Yeah, the military in Hawaii. I'm Jay Fidel. This is Stink Techist, the two o'clock clock on a given Thursday. And guess what? Ed Case joins us. Representative Ed Case, it's so nice to see you smiling face in. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me back. So it's always interesting to talk to somebody in Congress when Congress is in such disarray. And I wonder if you could give us a little praise on how it's doing as you see it and how you're doing in it. Well, I think, you know, there are really two levels of Congress. The one level is what you actually do see in kind of the everyday, you know, media and the other presentation out there to the public. And it's not a pretty sight at all. And Congress is very polarized. Congress is very divided. Congress, too much of the time is paralyzed by non-consensus thinking. And, and, and, and, you know, the thought that if I, if I compromise with the other side, that's going to be viewed as a loss for me and a win for them. And it'll be put out there in the public that way. And that has just been really destructive on a number of levels. It certainly has been destructive to some of the large policy calls that we've had to make in our, in our country and in our national government. But on occasion, you have some bright spots. For example, we did pass to the point of this call a National Defense Authorization Act, which is our annual defense bill. It's been, it's been passed on time and, you know, on a, on a fairly non-partisan basis for decades now. And so that was a good solid result. We passed a bipartisan infrastructure package at $1.2 trillion last year that was, that was passed and is now in the process of rolling out to the country. I supported it very strongly. And so those are bright spots, but it's, it can be very dysfunctional and even discouraging on a day-to-day basis. There are whole areas of Congress where we actually do work pretty well together a little bit below the radar. One area is on the House of, on the House of the Senate Appropriations Committees. And I'm a member of the House of Appropriations Committee, which is responsible for all federal funding every year. And that committee tends to be a little less partisan. We tend to, you know, be a little bit more deliberative. And of course we have our fights, but they're, they're not, you know, Mortal Kombat or anything like that. And so that's, that's an area that works pretty well. And then there are a number of caucuses, which are, you know, fairly official organizations or just working relationships that you, that you put together on particular issues that are very, you know, operate in a less partisan atmosphere. Two examples of that would be, I'm a member of something called the Problem Solvers Caucus, which is a caucus in the House of 29 Democrats, 29 Republicans. And, and we're there to see whether we can find those solutions to some really naughty problems, whether it be immigration or China. I was just appointed Co-Chair of the Problem Solvers Caucus, a China working group. And then the other area that- How successful has that working group been? We just got going on it. We just actually had our first meeting this week. And we've got a lot on our plate clearly. And then the final thing I would answer from the, from the, in general in Congress, is Pacific Islands Caucus, which I co-founded a couple of years back on a bipartisan basis. That is, as it sounds like, focused on our country's relationship with the Pacific Islands themselves. So our backyard, military, non-military, everywhere in between. And that caucus has been quite a joy to work with. We've come out with some, some major legislation in this area and that much of our legislation is now adopted and passed the U.S. House. And so I would, I would, I would answer you. It's a, it's a, it's a mixture of a lot of things. But from my own personal perspective, sure, I get discouraged quite a bit of the time, but I really can't afford to dwell in, you know, discouragement. I still, I've got a job to do. And I just use whatever position and whatever, you know, influence and, and, and whatever tools are at my disposal to try to, try to advance things in whatever way I can. Yeah. Oh, voting rights, voting rights, voting rights is so important. And unfortunately, it's not stuck in the house, it's stuck in the Senate. And not too much you can do. We've passed, we've passed very, very solid voting rights legislation in the U.S. House a number of times already. And that is one of the tragedies. That is one of the real areas where there just is not any real good explanation for the failure of some of my colleagues to move on, on basic voting rights, but that somehow the, the maintenance and, and expansion of voting rights represents a threat to them politically, which is a very sad commentary really in many, many areas. I hope we can, you know, overcome that at some point, but it's, that has been a discouragement to me. Yeah. And before we go off to the military issue, which I do want to discuss and I know you do too. It's, it's the issue of the select committee looking into January 6th. That must have implications all over the house. It's a house committee. And it's very newsworthy and very important.  What's your sense of it? With the select committee itself or, or with select committee and the work of the select committee? Well, I believe in that select committee. I don't think you can, I don't think you can let an event such as January 6th happen, a major attack on our U.S. capital and attack on our democracy. I was there. I, you know, I lived through it. I felt it an embarrassment in the eyes of the world.  I don't, I don't think that you can let it go. You've got to understand exactly what happened, why it happened, and you've got to hold people accountable that, you know, either made it happen or incentivized it to happen. And you've got to, you've got to find the lessons in it. And so, you know, I'm really sorry that at the very, very beginning of the, of the, this process, we came out with a strong, very, very bipartisan bill with, with equal representation on both sides of the aisle. And I thought that that was the right way to go. I thought, I thought that, you know, we should all rise above it and try to find out what happened, regardless of where that trail may lead. That didn't happen. And so we, we basically had to do it ourselves. And I support their work. I don't know what the results are going to be, but I certainly expect that we will get to the bottom of it and that whatever we find will be, you know, not only fully transparent to the American people and to us, regardless of whether that's, it's a negative reflection on kind of how we went about things on that day or preparation, but that we can learn the lessons from it. Yeah. And of course, those things, all those things are of great concern. But right now, immediately, as we discussed before the show, Ukraine is a great concern. And that, and that does touch the military and the appropriations for the military and so forth. And so on the paper today that, in fact, we were sending troops to Poland in some substantial number. So it's not boots on the ground, but it's boots close by. And I wonder what your thoughts are about that and how you, how you feel it affects the Congress and the people, the country? Well, you know, Ukraine is a sovereign country, a country that is aligned with us. It's not technically part of NATO, but certainly it is part of the community of nations of Western Europe and Eastern Europe who aspire to and want to live under a system of government, then we share those values, who want to, you know, exercise their sovereignty, who want to, you know, better their people, who want to practice democracy and who want to be part of the international rules-based order that has maintained the peace in our world for three generations now. The peace didn't happen by accident. The peace happened because we came up with common rules and common ways of resolving conflicts. We memorialized them in institutions like the United Nations, certainly NATO is a part of that world. And so, you know, the threat, even the threat by any country to invade the sovereignty of another country who wants to go in that direction is a direct threat to us. And it's not just about Russia, and it's not just about Ukraine. It is about whether, you know, countries like China can do the same thing in the end of the Pacific or beyond for that matter. And so, you know, this is unfortunately one of those, you know, very difficult situations where the implications are very severe and significant for Ukraine itself, for Europe, and for the world. And we are part of this world. So, you know, sometimes I still, you know, hear people saying, well, what business is it of ours, what happens in Ukraine? Well, it is our business. We are part of this world. We are leader of this world. And we are being challenged by very authoritarian regimes who want to impose a different view of the world on not only their own citizens, but the rest of the world. And that does affect us.  