I'm James Milan and welcome to Talk of the Town. And I have to say I've been looking forward to this episode for a while. We are going to talk both from a big picture perspective and then dig into some of the details of the net zero action plan that was just unveiled basically after a year and a half at least of intensive work by a number of people in town. And we're getting to talk to the experts about this who include the director of our Department of Planning and Community Development Jennifer Rae and also Ken Pruitt who is our town's energy manager and who spearheaded the group of folks who have been working so hard to generate this action plan. So welcome to you both. Thanks for being here. Appreciate it. Thank you for having me here. And let me ask you, Jennifer, if you wouldn't mind to just start us off situating this action plan within the larger context of what's been going on in Arlington, what's going on on the state level, etc. And then perhaps a little bit later we can dive in with Ken more into the details. Absolutely. So I'll start by saying that Arlington has long strived towards sustainable planning and sustainability in general. In 2000, Arlington joined the UN sponsored cities for climate protection. And by 2005, Arlington actually adopted its first climate action plan, which was dubbed the Arlington Sustainability Action Plan, which by the way is ASAP, which is a really cool acronym that I think everybody should emulate. That is really what we were trying to do back in 2005, which is to urgently address issues of climate resiliency and climate change and adaptation. And so it really demonstrates that the community has long been thinking about this issue. And that plan actually had called for a 10% reduction in greenhouse gas pollution by 2010 and 20% by 2020, based on data that was available at that time. And in 2010, we actually had a municipal pledge to meet five energy and climate commitments, and Arlington at that time was then designated a green community by the State Department of Energy Resources. And we've maintained that status since that time, netting millions of dollars to address energy efficiency goals in the community, particularly around town-owned properties. And Ken, of course, can talk a little bit about that based upon his work. But really, what I want to demonstrate is just that this has really been an issue that the community has long been striving towards and long been hoping would be addressed, I think, beyond Arlington, really at the state level and the federal level as well. So many people in the community have been working on this issue for quite a long time. And additionally, maybe a little bit more recently, about five or six years ago, Arlington became a member of more sort of regional solutions working through the Metropolitan Area Planning Council's Metro Mayors Coalition, of which Arlington is a member community. There have been actually a couple of different regional initiatives that Arlington plays a role on very strategic for both the town's goals, but also to address regional issues that have an impact on this community. And those include the Climate Preparedness Task Force, which Ken is a member of, as well as Emily Sullivan with the town manager, and then also a number of resiliency initiatives that I think are important to note, which, of course, relate to climate resiliency, not just net zero. And those include initiatives that are led by our Mystic River Watershed Association, as well as the Charles River Watershed Association. So we've really tried very hard to work on this issue, not just as a community, but working with our neighbors throughout the region. And a couple of years ago, the select board voted to become net zero by 2050. And that's what really drove us, the department, of course, working with the Clean Energy Future Committee. I almost said something else, and I don't know what it was. But I just sat me up with a new acronym for our community committee. Stronger work together well so far. So many acronyms. The CEFC embarked on this planning process, which was really supported in part by a technical assistance grant that we received from MAPC. And that was really to reach that net zero goal. So that's the plan that we've been talking about and promoting. But it's taken some time to put together, in part because of the pandemic, but also in part because we really wanted to drill down to create local relevant actions that would make sense for the community, but also would have a really broad impact. And so the town really decided that there would be basically three big categories that we would focus on about buildings, transportation, sort of the mobility network, and then, of course, clean energy. And that really can can speak to these in much, much greater detail, of course. But it's really five key things, making our homes and buildings more much more efficient, electrifying heating and cooking, electrifying transportation, helping people to drive less by giving them better options in the community and producing more renewable energy, potentially locally. So those five things are really in great detail outlined in the net zero action plan, which we've now got in place and which we hope to achieve by 2050. Of course, Arlington can't do it alone. And as I've outlined, we never thought we could do it alone. We've been working on this as a region and playing a very active role in that. And so I think that there's a couple of really remarkable things that are going on right now that are showing us that there's some promise that we won't be going at it alone. One of them is that the next generation road map was signed into law last week by Governor Baker. This is the long anticipated bill to address climate change in climate change in Massachusetts. And this is in the 13 years since the Massachusetts, the Commonwealth became part of the Global Warmer Warming Solutions Act of 2008, you know, really a lot has evolved and changed. And I think that as I noted in our prior segment, a lot of people are pressing for urgency to really cement very clear solutions to get us to 2050 or even sooner to address these issues. So this is really something that's been going on for a while at the state level, but just this past week, we saw that this was signed into law, which is very exciting because it does a number of things, you know, including updating and strengthening the stretch building energy code, which will actually state something about net zero, which it currently does not, and allow local communities to opt into a net zero building code. It also provides very clear protections for people who are living in what are called environmental justice communities. There's actually over 7000 Arlington residents who live in these types of communities or about 17 percent of our total population. So we actually have a number of people right now in Arlington who deserve and require additional protections. And so not just through the net zero action plan, but now through this next generation roadmap, we'll see more solutions geared towards those communities, not just in Arlington, but across the state. And then lastly, it's providing renewable portfolio standards to add really much more significant renewable power in the system. And I think that that's really that's that's key to