Thanks for joining me, guys. Thank you very much for your time. If you had a chance to define what is tomorrow, what will it be for you? This is my take, taken by Sir Ken Robinson. Take a look. Do it in a very geeky way. So, it's a mystical land where 99% of all human productivity, motivation and achievement is stored. So, eventually to be less sarcastic, it means that if I want to do something ambitious, I will delay it for tomorrow. And why it's relevant? It's relevant for us because if you want to tackle our CI-CD system, it's a very tough cookie to crack. Because two things. One of them is, spoiler alert, most of us already have a CI-CD system, so why replace it? It doesn't make any sense. And the second thing, because it's a very, very fundamental part of the court of the developer operation, any mistakes that we'll do investing in a new technology in our CI-CD system would be very hard to fix if we have any mistakes, as well as the adoption rates, etc. My name is Elad. I recently, recently, today joined Terra Sky as a tech lead at the city office. And I would like to discuss to you about what we can do and explore much of ways to solve our problem. So, like every day in the office, our type of the development process is a developer pushing its code throughout a pull request into our Git repository, and it makes sense for us. And of course, we have Jenkins, I don't know if you know, the master change to a controller as the semantics change, everyone think about it. And what happened here? So, of course, if you're taking some kind of crazy trip into a memory lane, we're managed static slaves, and now the nodes, we manage it by ourselves. It's crazy. But a few years ago, this is how we handle our orchestration of job in Jenkins. We already know that if we have, for example, here Java 11, if we want to orchestrate it, we need to have a slave. There's several are going to be some kind of computers that we need to connect to. We'll preload and install other requirements, but it seems crazy today doing so, no? So, it was hilarious in the past. What we should do next? And in this case, and it was introduced around four years ago, maybe a bit more. The Jenkins Kubernetes plugin has showed why it was so important. We invested a lot of compute moving into Kubernetes. Kubernetes in its nature, it's stateless. Your provisioning compute based on your requirements. But Jenkins in its main strategy is static by definition. So, how can you solve it? We solved it by the Jenkins Kubernetes plugin, and how we do it. The plugin enabled dynamic scaling of compute and memory resources out of the Kubernetes clusters. How it looks like, as you see in the picture. So, we're developing in our dev environment, we're pushing the code. Now, we have a webhook that's triggering our Jenkins. And then, the Jenkins files describe the information that I want to run in the pipeline. So, what's the benefit of it? The benefit of it is that, besides running and managing, again, static scripts and managing by ourselves, we can have one source of truth where it could describe everything that happened inside the pipeline. And I know this is a known practice that we're using daily, and I'm sure most of you are also doing it. And it's our source of truth. But when we go and try to deploy it and run it in some kind of, as we said, Kubernetes pod in the Kubernetes world, we use the Kubernetes template as a YAML file. And as you see here, we can describe the metadata, right? It means the containers that I want to run. So, for example, if I want to run and build a docker, not the docker, sorry, and Node.js application, I will instance the docker container with Node.js. And also, I need to define the agents to communicate back to the Jenkins. And then I can set up more requirements. So, for example, how much memory and CPU I need to consume, and this execution alone. And this is a stateless execution. After you're running this pod, it will be eliminated and back into new resources. And of course, we run to run our pipeline business logic. And how are we going to do it? We're going to do it by running a pipeline, Jenkins pipelines, agents, Kubernetes, label, and load the files. And of course, after doing all the configuration, all the bootstrap, the business logic is steps that we want to run, building this NPM package, running Glint, sending it maybe to a docker registry. All of it will be in the logic and the step section. What's happened behind the scenes? So behind the scenes, every time they're using the Kubernetes Jenkins plug-in, there are some components behind of it. The runtime, which executes everything, which is the pod itself and every other aspect of the Kubernetes cluster. The spec, which is a metadata spec defining any pod that you create in Kubernetes. And of course, you have two more things which is really important. One of them is a Jenkins agent. And you know how much hassle we need when we need to configure it and communicate back to the master or controller in our case, when we need to get all the information back about how the execution of the pipeline went. Good, bad, and also streaming of the STD out and STD out and STD out of all the outputs. And of course, we have the docker and docker. Why are we using the docker and docker? The docker and docker is very common practice. When you want to run a dockerized application inside a docker also container, you want to do it in order to make a separation between the running components, because if you will not use docker and docker, when you will run it on the main docker itself, then it can crash it and make problems. This is a bit maybe less relevant for today because when it's encapsulated under a pod, then if something crashed, the pod will be crashed, but it will not affect any other pod, or for this sake our component is clustered. So it's a bit less relevant today. And of course, we understand that in a mature company we have multiple runtime environments, we have multiple development languages, we have multiple compilers that we're using different, a machine architecture like ARM, X86, each one of them requires some more tweaks in the make files or any configuration files, it's a bit more complex because right now, even if we have the Jenkins file, and even if we have the best usage of the Kubernetes Jenkins plugin, we still need to manage it in some kind of a repository, for example, our Chef agents, Go, Helm, Java, Node.js, and of course, if you want to manage it, then you want to manage revisions, and managing the revisions means that you have a different directory. And you'll see where I'm going to, it's a lot of management, and you need to handle it version by version. So it's a good way to continue, but it's still more complex. And of course, when we're talking about Jenkins, we talked about orchestrating the jobs, but what about Jenkins itself? How are we going to install it? Is it magically going to happen?  But guys, it's not working. If you have experience with Jenkins, you know that this is going to happen, and again, and again, and again. And this is crazy, because you know why it's so crazy? Because at the end, any one of us just excluded a plugin, just bypassed another thing, and if you're talking about managing Jenkins, the Jenkins itself is not just the pipeline, and orchestrated in a runtime environment, we can spin up Jenkins with all the plugins. I don't want to manage each plugin life second differently. It's not going to happen if I want to promote some kind of, let's call it, cloud-native deployment of Jenkins itself. So how am I going to do it? I'm going to introduce, and this is something that I think very well-adopted in the last three years, is that it's the Helmchart of the Jenkins, which is officially supported by the community, and the Jenkins configuration as a code. And what nice in this plugin, it's enabling you to define under one Helmchart all the configuration of the Jenkins itself, the image, how the ingress to expose it to the other word, TLS, et cetera, but also with the Jenkins configuration of the plugin, you can define all the configuration of the Jenkins. And what's best of it is that the next time you want to go to another company before you're going to manage upgrade of Jenkins files, you have a snapshot. And when you have the snapshot, you will define every plugin, every configuration in a baseline that's stabilized between all the relations of the plugins. So in order to move forward, you just need to install Helmcharts, divide these values, YAML files, with all the configuration, and wire it together. So it seems like Jenkins rows. So we can drop here, give you more, about 20 minutes to grab something more to it, but, and I think we're yet enough, but