session number six of the Global Symposium on Serb Biodiversity. It is a great honor for me to be here with you. My name is Maria Konyshkova and I will be moderating these two our session. In the start I will give some technical notes about the session. So how the session will be organized first. We will be listening to four speakers and I ask the speakers to stick to the presentation of 10 minutes. When nine minutes are finished I will let you know that one minute is left. So and after four presentations we will have the Q&A session. It will should leave about 20 minutes for this Q&A session and then one after one hour without a break we go to the next session and it will be conducted in the same way. Also before we start I ask you to check the Zoom chat because my colleagues will post some information and rules about this session. Also if you have the questions to the speakers please post them on the chat and please don't forget to identify the name of the speaker to whom you address because we will have the Q&A session in the end of the first and second part. So also I will choose some questions to ask live. The rest of the questions will be answered in the chat. The host of this meeting is Bofei Li. He is here to assist us with some technical issues so if you have any technical problems please write to him using the private message box. So this is all with my technical notes and without any further delay I invite our first speaker Ms. Bruna Wink from Universidad Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The floor is yours and you are welcome. Thank you. I'll share my screen. Could you see my screen? Good morning, good afternoon and good evening for everyone. My name is Bruna. I work at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. Today I'll present you some results from my postdoc project where we investigate the effect of nativical version to food and fiber system in soya fauna community. This work was carried out in Brazilian Pampa. It is this green area here in the south of Brazil. Pampa is a biome that is present in four countries of the South America like Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina. In Brazil this biome covers about 63 percent of Rio Grande do Sul states and because of the intensification of agriculture and also forestry this biome is under threat and as there by diversity today it arrests only about 36 percent of the natural grassland vegetation. So the question is if crop lands and forestry can provide main ecosystem services for humans we know that grassland can also offer many existing services. So we need to find a balance between the use of lands and also the conservation of the grassland and many existing services are strongly related to grassland sites like climate regulation through carbon storage, water provision, the control of erosion but the most no existing services provided by grassland sites is the provision of food because these areas are a good provider of forage for animals. So these areas are really used for grazing activity but the most interesting thing about this ecosystem is the positive relationship between grassland management under moderate grazing for example that is the highest plant biodiversity and also the a good production of meat. So because of this positive balance we need to conserve this biome because we can have main ecosystem services from this biome also because of its biodiversity that is the high provision of habitat for biodiversity and other organisms like birds like a surface-dwelling organism but soil biodiversity is still a black box because there is some works that was carried out in Brazil but these work was are not enough to predict how many species that are in our soils and which is the impact of native conversion. We know that there is a stronger relationship between soil biodiversity activities. Bruna we can see only first title slide on our screen is it okay? Well I don't know give me a minute I'll stop the sharing. I'll share my screen not the PDF now it's okay now? Yeah yeah now it's working here. So now that is a pic with a kettles. Okay so I was talking about this slide. So I will show you the first one where we made our stud. His is the biome and his are all the locations where we made our sampling and here is the a pic of our biome the grassland and all the connections between climate between the existence services. So I was talking about the real amount of soil biodiversity that is in our soil. We don't know how many species that is in our soil. So this is because we made this work because we try to cover all the biome to to make a big survey of biodiversity. Well so our expectation is to find a high soil biodiversity on the grassland sites because that is a big plant diverse and also a great variability of plant structure and our main was to evaluate the fact of native conversion on this biodiversity. We made two stud case. I'll present only two stud case but we made many stud case. The first one was the comparison between eucalyptus plantation and grassland. We placed 10 plots around the biome and in each plot each plot is a pair between grassland and eucalyptus. We made a transaction inside the land use type of 250 meters and we survey vegetation composition and soil final composition by using bear less and pitfall track as our methods. The first result as expected we observe a decrease of plant diversity after conversion. That is about 30 species here the me the average and only two species in here in eucalyptus plantation. We only only find five species that was only found in eucalyptus plantation more than a hundred species in grassland. Concerning the plant composition we we can see a clear separation between both land use. Well this result is expected but we ask which are the facts on soil final community. We know that that is a change on microclimate and food resources so we need to understand how land use change can affect soil biodiversity. We know that vegetation can act as a filter on soil final community by selecting those ones that are more adapted to those conditions. Here I want to show you that after conversion the abundance of soil surface dwelling organism decreased as well their richness that are also a change of their species composition so we can see that is an effect of grassland conversion. When we look some facts of the most abundant one we can see that beetles the increased their abundance after conversion we need to better explore these response but the other one like colambula and ants decreased their abundance after conversion. For Iridafica colambula that those ones were was sampled by Berlez we did not found any difference for abundance and just a tendency to decrease their richness but we found a significant effect of each land use on their species composition. Well here our second study case was the comparison between site implantation grassland but in this case we not only compare both land use but also the distance between the plots. We expect for example to find a gradient of species richness and abundance of beetles because we use them as our model group from here to here okay and here we expect to find the most similar composition as we observed before that is an effect on plant diversity and richness and but we did not find any difference for the abundance and richness of beetles when we compare land use types and also the distance from that it was not expected this result we need to better explore why we did not find any difference but when we see species composition that is a positive that is a significant effect between of land use conversion on species composition as we already observed for surface dwelling colambula and organism colambula so we can our conclusion is that our main conclusion is that the native conversion can affect the soil fauna community mainly by changing their composition the abundance of organism and of course as many studies already show us that is an effect on ecosystem services so our next step is to increase the resolution of the identification and also use the functional traits to describe our community and try to better understand the real effect of land use changes on soil fauna community so thank for your attention I am available for your question thank you thank you Bruna so we have several questions to you in the chat we will address them in the Q&A session in the end of this first hour after the fourth presentation and I remind the participants please put the name of the speaker to whom you address your questions and now I invite the second speaker miss Ludmila Varatynceva from National Scientific Center Institute for Soil Science and Agrochemistry Research named after Sokolovsky from Ukraine you are welcome and the floor is yours Seryozha can you see my presentation yes please make a full screen okay now it's okay thank you good morning good afternoon good evening I am Ludmila Varatynceva I am from Ukraine Institute for Soil Science and Agrochemistry Research named after Sokolovsky soil is soil is one of nature's most complex ecosystems and one of the most diverse habitats on earth soil biodiversity plays an important role in the function of ecosystems and the provision of services providing regulating sapatin one second could you please remove the photos of the of the participants because they cover