Okay, I will put it in my mouth. There you go. Lollipop mic. We have just been listening to a beautiful shaku-shaku-hachi thing. It's a Japanese bamboo flute that is incredibly difficult to play. You wouldn't know that from listening to Scott Fortney here, but he has been studying for years to play this. Anyway, here we are, and it is not just in Montpelier, but around the world that people are gathering today to remember Hiroshima and to dedicate themselves to working for peace. It's hard to imagine the horror that was Hiroshima and Nagasaki when they were bombed. It dropped the first and so far only two atomic bombs in history. The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, whose care is for the whole world and not for any one nation, was speaking in Hiroshima this morning at a ceremony commemorating. This is a bit of what he said. Tens of thousands of people were killed in this city in the blink of an eye. Women, children, and men were incinerated in a hellish fire. The quarters, my spell check did something. A quarter of a century later, three quarters of a century later, we must ask what we have learned from the mushroom cloud that swelled above this city in 1945. What have we learned? Crises with grave nuclear undertones are spreading fast. From the Middle East to the Korean Peninsula to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Humanity is playing with a loaded gun. We are just one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation. So says the head of the United Nations. This is grim and overwhelming. What can we do? The hatred, greed, and delusion that breed wars exist everywhere. In our minds, in our relationships, in our lives, where we do have the power to transform them. Children are thinking of peace when they fold paper cranes and children all over the world have been folding paper cranes, a memorial in Hiroshima filled with paper cranes that children all over the world have sent. We will soon be walking peacefully and singing together. These are ways of being in peace. Glenda mentioned children making origami cranes all over the world. Many of you may know the story behind that, a child named Sadako Sasaki was two years old when the bomb was dropped in Hiroshima. For the next ten years, she led a healthy life and then at age 12 came down with the people in Hiroshima call the A-bomb disease. In Japanese folklore, they say that a crane lives a thousand years. If you fold a thousand origami paper cranes, you can overcome your illness. So Sadako and her friends started doing these cranes, but they actually took it a step further and they decided to dedicate each crane they made to world peace so that what happened to them will never happen to anyone else ever again. Sadako did die, but her legend lives on and one of the things that we, last year we had paper cranes that were origami cranes that were made for us by a woman from Hiroshima who was born four days after the bomb and she sent them to be part of this walk. My husband and I met her a few years ago when we were in Hiroshima and she was so moved to know that this small town in Vermont was doing this dedication to peace. She has dedicated her whole life to ending nuclear weapons and ending the possibility of war. And so this year we decided that we would try and get children to help make cranes. And so with the help of the after school programs at the TW Wood Gallery, the after school art programs, we asked children to make cranes.  Well I think we have a thousand cranes here. And I have some children here who are going to pass them out. Come on up honey. And they're going to just reach in the bag and pull out a crane and please take this crane with you. You can even take two cranes. There's a lot of them. Spread out guys. Theo, go over here honey. Theo, go over here. Start, yes, start with our floutist. And Junie, Junie goes straight ahead. Kathy, will you gesture to my granddaughter? There you go. How are you here? I'll let you stay there and over there. Find someone who doesn't have a crane. There you go. Over there. Okay. There we go. Please take more than one. I have so many. Sent cranes again this year. Her cranes are really almost I would say expertly made. Does anybody now have a crane? Okay. Good job guys. And so at the end of the walk when you leave, I'll give you one of Taka's cranes which are extraordinary. And now we are going to be instructed in walking meditation. Welcome to our remembrance, our commemoration of Hiroshima and welcome to mindful walking. We are honored and humbled to be standing on the land of the Abenaki people. For those of you new to this event, this is a silent walk. We turn off any devices. We walk as one body although we will be crossing probably six intersections, one of which is a fairly busy or major intersection, Baleyav and State Street. We'll walk down State Street and end at the high school, Montpelier High School in the playing field where we'll gather again in a circle. 7.15, the adjusted hour of when the bomb was dropped in Hiroshima. Originally it was dropped at 8.15 in the morning in 1945. But at 7.15 we will be, hopefully, if the walk is well paced at the State House lawn. And there we'll form another circle. We will, the bells at Christ's Church will be invited 77 times once for every year since 1945. This is a time in coming back to oneself in Buddhism, it's called shamatha in Christianity. We might stop and offer a prayer to the universe. Prayer for peace in our hearts, peace in our families, peace in our communities, our nation and peace on this planet that we all call our home. So it can, or it can be a time if you have a meditation practice of just coming back to your breath. So when the last bell is sounded at Christ's Church, we'll resume our walk and Glenda and I will lead us all down State Street and eventually reaching Montpelier High School During the walk, Kenzan will invite the small bell, who's right here in the black robe, an inken, and for that bell we will not, we don't stop. We walk in such a way that we arrive in every moment. Although in truth we have a destination of the high school, we just, we're walking for walking's sake. So in every moment we are arriving, constantly in the process of arriving, in an essence we're walking to go nowhere. I found it interesting that the word mindfulness, or sati, which comes from the ancient language in the day of the Buddha, the scriptural language, the ancient language of Pali. It means, mindfulness means to remember. So that to me is very apropos as regarding this, our event tonight. We walk in such a way in each step that we deeply remember the horrific events of August 6th, 1945. Buddhism is very steeped in paradox. Along with the remembrance of the horror of that day in history, we also ground ourselves in the beauty of the present, the beautiful, however warm, the summer night surrounded by a sea of green, beautiful trees, and brotherhood and sisterhood. So we walk in such a way that as well as remembering and honoring the past, we touch the ever-fleeting present moment. And if we make walking meditation a habit, we can actually, we can actually change the future. It is possible by the way we live. It is a very important tool of peace, at least as taught by my teacher, the late Thich Nhat Hanh. And to conclude, in the words of Father Dan Berrigan, Jesuit priest, poet, fierce anti-nuclear activist, he said, to remember is to bring back together that which has been scattered, to make whole again. So we do this in the way we walk tonight. We bring our awareness to the soles of our feet. And we try to avoid any useless thinking. And we rest our mind on the beauty of the sun and the sky and the beautiful green all around us. And we walk in a way where we, with each step, we caress the earth beneath us, each and every step. We caress the earth under our feet. So I do hope that you enjoy your walk on this very memorable evening. And thank you all of you for coming out. It's extremely, extremely hot. You may notice that there is a filming going on. Orchimedia is filming parts of this ceremony and walk. You should just be aware. And now Mary and