Okay, so let's get started with our presentations today. We've got some great presentations coming up for you here in just a moment. Beautiful landscapes, building a pollinator garden. Our presenters today are Jan Kanotl. Jan, Dr. Janet Jade Kanotl is a professor and extension entomologist at North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. Over the past 20 years, she provides statewide program leadership for extension entomology and the North Dakota Integrated Pest Management Program. She delivers entomology outreach on field crops, gardens, trees, and shrubs, and yards. And our other presenter today is Esther McGinnis. Esther is the NDSU Extension Horticulturist for Eastern North Dakota and the director of the Extension Master Gardener Program. She also conducts a research program that evaluates native and ornamental plants for use in rain gardens, pollinator gardens, and the home landscape. In addition, she provides support for the commercial vegetable and fruit industry through the NDSU high-tunnel community of practice. Welcome, Jan. Welcome, Esther. And we'll begin with Jan Kanotl talking about pollinator gardens. Okay, well, thank you very much. Can you hear me okay? Be here, you're just fine.  Before I get started, I'll be covering mainly the bees as pollinators today. I will talk about some bee mimics. And then Esther's going to cover what the bees like to forage. And then a little bit on bee conservation and how you can help the bees out. Okay, first I'll tell you what makes a bee. And just like all insects, bees have two pairs of wings. The four wing is larger than the hind wing, as you can see in the lower left picture. And the interesting thing about bees is that they're connected with these small hooks. And I enlarge the hooks over on the right, lower right picture. And these hooks are called the hamuli. And they connect the two wings together when the insect is flying. Another characteristic of bees is that they're usually hairy, not all bees, but most of them are. And that's one of the things you can use to identify them. If you look closely in the picture, you can see that the hairs are branched. Now you'll need a microscope to see this. If you have like a bee that you're actually looking at under the microscope, you know, 10, 20X. But they're branched here whereas a wasp would have a simple hair with no branching. Another characteristic of bees is that they have a pollen collecting area. And they can either do this by stiff hairs like you see in the pictures over on the right side. These arrows point out some of the stiff hairs that the different bees have. And you see they're in different places on the bees. Some of them are on the legs. Others are on the underside of the abdomen. And then they can also have a smooth surface that has hairs around it like a depression. We call that a basket and they'll collect the pollen and nectar and form a little ball on that area of the hind leg and carry around that. And you'll often see bees. This is a honey bee carrying those pollen and nectar around in their baskets. So that's another characteristic you can use. We do have about 4,000 bee species in North America. How many are North Dakota? Well, we really don't know. North Dakota hasn't been surveyed very well for bees. I've heard some estimates of about 300 to 500 bees. But it's currently, you know, we don't know. And there is research going on right now to help identify how many need of bees we have. We can divide the bees into two groups, the short-tongued bees and the long-tongued bees. The short-tongued bees need flowers that have short nectaries and they're not very deep into the flowers. But the long-tongued bees are the ones that can reach the nectaries that are in like a tube-shaped flower like honeysuckle. We'll be covering mainly just the long-tongued bees today. I might mention that bee identification is really difficult. So, unless it's a real common bee, you probably won't be able to get it to species. But you should be able to get it to its general group and that's what I'll be talking about today. Of course, the European honey bee is not a native bee. It was introduced long time ago. And it was used by the settlers to provide them with wax for calendars of candles and then also honey. And you can see it's very medium-sized bee, but there's lots of hair on it. And if you could see real closely the eye, you would also see the hair on the eye. And there's that pollen basket I talked about earlier on the hind leg. And these are social bees. Not all bees are social, but these are nest in large groups and man-made colonies. And they also nest in like trees, hollow trees as well once they get out into the wild. But we're number one in honey production here in North Dakota, which a lot of people are surprised with that. But we do produce about 33 million pounds of honey and that's valued with about 65 billion. So, it's a significant industry here for North Dakota. Part of the reason why we're number one is because we grow a lot of crops that bring migratory beekeepers into North Dakota. And a couple of those crops are canola and sunflower. Both of these crops are fairly nutritious for the honey bee and they do love them. And another value of the honey bee and other bees that are used for pollination is their pollination services for crop production. And in the U.S. that's valued at 14 billion. Okay, bumblebees. This is another group that's fairly easy to recognize due to the large, robust body. And they're typically yellow and black, what you expect in a bee for color. And the pollen basket in the lower right picture there is on the hind tibia. And this one doesn't have any of the nectar and pollen on the legs. You can see the depression. They have an interesting way of pollinating some of the flowers like tomatoes. It's called buzz pollination. And how it works is the honey bee detaches its wing muscles and then it will grab the anthers of the flower. And due to the robust size, it's a very strong bee. It can shake the flower and then it uses those wing muscles that are detached to shake the flower real vigorously. And as a result, it'll cause the pollen to fall out of the flower. And the bee honey, the bumblebee's body is very hairy, so it can collect a lot of different pollen on the whole body. This is a fairly common one, bombas in patients, the common eastern bumblebee. And this one's here in North Dakota. And this is another one that's in decline. Many of the bumblebees are in decline due to habitat destruction, diseases, and pesticide use. One of the advantages with bumblebees is that they can forage in cooler weather than honey bees. They can be out foraging at 50 degrees Fahrenheit compared to 61 for a honey bee. So this gives them an advantage in pollination because they can work longer in a day. And also the behavior of a bumblebee is to pollinate the same group of flower or the same species of flowers. And that results in an increase in pollination for that particular group. They usually work one area rather than four gene widely. Just to give you a life example of life cycle of a bee, I thought I'd use the honey or bumblebee. They overwinter as queens. Usually in under the ground, a lot of times they use mouse nests that are abandoned. So they'll be in the ground overwintering. Then they emerge earlier in the year, April and May, you'll see the queens coming out. Now when they've overwintered, they're fertilized by the male bees in that fall. So they are mated and then they're ready to begin their nesting and lay their eggs. So the early flowering plants are very critical for the queen. She needs nutrition in order to be able to do that. So plants, some early flowering plants to provide nutrition and Esther will talk about that. And then you'll see some workers that have hatched from some of the eggs that she lays. They go through the egg and then larval stage and then the female workers will emerge. And then the males are produced in the fall for mating. And again, you know, having something that they like to feed on in the fall is really critical for their reproduction. Many of the bumblebees are in trouble. For one reason, they don't fly as far as honeybees do and they're foraging. They'll stay in a smaller area. So the important of food sources really critical from, you know, spring all the way through the fall. And urbanization is another problem. There's fewer areas that have wildflowers available for them to feed on. In the country, there's been some research that's shown, you know, the wildflowers often have higher on nectar sources than some of the cultivated varieties. And the large areas of lawn are, you know, like a desert to the bumblebee and other bees as well. And I think I already mentioned some of the disease and pesticide issues. Bumblebees are available. You can, you know, purchase them for pollination services. And they do are used mainly for apples, cherries, plums, currants, tomatoes, eggplant, blueberries. Most of our bees are solitary, 90% of them.  They're from a ground nesting bee. Most of the ground nesting bees are solitary nesters, so they're not social nesting bees, but they do often nest in large groups or aggregations. So you'll see a lot of them in one spot. They tend to like sandy soils and dry areas. Okay, some of the solitary bees are the longhorn bee, digger bees, still in the family apodae. And you can see a couple of these different species here in the pictures, Melisodes. Again, you'll probably get this to the group, you know, digger bees or longhorn bees. But again, identification is something that you really need to study the taxonomy keys and use a microscope. You need to count segments on the antenna and look at sutures and that sort of thing, so it's really detailed. These bees can have black bodies with lots of hairs, as you can see, or some of them, the smaller ones, they'll have the little mounds of dirt and nest in the sandy areas of the lawn where the grass is not taking, and they're not aggressive, so you don't have to really worry about being stung. I usually recommend that people just use water, turn the lawn sprinkler on, and that will discourage them from nesting because they do like dry areas. Eventually, they'll move out of there. You might have to water for a while, but that's better than spraying with insecticides. Then you have our leaf cutter bees in the family Megacylidae, and you can see the hairs on the underside of the abdomen. These bees have a unique behavior, and they cut these round circular leaves off of leaves, and they like different trees. They'll use a lot of different plants to do this, but they use that to provision their nests, and they line them with the leaves that they have cut. They have very strong mandibles, so they can cut these holes. There's about 30% of our bees nest in some sort of cavities, and they'll either use the ground or they