Welcome back to Y2 for 4 channel and at Brian Sanko 101 on the hashtag Why In The Morning. We are about to delve into a conversation about tivets and academic routes. Okay and definitely recently we've seen the Kenya National Examination Council led by rather the whole docket led by Ezekiel Machogo who is the cabinet secretary. They released the Kenya Secondary of Education examination results but they've not yet rolled out the final list and also the directive on also when are students enrolling but I believe they're going to enroll towards April-May but they also said they'll communicate and the body in charge now is the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service that's now in charge of DUNT and they issued out that starting May 17th last year to June 2023. They pointed out that all the 2023 candidates and will definitely get to see the universities that they'll be placed into and also for those that will not maybe have met the minimum grade of entry they'll have an option of joining tivets and I love the fact that on the website of CUSP they've given an outline of how to join so shortly you can visit their CUSP website www.cusps.ac.ke and click on students portal. On the portal you can click login and then just get to fill in your details this will definitely be happening a lot in May or April-May and then also they'll be also filling out a space where students that will be eligible for government scholarships as well all those details will be communicated on CUSP's website Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service it's going to be mentioned a lot come April-May okay but now we're going to double into conversation about academic alternative routes and I'm being joined live by Brian Kipchumba he's a youth leader at Elgeo Maroket County and also a president student at KTTC Kevin Emampus he's a tivet students association national academic secretary good morning Karibuni Sana thank you thank you all right so just a brief a brief introduction of maybe your background and what you do and also how you become a president at KTTC now yeah my name is Brian Kipchumba Chiriot I'm a student leader at Kipsoin Technical Training and Vocational College it's a vocational college situated in Elgeo Maroket County and I'm also a youth leader in Elgeo Maroket County having come from actually the Kereo Valley that is where I was born and raised I'm also a businessman I'm an entrepreneur we have a business probably it is located in Eldoret Town that is at KVDA Plaza we do branding of jazzy's we do businesses such as logo creating and also branding of actually the capes and that is what I do as a part-time job apart from being a student at the tivet so okay yes Kevin what do you do that I'm Emma Pasckevin the KNAT tivets academic secretary the journey of becoming academic secretary this is something that I started a long time ago because I've been in leadership back in my institution Rifty Valley Rifty Valley Institute of Science and Technology and last year last year in November it was now upgraded to Rifty Valley National Polytechnic currently that is the name under that institution I've served at the Department of Agricultural and Agricultural Mechanical Engineering Department as the academic representative the MP of the department for two consecutive years I was also elected as the KNAT tivets academic secretary while I was having that role as the MP of the department from that institution as I applied and then I was elected and then currently I'm also still a student there and I'm also planning to do another course differently from whatever I did because I did agricultural engineering diploma and now I'm also thinking of pursuing a diploma in computer science as an additional course so that I can get what I wanted but under the leadership roles and outside there I'm also doing my only part Python jobs like business I always engage in business because being an agricultural engineer I'm also venturing under agriculture outside here I'm certainly a farmer but I'm not the one who always get into a farm so that is my part time activities some dealing with farm produce like selling fruits and all sorts of that things that is my part time job okay now we can move away from your individual practices let's get to the conversation at hand for those that did not score a minimum grade that is required by now for you to join a higher learning institution maybe what is the alternative maybe I can start with you Brian yeah now when you talk about actually getting those flying college grades that is going joining to the university and that is the hope of each and every parent I had to see that maybe their children are joining those universities but now on the course of the journey of being in high school and you have attained that grade whatever grade that is the cut mark of C plus that is to join the university now we have these other people who these students who are getting C minors we have the C stand and also the D plus and the distance the president is Excellency Dr. William Samoeh Ruto sometimes back when he was he was the deputy president he brought in these TVETs institution these are TVET institution these provides alternatives to those students who didn't manage to join the universities actually to do courses such as diploma courses we have certificate courses and we have the artisan courses that are provided in this TVETs institution now from there these people are going to in grade to actually upgrade and also maybe join the universities with their interest and also upgrade to be people who are very successful in life and we have actually example people who have really have really taken that journey from certificate courses upgrading to diploma courses which will take you another three years and also joining the university to be people who are also having degrees to be the same as equal to those people who got a C plus and joined the university directly so I believe that we are given an option of the TVETs that is the way to go and is actually more competent and more skill based to my perspective right do you feel like a TVET is an option to and maybe also maybe we can get to have a grasp of what a TVET is do you feel like it's an option for those that have lost hope and then what do you mean by lost hope because I don't believe you can lose academic hope because now that life is not all about just academia you can fail academically and excel in life but you know we've made it a narrative that if we did not pass KCC you are nothing in life but also some someone's kind of soda I believe that you know these TVETs have come into they've come in in the nick of time to help those that in other words have said again lost hope meaning that you'll still be able to pursue your favorite course and advance like you said you'll not only are you just pursuing what you're pursuing you also have a vision of pursuing another course do you agree that it's it's it's it's it has coming at the right time when you know students that do not meet that plasma course C plus and above will they'll now will have options yeah my brother Brian I can say that we can't say that maybe people have lost hope or people we have those people who everyone has ambitions of getting somewhere and we always love being at a higher level of education now the higher level of education even the TVETs nowadays are under the same because the higher level of education are the university and colleges and the TVET sector so because all of these institutions are together so whatever we can say is that TVETs can't be an option for someone but TVETs is where dreams come into reality why can't they not be an option they can't be an option because we can only say that at the university they put a limit that for you to enter university you must score this one but for the TVETs whatever they did they say that because you did your phone for because I can tell you that TVETs take even those people who sat for class H exams and then they never go to high school right they still enroll them because we have arts and courses artisan courses yeah and that is the favorite part about that yeah the arts and courses the same same person who never went to high school and then he started from artisan he can still get to a degree why because he has to go to all that process until the time that he'll get up to that degree he wanted a dream will come through when you commit yourself on it yeah there is nothing lost at any time because you always believe that dreams are there but what makes it real is your ambitions and your commitment right and the commitment only comes out when you say that indeed I wanted this thing will I get help from someone so that he can advise me on how to get on that point because most of our youth nowadays miss a part of being taught that you are targeting this one like for myself I can use myself as an example when I did my case CSE I was targeting to get a C plus and above and what did you get but it was so unfortunate I missed only two points to get that C plus and so you got a C I had a C player you know 44 points so now you can't see you couldn't enroll for a diploma at a higher learning institution yeah so I enrolled for a diploma but it was so unfortunate that the same same thing it was almost putting me into depression because I really cried why me why miss these two points to go to for a degree course and then my cousins some of them were talking that right now you could have been doing maybe a certain course at the university what were you planning to pursue by that time I was planning to pursue abhi I had the three courses in mind I was to do law and then I had nothing and then engineering so those were the courses that I had so you enrolled at a tivet I enrolled at a tivet and now you're pursuing diploma in agricultural engineering contrary to your dreams and aspirations how does it make you feel oh it's not contrary it's not contrary because it's still under engineering all right yeah so I'm still happy because I still manage to do engineering yeah let me come back to you Brian he's given his experience what he wanted to pursue at a higher learning institution and he missed by two points for you initially what were dreams and ambitions before you enrolled at a tivet yeah but also by the way it's possible to get