Our first session speaker is Bennett Yee from Oasis Labs, and Bennett will be discussing shades of finality and commit chain scaling. Slight modification, we're talking about validating bridges since that's what is checking what the commit chain or what often is called the commit chain. So this is your work with Don Song, Patrick Macquarie and Chris Bucklin. So some of this stuff is, everybody understands pretty well. So the question is what is finality, right? So Bitcoin, Ethereum B1 is final when it's committed on chain, but that means what? It means it's not gonna be on the short branch, right? And the reason that we care about this is, so users can depend on its effects on the state of the blockchain, right? How much money I've spent, how much money's to be deposited, affects whether I can propose another transaction. So what is finality? Well, proof of work blockchains, usually 60, but we have two colors here, but really it should kind of, probability it should kind of fade in and out or whatever is probabilistic because you don't know if you're on a short chain until you've had more blocks included. For proof of stake blockchains, as soon as the consensus committee have reached agreement and extended the chain using threshold signatures, people talk about instant finality, right? If it's on the chain, everybody can verify signatures and we can rely on the results. For layer two virtual machines, what's going on is there's a bridge contract that is verifying state transitions. And so these off-chain compute is getting their state transitions verified and that is final when the transaction for the bridge contract reaches finality. It decides it's accepted and it reaches finality. That sounds great, but what happens, from a more systems viewpoint, what happens when there is something like a zero date, right? Whether it is a core contract or in the underlying blockchain code itself, right? Often a heart fork is needed to address this, right? Sometimes we can just beg people to return the tokens that was misdelivered when it's not a core contract. But if it's catastrophic, there's not much we can do other than something like a heart fork. You know, governance type of decisions are needed and things tend to get kind of messy. Because heart forks can undo transactions, right? So it can change state arbitrarily. So that's a different thing that's going on. So some background, right? Blockchains is a pen only log, well-defined virtual machine. Bitcoin puts in the log entries just to transactions. The state of the virtual machine is implicit, right? Everybody has to figure it out for themselves. Ethereum contains both the transactions and what's the state route. And the state route summarizes the VM state. So that's pretty, everybody understands that stuff. Layer two virtual machines have some differences, right? So arbitrand's optimistic rollup does decoupled explicit state. So transactions are logged on the underlying blockchain in Ethereum before they're executed. And then the virtual machines compute the result in state and the bridge contract, the verifying bridge contract is going to say yay or nay, right? There's disputation periods and all that stuff. Eventually it says it's accepted and that is when the state is decided. And so that's the couple because it happens later. Other ones like ZK rollups, the transaction ordering is decided by entities on the layer two and the ordering is part of the proof. In OASIS network, we use discrepancy detection and agreement is on a single value that has both the transaction order and the results in state. So state is pretty important. And of course, in the past, Bitcoin has had checkpointing. This is wiring in the client where a particular block number essentially has a certain given state. So we don't have to go all the way back to Genesis. Tightly coupled is useful. It's okay when the layer two is fast and it's cheap. But decoupling has some of the advantages. And it allows the transactions to be committed at a faster rate than or at the average rate at which compute can happen. You can actually allow expensive compute that as long as it doesn't happen too frequently. What we're looking at is these different notions of finality. Log finality is what's in the log. So there are rules for what kind of data can be appended to the log. And of course, who can append a new block? The idea of course is once an entry is made, nobody can distribute it. However, the meaning of the data in the log entry depends on other semantic rules that are in many ways independent of the fact that the entry was made. What we're separating out here is this notion of transaction order finality. Once the sequence of transactions, these are transactions are basically queried functions that map from virtual machine state to a new virtual machine state. Once the order of transactions have been determined and we can in principle compute the state from the Genesis block, right? All the way to whatever is the last committed transaction. We've named the state. We may not have computed it yet. We don't have to, right? It's fully determined in a mathematical sense. This means that like an Ethereum, the state route is not really necessary, right? But it's a useful optimization. Of course, state is useful. And so state finality is, it can also be a different part of the message, a different type of message being logged. We use consensus for that too, right? We want to agree on the state because, you know, users really want to know what the state is of supposed having to compute it themselves. They want to use block-explores and figure out what the analysis are and so forth. But the observation here is just like in optimistic rollups, right? In general, state doesn't have to be logged in the same block as the transactions. And that's very important if we want to allow the compute and the VM to process large amounts of data or do anything that might be slow. When things are fast, then having them be tightly coupled is fine. So lastly, check point finality, right? Checkpoints is a way of allowing fast syncs. So the idea here is we can fix a state as everybody has agreed to it and it's been around long enough that the likelihood that there can be a zero day that nobody has discovered is extremely low. So it codifies this notion from, well, really, of a statute of limitation, right? If a zero day occurs and it was taken advantage of but the effect is way in the past because of the cascading nature of cross and effect, it's really hard to handle and of course, you know, record keeping and so forth. The, you know, how good the evidence is, preservation of evidence, that's also a problem, right? And from a machine viewpoint, there's storage reclamation and things like that. That's very useful. To summarize, the four shades of finality are log finality, right? This is what we're mostly dealing with in this workshop, right? The consensus is deciding on transaction order finality which is determining the state without necessarily computing it. And state finality is actually reaching agreement on that state. And of course, checkpoint finality is knowing when you can garbage collect so that people don't have to grow storage, you know, linearly on time and transaction processing, which matters. It's pretty obvious, right? So state because it's implicitly named can be recomputed. So transaction order finality is more important, right? You can derive state from transaction order. The thing about checkpointing is consensus algorithms deal with independent faults, right? Byzantine Journal does not make an honest general become faulty or corrupt. But that's exactly how viruses and worms work, right? They have a zero day, they can infect all the machines and those are common-mode faults and cannot be handled by BFT type of mechanism. So we need some other mechanism to try to handle that. And checkpointing is a principled way of allowing us to say once a fault is identified how do we determine what should be the case? We want to identify a past state that is before the zero day has been exploited and maybe replay transactions from there through bug-fixed code. This is a governance issue. Of course, you may want to skip some of the code, I mean some of the transactions. Anyways, so to wrap up, what we're presenting is kind of trying to crystallize and provide a more nuanced view of finality. And I look forward to the discussions, thank you.


