Hello, welcome to Quok Talk. I'm Crystal here on Think Tech. Tuesday, kind of dreary morning, kind of rainy, kind of a day where people like to stay at home and watch TV. Maybe you're turning on some porn. Or maybe better yet, come and join us for a conversation about porn. How about that for a Tuesday morning topic? So, a month ago, we had this topic. This is part two. So, please, you missed it. You have to go back on the video spreadsheet on the Think Tech website and check it out. It had a very interesting conversation with our guests.  So much baggage, so much background information that we had to cover last time. And again, I encourage you to go and try to find the reference and file and watch it, because it is very, very insightful. So, we didn't really get to the pain part so much, because there's so much nitty-gritty, interesting industry information about the porn world.  Hmm, right? Okay, so we're going to dissect this pain concept with my beautiful guest, Professor IU Saraswati, again from Women's Studies at UH. Welcome again. Thank you again for having me. Thank you. All right, so we're not going to recap everything we did last time, unless you have some, like, a nutshell that you wanted to carry forward that remind people of. Yeah, so one of the things that I would hope that we get to talk about today that we didn't talk about last time is the ways in which pain is actually the thread that connects the porn world together. And this is an argument that Professor Albert Jensen argues. And this is one of the things that I sort of talk about in my book as well in terms of, you know, what does that mean, that pain is the thread that connects the porn world together. What was this book that you referred to again? It's by Robert Jensen and Gail Dines. And so the ways that, when we look at the world of pain and the world of porn through the lens of pain, well, first of all, when we think about sex and sexuality, do you often think about it in terms of pain or in terms of pleasure? Pleasure. Pleasure, right? And so we know that our brain works in terms of using pain and pleasure as our compass, right? And so we often think of pleasure when we want to do something fun and we want to do something more of that. When we experience something that is pleasurable, pleasurable, then we want to do more of that. And when we experience something that is painful, we tend to avoid that, right? And so in my own book, I'm thinking about, well, how can we think about sex and sexuality differently if we looked at it from the perspective of pain rather than pleasure, right? Because, again, sex is often talked about in that sort of a pleasurable activity. But what kinds of different understanding can we get at when we look at sexuality from the perspective of pain? So that's what my book is really about. And so, and obviously in one of the chapters I talk about porn, right? And again, rather than looking at, you know, different ways in which, you know, porn has been represented or like women has been represented, I look at the narrative of pain in porn and particularly in terms of Asian women in porn. And so that's what we talked about the last time, Asian women and the ways in which when we click the category of Asian women in porn that they are often presented as experiencing that pain. Right. Which is a pleasurable pain. It's almost like they wanted it and that's why the men proceed. Yes. Or in these sort of like narratives in these videos, the women themselves are not really experiencing or like represented to be experiencing pleasurable as such as they are really experiencing pain and the pleasure comes from the people watching such a sort of painful activity. For this is mostly a male audience, right? Yes, heterosexual male, mostly. Okay.  Is this something that's been in our innate human nature ever since or do you think it gets worse and worse or more distorted because of what we're exposed to? Yes. So pain in some ways, it's one of again, one of the narratives and we talked about this last time as well, is that it's only one story, right? But isn't that interesting that this is this story that is attached to Asian women. So if you actually watch porn, which I kind of have to do and you click on like this different labels, different categories, they have the male category, they have all of these different categories, then the narrative is not always about pain, right? But what's interesting, what this professor talked about when he talks about pain as this thread that connects the porn world together is that when you think about it, porn is a performance, right? So we have porn stars are workers, right? And so the assumption here is that there is pain even as these porn stars are doing their work, right?  That there is pain in there and the people who watch it in some ways are assumed to come from that space of pain, right? When they watch it, there's this something unsettling about their own sexuality, about women's sexuality, about men's sexuality. And I don't necessarily agree with that assumption because there is an interview with different women porn stars who talk about their experiences as workers and you know, some directors would even say that they would choose performers who exhibit sort of positive energy that they're pleasant to work with. And so this idea that that porn or like the setting of porn films as this sort of site of pain, I don't necessarily agree with that. But what I am sort of intrigued by is this idea, you know, when we trace the story of pain, right, in porn or in our life or in terms of sexuality, what understanding do we get from that, right? Can we break down this pain into different levels or different interpretations of pain? Absolutely. I mean, there are against scholars who differentiate between emotional pain, physical pain, bodily pain. But again, that is very Western, Westernized in some ways, right? Because without the duality of the split of the body and the mind, then what is painful in the body is painful in the mind.  I have, you know, which is kind of interesting, right, to think about it that way. But what I love is there's a feminist. Her name is Gloria Anzaldua. And her take on pain, which I love, and she said that pain is the way of life, right? Pain is the way of life, right? But what I love about this is that pain is neither good nor bad, right?  If you are alive, then pain is just- You experience pain. Childbirth is painful. Exactly. No pain, no gain. There are so many aspects of pain that you can experience. And so obviously sexuality, you know, as we experience life, we experience sex, we experience sexuality, we experience pain. It's just part of that. It's an integral part of that. But, okay, so taking that part of that, does porn distort that concept of pain? Yes.  And so the men themselves, we don't really see them as having pain. They're not in pain. No. In some of the videos that I watch, we don't, sometimes we don't see the male's face, right? Because obviously the angle of the camera is positioned so that the audience or the viewer embodies the male gaze, right? Or the male bodies. So we don't really see that. Nobody wants to see kind of a guy huffing and gruffing anyway. I don't know. Exactly, right? But why do we assume that?  And I think to be able to integrate every single aspect of it, the pain, the pleasure, and everything in between, and to really see even men and women and all different kinds of genders, to really experience, you know, sex, this beautiful and delicious thing, right? But what we see in porn is just, particularly, again, the one that I looked at, that the women are in pain and pain as a bad thing in that way, right? And it's not meant to disturb you. This pain in porn, right? Creators of these videos are believing there's a genuine market and an attraction to this form. You know, I don't know this concept of genuine or real sort of like desire, right? Because obviously, there's no such thing as desire as being free from our social environment, right? There's desire map. And in some ways, we'd like to think that how we feel is natural. But in my first book, actually, I talked about feelings, right? And the ways in which that feelings is the ways in which power works, right? And so if you want to understand how power works in our society, we look at how we are made to feel a certain way. And so some of the examples, I didn't really talk about this in my book. So it's kind of power and pain, that whole duality. Yes, yes. So in some ways, so it's an example that is easy to understand in terms of understanding how power is gendered and all that is, I often ask my students, if there is a heterosexual sort of couple, a mother and a father, and then the baby starts crying in public space, who do you think would feel more guilty to pick up the baby and soothe the baby, right? And so usually my students would say the mothers, right? So again, this shows that even as we feel that this feeling is natural to us, that in some ways that this feeling sort of reflects how power works in our society, that women are taught to feel more guilty to take care of their kids than men, right? So associating that with the porn though, do you think that women place themselves in a different situation or accept their role in porn because of society? Absolutely, absolutely. Both the women in porn themselves, because again, these women are workers, right? They're actors, right? And so they have to work, they have to perform a certain way, which is, embodying that feeling of pain and also as well as the audience, right? Could it be male, could it be female? They are made to feel a certain way when they watch these things, right? And so when I study this, I clearly remember how certain days I couldn't just wake up, like I felt very depressed after watching this, right? Watching porn. Watching porn, because when you study this, you don't just watch, right? No, it's not like. You actually replay the same film over and over and over. Do you watch it with your students and discuss? Oh, no, no, no, no. I don't do that. I don't do that. No? No. And so, you know, after watching it days and days and I became sort of, I felt depressed, right? Because in some ways, because rather than embodying the gaze of the male audience, I felt that I'm that Asian woman in the film and I felt violated. And there are also this notion of, you know, digital rape, right? In some ways, that you feel that you're being raped, that every time I enter the space of the cyberspace, I felt like it's not a safe space for me to be. You know, I don't know if I went to the extent of depressed because I don't see it as much as you. I just kind of did my research and just, I don't even want to open the clips because I don't want to go there. And I also, why is that? Why do you feel that way, right? Right. It's disturbing. And also, what I was thinking with the violent issue that you're talking about is what triggers the violence in men against women out in the real world. That's what really bothered me. Absolutely. When people, when men distort the concept of sexuality. Yes. There is actually a study that shows that men who watch porn are more forgiving in terms of the violence that are happening around them, right? It doesn't mean that they are more likely to rape, right? But it is, but the studies show that they're more sort of desensitized in some ways, right? And so when they see sort of like violence around them, they tend to not respond with sort of like, you know, well, let's stop this. I don't think cultural backgrounds affect how men perceive, you know, even if porn is the same all over, because if they're upbringing and how they treat women or their positions, do you think that that is something that is huge? Absolutely. Absolutely. Right? Cultural background, sort of family background. But unfortunately, we live in a culture that is patriarchy, even in the US, right? Right. We see that last time. Yeah.   