a C plus and above and still enroll at a tivet that is very true yeah yeah no for my take actually when I was in high school doing my sitting for my phone for my ambition was to actually join the same university nobody's wish is normally to get to fail most of us we hope and we dream that we achieved the greatest grades that are provided there joining a university my dream was to pursue actually a civil engineering course I was more interested in architectural designs that is what I normally do for my talent I normally paint I normally draw hearts so I was really driven to actually take a course that is more to the line of my my dream actually so what I got I got a C stand I got a C stand and from there C stand what does that mean I got a C stand that is actually around 42 points C plane a C plane it is a C plane a C stand and a C plane is somehow the same so getting a C plane was actually very sad to me but I took it very positive what were you expecting to get I was expecting a B plus and above but from that I decided to accept what I got do you believe something might have happened because of heart stories of 90 percent of students who got dressed that they were not expecting they always advocated they should have their results marked they should have some certain subjects checked probably something went wrong with the school and the marking do you believe something of that sort could have happened that's what you scored from that point with the situation at the moment I was facing some background the situations that actually made me attain that great at the moment all right so you fully accepted it I fully accepted it at that moment when I was almost doing my my exams I lost my dad so I believe those are among the challenges that I got to get that grid I was actually depressed and the rest I'm sorry for that but here you are yeah all right so you wanted to pursue if you were to get a C plus and above you wanted to pursue civil engineering as well yeah but uh so I decided after getting that grid I decided to do something the same so I decided to enroll to activate that is a keeps on technical training and vocational college and you're pursuing I'm pursuing a diploma in building technology right actually related related to whatever yeah do you believe that you will climb up the ladder slowly and even get to a place where you'll do a degree even though it will take you more time exactly that is actually where I'm heading to right after completing my diploma that is actually next year I'll be enrolling for higher education again uh joining uh the tivit again for another course then upgrading to do my degree at the nearest university uh so within time it's only a matter of time actually yeah and commitment that you're going to achieve what you want yeah so it's about sacrifice all right judging from your stories and how you guys are boldly and confidently speaking you're speaking from a place of yes it could have been this is not what I wanted but here's here's an option and then uh a tivit is now tivits are now here and maybe for parents who doesn't understand what tivits are all about and now that you guys have that background and that's where you come from maybe you can start by telling us what do tivits do and how are they helping students who did not also attain that minimum grade entry to join higher learning institutions in the name of universities and the rest okay and the tivits they offer a variety of courses they have a wide range of courses they offer everything that the university offer so tivits in full tivits are technical in full the word tv tv e t for somebody who's watching in full technical vocational training is is to technical vocational technical and vocational training centers yeah centers i believe it's technical vocational education training no no no not education not education training the e is for actually the same uh when we talk about tivit we're talking about the technical training education and uh it's more based on actually the skills we are talking about how you're going to be competent in the society that is skill based actually courses when you talk about maybe courses like tailoring that is handmade actually it involves using your hands majority of the courses right uh so that is what tivits do uh from the artisan courses that is you can do an artisan in maybe plumbing that will involve you using your hands to actually unaliving and that is where we're heading to right when you look to a countries like uh maybe australia we're importing we're exporting actually labor for courses that are handmade that are majorly provided in our tivits when you talk about things like driving they are provided there the same as actually structural mastery we talk about uh megatronics engineering it's actually among the best courses that are offered in our country megatronics engineering it's actually a combination of electrical and actually uh ict right so when you combine those two courses you'll be more competent and more skills with more skills you can also get self-employed so that is what actually this tivit actually adding to it is about self-employment immediately you'll note it for a white collar job when you're out of the tivit you engage yourself in the activity on the course that you've learned from my friend uh you're done agriculture yeah from there you said it's agricultural engineering agricultural engineering so apart from the engineering part of it monitoring you have already the skills to start your own business do small-scale farming like he's doing selling those fruits yeah that is the way that this country is writing to the white collar jobs are no longer there right so that is all the options we have right as you wait for these white collar jobs people can engage in small business as you with your degree maybe as a teacher you'll find yourself engaging in agricultural activities you'll find yourself engaging in maybe you'll require people to do electrical right maybe you're constructing your own house so those are some of the things that these tivits provide right more skill and more competent right and it's more hands-on it's like exactly you are using your talent more and also thank uh the part where the cbc has come in i think it's also playing in handy very in terms of even nurturing the tivitas more so by the time you're finishing with your high school you already know what you're best at with using your hands there's so many abbreviations there's tiveter this ttc kttc now in there now you're still stuck on defining uh tvert technical vocation education training like there's so many definitions i just really like to hear like which is the clearest one i've had a chance to also interact with someone who uh they were doing a transfer there they're a teacher at a k at a ttc i believe or a kttc you will tell me but you can go ahead and tell us maybe um for a person who wants to enroll to maybe where you guys are maybe what is the criteria they use for enrollment and maybe what is like the minimum for uh for for example your course agricultural engineering for a person who's called a d plus or maybe a d minus and below are they also eligible for that and is it possible to also get a scholarship if you want yes it's possible to get a scholarship for any course in the tivet but uh for my case the the course that i'm doing diploma in agricultural engineering diploma is taken from a c minus and above or c minus and above but we have certificate the certificate the certificate part of it it's not known as a certificate but it's known as a agricultural mechanics so that is a certificate part of it it's agricultural mechanics what what happens in certificate is totally different from what happens in a diploma in a diploma it's only slightly slightly different because uh slightly difference in terms of in terms of uh practicals because i but we are doing the same units but now the slight difference comes under practicals okay the certificate bit of it is measuring on practical 70 percent under the national examination council the the next exams that we have been doing for the diploma they are only doing 30 percent so they are 70 percent paperwork so most of them these are just maybe giving a design of something and then uh giving a plan of a farm something of that sort giving a directive on how a machine is supposed to be operated and all sorts of that but uh the certificate bit of it is a person who can get into the field and even the same same machine that we call a tractor he can repair do everything he is also like a mechanic right yeah at the same time but they have a grasp of both the theory part and the practical part yes yes all right um uh brian maybe in terms of in terms of uh before we get to the funding model you know sometimes when you are in these tivets institutions uh the transition between a certificate to diploma and then you've said for you you'd love to even go for a degree you're spending a lot of time don't you think you the age is also going up yeah with the age age is a factor but now actually education has no limit 20 years i love that education has no limit has no limit with your age you're in 50s you can still enroll to a tivet do a computer application in packages right maybe do a computer do computer applications yeah now that we do online actually we're digitizing everything right those are actually hate people that uh maybe didn't get access to these technologies now they end they can enroll to these tivets and do a three month course yeah of maybe computer application packages get to know what is all about icd and get a certificate and get a certificate and be able to work right and be able to and i think that's the best part of tivets now because uh i can imagine for a person who is studying law they are going to go for six years or even more if they fail at some point and you guys had mentioned uh that that i don't know if it's a disadvantage or maybe that's maybe the downside of it uh your exams in tivets are conducted by neck and uh maybe the chances and opportunities you're given to recede and redo an exam if you don't attain the minimum grade for a pass or credit and maybe excellent i don't know because i've not been to a tivet uh maybe it's like maybe twice but uh as compared to higher learning institutions like universities