Thank you. It's kind. I call my talk a sea change. Naval Warfare and the American Revolution during the spring of 1778. And as Mr. Kennedy was kind enough to point out, my purpose here tonight, or today, is to highlight the publication of volume 12. And let me start off by saying it's difficult pushing a book that even your publisher is less than enthusiastic about. I quote here from the blurb of the publisher, quote, this book is a key scholarly resource for a narrow group, naval and military historians and researchers of early American history and the American Revolution who require primary source documents. Potential interests may exist with some military or revolutionary war enthusiasts. However, as you can see, Barack Obama was enthusiastic about the volume and the project. Now, unlike the publisher, which is the government printing office, I think volume 12 is an important book and should enjoy a wide audience. Now, although the period covered, April and May 1778 is a small window in time, I believe a number of important changes in the nature of the naval conflict occurred during those two months. And those changes would significantly affect how the war was fought and contribute greatly to its outcome. The most important of these developments was the internationalization of the war with the dispatch of a French fleet under the comp de Stang from Toulon on 13 April bound for American waters. The signing of the Treaty of Alliance between France and the United States in February 1778 was obviously a major event. It was not, however, a guarantee that the French would commit naval resources to support American independence or to operate in American waters. In fact, the first request made by the American commissioners in France, that's Franklin and Adams and Dean and Lee, in early April, asking that the French Navy convoy and protect American merchant men and route from France to the United States, was denied by Gabriel de Sartine, the Minister of Marine. While the French leadership was unwilling to commit resources to protect American commerce, they were willing to commit their Navy to assist the Americans. In a bold move, which can be credited to the triumvirate of Sartine, Sartine's assistant, the Chevalier de Fleurier, and French Foreign Secretary, the comp de Vergen, the French decided to send the two-lawn squadron to American waters. Since the British had few ships in the Mediterranean Sea at that time, that squadron was free to go on the offensive. At the same time, the presence of a larger French squadron at breast, the threat of a cross-channel invasion and concern which was supported by intelligence, which was incorrect but on good authority, that the Spaniards were preparing to enter the war as allies of the French disquieted, and I'm quoting here, the British and forced them to keep a significant naval force off Euchante and in the English Channel and to delay sending a reinforcement under Admiral John Byron to North America. In fact, Byron first received orders to sail to America on the 3rd of May, but delays and then a decision by the Lords of the Admiralty on 25 May to postpone its departure until the British Channel fleet commander got, quote, good intelligence of Monsieur de Stang's fleet and is satisfied that it is bound to America or the West Indies meant that the relieving fleet did not sail until the 7th of June. The time gained for the French by British indecision grew when foul weather Jack, and that was his nickname, Byron's fleet encountered horrific weather and was battered and scattered. Some of them ended up back in Europe as a matter of fact. This afforded de Stang an opportunity to arrive well before British reinforcements. However, the riskiness of sending de Stang to American waters shouldn't be minimized. Had the British detached Byron's reinforcements quickly, the Toulon squadron might have been trapped and defeated or maybe even lost. French planners understood, however, that the possible benefits outweighed the possible dangers and they acted decisively. Now, had the execution of this strategy been as bold as the planning, the French Navy could well have ended the war in the spring of 1778. Vice Admiral Viscount Howell's fleet in North America was badly scattered and in number of ships in the line far inferior to de Stang. Moreover, the British Army abandoned Philadelphia on 18 June to move to New York City and I'll talk a little bit more about this later. While the army marched overland through New Jersey, that's the Battle of Monmouth if any of you know it, it shipped the bulk of its stores on merchantmen which moved slowly and in a disorganized fashion down the Delaware River to Delaware Bay and then northward to New York. Had de Stang arrived earlier, he could have captured that enormous prize, crippled Howell's fleet before it had established a strong defensive position at New York and then could have blockaded the city, the center of British power in North America. The large British garrison there depended almost entirely on supplies shipped in from elsewhere. So without resupply, it probably would have been forced to surrender. So you can see they could have ended the war. However, this didn't happen obviously, because the too long fleet was slow getting to American waters. Although it sailed on 13 April, it took more than a month for de Stang to pass the Straits of Gibraltar. Documents published in Volume 12 demonstrate that adverse weather, poor sailing, faulty equipment, the need to go only as fast as the slowest sailing ship and most importantly, de Stang's decision to use the voyage as a training exercise caused the squadron to proceed across the Atlantic at a pace that can only be described as leisurely. One of the most informative documents in Volume 12 is the Station Bill for de Stang's flagship, the Ship of the Lying Languadock, which demonstrates clearly how de Stang used the voyage to America to train his officers. The Station Bill gives not only the station of every officer on the ship during combat, but also detailed instructions regarding their duties, such as this. On the poop deck, Monsieur Grimaldi, Ensign, as near as possible to the breastwork, will command the maneuvers, the musketry, and watch over the rapidity of the fire of the swivel guns on the poop deck, mizzen top and main top, as well as musketry from these two tops. While the French fleet may have been better prepared as a result of this training, its slow progress across the Atlantic meant that it did not arrive at the Delaware Capes until 8 July. By that time, the chance to defeat Howell's fleet before it could collect and retreat to a strong defensive position at New York or the chance to capture the British Army's baggage had passed. Despite this missed opportunity, the nature of the naval war had changed dramatically. Internationalization of the war meant that no longer could the British assume they had unchallenged control of American waters or even the English Channel. Another effect can be gleaned from Howell's reports to the Admiralty printed in this volume. Service in American waters was hard. British ships and crews suffered accordingly. British commanders in North America were thus put between a rock and a hard place, especially as there was no good facility for repairing ships in the Americas. Although as seen in volume 12, the British had had plans to establish one. Interestingly enough, that was in the Virginia Capes and you know what happens when they go down there. To rotate ships to England for refit and repair left the American fleet weak, but to keep those vessels on station as Howell and his excessors were often forced to do reduced their effectiveness. Remember, one of the contributing factors in the French victory at the battle of the Virginia Capes in 1781, where the war ended really, was the poor condition of the British fleet. Literally some of their ships of line were sinking as they went into the battle. The spring of 1778 also saw a dramatic change in British naval strategy. The British de-emphasized the war in the heartland of America. As mentioned, the British abandoned Philadelphia and consolidated their forces in New York and Rhode Island, which they also later abandoned. Under the new strategy, mobile detachments would be sent by water from New York to destroy American forces in detail, to raid American seaports, to keep down American privateering activity, and to support a British attempt to create and build up a self-supporting loyalist base. Thus the focus of British efforts would be in the West Indies and on the periphery of the United States. In a letter to Lord Howell of 21 March, the Lords of the Admiralty spelled out this new strategy and ordered Howell to send an expedition to St. Lucia in the West Indies and to reinforce East and West Florida and Nova Scotia. West Florida went as far west as the Mississippi River today. It was a viable strategy. However, fear of invasion caused the British leadership to limit reinforcements sent to its army and navy in America. Because of this, the British were overextended and outnumbered in both the United States and the West Indies. Also, New York was a difficult position to hold, which limited the troops available for detaching. As a result, Britain forfeited the naval initiative in the Western Hemisphere and became increasingly reactionary. Again, another rather major development. The concentration of royal forces in American waters did open up the opportunity for British and loyalist privateers a trend that would continue until the war's end. While Admiral Howell fought a delaying action against allowing New York to become a center for loyalist privateering activity because he feared such privateering would result in desertion from Royal Navy ships and a smaller pool from which to draw impressed sailors, he eventually had to give way. As a result, the royal governor, William Trion, Trion Palace in North Carolina is his, began issuing letters of mark and reprisal in August 1778 and the success of privateers operating out of Bermuda, St. Augustine and especially New York became more and more evident and saw them garner greater official support and have a greater impact on United States shipping. The Continental Navy too saw changes during this period. The foremost was a dramatic reduction in its size. In the period of March to May 1778, the Continental Navy had six ships captured or destroyed. The Alfred on 6 March, the Randolph on 7 March, the Columbus on 28 March, the Virginia on 31 March, the Washington on 11 May and the Effingham also on 11 May. Member of Congress William Ellery on 25 April wrote to a friend, our little fleet is very much thinned and then he listed six frigates which were the biggest ships in the Continental Navy that had been destroyed or captured within the last year, adding tellingly, quote, only one have been captured on the ocean. Those losses called into question the competence and the character of the Continental Navy's leadership, particularly its ship's commanders, and also forced a change in the role that the Continental Navy played. Unable to contest British dominance in the bays and seas surrounding the major cities of the United States, American seamen were pushed to the peripheries where they enjoyed some success at least early in 1778. In North America there were two areas, Nova Scotia and East Florida slash Georgia, where American vessels came to dominate in the spring of 1778 and a third, the Mississippi River and the West Florida coast where they could realistically hope to contest British dominance. In Nova Scotia, privateers from New England including Rhode Island so infested, and that's the term they were used by contemporaries, the waters of that providence that the residents of Liverpool, Nova Scotia voted on 1 June 1778 to dismantle the town's forts and to inform American privateers, quote, that if they attempted to land under arms, we should oppose them, but if they do not land nor offer to take any vessel out of our river, we will not molest them. In Georgia, gun boats of the Georgia State Navy, that's something a lot of people don't realize, during the American Revolution, the states had individual navies as well. It wasn't all under the continent. Gun boats of the