Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this month's non-farm payrolls webinar. This one for May on Friday the 2nd of June with me, Michael Hueson. Certainly coming off the back of an interesting few days. In the space of about five days we've gone from the probability or the likelihood of another rate hike in June to the possibility that we might actually see a skip in June or as I would like to call it a hold that'll leave rates unchanged before reassessing whether or not the US economy can cope with any more 25 basis point rate hikes. Because I think that's essentially where we are now when it comes to rate rises. We're pretty much in the area of how many more 25 basis point rate hikes are we going to get. And then it's really a case of when will rates start to come back down again. And certainly I think that's manifested itself in terms of the pricing on the bond markets. I think since the last Fed meeting back in May on May the 4th the removal of that language that basically committed to ongoing rate hikes might be appropriate the removal of that line pretty much gave an indication that the Fed was going to pause in June. But what they pushed back on in particular was the idea that we'd see rate cuts this year. And that's I think what's happened over the course of the past month or so that's been reprised because if you look at the way US two year yields have behaved and you can see that in this Bloomberg chart here and this does have relevance to payrolls so you know I am going slightly at a tangent at the moment. But if you look at where the two year yield was back in May on 4th of May it was down around about 3.65 since then it's been up to 4.65 4.63 so 100 basis points higher and it's now currently where we are at the moment which is 4.34. So what's happened is that even though the narrative around the Fed has become slightly more well we're near at the end of the rate hiking cycle now we may have another 25 coming in July perhaps but certainly not in June. It's the rate cuts that were being priced in for the end of this year have been priced out and potentially been priced out in the first half of 2024 as well. So we've got a Fed funds rate of 5 to 5.25 percent. On yields are higher they are starting to come down now and this is particularly interesting given the fact that we shot up to those peaks at the end of last week and in the last three days we've come back down quite hard and I think a large part of that it's not just been about Philip Jefferson's comments yesterday about today's payrolls numbers or about the data in general because the big decline that we saw at the end of May on the 30th of May was pretty much as a result of weaker than expected inflation readings coming out of not only the Euro area but the weaker China numbers the the weak China data which suggests that the Chinese economic recovery is operating on fumes. So you know for for me at the moment the fact that yields appear to have topped out would appear to suggest that we're in a place now where it's really all about the timing as to whether or not we see the end of this current rate hiking cycle because I think if we do pause in June there's no guarantee that we'll hike in July but much will depend on the payrolls numbers and looking looking at the payrolls numbers I think the bar has been lowered in terms of what to expect when it comes to future rate hike expectations because we also have a CPI reading during the 13th of June the day before the Fed meeting on the 14th of June so one of the things that the Fed Governor Philip Jefferson said and he's also in line he's been nominated to be the Vice Chairman he said skipping a rate hike as a coming meeting would allow the Federal Open Market Committee to see more data before making decisions about the extent of additional policy firming so the removal of the line in June the removal of the line in May about further rate hikes that basically doesn't pre-commit the Fed to hiking this month those comments yesterday also don't pre-commit the Fed to hiking this month which would suggest that we need to see a massive outlier one way or the other on the payrolls numbers to suggest that we would get a hike in June and certainly the inflation numbers that we've seen out of Europe and more broadly I think if you look at China's inflation numbers they've been very weak factory gate prices in China have been negative since October last year and if you work on the basis that China generally tends to export its inflation and deflation problems you look at energy prices you look at commodity prices there is a disinflationary impulse pushing out the big question is where that disinflationary impulse stops in terms of where inflation is now so US inflation is 4.9 percent for April it's expected to come down to 4.1 percent in May on the headline number but core prices are currently at five and a half and that's what the Fed is really concerned about now and that's what central banks more broadly are more concerned about the bigger question is having come off the back of 10 successive rate hikes and that's what we're talking about here we've seen central banks hike successive meetings over the course of the past 12 to 15 months Bank of England ECB Federal Reserve so watching the data allows the central bankers to filter out or pass the effects of the rate hikes which generally tend to operate with a lag now I've been asked the question is the US dollar topping does the dollar can't seem to rally can we see stock markets going lower with dollar lower that is the million dollar question we've seen an awful lot of divergence when it comes to stock market performance this week we've seen weakness in the cat current we've seen weakness in the FTSE 100 the DAX is around about flat but we've seen massive outperformance in the NASDAQ I mean the NASDAQ has gone completely gangbusters but the problem with the NASDAQ is is is the breadth that we've seen the number of the number of stocks that have driven the NASDAQ higher over the course of the past week or so so you know and for me that is that is the real concern I think going forward if you look at the performance of the NASDAQ over the past few days you've got to ask yourself you know is that sustainable I mean this is the last five days for the NASDAQ obviously it's not including today so since last week the NASDAQ 100 is up six percent Marvel technology Nvidia 32 percent up over the last six days 30 percent up you've got Adobe you've got Broadcom you've got Tesla Qualcomm there's very much an AI artificial intelligence you know sort of angle to that but if you compare that to say for example and the Dow Jones so we go Dow Jones or Indu as it is there yeah it's up 0.8 percent and then if you then go and do the the DAX up 0.1 percent and then the FTSE 100 oops missed that there we go that's here today okay I have five days down 0.15 so you know you get the general picture there's massive divergence in what's going on with respect to stock markets at the moment now with respect to the dollar the dollar at the moment is coming off we've seen it in dolly n we've also seen it in euro dollar so keeping an eye on the time we've got eight minutes so we've got plenty of time we do appear to have posted a bullish reversal on the on the euro dollar chart here a bullish daily candle the big question here is can we take out that 10780 level which is this resistance line here but more importantly 10810825 that for me I think 10825 is the key level on euro dollar I still think we're in a broad a broad range on euro dollar the bigger question is how many more rate hikes has the ECB got in it I certainly think that we're probably only going to get 25 basis points from the ECB later this month even if the Fed stays on hold in June we're probably going to get another 25 basis points from the Bank of England so I think there's a sterling angle to the euro dollar trade but certainly I think we may well have seen a short-term base in euro dollar assuming of course that we don't get a really strong payrolls number this afternoon because if we get a strong payrolls number and I'm talking say 260 plus we also get a strong wages number then you could well see the dollar head back higher but on the basis of the dollar index and on the basis of what yields are telling me at the moment yields are telling me that potentially we've seen a little bit of a top and we could start to drift lower I don't think we're going to come crashing off certainly that's not what the that's not what the charts are telling me if we look at the NASDAQ on this particular chart here we can see that we've pushed significantly through the 61.8 level here my biggest concern here about this is how far can you push it but I'm not a big fan of trying to pick the top in anything at the moment the trend is higher and until such times as we get evidence that that trend is over then it's very dangerous to push back against it the key support area for me on this NASDAQ chart is this impulse low here that we saw in the aftermath of that push there so it's around about 14200 so if we break below that then we could well see a little bit of a drift lower but I'm very much when I'm looking at markets and looking at charts I'm looking at trends and momentum and at the moment the momentum is fairly positive when it comes to the NASDAQ with respect to the DAX we're range trading so we're really interesting that we've managed to hold this line pretty much since April around about 14 000 sorry 15 000 well what's that low there that low is there 15 600 so 15 600 there are thereabouts is acted as a fairly decent support level but on the flip side of that we've really struggled to get anywhere above 16 280 so we're very much in a range trade when it comes to European markets but it does suggest to me that we've potentially got more upside than downside similarly with the FTSE 100 once again we tried to go lower we've seen a modest rebound over the past couple of days what I want to see is a move back above 7600 but there does appear to be appetite particularly on markets like the CAC like the FTSE 100 like the DAX for steady steady dip buy and I've certainly seen no evidence to suggest that that will change my main concern obviously is around US markets and the distortions that are being created by the tech moves that we're seeing we're seeing it in the Hang Seng earlier today with a big tech move higher there we also saw it significantly we've also seen it obviously in the S&P and the NASDAQ certainly dolla yen WTI yep certainly talk about dolla yen I'm still of the opinion that dolla yen should go lower now at the moment that this is one particular trade that I've got massively wrong and it's really I think more about timing than anything else but if you if your view is that the narrative is shifting when it comes to US rate hikes then certainly I think we are near a top and certainly 140 is probably part and parcel of that but we also need to remember that the Bank of Japan is meeting in two weeks time and you know at the