words Well, I don't know about everybody else But I was having a debate over the weekend of when The appropriate time hold on hold on we just went live Roger I told you to warn me when we go live because we wanted to thank our patrons. It's thank you patron day. Thank you patrons So everybody who supports us on patreon we are always appreciative of but even more so on thank you patron day Patreon sort of getting the creators to all in the same day Talk about how thankful we are for you because Thanksgiving coming in here in the US and patrons a US based company But yeah, we absolutely want to add our voices to that as well So so thank you. Thank you. Thank you for five years almost of support at the end of January join January 23rd It'll be five years of our patreon That is made daily tech new show possible It's made so many other things possible like daily tech headlines and monthly video game briefing Bringing Sarah on the show bringing Roger on the show Having Jetty Josephson on the show and then go on to do even bigger and better things So you guys are amazing. Give yourself a pat on the back. Yeah And I think you're up for a round of vaccinations in about six months And go to the dentist I Thank you patrons Separate video to put up then never mind Roderick just wants everyone to stay healthy. It's okay. It's five years. That's what you at the You get a new It is and and we'll be there You know what else is coming up Thanksgiving oh, yes, it is in the US.  I am. Yeah. I uh, I was I would oh so before we thanked our patrons. I was Saying that I was having a debate with somebody over the weekend of when it is inappropriately early to put up Christmas decorations In my mind the day after Thanksgiving, it's fair game We put up a tree the day after Thanksgiving. You're on the early side, but it's fair game Anything before Thanksgiving. I'm not down with that No, I don't even like the fact that they start the commercials as soon as Halloween's over now Yeah, I won't if I won't engage holiday agnostic where they could apply to Thanksgiving Then I'm willing to be like, okay. I'll just pray. I guess this can be just a Thanksgiving commercial You know, but oh when it's sort of like the holiday season type thing Sitting down to share a meal at the holiday time Right, yeah There are Christmas lights in the background and a Christmas tree and all of that's like just give me some time people come on Yes, well, they don't really do that much of a Thanksgiving Display anymore because it gets Overlapped by Halloween And then as soon as the Halloween's over like you were saying there's I mean I saw as soon as they're cleaning the shelves of all the old not the old candy But the the Halloween candy a lot of the Christmas stuff was coming up didn't call it Christmas But you could tell because they're like Christmas trees right little decorations and Boxes to stick stuff into wrap Well, I mean Thanksgiving is It's a it's a food day, right? So sure there's you know the turkey and autumn colors and you know that whole thing but Christmas is more of like a ramp up and kids are into it because they know they're going to get presents I mean, I think what would they make you buy besides turkey and Stuffing and other decorations for the Thanksgiving table, I guess Well, uh, I'm thankful that we can do another show today. I am too So let's do it Sarah could you read line three today? Sure All right, we'll start in about 10 seconds or so So I can synchronize my watches All right, here we go and five four three two one Thanks, everyone who supports independent tech news directly if you're not already become a dTNS member at patreon.com This is the daily tech news for monday november 19th 2018 in los angeles. I'm tom merit and from studio feline I'm sarah lane and uh, I am roger shane the show's producer We are going to talk a little bit about the wall street journal report about apple Allegedly cutting back its production line and what that might mean. It certainly has hit the stock market a little bit Let's start with a few tech things. You should know Snap announced a new partner program to help advertisers find developers to create augmented reality lenses Snap's lens creative partner program has more than 30 certified creators listed at least at this time And it expects to have more than 100 in the next few months Instagram has patched a flaw that included a user's password in plain text As part of a url that you clicked to download your data They have a download your data function if you click that url the url had your password in it in plain text now That doesn't leak it out on the internet, but anybody who accessed your machine or maybe got into your browser history That could happen remotely would have been able to see that password That has been patched and affected users have been notified if you have been affected as they advise you you should change your password A little bit more instagram news The company is removing third-party apps from accounts that use these apps to gain in the authentic follows Or likes or comments or all three and other behavior that violates the company's policies And will now send users a warning to change their password to cut ties with these specific apps or quote See their instagram experienced impacted instagram tells tech crunch It also may limit access to certain features for example for these users yeah, so this is I think getting a lot of attention because the instagram fight for users is a is a serious game for many people and They may feel that it is unfair That they appear to be losing that game to others who use these apps to inflate their follower count Certainly there's the impact on the bottom line for people who get hired Or get branding deals based on how many followers they appear to have Which if they're inflated isn't it is sort of a bit. I don't know if it's actually fraud, but it's certainly misleading So so there's there's some some people crying you know Very very crying crying foul about this and very happy today that these other folks are getting cracked down on Other folks believe that this is just the way you play the game and it's unfair for instagram to crack down on Well, I think you know, we just talked about the fact that you know instagram itself is is trying to be uh, You know They they want users to be safe with With their passwords and the more third-party apps you have we've seen this go on with twitter with facebook All the social networks have have have had that same problem is the more of these third-party apps that people end up using and piping in information to to change their experience the weirder that security gets in some cases, uh, it's it's worse and It also I don't know it just illustrates the fact that these high inflated follower accounts instagram as well as other companies are realizing it doesn't really matter It doesn't help the user experience and the the sooner we kind of cut down on this idea of Uh inflated numbers somehow making you better of a person on the platform the better Yeah, and the the security issue with this comes directly From the fact that most of these apps are not authorized to access instagram in the way they would need to To operate your account. So you have to give them your password Uh, and sure some of them probably don't do anything with that password to log into instagram and follow people for you Which is a bit of a lot of people think is cheating but It also means they have your password and that right and it's something that instagram can't control Yeah, yeah, and and that's not a good thing for you to do So you definitely should not use third-party services that require that instagram is advising against that anyway um, but yeah, I I don't know. I want to say just don't use these things at all But I get where if you're in that that game where you need to get those brand deals And you're fighting against other people who are using this it starts to sound like drug use in sports, right? Well, I didn't want to do it, but it was the only way to to compete win yeah This week amazon echoes are going to be able to access skype calling Including video calling if you're using like the echo show It also includes support for skype out That means you could tell your echo to use skype to call a landline or a mobile phone anybody with a phone number I think this is very interesting because microsoft has been playing nice with amazon quite a bit There's cortana integration with alexa and the idea that now skype could be used for calling actually solves a problem for amazon because amazon can in fact Make calls on its own But now it can access a lot of things it wouldn't be able to access through a skype account and do video calls which makes it kind of compete with the uh the facebook portal plus And and google's use of duo on on on google. So I I think this is one of those examples of a partnership that you might not have expected to happen But really is good for both companies Do you make video skype calls that aren't uh podcast related? That's a good question. Uh, yeah every once in a while I will call with somebody Like to have a meeting or or or discuss something and they'll want to have video on just so we can see each other um But but yeah, I I generally end up using zoom or or google hangouts if it's that kind of situation more often than skype these days I don't know roger I I don't use skype. Well, I don't really use skype very regularly these days But I you know anytime anybody wants to connect that way. It's perfectly fine I mean it it works it works great if I had an echo show And yeah, it was maybe something where if tom and I wanted to share some screens and collaborate on something That makes a lot of sense, particularly if we don't have those Is one of those things I think would be perfect for my parents Because I often do either skype or through google hangout to To do the parent or grandparent grandchild interaction, you know from a long distance and I had to remote into my dad's desktop and set it up on his end In order for me to get it working If he could get something where he could just say like blah blah blah Connect and it does and he doesn't have to worry about the the technical aspect of actually connect Even his phone is like a giant question mark like he has literally half a dozen duplicate you know shortcuts of the same apps and I can't even get him to figure out how to delete his own voicemail messages, so This is a very low barrier of entry item And I think that would be great for people who are either technophobic or just don't want to be bothered Understanding how to do it. I just say connect to my kids through skype and it does like call up tom Does it for me don't have to worry about it. You have to buy an echo show You have to get a skype account like there's a barrier to entry But I guess once it's set up once it's it's one of those things I set up on Thanksgiving or You know christmas or new year's day Say bye to the folks and I can head back and not worry about it for a year The whole smart display too thing even though you can say you could just you know do it on your phone What you know phones are already mobile and it's always with you I hate to whether it's facetime or skype or Google hangouts or whatever I hate holding my phone and I don't really have like a nice little tripod where my phone goes where When I want to video chat with people but it does come in handy So I think the smart display having a little area where that's where you do that It's kind of a throwback, but it actually makes more sense to me Yeah, I the first thing I thought was oh, I could uh call into someone's cooking show podcast From my kitchen where I have my echo show and do cooking things that'll never happen It might show me reported a net profit in q3 beating analysts estimates sales growth in uh, India and europe helped drive the 2.48 billion won profit Which turned around an 8 billion won loss for the same quarter last year Xiaomi announced it'll make and sell phones under the me2 brand Meastew is best known for a photo app popular among young women. I have not heard of this But I guess i'm not young enough.  