A very good evening to all our friends and welcome to the Hindu News Analysis of Shankar IAS Academy for the date 27th October 2020. The list of the news articles along with the page numbers of 5 different editions is given here for your reference. Also the handwritten notes in the PDF format and time stampings for all the news articles taken up for today's discussion is given in the description box and also in the comment section for the best interest of the viewers. Let us now begin our news analysis. First let us take up this news article. The news is that two units of Sri Shailam power plant which were damaged in August 2020 in a major fire accident were relaunched yesterday. In this context let us have a brief understanding of the Sri Shailam power plant, the reservoir and also about the Krishna river. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. See Sri Shailam Dam power plant is constructed across the Krishna river and is at the borders of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Now that it is the second largest capacity working hydroelectric station in the country. The dam was constructed in a deep gorge of the Krishna river in the Nalla Mala hills and also know that there is also a tiger reserve in this area that is the Nagarjuna Sagar Sri Shailam Tiger Reserve. Yes, the 2020 plumes question is based on this tiger reserve. See it is the largest tiger reserve in the country and is spread over 3800 square kilometer. And it covers Guntur, Prakasham and Karnol districts of Andhra Pradesh and Nalgonda and Mahabubnagar in Telangana. It was officially declared as a tiger reserve in the year 1978 and has been recognized by the Project Tiger in the year 1983. And this reserve has been renamed as the Rajiv Gandhi Wildlife Century in the year 1992. Also know that the river Krishna flows across this Nalla Mala Tiger Reserve and the multi-purpose reserve wires constructed across this river that is the Sri Shailam and Nagarjuna Sagar are located in this tiger reserve. Now talking about river Krishna, see it is an interstate river in the southern India. It is the second largest river in Peninsula, India. The river is also called as Krishnaveni. It rises in the western Ghats near Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra state. It flows across the whole width of the peninsula from west to east for a length of about 1400 kilometers. So it flows eastwards and rains into the Bay of Bengal and it flows through the states Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The basin is roughly triangular in shape and is bounded by Balagat range on the north then by the eastern Ghats on the south and east and by the western Ghats on west. Its principal tributaries joining from right are Ghatprabha, Malprabha, Koina, Venna, Varna, Panchaganga, Doodhganga and Tungabhadra whereas Bhima, Musi and Munneru are the principal tributaries joining this river from the left. And some of the important dams built across Krishna are Narayanapura Dam, Sri Sailam Dam, Priyadarshani Jurala Dam or Jurala Dam, then Nagarjuna Sagar Dam, Prakasham Barrage etc. So in this discussion, we saw about the Sri Sailam Power Plant, the Nagarjuna Sagar Sri Sailam Tiger Reserve and also about the Krishna River. So this is all about this news article with this we'll move on to the next news. Now this news article is about the interview given by the new director of Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services in short INCOIS. Previously he was associated with the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission or IOC of the UNESCO. And in this news article, the new director has spoken about how India is much safer against the threat of tsunami than it was in 2004. And he was referring to the State of the Arts Tsunami Early Warning System established at INCOIS at Hyderabad. So in this context, let us have a brief understanding of how tsunamis are formed then about the INCOIS and the UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission or IOC and also about the Tsunami Ready Initiative of IOC. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. See, a tsunami is a series of great sea waves caused by an underwater earthquake, landslide or volcanic eruption.  An underwater earthquake generates a tsunami. If it is of sufficient force and there is a violent movement of the earth to cause a substantial and sudden displacement of a massive amount of water. A tsunami is not a single wave, but a series of waves, also known as a wave drain. The first wave in a tsunami is not necessarily the most destructive and remember tsunamis are not tidal waves. Here, know that a tidal wave is a regularly reoccurring shallow water wave caused by effects of the gravitational interaction between the sun, moon and the earth on the ocean. And in case of tsunamis, scientists are able to calculate the arrival times of the tsunamis in different parts of the world based on the knowledge of water depths, distances and when the event that generated them occurred. That is the time. The tsunami waves can be very long as much as of 100 kilometers and be as far as one hour apart. They are able to cross the entire oceans without great loss of energy. If you see, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami traveled as much as 5000 kilometers to Africa.  A tsunami may be less than 30 centimeters in height on the surface of the open ocean. Which is why they are not noticed by the sailors. But the powerful shock waves of the energy travels rapidly through the ocean as fast as a commercial jet. And once the tsunami reaches shallow water near the coast, it is slowed down. The top of the wave moves faster than the bottom causing the sea to rise dramatically. And it is this rise in the sea which impacts the coasts. Here, know that the geological features such as reefs, bays, river entrances and undersea formations may dissipate the energy of a tsunami. In some places, a tsunami may cause the sea to rise vertically only a meter. And in other places, the tsunami have been known to surge vertically as high as 30 meters. Most tsunamis cause the sea to rise not more than 3 meters. So, this is about tsunami. Next, let us see about ESSO in Coise. See, ESSO stands for Earth System Science Organization. See, this Earth System Science Organization is an executive arm of the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences. It is an umbrella organization that coordinates all meteorological and ocean development activities. One of the centers under ESSO is in Coise, that is the Indian National Center for Ocean Information Services. See, in Coise was established as an autonomous body in 1999 under the Ministry of Earth Sciences. The mandate of in Coise is to provide ocean information and advisory services to society, industry, government agencies and the scientific community. And this is provided based on continuous ocean observations and research. One such service is the Indian Tsunami Early Warning System. Next, let us see about the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the UNESCO. See, it is the United Nations body responsible for supporting global ocean science and services. It was established in 1960. See, IOC is supporting all its member states to build the scientific and institutional capacity in order to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14, which is to conserve and sustainably manage ocean and marine resources by 2030. At present, IOC has 150 member states and India is one among them. The IOC enables its 150 member states to work together in areas such as ocean observations, tsunami warnings and marine spatial planning. And if you see, IOC has initiated a community performance-based program called Tsunami Ready to promote tsunami preparedness through active collaboration of various stakeholders. It provides a structured framework in order to build and measure capacities of coastal communities to respond effectively to the tsunamis. And it is done through 11 important indicators mentioned here. See, it includes the Community Tsunami Risk Reduction Plan, designated and mapped tsunami hazard zones, public display of tsunami information, easily understood tsunami evacuation maps, outreach and public education materials, at least three outreach or educational activities annually, then conducting an annual tsunami community exercise, addressing tsunami hazards in communities' emergency operations plan, supporting the IOC during a tsunami incident, and also redundant and reliable means for 24 hours warning point and or emergency operations centers to disseminate official tsunami alerts to the public. So based on this, in August 2020, the Venkat Tripur village of Ganjam district and Nolia Sahi village of Jagat Singpur district, which are in Odisha, were declared as Tsunami Ready by International Oceanographic Commission. So this is all about this news article. In this discussion, we saw about how tsunamis are formed, then we saw about INCOIS, then UNESCO's IOC and also its initiative Tsunami Ready. With this, we'll move on to the next news. Now these two opiate articles talk about