So, let's move on and welcome our next presenter, which is Sherry Merlin, CEO of kawalai.co, talking to trace AI on traceability access for consumers and exports. Welcome again, Sherry. Good day. I'm Sherry Merlin, founder and lead innovator of Kowil AI from the Philippines and in the Southeast Asian region. We are Kowil AI, an industry agnostic artificial intelligence solution with customized computer vision tools for machine learning models that can be integrated to mobile and web applications. Our mission is to help humanities understand artificial intelligence. Our vision is to provide AI solution to preserve biodiversity, livelihood and environment, reliable and unbiased data analytics on demand. Our solutions addresses sustainable development goals number nine, innovation and infrastructure through our smart products. SDG number 12, Responsible Consumption and Production and SDG number 14, Life Below Water. Our core team has more than 20 years of combined experience in building AI products and services from research to commercial application, providing state-of-the-art AI tools. We are the frontrunner in computer vision AI in the Philippines. The technical team is rooted in AI academic research and with experience in cybersecurity and autonomous systems. The main problem that we are trying to solve is the illegal, unreported and unregulated phishing in the Philippines. Overcoming the pen and paper documentation method that still exists in countries like ours. The current pandemic has accelerated the need for the digital economy, especially in the food supply chain, to keep up with the increasing consumption of food, including seafoods. Digital illiteracy is the strongest barrier to technology adoption. The Philippines has one of the longest coastlines in the world, yet our fishermen remains the poorest of the poor due to the lack of resources and knowledge for documentation. Our fishermen sell cheaply or resort to illegal, unreported and unregulated phishing for fast money. Our solution, currently in beta version, is trace AI, or traceability access for consumers and exporters powered by artificial intelligence, is an automated electronic catch documentation and traceability mobile application, which was pilot tested with WWF tuna sustainability program in Mamborao and Sablayan, Occidental, Mindoro last 2019. With initial registered 53 fishermen, 250 images collected, current accuracy at 80% and currently identifies yellow fin tuna species. How does our mobile application works? Trace AI on its beta version has leverage AI and machine learning to reduce the friction in data gathering for fishermen and eliminate fraud. The mobile application works offline. The scan, snap and send is the official method to record the catch data. This uses AI for fish identification, estimates the length and weight of the fish, specifically tuna, auto catch recording with geolocation and vessel information. Upon arrival to the landing port, the information is then uploaded to the cloud via mobile data or Wi-Fi. Due to the pandemic, we have geared enhancement of the system that will include additional seafood species for identification and traceability. It will include a seamless and interoperability system that can be available to government and private stakeholders via web application and cloud system. Lastly, is the marketplace and logistics integration to complete the catch the plate journey via QR code labels. If we look at the business aspect of the seafood traceability, I do believe that it is worth the hardship for bringing it to the market. In 2020, the global market for seafood traceability is $500 billion and in the Philippines, it's currently $7.2 billion of market opportunity. This solution is very much scalable as it utilizes AI and data analytics as the future of traceability. We are here to share our knowledge and solutions and to be able to learn from others their best practices in AI data training and implementation with possible collaboration for this initiative. We look forward to number one, the creation of database system that can be accessed openly for data training to help increase AI accuracy of tools. Number two is to explore simplified AI applications that can be implemented using existing gadgets and mobile devices, making it cheaper and easy to implement. And third is the AI integrated research collaboration. Development of AI tools is tedious and expensive and research funding for AI initiatives should be available to non-academic space. To have a more granular understanding of grassroots application. For the adoption of the digital blue planet and to provide a thriving ecosystem, we need to involve the coastal communities in this initiative. The goal of Kawil AI is to leverage the data collected by the fishermen for them to access financial support like personal loans and grants. Second is the access to the tools for our fisher folks to have access to hardware to be able to utilize the technology for their own good. Third is to incentivize the fishermen to have the value of the data they contributed for the AI database and development. In summary, we have a built customizable mobile application powered by artificial intelligence for seafood traceability, which currently identifies tuna species with 80% accuracy using a mobile phone application with ongoing enhancement for additional seafood species application and marketplace platform. We are Kawil AI Solutions bringing AI technology from lab to life. We want to hear your thoughts and kindly reach out to us through our digital directory. Thank you and have a great day. Thank you very much for sharing the work of your team, Sherry. It's already quite apparent just how global the initiatives are just in the first three presentations we've had and the nascent knowledge that's being built up. I've got a range of questions for you, but I'll try and package them and you can choose