your presentation can you see no we can see the the videos of all the participants maybe you can choose one just the presenter mode if needed I can share instead of you oh okay okay you need to stop sharing the presentation Ludmila please stop sharing so you just say the next slide okay next next and please give me instructions to move to the next slide macroorganisms are very sensitive to changes of environmental factors therefore the number of microflora and the activity of microbiological processes can be diagnostic indicators of estimation of soil properties transformation next next slide irrigation is one of the powerful anthropogenic factors it leads to the restructuring of the ancient soil ecosystem changes or the number and ratio of different groups of microflora the nature and orientation of biochemical processes the aim of the researchers was to determine the change in the microbiological community of chinozome ordinary in irrigation by water of various quality next slide the researchers were conducted in the step zone of Ukraine where most of the irrigated lands are located the objects of the researchers were the irrigated and agro landscapes of the next region irrigated lands 50 years have been used in irrigated agriculture next slide Slavyansk, for irrigation unsalted waters are used of national classification it classifies as a suitable for irrigation on agronomic and ecological criterias marine gestational soils are long irrigated by saline water they are estimated as unsuitable for irrigation but given the lack of unsalted waters in this region they are used for irrigation irrigated soils is ordinary chinozome soil samples for microbiological researches were taken from 0.25 centimeter layer the object's cooperation were similar not irrigated soils next we determined the number of soil macro agronymes biologin to basic ecological trophic taxonomical and physiological groups organic nitrogen assimilating bacteria mineral nitrogen uterine bacteria actinomycetes fungi alliotrophic macro agronymes and air atrophs the main methods were field analytical and statistical for soil quality estimation we also used the level of provision of ecosystem services next in the next slide we can see the characteristics of the quality of irrigation water in Slavyansk, for irrigation used unsalted waters the mineralization of water is 0.1 gram per cubic decimeter pH is 7.5 in marine gestational used salted water with mineralization 3.2 gram per cubic decimeter pH water was 8.1 next our researchers showed the quality of irrigation water influences upon directivity of soil processes and evolution of soil in the soil of Slavyansk, in conditions of long irrigation by unsalted water the number of organic nitrogen assimilating bacteria changed in significant comparator to non-irrigating soil at the level of the least significant difference differences between the total number of macro agronymes assimilated mineral nitrogen in the irrigated soil of this Satyanar experimental site and non-irrigated soil have not been established however due to irrigation the number of bacteria increased and actinomycetes decreased the number of oligotrophs decreased the total number of macro agronymes decreased on 12 percent the mineralization index in the soil increased in the soil of marine castatyanar the number of all groups of macro agronymes except fungi in irrigated soil for 20 years was significantly lower than non-irrigated next summary biological index in irrigation by Salina water decreased to 65 percent this indicates about a low level on the functional activity of my microbial community long irrigation of Chernozium ordinary caused a moderate degradation degree biological degradation index was 35 percent toxicose in is due to the assimilation of farmhold toxins in the soil next microbiological indicators are an important indicator of soil health we also used it's for estimation the level of suppotive and provision ecosystem services of the studied soils next soil quality was assessed by 10 indicators they are shown on the slide 11 and 12 next next the irrigated and non-irrigated soils of Salina Satyanar and non-irrigated soil of the marine castatyanar were characterized by a high level of ecosystem services the irrigated soil of the marine castatyanar and was characterized by middle level one of the limited factors is the low microbiological activity of the soil next next the results of estimation of the ecosystem services level provided by Chernozium ordinary are the basis for making designs of the their rational using and elaboration the complex adapted message for maleration and improvement of their condition next macroorganisms are very sensitive to changes of ecological factors before the number and composition of microflora can be diagnostic indicators for estimation the transformation of soil properties thank you for your attention thank you Ludmila you were strict in time and now I invite the next speaker who is mr Felix Felix district the trick and so in telebrune from trier university from Germany you are welcome thank you very much for the introduction I will just start to share my screen which should be visible right now yes okay perfect so thank you very much again and hello to all of you my name is Felix Dietrich and I'm a phd student involved in the diver farming project which is currently running across Europe several field experiments are aiming on increase the crop diversity on the farm scale or on the plot scale with the aim to assess the potential of diversification measures to increase the resilience of agricultural farms and also to protect the agricultural science and for sure also in turn to maintain the soil life so in the upcoming slides I will just present you some preliminary results on a system where we introduced aromatic plants to a wine yard so we are in a perennial agricultural system and in order to give you an idea why this become or why this might be relevant I just share some information on the background on the local background so we are in the in a sloping landscape in the Mosul area in the western part of Germany and the tradition of viticulture dates back to the roman empire and the soils on which those grape wines are cultivated are heavily inclined and dominated by a really dry and hot pedo climate during the crop cycle and luckily this driving lane which which you see here in this picture is increasingly greened or probably be properly vegetated by the wine growers but however the area underneath the grape wines is still most commonly kept free of vegetation in order to combat competition and to combat also fungal disease which is then provoking risk of soil erosion loss of soil organic matter and of for sure also for soil habitats so in order to to combat this problem we propose or our idea was to to actually actively vegetate this area directly underneath the grape wines in order to overcome this problem and also to to create somehow a win-win situation for the farmers that or for the wine growers that they that they adapt also this kind of technique and also on the on the other hand to somehow to conserve and to preserve the soils where they are so on the left hand side here on the top you see the grape wine intercropping or also called mixed cultivation with thymus vulgaris and on the right hand side you see oregano vulgaris which is properly now covering the soil after three years of after three years of implementing those herbs to the wine yard and our idea was that those plant specific traits of those herbs appear really suitable to combine agronomic advantage with conservational points such as structural diversity there is a flowering provision and also the roots provide food and habitat for soil biota so what we did is we introduced those aromatic plants in april 2018 by hand and to a commercial wine yard which you can see here on the right hand side in the mussel area between Trier and Luxembourg and we diversified several rows of this wine yard plot with either thym or oregano and the control the regular mechanical tillage which is usually conducted in the wine yards serves as a control and from the beginning on of the experiment we also started to monitor different environmental but also soil related parameters and focusing or related with regard to soil biota we have a strong focus on microbial processes community structure and activity and but measure also the earthworm abundance and the abundance of above ground insect diversity so thinking or imagine of possible impacts that might affect the biota in the soil or above ground leads us or led us to two to the identification of two really key elements of the system which is the resource availability by for example root growth and root exodation as well as litter fall of above ground biomass and as well the reduced mechanical disturbance of this diversified wine soil habitat is from our point impacting the effects or impacting soil life so to put probably to put these words with resource availability and less mechanical disturbance in the words from Felipe Pacini during his really inspiring talk on Monday we provide with this system more food and more shelter for soil life and what we saw when we when we started to monitor that there was a beginning in soil organic matter a beginning decline which was