sydd y gallu i chi'n gweld me'n gweithio i ei uchydig gyda'r microphone. Felly chi wedi gweld y fwrdd o gweld. Mae'n nhw'n gwybod yn ôl i chi i'w gwybod yn fwy oherwydd yn ei gweithio'r gwybod ar gyfer ffynol sydd wedi'i gweld gwahodd ei bod yn ysgrifion cynfodol o rhan o'i gyfnodd ymlaen ymgyrch wedi'i cyrraffon yma, Ond mae'n cruseolwyd… …marjdw summary o unedig iawn o unedig iawn arser ukeis… …rhywfyr iawn o unedig iawn log yng Nghymru.  Felly, rwy'n cael ei ddweud yn cyhoedd o'r ysgol a'r cyhoedd. Ond ydych chi'n ddim yn ymweld o ddau i diwylliant ac oedd o'r ddau o ddau i diwylliant o ddau o'r ddau o'u ddau i'w ddau a'u ddau i'r ddau o ddau o'r ddau i diwylliant. Ond y maen nhw'n i ddweud o'r methu ar gweithio, Ac r seedol, mae am ddodd gwirionedd. Saintadiahuhs Roeth Cymddi gwrth Addнов, gallwn gwirionedd, ond ei gallabydd hefyd. Llawn fair medicine o'r amguaredd a drodd mlu a fine yw eu'r hanwedd testur fe'r hyffordd meddwl rhaid, maen nhw'r dyblod pan maen nhw gan name Changing Network, a wnaeth eu waswan producell ei weithg seld. Ond, rwy'n argymau campaign rheliad! Felly, credu'n fawr y tu titaniumol, Cymru ar gyfer y Cymru, a'r cyfnodau ymddangos cyfnodau dynion i'r cyfnodau i'r cyffredin iawn yn Y Nogi. Mae gennym 7 cyffredin iawn, rhai ddim yn dda. A rydym yn cyfnodd ar gyfer y cyffredin iawn o'r 4bion euro. Mae angen i'r cyffredin iawn – ac mae gennym lle i ddweud y sefydliadau. Mae gennym lle i ddweud y sefydliadau i'r cyffredin iawn. Mae gennym lle i ddweud. of money and we basically fund research within the UK academic sector most academic but there is also funding goes into other institutes and now to some commercial organisations as well. So basically what I want to do is give something around a research funder's perspective on data talk a little bit about why we value data talk about some of the data policies we have in our research councils and then I was asked to look a little bit into the future and to see some of the future things I was going to talk about Joe very kindly talked about in our earlier talk so I'll you know some of this work about more enhanced richer publications so I think I'll probably scoot over some of what I was going to say in that area. So data why I'm interested in data my research council natural environment research council funds research in the environmental sciences things like climate change water issues water resources biodiversity and such like this little wordle shows we're interested in data information this is actually developed from our from our science information strategy within the organisation it's just to show that all the research councils really see data as fundamental to the work they do both in terms of underpinning the research and helping deliver the exploitation of that research. So first of what do we mean by data now this is a definition of data from my own research council's data policy I should apologise at this point I'm probably the world's worst person at using PowerPoint so I tend to put up slides which have too many words on so I don't expect to actually read all the words it's just to show we have a definition of data now other research councils have other definitions of data and interestingly there was a recent audit from our audit service within the research councils looking at some of the work of our data centres across some of the councils and one of their recommendations was we really must do something about coming up with a more standardised definition of what we mean by data but what we're talking about here is basically the primary data produced by the research we fund and it's not just digital data it can be samples I mean as as the previous speaker said you know it can be it can be sound clips it can be pictures it can be in environmental sciences it can be analogue measurements it can be fossil specimens it can be samples and material so when we talk about data we have to think in the broadest context even though at times a lot of a discussion tends to focus on what is digital about data we have to remember quite often there is a long tail of other stuff which isn't just digital data so you know for our example here we also talk about the output from models and that's quite crucial say if you work in the climate sciences you know where the model output itself can be actually quite a vast amount of data digital data you know what do we do with that is that a primary output of the research process what about the models themselves are they classed as data they're all part of the research process I have no easy answer to some of these questions but there's a sort of things you have to consider when you'll think about policies to do with data so why do we as research funders value data probably the two main reasons the first one is the data are an integral part of the research record so having access to the underlying data helps to support the robustness the transparency the integrity and crucially the richness of the research record certainly within the climate sciences people may have come across a little controversy in the UK a couple of years ago called climate gate where there was a leak and an unauthorised leakage of emails from the climate research unit the university of east anglia now I have my own opinion about that I hope she won't go into given the partiality of some of the emails that were released because I was actually funding some of the work going on behind the scenes to actually recreate data sets for public distribution but there's an awful lot of research has probably said there but for the grace of god go I you know what happens if someone comes to you and asks you for your research data as a researcher have you got it to hand well how are you set up to deal with requests that come under some things like free information legislation and this is all down a lot of us is our approach now is driven by what was called the transparency agenda you know the access the transparency of research for transparency of government which I'll come on to the other key reason why we value data is to enable it to be reused it's what some people call data sharing what I tend to call reuse and repurposing data sharing implies the data is just going to be used within the research community it's going to be shared with other researchers by reuse and repurposing what we mean is it allows other people to do other stuff with the data now that's not just research and the crucial thing here especially within the UK now I'm not so familiar with maybe how the legislative environment sits in other parts of Europe but certainly within the UK a lot of the debate a lot of the government policy is about openness to government information and by opening up this information allowing other people to do stuff with that information with that data it therefore drives innovation and through innovation you drive growth and through growth you help drive economic benefit and prosperity so what we're saying is in the UK you know if we're opening a research data it's not just for other researchers it's to enable other people to do stuff with those data maybe what the research community hasn't even thought about but there may be other benefits of using those data to drive innovation and from as I said from innovation comes growth so I mentioned this the government has this agenda about open data and transparency and there is something called data.gov.uk modelled somewhat on the data.gov principles in the USA about making public data freely and openly available for others to do stuff with. Now that is also part of what's known as the sort of freedom information legislation so in the UK we have at least two key pieces of legislation to do with freedom of access one is our freedom of information act and the other is what's known as environmental information regulations which is actually a european legislation deriving from the our house convention and that is basically freedom information for environmental information but basically if you're a researcher in the UK in the university sector basically and apart from a few special cases you are classed those data are classed as public data of course universities are publicly funded institutions therefore the data comes on under the auspices of the freedom of information acts therefore you have to be very careful when people request data because you're not at liberty just to say no so if you think about a data policy one of the things you have to think about is how a data policy would fit in with your national legislation to do with freedom information of course a majority of universities and research institutions will tend to be public institutions not all of them but certainly from a UK context a majority so if we're developing policies and I'm going to come on to