Australian workplaces have focused on work health and safety through COVID-19 and it doesn't stop here. Assessing and managing health and safety risks is an ongoing process that helps prevent and reduce the number and severity of workplace injuries and illnesses. Actively managing WHS risks promotes and improves health, wellbeing, work capacity, fosters innovation and improves work quality and productivity. As the COVID-19 situation and your business practices change, review what you're doing to keep your workplace safe. You must talk to your workers, their health and safety representatives and involve them in work health and safety decisions. Identify hazards. Consider what could happen if someone is exposed to a hazard and the likelihood of harm occurring. Assess existing, new or changed risks to health and safety from your work. Risks commit a physical or psychological health. Look out for new risks associated with changes to the work environment. Put control measures in place to manage the risks and regularly review them. You need to take all reasonable steps to eliminate or minimize risks to health and safety. For more information and resources, go to the website.


This is Witchface news for Friday the 11th of November 2022, I'm CMDR Buur. In Elite Dangerous News this week, the Stargoids are now visible from Earth. That Stargoid scream has been deciphered and there's a new guide to essential materials for explorers. As always if you enjoy our stuff hit the thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe and click the little bell icon to see all our Elite Dangerous content. You can also join our Patreon which directly supports the work we do here at the pit, links to that and everything else are below. CMDR Bowl of Petunias has created a fantastic written guide with a valuable visual element to it detailing the essential materials needed for deep space exploration. The guide is born from Petunias over six years of deep space exploration and focuses predominantly on the synthesis function. Synthesis can grant the explorer greater jump range, repair replenishment and even oxygen for life support but it is often ignored in the expedition preparation stages in favour of material gathering for engineering elements such as jump range and mass reduction etc. The guide from Bowl of Petunias paints an easy to read and understand picture of just what materials the long range explorer should be gathering and where those materials can best be leveraged to get the best bang for your buck. You'll find BLP's essential guide for explorer materials that matter linked in the description below this video. Without wishing to tempt fate to throw the community a curveball, I'm now going to tempt fate to throw the community a curveball. As of this recording there are still eight unknown interstellar phenomena or stargoids headed directly toward the bubble so right now at least it seems safe to assume that we'll have eight of whatever they are to deal with when they arrive, wherever it is they're going to arrive, assuming they arrive somewhere and don't just go sailing off into the black ignoring us completely which is of course a possibility albeit an unlikely one. Again as of this recording and perhaps unsurprisingly the first three to be detected are now the closest. Stargoid 1 being now just 300 light years from Sol and brace yourself it's now just about visible in the sky above Earth with the right lighting conditions. Because of a peculiarity in the way Odyssey's lighting works the stargoids are actually much clearer when your ship itself is very brightly lit by the local conditions but if you travel to Sol orient your ship towards Barnards loop you should see a faint red star appearing almost smack bang in the middle of the nebula that faint red dot is stargoid 1 however if you're much closer to the approaching jellyfish of despair then this is what you'll see. With update 14 expected to arrive in around three weeks that view from Earth is absolutely likely to change it remains to be seen by how much however indeed it remains to be seen if the view of Earth changes along with it. As of this recording we know almost nothing about update 14 frontier are currently scheduled to live stream on the 17th of November next week unless they add an extra live stream into the fortnightly schedule or switch it around in some other regard next Thursday will be the only live stream opportunity they have to talk about update 14 before the end of November make of that what you will. And in a very late piece of breaking news quite literally just as we were going to press a new gal net piece has been published stating that the FSS scanner in all commanders ships has been updated with the latest information gathered from scientists including those at canon research the end result is that the stargoids can now be tracked in system and for one of a better expression can be zoomed into in the scanner like a regular signal source as they now show up as part of the scanned spectrum in the device tracking the object causes visible glitching in the scanner and the noise being emitted by the stargoids also appears to have been significantly beefed up when you enter the scanner now to track one of the objects this is what you'll see and hear as I've said this news literally broke as we were going to press if there are any further updates as the community gets to grip with the updated tool will post it to our youtube community pages after a gal net news article late yesterday was released into the in-game news feed the community got its first partial answer at least to the question just what was that raw heard in hip 22460 what's commonly referred to as the stargoid raw was triggered as a direct result of the detonation of the Proteus wave device by everyone's favorite bargain basement messiah salvation in august nearly three months on we're still guessing that the raw was fargoid in origin and probably had something to do with the subsequent arrival of the stargoids but we couldn't 100 prove it for certain however following a joint statement from that most respected trinity of science professor albert tesoro formerly of ages professor ishmael palin of the palin research institute and not a professor apparently but i'm sure very learned nonetheless ram tar we now know more than we did before the trio have previously formed a quartet with sayo gin a the artist formerly known as d2 who after the ministration of salvation and his house of mad medicine found herself with neural implants that are specifically designed to interface with stargoid technology the result of their combined brain power and ram tar's certificate of higher education has led them to the revelation that at least part of the raw was what they're calling a call and response element the statement goes on to say that the raw was a reply to the stargoid forces in hip 22460 and sayo gin a interprets its implied meaning as quote we see them we are coming unquote i personally think it's safe to assume that the them the raw is referring to is us as the response was apparently directed at the stargoid forces in hip as much as i'd love to believe that the stargoids in hip were changed somehow by the guardian influences inflicted upon them it does seem likely that what has actually happened is something more entirely basic the salvation attack was so initially devastating to the thargoids that they have now properly noticed us and consider us a credible threat the fab four are also saying that they believe they have determined that the raw came from what they're referring to as quote a single thargoid entity unquote sayo gin a is also saying that she believes the stargoids whatever they are have been deployed by the thargoids as a direct response to the proteus wave event whilst this is an obvious conclusion from the perspective of the player base this is the first time that we've had that belief confirmed by the game the piece finishes by saying that the collective brainiacs believe the thargoid war is about to enter a new phase and that we are not yet at least prepared for it the direct implication from that being that there will be preparations in our future that we will be able to make as i've said in this piece the stargoids being of thargoid origin and as a result of the hip events is not a surprise to the player base but it is nice to have it finally underlined what was particularly interesting from sayo gin a's understanding of what she was able to decipher was that the raw came from a single thargoid entity that frontier have chosen to highlight that fact in the story is particularly fascinating is this perhaps the first detectable noise from the long suspected and rumored thargoid queen and with thargoid and xeno advocacy being such a hot topic in the game at the moment will we someday be able to raw back establishing something akin to a dialogue with that entity do you believe the raw came from a thargoid queen have you taken yourself out to see the stargoids yet do you believe we could or should attempt to communicate with the thargoids let us know in the comments below that's it for now thanks very much for watching we'll be back later this week with more videos until then oh seven commanders follow the greens on the way out and do keep clear of the toast rack we very much look forward to seeing you next time