everything because we really can't do it without more clean energy energy sources. And that, of course, goes back to a number of other bigger picture regional compacts that we are a part of throughout New England that I think are really going to show a lot of promise in the coming years, especially now that we have this bill signed. And then lastly, I just want to mention that at the federal level, we just learned that well, after after four years of waiting for a federal transportation bill and infrastructure bill to be signed into law, we now see that there is some momentum to sign an infrastructure bill into law, trillions of dollars bill potentially to address very significant issues in our infrastructure system throughout this country. And one of them, I think, will be probably a lot of the funds will go towards both clean energy and renewables as well as addressing issues of climate change and resiliency as part of our infrastructure network. And that includes sewer, water, our transportation system itself and a lot of other areas of bridges, dams. And there's there's so many things that require significant monetary support in order to become much more resilient in the future. So all this said, I'm really excited that Arlington has adopted this local plan. And we have something in place to really help us to move forward together because I think that, you know, it has to be done at the local level. It can't just be we can't be waiting for the state. We certainly can't be waiting for the federal government to act. We do have to take some actions locally. But at the same time, in the bigger picture, I think there's a lot to do to support these state level goals. And of course, to advocate for federal support to move forward. So with that, I think it would be helpful, perhaps, to hear more about some of the local level things that we're going to be pursuing from Ken, unless, of course, you have questions. Well, I do, you know, I do want to just ask Ken if you wouldn't mind starting in one particular place, because what Jenny was saying there, there's so much information in what she presented to us there. But I am struck in particular by a couple of things. One, that great acronym that she mentioned near the beginning ASAP, which is now many years old, right? And so there has been that sense of urgency for a long time in our community. Great to hear that, first of all, you know, more and more people are obviously feeling that way. But also that we are finally beginning to take action in a way that hopefully people will get behind very kind of strenuously and with and devotedly so that we can really make these things happen. But what I wanted to ask you, Ken, is Jenny mentioned five goals, excuse me, and what struck me among those is the centrality of electrification. To virtually all of the four of the five goals, the last of which, of course, Jenny has already said herself is the key to everything which is expanding renewable energy resources that we can tap into. And that's my question. That's where I'd like you to start, if you wouldn't mind with the fact that am I right in thinking that everything else that we want to do depends on us being able to tap into electricity and substitute it for other forms of energy in a way that is clean and better for the environment and for ourselves. Well, that's exactly right, James. And, you know, this is, let me just first say, actually an exciting time to be working in the area of climate. Jenny did an outstanding job of providing the overall context and the sense of momentum that we have at the federal level for the first time in a while at the state level with the most consequential climate bill to pass since the Global Warming Solutions Act, as Jenny mentioned back in 2008. And to be working in a town that is, you know, one of the most forward-leaning active communities on climate in the entire state and Massachusetts is, I think, among the top two or three states taking action on climate in the country. So this is part of what, you know, attracted me to working in Arlington. It's really a remarkable place to be for all those reasons. And now to your specific question about electrification, it's one that is really important and that most people don't know about, haven't thought about and may seem confusing because energy is energy. People point out, well, why is electricity so great? It's, a lot of it is produced by natural gas. And the reason there's such a focus on electrification in the net zero action plan and indeed in the climate bill that just passed the legislature is that if we can convert all energy uses to powered by electricity and then produce that electricity from renewable sources like solar and wind, right there you've achieved net zero greenhouse gas emissions. Essentially we have to stop burning things. And that's how we stop sending carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. And, you know, at present there's a substantial portion of our electricity that's already coming from non-emitting sources and a lot more is coming. We have quite a bit of hydropower scheduled to come from Quebec. That's still being worked on in terms of the transmission lines. And we actually have a huge amount of electricity coming very soon from offshore wind. Again, something that most Massachusetts residents are kind of unaware of. But we, the first installment of about 1600 megawatts of offshore wind is coming within the next five years. It's going to power over 400,000 Massachusetts homes. And that's just the first installment of what will become thanks to this bill that Jenny mentioned, the next generation roadmap, a total of 5,600 megawatts of offshore wind. So just almost unthinkable amounts of completely carbon free electricity, which by the way will create a lot of jobs in the process. So the trick then becomes at the local level, how do you, number one, convey the importance of electrifying everything. But then number two, help people do it. Because people need to drive to get places if they're not biking or taking buses or walking, which we highly recommend and is also part of the net zero plan. But even someone motivated to buy an electric vehicle, there's still a learning curve. What kind of vehicles? What are their ranges? How can you charge them? What if you don't have a garage or a driveway to put in your own charging station? A lot of questions around that. And then if you are heating your home with oil or gas, which is extremely likely in Arlington, how do you convert that to an all electric use, which is almost certainly going to be a heat pump? And part of the way that we're addressing that in the net zero plan was to acknowledge fully that this is confusing and complex and a lot of education needs to happen and a lot of support. And so one of the top measures in the plan is to create an electrify Arlington campaign and associated website, which will provide people with information they need in a variety of settings and up to and including, we hope, volunteer energy coaches, which could sort of guide people through the process of determining what kind of electric car might be right for them or whether their home is suitable for a heat pump, whether they need to insulate their home and air seal it first. There's a lot to think about and it's somewhat different