Or people of certain genders and race don't get punishment. Or they blame the woman for asking for it. Yes. The victim blaming, or like a judge would ask, you know, did you see that article? Did you see that article? Yeah, knees. Oh my God, let's talk about that. Your knees together, right? Where was that? Was it, okay, I don't remember where. But there was a judge in which ever state recently. Yes, yes, yes. Do you want to talk about it? Yes. Yes. So I think he asked the victim, the survivor, you know, why didn't you, you know, put your knees together, right? So that you can prevent rape. And so that was interesting. Because in some ways, again, this is the rape culture, right? It's the sort of victim blaming that you can do something about it. Rather than looking at the structure, rather than looking at the institution, you again blame the women. Right.  So in the porn videos, you've got these women, maybe it's a little BDSM association, but they tie the women up and stretch them out till you can't even get any more exposed, the other extreme. And so what does that do to your concept of sexuality? Really, it's just, it's more than in your face. Yeah. I mean, I think when we bring up like issues of like BDSM, I think it's very, very important that we really dissociate BDSM with pain and the kind of pain that I talk about.   So when you have the consents, then all those consents. It is the consents. And it is actually hard because I had to learn how to, you know, you're flogging, you had to do, all you had to learn how to do it. It was part of my research. You don't know how to whip, I mean. I don't know. I don't know to do it in the right way. And, and the way that is both respectful and the way that actually aroused pleasure in the other person. And it's actually hard. Nice, they can't do that. It's a fine line. And it's a beautiful, beautiful thing when we can do that. And so, so I just need to sort of, you know, put it out there that it is not. Let's hold that thought. We'll take a quick break. I think this porn and pain we're onto something. And that fine thread that you're talking about that links it or crosses over and turns you into the dark side. I don't know. We're going to continue to deconstruct this painful pornographic topic. So don't go away. We'll be back very soon. Aloha, everyone. I hope you've been watching Think The Kauai. But I'm here to invite you to watch me on Viva Hawaii every Monday at 3 p.m. I'm waiting for you. Mahalo. Aloha. I'm Kaylee Ikeena, president of the Grassroot Institute. If you want to be an informed citizen, we invite you to watch every week as we bring wonderful guests together on Ehana Kako, a weekly program on the Think Te Kauai Broadcast Network every Monday at 2 o'clock p.m. We talk with people who know what they're talking about when it comes to the economy or the government or to building a better society. So we'll see you then on Ehana Kako, which means let's work together every Monday at 2 o'clock p.m. on the Think Te Kauai Broadcast Network. Aloha. Hi, I'm Donna Blanchard. I'm the host of Center Stage, which is on Wednesdays at 2 o'clock here on Think Tech. On Center Stage, I talk with artists about not only what they do and how they do it, but the meat of the conversation for me is why they do it, why we go through this. A lot of us are not making our livings doing this. And a lot of us would do this with our last dying breath if we had that choice. And that's what I love to talk to people about. I hope you enjoy watching it, and I hope you get inspired because there's an artist inside G2. Join us on Center Stage at 2 o'clock on Wednesdays. Bye. Hi, I'm Stacey Hayashi with the Think Tech Kauai show, Stacey to the Rescue, highlighting some of Hawaii's issues. You can catch it at Think Tech Kauai on Monday at 11 a.m. Aloha. See you then. Back to Qwok Talk, talking about foreign paying with Professor IU. Now, we're just getting into this heated discussion about what pain is and what it really kind of opens up into. IU, we have a wonderful lady in the panel that I always like to bring in to kind of stir things up. And Zuri, you never see her, but she's always there. She's the one controlling the panel. So, Zuri, welcome into our conversation again today. Hello. Hi, Zuri. You know what? Have you ever watched porn? I think I'll have to admit it on air, but yes. Of course, right? Who hasn't, right? Okay, so my question is, this is like an open woman's girl's discussion. After just dabbling in some, you know, no offense. I'm not trying to be not PC to any ethnic background, but why are black dicks so huge? Can you please, like, forget your professor thing. Zuri, let's talk girl talk. I mean, what's your take on it? You know, that's actually a very interesting comment.  They're more large and everything like that. But it seems to be a cross-cultural thing. So, that is something different. What I'm interested in is, what do you think about the different categories of women in concerns, in terms of race, race and ethnicity? How do you think they're portrayed differently? How they're portrayed differently in the world of porn? Right. Like, we've been talking about Asian women and everything like that, but have you been noticing or have you ever noticed how they portray black women? You know, I don't even see that many black women. That's so interesting. Do you want to ask Dr. first? What do you think? Why are there different portrayals of, yeah? Oh, yeah, because racism and sexism, obviously, as they intersect, is live and, you know, alive and well in the porn industry. And this is another part of it. And why it's so important is that rather than challenging these sort of, you know, racist sort of ideologies that porn industry really runs with it. Right? And this is why, as you talked about earlier, that the presentations of black men is always hyper-sexualized, as well as black women. It's always sort of like hyper-sexualized in a certain way. And Asian men, in particular, is being emasculated. And even in some of the comments, because the study that I do, I don't only look at the videos, but I also look at the comments that these people would make about particular videos. And in some of these videos, people would say, why are these women screaming?  And because it's, you know, Asian men. And so, again, there's this sort of stereotype that is always been... But there's some truth to it, though, no? Well, what people would say about media, media is always either exaggerates, right? Some people would say, you know, what do you call that mirror? Oh, the carnival mirror. Oh, right, when it distorts that funny hand? Yes, yes, yes. And so, media is always like that. There's always certain parts of truth. But what does that mean anyway, when you are already really distorted?   I kind of, yeah. I wanted to hear it. I wanted to hear it. Yeah, because I think that's part of the problem, right?  Well, you know what, Zur, I think you picked out a huge issue here that I don't think we can even continue to do in such a short time. Do you have any reflections on that yourself? Because your ethnic background is part Indian and part African, is that right? Yes. Well, I am black, and I am Native American, Ojibwe, to be specific. But, you know, I was just kind of reacting to that because I thought it was very interesting that black men are portrayed to have, you know, these big dicks. They're so powerful. Every race wants them.  Like, so she's demeaned. Yeah. And so I was kind of going to ask the doctor what she thinks about women who kind of go away from realistic porn because the, you know, the selection is so limited and so demeaning for my own race. Does that make sense? Wow. So, yeah, she's asking about how you feel. I mean, where does it, like, you know, she said there's such a lack of representation and equal depiction of black American women or Asian or ethnic backgrounds. And where do people go and how does that affect them? Yeah. So what is interesting that there is a study by, I believe, Professor Miller, I mean, Miller Young, I believe, and she looks at specifically black women as porn stars and how they themselves have websites. So rather than going to these websites that I study like Uporn.com or all these other websites, that they themselves, because of this internet, this is also what internet does to porn industry, is that it allows us, if we want to, like, open our own website and be our own porn star so that we can get the money ourselves. And so what she was talking about, that that allows sort of black women to have their own websites and gain the financial freedom by being porn stars because of this internet industry. So that's really interesting. And what I also want to highlight is that, you know, internet is such an awesome place that there are artists who created websites like what it's called milk, M-I-L-K. And on that website, it's not only just porn, but also she would have this sort of counter ticker where you will read, you know, like how many people have died of HIV by the time you watch this porn. So in some ways, you're being more critical about porn. And when you watch porn, it's not only within that context of your own sexuality, but also the larger part of that.  How do you think people can educate themselves to be more critical when they do, if they go and engage in watching porn, it's fine, everybody has their own freedom and choice. But how do you educate people to distinguish which way things lie? And if you're uncomfortable with it, what do you do, how can you be proactive in doing something else to compensate? Like Zuri was her concept. Yeah, there are websites, which I don't remember, I just read about this, but there are websites made by women for women and for porn, right? And what they highlight is that they want to look at the quote-unquote real sex, they want to look at real bodies, so not just very particular, very, again, people have the options to have breast augmentation if they want to, but, you know, certain porn sort of videos often highlight women who have particular kind of body shape. And on this websites, women would have, you know, people with different kinds of, you know, breasts, different kinds of bodies, so it's real bodies, real sex and real orgasm. What's this website called? I don't remember, I just read it last night. Oh, okay. But it's made by women, for women. I like that. It's inspiring. And so there are websites like that. And again, thanks to the internet, because before, if you think about the production, the distribution of porn videos would be very, very expensive. Right.   But in fact, you said it was the other way around how you created the whole security system. Yes, yes.  Right. So well, we've opened up, you know, a can of worms, if you wish. I mean, a lot of people are uncomfortable talking about these types of issues. But you know what, it's out there.  And like IU says, you have your choices, you can be proactive in creating, not necessarily sites, but just creating just your own position on something. IU, just in our short time left, do you have anything else we can leave the audience? And Zuri, thanks again for that wonderful joint discussion. Yeah, absolutely. So check out, you know, certain blogs, certain websites like feministing.com, right, Miss Magazine blogs, where you can then learn more about issues of women that are empowering for us and then do Google search of, you know, things that could be pleasurable, pleasurable and empowering for us. Excellent. All right, we'll take that with you. Enjoy your Tuesday after morning. Yeah, okay. All righty. And again, thank you for tuning in on Think Tech and we'll see you next week.


