Hey, everyone, and welcome to my webinar on how we can use AI to reduce friction in the DevOps day-to-day activity. My name is Eran Bibi. I'm the co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Firefly. In Firefly, we are helping teams to control their cloud by automatically convert their cloud into IAC. Before that, I was the head of DevOps and SAS platform and Aqua Security, and I'm doing DevOps for over 10 years. I really like to learn new technologies such as AI and then explain them to others. In three years' time, AI will be taking over the world. Just before that, let's try to have some fun with it. So what is the first thing come to your mind where we are asking what AI is capable of? You got it right. AI can create amazing images. And this is exactly what we did at Firefly. We ask AI how our beloved tools in the DevOps ecosystem will look like if they were human. So here we have Jenkins, Crossplane, GitLab, and Argo CDs look as human. The results are pretty amazing. If you like it, we have 20 more and we publish the results in our blog so you can just scan the QR code and see all of the other tools. So what else? It can generate images, but it can also write marketing emails. It can write blogs. It can plan our next vacation and it even can create the ingredients of our beloved dish that I would like to cook this evening. But what make it more fascinating is that AI can generate code. And if we are taking this amazing capability and incorporated with the DevOps day-to-day work, we can find some very nice use cases that we can leverage AI for our behalf. So AI can generate IAC templates. It can do terraformed cloud formation and even imperative languages like HuluMe. It can also create configuration files like Docker also Kubernetes manifest. If I'm using my pipeline that is described as code, it can generate pipeline for you. For example, Jenkins files and GitHub action. It can also generate policies, shell scripts, Python utilities. It can build your command line. If for example, I have some complex COOP CTL command that I would like to have. But don't need to use any cheat sheet or documentation. I can just ask it from JetGBT. I will get the command line built for me. I can also create a complex queries to get data from my elastic, Mongo, MySQL or any other database. So let's see some example. I went to JetGBT and ask for Docker file for my Node.js. I also mentioned that I would like to have it secured. So I see the baseline image is based on Alpine, which is great, it's secure and minimal. Another example, I ask for a MongoDB deployment getting a Kubernetes manifest for it. So if I'm getting a response that is not identical to what I'm looking for, I can use the chat to reiterate. So I can ask for a specific thing. For example, if I would like a different number of replicas, I can just ask it and get a different result and minimize the scope to get an accurate response from JetGBT. I can also ask for policy, if I'm using policy as code framework like OPA, I can ask for policy to enforce that I have a readiness probe on all of my Kubernetes deployment. And of course I can take this policy snapshot and put it in a gatekeeper or other system that will make sure everything that I'm putting in my cluster will be according to my policies. So JetGBT is amazing tool. It can generate code, manifest, scripts, whatever you are asking for. But then you need to copy it and paste it to make sure it's working. And it's not that convenient work with browser-based solution. And this is exactly why we introduced open source project called AIIC. So AIIC is a CLI. You can install it locally in your Mac or remotely in one of your Linux VMs. And then you can basically prompt the AI to get responses back to your local machine and save it directly on your local disk. So this is very convenient and very easy to use. And you can also have an automation flow around it because everything is done with a command line. So let's go back to the use cases. You can ask AIIC to generate Terraform code. You can ask for it for configuration files like templates, CICD pipelines and all of the stuff that I already mentioned, everything directly from your command line, which is pretty awesome. So let's see exactly how it's look like. So in my terminal, I already have AIIC installed. Now I will ask AIIC to generate Jenkins pipeline for me. So I'm going to do like AIIC get Jenkins pipeline to build node back. It will take a few seconds for it to generate it. Let's see what are the results. So I have a very basic Groovy template here. There is few stages, the checkout, getting the source code, the build, test and deploy. And of course, if I'm not pleased from the results that I just get, I can put R, which is retry. Let's see if I'm getting different results. Great, now I get another type of pipeline, which is Jenkins declarative. You can see here, I have the environment, the stages are in a block of stages. Seems something, let's assume, are pretty satisfied from that result. What I can do is just put save, give the name of the file or the full path, Jenkins. Okay, I have Jenkins file here locally in my computer. I can see this is exactly what I got. And this is amazing. And of course, you can have AIC working with a non-interactive mode using the flags. So you can mention the path directly from the command line and it will automatically save it without interacting with the user. Let's see another example. AIC get cube CTL command to spin up and Genix up. So in this case, I would like, I don't remember the command syntax for getting a quick and dirty, let's say, an NGNX application running in my cluster. So I'm asking just chgpt to prompt it to me. And within a few seconds, I got the command line. Cube CTL create deployment, NGNX minus minus image, this is the flag to mention the exact image. In this case, it puts the latest image of the NGNX container, taken from Dockerab in this case. So these just few examples of how you can use AIC in your day-to-day. And of course, I'm going back to explain more about AIC and how to get it. So AIC.dev, this is the place to collaborate with AIC and of course, we are based on GitHub. So we have almost 2000 stars in the project and feel free to PR any kind of changes and comments. And we are the next version of AIC will use the new chat GPT API that was introduced last week. So we are looking for that release. We will add few more capabilities to have more chat based like interaction to AIC. So this is something coming very soon, the upcoming game, upcoming days. Feel free to use that and thank you. Hope it will be, this session was useful for you. Take care.


From left to right, Mario Deluxe, now gonna loop, and Kyle Pence caught it! Touchdowns! On US soil, number eight has a touchdown. Boy, you just love everything that's going on from a window dressing standpoint. Talked about Demico Ryan's trying to figure out what do I defend here.