the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic in different sectors and on women. It also discusses what the world and India in particular has done to reduce the negative impacts and what needs to be done to overcome or eliminate these negative impacts. One article is written by a World Health Organization scientist and the other by UN officials. So now let us discuss the review points on these aspects. The syllabus relevant for this analysis is highlighted here for your reference. Please go through it. First, both these articles talk about the impact on women. See, the major one is the health related impacts. As we know, the pandemic has significantly impacted delivery of essential services in the health sector, like the routine immunization is disrupted, mental health services are affected, also both outpatient and inpatient services for non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, high BP, heart disease, cancer, et cetera, have been greatly affected. And according to a recent study, because of this reduction in coverage of essential services, there could be a 60% more maternal deaths. And this is because more important interventions are not available, like the non-availability of administration of uterotonics and antibiotics, et cetera. See, uterotonics are life-saving chemical compounds that help in reducing the complications during and after labor. And further, the reduction in coverage of essential services could also increase the prevalence of wasting in children. And it can increase the prevalence of wasting by 10% to 50%. See, wasting means low weight for height among children. The second impact on women is sudden increase in domestic violence. See, when a study was conducted, it found that 1 third of the women in India had previously experienced domestic violence. But the worrying factor is that only less than 1% had sought help from the police. And this problem could be addressed by including response to violence against women as an essential service. And if we come to job aspects, many women have lost their work and livelihoods. And this is because more women work in the informal economy than men. And this pandemic has affected the informal sector the most and thus affected the income of women. And according to the author, women's income fell by over 60% during the first month of the pandemic itself. And this and other factors altogether is expected to increase the number of women and children living in extreme poverty to 100 million. Further, according to the India Voluntary National Review 2020, the female labour force participation rate, or LFPR, is showing a declining trend for the age group of 15 to 59 years. See, currently the female LFPR for 15 to 59 age groups stands at 25.3%. And according to the author, this is one of the lowest rates in the world. But on the other hand, there is a rise in demands of unpaid work or unpaid care work from women during the pandemic. And in this regard, the second article emphasizes on addressing the longstanding gender equality issues by empowering women with skills. Already we have the Disha initiative in this regard. See, Disha is a partnership between the United Nations Development Program and the India Development Foundation supported by IKEA Foundation. It aims to support 1 million underprivileged women in India to learn marketable skills and connect with income opportunities. It helps women to become economically self-sufficient through training, employment, and entrepreneurial skill development. So we need initiatives like this. They are not only going to address gender equality issues but also help to increase India's GDP. And this is because IMF has estimated that equal participation of women in workforce will increase India's GDP by 27%. So this was about the impacts on women and the way forward regarding the issues faced by women. Next, if we analyze the general scenario in health sector, we can see that there are disruptions in providing essential services like we have discussed earlier. And according to the author, who is a World Health Organization scientist, over 70% of countries reported partial or complete disruption of immunization services. So this means the disease burden could increase. And the next sector affected by the pandemic is education sector. And if you see, this intern also affected the health of the children as it has adversely affected the access to nutritious food which is offered to children through school meals. So malnutrition could increase in children. The next important issue is the financial burden on public due to pandemic. Already before the pandemic itself, the out-of-the-pocket expenditure for healthcare costs about 100 million population to fall into extreme poverty every year. Further, globally 800 million population spend more than 10% of their household budget on healthcare. These numbers will further increase due to the pandemic. So there is a need to ensure financial protection which could be done through a health coverage scheme like the Ayushman Bharat or else at least through private health insurance. So what could be done to improve the situation? First, there should be an emphasis on gender analysis and gender responsive public health policies. But the issue is lack of availability of separate data especially on sex and age and on violence against women and children. So this lack of data reduces the opportunity to provide targeted policies and services to women and children. So first, separate data should be made available. Secondly, the use of digital technology. See, digital technology can be utilized in multiple roles. For example, we are already using the platforms like ECHO in many states to train healthcare workers. See, Project ECHO is a massive global movement of knowledge democratization. It aims to amplify the capacity to deliver and extend equitable healthcare and other critical resources to the world's most vulnerable populations. This ECHO model harnesses a tele-menting outreach in order to upskill healthcare professionals by conducting various training sessions with their partners. And based on this, ECHO India partnered with premier Indian government healthcare institutions to strengthen the emergency response to COVID-19. And it is with consistent capacity-building programs for healthcare professionals, including doctors, nurses, Asha workers and paramedics. Then we have the East Sanjeevani platform for enabling telemedicine appointments. See, we have discussed about this East Sanjeevani platform in our 26th June Hindu News Analysis. And the next one is creating electronic and portable health records. For this, our PM has already announced the National Digital Health Mission or NDHM on our Independence Day. And we have discussed about this National Digital Health Mission on our September 4th Hindu News Analysis. And the next one to note here is that partnering with private sector is important to improve the use of digital technology. And thirdly, investments should be made to enhance the health literacy in our institutional mechanisms and also to enhance capacities in our regulatory bodies, research centers and public health institutions. Here we have to learn from the pandemic experience, which is the significance of investing in public health and primary healthcare. Finally, understanding the positive role of science and scientists. A global collaboration between scientists is necessary in order to take forward advances in knowledge and science. It becomes important if we need to reduce the mortality in the current pandemic and also in the future. So, this is all about the discussion of these opiate articles. With this, we'll move on to the next news. Now, have a look at this question. It is based on this news article from page one which talks about the foundational agreements between India and US. It says that India and the US will sign the last foundational agreement that is the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Cooperation, or simply BECA, during the 2 plus 2 ministerial dialogue which happened today. See, the 2 plus 2 ministerial dialogue is held between the Indian External Affairs Minister and Indian Defense Minister with their US counterparts, the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense. And this dialogue is considered as the highest level institutional mechanism between India and US that brings together our perspectives on foreign policy, defense and strategic issues. Now, let us see in brief about these 4 foundational agreements. See, the US enters into 4 foundational agreements with its defense partners. They are the General Security of Military Information Agreement, that is GSOMIA. Then the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement, that is LMOA. Then the Communications Compatibility and Security Agreement, that is CONCASA. And the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Cooperation, that is BECA. Know that India and the US had signed the GSOMIA in 2002. It enables the sharing of military intelligence between the two countries and requires each country to protect the other's