it's not the case. As you see, there is a lot of configurations, there's a lot of things to do, still a lot of manual wiring need to be done, and it's not a cloud native solution. So why it's so complex? It's so complex because when you need to deep dive into your pipeline, and again in a previous company, we use this architecture, but still we had a lot of groovy code that need to be checked. A lot of libraries that we built on top of the Jenkins files, it's too much. There are much more simple way to do so. Can we find another way to do it? So to summarize this section, I think that our relation with Jenkins now, it's a bit complicated. Jenkins, and to be frank, has been around for quite a lot of time, but beside of its amazing plugin system, the core of Jenkins didn't change, and depend on multiple plugins and the relation between them to create a very robust solution that as I said, in the heart of the DevOps operation, it's too risky to do today. So if I want to move forward, I'll try using the CNC-NF and to be more precise, this is a continuous delivery foundation, and maybe we have a solution in our landscape. So of course, as I told you, the name of the session was Jenkins in the X-Factory show. There was Jenkins 6, and here it is. So this is from the CDF landscape when you dive into Jenkins 6. And let's try to figure out what's good, what's not good. Can you hear? Okay, sorry, I'll not be here. So we have an automated CI-CD solution for Kubernetes, which is great. We have a cloud-native pipeline, another one. It's using Tecton. Tecton is a great product to orchestrate your workflow, pipeline workflow. It was ported, worked from Knative, and now it's a very popular project. It seems like it's an incubating status. I don't know what it means, but I think it's okay, and it's have a decent amount of stars. So it seems like a very, very good project. Let's see, before we invest, and as we said, it's very critical, let's see what's happening. So it was developing back in time in 2018, and it was introduced by James Shaken, which is, he was one of the main influence and developer of both Groovy and Camel, and it was adopted by Cloudies. He was working and maybe still working in Cloudies, and it was a blast. A year after, it was stabilized, and Gentigus number two supported more practices on the CI-CD world, such as monorepos, extending build tools, such KPEC and BuildPECs, and it was great. And in 2020, this is where the CD Foundation has established, and it was one of the earliest adopters of this foundation. And by 2021, it was introducing also Gentigus number three. In version three, it was a major refactoring. It included Tecton, as I showed you, Lighthouse to support Git-based operation, a very robust Gentigus JX CLI, and it was great. And everything was fine, and in my previous company, we even started developing some kind of a prototype application of it, and it was very good, but it was very opinionated. As you can see back in the time, and it was like three years ago, I opened a ticket. I wanted to implement some kind of a pipeline in a company, and in the company, I want to use not a chart museum, but a factory. When you decide to say, I'm opinionated, it means that your framework, your platform, is deciding something for you. So of course, over time, there was support, there was a plug-in, or any other way to extend it, but over time, when we want to use some kind of opinionated framework or platform, you need to understand that if you decide it, you need to embrace it. They have a guidance on how to do it, and it should be very good for you. But something happened. As you see here, this is Contributor's page of the Gentigus JX website, and as you can see here, it was great for around three years, but I think we all see there is no contributions today, at least not something that can help us as a community, because we want our software to be evolved, especially the software that we put all the money in. And Cloudbees, and I don't know how to backtrace it to a specific time, they had a distribution, a managed distribution, which is also very important for us. But now when you go to the website, you see the page say, okay, guys, Cloudbees, Gentigus distribution is not available. You're all welcome to go to the website, to the GitHub, and work with the project, but we do not support it anymore. Guys, we may have a problem. If you look on the Git tickets, let's see how much traffic we have on the issues in GitHub. This is around 20 tickets that was opened in 2023. Some of them are really just at high level. Some kind of find a contribution, a Gentigus contribution award. Great, I want to see who it is. But it was, it's not active. And I think that the last thing to put here is that we do see as a, TOC is a technical overseas committee, because it's a clear state that we're looking for more contributors. So guys, I think that we have a problem. We spend a lot of time, we spend a lot of money. This is our CICD system. What's going to happen now? So I think that at this moment, you're going to say, dude, what are you doing? You're just depressing us. You don't see, you don't give us any solution. You're just telling us what is wrong. But I think, I think it's important, because I'm going to show you the next big thing. I want to show you what platform will solve all the problems. Make sense? No, I'm not going to do it. Why? Because I'm not going to be here in three year times, telling you again, I selected another technology, which is amazing, but now guys, it's all dead. This is what I've done in Yala DevOps three years ago. So shame on me. So I think I want to take another approach when we're talking today. There are success stories, and there are not success stories, to be politically correct. And I think that the next time we're deciding on the ICD system, instead of selecting a specific technology, let's try to focus on the pin points, the decision-making process. What's important for us when we're deciding our next solution? So we are open source, we love open source, we understand that CSNF is the greatest open source committee that I think ever happened after, of course, the foundation of the Linux foundation itself. And what you see here, taken from the CSNF website, and it is describing what is project maturity. And of course, crossing the Kazam first when they presented this slide is how the open source owners taking the measurements to move from an early adopters, this is very cool technology, let's use it to really move into a border market mainstream customers. And this is a very, very important one. But it's also very important for us to decide if we want to be an early adopters, or if we want to take only after it was stabilized. And in our case, it's graduated. But I'm saying graduated. Let's see, you know, like, what is so amazing in the open source world? Everything is open. You can understand every aspect of decision making in CSNF. And this is why they're so great. And as you can see here, they're telling us what is graduated. So graduated means at least two big companies. I said big company, but I think two major companies that influence on the contribution level, they spend time, company time, influence on the project itself. They may be the owners, but they maybe have a lifting some of the contribution on the project. It could be doing an external auditing of security concept, security auditing of the project itself to make a governance status of the project itself. And also it's important that it will be used by a real company solution. It could be a private one, it could be another open source, but it's really, really important. So this is the first lesson. So in my opinion, this is only me. Next time I will decide on a solution for my customers, for my previous company, or for any other company, I will stick to this table. I will stick to the maturity. And when you're talking about CSNF, it's so easily can be disrupted. So please, don't bite off more than you can chew. I think we can spend years understanding what's the landscape of CSNF. And we have another project and another project. I used Knative, there is other projects doing the same thing for running serverless computing, which one I selected. I think that we need to focus on the graduate project. And this is a very important take away. When you focus about a graduate, and if you agree with me, I think there are four candidates that you need to look for. One of them is the Argo CD. The second one is Jenkins.  