Live from Orlando, Florida, it's theCUBE. Covering Microsoft Ignite. Brought to you by Cohesity and theCUBE's ecosystem partners. Welcome back everyone to theCUBE's live coverage of Microsoft Ignite here in Orlando, Florida. I'm your host Rebecca Knight, along with my co-host Stu Miniman. We're joined by Tal Klein. He is the Chief Marketing Officer at Lakeside Software. Thanks so much for coming on the show. It's turning to the show. It's going to be back, yeah. So tell, you're based in the Motor City. Tell our viewers a little bit about Lakeside Software. Sure, Lakeside Software is what people call a workspace analytics vendor, which is like gardener terminology. And as you know, whenever you go to the gardener terminology it doesn't actually mean anything. But what we do is we help IT groups hone in on things that affect user experience, whether it's on devices or applications or even in workflows. So if we do a Venn diagram of what your work is, it's basically people, process, and technology. So we think of ourselves as the thing that enables the center of that Venn diagram, which is really understanding how those things interact with each other and what impacts productivity in any one of those circles. Yeah, it's interesting. I've talked to some analysts that focus on, well, it's not just your application, but how we interact with that and the users and it's tough. I railed for years. It was like virtualization was awesome from an infrastructure standpoint, but one of the horrible things that they did is they said, let's take my 15 year old application that we should have replaced and we'll shove it in a VM and then leave it there forever and the users are sitting there like, oh my God, can you please give me something modern to work on? So is it that kind of user piece or what, you know? So part of it is like understanding, it's part of it. Part of it is understanding, you know, what is it that you need to do in order to get your job done? So like, you know, I need to have a laptop or I need to have a mobile device or whatever. And once you get beyond that point, it's like, you know, what are the components of your job? Like the check marks of like, what do I need to get done through my day? And what things impact your ability to check those boxes? Like, so if it takes me too long to reply to an email, if it takes me too long to go to a website or view a video, you know, those things are really meaningful over the daily tasks of a user. So like, if everything starts to be impacted by five seconds, 10 seconds or whatever, user experience is impacted and then things fall apart. All right, so one of the things if you talk about, right, I'm running some application that's really old. One of the things we're trying to get to is, you know, how do we stay up on newer things? You know, when I had something in my data center, well, what's the cycle I refresh hardware? How often do I update software?  Right, it just updates. So we get to more as a service, I think what we're looking at today, right? And I think a lot of, you know, there's the old school of thinking, which is part of IT's job is to be the jail warden, which is like, you know, how do I prevent bad things from happening, but also how to prevent users from doing bad things, right?  Whereas I think now we're moving towards the age of like the crossing guard, which is like, if somebody wants a J-Walk, they're going to J-Walk, right? Your job as IT is to provide the best possible path towards, you know, getting from point A to point B. You know, and that's like what really, what moving to software as a service or Windows Evergreen, all those kind of terminologies that we're here is about saying like IT, you know, is moving away from that role, towards a role where, you know, their job is mostly to support the user, help them get where they're going safely, faster, more efficiently, that kind of thing. Okay, you mentioned a term that I want you to explain, Windows Evergreen, so explain what that is, how that ties into the whole story. So this is your first time at Ignite, so welcome to Ignite, first of all. Thank you. Three years ago, at Ignite 2015, Microsoft said Windows 10 was going to be the last version of Windows Ever. And at the time, people didn't really understand what that meant. They were like, are you guys getting out of the operating system business? Like, whatever. But the strategy that they've been following is to say like, look, you know, we've created this operating system. It's a framework. We're going to update it. We're going to secure it.  And so you mentioned like, there is no Azure version two or whatever. Don't start to, don't think of Windows as a software package. Think of it as an environment that Microsoft is managing for you.  You know, like it's, I don't think about version.  Right? It's just, there's a really weird notion in IT where I think, you know, dinosaurs like me and probably used to, like we go back to like, you know, we used to think that we could do a better job than Microsoft in securing, you know, desktops or whatever. But at this point, I think, because of the amount of effort they spend on security, the amount of data that they're looking at, that I think we could trust Microsoft and we could trust ourselves. But it really is such a huge paradigm shift. What effect is it having in the industry?  I think that, I think people are having a hard time. It's an existential crisis. The closest I can compare it to is parenthood, I guess, which is like, you know, when your kids are young, you're in control of like a hundred percent of everything that they do, like where they eat, you know, where they play, what they do.  And you hope. You hope. If you're lucky. If you're lucky. And I think that's a big paradigm shift and you're seeing a lot of people try to fight back against it and, you know, Microsoft is accommodating that with different types of, different flavors of Windows licenses and different types of builds. But I think it's the easiest way to think about it. Whenever I talk to an IT person, they're like, well, I'm in charge of procurement. Well, okay, then you're making the decision to make certain purchasing decisions within the framework of whatever. But you're not going to stop your business from running Windows. Like it used to be that you, like people would be in charge of like saying, oh, we're going to use, you know, Windows or not. It's, that's no longer the case. And things like Office 365, like, you know, you can think that maybe there's an option, like let's say with Google Apps or whatever, and you could try to be an influencer in that regard, but the business is going to do what the business is going to do. So I, it's a big shift from control into kind of support and maybe some amount of, you know, insights and intelligence. So Tal, it is our first time here at the show. I'm a little surprised. I haven't seen more Citrix, you know, been a long story partnership with Microsoft and Citrix in a lot of ways. What are you seeing these days? How does that play into the environment? They're here. They're here.  So I think that's what you're seeing. You're seeing the growth of the ecosystem or focus on cloud.  So that's what you're seeing. It took us till 5.30 until we got Kubernetes mentioned on the program and almost 6.30 before we got it. I need a glass of wine to drink. Got serverless, obviously. Not necessarily at this show, we've seen Microsoft participate. I was at serverless comp. We had theCUBE there the last few years. Microsoft's there. It's different. You're right, absolutely. The ecosystem's been changing and growing. The breadth and depth has really impressed us here at the show. I agree. And that's what I'm seeing too. You know, I've been walking around prior to here. I was trying to be more educated about, you know, the sort of conversations we might have. And it's true.  I saw like Juniper as a booth here. I'm like, what are you guys doing here? You know, it's an interesting discussion. And I think that's, I think speaks to Microsoft's maturity and their ability to kind of grow as a company and accept change rather than try to fight against it. Which I think for a long time, Microsoft was trying to fight against the change. And I think that's obviously what we're seeing is an adoption of it and acceptance of it and even some desire to lead it. Well, talking about that desire to lead in the cultural transformation and in this growth mindset that Microsoft is such a big proponent of, I'm curious, because you're an industry veteran and because you've rushed up against Microsoft for a lot of your career, what are your perceptions of it as a place to work, as an organization that is selling products and signing products, selling products? Well, they bought my last company, so I'm very impressed. Okay. So I think that one of the unique things about Microsoft's Phoenix Moment, if you will, is the fact that they're truly rising out of the ashes of old IT. And I think what you're seeing is the manifestation of new ideas, a new blood in general. Will all of them be home runs? We don't know, right? But at least you're seeing a lot of experimentation where we didn't used to. It used to be that everything had to be within a very, very specific Microsoft box. And I think what you're seeing here is a much more open-minded perspective. I don't know if it's Satya's influence, I'm sure part of it, but it's just cultural. You could tell that the DNA of this company has shifted. You don't feel like you're in an old school Microsoft conference, you know what I mean? It feels dynamic. And finally, I know that you are an author of a book, The Punch Escrow, which was debuted on the Cube, we didn't interview talking about it, yes. So it has now been optioned for a movie since that interview. So tell us what's the latest? Who's going to star? What would we? I'm not legally allowed to talk about any of that stuff, but it's very exciting. All the news is very exciting. And it's tough because you as an author, it's almost like being a mouthpiece of an organization. You could never tell people how the sausage is actually made, but it's very, very cool. And I've really enjoyed it. And part of it is actually getting to share it with a lot of my IT guys that have had years and years of decades of boring conversations, and I'm having a little bit of a different thing to talk about, which is fun. And are you working on another one? Yeah, they bought three books, so I've got to write two more. Okay, all right. Well, get back to your laptop. Well, Tal, it was so much fun having you on the show. I love being back. Thanks for having me. And again, welcome to Ignite. So excited to have you guys here and hopefully we'll do this again next year. I hope so too. I'm Rebecca Knight for Stu Miniman. This has been day one of Microsoft Ignite and theCUBE's live coverage. We will come back tomorrow with a whole lot more, so stay tuned.


