So, in this module which I have named as NDR pairs, we shall describe the co-fibration in a slightly different way which will enhance the utility of this concept. No doubt you must be having no doubt now that the co-fibrations are very important. Before we actually touch NDR pair, so let us do a little more work on co-fibration. Okay, let me, we have done it already, so let me start with the definition of what is the NDR pair. N corresponds to neighborhood, T corresponds to deformation and R corresponds to retract. An NDR pair is a topological pair XA, okay, satisfying a number of conditions. So it is going to be a long definition. So you have to have a little more patience. So you start with the topological pair X, A, a continuous function from X to 01 and a homotopy from X cross I to X of you know with plot of properties. The first property is that A is the exact zero of the function A is U inverse of zero. For each point of A has gone to zero and nothing else. So that is the meaning of A equal to U inverse of zero. Okay, that is the one property of the continuous function here. The homotopy H is identity to begin with. So it is a deformation. Any homotopy which is identity to begin with is called a deformation. Remember that it is not only deformation, it is identity, it is a constant on A cross I. Each point of A H of XT is X itself for all T, okay. So A never moves, points of A never, A, T will go to A itself. And the fourth property is H1, namely when XT equal to 1 H of X1 is inside A. So H is a deformation namely H is homotopy of the identity map to some function from X to A. So entire of X is folded back into A, okay. Not an entire of X, but only those points wherein U X is less than 1. Remember U is a continuous function.  So this set wherein U X is less than 1 is going to be a neighborhood of this A in X and that neighborhood is pushed into A. The map which pushes is homotopic to identity. Now you can see why all this deformation retracts. The neighborhood deforms into A and A is a retract of that. So A is a deformation retract of the neighborhood, that neighborhood is precisely all points such that U is less than 1. The neighborhood is not given by just some technological condition, but a strong condition namely it is open set given by a continuous function. It is U inverse of open, zero closed open one open, that is an open subset of it, okay. So this looks like too much of a condition, so much, okay. But you will see that this is not a new concept at all. So under these conditions we also say that A is a neighborhood retract in X. The whole A is not a retract of X, but it is a retract of a neighborhood of itself, okay. You can just say that much, that will be weaker than giving the neighborhood by a function like this. At least it looks like, but maybe it is not weaker. So we have the strongest condition, then we will see that this is equivalent to whatever we have been studying all the while. So this notion is due to GW-Vited who developed this notion very thoroughly and he has contributed to homotopy theory a lot, okay. There are two Vited's in homotopy theory. One is JHC Vited, another one is GW Vited. Who has contributed more is difficult to say. So they are quite competitive in that sense. So here is a picture of all that 1, 2, 3, 4 which it says. You start with a X here, okay. Then this line, little bit line segment here is A. It is a closed subset, all right. Then you have a neighborhood, open neighborhood here. How is this given? There is a function from this X to 01. This is a 01 interval. This U is a continuous function. The entire of this line segment here is going to single point 0 under U. This portion outside the shaded region is going to 1. That just means that the shaded region here is the inverse image of 0 closed 1 open under U. So this is the picture which is happening at X cross 0 inside X everything. So V is the inverse image of 0 open, 0 closed 1 open under U. So that is V. Now look at X cross I, there is a homotopy H, X cross I to X. It is identity on this A cross I, okay. It is identity on X cross 0 on the bottom, this H naught and this entire V cross 1 has gone inside A, okay. So under this condition we say that A is a deformation, A is a neighborhood retract in X or XA is a neighborhood retract, neighborhood deformation retract, NDR pair, okay. So this is just the definition, okay. You can visualize it in this picture. Condition 1 implies that namely U inverse of 0 is equal to A implies that A is a closed G delta set because it is inverse image of single point. Automatically it must be closed. In fact it is intersection of open sets 0 to 1 by N upon take the inverse image and then take the intersection over 1 by N all of them. So that is why it is G delta set. That is the meaning of G delta. If you do not know G delta forget about it. At least you can see that A is a closed subset. Put V equal to U inverse of 0, 1 that is what I explained here, okay. Then H defines a relative homotopy, relative to what? Relative to A of a retraction of V onto A. Inside X, you see that is why you have to be careful here that it is not V is a different, A is a deformation retract of V. It is not happening, and I think deformation is not happening inside V, okay. So you have to be careful about in these kind of wordings here. That is why you have to stick to the definition finally, alright. So that is what I wanted to drop your attention to, you know. A is a relative homotopy of retraction of V onto A inside X. The homotopy is taking place inside X. A is a deformation retract of one of its neighborhoods is you can say. The two of them are homotopy equivalent inside X, okay. This justifies the name neighborhood deformation retract. The point of introducing this definition is, is that this is not new. Namely, these four conditions are all equivalent. The last condition is the new definition. X is NDR pair. What is the first one? A is a co-vibration. Standing assumption is that A is a closed subset. You start with that one.  This is our proposition 4.1 whatever we have been using this one. X cross 0 union A cross i is actually a deformation retract of X cross i. This part I used in the previous lecture. Maybe I did not prove it, but now we will prove that one also. So you do not have to worry about this one. The last condition is X is actually NDR pair. So you see co-vibration is giving you all such data, so much of data and it is equivalent. So just using co-vibration we have to construct all these things. That is the task here. If you have NDR pair with all these things, proving that it is a co-vibration is not difficult. So we shall prove that these 4 conditions are equivalent. Then you have co-vibration is such a powerful notion. That is what you would come to know. Nevertheless, we know that it is very common. It is occurring in lots of cases. Only very bad cases like comb space etc. You have to take to get counter examples. So proof of this theorem finally. We have already seen in proposition 4.1 whatever A and B are equivalent. This is just a repetition here. So we do not have to worry A and B are equivalent. Now I want to prove you C implies B. That is also easy because deformation retract, it is retract. So C implies B is also easy. Now we will prove D implies C. For this we have to do a little more circus. Namely start with the H that is given by D, H of X, D, S I want to define now capital H. This H is the one which is given by the hypothesis D. H of X, D, S right as H of X, S change T and S here. Take the second coordinate. Remember H of X says is where it is inside X. Okay. This is X cross I cross I to X cross I. This is T times 1 minus S of U X. U X is a function from X to I.  This number is always less than or equal to 1. Therefore 1 minus that will be also between 0 and 1. You can multiply it by T. Again you get a point in 0 and 1. So second coordinate takes place inside 0 to 1. So this is a map from X cross I cross I to X cross I. Take capital H to be this map. The two coordinate functions I have defined here. Okay. I want to say that this will already imply C. What is C? That what is the X cross 0 even in A cross I, deformation of X cross I. I have given you this deformation. Okay. Let us verify. If S is 0, what is H of X T 0? This is 0. H of X 0 by definition H of X 0 is X. Since S is 0, S of U X is 0. This is just T. So the second coordinate is T. And that is the identity map. So to begin with F is identity map. Okay. When you use condition 2, 3 and 4 together, it will imply that H of X T comma 1. At the end what happens? When you put S equal to 1, this is just T times 1 minus U X. But what is this? It is H of X 1. So it is H of X 1, T times 1 minus U X. Okay. This is a retract of X cross I on to X cross 0 in A cross I is what I want to show. Why? This whole thing takes place either in X cross 0 or inside A cross I. Okay. When it is X cross 0 means what? This is 0.  Then this will be 0. Then this is any point. If it is not 0 means what? T should not be 0. U X should not be 1.  