I will take the banner and be at the head of the walk. And you can follow behind us. To express my deep gratitude and respect and admiration by sending micro origami cranes for your devoted and thoughtful peace action. Remembering Hiroshima. It is a great pleasure and honor for me that my paper cranes will join your peace walk on August 6. With my origami cranes, I will feel as if I would be joining you in your peace walk as a participant from Hiroshima. I love folding origami, especially paper cranes, which represent our hope and prayer for world peace without nuclear weapons. We have realized the importance of learning from history and not to make the same mistakes. We have made a lot of mistakes, which have led to many wars. War is an absolute evil. We are all responsible for future generations. Lori, did you want to begin with the comments? Is that better? Yes, that's better. Hi, I'm Lori Beach. I'm from Plainfield, Vermont, United States of America, a country that grew up in Hiroshima. As we remember the suffering in Hiroshima, I hope that some of us will dedicate ourselves to eradicating all nuclear weapons so we can do that. And if we don't, we're all in great danger. Six times that either the United States or Russia began to prepare to launch nuclear weapons believing the other country had already done so or was preparing to do so. For those six times that I used, we were very lucky that we didn't have a worldwide nuclear war. So we continue to have the risk of nuclear war by accident. Can we keep being lucky? What we're doing is we're playing machine war with 15,000 nuclear warheads belonging to nine nations around the world. If we don't get rid of those 15,000 and keep going up, if we don't get rid of nuclear weapons, either by accident or on purpose, they will be used. We're all in great danger every day. But there is hope. There are things we can do. Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons was signed and ratified by 66 countries. So it has become part of international law. And there are several states in this country and a lot of cities and towns that have passed resolutions urging our federal government to join this international treaty. So we can join. We can urge our own town. We can lobby at our state legislature. We can talk to our congressional representatives to move toward getting rid of these weapons. We're fortunate here in Vermont that Congressman Peter Welch is one of 13 representatives who signed the Elizabeth Holmes Northern of HR 2850 to abolish nuclear weapons and spend money, money, and staff on peaceful purposes. So there is interest in talking about action we can do. I'm going to be glad to see you after we have announced that we're doing about hours for peace. If anyone wants to talk about some actions we can take, I'd be glad to talk with you. The story about the future, we all make choices about the world. Almost swallow the mic, get it very close to your mouth, and it project. I have been watching the half moon all the time and just feeling like a lot of people are doing this right now, and that perhaps with that 100th monkey, this will be the time that things will move. And I just have faith and hope and continue to work for peace. Hello, my name is Walt Caskell. Can everybody hear me? Yeah. And I'll try a little harder. It's like voting harder, you know? Anyway, this is my first time here, and I'm honored and honored to be with you folks. I know a couple people nearby where I live in the St. Albans area, but I don't know. It seems like there isn't the thrust, at least, in the area where I am, towards peace. And I'd love to see it ramped up a little more. Like a lot of you, I'm troubled by some of the things that I see in the media, but I try to avoid mainstream media. And I appreciate the things that religion, particularly in the way of rituals and contemplation and support, can be for people in this world. And I hope it can continue to serve that purpose. Other than that, again, I'm happy to be here. And I wish you all the best. And I hope to be here next year when we have other family members. Good evening. I'm Ethan Park, and I've heard too much about where most we are in the United States, and what's been a war on our soil since the Civil War. So we've been here for 15 years. And yet, the fact that we're here tonight in Park is a mindfulness and awareness of wars throughout this enormous planet shows that we are all, or should be, one human community. The poet, Carl Sandberg, said that there's only one man in the world, and his name is all men. There's only one woman in the world, and her name is all women. And there's only one child in the world, and their name is all children. So it's for that in mind that I was thinking of our world community and how we're all affected. And there's not peace in the world. My name is Arnie Abramowitz. And I drive through Montpelia, and I see scientists say drive like your children live here. And I would say we should live like our children live here. And if we want that to have a future, we need to be very, very careful about nuclear war and climate change. I think the three signs we have here today, remembering Hiroshima, war is not the answer, and peace is the answer. Say it all, and if we could follow these signs, it'd be a much better place. I come because it's part of a family tradition. My wife's mother was devoted to peace. Her name is Crystal Holzer, and Crystal Ruthie here, if there was any chance, she passed on a long time ago. And she was very committed, very committed to working for peace. So when this day comes, it's a special day. She passed away. So it's very kind of a day of remembrance. And I'll sing a few songs for you in a few minutes, right? But I wanted also to apologize. I just recovered from rotator cuff surgery. So my arm is not as good, and that's one of the reasons I wasn't walking, because I can't carry things or move in certain ways. But I'm glad to be here with you and sing a few songs. My name is Joseph. I live in Marshfield. Trying to think what makes sense on a day like today. And one of the things that I think about is the threat to our democracy, that the continuing existence of nuclear weapons epitomizes. The people of the world have spoken. 122 nations have passed the international treaty to abolish nuclear weapons. None of the nuclear weapons states have joined that. The American people have shown time and again that they want to see the end of nuclear weapons and the end of the threat of nuclear war has not happened. We're told that today our democracy is under threat, because there are people who are trying to restrict our voting and we're trying to restrict our ability to speak out. And that is very true. But the threat to democracy goes back at least to 1945, when the American people did not vote for this bomb to exist and have made it very clear they don't want it to continue to exist, but it continues. So on a day like this, I just not only want to remember those who died 77 years ago in Murashima and Nagasaki and in so many other places around the world, but I want us to commit to bringing real democracy into this country and into this world. Because if we had that, these weapons would not exist. My name is Ken Zahn. And I'm grateful to be with you all this evening to hear your expressions of compassion and caring for the people and for this world. And I'm grateful to be with you to walk for peace, to chant for peace, to sing for peace within the world and within ourselves. My name is Mary. And in truth, I felt a little bit rushed back at the library. And I didn't follow up on some words from one of my favorite people, Daniel Berrigan, Father Daniel Berrigan. When he spoke about the meaning of the word remember, he said he another way he explained it, it's to make whole again. For me, it's about embracing paradox, which I spoke about at the library. And the particular practice Buddhism is full of teachings around paradox. And yes, there is so much suffering and horror in the world, but there is also every day we have the opportunity to cultivate joy and peace and happiness and boundless gratitude, boundless