or frustrated. No. You're feeling down or depressed. Don't try to suppress those feelings, but rather invite Jesus to help walk with you in them. Follow for more Christ-centered content.


The Cardinal State Police Command is committed to improving community policing, to strengthen trust and understanding, enabling the Mandarin police force to be more effective in service delivery. State Commissioner ACP Abdul Qadir Yahya emphasized the importance of community participation and adds religious and traditional leaders to support the improvement of police performance. Community policing is a partnership with the members of the public and the police cannot police the community in isolation. Why police is adopting community policing is because it's easier to solve policing issues in the community. A crisis or a problem that's supposed to take one month for police to solve, if you partner with the members of the community you will solve it within less than one week, which is cheaper. And the more the police work with the community, the more you create trust. And the more you create trust, the more you attract people to come close to you. And the more they come close to you, the more you give them service, good service delivery. Police need to change its attitude. The community need to change their own attitude. Because there are situations where you will see that the community are the one lowering police for corruption, the other one lowering police for problem. You will insist on doing the right thing, but they are the one that will go and call other people for pressure on your head to bend the law. It is all of us that's supposed to change our attitude and do the right thing. Dr. Mohamed Shafa, Executive Director of IMC, aims to create a new mindset and understanding between police and citizens in Nigeria. He calls for a police force that is people-focused, not authoritarian. The children of the community leader urges Nigerians to ensure peace among citizens and restore confidence between the public and police. We realise that police service delivery cannot be effective without us as community, as citizens, participating in our role. As much as we blame the police, we failed to play our own effective role in complimenting the effort of the police. Not only failing to compliment the police, our legislative arms have also failed to give the police effective means. So therefore we feel that what will the citizens do to make it better? How do we create citizen-focused policing in Nigeria? The world of stereotypes, the world of prejudices between us and the police have to diminish. We have to break those walls. Or else we will now have a repeat of the answer. Of course, we may have the repeat of what? Of the answers even if not something is not done immediately. And that's why we take this initiative to see by 2024, before the 2027 next election, we will be able to have police that is people-focused. Not police force, authoritarian, power-focused driven, but people driven police in our country, Nigeria. The Police Act 2020. Wonderful big things upon the same year. But one thing that has also happened that many are just partaking today is the bathroom of trust-building police and care as a result of a new serious incident. We will discuss more about and insane that we have to share to you and we will see how best we can explore close to that act which talks about specific objectives which underlines the community policing. Our officers, police men are the stations. They are the ones that cause a lot of havoc to the community. Once there's no confidence between those parties, I think we will find it very difficult to understand. I understood that there is a way they can checkmate what is going on. But unfortunately, seeing the systems has no good checks and balances. That's why a general officer or the stations will do something is not being punished. That means there's a lot of work the police need to do for them to have this confidence within and around people in the community. Otherwise, we'll continue to go that way. People are afraid of going to police station. That's intimidation. Confidence building is what we need and everybody should be a participant, a participant in ensuring that this piece exists among us and the confidence between the public and the police. Hello. Hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.


six years married for show, one aggressive wife, zero loyalty, mix in a scarcity mindset.  Six solid years of being together devoted to a sacred pact of marriage, us against the world, until a shadow emerged, the cruel reality of her cheating. What we built was suddenly gone, smashed by her unfaithfulness. It was all fake, all the love, the trust, the dreams we shared over the years shattered. Our promise to stand by each other till death do us part seemed like a bad joke now. It hurt, but I had no choice. You'll understand, I had to do what I did. When the like button lets you borrow its favorite book, don't use a bookmark. Instead, simply fold the corner of the page to leave a crease. The following story will be upsetting to cheaters. This is a long story, but I'll try my best to make this short. We'll have to make multiple parts, though, to get the full picture through. My soon-to-be ex-wife, who we will call Lola, and I got married in January 2020. I was 22 at the time, and Lola was 21. We got married in secret, only our close friends knew. At this time, we were living on campus at our university in Miami, both coming from two counties away where our families lived as well. As soon as we got married, it was a toxic nightmare. For starters, she was secretly texting her ex-boyfriend from high school, who we will call Carlos. She stated they were just friends now, but this didn't sit right with me, as this person was also her first one. I'm not the type of person to go into someone's phone as I wanted to trust her. However, she started trying her hardest to hide her phone screen from my point of view, and whenever I touched her phone, she would go crazy. At some point, I was able to figure out her passcode and check her messages. However, I wasn't able to find any proof to follow up on this. Fast forward to March 2020, the pandemic hits, and everyone is forced to move back home. We were in a weird position, as we still haven't told our families, so we wore our rings in secret. Everything was seemingly okay until the first week of April 2020. She just randomly stated she wanted a divorce. It shattered my heart to hear that, as I cried and begged her to stay. I tried asking where did I go wrong, or if I wasn't doing enough for her. She just stated she just didn't love me anymore, and that she wasn't the one for me. For about a week, I was trying my best to save our marriage. I was at her mercy to try to make things work out, but she's extremely stubborn.  