Good day to you. I'm Steve Lobb, sailor, fisherman, and boat builder, now living in Montpelier. I want to know more about the natural environment of Vermont and also how our natural environment is changing. So today we talk with Charles Johnson. He is former Vermont State naturalist, a 20-year veteran of the Coast Guard working out of Maine, and author of several books and articles on the natural history of Vermont and New England. He has worked with the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, the Smithsonian Institution, the Explorers Club, and many other well-known environmental organizations. He holds PhD in environmental studies from UVM. So welcome to the conversation, Charles. Thank you, Steve. As a sailor and fisherman of oceans of the world, I'm especially interested in phenomena relating to Vermont's waterways and also recent trends in water quality and wildlife. You have written a lot on northern ecosystems, on biological clocks of plants and animals, on new critters to Vermont, an article on what is the world coming to with the greenhouse effect. I want to read from your book, The Nature of Vermont. This is an introduction and guide to a New England environment written, I believe, in the 90s. First edition was 1980. And then there was a reprint. 1998. And now we are trying to bring it up to date, in a sense. Because I remember in your introduction you mentioned in this edition that 20 years ago you wrote the book. And then you made this edition. And now I guess we're roughly 20 years beyond that. Ready for another one. So that's what we want to pick your mind about what has happened in these last 20 years. In the introduction to The Nature of Vermont, you say, Vermont is dotted with almost 600 lakes covering almost a quarter of a million acres. It is crisscrossed with waterways nearly 8,000 miles of streams and rivers. It has more than 200,000 acres of wetlands. Perhaps only half of what were here prior to European contact, representing less than 4% of the state land base. Then you go on to say, in the section under ponds and lakes, many outside influences can change the course of development of a pond or lake. The rate of sedimentation, water quality, base in depth, and the speed of water flowing through them are all important factors. Great quantities of fertilizers coming from agricultural runoff and phosphates from detergents have resulted in abnormally fast and luxuriant plant growth in many lakes, causing clogging of shallow bays with water weeds and premature aging of the lakes. This is a great problem in portions of Lake Champaign and other water bodies. You also mentioned here about zebra mussels and Eurasian water mill foil that has spread to over 38 lakes, and then you speak of acid rain. The modern phenomena of acid rains turning our rainwater into mild acids by the reaction of industrial air pollutants, particularly sulfur, with atmospheric moisture, has altered the basic water chemistry of many lakes and adversely affected the wildlife populations within them. The problems are most severe in the Adirondacks where lakes have become acid baths and entire fish populations have been wiped out. So I'm interested to know about the balance or unbalance of fish and bird species in Lake Champaign. So talk about, to start with, invasive species. Well, big subject. Over the 40 years of this book, it's amazing, and over my life here, I came to Vermont in 73, I've seen amazing changes. Not about Lake Champaign, right, per se, but, well, there, of course, elsewhere across the state, and I was thinking, as you were talking, about one animal in particular, when I first came here, there were no moose in Vermont, zero. Then their numbers built up to where they were not only relatively abundant, but they were huntable. We, you know, now have a season on moose. But in the last decade or so, the numbers have been going down due to a variety of reasons, so that once again, you know, they're uncommon or headed that way. So over a long span of 40 years or more, you can begin to see these things happening. I've seen, in Lake Champaign, I've seen the clogging of many shallow bays with algae and blue-green, blooms of blue-green bacteria. They've been in the news a lot in the Sisquoi Bay, St. Albans Bay, the south part of the lake, where they've actually had, you know, closed beaches, had actually deaths. Two dogs died in the 90s from drinking the water where blue-green bacteria were blooming. So we saw these blooms before, but they've been coming more and more frequent. And if you've sort of followed legislature the last couple of years, you'll notice extreme attention being paid to water quality of Lake Champaign, deterioration, and also what can be done about preventing pollution coming in from the watersheds. So it's a big deal. It's a big problem. And because of the change in climate, the change in acidity, there have been a lot of changes in the fish populations as well and other organisms. Forty years ago there were no zebra mussels. Now they're so prevalent that they've changed the water quality. Some people say for the better because it's cleared up some of the sediments that would obscure underwater vision, but now the waters are clear in areas where zebra mussels are abundant but different. I've seen Eurasian water mill foil absolutely shut down some harbors such as Lake Bombazine. There are new things coming in all the time. Most recently, one of the most recent is the little spiny water flea, which is a crustacean, which was apparently introduced from ballast discharge in the Great Lakes. It's made its way here in the last couple, three years, and now it's everywhere. And that's detrimental to native fish. They get stuck in their digestive tracts.  So it's a real... And it happened within a couple of years, this incredible... I understand that the Great Lakes are inundated with zebra mussel. And I've seen pictures on documentaries where literally the whole bottom is covered. You can see that in Vermont. A few years ago I went to the water treatment plant outlet at South Burlington, and where it goes into the water, you can see where just tons of zebra mussels, they've clogged the intakes and the outfalls. And in the Great Lakes, which is more open to the sea ways where the ships come in, I read that they have as many as 28 new invasive species every 28 days on average coming in. We have a new fish in the lake, the alewife, which is a native fish, but in the ocean on the coast. And it was introduced here as now become a real problem with predation on other native species. So what I've seen over my career and my life here is this seemingly accelerated influx of endangered species, not only aquatic, but terrestrial as well. Buckthorn, the Tarterian honeysuckle. Now moving north is the garlic mustard, which is a very invasive species. And on and on it goes. So interstate, if you drive toward Burlington in the summer, you'll see these beautiful swaths of white flowers that go on for miles. This is the wild chervil. It's a new invasive that's choking out native grasses and forage grasses on farms. So there just seem to be more and more and more frequent. As you speak about the Great Lakes and the shipping, we must consider that Lake Champlain is connected with the whole world and the oceans of the world and the vessels transporting goods and creatures from everywhere in the world. Lake Champlain is part of the water system. We might mention something about salmon, farmed salmon in pens, which I'm told 80% of those fish have disease. And that if you went to any local supermarket and took that farmed fish to the laboratory, you would need it. And this is super scary on many levels. But the salmon from Norway to East Coast in Canada to West Coast and British Columbia where it's sort of the center of salmon. And now Chile last year lost two billion in money because their whole salmon industry of diseased fish, parasites, went under. And so when we try to compare Lake Champlain with many other places in the world, which water-wise it's a part of, there's a lot to consider there. Absolutely. And not to belabor a current point, but we're not going to build walls around Vermont. We are. We're all connected. If the modern era teaches us anything is that we're not an island. We're connected to our air, our water, our land is all connected to the rest of the world. And that's been one of the big reasons why I think that invasive species have come in so rapidly and so in an accelerated way is that we have, you know, we communicate very quickly at all levels. We travel at will. We ship our goods here, there and everywhere. So it's unrealistic for us to expect that we're not going to be affected by our actions. So it's a huge issue that you raised and, you know, how do we sustain ourselves at the same time as sustaining the wild world? And to me, you know, population increase, increasing, it's doubled in my lifetime on earth, the human population. And everyone needs a place to stay, food to eat, place to live. Where does it come from? It comes from the earth, obviously. So we keep trying to figure engineer our way out of it. So we farm fish at the expense of wild fish because we've taken all the wild fish for food. I'm being a little hyperbolic here. But we don't consider the consequences of engineering our way into this, like you mentioned with the salmon. Also, with many other, you know, our farms, our Midwestern farms, for example, monocultures of corn and wheat bringing with it pesticides and all the problems that come with that. So it's a huge, huge issue and one that we can't cover. Let's think about acidification. Here in your book, Boggs of the Northeast, you mentioned, acidity is a major reason fish are unable to survive in ponds, pools and streams. Low pHs are toxic to fish in several ways. In water with a pH below 6.1 level of pH, the eggs of most species become severely deformed. Below a pH of 4.0, eggs fail to develop. The acidity also impairs calcium metabolism of the