It's chiefs week The YouTube team keep it clean what's going on is engraving here with another video and in this video We're here to do a preview of the game between the Ravens and the chiefs coming up on Sunday night football Now these teams are both coming off a crazy Intense down to the wire as a matter of fact the Ravens game went past the wire But both of these teams are coming off some just wild games from last week Of course the chiefs they went up against the Browns and the Browns jumped out to a big lead on them But the chiefs are like we ain't worried about that and they came right back and the Ravens They also jumped out to a decent lead on the Raiders, but the Raiders said we ain't worried about that They came right back now. The only difference is the chiefs they came back in one The Ravens they jumped out to a lead and lost So they definitely went different directions last week, but last week was last week Now in this game, you know what before we get into a shout out to y'all shout out to all the team keep it clean patrons I appreciate y'all Thank you for showing extra support to the channel If you want to be a team keep it clean patron you can go to patreon.com slash engraving vids If you don't want to become a team keep it clean patron don't go to patreon.com Session gravy vids. I would not seriously appreciate y'all and what you all do for the channel because it helps out a Whole lot more than you think trust me more than you think And I just appreciate everybody that supports the channel that watches the videos that tells their friends families about the videos because It is a lot of work It's a whole lot of work that goes into it and I appreciate the fact that y'all support every single day A lot of people for who not even fans of the Ravens they come through and they show support and I appreciate it a lot So so thank you all whether you're a patron or not. Thank you. I appreciate that We got a we got a tough game this week Ravens got a very tough game against a very tough opponent and an opponent who has had their number of Course Ravens they are 0 and 3 under Lamar and under Patrick Mahones Ravens are 0 and 3 Against the Kansas City Chiefs and like we've mentioned a lot of times every single time we play them the loss Margin gets bigger and bigger and bigger First it was the overtime loss back in 2018 season or 20. Yeah, 2018 season Lamar's rookie year where they lost that field goal at the end of the game and then the next year it was the Where the Ravens they ended up losing by a one score with Shady McCoy He caught that misdirection screen because Ravens They had a chance to get a game winning drive at the end of the game But they could not stop that screen and you know screens have been killers to the Ravens for years And then it was last year on Monday Night Football at M&T Bank Stadium And the Chiefs they came in there and they ran a show like they were at home And the Ravens I think they lost by multiple scores that night So the Chiefs are definitely um, they got the Ravens number big time now something that Where it all starts at for me where I think it starts at where it has to improve would be coaching and With coaching you you cannot come out and play scared You come cannot come out and play intimidated and I feel that it's what happens with the Ravens and their coaching staff Whenever they play the Chiefs, I feel like there's that intimidation factor There's that that teacher to student factor where the student is just trying all these different ways to try to prove to the Teacher that hey, I know how to do this better than you do and I could even do it your way and beat you with your own style But it just it doesn't work like that and what I mean when I say that is Andy Reed being a teacher and John Harbaugh being a student because Andy Reed John Harbaugh came from Andy Reed's coaching tree as we all know now with John Harbaugh, it's like We somebody got to send a message to him like look Harbaugh You ain't got to prove nothing to Andy Reed man.  They cannot be intimidated of the Chiefs now as far as Offensive coordinator Greg Ron is it's all the same thing Call a good game Let if guys are hot let them keep going let them stay hot Last year when we played the Chiefs on Monday night football the run game was working wonderfully and then the Ravens threw it out the window threw it out the window Now With Tyson Williams something that I have been concerned about like why did he get seven carries in the first half look good But in the second half he only got two and Ravens had a lead on top of that But I know a lot of y'all shout out to team keep it clean y'all brought it to my attention that with the handoffs They weren't smooth handoffs. They were they were getting a little shaky So I guess maybe Ravens didn't want to risk it also in pass protection He he didn't look so good in pass protection last week and and of course in overtime It was him missing on a block To where Lamar at Jackson ended up getting hit from behind and fumbling that ball So there was just it was a definitely a a roller coaster of emotions a roller coaster of just Everything in that game from last week We saw we saw some good we saw some bad and we saw everything in between But with Tyson Williams, I just I wanted to get another shot It seems as if the Ravens are going into the direction of Latavius Murray being that guy And of course we're expecting to call up Levy on bail any day now, maybe even by the time you see this video They will have called him up. We'll see but I Just it seems as if that they're gonna go in a different direction from Tyson Williams and he won't end up being the starter for very long Because again Ravens they seem like they feel more comfortable with other options And Tyson he gives you just that burst man His his burst is gonna be better than a Levy on bail. His burst is gonna be better than a Latavius Murray And Trent and Kenny he brought that burst too, but they cut him So I still don't understand that move. I still don't understand that why I know somebody mentioned in the comment section Well, maybe with um with Tyson Williams possibly getting ready to be demoted He'll be that special teams guy for the Ravens and I just that burst is important man But we'll see how it all goes down because I know it Latavius Murray and Levy on bail They are better at pass protection right now than Tyson Williams is at this point in his career So we'll have to see how everything unfolds now the offensive line Which was all kinds of terrible last week They said that when we watched the Super Bowl last year where Patrick Mahomes had absolutely no time to throw the ball Against the Bucks his offensive line was in shambles.  It was a terrible game from Patrick Mahomes and their offensive line terrible game But they said that Lamar Jackson the percentage that he was uh that he was under pressure on His drop backs was actually a higher percentage than Patrick Mahomes was in the Super Bowl And I could see that I could definitely see that But offensive line has got to be much better than what they were last week Because if the offensive line is like that against these chiefs This is gonna be a disgusting game.  They can't bring that against the chiefs They just they can't chiefs are gonna have a lot more confidence. They should be getting the honey badger back this week So that's that's huge for them But all offense man, I just I want our offense to just come out strong and don't come out scared You saw what the Browns did last week They came out running that ball that run game set up to play action game Then they they were on a chief's head man. They were on a chief's head But you also saw how those mistakes you may not make many mistakes But any mistake you make against the chiefs is going to be Blown up that much more it just it makes it that much bigger because a team like this like the chiefs Especially one that could flip field position like that. They could score like that They could just come back like that or they could just extend the lead like that because you know They always looking for that big like always one thing. I love about Patrick my home's game. Love it This guy snapped the ball set and he'll be looking They could be a guy right in front of him for easy two-year-old completion Maybe four-year-old completion, but he's looking past that He's looking past that he's looking for a big play downfield. I know Lamar Jackson does a lot of the same thing, too It could be something easy right in front of him, but he'll be looking to really make that strike But with Patrick my home's in the chiefs, you know him and Tyreek Hill They always looking to make some noise happen, but real quick back to our offense Run that ball run the ball and run the ball effectively a big thing in this game is going to be Adjustments it was so frustrating last week watching the lack of adjustments and the lack of Making up for of compensating for a bad offensive line Where were the screenplay to the running backs because you know that Raiders were coming in they were coming in and A nice counter a nice way to slow that defense down from coming in will be to catch him with a screenplay to the running backs Ravens they did none of that They had no no parts to that at all And it was just it was frustrating to see and I just I really hope this week is better Is my confidence at an all-time high that this week will be better? No, not at all not at all But I certainly hope that these Ravens will prove me and really a lot of us wrong Mark Andrews Got to show up man Now while last week was not a big game.  