Hello and welcome to collaborative annotation of OER texts, a tool for student learning and OER sustainability. I'm Anna Mills, I teach English at College of Marin. I'm the English discipline lead for the OER initiative of the California Community Colleges and author of an OER textbook how arguments work. So this talk comes out of my experience assigning collaborative annotation of my OER textbook for three semesters. And before that I assigned collaborative annotation of other kinds of readings, and I led periodic trainings in my department where we explored best practices for annotation assignments. So collaborative annotation is becoming increasingly popular as a pedagogical practice. It's also called social annotation. It basically means that students are not just commenting on a text in the margins but they're also seeing each other's comments, and they're able to reply to other students comments and questions. It's a lot like commenting in Word or Google Docs, but it's social, and it can extend to other file formats. The two most common platforms for social annotation are hypothesis and perusal. More about those later. So I think it's key to note that this is a practice that just isn't possible with commercial textbooks for the most part. They don't want to give direct access through the web or allow for downloads of PDFs of their textbooks. And so the only way would be to sort of pay an additional fee through perusal to buy the textbook through them. But it's always possible with OER textbooks. So the combination is a fantastic one. It means that student encounters with our textbooks are active, social and fruitful in many ways. So some leaders in this field are Robin DeRosa, director of the Open Learning and Teaching Collaborative at Plymouth State University. She developed a textbook with her students using hypothesis annotation as a major tool for the project, and she has written about it and spoken about it. And she has a great phrase saying that collaborative annotation allows OER text to become living organic places. Another leader is Remy Khalir, professor of learning design and technology at the University of Colorado Denver School of Education. And he's done a lot of research into annotation just published a book on annotation. He has developed and promoted the marginal syllabus project, which is about inviting students to annotate our syllabi and has been very involved with hypothesis as a scholar in residence. And I'm inspired by both of these leaders as I explore this field. So, some of the benefits of annotation, specifically collaborative or social annotation are that it supports comprehension directly because students can be referencing each other's responses to the text to help them understand it. And they're also drawn to reexamine the text and reread because the comments are appearing right next to it. That's different from a discussion forum. Students will often test their understanding by suggesting examples from the textbook as a student did here. Trying out the concept from my argument textbook with an example. And then I was able to respond and say yes, exactly. I think the social component is very powerful because it helps students who are less comfortable speaking in class still engage socially with the other students. And there's a similar feel to social media here. So a little different from a discussion forum again. If you're annotating, it's, it's just a brief comment it feels a little less formal. And students have called hypothesis a literary Facebook. I have found that perusal also feels a lot like social annotation, particularly because there are hashtags and mentions. So it's a very comfortable platform for students and familiar in that way. So that is also helps to support an equity centered pedagogy. Because making reading social allows students who have similar identity specific reactions to the material to bond and support each other and see their experience reflected right next to the text, rather than feeling separate from or alienated from it. So, and part of that is the power dynamic, because the annotation is happening right next to the text, alongside it, it's sort of visual evidence that the text is not the only authority. The students are speaking back to it. And here's an example where a student responded to another student that mentioned Spanglish. And you know she really elaborated on her Mexican heritage and the kind of slang that's used in Mexico City. And you know the differences among different kinds of regional Spanish to reflect on code switching. And so she really made this topic her own. And I think that students feel really validated on are much more likely to speak in class when I'm inviting them to elaborate on something they've already written about in the annotations. So I'll say, oh, let's see, I mentioned that topic, I think in the annotation. She was talking about this, did you want to elaborate.  And I think that's especially beneficial for struggling and less confident learners. Here's an example where a student reassures another student about her English fluency. There's an exchange between non-native speakers and sharing a sense of embarrassment and a sense of, you know, how much they want to learn standard English. And another student who is a native speaker is responding and reassuring one of them that her English is fine. So I think as I mentioned, by highlighting student voices right alongside the text, there's a shift in the power dynamic. So I think this is really helping to democratize learning. It sends a powerful message about the value of the students' words and the relevance of the students' words. And that's a segue into how it supports open pedagogy because the whole idea of open pedagogy is that we're inviting students to become collaborators in shaping OER materials. And so we can see student annotations as part of that collaboration, as part of a process of revising and improving an OER textbook. And I think that that's not just a benefit for the quality of the OER text, but it's also a chance to model our openness to revision and collaboration as fundamental values of academia and to show students that they are invited into that collaboration and to show them respect as our partners. For example, you know, we can see where students are confused in the annotations and we can tie that directly to a specific line in the text that they have highlighted. And there's a very organic dynamic of seeing the student comment of confusion and just wanting to respond informally as a teacher. And I think that that can be a great first step for us as OER authors to generate ideas for revision. So here's an example where a student's question makes me think of a point I can add. To clarify what a particular fallacy is. And, and you can see in the annotation I have a few sentences that could then maybe become the basis for a draft of a revision. A couple of students were confused about inductive and deductive arguments and that was a good flag for me to say, I need to revise this section. I know that, like thank you because I think I need to revise this. Here I realized, oh the student was actually surprised by this idea so maybe it makes sense to highlight it a bit more and add an example of it. And I think you know as a textbook author I'm constantly thinking, well what kind of example would be interesting to students here or what would seem relevant, timely, compelling, constantly wondering that, right. And so student annotations are a space where we can sort of find out what is interesting to them, and maybe they can make suggestions for the kinds of examples they want to see. So how does this work in practice. Let's look at a little introduction to how to set this up for a course. So, the first step would be to choose which platform you want to use for collaborative annotation and consider whether it's important to you to sync this annotation system to your learning management system. So the platforms that I have seen people use our hypothesis perusal and also Google Drive or Google Docs. So that first option. The benefit is that you don't need to create a new account or get used to a new platform and students also don't need to. It's a very common procedure in many fields to create a doc or upload a PDF enable commenting and share a link with students so immediately available as a as a way to try this out. The cons are that it's not too easy to track student participation. So I think it's important for manually logging each comment, and if you've assigned multiple comments this can quickly get unwieldy. I have known of teachers to ask students to log their own participation on an honor system. But I think either is that concern about a large number of comments. It's critical to sort of sort through them and connect them to the text and process all of them. So, the hypothesis annotation platform is another option. There are some quotes here from the hypothesis website. Their ambition is to create a conversation layer over the entire web that works everywhere. They're committed to making their own software open source. And they're committed in principle to making as much content as possible free open free and open. So it can be used really for many purposes across the web for private groups professional development, or for public annotations of any web page. You can use your plug plug in available. If you want to use it to annotate web pages and public annotations are automatically licensed CC zero. You can create an account at web that hypothesis hypothesis. There's a dot before the is. So we have to we are platforms. There's a lot of other platforms and Libre text that have already partnered to allow for integrated use of hypothesis alongside their textbooks without installation of any additional software or plugins or anything like that. So if you wanted to try that if you're using a book with Libre text or press books. You just need to look for this very, very small little arrow at the top right of each page of every Libre text textbook and click it. You will see a pane on the right for annotations just like this and it's very similar in press books. You just need to make sure that the hypothesis plug in is activated in your book in press books. Now if you're using hypothesis you probably want to create a private group for your class so that they're not required to post publicly to the entire web. They would then need to create a hypothesis account and join that private group. You can give them a link to join. You still do need to log their participation manually, or have them log it themselves. If you've set it up this way, but one nice feature is that then in your hypothesis account you can go in and see who the members are of that private group you created for your class and how many posts each person has made, and you can sort of go through by looking then and see what they've done. So here's what the hypothesis annotation pane looks like in Libre text. Next to a Libre text page. You can see they're using hashtags there. Alternately, we have the perusal platform. Perusal has sort of a built in class setup that does allow for creating and tracking assignments. So it does facilitate grading, even when you're not syncing it with a learning management system. You would create a class on perusal.com and students would create accounts and join the class with a code. And then also they would have privacy in terms of only class members being able to see their annotations. There has been some concern about perusal and surveillance. You just want to take note of the scoring options in perusal, which ones are turned off which ones are turned on and how you feel about that and their policies. So options do check how long a student spends on reading, whether they go through the whole document or not, and there are some other measures of active engagement. It's not totally clear what is being measured there. One point that I've seen made on Twitter is that those algorithms may be unfair to students who are printing out the text to read it and then going back later to annotate digitally. They may be spending more time reading than the software detects. That said, the automated scoring options in perusal, even when you turn off these surveillance features, do allow for automated credit for annotations. And that allows teachers to focus on sort of enjoying and responding to the comments rather than logging participation. This is a course landing page in perusal listing assignments in the middle and telling me when I have new conversations, new posts to read for a specific reading that I've assigned. And this is the start of a textbook chapter in perusal. And you can see all the student comments, little previews of them on the right. They also, it also tags which ones are questions. And students have a lot of options for the annotation, including video audio links, emojis, and mentions of other students. So, if you do want to explore integrating your annotation system with your learning management system, that is possible in both hypothesis and perusal and it does streamline the assessment process. If you want to give credit for annotating as a homework assignment. It's free. So hypothesis is very generous about offering free institutional trials. But they do have a subscription model. So the institution would subscribe to to use hypothesis as an app within canvas, or another learning management system. Not an additional cost to students, however. If perusal is free to institutions, their model is that students pay if the instructor assigns a commercial book. So, annotating OER texts is free, whether they're PDFs or web pages. One of the first steps to get this going would be to work with your IT department because they will want to check hypothesis or perusal before installing it. They will want to assess it for privacy, security and accessibility concerns, most likely. They will want to ask for permission. It is possible to install it, either one individually as an app in your course, depending on the setup of your learning management system it may be possible. You can reach out directly to hypothesis or perusal to get that started. Once you have permission from your IT department. Once you have that setup in your learning management system, you're going to be adding assignments as you normally would in your LMS and then choosing in canvas you choose for submission type external tool, and then you would choose hypothesis or perusal. With hypothesis, you choose a file or website to annotate, and then you're using your learning management system grading feature speed grader to go through those annotations. However, with perusal you have a parallel course set up in the perusal system, and you have a parallel assignment with the same name as your canvas assignment. However, the grades do sync back to the canvas grade book. While both platforms can work with PDFs or public web pages. I have found that perusal seems to work better with PDFs. So you may want to download PDFs from your OER text and upload them to perusal. Okay. So, I have offered a set of resources for setting up either of those platforms through any of the methods that I've just gone over. I access these links through the presentation slides themselves. And also I have a set of resources for thinking about annotation for open pedagogy, including works by Robin DeRosa and Remy Khalir. And my own project, which is a student contribution contest where students submit their annotations to the contest. And the annotations then become a part of the revision process for the textbook. So I would love to receive any questions or comments about this presentation. You can find me on Twitter at English OER, or you can email me. ARmillsatmarin.edu and I wanted to thank the students who generously allowed me to share their annotations as part of this presentation. Thank you so much and I hope this is helpful.


