Good afternoon. My name is Courtney. Welcome to our New York home life tour of Yoko Hall. I'm a junior here at the University of Arkansas and I'm from Fayetteville about campus or the city and reporting for us today is Channing. I'll let her introduce herself. Hey guys, my name is Channing and I'm a senior here on campus. I'm a communication major and I'm from Springville, Arkansas. We're both from Northwest Arkansas. So if you have any questions about the area or about campus, this hall, please let us know and we'll be sure to answer those for you guys. Yeah, so let us know where you guys are from too. Because we're both in this area. Yeah, it's interesting. We're curious. So before we go in, I'm going to point out some of the stuff that's around us. That building right there is actually the business and just wake up and we're all in a bed and cross the street and you're across about nine. And then in this direction is actually founders, which in the bottom of founders, there's some different restaurants for you. So there's Slim, where the Walgreens are, Rocket Taco, and those are all places that you can use for a meal trade at night. So you just go there instead of a dining hall if you want to and use a meal swipe and you can eat there. And then the closest dining hall is Bruff, which is also just over in that direction. The green theater is over there. The union is really close. The stadium is just on the other side. But yeah. Oh, there's a Starbucks over here too. Good study spot. Always busy. That's all the big spot. You covered it. There's a lot over here. There's a club red too, which is also like kind of just like a little convenience store, like a gas station, but minus the gas part. Thank you. So for security, we use gloves here. So you just stand and then you're in. And once you move in, everybody's gone. And we actually have the CREs. Hey, I'm Matt Poplitch and I'm the new CRE for Yilkem this year. Awesome. Could you tell us what a CRE is? Absolutely. So a CRE stands for coordinator for residents education. And I have a lot of daily different tasks. But my main thing is I supervise the RA staff. I help oversee and advise our student groups. I participate in different on-campus events and committees. They'll kind of plan large on-campus events. I serve in a duty role for our students when things happen after hours. And just a variety of different things going on. Awesome. Can you come with us today? Absolutely. This is also by the way where you will get your packages. So you'll get an email if you have a package and then you just come pick it up. Yes. There's always going to be someone there if you have any questions or anything. Here we have one of our water bottle stations. So if you bring a reusable water bottle, you can just use it here and it tells you how many possible bottles we've saved. This is one of the common spaces here. Very bright, very big. Good place for maybe night to watch parties. Yes. And then here's your mailboxes. So you'll get an email actually with your code. And then you can come get your email in here. I think those are going out real soon. So make sure and check your email constantly. Yeah. Do we get a question? Yeah. We had a question about, excuse me, a room measurement. Okay. I put in rooms. Yeah. So we will be visiting a couple of rooms later. I don't know why I'm losing my voice right now. So we'll be sure to answer that when we get into a room. Yeah. We're going to shake some common spaces and then we'll go look at the rooms. But here's a nice big TV area in here. I love how private it is in here. It's really fun. Is this over 24 hours? Yep. Okay. Yep. The space is open for us and it's 24 hours. And then you said are there sometimes events in here or is that mainly downstairs? We're going to have various depending on where we always want to do it. It's a little bit more visibility up here. Not as many residents are going down to the basement. So we will use up here a lot. We also use downstairs a lot for our events. We're going to go look down there. I'd like to make sure to raise it back there. Who drew these things? Honestly, I don't know. I think it was a student who did it. But that was cool. But pre-dating actually. That's right.  I am. I am a new arrival this year. I'm the only new coordinator for this year. So it's been a lot of fun. Yeah. And where are you coming from? I am coming from Virginia, from Massachusetts. I did my undergraduate, a small college there called Undercuff College. And I most recently finished my master's degree at the University of Central Florida. Go Knights. And I graduated from there in May. Awesome. And is this your office? This will be my office. It will be your office. Yes. As we're waiting for our new building, it will be finished. The current coordinator who will be going there, he's working out of this office. I'll be moving into there shortly. Awesome. So they can find you in there? Absolutely. I'll be there from nine to five every day. We're going to look at the laundry room, which is right over here. There's some side button down here. And then all the laundry machines. And my machine. And then you can see we have these like codes on the machines and numbers because we have an app called Laundry Alert, which is super convenient because you don't have to come down here and check and see if anything's available. You can just check on the app. And then once you're using one, you can put in the number that you're using and you'll get a notification when you're self-study. So that makes it a lot easier. And no coins.  