Well, I certainly don't believe that it is by accident you are watching this teaching. I pray today that this teaching would empower you to pursue the call of God upon your life. We're continuing my series, God's Anointed, on talking about different biblical characters and gleaning from their lives truths that we can apply to help us fulfill the call of God upon our lives. Now, on this edition of Spirit Church, I'll be talking about Moses, and I believe that this is going to be both encouraging and challenging, as well as sobering. So you're not going to want to miss this installment on my series, God's Anointed. Stephen Moctezuma is here with me as usual. He's going to lead you in worship. And then we're going to get right into this lesson here is Stephen Moctezuma. I need you more, more than yesterday, I need you more. Words can say I need you more, but before, more than yesterday, I need you more. More than words can say I need you more than the song, or than the next heartbeat. But as time goes by, I will be by your side, because I never want to go back to my more than the song I see, more than the next heartbeat. Time goes by, I will be by your side, because I never want to go back to my... Moses was called by God to deliver the people of Israel out of the oppression and slavery of Egypt. And just as Moses was called by God to be a deliverer of a people, so you are called by God to be a deliverer of people. You have been given the message of the gospel. You have been called, proclaimed in one way or another, the message of truth that sets the captives free. Your life, when it is surrendered to the use of God's hand, becomes an agent of deliverance, becomes an agent of liberation. You have been called to set a people free. Now, of course, we know that Christ himself is the source of all freedom. However, he has chosen to use you as his instrument, as his minister of that freedom to people. Now, whether or not you're called to be a prophet or pastor or evangelist or teacher, it doesn't matter. God wants to use your life. He wants to use the gifts he has placed upon you. You have time. You have talent. You have resources. You have influence. Whatever God has given to you, he expects you to use it toward the cause. And the cause is souls. The cause is the spreading of the gospel. Not everyone is called to go and pastor a church. Not everyone is called to go and be a prophet to the nations. But every believer is called in one way or another to contribute to the overall cause of the liberation of lost souls. And we are called the minister of the gospel that sets them free from the bondage of sin. And you have been called as a Moses, a deliverer to a people. So let's look at the call of Moses and pull truth from his life and from it learn how we ourselves can be empowered to fulfill the call of God upon our own lives. Now Exodus chapter 3, go there. Exodus chapter 3 beginning at verse number 1. One day Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There, the angel of the Lord appeared to him on a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn't burn up. This is amazing, Moses said to himself. Why isn't that bush burning up? I must go see it. When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, Moses, Moses. Here I am, Moses replied. Now Moses' response is interesting because it's very similar to Isaiah the prophet's response to the Lord that we just read about in Isaiah chapter 6 on the last edition of Spirit Church. So there is something to be said of volunteering and surrendering that God requires of us. But the first point I want to make that's unique to Moses is the fact that we see him working here. He's tending to the flock of his father-in-law Jethro. He's being productive. So number one, the called must not be lazy.  Those who are lazy and those who live out a lifestyle of laziness will never obtain their full potential in the call of God. Now people try to spiritualize things. They say, well it's not my effort, it's the Lord's effort. And that's true but you have to realize that ministry, all ministry, is a partnership between God and man. Now of course God could do things on his own but because of how he looks at free will, in some ways we don't understand this, but because of how he looks at free will, he requires the participation of the human race in his agenda, especially as it applies to here on earth because he originally gave the dominion of the earth to man. So God respecting the dominion of man, respecting the free will of man as he set those parameters chooses to use human vessels to reach mankind. And so in this sense we see that there is a partnership. God will do the impossible if man will do the difficult. God requires that we do the difficult and he from there says I will do the impossible. I will take on the tasks that are not possible for you to do if you will do what I require of you. We worship, he manifests his presence. We have faith, he gives us a miracle. We preach the gospel, he produces transformed hearts. We lay hands on the sick, he heals them and so on and so forth. God partners with us in the ministry but God will not partner himself with someone who is lazy. He will not in other words bless a mess. God will not anoint a life and fill it with power if the one who is living that life is lazy. God will not use lazy people. Now I know some ministers who they're stuck in their call right now and I won't name any names and I'm not trying to be mean but the truth is I know many who are not going anywhere in their ministry because all they are trying to do is get rid of as much work as possible. They expect the ministry to be easy. I don't know how many times people my age have approached me and said how do you do what you do? And in one conversation they expect me to lay out a whole plan for them, give them all the so-called secrets that I've learned and they want to take that and go and see a result, at least the results I've seen that took me 15 years to see. They want to see it in months. Why? Because of laziness.  But number one, God will not use the lazy. So the called must not be lazy. You have to be someone who works. You have to be someone who's productive. This is not to say that nobody is called the full-time ministry. But if the only reason you want to be in ministry is to avoid work then you're in the wrong thing. The call of God requires a lot of work. In fact probably more so if you do it right than a regular 40-hour-a-week job. It requires everything of you. It requires that you're persistent. It requires that you're proactive. It requires that you look for ways to improve upon what God has given you. But He will not use a lazy person. Now this does not mean He doesn't want to use you. It's just not possible to use someone who will do nothing. How is God supposed to work through a life when that individual is just saying, Lord you do it and I'll just sit here and reap all the benefits? That's not spirituality. And it's part of it too, I'll be honest with you, part of it too is entitlement. It's just this sense of I'm so special I shouldn't have to do any work. I'm so special I should just be the one who secluded in prayer and the Word and everyone else around me does all the work for me. I tell you something, there's a point where that may come because we saw that in the book of Acts where the apostles, though they were working, they said look we can't wait on the widows and distribute the food. We need to devote ourselves to prayer and the Word. So let's pick someone to pick up that work for us. Now they had grown to that point, but that's not what was given to them right away and that's not why they joined the ministry. But I know some people who, that's their goal. They want to get to the place where they don't have to ever do anything again. And if that's what you're using ministry for, then leave the ministry because that's not what it's for. God has called you to make impact in people's lives. Now number two we're going to find in verses 7 through 10. This is what the Scripture says. Then the Lord told him, I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey, the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Parasites, Hivites and Jebusites now live. Look, the cry of the people of Israel has reached me and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people, Israel, out of Egypt. Now here's the thing. Number two, the called liberate God's people. Now, what I'm telling you is very important because you may start with pure intentions in the ministry, but I have seen so many begin the ministry with pure intentions. Their goal is souls, their goal is to win the loss, and it so quickly becomes about popularity and power and prosperity. But we have to remain focused on the goal. The end goal is not so that I can be blessed, though blessings do come with ministry. The goal is that I would win those lost souls, that we would snatch people who are on their way to eternal destruction from the clutches of darkness and bring them to the place where they can see the light. That is what you've been called to do, but so often ministers lose focus. So instead of looking to liberate God's people, they end up using God's people. Pastors, they're God's people, not yours. The people belong to God, not to you. God has not called you to control them. God has not called you to lord over them. God has not called them to fulfill your dream of ministry. That's not what it's about. Now, of course, I believe in spiritual covering. Of course, I believe in spiritual authority. Of course, I believe in contributing to the vision of the house. That's all biblical. But I'm talking to those ministers who use their God-given authority as power over people for selfish gain. We must not lose sight of souls. Otherwise, Moses will become Pharaoh. I wrote this down. The difference between Pharaoh and Moses is this. Pharaoh thought the people were his. Moses knew they belonged to God. We in the ministry need to decide from what perspective we will lead. We can either be a liberator or an oppressor, one who empowers or one who controls. When you become focused on the power, on the prosperity, on the popularity, it becomes about you.  