Welcome back everybody. This is Michael at the Nebraska Library Commission and you are watching a big talk from small libraries It is now one o'clock in the afternoon central time And we're now moving on to Bob Jones from the Milton Freewater Public Library in Oregon And he's going to be giving us his presentation oldies night at the library Welcome Bob and take it away Well, good morning. Good afternoon or good evening depending on where you are in the world right now and Welcome to oldies night at the library also known as three hours of cheap trashy rock and roll I'm Bob Jones from the Milton Freewater Public Library in Milton Freewater, Oregon and I want to tell you about a program that we created at our library a little over seven years ago It's of course. Nothing's working right now There we go This is a picture of our new library which opened ten years ago our library is 100 years old and For the first five years it was in a little building about the size of a one-car garage Then it moved into a Carnegie building and we were there for 85 years till we got into our new building in 2003 Which made us very deliriously happy Milton Freewater is a town of about 7,000 people in northeastern, Oregon about 250 miles east of Portland and 10 miles south of legendary walla walla Washington I thought I would start out today by giving you some background on oldies night at the library in the form of Answering some who what when where and why questions about the program First of all you might be asking just what is oldies night? Well, it's a program of recorded popular music from the 1950s through the 1980s with commentary on the songs the artists and the times and Why did I create it? How did I come up with this idea? I hear you asked Well, I was sitting around in December of 2005 and I wanted to come up with something new and different We could do at the library, which would attract new people who didn't ordinarily come to the library and would be within the limits of our existing resources In other words, we didn't have any money for new staff new equipment or new materials So we had to work with what was available to us and our very first oldies night was held in January 2006 when we presented a time sweep of songs from 1955 through 1985 with one song from each of those years now tomorrow evening We'll be hosting the 86th installment of oldies night featuring 61 songs from the year 1963 which was the year before the Beatles came to America and For us oldies night takes place in a community room in our library Which is about 32 by 34 feet or 1,100 square feet And I hear people saying hold the phone there our whole library is like 1,100 square feet But that's all right because oldies night can fit into almost any available space Thanks to libraries of eastern Oregon We've been able to take oldies night on the road to about a dozen other libraries around the state some of them quite tiny and some of them had spaces quite large at one We went to a senior citizen center that had about 3,000 square feet so you can do it anywhere Now who plans and conducts it in our case I do all the planning organizing promotion and Execution that way it doesn't cost the library anything because I'm on the salary So there's no extra hours. No overtime pay. No of those problems And I do it because I love the music and I was a disc jockey on college radio both as an undergraduate in Iowa and later on in graduate school in Illinois and It has evolved quite a bit over the years in the beginning We started out with a different theme each month, but we didn't have a set playlist I would just bring 40 or 50 CDs from my collection at home, and I would pick songs as I went along And I also set out refreshments and a container for donations So people could help pay for the refreshments Nowadays we also still have a theme and we have a different theme each month But we have a set playlist ahead of time and I put all the songs on to a couple of CDRs And that makes it run much smoother and go faster. We can do more songs We also now have two vending machines in the library Although oldies night was not the reason for getting the vending machines, but one has drinks the other one has Candy and snacks, but some people still bring their own refreshments, and they usually bring enough to share with others And I hear you say okay good for you. That's great, but what's in it for me? Well, I'm so glad you asked that question Because the number one reason to do oldies night is to have fun If the person who's doing the program is not having fun or if the people who are attending it aren't having fun Then maybe oldies night isn't exactly the right fit for your library Now here's some photos from our very first oldies night back in 2006 You'll see a couple of ladies teaching people how to do the stroll and they're actually too young to have been doing the stroll in 1957 Picture of your smiling disc jockey BJ the DJ and an overall picture of some of the people who attended Okay, what else well, it'll provide your community with a new and different activity which is both entertaining and educational Can you say wait a minute educational? Well, sure a properly produced oldies night can provide interesting information about the songs and the recording artists And it can provide facts about musical trends record companies recording technology and record collecting And you can throw in tidbits about the historical context What else was going on in the world when this music was popular that might be wars politics Broadway musicals Movies and fashion trends for example, so you say oh well tell me some more Well, it can generate a surprising amount of awareness for your library and it can engender goodwill toward your library Because even people who never quite make it to oldies night. I think it's a good thing So just one well-written news release each month does two things It tells people what's coming up for that month's program and it reminds them to come out But it also creates a positive impression of your library among all those folks who never actually attend oldies night And you say okay so far so good anything else Well, it may bring Unexpected new connections and partnerships to your library You never know who's going to take notice of oldies night So you might make a connection with a local business with a school hard-telling and It can garner unexpected attention and recognition for your library You might end up having your local newspaper come out into a feature story on it Or if you're really lucky might even have a TV or a radio station come out and do a story or a remote broadcast from your library And it can improve your status in the library community in your state or region because the word gets around Word of mouth is great publicity and eventually people say hey I heard that library over yonder is doing this oldies music program and it sounds really interesting sounds like a good thing And it can even increase your circulation and attract new borrowers because it's going to draw in people who Haven't previously come to the library So they might get a library card and they might check out books movies Sound recordings, maybe some have related to your programs and some not So you say okay, how can I start an oldies night program on my library? Where you're gonna need a minimum of three things to make oldies night happen at your library You're going to need an oldies music junkie. That is a person who is really into the music You're gonna need some sound equipment so that you can play the music and you're gonna have a room to hold the event in Those are the major things, but there are a few others So the first thing you need is an oldies music junkie now a real oldies music junkie not only loves the music but is knowledgeable about it and Usually has a large and varied music library of their own and some essential music reference books Now oldies junkies quite often are people who have actually given up on oldies radio because it's too repetitious and Where they have 20,000 oldies to choose from their playlist is maybe 400 songs that sounds like 40 So they listen to their own music Now it's really great if your oldies person has their own music library because you don't want to have to provide all that music Gets really expensive in a hurry and you may not want to have to provide the reference books either You'll need some sound equipment to do the program obviously A good home stereo receiver or integrated amplifier will do the trick Your music source can be vinyl records. It can be tapes whether that's cassettes or open reel or even eight tracks It can be CDs It can be some digital source such as an mp3 player computer hard drive a tablet and You'll need some speakers at least to obviously because the music is going to be in stereo Maybe more if it's a really big room And you might need a microphone that depends on how big is the room? How many people are in attendance and how well do you project your voice without a microphone? Now the equipment doesn't have to be brand new But it should be good quality and it should be in good working order and the speakers are really important because you don't want this To sound like somebody's old transistor radio The receiver of the amplifier is important because it has to have enough power to drive the speakers without clipping That is without distorting Now here's some examples of stuff you might use Typical receiver from about 30 years ago I have no idea why that mind the gap London transport cup is there a pair of speakers two-way or three-way speakers are good and In case you're using CDs a CD player or a CD recorder this one in the picture is interesting Because it combines on one side a CD recorder and on the other side a cassette recorder So you can take old cassette tapes and dub them directly on the CDs And if for some reason you want to copy a CD on to a cassette you can do that too And if you want to use both cassettes and CDs in your program, there it is all in one package Now your oldies music person might have his or her own sound system that they're willing to bring to oldies Or you may have a local retail store That sells sound equipment and they might donate some to your library in exchange for a little plug like Putting