Rwy'n dweud, rydyn ni'n meddwl, yn fawr? Yn rydyn ni'n meddwl, ond ond nesaf yw... Yn ymlaen i gwaith i'w gigaeth. Rydyn ni'n meddwl i'w meddwl. Mae'n meddwl i'r meddwl i'r book wedi'u'r byw ammili Gwynchland, edrych i'w amlunol, Emily Winkler ac ymlaen i gynnwys. Mae'n meddwl i'r byw yn meddwl i'r byw wedi'u meddwl i'w meddwl i'w meddwl i'r byw. Ac yno'r cilio'n gweithio'r gweithio gweithio'r norman yn Cystrylu wedi gwneud y norman yn Ynglŷn. A byddai'r gweithio'r cyfnod y mynd i'r wych yn ddechrau y gallwn y gweithio'r gweithio mewn gennu'r maenitas yna dwi'n dechrau'r cyfeithio gweithio'r norman yn y ddweud y gweithio'r norman yn y gweithio. That's very difficult, because although Leslie Abrahamson's produced the idea of a dispera or scandinavian people, materially witnessed by people like the Led Broch, things like the Led Broch is collected by Ryich, the fact is that only England really has a portable antiquary scheme, so whereabout the only place you can actually plot this… a'r ddysgu daethau, gallwn i'w meddwl, yn y ddechrau ar gyfer gwnod, yn y ddarluniaidd cwrs, a'r cyffraith ffawr yn y gynhyrchu, i'w gweithio'r cyfrifiadau ac'r cyfrifiadau yn y gweithio'r cyfrifiadau yn y dyfodd. Mae'r cyfrifiadau yn gweithio'r cyfrifiadau yn gweithio'r cyfrifiadau'r cyfrifiadau I apologise if I'm going to be saying things that you've already been discussing earlier.  I was unable to choose. So very briefly, this is the area that the norms eventually, or they became the kings of. The time area we're looking at here is basically from the Arab governance of Sicily, to the Norman governance of Sicily, to the Swamian governance of Sicily. So we're interested mainly in the Calabits 948-1040. So they are the Fatimid group who took over and made Paloma the capital and made Sicily very prosperous. Then there was a Norman invasion brought to the second built kingdom and that was a time of considerable prosperity as well. Then there was unrest, then there were the Swabians. At the moment, although the dating is not particularly precise, it does look as though the big change became with the Swabian regime rather than the Norman. So we have various levels at which Norman influence can be observed. Obviously in architecture and art, that is a very important one, that don't wear more importance than Paloma, the top left and corner is the Norman palace. In the Norman palace is the Capela Patina, this is a Norman built chapel which nevertheless embraces Byzantine and Arab themes. Now for some time this has been considered to be evidence of a multicultural Sicily in the sense that people living in Paloma and walking about the streets are somehow a multicultural and b tolerant. Well that may not be true but this isn't as Jeremy Donnes has shown, this isn't really the evidence for that. What this is the evidence for is a very astute politician, of the second, making a symbolic statement about the kingdom that he wishes to produce, which is to run. And that kingdom is going to take the best of the Arab civilization of Sicily and then add it to Norman's vest and make it something really special. Now archeologically the Arabs in Paloma are actually quite hard to see. I mean they're documented there and the period was very wealthy but only a few things like the Arab script of Cathedral and this famous multilingual memorial in four languages. Only those things have kind of survived above ground. This is Alex Metcass map of Palomo in the Arab period. This is the social fortified area. It was finished by Byzantine, the Alhazar in the Arab period. And then when the Calvids came they built this sort of elite fortress, the Haisha on one side. Marked on this map too by me are the four principal Islamic cemeteries or the four principal cemeteries many of which have Islamic variables in them. Here they are on the actual geographical map and in the light spots mark the centre of the old town, either side of which there were rivers. Now these in yellow might be gold. These are the cemeteries, these are the sightings. This is urban archaeology.  And we are making some assumptions about whether this is one cemetery or not. But notice that they move from north of the calar of the harbour and then they move to the south of it and they eventually end up near the station and that's in order of date so far. These cemeteries are, the first of them there is the Byzantine cemetery, the next two have Islamic variables. These are primarily Islamic variables near the south of the harbour and I want you to notice how late they go bearing in mind the timings we have and bearing in mind also that the historical information that we get to the Normans and then the Swabians somehow deport Muslims if they don't suppress them. So these variables have been recently radiocarbonated and the latest Islamic variable we have goes to the only 14th century so that is after the Swabian. So this is a theme that is beginning to emerge that the variable right and maybe the beliefs that go with the variable right are not in sync with the changes of regime. It's something we were pleased to find, let me put it that way, and I think there's many other aspects of material culture that also is telling its own story and they don't always converge but sometimes they do. So cemeteries outside Palermo, on the west side of Sicily, quite a well-known temple site in the holistic period and that is also a theatre belonging to that settlement. It became even more famous when at Santa Mononari it started excavating at the Monte Arbara which is right at the top and found a complex of buildings, a church, and then Muslim variables around the side of the theatre and then a mosque. So clearly there had been some kind of transition here between an Islamic community and a Norman community using those terms rather loosely but the pottery said they were very close in date and therefore we were excited and felt that there would be some multiculturalism coming our way but there really wasn't. This is the castle which sits on the Arab village. The mosque was destroyed before the church was built. These Islamic burials all around the edge of the theatre and certainly this is another theme of Sicilian funerary archaeology. Islam burials around the back of the stalls of a theatre for whatever reason that is. They do it again, not to Yato. There are very many interesting uses of previous Roman and Greek sites in Sicily as elsewhere in the Mediterranean having got time to go into them and mention to this as quite an interesting marker. This is the Christian cemetery mapped out. Norman Church is there, 15th century church took its place and these buildings here are part of the Arab village and they are cut by the Christian burials. So prima facie, it is a sequence. There is an Islamic settlement on top of the hill. It has its own mosque, it has its own cemetery. Then there is a Norman castle on top of the hill. It has its own church, it has its own cemetery. So they look different.  So first on radiocarbon dates from this project which has got something like 200 radiocarbon dates which are in the process of being determined. These are the Cestu ones. Here we are, these are the questions. The generality is fairly clear and then the very counter to the East Kilbride says there is a 71% probability that there is a hiatus between these two communities. So Palermo Sugesta, and my third case study is Castranovo where we have been digging since 2014. This is a site which is attractive because it's got Byzantine, Arab, Aglibir period, Fathomine period and Norman and Swabian all in the same place. Here are some excavations going on. In the background is the Byzantine fortress of Vod de Casai. In the foreground is the excavation at Casalesan Pietra in Division 5 which has proved extraordinarily indicative of the transitions that are happening in Castranovo. We not only get a very interesting sequence of buildings which have been relatively well dated up to now ending in the Norman period or ending in the Norman stroke, Swabian period. It's also a lot of material. Pottery follows its own story as well. Basically a very good, nice pottery with the pictures is Calvid, is Arab, is Islamic and the norm pottery is on the dull side. I think Palermo will correct me, but we haven't got as much as we think we should have of the Norman period. It gets better in the Swabian period. The Norman period seems to be accompanied by a certain amount of monumental architecture. We have a Norman castle, we have a Norman church, but it's silent on the ground. This is something that people living in England might be also familiar with. That camel comes from that side, by the way. That thing on the left is a sugar pot. I don't know whether anybody else was in the sugar session. It's very exciting and interesting. Veronica Ancieti has just finished her thesis. She's been talking about it this morning. The interesting things we learned from her, among many interesting things we learned from her, checking my own story, is that the Arab culture has very fond of sheep.  That's pretty obvious. However, in the countryside we do eat pork, and they do seem to be quite likely that there are Christian communities there which are serving the Arab hierarchy in Palermo. Casterova has certainly got lots to trade. It's growing a lot of food. We're all really interested in food. These are some of the changes that have been observed. These are Veronica's sheep, which get bigger each regime. This is the food that is coming in with the Arabs. It does seem to be real. We are finding real plants. Here's the Norman peep down there. It's probably some of your time. Norman Church, a bit of architecture. Those who like it. Here's my town and here's my conclusion. The main points really are that we have a change here, not between people like the Anglo-Saxons and people like the invading Normans, but also the Hoteville family invades, and it invades a very civilised country in the middle of the Mediterranean which is already in contact with lands to the east, the Far East evens. The orange of 11 comes from, as well as, of course, into Spain and south of France. A very, very much more powerful regime is the sitting tenant when the Normans arrive. When the Normans do arrive, they recognise, or Roger II, maybe it's just a personal genius, he recognises that they are enormously interesting and talented people who are doing very good food and who are delivering a lot of prosperity. However, they still go to places like suggestion Bill Castle's unless the dating is going to show us that it's swaying. I can't emphasise enough that between the year 1061, which is the earliest the Normans arrive, and 1250, when Frederick II dies, between those times, we don't have good dating. Everybody talks about Norman Potry, Swabian cooking pots. This adjective is thrown about right, left and centre, but we don't have the precision yet from the archaeology to add to this story materially. We're not able to say what the changes are because we are, but we're not able to say when they are. I think that does need emphasising. We know that Islamic burial continues under Norman and Swabian regis. So, if the living are being deported, the dead are still being buried, and they're still being buried in the Muslim rights. Swabian appears to be the main at present, the main disruption to settlement of religion under Frederick II. I think that we can say that the town and the country commerce, religion, burial practice are all on separate trajectories, but they often converge. They're like streams of ideas which sway around and then converge at a certain time. And certainly we can expect Islamic, Jewish, Christian communities to be self-defining and to co-exist in both the Arab and the Norman regimes. So, that's the definition I can come up with so far on Normanitas in Sicily. Thank you.


