One, we have Olivier Wittenberg who will be talking around the inverse gamma problem second lecture. Thank you. Can you hear me well? Yeah. OK. So before I begin, let me remind you that there's a wine and talk graduate students event tonight at 6 PM in the dining tent. OK. So let me remind you what we did yesterday. So I talked about the Nutter problem, which was the rationality of this variety, the quotient of An by G acting by permutation on the coordinates. And I explained that it's a stronger problem than Grunwald's problem, which is itself a stronger problem than the inverse gamma problem. And I explained that Nutter's problem has a negative answer in general. I gave a counter example, which I explained through a counter example to Grunwald's problem for z mod 8z and q. So I should just add that for cyclic groups and over q, the answer to Nutter's problem is by now completely understood. So this combines two things. First of all, theoretical advances, in particular one of the early works of Hendrik Landstra, and extensive computer calculations. I mean, the theoretical advances tell you that for a cyclic group acting on a fine space over q, the Nutter's problem has a positive answer, if and only if. Some arithmetic property of some cyclotomic field holds true, but then you need to do something more. I mean, it's not easy to check. So then there are also ingredients coming from number theories and height estimates. And finally, as I said, extensive computer calculations. So I encourage you to take a look at the notes where this is explained. So I'm not going to talk about this today. And also in the notes, I explained that there are also counter examples to Nutter's problem for over the complex numbers, of course, for non-Abelian groups then. OK, so what are we going to do today? So OK, Nutter's problem has a negative answer in general. Remember why we were interested in a positive answer? It was in order to apply Hilbert's irreducibility theorem to the projection from an to this quotient. If the base is rational, then you can find lots of points such that the fiber is irreducible, is an irreducible, sorry, connected g-tosser. And then you solve the inverse general problem. So if it's not rational, you can do it like this. So let's today take another point of view. Let's look for a torsor to which we could apply Hilbert's irreducibility theorem, but maybe not this one. Let's take the simplest one for which the base is rational. So let's look at torsos over p1, open subsets of p1. So that's the so-called regular inverse general problem, which you can ask over any field for any finite group g, finite group. So the question is, does there exist a connected g-tosser over an open subset of p1? And let's even ask for a bit more, geometrically connected. So does there exist a geometrically connected g-tosser? So y to x, where x is an open of p1. So just to make things clearer, let me draw a picture. So this is x, sorry, this is p1. And x is you remove a few points from p1. And y is going to be a curve mapping to p1, mapping to x, like this. So the g-tosser will be over the points where there's no ramification. So you remove these points. And there's an action of g on the curve upstairs, which acts fiber-wise and which acts simply transitively on the fibers. That's why. So in particular, the extension of function fields is Galois with group g. And so what does geometrically connected mean? Well, it's not only a connected curve, but even if you extend the scalars from k to an algebraic closure, it remains connected. That's what it means. So if you can do this, and k is, say, q, then you apply Hilbert's irreducibility theorem and you immediately solve the inverse Galois problem for g over q. So it's, again, a stronger version. But contrary to Nutter's problem, this might well always have a positive answer for all fields and all finite groups. This is probably what's hoped. At least no counter example is known. OK, and what's good with this question, better than with the inverse Galois problem itself, is that it has this geometric flavor which connects it to topology in a very close way. And topology is much easier than number theory. So here's the theorem which really makes the connection. So it's the so-called Riemann's existence theorem. So you take x and open in p1. So this is over the complex numbers. x in p1 over the complex numbers and open. You remove finitely many points. Then you can look at the curves covering x, which are finite et al. So all the morphisms, pi from y to x, finite et al morphisms. So here I'm not requiring that these have an action of g and so on. So in this situation, really the picture is this. And finite et al means there's no ramification. So it extends to some curve which maps to p1 with some ramification. But over x, there's no ramification. So when you have this, you can look at the complex points. So it's topological space. And you get a topological covering. So finite topological coverings of the complex points of x. And the way you do this, again, is start from this and you just look at the complex points of y. So remember, topological covering is a topological space mapping to x of c. And locally on the base, it's trivial. It's a product. And finite means that the fibers are finite. So you have this thing. And the theorem is this is an equivalence of categories. In other words, you have a dictionary between this algebraic world here and this purely topological world. And that's very useful. So this has two consequences, the corollary. So first, well, let's take a connected g-torso over x. So here, again, x is an open in p1 of the complex numbers. So let's take a connected g-torso. Then so, OK, we have a connected g-torso. g is just the group of automorphisms of y over x. What this dictionary tells us is that we can compute this group of automorphism in the purely topological setting. It's also just the group of automorphism of the topological covering. So that's what topologists call deck transformations. So this is a very nice consequence because it tells you if you want to compute this Galois group, you just have to compute something purely topological. And the second consequence is that if you want to construct a finite detail covering of x, an algebraic curve like this, it's enough to construct a finite topological covering. And then you get an algebraic structure on the top space for free. So we are interested in g-torso. So let me state it for g-torso. Sorry, I will go there. So two. So from this dictionary, you deduce that a connected g-torso over x is the same thing as what? So what is a connected g-torso? Well, it's a finite detail cover like this, which is connected. And which in addition has, so connected means it's not a distant union of two such things. And in addition, there's an action of g on it, which is simply transitive on the fibers. Well, the dictionary tells you it's the same thing as a finite topological covering, which is connected. It's not a distant union of two things. With an action of g, which is simply transitive on the fibers. But this is something we understand from topology. When you have a nice topological space like this, there's this notion of universal covering. You fix the base point. You have the universal cover. And there is a Galois theory of topological coverings. So the universal cover has a group of automorphisms, which is the fundamental group of the base. And all connected covers are factors through it. Sorry, I mean, are sub-covers of this. It's just the same thing as in Galois theory for fields. And so there's a notion of Galois, finite topological coverings. So that's a connected topological covering whose group of automorphism is big enough, is equal to the degree of the covering. And so you can realize them always as intermediate covers of the universal covering. So that means you can realize the group as a quotient of the fundamental group. So I'm sorry, I'm going a bit fast, but this is pure topology. It's written in all topological textbooks. And it tells you that by this dictionary, what you get is exactly the surjections from the fundamental group of the base. So you pick a base point, small x, to g, up to conjugation by g, by an element of g. So again, let me just draw what I just said. You have this space and there's this universal covering. Here the automorphism group is pi 1. And if you have your connected g torsor here, it will correspond to a sub covering. OK, so you get g as a quotient of pi 1. But you have to choose a way to factor it and that's why you get only this up to conjugation. OK, but now this is very nice because the fundamental group is very simple. We're looking at an open in p1. So let's say x is p1 minus some points which I call b1 to br. So here they would be the branch points here under the ramification points, b1, br, and so on. Well, everyone knows that the fundamental group of this, if you take the complex points, the sphere minus r points, this is a free group on r minus 1 generators. And to be a bit more canonical, this really has a presentation with r generators, gamma 1 to gamma r, and one relation. The product of them is 1. So let me draw another picture. So here's the complex plane and there's the points at infinity. We have the points b1, b2, br. And we have our base point, which we have fixed, x. So the gamma i's are the loops based at x, which go around each bi like this. So these are generators and it's clear that on the picture the composition is trivial. We're in the sphere, there's a point at infinity. OK, so now let's plug this into that. So a morphism like this is the same as giving the images of the gamma i's. So that's the same as giving a tuple of elements g1, gr in g, such that the product is 1, and such that the g i's generate the group, because I want this to be onto. OK, up to conjugation, sorry, up to conjugation. So this is in gr, so you have r elements of g, and g acts by simultaneous conjugation on all of the components. So this is something very explicit. So in particular, this gives a direct answer to the regular inverse problem over the complex numbers. So the thing is, this set is non-empty if r is large enough. That's obvious. And so by this dictionary, we do get a connected g cover, g torso over x if r is large enough. So corollary, positive answer to the regular inverse problem over c for any g. So again, the thing is, you pick out large enough. You choose the g i's. This gives you a topological covering. And by Riemann, you can algebra it and get your cover. OK, this dictionary is useful also for non-Galois cover. So let me mention something a bit more precise. So let's pick finite total cover like this. Again, x is my open in p1 over c. And let's assume y is connected. OK, then so from topology, we know that we get a topological covering by looking at the complex points. But more than that, we get a monodromy action. So the fundamental group of the base acts on the fiber. So let's pick x. So pi 1 of the base acts on the fiber, pi 1 of x. So if you number these, I mean, so sorry. So this is the monodromy action. So if this is x, this is the fiber, you start with a loop base that x, and you lift it starting from one point. This will give you a path leading to another point. So let's number the elements of the fiber. We get a map to the symmetric group, sn. Say n is the cardinality of the fiber. And so what we know from topology is that if you take, so this is maybe not Galois, but you can take a Galois closure. And then the automorphism group of the Galois closure is the image of this monodromy map. OK, the image. Yeah. So g, Galois group of a Galois closure, let me say of the extension of function fields, right? So sorry, what the corollary says is introduce g, the Galois group of a Galois closure of this function field extension. Then you can view it in a topological way. Namely, it's the image of this monodromy map. So it's a certain quotient of the fundamental group of the base. And it's actually even better than that. You can describe what the gamma i's here do as permutations of the fiber. So namely, gamma i acts. So sorry, gamma i acts on the fiber as a product of cycles. And the lengths of the cycles are given by the ramification indices above bi as a product of cycles whose lengths are the ramification indices above bi. OK, so here what do I mean exactly? So we started with something which is only over x, a finite total curve over x. Well, there's nothing