up a sign that says Audio equipment provided by so-and-so If neither of those things works out I am sure there is someone in your community who has an old Stereo component system that they don't use anymore don't need anymore and They might be willing to donate to you especially if they can take a deduction off their income tax You need a room to hold the event in and Almost any room will work If possible do the program in your library if you have a meeting room That's great if you have a space where you can move tables and whatnot aside That's great too because you're doing this to promote your library And you would like to bring people into your library in our case oldies night happens after regular library hours So we don't have to worry about making noise and bothering people in the library If you don't have any space in your library building You may have somewhere else in your community where you can get a room for free Maybe at a school at a church a fraternal lodge or a service club or a community center But if you absolutely have to rent space if you can't get a free space at least do your best to negotiate a discount Now you might say okay. I want a bare floor so people can dance and that's a good idea We've been using a carpeted room all along that hasn't been a problem It's nice to have some small tables not bigger than card tables Where people can sit because they like to set their stuff down, especially if they have drinks or snacks And I think small tables work better than big conference tables and certainly better than no tables at all Once you found a room that looks good Set up your sound equipment and check the acoustics of the room to make sure it's going to sound good when you play music in it And you say all right. What else? Well, here's a tough one Recorded music is protected by copyright Just like books are when you play it for the public you may need a performing rights license Because when you buy a record a tape a CD You can play it at home for yourself for your family for your friends. That's perfectly legal But when you start playing it for the public at your library, you may need a license now. It's a little bit complicated. There are some conditions under which you don't need one and So you would want to check with a lawyer have them look at the rules of the game and see what they think If you have a city attorney or a county attorney, that's good. If you have a lawyer who's on your library board or your friends board That's good, too Or you might just have a lawyer in your community who would do this for you for free Now some songs are licensed by ASCAP the American Society of composers authors and Publishers and others are licensed by BMI broadcast music incorporated a Writer or a publisher cannot belong to both ASCAP and BMI at the same time So there's virtually no overlap between those two. Some of the music you play will be ASCAP and some will be BMI So if you're going to need a license, you really need licenses from both of them They both have websites www.askap.com Licensing and www.bmi.com slash licensing go there take a look at what it says You can send them an email You can call on the phone if you have questions Of course, they're going to try to convince you you need a license. That's why you might want to have a lawyer look at it Also, and you say okay. What else? Well, you'll need some reference materials Because you want to be able to provide facts about the music and There are two things I recommend very highly books published by record research of Menominee Falls, Wisconsin and Written by Joel Whitburn. Joel Whitburn founded record research back in 1970 and He's actually published dozens of books the two that would probably be most essential would be Top pop singles and pop annual more about those in a minute some other books that are also very good The Guinness Book of British hit singles they also did a Guinness book of British hit albums and the last few editions Were called British hit singles and albums. I don't think they're currently publishing new editions of that But you can get secondhand copies of older editions from a number of online sources In Chicago a disc jockey named Ron Smith has Published a series of books based on the charts from WLS and WCFL radio Excuse me, and you say okay. I'm not in Chicago. Why do I care about WLS or WCFL? Well They're both big 50,000 watt stations and in the case of WLS there What was called a clear channel station which has nothing to do with the company called clear channel? It means that there weren't any other stations on 890 at least nothing late at night and nothing 50,000 watts This meant that Anybody west of the Alleghenies and east of the Rockies could probably pick up WLS at night So lots of teenagers in small towns Could listen to WLS and hear music that they weren't hearing on their local radio station So those are useful for a big chunk of the country actually In Canada a guy named Ron Hall did basically the same thing with the popularity charts from CHUM in Toronto Ontario called the Chum chart book, and I think that one is also Out of print like the British hit singles book and the ones I've seen online are kind of expensive But still you might look at it because if you're in Canada or if you're near the Canadian border in the US You probably have people who listened to CHUM or stations like it such as CKLW and Windsor Okay, Joel Whitmern's top pop singles Different editions of it have completely different cover art. So this is just an example It lists every single song to ever make the Billboard Hot 100 charts And he goes back to 1955 which is actually three years before the Hot 100 debuted and Goes up to what usually within a year of the publication date of the book You don't necessarily need the newest version because you're not playing new music. You're playing oldies. So you can find Older editions at a number of sites online if you go to his website at recordresearch.com He usually has the previous edition marked down for clearance when he has a new one out So it lists every song that made the Hot 100 and A related book is the Billboard pop annual which also lists every song that ever made the Hot 100 but in a different format and we're going to look at some examples of those This is a page from the top pop singles book and It's arranged alphabetically by the name of the recording artist So for each recording artist is going to list all their hits. It'll give their name It usually gives a little information about the artist. It'll give the year when they had their peak popularity For each song, it'll tell you the date that it first entered the Hot 100 chart How high did it get on the chart and how many weeks was it on the chart the song title? The newer editions will also give you the song on the B side of the single It'll give you an estimate of what that 45 is worth as a collectible record It'll tell you it's got some codes to tell you if it's a foreign language song or an instrumental or whatever It'll give you the record label and the number of the record So some people have just one song some people have dozens or even more than a hundred songs This is sample pages from the pop annual book It takes the same information, but it presents it differently. So we're looking at the beginning of the listings for 1967 And it shows you the top 20 artists the people who were most popular on the Hot 100 that year the top songwriters for that year and Top artists who debuted that year people who eventually became part of the 500 most popular people in the history of the billboard charts, but had their very first billboard hit single in 1967 then it lists all those songs And it'll put them in order all the songs that peaked at number one The ones that peaked at number two and so on down to the songs that made number 100 for one week That only the songwriter's mother and the performer of themselves remember at all Excuse me, and so for 1967 there were about 700 songs that made the charts Here's a cover of the seventh edition of British hit singles Again the covers look a little different the graphics may look a little different and almost any edition of it Would be perfectly fine for doing an oldies program the one in the middle here is Ron Smith's WCFL Chicago top 40 charts 1965 to 76 because CFL was only a top 40 station for 11 years, but it was a big competitor to WLS at that time And on the right you have the chum chart book CHUM published a popularity chart from 1957 up till 1986 and on the bottom of the three books that Ron Smith did On WLS one each for the 1960s the 70s and the 80s So you say okay now I get all this stuff together. How do I actually create no lease program? Well first you have to pick a theme and you'll need a different theme for every month. We've been doing this for 86 months and we rarely repeat a theme although Sometimes in February it's hard to resist doing Buddy Holly Richie Valence and the big bomber for example So your theme can be a time period like the British invasion hits of say 64 and 65 or the summer of love in the summer of 67 It can be a single year hits of 1956 or 1967 1975 Whatever it can be a certain type of music like Motown music or surf music or folk music It can be a single recording artist and that could be a male vocalist like Elvis Presley or Elton John Could be a female vocalist like Madonna or Aretha Franklin Could be a group like Sam and Dave or the Beatles or the Beach Boys or Credence Clearwater revival Or it could be a historical event which influenced music such as a war or a big political event or Woodstock that certainly influenced music for quite a while So once you pick the theme then you need to create a playlist of songs that you might want to include in your program And I usually start out with probably 75 songs even though I know I can't play more than about half that in a three-hour program and I put them into a database because if you put the songs into a database for each song you've got a Field for the recording artist the song title the date the chart position Any other information you want to include what album it came off of or Just some notes and once you have it in the database then you can rearrange it As you're preparing your program and you can sort it by the