The world's total water footprint related to crop production in the period 1996 to 2005 was 7,404 billion cubic meters per year, 78 percent green, 12 percent blue, 10 percent gray. Wheat and rice have the largest blue water footprints, together accounting for 45 percent of the global blue water footprint. A relatively large total blue water footprint as a result of crop production is observed in the Indus River Basin, 117 GM3 year minus one, and the Ganges River Basin, 100 and 8 GM3 year minus one. This article was authored by M. M. McConan and A. Y. Hoekstra.


For eliminating college debt, we're going to take care of this. And we can afford it. We're going to make sure you can wipe out your college debt as well. We give more help to race horses than we do college students. Student debt should be forgiven for now. I'm going to eliminate a lot of your student debt if you, in fact, if you come from a family less than 125 grand and you went to a public university. I'm going to make sure that everybody in this generation gets $10,000 knocked off of their student debt as we try to get out of this god-awful pandemic. The next bill should forgive a minimum of $10,000 of student debt for everybody with a debt when they pass this bill. Just right off the bat, I'm going to cut the cost of education for everyone. I'm going to fight to make sure the student debt crisis, which disproportionately affects African-Americans, we're going to immediately forgive now, immediately forgive now. And Nancy Pelosi put it in $10,000 per person, any federal student loan. Forgive loans for any public college or private HBCU graduate making less than a family making less than $125,000 a year. Forgive the loans, wipe them out completely. Fast forward to today and he has failed to deliver on that promise that we just watched him make repeatedly on the campaign trail. Now, here's the latest update. As of February 2nd, courtesy of White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, quote, I don't have any additional executive orders to predict at this point in time. But if this resumes, Biden will continue working to ensure a smooth transition to repayment.  Not even the bare minimum, the measly cancellation of $10,000 that he promised on the campaign trail. Not even going to do that. And let's be clear here. It's not just that he lied and he failed to deliver on his campaign promise. But now he's taking things a step further by giving student debt holders the finger once again. So as the Daily Poster explains, despite increasing pressure to fulfill a campaign promise to forgive student debt, President Joe Biden is now going in the opposite direction. His administration has taken an initial step to try to overturn a key legal victory for borrowers according to court filings reviewed by the Daily Poster. If the administration wins an appeal, it could bolster a legal precedent against millions of debtors being crushed by bankruptcy laws that Biden infamously helped his finance industry donors sculpt during his four decades in Washington. On January 14th, a federal judge in Biden's home state of Delaware moved to eliminate nearly $100,000 in student loan debt held by a 35-year-old epileptic man. In response, the Justice Department filed a notice of appeal in the case on behalf of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona. If Biden officials now follow through with a fully-formed appeal, they would not only be aiming to keep this man overwhelmed with debt, but also moving to solidify a legal interpretation that could preclude even the most beleaguered student debtors from getting relief through bankruptcy courts. So thanks for that, Joe Biden. Thank you very much. Very kind of your administration to do this. To fight the cancellation of $100,000 of student debt from somebody who has epilepsy. How kind of you. How progressive of you. Now, you know, we hear about things like this while simultaneously hearing about how the Democratic Party is worried because they see headlines like this. This was published in Politico on December 1st. Biden's young voter problem polls show the president's approval rating has fallen sharply among a key component of the Democratic base, younger voters. This is from December 16th. Support for Biden among young Americans under 30 is slipping. This is from January 15th. Biden backers not seeing the results a year into his term. Now, the good news for Joe Biden is that there's one thing that he can do unilaterally wherein he doesn't need the permission of Daddy Manchin and Mommy Cinema. He could do this himself, just with a stroke of a pen. He can cancel student debt. But he won't do that. Not gonna do it. Not even gonna do the bare minimum that he promised on the campaign trail of canceling a measly $10,000, which wouldn't make a meaningful difference to people who hold student debt. But it's something, but he won't even do that. I mean, it's bad enough that he is culpable in this current crisis. I mean, his bankruptcy bill made it nearly impossible to discharge student debt. But he refuses to write this wrong in any meaningful way. He won't even do the bare minimum. It's just, it's infuriating. This is exactly why Democrats lose elections. Even if we see a Republican Party that is completely insane, they are literally explicitly undemocratic at this point, fighting against democracy. And Democrats still can't even beat them. It's because people don't feel as if there's any meaningful change each time they come out to vote for Democrats. So why would an average voter waste their time spending in line, spending like two to three hours in line when they don't think there's going to be any meaningful difference in their lives? It's just going to be somebody who isn't as crazy. Why would they do that? This is why Democrats, the current iteration of Democrats, is one of the worst iterations of the party in modern American politics. Because they represent nothing. Their agenda is lackluster at best. It's not even able to accomplish their bare minimum milk toast goals. And they're basically just seat warmers. They stop the bad guys from getting in power, but they're not good guys themselves. In fact, they're pretty bad themselves. But they don't do anything. So what happens? We keep seeing this pendulum shift from Democrat to Republican, Democrat to Republican. You know, after being reminded of how crazy the Republican Party is, everyone votes for Democrats again because they think, wow, dealing with that is just not acceptable. But then they realize, wow, well, my life isn't changing in any meaningful way after Democrat, after Democrat has promised that it would. So I'm not voting. And then Republicans sweep again. And then the cycle continues so on and so forth. People realize how crazy Republicans are. They go back into the arms of Democrats. Democrats have to change nothing. And it's just, it's, you know, it's really unfortunate. I actually don't think that Biden wants to hang on to both branches of Congress. And this is all speculation on my part. So feel free to dismiss what I'm saying as nothing more than cynicism. But I think he would absolutely love to lose one branch of Congress. So all of the pressure to deliver goes away. But the problem for him is that the pressure is just going to grow if this is indeed what he believes. I think a lot of Democrats will feel relief because if they don't hang on to the House or the Senate, then there's no expectation. But for Biden, the expectations will grow for him at least if he loses one branch of Congress, if not both, for him to deliver with executive action. But he still won't do that. Even when conservative members of his own party like Chuck Schumer is saying, Hey, I don't support canceling all of it, but at least cancel 50,000. And Biden won't even listen to him. What hope is there? I mean, if Biden does indeed choose to run for reelection in 2024, what is he going to pitch to voters? I'm not Donald Trump. It worked in 2020, given the circumstances, given the start of the pandemic and how Trump botched it. But now Biden isn't doing anything to rein in the spread of COVID-19. He's just letting it rip. So what is he going to tell voters? I mean, throughout the first year of his presidency, he can brag about cutting childhood poverty nearly in half with the Child Tax Credit. But that expired because people in his own party killed his legislative agenda. And he has exerted a minimal amount of public pressure on them. So what is he going to say? How are future Democrats going to prove to people that they're going to fight when time after time we keep getting these promises? And it's almost an inevitability that they're not going to deliver. See, this isn't just about Joe Biden. This is about the Democratic Party. This is a microcosm of a bigger issue. Democrat after Democrat makes promises. They fail to deliver and then they get wiped out.  And at best we get some of those policies reversed. But not always. So it's this sort of ratched effect, right? Where the Republican Party will continue to shift the party to the right. And Democrats, they won't try to shift the party back to the left. They won't even undo all of the harmful things. I mean, Biden is still using Trump's Title 42, I believe it's called, to deport immigrants, basically using the pandemic as a justification to not even allow people to apply legally for asylum in the United States. This is a violation of not just international law, but U.S. law. But Biden didn't undo that. He's keeping the same disgustingly fascistic immigration system intact. So Democrats, if they cared, they'd put pressure on Biden. They'd fight, but they're not doing that. So it tells me they don't care. A lot of Democrats probably are eagerly awaiting their defeat in November because that means the pressure goes away. And the few Democrats in Congress, the handful that actually care, members of the squad, progressives. I mean, half of them don't even know what strategy to utilize. And the other half, they actually do care, but they're not enough in Congress to really make a meaningful difference. So we're stuck in this situation where the future looks so bleak. And all we can basically look forward to is the situation to further deteriorate. And that's really sad, but that's the reality of the situation.  Joe Biden doesn't care. Not shocking, but still very demoralizing to see.