gratitude for what we have while we have it. And I'm known I can have tendency to be a little bit preachy. I think I have some puritan in my blood. But if I think if we want a culture of peace to counter the culture of death and destruction and war that we live in every day, we have to be very, very purposeful and grow our hearts in that direction if that's what we want to leave to our children. And in today's world, it can be a challenge to cultivate gratitude. But I learned the hard way. I have a child with severe disabilities. And I was determined that I did not want to become embittered in life. So I'm just speaking from what I know, but that is all that my teacher taught was building a culture of peace and suffering and the end of suffering. So I'll pass the, and I'm hoping I didn't sound too preachy. Thank you, Mary. I don't think you sounded too preachy. Is there anyone who has not spoken who would like a chance at the mic? Okay. We have. Yes. I'm very grateful for all of this. All of the people I just found out yesterday from my dear friend, Teresa Mejo and Peter. And I'm very grateful for them doing this and letting me know about it. Very good to be here. Thank you. Having heard our individual voices speaking up for peace, we will now join in, join our voices together in harmony. Even though we're not harmonizing, if you know a harmony, if you wanna harmonize, that's fine. But just having all these different voices singing together is harmony and harmony is peace. It's things coming together, things that are different coming together as one. So Rick will lead us in a few songs, hopefully you will know them or he will teach them and take it away, Rick. Well, I think I can hear you, right? Oh, you. Okay. So these are songs that you all know. And I spent a lot of time working with Pete Seeger and a lot of wonderful people that I learned songs from. Today I decided to wear a hat that was a gift from one of my mentors, you Utah Phillips. This is Utah's hat. So Utah is with us today in a way. And this is a song that I had the chance to actually meet this guy, Ed McCurdy. Ed McCurdy wrote this song years ago. And you know it. Last night I had the strangest dream I never dreamed before I dreamed the girl had all agreed to point and to bore. Sing it now. I dreamed I saw on my room it was filled with women and men and a paper signing said they'd never and when the years were all signed and a million copies were made they all joined hands and bowed their hands and read old prayers and snacks and the people in the streets below were dancing round and round and swords and guns and uniforms were scattered on the ground. Now let's sing it together. I want to hear you. I know we've got to move it. Just take one step. Maybe you need to feed us the words. Last night I had the strangest dream I never dreamed before I dreamed the girl had all agreed to point and to bore. I dreamed I saw on my room it was filled with women and men and a paper signing said they'd never and when the years were all signed and a million copies were made both from Germany and from here in the United States and we were singing at the Kennedy Center and we sang this song in two different languages at the same time we sang it in German I can't do this but because we had a bunch of German people we sang it in German and in English you know and after the show some of the veterans came in because it was Veterans Day everyone had been in the cemeteries remembering all the soldiers who died and they said this is such a wonderful moment for us to see both people from America and Germany up on a stage not fighting but singing together and it really kind of stuck with me that whole idea about war and you know when he wrote this song it was too short he said, well Rick, I wrote the song but I never sang it it was too short only had a few verses and a man named Joe Hickerson who was a young camp counselor at the time he later became head of the Library of Congress but at the time he was a young camp counselor and he wrote the other words to make the song into the circle and that's the song that we wrote today it's a little bit quieter but if you sing it together it'll sound great where have all the flowers gone long time I've seen where have all the flowers gone long time ago where have all the flowers gone young girls picked them long time long time long time young girls gone long time long time long time going to start going down and laying some flowers back after we all sing down by the riverside we can do that and then I will introduce Kenneson to say a little something and lead us in chanting and drumming alright, we're going to take a chance after actually outside we would like everyone to pick up a flower from this basket to the center and with your intention with your aspiration with your commitment to do something for peace and to send the flowers off down the river after Kenneson after Kenneson we've got to sing this one loud I'm taking a risk now I can't really go this high but for you guys I will move my arm up here I'm going to lay down my sword and shield down by the riverside down by the riverside down by the riverside I'm going to lay down riverside down by the riverside I'm going to sing riverside and salty water I'm going to walk with that Prince of Peace I'm going to study war I'm going to study war no more I'm going to study war no more I'm going to study war I'm going to study war no more I'm going to stop action what's good to create peace and that is our commitment and our dedication that we will send with these flowers down the river so we'll take a flower and then come back in the circle circle and Kinsan will tell us a little about chanting and drumming and do chanting and drumming. Teach us a chant to lead us down to the riverside. I think we have to lay it down. This is where the flowers have gone. This is where the flowers have gone. This is generally at such a level. So we had an opportunity to walk in silence and silence can be a way of coming to this present moment to coming to peace inside ourselves. And another way can be through chanting, through drumming, allowing our emotions to move and change with the chant to let them simply flow through without getting stuck. So this chant that we're going to do this evening within a specific order of Buddhism, Niponzan Miohoji, they do a lot of peace walks specifically for nuclear disarmament. And their practice is chanting this chant, Nam Yohoreng Gekyo, which is actually what's written on the drum also Nam Yohoreng Gekyo. And this means praise to the wonderful Dharma Lotus Sutra. And that's shorthand for praising the contents of the Lotus Sutra. And the contents, the main teaching of that is that we all have the wonderful potential to wake up, that we all have the potential to see clearly. And so we can chant with this wish for ourselves to see clearly and the world to see clearly. Clearly, if we saw clearly, there wouldn't be more. So the chant Nam Yohoreng Gekyo, I'll chant it and invite you all to chant in the response. And there's a specific rhythm to it, but the harmonics can be whatever you like. So you're welcome to let your voice flow freely. Nam Yohoreng Gekyo