In total I would say it is about helping in the not only just in the production and productivity of agriculture but in more importantly in the sustainability of agriculture in this country. And how will the cooperation between the CG centres work in this initiative? Each and every CG centre that is represented here has something to offer, whether it's crop varieties, whether it's crop management techniques and the understanding here is that no one institution can do it alone because the agricultural system particularly in this part of the continent is very very much complex so this complex situation needs requires a complex approach and that's why we are all here to exchange ideas, to provide our experience, what kind of experience do we have in different projects so there is I think it's a good start I would say. And so far what has struck you in this workshop so far? The cultural change and at least the direction the CG centres are taking is a very encouraging thing you know. Five, ten, twenty years ago you would have never thought of me as a representative of another institution coming and dealing with an entirely different institution. It would have been, you know, every on one side, across the other, cement on the other and all the way but these things are now changing and it's a good start and I think a harbinger of something that is good is going to happen out of this project.


Hello. Good day to everyone. Hello, everyone. What are you doing? Oh, Cathy. Is Elf Cathy frozen? Oh, no. You're having troubles. Anyways, welcome to everyone who are here live and in the chat and those who are watching this after the fact. Oh, now she's waiting. Cathy, you might have connection problems there, but anyways, if you drop out and come back in, I'll let you back into the room. Anyways, welcome to everyone and happy first day of Elfness. This is December 26th and it's the first day of Elfness, the 12 days of Elfness. Celebrating that here on WikiTree for the next 12 days. And so if this is your first time ever watching a WikiTree video, welcome and that's an interesting place to start. But WikiTree is a free genealogy website where genealogists collaborate and there's amateur genealogists like myself, some retirees, some people who work full-time and then also do genealogy on the side and they're professional genealogists and we all work together and collaborate on one world tree. And this for the two weeks between starting last Saturday and going for two solid weeks, we have a special project called the WikiTree Secret Santa. And so the 12 days of Elfness will be revealing one wish that a fantastic Secret Santa WikiTree Elf has granted to one of their fellow WikiTrees. And we actually have one of those elves with us. Margaret was one of the first ones to solve and so we are going to highlight one of the wishes. Now we actually have more than just one wish solved already and we're only three days into the project to the challenge. What's the count right now Christine? The last count I had was I think 13 but we're probably more than that because I didn't update it yesterday was Christmas. Okay, wow. So we are going to reveal all of the wishes and all the things on the final day, the 12th day of Elfness which will be on January the 6th 2024 next year. On a Saturday, the normal time when we would do the Saturday live cast which it was 10 a.m. Eastern time or 3 p.m. UTC. So join us for that and you'll see all of the wishes that have been solved and revealed then. But we're highlighting one wish per day during the 12 days. And for the first day, let me lead on into. On the first day of Elfness a kind elf gave to me, a dad's family on WikiTree. So with that Margaret solved a wish and she provided a dad's family to someone. So Christine can you share with us what that wish was? Yes. So one of our WikiTrees, Lisa Murphy, had submitted a wish for everybody else who's following along. It's wish number 24. She said, I'm very hopeful that Santa or his helpers can help me find more and extend the family for Sarah Melissa Winchell and her husband Christopher Lorenzo Horning. This has been a nightmare of a brick wall. Thanks in advance for even trying. That's great. Yes. So yeah, I had it up here. So let me share my screen and I will show you quickly what Margaret was able to do. And then I'm going to turn over to Margaret to share. So there we go. So here we are the first day of Elfness. There's a little jingle in case you want to write it down so you can sing along with me in future days. And there's the wish. And Elf Margaret here was able to extend the family of Christopher Horning. So he was the dad of nine children and added his parents, brothers and sisters and some spouses and nieces and nephews. So let me just show you what that looks like on the family tree. So here is Christopher and his wife, Sarah. And the wish was for her to extend one of the, at least one of them. And Margaret's going to talk. She's actually done some work on Sarah's side as well. But we're going to focus on the Christopher side. So the dad of the family, she added his parents. And then she added his siblings. So along with their spouses. So oldest sibling, Anna Maria, then Jeremiah. And then he had two younger siblings, Nelson and Eli. And Nelson and Eli, she filled out not only their spouses, but two kids each. So that's a lot of work, a lot of profiles added there. And that's a nice addition for that dad's family. So thank you very much for doing that, Margaret. And why don't you share what you did and how you got that? Because I think as genealogists, everyone who's there in the chat will be curious. Well, okay, I'm going to share my screen with you. Okay. So I apologize. That's okay. Margaret, unlike me who has a laptop and two extra monitors, Margaret has to do everything on one single screen. And that's hard to do. I've had to do that before. And it's very restrictive. Only working on single screen. There we go. Okay, here is William Horning's profile. Well, let me get to his son Christopher. Here is Christopher's profile. And you can see he was born in 1824 in New York. And New York's a fairly big state, but there was some clues and some hints here. I could see that in the 1850 census, he was living in Alabama, Genesee, New York. And I thought, well, I wonder if he has any horning relatives in the near vicinity. So I pulled up the 1850 census and tried to determine, I was going to look 10 pages before and 10 pages after to see if I could find any other hornings in this county. Well, on the exact same page as Christopher lived an older man named William 50 years of age. And then I noticed that there was another young man, I believe it was Jeremiah, and his family also lived on that same page. So I thought, oh, that's that's pretty interesting that here's this man, the right age to be Christopher's dad, and possibly a brother. So I decided that I would focus on this William age 50. The first thing I did was I looked in wiki tree to see if he was already on wiki tree, and he was. He was an unsourced profile and he had, again, he was an unsourced profile and he didn't have a profile manager. So I adopted him and immediately started working on him. I don't know much about New York research. So I went to Family Search wiki just to see kind of what was available for New York. And then I also went to Ancestry to see what records they had for New York. And I quickly found out that for Genesee County where these people were living in 1850 had lots of records. And so on the Family Search when I pulled up New York records, this is what they had for probate. It was every county. And here's Genesee. Okay, so Margaret, we're still only seeing the page that says William Horning. You're seeing William. Okay. Yeah. So if you show your entire screen, we'll see or just share the different tab that you're pointing to. That'd be great. Yeah. Well, maybe I'll just talk through it. Okay. It's hard to navigate. This is Margaret's first time on the live cast. I was so impressed that, you know, this rant, you know, that she accepted the invite. So keep on going, Margaret. You're doing well. I'll just talk about it a little bit then. But I did go to Family Search. I think most people that are elves are familiar with Family Search. And I went to records and I hit New York. And so when I pulled up the New York records for Genesee County, I realized for probate records, they had a tremendous amount. And the very first record at the very top was probate records for the around the 1850, 60 time frame. So I looked through that and they did have an index