My name is Chris, as introduced here with Lila from Samasaurus, and we're going to talk a little bit about doing business as a source of good. So I have a few questions for Lila, and we'll dive into a discussion from there. OK, cool. So while you're a founder of Samasaurus, 501c3 nonprofit providing project data management with the goal of lifting people out of poverty, which is, I think, incredibly admirable. I think, as a mission. Under Samasaurus, you also founded a for-profit business called LuxMe, which is a skincare brand. So a very unique model. I guess what my question is, what are you trying to achieve with Samasaurus? What are you trying to achieve with LuxMe? And how do you differ from other startups that are trying to build businesses? And from a funding, business model, ownership, et cetera, et cetera? So I guess I should start with the motivation. Over a billion people around the world live on less than $2 a day, and it's the reason why we have close to a billion people without clean drinking water, more than 2 billion people without access to basic sanitation and toilets, and so many of the problems that we try to solve through philanthropy are really rooted in poverty, in the fact that over a billion people make so little. And so I've always been fascinated by this in a world of so much abundance, why do we still struggle to put food on the table for so many people? And I'm really curious about business models that directly employ the poor. We can't wait for trickle-down economics to solve this problem, we have to directly inject capital into poor households, and the best way to do that is to give work. And the digital economy affords many new ways to give work to some of the poorest people in the world who we previously relegated to philanthropy. We previously said, at best we can build a well or a school for these people. Well now we can create direct employment. So what Samosource does is we work with some of the top technology companies in the world, like Autonomous Vehicle companies, for example, Google and Microsoft are clients, and we produce training data. A lot of what we do is image annotation and tagging for computer vision teams using a disadvantaged labor force. So we are now, though we are a nonprofit, it's kind of a weird distinction, we're a 501c3 nonprofit in the US, but our business is actually profitable and we're the largest data services company in East Africa. We employ close to 2,000 people in Kenya and Uganda doing this sort of image annotation work for some of the top technology firms in the world. So it's a really unusual business. I think the coolest part about our business is that in order to become a Samosource worker, you have to have previously been living in poverty, which we define as less than the local living wage, which is about $2 a day. So we will only hire people who come from very poor backgrounds to do this work. And on average, we can quadruple their income. So about three years after they leave Samosource, they're at four times the wage they were before they started. That's awesome. So what I want to give you a little bit of time to talk about is also how under this structure you also create for-profit organizations that can actually take investor capital as well and actually grow like a startup. I mean, that's super interesting. So we're in this really interesting field, which is called social enterprise or social business, which is the idea that you can apply some of the same principles of philanthropy of doing good in a business model. And you're sort of in between a traditional philanthropic organization and a traditional profit maximizing startup. So the goal is really a social or environmental goal, but you're using a business model to solve it. So Samosource became profitable last year. We entered this lucrative market of tagging for computer vision several years ago. And we're now one of the top players in the space and a top vendor for some of these big firms, which means that this business model is working and we can take investor capital and not be reliant on grants and donations. So we just took our first for-profit investment. We set up a subsidiary that's a for-profit that can generate a return for investors. And the investors that we're finding who are interested are impact-oriented. It's a lot of family offices, people who've made their money and they want to do something powerful in the world. They can also make a return. It's probably not going to be like a 10x VC type return. But we can offer pretty solid returns, as well as a very strong social impact. And I think there's a growing market for that among investors.  How do you compare that and what are the advantages or disadvantages based on what you are trying to achieve? So it's an ecosystem, right? So Indella is an amazing company that places software engineers with larger tech companies. The challenge, though, for us is that they're hiring from a very different pool. So they would never hire from the pool of people we work with. Indella, I think fewer than 7% of their incoming class, comes from poor backgrounds. So they're hiring more middle-class people in these regions, which is important, right? You need a whole value chain. So when my workers leave Samosource, they're primed to get Indella jobs. That's wonderful. But for me personally, I'm really interested in tackling extreme poverty. And I think if we don't directly create jobs among that poorest segment, they're going to get left behind. So our interest is in reaching the people who would normally never be reached by traditional businesses who were hiring the most talented people they could find out of university. Most of my workers are, I mean, almost all of them are living in slums. So they're the sorts of people who you would really only traditionally reach through a charity kind of mechanism. Got it. So I come from an investor background. I think Horizon's Ventures is a little bit different from a traditional venture capital. But we obviously look for return of capital. And so you talked a little bit about impact investors investing in for-profit models underneath Samosource. How do you justify impact as a return? I mean, I think that's ultimately what they're looking for. I can sacrifice a 10x return, but I'd like to see that impact. How do you measure that? Is there other KPIs that you follow or report on? I'm so glad you asked. So I'm kind of a development geek. I used to work at the World Bank, producing development economics reports that nobody read, maybe except people like you.  And when I started Samosource, I was hell bent on creating an enterprise that would measure our social returns the same way that a for-profit startup measures financial returns. So we publish every quarter an impact report that basically tells you how many people we've moved out of poverty and by how much and at what cost to donors each quarter. And we release that on a learnings call. It's kind of like a corporate earnings call. And we publish all of that online.  In order to validate what's happening at the household level, we even see, for example, how our workers are changing their household expenditures. We look at what they spend their money on. We do household surveys. So we randomly select workers and we send people there with clipboards to assess what the impact is. And now this methodology is something that we're selling as an advisory service to other companies who want to measure the poverty reduction of their supply chain. Many companies don't think about this, but if you're operating a factory in a developing country and you're behaving well, you're paying living wages and you're paying benefits, you are a force for tremendous good. And many companies don't really leverage that storytelling, even with their own team. So we're now selling this as a service as well. Interesting. Yeah, I think those are the bulk of my questions. Probably, I think it's important for people to understand what you're doing because it's a very unique model in a business perspective, in a business model way. I think what we do at Horizons, because we have a unique distribution of capital back into philanthropy, and because we have one single source of funding, we're able to take a slightly long review on companies, especially companies, for example, in food biotech in nutraceuticals that have that long lead type of R&D. But one of the, I guess, contention that I felt when I was reading up about you and what you were doing is what I'm looking for is high skilled university, PhD level who are going to build that value in R&D and so on and so forth. And in a way, you're looking at the other spectrum of it. So from your perspective, do you see ultimately, Samasaurus being able to say, okay, I'm going to provide that ability to lift people out of poverty and then transition them through that process? Because it's great to have a good job. How about their children? And then how about social, economic welfare and so on and so forth? This is a really interesting question as our business evolves. We're now nine years old. We have a really solid reputation as a data services provider. I think we're probably one of the top training data providers for fields like autonomous vehicles and gaming. But the question is, where do we go from here? And as an entrepreneur, I'm always looking at the next frontier. And for us, the next frontier is moving slightly up the value chain, even with our own workforce. So once people have done image tagging for two years, they become specialists, they've worked with data science teams, they've worked with data scientists, we wanna provide on-ramps for them into higher skilled work within the company and growth opportunities. So my hope is that we're able to retain that top tier of our workforce and move them up the value chain. And we're also directly hiring consultants and project managers who have that additional skill set. That said, I think the biggest challenge in the world other than climate change is extreme poverty and it's on our watch. We're allowing this to happen. I just got a message from someone who lives in a refugee camp in Kenya this morning, who's one of our trainees, telling me that his