which ones you like. I'm interested largely in the challenges you've overcome that you've encountered and overcome and especially about how you select the metrics that you think are going to be most important to hone in on. For example, what species you choose and what species you'll choose next. And I'm just wondering how you foresee the challenges that you've had for others coming into this situation and how there might be a requirement for for international co operations around the standards we all use. So when it does come to cross collaborating we find this a lot easier. Thank you. Thank you, Kim, for that question. So, you know, our matrix came from also from the community. So we here in the Philippines, Tuna is like number one export species for seed food. But as of now, we fall short for the supply because of the illegal activities because of fast money as you know, but with the support also of the international institution, we kind of pin down what are the things that they need or the constraint that they're having why they don't do traceability or documentation. So number one is the understanding of the value of really documenting and selling the product on a fair price. As you know, even if it is fast money, it's very easy to spend. It doesn't have value and you know, you can repeat that sales again. But for our fishermen, we want them to really find out the value of the sustainability side and like complying with the necessary information and looking forward to the future to be included to that, you know, market of seafood and supply chain. So that's how we do our metrics. And I think, yes, it can be replicated in other countries. And we're looking at one collaborating with other Asian countries for now and hopefully in other tropical countries that has this specific requirement. And to add to that also our metrics are patterned with the European compliance of export market for tuna. So the metrics that we're collecting through our mobile application is used to that requirement. So, yes. Sorry, if Matt give me one more go up. I'm just very interested. We've also developed a an app and looked at developing algorithms to look at a range of sharp speaking and we did have challenges in trying to work out how to get the best accuracy out of the algorithms and you mentioned that you get 80% And I'm sure that would improve all the time. I'm just wondering was most of the error margin coming from the way images were taken the number of images in your training data sets give us some ideas on on on the the process of how you've done this and where you've managed to overcome anything or some ideas on what's helping you improve your algorithms for species identification. Yes, the most important the most I think challenge that we have encountered is how to take the picture correctly so that the algorithm can accept it for the 250 recorded. It's a it's accepted images out of like, almost 1000 images that we have collected on several occasions so out of that and our algorithm, having increased the accuracy for for for identification. One is we need to have a good way to take the pictures, and that is why we need coordination with the fishermen and what we call in the locals in new veritors. So they are the ones teaching the fishermen how to take pictures. And that's why I said we need to communicate with the community so we can have better data. So that's number one requirement in our training and for now we are really focusing on increasing and being agnostic in our identification. That's why the enhancement of our app is focused on different species that are highly consumable on international market. Thank you. Hi Terry thanks for amazing work you're doing that. Hi, I could talk for hours with you about regulated illegal fishing in the Philippines and what goes on that. But what I was interested in is how the fishes interact with you and how you're building a community of practice. I have a lot of social incentives in there as well I worked on an active unit that was called environmental witness. And in the Philippines, everybody talks to one another, especially about fishing. And that works really well. So if you have a social aspect to your to your work as well, you know, developing people reporting to one another about how well it's going or if they've seen some of naughty or anything like that. Yes, that's how we started with Fisher folks communities. We do interact with them. We build our network and we tell them, you know, the idea came from, I was doing before marine coral mapping. So we rent boats. Sorry for the short story. We rent boats and we rented the Fisherman's boat. So while on the sea, he was watching like online shows. So we said, that can be utilized, you know, accessing that data or the information online. Having seen that Fisherman accessing online gave us an idea to create this app. So we tend to really tell them you want to know more. So for now, it's more on educational aspect of social building, but we're looking at really incentivizing or having partnering with stakeholders or government to really support that, you know, initiative in documentation. So that's the overall goal in the social side of like a wheeled with our trace AI application. So yeah, we have seen that they have access in some areas. So we need to utilize it. And right now with current situation of the pandemic, having more access to, you know, internet and Wi-Fi, even here in the Philippines, they're increasing the internet connection. So we want to utilize it more on the community side, especially on the fishing community. I'm plastic cherry. Yeah, there's a real role for social media at this time, isn't there? Yes, yes. There's a lot of people posting their their catch online on Facebook and other things. Exactly. It works really well. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everyone. Yeah. Please do connect. Thank you very much.