classified information. In the 2 plus 2 dialogue which happened in the year 2019, India and US signed the Industrial Security Annex, that is ISA. See, it is an add-on to GSOMIA. ISA enables transfer of key high-end technology from US defense firms to India. Coming to the second agreement that is Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement, that is LMOA. It is an India-specific version of the Logistics Support Agreement, that is LSA, which the US has with many countries. Signed in 2016, the LMOA gives access to both countries to designated military facilities on either side for the purpose of refuelling and replenishment. The agreement primarily covers four areas. They are the Port of Call Joint Exercises, Training, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief. Here Port of Call refers to Intermediate Stop for a Ship. And know that the third one, that is the Comcast was signed in the 2 plus 2 dialogue held in 2018. It is an India-specific version of the Communication and Information on Security Memorandum of Agreement, that is CASMOA, which the US has with the other countries. It allows India to procure and transfer specialized equipment for encrypted communications. It is meant to facilitate the use of high-end secured communication equipment to be installed on military platforms. It will also help to receive modern, secure and net-enabled weapons systems such as the precision armaments, air-to-air missiles, etc. And the final one is BECA, which will be signed today. See when it is signed, BECA will allow India and US to share geospatial and satellite data, such as the topographical, nautical and aeronautical data with each other. But India and the US have differences over the issue of reciprocity or the mutual exchange of information in the exchange of geospatial information. And we can hope that these issues will be resolved in this dialogue. With this, see this question. With which of the following countries, India holds two plus two dialogue at ministerial level? See, there are four countries given here, China, Japan, Canada, and the United States of America. See, the correct answer is option C, two and four only. India and Australia has two plus two dialogue at the secretary level. With this, we'll move on to the next news. Now, see this question. It is based on this news article which talks about the newly elected president of Seychelles. In the recent presidential election of Seychelles, the opposition candidate, Wavell Ram Kalevan, has won by defeating the incumbent president. And with this, the opposition has taken power in Seychelles for the first time since 1977. So in this context, let us know about the geographical details of Seychelles. See, Seychelles is an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean. An archipelago means a group of islands. And Seychelles is one of the world's smallest countries and also one of the smallest African countries in terms of both area and population. Know that the country lies south of the equator and major islands of Seychelles are located east of Kenya and northeast of Madagascar. And its capital is Victoria, which is situated in the island of Mahi. See, Seychelles is composed of two main island groups and totally there are 116 islands. One main island group is the Mahi group and the islands in this group are Rocky and they typically have a narrow coastal strip and a central range of hills. And they are mountainous granitic islands. The highest point in Seychelles is situated in Mahi. It is the Mornaya Seychalloi, which has a height of 905 meters. And also this Mahi group is home to about 90% of the population. The second group is the Coraline Islands and they are only a few feet above the sea level. They are flat with elevated coral reefs at different stages of formation. The islands are largely waterless and very few of them have a resident population. Here also remember that the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Aldebra et al is situated in Seychelles only. It is a natural world heritage site and it is located in the Indian Ocean and is an outstanding example of a raised coral et al. See, the et al is remotely situated and thus inaccessible. And due to this, the et al has remained largely untouched by humans for the majority of its existence. Here Aldebra contains one of the most important natural habitats for studying evolutionary and ecological processes. And it is also home to the largest giant tortoise population in the world. So this is all about Seychelles. Now see this question. It is an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean and one of the smallest African countries in terms of both area and population. It lies to the south of Equator. The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Aldebra et al, which is home to the largest giant tortoise population in the world, is part of this republic. Which of the following countries have been described in the Ebo passage? See the correct answer is Option C, Seychelles. With this we have discussed all the important articles from today's newspaper. Now let us move on to the Practice Questions discussion section. See this first question. It is a three statements based question. Consider the following statements. The first statement reads, the Krishna river is the largest river system in the Penunsular India. See this statement is wrong. We should know that Godavari river is the largest river system in the Penunsular India. And Krishna is the second largest river system in Penunsular India. Now the second statement reads, Kaleshuram lift irrigation project is built across the Krishna river. See this statement is also wrong. The Kaleshuram lift irrigation project is built across Godavari river and not across Krishna river. We have discussed about this Kaleshuram project in our 25th May Hindu News Analysis. See when we know that first and second statements are incorrect, we can directly come to the answer that is option A, three only. The third statement is correct. Krishna river flows through the Sri Shailam Nagarjuna Sagar Tiger Reserve. So the correct answer for this question is option A, three only. Now see this second question. Consider the following statements. A tsunami is caused by an underwater earthquake only. See this statement is incorrect because a tsunami can be caused by an underwater earthquake, landslide or a volcanic eruption. And they can also be generated by a giant meteor impact with the ocean. And the second statement reads, they are basically tidal waves which are caused by effects of the gravitational interactions between sun, moon and the earth on the ocean. See this statement is also incorrect. We have seen that tsunamis are different from tidal waves. So both the statements are incorrect. So the correct answer is option D, neither one nor two. Now see this means practice question. Write your answers and post it in the comment section. Our feedback will be given in a reasonable time frame. So friends, with this we have come to the end of analysis of all the news articles taken for today's discussion and also the discussion of practice questions. If you like this video, please press the like button, comment, share and do subscribe to Shankar IAS Academy YouTube channel for more updates related to civil service preparation. Thank you.


After the latest snowstorm blanketed much of the region Monday morning, District 12's Kentucky Transportation Cabinet has been doing what it can to ensure residents can travel safely this holiday. Monday we spoke with Chief District Engineer Mary Westphal Holbrook about road conditions. Well, our crews were all looking out yesterday morning around, I guess, five, and spent a lot of time waiting on the snow, I guess, as you know. But when the snow finally hit, you know, of course we were treating for some icy conditions that we got.  Currently, our A and B routes are all partially to mostly clear throughout the district. And the C routes, which is, usually your four digit numbers are mostly covered. Some of my garages have already started working on them, but they'll start working on them this afternoon and hopefully get them claimed by the statement in the morning at the latest. At Pikeville Medical Center, we believe that together we can make a difference in the fight against cancer. We are proud to have patients who have experienced successful outcomes over many years. As always, we believe in the power of faith. Pikeville Medical Center, where cancer can be defeated. Also mentioned, both routes 195 and Pike and 321 in Floyd County have been reopened following rock slides from earlier this month. Yeah, it was a really quick turn of that. I was telling people to take two to four weeks. They really got in there and worked hard and worked as much as the weather would allow. But yeah, they did an excellent job, very proud of them. From what I understand, the one in Pike County, Kentucky 195, found a huge crater because the rock was so big that they were able to get some fill material and fill it up. C routes should be clear by this evening. For Mountain Top News, I'm Joel Korjol.