When U X is strictly less than 1, look at the condition 4 here. This one. When U X is strictly less than 1, namely points up here. Okay. H of X 1 is inside A. Okay. This last condition 4. So coming back here, when this is not 0, it is inside A cross I. This is in A. This is A cross I. So this map actually takes values X cross 0 in A cross I. Suppose you take T equal to 0. T equal to 0, this is 0. This will be H of X 1, which is X. So this is identity X cross 0 on X cross 0 inside. Similarly, on A cross I, as soon as something is in A, remember U is identically 0 on A. Therefore, it is H of X 1 comma 1. What is H of X 1 comma 1? Look at this condition. As X is inside A, it is identity for all T. Therefore, this is identity on X cross 0. This map is identity on X cross 0 in an A cross I. Therefore, it is a retraction. This retraction is somewhat appropriate to identity. Therefore, it is a deformation retraction. Thinking of this is something new and I myself don't know how to explain this. See, there is a circus here. The third coordinate here S has come second coordinate here X H of X. This is something by S into 1 minus S kind of thing. But you are not multiplying by 1 minus S. You are multiplying by S and then subtracting. So these are all quite somewhat weird way of trying. Of course, why it doesn't explain this one, even this much whatever I have explained. So I am explaining to the extent I understand this. So this is quite tricky thing. But more or less, you know, forewarn you to, if you are not given this one by just looking at this and trying to prove what you want to, you will have to come to this map. So what we have done is T implies C implies B implies A, A implies B. This much we have done. What we have to show is actually we will directly show that B implies D. Then the cycle is complete. We don't need this one. If we use this one, it may be easier. It is not. So we will just assume X cross 0 union A cross I is a retract and show directly that it is NDR pair. So that is a harder part to prove B implies D. So let us denote the retraction from X cross I to X cross 0 and A cross I by R. Take the first projection X cross I to X P1 put H equal to P1 composite R. So take R and then follow it by first projection. This whole space is contained inside X cross I anyway. So you can take P1, P1 composite R. This H satisfies condition 2, 3 of the above definition. What is condition 2? H of X0 is X. Wherever X0 R itself is an identity. Then when you project it to the first coordinate, it is just X. What is 3? H of XT is X for every extension A cross I. So when you take R, R also has the same property. When you project it to first coordinate is X, the second coordinate is T. So that is what we are doing here. So it satisfies, this satisfies 2 and 3. So what you have to do is, it remains to prove that this continuous function U from X to I, which is identically 0 on A and satisfies condition 4. Namely, the set of points wherein it is not 0 is going inside A by H. By our already H is already defined here. H is defined. So we are adjusting U to suit this H so that condition 4 is satisfied. Even to have a continuous function like this, it looks like T's extension theorem. You are given the 0 function on a closed subset. A entire A goes to 0. You have to extend it. It is stronger than that. Namely, I do not want U to have any other 0s. So I was a bit skeptical about this till I read the proof. This is something which I did not prove myself. I have to read it. But it is interesting. It is not so difficult finally. So let us take the second projection X cross I to I. This is second projection. Now for n greater than or equal to 0 integer, let us define a function phi n to be minimum of 1 by 2 power n and the value of P2 composite r of X comma 1 by 2 power n. Remember r is a function from X cross I into X cross 0 union A cross I. So I can talk about the second projection of that map. That will be an element inside I. So this is some real number between 0 and 1. This is 1 by 2 power n. You take the minimum of that. This is a continuous function. This is a constant. So phi n will be a continuous function. Minimum of two continuous functions is continuous. So I have got a sequence of continuous functions taking values between 0 and 1 by 2 power n because if something is bigger than 1 by 2 power n, it is 1 by 2 power n here. So it is maximum is 1 by 2 power n. It is minimum of these two. So it is taking values in 1 by 2 power n. Therefore if you take the series summation phi n X summed over n, this will be convergent. Not only it is convergent, it is uniformly convergent for all X. Why? It is dominated by summation of my 2 power n, the geometric series. So why stress-dominant convergence theorem tells you that it is uniformly convergent. When you have uniformly convergent series of continuous functions, the limit function namely summation will be itself a continuous function. So most of our work is done. Now you put u X to be 1 minus the summation of phi n X. To make sure something works, I should multiply it by phi naught of X. So phi naught of X can be multiplied outside this summation also because this is common thing. It can take it outside also if you write. This series is series of positive non-negative terms. So it is a absorptive convergent. So you can write this one on this side here also. Or you can rewrite the whole thing because 1 is equal to summation 1 by 2 power n, 1 to infinity, 1 by 2 plus 1 by 4 etcetera equal to 1. So you write this 1 by 2 power n minus phi naught of phi naught of X into phi n of X. And then take the summation. So this u can be either defined by this way or defined this way. So it has two formulas. So this formula defines our function u. Why it is continuous? Because summation phi n is continuous. Multiplying by phi naught of X is continuous. 1 minus that is continuous. So you have got a continuous function. Each of these phi n X summation is between 0 and 1 because they are dominated by 1 by 2 power n. Summation of 1 by 2 power n is equal to 1. So these are smaller than that. So this entire thing takes place between 0 and 1. So I have got a continuous function X on X namely this u. So you have got a continuous function. Now X is inside A.  P2 of that is just 1 by 2 power n. Go back here in the definition of phi n. Phi n will be now minimum of this, but this is equal to 1 by 2 power n. So phi n of X will be equal to 1 by 2 power n for all points X inside A. Therefore, u X will be 0. If X is inside A, then P2 itself is 1 by 2 power n for each n, its summation will be equal to 1 and phi naught is just 1. So therefore, this summation and here this is equal to 1. Therefore, u X is 0. So A goes to 0. So u X is 0 if X is inside A. Now I have to prove that if X is outside A, then u X is not 0 because I want to prove that A is exactly u inverse 0. Take X in the complement. Then R of X 0, which is X, because R is an identity map on X cross 0. But X is inside now complement of, because X is complement of C. I take it as cross 0. If you take it as cross 0, it is not necessary here. X cross X comma 0, if I write, then it is A cross 0. R of X 0 is X comma 0, then it is A cross 0. Which is, this is an open subset of X cross 0. By continuity of R, we can choose epsilon positive and a neighborhood V of X inside X such that R of V cross 0 epsilon is contained inside. See some point is here and it is an open set. Therefore, some neighborhood of this must go inside this set. That is all I am telling. How does the neighborhood of X cross 0 look like? It is a neighborhood V inside X and 0 comma epsilon. This whole thing must be inside A C cross 0. A C is complement of A. But if this happens, if you take N very large, then X comma 1 by 2 power N would be inside here. V is a neighborhood of X. This X is fixed here. X is belonging to X minus A. So, X comma 1 by 2 power N is inside here. That means R of that takes values in A C cross 0. What does that mean? P 2 of this point is 0. Therefore, phi N itself will be 0 because phi N is a minimum of 1 by 2 power N and that value. Phi N is 0 if N is sufficiently large. So, look at this expression here. After such a stage, all these terms will be 0. Even if you take all of them to the maximum, it will be 1. So, most of them are 0 and only for some few of them are left. Some total, each of them less than 1 by 2 power N anyway, less than equal to 1 by 2 power N. Therefore, some total will never be equal to 1. That means 1 minus some smaller number. So, it is never 0. It is positive. Therefore, U X is positive. This proves that 1 namely A is precise 0 set. So, major thing is done. One more thing is there now.  That is, U X is not equal to 1. That is all here. By the first formula for U, this part, it is not 1 means what? Whatever you have subtracted is not 0.  It is not equal to 1 means this is not 0. So, none of this will be something. If phi naught is 0, then the whole thing would have been 0. So, in particular, phi naught is not 0. So, that is what I wanted here. So, if less than 1 by formula, this implies that phi naught is not equal to 1. Other things may be 0 or phi naught is 0, then the whole thing you would have. So, phi naught is not equal to 0. The phi naught is not equal to 0, which would not be p 2 R of X 1 is positive. Look at this definition of phi naught. When n equal to 0, it is minimum of 1 and p 2 of X comma 1. The minimum is not 0, this is not 0. So, this implies the second coordinate p 2 of R X 1 is positive. Remember, R, where does it take value? X cross 0 or A cross I. So, it cannot be X cross 0. This is second coordinate is positive. Therefore, it must be in A cross I. So, this implies that H of X 1 is p 1, which is the first coordinate must be inside A. p 1 of R X, this is the definition of H because I have taken H to be p 1 composite R. So, this is inside A. So, that is a beautiful proof. So, this implies this. So, in summary, a simple looking co-fibration implies all this stuff. So, somehow the kind of thing that is happening inside R n or any Euclidean spaces has come back to us by just by a co-fibration. The fact that it is a g delta set A, you said that just you are using A is a closed subset.   Inside R n itself or R 2 itself there are weird spaces like cone spaces. If you look at one of the exercises Zebra, every point is a bad point of that space and it is subspace of R 2. Every point is a bad. Bad point means what? It is not a co-fibration. Inclusion map is not a co-fibration. So, such things can happen. So, this is more or less for us complete whatever we have planned of homotopy theory. From now onwards we will study special kinds of things namely we will we will specialize to spaces which are built up of straight lines, segments, triangles, tetrahedrons and so on. So that we have plenty of you know homotopy, plenty of line segments to join two points and so on when they are nearby. Okay. Thank you.