Yes. And then the TV, you don't want to hang out in here. Yeah. But yeah. Do you have any recommendations on laundry? Do you use powder, pods? Pods are really easy. I always use pods. They're my favorite. And always do your laundry. And I'm not very busy time. Come when other people are busy. That's the best. But you can always use the app so you don't have to really worry about it. And then here's trash. There's a trash you don't, is there one on every floor? There's a trash on every floor. The one tip I do have is if the trash room gets stuck, which it does often, just come grab one of the RAs. We have a bunch of different hooks on each floor to help kind of poke that out and prod that out. Also, please don't put pizza boxes down the chute. It clogs it up really fast. Do you have a thing that helps you make it go down the chute? Before we have a hook or a broom handle or something. We've got to take a picture of that. It's in here. I didn't know that. That's cool. We have the hook right in here. Oh, here's the trash hook if you need it. Yeah, there's one on every floor in the way. Because students don't need to hook all the time. Sure, sure. Yeah, so if it's always in there, come grab one of the RAs, one of the staff, and they'll be happy to help you out with that. Meg is watching, and she is a former Yocum RA. And she also did her graduate degree at UCF. She said, go night. Sure, John. Hey, Meg. Pleasure. A lot of bending done here, and they actually accept Apple Pay. So if you use Apple Pay, that's awesome. That's convenient. I'm pretty sure you can use your watch for that. Yep, wireless pay. I've confirmed it once or twice. Yeah. Yeah, let's step out and show them the parking lot. Yeah. So this is the parking lot that will be used for moving. He had the stadiums right over there. So Humphreys and Yocum both will come down on this parking lot. And Humphreys, you can see there to the right. And of course, we're in Yocum, and they'll share this parking lot. And we'll move in what? A thousand or more students, right in this area. And of course, these days. We oftentimes get asked about dollies. We have a few dollies, but we highly recommend that you would bring your own. A lot of people use these to like make cookies or just like any snacks really, especially if you have like watch parties in one of these big common areas. Yeah. This is awesome to have right here because you can make snacks for all of your friends. We also have kitchen equipment available for rent upstairs. It's all totally free. Just got to leave your card and we'll make sure it's all checked out to you. Awesome. People use the telephone booths a lot.  That'd be kind of cool, actually. Yeah. We thought about converting that to something really fun. It's just hard to figure out what. I think we're getting to the point now where our students don't remember what phone booths were. So what would this room be used for? So this is another one of our programming spaces. I know one of our student groups, Lead Hogs. As you haven't heard about Lead Hogs, it's a student led group that does a lot of really great planning for different events on campus. You can get involved with also the resident interhaul Congress which puts bills forward to get funding to do different events and different programs in the halls. I know one of the things that we did in the past few years is getting a bill put, all of those water fountains put in as another student led initiative. So we'll do a lot of programming down here. A lot of just hanging out, people relaxing, spending time there, playing pool. Here's one of our ping pong tables for our food spots. Fun. Looks like a fun room. And I like how the chairs have outlets. Very high tech. That's right. If they're plugged in, you can charge things with the electric chairs. Those are cool. I know. I love those. I didn't realize that they had that. Well, shall we head up to one of the resident rooms? Yeah, let's do it. There is one more thing down here that's the counselor in residence. So one of the benefits we have of being in Yokem Hall is we have what's called a counselor in residence. So what that is is it's a master's or doctoral level student who is working on their counseling degree and they actually practice out of the residence hall. They're available to our students about 20 to 40 hours a week depending on what degree they're working on. And so they're always available to our students for just want to pop in, say hi or just having some crisis they want to talk through or just really anything else with it. Therefore, and they're right down that hallway past my office. For sure. Yeah. This first year years, first year, especially at college can be such a transitional time that it's good to have someone to talk to sometimes. I can't recommend it enough. They're a great resource just to talk to someone about anything. All right. On the elevator. Now I understand there's some special rules when it comes to elevators during move-in. Yeah. So on move-in process to kind of aid what's going on and up and down, the elevators are actually only going to be going up when it comes to bringing stuff up. If there's a medical need, we're going to make sure that you have a way to get back down instead of doing the stairs, but to kind of make everyone's process easier, make sure no one's bringing stuff up through the stairs and carrying stuff up. All the elevators can be operated by an RA staff or not a staff member. It's all being brought up to bring your stuff up for you. So elevator up, unload your stuff and stairs down. We're helping you get your steps in so you can go out there that night and just not feel bad about it. It is an intense day. Definitely drink all your water that you can. So we're on the 10th floor right now. Yeah. Very tall. Very tall. Every room, not every room, but every floor has one of these rooms. So it's a study room. It has a nice whiteboard. I know a lot of people like to meet people in their classes and then study groups. So this would be a really good place to do that. And there's a really awesome queue. You can see it. Yeah. Yes it is. Now we're going to go to the room. And we'll do a bathroom too to make sure they see that. Do you want to go in the room first to the bathroom? Let's do the bathroom first. Yeah. Here's one of the bathrooms. There's showers on the side and installs on the side. You can show them one of the showers if you want. Yeah. We have doors and this little changing room outside of it. Yeah. So that's super nice to have that extra space. That's a definitely pretty shower caddy. Shower caddy and shower shoes. Yeah. I also have a seat over here. And cheap lip gloss. Yeah. Definitely. Definitely. But there's good lighting in here, big mirrors. And there's multiple bathrooms on every floor. We're going to look at an example of an air chase room. Yeah. Pipe chase room. So did you say there's two of these on every floor? Yeah. There'll be two of these on every floor. This is part of the way we cool the building and keep the building. There's pipes running through these walls. And this just happens to be where they put out into the community. So we understand it's kind of inconvenient to kind of have the space taken up. So one of the things we like to help do is we have all the movable furniture. We're in the other rooms. All the furniture is built into the wall. So all the furniture in here is very movable. They also provide a TV, which does come with full cable, which I do believe includes HVO. Mm-hmm. And that's... That'd be through Cox Charter, I believe. Yeah. Cox. Cox. Yep. Cox Communications.  