New, persevered, and kept the memory of Canada's first and only Black Battalion alive, number two construction battalion. We are here to accept responsibility for mistakes of the past, and to pledge ourselves to working every day to build a better future. Today, it is a historic day, and I am happy to see the descendants, but I am also happy to see so many young people here today, including my son Xavier. Among the most selfless things a person can do is stand up and volunteer to fight for their country. To risk your life, to defend your values, and your loved ones is an act of extraordinary bravery, of honour, of sacrifice, of loyalty. When the First World War broke out in Europe and Canada joined the fight, men from across the country flocked to enlist. Among those brave volunteers were hundreds of young Black men, eager to serve, who loved Canada and were ready to take up arms to defend king and country. They were willing and able patriots who wanted to serve. Hundreds of young men, who came from the Black communities, wanted to serve their country and protect the freedom that was dear to them. They wanted to fight with honour against tyranny and oppression, but almost all volunteers who came from the Black communities refused the honour of serving their country. In repeated acts of discrimination and racism, almost every single Black volunteer was turned away and denied the honour of serving their country. In one instance, a group of 50 Black volunteers journeyed from Sydney to New Glasgow by train and waited all day at the recruiting office only to be told that this was a white man's war. Those recruiters did not see men willing to fight for our collective freedom. They only saw the colour of their skin. Back then, there were unwritten laws of segregation, but some were more explicit. In 1910, when the Naval Service of Canada was founded, its recruitment practices excluded non-white members. And while there was no official policy for the Canadian expeditionary forces, it was left up to commanding officers who repeatedly turned Black volunteers away. These shameful discriminatory practices did not go unnoticed by the public. Letters came from across the country, demanding to know why Black men could not enlist. In 1915, George Morton, from Hamilton, wrote the Minister of Militia and Defence to speak out on behalf of his fellow Black citizens. They think they should be permitted in common with other peoples to perform their part and do their share in this great conflict. He stated that Black men wanted to work out their own destiny and were anxious to serve in this critical crisis in the country's history. What more devotion to country could we have asked for? And yet, senior military leadership at the time continued to turn a deaf ear. How quickly the military leadership of the day had forgotten the history of Black soldiers. For over a century, Black soldiers had sacrificed so much to serve this place they called home. During the war in 1812, Black soldiers defended the High Canada. In 1859, William Edward Hall, the son of former slaves, was one of the first Canadians to receive the Cross of Victoria for his bravery. In 1861, the Victoria Rifle Pioneer's Corps became the first authorized military force in Western Canada and was comprised entirely of Black men who had come to British Columbia to escape racial persecution down south. By the time of the First World War, Canada already had a long history of loyal Black military service. But in 1916, a major general took it upon himself to write a memo that disparaged the loyalty and combat capabilities of Black men. This is what systemic racism and anti-Black hate does. It suppresses the truth. It tries to rewrite history under false narratives. It buries the bravery, humanity, and common cause we share. But human nature shows us, again and again, that people will always find a way to stand up and demand their dignity. And the Black men who wanted to serve never gave up. The systemic racism and the hate towards Black communities contribute to suppressing the truth. But human nature has shown us several times that people will always find the way to stand up and demand their dignity. You see, two years after the war began, Black men were finally permitted to form their own battalion, number two construction battalion. Canada's first and only Black battalion. While many members were from around here in Nova Scotia, Black men and boys traveled from across the country to enlist. Two sons of the famous cowboy John Ware, Arthur and William, came all the way from the family's Calgary homestead. Around 600 patriots from all over the country came here, at Truro, to receive training. They proudly dressed up the Canadian expeditionary corps uniform after two years of refusal. But they never had the same opportunities nor the same support as their white homologues. When these Black men had answered the call of duty, they had dreamt of fighting on the front lines. But instead, they were deployed to Europe as a labor unit. They had to sail on a separate ship and were sent to the Jura Mountains of southeastern France where they joined the Canadian Forestry Corps. They did grueling work and their contributions were invaluable to the war effort. The lumber they cut lined the trenches on the front lines, became railway ties and was even used in aircraft. Thanks to their faithful and disciplined work, the mills produced double the lumber of other comparable units. But still, they had to live in segregated camps and without proper medical care, rations, or equipment. Twenty-three members of the battalion died in Europe, their lives lost while serving their country. And when the war was over and the battalion came home, the living were never given the heroes' welcome they deserved. Alors retour les membres du deuxième battalion de construction n'ont jamais reçu l'accueil en héros qu'il méritait. In the poem we just heard, Black soldiers lament by Captain George Borden. The opening lines are haunting. The bugle called and forth we went to serve the crown, our backs far bent, and build what air that must be done, but nare to fire an angry gun. No heroes we nay not won. That last line, how could they not be seen as heroes? As a country we failed to recognize their contributions for what they were, their backbreaking work, their sacrifice, their very willingness to put their country before their self. The great war was won at the hands of every soul that served. We owe these men, these brave black men, so much.  I am here today to offer the Government of Canada's official apology for the appalling way these patriots were treated. For the overt racism of turning black volunteers away when they offered to sacrifice their lives for all, we are sorry. For not letting black service members fight alongside their white compatriots. For denying members of number two construction battalion the care and support they deserved. We are sorry for failing to honor and commemorate the contributions of the members of number two construction battalion and their descendants for the blatant anti-black hate and systemic racism that denied these men dignity in life and in death. We are sorry. On ne peut pas changer le passé, mais on doit tous saisir les occasions d'apprendre de nos erreurs. Malheureusement, on sait qu'un trop grand nombre de membres des forces armées canadiennes sont encore confrontés au racisme systémique et à la discrimination, y compris le racisme envers les communautés noires. We are committed to meaningful change where the dignity of all service members in the Canadian Armed Forces is upheld. Where everyone is welcome, where everyone can rise through the ranks, where everyone has opportunities to distinguish themselves. We cannot and we will not ever let what happened to number two construction battalion happen again in ways large or small. And we cannot let the service of any member of our forces ever be overlooked or forgotten. Today, very little would be known of the battalion's legacy if it weren't for the efforts of their steadfast descendants, relentless historians, and black leaders. I want to again thank Russell Gross and all of those at the Black Cultural Center for Nova Scotia for their work to research and preserve the memory of number two construction battalion. I also want to particularly thank former Member of Parliament for Halifax West, Gordon Earl, for his dedication to commemorating the battalion. And there are two other names that need mention, names who are no longer with us. First, Senator Calvin Rock, who devoted himself to documenting Canada's black military history and sharing the stories of the members of number two, including by publishing a book on the men. And Captain George Borden, who was a descendant of serving members and served in the military himself. Captain Borden was a ceaseless advocate of the battalion, who also wrote that beautiful poem we heard earlier. I also want to acknowledge among all the various descendants and family members, Audrey Parris, who is the oldest direct descendant. Her father, Sheldon Parris, served in number two. Audrey can't be here with us today, but I know is watching from Toronto. Thank you. Over the past few decades, efforts have been made to recognize the battalion, including exhibitions, publications, Parks Canada events, and a stamp. Well today, we are announcing that next year, during Black History Month, the Royal Canadian Mint will release a pure silver collector coin honoring number two construction battalion, which will allow Canadians, no matter where they live, to be part of remembering this extraordinary legacy. Next year, during the Black History Month, the Royal Canadian Mint will release a pure silver collector coin honoring number two construction battalion to allow Canadians from all over the country to participate in the commemoration of its heritage. Today, I hope that all Canadians will do research on our stories, our writings, and our stories. There are stories like that of the second battalion, which shows us that the strength and resilience of our common humanity do not settle in the color of our skin. All members of the Canadian Armed Forces fight under the same flag. Our flag may have changed since the First World War, but what we stand for never has. Freedom, peace, justice, fairness, and hope. This is the promise of Canada, and while we still have work to do, this should always be what we fight for at home and around the world. To the memory of these Black soldiers, we would like to say today we see you and we honour you. And to their descendants, we hope you see yourselves as you are. Heirs to the memory of true Canadian heroes.