above bi. So there's a way to compactify y to a curve mapping to p1. So we have this picture, y to x. We can compactify it. There's a unique smooth projective curve containing y as an open subset, and it paths to p1. And now this is not unromified anymore. So here you have ramification above bi, and that's what I mean here. OK, so the first part is really just translation using the dictionary. And here to know that gamma i acts in this way, it's a purely local computation. You just have to know how a ramified morphism of curves looks like locally on the complex points. So I mean, OK, this is a standard thing. And this is very useful in practice. It allows you to compute the Galois group of a Galois closure when you give yourself a cover of curves like this. So for example, let me not enter into any detail here, but for example, if you have a curve which covers p1 like this, and the ramification is as simple as it can be. That is, of course, there will be some ramification, but it will only be ramification index 2. And you don't have two ramification points in the same fiber, so that's really the generic situation. Then what this tells you is that if you take the Galois closure, so that's going to be another curve, which now is going to be Galois over p1, then the group here is generated by elements. So it's a subgroup of the symmetric group, and it's generated by elements which act as transpositions. Here it is just above any bi. One ramification point of index 2, and that's it. And then it's a standard lemma in group theory, such a subgroup of the symmetric group, which is generated by transpositions and which acts transitively on the fiber, that's the connectedness assumption, must be SN, the whole of SN. So this shows that the Galois closure, sorry, that G equals SN if the ramification is as simple as possible. So it's on purpose that I'm not going into any detail here. I just want to show an application of this, and you will see more in the exercises. So am I going to separate? So do you mean two ramification points above the same point of p1? So this group here is generated by the gamma i's, and each gamma i will be a transposition. So if you have two ramification points like this, you will have two gamma i's, each of which will be a transposition. Does that answer your question? I'm sorry, that's OK. So let's go back to the inverse Galois problem. So OK, we get a positive answer over C here. Now of course, we're interested at things over Q. So the whole question now is how to get down from C to Q. And as far as I know, all answers to the regular inverse Galois problem over any field first go through this over C, and then you try to descend. So there is one method, one technique, which is at the same time very specific and incredibly effective. It's called the rigidity method. So I will try to explain this now. So the rigidity method. So let me state the theorem. So this is due to many people, Belly, Frid, Matzat, Thompson. And I will state it just in the basic case. There are many variants on this, but already this basic case works very well. So you fix an integer R. It's going to be the number of branch points. You fix a finite group G. And let's assume that the group has trivial center. Let's in addition fix a collection of conjugacy classes in G, C1 to CR conjugacy classes. OK, and then the theorem says that, yes, we can realize G as a regular inverse problem has a positive answer for G over Q under some assumptions on the CIs. So the regular inverse problem for G over Q has a positive answer if, and I'm going to state the conditions. So the conditions are at the same time a bit technical and completely elementary if. So first of all, each CI is so-called rational. So this means that for any G in CI and any integer n prime to the order of G, if you look at G to the power n, it's conjugated to G in G, in capital G. G and GM are conjugates. OK, and the second condition is that the collection C1 to CR is so-called rigid. And this means the following. So you see this set here. I'm going to almost rewrite it. And I'm going to assume in addition that each GI belongs to the conjugacy class CI. So you look at the tuples G1, GR. So each GI is in CI. And I assume that the product is one and that they generate the group. OK, and the condition is that if I look at this modular, the action of G by conjugation, I get just one element. So in other words, if I don't quotient, I'm going to say G acts transitively on this set. G acts by simultaneous conjugation transitively on this set. So I'm assuming that the set is non-empty on this set, which is non-empty. OK, that's part of the assumption. OK? So as I said, it's a very down-to-earth statement. And what's maybe surprising is that it's extremely useful. So there are many groups which have been shown to be Galois groups of a cube because we could apply this theorem to them. So in particular, the assumptions are known to hold for at least 10 of the sporadic simple groups exactly in this form with even a very small value of r equals 3. And for many other classes of groups. So for example, you can apply this to PSL2 of fp for infinitely many values of p, and so on and so forth. So it's not easy to apply this theorem. You have to be able to find these conjugacy classes satisfying these assumptions. When they exist, sometimes they don't exist. And if you try to do it, I mean you quickly run into computational challenges. People have used computers to look for such things. And in fact, as soon as r gets a bit large, I mean even 5 or 6, very quickly it becomes infeasible. Also, there's some series group theory going into verification of this. But OK, it can be done. And another thing I should say is that when this theorem applies, in principle, it is possible to write down explicitly an equation for the g toss for y that this theorem would produce. So I give some references in the notes. I encourage you to look at this. And what I will try to do today is not explain how to apply this, but rather explain where these conditions come from and why this is true. OK, so let's fix once and for all a group g and the integer r. So let's use a terminology, so a g cover over k. So this is going to be a geometrically connected g torso, just a shorthand, a geometrically connected g torso over an open subset of p1, open x in p1 over k. OK, so that's what we're looking for, a g cover over q. So it turns out that it's very useful to look at the set of all g covers. So there's a modular space for this. So let me first introduce just one thing. Whenever I have such a thing, I will denote by capital B the set of branch points. So b will be p1 minus x. OK, so it turns out that there is a modular space for these things. So that means there's a sum variety whose points, whose k points, are the g covers over k for any k. So if you fix the degree of b. So that's a theorem due to Fridt and Thurkline. So sorry, and here comes one of the assumptions. The center of g should be trivial. If the center of g is trivial, there is a variety, curly h over q, that parameterizes g covers whose branch point, whose branch locus has degree r. So you have r branch points. So g covers with degree of b equals r. So here parameterizes is in a loose sense, but I really mean very precisely that for any field k of character 6-0, the set of k points is the set of isomorphism classes of g covers over k with r branch points. g covers over k with degree of b equals r. That's right. That's right. Yes, thank you. So I fix r, but I don't fix b. OK, so that's something you have to take as a black box. I mean, this thing exists. And so it's a very standard thing when you solve modular problems in general, that you're never going to find such a thing if the objects you're trying to classify have non-trivial automorphisms. And this is the meaning of this assumption here. You can check. It's easy. That's the automorphisms of g cover. That's the center of g. And moreover, sorry, not only is there such a variety, but in addition, and there is a finite et al map from this script curly h to curly u. And curly u is the variety which parametrizes the b's. That parametrizes the b's. So this is very easy to construct. It's an open in PR, actually, the b's. I mean, b is given by the zero locus of some polynomial, which is well defined up to scalars. And the coefficients of this polynomial give you a point in PR. So this is an open in PR. OK, and the map is what?  And you map it to b. So the statement is, this is actually finite et al. It's a very nice topological cover. So it already says a lot about the geometry of h. And OK, so now that we have this manualized space, all we want to do is to find a rational point on h. That's all we want to do. So goal h of q, non-empty. OK, to reach this goal, we need to understand the geometry a little better. And for this, we will need to associate with the g cover. Not only its branch locus, but also the classes g i, the conjugacy classes of the g i's that we saw earlier, the images of the gamma i's, the loops around b i. Yeah. The way I'm telling the story today, they don't need to ramify. But in old papers, they are supposed to actually ramify. In all the literature on the topic, the assumption is that the b i's ramify. That's in the literature. But today, I'm not doing this. Today, for simplicity, I'm not assuming that the b i's ramify. So exactly, that's why I said a g torso over an open x. So x is part of the data. Yeah, but it's a minor point. But thank you for the question. This I don't know. I mean, OK. If you know that a certain group satisfies the assumptions of the rigidity theorem, can you get some extensions of this group which also satisfy the assumptions? I don't know. I'm sorry, I'm not an expert on this. I don't know. OK, so remember, we had this associated with our g cover. We had this map, a suggestion well-defined up to conjugacy from the topological fundamental group. And here, we have the generators gamma i, which are mapped to g i. And so we want to take this into account. The problem is this definition is purely topological. So it's never going to work in this arithmetic setting over q. So we need to find an algebraic analog. So here, I'm going to tell what it is. So algebraic version of this. So there's an analogy. So analogy. So what is gamma i? You're looking really at b i in the complex situation. And you have a small disk around b i.  So you're looking at the fundamental group of a disk minus the center, the unit disk in the complex plane with some base point. So this is, well, this is z generated by a counterclockwise loop around 0. OK, in the algebraic setting, the analogous thing is going to be the absolute Galois group of q bar double parenthesis t. That's what you get when you localize at t equals 0 from the function field of p1. And what is this Galois group? Well, this is the field of Puezer series. So you just need to extract nth roots of t. So you get these cyclic extensions. And the Galois group, when you extract an nth root of t, is not it's cyclic, but it's not z more than z. It's mu n. So this is what one usually calls z hat twist 1, which is the inverse limit of all of the mu n's. So mu n of q bar. So it's a procyclic group, but there's not a canonical generator as we had here. So that's why things become a bit more tricky. And so what was GI? GI was the image of the generator here by the map that you get from pi1 of the disk around bi minus bi to pi1 of the whole x and then to g. Well, in the same way, here, because we're looking here, our g is the Galois group of the function field extension. And the function field of p1 maps to q bar double parenthesis t. Well, I mean, you can localize it and complete it at bi. And so this inclusion of fields gives you naturally a morphism between the absolute Galois groups in the other direction. And that's how you get, in a canonical way, a morphism from this group to g. So really, sorry, I continue the analogy. So GI, which is really a map from the conjugacy class of GI, which is a map from z to g up to conjugacy. So this is well-defined only up to conjugacy, remember. The analogy is going to be a map from z hat of 1, a continuous map from this to g, up to conjugacy. OK, so that's something here. So let me not be too precise with the definitions. I'm telling you, this is the analogy. So from a g cover, you naturally get at each bi a homomorphism like this in a canonical way up to conjugation. So the point is that now we