Hi, this is your host, Sapni Bhartiya and welcome to our 2023 Predictions series. And today we have with us once again, Julian Fischer, CEO and founder of AnyKnights. Julian is great to have you on the show. Oh, it's great to be back. Thank you for having me. Yeah, before I ask you to grab a crystal ball and share your predictions with us, tell us quickly about AnyKnights. What is the company all about in today's world? Well, AnyKnights is focused on the construction and operation of application developer platforms. We're helping companies in the journey of cloud transformation. And we have a strong stance in the area of data service automation. Excellent. Now it's time for you to grab a crystal ball and share with us what predictions you have for our viewers. I believe that in 2023, the questions evolving around how to run and how to manage data in Kubernetes, maintaining a healthy dependence or independence from infrastructure providers will be one of the focused topics. I also think that the question of operational efficiencies in the Kubernetes when running a lot of Kubernetes clusters will remain a major challenge and will also be one of the major topics in the Kubernetes ecosystem. I also believe that furthermore, I believe that application security will be a major topic in 2023. A question on how application and any code that's deployed in Kubernetes can be scanned and for security vulnerabilities automatically as part of the CI-SED pipeline will be in the focus as well. One thing I can imagine people will think about in 2023 is also how do you declare an entire application development system, including Kubernetes cluster, the Kubernetes cluster, including the data layer as well as the application layer. Because that requires orchestration in a declarative way that goes beyond a Kubernetes cluster but includes infrastructure or platform resources. We've seen with cross-plane technologies who use the Kubernetes paradigm to do that, so I'd be curious to see that more people use that to make those more comprehensive declarative systems or application management systems possible. Thanks for sharing these predictions. If I ask you what is going to be the focus of any lines in 2023? We've been doing the same things for decades now but it's the exact prioritization that's always interesting to see. We've been working on several topics last year and there will be a shift of focus in the upcoming year. We have learned that for example, managing data in Kubernetes environments where there are a lot of Kubernetes clusters is much more demanded than, for example, running data within Kubernetes. Both are hot topics but we've seen a spike in demand asking our existing data service automation to be integrated within Kubernetes rather than running data services on Kubernetes. It's not saying anything bad about running data in Kubernetes but it's just within the customer base. That's one of the shifts we are going to make in response to the demand. What are some of the biggest challenges that you will see will be there in 2023 and some of those challenges that any Nines would like to help customers navigate through? I still believe that building application development platforms is incredibly hard. When you think about the marketplace problem, browsing products that are available to the application developers, creating graphical user interfaces for them, making declarative management of resources around Kubernetes clusters available, including application workloads, extensions and data, that's something that still needs to be addressed and that's where our focus will be. It will be less focused on providing Kubernetes as a service, which is something we have made many experiments within the last one or two years. We are moving up the layer. That's a shift in focus at any Nines. Julian, thank you so much for taking time out today and once again share these predictions with us, focus on the company and the challenges that are ahead of us in 2023 and which you will also help solve. Thanks for all these insights. As usual, I would love to sit down and chat with you again, hopefully next year, if not next year. Absolutely. Hopefully there's going to be a conference in Europe where we'll be able to meet. Otherwise, see you at the next conference in the US or in the next Zoom call. I enjoy talking to you so much, so hopefully see you soon.


Today we are going to study supernode analysis of circuit. So, generally a nodal analysis is used while solving the problems related to circuits, but in some cases it will happen that different condition will arise. So, in such cases other than a normal procedure or the normal theorem we have to implement or we have to use another method to solve a problem. So, today we will see supernode analysis of the circuit. Learning outcome at the end of this session students will be able to apply supernode analysis to find unknown voltages. So, generally supernode analysis is to be used to find unknown voltages present in the circuit. So, before starting with supernode analysis you should pause the video and you should recall how to apply node analysis, what is KVL, KCL, how to apply KVL and KCL. Now, we will move to the topic that is supernode analysis. Friends to study the supernode analysis we are considering a circuit and with the help of that circuit we will understand what actually is supernode analysis is. Generally you can apply node analysis for the circuit and you can find out node voltages. And to solve this you have to use Ohm's law or you have to use KCL and you can solve the problem, but in some cases it will happen that between any two nodes there comes a voltage source. So, in such cases it is difficult to apply node analysis because while applying the node analysis it is very much critical or the node analysis will go wrong. So, instead of applying node analysis we have to use supernode analysis. So, as you can see in a given diagram there are total three nodes node X node Y and node Z. So, to find out the unknown voltages at the nodes we have assigned reference node or ground node here and will apply KCL to these two nodes that is node X and node Y. But in a node analysis you can write the equation for this particular portion of the circuit. So, instead of applying node analysis we have to apply supernode analysis. Now we will see steps to apply supernode analysis. Find total number of nodes for a given circuit. So, we have to find out total number of nodes present in a given circuit. So, in this given circuit there are total three nodes node X node Y and node Z. We will assign it as a node Z. Assign reference nodes and assign voltage designations to non-reference nodes. So, I have assigned a reference node or ground node here and we have to assign designations to the non-reference nodes. So, we will assign VX and VY as a voltage designations to non-reference nodes. Write KCL equation for each node and combine. So, in node analysis what we have done is we will apply KCL Krichov's current flow to the nodes and after writing number of equations and solving these equations we will find out the unknown values. But instead of that here what we have to do is we have to write KCL equations to each node separately and we have to combine those equations. And inside supernode we have to apply KVL that is Krichov's voltage law. And after solving those equations you can easily find out the unknown value of voltages. So, here between node X and node Y there is a voltage of 1 volt. So, this portion of the circuit is called as a supernode. So, what we have to do is we have to write separate equation KCL equation at node X and node Y. We have to combine those two equations and then we have to apply KVL to this portion of the circuit that is node X 1 volt voltage source and node Y. And we have to solve this and then you can find out the unknown values of voltage that is V X and V I. As a example what we do is we will try to find out unknown voltages V 1 and V 2. In this particular circuit you can see here this is node 1 I have assigned and this as a node 2 I have assigned and this is third node, but this node is ground node. So, here you cannot apply node analysis because between node 1 and node 2 there comes a voltage source. So, here we have to apply supernode analysis. So, while applying supernode analysis what we have to do is we have to write separate KCL equation at node 1 and node 2 and then we have to combine those two equations and we have to write a single equation. Then we have to apply KVL at this particular portion of the circuit and then we have to solve the equations and we will get the value of unknown voltages V 1 and V 2. So, I will redraw the circuit and we will solve this current source 1 ampere here also it is 1 ampere resistance 1 ohm here also it is 1 ohm node voltages V 1 and V 2 node 1 and node 2 this is ground node. Now, apply KCL at node 1 KCL at node 1 incoming current I will assign it as a negative and outgoing current I assign it as a positive. So, this is 1 ampere current which is going to node 1 it is considered as a negative and unknown current will consider it as outgoing current. So, in this branch we do not know the direction of current. So, I will assign it as a outgoing current. So, equation is minus 1 plus V 1 upon 1 equal to 0 yes. Similarly, we will apply KCL at node 2 at node 2 also 1 ampere current is incoming current we do not know the current in this particular branch it is which is attached or connected to node 2. So, we will consider it as a outgoing current and we will write down the KCL equation what is KCL? Current at node is equal to 0 summation of all the currents at node equal to 0. So, it is minus 1 plus V 2 by 1 equal to 0 now combine KCL equations we have to combine the KCL equations and we have to write a single equation. So, it is minus 1 plus V 1 by 1 plus V 2 by 1 minus 1 equal to 0. So, it is V 1 plus V 2 is equal to 2 make this as a equation number 1. Now, we have combined the KCL equations now in this particular portion we have to apply KVF. So, I will draw the portion 1 volt here it is V 1 here it is V 2 ground plus minus plus minus here it is V 1 here it is V 2 we have to apply KVL to the loop or KVL to the portion or KVL to the super node. So, what is KVL equation? KVL equation is if we go in a clockwise manner it will be V 1 minus 1 minus V 2 equal to 0. So, it is V 1 minus V 2 equal to 1 will make it as a equation number 2 yes. So, if you add equations 1 and 2 if you add equations 1 and 2 V 2 V 2 get cancelled and a value of V 1 will be 3 upon 2 volts you will get value of V 1 as a 3 by 2 volts. And if you subtract equations 1 and 2 if you subtract equation 1 and 2 you will get value of V 2 as a 1 by 2 volts yes are you getting this? So, what we have done is we have written the KCL equations at node individually then we have combined those equations and to the portion of super node we have written KVL equation here you can write it as a by applying KVL to loop by applying KVL to the loop you can write down the equation V 1 minus 1 minus V 2 equal to 0. And by after solving these two equations you will get value of V 1 as 3 by 2 volts and value of V 2 as a 1 by 2 volts ok. So, this is all related to the super node analysis. While preparing this video lecture I have used circuit theory analysis and synthesis by H. Chakravarty, Dhanpataray publication 6th edition. Thank you.