This is Dennis McMahon, welcoming you to Positively Vermont, and my special guest today is Alex McCracken from Gateway Festivals, who is going to be speaking with us about the Alburg Totality Festival coming up in beautiful Alburg, Vermont. Welcome, Alex. Thank you, Dennis. It's my pleasure to be here today. Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. Yeah, I'm here on behalf of Gateway Festivals. I am the board of the chair for the nonprofit that's putting together this amazing event for Alburg, Vermont. We couldn't be more excited. We have a full three-day spread of events planned to celebrate the eclipse from April 6th to April 8th. We're going to be on the shores of Lake Champlain here in beautiful Alburg. We have live music. We have vendors and drinks and food. It's going to be a really incredible time for people of all ages to come out and join us for this truly once-in-a-lifetime celestial event. We're pulling out all the stops to welcome Vermonters, out-of-staters, people from all across the world to join us in Alburg to celebrate the first total solar eclipse to be visible in North America since 2017, and the last one to be visible here in this century. So we're going to be very excited to celebrate this with everybody. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your organization. Yeah, absolutely. I'd be happy to. Well, without me personally, I actually came to Vermont the long way around through the Midwest and through Oregon. So I was in Oregon for the last eclipse in 2017, which was such an incredible experience to see that firsthand. And I feel very lucky to be here on this coast for this one. Gateway festivals started this year. It is a volunteer-led and volunteer-organized nonprofit here in town. It is entirely based on the ideas of community engagement and economic development for Alburg. We are very focused on bringing events into the town that will help foster economic development, foster community growth and engagement. We really see a bright future here in Alburg, and we feel that our organization can help be a catalyst for some of that growth and change that people want to see in our community. We're made up, like I said, entirely a volunteer board. And we also have folks from town leadership who have been engaged with us as well. And we're, excuse me, we're very excited to have such a wide group of people that are really committed to making Alburg the best place it can possibly be, and to bringing these events in for the community. We're hoping that this is going to be the first event in a long-term series of events for gateway festivals. We're hoping that the Totality Festival will be just the inaugural event for many years to come. Tell us a little bit about the town of Alburg. A little bit of its history, geography, location, and how do people get there? Yeah, absolutely. That's great questions because I know a lot of folks aren't super aware of us. We are just a stone's throw away from Canada up on the Lake Champlain Islands. Originally we were actually a very bustling rural road town and had a lot of industry here with shipping coming up to Canada, but also over to New York and into mainland Vermont to our east. We're a peninsula actually, so we are part of the islands, but we consider ourselves a little separate because we are a peninsula coming down from Canada. As such, we have an identity as kind of the gateway town. We are the first stop in from Canada. We're the first stop in from New York. We're the first stop in from Franklin County. When you're coming into the islands, you're coming into Vermont, Alburg really is the gateway to all of it. We've had such a strong history of economic development based off that in our past. It's been a hard stretch for a little while for Alburg and for small towns like Alburg and Vermont. We have about 2,000 people. It's a very small town. The development that we have seen in some other parts of the state hasn't always reached up here to more rural areas of Vermont. Part of what we're hoping to do with this project is bring more folks up to see everything that Alburg has to offer to get folks coming up to the islands to explore what we have going on up here all year round and to kind of foster some of that economic development here where we have an amazing opportunity to do so with our geography and also with our spirit of community that is really indelibly Vermont. It's a hard working, very strong community here. Tell us a little about this eclipse that's going to happen and actually how does Alburg fit into that? Specifically on the scientific level. This is going to be the first total eclipse since 2017. Tell us a little bit about the eclipse and the background of that. Yeah, absolutely. I'd be happy to. This is going to be such a cool event. It is a major celestial event. It happens very rarely where the moon is going to completely eclipse the sun and everything below in the zone of totality will be in complete darkness for a few minutes. It is really, really, really cool. Day becomes night. Animals react. Things are going to be really, it's a very strange environment, but it really is such a once in a lifetime experience. As you noted, the last eclipse to hit North America was 2017, which ran a very different route than this one. The zone of totality for this upcoming eclipse stretches in a band from Texas all the way here to New England. For folks who are in the band of totality, we are going to get three and a half minutes of complete darkness. That is going to happen at 326 p.m. on Monday, April 8th. We in Alburg are right on the line in the zone of totality. We have some of the longest period of darkness of anywhere in state or anywhere in the world. We really do get to say, and this is such an exciting thing, that Alburg is going to be at the center of the universe for three and a half minutes on April 8th. We are really excited about that. It is an incredible opportunity for our town, for the whole region. The amount of people that we are expecting to come up for this is really extraordinary. We are expecting historic numbers in Vermont and in the islands that are really blowing away some of the other events we have had in the past here. We are hopeful that we will be able to welcome a really large amount of people from out of state, from other parts of Vermont, into our community to celebrate this. We really could not be more excited about it. Well, who put this all together? It sounds like an amazing effort. It must have started with some idea, and I am curious as to who came up with all this, linking Alburg into the eclipse. Yeah, well, I mean, a lot of folks in town have been thinking about this for a long time, because we have known for a little while that we were going to be in this path. But the Gateway Festival's project really started with myself and Josie Henry and a few other dedicated volunteers, who now sit on our executive board, who have been in these conversations for months now, putting together the groundwork to do something really incredible for the town.  So we really have been pulling out all the stops to try to make everyone in the community feel engaged with the project. We've got folks from the Legion Outpost to the library who are putting on events for the festival. We're engaging a number of businesses in the area as our peninsula partners. We also have some wonderful partnerships with businesses in town who are helping us put together this festival on a real shoestring budget. And it's been really incredible to see the work that everybody's put in, the dedication from our volunteers, from the folks in the community. It's really been a whole community effort. And it's been really incredible to see, and we're so excited to be putting this together, to be putting something that is so representative of our community and being able to share that with Vermont and with the rest of the world. We're tremendously excited about that opportunity. And we're going to be putting something together that's really professional. And, you know, I think that's part of what we're hoping to surprise people with. When folks think about Alburg, they don't necessarily think about a really professionally put together operation. And so what we want to do here is show them that we have a lot here in Alburg to contribute, and we have a lot to share with the rest of the state. And we hope that going forward, we'll have folks coming up here from out of state, from other parts of Vermont to engage with our festivals for years to come. About how many people do you expect to attend? It's a moving number, but I can say that the state of Vermont as a whole is expecting at least 200,000 people. That amount is going to be centered in the Northwest. And St. Aldens is expecting 60,000 people. Based on the information that we have, I'm