Why don't the Ravens value running back Gus Edwards? Should the Ravens trade for Dolphins wide receiver and former Louisville target for Lamar Jackson, Devonte Parker? Some very significant reasons on why Matt Judon will remain a Raven, not just now, but in the future as well. These and many, many more questions on this episode of NFL Questions from subscribers. You know just what I mean. YouTube team keep it clean. YouTube team keep it clean. What's going on? Raven here with another video and another episode of NFL Questions from subscribers. This is a series where you can ask me any NFL question you want to based off of any NFL team. Let me answer in a video just like this. And if you wanna be part of NFL Questions from subscribers, you just send me an email at team. Keep it clean at gmail.com and we'll answer your question in the video. I love y'all. We got plenty of questions, so we ain't wasting no more time. First question came from a boy, Jason, man. Shout out to my guy, man. He said, hope you're doing well as always. But I wanna pigtail off a previous question that you answered on an episode of NFL Questions from subscribers. Do you think that Lamar, Andrews, Hollywood and Ingram would all take a team friendly deal in order to keep all four on the team? They're growing together and all have had success and I know Ingram will be older and JK Dobbins is the feature back possibly next season. Anyways, with Lamar, Andrews, Hollywood and Ingram have that same fire and they feed off of each other. Ingram would be the backup and here and there, there's nothing wrong with that because he would still be productive but he also has that fire. It's not one like Ray Lewis was but he keeps his teammates in the game. He hypes everybody up and that veteran that younger players are already looking up to. Anyway, just wanted your thoughts on that. Have a great day, great night, whatever time it is. Thanks for keeping our heads in the game. Appreciate it, Jason. So would all of them take team friendly deals? That would take a lot for all of them to be on the same page to do something like that. It's a possibility, I don't think it's likely but it's a possibility because you're asking guys to give up their money. Yeah, it is for greater good because it's to make the team better and keep everybody together and stay competitive but no, I don't even think Eric D'Costa would do that though because one thing that Eric D'Costa is about is production. If you are not producing, then okay, thank you for everything but bye. So not saying that I think anything will not produce but I don't think that Eric D'Costa would go for that. Well, I think he would go for them taking team friendly deals but a lot would just depend on production. And the biggest question mark I would have on production would be from one Mark Ingram who is another year older and will be another year older once his contract comes out or runs out. He'll actually be another two years older because he still has another year left on his deal. He has this year and next year left on his deal. But so I think they'll just run with J.K. Dobbins and whoever else is still here at the running back position. But as far as the other three, Hollywood will be on his, this is his second year. So he'll be on his third, well when Mark Ingram contract runs out, Hollywood will be going into his fourth year. So he'll still have two years where he could get something done. Mark Andrews' contract year is, this is his third season now. So his contract year will be next, after this season coming up, then he'll be in the final year of his deal. So they can't, I mean, all they contracts are up at like different times. So it would just, they don't necessarily all have to take team friendly deals but Ravens ain't gonna be able to keep everybody like we always talk about. But with just speaking to Mark Ingram, yeah, he does have that veteran leadership. He has that veteran presence. People look up to him already. Eric Guero had that too. Soda Tony Jefferson. Soda Brandon Carr. Soda Terrell Suggs. So having that veteran presence is nice. Having that veteran leadership is nice and look at Ed Reid too. He had that veteran presence and all of them went bye-bye. Next question came from a boy, Javis. He said he was listening to a stream and apparently a lot of fans would rather have Jamal Adams instead of Earl Thomas. So how about this? We trade Gus and Earl Thomas for Jamal Adams and move Chuck to the free safety role. What do you think? No, I like Chuck exactly where he is as that linebacker slash safety, play caller, signal caller, all of that. And with Earl Thomas, Ravens can't trade him. It would just be too much dead money. So he ain't going to win. Next question came from a guy, Evanda. He said, how you doing in Raven? My name is Evanda from North Carolina. I hope you and your family are doing great during this pandemic and that y'all are staying safe and staying clean and living a healthy lifestyle. I appreciate it, man. Thank you, Evanda. He said, my question to you is if, oh, we draft Devin Duvenay in the third round and we know how bad the Ravens needed a premier wide receiver besides Hollywood. How much of an impact do you believe Devin Duvenay will have on the Ravens for this season and seasons to come? And do you think that him and Lamar Jackson will work great together? And I can't wait to hear your opinion on this subject. So I appreciate it, man. I think his biggest impact, I think he'll help in the return game and he'll also help with the yak. And that's something that the Ravens have lacked for years now is the yak. We need guys that can get the yards after the catch. I think he will eventually take over for Willie Snead in that slot role and he'll be the Ravens primary slot guy, but he'll be a slot guy with some speed because the Ravens have lacked that. They needed more speed and they got more speed this offseason in the draft. Now, again, I still don't think they're done at receiver yet, but as far as Devin Duvenay, I think he could just be a big play guy for years to come, a guy that will be able to take a slant, make a couple of people miss and take it like 40, 50 yards. And again, Hollywood can do that too, but I think with Duvenay he'll be used in the underneath game a little more than Hollywood will too.  Next question came from a boy, Josh Porter. He said, the Ravens will want to acquire Jamal Adams and dump Earl Thomas. Could you see a three-way trade between the Ravens, Cowboys and the Jets? Cowboys in the 2021 first round picked to the Jets. Ravens in the 2021 third round picked to the Jets and Earl Thomas to Cowboys. Jets and Jamal Adams to the Ravens. That's one of them little NBA trades. So now I don't see that going down, but he said Ravens dump Earl in his big cap hit to the Cowboys, even though they'll eat up a lot of dead money.  And only a third round pick. Cowboys get Earl Thomas finally, but pay the price of a first round pick. And maybe the Ravens could send some kind of draft capital their way as well. Finally, the Jets get the compensation they want for Jamal Adams. And what are your thoughts? Three-way trade, yeah. Yeah, this ain't NBA, man. If it was NBA, okay, maybe, but I just, Earl ain't going nowhere. Earl ain't going nowhere. The only way I would see Earl going somewhere is if somebody was willing to eat the, I don't even think there's a way that they could eat the dead money for the Ravens though. I don't think there would be a way to do that. So no, Earl's staying. Next question came from my guy, Braden. He said, I ain't Raven. It's Braden back with another question for you. Hope you and the family doing well and on all the rest of team keep it clean too. I'm here to ask about who the Ravens should target in a trade for wide receiver. Personally, I think Kenan Allen will follow. I wouldn't, they wouldn't be bad options and both would certainly make an immediate impact on the team. I like to hear your thoughts on who the Ravens should pursue and as always keep it clean. Much love, my guy. Shout out to my guy, Braden, man. Out of those two, I would say Kenan Allen because with Kenan Allen, man, big body, big presence. Well, I mean, we will fully, he bring that deep play threat. Both of them have dealt with injuries over the years. We'll full a lot more recently, but Kenan Allen just, Kenan Allen, just that big body, that presence there. You gonna know he's there. That would give Lamar another big target. Good route runner, good hands, playmaking ability again, man. He just, his presence, man. His presence will be felt immediately, man. Will Fuller, he's a big play guy. He obviously the home run threat. Speed, speed, speed, but also injury, injury, injury. But if I had to pick out of the two, I would go with Kenan Allen all day. Next question came from a boy, Nick. He said, what's up in Graven? This is Nick again. I got a question about the running back situation. I know it looks like Gus won't be on the team this coming year, but I have no idea why. Back when Jackson became the starter, he and Ed was practically carried the offense. Ah, some pun intended there. He said, he's a big powerful runner who's got lots of potential, I agree. After we got Ingram, we reduced his carries way too much in my opinion. I think everybody would agree with you.  