The agricultural situation is in a state which is, in many ways, probably worse than ever. And by worse than ever, what I mean most importantly is, I think there is a... On the one hand there are these tall claims that will double farmers' incomes in three or four years. Claims which are, at best, you know, optimism at its height. And at worst, what they are is a slogan substituting for anything happening really on the ground. It's a promise in the future rather than efforts essentially on the ground. Now, what is this crisis at the moment? Well, there are several ways of looking at it, but suppose we go by the official statistics. What we have is that since 2014, and the government and this particular regime started with bad luck. They had two drought years right at the beginning, 2014 and 1516. But it's been now three years since then. And normally you should actually rebound back and starting from a low base actually do much better than in the past. What we do have is that crop agriculture has been growing at only about half a percent per annum. Overall agricultural growth is much higher, slightly less than three percent per annum, which is the long-run Indian average. But much of that is made up of items whose statistics is a bit dicey. That is, there are good areas in which our statistics is good.  And there are two sets of items on which our statistics is not so good. These are livestock and horticulture. And it is precisely in the horticulture and the livestock sectors that you have fairly high rates of growth in the last. But the forecast crops for which we have hard data, that rate of growth is only half a percent per annum. So there is relatively slow growth of output in those sectors where we can be reasonably confident of data and which still involves almost 70 percent of total area and where something like about half of the total value of output comes from. And certainly involves most farmers growing those crops which are not growing. So that's the first sign of what's going wrong because I don't think we've had after independence a stretch like this with maybe a stretch like this there was in the early 70s, but a stretch like this of relatively sustained low growth. The second, which is official data, but an official data which has not yet been released and may not be released at all, is that the consumption expenditure survey, which is normally carried out every five years and which was carried out in 1718, which the government has for one reason or the other decided not to release, but which has been leaked out through various means so that you can read more or less a lot about it in the business standard if you go back to where it got leaked. What that shows is something incredible. It shows that rural consumption, I'm not talking about incomes because this doesn't measure incomes, rural consumption declined in real terms by about 10 percentage between 2012 and 2018. So that 11, 12 and 17, 18, there was in this six year period 10% decline in the overall rural per capita consumption. Now that's never happened. That sort of decline over a six year period has never happened. It is pointing at something much worse than even half a percent rate of growth of agricultural output, because normally we expect non-agriculture activities in rural areas to do even better than agriculture. It has been doing so. And it points to two or three things. In favor of government, it probably points to the fact that there are certain things with this consumption surveys and catching and there might be some problems with the data. That's what the argument for non-release of the data is. And to back that up is one thing which might surprise everyone, which is that this drop in rural consumption is largest in the relatively rich part of the rural population. So the income distribution in the rural areas or the consumption distribution in the rural areas looks much better in the latest survey than in the past surveys, and that's because the rich do worse than the poor. Now whether this is correct or not, I don't know, but if it is correct, it points to a fact that what we are seeing in rural areas is not something which is confined to distributive issues, but it has to do with the sector as a whole. That it's not actually even, it's something that even the rich aren't being able to tide over. So looked at that way the situation becomes somewhat worse because like in any other country the rich in rural India tend usually to do better than the poor, especially when things are bad. Now this particular period, that is the period from 1112 to 1718 is a period which follows a previous period of roughly seven years again from 2004 to 2011-12 when agricultural performance was relatively good, not just relatively good but relatively good to our post-independence performance as a whole. So it's a big climb down from a direction that we seem to have been getting to, and there are many reasons for it, and I won't elaborate on all of those reasons. Some of it has to do with government policy, others have to do with the way international trade has moved against agriculture, but to concentrate on the second, this period looks, if anything, a bit like the period 1997 or 1998 to about 2002-2003. That is the period shortly after when we got fully into the cycle of what the WTO was all about, including the removal of quantitative restrictions. That period was a period that period I just mentioned, that's the late 90s and the very early 2000s. World prices were moving against agriculture and that's precisely what happened now, and that was a period when for the first time in India you saw the media and academia get into the whole thing about farmer suicides. Now obviously farmers had been committing suicides ever since there have been farmers. Some farmers will always commit suicides like suicides is a, but as a phenomenon to be talked about and focused upon, it is in fact after the mid-1990s that that matter started. So if you take that index, which I don't think is a very good index, but it's an index that a lot of people use in terms of a gradient distress, then roughly that was the period when we actually think of a gradient distress in those terms, and that had abated during 2004 to 2012 and it has again gone up, although again on that the data is not being released with the regularity and comparability that it showed. So 1.1 ought to note is that the nature of a gradient crisis for this period, that's from the mid-90s at least onwards, has much to do with our linkage with the world economy and the openness of agriculture to the vicissitudes of the world economy. Why? Well, one very simple reason for this is the following. Suppose you are a closed economy and agricultural output for some reason falls, and it falls every now and then because every third year is a bad monsoon, roughly, and you can't do a damn thing about it. But if agricultural output falls in a closed economy what tends to happen is agricultural prices rise. And when agricultural prices rise, at least for the farmer, the rise in prices compensates to some extent for the fall in output. On the other hand, if you are an open economy you might have a situation in which agricultural output falls, world prices are in a bad shape and you get the double whammy. And I think what we've been seeing consistently over time is that this is happening. Now, this is something which is bound to happen simply because that's the way agriculture or any trade would operate, it would be to actually even out prices across geographies. But it does have impact for the way trade operates for or against the farmers, against the consumer. And I think we've seen that change. The second change we've seen, and I'm now moving towards the marketing issue, is that this period in particular, since the late 90s, and that's a period during which I was in and out of government for a very long time and in this particular area, I was in 97 in the commission for agricultural costs and prices. Then Vajpayee Ji had got a thing to look at agricultural at WTO under Sharad Joshi. I was in that committee. Then I joined the planning commission in 2004. And I've watched the way a certain discourse has developed till the mid 90s. It was taken as a given that the constitutional division of responsibilities of the states versus the center put agriculture, including agricultural marketing, very firmly, clearly in the state domain. The only exception to this was the operation of the food distribution system, that is the PDS. Since then, we've had a whole discourse which has built up that this entire area calls for such huge reforms and it is full of such large distortions that those distortions can only be met if there is a single market. And that single market means that the states lose responsibility over this particular area and therefore there have been persistent demands for either that this become a central area in the constitution or at least a concurrent area in the constitution. It has not yet happened but this demand has consistently come from the interest which saw the future of agriculture as linked to the development of national players and a national market linked directly by the same players from picking it up from the farmers to selling it in the retail. So all of this was to do with the whole retail market liberalization, marketing