Georgia State Navy, manned in large part by continental soldiers, scored a dramatic victory over a force of Royal Navy and East Florida provincial vessels. To check an invasion of East Florida by the Southern Continental Army, Royal Navy Captain Thomas Jordan sent a force of three vessels to St. Simon's Inlet in Georgia with the intention of destroying the galleys of the Georgia State Navy. Instead, the British squadron was soundly defeated and two of the vessels, H.M. Armbrigh Hinschenbroek and East Florida provincial arm sloop Rebecca, were captured. It was a dramatic victory and gave the Americans control of the intercoastal waterway from Charleston to St. Augustine, thus threatening the very existence of the British colony of East Florida. While an active Patrick Tonan, the governor of East Florida, was able to cobble together a naval defensive force, thus mitigating the damage and unrelated issues halted the American advance toward St. Augustine. It was nonetheless an important victory and established, at least for the short term, American dominance in those waters and could have, if it had been exploited correctly, changed the course of the war in the American South. Another success and missed opportunity for the Americans on the periphery occurred in early 1778 along the Mississippi River. The origins of this expedition to conquer West Florida go back to the summer of 1777 when the governor of Spanish Louisiana, Don Bernardo de Galvez, Galveston, is named for him. Received a letter from Colonel George Morgan, who was the commander at Fort Pitt, which is present-day Pittsburgh, proposing that the Americans would send an expedition against Pensacola and Mobile. Morgan asked if Galvez would provide intelligence and supply transports, artillery, powder, and provisions. Now remember, Spain's still neutral. Galvez's response was equivocal, but probably more convincing was the fact that the flotilla sent to deliver Morgan's letter returned laden with arms, ammunition, and provisions worth some $70,000. After much debate, American leaders decided to dispatch a much-scaled-down expedition, James Willing, a captain in the Continental Army, but we think he was transferred to the Navy at that point in time, and 29 men in an armed boat appropriately named the Rattle Trap. Arriving unmolested into the heart of English territory, Willing's party captured or ravaged a number of British settlements, including Natchez, Manchak, Port Coupé, and Baton Rouge. They also captured several vessels, one of which was later turned into an American warship. At Natchez, Willing convinced the inhabitants to sign an oath of neutrality. Had the expedition continued to practice restraint, Willing might have successfully captured all of West Florida. However, the Americans began plundering those not considered friends and thus created a pool of disaffected who were instrumental in helping the British to re-establish authority. One result of the Willing expedition was that it almost sparked a war between England and Spain. Willing's party was so too small to be viable without the help of Galvez, who extended the American raiders, and I'm quoting here the sacred rite of neutrality. The English saw it as, quote, aiding, assisting, abetting, entertaining, suckering His Majesty's rebellious subjects, looking upon them as a separate and distinct power from that of New England. Galvez also permitted the American agent in New Orleans, Oliver Pollock, to dispose of plunder accumulated by Willing's raiders, including 680 slaves, through a public sale in New Orleans. In a letter of 7 May to Lord George Germain, Peter Chester, Royal Governor of West Florida, argued that, quote, the only effectual method to redress our injuries after all other means has been tried would be to make reprisals and detain Spanish property until ample restitution has been made. Therefore, it was not a paranoid rant, but an appreciation of the situation that led up beleaguered yet determined Galvez to write his superiors on 14 April, quote, it seems that the English are plotting an attack against this city, New Orleans, in retaliation for the refuge given to the Americans and their prizes. I already have two frigates in front of the city, and according to reports, an additional two or three are expected, one of which said to be a vessel of 32 cannon is at the mouth of the river. These frigates cannot have any other object but this town, as there is no need to move upward and no business to attend to in Manchac. Natchez and the other... Manchac, Natchez and the other English settlements given as there is no one there. I have been informed that the commander of these frigates is a brutal man, willing to commit any kind of transgression without regard to consequence.  His intention is clear and your lordship knows I cannot accept such a demand, and that I should be, as in fact I am, determined to defend said Americans and their prizes and to use all force and by disposal, although they are few for this purpose. It's a testament to the strength and will of Galvez and to his friendship to the United States that he was not cowed into submission by the British intimidation. As Oliver Pollock reported to Congress on 7 May, I cannot conclude this important subject without giving the greatest applause to Governor Galvez for his noble spirit and behavior on this occasion, for though he had no batteries erected or even men to defend this place against the two ships of war, namely the Hound and the Zilf, at the same time a small sloop with 100 men in the lakes was coming against him with demands and threats. Yet in this situation he laughed at their haughtiness and despised their attempts and in short they retained as they came, or they returned as they came. I have maintained that Galvez, if you want to have a Hispanic hero in the early American Revolution, or in the American Revolution, Galvez would be a perfect candidate for that. Now I understand that there's somebody that's doing a book on him and they also are building a replica of his flagship, the Galveston, in Malaga, Spain. Now I think they've run out of money temporarily, but someday you may see a, you know, a model ship up here like the Larmini did from France with Lafayette. So anyway, that's an editorial comment beyond my other editorial comments. What then ensued was an elaborate game of chicken, which went on for several months and was not resolved and chilled. Chester received a letter from Lord George Germain on 5 August, forbidding him to take the, quote, rash step of seizing Spanish property or committing any act of hostility against the king of Spain or his subjects. By then the mercurial willing had exhausted the patience of both Galvez and Pollock so that both were dedicated to getting him out of New Orleans and Spanish Louisiana as quickly as possible. Even so, it was November before willing and a handful of his companions departed from New Orleans aboard a privately owned sloop. That sloop was captured at sea, willing was taken prisoner, assuaging to be sure some of the British anger and he languished in British custody almost two years before his captors would permit his exchange in late 1781. While the willing expedition boosted Galvez s reputation, it was a failure for the Americans. Contrary to expectations, it did not permanently open up the Mississippi River to American commerce. In fact, the river was less available for Americans after the raid than before. It also hardened sentiment in British West Florida against joining the American cause. George Rogers Clark assessed the expedition in a spot on fashion. He wrote, quote, When plunder is the prevailing passion of any body of troops, whether great or small, their current country can expect but little service from them. Therefore, in West Florida, Georgia, East Florida and in Nova Scotia, the Americans were unable or were unable to transform temporary advantage into long term success. The opportunity was fleeting. By the end of 1778, the British had reinforced both Florida's and Nova Scotia and had undertaken an offensive against Georgia. However, the idea that the Continental Navy could not contend for the American heartland prevailed. And following a strategy promoted by, among others, Robert Morris, the financier of the American Revolution, Americans looked to attack Britain where British strategists did not expect it or where Britain was weak. An example of the former was the activity of the Continental Navy in European waters in 1778. An example of the latter was the activities of the Rhode Island privateer Marlboro on the coast of Africa. First, let's look at European waters. While a number of continental vessels were dispatched to European waters, including Continental frigates Providence and Boston, the activities of which are covered extensively in volume 12, there were two Continental Navy captains who did the most to forward this strategy of American presence in European waters. They were Gustavus Cunningham and John Paul Jones. I think you've probably heard of the latter. I wonder if you've heard of the former. Between May 1778, I'm sorry, between May 1777 and May 1778, Gustavus Cunningham in the Continental Navy Cutter Revenge captured 24 British vessels, including six in the spring of 1778. These captures are detailed in volume 12. Thanks to the onslaught on British commerce by Cunningham and others in European waters, British maritime insurance rates increased to 28% of the value of the cargo, higher than at any time during the Seven Years' War. It's little wonder that the pirate, and that's what the British called him, Cunningham became the most hated man in England. Another more famous Continental Navy captain who brought the fight to the British was John Paul Jones. While the battle between Jones' bone-home Richard and the British ship Serapis is the one Americans know best, Jones' 28-day voyage in the Slope of War Ranger in the spring of 1778 probably had more impact on the British public opinion and the conduct of the war. Sailing from Brest.  Sailing from Brest, and you can see the outline of his voyage there. Jones and the Ranger cruised the Irish Sea, captured and destroyed British merchantmen and the British Navy ship Drake, and most notably executed a land raid against the northern British coastal town of Whitehaven and an estate at Kier Kupri near where Jones had grown up. Jones tried unsuccessfully to burn some 200 merchant ships lying aground at Whitehaven, and at Kier Kupri he attempted to capture the Earl of Selkirk who Jones believed was an important peer who could be exchanged for a great number of American seamen captured and languishing in British prisons and prison hulks without any possibility of exchange. While the attempted arson was thwarted and the Earl was away from home and probably not important enough to command the kind of exchange that Jones envisioned, the fact that Jones and his crew landed on British soil twice and escaped demonstrated the vulnerability of English coastal towns. Or as Jones put it in his after action report, what was done is sufficient to show that not all their boasted navy can protect their own coasts and that the scenes of distress which they have occasioned in America may soon be brought to their doors. The raid provoked a firestorm of criticism of the Admiralty. It is something strange and worthy of particular notice that at a time when the ministry are boasting of their invincible fleet which they have fitted out, which is now riding at Spithead that a little American privateer, oh the British never considered a continental navy to be a true navy. They always considered them to be privateers or pirates. They never afforded our officers any recognition. Only plunder and ravage the coasts of this kingdom but in fight to take his majesty's slups of war it is a particular plague of the present time to rely upon appearances and neglect realities to put the nation to a vast expense and to do little or nothing for it and that's from a British newspaper. Such fears concerning the vulnerability of England strengthened the hand of those who argued that greater resources should be committed to defend the home island which was the goal of American planners when they committed the continental navy to