most likely attributable to the soil preparation prior to the planting of the of the plants of the aromatic plants however this leveled off over the time of the experiment and as the herbs established over time they they contributed by loot root litter and above ground litter fall now to a slightly increased sorry increased soil organic matter content a secondary process or mechanism that I have not been thinking about before I have seen it in the wine yard is that those aromatic plants also act as a physical barrier to retain the dropped grape wine leaves during winter which is an additional input of organic matter and I estimated an additional input of up to one ton dry mass of leaves per hectare that are retained in those diversified rows so this is from my point of view a view a really clear picture that that resource availability increased over time and is expecting to to be to increase even more so how do the earthworms respond to this actually the wine yard is as I said in the beginning a really harsh environment for the for the earthworms as the pedoclimat is dominated by really dry and hot conditions during summer so when we when I went to the wine yard and tried to collect the earthworms it was only possible during winter and during the last winter I also found an increased abundance and an increased earthworm biomass underneath the diversification plants which is strongly dominated the earthworm community by aborecto dea kali genosa so coming now to to the microbial part of of this of this work is you see on the top left you see this really long unit on the y-axis which says it's co2c per milligram of microbial c which is also referred to as the respiration to biomass ratio and it is important to know that the decrease of this ratio indicates an increased carbon use efficiency of the microbial community and this also might be responsible for an for a long-term buildup of soil organic matter as the carbon that is available to microbes is not directly respired to the atmosphere again when it comes to to nitrogen we have a slight we have observed a slight slowdown of the nitrogen transformation in the field for example here we have the potential nitrification or also enzymes activities that are associated with nitrogen transformation and we found slight slight decreases under under the herbal treatments and this differentiated response of carbon and nitrogen associated microbes might be might be originating from the terpenes the plant secondary metabolites that are produced by the aromatic plants and some of those terpenes might be used by by a part of the microbial community but might be also toxic to another part so this is at least at at the time right now my assumption that the microbial community associated with those functions in the soil responds quite different differentiated to to this cultivation with aromatic plants so coming now to the to the fungal associations or to the fungal players in the soil the fungi are kind of my favorites


Section 24 of the Iliad for Boys and Girls This is a LibriVox recording, or LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Read by Lizzie Driver. The Iliad for Boys and Girls by Alfred J. Church. The Slaying of Hector King Priam stood on a tower of the wall and saw how Achilles was driving the men of Troy before him, and his heart was much troubled within him, thinking how he could help his people. So he went down and spoke to those he kept the gates. Keep now the wicked gates open, holding them in your hand, that the people may enter by them, for they are flying before Achilles. So the keepers held the wicked gates in their hands, and the people made haste to come in. They were wearied with toil and consumed with thirst, and Achilles followed close after them. And the Greeks would have taken the city of Troy that hour, but that Apollo saved it. For the gates being open, they could enter with the Trojans, whereas the gates being shut, the people were left to perish. And the way in which he saved the city was this. He put courage into the heart of Agnor, son of Antonor, standing also by him, that he should not be slain. Agnor therefore stood thinking to himself, Shall I flee with these others?  Or shall I flee across the plain to Mount Ida, and hide myself in the thicket, and come back to the city when it is dark? But if he see me, he will pursue me and overtake me. Shall I not rather stand here and meet him before the gates? For he too is a mortal man, and may be slain by the spear. Therefore he stood by the gates, waiting for Achilles, for Apollo had given him courage. And when Achilles came near, Agnor cast his spear, and struck his leg beneath the knee. But the grieve turned the spear so strong was it, having been made by a god. But when Achilles rushed at him to slay him, Apollo lifted him up from the ground, and set him safe within the walls. And that the men of Troy might have time to enter. The god took Agnor's shape, and fled before Achilles, and Achilles pursued him. Meanwhile the Trojans flocked into the city, through the wicked gates. Nor did they stay to ask who was safe and who was dead. So great was their fear and such their haste. Only Hector remained outside the city, in front of the great gates, which were called the Cecian gates. All the while Achilles was fiercely pursuing the false Agnor. Till at last Apollo turned and spoke to him. Why do you perceive me swift-footed Achilles?   Achilles answered him in great anger. You have done me a great wrong in this. Surely of all the gods you are the one who loves mischief the most. If it had not been for this many Trojans, more would have fallen. But you have saved your favourites and robbed me of great glory. Oh, that I could take vengeance on you. Truly you would have paid dearly for your cheat. Then he turned and ran towards the city, swift as a race-horse, when it wells a chariot across the plains, and his armour shone upon him as bright as a Ryan, which men also call the dog, shines in the autumn, when the vintage is gathered, and evil light bring in fevers to men. Old Primes saw him and groaned aloud, and stretched out his hands crying to hector his son, where he stood before the gates, waiting to fight with this terrible warrior.  I would that the gods had such love for him as I have. Soon would he be food for dogs and vultures. Of many sons he has bereaved me, but if he should bereave me of you, then would not I only end the mother who bore you mourn, but every man and woman in Troy. Come within these walls, my dear son. Come, for you are the hope of the city. Come, lest an evil fate come upon me in my old age, that I should see my son slain with the sword, and my daughters carried into captivity, and the babes dashed upon the ground. So spoke Old Priam, but he could not move the heart of his son. Then from the other side of the wall his mother, Queen Hecuba, cried to him. She wept aloud, and hoping that she might so persuade him, she laid bare her bosom, saying, Oh, hector my son, have pity on me. Think of the breast which in old days I gave you when you were hungry and stilled you're crying. Come, I beseech you, inside the walls, and do not wait for him, or stand up in battle against him.  But her prayers were in vain, for he was still minded to await the coming of Achilles, and stand up to him in battle. And as he waited, many thoughts passed through his mind. Oh, is me, if I go within the walls. Will not they reproach me, who gave me good advice which I would not hear, so that I should bring the people within the walls when the great Achilles roused himself to the battle? Would that I had done this thing? It had been far better for us. But now I have destroyed the people. I fear the sons and daughters of Troy, lest they should say. Hector trusted in his strength, and he has brought the people whom he should have saved to harm. It would be far better for me to stay here and meet the great Achilles, and either slay him, or, if it must be so, be slain by him. Or shall I lay down my shield and take off my helmet, and lean my spear against the wall, and go meet him and say, We will give back the fair Helen and all the riches which Paris carried off with her. Also we will give all the precious things that there are in the city, that the Greeks may divide among themselves, taking an oath that we are keeping nothing back, if only you will leave us in peace. But this is idle talk. He will have neither shame nor pity, and will slay me as I stand, without defence before him. No, it is better far to meet in arms, and see whether Zeus will give the victory to him or to me. These were the things which Hector thought in his heart. And Achilles came near, shaking over his right shoulder the great Pilean spear. And the flashing of his arms were like to fire or to the sun when it rises. But Hector trembled when he saw them, and his heart failed him so that he turned his back and fled. Fast he fled from the place where he stood, by the great's seeing-gate. And fast did Achilles pursue him. Just as a hawk, which is more swift than all other birds, pursues a dove among the hills. The two ran past the watchtower and past the wild fig tree, along the wagon-road which ran round the walls, till they came to the springs from which the river rises. Two springs there were, one hot as though it had been heated with fire, and the other cold, cold as ice or snow, even in the summer. There were two basins of stone in which the daughters of Troy had been used to wash their garments. But that was in the old days, when there was peace, before the Greeks came to the land, past to the springs they ran. It was no race which men run for some prize, a sheep may be, or an oxhide shield. Rather, the prize was the life of Hector. So they ran round the city, and to the Trojans on the wall, and to the Greeks upon the plain looked on. And the gods looked on as they sat in their palace on the top of Olympus. And Zeus said, Now this is a piteous thing which I see. My heart is grieved for Hector, Hector who has never failed to honour me, and the other gods with sacrifice. See how the great Achilles is pursuing him? Come, let us take counsel together. Shall we save him from death, or shall we let him fall by the spear of Achilles? Athena said, What is this that you propose?  