moment you know I'm struggling to sort of time as to when they're going to change the yield curve control policy and at the moment you know it's got to be sooner rather than later you know inflation in Japan is trending above target but before I get on to that so for me I think dolla yen can go lower I think we've seen a short-term top but before we get there we've got to talk about the numbers and on farm payrolls numbers because it just looks at the time and it's 1328 we're looking for 195 on the headline number we're also looking for wage growth of around about 4.4 percent and we're looking for unemployment to tick up from 3.4 to 3.5 percent now I'm less concerned about the unemployment number than I am about the participation rate which is currently at 62.6 and you know essentially at the highest level since it's been post-pandemic and I'm looking for further gains there we've seen a very strong ADP number earlier this week which suggests that the jobs market still remains fairly robust and the wages numbers which are still which are now actually or likely to remain above the headline inflation number of 4.4 percent so we've got about a minute to go so as long as inflate as long as wages come in around about 4.4 4.5 percent payrolls above 200 250 I mean a really strong number is going to be 250 plus which was what the April numbers were it'd be interesting to see if we get significant downward revisions to the previous month but ultimately I don't expect us to see the dollar weakened much above 10820 but and if we do get you know if we do get a if we do get a stronger number for the euro to drop much below 10720 given what was said yesterday by Jefferson I think this number is likely to be less important than perhaps markets think that it is but certainly I think it will cause an awful lot of questions to be asked about whether or not the Fed will hike or skip in June anyway and here are the numbers so 339 okay well that puts a hike back on the table 339 on the headline number that is a huge number let's look at the other numbers the unemployment rate 3.7 3.7 so that is significant as well participation rate is exactly the same and wages of 4.3 well take the bones out of that because I'll tell you something that is that is just unbelievable and there's a two-month payroll net revision higher of 93 000 well euro dollars done pretty much nothing on that let's have a quick look I mean that's a quick spike lower stronger dollar but it's come straight back because everyone's looking at the unemployment rate and I'm trying to figure out why the unemployment rates jumped up from 3.4 to 3.7 percent when you've seen changing private payrolls of 283 the loss of 2000 manufacturing jobs and a headline number of 339 I haven't seen a revision to aprils yet but there's certainly been a positive revision over the two-month period of 93 000 so very much a dollar positive number I can't imagine that is going to be particularly positive for the NASDAQ let's have a quick look at us two-year yields yeah what's surprised they're higher let's just quickly change that chart to a one-day chart so that you can see reaction of the US two-year yield yep no surprise there so dollar stronger see dolly yen higher so dolly yen I'm still I am still a seller of dolly yen on rallies for the time being given the fact that we're heading towards the bank of Japan on the 16th of June which will follow the Fed on the 14th of June and the fact that at some point they are going to have to start looking at tweaking their yield curve control and policy and starting to tighten monetary policy ever so slightly as we head into the end of the year so I'm very much seller rallies on dolly yen as for WTI because I didn't answer the second part of your question Leanne and I will let's just quickly pop that to one side there WTI for me I think the downside is going to be limited on WTI very much so to the levels that I've highlighted here with that horizontal line across the bottom 65 dollars a barrel simply on the basis of the fact the US is US is a buyer anywhere below 70 dollars a barrel because it needs to refill the strategic petroleum reserve between now and August and it's already said that it will be seeking to do that between the prices of 65 and 70 dollars a barrel over the course of the next few weeks and months on the upside again I think it's a range trade you can certainly see the way that it's played out over the last few so far this year it's fairly well capped just below 80 just above 80 dollars a barrel and I don't expect that to change I think demand isn't likely to be as strong as perhaps people think it will be I still think the cost of living is squeezing people and essentially it means that they will have much less money to spend but I also think that demand isn't likely to be as great as perhaps OPEC thinks that it is or will be because of the stuttering China story so could production cuts put a floor under it yeah absolutely I'll put you know they certainly put a floor under it and drive prices higher yeah they could but the last production cut didn't and they do need to be a little bit careful about cutting too aggressively because ultimately they could create the very they could create the very demand destruction that they're seeking to avoid so for me I think I think oil is very much range bound at the moment with fairly decent buying interest anywhere below these levels between 65 and 67 68 dollars a barrel on WTI so I don't expect that to change a weakening dollar story that's a tricky one I mean let's talk about it in the context of say for example next week's rate decisions from the RBA in the Bank of Canada if you're betting on a China recovery story then probably the Aussie dollar is not the best place to look but having said that you do have the fact the small manner of the fact that we've got the RBA next week and last month they hiked rates by 25 basis points catching pretty much everyone on the hop and there is there is a case saying that perhaps the RBA is behind the curve in the same way that the ECB is behind the curve that said if you're looking at a weakening dollar story I'm trying to think you know perhaps dolly in because the Bank of Japan has got more scope to tighten policy than pretty much every other central bank but you know again trying time that has been problematic as I can testify given the fact that I've been calling for a lower dolly in since it was around about 133 and it's now 138 they've been up to 140 so what do I know but you know the trick is in the context of that particular play it's about what I think central banks are going to do going forward so for me I still think dolly in is probably the best play in terms of the amount of potential downside there is or you know I want to say downside I don't mean downside in terms of getting your position wrong but in terms of I think the dolly in can go back to 125 by the end of this year which suggests that you know there's certainly quite a bit of there's certainly quite a bit of potential for a lower dollar the lower dollar there than there is say for example in the Aussie dollar which here is very much a play on China now there was some reports this morning that China is looking at another stimulus program and that's what's been driving markets higher today particularly in the miners where you've got Anto for Gaster up six percent you've got Rio Tinto up four percent and you've got companies like Glencore Glencore and Anglo-American also doing very well as well as copper prices but you know for me if you look at the China trade numbers which are due out next week they're likely to paint a picture of a fairly weakened subdued economy and that's why we've seen commodity prices look as weak as they have been over the course of the past few days so I think I think for me dolly in is probably the is probably the play the problem with that is timing it and I think currently um for me I would be looking to sell any rebound back towards 140 with a stop loss above the recent highs for a move lower in dolly in if that's you know if you basically held a metaphorical gun to my head that's probably the way I would play a wicked dollar story in terms of dolly in um right commodity currencies big week next week as I said it's for the Bank of Canada um and the RBA I talked about the Aussie a little bit as I said I can't see the RBA going for another rate hike they might they might particularly if they're wired that they're behind the curve but given what we've seen this week with respect to weaker pricing when it comes to commodity currency commodities agricultural as well as metals I think they may they may well hold fire and I think it's going to be a similar story for the Bank of Canada as well if we look at this particular chart here again we were very very much in a range on dollar CAD maybe we could probably draw a line on this particular chart nice little trend line through here it's coming through there so we could see the CAD drop back down to around about these sorts of levels here and then go for a bit of a rebound particularly if the Bank of Canada is hawkish it did it did keep rates on hold at the last meeting but since that April meeting when they kept rates at four and a half percent April's API nudged up to 4.4 percent year on year while core prices were also a little bit firmer as well so and the labour market um saw a fairly strong jobs report as well so maybe the maybe the Bank of Canada may keep rates on hold but they may may issue a little bit of hawkish guidance which could push the Canadian dollar a little bit higher in the short term and back towards that trend line that I outlined earlier. Those payrolls numbers certainly haven't hurt stock markets and I think one of the reasons for that is um the rise in the unemployment rate if I cast your mind back to the last set of Fed projections um they were talking about getting unemployment back to four and a half percent by the end of this year well we just jumped by 0.3 percent in the space of the months of 3.7 so you know maybe um the fact the unemployment rate has jumped the way that it has it's got markets starting to think more carefully about the prospect that the Fed actually could hit its unemployment target if unemployment if unemployment starts to head back to that four percent so um that's certainly an interesting one to um get our heads get our heads around easy for me to say in the short term right we've got that revision from the April payrolls numbers that's been revised up not surprisingly given the fact there was a 93,000 output adjustment from 253,000 to 294,000 so 294,000 in April um obviously March was adjusted higher as well and 339,000 obviously in May so once again um US payrolls have beaten expectations beaten the benchmark for the 13th month in a row is there no way into the resilience of the US labor market so to conclude today's payrolls numbers keep the prospect of a 25 basis point hike in June on the table um but only ever so slightly I think what will probably tip the scales