this risky strategy. Finally, the raid strengthened the perception in Europe that the young republic might actually survive. According to a neutral Italian observer the raid quote caused a sensation in Europe and especially France because it again confirmed the opinion that the American sea forces are vigorous. Thus I think it can safely be argued that the actions of Cunningham and especially Jones when paired with the entry of the French into the war was a game changer. Now, the coast of Africa was another area on the periphery in which the American revolutionaries enjoyed success in early 1778. The cruise of the Rhode Island privateer Marlboro which is documented in great detail in volume 12 illustrates how American privateers operated in those distant waters. Testimony in Parliament in February 1778 which is included in volume 7 analyzed the effect of the war on the British African trade. Before the war some 200 ships were engaged in the trade but by 1778 that number had been reduced to 40 and 15 of those ships had been taken by American privateers. Although most American privateers cruised for slave ships near Barbados which meant they could take the cargo and because of its proximity to the American coast would lessen the possibility of recapture a few, like Marlboro operated directly on the African coast and it should come as no surprise that a Rhode Island privateer would choose to operate in African waters since Rhode Islanders had actively engaged in the African slave trade before the war and were familiar with those waters. While there's no record that Marlboro's captain George Waite Babcock sailed on slaving voyages his employer John Brown of Providence had been involved in that trade his entire life. Marlboro was a 250 ton ship mounting 20 carriage guns and navigated by a crew of 125 from New Bedford a few days before the new year and volume 12 picks up its story off the Cape Verde Islands. The crew sailed east to the French trading post of Gris and then southward along the Guinea coast toward the English trading settlement of Ile-de-Lô. In route and at Ile-de-Lô Marlboro captured five vessels persuaded a British master to act as a pilot negotiated a mutually beneficial deal with a local tribal leader and burned the settlement Ile-de-Lô when the British factors there refused to surrender the English property they held. The climax of the cruise came off Cape Messarado and let me quote the log concerning that incident. Quote there came a canoe from shore with a black king called Robin Gray steering for Montserrado when we hear of a slave ship ready to sail for the West Indies all sail set running southeast by east with our fleet after us at 2pm we made sail to anchor under the land all hands getting ready to engage if needed. At 5pm we came up with the ship at anchor the captain ordered them to strike their colors which they immediately did at the same time running under their stern if you get behind a sailing ship the stern is the weakest part so if you put a broadside into the stern you really destroy a ship a sailing ship in those days. Captain, this prize proved to be the Liverpool letter of Mark, I'm sorry this prize proved to be the Liverpool letter of Mark ship Fancy Captain William Allinson mounting 16 guns with a cargo of 300 slaves as well as ivory and rice a very lucrative prize after missing a second slaver that he had intelligence of Babcock decided to return to North America but obviously not before having dealt a heavy blow to the English African slave trade Finally, and this is not unique to the spring of 1778 volume 12 illustrates that attitudes among sailors in the continental navy were becoming more volatile and they were exercising more control or more agency in their situation By law a naval captain's authority was awesome and the tools he could wield to enforce his will aboard a ship were formidable but documentation in volume 12 illustrates the other side of the coin. Sailors were now powerless and could influence matters far more than one would think given the imbalance of power at least on paper between the officers and the enlisted. Recruiting skilled sailors was such a struggle that officers had to accept seamen of dubious loyalty and to frequently to accommodate their wishes in order to keep them content and dissuade them from resistance desertion and mutiny Both John Paul Jones and Gustavus Cunningham gave in to demands of their men and allowed actions which neither officer believed was legitimate. When Jones discovered that the Earl Skelkirk wasn't home he wanted to leave the estate unmolested but gave in to his men's insistence that they repay the British for their destructive raids in America by allowing them to loot the estate. In the end he got his men to agree to only take the family silver. This cost Jones personally since he later felt it necessary for his honor to repurchase the silver from his men and return it to the countess of Skelkirk and there's an interesting exchange of letters back and forth most of which the British post office wouldn't refuse to deliver. Similarly Cunningham allowed his men to seize British goods found in a neutral vessel even though the Congress had determined to follow the rule practiced by France that free ships in other words a neutral ship makes those goods neutral. This capture therefore caused major problems for Cunningham and angered America's allies. Continental Navy captains also put their enter prizes at risk by signing on Seaman whose loyalty were neither to them nor even to the United States. In volume 12 for instance when he came into conflict with his principal lieutenant Thomas Simpson John Paul Jones found that most of the crew which were recruited from Simpson's hometown of Portsmouth sided with Simpson against Jones. In another instance one of the rangers of the crews a member of the party sent to burn that shipping at Whitehaven the 200 ships I told you about decided that this was his chance to return to Ireland which was his native land and he deserted and alerted the townspeople thus limiting the damage the raiders could do. In another instance recounted in volume 12 Captain Samuel Tucker of the continental frigate Boston narrowly escaped death from a timely discovery and suppression of a plot aboard his vessel. As Boston was completing its refit in Bordeaux France two or three Englishmen who lived in the city hatched a plot to seize the frigate and sail it to England. The plan was for these Englishmen to sign on as Seaman and joined by disaffected crewmen already on board and a few deserters turned to the frigate to seize the ship. To ensure the success of the mutiny however the plotters wanted to neutralize the marines on board. This they sought to do by discussing or negotiating with the marine sergeant. Jerome Caseneuve a Frenchman Caseneuve played along and then later informed Tucker. The plan was diabolical and included adding opium to the drinking water to drug the crew and the officers the latter of which were to be murdered. Caseneuve denounced the schemers and although the ringleaders eventually escaped ironically Caseneuve himself later successfully petitioned French authorities for release from his enlistment claiming that he had been ill treated. Thus in the months covered by volume 12 these two short months globalization of the war a redirection of English war efforts the devastation of the continental navy a move to the periphery of the United States the emergence of New York as a center of loyalist privateering and what remained of the continental navy projecting power into European waters and finally the devastation of the British slave trade. I hope that you agree with me that volume 12 does evidence a sea change in the way the American Revolution naval war was fought. Thank you. Any questions? Yes sir, in the back. The British we're occupying what happens is disdain after he misses the British in the Delaware Capes. Goes up and he sits outside of New York until early August and then he decides he tries to get attacked New York which is where House Fleet was. However, his ships were too big to go over the Sandy Hook Bar or at least that's what he says that's what American pilots told him and he said he offered 100 Louis in gold for any pilot that could get him in. So when they say we can't go into New York Harbor and how it actually ships in a bow right at the hook disdain had to sail in he would have been blasted by House ships because the only way they could probably get those big ships like the Langwood Dock 110 guns would be to take the guns out and then sail it in and then put the guns back in so it didn't work. So instead of that they decided to go against Newport and that's the Rhode Island Campaign so they sail up here and they are supposed to join the Army which has been formed under John Sullivan General John Sullivan Sullivan was putting together militia and then there were some Continentals from the Northern Command and also Lafayette came up with some reinforcements so they put together this force and the idea is that they are going to invade and capture Newport. Well, the British really thought this was going to happen they were outgunned the French sailed right by them and so the British actually scuttled, destroyed, burned or sank most of the ships up here at Newport and it was the greatest military disaster that the French suffered in the American Revolution because they scuttled so many of their ships but what happened is Hal was able to get his ships back in service he sailed out of New York he came up to Newport to Stang Syme and he decided I want to fight him he sailed out to battle Hal and a hurricane hit and Stang's fleet was far worse hit than Hal's so what happened is a lot of Stang's ships were demasted they took some pounding from British ships because they couldn't maneuver at times and so what happens after the end of the battle even though Hal sailed back toward New York Stang goes to Sullivan and says look I can't fight and Sullivan was berserk he wrote some letters that probably could have ended the alliance but so what happened is Stang went up to Boston and he refitted so that was the end of the invasion now as the Americans are pulling back and Nathaniel Green's here by the way as the Americans are pulling back the British chase them further north tip of the island the Americans get behind some fortifications temporary trenches type thing and they inflict a pretty heavy toll on the British particularly Hessians and so what happens is the British then retreat back town to the southern part of the island hold on to Newport Stang spends his time in Boston refitting and he has orders that at a certain time when the season is over in America he has to sail down to the West Indies which is what he does and the British decide they're not going to hold on to Newport so they evacuate Newport at the end of this year so yeah I mean Stang probably had he not sailed out for the how but he was afraid how might somehow attack his ships as they were piecemeal around the island supporting American operations yeah it looked like the Newport garrison was dead meat in a sense at that point in time but you know for a stroke of fate and who knows maybe how would have defeated him anyway how is one of the great British admirals I mean he later on during the Napoleonic era he's the one you know he predates Nelson with one of the great victories as well so he was a good naval commander so he may have defeated Stang anyway who knows certainly the hurricane made a huge difference yeah yes how had a brother and that's his brother was just about going home I mean literally he was about to sail from home he had been the army commander in America and he had been replaced you know depending on who you listen to he had requested it he'd been you know he or he'd been back because he hadn't achieved what he wanted so right before this period William Howe had gone home and Clinton Henry Clinton was now commander in chief of the British forces in America but he did know better than Howe had done so you know they really didn't the army the British army in America didn't cover itself with glory that's for sure yes sir you mean after the war well I mean he continued then after this raid of the ranger he goes