I'm gonna be flashing the bill every time it compliments me. I like your iPad. You like my iPad? Mm-hmm. Can we stop over here for a second? Alright. Wait, you sound cute though. Stop, Mariah! Right, actually stop. There's people outside. Stop doing that.  Oh, what? The camera is on! Alright, Mariah. What are we currently doing right now? Online shopping. We have never- Wait, what? $107? Sir, we got 31 items! For food? For food! $107? That's a lot. This is the first time ever shopping online. I think it would be fun just to see how it all works. Everyone, if you do not know, if you are new to our channel, make sure to go ahead and hit that subscribe button, by the way, and turn on notifications. What is up, Marvel Squad?  Guys, today is gonna be a good day. We're already starting off by online grocery shopping. The reason that I said that, if you are new though, is because we are currently sick. Came down with a little cold, but that's not gonna stop us from getting food. It's not gonna stop us from posting content, guys. We are warriors and- We're the Hulk. Okay, it was Hulk. Yeah, that's a very good comeback. But anyways, we are ordering food right now off of some food. Ship. The ship. So we're getting shipped food. Well, before we started doing YouTube full-time, I actually did do ship shopping. A little ship shopper. I was a little bit of a ship shopper. Basically what that is, it's an online grocery shopping. This is not a promo. It's just not an online thing that you buy food through. Yeah, and I used to work for ship. It was fun. That's why I trust it. That's why I buy my groceries through ship, because I used to work for ship. We're trying it. Our food relies on the hands of ship. So hopefully it all comes out good. And hopefully we get our food. I don't know, are you ordering it today? Yeah, look at that guy. So we're gonna get it by the end of the week. A little Debbie Cosmic Brownies. I haven't had a Cosmic Brownie in forever. We're already stuck in the house. This girl's trying to get us fat. I am trying to get some. What if I got three white castles? She made the grocery list. I didn't even see this list yet. Let me just name three things that I just saw. Cosmic freakin' Brownies. Yes, they're fire. I tried the good stuff. You missed it. Look, I do have this corn. I have elos, I have pampol, watermelons. But then you have sandwiches, sausage, biscuits. And you have Effy Tapples with caramel apples. Have you ever had caffy apples? This, yes. But this is what happens when you start making your own money and you move out and buy your own groceries. Mariah's splurging on stuff that her mother would have never approved of. Whatever, Bill. You're literally, Gushers? Why do you need Gushers? You know you like it. Skittles? Actually, I didn't want you to see that. I was surprising you with the Skittles. I just think it's so funny. But anyways, welcome back to our channel, guys. I hope you are having a great day, because we are not. I'm just kidding. We are having a good day. We're sick. We're just, we're pretty sick.   We have the windows open and everything. I can't love the windows. I don't know where he is right now, but.  Yeah, but I'm feeling somewhat better today than I was the other day. Me too, we're gonna be going, once we start feeling better, we're gonna go to the store and we're gonna go Christmas shopping. Christmas shopping, guys. It's the time's coming and no one can be mad about putting Christmas stuff up. We already have a reef up there, as you can see. No one can get mad anymore, because Halloween's gone. And we're changing the light bulbs in here. As you guys can see, there's white light, like over there and there's yellow light over here. We're gonna change that out too. That's gonna be a little harder though. We're gonna get LEDs. So, we don't know what we're gonna do for that yet, but it is looking way better in here. Just stay tuned. Christmas time, our apartment's gonna be popping. It's just waiting. It's gonna be white and snowy and Christmas- Look, we already have this cute stuff. You're so cute, babe. I know. I love it. Thank you. Oh my God. What? What are you doing? Pull your shirt down. What are you doing? I just saw, since you said I was cute, I could just get back. Okay, first of all, the windows. You complimented me, so I wanted to get back. Why are you flashing? I'm literally talking to the camera. Well, I just thought you would like them. Yeah, you look good. You said I look cute. You do look beautiful. I'm sorry. You look beautiful, but like, don't flash.  What was that? I don't know, sorry. Anyways, I don't know how to put that out anyways. But guys, thank you so much for tuning into this video. I hope you enjoy. If you have not already, make sure to hit that subscribe button, like the video up, and comment down below what's going on. How's your day going? And we're gonna see you soon after we buy this stuff. So, see you soon. After we buy this stuff. All right, I'm a rock squad. As you guys just saw, as I did the intro, I flashed Bill. As you guys read by the title, I'm gonna be flashing Bill every time he compliments me. You guys already know what's about to go down. You don't even need me to explain it. Basically, what I'm gonna do is just be flashing him all day, every time he compliments me. Because you guys already know what Bill loves, complimenting me, adoring me, and loving me. So it's gonna be an easy day just to flash, flash, flash. So it's not like it's gonna be like me trying to get him to compliment me because he already does. But I'm really excited to do this all day. Oh my God, guys, I am so congested. It is insane. I literally can't even breathe right now. As you guys can probably tell from my voice, I just sound sick. We're getting through it, we're okay. But yeah, he's currently out there making a salad right now, so I thought it was a perfect time to come in here really quick. And I tell you guys what this video was. I knew you guys love the flashing videos, and so I had to pull it on him again today. Shout out to Ryan and Danielle. I actually got this video idea from them. I thought it was super smart. I think it's a good way to kind of pull a hashtag Team Araya. Make sure to comment hashtag Team Araya because we have to show Bill that Team Araya runs this channel and he can believe whatever he wants to believe in his head, but you guys already know Team Araya has the lip pranks. Guys, I'm in a good mood today. Even though I'm sick, you just gotta push through, you gotta fight through, you know?  