Hi, I'm Fort Worth Councilmember Jared Williams, and I think most of you know how important the environment and the Fort Worth prairie is to me. Over the past few years, some of our neighborhoods have been negatively impacted by the migratory seasons of egrets who sometimes nest in our residential and commercial areas. Due to support of the City of Fort Worth's animal care and control team, we're offering proactive education to residents on how to do your part to deter these birds from nesting in our residential and commercial areas while also helping them migrate to more suitable habitats. Remember, once they've nested, they're federally protected by federal law and cannot be disturbed. Take a look at this video produced by Texas Parks and Wildlife and share it with your neighbors. Now it's time to take action. Texas is a major route for migratory birds and serves as a breeding site for egrets and herons. During nesting season, most egrets and herons gather in large colonies known as rookeries to nest. These rookeries include species such as cattle egrets, little blue herons, snowy egrets, great egrets, and yellow-crown night herons. In Texas, cattle egrets are typically the most abundant species. Different species arrive, nest, and leave at various times throughout the nesting season, which typically lasts from mid-February to late October. Adult birds in their offspring often return to the same location every year. Over time, rookeries can increase in size. Nesting egrets and herons prefer areas with mature trees and at least 75% closed canopy with overlapping branches. This allows the birds to easily walk among the branches from tree to tree. Most rookeries are located near water where there is plenty of food available for them to eat, but rookeries can easily exist away from water in urban areas. When egrets and herons establish rookeries in an urban setting, it can become a nuisance. The noise, odor, regurgitated food, large amounts of feces, and even deceased birds at the rookeries site can be a challenge. When located adjacent to airports, rookeries can potentially interfere with aircraft. Egrets and herons are protected by state and federal laws. It is illegal to kill, harass, or disturb the birds in any way that could cause nest abandonment or the death of eggs or hatchlings. Once the first bird lays an egg, all harassment and scare techniques must stop. Up to that point, it is legal to harass or scare the birds to deter them from an undesired location. Once a rookerie is established, complete removal is not possible. However, you can prevent a rookerie from establishing or returning the next year. Habitat modification is most effective and produces the longest lasting prevention of rookerie establishment. In the winter months, when the birds are gone, modify habitat by creating openings within the canopy and removing overlapping branches, making the area less desirable for the birds. Dramatic changes are not necessary. Remove dead wood and thin the tree canopy to allow sunlight between limbs and other trees. Also, remove excessive undergrowth vegetation and old abandoned nest. At the beginning of nesting season, remove early nesting material daily, using long poles or water hoses after verifying that no eggs are present. For maximum impact, habitat modification should be combined with noise and visual deterrents. When birds first arrive in early spring, they are somewhat nervous and easily scared away. Noise deterrents such as pyrotechnics, cracker shells, propping cannons, and predator calls work effectively. Local residents can be encouraged to use noisemakers, air horns, clackers, and even pots and pans to deter the birds from undesired nesting sites. Visual deterrents such as scare eye balloons, mylar streamers, and hawker owl silhouettes can be effective when put in the trees of potential nesting sites. To be most effective, combine several of these methods so that the birds do not become accustomed to them. Public awareness and early detection are critical to prevent nuisance recrees. The more residents participating in early detection and deterrent techniques, the better the chance of getting the birds to go elsewhere. It is important to remember that once the first bird lays an egg, all harassment and scare techniques must stop. It is illegal to kill, harass, move, or disturb the birds or nests when they are actively nesting. If a rookery is established in an urban area and the birds are nesting, residents may continue normal maintenance of their property such as mowing, weed eating, edging, and watering. To keep feces from accumulating, power washers spray down sidewalks, lawns, landscaping, and buildings on a regular basis. Residents should be advised not to handle the birds or specifically disturb the birds while nesting. Fallen eggs, injured, or dead birds should be reported to the local municipality. When trying to prevent a rookery from developing, it is possible that the birds will move to another location that is just as undesirable. Municipalities should develop a contingency plan in anticipation of actions to be taken should the need arise. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Urban Program provides assistance to municipalities dealing with urban rookries. We want to thank you for watching this video and we hope it was useful information to help prevent egress from nesting in our neighborhoods. As you can see, we need our neighborhoods to work together. No one wants to harm or injure any birds. We just want them to nest in a more suitable habitat. If you have any questions or want to report an egress sighting, please contact us so we can assist.


to the White House. Tonight, we honor His Majesty, Sultan Qaboos bin Saeed, Sultan of Oman. Some time ago, the Queen of England awarded him the Knight Grand Cross of St. Michael and St. George on an order that was founded in 1818 with the motto, token of a better age. Your Majesty, after spending time with you today in discussing serious matters of concern to both our nations, I can fully appreciate why our cousins in Great Britain paid you that compliment. Those ancient orders of chivalry, however, tend to associate grace, decency, and other majestic qualities with the past, often the very distant past. But here, Your Majesty, on this side of the Atlantic, we look for such traits in those around us because we seek first and foremost to build a better tomorrow. And it's clear that leaders like yourself, proud yet humane individuals, will indeed make tomorrow a better age for mankind. In my welcoming remarks this morning, I touched on a few of your many wonderful accomplishments. These were not products of a faint heart or indecision. Modern education systems, sophisticated health organizations, the infrastructure for economic progress don't just spring into existence, especially in so short a time. These advances are the result of hard work and good government. They reflect on extraordinary level of leadership. They reflect values which are deeply cherished here and reaffirm our high regard for the people of Oman and for you as an individual. The sultan's enthusiasm for building a well-functioning modern country is a legend. But how many are aware of his enthusiasm for horses? Your Majesty, you probably know I enjoy riding myself. With all your pressing responsibilities, I'm sure you agree that there is nothing so good for the inside of a man as the outside of a horse. I also understand you have an appreciation for Gilbert Sullivan, an interest that's shared by many here in America. Well, we can all be grateful that the sun will never set on Gilbert and Sullivan. But as much as Americans admire and identify with horsemanship and music, Your Majesty, we revere your personal courage and commitment even more. We're keenly aware that the progress you've made for your people was done in spite of a communist-inspired, externally supported insurrection early in your reign. But you are not a man who is easily deterred. In an interview, you said, I go everywhere. I drive my own car. I usually like to drive in the first car of a convoy because that way I can see more of my people and my country. And that's what I live for. And that's what I will die for. Your Majesty, I salute you. The American people are lucky to have you as friends and are proud to stand side by side with the people of Oman. Thank you. God bless you. Mr. President, Mrs. Reagan honored guests. I have been deeply touched by the warmth of the welcome you have extended to me this evening. And by the generous words of appreciation with which you have referred to my country. It is indeed a pleasure for me to visit your great city of Washington again. And this time to do so as a formal expression of the friendship and understanding which exists between our two countries. As I am sure you are aware, the past decade has made heavy demands on Oman. Not only have the most sustained and intensive efforts had to be made in our determination to provide a better life for our people, but at the same time we have fought to preserve our independence from foreign-inspired aggression. Today, happily, that aggression has been defeated and great