Hello everyone! Welcome to Jobs in Computer Science. We are so excited to talk to you today and let you know a little bit more about what it looks like at a startup and what it looks like at CESA, something that you are probably really familiar with. Maybe you even use it in your classroom. I'm Angela and I lead the community team here at CESA and basically what that means is I work with teachers all over the world and I help them get started with CESA and maybe I even work with your teacher too to give ideas and kind of just share some connections. But I was a kindergarten teacher for 15 years so special wave to all my kindergarten friends out there that are watching. We are so excited to have you here today and we are going to talk about a couple different things. We're going to see what it looks like at CESA. You're going to get to learn about different jobs that people have at CESA and you're going to use, not use, you're going to learn. Look at me. I'm so excited. I'm talking so fast. You're going to learn some words that engineers use every day when they're working at CESA and then at the very end we are going to take some time to answer your questions. So be thinking what questions might you want us to answer at the end. So now we're getting, I'm getting excited because you're going to get to meet some members of the CESA team. Some are sitting right next to me right here and this is Eric. Eric say hi. Tell us a little bit about you. Hi everyone. So I'm a software engineer at CESA and basically I work on the iPhone and iPad versions of CESA. So if you're using that in the classroom I've probably worked on it and pretty much my day looks like I get to work. I sit on the computer and basically try to make new features for the apps and also work on any problems that are arising on the app. Yeah. So he can fix, he can fix all sorts of problems too. And then we have Ari. Say hi. Hi everyone. I'm also a software engineer. So I work on making CESA on laptops. So if you're using CESA on a laptop I help make that work a lot. I used to be a college teacher which is a later school you might go to in the future. But I have some teaching experience and I really love it. I also love cats. I have a really cute cat at home for the door. My day is probably about half and half doing some stuff on the computer of making CESA and figuring out what shapes go where and what buttons go where and half talking to people and figuring out what we're doing and how we're doing and how everyone else on the team is working and making sure that everyone is able to do the stuff they're doing on and be happy. Lots of team work here. And then we have some other friends that are still at CESA. They're just in another room because we couldn't all fit in one spot. So hi Nikita. Hi everyone. So I'm Nikita like Eric and Ari. I'm also a software engineer. I primarily work on the Android app. So Eric was on iPhone. Aria was on tops and I work on Android. So my day consists of pretty much the same thing as Eric and Ari is. Definitely love to hang out with my CESA team and go to meetings and then also make the product that you guys use in your classroom better and better. And Meryl say hello. Meryl I lead our marketing team here at CESA and that means that I help people and teachers and parents etc find out more about CESA and how they can use it. Sometimes that means I send people emails or I write them letters. Sometimes we send them stuff in the mail like t-shirts and really just try to help people get the most out of CESA in their classroom. Thanks Meryl. So many great people working here. Now I want to give you a sneak peek inside CESA headquarters. So where we spend our day it's kind of fun to get to look behind the scenes. So CESA headquarters is in San Francisco and I normally work in Minnesota. So you can see that on the map too. So I'm kind of far away but I'm here visiting this week because I wanted to be here for the webinars and when you go into CESA this is the first thing you'll see. We have a little sign and then you walk in and you're going to see all kinds of people working at their desks. So you might have desks in your classroom or tables. That's just like CESA. We're kind of one big huge classroom and we don't, people don't have their own offices at CESA because we spend a lot of time working together. But I also wanted to show you this picture. You'll see Meryl in the picture but do you notice that we have backpacks or school bags that we bring to work too? So that might, you might have a connection with that as well as you're bringing your work to school too. This is our lunchroom and we actually call it the playground and this is where we would eat our lunch. This is also where we have big meetings with everyone in the company.  And then the other thing I wanted to show you is actually where we're sitting right now. We're sitting in some of these conference rooms and that's just a spot where you can go to have meetings with other people and do lots of talking and planning while other people can still do their work out in CESA kind of at their desk. So we're, I think right now we're in the one that's called Hopscotch and Meryl and Nikita are in the room called Capture the Flag. So all of our rooms actually have fun names like things you would do on the playground which makes sense with CESA right? So oh this one is our kitchen our little snack area because I'm sure at school you might have a snack or you might need to just make sure your brain is still awake and ready to work and learn. So at CESA we have a spot where we can get snacks to make sure we're energized and ready to continue on our day too just like you. We're going to look at some jobs at CESA. So here we go. So we have the co-founders of CESA and this is Carl and Adrian and they were the guys who thought of the idea of CESA. So they're kind of like the bosses of CESA really and then we have software engineers. Yeah so this is a team of software engineers that work on different parts of CESA to make sure that it can be used all over the world in classrooms and everyone can post their work. Lots of coding right? Yeah lots of coding. This is the product team and the product team works to figure out what features are we going to add to CESA what changes are we going to make. So if you see something new this year or next year that's an idea that the product team came up with. And then we have the operations team and I just want to let you know that's not like a doctor giving an operation. This is a team of teachers that help a team of people at CESA that help teachers answer their questions. They also make sure everything kind of works okay at CESA. So if someone's celebrating a birthday or if we need to order supplies or all sorts of jobs this this team handles that. Yes and so we talked a little bit about the marketing team. These are some of the folks on our team and we help people get the most out of CESA understand how to use it. We might send them emails or you know letters in the mail and we just have a lot of fun working with our teacher partners. This