hesitant to provide a number, but I'm hoping that we'll get somewhere in the realm of several thousand people. Well, how is the viewing of this going to be set up? Well, when this event occurs, are people going to be on stands or are they just going to be looking up at the sky, like one of those close encounters movies? How is this going to go? Firstly, I'm a big fan of that movie, so I love the reference. But I'll say, Dennis, that the nice thing about the eclipse is that it's visible from pretty much anywhere if you're in the totality. The sun is unobscured from all parts of our festival grounds. So we've tracked where it'll be roughly at 3.26 in the afternoon. We've set up a few viewing areas for people to consolidate and watch the eclipse. But also it's going to be amazing no matter where you are on the peninsula. So we've set up several suggestions for folks to see it from nearby state parks on the peninsula. We have the center of town and the parade grounds. We're going to have excellent viewing. And we also have our friends at Green Mountain Fireworks who are preparing a finale fireworks show after the eclipse. And so they'll have a nice viewing area where we can direct folks to view the fireworks at the tail end of the eclipse. One thing you always hear about when we have an eclipse anywhere, precautions about viewing. Are there any precautions that are going to be in place? Or can people just look up at it? And you know what I'm referring to. So do people need special visors? Yes, absolutely. Well, firstly, we are doing our due diligence to make sure we're messaging proper eclipse safety viewing for everybody. That's very, very important. Do not look directly at an eclipse that will cause permanent eye damage. We will be reinforcing that message more and more as we get closer.  We have eclipse glasses. So we have several thousands eclipse glasses that will be distributing for free at the festival. We're currently in the process of procuring more and we have additional vendors who are going to be coming in to supply additional glasses. So we will have a wide variety and assortment of eclipse glasses and viewers that people can use at the festival. But we always recommend that folks bring extras, grab an extra pair, make sure you pick one up. People are going to be giving them out pretty much constantly from now until the eclipse. And I believe there are also resources through many towns and organizations like we've been able to procure glasses through the state. So that has been helpful for us to make sure that we have those resources available for everybody because of course, safety and health are always our number one priority. Those are factors that we're bearing in mind as we continue eclipse planning and setting up logistics for the festival. Safety and security are always top of mind. And what about the scientific community and schools? Are they being involved in this in any way? Yeah, well we've been in talks with a few scientifically oriented folks from professors to meteorologists to kind of our local eclipse enthusiasts to put together some talks and educational workshops. So we're definitely going to be prioritizing the scientific and educational component of this. We've got some folks who are going to be coming to talk to the community about those things and we're really excited to hear from people who know a lot more than I do about all of this. And we're certainly very excited about that. Excellent. And are there going to be exhibits or different booths or other venues where merchants and organizations will be on display besides the eclipse? Yeah, absolutely. Well, one of the things we're most excited about is the ability to showcase our local and regional economy. So on top of our partners and vendors that have already come to work with us, we're really excited to be able to showcase the local businesses in Alberg, the folks on the islands and in Franklin County. We are going to have a wide variety of vendors and a whole marketplace set up for folks to showcase their goods and their products and their businesses. We're really excited to be able to include as many folks as we possibly can. We've got a pretty large parade ground, so we're able to accommodate a wide assortment of businesses and organizations. So we're encouraging folks to get in contact with us through our website. If you have a business that you'd like to sign up with us as a vendor or a partner, we would love to hear from you. We have a really exciting event going on here. We've got a lot of cool stuff planned and this is really an opportunity for folks to showcase what they do on not just a stage for the entire state, but a national and global stage for this event. This is really going to be a historic moment for Vermont and at the moment we are the only three-day festival planned for that weekend. So we really are intending to be Vermont's premier eclipse celebration for the weekend of April 6th to 8th. I know this is always a concern with such events, but tell us about some of your partners, so to speak, in security and law enforcement and parking and how are you going to accommodate that kind of thing? Who are you working with? Yeah, well, again, I think this is another place where having the whole community effort has been really crucial. We're a small community, everybody knows everybody, but we can really come together to accomplish some incredible things.  We have just kind of a full community buy-in on making sure that we're taking care of the things we need to take care of to ensure a safe and successful event. So we have already made the arrangements necessary with emergency transportation, with parking and traffic direction, with sanitation and trash. The less fun things that you always have to think about putting on an event like this, but what's really made it happen is the community. And for every need, there's somebody here in Albert that knows how to fill it. And we've just gotten an incredible amount of buy-in from the folks here in town who want to see this happen, who want to really participate in something that is such an amazing and unique opportunity for Albert. And so we're getting everybody involved that we can and an incredible core of volunteers. Great. What about follow-ups? What's going to be happening after this in terms of Albert's interest in economic development and contacts with the rest of the world and trade and communications? What's going to be the follow-up? Yeah, that's fine. That is a great question because that's really what a lot of this is angled towards is how do we promote Albert and ensure that we can create economic growth that is sustainable and helps this community remain affordable and remain economically viable. So what we have tried to do here with Gateway Festivals is highlight and develop the identity of Valberg as the gateway town. We are right here at the crossroads in northern Vermont. Everything comes through us on route two from New York, from Montreal, from St. Albans, up from Burlington. So for us, we really are at crossroads, both literally geographically and metaphorically in our town's development and where we go from here as a community in our identity. And so I think what we're hoping to accomplish here in a lot of ways is a revitalization of Albert. We've seen some of that already in the last few years. We've had some businesses moving into town, which is a really wonderful thing to see. And that growth, I think we're moving in the right direction and we're hoping that Gateway Festivals can really be a catalyst for that. Back in 2017, there were several towns that did a similar clips event in rural parts of the western U of S in Wyoming and Oregon, and they experienced an incredible boost from this. They found that their investment paid off significantly in economic development, invisibility, and also in folks, importantly, that had never been to their communities before, but came for this event and really enjoyed it and decided that maybe they would come back later. So that those first time visitors who plan to come back again is such a valuable and important demographic for development and for ensuring that Albert continues to enjoy economic growth in the way that I think it really can. So those are the, you know, what we're hoping to do is put together something that really impresses people, that really wows them, that really shows them that Albert has a lot of potential and a lot of growth ahead of us, and we have an opportunity here to provide a platform for that. Great. Now this is going to go from April 6th to April 8th. Give us the times and how people can get in there and maybe if they want to leave. Well, we hope they never do. Welcome. We welcome them up to town. So yeah, so it's April 6th. We're starting off the festivities with a parade on Saturday, April 6th. I believe that the parade grounds start at, I think our festival grounds open at 11. I'll double check those dates for you, but they're on our website. And we're running all Sunday the 7th. So from 9am to 7pm, festival grounds will be open. And then on Monday the 8th, which is eclipse day, we'll be opening the parade grounds around 9am. And the main event is at 3.26pm. And we'll be wrapping up with fireworks right after that. Sorry, go ahead. Well, that is wonderful. That really sounds very exciting. And are there any other organizations maybe in the region that are you working with other than the ones you mentioned locally? Yeah, well, we have a Peninsula Partners program that has been really successful so far. We have a larger sponsorship