from the way we've all done things for a very long time. And so the plan isn't sort of just setting targets and mandates. It's really about helping people to do the right thing and the electrify Arlington campaign is going to be a key component to that. Yeah, I mean, that sounds... You guys know, I'm excited about this for sure. But what I absolutely love about what you were just saying and what both of you have said is that we are moving to action here, that you are putting in place processes that people will be able to, whether they're educational processes or operational processes, people are going to, if they are interested, first of all, I guess you need to make sure that you spur that interest. But once people are interested and we live in a town full of people who it seems are going to be, then you're providing a pathway, an actual concrete pathway for people to be able to do that. I'm intrigued by one thing you just said about potentially part of the plan and I'm sure they're not in place yet or anything like that, but would be to have kind of like counselors basically, people who residents could reach out to in some form who could consult with them, answer their questions, but also like provide specific guidance around particular projects that those residents might be interested in. Do I have that right? That's exactly right, yeah. Yeah, and it's crucial because we'll do our best. In fact, we're already doing some research on materials to include in an Electrify Arlington website because a lot of people will take the initiative and they'll read up on what they need to do. But again, because so much of this is new to most people and because it is still fairly complex and even HVAC installers, even your typical furnace installer, may be somewhat unfamiliar with heat pumps for example and may have always been installing gas furnaces. There's some inertia and some momentum that we kind of have to shift direction in.  They need some reassurance that they're making the right decisions and this is where the pretty large number of Arlington residents who have already done these things and are passionate about them and willing to help, as we saw actually with our HeatSmart campaign, we pulled together a lot of volunteers and they spent a lot of hours doing exactly that kind of coaching and support for residents to switch over to heat pumps or solar hot water, that type of thing that we can continue that and give people the information they need but also the reassurance and guidance for something that will be new to them. I understand that it would be unfair, it feels like, to ask you to delineate specific points on this timeline, but if you wouldn't mind talking about the timeline itself, what are the first things that you're expecting to put into place around the action elements in the plan, including among the things that you've already mentioned are either currently working on it or soon to be working on it? Right. Well, I can say the first part is easy. We've already actually implemented one of the measures in the plan, which was the fossil fuel buy law that passed last November and which included both a buy law restricting new connections for fossil fuels and heating systems in buildings and included a home rule petition, which is about to be filed at the legislature, granting Arlington the authority to have such a buy law, which technically communities don't, based on three different state laws. So that measure already straight out of the plan did pass the last town meeting at this upcoming town meeting. There'll be another measure from the plan, which is a measure to eliminate a barrier in the zoning buy law to putting in new super insulated building foundations on non-conforming lots, essentially just eliminating incentives to do the right thing are important, but we should at least eliminate hard barriers to doing the right thing. And in this case, to renovate your home to make it net zero greenhouse gas emissions, it's hard to do so without a well insulated basement. And a lot of basements in Arlington are older and leaky and crumbling, and it makes it very hard to do that. So if this passes a town meeting, it would be the second measure from the plan to already be enacted. After that, I do think the electrify Arlington campaign will come early. Again, we're already doing some research on the website for that, and it is so foundational to what we're hoping to achieve with the overall electrification angle focus of the net zero plan. After that, it's a little more difficult to say there's going to be a process involving both the members of the Clean Energy Future Committee discussing what their priorities are and how much we can take on in a given year coupled with my own consultations with Jenny and with the rest of the Department of Planning and Community Development, because we are the primary staffers to this committee, and we have to make sure that we can successfully implement these measures while also doing everything else that our department does, which is considerable. So it's difficult to say exactly what we'll take on for the rest of this year going forward, but I do think the electrify Arlington campaign will come early, because as you said, James, it enables a lot of other measures in the plan to be possible. Yeah, and Jenny, I wanted to ask you as well, invite either of you or both to respond to this, and that is Ken's already mentioned the kind of challenge that we'll be educating folks, but what do you guys see as the biggest obstacles or challenges, however you want to put it, as we move forward into the initial actions and then further ones from there?  Yeah, I was going to add on to what Ken was talking about before about the next steps in the process. So one is the net zero action plan actually does have timelines embedded into the various strategies that are outlined in the plan, but I wanted to talk about a couple of things that I think are very important. One of them is this really overlaps the mobility section in particular, overlaps quite substantially with the connect Arlington plan, which is our, you know, the sustainable transportation, long range transportation plan for Arlington, in that, you know, if we want to provide alternative modes of transportation, and particularly comfortable and efficient and reliable ones, we need to do some work on our existing network in Arlington. So a number of things that are in the connect Arlington plan speak to that, and the net zero action plan actually the first item is really to support the initiatives that are outlined in the in the connect Arlington plan, because they're really fundamental. I mean, we cannot just focus on electric vehicles, although that is substantively very important to the goals of the net zero plan. We can't just be that it also has to provide for safe and reliable and efficient other alternative modes of transportation in order to be better in the future as a community and frankly as part of the network in the region. We have the Minuteman bikeway, but we have a lot of other possibilities in terms of really enhancing the network. Particularly for safe biking, walking opportunities, and other things as well, which are outlined in connect Arlington. And then I would say on the on the other end is the sort of building environment, where