Yeah, no Were you not maybe this broke before you joined the show back in october? But this was a hot app for a week or two I don't know it It's big Popular effect is to smooth your skin out Controversy about whether it should be popular or not because it just it makes you look like you have a naturally smooth skin and it can No, I mean that's any filter, you know Look it up. This one works really really well and it makes your eyes bigger and it's it basically I mean that's like It emphasizes all Okay, but if you're a young person using me too and you hear old people like us saying well, it's just like snapchat They're gonna roll their eyes and go and be like no not even I got you I got you. Um, and and and so I think this is smart for xiaomi to say Let's start making a brand. Let's start making a phone under this brand and sell to all those those youngsters Who are who love that app? The same way that they're making a gaming phone and other branded phones that are separate from xiaomi Which is seen as a bargain brand no matter what they do Hmm And it's it's uh good news for for xiaomi and what we'll talk about for apple is a rocky market making smartphones these these days Speaking of apple tim cook told axios on hbo that he thinks google search engine is the best And believes privacy protections and safari make up for the deficiencies and privacy protections from google I mean they were basically saying look tim cook You've said you've called google out for not protecting people's privacy But you take several billions of dollars from them to be the default app and or the default search engine for safari How do you reconcile those two statements? And he's like well, they're the best search engine And we think we can protect people's privacy through the browser He also repeated his opinion that he said before the government regulation is probably needed to protect privacy saying I'm a big believer in the free market, but we have to admit when the free market's not working How about that, huh? How about that free market, huh? Well, it's it's very interesting because this is one of those situations where a market or or the marketplace should say marketplace Of a particular area of the market so matured that it actually would help businesses If there was government regulation, so everyone would be on the same page instead of working at Ostensibly toward the same goal, but maybe at the same time cross purposes where well, you know, I don't want to be on their platform So I'm gonna change things here If you have government rules that says you do a b and c and you can't do e or f Everyone's okay fine. Those are guidelines or not guidelines. Those are the regulations We can work with that and we can make something that's effective and not so scattershot Yeah, I We've we've talked over that that aspect of things before about where regulation would be necessary how it would do the most good Uh, I I think that's not controversial for him to say at this point. Uh, I think it is interesting That uh for axios to hold him his feet to the fire to say like, okay You want us to believe that you're so much more involved in protecting people's privacy Why don't you use duck duck go? And that's not what axios actually said, but that's my question You know, yes, you get less money from google But duck duck go is a very good search engine that will protect people's privacy. So you're saying the money and The marginal improvement in service from google is worth more than privacy That that is that is sort of the equation that's being put out here by tim kurt So there I mean is this I don't know the fact that What stood out to me is is it a big deal that tim cooks says that google search engine is the best out there I mean, I think that apple has known that for some time the fact that defense, right? Sure He's he's saying that to defend the fact that he chose it. Oh, we chose it because it's the best But yeah, apple doesn't have a competing search engine. So that's an easy thing to say I don't think anyone disagrees with him that they're you know, that google is the best search engine as far as finding things It's just that apple and google compete on other stuff maps for example. It's it's it's I don't know it's I guess it's true. It's not that surprising that he would say that A joint study from temisek holdings and google estimates that southeast asia's internet economy will pass 240 billion dollars by the year 2025 The latest version of the report issued monday includes food delivery Subscription music and video on demand alongside previously included sectors like e-commerce travel and online media e-commerce business from lasada shoppy and tocopedia are noted as leading developments in the sector The report also estimates that gojek and grab will push ride hailing to become a 30 billion dollar sector on its own By 2025 the report covers indonesia, malaysia, the philippine, singapore, thailand and vietnam Yeah, I wanted to cover this today particularly because of those Countries, I think a lot of times when you hear about asia and the asian market you immediately think china Maybe you think japan korea Uh, and you might think broadly about You know southeast asia as far as singapore, maybe or maybe even indonesia But if you just limit it to indonesia, malaysia, philippine, singapore, thailand and vietnam That is a huge market that is only getting bigger and it's not dominated We always get the people who say, you know, why can't you just stop covering google apple facebook amazon all the time? Uh, well, here you go. Here's a market where those companies are not the big companies And it's not china where china keeps those companies out This these are these are markets where google facebook and amazon and everybody else are competing But some of the biggest companies are lazata, which is owned by alibaba a chinese company Uh and and shopee and tokopedia Uh the the ride hailing business uber has not been able to succeed in the ride hailing business there grab Has taken that away And this is a growing market whether it's a self-sustaining market Or not if it starts to feel headwinds from the united states in china for various reasons is interesting But this study which is funded by google mind you In part uh says no, it's this this is the market's going to stay vibrant till 2025 It's it's crazy to me that uh, so many of these these household names depending on where you live Are names that someone in the u.s. Would never have heard of before Yeah, I think that's important for people in the u.s. To get used to is that A household name that you have isn't the household name everywhere Around the world and it actually doesn't mean the same thing even if it is right because google for instance Is is a bigger search engine in europe than it is in the united states Just and and chrome I think is is I don't want to say that about chrome But I know that the market dominance in europe is bigger for google in a lot of sectors Then it is in the united states Which is one of the reasons that you see europe more concerned with antitrust Movement against google so good good stuff to uh to take a look at uh and and keep an eye on uh, especially When your your news is not only just dominated by the u.s. Often. It's dominated by chinese names as well Folks, if you want to get all the tech headlines each day in about five minutes Be sure to subscribe to daily tech headlines dot com All right, we're going to talk about that apple story But I want to throw some things out as as ground rules things to know going into this story These are important to remember apple has never competed on price. That's never been its deal Apple values high average revenue per device. That's how they've been making their money Cutting a production order is different Than slowing sales. This is one to really really focus on Lots of things can contribute to changes in supply chain orders It could be that you just estimated the market wrong. It could be that a particular retailer Uh deal fell through. Uh, it could be that you just messed up the supply chain math Uh, and and you're like, oh wait a minute. That's the wrong number of of units to make even giving what we our estimates were So it's not get a given that a supply chain order change has to do with declining sales We've been here before last year There were reports of production cuts and the iphone 10 went on to be by counterpoint research's estimate the most popular phone in the world So a production cut doesn't mean That in the past iphone's haven't sold well And it shouldn't be a surprise apple reported fewer units than expected sold last quarter So maybe they would be adjusting their production because of anticipated sales chains Although they also had a 20 revenue rise last quarter They also said they will no longer report unit sales separately So they're trying to get you away from thinking about unit sales as a measure of their own success And background for all of this chinese demand for smartphones has been weakening overall You've got saturated markets in the us and europe and it looks like china's starting to get saturated as well Okay, here's the news. I'm not doing the inverted pyramid today. We're doing the bell curve That's the things you need to know the news is the wall street journal has sources Saying that apple has cut production orders For all three new iphone models the increased number of models made it harder to predict demand is what some of the sources say The fact that you've got Six models out there right you've got the three new models You've got old the old iphone 8 and the old iphone 10 plus the iphone 7 Uh, that's caused Uh complexity in the supply chain that goes back to what I said about supply chain Not always being changed because of sales But demand has also been lower than expected according to other sources. So maybe it is Having to do with that Particularly apple cut the iphone 10 r production by a third So they they did adjust 10 s and 10 s plus down But the iphone 10 r the affordable one seems to be the one that they were really doing a course correction with So given all of that all my caveats and the facts on the from the wall street journal article What do we think's going on here? Well, it does not surprise me that apple would not want um To separate its unit prices the fact that it's like, okay, we got a lot of models We sell a lot of iphone's we'll just go with that one big conglomerate number. That makes sense to me Uh, the fact that the 10 r was cut by a third Uh leads me to believe this is more than just apple saying, okay Our numbers were maybe a little high and you know, we're just adjusting a little bit based on based on You know, how the market is fluctuating. That's a pretty big cut I mean it it and I am not conversant enough with supply chain logistics And maybe someone in the audience really does work in supply chain and can say well Here are the reasons why it could be a big cut that has nothing to do with anticipated sales But i'm with you that's a real big cut if you don't if you think you're going to sell the same amount of iphone 10 r's Uh that you thought you were going to sell and the 10 r is the 749 dollar one. That's what it starts at right So it's still not a discount phone by any stretch. It puts it below other flagship phones. It is more Uh, it is less expensive than the note 9. Uh than the wall way made 20 than the pixel 3 Only buy a little bit with the pixel 3 Uh the lgv 40 thing q the xperia xc 3 though. It's cheaper than all of those right, but it's also Not cheap Right, it's not it The iphone 7 is the cheap model that one's 449 dollars But if you go to a market like india, which is a fast growing market for phones The xiaomi mi 8 is a flagship phone for the equivalent of 421 dollars The wall way honor 8x 209 dollars the most popular phones in india right now are the mid-range phones the redmi 5a and the samsung galaxy j7 nxt uh, so apple really i mean the iphone 7 kind of competes on price there Uh roughly speaking and i know the prices are a little different in india But apple's not making up any ground in india right now. The china market is stalling They're doing fine in the us in europe So i guess yeah, if you back all that out It it doesn't surprise me that maybe they thought the iphone 10 r would be an