A batting masterclass from skipper Hailey Matthews propelled the West Indies women to a world record chase in the second T20 international against Australia at North Sydney Oval on Monday. Matthews smashed 132 of 64 deliveries to lead the Caribbean women to 213 for three to beat world champions Australia by seven wickets with one ball to spare in the highest scoring women's T20 international in history. Batting first, the Aussies rallied from 2 for 7 to 212 for 6 in their 20 overs. They were led by 70 from Elise Perry and Phoebe Litchfield, the 20-year-old who scored the joint fastest women's T20 international half-century, which came off 18 deliveries. She ended on 52 from 19. Matthews was the best with the ball for the Wendell women, grabbing 3-4, 36 while Chamelea Connell took 2 for 35. In reply, Stefani Taylor scored 59, combining with Matthews for a record partnership of 164 before Chinelle Henry and Chamelea Campbell scored 9 of the final over to take the Wendell's women home with one ball to spare. Let's now hear first from the Aussie captain, Alyssa Hailey. Yeah, unbelievable knock by Hailey, I mean, we dropped her a few times, but I mean, there's not much more we can do to try and restrain her, so fair play to her, but yeah, on we go. I think at the moment, the way that she's striking the ball, we've just got to hang on to the chances when they come, when she slips up, but we'll look at it, we'll reassess and hopefully just take away some of the room she's been able to create. Oh, 100%.  We were 2 for 7 and we made 212, so there's some really good things that's happening within our group and we knew that this new era of T20 career, that people are beating everyone and we were prepared to put everything on the line to lose to win games of cricket, potentially losing games of cricket. So look, that's what happened tonight. We got outplayed, but we'll come back bigger and better in Brisbane. Yeah, the Aussie captain, Alyssa Hailey. Now, Hailey Matthews, who won her seventh consecutive player of the match award, attributes her recent success to her new role. I've just probably learned a bit more about myself, about the areas that I want to access and my strengths and it's been working really well for me. So you're backing yourself in. Is there being a change in mindset at all? I think just trying to be as positive as possible. I think obviously the leadership of the team has really made me take a lot more responsibility at the top of the order and he's brought about some runs with it. Obviously, last game was a bit tough for us with the ball, but we battled the ballers to just come back today. Look at what they did and do so well last game. And I think you saw from our start today, how the girls were right on the mark, that's all we can really ask for. I'm so proud of every one of them in there for coming back out here today and getting the job done and yeah, happy to get over the lane. Yeah, Lance and Mariah, the Australians winning the first T20 international on a Saturday night into early Sunday morning, comfortably. And the West Indies rebonding brilliantly in the second T20 to win by seven wickets. A victory set up by Stefani Taylor and Hailey Matthews. Yeah, I love what Hailey Matthews said just now. The leadership of the team has helped her to become more responsible. And she has demonstrated that with her own performance team, because we've seen the first match, 99, not out. I felt that one for her.  And if that was not enough for Hailey Matthews, she, she, remember, they bowled first, she took three for 36. So what I'm seeing here is a young player that has been given responsibility and has taken that responsibility with both hands. And for me, I'm very, very impressed because we've seen people elevated to that captaincy role and their performances have faltered. If it's anything, the captaincy role appeared as a burden to them. Hailey Matthews speaking about being very, very positive. And I think that is exactly what we're seeing in her game. Taking that leadership role, recognizing that, you know, she's in a team where she has to step up or nothing. And she's been doing that with both bat and ball. Yeah. And you know, at the top of the show, Ricardo referenced their outstanding performance, the Stefano Taylor, Hailey Matthews combination for the 2016 World Cup title success. And we saw that reenactment today. It was really a pleasure to see them both at the innings 174 for the second wicket, a West Indies record for any wicket and outstanding there. You just said, Mariah, that Hailey is a young player, still young, but she's experienced because she debuted at 16, which means that she means she has nine years of international cricket under her belt at the moment. And she's showing a lot of maturity. And it was really a pleasure to watch them bat this morning. And just some glimpses of Stefano Taylor, you know, rolling back the years and playing some good shots as well. But it just reminds us that for this transitioning West Indies team to succeed, the key players who are world-class players have to perform. And that's what we saw today. Yeah, that's very much what we saw today. And I want to look at Hailey Matthews quickly, Lance and Mariah, because when I started on this show as a presenter, one of the points I made was that Hailey Matthews was not producing at the level that she is capable of. Now, Hailey Matthews in T20 International Cricket is averaging 23.7 with the bat. Now, this is a player who is capable of averaging close to 50, if not beyond the 50. But what she has produced in 2023 is significantly closer to her talent level. She's averaging 53.7 this year, including three-half centuries. She now has a center to go with that. And she's been nuttled on three occasions for this West Indies team. So that is a lot closer. And if you look at, for example, the last seven matches where she's averaging into the 90s significantly better than just this year. So she's even getting better at the back end of this year. And the two performances against the very best team in the world, Australia, I think is testament to the improvement that she is. Well, the improvements that she is making and has made over the course of this year. She speaks to the captaincy and the fact that the added responsibility that she's taken on has helped her to perform better, and that is fantastic to see. And one quick point, a lot of credit must go to Stephanie Taylor as well for this picture, because there was a point of the chase where it appeared to me at least that Haley Matthews was getting a little bit tired. Stephanie Taylor had scored 20 of her first 22 deliveries. And then 39 of the last 19. When she was needed to step up the pace today, she was able to do it. And Stephanie Taylor has not always been able to do that and definitely not in recent memory, especially when you consider that this is her first T20 international half century since 2019. But she has struggled with injuries and that has really hampered her. Yes, without a doubt. So the injuries, you put that into the equation as well as the fact that she had well, she had a long period out because of the injuries. And then, of course, when she came back into the side, she would have struggled to regain her best self. But it was great to see today her finding her groove and playing the types of shots that in the past, I think, pre-2019, we would see a lot of from Stephanie Taylor. And I think it can only mean well for West Indies women's cricket and Lance, you're very much right. These two are so critical to any positive result for the West Indies women, because the truth is, while I watch that match and while I watch the chase for a long time, especially early, I got the impression, yeah, this is a fantastic Haley Matthews innings. But I feel as if it's going to come to nothing, because if she gets out, no, or if Stephanie gets out, no, that's it. But thankfully, they were able to continue. Although quickly, if the West Indies had found themselves in Australia's position and lost that match, the main thing that we would be talking about today is the chances that they put down because the Australians dropped Haley Matthews three times, 30, 79 and 87. Had they taken any of those catches, it would have been a different match. They also dropped Stephanie Taylor when she was on 20. And that opportunity had been taken. This was the first one when she was on 30. You don't often see the Aussies put down chances like that. That was a chance that should have been taken. She was only on 30. And I think the Australians will be extremely disappointed that they did not take their opportunities. That was Stephanie Taylor, her opportunity when she was on 20. Let's invite Brittany Cooper, a West Indies player with 76 T20 internationals behind her belt to the conversation. Brittany, it's a pleasure to have you on the Sports Mag Zone. Talk to us about how you felt about the performance from the West Indies women this morning. Hi, I started having me on the Sports Mag Zone. It was really, really good to see the outcome of the game. As you said, the first game they performed well, but they did not come up with the game. But to see that they chased such a big score in Australia against Australia and being a West Indies player is a really good feeling. Yeah, fantastic feeling. And Haley Matthews, you would know a little bit about her. Talk to us about the type of individual Haley Matthews is and how much you rate her as a cricketer. Well, we know that since Haley Matthews got captaincy, her game has changed, her game has evolved because there's added responsibility now. We know that when Haley Matthews now came into the game, she was pretty sure of free time or just go there and enjoy and play the cricket. But now the responsibility of being a captain is to see how much that it has improved her game so, so much. And she's just loving the chance that she's getting to lead West Indies woman right now. And she's doing a great job at it, Brittany. Lancet Ricardo at the top of the show, when we were discussing among ourselves, they spoke about the fact that in order for West Indies woman to do well with the bat, we expect players like Haley Matthews and Stefani Taylor and a few others to step up and, of course, get us to that total. Do you agree with them one and two?  Well, as we can all see, we know the team is going through a transition period where our younger players are coming into the senior team. So I think as fans, we need to allow that transition to happen. And we expect that when a player gets promoted like the likes of Gajinabi, that they are to perform as soon as possible. But Gajinabi is a very, very talented player and she is now the opening batter for West Indies woman. We know that West Indies women have been searching for that seeded opening with partner with Haley because we have West Chata, me at point in time since the Angelatin left us.  Yeah, looking forward to see her because I also know the quality that she possesses, what you do know when you're on the highest level, you're judged very, very tough. So we're looking forward to see her put up some scores on her bat. What about Stefani Taylor? We've missed this Stefani Taylor for some time. I felt as if I was out there batting when Steph was getting those runs.  We saw that in the World Cup that she did a get to perform, you know, being a batter, opening batter with back injuries couldn't be very difficult. And I'm so happy to see her get back into the Stefani Taylor that we know the class.  So it's good to see that, you know, there's a little more comfort in the middle order. I've always said that, you know, one thing is that Stefani should open any batting or she should be coming through. So I'm really, really happy to see, you know, she's getting back into that that Stefani Taylor that we know. Yeah, Brittany, quickly, Ricardo, question you earlier about your rating of Hailey and her development. But I want you to expand a little bit on it, because you had played with her as a teammate, but then you returned to International Cricket in January with the tri series with South Africa and India and played under her as a captain. So can you speak briefly on her maturity and your experience with her, with her as captain, as opposed to when she was just a regular player? I believe that those things that Hailey Mathews have with those fans, right? The WBB early hundred, the woman of primarily the fact that she's getting to play cricket at such a high level is showing that how much her cricket has improved. We've seen in the hundred earlier, the coming out of that offside shots that she has to see how clearly she's been hitting the ball to cover extra cover. So he's really, really building up confidence whenever she played in those franchises across the world. And one thing I love about her is that whenever she returned, she always shared her experience and it shows that so much is learning for the Aussies, India and the England. Those are the top teams in women's cricket that she's showing the class that Hailey Mathews can. Yeah. And you know what? I heard the commentators mentioning earlier on, of course, they felt threatened by the fact that she was taking a game from the Australian, the game away from the Aussies this morning. But the Melbourne Renegades franchise, who have resided her for the Big Bash coming up, are licking their chops at the moment, Britain, because they're seeing a player that's in form and ready for Big Bash cricket for the Melbourne Renegades. Yes, number one all around the world. She's making a run. She's taking a wicket. She's also excellent, a feeler, and she is the leader on the team. So who would want Hailey Mathews on their team? Yeah, very much the case. One quick one, Brittany, before you go. And the commentators lamented this throughout the course of the chase. Hailey Mathews, brilliant through the offside. If you look at her performance today, 24s and 5-6s, 19 of those 25 boundaries came through or over the offside. Yet the Aussies did not plug the offside field by having a sweeper on the point or cover boundary. Were you surprised that they took so long? I think it wasn't it wasn't until the penultimate over that they made the decision to have a sweeper on the offside. Were you surprised that they took so long to pick up what was happening? I think it's a city session by the Australian. We know they just go there and be free, actually. And they back the serve that they could have pinned down Hailey from scoring on the offside. But when I see it, just they left her and all the rocks comfortable. I know that would have been cake for Hailey Mathews because she had that back foot punch over her cover, cover so nicely. So I was happy that, you know, they they they felt that, you know, they could have pinned Hailey Mathews down from scoring on that offside. Yes, Stubborn Aussies. Thank you very much, Brittany Cooper. It's a pleasure having you on the Sportsman zone. And we looking, we look forward to speaking with you a lot more for sure. Thanks for joining us. Yeah, thank you. All right, Brittany Cooper here with Stinde's Women's Player. Now, the series designer will be live on your home of champions. Can Hailey Mathews lead her troops to a serious win over the Aussies down under? Catch the action live 405 a.m. in the Eastern Caribbean. That's 305 in Jamaica on Thursday.