you can fail thrice write a letter and do again and yes but for you guys you may say my chances really too and when you fail like that's it yeah that is very true and uh it's so sad uh that uh we the students actually you're losing your time maybe three years of doing your papers you have a referral you get a referral yeah so what is the next step you do another year a retake of that paper you fail again well there's a difference between a recede and a retake yeah i just know for supplementary right and then we have they have a special exam hey okay for us doing neck i'm seeing it's an advantage oh you think it's an advantage it's an advantage the only thing that i was uh thinking that they are not taking a series is a bit of uh receding the exam twice only you know giving someone a limit but twice is a good twice is a good is a good chance twice is a good chance but you you need to understand that uh we have some people immediately after you are done with your course you get out and then you when you are not able to manage to pass that exam while you are in school and then now you are out the chances of you passing that exam are very minimal yeah you know they need to understand that this person is outside there hustling looking for money and everything sorting out himself but now you are giving him only two chances to come back in fact it's only a few institutions the ones who which are friendly that can allow you maybe at your one month to that paper you can come back and talk to your friends in school so that you can join them revise with them but not all institutions because some of the institution they always say that no the only thing that you're waiting for from you you come during that day that you have that paper so that you can sit for your paper and then you go back because you are no longer student yeah it's only a few friendly institutions right so if if you are to maybe have a voice in a panel on on matter stewards and some of the things that should be shaken and maybe given a first lift would advocate to how many chances three times or even more i can advocate for five chances oh my goodness five is more it's more five is extremely more you know why two in fact two is already too much but three three is good actually the most learning institutions even in the in the law in the law community at least if you fail the bat i believe it's thrice or twice that's it because two times is enough to hold the book read bra unless you machine don't know your course but now the three ones the third one the accounting the first exam that you did that one is amounting to three times you understand that you sat for the first time and then now you are given two chances out of that so now they are counting those are three chances that you have been already given so that's why i'm talking on five or four why because after the first one the first one you are set direct to the paper you are fresh you have never done that exam but you are now doing it for the first time yeah and then the three the three remaining out here are the ones for you to do a chance another chance so that you can conclude and then again then finally graduate right okay that's interesting i was part of a panel at some point last year about one and they talked of exam modules are the exam modules favorable in terms of the sittings yeah the exam modules i think they're very competent they're very good and uh that is what actually our tiff is do and uh when you do for example module one then you do for another module two you get maybe a retake on your module one maybe you got a fail you have a chance how many are they in total the modules when you're doing a diploma course that is a level six we have levels so maybe can enlighten that when you're doing maybe level six that is equated to a diploma course right when you're doing level five that is a certificate course when you are doing a level four that is an artisan course so that is how it's it goes from like high low yeah lowest yeah so you can do level four level five then you're great to level six now let's say for example uh in a diploma course that is the level six when you get a retake or a fail uh in a certain paper maybe in your module one yeah you have several papers that you have uh you're doing at the same time so when you get maybe a fail in one of the papers you have a chance during module two to do that paper again again as you continue doing your module two so you get if you get another pass you still continue the same right you fail during your module three you have the same chance to do a retake of module one right so it's helping right yeah it's really really really helping now before we go to the funding model uh i was speaking to a friend of mine who was telling me he's he's actually a teacher uh story ttc k ttc you know i'm confused please you can enlighten because you're from ak ttc and i know one that's at gigiri so i'm really confused and then i also want to think it was at your go house and then i was sent at gpo so i don't know there's a place they've talked about at ttc tv tc tvetta i'm confused please enlighten me let me start by talking about uh teacher the ttc ttc that is the teacher's training college right uh let me say for example you've done and you've gotten assistant you can enroll in a ttc that is the teacher's training college and pursue a p1 course that is the primary teachers all right uh they go to this ttc and do that p1 course within two years they're done and they're ready to go to the field our primary teaching yeah that's a diploma that is a diploma right uh when you talk about uh ktvc yes the ktvc the ktvc it even sounded like a tv station yeah like uh in my case is keep so in technical training and vocational that's the ktvc it's a tvc actually technical vocational college college that is where now we enroll for these technical skills right you can do these technical skills of artisan you do plumbing you do electrical installation that is now it's more handsome yeah it's more still they offer diplomas and they offer diplomas and the same all right yeah so after that uh you can enroll to uh kenya teachers training that is ktti our kenya training teachers institute yeah uh let me say for example i'm done with my diploma right that is next year i can enroll in a ktti and become a teacher in a tivet that is where the teachers from tivets come from right the ktti you can upgrade from your diploma you do like it's like a higher diploma actually oh a higher diploma it's almost a mature step it's a mature step now you're competent to teach those in tivets all right same to those in you're doing degree you're more competent to teach the tivets all right but so the job group is totally different and maybe they also have like a higher salary yeah they have a higher salary oh i get it now i see what my friend was talking about continue continue yeah i'm writing on so that is uh from my understanding from those three perspectives and we have the tivets now maybe mfusa because he's a secretary yeah he can say something on this okay the tivets are we have the tivets and the tiveta the one that you are talking about yes but there are so many words in there i'm not some sound but you guys let's you talk about it because you don't and then the other thing we have kati yes the kati yes the kati this is a body the national body right that is under the tivets principles oh this is the body that is leading that is standing for the tivets presidents right not presidents principles all the principles of this is like a vice chancellor for a university yeah yeah now that is it you know we call them principles under the tivets yeah and the colleges you work at a college and you talk about principles i thought it's a high school now i see no no no we call them principles uh at our level right and then the tivets are the tivets are this is a body like teacher service commission on the other side we have teacher service commission for the other teachers primary teachers high school teachers but for the tivets we have tiveta right that is the body that is that has been given a mandate to enroll teachers to the tivet institutions right and it's in charge of the tivet institutions that is the tiveta right and the tivets are this is now the student association yeah it is a student association that is championing for the rights and the welfare of the students in the whole tivets across the country so there's so many bodies in there yeah we have many bodies when when you're not keen you can actually i think you i need to just write down a list he totally different from ktvc it's not a tv station anymore tiveta and tivets and kttc by the way yeah if you are learning yeah continue commenting yeah this is a very interesting part now let's talk about stories of funding i remember last year i was in an x space on socials and to summer i think he's one of the advocates of fair education i think he's from the university of Nairobi i remember when they rolled out stories uh funding it started also with story in a cbc kwanzaa kassimao they were able to help students who come from needy homes but the question was what is the criterion they're going to use to fund students and also how they're going to identify that this is a needy student who needs funding and in the intro i read to you about a story about a scholarship who are eligible for scholarships and how can they go about it um when you compare that with high learning institutions as well for high learning institutions universities they have help right yes they are eligible for the loans but they will pay them anyways later on i don't know what's happening for tivets and then uh what is the complaint from you guys that you would like to put across in terms of the funding model because i believe for any tivet definitely you're funding yourself yeah it definitely funding yourself you can go now uh let me talk about this funding model uh in the previous uh past that is uh that's last year uh before the launching of this new funding model our fee payment was actually 56 for 20 uh that is what was cutted for that's for what that is the entire fee the entire fee for and here for a whole year if you're pursuing a course for all year you're pursuing maybe a diploma course let me use a diploma course you're supposed to pay 56 