is more of our team and they are more focused on our community aspect. So they're focused on really building relationships with teachers, connecting with them online about the things that they're using CESA to do in the classroom. And this is our partnerships team. This team of folks talks to folks like your principal or the superintendent in your district to help them understand how they could set CESA up in all the classrooms in your school. So do you see that there are a lot of people that work at CESA? So we use teamwork every single day here. So in your classroom I bet today you're going to work together somehow and that's exactly you're already building some of the skills that you need for a job that you'll have maybe when you grow up. So keep working on that teamwork because we use it every single day at CESA. We're going to talk a little bit about some fancy engineering words that you know Eric and Nikita and Arya use every day and the first one is code. Yeah so code is a language that we use to talk to computers. So if any of you speak a different language at home maybe Spanish or Chinese possibly to your parents code is the language we use to talk to computers so that computers understand us. So it's sort of like giving commands to your dog except that your dog has a limited set of words. It can understand like sit but it doesn't understand go get me the paper. Right. So similarly we tell computers small commands to let it know how to make CESA. So it kind of looks like a lot of jumbled letters doesn't it. It does. Yeah so a bug and these aren't the bugs that you see outside or sometimes even inside. This is basically when the computer code isn't telling the computer exactly what we want it to do so it's not behaving how it should and is doing something wrong. Yeah so we have to fix it. Yeah so our engineers spend a lot of time fixing some bugs and Nikita what's this big word. So a crash is almost as scary as a real crash in real life it's when a bug gets so so bad that the app gets totally confused and doesn't know what to do and shuts off. So this is the worst kind of bug written by some very sad code that sometimes can make this happen where your app will break and it doesn't know what to do so it totally stops working. And we never want that to happen at CESA so we make sure that we write really really good code. So we're just going to go really quickly and say what we like to do when we were little because I know a lot of you out there maybe you're thinking oh my goodness what did they like to do. So when I was little about your age I love to do art and creating with all sorts of art projects. What about you Arya. I love to play with wooden trains. I just was fascinated with them and they were a lot of fun to put together and hook up. What about you Eric. I love to play with Legos so making different things. That's a good one. How about you Meryl. I loved to dance and I actually still love to dance. Any kind of dance ballet jazz hip hop. I loved it all. When I was little I really like to play with puzzles and games as well so I did a lot of that. Wonderful. Well now what we're going to do is take some questions from you the students. So I am going to play a little music for maybe about 30 seconds so that you have enough time to talk to your teacher to say what kind of question you would like to ask us. So make sure your teacher writes in the grade level that you are in and also where you live and then we'll answer a few questions before we have to go. Here we go. All right so I gave you a little bit of time and we have just a few minutes to go into some questions. I keep checking my timer because I know you have a busy day that you're going to enjoy at school. So the first question comes from Mr. Love second grade class in Michigan and he says how do we get prepared for jobs that don't even exist yet? So I don't know Arya do you have any advice? That's a really good question. That's hard. We're trying to figure out things that aren't here yet. But the things that are common to most jobs are you're going to be working closely with people and you're going to have to be developing your problem solving. Yes. So really focus on learning how to work well with others and learning how to solve problems so some of your math and science classes will get involved. Good great answer. Thanks for asking that. Then we have Ms. England's class and they're wondering what happens after a crash. Nikita you talked about a crash. Could you say what would happen after a crash? Yeah that's a great question. So we hear about the crash in a number of ways. Sometimes we find it ourselves. Sometimes you guys write into us and let us know that there's a crash. And then the engineering team gets together and works really hard as fast as possible to figure out what made that crash happen. What kind of code did we write that the computer got confused about? And once we figure that out we try to unconfuse the computer with some better code and we resolve that crash and hopefully make a new update for the app so it doesn't crash anymore. Thank you. So we have Ms. Garris's class that wants to know what do I have to do if I want to be a software engineer like you Eric. That's a good question. I would say it's never too young to start preparing to be a software engineer. So like Arya mentioned problem solving skills are super important and I would say like you can even get started coding. There's a lot of resources out there. And I'm not too sure if we put some out there but yeah. And so on our website the Seesaw coder site where your teacher signed up for this there's some great things there. So check that out. I want to give a couple shout outs. We've got so many classes here today and we can't answer everybody's question and I'm going to just say a couple names that I know are out there. So we have Ms. Robinson's class, Ms. Huff's class, Ms. Eglet's class, Ms. Emery's class, Ms. Alex's class. We have Ms. Stokes, Ms. Love, Mr. Hernandez. We've got all sorts of people joining in today. We have Ms. Hutchins class, Ms. Robinson, Ms. Bowens all sorts of classes. So we are so thankful that you came today and I know there's a lot more that we couldn't even give shout outs to today but we're so glad that you can join us and we have something special for you to try and it's creating a new Seesaw class icon. So this is actually kind of a contest where you can get this activity from your teacher. It's inside Seesaw so your teacher can find it in the activity library and it gives you a chance to draw and design a class icon. Then we're going to choose some of the best designs to inspire our next real class icon that you'll see in Seesaw. So I hope your teacher will share this with you so you can kind of have a chance to give some designing a try on your own. So you'll find that right inside Seesaw. So take a peek there and we want to say thank you so much for coming today. We are excited to share and learn with you and we can't wait to see what you create this week during Computer Science Education Week. Thanks everyone!