How are we welcome everyone this is a meeting without quorum of the public arts commission for the town of Amherst. This meeting is being recorded to the cloud and will be uploaded to the town of Amherst YouTube channel. And at this time I am recognizing the chair Shoshona King and making her the host for this meeting. Have a great meeting everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We are pursuant to chapter 20 of the act of 2021. This meeting will be conducted via remote means. Members of the public who wish to access the meeting can do so by clicking on the live link. To this zoom meeting. That can be found on the public meetings calendar on the town of Amherst website or by dialing in by phone. This meeting is being recorded and will be posted to the town of Amherst YouTube channel. Thank you. You want me to take the minutes even though there's no quorum. I'm thinking actually of not going over any anything more than just like some updates that I think you guys should know about. And then I could like just talk about the new people that are being appointed. Right. And then like any other further stuff we could wait until actually we get people in here. You know what I mean? I do. So does that mean you don't want minutes? I would think you would take minutes no matter what. Okay. Okay. Yeah. You're right. They don't have to go into detail. Yeah. And then we, it's better to have them and not need them and need them and not have them. Right. Okay. Just give me one little second. You don't have to figure out somebody else to do it because pretty soon I'm going to turn into a pumpkin. Yeah, we got a lot of people coming in. Yeah. They really stacked it high with people for us. Right. And I put it into our contact information. If you want to see it in our Google. Yeah. I put it all in our Google group. Okay. In that context. So I'm trying to get there on my phone. So I don't have to do it on my computer. So I could talk. You know, at least tell names, maybe you guys know some of these people. I bet I don't. Yeah, it'd be great if I did. Yeah. So where are you going to put them? What do you mean? Where am I going to put them? Oh, wait. It just was breaking up. Hold on. I think when I'm doing stuff on the internet. Things get crazy on my audio here. I couldn't hear what you guys are saying. I'm ready to go. So how many people has that have been appointed. Five. She said five. Yeah. Actually, first, I wanted to tell you guys about that. Kamal Peters took down. The poetic dialogue. He's been working on it in his shop. He's going to be reinstalling it on the 26th. Great. So that, that is happening. I'm in negotiations with the cultural council. We may or may not have to give that money back. I think it was said like, we were definitely going to have to bring it back to them because we didn't do the project at the boltwood. The boat would a little. Keep show thing. That was initially, but then this past week, they were like actually hold off on that. You might be able to hold on to it. But I think it would be great. It would be great. It would save us a lot of headache. We wouldn't have to rewrite for the thing, but I'm going to find out very soon. And if we do have to rewrite it, we have to rewrite it before October 17th. Uh-huh. So, excuse me. Let me ask. So what was going to go in? Those little windows. Uh, whatever. Um, a artist would want essentially, um, we wanted to do like a call for artists and then have. Like some choices. You know, from whatever got submitted. Uh-huh. And then, um, choose whatever goes in from there, but we didn't have enough people. To like. Steer the, um, the call for artists like to actually. Like be the email that all of these submissions get sent to and all that. So I'm hoping now with more people. Somebody will be able to take on that project. Uh-huh. So. Excuse me. Excuse me. Yeah. What was the date? Our poetic dialogue is going to be reinstalled. 26th. Thank you. All right. Sorry to interrupt. Oh no, that's okay. Um, has any been anything been done to upgrade those little windows? Uh, last year. Yes. What happened to him? Um, it was a temporary install that lasted for a couple of months. Uh-huh. Cause when I've gone to look at them in the past and I haven't been recently, it's been, it's been a couple of a year and a half or more. Yeah. You couldn't see in them. Right. Yeah, there was. They were weird. Yeah, it is weird. Um, it was a project from like 12 years ago or something. I remember it because they first had. Palms in it. Yeah. I had people wanting me to go look at them. And mainly I would see the workers who keep the parking garage area and everything. I'll take care of standing around looking at it, making fun of it. Yeah. Not. I know. And I couldn't blame them. I mean, it was, you couldn't even look at it. Yeah. It was weird. Yeah. So last, like a year ago now. It was like early September and into like winter. There was an artist that had a. Show that he had installed in there. That was like kinetic art. That was very cool. Oh, yeah. That's great. Yeah. And we were hoping for another thing like that, but there was nobody. Nobody's been available to really. Take that side. I can't, I can't take it on. I've got so many other stuff. Yeah. And we just need somebody that's like willing to. Bear the brunt of the. Barrage of emails and sort through, you know. And the emails will be filled with questions. Yes. Right. Yeah. Well, perhaps the women's and new people will. Perhaps. Yes. That's what I'm hoping. I'm hoping that like. You know, it was one. One person would be like, all right. Yeah. I'm willing to deal with the emails and then, you know, it's not entirely their project, but. So they don't have to bear the weight of it all, but they could deal with that initial part. So how would they know how to answer that? We would have a. We would have an orientation on the space. Okay. Yeah. Cause that's what that's what they'd want to know is how am I going to field all these questions from the public? Yeah. We're still talking about poetic dialogue. No, we're talking about boltwood. Oh, no. We're talking about. Oh yeah, right. Because I'm planning on stepping away in March. Okay. Well, that's good to know. Yeah. I'm sorry about that though. I wish you'd stay. I know. I wish I could