to your level for national or state organizations that have a little bit more cash to burn. But we also want to acknowledge that the local businesses here on the islands and in the Peninsula really and in Franklin County really deserve to be highlighted in this event. And so what we put together is on our website, you can find it, it's called the Peninsula Partners program, where for a much reduced rate, we have an opportunity for businesses in Grand Island, Franklin County to become sponsors with us and become involved in the festival in that way. And we are always welcoming more people to come and join us on that. So far we have several really amazing Peninsula Partners, Green Mountain Fireworks, Kramer and Ken, Brill Ford. And again, the Islander as well, I would like to plug the Islander, who is about to celebrate their 50th anniversary here on the islands as our local paper. So, we're really excited to be able to partner with our Peninsula Partners. We're looking forward to joining with more organizations and we encourage anybody who may want to get involved to reach out through our website. That's great, Alex. Give us that website again. Just say it. We're going to put it on the notes, but tell us that website. Yeah, absolutely. The website is gatewayfestivals.com and you can go there to register for the event. It is a completely free event. We don't need any money. We don't want any money. We want to put this on for the community, but we want to make sure that we get an accurate headcount. So, if you are able to register, we encourage you to do so. If you're interested in reaching out to become a volunteer, a partner or a sponsor, or if you have a business that you'd like to set up a vendor stall at our marketplace, please get in contact with us through the website. Again, that's gatewayfestivals.com. That's great. Well, thank you very much, Alex. Hopefully, you'll be getting a lot of participation from our viewers. I want to thank you for appearing on Positively Vermont. My guest has been Alex McCracken of Gateway Festival, speaking about the upcoming Albert Totality Festival celebrating the total eclipse of the sun on April 6th through April 8th. This is Dennis McMahon, and thank you for watching.


and welcome to the Big Data Deep Dive with theCUBE on EMC-TV. I'm Richard Schlesinger, and I'm joined today by Tech Industry Entrepreneur and Wikibon Analyst, Dave Vellante, and Silicon Angle CEO and Editor-in-Chief, John Furrier, also known collectively as the Cube guys, and we are very grateful to have you here. Welcome. Good to be here. Thanks for having us. Welcome to EMC-TV. You guys have had a busy summer, I guess, keeping track of everything going on in Big Data. Where have you been? The Cube has been on tour. John, I think we've done almost 10 Big Data events this year. Yeah, I mean, Silicon Angle TV has been going out to all the events, extracting the signal from the noise, and that's our passion, that's our mission, and we're excited to continue the second half of the year. We've got a lot of great events, but the world wants to know more about this game-changing technology. And it's amazing, because it's really gotten a lot of steam in the last year or so as the technology has evolved and the people are thinking about the uses of it. Yeah, I mean, the technology has always been a geeky thing, especially in Silicon Valley and here in Massachusetts and New York, it's expanding, but with Big Data, it's become not just about the technology, it's about the business impact, and I think that's the one thing that I'm really excited about, and what we're seeing is across the board, every industry is being disrupted by these new technologies, and it's probably one of the most exciting things I've seen in my entire career. And it's gonna change the way people look at technology. It is gonna change the way, and it's gonna change people's lives, and so as you guys know, EMC has been working on the human face of Big Data project, which we're about to roll out, actually we're rolling out right now. And I just thought we'd take a quick look at a spot that we produced here at EMC TV about the human face of Big Data, what it means to put a human face on Big Data. Take a look. Big Data, the key to transforming chaos into meaning. Torrents of information from billions of sources. Data that is unstructured, constant, diverse, complex. But with the potential to change the way we live our lives. Enabling us to ask fundamental questions about the world around us and our future. Revealing new answers. Big Data is changing our relationship with the information we create. Just imagine the possibilities. Whole industries transform. Meet Sebastian, extreme athlete and type one diabetic. Who uses biometric sensors and analytics to measure and improve his performance. Sebastian is just one of millions harnessing Big Data. Realizing his power. Become a part of a new generation.  I love that spot because it boils this whole thing down to what we're talking about. Lots of data influencing individuals, changing people's lives. You'll be hearing a lot more about the human face of Big Data project. Basically what we're trying to do is paint a digital picture of the world using human beings as sensors with their cell phones telling people where they've been and all that sort of thing. It's going to be fascinating. You'll be hearing about that in the months to come. I like to think of it as taking sort of impersonal technology to change a person's life. It's a very direct effect. You guys have seen a lot of that sort of stuff in your travels. What is the state of the art here? Where are we with Big Data? How much do people really understand about it? Videos like that are inspiring. At the same time, they're intimidating. People are concerned about what are they going to do with all this data. But I think the reality is where we're at is this is a freight train that's happening. It's going to be ubiquitous. It is becoming a fundamental part of our lives. It's going to change your life. Maybe whether you know it or not, it's going to help you in ways that we'll talk about later on. In cities, as you guys know, a lot of cities are beginning to look at the potential for Big Data to gather data on what's going on in real time. How advanced is that? I think the Big Data thing really empowers people, you mentioned that earlier. And these new people that are going to be emerging out of this next generation are empowered to do new things like the PC revolution that was created by Steve Jobs and Bill Gates back on the day. And people are doing two things with Big Data. They're getting older questions answered faster and they're allowed to ask new questions and solve new problems that they could never do before. And that's really the most important thing that we're seeing on the impact of business and empowering people. So if you're running, say, a large city, you could use Big Data technology and sensors to figure out what's going on in your Big City in real time, right? Instrumenting a city, think of instrumenting a building and then taking that to the concept of a city has so much potential in terms of eliminating waste, protecting people, you know, cameras are popping up everywhere. Massive amounts of data are being ingested. As they say, it's inspiring and it's scary. It's a little scary because you have to make sure that it's handled properly. Well, you know, we went down, EMC-TV went down to Rio, which has done a lot in this area. They're getting ready for the Olympics and so they've pretty well wired that city and they use it to keep track. Again, in real time, that's the key of what's going on there and they can solve problems quickly, they can get on stuff quickly. And so we went down to take a look at that and here's what we found. It's the brain, the heart of Rio de Janeiro City. It works seven days a week, 24 hours a day. We have... several information. We have more than 30 bodies, inside here, bodies of the municipality, public services, which are electrical energy companies, gas companies. We have the prefecture, which takes care of the city, but we have more than 560 cameras today, just in the city of Rio de Janeiro. We can detect any kind of problem that's already on the road. We have, as I said, the population through the social media giving us information of what's happening in the city. We have here the media, our local, here, radio, TV, newspapers, also feeding us with these information and these information coming here, as we are with several agencies here. We can treat and according to the type of accident or occurrence, we send the A, B, C, or D, meteorological incidents, that is, a traffic accident, or some other type of building failure, or something. In the World Cup, in 2014 and in the 2016 Olympics, the center of operations, the Rio City Prefecture, will be more prepared and the center of operations will be more mature to receive this great number of tourists, to receive this great event that will take place here in 2016. Today we have much more information about what's happening in the traffic of the city. I'm proud of this Brigadier of information that Rio de Janeiro has because with that, the city has improved, the traffic has improved, and people have a better quality of life. You look at all that technology and you think, boy, this will really be put to the test when the Olympics come to town. But they've got some time to work on it, and the technology will improve over the years. Let's talk, down into the weeds, just a little bit. Where are people now? What is going