Now, let's convert strings into integers. You might have a situation where you're importing some text and it is in a string format but what you are actually interested in is the actual numerical value and for that we can use this pass function. So I'm going to get this computer variable called NUMB and I'll put this text in it and the semicolon just suppresses the output. Now let's take a look just to make sure that this is indeed an ASCII string. Now I'm going to create a new computer variable called VEL and I'm going to pass as an integer this piece of string. Let's go for it. And now let's look at VEL, indeed it is 1001 which now looks a bit different and indeed we can check the type of it and it is now a 64 bit integer. So that's wonderful, we can import a bit of text and we can convert it into a number. Now let's go in the other direction. So we have this VEL underscore F, floating point value 1001.123, let's run that. And just to make sure it's a 64 bit float and instead of pass I now use string and it's just this one type of string so where we used the integer before just to say what we want to pass it to here we just say the string function and we pass that argument. We're going to put this inside of a new computer variable called str underscore F, let's just do that. Let's print it to the screen and you can see the quotation marks there and just to make 100% sure let's check the type it is now an ASCII string. So we can go from string to numerical value and from a numerical value into a string. So we're going to import text and it is going to have a matrix like this,<PHONE_NUMBER>21. Now it is written like this because it might be so in the text file with the Julia notebook because we've used the carriage return here to go to a new line it's going to do this green color which might make it look like a number but it's all inside of the quotation mark so it's all just a string. Let me show you. There we go you see the new line character there so this is we can well imagine we've just imported this from a text file and I just make sure what this file underscore data is indeed it's just a string but imagine in your text file it was typed by someone to represent a matrix a 3 by 4 matrix now I can read that in as an actual matrix let's have a look I'm going to use this read DLM function it takes this argument iobuffer which takes an argument this string I'm going to put this inside of a computer variable which I've called data so let's look what data see what data looks like and indeed a 3 by 4 array of 64 bit floating numbers two dimensional in other words there's rows and columns just to make sure it is now an array of 64 but floating point elements two dimensional so that's some common new scenarios where you've imported text and you want to convert it to values or imported something that looks like a matrix and you want to convert it to a real matrix or taking a number going the other way and making a string out of it in the next section of this lesson we're going to look at finding and replacing characters and substrings inside of strings


Hey everybody, this is Christian Buckley doing another MVP buzz chat and I'm talking today with Samson. Hello. Yeah, hello. I'm Samson. I'm a girl. Great Samson for folks that don't know you. Who are you? Where are you? And what do you do? Okay, so like I said, I'm Samson. I'm a girl and I'm in Nigeria. I'm a Microsoft MVP. I'm kind of passionate about Microsoft technologies, specifically. The net technology C sharp, the desktop framework and also the web framework as well. Well, it's great to have you and I know that I think I'm trying to think back through. I've got through almost 200 of these interviews. I think you're the first from Nigeria that I talked to. So that's exciting. Do you know how many Mbps are in Nigeria? I think it's within around 16 to 19. I'm not sure, but I think it's within that range. Yeah, Microsoft doesn't make it easy to go in there and search for like by country for Mbps. It's, you know, they're so protective of the information, rightly so. You know, so it makes it difficult and less and less every MVP from the region puts the country name in their description. It may not find them. But so, so you're like a brand new MVP to when did you receive your MVP? I received my MVP award some months ago this year. So relatively new. So what was your journey to becoming an MVP? Like, did you hear about it? Were you working towards it? Was it a complete surprise? Okay. It's wasn't really a complete surprise. I, it's not a surprise that I got it, you know, or the so high it's happened was I'm currently a Microsoft Lansing ambassador. So I'm a Microsoft Lansing ambassador in my school. And like in the Microsoft ambassador's program, we have like a group in Nigerian group and one of one of the person pretty pretty says was there wouldn't be there. He was a Microsoft MVP. So at some point I saw a message where I talked about if you're interested in becoming an MVP as you reached out to him and tell him that I'm interested and then, you know, fill us on form. So I did that. And after doing that, you know, I had to also put down all my contributions that I'm aware of, or that's actually always always a painful process to go through that every year. Yes. Yeah, yeah, I could imagine. So, you know, I had to bring down, source out all these links, blogs, articles, events, some events, links, you know, then. And at that time I was also kind of, I was, I got into this. Kind of new, like since last year. So I found the technology quite interesting. The design, the language design specifically, it seems quite cool. And, you know, going through the docs, sometimes I see some errors and I'm like, no, they shouldn't be how they should be written or maybe there's an error. So I'll make a pull request and that's the first one, but I was kind of happy about it, you know, contributing in a small way as I can. So I, at some point I started doing this and it's like one of the maintenance kind of, he's kind of noticed my contribution. And sometimes when there's a need for maybe a little help to do something, it might just put me down, like, like he would just type me to the issue and be like, hey, Sam, can you work on this? And in doing that, I'm not like, I'm not, I'll not call myself a pro pro, but in doing that, I kind of learned more about the dotnet because I have to like look at the issue, research, no one's wrong. So it was kind of, it was kind of like a learning and contribution process for me. So I did this several times and prior to dotnet seven, getting to the GA, the general availability, the first release, the main release, a lot of issues and contributions, I was like that. So I was kind of getting myself up to speed to latest updates in the dotnet space because I have to research from that. I was reading about that future and then make my own contribution to correct some things or write sample code in the new future. So it was really interesting. I was kind of engaged in the production of, or the spin out of new futures. At some point, Rick asked me if I was interested in its recandescent, that is the name of the person. Rick, thank you so much. Thank you so much. So, yeah, I told him yes, I was interested. I didn't, you know, I didn't have into mind that he would reach out to me and ask me if I was interested. So I told him yes and he asked me to put down like some of my contribution, the links to it. And I did that and he also, he also nominated me. So I like two nominations, one for Monday and one from Rick Anderson. So, after a while, one day I just got an email that, hey, Sam, you've been nominated and you're now an MVP. This is a link for it's click to get to know more about the program and I was kind of excited because I didn't really know. I mean, I'm kind of new to this piece, but I think the whole open source. Contribution and engagement kind of, like I was kind of on a faster, faster learning process. Because of the engagement in the new futures and it kind of made me seem like a professional a professional, but I'll not call myself like a professional. But you get that feel. So, yeah, I was very excited about it. And that's how it got to be an MVP. Up to today, sometimes Rick, like I think last week I made a contribution to the dot net documentation. So I'm still I'm still in the next page and the language design is really, really cool. I've, you know, I've had like some experience with some languages, but she seems to really stand out in terms of design. Well, I love the comment that you made to that's like, well, because none of us are experts. Now, I mean, nobody's an expert on everything. And there's obviously there's some things that each of us we have a lot of depth on we're confident in the answers. But I find the same thing like now somebody will ask a question. And I do a lot of AMA so asking anything recordings and videos and and panel discussions and things around that is. But I learned so much by like, I see a question, talk through it logically, kind of break it down into its components and, you know, lean heavily on others and their knowledge. But then I go and do research. I do a little, you know, searches and try to read through and try to understand and try to answer the question. Because a lot of times there might be a technical answer. But the real world, like what the person's actually trying to do might be slightly different than the technical answer that you find. And so trying to put that into real world context.  