artists by the song titles by the dates by the chart positions whatever fields you've created if You do it in a word processing program not really easy to rearrange the information I Always try to include some big hits that everyone will remember Make some feel good say hey, I remember that song so for example for tomorrow night for 1963 we'll be including some songs that made number one one one like hey Paula by Paul and Paula and Sugar Shack by Jimmy Gilmore and the fireballs and I'm leaving it all up to you by Dale and Grace 11 years before Donnie and Murray got a hold of that song Then I try to include some songs that made the top 20 But you never hear them on the oldies radio shows because oldies radio rarely plays anything that didn't make the top 10 or even the top 5 So examples of those would be things like for 1963 wonderful summer by Robin Ward who were only big hit Follow the boys by Connie Francis who had lots of hits or Mecca by Jean Pitney Which today would probably be considered a politically incorrect song Then I also like to put in some really obscure songs things that maybe nobody in the room has heard before But they will find them interesting amusing might even become their new favorite song who knows So for example for 1963 we're including what a guy by the raindrops We're including desert peep by the Kingston trio. They had a lot of hits this one only made number 33 on billboard So a lot of people will have forgotten it if they ever heard it at all and long tall Texan by Murray Kellam which Only made number 51 on billboard, but it was number 15 in Chicago and probably number one in a lot of places in Texas Okay, then I Try to have at least two hours of music for a three-hour program So we have to have time to talk about the music But you want to have enough music to fill up your time I try to include the dates and the chart positions for each song Either when did it come on the charts or when did it reach its highest chart position its peak And how high did it get on the charts and sometimes I'll talk about the fact that a song like Long Tall Texan didn't do all that well nationally, but in some places it did really really well Okay, so sometimes there are songs that were big hits nationally, but where you lived They didn't get airplay at all and you may never heard of them. I Try to remember to include the name of the recording artist and the song title because I really hate it If I'm listening to the radio and they play a song and they do not announce What song was or who sang it makes it really hard to track it down if I say I'd like to buy that song And I try to include some little fact or tidbit of information about each song something about the artist something about the times something about what Inspired the song this is an example of just part of a Database that I create when I'm playing together a playlist This happened to be a list of songs when I was doing a program on doo-wop music And you'll notice up at the top two different versions of Shaboom the original version by the chords which made number five and the cover version by the crew cuts which made number one and Farther down the list you'll see two versions of little darlin the original by the gladiola's which only made number 41 and The cover version the big hit by the diamonds made number two if you've ever heard the gladiola's version You'll understand why it only made number 41 So you want to get all your songs together you're gonna look at this big list that you made and say Okay, how many of these do I actually have and how many would I have to go find somewhere and Sometimes there's a song you'd like to play But you can't track down a copy of it. It's not available from iTunes. It's not available From Amazon it just doesn't seem to be out there or you can find a copy But it's kind of expensive and you don't really want to spend that much for the song So you drop those songs from the list. That's why you start out with more songs than you're actually going to play and Then sometimes you have competing versions of a song as we saw with Shaboom And you probably don't want to play both versions back in the 50s It was not unusual for three or four or even a half a dozen artists to all simultaneous release versions of the same song and Fight it out for airplay and record sales and jukebox sales You want to try to get the best quality copy of each song if you start out with a scratchy old 45 That looks like somebody used it for a doormat You might want to try to find a better quality copy of the song Now remember it's always legal to buy a song whether you buy it as a Physical record tape or CD or as a digital download. That's perfectly legal It's almost always legal to borrow a copy of a song from somebody else and use their record or tape or CD It is not legal to copy their record tape or CD onto your own CD or tape or Data file on your hard drive So if you own all of the records tapes and CDs that you're going to use You can legally compile them into a master recording for your program. As I said currently. I'm doing this on CD ours You can do it differently Once you've made this wonderful master recording to use for your program It is not legal for you to sell a copy of it or to trade a copy for something else or even to give it away free and Sooner or later somebody will come up to you after your program and say wow I love that music. Can I get a copy of it? And you have to say no, sorry can't do that You might say well, I'll be happy to loan you my copy. Just don't tell me if you make a copy because I don't want to hear that Now your master recording could be on a tape. It could be on a CD It could be on an iPod a flash drive a hard drive a tablet You know a lot of different possibilities You want to publicize your event for two reasons number one You want people to know about it and come to the event Number two you want the whole community to know about even if they don't come because then they're aware that something's happening at the library And they will think well of you for that at least we hope they will So you do a news release to your local newspapers your local radio stations your local TV stations It should be concise. It should be well written It should be true Fred to eliminate errors and in the form that they want to receive it in these days Most places want to get it electronically generally as an email In case you never took a journalism class in high school or college You want to answer the basic questions who what when where why and how the more questions you answer up front the fewer Excuses people have to say well, I don't even know what's going on. I don't think I'll go to that program if Your library or your city or your county or your library district has a website or a Facebook page or some other social media Use that to publicize oldies night You might make posters and put them around town if businesses are willing to put a little notice up on their reader boards That would be good as well This is an example of a handout that I give at oldies night We didn't always do that, but for the past two or three years We've done it every month. This happens to be a program of hits from 1958 Which was a pretty important year in the history of rock and roll radio Starts out and they're in alpha or in chronological order according to when they hit their peak on billboards starting with at the Top by Danny and the juniors from January and winding up with Whole wattle oven by fats domino and smoke gets in your eyes by the platters Which actually peaked in January of 59, but they came on the charts late in 58 This is a graphic that my wife came up with for us for oldies night. She took some online clip art Assembled it and customized it just for us changed some of the colors obviously added the text at the bottom Changed the logo on the letterman sweater to the OP from my high school back in Oak Park, Illinois This is a handout we did for a program for a single recording artist in this case the Bee Gees and It includes 41 songs Not only the big hits that they had that everybody remembers but it starts out with their very first Australian hit a song called Spicks and Specks from 1966 They didn't even make the American charts till the middle of 67 And it ends up with a couple of interesting songs one from 1997 Ellen Vannon, which is the unofficial Manx national anthem and all three of the Bee Gees were born on the Isle of Man So they had some affinity for that place and this was only released as a charity thing on the Isle of Man for one Of the service clubs there a thousand copies, so it'd be a very collectible record But you can find it online. You can find YouTube videos of them performing at live-in concert and then a Celine Dion song from 1998 called Immortality which was written by the Bee Gees, and I think they did backing vocals on it as well alright You have your equipment you have your disc jockey you have your music You have done some publicity, so you want to set up your venue and get ready for your program So you're gonna set up your audio equipment and you're gonna test it with the actual recording that you're gonna use for your program To make sure that everything works correctly You're gonna set up your tables and chairs You're gonna check the heating and air conditioning and make sure the temperature is okay, and is adjustable You're gonna possibly put up some signs inside and outside the building Let people know what's going on you're gonna check your lighting levels because you do not want it to be so dark That your disc jockey needs a minors helmet with a lamp on the front of it to read his own playlist And then when you've got everything ready to go you're gonna try to relax and kind of collapse in a heap until time to go When you get to starting time you want try to start on time You owe that to the people who showed up on time and the people who choose to come late Well, they knew what time was starting anyway You want to be sure to welcome your audience And then you want to play that cheap trashy rock and roll or whatever kind of music you're playing You'll need to adjust your sound levels Because it might be too loud might not be loud enough Likewise, you want just adjust your heating and air conditioning. I don't