All right, that was good. So I kind of just want to show off a little something. When me and Bill got our new phones, we actually got a free iPad, and I love it because I got a whole keyboard for it. I got an Apple Pen. And we got a case. And we got a marble case. You guys already know, we represent marble everywhere we go. Of course we have to do the marble thing. You guys, we have marble everything in this apartment. So it's just only right to get a marble. Wait, wait until we get our house. That's gonna be just really decked out marble. I hope our countertops and like flooring and everything is marble. Me too. That's our goal. That's our goal. But I just kind of show off it because I think it's super cute and it matches everything. Look it, it literally blends. I have never had an iPad. I used to not really like iPads, but they said I'll give you one for free. So I'm like, heck yeah. Yeah, I like it. I like your iPad. You like my iPad? Mm-hmm. What time is it? You're filming? No, I'm not filming. Is the camera on? No. Okay, stop over here for a second. Why? Because. Oh, what are you gonna push me? Babe. What? You're complimenting me. The windows are over here. I don't know how much you love when I flash you. And every time you compliment me, it makes me just really excited. Okay, the windows are open, so can you please stop? It makes me really excited. Stop. The camera is on. Oh, really? Sorry. Babe, now we gotta see if that was in the video. All right, we gotta make sure. We'll make sure. That's what I'm saying. We don't want that accidentally in the video. All right, guys. So Bill was low-key tweaking. You guys have probably had no idea what we were even talking about because we had to edit it out. Ryan's been really crazy today. Let me just say that. I have not been crazy. We're trying to film a vlog. I'm trying to eat, and she's trying to do stuff that she shouldn't be doing. You're gonna get my sickness now. We're both sick. We're both sick. We're gonna get double-washed. What do you know? We're gonna get double-washed. We're gonna get double-washed. That's a good salad. I admit it. Cause you made it.  It might not be a pro, but I'm pretty good at it. So what's really sad is Lovebug has to get updated shots. He has to get shot tomorrow. He has to get his shots tomorrow. Lovebug has to get his shots, and he has no idea. Oh my gosh, he's just being so lovey.   We're not the one getting him the shots. I know you're right. I feel like he's gonna be the type of cat that does not want to come out of its cage. And he's gonna be the one where they have to put the gloves on him.    He does good. People that he doesn't know. Oh, look at him. He did your baby. I'm sorry, Steph.  You need your shots. He's so cute. All right, guys. So Bill decided he wanted to get rid of this balloon.  Yeah, maybe this is not the best idea because I'm sick, but we're gonna go for it. Oh, I'm gonna set up the camera like right on the couch. That's like, only taking like a little helium hit. Can you hear my voice difference? Oh, this is so weird. That was fun. I hope you guys are gonna join this video. Oh my God. I would not do that because I know it, so stop doing it. No, I don't want to, I'm not doing it. I'm actually gonna talk. Hello, ready? What up, Mariah? I will pass out. Do I sound normal? I sound normal here. Let me try a little bit, then. Are you even getting it in your mouth? Hi. What's up? Hi, Marvel Squad. How's your day going? I sound cute. You sound like a chipmunk. I do, I sound cute. You sound like a chipmunk. You sound cute, though. Stop, what are you doing? You said I sound cute. Stop, you do sound cute, but not, stop doing that. Babe, stop. You do look beautiful.  I want to show you my- I have a camera, babe, stop. Every time we've been filming, you've literally been exposing yourselves to stuff. Because you said I look cute. Something's gonna slip. Okay, can we please film? The camera's still filming. I thought you thought my boobs were cute. Actually, stop. It's gonna get caught on your way, so why are you being all weird and awkward? Because I don't want anyone seeing that. No one seeing that. What happened to being left in? Just don't do that. It's not gonna be left in. Just don't do that, camera. You look beautiful. Just please don't do that. Thank you. What? Okay, fine. We're trying to vlog and have fun. I'm literally sucking and healing when you're at the least- No, you're being mean, because I just want to flash you and you're not letting me- I'm being mean. I want to flash you and I should be able to flash you whenever I want. Except when cameras are filming. I don't care how much I'm showing the camera. Do you want me to flash the camera? No. Heck no. All right, let's go. I'm not flashing the camera. Let's go. That was the last hit, guys. Balloon's gone. That was Snap's favorite balloon. Oh, why did we destroy it then? Actually, no. I've been with it in a while, everyone. Snap has been low-key kind of lazy. Does my voice still sound weird? What about my voice gets permanently higher? I don't know. You're screwed. Oh my God, it's still- Does it sound higher? No, it's not like it's going away. Doesn't it? I feel a little difference. I feel something in the back of my throat right here. Oh no, I sound good now. Guys, I'm so congested. I can't breathe. Ew, we don't want to see that. We just want to see your beautiful face. That's all we want to see. Yeah, all you want to see is this beautiful face and makeup is I'm sick. What? You just call me beautiful? Yeah, so, babe. Stop. Mariah! This is what I'm talking about, Mariah. Stop. I can't even film when you keep freaking doing that. I'm going in a different room. Why? Because I should be able to- Stop following me. Why are you doing it so bad? Stop. Because I'm trying- I'm trying not to flash you. Please, here. You can hold the camera. You can hold the camera. Guys, I seriously don't get why he's getting so defensive over this. I'm getting defensive because you're literally- I don't know what you're doing, Mariah. Why are you doing this on camera? You're calling me beautiful and all this stuff but won't let me flash you? That doesn't make sense. You are beautiful. You're gorgeous, but I don't know why you have to do that. Whatever. I'm adding the video right here. Oh my gosh. No! Don't add the video. No, not me doing it. Guys, sorry if this vlog seems all over. Mariah's pushing me all around. Mariah has been freaking messing with me.  