I was there, Wednesday of my life. That's what he said, not me. But I was there too, and it wasn't pretty. He said, how we threw the ball 50 times instead of letting Gus do his thing. Now I think him and Dobbins will be an excellent one-two punch for years to come. My question is, why do the Ravens organization not value Gus? Do you think it could be because of some off-field issue we don't know about? He's a good running back who's played phenomenally for us, so I just want to hear your opinion on that. I know everyone says it, but sorry for the long question. This one felt really long, that's fine. I have no clue. I don't know why they don't value Gus Edwards, man. I have no clue. And they could say they value Gus Edwards, but actions, enough times, actions can speak louder than words. And the actions with how they views Gus Edwards or the lack of views with Gus Edwards is spoke volumes. And then the draft, that spoke volumes bigger than any words could possibly do because you drafted a running back in the second round. So you drafted a running back very early, very high. And when you drafted a running back that high, you do not plan on him just sitting there learning, sitting back and learning from the veterans. You don't plan on him just sitting around, oh, okay, well, I'll get in when I can, it's cool. Just sitting, no, you're gonna use that guy. You're gonna use that guy. And Gus Edwards in that playoff game, man. Again, they didn't use him at all. They didn't use him. He even popped off a big one. They didn't use him. They just didn't use him. They just, I don't know why they don't value him. I don't know what it is, man. And yeah, his rookie year, he was an undrafted rookie free agent, came on the scene, made a great impact. Did his thing. Then in the second year, he gets a limited amount of carries, but still was very productive. So I just, he's a North-South runner. That's the kind of runner you need to be in this offense. I don't know. I really don't know. It's just crazy to think about sometimes why they don't value him. I just, I don't know. I don't know what it is, man. I don't know if, I don't know if he did something to somebody. I don't know if somebody just mad. I don't know what it is. So we on the same page with that one. We both lost. Next question also came from my boy, Nick. He said, what's up in gravy? I'm not trying to flood you with questions, but here's another one. Absolutely love the linebacker picks and how we double dipped. Queen was my favorite pick from this draft and Harrison was a close second. Do you think these two can form a great linebacker duo like CJ Mosley and Zachary Orr? Queen is more of a coverage guy and Harrison is more of a thumper. Not saying that's all they're limited to because they're both very versatile, but it seems to be their strengths. Keep up with the great viewers, I appreciate you answering my questions. Hey, ain't nothing, man. I think they could, man. They could because, and they could be actually a little more versatile than both CJ Mosley and Zachary Orr. Because Patrick Queen, even though he's young, he's inexperienced, he brings a lot of knowledge to the table and a lot of good study habits to the table as well. Malik Harrison, I'm naive to his study habits and whatnot, but he brings that thump, but they both are pretty good in coverage. So that's something that they would have on CJ Mosley and Zachary Orr. Zachary Orr's probably better in coverage than CJ Mosley, but both of those two, they were a really good combo. They were a really good combo, but these two have an opportunity to do something special. They have an opportunity to grow together. The only thing that I'm a little worried about when I really think about it, and I mean, that's not for a long time, but still something to think about is when the time comes for both of them to get paid. Yikes. Next question came from my boy, Marcus B. He said, let me start by saying on behalf of the flock, we appreciate all your hard work. First time sitting in the question, so of course I have several, so please bear with me. Oh no, ain't nothing, man. I appreciate it though, man, thank you, man. So first one, the running back situation. In my opinion, there is no way Rick Steiner doesn't make this team. Obviously, one running back would have to go, and if it's my choice, I let Gus go. We appreciate what he's done, but Ingram Dobbins could be a nice one to punch. People are sleeping on Justice Hill, and from what I've seen on film from Rick Steiner, in addition to my familiarity with the Steiner brothers, I wasn't the bet he makes the team. Yes, I know Ricardo still to fall back, but Rick Steiner would add an entirely different dynamic to the run game. I agree, you see him run. You saw him catch, you've seen him block. It wouldn't be as predictable when he's on the field. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Ricardo only comes in on short yardage and goal line situations. Yeah, with Rick Steiner, he, exactly like you said, he would bring something different to the game, and it would be unpredictable. Is he gonna get the ball?  Is he just gonna be in as a lead blocker?  When you see that number 32 on the field, you're not gonna know, is it 32 or 34, I forget. But when you see him on the field, you're not gonna know exactly what his role is, and then imagine if they kept Ricardo on the field too. Like, okay, both of these guys, they both fall backs, but one of them is a more, not just a fullback. He's something different. I mean, both of them not just fullbacks, cause he records a defensive lineman too. Originally a defensive lineman that got converted to fullback. So he does bring another element to the team. So I, it's gonna be something, man. He's definitely gonna have to earn his way on there, but the upper hand that he has is his versatility. And you know that the Ravens love their versatility. And next he said, why receive it? I watched a lot of college football, play wide receiver in high school and college. With this being said, I tend to judge them a lot tougher. I was never and still not high on Boykin. I do hope he proves me wrong, of course. However, every time a question comes up in your videos regarding a wide receiver, I'm screaming Devonte Parker, 6-3. Louisville connection with Lamar, quiet guy, all hands all day, get soft press coverage, create separation, only 27 years old and gave the defensive player of the year all he could handle and then some. Need I remind Ravens, he's been in the formation of his 38-yard touchdown catch over the Darius Web, his rookie season in 2015. And in case we forgot, he went up over two Ravens to make a highlight real catch in week one of last season. Now, his stock has risen, but Eric DeCosta, easy E as I call him, has made acquiring talent look easy. That's true. I believe he could acquire Parker in a trade without giving up too much. Oh, by the way, I think Parker's just on a two, on year two of an $11 million contract. Thoughts, Devonte Parker would be a nice one. Again, like you said, he already got that connection with Lamar, and it was a while back. But still, he will come on a team and I think he will click instantly with them. I think the vibe will be right. He will be in a new setting, new environment, a more successful environment. Now, it is beautiful down here in Miami, but him being a part of the Ravens, it's like being in Miami too. It's all South Florida that's on the team, so I'm hitting pretty much the same thing, right? But I think he will fit in really well, man. I think he's a very underrated and underappreciated receiver, but that's how we like it with the Ravens. We love the players that are underrated and underappreciated, because they fit right in. But he will come in, and that would be exactly something that I think the Ravens will be looking for. Because like I've been saying, I do really believe they're still gonna trade for somebody. Who that wide receiver is, I don't know, but I do believe that they're gonna trade for a wide receiver before the season. And somebody like, that's a starter. So I really do think it's coming. Who, where it comes from? No clue, but Devonte Parker could fit that bill, man. And then he said, Tavon, have you heard any updates on Tavon's recovery from his neck injury? We're gonna need him if we want to chip this here. Yeah, they said Tavon's doing good, man. He said it'd be straight, he'll be back. And I think he started running already. And yeah, he's doing straight though. He's fine. So everything that I heard so far is that he'll be back on track. He'll be ready for the start of the season. So I haven't heard about any setbacks, anything like that. So Tavon should be good to go. So, and then he said, anyway, I appreciate your time and patience. Keep up the good work, bro. Until next time, just like engraving after his videos, I'm out. I appreciate it, Marcus. Thanks a lot for that, man. Next question came from my boy, 4-1-0 dynamic. He said, ain't graven, hope you and the family are doing well. I appreciate it, man. He said, do you think this could be Greg Roman's last season with the Ravens, especially if the Ravens win the Super Bowl or big game trademark implications, LOL. Oh, this guy. Yes, yes, for sure. I think both him, this could be both him and Winks last year with the Ravens, especially depending on their level of success. Their names alone have a lot of respect around this league, especially recently. And they both had interviews this past off season, just didn't get the jobs. And the jobs, they may not have been good fits for them because Roman interview with the Browns for their head coaching job and Wink interview with the Giants for their head coaching job. So if the right opportunity presents itself, I could actually see both of them go. Next question came from my gosh, me. He said, ain't graven, hope everything is well with you and your family is good. Appreciate it, man. I was just watching a video about how Pernel McPhee said that the Ravens defense will be scary. At first it didn't hit me, but then, oh Lord, imagine there's some random time in the season next year and our defense has Chuck Clark, the Brainiac. We're in the green dot controlling the defense playing in the box and still can drop back. And then Patrick Queen, who was also very smart and an instinctive player in the middle of the defense. And then Malik Harrison can bring the fire, the big hits. And let's not forget about L.J. Ford. He wasn't a superstar for us, of course, but he's a very solid inside linebacker. He will compliment Queen or Harrison nicely. Imagine a secondary as well. We get Tavon Young back, the Sean's gonna be healthy and maybe even Eamon can get in that special teams. All I'm saying is that the coverage sex can really be there. And I know most of our fan base believes that Matt Judon is an average at best 28 year old linebacker who averages seven and a half sacks a season. I want to see him succeed, of course, but my hopes were never high for a fifth rounder from Grand Valley State. However, I do believe he's gonna be more productive now that the interior pass rush is fixed and that panemic fee is back. I just have really high hopes for this year's defense, especially with Wink controlling everything and all the pieces he has. Thoughts, there's always stay humble, stay safe, stay blessed and I'm out. Yeah, man. I agree, especially the Matt Judon part. I don't think anybody's been overwhelmed with Matt Judon so far. Not that he's a bad player, but I think there's still a little bit more left to be determined to see if he can really be that guy, like that cornerstone pass rusher, man.  