Welcome to the wide world of eSports, a show devoted to all things eSports. I'm your host, Catherine Noor. Today, my guest is Tom Leonard, the creator and host of Gamer's Change Lives Podcast. Our topic is eSports Changemakers, lessons from interviewing the experts. Welcome, Tom. Hey, thanks for having me, Catherine. All right, and thank you for substituting as host a number of times. I really appreciate it. Anyone that gives me a chance to talk is like it's on then. All right. So you have a, your podcast, Gamer's Change Lives has been going on for over 60 episodes. I understand. Tell us about it. Yeah. We've been doing it for 60 episodes. We had three seasons. We're getting ready for our fourth season. The first season was whoever we can talk to. The second season was follow the money. We're talking to investors, talking to sponsors. And season three was more about eSports 101, more about business topics out there. So we're getting ready to launch season four, and it's been great. What are you focusing on in season four? What we think we're going to be talking about is we want to talk about accelerators and incubators. Because one of the things that so many eSports entrepreneurs, so many entrepreneurs, it really in any genre, they're always looking for to up their business skills. And there are these kinds of organizations all over the world. We were talking to Choe in Zambia, and she was talking about, she went to Bongo Hype. And there she was, she has an eSports team, earned her partner. And she just wanted all these business skills. So we thought, let's talk to some people to kind of put it in people's minds that there are resources out there that can help them out. Sure. Now you have a global reach and you've focused your, the guests from different regions or different countries. Can you tell us who you allow as guests in terms of regions? What we want to do is, I mean, our tagline is, play games, create jobs, change lives. And what we want to do is we want to talk about how eSports can create jobs anywhere in the world. Not so much just in how it's done here in California, where I am, but really how it can be done anywhere in the world. So we talked to a lot of people in Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East, we talked to some people in Europe, we talked to people in India, talked to people in Asia as well.  So what, let's start with your second season because you had a real focus. What was your, remind us of your focus to your second season? We call it follow the money because we wanted to talk to, because the thing that we hear, the common thing we hear all the time is, I need more money. It's like, you know, any business needs money to be successful. And really in eSports, it's sponsorship. And for your organization, it may be an investment in your organization to let you continue and to let you grow. So we talked to people who were on the sponsorship side, who were giving sponsors. We talked to Luca Groni, Red Bull South Africa about what, what does he like to hear when someone comes in pitches to become a Red Bull sponsor? And it's like, his advice we hear over and over again was, tell them what you can do for the brand. Don't tell them how great you are, how you have all these followers. It's like, no, what they want to hear. What can, what can you do for them? And if you, if you start the conversation and, and well, obviously you need to start it beforehand. You need to prepare for it. It's like one of the things that we also learned is know who your audience is. So when you go into Red Bull, go into any, any place and you, and you're pitching for sponsorship, make sure that you know who it is that you can bring to the sponsor. So do a little bit of research on who it is that is in your audience out there. When we talked to investment, we talked to a couple of investment bankers, a couple of venture capitalists out there and I was like, what could they look for when they're interested in making an investment? And my impression has always been venture capitalists, they're, they're designed to say no. That's, that's, that's what they want. It's just the opposite. They want to say yes. They want to find an organization that they can invest in and that they can, that they can work with. And one of the things that we discovered there certainly for on the investment side is most important thing is the founders are, you know, are they talking to founders that are going to be successful out there? So, you know, we just talked to a lot of different people about, about money because that's something that everyone needs more of. Sure. So do you find that the eSports business and the show me the money and the business portion, you know, those seasons that you focus on that? Is it any different than any other segment of business? Yeah. What we want to do is we want to tell the stories of people who have been successful in creating businesses to give other people the idea that, hey, here's Ronnie Lucigi in Nairobi, Kenya. Here's the kinds of things that he's been doing. And the other thing we find is no one, no one we've talked to has a roadmap. It's like, no one is like, okay, here's your roadmap. Here's where you want to go. And here's how you get there. Just the opposite. All these people are out there creating their own roadmap, which is just, just amazing out there. We find that a lot of people in eSports, they're, I mean, let's face it, they're playing games. So there could be really good on the game side of things, but on the business side of things, that's where maybe we can, you know, point them in the direction. We don't have all the answers, but if we can get them to think we've had attorneys, which you can, you can appreciate. It's like, okay, why should you be talking to an attorney? And when should you be talking to them? Not when you need them, but before you need them sort of thing. So the same kinds of things.  Sometimes it's a big business, but it has all the same business requirements that anyone else has, you know, HR accounting, taxes, logistics, you know, space, it's like, there's all kinds of things. So the more that we can tell the stories of people around the world who have, who have been successful at managing these kinds of business activities, we think we're doing the right thing. Sure. And you focus on countries that are not like, you're not focusing on North America, you're not focusing on Europe. Do you find that there's a difference between those countries, the people in those countries that you are talking to compared with, you know, the experiences that we have like in North America and in Europe? Yes and no, because yes, they're playing eSports. So if you're playing, if you have a Mortal Kombat tournament in Ghana, you're dealing with the same thing that someone here in Burbank is, you know, creating their own Mortal Kombat tournament. But there are things that we don't always appreciate here that are challenges. Let's say in Sub-Saharan Africa, it's like infrastructure.  Well, maybe they are, maybe they're not sort of things. So that's something you get to work around. And the thing that we do work, we talk more about we're servers because there aren't servers or there's very few in Sub-Saharan Africa. And here it's like, you know, if I logged in to play Fortnite to watch people beat up on me, it's like my ping rate would be just like everyone else that's in the game. But if you are in Sub-Saharan Africa, your ping is going to Europe and back and it's like, and that difference, a difference doesn't may not sound like a lot, but if you're trying to be a real world champion, like we're talking to Queen Arrow in Nairobi, in Kenya, and for her to play fighting games, it's almost impossible if you're not on the same playing field. So there's some infrastructure requirements. The other thing that we find is just amazing how ingenious people are, how creative people are, because things that we might think, well, I just can't do this if I can't depend on electricity or the ping rate is bad or anything. Yeah, they figure out ways around it and benefit from it. Sure, we can relate to the ping rate issue in Hawaii. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we do have that challenge, but you know, it's worked out in our advantage in some ways because like the Overwatch League, they brought championship to University of Hawaii because we had favorable opportunities to connect with Tokyo. So do you feel now that you've interviewed so many people across the world in the business of esports, do you feel that you can provide some like advice to anyone that is interested in starting a business in esports in Africa or India or the Middle East? Yes, because in listening to me talk, no, but when you look at listen to our guests, if you're trying to start something in Sub-Saharan Africa, as an example, you can hear from other people who have done that and that's really valuable because then they're dealing with the same kinds of issues that you would be dealing with when you create your team or your tournament out there. So our value is in telling other people's stories and not telling people how to do it. So Tom, how do you get involved in this? Like what is your background and what led you to want to create and host this podcast? Well, I've been in marketing for a long time, mainly entertainment marketing. Netflix, when they were starting out, Warner Brothers, just down the street got to do some amazing things there. But then a couple of years ago I was talking to some people in Sub-Saharan Africa in Ghana about doing some tournaments. I said, oh, let's do Mortal Kombat because I know the WB Games guys over here, it's like in Mortal Kombat is an older title, which means that there's more flexibility in what can be done. So let's do that. And so we start putting things together. And then Kwesi Aford in Ghana, he was like, he was doing all this promotion for girls, his term girls. And I said, what's going on there? He goes, well, I want them to make enough money to not have to live on the streets. And I was like, wow, that's something that we would never, you know, probably would not be thinking of here. And it started to make me think. It's like, okay, what if we could tell stories about how esports can create jobs? Now we're not talking about being a streamer super famous and everything, you know, that could happen. But how about if you create an event? What if you create a team and you can actually start creating jobs? We're talking to Eniola Edan at GamerX in Nigeria. And they were like amazing. It's like they put on this huge event, multi-country event in like seven or eight months. They put it together. And when we were talking with her, she was talking about how, yeah, she's adding in about 270 jobs were created for that event.  And how do you get guests? Yes. Yes.  It's like, the way to get guests is you hire someone, you become a business partner. Not just hire, but become a business partner with someone like Reginald and Sawa in Ghana. And when you're starting a podcast, one thing that you don't have is a track record. So when you go out and you try to get guests, it's like they're like, well, but you don't, you know, you haven't been at this very long. But the way, the reason that Reginald was successful is he just asked. And he was out there asking people, we were talking to people we had no business talking to. I mean, just a really high level. But the way that he got it was, you know, to be sincere, but to just ask people because more often than not, people like to talk about themselves. People like to talk about what they're doing. And at the same time, people like in people in North America or people in Europe, we were bringing them a world that they weren't that familiar with in so many different places. They just didn't have the same. And sometimes we made connections because they were like, oh, I really would like to work more with people in South Africa. But I don't know anyone in South Africa. We're like, well, we can help you do that. So it's, you know, a lot of those connections are, are a part of the story. The other thing I always tell people is, if you want to, if everyone should have a podcast, because what it does for you, it allows you to network.     Yeah, now that I've had over 100 shows, I've met so many people in the world of eSports all over the world. So I feel like I can go to an event and maybe one of my guests will be there. You know, so it is a great way to infiltrate the space.  