Howdy guys, IndiePixel here. Alright, so in this video what I wanted to do was go over how I did the terrain. One of the subscribers on IndiePixel wanted to know how I built the terrain here. So what I wanted to do was do a quick little walkthrough of exactly how I did that inside of Houdini. So once I take off here, let's actually switch over into Houdini and take a look at how the graph was set up for this particular terrain that you can see here that we've been looking at for a couple weeks now. So there we go. Let's go and flip over into Houdini and take a look at how the graph was set up. So here we are in Houdini over here and you can see I have the terrain over here and so basically the way I started out was I just imported the really rough kind of templated terrain that I built inside of Unity and these days, you know, I'm using a ProBuilder a lot more since it comes with Unity and stuff like that. And so I'm actually updating the whole workflow to work with ProBuilder meshes and getting a little bit more detailed with it. So this is just kind of a preview into how I'd made that this first terrain. Okay. So I imported all the template geo and this was just the size of the grid that I liked and that just kind of gave me an overall idea of how large, you know, the terrain needed to be, even though it needs to be a little bit bigger, but you know for the course and for, you know, just testing out your physics, this felt like a good size terrain. And so then I also imported the rough airport that I built and then I used that inside of the the terrain graph over here. So let's walk through the individual steps. So the first thing I did is I decided on building a radius around the airport that we have inside of the the demo scene here. Okay. So what I wanted to do, so I imported all the airport geometry and I said, okay, I want to build a radius around this.  I then went and created normals so that I could then perturb this. So if you want to look at the setup for the note here, one nice thing about the circle and having the airport at the center of the world is that I can easily generate normals that are pointing outward, you know, from the center just using this point expression here and typing in at P. And that will give me these great normals and I can use those then inside of a mountain node. And that allowed me then to create, you know, a more natural radius around the the terrain. Okay, I didn't want to just have a circle that masked out where all the mountains went because you know, you don't necessarily see, you know, perfect circles and in real terrain stuff like that. So that's why I went and did that first. So I created this object that I could use as a mask for the height field. And so then that leads me into talking about the height field here. And so I created a height field that matched the grid that I had set up in Unity and I just exported the grid from Unity into Houdini here.  And then the current resolution that I have it set at is 2.5. Obviously, you can go up or down as needed. All right. So from there, I did a height field masked by object. This allows you to mask a height field with actual geometry, which is super awesome. Comes in handy so many times. All right, so height field masked by object and just basically left it at the the defaults because that generated the initial circle mask for the entire terrain. So the airport fits inside of this area. And that's why, you know, inside of Unity it works really well, you know, that particular area. And, you know, I added some noise later on, which is why, you know, we're getting these kind of deals. Um, I'm still obviously working on it. So uh, let's go back to Houdini. All right. So then basically I used that mask and I added some really rough noise. So I just did a height field noise. All right. And I set it to sparse convolution and just messed around the values until I got something that I liked. And I really kind of wanted to go for this plateaued you know, high plains kind of desert. Look, I don't want to go full desert.  You know, it's, it's a little bit fantasy, a little bit realistic kind of thing. So anyways, those are the settings that I use right there for the, for the noise. All right. So then I remapped that. So I did a remap. And the other reason why I did a remap is so I could adjust the height. You know, once I get a nice noise, I like to go and remap the heights because um, you don't want to have to, or at least I found that inside of the height field noise. There are a lot of times where I can get the, the noise to look pretty cool, but I needed it just a little bit higher, a little bit lower. So it's a good idea to remap it. And that'll just kind of intensify the noise a little bit more. And then I distorted it. And this technique is great for just adding, you know, a lot more detail. So I just use the curl noise type. And then these are all the settings for it. I don't want to, you know, change any of this stuff just yet. I did, I just want to walk through and just show you guys how the graph is all set up. I'll post this to you up on Gumroad for you guys so you can download it. It's not like this is like super secret confidential terrain stuff here. All right. So, um, moving on after the distort here, I did a mask by feature. And this one I just did by height. Right. Because what I wanted to do is take these particular portions of the mountains here and actually just terrace them so we get that, you know, plateaued looking type of desert terrain, you know. And so I masked it out. Not basically, you know, showed me where I'm going to have my plateaus or my terraces. All right. And then I ran that through a terrace and just created three terraces.  And so that's why I added this clip and I just clipped off that tall piece, you know, because it makes the geometry look super obvious like that it's a hike field type of terrain. Okay. And then I just did a clear. Got rid of all the the masking information and I ended up with my basic terrain. So these are all like the large formations. So that leads into the second area of the graph here. Okay. So I needed, now that I had all my large formations, I need something down below where the more grasslands type of terrain is. And so I definitely encourage you, you know, to start gathering lots of reference of types of terrains because you can mix and match these. And whenever I approach a terrain I am always thinking about, okay, what types of terrain do I want to have, you know, in these certain areas? And so in this case, you know, it's I want some erosion down, you know, kind of at the lower end and then I want to have these grassy, you know high plains type of thing and then I want to have those plateaued spires that you see, you know, I think it's in Utah. Anyways, out in the desert. All right. So moving on We I went and then blurred the height mask here. So we're going to get into the the grassland areas that I did So I went and blurred that height mask or the height field And I added some noise and for this noise I used an add and a whirley And this gave me kind of a nice just kind of puffy, you know, pillow look to the whole thing And I really liked how it looked because it made it feel like You know, it's been eroded enough that it's just kind of turned into this lumpy Kind of dirt and there's these little rivers in between all of these guys. So And the rivers don't really know where to go They all just kind of end up in these little pits and stuff like that. I don't know the effect was cool. So I I left it, you know Um, I did then another distort and it's good to do those distorts because It breaks up the noise. You could see that this looks really cellular, right? Uh and by adding that distort It just kind of gets rid of that and it really does make it feel a little bit more realistic. So I definitely Take some time and get used to You know missing around with the noises really for me. That's what I found works really well You just go in and just do lots of experiments of what the different types of noises do and You play around with all the values and you start to understand what they're going to do, you know And you get more comfortable with it. So then it goes faster and faster as you start building more trains you can start to you know See the noises in your head and and you know just execute on it and execute on it instead of just Um having to constantly experiment All right, so then I cleared the mask, right? So that kind of left me where the airport is and Then I did a remap and that just kind of intensified it, right? So I used the remaps to Take the current pattern of the noise and just give it a little bit more edge And so here what I'm doing on blurring and then I did another blur and that just blurred it out even more so that this remap Basically was remapped over a larger gradient From that center. So then I have another height field remap over here and this basically is acting on that mask So it allows me to change the mask as well. So you don't have to just work on height stuff Or height information. You could also do that that remap with the mask. You just got to change the the layer to remap All right, then finally I took those two types of terrains and just mixed them together So I just used an add And then just messed around with the sliders. It looks like all the stuff is pretty default But I just added those on and I got you know pretty cool looking terrain And that's why I'm saying, you know when you start mixing and matching types of terrains that you like You can make some pretty cool terrains That's usually how I approach it Alrighty So then I did another noise and that this is kind of a global noise so you can see the shift here So if I go to this layer where I'm blending my two types of terrain So my plateaus and my grasslands, right? um I want to actually shift it even more just to make it look like there's these big, you know like Uh, undulations in the terrain, you know caused by rippling and like tectonic plates and stuff like that So you want to kind of think of also like that larger scale because if you leave it as just like a Height map straight up You know overall it just feels kind of flat when you do the when you take the height field noise to the whole global terrain and make the noise relatively large In this case, I'm using sparse convolution again, but the the element size is really large The amplitude is relatively low It makes it feel like, you know, these large slabs of dirt are just being manipulated by You know massive tectonic plates Anyways, that's a little too philosophical for right now. Anyways So that's what I did and then we're going to get into Masking by feature. So this one I masked by slope Uh, because I want to erode, you know, the slope areas and start to drop some dirt Down into these areas. So you want to pull, you know information from the The high angled slopes here, right and then run it through and erode And I'll actually just leave these settings up here I'll just tab through all these settings here. So these are my settings And I I think they're pretty default I think the most I changed was the precipitation that you really can make a large amount of changes when you change These values And debris in the bedrock these things control The look of it as well, but I usually mess around with the erosion at least right now You know, I'm still getting used to it myself. So I'm still learning all this stuff myself is because it's still relatively new but I've been messing around with these these guys and Then finally I didn't actually use the visualization here. So that basically gave me all of my dirt, you know that It's piled up and and I didn't want to go super heavy on the erosion, right? And I find that a lot of people end up doing doing those high erosion That's not even the right way to say that just highly eroded terrains, you know, because it looks pretty from a distance Uh, when you start making for game levels, you really want to identify, you know, these like large areas You