Hey, hello buddies. Thanks for watching. So this video is about when cross-posting goes wrong So It's no secret. I tell you guys that I cross-post. I Use list perfectly. I have a couple videos Sharing with you how I cross-post quickly using list perfectly. It's amazing. It's wonderful. I love it something happened to me last night and And I mean it happens it happens and sometimes you forget to take listings down okay From other platforms, which is no good. That's why I use the custom skew and I put On eBay the other platforms that I have the item listed on so I know to go in and take them down, okay? But this situation was a little different and I'm gonna tell you about it It's it's it's kind of funny and I think I haven't figured out what happened But the item I sold of course is a $10 item It's this little brooch It's like a pin brooch That's what it looks like and This is not from my bulk buy This is from another I bought it on eBay to sell on eBay that Mmm, it was okay. All right, but I'll show you and Then we'll go into what happened, but I'm gonna show you guys this first So let me get my screen share up. So this is what I bought and you can see the pin is right here And I got this for $2.99 Plus shipping so I was like, you know, there's 33 pieces there if I can get it really for a cheap price I understand that I have the shipping but there was also something that I was bidding on from the same seller So I figured they could combine the shipping So the other lot was this and I got it for seven dollars and ninety five cents But the shipping was fourteen dollars and seventy five cents. So I only paid the shipping once but what I didn't I Expected it to be have some more wearable items and when I got this it was really just Crafters, there was a few decent pieces in here I Think I listed a few things separately I mean, I'll definitely make money But I was hoping for some more wearable items like items that maybe she didn't think were good that maybe I could sell So what I ended up doing was Lauding most of these items up into a crafter's lot and in my crafter's lot I was very very clear that the items were not wearable that Basically, they were for crafters to repurpose now back to this listing I ended up listing this one by itself the one that I had the issue on and then some of these other items I've lauded together But yeah, I'll definitely make some money on this lot that unicorns pretty cool I can't I think I might have lauded that with something else My intentions were to list separately, but then I also won my bulk buy I bought it on eBay to sell on eBay the 350 pounds and You know, it all came at once and I just kind of got sidetracked and I have been listing items in bulk so Let's see. I had something else Okay, so let's go back to this. I've got other tabs up So this is the item I sold it on eBay for ten dollars plus shipping and I'm not kidding like within minutes It sold on Poshmark for ten dollars and the buyer paid shipping and Then a couple minutes later. It sold on Mercari And I'm like, are you kidding me and I look and it's the same buyer So the only thing I can figure is this buyer was looking for this pen And she found it on all three platforms and it looked like she created the Poshmark account To buy the item and I'm like, oh my goodness. Like what are the odds? So on Mercari, I now have this penalty It's not really a penalty But everybody can see it on my feedback the seller canceled the order this message is an automated posting by Mercari want want so that is definitely a Downfall of cross posting Now Poshmark, I'm not really sure what the penalty is. I Don't know that there is one there could be one in the future. It could depend on how many items you cancel. I don't know but Definitely a huge bummer So I did sell the item on eBay because I know that eBay has strict penalties for sellers for Canceling plus the buyer bought it on eBay first So that's kind of like I was so thankful that they bought it on eBay first but it's not like I Mean, maybe they wanted three of them. I'm guessing that's what's going on.  I can you know, I can Take it off the other platforms after the movie, you know, I didn't want to interrupt the movie to Remove the listing right then. Well, I don't know if I would have gotten it Removed quick enough anyway because I'm telling you this buyer was fast But that's what happened. That is my hiccup my dilemma and now I have that on my Mercari I have a cancellation on my posh mark. I'm completely like What do you do?  And then I also wanted to share with you guys I have talked about my Presidium gemstone tester. This is the one I bought I do have a link down in the description of the video I also have a video where I actually use the item to test diamonds if you want to go check that out It worked fantastic for that The gemstone testing is a little bit harder. So before you buy this I definitely recommend that you go check out my video because It's hard. It's hard to figure out even with the gemstone tester. So make sure you check that out before you buy it Um works great for diamonds and then I also bought this ring light kit Which I really really like there are tons and tons of ring lights out there. This is the one I picked to buy I do have a link in the description. It's an affiliate link if you guys want to check it out fine. If not, um, I Ring lights are awesome. I'm really happy with mine. So I just wanted to give you a quick review on yeah I like my ring light. So I haven't really talked about it So I thought I would share that here and the other thing I bought that I have not used yet is this gold test acid kit and It tests for 10 karat 14 karat 18 karat 22 karat silver and platinum and I will get to this eventually But I have not gotten to it yet. So stay tuned for videos where I test gold and silver And I do have some from my bulk buy so What do you guys think?  Ah Like just sometimes these things happen and it's frustrating it's frustrating but um the funny thing is is that it was the same buyer because I looked at The address and all of that and I could see that it was the same buyer buying All three of them. So I'm sure that they were disappointed.  I Don't know. It's what do you guys think? All over this $10 pen and I feel like it's always like the cheap items that give me trouble, you know um, I Use the same username. I think for all three platforms. So I'm surprised that she didn't notice that and my pictures were the same I mean, I did have a white background But maybe she was just so excited to find the pen that she wanted I don't know Who knows but I sold it In three places in like three minutes Oh My goodness, please comment below has this happened to you What do you guys think? I mean I don't know. It's just a pin So again, I uh I think I paid $2.99 plus shipping and the shipping was built into the other one So I already made my money back on that lot with this one pin. I bought it on eBay to sell on eBay I have a whole playlist of items. It's mostly has to do with um my bulk buy from The 350 pounds but I will be expanding that playlist. So definitely go check it out. Be sure to check out my other videos I mostly do items to be on the lookout for bolo videos Be on the lookout items you can buy low and so high that is the main idea behind my channel But sometimes I throw in little tricks and tips videos kind of like this like don't do this Oh, no this happened because you know what this is real life as a reseller And I wanted to share with you if you made it to this part of the video comment I made it to the end of the video Thanks for watching.