Hello guys, excuse the racket in the background. I'm back in Canesham Town, just outside Bristol on the River Choo, fishing a public stretch, car parked right behind me. Still the depth is the winter, so I'm fishing an ultralight set up. I've got a three pound line on reel, one and a half pound line on the hook length, and that's tied to a Camerson B540 ultralight Y hook to breadflake with a free running rotten bottom. That's on the two pound line as well, just some split shot. The only thing stopping that from coming down to the hook length is the knot, and that's because there's so many snags here. You've got a duck pond just opposite, rats swimming around, look lovely. But that duck pond means there's always a steady amount of feed going into the roach. There are a few babbling here, perch, trout, we've even had grail in here, so I'm not sure what's going to show up. Might be nothing at all because it's crystal clear. I'm not going to put any bait out because that could be a kiss of death because there's a sheer number of minnows.  So I've probably got a couple of hours of light, and I'm going to be fishing with my mate Justin, who's in a couple of pegs up that way, and I think he's hoping for something a bit more sizable. There we are for Sean. Let's take him to the other side of the river. Blimey, what's that? If that's a roach, it's a nice one. Could be, you know. There's a clutch singing. It might be a small chub. We'll see in a minute. Could, of course, be a trout. Can you hear those in here? It's quite funny, really, because it just turns Justin into a chub a few and far between now and here. Keep him away from the roots, lad. Two and a half pound bottom. No, two pound bottom. Oh, he has done me. No, he hasn't. Whoops. There you go. I'll give you a closer look, actually. I'm sure you've all seen a chub before. For those that haven't, that come down here with fish, you'll get an awful lot of bass on this river. And a chub. They'll give away on that pinkanian fin at the back there. It's their big pinkanian fin. Nice chub. It's not a fish on. It's not a good fish on. That's not a snag. Yeah, that's gone. I'll just give that a bit of loose line, in case it's a fish that's taking me into the snag. Good stuff. That's on there. A bit of chopped pork. Is it? Own brand lunch and meat. Oh, nice. That's a nice one. I thought that was a big bow. I don't put torchlight on in the room. Big trek and he is. I don't know. Would you say a gain of two pounds? Or bigger than that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Two and a half. Two and a half. Yeah. Yeah, very nice. It's been a few years since I fished came to Memorial Park. It was nice to see the water flowing and it was nice to see chub reappearing. So I haven't seen many of those for a while and I was actually getting quite concerned. I got home to find an email from an old friend of mine, letting me know that about half a mile upstream, there's been a significant change in the river dynamics, the flow, which has got alarm bells ringing. So I'm now up at Chuton Place about half a mile up river to go and have a look. So downstream is flowing nicely. Always good to see a bit of water movement. But on the other side, wow. The hatch is raised fully. Right, so what do I make of that? I'm absolutely shocked. I imagine it's an intentional conservation effort. It could be because they need to do some engineering work on the banks, but I don't think so. If you've watched my YouTube channel for a while, you'll know that there's quite a few trout fishing videos of me and my ear and fishing on the river too further up. I'm going to have to go up and investigate because if it's this low here, I dread to think what it's like up river. Here we've got a massive island of silt that's been deposited and captured by all the woody debris. That's presumably a fallen tree. Yeah, there's the root fallen tree and it's picked up all the silt and strangled the river. And that's that gives you an idea of what the river is going to be reduced to. If this is the way it's going to be in the future, the river is going to be shrunk. Hi there. Sorry to trouble you to point the camera away from you. I'm doing a video on the river. It's a river that means a lot to me. I just wondered if you knew anything about the lowered water levels. Do you know anything about it? No, but I know I want to. Yes I do because I lived there. Ah, brilliant. Just a person to talk to there. Well, yes and no. I'm not on camera. I can switch it off if you like. That's fine. Just had an interesting chat with a lady who has lived next to this river for a number of years and seen it go downhill in her words over the last 20. And in her words, the river management has focused purely on pollution in replacement of everything else that needs to be done to a river that's so heavily altered by by man. That's all falling in. To my left, that's falling in. We'll walk around here a little bit further where the water's whizzed around this corner. You can see the bank stability here. That's gone. That tree will be in the river by next year. So will all that mud. This river has just gone downhill rapidly because no one wants to manage it. It's a river that needs managing. You can't feed the whole of Bristol, their water supply without managing that water downstream. The trees are falling in. The banks are falling apart. And the river is on its knees in the summer because of lack of flow. Two Valley Lake was drawn down to its lowest I've ever known it to be over the summer. And there's not enough compensatory flow going into the river to keep the wildlife going. It looks like a beach. It's just sand. Sand everywhere. Right, I'm now at Uplands Bridge. Normally this is underwater. You can see from the spit that's coming out that the water's dropped down here by at least two or three. Again, the floods in Canesham of 1968 that killed eight people were caused by debris in floods hitting a bridge. As you lower the water level down in the banks, it reduces the stability of them and increases the number of trees falling into the river. This is actually a flood issue and also could compromise the bridges. The Canesham Angling Association have had fishing rights along this river for well over 100 years I think now. Perhaps one of the most revealing things about this is the amount of pipes that I'm seeing that you didn't know were there. All putting road runoff and other potential pollutants into the river. But as you can see the banks are really steep and that's because the River Choo used to have about two-thirds more water in it. It shrunk. It's leaving these great big steep sides either side. But this is a managed river. You can't re-wild something that's got a reservoir holding back water for an entire city. So what's my conclusion? Firstly, it might be a temporary thing if it's an engineering requirement on that wall down at Chute and Place. I find it bizarre to think that they would allow the whole of this river stretch to be dropped just to do that little bit of work because what they could have done is put a bund across and diverted flow just to isolate that one little area. If it's a wildlife conservation effort, where was the consultation or public announcements? What a mess. And it's increasingly starting to look like this throughout its course. What you've got to remember is that the Choo Valley Lake is at its capacity. It's overflowing. The outspill is putting water into this river. Most of the year it's not. I'm going to go and visit the former president of Keynesham Angling Association. He's lived in Keynesham all his life I think and see if he can shed any light as to what's going on. Wow. So gone and seen the ex-president of Keynesham AAA. We both exchanged our theories as to what the cause was of the river dropping. Both speculating that maybe it was a Bruce Slavin River's trust or conservation efforts in place. After a good chat, I went down back to Choo Town Place, rang on the doorbell and just asked the owner outright whether he was anything to do with dropping the river and his answer was yes. The environment agency have given him full license to be in control of the sluice there and he can do as he pleases. He's dropped out so he can do some maintenance work on the leet and the wall that I showed you earlier. He actually seemed genuinely concerned when I started to tell him the consequences that that would have on the fish population and explained to him how it would present an even bigger issue in the summer when the river's not flowing from Overspill on Choo Valley Lake and Choo Magna reservoir. I think he actually seemed slightly concerned there. My frustrations therefore are directed at the environment agency. The environment agency have put in stocks of barbel in that stretch that we looked at consecutively for 2011-2012-2013 stocking the river with barbel. Well all those fish now have been flushed out because that bloke living at Choo Town Place is entitled just to lift the hatches and empty the river. It just blows my mind that environmental management can be placed in the hands of a wealthy landowner who happens to have a sluice on his property. Just blows my mind!


Hi guys, I'm Kieran Riley. I'm a professional BMX freestyle athlete. I just recently won the European Championships and I'm on the road to Paris Olympics. I think for me the biggest thing the National Lottery has helped me with is being able to surround myself with other BMX riders with like-minded athletes who are training towards the same goals, who are also on UK Sport London. Being able to move away from home, ride the best facilities in the UK and just change from being a semi-pro professional athlete and doing this full-time. By buying a National Lottery ticket you're helping fun athletes like me to become our best selves, whether it's moving away from home, becoming a professional athlete or having the best facilities to extend their levels in their sport. I think it's hugely important for athletes to get this funding through National Lottery. I know a lot of athletes who don't have the sponsors and this is their form of income that allows them to do what they love full-time and sometimes in sport without doing it full-time and having this support you can't keep up with growing athletes outside of your nation you know what I mean and so we're lucky enough to have this in the UK to where athletes have the support they need can fully focus on what they need to do in their training and that's the difference between being an Olympic athlete and being someone who does your sport as a hobby.


The MODIS Collection 6-C6 data set was compared to its predecessor, MODIS Collection 5-C5, to evaluate the accuracy and consistency of the data. It was found that the C6 data set had better agreement with the C5 data set than expected, given the difference in spatial resolution. Additionally, the improvements made to the algorithm inputs resulted in higher accuracy for LAI and FPAR measurements. This article was authored by Kai Yan, Tejin Park, Guangjin Yan, and others.