for 20 and uh after the new funding model uh actually it was raised to 67 189 and what was included in there that raised it uh actually there was increase in terms of uh actually some other small departments because the fees is broken down to other small departments now there was increase in actually allocation from the government and that's where the problem was at the moment and uh now the categorization came in place we had scholarships and we had these loans that have been given in our tivets now uh let me see use for example it's been categorizing to actually four we have the vulnerable who these are the people maybe other students maybe actually don't have anything totally maybe say uh they have a guardian they don't have parents that is it so that student is eligible for 80 scholarship and it's also given alone by the government through help at 20 percent so these accounts to actually 100 percent of full scholarship because the government pays for 80 percent and uh is given alone for 20 percent so actually the parent or the guardian that is taking care of the student or the student himself he will only work for those rent and maybe the food stuff so actually everything is scattered across in short accommodation yeah so we have this another person who is actually less vulnerable uh maybe from my take is actually maybe that with maybe with the parents or with only a single parent the government pays 70 percent of scholarship and gives him a loan of 30 percent that amounts to 100 percent so the same applies to him you love him or her he has to just work on the rent and on the food stuff now we have this less needy we have needy and also the less needy now let me go for the needy the needy is given a 50 percent scholarship by the government and is given uh actually a loan through help of uh actually 30 percent so what he the parent has to pay is only 20 percent that's amount to 13 000 around 13 000 there that is the only thing the parent is supposed to pay that is in the pivot now we have this the last category of the less needy this may be apparent to a student who maybe has both parents they are well off with a high name good income so the government is giving him uh him or her 32 percent of scholarship and a loan of 48 percent so there's an increase in loan as you go to as you trigger down to that uh actually that uh program of funding but now where the problem comes in is where now the categorization is actually how the government are placing this uh student to these eligible uh scholarships and there's eligible loan through help so that is where actually the government need to create a very good criteria to say that uh the students are feel feel that uh they're actually more engage on the same and uh they're achieving their dreams and getting those fundings in a very genuine and in a very open way uh yes you you can sound off on that as yes uh if i can add something we can't say that the government has already gotten maybe a good criteria of uh offering this funding new funding model because uh let me ask a question and this question goes is way because uh how can you tell a person who is less vulnerable and and the person who is totally vulnerable yes and i think that was an argument from just posting their details yes and yet you're not on the ground or even sending an application yes sending an application of them is you are you an eddy parson fill this form blah blah blah yeah like you i love the way you mentioned a guardian and but also a guardian could even be your father is a guardian yeah that is true you know yeah but so i think they should also be clear on the approach yes yes pursuing that and what do you think can be done to make that part clear the only thing that i can i think it can be done so that we can get exactly the less vulnerable people it's only getting on the on the ground that is the only way because we can't lie ourselves that it will be possible for us to do applications and then we get the less vulnerable from that you can get let me take an example uh maybe let's assume uh the son to the to our president today applies for the funding for the for the support from the government after applying and maybe let's us we have so many people who have the same names after applying and then another person applies this the documents are very clear and they are the same and then the same same person let's assume that the same person writes there that they also say that they are less vulnerable and then they write their documents they say that they have maybe they only have they have parents but they don't have anything you know they are trying to tell us that they will be getting a less vulnerable people from the measure of the wealth that they have because maybe you can say that your parent is doing a bcd and after filling all those details you know now that one can't be exact because we have people a farmer who is a millionaire you i can say that my dad is a farmer but he's a millionaire already that is i'm not a less i'm not totally less privileged person because my dad is a millionaire it means he's able i'm at the first class level and then we have a farmer at the same field who has nothing now these are two different people and they have a child who wants to enroll yeah all of them for that scholarship but we just have three minutes to go because we are out of town you mentioned a needy less needy like and vulnerable so how maybe if you are to just explain kidogo who is a needy student and who's a vulnerable student that needs this support if they were to go for the eligibility part now from my understanding uh when you are applying for these scholarships there are some documents you need to attach that is uh let me say for example vulnerable you don't have both parents you attach the two debt certificates uh to the documents that is how they will identify in a simpler way uh to the that uh actually is not a somehow less uh less vulnerable uh he'll attach that single debt certificate for example debt certificate yeah okay so now when you trigger down now that is where the problems comes in to identify a person who is less needy and needy uh that is where the government needs to reinforce and need to actually come up with mechanism of easy identifications uh actually through actually ground and there's a marcona ground yeah how can they do that they'll be visiting like every household i'm at they gather like a group of students and families and i think uh through the members of parliament right that is the mp's where how they distribute their bursaries right it involves public participation in the ground we have chiefs and the sub chiefs the village actually know the exact students how their family is so that is how we can actually see that that funding and see about people that are lying because also in bursaries there's been a lot of fraud in that there's people who were sold to bursaries others they bribed others i have even schooled bursaries but they did not need bursaries yes right which is not a good thing uh maybe uh we we have to exit we have like three minutes to go so i'd like you maybe to encourage students also those that are watching you and those that also start for kcc last year and maybe they did not score that minimum grade entry of c plus and above what is the best side of joining a tivet and then you can also point to us what are some of the misconceptions that the ideologies and what people talk about the nays let me just say the naysayers and what they think you know uh who you know tivet there's always the brow her around that so you can first uh so i'll start by saying that uh adjani of a thousand miles begins with a single step right no matter how small you are no matter the grade that you've gotten uh let me use for example those that have done the kcc the results have been released recently you've gotten that c plus you've gotten that c standard let it just be that uh a beginning accept what you've gotten that is very priority accept what you've gotten then from there start cultivating that grid to be something bigger and something productive because at the end of time uh it's only a matter of time to be in that docket that you want maybe you want to that degree it's only a matter of time that is what makes the difference getting assistant and enrolling in a tivet uh let me say for example that uh where i come from kipso and technical training and vocational college you need just it's a matter of time you could do that artisan for one year you do that uh certificate for another two years you do that uh diploma for three years and you're good to go and you become more competent and uh for my brothers and sisters especially from where i come from when people talk about ilgi marakwit you talk about banditry you talk about actually a society that is more into violence and uh we have young people who i want to talk to them and i want to tell them that it's possible to come from the carry values a value is actually a value of death but uh recently through the interventions of our leaders and i want to thank actually the leaders of actually the leaders of career valley that is a country where i come from uh from the governor excellency uh wesley roteach uh to the mps uh led by onerable adams kipso and i for the intervention they're making to see that their youths are engaged through bursaries they give them a lot of bursaries a location so that they can see also that uh the youths are going to these tables they become more complete more compliant and more competent in the society so that they can deliver and save the next generation right uh you also tell us before you come in you also tell us maybe um if you are to have a panel or if you are to be in a forum with the cabinet secretary that is zekia macho group what are some of the things that need a first lift in tvets and if you are to raise some two three issues that should be ironed out but you can go first most people think that tvets are for the failures but that that that's not true that's not true tvets is where the dreams come true because tvets is where the dream come true yeah because when we compare tvets and the universities someone who comes from tvet and then let's take an example for someone who started from certificate then to the diploma level and then degree then degree that