strides have been made in the improvement of the quality of life of our people. But we are under new illusions. We realize that the important geopolitical position we occupy at the mouth of the Gulf and the unstable situation that exists in the region make it imperative that we develop our country and its defenses to the maximum of our ability. This we are doing and shall continue to do. We do not expect others to shoulder these burdens for us. We fight our own battles, but we realize that in the present state of the world, no country can act in isolation. That a concerted effort must be made by the free world if freedom itself is not to be extinguished. We, therefore, look to our friends for their support just as we offer ours to them in the trails and dangers that jointly face us. This is, therefore, Mr. President, why I am particularly welcome this opportunity to acknowledge the valuable contribution which the United States has made and continues to make to the development and the interests of Oman, the experts, technical and other resources upon which we have been able to draw and the sustaining goodwill with which they have been provided has been of the greatest assistance in the work to improve the quality of life of my people and to safeguard the independence and territorial integrity of our country. Mr. President, the inescapable burdens which lie upon your great country are indeed heavy, but your untiring work for peace and your active concern for the oppressed and underprivileged in this troubled world, command, respect and admiration of all who place the destiny of humanity above cynical, political manipulation and exploitation. In this, your continued search for unacceptable and honorable solution is vital if the dangerous and intractable situation in the Middle East is to be resolved ornably and finally. I have welcomed the opportunity to discuss this and other matters of mutual concern with you and I believe that our frank and constructive exchange of views has made a real contribution to an understanding of the problems which face our two countries and has been a positive step towards their solution. Mr. President, I should like to assure you that you have a man's sympathetic support and understanding in the great work for peace and humanity of which you are engaged. Thank you. We'll have to tell her we said thanks. Here she comes. Well, tonight, as you can well see, it's our pleasure to have two internationally acclaimed operatic stars with us. Robert Merrill has been called one of the greatest baritones of the century, and many Americans, I think, when they think of the toreador song from Carmen, they automatically think Robert Merrill. And Anna Moffo is one of opera's most heralded stars as thrilled audience as the world over. She's received a host of awards and commendations from both sides of the Atlantic, including the Grand Prix du Disque, and most recently the Medal of Achievement awarded to her by the Philadelphia Art Alliance. And I think I speak for all of you. And when I thank them and their accompanist, Meredith or Marion and Kenneth Merrill, for being with them and for all of them, their generosity and sharing their talent with us here this evening. Thank you very much. They didn't use a mic.


Welcome back. It's still the breakfast on Plus TV Africa. On this particular segment, we will be focusing on health specifically right now. We're looking at the COVID-19 new variants, the Omicron, and there are several issues right now making the rounds. Well, the World Health Organization is targeting it as a virus of curnsome, and the Omicron variant, according to the NCDC, is not yet in Nigeria, but Canada said there are some travelers from Nigeria, actually found that particular variant. We have joined us this morning to look at all of these issues, and what we need to do to protect ourselves more in Nigeria. Dr. Neso Chi-okei-kei-wokei, she is a health expert. Many thanks for joining us on the breakfast on Plus TV Africa Doctor. Thanks for having me this morning. Yeah, yeah, our pleasure. So let's just start either just to do a bit of an education for Nigerians who may not be so aware about this particular virus, the Omicron, you know, the WHO has talked as a virus of concern. What should we be worried about? What are we expected to know as Nigerians? So when we're talking about any of virus variants of concern, what basically has happened is that there's been a change to the genetic code of the virus, essentially a mutation of sorts. The more mutations that occur in the viral genome, it allows the virus the potential to basically cause more harm to the human body. The reason it is deemed a variant of concern is because it has the potential to be more transmissible, more virulent, and potentially it could evade the efficacy of the vaccinations that we have in place. So with the Omicron variant that we are seeing emerging at this point, there's still a lot that we don't know about it, and there's still more studies to be done to determine how virulent this new variant can actually be. It could potentially pose a serious global threat, but we don't know the extent of that at this point in time. So I think that's why we kind of see all the buzz about this variant, because if it does do the potential amount of damage due to the amount of mutations it has, it can really cause problems worldwide in the global community in this fight against the pandemic. Okay, let's also talk about, because we're still trying to understand what the Omicron is all about, what's the difference between the Omicron variant and other COVID-19 infection? So it is still a COVID-19 infection, but as stated before, it's called a variant because over time, throughout the course of this pandemic, the actual virus has undergone these changes, these mutations. As long as the virus is spreading in the community and thriving, it gives it the opportunity to change some of its genetic code, meaning that there could be a change in some of the coding of the virus that can cause various changes, and it can make the virus potentially more transmissible. So when we're talking about Omicron variant in particular, why there's so much concern, because so far the preliminary data has showed us there is up to almost 50 mutations on this new variant. One of the areas of the actual virus is what we call the spike protein. Spike protein is usually what the vaccines target to try to help one build up immunity against COVID-19. So what the preliminary data is showing us, there is an abundance of these changes, these mutations, to this spike protein that could potentially cause problems, many problems. So Dr. Okeke Bukwe, if we got you correctly, so over time, we should expect to see another set of Omicron variant of this particular COVID-19. So that's the main behavior of viruses. Virus behavior lets us know that over time, if we do not contain any kind of virus, it has the potential to mutate and change as it replicates. If we were able to get to a point whereby we had herd immunity, it would really give the virus an opportunity to really thrive and change and mutate. As long as we do not contain the COVID-19 pandemic and the spread of the virus, as long as the virus continues to thrive, it always gives it an opportunity to mutate. It gives it an opportunity to change. Anytime the virus mutates and changes, there is always a possibility to have another form of variant. So with Omicron that's going on right now, it might not be the last variant of concern that we're going to see because we have to contain this pandemic. So there's always a chance and a possibility for mutations to continuously occur and really affect the human body when one is exposed to such a variant. Okay, so let's also, you know, pour that. Do you know if the Omicron variant is transmissible, you know, just like you have with other COVID infection? Yeah, so it's very likely that it is transmissible, but it's the extent of the transmissibility that is still needed to be determined at this point. Anytime there's a variant of concern, it's concerning because it's usually more transmissible than other forms of the virus. It's typically more virulent, meaning that it has a higher load of virus that can really affect the body deleteriously. And it's easier to evade certain public health measures that we have in place like vaccinations. So yes, there is going to be a level of high transmissibility, but we don't know how high that level of transmissibility is going to be at this time with Omicron. Right now we're in the land of the unknown. There are so many studies and research that still needs to be done, and only time will tell how this variant is really going to affect the population. But just before you're coming now, you know, some researchers are already saying that, yes, we know that the virus was dictated in South Africa, Botswana on the 11th of November, but you already have, you know, expats on top of their game. And some persons are saying that they are concerned with the modeling, showing that the spread could be five times, you know, the increase. I mean, the rate could be five times of that of the 2020 COVID. That's the delta