adults and the oxygen absorbing capabilities of their gills. In Boggs, this is a basically natural phenomenon. But what about Vermont and Lake Champlain? This brings a question to me. One night in late November of 2016, I was sailing on Lake Champlain and hit a rocky shoal when the lake was down in depth by around eight feet. The boat came to a halt. I instinctively jumped into the relatively warm 60 degree water to push off the shoal and then crawled back aboard in 30 degree air temperature. Amazing how the water seems so warm in comparison to the air and made me wonder sailing back to Burlington that night how this warm winter water could affect the lake environment. Acidification due to CO2 rise and warmth, warmer oceans is drastically affecting the marine environment and food chain globally. So my question to you is, do we have a problem with acidification in Lake Champlain? Well, I think it depends on where you are. The Champlain basin is within a very rich limestone region. Marble and limestone geologically going back to when this area was part of a shallow ocean. So it's got a lot of limestone that in effect produces calcium, which is a buffer for acid precipitation. So on the Vermont side in particular where the limestone tends to run up and down north-south, the limey sweet waters tend to buffer acidification. In areas which are less so, over toward New York perhaps, there are regions which you could probably detect some increasing acidification. In recent years the topic of global climate change, global warming and regional warming has taken over some of the conversation from back in the 70s and 80s and all the talk was about acid rain, acid precipitation. But they work in tandem obviously that the warmer temperatures in Vermont, it's undeniable that it's getting warmer, the freezing over of the Lake Champlain is less and less frequent and if it does freeze over the duration is less, that obviously changes what's going on in the water with the water circulation. The temperature is rising, that changes when plants die and start to decompose, that changes the rate of decomposition, changes the fish population. So there's a whole dynamic going on here that is in concert with the acidification in some parts, but also with warmer temperatures and particularly in the winter because that's when you get the lake sealed off and there's not this atmospheric interchange. So it's all part of this complex sort of mosaic of environmental issues related to climate change. Alright, that's very interesting about the limestone. Yeah, that's one that the ponds and lakes in the Adirondacks have been acidified so dramatically because they don't have limestone. And so the granite there has no buffering capacity so any input of this acid precipitation will have a dramatic effect. There is no buffering effect from the surrounding bedrock. Wow, that's very interesting. Your book called Ice Ship as a sailor, this is one book that I really like. Ice Ship is about the Fram, the most famous research vessel ever which did research in North and South Poles and there's nothing since the 1800s that has done so much original work as the Fram and I'll read just one section here and then I'll let Charles tell us more about the Fram. This book is so detailed, so well done that it's kind of like my current Bible sitting right there beside the computer. Anyway, here we are. Nansen, that's Friedhof Nansen, the Norwegian explorer, knew that Greenland had no real trees of its own and that the coastal dwelling Inuit used indeed dependent on great quantities of tree-sized driftwood. He determined that the driftwood was from Siberian origin. He determined that the mud that was frozen in the ice that reached Greenland on the east side was similar to the mud from Siberia. He found seeds that came from Siberia to Greenland and then he studied the best he could because there was so little knowledge about the polar currents and then added in a little Earth rotation and came up with his idea that if he started far north of Alaska and got frozen in to the ice, then he can travel with the ice on his research ship as a research station all the way around to eastern Greenland and remarkable feet. And I think we discussed that in 2019, the polar stern of the German ship will be doing the same repeat of that in modern era. With a lot more knowledge. With a lot more knowledge that is based on his stuff. So anyway, talk to us about the Fram and Nansen. Well, the Fram still is. It's a museum in Oslo right now under its own roof, its own building. But it was a ship built in the late 1800s on Fridjof Nansen you mentioned, the famous Norwegian explorer. His idea that at the time no one knew what the Arctic was. No one had been there. No one had been beyond trying to poke into the ice fringe. So it was all supposition. By the way, the Arctic is a vast area. It's like five million square miles. And no one had explored virtually any of it except at the fringes. So the debate went on. Was the Arctic this region a continent? When you get past the ice? Or was it as a lot of people thought an open ocean, somehow that they felt that the Gulf Stream may have gotten up and gone through this ring of ice and then melted. So once you got past the ice, you could sail right to the pole. This was a very prevalent idea. Nansen, on the other hand, based on the evidence you just read, plus in the 1880s, an American ship, the Jeanette, was trying to discover the North Pole by way of Siberia. It went up through the Bering Strait, got frozen in above Siberia. Their idea was to try to make it through this fringe of ice and then sail up. And then if they hit the continent, then they would take dogs and sleds and go up to the pole. So they never got that far. They were frozen in off of Siberia. The ship was over a period of a year and a half. It finally sank. It's a dramatic story of some of the men dying, some not. But the interesting part from Nansen's point of view was that the remains of the Jeanette showed up three years later in Southern Greenland. And they knew it was from the Jeanette because Inuit seal hunters had found these articles on the ice. Southern Greenland, names of clothing, or clothing that had names of the sailors sewing in, log books, a checkbook, wreckage. So Nansen said, well, obviously this material drifted over the pole and they knew about the currents on the east side of Greenland. It came down the east side and that's where they found them.  So he had this idea of building a ship that could be frozen in the ice. And instead of being crushed, it would either be, it had a round hull with nothing protruding. The hull was two feet thick, double hull really.  The propeller and the rudder could be withdrawn into the ship. So when they were frozen in, they wouldn't get crushed. That was Achilles' heel of the ship.  If the ice came to bear laterally, it would be squeezed up like a, the image was like a watermelon seed being squeezed between your thumb and forefinger. But if it happened to get caught, or then the ship would ride on the ice and then go where the ice went. If it happened to get caught, it was built so it could withstand these lateral pressures, which are incredible. I mean, they're immense pressure. So the inside was made insulated for a crew to live comfortably. And then in 1893, they sailed from Norway along the northeast passage trying to find where the Jeanette, trying to put themselves where the Jeanette had been frozen and they didn't quite make it that far. But they got frozen in, and in 1893 began, in the fall of 1893, began this drift. And they had no idea where they were going, how long it would take. They had provisioned the ship for five years. But to make this long story short, it took them three years of drifting with the ice, sometimes backwards, sometimes reversing, sometimes going in circles. Again, not knowing where, they knew where they were, but they didn't know what was in store. So three years later, the ship popped out of the ice above Norway and it made it back safely. The side story here is that Nansen got bored in the middle of the, in the middle of the, quote, crews and he decided he knew he was not going to make it quite to the north pole. The ship was on a track to go 400 miles south of it. So he was going to make a run for it to try to find the pole, first man ever. And he had another man built kayaks, two kayaks, and they took the 28 dogs that were on board and they made it, tried to make it to the pole. Never intending to rendezvous with the ship again. They didn't make it, but so they beat feet south to get to the ice before it frees up, which is in September, usually. When you say they didn't make it, what? It was too difficult. The pressure ridges and the weather was too difficult. And they were eating the dogs as they were going. They took provisions, but they were eating. The plan was they would eat, but they'd get to the pole and they'd get to the edge of the ice. All the dogs would have been eaten. They would jump in the kayaks and make it to somewhere, Spitsbergen or somewhere. And the two of them. So they made it to the edge of the ice, but it was too late for them to try to kayak. They knew that they needed to stay put. So they found an island, a stockpiled game. They shot polar bears and seals and walruses. Stockpiled, it's an incredible amount of flesh. And then built a cave out of walrus hide and they stayed in this thing for nine months. In one sleeping bag for warmth. And they were eating the food they'd stockpiled. They had one little seal oil lamp, but it was so dark and sooty inside that they had kept diaries, but they gave up on that because the pages got too black. And they said, well, we didn't have anything to say anyway. Can't be true from hell. The next summer they finally got off the island, made it to another island where they heard a dog barking. And they found a British team of explorers on this island. It turns out they were in France, Josephland, which is now a Russian archipelago. And the man who was on this island, his name is Frederick Jackson, a British explorer, who had applied to be on the from, but was rejected because Nansen wanted only Norwegian sailors. So now Jackson rescued Nansen and Johansson, the other man, and took them in their supply ship, took them back to Norway. And the irony is that the Nansen and Johansson had arrived there six days before the Fram arrived in different ports, but nonetheless...  