As far as the economics is concerned, I do not believe that the West can take on the Chinese. I believe that India can take on the Chinese. We have the population. We have the population, we have the people. What do you need to take on the Chinese? You need a young population. You need large numbers of people. You need a large educated base. Compared to China, our population is younger. Exactly. And if you see the West, right, they've got too much. They're flabby. They're living in opulence. And they're outsourced. And they're outsourced, right? Whereas our people, they know what a struggle is. They understand difficulty. So I think as an Indian person, I see a huge opportunity for India to become, like China, the producer of the world.


I'm Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerome Bettis, and we're here at Grill 36 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And we're about to start Over Under with Fandall Sportsbook. I'm gonna say under 20,000 pounds. People get my weight wrong all the time too. I'm gonna say over 8,000. I didn't know that man, I just knew 8,000 probably wouldn't be enough. As a kid, my first love was bowling. I didn't play football until high school, so I had to make a decision was I gonna continue to bowl or was I gonna try to play football to get a college scholarship. Fortunately for me, I chose football, but bowling was my first love. The last one I'm not sure. I know it's 1,300, 660, one or five. 662. I knew I was close. I'm gonna say under 10, 14. I don't remember that much. One, we played Jacksonville at home. I forced the game in overtime by my fumble, but then I won the game with a touchdown.


We turn now to First Minister's Questions, question number one, Jackson Carlaw. Thank you, Presiding Officer. First Minister, why is it the case that this SNP Government is still choosing to invest less in general practice than is invested in other parts of the United Kingdom? First Minister. I wouldn't accept that characterisation. What we know is that we are investing record sums in our national health service more generally, and of course, per capita spending on the national health service in Scotland is significantly higher than it is elsewhere in the UK. If we were to match UK levels, we would require to take, I think, around £850 million out of our NHS budget in a single year. So our spending levels are ahead of the rest of the UK. Looking at general practice or rather primary care more generally, which is more appropriate these days as we seek to expand the primary care teams, we have set a very clear target to shift the balance of spend into primary care and achieve a particular proportion of the overall NHS budget that is dedicated to services in GP practices and the wider primary care teams. We will go on with doing that work. It is the right direction of travel. When it is accompanied by, for example, the integration of health and social care, we are the first part of the UK to undertake that reform, it underlines the fact that this is a Government that is investing in our national health service and carrying out the essential reforms to it. Jackson Carlaw That is a pretty speech, but it is not actually an answer to the question that I have posed. In each and every one of the last five years, investment in general practice has been lower in Scotland than it has been south of the border. A spending gap that is amounted now to a whopping £660 million of support lost to primary care in Scotland. The Royal College of GPs is now warning that, over the next five years, as a consequence of extra demand on services, we could be short of more than 900 family doctors in Scotland due, in their words, to a long-standing underfunding of GP practices. First Minister, are they wrong? The First Minister We are working with general practitioners. We are working with wider primary care teams. I have already made the point that is beyond any argument about the higher levels of per capita NHS spend in Scotland than in the rest of the UK. Also, by the end of this Parliament—this is a target that has clearly been set—we will be investing an additional £500 million in primary care, which includes £250 million in direct support of general practice. That will raise the primary care share of the NHS front-line budget to 11 per cent by the end of this Parliament. At the time that was set was, I seem to recall, welcomed by GPs and the wider primary care teams. Of course, we will also ensure a pay rise for GPs to ensure that general practice remains an attractive career. We have a whole range of recruitment initiatives and incentives in place to get more people not just into medical professions but into general practice in particular. Of course, we have the new GP contract now in place, which ensures that GPs are well rewarded and that we have the right focus on building primary care teams. Finally, in terms of comparison with the rest of the UK, which Jackson Carlaw, when I make comparisons with the rest of the UK, he says that it is not legitimate to do so. Of course, he is doing exactly that today. However, we have more GPs per 100,000 of our population than the rest of the UK. In Scotland, we have 91 for every 100,000 people, compared with just 71 per 100,000 people in England. Our record stands scrutiny, and of course we have set out a very clear direction of travel for the future. Jackson Carlaw, I am sure that the Royal College of GPs will be very impressed with that slapdown. Last week, in very revealing language, the First Minister said that the £550 million coming in health was only £550 million. I have had a look, and it turns out that that is nearly £200 million more than the Scottish Government's own increase for the NHS in its last budget. Why is it all hearts and flowers when Nicola Sturgeon comes up with the money and all grudge and grievance when it is Westminster that gives an extra £550 million to Scotland's NHS? We are clear that more of that increased resource should be going to general practice. Why? Because self-evidently, more funding to GPs will help our NHS, help people to keep people out of hospital and help reduce demand and critical services. The SNP says that they will eventually increase spending and primary care to 11 per cent of NHS spending, but GPs are also being told, as they were just now, that they will have to wait till 2021 to see it. Why the wait? Will she do the right thing and give Scotland's GPs and patients the support that they need now? Perhaps Jackson Carlaw had looked at this a bit more closely in advance of those questions. He would have known that investment in primary care has gone up in every single year of this Government. Of course, now we are working towards that 11 per cent target. Why does that have to be done over a phased basis so that we do not destabilise acute services as we do that? We have got to make sure that we get that balance right, but let me give Jackson Carlaw a few more facts for him to chew over, perhaps after this exchange has finished. Overall, health spending is over 7 per cent higher per head in Scotland than in the rest of the UK. As I said a moment ago, if we were to match the UK Government health spending plans, that would see our national health service lose £850 million in this year alone. We have given a commitment to pass on all revenue consequentials to the national health service. Just as an aside, those consequentials are not just a gift from the UK Government, they come from Scottish taxpayers' money that goes to the Treasury before it comes back to Scotland. However, two contextual points still require to be made. Yes, that £550 million is well. Three contextual points would be wiped out if we were to give tax cuts to the richest as the Tories want us to do. Secondly, that £550 million, however welcome it may be, is not the £600 million that the Tories were promising the Scottish budget. The Tories yet again are short changing the Scottish budget and the Scottish health service. Lastly, it does not take away the fact that it is confirmed by the Fraser of Allander institute in the report this very morning that, over the decade, from the Tories coming to power in 2010 to the end of this decade, the Scottish budget will reduce in real terms £2 billion real-term reduction in the Scottish budget. We will take no lectures from the Conservatives on those matters. Instead, we will continue to provide record funding for our national health service. Jackson Carlaw Actually, the Fraser of Allander institute at Crystal Crier, according to them, health spending in Scotland is going to double the previous projections. The record of this Government no longer fills people with any confidence. We just heard the First Minister say that we do not want to destabilise the NHS in a week when we have had warnings of huge job losses in NHS Tayside, low-come consultants in Highlands picking up £400,000 a year, delayed discharge in Scotland reaching its worst level in two years despite promises to abolish it, all part of a growing legacy not of destabilising just about 11.5 years of SNP incompetence in Scotland's health service. The £550 million budget investment in Scotland's NHS is an opportunity to put in place a sustainable long-term plan. This morning, Fraser of Allander explicitly reported that if the SNP does not take this opportunity, even more money will eventually be needed. Savilling the family doctor is our priority. Securing the future of GPs is essential. Will the First Minister use this investment to plan for the long term, or is it to be squandered, yet again, as it has been for over a decade, on short-term fixes? First Minister. Jackson Carlaw starts his questioning today, suggesting that we are not spending enough money on the national health service. He then cites a Fraser of Allander institute report that shows that the proportion of the total Scottish Government budget dedicated to health is rising and has been rising year on year. He talks about confidence, but forgets to tell us that patient satisfaction is at a record high since 2014. 86 per cent of people rated their inpatient experience positively. He also forgets to remember that the Fraser of Allander report today says that per capita the real-term reduction in the Scottish Government budget over the decade is 7 per cent. He also mentions delayed discharge. The most recent annual report, published in September of this year, showed a reduction of 6 per cent in terms of bed days' loss to delayed discharge. That builds on a 3 per cent reduction the previous year and a 9 per cent reduction the year before that. That is a 37 per cent decrease in delayed discharge since 2006. Those are the fruits of our investment and we will continue to invest in the health service and to reform the health service, as the Tory Government and Westminster continues to preside over real-terms cuts to the Scottish budget. We will get on with the job of delivering for patients right across the country. Time limits are essential in any legal system. Does the First Minister think that governmental bodies should have up to 20 years before they begin to pursue a person for debt? The First Minister I am sure that Richard Leonard is going to tell me the particular context in which he is asking this question. When he does so, I will be happy to seek to answer it in more detail. Obviously, the different context that might apply here may have an implication for the answer that I would give. I look forward to hearing his next question. Richard Leonard Well, this afternoon, this Parliament will be debating the prescription bill. And under the current system, the Department of Work and Pensions can take up to 20 years to notify people of debt relating to the overpayment of benefits. It is not just the DWP.  