liberalization at the farmer's end and all of that. And if we look at the last 20 years, this is the basic discourse which is built up and there is a lot in it because there are two main focuses of this discourse. The first one was the one I've just said which is try and move agricultural marketing from the state list towards the centralist. The second was that get rid of the APMCs or the rather the acts which govern the agricultural produce markets. Now what are these agriculture produce markets? These came up during the 50s and the 60s as regulated markets offering some minimum infrastructure as well as some regulation in terms of weights, measures and trading practices in exchange for which the markets themselves got two things. One trade outside these markets became in some cases even illegal but in any case the effort was that the markets would have a source of revenue because other trade would become more difficult so trade things would have to come to the markets. Now as a result what happened over time and that the markets would set up infrastructure. Over time what happened is that some of these markets because of the prevention of entry that was there to allow to prevent new players from coming in some of these markets became very oligopolistic so that few traders control those markets and could obviously squeeze out. They could obviously squeeze the sellers and made money even on the taxes. The second thing which happened is that because there were rents being collected in the markets and rents are bound to be collected in agricultural markets because the agricultural markets are where cash transactions are taking place, where previous loans are being settled when you get the money. So when you have an economy which operates on the basis of connected markets a lot of activity takes place in the markets, a lot of rents are shared and gathered and when rents are shared and gathered these are also places which finance politicians. So agricultural produce markets were places in which political parties irrespective of the party itself all across India were sources for local politicians and their election funds and all of that. Now as a result right from the beginning from this and this the tone of what we should do about reform of the APMCs hasn't changed very much. It's exactly the same thing starting in about 1997 and we've now gone 22 years into it and it's almost the same song which is sung but very little has been done on the ground. What has happened over time is from 2002 onwards the central government has come out with model reform acts. It has tried to say that if you do your reforms you will get some extra central money all of that has happened. We've got a lot of states which have enacted things but have not in fact implemented them so that you have acts without the notifications and much of this has to do with the position of the state and the center state politics coming up again and again with again this political issue of how to deal with the traders. Now during this period big business especially in the early 2000s had for example then reliance bought over a lot of property in urban areas hoping to have a whole set of you know supermarkets and they also tried to get into agricultural marketing they couldn't and the reliance wasn't the only one. There was a lot of activity but somehow when prices fell they just like the reliance petrol banks which had shot up during at one place had actually then shut down and now if you look elsewhere reliance petrol is coming back. Similarly those went down and things are again coming up but the players are roughly the similar players and the demand continuously became can we bypass the state mechanism and all these problems which create with that creates by one means or the other and several things did take place from almost nonexistent I mean we've always had futures trading but for some time it was banned for most of the time to hugely controlled and you got this huge increase in futures trading after 2003 taking us to about the fourth largest futures trade markets in the world. You got this huge increase in the money being exchanged there yet with no link almost to actual trading on the ground. Link to this was the idea that futures is something which is governed which is actually a central topic. Can't we tweak the futures market laws to actually allow for spot trading. So use the future market laws to have trading across borders linked to the laws of the futures markets rather than to the APMC laws. Well some attempts and the enam is the latest attempt at that but these attempts have been there in the past and so far it's been one step forward two steps back I mean basically very little again has been achieved although whenever it's achieved it said we've achieved a great deal I mean this is true of the past this is true of the present. How long do I have five minutes ten minutes. Okay now that's the situation that you're in which is an agricultural economy which in part because of weather in part because of policy in part because of the way world markets have worked themselves through is doing badly and that doing badly is something which is sector as a whole including the rich and the prosperous those who could invest in a situation where the demand for opening up these markets for letting the larger trade replace the relatively smaller but local monopolist APMC operators that demand which was there earlier had subdued a little bit is growing again but on top of all this something else has happened in the last three or four years and that is we have I think probably for the first time objectives of government policy which are impacting the rural markets rural markets all markets but rural markets especially and impacting them fairly strongly and these are these policies are digitization as well as the attempt to shift towards a cashless economy. Rural markets have by and large been cash economies. Yes there were attempts and there's still those attempts continue some places they've gone further some places they haven't gone very far which is try and put money directly into farmers accounts rather than have earthy hours collecting the cash and then giving it to the farmer. Some of that has happened but these markets are basically cash markets they have been. Now two things demonetization and GST possibly GST even more than demonetization but demonetization certainly also had the effect hit this cash economy very very badly not unexpectedly and continued restrictions on cash transactions is obviously forcing these markets to actually try and adopt other ways of doing it and to the extent they can't the markets themselves don't do very well. And in this period what has happened is and especially after in especially during 2017 and in the early parts of 2018 what you got was a whole system which operated on cash and operated in an informal marketing networks. So I am selling to you a thousand miles away. We do it over the telephone. Cash deliveries come to me through all sorts of other networks. Many of these networks simply broke down and contracts which had been contracted couldn't be carried out. And in any such situation what you get is a breakdown of trust and something which works by informal contracts and by trust cannot easily be replaced by paper saying you know this has to be delivered here there or everywhere. And I fear that much of the disruption which was caused continues. One thing you might notice if you look at agricultural prices at the moment for the last two and a half years is the extent to which divergences are occurring in many crops for most regions between the way rural prices are moving and urban prices are moving. By and large what we are observing is a much larger incidence of the rural prices of agricultural commodities coming down and urban prices going up. What does that mean? It means that the markets are actually being much more inefficient at what they should be. They should actually be able to take things from where prices are falling and put it where prices are rising because that's what makes you a profit and that's what markets are supposed to do. Now that is obviously not happening to the extent that it was happening even three years ago. And that is very clear thing that we see in the last two or three years and it's still not gone away. Even at this moment all this talk about onion prices and things and all the talk about a lot of other commodities you will find that the movements and prices are tilted rather than being smooth. So we have probably by trying to chase the idea of let's become more formal we are pushing an agenda without enough in terms of what it means and what replacements what should come in its place being there in practice. And one of the objectives behind this from what I've said is that bigger players want to actually get into where the smaller players are that process is yet to be complete also. Okay so we are in a situation where there are tensions go low and there are inefficiencies which have come in as a result and that's on top of as I said an agricultural system which has been battered a little bit by weather, battered somewhat by international prices, battered also by this movement towards the cash economy because the farmers too were actually a part of the cash economy theirs moving into things have involved some costs.