So this is the unify cloud key running unify protect and We've been testing it for a little while I don't I haven't had time to put a full review together yet Chris from crosstalk solutions a great review if you want to dive right into it and it's a pretty solid system in terms of functionality for an nvr in comparing to as well the unify video platform we're testing it with a 4k which oh by the way their 4k cameras the way it does a little spinny thing Definitely really cool. So we're kind of doing some testing with both of these devices And it's been kind of interesting because the question has been coming up not just for people asking me but asking myself What platform should we go with when we're building out some of these systems? So this is where there's kind of a split in a way unify is handling unify video and unify protect So to distinguish the differences unify video was very innovative when it came out because one Most of your video platforms for nvr and recording are hideous They're not well polish or not well put together the ui is kind of painful many of them are And i'm referring especially into lower cost markets. Many of them are these unusual I need a flash plugin to run Type of systems that are really aggravating that used to only work with internet explore So there wasn't a lot of good systems out there Here comes unify with a really nice ui a nice interface really simple connections and A nice app to go along with it so you can view the cameras and you could host it on your own hardware, which was Really cool. There's not a lot of companies out there that offer Being able to set up on your own hardware and this is something that really brought them to market Their cameras not being the cheapest, but they were within reason and the purpose was their software would only run under hardware So it did promote a lot of hardware sales Then I know there was a lot of problems with it now a lot of the problems had to do with And we get this call still to this day people with I have a old system I thought would run this unify video software and it's crashing all the time or having this problem It's busy under spec the system for the volume of cameras when you start recording 1080 cameras Which the unify base models they make a 720 a 1080 I think the 720 ones are probably all those continued that was the first line that came out with But you have to process all that video and even though the streaming and some of the compression is done within the camera before it's streamed Down the wire that does take some processing power to handle Therefore a lot of the problems were undoubtedly Related to hardware that people had being inadequate to run the number of cameras Obviously this creates a problem for unify. They want good reviews under products But they know that a lot of you know end users consumers less of the Professionals would be installing this and complaining about the product and I feel that's why they decided to go towards the unify protect route Now the unify protect system runs currently as of april 1st here. No, it's not an april fool's joke But as of april 2019 here the Unify protect system only runs on the cloud key gen 2, but it appears as they plan to Eventually port it to other devices. Maybe a more Robust and higher end system with better specs in this cloud key gen 2 has But gen 2 plus. I'm sorry. So specifically cloud key gen 2 plus, but At the moment it only runs on this which really curtailes the number of cameras You can have the amount of storage you can have because this will only hold a single hard drive I think you can put some usb's in there, but this is not robust enough to handle a larger system We have currently deployed unify video systems That are larger than the cloud key can handle. So there's not an easy migration path The good news is unify has stayed with their commitment to Keep pushing updates for the unify video platform But here comes the question. What do you do right now if you're in the market to buy something? Which one should you buy should you go with one of these cloud key protects? Or should you go with the unify video? Well, the good news is They because of the support and because they seem to have laid out a roadmap that they're going to be into the cloud key You can kind of base your Decision on that. So if you want it is still supported. It is still free to download You can download the unify video software the unify video software the previous version is you're running your hardware You can still run it on your own hardware run it in vm. Run it however you want They plan to continue to have updates for it in terms of bugs But they're not going to do any more features to it and because it doesn't call out to any type of licensing server It can sit there and run pretty much indefinitely without a problem My you know barring any bugs or any problems like that So that is not necessarily a bad solution and later if you decide you want to go to the protect and you're already using the unify cameras You still can because you can just remove that controller Unmanage the cameras and bring them all over to a unify protect device Now the downside is will they ever release protect to run on your own builds and our own hardware? It doesn't seem likely. I that's my feeling. I have no inside information on this But I think unify is trying to keep the protect line on high quality hardware And then it makes it easier to sell and I gotta admit this is challenging because when you are start asking questions of I want to run a 30 camera system exactly what hardware should I run when you're Handpicking your hardware. Okay. We start with amd. We start with intel We start with how much memory you need you can see this can become a little bit more convoluted versus This device here says runs up to 20 cameras. I will admit once you put even one 4k camera on there It is a little bit sluggish and I'm going to be covering that in my when I get to reviewing this it does Feel a little sluggish with some of the 4k cameras attached to it when you're pulling that video But I probably have a feeling I don't have 20 cameras look up to it But I have a feeling it's going to get a little sluggish based on its specs even with 20 cameras But you can see where unify can like lay out if they have a line of offerings for the unify protect series where they have You know one that supports 20 to 40 cameras one that supports 40 to 50 So on and so forth. It's easier to sell from a product lineup. You figure out how many You plan to grow to you buy an nvr recorder for that size and you buy the unify cameras To go on the system with your plans to expand later So I don't think the unify protect is at all a bad product I still think it's a good purchase But if you have some of those needs you can at the moment go to unify video and later with plans going to unify protect Unify protect they have said is their way forward is how they're going forward in terms of New features and new add-ons We've updated this several times since we've had it because that's one of the things I wanted to review Is leaving it on record the little pile of wires back there We've just had it recording stuff in the office and we pull back through the videos randomly making sure it works And then whenever there's an update I said yes and all the updates have gone perfectly smooth so they do seem to have a lot of Issues figured out because the updates have gone A little bit more manual a little bit less smooth than some of the unify video products Some of those problems related to mongo db But I've been able to resolve them just by downloading a backup reloading a software pushing the backup back to it And it worked perfectly fine and re-imported the videos. So there's methods around it It's just not a one-click update didn't work every single time on unify video And these are some of those challenges I think they have that's why they my my guess is behind the scenes There's a lot of code refactoring that went on in the unify protect series To make it more stable make it more user-friendly because well We want to be able to just put these in at you know a small place and Click update it updates and we don't have any headaches and when you buy the unify Video devices that they sold for the unify video the previous ones that were dedicated mvrs Those always went really smooth It's all the custom build ones because there's a lot of factors that go into it And I think that's probably just something internally that happened in unify they go Wow supporting the wide range of hardware can be quite a bit of a challenge And it is and it's also why most nvr companies don't do that. They sell you the box complete You know you contact hick vision access The majority of these companies want to sell you a box that runs everything as opposed to you Oh, just find your own hardware and build it out So as of right now, I don't think unifies a bad purchase. I think they're so good I think you can still go with the unify video even here in april of 2019 and later migrate here So if you have going, hey, I want to I like the unify