Welcome to Think Tech Hawaii. I'm Christopher Charell, an independent journalist, and I'm producing the Indo-Pacific Compass. I'm in Bangkok, Thailand. Joining us today to discuss Philippine securities is a senior security analyst in Manila, Philippines, Carla Cruz. Carla Cruz, I met earlier this year when I was in the Philippines understanding the situation with the Coast Guard, and I had great conversations with Carla since then. So Carla, one, thank you for joining the show. And then secondly, can you tell the audience about yourself? I am a senior security analyst in the Philippines. I am a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. I focus mainly on emerging domain threats and the use of new technologies in the defense security space. I'm a lecturer at the National Defense College and I also train a uniformed personnel on emerging technology. So it's a very interesting space to be in, especially in Manila. That's really fascinating. And can you tell us a little bit what happened recently with the storm that just reached a typhoon that said the Philippines and how is that raising security issues in Manila Bay with flooding and some of the land reclamation of the islands that you and I just discussed? So, you know, we're actually in there in August, you know, we're experiencing a late Anginio. And not the storms, typhoons coming through the Pacific are one thing and they're normal, but the Habaga monsoon season is being exacerbated by that. And, you know, we do experience a lot of flooding and landslides in a tropical country, but we've experienced flooding that we've never seen before. And I think that it's due to the increased reclamation activities in the Manila Bay and also off the coast of Zambales, which is where Subic Bay is actually located. So Manila Bay is right at the heart of the city in a, you know, it's a beautiful area and when you look out now, you barely can see through the horizon because it's all construction. So all of the sand is coming from various parts of the Luzon Island, maybe, you know, within 500 kilometer descents. And, you know, this is causing a lot of floods and a lot of people to actually have been displaced from their homes. Earlier this week, the U.S. Embassy registered complaints about these islands being constructed partly from connections with China. Can you comment a little bit about that and how that ties in with these ones? So the ironic part, Chris, is the CCCC, which is a state-owned construction company, was the one who was blacklisted by the World Bank and were the ones who were building the islands in this practice. So there the company that was awarded the contract to dredge and to reclaim these areas of Manila Bay. So these are obviously security concerns for the U.S. and the Philippines as well because, you know, they're operating on some business practices, first of all. And, you know, they built these artificial islands that encroach in our territories and that's been, you know, widely discussed as well as the Hague. How are these licensed and what kind of, you know, is this like a national bid or is this a local Manila bid? What are these bids about and how do they get the licenses for them? Okay, so from the Philippine government is structured in a federal way but without a federal, in the absence of a federal. So the local governments have a lot of discretion, especially when it comes to foreign-funded development projects, which this would fall under. And so the currents would have come from the local government, the city of Manila, during the previous mayor, Esfomerino, without really considering the environmental concerns of that, you know, the questions of what have come up from a national level. They, funny me, they built an artificial beach that right beside the embassy as well during the time and it's never been used because, you know, there weren't proper studies done with the flowing water and it's become just attachment for garbage. So, you know, I think that there needs to be some serious policy review around, you know, this situation and especially for large projects. Do you see the national government stepping in at this point or are their hands bound actually? You know, it's funny because we have a very strong environment, natural resources secretary and she has been very proactive in raising concern about this. Now, you know, we obviously, it all come falls down to what the strategy of the national government is and it seems that more than security, we're focused on economic recovery and somehow forgetting that the environment is a huge part in a sustained economic recovery. Okay, yeah, so it would seem if these islands are causing like devastating floods to downtown in other parts that would be have a very, very bad economic impact. Is that what we're seeing? Do we have any figures on the damages? Correct. I think the latest count was about 300,000 people would be permanently displaced in these coastal towns. And mind you, we're not archival of 7,000 islands. The way we live is very similar to the Hawaiian people, the way they live by the coast, you know, and the rest of the islands along the Pacific, they rely on, you know, on these waters for their livelihood and to feed them. So, you know, they're left without choice, but to go into the city that's already overpopulated. So you're dealing with that as well.  Is this then really impacting coastal erosion with, you know, damages to reefs and fisheries as well? When you're talking about. Definitely. Okay. Definitely. So the Philippines is home to several. I'm obviously not a scientist, but he, you know, areas of biodiversity. Verde Island past, I believe, is one that is that needs to be highlighted, I think, because a certain number of species live there and if they're, if that's disturbed, the wider kind of. Green life and the ecological system does get damaged. And, you know, secondly, we, there's a lot of dynamite fishing that happens. And so, you know, I'm not sure if you've seen the news, but we've had a lot of these bigger mammals that have floated up dead. And so there have been whales, blue gongs. There have been, you know, like, I think in Hawaii, it happened in Australia. So these waters are very close to each other. So there must be something happening that disturbed underneath that is unnatural.  Fishing and, you know, improving essentially and helping our fishermen and that industry. I think we also need to look at what it means for the bio ecosystem. You know, that's quite an impact. The fishermen and the farmers, we're supposed to be having economic growth and the recovery are being damaged with the combination. If you will, climate crisis, as well as these islands making these small, small silence or artificial islands. You know, Chris, I mean, something that I think I should mention also that's very important. We are island people. And when, you know, you can't fish in a certain area because an area, you don't want to overfishing, you know, one part you move to another space, right? But that's kind of been weaponized by, you know, by certain states. And that's had to be tagged as illegal fishing. But really, I mean, you know, you move from space to space to place, given the temperature of the water, given the time of the year. And that's something that has happened for centuries, right? And that's to protect, you know, our livelihood and the big day. But to style somebody, they can't fish in a certain area because that's their territorial domain. I mean, we have fished in Indonesian, Filipinos have fished in Indonesian waters, Malaysian waters, and Vietnamese waters for centuries without a hitch and without being driven out, right? So we've had this community of all these islands for so many years. But why now are being told that you can only fish in certain parts of the waters that have been shared for many years without a hitch? And when you're talking about these waters, are you specifically discussing the West Philippine Sea and the Nine Dash Line assertions? Yes. And I'm also discussing the Pashi Strait, the Philippine rice, which is very, very rich in, you know, biodiversity. That's where you get these large clams. Tuna, especially in the Eastern Sea, word of the Philippines, all the way to the Papua New Guinea. So imagine from Mindanao, Northern Mindanao from General Santos, all the way across the Pacific.  I mean, it's part of a shared economy within the Pacific Rim that has been going on again for decades. You know, the trade of the marine rich resources has been something that has sustained us for many years. And now it's been limited. So it's very, very interesting. And our agriculture, especially marine agriculture, has actually been cut in half in the last 10 years. Yeah. So you're really talking about this coastal security, really, an increase. There's been more joint cooperation agreements. The Philippines has been signing on the security issues that overall, not about U.S., Japan, Australia. Even France and EU are now really looking at coastal security, environmental security, as one in the same. Can you comment on how some of these multilateral agreements have been unfolding in the last two or three months in a really rapid way? It has been, actually. I think that we've become a star of the darling of the region. The Philippines is so interestingly at the center of it all. But, you know, more than other countries taking an interest in the region, obviously, because it interests them, I think, I guess, more than in a security way. I think it's an economic way, right? But this is our home. And when you look at our history as Pacific Islands and Pacific Islands, meaning the archipelago stretching from the first island chain all the way down to the Philippines and then Indonesia into, you know, the Pacific Islands, the Nauru, Solomon, all the way to Papua New Guinea and Tahiti, you know, we live a certain way. We share a certain set of values. I think we're the same people. If I'm not mistaken, when I was looking this up, they found the DNA of native chickens in the Philippines. The same DNA and the chickens that they found all over the island chain. We live the same way. We have a very, I guess, protectorate approach to our people in our territory and what's important to us, but we're also not confrontation. We are such a like a pacifist, you know, group of people, but we love our home, right, and we protect what's ours. And I think that that shared set of values, more than other people taking interest in that, I think it's time for us to come together as islands, as an archipelago and protect that.  