It was hard to accept, but I figured we shouldn't drag this along anymore. I only asked for her to return the wedding rings I gave her, however she refused to give them back, as she stated. It was a gift for her, and she was entitled to keep them. Legally speaking, she may have been right. However, I didn't feel like she deserved to keep them, because they were no longer going to be together. The rings were real. I was on a payment plan for them for about three years, with only four months in so far. We argued about this over the phone, to the point I hung up and cried myself to sleep in bed. Later I spoke to my mother, and she asked what was going on. I confessed everything to her, and she held me in her arms and told me everything was going to be okay. The next day we both went to Lola's home and we confronted her mother and told her the truth as well. It became an argument between our mothers, with Lola still upstairs refusing to see me, but was texting me asking what the hell was going through my mind to get our families involved. It was then agreed by our mothers that the rings would be given back to me, but on another day. About two days later I get a call while at work from Lola.  She stated she still loved me and was willing to give us another try, agreeing to cut off Carlos, and that we should move in together and live as a married couple.  I was able to get us an apartment that was fairly cheap due to the pandemic, and the move-in date was within three days. When I got home I told my parents the news that my mother was not happy about this. She explained that I was making a mistake, that I needed to rethink all this. My father was disappointed, but stated it's my life, my choice. For the next few days my friends helped me move things from my place and I barely talked to my parents within those days. It was heartbreaking for my mother the most, and it hurt me seeing my mother upset as well. The first day in, I felt like our marriage was finally moving in the direction, and I was finally feeling that happiness I was feeling before she told me she wanted to divorce me. However, that happiness did not last long. A few weeks after moving in, we get invited out for some drinks, and when we got back home, I went through her phone to find conversations between her and a different ex, who we will call Tanner. The messages went back as far as around the time she asked for a divorce, and this made my legs crumble. I got on the bed, however. I woke her up by splashing water on her and started screaming at her. She was confused as she was still tipsy, but I was furious and yelled at her for over two, three hours. At one point I demanded her to leave, as she was starting to come back to her senses. She began swinging at me and chasing me around the apartment, actually punching me a few times and viciously clawing at me. I'm not a violent person at all. I took the abuse and just locked myself in the room to keep her away from me. She turned from aggression to hysterically crying and begging me to forgive her, to the point she was on her knees and stated she would do anything to make up for it. We just began arguing and then slowly into talking about this situation through the bedroom door. Eventually, we both calmed down and went to bed as it was 4 a.m. when this was happening. I didn't sleep, however, but as soon as I found she woke up with only half the memory from what happened overnight. I repeated yelling everything back to her again, but this time she was sober enough to know what was going on and again pleaded for me to stay. She cried, stating she had nowhere else to go. In that moment I hated her so much as I feel she stole me away from my family, my friends and my life. About what I saw in the messages, there was nothing that stated they've done anything physical, however, there were conversations that had sexual tensions, such as her calling Tanner sexy and Tanner stating they should send each other videos which I still consider cheating. After further arguing, I told her as long as she promises nothing happened between her and Tanner, I better not see her talking to Tanner ever again, or I will leave her this time. She pleaded that nothing ever happened, but during the same conversation I asked if anything had happened between her and Carlos, she paused and said, No. It was this moment I knew I had to investigate this further. My gut told me this was only the beginning of what was to come next and my world would be turned upside down. I'll explain more on this later. Following my previous post, we are now in May 2020 when I asked if anything happened between her and Carlos. No. The way she answered made me suspicious. To add on a little bit more when we first moved in April 2020, I was working at a call center about an hour away from our apartment from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. She was not working due to her job being closed, so I had to start doing Uber Eats, Postmates and DoorDash, which would usually be between 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. after work or whenever on my days off from work. Also, after the first night we moved in, I was given the cold shoulder from her every night. While I'm working she would text me cute things such as her repeatedly saying she loves me and waiting for me to come home to cuddle. However, once I got home she would barely touch me or look at me which led to my discovery about her and Tanner. Anyways, now we're in June 2020 weeks after the incident. At this point I'm keeping my distance from her, keeping my same work routine while also trying to finish college classes online. She was not working yet but whenever I came home it was never cleaned up unless I did it. Around this time she also adopted a mini golden doodle but when we moved in I brought my Malshi along with us who she loved dearly until our doodle came around also giving him the cold shoulder. Malshis are the friendly, loyal and cuddly cross of the Maltese and the Shih Tzu. For the next few months it's been nothing but the same routine. We tried to talk and go out on dates but it always ended in silence. I tried to break the ice and see if we can work it out but she never wanted to express herself. Little by little I felt my love for her going away as I became numb to her treatment towards me. That