video. I want to go with it You still could Um and the migration path is there to unify protect when unify protect has one We have a lot of installations out there right now that are currently running unify video They're working perfectly fine. The clients are really happy. They like the app. They like the way the interface works They're still actively pulling video from it and some of these have 50 cameras So I can't just drop a protect in as an upgrade path later for them Hopefully later though, as I said, I could I believe unify is going to have Full servers that support this and that'll be exciting when they come out. Some of there may be a nice rack mounted You know one to you supporting multiple rate arrays in it nvr, that'd be great Um, I just don't feel they're going to release it to the you know General public like the unify video that you can run it on your own hardware that I don't see that Unless someone can find a link and show me something official from unify To give this to me. Otherwise, but based on your reading I've done I don't really see a path for that right now As far as other video software goes out there people ask me a lot about that We have used some of the commercial products We use them as some of our clients that have like two and three hundred camera installs unify I want to say does not really scale that well, but those products are In every way substantially more expensive just the nvr licensing on some of them sometimes cost about $130 annually per camera you install And some of those other products that there are nice. They do work well But they're not in the category that you would have the unifies in uh, that's a more affordable You know, I'm going to say an example like a small pizza place It says hey, we need five cameras installed grab a unify protect to install them. It's still a great solution So that's my thoughts on these devices. I don't you know, I don't have a A clear map because I wish unify You know would tell us what else protect is going to do and when the release dates are for those But I've been imagining or working them on the back end. I still like their products Uh, I will get around to reviewing this but Thus far the unify protect system other than being a little sluggish on the 4k of the 1080 cameras seem to record perfectly fine with it But I tell you what I wish the cameras all did this because that blue spinny thing is really really cool. All right. Thanks Thanks for watching If you like this video, give it a thumbs up if you want to subscribe to this channel to see more content Hit that subscribe button and the bell icon and maybe youtube will send you a notice when we post If you want to hire us for a project that you've seen or discussed in this video head over to laurance systems.com Where we offer both business it services and consulting services and are excited to help you with whatever project you Want to throw at us? Also, if you want to carry on the discussion further head over to forums.laurance systems.com where we can keep the conversation going And if you want to help the channel out in other ways we offer affiliate links below Which offer discounts for you and a small cut for us that does help fund this channel And once again, thanks again for watching this video and see you next time


Welcome to coronavirus and our mental health. Today is April 13th, 2022. I'm coming to you. My name is Ken Burtness and I'm coming to you from Haleva on the North Shore. The coronavirus continues to recede and surge, recede and surge. Just today, the CDC came out with an announcement that they are going to extend their mask requirements on all airlines and public transportation for two weeks. Now, they were originally scheduled to start loosening up these requirements and restrictions on April 18th. It is now pushed back until May 2nd until then the mask requirements are in effect. The reason they're doing this is because of a recent uptake in coronavirus positives. That uptake was caused by a very contagious subvariant of omicron. That subvariant is called beta alpha 2. The CDC says it definitely needs more time to study this subvariant and to figure out how to deal with it. Those restrictions are going to be in place for a little more time. To talk about that and a lot of other things, I am very fortunate to have my good friend and colleague Melinda Timmons with us. Melinda is a licensed marriage and family therapist. She helped people for a long time here in Hawaii and currently she is living in the Washington, D.C. area helping the people there. Now in Washington, D.C., it's no longer afternoon, it's nighttime. So good evening and welcome to the show, Melinda. Thank you, Ken. Thank you for having me. Now, I know you, well, let's put it right out there. You're licensed in both Hawaii and Virginia. So you can help people at both ends of the country. And my guess is the populations in both these places is quite a bit different from one another. So I sort of wanted to start the show with asking you major differences you see in people's reaction to all the stress that we've been under the last couple of years with the lockdown, the stress that's now continuing with the war in Ukraine, and other problems that we're having. Do you deal with your clients differently in the D.C. area than you do in Hawaii? Well, first of all, yeah, I'm licensed in both states. I do have the one in Hawaii kind of paused, not expired but paused. So I'm just seeing clients here in the D.C. area. I would say the most standout difference between the two populations is that Hawaii is a collective culture. Asian and Pacific Islanders, the broad Hawaiian concept of Ohana, means that we're looking out for the group, its group identity. And it was very notable to me when I came here that this is very individualistic. So going into not only the pandemic but a really challenging political atmosphere over the last few years, I think people had a harder time in some ways here managing certain pieces of that. Whereas what I'm hearing from my family and Hawaii family and friends, my Ohana, is that while things have been brutal for them, and particularly with Hawaiian populations and Pacific Islanders and just what they faced in terms of the generational piece of, okay, yet another outside disease is coming to harm us. The loss of tourism, ironically, which also harms so many small businesses. I mean, this has been pretty brutal for Hawaii people as well, but they have one another. Not to say that people don't rely on each other here as well, but it's not the same, let me tell you. It is not the same. People feel quite isolated, I would say. I can imagine that. And I love the way you talk about it in reference to the Ohana. I think that's quite telling. The other thing about Washington DC, I mean, here in Hawaii we have sort of a reputation of being laid back whereas I always imagine, and I visited it many times, Washington DC, but I've always imagined it as a pressure cooker. It's much more stressful and quick moving than we are in Hawaii. Do you find that, and is that causing some problems for your clients? Well, personally, I live most of my life in Hawaii, came here to DC about five years ago, and I do have experiences living and being in other cities in the world and in the US. But personally, I tell people it's like coming from what I believe, what feels like to me as the softest cultural edge in our country to the sharpest. And I include New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, all places that I've lived or been previously, quite sharp. This is a community that is very intense. It's quite power driven. Undercurrents of political stuff is all the time happening. It's been really intense in the last couple of years, especially, but maybe for most of my time here during the last administration. So four out of five years, quite intense, realizing too that the DMV as we colloquial call it here, colloquially call it here, which is DC, Northern Maryland and Northern Virginia. That's one city, really, we look at it as one city. And I see people from all three areas because insurance companies look at it as one