on my the other is the CPI numbers when they come out on the 13th of June which is the day before and if we see evidence that core prices are slowing then I think a pause is still very much a plausible scenario or a hold or a skip whatever you want a hop skip and a jump you know all these different adjectives are dimmer head in right I've just been asked something completely off topic here about Ocado and uh it is slightly off topic because it's not really but I will humor you um so I will humor you and do Ocado for you so let's see if we can dig that out I have to say I don't like Ocado um because they don't they always promise to make a profit and thus far they've done they're as far away from making a profit as there were two or three years ago well that chart tells me that um there's a definite trend in place there and uh my thoughts are don't try and catch a falling knife I think at the next reshuffle Ocado will find itself catapulted out of the footsie 100 um it survived by the skin of its teeth this month I really don't know how but um I would certainly not be looking by it quite yet and I'm guessing that's probably why you're asking me having said that we're still well above the levels we were back in 2017 so but yeah I mean this there was a lot of optimism there a lot of optimism there but since then it's really about you know when are you going to deliver some profits for us and at the moment we're still waiting so it depends what you're looking for it depends what you're looking for from it this is my honest answer Ella you're looking for from Ocado are you looking to get in or are you are you worried about uh are you long of it and uh want to get out anyway um so get in okay well looking at where it is and where it was six years ago there's worse places to get in um you know six year lows not that that's the recommendation before anyone says anything um but yeah the problem is if you get in now you might have to you might have to wear quite a bit of downside so um any other questions ladies and gents before I uh before I was up no interest in Dolomex anybody I noticed there's an old friend in the uh in the uh in the audience who uh I think I recall had a Dolomex position I hope hopefully you still haven't got it natural gas natural gas um US natural gas Tom or UK natural gas US okay I wish I'd never asked now Steve um yeah I mean looking at natural gas fairly decent support in and around these lows back in April and May so certainly I think if you're looking to play levels that would potentially be a fairly decent area to get long in and around these sorts of lows here for fairly decent rebounds certainly looking at it over the long term but if we do break below these series of lows we could we'll see further losses going forward but for the time being that does appear to be fairly decent support coming in um just below this two level here around these lows down here um so that's natural gas Dolomex you're looking for an idea where to buy you're obviously a sucker for punishment Steve uh well there's very much a trend in place there um but there is a fairly there's a there's a nice area of support in and around the May lows I think it really depends on whether or not these May lows hold because at the moment what you've got is lower highs and you've got lower lows so we're very much in a downtrend on Dolomex so if you're looking to get back in I'm a bit because we we still haven't seen any evidence that our low is in and for me I think um that means that there is potential for us to go a little bit lower if we take out the lows of earlier in May of around about 1740 so in this case you know in terms of Dolomex you need to be trading the trend the trend is down so you've got lower highs lower lows so I would be looking to sell into rebounds back to 18 on 18 and 19 remove back towards the lows I certainly wouldn't be looking to buy in so um well yeah exactly as you say the swap is bad on buyers um do I think summer trading will favor a carry trade no I don't answer to that question um and so I think that's pretty much I think that's pretty much does anyone else want me to cover anything else that I haven't already covered I need to show you this chart guys because this is interesting cable I always look at cable because I used to trade the thing um there's a nice trend line coming in from the 2021 peaks back in May two years ago it's currently to where we are now so big big level on cable approaching between 126 and 127 if we can break cable 126 127 then we could certainly see a sharp move up to 130 I've seen no end of notes talking cable down when I start to see no end of notes talking cable down I start to think about maybe going long why because the consensus generally tends to be wrong you tend to what I call herding or grouping now that doesn't mean they're wrong all the time but certainly I think a trade can get so one sided that sometimes it's not a bad idea to take the other side of that trade we are finding that since October the lows have been getting higher we are approaching these peaks we managed to hold above 123 so 123 on cable now is a fairly decent support level for me and you know I'm fairly constructive on cable while we're above 123 it also feeds into my slightly weaker dollar sort story as well if we can if we can hold above 123 and take out this trend line and this peak here then we could well see a very big short squeeze all the way back to 130 why because everybody hates cable everybody hates sterling and when everybody hates something that's when I start to think well maybe I need to have a look at it just to see whether or not it's worth taking a little cheeky punt anyway um that's that's my 10 cents worth never be afraid to be contrarian but really do think it through is one of the things I always say you're not always right but when you are you can be right big time so um I think that's pretty much it for uh this month ladies and gents once again thank you very much for your company thank you for your questions as always they've been illuminating and insightful and I look forward to seeing you all again same time same place uh next month in the meantime enjoy the enjoy the sunshine and enjoy the weekend and thank you very much for listening cheers have a great weekend


Hey there, friends! How's it going? My name is Kevin and today we're playing a mod for Kingdom Come deliverance called The Emperor's Own, which sets the game in the 19th century Russian Empire. So I'm very interested to see what this game is like. Ow! Let's pop in. Oh, my name is Cornet. Good thing he isn't Irish. He could have been like, Cornetto Riley. That was a bad joke, sorry. And no less than five sightings of the devil himself. Really? You've seen the devil himself five times? What am I getting myself into here? Investigate the precise source of these rumors. Oh wait, the rumor is okay. God damn it, I wanted to go fight the devil.   Oh no, I'm just sad. Oh, and take some fireproof armor for all the dragons you'll be slaying. This guy's making fun of me and I don't like him. There are dragons? I'm just taking him seriously. I just refuse to pick up on the sarcasm. Eddling junk is a disgrace to the uniform. Why are they all making fun of me? What if it's magic?  Your magic sword is in your trousers. Excuse me? What is that? A weird compliment or what? You look so real.   No, please don't kill him, please. He's the only one keeping me from being the stupidest person here. Oh no, we're gonna fight. Why are we fighting the peasants? They thought we were here to stop them gossiping. I mean, I guess this works to stop them gossiping. Better go cut down a tree, mid-fight. How are you guys doing over there? Because I'm nearly losing to this man with a stick. Jesus, you really did a number on this one. Did you bury his head in the sand? Is he just ignoring the problem? The ostrich technique. I do that with some of my responsibilities too. All right, here's the village.  I mean, let's try and talk this out first, I guess. Rather than escalating to violence immediately.  Oh, you see, these people are nice, actually. I'm not even gonna slaughter this village. They're complimenting me. Possessed by infernal spirits are... Oh, Jesus Christ, you just kinda appeared there. Was she standing there the whole time? Okay, we gotta investigate the village cemetery. Apparently people are being dug up and they're convinced it's the work of the devil. I don't think this village knows what burying is. They just covered something with dirt instead of actually putting it underground. All you need to do is take me to a princess and have her give me... I love that it's all set in Russia and their names like Dmitri and stuff and they just sound like that. You ready for my Russian impression? All right, govna, how are you, my comrade? Oh, my God. This is such a long walk. The village is all the way down there. I've been walking for so long, I'm starting to get tired in real life now. But I'm finally here. There's a lot of people camping out by the witch's house. The lady, they've come for the lady. What? What? Hold on, we're just here to talk. How many villages are going to attack me? How do you use your gun? I want to do that. I want to do what you just did. Ah, get away, come on. I'm just letting my friends fight me. Kick. Oh, there you go. How are you guys not done fighting him yet? Please come help me. Jesus. Come on, shoot them again. You're looking the wrong way. Oh, I figured out how to use my gun. It's a middle mouse. I got him, I think. I think I must have curved the bullet because the gun was definitely beyond him. To what do I owe the pleasure, gentlemen? See, she's calm out. She doesn't care. All those men just died. Okay, I'm going to be honest. I came all this way and I kind of forgot to listen to what she was saying. But something about someone died in the village four days ago, that's what that mound of earth was, I suppose. What is surprising is the dedication of the men protecting her. Yeah, that's the thing. She did seem nice and friendly. And yeah, the witch thing is probably unlikely. But still, like 10 people just died for her for no reason. And she didn't seem bothered by it. Oh, there he is, the man we've been looking for. The other leg is severely dislocated. Severely dislocated? Oh my God, I have to. I have to pick out Mr. Howdy was Reckon killed? Okay, I think he wrote a note and committed suicide. He wrote it and killed himself. Of course, yes, by ripping off all his limbs. Okay, so we think that... Oh my God, they buried him. It's good Lord. But yeah, we think that he was tied to horses and they ripped him limb from limb. Oh well, I say we, they. I still think it was a suicide. If I were to recreate it, I would think he had enough. He grabbed his arm and just ripped it off and was like, well, may as well keep going now. And then started ripping his legs off and got the last arm with his teeth. Go back and tell the king that. I'm sure he'll believe me. We need to find that wise man. A wise man? I don't think there are any wise men in this village. If they've just resorted to blaming that woman on the hill and wolf men for all their problems. I don't think they're very wise. Wrong way. Hold on. Sorry. Oh God. Why did I become the leader? I've embarrassed us in front of the villagers. Okay, this village doesn't seem as friendly as the last one. And everyone in the last one wanted to attack me. So I don't have high hopes for this place. Even looking at his mustache, I can tell he wants to attack me. Good Lord have mercy. I'm not a feckin spirit. I'm just wearing a green jacket. Don't, don't do it. It hurts a little bit. Stop. Kill him. Come on. Where's that guy? Who sent that one? The one with the funky hair. Shoot him. I missed.  