I actually think that there's really a lot more that we can do well beyond some of the even some of the things that are outlined in the net zero plan. And a lot of those things are going to come out of frankly, the roadmap that I mentioned that was just adopted by the governor's office, where there's the net zero stretch and a stretch code, which I think will definitely want to consider opting into locally. And then a lot of other opportunities, including other forms of construction that I think we want to really incentivize, which includes things like passive house, other higher and even better standards beyond lead, which is something that the community has supported since the 90s. So I think, you know, there's there's really a lot there that I think a number of people, both on the redevelopment board and certainly in the community, are very interested in. And I would say that that'll become likely a high priority. I'm sorry, I didn't answer your other question. No, actually, you did in some ways. And you're saying that what I heard was that the net zero action plan is going to dovetail with and intersect with a number of other kinds of initiatives that are either already underway or you're planning to push such that we get this kind of symbiotic effect, one hopes, of all these things working together going forward. So in a sense, I asked a hard question, which is, what are the obstacles you foresee? And you answered with a, you know, I thought a pretty kind of optimistic or at least hopeful scenario going forward, but also one that seems to me well within reason. Ken, I don't know if you want to address, you know, the question on the obstacle side or just add anything to what Jenny said, but please do jump in. Thank you. Yeah, I guess I would say, first of all, Jenny's exactly right. The top mobility measure in the net zero plan is actually to support strongly, for the CEFC to strongly support full implementation of the connect Arlington plan, because it isn't just about switching people to electric vehicles, but making it easier for them not to feel that they need their own personal vehicle at all. So that is key. I would say in terms of obstacles, I think electric vehicle adoption over time right now seems hard, but I think it's going to get easier and easier. So I'm actually not that worried about our ability as a society or even as a town to move to electric vehicles. I think it's moving inexorably in that direction and at an accelerated pace. Number of major U.S. auto manufacturers have said they're just going to stop producing internal combustion engine vehicles because they can see that the future is with EVs. And so, you know, there are things that we can do and those things are in the plan to kind of promote a faster shift to electric vehicles. But the shift is absolutely coming. All analysts looking at it agree with that. And, you know, as Jenny mentioned with the new opt-in stretch code that's coming from the roadmap climate bill that just passed the legislature, that should allow communities to make new construction and major renovations highly efficient and net zero. What remains is what I see as the biggest challenge, older existing housing stock with fossil fuel heating systems. It is at present difficult and sometimes expensive to convert those existing structures to all electric structures. And that is where we, I think, will need a combination of a number of things, most importantly, state incentives to rebates and that type of thing for heat pumps. But also some improvements in technology. You know, I would love to see a drop-in solution for furnaces or boilers where you can maintain your radiators, for example, and not have to put in a whole new duct system, for example, in your house and just replace your furnace with a heat pump version that generates hot water or hot air for your existing heating system. That would be, that technological improvement would be a game changer because then you wouldn't have to go through what is currently much more complex and sometimes expensive process. So I think the biggest area where we have, we'll have a lot of work to do in the area of heating and cooling for existing older buildings. I'll just, I'll add to that if you don't mind, because I think you can really talk about a very important point. That's an area where it's both a barrier, but there are so many opportunities for innovation that I'm really excited to see what will come out of building technology and materials, I think is really fascinating, actually. And there's some really, I mean, we're in the neighborhood of lots of really great educational institutions that are already thinking about building technology and building materials in the future. And so there's some really interesting things happening, but the manufacturing, the, you know, the production of those materials and then how quickly those materials can actually be generated to be able to be put into new homes and, you know, facilitate new construction that is both renewable and sustainable remains to be seen. But I think actually there's some really fascinating opportunities in building technology that I'm very excited about. But right now it's a huge barrier, particularly for smaller scale development of which basically that is what we mostly have in Arlington. So in other words, the, you know, 10 or fewer residential units. A lot of what we see in Arlington is actually that type of building where there might be some, you know, in mixed use structures or even just smaller residential developments. Those are actually much harder to align with these newer technologies right now. They're still not the right technology in place. So I think we need some, we need to do some more work there for sure. But I think that we're going to see some very interesting innovations emerging as a result of new policy coming into place. That, that always, that's what comes next is innovation. The other thing that I think is a real barrier, but also an opportunity is the community's infrastructure. We actually have to really, you know, we're, we're fighting against 100s, hundreds of years of setting up our community to be accommodating to cars. And, but actually like a specific type of car as Ken noted, so that really will take some change both in terms of how we look at our streets and systems, but also how we install technology in neighborhoods potentially to help with, you know, allowing people to charge vehicles in maybe neighborhood stations that are in neighborhoods, not just along our main areas or in, you know, parking lots, et cetera, and, you know, municipal places. But then we have some big barriers regionally, like the Amelia Earhart dam and a number of other sort of, I would say big infrastructure ticket items that need to be addressed that are actually really in the way of sound long-term resiliency for our region, not just net zero, but just more broadly resiliency. So that would be another thing. And then lastly, you know, I think one real miss, unfortunately, I have to say something that I think is a barrier that goes beyond Arlington, but the state still needs to do more to focus on improved land use and transit opportunities. And the next generation roadmap could have gone a little bit further to address this and really discouraging certain types of land use that is not happening in Arlington, but is happening in some of our other communities, you know, beyond that have much more land and valuable land to develop and developing in those locations is ultimately bad in the long term. So I do think we need to have some more policies for around land use that discourage that type of development. And then related to that is we really need more investment in our transportation infrastructure. Without that, we can talk for a very long time about transportation alternatives, but if we don't fund them and we don't make them more reliable, it really won't matter in the long term and we'll still be driving. And I think we all know that we do have to drive to get to lots of places. But if we can put in place reliable alternatives in the future, that'll make a big difference. And we have until 2050 to plan this out. So I'm very hopeful that by then we will definitely be able to hop on the bus or get on our bike to make those short trips that we all make every day without having to rely on a vehicle.  