I like playing games, but not really competitive games because I'm so bad at it. Like, I'll play PUBG or something like that and I always buy the bright orange outfit, which was like a bullseye targeting me, you know. It's like, so I was out pretty soon there. But I like the games like Assassin's Creed and those kinds of games, you know, Far Cry. And so I played those a lot. I also worked with the WB Games people over here at Warner Brothers, and it was interesting to see how they were approaching marketing games there. So I've been a gamer, but not anything too serious. Now, you have been really focused on other countries, like international gaming and e-sports. How would you compare the United States to what's going on in these other countries? Here it's like an industry on steroids compared to other places. It's always interesting because they're doing the exact same things. They're creating the events. They're creating teams, things like that. Same things that you're doing here, but here the world is so much more robust. So, you know, if you're in California, you're going to be able to find events. You're going to be able to connect with people that you can actually meet up with. If you're in someplace in Zambia, you know, you're not going to have that same ability to network with people that are nearby. So that's one of the things we want to kind of do with the podcast is to give people an idea of, hey, there are other people doing exactly what you're doing in places that are just like where you're from. Do you have some shows in your mind that stand out to be kind of the most interesting or your favorites? Well, I would never say that one guest is a favorite over another, but the one that always comes to my mind is when we're talking to Quacy Hayford. He took his team from Ghana to an international event in Bali. And he, so we had him after he returned. We had him and all the guys that went to Bali on a show, and it was great. It was great for a podcast host because you just turned it on and let him go. And there's kinds of things that you heard were just, it's like, and they kept saying it over and it was a life-changing event. And each one of them had a different point of view, but when you just start to hear what it meant to them, the other thing that was always interesting was the families because they were gamers and gaming is a waste of time sort of idea that kids anywhere might hear. But as soon as they went to the airport and their parents saw they were going to get on a plane, go halfway around the world to play video games, it's like all of a sudden it had a whole different credibility to them and what it is that they were doing. So that was a great one. We also talked to Nick Turner in the UK and his team control that has a really interesting story there. I mean, the people that we're, so many people that we talked to were really interesting in their own way. And so we also tried to, we thought it was important to talk to as many women as possible because we want to show that there is a place for women in this industry. And I mentioned Eniola then in Nigeria, but we also talked to Denise Shantel Ortega from Women in Games Asia at the time. It's like, so to hear from women and how their journey in esports is really different than a lot of guys and for them to be able to tell their story and maybe other women hear that, that was a bonus there. Sure. Yeah, I've had a few of those type of shows before and those have been very interesting and helpful to address the diversity issue. Now, you have hosted my show before the wide world of esports and your show is an audio podcast. What do you feel is the difference when you're hosting a video versus audio podcast? Video is really important and we need to be doing more of it. We do LinkedIn Lives where we're starting to do, we've had our third one today and so we've been, and to be able to be on video just is a whole different step in talking to people. And we do record in audio and video. So we use the video on our, if there's marketing or things like this or we'll put it out on the YouTube channel. But also what we find in a lot of places in the world, video choose up a lot of bandwidth. So you might, you know, also people don't download podcasts. They listen to them, they stream them because it's a different bandwidth. We use a different amount of data, which here it's like, you know, we never think of. I mean, you get download or not, it's like, okay, there's room on your follow, and it's like, but in some places that makes a big difference out there. So yeah, we'd like to do more video, but podcasting is audio and so we're trying to make it as interesting as we can. Sure, and you know what's interesting about video and I'll show a couple images here is some of my most memorable shows that are really interesting, kind of like at least the thumbnails for the episode are incredibly interesting. I have to say I have a favorite show and that's the one where I interviewed Wale Shark. We'll bring the image up. Wale Shark only appears by Avatar and he only goes by a pseudonym, Wale Shark, okay? And I never knew who he was. His public relations person contacted me until I ended up booking him on the show. And then there's Hip Hop Gamer and that, you know, he created some great visuals and he did some, you know, kind of wrap on the show is really a cool show. And then Esports Circus where Geoff, Geoffrey were a top hat. I mean, these kind of visuals, they're really striking and those happen to be some of my favorite shows just because they were something different and, you know, I know on the audio you can't quite create that, but LinkedIn Live does provide that opportunity and it's great to be a guest on your LinkedIn Live right before we film this. And we appreciate it. Yeah, so tell us how many LinkedIn Live episodes have you done or what are you doing with them? We've done three so far. Today's was the third one and we want to do them kind of on an every other week basis because the other thing is that LinkedIn Live allows us to do is to talk to people that are kind of one-offs. It's like, you know, maybe if we have a theme for the show for the season, it's like, well, we don't, yeah, too many people to, you know, vary from that. So LinkedIn Live gives us another opportunity and we're also kind of figuring out what it is that attracts people's attention. The other thing that I've been a really big fan of and we've had a few guests is to have people that aren't eSports people online but that have a message that could be interesting to eSports entrepreneurs. We've had a couple of Stanford professors, for example, using the Stanford connection as much as I can. And, you know, talking about communication, talking about idea flow. We had Patricia Ryan Manson, who is really a world leader in improv and she's retired now but she has taught improv for business purposes for decades. And it's like, you know, she's not a gamer out there but the message that she had is something that an eSports entrepreneur could recognize as being valuable. You know, I think that that's smart that you bring in people who can help people in the eSports industry. I know this morning we talked about how, and I think we've talked on the show, a bit about how eSports is a business and you need to acquire business skills in order to do it and, you know, it isn't that different from other businesses in that regard. The ecosystem is huge. So one thing that I've noticed on my show is I've had a lot of people in the education realm of eSports on. In fact, it got to the point where I had so many that I was trying not to have them as guests because I wanted to diversify a bit. Have you had educators and people involved in the education piece? Yes, yes, we have because there are a lot of people out there that are doing some really amazing things in that space. And again, if we could talk about what someone's doing in Canada or Norway or something like that and have someone in Africa realize that, oh, educators can be involved in this space in a positive way. That's a good thing. Sure, sure. So tell us about how we can find your podcast and how people can tune in like when it is because I'm sure a lot of people will want to find you.  Gamers change lives anywhere and you can probably find us. We're on all the platforms out there because it's really easy to distribute that way. Subscribe. And the best thing to do is to leave us a review. Leave us a positive review. It's actually the best thing. But reviews are unbelievably important in the podcast ecosystem. So go out there. We usually publish on Saturday morning, my time on a weekly basis. But yeah, we're going to be starting up with season four here very, very soon. And so we'll start to have some new episodes coming out. So just go to gamerschangedlivespodcast.com. And so your time is Pacific time then? Yes. Yes. Okay, fantastic. So what's the future of your podcast? We want to keep telling stories. One of the great things is we kind of figured out as we go along, but we kind of figure out what the audience is interested in. And so, yeah, we're just going to, you know, for the future, we're going to be doing more LinkedIn lives. We're going to be doing, you know, maybe Facebook lives, maybe Twitter, maybe Instagram and so on out there to see, you know, see where we can spread the message out there. But for the foreseeable future, we're going to keep doing what we're doing right now. Sure. And I, you know, I think it's important to tell the stories of people in Africa and Asia. You know, these are stories that we might not be able to get in other places. Exactly. Exactly. Well, Tom, thank you so much for being my guest today. Sure. I thank our viewers today for joining us. In two weeks, my guest will be Micah Maderos. We're going to be discussing an upcoming LAN event at Hawaii Pacific University Arena. See you then.


the Lodi booth and this is the Lingxi, this is the family robot Moka prototype right here and hello so who are you? Hi my name is Zhang Meng and I come from Shenzhen to China. This is a Lodi company you make robot? Sorry? You make robot product? Yes I make many smart intelligent product. So right here we're looking at this is a mate bot. So how does it work? It's a little cat, it's for the lovers. We can use this cat as an avatar. We use cell phone to control this robot. What can you do? You see? Speaking Chinese? Yes, speaking Chinese, the camera we can control it from my cell phone. Is this a screen? To display yeah? Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello! Okay, speaking now. I can see play some music and make a little dance. Okay, but now it's time no Wi-Fi. Hello! Hello! Do you speak English? No, I'm not only Chinese. How can you do English? Can you put a Google voice on here? Yes, maybe two or three months later. Can you put Amazon, Alexa on here? Yes, we can speak. It's an Android system. Android system. Where is it? This is a screen for Android? Yes. Is this a screen? No, no, it's just a light. Just a light. So you can make a dual display Android device. Touch? No touch. You don't poke it in the eye? No, no. So it's just by gesture and you can touch the body. The body has many sensors. Where are the sensors? It's inside the body. Do real cats like this product? What? Do real cats feel challenged or it's okay? They like it? It's fine? Yes. So it's a cat. Oh! It's moving! Let's try. I can control it with my APP. I can control the head, up and down. Nice. Can you get it forward? Okay, look at the camera. This guy doesn't need to go to the toilet, right? That's an advantage. And you also have a very big drone here. This drone is a flight platform. It's for the developers. Developers? Yes, it's for developers. We made it SDK. And many guys can develop it for the competition like some universe. Really? Yeah. So how much is cost? How much is cost? That's a good question. Maybe... Secret? Yeah, not secret. Maybe we have a lot of parts to make the price very different. It can fold? Can you show? It can fold it up? Okay. Fold? So it can pack it up, right? Close it down? It has a 4K camera too. Oh, nice. So how does it fold before it was folded up, right? Fold it up. What does that mean? Close it, yeah? Like this. Wow, cool. It's very easy to carry. Is this unique? Does nobody else do it like this? Or does other companies also do the same? I think the DJI also do the same. Ah, DJI also fold a little bit. All right. So how about this guy? How soon you will make it real? How soon? It already has the function... It already has function? Yes, but this one has low power and no battery. This guy fall on the floor maybe. Yeah. All right. No power. You didn't charge it last night? Yes. All right. So it can walk? It can walk? Yes, it can walk. It can dance? It can dance. It can speak and it can listen. It can do everything the cat can do. So is your company doing this for many years? What is the company history? Not very long. Just two years. Are you the CEO? I'm the CEO. All right. How many people in the company? 20. In Shenzhen? In Shenzhen, yes. So is right now in Shenzhen a lot of robot activity, right? Yes. Yes. Consider how to do a cool robot, right? Yes. That's very a lot of the company. It's a big challenge. It's fun. It's fun. I think maybe there's a lot of production, but we also have the opportunity to make others. How much is this cat? Maybe 200 RMB. 200 RMB? No, no, no. 2000. 2000. Okay. 200. I was a little bit scared. 200 euros is okay. But 20 euros a little bit too low. 100 euros. What is the CPU inside? It's so protective. So is it a... All-winner? All-winner, yeah. All-winner A33. Yeah, A33. A33 quad-core. With Android. How do you do Android with screen like this?  Just show the eyes. Yes. If you want to see the desk, we can put it on. But APK can connect to the eyes? Other APK? No, just our APK. Yes. Also, we are projected to prepare to the WeChat. And you know WeChat? Yeah. WeChat can also connect to the robots. And how about this one? How much it will cost? Maybe 3000 RMB. 3000 only. It's not expensive. Yes. It's $500.  But can you make an arm and a hand that can carry a drink and take open the fridge and close the fridge and take the drink and bring it to the living room? That's what we're working on. Maybe one year later we can do this. Really? Really. Cool.