But it is so innate and natural, because it's what you see every day and what you live, versus being so far away really, and what is, you know, what do they need. It's our lives every day that is on the line, right, so I think that security is moving in a direction that we have to think about it, that's how do we come together as an archipelagic theater within the Pacific grant. Okay, when you mentioned this archipelagic theater, what are your messages or comments for distant cousins in Hawaii, even Hawaii many times I know. I know, I heal, I love it very dearly, it reminds me of my hometown, Cebu. You know, more than a spiritual and historical connection, now technology actually connects us because we have data tables that go through the Pacific that run, I think, 97% of data in the world. So, imagine if one cable is severed, access to information, whether it's intentional or unintentional, can seriously, you know, interrupt our day-to-day lives. It's what connects us to the rest of the world, but it also what gives us some sense of security, right, that we're part of the rest of the world. And this is increasingly a space that is going to be challenged because, you know, this is what I think maybe I watched too much Oppenheimer, but it's what everybody had access to, you know, building a bomb. Everybody has access to the internet and how do you then put that into play when you look at what can become, what can make a country insecure and that's cutting it off from the rest of the world. Okay, that's fantastic. In terms of increasing this connectivity, if you will, again, using just a little bit of... IndoPaycom has had a very increased role in the Philippines in the last several months also and strengthening relationships and friendships and partnerships with the Philippines. Can you comment a little bit more about what you've seen with that engagement and how the Philippines public is reacting to it? You know, CSIS ran a very interesting survey, I think it was in 2020, about who they would rather be their big brother. The Philippines during the President's time, there was a lot of bickering and a lot going on in the background, but you can't erase like 50 plus years of one of the strongest alliances that is not just on paper but built within us. It's been such a welcome, a welcome development, so I think we've had announced about nine bases. Most of them have been one concentrated really on humanitarian, bringing humanitarian relief to the communities in terms of, you know, in times of calamity, which is really tested now. So up north, I'll give you an example, in Kageyan, it was actually, the governor had been very vocal about not welcoming them in because of the number of bases and maybe it would attract more issues than maybe it would help, right? But what happened? You know, in the last week, we lost, no one lost their lives. Yes, they lost their homes, but they were fed, they were taken care of, their psychosocial needs were attended to because we had the assistance of our friends in the U.S. If not, it could have been so hard to mobilize those resources. Second, we actually, you know, been challenged to step up. I think as a government because we've had to improve our policies and our accountability and to be able to stand side by side essentially with somebody that expects a lot of us as a partner. I think that it's become a more fair partnership than it was looked at by previous generations. More than just technology transfer, we're seeing a lot more human capital development. So we're able to keep the, you know, the growth here and maybe hopefully send on the way less Philippines and keep them here where we need them. That was really fascinating comment. Can you talk a little bit more about the human capital development engagement with U.S.? How's that? Who's organizing that? What does that look like? Sure. Sure. So, because I think the Philippines has a lot more to offer in terms of developing maritime domain awareness technologies and, you know, becoming a regional physical shop, right? We have 7,000 islands that you have different geographies and terrains. So when you're looking at increasing maritime domain awareness and integrating different forms of deterrence now using technology and humans and human intelligence, I think that the Philippines will have a lot to offer again, because it goes back to this is what we live, right? Where do you install sonars and where do you gather information? Who do you gather the information from? It's these people in the local governments where the bases are nearest that you will learn from. And so I think that those will be really, those are going to be really, those are going to be really beneficial moving the economies and building a local defense posture and industry, hopefully eventually as we throw this out. When you're talking about the, the idea basis, these are Philippines basis, but the U.S. is building in software within them and hardware infrastructure. That's correct, right? Some people think that. They're fortifying them, yes. Philippines basis, okay. Oh, no, they're Philippine basis, yes. Okay. To clarify that, because some people, I've heard a variety of things. We're building basis there. I said these are Philippines basis actually for some of those. Yes. Are there other corporations ongoing between the Philippines and other nearby states? Indonesia, for example, Papua New Guinea or any kind of island centered coastal security collaborations that you're seeing develop? So we are actually having our first naval exercises with Indonesia. The Philippines and Indonesia are leading without any other nation, which is very promising. The Philippines and Indonesia come together and see the power that they have in the region and can support our brothers and sisters in the Pacific. For them to join in and build their own maritime business would be an amazing development. I understand, you know, there are many Filipinos working and living within, you know, in Guam. I think half of Guam is Filipino and maybe Hawaii. So that already comes into play, right? So more than just naval exercises, I think building capacity and helping human capital development in these islands to be led by the Indonesian and the Philippines who have been around a little bit longer and a little bit more mature in what's needed would be really good to start a conversation. That's fascinating. You mentioned Hawaii, Guam, Filipino workers, lots of Indonesian workers. And you're seeing this on the naval level as military to military, but what about like civilian coastal exchanges, coast guards? So I understand, from what I understand, there's an international fusion center in Singapore and a national post watch center here in the Philippines. And these are actually being built up all throughout the Pacific. I'm talking about it from a technology perspective because that's what I appreciate other than building kinetic and, you know, kind of hardware, right? So what's important in moving to the future is the exchange of information and how we turn that actionable intelligence so we can make better decisions on how to move forward. So establishing these information centers, so from Singapore to the Philippines, and then I believe Papua New Guinea and Indonesia have them, is, you know, so we can all gather data and collaborate on how to address this problem together rather than in silos. So this is part of the Indo-Pacific maritime domain awareness program that was established by the Quad. And so it's strongly supported by Australia and Japan on a more local level. But, you know, building these information fusion centers I think are the way to go without having to put boots on the ground and put people's lives at risk. So you mentioned these information fusion centers and the Quad mechanism. How does the Philippines participate within the Quad mechanism? I think the Philippines is the little brother that's there all the time for Japan and Australia. But I think the Philippines is going to step up very soon, especially again with this human capital development value that we bring to the table. Everybody else benefits from who the Filipino is and how ingenious the Filipino is in service and, you know, running critical infrastructure all around the world. But, you know, in times of crisis, I think we'll need to come home, right? And you'll see that more and more. So the Indo-Pacific maritime domain awareness programs will not only capacitate civilian, uniform personnel, but also the military. Fantastic. You are sometimes a technical advisor to the Philippines military. What are some of your messages to them about all of these converging trends and ideas? I think, okay, well, that's a really interesting question. You know, it's nice to have all the shine. It's so nice to have, right? But these things get old, they get rusty. In the end, what matters? It's building your people and their ability to withstand whatever is thrown their way, right? I've seen it here because we've had very little and I've seen what they can build with just a laptop. You know, so rather than spending money on things that depreciate really fast, I said, let's put money back into our people. Ask them to come home and give them something to look forward to, to fight for, that we as a nation need to come together in this program. Yeah, that's fantastic, Carla. Do you have any sort of parting words of wisdom about how the world can look at the Philippines going forward for the rest of this year, if you will, with coastal security technology and human capacity building? So the Philippines, I joke, the Philippines exports people, right? We are a great source of human capital. But at the end of the day, we also need to respect the human being. And in line with that, I think that the world needs to help us stay accountable for how we treat our people and our justice system. Because as we come into a world that's a little bit more gray and irregular in what we, in how we fight and how we, you know, how conflict essentially is rooted in. What goes back to this is people looking at human rights and making human rights just as important as economic growth and protecting our territory. I think that all goes hand to hand. So, you know, if there's something that I think the Philippines and, and I think this region needs to see is how wonderful and how beautiful their people are. And if people could only see what an amazing life we live and we need to, you know, we need to protect, they'll understand why we'll fight so hard to keep it that way. Okay, you convinced me I might take it next one. I'm coming. Yeah, really? I am overdue. Carl Likers, there's so many more things we can discuss and I look forward to having you back on the end of Pacific Compass and Think Tech Hawaii.  So thank you for your time and for the audiences. Thank you for watching and we'll be back next month. Thank you. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Check out our website, thinktechawaii.com. Mahalo.


Fodd gilydd y cwmel a'r mig oherwydd eu meysgrifion o fusyau taith ar gyflawni'n gweithio mewn gwirionedd. Fy nôl yn dweud i'r ysgol yn pwysig, ac mae'r cyfrifmes llywodau i gynghwylliant yn rhannu'n lyst iawn. Fy nôl yn y cwestiwn cyrpaedau cyflawni'n cyfrifmes llywodau i gynhyrch Rydw i ddim yn hoffi arfodd. Rydw i ddim yn hoffi ar y cyfosedd y Gwyd, rydw i'r hoffi ar gyfer o'u gwerth yn rhaioglu ar y cyffaith. Rydw i ar y cyfosedd gyda ogd ac yn rhaid diwedd i chi i gwasなんodd. Rydw i'n hefyd ar gyfer ar y cyfosedd cyfosedd cyfosedd cyfosedd cyfosydd cyfosedd cyfosedd cyrefosedd cyfosedd gydaen oherwydd yn hawdd i chi i chiín ddiadig iddysgrifiadau fan ar wg chi'i chyferethu, i'n tot탄 digwydd mewn atingon. Mae世界tad arweinewn a rhedwm nhw y synod amdano yn Gwrup Yn Ymgol. Mae'r ffordd yn f Wonanauhalis. Dwi'n wedi cherlynu hunion i ychydig. Mae geiswyddo i fyìu deolod弟 fantasol, Someone longing to know compassion, hope and peace. Think of someone who is challenged, challenged mentally, emotionally or physically. Someone who is very much aware that all is not well in their lives. Someone who causes despair and hurt to those they love. Think of someone who is broken. Someone who set out high hopes and ambitions. Someone who once had important plans for their future, but sadly their tomorrow is covered with clouds of despair. Think of someone who is weighed down by their sense of responsibilities. Someone whose employment has lost the joy and fulfilment it once held. Someone overwhelmed by the demands of family and friends. Someone who is burdened by the pain and suffering they see all around them. Someone who feels helpless to respond to God's suffering world. Take a moment and think about yourself. Think about all that you carry within you. Think about all the things you must face in the coming days and weeks. Think of the promises of God, promises to hold you, bless you and love you all the days of your life. So just in the silence, bring your personal concerns to the Lord. Yes Lord, hear these our prayers in the name of one who was and is to come. Amen. Thank you Reverend McCree.