And she's- Flash me. Are we actually putting that in the video? Okay, yeah.  Right? Why are your face looks so bad?   I love you. I love you. You look beautiful. Okay, no. If you love me, you'll stop. You'll stop with this freaking shirt. No, you just kind of look beautiful. You do. Stop, Mariah. I give up. Right, actually stop. There's people outside. All right, Marvel Squad. We just got off of live stream and let me just say- We hit TikTok live. We hit TikTok live. For the first time in two weeks. Yes, but let me just say, as you guys can see, I'm looking really rough. She's now dead. I do not feel good at all. I'm feeling worse the more gay progress. I can't breathe. My head feels tight. You can hear the nasal anus. Like, my ears are ringing. You're just getting bad. I'm about to go and take off my makeup and my glasses on. What? Stay away from me.    You want to kiss me?  Actually, I will kiss you because I love you. We're sick together though. But let me just show you. It is freaking beautiful outside, Mariah. We should not be in here. We should be right here.  It's the perfect fall day. I swear it was 70 degrees today in the middle of October. Wait, no November now. Oh my gosh. All right, go check out your column. I am so dizzy.  Hey, do you want to? We're about to be here. Oh yeah, we're about to get our food. We're going to show you. But we're going to have to lug it up the stairs. Should we like film us bringing it upstairs? We should.  Mariah, stop. Babe, the neighbors are going to think I'm literally yelling at my girlfriend. Like, stop doing that.  You're being nice. Let me finish filming this section. So I'm giving you... Right, stop. Mariah, actually please. It is nice, but off camera. I bet she gets sad. Lovebug, mommy, daddy has to go downstairs and go get the groceries. Bye bye. We have our shopping cart right here guys. If you live in an apartment complex, you guys know that bringing up groceries up to your floor is terrible. The only thing that's more worse than bringing your groceries up is a car that we don't fall off. So we have to hold up. We literally got this and the day that we opened it up, the wheel was broken. The wheel was broken. It wouldn't snap in. We should have already went back and returned it. I couldn't have destroyed the box. I know, but guys, this is a lifesaver. We definitely don't have to get anyone. Having a broken wheel is not fun.  What are you doing, babe? Come on. All right guys, so all of our food is right here. We even need a car, except for the water, but I'm sick and I don't really feel like bringing it all up. So we have to start doing chip shopping more often, huh? You think so? I like it. I like it too, but I don't know. I do like being able to pick out our own food. I know, but whoever we had was really nice. Yeah. I'm gonna put this up at the good good. You're gonna have to help me out here too. If you think I'm just gonna be pushing the car. All right. Load it all up. I'm not gonna be able to do the rest, babe, I have a camera in my hand. It's all right. All right guys, so this is the struggle. And there's a broken wheel. Now the struggle is having no wheel and then having to get up like in front of the stairs. Look at this. Is that bad? It's not that bad. No, look at it. You think you can press on this, but this is a break. So I can't even like lift it up. I just gotta go and go with it. All right guys, we just made it home. Yes. We have a lot of groceries. This is actually perfect because usually where we park our car, we park it like two blocks away. We have to like go at the other building. Bring our groceries down instead of stairs, through a tunnel and up to where we pick these up. Picking these up right in front of the door was so much easier. I know it was easier. That was the only benefit except having to pay a person extra to go shop for us. Yeah. But I think it's perfect, especially during like, you know, COVID or whatever for people that have been doing this. Yes. We've been missing out on this one. We haven't missed it out. But dang, is this all cat food? Look at this guys. Well, she said there wasn't a flavor. So I just had to get all those. That's insane. I mean that's good a mile, right? Yeah. Is it too much? No, it's good, that's perfect. Our cat's going to go through that. He loves wet food. He does. That's his favorite that he gets so freaking excited. I know. She's cute though. Don't have to show me that. Stop. The windows are open. The windows are open. I see cars driving by. Let me flash you. You're being cute, but babe, stop. And you're freaking filming again. Please, let's just put away this stuff. Let's have a good time putting this away. Oh, a couple. Babe, stop. What? No. Keep here, let me. Look, even Snap wants to be flashed. I'm surprised he's not running away. Okay, you do look good. But stop filming. Stop filming while you're flashing. Are you doing another flashing video? Maybe. You're pranking me. Are you actually? Flashing my boyfriend every time he compliments me. Stop flashing him. I'm not making a comment on that.  I thought you would have liked it. You weren't really that amused. Babe, I love it. But when you're filming. This is what you get for trying. My head is not set on. This is what you get for trying to turn me on and get me in the mood and it didn't work. And I guess me flashing didn't work. That did work. You said you were in the mood. I was in the mood though. Mom was like, don't listen to her. After you're done watching this video, go watch my prank that I did on her. Okay, because I got you in the mood. You did not get me in the mood. I got you in the mood. You wish. Girl, I can get you in the mood right now. Ew.  Babe, I was, but I was more shocked that I was trying to focus on filming.  Guys, I didn't go as planned and I'm sorry this video was all over the place. Uh-uh, this video was perfect. I thought it was fun, but damn babe. You know I got you good. No, do I know what I know there? You got one of these only for yourself? No, I got two, I thought I got two. There better be two in there. I thought it was a package, like one package. Oh, I thought it was like a package or four. Like a package that's like three or four, yeah. Damn, what we're gonna be cutting doesn't have. I'm saying. We are. Guys, that is so bogus. I wish we were able to go out in public cause I would have done it in public too but we've been kind of sick. We don't want to get other people sick.  