know, because we're we're going to be walking around at this scale, basically So anyways, I mean it really it really comes down to the style game that you want to make but Uh, that's what I was thinking when I went and made this particular terrain I'm trying to think about how it's going to look, you know from a realistic standpoint Um, all right And then I remapped it Over here, and I think I just did Oh, I just remapped the flow areas that way it could just affect the depth of those flow areas I think super subtle And then it cleared out the mask and that left me with the Pretty much the terrain that you saw In the video, so again, I'm making this for one of the subscribers that Asked me a question about how I put together the terrain for the aircraft physics course Or at least a couple versions ago And then so here I'm masking by feature And this particular mask, so let's actually select this is used to place where the grass goes All right, so I just did mask by slope 0 to 20 right because the grass is going to kind of grow in those flatter areas And then you could also you know subtract out the height too just to get it lower here But I kind of liked having a little bit of grass on top Uh, so you can see I also turned on the Mask by height so those two are blending together basically All right And then I blurred the mask Just to make it feel a little more organic and then I added a noise to the mask that way it didn't feel so uniform Across right so it's you know, it's grass So you're gonna have grass that's a little more green and then grass that's a little more brown or you know Not growing as densely in certain areas So that's why I'm doing this height field Mask noise just do the multiply And then finally I dropped out a height field visualize and this is where I set up All the color so I just did the actual terrain color in the height ramp and then I did a color for the flow That's all the erosion stuff and then I did a color for the grass, which is Called mask. I should have just called the grass, but I was getting lazy by that I think All right, and so uh, basically at that point um I split up the height fields into quads because I didn't want to have a massive Piece of geometry inside of unity. This is good for you know, things like occlusion calling or streaming large worlds So you want to create these quadrants basically And that's I just use the height field tile split And then I convert the height field and make sure I have big big point colors turned on And that turns it into geometry And then I just added some normals I think I did this because unity was complaining there for a second that there are no normals When I was doing the light bakes All right, but when I merge it all together, let's turn off our normals. That is the terrain all right So hopefully that helps out. I'll post this so I'm going to save this out And I'll post it up on go road so you guys can Look through it even more like I said, it's not super secret or classified And there's there's definitely a lot of information about using the height field nodes instead of Houdini now The thing that I want to try to do is you know try to cover Making larger worlds, you know using streaming and stuff like that and You're loading up the quadrants at right times Things like that you know putting Detail to this how do you texture something like this really quickly? How do you you know put detail really onto it really quickly? And you know, yeah, I'm gonna do a course on You know the basics of terrain and stuff like that, but I just don't I don't want to repeat You know stuff that's already out there. I want to try to you know show stuff that Is good for production and is relatively new so That is how I did that particular graph. Let me know if you guys have any questions. Thanks so much


Hello, my name is Larry we're Junior and me hello, my name is Larry we're doing and me and my sister Me and my sister are gonna call us this evening Introduce Linda Brooks bird in the branch manager Introduce Linda Brooks bird in the branch manager So this year is a little different we have two young co-hosts these are Larry where's son and daughter precious and Larry where junior and My job is to introduce Larry where who has been doing this poetry program for 17 years So without further ado, I'd like to introduce to you Larry where a poet in his own right, please give him a big round of applause Thanks Thank You lovely people this evening and it is indeed an honor and a pleasure to Have the wonderful tradition of this poetry program continuing I actually started this program in 1979 in this very room. So this is our 27th year doing this poetry and 16 on cable TV and let's give our camera woman a great round of applause Him and his staff are coming out to cover this event every year They really do a wonderful job and Linda We greatly appreciate all of the hard work and effort that you and your staff do here every year to make this it's This a wonderful event and other events that happen in this branch and the wonderful work that you and your staff are doing here and This is a special very special because Presses in junior when they first there was little tiny babies when they Was grabbing a mic now they can stand up in front of the mic, but As always I would like to Before we get the program going I'd like to pay a special tribute to some very special people This program will be dedicated to the following Reverend Lumpkin's wife mother Lumpkin mother Brown with the Breakfast kitchen Miss Maddox who had the beauty shop down the street Mr. Finley of Bayview mortuary Mr. Sam Jordan my aunt Catherine and Georgia and People who in the arts that inspired me like I would like to pay special tribute to August Wilson the playwright Oscar Brown jr. Ray Charles And also a mother bull eggs another wonderful lady here in the community and miss Taylor and There's many more we love you we remember you and also we pray and dedicate this program to the victims of Katrina and Rita and all of the Disasters around the world and We remember you and we pray for you and we pray for peace on earth We pray for peace in our streets and our families in our neighborhoods and we're gonna get this program underway and I will start it off with a poem and Then I'll introduce the co-host and they're gonna do some poetry as well To my two little ones my two little teddy bears here a freshest This poem this poem for you guys here and all of you young people out there I Y'all present in our future and I dedicate this poem to you all Young America we need the light People of the world, please listen to me I am the youth of America and as the beauty of wisdom unfolds and uses the tools of knowledge and time To begin shaping and rounding our character and personalities Let the hands of wisdom hand off the batons of knowledge as generation after generations Run the eternal marathons of life Let them run into the beautiful horizons spreading the righteousness of life the master plan The way the great Creator meant for it to be today's youth are tomorrow's leaders Let them be groomed and endowed with eternal fires of wisdom and life as they Become knowledgeable and equipped with the tools to build taking leadership roles today Preparing us for tomorrow's world as they positively and constructively affect the qualities of life Exerting the necessary direction leadership and guidance So that there may be a better world today and tomorrow for all of us to live in as their thoughts for progression Pyramid to the sky touching the Sun life source of energy as hearts of desire become inspirational Sensations may the wings of life take them in the pitch of perfect flights as they quest for the dreams of their heart as Endever span the universe taking them near and far Have no fear my friends for the wings of life will take your hearts and minds on an adventurous journey beyond beyond Let us not complicate life's constructive process and become a society of hybrid thinkers trying to rule a universal airwaves of communication True we need the super minds but as eternal fires of our love desire and inspiration in our hearts that help this world We live and grow truth is the light of justice. Oh the beauty of balance May there always be light to guide our souls young America. You are the light young America Please be the light young America. Let the light shine because young America We need the light. Thank you Thank you right now The co-hosts Larry junior and precious they're gonna introduce all of the poets. So maybe one day they might put me on a show Our next play is Tiffany filler and Jesse Wally is the next poetry Man just This this first poem is dedicated to To no one in particular I'm gonna read it though. It's called Collectively Picasso picture peccantly picturesque Picasso portraits perfectly painted Cubist renderings from blues to roses invisible geometrical poses post-impressionistic strokes of genius Baroque to Rococo collages of women colliding in conflict over who Pablo Diego and Frida belong to I Choose those who paint songs on canvas two-sided storyboards as Kandinsky and wintry Moscow Draped in the afro magic warmth of works by Ringgold Imagine freshly finished frescoes fermenting arabesque manifestos of watercolors pictures and egos peoples places and patterns Broken concrete forms and abstract landscapes with deliberately languid lines and lost lives found by those who seek a prize of answers from Curators as curious as they of the meaning of what exactly Osawa Tana was trying to say Teach me how to play the banjo and I'll lick each string until my heart reaches a resounding crescendo of quaintly crescent moons Broken into kaleidoscopic shards of sexual innuendo Mirrors or mementos and mosaics or mysteries I walk on when time traveling through periods where change is only a brush stroke away Each vision our vanity a vast variety of volumes of voice vividly painted burn etched scoped it photographed quoted and grafted Crafted from the crack of creation let there be innovation and let it move and bend and stretch and fit and Litten lift and evolve involve even the artist as heathen revolving around the sun until the seasons change in tandem Hold the moon at Sun point at random for untold rancors of realism Expressionism paint brushes and canvas from Kansas to canyons cannons of cool call them collectively Picasso painting peccantly picturesque portraits perfectly Thank you Strong J strong J Why why why alright this final poem is called names numbers horses colors and okatua This one is dedicated to all the women who didn't want me, but now they all on me a 9 to 5 is never enough to satisfy her 5-foot 4 inch testimonial Painted Azur aquamarine Alice or cornflower the son of Marigold Naray She a miracle in mind. She walks through the Everglades eating Neapolitan ice cream and Manolo Blonix White wines green teas and other miscellaneous juices and tonic strewn throughout her custom design Luella or Isabella fiori purse her while it's scented with Franklin's cologne the Avenue her catwalk a neck grow Negro now American Afro woman royalty woven in her womb her inhibitions are threadbare and she trash where only wealth wears perfume Walks into a room wearing around her neck midnight's pinch pendant She has a pension for turning heads and studies tantra and comma is her forte a 9 to 5 ain't enough to satiate her 5-4 frame So I parlay my two week gain on one million and one eyes on the first four that after six or seven furloughs My sophomore will be coordinated with triple crowns to buy her terracotta colored gowns with black diamond crowns and platinum Sequins so she can parade about the brownish orange square each sequence of bound with vanity fair Dressed to the nines and plum red two winch Jimmy choose that talk a two blue argyle top that halts right above her 32 be bosom her back exposed and expose of skin and exposition of five four beauty 360 revolutions around the Sun a runway Star Wars the pinnacle and hallmark of high fashion Slutting down shy town's magnificent mile with