can use pithy stems that are hollow, and they can put their nest in there. We recommend that you leave some of last year's perennial flower stems for these bees. Then we have our mason bees, Megacylidae family. Again, osmia. This one is also used commercially. It's used for apple, cherry, plum, and other tree fruits. You can manage them. They will nest in these commercial blocks of woods, and you drill holes into the wood and they'll nest using mud to line their nest. You can use them. They're very efficient pollinators and crops. Some of you are probably familiar with the alfalfa leaf cutter bee. That is also in this group, and that is not a native species, but it was introduced into the U.S. for alfalfa and carrot seed production for use as pollinators. This is one of my favorite families, the sweat bees, the helictonies. They're very, very small, as you can see, and very colorful. They're metallic green. Some of them are black, but they're just a beautiful iridescent color in the sun, and you might notice them when you're out working in your garden and you're sweating because they are attracted to your salt and your sweat. They're, they do not, I've had a lot of them on me. They've never stung me. They're very docile. So, but this is one of the most difficult groups to identify. The agapostamen and the lasioglasm are very difficult to get down to sweetsies. They also do the buzz pollination. Okay, there's a lot of mimics that look like bees, but they're not bees. Flies are one group that have some families that look like bees, and that's the surfidy, or the hover flies. So the difference is flies only have one pair of wings, and then the hind pair of wings has been reduced to an organ that's called halters, and that organ, the halter, is used for balance. So that's how the fly knows if it's upside down or on its side is the halters. And also the antenna. If you look at the antenna of a bee, it's generally long and segmented, but the flies are short. And I don't know if you can see my arrow, but they're in front of the eyes of the fly here. The eyes on the fly are huge. As you can see, it takes up the whole head, whereas the eyes of a bee are more narrow and they're on the sides of the head. And there are some species like the honey bee, they're hairy. And the hover fly hovers a lot, but the bees don't. Then also the wasps, those are the other ones that are the main bee mimics. And vespity is the main family that has the mimics in it. Bees, again, are very hairy, as we discussed. But if you look at a wasp, you won't find very many hairs. And the wasp between the thorax and the abdomen, it's very narrow and a wasp. And the orange arrow there in the lower right hand middle picture shows you the wasp wasp. And the bee also has a waist, but the body is more robust, so it's more difficult to see. And then the bee always has those pollen collecting baskets or hairs, but there is no pollen or hairs or baskets on the wasp. And then the body is generally more robust on the bees and the color can range from the black and yellow, metallic, green, and other colors to the black. And the wasp bodies are generally very long and thin. And the colors can be a lot brighter. You can see in the lower right hand picture, that's the hornet. And I think we're all familiar with hornets. They can also nest in the ground or in your siding, between your siding. And they're very aggressive compared to bees. Many of the wasps, not so much the paper wasps that you see in the middle, but the hornets and the ball-faced hornets are very aggressive. And they can repeatedly sting you. And you have some NDSU Extension publications that you can use to help you plan your garden and help you identify bees and butterflies. And within these Extension publications, there's other resources that are listed, books and websites that can be useful. Here's some of the newer publications. We have Esther did one on pollination in vegetable gardens and backyard fruits last year. And we got a new one that should be out next week. We're just working on the final draft today. And this covers the flies and the wasps that I talked about. And we also talk about the hummingbird moth in this fact sheet that a lot of people think it's either a big bee or a hummingbird. And there is a North Dakota Pollinator Protection Plan for those of you involved with field crops. We're encouraging growers and honey beekeepers to communicate with each other. So when they do have to spray insecticides for insect pests on the crop, that they either move the hives or cover them up to protect them from insecticides and residuals of insecticides. So and with that, I'll turn it over to Esther. And I assume we'll be answering questions at the end. Well, Jan has instilled in our audience an appreciation for all kinds of bees and just the sheer diversity of them. And I'm sure there are a lot of you that are wondering, what can you do to create or preserve bee habitat? And we would really love to create this oasis in our neighborhoods. And it's fairly easy to do as long as you follow these four steps. The first thing is choosing plant material to provide nectar and pollen sources. So nectar would be essentially like a carbohydrate that powers the bees. And then pollen sources would be analogous to proteins. And they're especially important for the development of bee larvae. So we'll talk about plant selection, but there are other steps that we'll talk about including providing water and shelter for the bees and being rational in how we use pesticides. Now as far as plant selection, it's very important that we choose a variety of plants because we want to make sure that we have something that's blooming from the earliest spring through the end of fall. So we want to make sure that we're providing food for the bees through the entire growing season. Now when you go to select your plants, not all plants are equal. We like to incorporate some native species into our gardens and that's because our native flowers have co-evolved with our native pollinators and are specially adapted to provide ecosystem services that are beneficial. However, there are also some ornamental plants that are quite beneficial. Now for the purposes of this presentation, I'm just going to be focusing on perennials. We don't have time to really go into annuals, shrubs and tree species. Now as you're planting your perennials, it is good to plant in mass. So if you can plant three or more per species, you want to make sure that you are providing enough flowers to make it worthwhile for the bees to visit your yard and to spot those flowers. So we're going to start with spring and spring blooming perennials and we're really starting to get excited about that at this time of year. So we'll start with the earliest and that would be our spring bulbs. So we've got crocus and grape hyacinth on this particular side and you'll notice something in common. You'll notice the coloration is purple to blue and we find that a lot of our bees are very much attracted to those colors. But you'll also notice that I didn't bother putting a slide of a tulip and that's because tulips have been heavily hybridized and bred throughout the years and they have lost some of the ecosystem services that would be beneficial to bees. So that's why we recommend crocus and grape hyacinth. They haven't been bred as much, so they are pretty much in their unchanged condition. Now as far as some of our wonderful spring flowering natives here in North Dakota, we have the Eastern Pask flower. Some people call this a prairie crocus and I think it's even the state flower for South Dakota. But you'll see once again we have that beautiful lavender coloration and it's one of the earliest of spring natives to bloom here in North Dakota. So this is a great one to add. On the right, we have Canada Columbine which is in the Aquilegia genus and you'll notice we've got that bright red coloration. Now Canada Columbine will definitely attract bees and in particular it will attract long-tongued bees and that's because of the nectar spur. Hopefully you can see my cursor here, but the nectar spur here has a droplet of nectar. So we need a long-tongued bee to crawl into that flower and use its long tongue to access the nectar and in doing so it will pollinate the flower. But in addition, the red coloration will attract hummingbirds and also butterflies. So this is really one of those plants that will attract all kinds of pollinators. Now with our Columbines, you'll find that they will do best in partial shade. Now as we're moving through the seasons, we're getting into June blooming perennials and here's a photo of false indigo. This happens to be a baptisia australis species. Now we have one species of baptisia which is native to Minnesota and no species that are native to North Dakota. However, we firmly believe that baptisia is an important plant for pollinators. So Jan and I are doing research on different baptisia species. We've planted trials in Fargo and in Ampsaraca. So we're looking at species and we're also looking at some of the newer cultivars. You'll notice that with the newer cultivars we've departed from the natural range of colors that we see in the species. So we want to compare which does better for attracting pollinators, the native species or the cultivars. So you can expect to hear more information about that in the coming years. Another June blooming perennial to include is geranium maculodum and this will start blooming in late May here in North Dakota and go into June. Now if you look at this photo, you'll notice that it has kind of got interesting petals. It's almost like it has these little lines or nerves in it. And these are what we call nectar guides and nectar guides are what the plant uses to tell the bees where they need to go for the nectar. So it's drawing the bee towards the center of the plant to the nectaries. The next is Golden Alexander and this is a native to our prairies. It has these beautiful yellow blooming flowers and probably about three feet tall or so. Now this plant supports more than just the bees. It's an important plant for our black swallowtails. So it's good to be thinking about plants that help our butterflies complete their life cycles too. You may notice with Golden Alexander that it has a familiar appearance and that's because it looks like dill. And in fact it's in the same family as dill and carrots. So it's in the APACA family. Now other perennials to include for June bloom, you know, don't forget some of our herbs. Now chives happens to be a perennial and I know a lot of people view it as a nuisance but the flowers can be quite beneficial. Now I like how it's used in this photo. We all know that chives can spread quite vigorously. Here it's confined, it's confined by the sidewalk and stays put. But related plants would also include our alliums. Our alliums are very good