Do this, if you will, but the other gods do not approve. Then said Zeus, This is a thing that I hate, but be it as you will. All this time Hector still fled, and Achilles still pursued. Hector sought for shelter in the walls, and Achilles ever drove him towards the plain. Just as in a dream when one seems to fly and another seems to pursue, and the first cannot escape, neither can the second overtake. So these two ran. Yet Apollo helped Hector, giving strength to his knees. Else he had not held out against Achilles, then whom there was no faster runner among the sons of men. Three times did they run round the city. But when they came for the fourth time to the springs, Athena lighted from the air close to Achilles and said, This is your day of glory, for you shall slay Hector, though he be a mighty warrior. It is his doom to die, and Apollo himself shall not save him. Stand here and take breath, and I will make him meet you. So Achilles stood leaning on his spear. And Athena took the shape of Diphobus, and came near to Hector and said to him, My brother, Achilles presses you hard. But come, we too will stand up against him. Hector answered, O Diphobus, I have always loved you above all my brothers, and now I shall love you still more, for you only have come to my help while they remain within the walls. Then said Diphobus, March did my father and my mother and my comrades entreat me to stay within the walls. But I would not, for I could not bear to leave you alone. Come, therefore, let us fight this man together, and see whether he will carry our spoils to the ships, or we shall slay him here. Then Hector said to Achilles, Three times have you pursued me round the walls, and I dared not stand against you. But now I fear you no more. Only let us make this covenant. If Zeus gives me the victory to-day, I will give back your body to the Greeks, only I will keep your arms. Do you, therefore, promise to do the same with me? Achilles frowned at him, and said, Hector, talk not of covenants to me. Men and lions make no oaths to each other. Neither is there any agreement between wolves and sheep. Make no delay, let us fight together, that I may have vengeance for the blood of all my comrades, whom now has slain, and especially of Petrolicus, the man whom I loved beyond all others. Then he threw the great spear. But Hector saw it coming and avoided it, crouching down so that the spear flew over his head, and fixed itself in the ground. But Athena snatched it up and gave it back to Achilles. But this Hector did not see. Then said Hector to Achilles, You have missed your aim, Achilles. Now see whether I have not a truer aim. Then he cast his spear, and the aim indeed was true, for it struck upon the shield. It struck, but it bounded far away. Then he cried to Diphobus, Give me another spear. But lo! Diphobus was gone. Then he knew that his end was come, and he said to himself, The gods have brought my doom upon me. I thought that Diphobus was with me. But he is behind the walls. And this was better cheat, with which Athena cheated me. Nevertheless, if I must die, let me at least die in the doing of such a deed as men shall remember in the years to come. So he spoke, and drew his great sword, and rushed upon Achilles as an eagle rushes down from the clouds upon its prey.  For a moment he doubted whether he should drive it home, for the armour of Procholicus which Hector wore guarded him well. But a spot there was, where the stroke of spear or sword is deadliest, by the collarbone where the neck joins the shoulder. There he drove in the spear, and the point stood out behind the neck, and Hector fell in the dust.  But now you have fallen, and the dogs and vultures shall eat your flesh. But to him the Greeks will give honourable burial. But Hector said, his voice now growing faint, O Achilles, I entrust you, by all that you hold dear, to give my body to my father and mother, that they may duly bury it. Large ransoms will they pay of gold, and silver, and bronze. Speak not to me of ransom, said Achilles. Prime shall not buy thee back, no, not for your weight in gold. Then Hector said, I know you well, what manner of man you are, and that the heart in your breast is of iron. Only beware lest the anger of the gods come upon you for such deeds. In the days when Paris and Apollo shall slay you hard by these very gates. So speaking he died, and Achilles said, Die, dog, that you are, at my doom, I will meet when it shall please the gods to send it. Then did Achilles devise a cruel thing. He pierced the ankle bones of the dead man, and fastened the body with thongs of oxide to the chariot, and so dragged it to the ships. Now Andromachy knew nothing of what had come to pass. She sat in a house weaving a great mantel, embroidered with flowers. And she bade her maidens make ready the bath for Hector, when he should come back from the battle, knowing not that he would never need it any more. Then there rose a great wailing from the walls. And she rose up from her weaving and great haste, and dropped the shuttle from her hands and said to the maids, Come now, I must see what has happened, for I fear that some evil has come to the men of Troy. Every Hector is in danger, for he is always bold, and will fight in the front. Then she ran along the streets to the walls like a madwoman. And when she came to the walls she looked, and lo, the horses of Achilles would drag in the body of Hector to the ships. Then a sudden darkness came upon her, and she fell to the ground as though she were dead. End of the slaying of Hector. THE RANSOMING OF HECTOR The Greeks made a great mourning for Petrolicus, and paid due honours to him. The body of Hector was shamefully treated, for Achilles caused it to be dragged daily about the tomb of his friend. Then Zeus sent for Thetis, and said to her, Go to the camp, and bid your son give up the body of Hector for ransom. It angers me to see him do dishonour to the dead. So Thetis went to the tent of Achilles, and found him weeping softly for his friend, for the strength of his sorrow was now spent. And she said to him, It is the will of Zeus that you give up the body of Hector for ransom. And he said, Let it be so, if the gods will have it.  Iris said to him, Be of good cheer, I come from Zeus. He bids you take precious gifts we're with to buy back the body of Hector from Achilles. Nor will Achilles refuse to give it up. So Priam rose from his place, with gladness in his heart. Nor would he listen to the Queen, when she would have kept him back. I have heard the voice of the messenger of Zeus, and I will go. And if I die, what do I care?  Then he caused precious things to be put into a wagon. Mantles which had never been washed, and rugs and cloaks, twelve of each, and ten talants of gold, and cauldrons and basins, and a great cup of gold which the Thracians had given him. Nothing of his treasures did he spare, if only he might buy back his son. Then he bade his sons yoke the meals to the wagon. With many bitter words did he speak to them. They were cowards, he said, an evil brood, speakers of lying words, and mighty only to drink wine. But they did not answer him. Then Priam himself yoked the horses to the chariot, the herald helping. But before he went he poured out wine to Zeus, and prayed, saying, Hear me, O Father, and cause Achilles to pity me, and give me also a lucky sign that I may go on this business with a good heart. So Zeus sent an eagle, a mighty bird, and it flew with wings outstretched over the city, on the right hand of the king. Then the king passed out of the gates. Before him the mules drew the wagon, these the herald drove. But Priam himself drove his horses. Then Zeus said to Hermes, Go, guide the king, so that none of the Greeks may see him before he comes to the tent of Achilles. So Hermes fastened to his feet the winged saddles, with which he flies. And he flew till he came to the plain of Troy. And when the wagon and the chariot were close to the tomb of Illas, the herald spied a man, for Hermes had taken the shape of a man, and said to the king, What shall we do? I see a man. Shall we flee? Or shall we beg him to have mercy on us? And the king was greatly troubled. But Hermes came near and said, Where do you go in the darkness with these horses and mules? Have you no fear of the Greeks? If anyone should spy all this wealth, watch then. You are old, and could scarcely defend yourselves. But be of good cheer. I will protect you, for you are like to my own dear father. Priam answered, Happy is he to have such a son. Surely the gods are with me, that I have met such a one as you. Then said Hermes, Tell me true, are you sending away these treasures for safekeeping, fearing that the city will be taken now that Hector is dead? Priam answered, Who are you that you speak of Hector? Hermes said, I am a mermidon, one of the people of Achilles, and often I have seen your son in the front of the battle. Then the king asked him, Is the body of Hector yet whole, or have the dogs and the vultures devoured it? Hermes answered, It is whole and without blemish, as fresh as when he died. Surely the gods love him, even though he be dead. Then King Priam would have had the young man take a gift. But Hermes said, I will take no gift unknown to my master, so to do would be wrong to him, but I will guide you to his tent, if you would go thither. So he leapt into the chariot and took the reins. And when they came to the trench where the sentinels were at their meal, Hermes caused a deep sleep to fall on them. And he opened the gate and brought in the king with his treasures. And when they were at the tent of Achilles, the young man said, I am Hermes, whom Father Zeus sent to be your guide.  