give more, but I'm like kind of half in and half out of. Of Amherst right now. So. Like right. You know, right now I'm in. You know, right now I'm in Maryland. Oh wow. Crab country. Yes. I saw a couple of crabs actually today. Oh wow. My dog joined us today. Oh, wait a minute. So let me think about this. We're getting five people. So. If I stay on that's eight. So we're oversubscribed. So I. The interest of justice and all that should get off. This is. Come on. Right. Yeah, I think. I think they'll. They'll send you your letter and everything saying like, thank you for your service. Well, that's coming right. Yeah. Okay. So. That means that Ellen will be the veteran on the committee. Who knows the most history. She's actually in the state of Maryland. She's a veteran on the committee. Who knows the most history. She's actually leaving too. Oh man. This means this. This means this commission is without a history. Exactly. That's. That's actually the only reason I'm staying. Cause I was wanting to leave as well. But. There should be somebody. That's been here for a little bit. Well, I mean, I haven't been here long enough. So. Well, that was, yeah, I was going to hang around, but. I'm happy to go because I've got the teaching thing on my plate, which is time consuming. Yeah. And being where the town said we're still doing zoom meetings until March at least. So that's why I agreed to stay on because even though I'm traveling a lot right now, I can come in by zoom. Yeah. So. Don't forget you've got to get all those back minutes. Approved. Yeah. How are we going to do that when those people weren't here? Well, they can. There'll be a quaren there that I, let me see. I suppose that I better stay on long enough. Well, I don't know if they send me the leader. The letter than them off. This is, I get it right. I suppose I don't know that's, I guess that's a question for Angela. I'm going to ask Angela to hang on to it for a meeting so that, so that I could be there and you. Me. And. Derek could vote. On the minutes and then I could go by by. Yeah, just so that we can like approve all of these minutes. Right. Like officially. Right. Okay. I'm going to call. I'm going to call. And see about getting the letter held. Okay. Thank you. Okay. You guys want to hear some of the names of the people? Sure. Okay. We've got Lisa Kane. Laurie Friedman. Michelle cutting. She goes by Mikey. Robert Brannon. And Terry Holt. And it, um, I guess I should have sent you spellings of this beforehand to me. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know how many minutes, but, um, if you want to see. Everything about them, you can go in, uh, Jim to the. Google group in the context list. Okay. So I said, oh. Well, I just say the new people are listed in the Google group. Okay. That works. I have to. Include what the child is saying in the minutes. Yes. Okay. Is all the background noise, like very. No, it's not bad. Okay. Sounds like real life. Yeah. I'm in the children's department so that I can talk without bothering anyone that's studying over in the other wing. Cause the adults, they don't have as much fun. They're all quiet over there. Right.  It's not a big deal. It's not a big deal. It's not a big deal. It's not a big deal. It's not a big deal. It's not a big deal. It's not a big deal. It's not a big deal. We've got some amazing people coming on. Do you know them? No, but I interviewed them with Paul. Oh, good. Oh, great. Yeah. And, um, I'm really happy with the ones that got on. They're all fantastic. That's so cool. There's so many. I was actually hoping to stay on long enough to get them, to meet them and know them a little bit. But I was, I mean, I can't really stay forever because I, I've got that teaching job. But it only takes an hour. Well, I'll talk to Angela about it. And we'll see. Yeah. And I don't know when our meetings will be because these are all new people. They might have a different schedule on what, you know, I'll put out a poll for our next meeting. Yeah. It's going to be, it's going to be hard to get. Decimating people to all agree, huh? It is. It's really going to be a challenge. Yeah. May I make a suggestion? Yes. Definitely. More. Proposed dates. You includes on Doodle, the easier it is to find one that works. Okay. I usually include at least 10. And I have never had a problem with Doodle not finding a date. Yeah. Okay. I think the trick is though, you got to get some kind of idea like, can you meet to the middle of the day? Or does it have to be after work and that kind of thing? Once you know that, I, I think if you just put a lot of different dates on there at work. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Good to know. Yeah, there's, there's one in particular that I think would be really good for the town hall gallery. Cause she does. Art management in that way already. And then for her. Sister's art. Oh, okay. She's like a agent. Yeah. Kind of. Yeah. Yeah. And then there's another one that. Has done a lot of administrative stuff that I think would probably be a good fit for a chair. And then there's another one that's like a finance guy. A lawyer that has had a lot of pressure. And a lot of pressure and grant writing and such. Have you got a lawyer? No, we don't have a lawyer, but. I think that finance guy is. Good about rules. Finance people. I know. Kind of good. Well, I mean, you've got some funky contracts floating around from the past. We do. It means that somebody needs to recognize that make sure we don't use them again. Oh, okay. And know what they say know what you have to worry about know what it's it was left open so that you could have a problem in this area so deal with it and that kind of thing. Evaluate your issues that might come up and what propose remedies. Yeah. Is there any available if contract situation happened again, even if you're not on the commission, I will strongly consider it. Okay, I got to worry about insurance and I'm working on that. I actually get insurance for free to my former firm, but I can't get my, there's a, you know, my previous insurance will says that it doesn't ensure me anymore for anything that happened even while it was enforced. If I resume the private practice of law but it will not tell me that pro bono work is not the private practice of law so I'm working