father was killed really tragically in a senseless raid, basically due to poverty. And that just shouldn't happen in 2017. So for me personally, this is my life's work and I'm really excited about building models that reach the people that otherwise wouldn't be reached, that are getting left behind. And we do that, by the way, in the US as well. We have a really cool program called Sama School. We're the first nonprofit that's created a training program for the gig economy to provide on-ramps for low-income people to get jobs on platforms like Care.com or Field Nation or Upwork. And to me, there's so much opportunity in the digital economy that's not being tapped to reach low-income people. So I think we'll always maintain at least half of our focus on reaching the people that can't be reached. And of course we have to do that within reason we wanna still be able to have a profitable business, again, within the confines of doing something that's good for the world. So tell us a little bit about LuxMe. So Skincare Brand, expanding internationally, sounds like a very appealing business to begin with. How did you build that under Samosor's, especially the ownership part, which I think is really interesting in terms of how do you motivate and have that distribution of capital go back to the people that built the company, I suppose. Yeah, so it's kind of random when I describe what I do. I have this data services company, Samosor's, and then I have this skincare business called LuxMe, which is seemingly, they're very disparate, but actually they're really the same goal. Both companies exist to give work to low-income people. LuxMe is the first fair trade and organic brand at Sephora nationwide, which is one of our biggest beauty retailers in the US. And the mission is really to do what Samosor's did to employ very low-income people, especially women in the supply chain. Cosmetics and skincare is a very lucrative industry, you see insanely high gross margins, and most of the luxury firms that produce these skin creams are doing nothing to make the world better. Maybe arguably they make you look better. I think that's mostly marketing, but they really do nothing to reinvest any of that amazing margin back into making the world better. And women are the primary buyers of this stuff, and yet most of these companies really do nothing to help women in the supply chain or even, you know, they're not even owned by women. So I thought it would be really cool to create a different kind of a model where we use the luxury industry to give work to low-income people. And our mission is, we call it beauty for humanity. So we source rare, wild ingredients that are fair trade certified, which means that they pay living wages to women's cooperatives and that are organic. And we produce them in luxury packaging. We produce really beautiful products for skincare. Right now we have four SKUs, and we launched last year at Sephora. I sell it on TV, which is a little bit surreal, on QVC, and we're about to launch in Europe. What's fascinating to me is that millennial consumers actually care a lot about social and environmental impact. So it's not just products that are good for you and that are organic and healthy, but they want products that give back. So I think as millennials are aging and earning more disposable income and able to afford luxury products, they want something different from what their mothers bought. And that's what I hope we provide. Yeah, I think, you know, when we, we invest in a lot of food biotechnology, nutraceutical, health and wellness type products, and our experience is the same. Millennials and just modern day buyers, right? Care a lot more about the sustainability element. They care a lot more about the impact of that product and what it has, the carbon footprint that is associated with, just like they were looking at a new nutrition label. And so I think that's a really cool concept.  Because distribution is hard, right? To get into shelves and so on and so forth. Absolutely, well, we're starting with beauty and the other thing that I'm really passionate about within beauty is that we can source ingredients that not only have a social benefit but an environmental benefit.  And one of the biggest causes of deforestation is that local people don't know how to monetize the land unless they're clearing it, right? Or selling it to a local mining company and they don't see the value of this raw virgin rainforest. In many parts of the world, like the Amazon where we're now working, you have rare wild ingredients that have incredible benefits that haven't really been tapped. And if you can show people that they can sustainably harvest a wild ingredient, this has been done, for example, with ASAE in the Amazon, which is now a huge superfood trend in the US. If you can show them that they can make more money off of a wild asset, then they'll preserve it. And it won't be sold to the nearest cattle farmer to be cut down to make room for pasture. So that's part of the model of Luxemey and our first ingredient in Northern Uganda actually comes from a rare wild plant that used to be cut down for firewood and sold to make like $1 a day. So we've convinced the local population there that these trees are worth more alive than dead. And I think that within beauty, there's so much more room to expand. We could go into, we're looking at, we have a body product that's launching in February. We could go into baby skincare. This is a huge market in the US for organic baby care products. And men's skincare will just change the packaging and make it appeal to you guys. Well, it was the first time I'm wearing makeup for the first time in my life, so it's fabulous. We have a couple of minutes left. I want you to tell people about your book. Tell them a little bit about what you're gonna do in the future. And yeah, what else is saving is coming down your pipeline? Sure. Well, I would just say it's so easy to be cynical nowadays. And I meet a lot of people, especially with what's happening politically in the US and all these terrorist attacks. And it just seems like every day there's more bad news. It's easy to become cynical. And I think it's up to us to stop that. There are so many really concrete things that entrepreneurs and leaders of business can do to make the world better. And most of that is within your supply chain. So I wanna encourage you, if you're watching this, to think about how your business spends money because that's the most powerful vehicle for good that we have. It's much more powerful than philanthropy. In the book, I talk about the fact that the biggest 2,000 companies in the world, the Global 2000, spend $12 trillion annually on goods and services, trillion. By comparison, the GDP of all of Sub-Saharan Africa is 1.8 trillion. So what if we could take just 1% of that $12 trillion in spend and allocate it to vendors that are like SamaSource, that are social enterprises, actively fighting a social or environmental problem on the ground. And there are more and more. There are nonprofit factories, for example, Levi's sources from one in the US that makes denim with a marginalized workforce. I think they hire people coming out of prison and military veterans. There are factories that operate on a fair trade basis. There's a phone called the Fairphone in coming out of the Netherlands where the entire supply chain for the phone down to the mine that the minerals and the batteries are coming from is fair trade. So they will show you the mine workers on their website and you can actually verify that those people are being paid living wages. So I think our supply chains represent untold benefit for low income people and that's something we can control, right? We make the decisions as entrepreneurs how we spend our money. So how much effort do you guys put into traceability? So because so much of it is coming from fair trade sources or sources that you obviously respect and think will be good for either local community or the ultimate consumer.  Yeah, so in the Luxemey context, I actually go and visit our producer communities and if you go on our website, you can see videos of the women who harvest the nuts in every package. We actually put a number, a code on every product sold and if you type that code into the website, you can meet the woman who harvested the nuts, the raw ingredient that are in your jar of skincare, which I think is really cool. So there's all kinds of cool things you can do with technology now that weren't even possible a decade ago and I think consumers love that. They wanna know the stories behind what they buy. It's a much more powerful and deep connection they have with the brand, especially if you're trying to build a direct to consumer kind of model and I would say that more broadly, it's not that hard to find vendors that do good. Even if you're thinking about catering your like office Christmas party, we actually have a guide that we put together at givework.org that's a guide for companies to find vendors that are doing good in their areas. So that's one place to start. But I just think it takes thinking a little bit differently about the money that your company is spending every day. Yeah, great. Thank you so much. Last 30 seconds. Any challenges to the audience? You know, I have great admiration and respect for what you're doing and I think that is incredibly inspiring and I'm sure the people here are really inspired. So any last words of wisdom, any last words of encouragement? Just, I would encourage everyone here, if you wanna do good, think beyond charity. Think about giving work. The most powerful thing that we can do to solve poverty and all of its negative downstream effects is to give work as opposed to aid. When we give aid or a handout, we're essentially writing off that person's talent. We're saying we're relegating you to a relationship where you're just receiving a handout as opposed to a mutually beneficial relationship that happens when you trade with someone. So wherever possible, and it's not possible in every context, but wherever possible, I would urge you if you're thinking about trying to give back, to give work. Great, thank you so much. Thank you.