Probably shot my teammate. Spank with sword. Spank with sword. I don't think that's what it's called. What? Unguarded. Ow. Oh God, run away. Just fleeing, but very slowly. Oh, come on. I can't go through here. Oh God, is that my teammate? Finally he's arrived.  Shoot him. I saved him for ya. I thought you might want to kill the last one, you know, to get most of the glory. I didn't want to be a glory hog or anything. God, I was so close to death. You know what? We're not really going to help the myth that there's like demons and beasts going around here. We just slaughtered a whole village. I think we're adding fuel to the fire. But you know what? Let's explore their little homes and see what they have here. There's got to be like a cursed idol or something. Just a shrine to Jim Pickens himself. These windows are just painted on. Do you think this is a fake village? Maybe I am being tricked by the devil. All right, we're two men. Look at that lens flare. I feel like I'm in a 2012 Call of Duty montage. Okay, we found someone just hanging out at their homestead. Look, I'm just sitting on the bench. Luckily, there's no weapon with him because I'm just waiting for him to come attack me.   He doesn't care about me. Kill him. Oh, where did you come from? Why are there people everywhere that want to kill me? Hey, wait a second. You're the guy from earlier at the funky haircut. Oh, come on, ghost. Join in. The goat does not care. The goat is just continuing to eat grass. Well, I'm going to show you who the real goat is. I just started eating the grass myself and never understood what that really meant. Is there anything you want to tell us? No. After all that? We're looking for a wise man. This guy seems pretty wise, actually. I think it might be him. You boys didn't figure it out yet. You're about to have a full-blown rebellion on your end. That makes sense why everyone's just attacking us out of nowhere. You'd think we would have known this. Good.  This guy's great. He just verbally assaulted me instead of assaulting me like everyone else. Even in the background. How am I even supposed to identify a person as a wise man? Like, if I'm not wise, how can I test his wisdom? Okay, this person's definitely not wise. They were smacking out log with an axe and making no progress whatsoever. But what causes more important than your own wife and mother? Wife and mother? What kind of incestuous village do you have here? You'll answer our questions or you'll hang.  You can a defenseless woman. Yeah, yeah, I would. Calm down. The other character's like, dude, cool, Jesus. So they lie to our faces. Wait, the villagers lie to us? We should hang them. It's like four hours back to road. My friends are gonna start to question my judgment. And we gotta go back to the village, apparently, to talk to the witch. And I just have a bad feeling that the village is gonna turn against us. I hope no one overheard me saying that I wanted to hang them all. Oh no, what do you want now?  Werewolf! I don't believe him for a second. It's a trap. I'm gonna say stories too absurd to be a lie. I wanna check out these werewolves. This is the lumber camp? Oh God, why did it have to be nighttime? They were giving them trouble in the day. Imagine what a werewolf can do at night when the whole moon thing is out. That's their whole shtick. They love that. What do werewolves hate again? Fire and riddles or something? Fire and silver? Is it silver? Yeah, they hate silver. I found a hand everyone. Shouldn't we ever weapons at the ready? What is that? Is it some like colt and they're just dressing up as wolves? Because that's pretty cool if so. Okay, guys, please, please. I can't get out the door because my friends won't move. Come on. Come on, please. I need to get out. This guy's trying to come back in. He's blocking this guy. Okay, there we go. No. Okay, there. Got through. A coincidence.  Oh, I get to say what happened again. I'm committing to just something supernatural. Oh, God, I should have said wait till morning. All right. No, we're for following them.  Oh, perfect sake. They just entered a horror movie all of a sudden. Jesus Christ, who did that? The NPC even started running.  But I don't think they can actually run. I think it's trying to build suspense, but the NPCs have no interest in that. Oh, sweet.  Like, where do you play that without audio? Don't look to your left. He said don't look to your left. Why would you look at the head? Someone is digging them up, not burying them. Wait, so they've been stealing from the cemetery? Why? That's just great. Oh my God. This is just some lunatic woman running all over the place, isn't it? She might have stopped her toe or something, perhaps? That's the noise I make when I stop my toe. You know when past Kevin decided, let's go at night instead of selecting the option which would have waited till morning?  Oh, great. Some sort of steeple up ahead. Fantastic. Just what I wanted. A creepy haunted church. Who is that? I can't see. Oh my God. That's the Wolfman. They're real. They're real. What do you mean? These do not look anything like werewolves. They don't even look like good cosplays. There we go. I delayed them long enough for the NPCs to kill them. Good strategy. Well, werewolves, they don't look like werewolves. They're on some weird drug, aren't they? They're out here just having a good time, taking some illegal questionable substances, dressing up as wolves, and we're ruining it. Oh, for fuck's sake. I didn't think I was getting into a horror movie.  You're just going to stay there now? I can just have a chat with you? At least you're not wailing in the woods anymore. I explain yourself first. Oh, we're just going to leave a walk away. Okay. Is your toe all right at least? Did you step in a box of Lego? Welcome home. Oh no. This isn't good. I'm already in a cult. I don't want to be in this one. Colonel De Nito. A colonel? Are you a cult leader now? That is sick. Nice work in the promotion.  What? Are we dead? He's actually checking like, am I dead? Oh no. Okay. He is a lunatic. Okay. I thought I was the crazy one for a second. We're here to investigate tales of ghosts and wolf men terrorizing the locals. He's like, uh, no, it must have been someone else. I have something that will help. Oh no. I don't think you're going to help me at all, actually. They actually are taking mushrooms. That little duck face for the spit. The way he's ringing that bell is terrifying in itself. Oh great. I'm in a boss fight all of a sudden. Can I just run around till I can shoot again? Wait. This isn't too bad, actually. Okay. Yeah. This is fine. When it's just one, I'm just spamming attack and it's working just fine. Do I get to be the cult leader after this now? Because I'd rather just fill his place rather than fight the rest of the cult here. Oh no. She's gone down here. He has foretold this moment. Oh for fuck's sake. Who? Who foretold it? Can you foretell me what is going on? I'm in Jim Pickens basement. This is it. This is actually the cult's basement. All right. That's it. No more, Mr. Scaredy Cat. I'm running all over the place and there's nothing you can do to stop me. I will find you. Great skies are gonna clear up. Put on a happy face. I am not scared at all. Put on a happy face. Find the woman in white. I don't know where it's gone unless she starts to shriek again. Marco. Oh no. Oh no. What is this? You love your fecking basements, don't you? Maybe you and I aren't so different after all. I'm sure we can find some common ground. We have way more in common than you would think. Jesus. What is that? Someone's alive down here. Wait. The ghost. The serpent. Oh no. The chamber of secrets has been opened. This is creepy as I don't know what. Honestly, can we get out of here? I really want to leave now. Love the decor, but just want to leave. Well, let the moral of the story be never do drugs, everyone. Mushrooms bad. Like that guy was a colonel. He worked for the king himself. He is one mushroom, then he thinks he's dead and he's leading a cult and some abandoned church on the edge of town. Oh, what is going on now?  Is that the witch? Are these the two berries that you- Yeah, the people at the shovel earlier who buried the guy. We are men and we must keep our families from this devilry. Yeah, you brave men. You tied a woman to a tree and burned her alive. He was selling mind, altar, and mushroom. Oh wait, so she was a drug dealer? All right, you know what? That's grand. Might be better off because it's a gateway to some nasty stuff if I've learned anything tonight. What should we do with these people? We should execute them. They're the last survivors of all of this. We should just finish it with everyone dead. We have youngins. Oh no, I'm gonna kill them next then.  He's trying to get them to survive. No, ignorance doesn't justify murder. Wait, they're just dead?   And I'm like, yay, I get to fight defenseless people for a change. Welcome back. Thank you very much. Half your village is dead. Oh wait, yeah, we're angry at you too. Sorry, I forgot. Yeah, you knew more than you told us. Just because he's the last witness in the village, it's probably good to just kill him too so that nothing bad can be said about what we did here because there's a lot of bad things we did. That's a human being.  Let him go. Wait, who are you all of a sudden? I thought I killed all the villagers. Oh my God, this is dark.  I'm going with Operation Scorched Earth. We did our duty. They're all just screaming at you, Sammy. Let's be right off over the sunset. And that's about it. Okay, he told them the story. I hope that you didn't go into detail about what we did and just said the good parts. The peasantry is already on edge because of the recent increases in taxes and military service terms. I think I may not have helped that either with the whole I'm going to execute your entire village thing. These are my options. Visit my friend Diana, go drink and play cards with the two friends I just made or go to church. I think now would be a good time to start my repentance but I'm going to go drink and play cards instead. Oh, that was good. I liked that. A solid, solid mod that felt just like a full game. But I hope you enjoyed my war crimes. Thank you so much for watching. Subscribe if you're new and I hope to see you tomorrow. Bye for now.