variant. What are your thoughts on that? Do you think it's something we can go by? I mean, that's definitely a possibility, but at this point and at this stage we cannot say definitively how damaging this strain is going to be. There's still too much research that's left at this point up in the air that we don't have that data and that information to really make that call. The concern is the amount of mutations. When you have this level of mutation for any virus, that's always concerning. It puts us on edge thinking that this really can be an issue in regards to infection rates, reinfection rate for those that are vaccinated. The more of these changes and mutations that occur on this variant, it gives it an opportunity to really cause issues, more infection, more transmissibility, and just more virulence of the virus. All right. Let's try and localize it and bring it to Nigeria. Let's talk about some of the public health concerns regarding our challenges as a country. What are the major concerns for us right now? We still have issues of our most Nigerians not being vaccinated and nowadays another variant that is really very transmissible. What should we be looking at? What should we be putting in place at this particular time? So the major concern at this point is the very low rate of vaccination in Nigeria. Vaccination rates are very low, less than 5 percent of Nigerians are fully vaccinated at this point. So the goal really is to try to get as much of the population vaccinated. Vaccinations are really the only way out of this pandemic. So if we have this low vaccination rate and we have a potentially highly transmissible, more virulence variant that is potentially going to be out there, it can really cause some serious problems on the African continent, in Nigeria in general. If this becomes a variant that really begins to reach Nigeria and spread throughout the population. The major concern right now is really vaccine equity. If we do have enough of the vaccines available in Nigeria, how do we get it to most of the population? We generally have an issue with Nigeria when we talk about the healthcare sector in regards to access. Access to good healthcare. If we did want every Nigerian potentially vaccinated against COVID-19, do they know where to go to get this vaccination? If it is available to them, do they have proper education to understand why and the importance of why vaccines are actually necessary during this pandemic? I recently arrived in Lagos and a lot of people that I have been speaking to and contact with that are not vaccinated, a lot of them have not had that patient education to let them know why vaccines are actually fundamentally important at this point in stage of the pandemic. I think many people need to really understand the benefits that vaccination affords one in regards to lowering the rate of death if potentially exposed to the virus, lowering the rate of hospitalization and severe illness. There's a lot of misinformation that tends to be spread about this vaccine that makes some people quite hesitant about moving forward with vaccinations. I had a conversation with somebody recently upon my landing in Lagos and they were telling me COVID-19, it's only a problem in the Western world. It's only a problem in America where you live and everyone needs to realize that this is a global issue. This is a serious illness that has the potential to cause severe illness and severe death if you don't have that potential protection. The only protection that we really have at this point really are the vaccinations. But just how, sorry if I have to vote in, but just what do we know as we get some of this vaccination, what with this new Omicron, talking about protection, just how effective are these, you know, vaccines, you know, to these Omicron variants? Okay, so but just you also chipping to that particular question because I mean it's the same line of thoughts. Now we also have arguments saying that the G20 has failed to vaccinate Africa and this is where we are of course not just part of Africa. Now you have said that this virus keeps mutating and the fact that we're talking about mutation that becomes stronger, you know, they have different characteristics, they become something else. So what's the potency of saying that the vaccines that we have right now can mitigate against them? So the vaccines that we have and the research that has been done, it's really to help protect against the various strains of COVID-19 that we've seen throughout the course of the pandemic. Are the vaccines that we have available right now going to help protect against the Omicron variants? Only time will tell. There's still too many unknowns and we don't know the level of protection that the vaccines that we currently have available globally would help us in protecting against the Omicron variants. But with that said, we want to protect ourselves what we do have available. We want to try to protect ourselves against COVID-19, other COVID-19 variants in general and hopefully get to a point where by we understand more about Omicron and if there needs to be some adjustments in any of the vaccines that we have available, then researchers would do the needful to determine if they can create a formulation of the vaccine that would cover for Omicron if it is found to be that it is such a variant that is evading vaccinations that we currently have. All right, the Utah is just around the corner, you know, with most nations including the United Nations and some, you know, European and South Asian or Southeast Asian countries, you know, imposing travel bans. Should Nigeria be looking along that direction and just one more can we do to protect ourselves, you know, vis-à-vis people coming in and leaving Nigeria? So, I mean, a lot of these travel bans that are going on right now, they're a bit premature and they tend to be somewhat ineffective. At this point, it gives a false sense of protection and an illusion that this is kind of helping us avoid this spread by having any kind of travel ban in place. We have to look at the fundamentals of where we've been in the pandemic over the past year and nine months plus. Basic things that we need to be concerned about, especially with the holiday season upon us, people are going to be gathered in crowds and a lot of gatherings. We need to make sure that most people stick to the basics in regards to proper hand hygiene, mask wearing, the basics that help protect against the spread of viruses, but more so getting back to it, the vaccination situation. We just need to essentially get more people in the community vaccinated against COVID-19 to help curb the spread. All right, so my question now is, just as we're asking for measures, how can we, what are the basic things we need to do to ensure that we reduce the spread of this virus across board? Some countries are already talking booster shots and for us, we know that that's Nigerians were still grappling with having people getting the vaccination, getting the first dose and not talking about the second dose. Do you think that Africa should be considering booster shots at this point in time? I think that's definitely a consideration. I can tell you from my personal experience, I've had my booster shot and why is that so key and why is that important? Because after one has been fully vaccinated, some of the data has shown over time, some of that protection that you have from being fully vaccinated, it kind of wanes over time. So you want that booster shot to give you that extra level of protection after the effect of your initial vaccination kind of wanes off with time. So essentially, I think boosters are definitely a consideration in Nigeria. But we have to talk about getting the population even initially vaccinated, make sure that people get their first dose of the vaccine for we even fast forward and jump the gun to talk about boosters. But definitely that is going to be a consideration when we start getting more and more of the Nigerian population vaccinated. There's going to come a point whereby there wouldn't be a need likely for booster shots. All right, Dr. Okke Igbukwe, are you concerned about the hinterland specifically getting access to vaccination here in Nigeria? Because over time, there is still this vaccine hesitancy across both here and the main cities. Would you be concerned of insecurity and most health workers not wanting to go down to the hinterlands? What should we be focusing on? How can we get there to ensure that everyone, no matter where they are, gets at least one or two shots of these vaccines? So I think it really comes down to kind of the infrastructure of health care in Nigeria. We really need to make sure that we have regulatory and government bodies that are actually focusing on having us have this access for more vaccinations in the country. We need to make sure that we actually have certain, let's put it this way, certain level of education for the entire population to let them know why a lot of these vaccines are important. We need to just have a plan of action in place to make sure that we have these vaccines available. We have to consider if it is a matter of even trying