on trying to get them to say no it's not of course. Okay, has been a recent change in the Massachusetts rules which I haven't reviewed yet which I think might form a solution so I can get a solution so I can get my mouth practice yes I will. All right. Maybe the town has something. They probably do. I'm on the Amherst mask of website looking at our thing. Look at our, look at our information and for member info it has James and Ellen and Shoshona. And that's it. It doesn't have you know you're not on there. That's okay. It doesn't have Shoshona and doesn't have Ellen. It does have Ellen yeah, it does. Yeah, and hasn't been updated that's the problem. Yeah, and I thought that Angela said she was had put them up. Yeah, I will mention it to Angela because I got a color. Well, could I be possibly getting to a well old website by accident. No, give me your, give me the URL. I just have Amherst gov. Amherst gov, you know. And isn't there a forward slash something. There. Okay, there it is. It's some. Yeah, it's Amherst gov slash one nine three slash about dash the dashboard. Okay. So I've got Amherst mass dot gov. slash four slash one nine three four slash about four slash the four slash board. It's, it's one nine three three. Oh, thank you. Yeah, otherwise it's right. Okay. Anyway, the new people probably have gone on this website and tried to read about what the mission is and stuff like that I'm assuming. Yeah, that's a good thing. So anyway, Yeah, and there's another site called featured artists. And that's a cool feature to have. Wait, when, when I go on here, it does have all the new people on. Somehow or another, my website might go into the, I went to the Amherst town and went to the website and went to the commission and that's what I got. So don't, if you've got it, it's, you know, do trust yours, not mine. And the weird thing is though, is that two of them, they have terms that expire in 2025 and no three of them and then two of them have 2024 they didn't appoint them all to the same amount. Yeah, I guess so that everybody doesn't go off at the same time again. Oh well, you know maybe some people like that. You know, two years instead of three. Yeah, they still have my old bio on here I sent them a new bio. But it's still the old one on here. I'm sure I'm not getting what you got. Do you have a bio. Of course. Yeah, you should send that in so that they can put that on there. I should send that to Angela. Yeah. Okay. And actually, you know, once everyone gets on, I want to do a thing where on our social media, we have like, you know, introducing, you know, different commissioners and have like different days be for the different commissioners. And so, so like any pictures that you would want to share and your bio also send that to me as well and I can put it on our social media. Okay, well I should make another note for that. Okay. And then I want, you know, someone else will start taking over the social media soon. I really want to like work hard at transitioning over to other people taking up different projects so that I can leave easily once March comes around. Yeah. So you want to transition into the media. Those five people say they would take that on. Not yet. I haven't heard like from them actually what like specifically they want to do. So I was hoping that some of them would come to the meeting today, but it was because they just got appointed yesterday. Do any of them know each other or have worked together before. I don't know. That would be interesting to know. Yeah. Like I know Mikey, but that's it. I think she was interested in the art commission like a while ago, like a long while ago. Like early spring, I think, and so I met her at Amco and we just chatted for like an hour and a half about the art commission and stuff. And she was, and so she applied right away and was just waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting. Well that's too bad. Yeah.  But it, I, there's a lot of stuff going on in town, I think. So it's hard to like the library and the elementary schools and stuff like that. Yeah. They're super busy in the town hall. The town hall is so good looking. You know, as a building. Yeah, it's a very pretty inside. I like that. Yeah, I like the inside too. It's a nice picture of the inside because there's that hallway that's also like stairs that goes up. Oh yeah. That's really pretty. Yeah. All right, well, I feel like there's not anything else that we need to talk about because I don't want to start like opening up any other can of worms until we actually have our, our full staff or whatever you want to call us. I hope that you get lucky with your poll and find a time when everybody will say they'll come. Yeah. Yeah, that would be good. That would be good because it would be great at least to have one meeting right at the beginning where everybody's there so that we can all get to know each other. Yeah. It's nice to actually meet in person even like, even if it was not an official thing just to like, learn who we are as people. Oh, we have I have a big backyard. You do. It's true. It's very good for meetings. It is. We couldn't like have some wine and soft drinks or something. That's a fantastic idea. I like that idea. Yeah, I'll be glad to do it. I have to do it while it's good weather. Yeah, true. Definitely. All right, well let's, let's email each other about when would be a good time to do that. Okay.  I'm pretty open except for Wednesday when I have to teach and then I don't know my schedule. Beyond that I'm hoping it's not if it's one day a week I'm going to slip my throat because you can't do my trial one day a week. At least not the way I do it. I do it. I make them do the work. And they have to write their own questions understand what they're doing and all that is what the benefit of it is my view. There are other people that write questions for them. So what do they learn. Okay. Point is I'm going to be busy doing that but not for a while. You know right now it's just get them oriented and everything. Yeah. Is there anything else that you guys would want to talk about. Not me. Not me. Okay.  And I want to be respectful of our time here. Okay, that sounds good. I'm going to mail you the minutes immediately please send any corrections. Okay. Enjoy Maryland. Thanks. Bye. Bye.