aspirational phone for the mid tier not Well, and we were talking about this before the show when we were kind of kicking around this this discussion topic is Where least i was at what point does apple finally say okay? The world doesn't care that we're apple and that's what you know, that's why every You know phone of ours that might be a mid-range phone, you know call the 10 r a mid-range phone To to we can get away with this uh premium price You know at what point does apple actually have to compete on price because the company never has before not with smartphones Well, what's interesting this actually kind of ties in with the last story about what you were saying that we take a very You know a very north american very euro centric a very developed country view point on how people consume And what the indian market shows is that people do want functional phones? But there is a price sensitivity To them that doesn't Doesn't necessarily correlate to what apple has been experiencing even in the chinese market I mean You know even though the the population that that's considered middle class is still a small portion Of the chinese population i mean you're talking you know population 1.4 billion people So it's a big chunk that you're talking 100 million people So you do have a sizable market, but if you're trying to sell into an emergency emerging or a middle income country Those those kinds of calculus about where you spend your dollars on and what you get out of it Is going to be a little different right in the same way that uber thought they could go into southeast asia And it's like well it worked everywhere Pardon me it worked everywhere else should work here No because people take transit differently. They take different types of transit They need it for different things and so You know for a lot of these You know xiaomi phones samsung is that they fit that niche in fact samsung has a huge product catalog to kind of It's almost like it's almost like a gm or Toyota They have a car that fits every budget they have a phone that fits every budget It's very staircase whereas apple just has like You know it has like the three steps and then you get a big jump down and then you get you know Three smaller ones at the bottom. There isn't that kind of middle section where everyone is coalescing Well, but hold on this goes back to my caveats. Apple doesn't care about that They don't want to be samsung with a phone at every price point. They want to be the aspirational phone They want to be the phone that people buy when they do have the money and they've succeeded that way xiaomi Is showing that you can take your your your you go out of your market and win They're winning in india. They're doing well in europe right so and those are very different markets than china Apple has done very well in china. So I don't think it's about price point particularly and I don't think it's about Uh operating in another market for apple I do think it's about the fact that there's a mismatch between their business model and where these Next markets are for them with china Uh, sort of slowing faster than people expected I think apple thought will have time to sell up in china grow our business there To the point that we'll be able to get the indian market ready for these higher priced phones And and be buying phones there and there's a gap because they're not getting as many sales out of china And the indian market isn't to the point where they're ready to spend that extra money just to get that apple brand Uh, and we can decide that maybe the apple brand isn't as strong as it was But I think it still is I mean my wife watches all these chinese dramas And there's apple products all over them because that's the aspiration. That's what you want to have You want to have that sexy phone? Having an apple logo on it is an indication of that. So I don't think they've lost that I think the market isn't cooperating with the trajectory they hoped to be on I I totally agree with you the thing with aspirational phones is and i'm going to use a car analogy BMWs are an aspirational car for a lot of people People want one but they can't afford this year's model. What do they do? They will buy Last years or two years behind it will still be BMW in this case is still be an iphone may not be the latest one But you still get that aspirational phone without necessarily Where they made plenty of money because people bought older iPhones And they actually and the iphone 10 sold just fine and that may be what happens again for apple They sell plenty of iphone 7s in emerging markets and they sell just as many iphone 10s as they they expected to and they're fine You know who else is fine everyone in our subreddit. Thanks to everybody who participates You can submit stories and vote on them at daily tech news show dot reddit.com We are also on facebook hang out with us there facebook.com slash groups slash daily tech news show All right, let's check in with chris christensen amateur traveler who's sharing some news out of japan About travel assisted by robots. This is chris christensen from amateur traveler with another tech in travel minute and robots They're doing a test where they've done a test by the time you hear this at the osaka in japan Railway station with an ai robot which has knowledge of different tourist destinations and train schedules This is in japanese and english and with written words on the screens So both locals and foreigners can use this to maneuver through the train station or to get to specific tourist destinations apparently they're also testing this in kyoto at the train station and unfortunately Both of these tests were just before I have a trip scheduled to both kyoto and osaka So no robots in my future. I'm chris christensen from amateur traveler Yeah, I saw actually one of the uh, the soft bank, uh robots when I went I traveled to tokyo one time But it was mobbed. I couldn't use it because everybody was was like, oh check out the robot Like it wasn't really that useful But i've seen no robots at any railway stations in japan But I have definitely even though the the rail system is wonderful throughout the country I have definitely been the osaka train station kyoto as well and and there are there Depending on how vast the train station is it could be very confusing. Yeah, I the osaka one. I remember managing okay Maybe I just didn't have to do anything very complicated. But man the kyoto station is massive It has a whole big department store in it and everything so I could have used some robot help there for sure Right. Well chris, uh get back to us when you uh when you do uh encounter the robots and let us know how they go And we'll take a look at the mailbag Yeah, you know, so michael, uh, I thought that this was good because we're coming up on some of our holiday special shows And one of those shows is always the predictions that we have for the for the coming year michael says happy 13th anniversary to that prediction show I made the suggestion back in 2005 and the buzz out loud lounge and it makes me happy that the tradition is still going Have you ever done a special where you replayed predictions from 10 years ago to see how accurate or how not accurate those predictions turned out? No, that's a cool idea. I know We could we could definitely maybe see if we could get veronica or molly Around for for a special. I don't know if we'll do it this year or not But that's a fantastic idea michael and once we do it 10 years later. You can remind us One that suggested that as well. He's got other Ideas 13 years going strong michael's on the case No, that's good though because we do look at predictions from a year ago But a decade that changes things somewhat No, it'd be fun to because a lot of times what happens is you'll predict something It doesn't happen that next year, but it does happen like two years later after that You never get to go back and be like I was just ahead of my time Uh, yes. Well, uh, thanks to our patrons at patreon.com slash dtns For supporting us. It's patron. Thank you day And we cannot thank you enough You guys keep us independent. We're independent tech news We do have commercials in our public feed But we don't know what they are and they make up less than I don't know Less than 90 less than 10 of what keeps this show on the air So if you want commercial free versions of dtns And if you want to support the show directly and keep us independent support us at patreon.com slash dtns Also, david michael who runs the dtns store for us Wanted me to let you know that starting midnight thursday until midnight monday you can use the code gobble gobble to get 15 off anything we sell at daily tech news show dot com slash store also starting thursday He's going to bundle the classic dtns logo t-shirt mug and hat together for 50 bucks That saves you 10 bucks over buying them individually Again, the code gobble gobble gets you 15 off anything at daily tech news show dot com slash store Our email address is feedback at daily tech news show dot com keep the feedback coming We love hearing from you We're also live monday through friday at 4 30 p.m eastern 21 30 utc And you can find out more at daily tech news show dot com slash live back tomorrow with patrick bezia talk to you then This show is part of the frog pants network get more at frog pants dot com Diamond club hopes you have enjoyed this program What do you think sam did you enjoy that program? He says, yeah, I did diamond hope sam enjoyed that program. He says I'm into it Are you looking at weirdo I can show you guys Yeah, good stuff. Good stuff good analysis of the apples Apples to apples test to test Yes, well apples apples oranges to oranges Instagram fights for the users Are you giving us titles? Yes, sorry The apples oranges to oranges I couldn't tell if that was a title or not. Oh, no, sorry I was just that was just roger being clever That was the end roger being clothes tag roger being clever open tag titles instagram fights for the user got it. Yes um The vulture circle the vulture circle apple again Don't you want the park amongst ourselves while you review them? um There's seven in here Oh, not that many No, you're in vote folks Actually only one person voted fake a wish foundation I don't understand that one. I don't either Which show it goes with it's funny Yeah uh Yeah Well, all right apples cutting production Why apples cutting iphone production? How about that sure Or um apple slices its production But we don't Why apples slicing iphone production? Yeah, why apple slicing iphone production? um Yes, I like that one. Uh, it reminds me of afterschool snacks um I don't know if you guys Had what it was the afterschool snack was always It was uh sliced apples with peanut butter. Hmm or um sliced uh celery with cream cheese. Oh I had both those as snacks, but they weren't particularly afterschool snacks for me Yeah, I don't know why i'm calling them afterschool snacks I guess I just because I was like at the babysitters and that's what we would get Um, but uh, so it reminds me of afterschool stuff So well something that's like it's not lunch. It's not dinner I just had a bag of uh barbecue corn chips Oh It's probably something I would have liked a lot as a kid I mean now that I think of celery and cream cheese. I'm like, how is that a snack yuck, but it as a kid I was like, this is like super normal and yummy. That's what I ate my uh barbecue corn chips with cream cheese Oh Like they used to sell little uh, they used to sell I think they still might but uh, philadelphia cream cheese They came in the little flat silver Kind of uh, oh, yeah, they still have those so I would buy one of those in the bag I just kind of eat them on the way home. Huh I mean that that actually sounds good. Maybe I just don't eat enough celery these days I had a lot of that So you always hear about two like raw celery is supposed to eat and you're supposed to wash it So that's like, I don't know if we're really getting Washing celery or the some same in that way. Yeah, you want to buy a wash or or wash it yourself. That's true. Yeah. Yeah You can get those wash nibs to carrot nibblets.  