The absence of Justice Ogunjabi has stalled the hearing between Lagos State Government C-Global and South Energy over the Ocean City project. Council to C-Global Energy, Michael Zekume, senior advocate of Nigeria, said Lagos State is asking for a consolidation of the case and another one before Justice Oyifesso, our correspondent, Justin Akademi, has more. Michael Zekume, S.A.N., said the coastal property, which spans from Adid to Kumbua, Demolatra, Mount Belloway in Victoria Island, was given to his clients in 2003, when President Lushego Bassenjo was in power. Ozokima wonders why a company, South Energy's Nigeria, promoters of a co-Atlantic project aided by the Lagos State Government, would start laying claims to over 10,000 hectares of land. The senior advocate of Nigeria says the federal government has the power, under Sections 49 and 51, of the Land Use Act and under the land title Vesting Act of 1975, to donate to his clients. He also claimed that Lagos State Government had in 2004 and 2005 applied to the federal government to allow them to have a portion of the land close to his clients so as to help South Energy's company. When they tried to encroach upon our land, we went to court in 2018, in a suit pending before Justice Oyifesso, this same Lagos State High Court, sitting, I think, at Etiosa, claiming that we are the owners of the whole of their land, haven't be given the land voluntarily by the federal government of Nigeria. As the case was going on, we decided, that is, C-Global, to start developing a portion of the land, which is not the part of the land in dispute, measuring about 350 hectares. Outside the land in dispute, that we went to court for. The lawyer said his client Adeu Myosage got hints that the state government had surreptitiously filed another action, having similar elements with the same parties. Eventually, he filed a notice of preliminary objection, which Justice Ogunjabi granted. Then, suddenly, just on Friday, 27th of this month, we got a letter from the same law office, representing the other party that is South Energy and Lagos State Government, saying that they want this case transferred and consolidated with that one before Justice Oyifesso. Meaning that they are aware of the similarity between those matters, which we have been arguing. But we have attacked that letter with a response to the Chief Judge, that that cannot be done. Cancel to South Energy and Lagos State Government were not available for comment. The case has been adjourned to July 4th, 2022. Justin Acadone, Plustiv in these Lagos. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.


Luke chapter 2 we're going to be looking at verses 7 through 14 and closing with a couple of thoughts found in verses 17 through 19 as we simply remember the Christmas story. I was talking to my grandson and my granddaughter Josiah and Sophie yesterday and Sophie was real excited because she's six years old. I guess it's six you can be excited about all kinds of things and she was real excited because her mama was going to let them open their presents early and I'm telling you that little girl was very excited about doing that and and so Josiah and I and Sophie were having a visit a grandpa time if you will and and I turned to my little girl my my baby girl and I said to her you're real excited about opening up your presents aren't you and she says oh yes Papa I'm really excited I said as you should be it's a lot of fun to do that baby doll I said let me ask you a question about your presents and she said yes what I said which one of them will last forever which one and Josiah is 10 years old and so he's seated there and and you know he says none of them do I said Sophia how many of them last forever and which one of them that you open is going to be the one that will be the very best for all time and she doesn't understand she's six years old but I said let me ask a question in a different way I said because I want you to be happy about your presents and all of that but I'd like you to also think of something else I'd like you to think about what matters and so Josiah what matters in this world what really matters I'll say it differently I said and I looked at him because he's a little stinker he can he can tease with me he teases with me all the time I said now I'm being serious and he goes I go what would you prefer a new ps4 because he's building electronics or your papa which one would you want the most and you better answer right because I do have the power to kill you he starts to laugh and he says oh the ps4 pop up of course that would be the best thing to have I said really is that really what you think he says of course not he says the most important thing to me will always be you you and I said Sophie I said that's the whole thing I want you to learn at an early age that things do not matter but people do things do not matter because things get old they get used up they're thrown away but people and relationships they last and the most important thing that you need to have is not a new toy but you need to value the things that matter the Lord Jesus Christ your family these are the things that matter because I promise you if you were wandering in a desert and you were about to die of thirst and you happened upon a pirate's chest will say somehow it got in the desert a chest of gold and you opened it up hoping that you'd find water and all you found was gold you would throw the gold away and say what use is this to me this will not give me life and the problem that we have today I think that is really being exacerbated by our materialism and our secularism is we are trying to find eternal value in things that perish and so the Christmas story that we look at is not simply a story it is not a myth it is not a fable it is a fact and the whole point of the story is that God has seen us in our great need and has met that great need through a person Jesus Christ Luke chapter 2 beginning at verse 6 reading to verse 14 I'll begin at verse 6 so it was well they were there the days were completed for her to be delivered and she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields keeping watch over their flock by night and behold an angel of the Lord stood before them and the glory of the Lord shone around them and they were greatly afraid then the angel said to them do not be afraid for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people for there is born to you this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord and this will be the sign to you you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a manger suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace goodwill toward men in verse 17 when they had seen him they made widely known the same which was told them concerning this child and all those who heard it marvel at those things which were told them by the shepherds but Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart Mary and Joseph as the passage here before us would state had we read it from verse 1 have traveled from the north northern town of Nazareth a small village really that didn't have a population of very many some estimate that during the time of the birth of Christ the city of Nazareth may have had as few as 60 people no more than 200 in that small community so Mary and Joseph had left this small community in place up to the north and they had traveled south just a little past the city of Jerusalem to a city called Bethlehem and while they were there as the scripture says they tried to secure a room in a home or a or what we would call an inn or a hotel but there was no room for them and so even as we begin to look at what's taking place here we need to think in terms of what's going on in and in Mary's moment of giving birth there she is and she's without any assistance there's no other woman with her to help her none mentioned at least in the passage and certainly she had no midwife but there she is as she's bringing forth as it says in verse 7 her firstborn son and she's wrapping him notice with me in swaddling cloths which is interesting because we'll look at this again in a moment but in verse 7 it speaks of swaddling cloths and then again in verse 12 it says this will be the sign to you you'll find a baby wrapped in swaddling class lying in a manger so she's wrapping the Lord Jesus Christ as is normal in what we're called swaddling class and she's laying him in this manger with her own hands I was reading concerning swaddling class just to get an idea of what this would mean and one of the writers mentioned when a child was born it was wrapped in swaddling clothes after being washed gently with water having a small portion of salt in it the salt symbolize the qualities of truth and honesty and was used so that the child would grow up speaking words that were salted the swaddling clothes were narrow strips of fine linen cloth about 2 to 4 inches wide and up to 15 to 20 feet in length which was wrapped around the baby's body the child was wrapped from head to foot with only part of his face left uncovered so he could breathe the baby's body and limbs were thus held very straight indicating that he would grow up to be free from crookedness and waywardness and would walk straight and tall before the people the swaddling cloths were left on the baby for only a short time while the parents took time to pray and make their commitment to God concerning the upbringing of the child now interestingly these same strips of cloth were used to wrap the limbs of babies but also used for wrapping the bodies of the dead and so from the very beginning Jesus's birth is prefiguring his death and that's why he would be referred to as the one who was born as a savior in this passage now in the midst of her pain and undoubtedly in the midst of any embarrassment that she would have there would be joy we need to remember that Joseph and she had had no physical intimacy whatsoever and there's Joseph undoubtedly attending the birth of this child but Mary has never been seen in that fashion before there has to be some embarrassment but in the midst of that there's joy it's like what Jesus said in John 16 21 a woman when she's in labor has sorrow because her hour has come but as soon as she has given birth to the child she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a man has been born into the world and those of us who are parents can say absolutely we understand that because my wife giving birth to four children I can tell you that that there's never been so much suffering as as I suffered when she gave birth no watching her watching her and saying thank you Jesus I was not born a woman I'll never forget that I remember the fourth child Anna when Anna was born was being born in the middle of her birth pains Marie would look at me with a very firm stern face she even gritted her teeth and she said it several times she said this is the last one this is the last one and I'm just kind of like yeah whatever you say baby it's fine with me this is the last one okay all right man guacamole was coming out of her mouth her head was spinning it was really amazing it really was this is the last one but the minute that baby was born the minute that baby was placed in her arms and she looked at him all four of them there was this entire change of demeanor this entire change of mentality because a child had been born and she got to hold that baby that was hers and that's what Jesus speaks about so there's time of pain no doubt and there was time more than likely of embarrassment but the moment that baby was born there was joy and notice what it says in verse 7 she brought forth her firstborn son now in Luke in chapter 1 when Mary was speaking to the angel the angel said to her it's found in verses 30 through 33 do not be afraid Mary for you have found favor with God and behold