Tech school lengths and locations can be super confusing. Does it go by classroom days? Do weekends count? Why are some schools at army and navy bases? Don't worry, you're not alone. Even when I was in the process of joining, I had a lot of these same questions. So let's talk about it. Tech school length. I know a lot of people wanna have some sort of estimate of when they're gonna graduate tech school before they even leave for basic training. So let's get the first thing out of the way. The length of tech school is in days, but that stands for classroom days. So that does not include weekends or federal holidays.   You're gonna go immediately to your tech school after graduating BMT. Now, once you arrive at tech school, you probably won't start class until sometime between three and 30 days later. It all depends on how many airmen they need to fill a class. So you might be waiting a few weeks for basic training graduations to roll around so new airmen can show up to your tech school. Now, let's say that you just got your BMT ship date or you already know your BMT ship date. That ship date is gonna fall on a Tuesday. So if you have your ship date but your recruiter didn't tell you a graduation date, the easiest way to calculate that is to count out seven weeks from that Tuesday that you'll be shipping and then go to the Thursday of that seventh week and that will be your graduation day. That Friday will be when you ship to tech school. Then you can count out three to 30 days from that point to figure out what your start window might be for your tech school class. Keep in mind, all of this is just generalized to kind of give you guys a window or an estimate of when you are going to start and graduate tech school. So starting out from your start window, you're gonna calculate out how many classroom days you have of tech school. So you're gonna skip weekends and federal holidays. And if you're gonna be in tech school during Christmas time, they actually have a period called Exodus. This is typically the week of Christmas. You'll be completely off of school all the way until the first week of January. And after you've calculated out all of those classroom weekdays, not counting weekends or holidays, that will be your estimated window for your graduation of tech school. There's no way to calculate the exact dates until you finally arrive at tech school and the Air Force gives you what your graduation date is going to be. Now let's talk locations. It might be confusing if you look into some jobs and it says that their tech school location is at an Army base or a Navy base and you might be thinking, what the heck is going on? I thought I'm joining the Air Force. Well, the military in a way to save money will have multiple branches all trained at one location if they have similar jobs. You might have a class that consists of people from multiple branches, but you might also have instructors from different branches. Or you could have a entire class of all airmen and all of your instructors are airmen. For instance, McKenna is at Fort Meade right now, which is an Army base and she is training for public affairs. In her class, she has every single branch and she has multiple instructors that are from several different branches. However, when I was in, I went to Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida and that is a Navy base. The Air Force had their own separate section of the schoolhouse. So our entire class was all airmen and all of our instructors were airmen. There might also be some Air Force bases that have tech schools that have other branches training there. If you're interested in how long or where each job will be for tech school, head on over to airmanvision.com where we have web pages for every single job plus a bunch more information on there. Also, I asked an MTI for five tips that he wants trainees to know before they show up to basic training and this is what he said.


Everyone, welcome back to my channel. We have a old series that is making its comeback here on the Lone Fox channel. This is a series known as What Would Drew Do? I think I did about seven episodes of this before I purchased my home. Then when I purchased my house, we got into so many renovations. So if you are new here, we have been making over my 1929 Spanish home over the past probably year and a half on the channel. And before that, I was in an apartment. I had already made over all my spaces. So I had this series, What Would Drew Do? Where I basically help you guys with your decor dilemmas. And I'm finally ready to introduce this back on the channel, which I am so excited about. So if you want to submit your space for What Would Drew Do, I actually have a link below. It'll take you to my website and it just has some criteria on what you need to submit in order to have your space potentially chosen for an episode like this. But today we have some great spaces sent over by you at the Lone Fox family. A little disclaimer I like to put at the beginning of these videos is that these are 100% my own ideas. And I'm just sharing with you some things you could do. You could take one of these ideas. You could take none of them. You could do all of them if you wanted to, but always know that your space is your space and you can do whatever you want to it. So do not also feel like you have to do anything I say, buy anything I say. It's just all for inspiration. And one little announcement before jumping on into our first space is that over on Lone Fox next Sunday, so a week from today, on the third, March 3rd, we are having our vintage drop. So I think it's vintage drop number six. If you're in the market for any vintage or antique little decor elements or additions, we have everything kind of ranging from decor to studio pottery to art, to frames, paintings. And our last drop was in October. So it has been many months. So you guys know I've been collecting up for this one. It is 10 a.m. on LoneFox.com on March 3rd next Sunday. Our first space is for Lone Fox family member Marika and she sent over a video. So let me share that with you. Hey Drew, my name is Marika. I am a graphic designer. I live in Atlanta with my husband and my cat. We just bought this 1981 house a year ago and we're finally starting to try to decorate the principal bedroom. It's a little bit of a weird space because it's one of those principal bedrooms that has room for like a sitting room. So we have our bed on one side and we just added this couch on the other side. But it's very long and skinny and we don't really know what to do with the like sitting room area because we don't necessarily have people over in our bedroom that we want to sit around and talk with. So if you can help us figure out how to make the space like cozy and cohesive and feel less like cut and half, I would love it. Thank you so much. I'm excited to see what you do. So first of all, Marika, when I saw this room with like kind of like the connecting room and the cased opening, I just wanted to make this over because I instantly saw a vision for what this could be.  It's just more so a space for you. Like if you were, I don't know, folding laundry or something, you wanted to bring everything in, you wanted to kind of relax in your room, maybe do some work on the computer. That's kind of like what I created in my room, the little office snook that's right off mine. It's an area that doesn't have to be in my room, but I'm able to work and it's somewhat connected. So I actually love the kind of floor plan you have here, but let me share with you some of the ideas I have. We're gonna start with the sitting room in the back, which I still do want to kind of keep as a sitting room slash office workspace combo. I was thinking it would be really fun to wallpaper this room so that it kind of has its own differentiation from the bedroom. And we're gonna be pulling a color from the wallpaper in the sitting room to then paint the bedroom so everything feels cohesive. I love the scale of this pattern, how it's not too small, it's not too large. Also in both of these spaces, I definitely want to add a rug. So for the sitting room, I opted for this rug right here and all the rugs I selected were from Lolloi. I love, love, love my Lolloi rugs. As you guys know, I use them in all of my projects. Then I was thinking for the bedroom, we can opt for something a little different that is a little bit more vintage inspired. Love these ones, the printed styled ones from Lolloi. They're also super affordable, which is great. Now to fill up the sitting room area, I decided to put a little desk in the corner and I thought a desk in the corner would be kind of nice because it faces out into the bedroom. You can also pop a little chair behind there and this could be kind of a floating workspace. And I got the idea from this from a Jake Arnold space. He did one that has this corner desk and it's kind of floating in the corner and I just love the way that that looked in there. So I wanted to pop this over in the corner and then to the right of that we're going to be doing two different chairs. So you don't have one long sofa because I also kind of agree in a sitting area for yourself, like in your bedroom, it's kind of nice to have chairs as opposed to sofas just because sofa kind of feels like you're inviting more people in. Chairs feel more quaint, so even having two or three of them. To the right of the desk, we added those two chairs and then in between I added this iron side table just to add a little bit of contrast in the mix of materials that we're using. The wallpaper is really floral and kind of cutesy and then we're adding a mix of harshness with the iron side table. I think the light source for this room is from CB2. It's so cool though. I've been wanting to use this in a space. It's like a twisted frame with a blown melt glass orb on the inside. I thought we could hang this over in the seating area and just kind of have a cute light hanging over there. So for this bedroom, we are using a paint color that I am going to be painting these walls in my bedroom very shortly. Now there's a little bit of a leak in the walls, hence why I haven't started my bedroom makeover. You'll hear all about that in the first episode. Until then, we are going to be painting your room tallow as well from Farrow and Ballet to really pretty kind of melky, creamy yellow color. I also forgot to talk about curtains. I found some chocolate brown ones that I thought would add a great contrast. Everything in this room kind of is on the lighter side in color. Hanging some draperies in a dark chocolate brown would add some darkness and contrast. I love the placement of the bed in the room. So I was actually thinking of maybe just adding an additional headboard either over the top of the current one or removing the current headboard like cutting it off and just using the frame and then adding this headboard that I found from Urban Outfitters. I think it's really going to elevate this bed. It's going to make it almost feel like one solid custom feeling bed that was upholstered on the headboard and on either side of the bed, two of my favorite nightstands. I tend to always use this nightstand in particular in spaces. I feel like for the price point, it is substantial. It can also really fit any design style. It's super neutral and the wood tone is really warm and pretty. Something that I did in my bedroom, which you guys can kind of see here is I actually had some lights installed above the nightstands and I don't necessarily want to do this in this space. However, installing sconces just above the nightstands is pretty easy, especially if you have an electrical source on the back of your wall. Hiring someone to come out and add electrical on either side of the nightstand is not too bad and it really gives you that custom feel. So for lighting in this room, I thought two sconces above each nightstand would free up a little bit of space on those nightstands and I also thought since the room's so large, kind of adding another element to that wall would be nice. They kind of have a ceramic back and then they have a linen shade as well. And then over the top of the bed, pulling in a little bit of that iron, but in a daintier feel with the chandelier. I love a simple and traditional candlestick chandelier. I think this one looks great in the space. And to finish off the room, a little oil painting above the bed would be so cute.  