Hell yeah, what's up guys this cruise pike my friends come a big see back in action today I want to show you what in my opinion is the best Video editor for small YouTube channels for new YouTube channels and for those of you that don't want to spend big bucks on An editor it is called cap cut now. There are multiple different cap cut editors This is the online editor the web browser editor The reason why I'm choosing this one is because you don't have to install anything and it's free So let's go you go to cap cut calm. There's the link click on continue. Oops. I'm gonna click on continue as Curtis I have a free account. I there is an upgraded pro account, but I don't pay for it I have the free version and once you do that you'll see here that you're loaded in again This is browser-based. That's what makes this so cool now on the left side here is where you want to basically work with I'm gonna go ahead and click on create new and then underneath video You're gonna see 16 by 9 that is the standard Basically the standard YouTube size if you're doing shorts, it's 9 by 16 and Instagram can be those little squares But let's go 16 by 9. I'm gonna click on it It's gonna open up a new tab and now we're cooking now Over here on the left side. I can't this is unbelievably easy to use you're gonna see here I've got a whole bunch of videos and images and all that stuff loaded here I've already used it. I use this program like I honestly do This isn't a paid sponsorship, but all you need to do to add in your own content You can go into Finder or Windows Explorer if you're on a PC. I've got I don't know. Let's grab one of my movies here Let's get this one. I'm just gonna drag and drop it and look at that All you got to do is just drop it there And it will add it to the top of the stack to add it to the timeline to edit it It is one click literally. I just clicked on it and presto.  I want to listen to what I got here Watch this Oh, yeah, what's up guy? Boom done now if this was perfect I could just go here and hit export But again, there's a whole bunch of stuff at the beginning where I'm not talking so I'm just gonna edit that out There it is. So once my face starts moving, there we go somewhere around there I'm just gonna grab this little handle here You'll see it at the bottom left here, and I'm gonna pull it and then presto I let go and it has slip edit it for me. So here's what happens now when I play watch this We got rid of the basically the space where there was no talking now in some cases That's all you need to do to edit I'm gonna skip forward through it and watch this. All right. Watch this So right here I stopped talking so I'm gonna grab the other handle and I'm just gonna edit it and presto It is done now. That's not all if you need to change the audio You just go over here to the audio button now in this case the volume is good But if it was too quiet, I could increase it just like that if I if it's too loud I can decrease it just like that. It's literally just drag and slip and nothing to this It's absolutely Extremely easy to use now you can do more things a lot more things, but that is the basics But let's go over here to the left side. So we've uploaded a video. We've edited it Let's go ahead and see what kind of well, let's see what kind of templates. They've got watch this They're inside of cap cut here. There are all these templates now Some of them are free some of them are paid for but in this case I'm gonna go ahead and just select on I don't know let's click on editors picks and then look at this Look at all these amazing templates. So I'll move the playhead to the end here Then let's say I like this one. I like that one for reasons You know what I'm talking about what I want to add in a template now You can scroll through all of these. Maybe I want a burger picture. I don't know Maybe I want this whatever it doesn't matter. Let's do this one here. This one looks kind of cool I'll click on it. Watch that. It's now adding that template to the end of it.  What do we do we go ahead and click out here? I'm just gonna go ahead and see that you see I can edit it here.  I'm gonna hit escape I'm gonna click out and then over on the right left side. Let's go here again. Sorry click on that I'm gonna go back over here. I can make changes to it. So I don't know if I want to change the audio Let's say let's go ahead and click right click on it and now we're gonna separate the audio So this is another option. So I'm gonna go ahead and make this a little bigger right here I'll just increase the size so you can see this a little bit better. Look at that I went ahead and clicked out. I right clicked on it separated out the audio now I can go ahead and adjust that so if I want to change the volume again, it was too loud So I'm gonna change it way down and literally here we go. I Changed the audio on that. I just one click added that template at the end I'll delete it just to show you how it's done if you want to add in some stuff over top of your video You can go to elements and I don't know maybe I want to let's see what we got here We got photos AI characters stickers. I like this sticker subscribe Done it was one click. It's free. It's literally that crazy easy I love this program because it's so easy to use and again It's free if I want to go over here and I want to add I don't know Let's see what their other stickers are they got they've got arrows Let's click and add an arrow there. We've got an arrow pointing to my face I'm gonna turn it so it's pointing to me maybe and let's see what happens Jesus that's all there is to it. So there you go guys Those are just other things here You can add icons you can add in all these other things if you see the pro thing beside it here on the top left That means it's a paid for thing So if you want to get the paid program go ahead and do that I believe it's eleven dollars and forty nine cents us a month right now So, you know, it's it's not free if you want to add in your own music. Go ahead on the left side. I clicked on audio Look, we got all this music. Maybe I want to add in sunrise. I don't know. Let's click on it. There we go. I Like it. I'm just gonna drag it underneath here and look at that Audio is added now if you want to export and you want to use it as is You can go ahead and click on the export button here And then it allows you to download it. Just click on download and it's done now If you want to add in multiple videos, maybe like let's say I've got I don't know I've got this free button here I'm gonna put that at the end there and then I've got another one here. I've got retro film at the end there I've just thrown them in here just to show you how it works so I can add that on top or I can add it at the end and Literally, that's it. The last thing I will show you here is effects So if you want to add in some weird cool special effects now if I look at these Let's look at trending ones. Why not? We've got flickery. We've got edge glow. We've got shake Let's add in a shake effect Here we go.  So if you want to add in a fancy transition, I don't know Let's add in this bottom left one here. I just randomly select it. You'll see here. I've selected it I'm just dragging it right here, and it's gonna add that transition in Literally again completely free. This is absolutely crazy.  I want ocean eyes. Whatever the heck that is If I want to add in bad bunny. I want to add in a reindeer filter. Whatever. I mean, they're all in there night scene That would be cool. Let's oh, that's a pro one But anyways, you'll see here if I want to add in the rainbow one or a neon one These are all just hovering over them and it gives you a look at the effect right there So there's just so many things here again under elements if you want to add in a photo You want to upload your own stuff drop it into the media Templates it's all here guys. It's all free unless you want the really fancy stuff. This is an incredible free YouTube editor for new youtubers