are going to look at things over q. And if you look at things over q, you want to keep track of Galois actions, of the action of Galois of q bar over q. And here we do have a non-trivial Galois action. It acts on this through this dichotomy character. OK, so now let's use this. So what we want to do now is we have this map. So sorry, I will write it here. That's the end of the analogy. We have this map from h to u. So this parameterizes g covers. And starting from this parameterizes the b's. Starting from the g cover, you associate with the underlying b. What we want to do is to associate with not just the b, but also the conjugacy classes of the GIs above each bi. So we're going to have to consider a variety here, which is going to parametrize this data. And then we will get a factorization like this. So what is b going to be? So first, I'm telling you we have this thing. This is a finite set. And there's an action of Galois of q bar over q over it. So you can view it as the q bar points of some variety of dimension 0 defined over q. There is c, a variety of dimension 0 over q, such that the q bar points of c are exactly this homomorphisms from z hat twist 1 to g up to conjugation. And this is an equality of sets with the action of Galois of q bar over q equivalent. So this is what parametrizes our GIs. And so b is going to parametrizes the pairs consisting of a b and a map from b to c pairs b. So b is something of degree r in p1 and a map from b to c. And I mean this really in the same precise sense that I alluded to. So this is a variety over q. And for any field of characteristic 0, the k points of this are the 0 dimensional subvarieties of p1 over k of degree r, and maps of between varieties over k from this b to this c. So in the same way that u was very easy to construct as an open PR, v is easy to construct by hand too. So let me not insist on this. So there's some v. And now what I'm telling you is that because we did everything canonically, there is a factorization here. And so you can send a g cover here, y to x to the pair consisting of the branch locus b and the conjugacy classes of the gis. So this is something I will write it as clear of g i, even though there's no g i here. But it's the thing which lives here and which is canonical. So conjugacy classes of all of the gis. And so you project just by forgetting the conjugacy classes. So I'm telling you this is the geometry. And now what the rigidity method does for you is the following. So let me go here. So remember, we want to construct a rational point on h. So for this, we have to construct a rational point on v first. So let's start with a rational point on u. And let's start with the simplest possible rational point. We fix branch points b1 to br. And I will choose them to be rational points. So I choose points in rational points of p1, where I was distinct. So then the capital B, which is the collection of these points, gives me a rational point of u. And now you can wonder, what are the rational points of v above this one? Rational points of v above this one, b. Well, they are exactly the maps from b to c. But b is just a collection of rational points. So they are just collections of rational points of c. So that's really c of q cross c of q r times. But now what is c of q? It's a homomorphism like this, from that hat to 1 to g, which is up to conjugation, and which is Galway invariant up to conjugation. And now if you think just a little bit about it, you realize this is exactly a rational conjugacy class. So rational in the sense that I stated in the theorem, rational conjugacy classes. So where does that come from? So really the point is that the Galway group acts here through the cyclotomy character.  But on q, the cyclotomy character is surjective. So you want to have something which is invariant under conjugation whenever you raise to any power prime to the order of the element. This is really a translation. So I'll leave it to you. And so OK, we have a rational point on v. But we want a rational point on h. And that's where this method is really unreasonable. To construct a rational point on h, you would need to understand the geometry of h. But the theory, h could be something very complicated. What turns out is that the hypothesis of the theorem, rigidity, implies something extremely strong, namely, imply that this map is in fact an isomorphism in the neighborhood of our point. And so in a sense, we get the rational point on h for free. So the fact, so if you fix a point of v above b, so that's fixing rational conjugacy classes, so h to u, to v, sorry, is an isomorphism locally above our point b, c1, cr, if the collection is rigid. And how do you see this? Well, to see that it's an isomorphism, locally, remember, this is a finite isomorphism, it's enough to look at the complex points and to see that on the complex points, it's locally an isomorphism. But on the complex points, we understand everything very well. So remember that the fiber on the complex points of the map from h to u above b, well, what is it? It's the set of isomorphism classes of g covers over the complement of b. And we saw as a consequence of Riemann's existence theorem that such things are exactly the tuples g1, gr of elements of g, which generate g and whose product is one up to conjugation, g1, gr in gr, such that the product is one and g1, gr generate g up to conjugation. And then we're interested in the fiber not from h to u, but from h to v. So what is the map in these terms from h to v? Well, starting from such a thing, you associate to it the conjugacy class of g1, the conjugacy class of gr. And so the fiber of h of c to v of c above b comma c1, cr is, well, it's the subset of this where you impose in addition the condition that each di belongs to ci, subset where for any i gi belongs to ci. And so you see the rigidity is exactly telling you that this fiber has cardinality 1, singleton if c1, cr is rigid. So you get the local isomorphism of the complex, so also over q. And so your rational point lives to rational point of h. So that's a bit extreme. Hopefully there should be other ways to produce rational points of h. But it seems very difficult to understand the geometry of h. So even such a simple question as understanding the irreducible components of h is difficult. But this is something concrete which you can understand with a computer, because this is a finite data covering, even over the complex numbers. This is a finite data covering. So it's described by the action of the fundamental group of u on a finite set, the fiber. And the fundamental group of u is completely explicit. It's a braid group. So you have this problem, you have a braid group, and you try to understand the orbits of the braid group. And again, people have been doing this. But as soon as r gets large enough, it becomes very difficult even for modern computers. OK, a lot of time. I'll stop here for today. Thank you for your attention. Thank you.


How are you doing? Welcome to this presentation of Kultura Sining at Ibapá, a project of TV UP of the University of the Philippines. Today we have a very interesting presentation of a massive project being undertaken by the Cultural Center of the Philippines. And to help me with the hosting is my good friend and fellow writer, the director of the University of the Philippines Press, Professor Neil Garcia. Neil, I think you'd like to introduce our guests for today. Yes, our guests for today are the editor-in-chief of the C.C. Pinsaclopedia of Philippine Art and also a selection of the volume editors. We begin with one of the volume editors for the broadcast communication volume, Professor Betsy Enriquez and Professor Eli Guep, both from the College of Mass Communication of UP de Limán. And on the other side, we have Professor Apuchua, who is editing the volume on Philippine Theater, and Professor Cecile de la Paz, who is editing the volume on Philippine visual art. And we have also Chris Miliado of the C.C.P., an artistic director of the C.C.P. And he's a techie and he will also talk about some of the digital aspects of this undertaking. And of course, this whole project is managed and overseen by Professor Yes, of course. I saved the best for last. The editor-in-chief, Dr. Professor Emeritus Nick Tiongson of the College of Mass Communication. We're so happy to have him here for this show. So we're looking forward to the discussion. Yes. And Nick also was the former vice president and artistic director of the Cultural Center of the Philippines shortly after EDSA. So Nick oversaw many of the changes that took place in the C.C.P. This is a revolution of the C.C.P. under Nick. And we all remember that. Actually, the first question has to do with probably just the definition of terms. What is the C.C.P. Encyclopedia of Philippine Art? Well, it's a compilation actually of cultural data about the country. It was first conceived in 1990. The C.C.P. then defined its vision as a national culture that is evolving with and for the people. And to be able to get there, we thought that it would be important to, first of all, raise the cultural consciousness of the people all over the archipelago and also to encourage the creation of regional Filipino works. In the first aspect, which is development of the national cultural consciousness, that's where this came in. We felt that at that time, actually, after EDSA, there was a lot of questions from embassies abroad, because people were curious about the country, but they had no materials to give. So this evolved actually together with Tuklasini also to be able to answer that need abroad. So we started this in 1990. The gathering of data actually started much earlier for Tuklasini. And then Tuklasini evolved into the insect. But before this, there was no such comprehensive encyclopedia of Philippine art? No. Actually, there was one. You remember Galang, right? So Galang, head encyclopedia. So it has volumes like this. And this is contemporary modern art. This was the first edition came out in 1994. It had 10 volumes. So two volumes on the peoples of the Philippines and their arts. And then the seven volumes on each of the arts, so architecture, visual arts, music, dance, theater, film, literature, and then an index. Now it's going to be much larger. How many volumes this time? These 12 volumes already. So we have, because it's been more than 20 years, so we need to update and revise. It's a continuing process. Even this edition that's coming out is a work in progress. So we have now three volumes on peoples of the Philippines. Then one volume each on architecture, visual arts, music, dance, theater, film, literature now has two volumes. And we have a new volume on broadcast arts. I think that's a very new thing. So that would be 12 volumes. And the average number of pages per volume now is about 650. So these are the big volumes more than double the first ones. So clearly, like I said in the intro, this is a massive project. 