And second, it sounds very much like the 1930s at some point. So, we'll talk about learning lessons. Now, I'm not a proponent of, you know, boots on the ground in Ukraine, but I certainly am a proponent of taking every measure that we can to dissuade Russia from invading Ukraine and to make the consequences of Russia invading Ukraine so severe that either it decides not to do it to start with, which, of course, is the intent here, or decides it can't do it, even if it starts to do it, or pays such a heavy price for doing it, that it and others never think about doing it again. So, that's an economic response. That's a that is a defense response. We are helping Ukraine with their own defense. Congress is involved in that. I believe we should help them with their defense. We've funded their defense capability, and we obviously do have some obligation to be prepared for the worst to include a military presence in other parts of Europe. Now, what's interesting is this somehow is different, where Vladimir Putin plays it out as a sort of chess game, and you never know what he's going to do the next day. At the same time, I think it's a learning experience for this country, a learning experience for President Biden, because he's found new ways to deal with that. He's found new strategies for public opinion for public discourse. And my view, I'd be interested in yours, my view is that he's doing a good job in order to deal with the misinformation, disinformation that we are getting from Russia. Well, he's done a number of things. Well, I think in this area, he has been, I think he's found the right balance between very straight, talking tough language and without the kind of attitude that can be projected out there in the world, that can be misinterpreted very easily and cause the situation to inspire a lot of control. So a clear set of consequences. I think that one area that's done a very good job of is working with our friends and allies and partners around the world to present a united front to Russia because we cannot do this alone and we should not do this alone. If Europe doesn't care about what happens to Ukraine, why should we in some ways? And Europe does care about what happens to Ukraine, but we've got to hang together. And countries like Russia and China are constantly trying to figure out whether they can shatter these relationships, so that they can divide these alliances and whether they can splinter the folks that they think are getting in their way of imposing their system of government, their system of directives and mandates and own view of an international rules-based order, which is an order that they created for us on them. And so it's very important for us to hang with our people and I think Biden has done a good job with that. Well, let's move on to the military per se. We're here on the military in Hawaii and I know you have a report to make to us in a sense about how the military in Hawaii is doing, its connection with the federal government, appropriations and policy. What are your thoughts these days about how well the federal government is handling Hawaii and how well Hawaii is handling the federal government? Well, of course, you can never get into this discussion and I think it would be some time before we can get into this discussion without taking Red Hill straight on. And so I talk now, leaving Red Hill to its own specific discussion. So these are general observations and I think Red Hill has changed some of this equation, which is one of the really tragic consequences of Red Hill. But in general, let's start at the beginning. I mean, if in fact we do believe that we should worry about countries like Russia, like China, if we do believe that we are a leader of the world and a partner of the world, much of the world, and a direct ally of countries like Australia, like Japan, that we want to head in the same direction with countries like India, with all of the countries of the Pacific Islands, that we value our common heritage, identity, and values, then you have to be able to present a very strong defense posture out there in the world because countries like Russia and China, well, they're not into this kind of a debate, they're just into what's the strength and can we impose ourselves on other people? It's very practical calculation. And so I believe that we need to do all of that. I believe that we must continue to do all of the above I've already talked about. And I also believe that Ukraine notwithstanding, the front of this is the Indo-Pacific, and that is where the future, the president, the future of our country and our world are being charted. And we have to be involved across the board, but we have to have a strong military presence throughout. And that's far more difficult and complicated than it used to be, primarily because of the rise of China, but not just China. Let's not forget that Russia is a Pacific power. Russia has a major fleet in the Pacific. It has disputed territories in the Pacific. It comes down here and sends its navy around Hawaii itself. Doesn't do that by accident. It's coming down here to see what it can learn and to make a statement. And it wants to leverage this relationship with China. It wants to have an access with China. Well, yes, of course, because they have one common goal. And they have one country in particular that's kind of in their way. As far as they have their own problems. So it's a marriage of convenience and it can unwind at any time. But right now, they view it as in their mutual interest to align and to present some kind of a united front. And that's a problem for the rest of the world, including us. So where that takes me to is that our Hawaii is incredibly important in all of that. And that is our role. That is our responsibility to our country. And I believe we need to embrace that role and that responsibility. Sometimes I hear people say, well, if the military just wasn't here, then the rest of the world wouldn't pay much attention to Hawaii. That's dead wrong. We're not going to be able to escape the circumstances of our geography, of our placement, of our own history as a part of this country. And so I try where I can to advance the interests of our military, both in the Indo-Pacific, as well as specific to Hawaii. And I also fully cognizant, as we all should be, that in the process of doing that, we also have a direct benefit to Hawaii given the economic return of our military in Hawaii, which is major with somewhere around, depending on how you calculate this, but 15%, 20% of our total state economy is related in some way, shape, or form to the military, whole segments of our economy that are very much related to the military, such as construction. And the fact of the matter is that's fine with me. If we are able to fulfill our responsibilities to our country, and it will help us as well, then that's where we should try to focus our energies. And so there's a lot of different aspects to, number one, where and how our military is involved in Hawaii today, as well as kind of where it's going in Hawaii today, and how I work primarily on the Appropriations Committee, on the Subcommittee on Military Construction, for example, which is about, I think we have 10 members and we're responsible for all military construction across the country. So there's a number of areas where I'm able to really pitch in from this perspective, but I think maybe what I'll do is I'll just stop there and you can take it. I fully take your point about the importance. In fact, we talk about this on the show and the military and Hawaii show all the time. I just wonder how you feel that that plays into the resolution of the Red Hill thing. I remember only a few days ago, maybe it was your committee or maybe it was Brian Schatz. You've found money to rebuild the tanks. How did that happen? Where's that going? How does it play? When will it resolve the dispute, if at all? Well, first of all, let's get into Red Hill here because there are a number of levels of Red Hill that are all disappointing. The first and foremost disappointment of Red Hill is the fact that it leaked to start with that thousands of families were displaced, that they were injured, that they lost their pets, that they are still to this day, not back in their homes, that their children cannot go to schools that are considered safe, that businesses are not fully open, that they rely upon, and this is not acceptable for our ohana. I mean that in the broadest sense because of course, those of us that live here all the time, they're clearly, you know, we're all part of the same ohana, but so are our military families. It doesn't matter whether they're here for six months or two years or five years. It doesn't matter whether they're legal residents or not. It doesn't matter if they vote here or not. As far as I'm concerned, when they're here, they're here. They're part of us. They are us, and they have been severely affected by the leaks at Red Hill. And second, of course, is the direct risk posed to our own water, which so far has not showed up in non-Mavie drinking water system wells, but certainly could still be there. It doesn't look that way so far, but we don't know that. And just the general risk of Red Hill is very, very clear at this point. And then frankly, I will say also that the Navy's response, in particular the Navy's response was not acceptable. Now, it's a lot better now than it was then, but it was defensive. It was in some ways creating obstacles to getting to the bottom of what was really happening. And public statements were very, very unfortunate on a number of levels. And so the early days of Red Hill continuing until fairly recently were really a disaster in many ways for our Navy. And so Red Hill has just been really, really bad all around, I would say. But on the broadest possible level, our military presence here in Hawaii does depend on our support of our military. Our military cannot carry out the degree of logistics, of preparation, of activity, whether it be Pearl Harbor, or Hickam, or Kaniohe Bay, or Pochalua on the Big Island, or Kahuku for major training ranges, or training ranges that are in state waters. They can't do that without our support. And we have supported them. I think most people in Hawaii understand the importance of our military, believe in our military, understand the mission, and support the military presence here and the military's use of our resources that is necessary for the military to fulfill its duty and its responsibility to our country. And by the way, to us, because they do protect us as well. Well, they stand ready to help us in times of natural disaster. Well, not just natural disaster, but, you know, a broader protection as well. So there's a benefit there. But that public confidence has been shaken by Red Hill. And I don't think that most of us distinguish between the Navy and some other branch. It is the military. And so one of the real consequences of Red Hill has been really a real blow to public support of our military in general. Now, I think most people can distinguish between the failure of Red Hill and the overall performance of our military, but certainly the confidence that was there and the kind of the carte blanche that was there, that will take a while to recover. And of course, it depends very much on what the Navy itself does in terms of the remediation of Red Hill and of compliance with the state's order, which orders it to defuel. And frankly, I think it's also going to depend at the end of the day on our Navy and our military in general, coming to a conclusion about other alternatives to Red Hill as a field storage facility. Yeah, you know, it's interesting that, you know, the in World War II, the population