Instead of bringing them to liberty, you bring them to subjection under your empire instead of bringing them into the freedom of God's kingdom. The scripture says this, and I love the way the message Bible words it. This is found in Matthew chapter 7, verse number 21. And this is verses actually 21 through 23. And this is from the message Bible. This is Jesus talking. Knowing the correct password, saying master, master, for instance, isn't going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience, doing what my father wills. You can see it now at the final judgment, thousands strutting up to me and saying, master, we preached a message and we bashed the demons. Our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking. And do you know what I'm going to say? You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don't impress me one bit. You're out of here. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. Is that what the ministry has become to some? They use it just so they become important. They use it for their influence. They use it so that they feel special. We cannot lose focus. The minister is not a celebrity. The minister is a servant. The minister is one who is focused on the people and bringing them to a place of freedom and helping them get to a place with the Lord where they themselves can go and fulfill the call of God upon their lives. Now that is the focus. And I know many wonderful pastors who do that. In fact, I believe more pastors do what I'm describing in a positive way than the negative. But for those who are beginning this journey, I want to give you this warning because it's very easy that it becomes you. The one who thinks he stands, he should take heed lest he fall. Now, let's cut this at the very beginning. Let's say within ourselves, Lord, don't ever let me go down that road. Keep me focused on the big picture. I'm not a public speaker. I'm not a public figure. I am a minister of the gospel. This is about life and death, eternal life and death. Not about building something. Not about a project. It's not about an organization. It's not about accomplishing dreams or doing great exploits. Those are not the final product of what we do. Those are simply mechanisms that we put in place so that we can reach the one true goal, which is to win souls for the sake of Christ. And that's it. So number one, the called must not be lazy. Moses worked with his father in law, Jethro with the flock. Number two, the called liberate God's people. Moses was called by God as an agent of deliverance to bring them out of slavery. Now number three, I'm going to give you in a moment, but first I want to read another context. Actually, for the sake of time, go and you'll have to read this on your own. Exodus chapter four, verses one through 20. And in these verses, we find Moses protesting with the Lord. Back and forth, God keeps repeating himself. This is what I called you to do. This is what I've called you to do. And Moses keeps saying, but Lord, but Lord, what do I say? Who do I tell and who sent me? How do I know that, or how are they supposed to believe that you sent me? And he pours out all of these excuses because of fear. So number three, the called, let's actually look at the verses. I'm going to show you the verses. That's the whole chapter I just described, but let's look at verses, chapter four, verses one through three. The scripture says this, but Moses protested again. What if they don't believe me or listen to me? What if they say the Lord never appeared to you? Then the Lord asked him, what is that in your hand? A shepherd staff, Moses replied. Throw it down on the ground, the Lord told him. So Moses threw down the staff and it turned into a snake. Moses jumped back. And as we all know, or most of us know, and if you don't know, Moses would later use this staff to work many miracles that would eventually lead to the deliverance of the people of Israel from Egypt. So that staff in Moses' hand is what God used. Now the question the Lord asked Moses is powerful. He asked him, what is in your hand? So Moses is throwing out his excuses and saying, how will they know that you sent me? And so forth and so on. And the Lord says, what's in your hand? Number three, the called must use what they have. Now this one will save you a lot of time because what most people do is wait for the ideal situation to present itself before they begin fulfilling what God has called them to do. Let me tell you something. The call of God is progressive. He's not just going to give you everything you need for the rest of your life, otherwise it's not the walk of faith. When I first started doing media ministry, which I know the Lord called me to do, I had one little $250 camera. And that thing used these tapes that came out looking almost like VHS compared to what's available now. What I did is I took that little camera and I used it to its fullest capacity. And that little $250 camera eventually became tens of thousands of dollars worth of television equipment that we now use to reach people all around the world. But the point is, I used what I had. He said, what's in your hand? He had a staff. God wants to use what you have right now. You may be asking, where's the first step? What should I do right now? How do I get to the place where God is using my life? I don't even know where to begin. Well, it begins with what you have. What influence do you have and over who? Where do you go? What do you do? Using that influence, using those resources that you have now, let God use you. The truth is that excellence is not having the best of everything, but doing the best with everything that you have. So number three, the called must use what they have, what's in your hand. Number four, let's read verse number 13 of chapter four. The scripture says this, but Moses again pleaded, Lord, please send anyone else. And let's actually read verse 14 as well. Then the Lord became angry with Moses. All right, he said, What about your brother Aaron the Levite? I know he speaks well, and look, he is on his way to meet you now. He will be delighted to see you. Talk to him and put the words in his mouth. I will be with both of you as you speak, and I will instruct you both in what to do. So God still used Moses as the deliverer of the people of Israel, but he allowed Moses to have Aaron by his side. Now, though that wasn't necessarily what God was directly asking of him, the Lord addressed the excuses of Moses. Each excuse that Moses gave to God, God either gave him a resource, or he just told him to trust him. When he said, Lord, who am I going to say, who will I say sent me? He said, tell them I am has sent you. In other words, all that you ever need, it's me.  I am all inclusive. Everything that you would require to accomplish the job is within me. I am what you need. I am your reward. I am the power that will deliver the people. And so Moses, when the Lord told him that, understood what God was saying. But still, in other cases, God would give to Moses a resource, such as the staff, or in this case it was Aaron. But the point still remains that God addressed Moses point by point. In other words, the called must lay aside excuses. So number one, the called must not be lazy. Number two, the called liberate God's people. Number three, the called must use what they have. Number four, the called must lay aside excuses. We hide behind our responsibilities. We hide behind our families. We hide behind what we've been given as tasks. And we know when we're doing this, sometimes we will let fear disguise itself as wisdom. And instead of walking in faith, we walk by sight and we deny the voice of God in our lives by saying, Lord, I'm not going to walk as you told me to walk because I don't see it. I can't understand it. Therefore, I'm going to do what I want to do instead. But that's not what God has called you to do. He's called you to lay aside your excuses. Stop saying it's not the right time. Stop saying I don't have the right resource. Stop telling yourself, I don't want to start that church unless I have the right building. Or I don't want to start teaching the word until I have a good crowd. Listen, it's a catch-22. You're not going to get those things that you see as ideal until you stop making excuses, step out and just do something.  People every single day are slipping into eternity. Many of them without knowing Christ and we're standing here with our excuses.  Lay aside the excuse and say, Lord, I'll do what you want me to do right here, right now. Number five, let's look at verse 18. Chapter four verse 18, the scripture says this. So Moses went back home to Jethro, his father-in-law. Please let me return to my relatives in Egypt, Moses said. I don't even know if they are still alive. Go in peace, Jethro replied. Now, this is interesting because even though Moses had heard directly from God, he still checked with his leader. Now, this is a very powerful truth because I want to balance what I said earlier when I talked about people in ministry who are very controlling over the people of God. That's ungodly. But you know what is just as ungodly as a controlling pastor? A rebellious church member. That is just as wicked. And the truth is God has placed spiritual headship over our lives. And so Moses, instead of just going straight to Egypt as God has instructed him, he went and talked to Jethro. So number five, the call must be released. The apostles were sent. They did not just go. We've been sent by Christ. Yes, but there is a structure. There was an order to the church. Now, I know some of you don't like this, but this is the truth. Look, I'm dedicated to bringing you the truth. And the truth is that God's authority in the earth is the church of the living God. It's the structure. He's the one who gave some to be pastors, some to be prophets, some to evangelists, some to be teachers, and some to be apostles. Read Ephesians 4-11. In fact, read all of Ephesians. Read the Epistles of Paul where he talks about church authority and church discipline and church structure and the requirements of being in ministry. Read all of those things. That is the truth. Now, I'm not saying that man should run our lives, but I am saying that we have guidance in our lives. We must have the wisdom of a spiritual headship over our lives. That's just the truth. I have it. There's a pastor that I have. I've talked about it on many occasions. And he's a good pastor. If I'm not preaching somewhere on a Sunday morning, I'm in church serving. If I'm not preaching somewhere on a Wednesday night, I'm in church serving. If I'm not ministering somewhere around the world on a Friday night, guess where I am? I'm in the Young Adults' Ministry at my church serving. I don't care what you do for the Lord. You need to be submitted to some sort of headship. And I know this is not something you want to hear. And here's why people don't like to hear it, because so many abuse their spiritual authority.  