was until October 2020 when she finally opened up to me. She apologized for her treatment towards me the past few months. We felt like we were both ready to leave the past behind and just focus on us now. It was us against the world. This felt more powerful when I caught COVID the following month where she cared for me the way a wife should. She ended up catching it from me once I recovered and I returned the favor. After that we started acting more like husband and wife. She finally started getting into my hobbies such as video games, anime, art and photography even coming along with me during my late night deliveries where we would vibe out to music and she would help as well. We discovered new things about each other, went on dates and honestly it felt heartwarming being in her presence again. That spark between us was finally coming back but I still had a secret grudge against her actions as it was hard to move on from it. All was going good until a few days before Valentine's Day 2021 where I made another discovery. These past months I still secretly went through her phone every now and then but honestly never found anything between her and Tanner besides what I already knew. However I decided this time to take it a step further and look at messages between her and her bestie who Lola would constantly send all the gossip to with long messages and screenshots. Going through the messages made my heart sank even more when I found more details about her and Carlos. Turns out that Lola and Carlos slept together a few days before she asked me for a divorce and this was actually the real reason for her asking me for the divorce. As I kept reading turns out Lola and Carlos had a conversation sometime in October I guess for some closure between them which is why she finally decided to give us a shot. Oddly enough I was not surprised this time. I woke her up from her nap and just straight up confronted her about what I just read in a surprisingly calm tone. She started crying and apologizing again and then I just stepped out and went for a drive to clear my mind. Many dark thoughts were going through my head feeling like I had no one to turn to. For the next few days I avoided her as much as possible. We still slept in the same bed but there was no physical touch between us. Now Valentine's Day morning I get a couple of nudges from her in a cutesy tone asking what did I plan for her today. Keep in mind I'm extremely exhausted from work and deliveries from the whole week and obviously I'm still heartbroken and feeling betrayed. She notices my reaction and starts crying saying that I didn't plan anything out for her. Once I heard that I jumped out of bed and began scolding her about how crazy as hell she has to be to think I would do anything for her after what I just discovered. I yelled at her how she does not deserve anything from me and how our marriage is a total disaster. Now you may be wondering why am I even still here with her. Well at this point in my life I honestly did not have the energy for anything. I was completely blank a complete 180 from the person I used to be. I used to be creative, make drawings and paintings do photography and videography and always looked forward to the next adventure. But I was hollow feeling like what's the point of life.  We were already so deep into the marriage life that it felt like there was no going back because if I did then what would I do now? It was a dead end for me and I blame myself for relying on her to make me happy despite also making me the saddest. Doesn't mean I forgave her or anything I just became more numb. So after this discovery we again entered another period of keeping our distance. Around April 2021 she took a trip to Peru with her grandmother and honestly I was a little excited to have the place to myself for a change. I told my friends the news and they began showing up to my place frequently while she was away, not knowing what I know. They made me feel like my old self again doing our old late night shenanigans and old activities like game nights watching movies or just hanging out. I loved the happiness I was getting back even if it was for a moment. At the same time the lease on our apartment was up by the end of May 2021 and I've been speaking to my father about my possibilities. That same month my mother went up to Chicago to spend time with family members for the remainder of the year and my dad came up with the idea of letting me and Lola stay at their home while he follows her to Chicago. I agreed but Lola wasn't so enthusiastic about it. However I didn't need her approval it was either here or having our rent twice the price from before for another whole year. So I moved back in with my parents June 2021. Lola is still in Peru but was returning in the next few weeks. I finally felt at home again moving back into my old room and seeing the layout that represented my spirited youth. I once had. I enjoyed my last few weeks of freedom but I knew this happiness wasn't going to last forever as Lola returned from her trip from Peru.   So now it's July 2021. Lola and I are living at my parents home. I started a new job in sales and was able to advance pretty quickly to a supervisor role within two, three months which paid well enough to afford my dream car. As for my marriage we had a steady relationship for the remainder of the year. We had our good and bad moments but overall it was still a blank feeling I had. I didn't know what I felt towards Lola whether it was anger, sadness, depression. I just felt like the marriage was just existing for no reason. By the start of 2022 there was a bit of reconciliation between us enough for us to start going out on dates again. We opened up more but we were still wondering where our marriage stood. Everything was seemingly okay until May 2022 where my life flashed before my eyes. I invited my friends over for a hangout at my parents place to watch a boxing match. I told Lola about it and stated how it will be only for a few hours and to expect some screaming as we get passionate about sports and she was okay with it. As the fight kept going we kept getting louder and louder to the point she was angrily texting me to keep the noise down. She would come out to grab snacks or used the bathroom only to keep slamming the door back to the room. After the fight one of my friends' truck had a dead battery so I used my car to jump it. While we're jumping it the four of us kept conversating for about another half hour. While we were talking Lola demanded me through text to come inside repeatedly to which I