city too. But this, it's a blue area in terms of political voting. And then we have, well, basically a somewhat authoritarian regime in place. And most of my population, the most of them are State Department, Foreign Service, government employees, government contractors. So they're all deeply impacted by what is happening. Yeah. Well, having worked for the government, I can certainly understand the pressures that your clientele is from. And I'm also guessing it places a lot of pressure on you too as well. Maybe I think the question I'd like to follow that up with is, given the sharpness and the pressures that the people in your clientele are facing, what are some of the things that you find work best for you when you're helping them and treating them? What's the thing that sort of gets through to them and helps them the most? I'm not going to say that it's in particular different from working with Hawaii populations in terms of what might get through to them. It's still going to be the art of listening and being present and assessing what their needs are. Here, I think me having a bit of an understanding for their context are, are they Foreign Service? Are they State Department? Are they involved in that world has really helped? I make a point of maybe not reading every paper back to back because then I struggle for me these last two years especially, but at least knowing something of what their politically government-linked context is and trying to understand that helps me quite a bit, understand them. I can understand that. And being a good listener is hard.  Now, I know a lot of my colleagues here that are still on the island are having big case loads and are feeling the stress themselves. What I'd like to segue in is a lot of the people in the work for the federal government and government in general are in the helping side. They may be connected up with a medical help, they may be connected up with transportation help, all sorts of things that are considered essential. So during the pandemic, while many of us got a chance to sort of take off a little bit, they've had to work through all the whole time. And I know that's been very stressful to them. How do you treat people like that that haven't got a break during the coronavirus who are constantly sort of being pushed to continue their job and continue serving people? I would actually say in my population that I've seen here, I have had a nurse, a physician, and teachers that I've seen to some extent. I would say that yes, the medical community is affected, but they are accustomed to wearing masks. They are like literally trained for this. And I've actually seen that the stresses that they bring to the therapy appointment is more about relationship than it is about COVID. I will say that my teachers are deeply impacted. They were deeply impacted during the shutdown, of course, 18 months of of standing and trying to, I say standing because most of us that do telehealth and teach online are backs hurt. So we're up and down and getting standing desk and all kinds of things, but they're trying to differentiate education for learners who are rolling over and shutting off their video in some cases and just maybe listening via audio, maybe little children who are sitting in front of a monitor for six hours a day. My teachers have been really, really impacted. That's a great follow up into to your area, which I really wanted to focus on marriage and family. Of course, that's the essence, relationships are the essence of that. Plus, so many things that are happening with the children in school. Let's take the focus on the parents first, the difficulties that you've seen parents deal with in this situation and a family situation with not only their children, but working and childcare and all that other, all the other tensions that go with that. Sure. I have several families that are have fairly important positions here, work wise, they're working from home, if you can imagine. So operationally trying to do things that really impact all of us, but also to homeschool three kids from their kitchen at the same time as, yes, as doing all of this. And maybe there's a husband somewhere sitting downstairs doing his government job. This is crazy. This is really hard. I've talked to people who were hiding in their closets to talk to me. Basements, cars, frequently cars still happening with the cars because a lot of people are not back to work yet here. Most people are still working at home, I would say. Some people are going back to a hybrid schedule, maybe a day or two in the office, but still working at home. Now the kids are back in school and that's a whole other story, but they are largely back in school. Parents are really stressed if they're, I do couples as well. And if couples are going into a pandemic stress and then they're isolated in the winter, that's another dynamic we have here is we have winter, then they're going to be struggling even more. Absolutely. Let's talk about that. I look at the coronavirus and couples, as you're talking about, and I see a few that are coming closer together because of that because they're spending more time with each other, but most of them, it's been a very tense and trying change for them. And I call it sort of the coronavirus cage being trapped in with somebody that you're not used to being away from for eight hours a day. Absolutely. And you're throwing together like this. How's that working and how are you helping people with that in DC? Oh my goodness. I mean, is there any help for it? No, I mean, there is help for it. So telehealth, a good piece of that is that I can see folks bring them into a, you know, I use Zoom as well, but bring them into a gallery view no matter where they are. So that's a good piece. So if we have a spouse or partner who is in a car somewhere and one who's somewhere else, at least they can still make their meeting. They can come to couples therapy and I've opened and closed cases completely via telehealth. So that I think that's been a huge support. Actually, some people would prefer to come to the office. I have been seeing people recently last six months or so often on, depending on viral issues live, but mostly they prefer telehealth. And I would say those parents that have children is quite supportive to them to not have to drive. So I think just that piece alone, that they can do that is supportive. And how do I work with that the strains of it? I try to emphasize that, you know, they all they have struggles that might be quite normal. Say adolescents, you have kids that are teenagers and acting out and maybe they're middle age people and they have parents who are struggling or careers that are at peak. And that means they're working very long hours. And then we have a pandemic underlying that a global a global pandemic. And I have clients that have really escalated anxiety. Maybe it's gone into sort of OCD type behaviors. And this has happened for me in the couple's context as well. And it just it becomes a little bit complex. So I do a lot of referring out a typical couples intake these days often involves me with getting support for individual partners for maybe highly high escalation of anxiety OCD behaviors, also doing couples treatment plans, maybe also getting referrals for their kids, maybe eventually doing referrals for medication. I've never done as many before. That's that's for sure a difference. I know that we've talked, you and I have talked about depression and anxiety that what's what's the best way of dealing with somebody who's very anxious about what they're doing about their jobs about the future about the virus about this what's worked the best for you as far as reducing people's anxieties. What has worked the best for me is trial and error. And it's different according to who you're talking to. Absolutely. If we're talking about couples, I think consistency is good. Me being willing to see individual individual couple individual individual couple and doing it along that pattern so that I can get to know each of their individual struggles as well as the struggles of the couple. So being flexible has helped being willing to strategize with them on parenting issues, which is a huge part of COVID as well, because they're home with their kids. Yeah. Right. Not now as much, but for 18, 19 months they were home with their kids. So I've been doing a lot more like in in my treatment plans, I have a lot more parenting strategies than might normally appear in a couple's treatment plan, for example. Yeah. The you've hit on something that's really a important to me and that's individual focus. You know, for many years, I've taught counseling to graduate students. And one of the things I really emphasize to my graduate students is that there is no one single answer to any problem. There is a multitude of answers and you need to know your clients. You need to listen to your clients to figure out what that individual client, that individual family, that individual couple need and give it to them. So, but everybody looks for that magic cookie, whether it's a medication that you just take and whoa, everything is fine.  