you will conceive in your womb and bring forth the son and she'll call his name Jesus he will be great and will be called the son of the highest and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end so she brought forth her firstborn and notice how it says in verse 7 she laid him in a manger the manger was where the animals would feed and just for a moment if you've ever been around a feeding trough you can know how disgustingly dirty that really would be it was filthy all around this manger area would be dung and so the fact that he was placed in a manger surrounded by dung is intended to not just be a historic reference but to remind us that Jesus Christ had humility someone wrote he was placed in a manger that people who act like beasts might partake of the bread of life in 2nd chrithians chapter 8 verse 9 Paul said it like this he said you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that you through his poverty might become rich now it says in verse 7 there was no room for them in the inn when you do your studies you'll discover that there are two words that are translated by the single word in one word speaks of what would be called a hostel or a hotel but the other speaks of an enclosure this enclosure is a place where the travelers would drive the cattle for the night and this particular inn had water supplied but there was no host there was no food there were no ordinary comforts it wasn't a hotel with the stable outside actually what it was was a stable and so the point that is being made here by Lucas there wasn't even room for Mary in the stable Mary gave birth to Jesus outside of the stable more than likely in the cool of the evening we know that Bethlehem was crowded because of the census we know that Mary was in an unoccupied corner of a courtyard where it was dirty it was smelly it was occupied by horses and mules and camels not to mention the unwanted intrusion of strangers but as this is taking place notice verse 8 there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields and they were keeping watch over their flock by night and so as this is taking place heaven responds there are ordinary temple shepherds they're given a what would be called a heavenly birth announcement it's possible that these were shepherds who were keeping the sheep that would be used as offerings that then would help us to see the picture of Jesus Christ because Jesus is Jesus is the sin offering to God even as this says in John 1 29 where it says the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world so from his beginning we see humility we also see that he is an offering now these shepherds interestingly enough would would really represent mankind because they were a despised class because they were not able to keep the the the fullness of the law they normally weren't even schooled in the law of Moses and and many people looked at these shepherds rather as being ignorant now they're performing their ordinary task of watching over sheep they would keep an eye on them in three-hour shifts it protected them against the predators and against thieves and it was to these shepherds that the heavenly birth announcement was given they were ordinary working-class people but they received great news just the way that we are ordinary working-class people majority of us and yet God has broken through in our jobs into our lives and has given to us the great news of the Lord Jesus Christ and notice in verse 9 it says an angel of the Lord stood before them the glory of the Lord shown around them and they were greatly afraid this is how the Lord normally works in the ordinary events of our lives the extraordinary can occur because I've discovered that God invades the ordinary we need to remember that there had been 400 years of silence the closing of the book of Malachi had occurred 400 years earlier the 39 books of the Old Testament had been sealed there had been no voice from God no prophetic word for 400 years four centuries of silence but now that silence is broken and God's giving a birth announcement through the angels and at the right time as God always works in the right time God began to work amongst men it says in Galatians 4 4 and 5 when the fullness of the time had come God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons and what do they say verse 10 do not be afraid for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people you live in a world that's lacking lacking joy you live in a world that is under oppression and has been for years what do I sense going on right now in the lives of people as a minister of the gospel a pastor of a church two words come to mind and I sense this with a lot of you the youth I think it's in general frankly two words loneliness and anger those are two words that seem to combine to describe many of the young people that I know and I'm not talking about those in the 20s and 30s I'm talking about those who are 5 and 10 and 15 years old I'm talking in general of younger people and I see that I see that there are a lot of reasons you could insert your own but there are a lot of reasons that that is apparently true it would seem that it is true there are a lot of lonely people and there are a lot of angry people and the loneliness and the anger seems to be combining to just a sullenness and a an attitude of I need to get it for myself whatever it is out there that there is it's available I need to make sure that I get my portion of that loneliness and anger and the funny thing about that is that was true of every generation it was true of mine if you'd have asked me what are the two basic things that you feel at the age of 20 just before I got saved if I had a boiled it down I just said there are two things that I feel I'm angry and I'm lonely I'm angry because it doesn't seem like life is is dishing out to me the things that I would like it to I'm lonely I don't have a relationship with anybody that could help me to feel anything that is valuable I had this attitude of just being unloved and unwanted and that made me an angry young man and I think that there are a lot of people like that today an awful lot of people and at the root of it is because I was trying to find a purpose in life through relationships and I felt that I deserved more than I had gotten in life and after getting saved the Lord gave me something I've never forgotten he said the only thing that I've ever owed you is judgment but I have given you my grace and that changed my entire way of thinking because when it's all said and done when people say well how can bad things happen to good people that's because they're failing to realize that there's none good no not one and that there's only been one good person on the face of the earth who's ever lived and that was Jesus Christ and when we begin to wonder about how bad things can happen to good people we need to actually ask ourselves how come bad happened to that good person because not everything that I go through is simply because I'm reaping what I sow there are some things that are thrust upon me that I really didn't have any control over in the sense of asking for it but much of what I've gone through has been simply because I sowed certain seeds and I reap the harvest of my behavior and a lot of the things that I found to be hurtful to me were simply repercussions of decisions I had made and the results of those decisions to the point where I began to reaping what to begin reaping what I was sewing and in many ways because I had high expectations on on we'll say relationships I would drive away the person that I wanted to be in my life the most and then the result of that would be my anger which I would bring into a new relationship because I was expecting to be losing that one too and it wasn't until I came to realize that that I had a deeper problem than just the loneliness I was feeling and the anger as a result of that my deeper problem was the fact that that I was a lost individual and I was sinful and I was simply reaping what I was sewing in life and so when God breaks into your life there's an awareness an awakening and it takes him to do that and so in a world that was lacking in joy and a world that was under great oppression for hundreds of years the Lord says I'm bringing you good news and this is news that is good for all people it's like what it says in Isaiah 52 10 the Lord has made bear his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God and he says in verse 11 for there is born to you this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord city of David is the name for the city of Bethlehem where David was born it was his city and he says for you there is born to you this day in the city of David a savior who is Christ the Lord Messiah this day signals the dawn of a new day man had been living in darkness but now that darkness is being driven away by the light and there is one who has been born he is first a savior when he says he's a savior this is the one who's confronted all the sin of the world and this is the one who rescues us there has been born the one who will conquer the one who will rule like it says in Colossians 2 15 having disarmed the powers and authorities he made public spectacle of them triumphant over them by the cross but he says also he is Christ the Lord the word Christ Christ us means the anointed one the name points out the savior the world and a prophetic royal and priestly office prophets and priests and kings would be anointed with oil when installed into their offices and Jesus is the anointed but he is also the Lord and this one who is a Lord this savior has been born for us and indeed he says those are great tidings that's good tidings and it produces great joy it's for all people and this he says in verse 12 will be the sign to you you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a manger a babe in swaddling cloths you will find this glorious person however strange it may appear wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a stable it is by humility that Christ comes to reign and this is the only way into his kingdom pride is the character of all the children of Adam humility the mark of the Son of God and all of his followers Christ came in the way of humility to destroy that pride which is the root of evil in the souls of men Christ wrapped in swaddling cloths prefiguring his death lying in a manger placed for animal's feed and as this is taken place before they could react the choir bursts out in praise and says glory to God in the highest and peace unto men in a moment of time we receive understanding that should change our entire lives peace on earth good will toward men occurs when God is given to glory there is no peace on earth except among those with whom God is well pleased the Bible makes it clear that men are in a state of hostility with heaven and it spills over to our relationships with one another the carnal mind the Bible says is enmity against God and the one who sins wars against his maker so when men become reconciled to God through the death of his son men can actually change and we can actually begin to love one another we can have peace with God because God is the God of peace we can have peace in our own conscience and we can have peace with our neighbors and good will will dwell amongst us and we can be known by the good works that we perform on behalf of the Lord in his glory when it says and I'll close with a couple of thoughts in verse 17 when they had seen him they made widely known the same which was told them concerning this child and all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds but Mary kept all the things that and pondered them in her heart a couple of things that we want to consider is this one Mary pondered these things she thought about what this would mean how is it that she should