Welcome to another edition of the Leader's Room. My name is Michael Kossler. Today we're speaking with Konstantin Korotkov from St. Petersburg University in Russia. We'll be talking about energy, human energy, and leadership energy. Professor, thank you so much for joining us today. And so you've got this camera and it takes pictures of human energy. Tell me about that, please. So we have different instruments and this is our latest instrument and the name of this instrument is Biowell. And it's a part of bioregraphy design. And in scientific term, it is gas discharge visualization, GDV, but of course it's very complicated for laypeople. And it's designed to take energy readings of human beings, of air, of environment, water. So it's multipurpose. And we have all very sophisticated software, but all software is now using internet on server. So when we take readings, we send everything to server. It makes all processing using very sophisticated non-linear mathematics. And then we have a lot of data and we can evaluate energy condition of people. We can give information about different organ systems condition and what's important to topics. First, we can see some problems, some weak areas of the body, long before people have some symptoms, before people have pain, before people have some impressions. And you know that in medicine it is very important because if we can define, for example, cardiovascular problem or oncology or some severe disease on very early stage, now with modern medicine in most cases it's easy to do. It's some treatment. We have powerful medical means how to do this. And then people may be healthy and proceed in their life. If you catch up cancer, for example, at first stage, then it is very poor situation. If people don't know that they have some problems, for example, with their cardiovascular system, then they may have in fact from blue sky. But it's not blue sky because it was long before in their system. Their system was not good, but they didn't feel it. They didn't know it. They didn't pay attention to little symptoms that they had. So that's why this is important benefit of this approach, of this camera. And second, we can follow up different situations. We can follow up treatment. And you know that now we have a lot of, I would say, non-conventional treatment, like electromagnetic treatment, magnetic devices, and different applications that allow to change a human state. But it is all very subtle. Who can tell that whether acupuncture is efficient or not? Only in long run. But with this instrument, you can see it practically immediately. Before session, after session, reading takes just a couple of minutes. And then you see all results. And you immediately can evaluate whether it was positive, whether it was negative, how was this transformation of the body coming? And then it helps doctor. So the main idea of this line, of this development, of this scientific line, to show people that they are not just material bodies. They are not just physical, but they are much more than that. So they are energy beings. They are light beings. They are part of God's creation. And they emit light. And what does mean light? It's frequency. So we can tell that people, those are frequency. And frequency, it is what connects us with universe. So when we are taking this measurement, we can tell about material body. We can tell about consciousness. We can tell about spirit. And of course, this makes us a bridge between hard signs, because I'm a physicist. I'm a quantum physicist. And spirituality, and ideas of the spiritual role of human being on this earth. And now I would like to show how it works, how it looks like. So maybe I can ask my colleague to come. Michael, how are you? So OK, let's make your measurement. So please apply your finger one by one. And we make your skin just now. OK, now it's coming. OK, next one, please. It's OK, it's especially designed this way. Next one. Next one. And little one. And other hand as well. Same procedure. Next one, please. OK, and now let's repeat this ring finger, this one. OK, very good. OK, very good. So now I check with all details. OK, very good. Now it's all done. We have all green, you see. And now we send it to server. And server now we have in Moscow. But soon we transform it to United States, to Amazon server. It's much more powerful server. And now you see we have all your information. So you see, you have very good energy, very good energy. It's quite strong. And if we look to this, you have very good level of stress. It's totally in balance. We have your energy is absolutely in normal range. Your balance between left and right hemisphere is really very good because so you are very balanced person. If you look to a chakras, then today they are a little bit different. Different, yes. Because we did this yesterday and that's a little bit different. Yes, it was different. And I understand why. Because yesterday you was under the impression of all this workshop, of all lectures. And it's really very strong energy influence. Today in the morning, of course, it's not that strong. But still your energy is very good. If you look to your health status, it is very good. All in green line. Energy status is very strong. Again, it's all in very good line. Balance is quite good. But we've been discussing with you some moment that you need to pay attention to. Organ energy as well, it's quite good. Everything is in positive range. So when I make overall conclusion on this field, so the first conclusion is you are practically a healthy person in good energy state, in good health state, that you are extrovert. You can really discuss with people. You can really influence other people. And it's the type of your energy field that you have. It's practically no breaks. You see, it's rounded, it's closed. So it is really very good information that we have. And in principle, you may be healthy. And of course, when I make a report, then we have all your information. We can give you some details of your situation that you need to pay attention to. Or some, I would say, suggestions and advices where you need to pay attention to in your health state. A few minutes ago, you mentioned that using these readings, you can pick up subtleties that may not manifest themselves as symptoms for quite a period of time. And yesterday when we talked, you were reading the images from yesterday. And you asked me a question about my kidneys, a specific area. And I don't mind sharing this with the camera. And you said, has anything been going happening with my kidneys recently? And I said, well, I discovered that I had kidney stones and had them removed. And you pointed to that on the images. Is that an example? And perhaps maybe you can give one or two others examples using me because you shared a few other things. What do you see with the subtleties? Even though I have a good energy field, what are the subtleties in it? Absolutely. So it shows us absolutely clear example of your kidney. And again, it shows here. And that's why I remember that we discussed it yesterday. This instrument is very sensitive and quite accurate. So it gives us, I would say, tracks of existing stations and even long-lasting stations. For example, people may have had some surgery long before, but we can see tracks of this. You had your stones removed, but we understand that it wasn't just from blue sky. It is production of your body. And it means that some misbalance that exists in your body. But we understand what may be done to prevent it. And it's your lucky that it was just a little, I would say, bell ring for you. Now you understand what you should do. And we've been discussing it yesterday. So typically, we not only pinpoint what is there. We give some recommendations. And in some cases, it's maybe really dramatic. I can tell a story, many stories, of course. But in a story, when one company I've been, it was vice president of the company. And I've done his analysis. And I've told him that, sorry, you have some serious situation with your heart. He's told, no, it's not wrong. I've done cardiogram a couple of weeks ago. Everything's fine. And I left the company without contract. But then I was called three months later. They invited me to come. And I came. And they've told that in a month after my analysis, he had, in fact, my car. So it means that it was really in his system. It means that a simple cardiogram not always able to define it. Because it's not, when it's really very serious, when people have pain, then it's OK. But when people have some disorder, something would, but not with, then it's much more difficult.  Yes, absolutely. Before somebody reaches a pain point. Absolutely, absolutely. With this system, this is the power of the system. Plus, we can follow up different influences. For example, your example, very good example. Yesterday, your energy was higher. And it was after the day of presentations. It was expiring presentations. It was a wonderful day of Congress. Wonderful. I was really awed to see, to listen all these presenters because it was extraordinary people. And of course, when you listen to this, when we listen to those people who was able to change their life, to be able to influence other people, of course, it's changing our energy. Right. So take that idea of energy, because we talked about it. And you used me as a subject yesterday. And when you looked at, can I call it an aura? How do I refer to that energy field? So in science, we need to give definitions. Yes. That's very important. I don't like the word aura, because it's related to some spiritual topics, to some topics related to some unusual ideas. So I prefer the name of energy field. Just energy field. Yes. What we are measuring? We are measuring parameters. And we take spectrum. And spectrum, it is frequency. So in principle, we are measuring frequency. We take different parameters from the spectrum. More than 30 parameters, you see different parameters. So we evaluate them, and we make statistics. Then based on those parameters, we can create statistical evaluation. And we know what is good and what is bad. That's why when we have this green belt, it is the most beneficial for these particular age groups. When we make this definition of normal stress level, excited stress, overstressed, then again, it is based on huge statistics, more than 100,000 people in different countries. So that's why we can attribute your particular energy stress level to the average norms. And we understand what is it, normal range? Are you in good, practically good health state? Or it is something that needs to be very attentive to. So plus, we use it not only as analysis, but we use it as a part of treatment. As treatment? Same more. Same system. So we are measuring frequency, your own frequency. Then we create, through this frequency, based again on this website, we create music. But music is frequency, again, yes. Then we apply this frequency to another device, little device, it's our production as well, that generates super high frequency in Higa-Gertz range. And we apply to special earphones, this music and this frequency, modulated by your own frequency. So when you are listening to this music, you are having this frequency treatment in parallel at last 10 minutes. And it is absolutely direct influence to cell level. It is based on very hard science. In Russia, we have the science from the end of 80s, 1980s. And I was involved in this research. So now we have very huge statistical data. We have huge clinical data. And it shows that when we have this type of treatment, it is an individual way of balancing your energy field and balancing your cell communication. So it's transforming you to more balanced, more harmonic state. Plus, it's not just simple music. It is music based on binarial tones. It means that we apply to left and right ear frequency little bit shifted to several hertz. And brain can distinguish this difference. And what does mean several hertz? It is alpha. It is theta. That is frequency of our brain that is most beneficial. So again, it gives us very beneficial information. And we can follow up this by second measurement.  