Hey what's up everybody in this video I want to talk about why the DJI Mavic Mini is the perfect gateway drone for me and now I'm already looking at other drones for next year and wanting to take the test to get my permit for bigger drones with better cameras and I'm going to tell you why this is a great drone. All right so I've been interested in drones for a long time but I've really held off. Last year about this time I came really really close to getting a Mavic Air did a lot of research looked at a spark and air at a pro other things I thought the air was about right. It came so close to pulling the trigger on one just wondered how much I would actually use it so around that time they implemented these new regulations here in the U.S. where you had to pass this test and get the certification in order to fly these drones they were over a certain weight limit so that really kind of turned me off to the whole thing. The last thing I need to do right now is study for some tests I've got lots of other stuff going on so I thought if I need a drone I'll just use some stock footage or I will hire one of my friends to do it that actually has a nicer drone but then they came out with this Mavic Mini and this thing is just under the weight limit and so it allows me to not have to take that test which is great. Once I saw that this came out I watched lots of reviews I thought well the footage is pretty good it's pretty limited right now in your video settings but DJI is usually pretty good about releasing new firmware after it's been out for a few months that enhances the functionality of their of their camera so I expect that after lots of people have this drone already that they will release this new firmware that will unlock the 24p that will unlock the the manual settings for the video that will maybe even unlock 4k abilities this really looks like the same camera that's on my Osmo pocket so I would be surprised if this couldn't actually do 4k inside I guess we'll find out so and the slow motion is pretty cool too it does 60 frames per second at HD so it's not quite the 120 frames per second that you get out of the pocket but like I said I suspect that they probably will release that maybe in January or so if I had to guess so I'm hopeful for that so overall this drone is great I've never really flown one before I was able to get up and flying in no time with the DJ fly app everything connected pretty well I do only have the one battery I probably will have to buy a few more batteries for it and I'm not gonna lie it is super nerve-wracking the first time you take it up to where you can barely see it anymore and it is up at the very top of its range I'm just at any moment I'm expecting it just to just zip and fly away and for it just to be gone so I'm just gonna have to get over that and just get used to flying it with the camera so that I can actually use it to its full potential so I'm sure that I'll get over that with some more experience and I will just trust the screen and trust the drone to stay in the air so overall I'm super excited about this drone I can't wait to get some more hours behind it and get some more experience to where I'm much more comfortable flying it around so I think I'll be making some more videos about this to show some of the cinematic qualities and I'll certainly involve it in some of my short films so I hope that this was helpful for someone out there to make a decision on whether or not this is the right drone for you certainly is for me I expect a lot of people to be getting this drone for Christmas and some new firmware updates will make it just perfect I think maybe a year from now or so I'll look at upgrading to a Mavic Air but this is perfect for me for now so thanks DJI for coming out with such a great drone for a great price at such a low weight so that I can fly it without having to take that test so I did a quick test as the sun was going down just to see what it would look like with the exposure here and as you can see it's it's pretty unusable this would be better obviously with some manual settings you could set the exposure for the ground and maybe use an ND filter or something for the sky so I've had this drone for three or four weeks now I haven't crashed it yet it hasn't flown away I have certainly lost connection with it a few times you know as it's been way up there but it's always come back and I'm getting much more comfortable with it now I think that I will experiment more over the next few weeks and hopefully make a few more videos so here's the point of the video where I say subscribe if you like this type of content you want to see more I make videos at least weekly if not more frequently than that so subscribe and you'll see some fun stuff


Hello everyone and welcome to my next cloud single sign-on for android talk here at the conference some of you might remember that i gave this talk two years ago and today i want to talk a little about about our experience and the journey we've took ever since and if the ideas that we had back in the days were actually working out so let's do a quick real cap of what was the issue that we tried to solve so for users if you want to get started using next cloud it would be you also want to set up different next cloud apps on your android phone and to do that you have to log in into each of those apps and they all have a different login dialogue different layout they ask you some questions about your setup which is quite a hassle to do and it takes a lot of time so a lot of users complained about this issue for developers if you want to get started with next cloud apps you have to implement the whole network stack you need to look into south sign certificate support proxies if next cloud is releasing a new login method for example the two-factor authentication you need to implement that as well at some point and there are many more issues that have went into detail in my talk from 2018 so feel free to check that out the solution we've came up with is the single sign on system which is a centralized login method so for users it's easy to log in into different kinds of apps into all next cloud apps which is a matter of three tabs as i'll show you just in a second and it will also handle network connections for you so as a developer you don't need to worry about implementing those login mechanisms or the south sign certificate supports etc the single sign on system also stores login data in a secure way for you so apps don't have direct access to your login data anymore and apps can only make requests to your next cloud server by using a token that they received from the single sign on system and what's new is that we've created a retrofit api that if you already have retrofit api specifications you can just switch over to the next cloud single sign on system and we'll be able to pick up those api specifications for retrofit so which apps are actually using it so on the play store right now we have three apps that are using the single sign on feature and they're already using it for almost two years now so it's the news app the deck app and the notes app and our users are loving it so far we hear great feedback from them that it's easy to log in now and that it makes fun to actually switch accounts and do other things with it let me show you how it works now so when you start the app for the first time it will show you a login screen where you have like one button which says like login using next cloud files app and if you click that button it will show you a list of all the accounts that you have installed or set up in your next cloud files app so then you can choose one of them and click on okay and then it will show you a dialogue asking you if you want to grant permission to that account for this specific app to access it and if you click on allow there will be a token exchange between those two apps so the next news app then will be able to to access your next cloud server so let's summarize our experience or what the reality looks like from the developer's perspective we didn't have to worry about login security and network related issues anymore because all of this is handled now by the next cloud single sign-on system and for all three apps that I've mentioned before we had very few issues reported on github about the single sign-on system so this was a huge benefit for us because our issues before that were that there were a lot of issues that were related to network and related issues or sales on certificates or all kinds of like network related stuff so this is all gone now and we we only had a very few issues on the single sign-on system from user's perspective it's it's not way easier to log into multiple apps because it's just a matter of three three tabs as you just saw the unified user experience is also a thing that you have in all the apps the login dialog looks the same and users are actually requesting other apps that don't use single sign-on yet to integrate it so users are also loving it so to get involved there's our content information here and the github page so a huge thanks to everyone that was involved especially to be a Stefan and Artur otherwise the project wouldn't be what it is today and we are still looking for developers to to check it out and to integrate it into your app so if you have any questions feel free to contact us and enjoy the conference


