Okay, we're back. We're live. It's the four o'clock clock. Welcome to Think Tech Asia. I'm Jay Fidel. I'm your host, and our show is called Honolulu, A Tale of Two Worlds at the Crossroads of the Pacific. We're going to talk about the fact that Hawaii can no longer rely on federal government spending in Washington. And our guest for the show, I guess our co-host in China, in Beijing, is Russell Liu. So Hawaii is facing a crisis. In a Trump presidency, Hawaii can no longer rely on federal government spending. With the internet, global opportunities and tourism are being missed, as Chinese travelers find other competitive leisure destinations. And with the internet, business investments also are passing overhead for Hawaii. Crisis develops opportunities. So there may be opportunities here for Hawaii. What must Hawaii do? Welcome to the show, Russell Liu, and welcome Lee Tien-Yu and welcome William Ladd. Russell, would you introduce our guests in Beijing? Yes, good morning, Jay. Good morning, fellow Hawaii Hawaiians out there. I'd like to introduce two special guests this morning. I have Lee Tien-Yu, who goes by the name Irene Lee, and William Ladd, who is from Hawaii. And both of them are students here in Beijing Foreign Studies University. This Lee is a majoring in law, which is an undergraduate curriculum. And Bill is majoring in international business, and he's in his third year of business school here. All right. So let's talk about what this all means. I mean, Hawaii has to do something. Hawaii cannot expect to receive the same government funding as it has before. Tourism is a great solution. Hawaii is not, in my view, and I think in your view also, Russell, Hawaii has not really attended to cultivating and developing tourism from China. So what's missing from the recipe and what can we do now to make it better? Well, we have two guests here today. We're going to talk about something very important, and it's about global education, global learning, understanding cultures where this opens opportunities to global business. And this is something solely missed in Hawaii and the United States. And first I'm going to ask a question of Bill Ladd here, who's from Hawaii, and he's going to explain his experiences when he first got here and what kind of doors have opened up here that he foresees the future. Bill, why don't you tell us, how did you get here? Sure. Well, I was born and raised in Hawaii. I went to HBA and made a Punahou school. However, in 2008, when my father was flying for Loha Airlines, Loha Airlines went out of business, went bankrupt, and so my family needed to seek for new opportunities elsewhere. And we landed in China. We went to Shenzhen, China, and my father started flying for Shenzhen Airlines. It was at that point that our journey into China really began. When we first got here, we didn't know any Mandarin. So I figured since I was the young man of the family, I needed to go out and do my best and take advantage of this opportunity. And so that's what I did. I did my best to learn Mandarin, and here I am now, 2017, at Bay Y. Alright, that's the question, Bill. Are there many American students here in Chinese University studying business? Not so many. I just know one other person, a man from Seattle. And so where are most of the students from? You're studying international global business. Where are they from? Most students are actually from Africa, Europe, Latin America, Russia, Central Asia, places like that. We don't really have many American students. So that's very interesting. Not many American students, but tell me about how to converse with students from Africa and Europe if they don't speak English. Actually, that's a rather common place of currents. A lot of these students when they come here, their English is not really at comfortable level for them. And the lingua franca here, when that doesn't happen, is Mandarin Chinese. And that happens on a daily basis. And that's my experience, too. Coming here, when I meet the lawyers and judges from Africa, Central America, Europe, and Korea, I end up speaking Mandarin. That's how we converse. So it's interesting how language is used here. Tell us, how do you foresee that opening opportunities for you? Well, not only can language just make you friends in the sense that just by saying hello to people in their own language, that really gets a smile out of them and makes them trust you all that bit more. But it can also open the way for business opportunities. Starting with friendship, you can then move on to business networks, and those business networks can extend across the globe. So that means global business. And I'll turn the question to Ms. Irene Lee. So, Irene, what do you study here at BFU, Beijing Court of State University? I'm actually currently studying, like, double major degree. It's English and law at the same time.  And so have you studied red American cases? Have you studied American law? Yeah, we have towards contracts and the introduction to common law, right here. Like, normally it's like one or two courses every semester in the U.S. system. And we have learned so many famous cases such as Roe v. Wade and Paul's Graph case. How about Roe v. Wade? Roe v. Wade. Because here abortion is not that big of an issue here, but it really broadens our horizon and makes it really shed light on us that whether it's pro-life or pro-choice, whether women have the freedom to choose whether she's going to have an abortion or not. So that's fantastic. I'm hearing from a Chinese student who is not even in a U.S. law school and undergraduate law course being able to talk and analyze like a Western person. So it's very interesting. And speaking about the global, you speak English very well. Tell me how do you learn English? Like everybody else here, I started learning English from ever since elementary school. But I don't know, I just, ever since I was a little child, I really loved learning languages. And I think the secret of learning English well is not to just take it like for a test. I think I really enjoy speaking English all the time to talking to different people from all around the world. I think that's what got me here today. Let me ask this question to both of you. True or false? Chinese young people travel abroad. Yeah, definitely, yes. And do you see that as a very significant trend? Where have you gone to travel?  And where have you visited? What countries have you been to? I've been to Hawaii and Israel and Thailand. Fantastic. And Israel, why did you go to Israel? I went to Israel because back in high school we had this opportunity of an exchange program. So I signed up, got enrolled and that's what I went to Israel. So when you got to travel abroad, did you get a chance to use your English? Yeah, of course, because we don't speak Hebrew, so the only way we can communicate with those host families and the Israeli students is through English. So I see a common thing here, where through language you're able to communicate. You're able to go to another culture. You're able to do business. You're able to communicate. And so is that something that's going to be important in your future for English and Chinese? Yeah, absolutely. In my case it's not just important, it's essential. Because of my Mandarin skills, I was able to land an internship at the World Bank. And in that time I utilized my knowledge of finance as well as my knowledge of Mandarin to study climate change finance and try to help China overcome the pollution. That's fantastic because when I went to school in the U.S. college, I never had those opportunities. So I see that in today's world we are much more integrated globally and you need to have a certain skill and so I see this as being a language. Absolutely. And tell me something. I'm just curious for our audience. We're curious about Chinese students. I mean tell us true or false. How many students study part of the U.S. students? True. How many hours a day do you study? Normally I have six to eight hours of classes each day and besides the classes I also have assignments for each and every subject. So how many courses do you take this semester? This semester is pretty heavy loaded and for me I take 16 courses every week. My god. And each course lasts two hours. And we'll have a two. I take six to eight courses. Okay. I'm just curious now in terms of the language capability what do you see as the advantage of learning language and someday you plan to go back to the U.S.? Absolutely. I want to return to Hawaii as soon as I can. I miss it. But one thing that could really help Hawaii is learning Mandarin. Mandarin of all languages opens the door to one-seventh of the world's population. And for example Shenzhen where I first moved to in China has five million people. That's five times the state of Hawaii all in one city. And just by speaking their language you can open doors to new friends and business relationships. And let me add to that. It's a big phenomenon because Chinese students are going abroad to study. In 2014 alone over 300,000 students went abroad to the U.S. pumped in $10 billion in economy. For example the small Iowa city was receiving $10 million because of students just going to that city. Just alone to study. Imagine what it can do for other places like Hawaii for example. And alone in 2016 we had over half a million Chinese students going abroad to two places. United States and UK. So it's a fantastic opportunity for the U.S. Jay do you have any questions to ask? Yeah absolutely. I'm talking so much. You guys are there over the last couple of years. You're in school. You're observing the way China is moving and everyone knows. Russell can tell you that China is moving faster all the time. And it's not really directly related to its economy. The fact is that China is becoming more global. I think we're going to find that out in the meeting between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump in a few days. We're going to find out how very sophisticated China is about global development and exerting and increasing global influence on many many places in the world. So where do you see it going for you? In your case Irene you're studying law. You've seen other countries. You've seen the development of the rule of law to a certain extent in China.  So I guess my question is, you know, we have a confluence. We have an intersection. We have China becoming more internationally oriented and we have Hawaii which may or may not have an international view of the world. And what is that intersection like for you? How do you see China developing? How do you see Hawaii developing? How do you see yourself developing at the intersection where maybe you could help participate in the connection? Okay, let's talk to you Irene first. So for me I think it's starting to become a trend that so many Chinese students are studying abroad in the US and we really value the education there and we really love to learn about the US culture and I think US and China is getting more and more integrated and we are more and more westernized somehow and I think it's a really great opportunity for Chinese to actually see the outside world break the stereotypes the shackles that is from the old society and it really broadens the horizon of the people here and brings so much opportunities I think. Yeah, what can China do for Hawaii and what can Hawaii do for China Irene and what can you do to make that happen? How to change Hawaii? I think there are so many communications so many business going on for example I went to Hawaii on a debate tournament which the HPU invited us to participate in and I think being in a place is so much different than learning about some place on a textbook or on a video or by interviewing a person because getting immersed in the environment breaks so many stereotypes and it has shed so much light on you that this place is how this place really is and for me being in Hawaii really it really broadens my experience in life and makes me really understand the local culture there and I think there are similar cases going on nowadays many of my friends they have exchange programs in the US also Hawaii included and I think that's really a game changer for everyone here so what I see I read what you're saying is just the actual face to face medium cultures can slowly change a place change perceptions and make people want to engage each other socially, business wise and so it seems to me and I'm going to toss that question now to Will and because he's from Hawaii so maybe he can give another thought to fellow Hawaiians how language changes and understanding culture changes create a foundation for business well on that note being from Hawaii and proud of it in Hawaii a lot of people come over there for tourism and we do have the most beautiful area in the world and we should be proud of that but one way we could really take advantage of our historical western and eastern relationship in the fact that we are the crossroads between the two civilizations we can take advantage of that by learning the language and if we learn the language we can start to provide this business environment not just tourist environment to the expanding Chinese