was much less, was a lot more land available to the military. And they were a significant, a more significant, they are still a very significant part of the economy, but they were even a more significant part of the economy then. And the community has grown up around them. It's the old story. And now, when you say that collectively we've got to find another place for them to go for their fuel storage, it's not as easy as it was. Yeah, that's true. But the military does have an adequate footprint today to fulfill their reasonable needs for a long time into the future. So the challenge, we don't have the challenge that occurs some parts of our country and world where our military needs expanded facilities in order to fulfill their function are such constrained on their facilities that the friction between civilian and military uses just becomes so acute that it is very, very problematic to continue. Okinawa would be a good example of that where we had major military bases right after the Second World War that were out in the boonies at the time. But then, you know, Okinawa itself, the population grew up around those bases in a very dense way. And they have to move those bases. And I think they should move those bases. We don't have that here. But certainly, again, the military does utilize not only its own land, not only its own resources, it utilized our resources at least as state lands. It, you know, obviously occupies and does joint use with, you know, much of our civilian community. It's not walled off. And so it's really critical that the tragedy of Red Hill be remedied in a way that does restore public confidence in our military. Because I can't, personally, I can't accept the alternative. Now you asked me about cost of Red Hill.  Number one, number one, taking care of those directly affected. So primarily our military families flushing the water, testing the water, paying for their for their temporary facilities, doing whatever we can to take care of those directly affected right now. Number two, identifying exactly what happened at Red Hill and why so that we can correct for even any movement of the fuel, for example, for de-fueling and remediating. So how do we actually restore the confidence of the rest of us that that water is safe, that you can go to any, you know, water pipe in this in this city and county and it's going to be safe drinking water. And as part of that, I think the support for the state's emergency order, which again directs the Navy to come up with a plan to defuel and then defuel. And then number three, the longer term consequence of Red Hill and as you, as you know, Congressman Caheli and I introduced the bill just last week where we crossed that last bridge and said, no, we need to close it. We need to come up with another way to satisfy bulk fuels, fuel storage facility capabilities in the Indo-Pacific and you military will work with you, but you need to figure out what that's going to look like and then we got to close it. Now that's all going to cost billions and billions of dollars. We estimate that already this fiscal year, I'm sorry, not this fiscal year, but just just really literally in the last 11 weeks, probably the cost is somewhere in the range of $500 to $600 million spent to date. And it's going to go up to another couple hundred million, probably to a billion by the end of this fiscal year, which ends in September. And then of course, we'll have to continue on from there. And as we finance the defueling and the stabilization and the alternatives to Red Hill, those are going to be billions of dollars over the next couple of years. We started down that road. Actually, it's interesting. It's very, very topical because the initiative that Senator Schatz initiated was to utilize the current a bill that's moving through Congress right now. This bill is to extend for three weeks the current federal spending that is necessary, that extension is necessary because we have not completed our fiscal year 2022 appropriations. And so we have had to pass what's called the continuing resolution. And if we don't pass that continuing resolution, then the government runs out of money and has to shut down nobody wants to do that. So we just passed a bill in the House to extend that period of time for another couple of weeks so we could finish our work on FY 2022. Now, Senator Schatz viewed that as an opportunity to do a down payment from Congress on the costs that have been incurred to date. And he and I worked with him on the House side because these bills have to originate on the House side succeeded in putting into the bill that is passing through Congress right now, $403 million. It's the only funding, additional funding mechanism in that entire bill. That bill is only about extending deadlines and it's very, very unusual to get funding like this. But our colleagues understood the dire needs here and they luckily agreed with us that we needed to start that funding. And I just was looking at my screen as we're sitting here talking, that bill passed the House state last week and as we speak, the bill passed the Senate. And so it's going to be signed into law by the President probably tonight and that will directly appropriate $403 million to Red Hill. And I think that's also a good example of our delegation right now is really very strong in these areas. We have Senator Schatz and me are on the appropriations committees, the money committees, and Senator Hirono and Representative Caheli are on the respective armed services committees. And so we are all deeply involved in our military here in Hawaii and really throughout the world from both a direction and a funding perspective. That's great. That's great to hear. I hope this works out. It works out soon. But I think the bottom line I was interested in your thought about it is that this is really infrastructure. The country changes, the military changes, federal facilities change, communities change, population development changes. And we have got to make the infrastructure change with those changes. This is at the end of the day, this is another infrastructure project, isn't it? Are you talking about Red Hill in particular? Yes. Okay. Absolutely. I mean, Red Hill is a fuel storage facility. It functions extremely well as a national security asset. However, a national security asset cannot risk our drinking water. And unlike any other infrastructure, it ages. It gets to kind of end of life. And it becomes outmoded. And sometimes even the basic concept of the infrastructure needs are refreshing. For example, consider that Red Hill is the largest fuel storage facility in the entirety of the Indo-Pacific. And obviously from that perspective has a critical strategic purpose. But that was a World War II concept that was true for a number of decades after that, that you would actually centralize your fuel in one place and kind of bunker it up and protect it.  But you have a different threat now facing us. Much more nimble threat. And our armed forces need to be a lot more nimble and be able to move around a lot easier. And they need to be closer to the fight. And the fight is not here. At least we hope it's not. The fight is farther west. And so our military is, and so if there's a silver lining at all in Red Hill, it is forcing our military to go back to the drawing boards and ask themselves a basic question. Do we want a large central fuel storage facility that's kind of in the thousands of miles away from where we're actually going to need it in a very short period of time in the worst case scenario? Or do we want to, you know, forward position it a little bit more and disperse it and have it be a lot more nimble and mobile along with our forces? And so that's the analysis that they're going through right now, which is, which was a requirement that we inserted in our last National Defense Authorization Act before the Red Hill Fuel Leaks became, you know, happened. It sounds just like energy. Energy was centralized. You know, it was all the hub and then the spokes of the wheel would send it out to consumers. Now it's being distributed. So you have distributed energy. It's the same modern process. It's the same technological process, I think in both cases. I mean, as you talked to some of our military, for example, they'll basically, you know, say, well, if the, again, worst case scenario of a fight occurs in the South China Sea, just to pick an example, is it going to be over before you ever had a chance to get any of your bulk fuel storage from Hulu there? Those are the kind of questions that they're going to have to, you know, that they are answering. And so personally, where I think this is probably going to end up besides the fact that, you know, Hawaii is by and large, almost uniformly opposed to any continued function of Red Hill as a bulk fuel search facility. Certainly, the congressional delegation has taken that position as the governor and as has the mayor of the city in Kanei of Honolulu. And so really, we have a real unity of conclusion here. And obviously, we're going to try to carry that through in Congress itself, using all the tools at our disposal. But I think that actually the military is going to come to this conclusion on its own. And so I think we'll all be aligned and we'll just have to be, you know, talking about how to achieve it rather than whether to do it. Well, I think it's nice and important to have you in that conversation and really with this kind of collaboration and looking for solutions, we'll find one. We only have a couple of minutes left. In fact, we're over time. But during the program here, I have received two questions they don't necessarily relate to everything we've been talking about. But if you don't mind, I'd like to post them to you quickly and see what your thoughts are. The first one is seriously, what is the US government going to pay a fair rent for all the property that the government occupies in Hawaii? Example, 147,000 acres of prime land in Oaxaca Law for a dollar for 65 years. Really, that's one question. Thoughts on that? I don't necessarily believe that our military should pay, quote unquote, fair dollar rent. I could have this discussion on a lot of levels. And to be honest, I haven't thought it all the way through myself. So this is kind of a first reaction. But I do believe we have obligations to our military. And I do believe that where we can help our military, we should. Now, I believe that our military should help us as well. And I believe that that that degree of economic contribution to Hawaii from our military presence is a lot of help. And so to some extent, I feel that if we have, you know, land like Oaxaca Law that there really would not be used for any other purpose where we can help our military. And there will be a benefit back to us from our military that is enhanced by the availability of training ranges. Then I don't necessarily believe I need to receive a dollar for dollar fair market value in that context. However, I definitely believe the military has to take care of our resources.  