Thirteen men, none died. And because of that, the ship and Nansen became famous. First, and they proved that the Arctic was an ocean of frozen ice. Wow. And so that's the first, that was its first story. The second one was the man who was second in command who took to Nansen, who took over when Nansen left the ship. It's Fairdrip, Otto's Fairdrip. Two years later, took the Fram on another extended voyage to the Canadian Arctic and mapped an amazing amount of new land off of Ellesmere Island. They spent four winters in the ice, not just three. And then during that time, they did sledging and surveying over an immense area. And then the final voyage was south to Antarctica by the famous Norwegian explorer, Raul Dammonsen, who ended up discovering the South Pole on that voyage. It's a long story. How he took the ship under false pretenses, pretending to go north. And then when he discovered, heard that the two Americans, Perry and Blanking on his name, had claimed to discover the North Pole. He decided, why bother going there? I'll take the ship and go south. So he ended up going to Antarctica. And in 1911, discovered the South Pole. So the ship had, in its 25-year career, had sailed or drifted 84,000 miles. It's still the ship that has been a wooden ship. It's been the farthest north and farthest south of any vessel. And as I said, it's residing in Oslo now for people to go visit inside in warmth and comfort. Well, as a boat builder, this is a fantastic story. Let me ask you. You were sailing recently off of Ellesmere Island. Tell us about that experience. Yeah, I wasn't sailing. My wife and I took two trips to Baffin Island, which is south of Ellesmere. It's due west of Greenland. But it's a 600-mile-long island that straddles the Arctic Circle. And we spent both times a couple of weeks with Inuit Guides and a small group. We would explore, we would go in there, wouldn't transport canoes down the major river, the Soper River, and then camp at night, and then we'd hike during the days. And then the next trip, we went further north. We went to a place called Panganertong, which is right south of the Iowa Weetook National Park, and hiked in there or something. So it's still a considerable distance south of Ellesmere, but nonetheless it's in that general vicinity. Being in the Arctic for me in that environment, not out on the land, it was probably the most remarkable experience I've had in traveling and seeing other parts of the world. For me, it made me feel totally insignificant and totally important all at the same time, this polarity of feeling.  And the atmosphere, the knowledge that you're that far from human settlement, it really is like being on a long ocean cruise by yourself. But you had the intimate people with you. Right, and they were remarkable. Yeah, that's quite an interesting experience to be able to go there and see that part of the world. Is there anything else that you can think of concerning the Fram that we should know? Let's try to relate the purpose of building and discovery of the Fram. Let's try to relate that to today. And we know that in Vermont our weather comes from mostly Northern Canada, the Arctic, and the North Atlantic. Sometimes a bit from the south, but mostly our weather in Vermont is from the Northern Latitudes. So when we're considering weather phenomena in Vermont, we have to consider where it comes from. And the Polar Stan, the research vessel that will be going in 2019 for one year floating or encased in the ice traveling with the ice flow, they're one of their main observations and research is about the polar vortex. So maybe you could explain to us a little bit about how today with a changing climate how that polar vortex affects Vermont. There's been quite a bit of attention paid recently about the opening of the Arctic ice in the summer now to the extent where there are cruise ships going from east to west. And something, Amundsen, the fellow we just talked about who discovered the South Pole, was the first man to take a ship through the northwest passage going from Eastern Canada to Alaska. And many, many people had tried that before and failed and died, including Sir John Franklin, whose ships they just discovered a few years ago. So that incredibly difficult voyage, which then was for, you know, possible looking at trade route, shortened trade route to China, now is becoming a reality, not just for trade, probably less so for that than for pleasure. People talking, even kayaking to the north pole. So it's possible, there's some predictions that the Arctic may be ice free in the summer in 30 years, which is kind of a scary proposition. And what that does, opening of the Arctic, in effect, it accelerates this phenomenon of the vortex of the open ocean, affecting the atmosphere, creating, you know, more storms and more melting from the darkness of the water compared to the whiteness of the ice, which would reflect sun, whereas dark water is going to absorb it and keep melting, accelerated. So the Arctic itself, the land of the Arctic, is probably the most vulnerable of all places on Earth because there's, with the permafrost, with peatlands locked up, you know, millions of miles, square miles of peatlands. As soon as you raise the temperature a little bit, this partially decomposed material is going to start to decompose. When you say a little bit roughly... Well, over the last 50 years, what the temperature in the Arctic has gone up 2.5 degrees, thereabouts. And every increment that goes up, who knows? I mean, there's been a lot of melting based on that. And when the permafrost, and as the permafrost starts to decompose, which it's doing now, it adds, and the material starts to rot, it adds great quantities of methane and CO2 to the atmosphere, which, of course, is our greenhouse gases that can sort of exacerbate the problem. Some scientists are indicating that, particularly Siberia, but Alaska as well, that the melting permafrost allows CO2, methane, which has way more harmful effect than CO2. But large quantities are being released as we speak to the atmosphere. And it's kind of a scary possibility there. It's very scary, and what's equally disturbing to me is the willful ignoring of this and of other facts about global climate change by politicians, for political gain, whereas we're watching this catastrophe unfolding, and now's the time to deal with it, if there is ever a time. We should have dealt with it at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, but we didn't know, obviously. But now we do. At least most people do. And it's time to do what we can and not ignore the problem. Right. Well, I personally find it hard to conceive of how anyone in their right mind can be like what they call a climate change denier. And there's different levels and different interpretations of the data. But somehow I have a sneaky feeling that the big corporations that want to continue with the fossil fuel, that is partially the problem behind what we're talking about, they probably know what everybody else knows, but they are more interested in the money than the earth. Absolutely. I didn't mention that one of the big looming issues about an opening of the Arctic is more exploration for oil and gas, and that this will allow, you know, there's already a lot of competition, you know, countries angling to take advantage. Russia, for example, is now investing huge quantities into new icebreakers, nuclear icebreakers, to get up there to pave the way for more exploration for oil and gas. There's sort of a fighting about who owns the Arctic and below the sea, because that's where they're going to start going after the resources. So, yes, it's about money and it's about continuing as we have been, as long as we keep making money and people have jobs, then we can ignore this problem, but we won't be able to. And to me, you know, knowing what can happen with oil spills, to me, this is a frightening prospect and how you not only have a warming Arctic with all its attendant problems, but you have us coming in there with great risk of oil spills and transport problems. Yeah, the shell drilling rig, it went on the rocks and somewhere near the Bering Strait is a good example of the latest and the best and before they even got there, they were already aground. Absolutely. And if we were, you know, in our younger days, we remember the Exxon Valdez, still feeling it. That's one ship, you know. And I understand that there's not really a backup, cleanup, organized crew to even try to salvage a oil spill. Yeah, especially in those latitudes, in those conditions. I mean, the Arctic's still a pretty formidable place. Even under a warmer scenario, it's still a brutal place. It's still hard and so any catastrophe there is going to be magnified because of the distance from every place, cleanup help in adverse conditions, the long nights. And I'm always wanting to listen to the local, which in this case will say Inuit. And from my understanding and readings, most Inuit people don't want oil exploration, even commercial fishing, at least very well regulated commercial fishing, except the ones who have money invested. And it's the same thing with the salmon we were speaking of in BC, British Columbia. The only native peoples that don't want to get rid of all the fish farms or bring them inland where they can be totally kept under control. But the only people of native background that don't want that are the ones that own the farms. So it's again, no matter who you are, money talks. What's that expression that money isn't the root of all evil, but the greed for it is. And yeah, I mean, it runs our lives. Yeah. And it's a pity that we're even thinking about exploring further north for a product, whether it's liquid or gas fossil fuels that we need to stop using. And so the whole thing doesn't seem to make a whole lot of good sense for the earth. For the earth, absolutely not. But if you look at the infrastructure that's been built up around fossil fuels, the number of jobs, sometimes if I'm driving through a city or something which I try not to do anymore, or even through Vermont, if you look at the number of businesses that are related to the auto, go on the Barry Montpelier Road, and add up the number of businesses that are related to the automobile, tires, glass, gasoline, maintenance. It is just for that. Then you look at all the other businesses that are related to the infrastructure dependent on fossil fuels. It's enormous. Yeah. And we hear so much about, and even from our Bill McKibben, you know, one of our most heroic Vermonters with the 350.org, he points out, as do many people who are intimately acquainted with this issue, that changing human behavior in our lifestyle is just a biggie that you almost cannot depend on.  