economy which needs to go outside and invest and as we heard from Irene the Chinese love the US they want to invest in the US so why not give them that portal give them that doorway in Hawaii by learning their language and making it even more attractive for Chinese investors so it sounds like what Hong Kong did for the westerners to be the portal to get into China in the early years how they benefited by being the portal gatekeeper so it seems to me Jay that what I'm hearing is through language we need to build a foundation infrastructure and we have a lot of language understanding Russell that's easier said than done isn't it I mean it's not easy to learn Mandarin and I commend you Will on your language skills by the way Irene I commend you on your language skills also you're very good on English you're very good with English in any event take the average young person in Hawaii he has not been in an international business school the likelihood is he has not traveled not only to China but he has not traveled to Asia and you would like him to learn Mandarin will he do that how would he do that how will you encourage him to do that how should the government encourage him how should Russell encourage him to do that it isn't easy to learn Mandarin I'll just add to it at the age of an old age at the middle age I came here I didn't have no language, no culture, no friends, no family I parachuted to Beijing and it's been a 14 year honeymoon I can go to the grocery store I can speak Chinese on a dating level I can buy my groceries I can function in society I can bargain in Chinese so I say it can be done but I'm going to ask Will to question this Will maybe not so much in tune with Hawaii News Will, what do you think about this there's a school in Hawaii called Marinal that is now starting an immersion program in Mandarin, kindergarten to second grade what do you think about that that's great, that's the way to do it because you know what when I was coming here I was only 15 I felt that if I learned some Mandarin in Hawaii that would have made the process that much simpler because when I came here I only knew Spanish and Latin from Punahou but when you started learning Mandarin did it open other portals to you other languages? Absolutely I mean learning Mandarin and after learning how to write the traditional characters that are used in Chinese were also used by the Japanese that were brought over during the Tang Dynasty so I can read the kanji of Japanese you know Russell I have a I have a god son who married a Filipino woman from Hong Kong and they had some kids and they live in Portland now although he has a business in Hong Kong and this Filipino woman decided that she wanted her children to learn Mandarin and there was no place in Portland where they could do that so she got some money I guess federal money, state money and she created a charter school and the charter school is built around an immersion course in Mandarin and you have kids there in Portland, Oregon doing immersion and they're not necessarily Chinese now they're all hapahaui, all that they are learning Mandarin in Portland in an immersion course and I agree with you Will that immersion is the best way to learn any foreign language but especially Mandarin you have to do it all day and the question I put to you was how do we achieve that in Hawaii because I don't think we'll be able to enjoy this international connection this international opportunity I agree with you unless we speak Mandarin how do you create an immersion course in Hawaii outside of Punahou outside of HPA outside of Iolani in the ordinary course in the ordinary student how do we do that? Well, let me ask Will this question because we said except Mario except Punahou but there's a new trend happening once other schools start to define a different way to do it Mario started with an immersion program Kato's second grade and I've just learned Iolani is building a new campus for international students trying to attract Chinese students what do you think about that beautiful idea as you said sir, immersion is the best way and that's how I learned Mandarin so applying that to Hawaii through Chinese students is the perfect way to do it that provides the immersion and the environment as best as you can get but keep in mind it also requires individual effort on the student as well as their families to try and encourage that sort of growth in language learning capacity so it's also we talked about exchanges in Irene you've learned English by immersing yourself in culture so what did you do in China how did you become so conversing in English so fluent? I have so many foreign friends from all around the world and we communicate in English and also when I went to Israel I was so astonished that many of the Israeli kids they can speak 5 or 6 languages they have to study Hebrew as their mother tongue and they study Arabic and they study English of course and besides those 3 languages they also have optional courses such as Spanish, Russian, Chinese and like friends like many of them speak 5 or 6 languages on average it just like blows my mind and when I ask them isn't it hard to understand all those languages they say that they really enjoy learning languages and they don't see learning a new language as a burden to them instead they see it as an opportunity as something really valuable to them that can bring them so many benefits and I think that's one of the secrets why the Jewish population is so successful nowadays I think learning a language is not that hard because with the development of technology it's easy for one for example you can just type how to learn English on YouTube and you can get a video on how to learn the basic grammar or basic vocabulary there's a world as a way and especially in modern times when everything becomes so easy and so accessible so I think learning Chinese may not be that difficult compared to foreign now suppose I do this here in a school maybe a language school maybe a high school or a college and I become conversational in Mandarin and I also I've watched this show I've watched you guys I've watched Russell I listened to you and I say gee I have to use my Mandarin I have to go to China so I take off I get on a plane I go to China I go to Beijing I get right there in the room with you what can you do for me in terms of getting me placed in a job with my Mandarin do I have a career can somebody help me what would I do it's interesting that you bring that with your skills as a lawyer understanding law and your excellent command of English you'll probably be very highly sought to work with maybe some of the Chinese state-owned enterprises that are going abroad we're seeing a phenomenon because many Chinese companies are going abroad so we'll probably hire you as first a teacher you'll teach a contract course in a state-owned enterprise then they'll hear it in English and then they'll understand oh you speak Chinese as you improve your Chinese you become trusted you're working with the CEO and the management team on how to go abroad so there's infinite possibilities but I think the most important thing is you have to start this crossroad with language culture when you both share language and culture you come to a crossroad where you can share a friendship and have a shared vision don't forget food by the way don't forget food Russell don't forget food yes food and I'm sure that many Americans coming here will find the Chinese food it's probably a lot different than in the US one last question I have to ask you guys so Irene and Will at some point you're going to finish school Irene you're going to finish you're going to have a law degree maybe you'll want to take a master's who knows what and Will you're going to finish international studies you're going to understand international studies which to me is so important and well positioned what will you do if anything to come to Hawaii what role do you see in building the bridge is there a bridge to be built Russell feels there is is there a bridge to be built and how will you guys as a lawyer and as someone skilled in international relations how will you participate in building the bridge building the bridge that is the challenge of the future well how I would do it would be we already have so many Chinese tourists coming over to Hawaii and on Hawaiian Airlines unfortunately there's no business class in the aircraft from Beijing to Hawaii and one way we could encourage them to change that to provide that business class to encourage the business seeking class to come from China to Hawaii would be to as Russell said start learning the language and open the door literally using the language is building the bridge and when you're building that bridge then the rest of it falls into place you start getting more materials you start getting more capital coming in just because of the language the door that is essentially the blueprint for the bridge Irene how do you feel about this so Irene how do you feel about this personally I'm going to study in US law school for my the JD program and I think there are so many people nowadays they want to expand their business in foreign soil but just because they don't know the local culture or they don't speak the language they're afraid of doing so because they might get into trouble and they don't know how to solve it I think studying law is actually helping me to actually help them in the future because when they are getting into some trouble or in a last two I can just because I know that US culture and Chinese culture I can combine those two and actually help them to deal with the situations they are in and with that like afraid mentality gone I think it will be so much easier for anyone to invest or to expand their business in foreign soil and I think international law it's like so important nowadays and they are like really in desperate demand I hope you join us again Irene we want to talk more about international law but for now I'm going to ask Russell to close Russell you're the co-host this is your opportunity to close you have one minute I've said this for about 20-30 years we need to make Hawaii familiar to the Chinese and the tourists are coming but what we're doing to wrapping up capabilities we need to have more language we need to have more Hawaiians being able to speak Mandarin it opens culture, friendships if we did it with the Japanese we can do with the Chinese the second largest economy in the world we need to get out to the global standard we need to get up in the global stream of doing business this is the only way to do it as you say the best way that Hawaii can remain relevant is to learn the language and stay in touch with China and I hope that in our lifetimes we will see a great bridge and we're looking to you two guys you two charming guys Irene Lee and Will Ladd to help us do that we're counting on you we want to talk to you again thank you so much Russell thank you Irene thank you Will Aloha


Hello, my name is James Stevens and I'm the Head of Library Services at the University of Cumbria. I want to take this opportunity to say hello and to give you an overview of the range of resources and services that are available to you from the library, both virtually and physically. Our digital library provides you with the vast collection of electronic resources to support your learning, including books, journals, journal articles, videos, maps, images, dissertations, much more. By using your University of Cumbria passwords, you'll be able to access OneSearch, which is our main library discovery tool, and access all these resources both off and on campus. You can also use OneSearch to find physical books, printed books, to borrow from our extensive range. We offer a reservation service to enable you to request items, again via OneSearch, and then collect them from your campus library. We offer you a range of flexible learning and study spaces in our library buildings. First and foremost, we want to reassure you that the University of Cumbria, the health and safety and well-being of all our students and staff remains our top priority. In our libraries, you will find a clear signage and equipment to ensure that you can use a space while maintaining safe social distancing. We ask that you play your part by adhering to the safety measures that we've put in place, including observing social distancing, the use of face coverings and hygiene. Our library and academic skills team offer individual and group support with topics such as library searching, referencing and writing skills, as well as presentations and dissertations. Please visit the skills at Cumbria Tile from the Student Hub to find out much more. You also have access to a real-time, personalized Ask a Librarian service, which operates between 5pm and 9am during the week, and around the clock at weekends and bank holidays. So these are just some of the services and resources available to you, and on behalf of the library team, I wish you all success and enjoyment in your studies, and please do let us know if you have any questions or comments about library services and resources at any time throughout your time with the University.