But I guess I just don't look at it quite the same way. I acknowledge and understand the appeal of that argument. But I think it's a little more broad and complicated than that. If the military, you know, clearly, if we were to pay, require them to pay the value of the use of that land by them, then it's not going to be the end of my day. But I don't automatically go there. Now, bottom line is we want to maintain the best possible relationship with the military. We go back a long way. The Navy was at Pearl Harbor in 1850. We are intertwined in our history of culture and our interests. Well, second question, and what suggestions do you have? This goes back to our earlier discussion of the program. What suggestions do you have to bring our society back together? legitimate question. Whether locally or nationally, are our divisions, divisiveness, I suppose, real or mostly hype and manipulation of and by media? Well, I think our divisions are real. So I don't believe that they're somehow fictitious. I don't believe that somehow the very, very strongly held and diametrically opposed views of our fellow citizens on a variety of issues today are some figment of somebody's imagination or hype. I certainly think that division is amplified by how we talk about division, how we treat division, how too often part of our society exploit a division for their own purposes. And so I think we are divided society to start with. We've become more intolerant of each other's perspectives and less willing to try to find that mixing ground where we all give up a little bit of our own thoughts in order for a common good. So I think that's very real. So I don't take that lightly. And I don't believe that the solution here is to shut down free speech and say, well, you can't exploit those. I hate the fact that they are being exploited, but the opposite side of that is to not have people talking about divisions to start with. I can't accept that solution. I think we all have to practice what we preach. If 90% of this country thinks that it's way too polarized and way too divided. And we can all agree on that to start with, then you can't go around and say, well, I'm going to insist on my way or the highway. You can't go around and not look to the other viewpoint and ask, is there merit in that viewpoint? Can I understand that? Is there some way to find a conclusion on it? So what I try to do myself, because I'm a leader of this country and I feel that I need to practice what I preach. So I try very hard not to, I'm very careful with the kind of rhetoric I use and how I use it and what circumstances. I try where I can to find those consensus positions, even if it means not exactly the way I would do it. I try when I do disagree and let's face it, democracy is not about all agreeing all the time. Democracy is about providing for a common view of it that generally represents the majority subject to protection of minorities. And so we're going to have these debates. Should we have a wall on the border or not? Should we invest X amount in the defense of our country in the end of the Pacific or put that money towards some other social program? These things are part of the decisions we have to make in a democracy. We don't have Putin. We don't have autocratic presidents. And so we're going to have these debates, but we can have them in a way that doesn't question each other's loyalty to the country, doesn't question each other's motivation to the country. I hear people say outrageous things in Congress sometimes. Outrageous. There's nothing that I agree with, but I try not to go to the next step and say they should not be my fellow citizen. Sometimes I feel that way, but I can't go there. And so I think we all have an obligation here.  So that's a long way of saying, yes, it's very divided. Yes, it's very polarized, but I don't think it's hopeless at all. I don't think it's irreversible, but I think it's going to take some some practice and action by all of us. Thank you, Ed. Representative Congressman Ed Case in Congress, one of our delegation joining us today on the military in Hawaii. And I have to tell you that while we were talking, other questions came in, just shows how popular you are. And I hope we can circle back and have another discussion to answer those and any other issues that come up in any event. Thank you very much. Thank you. And for the questions, case.house.gov is how to reach me. So if you if you just want to reach out to us straight, we'll try to answer your question. But yeah, I'd welcome it. And I appreciate the opportunity to add some perspectives, especially on our national defense and our military, especially in the end of Pacific. I think this is a critical area for all of us. Thank you, Ed. And thanks to the people who sent questions in. Aloha. Aloha.


I just I mean I've been doing the same thing- you know just working on my my game- getting shots up getting extra work in- mentally keeping myself in the right place- and you know my teammates trust me and they want me to shoot and that goes a long way knowing that they- they got my back all the time- not a ton of film I'm not really watching I've done this my whole life- and- you know it's just a matter of staying consistent regardless of ups or downs- you know so- yeah shots are going in and- I'm trying to find other ways to affect the game too. Greg Logan with Newsday. This is a nutty question but- watching your pretty game warm up and it looked like you were splashing three after three. Do you ever feel something before a game like you're on and did that fuel any sort of confidence during the game? Some of the some of the best games I've had shooting the basketball it feels like I don't know how to shoot in warm ups. So there's there's nights where- you know it's just kind of hit and miss- but again it goes back to the consistency you can't get caught up in how you shoot the ball in warm ups- whether I'm shooting really really well in warm ups it goes a little weird- you always have time to find it and in the flow of the game it's always going to be different so- so yeah it kind of can go both ways.


Everybody forced here ripping 2023 tops for steam baseball hobby four bucks number 33 random teams We'll random right now, and then we'll get ripping to seven on our random six and one one two three four five six and seven Michael s down to Michael o and then seven times on the teams One two three four five six seven Marlins down to Rangers Michael s Marlins Brian our Brewers Jeffrey s Orioles That's just Kenny Kenny K with the Mariners Blaine with the Dodgers Alexander s Pirates Shane W Yankees Shane H twins Carol G. Astros Eli Cardinals Douglas Braves Erin s Nationals Rockies Chad B Cubs Garrett P Royals Scott C. Giants Rays George s Tiger Stephen P Red Sox Benjamin L Diamondbacks Mike F Blue J's J Taylor Mets Joshua V Philly Scott F Padres Alex EA Steven C White Sox James C Reds KLD angels James P. Guardians Michael O Rangers All right, let's go ahead Good luck y'all again full sellout promo tonight to night Sunday night breaks Yeah, Sam didn't it didn't seem too great. It didn't seem too great a lot of orders coming in just saw one come in for Stadium club just saw a few teams come in for Bowman Chrome Got 26 to go on the football mixture tonight, which is huge Falls football 29 to go as well exotic at 17 Yeah, let's go guys. Let's go get winners each get one grand and break credit Seven others will get 10 gold packs each. Yeah, Sam. You're talking about the how the Ravens Stunk today You see what the Patriots do? Go dolphins Gonna drown my sorry. Well, I can't drown anything right now.  Let's go Rangers. What are you doing, Jake? Stand there dude guys. Jake's here Garrett Hill Tony Gwynn. Oh, okay. Yeah cowboys and Niners tonight To delusional fan bases. Yeah That's the truth They got to be the two most and and and the NFL Xander to 25 that goes to the Red Sox Sam says shoe. No, you know, you know the Bosch take around if you haven't even been here. Oh snap.  Yeah, they could use all their pictures that are that are hurt Adley Rutschman on the fresh faces Got a gold Tim salmon for the angels Number to 50 angels and look at that. I love on Soto angels rookie auto We got Frank Thomas blue refractor Correa out of 75 for the twins rookie auto Velazquez to 99 cubs and a Rafi Devers Dude Mads here now. Look at this Dude, they're doing what they're supposed to we're tanking We're collapsing for Caleb, dude I Especially now that the bears like won a game. It's like dude. This is your clear path You go one in 16 Maybe the bears probably win another game or two. It feels keep playing like is they're gonna win a few And you got to worry about what Carolina Carol and the Panthers are better than the Patriots right now. I know they stink where they're better than the Patriots Everybody's better than the Patriots at this current time. We're gonna get Caleb do another 20 more Fingers got Jersey Auto Kyle Tucker for the Astros Nicholas. What up Nicholas? How's it going? Your girlfriend VP, maybe maybe Yeah, who else would say that I don't think anybody would say that Now he's doing well Ruth purple Cody Bellinger Dodgers out of 99 Puka yeah, they got the Cooper Cup They got puka Nakua and Cooper Cup now we call it we call them together that's pook up You guys hear that so pook a nakua and then Cooper Cup together is pook up That's a great nickname David Ortiz Poop No UPP that's how you spell it gold Beltray for Texas We're definitely on it the last language here and about Better than Cooper Cup He's there now Matthew Stafford Suffocate in here bucks into 99 twins in the purple Come on twins. Let's get it. Let's get a dub tonight. Come on twins Can't go down to nothing to the Astros these five or seven years Yep, they're five game