And thank you for allowing me to present in this academy. It's a unique opportunity to share our experience on the ground and my presentation will focus much more on the approach that Rwanda used to strengthen the HMIS through the HS2 and improve the data quality. So like other countries, many other countries, we went through the challenge of having the system that was really responding to the needs of the Ministry of Health and the system by that time in before 2020, 2000, the system was not a web-based system and I remember by that time the reporting rate was 60%. So imagine taking a decision on the 60% completeness so you can obviously see that the data is not representative. So that's when we started looking at a web-based system that could be able to improve the reporting processes but also improve the completeness. So in 2011, we started the process of reviewing our reporting form because we could have not managed to move to the web-based when we still have tools that were not harmonized. And secondly, we wanted to have one integrated reporting form and bringing up also the development of SOP to standardize the data collection to ensure that the methods and interpretation of indicators across the facilities the same. And also reducing the workload to the health facilities. So those were the major criterias that we used to review the reporting form. So in 2012, we launched the web-based system which was built on top of DHS-2 platform, DHS-2 and later in 2013, we developed different tools like indicator reference manual and others. But as soon as we started in 2011, we started with the standard operating procedures for data management and for data quality assurance. So in 2018, we kept on integrating other systems like case-based systems like ETB and others built on top of Tracker. Then in 2018, we kept on strengthening the system by integrating the dublature data quality apps and other packages. Then what we did was coming up with these tools before we even engage or bring the web-based system in place, which is the IT solution. So we developed the standard operating procedures for districts and health facilities that governs the data management and reporting, data verification and validations, and we also reviewed the data collection tools like patient files, registers and reporting forms. Then later, as I said, we also developed the indicator reference manual to ensure that everything is harmonized in terms of indicator definitions and interpretations and common errors in interpreting some of indicators. So that was not only what we did, it was also to bring in some accountability kind of, but also sharing the publication of a new statistical booklet and also promoting the information use. So you may ask yourself why it was very important to have these tools standardized and why SOP, developing these SOP. One is that we had any clear roles and responsibility at the facility level. I remember in 2011, we used to blame some of the facilities that they are not reporting. Then they could ask you who was supposed to do it. There was no clear roles and responsibility to know who is doing what at which level. Then another one was we identified that we have fragmentation of tools, many tools that some of them were repetitive. You can imagine that Andrew, you're writing Andrew in like 30 registers and you're repeating the same name. So we said, no, it's better to harmonize the tools and ensure that someone writes, if it's a case, you just write it once or two times, but not many times. And also systems, we had many systems that were fragmented, vertical ones. Then another gap that we had, this was that there was no standard data collection processes. So each facility used to just report the way they want. And this one was a gap. Another one was a clear definitions and many more. I will share these ones, then you can be able to read. So there was an agent needed to ensure that all of these are harmonized and standardized and we have like a standard operating procedure to ensure that everything is done in the same way. And the way we define our indicators and collecting them is the same way. So you can believe that when you are improving or harmonizing your processes in terms of data quality, this is what you do. So you are trying to move people from this workload that you can see that people are dragged into the data and they spend much time just to collect data and they spend much time to keep these papers. So when we share that ensuring data quality, what do we mean is ensuring that we reduce all these workloads to the health workers so that data collection is simplified in a way that it doesn't take a long time for the health workers. The SOP, what was the purpose of the SOP? The purpose of the SOP like data management standard operating procedure was to really clarify or highlight across the facility the procedure for data collection. What did you do when you are collecting the data and the procedure for data quality assurance? What do you do to ensure that the data you're collecting from the registers is the same as what you are reporting in the electronic system. So again, it was also to clarify on the health related records storage. Most of the time they used to ask us how long are we going to keep these facility registers. All of these were supposed to be clarified and also retention. Another one was data reporting, like putting in some timeline knowing that if you're reporting on a monthly basis, when do we say that data is reported on a time basis, when do we say that data is reported, not reported on time basis. So we have also the chapter on the data sharing and the access and then release, but also we have the analysis and dissemination. On analysis and the dissemination, we also added the key indicators that they have to analyze and measure their performance at facility level. So all above chapters, they really highlight the general principles when it comes to data management, then roles and responsibility. It means that if you have someone in charge of data management, what is what is the role of the data manager? What is the role of the chief nursing? What is the role of the clinical director ever enough to have a role? What is the role of the head of the facility? So when everything is really well defined, so from there you could be able to know who didn't do what he was supposed to do to ensure that data is reported on time. So we also devoted the data quality assessment SOP, which is kind of an operating procedure that you have four chapters that really highlight the introduction, why do we have this data quality assessment SOP, then the overview of the data quality assessment process, then the data quality assessment procedures and data validation, then again, there's something that we always don't consider when it comes to assessment, giving feedback, which is the important part and the briefing. So this SOP really defines well how you do the overall assessment, but in a way you give the feedback to the facility to ensure that they also consider the improvement on what you have identified as gaps. The SOP again highlights the appendices, like a final report template, we don't want people to invent, like example of notification letter, like if you are going to visit the facility, you don't have to write a letter, the letter is there, you only put the demo facility, then the correction form, in the case you want to do some correction to ensure that we track the logs, we have the correction form, then the routine data quality tool assessment or the tool. This was there before the data quality app, but now we are shifting towards the data quality app. Again the data quality app also focuses on the general principle, as I said, and they also define the roles and responsibilities of each staff to ensure that whoever is in the facility knows his role, then it details the procedures for each chapter. The idea is an example of what we have on the data quality standard operating procedure or data management. First of all, it defines the type of reports that we have, responsible person to ensure that that report is submitted, reporting level, is it central level, is it district, then time frame, is it immediate, like disease severance, is it monthly, is it daily, is it weekly, so everything is defined, then from there, you can see the table on my right that really defines the months, that it defines what they have to do. On 25th up to 30th, they have to ensure that they gather or register together and ensure that no register is missing, then first to 5th, they have to report into the system and the system tracks the reporting, the reported data up to 5th as the timely reporting. Then 5th to 15th, the system is open for any data correction, then 15th, the system automatically blocks the data set, so it means after 15th, they cannot report anything into the system. So at least this one gives them the discipline to ensure that on each provided time frame, they are really using it to maximize the process that is done at that time frame, then when they know that the data set will not be open for data to be entered at any time, they also make this business to be serious. So in SOPs and indicator refresh manual, we tried to make it flexible to ensure that it also tracks some common errors that someone can encounter, so we highlight them clearly on the reference manual and SOP also. As I said, we also use the packages to ensure that we simplify the way of data visualization and the more you want people to use the information and improve the data, you have to ensure that the tools they're using are simple to use and they are able to visualize the information that they want. So these are different programs that we have, modules so that we have in the system. There is a program related to routine clinical reports, case-based data, which is ETB, AP tracker, medical satisfaction cause of death. We have annual reports, we have daily first reports from the hospital that are used by the health sector to by the Ministry of Health to track the process, to track the daily update from the facility. We have disease surveillance, we have PBF performance-based financing, we have a COVID module into the DHHS2. Then regarding the mechanism, I think many people are really interested to see what are the mechanisms that we use to ensure that the data is of good quality. We have different mechanisms but I will highlight the major ones. The normal ones that we're all familiar with is the normal data quality checks where we have what we call ISS, integrated supportive supervision, that we jointly work with the development partners and we take data from HMIS and we go down to the facilities to check if what they reported into HMIS is exactly