And of course, when you're talking about orchestration of a pipeline, it could be Tecton, or it could be Argo workflow, which is another project. And if you're talking about GitHub separation, Argo CD and Flux are very much a project using production. You can read about Vimwell, by other projects as well, as well as Argo CD that we discussed. We have a commercial product that backed by this technology if you don't want to use open source project. And I think that it's not the only way to go. Take a look on this diagram. I think that if you come into a company and you will tell your managers, okay, you have a CI CD, throw everything away, just put everything new, it's not going to happen. So, it's totally okay to keep your Jenkins as configured. Use Helm charts, use configuration as code, use the Kubernetes plugin. Okay, it's okay to manage your revision of configuration based on the pipeline. It's totally okay. Take the CD part and break it down. And when it may break it down, it's totally okay that your CI CD will trigger the build of this GitOps and Argo CD to orchestrate your CD part. So, why not combining with Kubernetes? So, for this, for example, I have an application developed in TypeScript. I'm pushing my code to my GitOps repository. Everything is going to CI CD throughout Jenkins. I'm using build packs and some other technology. But with here, I can divide and conquer. I can decide that for the CI, I know it's working, it's okay. Maybe I'm going to replace it in the future. Let's divide it. And the CD part can be used by another technology, for example, could be by Argo CD or any other technology, I think. I think it's totally okay to say that we can use commercial products. And this is something that was very, very problematic for me. When I adopted Jenkins 6 in my company and in my previous company, and we just as we said, rolled back, I think one of the things wasn't just because it's a lack of support. It's working. But for a mature company, when you do evaluations, when you do anything that's important for managing for a long scale, you need to know if you have a managed service or not. And by cloud-based deciding to push out from this project, it was very hard. Because even if I was saying in the future I will move to a managed service, it's not going to happen. And by taking a very opinionated standalone project which is currently not under development or basically nothing, it's okay to decide to go with the commercial solutions. So, for example, using GitLab, which is doing CI CD, great CI CD, and the CD part is implemented by Flux. Or Harness, which is, you just acquired, I think it was a year ago, maybe less drone. So now we have a full CI CD system. Don't be tempted by the buzzword. Don't be tempted by the technology. It's just a technology, it's just a buzzword. Your solution, your requirements is to develop a full CI CD solution that it works. And Codefresh, which is giving you, for example, implementation for ArgoCity, and all Argo workflow, which is very, very important. Also, don't put your time only on technology. And another example is TAP, the Tanzu application platform includes also a CI CD system that can be used as part of your developing your application. AWS has everything, it's okay. So I think what I want to do, I want to try to summarize it up. I'm not going to tell you which kind of technology to use. What I was trying to tell you is that before you're selecting your next best in line project, before you're moving on to another project, think about the maturity of the project. Think about the landscape of CSNF, and if you decided to go with the incubation project, or go with the fully graduated project. And the same thing is that the second thing is Jenkins is still live. There is no need to push yourself out of Jenkins and tell you that you have to migrate. It's absolutely okay if you're using the best practices. It's okay to use Jenkins today. It's absolutely okay. And the other solution is that it's okay to use Manage... And the other point, sorry, is it's okay to use Manage solution. It's okay, it's fine. At least it's not something that you can pour it off or something that you can change over time. At least you have a company that's backing up, and it's okay for a company. I think, in my opinion, it's okay to decide it. And of course, if you want to go fully blown, you can still use Jenkins Insects. I think some other people will not agree with me, but this was my take. And guys, thank you very much for your time. I really appreciate it.


Hello my darling extraterrestrials, I am Kim, this is Dustmotes and Velikor, and this is my April wrap up. As you may recall from last week's video, by the way, I apologize for the six tangents I went on in that video, but as you may recall, April has been a difficult reading month for me, as evidenced by the fact that it's May now. Nevertheless, I managed to read nine books in April, despite multiple other projects and utter exhaustion, but I did it, I did it, and it's done. Onward to the lists. Now the first book I grabbed after I got over Conjuring of Light, which was not easy by the way, was Tempest and Slaughter by Tamara Pierce, and Tamara Pierce is one of my favorite authors growing up, so this was a big deal. This book follows Numer Salmolin back when he was still Arum Draper, a easily bored, super powerful mage child still learning his craft. This book has the steady pace of a journey, and while there aren't any major twists and turns, it really grounds you in who Arum is as a person. While it's definitely a worthwhile read, the overall impression it gives is that it's setting up for something bigger. Next was a premature reread of Strange the Draper. The sequel doesn't come out until October, but I saw a post on Tumblr that was like, and then I just had to read it, you know? The library knows its own mind, and when it steals a boy, sometimes we let it keep him. Lady Taylor. Ode to Lady Taylor. Yeah, so I tortured myself with that one again. Um, my Strange the Dreamer book gush is here, but uh, it is very spoilery. There are many, many spoilers as evidenced by the title that says, here there be spoilers and big capital letters, so just be warned. Third of the month was Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge. This is a fey retelling of Beauty and the Beast, where a young woman is groomed her entire life to marry the gentle lord, the ruling trickster fey of the land, as well as to be his assassin, thus lifting the curse upon her land. But in this world, getting what you wish for has a tendency to get you killed. The Hazelwood by Melissa Albert is a spooky, spine-tingling fairy tale of fairy tales. My full review can be found here, but if you are into the otherworldly and the insane, this one's for you. Wild Beauty by Anne-Marie Macklemore. I think that's how you say her name. It sounds like Macklemore, but it's Macklemore. It is a lush, rhythmic dance of imagery. The prose so rich, you can almost taste the flowers. The five Nulme Elvives cousins are cursed, as are all of their foremothers before them, and they cannot leave La Prevera, the gardens that they have cultivated for generations. Flowers, seed, take root and bloom at their command, and they have been cast out of every other place as witches. And now they have come here, and when they leave, the land pulls them back, hurting them until they return. And on top of that, all five girls are in love with the same girl.  And I love it. Volumes one and two of the ancient Magus Bride. This one's a little weird. No, it's really weird. I'm going to be honest, it's really weird. He is a century-old, faish, something or other.  He bought her at an auction. They don't get married immediately, but he just takes her on as an apprentice. But it's very clear that his intention is still to marry her. The whole thing has me side-eyed real hard. The rest of the series isn't due yet, so I might give it another try. But there's a major ski factor to it. I finally got my priorities in order, and I read The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Hallig. Highlig? Highlig. Nix has lived her entire life on a pirate ship that travels through time, navigated by her opium addict father, on a desperate quest to get back to a time when her mother was still alive. High adventure and a romance deeply rooted in friendship. The story is about growing up and seeking the horizon wherever it may take you. Finally, To Kill a Kingdom by Alexandra Christow. My full review can be found here. This is the story of a young siren princess's quest to redeem herself in the eyes of her mother, but she ends up finding herself along the way. So nine books this month, I am behind again on my Goodreads challenge, but we can try and pull it back up in May. We'll see how it goes. Let me know what you're reading right now. Come talk to me about books. I love talking about books. But seriously, come talk to me about books. Aviento!