Yeah. It's our sacred cow and more. Yeah. I've often said the big brain hasn't really solved all our biggest problems. And there's a favorite writer of mine, an education writer, David Orr, who has a quote which I always remember, which is about education. He said, and he's talking about, well, there are two quotes. One is that it's worth noting, I'm paraphrasing here, it's worth noting that the only people who have ever lived sustainably on the earth for any length of time have been illiterate. And the other quote is that the most highly educated people of their times were the Nazis. So it's what we do with our education or not doing that matters. And at some point, we are biological creatures, subject to biological laws. At some point, that's what's going to control us. I don't think we're going to have the ability to think our way out of this or the will that the change will come when we have to. Yeah. I have actually, in my lifetime, worked with many people that couldn't read or write. I developed a certain observation that there are certain benefits to not being able to read and write and that your mind is not formed and cluttered with a preset of conditions that you see the world through. And also those peoples that didn't read or write were connected to the land. Big time. That's how they lived. Yeah. And I fished and dove with people in South Pacific that couldn't read or write, and they would read every creature under the water, everyone. And they would, and like I say they, the average fisherman would really intellectually outdo our best scientists as far as detail, knowing the habits of everything under the water. Yeah, because they lived with it and depended on it. And I was thinking when you gave a talk about Indonesian navigators. Exactly. How they, millennia before white people and all our navigation equipment could navigate across oceans without any equipment or charts. Just from the knowledge of the stars, the sun, the waves, the currents. So that intimate, we're losing that intimacy. And as a consequence I think, if you're not intimate with something, you don't care as much about it. You don't respect it as much. We keep looking at the earth as a quote, bag of natural resources. Yes. For us to use. Whereas what we need to do is look at the earth as the earth, what is best for the earth. So we do what we can. That brings me to another thought in this discussion of the environment and the weather. I know that indigenous people around the world have some things much in common, which is an appreciation for the environment, Mother Earth. There's actually indigenous people all over the planet today that are leading the way philosophically, we could say, toward sustainability. And a good example is in the Dakota where the pipeline is being resisted by the Sue Indian peoples. This is big time. And that's one example in modern nowadays of indigenous people fighting for the rights of Mother Nature. I just read, I know Bolivia put into their constitution human rights along with nature's rights. And bringing Mother Nature into a human perspective legally. To give the United States its own credit in some ways that we have over the last 50 years instituted laws that are about giving nature rights. The Clean Water, Clean Air Act. The Endangered Species Act. Those are examples, I think, of where we're saying, okay, there are some things that we've got to put them first in a second. Whether those will last under the current administration, I don't know. I was thinking as you were talking, too, that this is way back in the 70s when Hydro Quebec was being fought over, resisted. One of the major groups that resisted it were the Cree Indians who lived up there because this would flood their homeland. And the fight went on. It was a long and bitter fight. And then, of course, they lost. Hydro Quebec was built. And now, I kind of smile sadly to myself when Hydro Quebec has labeled green energy renewable because it's hydro, you know, it's water. But I think without that history of what went on there, how can we possibly call it green? Some other term, maybe. But it wasn't green. It didn't arrive by that way. So we have to have that long history. And yes, a lot of the indigenous peoples, we could learn an awful lot how they treat their land and how they have sustained themselves over these thousands of years. Yeah. Well, I know that here in Vermont, there are Aberdecky people. And I believe not that many. Or because of past governmental policy, not that many would admit they are Aberdecky, maybe 20 years ago. There's a pride. But now, it's more coming to our understanding that what they had to offer is hugely valuable. So is there anything sort of in this state about, we'll say indigenous peoples, Aberdecky, working. I mean, we know of their lifestyle and philosophy of life and their stories of creation, et cetera. But is there, I don't know. There's a strong Aberdecky movement and pride that I think, again, we need that long view of history how our native people had suffered from our treatment. In effect, we had destroyed a way of life and asked them to accommodate to our way, which if we think about ourselves, how, if someone said you're going to change your lifestyle, how easy is that? So since, you know, European contact. Yeah, you're making a good point here. They have been marginalized and have suffered and it's taken a long time for this to, you know, for them native peoples to regain their pride and regain their identity and make an influence. And they were doing that. So there is a strong presence in Vermont and New England. And I hope that will influence how we operate and look at the land. As a matter of fact, I was thinking that it would be good for this show to talk to some Aberdecky people and get their view of the same subject because I'm looking at it from the outside. Absolutely. I agree with that and I'll be looking for that contact. All right. Well, it has been really enlightening speaking with you on the subject of the natural environment. And I hope that the people watching this program that this will encourage the public to think more, study more, work more toward the Vermont environment and all the many things that we can do as individuals to keep Vermont as good as it already is. But we have to be careful because Vermont is in the middle of a whole big world out there. So we need to keep going strong toward keeping the Green Mountains green, keeping Lake Champlain the most beautiful lake on this continent, and all of those things. So thank you very much. We need 100 copies of you out there. But thank you very much. It's been a pleasure. I'd add to your encouragement to people to study and learn more. I'd also encourage them to make contact with the land that they live on more.  And there were a couple of little girls playing by themselves out in the yard, playing with sticks and cans and rocks. And I did a double take because I said, oh, I don't see that very often. I don't see kids out just playing outside. That's what kids are supposed to do. Maybe they're in organized sports or activities or on computers. So to me, that was remarkable that I took note of that. Because when I was a kid, that's nothing remarkable about that. So anyway, I would encourage... That's part of our habits that need to be worked on. Absolutely. So to maintain and increase that contact with nature so we can have that affection for it. I think that's another thing we can do. However, I might make an observation on that line is I live on Main Street by the roundabout and the kids from the middle school there go to school in the morning and come home in the afternoon right by my window. As a father of six kids, it makes me want to start a whole new family just watching the kids. That says everything to me. Their behavior. And I watch them very intently. Because I notice just no argument or fussing or bad stuff. Just such good kids. There are some good things coming. And there is an ethnic mixture there that goes along with such good kids. And you don't see any of them being later picked on or anything like that. And I watch for this. I think this is a very good point as we look at the things that are going wrong, we also have to look at what's going on. Absolutely. And there are things that have improved over time. And I do feel like the teachers care and that these kids I'm looking at from first up to eighth grade that go by my window are our future. And it looks like that's something that is a lot more optimistic than when they look at us old people. I totally agree. But thank you very much. Well, good then. So we'll wrap this up now. And thank you audience for following along with us. And I certainly hope that you have some information here that helps you carry on in this world of climate change.