We think that it is unfair that a person can be chased for a debt 20 years after it was incurred that they had no knowledge of and when no previous action has been taken. That can be ended in this Parliament this afternoon. In stage 3 of the prescription bill, Labour will put forward amendments to cut that period to five years. That means that Scotland's councils and the DWP under Scots law would have five years to notify people of their debt, not 20. Why are SNP MSPs planning to vote against that proposal this afternoon? To protect debtors, I am glad that Richard Leonard has told me what he is asking about. If he had done that in his first question, I could have given him the answer. He was looking for that. Scotland's local authorities have been very clear in the submissions that they made at stage 1 of the prescription bill that any amendment that shortens the period in which overpayments can be recovered would hurt debtors the most. If the debt would have to be recovered within five years, it could mean higher repayment instalments that would potentially cause greater hardship to debtors. We have listened to the view of COSLA. COSLA also said—I am going to quote COSLA here—that the consequences of moving to a five-year prescription period would be so significant that any consideration of such a change should be subject to full public consultation and financial scrutiny. The bill is not the place to try to make changes to council tax or other reserved benefits by the back door. There may be a wider discussion to be had here, but Parliament will have considered all those issues as the bill went through the different stages of the process. The Scottish Government has accepted the view of the Scottish law commission that the proposals should be accepted and the exceptions should maintain the status quo, as it is generally understood. Richard Leonard. Let me be clear. Labour's amendments are supported by Citizens Advice Scotland, Money Advice Scotland and the Debt Charity step change. Those are organisations on the front line who, day in and day out, witness the human cost of this unjust and unfair system. They have told us of a parent who stopped receiving child tax credits 10 years ago who was recently presented with a bill for almost £4,000, of a son who moved in with his mother to care for her, who was handed a bill of over £3,000 for council tax arrears going back eight years. First Minister, the system as it stands is not only unnecessary, it is cruel. It does not serve the interests of the individual, but it does not serve the public interest either. And we have the opportunity to change that this afternoon, so why won't the First Minister grab that opportunity? I have explained the reasons for that. Those issues, of course, have been considered as the bill went through its different parliamentary stages, but it is important to say that there has been no dedicated consultation, as I understand it, on those specific amendments. There is a view that, although there may well be a wider debate here—and I certainly would hope that all councils and other organisations would act sensitively in the kind of cases that Richard Leonard raises here—if there is a wider debate to be had, it is better that that happens properly with full scrutiny and full public consultation. I am happy to give an undertaking that the Government will consider whether that wider discussion is merited, but this is a narrowly drawn bill and I think that it would be wrong to make those changes by the back door rather than focusing on them properly. We have a number of constituency supplementaries. The first is from Shona Robison, to be followed by Finlay Carson. Will the First Minister take this opportunity to join me in paying tribute to the Michelin workforce and local managers in Dundee in the way that they have shown such resilience, tenacity and flexibility in the face of previous and current challenges? Will she reaffirm her support and that of the Scottish Government to do everything within her power to do whatever is possible to help to either retain or repurpose the plant and save as many jobs as possible? Finally, will she use her offices to help to persuade the UK Government, as a minimum, to contribute a further £50 million to the Tay cities deal to match Scottish Government funding? Can I thank Shona Robison for her question and also thank her for her engagement with Derek Mackay over the past few days to make sure that discussions with the local management at Michelin and indeed with the unions have been as constructive as they have been? This news this week has clearly been devastating for the 845 workers at Michelin and for their families and, of course, for the wider community in Dundee. My thoughts are with all of them at this time. Let me be very clear, as Derek Mackay was in this chamber earlier in the week, that we will do everything that we can to find a sustainable future for this plant. Our absolute priority is to pursue options for the site to continue with commercial production and we will leave no stone unturned in working with Michelin, with Dundee Council and with other partners to secure a positive future for the plant, for its workers and for the wider community. I hope that we have the support of all sides of the chamber as we take that work forward. Yes, we will continue to call on the UK Government to match the contribution from the Scottish Government to the Tay City region deal. We, of course, in the Scottish Government—Derek Mackay said this in the chamber on Tuesday—will continue to look at all reasonable suggestions for additional funding from the Scottish Government, but a good place to start would be for the UK Government to commit an additional £50 million to match that contribution from the Scottish Government and to ensure that all partners can look to invest that money in a way that is for the benefit of the wider community. We will do everything possible to support Michelin, to support its workers and to support Dundee. Stronar Station was without a train service for two months down to platform four at Air Station being closed due to safety concerns surrounding the stability of Air Station hotel. There were also a number of weekends when that coincided with road closures and lengthy delays, and that would be totally unacceptable elsewhere. I want to put on record the hard work of the ScotRail Alliance and others on the task force in getting trains running again last weekend. However, our further line closures must not happen again. Will the First Minister give the people of Stronar a personal commitment that she will intervene to ensure that contingency plans can be quickly and stated, which will see temporary platforms set up south of air and the event of platform four being closed in the future? First Minister. We will do everything possible to mitigate any disruption happening in the future. I know how difficult this situation has been. Of course, what happened at Air Station was unavoidable. We acted as ScotRail acted as quickly as possible to ensure that disruption was kept to a minimum. It is good that trains are running again, and we must all work to ensure that the right contingency options are in place to ensure that disruption is not replicated. I give that undertaking to me. Screting UK has announced this week that it will cease all operations in the UK, including its manufacturing base in my constituency in Invergordon. What support can the Scottish Government give to both the employees in Invergordon and its storage site at Cishorn, who will be affected by the decision? I was very concerned to hear that Screting plans to cease production at its plant in Invergordon and close its distribution centre on Shetland. This will obviously be an anxious time for the company's staff, the families and the local areas involved. Highlands and Islands Enterprise is engaged with the company locally and is seeking to engage with Screting management in Norway. Highlands and Islands Enterprise is exploring all possible avenues of support to help to secure a buyer for the business and retain jobs. However, in the unfortunate event that there will be job losses, our PACE team stands ready to offer its full support to staff. Obviously, PACE does everything it can to help those affected by redundancy to get back into work as quickly as possible. We understand that there are no immediate prospects of job losses at the warehousing. Cishorn is used by Screting and operated by a third party, so I can assure Gail Ross that everything that is possible will be done to support the company and the workers involved. Presiding Officer, I am sure that the whole chamber is aware of the tragic case of Craig McClelland and all of our thoughts with his three little children who will grow up without their father. They will do so because he was murdered by a dangerous criminal who was unlawfully at large and had been for nearly six months. Two reviews have indicated that there were significant failures, but we are not specifically tasked with looking at what went wrong in this case. Craig McClelland's family has conducted themselves with unbelievable strength and dignity. Unfortunately, they have not been able to find the answers to the questions that they have been asking. They still do not have confidence that the correct lessons have been learned or that changes have been made to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening to another family. The McClelland family now believes that only a full public inquiry will give them the answers that they deserve. Can the First Minister give them her support? That was an absolutely awful crime. I cannot begin to imagine how Craig McClelland's family and friends are feeling. I am not surprised that there are answers that they still seek and feel that they have not yet had the opportunity to get. The two inspectorates reviewed the processes that led to James Wright, who committed this awful crime, being released and the actions that were then taken to apprehend him. Of course, the Justice Secretary set out the Scottish Government's acceptance of all the recommendations from the inspectorates and set out in this chamber a number of immediate additional safeguards that have been or will be put in place to strengthen the home detention curfew processes. For example, there is now a presumption that individuals convicted of violence and knife crime will not, in normal circumstances, receive home detention curfews. Lessons have been learned from this dreadful tragic case, and I hope that that is something that members across the chamber welcome. In terms of the further action that Craig McClelland's family consider is appropriate, the Justice Secretary has offered to meet with them again, and that offer stands. The Justice Secretary will be very happy to discuss with them the actions that they consider appropriate and give full consideration as a Government to each and every one of them. 3. Willie Rennie I want to return to Michelin Dundee. That is real people's lives and real people's jobs. They have a right to expect Governments and local authorities to stand up for them. Michelin has been a giant