to produce and manufacture some of these vaccines on the African continent in Nigeria to ensure that we have the availability for all Nigerians to have a vaccination available for them. Campaigns need to be available to really educate as well because it's one thing to get to a point whereby we do have adequate amounts of vaccine for every Nigerian, but will everyone really be open to getting the vaccination? Will everyone really understand the importance of vaccination? So campaigns focusing on educating about vaccinations about the risks of COVID-19, that's extremely important at this time, but really I think we need to get to a point whereby the issues that have always been long-standing in Nigeria about access to good health care and access to resources, things need to pretty much change and I think it starts with really a change in the infrastructure of the health care system here in Nigeria. Okay so let's talk more about what to expect with the variant, that's the omicron variant. Are there symptoms just like you have with other ailments? What are the symptoms? Do we know of any symptoms? So when we're talking about COVID-19 in general, we do understand when we do know that it is a respiratory illness. In regards to the symptoms of the omicron variant, there are so few cases that we have the case studies on to determine if the symptomology, if it's going to be any difference from various variants like Delta and various strains that we've seen globally at this point. But in regards to just general symptoms to be aware of, you want to be aware of any changes in respiratory status. If you're having issues with cough, difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, issues with fever, essentially this is still the COVID-19 virus but it's just a variant. So there could be essential changes to the symptom profile that we see but again it's still too early in the information we have about omicron to know if there are specific symptoms that are super specific to this strain. Okay so there also can sense, I mean I know that you know for the much that we have had this conversation, you have really been on the fact that we need to be vaccinated, more people need to be vaccinated but we also have cases where peasants have been vaccinated and he doesn't really stop the fact that they still get to contract the virus and in most cases we've actually recorded deaths of some peasants. So how would you explain all of this vaccine, vaccination, is it really the solution to you know stopping this virus or ending it? So yeah, vaccinations are still the solution. I think what you're alluding to and what you describe are what we call breakthrough infections meaning when one is fully vaccinated they've still had issues with COVID-19 exposure and some level of illness. What we know about vaccinations, no vaccine is going to be 100% effective. Okay and we do know with time when you are fully vaccinated some of that immunity and the protection that you get is going to wane over time. So I think it goes back to what we were talking about the need for boosters to really give you that kind of robust effect to build up that immunity that you've gained from the initial set of vaccinations that were received. There's always a potential for reinfection but what we do know in regards to vaccinations if you have somebody who has been vaccinated against COVID-19 versus somebody who has been unvaccinated against COVID-19 and both individuals are exposed to this virus, chances are the individual who was unvaccinated they have a high likelihood of having more severe illness, more issues with potential hospitalization and a higher chance of death from the virus as compared to that individual who was vaccinated. So the benefits of vaccination are truly beneficial to all those that actually move forward with their vaccine. If you are unvaccinated at this point basically the virus is really looking for you as a host to really do its damage so it is to your benefit to get the amount of protection or to get the potential protection against having severe illness from COVID-19.  Okay so if we're talking about some of the mRNA these vaccinations so for example Moderna that was the vaccination that I received after being fully vaccinated some of the data showed that after a six month period post vaccination being fully vaccinated getting the full set of the two doses after that six month window studies show that there is that waning of the protection at waning of immunity so after that six month mark those that did receive their vaccinations they are eligible to move forward with a booster so you don't have that full protection that robust amount of protection as you had initially over a period of time so after several months it will be likely that one would need to have the booster to help with protection so usually around the six month window with the mRNA based vaccinations to really give you the opportunity to get the booster to give you that help and that kind of boost with the immune protection. All right now with the new Omicron variant are there specific concerns even that we know of for the elderly for the infants? So in regards to any kind of variants that we're talking about when you have a high level of mutation and you have a high level of transmissibility and potentially high level of virulence from any of these variants we are always concerned obviously about the elderly population we are always concerned about the immunocompromised why is that because as everyone gets older and those who have chronic medical conditions those that are immunocompromised with issues like certain kinds of cancers with chronic conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure just all types of chronic medical problems it increases your risk of how the virus can actually target the body your level of immunity is already lower than the average normal healthy individual so if you are elderly or immunocompromised we are going to be more concerned about exposure to the Omicron variant we are going to be concerned about exposure to any of the variants really in the immunocompromised and elderly population. All right so let's quickly show your thought do you think that there's a possibility of course the health authorities in Nigeria are saying that we do not have the Omicron virus yet or the variant right now in the country but we also have reports from Canada saying that some Nigerians who traveled you know across have been dictated with the virus is there a possibility that we do have the variant in Nigeria? I mean it is it is always a possibility and again time will tell if we're seeing the cases that are popping up in the global community in various countries already it's only a matter of time until we actually get a confirmed case of the variant in Nigeria. So the issue is that we might have not done the exact sampling it might be just as staring at us in the face and that we don't know yet. It's a possibility it's a very high possibility in a matter of time and this is just my speculation in regards to the way these viruses these mutations these variants actually work and operate when you kind of see this these cases and these surges in various areas globally worldwide in a country as heavily populated as Nigeria it's very likely there's a potential unidentified case already but we need the data we need the confirmation it's too soon to say that it's already here without actually having the confirmed case but in in some time I would suspect that we would have um a confirmed case um forthcoming. All right Dr. Ibuke Ibuke just before we let you go maybe just sort of sort of a recap for Nigerians who may still be worried how would you allay their fears? So in regards to the variant I would say this is not a time to really panic but it's a time to really educate yourself about the benefits of vaccination. It's a time to really have that understanding and that discussion with a healthcare provider that you actually trust to discuss why it is important to move forward with your vaccination. I think it's a time to really remove some of the misinformation that is out there from from our minds I think it's an opportunity to really understand how the vaccines that are available if they are available to you how important and how necessary it is to move forward with the uh with the vaccination to help give you the protection amidst um this pandemic. The pandemic is not over yet. I think with Omicron it's an eye opener to let us know that to let us know that this um pandemic is still um amongst us all and we need to do what we can as best as possible to protect ourselves against this. So I think it's really a call to action at this point to see what can be done for us to really protect um our health throughout the course of this pandemic. All right thank you very much. We have been speaking with Dr. Neso Chio KK Iwakui a health expert and she has done a whole lot of uh you know education for us Nigerians. We do appreciate your time. Thank you for having me on this morning. It is our pleasure. Well take a quick break and when we return we'll be focusing on nation building on the show this morning. Do join us again.