marigolds in her eyes Brows waxed in cold miracles jutting out from her now five foot six inch makeup that needs no makeup Cheers as organic as an ochre orange days white streak turquoise sky before the violet night has to wake up to relieve Apollo her form as apropos as equality and equally as fitting as victorious secret beneath her two blue Argyle top and terracotta gullard gowns with black diamond crowns and platinum sequence 360 degree spins around the dancing floor affecting men and women both like none before Five never enough to satisfy so my dream from six to eight becomes my reprise Never enough time on furloughs names or euros to assure her renown So now let me count each way she astounds Surround me with her song so the sound inundates my soul Behold she is my ochre tour completion. Thank you our next poetry is Troy Alexander Roy will be up shortly Let's give her a Troy great round of applause that and let me introduce myself. I'm Donald And I'm going to be performing with Troy as well Got a treat for y'all. How you guys doing today? That's good. That's good. I was just trying to get some power real quick on the stereo um I got two pieces for y'all The first piece is called what we have is much more than they can see I wrote it for my little daughter and the second piece we have is a Basically about like street life and stuff, you know how they say all those youngest young folks don't know nothing about What we go through but most of the time when we talk about what we go through we don't talk about the right stuff But uh the second what we're gonna talk about the right stuff So y'all just bear with us on that. I don't just a minute Thank y'all some of y'all must know the song Y'all remember that old school song just sing with it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's that one I know y'all remember that one, right? That's LTD He uh, he let me use the sample so it was cool. That's when I did that one But this don't want to bother about the streets. We finna roll with this one Say through my review. I see pain through my review. I see pain It's so much pain and through my review. I see change and through my review. I see a change But it's still the sign Thank you It is this program for my for my daddy's mom on dirty mint show And and Sammy My dad's nephew How y'all doing This this poem I just wrote today just about an hour ago, you know It's called in my eyes. Can you see it in my eyes enough? Here you go In my eyes. Can you see it in my eyes?  Oh, jeez. Tell me yams. You got a long ride Moms died hustle crimes missions for more dimes Can you see me seeing you with these violent intentions of force raised upon you from Problem and doing stress relentless evil wrongdoings I'm pursuing control losing things ruining my eyes Sometimes show what everybody in the world is doing After that's some gill scott heron stuff there Oh, okay Next poet is gonna be uh, oh jai Let's give oh jai a great round of applause How's everyone doing all right this piece is called Solar sonar is this inspirational thing all right Seeing stars in the sky every moon lit tonight while vibrant ultraviolet sun rays of day shine so bright We sightseeing recipes we write as our fruits of our labor ripening with the rhythm of life onto new horizons Birthed in the dark, it's in the workings of the heart once finished this dark I'm so journey sweet and bark emotion with moments of an ultimate opus minds open focus get the notion of the yoga lotus sitting in contemplation mixing colors illustrated emotions accelerated from suspended animation Satellites in your constellation gathering data through observation Adenated adaptations gaining information It's solar sonar that goes far ascended the stars on our radar It's self-explanatory health and wealth is mandatory victorious explorers warriors in our glory Drumming up serums as fluid movements transmute appearing entrance lucent liquid mirrors fountain of youth Interstellar messengers breaking sound barriers better when the sun Better when the conducts of our characters under pressure Opti motor of the cosmos optimal type of what you are so glowing gold ultra so we are more than we know Yeah, it's like I thank y'all for your time This friend is a good friend of my daddy's Say, let's give her a great round of applause Miss Mary gricker and let's give her a great hand Let's give this wonderful lady a great round of applause. Let's round for way back here Hi, everybody. I'm Mary Booker. I'm going to read Two of my poems for you one I wrote um April 27 2004 and I I only mentioned it because I've just Repeated the same procedure that calls me to write this So I'm going to read it to you. It's called Holdin signs Holdin signs on third street stop slow go Trying to look necessary as if we were the one who was making the big dough I don't even see us digging the holes in the ground You would think a few of us should be us in this part of town What happened to Promises of meaningful jobs for this community economic benefits for this vicinity As I drive down third street corridor. I see faces I've never seen before driving Machinery digging holes. I know none of these people are what we call next door But we stand holdin signs looking uncomfortable sometime stop slow go As I see them digging holes. I look around and I worry about the people in this part of town Beautiful homes being built from shorter short places. We can't afford to live no more stop slow go These words seem ominous and cold I perceive they unspoken goal for us not to live here anymore Light rail complete changing the face of third street changing faces changing faces changing changing Holding invisible signs stop slow Go a lot of time for people I work with And I wrote this one for one of the girls in Our production group. It's called reflections of yesterday and today How did I make it through the biggest crisis of my life? A divorce nearly destroyed me it drove me to my knees and made me see I needed a spiritual mate living inside of me The dream The dream the dream Of how marriage should be the betrayal the betrayal Hurts untold Led me into a life that literally scarred my soul Finally bitter And lost I cried out to god lord. I need you to heal my broken heart I have a son to rear. I must become mother and father up in here He heard my cry Changed my life Although i'm single i'm all right I'm just a little leery of relationships organ becoming a wife I'm still on my journey in the pursuit of me I don't know what the final me will be A mystic woman told me to just close my eyes and if a clear crystal lake I could see I could visualize things to be I paused for a moment And I closed my eyes And then to my surprise I didn't want to open my eyes. Yes Oh, yes, I cried I see the lake. It's calling me. The water is crystal clear as far as I can see I rest there and by its back. I sat down feeding water so I could think Why don't you wait in the water? A quiet voice said no, I'm just fine. I don't know how deep it is. It may go over my head It is peace here It is quiet Drop all your fears and come inside. There are things you need to know And you'll never learn them if you remain on shore So Here goes Okay, okay And then I'll bring your co-hosts back on Again stressed importance of education to our young people because you are the leaders today and our future Tomorrow, this one is entitled Projected destinations Knowledge is the fuel for the fire that inspires our deep creative desires It gives us inward depth and outward perceptions Elevating our levels of thought and as a wave of inner self expression beautifully flow Let us seek to realize as we visualize the dreams of our heart Let us treasure the pleasures of life for not living we would never know what life was And as we master the tools of knowledge, we become the architects of our own destination Then as the beautification of the inner self progress We become endowed in the midst of our enlightened visions as we begin to instill and assimilate the golden ways of life The sign of life is paper in our pockets Mind power equals green power spread the bread feed your thoughts inspirations and desires Thank you poem and and then we're going to introduce Reverend Bruno and It's going to come up after that. So I would like to introduce these two Young wonderful people here this young lady precious unique my daughter little princess She's going to come up and do a poem. So come on baby. Come up and do your poem there Precious unique Princess precious come on now You got it. You can do it baby. Just read your poem there. Oh, what the title say you got it Hi, my name is precious. I will be reading this poem called nature. We have neither summer Nor winter neither autumn nor spring We have Instead the days We I mean When the gold sun shines on the lush green Camp fields Magnificent say magnificently Stage right on daddy We're doing we're doing it together. Okay, magnificently The day is when the rain beats like Bullets on the roof and there is no sound but the Swish of water in the gullies and trees struggling In the high jamaica winds Also, there are the days when leaves fade through All gondol trees gondol trees And the reaped cane fields and the reaped cane fields lie bare and Fallow to the sun But best of all There are the Days when the mango and the logwood Blossom when the bushes are full of the sound of bees and the scent of honey when the tall grass slaves And shivers to the slightest So I can hear you Of air when the buttercups have paved paved the earth the earth With yellow stars and beauty comes Suddenly in the rains Have gone My brother is coming out to do some poetry now Hello, my name is layware junior I'm going to be ringing In daddy orms. I am tall In daddy's orms I am tall a clothes to the sun a worm In daddy's orms In daddy's orms I can see Over the fence Out back I can tilt the problem Leaves of the Big mobile tree in D's yard In daddy's orms In my daddy's orms The moon is closed Closer at night Time when I can almost teach it When it grows back at me from winds Take it was In daddy's orms. I am tall taller than Bundy age my friends Edge gorge taller taller Then oh billy a best of all I am ball even stubborn With me my big brother Jimmy In my daddy's orms I am Stores a dark like him a longer helper Jen Duck circus slowns with red pants green When daddy's When daddy Springs me round A round The wall world Is carried Up or down I big in strike a brown him In daddy's orms my daddy. I'd like to introduce Reverend Bruno. Let's give him a round of applause. God bless you bro. I hope you're enjoying yourself We'll put a stop to that We have to carry two glasses, you know, I got one pair of glasses for writing reading and the other pair for reading writing Sometimes I don't know what I'm doing But I'd like to read a a couple of poems for you something that I Well Anyway, that poem that Mary Booker read stop slow go It's one of my favorites. I think I wrote that but I'll let her get away This first poem is called I can't see it I can't see as I as I stand here alone Shout out we figures that don't really belong They say things are changing for the betterment of me Well, if they are it's a betterment that I can't see I can't see rail cars and buildings all bright and new I can't see retail businesses where rip shacks used to do I can't see palm trees traffic control and street lights that blink back I can't see coffee shops and boutiques filled with people that ain't black I can't see calm nights and parkways where children safely play I can't see no no violence. No drug deals on the corner every day I can't see bubble and ray ray her seam and jamal I can't see shamiya La Crescia or Tanya at all I can't see none of these things that used to be My soulmate whispers you're blind. You can't even see me Our next poem is called Tell me a story Tell me a story of long long ago Muggings and killings and drug deals, you know Now when I walk down 3rd street, I see Men women boys and girls that don't look like me Tell me a story. I'm longing to know Not of train rails and stop lights where gangsta rides used to flow Oh, tell me the tale of the 1st and 15th Sacks of McDonald's and the kernels of ribs. Oh, so sweet Where have they gone all the players and such? When did they leave and just what was their rush? We lived on the hill only 20 years or more Never owning anything not even the corner liquor store Where is the group that hung out every day? Polluting the schoolyard where little kids tried to play How can I sleep without gunshot in my ear? How can I live day to day without nagging fear? Tell me a story of black is beautiful and true Where the hero not the villain looks like me and like you I got one more poem here. I don't know. Okay. Uh, thank you This one is called on a bench Moonlight bathes shadows feel my time one cup As my musical foam chime.  