I love the way that these look, they add a bit of warmth. They're also kind of structural and cute at the same time. That is how I would transform this space. So Marika, I really hope that you like this room. It definitely has that Lone Fox feel to it, I'd say. And I hope that it gives you a little bit of inspo or direction on where you can take that space. But if anything, I totally feel like you should wallpaper one of the rooms and then pull a accent color from that wallpaper and paint the opposite. So they almost feel a little bit more mesh together, but still their own individual spaces.  And she actually sent over some photos. And when I saw these photos of the room, I just loved the wood paneling. You guys know that I love wood paneling right now. I just did my entire office in a DIY wood paneling. And when I saw, she had the sitting area right when you walk in her home. So it needs to first of all be really kind of like an entry moment. And how there was wood paneling, it has this vaulted ceiling. It was everything I wanted to work with as a base. And I saw so much potential. She did send over a little video. So let me share it with you. This is the space that I need some help with. As you can probably tell it's a long, long space. This is kind of the view from as soon as you walk in the door. There was an add-in. So this was the main house and it was built on in the 70s, 80s maybe. You can get into like a seating area, but we don't ever use it. We want something we can actually use. Vaulted ceilings though. Anything that can make this space a little bit more bright and welcoming because it is once again something you see as soon as you walk in our main door. I'll flip around so you can kind of see our kitchens over here. This room is everything I love. It has an interesting ceiling line. It has wood paneling. It's kind of open. It has brick. It has a fireplace. Like it's a kind of mid-century feeling. I love everything about this space. Now for this room I'm going to be using this before here. And as you can see on the left wall, it's currently blank because I believe this is where she mentioned they had the addition. So the wood paneling doesn't match up. But I actually thought filling this wall that's open with a mural would really accent so nicely the wood paneling, especially if it kind of has some of those warm tones throughout the mural. And it would almost feel purposeful as opposed to just having that being a randomly painted section. On the back wall there, I would definitely remove that mirror above the mantle. And because you already have that really pretty wood paneling on the back, I would go ahead and on top of that add a few shelves. And I think if you kind of created some dividers at random widths that created this more almost funky shelving system on the top there and books, whatever you want to add in there. Plus when you walk into the space, first thing you're going to notice is that big shelving unit above that fireplace. It's going to draw your eye up and make the space look even more grand than it is. I wanted to have a little fun in here. So I thought we can do four kind of chunky shearling style chairs in this space all centered around a marble style coffee table. And I just love the feel of four big arm chairs centered around table. I've never gotten the opportunity to sit at something like this. So I thought if we mixed up and made it not feel like a traditional living room but more of an intentional sitting room, almost like a game area, it'd be really cute. So I did four chairs around the coffee table. Underneath all of this is going to be this large kind of blue toned, plaid rug. I thought this was super pretty, especially to go underneath. It almost gives a cabin feel channeled with the wood paneling, but we're going to mix in some other elements so it doesn't feel too cabony. On the right wall, I'm adding a big piece of art from Desenio and I love that because Desenio has incredible art prints. They are really affordable as well. So I thought this colorful option just added an unexpected pop to this room that you wouldn't really think of adding. I think the last thing in this room is a light fixture which I actually found this one on Etsy. It is a vintage, I think either Swedish or Danish style light fixture but I think adding a vintage light fixture to this room, I feel like it'd feel very authentic and period appropriate for the house but mixing in some of the other elements that we did really kind of modernize it. So Amanda, this is how we transformed your room from this to this. And I feel like this room is so cozy, it's so different, kind of has a funky feel to it, a bit retro at the same time, which I love but this is a room I can totally see myself going for coffee in the morning, a cocktail in the evening. Imagine a record player over on like a little side table in here too would be so nice really setting the ambiance. Our third and final space was sent in by Lone Fox family member, Manvir and she is from Canada and she of course also sent over a video of her space. So I'm gonna play that for you guys right now. Hi Drew, my name is Manvir and I'm from Calgary, Canada. I'm sending you a video for my family room. If you want me to change the furniture around I can do that as well. So it has really tall ceilings. I don't wanna change this media unit because it's stuck to the wall and I have this and yeah, if you can help me to do that. I love your channels. This room is so big, so beautiful. I love how high the ceilings are, the windows, the little vault in the ceiling. These are just gonna give you food for thought and if you wanna incorporate any of these I definitely feel like the first one I'm gonna talk about would make the biggest and most impactful element in this space. This room is so massive, it's so open and large and especially with that white ceiling that vault almost gets lost because it is kind of a shallow vault and because of that I actually don't think it would be super insane of a price point to also have that wood panel just because it's not super steep, it's not like an extremely challenging area to wood panel but I really do feel like adding warmth to the ceiling will overall make this living room feel so much more cozy. That's definitely an investment but do also keep in mind, you can do a DIY or have someone do it for you where they use wood floors so it's not as expensive, you can get the exact color that you wanna go with. Even just some simple faux beams on that ceiling would be so stunning. So they have beams that are literally created out of foam that you can have someone come and install and because they're on the ceiling you never touch them they look like a thousand pound wood beams but they're completely crafted out of foam and because this living room is so large I would actually take the current chandelier which is in the center and kind of small and I would break it up and actually do two chandeliers in here drop one above kind of the couch area and then drop one over on the left kind of above the TV area and then here we have to move all of your furniture and your rug just like six feet forward. Like if you took your current setup and just moved it forward a little bit it would first of all just feel a lot better in that space. It's just too far back against that wall and I'm sure also when you're watching TV you probably feel just kind of disconnected and far away from it. I popped on the opposite side two accent chairs which are also for seating and of course underneath all of this is going to be a large rug and I opted for a jute rug to pull in some of that warmth from the wood ceiling above kind of pulling that down. This one is from my website and Lolloi. I love this one. It's such a beautiful one. It could be an indoor or an outdoor which is great. I found a substantial coffee table to add into the middle of this room also channeling the wood from the ceiling above so kind of bringing that tone down and mixing it throughout the room. That way it feels more intentional and you're also just making the space feel overall cohesive. In front of the coffee table I also added two additional poofs for seating and I completely forgot to mention that we are painting this room. We are going to be painting this room. French gray by Faro and Ball because I think nice kind of light grayish green tone. I almost feel like this room is just too large to be white and so this French gray color would be such a beautiful tone to paint everything in the room. So all of the walls, I'd probably even put it on the windows. I do know that in the rendering and the guy left the windows white and where the TV is on the wall currently on that back wall opposite of it I actually want to do a large framed mural. So this was a DIY project that I did for the Sons of Family Makeover in their living room and I used a $300 Wayfarer mural. I framed it out in some wood but it ended up looking like an absolutely massive like just breathtaking piece of art on the wall and I thought we can do the same thing to fill up that back wall. Of course, Florida ceiling curtains on those windows as well, we cannot forget about that and my last little addition that I want to do in here if you can would be to add some more sconce lighting. This room is just so large that I think it could really use for some wall lighting as well. It'd be such a beautiful room also to just leave the sconce lighting on at night when you're watching TV. So it kind of creates an ambiance. I would do two sconces just on either side of the TV and then on that back wall, just on either side of the art and I selected this kind of iron frame with a really pretty linen shade on the top there. So Menvar, this is how I took your current living room from this and turned it in to something like this and I think it looks so, so beautiful. This is such a stunning living room. The wood ceiling, especially in the rendering totally changes the way that the space feels before. I mean, completely changes it and I love the wall color. Also do you feel like though what I could have done in this room had a big tree in that back corner, like that back left corner, just a big tree whether it be faux, whether it be real, needs a plant in here but I completely forgot about that. Those are all three of our makeovers. I hope that you guys loved this episode of What Would Drew Do and if you guys have any decor dilemmas, do not forget to submit them to me. You can always submit your space for What Would Drew Do. I would love to more of these so if you guys would like more of these and you love this type of video, please give it a big thumbs up and let me know in the comment section below. I'd also love to know out of the three spaces which was your favorite and last but not least, do not forget next Sunday. March 3rd at 10 a.m. is our next vintage drop. I've been saving up for months so you don't wanna miss out on this one. Over on loanfox.com, orders over 99 ship for free so it's gonna be a good day next Sunday. Bye guys.