I've not, you know, changed any documentation. I do my contributions a different way, but that's an excellent way to get started within the community is exactly what you've done is take that real world learning. Answer questions, fix mistakes, you know, because a lot of that documentation now it's it's crowdsourced. And so, you know, they Microsoft needs the input from people and those real world experiences. Yeah. And I think I think the fact that the kind of open source net that's made it become more popular. And that also, you know, sped development of making this platform. So you can net now in line, you can use it on Android, because it on the macOS platform. So I think, you know, from the onset of making it open source till now, a lot of changes and developments from the community has actually been applied to the net ecosystem. Yeah. And that's really sped that up. So I was, I was at Microsoft a few years back and I remember what some of the pushback internally around the open source movement. And so now as you look at it and Microsoft thankfully embraced it and and started participating in that and that approach. I mean, I'm over in the SharePoint collaboration space and so much of the documentation that's written in the products are modified driven by what happens in those community discussions. And so you have like the patterns and practices, you know, all of the groups, all of the subgroups that are part of that that are working on documentation and solutions and things that are out there. Again, applying real world experience to the products, making them better across the board. It's, I'm glad companies have learned the power of, you know, of the crowd that to crowdsource around solutions and getting feedback. It makes solutions better. Yeah, yeah. And sometimes when I go to some of these platforms like Kora. Yeah, like my system. Some answers. Negating dot net use of net because some people see have this old mindset that net is totally proprietary. And it's not open source. So sometimes when I see those comments, I just commented a little bit say no, there have been changes to the net ecosystem is kind of open source. So everyone is free to contribute and the code is open so you can like go through and analyze the code and the documentation as well. Yeah. Well, as a newer MVP, I mean, I'm sure you've already had people come up to you say, Hey, how do I get involved? What? How can I kind of follow in your footsteps and do that? Any recommendations for somebody that has an interest in doing that? Or what do you tell people? Yeah, yeah. So I've seen that also on our tech schools, tech group, some students have asked such question. And what I'll tell them is to contribute to the net ecosystem. Like the MVP program has lots of sectors like you have the Azure, you have the mobile, you have the AI, you have the platforms. So yeah, like there's a whole lot of categories for it to fit in. But the first thing you can do is to try to, and you don't also have to be like a professional for so long. You just have to contribute in the smallest way as possible. You could write articles based on a particular technology, maybe power platforms or you could host events. Hosting events is also a good way of, you know, contributing to Microsoft technologies, Azure or whatnot. You could also answer questions on some of these questionnaires sites like Stack Overflow or Quora. You could help people out, even on GitHub, you could help people out there with their issues as well. You could also contribute like me. You could also contribute to their documentation or helping to write out code samples for a new future as a release in a new .NET version. And I think these are some of the ways you could contribute to becoming an MVP. And you also have to find out or reach out to an MVP to nominate you or a Microsoft employee to nominate you. Yep, that's the, I know that's hard for some people who are out there contributing. It does have to be visible to somebody. That's why you also need to do some networking and get to know. That's like why I asked that question. Like how many MVPs within like your country, your home country and in the region around you and then start reaching out beyond that is you find an area where you're passionate about. Who are the leading voices, the experts, the MVPs, the regional directors, the Microsoft personnel who are actively writing, speaking, blogging, solving problems, answering questions.  Reach out and connect with those people. Always like on LinkedIn is a great tool to reach out to people and say, Hey, you don't know me, but I read a lot of your stuff. I'd love to connect and stay in touch and that kind of stuff. Like that's the way that you do it. But you have to have those connections. And so as you're then contributing, you can then reach out to those people that you've made connections with and say, Hey, I just wrote this article or I just added this content piece. What do you think about this? Do you have anything to add to that? That's the way that you can kind of gently raise your visibility so that, you know, when they start seeing the volume, the consistency of your contributions. And then you can say, Hey, I really love to get your support and becoming an MVP or they might even reach out without you asking and say, I see this and have you considered this and have those conversations. But it, you have to make those connections. Yeah, exactly. You definitely need to. Networking plays a big role. Networking can, you know, transform someone's life in ways that you can't imagine just by, you know, just saying hi to, I mean, it could lead to a lot of new fields or new outcomes in your life. It's funny that we can get in and dive into all these technical issues, but the hardest part for the most people is that reaching out and making the connection saying hello. So that's what I like to leverage, you know, LinkedIn for exactly that.  I'm saying, Hey, brand new MVP. You know, don't know him. We're not yet connected. Say, Hey, would love to talk to you and learn about kind of your path. It's a great way. This is one of my ways to to reach out and get to know people from around the world and hear their different stories. Yeah, I also see that you're like it's a fine MVP. That's for like 12 years. And that's really a lot. Yeah, I've been doing it. I know. Well, it's all about just covering the white walls because, you know, it's it's that's that's really it's about the decor on the house. No, but it's I'm very grateful to have been, you know, one, the community and a lot of MVP say this and I say this all the time is, look, I'd be doing the stuff that I do, whether I had the awards on the wall, because I'm just I'm passionate about technology. I love connecting with new people learning about new new things. I'm a connector personality. So I will I might be somebody will ask a question and be like, you know, I do know somebody in that region I should I know Samson I could connect you with them. And so I do that all the time. I'm terrible at remembering names. And so by doing something like this having this connection, it helps me as well. I never forget faces though, and once we've connected. But then to make those introductions. So I do that all the time. And so one one thing is that if there's anybody, anybody watching and reach out and if Samson's not responding to you want to connect with them, you can always come to me as well. I can do an introduction. So always happy to do that. Yeah, thank you. Well, Samson really appreciate you taking the time a few minutes to get to know you. Hopefully I hope to get over to your part of the world soon. I'm trying to to get over to Africa and visit a couple different countries this next year. So it was tentatively on the plans. Yeah, but hoping to as things start to open up again. Get back over there.  For sure. I will. I will definitely do that. Well, thanks a lot for your time. We'll talk to you soon. Right. Thank you.