There is more than enough talk about the MBTA about our transportation system in general about changing our streets, etc. in precious little action so far in the time that I've been paying attention over these last 10, 15, 20 years, I got to say. So hope that you are right on that. Love what you said about being optimistic and even excited and can tell about building technology innovations coming, you know, on the horizon, hopefully around the corner. Because as I know you both know and maybe members of our audience, I've, you know, I'm a homeowner here in Arlington who's on the path towards what you're talking about. And can I know you said it's complicated complex and sometimes expensive? Well, I'm not sure when it isn't expensive, but I can attest to the fact that, you know, in our case, moving, you know, again, our heating system to incorporate heat pumps, etc. It was expensive. It was an investment. It was something that we needed to do because we thought it was the right thing to do. And not just because it would be, it would save us money over the long term, etc., we hope. And so, again, we are representative of lots and lots of people in Arlington with that kind of attitude. But I think making things clearer and over time, easier and less expensive to make those changes will be a remarkable accomplishment and really, you know, affect the quality of life of lots of folks here in Arlington. Last thing I want to ask you about, and again, I invite either of you or both to respond. Jenny, you've spoken about this. Both of you have alluded to it and many Jenny spoke to it quite a bit already, but the relationship specifically between the net zero action plan here in Arlington and regional cooperation or action that we are part of or going to be promoting. What is that relationship? Is it built into the plan to, you know, to kind of strengthen our existing regional relationships around that or build new ones? Or is that something that's going to be happening parallel to the plan rolling out here in Arlington? Well, I think it's fundamental to the plan. And to many of the other plans that we're talking about, our town manager is incredibly supportive and enthusiastic about this plan and many of the others that we're working on. And it's also really instrumental to us working regionally on these solutions as really also statewide in his various initiatives. But Ken participates really in some of those more regional discussions with the Metro Mayors Coalition. So I'll let him, you know, maybe speak to what that means more on the ground related to the climate preparedness task force, for example. Right. Yeah, the climate preparedness task force of the Metro Mayors Coalition is, you know, it's Boston and 14 surrounding communities, the staff from those communities. And, you know, what's beneficial is we share ideas of someone has a good idea in one community. The rest of us hear about it. If there's an appropriate grant program that we can take advantage of for one or more of our initiatives, we all hear about it. And that is super helpful. Sometimes we also discuss, you know, more regional projects that we could do, you know, we the heat smart campaign that we ran a couple of years ago was both for Arlington and Winchester. And that gave us some great economies of scale, a great collaboration between the two communities. And now a number of the people involved with that initiative are working on kind of a permanent heat smart coalition of kind of all the communities who've ever done heat smart in the state going forward. You know, the the net zero plan itself does call for working with our legislative delegation and with, you know, willing partners and other communities to help influence the legislature, because so much of what we do need to do can be greatly facilitated by changes in state law. You know, this this the climate bill that just passed, the fact that it includes an opt in net zero stretch code could be a real game changer. Frankly, if that had passed a couple of years ago, we probably wouldn't have even seen the need to go for a bylaw change to phase out new fossil fuel connections in buildings because that would have been taken care of by this new building code. So, you know, there are certain things that I think we can do just within the community, certain things that are facilitated working with, you know, surrounding communities and small coalitions. And then and then others where when we can influence either alone or in coalition state law, I can really facilitate what we need to do here. You know, I like to offer this option as often as possible. And I'm always surprised how often somebody takes me up on it. And there's good stuff in it. And that is just to ask you invite you, you know, we've, we've kind of set out what we were going to talk about before we go on air. And you guys have, you know, certainly we have been chatting for a while here. It's a long talk of the town episode, but I think one well worth viewers sticking with all the way through. But I wanted to finish by asking or inviting both of you to add anything in that we have either talked about insufficiently or not enough not at all. And needs mentioning before we sign on. Yeah, if I may go, I think the there are a couple of things that that Arlington residents can do right now to have a significant impact on reducing their carbon footprint. And they are part of the net zero plan, but you don't have to wait for the electrify Arlington campaign to reach you. One of them is that we have the Arlington Community Electricity Program in town. And everyone is automatically enrolled in this program. It's you get the same electricity through the same power lines and you pay your ever source bill, but the source of that electricity is greener. So we by participating in the ACE program, which we all do, you automatically get an 11% more clean electricity than required by law. But you can also opt up to either 50% or 100% clean electricity in about three or four minutes by going to the town's website, ace.arlingtonma.gov. Just grab your ever source bill.  