at the front. And I quickly found this William Horning. And I looked at it and I would like for if you can to go to the profile and look at it because I did put a picture on the profile. These records are not like Genesee records or Alabama records. These are fabulous records on the probate where they are announcing his death. It actually gives his date of death and it gives the place of death. And then I scrolled down and I noticed it gave his heirs. And one of his heirs was Lorenzo Horning of, I can't pronounce that word in Michigan, but anyway, it named him in the state of Michigan in that county. And I was like, here he is. There he is. Can it be that easy? No. And so there he was. And so then I went back and it had his other siblings listed on that same probate record. Now, Wim didn't have a will. He only has a probate record, but it has so much valuable information. So with that information, I went back and I was able to discern who the other children were. And I started working them out. And I went ahead and connected this profile instead of doing it on a space page because, A, Wim already had a page on WikiTree and I just adopted it and I completed it. And I don't know where I'm going to be on January 6. I could be deceased or anything. So I just went ahead and connected this. Oh, you never know, you know, I could be anywhere. And I want to be sure that the profile got connected to his son because, you know, he's the same name. And the really cool thing about this was I started studying where these folks are buried. And if you pull up this profile, I created a cemetery for this family, Alabama Cemetery in Alabama, Genesee, New York. And as I started connecting these people with their find a grave memorials, I've got a nice little group of people that this Lisa, she can come back to and probably look at that and see her connection to all these people that I added to that cemetery because they're all related to the horning family. So I thought that was pretty cool. That's another one thing I like about wiki tree is when you are doing, I do big research, I don't ever just research a person, I tend to research communities and groups of people. So as I started researching this group of people, they're all in this one little cemetery. So that's how I found Lorenzo or Christopher Lorenzo's dad and mom because his mom is there too, Magdalena. And again, she already had a profile. She already had a surname. I just adopted her and connected her to Christopher also. Nice. So that's pretty cool. We gave dad a dad and a mom. That's great work, Margaret. That's fantastic. Excellent. Well, thank you so much. Wow. Christine, Kathy, do you have any questions or comments you'd like to ask Margaret? Does Margaret want to talk about his wife? I can. Her name is, I think, Sarah Jessie. And I forgotten her last name. I apologize for that. But anyway, she, I started looking for her parents. Lisa has a dad connected to her and Lisa may be a thousand percent right on who the dad is that's connected. But I didn't just see that right off the bat. So I used my same methodology that I used on William to see if I could find who I thought might be the dad. And so, and I haven't connected this family because again, that's up to Lisa, if she wants to review the research and decide which one is the correct dad. But I found a guy named Samuel L. Wichell. And I really liked Samuel. I've kind of fallen in love with him. He, from 1840 through 1850, he lives kind of guess, guess who he lives next door to? Oh, he lives right next door to the Horning family. Nice. And so he's like in 1840 census, I think he's two pages away. And he's always a couple of pages away, but definitely in Alabama, Genesee County, New York. And his family is basically from Montgomery County, I believe in New York. That's all in Western New York. But anyway, so they were all right there. And I started filling them out. And I can't remember, excuse me, I'm so sorry. I can't remember if I don't think Samuel had a, I can't remember if he had a page or not. But anyway, I haven't connected him to this family, but I've linked him and put research notes for Lisa. So she can read all my notes and she can go in and look at the census records and guess where this family is buried. Same cemetery, right? Alabama Cemetery in Alabama, Genesee County, New York. So you know, in 1830s and 40s, you didn't go across the state generally to find a spouse. You generally got married. Yeah, it was somebody you met at church. It was somebody you met at school or they're in the neighborhood. And Samuel is a blacksmith. So I can see where he's probably the neighborhood blacksmith. Now there are 33 blacksmiths in Genesee County in 1842, but Samuel is one of them. And he also here, his son one does some mentoring because they have some blacksmiths in their family, like boarders who are blacksmiths. So I'm like, oh, they're learning this trade. And Samuel has a son named Lyman who served in the Civil War. And so I found some information on him. And I added that to his profile. He served with the 19th industrial something. I can't remember. But anyway, he served in a New York regiment and his papers say, you know, he is from Alabama, Genesee County. And he's born in Orleans County, which is one county up north of Genesee. So he's, you know, he's in the neighborhood right there also. So I put his family, I think there's some other siblings, but I couldn't firm them up as well as I did Lyman and his family. And then Lyman dies in 1901. And right before he dies, he and his wife, they deed some land to a person that was in the newspaper. And as I looked down that newspaper, it mentions the heirs of Samuel L. Winchell. And I looked and looked, I went even to 1901 looking for some probate records. I couldn't find a great probate for Samuel. But there's a deed out there somewhere. So I'm going to put that in my notes that that and I've looked on family search and all around and I cannot find this deed. But the deeds are there about 1901. And that might actually list the exact heirs and put Sarah Jesse as a name with her family. But that was pretty cool. That's that's fantastic. Wow. That's that's great work. Really neat stuff. It was fun. Yeah. I'm really not quite done. I'm still, you know, a question about a little bit. Doing a little few other little things, but the rabbit hole is very deep. Exactly. That's a good word for it. It is. Yeah. I just wanted to highlight some like some of the things that Mark was just saying about research notes. So she's put research notes on, I think, every profile or almost every profile that you've worked on in this several of the primary people. Yeah. So that's what all of the Secret Santa Elves are doing. They're adding the research notes. So even if your wish isn't actually solved completely, there'll be research. There'll be research notes. There'll be lots of things you can investigate. And judging by just the depth that Margaret has gone into, I think Lisa has like a whole year's worth of work to have a fun investigating and connecting and and stuff. And we're looking forward to, you know, seeing what other people do. So this is great. Thank you so much for coming, Margaret. This is great. Thank you for asking me. I've enjoyed it. No problem. No problem. Maybe you can become another regular and join us again. But we do have, we've got a nice lineup for coming up. Tomorrow's live cast will also be at 12 noon. Now, because we have Elves from all around the world, the time of the Elf mass videos will not necessarily always be at 12 noon. The one for tomorrow will be at 12 noon. But we do have some Elves that are in Europe. And so for those, we might move the Elf cast a little earlier in the day so that it's just sort of mid afternoon for them and not, you know, super late at night. And for those who are working Elves from Australia, New Zealand, we might make it a lot later in our day. So it's in the morning when they, so it's not in the middle of the night. Like we don't have to get up at 2am online. That would be just rude. So we'll know at least the day in advance of when the next one is. So I can tell you now that for tomorrow, the second day of Elf mass, our video will be at 12 noon. And I won't tell you who it is. And I won't sing you the jingle, but you'll have to come back tomorrow to hear us to hear what it is. And thank you for all that came that came out. Thank you for those in the in the chat who joined us live on YouTube and those who are watching this after the fact. And we'll see you tomorrow for the second day of Elf mass. Bye. Bye.