back to France and he's expecting to get a good vessel you know give me a fast vessel and I'll sail into harm's way one of his famous quotes but he didn't get it the Americans couldn't come up with the money and things felt so he got that old East Indium and the bone home Richard again he sailed with the idea of attacking the British Baltic fleet the British got most of their naval stores mass spars those kinds of things from the Baltic they had cut most of the good wood in England itself so that's where they got their wood well he was going to intercept the Baltic fleet and do some damage well he did but it was escorted by a new heavy frigate well small ship the line heavy frigate take your pick the Serapis and that's the famous battle between Serapis or sometimes we call it Serapis it's dependent on how you and bone home Richard bone armor chart won the battle but sank afterwards green had our Jones had to limp back into Europe and thereafter the British watch him very closely and he never gets another ship so after the war he wants to be the first American Admiral and he agitates he has some people in Congress that he works with he doesn't get it so he goes and actually goes to work for the Zarina Russia Catherine he gets involved in court politics he actually wins probably wins a battle for them naval battle against the Turks but but he's outmaneuvered politically he gets charged with statutory rape it was a it was a setup probably you know and so he has to leave and so he spends his time in France and then finally when he's in rather difficult financial situation the Americans give him a mission to go and collect some money that we said was owed to him but he died I mean he was in failing health and that's and then he was buried there and his you know we didn't know where for years and it's only when Teddy Roosevelt comes to be president the ambassador to France the American ambassador of France rediscovers his grave and that's when they dig him up bring him back to America and create that sarcophagus if you've ever been to the naval academy gone down below the chapel you see that that's based on Napoleon's by the way you know it's very grandiose very spectacular but Teddy Roosevelt wanted to you know he was the navy president he wanted the navy to be glorified and so this was one way of doing it coming up with our great early American hero and bringing him back in you know real majesty back to America and then they had this wonderful ceremony putting him at the naval academy so that's the story of John Paul Jones there's a there's a couple of good biographies on Jones let's see I always forget his name it'll come to me talk to me afterwards okay I'll give it to you okay any other yes sir he was regarded as the father of the American Navy yeah even though he's not American you know he's a Scott his name is John Paul and what he did is right before the war he killed a sailor he said it was mutiny but he skipped out came to America he had a brother who was a tailor in Fredericksburg Virginia that's how he ended up here and then he made some connections maybe through his masonic he was a mason through his connections he made some connections with some of the some of the congressman and he got a he got a commission as a lieutenant on the flagship the Alfred under E.C. Hopkins a Rhode Islander and so that's how he started out now he made a mistake he probably should have taken a command of a smaller vessel and he later said that but he thought he would learn more by sailing under on the flagship and then and then from there he took command of the Ranger I'm sorry the Slute Providence and he ravaged he captured a lot of British commerce up in around Nova Scotia he was one of the first to make the raids up there and so that established his reputation and after that excuse me he had a couple of guys including Robert Morris who was in his corner and so that's you know that's the development and from there he went to he was sent to Europe with the idea that he would do some damage and he did I mean he was he was a good fighting captain he didn't in both cases but particularly when he was in charge of the Bonhomer Shard how he ran his squadron was a disaster I mean he really could have used some training on how to how to run more than one ship as a matter of fact he ended up supposedly he was shot on by his own by one of his own captains but you know that's another that's another matter but anyway he didn't he didn't manage the flotilla well but he could fight a ship I mean Bonhomer Shard it got so bad that literally the British could not fire on it anymore because they blown holes so wide that they their balls weren't hitting anything so they were jacking them up or jacking them down trying to hit something and they said literally you could have ridden or you could have drove a carriage what is a 2 by 2 by hand you know big carriage through the sides of the Bonhomer Shard there were so many holes but he kept he kept them and also I should say in the first part of the battle his big guns had blown up of themselves because this happened a lot of times on guns of inferior quality they blew up and his his main his main cannon his biggest cannon were put out of action so he went into the battle with with you know far inferior to the Serapis which was a new vessel and was very strong now you know they won luckily what happened is one of his sailors literally climbed out over and dropped the 18th century equivalent of a grenade it happened to bounce down went into the gun deck of the British and the the boys that had been carrying up the powder the gun powder had been stacking them instead you're only supposed to bring it up but they decided that you know okay we'll have them you know have lots of powder here for the guys and they had stacked it and that grenade happened to land right near the powder boom and literally it took out the Serapis's gun deck I mean it was horrific it either killed or burned you know third degree burns 90% of the body type the whole gun so really the captain of the Serapis had nothing left to fight with and so that's when he surrendered so you know both ships were in really tough shape after that battle yes sir was there something about the French ships being superior in speed because they had copper although the British started to copper their bottoms as well but early on the French had developed the technology of putting copper on the bottom which saves the process of fouling so they would now so the British were doing some of that with some of theirs as well so they had it wasn't as great an advantage and what the British I think the British were the better navy because their tactics in battle were to get broadsides as fast as possible into the side of the ship the French like to shoot at the rigging and the spars and the and they tried to essentially you know kill a ship so it couldn't move anymore but it's harder to hit those kinds of things I mean you can cut up the rigging etc but the British also the rapidity of fire that the British crews were able to generate was impressive and so they tended in a one on one battle with the French they tended to win you know not always I mean you sometimes would have a French frigate captain take out a couple of British now I interestingly enough the Americans were probably the equals of the British in terms of fighting capacity so when you talk I mean our ships were always so much smaller usually but that's what happened in the war of 1812 we build super frigates you know like the USS Constitution up here in Boston and so what we do is we you know we take out any ship British ship equivalent or smaller and we run away from the big ones you know the ships of the line and so the Admiralty actually issued orders to its captain do not engage the American frigates one on one you have to have two or more of you and so that's you know and then they got smart and then they blockaded us so we couldn't get them out anymore but you know that was so that's in that case my point is that the American crews were probably every bit as good as the English often times they were made up of they were deserters English deserters as well so yeah we were good sailors everybody admired us even though they called us pirates and privateers yes sir well a lot of that difference as I was going to have to do with the way the sailors were managed by the different countries I mean the British were very impressed as far as their sailors they were in the sense that once you were on a ship you didn't get off you were there for a long time yeah there was but the British sailors were nationalistic and patriotic enough that they didn't have many issues I mean you know when they could run they probably would but you don't have major mutinies except at Spithead that one time and that was I mean what you had to whole fleet say hey we're not getting lead our people you know our wives and children are starving and so that was that was kind of a labor strike if you would but in terms of in terms of you know in a battle if they saw an American would they you know say oh no we're going to join the Americans no they didn't do that they fought and they fought well usually and against the French I mean one of the things that happens when disdain goes up to Boston is there's what is called the bread riots and actually some Bostonians attack French bakers and kill two officers that could have been the end of the alliance as well they said that it was British sympathizers and privateers and expertise that's how they covered it up but the evidence is probably no it was a bread riot people in Boston it was a bad time inflation food was scarce and they saw the British I mean saw the French bakers and there was probably a set to language issues but no and anti-French act anti-French feelings on the part of New Englanders and in France I mean in England itself they didn't like the French and so that's almost a constant yes sir no after the British evacuated late 1779 to Stang I mean I'm sorry Roshan Bow comes in 1780 so if you go to Providence Providence if you go to Camp Street that's where that's essentially where they and then you know they did the march all the way down to Yorktown Washington wanted them to attack New York Washington had a bugaboo in his because he always wanted to attack New York and even his subordinate generals would say George yeah well you didn't say George you didn't say General Washington you know but Roshan Bow said no that's too hard a nut to crack and besides that the French fleet would only come as far north as Virginia Capes and so that's why they decided to do Yorktown worked anyway I mean after they took out another army the British were tired of war and so they just said you know okay that's enough we don't care enough about these colonies about the American Revolution and people don't realize this that's the start of the Great British Empire the second British Empire the one on which the sun never set they picked up Cape Town South Africa they picked up a lot of big chunk of territory in India and they also picked up some territory in the westernities so that's that war became a world war and the British did very well in the end so you know they lost the American colonies but in the day of mercantilism you don't care because they produced the same thing the Brits do anyway and what they did is they picked up some lands in tropical areas that were they considered to be much more valuable so you know you can debate whether the British actually lost that war yes sir yes oh definitely as I pointed out here the British decided to shift their strategy all completely they essentially rode off North America they were going to what we called Vietnamese the war they were going to use the locals to fight their battles and so what they did is the focus of British activity, naval and army was going to be in the west Indian islands yes you're right correct I'm sorry yes well the Spanish weren't in the war yet but the French had a whole series in the windward islands but actually they traded back and forth and in the end neither side got a real advantage as to what happened up there yes sir oh really well the green family took one of them the flora and Griffin Green who was Nathaniel Green's cousin got a the encyclopedia of Dennis Diderot who was one of the French philosophes and he saw a way of how to float using bags inflated bags he floated the flora back up to the surface and the green family then went broke trying to refit it out and make a killing with it but yeah it was and Nathaniel was very proud of him to use and we actually you can see Dennis Casanoves I'm sorry his encyclopedia and you can see actually what Griffin Green used and how he did with bellows and inflatable things to raise the flora out of Newport Harbor so yeah okay any other questions good alright thank you thank you you've been a great audience