Dr. Astha Garba, I'll be presenting my paper on the evaluation of MRCP in biliary obstruction with ERCP and histopathological correlation. I'll be doing it under the guidance of Dr. Varsha Ma'am, who's a professor of radiology and Dr. Krishnath Eja, assistant professor of radiology. The aims and objectives include to evaluate the efficacy of MRCP as a diagnostic tool as compared to ERCP in diagnosing extra-hypatic biliary abnormalities like colodicolithiasis structures and malignancies, to evaluate the efficacy of MRCP in diagnosing ancillary findings like gallstone disease, biliary ductal lalitation and abnormalities of the pancreatic duct, and to correlate the findings with histopath if available. Obstructive jaundice is caused by biliary obstruction, which is due to blockage in any of the ducts that carry bile from liver to gallbladder and then to the small intestine. The causes of obstructive jaundice can be divided into intra-hypatic and extra-hypatic. Intra-hypatic, the most common causes are hepatitis, cirrhosis and HCC. Extra-hypatic can again be divided into intraductal and extraductal. Intraductal includes neoplasm, colidopolithiasis, biliary strictures, and primedysclerosine colongitis. Extraductal include neoplasms, pancreatitis, and cystic ductstones, which is also known as mirage syndrome. So the commonest cause of obstructive jaundice is stones. Obstruction of the biliary tract is a common clinical problem which requires accurate localization and discrimination of the pathology. In the evaluation of a suspected biliary obstruction, the initial choice of investigation remains as trans-abdominal ultrasound due to its ready availability, non-invasiveness and inexpensiveness. The excellent clue in finding biliary obstruction in ultrasound has been ductile dilatation. However, USG cannot identify the cause and level of the obstruction accurately. It is operated-dependent procedure and there might be suboptimal imaging of the retroperitoneal structures due to the overlying bobble gases. Now Magnetic Resonance Colangia Pancreatography, MRCP, was initially introduced in the year 1991 and has been improved since then, to the point where it is considered at part with endoscopic retrograde colangia pancreatography, which is ERCP. It can help not only to identify the obstruction, but also demonstrate the nature of the pathology. So MRCP refers to the selective fluid-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging of pancreatic and biliary ducts. Also, when conventional T1 and T2 weighted sequences are combined together, the detection of the extra ductile diseases by MRCP is possible. So if we compare MRCP and ERCP, however ERCP is considered as the gold standard, it is still an invasive procedure. It requires endoscopic cannulation, sedation and the use of ionizing radiation. It is filled with complications such as haemorrhage, sepsis, pancreatitis, bilek and mortality. Whereas MRCP is non-invasive, radiation-free, non-operative-dependent, multi-planar imaging modality. So in our prospective study, we wish to determine the diagnostic efficacy of MRCP considering ERCP as a gold standard and whether MRCP can replace ERCP for diagnosis, while ERCP can solely be reserved for therapeutic applications. So materials and methods, a prospective study of 50 consecutive patients with biliary obstruction referred for MRCP with subsequent assessment by ERCP and histopathology were included. The study was conducted at MR and ERCP units in our tertiary care center. MRCP scanner used was 1.5T scanner using an in-house 16-channel body coil. Pre-procedure preparation included 6R duration of fasting, which helps in promoting the filling of gallbladder, usually takes about 20 minutes to complete the full examination. The sequences which were taken were localizer in three planes, AXL T1 in phase, Trufi, AXL T2 haze, Fatsat, Coronal T2 haze, Fatsat, Thick slab haze, and 3D volume respirator triggered MRCP, which was taken in two planes, Coronal section in plane with CBD and AXL section in plane with pancreatic duct. MRCP was performed prior to ERCP, which was then performed by a well-trained and experienced endoscopist. Colangiographs were obtained and compared with the MRCP findings. Considering ERCP as whole standard, the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values MRCP was evaluated, if available, correlation with the histopathology was also made. So coming to the results, this is the pie chart which shows the percentage of the population according to the age group and the highest patients were noted in the age group of 46 to 55 years of age. In sex distribution, we found that females were more predominantly the patients with the biliary obstruction. This histogram shows the number of patients in which the pathologies were detected in the in our study population. So the commonest pathologies were bile ductalitation, polydocolithiasis, which was 56%, strictures and malignancies. Here we are showing the sensitivity and specificity of both MRCP and ERCP where this histogram shows the comparison between them. So we found that the sensitivity of MRCP was 87.5% for polydocolithiasis, it was 100% for CBD malignancy and IHPR strictures, 84.6% for CBD strictures and it was 100% for biliary ductalitation. Coming to the specificity, we found that MRCP was 100% specific for polydocolithiasis, IHPR strictures and CBD malignancies. However, it was 92% specific in detecting CBD strictures and 98% in detecting polylithiasis. So the aim of our study was to assess the diagnostic efficacy of MRCP as a diagnostic imaging modality compared to invasive ERCP in the diagnosis of bile duct abnormalities using specificities, sensitivity and positive and negative predictive values. If our results favor MRCP, then diagnostic ERCP could be completely avoided and MRCP can be used as investigation of choice for diagnosing biliary abnormalities, while ERCP is reserved only for therapeutic purpose solely. So in case of CBD strictures, CBD stones and amplary stones, MRCP was comparable to ERCP. The study conducted by Nairi Griffin at all reported sensitivity of 91 to 100% in detecting CBD strictures, whereas the sensitivity attained in our study was slightly lower, which was 84%. However, it was comparable to other studies and it falls within the overall sensitivity range of studies carried out worldwide. For Amplary Tumor sensitivity of MRCP and ERCP was equivalent, which may be fallacious considering the small sample size. It was higher than the study conducted by Parmos at all, where the sensitivity and specificity was 183% respectively. Therefore, they recommended that ERCP in detecting Amplary Casinoma, whereas our study is more in the favor of MRCP. Additionally, MRCP was found to have to be better in delineating the extent of the tumor and extra hip, extra biliary extension. ERCP may just show the level of the block, however, the proximal extent and the involvement of the adjacent structures could not be evaluated. Note for that MRCP has high diagnostic accuracy and is equivalent to ERCP in diagnostic abnormalities like IHBS strictures and CBD tumors. For the lower biliary tract abnormalities like Amplary Strictures and pancreatic ductile abnormalities, MRCP was found to have lower sensitivity. Ancillary findings like intrapartic biliary radical dilatation and gallstone diseases are well demonstrated on MRCP. So, we concluded that MRCP is the method of choice for diagnostic imaging of biliary tree and ERCP reserve for therapeutic intervention in the setting. As common pathologies such as stones, strictures, malignancies in upper biliary tract can be easily identified with high specificity on MRCP. In cases where a histopathology were available, that is in case of tumors, MRCP showed high specificity as well as sensitivity. The results we obtained in our study were comparable to pioneer studies conducted worldwide. Coming to the images, this is an anatomy, an image showing the normal anatomy of the biliary tree in which we can see the intrapartic biliary radicals forming right and left hepatic duct which joined together to form the common hepatic duct. This common hepatic duct is joined by the cystic duct to form the common bile duct. We can see that this thin line is the main pancreatic duct which joins with CBD and they both open into the second part of the deodorant. Here is the image showing ERCP of the same anatomy where we can see that these are the intrapartic biliary radicals. Common hepatic duct, this is cystic duct and then our CBD is formed and this thin line is the pancreatic duct. So coming to the pathologies, these are coronal images of MRCP in which we can see that there are filling defects within the common bile duct which are these CBD stones and here these are confirmed on the ERCP. Again, here they are shown as filling defects within the CBD. Here we can see that there is a CBD stricter which is seen as narrowing of the duct. Here also we can see that the CBD is narrowed and which is a CBD stricter. Here we can see that there is moderate dilation of the intrapartic biliary radicals and there is abrupt cut-off of the biliary channels at the site of formation of the common hepatic duct. So these are MRCP and ERCP images showing features of a CBD tumor. Here we can see that there is upstream dilation of the CBD and this is being caused due to amplinary mass lesion because of which there is proximal dilation of the whole biliary treatment. One limitation which of our study was that we had a small study of population owing to the difficulty in collecting patients who underwent both ERCP and MRCP as most of the patients after ultrasound are directly subjected to ERCP. These are the references which I have used for my paper.