Don't fall prey to either extreme. Don't reject a good thing in your life because some people have abused that power. Let God humble you. Be humble. You talk about humility. Live it. Find a place to plug in, well, I've been heard or I'm tired of the church and systems and control. Look, that's God's church. Wasn't man that put the church in place? It was Jesus. And so we must lay aside our pride and our ego. Yes, it's wrong that pastors sometimes are too controlling over their people, but it's also wrong that people live without any spiritual authority. That's not the way God called you. Let me tell you something. Sin is at your door if that's how you're living. It's the truth. We thrive with accountability. We thrive with fellowship and relationships and spiritual connections. That's the way God designed it. In my life, I have my headship. Those are my pastors. There's my father. There's Eddie Vargas. There's Pastor Omar Lopez. And there are several of those. Those are my three spiritual mentors, leaders I will submit if they see something out of order in my life. Why? Because I trust them because they're not controlling. So it's healthy. And I've seen nothing but growth as a result of it. And then I have those who I'm discipling and those who seek my guidance. And then I have my peers who I have friendships with and who keep me accountable at a peer level, at a personal level. And all of those relationships in my life are what keep me going. I know for a fact that if I didn't have those, I wouldn't be where I am today in ministry. And it's a blessed place.  You're called by God. Don't fight what God has put in place. That's number four. And number five, the called must be released. Find a spiritual authority. All legitimate ministries are tied to the local church. And finally, number six, and I'm going to have to go through this one very quickly. Exodus chapter two, verses 11 to 15 say this, Many years later when Moses had grown up, he went out to visit his own people, the Hebrews, and he saw how hard they were forced to work. During his visit, he saw an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Hebrews. And this is before he was called by God. Moses was called by God. This is before he went to go live with his father-in-law, Jethro. Verse 12, after looking in all directions to make sure no one was watching, Moses killed the Egyptian and hid the body in the sand. The next day, when Moses went out to visit his people again, he saw two Hebrew men fighting. Why are you beating up your friend, Moses, to the one who had started the fight? The man replied, Who appointed you to be our prince and judge?  Then Moses was afraid, thinking everyone knows what I did. And finally, verse 15, And sure enough, Pharaoh heard what had happened and he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian, which is where he eventually married and came under the leadership of his father-in-law, Jethro. Now, maybe this is why Moses was so afraid to go back to Egypt because there was a body buried in the sand. But number six, the called must leave the past behind. I know people who are afraid to do things for God, who are afraid to stand out because they think that once they get into the spotlight again, once people start examining their lives, that their past will come back to destroy them. But I pray in the name of Jesus that you would be liberated from your past and even from the memory of it. The scripture says in Philippians 3, verse 13, No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing. For getting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, Moses had a bad past, perhaps again, this is why he didn't want to go back to Egypt. Was he afraid that his past would disrupt what God was wanting to do through him? Was he afraid that he would face the punishment for killing that Egyptian? Was he afraid that everyone would know he was a murderer? It didn't matter. God chose him. God called him. Nowadays, people would have cried out, put him in jail, don't let God use him. That's a very deep thought if you really think about it, but we'll save that for another time. People cry out for punishment, and then when it comes to themselves, cry out for mercy. But Moses laid aside his past and decided to just do what God called him to do. You need to lay down your past. There are some pastors, some preachers, some anointed men and women of God who will never go into ministry again because of something they feel disqualifies them. From their past. Can I tell you something? The grace of God covers even those who should have known better. The grace of God covers even those who knew better. Perhaps you've left the ministry or you're saying within yourself, I'm not qualified because of something from my past.  In the name of Jesus, be set free from that spirit of condemnation. That is a religious spirit that comes and breeds fear within the heart. God wants to set you free from that. It's time to be liberated from your past. In fact, let's pray now. I know there were many points made and many for you to consider, but let's pray now that you would be set free from the memory of the past, that you would be set free from that shame, and that you would move forward. This is a new day. God's mercies are new every morning. This is a new day. He wants to set you free. Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray for that one receiving this prayer right now. And Father, I break the chains of bondage that bind them. And I pray in the name of Jesus that the spirit of heaviness and condemnation would be lifted right now.  And I pray, Father, for grace and mercy to shine through. I speak liberty and freedom in the name of Jesus. If you agree that I want you to say it with me, say amen. Now go and do what God has called you to do. That is it for the lesson. I want to get to the comments now, and then I'm going to make a little announcement. I'll stick around to the end of the video here. These are the comments from last week's teaching, the first commenter writes, I was reading the book of Isaiah and fell asleep. In my dreams, I saw Brother David visiting my country and I was so excited. Then this video showed up on my notifications. I just needed to see it. Thank you, Brother David. I am truly inspired and encouraged by your teachings. You are a true blessing from God. I will continue to pray for you. God bless you. Sylvia writes, thank you for the teaching. I feel blessed by the message. I watched stepping into the call of God and it was still about Isaiah. There is so much to learn from this prophet. Thank you again for listening to the Holy Spirit. Phil writes, that was an extra powerful sermon. Thank you, Pastor David, and God bless everyone at Spirit Church. Joel Gray writes, I found this channel for a great purpose. I know there was a call on my life and I'll just continue to lift up the name of Jesus, great teachings. Birthday wishes writes, the minute I turned this on I felt the presence of God. He flows through you, Stephen, and your ministry in such a powerful way. Thank you for another great teaching. Well, I definitely can agree with you on him flowing through Stephen Moctezuma and if you haven't done so yet, make sure to check out his worship playlist, Anointed, my favorite worship leader. There's another commenter who writes, wonderful message, Brother David. The prophetic word of letting go of the things of the flesh and laying down my life to Jesus so he can use me. And the final commenter writes, Thank you, Brother. The Lord has been giving me this very message several times this week so I know it's important for my current situation. This message has blessed me and confirmed what the Holy Spirit has shown and called me for him. Blessings. Well, before I get to the little announcement I wanted to make, I forgot, and I know my director's probably going to kill me here, but I forgot to welcome the new members of Spirit Church. There you are up on the screen. We love you. We are praying for you. I always say that because I always mean it. Remember, if you want to join Spirit Church, it's absolutely free. You receive a free, weekly teaching from me and you can also reply to that email to get prayer support. If you would like to join the Spirit family, as we affectionately call it, go to davidhernandezministries.com slash Spirit Church. Now I want to make an announcement, we're coming a long way on our ministry fundraising campaign. Take a look at where we are. We needed a thousand new $30 a month partners and look where we are. Now we are almost there. Remember, our number one goal, we want to win souls, and secondly, we want to build believers. Why? Because building believers ultimately results in winning souls. Now, when we reach this new level of support, and this is monthly support, by the way, these are monthly partners, we needed a thousand new $30 a month givers. Now, when we reach this new level of support, we'll be able to get into our new facility. We're going to do regular meetings on a weekly basis. We're going to do live broadcasts. We'll do studio tapings. We'll be able to bring you in as studio audiences and we'll be doing them so often that if you're ever in the Southern California area, you can just pick a time and come down. I'll be bringing in special guests. We're going to have a 24-7 prayer room. We're going to be able to do more events, more often in more locations. We're talking about all the states. We're talking about as many countries as we can go to, and we'll eventually get there if you become a partner and help us do more of these events to win souls. So become a partner today for $30 a month, and I will send you a signed copy of either Carriers of the Glory or 25 Trues about demons and spiritual warfare. That's when you sign up to become a $30 a month partner. Do that today. Help us get to our goal, and this way we can go right back to the regular fundraising where I can just talk about becoming a monthly partner. And we're almost done with that one. So help us get there. Help us get into this new facility. Help us get to this new level of expansion so that we can win more souls together. It's going to be big and you get to be a part of it. Well, that is it for this edition of Spirit Church. Until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God. Make a one-time donation or become a monthly supporter by clicking on the donate link now.