Hi, I'm Tom Mays with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Over the past couple of years, I've been writing a series of essays for the preservation leadership forum blog of the National Trust about why old places matter. What we're doing now is a video competition where we hope we'll hear from other people about why old places matter to them. I'm standing here in front of a little alley dwelling in Washington, D.C., where I lived in my 20s. Why does this place matter? It matters because for me, it gives me a sense of continuity, identity, and memory. It also teaches us things that we otherwise wouldn't know, and it's sustainable and green. I love to come back here, and whenever I do, it conjures up a whole host of memories, memories of my niece and nephew visiting Washington, D.C. for the first time, memories of meeting my now-boyfriend, memories of being a newly-minted lawyer in Washington, D.C. This is a place that also tells us about folks who lived in Washington, D.C. in earlier eras, but didn't necessarily make it into the history books. It's also a place that's in the Capitol Hill Historic District, and it's sustainable and green because it's walkable and dense here. So like lots of old places, this is a place that has a lot of different reasons that it matters to people, layers and layers of reasons. I hope that you'll submit a video that talks about why old places matter to you. The video should be about 30 seconds long, even though this one's a little bit longer. It should be uploaded to YouTube. The rules and how-tos are actually going to be posted in the Preservation Leadership Forum blog, and you should begin each video by saying, old places matter because. So I hope that I'll hear from you about why old places matter to you. Thank you.


President Mohammed Buhari has received a phone call from the Saudi monarch and custodian of the two holy moths, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, who commiserated with him and the people of Nigeria following the recent plane crash that claimed the lives of the chief of Amistar Lieutenant General Ibrahim Atahou and 10 other military officers. The Saudi king expressed full solidarity with Nigeria following this national tragedy. Buhari and the king expressed an exchange to pleasantries on the recently-macked Id, which was marked after the 30-day Ramadan fast and prayed for peace, security and progress in the two nations and sub-regions.


This is the ultimate guide on how to shoot a soccer ball. In this video I'll show you how to improve your shooting accuracy, how to improve the power in your shots, how to be more consistent with both feet, and how to improve your weak foot specifically. I'll show you how to shoot free kicks and how to practice shooting by yourself. So you can start having more confidence in front of goal and scoring more goals when you play. Attack the ball. You can usually tell if someone's going to have a good shot simply by the way they approach the ball. Before the opportunity comes you have to be ready for it. The quality of your movement into the ball will translate into the quality of your shot. Think about being light on your toes moving towards the ball and attacking it with purpose. Step number two, focus. It seems obvious, but the truth is most players are already looking at the back of the net before they even make contact with the ball. When it's time to shoot you need to lock on to the ball. Focus on the ball until you follow through towards your target. Even more so, focus on a specific point on the ball that you want to hit. Hitting the ball even a fraction to the left or to the right will produce a different result than you want. Pick your spot on the ball and keep your focus until the shot is complete. Step number three, control your body. Most players only focus on their shooting leg and foot. You want to focus on your body positioning. There are two things specifically I want you to focus on. First is your planting leg. As you approach the ball make a strong plant and stabilize yourself with your non-shooting leg. Second is your upper body. Place your upper body over the ball and lean forward towards the net. Step four is a strong impact. To produce a strong shot you must have a strong foot. More so you must keep a strong foot through impact. Many players will lock their ankle and make their foot strong, but as they strike the ball their ankle goes weak. Flex your foot, point your toes down to the ground, make your ankle strong and tighten your leg. Keep that strong impact as you make contact with the exact point on the ball that you were focusing on in step number two. Step five, follow through. As you push through the ball, keep your foot flexed and follow through towards your target. Follow through with your foot, but also your leg and your shoulders. The natural tendency is for right footers to pull their shots across their body to the left and left footers to pull their shots across their body to the right. Focus on a straight follow through and you will produce a straight shot. So first of all, remember to think about your body. Where is your body directed when you follow through? If I'm swinging and I'm falling through like this, like a lot of us do, the ball is going to go there. Or if I'm too open like this, the ball is going to go there. Think about, okay, where did my body end up? If you were like this and the ball went over there, that's because you opened up your body too much. So get your body going towards the goal. But I want my foot to come through the ball and point towards that corner. Okay, so when I'm done making my shot, my foot should be pointed over there. Guide the ball. Push the ball there. Don't just hit it. Don't just hit like a snapshot. Don't just hit it like this. Stop your follow through and hope that it goes where you want it to go. Okay, you want to push it there. Guide it there with your follow through. So think about those things. Flex foot, bigger backswing, and quicker swing. And most importantly, get your body over the ball if you're thinking about hitting it hard. So understand, technique produces power. Power comes from technique. It doesn't come from trying to kill the ball as hard as you possibly can.  You shoot the exact same way as you do with your stronger foot. You just need to learn to build the muscle memory and the range of motion and the strength and the flexibility in your weaker leg. Let's talk about foot technique because it is the biggest mistake players make when it comes to using their weaker foot. If you want to have a strong shot, you must have a strong foot.  Flex foot, toes pointed down, ankle locked. Just think about making your foot rock hard. This is going to help you produce stronger shots. Now, as you make contact with the ball, you want to keep your foot flexed through the ball. So you want your foot flexed and strong before you make contact, as you make contact, and as you push through the ball. Most players will let their ankle and their foot go weak as they make contact. This will create a lot of backspin and make your shots very weak. So if you want to have a strong shot, focus on keeping your foot flexed through the ball and not letting your ankle go weak like this. The other thing you want to focus on is making the point of contact actually on your laces.  This is something that you will develop over time. You'll just have to build the muscle memory again in your foot, build the repetitions, and just keep practicing. So you may just want to focus on swiping the grass with your laces. Some other mistakes players may be making with their weak foot. No backswing. Instead of a nice flowing backswing or they're kicking their butt, they're kind of just lifting their foot through the ball. This is never going to generate any power. So focus on having a nice big backswing. The next is your point of approach. You're coming at the ball too straight. So if you're always pulling the ball across your body, you're probably approaching the ball too straight. It will help you if you approach from an angle like this. This will help you get your shots on target and be more accurate and consistent. So think about your angle of approach. Hello, but on the bottom third, if you're hitting and it's going too high, you're probably hitting too low on the ball. If it's going into the wall, you're probably hitting too high on the ball. So analyze your technique and make the changes. But again, I'm hitting with the inside of my big toe there, bottom of the ball. Now the follow through, for me, this is the most important part of getting that whip on it and getting it to come back down. So you'll probably see some guys that'll take a free kick and they'll land on that shooting foot, something like that. That's what I try to do. But I really focus on carrying my follow through towards my target. So instead of hitting the ball and jumping and stopping dead on the spot like that, I'm instead trying to push through towards my target. So I'm really guiding the ball. I'm pushing that ball on that path that I wanted to take. And then I'm landing on that shooting foot like I demonstrated, but I'm going forward with that technique. So it looks something like this extremely valuable when you're practicing shooting, especially for a beginner, unless you have 20 balls. If you have to hit it in the net, as I've said before, hit it in the net, run and get your ball, run and go back. Do it again. You're not getting as many repetitions as striking on the wall. It's back already. Another shot, another rep, more reps, better skills. So I'm going to use a wall. First one, open touch. Second one, two touch. So take your shot. Good technique. Now you have one touch to set yourself for the next shot. One touch to get it out of your feet and strike it. So if my first touch is not good enough in a game, I'm not going to be able to get my shots off. That ball is coming to you. You want to score, but you're already thinking about shooting. You didn't even think about setting yourself. So when that ball is coming to you, focus on this touch. So important to get out of your feet so you can get the strike that you want on it. Okay. So two touch. The next shooting drill I'll do is one time shooting. First time. So as that ball is coming to me, I don't have any touches to set it. I have to strike it and I have to make it go forward. Start with a small distance. Again, don't worry about power. Focus on good technique. The purer my technique is, the sharper my technique is, the better the power will be and this will transform, transfer to every style of shooting. Okay. So it seems like I'm not hitting the ball hard. I'm not. I'm just focusing on making good contact. So when I do want to add the power, I have that technique there, that firm foot through the center of the ball. Another drill you can do is shooting after a skill or shooting off a dribble. Okay. Go again. Little bit of skill. So dribbling, change of direction, getting your shot off. Last one I'll demo today is shooting off a turn. So as that ball is coming, I have to practice turning, striking because you'll find this is a different skill than just shooting straight forward. So it's coming off the turn, control the body and strike, but I would start like that. Put it here. Boom. And what will happen when you're doing that is the tendency is here overcompensate and you end up there. So really focus on getting your shot going straight towards the goal. So again, here focus on straight. Yes. Quick turn. And I want better contact on my right. These are some soccer shooting drills for beginners.