Yeah, because you're exactly you're over washing too much You don't have enough to inoculate you you need more germs. That's your problem, Roger. It's you clean Um, no, I always buy the like pre-washed uh spinach or arugula or you know salad mix or whatever and I don't wash that Spinach spinach makes sense Because if you ever tried to wash spin spinach Grows very close to the ground if you pick it up and you wash it a lot of sand and dirt in it like a lot Right down by the stems particularly like not so much the upper leaves. I'll wash the whole thing You have to but you know, it depends on how they pick them and pack them by the stems. You'll see a lot of dirt But but but the pre-washed You know packets, you know, and they'll say like washed, you know, triple washed or whatever It's like, I don't know. It seems pretty washed to me. I don't ever wash that stuff again I don't know if I should probably washing it better than I would Right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, you're never getting like a little like dirt green and you're so let me ask you this Since you say it since you mentioned that tom I'm gonna ask you and sarah when you wash grapes. How do you wash grapes? Seems like a trick question that I'm gonna get I put so I I If I'm washing grapes, it's because I've bought a bunch of grapes. Yes, and I put them in a colander And then I wash them and I let them, you know dry sometimes I might pat a little with paper towel Yeah, I actually pretty close to what I do. I do the same thing. I put them in a colander I turn them around wash them up and then I put them on a paper towel to dry So do you pluck them from the stems or you leave them on the stem?  I mean, that's how the emperors of Rome guys Plucking a grape from a stem is not work No, but but isn't it nicer if you just have a big bowl of grapes that are unplugged and then you know As long as you dry them and you store them on the upper tier of your refrigerator You're fine for for for a few days And then like, you know, if I have a late night snack and I want something healthy But has enough juice. I don't need to drink water Spray up like a fistful of grapes You can get you can get around to having that glass of water if you eat enough grapes It's it's that moment where you just want to eat something and you don't want to work at it And you end up eating something bad because it's easier that having that bowl of grapes would be good Okay, so next question red or green And But I go I like to I like to go red because I think they're prettier, but they don't really taste any different to me They don't taste that much different red the green the green thompson grapes can be juicier I do I do avoid the grapes with the really thick skin. I avoid the grapes of wrath Because they get any Not a steinbeck fan. No, uh, actually That's one of my favorite books, but neither here nor there. I Don't eat grapes that often. I'll be honest. I love them. I don't either I think they're really good for regularity Oh, yeah Grapes are very high in sugar though. Yeah, they're a sweet fruit Um, you know depending on dietary stuff a lot of people actually avoid them for that reason See, I love having grapes on hand because I like cheese and crackers And if you add some grapes to a little cheese and cracker plate, it just looks so nice Handful of almonds then you've got it got a whole thing You're a little uh, a little juice break when you're eating your cheese and crackers. It's an palette cleanser Yeah, where you do a little brie on the grape That's good, too But I don't eat a lot of like I don't need a lot of dessert things. I don't eat like Cake or ice cream or something in the evenings. I just eat like fruit me either.  Yeah, yeah, you get that little boost and then What do we want fructose? What do we don't want fructose?  I'm trying to hear my chinese drama Yeah, they've all got iphone They're all got iphone Well, I don't know about your neck of the woods everybody, but mine is Pretty gloomy kind of looks like rain even yeah, we're supposed to get rain here Wednesday. Oh really? Oh good Well, my mom is coming into town tomorrow. She's going to be here through Um the Thanksgiving holiday. So well, that's great. Yeah just in time for some rain Which I haven't seen since I've lived here So I don't even know what rain feels like here a week ago They were predicting the rain would start Tuesday and last all the way through sunday And I was like, oh that's really going to test my new roof But we need the rain Then it kept smaller and smaller until this morning I looked and it was like rain on wednesday with a 10 chance thursday So it really shrunk down. I wouldn't be surprised if it keeps Wednesday was supposed to be rainy according to weather.com Wednesday in my area is now mostly sunny Oh, wow. Well, I yeah, I'm with utah. I mean if it rained Every day for the next month. I would not complain. However I was by russians. Yeah If you're roof leaks, then you can complain but yeah, I don't know mom in town new neighborhood I want to walk around it would just be like great to not have to be under a Under a roof Most of the weekend just If you're your forecast not having rain, it makes me think we're not even going to get it It's just not going man. I really just need it. So I I hate watering the lawn Even if even if I have automatic sprinklers, I hate the process It just seems like I just want nature to take care of it for like at least one season Well, I hate having to pay for putting water on a lawn. I'm with you Yeah, but I'm always go desert landscaping. Yes, it's it's not cheap Yeah Pace for itself though because once you yeah, it's it but having replaced a lot of things lately I'm probably not going to do I was thinking about that it's expensive But also my neighbor had a dirt like front yard like there's like screw it We're not going to water this for because it was the middle of the the drought like four years ago And I was talking to him and then the city just came around and finally said yeah Put something in there. Yeah, but that's your city. My city is not so picky So we're curious But if you do desert landscaping, it's it that's allowed. There are a couple people on my block that have it I'm going to put a gavi China gavi plants Well, yeah, you do you do like sand and rock with some some like mini palms and agaves and some other succulents Looks nice. It doesn't use much water. My wife loves that word succulents I've had two friends of mine send me succulents in the mail as housewarming presents, which was very nice of them That was nice and in both cases I wrote I texted them us you see and then Sent that and then wrote sorry your succulents arrived is what I meant to type Use the joke twice, huh? Well, yeah now they know to seek it out I had no it's though Where are those plants that you can get that you hang that are like you just need to miss them like air plants That's what I always call them Wait, no, that's the thing They'd usually know they kind of just exist Usually, which is why they're good for like little hanging things because they so would love that for a Friday lawn like something I don't ever have you want an air fern for your lawn That'd be great. I mean you do have to pay attention to them. You just don't water them normally I'll see you next time on occasion as I walk by. Yeah, you're looking good Looking good air fern nice job Don't want the bedbugs bite dead and you stem awesome There are some um technology engineering and math there are a lot of um Very creative front lawns Front landscaping situations Around my neighborhood and some of them. Yeah, there's there are a few that are very succulent heavy And they're always the nicest, you know, and they often have kind of that that Kind of stare tear type of a thing. Um, they look really nice Yeah, but again, it's a certain style. Some people want a lawn or something else. Well, I don't I think it depends on, you know, what are the front windows looking at?  It's it's I do a tree Look, I I get that it's really nice to look out over a thick field of green grass It is lovely. I don't get relaxed when I look at it slowly dying and then yeah paying for the water to keep it green. That's yeah, it's not being relaxing at that point Yeah Poor vote all I see is a summer full of mowing lawns And then taking care of just why why would you have it?  You gotta go back and fight You know, he'd be he'd be out there mowing for hours And that just seemed normal to me and now I'm like I can't imagine My dad would never let us mow the front lawn But he'd let us mow the back lawn because the back was the largest part of it But I don't think he wanted the neighbors to see us Mowing right, right Which I think is hilarious because he usually didn't care much about what other people thought So I'm not sure what what is I mean yards are great If you have like pets that you want to let let run out or kids run around but I don't have a rear lawn. I just have a front. It's too narrow to really do anything except Make sure it doesn't die Oh lawns My little backyard doesn't actually Hold on. Oh, sorry because it's look at the clock. Oh I'm sorry. It's time to say they're leaving the video people are leaving. We have to wish them. Goodbye. Thank you for for coming Thank you for staying and watching some leftovers with you It's we won't eat at all and come back tomorrow Audio with grapes in hand grapes for you


The reason why we've been here the last couple of days is to pay tribute to Francis Alloté, who was a mathematician and a physicist, and also to revive something known as the African Physical Society, which is something that he founded about a decade ago. So we collected about 35 African scientists, as well as some scientists from Europe and the United States, to basically try and re-jalt this society, to hear about all the great science that's going on in physics, from the different scientists from Africa. Basically, it's an opportunity for African scientists to network and also to discuss a pathway for the future. Professional societies are an important role, no matter the profession. And pan-African professional societies are important because science really has no borders. And by pan-African, I mean not only the continent, but diaspora all around the globe. So professional societies, if they organize the profession, they organize conferences and publish accounts of the profession. So in our case, we're talking about scientific research. This is the way scientists communicate. It's the way every profession communicates through the written word, the journals, and through personal connections, which are forged at conferences. There are many challenges that physicists face on the African continent. The continent, of course, is rather big. And there isn't enough opportunity for scientists to get together to talk about problems that are common to us all. And scientists from the various different parts of Africa really do have common concerns and common challenges. And if we can get together to talk about these at the very least, that's the first step toward resolving these issues. This symposium was very interesting. I had a lot of different perspectives about what has been done before, because this is something new. As I said, I'm just graduating from the PhD. I got to interact with professors who were there before, when the African Physical Society was created. And it gives me different perspectives about the association, about where we want it to go. The young African scientists need a forum and a venue where they can share their science, not only at the international level, but at an African level. African scientists need a forum where they can network with other African scientists. And having a society is a cohesive way, where in one umbrella, you can get together people to discuss science. And this is something that happens all over the world. You know, you have the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society, the European Physical Society. And so it seemed natural that with a critical mass of science developing, and in particular a place like Kigali, this would be the natural thing to do. It's great to be here. The Congress was great. We had a mix of young and old people. And I'm really looking forward to the future of science in Africa.