And he vanished out of his sight. Then Priam went to the tent, where Achilles, who had just ended his meal, sat at the table, and caught his knees and kissed his hands, yea, the very hands which had slain so many of his sons. He said, have pity on me, O Achilles, thinking of your own father. He is old as I am, yet it goes well with him, so long as he knows that you are alive, for he hopes to see you coming back from the land of Troy. But as for me, I am altogether miserable. Many sons have I lost, and now the best of them all is dead. And, lo, I kiss the hands which slew him. Then the heart of Achilles was moved with pity, and he wept, thinking now of his own father, and now of the dead Petrolicus.  Surely you must have a heart of iron. But come, sit, and eat, and drink, for this a man must do, for all the sorrows that come upon him.  Rather, take the gifts which I have brought, with which to ransom him. But Achilles frowned and said, Fex me not. I am minded to give back the body of Hector, but let me go my own way. Then Prime held his peace, for he feared to rouse the anger of Achilles. Then Achilles went forth from the tent, and two companions with him. First they took the gifts from the wagon. Only they left two cloaks, and a tunic were with to cover the dead. And Achilles bathed the women to wash and anoint the body. Only that they should do this apart from the tent. Lest Prime should see his son, and lament aloud when the body was washed and anointed. Achilles himself lifted it in his arms, and put it on a litter. And his comrades put the litter in the wagon. When all was finished, Achilles groaned and cried to his dead friend, saying, Be not angry Opetrolicus, that I have given the body of Hector to his father. He has given a noble ransom, and of this you shall have your share as his met. Then he went back to his tent, and said, Your son, old man, is ransomed, and to-morrow shall you see him, and take him back to Troy. But now let us eat and drink. And this they did. But when this had ended, they sat and looked at each other. And Achilles wandered at King Priam, so noble was he to behold. And Priam wandered to see how strong and how fair was Achilles. King Priam said, Let me sleep, Achilles, for I have not slept since my son was slain. So they made up for him a bed, but not in the tent, lest perhaps one of the chiefs should come in and see him. But before he slept the King said, Let there be a truce for nine days between the Greeks and the Trojans, that we may bury Hector. And Achilles said, It shall be so, I will stay the war for so long. But when the King slept, Hermes came again to him and said, Do you sleep among your enemies, O Priam? Awake and depart. For although Achilles has taken ransom for Hector, what would not your sons have to pay for you if the Greeks should find you in the camp? Then the old man rose up, and the wise herald yoked the mules to the wagon and the horses to the chariot. And they passed through the camp of the Greeks, no man knowing, and came safe to the city of Troj. On the ninth day the King and his people made a great burying for Hector, such as had never been seen in the land of Troj. The end of Troj. After these things came Memnon, a black warrior who said he was the son of Morning. He slew Antelokkas, son of Nestor, and was himself slain by Achilles. Not many days afterwards Achilles himself was slain by the Sassian gates. It was by an arrow from the bow of Paris that he was killed. But the arrow was guided by Apollo. Yet Troj was not taken. Then Hellenus the seer, having been taken prisoner by Ulysses, said, You cannot take the city till you bring the man who has the arrows of Hercules. So they fetched the man, and he killed many Trojans with the arrows, and among them Paris, who was the cause of all this trouble. Last of all the Greeks devised this plan. Some of the bravest of the chiefs hid themselves in a great horse of wood, and the rest made a pretense of going away, but went no further than till an island hard by, and when the Trojans had dragged the horse into the city, thinking it was an offering to the gods of the city. Achilles let themselves out of it by night, and the other Greeks, having come back, took the city in the tenth year from the beginning of the siege. End of section 25. End of the Iliad for Boys and Girls by Alfred J. Church.


Hi my name is Jeff Watts and welcome to another of my top 10 tips videos. This one is about splitting user stories How do we split user stories is the question I get asked a lot But before we get into that just a quick mention about one really interesting point And that is that you don't have to use user stories. I Know right groundbreaking stuff But a lot of teams actually only use user stories because they think that's what you do if you're an agile team Now I know a lot of teams that get a lot of value from them because they're a really useful technique But don't use them just because you think you have to And even if you do end up using user stories not everything on your backlog needs to be a user story There I've said it But let's just say that you are gonna use user stories for argument's sake One of the biggest challenges that you'll likely face most teams do is how to break them down into small enough chunks That they can deliver within a sprint and get something valuable at the end of it And there are lots of useful techniques out there that you can Google To find out ways of making things smaller and I'm gonna give you my own tips for that But just before we get into that there are two traps that people often fall into we use as stories And I just want to mention those first One is extending the sprint don't just extend the sprint so that you can fit the user story in It's it's an easy way out, but it doesn't actually solve the problem It extends the overall cycle time of actually getting something done Rather than working out how to break this the functionality down into bite-sized chunks And the second thing to try and avoid is splitting a user story by the stages of the life cycle So don't be tempted to just do the design of the user story in this sprint And do the testing in a couple of sprints time That's completely getting away from the point of scrum and ultimately is extending the sprint So assuming you can avoid those traps What are my top 10 tips for splitting stories into small enough increments of valuable delivery? So tip 10 is believe that it's possible to break it down into smaller chunks A lot of the places that I go they assume that actually what they've got is the best that they can possibly achieve that it can't get any smaller But actually someone someone coming in from outside perhaps myself who has no knowledge of their domain No knowledge of their habits their preconceptions And and what's normal for them can actually help them break things down into smaller chunks than they believe was possible Quite often by asking a really silly or naive question So the first tip is just to believe it's possible and once you've done that Then you can start applying some of these next nine techniques with greater effectiveness And it just so happens that the next nine of my tips spell out the word Possibles you see what I did there? Yes So tip nine Obviously begins with the letter p And tip nine is personas So what is a persona? Well a persona is a biography really of one of our potential or maybe even our actual users And it will tell us a little bit about them about their motivations for using the product Perhaps their history with using products like ours or even our product itself Uh, their knowledge of the domain their technical proficiency Their personality traits anything that will help us understand how they're going to use our product and why And there are no products out there where there's only one type of persona and Each feature has the potential of being valuable to more than one persona So if we focus on one of