Today, three countries lead the global COVID-19 case count, the United States, Brazil, and India. These three countries are also currently reporting the highest number of new cases. What links the three countries is the rule of strongmen Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, and Narendra Modi. The high number of cases is strongly linked to how each of these leaders has handled the pandemic. Each of these authoritarian leaders has consolidated power on the lines of race and religion and is backed by big capital. Their policies have played a great role in increasing the disparity in their respective countries and attacking people's rights. Yet another commonality is their ignoring of science, promotion of superstition, and even outright denial. It has been seven months since the first case of COVID-19 was discovered in China in December last year. China had around 85,000 confirmed cases as well as 4,641 deaths. But they managed to curb the spread of the virus and became corona free by the end of April. The Chinese had to undertake this ordeal under heavy imperialist propaganda and racism. The virus was in fact initially reported by global media as the Wuhan virus. One of the key proponents of this xenophobic rhetoric was the U.S. president Donald Trump himself. COVID, to be specific, COVID-19, that name gets further and further away from China as opposed to calling it the Chinese virus. By the way, it's a disease without question, has more names than any disease in history. I can name Kung Flu, I can name 19 different versions of that. To date, Trump has been in constant denial of the seriousness of the virus. His counterparts in Brazil and India have taken a similar approach. Jair Bolsonaro, who himself is COVID positive, has time and again been in denial of the virus. He called the virus just a little cold. The world has shown us that the risk group is people over 60 years old, so why close the schools is one of his infamous remarks. He even said that the press is causing panic and hysteria in Brazilian society while reporting on COVID-19. His public stand against lockdown has made his relationship with governors of various states turbulent. As of July 16th, Brazil has more than 1,966,000 confirmed cases, as well as over 75,300 deaths. India has over 968,800 confirmed cases and over 24,900 deaths. The actual numbers may be even higher. Meanwhile, the Modi government has been busy privatizing public sector undertakings, increasing taxes on patrolling products, and witch-hunting activists. After forcefully retiring staff from various PSUs, the government plans to privatize most of them, including Indian railways. Activists and critics of the government have been put behind bars. In the name of reforms, more austerity has been introduced, and farmers and workers' rights are being taken away. Meanwhile, unemployment has soared while COVID-19 related restrictions continue. In the U.S., while early epicenters like New York City have seen a sharp decline in new cases, other states, like Texas and Florida, are showing a record number of cases. Trump has remained firm in his anti-lockdown stance and has held a series of controversial campaign rallies in hotspot states. Meanwhile, as protests continue against racism in the country, Trump and his allies have taken to statements and media to vilify protesters and encourage heavy criminalization of those arrested. To date, the U.S. still accounts for the largest number of COVID-19 related deaths, with 137,100, and the number is still rising.


Hi, welcome to Microsoft Office Access 2013, Part 2. My name is Sandra Botegas, and I'll be your instructor for this intermediate version of Access. Now, I've been working with databases since the beginning of my career. One of the first programs I ever sat in front of a desk and tried to use was some data entry on Debase 2. So yes, this does date me back a little more than 25 years, but I've had the pleasure of working with databases for most of my career. And I've been able to see them to grow from very simple lists that we basically sorted and did a little data entry for, all the way up through the great tools that we have now in Access 2013. So let's take a little bit of that hands on knowledge and see what we can do with it. In this lesson, we have a chance to design a relational database. This means we go into the actual design components of a database in order to make all the relationships between tables and queries. We'll create a table, and then we'll relate it to some of the other tables. Topic A, relational database design. In this topic, we'll get a chance to look at database relationships, and we'll look at the design process behind it. All databases need a statement of purpose, some existing data that you're trying to organize. Based on that, we get to determine some fields and group everything together. So with that being said, we'll take this topic and move forward. A list is just a list. In order to make it a database, we want to take more from that list. Not just sorting it, but being able to query and attach it to other lists. So in this particular case, we're looking at a customer table. A customer table is the customer ID and all of their contact information. Well, we have customers because we're selling something, which means we have orders. So now we have an invoice table which tells us an invoice number to which customer the invoice went to, how much it was, and of course the order date. Well, based on all of this, with the invoice table, notice we talk about a customer ID. So we don't say here that this is Denise Sanders. We say customer 1107, we always ask them about their customer ID. So based on that, we're going to have to find that common field which is our customer ID field in order to find the rest of the information on our customers. So when you do a relational database, it's all about taking lists, just like you see here, tables and bringing them together when you find that common field. When you're designing a relational database, there actually is a design process. Now, anytime I've ever sat down to not design a database, meaning pen and paper or whiteboard, whatever I've got, I've always gone and regretted it. So in order to design a relational database, you want to make sure that you're very clear on the purpose of the database. Now, when I say the purpose of the database, I'm not looking at a database for customer-based information. You really want to drill out what types of information you want for each customer. Because when you start listing the types of information that you want from each customer, you're going to get a better idea of how to organize your tables, your queries, your data entry forms, and any relationships that might need to be there. So once you have the actual purpose written, you want to look at the queries, forms, and reports that will be needed, the fields that will be needed, the tables that we will store them in, and what's going to make each one of them unique. So when I do a statement of purpose, I always want to know who's going to use a database. Is it just for me? Is it just for my team? Is it something that's public? You got to know who's going to use it, because for one, you can start thinking about security of the database, who has access to what types of information, and that all has to be part of the design process. What kind of questions do they want answered? Well, you might have a sales team who want to take orders. You might have an accounting team who might want to track money, meaning what's been invoiced and what's been received. So you got to know who is using the database and what it is they're looking for. And of course, what types of reports do they want generated? So this statement of purpose is a very clear statement of, we're doing a customer database that manages orders, revenue, and maybe inventory even. But then you want to take each one of these and further define it. Once you have your statement of purpose, the next question is existing data. Do you have any information anywhere that will be used in the database? Now, it might be that you have an accounting information and an Excel spreadsheet. You could have a list of customers over in a different Excel spreadsheet. There's all different places that you can actually pull data from. So if you already have it electronically, then make sure that that's organized and looked at closely because you can certainly import it in. Sometimes you might have a paper version of it, which means it does require a little bit of data entry. But look at the paper very closely first and determine what fields exactly you're going to need. When you determine fields, these fields are going to be per record. So if this happened to be a customer database, then I absolutely want a customer ID, which is going to make them unique. I would want all of their contact information. But remember, we also have determined that this might be used for ordering or for accounting. So we have an invoice number, an order date, product quantity, subtotal, total. Well, all of this might be something that the accounting group needs. And then we have invoice number, product code, product name, and price to track the actual order itself. And maybe this is going to be handled by customer service. So the first thing is you got to make sure you define every single field that you think you might want to track information on. And then you want to help determine who's going to use that field or how it's going to be used. And that'll help you further break up the table. You always want to make sure that you would do it here to business rules. Now business rules means the data has to go through policies and procedures. But you want to make sure you also have business rules that are written for the database. Exactly what kind of information is expected in, what kind of information is expected out. You can write in a lot of constraints into this design process by determining what types of information is absolutely mandatory. And then once they start typing, what type of information would even be accepted. Once you have a full list of fields, once you have your business rules all adhered to, you want to make sure that you group fields by subject. You want to make sure your customer information is in one subject, your invoice information is in another, product information is in another. What you want to make sure that you do is when you're building tables of information, you do not want to have to repeat data. So an example, if every time someone orders a product, I have to put in the product number, then physically type in the name of the product, then type in the product description, and then type in the price. Well, the database isn't saving me any time. I should be able to take a product number, put it in the entry form, and as soon as I move to the next field, have all the other information populated that I needed. A primary key is what marks a record is unique. They are very, very strongly suggested, but they're not required. So if you have a database, let's just start with a customer table. And in the customer table, you want to make sure that every single customer is not repeated and cannot be duplicated, then you would want to have a primary key. Now a primary key might be the company name, it might be an actual customer name, it could be any of those, but it's whatever makes that record unique. You do not want to have two customers with a customer number of one, two, three, and you certainly don't want to have two companies in there spelled exactly the same. So in order to avoid this, we set a primary key. When you set a primary key, you will see here that David O'Leary is customer ID 1105. That's a primary key field, so there's no other customer that will be allowed to have that customer ID number. Think of it just like a student ID or an employee ID or even your social security number, one per customer. Well, that's your primary key field, but if you want to pull up all of a customer's invoices, then we have this foreign key. So you would relate the primary key in the customer's table to the customer ID key in the invoice table. And you will see that based on that, I can now look for Denise Sanders, who's 1107, and I can see that here we have an invoice for $104, and here we have an invoice for $421. Once in a while, a primary key is not enough, meaning what is going to actually make that record unique. So if the order ID isn't enough and you need a combination of the order and the product, then you would set the two primary key fields so that you make sure you don't have any duplicate values. So you'll see here that's called a composite key. So instead of just having one primary key, in this case, it's a combination of two. A composite key is two or more so that we don't have duplicate values. When you have primary keys, you can use those in order to link fields.  We have a table for products and we have a table for product details. Both of them have the same primary key. There are no composite keys and it's not like I have product ID in orders. So we will see that under products. There's only one product ID with a description of the product itself and in product IDs, it's gonna be related. So based on that, we have what is known as a one-to-one relationship. It'll never be one product ID to many occurrences of it. Now an example of a one-to-many would be a product ID from the products table and then the product ID from an orders table which means more than once someone ordered product number five. Maybe it was different customers or different times. So that's an example of a one-to-many and that happens because they're not the same primary key. This is only when both tables have the exact same primary key. Remember the primary key ensures that that record is unique. So here we see a one-to-many where the supplier ID in the suppliers table is the primary key. It's used in the products table but it is not a primary key. So it's very clear that we now have a primary key and a foreign key and that's called a one-to-many relationship. So we'll see here it's the supplier ID. So the supplier ID, maybe it's Harris Incorporated but they supply us with product A, product B, product C, product D. So over here in this table, yes, we're gonna have a whole bunch of products that all come from the same supplier. So it's a primary to a foreign key, it's a one-to-many relationship. We also know that is a parent table and a child table.