With a couple new things from the last batch and the last batch I just took the dry pine cones that I collected from outside. These are from the woods next door to my house. I Wacked them with a hammer and stuck them in a blender, which I'm going to show you that part too, but The trick with any paper making is to get the pulp ground down as fine as you can if you want a really smooth paper While I like the rough texture of the first batch of paper I'd like to see if I could get it smoother. So I've got these giant metal snips. I have no idea if they'll cut pine cones or not But we're gonna find out The answer is yes So we're gonna cut our pine cones.  I just want to break them up a little bit and then we're gonna still whack them with a hammer So we're gonna do that the smaller I can get them even if I can only chop them in half before I whack them the easier the Chopper thing will have in Getting them ground down to a fine pulp. So you want to really like kind of Work at it oops Also, the drier your pine cones are and the less fresh Probably the easier they're gonna break Oh, there we go. So I'm gonna cut all my pine cones at least in half and I'll be right back They're all broken at least in half I didn't use my nippers and also I got a pair of pliers out and that worked now. I'm going to lay them on the concrete ground I'm gonna whack at the bag full of pine cones a few times with this four-pound mallet If you're bringing these back in the house to continue working on when you're done smashing them like I am get in fresh Bag and put the other two bags of the pine cone bits in them in another bag because smashing them They're sharp and pokey. It puts a bunch of holes in the bag and you'll just trail pine cone bits and there's some moss in there In between the pine cone things anyway, you'll you'll trail it through the house. So don't do that Get a fresh bag. I'll be I'll be back. Okay. Once you have your thing from nature Pound it up cut up smaller. You're gonna want to chop it. So I have this inexpensive Ninja food chopper thing Get don't spend a lot of money on this because you're probably gonna burn it out pretty quickly if you make a lot of paper It's good for chopping up paper pulp and something like this But I would get it at like the thrift store or a grocery outlet type store don't spend too much money on it You're also gonna want an empty jar and going to Oops, and I already cut myself, you know I'm gonna put all of my Pinecone bits into here hopefully in here was hopefully without making too big of a mess So let's see how good I do at that Sometimes it doesn't like it when I try to chop things without putting water in there But I would like to have the pine cones just be dry for right now because I want to just have some jars of just pulp pulpy things dried paint bits Dry, of course the dried pine cones and stuff like that because I'm gonna be putting all of them in paper and that reminds me of that paint Dried paint bits around here somewhere. We're gonna grind those up today, too. All right, hang on Let's try this and see what happens that being said you want to before you start putting them in the blender because It is hard for the blender to chop them Otherwise it's not impossible, but it's hard and you also don't want to put too many in the blender when you do do that You'll notice my blender is full of dirty water And I have this cookie sheet here and no that's not all pinecone So what I do is I don't waste the paper towels I've used to sort of keep my work area clean That's just pulp for the paper that I'm gonna make and they're stained the paper towel gets stained with the color from the pine cones and or the dirt that's in the pine cones so I just Grind up my pine cones as fine as I can. I usually I'm gonna be I think leaving them a little bit chunky If you want to you can grind them super fine and get something that's kind of sandy But most of the time When I'm doing it, there's gonna be bigger chunks in there I don't know if you guys can even see the difference between that on camera So here's the one that's finer and this one's got the chunky bits in it this is sort of a Paper pulp. This is gonna be a paper pulp sheet and I'm going to it's in a cookie sheet I'm gonna let it dry if I'm gonna make paper with it right away Then I can just go ahead and do that but I'm not gonna be making paper with it right away So I don't want to fix stick this in the jar while it's wet I want to let it dry and then break it up and stick it in the jar if I do want it to wet It's just gonna get moldy And then when I go to make paper with it I can take a few of the small bits out of the jar and I can put those in the blender and then Regrine them again with whatever I'm gonna add to it. So what I'm gonna do here I'm not sure you're getting it on camera. I guess you're getting some of it I'm just mixing the pinecone bits with the paper towel So it's sort of semi Evenly distributed It's kind of fun. I got to be honest. It's you know kind of fun to get messy And I am puppy sitting and she's out in the hallway and I'm not think she's so sure what to think about the blender Then I'm gonna spread it out thinly on the cookie sheet um, I Do have a funnel and a strainer mini strainer I Think I got the little strainer at the dollar store. It's either from Dollar Tree or it's from Daiso But I think it's from Dollar Tree. They're free or sink. So they're in the kitchen aisle And I'm gonna use it to drain off a little bit more of the water that's in here Just a little bit more Without a trick is doing it without dumping all the pulp that you just created all over the place You know huge mess and then I can also Kind of do this and take handfuls of it and dry it off that way. I don't have anywhere to put that now That's actually a good idea.  It's not gonna be happy about that. It it's just too thick for it to blend So you have to do it with water. I Suppose if you had a spice grinder or a coffee bean grinder, you maybe could do it Have one of those handy that's for the craft room. So Did you see my clip go for it? The reason I have the strainer in there is so I don't want to lose any more of these bits And I have to because it took too long to make them. So when you do it this way you couldn't save any Small bits you can get my cookie sheet pretty dry Which is great the dryer you get the cookie sheet when you put the pulp dough so to speak back in it the Last time it'll take for it to dry out and the less chance you have of it getting moldy So now I can put my pulp dough balls back in here and spread them out Over the spring I'll be Gathering some moss from our local Area or surrounded by woods and wet protected wetlands So I'll be playing with some of that along with like dried foliage and things not only from my yard But stuff I know I already have in my stash. All right So let me clean my hands off and I'll show you our Pinecone pulp. It's not paper yet. It's just pulp. It's ready ready for adding to other things to make paper So I'll be back here is our pinecone and paper towel pulp that will someday be paper When it dries out, I'm going to put it in this empty gelato jar here So that's one thing that I'll be adding to my mixture in the little ninja blender to make paper There is another one and I'm you know, the whole idea behind this is not only to make some paper That's interesting and these are the two sheets that I have made yesterday It's also if we reuse and repurpose and keep out of the landfill things that we can and So yesterday, I realized when I was getting ready for today that the little metal strainer in my Bucket where I drain all my dirty water. I'll show you in a minute That I could maybe pick out some of the dried paint chips and Paper pulp and things out of the strainer, which I did and They're gonna and I also have dried paint blobs, you know from the top of your paint tubes So those are that's all going to go in another jar and I'll probably have one jar Or stack that's just white paper and I'll be able to pick from my different jars when I want to make paper and Just pick different things to put in the paper Of course, you can also you put glitter and things like that in but the point is to make paper out of things It would normally go in the landfill Let me go show you what I mean by my metal strainer hang on the bathroom, which it doesn't look like this and we have guests But in between time though, so if you are a guest here or going to be this is what it looks like and when you're not looking this is my pile of stuff that's drying that I've rinsed off or washed and This is the sink. I usually use I do I'm trying really hard not only to keep things out of the landfill But to keep the sink clean and keep it from getting stained This house wasn't built with a utility sink. So I have to make it work Which I think I do I Have my jar of Murphy's oil soap and water over there for the paint brushes I've got a rag. I can wipe my hands on and not use the nice guest rag And get that all marked up This is what I actually wash in so I have this in the sink I wash the brushes or whatever in here and then periodically dump this bucket in Here so this is a five-gallon bucket with a lid and I cut a hole in the lid and I put this dollar store Metal strainer in the top. I usually line it with a coffee filter And then all the water goes in here I let it sit for a little while and the water will separate from the heavies the solids and the sludge and solids will sink to the bottom and I can drain off the water that's at the top down the toilet or Something like that and the sludge just lives at the bottom and as soon as we it warms up outside. I'll be taking Like a cardboard box and putting a black garbage bag around the outside of it and dumping the sludge into the cardboard box Out and leaving it out in the sun somewhere to dry And disposing of it safely that way But what I was noticing is if you notice on the strainer It's got water in it right now, but this is like pinecone bits and it usually has pinecone bits or Paint chips or something in it So I will be taking those out and I'll be adding them to our jars of things to make paper with our pulpy things So that's going to be pretty cool, and I'll probably be taking the coffee filters and grinding them them up, too So paper-making adventures. This is just part one. I'll be back in part two and You know, we'll do a more in-depth thing with regards to my Disposal system and what I'm doing to be keep my things clean, but also be more environmentally conscious On a different video I do want to get a second one of these buckets so that I can have one that's outside in the sun and the other one That's in here being used So that's I've got to go back to Walmart and get another one That's where this is from by the way, but you can get them at any hardware store. Just make sure you get a lid, too All right, that's it for right now. Don't forget to like share and subscribe support the free content here on the YouTube channel By using my link tree link you can find my Etsy shop my Amazon store Where to buy my book my patreon my tip jar all that stuff and all the places to stalk me on social media as my French Anna Green would say So use that and don't forget the most important thing Do something nice for yourself because you deserve it. I'll see you later. Bye guys


Hi and welcome to the session. Next discuss the following question. It says in figure 7.21 AC is equal to AE, AB is equal to AD and angle BAD is equal to angle EAC. Show that BC is equal to DE. So let us first understand the basic approach behind this question. We will be proving that triangle ABC and ADE are congruent is congruent to ADE. And to prove that two triangles are congruent we will be using SAS congruence criteria. So this approach is the key idea. Now we are given that AC is equal to AE and AB is equal to AD and angle BAD is equal to angle AAC and we have to prove that BC is equal to DE. So for that we will be proving that triangle ABC is congruent to triangle ADE by using SAS congruence criteria by which we need to show that two sides and the included angle of the two triangles are equal. Let us now move on to the solution. We are given that angle BAD is equal to angle EAC which implies that angle BAD plus angle DAC is equal to angle EAC plus angle DAC. This is why we are adding angle DAC to both sides which implies angle BAC is equal to angle DAE because angle BAD plus DAC is equal to angle BAC and angle EAC plus DAC is equal to angle DAE. Now in triangles ABC and ADE we have AB is equal to AD. This is given to us and angle BAC is equal to angle DAE. This we have proved above is equal to AE. This is also given to us. So we have proved that two sides and included angle of the two triangles are equal. Therefore by SAS criteria triangle ABC is congruent to triangle ADE. Now since two triangles are congruent their corresponding paths are also congruent. Hence BC is equal to DE by CPCTC that is corresponding paths of congruent triangles are congruent. Hence the result is proved. So this completes the question. Goodbye and take care.