Photochromic switches that can transmit information quickly have become increasingly popular in material science over the past few decades. While some photochromic materials can switch in under 100 of nanoseconds using other chromophores like spiroprants, achieving this speed with azobenzines remains challenging. This review discusses the latest advances in azobenzines, focusing on their structural features and how they relate to the thermal sister transase summarization process. Additionally, the kinetics and mechanisms behind the thermal backase summarization are explored as a way to achieve faster ASO derivatives. This article was authored by Haume Garcia-Marros and Dolores Velasco.


Welcome folks, we have the Dow Industries trading up $150, we get the Nasdaq up $86, S&P up $19, Gold contract up $7.70, trading at $19.47 an ounce, we have Silver up $0.03, $0.24, $0.62 an ounce, oil up $0.32, $0.80, $0.15 a barrel, notes and bonds, a 10-year note, up $0.76, trade in $109.21, a 30 is up $6 at $119.30 and $Kingdala, $Kingdala is down $19.60, trade in $104.057, the Euro is at $108, the Anstrate at $146, the British Pound is at $126 to $1.00. We get over and take a look at the spy folks, it is grinding higher, you know, you have light volume, but we did on here on Friday, you rejected lower price as you went into the highs of the lows, of the last deal down, so bottom line, that is saying that we still want higher price, you can also come into window dressing, come into the holiday, this market wants higher price, so somehow it is going to, you know, if we look at the spy, my take is this is the $446.27 is going to get hit, that is in the spy, if we go into the cues, we take a look at the cues, same type of setup in the cues, the cues rejected lower price on Friday, you know, if you have the light volume here today, no doubt, but you know, what is game out here in the cues is like $373, and right now you are at $365. We go to notes and bonds, my take, notes, bonds, off the lows, we will go to the dollar in a second, but this note and bond market, bottom line, you will start building cars, you know, what happened last week, we got into a low, rejected lower price, had a sign of strength, came back Friday, tested a sign of strength with light of volume, this is saying like the 10-year right now wants to get to this $111.29, right now you are at $109.21, and I suspect the top out, which is going to be really intriguing if this is the case, okay, the bottom line, you know, we topped, well, we will find out whether we topped, but $4.338, and right now you are at $4.208, we go to the dollar, we take a look at the dollar, and the dollar is still messing around with this swing point. Bottom line is that what you have out here, the swing, try to spike the swing, the swing you are talking about is the 104.699, it got to a price point of 104.447, today you really get a sideways move, my take is that you are going to go right back down the other side, this is a much larger consolidation, and I believe we are going to go to the lower end of that consolidation, right now, stay right there folks, come right back.


Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you all very much. And good afternoon and welcome to the White House Complex. That's what we call these buildings, the White House Complex. It's also what you get when you've been around here working here too long. I'm glad to have this chance to meet with you today. As a group of leaders deeply committed to the defense of freedom, I know you understand the truth of what Edmund Burke said over two centuries ago, when bad men combine, the good must associate, else they will fall one by one an unpitted sacrifice in a contemptible struggle. Well, that statement has become even more urgently true today. There's a vote coming up in Congress about most importance. And I have to tell you, I need your understanding and support. I'm talking about our request for $100 million in aid to the Democratic-resistant forces in Nicaragua. Nicaragua may seem a small country far away, and why some wonder should we care what's happening there? Why should we spend $100 million on someone else's fight? Well, I want to talk about why we must care what the United States has not only a moral but a strategic interest in supporting freedom in Central America. There are many things at stake in this vote, the hopes of the Nicaraguan people to live in freedom and democracy, the hopes of the people of Central and South America to live in peace free from communist subversion. But there's another issue that overrides all others, the national security of the United States. There's no mistake. If we fail to provide timely assistance now, if we abandon our allies in freedom and allow the communists to establish a permanent beachhead in the American mainland, we will be living with the consequences for decades to come. There's been a lot of misinformation floating around about the true character of the Sandinista regime. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call it disinformation. I sometimes wonder why people don't just listen to what these communists themselves say because when they're not up here in Washington lobby in Congress, they're quite open about their true intentions. For instance, take their ties to terrorist groups in the Middle East. Those ties go back more than a decade and a half. Thomas Bohé, Nicaragua's minister of interior, was one of many Sandinista communists to train in PLO camps in Lebanon and Syria and Libya. To quote Bohé's own words, we say to our brother Arafat that Nicaragua is his land, and the PLO cause is the cause of the Sandinistas. Yasser Arafat returned the compliment saying, the triumph of the Nicaraguans is the PLO's triumph. We'll listen to what the Sandinista communists say about Gaddafi, whom they call, quote, our great friend. Bohé again, our friendship with Libya is eternal. Libya is a people which in accordance with our experience has developed solidarity without frontiers. Remember that one, solidarity without frontiers. Gaddafi, meanwhile, has been openly sending them millions of dollars of arms because he says the Nicaraguan communists fight with Libya. They fight America, he put it, on its own ground. The Sandinistas have also drawn close to the Iranians. Just last year, the Iranian prime minister, who's thought to control Iran's terrorist apparatus, said to Daniel Ortega, and I quote again, we consider your revolutionary country as our own home. The Sandinista communists have matched their words with actions, joining the PLO in terrorist assaults in the Middle East, including the attempted overthrow of the Hussein government and the hijacking of an LLR airliner. The Sandinista terrorist killed in that LL hijacking. Patrick Arguejo Ryan is revered as a hero by the Nicaraguan government. They even named a large power dam after him. The Nicaraguan communists claim that they're not anti-Semitic, they're just anti-Zionist. Well, as anti-Zionists, they desecrated Monagwa synagogue and drove the small Jewish community into exile. Isaac Stavisky, who was there, tells us of the anti-Jewish Sandinista graffiti, death to the Jewish pigs with red and black FSLN initials next to it, and beware Sandinista justice. Well, what is the official Sandinista position on this persecution of the Jewish community? The Jews, they say, have a quote, bourgeois mentality that prevented them from adjusting to communism. I'll buy that kind of a bourgeois mentality anytime. Monagwa has also rolled out the welcome mat for terrorists from around the world, not just Cubans, Bulgarians, Libyans, PLO, and Iranians, but members of the Badr Meinhof gang, the Basque ETA, and the Italian Red Brigade. These criminals and lunatics now camp out on the doorstep of the United States. Let's not kid ourselves. The Sandinistas are avowed, dedicated communists, and communists since the days of Lenin have advocated terrorism as a legitimate means to attain political ends. Incidentally, Mr. Lenin's picture is quite prominent on new issues of stamps, postage stamps, in Nicaragua. The Sandinistas are allowed to consolidate their hold on Nicaragua. We'll have a permanent staging ground for terrorism, a home away from home for Gaddafi, Arafat, and the Ayatollah, just three hours by air from the U.S. border. The recent terrorist attack on the Palace of Justice in Colombia, in which the Sandinista communists were implicated, is just the beginning. The first rumblings of a communist earthquake that could overrun Latin America. The prime ministers of nine of the Caribbean island nations, when I was in Grenada just a week or two ago, told me that Nicaragua represented the greatest threat to their freedom and democracy, and they brought up the subject to me. They begged us to continue aiding the freedom fighters. Some still insist that the Sandinistas are only nationalists. The Sandinistas themselves laugh at the idea. They are true international communists who talk of a revolution without borders, and who have eagerly put their country at the disposal of Fidel Castro and the Soviet Union. Everyone who's thinking about this aid package should ask themselves one question. If the Sandinistas succeed in throwing the whole of Central America into turmoil, if the United States must contend with a growing number of hostile, aggressive communist states close to its borders, how willing or able will we be able to meet our commitments to other allies? Our supply lines to Israel and our NATO allies run through the Caribbean. The Soviets are already banking on