So two floors on each, two rooms on each floor will have this TV and this type of furniture set up in here. Gotcha. If you're wondering what floors they are, you can go to housing.urf.edu and look at Yokum. And the... there's three digits to every room. The final two digits will tell you, like on each floor, which room it is. Nicole was wondering how the floors are separated for boys and girls. So there can be a male floor, a female floor, or if we need to, there's split up, half and half one side on one side, but they're going to be mostly single stacks first floor. Awesome. And Erin was also wondering if the rooms have adjustable thermostats. So Yokum is one of those buildings where the thermostat's not totally adjustable. You can't switch from heat to AC on your own. What we do as part of the Pi Tray system is we will do a complete switch all at once from heat to AC, from AC to heat. So that's usually sometime on October we'll switch over to heat, and sometimes towards closer to spring break we'll switch back over. Exactly. Okay. So be prepared that on an unseasonable weather day, this building can get a little bit uncomfortable. Not, I mean, not crazy uncomfortable, but somewhat uncomfortable. But every other day you have a great view and it's very comfortable. Yeah, I live in Reed and the air was set up just like that and I never really had any problems with it. But I am from Bayville, so I'm used to how weird the weather can get around here. Well, usually we wait for about a week straight of either very cold weather or very warm weather to do the full switch over. So we're not making that switch on the system just for every other day where it might be 90 degrees and then drop back down to 30, because who knows what the weather's going to be. And it does take days to get the system resting, turn it, and bring it up to the other thing. So it's not a simple process. And we do that to avoid flooding your rooms, with all the compensation built up or other type issues like that. We also had a question about how this residence hall operates on holidays and if it's open during inter-sessions. So we are an academic year building, so we will kind of shut down towards those sessions. But we have a whole, we have a very easy process for students who need to stay over winter break for different inter-sessions, make sure that you do have housing. So you never need to worry about being out of housing. We'll make sure that you always have a place to stay. That's awesome. Shall we head into the other room? Yeah, let's do it. Because this is not a typical room. Right. And Yokem got a re-design, or a lot of upgrades, about two years ago. And it went from being kind of older building when it comes to the light. It's actually become very well-lit building. And it has a real fresh feel to it. I like that the views are good from everywhere. Yeah, you've got the gents for it, especially. So here's another bathroom. And then we're going to go in to the 19th. So this is what most of the rooms will look like with the built-in furniture, except the beds are movable. You can lock the bed if you choose to do so. So you'll have room for storage underneath. Any measurement questions? Yeah, we had some at the beginning. Michelle wants to know the width of space under the desk and the height from the floor to the bottom of the desk. So the first one. So the width of the space underneath the desk. Okay. Yeah, I think that would do it. So it is two feet, two inches. And then I'll go ahead and do... Yeah. That is two feet, three inches. Cutting down. Okay, nice. Nicole wants to know the ledge by the window to the top of the window. She wants to know the height. You should have seen us last year when we were trying to do that with analog tape measures. Yeah. They're all fancy with our digital tape measure. Yes, this thing is such a lifesaver. This is four feet, 11 inches. Way easier. So that's from the ledge to the ceiling. Yes, the edge is ceiling four feet, 11 inches. Awesome.  Eight inches. And then it's going to be one foot, eight inches. The top one. Awesome. There is a lift there. It's about two inches, maybe. Yes, and then from the bottom and top if you're getting curtains, it's going to be seven feet, six inches up and down. And then three feet, 10 inches across. So if you get attention fraud, this is three feet, 10 inches.  Let's see. Jennifer wants to know the measurement from the outside post of the headboard. I think she's wanting the width of the headboard. Okay. Sure. Okay, I'll put your hand out and it creates a plane. So if you want to... Yeah. If you say remember here, here we go. It's three feet, two inches from the outside of the post to outside of the post. Three feet, two inches. She also wants to know the space from the post to the closet. Okay. So what am I... Um, edge of the closet? Yeah. So from the post to this right here, the outside of the closet is two feet, two inches. Awesome. Micah wants to know the measurement from the vanity to the desk for rug. Okay. From vanity to desk, it is seven feet, seven inches. And then I'll get from bed post to bed post that you have. Yeah, so you have. That's going to be another seven feet, seven inches. Oh, wow. So okay. Perfect square. Yeah. Becky was wondering if the rooms come with desk chairs. Yes, they do. I'm going to show you that. The handy dandy. Can we have this little trick that nobody seems to know about? Where are they turning to these gamer chairs? And then it's like a little turbo when it drops. It's awesome. So you can always do that. If you need more seating, that could come in handy. Yeah. Yeah. Have someone over. I think this is one of those halls where a lot of people are going to work with them too. We're very much that type of community where everyone says gets to know everybody on their floor, especially with the community bathrooms. Gets to know everybody. Yeah. Yeah. And brush your teeth next to the same floor. And do you sense when it comes to community bathrooms or have you already talked