Hello everybody, welcome back to another AI video. In this one, we're in Adobe Firefly for video. This is the demo, and I want to show you with the demo running in the background just how crazy this looks. First off, you can see here that you can now, apparently, or when this releases part of me, you can find sound effects and music by just typing in text prompts right in there and clicking generate. If you want to change the color correction, maybe you want to change it from day to night or to the golden hour or change the brightness, for example, bang, just type it in. Analyze the transcript like it's doing here, and presto, it looks like it creates all sorts of new cool captions. What else do we got going on here? Special effects, just type it in. You want your text to look cool? Have at it, look at this. This is B roll, this is crazy. If this is legit, this is crazy. You've got this girl here getting ready to go hiking or climbing a mountain, find B roll, and it just inserts in the relevant B roll on the fly. How intense is that? And then look at this, storyboarding. I can't believe this. I mean, obviously, this is just a demo video, but if this is legit and it's coming, holy smokes. I mean, creating storyboards takes a long time, especially for you cinematographers out there. This just looks crazy. Let me know what you think in the description below, Adobe Firefly for video. Thanks for watching.


I do fear for my daughter's safety and just the fact that somebody might want to hurt her just for her being her for her existence is scary. I worry about her every time she goes out. Almost the wide open view. Yeah, sunsets are great from here. No. I'm looking forward to just being in a place where I don't feel under attack, where I don't feel oppressed. It's just so sad that our country and our society are in this place of denigrating people like that and making them feel like they have no place. It's just hard to start over all over again. You just watched a short clip from a segment that CNN posted to Twitter about the McKee family from Florida. They are forced to leave their own state to protect their trans child. Now in this next clip that we're about to watch, they're going to explain why they decided to seek out gender from and care for their daughter. And it's because spoiler alert, they take their child's health seriously as any good parent should. Let's listen. I had never really heard that much about trans people until I was like 11 or 12. I didn't even know trans people existed. So I was just used to being uncomfortable. I started hormone blockers pretty soon after that. Yeah, I mean, there was times before she started getting hormones and stuff that she was suicidal. But after she transitioned, she was much more outgoing, much more like comfortable with herself. We are seeing many families that are leaving. I really think if you were to ask a member of a trans family, they would tell you they go to bed at night dreaming of how to get out of the state. That to me is so heartbreaking. And I don't know how a single person can watch that and not feel deep sympathy for this family. But apparently lots of conservatives on Twitter couldn't care less. And them not caring would be one thing. These sadistic freaks actually openly celebrated this family suffering. I'm not joking about that. So the first thing that stood out to me after watching this clip was the ratio. There's nearly 14,000 comments to 2700 likes. And when you look at the comments, well, I mean, it gets much, much uglier. Two less Subaru wagons on the road in Florida now winning. The good people of Florida say thanks. Well, bye. They get the slightest whiff of something not going their way. And it's rage quit. When did the Babylon be higher CNN to do videos for them? DeSantis, we are out long the mutilation of kids. This family, well, I guess we are moving. Is this an advertisement for Florida? This person just shared a gif of nsynx bye bye music video quote. He won't let us mutilate our son. Pretty much. I honestly think that family leaving our state is a big win. Sad for the kid, but good riddance. Now let's just stop right there. These conservatives who are celebrating this family having to leave their state to protect their trans daughter. They watched the same exact video that we just saw, right? Perhaps they saw more because the full clip is three minutes and 20 seconds. We only saw a couple of short clips, but they saw what we just saw. That's sad video. And they thought, wow, this is actually really good. This is cause for celebration. Good riddance.  And I want to address something. So they claim that this family is mutilating their daughter. First of all, that's not happening. In order to receive bottom surgery, you have to be 18 years old. And if conservatives actually cared about child mutilation, don't you think that more of them would call for a ban on circumcision, which takes place in infancy? Don't you think that that is a bigger priority to people who are supposedly concerned about mutilation? But they're not. They don't care about that. They don't care about the child's safety. They're just hateful. And their supposed concern for trans children is a thin veil to hide their discriminatory beliefs.    