series everybody that lost last night is on the room is pretty much on the ropes already Old guys, I just got called old dude rookie auto buddy Kennedy number to 75 for the Dime of Acts Orange Eddie Murray color match. Oh, that's cool to 25 Sammy Sosa rookie auto mark up hell Phillies Blue refractor is Helsley to set to 75 for the Hellsie was Astros and Cardinals So send a box wrapper with that one. It is like stuck in the mag It's like pinched by it Yeah, Cardinals Cardinals Cardinals on the the Hellsley. I don't know why I thought Astros for a second Cardinals be in the angles. I don't even know what pass you I don't even know what passion to save in a product like this I Was got their dub today and the bill's lost. So there you go. Good for the dolphins Jaguar she's moved to London dude. They're good over there. Yeah once that guy is Yeah What's up Yes, I will okay, I will for sure I've got like 85 emails. All right guys checking spots here Stadium club soccer at six to go Sup hookah And full sellout promo tonight. It's a good one too. It's a good one join a bride Rikki refractor for the A's Orange Rikki Langaliers to 25 Yeah, he might that's fine. Hey, he He wants to break in place of me. All right purple to 99 hobby bias tigers. I can go take a nap Got going going gone a rod for the Rangers in the blue refractor to 75 He's been a great day Do I'm I'm excited about the Patriots potentially potentially Getting number one overall pick can happen. You got gold para's our rookie fresh faces for the Yankees Is that a 50? It happened One and what for now Well, we use it to be five right? Yeah one and four Purple you on one got a white socks. It's a 99.  They're going like three games For like meaningless games That are not oh snap for the Cardinals Yeah, we gotta we gotta beat the Broncos Broncos and Panthers each going for number one pick bears I don't know bears on the upswing fields look pretty good the past two weeks. I think that's gonna Like at least steady out for then got Ken Griffey, Jr. Whoa, that's sick. How is it barrios red refractor? Around the diamond patch auto it's one of five for the blue jays we go blue jays. I Have no idea Either way, I gotta get gotta get number one overall pick whether Caleb comes out or not doesn't matter You're a fracter Jason Alexander Brewers, Paraza NFL paid him to say that's nobody would tank It's gonna happen anyway gold to 50 David right for the Mets The refractor rookie auto age Jonah Bride out of 75 Encarnacion blue refractor Garvey Dodgers out of 75 Rookie auto blind Madras to 99 Astros and Vladdy Last box of the break got I'm acting next. Let's get all these breaks filled up guys So we could do the full sellout promo again. Everything has to sell out Everything does we got a football mixture tonight. That's 26 to go. We have flawless football tonight. That has 29 to go exotic football some soccer breaks Top Trump sapphire baseball Museum collection baseball and that about covers it. That's It's all of it right there First one coming up soon though Stadium club soccer is the first break with spots left You're also gonna fill up breaks we do the trash list tonight. Oh, yeah Encarnacion purple Nesta Cortez the 99 Yankees five to go on stadium club Tend to go on a sapphire as well guys. Let's go. Let's go. It's a doozy tonight. Oh, it is now is it? Yeah Marta I can bet gold Babe Ruth Yankees That's out of 50. Oh Snap rookie Michael Harris Oh, yeah That's unfortunate. I know all of them. Yes, it's very my life is just trash, dude Fractor Machado We got going on over here bangles in the red zone Jets in the red zone. Yes, they have five points Yeah, he got the they got the five points, dude The rare five points Yeah, Connor Joe there Jersey Otto Jose Ramirez for the Guardians The popular demands sub Jonathan Kodai Senga Ricky refractor Mets blue refractor Ricky Matthew batten the 75 Padres we should do a Promo if somebody can guess a name on the trash as they get like a prize or something I think it is gonna be too easy though for some of those Maybe we'd like a hundred percent correct list not not like actually, but all all ten names correctly would be You'd you'd have to win a lot though. That's jelly of the month. Well jelly.  That's out of 50 a JD Martinez refractor for Boston And blue refractor rookie Otto Josh young for the Rangers Great last box here 24 of 75 Let's go ahead and do a quick recap We're looking at just the Yankees in Bowman Chrome choice everybody just the Yankees in Bowman Chrome choice Last team left Get your spots with a full sellout promo. How you doing that glissie plan? All right, you got numbered cards you got to 99 Cortez Moncada Bayez Buxton Bellinger Dawson to 75 via Dawson that Clemente Garvey a rod baton Helsley Correa to 50 Tim Salmon David Wright Austin Riley Babe Ruth Oswald Parazza Adrian Beltray to 25 via Xander for the Red Sox Shellingal ears and Eddie Murray All the autos now it Jose Ramirez Jersey Otto it's a 99 by Madras base Marco Pell base Jersey Otto Kyle Tucker Nelson Velazquez out of 99 for the Cubs base leave on Soto You had a Goncalin Jersey Otto for the Dodgers blue refractor to 75 Jonah Bride Buddy Kennedy Josh young an orange. Oh snap Julio Rodriguez Otto for Seattle That's great 21 to 25 and then patch Otto red to five barrios blue jays All right, that'll do it for the break. I'm max coming up. Thanks everybody


And then in the history of the entire world, they didn't say that rice is life. Not only in the Philippines, and not only in Asia, defines human life and well-being. In fact, it was quite the opposite. The world faced the prospects of seemingly endless bammons. There were predictions that Asia would be facing starvation for the foreseeable future. When I was in university, I was reading books entitled BAM in 1975 at Google Survive. And the recommendations of the wise and famous were that the West should abandon Asia because there was no way that Asia could beat itself. Fortunately, visionaries in the Rockefeller Foundation, Board Foundation, thought that they would seek another path. They recognized that science was just beginning to tap into the potential of crops. This was already being seen in the West. But in Asia, the benefits of the science applied to agriculture get to be realized. These visionaries came together and committed themselves to dedicating science, research, for agriculture to improve food security in the world, particularly in Asia. After much deliberation, they selected the Philippines as the site of the first international agricultural research center dedicated to achievement food security for the board and for Asia. And they selected the Philippines for very good reason. There was the World Class Agricultural Research Institute in Los Vales, the University of the Philippines in Los Vales. They really served as a nexus of agricultural intellect at that time. So it made a lot of sense to create a theory in the Philippines located in Los Vales. The agreement between the Philippine government and theory that created the International Rights Research Institute was signed 50 years ago yesterday in New York City, between the presidents of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Board Foundation, and the Secretary of Agriculture and Natural Resources in the government of the Philippines. The memorandum of agreement stated very clearly what theory was about. It stated simply that the area was established as an organization to do basic research on the rice land and applied research on all phases of rice production, management, distribution, and utilization. A very clear target, a very clear mandate, something that we follow very closely to this day. And I think we come together today to celebrate not just 50 years of work, but also to commend the vision of those very, very wise people who over 50 years ago saw fit to apply science to challenges facing the world's poor. Madam President, in 1962, your father, President Diostado Macapagal, and your mother visited here, along with John V. Macabola III, to inaugurate the institution's infrastructure. We have sense-hosted yourself, of course, and many other state businessmen and high officials and royals. Here, it has had a tremendous track record of success. Beginning in its first decade, it surpassed the wildest dreams of its founders with the development of the first semi-bored rice variety that they built on many, many hundreds of rice varieties developed around the world, and spread throughout Asia like wildfire. Over 75 varieties of rice, if they're released in the Philippines alone, they can trace the parentage back to rice varieties developed in the Institute. But here is it only about rice varieties. It's also about managing the crop, protecting the region of space, and possibly most importantly, developing fine young minds focused on the challenges of rice production, creating generation after generation of rice scientists. Here, it was also pivotal in the creation of PhilRice, a leading institution in Asia demonstrating the way forward of how countries can focus their resources to address the problems of their farmers and rice consumers. Here, PhilRice, a university of field needs and those fine youngs, work very closely together in addressing policy issues and opportunities that we can bring our forces together to bear on. We have been educating or working with PhilRice and the University of Philippines to educate young Filipino scientists over the years. We have trained more Filipino scientists than rice scientists in any other country in the world. And we also have about 45,000 schoolchildren who visit Erie every year. It's a very important part of our goal to sensitize the youth of the Philippines to the importance of rice and rice research. We believe that Erie represents a major investment in international agriculture in the Philippines and it gives more than just straight economic benefit to the country. I think the partnership between Erie and the Philippines is really something that many countries look to as an example of how international and national organizations can come together and work in an effective partnership. It's our hope that the international prestige that Erie may bring to the country is something that will serve to inspire other countries to adjust in partnerships and rice research. It's something that we believe is an example of a success that is unparalleled on the face of the earth today.