Most people initially find special relativity very unintuitive, and this is because in the world we've been living in all our lives, relativistic effects haven't been visible to us. But if you work with relativity long enough and do enough problems, you'll build up a new intuition, which is what we're going to be doing now. In this section, we're going to be discussing some of the famous paradoxes of relativity, physical situations where its laws seem to imply contradictory things. Now, I should stress that none of these are real paradoxes in that all of them can be resolved by thinking clearly about the physical situation. But going through them is a really great way to build an intuition and to find out where gaps in our understanding lie.


What makes your life interesting is not the plot we can see, but the sub-plot we cannot see. What also makes your life agonizing at times is that your head is involved in the plot you can see, but your heart is involved in the sub-plot you cannot see. That often makes living very difficult because you know something bigger is going on, but destiny is impossible to understand now or looking forward. Destiny only reveals itself retrospectively, which is a very bad thing about destiny. You look back and think, ah now I know what that was five years ago, but at the time...


Hi, my name is Kenji Asada. This talk is about a new framework of bit security. This is a joint work with Shun Watanabe. In this talk, we want to consider what is bit security? It is in some sense a well-established measure of contributing to the security level of cryptographic primitives. We say primitive P has K bit security if every adversary needs two-to-two K operations to break P. So the question is how can we define bit security? As an example, let's consider the case of one-year function. Let F be our function. We say an adversary breaks, adversary A breaks one-year of F if even a sample F of X, A up to the string Y, satisfy F of X is equal to F of Y. We want to consider the computational cost needed to break one-yearness. We have two simple solutions. The first one is the brute force search. For every string Y, the algorithm checks if F of X is equal to F of Y until it finds a solution. The second one is random guessing. For random string Y, the algorithm checks if F of X is equal to F of Y. The algorithm iterates the procedure until it finds a solution. In either case, the algorithm needs order of two-to-two N iterations to find a solution. So the total computational cost is order T F times two-to-two N, where T F is a cost for evaluating the function F. We may have another solution. Namely, there is some good algorithm A with computational complexity T such that A breaks one-yearness with probability option. In this case, let's consider what if we invoke the algorithm in total N times. The probability that some algorithm breaks one-yearness will be amplified to option N. Since it is sufficient to choose N is equal to one over option. So the total computational cost of order N times T is equal to order T over option. We have seen three solutions to estimate the cost of breaking one-yearness. We noticed that the cost of order T over option is consistent in all solutions. In the brute force search, the cost is T F times two-to-two N and option is equal to one. When we use random guessing cost is just T F and the option is equal to two-to-two minus N. So based on this observation, the bit security should be defined as the minimum value of the low base two of T over option. And this way of defining bit security can be extended to other search type primitives such as signature schemes and the message of this course. As also the search type assumptions such as factoring, the problem and the CDH assumption. So the question we want to ask in this work is how to define bit security of decision type primitives and assumptions such as two random generators, action schemes and deleted assumption. In decision game, the adversaries winning probability is designed to be close to one half. So we usually define the advantage of the adversary as two times the absolute value of the winning probability minus one half. So we want to know this advantage is the light measure for evaluating bit security. And just to work, we introduce a new framework for defining bit security. It is defined for security gains and we apply the same operational meaning for search and decision gains. The interpretation is that game G has K bit security if every attacker needs computational cost up to this K for winning the game is high probability. This we consider that two types of search and decision games should be structurally defined. We define the winning control for the two types to find it. And as an answer to the second question in the previous slide, we show that in our framework, the learning advantage is the right measure for evaluating bit security or decision gains. And we show several natural reduction of bit security between security gains. And finally, we compare our framework with the one proposed by Incheon and Walter in 2018. Now we describe our framework. There are two adversaries, inner adversary and outer adversary. The inner adversary plays a user security game G which is an interaction between adversary and the challenger. We assume that for every game, a challenger chooses a random secret U of length N. For such gains, we usually require that the adversary's winning probability should be close to zero. For decision gains, the secret is just a bit. And the winning condition is to predict the big U. In this case, the winning probability is designed to be close to one half. And the task of the outer adversaries to invoke local game G many times to amplify the winning probability. Next, we will define the winning condition for the outer adversary. First, consider the case of the search game. The outer adversary collects information from the inner adversaries. Here, we assume that each inner adversary plays an independent game with fresh randomness UI. So when you commission of the outer adversary is that, there is some inner adversary who wins the local game. So the task of the outer adversaries to invoke inner adversaries sufficiently many times so that some inner adversary wins the local game. Next, consider the case of the decision game. We assume that each inner adversary plays an independent game with consistent secret, secret bit U. Namely, a secret bit U is initially sampled and the same secret is used in each local game. After collecting information from the inner adversaries, the outer adversary finally outputs his prediction U prime. The winning condition is that the prediction is equal to U. So the task of the outer adversary is to invoke inner adversaries many times until he can collect sufficient information to predict U. In our framework, the security is defined as the minimum value of the log best U of N times T. Where N is the number of invocations by the outer adversary and T is the computational cost of conducting the local game. The minimum is taken over all inner and outer adversaries with the restriction that the outer adversary wins the game with gravity at least one minus mu. Where mu is some small constant called the error probability. This formulation means that the best security is the log of the total computational cost needed to achieve the winning probability at least one minus mu. We have several implications. First, for such games, the best security must take a finite value. The reason is that if the output length of the inner adversary is M, a random guessing adversary can win the game with probability at least two to the minus M. So the total cost of two to the M is sufficient to win the game with high probability. So the best security is at most M. In contrast, addition game may have infinite which security. We can understand it by considering the one type of encryption or perfectly secure encryption schemes. Since no adversary can increase the advantage in this innovative game, we cannot amplify the winning probability to one minus mu. So the best security is infinite. Finally, we observed that in the addition game, the outer adversary corrects samples from inner adversaries to distinguish the two cases. This is the task called binary hypothesis testing in information theory or statistics. So we can use the existing knowledge from the literature to characterize this task. We characterize our big security in the following seven. For any security game G, the big security is called to the minimum value of the log best two of T over the advantage of the inner adversary. Namely, we can exclude the outer adversary and the big security can be evaluated by the inner adversary. Where the advantage is defined as follows. For such games, it is equal to the winning probability of the adversary. We can easily understand. For addition games, the advantage is called the learning advantage which is equal to the learning divergence of order one half between two distributions, a zero and a one. Where a U is the absolute distribution of the inner adversary and there's a condition that you was chosen as a secret. We investigate the behavior of the learning advantage by comparing it with the conventional advantage. Suppose that the winning probability of the inner adversary is equal to one plus the option over two. Then the conventional advantage is called to option. The learning advantage is given as in the previous slide. And we show that for any addition game, the learning advantage is bounded to below by the option squared and is bounded above by the option. Also we show that the learning advantage is equal to the lower bound for balanced adversaries. Where we say an adversary is balanced if it outputs any value with at least constant probability. Using this proposition, we can resolve a peculiar problem of linear test for pseudonymous generators. Let's look at this problem. Consider pseudonymous generator G with seed length N. It is known that for any pseudonymous generators, there exists a linear test T that achieves the conventional advantage of two to the minus N over two. Since non-trivial linear tests are to zero and one with equal probability, they are balanced. Thus the learning advantage will be two to the minus N. From the previous proposition. So if the bit security is equal to log base two or T over the conventional advantage, the bit security must be at the most N over two. However, it is counterintuitive because it seems unnatural that N bit seed pseudonymous generator must have bit security at the most N over two. In our framework, since the bit security is characterized by the learning advantage, it is possible to achieve N bit security. And be note that the mid-change underwater also resolves this problem by the framework in a different way. In our framework, we show several natural bit security reductions. K bit secure pseudonymous generator implies the K bit secure one function. And K bit secure in the CPA action schemes implies the K bit secure one CPA action scheme. Also the K bit secure digital assumption implies K bit secure CDS assumption. And regarding the Gold-Rahid-Webian theorem, we show that K bit secure one function implies the K bit secure hardcore predicate for balanced adversaries. However, proving the general case remains odd. For the distribution approximation program, we show a natural composition of bit security. Suppose that game G employing distribution Q has K bit security. And suppose that two distributions P and Q are K bit secure in this scheme show. Then we show that game G employing distribution P instead of Q is K bit secure. And this relation holds both in search and decision gains. We briefly see the bit security framework proposed by Richard Waldo. Then you find a bit security as a log best of T over some advantage introduced in their paper. It is defined using the mutual information and the channel entropy of random variables X and Y where X is the random secret of the game as in our framework. And Y is defined as close. It is equal to the fairer symbol both if the adversaries are both. And it is equal to X if the adversaries wins the game. And in other cases, Y is chosen informally at random and the function that it is not equal to X. This advantage captures some correlations between X and Y. However, it is difficult to understand what it means in this form. After introducing the advantage, they show that that advantage can be approximated as force. For such games, as in our framework, it is the winning probability of the adversary. For decision gains, it is equal to alpha A times the square of two beta A minus one where alpha A is the probability that A adds the value as a symbol. And A is the conditional probability that A wins the game G and the function that A adds the value as a symbol. By this characterization, we can see that if the conventional advantage is in decision game, it's at the most two to this minus care over two for every adversary. Then the game has KB2 security. Also in their framework, the classical Golovkin-Levin theorem is a tied reduction. Namely, KB2 secure one function implies KB2 secure hardware predictor. Compared to their results, the difference from our framework as follows. First, our notion has an operational meaning. Second, if the conventional advantage at most two to this minus care over two, then it does not imply that it has KB2 security. In our framework, the big security lies between K over two and K. Also proving the tightness of the Golovkin-Levin theorem to prove it, we need to improve reduction always. We conclude our talk. We introduce a security framework with operational meaning. The interpretation is that game G has KB2 security if every attacker needs a computation cost of two to this K for within the game with high probability. We show that in our framework, the advantage is a large measure of operating which security. A possible future work is to give a tight reduction of the Golovkin-Levin theorem. Since we have several frameworks to evaluate big security, people may wonder what notion should be employed. So it may be official to discuss the measure or setting the big security notion. For example, bidding some actions for big security may be possible. That's all. Thank you.