I went to my second home today because the house labs foundation and powder launched today And now I have them so we're gonna do a first impressions wear test now Always take first impressions with a grain of salt though. I will say I'm pretty good on the first dry But foundations are a little bit sticky, but I really couldn't wait I wanted to see what house labs could do with complexion not gonna lie something about it this feeling inside me I'm like, I think it's going to be good So you can get this right now on this before a website house labs website and in I think like 500 Sephora stores the foundation itself is going to be 45 dollars We're gonna just get into the foundation and then we'll do the powder I do have the powder like I said forty five dollars now this foundation has like 50 shades And it was really intimidating to look on the website to see which shade I should get and I'll explain a little bit Some tips that I have the details of this foundation and this is what I like a natural finish I tend to prefer natural finish over a glowy finish Which is really popular right now because normally a natural finish will turn into a glowy finish anyways with wear It's that perfect in between it's clean long-wearing medium coverage and it is with Fermented Arnica that helps reduce redness even skin tone and protects from environmental stress Allegedly, let's go ahead and open her up. I'll talk about the shades that I got So here is the box that the foundation comes in it's called the triclin skin tech foundation By the way forgot to tell you that and it is one fluid ounce and it's just the kind of cardboard Recycled packaging I ended up picking up the shade one seven five light neutral now listen to this especially if you are ordering this online typically I would say I'm a light medium Complection when it comes to found Struggling to open this so typically when it comes to foundations in terms of just shade description I normally pick up the I can't open this Hold on I normally pick up the light medium with a neutral undertone the light medium with neutral undertone on the website The model was much darker than I so I wasn't sure and I did go into store And unfortunately since I went like right when they opened they hadn't filled the display up fully So I couldn't really get in there and test but the model that they have in the photo online It's very true to how the foundation looks like I'm stuck in my head I'm a light medium with a neutral undertone the model definitely like darker than me I swatched that color in store It looked like the model and not like it would fit me and I felt like the light Neutral was going to work for me based on how the model looks But I was it wasn't sure because whenever I do that then it ends up being too light for me and from what? I can see I really do feel like light neutral is my color So the shade descriptions run deeper than what you're probably used to so if you're my skin tone light 175 I think is our shade. Well, see I didn't get to put it on my face But anyways, that just shades a little intimidating. Here's what the packaging looks like it's quite luxe very heavy I think it looks so what nice. Okay. How does this work? This is the top by the way the cap it looks very very luxe We're gonna shake well, and let's look at the consistency of this. Here's the consistency. You can see it's a little bit runny Okay, let's try it out. Oh perfect shade for me Yep, definitely go by what the model looks like on the website compared to your skin tone and not the shade Description. Oh, I just use my finger to push this in. Wow, that looks good Okay, I meant to do this as a sponge side, but it blended out like butter with my fingers This might be a foundation that works good with fingers. I'm gonna use my sponge to press it in Then again push it in push it in see how she does on the nose This is one good layer I think it looks pretty nice very skin like definitely a true natural finish, which I enjoy looks good I'm gonna get a little bit more and try and build up on my cheek and around my nose where I have a little bit More redness. It definitely is not like a smoothing foundation by any means, but it does have a very skin like finish I think it looks pretty we're gonna let it set though.  Wow because it's a more liquidy consistency. It really just Reds really good, but given how thin the formula feels now It's not the most thin, but it's more liquidy than I anticipated It does leave a true medium coverage. They aren't bluffing I would say the description of it that they give so far is holding pretty true I'm gonna use my sponge push it in get off the excess What do we think I think it looks pretty good and the most recent foundation? I tested out was the Patrick top foundation duo and I did not like it update didn't like it I think this looks better, but we'll see about the where it's got a skin like finish, but it does look a Tactic like I can see that I am wearing makeup. She's very interesting because it does have that skin like finish It's just a bit thick and I didn't apply it that much Especially since I'm also using a sponge to kind of get up the excess But overall, I think it looks good if you shuggle a texture and you love kind of the smoothing Blurring foundations. This did not do anything to improve pores. It let my pores be though I think it looks good. Okay. I'm gonna let this settle down I'm gonna do a little bit of makeup and then we'll get into the powder So I just did my eyebrows and I popped on the Charlotte Tilbury beautiful skin concealer Which an update on this. I don't know. It's a weird concealer. Well, I obviously don't love it, but I don't dislike it Anyways besides the point let's get into the powder. So this is called the bio blurring Which I'm happy that it says is blurring because maybe that's why the foundation itself isn't very blurring talc free I know that's a key term a lot of you like loose setting powder So there are five different shades in this which is awesome. I just picked up the translucent shade I thought that would be good for me. It's $38 not a cheap powder House Labs is bordering luxury pricing. They're very pricey. Anyways, it provides a light coverage clean vegan cruelty free Skincare infused that blurs imperfections smooth skin and optimizes makeup performance. All right, let's let's get into it It's the same packaging as the foundation. There is Seven grams of product in here. Okay, let's say the way I cannot open these boxes Okay Packaging has a silver top with this slant on there. It's made in Italy and has an 18 month shelf I first the foundation made it foundation is made in Korea. By the way, always something that interests me. Okay. Are we ready? To rumble. So this is the inside. Let's peel the sticky off. You ready? And then boom here's the powder. So we have kind of a piece of mesh right here I don't know. How does one I can't really put it in the cap But I always like to get a little extra product. So we're gonna use a brush first. This is a refer 19 brush We're just gonna dip it in the mesh. Let's see. So right here is how I can tell a powder is blurring or not This does have blurring properties. I love a good blurring powder. Oh, this is nice I like that. Okay under the eye I'm liking the powder. I think the powder looks really good. It's not like a feather light powder You know how some powders you sometimes can't even tell you are wearing powder or applying powder It's not like that, but it's it's got a little bit of oomph to it Which I prefer because I feel like that holds the foundation in better that looks very very nice Powdered side versus non-powder looks so good. I'm gonna apply powder the way that I like to apply powder So I tried to push the powder towards the top. I'm gonna take my damp sponge I'm gonna set my makeup. I swear if you love a blurred look do this with your powders It makes the biggest difference. I feel like I'm struggling to get powder out of here So this is not really good to apply with a damp sponge though Because of the way that the packaging is made. You can't really get any powder out So you might as well just use a brush. So the sponge application is a fail I'm getting like nothing on my sponge definitely works best with a brush I don't really like this packaging. I feel like not getting the product out I like a lot of powder. What do we think? I think it looks really good I think I might prefer the powder over the foundation. I mean the powder right now It's not like the most hydrated look as like some of the other powders that I own But I'm not bothered by that because they feel like as time goes on today It will work itself out So I'm gonna go ahead