So this is the actual production over a single day. But something that we'll often want to do is to plot averages or some other statistic. And so, in this last bit, we will go over how to plot the average hourly production. And to do that, I'm going to create another new variable called solar hour, which is equal to the date time, but just the hour value. And this is something that you can do with one of the benefits of date time objects is that you can use a special set of commands that extract bits of time or dates for you without having to do some sort of complicated read the string and figure out what that first number is. So now we can see the hour is over here. And so we can go ahead and plot this. Say solar. Again, do a G online. Yes. And here say x equals our and why is still produced kilowatt hours. And so this is showing the essentially the total kilowatt hours produced over each hour in a day across the entire year. So we haven't gotten to the average yet, which is our goal of doing that. But to do that, we need to use a special plot plotting tool within ggplot. So we still tell it which data to use. But now, instead of saying geome, we say stats summary. And then it still sort of works. So we still say x, we still have an aes statement in which we have our x and y that we've been using. But outside of that aes statement, we need to specify the geome. And so we've sort of just done things a little bit backwards. So if you remember with the bar plot, we specify geome bar and then stat inside that. But in order to work with the line plot, we need to specify stat outside and line inside. And then we also need to give it the function that we're applying to the y axis, which we are going to use num pi dot mean. And now we can see that this looks a lot more like we would expect. We can see the average kilowatt hour produced it's less than three across each hour of the day, given all of the data in 2021. So we can see that there was a spike just after six. And by and large, on average, three o'clock tends to be the best time to generate solar power here in central Pennsylvania. If we wanted to show a confidence interval on this. I'm just going to copy this and paste it down here. And a second stat summary, maintain the same aes values, but our geome then can be ribbon. And our function isn't just on the y axis now it's on the data. And it's mean confidence level bootstrapping, which we will get into in the next lesson what that actually means. But for now, this is the way that we can get a 95% confidence interval. And I'm also going to specify alpha, so that we can see the line through the ribbon. And so now we can see how this ribbon will follow the data. And so this is a way that you can work with time series and create line plots that have different functionality whether that's showing the actual data, or the average, or the average plus a confidence interval.


Water resources are essential to the ecosystem and social economy in the Eridaring River Basin, Northwestern China, and are vulnerable to climate change. It has been demonstrated that regional climate models, R.C.M.s, provide more reliable results for a regional study of climate change on water resources than general models. This article was authored by G.H. Fong, J. Yan, Y.N. Chen and others.


changing adjectives to adverbs in English. This video is sponsored by the following English learning sites. In this video, we will show how to change adjectives into adverbs in English. First, the basics. There's more to it, but we'll start here. Adjectives are used to describe nouns. Sean is a slow runner. Adverbs are used to describe verbs or actions. Sean runs slowly. In general, we just add L-Y to adjectives to make them into adverbs. But it is not always that simple. There are several principles that apply. We will discuss each one individually. One, simple L-Y endings. Two, spelling changes. Three, word changes. Four, non-changes. Number one, adding L-Y. The vast majority of adjectives work like this. See the examples below. Adjective adverb. Sad, sadly. Adjective adverb. Slow, slowly. Quick, quickly. Nice, nicely. Cheap, cheaply. Smart, smartly. For example, he smiled broadly. He spoke softly. He nodded slightly. He thought suspiciously. Then, he laughed silently. Two, spelling changes. Because L-Y is a suffix, it can sometimes affect the spelling of the word it is added to. With adverbs, this can take many forms. A, L-E endings. Terrible, terribly. B, Y endings. Happy, happily. C, A-L-L-Y endings. Basic, basically. D, other endings. Full, fully. We'll look at each of these individually. A, adjectives ending in L-E. When an adjective ends in L-E, we usually drop the E and add a Y. Simple, simply. Terrible, terribly. Capable, capably. Flexible, flexibly. She was incredible. She was adorable. But when she opened her mouth, she sang horribly. B, adjectives ending in Y. For most adjectives ending in Y, we change the Y to I and add L-Y. Happy, happily. Easy, easily. Hasty, hastily. Ordinary, ordinarily. Crafty, craftily. Groggy, groggily. For example, Harry approached the stage warily. Acting did not come easily to him. He busily started his routine. Soon he was happily singing away. The crowd crazily applauded. C, A-L-L-Y endings. Be careful with this one. Some adjectives take on this ending. Some don't. The A-L is not usually pronounced. For example, basic, basically. Specific, specifically. Public, publicly. Notice with this one, there's no A-L in the middle. It's just L-Y at the end. Frantic, frantically. Or frantically. The pronunciation is the same, but the most common spelling for this is A-L-L-Y. Other words with similar endings. The actual adjective actually ends in A-L. Notice the differences in pronunciation. Accidental, accidentally. The UL is not pronounced. Exceptional, exceptionally. The UL is pronounced. Incidental, incidentally. Not pronounced. Traditional, traditionally. UL is pronounced. For example, incidentally, how did you meet your wife? Well, actually, we met at the theater. It was her first time to perform publicly. I was in the orchestra. Specifically, I was the bassoon player. I was frantically trying to find my seat and bumped into her coming on stage. Ironically, she was so startled that she overcame her stage fright and performed terrifically. So, basically, that's our story. D. Other L-Y endings. Most of the other endings differ individually, so we'll deal with each one of them separately. True, truly. You drop the E and add L-Y. Whole, wholly. The same principle applies here. Drop the E and add L-Y. That results in a double L. The old-fashioned spelling for this is wholly. Full, fully. Because there's already an extra L on full, you don't have to add a new one. Just add Y. With cool, there's only one L. So, when you add the L-Y, it becomes two. The same holds true for cruel, cruelly. One L in the adjective, two Ls in the adverb. And words like careful, carefully. Two Ls in the adverb form. An interesting one is eerie. With this one, you drop the E and add L-Y. Eerie, eerily. With the word shy, there are two different spellings. Shyly. And shyly, where you change the Y to I before adding L-Y. The most common is S-H-Y-L-Y. Three, word changes. Sometimes, instead of merely adding an L-Y ending, we change the word completely. The best example of this is good, adjective, and well, adverb. She is a good swimmer. She swims well. Four, non-changes. Some adjectives don't change at all. He's a fast runner. He runs fast. Not fastly. It was an early meeting. They arrived early. We use the same word for the adjective and the adverb. A word of caution. You need to be careful with some adjectives. It was hard work. I worked hard. Not hardly. I hardly worked has a totally different meaning. Means I didn't work very much. Similarly, the word lately means recently. Not at a late time. He arrived lately for the meeting. No, this is incorrect. He arrived late for the meeting. Hope that was helpful. To learn more about adjectives and adverbs, click on the links in the description below. Thanks for watching. Remember to subscribe to our channel and give this video a thumbs up if you like it. If you have an idea for our next video, please submit it at the link below. We might just make a video especially for you.


Our company produces various games. Most recognized is our ARMA series, which tries to be authentic military experience on the computer. And these games are used by many different military organizations across the world. So in the United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Sweden, basically across all the NATO countries because they recognize this to be a very efficient method of training people. It's very difficult to make the difference between real footage and the footage that you can get from video games. So we are arguing that we have to get even closer to reality and we also have to include the rules of the law of conflict. There is no way that people that are playing those games on a daily basis for a couple of hours every day cannot learn from that experience. They are repeating the same actions. This is something that the military called the drill. That's the way you instill a reflex for people. And we know that our military, also when they are entertaining themselves, are also playing those games. So we are not just directing ourselves or addressing people that are civilians, that are outside of the battlefield. We are addressing through those games. We are addressing the future combatants, the law makers, the decision makers and also those people that are on the contemporary battlefields. When we were first approached by ICRC with the offer to consult on international humanitarian law, my first thought was, wow, we will learn something new we could put into game. We will make it more authentic. We don't want to try to hide reality. We don't want to superficially prevent players from doing something. So it's possible, for example, accidentally hit civilian targets or friendly troopers. So there's no way around it. If you're in a conflict, it just may happen. But when we realized that some players just went to the game, took the gun and just farted at everything that moved. So we felt like this is just not right. And we introduced a simple yet very intuitive mechanism that if you do this and there are any friendly troops around you, they will attack yourself.