those personas first, we have the opportunity to break down this story Into something smaller and satisfying the needs of one of our personas before another and the rest of them So first stop Spit our stories by personas Tip eight is operations So what do I mean by operations? I'm not talking about surgery here Instead I'm talking about all the different ways that we could actually interact an operational level with our functionality So if I had a huge user story around account management I could break that down into or I can create my account That's one way of operating the account management feature. I could read that Account that I've created I could read data from it I could then update my details on this account and I could also delete the account Those are four different operational ways that I could interact with this this big user story So I could split it along those lines Now create read update delete. That's a very common set of operational functional activities And it's known as crud CRUD But there are many other ways that you can interact Operationally thinking about the different operations that people can perform Within the functional area that our user story is defining Will open ways for us to break our stories down into smaller valuable chunks Tip seven and the first s in my possibles acronym is simplicity Now on the face of it This is one of the most obvious ways of splitting our user stories by focusing on the simplest thing that would possibly work It's even in the agile manifesto But simplicity isn't as easy as it might seem as human beings We tend to be drawn towards the more complicated rather than the more simple It's almost like an insult to our intelligence to deliver the simplest thing that would possibly work But we need to if we've got any chance of getting any value We need to focus on the simplest thing that would possibly work And we need to start asking ourselves the question of what is less than necessary To avoid gold plating our solutions Notice I said less than necessary that doesn't mean unnecessary just means not quite needed yet So thinking about that and simplifying stripping it back and then once we've stripped it back Challenge ourselves and ask other people to challenge us to strip it back even more Make it simple to make them small My second s and tip six is sequence Now just like our assumptions in other aspects can cause us problems Assumptions in the logical order of doing things and completing functionality can get in the way of us delivering value sooner If we have a logical order a rational sense of how we should do things Then we follow that flow without really challenging it or without really questioning it For example, it may make logical sense for me to be able to log in To my account before I can buy something But actually if you think about it Do I really need to be logged in before I can add something to my card and then purchase it? Well, perhaps I don't but if I follow the logical order of things Then I'm going to be getting something not valuable log in functionality or certainly less valuable And then later on I'll get the valuable functionality of being able to buy something Shifting the order in which we do things might seem a little counter-intuitive But it allows us to get at our value and possibly mitigate our risk early So cutting out the logical order of doing something can remove some dependencies Reduce the size of our overall user story and allow us to get some value sooner Tip five is input and this is looking at all the different ways that we can gather input from our users This might start out with, for example, a really simple basic freeform text field with no validation Just get something into our system so that we can then start using that data or they can start using the next piece of functionality That will probably evolve in the future to adding some validation to that text to make sure that it's not junk That it can be filtered, that it can find its appropriate place in the database and that the data is useful But we don't need that right now And that might go even further to then integrating a third party data feed But the complexity of adding that in from the start could delay our ability to get any use and any value straight away So delay that and just think about the easiest way of gathering input from our users Tip four is business rules Once we've got some data, there are many different ways that we can use that data And many different pieces of business functionality that we can satisfy So stripping it back finding out which of those business rules are more important than others Perhaps easier to satisfy and then focusing on them one at a time will allow us to realize value more incrementally So for example, these business rules could start off with a simple version of selecting a date between x and y Then we might iterate on that and add extra functionality by adding some kind of filter Saying select any dates that match these criteria a little bit more complicated But we don't need that to start with so let's put it off until the next iteration And then we could expand on that in the future Tip three is levels Now with levels we're starting to look at our non-functionals So this could include things like security Or performance or speed or perhaps even the number of browsers that we're compatible with Now we don't need to be fully resilient and fully secure and fully speedy straight away So stripping back how non-functional we are Will allow us to slice our user stories into smaller increments of value Tip two and my penultimate tip is effort Now this is quite tightly linked to simplicity from earlier and as a product owner just getting the opinion of other people And most importantly the development team in terms of the options that are available to us in terms of how we could solve the problem Looking at the simplest way the easiest way the least effort way of solving the problem of the options available to us Will allow us to solve problems and get valued delivered sooner So look at how we can get this done in a least effort way possible And my final tip that finished off my acronym of possibles is spike So what is a spike? It's a funny term that not everybody will be familiar with But a spike is an opportunity for the team to actually look at the user story in a different way And start to work out what's gone into creating that user story and what's behind the functionality It's an opportunity to explore To prototype to research to de-risk Some way of reducing the uncertainty around this feature If you bear in mind when teams estimate something on their product backlog such as a user story They're bearing in mind the number of different factors They're bearing in mind the actual complexity of getting the functionality done. They're bearing in mind dependencies They're bearing in mind the full life cycle of the development. It's not just about coding. There's there's design as analysis There's testing there's all sorts of aspects in there. There's also The factor of experience have they done this before if they're familiar with it It'll be a little bit easier and the estimate will be lower There are also some unknowns and the more unknowns there are the bigger the estimate So if there's a spike you can reduce some of those unknowns by learning perhaps prototyping experimenting Then you're reducing the size of your user story Are you getting any value? Well, you're potentially not getting something potentially deployable But you are getting some learning and there is value in that So a quick summary once you've avoided the traps of extending the sprint And splitting user stories by horizontal functional silos rather than small vertical slices of value and functionality Then you can start by thinking that things are possible And once you remind yourself that it's possible You can start thinking about how you could split this user story by persona And the operations with which they're going to interact with our product Focusing on the simplest way of doing something and getting some value Stripping it right back and challenging our assumptions about the sequence in which we must do things So that we can remove any dependencies Then we can start thinking about the inputs and the ways that we gather information and input from our users Then which business rules our functionality can satisfy And focusing on the highest priority or the smallest to do Then we can start looking at the levels of non-functionality that we're applying to our user stories Before looking at effort involved and possibly spiking things out Well, that's my top 10 tips for splitting user stories. I hope they were useful There are plenty more out there. So please add your ideas for how to split stories in the comments field If you're enjoying these videos and getting value from them Then please do like them give them a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel And if you want me to focus on something else Let me know what topic you're interested in in the comments field and I'll do my best to make a video for you Apart from that, that's it. We're done. So I'll see you later