Beyond the great Himalayas, south of the Karakoram range, stretches the high and arid plateau land of Ladakh. This is an awe-inspiring and rugged region guarded by formidable peaks. This high altitude, called desert, encompasses a startling variety of landscapes which vary in altitude from 2,500 meters to over 7,000 meters. Though inhospitable and harsh, the high altitude pastures of Ladakh have offered a home for nomadic tribes over the centuries. The fertile valleys along the river Indus II have provided a home for settlers from across the Himalayas and from parts of Central Asia. Indeed, here, in the safety of seclusion, the ancient culture and identity of these tribes has been preserved over the passage of many centuries. The Brokpas, for instance, retain their age-old original Aryan traditions. In the expanses of the Nubra Valley, these double-humped camels, native of Bactria, are reminiscent of the times when Ladakh was a major junction on the trade routes of the ancient world. Ladakh literally means the land of many passes. This little market reminds us of the times when goods from distant lands passed through lay in this mountainous region. It was an important centre for caravans, which travelled from the Mediterranean to Kashgar and Yarkhand in China. Along with the caravans, flowed philosophical ideas and artistic influences. From Kashmir came the Vajrayana form of Buddhism, which had been created by the impact of Tantric Hinduism on Mahayana Buddhism. It became a cradle where these varied traditions were assimilated and nurtured. From here, the developed form of Vajrayana Buddhism spread to other Asian countries, where it is practiced till today. In the early 11th century, 108 monasteries were built in the Trans-Himalayas, under the patronage of King Yashayov, who was responsible for a great revival of Buddhism. 32 artists were invited from the great Buddhist centre of Kashmir, who painted these monasteries exquisitely. These early monasteries of Ladakh present an important milestone in the development of Asian Buddhist art. In the 8th century, Guru Padmasambha created the monastic ritual dance called the Cham in the Trans-Himalayas. Padmasambha is the most revered saint of this region and was responsible for the first major spreading of Buddhism here. At Hamas Monastery, we see the monks wearing masks of benign and wrought-full deities. Across the Fotula and Fensila passes, in remote Zanskar, we see the Cham performed at the Karsha Monastery. The Cham was conceived to help in the process of meditation on the various aspects of the Buddha's wisdom. A little relief and humour is provided by the antics of the nimble acharaks. The dance also depicts the victory of good over evil, culminating in the destruction of the human ego, represented by an effigy called a torma. Ladakh has long ceased to be at the crossroads of major trade routes. However, it still attracts many from all over the world who are enthralled by the imprint left by those centuries of vibrant interaction of different cultures here. The ancient traditions of this high plateau land continue till today and keep the community in the gentle harmony of the Buddhist way of life.


For more than a decade, Horace Mann has sponsored the NEA Foundation Awards for teaching excellence. Because we know how important and deserving it is to shine a light on outstanding teachers who make a difference in their students' lives and who continue to elevate the role. So please join me in congratulating and honoring five individuals who have been singled out by their peers for going above and beyond and becoming this year's Horace Mann Award recipients. There's no other job outside that of a parent that has the power and the potential to move students in a positive direction. There was a term I learned in my undergrad, the Latin term for guardian, and it's called inlocoparentis, which literally means in place of the parent. And so that's what I see myself as. Six and a half hours every day I stand in place of the parent. Wouldn't it be boring if we all looked the same, acted the same, spoke the same language, right? It wouldn't be very fun. So before school even begins in the summer, she goes to every single one of her students' homes to visit and meet with their families to figure out what their culture is, who they are, where they come from, what their values are, what their beliefs are, and how she can better help. Because she takes the time to get to know each student and their family and she develops and designs their lessons specifically for those students, her students have such a great opportunity with a teacher like that to be very successful in life. We have, including English, 18 languages spoken in this school, a very high number of frame-reduced lunch recipients and bringing your A-game means that you need to go above and beyond. I said yesterday, the conversation's not done, right?  This is our school, this is our community, this is our family in this classroom. That's the first question I ask at every home visit, is tell me what's great about your kid and I get to hear them brag about their own child and for a few moments when I've just met them, I see their child the way they see their child. You know, therefore, while my daughter had some struggles and some home things that affected her at school or emotions, Ms. Galavies helped to empower my daughter, not only educating but helping her problems solve, her grades improve, her behavior improve, her overall functioning at the school had improved and she was happy, it felt safe. That's one of the areas that she is a teacher leader in that just how she treats her students. She holds them accountable when she holds them accountable with love and she holds them accountable where they work together. Sonia is passionate about giving every student an equal and high quality education. She's passionate about demonstrating to them that they are valued and important part of society as a whole. And she does it with love.


Hi everyone, I'm Joe for jaspyscasebrakes.com coming at you with 2020 Panini Donnery's Optic Baseball 12 box pick your team number seven from jaspyscasebrakes.com Our second to last case ladies and gentlemen break eight. I think we'll be the be the last one that we have So you can run that back tonight big. Thanks all of these folks for getting into the action on pick your team seven on a Friday Thanks for spending your Friday with us. We appreciate that. Let's kick back. Let's relax Let's open up some baseball watch some baseball Break some baseball got a lot more baseball coming up. We've got Tigers at Reds on MLB network right now. That's what I've got That's why I got the moment Big fan of sunny gray got him on my fantasy team just didn't quite work out in New York But I think he reunited with his with his Vanderbilt pitching coach in Cincinnati tweaked a couple things Looked great last season, especially the second half of last season So Reds actually look kind of they put it all together. It's kind of a scary team there Reds already up to nothing in the top and third Strike out the sunny gray. Nice These packs open up real smooth, but was good job on good job, panini. Thank you Not only a solid product But some solid materials on here Sure is Justin Newton box one we just started you can see on the top camera right there the number of boxes that are left Six on the right side five on the left side and box number one right in front of you. Whoa We've got Nick's help to we're low on reg Didn't we have like a million cases back there?  Oh Sapphire a Lot of sapphire too many breaks Justin needs more hits in the how many hits of the brave half today Three hits Justin Newton has the braves. He needs more than three hits in this All right, so you see right there on the Nick camera The world famous Nick cam sponsored by Geico The Geico Nick cams we call the Geico Nick cam eat fresh the subway eat fresh Nick cam So the subway Nick cam is available right there for everybody The Goodyear aerial camera Just have to adjust the white bounce a little bit on it there you go colors look a little more fuller is he Billy Hamilton still pretty quick. He just needs to get on base. No, I don't think so I don't know where he is now Yeah, Billy Hamilton for all that speed hates getting on base There's wander Franco right here Richard Zitterman and The you on Moncada blue of course goes to the White Sox EA And obviously it's only veteran commons that won't ship but all those rated rookie rated prospect cars will ship You know Brock work rated rookie hollow bullshit These inserts will ship that's considered an insert so that'll certainly ship and That is an autograph That's Willie Castro. He'll ship That's a nice one Tigers that goes to Ryan H and Detroit We're down a couple runs right now. I've got a little financial interest in the Reds today There's Louise Robert to 75 White Sox EA. I Don't know if the Panini version sell as well as the tops versions, but I'm sure relatively speaking these two great on the secondary market. There you go I Not on yet. I Think the other game ended early. I think so because they were just doing like Nico Horner 107 to 125 You click last there should be the last one. Yeah, they're doing all the pre pregame stuff There's Nico Horner For the Cubs EA has the Cubs too. Nice. He's got the north side and the south side Another Louise Robert the rookies We've got a yachty to 50 Carolina blue for the Cardinals rick T and force Whitley rated prospect All right next box Lorenzo Kane Revet commons. Oh nice Edwin Rios veteran commons don't ship Everything else does rated rookie autograph Edwin Rios Pretty sure he made the club Pretty pretty big slugger Jorge With my Dodgers. I'll be in action later tonight Finally had the Dodgers network on direct TV so I could finally watch some games rated prospect Nick Madrigal hollow for EA Chris Bryant red white and blue to 150 for EA Jordan Yamamoto rated rookie hollow for the Marlins AJ puck Hollow for the A's Jake and Jordan Yamamoto will go to John McCall and the Marlins We got a nice bow machete To 50 17 out of 50 nice looking card there for the Blue Jays Richard Zitterman with the Blue Jays nice could be could be a big name of the hobby this year. I think they're playing right now I don't know what channel they're on the Blue Jays and Rays You think we get I was gonna say we think you get a free trial of like MLB X trainings They're hurt and so they're making us pay for it I know there's that what about channel MLB to there's alternate programming No, we cannot watch sweaty sexy gym girls. No, we can't watch that. That's not family. We're a family-friendly show It's Clayton Kershaw to 125. Hey We've got a free what is this Fox Sports Sun? It must be Tampa Bay's