about the best way to deal with it? You just get used to it. It's just the new norm after a week of being in here. And you just, it's regular. And then you'll figure out that people have kind of the same schedule as you. So you'll be brushing your teeth next to the same floor. And then that's how you make for it. Oh yeah. We also have a wonderful cleaning staff that's going to be cleaning all of your bathrooms on a regular basis. Say hi to them. Gets to know them. They're wonderful people. And just take care of the bathroom too. Make the life a little bit easier. Micah was wondering the length and the height of the space above the top shelf of the desk. Space above the top shelf of the desk. So I'm assuming she means this top shelf? Maybe. So maybe that little measurement to the top of the wood? Well, each shelf is going to be three feet four inches wide. The top shelf is going to be that as well. And then. Five right there. The very top side. And then can you do top two roof? Drop the top two. Oh yes. Top of the shelf two ceiling is exactly two feet. Injustice in case you wanted to get storage for right here. It's 10 inches. Awesome. Becky wants to know how many outlets are in the rooms. So there's one on each desk. There is one under the mirror on the vanity. And then there's also one on the window sill. Which each one has two. And we're very comfortable with using power strips. Just don't plug in power strips and other power strips. You have lights. Nicole was wondering what do people usually use to hang things on the walls? Command strips. Yeah. That's what I use. So I recommend duct tape or a chance to rip off the paint off the wall. Which unfortunately will be charged for. So blue paint stay for command strips. And command strips work perfect as long as you use them exactly as they're intended. Right. Don't get impatient. Try to just pull them off because then you'll do damage. You'll be charged for an import show. Now this one does have those poster board. What do we call it? Cork board. Cork board is back there. Some people cover them up. Some people decorate them. You have been read too, right? Yes, they're pretty much everywhere. They're built in. So you can either decorate it or cover it up if you want to. Some people's headboards cover them. So just whatever you prefer. Which don't take it out of the wall. What did you do with yours? Did you do it? I had a really tall headboard. Actually, my bed was lofted. So it's not as tall as I think it is in my mind. But my bed was actually set up just like this. So it was on the top notch from this type of bed frame. And my headboard, I just kind of sat it in between mattress and the one that's built in. And I covered it up so you can see it at all. And the way these are lofted, you can flip the frame there and go much higher with it than it is currently. And you have until the end of the month, which is what, today or tomorrow? Tomorrow. To go to housing.ur.edu forward slash fix it and turn into a request. Yes. And if a light bulb goes out or anything breaks, you would go to that same website and just let them know and they'll come fix it for you. Derek wants to know what size the beds are. So I need a hand. Literally need a hand. Literally. An actual hand right there. So this is six feet eight inches. And then let's see if they're the same in here. This one's a little bit shorter. So a door side difference. Door side difference. Usually when there's a door side difference, it's this one's 75 inches long and that one's 80 inches long. So they're going to be a twin or twin XL. Either way we'll work out the story. And as far as who gets which bed, we leave that up to the roommates when you get here. That's a fun first discussion. Yeah. A lot of people ask about like A and B sizes in the rooms, but it's not an actual assigned thing. You just pick between the two of you. Discuss it. And once you claim a size, that's your size. Progressively or just in case that way there's any damages done, it'll be for, you won't be accused of your roommate.  You're also going to be completing a room inventory form on your first day here. It's part of your check-in process before you get your ID in it like that. So you've been going through the room and pointing out anything that's wrong right ahead. So we kind of have a record of what not fully fixed before you all move in. You could report, for example, that there was some damage someplace. And that'll carry forward with you till the end of the year. And people will know when you check out. Okay. It's like renting a car. Yeah. That's a good thing. Super easy. Stephanie asks if the outlets are two or three prom? They are all three proms. Three proms, you can see. Jennifer also, she would like to know the space between the headboard post to the shelf, that tiny space right there. She's making a custom headboard. Do you need the analog technician? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Still has its purposes. Every now and then, kind of four. So to be safe, I would say. Three inches. We have someone wanting to know if all the rooms have cork boards. I believe that's true. Every room has that. In most residence halls, if not all of them. Derek asks about the measurements of the cabinets above the mirror. This is wide as this, which is five feet, 10 inches wide. One foot, four inches. Nice. And Alana? I've not been out, by the way. Yes, they do. Alana, she asks if you have a single dorm, is there any possibility of getting a roommate anyways? There's always a chance that dude changes in population or something like that. There could be a sudden move to your room, but we're not foreseeing any changes like that this year with our current population. And she also asks if she'll still have two beds or just the one bed? Most likely, you'll be in a two bedroom with two sets just in case of that purpose. If you are in one of our designated single spaces, you'll most likely only have one spot. And again, just goes based on population changes and fluctuations. Awesome. I think that's all the questions we have right now. It's a really great question. So, super good questions. Yeah, feel free to go back and comment afterwards if you can give me more questions. And I will go through and try and answer all those for you guys. It is literally coordinating and channeling or going through and answering all these questions. Even after we've