Welcome to the After Hours podcast, hosted by Harry Haas and James Friedlender, presented by My Investing Club. What's going on, guys? We're back with another episode of the After Hours podcast. Today we have John, who is a member of MIC. He's been a member for a little bit now, and we've all been chatting back and forth for a while, so we're glad to finally get him on. So thank you for coming on, Mavin. Oh, man, thank you guys so much for the opportunity. Come on. Really appreciate it. Of course, dude. Of course, we're glad to have you. So in classic form, we'll start off. If you could tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, how you got into trading, and then how you kind of eventually found MIC. Cool. So my background is I got an entrepreneurial background. I first started in the online space of getting into affiliate marketing. I really wanted to build my own business, do something for myself. So back in 2017, or 2016, I should say, really kind of I just started looking at different opportunities, different things to do. And I did kind of well in that, but it just didn't give me the traction. It just didn't give me what I wanted to do. And then crypto became really big in 2017. And I remember I was buying Bitcoin at like $1,500, which is like, I know right now I'm just sitting, I don't own any of it. So I'm sitting here like, wow. But I started in 2017. I started getting into more of the crypto. And then because I had the marketing background, which I was already doing for a couple of years, my buddy hooked me up with somebody that was, which I didn't know at the time, but the company that he was running, he was creating his own coin. I thought it was, I thought this was it. I thought, man, this is going to make me retire. Yeah, exactly. I'm going to retire working with this guy. What I didn't know is that I was operating a back end of a pyramid scheme or a Ponzi scheme.  So I mean, I had no idea until in the structure of the company was the coin is you buy the coin and then you reinvest it back into the business.  To me, that sounded great. I thought, wow, this is actually really good business model. What I didn't know is that he was going to pump up the coin and then sell off. And then we would never hear from him again. Jesus. Yeah, I know. So it was really bad. I mean, I got caught into it too because I really believed in his company, his dream. So how that launched me into my trading careers that I said, you know what, how do you do this without getting involved in stuff like this? Now, I didn't know at the time that there was actually pump and dumps in the stock market. So I really didn't have any market knowledge besides the crypto market. But it's what sparked my interest. So once I got done with that, it was, I want to say when all that happened is this is when Bitcoin tanked. This is beginning of 2018, end of 2017. So I did like what anybody else does. How do you make money online or with trading? And the first person that came up with Tim Sykes, his marketing hit me hard. I was getting pop-ups here, left, left and right. So I filled out the application for his challenge, wanted to see what it was about. And I made the jump. I had some money left from all my other ventures. So I thought, you know what, this is gonna, this is my next step. So I got involved with Tim Sykes program and I just, it was information overload, I should say. So I started off, I just hit the books, I started learning everything that I could. And that's when I actually realized what I was in, when I was with that crypto company. I really, he kind of taught me what a pump and dump was because that's what he teaches. So I got involved in that. But really the information was just like information overload. I didn't know where to go. I was like this guy by myself, I thought I was gonna have all the support. But for me, I was so determined that I just thought, I'm just gonna keep hammering all this information I'm just gonna do. But then when it came to actual trading, I had, I didn't know what to do. It was like, I had like paralysis when it came to actually clicking the button. Were you executing or are you just like nervous to even literally trade? So I, because I didn't really know the process. They didn't have a process, I should say. I mean, yeah, he had these steps of finding pump and dumps. But I mean, we all know this, it's a rarity when you actually get those huge, huge moves that they're looking for. So for me, I wasn't familiar with it, but I also had to put the time in. So I thought, let me just keep at this. And I wanted to bring this up because this is a great opportunity is that in, I believe it was August or September, MIC started and it was 2018. I want to say, you guys were running lifetime for 2,500, 3,000 for the beginning, for that initial start. And it was like a, and I kept hearing about IU investors underground. And I just heard a lot of people talk about IU. Well, because of MIC being so new, I just was like, you know, I'll go with IU, which honestly, I don't regret, but I do at the same time because I really wish I was a founding member. I really wish I was here for the beginning because I really think that my career in trading would have been way more accelerated than it has been. But I trust the journey and I'm here now. So, but yeah, I thought there was a funny story that I remember seeing that and I was like, you know what, am I gonna pay $2,000 for one year or should I pay 3,000 for a lifetime with these guys? And man, I wish I would. I don't even know. I forget what lifetime is now, but it's like when Tasha says we're into a good stock, I think it's like eight to 10K now or something. I know, which I'm building up for. I know, I don't even remember, but it's true. It's like, I mean, the cool thing about MIC is that there is such value like day to day.  Like it was a very brief period, but like, I don't know. I tried them.   But there was just, it was like night and day between the way that MIC operates as a community, even just like day to day talking to moderators. Like most places like you can't even talk to like the mods or like people who run it. Like they just ignore you, tell you to watch some like couple of year old video. And it's like, look, it's just like, unfortunately, like the market doesn't work like that. Like everything going on today, the stuff that Harry was longing yesterday or, you know, last month, two months ago and the stuff I was shorting, things have already changed. It just, that is what happens. So it's cool. So one quick before you, we keep going. You said you had an entrepreneurial background. Did you, do you have any family that's into like entrepreneurship or is that just were you the first? On the first. Yeah, so it's kind of like, yeah, breaking that cycle. You know, yeah, it was something new. You know, it just intrigued me to work for yourself, make you, yeah, do for your own. And it's just been great. I consider, I mean, I consider traders like entrepreneurs too.  And it's like, I think being an entrepreneur, like I don't say this about myself because I don't feel that way. But it's just from what I recognize and like seeing other people doing what we do here or like operating a business or whatever. It takes a lot of like, I don't want to say balls but it kind of does. It just takes like a lot of like guts to really put yourself out there and like trust in what you're doing. And I feel like I never recognized the correlation between business ownership and trading and how much you have to trust the process of your own business and what you're operating and how it's going to spit out profits and stuff like that. So I think it's pretty cool. I think it's cool that you do that.  Like there's a lot of people who are just like not confident like in their own abilities.   Like you don't know if trading's going to work out. You don't know if like your business is going to work out or whatever, but you're like, man, I believe in myself. I know I can do this. I know I can get better. And I think that is really, you know, I guess like for me like where that comes from. So like once you joined MIC, what was, you know, maybe some things you learned or like wish you had done or like, are there any things like that? Or like, how are you doing now?  Yeah, no, of course. Yeah, so I joined MIC in the beginning of 2020, made the leap and from the start, I mean, I already knew that MIC was different from all of the other communities just because of, you know, that support aspect.  You know, what is your process? Are you going inside the market and you know what you're going to be doing every single day?  Yeah, yeah, I have to, just to say I am.  You're almost becoming a robot to the process. And that's what MIC taught me. They taught me, you know, sizing in correctly. They saw me that the right stocks to look at. You know, and I kind of had the price action and knew, you know, how to read price action, but I wouldn't want to say that MIC molded me to learn how to actually trade it. Buy what you got, but buy what MIC teaches. You know, the 30% rule, sizing in correctly, knowing when to go short, you know, waiting for under VWAP, looking at the runners on the day, you know, stocks with volume, having your risk. I mean, the major thing is risk management.  