the same as what they have in the source of data. So this is a central level data checking which is ISS, integrated supportive supervision. We have also the program specific data checking where they bring the head of the hospitals together because each hospital at least has 12 health centers. So when they come together, they give them feedback on the data, then from there they are able to check their data. So we have also validation rules in the system. We also promote the information use, the analysis and feedback from the central level which is the HMIS team. Then we have this data set locking and approval. Then we have the performance based financing which also promotes the data quality. So we also have the accreditations. It means the performance best is that people are really, we have indicators on completeness and timeliness and these three indicators when all of them they are 100% that's when they have the scoring of the PBF which is performance based financing. Then accreditation is that most of them they struggle to ensure that they get on the certain level when it comes to accreditation. Then we have decentralized also data review which is the monthly data validation done by the facilities. So that one also is the additional part of the data review and an improvement of the data quality. So this is the example of the monthly data validation meetings from the facilities. You can see that they come together on monthly basis. Then they review the tools that they have if whatever tallies they made is exactly what is in the registers. You can see that my people here they are on the registers checking. You can see the other ones are just there. They are presenting the data that have been reported in the system to ensure that they validate before the data set is locked. Then here they are also checking if exactly what they put is the same as what they have in the source of data. So on the data use part we also have the coordination meetings. Coordination meetings is the monthly meetings that the district hospitals because you know at each district hospital they have the catchment area. So that catchment area comes together to to review what are the indicators to check if they are really on track. So at least these coordination meetings on monthly basis also promotes the information use. We have also the DHMT quarterly meetings that is done bringing together the overall district with each catchment area has facilities and they have selected people to attend. They also use it to present the health status on their catchment area. So all of this is towards to improve the information use but also it also contributes to the data quality. So not only that we also have at the central level we have senior management meeting that also looks that uses the data. We also have development partners that also look at data quality. All of that also contributes a lot on when it comes to quality data. So we also use the global tools like many other countries because you know these tools have really brought a huge change when it comes to data review and checking like the WHO data quality tool. It's a really a nice tool that we have institutionalized in our standard operating procedures and also trained our people to use it because it's a tool that can be able to show you the outliers and it can be able to show you the inconsistences alongside along your data when you try to analyze it as a trend. So this is the example of the WHO tool and some of the charts that we generate. So what we did is that we thank you Scott and Bob. We really worked with Scott and Bob to ensure that our teams in I mean in Rwanda they are trained to know how to use it and it was a collaboration between Universal Voslo, WHO and Minister of Health. So the tool for us to maximize its use we reviewed in 2012. We reviewed our standard operating procedures to accommodate some of the futures of the tool and to ensure that it's also part of our everyday life in the health facilities. So we not only that we've been working with the team I mean Scott and Bob and the Minister of Health team to ensure that we have the dashboards that are able to allow people to monitor their completeness at facility level to monitor the trend of the data over time and also this one is a way of simplifying the visualization of data on their fingertips. Not only that but also we whenever I present this people always ask me about sustainability to ensure that whoever we train is in place and nothing is compromised and we have like we have a continuity. I think as part of that's why I like these academies. The academy approach is really a best way it's a good framework to ensure that countries have their sustainability and they also have the continuity of these good interventions. Like in Rwanda we've been really hosting different academies before COVID even we've been attending different academies. So what we did was like having our people attending these kind of academies like Data Quality Academy then we used to maximize it like ensuring that at least at each program we have a maximum number of people that are able to customize the DHS2 that are able to configure the Data Quality app that are able to support the facilities. This one is also a motivation because you know even if one person leaves the ministry or the facility at least we are able to have someone that can be able to train the rest or can be able to replace other teams. So I could encourage countries to attend this kind of academies to gain skills because the more you attend academies the more you gain skills of new futures and the more you get some insight from the country's stories. Not only that we as we've been really implementing these good initiatives but we were also having some constraint when it comes to trainings and the problem was that we used to train because we have money of training but we are looking forward to see how could we train based on the needs from the ground not based on the funding available. So we thought about the e-learning and we thought let's come up with a way a remote way to train people because the more we have new futures the more we'll need to train people the more we see that we have gaps the more we need to train them. So we came up with e-learning that is now online previously we managed to train all health centers and district hospitals and district administration staff on the data quality processes and it was much more to ensure that the data quality app is well used. Then our slogan is that it's time to move learning to people instead of moving people to to learning. So you may ask what is the contribution of these the quality data or having the web based system in a place or not only having the web based system but also using the DHS2 because you know the more you have it updated you gain from many futures that can really improve your quality data your data quality but again also raise the confidence of policymakers to use your data. So most of the contribution is on the policy and the strategic decisions because you know we are lucky that we have one integrated case management formation system that collects all data so it makes it to be used and trustable and used in planning program planning and management resource management capacity building disease surveillance because even disease surveillance we are using DHS2 innovations and research and MRE. So even though I presented some interventions around data quality but we still have a long way to go because you know we are not where we want to be we still we are still promoting the information used because it's not at that level that we want and because you know now we are focusing at facility because you know at the central level it's good but it's much better if we keep pushing people to facilitate and district level to use data instead of us telling them that maybe malaria have increased we are promoting now another approach of having the information from them down to bottom up. So again we are really now installing different futures WHO futures to ensure that we really maximize the use of these packages because most of them they are developed based on the standards or the global standards and you know like because Rwanda is also part of the global standards so we are taking advantage of these global standards because most of them are being they have some experts that have been really concentrating to ensure that they bring together information that may really help and you countries may take advantage of what I like is that these packages are free and that makes us really to really play with them and use them to really improve what we are doing in the countries. Then definitely having these futures in place you have to consider building the capacity and these are the future plans that we have to ensure that at least we maintain what we have adopted adopted and implemented across the facilities. So as I said I wanted to show you I don't know other countries for Rwanda this is for Rwanda you can see that even though we have all those good interventions in place but we still have much more to do when it comes to analytical futures or favorite views you can see that most of the users they are using pivot tables and in the system we don't have only pivot tables we have dashboards the dashboard is the black one you can see is still down so we need to have people really using the dashboards visualizer which is the chart maps and others that really promote the information use so but we have already started this initiative with Universal Voslo finding out why people like to use pivot table than other futures that's why we can see that there are many futures that have been released based on the on the field feedback. So without taking long these are the links where I can share the link but on my point to have the link where you can be able to access all these tools the SOP the reporting form the metadata dictionary which is the indicator reference manual the annual statistical booklet that can be able to show you what we are reporting and the template the list of health