After receiving ATACMS missiles, Ukraine will attack Russian positions in the Sea of Azov. The US is considering providing the Ukrainian army forces with ATACMS missiles capable of surgical strikes on targets up to 300 km away. The US Department of State and the Pentagon are attempting to convince President Joe Biden to sign off on such deliveries, citing Ukraine's failed counter-offensive. According to experts, this could complicate the missions being carried out by Russian forces in the Special Military Operations Zone but is unlikely to be a game-changer that could dramatically shift the situation on the line of contact in Ukraine's favour. Ukrainian troops have already received Storm Shadow Cruise missiles from the UK and a version of this type of weapon, S.C.A.L.P., from France, with a strike radius of 250 km. Military expert Lieutenant General Yuri Netkachev told Nezavisimaya Gazeta, some important targets were hit with these missiles, including the Chonga Bridge, which had led to snarled traffic along this route for some time. But then the Russian military quickly set up pontoons while we are not seeing any fundamental success by the Ukrainian army on the front line as a result of using these weapons. The same will happen if the Kiev regime receives the ATACMS type missiles, he explained. Another military expert, Colonel Vladimir Popov, thinks that Kiev is betting on the ATACMS missiles, hoping that they will bring its success on the battlefield. After the Ukrainian army received Himar's rockets in the fall of 2022, Ukrainian troops took over Kursan and almost all of the Karkov region. He recounted, the Ukrainian army now needs ATACMS missiles to break through the sea of Azov and try to take over Tokmak, Melitopol and so on. But the summer combat period is coming to an end. For instance, US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley said that there are about 30-40 days left for the Ukrainian counter-offensive until the weather turns unfavourable for combat. The expert added.


G'day. How are you going? Welcome to my channel Boot Lossophy and if you're new here, my name is Tech. I'm working on Wajik Country in Western Australia and I acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land. In this review, I'm looking at the Wolverine 1000 mile plain-toe original boot in Cordova number 8. This is the Wolverine 1000 mile boot or to give it its full name, the Wolverine 1000 mile plain-toe original boot because there are several versions of this boot and in fact the 1000 mile name is now used over a whole range of boots. Wolverine itself was founded in 1883 by G.A. Krauss in Rockford, Michigan in the U.S., starting first as a tannery and then began producing work boots and gloves. By 1903, the business was producing hundreds of boots a day and it grew so much that the business was the cause of bringing electricity to Rockford. It's now a publicly traded company producing boots and shoes in the Wolverine brand name but also in the names of Hush Puppies and Merrill and in 2012 they also took over Socorny, Keds, Stridewright and Sperry as their brands. Apart from all of those brands, they also manufacture footwear for Caterpillar and Harley Davidson. Still basing their corporate offices in Rockford, Wolverine is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and in 2021 reported annual sales of over 2.4 billion U.S. dollars. So not a small company yet still making heritage boots and apparently making money from it. Turning to this boot, the 1000 mile boot was first introduced in 1914 as a work boot originally made with horse hide for toughness. I've remarked in my other reviews before leaving aside the obvious. Big toe work boots like the Iron Ranger work boots from the turn of the 20th century like these and Aldens seem to have been made like toughened up dress boots allowing you to polish them up after work and take your misses out for a drink and a dance. The aesthetic of the 1000 mile can be mistaken for a dress boot. Sure, the toe is a little raised, a toe bump, but nothing like the red-winged clown shoe shape of the Iron Rangers or the blacksmiths. It's not very sleek but it is shapely enough to pass as an elegantly shaped boot. Its design is simple so you don't look out of place wearing these as a work boot and because it is so simple looking, just three pieces of leather and a backstay, it can pass as a dressy boot for smart casual occasions. In those dressier times before the First World War when men wore suits with an apron over them to do manual work, work boots had leather soles and these have continued that design element although this specific boot has had a rubber toppy sole put on which I'll talk about later. And just before you get carried away, this leather is called Cordoven number eight but it is not Shell Cordoven. The Cordoven name refers really to the color and not the type of the leather. In fact it is Horween's Chromic Cell Leather which I'll explain when I get into the construction. While these boots great great grandparents may have started at life as a work boot, in today's world I think you'd be pretty crazy to spend nearly 300 US dollars in a pair of sleek looking boots like these and go out and do some concreting. Today as work booty tough as these might be, they are definitely in the casual boot area of use. Most people who buy them would crave for that heritage look and genuine history and in fact when I got into boot collecting I identified the need to go and get and wear a list of what I consider to be real heritage boots with real history or at least solid boots made by companies with real heritage. The Iron Ranges for example, the Alden Indy, a Trickers or a Granson Country boot, something from Ellen Edmonds and these the Thousand Mar boots. These in color eight Chromic Cell are not particularly shiny not like my Chromic Cell Brown boots from Ellen Edmonds or from Alden but they are still dressy casual. I think these go particularly well with a conservative gray suit, no flashy cuts but in a charcoal color that sets off this reddish maroon brown boots. Most of the time I think the wear of these boots are for more dressy occasions, going to church or to a wedding, attending a business function or cocktails, everyday wear at places that you wouldn't necessarily wear ripped jeans or heavily faded jeans or canvas work pants. They go well with earth colored chinos like browns and khakis, they're sleek enough to go with slimmer dark jeans or earth toned five pocket pants. The design and color means they can also match wall pants in brown or a very dark navy, maybe even black. I think they're potentially too sleek to wear with faded jeans and t-shirts. I think they are limitately versatile and that they're at the dressier end of the casual spectrum. Let's dive into the construction and as usual let's start from the bottom and we'll work our way up. The soles are leather, to some that's controversial but I really love leather sole shoes. I've worn them all my life and yes they are slippery but you know when you're wearing leather sole shoes so you walk with a little more care and you do not decide to go and climb our Everest in them. What I like about them is that they feel good underfoot and they are flexible. True they can start to look pretty ugly once they get scratched, scuffed and scored and once dirt discolors the sole but these are actually pretty good for that. These are butyl leather soles. Butyl is a synthetic rubber formed from a chemical called isobutylene and another chemical called isoprene. It's infused into the leather in resin form mixed with small amounts of oil and what you end up with is a leather surface with a sticky grippy feel even after wear and it's been scratched up. Unfortunately the previous owner of this pair which I bought off eBay has had a toppy rubber's outsole glued on for some extra grip. It might be my imagination but to me this does reduce flexibility a bit and in my opinion because the rubber adds another layer on the natural flexible leather makes it a little bit stiffer. The heel is original a leather stacked block heel with a rubber top lift for shock absorption. There are actually three layers to the sole there is the leather outsole then inside in the cavity formed by the welt is a cork midsole and then on top of that is a leather insole. Finally on top of that is a half length leather heel pad which covers the heel and down to the arch area. Now let's backtrack a bit. I said that the cork filler midsole fills the cavity formed by the welt so this is a Goodyear welt shoe. It's a former shoe construction that connects the outsole to the uppers via a welt a strip of leather running around the outside edge of the boot. The welt is sewn onto the uppers on the inside and it's also sewn onto the sole on the outside edge of the welt. In this way there are no stitches that go through directly from the inside of the boot to the outsole so it offers a little more water resistance. It's also more easily re-soluble because you can remove the outsole without disturbing the stitches on the welt to the uppers and potentially then damaging the uppers. This is a 270 degree Goodyear welt meaning that the welt only runs across the front of the boot from one side of the heel to the other as opposed to a 360 degree Goodyear welt that runs a full circle around the boot. The reason for this choice is usually to allow a more sleek line at the heel without a welt there. The line of the back of the boot down to the heel remains slim and sleek. If there was a welt at the back in a 360 degree run there would be a ledge formed by the welt there like there is at the front so to some eyes less dressy. The leather and cork sole construction is a gold standard in Goodyear welt shoes. They form two natural layers that will compress over time to form a negative impression of your feet as if they were especially made for you in terms of comfort. Apart from the controversy of a leather sole the 1,000 mile has another controversy. It has no shank or maybe it does. In forums Wolverine representatives have said that it does not have a shank. If you ask them about it they say it does not have a shank but several YouTube channels I've seen like Trenton and Heath have shown themselves re-soling