presence in the city of Dundee. We need to do everything we can through the Tay City deals and other measures to keep as many jobs in the city as possible. When Michelin pulled out of their Balamina plant, there was a decent redundancy deal for the workers who paid proper respect to their service. Workers deserve that. Will the First Minister make sure that any Dundee workers who are made redundant get that Balamina deal or better? First Minister, I thank Willie Rennie for raising this issue and I agree with him entirely that this is an incredibly important issue. This is real people's and real jobs, and the Government will do everything that we possibly can to support them in these incredibly difficult times. In agreeing with Willie Rennie's point, I hope that people will understand when I say that, of course, if redundancies are inevitable here, then we will want to see workers getting the best possible deal. Michelin, as I understand it, has already given commitments that that will be the case, but we do not want at this stage to assume that that is an inevitable outcome. Our focus right now is in doing everything we can to try to find a sustainable future for the plant that will see commercial production continue at the plant, and the action group that we will meet under the convenership on Monday of Derek Mackay will be very much focused on bringing a plan together, and Scottish Enterprise will be central to that. In those situations, of course, we cannot stand here and guarantee that that will prove to be possible, but if it does not prove to be possible, it will not be for the want of trying. I hope that Willie Rennie will understand that that is what we want to focus on in the short to medium term. Of course, if redundancies do happen, we will absolutely demand that workers get the best possible package. Willie Rennie The First Minister is right to focus on keeping as many jobs as possible, and I am pleased that the company has given that commitment, and I hope that we hold them to that commitment, too. Another issue that will not help those Michelin workers is Brexit. I was pleased that the Scottish Parliament yesterday officially backed a people's vote. We have gone from the support of five to 65 MSPs. Momentum is building for the British people to have the final say, to save us from the economic damage that will come with Brexit. The First Minister has previously talked about compromising with the UK Government. The backstop could involve the whole of the UK remaining in the customs union for an unspecified time. Can the First Minister clarify if that is enough for her to support the deal? I hope that she rejects it and opposes everything but a people's vote, but what does she think? No, that would not be enough for me to give my support to that deal. I have made very clear—I have said this previously, openly, expressly and explicitly—that the bottom line for the Scottish Government. I make no apology for trying to compromise in the interests of the Scottish people, but the absolute bottom line for me, for the Scottish Government, for my party would be permanent unequivocal membership of both the single market and the customs union. That said, I would prefer that we stayed in the European Union as full members. I would prefer that Scotland was in the European Union as full independent members of it. We will continue to do everything that we can to protect Scotland's interests, to protect Scottish jobs, to protect Scottish living standards. It is, of course, for that reason that we have said that if the proposal comes before the House of Commons, we would support the option of a people's vote to give the people across the UK the opportunity to change their mind. Of course, it would not involve people in Scotland changing their mind, because the people of Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain at the first time of asking. We have a couple of further supplementaries, the first from Ross Greer. Yesterday, the Parliament's education committee heard from two members of the Scottish Youth Parliament who told us how the rise in instrumental music tuition fees of hundreds of pounds were creating Victorian levels of inequality, where only the wealthy could afford to take up an instrument. Does the First Minister believe that that is acceptable, or does she recognise that councils need the powers to raise the money that they need to give our young people all of the opportunities that they deserve? Of course, some councils provide music tuition on the basis that Ross Greer is suggesting already, so we would encourage other local authorities to look at that as well. Of course, the Scottish Government provides support for other music initiatives, the STEMA, for example. I am not suggesting for a second that that is a substitute for music tuition in schools. In terms of the overall support that we provide to local councils with, of course, the agreement of the Green Party, we in this financial year are providing real terms increases in the budgets that local government has to spend. Of course, we are currently in the process of finalising our budget for next year, where I am sure that local government finance, as well as a whole range of other matters, will continue to be subjects of intense discussion. The First Minister will be aware of last week's attack on Neil Lennon and the subsequent comments from Mr Lennon that numerous attacks that he has endured in Scotland resulted from bigotry and racism. Such treatment is wholly unacceptable in a modern, progressive country. Will the First Minister join me in condemning anti-Catholic bigotry and anti-Irish racism and commit the Scottish Government to urgent action, along with urgent action, to root out those unacceptable attitudes and behaviour? I thank James Kelly for raising an issue that I know is of huge concern to people across the country. Let me say at the outset and unequivocally that I condemned the attack on Neil Lennon that took place last week. Of course, that is a matter for the police to thoroughly investigate. I saw some of Neil Lennon's press conference at the end of last week and thought that he conducted himself with great dignity. Nobody should have to suffer the abuse and the attacks that he has had to suffer, and I am sure that all of us would agree with that. I unequivocally condemn anti-Catholic bigotry and anti-Irish racism. I condemn sectarianism in any shape or form, and this Government will continue to take the action that we need to take to ensure that Scotland is a country that demonstrates zero tolerance of any of that kind of bigotry. Whatever your footballing loyalties or whether you do not have any footballing loyalties, that kind of conduct has no place in modern Scotland, and all of us must unite to make that absolutely crystal clear. Gillian Martin Special Rapporteurs in Scotland begin an inquiry into rising poverty across the UK. That comes on the back of Trussell Trust figures showing that food bank use in Scotland has risen by 15 per cent, driven by the roll-out of universal credit. How will the Scottish Government engage with that inquiry? The First Minister I will meet the UN Special Rapporteurs later this afternoon. Other Government ministers will also be meeting him and his team, and we will look to be very constructive in our engagement with that inquiry. We will be setting out the actions that the Scottish Government is taking to tackle poverty, to see the assault on poverty as a human rights-based issue, which I think is extremely important. We will also be taking the opportunity to raise concerns certainly about universal credit, but also about the UK Government's welfare cuts more generally, because it is those cuts that are driving more and more people into poverty and seeing demand and reliance on food banks, for example, rising. I hope that we see this inquiry, when it concludes and publishes its outcome, be a helpful contribution to the work that all of us are doing to consign poverty to the dustbin of history. To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government supports the real living wage. Currently, 80.6 per cent of employees in Scotland are paid at least the living wage, making Scotland the best performing of all UK countries. This week, I announced an increase in the real living wage rate, so people who receive it in Scotland will earn £9 an hour. We have provided funding to enable adult social care workers to be paid the real living wage, and from 2020 that rate will be paid to all workers delivering funded childcare hours. We continue to work with partners to deliver our commitment to lift at least 25,000 more people on to the real living wage in the next three years. We are also working to adopt a fair work first approach by extending fair work criteria, including payment of the real living wage to as many funding streams, business support grants and contracts as we possibly can. James Dornan I thank the First Minister for that answer, but does the First Minister agree with me that it is a disgrace that the UK Government failed to use our budget to finally put in place a real living wage for every worker and continues to subject workers under the age of 25 to a lower pay for no justifiable reason? Yes, I absolutely agree with that. I would make two points. I think that the UK Government should unequivocally get behind the real living wage. That is independently assessed as the level that people need for a decent standard of living. The age discrimination that is currently part of the Government living wage is unacceptable in modern times. We think that people who do the same jobs should be paid the same wages regardless of what age they are. Of course, that is one of the many reasons why I hope that, in the not too distant future, we see those powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament so that we, instead of the UK Government, can take those decisions. Brian Whittle To ask the First Minister, in light of the study that defines arthritis at every age, what the Scottish Government is doing to reduce loneliness and isolation among people suffering with the condition. I welcome this research and recognise the importance of raising awareness of the challenges that those living with arthritis can experience. We know that particular groups of people, such as those with long-term health conditions, can be at greater risk of experiencing social isolation and loneliness. We are committed to publishing a strategy to tackle social isolation and loneliness, which will reflect those risks and outline a programme of work that is designed to address those issues. The Minister for Public Health is meeting with the group that commissioned the research this afternoon to discuss how we can work together to improve the lives of people living with arthritis. Brian Whittle I thank the First Minister for that answer. Despite the fact that a staggering one in six people are living with arthritis, a lack of understanding of the condition has led to an epidemic of isolation according to the versus arthritis report. The British Society of Rheumatology published a new report yesterday on the state of play of rheumatology services in Scotland. It is noted that the waiting times for a first appointment has almost doubled since 2010, from an average of 41 days to 79 days against a 2016 Scottish Government target of 28 days. The First Minister's report states that there is a 12-week window after the onset of arthritis