this fact. Even some in Congress would rather ignore it. Today, Nicaragua is the focus of Soviet efforts at destabilization in the Western Hemisphere. If we show ourselves willing to abandon our friends so close to home, how soon before the Soviets turn their full attention to Israel, that lonely outpost of democracy in the Middle East? Freedom is indivisible. The moral foundation of our support for Israel is our support for freedom and democracy. And that support must always remain rock solid wherever freedom and democracy are endangered. I want to assure you that I would not consider any measure, including arms sales to moderate Arab nations, if I thought it might endanger the security of Israel. A small, far-away country, some say, but all people that struggle for freedom are close to America's heart. Recently, there's been an intensive effort to discredit the Democratic opposition in Nicaragua. Well, let me say a few words about disinformation. Some of us have been around long enough to know that disinformation has a long history. I remember the reports of Walter Durante from Stalin's Russia, who denied the existence of the forced famine, even though he had witnessed firsthand Stalin's genocide. I remember Lincoln Steffen's famous remark when he returned from that land of slaughter and declared, I have been over into the future and it works. I remember Herbert Matthews' reports on Castro before he came to power, calling him a Democrat and the hope of Cuba. And to some of you who are really too young to remember this, even people around our country were calling him the George Washington of Cuba. George rolled over in his grave. Those reports helped shape the climate in Washington in which we cut off aid to Batista and facilitated Castro's march into Havana.  He didn't say that till after he was there and in power. Likewise, we were told that Ho Chi Minh and Palpat were nationalists and this was before the mass exodus of boat people and the murder of a third of the population of Cambodia. History moves on. The smoke screen of lies and disinformation vanishes and the brutal reality of communism is laid bare. But then, it's too late. So today we see an orchestrated campaign to slander the freedom fighters. But who shall we believe?  Shall we believe communists whose definition of morality is what furthers their political ends, who have systematically attacked religious denominations, distinguished civil liberties and waged an inhuman war against mosquito indents or believe the people putting their lives on the line for the values that we hold sacred. Democracy, freedom and human rights. On national television the other night Jim Wright said that at one time the revolutionaries in Latin America, men such as Bolivar and San Martín emulated our democratic revolution. Some still do. The freedom fighters in Nicaragua fight for democracy too. They too are the moral descendants of men at Morristown and Valley Forge. Though the tyranny they fight against is more brutal than anything our forefathers could have imagined. Soon Congress will be making the historic decision whether or not to help these brave men and women. The ranks of the freedom fighters continue to swell. If we give them the aid they need, the Nicaraguan people can win this battle for freedom on their own. American troops have not been asked for and are not needed. We must make sure they never are needed. We send men and material money and material now so we'll never have to send our own American boys. But if the members of Congress hide their heads in the sand and pretend the strategic threat in Nicaragua will go away, they are courting disaster and history will hold them accountable. If we don't want to see the map of Central America covered in a sea of red that eventually lapping at our own borders, we must act now. With your help and the help of other freedom-loving Americans, we can succeed in turning the tide to democracy in Nicaragua. We must succeed. Nothing less than the security of the United States is at stake. Thank you all, and God bless you for letting me talk to you. Thank you. Mr. President, you have in this room representatives of the entire organized American Jewish community. We asked for this meeting and for the opportunity to meet with you because we wanted to come here and express to you our admiration and our appreciation to you for being what it is you are. We have so many things to express our thanks to you for most recently as the leader of this country in so skillfully managing the transition in the government of the Philippines, we think that we as all Americans join with you and the leadership of this country in managing to maintain a friend and preserve freedom and democracy. I want to express that to you as openly and as firmly as you can. I have a list which I hope you don't think is too long, Mr. President, but we like you an awful lot, so I'm going to say one or two things. I want to say that we know that the freedom of Anatoly Sharansky, which you advocated for years and which you urged with Mr. Gorbachev, is due to primarily, if not exclusively, to the continued efforts of the United States in support of Avital Sharansky and her movement and the movement of all freedom-loving people. Anatoly Sharansky is free. We thank you for that. We want to assure you, however, that we are not summer soldiers and we know that you're not a summer soldier. The fight for human rights, for freedom in the Soviet Union, indeed for freedom the world over, will go on. We'll be there and we know that you will be there leading us and helping us. I do want to say that we admire your defense of freedom and your condemnation of terrorism. Your eloquent plea for the countries to support freedom and democracy in Central America, to preserve the ability to maintain a decent and balanced society, to keep Central America in freedom's camp, has touched many of us and will find resonance in our community. As the Chairman of the Conference of Presidents, I would lose my job if I said the whole Conference of Presidents speaks as one in supporting you. But I do know from my own experience and my own expression that while there may not be unanimity, there never is in a democracy, and I assure you we're a democracy. I believe that the overwhelming sympathy and support of the American Jewish community rides with freedom, rides with the defense of those who wish to fight for their freedom and support you in your interested and objective and principled effort in that area. We appreciate and support your strong condemnation of terrorism and your support for the right to react to terrorist outrage is appreciated by all of us, as is your principled and moral and sentimental support for the State of Israel. We know that the fight to repel terror, to defend Israel and to promote peace leads to concern, and you know that we have a concern about further arming Arab countries, even those who call themselves moderate, who do not support the peace process. We recognize it's a complicated issue. We do urge that if arms are to be sold, they should be sold only under circumstances where you have reasonable assurances and are fairly confident that the recipients of those arms will move in the direction of peace. The time has come for the abandonment of the rejection of Israel. That is, the Arab countries, including the moderates, stand on a rejectionist platform. We hope that with your effort and with the pressure and enticement that arms may involve, Mr. President, that you can get them to move toward abandoning their rejection of Israel's right to exist and move toward negotiation. The principal barrier to peace is that rejection. The threat of assassination and terrorism is something we can't stand. Respectfully, we urge that the time has come in the Middle East for emphasis on economic development and on positive measures to live together. If Egypt and Jordan and Israel can develop a joint economic plan, that may bring peace faster than the sale of arms. Mr. President, I want you to know that you have here in the entire Jewish community the admiration to a man and a woman extensively in every aspect of your quest for freedom. You have our love, our appreciation, and our support for all that you do. And we're grateful for having you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much for those very generous words. And thank all of you for this warm welcome. And let me just say that with regard to your one sub-point there with regard to arms and to Arabs, that in that regard, always in our mind, that is predicated upon our belief that it can further the cause of peace which we're trying to bring about in the Middle East and that we are pledged to the fact that we will never allow Israel to lose its qualitative or quantitative edge by anything we do in that regard. You've all been so nice. I can't leave without telling you one little goodie. I happen to have a hobby of collecting stories that I understand are told in the communist countries among themselves which reveals the cynicism of their own people. And George Schultz brought me back one from the Soviet Union the other day. It seems they went into the general secretary and told him there was an elderly lady there in the Kremlin who wouldn't leave without seeing him. And he said, we'll bring her in. And they did. And he said, old mother, what is it? What can I do? She says, I have one question. She said, was communism invented by a politician or a scientist? And he said, well, a politician? She said that explains it. A scientist would have tried it on mice first.