facilities can also be found on the website. So thank you let's let's keep the beta information beta decision and beta health this is the end of my presentations you're welcome Scott to take over and guide us to the next step thank you. Great no thank you so much Andrew able to measure the data quality improvement or the data use improvement over time or how have you been able to monitor that? Okay thank you we first of all we we have different articles that I will share that manage to measure different indicators more specifically we've been working with partners in the health but also we have that assessment that we do which is the ISS when you look at the measurements you can see because we know we have the ranging of the score that when it's five percent we if the error is around zero to five percent that one is okay but if the error is above five percent that one means that we need to put much efforts to ensure that we reduce the the the the margin of error so when you look at the the results from the ground and the study that have been done you can see that the the data quality is pretty good when it comes to to our data that we collect from from Rwanda but again you know it's it's it depends on some indicators there are some indicators that when you take them those ones that are not much more used they may be lagging behind but the key indicators really have over 90 95 percent of quality. Great okay thank you a couple of additional questions what was the process that you all went through to develop these data quality standard operating procedures and and how have you been able to to implement them you talked a little bit about the remote training but maybe you just give a little bit more clarity on the standard operating procedures how they were developed and how you implement them in practice. I think it was my second that that is a good question first of all before you develop even the standard operating procedures you have to understand your gaps and you have to understand what you do you want to address remember that in 2011 it was the whole year of preparations so we've been really understanding the gaps that we had and we already had that the reporting rate was 60 percent so we wanted to improve the reporting rate and the completeness so from there we identified different gaps one was that the reason why people are not reporting is that they don't know the role and their responsibility so we said we need to come up with something that really defines what does Andrew have to do what does another person have to do what is it what is the synergy between them so all of that was also part of what we wanted to make sure that it's documented and the process of reporting so again we were also moving from a locally based system to a web based a locally based system was was a little bit tricky because by that time in 2011 before 2011 we were forced to go to each facility and install on individual computers but now it was a web based so we were also forced to ensure that whatever that will be accessible online is it used the same way is it standardized reporting is the same so that we because we didn't have time to go and really and really train them or mentor them at the facility I remember one time before 2011 there is one I always give this example there's one colleague of mine from one facility that you take eight hours of drive eight hours drive from that facility he came with like a flash drive with a backup that I have to restore in the server so at the time he was in in in the MOH I checked in the flash drive there was no backup in the who kept there so it was like the virus has really eaten the backup so the guy was forced to move again to the facility and come back again and go back again you can understand the time wasted by that time so from there at least when you have a web based system you are lucky but again you have to ensure that you have everything standardized regarding training our team we really did the because it was the first web based system that we had in the country regarding the health and management information system we were forced to really use the training of trainers which is the TOT and again use the training of trainers to ensure that we reach everyone in the country and we transmit the same message so that is what we did but maybe currently we have many ways that they can be done but that's how what we did so the SOP was much more to address the gaps to identify it and to ensure that we standardized everything regarding the data management very verification and others because even users used to ask us you are telling us to verify the data how then you could try to tell them do ABCD but your colleague could also say this different way to do it then when you go down to evaluate because we have the ISS what ISS does which is standard operating procedure it go no sorry ISS integrated supporting supervision what did they do they go down to assess what we documented in our SOP is it implemented so by that time that we used to go down and you are not able to see what to evaluate so we said no let's have a standard that we can even go down and evaluate if we say that people have to have a meeting once a month is it done they have to have a report documented is it documented those are kind of things that we wanted to have in place to have evidence based not a theory based I don't know if I answered your question no you did and I think that the clarification on how you actually go down and validate or verify what is actually the end the standard operating procedures is a really good critical step you know I think I'm from all of the case studies that have been presented I think hopefully one of the very clear messages is that standard operating procedures are absolutely necessary and you've even taken a step further by having a process to actually verify if the standard operating procedure is being followed so that's a I think that's really really interesting we have time for a couple more questions and they are coming in actually quite quickly now one question is they are curious on how data quality is done with the facility staff do you call them into one place is there a meeting you know just what is the standard operating procedure for the actual facility staff for them to conduct data quality checks thank you Scott that is a good question again so what we did we have two ways one is that we already have the data checks that is documented in our SOP which requires certain group of people like if it's a hospital we require the chief nursing the clinical director the data manager the M and E and some people in the services who records the data to come together and review the data before they report them into HMI and this one is done either before fifth because fifth is when we say that they have reported on timely basis but we give them at least 15 days it means from first to 15th they have to undergo that process so at least within those 15 days they have to sit down those key people I mentioned and I have even I've even shown the picture and the review reviewing means they bring the register and check if what they they really counted is the same as what they reported so but again after that meeting they have what you call coordination meeting the coordination meeting is the same as the previous meeting only that the previous meeting focuses on the quality of data checking if there's anything that you reported wrongly but the coordination meeting is the catchment area meeting where it brings together with the health center in that catchment area then what they do is that the M and E at the hospital presents the key indicators saying that for example that we had three maternal deaths maybe last month and the first month it was one maternal death then they may ask some people in the maternity why it happened then they have to explain then when they're explaining they take some actions those actions at least they may say we have to improve their case management in maternity we have to improve the way we treat the way we treat the mothers we have to ensure that the ambulance when they are going to transfer mother to their facility it doesn't take long those are the kind of actions those are the kind of discussion that they take discussion that they have then at the end of the day they take also actions at least those actions are on top of the real data that they took from the system again in the case they reported the wrong number you can understand that someone in the maternity will say no we didn't have four for maternal death we only had one so we I need to understand where three are coming from so those are kind of discussion that discussed but again it is one is just improving the quality of data the second one is improving both the information use which is the actions then again also checking if the what data says is what people think that they have they have they have in their services so I think that is what I could say that we have but again as you said Scott whatever that is written in SOP is evaluated after six months so each six months we go down which is the ISS integrated supportive supervision with development partners though then we check if they are really implementing what is written in SOP at least that one makes them to really make sure that whatever we have in the SOP is implemented and is used and also we ensure that the SOP also defines well those kind of meetings of data checks and what they have to check and who chairs the meeting if the person who chairs the misses knows around who replaces that person after the meeting where how is the you have seen that we have appendixes of the report the type of the report that they have to document what actions that I have to take how they have to conduct the next meeting by reviewing the previous actions those are things that we we manage to document well to ensure that is it also guides the facilities thank you great that's that's very very clear thank you Andrew we have time for one more question and I think the question is how what is your experience