Hey everybody This is this is a cool new little thing that we're trying and I stumbled across Another podcast that I really quite liked and and I got in touch with the guy that runs it and asked him if you wanted to come And have a chat with us on our podcast And he's not based in the UK. So this is a virtual slash remote And Pubcast and we decided to double down on that as well because me and Paul I need them together So I'm in my shed Jordy's in his shed and Paul's in his kitchen. Yeah, and I Am I am even though I'm not a pub. I am gonna have a drink Excellent What I've got in my shed It's a whiskey Well, you're gonna have a cup of coffee or something. Yeah, I've got a coffee on the go Do you got a glass of water or something? I don't unfortunately and I don't have to leave I won't do that to you That's all right. So, okay. Well, I'm drinking a glass of fire and cane from Glenn Fiddish a Scotch whiskey Which is a bit smoky because yeah, I have a little fire in my shed and it's nice Cheers everybody cheers. Cheers Okay, so I've mentioned you the fact that I heard you podcast Jordy the big break podcast Could you just tell us there's a little bit about yourself? Yes, so I have as Jeff kindly mentioned a podcast called the big break software podcast and I have a team of developers about 45 and growing and we are big into scrum and agile methodologies although mostly my developers handle that side and I Was curious about scrum myself So I've been Looking on your site and wanting to learn more about you know agile methodologies And as part of that, I also have my own software as a service to companies. Well, they're not companies. They're services and Obviously we do daily stand-ups and Sprints to get you products or the features published on into the products and We've been finding it hugely important, but also challenges because we're doing this all remote So we don't have the advantage of standing in a boardroom You know Doing face-to-face. So there's some challenges with that. Yeah See and there's there's a good example already of how we don't need to script it because these things just these things just come out so We're remote here. This is yeah This is a big topic in agile Remote distributed teams. Yeah, where people aren't all together. Now, you're as I understand it your your team is Together, but you're not necessarily yes, and that is huge. Yeah, that's huge. So I have the advantage that they all go into the office. So They're based out of India and so I went to meet them and I go and I go and meet them when I can you know India is obviously far from Europe but but So I have what I have two guys that I've deal with on a daily basis that we run it as a sort of small team to make sure the other projects are going well and they are essentially the scrum masters, but I don't know how how Rigidly they're following any, you know protocols for for being You know like real scrum masters. So this is why I'm also curious about You know what you find is the most important elements of being a scrum master who should be and how many should there be all that sort of thing? What what what kind of what kind of products or services are your guys delivering? What what domains and industries are you in? It's all it's all software development. We do Microsoft technologies So most of the most of the projects that were involved in our sort of building MVPs So we usually have between two and maybe five developers working on an MVP at a time and It works well, and so we've been working together for about two years and and as a team we're We're slowly figuring out how the best ways to work with each other So but what have you thought have you found so far what's come up like challenges? Yeah, well and the best ways to work together. What have you found? So definitely the daily stand-ups has been really good and keeping them short because if you make them too long They you know that people dread them. So we're like, okay, so we and we do them at the same time So for me, it's seven in the morning basically the way I open the day And all would be asleep at that time of day. Yeah There's only one seven o'clock in there in every day, and that's the one in the evening. Don't do seven o'clock in the morning That's right Yeah, so that but I'm a morning person. So it's that the seven is like, you know, yeah But it's it's been would your clients be involved in that No, they we have weekly client meetings and with that there's sort of more progress Sort of progress. So and the reason I like that we've tried both ways but I think that Having that weekly meeting sets it sets a sort of deadline like we better have something to show the client So I think I found that has been really helpful So If someone's asleep at the wheel, that's you know, we're like scrambling on Tuesday Like what are we showing the client tomorrow? You know, and and it always works out, you know We're having daily stand-ups and I'm checking on that every every day to make sure that okay What's the you know the status of this? What's the status of this status of this? Yeah, so you kind of you're sort of almost representing the client if you like that Yeah, I am because I'm sort of the sales lead I guess well and it's because I'm it's it's Yeah, I guess I'm the sales lead it's since it's my company, you know, I'm the founder Okay, cool. What kind of tools do you use for the the stand-ups? So we use we use slack Which has been really good and and we can have product we can divide the projects up In slack into the different slack channels, so we can have different teams It's a great tool for that we use we use a Skype as well, so we can have group calls between the different members. Yeah, and And Jira you guys are probably familiar with Jira. Yeah You don't like it really What's more important is do you and your team like it we actually do like it We were using Trello as well and Trello is really hard to manage. It was messy And and it was just messy because it was hard It's I think maybe okay for a smaller project, but Jira we find we find to be it's I Think it's it if you understand it that you can understand a project quickly it's But I mean with any tool really it can get it can get out of control But if it stays if you've got control over it, then it's yeah, be really useful. Tell me what tools do you guys that what tools do you like? For a remote team, I mean what miss will stay in my world We use said the tool that we use in now, so we try and get as much face to face I mean these work we're using zoom now, right? So this and I'm not sure how old zoom is but it seems to me like and One of the newer video conferencing tools that you can use and obviously and record these things as well that you I'm gonna sound me and Jeff came from a telecoms company where this this type of technology in 15 years 20 years ago wasn't wasn't available So you had to we had to work a lot harder to to get online and to get Face-to-face with people so I think there's a lot more face-to-face tools that you can use now That actually like like Skype and like WebEx and like Google Hangouts and all these things that make The virtual nature of team working a lot less virtual a lot more real So I think yeah anything like that that we use is always going to be a benefit because you just get to see people's faces and Yeah, and you can and the speed of the internet and the connection speed these days is much better than it ever has been So you can you can fairly quickly fire these things up and have a conversation On the other side of the world so that's that's the main thing I think yeah I mean in terms of managing the project though, you're not use using zoom like, you know, let's imagine Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no tricky note concept You know moving sticky notes around the things that are there tools that you guys use for that You've mentioned some of the ones that are you so I've just been using I've been the prototoner for my own book project, which I had collaborators on from all around the world Yeah My editor is in one country, my design is in another, my illustrator is in another, my reviewers are in other countries. So we use the Swedish tools to do that. We use Trello and Slack, those two have the integrations there. So, and Dropbox and Google Drive. Those are the four tools that we used to manage the backlog, to manage the progress, to have sort of smaller group conversations and collaborations within the Slack channels. And then Zoom to add that richness to the conversation and to capture what we've done that sprint, if you like, in the sprint reviews. So you feel the video on like this is a crucial element, having the video on and having video call. We're a big fan of being able to see the whites of people's eyes. Yeah, I think just, it's a little bit like having a constant view, even though having a connection open, I mean, in several offices that I used to work in, they'd have just a constant Skype connection open just into the kind of team space so you can see people walking around. You can see there's life in another part of the organization or there's people genuinely milling around an office. I think as much of that as you can have, I think it's always gonna be a good thing to see people moving around. Even if you're not talking to them directly, you could almost tap you and knock the virtual screen and get someone's attention, that type of thing. Yeah, that's interesting. I can't remember the name of the tool, but there was a cool tool I came across a couple of years ago with Lego bricks on the wall. So you had a wall with those big base plates covered, the Lego base plates covered the wall. And each block represented something different. So I think it was the shape of the block represented the size of the work and the color of the block represented the person and so on. And you took a picture through the app and that automatically updated the board in like a web-based client. So you could replicate that online and physically because as well as the face-to-face virtual thing, one of the things that we've found just seems to be a big thing for teams. And it'd be interesting whether your co-located team finds this as well is the tactile nature of being able to move a sticky note or move a Lego brick or rip up a card, not just click close on JIRA. Yeah, or Trello.  