PhD. How does a quantum physicist go from looking at energy in things to looking at energy in people? What was that journey? You see, I had very interesting background. Because in Soviet Union, I was involved in really different lines of quantum physics science. I was in plasma physics. I was in cosmic physics. I was in laser physics. And it was very interesting background. And it gave me a lot of understanding of everything. Then I shifted to biology. Because to my mind, it's most important for humankind. And create different way how we can support human people. That's human health. That's important. And being a mountaineer, it was necessary for me to study some medicine. So I have some education in this field as well. So you went back to school and got additional training in medicine? Yes, absolutely. So I have some certificates. So I'm able to make first aid at least. Because you know that I was a member of rescue team in the mountains of Soviet Union. And then we need to be ready to make. And I'm happy that a couple of times I was able to save human life in the mountains. Yes, absolutely. So you have an interesting blend of quantum physics and an understanding of medicine. And you've married those two together. Absolutely. Plus, of course, I never claimed that I'm a medical doctor. Right, no. I'm a medical professional, not at all. But you work closely with medical doctors. Yes, yes. We have many, many close colleagues. We work together at very high level. So I was lucky that from the very beginning of our development, because we created this particular instrument, this type of instruments, in 1995. And it attracted attention of really high level doctors, professors in medicine. So we've done research in our medical university, in St. Petersburg, in Moscow, in Novosibirsk, in other cities, in the United States. I was working with NIH in the United States. Oh, OK. I was working with several universities in Spain, in France, in Germany. So it was really highly professional people, medical professionals, who was doing this research and who was observing together with us what we have. Right. So that's why our conclusions, it's not just our ideas. It is based on thousands and thousands of clinical observations. And if we claim something, we never tell, please believe us. No, please don't believe us. Please take it yourself and test. So let me pick up on that statement. Because I'm imagining that while you have colleagues that are trained physicians that are very supportive of this, you have to bump into skeptics along the way, the individual. I mean, when I was doing some research for our conversation, I know there are people that are out there debunking what it is that you're doing. And so what do you say to the skeptics about this? You're absolutely right. All my life, all my scientific life when I was creating these topics, I had resistance. Always. Always. Always. It was not only skeptics. It was people who don't want to see anything new. Because I always tell people, OK, please don't believe me. Please take scientific papers as we are publishing. It is more than, practically, 200 papers published in paragraph journals in different languages. Please take those papers and let's discuss results. If you don't like our methodology, you can criticize this. We are open to critics. Even more than that, you don't believe. Please don't believe. Please take instrument. Take your own measurements. And then you see. Is it right or wrong? So when people are open to new information, then for them it's very easy. I've been presenting at highest level of physical societies, of medical societies, and before people who didn't know what's all about. And always it was very positive response at the end. At the beginning, people was very cautious. And it's clear. And I agree with it. It should be. And in medicine, people should be very cautious because it's so many faked conclusions, faked ideas, instruments that doesn't work or make something wrong. And even now I can give you thousands of examples of this in medicine. So medical professionals should be very, very accurate in what they're doing. And you invite skepticism. Yes. And I always invite this. I always ask people, please test it. Please check it. And if you have some other ideas, please prove it. Now one of the questions that frequently comes up was something that might be viewed as less than mainstream, at least at this point in time, is can you replicate your results? And what you said earlier is you have thousands of tests like this. Talk to me about what you have learned about this process and about human energy through all of these tests that you've done. Yes. So that's the most important, that it's not me who are doing this research. Yes. My idea that I am just developing approach, methodology, instrument. And then people should use it. And now we have thousands of people who are using our instruments in the world. Now with this new instrument, I'm sure it will be tens of thousands because it's much more easy to use. It's quite non-expensive. So it's affordable to any practitioner, to any doctor, to any center. And we have much more complex instruments for big clinics, for example. And so it is very important that when we present some ideas, some results, they need to be replicated in different parts of the world. That is obligatory. And we have many cases of this. Every year, we have big congress in St. Petersburg. Now it's for 18 years. So it's a long history now. And every year, we collect people are coming from all over the world. It's about 200, 300 people from different countries, from all parts of the world, practically from everywhere, even from Antarctica. OK, absolutely. And they present their own results. They present their own vision. And of course, very often, they have new ideas. They have different visions. And we respect it. So different people can have different opinions, different visions. But it's all come in one direction. It's all development. That is important. And so if I were to build on this, people come to this congress, for example. They have different visions. But yet there is a generalized direction with this research. And permit me to try and put it into a layperson terms. And then perhaps you can fine tune it. And that is by looking at human energy as it is measured by your camera. And I mean, the camera and the server and the database all have to be used together. But from a health and wellness perspective, that energy field tells us a lot about the condition of that human being that we're looking at. Absolutely. And I see several most important moments. So my idea, not just to create some diagnostic implement, it's important, but it's not the only way. The main idea that I see, that we need to show people that they are much more than just material value. That they are energy beings, they are light beings. And even much more. That by the power of their own mind, they can change their life. And it sees measurements. So we take a lot of measurement during meditation, during mental training. We teach people how to make it. For example, in sport, it's one of the lines that we are doing with athletes. We work with Olympic teams of Russia, with Paralympic teams of Russia. Because I am in the Institute of Sports in Russia. And this is top level athletes. And they need this training, not only physical, but mental. At some level of achievement, it's not enough to have physical body. It's not enough to have big skills. But you need to understand what you are doing. And you need to be specially prepared. Konstantin, thank you so very much for joining us today. We've been talking with Konstantin Karatkov from the St. Petersburg University in Russia. We've been talking about leadership energy and how to maintain it. Thank you very much.


I'm Luya from REI-X. REI-X is a blockchain startup based on Tokyo and working on CASPER research and supported by Ethereum Foundation Grant. So today, I will talk about my research on the security of CASPER. So, you know, CASPER, a consensus protocol, has two properties, safety and liveness. So the talk is divided into two parts, safety part and liveness part. So first, I want to introduce CASPER is not that different from traditional protocols, and CASPER FFG and the CBC is not that different also. So first, PBFT, Tendermint and CASPER FFG and CBC are all categorized into a synchronously safe consensus protocol. So I mean safety does not require any timing assumptions. So basically, in these protocols, finality comes when sufficient number of validators is locked on the block. So let's start with Tendermint. So in Tendermint, a block is called notarized when two F plus one validators is bought on the block. So here F is resunching for the threshold. And the block is finalized when its direct child block is notarized. And when validator is bought for notarized block, that validator is locked on the block. So he cannot vote for conflicting block. So in this case, the first block is finalized. And here, the votes must be collected in on-chain. This is really important point. So here, the reason why we can say the first block is finalized is we know that these validators bought for the second block knows, we know that this validator is locked because we know that the votes are on-chain, right? This is why on-chain voting is very important for these protocols. The reason why finality comes when only when its direct block is notarized is there might be another block in the middle. And we discussed locking is necessary for safety, but if locking is too much, too much strong, does not create some liveness property. So here, we have some unlocking condition. So in tandem, a validator locked on the block is unlocked when he see a higher notarized block. So in this picture, I voted for two, but I'm unlocked because I see the new notarized block here. So let's start with the next is Casper FFG. The Casper FFG is fundamentally similar to tandem, but it's more like chain-based, leaderless tandem. So in Casper FFG, we do not finalize block. We finalize checkpoints. So in this picture, we have blockchain, but we finalize on, say, every 50 blocks or every 50 slots block, right? So yeah. And again, both are still on chain. And the difference between tandem is the fork choice itself is doing the similar role of leader. So in tandem, every validator bought for a block which is decided by the leader of that round. But in Casper FFG, it's a fork choice that decides the view. And unlocking and locking is super similar to tandem. So in FFG case, they are unlocked when they see higher notarized or just justify the checkpoint. So finally, Shibushi Casper is also locking-based consensus protocol, but the locking and unlocking is purely by the fork choice itself. So in Shibushi Casper, every message both block must follow the fork choice. And in tandem or FFG, we included the both on chain. But in Shibushi, we can do the same thing, but more flexibly, we can allow the message to point to the every open both or block. So in this picture, the block B is pointing to open block, but the reason is okay, so yeah, additional explanation. So in this case, this block is invalid because they know that the different chain is more heavier, so this is invalid. And the unlocking condition is super abstracted into equivocation condition that every vote must include his previous message in its message. So in this picture, this block is invalid because he has previous message here, but does not include it in on chain, in message. So the similarity of Shibushi and FFG is that the both is chain-based, so every vote block is voting or supporting for the same ancestor, right? So in FFG, what two point no, they include all from votes in on chain because they are supporting for the same checkpoints. This is also same for Shibushi Casper, but it's more flexible way. So the exact finality condition is something I do not talk in this talk, but we finally finished our formal verification in IZAPL-HOL. It takes more than half a year, but it's a great job, I think. So yeah, pretty much summary is Tendermint, Casper, FFG, and Shibushi is basically based on some locking idea, and the difference comes from whether the locking is based on the notarized checkpoint or block or folk choice itself. So I want to move to liveness, but liveness has a lot of design strategies, so I cannot talk in this 20 minutes, so I today want to focus on two point no liveness. So basically in two point no, liveness strategy is super simple. It's just LMDGhost plus Casper FFG. So LMDGhost is a variant of ghost in which the latest message is only counted. So in this picture, the traditional longest chain rule, this chain is a head. In normal ghost, this chain is a head, but in LMDGhost, we only count the latest message, so the third chain is a head. So to talk about the liveness based on LMDGhost, we need to define when the chain converges. And in LMDGhost, a block is not offered when the chain is supported by more than majority of honest votes. So in this example, say there's 100 total validators and the blue chain is supported by more than 51 votes. In this case, whatever adversely