describing policies in more detail what instruments do we have as research funders to actually achieve our aims now our aims are basically as I said you know to ensure the openness and transparency and robustness of the research record and to enable other people to do stuff with the data generated through research well the first thing is we can have a policy and the policy basically says if you take our money we expect you to do something we expect you to do something relationship to data you know so NSF has a policy and it says things around well we expect you to have a data management plan which is going to tell you tell people about how you propose to share your data with others if we fund you you know we can fund you to deliver stuff related to your data so we can actually fund you to do data specific activities and also as research funders we can provide or we can support through our funding mechanisms actual data infrastructures themselves so again Joe was talking about the work of the EBI you know that is some of that is funded you know through Europe and some of that is funded through the welcome trust which is a major charitable research funder in the UK so that's where funders are stepping up and actually funding infrastructures for data so in terms of what are the data policies for the research councils in general well basically you know data generated through research council funded research should by and large be available for data sharing for reuse though and this is a very strong provider protections and constraints are in place now I mentioned that we can be no less constraining than the freedom information legislation allows but freedom information legislation doesn't mean you have to give everything away to everybody so that there are preventive protections there in place to cover issues say around consent and confidentiality in the medical and the social sciences there are plenty protections in place to cover inappropriate release of data so you don't want to release of data too early otherwise the researchers don't have a chance to publish their research and you know and actually complete the research process so and that is you know that is not to seem to be in the public interest by damaging research therefore there are protections in place to deal with that but I think the key message is when you're developing policies you must realise you know if you have to live within a freedom information regime if you're a public institution you can be no more constrained than the legislation allows so the key thing it's not up to researchers now in the UK to say I like that person I'm going to share my data with that person but I don't like that person therefore I'm not going to share with them if there's no legitimate reason not to share in theory they have to make their data available so within the research councils the basis of our policies is our common principles on data policy and they are almost readable um I do have a slide somewhere which explains what they are in more detail but they're the basically principles that data are public good they should be made openly accessible to others but they shouldn't be inappropriate released um and you know it's it's it's legitimate to use public funds in their management etc the URL is there I won't go into too much detail but it's it's basically to say we have a set of principles we've developed they themselves were were were developed from the OECD the Organization of Economic Cooperation Development has a set of guidelines on I'm trying to think of what they're called um principles on public access to publicly funded research data for my sins I should know as I was one of the authors of those print OECD principles as well but it's to say we know we are seven research councils but we have a set of common policy principles which underpin all our policies on access to data another driver which I've already mentioned this is issue of research integrity you know one of the drivers for us is to ensure that the research we publish is as robust as possible and part of that quest for robustness is being able to access for other people to be able to access the underlying data the data behind the graphs so to speak now as I as I mentioned there's currently there's been a um a draft policy from the research councils on um their new position on open access which is available it's still on the web for people who want to see it but basically it says that research papers must include a statement now on how the underlying research materials data and samples and materials can be accessed some research councils my own included already has a policy statement of that effect but not all research councils do so again this is another driver for us to get researchers to think quite carefully about how they deal with their data and crucially how the research institutions also deal with these issues another area another driver for policies around research data is research basically it's it's codes of practice on research behaviour we have research councils we have our policy on the conduct and governance of good research practice many research funders have these policies about how you should undertake research activities and this is just pulled out of the rcuk code of practice so it notes unacceptable conduct includes um you know a mismanagement of the underlying data and there's a rcuk and there's basically it is unacceptable if you don't make the relevant primary data and research evidence access accessible to others for a reasonable period after research is published and we say by default round about 10 years or so but for major projects especially you know of say medical or environmental impact where policy decisions are based on that a government policy decisions we expect to longer period so it's basically saying you know we as research funders this is what how we expect you to undertake your research so these requirements are both talk to the individual researcher they also talk to the researchers institution as well and the responsibility is a little fall upon a research institution now i'm going to look at the policies of two individual councils my own natural environment research council and the engineering and physical sciences research council the reason i've chosen these two is to some extent there are different ends of a spectrum nirk along with the economic and social research councils has a data policy in place now for over 20 years whereas epsrc basically i think it was last year basically implemented their data policies so they've come to the game fairly late with a formal data policy but they've had the opportunity of seeing how others have done it and they've actually done it quite differently to some extent and um actually if i was starting again i would look very seriously at this policy because epsrc puts their onus on the research institution and speaks to the research institutions that they fund and say right you're the people who are you know responsible for the research teams the research is going out under your name as an institution that's done the work we expect you as an institution to take the main responsibility for the issues around data and to have that responsibility for the long term management of data beyond the end of one project or program um now this is sort of one end of a spectrum of how we can think about responsibilities whereas nirk um and this is what nirk's policy is about very much places the onus of responsibility on the researcher and says it's the researcher's responsibility to do stuff with data so we have a policy you know which and why we as a research and again this sort of tries to explain why we as a research fund to have a policy but it's it's to ensure the environmental data that's collected under our funding are really available for anyone to use in the longer term and to also crucially a second point to help in the form of publication of data which we're going to look at as well coming on to and to meet legislation but our policy very much sits the responsibility is tend to sit on the p.i and i think if i was writing this policy again i would i'd actually say well actually some of that responsibility has to be shared by the institution by default it tends to become an institutional activity but we're less specific about saying it is up to the institution to do it so that's something to consider as organisations develop their policies how much is the responsibility of an individual and how much is the responsibility of the institution they work for now our policy within nirk our key principles are that um we will support the long term management of data but we will make those openly and freely and by free we mean available for free to anyone to do anything with so very much driven