first differencing is an econometrics technique, that is sometimes used in panel data sets to deal with unobsertated originating or autocorrided error term. While this technique is not as common as for example fixed effects estimation, it's useful to understand what first differencing is about because this technique is used as a part of some of the more commonly used panel data analysis techniques. Let's take a look at what first differencing is and how first differencing can be used to deal with unobsertated originating and autocorrided error term. First differencing basically means that you take every variable, all the x variables, all the y variables and you subtract the previous value. So instead of modeling y as the dependent variable we model delta y which is y at t minus y at t minus 1. So you always take the previous value of y and you subtract that from the current value.  So instead of modeling levels of y with levels of x we model differences in y as a function of differences in x. That's the idea of first differencing. First differencing can be used to deal with unobsertated originating. So let's take a look at this population model. So we have y equals beta 0 plus beta 1 x plus a plus ut. So a is the unobserved term and we don't want to make the random effects assumptions so we assume that a i can be correlated with x and we want to estimate specific values or fixed effects for a. So how do we eliminate a from the equation? We can of course use the fixed effects transformation so subtract cluster means which will eliminate a i but we can also use first differencing. How first differencing works is that we are subtract the previous value from y and then we calculate the fitted value for the previous value of y. We subtract that from the right hand side, we rearrange the equations a bit and we can see that we have the difference in y is a function of difference in x plus some error term that is a composite of these two error terms. Because the errors are assumed to be uncorrelated with everything in the model this will consistently estimate beta 1. So we can estimate beta 1 of this model using first differencing and we don't need to care about this unobserved effect. So first differencing like the fixed effect transformation it eliminates the unobserved effect and allows us to consistently estimate beta 1 from the data. There is also another reason why we might be using first differencing and it relates to autocorrelation. Particularly if we have a highly persistent data set and the error term is strongly correlated over time or the dependent variable is strongly correlated over time then we can break that correlation by using first differencing. In an extreme case we would have a random walk where particularly this reads the error term where the value of the error term depends on the previous value of the error term plus some random component. Is this drift that the current value is the sum of all past values plus some random component? How does first differencing deal with this problem? It deals with the problem by taking the difference in the error terms. So if we take the difference in the two error terms if we have this random walk then uit-1 contains all the past values and what is left in uit is simply the error term ut here. So it allows us to break the autocorrelation of the error term and then the standard errors of OLS estimation would be okay. So is this an ideal way of dealing with autocorrelation error? Maybe not, but it's one way. Another perhaps more better way would be to use cluster over standard errors in which case you don't have to adjust the model. You can simply use OLS regression without considering how the interpretation of beta 1 would be here. But this is another alternative. So the first differencing and fixed effects they accomplish the same. They are most commonly used for eliminating the unobserved effect A i from the data assuming that the A i can be correlated with x variables. When there are just two observations for each cluster these two techniques produce the same estimate. Both of these techniques are consistent so if the sample size goes to infinity they will also produce the same estimate. Similarly, they do not produce the exact same value. So which one should you apply? The fixed effects approach in practice it's much more common than first differencing. So if you simply want to deal with unobserved data generating you don't need to know much about first differencing because fixed effects is more common and will do the job. However, the first differencing is actually used as a part of some other estimation techniques for panel data that I will talk about in other video and this is the reason why understanding first differencing is important.


Ond, wrth gwrs, yn llwysgweithio, mae Gwyrdianneidur ddefnyddio ein ffacil gofyn o Gwyrdianneidur 1 3 8 8 9 o Gwyrdianneidur, ynmatech gan 74th Anvers Johnson, i ddigon iaith i gyfnwyr ond yr eich ddifolwg yn ddifolwg i'w ddifolwg i'w ddewid those members who wish to speak in the debate, please press the request to speak buttons. I call on Sandra White to open the date—sorry—to open the debate. Not the date, the debate. Perhaps seven minutes, please. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. It really does give me enormous pleasure as a convener of the cross-party group on older people age and ageing to open this debate on the 75th anniversary of Age Scotland. I am grateful to colleagues across the chamber who have supported the motion to allow this debate to take place. I would like to welcome those in the gallery who were somewhere there last night. They are welcome to the Scottish Parliament. We are here to celebrate 75 years of national and local peoples groups and organisations in Scotland since 1943. It is a remarkable achievement and it is also an opportunity to pay tribute to the spirit and vitality of the many outstanding men and women who have made this work possible. Older people who have dedicated their lives to the development and operation of older people's groups and organisations. Groups that have enriched the lives of older people in our communities across the country and organisations that have helped to shape Government policy and legislation to improve the lives of older people in Scotland. Groups and organisations continue to make an enormous contribution to advancing positive views of ageing in later life. Last night's reception, we met groups and individuals who did just that. I really would like to thank Age Scotland and the chair, George Fawkes, Christine Graham and the minister who gave us speech, which was so welcoming. Many other organisations took the time to attend and make the evening such a great success. Life for Age Scotland began with the establishment in 1943 of the Scottish People's Welfare Committee. The founding members included an array of organisations active at the time, the Church of Scotland, the Elder Old People's Welfare Council and the Elder Old People's Welfare Committee. Sadly, at the time, there was no committee in Glasgow. However, in 1954, Glasgow Old People's Welfare Association was established. It is now known as Glasgow's Golden Generation, and it won an award last night. I am very proud of that fact. It is in my constituency also. It is also the Scottish Central Council of Women's Rural Institutes, Scottish Council of Women's Citizens Association and the Scottish Trade Union's Congress. We also saw the formation of a concern and help the aged, who's murder in 2009 led to a new charity, Age Scotland, dedicated to improving later life for everyone in Scotland. It is worth reflecting for a moment, Presiding Officer, on what some of the landmarks and achievements have been over the last 75 years. Legislation to make the provision of home health service a duty on local authorities, the exclusion of amenity housing from the right to buy legislation in the 80s, the introduction of free nursing and personal care for older people in Scotland, the Scotland-wide free bus travel scheme for older and disabled people, providing free travel and local registered bus services for people aged 60+. I really would like to mention Simon Ritchie from Age Scotland, who has been carrying out a major engagement exercise with Transport Scotland to gather the views of hundreds of older people, which will directly shape the new national transport strategy. I welcome Simon from Age Scotland here tonight. Legislating to make an awful decision on employment and training based on a person's age, rather than on their competence, the adult support and protection bill to help to stamp out the abuse and mistreatment of older people who may be vulnerable. Reshaping care for older people is a programme for change and, in 2015, the Scottish Parliament's equal opportunities committee investigated age and isolation, the first formal parliamentary examination of loneliness anywhere in the world. Having been deputy convener of that committee, it is something that I am very proud of the work that we carried out there. There are a range of life enhances activities that take place in Scotland every week, which are facilitated by older people's group in my own area. I say this with great care, the party pluckers, which are a music group, stained glass making, knitting and crocheting blankets for conflict victims, all carried out by party addicts in my constituency. We all have the lunch club in the church hall or the neighbourhood centre, bringing older people together to share a healthy meal and companionship to the camaraderie of older men and women, meeting in the men's shed to use the skills to make or repair things, just have a bladder over a cough and a cup of tea. Other ones are including people remaining active and healthy through body boosting bingo, which can improve their strength and balance and, keeping fit with walking netball, can involve bringing the generations together by enabling young people to visit older people in their care home. One recent activity is really taking off and that is walking football, allowing men and women to get fit through regular exercise. This was famously depicted, I think, if people would remember, in an episode of the popular BBC Scotland comedy, Still Game. Complete with Isa as a Goalie, although I would not advocate the on-pitch violence that occurred on that particular occasion, so we plumb for a still game there. In my constituency, we have a new bay on the block, as you might say. We have a weekday wow factor, and I have been to some of those. We have a weekday wow factor, which has discos, which is absolutely fantastic. Zip sliding, speed boating on the Clyde and many others. We are not all just essentially sitting there, basically, Presiding Officer. In the brief time that I have available, I have only been able to override a shot and a whole valuable snapshot of the work of Age Scotland, which I know parliamentary colleagues will want to expand further on this evening. However, I want to close with a quote from Professor Sir Stuart Sutherland. To say that Scotland is facing anegis crisis is a myth, whereas it is certainly true that Scotland, along with the rest of the world, is getting older, that in itself does not constitute a crisis. I think that that has to be repeated, does not constitute a crisis. Professor Sutherland is challenging the view, as Age Scotland and others have, and other organisations too, have done for the past 75 years. Older people are not a burden. They are not a drain in our society and they are not a drain on our public services. Instead, rather than repeating this, it is often said, sometimes in the media, even on the bus, on the TV or whatever it may be, that we should celebrate what we know to be true. Older people are an asset to our society and our economy. They are the lifeblood of our communities, providing the backbone of charities and volunteering and acting as a reserve army of unpaid carers. Let us join together to congratulate Age Scotland on its 75th anniversary. I thank them for speaking up for age and wish them every success for the next 75 years in being the effective voice of older people in Scotland. We move to the open debate. Speeches of up to four minutes, please. I call Jackie Baillie to be followed by Bill Kidd. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I start by congratulating Sandra White on securing time for this debate. I have to confess to being slightly nervous and indeed exhausted listening to her list of activities that I am sure I am going to have to engage with as I get older, but I have to be honest, I am not sure about zipsliding at any age. No matter how much we may fight it or how young we feel on the inside, we are all growing older. Albeit, some are growing older more disgracefully than others. For many, the prospect of old age and everything that accompanies it can often be quite daunting. I think that it is quite wonderful and liberating. Aside from the knowledge and wisdom that you acquire because you have simply seen more, I like the fact that you can get away with saying what you think is wonderfully liberating. I am not sure that all of my colleagues regard that in the same light, but there you go. Let me start by thanking Age Scotland for all of their work, which has meant that thousands of older people in Scotland were given a voice when they needed it the most. For 75 years, day in and day out, Age Scotland has championed the needs of older people, making sure that care and support has been on offer to them if and when they have needed it. I also make a special mention of what Sandra White did before Lord George Fawkes, who is the chair of the board. He was, of course, the first director of Age Scotland. He tells me that that was not 75 years ago, though, but you only have his word for it. Let me pick out a couple of the initiatives that I particularly want to highlight that Age Scotland has been engaged in. Firstly, the housing project and warm and well project. They have meant that Scotland's ageing population is much better equipped to stay in their own homes, which is something that we all want, and are able to cope with ever-increasing fuel bills. Secondly, through their persistence, hard work and dedication, Age Scotland's helpline service claimed over £0.5 million of previously unclaimed benefits for older people in 2017 alone. That, I have no doubt, will have dramatically improved the quality of life for thousands of vulnerable people and helped to educate others about the benefits that they are entitled to. Recent research that we know carried out by NHS Scotland on social isolation and loneliness showed that the older we get, the lonelier we feel, and the less likely we are to have frequent social interactions with both our family and, indeed, the wider community. However, loneliness at any age is debilitating, but for those who are less mobile or perhaps who do not have family members living close by, feelings of loneliness are inevitable and all-encompassing. Through their many social events and good day calls service, Age Scotland has taken on the fight against isolation head-on. The support that it gives to over 1,000 local community groups across Scotland is so important. I know that that includes groups such as Dumbarton age concern and the Vale of Leven age concern. It gives many people a reason to get involved again and get involved in their local community. We cannot begin to thank Age Scotland enough for this kind of work, but it is equally important that the Government stands alongside voluntary organisations to ensure that we all have dignity in our old age. The Labour Party has demonstrated this commitment to older people time and time again. I am proud to have been part of a Scottish Government that introduced free bus passes and, indeed, the central heating programme way back at the start of Parliament. I am pleased that this Government has certainly continued some of that today. I am also proud that we were responsible for the introduction of free TV licences. I have no control over the content of the television programmes, but, nevertheless, I still think that it was a valuable thing to do. Increases to income support, second state pensions for low earners and winter fuel payments to name just a few initiatives. Older people in Britain would not have had that support if it had not been for a Labour Government, and I want to see that continue. I want to wish Age Scotland a happy 75th birthday. I hope that they continue to receive substantial Government funding and that we continue for the sake of both the current and future generations to ensure that our older people are our priority. I, too, would like to congratulate Sandra White for bringing forward this important debate to Parliament. I would also like to wish a happy birthday to Age Scotland as it reaches its 75th years as the national charity for older people in Scotland. Well, 75 years is really quite something, although looking at my colleagues around the chamber may be less to some than it is to others. Sorry, Sandra, I was not looking at you. It is, however, 75 years of supporting older people in Scotland tirelessly and working hard constantly behind the scenes for many of us who do not realise just how much work is put into the support that they provide. One-to-one support projects and community centres or, indeed, providing insight on the needs of older people to us here in the Scottish Parliament. Age Scotland's impact reverberates throughout Scottish society. True to that, just earlier this year, Age Scotland gave invaluable insight to the Committee for Economy, Jobs and Fair Work on the level of internet use across the country. Come up with a figure of 67 per cent of over 75-year-olds do not use the internet at all. That further was used to explain the impact of bank closures on this demographic in our country. That insight was drawn on the Committee's final report, and I think that it is a very important one. That, I also believe, illustrates how impactful the charity's work is for wee parliamentarians and for big ones as well. That was a joke, thank you. In terms of societal impact, what stands out the most for me, however, is the contribution made by Age Scotland to directly improve older people's lives by working on the ground in communities across Scotland. Recognising the charity's 75 years of work, it is important to highlight the charity's rich history. Fond initially, as Sandra White said, in 1943, as the Scottish Old or People's Welfare Committee, it has supported older people through significant events in the 20th century and into the 21st century. That includes at the end of the Second World War and the birth of the national health service and introduction of the welfare state. Aside from that, it has witnessed momentous technological changes, and the charity has adapted and evolved to continuously meet and promote the needs of older people. Of relevance to my constituency of Glasgow, Annie's land, previously the oldest demographic constituency in Europe, Age Scotland's work has been particularly pertinent over the years, and my constituents have frequently highlighted the positive impact of the charity on their own situation or on that of family members. Moving forward to 2018 and beyond, the charity now works with a network of more than 1,100 local groups across Scotland providing projects, among other services, for people to become involved with. Many of those projects tackle two of the biggest issues, as we have mentioned earlier by Jackie Baillie for older people of all of us, but for older people in particular of isolation and loneliness. Community-focused activities have a tremendous impact on improving quality of life. Through partnership with Glasgow Life, Age Scotland organises health walks across Glasgow. Not only do those keep people's fitness up, they also create community and belonging. I think that this project and many others have the capacity to be life changing, and I encourage my constituents to see if there is any activity or project that they would like to participate in. Age Scotland has a lot to offer. Looking forward to the future, it is projected that by 2041 the over 75 age group will be the largest in Scotland, so the work of Age Scotland will be relevant for an increasing number of our fellow Scots. With that in mind, I would like to finish by not only thanking Age Scotland for all of their dedicated work, but I would also like to thank them for their continued advocacy of older people's rights and welfare into the future. Just throwing a word of my own, you are better off old indeed, so just get on with it. Thank you. I was just thinking that maybe you can give me a written notice of your next joke, Mr Kidd, with appropriate timings marked. Jeremy Balfour, followed by David Torrance. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I start by wishing a happy birthday to Age Scotland, to thank them for the reception that was held last night, and to thank Sandra White for bringing this debate this afternoon. Maybe for the first time and the last time, I fully endorse every word, particularly the final comments made by her in her speech. Age Scotland is a very interesting issue. I visited recently our lunch club for what was called Old People, and I think that everybody in the chamber now, except perhaps Mr Arthur, would be welcome at that. Lunch clubs start younger and younger. At the other extreme, you have my father, who is in his late eighties, who is still working three days a week for this Government. Age is often very relative. Age Scotland is a charity, as we know, who works to ensure that the voices of older people are heard. They want to support both their rights and their interests, so that each person can live a full life and make Scotland a better place for older people. I think that Sandra White is absolutely right. We need to get away from the mentality of saying that old people are a drain on society, on our resources. They often bring so much more benefit and wisdom, and we need to tap in on that far more as a society. From the Scottish Government's website, in June 2017, just under 1 in 5, 19 per cent of people in Scotland were 65 or over. That is now compared to 16 per cent in the mid last year. Here in the Lovians, in 2012, nearly 20 per cent of the Lovian population was age 65. However, in 20 years' time, the figure will be 72 per cent, which I find, and I read that, almost an unbelievable figure. Therefore, there are going to be challenges, and we need organisations such as Age Scotland to be heard and to give us the support that older people will require. As a number of members have already mentioned, loneliness is one of the biggest problems facing not only the older population but other sectors of Scotland as well. Age Scotland is one of the leading organisations doing amazing work to tackle that. They celebrate ageing through funding and supporting over 1,000 member groups run for and by older people across Scotland. An example of that is the Men's Shed, which is one of the member groups' initiatives. It provides space for men to meet in a friendly environment and take part in activities that they enjoy. It provides a space where they are able to learn about the services that are available to them. That enables a vital community where friendship can be made and a place where older people are able to get the support that they need. One of the challenges for society is how we engage with people who are lonely and who have very little contact with other parts of Scottish Government or civic society. Someone recently gave me an example of a hotel that was put on a lunch for £5, but the people who came were those who were already going out regularly. We need to spend more time working out a strategy of how we engage with people who perhaps are lonely but are simply being ignored. Let me finish deputy by wishing a happy birthday to Age Scotland, to wish them well in their work and to thank Sandra White for allowing us to debate the subject tonight. David Torrance followed by Liam McArthur Thank