network. Yeah 26 out of 35 Sean Murphy This is better for the hobby all the wanderfrog wouldn't make Or he's on the the big 60 man squad That the Shet right there but Shet to Vlad jr. Whoo Hashtag good for the hobby Jake with the a's Sean Murphy. Don't know it might as well look McKay is not playing Next one here. Good luck. Yeah, I forgot what that deal was 43 out of 50 Brian Anderson 60 Lewis Thorpe twins And adbert alzale 71 out of 75 rated rookie autograph for the Cubs. There you go. EA Couple quiet cases for you a few quiet case for you, but this one's a lot better Went to the rays. Yeah Could be right But he was a pretty high high highly touted prospect. Yeah Because he was only like 18 and he was like cat speed could develop power Blah blah blah blah. He's still kind of young. They kind of gave up on him. I feel like a little early Josh Donaldson 150 Ben attendee Travis DeMarie, this looks like a hot box folks Ozzie Alves to 125 and like He came out in this leaf product that we were Rolando Balanos to 100 anyone in the chat. No Big hot hobby hot prospect for the red socks that didn't quite pan out Javier Baez Blake Snell to 199 Cuban player, maybe Patrick Sandoval for the halos to 50 Jack Flaherty to 125 Teddy said he can see his goofy face Jeff McNeil, but he doesn't remember his name Adbright alzalea again to 75 for the Cubs Josh Bell paint velocity to 190 for the pirates Jarell And Jonathan India 22 out of 50 rated prospect autograph for the Reds Matt Johnson with that there you go Matt Now we need to know no one in the chat knows Lorenzo Cain to 35 Nice clean pickup by Bichette to Vlad Guerrero, Jr. Nice your Strasburg to 100 AJ puck rated rookie hollow Ruzny Castillo, that's right that does ring him Yeah, Titus just got it too failed prospect Ruzny Castillo. Yeah, I think they're still paying them too Where is he now? It's just out of baseball It's stuck in the miners. Yeah All right next box Sam. Yeah, that's right His cards were really hot. He's 33 now Max Scherzer to 199 Still in the sock systems as Mike Joey Gallo to 199 He signed a 72 million dollar contract in 2014 And a lot of it's a lot of money hollow Mike trout. That's for Henry and the angels. I'm sure those have a little extra boost in value Damn Still in triple a patucket. Next over. What's going on? Domingo Ley by the 125 Buster Posey to 20 25 out of 50 for the Giants Michael Armstrong Kettle Marta to 35 World baseball class Austin Meadows to 76 another parallel hot box looks like and Jordan Yamamoto autograph Yes for John McCall rated rookie Otto Yeah, Titus, I'll go talk to the boss man and be like, hey, I need a 72 million dollar contract and then be mediocre Be pretty awesome I mean they could just release them though, right? Can't be just out I think if they're paying them that much you might as well just keep them on that. That's true. Yeah Oh, it's I guess it's not like football where you just cut them and then be like And then get the money back. Yeah, they're all it's all guaranteed money I Sheldon Newsy to 150 Uh, Edward alzalei hollow, right guaranteed kind. I forgot about that Francisco lindor to 50 Jake rogers to 150 435 Royce lewis rated prospect autograph twins Eric Liedl Adelberto amandese pink philosophy 18 triple a and pop tucking he appeared in 117 games bad at 320 with Ryan and brady to 199 It's not bad Here's Jordon alvarez 25 for the astros that'll be for matt Or hit polanco to 76 Dustin made to 76 Joe west 150 cleveland Like joe west almost it looks it's joe west is acting like he wants to get replaced by a robot Doing nothing to save his job Oh, that's teosca hernan is t hernan is There's jordan alvarez the rookies hollow Oh, yeah, the blue jays finally are playing in buffalo folks. I know there were lighting issues and I guess they're just gonna be Building lights there Oh, yeah, nick solak rangers that'll be for matt stubblefield. That's a nice big autograph there from nick solak Pink velocity making good use of the canvas I think so That's a couple uh That's a couple astros They must have they must have been some deal teosca hernan is and derrick fisher rasters. Yeah I don't know what deal that was showy otani To 125. Oh interesting. Oh, not the ti not in the same deal No, that was a different I think it was a suna That that one Astros gem really loved And told a bunch of female reporters how much he loved them Just kind of weird But I don't think it's with the organization anymore. Michael king to 150 All that same year. No, that was two years later, but Sean murphy to 99 club club culture Jake with the a's And second Sean murphy for you Wait, we need where's bachette? Oh, I actually after Danny Jansen will be bachette, bizio And guerrero jr. That's Let's see them rake That would be good for the hobby How many hours just one out unless danie jansen hits into a double play Danny jansen's not the one that got caught in the parking lot, right? Yeah, he is. Oh, he is not reese mcguire. Oh, it was Or was it really it's one of those catchers Oh Yeah, we need bachette on bass visual on bass flat jr. Granny Is max scherzer to 60 And erin savall cleveland ian rockwood with the tribe Who are apparently Talking to some native american groups about possible name change Let's see how that goes It goes to ian That's for nanosatis jr 75 gorge brett And justin burland at the 150 they should mic up the place. I was also saying why don't they just sell people sections of seats so like you can bring like four people you buy a whole section You know they might do that I can see them like for the playoffs and then everyone has to leave separately or something, you know what i'm saying Yeah, for like i'll let them do that for the playoffs get some butts and seats. Yeah, like you're selling sweetboxes or something Like you can probably sell those for like a couple brands some desperate rich person wanting to go to facebook I mean i'm i would do that if i had a whole section to myself Yeah, just my own food guy my own beer guys and then let me like just one dude just me And if I don't catch it all the tv cameras like there's only two people in the stand so they definitely focus on me Oh, yeah, you'd be on camera all game long too. Yeah, come on boba shed boba shed swing rafael devers Nice go six for six in a victory It's a good night for him Red Sox for the last spot mojo matt de leo. Yeah boba shed was just Flailing this entire ab does not know There he is right there So still has some good show hair right there though Good show here even when he strikes out looks good Yeah, this is a wacky season. Anyway, this might come all up. Yeah We're dent in that roger clemens probably from the manufacturer Movie bets to 199 pink philosophy for the dodgers whorehead Sam hillier rockies rated rookie autograph for jarell taylor and the rocks Although the mics catch up a lot of field noise. Did I tell you this you coey boundary yesterday? Like he swung at a really bad pitch or it was a good pitch and he fouled it off. He was like Really loud and then he and then the last pitch of the set that he popped it up It was like Running to first on an infield pop. He was just like Kershaw bum back, but this guy dustin may Backed him up Anthony Rizzo to 60. I don't know charlie bornton started. So I don't think they did an opener the opener That's why people think that They're gonna win at all There's random mckay rated rookie autograph There's a lot. I mean, they're like the sexy pick for like world series man. Yeah The sexy sleeper pick to win it all. Yeah Brandon mckay rated rookie autograph hollow for the raise speaking of the raise that'll go to richard ziderman He can hit he can pitch not hitting today, but maybe a pinch hitter I think they're gonna deploy him like that He does actually Those blue jay numbers I think are always fire. Yeah Jake fraily They got it. Perfect. The chargers needed to or the ramsie to talk to the blue jays designers Max muncie hollow and joe adel back here joe adel did not make the team but I guess they're letting him marinate for a little bit Service time. Yeah, probably service time issues All right next box. Oh, they said the service time this year might not matter because of the new It's willy ademas hustling to oh Wait, what happened here? It looks like he got tackled by a goat He got hit with randall gritcha got shot by a sniper. Yeah The guy that the angels drafted ahead of my crowd Is he really? Yeah, that's good trivia. So it bounces, right? It skips off of cavin bizio And center fielder gritchick runs in I think the turf kind of caught him. Yeah There's a sniper that kettle martéed 125 brand mckay with the rookies hollow The demo is cracking up Tsutsugo to 150 for tampon bay I think tsutsugo is starting. He's hitting third in the lineup tonight Oh for one oh for one on the day Hey cure marcel there Logan Webb nine out of 35 for the giants that'll be for michael armstrong oppo joe mojo Do you like the extra innings rule? I think like of the 10th inning they or at the start of extra news Or maybe in like the 10th inning Or the 11th inning maybe they'll put a man on second I think the regular season that's fine But I don't know they're not doing it for the playoffs, which is okay with me There's the case hit right here brights harper stars and stripes. This would be a cool set to collect Ladies and gentlemen that goes to darin l and the fight and fills So right from the first extra inning David emissing Yeah, so right from the get-go Nice case. I don't know how those are selling on a secondary market But I know that the panini downtown cards the color blast those case. It's always seemed to do well Any guesses on that redemption for bragging rights? Marco Gonzalez to 125 Show me the stat Rated prospect signatures prospects. So not like these guys There'd be like guys like yeah Royce Lewis Dylan Carlson, I think are still rated prospects in this Wander franco is what ryan h is guessing David em also guessing wander franco Rated prospects neuters red. Maybe the 99 or 199 or something like that w Probably wander franco. Yep wander franco. Is he the only guy that's a redemption in this set this here you guys Maybe Tampa Bay rays richard z There you go and a free top loader All right. Thanks to nick for popping open all these boxes makes the break go a lot faster So we are definitely ahead of schedule now leading into that uh baseball mixer, which is coming up in a little bit There's kim kwan hyun For the cardinals rick teat with that I don't know what his deal is but There he is hopefully he does well Hopefully that autograph grows in value rated rookie zack collins Hollow for the white socks ea We got Shogo akiyama. Is he playing today? I think he replaced a kino Let's check the box score here akiyama Not playing today But that'll go to the reds. That'll be for matt johnston Nice throw by bachette brand loud to 199 For the rays gavin lux Rated rookie hollow for the Dodgers whorehead And the service time issue let's just like joe edel service time issue for him If he gets called up after the 20th game is I think why what I read The Dodgers have an extra season of control team control over gavin lux christian pash Javier bayez You chang for the tribe that'll be for um ian rockwood Someone else someone's saying the other two his values are pretty solid too Is he playing today? Kansas City at cleveland just started Let's see if he's in the starting lineup Chang is not in the starting lineup these top letters.  