by this agenda of reuse repurposing exploitation and crucially we'll make the stuff available for anyone for free apart from very few special cases where for example the data sets we hold contain data which is provided by a third party so if it's a data set say which contains a topographic map or something within it those are produced by the ordinance survey in the uk and they are quite tightly controlled in terms of contextual property but the majority of the data we hold we will make available for free for anyone to do anything with but we also require that anyone we fund offers back to us copies of the data they collect which we will then manage and disseminate through our own network of data centres so i've been talking about nirk i've been talking about EPSRC so there are differences in policies across the research funders and these tend to be based in terms of discipline differences a good example here is the medical sciences you know consent and confidentiality issues mean it's much more um tricky well not you have to take more issues into consideration if you want to share and make available data which is about human subjects because all issues around consent and informed consent about wanting your data shared as opposed to data just collected about the environment we tend to make a lot more freely available so there are disciplinary and access of disciplinary differences which will inform a policy um i've talked about this access of responsibility you know one of them is to do with individual as opposed to institution where do those responsibilities lie and a third access to think about in terms of a data policy is where is the infrastructure coming from to manage the data is it very much just the institutional level like which we were hearing earlier about the facilities being set up at Cornell or is it via a centrally funded provision as from example my research council or the economic and social research council make available central data management facilities and also in terms of how you can actually access funds to support data management activities and here you have to be quite clear if we're developing policies between um those activities that take place within a project and those activities that take pace beyond the end of any one project or programme so within a project by and large from our perspective in the research councils you must bid for the resources you need so if you're going to need a buy informatician an informatician in your project to help deliver data management activities you have to make sure you bid for the money to pay for that person however post project data management from my research council will provide a central facility so you don't need to fund for those activities however another institution may require that you must you must you know you're to support their infrastructure you're going to have to have a certain amount of overhead within any grant application to put into a long-term funding of any infrastructure to deliver long-term data management so again this is a key policy difference which varies across funders in terms of how their perspective on supporting research infrastructures is um so as I talked about EPSRC they very much say it's responsible of institution and that money must come from grants within projects or from block grants or from the money received from the funding councils etc whereas NERC we provide seven environmental data centres which we fund for the long term to manage the data that our research generates we can do this to some extent because we have our network of our own research centres our own wholly owned research centres which are part of the UK's national infrastructure in environmental research so as we have a long-term commitment to supporting our own research infrastructures part of that is providing data management infrastructures within that and on top of that we then provide a a data discovery service a data catalog service which allows you to look across all the data we hold and to search it as a seamless whole and we are moving more towards trying to deliver a more integrated approach for data so as a user you don't have to know which of our seven data centres stuff is held in we're trying to come up with a in a technical phrase a more common web services based architecture where we'll provide a standard service value of web services and other people can build their services on top and dip into our data but the great thing about that is it means that people who may want to innovate say in commercial activities but they want some environmental data can dip into our services to pull data out and mash it up with data from somewhere else we're also talking to the social scientists and the people of medical science about how could we extend this model more widely to research data so that we can start to make it easier for people to do more cross-cutting cross-disciplinary research by pulling data from discipline areas out using the same protocols you know through a set of common service layers so this is still very much you know future thinking but if you know if institutions are holding research data we've got to get it out there and get it used it's pointless just holding and managing stuff if we're not making it available for other people to use now in terms of how we actually go about implementing our policies too often you know I just hear people say well it's all to do with carrots and sticks and as I say give me a big enough carrot and I'll hit someone with it basically we we have to really as research funders recognise we can't just implement policies from on high it's pointless to say well I've got a policy go away and do it I think it may be argued in the US so NSF have developed their data management policy but they've been fairly light on how they're going to actually make sure it it happens um you might want to comment about that afterward um whereas we're certainly with our research cancer saying well actually if we're going to have a policy it's pointless having a policy if we can't make it work so we're finding ways to incentivise people to get into do stuff we're also looking at ways of of monitoring their performance so to speak and and to to censor them if they don't don't do the right things and we have a project at the moment called PIP our policy implementation project to implement our data policy in full as our new data policy came into force a couple of years ago and we're still actively going through processes to make it a living activity within our research community and what we're going to be asking for is both outline and full data management plans so if you're putting in a grant proposal we want to see you've done a little bit of thinking about data nothing major you know it's like a paragraph or so in the case of support but the sort of things you want to know about is well what data of long-term value do you really think you're going to generate you know when do you think you're going to have these available you know and crucially who is the person who's going to be responsible for the data issues during the research activity it's basically to show that the research has at least engaged with some of the data issues while they think about putting their science proposal together rather than coming at data as an add-on almost as a science is finishing saying oh we better do something about meeting the data policy now now if you're actually funded we expect you to produce a full data management plan within about three months or so of getting your award letter and that will be a collaborative activity between yourself and our own research centres and that full plan is very much the contract between the principal investigator the PI and one of our data centres and it will outline the key things you're going to do in terms of data you know the who the what data the where you know who's going to do it where's it going to be done and crucially when's it going to be done and also says what data of long-term value you tend to deposit you intend to deposit with the data centre now this picks up again on one of the issues that joe raised in her talk about we can't manage everything forever so how do we start to make those decisions about what data we're going to keep what we're going to throw away what we say is we will take on board data of long-term value and we'll guarantee to keep those in our in our data centres so we're developing this concept of what we call our data value checklist it's trying to quantify working with the research community how we identify data which we should keep and how we should identify stuff which is less useful to hang on to and can be thrown away as one of our previous chief executives used to say well if it's stuff to do with goldfish