Hello and welcome to the session. In this session, we shall study the concept of absolute value and make out the comparison of absolute value from the statements about order. We also know about integers.  For example, three of these are very number, then a set of three, that is the negative of the given number. Now, we will need the use of number line to represent the integers. Now, here we have drawn a number line and we have marked a point as zero. Now, the integers on the right side of zero are positive integers and the opposites, that is on the left side of zero, we are having the negative integers. Now, opposite of zero, opposite of one, minus one, then opposite of two is minus two, opposite of three is minus three and so on. If and positive numbers are used in real life situation, the positive and negative numbers are used to describe the quantities having opposite direction of values. These integers are used to write the values of temperature above or below the freezing point, elevation above or below the sea level, credit and debit, positive and negative charge, etc. This with the help of an example, this example is a cliff and reaches 20 feet above the sea level, goes 20 feet below the sea level, while the integers have a position of mountaineer and the scuba diameter related to sea level. Think of the given example representing the sea level, the point zero. Now, a vertical number nine, then points above zero will be positive and the points below zero will be negative. Above zero, it will be positive and for the scuba diameter, depth will lie below zero, so it will be a negative integer. We will write the following table in which it will write the particular integer for the mountaineer and scuba diameter position related to the sea level. Now, as the mountaineer has 20 feet above the zero point, it will be given a positive integer, that is, the integer 20, the integer minus this position is 20 feet below the sea level, that is, 20 feet below the point zero. Now to compare our other integers, now our number line is used to compare and order integers. Numbers to the left are less than numbers to the right and numbers to the right are greater than numbers to the left. For a number line, now here we have drawn a number line. Now here we want to know that if minus three is less than minus two, now if we have to compare, then let's compare root number line. Now for the number line, you can see that minus three is to the left, numbers to the numbers to the right on the number line. For example, we have to plot these two points on the number line. Now here it is to the right of minus four. Numbers to the right are greater than numbers to the left on the number line. An example for discussing the application of compare and order of integers in zero word. And the example says that the temperature of a city A is minus four degrees and temperature of city B is minus six degrees. Root setting is warmer. Start with its solution. Now here we have drawn the number line and we have to mark the points minus four and minus six the points minus four and minus six on the number line. Now as to the right, the temperature of city A which is minus four degrees is greater than the temperature of city B which is minus six degrees. Hence is warmer than city B. Now let us discuss the concept of absolute value. Absolute value of a number between the number that is the given number zero on the number line. Now the absolute value of any number A is written as absolute value of A. That is like this we will write the absolute value of any number between the value of two. Then it is written as is equal to two value of minus two which is written as absolute value of minus two is equal to therefore absolute value of a number is the minimum value of the number without giving regard to its sign. Now from the number line we can see that the distance of minus two from zero is two units and also the distance of absolute value of a number is the distance of the given number from zero on the number line. Now let us discuss an example and the example says find the absolute value of minus ten and the absolute value of six at this solution. Then we have to find this we will plot minus ten on the number line that the distance of minus ten from zero on a number line is minus ten is equal to ten. If we plot six on a number line then the distance of six from zero on a number line is of six is equal to some of the embedded remarks the opposite integers distance from zero on the number line. Second is unit value of zero unit value of a number is never negative it means absolute value is always a positive number. Next is minus mu of minus a negative or negative of the absolute value of minus five will be equal to mu of minus five is five. I am solving this will be equal to minus five and we have absolute value of minus five is equal to five. Absolute value of minus five is five which is positive and its negative or opposite is minus five. Now let us discuss how to compare values. Now if we have to compare mu of minus four now we have every rent how to compare two integers so we will follow the same procedure here on the number line. Now we know that absolute value of minus four is equal to four. Now here we have four that is four on the number line absolute value of minus four absolute value of minus four. How to compare the absolute values from the statement about order. For this let us consider an example which will help us. And the example says our statement shows she has an account balance less than minus twenty dollars that date has of minus twenty dollars which is equal to twenty dollars. P and twenty on the number line this is the point minus twenty and this is the point twenty on the number line. Now less than minus twenty means the value is less than minus twenty on the left of minus twenty on the number line that is minus twenty five minus thirty and so on. Now many are not taken as negative so we have taken the absolute value of minus twenty dollars which is equal to twenty dollars and we have plotted this on a number line. Now as we have already discussed that the values less than minus twenty means the values twenty five minus thirty and so on. Twenty five new value greater than twenty dollars it means her debit shows that she has an account balance less than minus twenty dollars means she owes more than to the bank. So in this session we have learnt about the concept of absolute value the comparison of absolute values from the statements about order. This completes our session hope you all have enjoyed the session.


There's too much of this, well men and women are the same. Men and women are equal, no they're not. Men and women are very different and they're complementary to each other and they should be complementary to each other because they fill each other's gaps, right? Like, men need to create value, we're born as nothing. We're nobody, we're weak, simple, we have no skills whatsoever. But as you age and you grow as a guy, it's incumbent upon you to demonstrate competency skills, be able to demonstrate resourcefulness, the ability to acquire resources to provision and protect. It's why women like big, strong, burly, alpha male type guys don't wanna use alpha male. Again, that's just a placeholder as well, like beta male, that sort of thing. But that's what they respond to, that's what they're attracted to, right? Yeah, like that's how I view it from a purely evolutionary point of view. And I think what the problem becomes is everybody tries to carpet their belief system or carpet their values on everybody. It all depends on what you want in your life. Like, if you wanna live a new kid or family or have a couple of kids and have a certain structure, there's ways to do that for success, you know what I mean? Like, if you are a single woman, career-driven, you don't wanna have kids, right? Many men do wanna have kids. So right away, you eliminate a huge portion of the men with demographics because they wanna have kids, right?  The cognitive dissonance happens where it's like, and this happens all the time, where it's like you have two highly career-driven individuals, they wanna have kids, but no one wants to let go of their career to support the child. Well, it's because we've been told for so long that you can have it all, girl, you know? You can have your university degree, you can climb the corporate ladder, you can have a husband, you can have a family. But if you're spending 10 years in university and then 10 more years climbing the corporate ladder, I found this out when I got divorced because that was about 39, right? So until this entered the sexual marketplace, you start dating, you know, you use the apps and stuff like that. And I was blown away by this concept coined as baby rabies. And there's a lot of women. Baby rabies. Baby rabies, yeah. There's a lot of women 35 to 40, 41, 42, even like kinda pushing in their 40s as well, where they spent the better part of their life chasing a degree, chasing excellence at work, making a name for themselves. And they got to the age of 37, 38, their eggs have dried up, their higher risk pregnancy, the higher probability chance of autism and all kinds of things like that. You talk to any teacher right now in school versus teachers from like 30 years ago and they'll tell you the reason why kids behave like assholes and they require so much attention is because parents are putting off having kids or having them later on in life which causes more problematic issues with children as they develop and as they grow sort of thing. So they think that they can have it all, but what they end up doing is they put it off to the very end, they end up having high risk pregnancies and they show up and they're like, I've got baby rabies, wife me up. And it's like, you don't even get a chance to vet them for a couple of years to see what they're really like because what they do is they push most of these beta male providers into a marriage, have the kids, she realizes five to seven years later that she's not really that attracted to them. She watches Eat, Pray, Love on Netflix and decides, you know what? I think I'm gonna bounce on this guy because divorce law is totally in my favor. He's gonna be paying me child support and I'll get the kids anyway. So I'll just do that and I'll find the next guy. And there's so many guys out there that have been divorced right by women. I mean, they go through the divorce machine and I'm not saying this is like women that do, that does this, but this is the way that family laws construct. This is the way that we've designed the system is to always protect the female because the male has always been disposable. And that's not me saying that. I mean, that's evo-psyclic, that's evolutionary history, right? Men have always been disposable.  So it's no surprise that's built into family law. So guys go incredibly wrong wifing up the wrong woman in the late 30s.