bear the Son of God and how is it that God would have a heavenly choir if you will announcing birth the Son of God and what is this going to mean in the future in that he was placed in a manger wrapped in swaddling claws which would be a prefigurement of the fact that one day he'd be placed on a cross and afterwards taken and wrapped once again what does this really mean and as she thought through that we see something else we see the sharing of this event because it says in verse 17 when they had seen him they made widely known the same which was told them concerning this child and in verse 20 the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen as it was told them here's a couple of things for you one if you want to be a witness what are you witnessing to what you're witnessing to is Jesus Christ who is the Savior of the world that's what we witness Jesus Christ born Jesus Christ living Jesus Christ dying Jesus being buried Jesus being resurrected Jesus ascending to heaven Jesus sending the Holy Spirit to dwell within us and us awaiting his return while we serve him and what do we do as we ponder on these things is we prepare our hearts to the study and meditation on the word of God so that we might share these things with other people but the Lord would have us to do is one first and foremost ponder on the things of what Jesus Christ is and who he who he is and what he has done when you have a deep relationship with the Lord concerning those things now you're able to share things concerning him that's why we spend time reading the word of God that's why we meditate on the things of God that's why we we understand that the Lord Jesus Christ is a Savior that's why we understand that we needed him to transform our lives that's why we we we think about what we've been and rejoice in what we're becoming because that gives to us a depth that we can share from personal experience and these shepherds had an amazing experience and they were able to speak concerning it we have heard an announcement we have seen the baby was there in the manger and we understand this and we'll speak concerning this because he's been born to be the Savior of the world and that's what we do see Christmas as we gather here today is simply to remember what we're all about there's no reason to gather on Christmas Day if this is not true but it is true and so we're going to be leaving here in a moment we're going to go to our homes and perhaps the families or other locations and we're going to be with them and we're going to have opportunity to be a light sometimes in a dark place we're going to have an opportunity to to if God gives us opportunity to share to speak concerning the goodness of the Lord you may be there at the table and you may be with your family and your family may not be a religious type family but they know you are and they may look at you and they may say to you you want to pray and what an opportunity it will be for you to pray and to bless the Lord for the food just make sure that you don't give a 25 minute prayer while you're doing it you know Lord save all the sinners like grandpa to my right and my mom you know she's such a drunk you know I mean you don't want to do that but you'll be given opportunities you know that it happens all the time you're going to encounter the miserable cousin or uncle who's so mad about life and doesn't get any breaks if you go to your family you will encounter some sorrow you will we always do it's in our homes isn't it it's in our families but we have the answer don't we we have the answer we have the answer they may not understand it right now but they're watching you you are living Bible you are known and you are read by all men they watch your life they hear you they watch you when you're with the children they watch you when you're there at watching the game there they watch you they notice you I'm not saying that they're that there's just you know everybody's eyes on you everywhere you go you know I don't want you to be paranoid when you walk out but but they but they are noticing you that's what got my dad saved that's how my dad was saved because when I shared with my father about the gospel and I told him he needed the Lord and I didn't want to go to heaven without him later on he spoke to me and he said you know he said when you shared with me about the Lord Jesus Christ when you shared with me that I needed Jesus and when you told me that I was going to go to hell he said I wanted to get up and hit you when you said that he said but when you said to me when you said to me daddy I love you and I don't want to go to heaven without you he said that spoke to my heart he said in David he goes Madeline your sister had given her heart to Christ and Madeline as far as my dad was concerned was a perfect daughter my sister Madeline when other kids at 16 17 years old 15 years old were going out when they were going out and partying and doing the things that they did when she was 16 years old when she had her license she could have been doing that at that age my sister Madeline would stay home on Friday night stay home on Saturday she didn't never go out my sister Madeline didn't party she didn't drink she didn't get any trouble she was a good student she was a great and as far as our family was concerned as a little teenager she was the perfect daughter she's a kind of daughter that every father would like to raise no problems at all I would come home and she would be seated between my mom and my dad with a bowl of popcorn in her hair in curlers and she'd be eating popcorn with them watching TV and that would be on Friday and Saturday and I'd be thinking man get a life go out and get drunk I mean do something so my dad says to me he goes he said when you got saved he goes I knew you needed God there's no doubt about that he goes but when your sister Madeline got saved that was different he goes because he says I knew I was better than you but I was not better than her and having that little girl in my house and her saying she needs a savior Jesus combined with the evil of your life and the changes that I saw take place in you those two things combined over those three weeks for me to say there is a God who changes lives and I'm a sinner in need of a savior that's how my dad got saved it wasn't simply me saying to him dad this is the word of God speaking to you you're a good man you're the best man I'll ever know but you'll be the best man in hell if you don't give your heart to Jesus Christ that was a little bold for me to say but it was true it was no lie in that daddy you're a good man my dad was a good man my dad would get up at the same time Monday through Friday I had a good father he'd go to work at 6 30 he'd work a full day he come home every day at 7 o'clock my dad would be home between 7 and 7 0 5 every day of my life he only came home late one time that I can remember in my whole young life on Saturday he mowed the lawn on Sunday he'd kind of hang around the house and that was my dad I never had to worry about my dad ever looking at another woman my dad never did my dad had eyes for only one woman I saw that my whole life my dad was faithful and my dad was true my dad was a hard worker and a very good man my dad was honest my dad paid his bills on time my dad would would pay his bills before he bought groceries for us because he wanted spotless credit and he taught me that same work ethic pay your bills and then take care of your families what my dad did and yeah there were times when he didn't have enough for both so what we do is we'd have a meal on a Monday that we shared on Tuesday and sometimes into Wednesday and we learned to eat things my mom used to call it like we need soup all it was was a can of tomato sauce and a couple of potatoes that were cut up in some frankfurters that she dropped into it and that was our soup and that was our dinner but that was good because my dad was working providing income when it was Christmas I can still remember my mom taking my brother and me into the front room and there's a little tree and some presents and my mom said Santa Claus didn't bring you these you want to see Santa Claus she pointed at my father that's Santa Claus and you ought to thank Santa Claus for bringing you these presents that's what my mom would do yeah that was my mom you know and so she taught us that my father was a good man my mom in my entire life I cannot remember my mom as I was growing up specifically ever saying a bad thing about my father to me my mom used to say your dad is a good man and my mom taught me my dad was a perfect man I wonder how many wives in this room could say that kind of thing that's how my mom was my mom never sat down during dinner my mom always stood up she was always by the by the kitchen sink with her plate and if my dad even looked like he wanted something more the first thing my mom would say is honey do you need something else my mom always would serve my dad before she served us and if we were hungry my mom would say that's too bad you can eat a carrot because your dad's going to get the meal that's how it was in my home my dad was a good man and that's why it took such nerve for this kid just a few weeks before it was a doper and an alcoholic I wouldn't work a job I used to climb into the back of dumpsters at gas stations to take out tires that would fit in my car and I would take them to a friend of mine I'd say I've got some low rubber on my tires here would you put these tires on my car for me and he'd put them on because he worked at a gas station I didn't work a job I wouldn't work all I did was smoke pot drink and party that's all I did until I was 20 years old and here I am this little jerk of a boy with long hair barefooted wild-eyed big old sideburns and granny glasses sit with a Bible spouting Bible to my dad my dad didn't like the Bible my dad said the only person I ever knew who read a Bible was crazy so I want no Bibles in my house but when he watched me change and he saw my sister's need my dad came to faith in Jesus Christ you are a living letter known and read by all men do not forget the power of your testimony and as you go to be with your family today remember who you are you represent the kingdom of God you have a savior his name is Jesus he transformed your life remember that that's what it's all about that's all that's what it's all about a savior has been born not a prophet not a teacher not even a king but a savior and we sinners need this savior