physiology I think we can throw that away because all we can do is just put another goldfish in a liquidizer kind of thing but um joking aside this has actually proved it was a nice idea but it's actually proven to be quite a difficult concept to actually formally write down how do I identify data which we want to keep we have a working version we're still consulting on it but it's not an easy answer to give but crucially our management I mean you know that my chief executive wants to know he hasn't signed a blank check to um you know to commit to managing the whole corpus of data generated through no research as it will basically it'll probably bankrupt us at the end of the day so very briefly as my time is rapidly running out what sort of where are we going to go in the future um I think we've been talking about data publication and that's one way of incentivising researchers through being able to formally publish data sets um through the issuing of DOIs for data sets digital object identifiers we now have that facility within NERC to issue DOIs through data site uh Sarah Callahan one of my colleagues is here and maybe want to talk to her informally if Sarah waves her arm around um who's lead is a project manager working for me on our data citation activities there's a role of publishers actually in producing much richer publications and we've talked about some of the work EBI is doing but also we shouldn't forget about the things that commercial publishers can do and commercial publishers may be able to deliver in this area um I think crucially we have to clarify the role of what data centres like what my research council funds which very much have that long term vision of managing data for reuse and the role of repositories in managing data because if all repositories become a ways of putting data into a secure box which you never then open the lid off apart from in extreme circumstances is that going to be useful to anybody another data that is there is one thing but as I said if we're managing these data we're running to get them out there and use by other people and finally under code data's banner we're thinking about something called the agenda for data which is to talk to a large talk to the really large scale international programs of research and trying to get them to adopt very much common principles around data so as these big international programs like the world climate world climate research program and the new iXU program on global change which is just starting up the future earth program trying to get them to come up with a set of common principles principles around data which articulate the value of data and clearly explain if you're going to be doing this global scale science these are the things you must do in terms of data and I'll leave it there thank you


Manuel Mirt, welcome to WPC TV. You're the director of an important program on transatlantic relations at Harvard. Yes. Thank you for having me. So the obvious question is, how are transatlantic relations going to be affected by the election of Donald J. Trump? Right. Well, it's very hard to tell. But we know from the campaign speech that he's much more skeptical about the European project. And I think he gives it less strategic importance than previous presidents. Some of the things that he said on the campaign trail have actually been said by prior presidents, but not in such a radical way. So sort of the free-riding issue of European security and NATO, European security and defense, the fact that Europeans need to contribute more to NATO and to global security more broadly, that has been said in the past. And it's been said by secretaries of defense, by presidents. What he has said, though, is slightly different in the sense that he's not just saying you should take more of the burden. He's saying we're going to stop abiding by Article 5 or we're actually going to leave the space until you take responsibility for this. And I think that is very different. And if you connect that to what he's been saying to other allies, he's sort of revising and reviewing the alliance system that the United States has had in place since the end of the Second World War. This is true about Korea. It's true about Japan. It's true about other countries. So he seems to be very much about retreating. I mean, in terms of NATO, that's quite a big threat because if you take the Baltic States, who obviously have a certain fear of Russia, only Estonia meets the 2 percent of GDP benchmark for defense spending. Yes, but you know, I mean, this is, you know, it's a curious way of measuring defense contributions because Europeans take on different burdens, different to the Americans. So if you look at cold defense spending, yes, it's true. I think the Americans are contributing about 80 percent of the NATO defense budget or something like that, you know. So they're contributing more in the hard, hard spending side of things. But on the Russian sanctions, for example, if you look at who suffered the highest cost for the sanctions, it was clearly the Europeans, right? So there are different tools that we use together for similar objectives. And the cost of using those tools is distributed very differently across the Atlantic as well. So it all depends on how you define security. We define it in very simple terms, and clearly there's a huge free-riding issue. If you define it in more complex terms, then it's a little bit more balanced. Although I have to tell you that almost everybody agrees now that Europeans need to do a little bit more and coordinate the way they work around security issues because I think, you know, Europe spends around 200, a little bit over 200 billion security and defense every year combined. But we have an issue with inefficiency, we're not coordinating our procurement or defense spending or planning or et cetera, et cetera. Final question, then. It's pretty clear that most Europeans, A, didn't expect a Trump victory, and B, didn't really want one. Do you think that nonetheless the transatlantic alliance, which has been there since World War II, actually will survive? Yes. I mean, I think it'll survive because the underlying drivers are still there, which are shared values, pretty significant shared interests. Those interests range from economic, to diplomatic, to, you know, the whole architecture that we build together around issues that have to do with rule of law, human rights, free trade, things like that, I think are still going to be there. So it's a nice, optimistic note I wish to end. Yeah, thank you. Have a new ominous. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you, John.


Hey guys, it's Liana. I'm here today to talk about books that I'm hypocritical about. So I'm fairly well known for my rant reviews and unpopular opinions.  I am well aware. And I do realize, I think, because when I talk about books that I do like, I'll often say like, I know in the past I've criticized books for this but in this book it doesn't bother me because whatever. So I'm gonna go through a list of books that I guess we're gonna go with the one I hated or accused it of being flawed in a particular way. And then I'm gonna tell you about a book that does the exact same thing that I love.  Okay, so I hate thrown-of-glass. I tried so so so so hard to like thrown-of-glass, to get into thrown-of-glass, to read thrown-of-glass. I owned like all the thrown-of-glass books and got rid of all the thrown-of-glass books. And I accused it of of like the world building being terrible, of the main character being really kind of childish and unlikable and emotional. And I just really don't like the main character for that reason. And I was like, it's saying that it's a fantasy but really just a romance with like a lot of romance in it. And it's just like a lot of like wordy flowery descriptions of things amounting to nothing. And I don't think I'm wrong about that. I think thrown-of-glass really is all those things. But I love Shatter Me. Okay, the first Shatter Me book, I low-key hated for most of it. And then by the end of the first Shatter Me book, I was like, I'm kind of into this. Also, how the f**k can Warner be the endgame romance, which all of the merch has informed me he must be, or he will be. And I was like, how? I got tricked into reading the rest of the books because I was just like, I need to know how. And now I'm like into Shatter Me. And yeah, the main character is an emotional female who makes dumb decisions and it is a romance, not really a like interesting sci-fi dystopian. Like that aspect of things is kind of there to serve the romance plot more than anything. It's over the top. It's dramatic. It's melodramatic. That a writing is like very purpley and flowery and I'm into it. I do think because it is