for our pollinators. As for other June blooming perennials, you may want to consider butterflyweed. This happens to be a milkweed. It's native to Minnesota and South Dakota. Now everybody when they think milkweed, they think butterflies and monarchs. And it's certainly a wonderful plant for them. But keep in mind that milkweed is also important for bees. It does produce a large amount of nectar which is beneficial for the bees. Now as for butterflyweed, you do need to be careful where you plant it. It doesn't do well in the Red River Valley. We've got a lot of clay in our area and it just seems to struggle in those heavy soils. So this is a plant that would do better on a sandy soil or on a loamy soil. Now we're done other milkweeds. Now I was really surprised to find that common milkweed can be quite controversial. So I discovered that when I moved back to North Dakota. Well it happens to be a noxious weed in five counties. And that's because it can be quite aggressive in an agricultural setting. Now it's not on the state noxious weed list. But I still would advise people that this may not be the best choice for your garden. Particularly if you've got a smaller garden. And that's because common milkweed spreads by runners. So it has these rhizomes and you'll notice that the plants will spread. It also self seeds quite vigorously. So you'll find that a little patch of milkweed will become large in no time at all. So we like to recommend a better choice. And that would be swamp milkweed. And we've got swamp milkweed depicted here on this slide. Despite its name it does well in a garden. Now during a drought situation I would recommend irrigating it. But you don't have to keep it in a swamp like condition. It does very nicely in a garden setting. And we have other milkweeds for North Dakota. And you'll notice that we've got all different types. And you can choose the milkweed that works for you. Do you have a heavy soil? Or do you have more of a medium to sandy soil? Do you live in an area of the state that receives more precipitation? Or less. So you can definitely choose the milkweed that would do well in your situation. I want to say a word about world milkweed. We are growing world milkweed here in Fargo. And we are finding that it does spread quite vigorously. So I would be a little careful on that. And then here we have a photo of swamp milkweed. I put one plant out initially by my mailbox. And within a year the monarchs found it, had laid eggs, and were producing caterpillars. So it's truly one of those plants that if you plant it, they will come. And we're moving into July and August. And we have so many perennials we can choose from. Now I had to limit my choice here due to time constraints. But we're going to start off with monarda or bee balm or wild bergamot. Now this is native to the region. We do find that the native species spreads very vigorously. Now what I'm trying to do along with Jan and our postdoc is we are researching monarda to see if the cultivars are as effective in attracting bees and other insects. So we want to find that out because we'd like to be able to recommend a cultivar that doesn't spread as invasively as the monarda fistulosa. Purple prairie clover. So this is a native to our prairies. And I like to think of this as like a helicopter landing pad. So you'll notice it's got kind of that cone in the center. You'll see the flowers initiating from the bottom of the cone and then they work their way up the cone. But with that big cone in the center of the flower, it provides a nice spot for the bees and the butterflies to land. And it's just really hospitable for them. Now of all the June and August blooming plants, this has to be my favorite for attracting butterflies. This is the Northern Plains Blazing Star. And we've got two or three leatrous species that are native to Minnesota, Minnesota and North Dakota. And you'll find that they're just the all stars of your garden. They're beautiful and they're going to be covered in our beneficial insects. So what I'd love to see is to have every garden have a Northern Plains Blazing Star. And they bloom, you know, right through August. Not all Blazing Stars are the same. Now we do have some in the ornamental trade. This is the improved cultivar cobalt. Now I had cobalt in my front yard, and I swear I never once saw a butterfly. So this is an example of where the native species is better than the cultivar at providing ecosystem services for the pollinators. Now here's Culver's Root. I hear people say that they don't want to plant natives in the garden because natives may be messier or not as attractive as ornamentals. But that's not always the case. This is a beautiful prairie plant. And you'll see that it's equally at home on the prairie as it is in a formal botanical garden. With Culver's Root we have these beautiful candle like inflorescences. So this is really a nice architectural plant. It stands four to five feet tall and looks really good in the back of the border. Now no pollinator talk would be complete unless we mentioned Echinacea. Echinacea angustifolia is native to North Dakota. However, we've noticed that other species as well as our hybrids and cultivars also attract pollinators. They all seem to do well. However, there are exceptions. I would say avoid plants that are double flowered. And what do I mean by that? With our double flowered plants you'll notice that we have extra sets of petals. Here the petals have replaced the cone. So in essence they have replaced the structures that produce pollen and nectar. So I would watch lots of butterflies land on these plants and they would never stay more than a second or two. They would find that there was nothing for them to eat and they would move on to another plant. So the closer the plant is to its original appearance the better and the more likely it is to be a pollen or nectar producer. Now moving into the fall. So Jan talked about our bumblebees and how the male bumblebees are produced in the fall for the purpose of mating with the queens. So it's important for us to have plants that are flowering in the fall to nourish those late bumblebees. So here we have aster. So aster is absolutely fantastic. We've got lots of species and cultivars that are on the market. And I even have one in my front yard that blooms into November when we have a mild fall. So it'll be like the last flower on the block that's blooming and on a warm day it'll just be covered in bees. Now I wish I knew the name of the cultivar. Unfortunately when I moved into the house it was already there so I really don't know the cultivar. And don't forget your autumn joy sedums and other tall sedums. Now a lot of people like to dismiss sedum because it's not native. However we're finding it is an all-star in the fall garden and absolutely covered with bees. So this is another genus that we're studying for its ability to attract all kinds of pollinators going into fall. And it's really one of those that you really have to have. So any of the tall sedums that are in the helotolefium genus seem to do really well is what we're discovering. But we will certainly continue researching that. We've got lots of sources for native plants. You know your first option is always going to be your local North Dakota nursery. So we find that a lot more of them are carrying pollinator plants because they really want your business. Now if you can't find the species that you're looking for there are lots of other options online like Prairie Moon and Prairie Restorations and others that are mail order in Minnesota. One thing we do discover is that the native plant nurseries run out of plants quite early in the spring and maybe out of stock when you need them. Now once you've selected your plants you want to also include a water source in your garden. You know so you could if you have a water garden or pond or fountain those are definite sources. But you want to make sure that when you have water available that there's some place for the bees and butterflies to land so they don't get wet. If you don't have something like a water garden you can consider a bird bath with some stones sticking out of the water or a butterfly puddling area can be as simple as a muddy area where the butterflies land to pick up water and salts. Just be sure though when you're providing water sources that you are replenishing the water and making sure that mosquito larvae don't perpetuate in it. And then provide habitat. Now you can do something as formal as providing a bee house. So the bee house, houses tend to do well for those solitary cavity nesting bees that you'll find that a bee will nest in a tube and lay its eggs. But we also have ground nesting bees as Jan mentioned. So if you're noticing that the bees are nesting in the ground, I noticed that I had ground nesting bees along my driveway because it was a sandier soil in that location. So if you're noticing that you're going to want to leave that ground undisturbed. Dead trees can also provide habitat. So if you have dead trees you may want to consider leaving them around as long as they're not a safety risk because dead trees can be a really good source of habitat for all kinds of wildlife.  Don't cut your perennials down in the fall, wait till spring. So you can just sit back and watch the bison football game or whatever and let those perennials be. And that's because the bees will lay their eggs in the pith or the center of those perennials and then we're hoping the bees will then hatch the next spring. So you can cut the perennials in the spring once you start to see pollinators flying around. If you do need to get into your gardens early in the spring then you can cut them down and maybe put them on the compost pile to give the eggs time to hatch. Then don't forget need of grasses. Bees seem to like to nest under native grasses but we also find that they can be a food source for certain butterflies. Now our fourth step is to be very wise in how you use your pesticide. So if all possible, reduce spraying. And if you have to use a pesticide of some sort, choose the least toxic pesticide that you can. And then make sure not to spray your blooming plants, particularly your apple trees. Don't be spraying your apple trees when they're in bloom, wait till petal fall. And then when it comes to the time of day to spray, you'll do the least harm if you wait till late evening once the bees have retired for the evening. Now I see we've got a lot of master gardeners on today. Now the Extension Master Gardener Program is doing a lot of work. We have 19 pollinator gardens that were built in 2016 and 17 and we added more in 2018. So we are in a total of 19 counties and we're hoping to build two or three more this year. So this is a map. Now there are some cities where we have two flowers indicating that we have more than one garden in those locations. But you