in sharing data with stakeholders maybe implementing partners NGOs how do you regulate the number of data managers in the system and and do you have any challenges with this yeah um that's a good question that is a discussion everywhere that I've really visited so for the for the facilities and district it's by default all of them they have to have access and we give them access it doesn't require anything because the data that they report is from their institutions but when it comes to development partners we also have this mandate of ensuring the development partners are also part of the process that we undergo so what we do is that we in in in HMIS we have a focal person that is assigned to each development partner that ensures that whatever request they you they need is shared with them so for them when like if today we have a new NGO that coming to support the health sector what do they do they just do a request they just do a request where you say that I will be needing this data to monitor our interventions so what we do we also respond back and say I mean the minister of emergency response I can say we will be giving you this data please contact this contact this focal person that will be ensuring that whatever data you need is on your disposal it doesn't take long when you're going through the processes so that's how we are doing it but currently we are not giving access to everyone to have access in the system we are ensuring that access in the system is limited but in a way that we are able to serve our our stakeholders by assigning the the the focal focal person but again without we are now developing the data warehouse which is the portal that will be making some of the data to be available to the partners but again we also have a mandate or obligations of ensuring that on a new basis we publish the statistical booklet that really highlights all key indicators that anyone a researcher or a a DP which is the partners can be able to use when they are reviewing their interventions thank you okay and that's sorry one last question here I think it's a good question one that I was wondering about myself is there any penalty or are there are there are in are there any rewards for actually following the SOPs or if they're not actually following the SOPs are there any penalties when you do the the the the actual like go into the field that which the ISS um that's another one so what we did was in linking together some of these mechanism or framework that we have accountability framework I think for us what we have in Rwanda is that each staff have what we call KPI key performance indicator like if Andrew working in the facility I have a key performance indicator and my key performance indicator is linked to my tour and what I have to deliver on daily basis so that's one and we have some uh some portion of the what we call pbf performance based financing that is linked to that to that to my KPI which is performance based financing but it's not only that we have managed to to link all those mechanism that really promotes the good quality data or reporting to different mechanism one is performance based financing where people are evaluated on quarterly basis based on different indicators like in data management for us we have like three indicators or I mean for data quality the completeness timelines and uh completeness and the accuracy all those three indicators are in performance based financing in the case one indicator is not well done you get is real so there's no tolerance so it means they have to make sure that all those key indicators uh reported and we really reported well so if it's timeliness you reported on time 100 percent if it's accuracy at least you are in a range of five percent if it's completeness you're on range of 100 percent then that's when you get 100 percent but if one of those is maybe 80 or 60 you'll get zero for everything so you mean it means you have to make sure that everything is 100 percent another thing is that um accreditation we have managed to link also with accreditation in accreditation when you they are trying to move facilities from level one to level two level three level four they also review these tools they have to check if you have SOP in place they have to check if you understand the chapters of SOP they have to see if you undergo the process of what SOP says they check different components but they also want to come to data management they check those areas at least that one when like me I mean facility A and I see that my components really made my facility to go in level two it is also a motivation another one is there with this way we are bringing the e-learning they've been telling us that we train them but we don't give them certificates now we are trying to keep the database that also highlights who we are trained in the specific period of time but also they get certificates so those are things that really motivate the facilities interlink frameworks that are in a place that motivates the facilities and as you go on people start having the attitude of doing it themselves maybe one time when you visit us you will see that when it comes to first and fix when you go to facility everyone will not will be telling you oh we are late to report they will be really rushing to ensure that you report on time and they ensure that everything is really accurate because you know on a quarterly basis and six months they have a team of people that will go down to check if what they reported is the same as what they have and another thing is that after the ISS which is integrated supportive supervision the report is the feedback is submitted officially is the minister who signs the feedback it means imagine if I'm Andrew and I see the letter of the minister saying that my department is not performing well so they really make sure that the feedback comes when it's positive instead of coming when it's negative and another thing is that we don't only report what they have done specifically we also get the general feedback that can improve the system so we say generally we are fine that people don't conduct maybe data validation meetings so it becomes like a general feedback that one also improves because you get your specific feedback but I guess so you get the general feedback to that we have found everywhere but at least you make sure that the next time it's not also you who is going to be highlighted in the report so I think those are the key things we have other steps like development partners in their in their in their support area they also conduct the self checks to ensure that people understand how to check these data we have districts that supervises lower levels we have lower levels the district hospitals that supervises the health centers and all of this is also documented in SOP and we also go down and check if the hospitals really supervise their health centers all those mechanisms that brings in the supervision accountability roles and responsibility contributes a lot when it comes to data quality that's probable that is the best way to end the entire academy andrew you actually have the honor of being the very last presentation in the in the entire academy and I think this is a really great one to end it on


Go ahead sir. Layton ready sir? Layton ready. Layton ready. Do I have a max order and a gun target? We do indeed. Max order. 2694. Meters feet. Meters of feet. Feet. MSL? MSL. MSL. Fire 3075.


For the last two weeks massive mobilizations have been taking place across Panama against the high cost of living marked by an escalating economic crisis. The protests began on July 1st after the government showed no interest in addressing the issue or meeting with activists for negotiations to solve the crisis. Panamanian social movements and trade unions from across diverse sectors with Panamanian society including the National Front for the Defense of Economic and Social Rights Frenadezo and the single union of construction workers Sundraks came together under the banner of People United for Life Alliance. The alliance has presented the national government with a list of 32 demands that address the grave economic, political and social crises in the country. We found the workers, the students, the peasants, the educators, manifesting them on the street, the people are on the street demanding their right to vote, affordable water, decent employment, the high cost of life, the insumption of the family basic canal and freezing, also the mafia that exists with pharmaceuticals, nito cortizo, gobierno neoliberal y represor. Estamos en contra de este gobierno y vamos a seguir luchando firme en la calle hasta el triunfo final porque no vamos a soltar la calle hasta que esto se resuelva. Despite heavy repression, the protests have seen broad participation from people across Panamanian society such as workers, fisherfolk, indigenous communities, students, educators and civilians. They have been organizing demonstrations, staging blockades and marching in major cities. After 10 days of protests, the government on July 11th finally agreed to negotiate with the representatives of the United People for Life Alliance in order to end the protests. Following the meeting, President Cortizo announced the price of fuel would be frozen at $3.95 per gallon and declared that he would take measures to stop the increase of prices of essential commodities. The measures were deemed insufficient by the People's Alliance. They rejected his offer and called on citizens to organize in large numbers and continue the struggle.