do, the top chain does not be organized. So this is a convergence condition of LMDGhost, but this cannot be observed by protocol foreign validators. This is why we want Casper to detect finality. But for liveness analysis, this is a convergence condition. Yeah, so before I introduce attack on LMDGhost, I want to introduce some fairness property on folk choice. So basically in any consensus protocol, we want some property called fairness. So I mean, any player cannot increase their power against their stake or hash power. But there's something break this property called saving strategy. So adversely can skip their votes. And the later use their votes to flip-flop. This does not work in longest chain because so say we divide into timing to slots, six seconds or 10 seconds. And every three block or vote is adverse for adversely. And in this case, adversely with hold will save every block. But in longest chain, we can add some validity condition that every block or votes cannot extend the future block. So here after some network failure, they cannot use the saved votes to prevent liveness here. But in ghost, every votes does not expired. So here, there's a huge two folk from early days. And but you can use the saved votes in ghost. The folk choice is based on every best children selection on each height. So every vote does not expired. So this turns into creating a new attack on LMD ghost, which I call decoy flip-flop attack. So basically what I want to do is to flip every votes into another chain and go back to another chain and continue. The difference, the big difference in normal goals and LMD ghost is the flip of votes decreases the score. In longest chain or normal ghost, some score of a chain, monotonically increasing. And every liveness proof is based on that property. But in LMD ghost, we cannot have that property. This is the simulation I have. So imagine that two chain, red chain and blue chain. And we continuously flip-flop just before the chain converges. And the result is the necessary saving which the adversary needs to prepare exponential decreases against the adversary power. And for some parameter, 33% attack can prevent liveness for 100 epoch. It's like a few hours, 10 hours by five epochs of savings. And for more big adversary, it takes much longer for the chain to finalize. Yeah, small mitigation of this attack is FMD ghost. It's a variant of LMD ghost to mitigate the saving strategy. So in LMD ghost, we count every vote, every order brought if it is the latest. But in FMD ghost, we only count a vote from the current epoch or the previous epoch. Someone say that it's kind of introduced a new synchrony assumption on consensus, but it's not that true. Because in two point no case, the FFG is decoupled from the chain. So the synchrony assumption does not change. But here still decoy flip-flop is possible because we can have one epoch of savings. So this starts pretty much a new question that why LMD ghost in the first place compared to non-LMD variant of ghost. Especially there's no CBC Casper in two point no for now. So it's a bit easy to manipulate the fork choice. Another interesting topic which I cannot talk today is flip-flopping LMD ghost in CBC Casper. Because in CBC Casper, every message is imposed to follow the fork choice. So the analysis gets a bit complicated, but basically it's mighty case that flip-flop strategy. So a bit no incentives. So you might say savings can be detected and thrashed, but basically to punish liveness failure is as I explained by the Vitalik in this morning, it's different or difficult to distinguish between no malicious failure because it's just my honest no to just get down. So in two point no has some incentive mechanism to punish liveness failure called inactivity leak, but it's just kind mild punishment. So the current parameterization with decoy flip-flop attack, 33% attacker can prevent finality for a few days with 1% cost of the stake. And you know liveness attack sometimes has a lot of reward because there's a lot of layer two solutions in which there's some challenge period and if they can censorship on the flood proof, in plasma and lighting, adversely can get a bunch of money from the layer two construction. So I think it's a new question to how to analysis incentive compatibility in liveness failure. So I think I have a time, so I quickly introduce some attack on Casper FFG which is funded by last year. So in FFG, the original FFG removing the leader in kind of bad way because so these squares are not blocks, it's checkpoints. And remember that unlocking rule in Casper FFG is observation of higher notarized checkpoint. And so in this case, imagine there's 100 validators and this checkpoint is close to two source but it's not notarized yet. But adversely can justify this checkpoint arbitrarily anytime. So in this situation, the folk choice favors this side of the chain so creating a new checkpoint which is close to the notarization but exactly the same at the time, adversely flip the head of the folk choice in that way. And in high synchrony network, adversely can continue this attack forever. So why this does not happen in tendermint? It's simply because leader decides the view of the current round. So what we should do is to have some sort of stickiness property in FFG. So there's a lot of construction to prevent this attack. It's one idea is to not allow the change of the view in the middle of the epoch. For example, you do not allow any new justified checkpoint if it's in the middle of the epoch. Yes, I think it's finished. Thank you.


I think my ministry at CC Young was the most memorable and spiritual experience I could have had. Being with the residents and their families, being with those who were dying in the hospice area, those are what brought the greatest satisfaction to me. The person that had journeyed the entire time was Dr. Joan LeBar, all the way from seminary through ordination and even as I did my appointment at CC Young. But there were other ministers who journeyed along the way and that was Walt Perky and Terry Parsons. But the lady were just as involved in my ministry and they were the ones that really did the encouraging, especially Richard Stanford. Well, my plans include, as I told at my retirement party, was to supervise honeydew projects for my husband, to have the opportunity to visit my family in Florida and to be able to go be with the grandchildren without having to ask for time off. I believe I'm living out my witness as training to be an ombudsman for the state of Texas, which is the advocate for those who have no one to be their advocate, their voice. And I see future projects of the need for end of life education, Sunday school curriculum, to be developed and I see a need for an older adult ministry education program to teach persons how to be with the older adults and communicate with them. Well, since most of my ministry has been spent outside the bounds of the North Texas Conference, I'd say that the ability to experience and see the church worldwide, I've been fortunate to be able to travel on behalf of the church, representing both agencies, various agencies of the church and the church in general to places on almost all the continents of the globe and to experience the work of the church, both its breadth and depth, have been really significant to me. Well, clearly, I'd just like to thank my colleagues in the North Texas Conference as well as the various bishops that I've been able to serve with and who have appointed me beyond the local church for these years. In particular, though, I'd also like to just thank William Boyd Smith, who was a mentor to me early in my ministry and who I believe taught me how to be in ministry and how to do ministry well. At this point, I think I'm going to probably take a break from the church. I've looked and sort of reflected on how much time I've spent in church meetings and worship services and involvement in the church and I think it'll be time to sort of take a break, step back and sort of refresh on more of a personal spiritual journey, as well as I want to explore being involved perhaps more in some of my various activities that I enjoy. Take up a little golf perhaps and also explore being more intentional about my work as a sugar artist and sort of enjoying doing that and just not having to sort of report to anyone at any point in time. So I think that's what I'm looking forward to. I think the way I've lived out my call and my witness is I trust it's been through the way I've both lived my life and the way I've conducted myself in my work. I've tried to be clear that what I think I do is part of my call, even though that might not be in a pulpit every Sunday, it is still my call, it's still a vital part of the work of the church and as I often say to my current staff and I've said to various staffs with whom I've worked, I believe that being involved in administration is ministry and I seek to live out my ministry in that sort of way. The thing that's meant the most to me is to watch the children grow and mature, ask questions that are thought provoking not only for me but for them also and just seeing them grow up, seeing them go through confirmation, seeing them go from the preschool up until first, second grade. It's just a real thrill to see those kids grow and mature. You cannot do children's ministry unless you have the support of parents, so I'm sure I should thank the parents first for supporting the ministry but I'd really like to thank Dr. Allegria and the congregation at Duncanville for being so supportive of children and children's programs and the ministries and all the many things that we do. I did begin my ministry in Northwest Texas conference and there are many strong United Methodist women from that conference who always were encouraging and helpful and let me know I could do what I can do. My husband and I will be moving to Katy, Texas. We're going to be living with our daughter for a little while until we get acclimated but we're going to be able to be very close to her and it's just a real blessing to be able to do that. We're going to do a lot of traveling also. Through the years that I've been in ministry, not only as a consecrated diagonal minister but as just a member of the local church, I always felt that my servanthood doing whatever was needed, whatever was called for, you know, taking part in mission trips, being part of the ministry within the church to reach out to the community, I think that's where my witness has shown and especially in those behind the scenes things that happen at church, people don't always realize how much setup goes into a lot of the events and just being there to do whatever was needed and whatever was necessary to make sure that ministry could happen. I believe what's helped me most and what has meant the most to me is loving and serving the people and the people of particularly Pleasant Valley Church where I was for eight years and then Lovers Lane where I am now has meant a great deal to me. I've been able to serve with pastors from all across the country, all across the globe and it's been a great deal to serve people likewise, from all over the country. The Lord said he came not to be served but to serve, so that's what we try to live by at Lovers Lane and certainly what I've hoped I've lived up to. In fulfillment of ministry, I think the most important person in my life has been my wife, Sissy. My dear family, we've got two boys and two girls and a son-in-law. We're both grandpa and grandma wannabes but it's meant so much to have the support and love of the family. In a professional sense what's meant the most to me has been knowing and hearing from Carol Woods, my first DS and Cammie Gaston, my current DS. Their love and guidance has meant so much to me. Additionally, I want to thank the pastors who have meant the most, Mark Craig and Paul Goodrich and Stan Copeland. I guess my mentor pastor, Renee Lawson and Jack Gibson have meant the most to me. Jack particularly, who received my call and led me into ministry. He's the man who claims he's got one foot already in heaven and he's a lover and we love him. God bless them all. Well actually I'm going to be remaining part-time at Lovers Lane Church and I haven't ever experienced part-time ministry. I don't know that there is such a thing but I'm going to try to do that honorably for Stan and for the church. I obviously want to spend more time with my family. My wife's one of those where we're kind of partners in ministry. And I've heard it said many times pastor we're really glad you're here but we really love Sissy. So I'm going to love Sissy and my family