I, before MIC, I think I was, I blew up three accounts and I don't think I traded longer than two weeks in each of those accounts. Really? Yeah, oh yeah, because of the, I was just emotional. I was sizing in too big. I didn't have the support of the community to kind of just bring me back down to say, you know, this is a journey, this is, what's the word I'm looking for? It's a marathon, not a sprint. Yeah, there you go. It's a marathon, not a sprint. And I just, you just didn't have that kind of support in other places. So when I joined MIC, it totally changed my trading completely. Now, I started back up trading in, beginning of November and my account's still alive. There you go, there you go. So I did, I think it's funny, like I've been around for a long time. It's so, so it's hairy now. And it's like, honest to God, until MIC started, like I never saw people on like Twitter or anything like that, talking about like max daily losses, hard stops. Like I see people making fun of that stuff. Risk management, yeah, risk management in general.  It was like the thing. And it's like, but how, like, what do you mean? Like how, you know, how do you know when enough is enough? And it was really until MIC that I had the same problem. Initially, I just, I wouldn't know how to take a loss. Like I just, I wouldn't know where to size. I wouldn't know where to do that. So it's like, I think it's a testament to where you're at now. It's cool to see because clearly it's night and day, right before you didn't have that risk management aspect of like, I need to protect my account. I need to protect myself. And now you kind of do. So where, like, where are you now? Like, how is your trading going? You know, what are your best kind of setups?  So my setups now, I'm short bias trader. And I've gained consistency in my trading to the point where I don't think, I don't want to say that I can go full time yet because I'm just not there. I mean, do I think that I will one day? Of course. But right now it's just getting those small gains, not really worried about the gains. I'm just worried about the trading. Even though I've been here, you know, been doing this now about going into four years, you know, I'm not even thinking about that. I'm just focused on trading well, you know, just trading my setups and refining those. And right now I'm only focused on, you know, one or two setups. I like the first red day setup when they do come, but since that's not at all all the time, I'm mostly shorting into resistance. So I'm shorting the open. I'm waiting for, you know, the big top out moves, I'm waiting for the slams.  And then once the trade starts working, you know, then I'll start adding into the position and start going full size, you know, waiting for those confirmation type setups rather than anticipation. Yeah, I think that is, I think that's super key.  It literally just came out right now.  And, you know, I think that that is really kind of super, super important to recognize and to do, you know? Oh, definitely.   So not only does it help me with my entries, but now my exits, I'm covering in support, I'm keeping some for lower. And it really just depends. I mean, if the range on the stock isn't there, I'm not gonna hold for lower, you know, if we're already getting down to the bottom of the range, you know, now you're just trying to get the little meat, you know, that's on the phone. You know, that's where you get into trouble because, you know, volume starts drying up, short start to cover, you know, once that volume comes in, next to you know, that winning trade that you could have made that 20, 30 cents on, well, now you're underwater.  And then next to you know, you're putting yourself into an emotional roller coaster. And then all of a sudden your process goes out the window. So I definitely think that your entries and your exits, they're just as important to one another. Yeah, you know what I like to hear is that, so I know we've talked in the past a little bit. And I like to hear like, you definitely have like a new level of confidence.  You sound like you know what you're actually looking for. You sound like you have a sizing plan. You have all of this and like, did that come naturally to you? Like as you were in MIC, where did it take this kind of last like year or so or like really since you've been into to really get yourself there?  Yeah, no, definitely. I think it's, I think it's both because, you know, as I'm learning it, I think with trading though, everyone's gonna, I think it's a very rare thing for someone not to experience it themselves because it's kind of like, oh, that plates, you know, it's about the kid, oh, the stove's hot, but then your mind, oh, is it, how hot is it?   There is things in MIC that I don't do specifically because we are told not to do them in our process, but there is definitely things that I learned and did. And I don't want to say that I was trying to break rules, but, you know, sometimes your emotions get the best of you and you make decisions based off of your emotions and you don't realize you're actually making them. So that's why when I, you know, that's why I say it's like a one-on-one thing because I have done things differently because of MIC, but then I've also done things differently because of MIC and then making those mistakes on my own, not realizing that I'm actually making them.  And now I'm, yeah, so there's just little things that, you know, I knew not to do, but because I was, you know, kind of in the moment, maybe I was just sized in a little bit too much. Maybe I thought that the trade, maybe I was anticipating. And then from there, I would go back and say, okay, what's our process? And then what did I do wrong? And then I would fix it for next time. Yeah, I like that. No, I don't like that too. Do you think like, you know, as far as like, there were like any like key videos or anything that you watched? Or do you think it was more so just like, you know, just watching videos consistently? Or like, is there anything like, for someone who just joined MIC, like is there any like favorites that you would tell people to go back and watch? Like if you had to like design a curriculum? So the way I did it when I first joined is I filed MIC to the team with, you know, going into well, now we have Nancy's intro video. Yeah. So we have Nancy's intro video. See, I actually, she's very proud. I wrote it down all the, all my key points. I have one, I have one. So I definitely recommend Nancy's intro video, face study guide.  And- Faye the ghost. Yeah, exactly. But hey, she's the worthy ghost. She's the worthy ghost. She's like the- She's like the- Yeah. She is, don't talk to her, she's a trip. So the accelerator program, I watched that three times. You know, just to, even though, yeah, I've watched it about three times. I continue to watch it because, you know, there's always things, you know, if you watch a movie more than once, you start finding things that you didn't see before. And it's the same thing in trading. The more you watch, the more you're gonna be like, wow, I didn't see that last time or, because just different, your mind is not gonna, we're human. Your mind is, that information- You're not gonna pick up everything. Exactly. It's not gonna pick up everything. If you're focused on, okay, I wanna be short bias trader, you're gonna start figuring out things about being short. But then when you re-watch it, you're gonna say, okay, well, I was so focused on that. Well, now I'm learning this.  I wanna get through it and get to the next thing.  And the Accelerator is what, seven hours, or eight hours long? Like, it's not short. And it's like, that's what pisses me off the most. My DMs lately have been filled with newer guys. So, for anyone who doesn't know, MIC got rid of monthly memberships. You only have annual lifetime now. So, if you join, you're serious. So, why not take that first class, like the most serious? Like, it's like driving school.  It's like how you learn the basic operations of your motor vehicle.  It's like, no, like, you're hearing it from someone who's now being consistent and doing well. You have to take it slow and actually pay attention to these, watch these things multiple times.    Like, I listen to that thing over and over. And you know what?  So, I really like they said that. I think that's a huge point. Yeah. And I think also, like, you know, when you're learning how to drive a car, first of all, you know, everyone gets in that car, right? You know, when you're, but with trading, like a lot of people are afraid to even step in the car, you know? And then you have to press the gas and the brake.  And then you get to an intersection and so on. And it gets more complicated when you're driving, you know? But I think about, you know, I think there are some similarities there as well. And I also think that, like, you know, when you're driving, everyone's cheering you on, right?   And then the other two people in the back seat. Yeah.  Like, it's crazy, you know? If you get in a car accident, everyone's like, oh, it's okay, it happens. You're being serious.    