Today I want to talk about five easy phone sales tips that you can implement right away and see success with, okay? So stay with me as I go through each one of these, all right? Number one, number one of five is to gain control early, early in the call. I would say that most agents do not gain control early in the call. And what happens is they end up leaving that up to the prospect. They let the prospect take control. They let the prospect interject. They let the prospect give you an objection. They let the prospect jump in and gain control, overcome the call, etc. Great salespeople gain control early in the call. And what I mean by that is, okay, Betty, hey, it's Cody, hey, getting back to you about this, okay? Now I'm a local filled underwriter. You put your security password as this. Hey, I'm assuming you remember doing that, right? Excellent. Well, hey, I'm here to help with these state regulated final expense programs. They put me in charge of your account and I'm going to give you the information right now. So let me ask you a couple of quick questions, okay? And they just jump in. They gain control early in the call. If that's not you, it needs to be and it can be and you need to think about your calls. Even what I love to do is actually record the calls, listen back to them and say, okay, did I gain control of the call? What did I say? How did I say it? And did I say what I need to say, okay? Because that's the best way to learn. So number one, gain control early in the phone call, all right? Number two, okay? Number two, out of the five easy phone sales tips is, I would say, don't listen to objections, okay? You could also consider that ignore, okay? And I would say that it's not like I typically totally ignore them, but for an easy phone sales tip for a new agent, it would be do not listen or give validity to the objection that you're hearing. When they jump in early in the call and say, I'm not interested, or I didn't do it, or I'm broke, or I have no money, or I don't have time, or my, you know, I'm not the decision-maker, et cetera. It's too early in the call to listen to that. And when you listen to it, when you respond, when you assume it's true, you give validity to something that may or may not be true yet. So I want to discourage you to giving validity to objections. Ignore them. Don't listen to them. Move past them, because it's human nature to give an objection. When you walk into a store, okay? When you walk into a store, they say, hey, how may I help you? Well, I'm just looking, you know? Or can I help you? And you say, I'm just looking. I'm just shopping, right? Or not yet. I don't know, right? Then a minute later, I'm like, I'm looking for a freaking cord. Why didn't I ask them for help? But it's human nature to say I'm just looking. I'm just shopping, to give objections, okay? So don't listen to objections. And if you had to work an objection, and you believe it's true, then use my three aced overcoming objections, which is agree, answer, and ask. I was just training my service team this morning at 8.15. I do that every single day, 8.15 to 8.30. And what we've been talking about is being agreeable.  Most people get disagreeable, combative. You should be agreeable, which is rare, and it kind of surprises people when you are. So don't listen to objections, all right? Number three, let's jump right in. Number three is ask questions. That also helps put you in control, okay?  Most people talk too much on the phone. And the best way to gain control is to have them talking. I know it sounds different. I know it sounds backwards. I make sales when I ask questions and I listen, okay? When they talk more than I do, I generally make the sale. When I talk more than they do, I typically don't, okay? So that's backwards for most salespeople and how you're trained, and how you're trained as a kid. You don't gain control by puking on them, by talking a lot. You gain control by asking questions, and then shutting up and listening. And I'm not saying asking two or three questions and ad-libbing and talking a bunch. I've got, like, I've got salespeople here that do that, and salespeople that will be trained do that. So those people are like, Coach, do that. But you don't need to do that. You need to ask questions. Then you need to stop, and you need to listen, and you need to let them respond. And if they say, I don't know, then you need to use a hypothetical. So if you say, hey, who do you currently have for your life insurance? If they say, I don't know, you need to immediately jump in and say, well, if you had to choose, okay? Psychologically, you don't want people not answering your questions. You allow them to not answer your question. You are telling them it's okay to not answer my question. You don't have to answer my questions anymore, and you're in control. Get answers to your questions, okay? By asking questions, and then shutting up and listening. This is a valuable phone sales tip, because this is what gets most agents in trouble. Is not stopping, asking questions, regaining control of the call, and then listening to what they say, all right? I'm sure Jordan Belfort would say the same thing. He's speaking at 8% in 2020. I'm assuming he would say the same thing, which is, I guarantee he would, okay? Number four, this is a little more advanced, okay? As we move down the list, this one's a little more advanced, okay? I would say the last two. Number four, take it away, all right? And I didn't promise not to have the best handwriting in the world, okay? As you're probably noticing. Number four, take it away. What I mean by that is constantly take it away. When you are talking to someone, I'm hoping I can get you approved. You may qualify. I'm not sure if you'll be able to get this, but I'm hoping that you can. Or I've had other people in the past that they really wanted this, but the last person I talked to, they begged me for it. However, they weren't in good enough health to qualify, right? So there's some factors to indicate, like, we don't accept everyone, right? If you make it seem that way, it's like you're taking it away from them. People don't like it when you take stuff away from them. Instead of just saying, hey, everybody qualifies. I want to sell you insurance and I want you to buy and everybody can do it. Instead, I love to take it away. Hey, you may qualify. Hey, you may be able to get this. You know, I'm not sure, right? I'm hoping you'll be able to get this. There are great programs, there are great plans. And I would love for you to be a client of ours. However, I'm not sure that you'll be able to get it, right? You have to qualify. There's steps to this. And I'm going to make sure that I explain everything and that I show you everything and that you make an educated informed decision. And when it comes time, you're prepared and you're ready to make that decision. And hopefully, we can get you approved. Because I would love to get everyone approved. However, it's not always possible. And I know there's people out there that I wish I could have helped. They also wish I could have helped them, but I can't help everybody, right? Take it away. Use some jargon and some language to be able to take it away. And professional advanced salespeople know how to take it away, okay? In the middle of the sale, when they ask questions so that they want it even more, okay? And it also comes down to the value, right? When you're building the benefits and you're going through the value of the benefits and you're getting engagement and you're asking those eight, nine trial closes that we talk about. That's a big piece of that, okay? It's to take it away, right? Number five is to assume every step of the way. Assume the good answer of the phone. Assume you're talking to the right person. Assume that they're going to allow you to gain control of the call. Assume that they're going to answer all your questions. Assume that they're going to afford it. Assume they're going to pick the middle option when you give them three options. Assume that they're going to answer every question along the way. Assume that they would love this. Assume that they have the need. Assume they can afford it. Assume they want it. Assume everything. Successful. Like, because a successful salesperson that wants to get great at phone selling is not going to ask a question, are you interested in this? That's never going to come out of your mouth, right? If it is, let's cut it out. Successful professional salespeople instead would say or would ask, I'm assuming that this is of interest to you, which is why you responded, okay? Now let me ask you a couple of quick questions to see if we can get you approved, right? That's a different way of saying the exact same thing. Because what happens is, okay, yes, I want you to ask questions, but this is where the assuming comes in. Professional salespeople tell. They don't ask. They ask questions. They don't ask for permission though, and they don't ask if someone wants to do it. They tell the person. This is what I recommend. This is why it comes with all these benefits. You're going to love it. Here's the three options. I recommend this one. Which one would you prefer, okay? They keep it simple and they tell. They educate. They build value. They don't ask for permission or they don't ask, are you going to do this? I'd love for you to do this. Can you do this for me? Do you like this? I'm assuming that you love this, correct? That is being assumptive. That is taking it away, and that will get you what you want. These are the five easy phone sales tips you need to implement right away.  Top five mistakes that new insurance agencies make on the phone, or the five-step process for converting a lead to a sale. Go check those out, and I'll see you there.


The study demonstrates the potential of high-frequency ground-based laser scanning to systematically monitor structural changes in vegetation using terrestrial laser scanning, TLS, and automated high-temporal laser scanning, which can be used to build a network of field monitoring sites for satellite missions to effectively monitor the structural dynamics of vegetation over large areas. This article was authored by Kim Calder's, Benjamin Breed, Glen Newnham, and others.