I knew you were doing something weird too cause you literally were like acting so strange every time I tried on the camera. It took me itself now to figure that out. But momo squad, sorry if our energy levels are a little bit down this video but just know things are gonna get better, things are gonna get more hyper to shine and get through the sickness that we do have. But I thought this would be a perfect idea to do this video cause I know you always compliment me. I, yeah, I guess this is perfect. That's funny because I was strictly like. I'm really dizzy. Those were legit compliments to you. Guys, I am like super dizzy. Is it hot in here? We had to actually get off live earlier because Mariah was starting to get really sick. I'm gonna go sit down. I hope you feel better. Everyone wish Mariah luck in the comments because I'm doing way better. I'm doing decent. I still feel like- Once this congestion stuff goes away, I'll feel fine.  I'm excited to eat this stuff. I cannot wait because there's a lot of good food that you picked out. I should have her shop more often. You're gonna shop, right? I shopped like a week ago when she was inside sick before I got sick. I didn't shop as good as she did. She did all of mine.  If you guys are not subscribed, make sure you go hit that subscribe button. Yes, we really appreciate all of you guys being a part of our channel and all of our new Mom Squad members coming in. We're about to hit one million subscribers. Mariah's dying. I'm sorry. Sorry guys, I am literally- I wish she could be more hyped right now but we literally love you all. Thank you for tuning into this video. I will see you guys in the next one. But until then, peace. Love you guys.


Hi everybody! Today we're going to be repotting our dracina marginata together. The first thing that we're going to look for is signs that our plant needs repotting, and the first one is going to be on the leaves. If you're giving adequate watering to your dracina, so this means that you're watering regularly and waiting for the soil to be partially dry before you water again, but the leaves are droopy still most of the time. This may be a sign that your plant needs more space in the roots. And the other signs are in the roots. The first thing that we can look for in the roots is if they are growing on top of the potting mix. This is a very good sign that our plant needs repotting. And there are other signs, for example, we can look down at the bottom of the pot, and if the roots are growing down through the drainage holes, this is another very telling sign that our plants may need more space to grow. The last thing we can do is to take our plant out of the pot and see if the roots are growing around the potting mix. And this is a very good sign that our plant needs a bigger pot. So let's get to our pot now. In terms of material of our pots, we have many different options and the most common ones are terracotta and plastic. When it comes to our plant care, one of the main difference between these two is that plastic is not porous and terracotta is porous. This will mean that the soil in plastic will stay moist for longer periods of time and terracotta will actually dry out more quickly. Now, both options have their pros and cons, so if you want to learn more about pots and see which one is the right one for you, make sure to check out my video on pots. But now let's get to our pot. I'm going to be using a terracotta pot because I love terracotta and I'm trying to reduce my use of plastic. And let's talk about the size. And what I always recommend is that you go maximum one to two sizes bigger. You don't want to go bigger because this may be too shocking for the plant and also you may risk over-watering your plant. And what kind of potting mix are we using for a dracina? I got you, so let's get to the dirt. For my dracina marginata today, I'm going to be using seven parts of coconut coir. I love coconut coir because it's a great material for moisture retention and at the same time, it doesn't compress so much when it dries out, which is great to maintain our potting mix fluffy and to make sure that the water can get through the potting mix into the roots. When you get your cocoa coir at home, you'll get something like this or like this depending on which size you select. This is compacted dried cocoa husk and all you have to do is to submerge it in water. It will absorb the water and here's a tip. Use your hands to break it apart. It is the best part and it will be ready to use for your plants. Then we're going to add two parts of warm castings for nutrition. Two parts of pumice for drainage and here you can also use spur light. But they're both great for drainage. Now, if you do use spur light, make sure to soak it in water before you use it because spur light is really dusty and we don't want to be breathing all of that dust. And my secret weapon when it comes to transplanting right now is this one right here. It's called Michael Bliss. Michael Resire is an official fun guide that will help us prevent shock in the new environment for our plant and it also helps with healthy root growth. Okay, so let's get to repotting. After mixing our potting mix, we're going to add the first layer to our pot. This first layer will provide the support from below to the roots. Then we're going to take our plant out of the pot and massage the roots out of the soil. Do this very gently because we don't want to damage any of the roots. But make sure that you do massage that soil out so they have space to breathe and to hold to the new potting mix. Now we're going to place our plant inside the pot. And here what I always recommend is that you place it at the center of the pot so then you can add soil around all sides and she has support on all sides. Okay, now we add some soil. I always like to pat it down a little bit just not so much so you still have some fluffiness in the soil but you also have that support around the roots. Now we water so everything settles in and we are done. I'm very happy with the result here. It looks really pretty and as you can see it has lots of support which is great because it was falling a lot before. So I hope that this is going to be good for her. If you've reported with me, I would love to know your experience so make sure to comment below. I would love to know how it went for you. And as always, I will see you in the next one. Okay, adios!