can see that we have great representation on the eastern side. We're hoping to build a few more in western North Dakota, particularly the southwestern part of the state. We like to use these gardens as teaching gardens. We want to teach the general public about pollinator practices. And then that brings me to our NUSU Extension Home Pollinator Garden Program. So this is for everybody. You don't have to be a master gardener. You don't even have to live in North Dakota. So if you live in a state that touches North Dakota, you can apply for this program. So we have an application online and it asks you questions about whether you've planted a garden that has various plants that bloom in all the different seasons, whether you have specific plants that are pollinator friendly, and whether you're following wise pesticide practices. So we have a limited number of signs. If you build a garden or if you remodel a garden to include pollinator plants, feel free to apply. So our website is on our NUSU Extension Master Gardener webpage and we'll certainly provide this link to Field to Fork to put on their website. But here is the sign that we have and it's a really nice sign. It's 8 by 8 inches and this is really bragging rights with your neighbors. If you put this up, I'm sure you'll get a lot of questions and a lot of attention from your neighbors and you can tell them that you are pollinator friendly. And with that, you know, Jan and I will take questions. Well, thank you so much to Jan Kanodal and Esther McGinnis for a great presentation. And we will check the chat here for some questions. I see that there are a few of them in there. The first question here from Janie, it looks like we had a question earlier about how high we should put cavity nests. Esther, you said three to five feet above the ground. Any other advice on cavity nests from you, Esther or Jan, if you want to jump in? Well, I think we said three to five feet because we want to make sure that we don't get rodents that bother the nest. So it's important to put them above ground. We want them to be away from other animals that could in fact disturb them. But we also want the nest to be protected. We want them to have some sun exposure, particularly during the morning so the bees can warm up. But we also want them to be protected. So it's good that your nest should have some sort of back so that it'll keep some of the wind off of them. Janie? Yeah, they like them facing the sun in the morning. So you can have them either on the south, you know, face the south or the east is preferred. And sometimes I had trouble with woodpeckers going after my bees that were nesting in the tubes. So you may need to put a screen in front of them to keep the woodpeckers away. They actually got most of my bees. So in the morning, the bees don't need a certain temperature to reach their body temperature before they can fly. So they need to sometimes are protected area where they can just sit and sun themselves before they have enough heat in the body to take off. So you may need to put that screening in front. Thanks, Jan and Esther. Janie, just as I was about to ask Janie's question, I got the chat moved on me, but Janie asks, has anyone had success with growing baptism in a zone 3? With baptism, I really think it's more of a zone 4 plant. We haven't trialed it in zone 3. I'd like to do so. You know, maybe once we're done with our pollinator studies, we might have enough plants that we can move some around, but come to think of it, they don't transplant well. They do have a root system that hates to be disturbed, but you're right. I think we would like to do some testing in zone 3 to see how they do, but right now we don't have enough research to say that they would do well. But I would invite others to type in the chat box if you live in zone 3 and whether you've had success with baptism. Thanks Esther. Does swamp milkweed self seed Annette would like to know? Annette, I do grow swamp milk seed. There is some potential for self seeding, but I really haven't had a problem so far with it. It's not as bad as common milkweed. And if you do find that it's self seeding too much for you, you could always cut off the seed pods. But I have to admit it hasn't been a problem for me so far. Oh, go ahead Jan, I'm sorry. I haven't had any problems with it either, self seeding in my garden. So Jan, while we have you on, does Rhonda wants to know if the bee house needs to be cleaned periodically? Yes, you do need to clean them out and they recommend too that you bring them into the garage in the winter. That will, and then put them back out like now in the spring for them to emerge. So yeah, you would clean them out after they emerge, of course, and put new tubes in. You can buy the tubes or you could line them with just paper rolled up. Yeah, there is a disease concern and that's why you want to replace the tubes from year to year. There's the potential that if there was some disease from the previous season it could carry over to the new season. Now when it comes to the mason bee blocks, those wood blocks, I've seen people that have taken a drill and drilled them out a little bit. So that's one way to do the wood blocks. Yeah, there's different, you need different sizes for different bees and even different lengths of the tube for different bees. Some like short tubes and others like longer. So you can, once you start searching it, you'll find that information on the web. Awesome. Esther, Becky would like to know if you have a particular cultivar of Monarda to use or not use. Hi Becky, we don't have enough data to recommend cultivars yet. We do know that Monarda, at least here in Fargo, was starting to show some promise as far as attracting beneficial arthropods. So these were not necessarily pollinators, but other insects that may prey upon some of our more harmful insects and Jan may have a better definition of beneficial arthropods. But we're still doing the research and we had like half a year's worth of data on the Monarda. We'll definitely have more information as we collect data throughout the coming season. If you want to see our trials, come to NDSU campus and take a look at our horticultural research and demonstration garden. You'll see, I think we've got six or seven different Monardas. So Joe would like to know for overwintering bees that might be in dead vegetation that we're cleaning up in the spring, those perennials that we left standing, so long should we leave that vegetation undisturbed near our compost piles? Have most of them emerge by early June, end of June? Just curious when he can start mulching. Yeah, most of them, of course it depends on the species of bee, but most of them are all out by early June, I would say. It was a really, really cold spring. Awesome. Jen, what about wasp prevention? Do fake hives like ones that you can buy on Amazon ward them away? Okay, what type of, can you repeat that question? Yeah, so Bri is trying to prevent wasps and she, it sounds like she has found some fake hives on Amazon and she wonders if those work to ward wasps away. I don't know if those work, I've never tried them, but there is traps for like hornets you can put out and you put in a sugary solution, you can trap them. But I guess I didn't point out during the presentation that these wasps, although they're a nuisance to us, they're actually pollinators and also they're beneficial insects because they prey on caterpillars and other insect pests of the garden. So they're actually beneficial to have around. Thanks, Jen. So looks like we've got quite a few questions. So I'm going to try and run through some rapid fire Tom Kyle style here and see if we can get some answers. Bri wants to know if we have a pollinator flowers for helping attract bees to pollinate our flowering plants like pumpkins and zucchini, will they stay around and make hives? We would have them, prefer not to have them around because of kids. So will pumpkins and zucchini keep bees around your yard? Not just pumpkins and zucchini because the flowering time on them is relatively short. So I think the whole point is we want to have something flowering through the whole season to nourish a broad variety of bees. I do like to try and include flowering plants around the garden to attract more pollinators to the area. You can also use herbs. So we find that a lot of our herbs are really good. A lot of people already have them in the garden. Borage is one that seems to attract a huge number of bees. So you can certainly plant things that you wouldn't consume like herbs in your garden and still have all the benefits of them being pollinator plants too. But just having zucchini and squash blossoms, that's not going to be enough. Esther, swamp milkweed, is that available at some of the nurseries that you mentioned in your slide? Absolutely. And I see it at local North Dakota nurseries too. So that's a very popular one. Awesome. What temperature do bees need in the winter, Becky, would like to know? To over winter. Well, you don't need a heated garage. You know, they need the cooling period in order to, you know, further over wintering. So they, you know, just a regular garage. I didn't bring mine in, but the woodpeckers got them. So, but yeah, no, I don't know what the minimum temperature is. I'm sure there's a minimum, but it's going to vary with this different species. It looks like there's some good sharing going on in the chat. Lila wants to know about cat mint. Is that like walkers low? Is that a good pollinator plant? Lila, I have that in my garden and it's covered. I would love to do, I would love to expand the presentation and talk about more plants too, but definitely cat mint is fantastic. Once again, you've got that purple, those purpley blue flowers. It just seems to be a magnet. And then the nice thing is you could get, you can get it to re bloom. You know, so it'll bloom most likely in June, share it off and then you'll get another set of blooms before fall. Lucinda is using a liquid bear product to pour on the base of apple trees for maggots. Is that dangerous for pollinators? Does she know what active ingredient? Well, it probably is. I guess I would have to know what the active ingredient is. You're using it for maggots. I guess I just don't, not familiar with it. Are you Esther? I'm not. I'm not familiar with which product it is. I guess, yes, you're right. We'd have to see the active ingredient. Well, thank you guys so much. We're a little bit over time. I apologize if we didn't get to your question, but you can always go to the NDSU extension website at egg.ndsu.edu slash extension. Click on lawns, gardens and trees and the ask an expert link is right there to submit your, your question to an, to an expert. Thanks again, everybody. And thanks everyone for tuning in. Please join us next week for our next field before webinar. Have an awesome day.