Good evening and welcome to episode 397 of the Private Property Podcast. I'm your host It's the Thursday edition of the Private Property Podcast. For the first time, welcome to the family. You're tuned into the only daily property show in South Africa catering to your property needs. Doesn't matter where you are in your property journey, whether you're looking to buy, to sell, to build, you're attending to your landlord, we're certainly here to make sure that you have the right resources, right tools to help you navigate your journey. And to all our regular viewers on Facebook, on Instagram, on YouTube, welcome to it. You know how we do. Every single weekday you and I have an appointment at 7 p.m. Then always in conversation with a property expert who helps us make better property decisions. And of course, some of the other great shows that you can look forward to on Private Property's social media pages every single weekday at 8 p.m. Includes the farming podcast that you can catch later on this evening at 8 p.m. with Umbali Nua Gong and she's also on your screens on Tuesdays at the same time. And every Mondays and Fridays, the child brings to the home shopper's show where he's always taking us through incredible properties that you can find on www.privateproperty.co.za. And on Wednesdays, it's the class that takes you through the first time home buyer's show. She's always in conversation with people who've not only walked that first time home buying journey, but going to grow their property portfolios from strength to strength. Then of course, there's also the great competition that you can look forward to on our Facebook page. And all you have to do to enter that great competition is to tell us and show that some of the great property and funds in such tools that you have learned while watching the show or even some of the other shows and we enter your name into a lucky draw where you stand a chance of walking away with 500 grand in cash every single weekday. And what you have to do in order to win that prize is if we call you name, you have to be watching the show live and claim the money while we are still on air. And in an event where the person doesn't do so, then the money rolls over into the money bag. Well, that's some of the great ways that you can stand a chance of walking away with that cash prize. Yesterday's winner unfortunately did not claim the money. So we have a roll over this evening. And so I do look forward to seeing who the lucky winner is going to be this evening. But you can look forward to that later on on the show. This evening, we're looking at whether the rental market, you know, can recover after 2021. So can the rental market recover after this year? Also, what do we mean by it, right? What do we mean by rental market recovery? I know that tenants have probably enjoyed the state of the rental market, certainly more than, you know, landlords, many landlords complaining about the inability to raise rentals and sometimes having to even decrease, you know, what they were previously charging. And we're also going to look at some of the ways that you can potentially spot a rental scam. We've seen quite a lot of that. It is the festive season. I know that many people who want to move in, you know, their properties in the new year are going to want to get the finances right this side of the year sort of in the new year. So you want to watch out for that as much as possible. And of course, some of the different trends that we've already spotted in the rental market this year. And to help us get a good sense of, you know, navigating the rental market in the year that was and certainly the year that we're preparing for and joined this evening by Cherie van Vidden, who is the head of residential rentals at Rencrop. Cherie, thank you so much for joining us this evening. Thank you, Zana. You know, Cherie, I think when we look at, you know, the rental market, we're talking about it recovering, you know, whether or not it's going to recover in 2021. Before we even look at whether or not it can, what do we mean when we talk about, you know, rental market recovery? Because I'm sure there's certainly some people who are thinking was there something wrong with it? What does it need to recover from? Perhaps they're slightly out of the loop. We can't take these things for granted. I think sometimes people like using jargon and we're not all quite in the loop about, you know, what the market behavior actually means. And so before we even look at whether or not recovery is possible and what would need to happen for that to be realized. Let's first unpack what we mean by, you know, the market needing to recover. What does it need to recover from exactly? So COVID obviously has hit all of us really, really hard. It's been a market that has taken a lot of learning, a lot of adjusting. Unfortunately, what we've seen is we have seen an increase in fortunate applications. We've seen an increase in scams with people losing their jobs, with the economic factor, you know, factoring into what we have to look at. It's hit people where it counts and that's unfortunately being in the pocket. So that's where the recovery needs to come in. We need to once again start adjusting rentals so that we can start pushing rentals up again for our landlords because that pocket has hit landlords as much as it has with the tenants as well. And I think, you know, you've already touched on something that I wanted us to explore earlier, but I think let's get it out of the way. That is, of course, the scams that we also seen. I think let's probably just give the top tips for what people should be looking up for in terms of scams or the different ways also that some of these rental scams, you know, sometimes end up looking because I think you may see a post on privateproperty.co.ca and we know that scammers also use the very credible platforms in order for them to scam. So it's not that you're seeing a random tweet from, let's say, a new account. They use credible platforms to advertise and ultimately and more often than not, sometimes they can even use an agency. Sometimes they, the owner, are going to be the ones who say, no, I'm putting my own property up and there's nothing that's a red flag from an owner posting an ad on any platform because some owners, of course, you know, DIY their property portfolio. So what are some of those telltale signs of a potential rental scam that viewers at home need to be aware of for the future and particularly during this festive season? So Zama, in any time of crisis and of any time we're finding into our crunch, obviously, I'm talking specifically now about festive season, you're going to have the ones who need a couple of extra bucks in the pocket. So we've got the tenants who are actually posing as landlords and we have vice versa. So when you've got the tenants who inquire with a legitimate agency, they set up the viewing, they then arrange a viewing with an outsider who's wanting to view the property, they then make contact with that perspective tenant and tell them that if you want to to bad the property, best you pay your deposit ASAP. We all know paying your deposit ASAP is not what any legitimate agency does. We do have a process to follow. You don't pay deposits before you qualify. If you are dealing with a reputable company, you are going to be dealing with a process that's going to take you a while. And by a while, I mean, you're looking at a 20, 40, 48 hour turnaround, you're not going to be asked in half an hour of viewing to put down a deposit. It's not going to happen. So that to me is one of the first most when it comes to the tenants out there that will be part of the money. And then one of the topics that we are going to be looking at this evening is the fortunate applications that come in.  And as we all know, once somebody's in the unit, it's not that easy to get them out. So you want to make sure you're putting your hands into the right, you know, your property into the right hands so that you've been looked after for the long term. And we're certainly going to be exploring that, you know, shortly, something that I know that the landlords also want to put inside on what are some of the things that they need to be watching out for. If you're going to DIY it certainly needs to look out for certain things. And sometimes perhaps use good service providers that help you in that stage because, you know, doing the due diligence is actually very difficult when you don't even know what some of the things you need to be looking out for. And so I think as a landlord, it does pay certainly in the early stages of your portfolio, of your property journey, when you still haven't figured out how to do certain things to work with professionals who know how to sift through a lot of the noise. I see some of the love that you're getting on our Facebook page and all the effort and glad to render happiness. Manulika watching, Farana Siddiqui saying, evening fam, things are looking fabulous as always. Your smile, hey, admin with green hearts. Thank you very much there, Farana. We've also got PtyLimitedSpanya. I love it when people are watching and engaging us also with the company profile pages that they have. Because we also know that this family is a family where, you know, we are watching in our individual accounts, but also watching with our property or either with our business accounts. And so really engaging with those as much as possible. And some of them are, of course, probably in the property space or a service provider in something that is relating to property. So that's absolutely incredible. Now, Shuri, I want us to then look at the, you know, the service that Rinpoche provides that helps with, you know, identify or certainly helps with mitigating the risks associated with scamming.  So the first steps to take are your application process. And that we found with the book that we manage as well as the book that is a placement only, because those are the two different options that you can look at. Those are your ground rules are always where anything in life starts. So if they're not done properly from scratch, you are going to land up with the repercussions later. So your application process, the process that you follow with your supporting documentation, your due diligence and IP that you have to actually, as a company, formulate for the specific product that you're dealing with, is something that is, it's a product that we've worked on as a whole, as a company, because it's a great, you know, there's been a very big hole in the industry.  It's a very strong business deal that you have to look at in its entirety as a full qualification for credit when you're doing a rental. It's not, you know, just a quick deal to put together. I want us to go for a quick break and find out who the lucky winner of the 1000 Rounds that is in the money bag is. And when we come back, we're going to look at, you know, what are some of the things that landlords need to look out for in terms of applicants, sort of being, when you do your due diligence and trying to establish whether or not an applicant is a fraud or somebody who actually can't afford the, you know, the apartment or the property rather that you are renting out, because we see a lot of that. There are also chances they know the system, and if anything, they're professional rental scammers, right? They know how the system works. They know how difficult it is to legally get somebody out of your property, and they're probably counting on you being a newbie landlord and, you know, going to feel stuck and also not having the financial and legal muscle to adequately get them out. Because the thing that we do not do, we do not resort to illegal action when we deal with, you know, delinquent tenants. We absolutely do not do that at all. So you want to make sure that you get your due diligence right from the get go. And I think when you're new as a landlord, you also want to make sure that you don't make certain mistakes that are ultimately going to cost you quite a significant amount of money. But in the meantime, let's have a look at who the lucky winner of that 1000 Rounds in the money bag. And when we come back, I also want to hear actually from, you know, landlords, if you have any horror stories of tenants who have somehow scammed you or, you know, managed to go around not paying rental or perhaps damage, damage rather your property, what are some of those stories and how did you resolve it? Please, whatever you do, don't tell us anything illegal that you did. We do not endorse that kind of action. I don't want to hear anything about locking people out at all. And you should not be doing that. But how did you go about legally resolving that particular issue? Let's have a quick look at the lucky winner and we'll be back in just a moment. And that lucky winner this evening goes to Oroz and Zwanin. 