For this session, my name is Alok, and with me is my co-presenter, my colleague Prasad. So Prasad and I are from Infosys Ltd, and we are from the IT process consulting practice. So we've been working actively with clients advising them on their transformation to agile, scaling agile, DevOps, etc. So what we have here today is just an experience sharing around speed to value. So before really moving forward, let me just tell you what exactly speed to value is about. I'm sure you already know about it. But so simply put speed to value is how do you really accelerate the realization of business value from the IT initiatives that you are running. And we're going to be talking from the context of enterprise IT. So large enterprises who are running their IT functions, and they're supporting their business and driving key business initiatives. So how do they really accelerate the realization of business value? How do they really accelerate the realization of the business cases that form the basis for all their investments and IT initiatives? So that's the context, and it's going to be based on whatever experiences that we've gathered by interacting with clients. So I think it's very important to first understand the challenges that today large enterprises are facing. So enterprise environment is becoming increasingly complex. So there is a growing complexity of the tech landscape and there are challenges which I'm going to be talking about as we go forward. So heterogeneous technologies, right? So you take any large IT shop today, it is adopting new technologies, the smack of the world. It has to live with its legacy, and also you have the products and cards. So the whole thing is becoming actually very messy if you really ask me. So the challenge is that in this kind of ever-increasing complex tech environment, how do you really drive some of these initiatives? How do you really scale agile? How do you drive DevOps? With the objective of obviously accelerating through productivity and value to your end business. The other significant challenge which we see in large enterprises is, there is not really a seamless view of the end-to-end value stream. So if you look at the IT value chain, across plan, build, and run, the typical SDLC view, this view is actually broken in most of the large enterprises. So you have the ABDEP team, development team, which is just focusing on optimizing development, right? You have the QA team or the testing team, which is just looking at how efficiently they can run their testing. And then of course you have your operations team or the support team, whose primary objective is to how they can adhere to their SLAs. So each one of them is trying to do local optimization and that is actually impacting the global efficiency of the end-to-end process, okay? And to make matters worse, right? So most of our clients, large enterprises, they are working in a multi-vendor environment, right? And I'll give you a classic example. I mean, this is something which in a recent meeting,


From Soldiers Radio and Television, this is the Army Now. No one likes to receive a letter from the IRS, unless of course it's a check. But if your email inbox is filling up from notes from the IRS, you should be suspicious. You'll get an email that looks official, that claims to come from the IRS, and it's asking for your personal information. And oftentimes the hook is, you're doing additional refund. Sometimes these scams threaten to audit you. To an unsuspecting taxpayer, they might think, okay, I need to respond to this, and get the IRS off my back. And so before you even think about responding to an email that claims to be from the IRS, I just want to make absolutely clear that the IRS does not initiate contact with taxpayers over email asking for their personal information. If you receive a suspicious email from the IRS, delete it, or you can forward it to phishingatirs.gov. And that's your Army Now.