Next up, Paul Liu and Madak or Blueduck and Odyx will present the debcon for 18 bits. Paul Liu, share up next. Okay. Thank you I'm Paul Hello, everyone. I'm Paul from Taiwan and today I'm here for the big debcon for 18s for Taiwan And let me introduce you to Taiwan. It's here. It's a small island. So let's look closer So we're here and we're not China Korea or Japan or Hong Kong, right? so it's just around us and Taipei is a modern convenient safe city How convenient it is. So We say it is safe working outside even at midnight. It's that kind of safe and Convenience stores are mostly open 24 hours. So you can buy food or drinks anytime And also many direct rise from from anywhere to Taipei including this These airports. So what's good in Taiwan? Basically food, right? And food and more food. Yeah, because we present our culture by food. So when you eat the food you can sense our cultures And what's also good in Taiwan? So for example, it's our tallest building in Taiwan, right? And The IT industry is very good in Taiwan. So you can see that we have our friends company here The Google and Canonico is also have always in the in the Taipei-1-1 building And also the local transportation is very high density. So you can go everywhere by just by the MRT for example You can use it. EZ card is a MiFail card, the widely counted card So you can buy a card and take the bus or MRT or train to anywhere and also the high speed railways You can just go to the south part of Taiwan less than two hours and the network is also very cheap for example for 15 US dollars for 10 days for unlimited usage and also the free Wi-Fi is also have Good coverage in the city But you know the Wi-Fi you have to stay in a spotter to use that you cannot it's not more mobile so you have to stay in your place and This is our Okay, I have saved time. So I just show some pictures of Taiwan and all this place can be Go from the MRT. So it's really near and The city ruined cable car and you can drink some Chinese tea in Just just taking the MRT in Taipei and also this is a this is also a good place And if you look into the pictures, you see along the roadside there's food stand everywhere So that's why food is so good see okay, so If you have any questions you can contact us in the we have the IRC channel and my name is Paul Liu and Also the same name on the IRC and you can also send me mails if you want to contact me And we will also have a good team on this currently building the Preparing the bid Yeah, thank you. Okay Yeah, I'm looking for the universities in Taipei. So basically universities because of the price Okay, and maybe a second question. Do you have any idea about dates? Which part of the year would you? We want to do that in June because in May is humid and rainy, but in July and August is typhoon so the song strong wings. So it's not good, right? So The the best best time is June More on Taipei and for instance the venue option like one that's currently being investigated is here and We also answered the question about the potential dates down here. So if there are any If you have interest and please go and answer the wiki and or develop questions from there Oh Visas is almost like if I met many European countries and USA countries the the visas waiver, so you don't need any visa and Yeah, just this here and also the Okay, so also some Asian country. We have 30 days for the without visa. Yes, that's it I Have a question about how many people are in the team? 34 I'm trying to build a team more larger. Okay. Thank you. Okay, and now I I'm standing up here And not because you have to be afraid that I'll organize another DEF CON but But Because I'm not a Member of the DEF CON committee the bit decision team I can I was approached by the Prague people who can't be here to present their bid so Even though Taipei would be the first DEF CON in Asia and as such that's fantastic. Thank you very much for For coming forth to that idea and we're just not gonna make it as easy for you so there's competition Prague ran last year already, but Montreal was selected so they stood up again and are doing it again. I'm not going to mention the EU joke on here So Prague a lot of people have been there a lot of people have definitely heard about it It's a very beautiful city in the heart of Europe. It is the cradle of the first university as far as I can tell It has a big international airport with connections direct connections pretty much from anywhere else in the world and I as I I suspect a lot of DEF CON first will also travel there by train or bus because that by itself is already a an adventure There are venue options multiple ones being looked at we had one for 17 and that needs to be renegotiated because the dean of the university changed, but that's always an opportunity as well, isn't it? And then of course in terms of leisure options what to do when we're not working hard at the venue Then there's the historic city many parks the Prague zoo excellent public transport and curiously I don't know why Andre sent me these slides today last year He specifically mentioned beer about 50 times during these five so yeah So there's no beer in there Yeah, he has one picture like of Prague, you know And then he has a picture another one and then he has a picture of the zoo which is the fourth best zoo of the world Well, that's a great day trip option, so Just imagine that you see beer here, and I talked to Andre earlier on He's rounding up the team again. They Are prepared and committed to improve upon the bids that they have made last year and so by The bid deadline we expect to have a very competitive So suggestion for deptcon 18 in the Czech Republic and that concludes this presentation Are there any questions that I hope I can answer a proxy? No, there's not gonna be any beer Help I Can't answer that question, but I'm happy to relay it to the team. Well. Thank you very much then now did he would like your attention I don't have any slides, but I'm just a small reminder for all the teams That we would like to present something for that conf 18 about what the process exactly is So as you might have been made aware by the previous deaf con You're supposed to build a team Gather all information you can and prepare that all of that on the depth conf wiki you can Ask for a mailing list either on that comfort everyone infrastructure if you need that to coordinate your work The deadline to get the bids is the 1st of December of this year and you're highly encouraged to Join the existing that conflicts that conf team At least the depth conf.org Ask for assistance or feedback and or feedback on your bid and make sure your bid is actually really really super good the 1st of December and then We will have some into some interactions with your team to Enhance your bid wherever possible, and then we will try the depth conf committee will try to get the decision done around Somewhere in February so we will announce the Precise schedule when we have it, but that's roughly the thing So to recap get everything ready for 1st of December get involved Talk to people that have been organizing this that comes the next that comes get involved in Montreal With the Montreal beat to see how they work and if possible be part of the local team next year And that's it Are there any questions? All of that looks so simple when we say it like that, but No questions Sorry, it is nice to get the depth conf organized No, I think it's it's very Yeah, it's very cool to host the depth conf. It's energy consuming certainly, but it's really cool So if you can organize one in your country, it's apparently time for penguins


The next item of business today is a member's business debate on motion number 13064, in the name of Jean Urquhart on media, society and democracy. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put, and I would invite those members who wish to take part in the debate press, the request to speak buttons now or as soon as possible. Before I call Jean Urquhart, I would remind members that they should not make any references to on-going live cases during their contributions. Mr Urquhart, seven minutes if you are ready please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. We live in a society which relies on the quick flow of information, and we live in a time when analysis and opinion of the latest developments are consumed by an awakening general public. That awakening is down in large part to the referendum debate, through which there was widespread discussion, not just of the constitutional question, but of wider social issues, and indeed the media coverage of this historic event. There is a changing relationship between the people of Scotland and power. The democratic revival that we are experiencing is marked by the surge in interest in politics. That means where we get our news, and indeed in whose interests the media is run, is of renewed importance and must be under intensified scrutiny. On 29 April, the Scottish Government rightly so had a debate on TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. In my short experience in this place, I have not seen the public gallery packed as it was. I think I would be right in saying that the issue was raised through social media that brought the public's attention to an item of real interest and real concern. If