Yeah, yeah, and it's a digital replication of it. It would just, I still like having those. I can't get this on there, but I've got, so I've got a Trello board that I work with today. I've got a list of things that I'm working with today but I've also written those things out on post-it notes on my desk in front of a camera to show you. But I've got one here that says, Geordie Recordings. It's duplication, but I like being able to feel that up and stick it in the fire when I'm done. Yeah, the other thing I think, which is an important psychological aspect in an office environment. And I was just talking about this just yesterday in a class, I just finished yesterday, is you have a physical task board in an office or a team space. People see you stand up and they see you walk over to that board, even maybe subconsciously, but they see you pick up a task and they see you move it. That's demonstrating something's changing, something's making progress, something's done, something's blocked. And that's a, it's a physical commitment that that team member is making to the rest of their team for them to see. People don't see that. I don't think if you open up a screen on your laptop and update your ticket in Jira or Trello, if you move it there, people don't really, people aren't seeing it physically as well as seeing it from an audit point of view. So I think there's a huge commitment level gain that you get by physically picking up a task, putting your avatar on it or whatever it might be physically on the board and moving it into a different column. It's demonstrating I'm doing this work now or I've done this work now. That makes sense. If cost was no issue for you, Jordy, would you have your clients face-to-face with your dev team more often or would you prefer the distance? It's not so cost, it's not cost. I guess it would be cost like in terms of me hiring a team of 40 developers in Switzerland, it would be, you know, you know, I don't know, over a million dollars or something, you know, as well as I could be. It also travel costs, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, so I think it is cost, if it were not a factor for me to have, you know, like it was, you know, that's a good question because I've always worked remote. So I'm used to it and I'm used to some of the challenges which is obviously not having that face-to-face contact but I'm also looking for ways to improve it because I think it can be done and I'm a big believer in having some face-time. So I'm flying over to see clients next week and it's a massive cost for me but, you know, it's important to go and see clients and have face-to-face because, I mean, nothing can replace that, you know, you have to get to know who's on the other end of the line. But, you know, having this video, I think is a good idea for me. That's, we usually just do it without, I don't even know what the guys look like, you know. And now I'm gonna go a little bit about them.  Just starting this, we're in the middle, so I'm not sure when this is gonna go out but at the moment, maybe the world's come to an end already with the coronavirus but we are in the middle of this thing where people are canceling flights and companies are saying to their people, you need to work from home and don't shake hands and all this kind of stuff, which is probably an overreaction but it does beg the question of, you know, should we, are we in a position where we can cope with what has become a more distributed world and perhaps some of the challenges of not being able to travel? What would make your team, if they could ask for anything that would make them more productive? What do you think they would ask for? We'll see, they have the advantage of being able to work all together. So I think that I know that clients, a big objection that I need to work through when I'm finding projects to work on is are you willing to work with remote developers? You know, and it depends, they have to have had a previous good experience in that way or they're not open to it. And so if they haven't, then it's almost like I can't even, I can't try and convince them that, oh, listen, my team's great and we can overcome challenges that you've had before because they're like, they're not open to it. So I have to, that's a challenge that I need. So if I could deliver my services in Switzerland at the same cost that I could do with my provider, my vendors in India, I'd be the busiest man in the space. So I do have to overcome that challenge. Like, okay, I can't even mention the word India until I know that client is, until I know that he's gonna be okay with it. And so if I'm coming at them, okay, I'm in Switzerland, I can handle this project and they're like, okay, that's great. And then I have to break them into that fact because they might get wary of it. But by that time, I found that they're okay working remotely. So is that your equivalent, because you're effectively your own entrepreneur, right? So you start with this business. And is that your equivalent of your early adopters finding the people who are- I think that's right. Yes, I think that's right until I find the right model. So they're the early adopters. I have some long-term clients and some are just sort of project-contract-based but they may come back. So it is definitely a challenge, but I think my business is really big on referrals. So as long as I really, really treat the clients very well and baby them, and I think that on the back end, the referral business will be what ultimately gets me over that fear of people working with remote teams. Okay. I mentioned that I've heard your podcast. I'm not sure whether Paul's heard a podcast, but one of the people that you interviewed was Seth Godin. And Seth is going to be keynoting the upcoming Scrum Gathering. Oh, really? Okay. So tell Paul why he should listen to your podcast. For that show in particular, I found was very interesting with Seth. But I think for my podcast, I'm just trying to learn from people. So I'm trying to find in my industry, my show is just basically saying, how did you get from the beginning to basically where you're at now? And most of the time I'm looking for people that we would consider successful. They're sort of making, their business is making over 30 or 50,000 a month. And they've sort of passed that hump where they're in the early days where they're not really sure if they're gonna make it. And the show is really just breaking down. How did you get from zero to 30 or whatever? Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Cool. That's the premise of the show, yeah. So it's kind of to inspire people to try something or to tell them. Exactly. It's sort of like, are you thinking about software?  Do you have an idea? And the whole thing is a journey to help these people get, to sort of break free and be an entrepreneur. And yeah, so that's the thing. That's why it's called the big break. What were the specific factors that contributed to your big break and got you to where you are? That's great. Yeah, I mean, that's, we do use, we, I personally take a lot of inspiration now from outside of my current paradigm of thinking. So in terms of trying to look at alternatives and look at abstractions about how is something, someone else has done something in a different way and had some success with it. I think from a human point of view, people need to hear success. They need to hear positive news and they need to see that there is a people can succeed rather than it's very easy to get bogged down, especially in the work that Jeff and I do. It's very easy to get bogged down in what doesn't work and what you shouldn't do. Yeah, I can imagine. And inevitably all problem solvers and like to see the barriers to the fear and something that's trying to look at the positives. That's a great idea. Yeah. Who should the interview next, Paul? Who do you like to hear about? I don't know. Yeah, yeah. So maybe some from, I don't know how many people you can see from kind of even outside the business space. So kind of maybe from the sports world or from the arts or from literature or from an author. From just from, you know, from kind of screenwriters or there was an interesting story I read about the other day and my kids put me onto this about Cain Monroe. You heard about Cain Monroe? So I think I sent you a link to this, Jeff. Oh, yeah, the kid with his arcade? Yeah, kid. A nine-year-old boy made a cardboard arcade in his dad's garage. So he recreated all these fantastic, you know, kind of lo-fi arcade machines with tickets and he would, this nine-year-old would sit behind, sit inside these boxes and feed through the tickets. But he did it in his summer holidays and he had like no customers and he's on the point of giving up and he kind of despondent this poor nine-year-old kid and until the last day of the holidays when this one guy comes in and plays his arcade, he had one customer in like eight weeks but this one customer was a filmmaker and he made a short, yeah, kind of eight-minute video and said, I'm going to make a video of what you've done. And he created, social media went viral on it and it created this flash mob idea and I think like hundreds of people came and played Cain's arcade and now there's a whole kind of global challenge that's emerged called the Cardboard Challenge where kids from all over the globe are making games and making things out of cardboard and grabbing these inspiring kids and my 10-year-old, they're studying people, what they call influencers at school and the influencers that I think are influential to me are different to what's influencing a 10-year-old kid so like YouTubers and inventors that I've not heard of and this kid came and wrote from the States he's inspiring hundreds and thousands of kids around the globe I had no idea. What's the short? I'm curious. I'll go see it after the show. You put it in the notes but you said head talk, right? I don't think it's Ted. I don't think it's officially Ted. I think if you go to Cain's arcade.com there's a couple of videos on there and it's kind of grown this whole movement. It sounds like it really moved me. It's a school educational movement. Yeah, inspiring kids to create inspiring kids to basically be entrepreneurs at the age of 9-10 that you can make something and it doesn't have to be expensive. You don't need a lot of money to get these things going but the thing that rung true to me from watching the videos was the resilience is this kid's had no customers for eight weeks. No one ever walked past his dad's garage and didn't go and go in but you only need one customer and then that can, if it's the right customer it can transform your product. It can transform your business idea. I've got a question for you, Jordy, based on that.  