texted back that we're finishing up. As I'm just about to head inside Lola storms outside the house and heads to her car. I asked if everything was okay but she had a very serious look on her face and she angrily pushed me aside. Before leaving to Chicago my dad installed outdoor solar lights in the front yard. The way Lola's car was positioned her only way out was through a grass area that had one of these lights. She revved up her car and before she took off I tried to stop her from running over the light and asked what was wrong. She paused for about five seconds then stepped hard on the gas and almost ran me over. I jumped out the way as fast as I could getting grazed on my knee. She drove off fast dragging the light beneath her car scraping the road. I sat on the ground with a surprised look on my face thinking how she just almost ran me over. My friends helped me up and asked if I was okay. I just looked at them in shock and they offered their help. I told them just to go home while I went back inside shaken up from the moment. I kept calling Lola's phone to see why she did what she did. I go inside our room to find her phone on the ground unlocked. I go through the phone for the first time in months and turns out there were still secrets to find out about Lola. Turns out Lola and Carlos actually had a continuous affair for months ranging from March 2020 to October 2020. I finally felt in my heart and brain and decided to do what needed to be done a long time ago. It's about 2 a.m. I was still freaking out about this incident. I repeatedly called my sister who lives down the road from me about what just happened but with no response. Lola returns and tries to enter the home but I managed to lock the door with an additional lock. I sneak out to the back and drive over to my sister's house while hyperventilating as Lola pursued me. I get to my sister's house knocking but as Lola pulled up in the driveway I began knocking frantically as my sister and her husband finally opened the door. This caused Lola to back off and drive away. I explain the situation to my sister and cried to her about what just happened and finally opened up about how she cheated on me in the past. It was a hard pill to swallow but I was ready to finally let this marriage go. I asked her to accompany back home to make sure Lola doesn't try to hurt me again as she can get aggressive. When we get there Lola was already packing up her belongings. I kept my distance for about five minutes then asked her to give me back the rings and the keys. She already expected this as she had them in her pocket and gave them to me. She grabbed her suitcase and took our golden doodle with her. My sister and I talked a bit longer and then she finally goes home. That night was a long one for me. I slept at about 6 a.m. only to be woken up about 7 a.m. to knocking on my window. It's Lola. She spent the remainder of the night in her car and asked if I could at least take back the golden doodle inside. As much as I wanted to I ignored her. This went on for about 30 minutes. Later on I reached out and met up with her to talk about the situation. I finally told her about everything I knew and decided it would be better for us to separate. She cried and begged me to let us work this out but I was tired of the emotional and physical abuse all these years. The lies, the heartbreaks, everything. As toxic as it sounds what followed afterwards for Lola was actually satisfying as I felt like it was karma for everything she has put me through. I will sound like a prick in the next part but I believe I deserve a genuine laughter for once. Lola moves back in with her mother but not for long as she does not get along with her stepfather and has too much pride to be living under her mother's roof again. She ends up finding her own place in August 2022 stating that if I ever wanted to make it work out I was always welcome to move back in with her. My parents came back from Chicago about a week after we separated. A majority of the furniture in our bedroom was hers as she made me throw out my items such as my bed and drawers and replaced them with hers as it looked more classy. Besides the bedroom we had a couch, tables, kitchen appliances, etc. All boxed away in another room in the house the day she told me she was coming to take her belongings my father and I left everything out in the driveway but did not bother to help them move anything into the truck. She brought along her mother, stepfather, her uncle and her two aunts who I would say are not all physically strong people. Her grandma was also there to mostly watch but helped with little things to move. What took my father and I about 30 minutes to move and maneuver out of the house took them two to three hours to put in a truck. We peeped through the window having a few drinks and laughed about how they were struggling while they were all talking badly about me and my family. I don't know why they included my family but then again, they're a family who talk badly about everyone and everything. When Lola moved into her apartment she was working a new job she got through her field of study which paid well by the hour but didn't provide enough hours. She had too much pride to work a second job as she felt like this was beneath her. Because of this, she struggled to keep up with her rent, electricity, water bill, car payments, insurance, etc. She reached out to me a couple of times asking for money but I refused to help her as I felt like her financial problems had nothing to do with me. Lola would try to manipulate me into giving her money saying I shouldn't let our golden doodle suffer along with her to which I replied that she should go ask her lover for money. What about her mother? Well, I was surprised to learn later on that she told her mother the truth and her mother took my side and stated she would not be giving her money either. The rest of her family still hated me for not wanting to work it out after she cheated but their opinions don't matter because none of them are married themselves. Months went by we were still legally married. Lola agreed to go half on the divorce fees but did not have the money. During these discussions she admitted she still had hope for us to work it out as she still had love for me and believed I still loved her back.   