Yeah All right, hold on. Let me give me one. I we got to see this technology All right, roger clemens gets the treatment here So we've got these topplers. We got three 25 card sleeve Their sleeves in here They're in between. Oh, they're in between In the middle of them. No, they're not Oh, oh, they put them right here. Oh, I thought they had to put them inside I was just like, how do they do that? So I just so I wouldn't have to penny sleeve and then top load I would just put it That's actually a brilliant idea If they coated the inside of the if this was already inside And then I just be like and then you just wow Dude, I think we just invent our own top letters like that. All right, let's do it. Let's find a factory. Let's buy the factory That's where the money is the factory the top holders is where that you make the money in this. That's what it is The supplies that supplies We've been making a killing during the pandemic But we wouldn't even have to people need to have to price gouge. Do we just sell it normally? On the buy computer you just People buy the supplies you ship it to I know we used to sell a lot of supplies on the website It's real but Then we needed them There's boba shed you've been making some good plays in the field But nothing nothing with the bat yet. I'm still zero zero on this Toronto at Tampa Bay game Guerrero junior looks good at first too doesn't look too bad Yamamoto 76 Yeah, yeah, yeah Guerrero junior. It's a little uh, he's He's got he's got some beef to him Like a like like a panda Maybe that's why they moved him to first There's Kyle Lewis 20 out of 99 rated rookie auto orange for the m's richard z rex. What's up? So we got reds up 3 1 0 0 in this raise blue jays at raise game Think uh brewers cubs are tied at zero. I think that's on another network Royals at indians just started and that's also zero zero Baltimore at boston warming up. That's our next slate of games right now That will be keeping track of marlins at fillies zero zero top of the second So a lot of games just starting all right. We've got blake snell snell. Yeah six out of 15 Tampa Bay raise richard z Yep, and dodgers later Six out of 50. I actually have the dodgers network on sports net l. A. I was finally on direct tv It's finally to all of los angeles and if you if any of you have been following that media saga But now yeah, and now I can actually watch them at work, which is nice So you have that in the background of some of our breaks a little bit later tonight Aaron judge to 100. I think national is in yankees off tonight Fox there and a box here And these are our last two boxes. Good luck everybody Jordan alvarez, maybe autograph hot box Rated rookie hollow auto for matt johnson and the astros Jake rogers 11 out of 99 autograph That's for ryan h and the tigers There's 47 out of 75 andres muñoz For the Padres ryan h Back-to-back autos for ryan h Juan soto To 199 pink velocity Nick madrigal rated prospect hollow. I hear he's he's gonna be a pretty nice up-and-comer Yandy Diaz, isn't he hitting right now? No, he's not did he just hit? Yandy Diaz 0 for 1 with a walk. I think he's on first Yeah, he's on first right now Tampa Bay rays richard z AJ puck hollow rex saying you saw that saw the x pentagon official claiming that government has aerial vehicles Not of this world quote and now the pentagon is going to be releasing a statement about it soon Well, they're going to deny it They're going to be like that guy is crazy. We definitely don't have those No, if if if aliens end up here rex We wouldn't have to worry about cove it because we'd be dunzos We'd be like ants to them. They wouldn't care. They'd be like great. Here's a planet. We can colonize. There's justin dun 73 75 Everyone thinks like aliens are gonna be these benevolent. No, we're done dunzos game over Justin dun mariners richard z Pete Alonzo to 199 And the next box here tony gonslin He loves cats. He would love goodwin champions this year. That would go to whorehead in the Dodgers That was numbered Yeah 68 out of 199 And that's yeah, that is for ryan h and his mets Mets with a win today Jordan Yamamoto to 150 1 nil 1 nil 1 nothing too much soccer 1 nothing over the braves Anthony Rizzo they're playing right now to 125 Wander franco rated prospect hollow The guy on the box aris t zekino rated rookie autograph He doesn't have service time stuff going on. So I don't know why the reds Maybe they just wanted to marinate a little bit more I guess But there he is red legs.  See more small ball this year Maybe it's maybe we're slowly cycling back to uh some small ball some hitting runs There's donnie walton some more action on the base paths Vlad jr. Pokes won through the right side There you go. That's good for the hobby Another one for richard and the m's There's mitch hanager to 100 Tyler wade had a bun hit for the yankees last night too See maybe Yeah, it's things run in cycles folks So maybe we're cycling back to A sort of small ball situation here and brock burk is our final autograph Rated rookie hollow auto for the rangers that's going to be for matt stubblefield It's one for you at the very end matt There you have it and there you go gavin luxe Right there the rookies And there you have it laze jump. That's am i done? Yeah full case pick your team seven in the books 2020 punini donner's optic baseball We've got our last case in the store right now go and get it. I'm sure we'll be able to do it tonight Thanks, everyone. I'll see you next time jaspyscasewrakes.com. Bye. Oh, no, I should do a recap Sorry, come on joe Let's do a recap here a quick little recap. Yeah, and thanks to nick We were about 20 25 minutes ahead of schedule So I'll update those times in this in the chat right there, but a pretty excellent break That's wander franco redemption brennan mckay devours murphy solak rois lewis hollow trout alzaleh Some edwin rios's nico horner willy castro and a bunch of other parallels to that will ship Thanks for watching. I'm joe for jaspyscasewrakes.com. We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye


of Think Tech Hawaii's law across the C program. Today we're going across the C to Kauai, the garden aisle, to talk with Felicia Cowden and Mel Repozo, two candidates for election to the Kauai County Council.  Felicia has a business and entrepreneurial background. Mel has a law enforcement and investigation background. Both of them have lots of other accomplishments. This is just a brief summary. Now both of them are seeking election to the Kauai council. Both of them want to be lawmakers for the garden aisle. Welcome both of you. Felicia, Mel, good to see you both. Thank you very much for being my guests. I'm glad that we could go across the C to Kauai and find out a little bit more about you and what's happening. How are you both doing? Felicia? Great, very happy to be here. Mel, likewise. Great, likewise. Appreciate your invitation to join the show. Well, I like to ask a lot of different questions. Some of them you've probably heard before and answered. But first of all, I want to ask you, how did you or your family get to Kauai first originally? And when was that? And why did that happen? So Felicia will start with you. All right. Well, I was not born here. I came in 1984. I was 21 at the time. And I don't know that I had intended to necessarily move here. I had a little bit of an unstructured childhood and had moved a lot. I had been working for Intel as an engineer and I really I think just came on vacation and I will be 60 years old this week and I'm still here. So I have children born here, still living here. Their fathers always lived here in Hawaii. The grandparents came during World War II. And so I would say happy to be here.  So you've been attracted to Kauai, which is understandable. Mel, how about you? What's your connection? How did you get to Kauai? I was born here. 58 years ago, born and raised here on Kauai. I'm actually sixth generation. So gosh, we've been here for a long time. Our family's been here obviously with the plantation. My great, great, great, great grandparents came over both from Portugal. One half was from Madera, one half from the Azores. And so yeah, I am not even connected with my Portuguese culture. It's the only culture we know is here in Hawaii. And I, like Felicia, have the intention of relocating in the world. Yeah, well, yeah, Kauai is a different place. And that's, I guess, why it's called the Garden Isle. Now, both of you are seeking election to the Kauai County Council. And just, is there anything in your family background or history that has motivated you or prepared you to be on the Kauai County Council? How has that affected you? Or is it just an individual thing for you, Felicia? Well, I would say for me, it has been the pattern that my life has gone on. You know, I've done many different things from education to a number of boards. I had surf and skate shops. I was involved in issues that help our county. And then even like what you're doing, I have had a talk radio program where I'm facilitating challenges and problems that are faced by our community. And so trying to help them solve them. And I would say it's come from me, not necessarily my ancestors. This is an extension of the life that I have lived. And I will tell you each way that my career and my life is zigzag, all of it has been super valuable, including, you know, some of the rough start in early childhood that has been as valuable as the successes I've had as an adult. So I think all of it's there. And Mel and I together were in like, you know, Leadership Kauai have done a number of these year-long programs that also strengthen, you know, understanding of civics. So Mel, how about you? Interestingly, I had my grandfather's brother, Abel Madares, was on Hawaii's first territorial House of Representatives. He also served here as a council member. My grandfather tried a few times unsuccessfully in politics, but what's interesting is I had absolutely no interest. And there was really no influence from them. Like Felicia, I think my life history, you know, like you said, I was in law enforcement at the Kauai Police Department, also had a private investigative agency, also served in Hawaii National Guard, retired after 22 years traveling all over the country and in fact all over the world. And it was just one day I felt like I wasn't being heard. And there were issues going on in a county then back in the late 90s. And I decided to run for office, unsuccessfully, but gained a lot of knowledge and experience. But yeah, I mean, there was really no influence other than my individual desire to be heard and who have a body of our representatives that would listen to the people. And that was the trigger for me. You know, and so I hear both of you coming from different backgrounds, perhaps coming from different places. Felicia, you came and loved Kauai. That's what I'm getting from that.  