If you're like most people, you probably think that there's only one type of cat personality, cat. While some cats might be more affectionate or standoffish, at the end of the day, aren't they all basically the same? As it turns out, the answer is no. According to animal researchers, there are five basic cat personality types and five different personality traits. We cover each of these personality traits in more detail here, so follow along and see which category your cat may fall into. However, it's worth noting that like with human personalities, cats may not fall neatly into any single box. Your cat may be mostly one type but with elements of another, so don't try to force them into a certain box if they don't fit. And if they do fit in a certain box, of course, they'll sit in it. The different cat personality types were largely developed by Dr. Lauren Finca of the University of Lincoln in England. Dr. Finca based her findings on interviews with 200 cat owners, and she ultimately came up with the following personality types. The human cat. This is a cat that has adapted well to sharing their space with a human. They enjoy being around you, are affectionate, and are largely happy and well adjusted. In many ways, this is the ideal cat to have as a pet, as they will happily spend time with you without resorting to aggression or violence. The flip side to this is that a human cat is more likely to suffer from separation anxiety and may not enjoy sharing you with other animals or other humans. The cantankerous cat. This is the opposite of the human cat. While not a feral cat, the cantankerous cat doesn't really like to be touched, picked up, or interacted with, short of being fed and given treats, of course. These animals are usually skittish and nervous and may never be fully comfortable sharing your home with you. Cantankerous cats certainly aren't warm and cuddly, but they are independent creatures, so they won't mind if you're gone all day. Also, any affection that your cantankerous cat does decide to give you will be worth way more than what you get from a human cat. Hello. This video is sponsored by Beemix Pets. Are you looking for high quality cat collars at an affordable cost? Check out, BeemixPets.com. Use coupon code KittenLife, to get 20% off. The Hunter Cat. This is the closest to being a feral cat of all personality types. Hunter cats spend most of their time hunting, whether that means chasing mice or sneaking up on mice like toys. They don't seem to grasp the fact that you'll provide all their meals free of charge, so they spend the vast majority of their waking hours trying to catch something to eat. Hunter cats may or may not tolerate affection, but they're usually much less motivated by love than they are by the opportunity to murder something. The Cat's Cat.  Cat's cats may also love humans, but they prefer the company of other kitties, and who could blame them. Obviously, they do well in multicat households, and they may become depressed if kept as only cats. The Inquisitive Cat. These cats love to explore and spend most of their day sniffing around the house. Any visitors are immediately greeted and thoroughly inspected, and while they may or may not tolerate affection from them, they'll definitely smell them up and down. Inquisitive cats do well with toys, especially things like boxes, bags, and mazes. They're bold and confident and usually don't do well as outdoor cats, as that confidence can get them into trouble. We all know what curiosity did to the cat, after all.


He is a software engineer and works as a senior ICD officer for the Department of Information Technology in Telecom and the Ministry of Information and Communication of the Royal Government of Bhutan. He is one of the core team members for developing an electronic government interoperability framework. A government enterprise architecture initiative for the Royal Government of Bhutan. He graduated from the University of Western Australia with a master's degree in computer science and also he is a TOGAP 911 certified. Currently, his linear project to develop a whole of government data hub systems. The initiative will develop a common data exchange platform for the government and if enabling seamless exchange of information among government information systems and apps. Over to you. Thank you. Thank you for the introduction. Good afternoon to all. I think I have a huge challenge right now. So we were just after the lunch and then I hope my presentation won't become very sedative that you all always say. But nevertheless, I'll just try to keep it lightly. Just to crack a small joke. This morning, all of us we talked about cloud, right? So I work for a government organization and then every time we talk about cloud to the senior level expertise and all who are from a non-IT background. So because we have a Google Collaborative Suite which is a public cloud adopted as a government human system and we had some of our team, they went to one of the secondaries and then they talked about cloud, cloud and cloud and one of our secondaries mentioned what happened if it rains.  After that, I'll give a brief introduction of my country and then followed by the overall government enterprise architecture work plus the initiatives that we are currently undertaking based on those. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the Royal Government of Bhutan and on my own behalf, I'd like to convey my hurtiest appreciation to the open group for letting me share my thoughts on our EGIF initiative. Also, I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate all the award winners of the Open Group Award 2017. This award will specially help government organizations design and implement effective e-government solutions supported by enterprise architecture to tackle challenges in good governance. With more citizens becoming aware about the rights and responsibilities, their expectations and demand for better government services is ever increasing. In order to increase competitiveness and meet the demands of their citizens or businesses, governments across the globe are striving to break silos and achieve better connectedness among government agencies, businesses and citizens through use of ICT. A highly connected and networked government allows seamless exchange of information and services among government agencies, businesses and citizens. It is through the EGIF framework that we derive insights and identify key focus areas for the ICT sector that need to be strengthened or developed in support of the business schools and objectives of the Royal Government of Bhutan. We are confident that this initiative will guide successfully in achieving our objective of a connected government which will set another foundation towards good governance and ultimately our national goal of gross national happiness. Today, on this special occasion, I convey to you all my best wishes. Thank you. Once again, my team, made by my director here, we would like to hand over the group for giving us this opportunity to present our initiative. And with this, let me just... So, just a brief introduction on Bhutan. Just a very clean one. Bhutan on Math is situated between the two global giants. We have China in the north, India in the south. So, we need to really come out also as a key leader in the region. Sorry. Sorry. In picture, this is how you see people in the summer. That's from one day view. Just a general profile. We have the area of coverage approximately close to Switzerland and Europe. The population approximately 800,000, 211 million. At ministry of units, 20 districts and 205 blocks compared to 2,000 or 3,000 punch line in India. National development philosophy, interesting to all the audience here, gross national happiness. GDP per capita is 2,656. The major source of income is the energy sector, mainly through hydropower and tourism.  Our king is the head of state and the private state is the head of government. Just a few profile on the ICT. Internet subscribers, we have around 62% of the population who are currently accessing internet. Fixed line across the global trade, same everywhere. It's declining. Mobile penetration is approximately 28% of the population. All the districts, 205 blocks, they have access to internet. Number of community centers. So basically, for those rule groups who are not accessed directly to internet, we have a service queue, we call it community centers. So we have around 195 community centers out of which 188 are connected to the internet. ICT development progress. So this is basically an ICT ITO information society measurement report, 2016. So here clearly shows that the ones with those star patches are the ones, those countries which are really doing well. But Bhutan, you can see it's being listed as one of the countries where significantly improved its ranking over the year. So that was done in 2016. Bhutan's network readiness index. So from the enterprise architecture perspective, I think it's all about getting the, I mean, aligning the ICT initiatives to economy and social economic development. And then how well your organization, how well your government enterprises are connected. So this ranking, basically this measurement makes a sense. So here, as for that, we are ranked 87 out of 139 countries. So among the low, you can see here, among the low middle income growth, I mean, best of the average thing, we are comparatively doing better than most of them. So typical challenges for our government. So I think when it comes to challenges for the government, we have lots of case studies from the government, like the State Government of Andhra Pradesh. We have a presentation from them. So the critical issues is that silence of information. All the agencies take to guard their own information, then they don't share. So typically, we're known for guarding our own information. Repeating and overlapping government functions. So when we talk about government functions such as, you will have an HR as a government function, HR related services as a government function. So that human resource related functions, it repeats across all the government agencies.  I think that's why this communication is a typical challenge for government. Once we have the government functions repeated, the services related to those government functions tend to repeat as well. And the worst case is that a same service when it's done differently or when it is delivered differently in two organizations, that's a huge cost for the government. So we can't afford to have multiple different standards, different way of doing things. We need to synergize and then for a small country like ours, it's very critical. Different standards are generally leading to interoperabilities. So when my department started, the first thing that we do is technical specification for ICD Acumen that was 15 years before. So that's the way for this interface architecture standards So for every government agencies who are procuring ICD related acumen, they come to our department and then show it to us whether their ICD acumen are compliant to our national standards and all of them. So that one we are still embedding as a standard information base within the information, the enterprise architecture, which I will be showing later. With the execution of strategy, the government have a very good plan, but then it has to be executed. And whether we like it or not, the future is digital. So we have to comply with digital by default principles. So every initiative in the government has to be supported by a thing. So that's why through a tool such as enterprise architecture, we will be able to execute those plans. Often very slow or no reaction to changes to government business involvement. Across the globe, the governments are facing budget constraints and that will be very prevalent especially for people like ours who are still in the low-middle income country. So we need to innovate and enterprise architecture is a tool which will lead us to do all these sort of things. So that's why the typical scenario is that we call it the strategy architecture. If we don't do it well, then we land up in this mess. So IG4, the Royal Government of Qatar, so it's basically a tool for shaping government IST to support the government business outcomes with key or foreign key objectives. So here we have the alignment of our