Welcome to TickMail weekly market outlook for week commencing 18th of May with me Patrick Manley. The markets will continue to pay close attention to rising tensions between the US and China, as the White House continues to ramp up language placing blame on China for the coronavirus crisis in the United States. Risk assets will likely suffer if the tensions escalate to the point of resuming the tit-for-tat trade war or prompting fresh disruptions in bilateral business relationships. Traders are having a hard time deciding whether the easing of coronavirus-related lockdowns will mark the beginning of the global economic recovery or open the door for a second wave of infections that will eventually lead to tighter and more prolonged restrictions. Some US states are reopening before the infection rate is declining and trends in any new infections will be closely monitored by the markets in what will ultimately be a pretty quiet week in terms of US data. The market will continue to monitor the weekly jobless claims to get a sense of just how deep the recession will be. Other US data in the week ahead includes the Philly Fed index, various housing gauges such as building permits and existing home sales. I make technical perspective, the dollar index is trading at the range resistance, the descending trend line. Also at the monthly R1, if we can't get a close above this 140 level, then I'm looking for a move back down to initially retest the 9950 monthly pivot and ultimately enroute to test the descending trend line support down to 9840. However, if we do get a close through that 150 level then look for the interim equality objective at 101.30 to be tested. Talking about the dollar, let's check in with gold. Gold broke out of its contracting range this week and we are now looking for a test of the equality objective at this 1766 level. Watching this area closely, bearish reversal patterns here and I'll be looking to set short positions initially targeting a move back down to 1670. However, if we get a close through this 1766 level then Bulls will be targeting a test of the 1850 as the next upside objective. In the Eurozone, focus is going to be on the flash PMIs for May coming out of Europe with expectations for a bounce following the eye popping falls that we saw in April. Eurozone final April inflation and May flash consumer confidence will also be released along with the German ZEW report for May. From a technical perspective, the Euro dollar is still holding this ascending trend line support and whilst we don't get a close below this 10770 area then I'm going to be looking for a move higher in the Euro to test the 109 and ultimately descending trend line resistance of 10950. You can get a close above there then we have an equality objective, the interim equality objective at 11055. Note, if we get a close below this 10760 area that's going to be a bearish development that's going to open a retest for me of the 10630 area. In the UK it's going to be a relatively busy week with respect to data. We have employment data, CPI, PPI and RPI, retail sales and flash PMIs also due. Now obviously we're expecting all of that data to be significantly weaker due to the pandemic and the impact it's having on the UK economy. Markets are to some degree looking through that data but the thing that impacted the sterling most noticeably into the back end of last week were the issues with the stalling in terms of the Brexit negotiations and they're likely to continue to weigh on the pound. As we open the week I'm looking for a test of this 120 area, 50% retracement of the advance of the crisis lows and we have the 161 extension of this structure here. So I'll be looking for a test of 120. Any bullish reversal patterns in here holding above the monthly S2 at 11980 bullish reversal patterns could set long positions to target initially a move back through 12270 and the equality objective and ultimately back up to test the 12460 monthly pivot area. However, if we do get a close below 11980 I'll be a significantly bearish development and we'll open a move back down to 11670. In Japan next week a pretty full calendar as well includes Q1 GDP, machine orders, trade data and nationwide CPI. That data slate is going to again obviously be significantly hampered by the coronavirus impact on all global economies really. So once again looking at the technical setup here for the dollar yen. Whilst we hold below this 10830 which would be the symmetry swing resistance. We also have potential here for an internal equality move. So if we trade up into this 10830 area I'll be looking to set short positions there. Looking for bearish daily reversal patterns to set short positions. Ultimately targeting a move down to test this long awaited 10450. Only a close back through 10870 would negate the downside and open a move up to retest 10950's resistance. Finally in Australia there isn't actually any top tier data of note next week. Although we do get the RBA minutes and we will also see RBA Governor Lowe participating in a panel discussion next week. The market will pay close attention to any change in tone from the RBA especially after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand was more dubbish in their tone than expected last week and flagged the possibility of negative rates in the medium term. Also noteworthy for Australians we have the China National People's Congress which was delayed due to COVID-19. It's actually due to begin on Friday and investors and traders will be looking for indications of further fiscal stimulus which could by proxy add support to the Australian dollar. From a technical perspective looking for the Australian dollar to make a test of the 6370 to 6340 area. Once again watching for any bullish reversal patterns here to set long positions. Ultimately targeting the primary equality objective versus the crisis low which has us up at this 67 level. It's also the 78.6% retracement of the other recent decline. So looking for bullish reversal patterns in around the 6350, 6330 area set long positions targeting the 67. However fail to find support here if buyers don't step in then I'm looking for a deeper decline back into the 6250 and once again we're watching for any bullish reversal patterns to try to attempt longs looking for this 67 target as the ultimate objective. Once again once we get up here certainly watching for the potential to set short positions then as this will complete the initial corrective cycle for the Australian dollar. Okay that's covered all the pairs and I hope you found this useful and concludes the weekly market outlook for week men seeing the 18th of May.


Bismillahirrahmanirrahim, Alhamdulillahirrahmanirrahim Wa-Aqbar Al-Sara wa-Tamwa Tasleem A'la Sayyidina wa-Mawlana Muhammadin Wa-A'la Alihi wa-Sahbihi wa-Salamajma'in Subhanaka la ilmanana illa ma'a ilam tana Inna kanta al-Aleem al-Haqeem Wa la hawla wa la quwata illa bilahi al-Aliir Azeem Alhamdulillah, on the bounty of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala He has brought us together on this evening to talk about what we hope to be a discourse of iman. And this is the way that the companions were and they would do it unofficially without a program or without an announcement and without coming together in the way that we are but we can follow their sunnah by doing it in this specific way. They would speak to each other and they would say, Ta'al nu'min bilahi sa'a Right? They would speak to their companions and they would say that come with me so we can that literally believe in Allah for a period of time they believe in Allah throughout all of their different states but what it really means is let's sit down and talk and discuss matters that are going to strengthen our iman that are going to strengthen our faith that are going to help us face whatever it is that we need to face as human beings and from the blessing of Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala everything in our religion from A to Z from beginning to end is exactly what it is that we need nothing could be more relevant than the teachings of Allah and the teachings of our Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa alayhi wa sallam everything about it is relevant to every single aspect of our life and so when we talk about Islam being relevant we need to be very careful when that we talk about certain people being irrelevant or certain that ways they present themselves being irrelevant I understand what people are saying they might mean that there's a disconnect between people that are speaking in the name of the religion and the hearts that they are addressing and the minds that they are speaking to but we need to be very careful there because this question that then rises in people's minds and that questioning the relevancy of these truths that have been revealed to our Prophet Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that just understanding the fact that he was the only universal Prophet and this goes along with understanding the Shahada of la ilaha illallah Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that he was a universal Prophet and he was the only universal Prophet and that his teachings are for all times and for all people and all different times and in all circumstances what remains then is how you and I understand those teachings and then put them into practice so nothing could be more relevant to every single aspect of our life than the teachings of our blessed Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and if you want to look at it from the frame of health and all of the dimensions of health beginning first and foremost the foundation of health at the level of the spiritual religious dimension of the human being all health ultimately was rooted in this dimension no matter how much how healthy someone is if they don't have religious and spiritual health they can never truly be healthy and then if we move down and think about after that our intellectual or even you could say rational health everything in our Dean trains you how to think trains you how to that see through the frames that are the true frames and how it is that you view the world every aspect of our Dean is like that and then when you talk about psychological or emotional health the same thing applies when you talk about the fourth dimension of health which is your physical health how many examples do we have in the blessed Sunnah of our Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam about health and our ummah should be the healthiest ummah so we don't want to relegate health merely to the physical there's three other dimensions that are beyond the physical that we just mentioned and physical health is of course a part of it but then we don't want to limit ourselves either to those four dimensions of health that primarily relate to the individual there's a fifth dimension of health that's social health and sometimes referred to as that social intelligence or even emotional intelligence when you're interacting with other people this is very important we practice this is a clear dimension of health that needs to be there for a person and a community or a family or an even greater level of society to be healthy and then you have environmental health there's all these various dimensions and one of the things that is truly important is that you and I are healthy in all of those dimensions and when someone's healthy the health speaks for itself you notice when someone's not healthy by certain signs they look weak or that there is some type of physical ailment that they have that they're not acting or can't do what is that they normally do we have signs that indicate to us a lack of health but good health speaks for itself and all of the blessed teachings that we have if we can open up our heart to them and find a way to increase in them we'll grant us and give us health at every single level of the individual and by extension all of those that are around us so when we look at this topic of discussing how to maintain faith and hope