We got to show up Had a super quiet game last week Sue was like super super quiet thing. He had like three catches for 30 30 yards or something like that super quiet game and Can't afford that this week Ravens can't afford that this week And one thing that they need to they need to take a page out of the Raiders playbook Darren Waller. No, he's a monster tight end. Dan Waller is a phenomenal tight end The Ravens know he was a phenomenal tight end going into the game. Yes, did he still go off against the Ravens in that game? Yes They still found ways to get him involved despite the Ravens knowing. Oh, this is their best offensive player They still found ways to get him involved Ravens need to take a page out of the Raiders playbook Do the same thing with Mark Andrews. It's a this is a this is a it's a big game it's a big game because The implications that it has in the long run are big Wilders did even despite how this game goes the season is not over the Ravens win the season not over The Ravens lose the season not over but still in the long run this game It counts a little bit more than some other games do especially cuz you're going up against an AFC opponent So this is gonna be something now wide receivers. I will say just keep doing what you do Hollywood had a good game last week Sammy Watkins despite having a couple drops clean that up But he had a good game last week too, and you know, he's gonna be extra motivated this week for some strange reason I don't know why But you know, Sammy Watkins is gonna be he gonna be ready. He gonna be ready now um, I Would hope that the Ravens could diversify the offense just a little bit more Get the get some other guys involved like a Devon Duvenay I expect him to still be on the field a lot like like he was last week and that was no surprise We expected him to be sort of that that that third wide receiver Especially with Rashad Bateman and Miles Boykin being out right now. So I expect a lot of the same stuff Now Lamar hold on to that ball man and and for Lamar You just want him to play his game, too Want him to be be you we know you can throw the ball. We saw it last week We've seen it for the past couple years. We know Lamar Jackson can throw that ball That's old news all these narratives that people continue to try to push That's that's been out the window for years It's obvious Lamar Jackson can throw the ball But do you do you if you see it take it and that's whether it's throwing That's whether it's running if you see it take it Take it now Hopefully going back to the offensive line because last week there were a lack of deep shots last week I think Lamar threw three there was one of Duvenay down the sideline that went out of bounds There was one of Mark Andrews where it was slightly overthrown and then there was the one of Sammy Watkins Which was a huge completion But we we want to see more more shots because that'll back the defense up That'll open up everything up underneath too So that's what we're hoping for this week and that's for the offense special teams Continue to do what you do You know special teams is always very special for the Ravens And that's always the the one part of the team where you can just always count on them to be good Um Devon Duvenay expect him to still remain a kick and punt return just to give them that possible big play And of course Justin Tucker sam cook.  We all looking at you my friend We are all looking at you in high definition and 4k. Well nfl with them 8k cameras. We will be looking at you very closely because with wink The lack of adjustments were frustrating too last week Because again going back to Dan Waller, you know who he is You knew who he was going into the game And even if he was a brand new player that you had never heard of and he just started going off last week All right second half. Let's make some adjustments. Nope Still continue to just dominate you Their best player and you found no way to take him out Chiefs are a much harder opponent than the Raiders will be Because They have a better quarterback and that's no shot at their car. Their car's still nice. He obviously showed us last week for his hand But this is Patrick Mahomes now This is Tyreek Hill now This is like an an upgraded version of what we saw last week a quarterback that can move and it's not afraid to try the deep passes and a speedster at wide receiver Who is always ready for a big play, but this is like an upgraded version of rugs We're way upgraded version.  He stays true to himself No matter who the opponent is no matter who the quarterback is no matter if it's working or not wink stays true to himself And he will live by die by the blitz In my opinion, I'm not a coach. I'm not a professional. I'm just a fan who gives his honest opinion on the ravens In my opinion All that blitzing and all that that's cool on a limited basis. It all it all just depends We can't just say oh wink.  No, we can't say that that to me that would be ignorant But we can say watch watch for how it's working Watch for how the chiefs are adjusting to your blitz Watch how they picking it up Watch who's getting home watch if anybody's getting home And watch if you're leaving somebody one-on-one with no safety help Especially all the speed that the chiefs have especially that big play ability that the chiefs have I would I would dial it back with uh with the Sean Elliott coming in there I would just have him roaming the field man Honestly because again chiefs are always looking for that big play. They're always looking for it And even if it's not the Sean Elliott, I was I would always have a safety back there I would always have a safety back there Because you just ah man It's it's just frustrating to think about especially especially last game like when we played the chief somebody night football Because I just keep thinking about that. I'm thinking about oh Marlon Marlon have our best corner back our best corner up our best corner back We had our best corner back our best cover corner back blitzing Our best one It's our best one Our best corner was blitzing and I know you want to switch it up and whatnot But and you can get away with something like that like in the bingles game In the bingles game Marlon Humphrey blitz the Sean Elliott blitz They will blitz in everybody that game everybody got a piece of burrow that game But that was the bingles you run that same stuff with the chiefs That's a much different team different coaching different experience It's different levels to this man and the chiefs are on a much different level than the bingles are so you just I'm just frustrated thinking about it man Um, I do not think this game is going to go good for the Ravens. I hope they prove me wrong I know there's been a lot of people that have said, oh man, it would be so Raven If they went out there and lost to the raiders like that then they came out and beat the chiefs and it would be But i'm not expecting it. I'm expecting the score to be 31 to 20 uh chiefs win Um, again, I hope that i'm wrong. I really I I hope that I am wrong I hope that i'm wrong two weeks in a row I didn't want to be wrong last week, but I ended up being big time wrong because I thought it's gonna be 45 17 Ravens, but Yeah, we obviously a little different score but I think it's going to be 31 20 and it's going to go to the chiefs um, I just Just from patterns man Just from patterns of things that we've seen in the past from the ravens when they go up against kansas city Um, just from tendencies that we've seen in the past when the ravens go against kansas city um just from patterns that we saw literally not even just not even with kansas city But with the ravens last week against the raiders and just the offensive line and just the lack of adjustments I just They they they have me not worried for the long term season, but just for this game. Yeah, especially because it's the chiefs And it it always seems like like for the physical game for the ravens last week. It was rough enough It was bad enough the the lack of physicality from the offense and defensive line The allowing of the penetration from the offensive line and the lack of penetration from the defensive line That it was a lack of physicality there But what makes it more scarier for me? is the mental part When the mental part creeps in oh, if you ain't got it mentally you already lost You already lost But hopefully the ravens can't have it mentally. Hopefully they can also make some adjustments and can have it physically as well because With who they have despite the injuries Despite the injuries and there are a lot of injuries a whole lot of injuries despite the injuries Ravens have enough to get it done They really do They really do But it's it's just it's so many different factors um And we just I don't know this game. I don't think this game is is the one for the ravens Again, I hope I really hope that i'm wrong I really do But right now I I just don't see it But we're still gonna be there. Of course live streaming cheering them on Hopefully hoping that they proved me all the way wrong. I would love to be wrong Never never had no problem admitted when I'm wrong and if the ravens proved me wrong on this I would love if they do But we'll see how it goes team keep it clean. I appreciate y'all. I love y'all