ADP0.5 activation. This will protect all the secure application or the secure mode. That means you can only connect with a debugger when your core is in non-secure. That means it executed a non-secure application. So what should you ensure before going in ADP0.5? To have a non-secure application that is executed. That means you need to have a secure application that lotion non-secure application. And in that way, the cortex will be in a non-secure mode and then you will be able to connect. So please double check with the return, press the reset button of your target and check the traces to ensure that you've got a non-secure application that's running before continuing. On that stone, we will activate ADP0.5, just one option byte, and you've got the step 8 batch to do it. And then we will see how we can configure in QBID the connection to debug the non-secure application. So first, I will press my reset button. Everything is fine. We can see that I've got a non-secure application running. So I activate ADP0.5, which has a reset. And if I press a reset button, nothing has changed. It's still working. So now we switch to QBID. I select the GFMApply non-secure and I will create a debug configuration for it. So debug as stm32.com.txtmccplaceplaceapplication. You can disable the order build. It's prevent trying to rebuild each time you want to debug. So we will save time to do this. It's not in the slide, but it's the tips. For the debugger tabs, we have to change the reset behavior because by default, the debugger connect under reset. That means you have a reset and then connect. But if it resets, by default, the Cortex-M33 with the zone enable we put in is secure mode. So you won't be able to connect. So we have to remove this parameter and set it to noun. That means we do some kind of auto-attach. If you don't do any reset, we just connect while the non-secure application is executing. In the startup tab, we have to remove the download and just load the symbol. Okay. If I apply and you hook it, so here it will directly load the debugging perspective. Now the debugger is connected. Nothing happened. We have to suspend to see where we are because we have not connected under reset. So we don't start at the main. Okay. And you can see we are in the non-secure application. If I resume and if I press the reset button of my board, we are just stop at the beginning of the secure application, the non-secure application, sorry, and then we can debug it. Just a little things to show you. If I try to check the SBSFU memory again, you can see now it's not zero, but comma, okay, question mark. And in fact, it's because we've got an additional level of protection. SBSFU is protected by the hide protect, which only shows on zero. And after we've got the HDP0.5, which protected from accessing any resources from the secure world. Okay. So just little tips. So if I come back to my presentation, so we experiment this together, please terminate your debug session and I forgot to do it. That's it. And it's okay. So what we have to do now is to remove the trace zone protection because, okay, we have finished our hands-on. Now we want to do a cleanup of the board. So the first thing will be to do a HDP regression. And we will do this by doing a trace zone regression also. That means we have to do a HDP regression to be able to do a trace zone regression. So we have a script to do this. It was a step nine. So we can say, okay, if we are doing this after it was the full cleanup of the board. In fact, no, because there is some other parameter that we can't reset right now. It was a secure boot address, but we will see after. So first let's remove the trace zone and the HDP regression, the HDP protection. So if I load the step nine, here we do a HDP regression. At the same time, we remove the trace zone. And it was the only way to remove trace zone. So now we have finished this hands-on. So we have learned how to compile and debug the TFM. We have seen how to activate and to use the HDP in the TFM context. And also we experiment how to debug a non-secure application with HDP 0.5.


Everything we talk about is time-sensitive. Now, your own client will answer all your questions, the best of my abilities, and we'll do a little Q&A, and we'll go from there. If not, take off. It's Friday, enjoy the weekends. Beautiful weekend here in Puerto Rico. So Visa is not a legit business. Visa is legit, I don't know. Exactly what we're talking about, you can enlighten me.  Alvara, that's close, Andre. Not much. So you gotta understand, when I talk about these things, you know I invest into them. So I invest it through the Tencent Ideal. There's a certain allocation that every person in an Ideal can actually get, so I'm right there with you. But I own it, let's just be crystal clear. Everything I talk about on the channel, I own. I own Arbitrum, I own Ethereum, I own Bitcoin, I go Alvara, all that stuff, all of it. And it's important that everybody, well, everybody knows that, but I really should say that every single time. But I own it, I own and own it. And I will dump on you, I will dump on everybody, so you better dump on me first. So like we talk about with the rules, what's the last rule? Take profits. If you don't take profits, I'll take profits from you. And that's just something that will happen. So that's a good question. That's also good, what is Tencent? So Tencent is a launchpad. We've worked together for a couple of years, had some good launches, had some not so great launches, but so far so good. The last one we did was, well, Alvara, Alvara Valley. And the ones before that, we did Gensokishi, did Fame MMA, and we did, no, we didn't do sweat coin. Farkana, that was the game itself. And those did pretty well. Now there's other ones that's like Last in Gold Rush, did okay, not the greatest, but yeah, not too bad. I like those guys, I like what they do over there. And what's great about, what's great about Tencent, the launchpad, and also if you go over to Dan Degen, there's a video on how to navigate that, that they have a seven day policy. If after seven days, you're like, this didn't take off, I want my money back. They give you your money back. So I like that. No, you're not. No, you're not, but you don't even live in Massachusetts. Ah, bright start chiropractic. What if the miners are selling off stock because they don't want to sell their Bitcoin, but they still need capital up to the risk? That's a pretty good point. This gives them a chance to get profit and not sell Bitcoin, I lost sailor. Yeah, I mean, here's the prime example. Michael Sailor hasn't sold any of the Michael strategy's Bitcoin. Why would it? It wouldn't make any sense for him, right? So as his stock price has gone up, what has he done? Well, roughly about a month ago or so, I want to say about a month ago, he sold 200 something million dollars worth of his stock, but he didn't sell any Bitcoin. So it'll be the same thing with miners. Maybe they sell some of their stock and they're like, hey, we want to do that as opposed to selling this Bitcoin. We have to pay for the services. We have to keep the lights on. We have to pay the electricity. We have to keep for the storage. We have to update the mining rigs. So for all those things, it takes money. It's not just free. So in that case, sure. I guess it'd be, which one do you want to do? Do you want to sell your Bitcoin or do you want to sell your stock? Tough choice. Cal with a K. Rob, did you buy the Bitcoin ETF? No, I don't understand the point. Like for us, like for me and you, for everybody here, I don't understand the point of buying an ETF, right? Like, I know how to buy from an exchange. I know how to self-custody and I can move it all around. That's it. I mean, it's a bummer when Coinbase doesn't work, but you know, I got my backup cracking because I'm a US citizen, so my options are very limited. Hello from Portugal. Secrets of drowning, do you run a Cardano stake pool? I say do. We have two, matter of fact. So there's a link in the description and I show you how to stake to DNews or DNews2, the Cardano stake pools. Can we please dump Bitcoin on BlackRock this weekend? They'll buy it. They have no problems buying your Bitcoin. Hunter, we know it and you should know that for most of us, you're crypto debt. I hope not, all right. I hope, well, that's what's great about that is because everybody knows that I never really give advice. I never give advice. I'm just trying to give the best information I can, but you know, I don't get it right all the time, right? I mean, look, just a couple of days ago, I flubbed on the BitMEX research for the ETF numbers. I put them in Bitcoin, not in dollars. So yeah, now what are we gonna do? I prefer, Ron says I prefer to take crowstaking profits. Oh yeah, crypto.com is a platform project. YMT or the crypto, YMT the bag with you. Yeah, exactly right. Why not, right? Please hit the like, that's always nice. I see a chair near the liquidity pool. Is she single? Yes, I will ask her. You guys can hang out, two chairs, taking it easy. I'm not your pal, pal. Deep-in pump-up, ah yeah. Decentralized physical infrastructure networks. I gotta tell you, from the folks that brought you World Mobile are gonna bring you another deep-in project that is smashingly good. And this is another, this isn't a rumor, I can tell you. With this, they signed a contract for a company that deals with 1.2 billion customers. And it's all telecommunications. It's not, World Mobile is working with another company. And it's called Minutes Network. And I'm gonna do a, and they're just about to launch. I'm gonna do a deep dive video into it. It's gonna be really good. Oh, also, another big stuff. So Jerry V. Hall, friend of the show, is over in Panama. He's there for some kind of AI conference. I know, ETH Denver is going on, but Jerry's like, eh, whatever. So he went to Panama for this AI conference and he interviewed, this is like all the top people in AI, crypto projects, Singularity, HyperCycle, all those guys. And one thing he said, he goes, I've done over 20 interviews in the last two days.  I was like, oh, I like money. So I'll get Jerry on the show and he can tell us all about these new great projects. That's a good question. Double dribble, double dribble, funny. Is it a good idea to sell ARB before the unlock? Then buy it back and after it settles. It's something I wouldn't do because, and you have to think of it this way. There's actually a couple of ways to do that. If you do sell it and it doesn't go down, I'm not gonna take a haircut and then buy it back in if you believe in the project. I like Arbitrum. Actually, they were on our short list to launch Flappy, our game that's coming out. But we went with another chain and we'll reveal that soon. But you can either sell it and then if it doesn't work out for you and you have to take care of cutting it back in, that's one thing.  If you believe in the project, well, this is probably one of your few times you're actually gonna be able to buy that dip before things really take off. And for me, I'll probably just wait and see if it goes down and then I'll just buy some more because I personally don't think, like there's a video in the description when I'm gonna sell 80% of my crypto and you guys know about these indicators I'm looking for and nothing has been hit and nothing's even close right now. So for me to sell like major sales is not a good idea for me, maybe for you it is to take profits along the way, little small profits. I'm okay with that. I do that myself just to remind myself what it is to take profits. I don't feel bad if like, I miss out on something. So for right now, I'm just gonna wait. Now for you, it just depends.  Maybe I want a little too heavy an Arbitrum. Maybe it's something I should have done. Maybe I should sell off a little bit. That's, that's a thanks. That's a share. Oh no, did anyone get a stark net airdrop? Seems they rugged the users including me. I don't know if that's true. I saw that on X. We'll see if it's, I don't know anything about that project. I didn't invest into it. Ooh, Candice says 60-40, Bitcoin traditional. We're going for 10% Bitcoin. Yeah, nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with that. How much Bitcoin for an Audi R8? I don't know. How much Bitcoin is gonna cost to do a tuneup on my 2018 Dodge Grand Caravan? That's the real question. Ah, yeah. Many vans are comfortable. All right. Solana is no different than last cycle's EOS.  