You know, you send them off to meditation or you do something where they do yoga or whatever. And that's great for the individual people who respond to that, but that's not everybody. It's not the answer for everybody. And so I really appreciate that that you're, you know, that you look at that way and treat them as an individual, but it makes the job tremendously more difficult for you. It does. And I, you know, because of where I am and because of my past experience, which has seen a lot of Asian and Pacific Islanders, multicultural couples and families, I've attracted a lot of state departments, specifically foreign service folks who are living up there. Yeah, they have Virginia addresses, but they live abroad or they've just come back or one of those dynamics and they, they struggle quite a bit. They struggle quite a bit and in very different ways than one might imagine. I, they're in a hurry to get better. When, when will this happen? I've heard on the fourth session, I'm not feeling any better on the fourth session, on the fourth session, which is to me, it's just like getting to know you, Tyne, especially with a couple, right? Yeah. Yeah. Getting any better on the fourth session.  So, so yeah, pressure happens across the board here. And I think we also can't lose fact, lose sight of the fact that we also have Black Lives Matter occurring here. We, in 2020, we had January 6 occurring here, right here, two miles from where I'm sitting ish right now. And it didn't impact me physically in terms of fear or anything, but I have clients who were there for both events in terms of professional capacities for both Black Lives Matter and also at the Capitol. And those folks are forever changed. They have post-traumatic stress. They've changed jobs across the board, by the way, for all of those people. They've changed jobs. They've, some of them have left the state. And I think, I think that they're very fortunate to have you there with your experience with multiple cultures and understanding some of those cultural things that are at play here. Yeah. You know, I'd really like to talk about that a lot, because we're running a little short. So I'd like to jump to the kids, because I know that you've got some, you know, some ideas about the kids. And I know from my grandsons, they've been going through a lot of difficulties. Being away from school or being in remote learning that lacking the socializing that they were used to and expecting. So could you talk to us about that, about working with the kids, especially at school, and with their teachers as well? Because like you said earlier, teachers are under a lot of stress. Absolutely. Well, I'll just start with the teachers. I have to say that the teachers that I've seen, they were exhausted and overwhelmed, doing it from home, understandably, I already mentioned that, but going back to having kids come back after 18 months of rolling over and turning on their computers in their jammies and then turning off the video. So we have a group of children coming back to school. Some of them maybe I'm going to speak specifically about high school. Maybe they left off a middle school and they're coming in to high school as a sophomore. They're going from eighth grade to say sophomore, right? That's their first high school experience is super overwhelming for teachers because these kids don't know the rules. They don't know boundaries. Administrations are not willing to enforce said boundaries because they're worried about the kids. So it feels really chaotic. Now from the kids perspective, they are super anxious too. I see a group of teenagers. I seem to attract teenage girls. So I have a number of teenage girls and they were super anxious about going back. I had been seeing them all via telehealth for a while. Some of them did okay going back. Some of them haven't. I have a kid that has refused to take off her mask for fear of COVID. This one is about COVID. Very, very anxious about that even to eat or drink. So pretty severe anxiety. I have another kid who refuses to take off her mask for fear of mask fishing. Have you heard of that? No. Mask fishing is a play on words from cat fishing where people might mask who they really are, what they look like in order to say lure someone in an online dating scenario, for example. So mask fishing meaning, okay, I've had this mask on for two years and people see me from the eyes and they see my eyes and my hair. That's what they see. So if I take it off, they might see I have acne. They might see I have bracelets. They might see that I'm not what they expect. They're going to think I'm a mask fisher. In other words, a fake. Not being real. And so I have that going on and a lot of kids are feeling like that and a lot of kids because they're super group identity no matter where they live, right? They want to be like everyone else. So what I'm hearing is despite that mask mandates have been dropped, nearly all the kids are wearing them to some degree because of that, this feeling of needing to kind of hide and not be fake and not show people who you are. I think we're going into self-image and self-concept here that has really suffered for a lot of people during the coronavirus adults as well as children, but especially I think you're right with children with these kids and especially with the teenage girls you're seeing. How do you help them with that? How do you bolster their self-confidence or their self-image? Actually, I've used actually, I also have really bright kids that I see. Fortunately, they're so intelligent and I've actually talked to them about the concept of gosh, I can't think of adolescent concept where you think everyone is looking at you. I forget what it is, but imaginary audience. So having an imaginary audience, this notion that all teenagers, nearly all of them feel everyone is looking at them but no one is because they're all so self-concerned. So I think that's helped them. I think looking at things incrementally, okay, maybe we can take our mask off for our neighbors. So I've had them practice doing some of that, come to my office and we take our mask, you know, physically come to my office and we take our mask off, not me, but they purtee because I give everyone tea when they come in, herbal tea. So then I have my girl, my female clients, you know, they have to remove their mask to have the tea, right? A little bit of practice in front of someone gradually, one-on-one, people that they feel safer with and then just kind of deconstructing the whole piece that maybe not everyone was looking at them, right? Sounds great. Yeah. You know, that's the other thing about, you know, I'm constantly looking for not only the problems that we face from the coronavirus, but also some possible positive takeaways from coronavirus. And the one thing that I've sort of liked about this whole thing is what you talked about earlier, where they don't come to the office, but they talk to you from various places, places that are theirs, their backyard, their car, you know, it's their turf. I always had a problem when I was practicing that people were required to come to my