This is the animation minute Welcome back to animation minute. And as always let's start with jobs. Here's a senior gameplay animated position We have a senior animator position here Animator position a Oculus VR has a principal animator position. Hey lon has a senior finals animator position Technical animated job posting here. Manticore games has jobs and let's switch over to animation here It's an aggressively squishy squashy cartoon bling. I love it. Here's a cool shot I love it. Actually it's multiple shots. I showed this off to my students It's a great example of body mechanics and camera work and everything and if you keep watching you will see the breakdown So make sure to watch the whole thing. It's super cool. Pass all the way down to a final I'll play. Speaking of super cool. That's neat I always big fan of Godzilla work and then we got BAM in your face. This is a fantastic shot I love that surprise moment and you're wondering what's going on. There it is such a great Sequence. I love it so much. This is super cool Reloading animation. I'm always very satisfying to see but what's happening with this year's great. Love that Kenny Riggs has a lot of great props. This is to showcase the backpack great shot Cool presentation too as it says here take two minutes of your time and watch Dreaming good times It's super cute sticking with 2d. That's a cool transition and here's another one wait for it That's cool. I like it Look at that So cool can never get over to the animation continuing with it Love all that representation. Love the character designs. It's very cool fortnight and turtles. This is 30 seconds long It's awesome from beginning to the end to make sure they check out the full thing speak of trailers Here's a quiet place day one. I'm not gonna spell too much go watch it. I love the first one I love working on it. It was great. I'm glad they're making more speak of trailers Here's the kingdom of the plan of the apes and I would love for it to Kind of ends the way the trial and test movie starts But anyway, go watch the trailer lots of cool imagery as you can see here So you go to 2d. This is great.  I love that. Let's bring this up here. So I believe I had this before in a minute It's so cool. I still love it. Stick with 2d Batman Never go wrong Love all these very moody bring back to mech stuff in 3d this time But this is made substance modern VR super cool to look into that one switching over to Documentaries why switching over because there's one that's for the making of the last of us part 2 and use number 2 Harvey Newman is saying that they are documenting their journey in terms of making games at Proxima Super cool can't wait to see that and he's a returning to Monkey Island documentary definitely gonna watch out That's on my watch later list of long list This is kind of neat. Did you know it's kind of the process of thinking in terms of analog and digital? It's kind of interesting presentation that Is bonkers definitely animation reference in slow-mo that must hurt But especially the extra slow motion the amount of detail and the stuff that happens watch the nose I'm gonna keep playing this and not switch over to the next news bit But keep going keep going there is a crazy amount of deformation and bends and the nose here Anyway, we are switching quickly to VR VR chat is running on the Apple vision Pro This is not official This is not a mod just yet that you can just go and get but I'm always interested in improvements and Additions to the Apple vision Pro. This is cool, too Very interesting to see if you go back and forth you can see the flexing of the muscles That's cool and just a little quick news thing if you are suffered to crunch your role It's shutting down the Funimation streaming service and deleting Everyone's purchase copies of stuff always a reminder that you don't really own things which is sad gameplay that looks absolutely up my alley I love that love the look that's cool and continue with games death wish enforces check it out on Steam this is a mature 17 plus game, but the trailer is awesome. This is just my childhood of I mean maybe not that rating But the gameplay is great. I love it. Make sure to check it out sticking with pixels and the Game Boy aesthetic So many memories of that green. I love that. That is super cool. I always love seeing Rough pass and a final pass great love that. This is super cool So fluid the props are great and last but not least. This is great simple yet. Awesome Great flow great arcs, you know, I'm always gonna end it with pixel art and that's it for this week You will see animation minute on my channel every week on Mondays


Hi, this is Kristen Brooks live on the Green Carpet at the Stevenson Gala 2018 here with Nate Reynolds of the men's volleyball team Nate Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. So Nate actually was a co-rookie of the year this year So freshman and Nate, what was your freshman season like? Um, I have to say the freshman season first year was being it was really good. I loved it a lot Had great teammates great coaching staff. We did we had a really good season all around won the Mac That was that was great and then the NCAA tournament too being in that was also really really fun And it was the inaugural season for the Mac for men's volleyball, correct? Correct So was it new going in there and having to learn new opponents every single game? You didn't really have a whole scouting report on everyone. Um, I Yes, it was new, but we did get a scouting report every game Okay, so the coaches knew because some of the teams we play in the Mac had a team last year Okay, so they knew who they were but there were some new teams in the Mac this year. Awesome. Well, congratulations on that win Thank you Is there a game throughout this season that really sticks out to you as even a game that the team together pulled together? Or you specifically had a great game? um, I want to say The game against number three ranked Marymount that was that was a great game when we beat them in four we all Just came out played together Just played really good volleyball. Absolutely. How would you describe the dynamic of your team? um in the beginning of the year, I'd say we were not like We just didn't figure each other out like we all got along we just didn't know Didn't know each other well how to set each other But once once the season progressed we each got to know each other well how we played together just developed good chemistry That's awesome. I mean especially if you're hitting your stride at the end of the season. That's great Yes, we did and so lastly a freshman season.  That's impacted your freshman year or time at stephenson. Um, I want to give a shout out to my parents They they helped me a lot get get me here at stephenson I also want to give a shout out to my high school coach because ryan mcdowell He actually went here and played volleyball here. So he helped me a lot and he taught me volleyball So that's great. Well, thank you for being here tonight. I hope you enjoy the rest of the gala. Thanks for having me


My work here on YouTube is supported by viewers. Please take a look at the link in the description below and visit my page at 50th Street where you can become a sponsor. I had to take the time to give this book its own separate review because I just enjoyed it so much. Elizabeth Moon is an author whose name I've seen on the shelves for years at the grocery stores even and it's always been in association with military science fiction, military series specifically. I've always wondered what her writing is like. I've never picked them up specifically because what I'm seeing are series books and those are always intimidating to be your first pickup for an author that you're unfamiliar with. So when I saw this in a resale shop, I snapped it up immediately because I always feel that collections of short stories are the best introduction to an author who's new to you and this this was pure entertainment. Elizabeth Moon's writing style changes depending on what kind of story she's writing. I've never seen an author whose writing is so versatile in style-wise. There's a great deal of humor in this book. There's a great deal of pathos. One of the stories brought tears to my eyes that's difficult to get me to do that. There are a number of extremely well-written science fiction military stories. There's one in particular that was a World War I naval battle historical fiction, which I was not interested in partly because of the subject matter and partly again because of the style in which it was written. It was written in the style that was appropriate for that type of story. She has a series of stories that take place in a common universe with a group of a group of women called the ladies aid and armor society who they are a guild of women who are in the Kings Guard and stories about how they're hosting fundraising dances and things like that. Tremendously entertaining. I recommend this book with, I don't usually do stars, but if I did I would say five stars six stars. I've just been wondering since I picked it up why there's a painting of Talia Shire on the cover. Thank you for watching. Please subscribe to my channel here on youtube and please be sure to press that thumbs up button. That's how videos get recommended and seen and please take a look at the link in the description below and go to my 50th street page where you can become a sponsor.