a pair of thousand mile boots and they seem to show a shank being pulled out and replaced. Who knows some discussion groups say that the newer thousand mile boots don't have a shank even though the older models were built with one. Why is this a controversy apart from the confusion? Well a shank is a piece of hard material usually steel that bridges the gap between the heel and the foot pad. People say that it's important because it supports your arch in that gap. Without a strengthening shank your weight will press down and flatten that gap as you stand and walk so that over the course of the day your arch is flattened and flexed and it's going to end up tired and sore. Also a shank offers torsional stability so that your foot doesn't swivel around longitudinally as you step over uneven ground again causing tiredness. Well to be honest unless that leather sole is super strong for its mid-thickness it feels like there is a shank and yet and yet arch support isn't fantastic and after day standing in these I kind of feel sore in the arches. I mean I don't know if you have a definitive answer to this please let me know in the comments below. Anyway let's keep moving up. The leather is chrome excel which I'll talk about next but it's worthy to note that the design only has three main pieces of leather the vamp and the toe box and two quarters. There is a one piece backstay and the tongue of course but they're nicely integrated so they don't stand out. The stitching is actually pretty good these are used boots but even so there are no frayed stitches and the stitch per inch density all look very clean double and triple stitch where it counts it's well put together. There is one contrast stitch at the quarter on both sides and like with most contrast stitches this one has been muted by the application of some colored cream polish. The toe box and heel cap are reinforced or structured by I think leather pieces real leather toe box under the upper and real leather heel counter on the inside covered by a suede heel counter cover inside. These leather pieces if they are leather keep this toe bump shape of the boot and prevents it from collapsing with use and in the heel it forms the shape of a heel cup and maintains that shape so that your heel is fitted securely into it. The inside is lined in the toe box and vamp but the shaft is unlined that's fairly usual in old-time heritage boots. The tongue is partially gusset up to between the fourth quarter and the first speed hook. There are four brass eyelets three brass speed hooks they feel sturdy like most old-time boots like these they're not backed and they just kind of star pressed into the back to hold them. They're solid though no movement there. Despite the tongue being semi-gusted the right tongue slides around pretty annoying I know you can get a cobbler to stitch a small stitch to one side to hold it in place but I'd rather not do that. I've also been told that you can train the tongue by in order to stay by folding it in half lengthwise and I've tried believe me but like some dogs and most cats it's not listening to me. At the top of the shaft Wolverine Thousand Mile is stamped on the outside kind of cool I think but some don't like it. The top of the shaft is unfinished and not rolled. Now let's talk about Chromax Cell. Chromax Cell is produced by the esteemed Horween leather company Tanry out of Chicago. Horween is a 120 year old family owned company. Chromax Cell is one of their famous leathers and is a combination tanned top grain leather that starts with chrome tanning followed by a vegetable tanning process and then followed by a process that hot stuffs the leather with blends of oils and waxes in a big steam tumbler. The whole process takes about a month and produces a soft hardy waxy and self-curing leather. Due to the heavily infused oils and waxes that move around in the leather Chromax Cell has a pull-up effect when you push up against it. This makes Chromax Cell naturally more water resistant and all the oils and waxes make them self-polishing. Most scuffs and marks can be polished out with just your fingers moving the oils around. This one is Horween's colour number 8 Chromax Cell. They use the colour that they use to dye their also famous shell cordovan which is probably why Wolverine calls this their cordovan number 8. It is a sumptuous colour, a little less smooth and shiny than Chromax Cell I've seen in other boots which I think is the way that Wolverine treats the hide and which makes it look more worthy of work boots probably. It's not incredibly thick, it varies between two and two and a half mils thick, but it does feel very tough. It has some burgundy undertones and in some lights it looks plummy purple. In other lights, reddish brown. I have to say though, shine or no shine this colour is more toward the dressy side than reminiscent of a work boot. On the downside, I know these are second hand but I'm not hugely impressed by Wolverine's clicking or leather selection process when it comes to choosing the pieces to cut from the hide. As you can see here the creasing on the vamp of the left boot is weird and way more than the creasing on the right boot. This usually means that a slightly inferior piece was selected on this boot and Chromax Cell has one fault. It can have loose grain and the boot maker has to watch for it. Loose grain is where a patch at the top of the leather delaminates from the lower leathers of the leather. The fibres basically rub against each other and then loosen. Not catastrophic, it's not going to break apart and the rest of the pair is pretty good but I expect more for a US $400 boot. So how do you look after Chromax Cell? I've said it before and I'll say it again. Chromax Cell is pretty easy to take care of. Brush regularly, not just to move the oils and waxes around but also to make sure that you regularly brush off the gritty dust and sand particles that over time could cause deep scratches and weaken the leather. When you need to clean it, unless it's caked in dirt and grease, brush and knock off the dirt and then just use a damp cloth to wipe over it. Then brush it again before you condition. If it really really needs it, saddle soap is fine to clean Chromax Cell but don't forget to make sure that all the grit is off before you mix in the saddle soap. Don't create an emery paste to rough up the surface of the leather. As for conditioning, my go-to product for smooth leather, never mind Chromax Cell, smooth leather is neutral Venetian shoe cream. It will nourish the leather without darkening the already dark leather anyway and it will give a bit of a sheen. This version of Chromax Cell doesn't seem to take too much of a shine and if the colour has worn off a bit and you don't like the patina developing or if you want more of a shine, use a burgundy coloured shoe cream polish, not a wax polish. The cream will further feed the leather and give it colour and it will create a better shine than just the Venetian shoe cream. Now let's take a look at how these boots fit. I'm a US 8.5D in my Brannock sizing. Most American heritage style boots run large. These are no exception and I took my usual 8D in these and they fit really well. The last, that's the mould that the boot is built around, is a pretty slim last so it's snug in the heel, snug in the waist and at the ball of the foot. That area always scares me. I usually like room at the ball of the foot because it's there where you can feel the most restriction and hence the most foot pain there and because of it at the small pinky toes. These don't feel over tight. They are snug but not uncomfortable and I think the shape of the toe box and the roomy bump toe height gives me room in my toes despite the slim shape all the way up to the toes. As for comfort, they're not uncomfortable but I feel that I know I'm wearing work boots. There's no foam footbed of course but I've had other leather cork combinations that feel much better than these. The arch support is not great. Maybe because of the possible lack of shank but I definitely do feel a gap under my arch. I can't tell you what they're like out of the box of course. These are secondhand but as you can see they're not used in abuse so from the evidence of this I don't think the break-in is awful. Maybe the leather has been softened for me by the original owner. Maybe the sole's been flexed for me but I can see that there wouldn't have been tight squeezes or hotspots from the fit. Not uncomfortable but I've had better and I've certainly had worse. I got these for Aussie $199 on eBay. I do get some good finds on eBay. I exercise my own due diligence list and usually come up with some great buys. Hardly used or just tried on boots and some never used pairs even. These have been lightly used. He said that he'd used them several times but they were just too tight so they stayed in the back of the cupboard. The wear on the heel is minuscule and assuming he put on the the toppy outsole cover as soon as he got them the cross-hatching on that rubber is untouched. The inside is pristine. No foot marks from his feet on the leather insoles so all in all for a pair of boots that are listed at $385 new you'd have to say $199 Aussie for a hardly used pair is pretty good. If new for US$385 they compare with Redwing Iron Rangers or Blacksmiths at around $300 US or with Alan Edmonds Higgins mill boots at $475 US. I think that's fair. To me these sit well in between the rougher Redwing models and the more refined Higgins mill. You get a heritage quality boot in a really good chrome XL leather, beautiful treated leather sole. Pretty good to see except for that if he creasing on one boot and it's a durable strong boot. Yeah verdict is worth the money. So guys there you are that's my review of the Wolverine 1000 mile plain toe original boots. A classic really but still mid-range boot in terms of price and quality. If you like my review please remember to click on the like button below and it'll help me out and don't forget I've got a lot more boots to review and maybe a few more to unbox as I keep on finding new boots maybe some on eBay. So consider clicking on the subscribe button too okay. Don't miss my videos as I upload them. Until then take care and I'll see you soon.