answered them by voice, they go back and answer my text. But it takes time for us to get through all of them, so be patient. Yeah, we're doing all the Facebook live. Yeah. Yeah, but just let us know and I'll be sure to go through and read all of those. Is there any advice you want to give? Get ready to live with somebody. That's the message that I can give. I've worked in the higher education in this field for three years now and 90% of our roommate conflicts are going to be because you're just not used to living with somebody. It takes compromise to live with one another and just have that really good clear line of communication. I really ask you not to use sticky notes as a part of communication. But just communicate with one another. If you've never lived with someone before, it is an adjustment. So just be ready to get used to that and then use your RAs and use your housing staff. They're all here to help. They're all wonderful. I'm very excited for them to come back on the campus next week. They're going to go through about a week-long training. They're going to be super ready to help you. And then we're always here for you. RAs here for you. I'm here for you. So whatever you need, reach out. Awesome. It's really fun. Just be very open-minded and you'll meet a lot of new people. And it goes by really fast to soak it in while you can. But I'm glad that I could show you guys around today and thank you for tuning in. Have a good day.


Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Shirley Tarawali. I'm Director of Institutional Planning and Partnerships at Illry, the International Livestock Research Institute. We've recently finalized a strategy for the coming 10 years, and the reason we've done this is because the institute's previous 10-year strategy actually finished in 2010, and we've had a lot of changes. This will now be signed by the Chairman of the Illry Board of Trustees, the new program. We've become a member of the CGIR Consortium. Well, good morning. I'm Carlos Perez Del Castillo. We've had a new Director-General. Jimmy Smith, the new Director-General of Illry. And the challenges facing agriculture and the livestock sector in particular have become so huge that we really needed to consolidate these and refocus our efforts for the coming 10 years. Our strategy is called Livestock Research for Food Security and Poverty Reduction. This includes the kind of mission that we used to focus on, pathways out of poverty. The differences in regional and country levels of preparedness. Our topic this afternoon is why fodder matters to Illry. But we've broadened it. Food and nutritional security are also important. And making sure that that poverty is addressed in a way that is efficient and safe for the environment, as well as for human health. Illry's vision is much bigger than what we as an institute alone need to do. It's a world where all people have access to enough food and livelihood options in order to fulfill their potential. The strategic objectives were informed by some diagnosis. The diagnosis involved a lot of external consultation and it involved trying to identify what are the big issues in agriculture, food security that we need to take into account in order to decide what it is we need to do. Firstly the food security challenge. We know that the whole world is concerned about how is it going to feed itself. In the coming decades, 9 billion, 10 billion people, how are we going to feed them? And for us, what does that mean for livestock? Are they part of the solution to that food security challenge? We've recognized as well through our consultations the need to deliver at scale. We cannot operate on small project levels any longer. We need to make sure that our research does go towards development outcomes and impact so that significant numbers of people who rely on animals in one way or another and there are probably about a billion of them in the world are really impacted by our research. We recognize we need to be very specific about considering the role of women. There's really good evidence that if you want to have significant agricultural development impacts then you have to take account, specific account of the role of women and that's very true for the livestock sector where women are often the ones who are raising animals or they're the ones processing livestock products, milk for example, or they're the ones selling. A whole range of issues there. We recognize as well that there's a diversity of challenges for the poor who keep animals. Very much our targets there. Sometimes they'll be involved in raising animals. Sometimes they'll perhaps be involved in growing something for animals to eat. Sometimes they're trading animals, a whole range of different opportunities that relate to the livestock system they're in, the livestock commodity that's being produced and the economic situation in which they're operating. Human health and environmental issues are always raised when we talk about the livestock sector these days. And we recognize livestock production can have negative implications for human health and for the environment. But especially in developing countries there are huge opportunities for transforming livestock systems in such a way that human health and environmental issues are addressed in a very positive way through changes in livestock systems. New science is undoubtedly going to be needed though. Even in developed countries the productivity of agricultural systems is reaching its boundaries so we need new science solutions. That is very much the case in developing countries as well. And we want to make sure that we bring new science to bear on these challenges of developing country livestock agriculture. We recognize in many countries of the world developing countries in particular livestock is about 40% of agricultural GDP. But if you look at the investment in the livestock sector it's very small in comparison. So we recognize that as part of what we do if we're to be successful that needs to go up, that investment in the livestock sector. We need greater capacity both in the institute itself to broaden as we said the development challenges are huge, we're talking about food security, we're talking about poverty and environmental and human health issues as well. We need to broaden our capacity but also in those we work with and in those who make investment decisions about where