As this is someone I've grown close with in high school who's helped me when I was at my lowest point in life and made me happier than anyone else ever could yet she still managed to break me and made me feel like I will never be good enough for anyone ever again. We still have each other on social media and even though she claims to be struggling with money she always seems to be out every weekend at the clubs. This usually ends up with her drunk texting or calling me stating she was wrong for how she treated me. Whenever I post on my Instagram or Snapchat stories about being out late at night she's usually the first to see my posts usually within a minute. She acknowledges that I look happier without her. As of now I wouldn't say happy but I do feel like this is what freedom is. Since moving out she's gotten into two car accidents just a few months apart. We're no longer on the same insurance together but she still called me asking if I can financially help her which I refused and told her she was on her own now. I still had her on my phone plan a few months after but decided to disconnect her line without letting her know. Once reconnected she angrily texted me days later about how she lost her number and had to get a new phone because her current phone was still locked with my carrier and she couldn't call to unlock it since I was the account holder. She called me a prick and I couldn't help but laugh about it. I have this ex-girlfriend that I ended off on good terms with. We were friends until Lola and I got married where she forced me to cut off my friendship with her out of fear that my ex would try to get with me again. We started hanging out again and when Lola found out she swears that I only divorced her to get back with my ex. I had no interest in her after the breakup only seeing her as a friend at this point even after Lola and I separated. From what I heard from a mutual friend she tried to get back Tanner who now has a girlfriend and a child. She also tried again with Carlos who now has a girlfriend. Lola would sometimes reach out to me about how she's still behind on certain bills would barely eat, almost got evicted twice and can't afford to care for the golden doodle. If I had to guess she's most likely getting money from her grandmother we would still text from time to time to figure out a court date or days where I still had to give some leftover stuff from home. She would always say she would never find a guy like me and how much she wishes we could try again and regrets her actions. Part of this made me feel happy for Karma. The other part would be feeling sad about how everything led up to this moment. Around March 2023 we went to court to finally file our divorce. While waiting for our turn she stepped out in the hall. I heard her cry her eyes out while I just sat there. After about ten minutes it's finally our turn and we began signing away. Ever since then we just now talk with a few texts once everyone two weeks saying what we have left to say. As for myself I was promoted to manager a month after we separated. I stayed in this position until November 2022 as I was overworked to the point of getting no sleep. I was able to find a better paying job, one that I continue to work for to this day. During the marriage I've gained weight from overeating to help cope with my depression. I've been going back to the gym but need to work on getting a routine. I have big plans with my friends for the summer and myself for later this year. It's now June 2023 I wouldn't say life is perfect but whenever I'm having a bad day I think about how Lola's life is basically falling apart now ever since we parted ways. Makes me feel like she deserves to feel what I felt for more than six years.  And she could see how happy I can be without her. Just for a few clarifications I had to cut this section out of part four to be able to post it. If there are any other questions I can try to answer them as well. The history of Lola and I dates back to our high school days. There are more details about how Lola and I first met up to the point where we got married. Looking back on it we always had a toxic relationship but that's not to say it was all bad. We had our great moments as well. As for how our boyfriend-girlfriend relationship went when I married her I'll explain that another time if necessary. I appreciate the feedback both good and bad. Like I said before I was a dumbass who thought everything would magically work out. I don't know if I would call this outcome a win for me but at least I can finally start over now.  I'm posting my experience as a way for me to get this off my chest. I'm not the best when it comes to expressing myself in person and Reddit probably isn't the best place to do it. But posting here with other people who had similar experiences made it easier for me. Thanks for still actually reading all these long posts. Sadly this isn't my first rodeo. There's a relationship I had before this that broke me and made me who I am today. Sounds dramatic but that's the best way to put it. I'm open to talking about it one day. For those who don't know the story I have several posts about my wife and I on my page if you want to read them. I apologize for the length of the posts. Anyways today I am going to court to meet up with my wife who we're calling Lola. She texted me on Monday June 26th to remind me that we have court today June 30th. Yesterday she gave me one more reminder and also asked for a few things I still had of hers. I asked for some things in return. We still follow each other on social media where we see each other's stories. I don't actively snoop. I just happen to see her posts while viewing other stories. I suspect she has a new boyfriend now or at least she is working towards it as she has been posting text messages between her and the same guy. I don't believe it's intended to make me jealous but knowing her she enjoys the attention. She did the same thing when we were starting to date. However I don't harbor any feelings of jealousy or resentment towards her. I'm actually relieved she's moving on. The way I see it someone else is now inheriting my old problems. They have no idea the type of turmoil they're getting into. All I can say is good luck. They're going to need it. As for the court I actually feel excited about it. I can continue to move on with my life and she can finally be out of the picture. She has mentioned that even after the divorce we can still be friends mostly because of the golden doodle we co-own. Despite my love for the dog I have the need to let all of this go. After we finalize everything I plan to block her on all social media platforms so I don't have to see or hear about her again. As for me I haven't tried to meet anyone new. I don't really have the energy or desire to try again. The main things holding me back are