you, Presiding Officer. I first like to thank Sandra White for securing this debate in the chamber today and welcoming this opportunity to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Age Scotland to bring attention to its vital role the network plays across the whole of Scotland. This year marks 75 years of amazing work and dedication from all the staff and volunteers past and present at Age Scotland to ensure the delivery of so many invaluable services through its network of over 1,000 groups all across Scotland. Those organisations make sure that the voice of older people is heard, provide support and care, encourage health and wellbeing and help to tackle loneliness and isolation, work in a partnership to identify opportunities and develop new initiatives that challenge inequalities and help to improve the quality of life of older people through a range of delivery methods, including self-help, one-to-one interventions, group services and a wider community engagement projects. In 5, 19.9 per cent of our population is of pensionable age, slightly above Scotland's national average of 18.5 per cent. The figure of people of working age falls below the national average. Comparisons of both 5 and Scotland's population projections show an expected large increase in the 65 and over demographic, alongside a large decrease in the 35 to 65 age group. The demographic of the country is changing, more people are living longer and healthier into old age than ever before. There are many upsides to increased life expectancy, which should certainly be celebrated, such as more children that will know their grandparents and great-grandparents, passing on a wealth of knowledge and experience of younger generations, and ever-increasing ageing population also prints many challenges for our communities. Living longer possesses many challenges for both economic and social issues, such as increased pressure on healthcare and social services, gaps in the job market increase dependency on those working age, health concerns of individuals and the ability to adapt to continuing technology and technological change. One of the major issues that are affecting our growing elderly population is isolation and loneliness. We know that social isolation has a detrimental impact on the health and wellbeing of individuals and can greatly affect the quality of life of older persons, often contributing to decreasing physical function, severe health problems and depression, a condition that sometimes goes undiagnosed or misdiagnosed in older people. In Cercodi, we have many fantastic groups following the lead of Age of Scotland, working in partnership to address those potential obstacles. One of these groups is the Grey Panthers. They meet weekly one of the local community centres and gather together older women, ranging primarily from 75 to 90 years old, to chat as well as exercise their minds and bodies through gentle activities and quizzes. The group that currently has around 30 members has been running for many years and provides valuable social opportunities for its members. One of its members, a lady called Mary Walls, was the 2018 winner of Age Scotland Inspiration Award. Those awards recognise people from all over Scotland who have made an exceptional contribution to improving the lives of older people. I have known Mary for many years now and can attest to her devotion and enthusiasm of helping those around her. She truly is an inspiration and much loved by not just the Grey Panthers but by the whole community and a very deserved and rep-substant of this award. Also in my constituency, we have Kinghorn Lunch Club, another group that encourages social interaction and tackles isolation through our weekly lunch club meetings. The group formed in response to a lack of opportunities for older people in Kinghorn. Many of its members do not have family and would often go several days without seeing or speaking to anyone. The club has provided a lifeline by connecting individuals and building meaningful bonds. Groups such as these are essential to part of the social fabric within my constituency and Fife. Without their efforts, we would be a lot worse off. They bring our community together, allow new relationships to be formed and have an enormous impact on our older people. However, as means of tackling social isolation, building relationships and developing skills are providing advice and support. In conclusion, I thank Sandra Fife once again for bringing this debate to chamber tonight and to thank Age Scotland for her valuable contributions to individuals and our communities over the past 75 years and wish her all the very best for the future. Before I call Mr MacArthur, there are still a few members who wish to speak in the debate, so I would be happy to accept a motion without notice under rule 8.14.3 and extend the debate by up to 30 minutes. I ask Sandra White to move a motion without notice. The question is that the debate be extended by up to 30 minutes. Are we all agreed? We are there for agreed, and I call on Liam MacArthur to be followed by Kenneth Gibson. That motion without notice is probably timely, because I need to start with an apology to you in the chamber that I may need to leave before the end of the debate, as I am due to host an event on behalf of Heriot-Watt University later. By way of atonement, I would extend a cordial invitation to all of you to join us in committee room 1 later on. I add my voice of congratulations to Sandra White, not just for securing this motion, but for her valiant attempt to snatch back the record from Oliver Mundell for the longest ever parliamentary motion, given the breadth, reach and significance of the excellent work done by Age Scotland now and in its various guises over the past 75 years. I think that it is perhaps no surprise that Sandra White has found it difficult to avoid the motion turning into something of a many novella, but it was wonderful to see the garden lobby packed out last night for Age Scotland's 75th birthday celebration yesterday evening. I say that as somebody who was hosting a competing event somewhere else in the building, but I was delighted to be able to drop in later on and catch up with Gillian Skews, who heads up Age Scotland Orkney. This is an independent charity, but a brand's partner of Age Scotland has been working with and for older people in the islands that I represent for some 25 years now. As well as helping to support older people to be able to live in their own homes for longer and enjoy a good quality of life with dignity and independence, Age Scotland Orkney is taking steps along with other statutory and voluntary sector partners to prepare for the consequences of the current demographic trends. Already Orkney has a population that is aging more rapidly than the national average. Trends suggest that, over the decade leading up to 2022, there will have been a 50 per cent increase in the population aged 75 and over in Orkney. Such a change would present challenges anywhere in terms of delivery of services in an Orkney context, with the population dispersed. Over a number of islands, some of them are very small indeed. Those challenges are magnified. That makes the work of Age Scotland Orkney in collaboration with other partners absolutely critical, allowing the community to benefit fully from, as Sandra White reminded us, the assets in our community. At present, that work includes a traditional home help service, which assists people with cleaning, shopping, laundry and a range of household tasks, and a person-centred care approach for adults who require some additional help with personal care, helping older people to live at home independently for longer. Age Scotland Orkney also runs a podiatry clinic with a fully qualified podiatrist offering a range of different treatments. Then, there is the dementia hub, which I had the pleasure of visiting earlier on this summer. Officially launched in March, the hub aims to improve the quality of life for people living with dementia, their carers and families through projects that promote health and wellbeing. Funded through the Life Changes Trust and dementia-friendly Orkney, the hub is a one-stop shop where people living with dementia can go for information and advice about national and local dementia services, local groups and activities that can provide support for people living with dementia to live well in Orkney. During my visit to the weekly drop-in session, it was immediately clear how much those attending the hub get out of the experience, an opportunity for those who are affected by dementia, their family and carers, to share a cup of tea and have a chat or take part in some of the therapeutic activities, including a state-of-the-art tovertaffle or magic table, which was truly hypnotic. I also got the chance to get a better understanding of what life is like for those who are living with dementia, some of the many frustrations that they experience on a daily basis and how much more care and attention needs to be taken in engaging with them. All of this excellent work, no doubt, was part of the reason that Age Scotland Orkney has been chosen to run Age Scotland's new national good day calls service as part of the independent living programme. The new daily phone service provides reassurance to older people and their family that someone will call to speak to them 365 days a year, checking in to ensure that they are well offering support in a friendly chat and in so doing help tackle loneliness. The service has been running in Orkney for some years already and those benefiting from it are in no doubt about what it offers.  Bill, aged 80, the good day calls help me to get my day under way with a cheery chat. Hopefully, this success will be replicated now nationwide and let's face it who couldn't look forward to a cheery chat from somebody in Orkney on a daily basis. I conclude by thanking all involved with Age Scotland across the country for the tireless work that they do and I thank Sandra White again for allowing Parliament the chance to recognise that work and wish Age Scotland all the best over the next 75 years, during which time we are all likely to take more of an interest in the work that they do. Thank you. Can I remind members that just because we extended debate by 30 minutes doesn't mean that you have to fill it? I call Kenneth Gibson to be followed by Tom Mason. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I am delighted to speak in this afternoon's debate and congratulate my colleague Sandra White on securing it. 75 years of campaigning is an incredible achievement and it is fitting that we celebrate Age Scotland here in the chamber given that so much of the work that the Parliament has undertaken since 1999 has been informed by the guidance and support of Age Scotland's outstanding efforts. Indeed, the Merge which brought Age Concern Scotland and Help the Ager together in 2009 also brought together a combined 90 years of expertise as well as a wide network of older people's groups and forums. Their successes over the last 75 years have been numerous. On topics ranging from transport to housing to healthcare to loneliness, Age Scotland has provided vital guidance on the Scottish Government's legislative programme and its impact on Scotland's older population. Most recently, the Government's revised housing strategy, Age, Home and Community, was actually launched at Age Scotland's office in August. Indeed, it would not exist in its current form with the Age Scotland's valuable contribution to the strategy, monitoring and advisory committees. Housing choices can have an enormous impact on our lives as we age and the strategy rightly champions independent living for older people within their own community, better reflecting the needs and aspirations of older people. Working with MSPs, Age Scotland was recently successful in having amendments to the planning bill that supports agreed at stage 2. The revised strategy also intersects with other efforts in related areas such as dementia and tackling loneliness, which Age Scotland is also very proactive in addressing. Of course, Age Scotland's work extends far beyond policy and the most tangible impact on the lives of older people in Scotland is perhaps a network of more than 1,100 local groups that host an innumerable range of activities and workshops throughout the year, as highlighted by Sandra White's motion. More and more innovative groups now better meet the diverse needs of older people across Scotland. A particularly exciting project that has taken root in my constituency, and I know that it does not have a similar project in Sandra's constituency, is the Garnock Valley Mendshed, which is part of a wider network of Scottish Mendsheds that Age Scotland has promoted. Mendshed provides a space to relax over tea or coffee, indulge in past times, catch up with friends, laugh and be creative, which again contributes to our nationwide effort to reduce loneliness and social isolation. Age Scotland's report into the benefits of those groups, The Shed Effect, found that it made an enormous contribution to men's lives to promoting positive views of ageing and enhancing later life in Scotland. I have no doubt that Age Scotland will continue to champion initiatives such as those for many years to come. As well as celebrating success, we must also be frank about the challenges that lie ahead. Scotland's population is ageing rapidly, as colleges have touched on. The number of people living with dementia is expected to rise to 120,000 in the next two decades, a challenge that we must prepare and plan for now. Age Scotland has taken a proactive approach by launching its early stage dementia project, which provides free dementia awareness workshops for organisations across Scotland and information guides, an invaluable resource for individuals and organisations alike. As Scotland's demography changes, so too does our workforce, with one third now over 50 and people increasingly working into their 70s, retraining and starting new careers in later life, or, with reference to one or two of my colleagues, continuing careers in later life. Simultaneous supply of younger workers is falling and employers must be proactive to avoid skill shortages and shrinking talent pools. Retaining experienced and committed employees is a central facet of a proactive approach. Age Scotland has today provided 190 Scottish businesses with practical, well-informed and legislatively accurate advice to help to foster a workplace culture that is open, inclusive and positive about the benefits of age diversity. That work should be celebrated and replicated on an even broader scale. A part of the Scottish Government's older people's strategic action forum, Age Scotland has, and we will continue to play a vital role in future-proofing all-aspects of Scottish public services. The value of their contribution cannot be understated, and I conclude by offering my thanks to the staff and volunteers who worked tirelessly to promote a positive view of later life and support the wellbeing of older people. Here is to many more years of Age Scotland, happy birthday. I have called the youthful Tom Mason, followed by the very youthful Christine Graham. I thank you very much, Presiding Officer. It is a pleasure to make a contribution to this debate on the 75th anniversary of Age Scotland, and I thank Sandra Wright for bringing the topic to the chamber today. However, I should declare an interest in that my age is a potential customer of Age Scotland, although, fortunately, I have not had to call on the service thus far. It is fair to say that Age Scotland is a remarkable organisation, with a storied history that spans not just a considerable time period, but also great many changes in the challenges that are faced by older people. When the Scottish Older People's Welfare Committee was formed in 1943, we were at the height of the Second World War. Indeed, it was formed only a few days after I was born. I was born slightly prematurely because the bomb dropped next to the house. It is safe to say that conditions are somewhat different today. As a population, thanks to advances in medical care and technology, we are now living longer, largely healthier lives. Whilst it is, of course, welcome, it does lead to a higher demand for the care and services that our older people require. Even something like making sure that an older person has someone to talk to is so important. Isolation and loneliness are subject to seldom discussed. I know that, although we get older people, the more difficulty it becomes to meet new people and socialise, especially if we have lost a partner or spouse. However, in Age Scotland, we have an organisation that is unafraid to champion those issues, most notably through their men's shed, walking football, hiking groups and intergenerational projects. I wholeheartedly commend all of them and many others. Now that Age Scotland is at the forefront of efforts on the number of fronts, today's motion points out a wide variety of those. From housing to veterans, to warm and well, there are great many on-going projects that are helping people right across Scotland. In my region of the north-east, there is vital work going on across the board, helping people with financial and legal matters, finding the right care homes, housing and even energy tariffs. My constituents are well served by the support that the local Age Scotland team provides. Last night, I had the privilege of attending Age Scotland's reception here in Parliament. It was great to meet some of those involved with this effort. I can say how fantastic it was to hear the passion that they have for this work. I am encouraged but most importantly grateful for their endeavours. Here in Parliament, their policy teams are instrumental in driving forward change, always willing and able to debate their challenges and opportunities, as well as the impact of legislation and all the work that we do here. I thank Age Scotland for everything that it does, for making sure that our older people have a home that suits their needs, for providing the advice on household issues that is so valuable to the pensioner, for doing their bit to ensure that no one gets left behind. I know, Presiding Officer, that if Age Scotland approaches the challenges of the future with the same determination that drives and drives that we have seen over the past 75 years, then our golden generation, which includes myself, is in a very safe hands indeed. Thank you very much. The last of the open debate contributions is from Christine Grahame. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I also declare an interest to Tom Mason, particularly as I am also a septogenarian. I congratulate Sandra White on her role chairing older people, Age and Arian cross party group, securing this timely debate and Age Scotland on its 75th birthday, which I had the privilege to sponsor their event last night. Most of all, as others have said, the 1,100 local groups and volunteers working hard throughout Scotland. First, it was an excellent move to merge Age concern and help the agent into Age Scotland, and especially to ditch the terms concern and help. In themselves are not bad things, but please let's not always associate older people with problems. If I'm a problem, it's given to do with me, nothing to do with Age. Of course, we have our problems that come particular with Age, groaning when we rise from a chair or assume a seated position, creaking limbs or a tendency to not suffer fools gladly and having long lost the desire to linger scantily clad before a mirror. However—and it's a big but—and here I am slotting in that I'm—I bet you—I knew that set Kenneth Gibson's Heather Alight. However—and it's a big but—and here I am slotting in that I'm weary of being told I'm a demographic problem when I am, and we all are, a demographic plus. Give me an older people on the till at Tesco any day when I'm not competing with the grocery escalator to pack and pay in double quick time. Give me the older person and be in queue the retired tradesman who will escort me to the appropriate tools for my low skill level. By the way, other superstores should also be commended, just in case I have to use them. Then there's grandparent, time to teach and sing after a fashion—old songs. My granddaughter, one of them, and I will belt out my body lies over the ocean as we cruise along—not here, Mrs Graham, please—as we cruise along in my open top two-seater Mazda, my last stab at youth. Then, in reciprocation, we sing together, it's all about the bass. Stories read, stories invented, lessons on how to be friends with Mr Smoky, and when he's had enough. Special moments shared with grandchildren with their own special granny rules and non-rolls and sometimes unadulterated mischief. I haven't told the parents about that. Of course we need support and some of us will not admit it and some do not have family units like me, and their age concern and local groups can step in. Menshed, which has already been mentioned in particular, have addressed the issue of isolation for some older men. In people's, this has hit an impasse, as no sight has been provided that is suitable for the premises that has hit, as you say, a metaphorical brick wall—I wish it were a real brick wall—anyway the council should start helping them. That good day call that has been introduced recently is very, very important because not everybody is as lucky as I am. So it is as we all age a mix of requirements changing over time. Most of all, those requirements require to be met through conversations with us, with older people, as Age Scotland does. The last thing we need is to be patronised. Yes, some foolish individuals—I'll not name them—have tried to talk down to me as if I had dropped half my marbles. They were soon put right, so well done, Age Scotland, in getting the balance and the tone absolutely right and happy birthday. Now, Christine McElvie to respond to the debate for around seven minutes, please, minister. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I thank all the members who have taken part in this lovely debate today. It's a very lovely debate but with a very, very serious message. The contributions have been both very helpful to me and very informative to the work that I need to do in government. I thank especially to Sandra White, who has been a real champion in this, for calling for this debate to mark Age Scotland's landmark birthday and in the week where we celebrate international day of older people. I pay a special thanks and a special tribute to all of the volunteers who give generously of their time, and that's filled with that spirit and vitality that Sandra White talked about at the beginning of her speech. It's important that Parliament comes together to send an unambiguous message that we support and value our older people. Many of today's contributions, including Jeremy Balfour's, have cited figures around our changing demographics, so I won't repeat them, but the point is that there's going to be a lot more older people within the population in a very, very short frame of time. We are all ageing and we're all an ageing in older workforce. Sadly, older now is defined as 50 and above, which seems far too young to me these days. We have heard from everyone about the positive impact of Age Scotland and its 100,000 odd groups that it has in its network. We have heard about the great impact in the constituencies now, and it is invaluable that it has been to the MSPs in the chamber. I suppose that you want to know what is the Government doing. We need to, in Government, look at the opportunities and the challenges now, and my partner Gandhi said that the future depends on what you do today. We have a job to do, so the Government is taking action. We have a minister for older people, although she may not quite be in that category yet. We are developing older people's framework, which we will publish next March, which will be co-produced by stakeholders like Age Scotland and many other older