Welcome to Hawaii Together on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network. I'm your host, Joe Kent, Executive Vice President of the Grassroots Institute of Hawaii, filling in this week for Kelly Iaquina. My guest today is Jessica Poitras. She's an attorney with the Institute for Justice, which is a public interest law firm based in Arlington, Virginia. Jessica recently co-authored an op-ed in the Honolulu Star Advertiser that put a spotlight on Hawaii's occupational licensing laws. And Jessica believes these laws need to be changed, especially as they apply to natural hair braiders and barbers. And she's here to explain why. So thanks so much for talking with me today, Jessica. Of course. Thank you so much for having me. Happy to be here. First, a little bit about your background and where you work. So how did you come to work at the Institute for Justice? And what does the organization do? Of course. The Institute for Justice is a national public interest law firm that works to end government abuses and overreach. So after I graduated from law school, I knew that I wanted to work in the nonprofit sector. I wanted to help people using my law degree. And I've always had a passion for the beauty industry as a consumer and someone who holds cosmetologists and barbers and the entire industry in high regard. So when I had this opportunity to be able to work with the Institute for Justice to break down barriers for these entrepreneurs, I jumped up the chance and I've been here ever since. That's wonderful to hear someone passionate about that work. It's a really important work. But many of our listeners might not be familiar exactly with what is occupational licensing. So could you explain what that is? Sure. So occupational licensing is the fancy term for a government permission slip to allow people to work. So most professions require a government paper or some sort of sign off to be able to work. So think of lawyers be your bar license for cosmetologists, a cosmetology license, things of that nature. So what kind of occupations does the state of Hawaii require a license for? Of course. So Hawaii, it has some of the most burdensome occupational licenses in the country. And it actually licenses, you know, many, many different professions. So ranging from painters to cosmetologists and to individuals in the construction trade. In fact, out of the 102 licenses that we studied and licensed to work, Hawaii licenses 64 of them. Wow. So that's among the highest. It's among the highest in the nation. Is that right? And one of the most burdensome. Is that right? Exactly. So Louisiana licenses the most occupations out of all of the states. But Hawaii's licenses still rank as the most burdensome in the country. And that's mainly because occupational licenses require other things that you don't necessarily see. So the fees and the exams and things like that are the high barriers that that individuals who want to work have to overcome first before they're even able to to first start working in their desired profession. Oh, I see. So Hawaii's occupational licensing requirements just have a lot of requirements in them. You have to work for a longer than any other state and pay more fees than the other state and so on. So what was the justification behind that, though? Why would they pass laws like that? So it really depends. And I certainly don't want to speak for the legislators in Hawaii, but the entrenched interests of certain groups really want to ensure that other people do not enter into their field. And a great way to do that is to erect high barriers to entry. So, for example, Hawaii requires an average of 972 days for education and training before individuals can start working for those licenses, where the national average is about 350. So the justifications, it's hard to square that given the fact that it's more than double what the national average is. I see. So a lot of it is just protectionism, trying to keep the other competitors out of your industry. And so if the licensing requirements are higher than the barrier to entry into those jobs are harder, but what about the supposed justification? I mean, they're not passing laws or justifying this on those grounds, right? So what are they saying they want the laws for? Well, it really depends. And again, with the wide breadth of occupations, it's hard to kind of generally figure or to generalize exactly what legislators deem licenses necessary for. But for some of the licenses, health and sanitation concerns or being able to, you know, regulate the amount of individuals in the space and that sort of thing. I see. So when it comes to let's take safety, for example, I mean, that's when you just think of is we need licenses to keep people safe. We need occupational licenses so that my painter doesn't fall off the ladder or damage my property or something. So assuming that's the justification, are licenses successful in that? So so no, not typically, right? So licenses don't necessarily make certain professions safer. And we see that, especially when you compare some careers and fields that are more directly related to safety, like EMTs versus those that aren't like cosmetologists. So Hawaii actually, in fact, lowered the education and training requirement for EMTs, but maintains the high barrier to entry for cosmetologists, including braiders, where there's very little and it's very rare for health and sanitation item or issues to occur. So licensing doesn't necessarily protect safety. And they're definitely better alternatives to to to fixing that issue than than licensing. I see. And and so licensing may not help, but does it hurt? Have you ever come across any research that shows that occupational licensing actually gets in the way of health and safety and some of the goals that they want? So, you know, by keeping by keeping skilled professionals out and requiring licenses sometimes for things that aren't directly attributed to those professions, that could certainly harm or create a cause for harm for licensing. So think of a profession like eyelash technicians, right? eyelash technicians have private certification that that proves their their training. And they should have that training in order to safely provide their services. However, you know, currently in Hawaii, there's no requirement. There's no requirement or there's nothing that says that you need specific eyelash training. What you need is some sort of cosmetology license where they don't even teach eyelash training. So aesthetics professionals can go and buy those products and become eyelash techs without that specialized training. And that could, you know, create some sort of potential health and sanitation risk. I see. Well, and a lot of it just doesn't make sense.  