Neo or name your junk smart contract platform. Look, here's the, here's the great thing about Bull Runs. Even if something does suck, it seems to still do pretty well because of the hype. So like even if we don't have something that is perfect, that is going to melt faces because it's so great as far as the technology, even if there's some kind of flaw, it goes down. Transactions are too much. There's not enough adoption. It doesn't make any sense. Doesn't matter. The Bull Run, everything pumps.  And are you married to your altcoin, Bitcoin, crypto, or whatever else? Why is Neo down in Coinbase? Neo is on Coinbase. I think it's the only product that's not on Coinbase. It is on Coinbase. Unless they removed it. Because I've been buying that for quite some time. Hey, that's right. Rob, that free MyRow you gifted me over on Degen. I was like, yeah, so you guys don't remember this. I gave away like, so MyRow, the project contacted me and they go, hey, how much would it cost to do a video? I'm like, well, I can't take money because I gotta disclose it. I gotta disclose it and I don't want to invest in you guys so it wouldn't make any sense to go, we'll give you some free tokens. I'm like, now we're talking. So they gave me like $4,000 with the free tokens and I gave them all away on Dan Degen. And that was like, it was fun because MyRow is on Solana and it was great because I just said, okay, everybody just start throwing in your Solana addresses and people just did it and then I gave it to them right there and it takes like four or five seconds. So as I was doing it, and it would cost like fractions of a penny, people were getting their MyRow. I was giving away like $100, $200 worth of MyRow. And they were just getting it right away. It was awesome. It didn't cost me more than 50 cents. Maybe even a dime, I don't even know. But that's good, man. Good thinking. A lot of the boys in the chat thinks Solana's legit. I don't know. Like, look, I own XRP. Do I think XRP is going to be the number one crypto of all time? No, no I do not. Do I think it'll flip Ethereum? No, do I think that there's something wrong with it? Because, I mean, XRP Ripple really went to bat for us and they defeated the SEC. I don't know if people realize how big that is and they put so much money into doing that. And the price didn't move much at all. I mean, it did in the beginning, but now like, I think in the last seven days, I think it went up like 10% which is pretty good. But I mean, if we're here, it depends on what you're here for, right? If you're here because you're like, XRP is going to change the world, and everyone's going to work out great. And it's great for third world countries and for transactions and for moving payments across borders and sure, great. But as far as like price movement, it's just been awful. But will it do well? Yeah, probably. But the idea says, would you dare selling Bitcoin if you didn't have one full yet? I'll tell you the truth. It doesn't matter how much Bitcoin you have, you always want more. It doesn't matter how much crypto you have, you always want more. It doesn't matter how much the market goes up, you'll always think that you missed your opportunity. So I think in the future, five years, 10 years down the line, 0.1 Bitcoin is going to be a lot of Bitcoin. I mean, as far as like in the dollar amounts. And we've talked about why. We talked about the quantitative easing and the bailouts or bail in the banks. And the national debt, especially United States and across the globe there's only one way to do that. It's print your way out of it. And if that's the case, then everything inflates like crazy. So again, 0.1 Bitcoin is a lot of Bitcoin in a decade. So take that as you will. All right, bit by Roth IRA. Roth IRAs are great. And I've got, I've used, I have I trust capital. Let's talk about I trust capital for a Roth IRA. Is that you can trade within your Roth IRA and that's taxed exempt. And then when I turn 59 and a half years old, which is coming up pretty quickly, I can take everything out. Oh, one more thing about Roth IRAs, if you're especially nice, well, in the United States, if you look how much Bitcoin is appreciated, you can only put $7,000 or $8,000 per year depending on your age. So if Bitcoin goes up to 100,000, right? The $7,000 that you could have put into Bitcoin was not gonna get you that much Bitcoin, right? But if you put $7,000 of Bitcoin now before it goes up, you probably do pretty well. Can't give you financial advice from the saying, these are just the numbers. And then also remember that if you do it before April 15th, you can use that allocation as 2023, even though you're in 2024. And then you can buy another 7 or 8,000 in 2024. Yeah, now we're talking, all right. I know. You're never supposed to say anything negative about XRP because the army will get you, yeah? That's true, it's only with clarity. I mean, Bitcoin pretty much hasn't been decided yet, but it pretty much is not a security. I think we can say that, right? With 99% assurance. Michael says, Rob, thanks for your help watching a lot since June, 2021. Wow, thanks for watching. You're one of the reasons I'll soon own a home. Hey, without a mortgage, that's great. That's the best feeling in the world. Ah, yeah, it's nice when you don't have to pay a mortgage or a car payment or your credit card isn't come due and you don't have like some crazy rates. It's great. It's a great feeling. I know some people will say, I don't wanna own this stuff because I'm gonna put everything into it and I'll live on debt. That works for some people.  That's what we did. It's nice, congratulations. Morpheus says, what's your thoughts on ICP and the deep end narrative? Not so much the deep end, but have you seen the price action of ICP? I mean, from when it was released to right now, it's so massively undervalued. I own ICP just for that reason. So as far as the deep end narrative could work, work out just great. If that's the narrative, it's gonna be, I thought it was gonna be AI, DEX and Web3, but now I think it's, now I'm pretty sure it's, it's deep end Web3 gaming, I should have said, AI and DEXes. That'll be the big four, I think. Shroom says, what's up? What's up? LeBron James, good point. How and when do I stop the DCA? We did this video matter of fact on Sunday and I did a short version. I'll release the longer version this Sunday as far as like when I'm stopping DCA. Basically it goes like this. Once we get close to the PyCycle Top and we get into the risk levels at 0.85 and above, I stop DCAing and that's pretty much it. I think, and even Plan B came out and said, the time of getting really great deals and then watching it massively appreciate is coming to a close. So moving forward, especially after the halving, that's when it gets, that's when it's time just to sit back. Me personally, I will probably still DCA some things, especially alts, cause alts haven't really ran as much as they should. And I'm still gonna go with that. But anyhow, watch that video on Sunday, I'll release the other one on Sunday. I'm gonna aid a whale hole coiner. Now that is easy. That's right, Ed, that's right. I try, beardy, I try. A jammy hola says, dump the casino coins, buy Bitcoin for $100K in May. Do you know that over 70% of my portfolio is Bitcoin?  And that's it. Rob's already rich, it's true. You know why I'm rich? It's because I don't have to answer to anybody. I don't have a boss, I don't have to go into work.   And yeah, that's the reason why I'm rich. It has nothing to do with money. It just freedom, actually it comes out. Oh, XRP freak. Here's a blast in the past. How's that XRP working out for you? Yeah, I remember our nice chats that we used to have. I'm glad to see you back. Hopefully it works out for you this run. That is a dream, freedom of choice. That's it. It has nothing to do with your bank account. If you can just afford to not be ruled over by somebody, that's the big thing. Like I say, you know, health and wisdom and being able to do the things that you want to do, when you want to do those things, Bitcoin is not those things. It's not, but it can give you those things. That's the big difference between holding Bitcoin and using Bitcoin for what's attending do, peer-to-peer transactions. Well, that's exactly right, freak. I commend you for that quiet, well-reserved comment. Luis says, what prices are those PyCycles house expect to be? Anybody's guessed? It's really, it's what it is, is the 350-day moving average times two, crossing over the 111-day moving average, when it inverts. So it just depends. It's all on trends. That's what makes it fun. Yeah, just around your, I'm not really a maxi.  To me, I'm like, I think it's mostly Bitcoin. And then some other stuff that you probably should get into, just see how you do. And then, you know, just expect it to go to zero. Are you still holding a snack? Yeah, I still won't snack somewhere. Again, don't worry, Zorro, you're fine. Where dogs thrive, I'm with you, nice. I do, drive a soccer mom vehicle, exactly.  So it's up to you. Edwards, new faces in the chat, meaning we're getting close at the top. Perhaps so, perhaps so. No, you'll know it.  And that's when you know, you're like, oh, that's it. They're gonna call me Dan, a boomer, and paper hands. Those three things, they're gonna say those three things. And you're like, well, maybe it's time to take some profits. Right, it says, using Ben's Bitcoin risk chart, what band do you plan on being a sub-Bitcoin? We're looking at around 0.85 and above. Ben is more of conservative person. He's like, he starts to consider that at 0.6. I started to say it's 0.85. Hey, comics for us. That's a nice handle. If you wanna hold an asset for the next 20 years, the only thing that will last is Bitcoin and property. It's, you're right at my alley. Real estate, land, Bitcoin? I mean, how scarce is land? Especially in, I don't know if you've been to Puerto Rico, but the land here is super, I mean, where it's an island. So real estate is hot commodity. Super pricey here, everything's super pricey. But it's great. Right, exactly, we slowness on a beach share on East Laverde is freedom. That's it. Ah, Bitcoin is an end of the day spike. I like to see that. Let's see what it is. Where are we? Oh, look at that, 62.5, 62.8. Geez, you weren't lying. More from 62,000, almost 1,000 bucks. Did, wow, 63. I'm telling you, once we hit, once we get past the all-time high, which, let's see, what do we say? What does CoinGecko say it is? CoinGecko says the all-time high was 69,044. I thought it was 67,000. Okay, I think CoinMarket might have it differently. Whatever, once we hit 69,000, once we hit that number, it's a psychological barrier, man, things are gonna go crazy, just crazy. Corey Tate's right. This does feel more bullish in 2017. It does, it feels crazy. Because it's so early. I mean, we're so far ahead of the curve than what we're supposed to be. We've never done this. We've never hit an all-time high or been close to it. And you guys know my rationale, let's see. Whoops, the right one, the wrong one. Look at these, we all know this, right? All-time high dip reset. Having all-time high dip reset from 2012. If we go from the all-time halving to the next, or all-time high, excuse me, all-time halving, genius. To the next halving, from 2013 to 2016, that was a drop of 42%, from 2017 to 2020, that was a drop of 56%. From 2021 to essentially today, it's only down 23%. And that was when the price was 52,000. Now it's like, what, really, 8% maybe? Some are correct me to comment. Like 7%, 8%, we're almost there. And we're, I mean, this is the next halving shouldn't be until April 20th, somewhere around there. But if you take a look and go even farther back from the last, from the high to the halving, I have two months before, it's a 60 and a 60% drop. So we're way, way, way ahead of things. And the ETF really was that shining light. That's really what it was. Muhammad says, left-translated cycle or super cycle, am I wondering? Bob Luke, we talked about this, and this was put up by Bob Lucas. Either way, it's gonna be great for us, right? We think about that. Let's say the worst possible thing is it's a left-translated cycle. So that means that we top out in 2024 and then we kind of peter out in 2025. If we're doing things by risk bands and pie cycle tops, we should be taking profits along the way, right? We should be. And then of course, we never sell, hold on. I never sell 80%, I almost gave financial advice. I was close. I never sell all my crypto, right? You keep a 20% hodl bag. And if it goes to a million, two million, 10 million dollars, well, guess what? 20% of whatever you had, because you were smart enough to front-run everybody is way more than the normies are ever gonna have. So congratulations. So yeah, either way, we're big winners. Big, big. See, Candace is right. I drive an old SUV, 130,000 miles. I don't have that many, but I'm working on it. I just says, and it dumped. It's okay. People gotta take profits. That would be pretty good. That would be pretty good.  