1000 Rounds that is in the money bag. I hope that you are indeed watching Oroz drop us a message to claim the 1000 Rounds that is in the money bag. Oroz and Zwanin the potential lucky winner. And I hope that she's watching can claim that money. Otherwise, we're going to have a roll over, but she's still got some time to claim the money. We'll see if later on in the show she has indeed claim that cash prize. But continuing our conversation with Cherie Van Binnen, who is the head of residential rentals at RIN Prop, looking at can the rental market recover after 2021? You know, before the break, Cherie, we looked at ways that, you know, tenants or potential tenants can spot any scams that they see. We also, of course, explored what we mean by your rental market recovering, what we're recovering from.  We know of these. I mean, I mean, I mean, quite a few landlord groups and some of them have said, look, once they actually started tracing where this person has lived, they saw that this is their pattern. They kind of go around different places, stay a few months, sometimes we'll pay rent for those first two, three months. And after that, stories sort of start coming up. So what should a landlord be doing? Well, when they're doing their due diligence, when it comes to, of course, checking whether a tenant is credible or not? Well, first and foremost, Zama is, when something looks too good to be true, it generally is. So when you've got someone wanting to pay six months, 12 months rent upfront, you know that they are generally trying to cover something somewhere. Nobody really wants to part with money that they don't have sitting lying around, unless they've got a good reason behind it. And once they're in the property, what generally happens after the six months or the three months upfront is the landlords don't get any further payment. And as you rightly said, to get a tenant out, you have to make sure you follow the letter of the law. And you have to then make sure you do it, you know, the right way from beginning to end. And that just starts costing a lot of money. So do the groundwork the right way and and wait and get the right tenant. And then you don't have to sit losing money that isn't necessarily there to to be lost at that moment. The application process we find is, is something that a lot of people do see as tedious, whether it's applying for a cell phone or an account or a home, it's having to get all your supporting documentation. And unfortunately, it is something that you you do need to insist on. And you need to be able to verify that what you're getting is legitimate documentation. It's it's something that we have seen a prolific increase in with more and more applications being processed online. People very seldom come in hand in a original bank statement or pay slips or ID for that matter.  So it is something that you do need to have the experience to to be able to pick up what you're looking at and where to look for for the telltale science. And in addition to that is to obviously make sure that you are doing the the relevant reference checks and and credit checks and being able to take note of what what all of that is saying to you in which direction you're pointing you in. And I think, you know, when we also look then at especially the new landlords, because they wouldn't know how certain things look or certain documents that have been you know, done at at least races. And that's why more often than not, we recommend that you work with a professional because you don't quite have an eye to spot, you know, some of these things. I think what would be besides working with, you know, a professional but what advice would you give to those landlords who for some or other reasons still insist on managing their own, you know, tenants from from procurement stage right through to actually the day to day management. Because of course, there are different ways that you can manage your portfolio. Sometimes the procurement, you can outsource that part. And then we left with a tenant and sometimes you also outsource that aspect as well. So any advice for those tenants, for those landlords rather, who want to do it from, you know, from the beginning to the end when it comes to really sharpening their eye and being able to identify whether they're dealing with the credible individual or not. Without giving away all the secrets of the trade, 20 years of business experience in rentals is, is why RenProp has actually got that IP in place and we're able to pick it up. So it is very difficult to give, you know, a pinpoint because it's a wide variety of different aspects. So the one thing I would say to any perspective landlord right now is, is don't just look at a credit report because a credit report on its own isn't going to give you enough history. Looking at a simple pay slip on its own is not going to give you enough credibility. So you have to look at things very holistically. And unfortunately, the, the, the telltale signs are things that you only pick up with time and experience. It's not, it's not a done science. It's something that, that you learn over the years.  So, you know, where we would see one pattern over a couple of months, we'll see that, you know, the fraud takes another turn for a couple of months. So there's definitely different aspects of it. And, you know, doing your own homework, unfortunately is something that, that it's not a rental is not a quick fix to, to fill your property. It's something that you've really got to take the time to, to do a lot of in-depth investigating with all honesty.  And people, you know, used to look at agents and go, oh, well, that's a nice job to do. But it's, it's a very in-depth job to do. It's, it's not a simple case of just popping somebody into a property. You need to look at that person holistically and be able to, to give your landlord the assurance that you have checked absolutely every avenue. We also see a lot of the reference checks that can be done are obviously telephonic. And that's the other way that we see a lot of HR departments that don't actually exist. That's it on the other side of the telephone confirming employment. So, you know, before you, you take the first phone number that you get and, and the first voice that picks up the phone, who confirms everything, understand that it is something that is, isn't as easily to, you know, it's not as easy to confirm as, as what people would like to think it is. And I think it's such an important one, Shari, which probably leads me to my next question. All right, some of the trends that at, at Renproc, you've, you've been seeing, and you've already started pointing to, you know, what your agents have been doing and some of the trends that you've been seeing. But from a holistic perspective, what have been some of the rental trends in particular that you've seen, whether it's from the demand side from consumers or certainly from the supply side from the landlords. At the beginning of, of this year, going into our second post COVID wave, we noticed that we had a huge supply of, of rental property because everything from a sell side obviously went very cold at the beginning of the year. And we had a lot of people who could not afford their rentals. So those all became available to, to the greater markets. But what we're seeing now is there is a change. There is definitely a shift in the last two months where we are now seeing that we can start increasing rentals again, that the demand out there is definitely a lot higher than it was at the beginning of the year. So our, our numbers have, have increased drastically. When I look at our inquiry rates, for instance, we've hit the highest inquiry rate we've ever experienced in Renproc in the last two months. And that's on its own shows that if we're getting that amount of inquiries in, we, we thankfully have the properties to cope with that at this current moment in time. But it does show that the supply is going to slowly dry up, which means there will be an upside for the landlords, which means we don't have to go backwards in rental pricing any longer. We'll be able to start, you know, having a little bit of a return on the rentals instead of it being, you know, liability, which a lot of landlords found to be the case with COVID last year, and definitely at the beginning of this year.  I know many of us this time of year, and we did it last year, we reflect a lot on the year that was, but also, of course, try to have any kinds of predictions what we can potentially anticipate into the new year. We found and what we're seeing is there is definitely an upturn in everything property. It's definitely looking up from every aspect, not only the rental markets, which is a good thing because property is very indicative of where you are as a country. And I think for us, we were in a very uncertain time with COVID and where the economy was going. But it's definitely shown us that there is a turn and it's a positive turn. And rentals are increasing. That means that our landlord base is increasing, our tenant base is increasing, which means ultimately your property is going to increase in value and you're going to be getting a greater return. So I do see that as a company, we're seeing a lot of positivity. And I think that's, you know, a great note to leave it on, that in as much as there's been certainly a lot of lows this year, whether for landlords in particular, I think tenants for the most part have enjoyed a really great market and they very likely will continue to enjoy that great market. The upturn is coming. And I think landlords need to know to weather those storms. And that's why, you know, property is a long-term investment and there are instances where we go through periods like this. And if anything, if you bought well, if you ran your numbers adequately from the get go, then you also adequately plan for, you know, this particular period where you may have to keep your rental at the same price, four points for perhaps, you know, a few years. And we're not quite there. I mean, this is what the second year of experiencing this, but you certainly do need to be aware of that. Cherie, it has been such a pleasure to have you with us on the show. Thank you so much for doing this. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Take care. And that is Cherie von Bidden, who is the head of residential rentals at Ringprop. Wrapping up the Thursday edition of the private property podcast with myself, Usamandouma Kumaalo. And I see that Uruz and Tuane has indeed raised her hand. She's been watching us live and has claimed up 1000 rand that is in the money bag. So we're back at 500 tomorrow. I love it when people are watching and it can claim their prize money, especially because it's December. We could all use that little bit of cash, you know, petrol prices going up. Everything is absolutely growing up. So I think every little bit of rands, you know, every few rands that you can get to top up your money certainly goes a long way. Well, that's it for myself, Usamandouma Kumaalo. This Thursday evening, I will be handing over to Umbali Nwakwa at 8 p.m., who's going to be bringing you the farming podcast. I'll be back on the streets tomorrow at 7 p.m. Until then, hope you're staying home and staying safe.