12 volumes, and damning lalaman. But I want to return to you the reason why this is needed. You mentioned earlier that national, cultural consciousness. Why is that important? The editorial vision for the whole project. Well, the whole idea is, we know with our colonial experience, the tendency of the Filipino to be like the ones who are left behind in their own religion, who are left behind in their own culture. And a lot of this is because they don't know the achievements of their life. There are so many of them. But where will you find them? The teachers who teach cultures in high school, or when they say, I hope you will find them. Will I go to the book to research? We need a source. Go to source, yeah. So the scholar is the writer, but very, very readable. Organized the data. So immediately, if he needs to research in one reading, you know that, he will teach that to the child. He will not be an expert there, but he will have basic data. And our sect in the nation will partly come from that. The cultural memory. We know what we are doing. We know the achievements of our artists. And you will change your perspective. You will not leave the country. Because you really will not leave. Because it is evidence that he really did a good job. So that is the national cultural consciousness that we want to evolve through the encyclopedia. And also for the artists there, because we also want to encourage artists to expose their data to ethnic groups. So when you choose them, they also have a background in the different sources of their ideas. Because we tend to be urban centric. And also American centric. So how will you become a Filipino? Are the entries in Filipino or in English? In English first. What made you decide on that? If the imperative is national consciousness, we do have a national language. It's called Filipino. And the language of the encyclopedia is not Filipino but English. So that's a discrepancy, isn't it? It is a discrepancy. And I'm sorry about that. It's one of the limitations of the encyclopedia. Although we want to reach out to the broadest sectors of our people. It has to be in English. Why does it have to be in English? I think it's English first. But I hope it will be in English. Because the problem is, most of the writers really write in English. Only a few are able to handle Filipino for this purpose. So if I wait for all of this to come true, then the data will also pass. So what I feel is that we will release the data first. And then let's really seriously think about how we will all write in Filipino. Maybe this should just be explained in the introduction. Because I'm also thinking another way to approach that is to claim English as a national language too. So in fact, it unifies us in the way that Filipino does. And around north to south of the archipelago, English is understood, right? So it is our national language as well. I have a question. I have a question. Chris, why can't you just google it? There are a lot of people. I will add one more exciting feature of this updated edition. The online version. You go to a website that is specifically customized and designed for the content of the encyclopedia. And the worldwide web can access the content online. It's not open access though. It's still for pay. No, that's the wonderful thing. It's going to be free for all public schools, state colleges, and universities. In the Philippines. But let's say you're not in the Philippines. Then there's going to be a very low subscription, free, premium, that will be competitive with very popular spots like Spotify, for example. One that killed the print version. I mean, who would like to buy the print version? Well, we did a market study. And the print version is being, we get pre-orders from its education institutions, libraries, and collectors. And early at this point, when we're speaking, there are a lot of reservations for the print version.  Except if we only have hard copies, then we need your books every year to update. If it's online, you just keep updating. And that date can be real-time. The minute you have a correction, you can actually upload it. Exactly. That is one of the features of the online version. Besides being updatable every six months, it even has more content. Because this time, we don't have to be very selective and limited about our choice of photographs, for example. So more images could be uploaded. You can have video clips and things like that. Video clips, audio clips, interactive portions. And even we can even customize content, like specifically for high school teachers. And it's all searchable. We don't need anything else. Yes, exactly. So it's much, much... Well, it's going to be very powerful and the reach will also expand exponentially. At the same time, we're going to have an app version for mobile devices. So it'll make it very accessible. Will the launch date for the online or app version be the same as the launch for the print? Yes. In fact, it's the first development of the online version. Oh, long. So the online version is going to wait for the launch of the print. And then you want to release it at the same time. Now, there's a third iteration of the encyclopedia. And we call this a digital table. So imagine a table like this. It's set up on the wall. It's highly interactive. You can move around content. And it's going to be situated this time on site at the CCP main theater lobby. It will contain the same content as the print and the updated version online. What this does is it interacts and engages with what is going on in the live performances at the CCP. So for example, I step in. I'm going to watch a Sarsuela. I can search before stepping into the theater. I search for that content about the Sarsuela. I can see other related content before I step into the theater. So to a certain degree, it really enhances the watching of the live performance, increases the knowledge base for that specific event. That's lovely. Oh, it's very promising. It's very promising. I'm still interested in the work that's going on here. When I asked you if you can google it, I thought that if I'm a consumer, I'd like to know if it's good or bad. I didn't google it. Why did I go to the encyclopedia? But you said that in putting this together, you embedded a certain consciousness into it. What was it? I'm sure you believe in it. How do you think it's possible that this wrong thing is embedded in the encyclopedia? We actually had a question. Did you follow a template, for example, in the crafting of each entry? And what quality controls did you put in place in the researching? For the last three years, I've been interested in the three years of crafting and every one month, we haven't lost anything. I think the editor-in-chief and the volume editors were able to fix all these requirements so that the entries would be even out and the entries would be the same. There are templates. And in the 1994 edition, I was able to stop the details of the entries. The scholarship was the most exciting thing. That's what I thought. Can you explain a little more? What are the scholarships? Scholarly publications on the field. For example, in theater volume, for the first time, you can access theater students on 61 titles. Readings of them. What are they? Summaries. And entries. Of existing scholarship in the area. So for the first time, for the theater field, we have 61 titles and they are more reading. These are 61 books on theater studies. Books and publications. And other publications. That's true. The visual arts volume has a list of scholarly titles on visual arts. We have an essay for art scholarly works. But I think it will take another volume to tease out all those scholarships. But what we did here was to understand the definition of art itself when you talk of Philippine art. Historically, we went beyond definitely prehistoric times with the connection with Austronesia and then delving into the contemporary art issues and its connection with globalization and transnational issues. Is that a new feature compared to the former volume? Yes. We also have a volume to limit the definition of art. But because art scholars and art critics this time around gave answers so there is a refinement in art historiography itself. There is an increase of art criticism in art works and the definition of art forms to include traditional arts as living traditions even the art works that we did not recognize like effigies which played a lot during the martial law period are now part of the Bocchi Boccavillari of Philippine art. Because it became important in a particular way because the Philippines is really a science. For that alone I think our women in the Philippines are not just in the art world but also in the art world that is alive. Speaking of new art forms I think broadcast is a new addition to the encyclopedia. How can you justify Betsy's broadcasting as an art form in itself? It is difficult to justify because a lot of it is related to broadcasting as a scene. That is why we invited Ely because she gave the broadcasting to the CCP and recognized as an art form. We can debate until tomorrow whether it is really art or not. Because she said in our daily life on radio, on TV in truth you taught me a millennial that is not in contact with some kind of electronic medium at any given time of day or night there are no cell phones there are no broadcasts in your opinion and encompasses all of that. All of it is form of media. So in a way media. Broadcast is traditional but we define it in such a way that we we appropriate I'm just curious because it seems the visual arts volume had its own perspective and the theater arts had its own. There will be an introduction by the volume editors of the philosophy behind that volume. Yes, definitely. Because I'm thinking that there is a positive criticism here about and so your writers probably also had to do some criticism of the works not just sort of source the existing criticism and organize them and summarize them but actually to undertake the criticism. Is there a uniformity to the critical perspective that was adopted? Is it just formalism? Is it more historiographical? Is it more cultural studies? I'm just thinking of all the section editors. Maybe one of the ones that was united in other volumes is the articulation of the country. The concept of the meaning is the articulation of the country. It's a very important part. And so what medium or what expression we can look at, we can say the articulation of the country. All of them are articulations of the country. That's why you have to choose and the conversation of the country is a need to talk about the meaning. That's why this is one of the views of the volume editors. How do we look at the meaning of the country, the meaning of the country simultaneously. So in the view of our historiography and history of the country and history of the country the history of the meaning is where we are where we are. You have a general introduction per volume and it's a critical treatise in a way. That's what it is. And you use globalization, transnationalism, or diasporic. This is what the editors talk about. It's lovely. I'm sure it's important and I'll read it. There's a lot of I feel like the two projects have empirical meaning data and theoretical somewhat. Because particularly in the Philippines literacy is relatively new like 100 years of literacy. It's very preliminary. We need to sort of clarify things and come up with a theory. It's inevitable. But the next question is, quality control for the level of the pros. There's a lot of guidelines here on the home side. The readability is very important. We really think of it as high school, first-year college, second-year college. That's the target. The technical errors and the so on. If you have a theory just put it in practice. Don't make it too complicated. Because your insight because of that theory can be communicated in a way that can understand the child. So what's the age of your ideal reader? High school. Third, fourth-year high school. First, second-year college. That's the idea. So inevitably, when you fill this up, you have a return. You can tell us some stories of what you did here. My question has to do with, this is a canon in a way. What considerations do you have when you selected entries? Because you're actually making a canon. So there might be names that you would end up excluding. We were really very conscious of that. What's going to happen? Gatekeeping? Defining who is supposed to be and that. Anyway, the general orientation was this. The approach is pluralistic. In other words, all of the cultures we know we veered away from the idea of high art, low art, pop art, classical art. Inclusive of all forms. So that's very, very open already. Gender-sensitive. That's another guideline. So we have my husband's lover as an entry because it's an important breakthrough in the naanam. It celebrates all cultural traditions that we have. The ethnic, lowland cultures, the urbanized cultures and art works of all classes. So that's the illustrator art of the 19th century. But at the same time, that's the theater of labor groups. In other words, the guideline is inclusive. There's a checklist. We don't want that to happen. It's dangerous when I say that these are important writers. All of them are writers. Right? You're probably going to mention writers, but then only certain writers will have entries. So how did you decide on that? Because that's a kind of pecking order too. The selection of those who work in the sali and so on, your perspective is this is a temporary thing. In other words, it's an influx. In other words, our identity is not fixed. So the entries are like this. That's the general guideline. But for every art form, it has specificities. So I should ask them for their own volumes. For the theater, for the theater volumes, the regions are very exciting. We have representation from Mindanao, Bicol, Baguio, Visayas