social media can do that, let's have more of that. We have to discuss ways in which we can support journalism in Scotland. Local newspapers provide an often invaluable service, and certainly in the Highlands and Islands we have a healthy distribution of local press. The new wave of citizen-led coverage and comment is an important development that must be registered. I am pleased to note, and I did not know this until recently, that this is actually local newspaper week. We need to think in an interconnected way about investment into journalism and print media while recognising the surge in social and new media. But we must take this debate much further. We need to apply scrutiny to the way particular media institutions have covered recent social and political affairs. For example, we might question and expose the myth mongering pushed by broad sections of the press on the question of immigration. We might also note the widespread problem that the BBC now has in Scotland, where in recent years staff cuts and reduced resources have had a negative impact on the service that we need and want. Would change to the BBC Charter make it possible for responsibility to rest with Holyrood instead of Westminster? That, of course, should also be the subject of a debate. In many profound ways, we live in a media-managed democracy. We know the hold that a tiny minority of media owners can have over the outcome and framing of political events in the public mind. For so long, this has been impenetrable. However, as Democrats who have a view on the need for balanced and critical debate, perhaps now more than ever we have a chance to challenge the vested interests and corporate power that lies behind sections of the mass media. Now more than ever we have an electorate who have begun the process of grappling with this question. People are becoming shrewder about what information they digest, with many using the internet to do their own more considered research into the issues of the day—domestic and international. As elected representatives of the people, we have a particular responsibility to uphold when it comes to how our actions are covered. More than that, we have a duty to ensure that coverage of the big debates that are currently polarising society is not left to the media barons. It is time, is it not, for a new look at our media, a proper assessment of new media and a willingness to explore how we can support journalism as a trade and a hugely important profession in Scotland. At a time when we see a resurgence in people sensing the power of their opinion and their vote, it is crucial that we express our desire to support those who can articulate and record their considered opinion for the benefit of increasing our knowledge and challenging how we think. This debate could not be happening at a more important moment in the development of our democracy and our society as a whole. I think that it is time for even bigger debate in Scotland as to how we discover more about our country, as we learn more about each other, as we learn more and more about the possibilities and raise the ability for us to take action and raise our game. I think that this debate is relevant today. I thank you for the ability to be able to voice my concern. Thank you very much. I now call on Graham Day to be followed by Malcolm Chisholm. Presiding Officer, thank you. I begin by congratulating Jean Urquhart for bringing this matter to the chamber. I apologise to you and other members for not being able to remain for the entire debate owing to a meeting that I am hosting shortly. There is a danger when you reach a certain age of viewing the past through rose-tinted spectacles harking back to the good old days, so that we will be clear whilst the bulk of the 30 years that I spent in my previous career were enjoyable, the last few were anything but. I like to field the journalism in November 2010, grateful to Escape and Industry already sailing into very difficult waters. I am now the best part of five years on. I generally fear for where the print media is headed, both in terms of practices and viability, and I have a good deal of sympathy for many of those who make their living in that field. In no particular order, let me expand on that if I may. I begin with highlighting an experience suffered by a constituent of mine who had posted something on his personal Facebook page relating to the pain of losing his daughter someone's earlier, being stoked again by the receipt of a piece of mail for her and criticising the organisation, understandably so, which had sent it. The following morning, my constituent took a call from a journalist seeking a quote to include in a story that they were running on the situation. The man was horrified to learn that they sourced the planned article through a routine trawl of social media and had every intention of running with it, despite his making it clear. He had received an apology, the matter was at an end, and he felt that it would be utterly inappropriate for him to include in what he concerned a private matter. He told me that he had to spend the day negotiating with the paper to ensure that his family was not subjected to publicity that they simply did not want. They remain shocked that a newspaper would stoop to trawling Facebook in this way and be resistant to rolling back once the family made clear their position. Presiding Officer, such are the demands that are being made on the staff cutbacks. Journalists on some titles routinely sit in offices sourcing copy directly from social media, including quotes. I highlight this example as an illustration of the kind of practices now being employed in parts of our media that would never have behaved like this before, practices that the public are experiencing first hand and balking at, with the reputational consequences that this has. However, that said, let us also recognise absolutely the pressures that some journalists are having to contend with. Newspapers are trapped in a downward spiral that they seem incapable of escaping, as circulation falls so they embark on cost cutting and making further demands on the moralised staff, which in turn leads to diminishing quality of product, which in turn seems circulation collapsed off further and so it goes on. As a former journalist, I hear tales which genuinely sadden me. The newspaper, with the longest-serving reporter, had been with him just 11 months. The young reporter handed a phone number by his editor for a Scott who had been caught up in the tragedy in Nepal, along with a list of questions, and who had two questions into the interview had the phone put down in him with the interviewee branding him an ambulance chaser, such was the nature of the tat that he had been instructed to take. The phasing out of sub-editors were the implications that that can have for quality control and presentation, the doing away with staff photographers, with picture duties given to reporters and freelancers who have to submit pics on spec and for their relative pittons. That is the reality for many journalists nowadays. Morale is rock bottom because of that. That is the erosion of terms and conditions of employment and the wider cuts agenda. One respected weekly paper editor told me recently that financial restraints have become so bad that he had the public wondering into his office to check that it was still open, as the refusal of the proprietors to meet the cost of window cleaning had left the premises looking like they were closed. Print media might well be headed online. We may only be a few years away from that happening, but I personally still hope that there is and can be a future for newspapers. I believe that a thriving written press, which in a considered way without fear or favour, holds those in authority to account, is vital in any democracy. At a community level, I particularly hope that we can somehow save the weekly paper sector, because at the risk of sounding old-fashioned, both are surely to be valued. I now call on Malcolm Tism to be followed by Jamie McGregor. I am sorry, but I congratulate Jeane Mackert on bringing forward this important motion. If I can start with the least controversial bit of it, perhaps, I think that we would all agree about the importance of local media. I would like to pay tribute today to the great work over many years of the North Edinburgh news in my constituency and also Greener Leith. Regrettably, the former lost its regular council funding three or four years ago and the mass distribution of hard copies of the newspaper that were possible as a result of that, but it is still a great source of news online, as is Greener Leith. I should also point out that Greener Leith runs a social website, which is an interactive forum for raising awareness of local concern. I think that we all value the local media that we have in our constituencies. I move on, however, to the more controversial issue of media ownership, although perhaps it was not so controversial three or four years ago. Speaking in the House of Commons just days after the hacking scandal broke in 2011, David Cameron was explicit about the need for action. I quote, The challenge is how we address the vexed issue of media power. We need competition policy to be properly enforced. We need a sensible look at the relevance of