All right, hello there. This is Gerard Leonhardt, CEO of the Futures Agency, Futurist in Basel, Switzerland. And I'm very happy to have with me today Carla Donzello from Rome. He's going to introduce himself shortly. And he's the Wizard of the Smart City. And the topic today is going to be handled by Doug Stevens, who is otherwise known as the retail profit. And we've just recently met here in beautiful Switzerland. I had a great chat and figured we should do something. So let's start with Doug. Just kind of briefly say what you do and then we'll ping pong back and forth. Thanks Gerard. My name is Doug Stevens. I'm the president of Retail Profit. Retail Profit is a futures consultancy that specializes in the retail industry, looking specifically at changes in retailing and consumerism, who work with large brands, trade associations, government, and mid-sized retail companies as well. Just to give them a sense of where things are changing, where things are going into the future. My name in a retail profit, I take a lot of balls to say that you're the profit. Which I like. Let's have another profit over here. He looks like a profit over here. That's Carla from beautiful Rome. About 100 meters from the Pope, he said. We were hoping that Carla would be the next Pope, but it didn't pan out. Maybe he wasn't religious enough. So Carla, what do you do? Tell us briefly what you do. Hello everybody. Yeah, I'm mostly based in Rome. Even if I travel very extensively, as most of you, and consulting to public agencies in Rome about the future of smart cities. Rome, of course, has the ambition of being one of the cities. So I'm overseeing a number of applications in this area, mostly digital applications, and also overseeing the plan for this new district of digital technologies. Great. Particularly interesting and interested also in the future of retail, because I'm too quite convinced that whatever is related with digital commerce and digital retail is really still very important for cities. Okay, great. Let's go back from the city to the retailing part. So, Doug, you want to bring up something that had to do with Mark Anderson and what he said. Let's start there. Yeah, it's kind of interesting. A few weeks ago, Mark Andreessen, and for those who aren't familiar with who Mark Andreessen is, if you go all the way back to the Netscape days, Mark Andreessen, of course, was one of the co-founders of Netscape, today he's a very influential venture capitalist in Silicon Valley. He's invested in things like Pinterest and that sort of thing. So he was interviewed, and I believe it was in Wired Magazine, and he came flat out and he said, retail is dead.  We're going to buy everything as consumers from the internet and he made this sound very, very impending. So for the industry, there was this collective sort of gasp, people couldn't believe it, and so it caused a lot of conversation in the industry. I wrote an article in response to that, and I tried to look very objectively at this, and then, of course, when you look at the statistics, they're compelling. You know, upwards of a trillion dollars in e-commerce business worldwide, it may only be about 6-7% of total retail sales, but it's growing at a pace of about 12-15% a year. So it is very likely in 30 years, or rather in 10 years, that 30% of everything we buy conceivably could be coming to us through the web. In a digital way. Then again, Mark Anderson sat this 1999 when he invested in Bepp Van and lost, what, 700 million. He said the same thing was going to be the end of retail. He lost all that money, I think. I'm pretty sure.  Make it swift. Well, you know, I believe, first of all, that he's well known for this very, say, journalistic title, rather than, I remember the one about one year ago that was the famous, the software is eating up the world. That's why I like him. He was from Andreessen. So probably, again, you have to distinguish the title from the substance. So probably, maybe we can reword what he was saying. It's the end of the retail as we know it. We can agree. You obviously don't agree, Doug. I don't agree that it's the end of retail. And the reason I say that... As we know it, that I agree with. I think that the thing that's key here is that if we only shopped in order to acquire things, I would totally agree with Andreessen. Why would you go out to a store when you could just have things delivered to your home?  We shop because I think there's an embedded social need. I think it's in our DNA somehow that we long to go to the market. So to Carlo's point you think that's absolutely right. It isn't the end of retail, but it is absolutely the end of retail as we know it. Well, if this is the end, what's the future? Tell us. I mean, you're an expert on this and you just spoke in Switzerland a couple weeks ago about this. Ironically, right after I met you, I met these other guys where I was giving a talk on the future of retail to the Tengelmann group in Germany. And I was able to use some of the stuff that we talked about. But if that's the past, if retail is changing like this, what is the future? Where is it going? Well, I think one of the key things, I really think that the key acknowledgement that retailers need to understand is that for centuries retail was about distribution. I mean, it's what the word means to take something and to divide it up into smaller parts and to distribute it. And so we live in a world now in a internet, post-mobile, post-digital world. We live in a world where access to the product is no longer a problem for the consumer. They don't rely on retail to provide distribution of products. So the question becomes, if product distribution isn't the purpose of retail, what is? And so it conjures up these questions for retailers that, what is it exactly that you sell now? And my belief is that retail is now in the business of selling experiences. This is happening in other media also, but if Sony said five years ago at CES, they're not in the business of selling products. This is what the CEO of Sony said, and they do sell products, boxes. So this is a huge shift, clearly, but you mentioned this idea of collective branding of the third shelf. This is your book right over there, by the way. I've just got it on the Kindle. It's in my queue. I think it's available on the Kindle that I ordered and printed. But anyway, I've got a huge queue of stuff here. So continue. This is a good topic. Well, yeah, and this notion of the third shelf, right now, I guess everybody in the industry is trying to determine which channels are dying. And I know, Gerd, you probably see this in the communications and entertainment channels too. We're trying to come down to this binary sort of answer which channels are dead, which channels are live and which are prospering. And I guess the real awakening here is that channels aren't dying, but they're emerging. And they're coming together and consumers are crossing these channels very seamlessly on an increasing basis. So this idea of the third shelf is sort of the idea that we need to stop thinking in terms of channels and devices, and we need to start thinking in terms of the moments in a consumer's life when they actually need a certain product. Because we now have the technology not to just advertise them to them, advertise to them at that moment, but to actually take the opportunity to buy the product to them in that instant. And it doesn't matter what media they're looking at. So there's very, very transformative times right now, and a lot of it is being spurned on by mobile technology. Yeah, Carlo, I mean, a quick question as to Italy. I'm not the expert on Italy, even though I'm going there on Monday, and I do like Italian food. But what's happening in Italy? Are people actually switching the behavior of how they're shopping? Are they shopping with mobile devices? Are they comparing prices in the store? Well, this is a very interesting trend. In fact Italy is not being really avant-garde in terms of market for e-commerce. But for instance, mobile commerce is coming up very quickly. And there are very, very interesting increases here over here. And so this is an interesting trend. But apart from this, there is something that I wanted to add. And I think it's quite common to many people. So this idea of the fact that you can be delivered to everything at home, and this is by definition better than having to go to pick it up. I mean, it's not always true. Not for Italian. Not for all audience, for instance, for people constantly on the move, like me, it's a pain, honestly. It's a pain to have something delivered at home. I much prefer to go in a very convenient place and pick it up. I never know where I am, and I have almost spread over at least three places. Yeah, I mean, clearly. This is a cultural question, Carlo. Let's go back to Doug here for a second, because I think the big point is here, the stuff you're talking about, are you talking about on a global scale? Are you talking about North Americans? Because clearly, in Korea, the Tesco stores they take a shot in the subway, and then they have it sent at home, which is completely robotic, so to speak, in terms of the... We wouldn't do that here in Switzerland. But we do order stuff and have it delivered, and there's more and more e-commerce. So is this a global thing, or is it really cultural? I think it's both, and I'm not just saying that because it's the easy answer, but I really do believe that it's both. I think that globally, I think, certainly everybody is being touched in some way by mobile at a consumer level. But that does change by country. So you'll find in Africa, for example, banking on your mobile device is absolutely common place, whereas in North America we're very reticent to do that. Price checking is really the predominant usage right now at retail by consumers of their mobile devices. They're price checking, they're quality checking, they're looking for social proof before they make a purchase. It's very, very nascent. These are very, very early times. I would say if this was a baseball game, we are in the first half of the first inning. The thing is that about 15 years ago I predicted in the music business that half of all the revenues were going to be mobile and digital, and everybody had a huge laugh, and this is basically what's happening now, but it's not too hard to predict that maybe half of the retail revenues will be in some way related to some interaction with digital device in five years in most countries, somewhat related to, for example, coupons and location and all this stuff. My view, this is not a bad thing for the record labels to go through this transformation to become more ubiquitous if they actually have value, and it turns out they didn't. Just kidding, in most cases, but if the retailers can add more value, then they'll be fine, but this whole debate about being replaced by technology or so in my view is not really real. It's more like you get replaced by those that use the technology, rather than the technology itself. Yeah, you're absolutely right, and I think the key thing that you hit there is that you need to find the new value that you as a retailer add to the equation, because of course for centuries, the value you were adding was really two things. Access to the product and a little bit of product knowledge to put it behind it, so you would add a little service element, give the consumer knowledge that they didn't have access to otherwise, because of course we all lived in a black box with no information, but now the consumer has probably more information at their fingertips than most of the people working in the store have, so the retailer needs to find new value to add, and I think it's in, the value is in the production that they put around. The context there. Yeah, it's the environmental production. It's strikingly similar to what's happening with the publishers and the magazines. It's the context of how you read it. For example, I am a subscriber to The Economist, only because they allow me to read it while I'm driving because it's reading to me in MP3, and this is the value of The Economist for you. Let's go back to Carla for a question about Italy. Italy has a lot of large, I wouldn't say monopolies, but media set for example is very prominent in the media landscape and television and so on. What about retailing? Are there big retailers who are worried about this? Are they doing anything about it? Well, I think that at the moment they are considering this but I think that they are maybe more concerned about certain trends which I know they are very strong in Italy and I do not know how relevant they are outside of Italy. For instance, I don't know if you have ever heard of this terminology. In Italy it's called kilometer zero or kilometer zero, it's zero kilometer. It is a sort of movement normally related with say good food and good health and good environmentalist that gives a premium to all kinds of, for instance, restaurants and also small retailers and local products. So there is a premium to this. So clearly this is something which is exactly at the opposite of this idea of products which are totally