and of course, the Metro Manila. That perspective is very beautiful. The whole country is like that. There are a lot of entries from the artists of theater. There are a lot of practitioners. There are a lot of literature. There are a lot of literature. Two volumes of literature. It's two volumes. The most important thing would be not only the individual that is recognized as an artist, but also the collectives, art organizations that are given in the list of artists of the Philippines. So I will cite, for example, in visual arts, the time when Marshall and NPAA they only exist in a progressive way. Artists and architects of something. But when you look at their identity and their background in the history of Marshall, they are really big. They have an entry to Encyclopedia. And other groups that are also like this, and their contribution is also big now. The idea of Henio is a bit old. Because we are building an icon. But this time, it's like you're broadening it. Because we are teaching to our readers that art production is not necessarily done by a person. And that's a good lesson that we need to impart in the next generation. Collaborative. Did you try to be largely factual or inevitable critical evaluation? That's what I was asking, yes. And how did you manage that? In the broadcast, we also conducted workshops among the faculty, for example, of the Department of Broadcast Communication. We talked about who and what program should be included in the volume. Of course, the length of the list, and then eventually we had a list A, list B, list C. But eventually, we decided that the availability of the data is the problem in broadcasting. This is the youngest scene if we think about it. Radio is not even 100 years old. Not even in the West. It's just approaching its 100th year. We had television only after the World War, 1953 was the first time we had television. So the time is still short to be able to record. And another problem is the lack of data. Because it doesn't archive radio and television stations. So the problem is the search of data. And sometimes, even if we think there is an interesting program, for example, we are not included because we don't have data. But we also try Isn't memory, isn't oral memory enough? Your actual writers or resource persons can be the source of the data. Yes, we did that. There is a lot of primary research here. There are a lot, especially for that. Yes, there are a lot. But those primary sources will also get involved. They are also dying off. Exactly. We also tried very hard to get the regions. Because the regions are underrepresented. But we also had a hard time because they didn't hide the data. Especially for them. And we didn't know everything. So we also depended on our networks to find the places to contribute. How thick is this volume on broadcast? Not as thick as the slimmer volume. The other volumes. We are just starting. But hopefully it will become thicker as time goes on. And also, we could add to the data. Admittedly, the data is really lacking. But Elia and I are very proud of the fact that we were able to show the role of broadcasting. Particularly during very difficult times. Yes, during the while. We don't know how much to learn. This is one of the scholarships that Apo mentioned earlier. There are still a few of us who are writing about broadcasting. The study of broadcasting from a very critical perspective. So it's still thin. But we have changed what we see. What would be the important part of the radio and television and the important part of our history. How to use the radio in terms of colonialism, for example, in the time of the Americans, in the time of the Japanese. And also, the big role in fighting the dictatorship in the time when our country fought Marcos and Marshall. We are very important. You answer the question about the critical judgment that was embedded in my work. But what you want to add that became a part of the critical judgment is the search for information. One of the data that came to us, particularly from the regions, was that we left here because there was a chance. Because we always ask the broadcasters themselves to stop the information. Even though this is in the CCP, this is what we have been trying to do. How do you enter the intro? We are trying to enter the practical issues in the evaluation of things. So let's call it that. Even though we are trying to find things that we think are highly theoretical but practical issues will inform those critical practices. Okay. Another is the awards. Okay. We use it first. But in the West, it is not a big indicator of the choice of an actor or a work or an artist. Especially in a context that has a lot of awards. We can say what kind of award it is. A popularity award or a critical perspective. I hope you have an entry on awards and maybe an unpacking of the awards culture.  Yes. One of the broadcasters in particular is the turning points or the pivots. In terms of formalistic approaches, we will criticize negatively. But because it has a contribution in that genre or in the aspect of broadcasting, it is one of the contributions in acting although negatively if the formalist is strictly formalist. So others might think, oops, how did you get in? But if you look at the form that he created, although it is not possible to experiment with the production team, in our evaluation, in our situation now, he is the winner. He did not recognize it, but you will see that he started the style or genre. It is one of the lenses that we have seen. Is it okay to ask the volume editors who has the longest entry in your volume? The national artists for theaters would longer than that. For theaters that is five pages. Everybody else is fewer than that. So there is a point of reference and then everyone is reckoned against that. It's funny. Actually I have a question for Nick. You've seen the volumes, you've read the volumes. What are you proudest about in the history of our art? What are you least happy about? Condemning. To be proud about. Just choose one. What are you proudest about? And then what are you least happy about? Because you've seen it. I don't think the other volume editors have seen it the way you have, right? I'm very, very proud of the fact that the concept of art here is very democratic. We all know what it's like here. And here in this volume, especially in the peoples, we were able to get the participation of scholars from the groups themselves. The indigenous people. In other words, there is a perspective of intrinsic. We are not the only ones who say this is important. They have an input when it comes to their culture what is important. And the number of peoples has increased now. Who is the volume editor for the peoples? Do you have an anthropologist? Cary Lucero. Cary is the queen of regional literature, right? I was hoping she'd be here. She also knows all these people. I'm very grateful that Cary really contributed so much. Anyway, what I'm not happy about is the limitation of scholarship that is available to us. In other words, we can only create entries based on actual research already. There are a lot of loopholes especially in ethnographic studies. There are a lot of them. But the consideration there from 1994 to now there are a lot of letters. It's amazing. It's really amazing what is published in all the arts between 1994 and today. To what do you attribute that? That explosion in scholarship and in writing? The maturity of a certain generation. I think it's to the encyclopedia itself. It already came out. Maybe it contributed to that too. Which is, by the way, one of the things that we want to generate also. In architecture, there are a lot of buildings. I made sure that the retratos are beautiful. Because there are conservatism and agendas. We want to see people that are important to us. That we're hoping we can save these buildings from the wrecking ball that way. We're in a rush to destroy our heritage. Our leaders are not appreciative of this heritage. That's a very important advocacy of the encyclopedia. Cultural memory. Yes, exactly. Actually that's what for me the encyclopedia is going to serve cultural memory. Promote cultural memory. A lot of this data will probably be found in the encyclopedia years from now. Exactly. It's a fact-checking. Of course, in the encyclopedia, it's a compendium of facts. Processes that you're going through to make sure the facts are correct. How will you handle protests once the encyclopedia is out? You're like... There will be contention. How do you plan to handle that? Do you have a process in place on how to correct and increase? Actually, what Chris said is that it has a system that you have to correct because it's an ongoing thing. Don't correct immediately. The correction will be fact-checked. Of course. There are also volumes on the list, on the encyclopedia. The lists are long, but there are a lot that are not included. Not that they're not deserving, but for one reason or the other, I don't have enough data to answer. That's a lot. We've brought the forms so that they can fill up. They don't answer. That's a big medium. Of course, what will happen there will be dependent on published data. If there's a mistake, the mistake will be perpetuated. But of course, a counter-check in theater we have called all the critics who are active and people from different organizations so that we can look at them. Is it right to do this? Who should join and who shouldn't. And then of course, the data will be given to Apo, to Leo, to me, I'll go back again with corrections, I'll go back again. How many times is this? Maybe five times at least. And then of course, when it's laid out, I'm asking all of them to read everything again. How fast is this? How fast is this? Who is fast? The budget we got from the Department of Budget is 45 million. And then the University of the Philippines recently entered with a grant of another 14 million. This allows us to double the publishing and the print version. Originally, it was only 1,000 copies but now, because of the 14 million grant, it will double it. It will double the 2,000 copies. So it can be reserved for you? Yes, it can. If you have 5,000 discounts, if you have... How much will the set cost? Right now, the cost is 45,000 per set. But the additional marketing cost is about 50,000. The online book for all of our public schools and state universities will be really competitive and accessible. Okay, this has been great. It's been wonderful. Our time is coming to an end. I would like to hear a few words from each of us. Let's see. Okay, me first. We're very happy that you invited us here. So we can talk about the encyclopedia. We're very excited that this is coming out in December, Chris. November is our launch date. Okay. We hope to see you all at the launch. Yes. I think the good thing is that this is a cultural memory. Although that memory is painful, but a lot of that is to help if we don't have any identity, we don't have any identity. So if we know those good things, it will be painful or good things. It's very good to be part of this project. Exciting. I would like to start workshop sessions for students to maximize the encyclopedia. As an educator, I learned that I became a part of this project. Even though the editing process was also difficult, but it was a fruitful process. There are a lot of learning points that we can share in our academic lives. In our second edition of the CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art, I would safely say is going to be the most authoritative, the most comprehensive resource for Philippine art and culture. This has been gathered by more than 300 leading scholars in arts and culture in the country. It will be because of it has a print and an online version. It becomes continually updatable and highly interactive and highly customizable for different kinds of users. So, we hope with this launch of our second edition, the reach of our Philippine cultural content not only locally, but in the worldwide web. I would say that this cultural project is not just cultural.  Because the perspective of the Encyclopedia is the creation of arts that are pluralistic that respect human rights that are democratic in orientation. So, I would say that this will have a impact on the next generations. And that is what we hope for. That it will be more a big part of the Philippine culture and its country. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.