through difficult times there is no doubt that human beings experience difficulty this is part and parcel of being a human being from the very moment that we enter into the world is that we are crying as babies but we don't realize it and then the people tend to be happy and when we exit this world is that if we've been in a good state and we see our place in paradise we will be happy and that we leave people crying this is the nature of the world and we recognize from the very beginning as we enter into this world and the Adhan is called in the right ear and the Ikhama is called in the left ear the Salat-e-janazah doesn't have an Adhan we've been preparing for the moment that we're going to meet our Lord from the moment that we entered into this dunya the Adhan and the Ikhama had already been called for our janazah even if we lived to 120 years old from the time that we were born and one of the things that we've learned especially when you see death up close especially when you see tribulation up close there is a certain way that you and I need to live in order to prepare for what lies ahead one of the very beautiful lines and the devotion as Dr. Omar translates it of Imam-e-nawi Imam-e-nawi compiled a very blessed litany and this is available I recommend that you purchase the book it's translated with commentary and notes by Dr. Omar Quruq Abdullah and one of the lines and there is Ad-dakhabtullaha likud-lishidda that is very powerful and the idea here of is storing something up we tend to have a reserve fund whatever type of account it is is that when there's a need we have an emergency fund that we can then take care of certain things and we tend to prepare in all different types of ways for various circumstances when you're going on a travel you have a contingency plan or at least you should you think about you put air in your tires and that you change the oil in your car and all of these other types of things and that you prepare for unexpected circumstances and this is the way that we live here in this world and it shouldn't be any different when it comes to the meeting with our Lord subhanahu wa ta'ala and facing tribulation while we're still here but what a meaning iddihar is to store something up and the greatest thing of all that we can store up is our relationship with Allah and developing a relationship with Allah now as we are living preparing for the future iddakhabtullaha likud-lishidda that I that in that through my relationship with my Lord and through my devoting myself entirely to Him preparing myself for every hardship that I might go through in my life so you're preempting it and as iddihar knows if you know that you're about to go through a painful experience when you brace yourself it helps you that get through that painful experience there's things that you can do ahead of time if you know that some type of painful experience you're about to have some type of painful experience but then this is the same meaning that our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam that he taught us and that he taught us too that ta'arraf ilallahu firraqa ya'rifka fishidda come to know Allah in times of ease and he will know you in times of difficulty what does it mean for Allah ya'rifka fishidda for Allah to come to know you in times of difficulty it means that He will be there for you He will facilitate your affairs for you and He will lighten the burden of that tribulation upon you and this is the amazing thing how two different people could go through the exact same thing but they fare very differently and they respond very differently why was one person able to do that and why was someone else not able to do that and the time in which we live and I want to speak about this for just a moment and shortly but the time in which we live is not helping us prepare for tribulations whereas there are still pockets in the world today and traditionally this was much more the case just by virtue of growing up in a certain household this is what you learned and you and I know I was blessed to marry into a that beautiful family from Afghanistan and to see how amazing these people were in relation to that what they learned by virtue of the environment that they grew up in and how just by growing up in that environment without a lot of formal learning the way that they respond to tribulations people in our time just seemed like it's impossible for them to respond like that how patient they were with very difficult circumstances my wife's grandmother on both sides have passed away but one of them that we used to call her Adegh that she lived well into her 90s and she had married a man that was he was an Afghan general and he passed away at an early age and she raised I believe 10 or 11 kids on her own as a widow in Afghanistan and she wasn't even educated and she had to go out and learn skills and she raised 11 children and all of her kids said they never heard her complain once a raising 11 children in a traditional society where it was very difficult to do so and she never asked anyone for anything that is unbelievable and on top of all of that one of her family members passed away and she took their children in on top of all of her other own children and it's hard now we were talking about this with someone recently it's hard now for young men and young women to raise two children and I'm not coming down hard on the men or the women and that there's reasons why this is the case we don't live in a society that is preparing us for the reality of life and if someone their only exposure is going to school going to college and I'm not knocking people for going to school or going to college don't get me wrong but I'm saying there's consequences for the decisions that we make if we don't consciously create the environments that we need that are going to lead to people having the traits that they need to have and so if people just go through school and they just go through college and they might work a little bit and then all of a sudden that they find themselves in a relationship which is limiting and it's of itself and then all of a sudden that they have a child where now you have a needy individual who needs your attention much of the day is interrupting your sleep hours you're not able to do what it is that you normally do that's not that's hard for people in our time and there is a lot of our sisters especially that go through postpartum depression and we don't even know because we don't even know that even happens to people when they give birth and we look at the generation before us and it's like Subhanallah they were very different my mother-in-law to this day I could tell her within two hours notice that I want 10 people to come over for dinner and she will be excited and feel honored and prepare a meal well Jude bin Mojude any generosity is to serve whatever is that you have and cook an amazing meal and that be happy about it do all the cleaning up with very very little help go to sleep late and then wake up for tahajj why everyone is still sleeping how were they able to do that how is that even possible and many of you have parents aunts uncles grandparents that are like that why is where they able to do that they were living these meanings of ad-dakhar fallah ad-dikudi shidda this is part and parcel of how they grew up they grew up in certain environments and often times many of them didn't have the luxuries of what we have in the modern world and that's definitely part of the story and it's important for us to understand our time and how that it is in a very real way undermining the building of the meanings in our heart that's very important to understand we get so used to having things now and being able to through applied technology to control our surroundings that we quite literally are teaching ourselves to have a lack of patience and everything that is that we do so that if we are hot for 10 seconds we turn on the climate control in the car and then okay I want it at 68 instead of 65 okay this now I'm a little bit cold so I'm gonna turn it to 70 69 and till you get it right on the mark and it's the air is coming out too fast so I'm gonna put it down a notch and then okay still it's on the lowest notch but it's still because I'm on the highway coming too fast so I'm gonna have it come from up in the near the feet and so forth and so on the point is that we have an ability to control our environments in a way in unprecedented ways but there's consequences to that and this is why we have to be cognizant of it and we have to live the meanings to a certain degree of wakhshoshinu it is good to teach yourself to have a little bit of khashuna where we're not just so soft at the edges that any prick that all of a sudden we can't respond to that particular situation where we train ourselves to get used to a little bit of hardship and that is not actually the you know this is not the way most parents are thinking in terms of how they raise their children one of the worst things we all and we all do this unfortunately but one of the worst things that we all do to our kids is that we spoil them rotten all of us spoil our children and that's one of the worst things you can possibly do is to spoil your children to an extent where you don't keep them to appreciate the blessings but plastic toys again this is part and parcel of our time is it okay if it doesn't work it's actually cheaper just to throw it out and get something else and there was one time that there was this this picture where there were these two old people and that it said at the quote in our times that when something broke we fixed it when something broke we fixed it but if people are getting used to that their whole lives that styrofoam cups paper cups paper plates plastic toys just throwing all this stuff away in this culture of stuff as I think her name is Annie Leonard what she calls it don't think that that doesn't have repercussions in your relationships where all of a sudden that you think that you could just throw away a relationship because you're so used to throwing everything else away and that you're not you're so used to not inconveniencing yourself that you think that this is just what I'll do with the relationship as well and you can see how the difference there and that how people that in previous generations and even though the Sunna of our prophesies is to see the spouse before they the spouses to see each other before they get married how many people do we know that didn't see their spouses and that I saw my spouse before even though the Afghan tradition you put the blanket over in the mirror right and not that that's always the case in every that marriage but there's many marriages that were that quote-unquote and this is a very that bad word if you talk about an arranged marriage it's like oh you are part of an arranged marriage but how successful were many of those marriages that we see and people learn and of course there's exceptions to this rule and I'm not talking about the bad cases but in general that everything came and people learned how to make things work and there was definitely a stigma but for good reason that divorce had a stigma but for good reason when you even talk about these meanings now you have to talk about them in a whole different frame in our context which is that unfortunate but the point here really is there was something about these societies that made people resilient and we don't want to simplify it to one particular thing there's a combination of different factors but really the important part of this it's for you and I to look at our own circumstances and to see what are practical things that you and I can do given how it is that we're living to actively fulfill what Imam al-Nawwi is saying what our Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam is saying how do we come to know Allah in times of raha in times of ease in times of that prosperity and one of the helpful things there really is is to begin by understanding the frame the religious frame of tribulation this is one of the