How did you get that going for the voice? Did you have any, like, kind of, like family, like, kind of, that were a little hesitant or that weren't really supportive or... Well, you know, as I got into this, my dad, my dad, well, my grandfather, his brother was really into stocks.  And I'm thinking like, this guy's crazy, papers everywhere. Like, but then my mom's told me that those papers were the business section of all the stocks. They were, he would stay up all night, he would do all of his research. And I mean, we're talking 1970s, 1960s, 1980s. So they didn't have the technology that we have today. So... Now, was he actually trading or was he just like... He was... Life, I have family, that was like that too. They'd be like looking at like, oh, Microsoft's at this today. It's like, I don't even know if they're trading it. I was like, okay. No, no, yeah, he was a big investor. They both had successful careers. My grandfather was a civil engineer. So yeah, so they had a successful career. So, they were really smart, really analytical. So yeah, they were... So it's awesome to kind of see that I picked this up and to see that my family has been involved in the markets before. But nothing, when I first started this, yeah, they didn't... No one really understands it until you do it kind of thing.  Oh, you're trying to trade, go get a nine to five, stop taking the... Wait, this is the best part. Don't take the easy way. Don't try to make the easy money. This is the hardest thing I've called it. This is the biggest self-discovery journey you will ever take and learn about yourself. There's... Discovery or destructive. Oh, seriously, you'll think like, man, I've made strides. And let me tell you, the market will humble you back down. And in a good way because it's a big growth experience. And I think when people actually take it serious and they don't go, where's Lambo? And they actually look at it as trading as a real journey. And I think it goes to a different level. Yeah. I think we are all around that level when somebody comes in and they assume that because you can just open up a brokerage account and you can click a click of a mouse, that makes it easy. And I think that's where it comes from because that's all you need to do. You don't have to go to school. You don't all you do. But in the more general pop is they think that you just go in and you click a button and that's it. They don't understand the nuances of actual trading and they don't put the time in to actually learn it. And then when they lose, well, it's never their fault. It's the market's fault. It's true, man. It's true. I think people don't understand that part of this journey is, I think more of it is the technical side of it, I honestly think you can teach anybody. I really do. I think anybody can learn like, because you could make it so black and white for people, like you could say, hey, if a stock after 930 is under VWAP, it's you could short it with risk overview. Like you could make it so technical. Doesn't mean it's gonna work as often as the way we trade, but you could. Like I like to keep you guys updated. Like I'm helping the guy who owns a convenience store next to my business. And dude, he's killing it. He's killing it. He's really good. He's making like between like two to 500 a day. This guy started trading a month and a half ago, right? That's why. And it is, right? But again, it's because he's so technical, but he had his first red day.  But the emotional down, I could see it in like the days that he's making money. It's such a happy, like this is amazing. This is such a cool thing. Everything, because you're learning. Then the down days, even if it's a down day that's like reasonable.  It is.   Like I can't, you can't explain that to people who haven't done it. Unless like maybe I, I hate to compare it. Maybe someone who goes to casino can kind of relate because it's like that person that stays a little too long at like the blackjack table and like, you know, like, one more hand, one more hand and then you get fucked. And you're like, yeah.  I think the majority. Oh yeah.  But with trading, you do not expect to lose. Like you're going into the day confident.  Good to go. Yeah. We got 90% success rate on our side. You're like, you're a, I don't know if I'm allowed to say this. You're, we'll cut it out if I can't.  You're like, you're like, I studied these supernovas, bro.    And yeah, there's not a supernova today. And you're like, oh shucks man. I'm just going to short this NASDAQ low float that's up like 500% and see how I do. Cause it's bound to go supernova. I think the thing we're trading to, I think the thing we're trading, which is tough is like, you're right.  It's like me going to work doing a haircut, like at 90% of the time I'm getting paid. But like one time I'm not going to get, maybe I don't get paid, maybe they don't like the haircut.  Yeah, maybe they're going to nail and bail me.  I'd let them go. I'm just, I'll get the next time. But no, it's just, it's something like- Free haircuts. Whatever, bro. Yeah, I'm going to James for my haircut and I'm starting my business next door to his. I mean, wouldn't you? No, it's true. It's true. It's just, I don't know, it's cool. But I really do like seeing you progress the way you have it. It's cool to watch because I've noticed like, Harry and I have been here but like as long as MIC's been around. So it's like, you see people come and go and originally and now it's like, you see people come and now they're actually like, growing into profitable traders.  And it's like, the amount of profitable guys and people that even just talking to, you can tell, understand what we're teaching and what Alex and Bal and Tasha teach.  So I give you a lot of props man, I like to see it. I appreciate that. I really appreciate that James because I started as a monthly. So just to go back, kind of like, when I started in MIC's, I started as a monthly. And I mean, I took the full ride because Accelerator, I was there when Accelerator was just, it didn't just come out, but it was like brand new still. So they weren't just offering it inside the program. It was, and I wanted to have money in my trading account. I just didn't have expendable to $2,500 at the time to do the Accelerator plus the yearly. So I thought, well, about 2,000. So I thought, you know what, let me do, cause I really wanted to do the Accelerator program. I did the three month, was it the four month or is it three or four month? Is it three months? Yeah, I think three months plus the Accelerator.  And I just thought, man, I'm putting it on a credit card. I gotta get it.  So, you know, but anyways, I, yeah, I just was like, you know what, so I went from monthly to the three month plus Accelerator to a yearly because of I saw the value of what I might see offered. And then, you know, in the future, I'll go. We're not, we're not snake oil salesmen, right? Like I never, people ask all the time, they'll be like, should I upgrade, should I upgrade it?  Like I just believe like investing in yourself and investing in education.  Like I'm a wine, like I like wine a lot. I pay to go to like wine tasting wine classes, like all that stuff.   Like, I mean, I, you know, listen to me and Harry talk about like money and stuff all the time, but like, and I don't want, I don't want to put anyone in plastic how much they make or anything like that.  It's not even funny. Like just sticking to the basic process. Like you see newer members making between like a hundred and 200 a day. These are just new guys who just like are like just getting into it. And it's like, again, think about that like long term. If that's the most you ever make a day, which is not realistic, probably gonna make more.  And when you, oh, sorry. I don't know. I was just gonna say, I think that that is, you know, like a good place to kind of like start maybe like winding down a little bit because, you know. Yeah, the university is done. Yeah. I mean, we have been, you know, at our, we are coming up on our kind of like 30 minute mark. Yeah. I agree with what James said where, you know, we're not, we're not like, it's not like Alex is like, yeah, try and get as many of these people to upgrade as you can, you know, like, people ask us like literally every day, like, should we upgrade? Should we do this? Should we do that? And like, you know, none of us are saying like, oh, you must do that. But like all of us are saying like, it's probably like the best idea to, you know, invest in yourself.  You have to pay way more than MIC for just one year. Jesus.   It's like, you know, we don't get anything either. No.  It doesn't work like that, you know. We just generally care and want to see people succeed. So, but I guess we are coming up on the time and it is pre-market. So we should probably start focusing on this. So John, thank you for coming on, man. You did awesome. And I appreciate it. And I know would love to have you back in the future. Just to kind of document your progress. Yeah, thanks, James, Harry. I really guys appreciate this opportunity. So, of course, man. Of course, we will talk in chat. All right, we'll do.