Good evening. We have three different meetings tonight or basically one meeting with three different. So we're going to start with a capital improvement program presentation. Before we do that, I just want to make a couple statements about our meeting, which is virtual. This is allowed because of Governor Baker. And I'm going to call upon each of the counselors who are present at this time and make sure that they can hear me and I can hear them. So we'll start with George Ryan. Present. Pat D'Angeles. Present. Andy Steinberg. Present. Mandy Joe Hanneke. Present. Garcy DeMont. Present. Sarah Schwartz. Present. Steve Schreiber. Present. Evan Ross. Present. So by my count, we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight counselors present and others may be joining us. Given that we have a form of the council present, I'm calling this meeting to order at 531. There is no chat room. If there is a disruption in the service, please let a FEMA know as fast as possible or let me know. And we will either pause the meeting until we can get everyone back or we will just make sure that there's a record of that in the minutes. And I just saw another counselor come on and it's Alyssa Brewer. Alyssa, can you hear me? The size of the demonstrate. Thank you. All right. So our presentation tonight is on the capital improvement program, the recommended capital improvement program. It's going to be presented by the town manager, the director of finance and Sonya the controller, and it is preceding the public forum. So there won't be any public comment during this period, although if we have time, counselors might want to ask some questions. The public comment will occur in the next part of the meeting, which is actually the public forum which officially begins at six o'clock. So with that, I'm going to turn the presentation over to all Sean and Sonya. And I believe that Sonya, you are going, I mean, Sean, you're going to be doing the slides. So I'll do a little introduction and Sean's going to be sharing slides with you and then doing the bulk of the presentation. So we had such high hopes. At one point earlier this year, we were doing really well on all of our capital planning, our operating budgets, all that was going forward and then COVID-19 hit. So tonight what we want to do is sort of lead you through the process for our capital improvement program. Talk about a little bit about what the impact of COVID-19 did to us and to our budget to our capital improvement program. And you'll see that clearly in the presentation tonight. We want to talk about the program itself, what we're proposing and talk about the five-year plan and really talk about the role of JCPC, the joint capital planning committee. They did a tremendous work. Recognize the situation and I want to thank all the members of the JCPC, which includes members of the council, members of the school committee and members of the board of library trustees who all contributed time to this. And what I note that my plan program is slightly different than what they had recommended and you'll see the slight difference and we'll explain what that is. It's not a gigantic thing. One of the things I wanted to mention was that JCPC's work is not finished. The plan of action at this moment in time is to bring them back in the fall and have them go in more detailed department by department through our capital budget. So one of the things I just want to recognize is, you know, Sonya had taken this on so all the way to near conclusion and then everything blew up and then Sean has come on and help to move this forward. So I'm going to turn it over to Sean and gone to our finance director and thank them for the work that they did to pull this together and I hope you enjoy the presentation. A lot of people say that they're going to enjoy the presentation. I'm going to share my screen now. Hello everybody. So a couple of things we're going to go through tonight or this evening, we're going to talk about what the charter says about the capital improvement program. The role of JCPC, the process that we sort of the overall capital process and how it flows throughout the year. The specific impact of COVID-19. The FY 21 recommended projects and the five year plan that's related to that briefly about the impact on maintenance and operating costs and then turn it over for any questions. So this is the quote from the charter that talks about the capital improvement program. I'm going to read it quickly. The town manager with advice of JCPC composed of that a minimum representatives from town council school committee and library trustees shall create an improvement program which shall include a clear summary of contents. A list of all the capital improvements proposed to be undertaken during the next five fiscal years with supporting data and rationale cost estimates, including method of financing and recommended time schedules, and an estimated annual cost of operating and facilities into equipment included. So we're going to talk about primarily the first bullet point tonight, but we are working on all of those bullet points and have systems in place to share all of those. So JCPC plays a very important role in the process as they make the recommendation to the town manager. The committee itself is sort of evolved over the last 30 years almost 30 years 1992 is when it was created. So the role it played this year for us a couple times the first to go around and then very briefly the second time is to help review departmental capital requests and their five year plans to review the available funding sources and the changes that are proposed to those funding sources. They hear presentations from department heads and they get have an opportunity to ask questions about various projects and future projects coming up. And they get to hear the capital requests of which we had one this year, and a resident capital request of which we had one this year. And they ultimately make the recommendation to the town manager, and the little balancing picture on the right is really what JCPC does which is trying to balance usually a much larger request from departments and from residents with a smaller amount of funding that's required to achieve a overall program that meets the needs of the town. So this is just a quick snapshot of what the capital process looks like are some of the highlights of the capital process throughout the year. In July and August is typically when department heads are starting to spend the money that was a capital money that was approved the prior fiscal year and accounting and finance are getting the new capital projects set up from the prior fiscal year. September through December is really when a lot of the heavy planning and preparation work happens department heads work on the requests for the for the upcoming capital cycle. The town manager and the finance department will meet with department heads to review their five year capital plans. And it's when we make a lot of the updates to the capital improvement program. And then January through March or sometime around there depending on how things evolve throughout the year is when the JCPC process will start, and it usually begins with sort of a rough draft of the capital improvement program that's presented to JCPC with presentations. JCPC will begin its vetting process. And at the end JCPC will make a recommendation to the town manager sometime around April 1. And then the town manager has the month of April to finalize the capital improvement program and delivered to the town council by May 1. And then the council and finance committee have May and June to review the capital improvement program hold a public forum, and ultimately vote on the capital program capital improvement program by June 30. Some of the specific impacts this year from COVID-19 really shaped the capital improvement program. So I think it was about March when JCPC was sort of halted and all the work to that point sort of stalled and we really had to start over. When JCPC reconvened it did so with about half of the funding that it was previously looking at. And you'll see a snapshot of how much funding was allocated in a few slides. The process where JCPC was condensed pretty significantly. So normally they've got a few months to do their work and we sort of start over in late April and had the month of May and try to get it done before the end of May. And one of the commitments that we, or one of the points that we discussed with JCPC this year, which is the same as with the operating budget is that we do plan on having to revisit the capital budget in the fall. And you'll see why in a few slides and see how things are going, what funding is available at that point, if things have gotten worse or gotten better and work with JCPC to develop a plan moving forward that can be brought back to the council. So a few elements of the capital program that we were hoping to have ready for for this meeting tonight that have been delayed a little bit are the townwide asset listing and the updated five year plan. You will see an up a five year plan tonight, but it's the five year plan, as it was back in March. And one of the things when we were redoing the capital improvement program that we sacrificed in order to spend more time on the current year was reviewing the out years FY 22 and beyond. So that's something we'll be working on with department heads. Once we get more, a better idea of what our funding looks like going forward is to redo that those out years FY 22 and beyond to bring that back in the fall. And one of the highlights of the capital improvement program this year that's a little bit new is you'll see that we've allocated funds to a capital reserve account. And the point of that account is to reflect the uncertainty of town operations next year we, we thought about prioritizing funds to individual projects, but not knowing what schools are going to look like what the local economy is going to look like. It was hard to pick certain projects over others and say this was going to be a priority. So we set aside funds in a capital reserve. So if there's any emergencies that come up between now in the fall, we have funds available to address those concerns. And then in the fall, we can make a decision whether we should allocate funds from this capital reserve to specific projects at that point, or maintain the reserve going forward but it'll be something that will review based on the economic conditions in the fall. So on to the projects that have been recommended for FY 21. So, from cash capital, we have recommended two specific projects, and then the capital reserve so the first specific project our roads. This originally was in the capital improvement program budget for about a million dollars and through the JCPC process and the town managers work on the capital improvement program it was paired down to about 530,000 and then sidewalks was originally in the budget at 200,000 and that was reduced down to 170,000. And these two projects are specifically targeted to address the concerns referred from residents and counselors about the high priority of roads and addressing the backlog of road projects in the town. So those two specific projects total about half of the available cash capital. Total cash capital you can see at the bottom is 1.4 million. And so that's roughly half. And the remaining half will be put into this capital reserve that would be dedicated to address any urgent projects that arise between now or July 1 and the fall. And then at that point we would reevaluate what funds are available for capital and little pie chart just shows roughly half and half. On the other side of cash capital there are a couple other funding sources for potential projects so state aid chapter 90 funds, typically around $840,000. It's not approved yet so that's why you put the asterisk. And we'll find out more about whether that that funding will be available when the state approves it's approves the chapter 90 allotment. So the other funding source that's new is, I think it's from a tax on Uber it's something that's been our ride sharing services, and it's a new new revenue source that we can use for downtown improvements. And so we are allocating $62,000 for that purpose. So this is a snapshot of the full five year plan and I'll go through it kind of slowly because it's a little numbery. The top half of this table are the funding sources, and the bottom half of this table are the expenditures and the shaded gray column is FY 21. So, at the top you'll see the calculation to levy and we do that because typically our cash capital is based on a percentage of the levy. Our goal for