most beautiful things that we have to offer the modern world and especially people that are plagued by the quote-unquote problem of evil in the world when you understand tribulation from the way that we understand it as Muslims it gives you a very unique perspective and it gives you a frame that prepares you at every level of your being for going through hardship which is something that you and I know absolutely we will face at one point of our life and sometimes it happens very early sometimes it happens throughout sometimes it happens in that the latter part of our life and sometimes in between and sometimes it's difficult and then it gets easy and there's a lot of different ways people experience difficulty but I want to share with you first and foremost a blessed hadith of our Prophet ﷺ and this is narrated by Abdullah Ibn Mughal and he says is that a man came to the Prophet ﷺ and said to Rasulullah so if you look at these are beautiful windows hadith is so amazing to study a man just comes into the presence of the Prophet ﷺ and he's so attached to the Rasul is that he needs to share his feeling and he says to him in near Hebbuk which is emphasizing how much he loved the Prophet ﷺ and then the Prophet wanted to teach this particular individual a lesson and there's other instances where that people express their love for the Prophet ﷺ where different things happened but in this particular incident the Prophet ﷺ said to him and this is really like him saying that think very carefully about what you're saying think about what you're saying and then the man said and he emphasized it further now with an oath by Allah so there's different ways of emphasizing in the Arabic language and that one of them is by saying Inni using Inna which is the heart of Tokid another way is to say but then there's what's called Tokid Lakhli where you just repeat what it is that you're saying and so someone says it I'm telling you I'm telling you I'm telling you you're emphasizing what you're saying so he says it three times and then our Prophet ﷺ respond to him by saying If indeed that you are true in what you're saying if you're sincere then prepare for poverty and prepare to be patient in poverty so this word tijfafen in the Arabic language is that a type of that covering or even that armor that they would put on war horses and just as that comes between the enemy arrow or blade in the horse this is what it does for you in other words is that prepare it's a way of saying to have patience in other words is that if you were saying you truly love me then prepare for yourself prepare yourself to go through states of poverty and to be patient in it and to have is that poverty that reaches someone quicker than a flash flood in a very dry area reaching its point where it's going to then rest and what is our Prophet ﷺ saying here is that there is something about true people of faith they will go through tribulations and this is something we know but we have to reinforce this meaning time and time again in our minds and to prepare ourselves because we don't know whatever moment that we are going to be afflicted and we know that no one was tried like the prophets and messengers no one and so if we want to emulate them and to be like them and then we are declaring that as is the case of this particular Sahabi we have no other we have no other nothing else we can do except to prepare فاعدة it's the consistent language فاعدة للفكري تجفافة prepare to experience poverty patiently تعرف إله come to know Allah يعرفك في شده إدخ it's all the same meaning in other words is that we have to actively preempt those situations and that our Prophet ﷺ is that I have that experienced that the going face to face with enemies in a way that no one else has I have been harmed in ways that no one else has and then he mentioned something specific about going 30 days ﷺ and not having enough food to eat that anyone that has a liver would eat مينين خلاص he and Bilal and he mentioned Bilal specifically here would go through intense pains of hunger we all know that story where the Sahaba were that tying a rock to quell the hunger pains and then the Prophet lift up his shirt and there was two this is what he went through ﷺ and there's a wisdom in why he went through all of that so that he could be the exemplar force in all of our different states but first and foremost so that we can have the correct frame if we get the frame wrong we're never going to be able to put into practice what we need to be able to put into practice and this gets back to right what we have in the Fatiha رَيْدَ مُرْدُوا بَيْدِيمٌ وَلْلِينَ and there are people that go to astray through a lack of knowledge and then there are people astray through having knowledge but not being able to put it into practice these are the two main archetypes and so you have to get the frame right and this is broadly understood and all the different khitabs in the Quran those who believe and do righteous deeds those who believe and do righteous deeds Imam gives us the most important frame of all for us to understand existence and understand that Allah brought everything into creation and nothing happens except through his power Subhanahu wa ta'ala and that is enlightening and prepares us then to respond in a way that is pleasing to him Subhanahu wa ta'ala so that if we look at for instance in Surah al-Baqarah where Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala that uses the word bala'a which is one of the words for tribulation in verbal form and that two verses before this is that he actually Subhanahu wa ta'ala gives us the remedy before it is that he talks about what is going to happen and so he says Subhanahu wa ta'ala Oh you who believe that seek the help of patience in prayer use patience and prayer now prayer makes sense but you might first think how can I seek the help of patience when patience is not something that I seems like it's easy for me to have cultivate the meanings of patience within yourself learn about it and that live a life that teaches you how to have patience and this is of the utmost importance there's so many things that we could do to teach ourselves and to teach the upcoming generation how to have patience and how to endure but we don't make it a priority and you and I all know I'm a father of three teenagers we know what our daily schedules are like and we know what we're doing on a daily basis just keep it real if we don't keep it real we're never going to get to a solution that ultimately we are finding that they're in school all day long and then they come home when there's very little time and either they're relaxing a little bit or they're doing after school sports or that they have a tutor or something else and then on the weekends we're super busy we're going from here to there much of our lives are so filled with school after school activities sports things of this nature and maybe a little bit of family which is a good thing we don't make time for the things that they really need and this is a serious problem and it's not an option for us just to let things happen as it they are happening we really need to think about ways how can I cultivate virtues within our own selves for instance foremost but also in our own children how can we cultivate virtue in them right how can we if you look at in traditional societies and if you some of the people in this room could you imagine being at the dinner table and starting to eat before your parents right could you imagine finishing getting up from the dinner table and going to watch TV or play a video game where everybody's still sitting around the dinner table this is a small thing but why are our kids doing that now when we came from a family that no one would ever do that it's very different and one of the questions there is well how many family dinners have we had in the first place and are we making that a priority to use the family dinner as a means of cultivating adep and manners that in the upcoming generation this is just an example but there are a number of other examples like this and teaching our own children when they have friends over to give them the best food to not be the first person just kind of goes in and eats when you need someone to serve someone else first how do we do this we need to find ways to cultivate these virtues that were naturally learned in a traditional society I'm not worried as much about people that grew up in those societies but how do we inculcate this in our children we have to be creative and the meshed plays a role the community plays a role there's different programs we can put on but first and foremost as parents we can't wait for all that to happen we cannot wait for that all that to happen we have to find ways in of ourselves despite our busy work schedules despite all of our responsibilities to do this and in their free time spend time that on these things which are really important but I hope as well we have that people think about this ahead of time where we have camps and we have programs that are tailored specifically to teach the upcoming generation something of what's called potua because potua sometimes transit as spiritual chivalry is one of these that these great approaches because it really is an approach there are certain traits that are indicative of someone having potua but really it's a way of being and the true people of potua are the prophets and imama sulami which his book is translated in his kitabut potua he presents potua isintra as being the way of the prophets and he has a long list of amazing character traits and etiquettes that we'll read to even take a few of those and inculcate them within someone that it would go a long way let alone all of them this is how we want our people to be that learning the meanings of self-sacrifice learning the meanings of preferring people over yourself learning the meanings of generosity learning the meanings of what to do and what not to do and even teaching our children how to sit still in traditional societies I remember not too long gone terim especially in rabiel owa there's gatherings that last for like two hours and you will see five or six year old children that might readjust two or three times the entire gathering and they're not sitting on soft carpet with padding underneath some of these gatherings are sitting out on stones and the only thing that's covering the stone is like a tarp it's not comfortable and we as adults are like moving around and changing our leg position and your leg gets tired this way so you switch your leg around that way that subhanallah five year old children and for juma it's easy that they know at what age to bring children to juma and the children that they tend to bring to juma don't make noise why is it what is it about our lifestyle that's causing I'm not able to give all of those answers I'm just hope to say some thought provoking things that can then stimulate you to think about this and to think about small things that we can do the society in which we it's so pervasive you can't fully hit it head on and this is a general principle is that you have to do what's called to walk of zamanic and if you try to hit your that time head on then it's going to topple you over it's like hitting a wave head on but if you that ride the surf or and box or terminology roll with the punch it's not going to be as bad if someone hit you head on that's going to really hurt and if it's in the chin you might get knocked out but if you roll with the punch and you deflect it slightly and still hit you but it's not head on it's not going to have as much impact so we have to really think about these things and that spend time talking to our spouse talking to other community members learning best practice what are ways that we can actually help with this but if we move towards this verse now and then Allah ta'ala then says because some of the most difficult things that we go through is loss of life ولا تقول لمن يقتلوا في سبيل الله and what do not say that those died and the path of Allah are dead بالأحياءون