So, but yeah, like I've been saying too, I agree with how we got help along the defensive line.  I think one of the biggest things, the biggest question about the defense this year will be health. That'll be the biggest thing and I think that'll be the only thing that could possibly stop them from being great would be health. Other than that, if they're healthy, and you know, a little injury's gonna happen here and there, people gonna get nicked up here and there, but if they can remain healthy for the most part, they're gonna be some serious. Next question came from my boy, Jarvis Fowler. He said, Mr. Raven, hope all is well with you and your family. A few questions, and I'm out your hair. I ain't really got that much here really, but he said, he said, can you answer these questions for me please? One surprising move you would like to see happen before or during the season? Before during the season one that I would like to see happen? Jadaven Clowney, that would be one. That would be one. If the Ravens could get Jadaven Clowney, ooh, I would be like, okay, all right. And he said, one disappointing move that I could see happening before or during the season? Just a key player going on in your reserve. That's obviously don't want that to happen. But as far as a move, as far as like, maybe a transaction, if that's what you're talking. Mark Ingram, Auguste, that was being traded. And then he said that in one realistic move you can see happening. I like how you put that at the end. Realistic one. Ravens acquiring the receiver. Who that receiver would be? The Devante Parker, that was actually a very realistic option, one that I could see happening. And Antonio Brown is, I don't know how realistic that is. It's not unrealistic, but I don't know how realistic it is. So that would be one of those. And then he said, last thing, when you do your live streams, do you answer email questions or live questions? Keep up the grind and continue on letting God work through you, my brother. I appreciate you, Javis. Yeah, they're questions that I get from the emails. So it's, yeah. So when we doing a live question from subscribers, those questions all are questions that have been sent to the email. And I don't do them in any particular order. I just pick random ones and just let it fly. Next question came from my boy Esmodeus. Shout out to my guy Esmodeus, man. He said, I just saw your Matt Judon question and a small part of it got me thinking. To refresh your memory in that video, you said you never recall seeing players congratulate a colleague on getting the franchise tag. I did say that. He said, I think a lot of things are starting to make sense on how the cost to operates. I also agree with what you said in that video in that I think Judon stays. The only way I see a trade is if a team that we think could work well for Judon and they give us an offer we can't refuse. I recall Flacco going to Denver and Hearst going to the Falcons. I think before the 2020 season, most of us would have thought Flacco would have had way more success. They had a dynamic running back, blanking on his name, I think Phillip Lindsay who you're talking about and some good wide receivers blanking on their names. Cortland Sutton, Tim Patrick, Noah Phant, I think, wasn't Jake, but the other Titan. Anyway, I don't really follow, no care about the Broncos. Not in the mean way, they're just not on my radar. I digress. But the point is we as Ravens fans have said for years that Flacco had no weapons from Beemaw. He theoretically had in Denver what he never had with us in the longest weapons. Thus leading me to believe he takes care of those who contribute. It's just unfortunate he and the coaching staff got into disagreements and he got hurt. Surgery approved it wasn't just a sandwich, made a mystery mate, but Looney. Hurst is also in a great position as he's going to be the number one Titan on an offense that has the likes of Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley and Matt Ryan. Have all the hope and confidence that he'll ball out. I agree, me too. DeCosta also shows that he won't overpay for players. Smith and Moseley, or keep someone who clearly don't got it anymore. Weddo, all the love to him in the world, but it's just facts, I digress. As I was on a super long tangent, but I do have a point. Judon being placed on the franchise tag, I think actually boiled well for him staying in Baltimore and I think the players agreed. The franchise tag helps the Ravens and Judon by giving them more time to come to a long-term deal. Also, guaranteed money is guaranteed money. I recall in the live stream when someone who worked on making the highlight videos and I believe yourself, if you haven't noticed my memory sucks. Oh well, I'm old, name me too. In that stream, the live feed where viewers respond, were fiercely adamant that we had to keep Judon. The guy who does the highlight and promo video said he heard through the grapevine that someone, oh okay, okay, you talking about my guy Clay, okay. He heard through the grapevine that someone, the Ravens fans wanted and thought we would keep was actually likely to be released. I believe they were referring to a one Matt Judon. What further supports my claim is that the Ravens had a history of releasing the other outside linebacker when Suggs was around. The fact that we tagged Judon instead of having him walk, show we weren't necessarily ready to move on from Judon. Another tidbit that reveals that Dacosta takes care of his own is he was willing to meet in the middle for the franchise tag salary. That's true, that's a good point right there too, man. Another point to show Dacosta's tendencies is that if he's able to sign his guys early, he will. This gives players that extra sense of security making for happier players, which is important. Look at Jacksonville. I would not be surprised that we signed Judon on a deal that's somewhere around 14 and 15 mil per year for like two to three years. This brings me to my conclusion in that I think Ozzy and Dacosta are incredibly similar with the only difference being Dacosta is younger and more current with the times. Is there really any question as to why EDC got executive of the year? I think we got an Ozzy 2.0, a bigger, better version of the same product. This also means that I believe Lamar, I think Lamar was EDC's choice and Hollywood will become Hall of Famers, but that's for another time. By the same token, that also means I think EDC is going to be a Hall of Fame GM. My guy JT would definitely agree with you and he was saying this before EDC even made his first move. As always, much love and appreciated content which helps to overcome the doldrums of this COVID fiasco. I'm about to buy the mask from your aunt, but I'm also having her make me some masks for my dad. Please tell your aunt that I appreciate her making washable and invertible masks for my parents and myself. Hey, blessings to you and your family. Once I make my way down to Fredericksburg, 32 miles south to the nearest public, you'll be seeing a gift card for there shortly after. Sorry for the super duper long email. And as a follow-up to my last email, I wouldn't be surprised if Judon even got paid more and possible 16 mil, 17 mil a year incentive space. Also the guy was referring to in the live stream, work for the Ravens Media, thanks. Hey, man, I appreciate that a lot, man. I appreciate your big time, man. Thank you for just, for supporting, not only me, but supporting my family. Thank you for that. That just, like I say, goes a long way with me, man. So I appreciate it a lot, man. And with Judon, we gonna see, man. That is a good point with how they met in the middle.  And like in one video, we said, this has been the nicest franchise tag ever. Again, yeah, like we talked about the players will congratulate them and stuff. And with Eric DeCosta, him being willing to, cause he could've been like, no, you outside linebacker. So we doing a 15.8. They could've had this nasty disagreement. They could've had this nasty back, forth, back, forth, but nope, he got paid right in the middle between a DN and a linebacker. So I think that does bode well for Judon for him staying long-term. Cause that's what the franchise tag is for. Some people get traded with the franchise tag, but a lot of times with the franchise tag, it can't get ugly, but this one hasn't gotten ugly. But with the franchise tag enough times, guys, it's used and with the Ravens in their franchise tag, who's the last person they use it on? I think, what, Tucker? Did they use it on Tucker? No, I think they use it on Tucker. They use it on Ray Rice. They use it on Tarell Suggs. And they came to agreements with those guys. They came to agreements with them. So it bodes well in Matt Judon's favor that he was franchise tags. And again, all those signs point to it, man. All of those signs point to it. Cause they could've let him go, but they only got that third round pick.  If they wanted to trade him, and if they wanted to trade Matt Judon, and say they wanted to trade him during the draft or before the draft or whatever, but he obviously hadn't signed a tag, so he couldn't be traded. They could've been like, oh, okay. Well, we couldn't trade him before the draft or during the draft. You know what? Ain't nobody gonna take him now since everybody drafted their needs. You know what? Okay, let's rescind it. Let him walk. But with them still having that franchise tag out there, then Judon signing it after the draft, like way after the draft and after the third wave of free agency. Judon played, he played that smart. He played that real smart. Real smart. It was like, hey, y'all wanna get rid of me? You ain't about to trade me, man. You gonna let me either be a free agent or y'all key to me. So they did that, but yeah. It does, again, the biggest thing that you said, it does definitely bowl well in his favor with him staying, with him remaining a Raven, because of that middle ground. Because if you really weren't planning on keeping this guy, why even giving that? For what? Why even giving that? Why agree to pay him right in the middle? For what? Why would you agree with somebody like that on something like that if you were just gonna trade them? Now, a trader's still a possibility, but I just think at least this season is very unlikely.