I should join her and we are navigating the journey and our journey today is one of the most important that we will do and that's because we are a democratic party and this is the democratic system that we live in even the republicans and that is about the legislature and voting and our guest today is representative mark hasham district district 18 on Honolulu on Hawaii so mark welcome there you are hi mark we can't hear him welcome thank you for having me here it's the first time for me great great well we don't bite so it's okay i'm too far away for you to bite yeah it's a very different world then it's a whole different world out here yeah so now tell us about mark oh i'm just a local boy that was born not raised in hawaii i went to kong manu washington and mckinley high school then i went away for college to oregon for college and i went to japan for graduate school that made me end up working in japan living there for over 10 plus years after bouncing around working here and there i came back to hawaii ran for office and here we are long and short yes long and short of it now but your mother's japanese yes yes she is so actually um it's in japan has given me a very it's a very different perspective because um i remember i always tell the story i remember when i was in i was in college and i came back to honolulu right after college and i was walking around downtown honolulu thinking wow this it's so vibrant there's so much going on then later on my life took me to tokyo i'm working in tokyo which is a hundred times bigger than downtown honolulu and then after about 15 years i popped back in hawaii and i'm standing on the exact same corner and i remember thinking to myself wow there's nothing going on here so it's all a matter perspective right yes so so now you brought your mother back here no my mom was here the whole time oh she she stayed here i just oh you're the one that left oh okay yes yeah so hashim is what is hashim that's not japanese hashim is no it's actually lebanese lebanese yes it actually means god so the word in hebrew and oh here this that the story behind hashim is on my father's side he my grandfather was studying to be a catholic priest and he was studying to be a catholic priest he could speak three right five different languages and right before he's ordained his four other brothers come to him and said we're going to america do you want to go so he quits the priesthood hops on a boat lands in boston has seven kids my father's the youngest and my father joins the military gets stationed in japan and that's how you end up with a lebanese japanese boy oh and he yes then he gets stationed in hawaii so so that's how i come about that's how i know why so oh wow what a trip but you know i would that's the world of days right it is i would bet you a fat man that everybody in hawaii now my great great great grandfather was none other than confederate civil war general john bell hood the one that the base is named after so yeah we all get mixed up um and i can't resist telling that story that i am a civil war confederate monument right i am the mix between all of those things so you want a monument this is it hey let's get to just talk about the legislature now you've been in the legislature 10 years yes this is i just completed my fifth term has it really been that long wow time goes by so quick i mean this last 10 years just zoomed by it did and when now in the legislature you a chair of what i was chair of housing i was yes previously i was the chair of housing and now i'm the biker of higher education yeah so in hawaii housing is probably the biggest problem for everybody for those with houses it's property tax for those with house without a house it's how do you make ten dollars an hour and pay 1800 dollars a month rent so you know it's like all of the everybody's got a housing issue so how do you deal with that those different issues so many different issues with it at the legislature yeah well housing to affordable housing is basically just funding because of the it doesn't pencil to have affordable housing in hawaii so there's this gap that to feel that that gap to make it pencil the legislature funds that gap so that way we can continue to have affordable housing last year we funded 70 i believe 75 million dollars the the last biennium budget on top of that we have about 35 million dollars that goes into the rena housing revolving fund to support affordable housing what is what is called affordable and affordable for whom so there's there's tiers of affordable housing you have public housing which is state-run housing like you know polo maro right that that's public housing that's owned and operated by the the state of hawaii then you have a rental you have the affordable the second class which i would say workforce housing which is 60 of the area medium income public housing is usually about 30 of the area medium income and below the workforce housing is usually between 60 to 100 of the area medium income so okay so now hud hud determines the the rates yes and yeah it's even if hud determines the rate it's still pretty hot it is because what works in Idaho the medium that income is totally different than what works in hawaii yes and even in hawaii what works in honolulu doesn't work and captain cook you know yes we have a challenge because we have our land cost is expensive and also our building cost is is very expensive so it drives up the costs all together so we have bigger challenges than anywhere else we do now okay let's go to you said higher ed higher education we have an issue this year that we've never dealt with and that is getting people back into school and higher ed would be the universities yes now they say they want to do it online and some people want to go back physically into school what how do you deal with that well what the university is trying to do is create a look is to create a bubble of non-infected students essentially so every student coming in will be tested so their plan right now is to do a combination between online courses and in-person courses so but you so the student gets to choose is that is that it the student gets to choose whether they're going to do physically in there or are out there there are classes yes the student gets to choose of there are classes that cannot be taught online for example labs are a very great you just can't do it yeah I don't have a chemistry set at my house so most people don't either right or in the dorms that you the only place where you can do that is within the lab so things like that you need to be on campus and the university is working through working through working through it I think the bigger challenge is going you started talking we keep losing I think the bigger challenge is grade school k-12 oh yes I was good I was gonna say yeah grade schools because it's very difficult for kindergarten kindergarteners to social distance or to keep them wearing a mask it's very yeah now little children I'm glad I don't have to figure that out I want to let children love being with each other they love the play the touch the being with each other and I don't know how you do that and the more important thing is how do you protect the teachers the janitors all those other people that are in the building how do we protect them because little kids touch feel grab you know how do you protect the adults yeah that's that's a challenge I I the way I envision it and I think some schools are actually doing this is to create a bubble so one class doesn't interact with any other class and so if you have an outbreak it's contained to that one class so if you have 12 students it's all contained to there and that's how it you would try to prevent the spread from one class to the next class yeah but well there's still now I know that I know you can't do anything about this but having had children and grandchildren in public schools August is the hottest month of the year and the schools are not air conditioned can't we just push that back to september I agree um I brought this point up that the cheapest fix for our air conditioning that you know that movement for cooling the classes the cheapest fix is just to move it from august to september because that's it yeah when we were in school when I was in school we started in september so we we were outside playing I was outside playing during august so and then we yeah so we maybe had a couple weeks of classrooms but then after that it was done yeah but because august is the hottest month of the year yes and so last year November was hot too oh it was last year was just oh well now let's talk about the legislature and moving this election to all male mailing not ma le but ma il but listen and in our district it is all male there are no females running that's right that's right Natalie you also was the last person running in east on the river that I can remember yes and um so but that's now tell us about why the legislature decided on mailing I mean I like it quite frankly because I've been doing it by mail for years uh what yeah we can't hear you oh um so I think it was last year that the legislature passed the all mail in the election so there was nobody knew that we would come into this situation with COVID-19 and this was not on anybody's mind the whole intent was to increase was to increase voter turnout so with that with that mindset we put in all mail in and just so happened we're lucky that we did because we got a year to prepare for that for this year so um now let's let's talk about mailing the ballots will be mailed out when next week yes or at the end of this week or next week um yeah you're right ballots will be dropped on the 21st so they'll put them in the mails you should get it by the 21st at home now yeah so if you're not registered I think the the date is passed but you can call the clerk's office and make sure you're registered you can do that today and that uh telephone number is<PHONE_NUMBER> call today to be sure that you're registered I know the date is passed but do it anyway yeah you can actually register online I believe yeah but you want to be sure if you think you did or not sure call and ask you know so be sure that you get the ballot let's every vote counts so let's be sure that you do it that's number one if they say well you we said we gave you a ballot and you said well I didn't get it can I get a replacement yes you can and again same telephone number<PHONE_NUMBER> that's the clerk's office yes talk to them tell them well I didn't get it can I get a replacement that's where you go and on the news last night they said that