FY 21 was 10% and we were there up until COVID-19 interfered and so now we're proposing roughly 5%. And then the other two funding sources 62,000 for is that the ride sharing money and state aid 841,000 so the total funding for capital available for FY 21 is the 3,687,934. Now those out years again we haven't updated those so if you look to the right FY 22 and beyond those have not been updated when we come back in the fall will have a better projection of what funds might be available for capital and FY 22. Depending on how things go that number could be smaller than where it is now. And at the bottom you'll see the expenditure side and it breaks down sort of how the capital project is going to be financed. So where it says funded by cash capital the first thing we have to take off the top of our cash capital is any actual debt that has been obligated in prior years. And so that number in FY 21 is 1,377,400. Again that's projects that have already been approved in the past they were approved to be from a borrowing. And so this is the debt payment on those projects. And then whatever slept over after that and a projected debt can be allocated towards new projects and so that number for this year was the 1,406,651. And then below that are the other funding sources again and projects that are funded by those different sources and so you can see for FY 21, we've allocated the full $3.7 million figure. And again a lot of our work and from now until the fall will be looking at those out years and trying to come back with a more realistic projection of what those look like. One thing you'll note when you look at the out years is that there's a pretty big gap between the project requests and how much funding is available. And so I did identify a few of the strategies that we're going to be implementing or at least considering to try to get this plan and balance will review different financing sources. You know, something that might want to consider borrowing for lease options. Some of the projects potentially could be CPA eligible so we'll look at that and also if there's any grants available. We need to look in general at our vehicle replacement schedule because one of the biggest sort of buckets and FY 22 for projects that are backlogged is vehicles so we need to definitely look at that again. And then we just also have to potentially remove or delay projects that are the lowest priorities for the town. This is just another look at the capital plan from sort of a department view. So again you'll see the capital reserve at the top of the 706,000 and then the rest of the money that's budgeted for this year's in the public works highway and it's the combination of the cash capital for roads and sidewalks. And also the chapter 90 funds and the downtown improvements. And lastly impact on maintenance operating costs so try to focus this on the FY 21 projects. We should see lower maintenance operating costs from any of the roads that do get replaced or improved and ultimately those costs will probably be shifted to other roads that deteriorate more and you need more work. But it should reduce at least for the specific roads that are replaced those costs should go down. And before I turn it over for questions and feedback one thing I'll just know that came up a lot at the JCP C level are about potential expenditures next year for COVID-19. So we have been working with departments pretty closely to get a sense of what their needs are or what they're projecting their needs are you may have seen an article for the schools and the purchase they've done. We just recently submitted a request to the state for CARES Act and it was roughly a $600,000 request and it covered schools and fire and public safety. And a bunch of departments in town and that's our initial request for what departments know right now there's going to be another window where we can request additional funds coming up. And then on top of the CARES Act money we also have to request funds from FEMA in the near future as well. So most of the capital expenditures are even operating expenditures associated with COVID-19 are going to be funded through either FEMA or the CARES Act. And with that, I will turn it back for questions. Okay. As always, if you would like to ask questions and your counselor, please raise your hand. Mindy Joe, I see your hand up. Yes, thank you. I, you know, as a person who served on JCPC, I know that this is not the same as the recommendation that JCPC made to the town manager. But I am curious when we saw this recommendation at JCPC prior to, you know, the plan was originally a 50-50 split the second week of JCPC. And then the recommendation that the JCPC made back to the manager was actually a different split 45-55, I believe. But the 50-50 split had a different allocation of roads to sidewalks. That different allocation had a 600,000 into roads and 100,000 into sidewalks. And what we are seeing tonight has 170 in sidewalks and 530 in roads. And I would like to know what the reason for that change was, because that's different from the, what was presented to JCPC three weeks ago. So I'll start Paul and you can add. So the part of it was, and this was just sort of a weird development of the way JCPC spoke about the projects is that roads and sidewalks sort of got lumped together throughout the process when they're sort of, you know, they sort of got lumped together. So in some ways that the allocation between the two got a little blurred in terms of how much gets allocated to each of them. When I talked to Paul about it, we decided that more money was needed for sidewalks based on some of the things that he's been hearing. And Paul, I don't know if you want to elaborate on that piece. Yeah, I think we've noticed a lot. We've made great progress. DPW has made great progress on a lot of road work, but we need a lot more sidewalk work and we have pending projects that we need to move forward on. And so I felt like it was important to allocate additional funds into sidewalks to prioritize that and to make it clear to the residents that that was something that was a high priority for lots of different reasons. A lot more people are going to be walking. They are walking a lot more people are out and about. And it was just a, it felt like that was a higher priority.  Yes, and it's Mandy asked the question I was going to ask. I just wanted to bring more one more point that came out during JCPC and have you confirm, because we didn't have an opportunity. And the staff had not had an opportunity to revise the out years of 22 to 25 or look carefully at the delayed projects. There was a recommendation that JCPC continue to meet in the fall starting in September with that focus and also looking at the reserve fund on, you know, what are we starting to see with things that we felt we were taking a bet on that we had a high probability being able to last a whole year on some critical systems and how are we doing, you know, sort of a mid year check. But I just wanted to confirm that we're on for having that focus on the out years, as well as the it's not even a mid year check it's the first three months in or the first two months into the new year when we know the end of last year, more completely Yeah, absolutely. That's something that we Paul and I spoke about and Paul, you know, gave the green light that we definitely should do. Another reason why we have to meet is there may be other funding sources that are available at that time and potentially more money available for capital. So, you know, in addition to looking at those out years, we just need to look at even FY 21 funding and see what's available because there might be a federal program or state program that helps address some of the revenue loss by that point. The only, we do have a deadline and I'll look to Sonya to to reaffirm this but we do have a deadline where we have to do that process before October when she does the recap. Sonya, do you want to just confirm that Because I figured out how to unmute again. For the capital. Yeah, because we're budgeted a reserve. The recap doesn't matter because the reserve is what we'll get booked to the right but we but if we appropriate more funds for capital. We would have to do that before October before the recap is done if we were to go beyond the reserve. If we thought we were getting more revenues coming in. Yeah. Yes. Okay. I just had Kathy that the preparing that memo is on the town manager's list. We just decided that we had so many things on this week's agenda, not to bring it forward but there's every intention to do so. The question I think now that I'm hearing this deadline is whether or not we should bring that forward and you might also try meeting before September. Okay, and thank you for that because I just thought we should probably probably try to schedule that meeting and have a clear agenda for it and just in in the context, Sean when you gave the list of things will be looking at over the four years you brought up vehicles. Yeah, we also at JCPC this time around didn't get sort of a vehicle inventory of what we have and how older they are. So I think having some semblance of that going into that meeting would be good to. Yeah, that's actually something we're working on right now and we'll make sure it's ready for when we come back together. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Kathy for bringing all that back up. Darcy Pam you have your hand up. Yes. Thank you Paul and JCPC for putting an emphasis on roads and sidewalks. I do have a question about sidewalks I know that the emphasis this year has been on creating some new ones that had needed to be done for a long time. I think we need to put money in this sidewalk budget for repairing of existing sidewalks. Yes, yep. Ultimately, you know it's a combination of the DPW superintendent who decides working with his constituents in terms of what projects get done but yes it can be used for sidewalk replacement or new sidewalks. Okay, thank you. Thank you very much.  Please unmute Darcy. Early on the energy and climate action committee submitted a budget request. And I, you know, and then COVID-19 happened so it's, you know, very understandable that that was not something that could happen in this fiscal year. I'm just hoping that, you know, when I looked at the fact that we have a five year capital plan now, and we also have a goal that we're supposed to reduce our emissions by 25% by 2025 and five years. There's going to be a piece that we're going to need to look at and I'm hoping that we can, we can get the council updated sooner than later on. What that, you know, the direction that the committee is going in with the municipal vulnerability preparedness grant. And one thing that I just wanted to ask, one of the things that we had supported ECAC was the resident capital request and just wondered what the conversation was about that. And whether it's going to carry over to the next fiscal year or how that's going to be dealt with. Anybody else can jump in, but the way I interpret it is that the request hasn't been approved or rejected. It's that we'll consider it again in the fall when we come back together. I didn't, I don't think the committee made any decision in terms of whether to recommend it or not recommend it at this point. That's totally correct. And it's Darcy, it's potentially on the list to be dip into the reserve pool. And one of the things that we had asked for when it came up was to make sure they talked to the school committee and that the school committee was in support of that. So my understanding is that has happened, but it was just to, to do the full circle of its solar canomies, particularly over this, the parking lots as a study. So it's not gone as Sean said it was not gone like voted no or even rated in any way. It's just literally everything. There's no line item now except for roads and sidewalks. It's everything else. All the other capital spending is in this thing we call the capital reserve. Thank you. Are there any other comments at this time. Okay, we're about two minutes before the end of this session. And we're going to be moving right on to the public forum. Any other last comments. Just for clarification, no one has to log off they just stay where we are. And we just start. Okay, thank you. Right.  It's not a different soon number than Paul. No, I was going to clarify too that we're going to technically adjourn this and then recall to order at six, right? Correct. So seeing that there are no hands and we're going to be doing public comment on the next meeting. I'm going to adjourn this and in one minute we will reconvene and I will go back and take roll again.