Happy Friday, Navigation Traders! Today is Friday, June 1st. Welcome to this week's video update. Let's jump into the alerts for the week. Monday was a holiday, so we had a little bit of a short week of trading. So, first trade started on 529, where we did a rolling adjusting trade in EWW. We rolled our strangle from June to July. There was only 17 days to expiration, so we needed to roll. And we just did the calls by just one strike, and we rolled them down from 48 to 47, giving us a 47 straddle in July. You can see here's the trade that we're looking at. The 47 put 47 call in July. You can see it started to come back a little bit for us. And then we've also got this other strangle in July as well. Let me reset this so I can click off this one. And you can see we've got some profit there on that strangle, not enough to take off yet. So, we'll just continue to manage that as necessary. Next trade was an opening adjusting trade in the Euro, 4 slash 6E. IV percentile at the time was at 96, and so we simply added another strangle in 6E. So, if we take a look here, we've got two different positions. This is the one from the alert that we just added, already up about $170 on that trade, but still looking for more profit there. We also have another trade in strangle. I've got to reset this one as well. And that one is right here. So, price started coming down to the short strike. And so, before I even adjusted this, we just added another strangle as I just showed you. This one has now come back up into range a bit better, so we have not adjusted this one by rolling the calls down yet, because price did come back into range, so now we're just holding the two strangles and we'll continue to manage them as necessary. Next trade was an opening trade in EEM. IV percentile jumped up to 80 at that time, so we wanted to sell some premium. And as I mentioned here, you could have possibly bought the wings to define your risk or traded in Iron Condor, but when you're trading a symbol this low, you know, $45 symbol, trying to buy the wings just doesn't really give you enough credit. So, if you're going to, you needed to select strikes that were closer to the money to collect enough credit to be worth that. So, hopefully that made sense when I sent that out. So, if we look at EEM, you can see since then, we had a huge contraction and applied volatility today, so we've only been in this trade for a few days, already up about 90-some dollars, but looking for at least 30% of max profit, preferably even more than that. Next trade was an opening adjusting trade in the notes for ZN. So, we just simply added another short strangle in ZN, IV percentile in TLT, which is the ETF we use to look at the IV levels in TLT. So, that was at 79, and then we're also still holding our adjusted strangle in July. So, let's go to ZN and take a look at that. So, here is our adjusted strangle in July, so you can see prices in our range here. I need a little bit more down movement, a little bit more implied volatility contraction to benefit that. And then the alert that we just sent, I've got to reset this again. The alert that we just sent was this one with, we just did one contract on this when implied volatility spiked up. And so, it's still well within our range, just kind of waiting to see what happens here, allow for more time, and theta 2 decay. And we'll continue to manage both of those. Next trade was a rolling adjusting trade in Apple. So, we continue to keep this long put vertical in Apple, primarily for the short delta that it provides in our portfolio. So, we rolled this from June to July, and then adjusted the strikes to 195, 185. So, that's the position that we currently have on, see 195, 185. So, again, just looking for some more down movement here. Apple has been extremely strong, so it hasn't worked out for us. We rolled a couple of times, but it's serving that purpose as short delta in our portfolio as well. If we get to the point where we don't need that short delta, this may be one that we cut loose and just take our loss on it. Otherwise, we may just continue to roll it and keep that short delta. If we look at a chart of Apple, you can see just how strong it's been after the earnings announcement has just kind of been up and then it's been trading sideways. So, if it rolls over, that's going to help us. If not, we will see what to do depending on the time that we decide to make an adjustment within the next rolling period, or just cut it loose. We'll see at that time. Next trade was a closing trade in XRT. So, booked a small profit here. We were under 21 days to expiration. So, as you know, as we teach, when you get down to under 21 days to expiration, we want to start looking to either roll or close. And the reason is, is because when we're trading these naked or uncovered options, the gamma or the risk really starts to accelerate in those last few weeks of trading before expiration. And so, in this case, we are in the profit and implied volatility had dropped significantly in XRT. Let me pull up a chart here. So, at this time, now it's trading even lower, but it's been low this week. And so, instead of rolling and continuing, trying to get more profit, we just simply closed out the trade, booked a small profit. And we'd rather use that capital on other high implied volatility symbols. So, got out of that one for profit. Not as much as we usually like to get on a strangle, but still profitable nonetheless. Next trade was a closing trade in Costco. So, we had a pre-earnings long straddle on in Costco. And on Thursday, excuse me, Wednesday, the day before they announced earnings, I was trying to get out. And could have eked out a small profit, but as I stated here, price kind of ran away from us. Never got filled. And so, the next day, which was the 31st, yesterday, I closed this out. We ended up taking a loss on the trade. Just didn't get the price movement that we needed. We take a look at Costco. We got the implied volatility expansion, but it was not enough because when we got out, price was still dead centered. So, we got in right here after implied volatility had contracted nicely. Got that spike of implied volatility going into earnings that we wanted. However, price just kind of traded sideways. And so, we got out at a loss on that one. Next trade was an opening adjusting trade in CL oil. So, we simply just added another short strangle in oil, implied volatility percentile up at that 65 level. So, we've got two positions on in oil now. So, if we take a look and you can see I had a huge run up and then just took it all back in just a matter of about a week or so. So, here's the old strangle. Here's the first strangle we put on. And you can see prices come down and has breached our short strike right here. But if we take a look at just the call. So, if we uncheck the puts. I've got to reset this again. Toss has this quirky thing. So, if we just look at the calls of that one, you can see there's still a decent amount of premium in here. You've got a max profit of 660. We've got a profit on that side of about 510. So, still a decent amount left in there. That's why I'm not so quick to adjust. We still have 46 days to expiration. And so, that's why I'm giving this a little bit more time and maybe even giving it all the way to the break even. If it continues to move lower, we will roll those calls down. But for now, we're just going to be patient and hold. And then the alert that I just mentioned was the new strangle that we added. As you can see, it's still very centered. Nothing to do here except for weight. If we take a look at oil on the charts and see what the implied volatility did today. You know, we had a huge contraction in stocks of implied volatility. But you can see Ivy continued to stay higher in oil, getting some good volatility in oil. So, I love trading oil. I've talked about this before. Just such a great bang for the buck. As far as the amount of capital you have to put up for the amount of potential profit is excellent. So, I love having positions on in oil. And lastly, we did a closing adjusting trade today in wheat. So, we had two iron condors on in wheat and we ended up closing one of them. So, this is the one that we still have on. And you can see price is still within our range. Need a little bit of up movement in wheat to benefit this one. So, those are all the alerts for the week. If we take a look at some of our other positions, we've got the Euro. I already mentioned that one, oil ES. So, we were in range here yesterday and then today with this huge move up, we came out of our range. So, on this long put vertical, which we're holding for that short bias, that short delta in our portfolio, we still have 14 days. So, we'll probably either roll or close this next week. Most likely we'll roll because we still need to keep that short bias, short delta in our portfolio. And just to kind of refresh your memory on why we like to do that is, you know, when we're selling premium, when we're selling iron condors and strangles and straddles and all these kind of range bound trades, we need to protect ourselves more to the downside than we do the upside. Remember, if mostly equities, if stocks go up, typically implied volatility is going to be contracting. So, that's going to be benefiting those positions, assuming they're still in the range. But when the markets go down, not only does the market go down with more velocity and go faster a lot of times, but also implied volatility spikes up. So, to protect ourselves, we have to keep some short delta, a little bit of short bias. We've got several videos on this topic in our blog. So, if it's still a little confusing, make sure you look at those. One is called how to delta hedge your portfolio. One is called how to trade options like a professional. So, if you haven't watched those, make sure you do. And that'll help kind of explain why we keep that short bias in our overall portfolio. We've got another position on an ES, a totally separate trade, which is an iron condor. You can see we've got some profit there, but not enough to take off yet. Natty gas, we've got an iron condor there, still well within range, but could use a little bit of down movement and more time to pass in that gas. Whenever the notes, whenever wheat, whenever apple, Amazon. So, this is one where we have a short put vertical, and this is one where we put on as a post earnings short put vertical. So, as we teach in our course, in our earnings course, after you have a significant move up, if it moves up higher than the expected move, which I've just kind of indicated here on the chart with that red line, it moved up. We put on a trade with just one day to expiration, hoping that price would just kind of stay above that line. But as you can see, it dropped significantly down below it. So, we actually rolled to the next expiration cycle and then rolled one more time. And you can see it's kind of held this bottom level and continue to grind higher over the last couple weeks. And now it's hitting new all-time highs again. So, you can see we are now in the profit with this trade. I'm just giving it a little bit more time. A, this is a long delta trade, a long bias trade. So, it helps kind of balance our portfolio. We don't want to get too short. And so, having some short, some long trades is always something we like to do. So, we'll continue to see if we get a little bit more up movement. We'll probably just book this profit into next week. But we've got a huge range here you can see between now and expiration, which is on 616. We're now at a 77% probability of winning on this trade. So, I'm just going to hold on to it, see if we can squeak out a little bit more profit. And we may even roll. We've got 14 days left to expiration, depending on where our overall portfolio is from a delta standpoint. We may look to roll, but we'll send out those alerts to notify you at the time. DIA, we've got a couple sets of short call verticals. These were previously iron condors that we've continued to roll. Could use again some more short downside to benefit those. EEM, we've got, I think I already went over this one. This is that short strangle, got some profit not enough to take off yet. EWW, I already mentioned. EWZ, another short strangle in the Brazilian ETF. If we look at the chart, you can see we had a nice contraction since we put this on. The price also went down, so we're still well within range, but just looking for a little bit of up movement in some theta to decay to benefit that one. IWM, so we've got a couple of positions on here. One is this short call vertical, which is previously part of an iron condor, needs some downside to benefit that. In the next week, we'll be looking to potentially roll that to the next expiration cycle, but before we get to move back in a range, we may just close it. And then the other piece of this trade is an iron condor and still very centered. Nothing to do there, but wait. McDonald's, we put this on to kind of help at the point that we put it on. We are a little bit too short in our portfolio, so we needed some long bias trades. McDonald's has not cooperated with us. You can see it's gone down. Depending on where we're at in the next week, we'll look to potentially roll or close this one. And the Q's, very similar to the IWM. We've just got a couple sets of short call verticals that we continue to keep for that short bias. And these were previously part of iron condor, so we'll continue to manage those, but nothing to do yet. These two sets with the three contracts, you can see price is still well within range. If we get a little bit of price movement down, that'll benefit that. This one, which is our most recent iron condor that we closed out the untested side, this is well without a range. So this will be the first one that we look to roll to next expiration cycle. Again, we've got 14 days, so we've got plenty of time. I don't want to just let it sit out here and decay the rest of that theta though. We'll probably roll that into next week, unless we get a big move down. And lastly, XLK, which is very similar to the Q's. It's a technology ETF. And so this one again, with this big move up today in stocks, moved well out of our range. So looking for a roll of that probably into next week as well. So next week to prepare, just look for a lot of rolling. We've got a lot of positions on still in June that we want to roll out to July. And so we'll be doing a lot of rolling and adjusting trades next week. And if the market turns around and gives us a little bit more downside, that's going to help us with implied volatility, give us a little bit more opportunity to put on new positions. But we've still got a great diversity of positions here. 6E is the Euro, CL Oil, S&Ps, Nat Gas, NoteSuite, some individual stocks, the emerging market ETFs. McDonald's and the Q's technology. So I really like our mix here. The other ones that I was looking at was FXI, which after today's contraction implied volatility to going down below that 50 level. And IYR, same thing, it kind of contracted lower than we like to put new positions on. But those would be two to add in, which would be China and real estate is IYR. So those would be good additions to kind of get some additional diversified uncorrelated type positions on. So other than that, everybody have a great weekend. Look forward to another great week of trading next week. Talk to you soon.