trust issues and my own insecurities. Historically in my relationships it's always been the woman who made the first move on me including Lola. I have the need to change this pattern but for now my primary focus is on work and the bills that I'm close to paying off. One of my friends is now training me at the gym. So far I've lost 10 pounds. My friend Group and I are going on a summer trip next week. We have multiple locations to visit within our state. So yeah life is good so far I'll try to provide an update on how the court proceedings went afterwards. Holy moly OP! I got caught up on your life story and believe what you've gone through. You've been put through the emotional ringer with her. I can't understand why she thinks you could be friends after that. And for her to blame you for her problems shows exactly what kind of person she is. Self-centered. She won't take accountability for her actions in the breakdown of your relationship. I'm so glad that your life is moving in a positive direction and you intend to block her completely after the divorce.  As for meeting someone, it'll take time. Take as long as you need. Work on yourself to be the best you can be before looking for someone meaningful. All the best moving forward OP. My ex-wife cheated. I filed for divorce and it was the best decision ever. At the time I thought it was the worst thing that could happen to me. I was embarrassed, hurt and felt that being divorced was embarrassing. But it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Since then I traveled the world, opened a business, retired for a couple of years in my 30s to live overseas, met someone new, had kids and became a millionaire. My divorce was in 2016 so it's been an amazing seven years. Dude, I've never been married but I've been through something similar and your train of thought is how I've always been. Man, this gives me hope to overcome because there are others like me going through it. It's good to know you're not alone in a situation. It's a learning experience for everyone. My advice is if there's red flags in a relationship then work them out before marriage. Honestly, all of that was your fault.  I'm not even sad for you. I'm cringed out. You two were truly made for each other. A woman who hooks up with other guys at every chance she gets and a doormat who allows it. I'm glad that you finally grew a spine and divorced her but I'm sure that if the next girl you start dating does the same, you will do the same again. No, I won't do it again next time. Sorry for the late update. I've been working overtime like crazy but today I have time. On Friday, June 30th, we get to the courthouse and wait for our turn with the clerk. After about three minutes we get called and there's only one chair for us to sit down. I take the chair for myself and even though I'm not looking at her I can feel Lola staring at me hard. She says, can I at least sit down? To which I respond, then grab a chair and she just says whatever and stands up. We explain the reason for our divorce. We're not fighting for anything, just simply separating. A couple of times the lady had to walk back and forth or type something into the computer. During those moments, she would say little remarks like she can't wait to get rid of me, that it was me who trapped her into a marriage and that I never satisfied her, etc. Not to sound cocky, but I know she was saying most of that stuff to mask what she really felt. I know this because she followed up that she hopes I have fun with my ex who we're still friends with but like I said before I have no interest in but she swears I'm in love with her. While we kept going back and forth the clerk was trying so hard not to laugh. We pay the fee and now we just have one more court date in one to two months. It was raining when we walked out so we still discussed a few things. The main thing she asked for is if I could watch the Golden Doodle in August while she goes on a trip out of the country. I said it's not possible for me and she followed that by calling me a beat dog dad and declaring that I will never see him again. Then she left. Here's the kicker. Yesterday Lola asked if I could watch the Golden Doodle for today to which I can't agree because I have to work even though it's the 4th of July. Moreover today is her birthday. She won't be getting a happy birthday from me though. Also her family does not celebrate birthdays especially her mother and stepfather because they're both Jehovah's Witnesses. Her only real option is her best friend who's most likely going to do something with her boyfriend rather than with Lola. So yeah now I'm at work waiting for two more days before my vacation. Nothing really different is going on from the last update.  Do people really split custody of animals? She said the same thing when we had a hamster. First of all, congratulations my guy. I know it's not easy to keep composed in the situation but you did well. The advice I would give you is to either take the dog full time or not see it at all. It will hurt less and you should go completely zero dark 30 on her. If you don't have kids or anything there's no reason to keep in contact. Change your number, start working out and keep doing and pushing it work as you seem to be doing.  No strings attached but all presses just wait until the divorce is finalized. Thank you. Once everything is situated I don't plan on seeing her again even if it hurts not seeing the dog since I do love him. Also one small thing I forgot to mention in my post. The clerk told both of us congratulations on the divorce. It made me smile hard and Lola just awkwardly smiled back. The clerk was a savage for this. Pain will make how you handle and will set who you are in the future. Only when you do what you're supposed to do when in pain do you understand how life goes forward. Get another dog if you have to but be with your friends for now. Calling a deadbeat dog dad is only logic in this generation. That's hilarious. That wraps it up folks. But now I'm curious to what your take on this story is. Did our guy play his cards right? Do you consider him to be a deadbeat dog dad? OP's story shows a lot of deceit and toxicity. But he chose to stick around and give Lola multiple chances. What do you think about this? Is love enough of a reason to withstand such behavior from a wife of over six years? Let Royal AI know. I'll join the conversation. Don't forget. When the like button lets you borrow its favorite book, don't use a bookmark. Instead simply fold the corner of the page to leave a crease. See you in the next one.