people's organisations. We are publishing something that is very important, which came through very clearly in this debate today—a social isolation and loneliness strategy—before the end of this year. We are working through the consultation responses to this, and I would like to reassure Jackie Baillie that we are taking that issue incredibly seriously. We are also taking forward the fair work agenda because we have an older and ageing workforce. Kenny Gibson mentioned the housing strategy, along with the Warmer Homes Initiative, Fuel Poverty and many other things. We are ensuring that we have policies for now and for the future that maintain safety and security in the home. Other aspects of what we are looking at in Government are about hate crime. We will be publishing a public consultation later this year following recommendations made by Lord Bracadale on hate crime legislation in Scotland. Lord Bracadale recognised that older people can be targeted by perpetrators not because of hatred of the elderly but because of a perception that they are more vulnerable. They should talk to some of the older people in this room because they are far from vulnerable. He made an important point, and he recommended that the Scottish Government consider the introduction of a general aggravation concerning exploitation of that very vulnerability. He also recommended that there should be a new statutory hate crime aggravation based on age. We are very open to the views on the best way forward, and we will consult widely on that. I am sure that Age Scotland and many of its partners will take part in that. I recently spoke at the conference on elder abuse, and I heard first-hand the heartbreak of such incidences of hate crime and the abuse of vulnerability on that older person and their families. We are certainly taking that seriously. However, let us move on to social security, because that is an important part of how we support people in their older lives. We need to enable older people to contribute and thrive on me to look after those who are unable to through ill health or disability. We also need to make sure that the systems are in place to allow people to live as independently as possible for as long as they want or need. That is why the Cabinet Secretary for Social Security and Older People announced last week that, in Scotland, we will do things differently than the DWP when delivering the 11 devolved benefits. People will not be subject to undignified assessments carried out by private contractors—we are all welcomed in the chamber in the charter debate yesterday. We will treat people with dignity and respect. In doing that, we will ensure that we address Bill Kidd's concern about digital by default. We will create ways to enable older people to engage with his Social Security Scotland agency in a way that works for that individual, and that can only be welcomed. The cabinet secretary also shared the same aim to ensure that older people in Scotland have the opportunity to lead the best life that they can and feel valued and respected and listened to. I agree with her on that. Turn to some of the positive contributions that older people may make. Older people contribute in so many ways—unpaid caring roles, volunteering and continuing to work. The act is a sandwich carer—not a term that I like—by looking after the grandchildren as well as looking after elderly relatives, often with no financial support. David Torrance talked passionately about local champions. He was a local champion in South Lanarkshire who brought about the carers act that we now have. The carers Scotland act was introduced a few years ago and took effect from April 1 this year, 2018. That is a really welcome development, because we need to underpin the progress that we make with legislation. In 2018-19, the Scottish budget includes an additional £66 million to support additional expenditure by local government on social care. I hope that that will help to make a difference. However, let us look at some of the negative perceptions. As a society, many of us are too quick to judge others, stereotyping can be offensive, hurtful or even dangerous, and Christine Grahame reminded us of that. Older people deserve better. They are not a homogenous group just as younger people are. We have all seen and heard incredible stories in the 70s of people in their 70s running marathons or climbing mountains or just today winning Nobel prizes for physics. Those are amazing achievements, but maybe not quite in the reach of everyone, but maybe Jackie Baillie, when she does reach for that zipslide one day, when she actually reaches that older people's status. However, we need to say no to the relentless negative media that we are bombarded with that says, one should retire, you're a burden or a drain in society. I've seen nobody at the Age of Scotland reception last night who was a burden or a drain on society. Many other barriers that we talked about today were ensuring that we maintain concessionary travel scheme, the cheery chat from Liam McArthur telling us about the Orkney hub and the real benefits of public transport that people get. I want to talk about, very quickly, Queen's Cross Housing Association. They have created a new intervention service, piloted at Queen's Cross, funded by Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership. I heard from Agnes, Mary and John, who have been supported by the service. They shared their compelling stories of the positive benefits that it has for them. The service provides rapid response in times of crisis, or when high critical health and support needs are identified. It lasts up to six weeks to allow recovery or long-term support to be arranged. Let's celebrate ageing, Presiding Officer, because even if it's a bomb that brought you into the world, like Tom or Christine Grahame, who is lingering scantily clad in front of her mirror, getting older is something to be celebrated. It's not something that everyone is fortunate enough to achieve. We should celebrate at a nation, possibly at a lunch club with Jeremy Balfour, which would be lovely. As a poetry fan, I always look to poetry sometimes for inspiration. In his poem, Rabi Ben Ezra, published in 1864, in which we'll still resonate today, the poet Robert Brownan wrote, growing old with me, the best is yet to be. I love the aspiration behind that line. Christine Grahame singing to her in her two-seater master, teaching the grandkids how to be fun and disgraceful is a great picture I have in my head. Presiding Officer, I look forward to working with all the organisations such as Age Scotland who are championing older people's rights to ensure that the best is yet to come for Scotland's older people now and in the future. I want to finish by saying, happy birthday, Age Scotland. That concludes the debate, and this meeting is closed.


This course is an accessible introduction to the application of complexity theory to the social sciences. The course will be primarily focused upon the domain of sociology, but we will touch upon elements of psychology, anthropology, political science, and economics. The aim of the course is to introduce you to the variety of models from complex systems and illustrate how they apply to these different domains. This course is a first of its kind and somewhat experimental in nature, where we will be drawing upon research from many different areas and using complexity theory to contextualize it into a coherent paradigm, giving us a fresh perspective with which to interpret some of the core questions within the social sciences. The course is broken down into four main sections. In each section, we will apply one of the major modeling frameworks from complexity theory to interpreting social phenomena. We will firstly give an overview to this area of social complexity before starting our first section on systems theory as we lay down a basic model of a social system. We will go on to use this model in helping us understand social structure and institutions. Next, we will take an overview to non-linear social science as we discuss the process of self-organization, feedback loops, chaos theory, and self-organized criticality. The third section to the course is dedicated to social network analysis. We will cover the main topics in this new area as we talk about the basics of social graphs, clustering, network structure, and the process of diffusion. Finally, we will be looking through the lens of complex adaptive systems theory, exploring the model of a fitness landscape, talking about adaptive capacity, social resilience, and the process of evolution. This course is designed to be accessible to a broad audience but will be of particular interest to researchers and students within the various social sciences wishing to apply complexity theory within their own work. Some background in social theory and complexity theory would be an advantage but not a prerequisite.


Welcome to today's RTA webinar recording on ending the tenancy, a guide for tenets, with a focus on what you need to know when moving out of a rental property. My name is Lynne and I'm a Senior Community Education Officer with the Residential Tenancies Authority. The Residential Tenancies and Rumi Accommodation Act 2008 outlines the timeframes for property managers and owners and tenants when they give notice to end a tenancy. To give you an example, as a tenant, if I want to vacate at the end of my fixed term agreement, I would need to give the property manager or the owner a minimum of two weeks notice. It is important to remember that the timeframes listed in the Act for General Tenancies and Rumi Accommodation do differ. Noting that Rumi Accommodation, so this is your boarding houses and student accommodation, requires shorter timeframes. To end any tenancy, notice must be given in writing. You can go to the RTA's website to download forms and check what notice period is required. For tenants giving notice, this would be a notice of intention to leave, a form 13, or for property managers notice, it's a notice to leave, a form 12. When issuing a notice, you can do so by post, email if your agreement states that you can serve a notice by email, or you can serve the notice in person. Remember, if you do post a notice, you do have to add more time in covering the Australian post timeframe. So let's have a quick look at the vacating process and how it works. After the notice has been given, you'll need to move out and clean. Tenants have a responsibility under the legislation to return the premises in the same condition it was at the start, let's bear wear and tear. It's a good idea to refer to your entry condition report that you received at the start of your tenancy. Ensure your rents pay to your vacating date, so check your rental payment records and also check in with your property manager or owner. Complete the exit condition report and take photos. This is an important step as the report is compared to the entry condition report at the start and it is also the tenants' responsibility to complete this as outlined in the Act. Gather all the keys, remotes, access cards to hand them over to your manager or owner. Vacating inspection is important. You may want to ask your property manager or owner if you can be present or what their process is and when will it be done. And the final step is the boundary fund from the RTA. Moving is a stressful time. There's so much that you need to do and remember. Having moved recently myself, it was a good reminder of what you need to organise when you are changing from one property to another. In this slide I've listed things that you may need to include in your moving plan. The remove list, truck or hire date or if you're utilising your friendship with your family and friends, make sure they know in advance what date and time they're going to be helping you. Allow time to pack. Once all your possessions and furniture are removed you need to clean the property and remove any rubbish. If you're choosing or to engage a professional cleaning