I'm Ruth. I am a speech language pathologist in Portland, Oregon, and I use improv to work with people who have a variety of speech and language issues. You can do that too. You may be thinking to yourself, why do I need to see a speech language pathologist? What could this possibly bring to my realm of improv? Well, there are people, I guarantee you in your city who are speech pathologists, who are teachers, who are OTs and PTs and other clinicians, who work with these same populations, and also the populations themselves are there, and you may be able to find some way of addressing those folks through local medical centers, rehabs, assisted living, and so forth, and schools, of course. So I'm going to talk about three specific areas that I address in today. One of them is I'm going to actually start with the pragmatic skills and social conversations piece. So the why of this, why do I use this in any realm? It's because I want to use the tools that I learned as a speech pathologist, those formats in a more engaging way, because engagement is 90 percent of getting people to follow through on the things that you teach them as a speech pathologist. So that's reason one. Reason two is I can address a lot of different goals for a number of different people in a single setting. So if I have a group and they all have different goals, I can do that with some of these games and they can all get something out of it. Also, I can bring in my OT and PT friends and have them be part of this and make it, because a lot of our exercises have a physical component and they can add whatever the physical component is that they feel is appropriate to that particular population. So this is a lot of the population that I see, these kinds of folks. So let's go to, we're not going to see any of this because we just don't have time, but I will say that evidence of course is extremely appropriate. We're going to go to the game of hype man. How many of you know the game of hype man? Raise your hand if you do.  The young woman in the middle after her brain injury became very introspective and it became very hard for her to talk to people about herself or indeed about much of anything. The guy was just the opposite.  He was very into talking about himself and very perseverative. He had about the same three or four stories that he told everybody in any context that he met them in and the people who he lived with were like, yeah, we've heard that story a couple of thousand times. So what she said to me was, what can you teach him to help him get out of that mode? So we're going to watch this now. I think. Oh, no sound. Is that fixable? I understand you're also a violin player. Is that right? Yes. Tell me about your violin. Did you guys hear that? That's great. It got some hard accident. It reached on backwards for a few years. And recently, too recently. Look at him listening to her. He's never heard this information before. Only then on Parkinson's patients. And it worked and I got my hands back. So I'm going to a cartway. Boys, violin, violin, anyone I've ever heard. She plays my one so much. She plays my one so much. Good, nice. Okay, good work. Very good, good, good. Okay, so everybody had a chance to take at least one. All right, so you can see what he's done as listen to the few things that she said right in the moment.  And, you know, he took exactly what he heard from her and he put it out there. He's her hype man. She's the celebrity for once in her life. And he is her hype man. He's telling the audience everything about her. And that speech pathologist called me about three weeks later and said, so we've been playing this once a week at home. They took a bunch of my games home and played it in this independent living setting that they all lived in. And do you know, he is actually asking people questions now.  He asks questions and then he'll actually hype man people every once in a while when they're out like they'll be out in a public setting and he'll start hyping people. So that was great. I love that piece of it. Good, so, oops, I went too far. So the next piece I do, another piece that I do is comprehension and cognition. So I have a lot of folks who have Parkinson's disease. I have a lot of people with strokes and I've worked with kids who ADHD and things that get in the way of listening well to comprehend and then also being able to put things together cognitively. So one of the games I really like using is Up, Down, In, Out, Diagonal. And have you played that before? Okay, we're gonna play it right now. So here you go, here's the commands. Ready, up, and you're just gonna say it with me, sorry. Up, in a good loud voice. Down, in, out, diagonal. So what I would do is I would, for example, I might say to cat, if we'd all be in a circle or if there's only two or three of us, that's fine too. And I might say to cat, I'd show her my first one and she would do nothing. And I would say up and then on my second one, I would say one thing and do another. So I might say, I might put my hands down in the down position but say diagonal. So in other words, I'm going up diagonal. And then cat takes what she heard and not what she saw and her first one is, and she says diagonal, diagonal. And then she makes up, she does a new one and says something different than what she does. Down, so she went up and said down, okay? And we go around the circle doing that. Why? Because it promotes divergent thinking. You have to be able to think about one thing while you are saying another. And do we do that in life all the time?  Also, I bring my PT and OT in on this. I have a group now that we've just started doing where she's going to be coming in and whatever exercises I have, we sit down and talk about them beforehand. And I say here is the physical component I've been using in this. With these four patients who are in this PD group, what physical things do you want them to do? And maybe it is these things because maybe they have a frozen shoulder so they need to go up and down or whatever. But maybe it's something with their legs. Maybe it's something with walking. So we come up with a new command and we add that in and that becomes part of the game. There you go. So that's the comprehension and cognition. As you see, I've got several games up there and if you want to see me at any point at lunch or email me, I'll be happy to share those with you. I am very much goal-driven. I have to be. In my game, there is no... I don't call them games.  And so you've got to be able to go in and say this is the goal, this is why I do it and this is gonna be the outcome. And if it's not the outcome, why not? Alrighty then. Expression is the third piece. So I work a lot with people with strokes. And as it happens, I now have a lot of people with Parkinson's and people with Parkinson's whereas at one time we thought it was primarily gonna be physical issues for them. We now know that as they live longer than they used to, they develop a lot more cognitive issues and many times they also develop word-finding problems as you would see with a stroke. So these games also address articulation, they address fluency. So whether somebody's got speech coming out right and whether they're fluent, that is, are they stuttering? So I have used this game with stuttering kids and adults. But one of the games I really like to do is what's in the box.  So in what's in the box, I literally pass an actual small box around and in the box because it's hard for my participants at least in the beginning to self-queue on this, I put pictures in.  And you might say to yourself, well, if they can say the word, what's the point? Sure, maybe they can say that word, but maybe they can't say it 10 minutes from now. Or maybe they can say that word, but there's a bunch of others that they can't say and all I'm trying to do is teach them the skill of semantic feature analysis description. So maybe the picture is a toothbrush and they have to say mouth and clean and whatever it is that they need to do to get that piece across. And if they're not a speaker, I have them gesture it. If they literally have no verbiage, then they gesture it. A great example that I had is after playing this game for quite a little while with a woman, I came into her one day and she said, oh, it was my birthday yesterday and my daughter brought me a, and I foolishly said present and she said, no, you know, it's round and like this and frosting and cut.  That's what I do. Please email me or talk to me at the lunch or whatever you'd like to get suggestions from me. Thank you for your time.