human initiatives to its business goals and objectives, improve coordination and increased reuses and sharing of assets and resources among the government agencies which could mean sharing data, sharing best practices, sharing information and all, minimize duplications and maximize savings through economy of scale. For a very small country like ours, if each agency starts doing things differently, then we don't have that economy of scale. We need to come together and then maximize our savings through that coordination and all of this. Renews departmental status and move to integrated and citizen-centric service delivery. So the key here is that all the government across the globe, they talk about one-stop shop. They talk about integrated service delivery. But if you don't have those enabling integration layers, everything in between, then we will not be able to realize those opportunities. Identification and prioritization of IST programs and projects. So yesterday we mentioned that some of them, all Dr. Palak here, representation states the typical challenge for government is that every organization, every political leader, they will have their own agenda. So based on a tool such as enterprise architecture and application, we need to prioritize those projects rather than directly listing to all the things. So that's why identification and prioritization of IST projects is critical. Standardization and integration. So similarly we had a discussion this morning on the cloud infrastructure integration and standards which lead to future opportunity. So that is applicable whether it's an IST infrastructure, whether it's related to infrastructure, whether it's related to the application, they need to be able to talk to each other. So that's why that's very critical. In the Egypt timeline, so basically to realize all those objectives, we started our journey in early 2003 with a very small engagement with IST level. So they have sent us on that track basically. So after that, as part of that engagement, we're just able to do some identification of key architectural domains and some survey. Followed by that, we have a major architecture work done in January and June 2016 in collaboration with Vipro India. Egypt architecture implementation work, the programs and projects which we have to learn about those architecture work is continuing. So basically I like this definition of a government enterprise architecture. So it comes from the Queensland State's government enterprise architecture. So what it's saying is that it's basically it is about organizing enterprise resources. So our resources is processes, information, technology, technology. So basically we may have all those resources. We need to organize, put it together and make it a very critical one. So that's the definition of things. So without the Egypt, typically, all the governments across the globe, they will have policies and strategies. They will have government functions and services. These are government... Every government will have this sort of setup. Government applications and information systems, is there? Government data information, technologies which are supporting all those government applications and things. These are all there. So without an architectural sort of an approach, so in this Egypt what we have used is that we have used the adaptive form of optograph methodology. So we have all the species around the whole common setting. But what we need is... So basically we also have a program in project control and management from the planning commissions, but we didn't put it in a very structured way. So here, the analogy that I'm bringing is that in the other slides, it's like a Lego block for kids to play around. It's all about synthesizing. So now here we have this one in the corner. It looks like a kids' play, but it's a well-structured Lego block with a very meaningful for the kids. So similarly, we have the government policies and the strategy architecture on the top. The difference between a structural architecture and an enterprise architecture is that the enterprise architecture construction starts from the bottom up. The EA, I believe, has to come from optograph. So basically, we have identified the policy and strategy architecture. I'll go into detail right now. I'm going to dig further here. Then we have the business architecture. We have the data architecture here, an application architecture, which is supporting those business architecture and the overall goals and the visions of the government. Then we have the architecture governance and management, basically a decision-making body. It keeps track of the works that we are executing so basically for dashboarding for purpose. So from an architectural perspective, as you can see it here, the tool's left-hand side is mostly the architectural development methodologies we call it. So here, the top ones, based on the strategic directions and the visions, machines and all, so what we do is that we identify programs and projects. So to get sort of a thing, we have this standard information base and the programs and projects identified from the left-hand side. And the tools on the right-hand side, these are the initiatives that we need to carry on. So I think, I'm sorry, these slides are not very eligible from the back end. So just to get further details into individual blocks, we have the policy and strategy architecture. So as a part of our architecture work, we have a review of a Bhutan Vision 2020 document. And this document is due for sort of renewal, but still when we start with the region, the Bhutan Vision 2020 is the document. And followed by, for the 11th five-day plan, our cycle of development is on the 11th five-day plan basis and an old project in this environment. So we have the Bhutan Vision 2020 document, which main aim is to achieve peace, prosperity and happiness in the country. It's very abstract, but we have those indicators which are the presenting. And we have the UN MTG before the STGs. So now with this 12-day plan starting from 2019 onwards, so the planning commission, we call it the Grass National Happiness Commission within the government. They are referring, they will be further upgrading the Vision 2020 into something similar to the STG leg, Vision 2030, plus they will refer to the UN's STG goals. We have the GNH pillars here. The four key pillars is sustainable and equitable socio-economic development, preservation and promotion of culture, conservation and sustainable utilization of environment and promotion of the government. So these are four key pillars for the GNH. And architecture principles, I mean, the same across all the things, citizen-centric approach, all of government and sectoral perspective, rather than agency's perspective or organization-specific, it's about bringing all of government and sectoral perspective to the government. Effective quality of operation and participation, I mentioned earlier that for a small country like ours, we can't afford to talk differently. We'll have to come together and discuss architecture domain-specific principles, which I'll go into details for all those blocks, we have the varying principles. Our programs, projects and activities related to the government, the policy and strategy, the whole of government plan. So basically what we're saying is that these are not done as a part of the year, but basically what it does is that the planning commission, the GNH commission is an apex body for having a government strategy thing, but the year was actually aligned with those government business objectives. So we have here, for the 11th, five-year plan documents, based on the GNH pillars, we have the national key-reason areas and the sector key-reason areas. So for the 11th five-year plan, we have around 16 N care areas, and as care is around 250. So all those key-reason areas will have the individual KPIs based on a baseline and a target. So that's the measurement thing. ICT sector-specific, we have the Eagle Master Plan done by our department. The sector-specific ICT, like the Ministry of Education, we have the ICT plan plan, Ministry of Health, similarly we have some other agencies. ICT roadmap, the whole of government Eagle policy, so that's still in the process of drafting. So one of the happiness that encompasses the principles coming out of the IG framework. Business architecture. So we have the identification of business areas, the line of business and the government functions and the services which are aligned to those policies and strategies. So here we have two business areas, government to government, government to citizens are the two business areas. We have the line of business around 23.20 cents. Human resources is one vertical line of business. And we have the ICT as a horizontal line of business. So similarly, the government functions, we have around 55 services, 850 services delivered to the citizens. Government services, so as a part of this business architecture, what we do is that the government services, we start cataloging the government services. The process of cataloging itself puts the organization into a rationalization sort of an exercise. So that's critical. Organization and prioritization all of those 850 services based on the government's priority, we need to prioritize those services. So that's why as a part of the EA XS we do that. Organization. Typically if you go across the government agencies, the service patterns in terms of service registry, applying for service, registration, approval, then tracking the status, all the sort of a service pattern seems to be common across all the government. So what we do is that we come out with those service patterns, whether the service is common, whether the service is specific to our agency or not. So that's critical. Programs, projects, similarly, the whole of government agency service catalog operation. So the eGift team, we have set up a workshop for the whole of government agencies to come together and then we have run through, I mean, we have explained to them how they have to prepare service catalog for their agencies. Public sector chatter. So as a part of that, the G2C office under the Prime Minister's office they also have crafted a profit service chatter. So those are key initiatives under the business architecture. Just to give an example here, the line of business, business functions and the service example. Here you can see, the top one is, as I mentioned earlier, we have two business areas. So here the example is service reporting is one business here. We have around 23 line of business. Agriculture could be one line of business. And here we have government functions, approximately 15 government functions. Agriculture development is one function. Agriculture research is, sorry. Hello, sorry. All of us, we have a lunch, but before we charge the back fee, so as we're done. So here, from the service perspective, as I mentioned, it's for the farmers and the service. So this is just an example I'm giving. So here is another typical example. Human resources is a line of business. In addition to that, pay and conditions is a business function. In addition to that, payroll processing, performance management, leave, managing HR, these are all services under that business function. So that's been an example of how we categorize, how we do rationalization of our business in services. Data architecture, as a part of an easy framework, for those critical criminal data sets, such as the people data, for the vehicle data, for the land related data, GIS related data, we have covered the conceptual data models for them, and identified the key data elements in the relationships. So basically the conceptual data model from the architecture perspective, it's how you link the data architecture and we have the data dictionaries in terms of data management conventions and design best practices, how you design a database and all those best practices can be available. Data ownership, data access model, agency data owners, roles, data governing, we have all those best practices and what we do is that nowadays we talk about open data, we talk about APIs and all. So before making the data open, we should have all those things done. That's why we have this data security classification. Before the data is released to the public, we have to categorize all those critical data scripts