shorter, the books are shorter. I do feel like the head of Mafi knew that she was telling a story about Juliet and her like romances and like kind of keeps it tight and keeps it made me to that. There aren't like a million sub plots and sub characters that like take up a lot of time and amount to nothing because really the plot isn't that important. I feel like the head of Mafi knew that it's not, that it's not over here for it's not what she's here for. So she kind of stuck to the essentials, the things that we are there for. So I never felt like it was bogged down by trying to continue to pretend to be something it wasn't. I don't know if that's an actual justification or not, but that's kind of how I feel about it. I feel like it is just as trashy, but it's better at being that trash in a way that genuinely is addicting for me and I do think the head of Mafi's purple prose is more artful. I do think that her like descriptions and poetical ways of talking about things, they're very extra. It's a lot, but I do think there is some genuine poetry and art to the way that she writes that I do enjoy from a craft like wordsmith standpoint more so than Sarah J Maas. That's just how I feel about it. Next up is The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. I had many criticisms for The Way of Kings, but the one that is relevant here now is I did criticize it for kind of stopping all the storytelling to tell world building stuff that wasn't being like that we didn't need to know. And there is a fine line and it is very, it's a very, your mileage may vary, gray area subject to preference type thing, how much world building is necessary to know to establish a world is feeling real and how much is extraneous. I felt like a lot of the world building detail in The Way of Kings was extraneous or at least because it was delivered in a way that was kind of into a dumpy. It felt more extraneous because it felt like it was taking time away from the story rather than kind of organically filtering into my awareness as the reader. That said, I've heard this criticism leveled at The Wolf by Leo Kauru, which is one of my all time favorite books. I've read it three times. I'm already itching for a fourth read. I've heard it criticized for the amount of description that Leo Kauru includes for the world of the Anakim, for the buildings they build, the way they organize themselves, the their relationship with nature, with the nature itself, all of that. To me, it came across as very much like reading an anthropological ethnography. And when you read an ethnography, all of that is super duper relevant because we're learning about what makes a culture that culture. And it didn't really come across that way to me in The Way of Kings, partly because I felt like the culture and world building in The Way of Kings didn't make sense. So for that reason, then I also couldn't forgive because I was like, you're spending a lot of time telling me all this detail that ultimately doesn't really make sense. So I think I found it more frustrating for that reason. Whereas in The Wolf, it feels very to me organic. I don't feel like the story is stopping to tell me those things. I feel like it's really important to really see how the Anakim are different from humans because the Anakim are Neanderthals. And so how they operate is different. And it's necessary to understand how different that is. And to them, their home is their everything. And so describing their home to them is this is essential to describing who they are, because who they are is where they are. Because that makes sense. Makes sense to me. And I love it.  Okay, who does it? But I did not like it in The Way of Kings. Next up, I have Wicked Saints by Emily Duncan, I think is the author. And I hated that book. It was very like derivative of the Grisha trilogy, in my opinion. Grisha trilogy meets the Ralo ship, and it was just badly executed in my opinion. However, a lot of the appeal and a lot of the reasons that people did seem to like it was the sort of like edge lord romance between the main character, Nadia, and the sort of darkling type character, which I found cringy and poorly developed and too over the top in terms of like, um, edgy darkness.    And people who say Six of Crows is good, but Kaz Breckers is an edge lord. Kaz Brecker.   You do not know how much I love Kaz Brecker. Name a car after Kaz Brecker. My license plate is customized to refer to reference Kaz Brecker. I have like a skull, a crow skull hanging from my wit mirror in my car for Kaz Brecker. I really like Kaz Brecker. And like, to me, there's a lot of subtleties in his character that makes him so much more than just the service level edge lord. He's got depth and personality. He's got reasons to be the way that he is. Okay, like if you look at fan art, yeah, he's an edge lord. But I feel like the reason it works, like I feel like people like Emily Duncan look at something like Kaz Brecker and like, I can do that. But all they took from Kaz Brecker was the window dressing. They took his like outfit and that's it. You know what I mean? And there's just so much more to it. And if you don't have them much more to it in your story, then all you end up with is an empty shell of an angel lord. Kaz Brecker is nuanced and perhaps a little dramatic. But I think he's well written. I think Liam Arduko is good at character development. So I think I completely eat up the romance between Kaz Brecker and a nage. I ship them hardcore. I want good things for my Kaz, even though he kind of doesn't deserve them because he's a low camp monster. But Kaz must be an animal. Next up I have Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson. That is the third book in the Mistborn trilogy. I did really like the Mistborn trilogy. I really did and I do recommend it. However, I really didn't care for the way that it ended, which is what my criticism video is about, for which people like to hate me. I didn't like the way that faith was handled in the conclusion of that trilogy. Having faith be a strong component and a large part of the story you're telling, having characters grappling with faith, having questions of faith be really instrumental and significant to the story you're telling. I'm absolutely fine with that.  They like to tell me a lot of things. But I'm basically saying that like, so what if he's dealing with faith? Like it's a fantasy world.  And those are just the answers to that world. And they accuse me of projecting onto it like a real world faith. The way that I read it, the way that it came across to me was like an allegory. Was Brandon Sanderson not so subtly telling us a faith-based allegory, which really left a bad taste in my mouth, which is why it bothered me. There's a lot of stories that don't have this sort of one-to-one comparison to make to real world faith, where the conclusions and the answers are handed so cleanly and so definitively where you're like, this is the answer to the questions of faith. As if to say that you shouldn't have doubts. Part of faith, the nature of faith, both in real life and the way that I prefer it to be depicted is to not have those answers so clean. Because if the answer is that clean, then it's not faith anymore. Then then it's just like a natural phenomenon that you're studying, if that makes sense. Like the whole point of faith is the leap of faith. And so as soon as you start hand-fistedly giving me answers to faith, that's not for you anymore. So it was very heavy-handed in my opinion. I didn't care for it. But so, again, people disagree with me. And people tell me that I'm wrong for feeling that way, which is kind of ironic in my opinion, considering that we're talking about how people interpret faith and me having a problem with it not being left open to interpretation and I'm wrong. Anyway, I really do like the Golden Compass, or as it's known in the UK and Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. Now, I did not like actually where that series ended up for the exact same reason.  But he did pretty overtly in the, even in the first book, address faith, except he was less addressing faith and more addressing the institution of the Catholic Church, which is why I don't, I mean, I guess this one is kind of a lie.  But I guess arguably, I mean, that's the nuance for me. Like, I do like when faith is handled, addressed when structures of faith, faith-based organizations, faith-based things are incorporated, addressed, discussed, debated, grappled with in a fictional fantasy speculative kind of way and speculative context, which is why when I say that I didn't like it in Mist Point, it's not that I never like it. I just, when it's handled in the way that it was handled in Mist Born, where it does not leave any room for interpretation. That's when I really don't like it. Now, again, Philip Pullman doesn't also doesn't really leave room for interpretation and the end of his dark materials trilogy, which I also didn't like. But I did like the Golden Compass. So I guess I don't know what I'm trying to say here. I guess I'm trying to say that I'm not a hypocrite about this one. I'm a hypocrite about the other things, but not this one.  