company, what date or time are they coming and have you allocated enough time. Notify your utility providers to disconnect and do a final reading for your electricity, your gas and your internet. Organise a mail redirection and you can see Australia Post for more information and it's available on their website at auspost.com.au that's a-u-s-p-o-s-t dot com dot au. Whether you are cleaning or you have engaged someone to do it, do a final check on the premises inside and outside. If you've engaged any tradespeople to rectify any damage or do mowing or gardening, check that they've done a good job. Also check to make sure that everything has been done and nothing's left behind. Look in all the cupboards and drawers one last time and just check those little things that sometimes get missed in cleaning. Complete the exit condition report and take your photos and check your rent pay to date. Is any rent owing? All keys and remotes needs to be handed back including any that you might have got copied. The vacate inspection, check in with your property manager owner early in the move so you know what their process is. When will they be doing it? Can you attend? What happens if there's a problem? The bond refund and updating details with the RTA. It's really important to note a refund can occur once the tendency has ended or handover of the property has occurred. The RTA cannot accept a request for a refund before that date. Remember when completing the fields on a bond refund ensure all the boxes are complete and penalties apply for providing false and misleading information. The quickest and easiest way to get a bond refund is for you and your property manager or owner to reach an agreement about how the bond is going to be paid out. Whether that is a full refund to you or some money being paid to the owner all parties need to agree. Either you or the property manager or owner can submit a bond refund. The RTA encourages customers to use the RTA web services the online platform for bond services. Helpful resources and step-by-step instructions can be found on the RTA's website at rta.qld.galba.au. When completing any forms and submitting them to the RTA whether that's online or in paper form please make sure all the fields are completed. This will avoid any delays or the forms being rejected. Refund plans can only be submitted on the handover date or the bank aid date and not before and refunds are paid into Australian bank accounts. To fast track your refund payment make sure you and the property manager or the owner and any other bond contributors are talking with each other and getting an agreement so your bond can be fast tracked. So what happens if it's not an agreed refund? If you or the property manager or the owner or other contributors do not agree with this at the start we then call it a notice of claim process. People who have not agreed are given 14 days to respond to the claim. If they disagree it proceeds to the RTA's free dispute resolution for conciliation. From there if there is a resolution the bond is refunded as to what has been agreed during the process. If it's not resolved then the matter proceeds to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The conciliator will step you through both of those processes. The RTA has previous webinars on ending a tenancy and also resolving disputes available on the RTA's website. So let's have a look at the bond refund in summary. In this diagram you can see a refund form is submitted. Fast track means if everyone agrees it goes straight to the refund payment and paid out. If someone does not agree during this fast track process the notice of claim process will start and potentially may end with dispute resolution process or still not resolved then QCAT when adjudicator will make a determination as to how the bond is going to be paid. As you can see there's quite a few processes involved and with that also time involved with each step. More information on these steps are available on the RTA's website including the dispute resolution process. As you can see when we say the quickest and fastest way for a bond refund is an agreement between tenants and property managers and owners upfront so the bond can be fast tracked. The RTA encourages all parties to communicate and talk with each other. Share evidence and photos and try and resolve any issues upfront. Even if the process hits to dispute resolution you can still talk with the other party and try and resolve it. To share with you some of the RTA bond data during 2019 to 2020 financial year the RTA received nearly 300,000 bond refunds with a mix from both digital upload and the paper base being posted in. With the introduction of refunds through the RTA web services in December 2019 we're definitely seeing an increase for customers using this digital platform for an efficient and seamless customer experience. For a smooth process at the end of the tenancy remember tenants, property managers, property owners have rights and responsibilities under Queensland Tenancy Law. Have that moving plan or checklist in place so that you don't miss anything. Regular respectful communication is key in any tenancy relationship between yourself and the property manager and the property owner. Be informed check out the RTA's website for ending a tenancy information all the forms, web services for the bond refunds and tips to moving out. You can also check out previous webinars covering essential legislation information to help you understand your rights and meet your obligations. Remember an agreed refund through RTA web services is the fastest and easiest way to get a bond refund. The RTA still accepts paper refund or rental bond forms. Again please make sure it's fully completed including the vacate hand over date, contact and bank details and it is signed. If you're unable to use web services or post the form in please call the RTA. You can keep connected with the Residential Tenancies Authority by subscribing to the RTA news on our website but we can keep you up to date with tenancy topics and you can also link in with the RTA on LinkedIn. The RTA is here to help you and everyone involved in the tenancy whether you're the tenant, property owner or property manager. The RTA's website has a lot of information and resources relating to tenancy and bond information and services and we encourage you to view this at rta.qld.gov.au. The RTA web services for bond matters including lodging, refunds and disputes is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you need further assistance please ring one of our friendly staff members in our contact center on 1300 366 311. Revalable Monday to Friday 8 30 a.m to 5 p.m. Thank you for your time today.


I'd like to show you how to get a perfect sear on a bavette in a Lake Crisay enameled cast iron skillet. Now make sure the meat is really really dry and season it aggressively with salt and pepper. Preheat the skillet over high heat with just a little bit of oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the steak and apply even pressure so you get nice even sear. Let that go for about two minutes and then flip when the steak easily releases and is golden brown. And do the same on the other side and sear to desired temperature. Allow it to rest for about five minutes and then slice thinly across the grain. Sauté the steak until it's golden brown.


Hello, welcome to Going Deeper. My name is Marcy Sklove and today I'm sitting with Frank Marchand. He is a local plumber for the Amherst area for over 42 years. And he is going to share his story with us today and I'm going to let Frank introduce himself in that way. So first, welcome. Very glad you're here. Thank you for asking me. Yeah, yeah. And I guess I just want you to set the stage to, you know, tell your story a little bit in your own words. It seems really surprising later in life to have these recollections of things that happened in your childhood. And they seem to be happening more frequently these days. And one that came to mind about three weeks ago was amazing. I hadn't thought about it in 40 years. I remember I was probably 13 years old and there was a junior high dance at the high school and I was excited enough about it that I think I washed my armpits and changed my socks. So I arrived at that dance in the gymnasium and all the boys were on one side, all the girls were on another. And that's the way it remained for the bulk of the evening.  And I remember very distinctly those magical words, scary words. If you want to dance, this is the last song. And I remember that I had my eye on this one girl from across the gymnasium but I was so petrified of rejection that I finally mustered the courage for that last dance and marched across the gymnasium, totally prepared to be wiped out and laughed at. And I walked up to this girl and I said to her, would you like to dance? And she looked at me and said, I've been waiting all night long for you to ask me. Oh my goodness. And I think at that moment my smile went from ear lobe to ear lobe and we danced for three or four minutes with my feet never touching the ground. And when the dance was over, she went back with the girls and I went back with the boys. I was on a cloud. It was pure euphoria and it stayed with me for days and I kept kicking myself for not asking her to dance earlier. When I'd pass her in the hall occasionally, we'd shoot that knowing smile at one another. But I don't remember her name, I don't remember what she looked like, but I just remember that I had the courage to finally do that. And it's a lesson that I need to relearn in that I wonder where I would be if I had the courage to make decisions like that where you could fall flat on your face or you could be the happiest you could be and a lot of it's just holding yourself back. And so when you asked me if you could host me on the show, I said, this is one of those chances I wanted to. So that's what prompted the memory. I think you might be right. And so one of the things that I feel most uncomfortable about is being out of control. I always like to have plan A, plan B, plan C. And I liken it to, you're driving down the road, it's night, it's eleven o'clock at night and this light mist begins to fall. Then it all turns to ice. You don't know whether to turn the wheel, touch the brake, hit the gas, but you know that you're not safe. And you know that there's no way you're going to be safe. So the smart thing for one to do in that situation is to pull over and wait for the sanding truck to come through. And that's an analogy for what's going on in my body is that I have no control over what's happening. I have to trust others. So in a nutshell, I've been battling cancer for four years now. I'm stage four cancer right now, but having bounced back from stage four cancer three years ago. And my oncologist will look at me and say, dude, you've been through 29 chemo treatments. What's up with the hair? So I've been through 29 chemo, that's one round is six weeks or something. One round is three days. And you've been through 29 of those three days. Cat scans, pet scans, MRIs, EKGs, anti-nausea medications, steroids, contrast, most recently radiofrequency ablation. And you never lost your hair? I lost a little bit, but it came back. Nice hair anyway. Thank you. So this has been a long road and I think probably the most amazing thing is that in adversity, I've actually found strength. And one of the ways that's happened is, I grew up in South Deerfield, which is a small town. And when word was out that I was sick, I heard everything in the book from my friends that, you know, Frank went into the hospital, did he have a stroke? Frank went into the hospital, did he have surgery? And then finally somebody said, I think he had a vasectomy. Okay, okay, let's straighten this out so I had to come clean. So what I found was that about two months into my first round of chemo, people were coming up to me in a convenience store with tears in their eyes. And they bear hug me and say, this can't be true. You