Assignment, U.S. Army, Alaska, where the best of man is pitted against the worst of nature. Where courage and special skills are weapons to outwit a stubborn land, where survival is keyed to adversity. Alaska, America's last frontier and the first line of our national dependence. Has come a long way since its discovery in 1741 by Vitus Bering, a Danish sea captain in service of the Russian Tsar. Russian fur traders and trappers followed, building scattered settlements along the coast. Traces of the Russian period still remain. By the middle of the 19th century, the Russians were anxious to be rid of the vast distant land. And on March 30, 1867, Secretary of State William Seward arranged purchase of the territory for seven and a quarter million dollars, or about two cents an acre. Even so, many Americans called it Seward's Folly, and suggested that he might now want to purchase Iceland and Greenland. They were not far off. Seward said that Alaska, Greenland and Iceland were all important to America's defense. He was the first to recognize the strategic importance of the polar region. In mid-October, with a Marine Honor Guard participating in the ceremonies at Sitka, U.S. Army officials accepted the territory for the United States. General Jefferson Columbus Davis became commander of the military district. For the next ten years, the Army had the responsibility of governing the land in the absence of civilian rule. With almost no communications and transportation facilities, such semblance of government as there was was exercised by the commanding general of the troops at Sitka. Garrisons were built and some exploration carried out, but Washington showed little interest in Alaska. Finally, in 1877, the Army troops were withdrawn. For the next few years, the Coast Guard patrolled the shores of the Northern land, and then the Navy took on the responsibility for control and administration. Successive commanders of the vessels stationed at Sitka were, for all practical purposes, the government of Alaska. Finally, in 1884, Congress passed a bill which placed a civil government over Alaska. Years passed, with little happening to change the pattern of living in the remote region. The Army sponsored various expeditions to explore the interior, and men came back with much information concerning the geography and life of areas where few explorers had ever penetrated. During this period, Marine shipboard detachments helped keep law and order in the new territory. In 1896, with the discovery of gold in the Yukon and other parts of Alaska, the nation's attitude toward the territory changed dramatically. From throughout the world, adventurers traveled north to strike it rich. Complete towns were built almost overnight. The Alaskan gold rush enriched folklore with new and colorful names and legends that still perpetuate the magic of the far north. Once again, the Army was called north to help in law enforcement and to provide relief and medical aid in emergencies. Great storm destroyed large areas of Gnome in 1900. Army troops were essential in maintaining order, saving property, providing relief. No interest in the territory waned with the passing of the gold rush. The Army Signal Corps, under the leadership of such men as General Greeley and Lieutenant Mitchell, pressed forward with their ambitious plan for establishing the communications system, which brought the distant populated sections of the country together and linked it with the continental United States. This Alaskan communications system, as it is called, was expanded over the years to telephone, cable, radio and teletype communications, which was operated by the Army until 1962. Cableships put to sea to complete the link with the United States. With the establishment of the complete system in 1904, one of the greatest barriers to the development of the territory was removed. In the early 1930s, destitute farmers from the northern United States arrived under a government-sponsored resettlement program. Some became prominent residents, but Alaska remained primarily a forgotten neglected area. World War II changed that. Japanese troops occupied Attu and Kiska in the Illusion Islands, the first enemy occupation of American soil since 1814. A year later, the United States struck back. At last we understood the importance of Alaska. Seward had proved himself not only a shrewd statesman, but a far-sighted strategic plan. America would never turn its back on its northern territory again. Today, the bush pilot is to Alaska what the highway trucker is to the lower states. He flies out of Merrill Field, Anchorage's second airport, a busy strip that handles more takeoffs and landings than New York's Kennedy International. He flies a state more than twice the size of Texas, ten times the size of Illinois. He flies because road travel is slow and uncertain, and roads leave a lot of territory unexplored. The road network in Alaska covers 5,800 miles. Of this, only 1,300 miles are hard surfaced. Alaska's one railroad runs from the Port of Seward through Anchorage to Fairbanks. In contrast, there are more landing strips in Alaska than miles of railroad. More than 600 strips are sprinkled throughout the state. The immense face of our largest state is composed of countless mountain ranges, stretches of low tundra, and a longer coastline than that of the original 48 states. In today's Alaska, the Army, long a partner in the development of this northern land, maintains a key link in the overall defense of the Western Hemisphere. With its atomic power plant and its frequent visitor, the wild buffalo, is one of the Army's most sophisticated training grounds. The Northern Warfare Training Center is located here. Graduates of the center learn to move with military effectiveness over any type of terrain. Fort Greely is also an ideal location for the Arctic Test Center. The center uses U.S. Army Alaska facilities in the frigid winters to prove material and equipment. Fort Wainwright, near Fairbanks, is our northernmost fort. Temperatures here range from 75 below zero to as high as 90 degrees. Troops keep in condition for field training to come. Training designed to overcome the adverse effects of extreme cold on both men and equipment. Special attention is given to clothing and how to prevent cold injury, while moving and working when the bottom drops out of the thermometer. And in top physical condition, can battle cold and conquer mountains. A soldier assigned here soon discovers that his personal gear spells survival. He's in Alaska, and that's for sure. Fort Richardson, a few miles north of Anchorage, is headquarters for U.S. Army Alaska, operationally combined with the Navy and Air Force in the Alaska command for defense of the far north region. Special exercises produce the information needed for preparation of field manuals on both summer and winter operations. They are also excellent tests of combat effectiveness and specialized warfare skills in the Arctic environment. Here the commanding general attends a conference for the planning of such an exercise. Gentlemen, the Funch Park 9 will be a joint exercise with the Air Force and the National Guard. Fort Wainwright will be the assembly area and staging base for the tactical units involved in the exercise. Alaska is not always cold and snowbound.  But summer does not mean idleness for the soldier. His varied training includes learning to move over rough country, vertically as well as horizontally. How to cross chasms and streams, cross-country vehicular movement becomes extremely difficult. The soldier is trained in inland waterways operations. He learns to read the river's natural signs. And to detect shallows by observing ripples in the current. He learns to avoid the hazards of sweepers, fallen trees still attached to the bank. And sleepers, fallen trees under the water's surface. Before long, he can navigate the big lakes and swiftly moving rivers with safety and confidence. In case around on the other side we'll bib-wack here and get an early start tomorrow morning. And the primary trade of the soldier, combat, is not neglected. The exercises are rugged and realistic. Red rover, red dog over. This is red dog under enemy fire at last point. Request instructions over. Red dog, red rover suggest hold cover.  This is red dog Roger out. Johnson take the grenades and move around the far right. We'll draw the fire from here. The far right. But the army gives primary emphasis to winter training. And for this, Alaska is ideal. During the long winters, the daylight hours steadily diminish. Until for two months there is constant darkness. The soldier soon learns that much of his early training is spent in learning how to get from here to there. He learns the value of the ancient snowshoe. Excellent for small confined areas but difficult to use on steep grades. He gets a thorough grounding in how to move on skis. This includes military downhill skiing and fighting techniques in high winds and poor visibility. Ski jarring, being towed at speeds up to 15 miles an hour as part of his education. A 10-man rifle squad can be towed by a single light-tracked vehicle. He learns to use the occhio, a light sled designed to carry an entire squad's equipment for several days on the trail. He may get to operate some of the new snow machines undergoing army tests. The wide variety of vehicles to operate in snow conditions. Well, as different types of aircraft, at training in the snowy environment is heavily stressed. Besides this, prisoners are captured, disarmed and interrogated. Although normally attempted escape from prisoner of war camps would be part of the game, the rules of most winter exercises preclude this, to avoid subjecting men to possible isolation and cold injury. Exercises such as this one have proved that with proper training, proper equipment and good leadership, troops can operate under the most adverse Arctic winter conditions. In Alaska, as elsewhere, defense is not always a military matter. It is concerned as well with protecting and conserving the precious gifts of nature. The Wildlife Museum at Fort Richardson is the finest in the north. We're transporting our bear around. Once in a while you'll see our vehicle out here and you might see the cage in it with a black bear in it. You wonder what's happening with that bear? Well, the only problem is we've got too many in one location. So the first thing we've got to do is capture the bear and take it out here and put it somewhere where we don't have any bear. This is just overpopulated. We've just moved another area where they've got more food and more terrain to run around with. Joe and I don't know if you've all had a chance here yet or not or even know about it, but here on Fort Richardson we have a large cooling pond out here where we raise our own face. This year we've raised 320,000 king and silver salmon out here. We fin-clipped each and every one of these salmon, released them out here in the stream. Now you want to know why we fin-clip them. That's the first question we'd have. We fin-clip them so we've got a marking on them so two to three years later when we come back we'll catch them, we'll know exactly where they came from. At the Army Alaska Field Station near Fairbanks, Army scientists have tunneled