and finish the rest of my makeup and you'll see the products that I put over top Makeup is all done you guys. This is how we are looking I think it looks really good. The only negative I have to say thus far It doesn't necessarily look like it's one with this skin It's like a little bit heavy looking But I feel like it has potential to settle down as the day goes on and to look more natural It's definitely not going to give you a super natural look, but I think it looks very very good And one thing I did not like about the Patrick Taz I felt like that one literally stuck to the hairs of my skin and it separated so quickly And just looked really dry and cakey. I'm not getting those vibes from this foundation so far So so far so good. I think it's solid. We're gonna see obviously only time will tell I will catch you guys in a few hours Oh, and I also forgot to mention oxidation test. This does not oxidize Just so you know four hour check-in Let's see how we're doing now. Keep in mind. I did not do any wear and tear on the makeup I did not leave my house But I still wanted to show you because I think it's holding up well Now you can see smile lines, but that's like that's my face It happens and it is starting to look a little dry around the mouth Which has been a pattern lately. I've noticed I would say everything looks really good This looks like it's gonna hold up well in the heat. I'm gonna go for a walk this evening So don't worry. We will do some actual real life tests on this But I think overall for our mark. It looks really good. I can see it starting to think about, you know messing up things Down here, but I think everywhere else on the face. It's holding up well I think it looks a little bit more skin like now still a touch on the heavy side But I think it looks really good.  I like the way this looks So I will catch you guys in a few hours. I had something in my teeth Oops. Alright guys, so I've been wearing the makeup for about nine hours now I am so impressed with how this foundation has worn I felt like at times like I didn't feel like it sat on my skin as the prettiest foundation I've ever used I thought it was very nice looking, but it wasn't a ground breaking look on my skin If you hear Keyboard clicks going on my husband is gaming right now and I didn't want to disrupt it. But anyways one Impressive factor about this foundation is most definitely the wear time. I'm very happy about that You might recall at about the four hour checkpoint. My smile lines were kind of showing a little bit They haven't gotten any deeper at all. So I'm very happy about that. I don't look too I don't even look going at all honestly Maybe just around the nose And you can see I did scratch my nose and it did come off This foundation is not the best in terms of setting So if you itch or rub your makeup will come off So keep that in mind, but if you're able to like not rub your face, I think you'll be fine So right here, honestly, I can just kind of move the foundation around and then fix it like that If that That kind of didn't fix it. So that is something to keep in mind Maybe when it comes to wearing sunglasses right here or anything like that, but overall I am very happy with this foundation has stated before this is only a first impressions Literally my first wear So i'm gonna have to continue testing this before I can give you my final thoughts But I think the foundation is really nice And I really do think that the powder compliments the foundation. Well, they make a really good duo So solid foundation as always make sure you subscribe to my channel because I do my speed makeup reviews periodically as I use the products that I mentioned in my videos more And I'm ready to give you my final thoughts But so far we are definitely starting on the right foot and I'm pretty happy with this foundation I think it looks really nice. So this is something that appealed to you.  I think it's great for a lot of skin tones I think it's going to be best for a more normal to oily skin type Because I did notice on some drier patches on my skin. Maybe it didn't look the greatest But just prep your skin well and you should be fine But anyways, if you've tried this foundation, please comment down below your skin type and how the foundation Worked for you. Let's help each other out. That's one of my favorite parts of these foundation reviews And thank you for hanging out with me. So yeah, make sure you're subscribed to my channel and like this video And I will catch you the next time. Bye guys. Have a good one


It's been called a landmark documentary event. The Vietnam War, an 18 hour documentary film series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, premieres next week right here on Lakeland Public Television. However, some area residents were able to get a special sneak peek at the series. Local veterans got to enjoy a free lunch and special advanced screening of the documentary that features testimony from nearly 80 witnesses which includes many Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it. Veterans were also provided an opportunity to share their own personal stories as part of the Minnesota Remembers Vietnam which is a year long collaboration of the Minnesota PBS stations. The Vietnam War premieres this Sunday right here on Lakeland Public Television. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.


Welcome to Toffy TV, it is the Everton News Daily, proudly backed by Snickers Protein, who are helping fans to get excited about the transfer window during this January. Everton's Cenk Towson has been linked with a move to CSKA Moscow today. The Turkish striker missed Everton's 3-0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday last night with a knock, but is attracting interest from Moscow. It will be interesting to see because obviously he's been linked heavily this January with moving away. West Brom's all been linked with him early on when Sam Aladais became their manager, but they look as though they're going to sign Christian Bentecheff and Crystal Palace. And some news outlets today report on that palace and now considering going back for Towson, which seems a bit weird because they just brought John Philippe Mateter in, which I think is the main reason why Benteche is going out, but maybe it isn't. Palace took Towson on loan a year ago, remember before he damaged his crochet knee ligaments. Has returned to the Everton squad of late, but looks as though he will move away potentially this January, but Crystal Palace looking at him. There's also rumours that Besheektas won him back as well in Tachibo. CSKA Moscow will be an interesting development if they do bid for him, so all eyes on that one. I guess as we move through the next week of this transfer window. Everton again today linked with Granada goalkeeper Rui Silva. He's out of contract in the summer. The keeper's being in excellent form this season for Granada, and the CNN progressed into the knockout stages of the Europa League as well. The 26-year-old goalkeeper was in excellent form last season, only behind the likes of Tess Deggan and Tibol Corswa. Out of contract at 26, he'll be a great age. AS reporting that Everton are the main front runners for his signature, but Everton were linked heavily with making Robin Olsen's transfer permanent this January. That hasn't happened at the moment. Olsen of course played last night in the 3-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday. This one is a little bit of a strange one, but 26 years of age for the goalkeepers is a good age. We'll see whether it's Olsen to sign permanently, or whether they will follow it up with a move for Rui Silva as we move through to the summer. Everton are ready to reward their youngest ever player, Terry Small, made his debut last night, aged 16 years and 176 days. They're ready to give him a three-year professional contract, but can't do so until he turns 17. Small, who came on last night for the final nine minutes of the FA Cup, 3-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday, said it was everything he dreamed of. He's made sacrifices like moving away from home aged 11 to join up with Everton's Academy. He's had to work hard, his family and himself had dreamed of this day. It was an incredible moment. It was brilliant to see Carlo Ancelotti bring both him and Tyler Ongyango for the remaining nine minutes last night, and both did okay. I guess it now for them, it's a case of just keeping the head down and working hard and trying to get more and more performances and minutes for Everton's first team. They'll only do that by continuing the hard way. Tyler Ongyango also spoke after making his everton debut last night. He said I was buzzing, I couldn't sleep and when Dunk said I was going on, I was made up. All I can do now is work hard and build trust from the team to get more appearances. 