their development resources go. And of course we need to make sure that we're an institute as a whole fit for purpose that every bit of the organization is lined up to deliver on our strategic objectives. So given that diagnosis what's new in the new strategy? It's a long term strategy, it sets out a mission, a why as I said for the future. Meaning that we're not talking about the specific research we will undertake here that will be described later but we're setting the longer term goal for 10 to 15 years time. We recognize that we need to think about outcomes and impact. No longer is it enough for us to just deliver a research publication, whatever it may be. We need to think about how we get to outcomes, how we have impact and hold ourselves accountable for that and make sure that we attribute to the many, many partners that we need to work with the right credit for that to happen. We recognize a lot of diversity, there's not going to be one solution. There's different trajectories, different ways that livestock systems are going to change in the future and that influences our choices of research for development. Different species of animals demand different approaches. For chickens, for pigs, for goats, for cattle, there's a different set of challenges and opportunities. And our own institutional strengths are very diverse as well. We work at high-end bioscience solutions right through to in the field work with partners in livestock value chains. We need to bring that diversity together and we need to work a lot with a whole range of partners. We need to recognize that livestock can be good, they can also be bad. Bad for the environment, bad for human health. But there's huge opportunities to address the environmental and human health challenges as livestock systems change into the future. The role of women, it's well recognized that if you don't address the role of women in agricultural research for development you're not going to get to addressing food security and poverty and there's really good numbers that support that. And the clientele for Illry in the past used to be very much focused on the livestock producers. They're still part of the equation but we need a greater diversity of partners. We need to think about those who are processing and trading animal products. We need to think about those who are in governments or in big NGOs making decisions about where to invest their resources and how we can impact that for the benefit of the livestock sector. In many developing countries the predominant livestock production system are mixed systems and those systems actually globally produce most of the meat, most of the milk and importantly most of the cereals that poor people depend on as well. And these are the systems where we see huge opportunities for transformation into the future as those systems can access markets more and there's opportunities for increased productivity to enable small holders who raise animals to be part of addressing the food security problem and to do that in such a way that is friendly for the environment, that is equitable and that takes account of human health issues. But there are some livestock systems where circumstances mean that that's not so easy. They may be remote, they may be marginal, they may be very susceptible to climate change for example and increase in production and engaging in markets is not going to be such an easy thing. In these areas research needs to focus more on mitigating vulnerability, on looking at the resilience of those systems and of the environment and how animal agriculture can actually contribute to making that a much more resilient type of system. And some livestock systems are already pretty intense. Think around some peri-urban areas, even some large-scale livestock production systems where environmental and human health issues really come to the fore and those will be important to address in terms of the development challenges in such systems. So in order to do this we must act in three areas that reinforce each other. So that leads us to our three strategic objectives. One is to impact on improved practice. We need to make sure that people who are raising animals, trading animals, processing animal products have the right kind of technologies but also the right institutional and market environments to help them deliver. Secondly we need to provide compelling evidence in a way that persuades decision makers about the investments they make in the livestock sector and those decision makers may be farmers who will be making a choice about how they're going to invest in their animal production. But they may also be people who are making investment decisions in parliaments about how they're going to invest their development resources in the livestock sector. A huge range of people we need to influence. Something we've done on a bit of an ad hoc basis in the past but which we recognize needs to be in tension or now. And thirdly we need to increase capacity. If that increased investment in the livestock sector is to happen if that's really to deliver at scale and those two things very much go together then we need increased capacity of our own institute, of the many people we work with and of those who are making decisions about investments. Well, could you start with just vulnerability and look and then maybe define the countries you're looking at? Let me just say a couple of words about how this strategy intersects with the CGIR consortium of which we are a member. We recognize that there's a whole host of livestock issues, global livestock issues in a sense our strategy helps us to bring those to bear on the agenda of the consortium. We need to use that to make sure for example that livestock science is appropriately represented and researched in the programs that the consortium undertakes. Equally, because those are global programs they can also inform the priorities for the livestock research that we as Illry undertake. Finally to mention the critical success factors, five performance areas where we as an institute must deliver in order to achieve those three strategic objectives. To get the science right. To influence decision makers. To grow the capacity. To ensure we're an institute fit for purpose. And to make sure that we and our partners are appropriately resourced in order to deliver on what is a very substantial agenda. Thank you very much.