The Monsignor Patrick Anthony Folk Research Center on Friday concluded a two-day symposium convened in commemoration of International Creole Day. The 28th of October is celebrated annually as International Creole Day as proclaimed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO. Every year since 1983, the day has been utilized as an opportunity to celebrate the Creole language and culture across countries and communities, sharing Creole amounting to more than 10 million people the world over. The Monsignor Patrick Anthony Folk Research Center, as part of its thrust to ensure that the Creole language is recognized, accepted and valued, this year held a two-day International Creole Day conference. The conference this year examined the COVID-19 environment, another theme, Kilté, say Jouison, meaning Culture Heals. Marilyn Hyacinth is the coordinator of the language committee at the Monsignor Patrick Anthony Folk Research Center. When we speak about the language and culture, it's not just speaking the Creole. It is much more than that because when we speak about culture, culture is the way of life of the people and today at the conference, there were various presentations on different areas of culture, for example, that of kudme, which is a self-help thing, that of poetry and literature in terms of how we live out our literature, that of understanding of healing, medicinal herbs and so on, how we use it and so on, and the various aspects of culture that brings healing to people, the dance, the mode of dressing, the way we eat, the things we do, and all of these aspects of life in St. Lucia. St. Lucia, after decades since its first celebration of Juni Cuiol, continues to celebrate its French Creole heritage, now a month-long activity with music, dance, cuisine, art and other cultural expressions. Our member of the Monsignor Patrick Anthony Folk Research Center, Raiisa Joseph, explained that the Creole language is not just a language, but from its part of who we are as a people. Well, the Folk Research Center has been a vanguard for decades in St. Lucia promoting the Creole language and also Creole culture. Creole is a language where it also represents who we are as a people in terms of our influences, colonially, our experiences in terms of development, how African culture has come to existence because of Creoleization through European influences as well as indigenous ones as well. And at the Folk Research Center, what we've advocated is the recognition of Creole as a language, just as we would with English and French, that our people, through their own intelligence and creativity, created themselves and therefore we have a responsibility to teach our children. We've developed a Creole writing system, a Creole dictionary that now has to go into our various spaces, into the formalized spaces because we speak Creole all the time. The board member explained that while the Creole language is widely spoken in St. Lucia, it has yet to be formalized. It is a prominent feature, but what we have failed to do is elevate it to the standard where it is recognized as a formal language, a language of power and influence in terms of decision making, where our officials now see it necessary to teach our children about who they are and how we can formalize it to the point where we do not have individuals who treat Creole as if it is a bastardized language in the year 2021, where, take for example, an advertisement is done and persons don't even bother to check how do you spell a word in Creole when there are resources available. But to model that behavior, we have to see Creole represented everywhere on our news stations, in our advertising, in the ministerial addresses of our leaders in business places. And we have seen some progress made in different sectors in the credit unions, in the banking sector, but we want that movement to be beyond the month of October, my way to ask Creole. We want to see it done in a more holistic way throughout the year where persons can embrace Creole in a holistic way because it is who they are. The Monsignor Patrick Anthony Folk Research Center continues to spearhead initiatives, get towards the preservation of St. Lucian culture and the formalization of the Creole language, some of which include the International Creole Day Conference, youth engagement activities and the provision of support for Creole writing and literature. From the Government Information Service, I am General Norville.


Hello, my name is Gustavo Sosa and welcome to another video from ST Microelectronics. This is the first video of three. We will show how to use the scroll list widget. We'll create two screens. First screen will have the scroll list and we'll show the selected element from the scroll list. To know how to pass information of the scroll list selected element, at the screen two we'll show the selected item at the screen one. In this video, we'll create a user interface for screen one. We will use TouchFX Designer 4.17 and STM32QID 1.7 with STM32 H735G discovery key. Open TouchFX. Go to create and find the H735 discovery board TVS. Use the latest version. Name the project and hit create. The first step is to create a container that will be used as base by the scroll list. At the top, click at container. With the plus, add a new container. Resize the container, in this case, to 210 by 40. Now, as background for the container, add a white box. In the list, we like to have images, so let's add an image. Go to know image. First, we'll add all the images we'll be using the project. Click at the plus sign to add images. Namegate to the folder where images are. Select all the images and hit open. Go again to know image. Now, select alert image. It's the first one. Place it at around coordinates 26. Now, add a text and place it at coordinates 84 and 6. Text alignment select center. On check auto size. Resize a text to a width of 120. We'll add a divider between items at the scroll list. Add new image. At the style, select divider, and reshort. Place it at the bottom of the container. We have finished the container. Click at screen to go back and so can start creating the screen. As background, we'll add an image. At the style, select main bg texture 480 by 272. It is time to add the scroll list. At item template from the scroll list, select the container we had created. Resize another scroll list. We'll end around coordinates 180 and 17 and with a height of 238. Now, we'll add an image and a text to show the items selected from the scroll list. First, add an image and we'll select image alert 48. Place it around coordinates 70 and 135. Now, add a text and place it around coordinates 50 and 70. Change that text to selected. Add a second text. Place it around coordinates 33 and 205. Text alignment select center on checks auto size. Resize that text to a width of 120. Now, we'll add dst and touch effects logos. First, at the top left will be the touch effects logo. At the top right, dst logo. For the real text that will be at the scroll list, we need to add them as text resources and in that code, we will assign them to its position in the list. Something similar happened with the images. At the code, it will be assigned to its position. At the left, go to text, then to resources. We'll add a resource for each text for that scroll list. In this example will be 11. We will add error, calendar, messages, com, sys info, locations, start, power, config, tools and users. Let's return to the canvas view by selecting it at the left. At the scroll list, we need to change the number of the items to 11. We forgot to do it before. Finally, let's generate a code by the icon at the bottom left. We have created the user interface. At the second part, we will add a code to interact with the scroll list. Thank you for watching.