August is hot, and so are the savings at Appalachian Wireless, where all smartphones are 50% off. Even the 64, 128, and 256-gig models. Two-year agreement required. Better service, bigger savings. That's today's Appalachian Wireless, an East Kentucky network company. For many, there is a fascination with railroading. For many others, there is a fascination with model railroading. And some make an artform out of it. That's what you'll find at the Lonesome Pond Model Railroad Club in Appalachia, Virginia in Wise County. The club's large, elaborate HO-scale layout takes up the basement of the Appalachia Culture of Arts building. And every year during Appalachia's Railroad Days Festival, the club is filled with visitors fascinated by the miniature world created by the club. We have 19 members. You can run several trains at one time in different directions. It's like the real railroad. We have over 3500 foot of track, two main lines, and over 5600 rolling stock cars. We are a freelance club, which means that we model whatever comes to our mind at the time, no certain area. Our fire number would be probably $250 an engine, and there's probably 100 over there. So what's that? 25,000? I mean, that's just a rough estimate. And the club is hoping more young people, like the club's youngest member, Brock Bissner, will take an interest. My first time down here was on the railroad days. That's probably five or six, and I just fell in love with it and came back every railroad days. Six years ago, my dad became a member, and I started coming up here every Tuesday and Thursday just the days they was open. It's a work in progress all the time. It'll never be finished. I think you'll never get one complete because something gets old to us. We rip it out and start something different. I mean, that's just part of modeling the railroad. The club is open Tuesday and Thursday evenings to the public, and anyone can apply for membership. You just have to bring an interest and appreciation for model trains. More information is available on the Lonesome Pine Model Railroad Club's Facebook page. In Appalachia, Virginia, Chris Anderson, EKB News.


The Secretary of the Navy testified before Congress Wednesday about fiscal year 15 budget requests. SecNAV reminded congressmen why maintaining a strong naval force is important. Over two centuries ago, the United States had a crucial role in the world. Today, that role is exponentially greater, whether facing high-end combat or asymmetrical threats or humanitarian needs. America's maritime forces are ready and present on day one of any crisis for any eventuality. In today's dynamic security environment, naval assets are more critical than ever. Four key factors make that global presence and global action possible. People, platforms, power and partnerships have been my priorities during my tenure as secretary and they have to continue to receive our focus looking ahead. From the Defense Media Activity, I'm Petty Officer Jen Blake.


Hello, everyone, and welcome to the WordPress Briefing, the podcast where you can catch quick explanations of the ideas behind the WordPress open-source project, some insight into the community that supports it, and get a small list of big things coming up in the next two weeks. I'm your host, Josepha Hayden-Champosi. Here we go. My friends, it is February. For many of us, that means we've already fallen off track on our New Year's resolutions, but not you, intrepid WordPresser, especially you, newly-found WordPresser, who is still on the fence about needing a website. And I get it. It seems like a lot of work, and even if you shoot for the moon, it's not clear which star you'll land on. It feels easier to open a Facebook page or launch a new Instagram account, get a channel going on YouTube, but here's a secret they won't tell you. It's just as much work. And even if you crack the code on today's algorithm, you don't own anything you build there, not the content, not the audience. So if you're gonna make the effort to build anyway, why not build it in your space? It can be scary to take that kind of time. So if you're not convinced yet, let me give you a few other reasons why you should choose a website over some social media thing. I've got a list here, and they build on one another, really, but the first thing is, a website covers the 5Ws. Who, what, when, where, and why. It's basic information, I know, but it's what people need to know when they're looking at your product or company. The phone book, whether you had the yellow pages or the white pages, those are long gone, but that doesn't mean that the need for that information is gone. When people are researching the right service or product to solve their problems, they're getting online to do it. So you should be there, and your information should be easy to find, which brings us right into item number two. When people know these things about you, when they know who you are, what you're doing, when to get to you, where you are, why you're doing it, having that information increases trust and makes you look more professional. And I've seen that be counterintuitive for folks. I mean, it's a digital asset, after all, but overwhelmingly, we see consumers who are well researched by the time they get to us. They've looked at all of your competitors already and checked to see if you are a human, if you share some of their values, and how you manage waste or complaints or praise. You can never know who is looking for you. So making it all as clear and easy to see as possible makes you more trustworthy. And the more trustworthy and professional you look, then number three, the more chances you have to bring in good leads and contacts, which can turn into sales, or at the very least, a sales opportunity. And it's important to have good leads and contacts, right? If you have your information out there on a website, then people can sort of pre-qualify themselves. If they already have a sense for whether they are a good fit for your product or service, then fingers crossed, you can spend most of your time with people who are making serious inquiries. And coming in at four, you can do this any way you want with words or art, NFTs of your latest work, or video tutorials. It lets you tell your story in ways that other mediums necessarily have to limit. And importantly, you can still do those things elsewhere, right, but having essentially a digital home online that is yours, keep your stuff online in a place you own and operate, then draw people to you through those other channels. Make it all work together. I have a fifth thing. Mostly because I like lists of either three or five and the list I had was four, but also because it's true, number five is still true. Getting domains is fun. You've got something to share with the world and your domain name is title and story and first impression. And isn't it great instead of having to say you can find me at LinkedIn slash in slash et cetera, you can say something quick and memorable, Josepha.blog or whatever it is you registered. Getting domains is fun.  You can have your own domain and it can say a lot for you. So there you have it. Some basic and not so basic reasons why you should have a website. If you are convinced or at least intrigued, I've got a few tutorials that can help you get started. That I'll link in the show notes. Which brings us now to our smallest of big things. I have four big things for you today for ish. So first things first, I have some early opportunities for y'all to test our next major release. Our next major release is WordPress 6.5. The target release date is March 26th, but coming up here on February 13th, we have beta one scheduled. That's an early opportunity for you to provide feedback. A lot of the features that we have coming in this release are big and they're moving quite quickly. And so if you are already a routine WordPress user, pop on over into the core channel or onto make.wordpress.org slash core and get your hands on that beta release. We could use a lot of feedback from you on that. The second thing that I have is that the second cohort of the contributor mentorship program has opened up and we're calling for participants, whether you want to be mentored or mentor somebody, we are accepting applications for both. This is a fantastic opportunity for experienced contributors to help other people learn how to do this. And also if you are learning to contribute to open source and to WordPress for the first time, I know it can be scary. It took me many, many tries to really get started. And so this is a great opportunity for anyone who is trying to contribute in a new way, in a different way. The third thing that I have is there's a post up about data liberation in 2024. This is one of our big focuses for the year. A web where being locked into a system should be a thing of the past and migrating your site to WordPress or around the WordPress ecosystem should be doable with essentially one click. And so there's a lot of work that we're doing there. You can find it on WordPress.org slash data hyphen liberation, there will be a link to that in our show notes. But also there is a lot of work that has to be done not only to get those resources together but also some companion tools to the resources. So head on over there, take a look at what's out there. And if you have some stuff to contribute, share that too. And my fourth thing, my final thing is that WordCamp Asia is about a month away. So you still have time to plan your attendance if that's something that you want to do. Head on over to asia.wordcamp.org to learn more. And that my friends is your smallest of big things. Don't forget to follow us on your favorite podcast app or subscribe directly on WordPress.org slash news. You'll get a friendly reminder whenever there's a new episode. If you liked what you heard today, share it with a fellow WordPresser or specifically for this one. If you liked what you heard, share it with a fellow collaborator whether they know WordPress or not. But if you had questions about what you heard, you can share those with me at wpbriefing at WordPress.org. I'm your host, Josepha Hayden Champosi. Thanks for tuning in today for the WordPress briefing. And I'll see you again in a couple of weeks.