Hey guys! This is Gabby from Brain Education TV. If you're new to this channel, consider subscribing. We make weekly videos on wellness tips for the brain. And if you're already a subscriber, welcome back. In this video, I will talk about one key principle that will help you take care of your overall health in your mind and your body. This principle describes energy circulation in the body and it is uncovered by thousands of years of study in Asian medicine. It has been also taught for over 40 years in many mind-body training programs by creator of brain education, Ilchi Lee. This principle is called water up, fire down. And in an energy sense, it means keeping a cool head and a warm belly is the most optimal energy state that your body can be in. When you're cool-headed, you can be calm, focused and think clearly, right? You're not usually stressed, you don't have that much anxiety or depression, and you can find solutions to your problems more easily. And when your belly is warm, the circulation in your physical body is healthy. Your intestines are relaxed and work better when they're warm. So then your digestion works better, your blood circulates better, your hormones get secreted better, and you overall feel warmer and your hands and feet also feel warmer as well. Your immunity also increases at higher core temperatures, so then your gut flora can be healthier and you can just feel better overall.  So how does water up, fire down work? We get energy in our bodies through the food we eat, but that food isn't always able to help you maintain a warm belly all the time. As we breathe, the air we breathe in goes down to our belly, mixes with the food we eat and our intestines and it creates heat there.   How do you attain water up, fire down? One way and it's pretty obvious but it's eating well and taking care of yourself so not eating junk food and saturated foods, salt, sweets and you know things that aren't good for your body really taking care of yourself exercising that's one way to create that natural energy circulation in your body. But for most people exercising and eating healthy isn't enough to maintain heat in their abdomen and cool energy in their head so there are exercises that we teach in brain education that could warm your core, deepen your breathing and also cool your head. In brain education there are three top exercises to attaining water up, fire down energy circulation and they are belly button healing, dungeon tapping and intestine exercises. So I will link below information about those three and you can try videos that we've made on this channel of routines and tutorials and also read a bit more about them. Also Il-Chili has released a book specifically on this principle of water up, fire down and it has many exercises, meditations, principles, routines, all kind of information you would need to help you guide you through water up, fire down and achieving the optimal energy state so that you can live your life overall healthier in your mind and your body. So that's all for today's video I hope you enjoyed this mini lesson on the optimal energy state in the mind and body and the principle of water up, fire down. If you have any comments, questions or concerns please leave them down below we look at every single comment and respond to you all. We love talking to our audience so please leave anything down below. Thank you for watching and I'll see you in another video!


Black holes are these incredibly fascinating but mysterious objects. We know they sit at the hearts of galaxies and they drive how those galaxies grow and how those galaxies die.  There are also these incredibly enigmatic and mysterious objects that live at the boundary between our two great theories of physics, general relativity, which describes gravity, and quantum mechanics, which describes the smallest things in the world. We want to make an image of a black hole in order to get the best proof yet of the existence of black holes. What we want to see is a ring of light that surrounds the black hole and shows that all of the mass of the black hole is packed into that very dense space. The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration is this amazing group of fantastic people from all around the world, Americans, Europeans, people from Asia who've come together with all their technical expertise and scientific expertise to make this image of a ring around the black hole. We've been a formal collaboration for only a few years, but this is the culmination of several decades of work that people have been doing. I've been involved in this for the past 25 years since I was a student trying to make an image of a black hole and now we're finally doing it. Our experiments are like an Arctic expedition. We have to plan for months and months and months in advance, gather our equipment, and then we have this great migration of people to observatories all around the world. We stay up all night, we run our telescopes, and then we have this terrible period of waiting where we don't know if it's all worked. We send all of our data together, and only when it's truly combined do we know if it's worked. And then the even harder part begins of analyzing that data and being very, very careful doing all the checks and balances to know that we got it right. The most challenging part of this is pulling it all together and doing as sophisticated a test as we can to ensure the reliability of what we're doing. We're pulling together data from all these stations, giant volumes of data, combining it together, and we want to make sure that we get everything absolutely right because the result is just so important. The most exciting thing by far has been our first view of the image. I didn't think we would get it. I thought it was just going to be too hard. I knew it was worth it to try, but I didn't think we would get it. And seeing that image for the first time was really eye-opening for me. Something that I've wanted to see for over two decades now. That was it. The future of this project is amazing because now that we've seen what we're after, we have so many more questions to ask about it, to push into the regime of can we decide is Einstein right? Can we study how gas really gets swallowed by the black hole? Can we see a giant eruption of radiation, of particles coming out of the system? So many things to do. We've really only just begun. The black holes are the most fascinating and most attractive objects in the universe. They are extreme objects. So they are so densely packed that nothing can escape. Gravity plays such an important role that everything is locked inside the black hole and nothing can escape. So we don't get any information from within this very compact object. So this is a very peculiar kind of object in the universe and we would like to understand it. We think there are black holes in the universe. There is a lot of indirect evidence that they should exist, but we are not sure what kind of physics rules these black holes inside. So what's the physical nature of these black holes is. And that's the reason we do these kind of observations and we try to figure out what's going on. The Event Horizon Telescope Corporation is a big international project with many scientists from all over this planet who are working on the one girl to get an image of the immediate environment surrounding of a black hole. So the black hole you can imagine as a kind of sphere with an Event Horizon and the Event Horizon is the outer boundary of the black hole. This is an area which has never been imaged before. So we want to get an image of the immediate surrounding of the Event Horizon. We all have different roles in this collaboration. There's a lot of expertise coming together from all the different scientists. So we hope we can combine successfully our knowledge to understand what's going on in the surrounding of an Event Horizon. I'm coming from the imaging part so I work on data, on imaging very long baseline interferometry data. So we zoom into the environment of black holes but not that far so far. So we couldn't go that far as we hoped to be able to do now but we were imaging the outer parts the jets for example of black holes. We are still working on the A.H.T. data and it's amazing to be able to work on data which have never been obtained before. To have highest resolution observations this is a unique time for scientists in his or her life to work on this kind of data so to work to see into an area where we didn't have any information before. We hope to be successful and really get an image of the immediate vicinity of an Event Horizon. I mean this will open up so many possibilities to discuss what kind of physics is going on there and the most exciting thing about this project is the hope that we will be successful that we really get an image of the immediate vicinity of an Event Horizon. So that would be unique, that would be great and we would be able to study physics that we couldn't do before. The future of the project will hopefully go towards a new understanding of more fundamental questions in physics. If this is true that black holes are the extreme objects where we can study gravity and we know that general relativity which describes black holes in the outer part up to the Event Horizon breaks down at the Event Horizon so the big hope is that with more data we might be able to study the physics beyond general relativity so maybe there might be quantum physics ruling beyond the Event Horizon or the combination of quantum physics and general relativity which would be the theory of quantum gravity which is non-existent at the moment but we might learn more about this with the help of studying black holes. Black holes are literally gravity run amok. They are purely gravitational objects predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity and their most notable and terrifying feature is that things go in and they never come back out. Black holes are places where Einstein's theory of general relativity is the whole story not merely a perturbation on top of Newton's theory which explains the dynamics of planets in our solar system. As a result, black holes provide a unique environment in which to probe general relativity specifically and strong gravity generally and its implications across the cosmos. So the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration is a collection of experts across the world who are coming together to create a unique capability the highest resolution imaging instrument in the history of astronomy for the single purpose of capturing the image of a shadow of a black hole. So I come in close to the end which I think is a privileged place to be where after many other people before me have put in the hard work of collecting data and calibrating the data, we interpret the data. We try to determine what exactly does this image, the shape of the shadow, the shape of the emission about the shadow tell us about the fundamental physics of gravity and about how black holes grow and launch outflows which impact the universe around them. So we've been doing this for 15 years now and at the beginning it was simply extraordinary that some points in the indeterminate future these might actually be relevant. I have to say it's taken on a new importance now as we actually have images that look like the simulations. So it's an extraordinary confluence between theory and experiment and it promises tremendous breakthroughs on the horizon. The most difficult part and the most exciting parts of scientific projects are in the same. Accessing the information inherent in the EHT images of M87 and ultimately SAJ-STAR is exactly both the challenge and the great payoff. The EHT is a transformative experiment that's going to create a sea change in how we understand the life and times of black holes, both how they grow and how they impact the universe around them but also their fundamental gravity. I think the future of the EHT in particular is going to be written both in detailed modeling and understanding detailed fluctuations in the image but also moving from black hole portraiture to black hole cinema when we take not one image but hundreds and we compare how they evolve over time.  