I want to speak to you today on a very interesting thought toward the offering and in Psalm 76 verse 11 says the following. Make vows to the Lord your God and pay them. Let all who are around Him bring presence to Him who ought to be feared. I want to speak about vows to God. First of all many people are afraid of word vow because they confuse the word vow with an oath. Oath and a vow are two different things. An oath is a declaration of the truth. In making an oath the person appears to God to witness to the truth of a particular affirmation He is making. An oath can also be invoked in guarantee of the promise a person makes. And we see that the Bible is very, it warns us about oaths, especially people would used to, you know, oath is like swearing when people begin to swear under mother or under child or under somebody who passed away and the scripture tells us to stay away from that. That is not wise for us to make oaths. You know, we see presidents and some people who get elected into some official offices they take oaths but a vow is different. A vow on the other hand is a solemn pledge or a promise to God to commit oneself to enact a service or a condition of life. In the Bible we see many guys who made vows to God. For example, one of them is Jacob made a vow and God prospered him. One time Jacob had nothing going on for him and Jacob said this, if you bless me then I will tithe. For example, many times when you come to service like this and we have an opportunity to give and you say, well, Vlad, I don't work. I don't have a job. You can make a vow that once you do get a job you will begin to tithe. And Jacob did that. Jacob wasn't trying to bribe God. Jacob wasn't trying to manipulate God and say, God, you have to do it and I'll give you this. Jacob was making a vow to God. If you bless me, I will give 10%. We see also Hannah made a vow when she couldn't have children and she says, God, if you give me children, actually if you give me a child, I will give the child back to you. And God gave her the child. She gave the child back to God and then God gave her more children after that. Many times when you have a certain problem that you prayed for so long, that you fasted, that you gave and everything, one of the things that God can be moved by and this is not something we manipulate God. Again, I'm saying moved by is when you make a promise. Now the dangerous part is when you don't keep that promise. That's when you can really mess it up. And so if you don't intend to keep that promise, don't make the promise. We're not talking about that when you're speeding through the highway and the sheriff is standing there and you're like, oh God, I'll never do that. I'll never watch TV. I'll never go to a movie theater. I will give 90% of my income. Just don't let the police officer pull me over. Anybody pray those prayers? I did that once. And then the next day, you know, I remember repenting and I was like, God, I did not mean anything I said the last night. And God was like, I wouldn't have that cup pull you over anyway. Why did you make all these promises you're not planning to keep? We're not talking about making promises you're not planning to keep. But when you sincerely, in the depth of your heart, what you're saying, you're gonna do it. We also see a judge in the Bible where he made a vow. He says, if God gives me victory, he says that what's going to happen is that I will give whatever comes out first from my house to the Lord. This was not the best vow because he couldn't predict what will come out of the house. Don't make vows like that. Whatever comes out out of my house, first I'll sacrifice it to God. What if your cat comes out?  He was expecting a donkey to come out when he comes in and his daughter comes out. And so there's a huge controversy on what actually happened to her. But the point being is that we have to make vows of things that are measurable and the things that you actually know what you're going to give, not just guessing whatever, because that will never work out. And we see also other people in the Bible, if you can just keep putting other Samson, he broke the vow and he suffered hardship. Apostle Paul, he fulfilled a vow. We know that in Book of Acts. And so marriage is a vow. There's a lot of vows. The first time that I came across, the principle of making vows to God was when I struggled with headaches and chronic insecurity. And I prayed for the healing of that thing, I think with everything that, with every ounce of my being. And anytime Benihin, Benihin was very popular during those days. He did that thing on the TV, just two of his hands.  And so I've done a lot of things. And there was one particular moment that I remember, it wasn't a particular day, but it was a moment of my life where I sincerely gave promise to God, God, if you take care of two things, get rid of my migrant headaches, which I had every summer, almost every single day. And you take care of this loss of esteem.  What I meant by that is that I will dedicate my life to a full-time ministry, whether I get paid or not. And so two years later passed by and I recognized that I do not have those chronic insecurities. That they have recognized that is when we had 9-11 memorial at the track, at the track outside over there. And I was asked to do a verse from revelations in front of 3,500 people. And so I got up to share the verse and the next day everybody in school hailed me as a pastor. Everybody started calling me a minister and stuff. So I was a junior or senior in high school. And then I started to recognize that my grades were going up. I was doing very good in school. I started getting friends in school. Things were going good and better. And I started developing a plan for my future, which had nothing to do with the promise I made God. And I would come to church in a typical church service like this and I would always get plagued. Because in my mind, during worship and during the message for a while, I started to hear my own voice. God, if you take care of this and that, I will give you this. And like a broken tape. And I was like, God, I'm worshiping you.  I'm not planning to sin. But I knew what I promised to God. And I knew that at that moment, moment, I wasn't planning to fulfill that until I had it came back. And I started to be reflective, reflected of how I used to be. And I was like, you know what? No, I'll rather, because giving my life to God or being a full-time ministry to me was symbolic of like dying on the cross in China or something. It was always like terrifying. It was always sad. I heard stories that it's like, it's really bad and difficult. I didn't know that serving God is joyful. And so, and then when I made that decision, God started to churn my life around. And so, I would just encourage every one of you, if you are struggling today, make a vow to God. But do not make a vow in haste. Make a vow considering your heart condition. If you may be like Hannah, you're completely barren. Or maybe like Jacob, you're financially underwater. Make a vow to God. God, if you bless me, I will tithe. Well, when he blesses you and you stop going to church, God's gonna get you.  I have a story of a young man, Julio, if you could come up just quickly. What happened with Julio is that Julio moved from sunny side. Some of you know his story of how he came to our church. First time on Wednesday he came to our church. He didn't come to get saved. He came to fight some of our brothers. He had a girlfriend in town and has a girlfriend in town that was coming here. So he was thinking that she was coming to our church because the guys in our church just wanted to flirt or something. So I remember that day because she was in our house before the service and she's telling us, hey, he's coming into church and he's gonna like fight guys. So, not joking. I texted our brothers, those who just recently got saved. I said, brothers, I know that not everything has been fully sanctified in your life. Some of the unsanctified parts we might need it today. I met Julio when he came in that Wednesday humble. He wasn't trying to pick a fight. Holy Spirit, I think, dealt with him on the way here. And during the service, God touched him. He got saved a few weeks later and he experienced the presence of God and so he has his children here. So what he did is he decided to move to Trace cities. He had a place that he lived there that he owned that he was trying to sell for five months and couldn't sell it. And sometimes he would have offers and you know, right now the market is really hot. So I mean, he put anything in sales and so and he had a very decent price. People would throw him low ballers, just really, really low prices and still wouldn't even come through on those low offers until one day he came to church in the morning prayer and he said to God, if you give me, if I get an offer for that full price that I want, I will give you $2,000. What happened next? The next day I got an offer. And so in the next day, he gets an offer that's higher than any other offer he ever had and this offer, this person actually called him and says, take off the sign for the first sale. I'm bringing the money. And so they purchased it. Everything worked out and did you fulfill your vow? Yeah. What would you encourage Julio to people who are maybe in that position right now when they are maybe trying to sell something or buy something or they're kind of stuck in that situation? Just if you make a promise, just keep the promise and he'll come through. And one other thing, I give that $2,000 and I don't know how, you know, I just have my job. I don't do any side business or anything and I already have my $2,000 back in a race. Now, please, please understand this is not a I give, I get. This is a principle that if we ingenious of our heart honor God, God is faithful. Remember, God ain't broke. He doesn't have a sewer problem somewhere in heaven that he's collecting a fundraising. God is generous and you can never out give God. That's just you have to always live with that kind of a mindset. And when you make a vow to God to give something, remember, you're not making God better. You're opening a door for your own life to get impacted by God's favor and God's blessing. Amen.  What would happen if God would keep his promises the way you keep yours? He wouldn't be trustworthy. We wouldn't even gather here today because his character would be destroyed. Same thing with you. When you make a promise that God, I will serve you. God, I will give this or God, I will bless this person. Keep that promise and God will keep his promises to your life to bless you in Jesus' name. Can somebody say amen? Thank you, Julio.


Chaps here, you'll notice that I'm standing in an empty box. We need your help to fill the box up. We need all kinds of non-perishable goods, things like beans and rice and cereal and canned goods. Help us fill up the box to make sure our neighbors don't go hungry. Feds Feed Families is an annual program that lasts until August 31st, and we'll take your food all the way to August 31st.  Help us fill the box up between now and the end of August, and let's see if we can make sure that there aren't any hungry people in our neighborhood.