In this episode, InshaAllah, I'm going to speak about the third marhala, the third stage. We spoke about the first stage and the second stage in our previous episode of how the Quran reached us. Remember, we're in the adillah al qata'a, the clear evidences that the Quran and the qira'at have both reached us in multitude mass transmission. We spoke about the first stage, which was the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, to his companions. And then we spoke about the companions to the tabi'een, to their students, the companions to their students. And now we're going to speak about the third one, which is the students of the companions, which are the tabi'een, passing you on to the atba'u tabi'een, and then onwards. And then how it reached us is the final stage, inshaAllah, ta'ala. The Quran was passed on in mass transmission from the sahabas to the tabi'een, and we already proved the story of Abu Dardar, how his students reached in one gathering, 1,600. We spoke about that in our previous episode. Here inshaAllah, we're going to speak about the tabi'een, and how they passed on the Quran, and they taught the Quran, and the number of people they taught the Quran to, the tabi'een, and how the atba'u tabi'een took from a lot of the tabi'een. That's the one, inshaAllah, ta'ala, and we'll start with. It was narrated that Yahya ibn Abdullah ibn Ubaydi ibn Abdullah ibn Abi Mulaika. And Abu al-Hassan alamuddin al-Sakhawiyu, he narrated this in his kitab, Jamal al-Qur'a, he narrated it there. That ibn Abi Mulaika said, if we find a man reciting, and he's reciting, that which is not between the two covers, the only thing that we're going to request from that person who's reading the Quran, that is not between the two covers, the thing that we're going to request from him is repentance. I was going to get capital punishment from the Islamic State. We take this Quran from a mass transmission, a large quantity of people, from a large quantity of people we pass it on to. So we've taken it off from a mass number of people, who they took from a mass number of people, who took from the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, who took from Jibreel, who took from Allah, wa taquluna, and you guys are now coming to us and saying to us, haddat ana fulanu al-a'raj, an fulanu al-a'ma, madri madad. And here you are coming to us, telling us, so and so told us, so and so told us, we don't take the Quran from so and so, we take the Quran from mass transmission. Ibn Abi Mulayka is an Imam who lived at the second century of Islam, he was a tabi'i, he was from the tabi'i, and his statement here is very powerful, what did he just say? What he said was, and categorically said it, is that we have taken the Quran from a mass number of people, so a mass number of people, who took from a mass number of people, who took from the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam, who took from Jibreel wa ma ilayhi alayhi wa sallam, to Allah, wa taquluna, and he mass transmission. This is the tabi'in, say this, what supports the statements of Ibn Abi Mulayka is the foqa ha'id tabi'in, the foqa ha'id of the tabi'in, that is Ibrahim Ibn Yazid al-Nakha'i, Ibrahim Ibn Yazid al-Nakha'i who died in 96 Hijriah, 96 Hijriah, he's a tabi'i. Imam Abu Bakr Ibn Abi Sheba, who died in 235 Hijriah, he narrated in Isnadi, in Sahih, with an authentic chain in his Musannaf, he said, haddatana waki'a, waki'a is waki'a Ibn Jarrah al-Ru'asi, that is waki'a Ibn Jarrah al-Ru'asi, an Sufyan, Sufyan is Sufyan Ibn Sa'id Ibn Masruq al-Tauri, an Mansoor, an Ibrahim Ibn Yazid al-Nakha'i, and I went as a side benefit to remember this. In the Kitab Ila al-Tirmidi, Imam al-Tirmidi in his Ila, he mentions that, Imam al-Bukhari who he said, but some people might say, Abdul Rahman, this chain that you're bringing right now is a weak chain because we know Sufyan al-Tauri is a Moudallis and he done Tadlis here, he said, an Mansoor, and so this chain is weak, why are you quoting it? I want to say to these people who might say this, that Imam al-Bukhari, as Imam al-Tirmidi narrated in his Ila, that Imam al-Bukhari, he said, I do not know for Sufyan al-Tauri, I do not know for Sufyan al-Tauri, I do not know for Sufyan al-Tauri, that he narrated from Habib ibn Abi Thabit, or Salamat ibn Kuhailin, or Mansoor, I do not know that he narrated from these three and then he done Tadlis when he narrated from them. I mean, Bukhari is trying to say that Salamat ibn Kuhailin, or Habib ibn Abi Thabit, or Mansoor, none of the narration, when Sufyan al-Tauri narrates with A'an, is Tadlis, pay attention to that and keep that in mind. So, this narration I mentioned from Ibn Abi Shai'ib, it's Sahih, even though Sufyan al-Tauri said an Mansoor, because Mansoor is from the people that Bukhari mentioned that Sufyan al-Tauri doesn't do Tadlis with. What is it that he narrated from him? Mansoor. So Sufyan al-Tauri narrated from Mansoor that Ibrahim al-Nakha'i, he said, carry ha anya qula, Ibrahim al-Nakha'i you disliked, he hated, that a person says, qiraatu fulanin, wa kama kana yaqra'u fulanin. This is the qiraat of so and so, and this is how so and so recites. He never liked that. Why didn't Ibrahim al-Nakha'i you not like that? Why was he against that? Let the Imam of this field, Ibn al-Jazari, explain to us, as he mentioned in his Kitab Munjid al-Mukri'in, that when he brought the Salaf not liking a person saying, this is the qiraat of so and so, and this is the recitation of so and so, or this is how so and so read. He explained what is meant. Ibn al-Jazari says in his Kitab Munjid al-Mukri'in, he said carry ha man carry ha man salaf, that some of the Salaf disliked and hated, and used the qiraat to someone, that the qiraat is attributed to a particular person. And then he said, Rawa bin Abi Dawud, Ibn Abi Dawud, the son of Abi Dawud, Abu Bakr bin Abi Dawud, he narrated from Ibrahim al-Nakha'i, he said, kana yaqra'u fulanin, wa kara'u fulanin. That the Salaf used to dislike, a person say that this is the recitation of so and so, and this is the chain of so and so. Then Ibn al-Jazari comments, he says, qultu ayi say, wa dalika khawfaan mimma atawahamahu abu shama. The reason why Ibrahim al-Nakha'i and the Salaf in general did not like to say this is the recitation of so and so, and this is how so and so read, is they were scared that confusion may come as it has come to abu shama tal makdisi. What's the confusion? Min anna l-qira'ata ila nussiba ila shaksin takoonu ahadiyat. That if the qira'at is attributed to one person, it becomes to the people, or they start thinking that the qira'at is only one person. When they hear that this is the qira'at of asim, or this is the qira'at of nafih, they might think, okay, only one person narrates the Quran. Quran is not mutawatir. Quran is ahad. Ibrahim al-Nakha'i