17-year-old Tyler Ongyango, absolutely brilliant. Everton had four Academy players come on the pitch last night during the win in the FA Cup. So fantastic for the club and they're excellent to see those two young lads stepping up. Now we told you about Snickers protein hashtag fanline where you can get in touch with us with your thoughts for this transfer window, whether it's thoughts about Everton or an opinion or a play you might like to see. All you have to do is get on Twitter and use the hashtag fanline going on to ToffyTV on Twitter with the hashtag fanline and give us your opinion, your comments, your thoughts and we will discuss them here. Ned, who's being in touch with us? Well, Jan Versacly says, just wondering if with the status of the injury list and Holgate and Godfrey seemingly able to cover the midfield or defensive areas were needed, does that then remove the panic to buy plays for these areas and get a winger instead? I suppose in the short term Jan it would do because it would mean that we wouldn't have to go and look for an extra midfield at this January another right back side this January. I know that a lot of people, myself included, think that Everton definitely need a more mobile midfielder to go in with Alan and D'Corey. Obviously John Filippe Gobann still have an injury problem so we've not seen him yet. So those two players can do that role particularly Godfrey who has played there for York and Shrewsbury. So we'd negate that and it'd buy us some time so yeah I guess if we were trying to bring someone in this January then all focus could move on to a winger. As we move to the summit I don't know, it depends what the man is just looking at but having players who are very subtle and can play a couple of positions definitely helps with the squad overall. John says, if Totten is transferred and obviously Simms is on loan can we really go into the second half of the season without bringing in another striker? I wouldn't have thought so to be honest. I think we'd probably try to get someone on loan. There's a couple of strikers who are around who we may move to get on loan. But again Everton are up against it with FFP at the moment so until Simms won't make much difference. Once he wasn't in the first team squad anyway he was training with them but he wouldn't have made much difference. But Shank Totten has been used off the bench. So it would be difficult to match in Everton especially given where we are placed in the league. If the match had just gone through to the end of the season with no backup really for Dominic Alvaluvent other than Richard Ellison I couldn't really see the manager doing that. So if Totten is to move out then I expect Marcel Brands would probably be looking to see whether we could get someone in on loan. Well Country Road Bobbler says, what loan options would you look at for a forward if Shank Totten leaves? So Country Road Bobbler, not Country Road Bobbler. Country Road Bobbler is asking us what option we would look at if Totten left. It's a tricky one because you've got to try and bring someone in who's going to make a difference if they get on the pitch. Obviously Joshua Zakes he's one which is bounced around. But again he is only a young striker. He's hand full again so by him you know. Physically he's a good size I think he's 6 for 3, 6 for 4 and he will be one I guess you will come in and be happy to sit on the bench and get minutes here and there. So it just depends what they're looking at. There's obviously more experienced strikers who we might be able to move for going through the you know till the end of the season. I mentioned last week John Philippe Matether who's gone to Palace. He's gone there on a loan with a view to buy and he would have been someone I'd have looked at maybe for Everton as a potential to have a good look at. But there is strikers out there. There's definitely strikers out there who could come in in the short term. But it's just I guess it's whether or not that cuts into what Everton want to do long term. But you know I'm sure Everton have got a list of a couple of players that if Totten was to move out and we've seen him linked with CSKA, Moscow today and Christopher Palace. If he was to go out then I'm sure Marcel Brands will be looking to try and grab someone in the last couple of days. Maybe then maybe he would turn towards Joshua Zakesy but we'll have to see. Thanks Ned. So remember if you want to get your transfer thoughts read out and discussed on here, get in touch with us on Twitter using the hashtag fanline. And we could be reading out your comments and questions tomorrow. And also don't forget to check out Ball Street YouTube channel on Deadline Day the 1st of February. They're doing Deadline Day Live again backed by Snickers Protein. It should be really interesting. A lot of the old faces on there will be on there as well. Lots of stuff going on as they move towards the transfer window.  So check that out on YouTube Ball Street channel. So that's it for the Everton News Daily. Make sure you give the video a thumbs up. Subscribe if you haven't and if you want more daily videos including daily live videos become a patron. See you later.


Beautiful sight, isn't it? You've got to look to the skies to see something pretty in war. Isn't much of it in ground fighting. Of course, this scene wouldn't be so pretty with black in the skies tearing up planes, chewing up parachutes and troopers. Only this is a practice jump. New kids in the post-war 82nd Air Force, fancy new planes and equipment. Those have changed, for the better, I guess, but one thing hasn't. One thing they can't improve. That's a fighting heart. The will to win. These kids have to have it. So did we when we joined the outfit in 1942. They called it the All-American Division because it came from all the states and made troopers of all kinds of guys. Or maybe it was All-American because we were winners all the time. It was a champion outfit, all right. Back in World War I, the 82nd Infantry Division had shown its stuff when it launched an attack to relieve the famous lost battalion and produce the greatest hero of that war, Sergeant Alvin York. And a great hero of World War II, General Jonathan Wainwright. He was a major then. So these rookies have a fighting tradition to follow. Next you give them top-flight generals. Omar Bradley, who took over in March 1942 and taught us how to fight on the ground. Matt Ridgway, who came after him in June and showed us how to fight from the air. Yeah, they gave us the best in leadership. And we had a rough time keeping up with them. They trained us. The brother how they trained us was run and jump and climb and fall. Calisthenics, rifle range, shoot school, glider loading, practice jumps, crash landing. We took it for weeks and months. Training is continuous, the brass said. Continuous. It lasted from Fort Benning to North Africa, from Louisiana to the Sahara. We were trained fine, hard, mean and mad. When they told us we were the best damn fighting outfit in the world, we believed it. All we had to do was to prove it. Well, we did, at Sicily, in July 1943. The boys who keep the record will tell you now that the Sicily jumped with a warm-up. They like the big ones that came later. In a way, that's true. But don't tell it to the guys in the shoot. To them, the Gila jump was a car-guide rough-house.   You find it's still a walking, especially when you do 150 miles in six days, not strolling down a country lane, either. But pushing back an enemy who was awfully unhappy about giving up even a foot of ground was one lousy little force. It was a rough initiation, but we'd proved airborne attacks would work. What's more, we'd saved the Allied beachhead. So they threw us in to save another. Jerry was trying to bust up our bridgehead at Salerno in September 1943. We dropped in to argue with him.  Artillery fire poured in on us like beer from a bucket. It got us off. Not for long. We plugged the cracks in our line and started to beat our way toward Naples. We led the way in on October 1st. They told us that officially we occupied Naples for six weeks. That's funny. Somehow during those six weeks of occupation, we sure did a lot of fighting. We crossed the Valturno River and took Isernia, Pauli, Machia, Poronelli, Chattel, Roqueta, Venafro, one Italian town after another, like a Danny K. Saw. There were mountains and there was mud, usually both. Of all the propaganda I ever heard, the line that got me sore was the one about Bella Italia, beautiful Italy.  