And that that will, you know, that means that all the electricity you're using in your home is from clean sources. And that has that has a big impact. There's a small additional cost. Average Arlington home would pay about $15 a month more for electricity at the 100% clean electricity level. So definitely, you know, be aware of that and choose accordingly. But for those kind of chopping at the bit to do what they can, opting up in Arlington Community Electricity to 50 or 100% is an easy quick thing to do that will have a big impact. So glad you mentioned that. In fact, and again, here I am, Arlington typical Arlington resident, you know, four bedroom house, two and a half baths, that's where we live. And Ken, you're right. I can say now after being at 100% for more than a year, it's about $15. It's about $15 to $18 more that that you're paying are actually looked so fair enough. Jenny, anything to add? Yeah, just to say that we're just to underscore something I said earlier, which is we have a very enthusiastic and supportive community when it comes to the realizing these goals. And I very much appreciate that. But I also want to recognize that number of our elected officials, including our delegation at the state level has really, you know, they've also been very instrumental in addressing the issues that are beyond Arlington, because I do think that the two really relate to one another. We can do so we can take certain actions independently and certainly on our own, or as a community, but we really do need to rely upon the state for a number of bigger, you know, heavier lifts to reach these goals to 2050 or maybe hopefully sooner. And then, of course, the pressure on the federal government, you know, comes from our congressional representation, which is also amazing and really critical to realizing those bigger picture goals, but also the funding for them, not just the policy piece, but also the money to make them happen. I think with all of these things combined, we're really set up for success. And I'm just very excited to be part of that process and to see what comes next. Well, once again, I am very glad that I asked you both whether there was anything else to add, because both of those were absolute gems in terms of additional information or acknowledgement in the case of Jenny. You're certainly right. You would have been remiss indeed to have this whole long conversation and not mention the efforts of our of our local legislators. So, thank you both very much. I want to first of all congratulate you congratulate you both, particularly you can because I know again it was I don't think it's a I don't think I'm overstating it to say it was a prodigious amount of effort to come up with this plan. And and it is one which is really literally going to have an impact on all of the people who live in our town and for years to come. So that's quite a responsibility. And I know that you would have undertaken it with all of the thoroughness and thoughtfulness and the deliberation that it requires. So first of all, congrats just for getting here to you both. And I know lots and lots of work ahead. So I wish you the best of luck. And obviously, ACMI, we are planning to partner with you as best we can to make sure that the education and information gets out as broadly as possible. We stand here ready to support you in every way we can. Thanks very much, James. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Thank you both sincerely. So I have been speaking you can see on your screen or they were with Ken Pruitt, our town's energy manager and Jenny Rae, the director of our department of planning and community development about the Net Zero Action Plan. As I mentioned earlier, it was a long episode. I get it. But man, this was really information worth sharing. And you're going to be glad if you got to this point. So if you did, thanks for joining us. I'm James Milan. We'll see you next time.


Hello friends, this is Dr. Sanjeev Mani here from indianradiologists.com and today we are going to do a product review of a wonderful machine from Konica Minolta, the MX-1. So the MX-1 is a really great product. The moment you see it, you're struck by it. Why? Because there's actually no keyboard here. This is one of the rare machines or in fact, the only machine that you can find that has no keyboard is just a keypad that's built into the screen. So what you see here is a complete touch screen. It works entirely on the touch screen and all we have is just three clear buttons here with a fourth F4 and a freeze button. So the three buttons are for focus depth and game and you can use the freeze mode right here even on the screen. But basically this is for people who are used to iPads and touch phones where you can do your entire operations clearly from the touch screen. So what we get from Konica is a machine with Japanese technology. They say it's nano fabricated so it's really light. Total weight is just about 4.5 kg so you can really carry it around within the hospital premises and it has been touted as a point of care ultrasound device. But of all these features, the best feature that we can understand from this machine after using it is that of muscular skeleton. So it has got a great MSK probe. The linear probe especially which is the 11-3 probe. The company also has a 14-3 probe but they actually say that you've got to use this 11 probe and it is really wonderful. We went through some images especially with MSK applications and the results are really fantastic and rival clean models which belong to the A category in about the 25 like category. But perhaps the greatest feature of this machine is the super needle visualization. Now what exactly is that is that when you are going ahead with your procedures especially when you're passing the needle in when you're doing an aspiration or a biopsy or even a needle injection for MSK applications to relieve patients of pain. The super needle technology allows us to visualize this needle. You can see a nice blue color running across the tip of the needle. So you know exactly always where you are with this machine and you can precisely inject your medication especially for MSK applications. The battery is almost for an hour and if you can attach an extra battery to it which you can on this machine we get another hour. So it's two hours of continuous work without electricity which is in itself is wonderful for a point of care ultrasound. So in summary what we have with us is a wonderful new product from Konica Minolta the MX1. It has a convex probe which is very good. We tried it out on the liver and the Doppler 2 came out pretty well as you can see from this photo in picture that we have taken. Besides this what it has is a unique MSK application. The linear probe punches much higher than what it should be in the class category of this machine rivaling almost better models with the MSK quality and applications. The downside of this machine is that it does not have a tedious probe nor does it have 2D applications right now but is believed to come up in the near future. It may also not appeal to the senior generation or older generation who like the traditional TGC settings and the ultrasound settings but for the younger radiologists for point of care ultrasound machines for anesthetists as well as for those who really have a lot of MSK applications which is a growing application today in ultrasound this is an ideal machine to have in a busy running radiology practice.