symptoms, where referral to a specialist can reduce those symptoms, thereby helping to reduce disability and work limitations. Given that a lack of mobility is often a key factor in increasing loneliness and isolation, when can the Scottish Government expect to hit its own stated target on waiting times for rheumatology appointments? Of course, the health secretary set out a couple of weeks ago in this chamber the waiting times delivery plan that we are now working towards and investing considerable sums of money to make sure that we achieve the targets in that plan. More generally, I think that it is absolutely correct that we need to do more to raise awareness around arthritis and make sure that those suffering from it, particularly those newly diagnosed, get access to the support that they need so that they can continue to be active and independent in their own communities. As I mentioned a moment ago, the Minister for Public Health is meeting with versus arthritis this afternoon and looks forward to discussing all aspects of this research so that we can ensure that Government policy, whether that is around health service waiting times or the wider loneliness and social isolation work, reflects the actions that need to be taken to address some of the issues that are identified in the report. Bob Doris First Minister, digital connectivity can make a significant contribution to tackling the loneliness and isolation for older people, yet 38 per cent of 65 to 79-year-olds report is not being able to use a computer at all. How is the Scottish Government seeking to address such inequalities and tackle loneliness among our older citizens? It is very important that older people can get online, and the Scottish Government is certainly committed to helping them to do so. The most recent Scottish household survey shows a significant increase in internet use by adults over 60 in the last 10 years. It has gone from 29 per cent in 2007 to 63 per cent in 2017, but we want more people to benefit from digital opportunities. Our digital participation charter fund, which was launched in partnership with BT, has made awards of more than £200,000 to 26 organisations for digital inclusion projects, and older people are a priority group for that. The Minister for Public Finance and Digital is also leading work with older people to better understand how digital technologies can add value to their lives in ways that are meaningful to them. Pauline McNeill Thank you, Presiding Officer. Many with MS and arthritis say that they will benefit from the medical cannabis and it will help with muscle spasms or stiffness. I've raised this issue with the First Minister before. I'm sure that she recognised and could congratulate the UK Government, who have allowed for prescriptions to be made for medicinal cannabis. Given that, is she able to say when the Scottish Government would be able to issue some guidelines so that GPs can freely prescribe medical cannabis where they think it's appropriate, and you will know that there are many arthritis sufferers who feel that they would benefit from that? The First Minister I'm told by the health secretary that we have already issued such guidance. I will ask her to send Pauline McNeill a copy of that more generally. As I have said in exchanges with Pauline McNeill on the issue previously, I am broadly supportive of medicinal use of cannabis or drugs that are derived from cannabis. Obviously, those issues are not entirely within the control of the Scottish Government. That's why we rely on Westminster decisions. On the issue of guidance, I'll make sure that a copy is sent to Pauline McNeill later today. Rhoda Grant To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government is doing to support mountain rescue teams. The Scottish Government provides annual grant funding of more than £300,000 to Scottish Mountain Rescue to help the organisation and all 27 Scottish civilian volunteer teams to effectively carry out their vital work. We are the only Government in the UK to fund mountain rescue in this way. In addition, we are currently providing £100,000 over three years from 2016-17, as well as advice on procurement to assist with replacing Scottish Mountain Rescue's radio equipment. Scottish Government officials also work with Scottish Mountain Rescue and responder agencies to help to resolve any issues that arise around the co-ordination of multi-agency working. Rhoda Grant Mountain Rescue volunteers put their own lives at risk to save others, and that's what it's sad that those teams believe that they're seen as expendable by the agencies. If there were recreational climbers, they would be airlifted off the hill. Can I ask the First Minister if Police Scotland is able to tax the rescue services to airlift mountain rescue teams on and off the mountains? If so, will she ensure that they do that, especially when volunteers are carrying out the distressing task of retrieving bodies of those who have sadly perished on the hills or when their time back to base is excessive, or indeed when they're carrying equipment that poses a danger to their own safety? Will she make sure that those agencies support and protect our mountain rescue teams? The First Minister I thank Rhoda Grant for raising the issue. First, can I take the opportunity to say that mountain rescue volunteers do a vital job, often putting their own lives at risk? I do not consider them to be expendable. I don't think that anybody in this chamber or anybody across the country would consider that to be the case, so I'm sure that we all want to take the opportunity to thank them for the role that they perform. I am aware of concerns that have been raised by independent Scottish Mountain Rescue about current search and rescue helicopter support arrangements. Scottish Government officials have previously raised those issues with the Coast Guard Agency following earlier correspondence with the teams. Police Scotland has legislative responsibility for search and rescue in Scotland, however the levers for change around search and rescue helicopter support remains at a UK Government level. Police Scotland is introducing its helicopter to assist mountain rescue teams as a last resort for body recovery. I know that Police Scotland has written to independent Scottish Mountain Rescue about those changes and the response to that has been positive. I understand that the Coast Guard Agency has now written to them to extend an invitation for a meeting, which I understand has been accepted. I will ask the relevant minister perhaps to write to Rhoda Grant with some more detail of the work that we are doing to make sure that the appropriate arrangements are in place. Liz Smith, does the First Minister accept that the concerns raised by mountain rescue teams—one issue here is the centralisation of Police Scotland that has diluted the interaction of mountain rescue teams and local police officers who know the relevant area much better than anyone else, and that this can impact, according to these mountain rescue teams, on the ability to co-ordinate the mountain rescue to respond with a necessary experience? First Minister? No, I do not agree with that at all. I do not think that there is any evidence that that is the case. However, there are a number of issues that have been raised, the issues that I have just gone through with Rhoda Grant. As I say, we take responsibility, as does Police Scotland, where we have that responsibility, but much of this, of course, lies with the Coast Guard Agency. Much of this still lies at UK Government level. We will continue to take the action and make the appropriate representations for mountain rescue teams to make sure that they get the support that they need. I hope that all of us will resist the temptation to be party political about these issues and instead get behind our mountain rescue teams in the fantastic work that they do. Question 7, Jackie Baillie. To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government's response is to the proposal by Scottish Water to remove the 25 per cent single-person discount from at least half a million customers, including older people. First Minister, there is no proposal to remove this discount. We recently consulted on investment priorities and principles of water charging for the 2021-27 regulatory period, which consulted on whether reducing the single-person discount could fund an increase in the maximum discount available to households on full council tax reduction from 25 per cent to 50 per cent. We are currently reviewing the responses to this consultation, but, crucially, any detail changes to charging policies would be subject to further consultation with customers and stakeholders in the course of the next year, prior to implementation in the 2021-2027 period. However, let me stress that absolutely no decisions on this issue have been taken. Jackie Baillie. It turns out, First Minister, that it is not a Scottish Water proposal, it is actually a Scottish Government proposal. We can fight over words about whether it is removed or reduced, but it is effectively proposing to cut the discount. On that basis, will the First Minister rule out now any cut to the single-person discount for water? No one would dispute helping the poorest more, but she should not be funding it by taking money from loan pensioners on fixed incomes that are equally struggling. Because people are concerned that this is the thin end of the wedge, will she also take this opportunity to rule out cuts to the single-person's council tax discount, something that her own SNP MSPs have in the past suggested should be scrapped? Will the First Minister give a commitment now that her Government will not penalise single households, particularly as many are pensioners on low fixed incomes? First Minister. What I will do is carry on, and the Government will continue to review the responses to the consultation, and then we will take decisions in the normal course. That is what is called responsible government. The decisions that we take when we take them will be progressive. They are all about making sure that the help that we provide to people goes to those people who need it most. Let me quote Citizens Advice Scotland about the proposal to increase the maximum reduction for recipients of the water charges reduction scheme from 25 per cent to 50 per cent. They welcomed that because it would provide additional benefit to over 340,000 households on full council tax reduction and another 160,000 on partial council tax reduction. Those are important issues. It is right that the Scottish Government fully consults on them. Any detailed changes, of course, would then require to go through a further process of consultation. Parliament will have plenty of opportunity to discuss any proposals that come forward, but no decisions have been taken at this stage. The Scottish Government will continue to give them proper and full consideration. Thank you very much. That concludes First Minister's questions. As members we know normally at this time we move to members' business, but today, given the significance of the anniversary, we are going to move on to a motion of remembrance to mark 100 years since the ending of the First World War. We are just going to take a short pause, however, to allow, there will be many members in the gallery who need to leave now and many more who wish to come in. We are just going to take a short pause to allow the gallery to clear.