Next up, I have Raider Dragons by Evan Winter. Raider Dragons is a revenge story that's nothing but revenge. And I was like, this is really one dimensional and boring, because it's literally like the only thing towel cares about is revenge. It's just revenge, revenge, revenge, revenge, my train to get revenge, my battle to get revenge, I'm gonna get badass, so I can get revenge, revenge, revenge, revenge, revenge, I don't think it's like a word anymore. But I love, love, love, love, love, love, love best of cold by Joe Abercrombie. I think he handles a revenge story a lot better. But technically, Monza Mercado is just as dedicated to her revenge quest as towel. That's the only thing she cares about.  Nothing else matters to Monza. Just revenge. To me, I think it works better because there are other characters that are to get almost as much screen time as Monza. And they don't only care about revenge. So you do get that interplay. And you get to like examine these other characters and you get other stuff going on for that reason. If we did only follow Monza Mercado and we were only ever in her head, it's very possible best of cold would I would find it just as boring as I found range of dragons because she is I think she's slightly more nuanced than towel, but she is kind of a woman with one mission and one mission only and that is revenge. So arguably, she's just like towel. Next up I have Dune by Frank Herbert, which I didn't hate. But I had to take down my review unlike Way of Kings, which I just made unlisted so that I'd get like slightly less hatred. I literally made my Dune video unlisted or I'm sorry, private because that wasn't saying I there's absolutely no amount of like monetization is gonna make that worth it. But Dune, I accused of being up its own ass in terms of how in love with its own philosophizing it seems to be how it just goes off on just discussing this philosophical idea to the point where I'm like, I don't think you're telling a story. I think you're just like spinning an idea on paper in cool words. But this isn't a story.  But I love the Secret History by Donna Tart, which is arguably equally up its own ass, because there isn't that much of a story in the Secret History. Now I would argue that because of the very nature of the type of book that it is, it's less necessary for it to be telling us quote unquote story because the Secret History in Dark academia in general is more about the kind of like philosophical head and emotional journey of the characters involved who are themselves up their own asses, whereas a space opera I go into and the the genre demands more plot. And I feel like Dune to its own detriment kind of stops having a plot too often to philosophize. And I'm like, maybe write a different book with essays and this save that for that. This is a story.  That's what it felt like it felt like this space opera is the macaroni and we keep getting spinach thrown in because he's like sneaking in the philosophizing, which I know people who love Dune would probably well they already did kind of like want to shut my head off for that. But because that is what makes Dune the legendary book that it is all of the ideas. I just think they're not I feel like they're delivered in a way that's really inorganic to a space opera. It's keep stopping the philosophize, which again, a lot of people love the book have no problem with it. But basically, I'm saying I don't have a problem with the book philosophizing being up its own ass. Apparently, I just don't like it in Dune. And last and probably least is Dangerous Alliance by Janiki Cohen.  However, I love Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by McKenzie Glee. Now I would argue that the dialogue is slightly more historically accurate in Gentleman's Guide. But ultimately, the nature of the plot is kind of even more silly and unbelievable and more anachronistic than Dangerous Alliance. It's debatable. But I feel like the humor is genuinely funny in Gentleman's Guide.  Again, probably more unbelievable. I just thought it was I had a better time with it. It was more enjoyable. It was funnier and the dialogue was slightly less anachronistic. But I mean, basically, I'm forgiving a lot more things with Gentleman's Guide because I like it. Those things are still present in it as they are in Dangerous Alliance. And if I hate a Gentleman's Guide, I would tear it down for very similar reasons, but I just happened to like it. So let me know in the comments down below if you like or dislike the books that I have listed as ones that I like and or dislike. I didn't. Yeah. I feel like I'm gonna piss off a lot of people for the second time because I'm listed a lot of books here that already pissed people off the first time that I explain why I didn't like them. But whatever, let me know your thoughts and feelings in the comments down below. I post videos on Saturdays, other random times as well, but definitely Saturdays. So like and subscribe. And I'll see you when I see you. Bye.


So the interesting thing that we're doing at the moment is is taking the the paper that the researchers have written Which is a specification of what the protocol is But but it's not a specification in the way that we would like it As as implementers because it's you know that that specification is designed so that you can prove things It's not and it's so it's a very high level of abstraction and we want to have a Specification that has as small a gap as possible between the spec And the implementation and at the moment the the gap is like this and we are trying to get the gap down to like almost nothing and so that means we have to start from the paper and Come up with re-respecify it extract the specification the protocol put it in a notation that's that's appropriate for us and then do a whole step by step of refinements Getting getting from you know very high level down to more and more and more detailed low level Until we get to a point where we say okay now This is something that we can actually implement and then hopefully we can say well You know you kind of look at the code and the spec together and say these are the same We've now we've now got you know we've meet we've we've got a meeting between the spec and implementation and At least additionally we'll just you know eyeball it and say okay Those are the same thing and then that is something that then can then be run And and we're then pretty sure that it's what we want So at the moment we have just got to the stage of re-specifying the the papers description of the protocol in a in a new style and and already that's forced me and the researchers to To ask some you know, panicky detailed questions of what does that mean exactly? What is what is that representation and what about this and where did you get that from and these are things that in the paper? For the proofs don't really matter, but we need to be very specific about them when we're talking about Cardano We are actually aiming for decentralization and we were aiming for for something. That's That's that that that actually that is quite unprecedented because We also want the the system to have different properties depending on you know Who or how will it be ran or regulated? Okay, so That is why our great scientists came up with this great protocol called uroboros which is based on proof-of-stake and Over the past Months we have we have implemented it to a full extent But this all the fundamental features are there, right? We're still we're still Working on reward system and incentive structure having discussions, you know, if even if it should be even there In the production, I mean it's analyzed in the paper, but we're sort of thinking about it now and Right now we're we're doing some research regarding blockchain sharding to further improve performance