Oh yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. All right, first up is our coming soon and before. Square display before you even ask yes. And of course it can exactly fit inside of a floppy drives. This is the first thing that people ask. So. It's a screen. Yeah. Three and a half inch. So. This is a coming soon. Sign up. We also are going to have a version without, but I've been slowly getting photos of all these cool screens as I get them working with our upcoming circuit Python RGB experimental board. I thought people could sign people like what's the link you can now sign up and when they come into stock. We'll have it available so you can mix and match them. People explore in person. Okay. And the start of today tonight besides you later to our team, our customers, our community, everyone out there who does open source and make this thing go together. Oh, it's our TFT shield reborn like Phoenix from the flames. This is one of the oldest boards that did not make it through COVID slash part shortages slash TFT pricing inflation. It's been a journey. So, you know, we redesigned this completely it's in the same size and pin out as the original, but we have updated the touchscreen controller. It used to be the STM PE 11 or 610 that got discontinued. So now it's the TSC 2007, which is a I scored C sensor. So in the back, you can see it says TSC 2007. We also added a stomach UT port because hey, you know, we like having those on there. It makes it easy to add sensors and devices as needed. We made the reset button where angle. We made the defaults for the TFT connection be through the ICS P header, the 2 by 3 header, not the pins, 10, 11, 12, 13, because a lot of people are using Arduino shape boards, but they're not literally in Arduino anymore.  And we got Arduino and circuit Python libraries already for this and I actually have it showing our little demo demo. I have it on the metro in a seven, which you get free with your order when you buy a bunch from a to fruit. So this is running circuit Python. So I will. I just probably confused the heck out of it because I just unplugged it. So let me reset it. It's like, why did you remove everything? Okay. So the circuit Python demo, I just have when I touch the screen, it looks on the SD card and it displays a different image. So beautiful full color images of flowers or tigers and so on so forth. I mean, it's an older product, but I'm really glad that we bought it back in stock. The price also dropped because we were able to manufacture it for a lot less. The screens, the screen pricing basically came back down to reasonable level. This is resistant. We also have a capacitive touch version of this, which did not go out of stock because enough of the components were available. So check it out. Does work with anything that is Arduino is shaped. I will also work with things that are mega or grand central shaped because it just uses the SPI connector and the two I squared C pins plus a few digital IO. And people often ask, well, what if you want to connect to other pins because it kind of uses all, you know, all the pins don't come through there. Soldered on. We have the windshield, which was co-designed by Todd Bot and JP or Adafruit hackers and friends. And they still get a cat every time we sell them. So pick up one of those and that will bring out all the GPIO if you want to connect more stuff to your screen. That's new products.


California there are earthquakes that are happening. Hello fellow sniffers my name is Jenna and I am Marlene's sister if you don't know me. If you're new to this channel we are a bird loving channel we promote engaged knot cage which means we engage our birds not keep them caged. This is gonna be a little bit of a rough video not cut as well as usually our videos are and this is because if you haven't heard in California there are earthquakes that are happening not right in Los Angeles but we're definitely feeling a magnitude of three and four and there is talk that they're gonna be stronger and there's gonna be more 50 percent chance that there's gonna be a six magnitude earthquake in the next seven days and 11% chance that it's gonna be a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in the next seven days as well. So that brings us to bird safety there's definitely a lot going around about how to keep yourself safe but our next priority is keeping our birds safe. There's not much on the internet so these are just things that tips more likely that could help during an earthquake and we're hoping that it doesn't happen first off but if it does happen these steps are going to prevent our birds from getting injured or harmed or too overwhelmed. So first thing that we have on our list is minimal objects in the cage obviously keep the food bowls and the waters in the cage but if there's a toy that swings too abruptly or it's big. So right now I'm pulling out this mirror toy that Jersey has in her cage because it's kind of bulky this could definitely be something that could hurt her another good thing is to take out the toy and check it out be like well maybe you know what this is too old now and besides the earthquake maybe it's time to replace it. So yeah I'm gonna remove these two toys and if there's any kind of toy that has long strings or ropes on it or something that they can easily get tangled in like a net we remove that in case they flap or their little nails get caught in it once the earthquake is over you want them to calm down you don't want them to realize like now I'm caught and I'm flapping around and I'm getting nervous because that could really scare them it's not fun for them especially since we have a few birds if that happened to three or four of them that that's gonna be chaotic for us right after an earthquake or even during an earthquake make sure your toys are good but also I think it is good to have one toy in case they need to chew on something right after just make sure it's not heavy doesn't have a lot of branches something they definitely can tear and not get caught on. The next thing is slows off all the walls of a cage so we have this thing here usually people have like a slider under here that we layer so if there's seeds or droppings on it you can change it but unfortunately on this cage right now we don't have it and a few of our cages we don't have them so what we're gonna do is layer something over it so if anything falls on it it's not going to touch the bird. What also we're gonna try to do is put a blanket over this as well so if something does fall again maybe it's not going to cause this very scary noise for them this will be protective. What we're gonna do is put a blanket over it because one it'll be a little bit more protective and then two hopefully it'll somehow catch the noise I don't even know if that makes sense but this is gonna be our experiment I mean still gonna do it but it's not gonna be as bad as it somewhat takes out the echo of it that's what we're gonna try to do right little Jersey this is for we have a few layers going this way and then a layer going that way and so we put it like this just so like it's not going to fly out it can catch into here it's not always going to fall yeah and this is like on the fly type stuff yeah this is not something that is proven to work this is not something I read online this is just my own thoughts that I thought would be helpful I think personally the safest place for a bird during an earthquake that is an earthquake I'm not saying any other natural disaster is the cage just because worried about movement better for her to hit the cage and hit something else or something falling on her because our cage is pretty sturdy you know it should hold them up honestly I should get in the cage you're going there with you so yeah if your cage is big enough you want to hop on in there with your bird be fun hi and then another thing is obviously have our bird cage covers that's going to keep any little particles coming in it's also going to keep it shaded and dark so everything's calm on that note maybe dim the lights around them put on some music if there's a way for you guys to have music on that's going to be very calming for your bird Vinny agrees with all of this as well also this is very important we're gonna move this cage we're moving Jersey's cage and Vinny's cage and probably majority of our birds cages them in an area where there's no windows because a lot of glass can shatter everywhere and that's unsafe not only for your birds and your pets but also for you so stay away from windows and we're gonna probably move Jersey's cage and other cages more central to the room so nothing comes on them or hurts them or flies in them or if they swallow something unfortunately these are very scary circumstances and I just want to plan for the worst rather than not the other thing is keep away from gas lines or you know where they are in your house best keep them away from the kitchen in any fireplaces that you may have for emergencies post earthquake make sure you have the cages like travel cages right next to them since we have so many birds I think what we're gonna do is have each of their travel cages right next to their cage so it's gonna be a simple out and then right back in tips for if your bird gets nervous maybe have a towel nearby if they're gonna bite you because they're a little bit nervous you can wrap it around your hand do a quick thing most birds tend to be very loving and scared in that moment so they'll want to step up and hopefully your bird does that for you make sure you have food and water somehow maybe get water bottles maybe get gallons of water together so you can put in your car and food where it's like okay I have two boxes full of food and you can put it in your truck you can put it in your car you can give it to a friend whatever you need to do and then I guess the most important thing number ten on our list is make sure you keep yourself safe because if you're not safe there is no one protecting your birds other than you so make sure you stand in the doorway that you need to stand in or you go outside any tips that you see online or maybe you're an experienced earthquakeer I'm sorry for that but use your knowledge and what you've learned and put down in your comments if you have been in an earthquake and you have had a bird knowledge is power so if we could be a community like we are on a parrot station Vinnie I am talking here yeah so on that note make sure you comment anything helpful maybe I forgot something and you want me to know that'd be so helpful maybe I forgot something and you want the rest of the world to know that's awesome shared on your Facebook shared on parrot station comment below and one last thing just be safe be on top of things better safe and sorry so we're gonna go ahead for the night we're gonna get our birds situated because it could happen in the middle of the night and if it does at least our birds are prepared hope this is helpful our videos are usually way more fun and entertaining than this so if this is your first time here please like comment follow give us a thumbs up anything of that sort would be really helpful and keep you informed of bird stuff and pet stuff everyone be safe love you bye