Hello and welcome to this edition of quality of life. I'm your host Dave Augustine today We're going to talk about end-of-life planning and what's all involved with that Joining us today from Zimmer Westview home and Ballhorn chapels is Mark Zimmer and Pam Burkle Welcome to the show. Thanks Dave Just to start off with some of your backgrounds mark Could you give us a background and how long you've been in this type of business how you got started and well I've Most recently celebrated my 38th year as a licensed funeral director back in the mid 70s. I went to school in Chicago and and attended a school of mortuary science and and after I got out I worked as a funeral director in Davenport, Iowa for about six years and moved to Howard's Grove in 1983 and Have been in the community 33 years already One of the best moves I ever made. I know I've known you as long as I can remember because that's where I grew up, too As well, so you're making me feel old Dave. Well Pam how about you? Well, I am new with Ballhorn chapels and Zimmer Westview But I have been working the pre-planning funeral side and working with families for over seven years I am a licensed insurance agent Which is how we fund the funerals at the funeral home and I'm also a certified pre-planning consultant. Okay Getting into it, you know you talk about pre-planning. When is a good time to really start thinking about you know planning for When it's that time Well, one of the things I've learned is You're never too young to die So you're never really too young to plan When I talk to families and I do speaking engagements, I will tell people Anytime you're over 18. You should there's just certain things you should do and taking care of this in case an accident Happens at a young age. It's very helpful to the family. Okay. I've I've experienced over the years that Whenever a couple whether they're younger or older come in and sit down and discuss Final arrangements with myself or with Pam Their their adult children are always especially grateful because there's a lot of parts to the planning that When you Have to ask an adult child What was your grandmother's maiden name and they don't remember or when when was your parents anniversary? Things that are necessary for doing an obituary or possibly some vital statistic information By being able to meet with the couple that are planning we can go through those fine details and get that on record so that The kids or the children don't have to worry about These things that are fine parts of a funeral planning And it probably is a lot easier for the family to pre-plan it So you're not also grieving at the time when it happens or trying to come up with you know the arrangement So I'm assuming that if it's not then that could put a huge burden on the family as well Right, that is definitely one of the one of the main reasons to pre-plan is to protect the family from the emotional burden of making decisions It's also a fine line between What you want as an individual to celebrate your life at that time and what the family needs and That's something with pre-planning. We can help families walk through and make sure that Everybody is taken care of Okay Some of the parts that I would assume that's why we're here talking about it is you know Some of the pre stages are planning would be like power of attorneys and have all of that. Where would that come into play? With power of attorney It's important for many aspects of your life But there have been situations with pre-planning that An individual has waited until they may be in their you know late 80s or 90s And they're not really able to make their own decisions, but it's necessary to make plans in order for us to do that It's good to have a power of attorney So if there's contracts that need to be signed if they're going to fund their funeral They can take care of that for them a lot of times a family member can be designated basically there's power of attorney for health care decisions and Power of attorney for financial decisions and these are single-page documents. They're a very simple form or instrument that can be drafted by the attorney or or even by a funeral director in certain cases And has to be notarized of course, but they're legal documents that basically gives up an appointed person the right to make The decisions that you may not be able to make And it's it's part of the overall estate planning That we always encourage our families to do ahead of time Because a lot of people have the misconception that oh, I I've I've left The instructions for my funeral in my will but a will is not read until after the funeral So that can create a dilemma. It's it's most important that you have your estate planning part done by a good law firm and then have the funeral planning part done by the funeral home, okay When we're talking about the funeral part planning, let's walk through the steps Where would I start? You know in in planning? I want to start to plan my end So where would I start? Where would I go? What would be one of the first things I would do call the funeral home call the funeral home and Simply talk to us. We Pam is available to Meet in the home if the person might be homebound or they can if they feel comfortable They're certainly welcome to come to the funeral home if if for some reason they don't have Transportation we can certainly send a car to pick them up and bring them to the funeral home and meet with Pam and and Discuss the primary Details of planning a funeral, okay Can we go into some or go ahead? I'm sorry. We have a list of over 125 things that need to be done in many cases after a death and You can come into the funeral home and we can get you started on that path It's not something that gets done in one day and that's why planning is so beneficial because you could work through that Okay Could we kind of step through the high-level part of it? So let's say we set up an appointment. I'm there. I'm by you I have my power attorney and everything drafted. So let's say that legal stuff is we're not getting into that That's a different matter, but let's say that's all done So what would be some of the things then we would start to go through? well, we would start to by talking to you and getting to know you and we like to get personal information as mark alluded to earlier we need information about your parents and Whether you graduated high school or not You know Where if you got married to what your spouse's name is those are things that we need for not only the obituary But also for the death certificates So we'll walk you through that and go through all the questions and and I actually like to get to know you You know, so we sometimes the conversations will go off into a tangent So it's very comfortable as far as us getting to know each other and just talk I'm kind of like we're doing here and then We'll go through your plans and some people come in and they know exactly what they want and others say I have no clue and that's my job is to give you the options of what you can have for your celebration of life okay Do you like a service like you provide your year facility with everything? Do you provide everything? front to back or do you work with other? Bringing in other organizations or agencies to help, you know with other parts of the planning Or is it everything that we come to you and it's all handled I? Would have to say that we pretty much I guess for lack of a better way of putting it is our one Stop shopping. We can coordinate things if if somebody might be looking to get involved with title 19 benefits or if a person has Issues where they need to put aside funds for final expenses We work with whatever other sources are necessary to accomplish that but normally as Pamid said We sit down and we we get to know the person we talk about what they're what's important to them for their final Tributes and a lot of times family is all there. Maybe not but we assess All of the information they give us and we help them plan the the best course For planning their final funeral okay, I know and Was that about 20 30 years ago my grandpa passed away 20 years ago or whichever I know we went through that and it was just you know the whole process was just like I never knew All that stuff had to go on like you know We sat down the obituary was written and everything and I thought that was done behind the scenes or it's like You know there's a lot of things that are out of sight out of mind It happens behind the scenes which you know I can see we're making it pre-planning and getting it all set up So the family doesn't have to worry about that when it comes time to grieve and you know to say their farewells And it's an emotional time So you may not be thinking clearly at the time of a loved one's loss So getting it on paper ahead of time. We don't want to miss anybody in the obituary There's no redoes So we you know we want to get it right the first time so by planning ahead of time It gives you time to think about it and make sure that your everybody is getting what they need and they're you know The grieving process and everything is started properly Well you mentioned redoes and that's a good question I'd like to bring up is you know you go through your plan and let's say all of a sudden You get divorced from one and you get married to somebody else Do they tend then to come back and change? You know the plans or how does that part work? We like the families to come back to us and update us We've had some that you know I may have talked to them five years ago, and I would say every five to ten years Come back and visit because life changes and you don't realize how much it's changed until you look at what you did ten years ago So nothing we put on paper is cast in stone. It's always changeable. You know Dave Our society has become so transient now, you know the adult children some can live in California and some in New York and maybe a couple 15 years ago came in and sat down with me or Pam or somebody and And planned out their entire funeral right down to having the funeral lunch and things of this nature 15 years goes by They may be a lot of their friends and things have passed away And their children are are spread out all over them. They have come in I have seen families where they say you know mark things have changed and our plans for our funeral arrangements have changed and we'd like to review that with you and Modify or change things and certainly either Pam or or one of the funeral directors can sit down and help a family Modify their original plans as Pam said nothing is really cast in the stone. Okay What about Let's say choosing whether let's say if I want to be cremated or you know buried, you know whole, you know, there's Burial plots, you know that you got to look for or if I'm cremated then where do what happens with that? Could you go through some of that? You know kind of of where I would go and how that's handled We have a list of the local cemeteries So if you come into us and you don't have a cemetery plot we can give you lists of Contacts to you know get a hold of and go there and Take a look at the areas and find out what they have available. So again, we're a good resource for all of those items there is basically There's burial in the earth Entombment in a mausoleum and in the case of cremation there's also Having the cremated remains at home and also some people choose to scatter cremated remains at a favorite place and We discuss this Usually in earnest with the family to determine because there are times when people don't understand that after cremation Something has to be done right for permanent placement of the cremated remains And of course, there's a lot of options these days With families as to how they feel the the most appropriate Final resting place for the cremated remains is so we try to advise them on that I know thinking about it, you know, I'm torn don't want to be buried or to want to be cremated Don't bury to learn be cremated, you know But part of me wants to be cremated and scattered on my land up north is where I'm you know happiest and something like that Is there any legal You know issues because once well here you just can't scatter somebody's ashes around or whatever is there anything like that that comes into legally the the actual process of cremation is Considered by the state of Wisconsin to be final disposition not unlike burial So by having a person cremated that act is legally the final disposition of the human body Now of course our bodies contain mainly water and carbon but there are elements that exist in our bodies naturally minerals and Calcium and iron and and this is the essence of our skeleton basically and and after cremation that's what you have is the essence of the person and By being able to either have a placement in an urn or scattering You can't go to Lambo field and run around at halftime out in the 50 yard line That's not what you can do, but but being discreet about a scattering is always appropriate, okay Question for you. What's a Grecian urn? Well, it's Just basically a style of urn That's the most classic Shape, you know, okay kind of like this. I thought it was based on what he does for a living See that's a little humor we were talking about You have to pardon me for that I did through that wouldn't yeah, but I'm pumped you caught me down there You go, that's you know break the mood. That's pre-planning versus something. Okay. Absolutely. Yes How does religious beliefs come involved because I've seen somewhere and I'm assuming that's where your travel side of the business comes in I mean, I've seen some have a full mass at church versus, you know, a few words are said, you know There's a ceremony like at your facilities How does that all work and how does religious beliefs come into that or how does that address?  