Okay, acting Detective Superintendent Gary, J-R-R-Y-WATS, W-A-T-S, from Organised Crime Group, State Crime Operations Command. Can we resolve? I'm open for questions. Yeah, sure. Operation Resolve, Task Force Resolve. Big movement set today, if you've started today. That's correct. Task Force Resolve commenced working today and have come down to the South Eastern Region to assist South Eastern Region in relation to the investigation of the armed robbery at the Care Sports Clubs. Sure. So that would be now eight that you're looking at. We heard last week that there were seven serious violent crimes that you would be looking at, but this would be the eighth. That's correct. We're looking at historic armed robberies that have been committed within the Region over a period of time. There are seven that are committed on hard targets that we're specifically interested in, but also we're looking at current armed robberies and other serious and violent crimes committed within the Region and will certainly be doing our best to assist the South Eastern Region in solving those offences. How is it set up? Have you got a particular base or are you spread out throughout the different CIBs? No, we have a base of operations in State Crime Operations Command, but we're also working within the Region as well to provide on-the-ground support in investigating these types of offences. And within the Region, does that mean a particular station or do you have offices where they're needed? They sort of move where they're needed? They move where they're needed, and probably initially we'll be based at CUMRA CIB initially, but we're flexible and we'll adapt and go to where we're needed to provide the best support we can. It's pretty shocking, isn't it, I suppose, that this is the day you're starting and you already have a fresh one. What's the thoughts on that? We will investigate offences as they occur, where they occur within the Region. We are fully expected to be investigating offences within this Region. Winston's got big expectations. He was really adamant that you guys were going to make a big difference when you got down here. That's something you're confident of doing? You want the warning out there for people? Very much so. We've got a team of 18 dedicated investigators that will work within the Region and with the regional detectives, and I'm sure we're going to make a difference to crime within the South Eastern Region. And with any of those offences on the ground at CUMRA CIB today? Yes, we dispatched six investigators to assist initially to work with the South Eastern Region investigators on this offence. So they've hit the ground running? That's correct, yes. Does it change the way you investigate things? Is there more intensity now because there is a special task force? Is there a different sort of intensity to investigating these now? Well, we've had the armed robbery unit within State Crime Operations Command for quite some time now. That's been enhanced, and staff haven't increased. And we're all able to focus the energies of those 18 investigators on the offences as I've outlined. So does the fact that you guys are hitting the ground running today add weight or sort of vindicate the calls that have come in the past for such a task force? No, I don't think so. The establishment of a task force is a matter for the Commissioner. That's been done, and we're ready to get into the work and help and commence investigating the offences. I suppose we would have hoped, like everyone would have hoped when it was announced that that might be enough to deter crime. But it's still going to happen, isn't it? It doesn't matter what you do. There's always going to be people out there, I guess. That's correct, yes. And what do you say to the public when they hear another crime happening down here? What would you say to reassure them? We investigate the matters as best we can. Our intention is to solve as many as we can and to put the offenders before the justice system. And then, Brian mentioned earlier that police will be working with the Tweed Officers in New South Wales. Will you guys be doing the same? If during the court investigations, that's the way the investigation unfolds most definitely. The number seven, is there any reason that makes those ones stand out from the rest? We've reviewed the offences that have been committed within the region. And seven offences are what we have identified that are possibly linked and are committed on a hard target, such as Tabbins and those sorts of premises. Does that mean that you think that there might be a group that's sort of working collaboratively on these sort of things? Like, are you looking at maybe one group for those seven? I wouldn't pin it down to one group, but we're certainly looking at the links between the seven offences, and if we can establish those links, we'll be investigating those. Can't name the seven. The seven offences? No, not off-hand. Could we get that information from you? Yes.


The following is a transcript of the contents of a spiral bound notebook in the custody of law enforcement in connection with a pending investigation. While the investigation and most of the events described below did occur in the general vicinity of the Midwest, all of the specific locations, names and other identifiers have been altered by me to protect the investigation and my own anonymity. I will also be circumspect about how I obtained access to the notebook itself. Suffice it to say, I had an opportunity to analyze the object physically. As part of that process, I photographed all of the pages per my SOP. It wasn't until the following week that I glanced down through those photos and began reading what I have now written down below. I understand how this may be interpreted, and you have no reason to trust the word of an anonymous stranger as to its authenticity. I cannot even vouch for the truth of what is written myself, though I think I have transcribed all the words accurately. All I can say is that what I have written is the truth and I am presenting it to the best of my ability. What you take from it, evidence of something sinister, the outlines of some elaborate prank, or simply a few moments of entertainment. That is entirely up to you. I remember the first time I saw you. You were what, one? Maybe not even that. Laying on the blanket next to your mama in the park, sleeping so peacefully as she watched over you, with a tired but happy look on her face. That sleep, so calm and serene, I envied you that. I was having trouble sleeping even back then, and every day I could feel the last scrapes of that kind of peace being taken from me. I don't want you to misunderstand me, though.  But no, nothing could be farther from the truth.  I loved you for what you were and what you could be. So I decided to take you under my wing. A paw had once called me a witch, a witch.  But he got that mean, sour look he'd get sometimes before I was five words in, and I knew the hit was coming before he even started to swing. I just balled up then. I was 15 at the time, and I might have fought back, but he was bigger and stronger and meaner than me.  Armadillos are funny. They look cute and all sure, like little knights in suits of armor or something. But you know, a lot of them have leprosy under that armor. A poison rot like from the olden times right under their skin. I felt like that back then, like I had a poison welling up under that skin. He was bruising and splitting, waiting for the right time to reach out and touch him, wither him right away. Except my poison wasn't leprosy. Mine was what I could see, what I knew. I could look at my father, big, strong man that he was, and I could see the thread of his life stretching out in front of me. Not everything, you understand. It was until later that I got where I could focus more and see particulars I wanted to see. But enough to know the biggest goods and bads he had coming. Enough to see when and how that thread would be cut for good. That was why he was afraid of me, why he hated me so. I had made the mistake of letting on what I could see before I knew it was better to hide it. Paul tried to ignore it at first, but that changed when I came to him crying one morning, found him in the field working on that old tractor that crapped out at least once a season already in an awful temper. I should have known better, but I was scared and upset and I loved him. I thought if I told him how he was going to die, he could avoid it. And I wanted that more than just about anything. Funny thing was, when what I saw finally came true a few years later, the biggest thing I felt was relief. Relief that it was over and that my poison had finally finished the job. I know what you're thinking. I'm being arrogant, thinking I can play God, thinking that my visions are killing people when just by listening to what I've said, you could tell I'm just seeing what's coming for somebody and even warning them doesn't change a thing. For a long time, I thought that way too. As I got older and especially after Paul passed, I got stronger in what I could see, but I wanted to see it less and less. I couldn't help people and seeing people that way like a bunch of choices that hadn't been made yet. It made it hard to see them as people at all. They were just numbers and symbols. And I felt like some egghead mathematician looking at some humongous formula on a black board, except I liked people and I hated math and the world was getting so I couldn't be around someone for more than a few minutes without seeing the worst things they would do and how it would all end. I learned to block it some, but just enough that I didn't go crazy. And that was before I started losing sleep. We aren't meant to be in this world all the time. I'm convinced of this, this world. It's a hard place with sharp edges and it'll whittle you down to nothing if you don't leave it once in a while. That's why God gave us sleep and dreams. Some people say that those dreams are as real as this world, realer even. And maybe that's so or maybe not. I don't know. What I do know is that we aren't meant to stay here all the time, especially when you see everything that I see. When I first saw that little baby you, I guess something came over me. Maybe it was some instinct, some part of whatever this power is that I have. I like to think that it was something more, though, that even then I wanted to keep you safe forever. I spent the next hour looking through the thread of your life, the times you were truly scared or truly happy, the things that shaped you or pushed you this way or that. When you felt loved and when you were in danger, the day when you were just 19 that you died.  