Should we hear the SID display week and the who are you? I'm Richard Austin president and CTO of Gamma Scientific So what are you showing right here? This is our newest near-eye display measurement system that Can measure all the important parameters parameters for display for near-eye augmented reality and virtual reality displays So we have a small entrance people right here That mimics the eyes entrance people. This is five millimeters and it can be changed down to two millimeter And it's approaching this virtual reality display to measure things like field of view luminance uniformity color uniformity and Also modulation transfer function or contrast measurement depth We can do it in two different configurations both pupil rotation About the center of the pupil right here or we can pick the rotation point to be 13 millimeters back And show how the human eye actually sees the display as the eye pupil rotates back and forth through the qualified viewing space So we can measure virtual Reality type displays or we can measure the augmented reality type displays like this pair of BT 200 glasses So the robot system has very high positioning precision 25 microns and also has very high precision and pointing direction a hundredth of degree precision So with this small optical front-end we can rotate the entrance pupil to mimic the human eye entrance pupil rotation through a hundred and sixty degree angle and cover almost I don't know if there's another AR display that covers more than a hundred and sixty degrees So I think we can cover all types of displays that are currently offered So the eyes on last year you you showed it the first time Yes, so it's been going on for a little more than a year or how's it going with the the market adopting this? the changes that we've made to the optical Size of the entrance pupil area here that allows us to cover a hundred and sixty degree field of view It's really a key Additional feature that the market was asking for that we can meet now Nice, so now this is great for AR VR And heads up displays for automobiles also So we can position this pupil at the left or right eye pupil position of a driver and actually look at different driver positions in a modified mocked up driving Scenario and map the whole qualified viewing space of a heads up display Measurement system and your company has been doing a measurement systems for many different markets for a long time before We've been doing heads up display measurement systems for over 40 years starting with military programs the f-16 Program was the first one that we know built Measurement equipment for All right, so you're like the top experts in the heads up display. I Wouldn't say I was the top expert in that but we know In very fine details what to do in terms of measuring optical systems for virtual reality Disguise and virtual image displays


Good evening aspirants. Welcome to the Hindu News Analysis by Shankara Ace Academy for the date 9th March 2020. These are the list of articles that has been chosen for today's analysis. It has been given along with the page numbers of Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi, Tiruvannapuram and Hyderabad editions. The link for the handwritten notes and the timestamping for the displayed articles is given in the description box below. And for the benefit of smartphone users, it is also provided in the comment section. Let's move on to our first news article analysis. This discussion is about the COD blood bank. The news article mentions that there soon to be parents or the expecting parents are falling prey to the emotional marketing tactics that is used by stem cell banking companies or the private COD blood bank companies. So, Dr. Forum has given some clarification on this issue. First, let us see about the COD blood bank and then we will discuss about the news article. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. First, let us see what is COD blood? COD blood is the blood that is contained in the placental blood vessels and umbilical cord which connects an unborn baby to the mother's womb. Or in simple words, we can see COD blood is the blood from the baby that is left in the umbilical cord and the placenta after birth of the child. As you know, in this placenta is the tissue that provides nourishment to the fetus and it takes the waste away from the fetus. And the umbilical cord is a cord-like structure that contains blood vessels and it connects the fetus to the placenta. Now, this COD blood, it contains special cells called as hematopoietic stem cells or hematopoietic progenitor cells which is in short known as HPC. These hematopoietic stem cells can be used to treat some types of diseases. Now, what they do is at the birth of the child, the COD blood is collected or recovered from the umbilical cord. After the collection of COD blood, it is frozen and it can be safely stored for many years. Now, the COD blood is stored for the HPC only. It is because they are important as they are the blood-forming stem cells. The HPCs can mature into different types of blood cells in the body. We even discussed about these hematopoietic stem cells during our bone marrow discussion last week. So, you can say that HPCs are found in bone marrow, they are found in peripheral blood and they are also found in COD blood. And as we already saw, these types of stem cells are routinely used to treat patients with cancers such as leukemia or lymphoma and even other disorders of blood and immune system. Now, there is also evidence that COD blood HPCs may not require exact match as compared to HPCs from bone marrow or the bloodstream when it is donated to another person. Because the antigens in the COD blood are less mature, so it is not rejected by the receiver. And because of this, transplants involving compatible HPCs from COD blood may be less likely to cause adverse reactions because the donor cells are less likely to see the patient's cells as foreign bodies and attack them. And in turn, it is not rejected by the receiver or the patient. So, this is one of the benefit or advantage of COD blood HPCs. So, along with these, there are also other benefits of using the stem cells in COD blood to treat a disease compared to using those in the bone marrow. For instance, stem cells from COD blood can be given to more people than the stem cells from the bone marrow. More matches are possible when a COD blood transplant is used than when a bone marrow transplant is used.  Collecting bone marrow poses some risks and it can also be painful for the donor. And the next advantage or benefit is that COD blood can be frozen and it can be stored. It is ready for anyone who needs it. But in case of bone marrow, the bone marrow must be used soon after it is collected. Then it is also said that the stem cells in COD blood can be used to strengthen the immune system during cancer treatments. But bone marrow stem cells do not have this capability. Now, apart from these benefits or advantages, the stem cells from COD blood also have a disadvantage. It is that the COD blood does not contain many stem cells. So, units from several donors can be combined to increase the number of stem cells if a transplant is needed for an adult. So, these are some of the advantages and disadvantages of HPCs from COD blood or the stem cells from the COD blood. Now, as we saw already, the COD blood is frozen and stored. And it is kept in one of two types of banks. One is the public COD blood bank and the other is private COD blood bank. Now, in a public COD blood bank, the COD blood can be donated. And in this bank, it will be stored for potential future use by anyone who may need it in the future. Apart from this, even alternatively, the parents of the child may arrange for a COD blood to be stored in a private COD bank also. And this is for the potential use of the COD blood if it is later needed for the treatment of the child from whom it was recovered or even for its use in first-degree relatives or second-degree relatives. And with respect to India, if you see the umbilical COD blood banks or the COD blood banks, they are regulated under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act and Rules of 1945. The umbilical COD blood banks are permitted only under license and they are monitored by the Central Drug Standards Control Organization that is CDSCO. And the COD blood banks have to comply with the drugs and cosmetics third amendment rules for the collection, processing, testing, storage, banking and release of the stored units of COD blood. So, if one wants to know about the licensed umbilical COD blood banks, they can visit the CDSCO website as it provides the list of all the licensed umbilical COD blood banks in the country. But today's concern, if you see, it is with respect to the private COD blood banks. Several international bodies do not recommend routine private banking for future self-use in case of COD blood. The reason is because the stem cells transplant using an individual's own COD blood cannot be recommended for the genetic disorders of the individual itself. See, it is because all of these stem cells will have the same genes that cause the disease in the individual in the first place. So, the COD blood will also have these stem cells that contain the same genes only. So, it cannot be used for the same individual to treat that genetic disorder. But still, the private banking is suggested. It is suggested in cases where there is a relative or sibling with a condition or when there is a family history of malignant or genetic conditions that can be treated with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. But this difference is not known to many parents. So, the private COD blood banks use the misleading and luring advertisements for influencing the parents. And these advertisements often involve celebrities as their brand ambassadors who prompt the storage of COD blood as a status symbol because the celebrities are even doing the same. So, the expectant parents or the soon to be parents due to the influence of such advertisement take the option without the knowledge about possible self use or family use of the COD blood in the future. So, here the parents are emotionally burdened as well as they are economically burdened to store the child's umbilical COD blood as a form of biological insurance for future use. They think it as a biological insurance because the advertisements mislead the public into believing that the child's own umbilical COD blood can protect the child from 80 different medical conditions. But according to the Indian Council of Medical Research, this statement is not scientifically supportive. And we said it is economically burdening to the parents because these private COD blood banks charge enormous fees from the parents to preserve these cells. If you see according to this news article, the private companies offer packages between 50,000 and 1 lakh to store and preserve these cells in the right conditions. But these private COD blood banks do not say about whether it will be useful for the child itself