the masters then master that person is more competent than that person who has done a degree at the university because when they when they go to the ground to the field automatically the one who who started from certificate or diploma right will be taken and then uh maybe to advise my brothers and sisters back there at home you need to understand that you start from where you are in life you need to start from where you are because you can't tell us that you want to you want to do you wanted to do a degree yes but it has happened you are supposed to start from a certificate accept and start from where you want and then reach where you want to because dreams are valid yes and they always come through then back at home i can say that my brothers and sisters back at teso we always believe that if we fight together then we get what we want and let us make sure that our dreams come true and the whole tvets across the country let us fight for our rights and make sure that we are not suppressed right by maybe the administration and whatever so that we can't meet our goals all right it's already 10 a.m it's time for us to exit brian but just mention them you know the way you can list a bcd yes in in 30 seconds before we sign out they think that should be given a first lift in tvets that you've also identified and experience in 30 seconds just that don't explain now i want to tell uh the cs for education that uh actually uh through our leaders we can want to see that uh actually the encouragement of uh bursary allocations that is through the mp's that the government allocates more bursaries especially to the tvets because that is where i want to head to uh secondly i want to say that uh also uh in terms of funding model let us see that we have the clear mechanism in which uh these funding models can be very more competent and very very more clear so that each and every student can get to benefit from these uh actual scholarships and these help application and finally uh i want to say that uh actually we need to thank actually the government uh so far so good they've done a wonderful job in our tvets and they're really improving the tvets in terms of infrastructure in terms of actually those machines those equipments and uh that is the kudos to the government they're doing a wonderful job through the county governments and through the mp's that is where we get all these resources to the our tvets all right all right we are out of time we in fact we are overriding with a minute which is not supposed to be it but thank you both for coming that is kevin imapuis he is a tvet student association national academic secretary and then brian kipchumba he is a youth leader at girl marokwit county and student president ketc i wish you all the best of luck thank you and thank you for coming through and that's where we put our period or our full stop in today's show definitely we'll see you tomorrow for health and entrepreneurship tuesday i'm brian saku have a fantastic monday see you tomorrow


In 1571, the Yucatan people fell ill to the plague. One man found a plant and along with other people, drank it. The substance turned the people blue and made them incapable of breathing in air. They quickly moved to the ocean and created a civilization in the deep water, Talikon. One of the women who ingested the plant had a baby named Culkin. The baby grew up to become ruler of Talikon. When Fen died, she has to be buried on the land. Culkin led some guards up to the land where he saw a civilization. They attacked the civilization to make room for his mother's burial. One of the villagers called him Namor, meaning the boy without love. Shuri works in her lab, trying hard to create an artificial heart-shaped herb to use for her brother and Wakanda's king, T'Challa, who is dying of an illness. Ramanda slowly walks into the lab, announcing the king's death. A year later, Wakanda is having trouble with other nations wanting their vibranium. The Dora Milaje catch French military men trying to steal from their outpost. Later, Ramanda talks to the United Nations and reveals the French's attempt to steal. She reminds the countries that even though the Black Panther is gone, they will still fight. At a mining outpost, Americans mine in the ocean using a vibranium detector that was created by an MIT student, Riri Williams. They use this to find vibranium in the ocean. Suddenly they come under attack by talicanals who do not want them stealing their vibranium. The last remaining helicopter of survivors is struck down by Namor. In Wakanda, Ramanda and Shuri go to the water and mourn the year since T'Challa's passing. They burn their funeral garments to signify the end of the mourning period, despite Shuri not being completely ready for this. Namor then arrives, getting through the border by going under the water. He reveals to them the existence of talican and wants their help to stop foreigners from taking vibranium. He also explains that Wakanda is not the only place that has vibranium, talican has it too. Ramanda tells him off, worried of his presence. He tells them he is going to kill the scientist who made the machine and that they can help him, but they cannot get in his way. Shuri and Akoye go to meet Everett Ross, who gives them the name and location of the young scientist, despite possibly giving away private information. Akoye and Shuri then go to Cambridge, Massachusetts to find Williams. They follow her to her garage where she reveals that she is working on an Iron Man type armor. However, they are followed by the FBI. The three get away, Akoye in a car, Shuri in a motorcycle, and Williams in her armor. Suddenly, they are met by talicanals, Atuma, and Namora. A brief skirmish ends in Shuri and Williams getting captured. Ross arrives at the scene the next day and meets with his ex-wife, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. He also finds Kimoyo beads and hides them. In Wakanda, an infuriated queen Ramanda reprimands Akoye for losing Shuri, which is exacerbated by previous incidents such as when she seemingly sided with Killmonger when he usurped the throne, and fires her from her position as general. Shuri and Williams wake up in talican. Namor shows Shuri the civilization, trying to convince her of his ideals, even giving her his mother's bracelet. However, she disagrees in killing Williams. Meanwhile, Ramanda goes to Haiti to see Nakia, who had left Wakanda six years prior. She asks Nakia to find Shuri for her. Nakia does some spying and figures out the location. She then breaks Williams and Shuri out as Ramanda talks to Namor about his plan. They return to Wakanda, but only for more torment as Namor and his people invade. They flood the city causing an all-out war. Namor takes care of all of the Wakandan vehicles before flooding the throne room holding Ramanda and Williams. Williams starts drowning, so Ramanda swims to save her. She is able to get Williams to safety, but only to drown in the process. Shuri mourns her mother's passing as Namor tells her she is queen now. He and his people then leave the country. Meanwhile, Allegra de Fontaine finds out that Ross has been communicating with Wakanda this whole time and has him arrested. Ambaku talks to Shuri after the funeral and gives her moral judgment that she should not kill Namor. He then tells her he will provide housing for the displaced Wakandans following the attack. Shuri then uses Namor's mother's bracelet to create the artificial heart-shaped herb which finally works. She goes to the astral plane after taking it and is greeted by Eric Kilmonger, who claims they are the same. They argue a bit before Shuri claims she is going to kill Namor out of revenge. Shuri wakes up and makes herself a suit. She then drops into a meeting between Ambaku and the elders as the black panther. In preparation of the battle, Shuri and Williams realize that they could weaken Namor by heating his body up to where it cannot get oxygen. They then make a second iron heart armor. Shuri gives Akoye new armor, acting much like Iron Man's as well, called the Midnight Angels. Akoye recruits Onika to be a part of her two-woman team. In the ocean, they use a vessel to lure the telecanals into a trap. The battle commences as Namor seems to gain the upper hand. However, Black Panther traps him in a royal talent fighter as they take off away from the battle. Meanwhile, the Dora Milaje fight the telecanals on the side of the vessel while the Jabari tribe, Nakia, and the others battle the ones on top. Iron Heart and the Midnight Angels take care of the airborne telecanals. Black Panther heats up the royal talent fighter, weakening Namor, but he begins to break out with his spear. Black Panther shoots a blast from her vibranium gauntlets which explodes the whole ship, sending the two adversaries into the island below. The two fight some more until Namor impales Shuri. However, instead of finishing her off, he is more worried about getting to the water before he dies.  She then yells Wakanda forever as she armors up, sending a blast from the exploding talent fighter into Namor. He is set ablaze as he collapses. She stands over him to finish him off, but remembers her brother, T'Challa. With these memories of the man he was, she decides to spare Namor's life as long as he returns to telecan. Namor has gratitude for the Black Panther and joins her as they return to the fight scene and tell everyone to stop fighting. Black Panther then yells Wakanda forever once again as the rest repeat it back. In the aftermath, Williams returns to MIT without her armor as the Wakandans do not want any controversy with letting her keep it. Shuri leaves for Haiti instead of challenging for the throne, which ultimately is challenged by Ambaku. Later, Namor paints in his room as a tumor greets him. Namor assures her that their new alliance with Wakanda will be beneficial. On his way to prison, Akoya breaks Ross out of custody. In Haiti, Shuri meets with Nakia before leaving for the beach where she burns her funeral ceremonial robe in accordance to Ramanda's wishes, allowing her to finally grieve T'Challa. In a mid-credits scene, Shuri learns that Nakia and T'Challa have a son, Toussaint, who Nakia has been raising in secret far from the pressure of the throne. Toussaint reveals his Wakanda name as T'Challa.