I could see how it happened and why, but not how to stop it. Telling you, even if I waited 18 years to tell you the day it happened wouldn't be enough to stop it. Our lives, our fates, they have movement, inertia, and you were heading toward a coffin like a bullet flying fast. Me telling you stuff you wouldn't believe too late to help anything, well, I might as well be puffing out a breath at that passing bullet. It won't change where it hits one little bit. But what if I didn't talk to you just then? What if I talked to you for years, proved to you that what I saw was real and that you could trust me? Maybe that belief would be enough that you would listen when the time was right. I followed you and your mama home that day and I've kept track of you ever since. Those first few years, I would only see you every now and then, checking your thread for any changes, looking into more detail so I could understand you better. The rest of the time I spent doing my little experiments with other people, seeing if I could move their threads at all. Turns out I can. But it's not an easy thing. That momentum I was talking about, it's a powerful thing. And even if you warn someone or keep them from doing something they were meant to do. The universe has a funny way of self correcting. I've seen odd stuff over the years, much of it I don't understand. And the strangest thing has to be the way that creation will bend over backwards to return a person to the path they're meant to be on. I'm talking about coincidences or things that go even beyond that. That just seem to happen to make sure someone lives or dies that they meet a particular person or learn a particular thing. I don't claim to get why it does what it does. But it didn't take long for me to understand what it meant to me. This force, this momentum, whether you want to call it fate or destiny or magic elves in the trees, it was working against me in what I was trying to do. It was the opposition, the enemy, the bad guy, and for a while I didn't know if I could beat it. And then one day, I did. It was a guy named Lenny, nice enough guy I guess, but more importantly he worked in the building across from my job and ate lunch outside most days. It gave me easy access to him. And after a few months, I had most of his next 20 years mapped out in my head. The key to most of it was him meeting the woman he'd marry. Her name was Laura. Before meeting her, his life was pretty bare. He didn't like himself and because of that he didn't like most people. Meeting her changed all that. I'm not saying their life together was perfect because it wasn't. But they brought out the best in each other. I could see several points in his life where he picked right instead of left because of his love for her. And because of this, he avoided several traps the world might have thrown in his path. Looking at his life, I knew I'd found something special. One is affected by others, but to find a life so impacted by how it touches another, that's a lot more rare. And if I was ever going to have a chance of proving I could affect things of saving you. This was it. And for a wonder, it worked. It took time and effort and sacrifice, but it worked. And from that, I came up with my plan to protect you. I'm writing this two days before your 12th birthday. When you find this notebook, which I know you will, it will have a green notebook rubber banded to it. That is the story of your life from age 12 to 13. It's long. I try to organize it well and only use words you'll understand.  You need to get all of this, okay? I don't cover everything, of course. It would take way too long to write or read, but it's about 30 pages of little things and big things that are going to happen. And what happens because of those things? I give you the date and time when I can, but I can't see that clear, except occasional. And there's only a couple of times when I tell you what you should do instead of what you're meant to do. For now, I just want you to understand that what I'm telling you will come true and that you can trust me. Every year, I'm going to give you another green notebook. It'll tell you what you need to know when you need to pick path B instead of path A, that kind of thing. I'll keep watch on the road ahead of you and make sure that you stay safe for as long as I'm able. I'm convinced that if you listen to me, we can beat that day when you're 19. I know this is a lot to understand and believe, but I've already seen that you will. I can't see your thread moving yet. But I think in time, as you know more and trust more, that'll get easier.  But don't tell anyone about these notebooks or what you know. Take it from me. All it will do is make people think you're crazy or that you're wrong somehow. Just keep it for yourself and use it as you will. It's still your life. After all, I'm just here to make sure you get to live it signed your guardian angel. That's the end of the primary writing in a red notebook. There is, however, loose paper in the back of the notebook that appears to be from a different source as the lines are different in size and spacing based upon the content and the apparent age of the pages and the ink. It seems this was written much more recently. I used to think of people as strings seeing how inevitable everything was.  But then I met Lenny and the others and I realized that I could change that string if I worked hard enough, twisted this way or that, lengthen it or cut it shorter than intended. It made me feel special, powerful even, but more importantly, it meant that I could guide you through a safe and happy life. For years it worked. I got you passed you suffocating at 19 and then passed the two times the universe tried to self-correct over the next few months. And when I saw you headed toward that fire at 30, I stopped it from even happening at all. I wrapped your life in bubble wrap and I think you used to appreciate it. I know you did. But lately, you take it all for granted.  You have no idea of the vicious things the world has waiting for you at every turn of how many times I've thought those things off for you. You have no idea of how things will change if you keep ignoring my advice like this. The thing is, you're wrong. It's always been your choice. I used to not believe in free will, but I was wrong. I see that now. You can steer your life how you want, but make no mistake, free will does not mean you won't be pushed and pulled. That universe that's been wanting to hurt and kill you all these years, it's been waiting for the chance to put you back on its course. Some version of things where you're miserable or scared or dead and left to your own devices, you'll steer right into it. I can see that now. And the worst part of it is, I'm no different than you. I never told you why I don't sleep much. It's because of the nightmare, the same nightmare I've had for nearly 40 years. It's always terrified me, though when I was younger, I thought it was just a dream. Even when I recognized you in it, I told myself it was just my brain's way of expressing my fear that I might fail you someday. It wasn't until the last few years that I've come to accept that the dream is the rapidly approaching future, or at least one version of what may come to pass. In it, you're in a large room with no windows and soundproofing on the walls. You're laying in bed asleep, though the IV running into your arm makes me think you have little choice in that. Three years ago, I didn't know where that place was or what drugs I was feeding you. Now I own that place and have enough medical supplies stockpiled to last 10 years or more. That's not fate. Not really. I saw those choices, but I still chose to make them. I could say it's all out of my hands, but I love you too much to lie. No, the truth is better. And the truth is, well, part of the truth is that I've run out of options to keep you safe. For all my planning and advice, all my study of the story of you, you're still the author.  I know you want me to just leave you alone. And while that hurts, I guess I understand it too.  But you have to understand, I feel the same way. I didn't ask for this power. I never wanted to see what I do. The dark secret hearts of people, the sharp biting teeth of the world, the same damn dream that is so terrible and so wonderful at the same time. Because you're not alone in that room. There's another bed and on it I lay sleeping. This isn't the ragged, sweaty, screaming sleep of a man ripping himself from a nightmare only to be plunged back into the too sharp world. No. My breath is even. My face unlined by worry or fear. I'm not drugged or knocked out either. Just sleeping the blissfully peaceful sleep of the innocent. Much like a baby might on a warm day in spring. I need that. We need that. I've done what I can to protect you while letting you be free. And once you're with me, I swear I will always care for you during my waking hours. You will never suffer again. I've seen your thread and I know this will work. I will keep you from the teeth of the world and in turn you will give me the dreamless escape I've lived without for so long. We will both be free and happy and together and that will be the story of us.


Greg and I have been looking forward to this conversation so I think we'll just jump right in. As I do, I'd like to just give a little bit of grounding about I think why we're here and hopefully why you all are here as well. And a little bit about why we have B Corps and Benefit Corporations and now Perpetual Purpose Trusts. These are all examples of alternative forms of corporate governance and ownership. And so I think the question that we want to discuss today a bit is what are we trying to solve for? So I'm going to give you a little bit of just quick history on B Lab and Benefit Corporations and then have some questions for you too, Greg. So for those who don't know, 17 years ago, B Lab's founders embarked on a mission to really change the way that business was done and to transition to a place where business could be a force for good. And so the reason for this was that too often we all know this. I think this is why we're all here. Business as usual often would enrich the few while exploiting workers, exploiting communities of the planet itself. And so they recognized this profit at all cost incentive was not really adding up to the world we wanted to be building. And this was also built into corporate law in the form of shareholder primacy, which of course stipulates that the duty of corporate directors is to maximize profit for shareholders. And that's a really important distinction. So in order to harness this powerful engine of the private sector to address global crises, which of course we all know includes the climate crisis, racial and gender inequity, increasing inequality around the board. They recognized that business would need a new corporate governance model. And so that model became known as the benefit corporation. So B Lab, along with early adopters in this community, including Patagonia, approached state legislatures and proposed this adoption of a statute that would allow corporations to amend their governance documents to make them responsible for a specific public benefit and to require that directors and managers of benefit corporations really take into consideration their impacts on workers, on communities, on the planet. And so in short, benefit corporation legislation really looked to replace this practice of shareholder primacy, instead with the principles of stakeholder governance. And so since then, benefit corporate legislation has been adopted by more than 40 US states in this country, and then 10 additional countries around the world. And actually, in fact, Yvonne Shanard, Patagonia's founder, helped advocate for passage of that legislation right here in California. So today we now have more than 15,000 benefit corporations across the world. And so I'm joined on stage today by Greg, executive director of the Hold Fast Collective. And Greg and the rest of the Patagonia leadership team are really modeling the kind of purpose-driven innovation that we really need from the private sector. And we at B Lab are really proud to count Patagonia as one of the staunchest and earliest members of the B Corp community. So, Greg, I'd love if you would share a little bit about the process you all went through to establish Patagonia's Perpetual Purpose Trust. Even as you continued to certify as a B Corp and to stay a part of the B Corp community, could you share a bit about that process and what has this evolution in your ownership structure enabled you to do for people on the planet? Great. There's a famous picture, by the way, of when Patagonia converted to a benefit corp in California in 2012 where he actually wore a tie and a jacket to go to the State Department in California. So that's kind of rolling around campus in some places. You'll never see him in a tie again. But our process was, it was a long time in the making, 50-year-old company, we'd been on this journey. Yvonne had been on this journey around making the best product. He knew how, being really selective in, from a quality perspective, how the product was made, the materials that went into the product, that was always really core, as a mountain climber, sort of the quality was your life really dependent on a lot of those criteria. And so, it was really important to him. And through the course of the history of the business, we started making other decisions that were also really important. On-site childcare is a critical. If you've ever visited our campus in Ventura, there's a bunch of children running around screaming, which provides a lot of nice context for what's really important in life. And some of our leadership over the years actually graduated from that school, which is really, really wonderful. We had an earth tax through the 1980s that we started programmatically following through on that became the 1% for the planet standard for grant making. And in the 90s, Yvonne had a friend, Doug Tompkins, who'd sold his company or his stake in his company Esprit and had gone off and engaged in a lot of philanthropic world that was really exciting to him. And he, Doug recommended that he do the same thing with Patagonia. And it kind of was this existential question for Yvonne and the family around, why are we in business? What's really important to us? And they decided on the heels of this sort of important question that was posed to them, well, what is important to us is that we model a different way of doing business, a different form of capitalism, making the decisions, sometimes, oftentimes, contrarian decisions that had made them so successful over the years and started being more programmatic about how we do that work and share what we're learning and how we're doing and how successful they had been in making those decisions. And so it naturally, when movements around multi-stakeholder capitalism started building in the early aughts with groups like B-Lab and the opportunity to support the emergence of benefit corporation statutes across the country became real. It was a great opportunity for us to reflect and put down into writing all of these things, like how Yvonne makes decisions. What are the criteria that goes into his mind?  