Look, construction guys, they're the ones that are only ones that are gonna have jobs in the future with AI. You can't teach AI to pour concrete and make things perfect. Redo walls and do plumbing. Well, I guess if you make robots, but good luck. Wow, the crypto bureau says, my kid's Bitcoin and ETH stack is looking healthy. That's good for you, man. DCI for five years, my kids are 11 and 14, so it'll be great 18th birthday gift to them. Can you imagine those kids being millionaires by the time they're 18 years old? My dad did not do that for me. He pretty much said, well, what are you gonna do? Army or get out? Chose the army. Worked out pretty well. Oh, nozz. Last time I was this early, my wife left me. Good for you. I hate to say it like that, but man, if I was nozz, all the opportunities that I'd have, I think it's gonna be good for you, man. Promise you could system? Freaks it. Have I seen a T-shirt commercial a couple years back? Yes, I was in a commercial. Classic T's is a matter of fact. I like that company because they gave a portion of their proceeds to wounded veterans, so that's why I decided to work with them. Also, they have great shirts. This is actually a Classic T shirt. I did a little promo on my channel and then they ran that for a nationwide campaign and then I got a bunch of calls from my friends. I saw you at a T-shirt commercial. Yeah, yeah, stranger things have happened. And then to piggyback on what Naz says, Shroom says I'm waiting for a wife changing gains. It's pretty good. My wife is great, so I'm very content. My favorite Rob Char, the dip reset. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Louise says selling 80% November 10th. It's not a bad idea. Are we talking November 10th, 21, 24? Hey, gotta go for something. I don't know. Gabriel says how long this cycle is gonna last, finishing my batch or starting work in summer. Still gonna be worth it then or wait for next bull market. I'm just gonna tell you right now, I don't know.  And maybe these four year cycles go away. Maybe there is a super cycle. I don't personally believe it's gonna be, but I've been wrong before. So I'm not sure, but I know that when I sell this crypto, you know, it never stays in cash. That's a sucker's bet. You will never stop investing into assets and you will always be on the merry-go-round. So that's pretty much it. Just depends on what you wanna get into. I personally have to update my sports facility in Texas. So I need to take some profits a little bit, go from there. Rob, are you a husky billionaire? That's one thing I never held, husky. But I heard it's great. Fred says I'm very disciplined with the ETH Dancun upgrade, only benefits L2s, yes, exactly. Guy did a great video on this one. Hey, whatever. I guess people like paying a hundred bucks trend, but yeah, whatever. Sonya, Lingchungstang. I nailed it. Sorry, Sonya, that was bad. Rob, when will you visit Switzerland again? There's no plans for any trips there anytime soon, but you never know. If I do make a flight path, I'll let everybody know where I'm going. Oh, look at that. Kenny says I did, I have a seller at 63,000. And it's so, wow, just a little. I have a buy at 62,000. Sounds good to me. Now this got it right. The houses in the future will be three to print and module homes with them looking the same. And they'll be smaller and they'll be more expensive. Yeah, yeah. It'll be the modern day track homes. I just saw a piece for small, there were tiny homes in Houston, Texas, selling for $189,000, 600 square feet. Unbelievable. But not so when we understand how inflation works and we all do, so we get it. The land can't be 3D printed. Last one we got to get this a bit. You see the post about the American investor, Gareth Soloway, doubling down on his Bitcoin, short is he crazy? Gareth and Kramer, brother's crazy shorting Bitcoin now. I don't know. Some people short it and they say, well, it's just a small position. I'm doing this and that. I don't know what is going on, but that's not my wheelhouse. So I hope he makes out. That's it. And I think we're good. And we're Dog's Drive. Thank you with the likes on the way out. That's it for today. So for tomorrow, don't forget, we're gonna do that $500 giveaway. Just go to my ex-account or Twitter. There's a link in the description, retweet it, and I'll just do the giveaway tomorrow and we'll go from there. Also, consider checking out that's Alvaro video. I thought it was pretty good. I think it's gonna do very well, especially with the two things that happened. But that's it for today. So everybody, thanks so much for stopping by. I appreciate you. I liked today's video. Thumbs up, subscribe, all that great stuff, and I'll see you on the next one. Have a great weekend.


Okay, I hope you all enjoy your Republic Day break. Did you go somewhere for getaway, like short getaway? Yeah, I went to Istanbul. That was fun, actually. Great two days. Well, on the occasion of my father's and older brother's birthday, and I also had to change my winter tires, actually summer and spring tires for winter tires. So that was a good occasion to be in Istanbul two full sunny days. Excuse me? No, well, hopefully I was not there. But I've been almost everywhere else in Istanbul. All right, such a great city. But I can't believe I'm living in Ankara for so many years. All right. So, we were talking about the threat perceptions in the Middle East. Threat perceptions are essential to understand because they're essential to at least understanding the major part of the foreign policies of any country. Actually, most countries devise foreign policies with a view to advancing their interests beyond their borders. It's a pursuit of national interest outside of the borders. This is something that I kept saying many, many times. The idea, the principle is to seize opportunities, to get these opportunities whenever they emerge, and also avert risk to get away from risks as they come to the surface. Sometimes, of course, you may have an advanced opinion as to what is likely to come, either an opportunity or a risk, but it is something that requires elaborate studies by people who can do that. And those who can do this kind of things are professionals from diplomatic circles, military circles, political, academic circles. So, think tanks serve such a purpose to bring all these people together and by means of think tanks studies, elaborate and comprehensive studies. And, of course, these studies can provide some policy options to the governments and governments can better see what is likely to come ahead of their time in the future. So, one part of this kind of studies has always been threat perceptions. So, without proper understanding of what or what kind of threat a country perceives from what sources, what are the sources of threat, it may not be possible to fully understand the motives behind their foreign policies. Therefore, threat perception is an essential study or understanding threat perceptions of particular countries are essential for proper understanding of their foreign policies. So, this reading was made available for at least a week and I hope you all had copies from the reserve and I'm going to now check actually which one of you, which ones of you actually had a chance to at least have a look at what was in this reading because these readings are not put on the reserve just to stay there or just for you to make photocopies and shell them, but these are for you to read, all right? And these are actually all reading material, a source of information that you need for proper understanding of this course but especially considering that there will be a simulation in a little bit more than a month actually toward the end of next month and this is something that can help you a lot, especially for some countries who will be representing Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia. And now I would like to see especially representatives of these countries now being present and I will check who are present actually right now and I would like you to elaborate your understanding of your countries, I mean the country that you will be presenting at this simulation, your country's threat perception. So, and of course provided that you had this reading and also you read this reading, let's just look at it, all right? Egypt, can I see El Alp here? Yeah, okay, here. Gözdem, yeah, sure. Emine and Enis not here for the records. Okay, who else? Israel, Bishra, I can see her around. Shua'i, I see. Metin is here and again is here. Israeli team here more or less. Jordan, Hazal, I think, yeah, you're there. Yid, Fatma, okay. Jordanian ladies are always here but and Koral, Alpak, Lolo not present, right? And Saudi Arabia, Fatih is here. Iran, Marcus, Mert, F.A. Kuxal, F.A., right? Mert, Marcus, sorry. F.A. Kuxal and Ömer Faruk, Tanverdin. All right, actually I don't have any order in mind but just why don't we get started with Israel? In the Israeli team, I would like the members of the Israeli team to give us an account of their, quote unquote, their threat perceptions. How do you assess the threat perceptions? This is a chapter written by Shimon Limone. He was, I think he must be retired now because I met him back in 1995 and he was with the Israeli Defense Ministry. The chapter actually is something that makes much more sense because it comes from someone who worked at least for some time for the Israeli Ministry of Defense. That is someone who actually, I don't think he was a military, I don't know actually, I can't remember back then because I met him at a conference in Lund, Sweden and we had of course as usual exchange of views and opinion about the situation in the Middle East but I cannot remember whether he had any military background that doesn't make too much a difference being someone from the Israeli Ministry of Defense at some higher ranking official position. Actually this is something that gives him the opportunity to see things from within, of course, the state bureaucracy, of course from within the Israeli population and also because he writes in something to contribute in a book like that a unity research report like that, he's quite aware of the fact that this is going to be read by somebody else. So therefore opinions presented here make much sense as a true expression of how an Israeli officer or Israeli bureaucrat or Israeli analyst or scholar perceives the world in terms of threats posed to Israel. So now the floor is yours, it really is. Yes? Do you remember that? You will have a midterm exam next week and the day is, do you remember the day? Which day? 12, that is a Friday and the exam will start at 9 sharp and will last until 10.30. It's going to be an hour in the health more or less provided that you come on time and we start on time and the exam will take place in this class. I don't think it's going to be recorded. At least Mr. Ember can be off that particular Friday. Yeah, so what about the Egyptian threat perception? Where were the Egyptian guys? Can you just raise, I mean, yeah, okay. Any assessment of what my friend here said? All right, you were in a better position than compared to many of your classmates because you had a chance to attend at least two conferences. One was specifically on Egyptian issues related to Egypt foreign