says, These people do not know that every reciter who the recitation was attributed to, from the seven or the ten, that the qira'at that were reading with that seven or with that ten, the other reciters who were out there reading the Quran with him, are more than him. And the ones who were reading this recitation before him were more than him, okay? And those who came after are also more than him. And there's more people who read in the qira'at of asim before and after. And people reading before asim even came. Then he said, Wa min ma yazim. Wa min ma yazim. Wa min ma yazim. Then he said, Wa min ma yazim. Wa min ma yazim. Wa min ma yazim. Wa min ma yazim. He said, he said, Now you might think to yourself, really, listen to this. Listen to this example that Ibrahim al-Nakha'i gives to show you the matter is very clear that the issue of the qira'at was already done in large number before that, before any of these seven came. Look what he said, He said, what proves this point is the statement of Abu Hatim al-Sijistani, which he said, The first person to go out there and gather all the qira'at together, whether it be the accepted qira'at or the rejected qira'at, the first person who brought it all together is Haroun ibn Musa al-A'war. And he was from the reciters. Okay? The people disliked what Haroun ibn Musa did. Why did they like it? They said, He has done wrong when he started to author in this field. The reason is because the reason is because the qira'at, he said the reason is because the people didn't like it is because he gave the impression that the qira'at was from particular individuals. And they didn't like that. They knew that the qira'at was from large number of people. Restricting a number of people makes it look like the Quran is only restricted to these people. And there's no other people who narrated this qira'at. That's why they didn't like it. They knew that the Quran came from large number of people to large number of people. And he didn't like it. He said, Haroun ibn Musa lived in the second century. He died before 200. Imam Abu Hatim al-Sijistan who is the same state as us, he died in the second century. He died before 200. He died when the year was 255 Hijri'at. What does that show you? That the qira'at was known, studied, accumulated, acquired and mastered before any of the imams had already come before any of the reciters of the qira'at came. The Quran was gathered. It was taken on board. Yes. Now, insha'Allah, I want to go in giving you an example of some of the seven qira'at that we have just to show you that the Tabi'een to the Atiba'u Tabi'een, it was all done. The Quran was really done. Now, insha'Allah, I'm going to give two examples. The first example I'm going to give, insha'Allah, is Asim ibn Abi Najud whose qira'at is the one read by majority of the Muslims around the world today, the most famous one. Asim he died in 128 Hijri'at. Abu Bakr ibn Mujahid said in his qira'at, he says Abu Bakr ibn Mujahid, he died in 334 Hijri'at. He has a qira'at called As-Sab'a, I've already spoken about it. He brought his chain which is all authentic that Abu Bakr ibn Ayyashin said I can't count how many times I had Abu As-Saba'i saying Abu As-Saba'i said the following I can't count how many times I had Abu As-Saba'i saying Abu As-Saba'i said the following I never saw a person who mastered the Quran, who read the Quran who had studied the Quran better than who Asim ibn Abi Najud He did not leave of any of the students of who? Abu Bakr ibn Mujahid Asim ibn Najud did not leave of any of the students of who? Asim ibn Najud took from Ali ibn Abi Talib, he took from the Quran his chain goes to Ali ibn Abi Talib, he goes to Uthman ibn Affan, he goes through Ali ibn Abi Talib, he took from many of the companions students so the Tabi'in passed on to him he took it from all of the students Uthman ibn Abdullah ibn Abdul-Masud he took from Zid ibn Hubeish asim ibn Najud his crows take from all of the Tabi'in so the Tabi'in passed on to the Tabi'in as long as you follow the Tabi'in the second example Naf'a he was one of the seven Qur'an Naf'a ibn Abdul-Rahman ibn ibn ibn Ibn A'im 69 hijriah. He said Imam Abu Bakr ibn Mujahid narrated in the Kitaba 7 again he said, He said, Ibn Abi Nuaimin said, I read on to 70 of the tabi'een. Nafi'i saying this. I read on to 70 of the tabi'een. Is there not a multitude mass transmission? 70 of the tabi'een I narrated it from. This issue carried on. I gave you two examples. This issue of studying the Quran in this way. In large number carried on. Until Abu Al-Qasim Al-Hudali came. He died here 465 Hijriah. He traveled the world to take the Quran in the Qiraat. And he took the Quran from hundreds of Shuyuh. Ibn Al-Jazari mentions in his Kitab, he said, He took the Quran from how many people? 365. 365 Shuyuh he took the Quran from. And he said about himself. He said I traveled the world to take it. Abu Al-Qasim Al-Hudali. Another great scholar. Shamsuddin Al-Dahabi. He died here 740 Hijriah. Imam Al-Dahabi's teachers reached Shuyuh Al-Fasheik. A thousand teachers. Ibn Al-Jazari, Shamsuddin Ibn Al-Jazari. He has a Kitab called Ghayaat Nihayaat in the Tabi'at of the Quran. He said, Abu Abdullah Al-Dahabi Al-Haafu. A great teacher was born in 3700 Hijriah. Imam Al-Dahabi Al-Haafu. The teacher is a reliable person. Imam Al-Dahabi was born in 3700 Hijriah. He was born in 673 Hijriah. And then he said, He gave importance to the Quran when he was young. He busied himself with Hadith. And the narrators Shuyuh Al-Haafu. He just in Hadith. And all the other sciences in Islam. A thousand. He reached a thousand. Shuyuh Al-Haafu. He just in Hadith. And other than Hadith, he reached a thousand. And this proves to us that this Quran came through mass transmission. With all of the Qira'at al-Sahihah. By the way, Generations after generation. And this is without a doubt to show that Allah SWT is true. We sent down the revelation. And we're going to protect it. Anything I might have said that was wrong or incorrect is from me, Shaytan. When Allah has messaged, I'm both free from it. Insha'Allah. I'm going to see you in the next episode. Peace be upon you. How can you do a two second action right now that will give you a share of the reward of everything we're doing on this YouTube channel? Simple. Like this video and click subscribe. Why? It will allow YouTube to recommend our videos to other users. And imagine the huge amount of reward that could be waiting for you on the day of judgement if you did that with a sincere intention of spreading the Deen of Allah. You'll be rewarded for every single person who benefits from one of our videos as a result of your like or subscribe. That's an easy two second action that you definitely don't want to miss out on. Do it now. Click like and subscribe and don't forget to make that intention.