in retirement. Well it's pastor congregational care at Lovers Lane. Pastoral care has been my passion, it's been my charge. And there have been so many sacred moments that the people have shared with me. In their toughest times and their times of joy and those sacred moments all add up to something very special, very special for every pastor. And I'm so very thankful for that and for them. I think to see the transforming power of Jesus Christ in different people as I've ministered to them or reached out to them in some way. I think probably the most profound experience I ever had was a man who was a grandson of one of the members of my church. One night he killed his ex-wife and I became involved in a relationship with him. When I first met him he was just full of rage and anger and stuff. And after I got to know him over the years he has really turned to Christ and is a firm believer as he unfortunately sits on death row. But he believes and knows that because he's repented and he loves the Lord that he's got a good outcome ahead of him. And then to see it in the children that I've been working with as I grow and mature and I've got one little girl who's just always asking questions and difficult questions. And responding to those and seeing her filled with the spirit of the Lord and the joy of the Lord. Like some children I haven't seen she's really very special. First of all God because I couldn't be here without him. God has just been everything to me. He's my life and my breath and he's given me the strength and the courage to do things I never dreamed I would do. And of course there's been my family and friends and pastors and fellow clergy and members of my church who have encouraged me and helped give me strength to go ahead and do all the things I needed to do. Well I don't really plan on returning a whole lot. I want us to take time to smell the roses. I'm going to go live in the country. I have six acres in East Texas. And I plan on continuing ministry on my own as well as I'm going to work part time for two East Texas churches. So I won't be completely out of the business which is a positive thing for me. I can't imagine not serving God in some capacity even in retirement. I've tried to set an example of being obedient to Christ and living a holy and sacrificial life for him. I think what most people usually say about me is that there's an amazing passion inside of me when I discuss anything that concerns Jesus Christ. And I hope I don't ever lose that. So that's what I want to continue to do is to have that passion and still set the example of what it really means to not only preach the scriptures but live the scriptures. I think not only the people but the ability to share God's gift and be God's servant to the people. All the people and helping them find their way to Christ. That's been the most important. So many wonderful people I'd like to thank. Of course my mentor but above all the Fisterich family. They just made the transition from seminary to ministry so easy and I love them and I have a group of people that follow me. So I've seen them within the last couple of months and I love when they walk through the doors of the churches in South Dallas. So that's been my foundation. I want to be wife, mother, grandmother but I doubt that that will happen because I am always wife, mother and grandmother and it is to more than just my immediate family. I have a number of young people that God has just put in my path that I've loved and my children joke about the fact that they have brothers and sisters that they don't know anything about. So retirement, kind of a bit of sweet. I'm not quite sure what's going to happen with that. I might redefine that word. With every fiber of my being I've sought to be an obedient disciple of Christ and to carry that not only at home but abroad. In ministry, mission. I've loved people. I've prayed for people by the side of the road and that is my passion is prayer. And I just have a firm belief that God loves all of us so much that sometimes we need to do what the older folks said. Learn how to prop each other up on every leaning side.  I am his servant. I think the things that have meant most to me have been meeting the different church members and getting to know them. I have especially joined teaching Bible studies with groups. It was always amazing to me when we come across something in a Bible study and you can just kind of see light bulbs flashing in their minds or above their heads. They uncovered this new idea that made the understanding of the Scriptures easier or more plain to them. First I would have to thank my wife. When I was discouraged, she lifted me up and there have been a lot of pastoral mentors along the way. Ray Henney was a great mentor. He really taught me what ministry was all about. And then there's been David Shover and Glenn Vickers and just Gary Reagan and a whole host of other ministers that are now retired. And some have gone to the Kingdom, but they have been a lot to me over the years. My main plan, or at least according to what my wife wants, is we have plans to be able to travel and go see our 11 grandchildren. That we haven't been able to do because they have sporting events on weekends and it's hard to make it back to church on Sunday mornings if you are expected to be there every Sunday. So I've been doing some gardening the last few years and I'm going to attempt a small garden this year and maybe expand it. I grow mostly tomatoes and jalapenos and canned jalapenos and make salsa and things like that. I think I've lived out my witness primarily and trying to be a living witness to God's love, especially in the church camps that I worked at as either a counselor or a director. At last count I think there were 26 of them and I tried to share God's love with those children and youth. We just had some very special times at camp and I think my gift really has been more in teaching maybe than any other field and I've enjoyed teaching a lot. I enjoy preaching but sometimes my sermons are more like teaching I think. I guess my favorite scripture is the one in Romans 8 that says that there is nothing that can separate you from the love of Christ, the love of God and Christ Jesus. And I think I've been a witness to that, to families and times of grief and other times and to children and other people. So I think that has been my witness. I think that among the things that have meant a lot to me are the people that I've gotten to know over the years.  Well, I would begin with my wife, Camille, without whom I would not be where I am today. She's certainly been a partner in ministry and I've been blessed to have a wife who has felt called to be a pastor's wife, which is kind of a unique thing and I value that very highly. I'm very grateful for people in the local churches. Every church has been somebody and sometimes multiple people who have come and said, it doesn't matter who's been here before as pastor, while you're here, we're on your team and we'll be supportive of you. Well, so far I have done some volunteer work at a couple of churches in Houston and the plan is this summer I'll go on staff part time at Cornerstone United Methodist and be a part time associate. And I've been involved in teaching Sunday school and teaching some of Dave Ramsey's courses and thoroughly love the life change I see in people's lives through those kinds of opportunities, so I'm sure I'll continue those as well. Becoming a pastor, having the opportunity both to teach and to preach, to walk hand in hand with real ministries and the lives of people as they do missions and evangelism and all kinds of outreach, making a difference in the community in which we live. One of the most exciting things was one family of the church had discovered their neighbor who'd lived there for years had been living without running water, without a working kitchen or bathroom. The church came together, totally remodeled the bathroom in the kitchen, made it possible to have running water again, put her in contact with some social services that could meet some of her needs that she wasn't even aware were available to her. And I think it made an impact not only on her but on the families that were able to be a part of that kind of ministry and that kind of word kind of spread on the community, great vine and it's good for the Lord to get that kind of glory when God's people are doing ministry that really makes a difference that lasts in people's lives. The thing that has meant most to me in my ministry and the conference has been the ability to work with people and my desire was to stay within the smaller churches where you have the interaction and the conference has allowed me to do that for 40 years. First of all, I want to thank my wife and family. We got married a month and a half after I took my first appointment. Fantastic person to help and fill in an area where I haven't been able to feel confident. And then my family, my children, owned through seminary and people like Richie Hogg who is the most influential influence on me and then our first appointments and the Gibson's going with my wife and me and we always remember the Gibson's and then all those other ministers throughout the years that we have been able to have wonderful relationships with and the people in the churches, some really fantastic people over the years. I don't consider retirement to be something that one does. I perceive myself and who I am as a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ and in the past decades I have followed Jesus in the ministry and I will continue to follow him after retirement. I feel that I have been put into opportunity where I can preach and I can teach and then I can try to live in a way such that what I'm saying is given an illustration. It's more than just saying things, it's saying what I believe. And we've been through family crises in the past couple of years. It seems like an rapid succession and being able to see how Christians handle those situations by in addition to teaching about them and preaching about them, doing practical applications of what I've said. And also there's really wonderful opportunities that we have had throughout the ministry and a huge number of them working in crisis situations. The church, a pastor for so long, Salem Cancer has had an ethnic minority and low income, low education neighborhood and being able to work with those people and other types of caring. We've been deeply involved in scouting for a long, long time and a lot of other examples of things that we've been involved in that I think are really examples of how we can minister as Christ's disciples in this world. What has been most important to me and that which has really been special was serving for 25 years as the conference representative on the Texas Conference of Churches, the ecumenical organization in the state of Texas. We were able to do significant work through the ecumenical community in Texas and it has been really wonderful. All of it has been wonderful. Of course I am grateful for the companionship of Marty, my wife. We had the wonderful opportunity to serve together at Arapaho United Methodist Church and we did that for 10 years and that was really wonderful. I also have a tremendous amount of gratitude for Professor Harold Beck. He served as my mentor when I was studying scriptures at Boston University School of Theology. What will I do in retirement is yet to be defined. I suppose although there are some pieces and parts that are in place I'm being trained to be an interim pastor. I'm looking forward to that. I think that's going to be most enjoyable for sure. And then I've read a thousand books and it's probably time for me to write one so I hope to carve out enough time so that I can get that done. I think I would enjoy that process of reflection and study in a different way. And then I expect to do some more fly fishing and that'll be fun too. I am clear as to how I have lived out my witness. In Galatians Paul wrote something that has meant everything to me when he said, It's no longer I but Christ who lives in me and the faith I live is the faith of the Son of God. That passage has meant the world because it has been my spiritual foundation. And so when I bear witness to the gospel it's with the church and specifically the churches I have served as we have been in covenant with each other. And as we've truly lived out the essence of Shalom which means that we're all doing everything we can to uphold the will of God, the will of God that holds us together. I have loved being a United Methodist minister. I can't imagine doing anything except that.