or it can be used for the relative or a sibling with any genetic condition or a malignant condition that can be treated with the hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Based on these only the Indian Council of Medical Research does not recommend commercial stem cell banking or the private COD blood banks as there is no scientific basis for preservation of the COD blood for future self use. And because of this the practice of private COD blood bank for future self use raises ethical and social concerns. So the to be parents or the expecting parents should be educated about the stem cell banking or the COD blood banking before they opt for any option regarding the storage of COD blood. They should be told that if their child has a genetic disorder then the child's own COD blood cannot be used. They should be given awareness about this and they should also be told that there is no scientific basis for preservation of COD blood for future self use. They should be told that they can privately store the COD blood if there is a relative or sibling with a condition or a family history of malignant or genetic conditions that can be treated with HSC transplantation. After providing all these informations only the private COD blood banks should approach the soon to be parents. So as we can see this issue requires more attention from the government and the government has to frame strict and stringent rules for the storage of COD bloods using private banks. So that is all about this discussion. In this discussion we saw what do we mean by COD blood. We saw the advantages and disadvantages of COD blood. Then we also saw about the public and private COD blood banks. And then finally we saw why ICMR does not recommend private COD blood banks for future self use. With us we come to the end of this discussion. Moving on to the next discussion. This news article is relating to the report submitted in the Rajesh Sabha by the department related parliamentary standing committee on human resource development. This report is about the demands for grants of the department of school education and literacy. So in this discussion we will discuss about some important findings of the report and we will also see some of the recommendations of this committee. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. Now first know that the department of school education and literacy comes under the ministry of human resource and development. Its objective is to ensure education of equitable quality for all and also to fully harness the nation's human potential. So to achieve these objectives the department initiated programs like Samagra Siksha, Midday Meals in Schools, Adult Education and Skill Development etc. Now for the demands for grants of this department the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resource Development has released the report. Now before discussing the findings of this report keep in mind that by the year 2030 India is said to have largest working-age population in the world. So we need a holistic education system which can make the younger generation mentally, physically and intellectually active and for that what we need is better equipped schools that is schools with adequate infrastructure like electricity, toilets, playgrounds etc. But this report has identified critical infrastructure gaps. According to this report only 56.45 percentage government schools in India have electricity but this varies across the states. Like in some states nearly 100 percentage electricity is there in schools. It is present in the government schools of Tamil Nadu and Punjab. But whereas if you see the states of Madhya Pradesh and Manipur in these states less than 20 percentage of schools were electrified. In addition to this the report also found that only 19.59 percentage schools have toilets for children with special needs. So this infrastructure gap worsens the plight of children who already require special care for their overall development. Then when we come to the playgrounds the report mentions that only 56.98 percentage government schools in India have playgrounds. Here also we can find difference between these states. Like in states of Himachal Pradesh and Haryana more than 84 percentage of schools have playgrounds but less than 30 percentage of schools in Odisha and Jammu and Kashmir had playgrounds. We know that playgrounds are essential for the overall development of children and they are equally important like classrooms laboratories and libraries. And even if you see the right of children to free and compulsory education act of 2006 it mentions that the school building shall consist of separate toilets for boys and girls. It should have safe drinking water facility and it also should have playground etc. So this 2006 act also mentions playground as an important part of school education. Apart from these essential infrastructure the committee was concerned about the fact that only 60 percentage of schools had a boundary wall. So this means 60 percentage of schools in our country and the school premises are accessible to all the people without any restriction. So that means there is no safety to the students and the property of the school. Then the report also raised concerns about the dismal or dull rate at which the school infrastructures like classrooms, libraries and labs are being developed under the Samagar Siksha program. For example some 1021 additional classrooms had been sanctioned for government higher secondary schools for the year 2019 to 2020. But not a single additional classroom has been constructed till December 31st 2019. Then the government has also sanctioned the construction of more than 1300 laboratories for physics, chemistry and biology subjects. But only three has been completed till December 31, 2019. And same is the case for libraries and art, craft and culture rooms also. And more importantly the department had only spent 71 percentage of the revised estimates of 2019 to 2020 under the Samagar Siksha program. So this shows that even though budget has been sanctioned for the infrastructure there is delay in completion of infrastructure. Now this delay not only leads to students getting alienated from the government schools but it also leads to exceeding the cost allotted for that purpose. See first students get alienated because some important facilities like classrooms, laboratories and libraries are not available in government schools. And then delay in completion exceeds the cost because for example you can take if a project was to be completed in three months if it takes six months then the manpower had to be paid the salary for six months. So that means the cost will get exceeded like that. So in turn this will cause an additional strain on the financial resources of the country. So based on these issues and findings of the report the committee has suggested some solutions. Firstly the committee has asked the department of school education and literacy to look into factors that are impeding the infrastructure development. And it has asked the department to resolve them at the earliest to ensure that the students get the best possible facilities. Then the committee also suggested for the possibility of the construction of Boundary Wall in collaboration with MG NREGA. Then the committee has recommended for creation of other infrastructure like provision of electricity, toilets, drinking water and so on. And these can be taken up in a time-bound manner. Then the department can also consult with the ministry of new and renewable energy to look into the possibility of providing solar energy and other renewable energy sources for the schools based on their geographic locations. Now this will not only help these schools but it will also motivate the residents of the villages to adopt such non-polluting energy sources. But for all these developments what we need is more investments in school system. And according to this report there is a worrying trend with respect to investments in school system. The department of school education had proposed more than 80-2000 crore for the year 2020-21. But only 59 crores had been allotted for them. That means there is a cut of 27.52 percentage in the budget proposed by the department of school education and literacy. The report also noted that the government has made more than 27 percentage deductions in the centrally sponsored schemes in the central sector schemes like the Samagura Siksha etc. So by this we can say that rather than investing more in school system the government is cutting the budget. So based on this the report also recommends for providing additional funds to the schemes of the government that are based on education. On a whole we can say that as a country we are spending even less than 4.5 percentage of our GDP on education and this need to be improved to make our education system more effective and competitive with other countries. So that is all about this discussion. In this discussion we discussed about the pathetic position of education system in our country with the help of some statistics. And we also saw some of the suggestions given by the committee to improve the school system. These points can be used in your main answer writing when there is a question regarding the school education system. With this we come to the end of this discussion. The displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next discussion. This news article talks about the new paddy variety known as Sahyadri mega that is developed by researchers in Karnataka. In this discussion we will see about the new paddy variety and we will also see about hybridization. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. The news article mentions that the area that is under paddy cultivation has declined from 1.5 hectares in 1990 to around 1.05 lakh hectares now in the Shivmoga district of Karnataka. This is because the widely cultivated Jyoti variety of paddy had become vulnerable to blast diseases and other infestations which had created losses to the paddy cultivators. Now in this the blast disease is also known as the rice blast. It is a fungal disease that infects all the above-ground parts of the rice plant with leaf blast, neck rot and panicle blast as you can see in this picture and this disease causes significant loss to the farmers. Even yesterday we saw about a citrus greening disease that affects citrus plants and trees and it is caused by a bacteria but whereas this blast disease is a fungal disease. Now because of this disease and other infestations the paddy cultivators are switching over to other commercial crops like Arikanth, ginger and rubber for reducing the risk and for yielding more profits. So this has led to the decline in the area that is under paddy cultivation. So in order to prevent this the University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences in the Shivmoga district of Karnataka has developed a new variety of paddy. This new variety is known as Sahyadri Mekha. It is a new red variety of paddy that is developed under the hybridization breeding method. Now see here hybridization is crossing or mating two or more compatible varieties which produces an offspring of a new variety. This hybridization happens naturally in the wild in an uncontrolled manner and the researchers or the plant breeders also do the same by mating two compatible plant varieties but in a controlled manner. So we can say hybridization is the process of combining desirable genes that are found into our more different varieties to produce a pure breeding progeny or offspring. To create hybrid offspring researchers or seed companies carry out pollination of the chosen male and female parents of the varieties under controlled conditions and these chosen male and female parents could be from the same species or from the different species also. Now through hybridization they can produce seeds that combines the desired traits of two pure parent lines. For example, assume that there is an existing plant variety and this plant variety is the recipient parent and there may be another variety which has a desired trait which the breeder wants. So that will be the donor parent. So the plant type in which the character or the trait is being transferred is known as the recipient parent and from which it is being transferred is the donor parent. So these recipient parent and the donor parent these two plants are mated or crossed and then the progeny or the offspring is created and this offspring is screened for the desired trait. Sometimes the offspring contains the desired trait and sometimes it doesn't. So what the breeders does is that they select the offspring plants that is processing the desired trait and then they cross that particular offspring with the recipient parent again. Now this process is repeated until the desired plant type having all the desired characteristics of the recipient in addition to the trait that is being transferred is finally obtained. So at the end they have the offspring which has the traits of the recipient parent and also the desired trait which was transferred from the donor parent. So that is why it is said that the hybrids are developed in the field using natural and low-tech methods. But here you have to note one point that the hybrid varieties are different from the genetically modified varieties. The genetically modified varieties are mostly created in a lab using highly complex technology like genetic engineering which involves technologies like genes splicing that is inserting a gene. In a genetically modified crop the desired gene of one variety is inserted in the another variety to get a genetically modified variety which is resistant to diseases etc. Some examples of genetically modified varieties are BT cotton, BT brinjal etc. And now our today's discussion is based on the Sahyadri mega which is an example of hybrid crop. This Sahyadri mega is a new red variety of paddy that is developed under the hybridization breeding method. It involves the cross breeding of the best of Jyoti variety of paddy with that of the Akkalu variety of paddy. So the best of these two varieties have been chosen and they have been mated or crossed. Now in this Akkalu variety of paddy is chosen because Akkalu is a native variety which is a disease resistant and protein rich paddy variety. And as we saw in the beginning the Jyoti variety of paddy was vulnerable to the blast disease and other infestations. So that is why this variety has been crossed with the disease resistant Akkalu variety. So hence the offspring which is the Sahyadri mega is also rich in protein content and according to researchers the protein content is around 12.48% in Sahyadri mega which is much higher than the other red rice varieties. Even the yield per acre is also higher when compared to other red paddy varieties in case of Sahyadri mega. And it is also found that Sahyadri mega is resistant to blast diseases and it is rich in nutrients and can be harvested after 120 days of sowing. So this Sahyadri mega is a medium term paddy that can be grown when there is a delay in the onset of monsoon. Now since the red rice is rich in fiber and protein this new paddy variety is aiming to cater the strong demand for red rice especially the demand among the health savvy consumers in urban areas. Now this Sahyadri mega paddy variety will be a part of the seed chain once it will be notified under the Indian Seeds Act of 1966. After this it can be used by other farmers also. So that is all about this discussion. In this discussion we saw about hybridization and we also saw about Sahyadri mega which is a new paddy variety. Whether we come to the end of this discussion the displayed practice question will be discussed in the last session. Moving on to the next discussion this news article mentions that the scheduled India- US military cooperation group dialogue has been cancelled. This military cooperation group or the MCG was supposed to be held in US this time but it has been cancelled due to the new coronavirus outbreak. So in this context of this news article today we will discuss about this India- US military cooperation group then we will also see about US Indo-Pacific Command and the US Special Operations Command which is mentioned in this news article. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. First let us see about the India- US military cooperation dialogue or in short MCG. The MCG is a forum to review the progress of defence cooperation between India's integrated defence staff and the US Indo-Pacific Command. The MCG dialogue reviews the progress at strategic and operational levels between the two countries defence cooperation. Now when this know that the integrated defence staff is an organization established under the Ministry of Defence in the year 2001 and this ideas is headed by the chief of integrated defence staff to the chairman COSC which is in short known as CISC. Now as the name indicates the integrated defence staff aims for the integration of defence forces. So the ideas have representation from all the three services that is Army, Navy and Air Force and it also has representation from Ministry of External Affairs, DRDO, Department of Defence and Department of Finance. Now also remember that chief of integrated defence staff and chief of defence staff are different posts in the integrated defence staff established under the Ministry of Defence. Currently Vice Admiral Hari Kumar is the chief of integrated defence staff whereas General Bipin Rawat is the chief of defence staff and General Bipin Rawat is the first officer to assume the office of CDS on 31st December 2019. Now before the appointment of CDS the CISC was responsible for coordination among the three armed forces but now the CDS is the responsible for coordination among the three armed forces and also know that the CISC's role is limited to budgeting and capability building and so on. Now coming back to the news article discussion we saw that MCG is a forum to review the progress of defence cooperation between India's integrated defence staff and US Indo-Pacific Command. So what is this US Indo-Pacific Command? To know that first we have to know about the unified combatant command of the USA. The unified combatant command or the UCC are joint commands which are established to provide effective command and control of US military forces. They are organised either on geographical basis or on a functional basis and as of August 2019 there are 11 UCC's. In this seven UCC's have regional responsibilities and four UCC's have functional responsibilities and this US Indo-Pacific Command is a UCC of US armed forces that is responsible for the Indo-Pacific region. So it is one of the seven geographical UCC's. The other six are given in this map for your reference. Now in this picture you can see that the US Indo-Pacific Command's area of responsibility is in the Indo-Pacific region. It encompasses about half earth surface stretching from the waters of the west coast of the US to the western borders of India and also from the Antarctica to the north pole. Now since India lies in this UCC region, India deals the defense cooperation with the US Indo-Pacific Command. Now initially we also saw one another command which is the United States Special Operation Command. This is one of the four functional UCC's. The other three are US Cyber Command, US Strategic Command and US Transportation Command. Now this Special Operation Command oversees the special operations capabilities of the various military branches. It coordinates their training, strategy, interoperability and their operations also. Now today's news is that India is considering a request made by US for posting liaison officers at the US Indo-Pacific Command and at the US Special Operations Command. This is to improve the defense cooperation and interoperability between India and US's defense forces. Now in this just know that liaison officers are the persons who acts as a mediator between two groups or countries. They work for mutual understanding and mutual benefits of two parties in order to avoid the collateral damage of the parties involved. So in our case, the liaison officer will act for the mutual understanding and mutual benefits of India and US's defense forces. According to the news article, after the agreement that was made in 2 plus 2 dialogue of December 2019 between USA and India, an Indian liaison officer is posted at the US Navy Central Command in Bahrain and also a US liaison officer is posted at the Indian Navy's Information Fusion Center for Indian Ocean Region at the Gurugram. So to further improve the military liaison relationships between the two armed forces, the US has requested India to post two more liaison officers at the US Indo-Pacific Command and at the US Special Operations Command and this was supposed to be discussed at the MCG Dialogue, but it has been cancelled due to the new coronavirus outbreak. So that is all about this news article. In this discussion, we saw about the MCG Dialogue and we also saw about the US Indo-Pacific Command and the US Special Operations Command. With this we come to the end of this discussion. Moving on to the next discussion, this discussion is based on this news article which mentions about a report released by the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network called as TRAFFIC. The report is titled as Assessment of Illegal Trade Related Threats to Panda in India and Selected Neighboring Range Countries. In this report, TRAFFIC has analyzed poaching and illegal trade of the red panda species from the year 2010 to 2019. So now let us see some of the findings and key points mentioned in this report. The syllabus that is relevant to this discussion is given here for your reference. Now from examination point of view, first of all know that red pandas are listed as endangered in the IUCN red list of threatened species and they are also protected under the Schedule 1 Part 1 of Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 of India and they are also included in Appendix 1 of Sites. And recently on our first March in the news