thers to bridge the digital divide So since connect home launched we have been Working in different fronts and we have different strategies and different partners for all three areas But for the training we have I updated the number actually last night. It was 1,874 people that received computer literacy training and that is a major A major fact through the support that we have with the library through the passport program and bibliotech So if you guys want to visit I have my team there on the connect home table We have a schedule of the classes that we We offer every month as part of the digital literacy passport program And I again I invited anybody that if you have If your organization have trainees and computer literacy trainees that that would be helpful to our residents and people in the community You know come and talk to me because we really want to expand the The resources that we can be for our residents to receive training And and then so the passport program was with the library, but then goodwill. We have provided 863 computer devices and then for Connectivity we also have several different strategies that include the sprint hotspot, but also the the wi-fi mesh network that rit Department does a great job in expanding and there's so many all the different strategies So I'm gonna stop here so we can carry on them. Sure I remember as a teen You know, I begged my parents for some allowance money, and they were like nope Open the class fides find a job That's probably the last time I looked at the class fides to be honest with you. It's probably like 15 years ago Gondolati, can you speak to how the library sort of empowering residents to find work? Sure Um, I mean, I think I would need a panel about myself to kind of list the amount of things that the library's doing But yeah, just a few things like I mentioned with learn that one-on-one assistance is really really important Because I think everybody comes into the library at a different stage and everybody wants assistance then and there Um, so although classes are a great way for us to talk about a similar topic Whether somebody's learning to use a computer for the first time Or if it's if it's excel or word that they're trying to just add and improve their skills on Um, the one-on-one assistant piece is very very important because they come um at a stage of their digital literacy Life cycle and they they have made it their way to come to the library And they want you to help them then and there if you tell somebody Oh, you know, if you come back in two days for this class at six o'clock You know, it's not really going to work for their schedule So a lot of what we do at the library is try to accommodate And help and assist Those kinds of pieces, especially when it comes to workforce If somebody's looking to improve that resume Create an email for the first time so that they can actually set that up I mean it the the full gamut of it all of whether it's from the beginning stages Or for a little bit more advanced of just updating something and being able to email it Or just having that internet access to be able to do some job searching At central we do have a jobs and small business center that people can go to and get a little bit more assistance from staff And developing those skill sets and having somebody review their resumes. We also have a resource Online so once they're at the library or if they do have access We just we have a tutoring service that includes pretty much everything And there's live professionals on the other side so people could submit their Resumes and have somebody look at them. They can look at, you know, practicing their job interview skills And there's live people helping them from three to Or 12 to 9 p.m. Sorry for those job help now resources So check out our the library's website. There's a lot of different resources And please refer people to our website. We have a lot of Different places for people to start or just have them go to one of their local Libraries and they can start their journey there and we can make sure that they get Started at the rat at the right place for where they're at and their job seeking cycle Scott I want to get back to kick it back to you. It's been a while since we uh, we heard from you, but So you talked earlier about sort of the disparities and in how the levels of Of, you know, whether Students have access at home to desktop computers Tablets or or just smartphones How does that sort of disparity? Affect the instruction and how do you sort of like target like hey like we need to introduce students to You know iPads or or desktop computers Honestly, I mean, I don't know that it affects the instruction so much as the way we teach affects the devices I I think that One of the things I was thinking about before before we came up here was, you know, our our like I said earlier Our our juniors and seniors have iPads at the high school because when they started the one-to-one program before I got to south sand Um, that was what everyone was buying was iPads After a couple of years we reevaluated and we actually handed students You know a new ipad and a new chromebook and asked them which which device you prefer and the students overwhelmingly preferred The chromebook um at the high school level, especially because we have you know early college students We have students that are doing dual credit. We have students that are Going to st. Phillips and Palo Alto to take classes and and they need that device that has a keyboard attached It's more, you know, kind of business geared, but I think um back to the point of what device it doesn't matter What device kids are it's it's interesting hearing about the adult education side of things because the things that we're teaching adults about You know how to use word and power point and sign up for an email account and things like that are things that I was teaching My tech apps kids 15 years ago um What we're teaching kids at at the elementary and middle school high school level today is more How to think how to use these devices? To to really wonder outside the box kids aren't afraid of a device They're they're gonna you know, they're gonna pick up the mouse and figure it out. They're gonna Their kids aren't afraid to break stuff. That's that's the great thing You know you hand a kid a device and within five minutes they're gonna figure out how to use it. They may not know um The best way to use that to get the job done they want to get done But they're gonna figure out the interface pretty quickly because because they're just gonna start messing with it And and figure that piece out. But the education side that we have to do is is really about You know education about what you put online. What what are you able to do online discerning between fact and fiction discerning between fact and opinion You know, especially in in the the news climate I say news In quotes a climate today You really have to teach kids how to discern between What's true factual information and and what somebody just threw out there because they could you know sign up for a wordpress page Um, I might be dating myself by using wordpress Um, you know that I mean, I think that's that's really what it gets to you We any device we throw at a kid they're going to be able to use they they do have some preferences And we do try to listen to those preferences Um We we still feel like I still feel like at the elementary level the kinder for second grade level that tactile that touch Screen is really something that kids are used to But when they get to the older levels, they don't really have that much problem Picking up a mouse. I just as a quick aside. I have a 12 year old and a nine year old My 12 year old when she first started using a computer Using, you know, I again in quotes when she was probably three years old She knew how to manipulate a trackpad on a laptop my Now nine year old the first time I set a laptop in her lap. She poked at the screen It didn't have a touch screen, but that's how she knew how to interface with it And and so that just that three year gap is a make you know makes a big difference in in the way kids interact with devices You know, I have a touch screen laptop. Ask me how many times I actually touch the screen on my touchscreen I almost never do unless the trackpad stops working. So, you know, it's like I said the device doesn't really matter Kids are going to use what they're going to use and they are very adaptable They'll move from a smartphone to a tablet to a laptop and back All, you know, all in the same breath Adults, I think are the ones that have the bigger Learning curve or issue with you know, adults are afraid to break stuff. I think Can I jump in just real quick? I think you touch up on this A little bit Scott that I heard somebody saying on the National Junior Inclusion Alliance conference. They say like there is no digital native Sometimes we talk about kids. Oh, they have come phones. They know computers. They are native like no There's this concept like let's stop talking about it because they know How to manipulate the phones for I don't know snapchat facebook and all stuff, but they don't know What