Are they gaslighting you about the endurance pickup truck? I think they are I think the potential revenue here is astounding. I just want to start with this footage of the endurance. I want to note to all the hodlers out there and interested parties that we in my opinion are being gaslighted about the endurance about the Lordstown Motors potential TAM and how starved the fleet market is for vehicles especially BEV vehicles especially exactly what the endurance is a BEV pickup and this is federal municipal and commercial fleets let me go on here to show that despite this stock price which I believe is unwarrantedly low the potential earnings and revenue from this segment of the endurance at full production is billions okay I'm gonna prove that with this video this next section here I'm gonna go over Ford's recent earnings call just a day or two ago and they're reporting and I want you to note I'm gonna play a report on it by Phil LeBeau on CNBC note the fleet income the fleet income fleet sales income saved for this film John this is a beat on the top in the bottom line by Ford for the first quarter the company earning 63 cents a share well above the street at 41 cents a share revenue way above expectations coming in at just over 39 billion dollars the street was at just over 36 billion dollars and adjusted EBIT margin of 8.1% in the first quarter for a comparison with the first quarter of last year that's a sizable increase it was 6.7% last year with free cash flow of 693 million dollars remember this is the first quarter where Ford is breaking out the performance of each division that's significant and here's why we'll go over each of them the ICE division which is known as Ford blue this is your internal combustion engine vehicles huge quarter 2.6 billion dollar profit on a 10.4% margin the EV division the model E lost 772 million dollars and the commercial vehicle division known as Ford pro had a profit of 1.36 billion dollars for the year Ford is reaffirming its guidance of planning to earn between 9 and 11 billion okay this is from tech crunch and this is just a review on this is May 2 Q1 earnings rebound as trucks and fleet sales drive profits now I'm just going to read some highlights out of here revenue of 45 billion storming class the estimates of 36 billion 20% improvement over the same time last year Ford's net income on a gap basis is 1.8 billion compared to a two billion dollar net loss in 22 and that was from a write down for the e-business even a was 6 billion for pro which is Ford's fleet division which would represent double 2022 earnings okay so that's 100% growth and that's a 6 billion dollar market segment for pro reported 13.2 billion okay EBITDA a 28% increase from last year okay that in EBITDA terms 1.4 4 billion which is 3x from 2022 so that's a 300% increase that gross was driven by both Ford's transit and e-transit commercial vans of which Lord's time motors has a bev commercial van almost ready to go prototype as well as a 64 increase in 60% increase in software subscriptions this is for fleet management software which Lord's time motors also offers I'm just trying to 13 billion dollar niche you can go over these numbers and replay this the point is this is a breathtaking market segment and I want to tell you you know how Ford is making this money and I may be repeating myself here but I'm just going to say it again they have set up a quota system for fleets fleets are starving for vehicles they're at end of life okay in this next section I'm going to quote some of my own videos on the insatiable fleet demand I want to put up some placards here so that you can easily find these on YouTube and this is a past video I did and this is describing the state of the fleet market right now in the United States and it's shocking it's been for the past two years has found that most OEMs are not soliciting new fleet customer you remember that was a pretty chaotic time I believe it's a positive development that model year 2024 fleet ordering for some major OEMs will once again be based on a pre-approved allocation volume and some might disagree with me and I understand why a middlely many fleets will not get all of the vehicles they need based on past experience with an allocation system but it's better than being on the wrong side of an unexpected early closure of a fleet order bank you might want to replay that orders weren't met last year and they're going to an allocation program this year for the 2024 model so in a fleet allocation environment most OEMs require pre-approval to place orders based on an allocation determined by a fleet's past order volumes and here's an example of an allocation process for government fleets looking to order the all-new 2023 model Ford Super Duty so the Ford Super Duty will have a short model year with only a limited number of trucks being produced for the 2023 order cycle so for example the order banks for government orders for the 2023 Super Duty will open next Monday on November 28th 2022 and they're going to close on January 13th 2023 each government fleet with a Ford Fin number a fleet identification number gets an allocation based on their average Super Duty purchases over the past five years the actual allocation will be approximately 55 to 60 percent of whatever that average number is and it's not uncommon for most OEMs to restrict fleet order allocations for legacy customers in fact fleet availability being as tight as it's been for the past two years has found that most OEMs are not soliciting new fleet customers so when you look at the ordering environment from a historical perspective the transition to a fleet ordering allocation system has truly been a significant milestone that's never before happened in the history of fleet management the last time end user demand exceeded production capacity was immediately after the conclusion of World War two as auto manufacturers stop for production and switch back to the production of automobiles end user demand simultaneously spiked okay this is a placard from TechCrunch behind the video audio here this is what the fleet sales market is right now World War two level rationing a cartel system OEMs not taking on new customers inflated prices constricting supplies this is like OPEC supplying fleet vehicles this is the market that Lordstown would launch its endurance into wide open transparent pricing unlimited production and supply that's what we get with a ramp of the endurance okay I'm just going to close this out with some footage of the endurance my apologies that placard was MSNBC or sorry CNBC listen here's the deal the stock price of Lordstown Motors is not representing the opportunity we now have a wide open fleet market especially for battery electric vehicles which are mandated by many federal and municipal and even commercial fleets in some states and the endurance is a fleet bev pickup now the main competition really the only competition to the endurance is the Ford Lightning Pro which is in limited supply and limited production I believe their allocation last year was 10,000 vehicles I don't know if they even made that allocation so we have a market right now a fleet market which the endurance presently is devoted to which is operating under wartime rationing conditions OEMs are not accepting even accepting new customers if you're a new customer to Ford if you can't get your fleet allocation and you want to you are dealing with Chevy you want to go to Ford they're not accepting new customers so this is a cartel system that the OEMs have worked out for these fleet vehicles and they are OPEC they are OPEC they are going to decide who gets how much output they are going to decide at what price that output is going to be there is no choice among the fleet consumers as to which vehicles they are going to get or the number they're going to get so imagine the endurance goes into production they are going to be able to provide vehicles to any and all fleet customers okay and they are going to be able to sell at their price because the competition it's just it's just murdering these fleet companies so and you add to that that under a lease model especially all of these fleet companies are going to get the tax credit or the leasing company that's going to buy the vehicles and lease them to the OEMs this is a wide open market for the Lordstown endurance there is the