and I like our coffee at 180 degrees and I'm talking to Clayton Alexander of Ember Technologies who claims to have the solution to that problem. Yes we do. You can actually adjust it right here on the bottom of the mug and set it to any temperature that you like and it keeps your coffee at that exact temperature within a one degree tolerance. So this is a mug, this is audio and video by the way, so this is a mug in his hand that's got an LED display that says 138 degrees and it says he's doing a touch screen on it to wake it up and change so you can see the temperature. That is correct, yes. So when you pour in your coffee it will tell you the temperature. When you pour in your coffee it will tell you the actual temperature of the coffee that you poured in so you can be aware right as it's too hot is it going to burn my mouth and then it has a rapid cooling system that will rapidly drop the coffee the temperature down to your set point and then once it hits your set point it'll hold it there for hours on end. So what about the other way around what if they make it at 165 which drives me nuts I want 180. Yes it'll ramp it right on up and you can even take a can of Campbell's soup, room temp, pour it in and heat it right up.  Okay we have a ton of science inside here. It's a mug full of science. Yeah it's a mug full of science. So most of the technology is loaded in the base. I thought it was witchcraft until you said it was science. We like to say there's a lot of magic within the Umber mug because we have this beautiful industrial design from ammunition they're the firm that brought you the Beats headphones, the Polaroid camera, a lot of the beautiful new products you see on the market. You can see it kind of has that beautiful industrial design to it. We wanted to hide the technology so that it's more about the coffee drinking experience and less about the nerdy stuff right? But what is the nerdy stuff? The nerdy stuff. Okay so we have a seven sensor electronically controlled heating system inside. It basically is constantly measuring the temperature of the coffee and maintaining it at that perfect temperature. We have a low power belt heating band and a high power heating band and we've got an induced convection current in there so that it keeps the liquid in an even temperature from top to bottom. Yeah it wouldn't be that good if it was hot at the bottom and cold at the top. Exactly and that's part of the problem that we solved originally when we were in the lab five years ago trying to figure out how do we make a temperature controlled vessel that you can carry around. There's a separation in temperature from the high to low and so we've solved that through inducing a convection current. Okay so I'm guessing there's a battery in it. Yeah it's the same as in your cell phone. So how do you charge the the ember mug because it looks too sleek. It sits on a coaster and that's it. So it's got inductive fight. We were gonna use inductive but we're moving 35 watts across so we're using gold plated contacts on the bottom. Okay can you zoom in on that Steve? Interesting so can you buy spare coasters? Yes absolutely because we think people will buy one for their office and it comes with one that you'll keep on your counter at your house. Exactly what I was thinking about. Oh yeah when is this gonna be available? Okay we're shipping the first units to our pre-order customers in April but if you bought one like today on our website you'd get it in May. Okay cool and how much is the ember mug? $129. That's a lot of Starbucks. That's right well people say why is it so expensive and I say because it's the best. That's a good note to end on. Thank you very much. Also people are spending about a thousand dollars a year on coffee at Starbucks. I don't want to hear it. So why don't you want us do it justice? Alright let's get a good zoom in on that on the display there because that's cool. Now you can turn that off right? Yeah you just touched the ember logo. Touched the ember logo? Very cool. Alright thank you very much Clayton. Good luck to you. Great to be here.


A team of scientists has studied the unusual galaxy cluster ABEL2744, nicknamed Pandora's cluster. Using telescopes in space and on the ground, including the NASA ESA Hubble Space Telescope and ESA's very large telescope, they have discovered that it was formed by the simultaneous pile-up of at least four separate galaxy clusters. This is the ESOcast, cutting-edge science and life behind the scenes of ESO, the European Southern Observatory. When huge clusters of galaxies crash together, the resulting mess is a treasure trove of information. Observing these cosmic pile-ups lets astronomers reconstruct events that have happened over hundreds of millions of years. It also lets them study how different types of matter behave during these collisions. The galaxies in Pandora's cluster are clearly visible in images from Hubble and ESO's very large telescope, but they only make up about 5% of the cluster's mass. About 20% is hot gas, which is shown here in pink. This gas is visible thanks to its X-ray emission, which can be detected with NASA's Chandra satellite. The lion's share of mass in the cluster, about 75%, is dark matter. The dark matter cannot be seen directly and is somewhat of a mystery in modern-day astronomy. But there is a trick astronomers can use to find out its location. By looking at the way that gravity distorts light from more distant galaxies, they can work out where dark matter is hiding. This lets the astronomers make a detailed map of where the dark matter is, shown here in blue. Comparing the location of the galaxies, the hot gas and the dark matter, shows that this is not a simple crash between two clusters. By reconstructing the history of Pandora's cluster, astronomers think that it must have formed from four different clusters involved in a series of collisions over a period of some 350 million years. It seems that the complex collision has separated out some of the hot gas and dark matter, so that they now lie apart from the visible galaxies. Near the core of Abel 2744, the gas of one cluster has collided with that of another to create a shockwave. The dark matter passed through the collision unaffected. In another part of the cluster, there seem to be galaxies and dark matter, but no hot gas. The gas may have been stripped away during the collision, leaving behind no more than a faint trail. Even stranger features lie in the outer parts of the cluster. One region contains lots of dark matter, but no luminous galaxies or hot gas. A separate, ghostly clump of gas has been ejected, which precedes rather than follows the associated dark matter. This puzzling arrangement may be telling astronomers something about how dark matter behaves and how the various ingredients of the universe interact with each other. Galaxy clusters are the largest objects in the universe to be held together by their own gravity, and understanding how they form and evolve is a vital aspect of unraveling the history of the cosmos. Learning more about dark matter not only furthers our understanding of clusters, but it also protects us a little closer to fathoming the nature of this mysterious and elusive substance.