I think I heard my tired voice say The reply was a whisper shouting. This is judgment day I fell off the bench and rolled around on the ground Seeking the cause of my demise, but none could be found I can't be dead. I screamed shaking with fear I've only been loaded 11 months of this year I've got lots of living to do and great plans in my head To see the hood changes color from dirty blood red To bright greens of progress yellow hues of health Purple pills of corrections from poverty to wealth But what is this that my bloodshot eyes start to see? That bright rosy future is not planned for me The powers that be have planned their take over well And they've uprooted and displaced me from the place I once held So close to my heart on this little field hill Where I waited in darkness to rob and to kill Where I jacked people's cars and stole their household dreams And refused to hear their moans or their screams I dealt in terror and ruled the night. I polluted and destroyed everything in sight I clawed at the hopes and the dreams of my brothers Murdered young men and young women and killed the dreams of their mothers Now I'm wine soaked and drilled out at the bottom of the whale In a gutter under a bench sliding down into hell Our next portrait is Sheila Cole Let's give Sheila a big round of applause I just want to say I Larry's an old-time friend long ago back a long way And I ran it to him and he asked me to do come on and do a poem I have two and this is a wake-up poem for everyone to get a check up Because you don't know what may transpire Especially women's about cancer This is first one dedicated called lifeline. It's a program about breast cancer Live your life because you have just one Integrate God's word into your family time of fun Fill your life with happiness and add some cheer Eliminating stress whenever it's near Learning to live and cope and be strong It would only be a matter of time before a cure for cancer I hope it won't be long Nothing is more important to me than when the day arrived Everyone will sing praises. Thank God I have survived Everyone will be saying when that's fine when they find that cure Now, I know I'll be alive My next point is called uh cancer creep creep Cancer enters your body Sometime as soon as you are asleep Nothing is more delightful cancer to catch you unaware He'll smile Then laugh at you because he just doesn't even care He has left so many people in tragedy and feeling in despair Everyone should take my advice. Tell someone to get a check up every year if you dare Remember, you will be saving life Inspiring a lot of tears You can help fight this battle of cancer By telling people starting this year Let's give this young lady another great round of applause there Robin here Oh precious We're gonna have a little praise dance here precious and oh she's gonna do a short praise dance So uh coming up oh she you and precious uh Sure, that's that's okay. I'm on a uh Do another poem You know, oh, um Before I do this poem like I I would like to uh Another person that's very important to all of us that uh, you know, it's so important for us to uh Chronicle and document our history And a gentleman who has chronicled and documented our history for over 60 years I would like to have a special dedication to him Mr. John Johnson of ebony and jet Let's have a silent moment of prayer for mr. Johnson This gentleman has chronicled our history for over 60 years and been a great inspiration to me as a writer and researcher and you know, uh He's touched all of our lives in one way or another with chronicling our history and um This this poem here in particular to me and that king co is the greatest entertainer of all time and uh He was like the mardin with the king of entertainment And uh, I wrote this poem which is actually a song.  Let's give her a great round of applause Good evening tonight i'm Well, I guess I should start by saying i've been going through a writer's block So hopefully tonight will you know get me started back into writing and You know I'm gonna read two poems for you guys and the first is Going to be um a poem called tamana ako which is It's not grammatically correct, but in to gala it when you say tamana it means enough already so if someone's pouring you like water you say tamana and um Yes, so basically the poem means am I enough? My radiance compels you The curve of my lips the curl of my hair My caramel colored skin shimmering underneath californian sun Mesmerizing eyes that take you to another planet and back with one glance I am the best thing since Leaving a sweet taste in your mouth you will never forget tamana ako I am more tempting than chocolate and strawberries more luscious than peaches and cream But how do I know Your amorous stare tells all a story of how you wish to be with me near me in me You ask yourself as I stretch to buy with pride not looking at my feet but looking at the sky Who is she?  It's chocolate rice. It's kind of like a porridge and Sweet milk like the condensed but anyway The next poem i'm gonna read is a little bit longer and I hope you guys can bear with me It's called sounds of my struggle and I wrote this back in 2003 when I was away at school and I was organizing for the march on washington That you know thankfully won a little bit back for affirmative action at the u of m law school case Discretion advised the following words of wisdom must be exposed to youth play My sociological imagination is the root of my frustration forcing me to agonize over stop insert disc two To believe or not to believe in the system in which I was socialized is the question Between two rocks. I am stuck my family and me I am glued to the ghetto dreams of pistain concrete drip drip Detach drip drip Detach drip drip damn it's kibbon next track I'm back on my journey searching for paths doors that will lead me to shanta's cloud nine store yet All I find are liquor store slash fast food restaurant slash unsanitary grocery outlets slash checking cash places slash to meet a soul rejuvenating beauty supply store and salon The best shop on the block for those who have internalized racism Pause rewind repeat To meet a soul rejuvenating beauty supply store in salon the best shop on the block for those who have internalized racism pause rewind repeat for those who have internalized racism But once I get past all those places that represent poverty that represent exploitation that represent deterioration That represent the unequal country in which I was raised I finally reached shanta's where I can take down my braids or 18 years of struggle and pain No, relaxer here relaxation after struggle is what I want No more fronts no more politicians to bother me with caps that redunce interacting with pause quote I don't give a damn unquote republicans democrats and all other puppets with masks Can't plagiarize now.  Please listen.  So stop For the sake of the kids Did you listen to me when I said Please tell me please. Why can't my baby brother? Why can't my baby brother? Why can't my baby brother breathe with ease? Why does he not have the opportunity to achieve? I'll tell you why you believe loot you pollute poor neighborhoods with toxins because we don't have millions All we have here is the stuff you gave us I'll let you guess no not a community parks community center apart. What can't think of it They're called crack rocks kid It's killing us and only bringing separation and the lasting results community deterioration But those were your intentions so you can execute your plan Putting black and latino brothers and brothers and brothers behind bars making each feel like less than human. Why? Because you know like I know all will soon know you've played your last card Can't have an indignant militia after the rich now can we?  I would never do that to you next track I am on the verge of losing my mind. I want unity equality a community.  But my prayer of my prayers that I pray to her or him or it Is for a chance to live in a utopian society end of disc But wait, there's more play My prayers have already been answered because she or he or it Gave me a mind to think with gave me two lungs to breathe with gave me a mouth to speak with gave me feet to walk Gave me various languages to talk and I will go and tell the world that we need to fight for equality And I will go ask the proletarian.  Are they tired of it the hypocritical mass political take my human rights and run capitalistic bullshit? because I am You you bad sister About the bus off in there with some hour green uh luther Teddy is something up in here What was that?  Oh, okay. You know, oh, we introduce the next poor. Let's give these my two young people a great round of applause These are my two little teddy bears here as y'all know so, uh Tiffany a is going to be the next port, okay Tiffany is going to be the next portrait. Tell me let's give her a great round of applause okay, I wasn't going to get up and do anything but Be honest, but I just uh felt compelled because everybody sounds so wonderful And it's just good to have be around my people and just feel inspired. So I'm not actually going to do a call. I'm going to sing It's beautiful to ask sister. Let's give her another great round of applause coming up next is the First lead singer to temptation the original Hardcore to god Let me see y'all know about the temptations Yeah What's that they call a temptation walk? Can you do it? Let me see y'all do the temptation. Y'all don't know nothing about no temptation walk. Let me see you do it Show me y'all can do the temptation Daddy is saying Okay, show them you can sing that show them y'all can dance too. Let's go Each day through my window I watch her as she passes by I say to myself You're such a lucky guy To have a girl like her Truly a dream come true Out of all the fellows in the world. She belongs to me But it was just my imagination Once again Running away with me It was just my imagination Running away with me. I guess you say my girl my girl My girl talking about All right. Okay. Thank you. Okay Donald thomas our next one is donald thomas give it up for donald thomas Good evening. Um I was inspired to get back up here and do a poem though like I have to hear so many wonderful poems and The name of this poem that I wrote is called young people wake up And I wrote this for the young people though because we are here dying right now And like brothers is getting killed left and right and like really over senseless like ignorance and And I was really just inspired to just get up here, you know And just recite this poem that I wrote as young people.  We trapped in the loop kid. So think outside the box How you gonna put your shoes on? Without your socks Just try to visualize that Please open up your mind and try to visualize that You got a life to live and don't jeopardize that So just visualize that We'll do Miss Mary Booker again Miss Mary Booker This poem is called a moment of silence And I think it will be self-explanatory Hunters point The view from the hill No one will ever know just how I feel Ships go sailing by planes up in the sky This time It was my son who died Too many failed to provide for the children in a land of plenty Enslave and then by the desires and addiction They are being herded like cattle into the system No love no morals murderers thugs good folks cry As they sit back and watch our young black men die Only for a fleeting moment.  