and welcome to the 2 p.m. Update if you've been in a cave you didn't know that we had big numbers at 830 a huge run that squeezed almost every short that probably was capable of holding on to a short out of the market we were up let's see what that actually is I want to say up about a hundred points see what out here range okay okay we went to 4196 cents so we're a what 85 off of that right now and so we've given back well we've given back 75 percent of the bounce so far we'll call it roughly that still up seven tenths of a percent but on the S&P and a little bit more on the NASDAQ but you had a lot of volume they certainly clean the decks of anybody that is short that's when things really get worrisome if you do come into some bad news those folks that would be able to be covering on the way down or no longer there so the risk picks up at least for me a great deal doesn't mean that the market's going down just means if it does go down there won't be many people to naturally have to buy i.e. being short so are there a few people short I imagine a few people shorted the highs today there was no real good signal to do that and of course we're on Fed watch now and that is I don't know well 23 hours and 59 minutes from now we'll get the word from the Fed and then of course the about 45 minute presser that runs from 230 to 315 then we'll find out where the Fed is going to throw another wet blanket on the market which is my guess anyway that's kind of it we had a lot of volume we didn't hold the highs we've got yet another kind of ugly candle up here around the highs so we'll see you tomorrow hang on we'll have the show in just a few minutes the reality is that navigating financial markets can be risky markets can be chaotic and difficult to understand having


Hi everyone. I hope you can hear me. My name is Olexi Rempel. I'm working for Pincotronics. I do open OCD as a hobby, mostly reverse engineering and other funny stuff. So after some long enough experience with open OCD and sitting in IC channels, I decided to share some of my experience. I hope it will help you somehow and maybe you'll be inspired to explore hardware from JPEG point of view and who knows, maybe you will be someday one of a contributor for Open OCD project. As I started to create this presentation, I made some assumptions about you and, well, one of the first things was all of you have some JPEG experience and who knows, maybe you already used Open OCD. So it will be probably great time to check my assumptions and please lift your hands if you already used JPEG somehow with any software. Wow. Almost everyone. Did you use this with Open OCD? Great. I'm wordless. Okay. I do mostly things from wrong way, from wrong point of view. I do it mostly in reverse engineering way. So I'm learning this and so. And my motivation for learning Open OCD was Fryfund project. It is really popular in Germany. And, well, I did mostly reverse engineering of boot loaders or floor level initialization for different MIPS hardware. So this way was built this presentation. I will represent this as a reverse engineering project. With some reverse engineering experience, I made some rules for myself just to help me. What I do first is to investigate everything public, what is possible to investigate. For example, read standards, read available documentation. There is no always documentation. And search for patterns. The reason is why you need patterns is, well, most vendors do not create new things. So if you found somehow some way how some IP core is working, then you probably will be able to apply same rules on new, not documented hardware. And usually as you're working with some black box, then it is good to make some assumptions and then work in this direction to resolve these assumptions. Well, so, starting investigation, reading something about JTAG. Well, it is really old standard. It was started in 1986 as joint European test action group. And 1990, it was already finished. So I found some notes in journal of electronic testing, theory and application in 1991. This is called picture. It explains somehow how JTAG is working. And, well, most of you already know how it is working. And usually if you are working with open CD or JTAG, you are using some of paths in this chain. And most of open CD users using this part. So we are somehow debugging the context, the CPU or whatever. I decided to go other way and use open CD before the core of future of open CD. So we are not using code CD. We are going boundary scan. What is known about boundary scan? Well, it is old standard. It is still used. And at least people with which I communicated was not really knowing boundary scan. There was not much presentation, not much information about this. So I hope it will be interesting for you as well. First time it was documented as part of standard. It was 1994 as extension of standard. And it was added to main documentation in 2001. If you are talking about boundary scan, usually we need some sort of description language. It is boundary scan description language. It looks like this. I took this example from STM32. These files are usually easier to get from many vendors. But it is not always the case. Some days, sometimes some vendors do not provide this information for normal people, like me, hopefully. And I needed to reverse engineer one day one of Broadcom chips. So what if you need to create based data file by yourself, but have no access to it? Well, you learn how other chips are working. And what we can see how it is working well. We have some description for parts, for each part of some chip. Then we have more detailed description for supported TAP of this chip. So, for example, instruction length of this TAP, supported instructions, and ID of the TAP to which this is the L file was created. And, well, most important for these boundary scan work, you will need to somehow control pins. And this part describes each bit of boundary scan register. So, for each pin, we usually have three bits. This one, for example, describes the output for the input state. So you can read what is exactly, in which state is set this bit. You can control the direction of this pin. So you can set the output. And you can provide the output level to which this pin shall be set. Well, to apply all of this information, you still need to get somehow access to the JTEC port. And we'll continue here, from this place, step by step, first, get access to JTEC port. Usually, if you start using OpenOCD, you'll have two states. It's working or not working. On RC or mailing lists, we usually get lots of questions about not working things. I hope this will somehow help you. First, I will describe one of situations where you need some kind of close timings to get the access to your port. For example, most of all venous SSCs multiplex JTEC port with SD card port. So you just can build your kind of SD card adapter and connect it to JTEC adapter. And at some point, after power on, you'll get some short time with available JTEC. So how we can find these not really documented parts at which time after power on this JTEC will appear and how long it will be accessible. I created this setup. First, what you usually need is to somehow remote controllable power supply. This power supply, in this case, was controlled from OpenOCD. Then you'll need JTEC adapter, some logic analyzer. Here in this case, this SD card extender or SNIFA, we've connected to it JTEC adapter. From OpenOCD configuration point of view, you'll still need to apply some settings. For example, set delay after power cycle, how long OpenOCD should wait until it will send first signal, first commands. And in short window, which is available in this case, you'll need somehow squeeze all these commands, so you'll need to properly set the JTEC clock with adapter configuration. And if you have no idea how long it will be available, you still need to see if this pin, for example, in this case, it is test device input pin is configured as input. Because in SD card functionality, it will be output. And in this case, pull up resistors are usually really helpful. Here's the example. You can see, here's some difference. Here's before pull up resistors. Here in this case, all the time, all pins set to zero, and if we pull up, it will be set to one. Here's some of description. Here we get power on, and after some microseconds, we'll get a JTEC. And for this period of time, we have JTEC available. After this, the boot ROM will configure all of these pins to SDMMC functionality. And with pull up resistors, it is good to see. So we have about eight milliseconds to provide some commands. In this case, if you get this, you'll