policy and that was on Turkish-Israel relations just last week. So, all right, let's hear from you. What else? Other Egyptians? Why didn't you read? Why didn't you guys read? Who read? Just let me, instead of asking who didn't read, anybody just won and he is a special student. Well, especially in every sense. All right, next time I hope you will not regret for not having read the assignments, all right? So, any question? Okay, when it comes to threat assessment, there are several issues that you have to bear in mind. I mean, to make a proper assessment of threat is important. I mean, as I said, it is important to understand the threats as they are perceived by the sort of ruling elite or the decision makers of a particular country because, of course, not exclusively, depending on that, to a great extent they bear in mind, they keep in mind the threats that they perceive in terms of sort of decisions that they are taken with respect to their countries foreign policy. So, therefore, I mean, you just, I mean, the very purpose of simulation here is to, of course, make this course more interesting because, after all, someone showing up here at all times and speaking and speaking, it turns out to be dull experience. It's not so much an excitement. So, by being part of or preparing for simulation, you go to embassies, talk with people, you attend conferences, you get together among yourselves, you make preparation, you submit reports. So, these are activities that make, I hope, your sort of teaching or learning experience a little bit more fun. So, after all, we all need to at least get some joy out of the work that we're doing. Me being as instructor here, you being students here. So, but after all, you are going to put yourselves in the shoes of the people who are truly representing their countries in international fora and in different platforms and round table discussions, conferences, whatever, seminars. So, many countries, especially those who are living in rather hostile environment or in such environment, in such geographical locations where there is not much stability. The politics is volatile. You cannot know what exactly is going to happen if not tomorrow, but just within a month, within a year or within next couple of years. Can you tell me exactly with 100% confidence or with great confidence that nothing's going to happen in Lebanon in a month or two? No. Well, Lebanon is much more stable when compared to the period between 75 to 1991, 15, 16 years of civil war. And then several things have happened.  Well, for the most of times, it's much more stable and they are trying to hail the wounds of civil war. But the situation, especially the fabric of the population is so vulnerable, so fragile that some provocation can make things really unexpectedly worse than even it was back in the 70s and 80s. So therefore, this is a geography, this environment where stability is not so much of a case. Same applies to other countries in the Middle East. Can you tell me any particular country where you can just see five years from today that the regime will be stable? Well, people may come and go, but at least regime-wise in terms of the regime, the regime will remain the same. Can you tell this with great confidence? No. I mean, look at Syria. For the time being, there was some sort of a smooth passage from Hafez al-Assad to his son. And the regime, yes, it improves itself in terms of maybe some individual rights, maybe some authoritarian regime, which is of course still an authoritarian regime, because the state mechanism, the state apparatus is pretty much the same, is left almost intact with some replacements. But yes, Hafez al-Assad may be closer to the public than his father, a sort of Bashar al-Assad is maybe closer to his own public than his father because he had a much more positive image in this Syrian public domain. These are things that we understand from our Syrian colleagues or friends who study Syria. But you cannot tell with great certainty with, I mean, three years from today, five years from today, ten years from today, the Syrian regime will be exactly the same.  I mean, Iraq even next week is uncertain. I mean, let alone next month, next year. Yes, there is this heavy weight diplomacy and military presence of the United States on the ground and also has its grips almost everywhere. There is this process of transformation of the Iraqi situation, the state as a whole. But still, there are certain factions, there are certain groups, there are certain powerful groups within the society which are, of course, being, some of them are being manipulated by other countries in the region such as Iran having a high degree of influence on Shia people, not all of them, but some of them. So therefore, the situation in the Middle East is pretty volatile. Well, of course, one might just turn to us and say, can you tell us with great certainty that the regime in Turkey will remain the same? Well, at least my hopes would be much higher when compared to the countries in the region, in the Middle East. Turkey has gone through all these difficult years at least keeping its regime intact. And yes, there were wounds, damages of all what happened back in the Iraq war and the implications of Iraq war. We are going to study this in the coming weeks. The changing circumstances of relations between Turkey and Israel, the PKK, supported by Syria for so many years until 1998 and since then, yes, we are developing a number of steps we are taking through certain stages that expectedly will improve the relation between Turkey and Syria. But all of this can tell us that Middle East is far too away from being stable. So therefore, when you conduct a study, a threat assessment study, there are basically two things that you have to consider for each individual country. You, first of all, look at the location of that country, the geographical location, and then you look at the historical situation with respect to that country. Of course, these are not the two only things that you have to pay attention to. I mean, these are the major issues because history is history. What happened in history has happened so you can change it. In some sense, well, just don't get me wrong what I'm going to say, history is somewhat static. Static in the sense that things have happened and you cannot go backwards in time and travel in time and just go and change things. This is not back to the future game, right? History has happened, but what makes it dynamic is how you interpret history. Your interpretation of history may be far more different than the interpretation of others of the same historical records. Just last week, I mean, or was it just, yeah, on the 23rd, 24th, 25th of October, a week ago in the United Kingdom, I think I just mentioned that we discussed the Middle East peace process, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, but there was so much excitement about now the new role that Turkey plays in the region and people came to me, I mean, scholars, scientists, ex-diplomats, ex-mitra people, especially from the Arab countries, countries in the region, and also some Israelis also acknowledged, I mean, how fast Turkey's profile was rising in the region. So, and they were telling me about, well, Turkey is this, Turkey is that, so Turkey is doing great, so they said even Prime Minister Erdogan, if he were a candidate for presidency in any Arab country, he would win the elections far ahead of the second person. So these are things about the expressions of the admiration, especially in the public domain among the Arab people. But the moment we start talking about history, not today or future, the moment we start talking about history with our fellow Egyptian colleagues, Syrian or Iraqi or others, I mean, the interpretation of history was far different than ours. They always look at the Ottoman Empire period as a dark age, which, well, the acknowledge Ottoman's rule in a rather sort of a balanced manner without creating much difficulties. But after all, they hold the Ottoman Empire for being responsible for their backwardness in education. So when we read our history or teach our history or discuss our history, I mean, not myself or because I'm not a historian, so I don't feel competent enough to discuss these issues in depth. But even when we watch people on TV channels or when we read their books, articles, op-eds, whatever, we understand a certain Ottoman rule, a certain sort of vision, or we get a certain perception that more or less pleases us. But the very same history or maybe the very same historical records are being interpreted in a far more different way by people of the region. So, therefore, the perception of history, the reading of history, the interpretation of historical records or the view about the past has always been and will most likely be always be an important factor in the threat perception threats are sort of a fuel by your fears and historical or the perception of history or your reading of history also tells a lot about your fears. I mean, look at the situation between Turkey and Russia today. Under normal circumstances, Turkey and Russia might have had far more advanced relations even within the metro domain between the two. But over the past two decades since the collapse of the Soviet Union, which was a clear threat to Turkey and, therefore, Turkey had taken its part in the Western Alliance NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization. But then, even since then, for 20 years actually have passed a lapse since that period and when you talk to the diplomats, the major people and some scholarly people, especially somewhat older when compared to the news sort of scholars. The view of Russia today is not so much different than the view of what the Soviet Union was in the past because the fears are still alive, the fear of a colossal big sort of neighbor which is capable economically and especially militarily of doing harm or causing harm to you and, therefore, this is something that fuels your threat perception. Again, I mean, relations between Turkey and Syria, Turkey and Iraq, Iran, et cetera. So, therefore, history is one particular source where you should look at without proper understanding of historical relations or the way they are being interpreted by the decision-making elite, the ruling elite, the military diplomatic elite of that particular country. You may not have a good idea, just a clear idea about their threat perception. Another thing, as I said, is geography. Again, just like history is static per se, but it is made dynamic by way of interpretation, geography is also more or less static, at least for a given period unless there is a significant change in the territories or geographical outlook of a region because of, I don't know, possibly wars because war is something that changes sometimes even the political geography and not only the geopolitics. So, when you look at the map, you always have this source for proper threat perception. I mean, who are your neighbors? And what are their military capabilities? What are their expectations from you? What are the issues in common which may turn out to be confrontational? Well, of course, you may have some problems with a country in the past, but you may work on these problems and you can just solve them peacefully. But certain problems or some problems are not that easy to solve in a peaceful manner unless there is, of course, dedication on both sides or all sides that are parted to the conflict solve this problem. By looking at the geographical location, as I said, by looking at the military economic capabilities as well as the regimes of other countries that are neighboring to you, not only just the immediate neighbors but also distant neighbors and also, in some cases, countries as far as the United States for Israel for Iran, for instance. So, therefore, the intentions and capabilities of other states constitute the threat that you perceive from them, if any. Of course, not all neighborhood may be threatening or just an unstable neighborhood. I mean, there are places in Western Europe, Central Europe, Eastern Europe where threat perceptions, at least for the time being, have been mitigated. Well, there were some threats perceived in the past but not necessarily today