And in it, you argued that the state should, quote, repeal all barboring and cosmetology licensing. Now, could you explain that? Sure. So Hawaii's state auditor has studied the beauty industry five times since 1980. And each time the license they found the licenses for our cosmetologists and barbers are unnecessary. And so, you know, I think that is a very clear example of the fact that, you know, the state auditor has found that these licenses aren't required. They aren't necessary. But legislators haven't moved and taken that recommendation to try to reform the system to allow individuals to be able to work. I see. And what would repealing those licenses do? How would that help? Of course. So by repealing those licenses, especially for niche beauty service providers, that would allow people to enter into the field without having to undergo state mandated training requirements. So right now, cosmetologists, niche beauty service providers, things like that, they're required to go to certain cosmetology training programs where many of them accrue student debt and spend lots and lots of time unrelated to the actual profession that they want to be able to work in. And so, again, there are there are alternatives to regulating this space. A cosmetology license doesn't necessarily fit. What would fit, perhaps, would be facility inspections, right? So if the goal is to, you know, really ensure health and sanitation and to make sure that the public safe that way, facility inspections are the best way to to regulate the industry and make sure that there aren't bad actors. I see. Well, when we were talking about this issue with our audience, we we have a newsletter on the Grassard Institute of Hawaii website and met thousands of people read our stuff. And we were pointing to your article and talking about this. And we got a lot of comments, one person wrote, I have a friend that this restriction harms. She said, why do our legislators spend more time trying to suppress local small business than support it? Someone on TikTok, which if you go to Oahu Joe on TikTok, you'll see some licensing content there. And she said, I was literally just talking about transferring my cosmetology license and it's a hassle, too. And so a lot of this affects a lot of people on the ground here in Hawaii. What would you say to those people? Well, what I would say to those people is one, get in contact with us. Let us help you to work on to work on bills and legislation to remove those licenses that are burdensome. You know, sometimes I think that legislators just aren't aware of the issues that come with licensing and so making sure that your voices are heard, especially with licenses that have that are that don't exist in other states having that evidence there. That's the best way to to start breaking down those barriers. And there's there's a lot of good reasoning and support behind that. So good. Well, another of our readers said that she disagreed with us. She said, licensing is a tool to protect the public. So what would you say to her? And and also, you know, for the sake of argument, how would you respond to someone who says that cosmetology licenses, in particular, help protect people from untrained beauticians? Right. So first and foremost, with cosmetologists in the cosmology industry and generally for small businesses and entrepreneurs, you know, we say unlicensed doesn't mean untrained, right? These individuals are trained, they're skilled, especially if they're working in the space, especially if they're starting their own businesses, those. And that's those are the people that these bills are working to support. And, you know, I think we would have to have an honest conversation as to what licenses you're talking about, especially in the beauty industry for these niche beauty services, like hair braiding or makeup artistry. There is very little and little evidence and it's exceedingly rare that individuals cause health and sanitation problems. What we actually find, in fact, is that most of the enforcement actions that happen to these niche beauty service providers, so the care breakers think eyebrow threaders actually comes from them not having a license, not actually harming anyone. And so I think that's indicative of the fact that, you know, people want to ensure that people have a license, but it's not actually making anyone safer because these individuals aren't harming anyone. OK, but how would how would you deal with market quality? OK, so now we repeal all of these occupational licenses for beauticians and cosmetologists. And and all of a sudden the quality drops on the market. You you might not be really happy with the service that you get. So so how would you deal with that argument? Right. So first and foremost, the research shows that removing licenses doesn't actually lower doesn't actually lower the quality of service in the market space. In fact, it usually raises the the the quality just because there are more service providers and people have a have a wider breadth of individuals to choose from, especially in the beauty industry.  What are you trying to get at? And and also the the market doesn't necessarily the way that individuals choose providers doesn't necessarily change whether or not there's a license there. There's a license that exists even now for regulated, licensed occupations, individuals choose to find their their providers through word of mouth, reputation, online reviews like Yelp and Google. That's where the market, that's where consumers go to look for qualified individuals, very few people are checking to see if their painters have have a license. That's true. We look to Yelp, not the government, a lot of times when we're trying to find the best place for service. But I want to talk about your new report at the Institute for Justice License to Work. And this is version three of this. We've been following this for many years. It's been really helpful. But this third version looks at reforms. Also, that states have been putting in some states have been increasing licensing requirements. Other states have been getting rid of them. But on net, are we going for more licensing or less fewer? Of course. So as you mentioned, this is our third edition of license to work. And it's an updated snapshot of licensing, licensing's extent and burden by cataloging state licensing requirements for, again, 102 lower income occupations across all 50 states. And this edition also includes Puerto Rico and a compare states feature. So if you're interested, you can go to the website and compare Hawaii versus any of the 50 states in Puerto Rico, which is really, really interesting. But to answer your second question, you know, on the whole, we've seen about a 20 percent decrease in licensing across the across the country overall. And I think that's because, you know, meant both political administration, so the Obama administration, the Trump administration and the Biden administration has called for states to really take a look at occupational licensing and has really highlighted it as a barrier for workers across the country. So for the most part, we've seen a decrease, but that doesn't mean that there isn't work to do because there certainly is. I see. Would you say that this issue cuts across partisan lines? Or is it is it a partisan? It's kind of a local issue, wouldn't you say? Yeah, it's a state by state issue, and it really shouldn't be partisan. And we find that, you know, it often isn't because there there are interests for for for everyone, right? I think all states and including Hawaii are interested in bringing people to their state, making their state open to work, creating opportunities for current citizens. And that's what occupational licensing does. I always like to add and specifically highlight some of the states that have enacted great cosmetology licensing reforms, like Minnesota and 2020, when they removed the requirement for makeup artists and hairstylists to have a full cosmetology license. There was literally a thousand new individuals who were who were able to register with this with the state to be able to start working in that space. Also, in Arkansas, when it passed its shampooer and blow dry bar extension exemption, my apologies, Bill, the first blow dry bar in the state opened up. So that is concrete proof that when you remove these barriers, individuals see the opportunity they come and they want to build and they want to work. So I'm embarrassed to say, I don't know what a blow dry bar is. That is OK.  