be able to hold CPU and all complete devices under your control. Then another example. In some cases, it looks like open season, you should send some pattern to open, to configure device to some JTECable mode. In this case, microchip provides really good documentation for P32. And in this case, this picture shows how ICSP mode should be enabled. It is kind of like CGTEC or two wire JTEC, which is enabled by this pattern. It means after power on, we should trigger a set, start clocking and provide some pattern. And voila, we have JTEC. Let's assume we are in. And sometimes it looks like this. We have multiple tabs. The days where we had only one tab are mostly away. And each tab has some kind of probably supported instructions. As we clock our data, it will be usually decoded by instruction decoder. And after this, we will go one of these ways. And sometimes we have, in good times, we have ID codes. Sometimes there's boundary scans. Sometimes bypass or whatever. So we need to find what we are seeking. We are seeking right now for boundary scan. And it is not available on every tab. As an example, let's take STM32. So in this case, we will go like this, find the right tab, find the right instruction and find the right bits to do all this boundary scan magic. Lucky me, in this time, we have documentation. And in this documentation, we have, you can see we have two tabs, which is needed. Well, good, it's documented. This is optional tab. It is enabled only in this case. If it's, if it's where the pair is not triggered, then we have, can see only one tab, which is needed for debugging software. But we want to go here. We can find here some information. It is a bit different from this one. It supports five-bit instruction. This one supports four-bit instruction. Well, enough information. We can compare this with one of BSDL files. And here we can see this BSDL file is for five-bit instruction. And if we compare ID register, then we'll hopefully see same ID like in this BSDL file. Usually, software should do this automatically, but we are doing kind of radius engineering. We do it all manually. So we are seeking for instructions which we need to execute to go boundary scan. And for boundary, we need three of these instructions. They all described here. Then we are seeking for the right bits. Let's assume we already can execute some how boundary scan instruction. I decided to take this part because it has already an LED connected on STM32 discovery board. So if we will play with these bits, 142, 143, and 44, then we'll be able to do some bit banging so we can just switch LED on and off from boundary scan and not like we usually do it from GPIO. So let's start with this. Paul provided BSL, the sales script with which it is easier to use or reverse engineer boundary scan register. And the following video, I'll show you how, as a proof of concept, first I will search for floating bits, floating parts, then I will try to do some changes and enable LED on and off, and then find, well, this script provides even a possibility to find correct bits. So if you set pull up or pull down register on particular part, you will be able to find if this script needed bit or bit responsible for this part. So starting, well, power on, starting on a CD, then usually we connect with telnet, with targets, we can, I list here only one configured tab, and up here now I start to configure the second tab, the boundary scan tab, with some of comments, I prepare search for floating parts, which is to avoid getting fast positive information, but they're still getting here. Here I connected the part which I am trying to research to pull up and then to pull down and scan again to see what is changing on this boundary scan register, and usually this script will provide two bits as information, one is which bit should be used to set to some output and which bit should be set to configure this pin. So up here now I start to change the state of this bit, I assume I got all needed information, so LED is now on from boundary scan, so it can change, switch it again to off and on, it's working. Great. What we can do with it? One of my colleagues asked, well, can we use it for testing? For example, if it's possible to configure from software, from, I don't know, bootloader, GPIO or set pins to some state and read it with boundary scan, will it work? Yeah, change accepted. Let's do this. In the next video, I show proof of concept, yes, it is working, at least with STM32. I will start JTAG, configure GPIOs just manually from JTAG, enable clock for GPIO, set GPIO to input and test if it's, if I get proper values from setting pull up or pull down resistor and then use boundary scan to read the value of this particular part. So same procedure like last time, power on, start upon OCD, so now I am working with actual OCD functionality of OCD and here I will write directly some registers, in this case right now I am configuring GPIO and here I am reading the input state of GPIO controller. Right now with pull up resistor, I will get here one bit set and with pull down, this bit will disappear, so there is some difference. It means I found correct controller. Now I will reconfigure GPIO to output state and change LED to enabled. Just one more test to see if it's really working, yes, I can control it. After I enabled it, then it will be time to configure boundary scan tab again, so it's configured and then I will just directly read, I already know which bit I need and here I read bit 142 and see, yes, it's set to one. If it will be set to null, it will get here null as well, so just to reduce some presentation time, I show only one case. Yes, it is possible, at least for some chips. To confirm it on different platforms, different windows, I tested this with peak 32. Well, I was not able to get all parts working right away because it is different. Most of the differences is we have here two tabs, there is a microchip tab and there is extended tab, which is more for MIPS tab. And only this tab is supporting boundary scan and some other features, like flash controller and so on, but this tab is not enabled by default and there is a vendor instruction to switch between these two tabs. So I decided not to spend too much time in this case. Let's assume it is not really working. Maybe yes, I don't know. Same test on MX6. The reason is one of the colleagues asked, well, peak 32 is interesting or stem 32 is interesting as well, but MX6 is relevant somehow for Linux. And no, it didn't work. As soon as I executed boundary scan instruction, the CPU was set to reset state. And this is good because in this case, you can't do anything wrong. I mean, to destroy your hardware by setting different values to the same part. This is also confirmed by documentation. You can see this reset controller is directly connected to boundary scan register. Since this presentation was to inspire you to research more, especially research hardware which we have from GTEC point of view, I want to show you how much to explore from GTEC side. This is MX6 taken from documentation, official documentation. And we have here a GTEC chain. And in this chain, we have system GTEC controller. This is one of the tabs. This is system GTEC controller tab. Then we have SDMA. We have debug access point which is connected to Cortex Online. And we have GTEC access point so we have even more paths to scan. Right now, with OpenSCD, we can do actually only this part. It is supported. All of other paths are not really supported or not upstream. So if someone has some time and want to investigate something new, you are welcome. For MX6 case, this part, for example, is responsible for actual kind of security. If you fuse configuration bit to disable GTEC or to provide here some kind of password, then it will block you from doing all of these interesting paths. Yeah. I hope it provides some information so you can continue with it. I applauded all of documentation and scripts which I use to this repository. Do you have any questions? Yeah. Can you please go here? So for the STM32 demonstration, is the GTEC very comparable to the SWD support? OpenSCD will talk to the SWD controller on those boards as well. In this case, to be able to access under scan tab, you should use GTEC, not SWD. Anyone? So from my experience as an OpenOCD newcomer, it seems it's quite difficult to get patches into OpenOCD upstream. There are some tools which are probably not familiar to some people. Is there anything you would like to improve about OpenOCD tooling to bring in more contributors? I'm not a maintainer to answer this, but I will try to talk with maintainers to improve this somehow. Okay. Thank you.