want to be too hot or too cold And you want to interact with the audience talk to them solicit Comments from them answer their questions And it's important that you have fun and that the people attending a program have fun and that you try to wrap It up on time because you know people have other things to do And at the end of program be sure to say thank you and you all hurry back now You hear because you want to encourage people to come back next month When it's all over you need to evaluate the program now you might provide at least for the first few times You do it some little feedback forms that people can fill out quickly and easily You don't want to ask them to write a long essay But you want to get their feedback on what they liked what they didn't like So ask yourself well what went well what problems cropped up and what can we do to make it better next time because there will be a next time No matter how well it went there's always room for improvement no matter how poorly it went There are ways to fix it and you should always be open to change try something new Drop something that obviously didn't work at all or tweak something that kind of sort of work But not quite the way you thought it Now you might need to contact me you might want to contact me to find out Information about how to do oldies night at your library You see they're my address that you can use to contact me through US Postal service Who needs all the business they can get also the phone number that rings right on my desk and The library page of our city's website so that you can go there and on that Library page you'll find an email link to me and also that same phone number to call me up and That's just about all I can tell you but I know there will be some people who have some questions Comments or complaints, so let's have at it And How much does it usually cost for the licensing and do you well? That's a how high is up question because it depends on the size of your library and what all you're doing with music Obviously if you were going to Stream the event online that would probably cost more or if you were going to have it broadcast over your local radio station That would cost more but the radio station should probably cover that In our case the city has a license with ASCAP and it's costing $327 a year, but that's for all city departments We're working on getting a license with BMI and that's going to be 225 a year So I can hear the tiny library saying oh my god. We can't afford that Well, that's why you should talk to a lawyer who might even give you his opinion pro bono and tell you whether you really need the license and It's something that you might get a donor or your friends group to help cover the cost of We got by without any license a long time don't tell ASCAP and BMI that No, definitely I We have one comment from someone that I definitely agree with Bob says find out because someone says that their city was fine for playing Music over a loud speaker. They didn't have the proper license. They do now So if they find out you can get a fine and yeah, there are limits on What they consider rebroadcasting music and this is a case that goes back about 40 years ago to a retail store That was piping music throughout their store From the radio Now if they just had a radio sitting on the counter playing that was legal But once they put it in the multiple speakers that was considered broadcasting and they had to get a license So yeah, you might want to look at both the ASCAP and BMI sites to see What you can do where you don't need a license Okay, I'm just some more things are not gonna get us in trouble legally How many people that on average do you have attend these shows these events now The ones here in our library. I've never had more than 30 people And sometimes just a handful, but I do have some very loyal people I've got a couple who come down from Prescott, Washington, which is about 30 miles And they forgot to build a freeway between Prescott and Milton free water And I've got people who come up from Pendleton, which is about 30 miles south of us But we probably average about 10 people but when I've done the road show versions I've had 50 and 75 people show up for those Does this depend on your community? Yeah Yeah, it depends on the community and what day of the week and what time of day and a lot of other things I suppose you're always gonna be competing with something What's about the age group the ages of the people that come Most of the people who turn out are people who are old enough to remember music from the 50s 60s 70s and 80s We haven't had teenagers who are musical Archaeologists coming to the program And because we have some people considerably older than me We've actually on several occasions gone back and done Swing era and big band music from the 30s in the 40s, and they just love that And there's a lot of people that are interested in the older music, too I mean it's going to get into swing dancing and whatnot. It's very popular You never know who you might get right and of course every area is going to be different in some places You'd have more demand to do country oldies or rhythm and blues oldies Hard-telling I Don't remember if you said how long have you been doing this? We've been doing it a little over seven years So then it's a success obviously Yeah, well like I say it doesn't cost us anything and I love to do it so I I figure I don't need a hundred people to show up to make it worth my while to do the program Because again, we get an awful lot of awareness among people who never ever come to oldies night People that I meet up with at the grocery store. They've heard about oldies night. They think it's a wonderful thing But they've never actually made it to oldies night But that's okay because it means they're thinking good things about the library Here's an interesting comment we got from actually one of our previous speakers about There are and this isn't out there kind of thing But there are some video games that are using old music Fallout 3 specifically is using this kind of these this era of music so a good way to possibly connect with other generations is have a Video game music night and they might think it's video game music, but it's actually this kind of music that happens to have been used in the games Yeah, I think there's a lot of different angles you can use Again assuming that you have a motion picture license you could show video clips or short films to go with oldies night as well There's a group go ahead No, go ahead if you want to continue. Oh, there's a group of I Think it's mostly writers like Stephen King that like to get together and play rock and roll oldies And they're called the rock bottom remainders Yep, and we've we've showed a rock bottom remainders video at oldies night. Oh, cool So that connects it to the library, which is an interesting There's a question someone just asked the question does this program generate any activity support or funding for the library? I Think it has Attracted new users to the library and it's always hard to say if it's directly Affected support for the library right now We are quite fortunate that we get good support from our city manager and our city council And we're part of a library district, so we automatically get money every year from the district But we're doing quite well especially since we moved into the new library building of course that increased library use a lot and So the amount of money we take in every month is a lot higher than it was Before we got into the new library building, but I don't know how much of that we can directly attribute to oldies night And then just kind of a general question What does the audience actually do for those three hours? Do they eat? Do they dance? What is actually while you're playing the music? Well, it varies sometimes some people just want to listen to the music some people like I say bring snacks and eat snacks Between songs they will ask questions about the music or make comments about the music and Sometimes they get up and dance not always Yeah, Bob I had a question. No, I'm trying to remember. Oh, yes When when you were going through your your resources for finding out what the hits were We were commenting and finding a kind of cool that you kept pointing to books And and and you know, we're like, you know kicking it old school. That was great my question is is you know not to Get away from the book specifically but you know if they are older and harder to find or maybe cost a bit or outside of the budget are there online resources for that similar sort of of You know that the that that chart toppers and things like that that you can recommend. There are online resources I'm not sure how much faith I have in some of them because Generally the the source that's considered most authoritative nationwide for the US is billboard magazine and all the billboard chart information is Copyrighted and this guy Joel Whitburn in Wisconsin kind of has an exclusive License to compile that into books and ebooks Okay, so you might find somebody who has a list of they'll say the top hits of 1970 But you don't know for sure where they got them from or how accurate their list is but you can find a lot of that online So so you're not necessarily recommending say Wikipedia Well like with anything else on wikipedia It can change from minute to minute so Yeah, it's not always reliable information out there. Although there's a lot out there and Especially the older editions of Joel Whitburn stuff. You can buy pretty cheap and Within the last few years. He started creating ebooks and Like CD-ROM books of some of his stuff if you have some aversion to ink on paper Some other Programs have mentioned this and so now is a question. Do you ever have any library materials available for checkout at the events? Like things that are related to whatever the is going on whatever music you're doing that night Yeah, sometimes we do if we have books or videos or Audio recordings that would be related to the topic for the night. We'll make them available to people um We don't really push that a lot But uh, yeah from time to time we'll remind people, you know, if you like this stuff, you can check it out from the library Stealth marketing Well, if