back into time in search for clues to man's prehistory. Notice the wood is well preserved. It hasn't been petrified or altered in any manner. It has been carbon dated to about 14,000 years. To understand the present, one must study the past. Still another Army involvement in Alaska is to ensure an endless and ready supply of fuel to our air and ground forces. Defensive aircraft alone consume over 50 million gallons of fuel every four months. Two fuel lines serve Alaska. One runs well over 600 miles from the all-season port of Haynes to Fairbanks. Following the Alaskan Highway, it carries the fuel needed by our most northern air and ground forces. The second pipeline shown here runs from the all-weather port of Whittier, traversing the peaks of the Chugach Mountains. It is capable of delivering 700 barrels an hour to the anchorage storage tanks, from where the Army distributes it to all the air and ground forces in the Fort Richard Scenario. Both pipelines are multipurpose, capable of transporting in tandem the many varieties of military fuel required. U.S. Army Alaska maintains these lifelines of defense, keeping a step-by-step check on quality and purity of product. In the summer, camping, fishing and hunting excursions are popular with military personnel and their dependents. Salmon and trout fill the streams, and a variety of game is found everywhere. Alaska offers strong compensations for the soldier who is an outdoors man. The Army's concern in Alaska is not solely for the soldier. It is also vitally interested in his equipment, as shown by activities at the Arctic Test Center at Fort Greene. Here, all kinds of material are subjected to grueling tests in extreme Arctic conditions. The Army also conducts, participates in and supports many kinds of research efforts. As a typical example, the Army constructed this rocket launch site near Fairbanks in the dead of winter. The purpose was to fire rockets into the high atmosphere, where they would release a cloud for scientific measurement. Despite the extreme cold, supplies were trucked in from Fort Wainwright. A shelter was erected for the crew, and preparations for the experiment began. On test day at the Launch Control Center, the countdown is on. First cloud appears in the night sky. It is illuminated by solar rays high overhead. This experiment expanded our knowledge of the upper atmosphere. Knowledge needed to improve long-distance communications. Contributing to the defense of Alaska is a unique intelligence organization, the Eskimo Scout. As a full-time soldier in Alaska's National Guard, he is on constant duty. During his regular hunting day, he is on the lookout for unusual movements or incidents. He serves with loyalty and uncanny instinct along Alaska's 33,000 miles of coastline. The intelligence information is transmitted to Fort Richardson in a matter of minutes for a decision. Alert intelligence, instant communications, still another facet of the helping hand characterizing the military in Alaska. The U.S. Army Alaska also ensures that all Army reserve components maintain the required degree of readiness. Administers the Alaskan ROTC program, supports civil defense activities, and performs search and rescue operations. For the soldiers who man the remote Alaskan air defense sites, a part of the North American Air Defense Command, there is an added sense of urgency. Capability for immediate response is vital, for early warning could be very brief indeed. These mountaintop sites, small cities within themselves, are often inaccessible by road. Here a chaplain pays a weekly call. Within the concrete blockhouse, a small chapel provides a haven for the men's spiritual needs. For more mundane requirements, the troops' quarters and command center contain all modern living facilities. Every man in the battery takes part in periodic practice launching. Realism is the keynote. Missiles in Alaska are not stored underground. When a missile is needed, it rumbles out on rails. To be raised skyward on the concrete launching pad. Air defense is an all-weather responsibility. The soldier in Alaska lives a vigorous, rugged life. The skills he learns are many. He enjoys some of the world's most impressive scenery. He knows the special comradeship of those who share hardship. But perhaps most important of all is development of the self-confidence and resourcefulness that is the price of survival in this big country to the north.


We're in Rocky Mountain National Park and Marine Park below Cub Lake, one of the most beautiful views in the world. But today that view is marked by smoke from a forest fire that is burning up here. There was a forest fire near here last year, and it smoldered through the winter under the snow, not sure yet if these two are related. Forest fires have always happened, nature has always caused them, humans have always influenced forest fires, but now we're also influencing them through climate change. Earlier snow melt, hotter summers make for worse fire seasons, and we are seeing worse fire seasons.  A whole lot of things about climate change are that way. We've always had record highs, we've always had floods, we've always had droughts, but we've made a lot of those more likely to happen and we really are seeing more of them. It's sort of like playing a game with loaded dice. We've made one outcome more likely and it comes up.


I'm Corbin. I am Rick and you can follow us Instagram and Twitter Juicy content. Thank you for watching. Patreon, follow us on official Twitter account. Lots of exclusive content on there, songs. The content is good this year. Yeah Good year. Yeah Quite right. Exclusive content on Patreon. The full link to EtherK interview. EtherK? I heard that. The full link to EtherK video. The full link to EtherK video. The full length of EtherK. And other stuff, so check that out. It's all over there. Today we're reacting to Race Guram video.  What? Race Guram video song for K, Down Down Dupa. What video song? But it's by Olu Arjun. Yes. Yes. Many songs. He's the guy that sometimes does the Michael stuff. Correct. But then also he did the fight scenes. Correct. With them. Right. I remember him as a South Indian actor. Exactly. South Indian actor, dancer. And so this is a song from a film or like this is one of his songs. I don't know. Okay. No idea. Couldn't tell you. Girl, we're about to find out and we'll see and we'll get an idea of what this is all about. Here we go. Like this many people, this level of production. I would love to do a music video in this video. I'm literally gonna say is this the actual version or a dance remix? It was like a very faint down down which was cool. But I kind of wanted it to like the lyrics to yeah, it could have been like a like a really really catchy. Yeah But they for some reason it was really low. Exactly. Weird, right? It felt like this is the dance remix of the actual song. Which it may not. This may be the last song. What I was saying, it was wrong. Yeah. Don't blame me. Yeah, it did. It felt and as far as like my favorite thing about this was the direction and the cinematography of it. The camera work, the lighting, the concept of it was really original and good. Whoever directed this video was a great music video director. Yeah, absolutely. I would love a lot of those stages for it. Oh my sorry. Yeah, it's I would love to have a celebration video, like a million or two million and make it that big with that many people costumes, lighting. Well come to India. We'll do it with everyone. Yeah, no joke. But yeah, the the it definitely had it seemed to me it looked like the robot a lot. It did. Yeah, it's like a really good robot. Yeah, pop locking and he's clearly yeah, he's obviously the best dancer there. Of course. So that's mainly what I'm referring to because every single thing we've seen he can do a lot of dances. Yeah, it seems like it but this is seems to be his specialty. Yeah, the hip hop. I don't know what it's called. I called the robot where they do. I know it's not called the robot. My favorite thing was the double isolation move of the hands up and down the front and the back. Yeah, I've never seen that. That was very cool. Super cool. I mentioned another couple spots being nitpicky, but I don't like lazy dancing. And when I see that the synchronicity isn't there and they don't call it on it and that may have been the best they could have gotten it. But when the dancers aren't all in sync, I know it's really crazy hard, but it distracts. So and again, I'm being hypercritical of a music video and piano playing. Am I right guys? Frisbah, I didn't bring it up here. It doesn't matter. I still can make fun of you for it. You can't. Second of all, go back and watch it and you tell me. I don't care. I'm not going to get into this again. You brought it up. Yeah, but doesn't mean we're going to talk about it again. I'm just making fun of you anyways. But yeah, that was he's a really good dancer. He's also that fight team member that fight team he did. Yes, I do. He was on the ground and he didn't have subs. No, but I wasn't at the one though where I was talking about how the Foley work was so awful. No, where the sound was so over the top, but the fight scenes were really great. That wasn't his might have been. We really enjoyed the fight. Yeah, like epic. We didn't have subs and so we were like, please don't hurt me now. Yeah, yeah. Whatever that one was. Yeah. That was really, really cool. I like him a lot and I know he's like a huge, huge, huge star in the south. Yeah. Like he's one of the biggest. Yep. But yeah, that was really cool. Let us know what other his or what other really good dancers I know we love Prabu. Yeah. He's the best we've seen so far from y'all. But I know you've got other dancers and other great choreographers want to see him. Yeah, we do. We love watching good dance. You know what I want to see? What? We've only seen one thing of this dancer and it was very, very small and I want to see more of this dancer. Helen. I want to watch Helen dance. You got some Helen stuff. What do we see here? Come on. Cholet. Ah, yes. That's right. I was watching Cholet and I was kind of like getting dragged by the pacing of it and then Helen showed up. I was like, hello. Is that for something? No, no, no. Helen had only Helen. Helen is the Cholet. What Priyanka is the Ram Leela just shows up for one dance. What's dance? It was the dance right in the middle of the film at the bad guys camp and she's belly dancing. Oh, yeah. Gotcha. Well, we have different. This doesn't ring out. You don't remember Helen. That's like the highlight of some way for me. Yeah, you're weird though. That film is ridiculously good. Yeah, well, we talked about it. I know and you're wrong. But anyways, let us know what other dances we can, if she has more. Yeah, and I want to do a dance. I think we need a dance video that's just Corbin. Why? I can dance. You've seen you in the music videos. You can dance. Well, I'm talking dancing like I dance with my wife. Like I'm a good dancer that way, like with a partner, not just a single. You guys, you know how sweet it would be if you guys did a dance video together, just the two of you? We will not. Oh, come on, man. I would do a dance video with Andron. You should do a dance video. She's a dancer.