ballots must be in busney postmark no they must be in the hands of the clerk's office by seven o'clock on election day not postmarked so you ought to be sure that it is in the mail or in the drop boxes now there are drop boxes all over the island and they are located at public the city parks now be sure be sure that if you put it in the drop box because they pick them up every day but you want to be sure that it's there because parks close and they lock them up so you want to be sure that you get it in early because they do make up around every day to pick up the ballots and what else do I need to tell you you can go to Honolulu holly and in person or Kapolei holly and do it in person but quite frankly I've been doing it by mail for years and they've always gotten the right so I can't imagine that they wouldn't but please make sure you go through all of this every vote counts everyone and that's what makes us a democracy is that every vote counts and everybody please make sure you vote now I'm not going to tell you who to vote for but I do want you to vote that is your option you don't have to tell me you know some you know my wife is from Peru and Peru everybody votes because if you don't if you don't vote you get fine there's a there's an actual financial penalty for not voting we should implement in the United States and some places it's a holiday and in France it's a holiday to vote the whole day but now we don't have to worry about that since it's by mail so you don't have to take time off the work you know it would it would be good if we if it was a federal mandate and you could get let's say $20 back and your tax returns just for turning in a slip right because that's basically what they do in Peru oh really so we could just yeah I just that's a great idea well in Peru if you don't vote you get fine but so if you don't send in your little return you you get fine is that it how do they know yes I don't know exactly how it works in Peru but they're finding that you got to ask my wife you have to have her on your show I will so um yeah because that's interesting you're broke she's a wine sommelier so you probably get a lot of people watching too a wine sommelier yeah are they still open uh yes for some strange reason alcohol is an essential part okay well for people that are locked in yeah so is cannabis medical yes that's true now it's medical cannabis now oh I wanted to bring up something also um voting is really important the census is also equally equally important because everybody should answer your census because for every 1% that does not respond Hawaii loses 40 million dollars whoa per year so one for for 1% over 10 years that's how almost half a billion dollars yes please everybody answer your census or make sure everybody in your family has answered their census or everybody you don't answer your census because that's vital funding for the state of Hawaii and and if everybody in Hawaii participated we could have a third cd third cd3 yes where would we cut that out I guess we can just make you Lulu but you're in the legislation you're going to have to read district next year anyway yes that's right that's right yeah and but if everybody did now I have talked to people because we are a partner with the census but I've talked to people who say oh well I'm not an American well it doesn't matter that you're not an American you live here you drive on the roads you drink the water you you know yeah so yes because does make a difference status immigration status is not is not an issue or irrelevant for the census right didn't the supreme court actually throw that out they threw it out yeah the administration tried to put immigration status on the census question but they they that got actually taught yeah so um where are we now census and voting and I am going to call your wife things you gave me now okay why now let's tell me this so this is for the audience not for me why should we vote for you why should we give you another time to do this now I think of course but you know I'm prejudiced so go ahead tell us why we should vote I have I always have a hard time talking about this I guess because it feels like I'm bragging I always have a hard time talking about this but I I always like to say that I've been very good good for the district that I brought essential infrastructure needs to the district a lot of things that people don't see like freeway the freeway service patrol but expanded to east Honolulu prior to this they only went up to about the University of Hawaii and now they go all the way down to Aina co-op and they turn around and go back so this was in 2012 we put or I helped allocate I think it was 1.2 1 to 1.2 million dollars additional funding for the freeway service patrol and I worked with the Department of Transportation so that way they expanded to the end of the freeway and now there it is so small stuff like that and the highway Kalani yes we repaid we repaid Kalani on only highway the funding first was put in in 2010 that was that's yeah 2000 2011 we had the first phase funding but when we were going through the process of when I was working with the Department of Transportation it came clear that their their process was only to do from Aina Hina out going east towards Kokohet area and which left from the freeway to Aina Hina unpaid so I got the State Department of Transportation to do that front portion of from the freeway to Aina Hina and that that was recently done last year so what we did with that was attempt it was basically a two-inch top to bring the life cycle of the the whole road to the same life cycle because prior to that they did that section earlier a few years earlier and they would since there is such a big gap between the first phase and the second phase they were gonna it's it would be staggered so from now the whole life cycle of the highway is one road going all the way down very good at the school oh yes I'm a former wrestler I wrestled for McKinley high school and Pacific University but yeah we got anyways I'm a sports fan I believe sports is good for kids because it kept me out of trouble and high school is because if high school kids have idle time they're getting into trouble I'm so the only thing that kept me in school was because I played sports so the girls locker room is Kalani basically didn't have a girls locker room Kaiser for that matter too at Kaiser high school the girls are changing in the closets and in the classrooms they left their bags all over the place the same situation for Kalani so we worked over the years to get a new girls locker room in Kalani and a new girls locker room in Kaiser high school and I remember the Kalani wrestling team was actually practicing in the the cafeteria so when I went there to go work out with them I'm like what the hell are you guys doing in the cafeteria so but they didn't have a wrestling room so that's why now they have a wrestling room right next to the girls locker room so we kind of put that all in one one big project so kind of happy for that now we just got to work on the football Kalani's football team they actually get well they actually started winning a lot more than they did before so yeah well listen now we have a minute left so tell me now again why we should vote for you oh why I you've got a project you want to continue what what have you got oh yes um I always working on stuff there is the the track and field for Kalani high school that we're still going through I'm trying to remember Kaiser high school the redoing of the boys locker room the next phase will be um Kalani high school's boys locker room that needs to be redone the boys locker room is the same exactly the same since the 1950s and but yeah I really enjoy being the representative it's very rewarding this year of our main focus really was to help people get their was to help people get their unemployment insurance of my staff help countless individuals get their unemployment insurance and it was it's such a great feeling to be able to help because once the check comes in and now they're they can pay their rent or they can pay their mortgage and they're not evicted and you get we got countless of people saying thank you for helping them get their their financial payments because what is it almost 30 percent of the people are unemployed now so it's huge and it's getting bigger I enjoy it it's very rewarding and I want to thank people for allowing me yes so I want to thank everybody for allowing me to be in the position and continue to continue to serve the district well I thank you also for serving our district for being available to everybody for answering the phone yourself I think yes I do many times yes and thank you again for taking the time to be with us today and remember everybody you must vote not just for this gentleman but across the board everybody all 51 House members are up and half of the Senate is up a reelection so you must you must and vote so thank you again mark and we will see you next time


There's a picture of this parent. Yeah, hey guys check this out Something going on over Jerry's old house Somebody must have called them There's a couple girls sitting on the ground three girls sitting on the ground over there. Oh, sorry Yeah, we must have been living in there I don't know Maybe Debbie next door. I don't know I must be a parent Looks like they got two of them cuffed Probably they're taking them in the house releasing them to the parents they done something in there. Yeah Well, somebody called because he said that he said well, we had a call Yeah, the cabinets are there. They're not all here Or if they are there's got it through the house. What a shame Look at that Officer was right.  