competition is so hot I mean let's put it this way they're leaving a giant hangar door opened in the market for someone to come in and supply vehicles it's there's I mean I'm at a loss for words anyway I do believe that there's a lot of gas lighting going on I think that right now the endurance is commercial it is a finished product ready to be sold the company and Foxconn have received their CIFAS approval for the investment this stock price has been in my opinion manipulated down by outside forces I think there is a good argument for resolving these problems and working towards getting the endurance into full production I also think that you know an OEM partner that would be looking for a battery electric pickup truck to come into this market again to compete with the cartel like pricing and output levels of Ford and the Ford lightning I think that I think again the stock price does not represent the opportunities here and I do think that the opportunities for the endurance for Lordstown motors I do believe place price product quality the time is right for this product in this market especially with this cartel controlling fleet sales I mean wow could there be a better opportunity anyway this is MXUX I hope you like the video I'm not an attorney financial advisor or engineer this is all my opinion I'm not telling you to buy sell or hold any stock this is a business case study please do your own DD verify any information provided to your own satisfaction this is MXUX I hope you like the video good luck in the market


Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. I'm very happy to come to your country and attend this function. For me, this is a long-cherished dream that comes true. I've all long regarded myself as one of the luckiest persons among my generation. People born in China in the early 1950s, basically for two reasons. First, just a few years before China started opening up policy, I was enrolled in Beijing Foreign Languages Institute in 1973, majoring in English language and literature. In the early 1970s, Chinese universities and colleges were not fully recovered from the turmoil of the so-called cultural revolution. And every year, no more than 515,000 young people were enrolled in the institutions of higher learning. Now, it is around 7 million. And the second reason is that, as the name of my organization will inform you, international understanding has been my life career. In December 1978, a very important meeting in a certain intersection of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held. And the attention of the CPC, the Chinese government, and the whole nation was gradually shifted to something more practical, economic development and improvement of the people's living standards. By that time, Chinese people of any kind were badly being everywhere in the year of 1977. I was assigned a job in the International Department of CPC's Central Committee. And in 1979, I was sent to study in Canada in a college named Lesson B Pearson College of the Pacific. It was a very small college, but very international in nature. There were only 12 students, but they came from more than 50 countries. The motive of the college was international understanding. And when I returned to China in 1981, it so happened that the CPC and other political parties, mass organizations, and important domestic personalities of all walks of life, jointly initiated the Chinese Association for International Understanding, Cafu for short. And from then on, international understanding had become my life career. And for me, English language was mainly a tool to promote international understanding. I worked in the CPC for more than three decades now. First as an interpreter, then a desk office was involved in Somali. Later, a director of the section that in charge of Anglophone Africa. Deputy director general and director general of African Bureau, not missing any layer in the entire hierarchy. After reform and opening up, CPC's international relations was no longer part of the so-called international communist movements, but that of the country's comprehensive diplomacy. Party-to-party relations were not based on similar ideologies, but full principles of independence, equality, mutual respect, and non-interference into each other's internal sense. So basically, what we were doing was to promote international understanding, informing each other the latest development in the country and the region, sharing ideas on the world situation, and exploring possibilities of bilateral cooperation in various sectors. These efforts have actually also served our own need to understand China's national conditions and its relation with the outside world. The prerequisite to promote international understanding is that you yourself should have at least a rudimentary understanding of your own country, your interlocutor's country, and the world in general. During the 1980s and 90s, we were also engaged in international academic exchange and comparative studies with Africanists from United States, the United Kingdom, France, and USSR. One point to prove that I had been a lucky person was that my efforts to understand Africa led to a combination of serving as a Chinese ambassador to Ethiopia between March 2001 and August 2004. When I returned home, my responsibility was changed to neighboring countries in the South and the Southeast Asia. To sum up, my life career of international understanding has taken me to all the United countries. Now what can I say about international understanding? I believe that first of all, we must have a strong interest and desire to learn about other peoples and their countries. In this globalizing world, there are plenty of opportunities for cooperation. Secondly, one must respect other people and treat them as equals, particularly those from the least developed countries. It is not their fault to be poor and underdeveloped. For the country, they will have a good chance to catch up as soon as they avail themselves of the comparative advantages of the late commerce. Suddenly, one must try his or her best to accumulate the necessary knowledge about the target areas, such as history, tradition, culture, et cetera. And a shortcut is to cooperate with other people that share the same interests in the area studies. Of course, realizing international understanding, will not be a small saving all the time. There will be many obstacles and difficulties. All the people will tend to understand other people and countries according to their own experience, their own national interests, their own terms, concepts, categories of theories and discourses. And there are established ideas, consensus, and mainstreams, interest groups that support particular ideas. My personal experience is to follow the traditional Chinese theory of knowledge, to integrate seeking knowledge with practice. The way to judge different theories is to see which could best explain the present and predict the future. In helping others to understand China, I believe it is also necessary to have a simple setting and considerate mind, trying to provide as much information as possible of the latest development, offer them various theories and let them judge which would help them understand the present situation the best. The most important thing is to help them understand the fundamentals of our national conditions. Where do we come from and where to go? What means to choose the present parts of development, the strategy, and the related policies? Is it in the sense of integration of knowledge seeking with the practice of meeting people of targeted countries? And I say I was very lucky to be Chinese ambassador to Ethiopia, for that I was not just writing about active development, but trying it together with my Ethiopian friends through sign on Ethiopian cooperation in various fields. But before this trip, my life career had not brought me to the most important brainstorming yet. When I retired from the frontline job in IDCCC in 2014 and became a vice president of a coffee, I realized that overall I had taken the English language as a tool to understand other people and help other people to understand China. Yet so far I have missed the most important group, those native speakers of English, people of Anglosphere in general, those from UK in particular. So I decided that I should make a trip to the UK, Ireland, and