Untutored souls forever gone to only god knows where leaving planet earth where too few folks care I demand a moment of silence Silence for their tragic stories yet untold Silence for their misguided goals silence Silence silence Silence for our children who have ceased to be Silence many more will follow if we just let things be Silence don't try to justify this madness to me. We fought too hard to re-establish a family Tell me What is this madness? I see silent mercy lord We are dying lord Generations of babies having babies looking for love Supplying the people for the system to grind up Their wants but needs never met they fight and kill for turf trying to gain respect They mortgage their souls selling pot and crack cocaine buying clothes with brand names and souped up cars Trying to feel the gaping holes in their heart Silence mercy lord Only casual partners for sex Practicing all sorts of immorality leading them further down the road to death Silence Only from a distance do you say stop?  There's a way called right Return to the moral standards of our forefathers and our foremothers And we may be able to save some of our sisters and brothers think about it Keep silence We need We need a moment Of silence We bring up uh revan brunner and jessia pressure's gonna do another poem. Let's give pressure's a Great round of applause there This is to my cousin ashia It's called listen To steal Very still and listen Listen to wings Latter than eyelashes Stroking the air Know what the thin breeze whispers On high To the coconut trees listening here Our next country is jelanda My name is yolanda katsalko And I wrote this poem for Thanksgiving. I had started to write one on katrina I wrote this one then I finished the one on katrina. So I have two poems tonight And just like I have two daughters that are twins one is in college and swans work. Thank you This is called dialectics thoughts signs posters prehistoric humanity fire language eggs tadpoles frogs creeks rivers waterfalls rise harvest soup humans tribe societies seeds tomato salsa wood fire carbon charcoal paper art creativity reality ideas ideas groups discussions winter cold government people heating rides storms disasters evacuations summer heat hurricanes katrina stan gamma water oil war oil higher prices global warming Kyoto conference united nations united nations elections world war two Africa third world Puerto Rico electronics unemployment technology unemployment no checks crisis new york san francisco education schools ideas soviet revolution people's government technology housing for all In the second one, I started writing it in the library. I my boyfriend and I will watch to the tv before Katrina during katrina and after katrina and here's some of my ideas and my thoughts on katrina And then katrina struck It wasn't the first time for a week the newscasters had declared a category five hurricane The highest category of all then were the newscasters having a bad week Did the listeners close their eyes and ears? It wasn't an election year The previous year the government heard for a two billion dollar check For ravage turned florida before hurricane yvonne struck The stories keep on 14 attempted suicides in aflorida propped up post yvonne tragic doom for closure travelers park trailers park the stories keep on This time hurricane katrina same old story December january deadline for hotels Find a place to call home in a month if you can If you have green cards that is What do people say come on ground luisi and a base group says cooperative base sustainable living community control Look us up at p www dot ptr.io dot org Liga revolutionaries for our new america to email your government to meet the demands of the hurricane victims Come and cause or ww dot Rural org that org or poor people's economic human rights campaign. Thank you You know, I think Well, listen at some of the poems from some of the young people now Nowadays and some of the things that they talk about It's kind of hard to Really grab it because I have memories but not those kind and A lot of people are at a loss As to what's going on in today's society I find that after three years old there are no children anymore You are finding different times and different things But for this poem that I'm going to do now I'm going to reflect And it takes me back Because that was a time when I wasn't this old But this poem I wrote for My brother my cousin actually but we were raised as brothers and It was a time when he had passed And his brother had passed just before him But it losing them Brought some things back to my mind about our childhood And I just like to read this is called when we were boys When we were boys, we had lots of fun Climbing the Sheridan street signboard and catching balls on the run When we were boys, we chased every dream And nothing was ever as bad as it seemed We were football heroes and cowboys and such We slid across home plate and came through in the clutch We drank from the pool of life with great glee And there were no limits for you, Vern and me When we were boys on the playground of the street We captured the hearts of everyone we did meet We were musketeers with wooden swords strong and true Then somebody discovered girls. I think it was you We became young men's on a different quest You stayed at home. I headed west Time and tide and many years in between Found us apart from each other and seldom seen But memories grow fonder and enhance the joys Of life and its pleasures when we were boys We'll soar together when our spirits take flight From earth's temporary darkness into god's eternal light And then we'll catch fly balls in that great by and by Just as when we were boys, you, Vern, and I Thank you Okay Preston June is going to do a short poem and then Jassy and then we're going to have And Sheila's going to do one for and then we're going to have some refreshments Okay, so Preston June. I want to do a poem Who y'all want to do this poem for Who y'all want to do this poem for That one there Who who who am I my dad Say speak loud speaking to the microphone Into my father's eyes And I seen an African sunset. We love you daddy My father Yes No Our next poet is going to be christian Miss christian The poem I'm going to be saying tonight is called dreams by Langston Hughes Hold fast the dreams for his dreams die life is a broken wing bird that cannot fly Hold fast the dreams for his dreams go life is a barren field frozen with snow Our next poet is going to be a Kathy Wiley, let's give her a great round of applause jessie sister Two poems my first poem is called movie screens As she has grown she has reaped what she has sown and because of this her voice has become louder As she has lived her life many have learned to doubt her She would have a child by the age of 16. They said and her husband would beat her She knew she would be someone else, but no one believed her She suffered in her childhoods and struggled in her teens But in the depth of her heart and in the back of her mind played movie screens Scenes of pain and a hard life Seemed ingrained out of spite, but why complain when you can make it right? I graduated from high school, which was a feat in itself. I'm still living and I have my health It doesn't seem that hard, but it's a big accomplishment where I'm from. I'm in college now I'm still surviving in the slums. I've quit smoking and revisited the lord Sometimes what seems so difficult really isn't that hard Twin doesn't have a title. I just wrote it actually Yes, I'm still here still striving to make a way out of what I have But they're still trying to take away what I have It's not much what I have But it's still enough to get me through the hot days and the cold nights To get me through the cold ways and the hot fights It's still enough when things get hard and I feel like giving up on life Yes, it's still enough when shit gets tough I acknowledge my knowledge because it's power and it's still enough when the ignorance that is so bliss turns sour I am above the hatred I'd rather love because that can be just enough for a young female thug Enough to keep me away from the books or keep me in the books enough to keep me from the drugs Enough to keep me from the crooks and my fellow thugs. I don't need much just enough love me not too much Just enough Okay, uh Our our next poet is going to be a sheila co. She's going to do some poetry that oh shea wrote So let's give her a great round of applause More of a story than the poems by a shea fin boy Young lady here in the french roll. So she was a little shy So bearable if I get a cover thing. This is based on a raisin in the sun Act two scene one beneath the by a shea finroy Dear diary Asajj is the man of my dream He has opened my eyes to a new side to to me is very spiritual I changed my whole image for this man Oh, yeah, I see the flaming spear Walked to act as As if he was in tune with the flaming spear He tuned up on the table like a villager in the Nigerian jungle I am fierce wild cat. I have the heart of a falcon Oh so do me I am one with myself and I am the queen of Nigeria I am I am beneath a strong black African woman.  Are you getting to poem? This poem is called um, this is uh a poem that's about um The storm over in New Orleans as well as uh a new relationship Um, so hope you enjoy it. It's called chapters and levies We met before the storm our introduction already manifest and love missives and questions of music Our exchange of words the latent passion which would soon bloom into a foregone conclusion You were intuitive to my approach before I'd even decided to go there So when I arrived your door was already a jar So I spoke out to the silence that I wanted to go where you were you are so powerful and avrodezyak Ambrosia for my hunger my slumber becomes an enchanted summer with no chances of levies giving way No kisses too fast no kisses to pass until we pass the preface of this beginning each page another insight into our physical Spiritual and sexual mors how fitting our sexual clothes that we are naked with intellectual desire The waters of a sinking land rise higher and along with the levies people break and make haste for higher grounds until their panic is Appearsing streaking frightening fight to stay alive So a way they hide on rooftops with no room to exhale their grief They each become a thief of time until time stands still the seconds now minutes now hours the powers that prevail Days away from coming to the rescue you steal my time each time you call our voices enmeshed each time we speak I see solace soon after hopeless hopeful our congress is soon I feel inadequate warning you as awkward as protective barriers put into place to provide the populace protection in the wake of a storm Our introduction a product of placement Manifest the notes and epistles you wrote down your numbers So I wouldn't have to miss you when you were gone So I wouldn't forget you when your perfume no longer lingered in my nostrils like the ghosts of my great beloved grandmother So many men women children and lovers became ghosts when the levies fractured and the land became a rapture of water And the faster the flow the better for the city of people rafting through the thoroughfares looking for a detour through disaster No longer the masters and captains of their souls. They navigated the depths of death with fine tooth instinct So primal you can cock life out of thought I think this may be the brink of a reality. I've sought since your sense sent my loins greeting She's beating on your heart of all now is the moment you awake embraced by your mortality Nothing is more promising than those last seconds now minutes now hours in time that envelop us so so quickly The time so deftly moves you only know it is past when you have I have all the time man knows and that god allows to know your truth and laugh in the face of uncouth politics That is skew life and skew greed and screw the need of the impoverished until there is no need for help for the reaper Has already helped himself to soul sold on existence I know not the effects of her complex destruction personally and in the bigger scheme of things She has simply an event a country built in the backs of blacks could prevent but chose not to She got to the city of the fluidly in a blink mother nature robed in a swirling mass of red and pink Armageddon she was not that is indefensible gods rath pouring from the sky and invincible valley of devastation She knew her bounds you will reappear my wet dreams wearing cumulative winds and rainwater gowns My book of latent passion prolific and manifold with documented manifestos of knowing and understanding your sexual and intellectual Moors as I come to terms with the obliterated shores of new orleans All right Once again, uh, oh, I'd like to make a presentation To a precious uh unique and larry jr God bless you and daddy. Thank you very much and I would like to thank Tower records bravo pizza and barns and nobles for some gifts. I have some gifts for the poets and uh, you know y'all uh You two young people you know what you are to daddy Y'all my heroes you know that I love you and uh once again, uh once again, uh Once again, uh, thank you very much and, uh Thank you cameramen for Brad For this for coming out and covering this wonderful event and we'd like to thank dave and uh, rest of the staff and Thank linda for the wonderful jobs you're doing and you poets, uh, you make this program what it is And uh, it's about us. You know and and uh, and let's do it again and make this 17 28 and 17 So there's plenty of refreshments for everyone and again. Thank you very much and happy holidays and To all and thank you