in the government, whether it's at a confidential level or not, whether it's for internal use or whether it's for public consumption. So that thing has to be linked. That's all we can talk about open data. Otherwise, we will make there will be several issues with this thing. Data data is a data involved data, so we come back to this between core standards. We come over data. Through this Egypt exercise, what we have identified is that the people data, the vehicle data, the business entity data, the land and the GIs are those critical data that need to be, those are most commonly available to data services across the government. That's why those five domains are key priorities for us. Based on that, what we're doing is that we're programming a data service provider and data consumer matrix. So basically, later on, when we move to a service-oriented architecture, if you want to expose your data as a services, then we should know who are the data owners, who are the data consumers. That's why we have this matrix term. Data Hub Project is a very critical project. We have started that four months back and what's happening is that the Data Hub Project will basically look into creating an infrastructure so that all the government agencies will be able to talk to each other, sharing their data. So we have here the SOEA infrastructure, the service-oriented architecture infrastructure. So the data service and the web service creation, the web service routing through in the form of enterprise service bus, then we have the analytics and the signal sign-off, which will come operational with the land commission. What that commission does is that as a part of them, they are building GIS portal for the government agencies to share GIS related data. So these are some of the critical things which we're embarking on. In fact, we have started the development for the Data Hub. Application architecture-wise, government application system portfolio. So we had a lot of discussion on those areas as well. For government agencies, they should rationalize all the information systems within the government, whether the information systems are really contributing to your agencies' goals and objectives. So that's why, as a part of that exercise, as of now, we rationalized around 160-plus activation systems. And we have classified those systems in the form of whether those systems are specific to the department, whether they catch to a positive requirement or whether these are government systems that are safe across all the government agencies. Application architecture principles and building blocks. So basically, when we develop very auspicious architecture, very auspicious for tendering, then we let the vendors apply to those architectural principles. Architecture building blocks, both in terms of functional and technical. A critical goal of government command system. So I will just explain that in the initiative. Common application capabilities. This, we haven't started anything on that, but still, the whole idea is that we will have a reusable architectural component, the application components, and then, when an agency develops an application, they will be able to reuse those capabilities. So from the initiative perspective, we have a goal of government application portfolio management term. The common systems, the civil service information system is an HR system which is common across all the government agencies. The government email and collaborative suit which I mentioned in the beginning, we have right now adopted the Google Enterprise collaborative suit. So it's a common email system for all the government agencies. Asset and inventory management system. We have a centralized department which looks after the asset and inventory aspect of the government. So we call it the Department of National Properties. It's a common system which is deployed for that. Electronic government procurement. We have started 6 months back and it will soon roll out. So we are having a whole of government e-procurement system. These are other common systems. We have the GPMS, FAMS, and MYIB. I'm not going to go into details because when you talk about government, it's the horizontal expense alone. So the government performance management system, only expenditure, multi-year-old budget rolling, government venues and single systems for the whole country. G2C portal. Under the premises office, we have a G2C portal which is a citizen facing portal. So that will look into the transactional and e-service aspect. National portal is mostly information perspective and the GOP CMS. In future, what we are looking into is that for a small country like ours, every department seems to be developing different websites. And all of those websites are either in some sort of open source country management system. So in terms of security, in terms of management, it's a huge bottleneck. So that's why we want to move to a centralized, girls, AMS based websites for the whole agencies. That's why you'll achieve a normal scale in terms of maintaining, in terms of budget, in terms of security. So that's critical. That's plans for future. These are all operational. So I think most of you are from a technological background, so girls, I think. So the technology architected governments, we have identified around seven governments there. Technology standards and specifications. Since agencies of all of government in the overarching framework will not be able to do much on that, but we set a broad standard and specifications for other agencies to comply with. So similarly, the security architecture. So I need to rush a little bit because the timer is popping up in five minutes to finish. Government hardware infrastructure clearance. So basically, every time a government agency buys infrastructure, they need to come to, they need to refer the EGIF standards and then our departments will start the compliance. Government data center. Now, we have started a government data center in huge ways. Initially, all the governments for hosting the application. Now, we have, we're slowly we're moving into a centralized government, a dedicated government center, which is initiated by Microsoft. Government when, basically, we have a huge fiber optic network going across the whole country around 3,000 kilometers of fiber optic which runs over the power line. So we have a challenge of geographical landscape features. And a huge, tough turn. So we write our backward networks of power line transmission. So we have around 2,000 fiber optic going across the whole country and connecting the government centers. So, and all those government agencies and government departments, they are connected through this government network. That's what I'm saying, the nationwide fiber network. The disaster recovery site, we have settled the government data center and the GR site is in process. So, as part of a security architect we also have a small research team started, mostly looking into, right now, mostly reactive services, but future will even begin to work practically with these services. So, I think I'll just speak this technology architecture aspect. So that's the target technology architecture based on the performance. And we have the technology building blocks. I think there's a lot very visual from the architecture governance and management. This is very critical for the architecture work to work. So it's a decision taking volume for the implementation of year programs and projects. We have the eager project management office within our department who takes talks of all the projects and then push through our review body. So that's why we have this eager PMI in government structure. In terms of governance structure, we have the eager review committee and after that we have the eager executive committee and then the eager council. The dashboarding, the KPIs to end carries and as carries that's the thing that I mentioned earlier. Cross storming views and analysis for government matrices. We have service to data related matrix, service to application, data application, application to that level. So EG portal is an ear repository system. So it's an custom built system. We're a poor country so we're able to buy tools such as i-server or systems architect that that sort of thing. But we have our own rationale for using a custom ear repository because ear is a life document. If you brilliant then it's a one-time document. If there are some changes, it's not very dynamic. So that's why we have a centralized EG portal catering to that. So projects, programs, review of all ICT projects like e-mail payment which I mentioned at that time. ICT project proposal review. Every ICT project proposal has to be sent through our e-mail review process. We review those things and then approve it. Government performance management system, it's basically initiated by the prime minister's office and then it aligns all those departments and all performance contracts and takes whether they have APIs which are set as a part of the target. So this is my last slide. Lessons to learn basically when we talk about EAPs package the E-initiative as business initiative rather than ICT or technological initiative. We get a buy-in from the highest level of government so basically from an e-programmed perspective we have seen that political development is very important. So that's why it's very critical that we get a buy-in from the ground up. And let the agencies like planning commission or the prime minister's office be in the front. So basically in case of hour that's our learning business. But we have a rationale that before the planning commission and the prime minister's office they are not aware about government enterprise architecture. They are not aware about easy government. Almost all of the tools. So as an ICT department we initiate but then what it goes into operational involved. So we recommend a planning commission or a prime minister's office to adjourn those things. Enhance EAP competency along with support from extra expertise. I think that's very critical. So as a part of an EAP department and EAP implementation it's also important that we have a team internal ability. So talk more about business values. Pick up the low hanging food so that you can show our quick ways. Don't start being as prepared to give your architecture what Sheldon picked us. So basically that's similar to any other things. Don't portray the initiative as an ICT or a technical initiative. So don't reinvent them on existing initiatives and organizations within the government. So I think these are some key lessons which we have learned as part of our initiative. So with this, thank you for your attention. Let's just squeeze in two questions. One is what input or impact does the happiness index metric have on implementing digital transformation? Excuse me. What is the impact of the gross natural happiness metric? What does that mean? What is it? So basically I think all the ICT initiatives that we carried directly contributes to the good governance of the gross national happiness. So basically in terms of the happiness index ranking across the globe, Bhutan is somewhere just between 50 and 100. What I'm trying to say there is that as I presented in the beginning we align all our programs to those four pillars. So good governance is one of the critical pillars. All the ICT initiatives align to those good governance which means the happiness index will definitely come off. Next one. What architectural decisions have you taken while in centralizing EGAP? Yes that means that's referring back to the key decisions. Centralizing the EGAP. So in terms of centralization initially what happened was every agency seems to be having their own ICT initiatives. So with the local agencies such as the department of IT and telecom, with this sort of an EA practice we learned that centralizing the ICT initiatives will have lots of advantages. So that's why through a governance sort of mechanism, we bring all those ICT projects together to a central department to track those initiatives. So I think the decision is that it's always based on those architectural governance it's always good to for a small country like ours, it's always good to centralize the ICT decision making. To answer those. If I haven't answered it properly let's have maybe a bilateral discussion after the presentation. Thank you.