I thought they would have took it The family What a mess This this room's tore up Is it? TB God? Yeah Okay guys, so that's what happened They uh, and three teenage girls went into Jerry's old house And like the deputy said as we talked to him and He said there wasn't anything that wasn't screwed down that wasn't busted or thrown through the wall. So What a shame Three teenage girls Yeah I'm just about tired of people messing around over there like that Yeah You know People have no respect for other people That's flat out You know, yeah That's just flat out vandalism As far as I'm concerned they should be but all three be arrested and put in jail for a while I don't see school getting ready to go through the bank and they have to do it So Yeah The cops can't do it because they don't own the place so Yeah All they can really do is take a report, get their information, make them leave, you know Yeah And then it's up to the bank to press charges on them so Which they figured the bank won't Probably not No But that was my main concern right there is what, you know, what's gonna happen to the house Is it gonna be like yours, you know Mm-hmm So Yeah, mine was like that And that's how I got a good deal on it Yeah Our house was in bad shape She's got pictures I still gotta do a video of that She's got one up Yeah Before and after It was And a lot worse shape than that one than Jerry's But man There's pictures of his family His parents and they're all over the floor You know All his stuff was still there I don't know what the family took But whatever they took they took in a U-Haul And they haven't been back since Yeah, but they gave a lot of it away The washer and dryer and all that shit got given away Yeah So I don't know what they did His clothes are still, you know They're still clothes hanging in there It's just a shame, you know It's gonna be to the point where No one's gonna buy the clothes I know Yeah I even called them and told them You know, there was people trying to move in there They need to do something They need to put it up for sale Some more Mr. Nice guy here Next time I catch somebody in there and put them on the ground We heard it bang We heard it We heard it Yeah And we even burned a bark Yeah, we heard something But we looked out There wasn't no one here Of course we couldn't see inside the house There weren't no cars around here But the neighbors heard it too And they're a lot closer than we are So they heard a lot more stuff going on That we couldn't hear Right She called the cops They heard stuff being broken So she called Yeah, she called the cops So It's ridiculous You know, this ain't urban exploring They're actually broken that back window to get in Yeah This is just flat out Bandalism Being mean Yeah I mean, you know, that was somebody's home at one time You know That's why when I do the urban exploration I have respect You know When we go into places We have respect for that Man, don't go in there and start doing that stuff Three teenage girls One of them lives down here at the end of the street Yeah I found out that she lives right down the road And I figured All three of them are probably Sleeping over And then they came up this way It was a Sunday morning It doesn't matter It doesn't matter They were in there and they did it Mm-hmm You know They call their parents And let them go home with their parents But they all got ticketed Or something that's supposed to appear in court So Well, I don't know I don't know if we'll even find out What happened Well, I don't think they got anything He said there was nothing they could do No, they all got papers So I don't know Parents were all given papers Yeah That's the reports So That, you know, they're not ticketed I mean The cops can't do anything Without the owner's consent That's what he said, you know He said our hands are tied All we can do is, you know File a report So that's the papers that they were given to them Is what they were going to file But I think these banks should be charged Because they should be allowed To be these houses empty for so dang long Without putting it back up for sale Or whatever they got to do They just hold and drag it And drag it for many years And by the time it's finished Once it's in the bank, though The problem is They are technically owners So there's no law saying You have to live in a house But by the time they finish Selling it There's nothing left I understand that But it's just like anybody else They're in a home And they go up north Decided to live up there They're still allowed to own it down here It doesn't have to be occupied But yeah, I mean They're taking care of it They have it mowed once a week And all that, but Once a month, you know They've gotten slacker But What can you do? It's a shame Yeah, but there's only so much They can do, you know They can't hire somebody To come and watch a house 24-7, you know I mean, you can't do that It's just, it's a shame No, well Anyway, that's what happens I'll see you guys in the next one Bye-bye Make sure to stop for now, y'all Bye She barely met the man alleged I'm gone for now, we'll see you


So, this issuing of charge sheets to 48 of us for protesting is actually just the latest in a long series of bureaucratic assaults on the nature of Jawaharlal University and on the teaching learning process. So, this particular charge sheet is charging us with under civil service rules conduct rules CCS rules which do not apply to universities which does not apply to JNU, JNU has its own statutes JNU was founded independently by an act of parliament. So, JNU has its own status as an autonomous body and it has its own regulations and rules and it has its own disciplinary proceedings and so on. So, it is not clear on what basis the civil service rules are suddenly being talked about and each civil service rules are to be imposed on universities that is the biggest assault on democratic functioning of universities as a whole because civil service rules are meant for government servants. If they make the teaching learning process subject to the control of governments you are in a sense as we say in some of our statements you are making censorship a condition of service you are basically ensuring that spaces that are supposed to promote critical thinking cannot promote critical thinking because you are under the government. So, if you look at the new education policy draft that is circulating one of the key elements of the new education policy draft is that it envisages the prime minister and then the chief minister at the head of the triangle of authority the hierarchy is in that way which means it is completely education is conceived of as completely under the control of the government of the time which any thinking person can see is deeply inimical to education as such if we think that education is something that you will get a job then it is different but if we think about education that education is something that you learn to think, learn to question and put a critical view on everything if education is such a thing then it is that the government can't work like this, the government is responsible for the government and the strategy to make the teachers responsible for the government is precisely to stop thinking. So, we will resist this challenge and we have a lot of, we are not a master of education, I will say this because after a week of this administration, after a week of this science work, after a week of JNU, the kind of attacks that have taken place, then the first political attacks have taken place, anti-national etc. Now, for a couple of years, bureaucratic, which is a phrase, death by a thousand cuts, so bureaucratic technically we are constantly trying to tie us up, so we are very much, we don't feel that how did this happen, we were expecting that this administration is very worried about us and we feel that it is very worried about us and when Amit Shah wins the elections, I won't say that, when Bhajpa took the elections, after that the first statement was about the pieces of the gang, which we believe are the pieces of the gang, they want to do the pieces of India, but we know what was their sign, so if Amit Shah feels that JNU is fighting such elections, then it is good that we are proud of it. Look, CCS rules, I am not saying this and we are not saying that we are not an ordinary government employee, I did not use the word ordinary at all, our meaning is not that we are not ordinary, our meaning is that our work is of a different kind, what we do is not the work of the government, so we should have different rules, CCS rules means that in CCS rules you cannot do anything without the permission of your university, you cannot write anything in public, if you want to write anything then you have to take permission from your employer, i.e. from the university, if you want to say something, you have to take permission for that, what you will say, you have to take permission for that, because CCS rules means that government officials do not have their own opinion, that means it is their job supposedly to fulfill the government policy, so if they have to give their own opinion, they can say it privately, or they have to take permission, or after retiring, they write that book, but our opinion or our work is of a different kind, so if you say that, i.e. there should be different rules for different types of work, so if you say that the teacher is a government servant, then can we also say that the government servant is a teacher, then we also say that because they also have training institutes, among them there are many people who have different teaching learning, so what can be done with the university rules, they are all government servants, so if they want to challenge, then they should challenge, that is why I am not going on that, that what is the work of government servants, but among us there are many people, i.e. more than 50 percent, 70 percent of the university teachers, they could become government servants with the exam, we have selected a different kind of work, and among us there are many people who could stay outside, we wanted to stay in this country, we would work in this country, and we would work in this kind of work, where we cannot apply that kind of gag on us, because we want to be critical on everything, on the government policy, we will have to be critical, anyone can say to the government, I will elect myself, even if it is my choice, I will have to deal with it, there is no government who is free from dealing with it, so CCS rules are meant to prevent government servants from speaking against the government, how can this be a condition of service for teachers, because we have to speak against every government, there has to be a space for a critical voice for every government in a democracy, this is like applying CCS rules on journalists, what is the point of teaching, if you tell us, we do get our salary from the university grants commission, but the university grants commission is funded by taxpayers, so can I make another point here, which I don't know if you can use, it is often said about JNU, that taxpayers' money is spent on students and against the government, but if you look at taxpayers' money, if a boy from Begusaray reaches JNU and can finish his PhD, then what is the better use of taxpayers' money? We know that taxpayers' money is not just income tax, not even indirect taxes, we have a lot of indirect taxes in India, means every ordinary person who buys salt or turmeric, if their