I'm David Gathro. I'm here with with my friend and colleague Tiagi and this is take number four or five because one of the things that makes this recording unusable to other people is when it's not actually being recorded. So I guess it doesn't actually make it recording. So the topic was going to be had you been able to be here in person Tiagi was improv. Is it the meaning of life or does it put meaning into life? So for some who may not know you, I've known you for over 40 years and I know you to be a brilliant game designer and instructional designer, performance enhancer, professor and and a fine chef. So with all that as a background, what's your connection to improv? How did you come to that as something that that you find interesting, fascinating and important in life? David, I'm a flake, which is another way of saying I'm an improv person. It took me a long time 75 years before I realized I am an improv person and that shapes that defines my life. So given that I have never planned to do anything. I don't plan what I want to do. For example, I anytime I plan, God gets me. I planned to come to AIN conference and I started planning in detail soon. An important person in my life died and I have to go get some important inheritance claiming of an important inheritance. So anytime you plan, life teaches you a lesson by making sure that plan is useless, unnecessary, cannot be done. Okay and what is my connection with the improv? All my life I have four important principles. Life is an improv exercise and life is an oxymoron. There is no such thing as this is correct, this is incorrect. Life, anything you do in life is something you do spontaneously in an improv fashion, but more importantly everything you do in life is an important thing which helps you go to the next stage and the other important thing in life is life is a metaphor. Another important thing in life is you keep repeating things again and again. The important thing you got to remember life repeats itself and you repeat everything. So even all of these you put meaning into life, life puts meaning into you, all of which you will not understand what I'm talking about until it is two months from now. So so Chiangyi how do you get, some people spend an incredible amount of time planning because they've been trained that way or found it that way and how do you get people to be comfortable letting go of having to have everything programmed for the minute because some people do it quite naturally. A lot of folks coming at this conference totally get that, but there's others that that do not and you know what does it take for them to be able to let go and actually trust that that they can work with whatever happens to them? Just to give you straight and upper delusion most people who come to the conference most improv friends I have are among the most upright, uptight, detailed planning okay so what time going to do when people don't get my joke should I be explaining it when they explain it should I explain it in a patronizing fashion or in a serious fashion. So just because somebody says I'm an improviser doesn't necessarily mean that person is an improviser it's a personality trait you are an improviser not because you plan to be an improviser but because you were born that way and I'm making all of these things up okay so people don't believe in living spontaneously and to me if you're a trainer you've got to be spontaneous because when you got a group of participants in front of you they got so much experience so much information so much knowledge so much wisdom for you not being able to seize upon it and take the first step of androgogy and say people who come to any training session any learning session bring a lot of things with and your job is to bring it out make use of it things of that nature and it is not only for adults you know what children know more than you do and so on and so forth. So yeah when we a lot of people think about improv they think of performance improv and this conference about implied improv so what are some of your top tips for applying improv outside the realm of being on stage with it because the focus is on on applying it I think some people get locked into I have to be a performer how do you okay yeah rule number 18 about life life is a performance you perform through life you don't do things you do things assuming somebody's looking at you assuming you're in the midst of a performance you got a mask you are in a performance that is what is happening to you David so don't think performance is different from life life is a performance okay I keep repeating things because but I think you mean that life repeats itself so you know you're doing what life is doing so it's okay yes and it is very very important for you to keep repeating some things because when you repeat things people think that is profound it must be an important thing otherwise you will not be repeating it and if you don't get the significant meaning about that then there is something wrong with you so you try hard to make meaning out of it and that is what life is all about and the people who say hey I'm going to use more of improv therefore I must be a performer I'm going to tell you wrong that's not how we should think you should live and that is what improv is all about do what you want to do so I'm going to take a different angle on this now because I mean one of the you are taking an anger before it's more of a curve this is an angle it's a little sharper diversion from our currently scheduled interview good you know I'm a friend and colleague Amy Emerson has written a lot about psychological safety and things like that and how might you overcome because I think that's sometimes a challenge when deciding to improv how do you you know overcome people's concern about maintaining psychological safety when you're doing improv because a lot of times I use the word improv and people start they start sweating and I haven't even said anything other than the word so you know how do you balance sort of the unpredictability of improv with a concern for allowing people to feel psychologically safe I know it's kind of a philosophical question but it's Thursday yep Thursdays are important days and how do you maintain psychological safety how do you provide psychological safety to other people the secret is simple don't have any goal don't have any objective don't have any plan if you don't have a goal you're not going to fail you fail only if you have a goal you fail more gloriously epic failure you not only have a goal but you believe in the goal and you are going to achieve the goal come hell or high water if you don't have a goal if you don't believe in a goal let whatever is going to happen happen by the way that is philosophical religious spiritual but don't have any religious or spiritual goals either so is that when you're talking about that it's from the perspective of a person who is who's guiding the conversation or for that person to not have a goal are you talking about for the people in the in the class or whatever not setting up a goal for them if I'm supposed to be guiding something I don't have a goal if you come to my session expecting words of wisdom I say give up the goal let it flow go with the flow wow I land it in California so those are important things I don't think you should go with the goal when you're interacting with somebody I don't think the person interacting with you should have a goal and you tell me but I'm hired to train people on nuclear physics they pay me for doing that and how do I do that I say go ahead do it what do you know about nuclear physics and you ask people what do you already know about nuclear physics and most people will may say nothing you say that's great let us create nuclear physics and let us figure out what it is all about and does somebody know anything about nuclear physics before you know it somebody's going to say ah a nucleus consists of protons and electrons I say how do you know it and they say I read it someplace how do you know whatever you read is true and so on and so forth and the people compare what they know you may be trying to teach nuclear physics but they learn the meaning of life it doesn't really matter so I have maybe just two more maybe two or three more questions and one of them I know you've worked a lot internationally what are some of your cross cultural observations on the use of improv as a learning methodology one of the universal phenomena around the world everybody is uptight and they don't know how to realize they don't know how to let go and the most uptight people as I try to sneak this thought into or the improvisers the most uptight people or people who say you should live every moment in your life you should have spiritual values and things of that nature so people whether they believe in improvising or not believe in improvising doesn't matter whether you are in a majority group in Australia or you are in Vancouver it doesn't really matter you stop from time to time and ask yourself what should I be doing now that is something very very important people think that they are missing out on important things in life because they are not planning they don't have a goal and things of that nature this is something a universal phenomena there are groups of people to whom the most important thing in life is not to have any important thing in life they defeat themselves by saying I want to be spontaneous and the Buddha said it is very very important you should let go of all the desires in life and some idiot kid who says aha if you let go of all desires in life is that not a desire when you say I should let go of my desires in life or in not disobeying your Nirvana things of that nature that is so true that's a very interesting powerful way of looking at it to intentionally not be intentional so I'm going to let go of my list of questions and so what's one question about improv that you think you wish I had asked you but I actually didn't so another is what would you like to say how good how do you define improv if you have to define something it's no longer improv so you don't define it and what do you recommend if I were to recommend a book to you there are two books I would recommend one is I forgot the name of the book but that doesn't stop me from coming in with the name I think it is training to imagine okay that's Kat Coppett's book hey I was going to climb it is my book oh sorry sorry I'll just edit that part out oh tell me more about that book who wrote it um Kat Coppett wrote it and it is a great wonderful book the interesting thing about training to imagine is Kat does not say improvise improvise implied in it is you improvise with a purpose which is a dangerous thought for you to have if you have a purpose you cannot improvise and the other book is improv wisdom by Patricia Madsen Ryan my god my memory is coming back I was told if you get old your memory is the second thing to go but it is coming back so these are people who practice what they preach and what they practice is improv should have a purpose and the purpose could be improv should not have a purpose good you know I never expect to get a straight answer to anything I mean a singular answer right because as you said earlier there's two you know whatever is true is also not true right and whatever's false is also true in some respect so um just uh just to close this off any tips if you're going to have because I know that everything can be a two by two matrix or there's four this that the other thing but if there were two or three tips you said you know if you just really embrace these you can't help but be successful as an improviser uh applied improviser who's actually not trying to be an applied improviser good tip number one forget about being an improviser or not being an improviser live your life be a child assume that you have no responsibilities assume next to me just for the fun of it you're not going to pay your mortgage I'm I'm imagining that I may actually may not have to imagine that good keep organizing and they will soon reach that stage and other important thing is spend a lot of time with children and with dogs they don't plan they just do what they want to do and now rule number three anything you do today this evening ask yourself where did they do that and what would have happened if I did not do that and what did they learn from that and when will they do it again and when they do the same thing again how would they do it differently is that such a thing as doing the same thing again you know I just one last thing I remember many years ago you recommended a book to me by James Karsey called finite infinite games and that the purpose of the infinite game is to keep the play going and which is kind of like what you want life to do to keep it going and it seems like I didn't think about that the context of improv but it seems to be in the dial I got it from you now now I will use it in every one of my presentations make people think I have been living by that James Karsey rule all my life and things of that nature well I feel very grateful that I could provide you with that good and and again Chagi thank you so much for your time today I'm so sorry I won't be seeing you at the conference I know that you do have other important things you're you and your family you're going to be making money to pay my mortgage and if it's too much you're worried about what to do with it now that you got me thinking about paying my mortgage feel free interact I mean I accept all kinds of things and again thank you very much thank you David you're one of the greatest improvisers and you learned it from Daisy


Hello, Didier Stevens here, Senior Handler at the Internet Storm Center. About 10 days ago I released version 0015 of my Cobalt Strike Beacon Analysis Tool, 1768. And what I introduced was a sanity check for configurations. And that is something that is useful when you analyze memory dumps of machines, of infected machines. So let me show you. So I'm running my tool on a memory dump of a Windows 10 machine. It's just a VMware snapshot here. And so my tool will work on any memory dump that is not compressed and that is also linear. So it's about an 8 GB file. My tool will read the file and then search for configurations.  So the tool finds something that resembles the header of a configuration, but then when it decodes it, the values are not meaningful. Like the payload type, for example, is 6363848, that's not an existing payload type. So what I did introduce is a sanity check. And that's what you see here, sanity check, Cobalt Strike Config, not okay. So what the tool will do is check the payload type and the public key, both values FDB present. And then the tool will also check if these are reasonable values, values that are normal. If that is not the case, then the configuration is not okay. What I also did is add more information when a de-opfuscation routine is found. So these are based on the YARA rules from Elastic to detect the de-opfuscation routine. And as you can see here in memory, the de-opfuscation routine for 64-bit and 32-bit were found here quite close to each other, which is unusual. Because if the machine is truly infected, you would find 64 or 32-bit, not both. They would not be near each other. What's actually happening here is that the de-opfuscation routine finds the YARA rule hits on the signatures of the antivirus running on the machine here. And that is something you can see with verbose mode. So here we have an extra decimal ASCII dump before and after the signature that was found. As you can see here, it says Elastic, HKTL, Cobblestrike, Beacon 4, 2, decrypt. So this is actually an antivirus signature. And here, for example, you can see another one, Trojan, HyperStack. And the same for the 32-bit. So these two are false positives. Now another option that I introduced is the sanity check version. If you run that option, then configs that don't pass the sanity check will not be listed. So here now all those false positives are gone. All you see is a sleep mask. And for the sleep mask, we also determined here that this is a false positive. Just for information, so it's a standard Windows 10 machine from which I took the snapshot here. So that is Microsoft Defender that is running on that machine. Now I do have another snapshot of that same machine where I actually have a beacon running. So let's take a look at this. So here too, we find configurations that don't pass the sanity check. But here we do find one that passes the sanity check. So if we run this with option S, we should only see that configuration. And that is indeed a true configuration. It's a true positive. We have an HTTP reverse beacon. Here you can see the public key and here also the server and the URI. Now remark that the configuration is not complete after the URI, but there's no more values. And what's probably happening here is that this configuration is on two different memory pages and that those memory pages are not consecutive in the file. So we only find that part and not the other part.