I'll say keys because there might have been more than one. Is it genius? Is it creativity? Is it risk taking? Is it resilience? Is it hard work? What are the keys that you've noticed across these people that have had that success? I was just thinking when Paul was talking about the resilience of Kane sitting in his dad's garage and watching people walk by and not getting any customers I would definitely say it's part resilience and hard work. I would say the two biggest factors there was a guy that I just interviewed today actually who had some luck for sure but we say it luck you know there's no such thing as an overnight success it's that sort of thing. He was working a full-time sales job in California or something like that selling medical equipment and he started a side, he was working 60 hours with that and then he started a side hustle doing podcasting, editing services and it was two years of that so he was adding on top of his 60 until he got to the point where he could basically leave that job and then he moved to France and was able to have enough money but I mean that is not uncommon with all of the people that I interviewed it's just that little bit of resilience to get past that to the point where you could leave your full-time job and then luckily he did find he found a business that was for sale he acquired it cheaply and luckily it exploded with some proper programming so there was a little combo of both but that... You've used the word luck quite a lot there and I don't know whether it went on reflection whether you have a similar view to me I think the people that have been successful generally often attribute themselves what's happened down to luck but anybody outside what they've done will see the hard work that went into it the fact that they took that opportunity whereas other people would have let it go That's right, yeah Just the phrase you make your own luck isn't it? It's positioning too right if you're not positioned to end by taking that risk putting yourself out there you wouldn't have come across that luck Exactly, yeah So it's the positioning it's the hard work it's the resilience and I was talking to my daughter last night she came into me she was 17 and she was like I really want a business and she's trying loads of little things at the moment so she's going she designs stickers and things and they get printed on stuff she has all these different little things that she's trying and she's like I want a business I said well it doesn't work that way you know do something and if it works then you've got something you can run with but you do something and you keep going until it works or you just do something you enjoy and if it turns into a business then great not the best advice I've ever given but the idea of do just keep doing just keep doing yeah it's action and if it's not working then try something slightly different or maybe it's just you haven't got the customer yet you need to keep going until you get that customer and that's for me I think the hardest hardest thing there's an element of do I give up and try something else or do I keep going and think that customer's just around the corner that's that's that hard tipping point now isn't it that's right and I feel like I feel like we are in a perfect position being someone that teaches scrum because you're really de-risking the project down by by doing you know sprints and you could pass those that sort of methodology on to her so that she can think of and do small tasks you know first it's stickers and maybe it's on this platform or maybe she pivots to a t-shirts or something like that you know and I feel like there is something there in the resilience of moving a project forward by taking action but also taking small tests and sprinting and that's what I've I've found has worked for me because I've had you know some big failures and it was more from going all out and saying you know like building something without any customer feedback and presenting something as a finished project only to find out that people didn't really want it so having her start out by stickers I mean you can buy stickers for you know 50 pounds and then make some small tests to see what works and then kind of expand the product line to whatever you know ribbons and hair ribbons and t-shirts or whatever Interesting that Paul mentioned that who he considers successful and influential very different to his kids consider influential are there different strategies to get your big break now than there were 10 years ago do you think? That is a good question I think I don't think there is really I think I mean the strategies could be different but it comes down to those main factors you know which is really are you willing to take risk are you willing to put in the work and as I said most of these guys are the ones that were working two jobs at one point you know they have the passion to make that project work and get their big break Paul mentioned influences and when I think of influences I think of these I don't know what you call them apart from influences but the sort of social celebrities who you know have massive Instagram followers and followers and so on and that's their product is them their product is the insight into their life my kids watch Cole and Sav and I mean nothing to me but these people are incredibly successful they get sponsored because of the amount of views they get my initial reaction I think was that's I think it's probably that's not fair if I'm honest but it's probably that it's very different to you know how how I see going about getting success in terms of hard work and taking risks because all they're doing is creating videos and people are following them but if I'm being if I'm trying to take the other view they're being they're taking a massive risk inviting people into their lives yeah they are and inviting the scrutiny and the online trolling that comes with it and the amount of time it takes to make videos to produce them well to publicize them, market them follow them up and things that I think my initial reaction was overly harsh it's like you say it's the same strategy but different tactics maybe yeah well I mean it's also that they they obviously want to do that I have no interest in doing that you know and walking around and filming everything that I'm doing but it is work you know I mean it's like okay you wake up in the morning what am I going to do today I've got to produce some fabulous piece of content right or nobody's going to nobody's going to be interested in it so it is still for work so when they're putting putting together a personal brand they're they're still waking up in the morning they've got to produce some kind of content that is interesting and they also had that period of resilience where they were putting it out and nobody was interested and they are able to not quit and work through that stickability what do you think Paul you you've been looking at people outside of the world that we operate in any common factors I think we've kind of covered a lot of it I think there's an element of charisma maybe with it alongside that you've something unique about personality based creates intrigue it's a bit of a difference that people can see and that makes that attraction and there's another one on the one I think about now on Facebook which is the Aussie man you know Aussie man yeah so basically it's just an Australian guy who commentates on other people's content but his uniqueness his brand is his voice and a little bit about his appearance but you think about where that's taking him now and he's like interviewing Hollywood celebrities on the red carpet at the Oscars and things like that he's a YouTuber then just kind of online content but he's taken it from something which is just not even him in the videos but it was just commentary on like safari videos but it's amusing it's comical and it's very broad Australian accent and it's now exploded into and he's becoming kind of a journalist whatever you kind of you put it into that kind of realm so I think there's probably a charisma a uniqueness to a personality that helps maybe with if you've got an online presence or if you've got an influential social media angle but I think that helps yeah just on this I think for me I said to Freya she don't think that you have to be a genius because very few successful entrepreneurs are actually geniuses we have that kind of hero idea of them that someone invents this but most inventions aren't really inventions they're taking something that was there and making it better and a lot of it is just solving a problem that was just getting in their way so they don't see it as genius invention it was just a way of solving a problem fixing something I think that getting past that mindset of well I'm not the kind of person that can do that I'm not the kind of entrepreneurial I don't have that trait I don't think it's the case no it's definitely not I don't think and there's no I don't think there needs to be any amount of genius at all and for the most part I think that if you are going into a space where somebody is already doing it they've proven out the model so you just need to do it better and niche it out so let's say somebody is selling t-shirts to in your daughter's case someone is selling t-shirts to you know people that like black you know are from 25 to 35 they're selling in that age she can do something just to her age group from a mindset of people that she can understand like a certain thing and just niche it out start by selling to a very small market and then expand from there those are some of the most successful businesses that I've seen or the guys that start with a very small group and expand from there would you say Jordy that in your experience is it better to focus fully 100% on one idea or before you move on to pivot and move on to the next one or would you try and you know keep place multiple bets on multiple products or multiple ideas at the same time to see which ones take off well I like to focus I think that focusing at least initially make sure that you are able to give your full attention and complete it to at least 95% otherwise if you're always thinking about the next thing I think you'll just get distracted and you have a bunch of almost finished projects that never really had a chance because they're not completed so I think that in terms of software which is mostly my world if you get something almost working no one's going to like it because it's buggy so you really do need to get focus but that doesn't mean it needs to be full feature it just need to have a small subset of a core problem that you're trying to solve absolutely I don't know what Seth Godin's going to talk about the Scrum Gathering I genuinely don't know whether there's a topic for his talk or not but one thing that I remember from your interview with him that I think is relevant to the conversation here is that he was talking about the discipline