on in this world? Who's doing what? I think that big data has gone from this hype, this concept, to now it's practical realities of big data. Everybody wants to implement big data because it's bringing competitive advantage. The tagline is data is the new oil. Or what does that mean? That means that increasingly it's going to be about the algorithms that you write, how you package data, how you monetize it that's going to give you competitive advantage. Where people are at today is they're struggling with how to figure out ways to bring in unstructured and structured information and then how to package it and distribute it and actually make money with it. John, who have you talked to about that? We've talked to a lot of different people at Stratoconference and at the Hadoop H-Base Conference in San Francisco, which was kind of the early, kind of the first ever conference of alpha geeks around this new database technology called H-Base. They really focus in on the fact that there's kind of a new way and an old way and that's kind of how people are looking at this. Old way is, you know, the incumbents, the people existing in the market. The new way are the new young kids coming out of college whether it's a computer science degree or a psychology degree and truly changing every single opportunity whether it's a tech geek or a data analyst or a business manager and so big data is kind of changing that. So, pardon me, let's meet some of the people who you've talked to. Who did you bring along? We had Alistair Crowell and Ed Dumbbell who run the Stratocon conference and we have a clip from them we'll show you now and these guys run the Stratocon and they talk to everyone so here's their perspective on big data. Watch this video. Okay, we're back live inside the Cube at the Stratocon conference in Silicon Valley where the future was being invented as we speak in Silicon Valley and from entrepreneurs around the globe. This is SiliconANGLE.tv and SiliconANGLE.com is the Cube, our flagship telecast. We go out to the top tech events and extract the signal from the noise and share that with you. We're all open source content. We love it. We'd love to talk to the smartest people we can find and share their knowledge with you. I'm John Furrier, the founder of SiliconANGLE.com and my guests now in this segment are the founders and the guys I got a founder, I call you a founder I guess the guys who run Stratocon put it together the program chairs Ed Dumbbell and Alistair Crowell welcome back to the Cube. The first thing, how do you guys feel? Tired, exhausted, excited all of the above? Absolutely. We're thrilled because we have another sell out event you know last year we sold out about 1300 this year we're somewhere near 2500 so it's absolutely thrilling to us to just see the growth of this and feel all the excitement around the show. There is more themes, a lot more live streaming you guys have implemented but overall just a lot of great content in every direction. Big day is affecting not just one sector it seems to be a whole new industry I compared it to the personal computer industry back in the late 70s early 80s where an entire new ecosystem of entrepreneurs and players emerged it seems to have that kind of vibe here because it affects everything life, society talk about the diversity here Well the original brief for Stratocon was that this was going to be about not just big data but also new interfaces to collect and share information and ubiquitous computing that everyone can get to and that really changes not just work but also how we play how we love, how we learn how to draw on me to the Stratocon content and the reason I got involved is because big data is really where computers touch people that data is so often the parts of our lives we heard someone on Tuesday doing big data to anticipate car accidents based on weather forecast in Chicago so they could deliver the right spare parts to repair houses, someone else saying two thirds of the food that we deliver fresh fruit and vegetable gets spoiled in transit because it can't get to the right market so if you're fixing the speed of cars and replacing the food supply those are very human factors this is no longer bits and bytes and it's that humanizing element of what this stuff can do that's almost like a superpower it's almost a dual conference, you have the geeky conversations the alpha geeky conversations around the Hadoop and the Greenfields and MongoDB and all the Diff Cassandra so on so forth, the data warehousing intelligence and then you have this whole application mindset where there's real impact not just for business but society and what are you seeing out there at that level of what are some of the exciting bullet points that you can share with folks out there and how big data is really changing the world I think one of the most interesting things is this goes into an organization is that people start off with maybe they'll do a pilot project and then suddenly they find out once they've used Hadoop wants for something and built kind of a platform they're able to get out data often it's the unexpected things that are really creating value and we're excited that one of the things we talk about alongside big data is data science and the word science is so important because people are experimenting and exploring and making discoveries in their organizations and in the world that they didn't know were there before so I think a lot of this we're still very early stage still really feeling things out still answering the questions what this is going to do for me but it's the unexpected things that are definitely the most provocative thing that you've seen here guys if you guys can both comment that would be great something that you go wow that's really provocative and also you mentioned some of the things you mentioned about the applications what's really the most provocative most interesting thing so there was a discussion which sounds very esoteric but it's actually really really important there was a big debate a couple of days ago about whether you don't need a hypothesis anymore or a domain expert anymore once you have the data and there's a great example where if you see the movie Moneyball you got all these scouts who they look for kid's arm and whether his girlfriend's attractive is an indicator of his playing success and instead a couple of people show up with a spreadsheet and beat all the other teams right that's a case where you take a guy who doesn't have domain expertise but he's good with numbers can beat a bunch of people who have been doing all their lives and so some people claim that the importance of being able to have domain experts to be an expert in your field goes away once you have enough information the data beats expertise that's a really really threatening thing for everybody who's got a career where they're a domain expert because it means that someone with a spreadsheet and the right data can beat you you guys have a strategy with Stratocity we love the data scientists workshop it's an educational need what's going on in the market what is needed and what's going on that people can go to what resources are you seeing one of our big jobs for this conference is to try and make sense of the marketplace right now I spend a lot of January writing a lot of material about exactly where everybody sits and how they stack up and what's real I think one of the other really important things coming through this year is going to be the increased importance of visualisation you talked about the skills gaps and what we want to be able to do is give non-mathematically trained people the skills to be able to have a fingertip feel for the data so it's not just about boring old dashboards and tablet technology is absolutely vital in this that people can see the data then they can stick their finger in it move it around get that dynamic which is what data scientists have built into their gut but we want that you know so business people can have that too we're also looking at geographic expansion so hopefully we'll have some news confirmed pretty shortly about China and London to add to this so we're very excited congratulations John Graham chairs from Strata at Dunville Alistair Crowell great guys you should follow them on Twitter find out where they are just go on Google search go to O'Reilly their blog is fantastic these guys are expanding this is a real real game-changing trend great to be part of it I'm really psyched for you guys congratulations John you know you said it while you were talking out there this is game changing and it'll it'll give power to people who may not have had as much power data equals equals power right I mean I think this is opportunity when you have this kind of disruption in a way that changes businesses and this is what big data does it's not only a technical innovation it's just a as a naval or disruptive enabler but it's also in the business front so you know the role of a data scientist isn't the geek anymore it's the person who's an analyst a CEO it's the it's the manager he talked about a call talked about giving information to people who are not necessarily mathematically trained which I responded to because it makes it more accessible and that is going to be a game-changing everyone can be and improve the business think about it someone in a business can actually make a material impact to that business using big data and not having to be a PhD or a math that's the promise of big data and that you see an improvement you can move on and now the technology is in place to do that there's a really important point here in that we think something we've been tracking at Silicon Angle and Wikibon is big data practitioners we believe are going to create more value than the suppliers of big data technology well what that means is that you're going to see a whole new set of use cases and applications and value creation that we've never seen before in the tech business so we've been talking about cutting costs and doing more with less for years in the technology business we're now talking about adding bottom line productivity saving lives big picture things that are going to be dramatically changing the world you know it's interesting you guys are excited about it everybody everybody's pretty excited about it and we've really just touched the tip of the iceberg here but we'll be back we have more installments of the big data deep dive coming up so stay tuned to the conversation with my new best friends from the cube on EMC TV