you have a good, uh, you know, if the library is a good cd collection You know, you can you can pull the stuff that has what was on the playlist if you have any collection also In our case the library has a moderately good Music collection But I have an outrageously big one at home and in spite of that almost every month. I find myself buying more cds just for oldies night Well, that's how for example I now have about five cds of aretha franklin when otherwise I would probably only have one Cool, um, I have one of the back back to the licensing as licensing period is something. I'm personally interested in Um, do they you mentioned your city pays, you know an annual license do like A one-off night license exists. Uh, is that something that's even something you could consider possibly looking into? I am not aware of it. It's possible and I I'm supposing that There probably are times when people do a one-time event and they want to get a license just to cover the event So it's possible that they offer that Yeah, I I know of libraries to get like single night liquor licenses for events Right Do you know if for instance you could get a license that would cover the whole state Here in nebraska, we have a license for um, for the public libraries to show motion pictures Yeah, and I'm gonna say that the state library or in your case the nebraska library commission Probably could get a statewide license that would cover all the public libraries in nebraska I have no idea what that would cost, but it cost nothing to ask ask cap and bmi what they would charge Okay, because it would be extremely cool wouldn't it? Yeah, yeah, and and just to stress you really would recommend Getting both of them just to kind of cover you because you don't really know who's going to be with which one Well, that's it and you never know when somebody's brother-in-law who works for a music publisher will show up at oldies night Because he's visiting in your town Yep All right Any other questions or comments from the audience? Yeah, don't use the question section of your interface. We have a long time here The to ask any questions comments anything you want to share about any of these events you've done at your library We did have someone talk about how they had a um They have a Theater and their library that they use for showing movies that they do switch it over to do um music nights I'm using um for the teens using engines using their own personal iPods the music they've downloaded to do uh So they have something that they it's actually a theater they have in their library And and and do you travel out of state to do this? I haven't so far, but you know, I I have a feeling that eventually that'll happen Okay, especially because we're very close to washington and so I think it'll Spill over you know to walla walla or the tri cities sooner or later All right, and maybe this is this is getting a little more commercial But but again back to the licensing for a sec if if like a library was to Offer to hire you let's say Would would you as the dj pay the licensing and pass that cost on or would that be something you would expect the library to take care of? Um Yeah, let's say when I retire I decide i'm going to become an oldies disc jockey and take this program Wherever they're willing to pay me to go sure then I would expect that I would take care of the licensing. Okay All right. Well, I'm thinking you know in in if if The library was to find somebody in town Would the library assume that it would be covered in the fee or would they have to cover you'd have to talk to the dj They would sure ask about it first. I hope All right, never assume anything Right. Joe true. Yeah, but it's definitely something that the library is the hiring agency wants to think about and and and be cognizant of so um And then it looks like we have one other question come in uh through the back channel If the library has considered Specifically creating a similar type of program, but for young adults and teens Uh as opposed to the oldies nights. Is that something Maybe because obviously your knowledge is in the oldies Uh, right. Have you considered trying to market towards the younger group? Uh, we really haven't although You know, it's it's always something that could be done especially if we got a person say 20 or 30 years younger than me who loves the music of the 90s and forward from there um But I think there may be some other folks in our community that are doing Uh programs that would fill that void okay Uh one final question just came in and I think you might have mentioned this earlier And I don't remember if it was when we were having sound issues or not. How do you arrange the room physically? So for seating versus dance area. I know you talked about having floor versus rug, but um You want to know how that gets set up Okay, the way our room is set up is I have like an eight foot table that I put the audio equipment on And then we have some card tables and another slightly larger table and we put chairs around those And have chairs around the perimeter So there's a lot of open space But also that room has a folding wall that when we open it up It opens into a hallway that has a hard surface floor And that's also where the vending machines are so people can go dance on the hard surface floor if they want to dance All right, great. Thanks bob. We really appreciate this and uh, it sounds like everybody's really getting into it Now I'm gonna go, you know dig out some old Jefferson airplane or something when I get home tonight. That's right I think we should take a road trip Yeah, y'all come to Milton Freewater. Yeah, I This month we're doing 1963 and on march 1st Or on in april first friday in april. We'll be doing frankie valley in the four seasons Oh, there you go. Well, let's see. We need to get back to wall. We need to get up to alaska There's a weekend. We're gonna plot this around and figure out how to stop and work it on the way We're gonna have to you know, we'll get a grant All right. Well, yeah, there you go. Get get get money. All right. Thank you very much again, bob. That was wonderful


With John Wahey, you know there is so much happening in the world, in America, in Hawaii that I just thought it would be nice to just chat with a fellow host and actually the head of Think Tech Hawaii, J. Fidel, just to sort of debrief all the multitude of events that are happening.  So, Jay, thank you for making time for us this afternoon. Oh, so nice to join you, John. You know, I enjoy doing this with you.   I guess we, you know, the title of our show is Where Goeth America, you know. I mean, I think there are people, you know, one of the things that's happening right now is a lot of us are at home because of the COVID threat. And we're sitting there and we're watching the news and we're watching all the cable and regular news stations and all. And we'll be catching up with current events in this country. And all over the country there's these riots going on and people are legitimately concerned.   Oh, yeah, we just, just last hour we talked to Kenneth Lawson. He's a faculty member at the Law School in New Age. Right, right. And he was talking about, he's black, he was talking about the Floyd murder and the riots and protests that follow. It's very interesting to hear it from him. He's got a good lawyer and he will know the implications of it. I listened to Trevor Howard today and he did an excellent essay. And he sort of tied the current situation because of the Floyd protests back to, I guess her name was Amy Cooper in New York. That was the video that we all saw about a week ago, I guess, where this woman who's walking her dog through New York, just a little innocuous kind of activity, walking through taking her dog and there's a sign there saying, like, leash your dog and the rest of it. And instead of doing that, she unleashes the dog and this gentleman who is a bird watcher videotapes her and asks her, politely actually, to please leash your dog up because that's what the rules are. And instead of doing that, she threatens him by calling the police and specifically saying, and specifically saying that I'm going to tell them that you're attacking me.  And the point of all, and knowing that or believing that when she makes the call, that there's this automatic presumption that he must be guilty. He must be guilty of doing something. And the point of all of that was that is a fact of life for many that institutional racism, in other words, to know ahead of time as a deliberate act that by calling the police more likely than not, this person would get arrested and maybe even treated badly. Where's this country going? I mean, how do we do that? I mean, that's, you know, to me, when you put that incident and then you see this gentleman who a human being is begging for some relief, not giving it. I mean, what's happening to our country, Jay?  And it seems to be pervasive. And I, you know, some say that it's more now than it was before even through our lifetime. So it seems, and I don't think that black community is willing to accept a continuation of it. There must be some, you know, rational, sympathetic solution, but it hasn't, it hasn't emerged yet. Maybe these protests will cause people in general and the justice system and specifically to be more careful about the way they treat the disparity in races. What's interesting, though, is the juxtaposition, apparently, of racism and law enforcement.    It's happening too often to say that they are. And so the question is, why is this the answer is, I think it's a natural human condition that people, you know, harbor a certain amount of racism, especially perhaps in a police situation where they live in the suburbs, they go into the inner city, which is like a war zone for them. Okay, and they get into this kind of paranoid mode and they do things like that. Well, and that's murderous. It's against the rules. It's against the law. It's, it's going to be punishable in this case by very severe punishment. Which I think is the problem is you need to have a leader. You know, you need to have a leader. It's the bully pulpit. It's the bully pulpit of the president mostly, because this is a national issue. So instead of, instead of trying to resolve things, the man, the man repeatedly throws kerosene on the fire. And that happened again today. And certainly it happened last week. And it's going to happen all the time. He is not competent to make things right. He is not competent to soften, you know, the racism in the country. I want to come back to Trump.  