else they can do with it? So and that's what our job is is really to expose the kids It's like how can you use technology to do more? Right, do you know you can you know you can code and make a video game? Do you know you can't open your business? You know, my kids all really want to be a youtuber right now. It's apparently that's Makes a lot of money But you know, so what else like it's really I think the training I'm going to talk about Digital inclusion channel for kids and adults is really helping them realize that technology is not It's not about the technology. It's about what you do technology and what and how can you leverage that for your goals In education employment to have fun and whatever it is And then but then the fact that the device that you use Matters for certain things right the phone is great for you to be a consumer of information Is not good for you to be a producer You try to apply for a job on your phone or write a resume or do homework It's not gonna it's not Technology is not there yet. Maybe we'll be there eventually But so that's why at the the san antonio housing authority. We only focus On laptop desktops and sometimes we do give tablets, but we prefer we prefer laptops because the device that you provide To to to the community matters and you know and our goal is not just to give them a phone so they can Consume information but to give them a device and the training and the broadband so they can really leverage technology To help them and their overall goals and one of the things you know that you touched upon there was was the The device that the people use I I try to like when I'm in meetings with teachers when I'm At meetings at such office. I try to use my phone for a lot of that because I want to be able to see What is that kid who only has the phone? What is their experience when they're getting into this teacher's google classroom or Doing something that that the teacher has signed and this is the only device that they have at their Available to them and and bringing that to the attention of the adults in the room saying hey look You may say it's just x y z But try doing it on this and see what it what it feels like for that kid Who's at home trying to do your homework and maybe this is the only screen they have to look at I wanted to ask a follow-up question Scott mentioned one-to-one Initiatives and this is the concept that you know every student should have a device They were rolled out, you know at at districts all over the country, you know eight or nine years ago I remember being a you know cub reporter and covering that But you know other than you kind of alluded to some of the findings from that What else have we learned from one-to-one initiatives? I think I mean from from our perspective It's great if every kid has a device. I mean it certainly allows it levels the playing field as far as You know being able to have an expectation of our teachers to to provide instruction that that takes place In a 21st century classroom as opposed to sitting there with a book in their lap It's also allowed us as a district to move forward from purchasing Hardcover textbooks and and move toward more digital resources. So, you know, it's it's it's not really I mean, I don't I don't think it's a game changer as far as Direct student impact, but it's it's a game changer as far as the dollars we spend and where we spend them And and then being able for every student to have a certain level of expectation You know the expectation used to be kids come to school with pencil and a paper Now the expectation is they come to school with a device Maybe You know if if we did a bring your own device, there's a lot of districts that move to that after they saw how expensive iPads were They You don't have a level playing field there because every kid has a different device some kids have an iphone Some kids have an android some kids god forbid still have blackberry Um, so, you know, some of them have an older iphone that may not be able to be updated and run the latest Iowa latest, you know packages or I mean it just you just level the playing field when you give every kid a device, but as far as I just completely lost my train of thought So I think I think though as far as Closing a digital divide in allowing kids, you know the freedom to be able it just allows us to be able to to say every You know, here's what the expectation is you're going to bring this device Oh, this is where I was going with that at our at elementary campuses We we actually have two of our nine elementary campuses are doing a blended learning pilot this year And we decided as a department not to go one to one at those campuses We did not provide them the devices that would allow them to have a single device for each kid And the reason for that is because we want the kids to collaborate. We want them to work together and And so if we had provided every single kid with a device Then what you get is every single kid sitting in front of their device and they're not talking They're not collaborating and at the elementary level, especially there's got to be a lot of back and forth And so we provided the classrooms with enough devices to have, you know A two to one or three to one depending on the grade level And so so the teachers are kind of forced to to change that mindset of oh, no Every kid's gonna have a device too I've got to plan something where the kids can work cooperatively because that's that's the way work works these days You've got to be able to work with other people Sorry, I think we I think we had a question. Yeah, so Scott, uh, maybe if you could just Expand a little bit on part of the the challenge that took place with the one-to-one push is the the integration of an lms system where there was true Foundation around Leveraging those devices to access specific content related to Education and I think that's one thing that you know There was a big miss on when that initially came out was yeah Let's get devices out in all the kids hands But we really have no plan around how to leverage that device to really put them at a you know an advantage right and I think I mean That happened in a lot of districts They they had a they're like oh we got to give kids devices and then and then they didn't There's a lot of money spent on hardware and not a lot of money spent on training And that's that's what it comes down to you There's got to be professional development on the on the other side And even if it's it's not necessarily a learning management system But just getting everybody on the same page as far as what's expected of the teachers Um, and what's the expectation of the student use of those devices? And so um when google classroom came out it was fantastic for us because it's free We're already a google suite district And so that provided kind of a foundation level You know, I know I was in shirt cibolo before a couple of districts before south sand and we used Moodle, which was a free open source thing But we had a heck of a time getting teachers on board with it because it was complicated and a clunky and it wasn't easy to use Google classroom was really easy to use We're still facing those challenges as far as getting you know every kid Into the right systems because every textbook manufacturer has their own data system that they they you know Like pierce and has a completely different set of of data upload standards than mcgraw hill does And so we're we're still struggling through some of that Is getting better There's been a lot of push from technology directors and districts around the country for textbook manufacturers and and content providers To provide kind of a unified platform. And so we're seeing more of that happening We're we're just launching The use of clever in our district, which is a single sign on portal Where we provide data to clever and then they provide our data out to the different content providers and and so You know that allows The jumping off point it allows kind of consistency across the district too as far as getting into the different programs and things that we use We've got another question from the audience Yeah, I wanted it might be more of a comment than a question. I'm at utsa. I'm head of the downtown campus library and utsa This goes back to the question of information literacy and upward mobility We lose a lot of our first year students. We have trouble with retention We have trouble with them coming in unprepared Um, and a lot of them are trying to get through college just using their phones Uh, and that's not going to work now. Obviously the library provides computers for them to work on Our website now counts the number that are available at any one minute Because it's sometimes really hard for them to find an available computer one of the ways we're trying to Facilitate their success at utsa is we're pushing open access textbooks We're trying to get the faculty to switch to open access textbooks books are incredibly expensive And we know that that's an obstacle to staying at utsa And again, they need devices and devices That they can use that are fast enough that can access Uh, the textbooks now online But we're also discovering