children are able to study from their money, then this is the best use of this money. So the way this administration is spending taxpayers' money in legal cases, we are fighting with our money, we are fighting with our pockets, that is what taxpayers' money is wasting in the university, and it is losing every case because it doesn't have a stand, it cannot stand in law, what they are doing is illegal. Not just universities, but universities which draw in students from the most heterogeneous conditions possible, because it should not just be universities of the elite, but universities in which there is very strong affirmative action policies, which JNU had, which are being very badly undermined. In fact, our protest was about a range of issues which included reservations, because reservations are not being implemented, it includes the destruction of our deprivation point system, in which JNU had a lot of students from different conditions. In some classes, 50% of the students were first generation learners. In their whole family, they were the first boys or girls who came to the university. Our community of JNU was like this. The protest was also about this. So, university has a critical space where people from different parts of India come, meet, learn from one another, collide with one another, learn from one another. I believe that in the university space, there is not just one classroom. In the peer group, students learn from one another. Some come from very elite circumstances and some come from very non-elite circumstances. They meet in the classroom, meet and talk. Similarly, people change their thoughts. There are so many students who come from elite spaces and think that reservations are of merit. But after they come, they start to understand their privilege. Conversely, the marginalized community is confident in themselves. The society changes. So, university should remain... I feel university should remain a space where everyone can participate. Education should be free. But we should at least be highly subsidized in our community. And critical thinking is important in that space if we think that the society needs to change. And the society needs to change in the direction of justice. By the way, Hindus also want to change the society. Wherever we were, it was not perfect. But they also want to change the society. But I am saying that people like us should have a common sense of justice. And we want a proper society, social justice, equality, and people to have the full capability to live their lives in the sense of medicine. It is not enough to have freedom. We need material resources and we also need material resources. So, all these things are made and a university becomes a university in the right way. So, private universities are not enough and there are a lot of fees. There are a lot of courses introduced in JNU where there are a lot of high fees. So, if we want the society to have the right sense of justice and to have the right sense of justice, social justice, equality, and if we want to expand the mind of a person and to have the right sense of justice, and to have the right sense of justice, then critical thinking is absolutely necessary. We did not think that JNU is unique. I never thought that JNU is unique. This is my university. I was a student here. I came here to study after many years. I never thought that JNU is unique. Only then did I realize that the second day of the new vice chancellor when the attacks started, I thought that if the society is so worried about the university, we were doing something right. Because until then we were very critical about the institution. I am a teacher here from 2008. I was a student before that. Internal criticism is at the peak of JNU. The way we think about ourselves, think about our institutions, that there is casteism, that there are no reserved post-teachers, that sexual harassment is not taken seriously, that we do not sensitize students. We are so critical about our institution. We never thought that JNU is very special and we are perfect. But despite all this, if the society is so worried, then we started to think about what we are doing right. Until then we kept making mistakes about how we are improving it. I think that we all will believe that the university is worried about the society as a space. Because if you are worried, because if you look at it, after coming here, after becoming the prime minister of Modi, there have been such movements in every university. And they cannot say that they are left, or that they have done prayer, or that they have done insight. That is why I am saying that they come to the university in one way or another and reach a new world where they can raise questions.  You can see that Banaras, Alabad and Punjab University, I can't even name all of them. In so many universities, students have fought without any fear. So university as a space. JNU I think is seen as a particular threat. They feel that this is a kind of left bastion. So if you look at the faculty, less than 50% can be called left. Less than 50% is actually left. If you look at the scores, it is a mixed bag. So left ideas here why are they so strong that after left union, students union. Students union again and again. I feel that their meaning is very general. Anyone who talks about social justice, who talks about equality, who talks against patriarchy feels that this is all left. And who talks about secularism, who believes that this country is for everyone, not just for Hindus. And what is Hinduism? What is Hinduism? This is a definition of which the entire Hindu society is governed. So we ask such inconvenient questions. We are against Hinduism. We are for secularism. So it is called left. When you see that Babsa did not call you left. And there are many groups who will not call you left. And the most famous JNU people are sitting in the government and the foreign minister. They were both free thinkers. So this is a campus where every kind of thinking is being taken out. The government is so scared that they are taking out 8th place. They are taking out 8th place on paper and wall. In which there are ABVP posters. They are also taking out Mande Mataram posters. Obviously, if they are removing only Hinduism in this country they cannot do it as soon as possible. So why are they removing posters? What does it mean? They are saying it is clean. You can go to the hostel and see. There is no facility in the hostel. If you want to make a clean campus give the facility to the students. Make arrangements for water. No, they will remove posters. This makes the campus clean. So obviously, the thinking of JNU is free. What does freedom mean? What does freedom mean? They are so scared of this word. They think that Kashmiri has gone away. What is freedom? What is freedom from Manuwal? If you listen to the slogan they are scared of freedom. They are scared of free thinking. So they think that they are left they are easily left they are left alone.


Hi everyone. In this video, we're going to talk about that how to get a byte from the input then how to split that byte into separate integers and finally how to add that integers from separated byte into a list. So let's first make a new file and let's make one empty list. We will call it MyList and let's take one byte from the input. We'll say input enter a byte and we want to keep that input inside some variable. Let's call it A. So in A we'll keep value from input and now we want to separate our byte into bits. We will use four loop in order to do that. Let's say for E, for I in range 8 because we know that one byte has eight bits. If you are not sure that your input is eight characters long, you could also say you could also call function LAN and put inside that function as an argument variable A and it returns a length of our string because when you take something from the input and save it into the variable, that variable has string type. So we are starting to iterate letter by letter our string and our current string in every iteration is this. We want to convert that string that character into an integer. So we'll convert it with int and put that current character as an argument of int and when we have that int value we want to populate our new empty list. So we will say my list dot append and we will append our empty list with our current string. It's taken from the byte and converted to int and append it to my list and finally let's print our my list to see results of our function. We could save it as I don't know for example bytes example dot pi and let's run our code enter byte for example 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 We have eight letters. Okay. Let's press enter and now our byte is separated bit by bit converted to integer and added to our my list. So that's all in this example. Thanks for watching. Please like share and subscribe. Happy coding.


Living and studying in Australia has been amazing for me. It's a very diverse and multicultural country, so you get to know people from everywhere around the world, have friends from everywhere around the world, and it's an amazing place to live, very friendly. I do recommend Australian universities to the international students because Australia has the university that listed in the top 100 universities in the world. The freedom that I can have with my children here, it's very safe in a very clean environment. I'd encourage others from Papua New Guinea because Australia offers innovative and independent thinking. I would recommend Australia because a person from any developing country can experience much more than what they can get in their own country.


Today, we are faced with numerous difficult challenges, misinformation, hunger, increasing poverty, climate change injustice, attacks on people, offline and online. Are our rights fading? Where do human rights live? They live in each of us. We have the chance to know, claim and defend our rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights still speaks to us all. Its 30 articles transcend values, cultures and borders, declaring that we are all human and all equal in dignity and in rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights unites us. To counter the current attacks on human rights, we need stronger and broader alliances involving all of us. Human rights defenders, the media, everyone. This year, as we celebrate 75 years of the declaration standing up for our rights, it's your turn. Find the rights that resonate with you. Claim them. Stand up for them. In dignity, freedom and justice for all, stand up for human rights.