or somehow are pushed to the back burner. I mean, they are not left to come to the surface and they are not making the headlines for the time being. But again, the threats, the military capabilities and the intentions of your neighbors constitute the threats that you perceive. So these are important things. But of course, these are, in addition to this, to these two more or less static or the major inputs, ingredients in your threat assessment analysis, you also have to look at the economic situation which is much more, of course, flexible, much more dynamic, is very much subject to change on a daily basis, of course, or not daily but in a rather short term. But also, there is this political issue. I mean, the political regimes. Political regimes, again, may change and once a regime changes, they threat the very history or the very geographical location of that country being the same or remaining the same, just because of change in the political regime of that country, that country may either turn out to be a threat or may not be anymore as serious a threat as it used to be. So therefore, these are issues that you have to bear in mind. History, geography, economic situation and political situation. These two are more or less, not at all times, not forever, more or less static. So therefore, their analysis is much more easier. I mean, just by looking at history, you know if you have access to primary sources, archives, documents and reliable interpretation or reliable secondary sources and also geography itself is there and tells a lot all by itself and of course one particular aspect here is how capable are you in terms of getting the real input or the correct accurate data about the metric capabilities of any particular country. In today's world, it is not that difficult to have at least more or less an assessment of what kind of metric capabilities a country may have and therefore, I mean, it's not something totally secret, it's not something that you totally be on your reach. There are many, many sources in the open literature, databases, think tank reports, et cetera, which provide more or less, again, of course none of them can be 100% accurate but more or less a good estimate about the metric capabilities of any specific country. Just go, for instance, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, CIPRI, if you're interested in the metric capabilities of any country, just check the website of this. It's still called International Peace Research Institute. It publishes almost every year, a yearbook about the metric capabilities. Well, you may agree, disagree with some of the data provided that you have a better explanation or you have better data but or some interpretations may be not fully correct if you know that particular country but on the overall, it's an invaluable source. It's a very, very valuable source of information for conducting a research and study on metric capabilities of any country in the world. I mean, they have almost at least half a page or up to 10 pages or even more for specific countries. So, therefore, what I was trying to say was when you talk about or write about threat assessments, you have to start with how or what the geography tells, what the history tells about that particular country's threat perception and also above this or in addition to that what the political regime tells us about the threat perception and what the economic situation tells us because economic situation has to do, I mean, just like any other thing. I mean, also, this is something that also applies to political regime but also, but more, more so, the economic situation has two dimensions. First, it has to do with the economic capabilities or financial capabilities of that particular country in terms of arms procurement and arming itself if it is so necessary for that country whether it has the capability or ability to procure arms, weapons or other types of security systems and also, I mean, this is something that is significant for some analysis but also, what is the situation in the public domain? I mean, whether the population is happy with the economic situation, are there any internal domestic political problems that may have repercussions for the regime, that may have repercussions for the relations with other countries? For instance, I mean, in terms of economic situation economy being one of the criteria that we just talked about, history, geography, economic situation, political situation, I mean, almost all of them, of course, depend on economic situation any country, I mean, not only the ones in the Middle East, in South Asia, in North America, Latin America, Europe, et cetera, everywhere but we just talked about the, how much the economic, the changes in the economic circumstances in the economic situation affected the position of Egypt and that's why Abdumman al-Said Ali places emphasis on this particular situation from geopolitics to geoeconomics. I mean, first and foremost among, in his analysis comes the changing economic situation because of the war in the Gulf. We just mentioned very briefly last week that because of the war, the first war, 1991 war and in the period leading up to the war, I mean, just before the war and starting from that moment onwards and for so many years that followed, the Egyptian workers who have gone to the Gulf countries work there, find work and make an earning, make a living and then not only that they themselves being employed because of the significant population of Egypt and there was not so much work to do and not so much employment in Egypt, many of them have gone to the Gulf, not only that they were employed as such but also they were making a living, making incomes and sending part of them back to Egypt and this situation has been significantly tampered with the war in the Gulf. Then comes, of course, the situation with respect to the geography. I mean, what is the most important thing from the Egyptian perspective in terms of the, I mean, the sort of the most vital asset of Egypt? Any idea about what is the most important thing for Egypt? No, no, I'm telling you, yes. What was your name? Kurshad. Kurshad. No idea about what the most important thing for Egypt might be? Does this map tell you anything? No, you're not looking at the map. Can't you see anything significant for Egypt? Right. Who sees anything? Yes, please. Excuse me, I can't hear you. Nile? Nile sea? You mean river? Yes. Okay. All right. The Nile river. Any idea about where it originates? The Nile? Which way the Nile flows? Upwards or downwards? Or, I mean, this way or this way? I shouldn't say upwards or downwards. I mean, this way or this way? This way. All right. Because some people might think it comes all the way from the Mediterranean into the Central Eastern Africa. No. It originates from here, the Horn of Africa. And nowadays, this issue, the headwaters of the Nile, is becoming a much more significant issue for Egypt and also for the region. Because it's one of the most important sources of not only, because for a culture, but also for energy generation. So no one, from the Egyptian perspective, no one should tamper with the waters, the free flow of waters of the Nile river. Because the Nile is not totally, entirely within the Egyptian territory. It originates from the Horn of Africa here. And therefore, the headwaters of the Nile river and the way it flows all the way. I mean, this is downstream, right? Peering, although when you look at the map, you see like an upstream. No, it is not. So the headwaters being here and the Egypt being a downstream riparian, it is heavily, if not entirely, but to a very great extent, it is heavily dependent on the waters of Nile, for its economy, agriculture, which is a great source of employment, and also, of course, providing food for the population which is not rich, and also for generating electricity. So therefore, any attempt to change the flow or to affect the flow of the Nile river would be something as hostile as any armed attack to any country. So therefore, a threat is not only perceived from the metric capabilities of other states. Of course, these are major source of threats in terms of how you make your analysis or how you sort of devise your perception. But here, the very waters of the Nile are the most important things, among other things, for the security of Egypt. Without Nile, Egypt is almost nothing because it's almost desert here. And if you have a chance to fly over this territory, you can see that both banks, I mean, right and left-hand sides of the Nile are just because of agriculture. It's all green, but the rest is desert. And not so much, well, except for some oil and gas reserves here, but this is not something that makes it significant in terms of oil and gas. Well, it somewhat exports, but not as much, of course, as any other Gulf countries or Saudi Arabia. So therefore, when it comes to threat perception, just a specific case like Egypt, now you have something which is not necessarily primarily militaristic, but something maybe even more significant than any meter threat because this is something that, in a sense, makes the Egyptian economic life, public life, political life, of course, dependent on the regime of the waters of the Nile river. Okay, let's give a break here and we'll continue with other countries.


So what were your impressions of LBJ before you took the role, not knowing that you would eventually play LBJ? You were seven years old when you took office. So you probably have recollections as a child. But what were your impressions of LBJ? You know, it's noted, but perhaps many people don't know this part of it, but Lyndon Johnson had a public persona when he spoke to the press that he put on. He felt it was more presidential if he had a more serious tone to it, but he really wasn't that way at all. He was a storyteller and a jokester, and he was fun to be with, and then you could turn it and be very serious and very intent and in your face and in your personal space. I didn't know any of that. When I was a boy and the assassination happened, it had an impact on me, a tremendous impact on me, not personally because I was only seven. So I didn't quite understand why this happened or what it meant, but I could see it reflected in my parents and all of the neighbors who huddled together as many people did and embraced each other and wept and consoled each other. And so I knew something was very important here, and I needed to pay attention. And so the president then was Lyndon Johnson, and listening to him and watching him, I always thought my impression of him was that he was a very soft-spoken, laconic, measured man, and that's what he wanted me to think and feel. So it was a big surprise to learn little tidbits of it as I grew up, and he really wasn't that way and all the stories about him. And then when I really started the research, I was on a roller coaster ride finding out about everything about Lyndon Johnson. Was there a great revelation in that discovery process? Was there one big revelation in that discovery process? Well the first thing that I thought of after I read Robert's script and fell in love with the mastery of it and just the wonderful construction of the script itself to support the story of this man. And I believe I asked him at the time, I said, do you think that he was such a champion for the civil rights movement because he truly believed it? Or did he think that this was the political move to make and it would set his legacy? And we discussed that and when I found out more, when I started my research, found out that he was in Cthulhu, Texas, teaching at a very, very poor school and these kids who literally dirt poor, my good farm were her kids and didn't speak the English and made the terrible mistake of being born poor. And the treatment that they received from the white people in the town and it resonated with Lyndon so deeply, the injustice of that because he knew them, he knew these kids and they were eager to learn and they obeyed and they wanted to be taught and to have them being derided and ridiculed and demeaned by people who didn't know them, it had a tremendous impact and I think without that experience he might not have been the absolute champion that he was for civil rights across the board.