is you guys were saying they tell us that they are competent on the computers They're not They're not they don't understand what a database is We do the same instruction about how do you evaluate information? And, um I don't know what the answer is in terms of getting them devices at that level They can they get a break at the campus computer store But still we're talking a few hundred dollars for available devices Yeah Quick comment on that Absolutely. Yeah, so I was saying you know for the device question Um The things most people don't know or maybe just everybody knows by now is that connect home when we were launched There was no money, right? It's a federal government program And you know gray sign up to be connect home You on your own and I would say for the long term that turned out to be a good thing One is that now we're not in the jump where you're getting your budget cut because there's no budget And and then two is that really allow us to really Build partnerships and really that's what this panel is all about so You know partnerships and for training and we can see we can refer people for to go to different libraries and different sites in community room bibliotech um, but then for the device piece, you know, it was really um I felt a senator and you were really unique that we have such an embracing community So one connect home was launched. I was going out and talking to anybody and it's like, hey Do you have computers you get donate your old computers? Let's find a refurbisher so we can you know Supply that the need of a device So with the senator new housing authority in terms of college, we have the uh education investment Program that provides scholarships to our residents in public housing section eight So now me and connect home I'm looking how can I make sure that our scholarship participants Have the skills and the tools to be successful as they go to start college So, you know, so again, we provide the trainee and we talk about a little bit on fake news So our training is over there Natalie. So we always review on the curriculum, but fake news and how to, you know Format a document how to navigate online and we also, you know with the partnership with goodwill and everybody else You know frost bank and Wells Fargo USA and all the donations of devices also and funds We're able to provide those devices to our residents to make sure that they have all the tools to be successful Especially in a higher ed Think we have one more question here Yes, so I was wondering um, I've been listening today and I know Obviously this whole focus is about increasing access, which is hugely important But I think both for adults and children I'm curious what y'all are talking about with them with regards to sort of healthy tech habits Not just discerning what is real and fake, but also sort of how long you're online what that does to your mental health What that does to sort of your relationships Has that been something y'all have been exploring at all? So we we do some digital literacy Far too late Because we we start kind of in the in junior high When that really should be starting probably at the first and second grade level Talking about screen time and how often kids are are online and and really I mean If you think about it even goes back to you know pre computer times is how how much tv or kids watching when they get home That kind of thing You know my nine-year-old would prefer to go home and watch youtube videos than read a book and you know, so I've got to You know put the thing away. I turn off the wi-fi sometimes Get out your book and you're gonna read for you know 20 or 30 minutes and just in getting that that home to getting that hitting that home to parents too about how important that is and telling them at a young age that you know the tablet or the device is Is just like the tv was not a babysitter that this should not be a babysitter either In talking about those kind of healthy habits, but then at the middle school level, especially we we get into a lot of That's where we start to see a lot of the you know cyber bullying and and the Other stuff that goes on that you know that we don't really like to talk about with kids on phones and you know Taking private pictures on a public device and that kind of thing So, you know, we we do some of that we we clearly don't do enough And like I said, I think we should start at a much younger grade level than we do Yeah, I think just to add to that At the library, I think we do have a phased in approach So we obviously start from maybe even before birth if you're reading to your child while you're still pregnant So we do in our story times kind of particularly focus on just doing picture books and hands-on activities, early literacy Definitely with the focus of doing that storytelling where it's whether it's oral or with books And we very rarely bring in tablets occasionally Here and there but because research has shown us that young minds do better with physical books Then they do a digital content and I know that there's Additional research and I'll be super excited to see how that continues to expand as we move more and more digital But we do have some research that shows that you know People remember things better when they write it down or when they're reading it from a physical book And then they do with a digital book So we definitely keep that in mind as we implement different programs at the library I think just again and preparing for The future we are definitely continuing to look at our communities We just did a big survey to kind of pull in feedback about digital literacy skills. The gap is still very prominent I left a little card here. We do this every year to kind of Where we are a city department The san Antonio public library system is is a city department working for our residents Throughout all of the districts This is a community impact card that we do every budget to kind of Show the impact that we have in our communities through our different 30 locations As you can see our need for computers is still very high We have over 2.5 million hours of computer sessions a year that happened through our libraries So if you can imagine that's a lot of people visit us on a daily basis our labs are always very full Using our our broadband and our wi-fi. So the demand is still very very high Even when we researched and did a little bit of surveying of our staff As we again continue to go more digital We need to be cognizant of our digital literacy skills of our staff So as we incorporate new methods and it could be something Scott that you're experiencing at the schools too We keep pushing things to go digital and our staff are not ready We need to make sure that they're ready that they're trained so that that when people come in and want the Help or support that they can also feel comfortable in doing so as well So it's something that the library is looking at to do more of training of our staff and bringing them along With us as we continue to incorporate a little bit more digital services and programs at the library Before we close here And we open it up to potentially more questions. I wanted to clarify something earlier You know before the president Coopted the term fake news and used it to to jeer media organizations that were providing Unfavorable or what he believes is unfavorable coverage.  Okay So I'm Jose de la Vega enterprise security architect for cps energy and also retired navy That said how I haven't heard anything about the military yet have Any of the branches reached out for training help, you know that interaction? I mean that's a big piece here for san Antonio Have we taken advantage of that? You know on both sides They're reaching out to you guys or you guys out to them because they do a lot of community service With the within the city. So I was just wondering if that was one small aspect of Amazingly, we we don't do a lot. I mean lackland is in our backyard We you know when when you saw on that that map earlier the the big red spot that's There was a blue spot right in the middle and that's lackland air force base And they actually border our school district and we we really don't have a lot of of contact with them as far as You know programs in the campuses other than rftc We do have a cyber patriot program at the high school. A lot of high schools have that They go through that competition And they do some cybersecurity things of that nature with with our high school students. But as far as like Um Bringing in devices from them, you know, we have some folks that come come onto our campuses and help with that piece of it with it with the cyber patriot part but as far as You know bringing devices in from the air force or whatever we don't we don't see that a whole lot of that Except you know like I said except in the rftc program And I think that's our time Okay, so I think um our next on our agenda is um Getting lunch ready and then we will have a lunch session with our um planning trichairs. So um If we want to take the opportunity to take a quick break and then get ready for lunch lunch is um sandwiches so if you guys want to Um the same place where the breakfast was served