I mean, one of the interesting things about the, the Floyd situation was that one of the cops was actually Asian. He was standing by, but he was actually Asian. So it seems like, and in other instances, there were even black policemen involved in that. So it seems like this thing is more than just two races not getting along. It's more institutional. It's part of our everyday psyche and it's unfortunate. In fact, the gentleman that got charged for murder apparently has an Asian wife. She has since filed for divorce and what, you know, some of this stuff is just, it's just incredible. And now we have a president who is instead of doing something about the ugliness seems to be stirring it up. I mean, he has he said anything at all. I mean, that was understanding of how the people might feel about, you know, the Floyd situation or even the Cooper situation. I don't know. I haven't heard him. Have you? I think he may, he may have made some brief, but in, you know, brief but ineffective remarks. You know, it's interesting, anything of something, but interestingly enough, a lot of the very conservative commentators are coming out and said there's no justification for what happened to Floyd. I mean, they may not agree with the protest, but they certainly seem like they're understand the people's anger a lot more than they are, I would say. Maybe I shouldn't say. You know, this is the technology is it's as a camera and the camera has sound and the whole thing is recorded. And that and that video is exhibit a of exactly what happened and it demonstrates conduct that is unforgivable. You know, there was I can see where people it might have been a presumption that hey, you know, because the first news out when that kind of situation. Oh, he's resisting arrest. He's a by the way, I know, and I don't want to make light of this, but it's often times that kind of instant reaction is not only directed to people. Well, they directed to people of color in general, and I'm not trying to make blacks in particular, but also poor people homeless people, homeless people in, you know, and I think for those of us in Hawaii, maybe we are not to be so smug. It might be instances in Hawaii when we're dealing with those individuals that are not part of the mainstream of our society when that might be happening, maybe this might be a good opportunity for us to take a look inside. I know I think that's I think that's a good suggestion. With you, I remember a time when the police here in Hawaii were really friendly. In fact, they could talk to them and they could talk to you but not anymore. You know, and, and, and at the same time, you know, we've got to appreciate the fact that they are protecting us and our lives and so forth. But it seems like our civilization has gotten kind of skewed up, you know, and which brings us back to your favorite personality in the entire on the entire planet, which is our.  And you're right. This morning, he was on a telephone call with the governor's of the states in not talking about improving race relations, but talking about using force in a stronger way, you know, send the National Guard in. I remember back in the 60s when doing that ended up with the Kent State Massacre, you know, people were killed. At the same time going to.  He's going to he's going to have the armed troops quell any disturbance he's already said that when the looting begins the shooting begins remember that comment last week. I didn't think he'd hesitate to to order the army to shoot people just like Kent State. You know, this is when that happened in Kent State, it was a shock to the entire nation. And to have it happen again you think we had moved on past that you know what happens when you order and the thing about the National Guard is that the National Guard are not professional soldiers. These are not people who are now they're professionals and their soldiers, but they're not people who every day spend their time in the military. They're your fellow, the person sitting next door next in the next desk to you in the office buildings, the person building your house. You know, there's come there's civilians called in for emergencies and and they're fantastic people. I remember when we had a hurricane in Hawaii, if it weren't for the National Guard, we wouldn't been able to recover as well as we could. And now all of a sudden we're asking people's neighbors to shoot him. What kind I don't I don't I tell you, Jay, I don't want to sound like I'm pontificating, but I don't understand this president at all. Well, if you know it's not that he has direct control over them, because they theoretically work for the governor. Yeah, but he can militarize like he like they did with when Eisenhower did did it to integrate the schools. And I think that's what he's threatening that he may do. He may call them into service. And he does have the power now normally they're under the you're right they're under the authority of a governor. But the president of the United States can override everybody and call the as they cause the National Militia into service. Bam, or send the or send the army and make the army available and send them in. But you know all of this all of this is ultimately a political question because when you shake it and make it what Trump wants to do is win the election by whatever means. And if he divides the country, I'm really asking a question. If he divides the country and as everybody fighting with each other, if he has an emergency on his hands on our hands, doesn't that help him politically to derail the election in his favor. Well, it doesn't seem to be helping him right now but what it does do because his numbers are falling and people are getting discussed. You know all of this is also happening in an era of isolation. And because of the covert 19 crisis that you know people have gotten how do I say this on Americans have gotten used to the executive branch both on the state level and the national level. Using extraordinary powers using extraordinary powers and I and it's so you know you can do now the way he's handled this crisis hasn't worked very well for him. And and some of this stuff may even get worse. But the first thing in my mind is that he's a president who is talking about sending troops in and doing all of this in a sense in flaming what's going on. And not at the least bit concerned about the fact that his actions may have contributed to the over 100,000 people who died in America. And he's trying to distract us from that. Well, you know, some people are saying and I'm I don't buy this theory so before I say it I want to make it real clear. Yeah, I'm with you I think he's distracting but there are other there are people who think that since the majority of those that people that die and that are affected by the covert virus apparently are the lowest rank rungs of our society minority groups poor people homeless people people like this that this president doesn't mind them dying. You know he's made a count this is a calculating guy he doesn't mind them dying. And then instead of doing something that might you know bring people together he inflames them instead. And so it's I don't know if he's hardening his base one of them. Yeah, one of the more interesting things for me is the other ultra conservatives in this country, who were his total apologist, who are now criticizing it for both things for the way he handled the virus crisis. And for the way he's handling this particular this racial flare up. I don't know. I think that the common point is to disrupt create more divisiveness. So many reports credible reports of skinheads who have joined the protest to have distributed weapons bricks for example, in the protests who have tried to make the protest more violent. Who are the violent leaders of the protest. And, you know, I don't know what it is but there's a certain element in the country, including Trump that wants to see divisiveness that wants to see tumult and chaos. And how exactly he thinks it's going to help him but surely that's what he's doing. In terms of people, one of the more irritating commentaries this morning was the fact that some of those, you know, anti actually anti police. A lot of those groups are anti law enforcement. I mean, in their China provoke instances with the police. One of the groups I think it was in Minneapolis or someplace in order to identify themselves were wearing what they called Hawaiian shirts. And that was, I gotta tell you, that's an insult to all of us. It's an insult to everybody in Hawaii and they were probably the shirts were probably from California but it would be an insult to California and it was an insult to everybody in this country and you know, but the silver lining in that cloud. Before I ask you the question of the day the silver lining in that cloud was the fact that at a lot of these protests. They actually have developed people now who are watching for things like that to happen. I just saw I guess it was on NSSBC or I'm not sure which channel and they were there was a guy that was pulling bricks up getting ready to throw it at the police. And this group of individuals just grabbed him, stood him up, made him drafted and hauled him over to the cops and told them and told the policemen this guy's not part of the protest. He's provoking something here. You know, so maybe in this era of electronics people, you know, can adjust fast enough to some of these things. So hopefully we'll see more. That's encouraging. But I think I think we're going to have to see this tilt one way or the other in the next few days to see whether it takes on a more threatening tone or less threatening tone. Well, let me ask you now it's not good for the country. Absolutely not good for the country. In fact, to be really clear, Frank, my personal view is that America has never been as weak as it is right now. Both internally, economically, and maybe even militarily in the sense that when I divide, I mean, most people that I know that are former, you know, commanders of the armed forces will have told me over the years, more times than not that the weak, the worst thing for the military, for military strength is a divided country. And you can't have that. But let me ask you the question that I've been saving up for this moment, which is, okay, Jay, do you think that we are actually going to have an election in America, a presidential election? I mean, I, you know, given all that you see, do you think and this might be speculative? And I mean, an actual fair election, you know, something that happens that's not sort of rigged by this by this great by this president. You think so or not? Are you still hopeful? Well, actually, I'm more hopeful now than I was a few days ago. I'll tell you why.   