Let's jump over to our man Teddy cakes that we talked to Teddy every Wednesday folks at 40 past the hour You can reach Teddy every trading day at his website for x dash trading dash unlock calm Teddy cakes that good morning Good morning, Tommy. We got a lot to talk about there's some great trends going on in the currency markets All right, man. Where do we want to kick things off Teddy? Well, why don't we start with Europe and we'll work our way around the world and I'm gonna explain how you can trade the Divergence that's going on with the major crosses right now and actually ride these trends So we'll start with Europe and Euro US dollar. I'm along it I see there's nothing but weakness going on with the EU the same with the US dollar Swiss I'm long that because the Swiss also is gonna be under pressure I don't see that ending for anytime soon, especially what's going on with the interest rate environment We have the Treasury bonds that in the past four weeks have dropped 15 handles making newer move lows today So US dollar strength is definitely hurting those currencies really really bad Especially because of the Ukrainian Russian conflict the pound US dollar. However, that's the divergence I'm long that one because between oil and the interest rate thing. It's not as heavy on that one plus it Because of Brexit remember we talked about that for two years And if anyone wanted to know what the implications of that would be now you can see their sovereignty how that's actually helping them It's holding up their currency. It's helping their economy and they're not taking the blunt of this of everything That's going on with the Ukraine and Russia. Okay, so in the dollar index. That's why you have a lot of it right now It looks like it's kind of basing, you know, you have this flirting with resistance flirting with support That's because the euro is the biggest component. That's what's drag That's the where the strength is coming in in the dollar index But then you have the pound that actually is kind of going is going the other way obviously So that's restricting the dollar index for from upward movement. Okay And now we're going to bounce around to Asia and see how this is why the dollar index is becoming really hard to use as an Indicator and you really have to watch the trends of what these individual currency crosses are doing instead. Okay, so US dollar yen We know we've been talking about that for a long time. I know you guys love it because of how it impacts gold That is still a bull. We talked last week about how the Bank of Japan has a 130 price target to support their currency We had a buy signal going on there a couple days back I'm long the currency again looking for new move highs now This is where you can really play the divergence in the markets So in the Asian zone the Australian dollar is a bull that market at bottomed out a few months ago Because of the rising commodity prices and demand for them. It's really strengthening their currency The interest rate factor is just slowing the rally for the Australian dollar so now the great play now is the Aussie yen because The Aussie is strong versus the dollar and it's in a bull trend the US dollar yen isn't a bearish trend So that makes Aussie yen a bull and it's flirting with new highs I think you're until the yen hits US dollar 130 mark. You're going to see that trend continue It's a great rally to come to chase into and look and look for newer move highs I think that the velocity of that move is also going to give you a lot of Reward compared to your risk, especially if you're risking the last swing lows And the same is for the pound yen also because since the pound is is at least relatively stable versus a dollar and not a bear And the and the GN is collapsing versus the dollar the pound yen trade is also a really good bull So that's my little walk around the currencies and now I'll give you the question now No, that's great, man. I was just letting you roll with it It is pretty amazing and it makes sense you lay it out when you got strength on one You got weakness on another you pair those and of course it's going to accelerate things When you're looking at these pairings Teddy for people not familiar with forex is I'm not familiar You know, I really don't trade too much forex really at all But of course, it's important for how our markets trade but when you're trading these Are you constantly looking for these types of setups where you're you're trying to find maybe the weakest versus the strongest?  Kind of we're so used to it and you make the great points You know tell me what the dollar index is doing right? But it goes so much deeper than that are you trading the euro dollar you train the pound dollar But as a forex trader do you focus on these types of pairings trying to find the weakest and the strongest? It would make sense, but I don't want to say there are these liquids. I know the forex markets amazingly liquid But what do you go through when you look at something as trading like the euro dollar? Which is just you know one of the marquee pairings out there versus something like a Aussie yen or something like that? Sure, yes, great question. And you know what the answer is really simple It is exactly that I do look for the trends in the other crosses because that helps no matter What I you've heard me say it before that the best indicator of the market is the markets themselves because that's in real time So just like how I laid out those trades for the end trade, you know We're with the dollar versus the pound and also the Aussie because of those trends That's how I put myself in those other crosses. It's a triangle So you know that we're when you have one broad-based trend that you can count on like we know that the US dollar yen Is obviously in a bull market Higher your eyes higher move loads has been going that way for months, you know Yeah, so and then you know now also that for instance like the Australian dollar that bottom Versus the dollar already months ago, so that was a bear and no matter what you can't say it's a bear anymore It's because it's in a bull for months So writing those once you have that at least intermediate and short-term trends that are confirmed higher move highs higher move Lowes then you look for and that's why I said we had spy signals in those currencies So for instance last Friday and last Thursday you had a buy signal in the US dollar yen So that means we're looking to go back up and check challenge resistance We also had a buy signal in the Australian dollar So that means that's going stronger versus the dollar so that means it would overtake the yen You know so it gives you and then also in those crosses you had a buy signal simultaneously So when all three of those have Signals that go off then it's that's that's like the golden moment where you're like okay The big money has all turned when it comes to that what that quadrant because remember there's other crosses like there's Euro Swiss there's Euro yen, there's Euro pound and all these other ones have the same differences as well So where you might see a consolidation say in the US dollar sector in one of them and only trending in the other Those other ones will be trending, you know, so there's always so there's always a move somewhere There's always a bull market somewhere. There's always a bear market somewhere, you know So that is exactly how I do look for those trades, you know At least to get me in the frame of mind of am I looking to be a buyer or a seller? Which is the right side of the market to be on it makes sense because you basically got two sides of the equation in terms of a pairing And yeah, why not have both trends on your side in that pairing?  Since you have the Bank of Japan over there talking about maybe capping that at 130 I would say that if you're riding the long you don't want to try and pick a top That's for sure and never try and pick up top or a bottom I'm looking to start taking profits around 127 half to 128 half and then see if it can get to 130 But I'm laying off the position because I don't see it accelerating if it goes above 130 I see it being a radical spike where if you don't get out right away You're gonna be all of a sudden wondering oh now I got stopped out and I should have made you know At least a couple of dollars off of it sure and we got 30 seconds Teddy. We got crude trading at 101 23 what's your take on crude where we go? I think we're gonna be chopping around between 100 and 115 for the next couple of weeks Sounds good man. I don't think we appreciate the move yet. That's a great insights man I appreciate you walking us around all those pairings. I know the listeners appreciate it as well and Boy everything every week Teddy. We got a whole new market by the time I talk to you We'll talk to you next Wednesday, man. Take care Tommy. Have a great day Teddy