turf, which is not as comforting or as relaxing as their own place. So I always like to go to their place or meet them in a place that they felt comfortable with. And I got a different picture of them. And I was wondering if you had seen that as well? Absolutely. I've met more pets and kitties and spouses of individual adult clients. I've seen messes, which is great because it gives me an impression of what their environment is like. Absolutely. I think that's been great. And I think another positive silver lining is that I've seen a lot of adults, especially during shutdown phase, playing with their kids outside, which I didn't see so much up here before. So during the shutdown, you know, you'd see parents out there having a glass of wine and sitting on the sidewalk with some chalk. And you don't see that anymore, but I did for a few months. And that was lovely. That's great. I'm getting the signal that we're really getting down to the end. I wanted to ask you one final question before we say goodbye. And I hope that I can talk you into coming back again, because there's so many things that I'd like to talk about with you. But this one last question is, what do you think is the most promising thing as far as helping people on the horizon? What intrigues you the most about maybe a new way to approach this now that we're, you know, in our third year of the coronavirus and having to deal with it for all this time? What looks the most promising on the horizon for you? I mean, in terms of mental health. Yeah. I think accepting our feelings. So not trying to suppress or to push away, but to acknowledge that this is really hard. And sometimes it's really sad. And yes, it can make us really angry. And that feeling belongs, it actually belongs. And it's not to say that we need to live there. But to go ahead and acknowledge that, I think it's really quite helpful. Otherwise, you can't process it. Yeah, absolutely. If you can't acknowledge the problem, if you can't acknowledge the feeling, the thought, you can't deal with it. I'm totally with you on that, Melinda. That sounds, and that's a great way to end. And like I said, I've just really enjoyed having you with me on today's coronavirus and mental health. And I hope that I can talk you into coming back in the future. And I also wanted to thank Jay Fidel and Hallie and Michael and all the people here, I think, Tech Hawaii that have been so much of a help with this this program. So have a great night. The rest of it for you, Melinda. And thank you. Hope to talk to you soon. 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 thinktechhawaii.com. Mahalo.


Canada is ready to send troops to Ukraine on one condition. Canada is open to sending a limited number of troops to Ukraine. Canadian troops will not take part in combat operations, but they are ready to train Ukrainian soldiers according to Canadian Defence Minister Bill Blair. Blair said that the idea of sending military personnel was discussed earlier this week in Paris, where he was present, while Canada, like many other NATO countries, opposed the idea proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron. Blair announced a potential non-combat mission for Canadian troops. This involves sending a limited number of military personnel to train Ukrainian defenders within Ukraine's territory, provided that such an operation is conducted far from the front lines. According to reports, the Security Agreement between Canada and Ukraine signed last week allows Canada to conduct training activities in Ukraine when conditions permit. For the first time in the West, the idea of sending troops to Ukraine was raised at the highest level. French President Emmanuel Macron voiced it at an informal summit in Paris, stating that nothing can be ruled out. Military and political observer of the Information Resistance Group, Alexander Kovlenko, notes that Macron is addressing various geopolitical issues expanding influence in Armenia and heading a coalition of long-range weapons supplies to Ukraine. Maybe he feels like Napoleon on a horse, but his statement really raises many questions. What troops will be in Ukraine? For what purpose? Why? With what functionality? Will they act as peacekeepers? Then what will they do? Stand along the line of contact and monitor the ceasefire? But why stop the fire if Ukraine has repeatedly stated that we will not stop until we win? Or, as full-fledged allies, like during World War II, who will liberate Ukrainian territory? I have big doubts about this. It won't happen. We don't live in the times of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. And in general, we are surrounded by quite weak politicians who will not make such tough decisions. He notes. U.S. intends to launch further strikes at Houthis, but Ansar Allah expands war in Red Sea. U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has said Washington intends to launch further strikes at Houthis in the Middle East. We intend to take additional strikes and additional action to continue to send a clear message that the United States will respond when our forces are attacked, when our people are killed, Sullivan told. Abdel Malik Alhouthi, the leader of the Houthis from Yemen's rebel Ansar Allah movement, has warned about more escalation if Israel continues combat operations in the Gaza Strip. I am warning Israel and the United States and telling them that they must stop the aggression against Gaza and lift the blockade. Otherwise, we will seek more escalation. The Al-Masira television channel quoted him as saying in an address to supporters, following the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis warned that they would launch strikes on Israeli territory while barring ships associated with the Jewish state from passing through the waters of the Red Sea and the Bab El-Mandeb Strait until Tel Aviv ceased its military operation against Palestinian radical group Hamas in the embattled enclave. Since mid-November, more than 30 civilian ships have been attacked by the Houthi in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Meanwhile, the Houthi military spokesperson, Yaya Sarri, said the strikes will not pass without a response and consequences. Another Houthi spokesperson, Mohammed Abdul Salam, indicated the group would not be deterred, saying Yemen's decision to support Gaza would not be affected by any attack. Russia has become a menace to France in view of its actions, French Prime Minister. Russia has become a menace to France in view of its actions since the onset of the Ukraine conflict. French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal told the Senate defending President Emmanuel Macron's earlier suggestion of potentially sending Western troops to Ukraine. Macron's words came after a meeting of Ukraine's sponsors in Paris on Monday. No consensus was reached on the prospect of sending ground troops to aid Kiev, he told the press. However, the French President promised to stop at nothing to make sure Russia does not win in Ukraine. Responding to questions in the French Senate about the remarks, Attal insisted that Russia has hardened its stance towards France over the course of the conflict. He accused Moscow of spreading false information while engaging in attempts of destabilization and cyber attacks. The reality is that Russia is a direct and immediate threat to France on all levels. He insisted that the French leader's statements were responsible and echoed Macron's view on the need to ramp up military aid to Ukraine, explaining that he may have been speaking of troops being sent to provide technical support to Kiev's army rather than to fight. Attal suggested that such a deployment may include training Ukrainian troops in ground to air defense or protecting certain borders. European officials balked, however, quickly denying that they had any intention to put boots on the ground in Ukraine. From skeptics, Hungary and Slovakia to staunch pro-Ukraine nations such as Poland and Germany, governments insisted that no such plans were in motion. The same message came from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Washington.