Iceland. For your objective and a correct understanding of rejuvenating China, it's important worldwide. Now I'd like to inform you about the latest development in China. I am starting this trip almost directly from Beijing's Great Wall of People, where the fourth annual session of China's 12th National Youth Congress and the Chinese Youth Political Consulting Conference will help between March and the 6th. On March the 5th, together with 2,890 NBC devotees and about 2,100 CDPCC members, I listened to Premier Li Geqiang's report on the work of the government. During two hours, there seemed more applause than newer. My personal account was 44. For greater need for encouragement, the achievements of 2015 did not come easily, though the growth rate of 6.9% was the lowest in 25 years. The reasons? Internationally, the environment was considered the least complicated and challenging. The world economy growth fell to the lowest in 60 years and a total volume of trade, strength, and the commodity prices were plummeted. Domestically, the problems became more prominent and downward pressure was mounting. And there was so-called new normal. While dealing with the slowdown in economic growth, making difficult structural adjustments and absorbing the effects of previous economic stimulus policies, China was also confronting many difficult problems and choices. And these called for effective responses based on the need both to combine long-term and short-term considerations and to seek benefits and avoid harm. During the year 2015, the Chinese government made strenuous efforts to maintain stable growth, made structural adjustments, guarded against the risks, and developed new ways of conducting micro-regulations. It had also intensified reform and opening up to invigorate the market and promote industrial innovation and upgrading to improve economic performance, as well as more coordinated development between regions and new types of urbanization to expand the development of space. Another aspect was to promote reform and development in social endeavors to improve people's oblivion standards. The last one, not least, the government developed new ways of conducting law-based animal expression and governance to promote social harmony and stability. The results was that economy operated within an appropriate range. And the GDP reached a 67.67 trillion representing an increase of 6.9% over the previous year. The employment situation remained stable, with 13.1 million new urban jobs created. The service sector, as a proportion of the GDP, rose to 50.5%, accounting for more than half for the first time. The contribution of consumption to economic growth reached 66.4%. High-tech industries and equipment manufacturing grew faster than other industries, and energy consumption per unit of GDP fell by 5.6%. New driving forces for development grew rapidly, and living standards increased. Personal per capita disposable income increased by 7.4% in real terms, overtaking the growth rate of economy. By the end of last year, personal savings deposits had risen by 8.5% in the increase of a more than 4 trillion yuan. The premier told the audience that a comprehensive analysis of all factors showed that China would face more and tougher problems and challenges this year, and had to be ready to fight a difficult battle. It proposed to carry out the following tasks, improve and disable the microeconomic policies to ensure that economy performs within appropriate range. Strengthens supply-side structural reform to drive sustained growth, type the potential of domestic demand to increase the space for development, speed up efforts to develop modern agriculture, and ensure sustained increase in rural incomes, step up environmental governance efforts, and the work to see breakthrough in green development. Strengthens social development to promote people's well-being, can improve government functions, strengthen and strengthen the capacity and deliver quality government services. When we were delivering the report, I was participating this trip to the UK, Ireland, and Iceland, and could not refrain from comparing the political systems of these countries and that of China. I learned when I was in school that the UK was supposed to be the first or second world-wide democracy in the world. King wanted to fight a war, and there was the need to fund it. But the parliamentarians emphasized that no representation, no tax. And then there was the civil war and the glorious revolution, and the steady expansion of the right to vote. In contemporary China, the CPC offered successful new democratic revolution, one half of the people, and established a people's republic. And after a period of transition, a socialist transformation, a terrible decade of the so-called cultural revolution, and more than three decades of reform and opening up, then led to integrated development in economic, political, social, cultural, and ecological sectors. Now the core of China's political system is a combination of the policy leadership that people's status has mastered out of the country through the people's Congress's system and the rule of law. The strategies and policies are initiated by CPC through proposal, and then expanded into plan by the relevant organs of the State Council and vote before the entity's decoders for consideration and approval, and before CPCC and National Committee members for suggestions and advice. This process of decision-making may last for years if the relevant investigation and a reasonable consultation are included. Is this an authoritarian capitalism? Are there no democratic elements involved? Democracy with governance of the people, by the people, and for the people, and then goes far beyond the selection of the leaders every few years, and also improved democratic decision-making, administration, and supervision. The two sessions every year is a highlight that attracts worldwide attention. And coming here from that event, I will not pretend to understand everything discussed there, but I'm willing to share with you the knowledge obtained through participation of a democratic system with Chinese characteristics. Thank you for your attention.


You know that the fairy will be your new home. Of Lightning Jim. Whitey Larson, Lightning Jim's deputy marshal, has been sent to Rio Vista, a small border town, in order to deliver certain papers to the sheriff. As he walks down the street toward the sheriff's office, he is watched by two men who stand at the window of a dingy adobe hut. Steel Nixon and the Mexican called Culebra. And they're walking along. The one with the white sombrero. Yes, I'm all right. What about it? Whitey's bought it. You do not know? That's the feed. That remains at the bus stop. The fool should just name him by his right name. Every so, I'd recognize a man. You think so? I think so. He is called Whitey. I do not know his other name. But he is the deputy of Lightning Jim's suffering country. Now, do you recognize him? Deputy of Lightning Jim. You're supposed that Viper's trailer down here? I think we covered the tracks most carefully. But I do know this. Never will I feel safe until Lightning Jim is dead and killed by my own hands. A sure-raised funny eruption with us both has me to labor.  All but me. And me. He make of me the one to be lost at. Huh.  I get away.  Yeah, I reckon I know where you feel. I'd like to get even with him myself. But you got to catch him first and that ain't easy. Especially since both of us have got reward notices on our heads. Well, if I could get him once in my own country across the river, oh, there would be another story to tell. Then, then I could. Yeah, sure.   Not for the pleasure of our company. Come on.  We can't get across the river until dark. Wait, wait. I have to think of something. A plan. A plan to get Lightning Jim across the river to make him come to me.  I know such plans. If you listen to me, Steve Nixon, there is one thing for which Lightning Jim will play the fool at all times. Yeah, what's that? For his amnesia, his friend. For him, he would do anything. Anything at all. Yeah, I guess you're right. At least ways to get him across the river. At least ways. He's got that kind of reputation. Hey, what are you driving at? It's Amigo. He's, he's here within our reach. For tonight, we plan to cross the river to go to my home. Is it not so? Sure. And you're doing me a big favor taking me across the river. Ah, that's a good way to know. But, if we take this whitey pig with us, then... Take him along? Sure. Take him along with us. Then send word to Lightning Jim that he wants to see his Amigo again. Ha! He must come after him alone. Hey, it might work.  