But I don't want to give you the impression that this is just a bunch of no-named dipshits on Twitter who are celebrating this family's suffering because that wouldn't be correct. There were big name conservatives on Twitter also chiming in to celebrate publicly. For example, Mike Cernovich tweeted, this is why I love DeSantis and why his campaign failure broke my heart. Tim Poole writes, this is the future conservatives want for you. And he's not being ironic here in case that wasn't clear. Lauren Chen writes, don't even think about coming to Tennessee. Like Florida, people around here thankfully don't look too fondly at parents who mutilate their children. She knows that that's not happening.  Yes, because people's suffering is awesome. Jake Shields writes, this is the funniest video I've watched all week, but I think it's meant to be serious. Ted Cruz, a United States Senator chimed in saying someone needs to give CNN directions to the state of California. Tom Fitton writes, CNN promoting transgender extremism for children. Jordan Peterson chimes in saying, now do net inflow to Florida and net escapees from California.   Now ask yourself this question. And I'm not asking this to conservatives because they don't care. There's no amount of reasoning with them. But if you're somebody who's kind of on the fence about this, ask yourself this question.   But if your child had gender dysphoria and was feeling suicidal thoughts and their pediatrician recommended gender affirming care, would you not at least give it a try? If it meant saving your child's life? I think that most good parents would do anything to make sure that their child was healthy and happy. And that's what this family did. They are treating a medical problem with the recommended care that experts say is necessary to alleviate depression, suicidal ideation, anxiety. It's the same thing that they do if their kid had cancer, they would give them chemotherapy despite the risks involved with that. If you love your child, you get them the care that they need period. It doesn't matter if they are cis or trans or whatever. All of these conservatives, however, by celebrating this family's suffering, they're implying that they wouldn't do that for their child. They think that this child should suffer and if she commits suicide, so be it because that's a better alternative to quote unquote mutilation according to them. They are extremely cruel. And to be clear, they know that this teenage girl is not being mutilated, right? They know that you have to be 18 years old to qualify for bottom surgery. But the reason why they say this is to justify their hate by reducing all gender, from care for minors down to mutilation, because that's the only way that their simple minds can apply some level of rationality to their unjustified hatred. And if they're celebrating families fleeing, I mean, let's let's extend this a little bit, right? Would they celebrate forced conversion therapy for this child, even though experts say that's tantamount to torture? They probably would. What about the death penalty for these parents? Capital punishment for opting for gender, from and care for your child. How many of them would support that? I mean, some of them, in the case of Jake Shields, has already admitted that that's something that they support. These questions may sound hyperbolic, but the scary thing is that most of these folks would celebrate that too. They would celebrate the death of any parent who seeks out gender for human care for their trans child. They would celebrate forced conversion therapy for all trans children, because that's who they are. Republican politicians have cultivated widespread support for genocide, and the stage has already been set. The anti-trans rhetoric is very similar to the anti-semitic rhetoric that we saw during World War II Germany, and it's called defining the enemy. And the Holocaust encyclopedia explains how it's done. First, groups are targeted as enemies and outsiders. Then propaganda and laws are used against the so-called enemy. Finally, they incite hatred against the enemy and cultivate indifference to it. And as it relates to the Nazis, quote, they were particularly effective in creating an atmosphere tolerant of violence against Jews.  The modern-day Republican Party's opposition to trans people is genocidal and straight-up Nazi-esque, and they have literally cultivated an atmosphere where violence against trans people and trans families isn't just tolerated. But it's celebrated now. We just saw that. Now, not every single family has the resources to flee states like Florida or Texas, but I do want to explain why people want to leave as it relates to Florida. So when it comes to gender-firm and care in this state, things are very complicated and confusing if you're a family, and their right to fear access to this care being cut off. So Senate Bill 254 banned gender-firm and care for trans youth and most adults as of May. And while gender-firm and care for adults is technically legal, nurse practitioners now can no longer provide adults with gender-firm and care, which means that 80% of trans adults who received care through their nurse practitioners are going to lose that care. As for minors, gender-firm and care was banned entirely, although there was an exception. If you were already receiving gender-firm and care, you would be grandfathered in, and that care would continue. But there's still some questions about that. So if a child was receiving puberty blockers, can they go on to receive hormone replacement therapy, or would they have to already be on HRT to be grandfathered in, despite them being on