Crypto Virology is a field that studies how to use cryptography to design powerful malicious software. The field was born with the observation that public key cryptography can be used to break this imagery between what an antivirus analyst sees regarding malware and what the attacker sees. The antivirus analyst sees a public key contained in them, whereas the attacker sees the public key contained in them, aware as well as the corresponding private key outside them, aware since the attacker created the key pair for the attack. The public key allows them aware to perform trapped or one-way operations on the victim's computer that only the attacker can undo. The first Crypto Virology attack, invented by Adam Bell Young and Modyu, is called Crypto Virology and it was presented at the 1996 IEEE Security and Privacy Conference. In this attack the cryptovers, cryptoworm, or cryptotrogen contains the public key of the attacker and hybrid encrypts the victim's files. The malware prompts the user to send the asymmetric ciphertext to the attacker who will decipher it and return the symmetric decryption key it contains for a fee. The victim needs the symmetric key to decrypt the encrypted files if there is no way to recover the original files e.g., from backups. The 1996 IEEE paper predicted that Crypto Virology distortion attackers would one day demand e-money, long before the coin even existed. Many years later the media-relabeled Crypto Virology extortion is ransomware. In 2016 Crypto Virology attacks on healthcare providers reached epidemic levels prompting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to issue a fact sheet on ransomware and HIPAA. The fact sheet states that when electronic protective health information is encrypted I ransomware a breach has occurred and the attack therefore constitutes a disclosure that is not permitted under HIPAA, the rationale being that an adversary has taken control of the information. Sensitive data might never leave the victim organization, but the break-in may have allowed data to be sent out undetected. California enacted a law that defines the introduction of ransomware into a computer system with the intent of extortion as being against the law. The field also encompasses covert and aware attacks in which the attacker securely steals private information such as symmetric keys, private keys, PR and the state, and the victim's data. An asymmetric backdoor is a backdoor e.g., in a crypto system that can be used only by the attacker, even after it is found. This contrasts with the traditional backdoor that is symmetric, i.e., anyone that finds it can use it. Kleptography, the subfield of Crypto Virology, is the study of asymmetric backdoors in key generation algorithms, digital signature algorithms, key exchanges, pseudo-random number generators, encryption algorithms, and other cryptographic algorithms. The NIST Dual ECDRBG Random Bit Generator has an asymmetric backdoor in it. The ECDRBG algorithm utilizes the discrete log kleptogram from kleptography which by definition makes the ECDRBG a cryptotrogen. Like ransomware, the ECDRBG cryptotrogen contains and uses the attacker's public key to attack the host system. The cryptographer Ari Jules indicated that NSA effectively orchestrated a kleptographic attack on users of the dual ECDRBG pseudo-random number generation algorithm and that, although security professionals and developers have been testing and implementing kleptographic attacks since 1996, you would be hard-pressed to find one in actual use until now. Due to public outcry of this Crypto Virology attack, NIST rescinded the ECDRBG algorithm from the NIST SP800 to 90 standard. The ECDRBG information leakage attacks carried out by Crypto Verozes, cryptotrogens, and cryptoworms that, by definition, contain and use the public key of the attacker is a major theme in Crypto Virology. Indeniable password-snatching a Crypto Veroze installs a cryptotrogen that asymmetrically encrypts host data and covertly broadcasts it. This makes it available to everyone, noticeable by no one except the attacker and only decipherable by the attacker. An attacker caught installing the cryptotrogen claims to be a virus victim. An attacker observed receiving the covert asymmetric broadcast is one of thousands if not millions of receivers and exhibits no identifying information whatsoever. The Crypto Virology attack achieves end-to-end deniability. It is a covert asymmetric broadcast of the victim's data. Crypto Virology also encompasses the use of private information retrieval to allow Crypto Verozes to search for and steal host data without revealing the data searched for even when the cryptotrogen is under constant surveillance. By definition such a Crypto Veroze carries within its own coding sequence the query of the attacker and the necessary PIR logic to apply the query to host systems. There has been a long-standing misconception that Crypto Virology is mostly about extortion attacks over attacks. In fact, the vast majority of Crypto Virology attacks are covered in nature. This misconception began to fade in 2013 after whistle-blowing revealed that the dual-ACDRBG is a Crypto Virology attack that covertly leaks the internal state of the pseudo-random number generator.