Okay, we're back. We're live. I'm Jay Fidel. This is Marco, Mina, and me on Mondays talking about energy. Our guests are Marco and Marco Mangostorf and Mina Moreno. Welcome to the show, you guys. Hi, good to be back on. Yes, good to be back on with the three of us. Thank you so much for having us, Jay, today. All right, yeah. We're delighted to have you. We're going to talk about the fall of solar, the fall, the decline in fall of solar in Hawaii. As reported by Dwayne Shimagawa in today's PBN with help from Marco Mangostorf. And in so many other articles that have detailed the decline of solar installations over the past year or two. Dwayne reported that Hawaii's rooftop solar energy industry continues its decline according to new permit figures. He pointed out that last month, the city and County Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting issued 194 permits, the fewest in five years, according to data from our own Marco of Provision Solar. Compared to January 2016, there was a drop of 52% of permits last month. On the Big Island, the county issued 45 permits last month, compared to 141 permits the same month last year. A drop of 68%. And last month, the county of Maui issued 54 permits compared to 233 permits a year ago, a drop of 76%. So Marco, you said, I am running out of gloomy metaphors to describe what's happening to the rooftop solar industry. And you continue to be struck by the mega chasm between all the talk of achieving renewable goals sooner while a vital industry with us away. There's a disconnect. So Marco, how strongly do you feel about that anyway?  And I'm sure I have something of a rep now over the past months, if not longer, as somewhat being a solar Cassandra, seeing gloom and doom always on the horizon, if not on the horizon, you know, actually in our midst. But I have to say that in this sense, the numbers do not lie. And you cited them accurately in terms of the PV permits that have been issued by the City and County of Honolulu, County of Maui, and the County of Hawaii in January. And to me, it's nothing short of, you know, really big, big bad news and shows that the adoption rate for rooftop solar has gone down precipitously since its peak back in 2012 and 2013. And of course, I mean, of course, as a business owner who lives and breathes, putting PV systems on people's roofs, both homeowners and business owners, that I have a vested interest. I mean, that states the obvious and I'm not ashamed of that. And I would like very much for rooftop solar to continue to, if not grow at least, stabilize so that it can keep enough of us happy and healthy in terms of an adequate revenue and reasonable and sustainable profit. But I really wonder seriously, and I was at a trade show on the Kona side over the weekend and talked to a number of my fellow PV people, and there's a tremendous amount of concern. You guys, a tremendous amount of anxiety. And it really, on the kind of more macro level, if I take off my Marco self-interest hat and Provision Solar self-interest hat, to what extent should we value the continued vitality and existence of rooftop solar here in Hawaii? I mean, it's a policy question. It's a political question. And we have the Public Utilities Commission, which has the role. We have the legislature, which has the role. We have the governor, which has the role. We have other energy stakeholders, and they have roles. I mean, what value should be put on rooftop solar in terms of the benefits it provides versus the costs, including tax credits, so there's money that does not go into the state's general fund? Should we, as I quoted in Dwayne's piece, should we double, triple down on utility scale solar because it's cheaper and let rooftop solar kind of go along the wayside? So those are, to some extent, rhetorical questions. But I throw it out there for discussion because we're really at an existential place at this point regarding the local PV industry and rooftop solar. So where do we go from here? That's important, and I agree with you when you say that. So I guess the question, we should put the question to you, Mina, you live on Kauai. You've seen tremendous growth of solar there, but the solar now is utility scale. They put, you know, a couple of installations on and they've got more planned and they're successful in growing solar, but it isn't necessarily on rooftops. What's the story? How do you feel about what Marco's saying? Well, I agree with, you know, in some parts with Marco about the growth. You know, we're on an island grid and there's only so much that can go into the grid at any particular time. And I think when you look at the overall picture at how many people are actually being served by rooftop solar, it's still a small amount. And the majority of customers are being served by the electric utility. And so there's a real critical economic issue here that needs to be looked at very carefully as we move forward in policy where, you know, I don't think anybody wants to continue to oversubsidize an area at the expense of rate payers and taxpayers. So there's some real economic issues that need to be discussed. Well, let me offer this thought, though. I mean, we're on a road to 100%, and the world is too. I mean, solar is expanded exponentially on the mainland and in Europe. And so this is going to slow us down, don't you agree? And if it slows us down, then, you know, we're going to be behind the curve instead of ahead of it. We're not going to be a positive laboratory. We're going to be a negative laboratory. And we're not going to make our goals. I mean, that's the real risk here. And so if that's the case, come with me for a moment. Well, I think the thing that we have to look at carefully is we're not going to make our goals with solar alone. You know, and what we're kind of, you know, what we need is a diverse portfolio. And, you know, given the lower capacities of solar, you can't rely on solar to make your goal unless you're going to invest in more expensive technology, such as storage.  Well, that's a big question. And the question, of course, is that if you find that the success of the project, the success of this 100% initiative is in fact dependent on solar and solar costs money and you can't do solar without state money, then the project is dependent on putting money in. And if we don't put money in, we won't make our goals. I mean, as some people feel, you know, that we're in big trouble that way because the legislature is not going to put the money in and therefore we have a goal that can't be met. Marco? Well, it's a thorny, challenging issue and I certainly hear what Mina is saying. I've been in solar now for almost 40 years and one of the things as a self-described true believer in solar is that there's really no other energy source which is as democratic as it is, as solar is, which means in practicality that it's possible to have your own mini power plant on your roof that is off-setting part or even all of your electricity needs and what kind of value do you put on that? I think it's worth something, but you know, as you're coming up with a methodology or some type of equation which is based on quantifiable numbers, right? What kind of value do you put on empowering, literally empowering people to be able to take a little bit more control of their own power situation in terms of generating their own hot water, generating part or all of their own electricity? So, how much are we driven by the bottom line in a narrow sense in terms of having 10, 15, 20, 100 megawatt utility-scale systems that is selling power to the utility company at 11 cents a kilowatt hour with storage or even less because clearly the trend lines are utility-scale solar is going down and costs just like all solar is going down and costs, and I don't have the answer here, but I think and I really believe that there is an intrinsic value that is not necessarily completely quantifiable for the benefit, that argues for the benefit of allowing people to have a degree, a greater degree of their own energy independence. Well, let me say that that doesn't watch for somebody who doesn't have solar on his roof. I don't have solar on my roof and I don't care if somebody else has a control benefit or not. I would like to see it and you said it too, that utility-scale solar is cheaper and that's being proven in Kauai and so why can't we do that? Isn't that work? Kauai is really a good model for that and in the future it seems to me we can have solar. We can expand our use of solar just the way KIUC is doing without having it on anybody's roof and I've suggested before, I don't know if this works for you Marco, but what we want to do is have all the solar installers make larger proposals, RFT proposals to the utility to build utility-scale solar in every island and that'll be cheaper, that'll be the 11 cent model. Wouldn't that save us all a lot of money? I'd probably like to get Mina's hit on this before I jump back in. Sorry Jay, I just had a hard time. I'm not sure if you're too close to the microphone. I think, well my major issue is I have no problem with somebody making their own investment and making their choice for solar, but I do have a problem when their choice is dependent on subsidization by taxpayers and other rate peers. So there's a lot of adjustments that need to go on regarding the value of solar.  