Asalaamu alaikum dear viewers, welcome to the Holy Land of Karbala and now from the University of Karbala where we are attending the anniversary of the establishment of English language departments where various activities are being held here starting from the charity activities and the remembrance of the martyrs and also to the book fair stay tuned dear viewers to have further details and indications from the department employees and students about their activities in this ceremony stay tuned brothers and sisters and our respected viewers with the head of the department he will he will give us tell us more details about the the festival that is happening and the charity works that are being done by students. Asalaamu alaikum sir could you please elaborate more on the activities that are done by students in order to help others. I brought the name of Allah the merciful the compassionate this is the day of the department of English this is the 6th of March 2017 we run some activities today first of all we have songs that celebrate the victories of al-hijjahabi we have photographs that represent tangibly these victories we have less of activities we have exhibitions or books exhibitions drawings by the students all all the money that are paid for these in the bazaar for example they go to support al-hijjahabi you are welcome by the department of English and enjoy your time now brothers and sisters with another activity in the exhibition where we've got first aid specialists who are here to explain a number of things to the students of English language department now i have my brother here who will identify himself and he will tell us what are they going to explain what are they going to teach to the students in here. Asalaamu alaikum could you please identify yourself. Asalaamu alaikum my name is Hussain Saleh i'm blowing ataba a branding and human development department we are here give lectures and make a culture for face art give lecture in BLS we teach people teach in student society on how to hail people if someone have a heart attack or maybe a electric shock and give them a CPR cardiobominal cessation as you look here and our trainers here teach the people how someone if infinite have a heart attack infant have a heart attack or a blue cage right a blue cage also if someone have a bleeding and difficult to breathe and help them and also a lot of things BLS back with the other part of the exhibition where we've got here various books and subjects that are presented by the students they've started with Arabic books and English books merely novels and grammatical linguistics that are being used and comprehended by students during their study in the department stay tuned we've got an interview we'll take an interview with the with the head of the exhibition head of the book fair who will explain the subjects by names and items each one by one stay tuned please talk to me explain the subjects of the books in the book fair and of course the handmade items please well first of all we wanted to create an English book affair because our students really need more English books you know like short stories to help them and as well as some things in linguistics so we started with really few books in Arabic because those are also translated like hard times and stuff like that then we have these kind of short stories really simple and real beautiful with paintings and stuff then we have some handmade sort of different students who made them they are really beautiful they have coats in English and yeah bookmarks like things for Kafka and stuff like that these are also short stories but here we are starting with the novels we have the short versions and also the long version the full text for like the hamlets the play and also Emma Pride and Prejudice all things for Jane Austen then we are starting with some deep analysis and literature like these are some British and Irish explanation about Irish and British short stories Salam alaikum respect the viewers back to you from the gallery that is held in here as you see there are many items all of them are donated and the monetary incoming the gains that will come to the department it will be distributed to the orphanage and to the poor families poor and needy families in the city student from the English language department who will elaborate more on the on the festivals and about the activities and the festival could you please tell me or elaborate on the the the activities that happened in the in this festival and what does it mean to do so well thank you for asking me first of all I would like to say thank you guys for coming here for and we're pleased to have you here now today we are celebrating the establishment the 11th the 11th year okay the for the establishment of the English department and the University of Karbala and here there are there's a festival there's a book fair and there are many artistic works there are most of them are done by students even calligraphy works many songs were played even paintings are there even that might be sold and given to charity to hajj shabi exactly the bazaar exactly the bazaar for even for food some artworks bracelets and everything exactly handmade things so it's a very nice chance to break the routine of studying of testing and for students to gather to speak in arabic and english to meet other students in addition to seeing many talents that are that are that are done by students here in our department and they are really amazing and most most importantly we are remembering the role of hajj shabi in our general life us as students we couldn't be here if it wasn't for them so all the money is going to either hajj shabi or to let's say charity exactly yeah yeah and that's it thank you very much thank you from another part of the exhibition where we see here the the part of the popular mobilization where we see pictures of the martyrs and another items that portrays the sacrifice the sacrifice example by the by those young men to protect to save god their country to save god the holy sites in this and this particular country we see here a number of of pictures that is portrayed in here uh the main reason why this is being held in here is to uh is to to to symbolize to the students that the sacrifice that the the the sacrifice for for the people the sacrifice to this country and its holy sites is always present stay tuned to see more parts and sides of this major ceremony


Russia's most powerful mercenary on May 25 said he was sending back the bodies of a U.S. citizen who was killed in fighting in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut and that of a Turkish citizen who was found dead in a blown-up building. Mercenaries from Russia's Wagner group were shown in a video clip nailing closed the two wooden coffins and then draping a U.S. Stars and Stripes flag over one coffin and the red banner flag of Turkey on the other. We are returning the body of an American and the body of a citizen of Turkey along with prisoners, Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigazin said, standing near the coffins. The U.S. citizen perished in fighting in a part of Bakhmut known as the nest while the Turk was found dead along with a Turkish woman in the remains of a building blown-up Ukrainian forces, Prigazin said. The Turkish woman's body could not be recovered, Prigazin said. Wagner named the American as Nicholas Mamur, a former U.S. Special Forces soldier. The death toll in the battle for Bakhmut, known as the meat grinder, has been monstrous. Prigazin said more soldiers were killed in the battle for the city than in the Soviet Union's entire 10-year war in Afghanistan.


Hello there, it's Sandy Olnock and you might remember that I did this drawing in color pencil earlier this year and I wanted to do it in watercolor. There's also these little guys that I made a video of and I'm going to link both of those in the doobly-do if you need more snowman videos but today we're going to do four brushes and a toothbrush to make this awesome little snowman. I'll talk about my process as well as some brushes you might need and might not need. I wanted to talk watercolor brushes but also some colors and other things in this video. So let's begin with some color mixing. These two are complements, well technically orange and blue are complements but this transparent red oxide is a variation on an orange like a dark orange and it works well with cobalt blue to make the perfect snowy gray. In wintertime I do a lot of snow paintings and this is the color combination that I use the most because I can vary it. I can put a little more blue in it if I want to push it bluer. If I want to keep it duller I'll leave a little more of that brown color in it. Instead of transparent red oxide you could also use burnt sienna and get the same kind of a thing but I'm going to use that for my basic snow color and depending on how wet you get it and how much water you put in you can get a really pale color or you can get a somewhat pale color.  That sort of thing so you'll get a little bit of dimension that way and then I'll do the same thing on the body of the snowman. I'm doing this on Arches cold press paper and this is the bright white I believe. There are other papers like natural white or the names of some of them in a whole bunch of different brands and if you're looking for something that's going to be white white then look for any kind of a name of the color called bright white because that's usually a much whiter color which works better for snow paintings. So here I'm doing the same thing, lift it off color but I left all that moisture there so I could then drop in shadows under the scarf and then I'll reinforce some shadows up above. I'm using a number eight brush by Da Vinci one of their maestro line and I'm going to get to the other brushes that I was talking about in a few minutes but this is just putting that base color in underneath of everything so I can get these colors all over the page first. I'm putting some scrubby marks down in the snow because when you're building a snowman you leave all kinds of footprints and things and then for the background color I decided to indulge myself and use a color that I don't use all that often because it's a staining color it's phthalo blue turquoise and I knew I wasn't going to need to do any lifting so I could actually get away with doing this and not have to worry about what if I need to lift up some color to add something to it and this is a nice bright happy kind of turquoise blue color. I'm painting carefully around the snowman doing a little negative painting and then I'm going to add water and then some more color but I'm not really worried about trying to get anything perfect out here. I'm going to paint trees in front of this so it's just basically a color to put in there that I can paint on top of as I move forward with the painting. So now wipe off the excess so I can keep an eye on that clean outline around my painting. I know exactly where I'm working. Now I've got it all dried so let's start with those bare branches and this is the fancy brush that I'm going to recommend you don't need if you're painting small things. I've used this brush before and I've gotten into it with some YouTube folks who commented about how angry they were that this brush was so expensive because it looks so perfect and won't it make them a better painter and no there is no brush that will make you a better painter. There are brushes that will make your life easier and if you want to pay the money they will make your life easier but this is a brush by DaVinci there's a couple companies that make brushes like this but I like the DaVinci ones I've tried some of the others and they don't like them as much but it has a wide belly on it as you can see and then a long needle so the belly holds moisture it holds all the pigment in the water and it feeds it down through that needle so you can make really long lines and not have to keep reducing the brush and if you're painting telephone wires or long branches on a large painting that's super important and for me when I go out and do plein air I really would like a brush that holds more moisture in it so I don't have to keep going back to the the palette over and over and over again so there's there's that about it it also has this floppy needle on it and the floppy needle keeps me looser and it keeps me doing better calligraphy marks meaning kind of the little marks that dance around on the page but these two little brushes and even just one of them will do the job pretty much just fine when you're doing a smaller painting and one of the reasons I wanted to talk about this today is I have a new class out doing watercolor paintings that are this size or bookmark size that are winter scenes and in winter scenes you're going to be doing a whole lot of trees and branches and that kind of thing so I didn't want anybody in the class to feel like I got to go get that fancy brush so in the class I also don't use the fancy brush but I wanted to show you the comparison of them with this brush it's a silver brush round number two and it's