plurality and cross-media ownership. Never again should we let a media group get too powerful. To address that problem, the Labour Party pledged in its manifesto for the recent election that no media company should have so much power that those who run it believe themselves above the rule of law. If we had been elected last week, we as a party would have looked to adopt the proposals that are endorsed by campaigners limiting national newspaper ownership to 30 per cent of the market. Such a law could have led to the break-up of news core in the UK, which currently publishes 32 per cent of the national daily newspapers, and 34.5 per cent of the Sunday market with its sun times and sunday times titles. Many of the members in this chamber, and indeed in Westminster, will give testament to the enormous shift from the dominance of traditional media that we have seen over recent years. The ability of papers and broadcasters to steer the course of political dialogue is still a prevalent aspect of contemporary politics, but the use of social media to shape political debate and allow a more dynamic, instantaneous and reciprocal news source now offers the public the chance to become the creator of content with direct access to politicians. Carole Mill, research director of the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media, gave an account after the general election of the importance played by social media in the success and failure of campaigns. On the holy was largely positive about Twitter, as a medium through which a more representative politics could be forged. Twitter is broadly representative of the UK, he said, now much more than in 2010. In 2010 about 34 per cent of people in the UK were on social media, now well over half are. This is reflected in the sheer level of political content that passes through Twitter feeds every day. During the election campaign alone, there were an estimated seven million tweets to any politician or candidate. As he points out, that is an enormous chaotic morass of lots of things. What drives Twitter usage is converting likes and tweets and favourites into things that matter, volunteers, donations and ultimately votes. It also offers a direct, instantaneous source of news, often much faster than traditional media. As many in the chamber will have witnessed, mediums such as Twitter and Facebook have the ability to generate crowd-source reaction to key political developments. As a result of that direct user-generated content, citizens feel more able to have direct contact with MPs and MSPs, and that will undoubtedly have some impact in the long-term on broader expectations of politicians. In conclusion, I welcome the debate today. It is a timely one and it poses many questions that are simply too complex to answer in one short debate. However, the mere fact that we are able to speak those words, broadcast them to the media, write them on our parliamentary website and tweet them to our followers shows that we have come very far since the days of the penny dreadfuls, the early yellow-top gossip papers. Let's hope that this journey towards a more transparent, engaging system continues. I support the motion and congratulate Jean Urquhart on introducing it. Thank you very much. I now call on Jimi McGregor to be followed by John Finnie. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I too congratulate Jean Urquhart on securing today's debate and there's much in Jean Urquhart's motion I can agree with, especially the belief that critical and well-supported journalism is essential to a thriving democracy. A strong media plays an important role in making politicians and government at all levels accountable and that's how it should be. The motion notes the importance of the local media and press in my region of the Highlands and Islands and I completely agree with this. The Highlands and Islands are fortunate to have a wide range of fantastic local newspapers of which there are far too many to mention individually today. I would want to take this opportunity to commend the journalists and editors who work so hard to cover local news stories in my region. Many of these newspapers, as well as reporting on local stories and performing the important task of scrutinising the performance and decisions of local government in Scotland, can also help effect change by supporting local campaigns. I think, for example, of the recent and successful campaign to establish a new dialysis unit in Campbelltown hospital, which was backed with great support by the Campbelltown courier. Jean Urquhart is right to mention the development of news through the internet and social media, but she did mention T-Tip and on that issue I would agree. I received upwards of 500 emails railing against T-Tip and only one or two pro, but it was quite obvious that the 500 were generated from one source and, while during the inquiry conducted by the European Committee into T-Tip, the majority of the witnesses were in favour of it. I do not always think that social media can be used. I am very grateful for the member taking intervention at that point. The vast majority, over 90 per cent, were corporate lobbyists. Do you think that those are reflective of the general public of the European Union? Before you respond, Mr Greger, I do not want this debate to descend into a T-Tip debate. This is about social media, please. I will take your advice on that and carry on in that case. As I said, many of our local newspapers have developed first-class websites, while in Argyll and Bute the news website forargyle.com has developed a well-deserved reputation for its extensive and comprehensive coverage of all the key stories in the area. It is insightful analysis. Linda Henderson and her team at Forargyle work extremely hard, and their success is reflected in the many thousands of page impressions they receive each and every day, and the site's lively comments. Jeane Irker has talked about trust in the media. All of us can agree that the events that led to the Leveson inquiry shocked many of our constituents. The UK Government, however, I think got the balance right in its response to Leveson in terms of seeking to preserve the freedom of the press, while at the same time ensuring bad practice in journalism can be challenged. I think that we need now to monitor the effectiveness of the new independent press standards organisation, Ipsale, which replaced the press complaints commission and assess its performance before considering any further changes in press regulation. While Leveson saw focus on bad journalism, we should also recognise that the vast majority of journalists and others in the media worked at very high standards. The BBC remains an institution which is respected worldwide, and we must cherish the expertise that we have, for example in the BBC World Service. The broadcast media's coverage of the recent general election was balanced and robust despite the polls. ITN and Channel 4 also offer some of the best international news coverage and analysis to be found, I think, anywhere in the world. To conclude, Presiding Officer, I welcome today's debate and agree that it's important that we support a strong media in Scotland and the UK and have an on-going and measured debate about how citizens' society engage with our media and help to ensure that it meets the expectations that we have for fairness and for balance. Thank you very much. I now call on John Finnie, after which I will move the closing speech to the minister. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I too congratulate my colleague Jean Urquhart on bringing this motion to the chamber. We know that the media, and indeed from the contributions we've heard already, is a matter of great interest to the general public. It's perhaps unfortunate that it's not receiving a bigger attendance in the chamber here. The motion talks about a widespread debate. It talks about the relationship between the media, political power and democracy, and people have talked about the different ranges in the media from the locals, the nationals, the broadcast media, the social media and the internet. The question of who has the power may be important that was touched on by Mr McGregor, and I would venture that at UK level it still rests with a group of elites, the bankers, the public school boys, the military and the like. And of course, they're lobbyists, and of course people will always have concern about the term state broadcaster. We have to… What's the matter with that? Certainly. Mr McGregor. I referred to witnesses we'd had at the European Committee. Is he suggesting that all of those were public school boys? John Finnie. I don't know the committee you're talking about. I don't know, but I'm not suggesting that the exclusive witnesses you've received are public school boys, nor was it a personal dig. The promotion of news is terribly important, but also at the reflection of opinion. I suppose we need to ask what to expect from the media. Do we expect, I think, we want facts, we want opinion, we want analysis, we want a combination of all of these, but if we look for instance, what are facts, who says they are, and based on what, opinions clearly can't be right or wrong, but are they based on facts. An analysis of the facts and opinions will be very challenging for many