that he gets into about writing and just writing a certain number of words or a certain amount of time every day even if it's rubbish it's a discipline of writing have I remembered that correctly yes that's right yeah I'm going to extrapolate that out and I'm going to say that it's not necessarily hard work because that was my initial thought it's that discipline that you get into a self-discipline is a big key factor in successful big break entrepreneurial he's a very interesting guy and a perfect example of that but I think I don't know if you follow his blog but he every day 365 days a year is posting something and it's usually like some sort of idea and they could be a paragraph or sometimes he'll come out with a full essay you know 12 page essay or something most of the time it's just short little thoughts but mostly meant to inspire but I could see him being he's got an empire now he's written 17 best-selling books or probably more by now and I'm sure he's running his own self-publishing schools and things like that so I'm sure he has a lot to say about Scrum and he's probably a big proponent of it as well yeah cool well our we're pretty much at the end of our time box really our episodes tend to be about 40 minutes 35 40 minutes because that's usually how long it takes for Paul to drink his part aside there that's a good that's a nice long casual sipping yes very slow drinker bad drinker but we really appreciate you joining us and sharing your experience that's great really good fantastic would you would you like to give a bit of a shout out to your podcast and your organization yeah so you can find me at onestopdevshop.io which I'm sure Jeff will put in the show notes and the podcast is the big break software podcast so if you are a developer or have ever had any software product ideas I basically talk to successful founders and found out how they found their the problem that they're trying to solve and we talk all things software cool well we regularly get questions about what are the podcasts out there are there so I came I stumbled across yours liked it and so thank you for joining us and sharing that with us it's been my pleasure yeah thanks Jody well good luck with everything and and we will hopefully cross paths again soon and this next time have a


What is going on guys welcome back to the channel critical overload here So this is my spoiler free review for Jurassic World Dominion aka what I'll call bloated world dominion Which was intended to be the end of the Jurassic era for this Jurassic Park franchise that we know we now have and Also, I would just call it a giant movie intended to celebrate us accepting Coexisting with Dino Force us being humans of course for this universe So for me this movie was the biggest disappointment so far for the year and that's merely because while passable and and going above a Step above what we got with the fallen kingdom This movie has a lot of potential that's just squandered that I found myself frustrated with it Sacrifices a lot of moments that you could use to build tension for unnecessary humor the returning stars Claren Oh and that being are basically overshadowed by our legacy cast who are knocking it out of the park from all cylinders with their Performances, they truly are some of the brightest highlights of the movie They also have the more compelling narrative dealing with the legacy cast when trying to expose Biosyn Which we know is back as a more focused villain role to close out this section of the series And then far against it too many other issues I cannot speak enough about how much of a treasure I find Jeff Globlum to be for this movie He is again incredible as in Malcolm He always has been and during moments of complete Well moments where you might find yourself bored I'll say he definitely makes you smile along the way because that that worked for me a lot in a lot of ways every Time he's on screen. He is indeed a scene stealer. I see what a lot of people have been talking about now So there is good writing going on here. It's just not on a very large scale What I do what I do think was a nice touch is how this movie has an arc with player regarding her Being a mother and this is a great way I think to like call back to a conversation She has early in the series with giraffe in Jurassic World with Judy Greer who played her character talking about When you have kids and she said if and Judy's Judy Greer's characters probably back when and this one She's in a motherly role So that was a nice thing to see kind of like now making that foreshadowing in a way So Claire's arc here for that reason to me was the most compelling I'd say out of the trilogy just for the way he wants to explore her role as a mother But I can't say that her relationship with Owen feels tired Bryce and Pratt, they're not bad actors or anything like that. They give very solid performances here and They definitely have some glimpses of chemistry But there is a lot of times where I'm like these two have no chemistry here And I'm thinking how did they fall off like this or did these two never have any chemistry to begin with from the previous two entries? It feels like it was just completely different vibes between them here Sam Neil and Laura Durham though are an absolute delight to see on screen. There's a good score There is a lot of an emotional weight that's added due to the score I can say that certain cues felt maybe a little bit just overly Nostalgic and more reliant on that versus feeling like these moments are earned Because sometimes it feels like the movie is very desperate to find this emotional weight that it just really struggles to Capture you are going to get your big movie dinosaur brawls though, of course as well So there definitely are those thrilling action sequences, but the film's biggest problem is when that stuff isn't going on It's offering these likable characters that are in this highly uninteresting and dull Conflict to resolve There's another issue here when it relates to pacing again moments that can be used to build tension or rush through But then the moments that do very little or add nothing drag on the action sequences though They are definitely again very equally thrilling Visually pleasing and you'll be on the edge of your seat during those moments But then again when those are not happening you're right back to this. I feel like Flatline while watching the movie The film's dialogue is also again very insufferable sometimes I can't remember how many times I heard someone say hey I know you or I remember you like some of the comedy was getting old very fast But still this movie Jurassic World to me and of course did serve up a very entertaining action-packed Well, I'll call carnage highlight reel that some fans will still enjoy I just think that there was too much invested in being a carnage highlight reel versus riding a truly comparing pelling story To get invested in since this movie still of course is being told to us through the ones that can talk the humans I just I just think this is a big a Big example of how far we've gone from that original movie another thing that I know people are going to be turned off by is the plot armor Or what I'll call like the David Dunn like qualities people seem to have a plain crashes But no one has a scratch on them after it a legacy character at one point I believe falls and hits his head quite hard and then he just jumps right back up and a few other Instances where it just seems like everyone is David Dunn for those of you who are fans of unbreakable If you can make it through the first two acts, then some of you will find the third act highly rewarding I did enjoy the big battle sequence that happened at the end of that act Definitely was my favorite of the three we've gotten so far It isn't as bad as I think many others will find it to be Jurassic World to me and that being but I didn't like it There are some breathtaking shots and his movie does a great job teasing audiences with a certain ship that inevitably gets together in The end so after a little while you're gonna probably ask yourself Why is this movie still going on so long and why since it is as long as it's squandering a lot of its time? It's it also has this thing where it has these great set designs But something about this movie felt very contained in a way in which they're kind of just not Reaching the heights that they should be so it just feel more interesting being again that carnage highlight reel with fan service That can only get you so far when it's buckled down by a very uninteresting conflict for these characters to resolve and You know just speaking on Macy really quick a lot of the developments with these characters Macy has the most interesting one even though what I was getting while watching this as a Buffy fan I was like, okay, this is her Don Summers era You'll see what I mean if you are a fan of Buffy and outside of Claire Owen really doesn't have much going on that's interesting there with him like the developments here feel very One note or almost in ex almost not existing I can see a lot of people feeling like these characters that had no new developments here And when it relates to dr. Grant and Ellie Sattler and Ian Malcolm again their moments together are some of the best moments in the movie and There are these things that again will make the movie feel like it's probably not trying to do a good job Existing on its own when you have all of these callbacks and setups that are again are just Trying to pay homage to the previous movies But they feel less earned and more deserved and more rewarding because the overall conflict for this movie Isn't that compelling? There's really not much to grow invested in when the when the dinosaur carnage is happening on your screen Dodgson's role as a villain is completely Falling flat here. He's not very threatening and anything. He's it's very hard to take this character serious as a villain When you see what I'm talking about also the practical effects and the combination of that and some of the Dinosaur designs and mixing that in with the CGI. We know we've been getting that was done very well The movie just falls flat Biggest on the biggest scale relating to giving you a compelling Conflict for these characters to resolve and those other issues that I talked about I'll give it a six out of ten if you haven't already of course Make sure you subscribe turn on post indication never miss a video in the description Social media accounts on Facebook Twitter and Instagram you can message me there Of course, let me see movies news or reviews let me to cover in the future with all that in mind guys I will see you in the next video