The Picts of the Wild North and the Anglo-Saxons of the South may sound like they would have been whirled apart, but think again, they actually entered into a treaty at one point. In 446 AD, some leaders of the Celtic Britons made their final appeal to Rome for them to send Roman soldiers back to Britannia, to help the Britons defend against raids from the Picts and the Scoti. This was known as the groans of the Britons, but the Romans, who had left in 410 AD, refused to help. Vortigeron, a king of the Britons, turned to the Anglo-Saxons. He invited Anglo-Saxon mercenaries, hardened warriors, over to help fight the Picts and the Scoti, and were given land in the east of modern England in exchange. After pushing the Picts and the Scoti further north, the Anglo-Saxons soon turned on their hosts, the Britons. They quickly became a source of terror, as waves of Anglo-Saxons flooded into the land we call England today. At this point, the Anglo-Saxons entered into a treaty with the Picts, allowing them to secure their northern boundary and put their full energy into carving out their own territory. Bede even writes that the Anglo-Saxons in the Picts joined forces against the Britons. This alliance was most likely short-lived in the shifting sands of alliance in Britain at that point. The Anglo-Saxons in the Britons would go on to fight on numerous occasions during the Anglo-Saxons settlement of Britain, including at the Battle of Mount Badden, around 500 AD, a battle where King Arthur reportedly fought at. King Arthur, however, will be a subject of a future video. This video was merely to point out the surprising alliances down through history. Thanks for watching. If you would like to support this work on Patreon and get ad-free content, all the links will be in the description below. You can also buy me a coffee or donate through PayPal. Please subscribe and hit the bell and tell your friends and family about this channel. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.


Yeah Okay Do you hear me? I think yes as We are speaking about Some Additional hardware automation in usability research It should be noted that obviously measurements of some biometric parameters in the usability are No way the new approach there were extremely expensive devices affordable by large companies and laboratories and Obviously even if you were an An employer of such large company or if you were working in such laboratory you were unable to use Large amount of such devices in parallel because well you had few of them and not tense And Last several years We have seen new wave of Really powerful biometric devices Which are user grade and Extremely cheap mass market production makes them cheap and of Course they are targeted at entertainment and fitness applications as their primary goal But still they are producing measurements of biometric parameters With enough precision which is well It's a really attractive idea to use these data for something useful related to usability and Let us speak about how Can we do it? So the typic scheme of testing with using of some biometrics looks like this you have a user a user is typing text moving his well mouse or Doing some other things with the software you track time Possibly you track errors which user makes while working you Monitor heart rate. It's the easiest parameter to track Also, you may track attention level with the Consumer grade encephalographer or you can Even use an eye tracking technologies because computer games have reached this level of Biometrics eye trackers for gamers are not so widely used as joysticks and some other Hmm game parts, but still they are produced and they are in our group of biometric devices We are going to discuss What can be measured For the sake of usability research galvanic skin response unfortunately this parameter is not measured by consumer grade gadgets typically and It's a pity Because well, it's the thing which is really easy to measure and Rather informative, but we have heart rate a Lot of fitness trackers are monitoring it Possibly we can use to fitness trackers or some other tools to Monitor blood pressure, but it's rarely used We have enough chip EEG devices. I mean an electro encephalography waves measuring We have enough tools to measure kinematic activity and as I have already mentioned we have gaze detection What did we use ourselves? In some usability tests express tests comparisons For electro encephalography devices The simplest One is a Neuro skymind wave. It has a mindset modification, which is Non-durable Just the construction was not very successful. You will break it rather soon less durable electro encephalography devices are Is so-called necomimia ears, which are well cat ears Placed on your head for the entertainment purposes, which stands still when you are Concentrated on something they were really popular. They used the same technology of The Neuro sky we are using for research Yeah, but well We do not discard them here and more comprehensive EEG devices from emulative Frankly speaking these are more popular among researchers epoch and epoch plus the newer one and The most new motive inside little bit simpler But still highly comfortable fitness trackers our own experience Well Fitbit charge from our own point of view Fitbit Heart rate measurements where the most precise we were using in our research unfortunately open source tools are not very good in getting data from newer models of Fitbit fitness trackers and really easy to get data from our Xiaomi me bands and MS fit which is Practically the same device from the data acquisition point of view If speaking about it records We have successfully used to be wrecks and to be foresee both are targeted at gamers I will speak about this a little bit later Testing schemes which we can use The simplest one is an individual testing mode So you have a computer with some software you are Make user to do any actions you write down logs Rather typical logs from the testing program may be logs from his biometric devices the ones you have esquired and we're able to put on user and The more interesting where it is parallel testing mode You just run the same set of software and More or less same set of devices on several users at once you collect logs from all of them and You may run all Data acquisition scripts in parallel by starting script Or you can make something more comprehensive. We have created our own open source UX dump suit to carry on such parallel testing Which is well the link is on the bottom but Aza you are able to have extremely cheap me bands or something like this and This will allow you to have representative number of tests in a reasonable time the main problem of UX research Is typically a small set of users you are tested well, obviously some more traditional ways like questionaries and Video recording and so on are really time-consuming and If you are doing some biometric testing in parallel You get a lot of data in a short period of time, which is really attractive of course, well nothing to speak about the devices themselves Just