Felly, mae'r iawn i gweithio arna i gwyfwng gwrthodau i dyn ni. Mae'n gweld ar y gwrthodau ni, David Torrance. A wnaeth i gyfer y Gwbl Llywodraeth a Gwybodaeth i'w cerdd i ddod yn gyfrannu'r bod i gael alchohol yn ystyried? Llywodraeth wedi gweld eu cyrraedd o gael digwydd ac yndrawawyr ac ei ddoch chi weld eich ddweud ddylau'r imigol, ac yn ystyried i ddysgu cyfresgwynt, reduce crime and preserve public order. While the Scottish Government is responsible for the overarching legislation in relation to liquor licensing, responsibility for procedures and individual decisions lies with local licensing boards, made up of locally elected councillors. All licensing boards have wide discretion to determine appropriate licensing arrangements according to local needs and circumstances and their own legal advice. David Torrance I thank the minister for that answer. At local level, licensing boards now have a more concise and targeted data recording alcohol-related incidents, medical omissions, and now this is available to them whenever before. Does the minister consider that local authority licensing boards would benefit from additional powers in order to effectively focus and target resources to come back alcohol-related issues being experienced in their areas? I would say to the member that licensing boards already have extensive powers available to them to help to build their own policies for regulating the sale of alcohol to the public in their local area. The key strategic role of a licensing board is the preparation of the licensing policy statement. The statement includes an over-provision assessment, which states whether local boards consider there to be over-provision of licensed premises in any locality in their area. In fact, there has been a significant amount of legislation in relation to the alcohol licensing regime over recent years. Therefore, there would need to be a strong case before any additional legislation was considered. However, I can say to David Torrance that the Scottish Government is working with stakeholders to update the alcohol licensing regime guidance, and it is expected that that will be issued later this year. Also, of course, if David Torrance has any particular concerns about the operation of the licensing regime in Fife, I am sure that we will be very happy to meet him. I will undershoot. People from areas of deprivation are eight times more likely to be admitted to hospital due to alcohol consumption than those from affluent communities. Alcohol abuses not only a symptom of poverty but can also be a driver and can be damaging to the impact of communities across Scotland. Will the Scottish Government examine how it can work alongside local authorities to reduce the impact of alcohol in those communities? Of course, the member will be aware that the minimum unit pricing provisions are to come into force on 1 May. I am sure that he welcomes that. However, that is not the only approach that the Scottish Government takes. Of course, we have our framework for action, which is a package of more than 40 measures to reduce alcohol-related harm in Scotland, including quantity discount ban, a ban in their responsible promotions, as well as a lower drink drive limit to improve substance misuse education, and our nationwide alcohol brief intervention programme. It may be of interest to the member that, of course, while we continue to work with all relevant stakeholders, in addition, a refresh of the alcohol strategy is due to be introduced shortly. Mary Fee A report from Alcohol Focused Scotland reported that a number of licensing boards have difficulties in assessing and determining over provision. Those difficulties appear to centre around two interlinked issues—the relationship between outlet density and alcohol problems, and the standard of evidence that is required for a licensing board to find an area is overprovided. What steps will the minister take to ensure that licensing boards have clear guidance to assist them in their decision making, which in turn will help to tackle the issue of over provision? Of course, Mary Fee will be aware that the position in general is that, of course, the local licensing boards operate independently, but, at the same time, we have been working, as I said in my answer to David Torrance, with stakeholders to update the liquor licensing regime guidance, and that is expected to be issued later this year. If the member has any specific concerns, I think that she was getting up with regard to the criteria for determining over provision, we would be very, very happy to look at that if she would care to take that up with us directly. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its engagement with the Two Sisters Food Group regarding the company's consultation on closing its factory in Camberslang. Presiding Officer, in the period since I responded to Clare Haughey's question on 22 February, I can inform the chamber that the Scottish Government has continued to engage with the company, exploring options to support the business and workforce. Scottish Enterprise is meeting again with Two Sisters Food Group this morning to progress its discussions, and the meeting was arranged for 1 March, but had to unfortunately be arranged due to the impact of last week's severe weather. I understand that the PACE meeting, due to take place in 5 March, was cancelled by the company and that our local partnership action for continuing employment or PACE team is standing ready to discuss how best to support employees, and awaits to hear further from the company. I reassure Clare Haughey and the workforce and wider community that we will do all that we can to save the site and mitigate the impact on the workforce and local economy. As communicated to Ms Haughey, I have written to the company to offer our assistance to retain activity in Camberslang. I thank the minister for his answer, and I thank him for his assistance with this matter thus far. As the minister recalled, I asked a question of him two weeks ago, and I have been working with relevant stakeholders to ensure the long-term viability of the site and to support the 450 jobs at the plant. Two sisters are a major source of employment in my constituency, with generations of the same family working on the site. Therefore, the effect of any closure would be devastating locally. I am certain that my constituents and all those affected by the potential closure are reassured that the Scottish Government are doing all that they can to keep the factory open. As such, can the minister expand on the agencies that are involved in the process and list the range of activities that they have undertaken in their attempt to find a positive resolution for the workers and the wider community? I thank Ms Haughey for her question and for her interest. I appreciate the point that she has made about the severity of potential impact on her local community if the company was to close its plant there. Scottish Enterprise and PACE, which is a multi-agency partnership, are the key agencies. Scottish Enterprise is meeting again, as I say, with the company today. PACE is in contact with the company. We are also working with the trade unions. The cabinet secretary for the economy, Keith Brown, met with Unite Union and a company union representative on 22 February to explore viable options to avoid the potential closure. We are committed to working with the unions and all other stakeholders to provide every support possible and to ensure, as I say, a productive future for the two sisters food group site and workforce in Camberslang. Specifically, we are looking at food processing and marketing capital grants. We are looking to help with the capital issues, training, R&D support, support of the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service and Skills Development Scotland support. Those are all active areas where we are trying to support retention of the factory there. We have a good track record of working with the company in securing investment in its Cooper Angus site, which gives us confidence that we can work in partnership with the company. 3. Anas Sarwa To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to ensure that people with a violent or threatening past do not work directly with vulnerable patients in health and social care settings. Scotland boards routinely undertake checks of conviction-related information as part of the appointment process, in accordance with the safer pre- and post-employment checks, national partnership information network policy, the PIN policy. For regulated work with children or vulnerable adults, all applicants are required by law to become members of the Protecting Vulnerable Group scheme. For other posts, applicants are usually subject to a disclosure check undertaken by Disclosure Scotland. All NHS boards are required to review every post to determine the type of disclosure check that is applicable. Additionally, disclosure checks are undertaken where individuals are volunteering or undertaking work experience in NHS Scotland boards. Anas Sarwa Thank you, cabinet secretary, for that detailed response. A very concerning case has been raised with me by a constituent. Her brother has a profound form of down syndrome, and he resides in an NHS care facility. He suffered serious injuries due to physical abuse by an employee. The individual concerned was dismissed and also found to have a conviction for abusive and threatening behaviour. The family now understands that the individual concerned is back working in an NHS facility with vulnerable patients. Will the cabinet secretary agree to review the procedures that are in place to ensure that staff working with vulnerable patients are fit and proper persons? As I said in my initial answer to Anas Sarwa, we have robust national policies in place that clearly set out health board responsibilities in relation to disclosure checks. Those policies include explicit guidance on how health boards should investigate alleged incidents of abusive conduct in the workplace. Anas Sarwa, I may recall that I corresponded with his office directly on respect of the case to which he refers, and it would be inappropriate to comment directly on the handling of an investigation into an individual NHS employee's conduct, which is a contractual matter between the health board and the employee concerned. Nevertheless, in respect of the particular case to which Anas Sarwa refers, Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board has provided assurances that relevant pre- and post-employment checking has been undertaken and that effective risk management and safeguarding processes are in place. In terms of the procedures, we always keep all procedures under review, but I would want to stress, as I said in my initial answer, that they are robust and provide protection in a very robust way. I am sure that, if Anas Sarwa wants to write to me with any further information on that, I would be happy to receive that. Jimmy Halcro Johnston Bust of Scottish Government, whether it will provide an update on the action that it is taking to tackle waiting times issues in NHS Grampian and its impact on other NHS boards with which it holds service-level agreements. NHS Grampian uses £4.9 million from the £50 million that is made available to boards in the current financial year to address long waits across the whole patient pathway, including cancer pathways and specialties such as orthopedics and ophthalmology. No matter which board of resident a patient comes from, NHS Grampian will treat patients based on their clinical need. Jimmy Halcro Johnston I thank the cabinet secretary for her answer. While there has been some welcome improvements on RTT times, it is still three and a half years since Grampian met national standards, and