Yes, and Every religion has its traditions with Catholics, of course, it's the funeral mass and The Jewish people have certain rituals and and beliefs and in and what happens as well as other faiths and We usually work closely with the clergy And the family and Depending on the church that they belong to or the the faith community that they belong to we dialogue with The clergy and the clergy works in tandem with us to help them achieve what they would feel would be the most spiritual meaningful type of service available and Pam would also would talk with them about what is important to them, you know A lot of younger people today prefer not to have such a traditional funeral as The older people may be more familiar with but they still believe in having some kind of a spiritual event and in that case So Again, we work with the clergy of preference and if they do not have that we do have clergy available to help Celebrate that person's life and provide a spiritual message to the to the family and to the friends that come for a service Okay, I think that's such a wonderful thing, you know to have that because You know some people, you know, they do believe you know in spirituality or you know There is an essence that they believe but they may not be a full a Churchman going member whatever so it is nice to know that you know the choice is there to have you know Something said, you know over you or to help celebrate, you know your life. So I think that's really neat. Yeah as far as that goes Do you ever have the instances where you know Somebody passes the one tree you do if somebody passes away an accident or whatever where the planning hasn't been done How does that differ versus I mean, how do you handle a situation like that? It can be difficult. I would imagine yes It creates a challenge for the funeral director at We consider that to be an at-need situation where the family is requiring us immediately for for planning a funeral and And it doesn't just have to be a car accident it can be out Subbling the snow and and the wife goes to see why husband has come in and there he is You know, it can be a sudden death those are very difficult and Requires special care with the family to help them through that, you know the emotions that you feel In a sudden loss such as that can really be numbing to the family to the point where they really need special care and guidance if we're fortunate enough where the husband and wife have Sat down and talked about what's important to them even if they only talk to each other about it It helps tremendously And at the time of a sudden death but You know a lot of times unfortunately that hasn't been done there is there is no idea of a Final disposition a cemetery or things of this nature and it puts a an extremely high burden of Decisions that need to be made in a short period of time on the survivors You also have to look at the financial side of it If they haven't planned for anything and they don't have life insurance How are they gonna pay for it, right? You know and they're coming in and they're they have to make these decisions and now your decisions might not be based on What you truly want or need it's based on what you can afford what you can do because yeah You're all it's assuming you can save up for it or if you have life insurance But if something out of the blue comes in, you know, and you know as a funeral director in your Backgrounds and your training Do you also? Address, you know like grief counseling is that part of your background or do you then bring in somebody if you see you know A need of like a grief counselor or something like that There's groups that are that are available and but we are again a resource for that that we can Get you in contact with whom you need to be whether it's a child that needs to talk to somebody Sometimes it's a counselor at school. We can help with all that You know we have rainbow kids in Sheboygan I do know like Sharon Richardson has a support group as well There are some others in the in the community and as Pam indicated We do some follow-up work with our client families and if they do indeed feel they need a little extra help We'll certainly guide them into the right place. Okay. I Could imagine it's like, you know anything else you guys are almost like facilitators to make sure everything is Checklists almost that everything is just goes along and smoothing you help where you kid, you know event planner event plan exactly Yes, so let's talk about We're getting towards the end and we know let's say we're in a nursing home or something where the inevitable Is this going to happen? Let's say how do you work with the nursing home or how does that all work? The nursing homes especially in Sheboygan are very well versed with what goes on as far as when families come in They are often the ones that tell the families you need to go to a funeral home and get things planned and So they're they they work closely with us as far as that goes And they're also well aware that the money That you have can be depleted quickly So they want to make sure that the funerals get paid for and we have a product that we use It's an insurance product, but it protects the money from any Medicaid spend on situations And it's something that we can make sure that there is money there to pay for your funeral and protect the family I Know if we could just go through the step of Like in the case of my grandfather, you know when he did pass the way we got the call He was at the nursing home. You know he was passed away. What all happens behind the scenes because we were there We said our goodbyes at the time and then it was like he left and then things magically happened behind the scenes What all happens? well, whether it's Two in the afternoon or two in the morning when a person passes away when the family is comfortable the Staff at the health care center whether it's a hospital or nursing home We'll contact the the funeral home and Let us know that somebody's passed away and then we come up to the place of death And we meet sometimes the family is there where we can meet with them and talk to them for a little while possibly Maybe already set up an appointment to meet for to making arrangements and then we bring their loved one into our care and back to the funeral home and a lot of things Have to happen in a very short period of time of course with the newspaper the deadlines for newspapers can be real tricky and coordinating with clergy and Cemetery's and as Pam indicated there is there's a lot of Details that need to be done in a short period of time If they have indeed planned out ahead of time it makes our job much easier because we already know What their decisions are and based on that we can certainly start getting all the necessary details in line for them before we even meet there's times where we're able to finish up the rough draft of an obituary before the family arrives and Maybe they've already made their selections of a casket and which cemetery or or an urn and What their plans are for services and we can get all of those necessary things coordinated but there there are a lot of things Dave that have to be done and It it's interesting that you say that it almost seemed like you know magic the way everything fell into place To a certain degree, I'd like to think that was from experience but also funeral directors know What needs to be done and certainly we don't have enough time today you go into details with that but All of those decisions have to be made and certainly ahead of time is always best sure definitely We have about a minute left any final thoughts Before we close um, I just I'm a passionate person when it comes to pre-planning I've done it myself, and I can't imagine why people wouldn't do it It's scary to think about your own death, but imagine the people that have just you know, right experience to death And now they have to plan it for you. There's multiple steps to it You don't have to pay for it right away. There's it's just getting started and finding out what it's all about is important Okay, I would have to echo that and of course the other thing is I would encourage Spouses to start the dialogue between themselves and And let their their children know what their thoughts are too. That's all so important Okay Let's our show for this episode of quality of life I'd like to thank mark and Pam for joining us to talk about you know planning for the end I think it was a great episode and learned quite a bit. So again, I thank you both for coming on the show Thanks for having us For WSCS TV I'm Dave Augustine if you have any other questions about this episode or any other questions You can contact us on our website at www.wscsscheboygan.com Again, thanks for watching


There's a crypto asset called Paxgold. Its price is Pagg, one-to-one-to-gold. The gold is held in custody by Paxso's trust company in London. Looks interesting as an alternative to purchasing gold on exchanges. I'll put the link to their site in crypto channel on gilded if you're interested. For sure, link it up. And I know about Paxgold, by the way, TJ. You can redeem Paxgold for physical gold as well, I believe. Yeah, but they have to have their exchanges in the city that you're in. So I don't know if they have any exchanges in Vancouver. And personally, I wouldn't trust any holding company of gold in London. London has already seized, and I wouldn't trust any of these institutions that are supposed to be holding wealth for other peoples and other nations in the Western world, because they have already seized assets of people that are other nationalities multiple times. They've seized assets of Iranians, of Venezuelans, of Russians. That means no asset that if you have a third party, centralized party, holding it in trust is a reliable place to keep your wealth. Do not do that. So Paxgold, I wouldn't buy this crypto to be holding one-for-one Pagg of gold with Paxgold. No way, right? If I was going to buy gold, I would buy gold. Okay, I wouldn't buy a crypto that's supposed to be Pagg one-to-one, because I wouldn't trust it, especially if it's in London. Western governments annihilated the Western banking system, by the way, the trust factor that was there. They seized property. They seized assets without due process, without any reason, just because people were of a certain nationality. Holy fuck, when have we seen this before? Oh yeah, the Nazis did it in World War II or pre-World War II, 1930s. They were seizing Jewish assets, because the people were Jewish, they're dirty, right? Oh, wait a second. The Ottomans did it to the Armenians, right? They were seizing Armenian assets.  Walk, walk, walk, hundreds of miles to go to Syria, to go to Iran, to get the hell out of the auto and control region, and then they were bringing in Turks and Kurds to take over the villages of Armenian villages, right? So when have we seen countries, centralized power, seize assets of certain nationalities, and why in the world would you invest in those countries, in those empires, or collapsing empires, I should say. I wouldn't. I wouldn't. So just a warning, heads up to anyone, right, that thinks that Western government seizing assets of Russians and Venezuelans and Iranians and soon-to-be Chinese stuff is a good idea. It's a fucking, it's economic suicide. It's economic suicide.