So there's no cutting, there's no coloring, there's no dyes, there's no chemical processes happening, and it's just this booming industry. But most states require the individuals who just want to provide those services to have a full cosmetology license, which is absolutely ridiculous. And so by removing that barrier, it allows these businesses to open up. It supports industries like the wedding industry that wholeheartedly relies on independent makeup artists and hairstylists, as well as the entertainment industry. So it's really a win-win for everyone. I'm going back to that Hawaii auditor study you mentioned about one study earlier this year recommended against mandating license for community health workers. So in prior studies, the auditor usually recommended against licensing. Like in Hawaii, in Hawaii's state auditor reports, do we usually recommend against licensing? So I'm not terribly familiar with most of Hawaii's state auditor's reports when it comes to occupational licensing. But I will add if they've done the research, if they've reviewed the licenses and they've actually taken a look at the needs and that's the outcome that they've come to, I think legislators should listen and should react to those findings. Other than completely abolishing mandatory license things, what kind of reforms would you suggest to improve it? Of course. So first and foremost, exemptions for niche and safe occupations should be first, right? So in the cosmetology space, again, we are huge proponents of niche beauty exemptions. So niche beauty services are services that are safe because they don't they don't use dangerous chemicals or dyes and they don't use dangerous mechanical devices either. So you're we're talking about eyebrow threading, makeup, artistry, hair braiding, blow dry styling, that sort of thing. All of those sorts of services should be exempted from state licensure because there's very little evidence and it's exceedingly rare again that there is any justification for for those licenses because individuals can provide them safely and they're not typically taught in cosmetology programs. But if there is a demonstrated need for for government regulation, there's there's a whole slew of of alternatives for regulating these spaces. So again, inspections, that is that that's the next kind of step, right? So ensuring that the government has the ability to inspect facilities for health and sanitation concerns or things like mandated insurance for liability purposes for bonds and insurance for for fields where that makes sense, right? And so, you know, there are many alternatives and licensing shouldn't be the first stop, it should really be the last. And can you talk about professional certification? How is that different than mandatory licensing? Of course. So private certification and professional certification are choices that an individual can make for their education. We are huge proponents of private certification. It's a it's a great way to learn your craft and to and to be able to get your foot in the door. The difference between a license and private certification is a license is mandated to to be able to work and it doesn't. And the education requirement doesn't necessarily go towards exactly what your the service or the field that you're trying to to offer. So private certification is something that you get to choose. You get to choose where it's done. And, you know, I liken it to kind of like a college degree, right? That is that is where you should hold your value. So I hold my value in my law degree. I think, you know, cosmetologists or chefs, for instance, that's another great example, holding value in that education, and that private certification is is what we advocate for. I see. Now, another comment that came in when we were talking about your work is someone said, what about physicians licensed to practice in other states not having reciprocity here in Hawaii, a barrier and a cause of fewer specialists? So what would you say to to that issue? The Hawaii has a severe shortage of health care professionals. And maybe some of the professionals on the mainland could practice here, except occupational licensing gets in the way. So how would you make that easier? Of course. So I think recognition is the best way to do that, right? Allowing legislators allowing Hawaii to recognize the training and the licenses of health care professionals in other states when they when they move into Hawaii would be the best. Now, how would you what's the different? You said recognition and I've heard reciprocity. But what are those two? What's the difference between those two terms? Sure, of course. So recognition is something that Hawaii can do on its own. Hawaii can recognize a license. It can evaluate the license and accept the license on its own. Reciprocity or state compacts would require Hawaii to enter into agreements with other states and to and to create a quite frankly, like a compact across states in order that individuals would have to meet in order to be able to freely move within those states. So I see exactly. So recognition retains Hawaii's autonomy in this occupational licensing. I see. So for for recognition, we wouldn't need to the cumbersome step of trying to agree on a complicated compact with the collection of other states. We could just recognize the licenses in other states and recognize them as professionals in their fields and able to work here. Is that right? Exactly. And it's something that legislators could immediately do to to ameliorate and to fix worker shortage problems, right? Compacts take a lot longer of a time and a lot more negotiations with different state governments. And so you wouldn't see the effects of it as quickly as as recognition. Oh, when you look across the nation at this issue, especially those places that have had successes when it comes to reducing occupational licensing requirements, what are some of the stories you've seen? And we only have one minute left here, by the way, of course. So I will end on a happy note. Most of the results that we've seen have been success stories, right? So again, when you lower these barriers, jobs and opportunities, you know, become available and are bound and people can immediately take take those take those opportunities. So it's it's a great way for states to really address worker shortage issues and workforce issues. That's great. Well, hopefully we can adopt some of those things that have worked here and help our economy and help folks find a job. So thanks so much, Jessica Poitras, for joining us today. Jessica, again, is the attorney with the Institute for Justice. Thank you so much for having me. Thanks so much, Aloha, and thanks so much to you, our viewers, for watching another episode of Hawaii together. Until next time, Aloha.


Alzheimer's disease, AD, is one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases affecting millions of people worldwide. Until now, there has been no effective treatment to cure it, but there are drugs to slow its progression. Early detection of AD is therefore essential to take preventive measures before it progresses to irreversible brain damage. Magnetic resonance imaging, MRI, techniques have contributed to the diagnosis and prediction of its progression. However, MRI images require highly skilled doctors and radiologists, and the analysis of MRI images takes time to analyze each slice. Deep learning techniques play a vital role in analyzing a large number of MRI images with high accuracy to detect AD and predict its progression. Because of the similarities in the characteristics of the early stages of AD, this study aimed to extract the features in several methods and integrate the features extracted from more than one method into the same features matrix. Three methodologies were developed, each with two systems, with all systems aimed at achieving satisfactory accuracy for the detection of AD and predicting the stages of its progression. The first methodology is by Feedforward Neural Networks, FFNN, with This article was authored by Ahmed Khalid, Ebrahim Mohamed Senan, Khalil Al-Wajih, and others. We are article.tv, links in the description below.