rather they are alive ولكن لا تشعرون but you do not perceive but then Allah Ta'ala Qatara says ولا نبلو النكم بشيء من الخوفين He's going to mention several things سبحانه وتعالى that ولا نبلو النكم we will surely test you but from His mercy سبحانه وتعالى with something of meaning that it could have been a lot worse and it could have been a lot more severe and the vast majority of people live an average lifespan and the vast majority of them are healthy most of their lives most people that live and that's from His mercy سبحانه وتعالى so I will we are going to indeed try you with something of fear hunger that loss of wealth loss of life and loss of that ثمارات literally fruits and there's different interpretations of that but part of one meaning is there's the agricultural aspect وَبَشْيَدُ السَّابِرِينَ but give glad tidings to the patient so we already told us in the beginning to seek the help of Allah to add it through patients and one of the meanings of that is to cultivate patients within yourself in prayer but then after saying this He says give glad tidings to the sábireen and then look what He says after this those when they are afflicted with a tribulation say indeed we belong to Allah indeed unto Him that we will return and this is that very profound in other words if we have cultivated within ourselves in a very deep in real way and one of the most best ways to do this is the five daily prayers and in two or three minutes we're going to stand up and play salvation every single time that we stand up to pray before our Lord it is an opportunity for us to that cultivate these meanings within ourselves and when we truly understand that we don't belong to our own selves inna linda it's to the degree that we have realized that meaning within ourselves and it is to the degree that we realize that we're going to return to Him is that when we are afflicted and stung by some type of difficult tribulation that we will position ourselves then to respond to it in a way that was pleasing to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and then out of His mercy subhanahu wa ta'ala if you at least take those steps you start cultivating patience within yourself that you start praying with presence of heart and realize how important it is and at the same time that you are developing the meanings of servitude in a very deep way in your heart then that you are going to be from the people that Allah says in the next verse those people will have salawat from Allah and mercy in other words is that you do your part and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala will make it even easier and He will facilitate further and He will allow those meanings of servitude to get deeper and He will allow those meanings of that recognizing that we belong to Allah and He will uproot the meanings of entitlement from your heart and that thinking only about yourself so that we then become pure servants of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and for some this verse is a proof that the meaning of salawat of Allah upon us is not mercy because the wow you feed in mughayrah and that generally speaking that they will say is that when you talk about that the salah of Allah upon the servants it's rahmah you'll hear this explanation which is valid because the scholars have said so but here that because that Allah says that that salawat in the plural and rahmah there's mercy but then the salawat according to the conventions of the Arabic language must be something different than mercy and some other type of blessing that comes to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and it's when these realities descend is that we have the transformation in a very very very very real way and these are the people that are the muhtadum so this in a very real way is one of the great things that you and I can prepare for hardship prepare for difficulties in our life first and foremost is that we change our conception and we understand that there is deep wisdom in tribulation and I hope everybody listens to that the 17 benefits of tribulation it was based upon a book of Imam is the deen of ibn ab-as-salam and that book is just as pertinent now as it was previously as it was during hind time and all the success of the subsequent times until this day and age and that once we open up the door to understand the multiple wisdoms of tribulation and that there are other writings that we have as well about the one of them called the divine wisdom of suffering but we can learn about this alternative perspective which for us is the sound foundational perspective on how to view this but then it's not enough just to get the frame right then on a daily basis we have to consciously try to build ourselves to prepare our iman in islam and islam from being undermined and we have to consciously try to that put ourselves and our children and those that we are responsible for in environments where all of this is cultivated they were out of time there was much more that should have been said about this that may Allah SWT give us tofiq to do this and bless us to be people of true belief or no matter what it is that we go through it makes our faith even firmer and it never causes us to lose any hope and inshaAllah ta'ala that we're able to remain steadfast and firm upon these meetings until the day that we meet our Lord SWT may Allah SWT give us tofiq and all of our different affairs and to bless this mission and to bless this community and to bless all of us and all of our families and love one and give tofiq to all of us inshaAllah and grant relief to the ummah of our Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alayhi wa sallam and to lift the calamities and tribulations in the world Ya'r hamur a'ameen wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallam alhamdulillahi wa sallallahu alayhi wa sallam JazakAllah khair that was a wonderful talk inshaAllah Salat al-Ishah is downstairs we're praying Salat for the next month at least until the next month downstairs in the open area due to the pandemic restrictions we're trying to keep it open for those of you that would like a tour of the new Musallah after Salat al-Ishah if we can come back upstairs we'd be glad to facilitate that we did that last time when Imam Zaid was here I see a few


The officer had hold of the vehicle. At that point, the vehicle jerked him down. He was driving about 8 to 10 feet. I also let go. The male subject fled south on years 23, turned on to round 80. I traveled a short period on round 80 and went up to Left Fork, Bull Creek. I already jumped out of the vehicle, jumped a fence and ran on up in the hill.


What's going on everyone Sam here with late sports guards. We're ripping 2022 panini certified football hobby four box break number 22 random team style Here's a look again at your random results. As always you can find these on the website under the results tab as well as the link That's in chat. Good luck here everyone Again guys, we're looking to sell out our flawless mixers It's one box of 2021 panini flawless hobby and one box of 22 flawless collegiates Multi-year flawless mixer, which is cool big-time hit potential on that one second. Let's do some certified man Also Dakota Dakota each first break ever here at LSE got the chiefs. Good luck here Dakota See a big Mahomes big numbered Mahomes for you Pure strong junior on the RPA 63 out of 149 that's going to the Patriots Congrats New England God Chris Olava Alec Pierce to $3.99 for the Colts Nice one Colts and just the base pack then This is a blowout now 349 Raiders Devontae Adams That's my home school. They do say They're really not that good. That's like the issue Justin Herbert for the Chargers nice one there 45 out of 50 Congrats LA Chris J. Claire Warren Herbert to nice Brian to 149 for the Colts and Sauce Gardner the 375. It's going to the Jets Marcus Allen Going to the Raiders to a 15 Ken certified That is sick Congrats on that Raiders. That's combo spot for Mike M Congrats Mike Joey B something in here We've got Derek Carr that's sick 8 of 10 Player Warren going to the Raiders again Raiders having a break man Congrats on that Two color patch Honestly, MP Purple Mark Andrews on the color match seven of 10.  Thank you guys 19 to go box number two now 19 to go Jeremy Ruckert that's blue to 75 AJ Brown and Jalen Tolbert to 325 one sec guys Caleb just said something There's Josh Allen Gold team Face got Trey McBride. That's going to the Cardinals. That is 1 4 or 141 out of 3 99 freshman fabric As a spiller Trent McDuffie to 399 for the Chiefs. There you go Dakota. Yeah, that'd be cool a certified stunner. I Love the the case hits in this There's Drake London Nice 12 of 20 go into the Falcons Congrats Atlanta Nice one there ATL Falcons is Patrick. I Congrats Patrick Face one in this one, too. Wow. We've got a breeze hall That is gonna be seven of ten Dude, that's awesome. That's like part of the jets logo in there. You can see the new from New York Congrats jets That's awesome. That's Patrick. I Patrick again Congrats, buddy That breeze guard's really sick Taryn McLauren to 275 March ace more base there breeze hall Going to the jets again to 349 Kirk Cousins captain Kirk to 349 Base dark horses Davis Mills the 249 Dishon Devonta Smith Yeah, I think it's howl. It looks like a towel piece Which is really awesome Davis Mills dark horses and base Sorry guys one second again Pink David Montgomery to 199 bears Traylon Birx to 399 and guys 19 to go on Wallace breaking relatively soon So I've got a break in between but definitely gonna be a lot of fun I would recommend checking it out David Bell That is gold 22 at 25 two-color patch for the Browns that is Browns Corey a Congrats Corey Marquez Calloway to 75 going to the Saints nice one there Saints JJ walk Kirk Cousins to 275 that Kenneth Walker to 75 on the blue See Hawks Got nice Garrett Wilson going to the Jets three colored RPA 157 at a 199 on the freshman fabric Congrats Jets Gold team Jonathan Taylor and Roger McCreary to 275 for the Titans John Mechie for the Texans nice one there to 249 Yeah, Jets are doing well to Jets and Raiders are killing it so opposite ends of two teams Josh Pascal orange to 149 Lions Eli Mitchell And base Mike Parsons seal of approval TJ Watten base I'll do it for that box Down to 17 now on flawless. Thank you guys again. Willis taking a couple spots. Appreciate you, buddy Down to 17 to go on flawless drop guys that link again Three tennis spot on that one mild Sanders to 149 Again, everybody who goes hit list in that break will receive a hobby pack of contenders will fall Crystal Oda come the Steelers to 275 secure strong junior Nice 20 out of 35 two colored patch really strong boxes certified here Face Derek Mason for the Titans. That's awesome for 35 mirror signatures Raven's legend right there Jameson Williams to 399 Base who Patrick Mahomes to 75 there you go Dakota nice one there. That's awesome base Redemption Malik Willis to 325 for the Titans on the rookie. All right, see what we got on a redemption here Good luck everybody freshman fabric mirror signatures. They meant Pierce nice one there for Houston Texans picking that one up Congrats on that Texans David Bell for the Browns to 199 Skymore base Cam Akers to 349 for the Rams base there Carson strong rookie. That's to 275 going to the Eagles And that combo spot and last pack of the break. Good luck everybody and base that'll do it for the break Let's do a quick recap here everybody. Good luck Not good luck, but thank you again David Bell for the Browns Peer strong junior to 35 Patriots John matchy Texans David Bell to 25 That's going to the Browns on the gold Bresaul Jets Bresaul Jets to 10 such an awesome patch there Derek Carter 10 Justin Herbert for the Chargers. That's Derek Mason Titans Garrett Wilson Jets Marcus Callaway Saints Drake London for the Falcons Trey McBride Cardinals Marcus Allen going to the Raiders here strong junior for the Patriots and Damian Pierce for the Texans That'll do it for the break guys. Thanks again for the fill next up absolute