It will work. I know it will. And then, then I could leave it to Casabelle. We'll have my revenge. Yeah, you might as well. Hey, would you mind telling me just what that name of yours means? I don't savvy the Spanish so well. My name? You do not know? Collabra is snake. Collabra de Casabelle is how you say the... the Rattle Snake. Ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ah! You got the money. Do men that coat thy veil? Go, now, have you? No!  Up, up! Yeah, but they ain't got no money. They see you making me sick.  You tell me true where it's like me.  Now you know where is lightning him. Fort Anderson you can put him on there. We will see on the way on the way. You will take this letter this big horse and write to Fort Anderson and you will find the devil called lightning Jim and see that he gets his letter. I give him the letter. Get on your way. And let us be going to get up that whatever you do to me. You can't hurt lightning. Wait and see wait and see. Fort Anderson lightning Jim Whipple United States Marshall is greeting Billy Snow a young friend of his. Well this is well Billy ain't been sticking in the month of Sunday. Me too. I didn't sleep all night just thinking about coming down here to visit. Well but how come he got down this way school rain out of it. No teacher. Got the. Good one. All right. Get in the month. I got a present for a pair of socks with red and green. He won't want to wear no shoes with them. Short as like bright colors all right. Oh you ought to be back right about now. Have to go to real good on a little bit. Probably be back some time this morning. Come on in the story you're watching you could go for some candy couldn't you. I'm about. A letter for you. Yeah. What made it was in a long go didn't come by mail. Next follow around in about 10 minutes ago that you give it to your personal. Couldn't find you sooner. Thanks. What's up now. Maybe I can go along maybe we can see any of that.  Now let me see what this letter says now. No. Can't be. Why do you want to met it. You look sick. I didn't think in the Mexico. But the labor and feel mixed with the worst murdering coyotes have ever lived. Do you think they're killing. I don't know but I'm going out and that's all I do know all but like this is sure to be a trap they're just trying to get you across the river maybe they got it in for you like and maybe I don't just think I know that's sure that they got what it took him present. They say in that letter but I don't come after him but the 10th of the month. He got five days in the end of this hideout. Did you ever think that maybe. Maybe they both already I mean I know everybody killed him already but I can't be sure I've got to go down there or listen I know how you feel sure I do but but what can you do alone in Mexico where they're going to turn like a white loose know how I even if you do think you're heading to a trap you think you should just say I've taken care of my own skin while my friends down there dependent on that all but like that you can't do it you can't do it you got no authority across the river the government can't help you none for the attorney general wouldn't even let you go if you knew about any in going to know about it why he's in the hands of a couple of snakes all right and I ain't sure that they can do him no good at all but I'm going down and if I have to leave my bad behind and just go to the man trying to help his friend that's good enough for me the following morning early a wagon pulled out of Fort Anderson hits to two mules and driven by an old man white of hair and beard on the seat beside him sits a young boy and trailing along behind the wagon is a horse a big horse black with three white feet and the white face really nobody talks getting out of Fort Anderson no like that we sure think I don't know you look so different like I don't think nobody will recognize you in that game when I change my voice like this I'm an old man a very old man that doesn't mean nobody going to know you're there but forced under you can't understand why the paint job why I'm making him trail along behind you're sure changes look too like that and just with a paper way I figure it really is a trap of course labor and still won't be down there so they can get even every watching for me all right probably got spies all along the way if I can get by them spies without being recognized then you got a better chance of saving life that's it I ain't got no business bringing you along belly must be out of my mind I'm gonna send you back soon we get to the river all right and slightly you can't do that you can't just like you said a man's gotta stand by his friend and and you and why you're my best friend look what you're done for me already I gotta help now I just got I can't take a boy your age and danger like this I'm like like we figured last night they won't be expecting you to have a kid along with it'll come completely up the tracks and and I promise just as soon as you gotta go alone as soon as I ain't no good dear no more I'll go back or do anything you tell me anything well all right Billy you and me are sure tackling the job but well nobody can say that why these friends went back on him salmon I do not wish to kill you yet I say that for when lightning jean come first he see you die and then he died you'll never get like never he's more than you order you're in stronger he'll get it oh I'm making sure I have no fun Calabra we saw a trap for lightning ain't no use in torturing us for buzzer huh maybe you tell Calabra how to behave in his own home huh you forget I got your cross deliver to safety when the dog to the law were at your heels I bring you here and forget none of that well you ain't doing no good beating this deputy why don't you stay with the lightning maybe you're right he has three more days to get here I would like me to work whitey I really mean you think your partner will come down here after you know you're here come on and I think yes that's kind of a fender but they ain't worth it I ain't worth it must be far from nice to have a friend like that one that stick his head in a trap just for you ain't never had a friend like that you're in the bed around you like this Calabra you ain't I know that you ain't right now I'm sick of my stomach with him after all I'm an American I don't like seeing one of my kind being tortured by a griger like labor you help me to see what I think no don't fool yourself none I'm as bad as labor but I got a grudge against lightning myself and even if I wanted to help your friend I couldn't do a thing I'm just as much a prisoner of Calabra as you are nothing can save lightning Jim now he's full enough to come here never before has quite he been in such danger and never has lightning Jim faced a more hazardous past what will be the outcome of this fiendish plot of Calabra the rattlesnake part two of this lightning Jim adventure the snake strikes follows immediately and now for part two of the lightning Jim adventure the snake strike through the ages the deeds done in the name of friendship have been glowing linked in the chain of man's endeavor so long as men stand shoulder to shoulder cherishing that loyalty which comes from the soul afraid of nothing daring all just that long with humanity go marching forward to greater glory the pioneer days of our own country are full of such stories stories of almost godlike courage and in these days of suffering dynasties and traditions it is well that we as Americans go back to our own heritage for that spirit which is inalienably ours truly greater love has no man than this that he laid down his life for his brother such is the story of lightning Jim's attempt to rescue his friend whitey whitey has been captured by Culebra and steel Nixon outlaws with an undying hatred for lightning Jim a letter has been sent to lightning telling him that if he himself does not come to the Mexican stronghold of Culebra by the 10th of the month whitey will be killed beyond serving Culebra are keeping a careful watch along the trail for the