Well, it's the most anticipated pile of dirt Bemidji has seen in some time as construction on the outdoor rink for Hockey Day Minnesota 2019 has begun. The rink will be located to the west of the Sanford Center near the central Ave. Roundabout. The teams and the date of the event will be announced this Sunday at the Water Carnival. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.


Attention please, attention please, could be given to this lady and it comes out to the event at the end of the day. Hello! Good morning Alfred you know. What happened? I don't know why. I can't let you in.  Alright. Alright guys, you okay? How are you going? Yeah, I'm very well from Kipp Good. How are you? Good. Yeah good, how are you? Good, how are you? I'm good. How are you? Are you alright? Yeah, how are you? I'm good, thank you.  Perfect. Check out the network elsewhere. Hi. How are you? How are you? What's it all doing? What? What are we about to do? We're about to say hi to the other guys. Hello. What are we about to say? Nothing. What are you doing? We're doing four walk-ups and we're here to sign. Is this garlic? Yes. Good. Nice big smile for me, Scarlet. The C-pass. Yes. Rain, but how are the pictures? That's just a little bit. Never. Bari, alright. How did it look? Is it a little rain? Perfect. Just so I know. Thank you. Thank you. Jack, are you here? Yes. Oh! Even if I'm open. I'm going to tend the seas now. I'm going to tend the seas now. There you go. OK, mate. I've got your pictures all straight away, look. I've got your pictures all straight away. Good night. Have a good night.


Hello, thank you for joining me. I'm just going for a walk along the Grand Union Canal. And that was an S-Stock train on the Watford branch of the Metropolitan Line. It's been quite a while, but today we're going to a miniature railway, the first miniature railway of 2021. The last miniature railway I went to was the Nice Woodland Miniature Railway, down in Kent, at East Kent Light Railway, and that was as long ago as the first of November. In fact, I still haven't been on a public train since then, a standard gauge train since then. So at some point in the future, as the restrictions ease, that will happen. But right now we are walking along the canal, coming up to a lock, and we're going to go and find a Watford Miniature Railway. This is lock number 78, Casio Bridge Lock. So we're going to go and have a trip on the Watford Miniature Railway. I've been to the Watford Miniature Railway a few times on my Miniature Railway Britain series. The idea of the series, of course, is to visit every miniature railway in Britain, but with various railways not running at the moment, and seeing as they are running, and it's fairly local to me, I thought, let's start, not start the series again, but let's start 2021 off with the Watford Miniature Railway. And then as we progress into the spring and summer, we'll go and visit more miniature railways, ones I've never been to before. So let's go along the Grand Union Canal and let's go and find the Watford Miniature Railway. This is a very nice peaceful walk along the canal. We're almost at Casio Bridge Park. The Watford Miniature Railway is about just over there, behind those trees. But first, we're going to go under this rather attractive-looking bridge, 167, for where we find another lock. Now, before we go to Watford Miniature Railway, which is just down there, there's a cafe now I could do of getting a coffee. But the cafe we're going to, it's no ordinary cafe. It's really something quite exciting and novel. So I'll show you that in a moment. So here is the lock. Just over there's the River Gade, which we will soon see. We'll cross the River Gade when we go to the Miniature Railway. As I said, just down there. So as the canal opens out ahead of us, the cafe we're going to is called Molly's Floating Cafe. And it's this boat here. So I think this is really cool. It's a cafe on a boat. It moves up and down the Grand Union Canal. But I thought this would be a nice place for me to get a coffee before we go and have a train ride. So let's get coffee at Molly's Floating Cafe. So I've arrived here at Molly's Floating Cafe, and here we have Rebecca and Emily. Hi, I'm Emily from Molly's Floating Cafe. I decided to call this Molly's because of my dog, which I got in lockdown last year. We serve tea, coffees, hot chocolates, crisps, snacks to all the lovely walkers walking past. I've been working here for the last few weeks out walking my own dog. And Emily asked if she needed some help on the boat, and I jumped to the charts. Thank you very much, ladies. I think it's time for me to get a coffee and then we'll go off to the Watford Miniature Railway, which, as I said, is just over the other side of the canal. I've got my coffee from Molly's Floating Cafe. So they go up and down the Grand Union Canal between Rickmersworth Aquadrome and Tring. So if you're out for a walk or a cycle ride along the Grand Union Canal, why not look out for them? And you might see them. They do a great coffee and other food. So what we're going to do now, we're going to go and find the Watford Miniature Railway. Let's do a bit of fun. Let's go over the lock. And just over here is the River Gate. There's a big weir. So I thought we'd go and find that. This is quite narrow. It always feels more awkward when you're walking over a lock with a camera in your hand. So here we are. We've come across the lock. So the lock's that way. The Miniature Railway's over there. There's Molly's Floating Cafe. I need to find a bench to sit down and drink the coffee before we go to the Miniature Railway. One thing I really wanted to show you before we went too far is here. This is the River Gate. Now just up there, the Gate and the Grand Union Canal run as one. Here the River Gate comes off the canal and runs on its own floor. And it goes down a rather spectacular weir. Then from there we're going to go over a bridge over the River Gate and find the Watford Miniature Railway. I believe once there was possibly an old mill here. I'm pretty sure that there was a mill somewhere in these woods. If anyone who knows more than me knows that, please do comment and tell me. So that's the weir on the River Gate. I'm going to go find a bench, drink my coffee and then we're going to go and have a trip on the Watford Miniature Railway. So we've now just come over the River Gate. I could even see some fish inside but the camera probably wouldn't pick them out. So I didn't show them but there are fish in the river. The railway though is just the other side of the fence there. So what we're going to do, we're going to go to the station. But on the way I'm going to show you the original railway station when the railway first opens because it's quite an old railway. It's been here since 1959 I believe. It looks as though they've had a lot of them. The tracks have been reballasted recently. In fact I know it's been reballasted recently because I've seen it on their Facebook page which I do like and follow. So here's one of the junctions on the railway. So we'll soon see all this from the train. What I wanted to show you along here though is inside the original station. But one thing about this railway that's particularly special to me is it's where I first ever had my first ever steam loco for haulage. It was a loco called Trevific and it's going to be 30 years ago this September. So 30 years ago I first travelled behind steam and it was here at this railway. So if Trevific ever comes back here I should be here as well. So the original station would have been just here. This straight section of track you'd have got on the train here and then I believe the extension to the current station down here opened in about 1986. I believe if you have a look here you can see what I believe is the gate into the original station. See oh there's just still a gate there. You can see the straightness. That was the original station at a Watford Minutri Railway. Here's the level crossing. I can hear a train at the station. So perhaps what I'm going to do before we walk over to the station over there. Looks like there's a bit of a queue but that's you know it's a nice day. I'm going to wait here and see the train get passed and then we'll go over to the station and we'll go and have a ride. Unfortunately Sufford some flooding was flooded which was as you can see both the visitors have done a good job rebalancing it all on the railway after what was rather unfortunate weekend is very much back in business. So you know if you're out this way do come and have a trip on the Watford Minutri Railway and go and get your coffee at Molly's Floating Cafe if she is here at Cashierbury Park as I said earlier she's not always here but you know always worth going up to the lock to have a look because if she is they can get a coffee there. So you know it's easy to get here you can jump on the metro parking lot and get the train up to Watford Met station and come visit Cashierbury Park because not only is it a really nice railway but you know it's a very nice parkland as well. So I hope you enjoyed this video from the Watford Minutri Railway in Cashierbury Park. Thank you very much for watching. Please do feel free to like, subscribe, and comment. Goodbye.