Hi, I am Vinn and standing here today on stage is just as frightening as it was about nine years ago when I decided to leave my well-paying corporate job to get on the journey of starting brand hero. Back then it was my passion and my dream, but if I look at this position today, how far I have come but it also scares me of what lies ahead, but it is good scary. So I'm grateful for the support and my struggles to probably nurture and grow brand hero to what it is today. But leaving my then seven-year-old career to start something entirely new was not easy. It was a very uncertain and a very difficult decision to make, just like we are in uncertain times today. So I had to go back to my family, I had discussion with my dad and everyone to kind of help me out of what are my options and how can I start something new. So just like when AI hit us, hit the industry a few years ago, there was a lot of excitement and nervousness all around and we were actually excited and nervous at the same time. And we were nervous about what the revolution could mean for us, what the future relies for us. There are so many different things happening. I could do this. I could do that. We lose jobs and what not. Especially in the design industry.  So like before, I went back to my dad and I had a conversation with him which opened my eyes. So I was telling my dad about that AI systems are coming up and they are going to take away our job. They will do things on their own and what is possible whether we will be relevant or not as designers and what not. So he neglected his past and he told back in the 80s, 90s when computers were very new. So my dad is from the accounting background. So he said especially bank tellers and accountants, they were really skeptical to use these systems. They felt computers are going to take away their jobs and they really hated these systems. But we all know that computers really did not just make the work faster but it also made them much more efficient. And AI is just here for that. So it did cut a lot of jobs though back then. But the way it revolutionized the industry, the way it changed the whole working world, the way it led businesses to scale where it is, we are all aware of that. So it's really inspiring to see what does AI hold for us in future. Let us look at the basics of a computer. So it consists of three parts. An input, it does some processing and it gives us an output. Despite having a huge array of data being in its formation, Generative AI still has a very limited set of data set in its input bank. So AI can't beat us until it is the great Chitty robot. So until we have the Chitty robot at our disposal, we adapt and modify things to get the desired output. What I mean to say when we're using systems like chat GPT, when we're using systems like Framer, mid-journey, and Ubizert, there's so many different tools out there coming. The default templates and responses that they give us is not something to our liking. We would like to go back, change it, and suit it to our needs. We have to go back to the input, so that it processes something right and gets us the right output. And I have to make these modifications to make sure that I get something, I can make something bigger than my imagination. Just like RCB winning an IPL, a far-fetched possibility, I know. So AI and UI use is not just here to make things pretty, but also make things magical just like this image. The whole story behind UI-UX is actually one of the, there's so many things, the time is limited, I'll touch upon the user analytics part. What if, as UX designers, when we are expected to make designs, when we are making those screens, what is the underlying goal? There's a goal we are trying to serve, right? The maximum engagement, the most converting screens, and the designs that could probably help the users to use it the most in the best possible way. What if there's a way for us to figure out, hey, you know, this design that we are going to be making is going to be really effective. It's going to be having all the aspects of a best converting design possible. And that's what businesses are hiring designers for, and they want these designs to perform. They want designs to convert. So there are tools out there, which are, these are very nascent tools, just a few names here, but what if, as we go ahead, there will be far-fetched tools in terms of telling us exactly while we are designing that, hey, this design is going to be performing really nice. This design is the focus of the attention, the focus of the, it predicts the average user movement. It tells you, okay, where the focus will be, where the most clicks will be received. And based on that, while designing itself, we can really come up with designs which are far more effective and far more converting from before. Not only this, as AI advances, not just predicting, it will also tell us, it will suggest us also what kind of could change in the design so that it could perform better. For example, make this button larger, change the font, and also change the color. This could result in this button being clicked by 50% more, something like that. So it is also important to note how these systems have been in place for years, such as Spotify. A lot of us, you know, we use this tool here. I'm sure a lot of us are using Spotify here. Have you ever imagined how is it able to generate the hyper personal playlist feature? So whenever you open the app, you get presented with a certain type of playlists for you, depending on what your needs are, how you listen to the music. So what it does is, they have an ML system behind you, which works. And this ML system is trying to gather data on your listening history, how you've been, what kind of songs are you listening to, what your profile history has been, how you've been using the app in general. There are hundreds of such parameters. The principles at Spotify, they say that they're not making one app. They're making 500 million versions of the app. That's the number of users Spotify today has. And everybody gets presented with their own version of the app the moment they open the app every time. So it's like thanks to personalization. This immense amount of personalization is only happening by the help of these systems and these data is getting collected in the backend. So what they do is they internally have a matrix of source, where they try to place users depending on these parameters, how they bucket. This is a very simplified indicator version of that kind of a matrix, where. So after listening about their, after learning about their history and their song preferences, the system makes a persona of yours and it tries to put you in one of these lists. So that, so if you're listening to Tishore Kumar a lot more or if you're listening to Tafisa Hub, so when you next time open the app, you get presented with something like Timeless Gold Classics or Oldest Gold, something like that. Or if you're a more adventurous listener who's listening to songs from all the honors, it is taking from all their data. And then next time when you're entering, it's showing you something like Discover Weekly, which is a playlist which is having songs from all the honors. So the one, the future, what it lies for us is not just these systems, when AI evolves, we'll see these systems being used widely by all the systems out there, by many more companies out there. And a whole new world can be explored by using AI to predict the user behavior and preferences, just like Netflix, another example here. So precision of suggesting what to watch next is next level here. The algorithm, the company's famous algorithm to suggest what to watch, even the thumbnail it shows, okay, where you are most likely to click more is predicted to save billions of dollars of the company already. And it is letting users, it shows the user what they really want to see. It shows what kind of, based on their history, based on their preferences, based on what they have done in the past, it tries to show where you are most likely to click and engage with the content. So, but you know, if you're scared that systems are going to be taking over us and they're going to be doing a lot more on their own. So I think one very important factor is there's nothing to worry, I would say, because to add any magic like these companies are doing, the human touch and empathy are highly needed. And the keyword here is empathy. The systems are not, the AI can give you a response for your prompt, but it cannot have a response tailored to your exact needs. Just like we have taken on the good scary moment of the past, AI is part of that journey. It's like a co-pilot helping you push the boundaries of what we can achieve. As we look at AI's incredible journey and its impact on industries and user experiences, let's pause to value the heart of innovation. AI's story isn't just about fancy tech and futuristic ideas, it proves the human's ability to adapt, be curious and push ahead. The world keeps changing and reminding us that change often comes with challenges, doubts, and self, and bold steps. Like how we faced the exciting fear when we started something new, we are now at the edge of tomorrow where AI and our creativity shapes new horizons. If this is the new era of UI UX, then it's definitely a game on. Thank you.