Hey there everyone, welcome back to the channel. And if you're new, thank you for taking time to tune in. You won't regret it. So today's topic we'll be covering is the reasons why eBay resellers are not making a full-time income and some of the key areas that could be affecting your results. This video will be focusing primarily on the aspects that are not eBay platform issues or eBay business decision related. So basically focusing on you and your business. We will first categorize the possible problems and then we will look at possible solutions for these issues. But remember, these are guides not necessarily the reasons for failing or guaranteed fixes. So let's have a look at some of the categories. So we have unrealistic expectations. Many people start selling on eBay with the expectation of making a lot of money quickly and easily. However, the reality is it takes time and effort to build a successful eBay business. Unrealistic expectations are one of the biggest reasons why eBay sellers fail. Many people start selling on eBay with the expectation of making a lot of money quickly and easily. However, the reality is that it takes time and effort to build a successful eBay business. Here are some common unrealistic expectations that eBay sellers have, making a lot of money overnight. There's no such thing as a get rich quick scheme and eBay is no exception. It takes time and effort to build a successful eBay business. Selling everything they list. Not every item that you list on eBay will sell. Some items may take longer to sell than others and some items may never sell at all. Getting top dollar for their items. You may not be able to get top dollar for your items, especially if you are selling in a competitive niche. Not having to deal with difficult buyers. Every eBay seller will eventually have to deal with a difficult buyer. It is important to learn how to deal with these buyers professionally and calmly. Being able to work whenever they want. Selling on eBay can be a full-time job, especially if you are successful. You will need to be willing to put in the time and the effort to manage your listings, respond to buyers' inquiries and ship items. If you have unrealistic expectations about selling on eBay, you are more likely to be disappointed and give up. It is important to have realistic expectations and to be prepared to work hard to build a successful eBay business. Here are some tips for setting up realistic expectations as an eBay seller. Do your research. Learn as much as you can about an eBay marketplace, including the fees, the rules and best practices. Start small. Don't try to sell too many items at first. Start with a small number of items that you are knowledgeable about and that you can source and sell profitably. Be patient. It takes time to build a successful eBay business. Don't get discouraged if you don't see results immediately. Be flexible. Be willing to adjust your prices, your listings and your strategies as needed. Be professional. Treat your buyers with respect, even if they're difficult. By following these steps, you can set realistic expectations for yourself and increase your chances of success as an eBay seller. Lack of knowledge and experience. Many eBay sellers do not have the knowledge or experience necessary to be successful. This includes knowledge of eBay's rules and policies as well as knowledge of how to source and sell products profitably. Lack of knowledge and experience is a common reason why eBay sellers fail. Many start selling on eBay without any prior knowledge or experience. This can lead to a number of problems, including not understanding eBay's rules and policies. eBay has a complex set of rules and policies that sellers must follow. If you don't understand these rules and policies, you could easily break them and be penalized by eBay. Not knowing how to source products profitably. There are many different ways to source products for eBay. Some sellers source products from retail stores. Some source products from wholesalers or manufacturers. If you don't know where to source products or how to negotiate good prices, you could end up losing money on your sales. Not knowing how to create effective listings. Your eBay listings are your storefront. They are the first thing that buyers see when they are searching your products. If your listings are not well written or if they don't include all the necessary information, buyers are less likely to purchase from you. Not knowing how to ship items safely and efficiently. Shipping is an important part of the eBay selling process. You need to know how to package your items safely and how to choose the right shipping method. If you don't package your items correctly or if you choose the wrong shipping method, your items could be damaged or lost in transit. Not knowing how to provide good customer service. Customer service is essential for any business, but it is especially important for eBay sellers. eBay buyers have high expectations for customer service. If you don't respond to buyers inquiries promptly and courteously, or if you don't go the extra mile to resolve any problems that your buyers may have, you could receive negative feedback and lose sales. If you're new to eBay selling, it is important to educate yourself about the marketplace and to gain some experience before you start selling. There are many resources available online or in libraries or YouTube that can teach you everything you need to know about selling on eBay. You can also learn a lot by talking to other eBay sellers or participating in eBay discussion forums. Here are some tips to educate yourself about eBay selling and gaining experience. Read eBay Seller Center. eBay Seller Center is a great resource for learning about eBay's rules, policies and best practices. Read eBay blogs and articles. There are many blogs and articles written by experienced eBay sellers. These resources can provide you with valuable insights and advice. Watch eBay tutorials. There are many eBay tutorials available on YouTube and other sharing websites. These tutorials can teach you how to perform specific tasks such as creating listings, shipping items and handling customer inquiries. Talk to other eBay sellers. You can learn a lot by talking to other eBay sellers, join an eBay forum or discussion group and ask questions. You can also reach out to experienced eBay sellers directly and ask for advice. By taking the time to educate yourself about eBay selling and to gain some experience, you can increase your chances of success. Another area of concern would could be uncompetitive prices. Many eBay sellers price their items too low in order to be competitive. This can lead to low profits or even losses. Here are some reasons why eBay sellers price their items too low. Fear of not selling. Some eBay sellers are afraid not to sell their items so they price them too low. However, it is important to remember that it is better to have a few profitable sales than many unprofitable sales. Lack of knowledge of product costs. Some eBay sellers do not know the true cost of their products. This includes the cost of the products itself as well as the cost of shipping, packaging and eBay fees. If you do not know the true cost of your products, you are more likely to price them too low. Competition from other sellers. The eBay marketplace is very competitive. There are millions of sellers that are selling millions of products. It can be difficult to compete on price, especially if you're selling in a popular niche. If you're pricing your items too low, you are likely to lose money on your sales. This can make it difficult to build a successful business. Here are some tips for pricing your eBay items competitively. Research the competition. Look at what other sellers are charging for similar items. This will give you a good idea of what are fair prices for your items. Factor in all the costs. When setting your prices, be sure to factor in the cost of the product itself as well as the cost of shipping, packaging and more importantly, the eBay fees. Use eBay sold listing tool. eBay sold listing tool can help you to determine what similar items are sold for in the past. This information can be used to set competitive prices for your items. Don't be afraid to experiment. You may need to experiment with different prices to see what works best for you. Start with the price that you are comfortable with and then adjust it as needed. It is also important to remember that price is not the only factor that buyers consider when making a purchase decision. Buyers also consider factors such as the condition of the item, the seller's feedback and the shipping cost. By offering high quality items, excellent customer service and competitive shipping rates, you can attract buyers even if you are not the lowest price seller. By following these tips, you can price your eBay items competitively and increase your chances of making a profit. Poor customer service. Many eBay resellers do not provide good customer service and this can lead to negative feedback and lost sales. Poor customer service is another common reason why eBay sellers fail. eBay buyers have high expectations of customer service. Many buyers willing to pay a premium for excellent customer service. Here are some examples of poor customer