He was much the same way and it was a good opportunity, although he had written a little bit about it in some books, what's really important when we make product decisions, we may make business decisions, what do we want on the table as part of that conversation, what are those criteria so that we know that in the future when Yvonne isn't here, that we're making decisions that are aligned with his philosophy. So being a member of the B-Corp community was really important and then we started through the teens engaging in more activism and philanthropy. All of this was at risk when Yvonne said that he wanted to release more value to fight the climate crisis. The traditional way of releasing value is to sell to an investor or to sell all our part of the company. We didn't know who that individual was going to be. So and the risk that all of this would get unraveled, a new owner would decide you no longer want to be a benefit corporation, you no longer want to be certified B-Corp, all of that could come undone. And you hear a lot often when companies become certified by B-Lab and they become a 1% for the planet member, but you don't hear so much of it when they stop doing those things. And so that was really unacceptable from Yvonne's perspective. Protecting the business long term was core criteria, but how do we release value and meet this other need that he had? That's where we found the perpetual purpose trust to help control and serve as the deadbolt for governance and control permanently going forward into the future. And then we designed the whole FAST Collective to release all the value that the business created, that it didn't need to go back into the business. Great, thank you. So what I'm hearing is that benefit corpse represent one alternative model for corporate governance, perpetual purpose trust represent really an alternative ownership structure, one that to your point locks in purpose and impact in perpetuity, not at risk as there's a transition in leadership, which I think is really innovative. And we see this in the B Corp space where companies are certified and they have to go through recertification and for different reasons, they're not always successful. So really an interesting, different version of what that could look like. I'd love to hear, Greg, with this new ownership structure, why was it so important to Patagonia to continue to be a certified B Corp and benefit corporation? It was always, I mean, it was, when we had these conversations and we slowly took the family through the different options and they realized how important it was to continue to protect the business, the conversation was always around the benefit purposes that we'd articulated in becoming a certified B Corp. So that's how we measure our success. That's how we knew whether or not we were being honored, honoring our mission. And so there was never a scenario where everything that we were doing, in addition to trying to release value to fight the climate crisis, we were looking for ways to ensure that everything that made us proud of what we were as a B Corp wouldn't change. And so with the Purpose Trust structure in place, the way that it works is, so you have management operating the business day to day, they report, well, they're accountable to employees and other stakeholders. They are also directly accountable to Patagonia's board of directors. Now the board of directors are accountable no longer to individual shareholders, individual owners. They're accountable to trustees of the Patagonia Purpose Trust. What's one unique feature of Purpose Trust that really facilitates the deadbolt sort of feature of this all is there's a role called a protector or an enforcer depending on what state you're in. There's 12 states by the way that have perpetual purpose trust statutes. So the trustees of the trust are in turn accountable to the protector or enforcer. So there's multiple layers of protection. There's a lot of things that have to go wrong for Patagonia to drift off of its mission and that these overlapping layers of structural protection were the main thing that we found so attractive about the trust and the fact that it's never gonna go away. Yeah, that's great, thank you. Checks and balances, I suppose we all know about that. I think one of the things that I've heard you talk about previously today and in the past has been around the B Corp certification community and something that we hear a lot from the Patagonia's of the world but also the much smaller companies. We're a 8,000 strong movement now with representing nearly 700,000 workers around the world. And what we hear from them a lot is that one of the values beyond the certification itself is the community. And so for us our goal has always been around economic systems change. That may mean, that does in part mean building a community of B Corps. But the B Corp and Benefit Corp model along with this perpetual purpose trust model that may not be right for everyone, right? It's not a one size fits all. And I think what we're trying to chat and offer today is a couple of different looks at what this might look like to be a purpose driven business. And so I think we've given a little bit of a Cliff's Notes version of what this has looked like at each of our organizations. Where do you think we should go from here? How might folks here learn about Patagonia's journey and maybe even begin to explore whether one of these models that we've just started to touch on today whether one might be right for them. Yeah, as you said, it's been incredibly valuable for Patagonia to be a member of the B Corp community. I think there's a lot to learn. We do things a certain way. We've been around for a long time. There's a lot of innovative organizations out there, owners, entrepreneurs that are thinking about things in different ways. And so one of our benefit purposes is to share information and be transparent about what we do. In turn, as part of those conversations we learn a lot as well in terms of particularly on supply chain. I think when you get into the space where you have all the answers like you're in a really bad place. And so because that's been one of our criteria that we've evaluated ourselves it's really opened us up to learning from a lot of the members of the community. And then I think it's always good to go through a test and to be graded and rated because you can say things to yourself and you can justify things and the choices that you make. But it's really important at the end of the day because of the breadth of the certification process you go through. It's not just looking at how you make product. It's looking at how you treat employees. It's looking at how you treat customers. And so you can score really well in one area that oh I feel and this is all we ever talk about but you have to look at all these other areas too and all the corners of your business to make sure that all of these stakeholders are being honored and respected and you're making intentional choices. So it's been incredibly valuable to just see how you're stacking up and how other people are scoring as well. So it's been an important part of the process in terms of where it goes from here. I think one of the challenges for our process when Yvonne said he wanted to sell the company was that most of the options available were traditional models. A lot of the lawyers that we would go out and talk to or different advisors we would go out and talk to would, I mean, what they turn around when they're on their phone and they grab off their shelf is like, well you sell the company, you bring in another investor, you bring in outside capital. You'll have a shareholder agreement and trust me they're like-minded and trust is hard when something is as important to you as a business like Patagonia or a business that you all may own in your worlds. So we went on a journey to find different answers to problems that had been vexing the family for a long time. The answers are out there. There's different structures out there, perpetual purpose trusts. We're gonna have a session later this afternoon. Sarah and I with a friend of mine, Natalie Reitman-White, who's got a ton of experience in this. There's a lot of organizations who are looking at alternative ownership structures. There's an emerging group of advisors that are developing expertise in it and you might be surprised at the scale of some of the companies that are looking at manipulating and capping returns that go to owners too as part of some philanthropic purpose. It's a really exciting landscape. Definitely, thank you very much. So yes, please come join us at 1.30. I'm gonna wrap us up here and the last thing I do wanna say is that there is an important role for philanthropy to play in all of this. So I see some of you out there. I know there's another session later I'll be there in the audience. I think it's really important that this is not just a conversation for business leaders and impact investors, but that funders also look at ways to help us explore, design, test these new forms of corporate governance. And that's because philanthropy can invest in market leading ideas before the market is ready to support them. So there's my plug. I wouldn't be able to leave the stage without saying that. But yeah, I hear some claps, thank you. So ultimately, this will take collective action. Thank you all for being here today and we'll see you all hopefully at 1.30.


What is up everybody? Jason here for jazbyzcasebreaks.com. We're doing a random number block, R&B serial number for the remaining teams in 2019 anti-football, picture number three. That features the Cardinals, Patriots, 49ers, Cowboys, Jaguars, Raiders, Steelers, Eagles, and Texans. These teams didn't sell straight up, so we put them in an R&B. You're owning a piece of these teams via the serial number, guys. Every spot gets a number from zero through nine. If you match up with a hit, if the team hits and it matches your serial number, left side serial number, it goes to you. There's your examples there. Remember, any and all redemptions also go to spot zero. And if there's any non-numbered cards, they'll be randomized to the group. And here we go, guys. So here's the dice roll. Let's roll. It's a two and a one, three times. Good luck. One, two, three. Three times. Three, three. Andrew at the top. And Scott at the bottom. Here's the R&Bs right here. And remember, those teams, you own a piece of them. Just putting them in there for the sorting team just so they know. Three times here as well. One, two, three. Seven down to eight. So let's see what you guys matched up with here, guys. So, Andrew, you have seven as well as three. Reno with one. If there's any live one-on-ones for these teams, I'll go to you. Mark with two. Reno with nine. Joel, you have four. Andrew, if there's any redemptions for these teams hit in this break, that goes to you at zero. Plus anything, number 10, 20, 30, 40, so. Christian with five. Reno with six. And Scott with spot eight. So there you guys go. Now again, guys, this is Jess for the sorting team. I'm gonna alphabetize the names or with the list of numbers I should say, sorry. And like I said. All right, there you go, guys. Appreciate it. Good luck, everybody. Let's do the break.