The committee has been set up to distribute free enrolment for over 10,000 Edo-indigents for the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination, SSCE, by the member representing Issa Co-Federal Constituency Honourable Annamero de Carey. He has expressed his pleasure over refusal of some school principals to sign the free forms given to the students, a situation the claim is slowing down the process. The committee chairman expressed his pleasure while addressing journalists in Benin City. The Adostated Capitalists, he assured the beneficiaries, students of their Commitment, to oversee a seamless enrolment process. You have explained to us the challenges you had over the feeling of defences and all that. We are going to take your message to the principal, which is Annamero himself.  The reason for principal not signing, waiting for directives. I think that that's the major reason for this meeting just to hear from you people, so that we can know who to talk to, but we can assure you that we're also going to do our utmost best to see how we can address it with the appropriate authority so that by the time you go back, they will sign your forms. The challenge is that pertaining to the principles of these tools, no one need to sign the paper because they say they have the directives from the supporters of that time. They are not supposed to sign some of them, they are afraid of their jobs. And so, some of them are supposed to sign, but some of them have not signed, some have not signed and some are already ready, but goes from a good center.  So by the grace of God, on Wednesday I will carry everything and bring them down here. We have up to 100 forms, but we are here with the two. If God has it, I will be proud of this, but some people, some people are in this room, they don't understand. I want to commend them last week, Tuesday, this morning, the students. In fact, she said to them, she said to Monsanto, I said, this Monsanto, this comment I couldn't understand, you know, Monsanto sat down and she said, she signed, it was 8 forms, other than the session of Sunday. That was hard, the form was boring, so we will not go back, we will be back to this. We came to submit the form we collected from Anemero Foundation in two words, enrolling the children for Wai'ak. So we want to appreciate him that this is the first time the IDPs are seeing this kind of gesture. So the children are quite happy and they are excited. We have a number of them, though the forms we are not enough, but what we have, I think, is commendable.


In complex analysis, a function could be differentiable at a point or at every point in an open region. And so we define the following. Suppose the derivative of a function exists at all points in some open region, r, then the function is analytic in r. Now, a useful idea to keep in mind is the more words we have for the same thing, the more important it probably is. So, while we'll use the term analytic, we also use the terms holomorphic or regular. And if the open region includes all of the complex plane, we say the function is entire. So why do we care?  The terms are interchangeable and really tell you more about who someone learned complex analysis from than anything else. So suppose a function is analytic in some region, then it has a first derivative for all complex numbers in that region, and so you've got to ask yourself what would be required for it to have a second derivative for at least some of the complex numbers in that region. So let's suppose our function is split into its real and complex parts, and suppose it's analytic at some point. By the Cauchy-Riemann equations, we know the relationship between the derivatives and an expression for the derivative itself. If we want f' to also be differentiable, we need the partial derivatives to be continuous, and for u and v to satisfy the Cauchy-Riemann equations. Now remember capital U and capital V are already partial derivatives, so for there to be even a chance for this to work, our second partial derivatives have to exist. But we have no guarantee that's true. Well that's okay. Remember you can have anything you want as long as you pay for it, and in this case we'll just make that assumption. So we want our partial derivatives to satisfy the Cauchy-Riemann equation. So we want to start with a partial of u with respect to x and show that it's equal to the partial of v with respect to y. So strategically because we have a partial with respect to x here and a partial with respect to y here, we want to have something with a partial with respect to the other variable someplace. And so by the Cauchy-Riemann equations we know that u is the partial of v with respect to y. And we can differentiate it, and well we're kind of stuck. So let's work the other end. We also know that v is the partial of v with respect to x. And we can work our way backwards a step. And now we have these mixed partials. But since we assume v was continuous in the region, the mixed partials are also equal. So the first of the Cauchy-Riemann equations is satisfied. By essentially the same argument, we can show that the derivative of u with respect to y is the negative of the derivative of v with respect to x. And this leads to an important result. Suppose f of z is analytic at z naught, then f prime is also analytic at z naught. Now if you've read the proof carefully you'll know there is an assumption there that our partial derivatives exist and are continuous. So we should say that although as it turns out the property of being analytic is such a strong property that it actually makes our partial derivatives exist and be continuous. So we don't actually need to claim this as part of our theorem. It's a result of, well, another theorem. And now we can lather Rind's repeat. Since our derivative is analytic at z naught, then the second derivative is also analytic at z naught. And so derivatives of all orders exist at z naught. And this means that we can form the Taylor series for our function around z equals z naught. Now with some effort we can show this series actually converges to the function and this leads to an important result. If a function is analytic at a point it converges to its Taylor series in an open neighborhood around that point. Now we know that the converse is also true and relatively straightforward to prove and that means this can be used as an alternate definition of what it means for a function to be analytic. And in fact it's more useful to think about an analytic function as one that can be defined in terms of its Taylor series.