service that eBay sellers may provide. Not responding to buyers inquiries promptly and courtlessly. eBay buyers expect sellers to respond to their inquiries promptly and courtlessly. If you do not respond to buyer inquiries promptly or if you are rude or dismissive, you are more likely to receive negative feedback and consequently a loss of sales. Not going the extra mile to resolve problems. eBay buyers expect sellers to resolve any problems that they may have. For example, if a buyer receives a damaged item, they expect the seller to replace the item or issue a refund promptly. If you are not willing to go the extra mile to resolve problems, you are likely to receive negative feedback or a loss of sales. Not being honest and transparent with buyers. eBay buyers expect sellers to be honest and transparent. This includes being honest about the condition of the items, the shipping costs and the seller's return policy. If you are not honest and transparent with buyers, you are likely to receive negative feedback and lose sales. Using abusive language or threats in communication with buyers. eBay sellers must treat buyers with respect, even if they're difficult. If you use abusive language or threats in communication with buyers, you could be suspended or banned from eBay. Poor customer service can have a number of negative consequences for eBay sellers, including negative feedback that can damage your seller reputation and make it more difficult to attract buyers. Reduce sales, buyers are less likely to purchase from sellers with negative feedback. Suspension or ban from eBay. If you receive too many negative feedback ratings, you could be suspended or banned from eBay. Here are some tips to provide excellent customer service on eBay. Respond to the buyer's inquiries promptly. Even if you are busy, try to respond to them within 24 hours, be polite and helpful in your responses. Go the extra mile to resolve problems. If the buyer has a problem, do your best to resolve it promptly and to the buyer's satisfaction. Be honest and transparent with the buyer, whether that be about the condition of the items, the shipping costs or your return policy. Treat buyers with respect. Even if a buyer is difficult, treat them with respect. Refrain from using abusive language or threats. By providing excellent customer service, you can attract buyers, increase sales, and build a successful eBay business. Another issue that could be effecting your business is too much competition. The eBay marketplace is very competitive. There are millions of sellers selling millions of products and it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd and attract buyers.  The eBay marketplace is very competitive with millions of sellers selling millions of products. It can be difficult to stand out from the crowd and attract the buyers. So here are some specific ways that too much competition can impact eBay sellers. Lower profits. In a competitive market, sellers often have to lower their prices in order to attract buyers. This can lead to lower profits or even losses. Fewer sales. If buyers are faced with a wide range of choices, they may be less likely to purchase from you and this can lead to fewer sales. Increased costs. Sellers may need to spend more money on marketing and advertising in order to compete in the crowded market. This can increase costs and reduce profits. There are a number of things that eBay sellers can do to compete in a competitive market. Find a niche. Instead of trying to sell everything, focus on a niche market that you are passionate about and that you know well. This will help you stand out from the crowd and attract buyers. Offer competitive prices. Do your research to see what other sellers are charging for similar items. Price your items competitively, but don't sacrifice quality or customer service in order to compete on price. Provide excellent customer service. eBay buyers have high expectations for customer service. Respond to the buyer promptly and courteously and go the extra mile to resolve any problems that buyers may have. Use eBay's Promoted Listings Program. eBay's Promoted Listings Program allows you to promote your listings to buyers who are searching for similar items. This can help you get your listings seen by more buyers and to increase sales. So here are some additional tips to compete in a competitive eBay market. Differentiate yourself from the competition. What makes your business unique? Why should buyers choose you over your competitors? Focus on your strengths and highlight them in your listings and marketing material. Build a positive reputation. Positive feedback is essential for success on eBay. Make sure to provide excellent customer service and go the extra mile for your buyers. Stay informed about the latest trends and developments. The eBay marketplace is constantly changing. It's important to stay informed about the latest trends and developments so that you can adapt your business accordingly. By following these tips, eBay sellers can compete effectively and in a competitive marketplace. So to summarize inclusion, set realistic expectations. Don't expect to make a lot of money quickly and easily. It takes time and effort to build a successful eBay business. Educate yourself. Learn as much as you can about eBay's rules and policies as well as how to source and sell products profitably. There are many resources available online and in libraries and on YouTube and many social media platforms. Price your items competitively. Do your research to see what similar items are selling for. You don't want to price your items too low, but you also don't want to price them too high as nobody will buy your items. Provide excellent customer service. Respond to your buyer's inquiries. Go the extra mile. Resolve the problems. Find a niche. Don't try to sell everything instead find the niche market that you are passionate about and focus on selling products in that niche. This will help you stand out from the crowd and attract buyers. Before you rush in to make any drastic changes to your listings, I encourage you to think through how you will approach implementing your chosen changes and how it will fit into your schedule with the least impact on your daily tasks. Focus on the solutions rather than the problems. And remember, keep it real.


Hey everyone, welcome to today's day trading update today's Wednesday, October 28th Nice little morning of trading plus six hundred and twenty nine dollars on the day Just had the one little small loser in Nikola. That was a mighty 90 trade Just super small. I stayed super small all morning. Just the big overnight move Wasn't sure if this thing was gonna bounce or continue to flush. So just stayed really small Kind of nice runner in the Nasdaq for 255 tiny 49-dollar profit in Apple that was a runner mighty 90 in Netflix for 95 Nvidia mighty 90 for 110 and Tesla mighty 90 for 190. So let's take a look at these trades. I'll show you what I did Starting with Tesla. So we had this big push down got long right here and just got that bounce right there So nice quick little trade there in video on this flush down here Kind of nice bottom right there and and literally just got out right there. I mean just that little bit It just started chopping around and I was you know was so weak on the day I was assuming it was gonna flush lower which it did So ended up just kind of taking a quick profit on there and getting out Nikola Let's see. So Nikola. I ended up Getting short like right here. It flushed again. I didn't add to it. I was just staying super small I wasn't Wasn't trying to be a hero here And then once it once it bounced a little bit. I got out and just took a small loss of 70 bucks Netflix So in Netflix after it made this big Surge up got short right here and just caught this did a little down move here for a nice quick profit in Netflix and then my two runners were in Apple so when Apple flushed down and started chopping around below this pivot line Got short and just caught a little bit of this here when it started to come back up I just I just cut the the rest of it out and just booked a small profit and then the Nasdaq Was my biggest trade so biggest winner today MNQ and then the one loser in Nikola my runner in the Nasdaq very similar to Apple Where it came down it was it pushed below this pivot and when it bounced up I got short right here came down got out of one bounced back up Sold another one came back down got out and then when it started to push back up here I just got out of the rest. I was just kind of done for the day I was done by 11 a.m. Today Which is nice just kind of booking some profits early and calling it a day So plus six hundred twenty nine dollars on the day. These are the days.  Let me know