It's when matter gets to be in such a small space that it's so dense that the force of gravity prevents even light from escaping. That's a one-way door from our universe and if we can study that we can answer some of the most fundamental questions that people can ask. If you want to make a test of the fundamental theories of the universe you want to go to the most extreme laboratories in the universe and a black hole is that. The Event Horizon Telescope is our chance as humans to take the first picture of a black hole. The most difficult part of the Event Horizon Telescope for me has been building the whole team bringing everyone together. When we first started this work we were just a handful of people making measurements of the size of these black holes and since then we've grown from a few people to over 200 and now we're ready to make the first image of a black hole and that has been a big period of growth. Just by measuring the size of black holes with a few telescopes and I remember seeing those first results come across my computer screen and that was when I got hooked. That was when I knew that something really extraordinary was possible. As the director I do many things. I go to telescopes and I do observations but I also enjoy the analysis and I also enjoy the imaging. So I do many many things. I wear many hats in the collaboration. The future of this project is amazing. We have done something extraordinary.  Now we want to make the first movie. Now we want to understand how space-time rotates around the black hole. We'll do that by putting more telescopes around the world to make our virtual lens even better. One of the most uplifting things for me is the team that we've built and the fact that we're doing something that people have told us was impossible. And when you at the end of the day do something that people tell you you can't do it's an incredible feeling and I think the whole team is very very proud that we've accomplished something like this. It's not just for us, it's for everyone. Black hole is a huge amount of math in a small area which distorts space and time such that everything that goes too close light and every information disappears forever in that hole. It never gets out. And even time slows down and comes to a standstill at the edge of a black hole. That's one of the weirdest and most exotic objects we can imagine. We have never seen a black hole. So far black holes is a theory. We've seen how it actually seems to do things. We've seen black holes merge. We've heard the gravitational waves from the merging of what we think are black holes but we've never seen a black hole. We've never seen the actual object. Seeing a black hole actually allows us to not only know they exist and not only know an event horizon exists it also allows us to test some of the very basic predictions of the theory of general relativity of Albert Einstein which really describes space and time in its completeness and that has never been tested before. The event horizon telescope collaboration is a collaboration of scientists around the world from many different countries, continents and institutions to make a telescope the size of the Earth giving us the highest resolution there is that currently is achievable with telescopes of any kind. I'm chairing the science council of the scientists giving advice of the scientific direction of the project and I'm leading a group in IMAGN to actually help with all the work from the instrumentation to the actual analysis of the data. One thing I really enjoy the most is when there's an observing campaign and we can actually go to the telescopes and I can go to the telescope myself and sit there and see and participate in when the data is being taken and it's like going to a monastery on the mountains for a week you just focus on one thing and that is really a very pleasant and an exciting experience. I remember the first moment when I saw the first image they had made the first image and we were actually looking at it interpreting it together and just that moment when you see that image for the first time and the data comes and the ground truth comes that's just awesome. The most difficult part of a collaboration is a collaboration is a people. There's so many different types of people with many different ways of thinking and working that together and making sure everybody gets credit, everybody gets heard and that's a very difficult thing if you don't have clear structures and we just have structures that are evolving we're a young collaboration so many things are still unclear or have to be settled and once you have everything set up then you can just do your work but now we have to do everything as we go develop the structure develop the way we work with each other and if you're on your own you know what you have to do but if you have 100 people telling everybody else what to do you have to deal with this I think we've been extremely lucky I'd expected that we have to work for years and years to many observations until we get a final image and then we look at our first source and we see that ring we see the event horizon and we see that shadow, that dark region and you know immediately the event horizon and a black hole from all sides at once in this thing, we see at a region where time stops this is a very different part of the universe that we're seeing for the very first time I think the most exciting result of our collaboration is that image that's something nobody has ever seen before of course you still need to understand what you're actually seeing you need to believe what you see because until you really convince yourself what we see there is physically really proof of an event horizon but that's part of an exciting journey I think we've just made the first step there's so many things still to do we need better images probably more telescopes and eventually we may have to go into space then we can make razor sharp images of black holes and test all the theories in great great detail I must have an incredibly sharp telescope to build the telescope so it's possible to see a Senfkorn in New York from Europe and that's what you do by turning the telescope all over the world and watching the highest radio frequencies and then you can see something like the shadows of a black hole and that's what we've done for the first time this is a global, worldwide collaboration of scientists but thanks to the European Union we were able to have funding that really brought us all the way forward and made the 2017 experiment and that was a very important breakthrough for us it took 20 years to have the idea then to develop the technology the first observations were made here in Europe by German scientists and then to bring the whole world together and then to bring so many data together and to be able to show that technology has only been there in recent years because of the digital development what you need is a telescope that can be seen in the United States and must be able to see that in New York from the Netherlands and to build this telescope you have to put a radio telescope all over the world that works at the highest radio frequencies that give us support with each other and then you can make a record the idea has already been formulated 20 years ago but you need all the telescopes you have to work internationally and you need digital electronics that upload a lot of data at the same time and that has just succeeded it is a worldwide collaboration where the Europeans have played an important role and thanks to the European Union we were able to not make such a big impact without the EU and in 2017 thanks to the European Union we actually succeeded so for this experiment it was clear that we need expertise from completely different areas and so we needed someone with imaging capabilities we needed someone with numerical relativity capabilities and in my case we needed someone who can try to find this additional information via pulsars and so just being part of this team means I mean first of all it's great to see all these young people being excited of being a big great team working together and then of course it's just there are some expectations around the world everyone sort of looks at us and wants to see that image and so do we and of course you're embedded in this global collaboration as well and so with us as this big team sort of representing the European team it's part of this global game we have colleagues around the world who have the same goal but it puts us on the landscape and really enables the project actually to be possible and so Europe and the ESC place this important role there the synergy grant means more than just adding money the synergy grant is not about having teams at three different places and then collaborate it's really as the word suggests synergy we really need to understand very deeply on a sort of almost day-to-day basis what the other people are doing in order to make progress in our own area so it's where things really come together and the synergy grant enables you to have this interaction in such an intensive way you wouldn't do this with the collaboration sort of bound by your day-to-day business and again you wouldn't look left, you wouldn't look right but with the synergy grant we have this great team you always know someone somewhere at the end of a computer line at the end of an email who knows exactly the answer to your question and so if you don't know the answer then we look work together to find it out and so it's that shared dream is this shared ambition which brings us together and therefore no one has actually ever seen a black hole and so we were able for the first time to actually take an image of a black hole and make it visible to everyone black holes are a prediction of theories of gravity that should absorb everything including light and that