Let us start doing the tutorials on writing difficult emails, okay. So this is something that all of you must have faced. So we will take one by one, probably we will try to do two exercises. I think I gave four exercises. So the first email is your paper is rejected by editor, you believe review is not fair. So you have to write an email to the editor explaining why you want a second review, okay. Second is you are conducting a conference, you have rejected a paper because it was submitted late, author of the paper has written an asti email to you and is asking you to include her paper. So you have to write a polite but firm reply as to why you will not consider the request. You should also write in your mail that you do not appreciate the tone of the email sent by the author, okay. So this is the second difficult email. The third one is you want to go for a conference, registration fee is too high and your approved budget cannot cover it. So you have to write an email to the organizers requesting fee waiver. And the last one is you attended a conference and met some very interesting researchers in your area. You have to write an email to thank them for the interaction. The purpose of the email is to keep the contact alive but you cannot say I am writing this email so that I keep the contact alive with you, okay. So you have to write a polite nice mail about the interaction but this is the purpose, okay. So these are the four exercises we have. So you can download and I want you to prepare the email because this is email I do not want it to be very lengthy, okay. In each case it can be about 5 to 10 line emails and we will take some sample emails from you and we will also ask some of them to comment on the email and then I will give my comments. So this is the exercise we are going to do. So I want you to prepare the email and once you have one email at least ready to raise your hand. You can choose any one of them, any one out of the four. Not giving much time because this is part of the online tutorial session. You did have this exercise so I am assuming that some of you might have done the exercise already. So just for the sake of discussion here we are going to take up the emails. So I am not going to give you too much time but within the next few minutes if you can jot down the email then we will take it one by one. DKTE Society Textile Engineering Technology Institute Itchal Karanjee. Yes sir we have written the email regarding rejection of paper. Rejection of paper, okay. So can you read it out for me so that I will write it down so it will be projected to everybody. We can discuss the email then. Hi greetings sir, dear editor, I have submitted a research article. First is hi greetings. Hi greetings dear editor. Dear editor. Okay dear editor. I have submitted a research article. I have submitted a research article. A research article. Mm-hmm. Entitled. Entitled. Entitled. A review of Industrial Zigbee. A review of Industrial. Industrial Zigbee. Industrial, I did not get the word. Can you spell it for me please? Zi. Zi. G. G. G. Bwe. Bwe. Bwe. Bwe. So yesterday I have received your email. Yesterday I have received your email. Yesterday I have received your email. I have received your email. Your email. That my paper has been rejected. That my paper has been rejected. So here I want to request you that. I want to request that. Request you that. That I have checked. I have checked all the guidelines. All the guidelines. Mentioned by you. Mentioned by you. And also I have checked the plagiarism. Also I have. Checked for plagiarism. So I kindly request you. Kindly request you. Request you. To review my paper. To review my paper. Please do the needful. Please do the needful. Do the needful. Thank you. That's all. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. So I want the other colleges now to go through this email. That is available on your whiteboard. Okay. Please read this email. And if you are ready for comments raise your hand. Silicon Institute of Technology. Are you ready for interaction? Well this email what has happened and doesn't really relate to what needs to be done. Okay. Structurally there are some words which should not be there. For example, I cannot kindly request. That's out of place. And the reason how I relate to the rejection is not cited. So again my reason for requesting a recheck or a review again. Does not really find a basis in this mail. Okay. Checking for plagiarism. I mean these are already checked initially before submission and all. Okay. So even in spite of that if it is rejected many of the sentences seem to be out of place just needless in this case. Okay. It can still be a shorter or a more compact mail and more meaningful in the approach. Okay. Good. Thank you very much. Let me take comments from Mufakum Jha College of Engineering and Technology. Yes sir. With respect to the email that has been posted by one of colleagues of other college. The thing is actually when we are talking about it formal representation of email. Right. We can start with dear editor need not have high greetings or something like that. Okay. That is the first thing. Okay. Next thing is first where can you just post that email once again sir on the screen. Yes. Thank you sir. Yeah. It should be dear editor after that because as I have already submitted I am receiving this email. So I can start that as I have submitted a so and so paper and received an email stating that my paper has been rejected. I request you to give the kind your reasons for the rejection of the paper because I have followed all the necessary guidelines required for the submission of the paper and as it is my original work. I am sure about it that it needs to be reconsidered because that gives a confidence that whatever my research work is there I am confident that it cannot be rejected. So that should be stated in the email. Okay. So accordingly after that is stated I can say that based upon my request I hope that you will be reconsidering my paper once again for the review can be presented. Okay. I think it should be remodified and that is how I think this email can be given because first thing is we have to be authoritative about what work we have done and as we are confident we should say that it should not be rejected at the first place that should be done and second should be in a passive voice saying that I request you to further consider my paper for the review should be the final statement. Okay. Thank you very much ma'am. Thank you for your comment. Thank you sir. So Swaris College of Engineering. Yes sir actually in this mail whoever will be the reviewer start reading that mail and he will feel that if the there are these many numbers of grammatical mistakes in this mail how much how many mistakes will be there in a paper that will be the first impression. He has started his mail with the sentence that yesterday I have received your mail yesterday that usually we are not starting the sentence with the tense or the time and the request matter is very less. So that way you will not may may not go for the review of the same paper. Okay. So we have received some comments and some of them are valid some of them did not mention some of the things that I have been discussing. So let me go through this email for my comments. First thing as somebody mentioned high greetings high greetings is not something is how you start your email this is a formal mail. So this is not how it should be written and as somebody mentioned the first thing should begin as dear editor. Okay. So first it should start as dear editor and like I said after that there should be a semicolon. Okay. So it is important that you give this break or pause when you are writing and then you can say I have submitted whatever and then I have received etc. And as somebody else mentioned there should be more information on the request. So when you are requesting why? Okay. So I am assuming that when the rejection came they gave some reasons like for example this is not original work or that this is already known or that these experiments are not correctly done for these reasons. So when you request for re-review you have to take those comments and you have to respond to that. For example if it is written that this is not original work you have to say that even though these other work exist they do not look at this particular aspect. I am doing it so I want you to reconsider this request. And as somebody else again mentioned you cannot say I have checked for plagiarism because you are writing the paper it is assumed that you have not plagiarized. Okay. So that assurance that I have checked for plagiarism is not needed. Okay. It is not like you write a paper and then you check for plagiarism. When you are writing the paper you know that you have not plagiarized. So plagiarism check should be done by the other people. I cannot write and then say that I have also checked for plagiarism. If you say that then that means that you actually plagiarized and you modified the document in such a way that plagiarism software will not show it as plagiarized. Okay. So that does not make sense. So you should not do that. And then yeah request you to review my paper. So I kindly request is needed because you are just making a request. There is nothing kind or unkind about it. And typically the sentence please do the needful is not written in communication of this type. Okay. In communication sometimes you might write this sentence but that is not what is written in emails of this type. And as somebody else noted you should make sure that there are no grammatical mistakes or errors. And I also found that there was no signing off. Okay. With regards or something and then the full name of the author should have been there. And then the most important there should have been a subject line that was missing. Right. So all this so the subject should be one line. And it should have all the information that you are trying to communicate so that the editor can take a look at the email. And then so there should be some with regards or something. And there should be the full name. And below the full name you should have complete affiliation and information. What is your position? What is your institute? And all such information because this is still a formal letter. And all this information should be there. Okay. So thank you very much. So this is one exercise. And we will go to the next exercise. Some other email if you have it ready then please raise your hand so that we will take it up. Federal Institute of Science and Technology. Do you have an email ma'am? Yes sir. We have an email and I have written the email about the request for a fee waiver. Fee waiver. Okay. If you please read it to me slowly I will write it down ma'am. The subject line of my email is request for fee waiver. Request for fee waiver. Okay. And then the salutation which is like dear sir. Dear sir. Thoma. The email begin like this. I am extremely enthusiastic about. I am extremely enthusiastic. About. Attending the conference. Attending. Attending the conference. The conference. You have organized. You have organized. Stop. However. However. The conference. The conference fee. Conference fee. Seems to be. Is. Seems to be. Seems to be. That it is seems to be. Seems to be. Seems to be. Seems to be comparatively high. Comparatively high. Comparatively high. That I find it hard to meet the expenses. That I find it hard. That I find it hard to meet the expenses. That I find it hard. That I find it hard. That I find it hard. That I find it hard. That I find it hard. That I find it hard. That I find it hard. That I find it hard. That I find it hard. That I find it hard. That I find it hard. That I find it hard. That I find it hard. That I find it hard. That I find it hard. don't avail any financial support from my institution financial help sorry support from my institution comma I request you to kindly provide I request I request you to kindly provide a fee waiver that so that I can take part in the conference without any difficulty any difficulty will stop then the next line regards below that on the left side I would write regards comma my name which is G2M Joe's name and the designation below that assistant professor with that thank you very much ma'am okay so let us take some other college who can comment on this Tectro India Salt Lake do you have a comment on this email the starting is okay that I'm extremely enthusiast about attending the conference okay but here however the current for conference fee seems to be comparatively high which is not defined like comparatively high in the sense that is where I have a question okay and we could have provided a bit more details okay there in I guess like to show my interest in this particular confidence maybe one or two lines that I have been a part of this confidence and it has helped me to enrich it has enriched me to a great