improvements have been in line with national average, while Grampian continues to lag behind and remains, by some distance, the worst-performing health board in Scotland in this regard. The cabinet secretary spoke briefly about the past and the work that has been done to deal with waiting times. To take one example, I was told by the cabinet secretary in September that a service-level agreement with Newcastle for cardiac patient was secured. However, more recently, the board's chief executive told me that this agreement was never finalised. How can my constituents in Murray and in Ocney and Shetland have confidence that the cabinet secretary is really on top of what is going on on the ground, and can she tell me when she expects waiting times in Grampian to meet national standards? I say that we continue to work with NHS Grampian and other boards to ensure that patients are treated in a timely manner. We have spent a great deal of time and resource supporting NHS Grampian to improve their waiting times performance. As the member will be aware, we have just agreed a budget increase for health and sport by more than £400 million. Frontline NHS boards, including Grampian, will receive a baseline uplift of £179 million with additional investment in reform, which will help to reduce waiting times of £175 million. NHS Grampian's resource budget will be £920.6 million, an uplift of 2.1 per cent, which is the highest of any territorial NHS board. I should also add the point that the member, along with his colleagues, voted against that increase to NHS Grampian as he voted against the budget. Perhaps he might need to explain that to his constituents. To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported problems at Rhaigmoor hospital, how many operating theatres in Scotland have wooden doors and plaster walls? I would like to take the opportunity to thank all staff who helped to restore the theatres to full capacity as quickly and safely as possible and minimise the disruption to patients. I would also like to recognise that staff across NHS Highland at Caithness, Galsby and Fort William helped to treat some patients who were due to go to Rhaigmoor. I have received no indication from NHS Highland that wooden doors or plaster works contributed to the incident. Health Facilities Scotland has also undertaken a review of the work undertaken, and in their view, wooden doors and plaster works did not contribute to the incident. Additionally, NHS Highland is undertaking a serious adverse event review, in accordance with its standard procedure. If there are any lessons coming out of either review, we will share them across NHS Scotland. Edward Mountain. I agree totally with you that thanks go to the staff of NHS Highland and across the Highlands for all the extra work that they put in, but you frankly did not answer the question. My question was how many theatres still had plaster walls and wooden doors. Construction requirements and operating theatres have lagged woefully behind the requirements in other high-risk areas. Can the cabinet secretary confirm if the Scottish Government intends to invest in our operating theatres across Scotland to replace materials such as plaster walls and wooden doors with antibacterial plastic walling to reduce the chances of infection and ease cleaning? I do not know of Edward Mountain who listened to my first answer, but Health Facilities Scotland in their view has said that wooden doors and plaster works did not contribute to the incident. I am not quite sure why Edward Mountain is continuing to talk about wooden doors and plaster works when I have just told him that that was not the cause of the issue according to the experts in Health Facilities Scotland. If he knows otherwise, perhaps he can give me the evidence that Health Facilities Scotland is wrong. In terms of the investment, let me be very clear that the Scottish Government is investing over £30 million upgrading the theatres and critical care at Rhaigmore hospital alone. That is a huge investment by the Scottish Government in that one hospital in theatres and critical care. I would hope that Edward Mountain might find it within himself to welcome that £30 million investment, which will lead to a major construction, which will help to ensure that the fabric of Rhaigmore is as good as it can be, providing a first-class environment for patients to be treated in. To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it will give to the recommendations of the Scottish Poverty and Inequality Commission as it develops its plans for tackling child poverty. I welcome the advice of the Poverty and Inequality Commission following my request to them in November last year to have published such a considered piece of work in such a short time is indeed testament to their determination and collective experience. The advice that they have provided is invaluable as we prepare to publish our first child poverty delivery plan in the coming weeks. The plan will have full regard to the advice and will make clear how we have responded. The commission outlines that poverty and inequality cannot be solved through one portfolio area or policy. It highlights three key mechanisms that increase household income and reduce costs to make the biggest impact on child poverty targets, namely working earnings, social security and reducing housing costs. The commission also highlights the importance of action to improve the quality of life for those living in poverty. I have been working closely with colleagues across Government to ensure an approach that delivers action across every aspect of life, including those key challenges. Thank the cabinet secretary for her answer. Does she agree with me that, in stark contrast to the ambitions of the commission, the UK Government continues austerity measures and welfare cuts are set to push more children into poverty, and their policies on tax and the living wage and unemployment will do nothing to support households and help to pull families out of poverty? Angela Constance, let me first and foremost say that I believe with every fibre of my being that we can and must end child poverty in Scotland. That is why we have led the way with our ambitious new child poverty act, but none of that lets the UK Government off the hook either through its inaction or its damaging actions. The independent expert advice from the poverty and inequality commission rightly focuses on devolved powers, but it also recognises that there are factors outwith our control that will make our job harder and will impact and progress. We know that the impact of the Tory Government's continual assault on welfare spending is well documented. For example, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says that the benefits freeze is the single biggest driver behind rising poverty. The child poverty action group has identified that there will be a million more children across the UK pushed into poverty by 2020 due to the welfare cuts since 2013. In Scotland alone, welfare spend will reduce by £4 billion by the end of the decade to orphan in some regards, the £3.3 billion spend that will become the responsibility of this place. The member is absolutely right that the UK Government could be doing far more to tackle what Mrs May described as the burning injustices. For example, by increasing the work allowance in universal credit and by lifting the minimum wage to that of the real living wage, but the challenge for each and every one of us in this Parliament as we go forward is how we go beyond mitigating the very worst excesses of the UK Government and actually lift children out of poverty in this country.


Beholden to no one. Beholden to no one. Mizuno is now in the studio. Now in the running shoe arsenal and the running shoe rotation and oh I have it's so exciting to try really a brand new brand for me. I've worn them before but it's been a long long time. I won't even mention how long it's been. So it's exciting to have Mizuno now in the studio and listen we know the story of Nike. We know the story of Adidas. Probably New Balance. Maybe Soccany. I'm a history guy. I love history. So here's a little history for you on Mizuno. The company was started in 1906. It's crazy. There's a lot of athletic apparel companies starting right around that time period in history. I believe Soccany was what New Balance Soccany. They're all right around that time frame. So the company was started by Rihashi and Rizzo Mizuno. Two brothers. How crazy. Adidas was started by two brothers as well. It's kind of interesting. Joseph are you listening. Maybe we need to start a running shoe company. Okay it started in 1906 in Osaka Japan. They started out by making baseball. I think actual baseballs or was baseball gloves eventually evolving into golf clubs. And it wasn't until the early 1970s that they came out with the M line. So it was it was called literally the M line running shoes. If somebody has ever held one I'd be fascinated to hear. Let me know down in the comments. So that was the early 70s that they started to make running shoes. Does anybody know is Mizuno just completely dominating the Japanese running market. Like Japan is the more I learn about running in Japan. It's amazing. Especially road running. They they they crush road running. So if somebody is familiar with Japanese running culture let me know if Mizuno is just like at the top of the class over there. Like are they just on everybody's feet because they were started in Osaka. And before we move along into the specs as I always say this is not my full review. This is just my first impression of the Wave Knit R2 full review will happen after 50 miles. Okay my size is coming in at nine ounces. I think a couple sizes up you're looking at 10 ounces. A little over 10 ounces is the reports that I'm reading. And listen to this drop. A 12 millimeter drop. A 12 millimeter drop. That is huge from heel to toe.  Anyway I'll just say right now the 12 millimeter felt pretty nice today. So anyway 12 millimeter from heel to toe. That might be the highest drop almost that I've ever run in. I'd have to think back but because a lot of Nikes are 10 the Wave Knit R2 is a neutral shoe. But I'm just gonna put it out there right now because we're gonna we're about to talk about the outsole. It feels a little bit like a stabilized shoe. Just a little bit. It is a neutral shoe for sure. But I must say it's not your traditional kind of you know loosey-goosey neutral shoe. It's got a little bit of stability in it. And we're gonna talk about that in a minute. Okay I'm gonna save the upper and the midsole discussion for the full review.  