Then, if I was to track my purchase orders, I can do that by going to my expenses on the left-hand side. So, I'm in the vendors. Now, normally, you'd be able to sort by the purchase order, but this is for the last 365 days, and we're working in the past here. So, I don't have that sorting option because this wasn't as recent, you know, the transaction. However, I know that it was in here, so I went to Primarica, and then there's the purchase order. You can also go to the expenses. By the way, if you're in the other view, that would be under the get paid and pay area, and we would be under the vendors. And there's the vendors, and you can also search your purchase orders by going to the expenses tab and then expenses up top, and then filter by purchase order. Once again, I deleted the first date, so it doesn't have that 365 rule, and then there's your purchase order right there as well. So, if I was to go into the other view, that's in a little bit different location. And the other view, it's under the bookkeeping, and yeah, bookkeeping, and then transactions, and then the expenses. No, it's sales tab for the purchase order side. So, there it is. No, I was right the first time. It was under the expenses. There it is. And then you could sort by the purchase orders over here, if you so choose. Okay. So, there it is. Now, the next step would be that we imagine the inventory comes to our warehouse with a bill inside of the box. So, now we can enter it into the system as a bill, or we might just enter it into the system and pay for the bill of the inventory that we have received with an expense form or a check form. So, for example, if I hit the dropdown, we've got copy to a bill. That would be the easiest thing to do. We can create the bill from the purchase order now. And the bill will actually record the transaction. Now, a bill will not impact cash. That's an accrual component. It's going to be increasing the accounts payable. So, I'm going to go through here and just say the terms. I'll keep that as is. And we'll say the date. Let's say it's on the 12th. Let's say it's still way too early in the year to tie it to the bank feeds. But the point is that down here, the bill is pulling in the item, not the category. So, the item is what's going to drive it increasing the inventory account by the $30. And the other side is going to go to accounts payable in this case because it's a bill. You can see it's linked to the purchase order. And so, that's going to be, and then it's going to be for the $30. And it's going to track the inventory. Now, you could also turn on tracking of a customer, tracking the bills on the customer. Let me just show you how that looks real quick. I'm going to close this out but without recording it. And I'm going to go to my cog dropdown. Let's go to the account settings up top. And I'm down here in expenses on the left hand side. And you have this option to make expenses and items billable. So, if I turn that on, you're going to see another kind of form in your bills track a billable expense and items as income is the default typically a good one and single account. So, I'm going to go ahead and just show you what that looks like. So, I'm going to save that and turn on make expenses and items billable. We'll also, okay, so I'm going to go, okay, close that out. Let's go back into the bill. So, now I'm going to make this into a bill again, copy it to a bill. And so, there we have it. And so, now we've got this added item that says it's billable. What that means is that I could pull this item over to our customer if I add a customer. Let's add a customer customer one. Now, you've got to be careful of doing this billable item, but I just want to kind of show it. I'm just going to put the minimum data for the customer. So, when you're pulling it over with an inventory item, it's going to pull over the cost, I believe. So, it's a little bit tricky, but the idea is that you can put information into a bill or expense form that you want to pull over as a line item into the invoice or sales receipt that you're going to later create from it. Again, be very careful of doing that with inventory. As we'll see here, there's a little bit of a glitchy kind of situation with it, but I want to just show you the concept of it. All right. So, let's save that. I'm going to say save and close. If we see what happens on our financial statements, go into the balance sheet, run it. Now, we've got the inventory went up. So, if I go into it, the inventory went up when we entered the bill, not the purchase order. If I go into the bill, there's the bill that increased it. Closing that up, scrolling back to the top on the income statement, running it again. Nothing happened to the income statement because we purchased inventory. Back to the balance sheet. The accounts payable is the other side, the $30. All right. So, now there's also going to be a sub ledger for inventory. Right click on the tab to the right, duplicate it to see it to run another report tracking the inventory by inventory item reports on the left hand side. I like just typing in inventory summary, inventory valuation summary. Let's do and that's fine. We'll keep it there and you've got one item at $30. Now, this does not match what's on our balance sheet because that first piece of inventory we put on the books. So, here we've got $30. Here we've got 80 because that other item we put on the books with a journal entry without using the items.


Before this video even starts, my hair is wet. So don't think it's like dirty or anything. It is wet and it was just better for me in my schedule to just film quickly right after I got out of the shower. Hi guys, welcome back to my channel. Today's video is going to be my week 32 update of my fitness journey and boy was this week tough. All right, so I'm just going to get on to what I did this week and I'm also going to splice in some vlog-ish style comments that I had about the workouts by San Vallet. I'm sorry if I missed pronouncing her name, but that's just how it's going to be for now. Mini channel update, the next two videos are going to be reviews and I hope that's okay. I'm really busy right now with a freelance thing that I'm working on. So it's just going to be a little bit hectic on the channel, all my uploads are going to be consistent, but I'm just letting you know. And also this upcoming week is my cousin's wedding. So yeah, there's just going to be a lot going on. So I just want to also thank you for your continued support. So let's just get on to what I did this week. So Saturday the 22nd, I did nothing because I had a shoot for the freelance thing that I'm working on and I had to get up at 5 a.m. There was no way I was going to be working out that day. We filmed until about noon, so I did not do anything on Saturday, but I was on my feet for a good portion of the day. Then Sunday the 23rd, I did the 15 minute ab and butt workout by San Vallet as well as her 10 minute sexy arms. And I'll just let past Alex explain how that went. Okay, so past Alex is coming in. This is my very first time at trying at San Vallet's workouts. One of you guys commented how to pronounce her name, but I'm not going to look it up right now. But overall, like I did not, like I'm not sweating. Like I have a light sweat. Today I did the 15 minute abs and butt. And honestly, like, don't think I'm going to be doing that one again. And I just got done doing her arm workout, like the sexy arms. And it is kind of my fault that I don't have any weights. I mean, I do have weights, but they're like metal. I don't know, I'll have to show you guys sometime, but don't think I'm going to be doing that one. I just didn't really feel anything. I just want to give my results and like what I'm thinking now, just so I don't have to like write it down. But overall, I didn't sweat. I don't think it was that hard. There was a few movements that I'm like, oh, how does she do that? Cause it's very like slow controlled and like balancing. And I did feel it a little bit, but I just, when I work out, I want to, you know, feel the burn, like sweat a lot. I know that sounds gross, but I don't know. Like I just don't even feel like I just did two workouts. You know what I mean? And I wanted today to be an easy day. And I guess I got that cause I really didn't even feel like working out today, but I'm like, oh, I got to try the new workouts cause I was excited about it, but it really was an easy day. Even Sherry was like, you're not even sweating. But I did like the fact that there were a few new workouts in there that I had never done before. They just weren't that hard or challenging. That's just my opinion. Sherry, what do you think? I don't know, you didn't sweat. I know, that was your first response. I'm like, why are you not sweating? Oh well. So tomorrow I'm actually going to try one of her 20 minute HIIT workouts cause maybe that one will be a lot more challenging. I really think Pamela Reef got me ready to be an actual like fitness person because I could get through those like so easily. So weird. Anyway, just want to give my little thoughts and first impression of her workouts. I'll be looking forward to trying different ones tomorrow. Moving on to Monday, the 24th, I did the 20 minute HIIT workout by San Valet. And as well, I will just let past Alex explain my thoughts on that. Okay, so I just got done doing the first set of San Valet's workout. It's the 20 minute HIIT one. So I was thinking that one was going to be like the hardest one, but like, again, I'm done with the first set and I'm barely sweating. Like I have a light sweat. So I'm getting closer to the weddings and stuff. I just really want stuff to be like more challenging for me. So I'm going to jump back to Pamela's workouts. I did give her a try. I think maybe after my weddings and stuff, when I'm a little bit more lenient and can, you know, do workouts that aren't as challenging, I can try hers again and maybe try the ones with Sammy in them. But overall, like, I'm just going to go back to Pamela, like go back to what you know. I know I'm like, I'm a quitter. I'm only going to quit this one and just like jump back to the ones I'm used to. She doesn't have music in the background of most of them, at least the ones that I've done. And I have limited time and I do like her talking throughout the videos, but I don't know. Right now I just need to pump up, have some good music and get a tough workout in. So I'm just going to choose from one of Pamela's like workout plans. She has a 45 minute sweaty hard and then she also has a 30 minutes per day. So I'm going to choose one from that and just like do a day from one of those plans right now. This is still Monday the 24th, but I was like, I don't have enough time to be trying these workouts out. And we're just getting too close to the actual wedding and it's not like I'm doing a perfect job eating. So I need workouts that will like make me sweat and be hard enough. So I just went back to Pamela Reef because she's awesome and I feel like her workouts don't waste my time. I did the Pamela Reef day two of the sweaty 45 minute plan. And I will just put the B roll and everything on the screen so you guys can see. And this is also her hardest plan and it was so hard for me. The combination she put together for day two for the sweaty plan was probably the hardest workout I've done throughout my whole journey. So I was surprised I could get through it. Then on Wednesday, I did day six of the 30 minute Pamela Reef workout plan. Again, I will have a screenshot of the day and the plan on the top of the screen so you guys can see. And then today, Friday the 28th, I did day three of the 45 minute sweaty plan by Pamela Reef. And I really liked this day. It wasn't as hard as day two I did on Monday but I did feel the burn and I loved the stretch exercise she did. And her voice is so like relaxing because of her accent and stuff that it just like helps you get through it. So I was really impressed with today's workout. Food wise, this week was pretty good. I felt really confident in my body. The past week, I've been eating okay. So I've pretty much been, my weakness has been the cookies. I love these shortbread cookies as well as Panera tulip cookies. Those are the bomb.com. This isn't really an update about the whole workout journey because my life has been a little bit hectic. I don't know what days next week I'm going to be working out since I'm gonna have to change my schedule a little bit. So it might be a little bit off. I don't know yet. So that's also an update. Y'all, I guess get to hear that next week. And lastly, let's move on to the photos. So Alex on the left is Alex last week and Alex on the right is current. And then here is the side view of that. Not a major difference, but I still feel really great. And I'm surprised as well because I'm supposed to start my lady days anytime now and I'm not as bloated as I normally am. So that's I guess a plus. And then moving on to pre-workout Alex. So pre-workout Alex is on the left and current Alex is on the right. And here is the side view of that. If you guys want to chat or just like say, hey, always check out my Instagram. I'm really active on there. And it would mean the world to me if you also subscribed to this channel and make sure to turn on the little bell icon so you get notified every time I upload a video. Question of the day, what day is your favorite? Like what day of the week is your favorite? I think mine would have to be Saturday just because you're not working, but also you have another day where you're like, oh, I can stay up late so I can sleep in. Anyway, give this video a thumbs up and I will see you guys in my next video. Bye.