Item No. SCP-3143 Object Class Euclid Special Containment Procedures Attempts to contain SCP-3143 are ongoing. A Foundation-operated bot, IO-ISMETA, is to monitor online fiction communities for signs of its emergence. When found, an authorized member of the Pataphysics Department is to be assigned to deconstruct it. MTF IO-10, Damn Fred's, is to investigate any leads regarding possible locations of SCP-3143A. If found, he is to be apprehended and taken into a Foundation custody. Description SCP-3143 is an intrafictional construct. When active, this construct exhibits the ability to temporarily flatten portions of reality into a script-like narrative. This narrative is derivative of the genre established by North American writers of hard-boiled and noir fiction. During this period, SCP-3143 takes on the role of the main character, a 1930s private detective hired to solve a case. All entities flattened by its effect become characters within the narrative surrounding it, exhibiting personalities and attributes typical of the genre style. The narrative will continue until SCP-3143's actions lead to a resolution consistent within the genre. At this point, the narrative will conclude and reality will revert. Events which occurred within the narrative will be projected onto reality. However, entities involved in these events will typically have no recollection of what occurred. SCP-3143 was first noted in 2005 in the aftermath of a containment breach at Site 95. In 2012, the Foundation's Pataphysics Department worked alongside the Department of Analytics to make contact with and apprehend SCP-3143. SCP-3143-A is Murphy Lawdon, SCP-3143's author. Addendum-3143.1 Interview Logs Interview Log Date ██-02-2012 Interview Dr. Thaum Subject SCP-3143 SCP-3143-A Note, Dr. Thaddeus Thaum is part of the Pataphysics Department. He has a degree in English Literature and specializes in the analysis of fiction. Fade In International Murphy Law Detective Agency Night A light-skinned man sits alone in his office. A blade of moonlight cuts across his face. This trademark trill he had is tossed thoughtlessly across his desk. A bent cigarette is nearby, left smoldering in an ashtray. His shirt is stained with blood, some of it might even be his own.  His name is Murphy Law, and if you think his number is up then you haven't been counting. It's the sort of man you pray for when you need him and the sort you curse when you don't.  That there's one thing the Foundation is good at, it's tying up loose ends. I knew it was just a matter of time before the lab coach tried to shove me in a box. The door to the office flies open, an old man in a lab coat enters, he's got a scowl so deep it's been carved down into the bone. This is Dr. Thom, and he's here to get to the bottom of this, no matter what the cost. But if they wanted to contain me, they were going to need a bigger box. Hello SCP-3143, how are you doing today? He wanted answers, I just want it out. Murphy finishes the shot of bourbon and levels his pistol in Dr. Thom's chest. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't be able to let you right now, doc. Dr. Thom raises an eyebrow, folding his arms across his chest. Because you can't. If he thought he didn't have the boxy to plug him full of lead, then he had another thing coming, specifically a whole lot of lead. You do know that I can hear you narrating, right?  Something wasn't right.  Specifically you flatten into a movie script that mimics crime fiction and hard boiled noir. This wasn't... What? And let's be honest, it's not even proper noir. The defining element of the style is the anti-hero. The character with no prospects trapped in a world with no future, but after reviewing your file, I can see that you don't qualify. I don't qualify. Your narrative is heroic and simple, with clear villains and heroes. In the end the day is saved without consequence, that's not hard boiled, it's certainly not noir.  Where... Where are we? What's happening? You rely on the tropes of noir, outwardly rejecting the notion of appearances and style while secretly embracing them, engaging in a hyper-masculine narrative based around the midst of the frontier, only projected in an urban environment. Well, what is this? But you fail to faithfully replicate their complex, dense settings where moral action is all but impossible.  You are, in a sense, merely parodying it, an unintentional satire, if you will. What's going on? And on top of it all, your name is based on an absurdly contri-pun. What are you doing? I'm deconstructing you, SCP-3143. I am CONTAINING you. I don't understand. I'd like to speak with the author, please. Mr. Lawden, are you there? How? Hello, SCP-3143-A? Where am I? Who am I? You are Murphy Lawden, a retired shoe salesman from New Jersey. You live alone, save for your two cats. I am- Oh, God, how did I get here? We believe you accidentally created an intrafictional construct. Do you ever call a screenplay of yours? It always rains? I think so, I don't- Oh, God. I think we've done enough for today, Mr. Lawden. I'll give you a chance to rest and settle in. We can continue this interview later, if that's alright with you. I- Yeah, uh, okay, okay, okay. I need to gather my thoughts. Of course. End log. Interview log. Date, February 3rd, 2012. Interviewer, Dr. Thomm. Subject, SCP-3143-A. Begin log. How are you feeling today, Mr. Lawden? Um, a little better, I think. Still confused. Good. I understand this must all be quite bewildering. So I've just been trapped all this time, narrating or writing an ongoing story. My memory of all this is so foggy. Something like that, yes. We've found an unfinished copy of your script. It always rains. That's how we determine who you were. God, I remember that. It was, yeah, I wanted to write, um, write a story or something, I think. Something like what I read as a little kid. Somehow you managed to bring the narrative to life, literally. You became the main character, in a sense. Right, so, if it's alright with you, I'd like to ask you a couple questions. Okay, but, uh, can I ask you something first? Of course. You read the script, right? Yes, it was required as part of my preparation for this assignment. Did you, uh, did you think it was any good? Uh… Do you want a frank assessment, Mr. Lawden? Sure? It was fairly awful. Oh. Now, moving on. Is it okay if we do this later? I think I have a headache. Look, I'm sorry, it's just that I… No, it's alright, Mr. Lawden. You've been through a lot. Take whatever time you need. End log. Interview log. April 16, 2012. Interview Dr. Thomm. Subject. SCP-3143-A. Begin log. Good morning, Mr. Lawden. Ugh. I see from your charge you haven't been eating. Do you want to talk about that? Not really. I've also been informed you've been trying to write more fiction about SCP-3143. Until you took my pencils away. Mr. Lawden, that was for your own safety. Until we understand how the anomaly occurred, we can't allow you to…   I didn't say that. But you were thinking it weren't you.  Why did you have to stop the story? What was the problem? He was helping people. It was fun. That's not the point. We can't have anomalies running around in. And what? Telling stories you don't like? Stories that aren't yours? Stories that aren't… excuse me?  We both know what's going on here. I'm not sure what you're insinuating. You use a veneer of objectivity to try and create a sense of distance of detachment to make the incredible seem credible. Wait, what? You cloak yourself in the outward trappings of science, the terms, the titles, the interview logs. All in some desperate contrived attempt to make it sound a little more reasonable, a little more respectable, a little more plausible. Wait, where are you… stop, stop, you can't. Also, you can convince him to buy into your little story, but at the end of the day, what does all amount to, Doc? Just one more gimmick, one more swindle, one more way to play the same con. How? This isn't ID-constructed, you can't… When it comes right down to it, me, them, hell, even you, we're all just characters in that trashy dime store novel called Life. Murphy grabs Dr. Thon by the collar, pulling him close. Sorry to break it to you, Doc, but you're just a spooky ghost story dressed up in a lab coat, glasses, and a funny little accent. Murphy throws him aside. But if you're lucky and play your cards just right, maybe you'll find a way to write your own story. Murphy pauses with a light of cigarette. Not me, though, I'm no author. Murphy walks towards the exit. I'm Murphy Law. Dr. Thon struggles to get up, grasping at the edge of the table. As he does, he sees a copy of the interview log on the desk in front of him. The log contains this complete text with one notable addition at the very bottom. I'm just the guy you call when everything that could go wrong did. The camera zooms in down to the bottom of the interview log. End Log Warning. The following file is level 4-31-43 classified. Any attempt to access this file without level 4-31-43 authorization will be logged and will lead to immediate disciplinary action. Date, March 15, 2012. From Site Director August, to O5 Secretary, Subject, SCP-3143. My thoughts? It might not have worked, but this was nevertheless an excellent test run for Dr. Thon and the Patificates Department. I recommend we keep them on the books. They might come in handy, particularly in regards to developing allegorical and metafictional countermeasures. Besides, it's not like a fictitious department with fictitious employees have a costly upkeep. Otherwise, leave the article as is. It might contain several inconsistencies, the fact that neither Murphy law did nor it always rains actually exists being the most glaring, but further edits could invite unwanted attention from SCP-3143. On that note, let's leave SCP-3143 alone for a while. Yes, we've learned quite a bit about him, but he's also learned quite a bit about us. Until we know precisely how his abilities work, further efforts to contain him could be dangerous. I'm particularly concerned with what he said during the final interview. It sounds like he thanks for all just as fictitious as he is. On a final note, SCP-4233 is currently missing. I'm concerned it might have something to do with a little experiment.  Site Director August Dr. Dom, played by Thaddeus Dom. Site Director August, played by Jeremiah August. MTF Iota 10, played by Fred. And Murphy Law, played by himself. With special thanks to the pedophysics department. Look for Thaddeus Dom to return in. Never met a fictional character I didn't like. The End