Let's jump to the outsole. It is a highly abrasion resistant compound that staves off like the debilitating effects of like repeated usage over and over and over again. And just feeling it with my fingers it feels very very tough. I'm just gonna say it right now. Very well constructed through the heel on the outsole. They have flex controllers placed in the in the forefoot section. These elements are a means of heightening flexibility and push-off energy. Especially when gearing towards the toe-off through your gate cycle. And guess what? I could feel it. I could feel a nice little energy return through the toe-off. You don't always get that on your first run in a shoe. But I could feel a nice little and not a lot but a little energy return as I was towing off through that gate cycle. As far as fit is concerned I went true to size and it's feeling real good. However and maybe a slight drawback the toe box is feeling a little wide to me. I usually like a pretty snug fit through my shoes and listen I don't have the widest foot in the world. But I did notice a little bit of displaying of my toes through the toe box and it was fine but I got used to it as the bottom line. I would have loved a little more of a lockdown feel through the forefoot on the top of my foot. And then also just a very very minor drawback. The shoelaces are too short for the runner's knot. I barely barely could tie the runner's knot today with the shoelaces. That is fixable and again just a minor minor detail. And for a couple positives you're ready for this. Are you ready YouTube? A couple positives. The cornering so I was noticing incredible grip and traction on the road. And like okay if you are racing a street 5k, 10k and you have tight corners to turn at high speeds like I felt so in control in this shoe today. Now I wasn't going terribly fast over the five miles but I just felt like I was gripping the road really well. Like more so than the Audios 4. And I was really kind of bullish about the Audios 4 grip with that continental rubber on the outsole. I don't know it was amazing. Okay the other positive. Bear with me on this illustration. Will you bear with me? Here we go. You remember you know when you're going down steps and you accidentally miss a step and you kind of slip just a little bit but it actually does not turn into a devastating slip where you fall.  It's like you're going down an escalator of stairs. Like you just kind of da-da-da. It's like da-da-da. Again bear with me. So I was going I was doing a little bit of heel striking today just to feel it out and it felt like I was getting a nice little da-da-da. Through my gate cycle just like a nice little almost like I was missing a step and like it felt the ride was nice. The ride and listen I'm beholden to no one. I'm not being paid to say this. I was I am cautiously optimistic about this shoe and frankly about Mizuno now. I don't know and listen I only did five miles. Talked to me in like five more five more runs from now but I'm pretty excited about what I experienced today and I'll just say one last thing is that I only did five. I don't see the shoe going much past like 12 miles or a half marathon. It just felt like the outsole was a little rigid a little hard landing just a little bit especially through the just a little bit through the forefoot so I don't think this is gonna be a long-run shoe. I could be wrong but those are my first impressions of the Mizuno Wave Knit R2. Crazy. I never thought I would be running in Mizuno again and I'm I'm like I said cautiously optimistic about what I experienced today and you better believe the keyword is gonna be optimistic because that's that's how I'm feeling right now that's how I'm feeling and the question of the day for this video who has worn Mizuno ever have you raced in Mizuno I know they have a nice racing shoe lineup especially in track spikes so let us know what's your experience with Mizuno if you've never worn Mizuno let us know why as well if you feel comfortable sharing for me it basically comes down to a crowded marketplace and working it into the rotation okay one last thought and then I'm gonna be quiet in the middle of my run today I was almost thinking to myself when I do my next threshold run which is gonna be six miles in my two weeks from now I was thinking on the run today this shoe could be an option for that run which is exciting which is very exciting all right that is all for today I could talk all night cuz I'm kind of excited kind of excited seek beauty work hard and love each other see you tomorrow I'm back I'm back real quick did I mention this I think I forgot $130 so they're not giving it away but it appears that the quality of the material and the quality of the engineering behind it it seems like it's a very very well constructed shoe all right so I'm guessing the durability is gonna be on point so anyway $130 okay now we're signing off


Well, we've officially reached the week of Hockey Day Minnesota. The event is known nationally and it's expected to bring a big economic boost to its host city, Bemidji. Reporter Cheryl Moore tells us about how Hockey Day's impact will be felt in Bemidji. From the shoppers to the exposure, the city of Bemidji can expect a pretty good economic impact thanks to Hockey Day Minnesota. The impact is so hard to measure because it's so immense in a lot of different areas. I mean, all the hotel rooms were booked on July 3rd for a weekend in January. That does not happen in Bemidji, Minnesota very often. More than 3,000 people have purchased tickets for each day of Hockey Day so far. And officials say sales usually tend to go up as we get closer to the event. Businesses in downtown Bemidji have been preparing for the extra foot traffic by hosting special Hockey Day deals and events themselves. It's been super cool to see everybody get so enthused about this and get Hockey Day fever because every business, it seems, is doing something a little bit different.  They're all wearing Hockey Day garb or they've got some Hockey Day specials going on. Everybody's embracing this. We have a group of volunteers that put an enormous amount of work into this. As a community, we should be thankful for those volunteers. But the business community also stepped up and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to make this an event that people will remember and people always see as special for Bemidji. There's the obvious Hockey Day effects, like more people spending money in the community, but there's also a few not-so-obvious effects. Hockey Day is a nationally known event, so for Bemidji to be its venue is pretty huge. The direct spending in our community is enormous, but there's also indirect impacts in terms of media coverage and coverage about our community, and it's an ability for us to showcase what's special about Bemidji and to show that we are the emerging regional center. More people will get to experience Bemidji, which can lead to more tourists in the future. But it's not all about the tourists. Locals will have a big part in the impact as well. All the people doing some shopping, eating at our local restaurants, of course, and then staying at our hotels. But then you add in all the locals who are going to have to gear up, you know, and with the weather forecast the way it is, I bet we sell a lot of blankets. There's going to be a lot of people in town selling blankets and hats. Reporting in Bemidji, Shawmore, Lakeland News. We'll have special hockey day Minnesota coverage all week long here on Lakeland News at 10. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.


Welcome. I welcome you all to this lecture in the course Samasa in Paninian Grammar 2. As is our practice, we begin our lecture with the recitation of the Mangala Charana Vishvesham Sakchidanandam Vandeham Yokhilan Jagat Charikarthi Bari Bharti Sanjariharthi Leelaya Vishvesham Sakchidanandam Vandeham Yokhilan Jagat Charikarthi Bari Bharti Sanjariharthi Leelaya So far in this course we have studied the theoretical background of the process of compounding whose understanding is a prerequisite in order to understand the process of compounding of the three types of samasas which are the focus of this course namely Avyaibhava, Bahuvrihi and Dvandva We said that samartha theory is the base of the process of compounding And what this entails is that two or more words which are semantically related are samarthas They are fit to be compounded. Two or more words, jakstapost but semantically not related are not eligible for undergoing the process of compounding This is not possible according to the theory of compounding stated in the Paninian grammar and the Paninian grammatical tradition We also said that this samartha theory is based on the karaka theory in general We have also studied the concept of karaka as stated in the ashtadhyayi by Panini and we have also seen some examples In the previous lecture we studied some exceptions to the by default samartha theory And we studied the three examples one each for Avyaibhava, Bahuvrihi and Dvandva We already studied this concept with respect to the tattpurusha samasa in the first course Now it is time to also throw light on some more basic terms and processes related to the theory of compounding of these three types These basic terms and processes they are generic in nature They apply to compounds in general and that is the reason why they need to be revisited and they need to be highlighted When we study the three types of compounds namely Avyaibhava, Bahuvrihi and Dvandva So in this particular lecture we deal with these two terms Nitya samasa and Anitya samasa or Vaikalpika samasa These are two very crucial technical terms used by the Panimian grammatical tradition Also based on the mention of the word Nitya or Nityam in the grammar of Panini So what is Nitya samasa? How is it defined? How is it explained? It is explained in two manners. One is Avigraha, that is which cannot be dissolved And the second one is Asvapada Vigraha, which cannot be dissolved with the same constituents visible in the final output of the compound You need to take help of additional members which are not visible in the final output of the compound That is the idea of Asvapada Vigraha. Avigraha means which cannot be dissolved What it implies is that the meaning denoted by the samasa is not denoted by the constituents individually and independently alone There is something additional which is denoted only when the process of compounding happens And we shall study this little bit more. Also Asvapada Vigraha has got Asvapada and Vigraha as the constituents Swapada refers to the constituents of the samasa So when the Vigraha does not involve only the Swapadas, it is called Asvapada Vigraha When it involves more than Swapadas, when it needs additional Padas which are not the Swapadas which are not the constituents And then such a compound is called Nitya Samasa of Asvapada Vigraha type Let us study the Nitya Samasa which is Avigraha type Avigraha is explained as a samasa which cannot be dissolved What it means is that the meaning that is denoted only by the samasa and the underlying structure does not denote that meaning which is denoted by the samasa Meaning that meaning is additional to the meaning of the constituents So even though such a samasa is generated with the help of the constituents, there comes something additional Some additional meaning which gets generated only during the process of compounding And therefore that meaning generated by the output cannot be explicitly stated by the constituents of the samasa And such a samasa is called Avigraha This is very very exceptional And the examples of the Nitya Samasa of Avigraha type are the following Names like Unmattagangam, Lohitagangam and Vrukodaraha, Damodaraha These are the examples of the Nitya Samasa which is Avigraha type We can show the generation of these compounds through its constituents However, when the compound gets generated, it denotes a particular meaning which is not available to us when we dissolve this particular compound And second, meanings like sensure which are denoted by indirect references Kundodaraha, Ghatodaraha, etc. What it means is having a belly like a picture And in other words pot-bellied Now the examples mentioned on the first bullet are names of places Desha, Unmattagangam Desha, Lohitagangam Desha As well as men, Vrukodara is the name of Bhima And second denotes censure by saying that the belly is like a picture The obesity is censured over here And this censure is denoted only by a samasa If this word is dissolved, then the censure is lost The Vigraha or the resolution does not have the capacity to denote the censure Censure is denoted only when the compound takes place And that is why these are the examples of a Vigraha type Nitya Samasa All these are the examples of Bahubrihi Samasa Unmattagangam and Lohitagangam, although semantically are Bahubrihi's They are however peculiarly classified under the category