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Troy, you're currently selling Manganese, is that correct? Yes, we've actually shipped our first two shipments, trial shipments to two different customers and we're in the process right now of preparing four other shipments for four other customers as well. And for those of you out there who may not appreciate what this announcement means to Alcora, you're working towards becoming a fully vertically integrated battery material supplier, correct? Yes, and we're looking quickly to get our Manganese assets in Morocco into cash flowing as we feel the demand there is strong. We're just looking now to see how fast, how quickly we can satisfy that demand. And for those of you as well who might be going, okay, it says that your Manganese has got a very high percentage at 37%. Many of us may not understand what that means, talk us through it if you don't mind. Right now the kind of index pricing for Manganese can be anywhere from 37 to 42% and higher. So your base product line would be your 37% and we have a lot of demand at that level. So the higher level or the higher percentage of Manganese you can deliver, the higher pricing you get. So obviously our ultimate demand is to build a plant quickly, which we're in the process of designing and doing the test work now to get it right for a 20,000 tons a month operation. But our goal now is to get that plant up and running for that. So the goal is 20,000 tons per month. What's our timeline for getting to that production level? Right now we're looking for the goal there is to build eight months, eight to 12 months to get that up and running off and with the ramp up as well. And you've also put some very good news out about what's happening with your Vanadium production. Yeah, we've begun working there with Dr. Flint in Lab 4 to get our PEA complete on the Vanadium asset in Morocco and we just got our first set of results back that he did. And right now we've got a concentrate product that we're now testing with smelters in both Europe and Asia that we could quickly get that asset in production or in cash flow mode as well because just selling a concentrate form of the lead in the Vanadium or Vanadium as high as 8.9%, lead is at 55%. We sell that concentrate to a smelter in either Europe or Asia and they do the metallurgical work for us, but we're able now to get a cash flow from that concentrate which is which can be within six months. If the results come back from the smelters we could have that product up and running and start shipping so we're excited about that as well. So you're looking at six months for regular revenue coming from the Vanadium potentially? Potentially. We're just waiting now to get the test results back from the smelters, but if it is positive and the smelters can are encouraged by the results that they have we can ramp up our production quite quickly to satisfy that. So hopefully the next two months we'll know there, but in the meantime our manganese business will be focused on that as well to get that up ramped up. Okay, so you're obviously incredibly busy. The manganese will you still be selling approximately 500 tons a month until your production or will it vary? Yeah, well we're looking just to probably do the thousand tons a month up until we get the plant up and running just to work with our existing customer base and the demand is incredible on that product so we just need to get that plant up and running and get a consistent product up to the market. You've been traveling a lot. What should we as investors anticipate saying this next quarter? I think you're going to see encouraging news from on the Vanadium side with the smelters. You'll then see the you know hopefully the ramp up part of the production plant being commissioned and then obviously the shipment of large amount of manganese to the market. So manganese and Vanadium and for those of you seeking more information on Elcora advanced materials please go to the following website. Troy, thank you for the update. Thank you very much. Cheers.


It's on Corbin. I'm Rick and we are now finally reviewing the second episode of which we were gonna do weren't we Corbin we were ready we are sorry it took longer than we were anticipating we originally we're gonna watch a few episodes right off the wire when it came out right and so we have a bunch to put out but the subtitles messed up so it's Netflix's fault not us yeah and then we got a little busy last week so hopefully within the next week we'll be able to finish the season so just bear with us you know what Netflix needs but hey now it's not dark it's true they do need a nice here we go the one in the middle is the tough one the one in the middle we heard the break so much is a character in the of Gilgamesh. She is an ill wife, a wise female divinity, associated with fermentation. Yeah, I'd like to see every one of those guys have their heads kicked in with a baseball bat. I'm a gentleman. Why do you bother me? We don't need anything from you.  What's the matter? You're a man. You're the show. Every episode. Some photography too. Yeah, same thing. I have a man. I've overseen him. Yeah! I feel like I've been born to be a child. I thought I knew what time it is. Do we learn from Gilgamesh? We learn that the pursuit of power and control is as futile as the pursuit for immortality. What tea plays next to you? Drink the tea. Don't drink the tea. Don't drink the tea. Pretend to drink it, sir. This is life. If not, an exercise in replenishing the nauseous. Is that what happened to his wife? Lose. Time for kissing. Badnessy. Thank you. There's a test. Rivedi said you like everything in my room. That's why it's good. We're taking a test. How are we going to do it? We're going to get him out of here tomorrow. Are you going to finish your work or not? No. I'm with you. What do you want? What's the need to give him a whole burger? Tell him not to. I can't do it without him. There's a lot of work to be done in the future. There's a lot of work to be done in the future. That's right, sir. If you don't have a plan from tomorrow, you'll have to give him a warm table. You'll have to keep him at home. The path leads from this moment on. And this man is so important to me. He's not as important to you as he is to you. I love them working together. Yeah. Yeah, they're just great actors. And that guy too. Yeah, I know. I mean, I haven't heard him speak once, but... We've checked with the Russian resources. Nice card. Thalad, where are you going now? I'm going to the wrong card. Thalad, what kind of people are the ones who are in danger of death? I don't know if they have the same idea as the P.D. person on the script. I've seen you before. I don't see you as well.   I swear, I've met you for the past month. I don't want to meet you. I don't want to meet you. I just said this the other time. This is your last time. What's the problem with Pinky Dali?   If you stop eating vitamin C, what will happen? It's going to be. Okay, so we were finally... The third father. That's what they've been talking about for a long time. I don't have IMDb in front of me, sorry. But I'm pretty sure, because I know people have been talking about him. In the comments when they talk about the third father and they knew who it was. And they said, it's this guy. So I don't know if we've seen anything he is, I'm sure we have. And you can let us know what it is. But he looks really good. Solid man. Great presence. Great presence. Totally believable. He looks like he's a character too. Which should be fun. This one was definitely more in the middle dialogue driven. And just kind of just almost furthering along the story. It's still trying to get his ways. But these powerful women are basically the ones calling the shots, right? That's right. They're calling the shots so they know what the shots are coming. Exactly. And little really nice now tidbits of information that are tying pieces together from season one early. That you were like, didn't know about. Example, when Sartaj was in the meditation state, we got a glimpse of what he was seeing and thinking. And I, if that's what happened to his wife, good grief. There she is sitting on a ledge pregnant and just goes off the edge. I'm still trying to figure out what's up with the dog in the first dose. Yeah. You haven't let that go. My very first moment with sacred games. Yeah. Yeah.  But we never figured out what that was. And I get the feeling that nothing here is ever wasted. We don't see anything we weren't meant to see. It doesn't have some kind of... Unless that has something to do with Sartaj and his mom falling off the roof. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe even need to go and look back at this title of that first episode. Yeah. Because each of the titles of the episode has some connection to something from Hinduism or from Gilgamesh or just it's really an incredibly smart... It's one of those things that's so smart it's way above me. Oh yeah. I gotta do a lot of research. I'm sure we're missing a bunch of things. Especially since we don't speak the language. Yeah. Of course we're missing. Yeah. I remember when we watched, not pink, Badla. Badla. When we watched Badla and Big B goes into telling the stories that have parallels. There's so many stories that y'all have grown up with that we're just... We've heard of them, know of them somewhat, but we don't know them. And they're just essential parts of the framework of the mind where you can make an analogy to it and they'll immediately pick up on what it means. And I guarantee this is all over the place. Yeah. Some of the acting, all the acting really. It's all great. It's phenomenal. I love the two, the female. I'm sorry I don't know the actress's name. But the one with the glasses. Yeah. Opposite guy Tunde. The watching them work is just so good. Beautiful. Beautiful acting. I've got to introduce the Kalki. I'm sure we'll introduce to her character. A lot more. A lot more. And that last guy who's the third father looks really good. I'm looking forward to seeing that. But the score, it's amazing. It's always great. The writing's great. If this was a show that Netflix was producing for American audiences, this show would have... I don't know how it wouldn't be in the conversation for Best Ensemble. Oh yeah. It really should be with all the other shows that come around, especially for the Sags. Because the Sags always focus on nothing but acting. Nothing but acting. And this is... Screen Actors Guild. Yeah. This is 100% right up the alley of actors to watch. This is a show for actors. But they only focus on American and British shows. I know. Which is a shame. It really is a shame. But maybe that's because they don't have the union in India? It could be. Could be. Yeah. I think they're not going to celebrate something that they're part of. Right. Great point. Great point. If they're not in the union... That's a great thing. But even people that aren't in the union, the Oscars, the Emmys, they don't... What is the equivalent in the deal for the actors over there? I'm sure they're... Let us know. I'm sure they have a union, but I know it's not the Screen Actors Guild. And it may... Yeah, I don't think it is. It's not. Yeah, because Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union. Yeah. So yeah, what's the labor union for actors in India? Yeah, it didn't happen. Because if this isn't a Sags show, that's the answer. It would never be paid attention to. It's got to be a Sags show. Yeah, they're not going to... They're not going to honor any non-union and eat stuff. But this is as good as anything that we see that gets nominated for scripted TV. Oh yeah, 100%. It's just so good. It's so good. It gets better and better. I love all the dialogue. The dialogue is so brilliant. Krishna Gattande is so good. So very much looking forward to the next episode. And hopefully these are going to come much more quickly than they have. We're doing our best, everybody.