But in having what you're saying Mina, in having what you're saying is that solar is the one. You were talking before about having a diversified array of renewables, but in fact in every island solar seems to be the most popular way of doing renewables. I mean for example on Kauai you don't have wind and I think they've made an intelligent choice not to have wind because people really don't like wind and there was all this trouble in Lanai about wind and Big Island too, I mean everybody likes solar. So what I take from the discussion so far is that solar is the way to meet the goals. Do you agree with that Mina? You know again I support having a diversified portfolio and you know it's unfortunate that we can't use more wind resources on Kauai, but again if you look at Kauai you know they're making every attempt to diversify with biomass and hydro you know onto the system. What I'm just saying is that you know we saw exponential growth in solar and we saw that exponential growth primarily because of subsidization through tax credits and also net metering. You know that trajectory can no longer continue at the expense of other ratepayers and taxpayers. And so again if you want to put solar, if you want to put energy storage on your individual home or your business you shouldn't be relying on taxpayer and ratepayer money to make that investment for yourself. If you want to sell services back to the grid those services should be properly valued that will benefit the entire system not just you know your pocketbook again at the expense of everybody else. So there needs to be this real careful balancing right now as we move forward and a real concern about who pays as we move forward. Well let me throw this thought at Marco. Marco you know the thing about rooftop solar is that it's not only the question of government subsidy the fact is that rooftop solar when it's allowed to proceed you know you don't have curtailment issues and regulatory issues and all that as we've had. It moves fast. People are excited about it. They want to do it for whatever reason. I don't think it's limited to the subsidy. I think the fact is that we've had extraordinary growth until a year or two ago and it was all because people wanted to have rooftop solar. And if we don't if we get off that I'm arguing against my own point but if we get off that and we leave it to another process and another product the likelihood is we're going to slow down in reaching 100% in being you know in moving ahead and facilitating the development and I sense that's part of what you were saying before about control but I don't see it only as control like I see it as a market process where it moves much faster when you have a free market among our you know democratic citizens. Well I mean the reality which I believe is indisputable is that net energy metering which existed from 2001 to October 2015 was an incentive and a subsidy that was deemed to be of adequate enough value to promote solar and it did tremendously. And then you also we've also had both the federal and state tax credits which have also been huge as far as offsetting a good chunk of the cost to homeowners and to investors. So it's clear that subsidies have been at play. It's clear that subsidies have benefited not a small number of people and I understand the argument. In fact I was one of the relative few in my industry back in 2015 when Hawaiian Electric announced in January 2015 that they wanted to end bringing net energy metering to an end. I was one of the few that are actually supported that and I still stand by it although it's certainly been counter to my own business interest to do that. So it's kind of you know it's where the rubber meets the road so to speak that you have in theory and in philosophy that there comes a time when the subsidy should be phased out and then there's also the pain that that type of position in my case the pain that that inflicts by that moving forward if that makes sense. But I mean just to hark back briefly to Hawaiian Electric's own proposal or own vision for the near-term introduction of more renewables what I mean by near-term this year 2017 to 2021 and they are prognostic or forecasting substantially substantially more rooftop solar for all their service territories. So you know how did they get there? Why were they so supportive in their latest power supply improvement plan submitted to the commission December 23rd? Do you know why? Do I know why? Well I have to believe without being privy to their actual deliberations that they see the value both practical and political perspective to have more rooftop solar that that's you know there are very few people I think in general who are against rooftop solar per se. So it would have been in politic I think to some extent for them to not be supportive of a lot more rooftop solar. Well we got an interesting situation here. The question is to what extent in this particular example various renewable energies in our state should be subsidized to what extent how much how much should the majority pay to benefit a minority. That's the question. I really think we're trying to figure it out. What we're going to do is take a short break. When we come back I'd like to ask each of you, Mina first, what she proposes we do at this point at this intersection if you will you know made clear by the obvious decline of solar installations. We'll be right back. Good afternoon. Howard Wiig, Code Green, ThinkTekHawaii.com. I appear on Mondays at three o'clock and my gig is energy efficiency doing more with less it's the most cost effective way that we in Hawaii are going to achieve 100% clean energy by the year 2045. I look forward to being with you. Aloha. Hello and Aloha. My name is Raya Salter and I am the host of Power of Hawaii where Hawaii comes together to figure out how we're going to work towards a clean and renewable energy future. We have exciting conversations with all kinds of stakeholders everyone who needs to come together to talk about renewable energy be they engineers, advocates, lawyers, utility executives, musicians or artists to see how we can come together to make a renewable future. Tuesdays at 1 p.m. Okay, we're back. We're live. We're here with Marco Mangelsdorf and Mina Morita talking about energy in Hawaii and talking about the decline of the solar installation industry. So I wanted to ask you guys after the discussion and raising the point about should we have further subsidies or not should we leave it to individual homeowners to build without subsidies or should we expect the utility to do utility scale solar? Let me ask you what you suggest in the way of a program. What are your suggestions for a specific initiative going forward to deal with this? Mina, you first. Well, I think it's really premature to look at another new energy storage tax credit. Right now the way the tax office is interpreting the current renewable energy income tax credit is that storage is included in that tax credit. So without understanding the ramifications of rooftop solar on the entire system and the impacts on taxpayers, definitely we should not jump into the fire with another new tax credit. Okay, Marco, what do you think? Do you think the tax credit should be reinstated or increased? Sorry, you're breaking up on me, Jane. Oh, sorry. Marco, what should we do? Well, we're waiting for the distributed energy resources docket or DER docket to play out this year as the commission and the interveners and the consumer advocate hammer out whatever phase two is going to be. And I would like to see some type of interconnect agreement, some type of tariff, that would still be available or be available in phase two that would allow for exporting into the grid your surplus PV power, number one. And number two, for that surplus power to accrue some type of value, some type of credit value, whether it's not going to be retail because NEM is dead and gone, but that's what I would like to see under the DER docket and regarding the proposed new state tax credit or one that's working both the House and the Senate in our legislature right now, as far as should there be a new state tax credit specifically for storage, and even though I haven't seen the versions of the bill or read them verbatim line by line, I would think that it's covering both residential on the customer side of the meter and then also probably utility scale solar. I would have to say, again, this is reflecting my narrow self-interest as a business owner in solar, that given the whammies that the industry has received and that consumer choices have been limited, more limited and that the cost has gone up, I would have to say when all is said and done I believe that an energy storage tax credit would be something that I would support if it gets through conference committee and all gets to the governor's desk, then it's something that I would be in favor of because I think we need something, if in fact we do value, if we do value a vital or a PV industry here, a local PV industry that is healthy and sustainable. And Amina, would you agree or disagree with that approach? I disagree with it. If they want to offer some incentive to especially residential owners that have already taken advantage of their renewable energy income tax credit for energy storage, they should have a GEMS program that loans them the money, not a tax credit. You're going to have the same people benefiting from government handouts rather than expanding the benefit to a broader... That's interesting about the GEMS program because so far the GEMS program has not been successful by any standard. Let me go to one last point before we run out of time. There's a suggestion out there to increase the number of commissioners on the PUC from three to five. Amina, you were sitting as the chair for several years on the PUC. What do you think about that? I'm sorry, what was that? I'm asking the commissioners three to five. You know, this really is a legislative decision that as the Consumer Protection Chair has said, sort of indicated a desire for a more diverse commission, including gender, geographic, and expertise, diversity. So one of the ways you get it is expanding the number of commissioners. Okay, what about you, Marco? Do you agree with that? Would you like to see... Do you think it would be beneficial for the number of commissioners to be increased? I think in principle going from three to five makes sense for the good reasons Amina mentioned. I mean, California, of course, is a much larger state than Hawaii, but it's our closest neighbor essentially. And they have had five commissioners for quite a number of years. So in terms of having a greater diversity, greater geographical representation, I mean, because right now all the commission members are based on Oahu and living on Oahu before under Amina, we at least said good to Mike Champley from Maui. So I think having greater representation of views across our canoe state, so to speak is a good thing. Well, it's nice to hear you guys agreeing on that. So we have one issue, pretty important issue where you don't necessarily agree, and on that one which may or may not happen. In fact, neither of these may happen. You agree on the second one. Well, thank you very much for joining us today, Amina, Marco and me on energy updates around the state. And I hope you guys are ready to come back two weeks from now and we'll catch up on the latest news and make more analysis here on Think Tech. Thanks so much.


A Challenge to Proponents of Intelligent Design Since the Intelligent Design movement is dedicated to the search for intentional design of living things, I think it's time to give it a little test. Can anyone out there locate a gene that is unambiguously designed? Here's my challenge. Give me the name of a gene in any animal or plant that you think is designed. No fair cheating, let's stick to sequences found in nature, not transgenics, and only organisms we have some sequencing data on. I would prefer human, mouse, rat, dog, cow, mosquito, fruit fly, rice, cress, or fish. I will then test your gene using homology and some other tools for two things, homology and specific or unique function. For the purposes of our test, let's consider homology defined as 20% protein identity over more than 100 amino acids. That's 1 out of 20 amino acids at each position, or 0.05 probability raised to at least a power of 20, or less than 1 in 1 times 10 raised to the power of 28, chance of being a coincidence. That's a pretty low probability. We'll test that your protein is specific for a certain function with OMIM database. We don't want some protein that has used lots of ways, or it can't be part of an irreducibly complex structure. This shouldn't take you long. Feel free to throw out guesses. Leave the gene name in the comments and I'll post the results when I can. If we find a winner, it will be exciting and interesting.


Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Liz Wade. And I'm Colin Lauver. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no matter where in the world they live.  He has the disease polio. It is the 1930s in South Africa. There are no drugs to prevent or treat this disease. It kills many people. His parents are very worried.  So they prepare for a funeral. But the boy does not die. And he becomes a very important man in the history of South Africa. Today's spotlight is on this man. His name is Desmond Tutu. Tutu was born on October 7, 1931. He was born in Makoteng, South Africa. Tutu had a very happy childhood. He liked to catch fish, to play soccer, and to read books. His parents were very important in his life. His mother was kind and gentle. His father was wise and funny. The Christian church was also very special to Tutu. He started serving in the church when he was seven. The priest was Zechariah Segapane. He loved and cared for everyone. Segapane was not the only positive person in Tutu's young life. He also had great teachers at school. These leaders had dark skin, like Tutu. But one day, the young Tutu had a surprising experience. He remembered what happened all his life. He was out with his mother, and he saw a white man he did not know. This white man walked past. He was wearing a big black hat and white-blowing clothes. He raised his hat to my mother. Now, that seemed a perfectly normal thing for him. But for me, it was truly amazing that a white man could raise his hat to my mother.  In South Africa's term, she was nothing. Later, Tutu identified this man as Trevor Huddleston. Huddleston was a Christian priest. When Tutu was in high school, he got to know Huddleston well. Huddleston showed Tutu that white and black people could be friends. Race did not have to divide people. Tutu was a very good student. He wanted to be a doctor. But he could not pay for medical school. So instead, he became a teacher. After teaching for a few years, Tutu decided to work for the Christian Church. He completed his church studies in 1960. He became a priest. This was a time of joy in Tutu's life. But it was not a time of joy for South Africa.  The apartheid law began in South Africa in 1948. These were laws that separated people based on the colour of their skin. The laws gave much better treatment to white people. This made life very hard for black people in South Africa. After many years of these laws, many black people were angry. They were ready for change. Some were ready to fight. Tutu did not want fighting. He wanted peace. And he wanted justice. So, Tutu joined the peaceful fight against apartheid. He did not join because of politics. He joined because he thought it was the duty of Christians. Tutu has written many things about this decision. In an essay called Why We Must Oppose Apartheid, he wrote, I am against the evil policy of apartheid because of my Christian faith. It is not about politics. It is about understanding the words of Jesus Christ. In a different essay, Tutu explains more. The Church of God has to be the salt and light of the world. We are the hope of the hopeless. We must change hate, suspicion, fear and bitterness. We must be the opposite. We need to show people that they matter. We need to show them that God loves them. Tutu was a very good speaker. Many people heard his words. They listened to the truth in the words. But people loved him for another reason. They also loved his laugh and his smile. He could laugh in any difficult situation. He used this gift to connect to many different people. Then he encouraged people to solve their problems together. His gift of speaking and solving problems led him to many important positions. In 1975, Tutu was the first black person to be the Dean of St Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg. The next year, he became the Bishop of La Soto. And in 1978, he became the first black general secretary of the South African Council of Churches. This important organisation worked for justice and fair treatment for everyone. It worked to end apartheid. As its leader, Tutu became well-known all over the world. In 1984, Desmond Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize. At the ceremony, he gave a speech. He said that people need to remember that every person has value. Every person should enjoy basic human rights. This is because God created each person. He ended his speech with a call to action. He told people that they should work for peace and justice. He said, Let us work to be peacemakers. Let us share in God's work of healing and bringing people together. If we want peace, let us work for fairness and justice. Desmond Tutu followed his own words with action. He continued to work for peace and justice. In 1988, he was elected as Archbishop of Cape Town. This made him the head of the Anglican Church in South Africa. He was the first black person to hold this position. As a church leader, he continued to work against apartheid. In 1994, Nelson Mandela was elected as South Africa's president. He was the first black South African president. Things began to change in the country. Mandela ended apartheid law. Mandela also started a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This was a group of people who acted like a public court. Their goal was to deal with the many terrible things that happened during apartheid. People came to the commission to tell their stories. Desmond Tutu was in charge of the court. He heard many sad and terrible stories. But the purpose was not to cry or become angry. The purpose was to find ways for everyone to live together in peace. Desmond Tutu retired as Archbishop in 1996. But he still cared about peace. He formed his own peace organization. Tutu is now over 80 years old. But on his website, he encourages all people to continue his work. Do your little bit of good where you are. It is these little bits of good put together that change the world. The writer of this program was Lauren Anders. The producer was Nick Mangels. All quotes were adapted and voiced by Spotlight. You can find our programs on the internet at www.radioenglish.net This program is called Desmond Tutu Working for Justice. We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye.


What's going on guys? It's your boy DPJ here today with another Destiny video and in today's Destiny video we have top 5 freak out reactions of the week. Now guys be warned, headphone users especially be warned. Some of these people may be pretty loud so you may want to turn down that volume a little bit but guys I hope you enjoyed the video, do drop a like or do appreciate the support and peace out until next time. I just got Galahorn!  Oh my god!  That is 5 Galahorns!   Oh my god! Oh my god! It's 5 Galahorns! Did that really just happen? I did not expect that at all! Oh wow!  Oh my god! Oh my god! I need to calm down for a minute. We got motovlight and stuff. Oh god! Okay. Oh my god! I got the text with the class! Oh my god! I got the text with the class! Oh my god! It's beautiful!


news update. Good morning folks. This is Steve Rhodes coming to you live from the shores of sunny Delray Beach, Florida. This is your 11 AM update and we've got a sea of red. I mean the only thing that is green on my top portion of my charts is the U.S. dollar index and the Japanese yen out here. So you've got the Dow off 287 points, S&P down 41, NASDAQ off 144, Russell down 24, S&P off 40, that's 0.8, 1.10, the one and a quarter, one and a quarter for the Russell, one and a half percent for the S&P out there, spot politics trading well above its 50-day exponential moving average, it's trading out at 26.84, gold is back 13 bucks at 7.36, Silver's off 37 cents at 18.29, Lightwood Crudeback 3.75, TradeNet 93.27, natural gas off 36 cents. Basically everything is trading to the downside. Let's go try to figure out what all that means out here. If we take a look at our nine panel, market update chart, we begin by taking a look at the ESMini. The ESMini today forms bar number eight of a TD9 count. That says we should get a TD9 count bottom by Thursday out there. If we take a look at spot volatility, again above that 50-day, which is at 23.88, you've got the one-to-one completion of the NQ's A to B equal CD to the downside, the bullish reversal candle would confirm A by the D point. Today is bar number nine of a TD9 count. That says if the TD9s are going to identify a bottom inside the NQ's, that should take place between today and tomorrow. US dollar index just consolidating with inside its daily profile. It's got resistance at the top of that profile, 109.20. If Goldilocks closes low 17.40, 20 you'll have an A to B equal CD to the downside with the first price projection of 16.94. Watch 17.40.20 today. Silver is gunning back and testing it's July 14th low. That low out there is at 18.17.  Price closes below that. Silver's got some real problems. Lights we grew just consolidating with inside its profiles out here, the top of which is or the center, I should say, is the 97.82. That's the center of its weekly profile. That's the area that's struggling to clear. In case of natural gas, which has a TD9 count top, a price closes below $8.83. Expect to run down to $8.22. So 30-year treasury right now, trading below the bottom of its daily profile. It'll need to close below 135.14 to suggest it's got problems in River City. So folks, it is 11.02. And if the market has bottom, it's bottom basically almost right now. That's based upon those 30-minute charts. And we'll take a look at their TD9s as soon as we get that Trader's Edge show going. So if you're out to start your day, have a terrific Tuesday. Otherwise, stay tuned for the Trader's Edge show. Take care, folks.


from the Adafruit Vault. It's a secret, but not really because we've already tested life. Okay First up, we're gonna play a little video. This is the ESP32 V2. Yes. It's top-secret version of the video and then we're gonna show a couple other things. All right, lady What is this? This is a new product that's just about ready to come off the machine line. This is the ESP32 Feather V2. It's kind of a holy spin of our Huzzah ESP32 Feather And what I'm doing is I'm checking it against the fabrication print. This is the cam file And I've removed all like the copper traces just see the components and the names and the values so I can Verify that what this is is the same as what this is and like once in a while I catch in the stake or two because it's kind of confusing there's so many components in the pack so tight But this I think is ready to go We're gonna put this to the oven and then we're gonna test on our tester and if it's good We'll put it in the store Okay, and then you have a couple designs. Yeah I was thinking of you know this Pico module on the feather ESP32 V2 is kind of cute It's smaller than I thought and so I thought I'd maybe design in itsy-bitsy version. So it's the top and this is the bottom For it and then I've got the pinout diagram which using pretty pins It's very it makes it very easy for me to make sure that all the analog pins are really all analog and you know Well, you know all the GPIO pins Have the functionality that I might want so Out for prototype okay, and stay tuned all week as we show some sneak peeks and more and then of course next week For our top secret segment lady