I woke up this morning to see hashtag cancel netflix trending on twitter and decided to see what this was all about. Unsurprisingly the film cuties is once again bringing the top streaming service a ton of backlash. If there's anything that will bring the left and the right together, it's the topic of child predators. But the story around cuties and hashtag cancel netflix is much more nuanced and it really sheds a light on the veil many of us willfully pull over our eyes on a daily basis. If you're wondering what people are saying about cuties on twitter, look no further than right wing loudmouths like Ben, Racism Doesn't Exist Shapiro, Ex Info Wars B Team member Paul Joseph Watson, and conservative convert Tim Pool. It's no secret that we live in a world of headline readers and it's really interesting to me how many movies, TV shows, books, and other forms of entertainment receive backlash before anyone has even witnessed them. From the outside it's easy to intuitively believe that this movie is abhorrent and that people should boycott netflix for allowing it on their platform. But what is this movie actually about? Recently NPR wrote an article about the controversy and it included quotes from the creator. The French film cuties is being praised for its critique of the hyper sexualization of young girls and the consequences of that as they rushed to become adults in the age of social media. It began several years ago when filmmaker Mamouna Decoré was at a neighborhood gathering and her jaw dropped. A group of young girls in revealing outfits came out on a stage and performed a choreographed routine. Decoré says that they couldn't have been more than 11 years old and they were dancing very sexually and I was very disturbed about what I was seeing. But instead of passing judgment, the self-taught writer and filmmaker said she wanted to understand what she was seeing. She dove into research interviewing more than 100 adolescent girls over the course of a year and a half. It's a period that's very specific, Decoré says, where you are not any more totally a child and you are not an adult, you are looking for yourself and everything is changing very fast. So on the surface this movie looks like the twisted fantasy of some sort of child predator but it's more of a commentary on the massive issue we face today in the age of social media. For example, look at the young creators like Danielle Cohn who has been sexualized since she was 12 or just flip through TikTok for 5 minutes and you'll see kids trying to become the next rich and famous influencer. I don't think people necessarily have a problem with the film. I believe they have a problem with the reality that we're refusing to face as a culture and that reality is that for years we've been glamorizing an industry that takes advantage of children and oftentimes is to the benefit of the parents. If you need further proof of industries that sexualize young women and turn a blind eye, recall the story of Larry Nassar. Nassar was sentenced to over 300 years in federal prison and these were for the disgusting crimes that he did against young women who were gymnasts and he did this for years. The story of Nassar is complex and I can't do the victims justice in the short piece by explaining all the people who neglected to help these young women but in short this doctor of young female Olympic gymnasts spent years molesting these young women. When you hear a story of how a monster like this got away with this for so long you can't help but ask how much was ignored because the parents wanted their daughter to help them get rich and famous. As much as people want to signal to the world that they're against Netflix hosting the movie Cuties, the culture as a whole looks extremely hypocritical. The show Dance Moms premiered in 2011 and it's so successful that it's been on for eight seasons. This is a reality show about real young women in the industry, the writer and director D'Qoré is trying to shed some light on. What people don't want to admit is that Cuties isn't a fictional story. As mentioned in the NPR piece, D'Qoré interviewed more than 100 young girls and researched this industry thoroughly. This is less of a movie and more of a documentary. This is a prime example of the analogy that you never want to see how the sausage is made. When you understand the truth about the industry, you can no longer enjoy it. This movie puts a spotlight on the shows that we've glamorized like Dance Moms and young women like Jojo Siwa who grew up in that industry. Since the dawn of Hollywood, parents have been using their kids as cash cows and as a means to impress their friends. The reality is that this isn't pretty and Drew Barrymore has very publicly discussed how she started drinking, smoking pot and snorting coke by the age of 12. Today, in a world where any kid with a cell phone can get famous and a vast majority of kids want that reality, we should be grateful for a movie like Cuties. As a father, I know that I'd much rather know what's going on in the world of child exploitation than pretend that it's all just the fun world of Dance Moms. It's a whole lot easier for us to get outraged at a movie on Netflix than it is to face the reality that there are more Larry Nisar's out there. By focusing our energy on trivial things like Netflix movies, we don't have to face the reality that people like Larry Nisar were able to get away with their heinous acts right under our noses. What's up everybody? Thanks for watching this quick video essay. I actually just posted this up on Medium too. I had to talk about it and I'm not saying anything new. Like when this first started bubbling up, I saw a lot of people saying these things. They were saying that like this woman who created this movie, she was shining a light on what's actually going on. But right now there's this huge movement where it's easy to call all these things for like being a child predator and all this other stuff. But here at The Reward Soul remember, we critically think. We don't just look at the surface, okay? We dig deeper. We try to take things a little bit further and really think about them. And look at the broader picture. Like I said, this is something that's going on on a daily basis like in reality. But we're wasting valuable time by freaking out over a fictional movie that is depicting real life. You would think that this movie would be a call to arms for people to start looking into these industries and doing something about it. And doing something about these parents who are letting this happen to their children. You know? But one of the biggest issues that I see today is that when we jump into these outrage cycles, we neglect the real problems that are actually going on. All right? But anyways, that's all I got for this video. If you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell. And a huge thanks to everybody who sports the channel over on Patreon or gets my books from TheRewardSoul.com or gets merch from the merch store. You're all amazing. Thanks again for watching. I'll see you next time.


Guys, it's Evelyn here.  Yes, folks, be yourself. Be loving, be kind, be gentle.  This is my thought for today to you. Be more loving and giving today. There is something to giving and genuinely loving takes you to a higher level of thinking. And if this becomes your norm, imagine what you would be able to manifest in your life just by loving and giving. It's one of my failed attempts to discover a blooper. See you soon, folks. It's nice being here.