Just like my previous review, this is another astonishing, lucky find that completely blew me away. I'll tell you about it. I picked this up by chance when I was visiting a little specialty bookstore in Seattle called Ada's Technical Books and Cafe. It was sitting there right on top of the shelf on display, and the cover certainly caught my eye all by itself. I took a quick glance through it. It is prose with the occasional bit of comics. And I said, okay, I'll give this a try. This really looks intriguing, and boy was I blown away. Chapter one blew me away, and then chapter two blew me away again. Chapters three and four blew me away yet again. It's hard to describe the plot of this book without spoiling it. In fact, those of you who like my recommendations and agree with my recommendations, I would say go get this book without reading anything about it. Don't go on Goodreads and read a synopsis of it, because they'll tell you everything, and you don't want that. The thing about this book is the surprises. When I did my try a chapter book tag last month, I read the first two paragraphs of this book, and you can read them again yourself here. Just this first page here is an excellent example of the writing. It was this first page that hooked me. It is so unusual for me to be surprised by any book, and for me to be surprised again and again and again by a book just blows my mind. It starts out these two fifth graders, these two friends in school. Just to kill time, they create this comic book character called Princess X that's based on themselves, and the author includes the girl's drawings. This is great stuff. All the way up to halfway through this book, I never knew what was going to happen from the beginning of one chapter to the next. I have to admit that by the middle of the book, it had settled down to a straightforward plot, and after that it became predictable. In fact, the last two or three chapters were kind of downright boring, but my God, the setup to this book was like nothing else I've ever seen before. I keep repeating the fact that it surprised me.  Please remember to press that like button, it helps my videos get seen, and then subscribe so you can come back next time. I do science fiction book, TV, and movie reviews all the time, and please consider becoming a patron. There's a link in the description below.


A few weeks ago, a new spending bill passed by Congress in the U.S. earmarking $100 million for development of nuclear propulsion for spaceflight. This isn't the first time that nuclear propulsion for spaceflight has passed by Congress. In fact, Kennedy tried to do it right after he promised the nation a moon landing in the 1960s. So, today, I thought we'd look at how nuclear engines work compared to their chemical counterparts. The one who knows Apollo knows Kennedy's famous speech before Congress in May of 1961, in which he said that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before this decade is out of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. What we don't often talk about is what he said directly after that. See, the moon landing was first. Second, he said, an additional $23 million, together with $7 million already available, will accelerate development of the rover nuclear rocket. This gives promise of Sunday providing a means for even more exciting and ambitious integration of space, perhaps beyond the moon, perhaps the very end of the solar system itself. It's not surprising that Kennedy asked Congress to fund nuclear propulsion as well as the moon landing. After all, this whole push to space was an iteration of the Cold War. A Cold War started because America and the Soviet Union each believed the other had better nuclear technology. So, why not combine both? Take on space with the nuclear reaction we're working on for bombs, right? In 1961, the rockets NASA was using were chemical rockets. This is, of course, the redstone and the atlas rockets that were launching the Mercury missions. The Saturn family, then under development, also used a chemical reaction. A chemical rocket, at the core, is really quite simple. Burning highly refined kerosene and liquid oxygen yields a powerful reaction that creates enough energy to lift a rocket off the Earth and into space. In the case of the Saturn V that took astronauts to the moon, the upper stages de-mix of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen with the same result. But a chemical rocket's power is limited. They don't actually produce that much energy. That's why, if you want to go to, say, Mars, you have to wait for a better planetary alignment, a so-called ideal launch window, to take advantage of a little bit of a boost from gravity. Otherwise, it takes so long to get there. Another problem with chemical rockets is that they can only carry so much fuel. At some point, the fuel becomes too heavy to get off the ground in the first place, which is why chemical rockets rarely have a sustained burn. Typically, the engine burns to get the spacecraft going, and then it coasts until the engine fires again to make an adjustment. Nuclear propulsion solves these problems. It's a lighter fuel, which means you can take more of it, and it has a more powerful output. When we're talking about rockets, the lighter the exhaust gas, the higher the exhaust velocity, and the higher exhaust velocity means higher thrust. If a nuclear engine's exhaust is hydrogen, the lightest element, its thrust will be very high compared to the exhaust from a chemical rocket at the same temperature. The chemical rocket exhaust contains heavier elements and therefore has less thrust. When we talk specifically about thrust, we talk about specific impulse as the measurement. Specific impulse means the time in seconds that one pound of propellant generates of one pound of thrust. The higher the seconds of specific impulse, the more economic and efficient the rocket. Chemical rockets in the 1960s had a specific impulse of about 300 to 450 seconds. The nuclear rocket engine using hydrogen developed as part of the NERVA program in the 1960s was shown during tests to have a specific impulse in the range of 800 to 900 seconds. That means that nuclear engine with the lighter exhaust would be twice as efficient as a chemical rocket. The nuclear engine for rocket vehicle application or NERVA program was born in 1961 as a joint program under NASA and the Atomic Energy Commission. The prime contractors were the Westinghouse Electric Corporation and Aerojet General Corporation. And this is what the NERVA engine looked like. In the heart of the engine is the reactor, a cylindrical core consisting of graphite elements impregnated with a uranium-235 fuel. Inside the core, fission of uranium atoms produces heat. Keeping that heat in place is a reflector made of beryllium, completely surrounding the core. Inside the reflector are cooling rods, also made of beryllium, but one side is coated with boron. Because fissioning uranium constantly emits neutrons that are reflecting back to the core, the heat is sustained so has to be managed. Turning the rod's boron side in absorbs the neutrons and lowers the temperature, eventually stopping the reaction. Turning the rod's beryllium side in sustains the fission reaction. Hydrogen is stored in a liquid state of minus 420 degrees Fahrenheit above the engine. That hydrogen is then pumped down to the engine nozzle by an external line, then through internal passages back up the nozzle and into the reactor where it passes through small channels in the reflector. This serves the dual purpose of cooling the engine and heating the hydrogen such that by the time it enters the core it's in a gaseous state. The hydrogen then moves through channels coated with niobium carbide to resist corrosion that run through the core from top to bottom. Passing through these channels, the hydrogen picks up heat from the fissioning uranium, heating to at 4000 degrees Fahrenheit. It passes through the exhaust nozzle and expands, producing thrust, moving the rocket. A bleed line carries some of the hydrogen back to the turbo pump to keep the engine running, making it an incredibly compact and powerful nuclear rocket engine for deep space. NASA had plans to harness the power of the NERVA engine in conjunction with the typical chemical rocket by swapping out the S4B upper stage of the Saturn V and replacing it with the NERVA. This so-called Saturn C5N variant could have increased the payload to orbit of the Saturn V from 118,000 kilograms to 155,000 kilograms to low Earth orbit. It could have supported manned missions to Mars by 1980, with a transit time of just four months instead of the eight or nine we get with optimal launch windows. Wernher von Braun even envisioned a mission that would send 12 men to Mars on two nuclear rockets, launching in November of 1981 and getting to the Red Planet in August of 1982. But, as we know, the nuclear propulsion never came to be. The site at Plumbrook that did the most work on developing nuclear reactor cores that could have been put into engines was mockballed in 1973 by the Nixon administration. People developing nuclear propulsion for spaceflight today have the same problems they did in the 1960s. You still have to deal with the insane heat made by the engine, not to mention the crew living near nuclear material. However, the insane efficiency of those engines makes it something that could be very worthwhile solving those difficult problems. If you liked this video, be sure to give it a thumbs up. And if this is your first time watching Vintage Space, welcome and consider subscribing so you never miss an episode. If you would like space content every single day of the week since I am not a daily channel, be sure to follow me all across social media and please note guys, I have changed my Twitter handle to be my full legal name, not my YouTube channel name. Other than that, everything's the same and I can't wait to see you guys next time. Thanks for watching.