not expensive and it makes pretty much the same size line I can get kind of the same size line the one adjustment well two adjustments that I make one is that I have to keep going back to get more pigment and that's fine it's not that hard to do when you're working in the studio but I also adjust the amount of water in my pigment in order to get this to work so what I end up doing is using thinner paint so I'm using more water in the pigment and then dabbing some off because that gives it the appearance of being lighter and thinner when you look at it on the paper so just you know dabbing off a little bit with a baby wipe or a tissue or something will reduce the effect of that so even if your brush ends up getting like a big old chunky line so here I got like big old big old oops you know that happens don't sweat it but you can dab that off if you use thin enough pigment and then you can use a little brush like this and get pretty much the same kind of effects as that fancy brush when you're doing small paintings and then you can decide if you you know you're going to at some point change your mind and start doing big paintings then you can go buy a big expensive brush but for now you can just stick with the small one now I decided instead of using that number four that's off to the left that I would continue with the number two and use a little thicker pigment in order to make the base tree base of the trees like the trunks because I wanted to you know redraw some of those or repaint them right on top so that I could make them denser so that the ones at the top then start to look like they're lighter and thinner and that sort of thing so this brush did really well for all of those purposes so I will leave it to you what you choose to go get but just know that there's a lot of art supplies that are not as readily available now I'm sure it's supply chain stuff or whatnot but yeah silver brush number two works really well now for the rest of this painting I'm going to go a little quicker and give you a few tips of some of the things that I was trying along the way one thing one decision that I made was that I was going to stick with that yellow orange color for the snowman's outfit however one of the problems that I have with painting this way and and it's just because I had that other picture in my head that I stuck with the yellow normally I would choose to find a color that's darker than the background in order to paint the scarf and the hat why because when you're trying to kiss two colors together like where the blue and the yellow meat those those two are going to have to meet somewhere and when you kiss them if you don't kiss them exactly perfect you get a heavy line right where one crosses over the other and you can see both if you use a darker color on one of the other then that line disappears and it's not a big deal but these two are both light colors and so what I opted to do here was to leave a little bit of white around the outside edge for now on the hat the scarf has the belly of the snowman on the right hand side so not worried about that it's the hat that was kind of making me try to figure out how to handle this without getting that kissed edge and what I ended up doing was leaving the white and then after I got done right here when I was all finished then I painted a very pale yellow because if I had let the the red and the orange travel all the way up into that area the chances that I could get the red orange color on top of that blue were greater and once I got all that painting finished and then just let that yellow carry out into that I had a little less of that that that kissing issue around the outside edge it just makes me nuts when that happens I'm just yeah I'm weird that way so I got out the little baby brush that little number two to paint very tiny rocks even left highlights on the eyeballs and the mouth rocks and everything because I wanted it to look as much like the snowman in that other drawing as possible the other one was done in colored pencil which of course allows you to get more detail and it was also significantly larger than this so there's some sacrifices I had to make I couldn't get into quite all the texture that I wanted on the hat and the scarf but I'll add even a little bit more as we go and I you know adding a little bit of detail into the buttons trying to give them some roundness some shadow using some of the leftover brown color in my palette to shade things like why not if you're worried about trying to buy a dark red don't do that just brown so here I'm adding in a little bit more detail trying to add some fuzzy ish kind of texture some dry brush on top of all of this so that I can get a little bit of that that touchable texture that I had ended up with on the on the pencil drawing so that's basically my approach to translating from the color pencil drawing into watercolor trying to find ways to keep my favorite things about the snowman and I decided to add some magical snow to this so I've got a toothbrush an old toothbrush some white gouache from Windsor Newton and I find that wetting my finger works really well to get the paint to release from the brush and make this super fine type of snow on the page but I also realized this snowman kind of needed some something a little more whimsical and the fine snow worked nicely but I decided I would use a number four brush and I would add in some larger snowflakes just to make it a little bit more cutesy and playful which goes better with the snowman I think four brushes one toothbrush make for a seriously happy little snowman and by making it this far in this video you've actually completed part of the pre-class lesson in the new brand new winter watercolor bookmarks class and in that class you'll learn how to make a whole bunch of beautiful winter bookmarks we'll learn tons of techniques we'll do negative painting we'll do masking we'll do all kinds of beautiful backgrounds making all kinds of great trees you're going to love it click on the link in the doobly-doo to see a video preview of what's in the class then you can also click it within that link to another one with the free pre-class lesson so you can see all the supplies that you would need and you might even have all the supplies you just might you never know how's that for a great class I will see you guys again soon if you haven't subscribed why not smash that subscribe button and hit the bell so you never miss a single video and I will see you again soon go out there and create something every day take care bye-bye


Let me get that. There it is. We'll go back here. Hey there friends, thanks for checking in. Today we're going to do a comparison with the Sarsalmez SAR-9 versus the Stoker STR-9F. Both full size polymer frame, striker fire, 9 millimeter handguns. The SAR has a 4.4 inch barrel as the STR-9F has a 4.7 inch barrel and that's what you're looking at there. The grip is essentially the same width and length. Both have mags that carry 17 rounds. Let's start with the SAR. This became very popular as handguns started to explode during the the gun buying surge and people were loving the SAR-9. You know you can pick it up fairly cheap. Now in today's market you're looking at 350 to 370 and I still think that's a pretty good deal. As mentioned 17 round mags they do give you two mags and it has an ambidextrous thumb safety. This model does. They also have another one that does not. Forward serrations, very nice grip. I call it HK-ish. They have additional backstraps and grip panels and slight, I wouldn't even say those are finger grooves. It has a very nice grip to it. Full pick rail right there. Three dot sights, nice shooting handgun. I've taken this to the range on several occasions and it really gets the job done. For a full-size handgun at a budget price I think it's pretty nice. Has a beveled mag well. Overall nice feel. The trigger measures right at five and a half pounds. You can see it has that red there when that red is no longer visible. It breaks. Very nice trigger. Short reset. Five and a half pounds. Really can't go wrong with that. The STR9F is a new addition with Stoker. Came out in 2022. Also has mag with 17 rounds. Now if you understand the way Stoker operates they sell their handguns in packages. So you can get additional mags, additional backstraps, night sights and increased costs. The average price for this is right around 320. So a little bit lower with the Stoker. Both these are made in Turkey. So that gives an idea of why the price is budget friendly. But look at those slide serrations. Very deep cut forward and rear serrations. It also has a full pick rail under cut in the trigger guard. Unique looking trigger guard. Slight finger bumps. More aggressive grip. If you look at the back strap you can see how much more aggressive that is with the Stoker. Three dot sights. It has a loaded chamber indicator bar right there. And overall this is a nice shooting handgun. I enjoy this as well. This has a flat trigger. It breaks right at five and a half pounds as well. And you're looking at a very short reset. So you know there's no question that both of these are fine shooting handguns. I've enjoyed them both since I've owned them. I've had the Sauer 9 longer and I think this is a phenomenal budget friendly handgun. But when Stoker came out with this the STR9 series actually is growing in popularity. People really like them. I have the STR9C and now I have the STR9F and I find them to be very nice shooting handguns. They are very similar in size and price. A little more pricey at this point in history I guess with the Sauer 9. But the STR9F is a nice deal all around. Now I mentioned I took them to the range. I also did some limperess tests. Let's check that out and see how both of these models performed. Nice. It passed. And a little issue there. Let's try it again. And that time it did not chamber. Look the Gundam style. And there's another. The Sauer 9 did better on the limperess test. Part of that has to do with this was well broken in when I did that. That actually helps quite a bit. But let's get it on the scale here. The unloaded weight 27 and 3 quarters ounces here are 18 rounds. Okay so that would be the one in the chamber 35 and 3 eighths ounces. All right. Full size handgun. Now the STR9F it did okay. I have to believe if I put more rounds through this prior to doing that limperess test it would have performed better. I'm not making excuses. I just have seen this and have experienced this not with this handgun but others as well. The more rounds you put through it the more reliable it gets. That makes common sense to me anyways. 26 and a half ounces 33 and 5 eighths. So approximately 34 ounces. Is that a little bit lighter? Yeah just a little bit lighter with the STR9F. We'll go ahead and show the internals here. The Sauer has a nice takedown lever. It's not lever. Well I guess they are. You pull the slide back and then off comes the slide once depressing those. Dual recoil spring polymer guide rod 4.4 inch barrel and there is your frame. Same deal with the STR9F. Okay so I can't really say which disassemble I like more because they're both extremely similar. There's what we're looking at here. A single guide rod, steel and a 4.7 inch barrel. Taking a look at the mags here. Here we've got the STR9F has an extension on the base plate the Sauer 9. Not really but they both they both work just as intended. Sauer gives you two. Stoker gives you one. Now you can pay additional and if you do that you will notice that the Gunstore price will be about the same for each of these. So there's not a great price difference. Sauer gives you a little more in the case than Stoker does. In terms of ergonomics I'm going with the Sauer 9. I love the way it feels and I like the adaptability of changing out the grip panels and back straps to fit the shooter's hand size. Both have forward serrations. Both have full pick rails. Both have what you want in a full size handguns. Both are accurate shooters. I have no problem with either. In terms of the grip here not bad. I just like the Sauer 9 but what I do like with the Stoker is the trigger. Five and a half pounds. It's a flat trigger. It just is so crisp. So I'm giving the Stoker STR9F the nod with the trigger. Overall if I had to choose one it'd be a tough choice. Both perform exactly as intended. Both very accurate shoes. I hope I demonstrated that but I'm going with the Sauer 9. Maybe I've had it longer. I've got quite a few more rounds through it that may have biased my opinion a little bit. But I really like this handgun. I think it's a nice Sarsilmaz full size polymer frame handgun. They did a great job with it and they priced it well. I like Stoker very much. I reviewed several of them. I currently have the STR9C. I have the STR9F. Now quality handgun no doubt about it. I enjoy shooting this and this was very accurate as well. So I find both these to be fine handguns. What I really want to know is which one would you choose. If you like videos like this please subscribe and share. I always appreciate thumbs up button. Thanks for watching and you guys be safe.