people in the media, for the very reasons we heard from Graham Day, and it was good to have that particular input from someone from the profession. So people would ask, are there agendas? Well, of course there are agendas, we all have agendas. I'm very supportive of an organisation called Reporters Without Borders, and they want freedom of expression and of information and say that that will always be the most important freedom the world has. They go on to say, if journalists were not free to report the facts, denounce abuses and alert the public, how would we resist the problem of child soldiers to offend women's right or preserve our environment? Now at the moment, they are asking the UN Security Council to refer the situation that their members found themselves in Syria and Iraq to the international criminal court, and we know the situation with Al Jazeera staff. Our media people do not find themselves in these circumstances, and I have to say that by and large we know that there's very good work done. People have mentioned communities, and of course it's not just community broadsheets, the local radios. I think that the community empowerment has led to radio stations as well, and we must sustain and indeed develop, as the motion says, these media outlets. The national corporations, of course, follow an arrow agenda, and I'm not sure how we can deal with that, but there's much to commend outlets like common space, Bella Caledonia. The motion also says that there's trust that's been lost in a range of media institutions. Well, I think that there's trust being lost in a lot of institutions, including politics, and I think that we all must move to a situation where we move away from spinning stories to providing facts on the basis for saying there are facts, so that would allow analysis, and that is a two-way engagement. So, as has been rightly said, the Highlands and Islands is a very vibrant paper section. Long may that continue, they view it as a public service ethos. There must be a separation between our media and party politics. I think that there's much to be positive out for the future. I applaud the work of the National Union of Journalists, encouraging young people into the profession. I commend their code of conduct, and in brief minutes have I said that first and foremost they say, at all times, journalists uphold and defend the principle of media freedom, the right of freedom of expression, and the right of the public to be informed. If we stick to those principles, I don't think that we'll be far wrong. Thank you. We now move the closing speech from the cabinet secretary, Fiona Hyslop. Seven minutes, so thereby please. I congratulate Gina Irkut in securing this debate and, in local newspaper, a week. Can I say that life would not be the same without the weekly read of the Lysgow Gazette. I welcome the chance to speak in this timely member's debate, and for the interesting and informative comments that we've heard. There is a widespread debate in Scotland about the relationship between the media, political power and democracy, and a belief that critical and well-supported journalism is essential to a thriving democracy. That was a point that was made by Jimmy MacGregor. For our part, public engagement with politicians and the critical analysis that is presented of our work both inside and outside the chamber by the media is essential to building and maintaining trust in the political process. It is also essential in terms of ensuring the continued participation of people throughout Scotland in shaping our nation's future. Malcolm Chisholm talked in his contribution about the role of social media in elections particularly. A thriving media sector that supports diverse job opportunities, training and development is important, and a press and media environment that values, respects and champions quality journalism is essential to our future. In that regard, we should also note and recognise and appreciate the role of the new publication, The National, in print. The levels of engagement that are seen both in September's referendum and during the UK general election campaign have been rightly celebrated, and it is heartening that so many people feel that they have a voice in the critical decisions that affect us all. However, despite such high levels of engagement, we find ourselves at a time of great change in how the media delivers its content and ensures continued relevance amidst changing perceptions of what constitutes international, national and local. Nowadays, I consume information from a variety of media outlets, with news in many languages and from many perspectives at my fingertips. Such easy access to a plurality of information is a challenge to our traditional modes of consumption and engagement and can have an unsettling effect where what seems to be established fact is quickly challenged by another point of view. I believe that this is very positive for the quality of debate, but it does change our relationship with the media and challenges our ability and appetite to distinguish between opinion and fact, something that may also impact on our levels of trust in media institutions, at least in the short term. To sustain a flourishing democracy in Scotland, we will need diverse and independent voices across the media, yet media concentration is continuing and growing, and a handful of co-operations and individuals have considerable power over our news, cultural life and access to information. That was a focus of John Finnie's contribution. Decisions about the newspaper industry, such as merging titles, de-skilling and laying off good journalists, are often made with scant regard for the impact such decisions will have on the ability of media to support democracy, political engagement and high-quality debate in Scotland. We have seen job cuts throughout the media sector, including, of course, at the BBC. On print journalism, Graham Day warned of the vicious cycle of deteriorating circulation and standards in the media. The move to online is also creating a never more economically challenging environment for the print media. Recent figures for circulation in February show reductions in the last six months across major titles of between 5 and 15 per cent. There is also an enclosure of a range of media organisations, but, of course, there are publications that are moving successfully to online circulation that pays. Such challenging times for print journalism is leading to increased domination of the industry by a smaller number of large media organisations. That is a challenge for industry regulators and one of the reasons for the loss of trust in the media that we have heard about in this debate today. Alternatively, new media platforms have sprung up rapidly in the past few years. Access to local and social media provides many opportunities for voices to be heard in a range of issues. An example of that is, indeed, Gino Akert's own work on xenophobia earlier this year, which made excellent use of exactly those kinds of opportunities. However, the ability of digital intermediaries such as search engines and social media giants to filter information threatens to create new monopolies and undermining those positive developments. As the traditional print media adapts to respond to the digital age, it is critical that local voices are still heard and that high-quality local journalism and media remains vibrant and continues to develop. Of course, the launch of local TV in Edinburgh and Glasgow earlier this year and forthcoming launches in Aberdeen, Aire and Dundee are an interesting development here. The risks and opportunities at this point in time for the media in Scotland must be assessed and we must address the real issues facing us, particularly in those areas where trust has broken down in order to rebuild that relationship with people across Scotland. As a chamber, we know that the Smith commission has made proposals for new powers for Scotland in relation to broadcasting, and the debate is well timed as we enter into that critical period. The continued work to implement proposals around independent press self-regulation is also key to rebuilding trust in our media and helping to address structural issues. I am committed to making sure that we seize the opportunity and promote continued public debate to ensure that we can sustain and develop diverse media outlets that are able to generate positive engagement with politics, the Parliament and the important issues that are facing society, ensuring that everyone has a voice in Scotland's future. I want to see a national debate with politicians, the industry and critically the public to ensure that we fully understand what is the vision for media in Scotland and which are the key issues that we want to address from BBC charter renewal to support for independent producers across Scotland and supporting a vibrant and diverse print and online media. I look forward to a lively and informed discussion and debate on those issues with colleagues across the chamber as we go forward and throughout Scotland. This is a critical agenda, it is one that matters and I am very pleased and grateful that Junarch has brought this agenda to this Parliament. Thank you very much and thank you all very much and I now suspend this meeting of Parliament until 2.30.