analysis, we saw that researchers are saying that there are two species of red pandas which are genetically different. One is Himalayan red pandas and Chinese red pandas. On that day, we saw that the red pandas are found in the forests of India, Nepal, Bhutan and the northern mountains of Myanmar and southern China. And this report has given the global distribution of this species. As per the report, the estimated global wild population of red panda stands at around 14,500 to 15,000 individuals. In India, its population in the wild is between 5,000 and 6,000 individuals. But the largest population is found in China which is around 6,000 to 7,000 individuals. And according to this report, in Nepal around 317 to 582 individuals are present. But this report does not mention about the estimate on the population in Bhutan and Myanmar. Now with respect to India, this species is reported in the states of Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal and Meghalaya. And also remember that this is the state animal of Sikkim. The population of red pandas has been decreasing as they were hunted for meat and fur and they were also illegally captured for the pet trade. Apart from this, they were also falling to the traps laid for other animals such as they get caught in the traps that are laid for musk deer and wild pigs. But according to this report, over the years the rate of poaching and illegal trade across the habitat of red panda has come down. The report mentions that there is no incidence of poaching or illegal wildlife trade in red panda that was reported from Bhutan or India. But in Nepal, some 25 incidents of poaching were reported. Now the reason for steep reduction in poaching in illegal trade in India or Bhutan is an indication of the success of the awareness campaigns that were undertaken in the habitat of red pandas. So, these kinds of campaigns should be continued so that even the poaching in the other habitats of red panda shall be curtailed. Along with this, the community-based conservation and the protection for the species at its habitat structures even across the remote areas can further reduce the incidence of poaching. In addition to this, the report also mentions that the trans-boundary law enforcement cooperation through the use of multi-government platforms like Savin is also required. In the Savin stands for South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network. It is an inter-governmental wildlife law enforcement support body of the South Asian countries. So, that is all about this discussion. The split practice question will be discussed in the last session. Now let us take one practice question. The question asks, it is the ancient and sacred spice of India known as Indian saffron, an important commercial spice crop grown in India. It is used in diversified farms as a condiment, flavoring and coloring agent. It has anti-cancer and antiviral activities and hence finds use in the drug industry and cosmetic industry. Which of the following tree or plant is being described in the above passage? A, Sarpaganta, B, Neem, C, Turmeric, D, Tulsi. Now for those who know that the Indian saffron is the turmeric, they can easily answer this question. The correct answer is option C only. Now we have taken this question based on this news article which mentions the concerns raised by the turmeric farmers of Telangana. This article mentions that because of cap on procurement of the turmeric in the state of Telangana, the state government may not procure more than 30 quintals per farmer. So, the turmeric farmers in the state of Telangana raise the problems like the possibility of losses if the state government is going to implement this rule. Now let us see some additional details with respect to turmeric. Its scientific name is Kirkuma Longa and it is a perennial herbaceous plant of the ginger family. It is herbaceous which means the plant does not have a woody system and it is a perennial plant because it can live more than two years through its rhizomes. Also know that turmeric is not root crop but it is a stem tuber crop or the rhizome crop. Rhizomes are the horizontal underground stems and the rhizomes are capable of producing both shoots and roots that means rhizomes are involved in the vegetative propagation which is one of the asexual reproduction methods in plants. Now with respect to turmeric know that it can be grown in diverse topical conditions from sea level to the 1500 meter above sea level and the suitable average temperature range is 20 to 35 degree Celsius and it requires an annual rainfall of 1500 millimeter or more and it can be cultivated under rainfed or irrigated conditions. Now though it can be grown on different types of soils but it thrives best in the well-drained sandy soils or clay loam soils and as we already saw it is the ancient and sacred spice of India which is known as Indian saffron and it is an important commercial spice crop grown in India. It is used in diversified farms as a condiment, flavoring and coloring agent and it is also used as a principal ingredient in the Indian culinary as curry powder and this turmeric has anti-cancer and anti-viral activities and therefore it is also used in drug industry and cosmetic industry. And know that turmeric is native of India and India is the largest producer of turmeric in the world. Apart from India if you see it is also cultivated in other countries of South Asia and Southeast Asia also and within India Telangana is the largest producer of turmeric then comes Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Now this is based only 2017 to 2018 data so these are the some basic information regarding turmeric. This news article mentions one another point that is there is no MSP by the central government for turmeric that is there is no minimum support price but however the state government of Telangana gives states minimum support price states minimum support price for turmeric. Also know that the farmers of Telangana have been demanding turmeric board of India in the Nizamawa district of Telangana. Now one another information with respect to examination that you should know is that the E-road turmeric which is a unique type of slender turmeric grown in the state of Tamil Nadu and then the Kanthumal Haldi which is a variety of turmeric that is indigenous to southern Odisha both these types of turmeric has got GI tag. Now let us discuss the other practice questions that were displayed during the news article discussions. This question is with respect to South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network. The first statement is its goal is to strengthen promote and coordinate regional cooperation for curbing illegal wildlife trade that threatens the wild flora and fauna of South Asia. Now this statement is correct because it is the objective of Savvain. This Savvain is an intergovernmental wildlife law enforcement support body of the South Asian countries. Now since this statement is correct and the question asks for the correct statements you can eliminate options C and D. Now the second statement is it is a branch of ASEAN. Now this is an incorrect statement. It is not a branch of ASEAN. It is an intergovernmental wildlife law enforcement support body of South Asian countries. It is a separate entity but remember that even ASEAN has a wild enforcement network which is known as ASEAN WEN. It was established in 2005 and it aims to address the illegal exploitation and trade in the sites listed species within the ASEAN region. And ASEAN WEN is also an integrated network among the law enforcement agencies and it involves the sites authorities, customs, police, prosecutors, specialized governmental wildlife law enforcement organizations and also other relevant national law enforcement agencies. So don't confuse both. Both are different. Now the third statement states recently China and Maldives have joined the organization as members. Now see this SAWEN was officially launched in 2011 in Bhutan. It promotes regional cooperation to combat wildlife crime in South Asia and it focuses on policy harmonization, institutional capacity strengthening through knowledge and intelligent sharing in the region. And its members are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. So from this you can say that Maldives is already a member but China is not a member yet. So this statement is incorrect. So the correct answer to this question is option A1 only. Now this question is about Sahyadri Megha. The question asks recently Sahyadri Megha was in the news. What is it? First it is an initiative for the conservation of trees in western guards. Now since western guards is also known as Sahyadri don't immediately choose this option as the correct option because it is the wrong option. It is not an initiative for the conservation of trees in western guards. It is also not a communication satellite and it is also not a military cooperation between Indian Air Force and US Air Force. It is a new paddy variety, especially new red paddy variety that is developed by the hybridization reading method. So the correct answer is option C. Now this next question is a previous sir question based on traffic that is trade related analysis of fauna and flora in commerce. First statement is traffic is a bureau under United Nations environment program. Now this statement is wrong because it is the joint program of WWF that is World Wildlife Fund and IUCN and it works to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature. So first statement is incorrect but the second statement is correct. So the correct answer to this question is option B2 only as the question asks for the correct statements. Now let us take one main question based on GSB Patu. By 2030 India is said to have largest working-age population in the world but in order to reap the benefits we need a strong school education system. Discuss the issues plaguing India's school education system and suggest a way forward. Now in this question you can mention about the huge demographic dividend of India. So we need a strong school system for the holistic development of our country. Then you can mention about the report by the parliamentary standing committee which we discussed today as the report mentions about some issues with respect to the infrastructure like the schools like electricity, playground and other facilities like laboratories which the children need for a holistic education. And as a way forward you can suggest a time-bound infrastructure development and more funding to the central sector schemes and the centrally sponsored schemes related to education. Like that you can also mention some other suggestions. You can write the answer and post it in the comment section. We will review it and appropriate solution will be given in a reasonable time frame. With this we have come to the end of news article and question answer discussion sessions. If you like the video don't forget to like, comment and share. And do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service examination preparation.