emotions, our data. They are not directives. You are not what you feel. You are the person aware you're feeling it with options.


Until this study was published, the most antioxidant-packed dried fruit known was goji berries, topping off the chart at 120, five times the antioxidant power of raisins. But then along came what? I might have guessed this new spot would belong to something like dried blueberries, but dried blueberries ended up way down here at 37. There must be something about the phytonutrients and blueberries that just does not take well to dry. Just when goji berries were getting complacent, a newly available dried fruit has pulled ahead. Dried pomegranate seeds. They are expensive, but are yummy, and the healthiest snack you are likely to ever find. Now just for trivia's sake, they are healthier, but good luck finding them. Barberries at 7.58 an ounce. Your best bet, evidently, at finding them is at Middle Eastern spice stores, where they're used to make a Persian rice dish. Let me know if you can find any, and then send me some. And then, though I know it sounds like something straight from Dr. Seuss, but I'm not making it up, I'm finding red wortelberries, 8.97. Rarely cultivated, but you can pick your own in the Arctic tundra. Rowan berries screw up my graph again. Look how pitiful our poor goji berries are looking right about now, and finally, way off the charts in a class of its own top dog for healthiest snack on the planet earth, Fried Indian Gooseberries.


Gior, all this Chapman worked himself into and added trouble there in that ninth inning. How impressed were you with his ability to get out unscathed? Yeah, that was fun to watch, Chapman, the first two batters they got on base. But after that, he's incredible. That's the best closer I've ever seen. The bullpen as a whole yesterday, they were leaned on heavily again today. Just what have you thought of their performance throughout the course of this entire season? Impressive. I like the way they've been pitching right now. I really have fun every time they go out there. Let's go back to that first inning. You jumped on McClanahan early. Did you step into the batter's box with the mindset that you were going to be aggressive from that first pitch? Yeah, I mean, it's throwing 98. We've got to be aggressive regardless. But just trying to hit a good pitch in the sun, that's a hard success. Homer in a double yesterday. Homer in a double today, a hit yesterday. Are you starting to see the ball a lot better? Yeah, I mean, I've been trying all season. We're trying to hit the ball, see the ball well, and that's the result that I was looking for. Jiu, you've been providing good defense at third base. Yesterday it was shortstopped. Do you have a preference where you play? Do you feel more comfortable one place or the other? Doesn't matter. Wherever they pull me, I'll be there. Be my best wherever they pull me. How much better does this team feel about itself right now? Really good. I'm really excited for this. Jiu, thanks for the time. Thank you.


Tracic. Hey, everybody. Dr. O'Hare. This video, we're going to talk about triclosan. So triclosan is an example of a bisphenol. We already covered the cresols, the phenols, and the phenolics, like what you'd find in lysol, and hexachlorophen, which is a different bisphenol we covered in a separate video. But I wanted to kind of pause and talk about triclosan because it is very significant. So right at this point, about 75% of liquid hand soaps and 25-30% of your bar soaps are going to have triclosan in it. And that's what makes many of your antibacterial soaps antibacterial. Now, you're seeing those numbers come down, and we'll talk about why that is. You can also get triclosan. I've seen it like in cutting boards and in shower curtains and all sorts of things, even in clothing. So you can see it imbibed into different things like that. So triclosan has been spewed all over the place because of its antibacterial action. And like the other phenolics, it does work by denaturing proteins and disrupting membranes. So I'm definitely not saying that it doesn't kill microbes, right? It is antimicrobial. It's especially effective against your skin organisms, which is why you'd see it in antibacterial soaps. But a couple of big things have happened because of the use of triclosan, which is why it is being phased out and replaced. So number one, it appears that triclosan can affect immune function, which means it would make you more likely to develop conditions like allergies and other things. It also appears to impair endocrine function and reproductive function, especially during development. So triclosan does kill microbes, but it also seems to come at a cost that this isn't worth it. And to me, the main reason that it's not worth it is studies consistently show that washing your hands with soap and water works just as well as washing your hands with antibacterial soap and water. So to me, I'm always thinking risk reward, right? If there's no extra reward to using a chemical like triclosan in your soap, then there's no acceptable risk. So I can't say how big of a risk there is that triclosan will affect immune function and endocrine function, reproductive function. But if there's no reward, then to me, there really is no acceptable risk. So this is why you're seeing triclosan being removed.  So we are now seeing triclosan-resistant bacteria. And this happens anytime we use chemicals. We're fighting an evolutionary arms race with microbes that are better at evolving and adapting than us. And that's a scary situation. So the one, the triclosan-resistant bacteria that appears to be the most significant at this time is salmonella enterica, so one of the strains of salmonella. Last thing I would say here is, a lot of times, we remove chemicals and replace them with other chemicals. You look at when they made a lot of products, BPA-free, and I'm nothing wrong with that, but there's still lots of other chemicals in those plastics that potentially have estrogenic activities, right? And then you've got, in some cases, they replace those chemicals with other ones that appear to be potentially even worse. And we might be dealing with that here. So for decades, they've been researching triclosan and realized that we should probably remove it from our antibacterial products. But one of the things that I've been seeing clinically, and I have patients bring in hand sanitizers and these types of things, or students and patients. But when you look at now a lot of these antibacterial soaps or antibacterial hand sanitizers, et cetera, are using benzalconium chloride, they're using these quats, these quaternary ammonium compounds. And these are now being studied, and they may impair mitochondrial function. So by replacing one antibacterial soap that might impair immune function with another antibacterial soap that might impair mitochondrial function, not a good idea. So my personal opinion, this is not medical advice, but my personal opinion is washing your hands effectively with non-antibacterial, just good old fashioned soap and water appears to be the way to go. So just chemically though, just remember that triclosan is one of the best phenols and this is what makes many of our antibacterial products antibacterial. So I hope that helps. Have a wonderful day. Be blessed.


The Food Hub offers a huge amount of potential to the community, specifically around growth and an industry that we haven't always had here. It's been really interesting to watch the young people in this community all of a sudden take notice and start to take an interest in food production, in industries that we didn't even know were an opportunity in our community. The Food Hub will provide you with the great foundation for your business. It will give you a network that you can rely on. It will open up doors for you that will be there for a long time because everyone that you will be surrounded by will be just as passionate about your product and about your business as you are.  That's a huge opportunity and we hope to see more unique products coming out of the community. Our Food Hub, even though it used to be a fish plant, it's no longer just about seafood, it's beyond that, it's fresh hummus, it's soups, it's collaborations of people and we want to give our community the taste of our valley. I think that anytime you get a number of small startup, enthusiastic, motivated business entrepreneurs together, you're going to see that innovation and you're going to see them come together and see how their products can be linked. An opportunity came with the province, the Port Authority, the businesses that had come together. The city all worked really closely to transform this building into what you see today. It's really incredible to see what it used to look like and now to walk through that building and see the technology that exists there and just the diversity of products being produced now. The facility, the walls were here but there was no life inside it. It was not operational from 2011 to 2020. You can book the kitchen whenever you need it. So there is an online portal and by providing that flexibility that you can come in 24-7 and be here when there is no one around or come here when it's nice and busy, so you can make that connection and expand your network. I like to measure the progress and by seeing the progress of others it fills your heart with such pride. We don't know exactly what will come but it's exciting to kind of watch these businesses grow and see what their needs are and see how as a city we can be a part of them.