Basically, that's where they all several generations grew up. But your inspiration to seek office is an individual from each of you, although I suspect there is some background that may play a part. I want to ask you now some questions about current issues that I want you to deal with. You know, first of all, how do you think Kauai should prepare for global warming? Or do you even believe it's a threat? What is your position on climate change? Felicia, let's go with you first.  To me, it is the most important that we are resilient. And that like if you were to look at the house that I'm in right now, I got solar, I've got different types of water catchment, I've got all kinds of food, my son's joke and say I've become a little bit of a prepper, but I'm involved with the food forest, the tear, the more we can do to make sure that we have what we need right here when we're so separated from everywhere else. I think that can't be understated. And when we look at our roots, our Hawaiian ancestors on this island, they were excellent at living in isolation. I think that it is important to never really lose that when we look at what is our contribution to climate change. Our biggest contribution, clearly, is the industry that supports us. We have all these people fly back and forth. I mean, that's where the real pollution is, more so than the exhaust from our cars and our, you know, a little bit like that. We need to be prepared to be here. And what I see also when I say we're this gem of an island, of course, everybody wants to move to the Garden of Eden. And we have an extraordinary cast of characters who are coming here. So to me, what I think is the most important, and when we have so many is how we teach them to assimilate rather than eclipse who we are. And so we don't want to just be the very wealthy and those who serve them. We need to be, it's a cockle thing. We all need to be working together. And I would say what is most critical is that we're able to embrace their strength, help them to help us do better with our bridges, with our roads, whatever it can be. The people are coming with an incredible amount of skills, but also to guide them to understand who you are is not what you do for a living. Who you are is who you are as a human being and how to be good to one another and how to live in a meaningful way right here. And I think that the less we travel around, even all around the island, the more we regionalize what we have. That's how it used to be. I'd put 2000 miles a year on my car. I think going back to living, working, playing in the same area is one of the best things that we can do. Mel? You know, I really like to echo what she says. You know, we know one thing and I know there's a debate whether global warming is real or not. That's beside the point. The fact of the matter is that our resources are struggling right now. You don't need to be a scientist to realize that our shores are eroding, that our assets along the coast are threatened private property as well as county and state assets, our highways, our bike path. I mean, there's a lot of things that we need to be doing. And like Felicia said, you know, the book was written a long time ago. The secret is not a secret of how to be sustainable. And we do have to start focusing on sustaining ourselves. And we have vast amount of land for agriculture. We've got water. We've got everything we need. But the reliance, this reliance to tourism, this reliance to the quick buck, you know, the whole story with the goose that laid the golden egg. You know, we, like Felicia mentioned about the vehicles, we're still worried about vehicles and trying to convert to electric vehicles while thousands and thousands and thousands of visitors arrive in jet aircraft every single day here in our state. So the bottom line is we know what needs to be done. We've got to practice what we preach. And we've got to be responsible citizens of this amazing state. Well, yeah. And let me have you respond a little bit more, Mel, and then Felicia, you raise the tourism issue. I mean, it is eggs in one basket, in a sense. What can Kauai do to diversify its economy? Mel, you go first. I'd love to see our egg industry flourish again. And it's almost impossible with the cost of land and the water and the infrastructure that it takes. I would love to see our state incentivize farming like they claim they are doing. But that's critical. You know, I've served on the council for 14 years in the past. And there are many efforts by the state as well as the counties to bring in these new industries and high tech and the film industry and so forth. You know, it's not working. And for me, it's farming. I mean, we have all of our irrigation ditches that are in this repair now, since the plantations close down. And we have the potential of really, really, really expanding our egg industry, whether it's fruits, vegetables. And I mean, there's so many opportunities.  And I think we need to start moving into that direction. Felicia, and I've heard you talking about who's coming and who's coming to Kauai. And I get from you that you're trying to say, we got to teach them a little bit. Or we got to get them on board as to the best way to proceed when they're here. Yes. What are your, please, expand on that? So I would say there's a lot of crossover between our part-time residents and new residents to what we have dealt with as visitors. And then, you know, hey, I wasn't born here. You know, so I have gone through the whole process and, you know, we'll be continuing that process. But I would say, first of all, as a diversified economy, we're already diversifying rapidly. And that's the people who have external income. There's so many people who are working remotely or they have investments elsewhere. And that's where the money is that's pretty difficult for many of our long-term residents to compete with. And I think we need to be training our own kids when they come back from college with whatever degree that they also can live here and work else-wise to be able to make money. Like when we have remote work, it doesn't have a boot print the way many of the other industries do. But that said, we can't have everybody riding in the cart. Somebody's got to pull it. And so that's what I see is a real big problem where we don't have enough people actually doing the heavy lifting and the heavy work, and that comes down to housing. Something I want to say about assimilating people in, part of it is teaching them, but a big part of it is giving them an opportunity of how they can help. I live right between wealth and want. I have quite a lot of extreme amount of wealth right in my neighborhood. You can see I live in a Hicks home. And if I go the other way, there's nine cars in one house place because that's how many working adults live in that house. So we need to have some type of what I would call a think tank way of people who want to contribute to give them the opportunity to contribute. And what I would like to see with our visitor industry, honestly, I'd like to see less people coming for a longer period of time. It's also better for the whole climate change situation, how many planes come in. But if we gravitate more towards people who are coming for two months, like we saw during the COVID time, the people are coming for six months. They're like almost permanent tourists, but they're very conscious and careful and helpful. I think right now, honestly, we have too many at any one time. There's too many people visiting here and it's overwhelming. So we can just have a little bit less and find ways for our people to make money remotely the way a lot of these people do. And we've got to keep training up our own welders and electricians and plumbers because right now, most of the people doing those type of jobs are coming from somewhere else. They're buying out the lease underneath the houses across the street from me, flying them over for five days a week, displacing our own people and those people that get this place don't come back or they end up in the bushes. So we have a lot to navigate in these challenges. Right.  And Mal, I wanted to ask you now, start with you, an area that you might be very familiar with. And there's been crime here in Honolulu, where I am. Honolulu, a lot of crime. What's happened on Kauai and specifically, I mean, Kauai seems to have been the home of drug-running, facilitated through a former Kauai County council member and a local gang. What can you tell us? I mean, is Kauai in trouble with crime? You know, I think everywhere is in trouble. I think we've all, you know, people like to blame the pandemic and, you know, of course, that had a part in it. But we've always been, you know, more specifically, property crimes. But again, even in Oahu's example, I saw the big hoopla about this new program for Waikiki, right? You're going to put on all this effort to curb the crime in Waikiki because of the tourists. Yeah, we have crime in Ewa Beach in Waianae. You have crime all over Oahu, but the focus, again, is on the visitor industry and not the citizens of your county. On Kauai, we've got a horrific drug problem right now. We have a horrific fentanyl problem, crystal meth problem. Crime is a symptom. I mean, I think the bottom line is the economy and the housing. I think housing is probably, in my opinion, one of the biggest problems or affordable housing, a lack of affordable housing, creates all these social issues that we see the symptoms of crime, drug use, family abuse. And we've got to get a handle on our housing needs so we can get our local residents back on their feet in a home so they can get to work and be productive members of society. The crime, you're not going to get rid of crime, but again, you know, it's a symptom of a much bigger problem. And this drugs, for the life of me, I can't figure out how we cannot stop. I'm not talking about the county of Poha, I'm talking across this country, oh, we cannot stop the influx of these drugs that are being thrown in from other countries.  