If 2022 thought that something is that we should be careful about how we store our crypto, that we shouldn't entrust all our funds to centralized entities, and that controlling our private keys is the only way to get rid of the counterparty risk. But critics say that self-custody is too complicated and cumbersome for most crypto users. If not done it correctly, managing your private keys could be even riskier than trusting a third-party custodian. So what is the best way to keep your crypto safe? Is self-custody really the most reliable option? In this video we discuss the nuances of crypto storage with James Chek, lead on-chain analyst at Glassnode. I'm Giovanni. On this show we challenge the ideas that are shaping the world of crypto. In each episode we challenge a crypto narrative, a price outlook, or a potentially disruptive technology. Only the most solid ideas will make it to the other side. This video is presented by our sponsor Web3 Antivirus, a security solution that helps protect users from online threats and scams on the decentralized Web. Okay, James, let's start from the basics. So what is self-custody according to you and why it is important? Sure. I mean, the concept of self-custody is essentially taking ownership of these, you know, bear assets. When people who are brand new to the digital asset space kind of ask me this question, I think the best analog is it's like holding physical cash. It's like holding physical gold. And the reason why it's important is that it's really one of the key innovations of Bitcoin being a bearer asset, a bearer hard asset that you can actually hold outside the system. And as we've seen over the course of 2022, there were several instances where we had centralized entities who are the custodians, who over-leveraged, lent out customer assets or just otherwise gambled them away. So in all of those instances, if you're not holding your own assets, then you are essentially liable. They are a liability on someone else's balance sheet. And you know, these people, you know, many of them ended up with zero. So in many ways, it's one of these few, the first time that we've had a digital asset that you can hold in your own keys in a bearer format. And really, it overcomes one of the largest problems with gold, which was that it naturally centralized by design, because gold coins are just really hard to move around. A few days ago, we saw that a Bitcoin core developer was a victim of a hack in which he lost control of his Bitcoin. So he was doing self-custody. And he had 3.5 million worth of Bitcoin stolen in a hack. So we don't exactly know for sure what happened, what are the details of this. But what I want to focus on is the reaction that these events sparked specifically on crypto Twitter. Basically, a lot of people were saying that if a Bitcoin core developer couldn't handle self-custody, wasn't able to self-custody, then how would an average user do it? People say that this is too complicated and risky for the average user. So what is your comment to those type of reactions? Yeah, I mean, I completely disagree that having a core developer losing their coins as unfortunate as it is. At the end of the day, I'm also an average person and I've managed to do self-custody. If you have gold in your vault, if you have cash in your wallet, it's the same concept. You need to exercise a level of responsibility. So understanding what those attack vectors are, and in many instances, you know, 24 words or 12 words, which is your ultimate seed phrase. That is essentially no different to saving your password for a password manager, right? Or a password for your bank account. So it's the exact same concept. Yes, there are risks, but at the same time, we as humans, our job and what we do is assess risks. There are no solutions, only trade-offs, and the trade-off is you're removing that liability on third parties, but you have to look after a 12 or a 24-word seed phrase. The designer Udi Wertheimer makes a case specifically against seed phrases. He says that this list of words is very difficult to keep safe for years and learn how to do it is also very difficult. He recommends to use custody solutions that don't require to handle the seed phrase yourself. What do you think about these statements? I think the example he's probably alluding to is things like collaborative custody, like unchained and some of these companies who give you a two or three or three or five, whatever your setup is, they can provide you with a collaborative custody solution. They're absolutely a fantastic solution. I'm glad that they exist. But if your weakest link is somebody getting into your email account to do the social recovery for you, they can do a reset password, they get the link, suddenly they get your funds. So it's one of those things where collaborative custody is important. It solves a certain problem. But you open up a different attack vector, which is what happens if you lose the passwords, your email account. So at the end of the day, all of this actually boils down to what is the weakest link in your security setup? And there is no correct answer. It is a process that people need to go through. It's a personal decision at an individual level. It's the same as all privacy, all security online. What is your weakest link? If somebody can get into your master email account and reset all of your bank passwords and access your social recovery, then you may as well have had 12 words written down a book in the back of your cupboard. So at the end of the day, identifying what is the weakest link, it's not a difficult process. It's just a process people actually need to do the work for. And it's no different to whether you're doing social recovery or a pure self-custody type setup. At the end of the day, it comes down to education and spending the required hours to look after the wealth that you're putting into this wallet. If you're not willing to put more than five minutes into it, then don't put more than five dollars into it. If you're willing to do 100 hours, now you can start talking about doing your significant sums of savings. So again, everything scales with the use case. So when you talk about these weak links, what do you mean exactly? Can you give us a practical example? So let's say you have a password manager and you put your 12 words inside your password manager and then you post your password manager's password to your Dropbox. Somebody getting into your Dropbox is the weakest link because that is the pathway by which they will access. You kind of look at us like a flow chart. If your seed phrase is locked in a vault and that's the only place that it exists, then somebody breaking into your house and stealing that 12 words, that is your weakest link. So it's about identifying if the attack vector is that you're going to lose your 24 words, what are the multiple pathways that somebody could use to actually get to those 24 words? And essentially identifying what is the weakest part of that puzzle that will essentially give them up. Another point made by Vertheimer is that different types of crypto use require different type of custody. So he makes the point that, yeah, holding your coins in a hardware wallet is a good solution if you are storing your wealth for the future, for future generations or for anyway, for the long term. But if you use your crypto for swapping NFTs 10 times per day or for on-chain trading, then holding your crypto on such a hardware wallet is not the most user-friendly, comfortable solution. Don't you think that it depends also on the usage that you are making of that crypto? Of course. And it's about having the right tool for the right job. You know, in my personal setup, I have cold storage. I have warm storage, which is coins that I have on my mobile, but I cannot just send with my mobile. You still need a hardware device to actually send them. You've got cold storage that's completely separated from the internet at all times, and it's very secure. And then I have a hot wallet, which is if I need $100 to $100 to just move around or do an intermediary transaction, then you have a hot wallet that's just a wallet on your phone, right? It comes down to the right tool for the right job. And with all of these things, you have different levels of security. Vartimer points out that third-party custodians are not always bad. For example, he makes the example of Michael Saylor. So Michael Saylor stores his crypto apparently in a third-party custodian, and he said that if he does it, then why wouldn't the average user wouldn't do it? And then he also says you can put part of your holdings on different third-party custodians, on different, for example, exchanges in order to minimize the risk. What do you think about this solution as an alternative? Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm going to disagree with Udi on this one, because if you think about it, so let's just take the Michael Saylor approach. I'm quite positive that the custodial set up that Michael Saylor and Michael and MicroStrategy have. If the bill from Coinbase or whoever their custodian is, if the bill came to you and I, it would send us broke, right? The amount of money that he would be paying in order to obtain that level of custody and that whole solution, it's not feasible for the average person. So really what Udi is saying there is that people just deposit across all these exchanges. OK, so what is the weakest link? Well, the weakest link is you now have, let's just say, for example, five exchanges. You've split your deposits one-fifth in each. Now you have to manage five different passwords and five different two-factor authentication methods. So when you actually peel back that onion, the solution that Udi is proposing is far worse because you have more passwords, more two-factor, and you still have third-party custodial risk. Yeah, that makes sense, although having to remember those passwords is not so critical as when you have to remember your seed phrase because I think there are retrieval systems in case of exchanges in third parties while there are no retrieval systems in the case you lose your seed phrase. So that's not exactly an equivalent. Of course, but it comes down to trade-offs, it comes down to hardware. There's mitigation solutions even within that framework to make it really, really difficult for you to lose your coins. When that accident happened, you pointed out on Twitter how you would recommend an average user to approach self-custody. So can you guide us through this process? As I mentioned, it is a learning journey. When you start with your first buy, just downloading an app in terms of Bitcoin wallets, like a nunchuck or a green wallet or any of these self-custody wallets, they give you the 12 words. They're very, very simple to set up, and you can start storing coins there. Very, very simple, all supported by exchanges. Really, even in the modern era, pretty hard to get wrong. So you can start with a mobile wallet. Everyone's got a mobile phone, fairly simple. As you start to build up your holdings, you've got some kind of meaningful wealth, a couple of thousand dollars. It's starting to get meaningful while investing in $120 ledger or a cold card or something to just give you that extra security is really the next logical step. Now, the ledgers and treasures are super, super easy from a user interface perspective. People who have multiple coins, then these things offer you a really clean user interface. Again, once they're set up, and you've done the initial setup with the 12 words, so you're used to this, the transfer across to a hardware wallet is a pretty basic next step. You're not scaring yourself by going all the way to a multi-sig with six devices. You're just starting with 12 words, mobile app, hardware wallet. And then once you get beyond that, the next step is really start thinking about, if you've got a meaningful amount of wealth, you can start to think about, do you have multiple hardware devices? Do you move to something like a cold card? It gives you more options in terms of passphrases. Do you actually have multiple signing devices? Is that actually keeping it simple, or are you making it too complex for yourself? So, find experiment, find the software, find the wallet, try different things, try different hardware vendors. You know, I've been in this industry for almost six years now, and I've used most hardware wallets, right? You buy one version of each one, and you just play around with it, see what works. And eventually you settle on, I like this, this makes sense, I understand it, here's my process. And again, it scales with your holdings. $100, who cares? 100 grand, different story. Awesome. Yeah, I think that was a great overview of the different approaches that people can use for this. And hopefully people watching will be able to think about it and choose their own personal solution for self-custody. So, yeah, thanks a lot, James, for coming on our show. And happy new year. Thank you, happy new year.


The Zamfara State Governor Bailu Matawali has ordered the immediate closure of primary and secondary schools in the state following the abduction of a yet-to-be-assetained number of students in the state. The Zamfara State Commissioner of Police Ayuba El-Kana conveyed the governor's directive while addressing journalists on the new security measures in the state. The Zamfara State Government's decision is indefinite. The commissioner added during the briefing in Gooseau. When asked how many students were abducted, the commissioner of police said, quote, I don't know. The government also restricted movement from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. in 13 local government areas. But for Gooseau, the capital movement restriction will be from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.