Good morning, John. They say that you can't judge a book by its cover, but I say you can't not judge a book by its cover. That's what the cover is for. There's a reason that this book and this book and this book all look kind of identical. Like, take a real fast look. Fantasy novels, right? You can tell because there's like chiseled words over high contrast illustrations and all the fonts have serifs. Oh my gosh, look at baby Neil Gaiman. He's so cute. Boom! That looked different, but very similar, but it's sans serif fonts. So it's sci-fi. That's the difference. So for obvious reasons, I've been thinking a lot about book covers lately, and I want to share with you today the cover of my book, an absolutely remarkable thing. It's available September 25th, and you can get it for pre-order now. But first, I'd like to give like a deeply subjective and incomplete list of some of the best book covers from the last 10 or 15 years. Let's start here with a book that came out in 1986, but I promise it's gonna make sense in a second. This is Watchman. If you've read the comic, you know what this image is. If you haven't, then you probably don't, and I like that a lot about it. It's mysterious, but it's bold and eye-catching, so bright. And I like the bold, very sort of logo design, alternate title placement. I mean, obviously iconic, one of the most iconic covers ever, but it's not really one of the things on my list. This is. This is It Devours by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Craner. And when I first saw it, I thought of the cover of Watchman, obviously the color, but also the really sort of bold, comic-y font. I love this image. I love that there's a lot of like, radial interesting things happening in covers right now. Here's another really good, interesting, radially designed thing. And I also like that, in this case, the title kind of becomes the cover, rather than there having to be some external design element.   The color scheme here obviously was imitated a lot. And I also really like the tininess of the title, like the insignificance of the title and the author name. That's a bold choice and like, maybe you didn't expect to see Twilight today, but there it is. Let's go more recent. Simon versus the Homo sapiens agenda. I like this book cover so much. Again, bold color choices, something I'm a huge fan of. There was a trend for a long time in young adult fiction to chop people's heads off. And I think the idea was like, give people looking at the cover something to relate to, but not too much. Just does that in a really interesting way. And also, it is reminiscent of or evolves on a similar sort of cloud-based handwritten font thing. Which leads me to one of the best, like I might be a little bit biased here, but one of the best covers from the last ten years. This was such a departure when Rodrigo Corral made this for The Fault in Our Stars. I feel like it really leveled up young adult literature. It feels kind of almost branded and I think that it started off or was part of a really important and necessary trend in cover design. The second and last cover of Eshwab's A Darker Shade of Magic. Again, really interesting thoughtful color choice happening here. This cover to me feels kind of full of institutional knowledge. Like it knows a great deal about the book that I don't know yet. I like that about it. And finally, the last thing on my list. Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba is the cover of my book. I realize that I'm biased, but that's okay. I think I have the cutest cat in the world too. It's not like I designed it. I had minimal input. It was a very scary process and I'm so happy that I'm happy with what happened. To me, this font feels very like pulp. It feels adventure. It feels comic. But then in the background here, it feels like you're getting drawn into something that's a little bit mysterious, a little bit creepy, which is exactly what I wanted. Like it feels a little bit ostentatious in its color choice, which if you know the main character of the book, which none of you do yet, that makes a lot of sense. Admiral is a graphic designer herself, the main character in the book, and she's very into color choice. But I think that she'd be into how it kind of stands on its own as a design and a little bit of, you know, an identity for the book. All of the English language publishers really like this, so it's going to be the same cover in the UK, in Canada, in Australia. My book has a cover! John, I'll see you on Tuesday.


So we're out here in San Francisco in the Bay Area at the third annual social capital markets convening and conference also known as SOCAP 11 and This interview is a special one because I'm sitting here with Penelope Douglas Who is the senior executive and president of the board for SOCAP as well as Hubsoma and formerly was the co-founder and CEO of Pacific Venture Pacific Community Ventures. Pacific Community Ventures, that's right Well Penelope First I just want to say that what you've done with SOCAP is pretty Unbelievable. Thank you. You know, I mean where you started three years ago and where it's gone today It's been leaps and bounds in terms of the attendance of the conversations the growth of the market And what I'm most curious about of course is where do you think this is going? Where is it all going? Here's into the crystal ball. Yeah. Well, you know, I can't answer that question simply I think we're gonna we're probably gonna talk about that quite a bit Both ourselves, but every one of us who's here, you know over the next year as we get ready for the next SOCAP But what I think is really happening now is that the conversation is starting to get to the difficult part You know, it's it's the part that nobody really wants to talk about but that is essential for really turning this from a movement into the most important part of our capital for sustainable society and I think those painful conversations are around power How do we get power and powerful voices into the hands of those who aren't the money hands? So that the conversation starts to really change. That's one place where I think I see the market going I think the other thing that I see is that there's a genuine desire for more collaboration We're seeing more incentive more motivation, whether it's from corporations the government Individuals to really try to figure out how to collaborate the painful part of that part of the conversation is that collaboration as you know And as I know is a lot harder Then it's that it looks that it sounds It's fun, but it's tough. Yeah. Yeah room. Yeah, absolutely So so those pain points where it's starting to get more difficult Is that because it's getting more disciplined because more people are watching what's happening here? Or where where is that? Yeah, I think part of the pain comes from the fact that we've got to recognize that we have a lot more capacity building to do the other part of it is that There is a power problem and there's a struggle to Both invite into the room those who should be part of that conversation about power when it comes to social capital markets But there's also a kind of avoidance of having those people in the room And so that's the other place where I think the pain comes from where do you see in terms of the the capacity side? Yeah, to start there We're the we're the biggest gaps right now in your mind one of the big gaps is in the capacity of social entrepreneurs I think it's very hard for young or any social entrepreneur Today to really know how to build a long lasting sustainable company, but I think technology as a means of accessibility and Scale is where we're going to see a lot of great business models for social enterprise And the other place where I think we're going to see a lot is in sort of Supply chains, you know where we can sort of see great solutions to supply chains. Those aren't necessarily going to be Huge revenue a huge profit producing companies But they're going to be really important infrastructure Companies in the social capital movement and the social capital arena, and I think that they will be sustainable So the final question is What is it that you're working on are talking about now where people think you're crazy think you're naive yeah Well one of it one of the one of the conversations that I'm having now more and more which I don't know if people think I'm crazy But they definitely think that I'm once again, you know taking on you know the toughest job is is is how we started this conversation It's it's how you bring that painful question into the room about shifting the power base We're balancing the power base so that we we find that the powerful voices in the room aren't exclusively those with the money I really feel so strongly about that as a key to unlocking the scaling potential of a sustainable capital for a sustainable planet That I'm really trying to figure out how to take that on that's probably what I'm thinking about and talking about right now That's causing some of my closest friends to kind of shake their heads and say oh god here goes Penelope again You know taking on something tough. It's almost you know you're going from global movement It sounds like that's pretty localized a lot of that well It's not so much. I think it's actually a global question It's it's it happens to be a serious problem in the US I think it's incumbent on us here domestically to lead some of the solutions to at least having those conversations Well, Penelope, I wish we could have this conversation so much longer. Thank you so much for spending time You


Since we're on the topic of DRLs, let's add another one for you, full session DRL. Imagine if you will a full session and imagine if you will a certain amount of behavior that occurs within and imagine if you will a desire to reduce said behavior. You could then put the organism on a full session DRL where you say, you know what little Billy?  You're not gonna break it up into intervals. You're gonna do it in a full darn session. So that session's an hour, three hours, whatever it is.  I don't know what's normal for you, but for me, I don't know, maybe five, six times an hour is probably good depending on his age.  So he only does it in one class. We have one full session. We're gonna make sure that if he does it less than five times in that hour or whatever, then he's gonna earn a reinforcer. Good job, little Billy. You sound like a dog. All right. Something to that effect. Then the next day you could do it at like four, or maybe the next week you could do it at four, and then next week you could do it at three, and you could DRL differential reinforcement of a low rate of behavior, right? You get the idea we're gonna reduce behavior by reinforcing certain rates across the full session.