big black horse thunder and his master and far down the trail nearing the den of the rattlesnake the old man stops to talk with the boy easy there now easy now well Billy as far as I can bring you son oh but lightning we got this far without nobody stopping us I don't even think nobody suspected if you're right I look Billy has a map Culebra sent me he was pretty sure he'd come wasn't he yeah right and he was well look at it good again Billy see this road here that turns off that's when I gotta take that's right it is and this other one goes down yeah the family I'm going to give you a note to see your what it'll be the sort of a mayor of San Juanito I met it a couple years ago and he's a fine man you want me to go down there for a help yeah I want you to go down there all right I'll explain a few things in a note about why I'm here and all see why don't you wait until I can get the senior Guadalupe then he can run up some of his men and we can go after Calabria and still no it won't work really corner the note if I don't come alone while it gets killed so I'm going alone but if I ain't out of that and back here at this crossroad tonight at midnight why didn't you both be dead and we can tell what a loopy to come here then clean out a nest oh what are you gonna do like I'm gonna wait till it gets dark and then well I'm gonna get inside that fortress of flavors somehow oh but lightning what what if he can't get out mm-hmm don't you go where you head about that belly you don't know all you could stunt you're not let it come at all and I wouldn't have hadn't been half crazy thinking about whitey you've worn down the same one each time take this note well good luck very yeah yeah sure you want me to take thunder too like yeah you're better so long take care of me belly I ain't back the midnight well well belongs to you don't be back all right like that I know you will I just know goodbye I know I'd take you along but hey much you could do for me why do you know even though the heart like you in place under like I'm sure to let you back yet for Anderson but going any place without you like like going without whitey for the long together don't wait keep going belly hurry up take him away one get along boy long now good bye thunder good bye long day under cover of darkness lightning has reached the hotienda of Kulebra there are bars on all the windows and armed guard patrol the walls who laborers taking no chances lightning hides in the shadows and watches anxiously as one of the guards suddenly wraps on the door don't read a lot of you have seen something see no nothing the green girl does not come I will eat now pepper you still watching it for one who does not come haha when I come back he will eat on the red a lot of paper you see something see this one gone but it goes this door get you tied up and gag too what you hear me rage for the sky Kulebra for cheese I think he had me Kulebra expected me good work one with his gun was not hard enough no so you treat him when he shoots haha I will not forget that I have my gun on you now lightning do not move so are you pay me little visit see good very good I was really trying to surprise you Kulebra I had the tables turned on me what's all the shooting about Kulebra and he signed up white and Jim so you did come after all Kulebra was right he'll make some sort of surprises me see and you teamed up with Kulebra here I know it was bad but I never thought you was this low thing go pink ah it is gone still and we will have some fun with him hmm much of fun you will not talk so loud or brave when I finish with him feel maybe you'll tell me the truth is buddy but he's still alive yeah he's in very good condition but he's alive all right Kulebra you send me a letter I did what you asked I come down here alone I you do what you said you do settle with me if you want to but let's why they go haha you make on with her the idea is more strange see I say in the letter if you do not come down here by this day I'll kill your amigo but I did not say that I would not kill him anyway killing him Kulebra he ain't hurt to take it out on me let him go that's all I'm asking you get this whitey pig bring him here huh the phone will start now you're the boss ah I have planned much entertainment for you like me once you laugh at me in front of my men but now I laugh at you one holy man all of them I want them to laugh with me you you'll see lightning Jim that Kulebra know how to be the grand host hmm you will provide much fun for everybody we will all laugh and you laugh too oh yeah well there's quite a realian for you whitey take your power thank you thank you for you to do that for that you come down here reckon you and me been together too long to be separated now whitey I just don't seem to know how to get along without you late in there I would have died before I got into this man alive get your head up Kulebra here says it's going to give us something to laugh about you and me always did like a good now laugh now didn't we hey that's all right let's see let's have the best left of me ever need them right now no why not these guys ain't human they're more than human stop it stop it you tell laugh in my face americano pizza huh I'll make you laugh bring them along huh he's going well whitey here we go you won't like that I wish you hadn't come here but they feel a bit or not if you are here I ain't afraid of nothing more says Kulebra what are you planning on doing you'll see soon enough then you will see then who laughs hmm you see you see this pit haha it used to be old well then it dried up so I make it a place for my pet mm-hmm see I take the stone here now listen Kulebra you got things down there see yeah I am named for the rather snakes I collect them for my pets mm-hmm now we put the whitey gringo down there first so lightning Jim can see where he goes then we have other things for him to do like lightning don't let me be afraid Kulebra don't you're insane raven insane or you couldn't think of this you just put down now I would be too quick I want to laugh now you want to say a prayer whitey pig you're not gonna do it Kulebra I won't stand for it what you wouldn't dare to stop me I am an American tool I ain't standing for no greaser feeding any other Americans with pet snakes on and draw get inside here quick man will be here any minute deal I knew that you was gonna help I knew that you and you know more than I did things just got too much for me that's all I was in the scheme to get you down here to get even with you I didn't know when I got in with Kulebra but he was as bad a stink as he turned out to be but well I'm changing the rules what do you mean here take your guns lightning I got mine whitey here can give the signal we're shooting it out you and me the way I always wanted to do you know you can't do this but you really want to shoot it out with the steel here I know you're good all right but well I'd rather go out this way than at the end of a rope I see whitey you count the three and then then we'll both draw like you have to yeah that's counting what one two three missed go ahead and show it what are you waiting ain't no use you can now you see steel Nixon is dead he died back there along with Kulebra didn't you see him die whitey you're sure I saw him die he's good and dead all right what are you trying to say like I ain't got no thought you on this side of the steel none at all I didn't come down here after you have come after whitey cause I'm concerned so long as steel Nixon don't bring himself to life back in the state is dead from dead. What does that mean. What does it mean that Billy got the water loopy in San Burrito and help us yeah lots of it from the sound so you're safe now Billy but Billy are you talking about I got a lot of explaining to do later whitey but right now you've won and I've lost again coming Billy we'll go out you'll get behind that box quick. Oh it's grand senior water loopy having to come along he's got a more long enough to now dash down ahead to look for you in life you all right or never been better never were come on Billy boy come on you want to fight. Yeah that's all you in the order me you never meant to kill lightning don't you tell him. I don't want him to think that I went so no I won't good luck. And so ends another thrilling adventure of lightning Jim Whipple and his deputy Whitey Larson.