extent so I am I would like to join this conference or else from the very beginning we could have started directly with the thing that I would like request you to wave the fees or provide some concession for the registration fees and then we could have explained that why I need that concession okay very good ma'am thank you very much so let's go to Susheela Devi Bansal College of Engineering Indore ma'am do you have any comments on this email yes sir the beginning is good as ma'am said but however the conference fee seems to be comparatively high so we are not comparing it with any other conference fee so the word comparatively is redundant we don't need to use it okay so since the college fee is very high and I'm not getting any financial aid for the same from the from my institution and I want to attend it because I'm doing research in the similar area and I would be greatly benefited by attending this conference so I would request you to kindly provide a fee waiver and in this we can also add that this much is the fee and this is the amount you know so such and such amount that I can get from my college that or I can pay from my pocket or my fund and the rest of the amount so like that amount can also be stated that how much we are able to bear so that I can take part in the conference without any difficulty and this is a this I hope to receive a favorable response from you or something would be like good and then the regard and all this should also come in this corner like it should be left aligned thank you very much ma'am thank you so let me take one more comment before we complete the discussion on this Thakur college of engineering and technology is there somebody who wants to give a comment on this email I think it's a good mail about the waiver and the politeness as well as the way of writing it was perfect according to us the only thing that I find is the request and kindly both the words are simultaneously written on the same sentence where both of the words are having around the same meaning okay thank you Dr. Mahalingam college sir in the fifth line since I don't avail any financial support it has been mentioned like in a negative sense I don't avail right so even that sentence can be positively furnished so okay that is our comment okay is it okay to say don't in my in the mail or you have to say I do not we can even I do not do not is better so instead of using do not we can go for some other terms okay do you have a suggestion instead of going for I don't avail the allotted budget from our institution so it can be quoted in such a way sir very good ma'am thank you very much let me reiterate the comments that we have received so the email is written nicely so I agree that it is well formatted subject and the way the sign off is everything is proper and and like somebody mentioned somebody was asking about style this morning so we saw an example of stylistic differences you can either write I am extremely enthusiastic and then as for waiver or you can either as for waiver and then justify as to why the waiver is needed because you are enthusiastic and so on so this is a stylistic choice some people say about the enthusiasm first and then as for waiver some people say about the waiver first and talk about enthusiasm later so this is a stylistic point which was made by somebody and I agree comparatively high can be made more quantified you can say that the fee is so much say euros and it corresponds to so much in Indian rupees and as some of the commentator said you can say that this is the total budget that is allotted for me and this is what the travel would cost and this is what my stay would cost and then given this this becomes too high so that why it is comparatively high is brought out much more clearly and yes so enthusiastic is one thing you also have to say why it is useful over and above your enthusiasm so you can say I am working in this area or it will benefit me professionally or it will help me interact with people in the area and things like that and so these are some of the comments that we received and I think they are good comments so but overall this mail itself is better written and so it communicates what it wants to do so there is some more improvement that is possible but for a first draft this is a good mail okay so I am going to take one lost mail if somebody wants to give a mail which is different from these two Geetham University Hyderabad so we can start like this respected sir respected sir and I am an assistant officer and I am doing my PhD work so can I clearly specify the area or can I go for a broad that is for network security my PhD work in network security PhD work in the area of network security okay so in my field of work in my field of work I am trying to decode an algorithm I am trying to decode an algorithm which is been explained by you which has been explained by you in your works in your presentation at your conference so here we can go with the title of the conference and the place and the area where it was held sir so with regard to his presentation I am interested to carry out an extension of this algorithm with your support make a time of your busy schedule to discuss about this and can you sir with regards so if you can give a space for us to write the subject at the top requesting for an appointment regarding name of the algorithm sir request for an appointment regarding discussion on so it comes with the name of the algorithm sir so to this I will just add a little more with her when you're when you're saving she's saying in the area of network security I will also add my professor's name and from the university I'm working at because yes in the area of network security with professors so and so at at the university like at the university I would add that also okay yes sir okay thank you very much so please raise your hand if you want to give comments on this you a Patel college of engineering care what uh first she has mentioned that I am a assistant professor but where she is working she has not mentioned okay second thing and I am doing my phd work in the area of network security actually she has to mention that doing my phd work in the shade area okay that is a network security and like she has implemented some algorithm that she need to uh like explain what the thing uh like she want to she has mentioned in the algorithm that little bit she has to elaborate okay and further what the extension she wanted actually she has to give a brief of that okay so like the expert also would uh get the idea that uh which kind of the help she wanted actually okay very good so she can request to the expert regarding extension of the algorithm and uh would like to get the help from the expert okay for the extension and request for the like do need full in the same matter and kindly uh find your suitable time and uh please guide me in this particular matter okay so she can mention okay so this kind of the things which need to be like uh rectified in this mail very good thank you very much so I am going to try with Dr. D. Y. Patil Institute of Engineering Technology Pimpre in Phuna hello yes ma'am do you have any comments on this email in that one line is not like acceptable which has been explained by you in your presentation at particular uh conference sir okay what is the problem with that line uh sir the which has been explained by you at particular conference it is it sufficient it seems I see okay thank you very much ma'am so let me give my comments I want to go back to the original question we had because I think there is some mismatch between what I asked and what is done here okay so let's go to my presentation where I had the question the question was slightly different right so the question was you attended the conference and made some interesting researcher in your area of interest and the mail is to thank for the interaction that is the first thing the second part of the mail is to keep the contact alive of course that is done very very nicely in this mail I really liked so you give the area you talk about a specific problem you talk about a specific way of extending that interaction all that is done very nicely but the first part that I am so and so I met you during such and such conference and we had discussion or you gave a presentation about this in the conference that information is missing so the email does one part the keeping the contact alive part and that is very nicely done but thanking part is not done so that is first comment. Second comment like I have emphasized in my presentations also it is always a good idea to say dear professor so and so instead of saying respected sir I am also seeing that it is always served in all these emails so sometimes it can be a madam also so it is not necessary that it is always a sir okay so at least in the exercises we should say sometimes respected madam I mean our dear professor so and so okay so that is one thing I think the subject is too long if you write this subject requesting for an appointment regarding discussion on name of algorithm I do not think the reader will be able to see the full subject which means they will not be able to understand what is happening so instead it has to say either regarding this or thanks for meeting at this conference or request for an appointment okay the rest of the details can come in the mail and I also feel that this is a mail where paragraphs will be very useful you say dear professor so and so it was wonderful meeting you and interacting with you at such and such conference I am so and so who talk to you about this particular problem and then in the next paragraph you can say I am currently with working with so and so on this issue as I have discussed with you in during my interaction and this is what I have done and then the next paragraph where this is where I want to go and this is the particular discussion I would like to have with you and the other thing is to write could you please take time off your busy schedule to discuss about this I think that is not needed of course we know that the professor is going to have a busy schedule she or he is going to find the time if they find the problem interesting and if they want to discuss with you so you do not have to say that and you can say could you please let me know a convenient time when we would be able to meet to discuss this okay so that would make it a nice mail so overall good effort thank you very much and also thanks to all those who have given comments and pitched in but for now I will take a couple of comments or questions any comments you mentioned that you are going to thank him for the interactions during the conference meeting right so is it good to start the mail in the first mail itself we need to have a discussion and is it good in the sense to start in the first mail yeah if during your interaction in the conference if the professor has told you that okay send me a mail after I reach we will discuss then it is a good idea to say if it was not told it is a good idea to just say that I am so and so I met you during this conference we had a small chat I would like to continue on that can I write to you in detail about this and then write it in the next mail okay so it depends on what interaction you had with the professor but if suppose you had some slightly more detailed discussion and the professor says okay when I reach I will get back to you you write me a mail it is okay to write the details in the first mail itself okay thank you so NK arcade college of engineering and technology solapur do you have any comments questions yes sir in the last scenario regarding the international conference right in the salutation part when we are starting the email at the time instead of saying is it okay to use dear dr. Gupta instead of saying dear sir yes you should in fact say dear professor Gupta can we address to the name don't we think like it would be better if we address the name instead of saying sir or madam yes yes I agree with you you should address by name and proper salutation of the position thank you Periyar Mania my university yes sir this is from Periyar Mania my university yes sir sir in the previous mails so we had noted a dear sir we had informed us to use semicolon right could we use semicolon next to dear sir or comma only it is always a better idea to use a colon after all salutations but some like dear sir dear madam you can use comma also but it is more polite to use a colon okay some administrative mails you are writing you can use comma it's okay and especially if you are writing dear sir that means you don't know the person but if you are writing dear professor so and so probably it is a good idea to put a colon okay if you want to be on the safer side put colon everywhere it is always better to give that extra pass for all mails okay thank you very much ma'am so we have reached 12 30 this is the time for me to stop okay thank you