The postal UPS-Pennex, we've got to do a better job at stopping these drugs from coming in. Yeah. You know, Felicia, I was very surprised to hear about all the drug activity on Kauai and Mel's accounting of what's going on there really kind of shakes me up. I just didn't know, understand that. And a lot of it may be that we just don't communicate a lot within our own Hawaiian islands. But what can the Kauai County Council do to protect the people of Kauai from corruption and drugs and crime? I would say there's three layers to it that I see. And one where I really want to agree with my good friend Mel, actually, is that our economic current is so swift here. People could go out, they could work two and three jobs, they don't make near as much money as if they were dealing drugs. That's part of the problem. It's like network marketing at its finest. And I used to have skate and surf shops. And when we had a marijuana industry here, which was really quite strong, the difference between that problem and then what replaced it almost immediately was night and day difference. And so part of it was, I mean, number one is the economy, no way to really make money. But then when we took away a number of jobs that were here, when we like in our community shut down the boats, and then that what I call alternative ag shutdown, we had this scourge come in and replace it. And I find that when I watch the people who are hurt by it, I'm not afraid of them. I tend to be somebody who walks right into the homeless encampments, walks right into the places where people are having problems. I'm not afraid of those human beings as individuals. I never think to even lock my house. I don't feel frightened in any way. But what I do see, like we just did this settlement on the opioid epidemic, and basically that the industry claimed the guilt that they deserve, right? These things were given out in mass to the population across the United States. And it happened a lot in the rural communities where they have pain pills or whatever else they might need. And they knowingly gave two strong of prescriptions and all of that. And I heard people and we've got a couple generations of it that have been impacted by it. So I think number one, housing, people need to have a home. People need to have hope so that they don't feel desperate. They don't feel depressed. They don't feel sad and they don't turn to a business venture that's difficult. I didn't know Arthur Bruin very well. He was somebody who sat across the table from me. He never really reached out to me. We don't have much of a relationship. But even when he was elected, to me, his challenge was evidence since you asked. And I was uncomfortable with it, but I thought he definitely represents an understanding that is prevalent in our population. Of course, it was completely uncomfortable with it. And I'm glad that the situation was stopped. But he's a symptom, not the cause of the problem to the best I know. And I just want, you know, Mel knows him better, both born and raised in similar areas. I know that you were wanting to ask that. Mel, do you have anything further to say on that topic? You weren't on while all that stuff got revealed. It was terrible. Again, you know, you hit it in the head. It's a symptom. It's another symptom. No one's immune from this. Arthur and I were very good friends. Very disappointed in the choices that he made. Totally disappointed. It broke my heart because time as a brother had gone through some challenges early on in his life. And he had made the necessary changes to do good for the community. And I applaud him for that. Unfortunately, again, you know, this addiction is real. And there is no limitation to who it's going to hit. And it just serves a message to leaders that we need to get a handle and we need to do a better job in controlling it. And, you know, both of you have given me and the audience a lot of insight into Kawhi that we really have never, never heard before. I appreciate that. Now, and you've raised a couple more questions that I think I want to ask you. And, you know, we're all human. We all make mistakes. And what I want to ask you, have you made mistakes? And what have you learned from your mistakes? And we'll start with Mel. Yeah, everybody has made a mistake in their life. I've made a ton of them. You know, I have been blessed with family and friends and colleagues that have picked me up when I fell, when I fell on my feet.  And it's an opportunity to learn and to not make that same mistake again. I mean, that goes all the way back to me playing sports, football or whatever. You know, everyone makes a mistake and you learn from them. Again, you know, having a supportive support group, your family, my family has never turned their back on me, whether it was good times or the bad. And I appreciate that so much. And that is what we need to promote for our citizens, especially those that are having some tough times. We, I believe, are responsible. We as a government are responsible for providing that whole, that support system for them so we can help them conquer the hardships that they're going to right now. I believe that's our function. Yeah, okay. So I hear provides support is what you've learned. Felicia, what have you learned? I mean, have you made mistakes? And what have you learned? Yes, I would say that, you know, I hate to say it, but I'm a little bit of a good little girl. Like I've never been drunk. I've never gotten involved with drugs. I try, you know, I'm kind of naive. In some ways, that's a mistake. Like I'll try and help. And sometimes maybe I get too deep into asking questions of different sides and really stretching as hard as I can to find that balance. And I learned a little bit roughly, you know, that the paper might be really hard, that I probably could have communicated some things better. Where I feel like, especially as a radio programmer, one of the biggest things I learned was how important it is to solve problems without making anybody wrong. And Mel and I actually were not exactly on the opposite sides of an issue, but we had a very big issue on our island that had to do with the pesticides. And so what I kind of learned is like, if you give one voice too strong of a voice, or you don't, you know, help make sure there's good balance, that there's really good balance, that we create this enmity.  And it moves us away from our very strength. And the strength of people in Kauai is that we care about each other, especially when we're in hardships. We're going to come through for each other in a time of really rough hardship. And so I think that that's what I try and always remember, even when I have supporters that want me to do something or don't do something or go help with this conflict or another conflict, that I step back and I am able to use wisdom to ask the right people to come in to balance these issues for me. And just to not let it get quite so Italian, that's my background, you know, Sicilian or whatever, there's, you know, he talked about being Portuguese, Portuguese and Sicilians is a little bit the same, like both of us are very passionate personalities. So the passion is really important, but making sure that the passion is always guided towards solutions and never towards division. And so I hear you, what you're saying is, you know, get both sides involved, talk to everybody, and see if something can be worked out. That's what I hear you say. Now, both of you have talked and used the word hope. And I want to ask you, we've got to close out now, we're at the end of our program. And so each of you take a short time and tell me, during these very troubling times, we have political divisions that you've talked about the pandemic, you've talked about environmental issues, crime rates, and we've got a war going on in Ukraine.  And what do you tell your Kauai constituents that will give them hope? Number one, thank God we live on Kauai, right? What a beautiful place as Mel has already said, we have water, we have good ambient conditions. We are in an amazing place and we have a lot of amazing people here. What gives me faith is the quality of our people and the intelligence and the resilience of our people to make good decisions. And I find actually, if we get the media out of the way, and if we get the people who are telling us what to do a little bit out of the way, sometimes you can have too many laws, too many rules. When you allow people to operate from the very best of what I found here is that we rise to the occasion well. And yesterday was the 30th anniversary of a Nikki. Amazing what we were able to pull off and do. And I feel that the part of us that's the Nikki strong is still there and will still rise to the occasion. And I believe in our people. I love our people. The whole the whole rainbow from poor to wealthy.  I believe in our people. And that's what gives me hope. Mel, I'll let you close it out. Well, I tell you what, hope is a good thing.  They both unfortunately cannot afford to live here. They both live in Oregon, very successful. Each of them have just one job. And they're, and they're doing extremely well. But, but we got to remember hope is not a strategy. Hope is not a strategy. We cannot rely on the hope to get things done. We as a government needs to, we need to get our hands dirty. We need to get our feet in the dirt. We need to get it done. We cannot rely on hope things get better. Yeah, that's a great thing. And we should, we should always have hope, but we got to have, we got to make things happen. And the hope I have for this community here and why I'm running again is I want to get the community engaged. I want to have a much more transparent government so people know what's going on and they feel comfortable and they feel, they feel that their contribution, their testimony or whatever it may be is going to make a difference. And that is what I hope to bring to the council. And I really hope that we can get our communities back together like we did after Aniki. We got a ways to go, but I have hope that we can get there. Well, I hope you're right. And I, I'm very grateful to both of you for being my guest today. I mean, I have learned a lot from talking with you today about Kauai, the garden aisle, so Felicia Cowden, male reposal. Thank you so much for being my guest, Aloha, best wishes to you. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. Thank you so much for watching Think Tech Hawaii. If you like what we do, please like us and click the subscribe button on YouTube and the follow button on Vimeo. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at think.kawaii.com. Mahalo.