Instead of planes, we had mules and glad to have them too. The hills made moving supplies tough. And moving the wounded downright murderous. No one had it any tougher than the many. We spearheaded the 5th Army's advance till it joined the British 8th at Mount Samutro. Then the division was shipped back to the British Isle. Except for one combat team that was sent to a famous speech resort in January of 1944. It was a famous speech resort, all right? And you. Only you had no privacy. That beachhead was so small, Jerry could see everything we were doing and drop a shell anywhere he wanted. See what I mean? It wasn't our style to sit still. We set out raiding parties to annoy the crowds. But mostly it was trench warfare, keeping Jerry from pushing us off the beach. It was kind of monotonous. Never too monotonous. The guys from Anzio caught up with the rest of the outfit at Leicester. Those were pleasant days, with a chance to relax a little, even though we were getting ready for a new mission. Lots of replacements came in. We gave them so much jump training, they yelled Geronimo when they stepped off the sidewalk. The glider boys kept hustling in and out of their big box cart like well-trained subway sardines. We had a feeling about our next operation. It had the word B-I-G big plastered all over it. Sicily and Solano had been man-sized fights, all right, but they'd been just preliminary bound, just when coming up as the main event. When we heard the field orders, we knew we'd guessed right. We were going into France, into Normandy, before D-Day, on the night of June 5th. Us and our kid cousin, the 101st, and the British 6th Airborne. Nothing before or after could be more important than this. For the first time it hit us hard. We were making history. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want to lie down in green last year. Everything moved swiftly and quietly that night. Especially our thoughts. We were dropping into the backyard of Hitler's West Wall. Our mission was to keep the Germans from knocking out our troops who were coming in on Utah Beach. It was a big order to think about. But there wasn't much time for thinking when we hit the ground. The jump had scattered our men from hell to breath, and we're outnumbered four to one, even after our glidermen joined us. It was a tight spot. But we'd asked for it. That's why we were true. We started off by grabbing Samarit Glees, key point in the German defenses, and the first town in France to be liberated. It was Afroblossom time in Norman, but the only posies Jerry was throwing was mortar and machine gun fire. We had to bleed for every orchard, every field, every hedgerow. For 33 days we fought without relief and without reinforcement. But we held the cross off the beaches and chopped up two of his divisions. We got chopped up some ourselves. Of the 13,000 men of the 82nd who went into Normandy, only 5,000 were left on their feet when they evacuated us July 14th. But the beachhead was secure. Four divisions were ashore and more were coming. Many more. We had done our job. How well we had done it was told by the top man himself. It is to the airborne forces that immeasurable credit for the subsequent success of the Western operation belonged. Back in England, we went into the reserve and relaxed. If you call parade and relax. Meanwhile, the American and British troops were pouring out of our bridgeheads like water from a broken main. By the second week of September, they had flooded across all of France, Belgium and Luxembourg. And we're seeping under Germany's front door on the secret line. Washing up Jerry by the hundreds of thousands. We were beginning to wonder whether those brown hogs were going to roll right over Berlin before we had a chance to jump in. But we stopped worrying when General Jim Gavin, who followed General Ridgway as boss of the outfit, began to bear down on training. We were getting into the act once more. Only it wasn't Berlin, not yet. The 82nd, the 101st and the British 1st Airborne were going to drop into Holland. The idea was to use it as a jump off position for a quick drive to Berlin. We knew how important it was from the way they fixed us up with plenty of everything. We took off September 17th. It was a big show all right. I guess colossal would really be the word for it. The Air Force had blasted Jerry Ackack's positions for weeks. The weather was withered. Our pilots were right on course. The drops went fine. Lighter landing were almost perfect. Almost. The Dutch pitched in and helped where they could. Even though they suffered too. There was no mistaking that they were glad to see it. The first few days were easy. Easier than anything we had tried. Gross paint, grout, moat were ours for the taking. The Air Corps boys kept us fixed up on supply pretty well. And the British Guards Armored Division came rolling along to back us up with a heavy stuff. We were getting along fine. Until we reached Nijmegen, the big bridge across the lower Rhine. Jerry figured that bridge was pretty important. So he dug in and fought the way Jerry can when he gets his back up. For three days we fought to clear the bridge of Snipers and secure the other side. It was a dog eat dog fight that took the best we had in blood and gut. But on the fourth day, British Armor rolled across the bridge. The crowds tried hard to get it back. They must have been nuts. No one was taking that bridge away from us. In December they sent those of us who were left back to France for a rest. And they trained the rookies. It looked like a good deal. Until this guy decided to get into the act. For a change, Van Rundstedt was doing the attacking. Not only attacking, but putting everything he had into it. He was moving in on First Army Headquarters and threatening to cut off four American divisions. So, off we went. Without winter equipment, over shoes or shoe packs. In less than 24 hours, the 82nd was moving into position, 150 miles away. On the northern shoulder of the boat. Yeah, pretty picture the snow made. Christmas card stuff. There wasn't much goodwill lying around. It was dirty, bloody, gut-taring fight. And the cold was worse than the bullets. Sometimes we kept moving ahead because we'd freeze if we stood still. Every medic was a hero in that fight, hell. There were plenty of heroes. A fancy one. Did you ever hear of Shenu? Where a battalion of our boys ran into a regiment of the Crack First SS Panzer Division? They had everything. Artillery. Tanks, self-propelled guns, half-cracks and black wagons. We, ah, we had rifles, bazookas, grenades, and guns. So, we attacked. A battalion against a regiment. Go feet against arms. We won, of course. The Nazi drive was played out. It was our turn. In January 1945, we cracked the secret line just to start the new year right. Then somebody remembered we were due for arrest. In April, we came back to the Cologne area and smashed across the Rhine at Hitthorpe in a raid that won a presidential citation. All the Allied armies were carrying across Germany like Sunday drivers. When we crossed the Elbe at Glecky, we could see the finish line at last. But on May 3rd, at Ludwig Fluss, we won the super jackpot in Heine. 445,000 livelins of the German 21st Army handed to us wrapped in cellophane by their commanding officer, General von Tippelskirch. No wonder our adding machine broke down. Imagine a division of 15,000 troopers taking in an army. A whole army that had everything. From armor to everything. They really scraped both ends of the barrel to keep the war going. But there was no fight left in these Joes. The Nazi bully had hollered uncle. Well, the war was over. From fighting, we switched to parade. General Eisenhower chose us as the American honor guard for Berlin. Yeah, we were a snappy looking bunch. But we never marched better than we did that day in January 1946 in New York City when General Jim gave us... We were a proud and happy bunch, and with reason. Seven campaigns, seven river crossings, four combat jumps, and two glider landings. The folks were proud of us for all that, and proud of us for a bigger reason. The voices that cheered us from the sidewalks in New York were voices that came from all over the country. City voices, country voices, southern voices, western voices, New England voices, American voices. They knew our boys had come from every state, every walk of life, every religion. They knew we had proved to them and to the world that no matter what small differences there were between us, we would march together when we were threatened, that there would always be an all-American division to fight for the American way of life. Copyright © BF-WATCH TV 2021