anonymous and can travel everywhere and what is important is simply that you can find it at home at the lowest price. This is something which is very important and picking up quickly and could have an impact I believe also but of course the digital trend actually works very nicely with that because when you have local products that you can have a local network you know you have locations where things and people are willing to pay a bit more if they know that it benefits the community and so on. I don't see a difference there. I think that this natural food movement for example is a perfect fit with the social network movement of what's called social commerce that you buy things because you care about the other people who make them to me it's a perfect fit. In fact this is what most of the success of Whole Foods in America for example is based on this kind of digital networking and of course on the food itself. There's one thing I want to ask Doug about the role of data in retailing. You mentioned it once, your destination is you kind of thing. We call this big data or data as a new oil or whatever you want to call it. So what is the role of knowing exactly who these people are or what they are doing and what they like? It's just such a fascinating we could have dedicated a whole hangout just to this topic the whole data topic but right now the big movement in retail is to now try to capture this data and overlay it onto the retail experience. So a lot of the great attributes of the internet and of e-commerce, things like knowing who came to your site knowing how many times they came to your site, length of stay, unique visitors what they purchased, how they purchased it, all of that information now is information that can actually be captured and overlaid onto the physical retail experience giving retailers now a completely new level of insight into the performance of their stores so that's the one big frontier now for retailers is to try and understand the implications of big data, how to use it it's going to be a very bumpy road one of those things is that they don't really know what in the world they have there. I work with telcos and they have lots of data on their customers but they're really scared of using it and they never cared about it so now they've got these terabytes of stuff on each person but they don't know what permission they have and so on and I think privacy is a big issue but I agree with you I think that once you can harvest that data and get permission from people to serve them better like coupons, location aware things and location sensitive I downloaded this app yesterday from LinkedIn, I think it's called Beware or something where you can find people around you that are on LinkedIn like in a conference and you can connect with them that you met before. These tools are going to be very powerful like Carlo has already talked about with the Future of City, the same thing with location aware, there's a lot of Jews in there but there's also a lot of concerns about can people track my behavior and deduct if I'm pregnant or not from my shopping behavior. Those things will be very strange, right? What's your take on this? They will be and I think the natural tendency on the part of most marketers is to regard these new tools as just a craftier way of achieving the same old goal of interrupting people. Adding that's the natural reflex reaction that most marketers have to this, they figure, oh this is just a better interruption tool and of course the enlightened marketer will look at it the way you've just described and say, look if we can truly promise a consumer a better experience and a more customized, personalized experience as a result of them sharing it with us willingly, then we're into a mutual exchange of value and that's really the key thing and my guess is that very few retailers will actually be that enlightened to take that approach but some are already doing so. Carlo, a question about Italy again Italians are crazy about telefoninis, about their mobile phones most of them have too, you have to mute the mute button. So the question I have is like are Italians going to take to this kind of sensitive location or we're shopping like using smartphones to broadcast where they are culturally speaking, are they going to do this? Are they going to be as crazy as say people in Korea or in Japan or even in America who are very quickly switching this location or we're a way of moving around? Well, it's really difficult to predict Italians are mostly unpredictable, that's the point. Let's think about them. Certainly I think that now it's still the country with the highest density of mobile numbers compared to population but in terms of smartphone penetration is not number one in the world but close to and what is really important is that it is the ratio, so it is the preferred way of accessing internet to the largest part of population so there are many many people who never access internet through a desktop or a laptop but they do it systematically with the smartphone and concerning privacy, I think here again for this kind of aspect, I think that rather than considering it purely from the point of view of the principle of privacy, most of the people would balance it what I can get if I can relinquish some privacy, so it's a balance between say the perks and the advantages versus the privacy I sometimes call this the Faustian bargain after the story of Faust, making a deal with the devil so when you are broadcasting your data and you're opting into the shopping networks and you're using all these apps to compare stuff and you get greeted by some robot when you get to the store who sends you a message for a coupon are you making a Faustian deal or why not just pay more and live in peace which way is it going to go in the future? which is that right now we're in a very chaotic stage, we are as consumers if you just look at any of us, if you take me for example if you look at me on LinkedIn, you're going to think I'm one kind of consumer if you look at me on Facebook, you'll think I'm a completely different consumer you might not even be able to tell it's the same person and the same would apply on Google Plus or eBay or wherever because I go to those places for different things, so I have these disparate profiles that are spread around the internet, I'm not even aware half the time of what information I am sharing with retailers, so I think there's this tremendous sense of insecurity right now in the part of consumers that they feel that all these different parties may be infiltrating their privacy and their security and they're not really sure what it's adding up to in terms of value to Carlos point, so I think that where we're going is I think that there's ultimately going to be a market, a significant market for what I call a meta-service, so as somebody that comes along and says look, we will become the center of your consumer universe, we will guard your data, we will allow you to curate what you do and do not share and you can do that from one, I mean, like a data bank. Exactly a data bank and also a service that brings you things that you're interested in and filters out the stuff you're not interested in and I think personally, I think we can already see businesses like Facebook and Google and others are already moving in that direction to try to become that center of our consumer universe, but I think it's a good market for it. I think that this is one thing I'm trying to get across to my customers all the time is that the future is not about building better mousetraps. This is a constant obsession with this because you sort of think that when you build a better mousetrap, then you can make more money and you're going to be in the same position as before so that people cannot live without you, but by building a mousetrap you become dispensable because people don't like mousetraps and this is a big obsession. When you're not indispensable then eventually you become dispensable and this is what happened with Tower Records for example and this is what happens to other retails and this is what happens to bookstores if they don't figure out a way to become indispensable, which admittedly is difficult. I don't know what your advice would be about bookstores so I think this is definitely something that we should refer on a little bit more. Let's talk about your book for a second because I want people to look at your book and it's over there so tell us about the book briefly. Yeah, the book is called The Retail Revival Reimagining Business for the New Age of Consumerism and I guess the key for me is that notion of reimagining. I think we're in a period of time now where we're experiencing exponential change and some companies are still making the mistake of responding with incremental improvement and it becomes a failing proposition so I really believe that we're at a time where retail businesses in particular need to reimagine what they do and they need to do it before some 22-year-old kid from California invents an app that does it for them. Beijing is going to be Beijing, not California, Beijing. Exactly, yeah, that's right, or Morocco, yeah. Or Sicily maybe, I don't know. So it really sort of approaches this from a historic perspective and looks at where we've come from in terms of consumerism and retailing and consumer behavior and then where of course we're headed and the big change is on the horizon. Okay, this is available on Amazon at the usual formats, right? It is, yeah, available on Kindle or in hard cover. Okay, great, and we're going to do some more work together on the future of retailing. We're working on some interesting projects and hopefully you get to see more on this channel. So let's go to Carla for a second to just let us know, Karlie, where can people find out more about your work and in general about the Smart Cities thing that you're working on? Is there any website you can point us to? Or maybe just use your Twitter account? Yeah, I mean, you can follow me on Twitter. I'm quite active in it. My nickname is Narissimo, N-E-R-I-W-S-I-M-O. That means Deep Black in Italian. And also there is an interesting site where you can see some of the application, digital application that I'm following here in Rome. There is this portal that's called Futureing and that's Futureing.it and it's a portal for digital application for cultural heritage and it's quite rich and you can see many applications already fully working here and also some ideas of evolution. Very good. And Doc, tell us about your Twitter handle and your websites. Yeah, the Twitter handle is at Retail Profit and it's ProfitPRO P-H-E-T as Garrett pointed out at the beginning and the website is retailprofit.com so you can go there to get any information you like about me. We've also got a Facebook page. You can just search Retail Profit on Facebook if you're interested in seeing things about the future of retail. Great, so you can find out more about me at FutureWistGurl.com. There's G-E-R-D like the gastrointestinal reflux disease, but better. And I'm G-Leonhardt, G-L-E-O-N-H-R-D on Twitter and the Futures Agency and Work and Worldwide together whenever we can. And the futuresagency.com has our blog posts and all that stuff. We also have a really great new site called FutureFeed, which is a Twitter feed and if you just go to add futurefeed, F-E-E-D, you see all our combined tweets that we're putting out every day, a couple of them, quite a bit on the future of commerce and retail and stuff. So I think this is a hard topic. This won't be the last time that we're talking. I think this retail and what I call the future of buying and the future of shopping and which basically is the future of commerce. It's going to be a huge topic in the future. So I look forward to talking to all of you again.