how row hat rate or row EEG signal from some frequency band are looking just an illustrative slide The most interesting part is getting data from the device Devices are cheap and affordable. You have a lot of them. Maybe But now you remember that their primary goal Is nothing about UX research They show some pulse or anything on the screen, but Typically not share this data with you Several approaches are available to get Something from them the ideal Variant is using universal API like Qt Bluetooth or blues. Most of them are Working with a Bluetooth protocol Unfortunately, it's as rare case as it only possible API from the device vendor two examples are present here he'd fit bit web API which is placed on a separate slide because It's something terrible and some special SDK like For example, Toby ice rakers one, which is also terrible, but it is not placed on a separate slide Or You can use special open source tools, which were written by Not by the developers of the original device, but are able to get data from it a Lot of them exist and that's the most preferable variant if you have choice for example might wave Headset Is sharing comfortably sharing data. We are the puzzle box synapse project Initially NeroSky wanted some money for the simple suit, which was just able to save raw data, but I Don't think they sell it anymore because good open source tools have superseded it Obviously the same situation is true for fitness trackers and the last one is file obstruction It's well, not real-time data acquisition, but it also is a good thing to use I would say that the other are really good pulse matters. We were using our Garmin fitness trackers and We didn't manage to get data from them in real-time But if you put them into USB slot, they are pretending to be a flash drive with logs so it's Even simpler than we wanted it to be for our aim goals Little bit more about the vendors provided a P Here you see the strange scheme of dealing with Fitbit fitness tracker. It's is precise well few words about the precision of fitness trackers you may have heard that Fitness trackers are not very precise in measuring heart rate but They are not very good for Active physical trainings because when you wave your hands they may lose contact But actually our users are not so physically active and if there is contact There is a good probability that this contact with the optical sensor will not be lost But still fitness Fitbit fitness trackers are the better ones We were able to use to get data in real-time or almost in real-time But the scheme is terrible at first you use open source Galileo tool to download encrypted data, which you cannot decrypt yourself then Galileo sends this batch of data to the fitness web Trackers vendor website Fitbit.com and then you use your own application Which is authorized to get data from the website and the worst is Toby SDK There is old SDK, which is unavailable for downloading Which works with all the eye trackers and there is a new SDK, which is available to downloading and Which used which is named to be usable with all eye trackers But actually usable only with the last model Oh, sorry So You still have obstacles but It's not too difficult to overcome them So you can calculate also duration of the actions You can calculate number of errors heart rate attention Level a little bit more about the attention level of the headset it may be Precalculated metrics from the vendor which are used to measure mind concentration in games or you can calculate them yourself Precalculated are better Because they are faster Calculated by yourself are more scientific a little bit Gaze detection a little bit more after you get coordinates of gaze fixation from your Eye tracker The best tool from our point to deal with this data is a new Octave Which Octave is actually a fork of Matlab and You can use three lines of code to plot of these gaze map or you can use a little bit more Comprehensive script the whole script is on the slide to get nice hitmaps Which as you of course know Show which parts of the screen were mostly looked during the test Types of test tasks Serious of different type operations in one program user has a list of tasks to do and By this way you can compare Two versions of one program or you can compare maybe two different programs of the same area of application and You can use different approach one sequence of routine operations for example a lot of clicks or Some key types or some other actions Few examples really few of them One is comparison of the office interfaces Here you see three office suits Two versions of LibreOffice with the top panel and side panel and ribbons from one of the early versions of Microsoft Office with ribbons How the final results would look like for example in our case For over complicated interfaces like office suits are half not for Emina If you have simple interface ribbons are good for nothing if you have over complicated interface then more than half of your users work faster with ribbons and Smaller parts work faster with top or side panel also You can compare How The state of the user is different when he works with Not the best suits for himself Red background means that These users are better with top panel blue background means that these users are better with ribbons and you can see that physical load is higher and Mind concentration may be higher and so on and you can compare errors The other example of The second approach This is example of comparing on-screen keyboards with the hardware keyboard of some asus small asus typical asus laptop You can see the same approach as first of all you compare speed you compare errors and you can see if someone had higher Errors rate lower speed, but higher mind concentration in this case perhaps this person was hardly walking with the less comfortable tool and If the speed and mind concentration are High, it's okay. If the speed is low and the mind concentration is high. It's the worst case for example The last slide I think is it okay well So the conclusions are the following ones consumer grade biometric turned out to be enough major to produce us data usable in UX UI comparisons Even some vendor driving metrics are good if you compare Several suits then Something good is written here about biometric indicators indicators that well they are good. I think and Obviously we can Use these to save our time. Well, I'll save our time So, thank you Yeah Who can Good idea the better objects are users which Which have the same level of ignorance in Programs you are testing often then Of course, you should take into account external destructors You should randomize the order of suits You should do some other things which are rather typical for UX research and What you can simplify along this approach you can Compare the results of the same user with several types of software in this case His well state or skills or NSNLs are relatively the same Yeah, of course But if you do traditional UX research, you have the same problems and you still have to take these factors into attention Yeah, thank you