Good afternoon. It's really a great pleasure to be here. This is actually the first time for me to come to visit this beautiful country. Wherever I go, wherever I meet, are all new to me. But as I said previously that I have been longing to come to visit this country because the country itself is not new to me. When I was in the university, many familiar names such as William Butler Yitz, George Bernard Shaw, these names were familiar. When I was a student in this university, Beijing Foreign Studies University, that was more than 30 years ago, of course. And also Ireland is not new to many Chinese. Rev-a-Dance actually surprises the whole world, of course including China. We actually invited the Rev-a-Dance delegation to come to visit China and put on a performance during the Chinese Spring Festival, which is the show that is lively broadcasted to the whole country and also to the outside. So Ireland is the country that is familiar and to some extent not familiar. But I think it's wonderful to be here, especially to meet my old friend. Well, as I said to Britain that I want to keep my talk this afternoon as short as possible so that we could have more time for questions. And I think that should be the better way to make things clear. I did prepare a PBT, but I feel that it's more comfortable for me to just talk about it and share with you my thoughts. My talk is divided into four parts. The first one, overview of China's higher education. The second one, internationalization and its characteristics in China. And the third part is cooperation with EU and opportunities. The last one is about my university. Many of you have not been to my university yet so it's a good chance to bracket a little bit about my university taking this opportunity. Some scholars say that Chinese higher education actually can be traced back to eastern Zhou Dynasty, which is 700 to 200 BC, when Confucius taught to some of the students at that time. Of course it was the privilege of the elites only at that time. In the late 19th century, the outside forces played a large role in China, particularly in the development of higher education. And particularly during the wake of the first opium war, which was in 1840, some Chinese intellectuals discovered numerous western advances of the science and technology. So that actually opened a very good door for Chinese to understand how education developed outside the country. And the western university model actually played a very great impact on the higher education system in China. It was in 1895, people say that the first Chinese higher education institution was set up. It was a Beiyang University of Tianjin, which is the Tianjin University in China now. By the year 1949, when China was founded, there were only 200, a little bit more than 200, actually 205 universities in the whole of China. And that was the first phase of the higher education in China. And the second phase is from the year 1949 to the year 1976, which actually the Cultural Revolution took place during this time. During this time, China actually developed rapidly, both economically and educationally. But during this time, China copied very much and learned the model of the former Soviet Union. So everything was centralized, including the way of education, such as textbooks, syllabies, and the way of educating and cultivating people. So we very much copied the model of the former Soviet Union. But we did have quite a lot of development of setting up many universities and specialized colleges and institutions. The third phase is from 1976 to the year present, especially starting from 1977, the central government of China headed by Deng Xiaoping made the decision to restore the National Higher Education Entrance Exam, which in Chinese we call it Gaokao. Everybody wants to go to the universities has to pass the Gaokao exam. This actually is called the new phase of education in China. Personally, I myself took the exam and that was the first exam after the restoring of the system. I succeeded fortunately and was enrolled in the Beijing Foreign Studies University. I was lucky because I had the education at the attached school of Beijing Foreign Studies University and the education relatively speaking was very good. With the entrance examination restored, we also developed the degree such as bachelor degree, master's degree and PhD degree. So everything actually was put in the right track for the development of higher education since then. And also starting from 1978, China adopted the opening up policy to the outside world and a lot of exchanges and communications happened between China and outside which also provided a very good opportunity for students and scholars to go abroad to do the exchange programs. And also we received gradually more and more foreign students coming to study in China. And as we enter into the late 1980s, Chinese higher education has undergone a series of structural reforms. And these reforms gradually made a very good improvement from both from the qualitative perspective and also from the pedagogical perspective. The specific features of this reform are mainly in two areas. One is institutionalization, which means that in the past, many departments and ministries, they have their own universities such as China University for Agriculture used to belong to the Ministry of Agriculture. My university, Beijing Foreign Studies University used to belong to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That's why we have so many diplomats. And with this institutionalization, all the universities belong to the Ministry of Education. But of course, institutionally, they have the certain leadership and benefits from the departments and ministries they used to belong to. But another feature is the market economy-driven process. That is, everything was done in a planned economy. And then we gradually shifted and given more autonomy and decision-making power to the universities. And this is actually very well welcomed and received by the higher education institutions in China. I might give you some of the figures to show you how high education is looked like in present China today. According to the statistics, in 2015, which was last year, we have 2,845 universities with 35.59 million university students. Every year, there are about 9.4 million students taking the national entrance examination in China. And every year, there are about 7 million graduates leaving the university. This actually is a huge number according to the statistics that China now has the largest education system in the world. But the point is that China is big in education system. People say that it is not at all a strong nation of high education. This is one of the priorities that China is trying to develop to become a strong country of higher education in the next five-year plans. Secondly, I want to talk about the internationalization. Talking about internationalization, we mainly talk about three components. One is how do the universities look at internationalization? In China, we have different perspectives. Some universities think that internationalization mainly refers to the university to have cooperation with foreign universities or foreign institutions. But in fact, other people believe that internationalization in China itself is a way of attitude towards how you run the university. How you develop your strategies towards a better goal that you have already set up. Which actually means a lot to a university. My university, for instance, we pay great attention to the development of a relationship with foreign universities. But we do not rely on these. What we do is through the cooperation and exchanges, we want to upgrade the level of our education, of our teaching. And the most important thing is how we help our students to achieve a great vision for their future development. And that should be the most important part that we pay attention to. Secondly, people in terms of internationalization, people talk about student mobility, program mobility and institution mobility. At the moment in China, we have developed quite a lot of student mobility programs. I can show you some of the figures here. In 2015, China, there are 523,000 people going to study abroad. In which, well, government support students only takes very small proportion. Only takes about 42,000. That means more than 481,000 students are self-funded students. This is a huge number. We see this as from two different perspectives. Going to study abroad on the student part, it is a very, very good way of pursue the knowledge, pursue their future careers. But from other point of view, we see that we want to ask the question, why so many students going to study abroad? This could be a very serious question. One of the questions deals with the way of educating our own students in the country. Now, of course, there are several reasons for students to study abroad. Number one reason is China is well off. Chinese are rich. They can afford to send their kids to pursue the best education in the world. Second one is according to the traditional ideology. No matter how poor or how rich we are, one of the important idea in Chinese family, according to the tradition, that they want their kids to be the best once they create their careers. We in Chinese have a saying that every family wants their son to be the dragon and their daughter to be the phoenix. That which means that they want their kids to be in a better position than their parents. So the parents are willing to do everything to provide the education and conditions for their children. But one other thing that we want to talk about is that whether there should be a problem about the way of education of our own system. That should be the thing that we need to consider by ourselves. Of course, China is a still developing country and we have quite a lot of improvements in education, in developing our higher education. But still, what we need to do is to think about the way of education for quite a long time since China established. One of the examples that I can give you is that when I was a kid in the primary schools, teachers are always respected by the students. And the focus of the teaching itself actually was on the majority of the students. So when you go to a class or you go to a school, many of the activities are organized collectively. And students through the organization of the activities, they were brought the idea of collectivism. Which means that you respect the way of organization itself. At the same time, you constrain yourself, your individual way of trying to do things differently. So a foreign friend talked to me very straightforwardly that he said, why you Chinese students are always good at doing the examinations, answering all the questions. But in other words, we don't see many students in China at the both ends. The majority is in the middle, but we don't have too bad students and too good students. So this is the way of Chinese way of education, focusing on the majority, neglecting the individuality of the students. So the way of education itself actually is a very good point for us to consider. Especially at this time that Chinese government encourages greatly to be creative, to be innovative, particularly in the way of developing our own education models. We talk about the innovative cooperative programs before the meeting. And we actually agreed upon very much about how we should do our cooperative program in a creative way. And this actually is very much encouraged in China. And also I'm sure that as we go along, this may gain a lot of support from the China Scholarship Committee, which is the organization that provides scholarships for our Chinese students to come to study abroad. Therefore, the way the huge students to go to study abroad from China is actually considered from both sides. It's a kind of a good thing and also the point, the way that we need to consider very, very carefully. So this is the basic situation of students going to study abroad from China. But as we are at the time of making the next five-year plan, which is the 2016 to 2020, all universities in China have actually busy making the plans, particularly in November last