can't leave us. We need you. We love you. And I would hold them and I could feel the voltage from their body entering mine. It was electricity and it kept that battery on full charge and it started happening more and more frequently. And then one day I realized that they're saying goodbye to me, but I'm not reciprocating. So I started doing that and felt that the voltage was doubled because now they knew how I felt about them. And the most amazing thing is that I learned that no one will actually honestly tell someone how they feel about them until they know they're going to die. And so I make a point of treating everyone as if it's the last time I'm going to see them, because we never know. I read in the paper this morning in situate where a 61-year-old worker was run over by a bulldozer and died instantly. Although I have this affliction, I'm here. And the bottom line is that it doesn't matter really what you're cursed with, because it could be diabetes, it could be anything terminal, but the minute you hear those words and they're directed at you, in my case it was, I've been doing this for 30 years. I know cancer when I see it and you've got it. So about six weeks ago my wife was celebrating her 50th birthday and amongst the gifts that I gave her were 200 flowering bulbs. And the following weekend I went out and planted them in patterns by color and by maturing, the dates that they mature. And I went inside and said to her, you know, if I don't make it through the winter, there's going to be a hell of an I love you in the spring. And what we don't realize is that we can drive by a field of tulips and oh, that looks nice. But those bulbs are going to be there for hundreds of years. And I think bulbs that are in Annie One's yard have a story behind them. I hope we get to see them. But realistically some of the things that I'm prompted to do now really aren't about me. But I'll share a fake news story with you. So me and my doctor and a former high school teacher were sitting in his junk car. We're reminiscing and the car is idling. And about an hour into it we all succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning. So at the gates in St. Peter comes over and says, guys, what are you doing here? You're way early. What happened? And we explained, well, you know, we're in this junk car, like why didn't you fix the floorboards? They're the exhaust. I mean, you're way ahead of schedule. Well, you don't know if you're going through the gates tonight. You're going to have to go to the end of the line, which is 137,000 miles long, but you're here for eternity.  I'm going to let you look down from here and see your own open casket and hear what people have to say about you. So he looks at the doctor and says, doc, when people come, say goodbye to you, what would you like to maybe hear them say? And the doctor says, you know, I wish that one person would say that I kind of overstepped my bounds and beat the odds and completed that procedure and that they're still playing with their grandchildren. And St. Peter says, OK, that's Adam Mobile, and Mr. Teacher, what would you wish people would say about you? And the teacher says, well, I wish one person would say that I opened up an avenue of thought that they'd never considered. As a result, they took off with that and it became their profession and they're thanking you for doing that. And St. Peter says, that's great, OK, Frank, what would you wish somebody would say about you? I said, I wish one person would look down on the casket and say, look, he's moving.  So that's another way of talking about this kind of body, mind, heart connection that's so powerful, but doesn't really get talked about that much in mainstream dialogue. And which leads me to something that's, I would say it's probably a revelation, being that when I was a soul, I'm convinced that I was a soul before I was in this body, and that I'll be a soul again, that when someone scrubbed my memory of being a soul and scrubbed my memory of being an infant, they didn't do a really good job. Because there's two things I can remember from being a spirit. One of them is the ability to whisper, don't take that road today. And it didn't matter the race, the religion, anything. It was a request from someone who was in need, and that road could have been something they were driving on, or a path that they were about to take. I couldn't influence them whatsoever, except to say, don't take that road today. And the other thing I remember was being able to, again, notice that someone was in need. And again, I can't physically do anything, because I don't have a body. So that person was in dire need of a pick me up, whether it be they were thinking suicidal thoughts, whatever, the call came to my soul to assist. And they were taking their vehicle into Walmart or some super store. And they pull in, and the first space is handicapped and taken. The next space, someone has parked on the line. The third space has a shopping cart. The fourth one is the one that they can finally get into. And when they stepped out of the vehicle on the ground was a shiny, lucky penny from heaven. Now, I couldn't put that there, but I was able to direct them so that when they picked that penny up off the ground, they recognized that as a miracle. So now we fast forward into the fact that my soul is in a body. OK, so you're saying that these two examples are resonances that you have now from previous, pre-dismodied soul life, OK? So now that soul has got a shell. I can run and dance and make love and listen to the ocean is taste hot chocolate. I can do all these things. I can move a piece of paper. I can do anything you can do wonders with plumbing situations. But I mean, in general, the fact that you can do things. And, you know, I'm realizing that at the end of this life when the shell fails, that I'm not afraid of dying. I'm afraid of leaving this place because I am convinced and this is I'm not the first person with this thought. No matter what religion you are, most people believe in a heaven. And I'm thinking that's right here. Yeah, me too. Where you actually have your soul encased and you can you can do so many things that right now, I mean, I'm just realizing all the stuff around me, the snowflake that lands on your shirt and you stare at it and it turns to water. I mean, where where this this is it? I mean, when and what are we doing with it? I'll tell you one thing. I'm doing with it. Pardon me for a second. I'm scattering shiny pennies and parking lots because I can do that. And when I go back to being a soul, I'll know where they are. If they haven't been picked up and it's it's just random and it's one cent, right? We throw them away. We leave them on the counter, but it could be the life thread for somebody. So from the previous knowledge I have, these little things are just outstanding. And so as my life begins to uncover these things that have always been there, but have been shrouded with tonal vision and and, you know, envy and greed and haste. And we just don't take the time. And so I find it really important. Probably the most important thing to do is to recognize individuals. And I'm going to do that right now a little bit closer. Oh. After hearing about what you've done, chaplain, volunteer at hospice, birthing children, taking a Pakistani boy to the hospital, you have no idea how proud I am of you. Thank you, Frank. All the things that you've done selflessly in your life, you have to know that if I die on the way to my job site, you have to know that I love you for what you've done. And this is what you can do when you have a body. And all these things that you'll wish on your deathbed, if you haven't done them, you're not going to. So when you find the good in someone, you share it because you don't know when it's going to be over. So, well, I guess I usually like to end the conversation like this with with a joke. And this one is a true story that I don't remember where it came from. But I read it years and years ago. It was about a worker who wanted to get a job in a factory in Poland, a tool factory. So their policy was that they would have you come in and work an entire shift and have the co-workers rate you as to whether or not. I had that experience as cooking in a fancy kitchen. So this this perspective hire goes in and it turns out he knows half the people in the factory. And so they're all clowning around all day long and getting things done. But he he fits right in at the end of the work day, the boss calls him up to the office and they chat for about 20 minutes. And he comes down the stairs bouncing because he's he was just hired full time. So he's leaving the the plant and he's pushing a wheelbarrow mounted high with sawdust. And the guard stops him and says, who are you and what are you doing? And he says, I was just hired.  He goes, all right, all right, well, what's up with the sawdust? I say, well, I was talking with the boss and he's he he found out that I have chickens. And he said, can you use betting? Can you sawdust? Because we have mountains of it. We can't get rid of it. Please take it home every day. And the guard says, all right, all right. He rolls up the guard rolls up his sleeves and digs in the sawdust to see if the guy's stealing any tools. And there's nothing there. So every work day, the guard stops him, digs through the sawdust. There's nothing in there. So 11 years go by and now that worker is going to retire. So it's his last day. Everybody's high five and there's tears being shed. And he's leaving for the last time and the guard stops him and says, you know the drill, I'm lost prevention. So he digs through all the sawdust and there's nothing in there. So the guard looks at him and says, I know it's your last day and I've got to tell you. Secretly, I've been hoping I would catch you stealing something. But I never, it was never anything there and I feel like I owe you an apology. And I wish you well on your retirement, but now you have to give me your key to the plant. So the guy takes the key off the ring and hands it to the guard and goes through the gate and the guard locks the gate. And when the worker is just about out of earshot, turns around, he yells back to the guard. He goes, oh, yeah, by the way, every work day for the last 11 years, I've stolen a wheelbarrow. And so at the end of a given day, looking at my face in the mirror and saying you made it through another day, you have that feeling like you stole a wheelbarrow. You got away with another day. So most of this is just recognizing the good, yeah, the goodness in people, the goodness in life and not taking it for granted because you won't have a chance to say, I'm sorry, or I love you when it's all over. I also I also just want to add that you're not you're not doing all these things at the end of the day after saying, OK, I only have so much time left. I'm going to go sit on a beach or I'm going to go tour Italy. You go to work every day and you help people every day and take care of lots of these emergencies that come up. And it's it's a beautiful tribute. That itself is a beautiful tribute. Also that the work that you do is just so important and valuable. And I get a lot of hugs along the way, especially from the elderly. Sure. And it's that in itself, problem solving and and looking at myself and saying, that's somebody else's CAT scan. You go in for the treatment and you come out of there. But I've been very fortunate in that I don't have any side effects from the chemo. They strap the thing on. That's amazing. So it's well, I think after watching this, you'll have a lot more people having you in their prayers and in their good thoughts. And there's not enough said about how powerful that is. That is so powerful. Yeah. Thank you so much for coming in and sharing my pleasure. Really. And thanks to Amherst Media for making this possible. We love Amherst Media and hope everyone is sending in lots of contributions for their capital campaign. I'm Marcy Sclove. The show is going deeper. Thank you so much.