of Avyaibhava For some specific purpose that we shall study later on Now let us study the Nitya Samasa which is of the second type namely Asvapada Vigraha A Swapada Vigraha means that a samasa which cannot be dissolved with the same constituents visible in the final output A Swapada Vigraha Swapada are the constituent fathers and Vigraha is the resolution Generally the Vigraha includes only the Swapadas But these are the samasas which do not include only the Swapadas Which also involves some modified words as well as some additional words So a Swapada Vigraha means the resolution involving modified words Modified in the sense that the constituents have a particular form in the samasa And they get modified when the resolution takes place Similarly when the resolution involves additional words that is also termed as a Swapada Vigraha In a nutshell the compound cannot be dissolved using the same constituents visible in the finally generated output form Is the nature of a Swapada Vigraha Nitya Samasa And here are the examples of a Swapada Vigraha Nitya Samasa that we studied in the first course These are the examples of the Upapada Tatpurusha where the resolution involves modified words So the samasa is kumbhakara and the constituents are kumbha and kara But when this samasa gets dissolved kara does not figure in the resolution Rather karoti which is a modified word is part of the resolution So we say kumbham karoti as the Vigraha of kumbhakara Kumbhakara is a potter, one who makes a pot The Vigraha is kumbha kumbham karoti and the samasa is kumbhakara Similarly grahastha which has got two constituents graha and stha Now when we dissolve this particular compound the resolution does not have stha as the member whereas it gets modified by the word tishthati So grahastha means a household, namely one who resides in a house And the resolution is not grahasya stha, it is graha tishthati Similarly jaladha which has got two constituents, jaladha and dha Jaladha means a cloud, literally one who gives water, jalam dadati Now when this compound is dissolved we don't have jalasya dha We have jalam dadati, so dha, so dha which is the visible or audible unit in the samasa gets modified in dadati Similarly bhupa, bhuvampati, bhupa Bhupa is a king and the two constituents are bhu and pa So bhupa means a king, literally one who protects the earth Now here when we dissolve the compound we do not say bhuvaha paha We rather modify pa as pati, bhuvampati These are the examples of the upapada tattporusha samasa as asvapada vigraha where the resolution involves modified words and we have studied these before Now let us take examples where the resolution involves modified words with respect to the avyai bhava samasa We have the samasa pratidinam every day, anurupam fitting to the form and yathashakti in accordance with the strength Pratidinam cannot be dissolved as prati and dinam, this is not possible Anurupam cannot be dissolved as anu and rupam Similarly yathashakti cannot be dissolved as yathashakti So in the samasa pratidinam prati and dinam are the constituents which are visible as well as audible In anu and rupam are the constituents and in yathashakti yathashakti are the constituents But when you dissolve the compound you cannot use the same constituents in the resolution That is the idea, you have to use certain modified words And in this case these modified words are actually completely different than what we see In the case of the tattporusha samasa at least there was some correlation as far as the phonetic features are concerned with the modified word and the constituent in the samasa That is not the case with the avyai bhava samasa In the tattporusha samasa when the samasa is grahastha, stha and tishthati, bhop bhovampati, jalam dadati, etc. do have some correlation with the constituent However that is not the case with the avyai bhava samasa The resolution involves modified words So pratidinam is dissolved as dine dine Anu rupam is dissolved as rupasya yogam And yathashakti is dissolved as shaktim anatic kramiya So prati which is visible in the samasa form is not visible in the resolution Rather the additional dine comes in the resolution Anu which is visible in the samasa form is not part of the resolution Rather another word yogam comes in which modifies anu completely And yatha which is the member of the samasa which is visible is not part of the vigraha Rather there is another modified word anatic kramiya which is part of the vigraha Therefore this becomes a swapada vigraha and therefore this becomes a nitya samasa The second explanation of swapada vigraha is the resolution which involves additional words So the members of the samasa which are visible they are in fact part of the resolution But the resolution is not just those constituent words But there are some more words which are added in the resolution And here are the examples These are the examples of the bahuvrihi samasa The examples are gajanana, ekadant and lambodara All these three are the names of Ganesha, Sri Ganesha However the literal meanings of these three are independent and separate Gajanana means one who has a face of an elephant Ekadant means one who has one tooth and lambodara means one who has big belly So the constituents of the samasa which is visible or audible are gajanana, ekadant and lambodara Now if you dissolve this samasa you will need some additional words along with these two constituents And the vigraha of these samasas is not done only with these two constituents You cannot say gajasya ananam as the vigraha of gajanana Not possible, ekasya dantaha or ekahadantaha This is not what is intended, lambam ularam And that is not the vigraha that is intended by the speaker As we said earlier, gajanana cannot be dissolved as gajasya ananam Ekadant cannot be dissolved as ekahadantaha And lambodara cannot be dissolved as lambam ularam What we mean here is that the compound is not dissolved using only the constituent members of the samasa Rather we have to add some additional words So gajanana is the compound output And the vigraha is gajasya ananam eva ananam yasya sahah So eva ananam yasya and sahah four words are added in the dissolution of this particular compound Similarly in ekadantah ekahadantaha yasya sahah So yasya sahah are added in the dissolution of this particular compound Similarly lambam ularam yasya sahah So yasya sahah two words are additionally attached in the vigraha of this particular compound And therefore this is called asvapada vigraha and the samasa is called nitya samasa These additional words have a function to play These additional words indicate that the head is outside So they indicate the head which is outside of this compound So gajasya ananam eva ananam yasya sahah This indicates that in the audible compound form gajanana which has got two constituents gajanana Neither of them is the head but this sahah which is referred to in the vigraha or dissolution is the head Similarly in ekadantah of which ekadantah are the constituents, neither of them is the head But this sahah which is mentioned in the dissolution additionally is the head Similarly lambodara which has got lamb and udara as the constituents None of them is the head and rather sahah which is mentioned additionally in the vigraha which acts as the head So these additional words indicate the head which is outside After having studied the nitya samasa examples of bahuvrihi Let us now study the nitya samasa asvapada vigraha type examples of the dvandva samasa These are the examples where the dissolution involves additional words So Ramalakshmana, Bhimarjuna and Vaaktvacham Ramalakshmana means Ram and Lakshmana together Bhimarjuna means Bhim and Arjuna together Vaaktvacham means a group of speech and skin These are peculiar meanings, these are the examples of dvandva samasa Now Ramalakshmana cannot be dissolved as Ramaha and Lakshmana This is not possible The constituents of the compound Ramalakshmana is Rama and Lakshmana And we cannot dissolve the compound only using these two words Similarly the compound Bhimarjuna cannot be dissolved as Bhim and Arjuna Bhimarjuna has got two constituents Bhim and Arjuna and the dissolution does not involve only these two constituents Similarly Vaaktvacham is a samasa and its dissolution does not necessarily only involve its constituents namely Vaak and Tvach Rather we need to add another word to them in the dissolution So as far as Ramalakshmana is concerned we have to add the word Chaha Ramaha, Lakshmana and Chah In Bhimarjuna we have to add the word Chah, Bhimaha, Arjuna and Chah In Vaaktvacham we have to say Vaakcha, Tvachcha, Anayoh, Samahara So Chah as well as Anayoh, Samahara These are the additional words that are attached in the Vigraha of these samasa Samasas which make them Asvapada, Vigraha, Samasas and Nitya Samasas These additional words also indicate that both the words as well as the group Samahara are the head of the Samasa After having studied the examples of Nitya Samasa let us note down which all are the Nitya Samasas So we have Avyaibhava, Bhavrihi and Dvandva which are listed as Nitya Samasasas And these are the three which we shall study in this particular course However we also have Upapada, Tatpurusha, Gati Tatpurusha, Pradhi Tatpurusha and Naya Tatpurusha Parts of Tatpurusha Samasas which are also Nitya Samasasas We have studied these types of Tatpurusha Samasas in the first course Now there is something to be added over here Except Avyaibhava all other types of Nitya Samasasas are stated in the Adhikara Nityam Which is stated in 2 to 17 Most of the Avyaibhava Samasa is stated before the Adhikara Vibhasha meaning optionally 2 to 11 And that is why the Sutras stating Avyaibhava Samasa before this to 111 They are all considered to be stating the Nitya Samasa This is an important detail that we must keep in mind Which is related to the Avyaibhava Samasa So what is an Anitya Samasa? Also described as Vaikalpika Samasa So there is Vigraha that is possible and also Swapada Vigraha that is possible So where dissolution is done and the dissolution denotes the same meaning as the Samasa This is the Vaikalpika Samasa So the same idea can be expressed using the Vigraha Vakya as well as the Sangraha Samasa And this is done with the help of the constituents visible in the final output of the compound And such a Samasa is also called Anitya Samasa Where it involves Swapada Vigraha So the primary idea is that meanings can be denoted by both compound as well as underlying sentence And there is no additional meaning of censure or the name which is denoted only by a compound and not its constituents The Vaikalpika Samasa is governed by the Adhikara Vibhasha or optionally stated in the Sutra 2111 And this continues up to Nityam in 2217 So this Adhikara governs the section from 2111 up to 2216 Primarily Vibhakti Datpurusha and Karma Dharaya come under these Nitya Samasas And we have studied them in the first course in quite a lot of detail To summarize, Nitya Samasas are peculiar types of Samasas Indicating peculiar speech habits of speakers of the language Samskrit The Nitya Samasas do have the underlying constituent sentence structure that is not denied But the process of compounding is used by the speakers for specific additional meaning elements To be denoted by the compounds alone and not by the ordinary sentence corresponding with the Samasa The by default procedure to derive such Nitya Samasas remains the same The sentence structure is the input and the Samasa is the output which is a nominal root or the Pratipadika This Samasa is always contrasted or compared with or explained by the underlying sentence structure And this is what shows that the by default procedure remains the same That is what its base is the Arthakasha These are the texts referred to Thank you very much