The learning route, a collaboration between Procassa and the farmers' organizations for Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Program, FO for ACP, empowers farmer organizations with strategies to invigorate their businesses and enhance their organizational capabilities. The curriculum explores core development strategies, internal processes, best practices, and reshaping the trajectory of rural associative companies, offering valuable insights into effective solutions. Over the course of five intensive training days, participating farmer organizations from St Lucia will engage in analysis and discussion workshops, as well as visits to prominent organizations like the Mico Chocolate Company and the Black Bay Farmers and Consumers Cooperative. General Coordinator of the Learning Route, Maria Jose Araya, says that this program is focused on elevating the businesses and associative capacities of small rural producer organizations, with a dedicated commitment to enhancing the incomes and livelihoods of organized small holders and family farmers in African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. Farmers' organizations are a key element in the development of agriculture at a national level, so we need to enhance their performance in order that they can become more productive, they can do better business, and they can also offer better services to their members. In this way, we hope that farmer organizations can be more vibrant and can lead and have a very key role in the development of agriculture. Chief Executive Officer of Export St Lucia, Sunita Daniel, expressed her thoughts on the program during the opening ceremony, emphasizing its alignment with the sector's needs, particularly in terms of export standards. The beautiful thing about this event is that in South America, for example, they are very strong farm organizations, they have a history of strong farm organizations, and for them to be coming now and sharing those experiences with us here, I think it would really assist, for example, the Bellevue Farmers, who will possibly one of the top farm organizations in St Lucia had gone defunct, and I know that there are moves towards re-establishing the Bellevue Farm Organization. So all of those things are really important and really timely, because not only our markets expanding domestically, but they're also expanding internationally, and if you have farm organizations who can increase production and increase the way that they do business, it only augurs well for the farmers themselves. Deputy Director of Agricultural Services, Kemuel Shabbatis, explains that this program is aligned with the Ministry of Agriculture's mandate to enhance food and nutrition security. He emphasizes that this alignment is particularly fitting as the ministry is actively pursuing the objectives of CARICOM's 25x2025 initiative, which aims to reduce imports by 25 percent by the year 2025. One of the pathways that is absolutely necessary in order for us to make that happen is to ensure that we have functional producer cooperatives, that we have active, vibrant producer cooperatives who understand the plight of small farmers, who understand that we have to be able to represent smaller producers, who understand the need to bring those small producers so that we could benefit from terms of trade, so that we could benefit from scale. And so it is really good to know that we have FAO, IECA, Procursor, the Ministry, all these agencies and partners are coming together to ensure that the experiences that other producer organizations have can be shared and can be used to strengthen moving forward. The Agriculture Ministry enthusiastically extends its ongoing commitment to embrace initiatives like the Learning Route program, which are dedicated to improving and elevating the agriculture sector, while enhancing the livelihoods of farmers and rural communities. From the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, I am Anicia Antoine reporting.


Welcome back to our series of sentence analysis videos. As you know, our goal is the formal analysis of sentence meaning from propositions to predications. And in this exercise here, we will deal with simple propositions that involve the universal quantifier. As a prerequisite, I recommend to have gone through the e-lectures predicate logic 1 and predicate logic 2. And here is our task. We have to convert these three sentences, all swans are white, all exciting matches are sold out, and Roberto loves all Italian women, first into propositions and then into predications. If you want to try on your own first, pause the video here and compare your solutions with mine later on. Okay, let's start. All swans are white. Now this sentence constitutes a very simple proposition, namely all swans are white. And as a predication, it involves a simple one-place predicate which assigns the attribute white to its argument swan. The central question, however, is how do we integrate the amount all into our predication? Well, in order to make statements about amounts or sets, we need a variable, a variable such as x. And this variable can be assigned properties by means of two simple predications. The first one is x is a swan, predicate swan, variable x. And the second one is x is white, predicate white and variable x. So x is a swan is the first one, x is white is the second one. And now we can apply the universal quantifier, you know, the upside down A symbol to both predications. And the convention to do this is quite simple. Put the quantifier and its variable outside a bracket from where it can bind all elements with the same variable within the bracket. Well, and these are our elements, swan x and white x. And how do we combine the two terms in the bracket? Well, we could try the logical connective AND. But this would mean that x is a swan and x is white. In other words, it would mean that all elements x in the universe are swans and all elements x are white. Well, is this what we really want? Not at all. So we cannot take the conjunction, but we need the implication. And now this term can be read as follows. For all elements x it holds, if x is a swan, then x is also white. So as a result, this is the complex predication which realizes the proposition all swans are white in terms of predicate logic. In our second example we have a similar case where a simple proposition involves a quantifier. All exciting matches are sold out. This time, however, the proposition can be broken up into three predications. And again they all involve a variable for the quantifier to operate on. As a formula, now here again you see the formula with the universal quantifier and its variable outside it. Well, now we can move these elements into the formula. We can now combine the first two terms by means of logical AND. Oops, there we are. And to make this term absolutely precise we put another bracket around it. This is a bit big, isn't it? Well, and this first term, x is exciting and x is a match, can now be combined with the second one in terms of an implication. Which then can be read, for all x it holds, if x is exciting and x is a match, then x is sold out. Well, and this is a reasonable result. Our last example is similar. The proposition Roberto loves all Italian women can be translated into three predications, where the last one involves a two-place predicate with one variable and one constant as its argument. So love Roberto x, Roberto loves something. And the formula again involves a conjunction and an implication. So we have this relationship again, just like in the previous cases we can put brackets around it and have a conjunction as the first term, as the antecedent, and a simple predication as the consequent. Well, and this is the result. For all elements x it holds. If x is Italian and x is a woman, then Roberto loves x. Simple, isn't it? Okay, that's it. Here are the solutions. And in the VLC e-lecture library you can download all these solutions in the PDF format. So thanks and see you again. Well, this is what the e-lecture library looks like on your personal VLC start site. So a click on the VLC e-lecture library URL will lead you to all the VLC support material. Thank you very much.


Well, 14 percent of the Bemidji School District's budget comes from the local level. That means taxpayer dollars. A new budget was addressed today. Haiti Clouder has more. 10 million dollars. That's the proposed tax levy for the 2016 to 2017 school year. The revenue operating budget would be nearly 70 million. That number comes from four categories, local, state, federal and other. The legislature passes the laws and gives the school board the authority to levy taxes. Or the voters vote a referendum in place that can affect a school levy as well. The Bemidji School Board held its meeting tonight and voted unanimously to approve the budget. All those in favor, do you say aye? Aye. Aye. Long-term facility maintenance, also known as LTFM, has the largest increase in the 2017 tax levy, is specific for maintenance projects for the school. Tuck pointing and roofs and boilers and issues like that on an ongoing basis where we will have the ability to issue debt and pay that over time if we decide to do a major project. Levy limitation would increase by almost 10 percent compared to last year. Student enrollment plays a major factor in school funding. If we have increasing enrollment, that will generate additional dollars for us. A special program was also introduced during the meeting. Alice Trading, which can help save lives by offering an alternate solution to shelter in place during an attack on campus. It became very evident that this is the way to go. Instead of being that victim mode, it gave you the survivor mentality of if there was someone that was going to commit some active violence, that we had choices or options. This green bucket can be used as a restroom. The tarp can help if you ever need to break a window so you won't cut yourself on glass, and toilet paper always helps. It's something that is out there, it could happen, and we just want to be as prepared as possible. Although the public wasn't in attendance, Rene is still hopeful this plan will be enforced and empower students. In Bemidji, Haiti-Clauder, Lakeland News. The largest area of expenditures goes toward wages and benefits, and 9% goes to supplies and materials.