I'm not sure Minnesotans had ever even heard of Islam until about 10 years ago. But now, as a result of mass migration, Minneapolis looks different.


So, lately on this channel, unfortunately, we have been covering the anti-mask hysteria, which is a little soul-crushing, to be honest, because it seems like this is a phenomenon that is unique to the United States. I mean, I'm sure that there are other instances in other countries where every once in a while, there'll occasionally be someone who throws a fit about wearing a mask, but I mean, we're not seeing many viral videos come out of France or the UK of people refusing to wear masks. It's something that is happening almost exclusively in the United States, right? But this mask story, it really is just the tip of the iceberg because, collectively, as a society, we've just chosen to not take this seriously. And that includes elected officials like Ted Cruz, who was spotted in an airport and subsequently on an airplane not wearing a mask, which is horrible, not just because he's endangering everyone who's around him. But I mean, think of the message that this sends to his supporters. They are mostly evangelical, likely conspiracy theorist people who support him and they take what he says seriously. So if they see him not wearing a mask, they're going to do the same exact thing. But I mean, on top of that, there's a story in Florida of an immuno-compromised 17-year-old teenager who died from COVID-19 because her mother was irresponsible enough and knee-deep in QAnon conspiracy theories to take her to a COVID party at their church where there were more than 100 people not wearing masks. And then surprise, surprise, she ended up contracting COVID-19 and she died. The mother tried to treat her with hydroxychloroquine, which is the drug that Donald Trump was promoting. And that just made matters worse. And the story is tragic. Like I don't blame the 17-year-old. You blame the mom for doing this. Now this young lady was a survivor of cancer. So she was vulnerable. She was immuno-compromised. And this is what happens. This is what the mother did. I mean, this is what's happening in the United States. People aren't taking it seriously and they're celebrating the fact that they're not taking it seriously by going to COVID parties and whatnot. And on top of that, while we're on the subject of Florida, on Sunday, they passed 15,000 new cases in one day with a positivity rate almost 20%. And rather than actually taking precautions and trying to get this under control, Devon and Ron DeSantis is taking cues from Donald Trump and he is pressuring schools to open. As they surpass 15,000 cases in a single day, that's more than countries, right? Most countries don't have cases this high. This is a record for any state in the country. And he's saying, I'm not going to worry about that, but we're going to open them schools though in fall. I mean, it's shocking, but it's not just elected leaders and individuals who aren't taking this serious. It's the business world because when there's money to be made, they don't care about human lives, profit over people, because Disney World is also reopening. Now, obviously, this is a bad idea because this will lead to people dying. But hey, at least they're outside. At least they're going to be requiring people to wear masks. But in places like Windermere, Florida, it gets even dumber, believe it or not. Windermere, Florida is a current COVID-19 hotspot and there's a restaurant, a grilled cheese bar, who is not just choosing to remain open. I get that because, you know, you need money. You need economic relief when she should be shutting down. But nonetheless, she's choosing to remain open. But not just that, she's not mandating any customers wear masks. This is an indoor restaurant and she's saying, hey, you can come into my business and not wear a mask, expose me, expose all the customers. That's perfectly fine. But the story, believe it or not, gets even dumber because anti-mask activists in Windermere, Florida heard about this restaurant owner choosing to, you know, disobey CDC guidelines and they chose to encourage people to go there and not wear masks. They literally said for the first 100 patrons that walk in the door, not wearing a mask of this particular restaurant, they're going to buy their meal. They are literally encouraging people to not wear masks. This is unbelievable. And the video from this protest or event, whatever you want to call it, really shows how insane these people are. Police officers just stand down. We want them to stand out right now.  It's wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong. Three lately. Are you taking this woman's alcohol license from her today? It's wrong. It's wrong. What you're doing? It's wrong. America. This is America. This is America.  This is not communist China. You do not believe. Wow. And you know what? I want to second that right up here. Listen to this crappy neighbor. And what about my right? If somebody's staying in your house, you have a right to stay in your house.  It's not me.   You have a right to stay in your house, stay in your house, Karen. Stay in your house. See, this is what this is. This is the kind of thing we're up against. We're up against a person in her own home. She's allowed to shut the window, dear. This is a single woman who is running this grilled cheese business. This is her dream. And all she is doing is standing up for the rights of people to make their own medical decisions. OK? And you know what?   