puberty blockers? We don't know. It's genuinely unclear, and this is why families are fearful. But US District Court Judge Robert Hinkel issued an injunction last month that halts the enforcement of Florida's gender-firm and care ban for minors, but that did not apply to adults, but the lawsuit was recently amended to include trans adults as well, so relief could be provided to them too. Now while litigation takes place, Florida's medical board has approved even more restrictions on trans healthcare. For example, adults must undergo psychological evaluations every two years to continue to receive HRT, and on top of that, they now need a witness's signature in order to continue getting that care. I mean, just stop for a moment and think about how absurd that is. I am on anti-depressants. The idea that I need a witness and their signature to confirm the need for my medication is downright insulting, because I think I know better than anyone. I'm an adult, right? I can make that decision for myself. But when it comes to trans people, well, they now need somebody else to consent to their medical treatment, even if they are an adult. It is absurd. They're policing every single aspect of trans existence. But when it comes to the family that we saw in the video that we watched, even though the girl would technically still be grandfathered in and should in theory be able to receive gender from in care, well, additional regulations have made it more difficult for her to get it. She explains this. It's been difficult to access my hormones. I'm not honestly sure how I would continue to access care. Even if I wasn't trans, I wouldn't be comfortable here. It's just not a safe environment for queer people in general. So even though she technically qualifies for gender from in care, it's still getting more difficult to access it. And this is the same strategy that we saw with red states before Roe v. Wade was overturned, right? Even though abortion was technically legal, well, you can cut off access to it and dissuade people from getting abortions by putting up additional barriers and making patients jump through hoops before getting that healthcare. And she nailed it at the end there. It just doesn't feel like a safe environment. So of course, why wouldn't she want to leave? They see what the governor is doing and the atmosphere that he's cultivated. So who would feel comfortable in that environment? I know I wouldn't if I were trans. And unfortunately, not everyone who wants to leave can, which is why I do want to direct everyone's attention to the rainbow railroad. This is an organization that gets LGBTQ plus people out of hostile countries. And that now includes certain states in America. Now they currently have 8,000 requests and they could really use your support. So I would encourage you to support them if you want to help other trans people or LGBTQ plus people in general, leave dangerous situations. But one last thing that I want to leave you with here so we don't end on such a depressing note because seeing these comments really affected me in a negative way. This is just the moment in time right now. And this is going to pass. Things are probably going to get worse before they get better. But they will get better. Trust me. These anti-trans bigots that we talked about, they're loud and we see them on Twitter especially, but most Americans don't think like that. Most Americans would not react by celebrating a family being forced to leave their home state because they fear for their child's safety. Most people don't think like that. Most people aren't that cruel. I refuse to believe it. And there is going to come a time in our lifetimes when we look back at this moment and we tell our grandchildren about it and they're not even going to believe us. Because when we tell them how nasty things were towards trans people, they're going to think that it's absurd.  The problem is that that reality isn't going to come to fruition unless we fight for it. But in the meantime, if you are a trans person, hang in there.


So there are three properties of rock crystal that make it particularly desirable in works of art. One is the fact that it seems to pick up and reflect and magnify the light that hits it. And I think you can see that particularly in some of these examples here as they pick up the light and sparkle, it also, since it is clear, takes on the color of the things that touch it. And we're going to see a work of art that was meant to be held in the hands. And you'll notice that this goes from being sort of celestial and clear and ice-like to suddenly being warm and flesh-like when I hold it in my hands. Similarly, if I take the crystal and put it up against my scarf, you can get a sense of the color of the scarf through that crystal, and it affects it. It changes the color of it. The other thing that is really remarkable about rock crystal is it has some magnifying qualities. And you can see that pretty nicely with this crystal here, which has some nice facets in it. If I place it on the text, you can see how the text appears larger. And that can be used to, it was used particularly in medieval reliquaries, to make the relic behind the crystal appear larger to the viewer. So, for example, think about having a very small piece of the true cross and how the crystal properties would attract light to that relic and also seem to magnify it for the viewer. And this would enhance their religious experience.