by definition makes it then difficult to make them visible to us and yet with that experiment where we look at the scent of the galaxies there we see the black hole as a shadow and so for the first time so if you try to look into the scent of galaxies it's usually blocked from view by dust and other stuff in the radio you can look through like here today we can look through rain you can look through clouds and so you can look through dust and with combining radio telescope like this together with other telescopes in the world you can peer right into the scent of the galaxy and see this black hole yes I mean there are some experiments like this which one person can dream of but will never be able to pull off by him or herself and so we come together to form this team and we got the resources from the European research council without it wouldn't have been impossible and so by putting the team together by putting the resources together and working worldwide with our collaborators this has become possible it's a really global endeavor at the heart of Europe Maybe everyone in the world has already heard of black holes but no one has ever seen a black hole and for the first time we were able to make a black hole visible as a visible image black holes are very simple objects but one could never verify that for the first time we are able to look at black holes on all sides and to see if the idea of how gravity works is correct when you look into the center of the galaxy you normally have dust in front of it and in the optical camera so you can't look into it so as you can see today we can look through dust rain, clouds and so we can connect it with telescopes all over the world a highly resolved image of the center of such a galaxy and thus make the black hole if you have such an idea you might be able to dream of it but you need a team you need the funding, you need the instruments and you need the right people and here we came together to get the EAC Council and that helped us to work globally with the people in the heart of Europe to lead the project it's an international collaboration of scientists both observers and theorists who have come together to answer this question of can we see black holes and what are black holes so I do two things in the collaboration I'm a member of the science council and we're basically the highest scientific advisory board for the collaboration and then I'm one of the conveners of the multi-wavelength working group and what that means is that we try to gather complementary information simultaneously with the EHT observations from radio to even gamma rays and hopefully even particles my role has been to gather this simultaneous data from other wavelengths but mostly I've been involved in trying to think about the modeling and making simulations and models of the light that could be coming out of a black hole I think for me personally this is something a lot of us have been working on for a long time so the day-to-day work wasn't the really exciting thing the really exciting thing for me was being able to finally test something that we've all been thinking about and working on at least for me personally 20-25 years I think the most difficult part is really the coordination of such a large group of people so many different facilities the fact that we had to request time on different facilities and get everything to come together on a strict timeline I think there's a really exciting future beyond the first time of imaging a black hole and the physics of black holes and what they do in the universe on how they excite particles and jets and affect their environments and so there's going to be a lot of work in the future we all understand from a mathematical point of view that black holes exist but to actually see something is a very visceral experience and I think important for science and also for us to believe in it I think it's important to image the black hole because it moves us beyond just these theoretical ideas and everything mathematically and we all believe these things exist but to actually see it is an extremely visceral experience and what we need to maybe believe that this theory is actually real why do we want to image a black hole because it's there because we can image it and because we want to see it and because imaging a black hole offers us a very unique way of testing one of the least understood fundamental forces which is the gravity The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration is a collaboration of more than 200 scientists with different backgrounds they all come from different parts of the world they have different experiences different set of skills these are engineers observers, theoreticians and they all work together not only to image the Event Horizon of a black hole but also to understand what we're seeing I'm a theoretician so I built numerical simulations simulation on a computer models of a black hole on a computer to understand the source but I also take parts in data analysis I also image the data myself I make images of black holes and I coordinate one of the working groups that has a very special focus on a very special part of these observations which is polarization data analysis imaging black holes and doing simulations is very exciting it's also very difficult and requires a lot of patience it's a very long process but seeing the final product is very satisfying the most exciting part of this project is making images of black holes and actually to see the unseen the long-term future of experiments like the Event Horizon Telescope is moving this kind of instrument into space and starting imaging black holes from space which improves a lot this kind of observation because it allows us to have even higher angular resolution than what we have now so we will be able maybe in 20 years 30 years make a very accurate images of the Event Horizon of a black hole if you like Einstein's theory of gravity then black holes are one of the most interesting examples of this theory and this is my role within this project I am a theorist I work with equations and simulations and my role is that to try and understand whether the image that we produce corresponds to the predictions of Einstein's theory or maybe to something else when the project was suggested to me I thought that this was a perfect match because I had skills that I could provide to this project and of course I was lacking those skills in terms of observations of radio astronomy or of pulsar observations but they were already present in these other collaborators so it was a fantastic way of combining talents from different people in a way that otherwise would have not been possible in order to take this picture you need the cooperation, the simultaneous observations of many radio telescopes across the planet you need to have the largest possible network of telescopes taking the same image at the same time not all of this slide actually goes into the black hole luckily and that's why we can produce an image and we have to compare the image that we simulate through computer programs with the image that we actually measure through observations so what is most surprising of this experience is that we managed to get a very good image the first time we tried to synchronize all of these telescopes at the same time it is not so surprising that we obtain the image that we had predicted through simulations because we believe our simulations are correct and because we believe that the theory of Einstein's general activity is the correct one we want you to take an image of a black hole and the problem with black holes is that they are very small so you want to take a very big black hole which unfortunately is very far away from us and so you need a big telescope this telescope is a hundred meter in diameter but it's not enough you want a bigger telescope and of course it's impossible to build but you can create a virtual telescope by joining different telescopes in different locations and so you can build a telescope which is as big as the earth and in fact that's exactly what we've done we joined a telescope like this with a telescope in the United States and one even in the south pole to get a very sharp image an image is comparable to seeing an orange on the moon black holes tell you that our regions inside them cannot be explored and for a physicist this is very disturbing and attractive at the same time because we don't like to have those which we cannot cross and in particular inside black holes physics is even expected to fail completely and so this even adds fascination to these objects so this type of science requires large funding inevitably because of the technology that is involved the manpower that is needed and this would not have been possible without the contribution of the European community that has allowed us, the European to play at the same level as our colleagues in Asia and in the United States a black hole that grows on it and becomes hot and lights up but not the whole light enters the black hole and reaches us observers and what we do is confront the images produced by numeric simulations with codes with the images observed what was surprising and that we were able to produce this image the first time that we coordinated all these telescopes to make this image it was the first time, there was no previous exercise and therefore having the image already very good, very sharp from the first attempt was a surprise the fact that then this image is in agreement with our predictions perhaps a little less a surprise as our predictions were extremely accurate and we believe that the instance is the correct theory to describe the black holes what we were going to do is take a photo of a black hole obviously the problem with this is that the black holes are extremely small and therefore it is necessary to have a black hole which is extremely large and therefore there is a need for a big telescope to visualize it a telescope like this which has a diameter of 100 meters is not enough it is necessary to have something much bigger that obviously cannot be built but it can create a virtual telescope putting in sync this telescope with other telescopes in other parts of the planet in fact you can build a telescope which is as big as the planet itself and what we did putting in sync telescopes here in Europe with other telescopes in the United States and one even to the South Pole and in this way we got an extremely precise high resolution of what a black hole is now what does that mean we have developed further developed and expanded our correlator capacity now we are one of the two correlator centers for the EHT together with Haystack Observatory but we also contributed to the continued backend development with our DBBC3 project and thirdly we played a major role in the outfitting the preparation of the ALMA array for the EHT observations we helped making the phasing of the 64 ALMA antennas possible so that now ALMA taken as a whole is a major contribution to the EHT technical capability