He's been working very hard to destroy the post office. And the post office is the key to mail in balance. He's working hard to destroy mail in balance. Yes. And he's supporting all these things all around the country that are intended to deprive minorities and many others to Democrats of votes. You know, his stated purpose for that is, I want to stop the Democrats from voting because if they vote, I'll lose. He said that. Yeah, he's said that. Well, that's the essence of the question. I, you know, I would have thought going in that the guy had, oh, and there's scenarios, both the Washington Post and the New York Times have written up these groups that are. And I think there are groups within the paper or the groups of people who consult with the paper, who, who have, you know, identified scenarios that Trump might follow in destroying the election and not having an election deferring an election, calling an emergency, somehow screwing it up so that he can stay in office. Aside from the possibility he might win, but since base is there and maybe, you know, he'll get the electoral votes like he did with Hillary Clinton. Until a few days ago, I was operating in the assumption that the guy has so many irons and a fire screw up the election that there's a fair chance he'll be able to do that and somehow remain in office. I mean, remember, if he stayed in office, if he physically stayed in the White House, then refused to leave. Who would force him to go. Congress, Congress is neutralized, would it be the Supreme Court. He'd make some kind of argument Supreme Court to be neutralized. I mean, after all, a lot of them are his people, especially, you know, when Ruth Bader Ginsburg isn't there and she might not be there. And so, you know, I would have said that, I would have said that he's got a pretty good chance at screwing it up.  And distracting us from the reality of over 100,000 lives. I think people are probably going to get the idea, just how bad a president he is. And if he was claiming that he helped the economy, I'm not sure that he can revive the economy. I don't think he can. What people are going to have is an awful slide between now and November. And he won't have any, he won't have any real arguments to make that he is a great president and should be reelected. And even people who are not fully informed will see that they are, I believe they are beginning to see that. So assuming that he doesn't find a way to avoid the election altogether by some emergency declaration by some, you know, remarkable by closing the post office. Or by closing the post office, you know, and getting away with it. If we rely on any kind of vote, even a vote where a lot of people have been suppressed and all that. I think the landslide will be against him. That's what I think. Well, so I'm not nearly as sure I'm not nearly as worried about him winning somehow coming out as president after this election.  You can fool, you know, all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool everybody all of the time. So we'll see.  Thanks, Jay. Thanks for doing this with me this afternoon. And everybody will see you again in two weeks. Aloha. Thank you, John.


My talk is also not as awe-inspiring as that of Minister Pulgarbidal, but it is no less informative. So if you will allow me to share with you some of the initiatives we are doing in the forestry sector in relation to the teams of this summit. We in the Philippines have been very successful in degrading our forest. Our forest is now down to 7.2 million hectares or 24% of our land area, one of the lowest forest cover in Southeast Asia. But we have started to recover the forest that we lost. To stop further depletion of our forest, our president has imposed a logging ban in all natural forest nationwide in 2011. The first in our history. Together with intensified enforcement, we apprehended 25.5 million board feet of illegally processed and illegally cut forest padak since 2011. We filed more than 1,200 cases in court the past three years with 186% convicted and counting. As a result, the number of illegal logging hotspots in our country was reduced by 84% from 197 hotspots to only 31. Shown on the screen is the spatial representation of the hotspots before and after the log ban. We will further reduce these hotspots until there is none. From the confiscations, we have been able to produce more than 146,000 school chairs and repaired more than 300 school buildings. Before, we sell what we confiscate through public auctions. However, suspected illegal lagers were the ones winning the auctions. To expand our forest cover, our president established in 2011 the biggest reparistation program in our history, the National Greening Program. We intend to plant 1.5 billion trees in 1.5 million hectares in six years. We will plant more trees in six years than what we planted the past 50 years. This is less than what they do here in Indonesia, but it is already our biggest. This program intends to address poverty, food supply, biodiversity and climate change. For the past three years, we have planted more than 683,000 hectares. This is equivalent to what we planted the previous 23 years. This year, our target is to plant 200 million trees in 400,000 hectares. By the end of the year, we would have planted more than 1 million hectares. Aside from the benefits from additional forests, the program has so far employed more than 168,000 persons in upland and rural communities. The program also provided food crops and cash crops to the communities such as fruit trees, coffee, kakao, rubber and others. Reparistation is no longer the exclusive domain of our ministry. It is now a convergence program among the environment and natural resources, agriculture, agrarian reform, local government, education and other agencies. We believe that we are now on the road to sustainable landscapes with this convergence. By the end of the program, we expect to reverse our forest situation whereby we will then have more forest areas than done degraded areas. And we will increase our forest cover from 24% of our land area to 30%. Our new forest would eventually absorb about 28 million tons of carbon every year. This will help us achieve carbon neutrality. In addition, we estimate that about half of the total budget of the national greening program, about 30 billion pesos from our national budget or about 682 million U.S. dollars, will go directly to the communities through jobs and income. This will contribute to inclusive growth especially in the upland and rural areas. We also impose state governance standards in our program. Our national greening programs, community-based, meaning the communities, are the ones contracted to undertake the reparistation. We grow our own seedlings through our network of 22 colonial nurseries. Those that we cannot grow, we procure through competitive bidding in accordance with our procurement law. All program sites at Jayotag, meaning each sites, has pictures taken progressively with GPS reading, date and time when the pictures were taken. And anybody can see the Jayotag pictures in our website. We use, to monitor and validate our reparistation efforts, we use unmanned aerial vehicles. The reports submitted by our field personnel are all under oath and notarized by lawyers. We use good governance, transparency, accountability, checks and balance and the latest technologies to ensure that every money we put in is used for reparistation. We have done much in our reparistation but there is still much more to be done. The report of the IPCC, the recent report indicated that without the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, impacts from warming could get out of control. These are serious implications for the Philippines.  This makes our participation in this summit important. There are many things that all of us can share but there are more things that we can learn from each other. We wish you a productive summit. Thank you very much.


Lukashenko, Ukraine's counter-offensive, is simply disinformation. The Kiev regime's much-hyped counter-offensive is simply disinformation. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said, The three days of the counter-offensive, what we're observing and the information we've received from the Russian president, are in complete congruence. Our three days, about three dozen advancing Ukrainian tanks and 120 or 130 infantry fighting vehicles, have been eliminated and what's most horrible, more than 2,100 Ukrainians have been killed with slightly over 70 fatalities on this side. This is the result of this attempt at a counter-offensive. Well, I've always said this. The counter-offensive is a major piece of disinformation. There is no counter-offensive and cannot be a counter-offensive, but if there is one, then here's the result from it over three days. He said at a meeting in Minsk, with members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Committee of Security Council Secretaries. According to Lukashenko, the Kiev regime's Western handlers are currently scrambling to analyze the causes of Ukraine's military failures. I talked with Russian President Vladimir Putin and we are absolutely of the same opinion that the current situation is all about the West, which is fighting there, waiting to see the results of the counter-offensive and naturally, if not for all the Western weapons and mercenaries, the whole thing would have ended long ago, the Belarusian leader added.