year, when the Chinese State Council issued a master plan for developing higher education. This actually is a very good document for the universities to create and develop their own plans for their future. Which means in November 2015 the State Council issued a master plan for developing world-class universities and disciplines. This is in China what we call double world-class development for universities, namely world-class universities and world-class disciplines. Which means by the year of 2020 there will be, from the Chinese government point of view, some universities will get into the world class or top class of the world and some disciplines in China will get into the top class level. This actually is the document highlight China's effort to raise the overall quality and international competitiveness of its higher education system. Talking about the higher education and making the five-year plans in China, I think we need to look at what is the situation of the higher education, all the universities nowadays in China in terms of realizing their own internationalizations. Following the master plan and also in connection with the next five-year plan, there are several characteristics that can be summarized here for the Chinese universities. Number one is 95% of the universities in China have put forward clear development goals for the future internationalization development strategies including implementation plans. Many of them have even set up internationalization working committee to make sure that the job will be done. Second, most of the universities, they have been a great shift from quantitative development to the qualitative emphasis. Many universities have come to realize that the quality actually is the lifeline for their future development. Number three, being creative and being different have become a dominant understanding of all universities. Instead of following other universities or copy other universities model, many universities are trying to develop their own characteristics and specialties, which actually is the way that the Chinese government encourages very greatly. Number four, market-driven oriented development has become more and more outstanding for the universities. As we enter into a more competitive society, universities all pay great attention to the market development instead of doing what they were told in the past. And the last one, international cooperation and exchanges with foreign universities have become a must, almost a must. And all of them are looking for high quality partners for cooperation and exchanges. So these are the many characteristics of the universities in developing their own internationalization in China. And I think as we go along, there will be more and more universities to develop cooperative programs with foreign universities. And next, I think I want to talk about the cooperation between the cooperation with the EU and the opportunities. Some of you may be aware that China is very active in developing people-to-people high-level consultative mechanisms. So far we have developed China-U.S., people-to-people consultative mechanism. We have developed mechanisms with China-U.K., France, and EU, and Russia. And the last one is China-Indonesia. All these six mechanisms we would see is a very good way for China to develop comprehensive relationships with outside countries. Well, to look at all these six mechanisms, we can see very clearly that four of them, three of them actually, are in Europe. So half of the mechanism is located in Europe-China-U.K., China-France, and China-EU. Which shows that China pays great attention to the development of the relationship with EU, with European countries. China's government has encouraged greatly the universities to be strategic, to be supportive in the overall China strategic development with the outside world. And they encourage universities to be think-type oriented universities. Not only provide service of their own specialties, but also to get involved as closely as possible in the strategic development and relationship with outside. And talking about the university that provides the assistance to the cooperation with EU, and we can see that as now Bretton mentioned that Professor Wong is the director for UK British Study Center in my university, and he is also the director of Irish Study Center in my university, where we have two study centers that could make us to develop close relationship with UK and Ireland. And also we have in our university the Center for Eastern and Central European Studies, which is the center that approved by the Ministry of Education China to do the original studies for the benefit of the service of the government strategies. And also we have in our university 22 Confucius Institutes that was set up all around the world, and 17 of them are located in Europe. As I said that we also have quite a lot of programs and agreements with European countries. Some of them are newly signed in connection with the Erasmus Plus program, which is the program that supports the university to do cooperation with the country and universities outside the European area. And that I think is a great benefit, not only for our European university, but also the universities outside. And we are seeking to develop more connections with European universities with the support of the Erasmus Plus program. We also talk about how we should set up close relations with UK, with Ireland, and with some of the European countries by having a think tank oriented research programs. One of the ways is to carry out mutually interested studies that could benefit not only our staffs, but also our students. We also talked about that in every year in October in China there will be an annual conference of the China Education Association for International Exchanges, which is a quite big conference similar to NAFSA in the United States. During this annual conference there will be a very big education expo in China. This activity actually attracts great attention from the universities outside China. In every year there will be about 100 countries coming to join this annual conference. And I'm very happy to see that this year in October Ireland will be the country of honour of this conference. And we just talked about this during this morning's meeting with the Ministry of Education people that there will be a large delegation from Ireland headed by hopefully the new Minister of Education to China. And we are looking forward to seeing our friends from Ireland, from different universities of Ireland, and also from the Ministry of Education and skills of Ireland. This could be a very good opportunity for universities to mingle with each other and to talk about with each other, especially to explore the possibilities of developing future collaborations academically and educationally. The last one, the last point is about my university. Beijing Foreign Studies University has long enjoyed the good fame of cradle of diplomats for the country. Over the past 75 years we have produced more than 400 ambassadors, more than 1000 councillors for the country, serving the country in different diplomatic areas. I myself was an education councillor before I became the Vice President of the university. I worked in the Ministry of Education, but my two foreign posts provided me an opportunity to be a diplomat. My first foreign post was New Zealand. It was in early 1990s. And my second post was in the United States, in Houston, where I worked for four years. I really enjoyed the work as a diplomat because it provides you a different view and vision to look at the relationship and also to develop the exchanges and co-operations. The most important characteristic of my university is that this is a collegiate university that produces elites or talented students for the whole country. Most of the students, after graduation, they work in the diplomatic service in the mass media area and also in the national enterprises, big enterprises. The reason that the students can have the good and also high employment after they graduate is because of the level of education. We focus very much on our own teaching staff because we believe that once you want to have the high quality of students, you need to have the high quality of teachers in the first place. So we emphasize very much on the teachers' education in our university. And many of our teachers, they are very active in the exchange programs with foreign universities. They travel, they learn, and they do the research projects. Secondly, we emphasize very much on the overall development of our students. We emphasize that our students should be multilingual, which means they not only speak one or two languages, but they are able to communicate with people more than two languages. The reason that we do so is because we are aware that language is not only the tool for people to get communicating. Actually, it is a very good way of cognitive development for students and also a very important key for students to open a different culture, different history, and different value of philosophy. And once they believe that this is the way for their future and for the opening up of their visions, I think that will play a very, very important role for their future career. And secondly, we emphasize very strongly on the multifunctional education. We not only ask our students to be good at languages, but they should also be good at one or two subject areas. So we emphasize very strongly that students should be foreign language plus a subject area or professional. So in this way in our university, we not only provide 72 languages taught in the university, we also provide students with wider choices. We also have the School for International Relations and Diplomacy, where students can be diplomats. We also have the School for International Business. We have the School of Law. We also have the School for International Journalism and Communication. We also have the Computer Science Department. By way of doing so, we believe that we could provide a good educational environment for our students to be multifunctional after they graduate. And this university is one of the best universities in China in the foreign language teaching and research. Now the fashionable word is called cultural states. So this BFSU is very much focused on the foreign cultural studies and appreciation and also regional studies, as we talked about before this. The area studies is also one of the focuses of our university. I have been bragging quite a lot about my university. The most important thing I think is to invite all of you in the future when you have the chance to come to visit my university. In China we have the saying, seeing is believing. So for that, I thank you very much for your patience. And I would like to conclude my talk. And I want to thank you once again for your interest. And also, through this visit, we would like to see more activities going on between IIEA and my university in terms of European studies and think tank development of our both institutions. So once again, thank you very much.


This study found that adding a supplement to a dog's regular food improved their performance in a field trial. The supplement appeared to reduce inflammation and improve muscle function, which may explain why the dogs performed better than those who did not receive the supplement. Further research is needed to confirm these results and determine if this supplement can be used to improve performance in other types of competitions. This article was authored by Janice L. Huntingford, Brent N. Curran, Kerry Kramer, and others.


This review provides an overview of the use of chitosan-based nanoparticles in various nonparenteral applications for drug delivery through different routes of administration, highlighting their sustained release and mucoadhesive properties. Chitosan is a biodegradable, biocompatible polymer with a tremendous range of potential applications due to its chemical functional groups that can be modified to achieve specific goals. The review explores recent research on chitosan-based NP for nonparenteral drug delivery, including their toxicity, pharmacokinetics, and pre-clinical studies.