You're the one who's trying to force me a medical procedure so you can feel more safe. The risks are very, very low. This is a virus that has a 99.6 percent recovery rate. This is a virus that is very well contained. This is a virus that the CDC is removing epidemic status from. How I view it is everyone's health care decisions are their own. And everyone is responsible for their own health care decisions. As Chris said, if you are afraid, if you are at higher risk, feel free to stay home, feel free to wear a mask, feel free to social distance. That is your choice and we respect it. We want our choices respected as well. I have no problem if anybody wants to wear a mask, feels comfortable wearing a mask. We fully support that. Do it. If it makes you feel better, if it makes you feel safe and healthy, you do it. But for the rest of us, we shouldn't be required to. We do enough for our health to support our immune system. There are studies that show, oh, thank you, sweetie. There are studies that show the detriment on the other side of things to wearing the mask as well. So I think the bottom line is that the government is there to protect their rights. They're not there to tell us how to live our life and how to be healthy. Basically, I say a prayer for Kerry right now. Father God, I pray for Kerry right now. Yeah, I mean, the video speaks for itself.   I mean, that's that's what it is. I mean, TJ Kirk, the amazing atheist, made a phenomenal point. In a video where he says that basically, if Americans today existed during the Black Plague, they would be licking rats all under the guise of like disobeying government and, you know, not standing up to tyranny, something like that. Because this is what we're seeing. Like this is literally what they're basing their whole argument on. This is about freedom. This is about liberty. And they said to a lady who was yelling at them from her window, you have a right to stay in your house. How merciful.   They say that the restaurant owner, according to the two ringleaders, this individual Miss Lady, that the restaurant owner was standing up for the rights of people to make their own medical decisions, except that's not the way that this works during a contagious pandemic. You're not standing up for the rights of people to make their own medical decisions. You are unilaterally choosing to make medical decisions for everyone else by not wearing a mask because you're endangering them. Right? If a patient was terminally ill and shows to, you know, a stop treatment of something, that would be an individual making their own medical decisions. If somebody wanted to have an abortion, I know they probably wouldn't want to hear that. That would be an individual making their own medical decision. But choosing to not wear a mask. That's not something that just affects one person. You affect everyone around you if you choose to go in public because by not wearing a mask, you're spreading your germs to everyone else. This isn't about liberty.   It's science, literally, because as raw story reports, lower cognitive ability linked to non-compliance with social distancing guidelines. And as Psypost reports, new research provides evidence that working memory and fluid intelligence are associated with engaging in social distancing in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic. The new study has been published in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on March 11th, 2020. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 to be a global pandemic. Governments around the world urged people to follow preventative health measures such as frequent hand washing and physical distancing. But not everyone abided by the safety guidelines. In two studies, the researchers surveyed 850 U.S. residents between March 13th and March 25th, 2020. The first two weeks following the U.S. presidential declaration of a national emergency about the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to collecting demographic information and assessing social distancing compliance, the surveys included assessments of working memory, personality, mood and fluid intelligence. Zhang, the author of this study and his colleagues found that those with better working memory capacity were more likely to indicate that they had followed social distancing guidelines such as not shaking hands and avoiding social gatherings. Our findings reveal a novel cognitive route of social distancing compliance during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Zhang said the researchers also found that higher levels of fluid intelligence and agreeableness were associated with greater social distancing compliance, but the link between working memory and social distancing held even after controlling for these factors and others.  It's science.   It doesn't take a study.  There's no other way to put it.   I don't know what else to say about that. And I try to, you know, give people the benefit of the doubt. I try to take into account factors that might make them think this way. But I'm sorry. There's no time. There's no room for that during a pandemic. Cases in Florida are at a record high and you're doing this. You're encouraging people to not wear masks and you're going to buy them their meals if they don't wear a mask. I mean, I don't know what to say about this. Things that happen in America as of late are so shocking that I think that like a hundred years from now, if we're able to survive, humanity will look back at this moment and think this had to be like a joke, it had to be satire. And you know, what is happening now is indistinguishable from what we saw in the movie Idiocracy, right? That wasn't supposed to be nonfiction. It was supposed to be satirical. But I mean, we've reached that level of stupidity in the United States where, you know, it's not just that we're choosing to not wear masks, but we're encouraging other people to not wear masks. And in some instances, shaming people who choose to wear masks. So it's it's deeply, deeply depressing to see this. But this is done in Kruger, right?  But I mean, at the same time, we can't wait for you all to personally experience COVID-19. We need you to realize that this is a pandemic that has very specific measures that mitigate its spread. And if you don't do that, then we're going to be dealing with this.   This isn't surprising.  It's just it's so embarrassing. Everyone in the world is laughing at us and they should be.