Welcome to this hour in insurance webinars for January 2024 on behalf of the consortium adoption series. The series will run for four consecutive weeks. And in this today's topics, we will start with some relatively simple concepts and as we progress, we will start building up on that. And so for, for today's topics, we have some thoughts and some ideas about how we could transition from excel to in the programming in our, and we will follow up next week on how to move from programming to art to putting art into production. And then in weeks three and four we will capture performance culture topics. My name is Georges Bakolukas, and I will be covering the first two sessions. And my colleague, Benedict Sambrager, who I will allow to introduce himself in a bit, he will be covering the second two sessions. I'm an actually working for three three. And I'm not a programmer from an early age I discovered programming six, seven years ago. And it transformed the way I was working from excel into our and that's that's excitement hopefully I could pass on a little bit on that to some of you. I'll pass on to Benedict for him to do this himself and we will continue with the webinar topic for today. Thank you very much, George. So as already mentioned, I'll cover sessions three and four in a few weeks time. And yeah, also nice to meet you. I'm Benedict. I've also been working for three four a few years. And in contrast to George, I've already started my sort of journey with our in at university and have successfully used it over my career since mostly in data analysis and modeling jobs. So hopefully there's something for you to learn today. And I pass it back to George. Thank you very much Benedict. The background to this is that with interest rate we have a strong internal community, which has been sponsored for several years now. Since 2019 by a group to factory Philip long to adopt programming or day to day. And we have reached the level of around 2000 people in the community with 500 and regular coders that we support each other. And one of the community channels that we have is a Microsoft teams community channel that people can ask questions and the example we will use today is coming from one of the questions that came through this channel several months ago. And I will talk into the topic in into the next slide. I just like to clarify that any, any expressed views today are sorry, all the speakers are now employer. So the running example for webinars one and two is that we have an insurer who covers the remaining balance of loans in case of death or the bill for the borrower. And the, the actually had to provide a quote for this insurer for a portfolio of two many days here circa 300,000 policies. And the insurer had given for each of the policies the loan amount, the loan duration and the interest rate. So the immediate task for the actually was to calculate the summing suit profile for each of policies as it amortizes. So the more the client of the policy base the smaller the amount remaining balance. So if there's an accident or a death or a disability, the insurer will have to to pay less. It's a it's a job of the actually to calculate that profile to arrive at the premium. We will talk through a solution in Excel, which is the immediate approach that I believe anyone in the industry would be quite comfortable with and then we'll see a potential solution in our in the second solution. Second webinar will see why some of the moving from Excel into our trade off base off. So just to give it a little bit more of a background what we mean about the life as soon as court this is a screenshot of the solution that we'll step into in a bit in in Excel but I will just highlight a few things. In this table here we have the balance of the loan of 1000 at the beginning of the month. We assume that there is a loan for 36 months. There's an interest that is being paid. And some of the payment cost towards reducing the principal. And this is the balance that ends up at the end of the month, which carries upwards here BOP means beginning of period and EOP means end of period. And we can see how the balance runs off to zero amortizes. So, immediately we see two, two challenges for for the actually one is given this yellow inputs how to calculate how much someone would be paying every month and this is called the equivalent monthly payment. It's usually when you get a code for buying a car or something what would be paying for month and some of it goes from. And this is constant every every every month. The second, the second challenge will be how to to create this table where amortizes and we'll spend the next few few minutes looking at that and then we look at in the Excel. So, first of all, the solution to find the the equivalent monthly premium equivalent monthly installment is already there. If you Google it, you will find different interface just you can add some numbers and get the output. The question now is how someone can work on it on their own setup so they can add it for all these 300,000 policies. And also the mathematics about how to come up with the with the solution for the equivalent monthly income is easy to search online this is a formula and from when I was looking to that this was a very intuitive understanding of the interpretation so we'll take this as a given. So we can move on on this short series of the webinar. So one thing to note is that this calculation that we need to do on the equivalent monthly payment, essentially applying a formula in Excel with all these inputs. It's quite similar to how we will do it in in our in our we will use an assignment operator to assign values to variable. So this equivalent for this input. We need to calculate some intermediate steps, which is essentially the duration in months and the, excuse me, and the monthly interest rate, and then we can apply this formula to calculate the equivalent monthly installment. If we step into some of these calculations we'll see that the balance at the end of the period comprises of the balance at the beginning of the period this F5 value, the interest that this balance is accruing minus this equivalent monthly income. I will I will show you a next slide that shows the same calculation as before but now instead of picking up the interest from from this column, I'm calculating on the fly by multiplying the balance again with the monthly interest rate for a reason that it will become obvious as we move ahead. And so this is a simple formula that we can apply. The next challenge is how we can bring that formula down and in Excel usually you can link the sale of the next row with the sale of the previous row, and then you can drag down the formula. If you look at the formula view of the Excel file, you can see that essentially what emerges is that this is a recursive calculations where the the payment, the principal left at the end of the next time is equal to the principal at the previous time plus the interest rate applied to the principal of that previous time minus this equivalent monthly income. So we immediately see that the challenge that we have within within R is how we can translate that into into coding we saw previously how calculate the EMI. So some small stepping back to cover a few are concepts. So the first our concept is that our supports vectorized calculations. And what we mean by that, assuming they'll have two vectors x and y. We can put them together, we can use this plus symbol which is a vectorized operator and express the summing up of all the elements of x and y in a simple formula with only to copy paste or drag down. It just appears once. Now vectorization is always easy. A key, a key challenges when we have values of a vector that depend on the previous value of the same vector. One solution potential solution is to explicitly create an iterative loop. I will not go into much detail of that. But I'm going to just notice that for each of the elements, the element, the J element would be the equivalent of the J element of the X and Y, and then have to iterate over the whole vector. It works, but it's often verbose we have to write a lot of code and sometimes it's not clear to see what is the content of the of the calculation. So it's, it's, it motivates us to try to find the most succinct way to express this calculation. So one, one ways to find most succinct calculation is to use recursion. We'll end up using the recursive functions reduce and accumulate, but to warm us up, we'll start with some and cumulative some, which might be more familiar to people but they also can be considered as special cases. So I started with the plus symbol here. This is a binary operator for addition. If you some one plus two, you get three and under the hood is just another function. So if I use the special characters back to treat as a function, I can say add one and two. But this because a binary function, it only accepts two arguments. I cannot use the plus involved for one, two and three. I get an error. I wouldn't have to iterate and say, use the plus for one and two, and then use the plus for the number three, and there is out of these two. But this is cameras I mean convenient. So, thankfully, we can avoid that because we have the sum function which essentially does this recursion without us having to explicitly write it. So someone wrote the function some in from the the our core team that allows us to succinctly describe this. So it's a special case of a recursive calculation. And if I give another example for the cumulative some support that we have again 123 as a vector. If I want to calculate the community sub I will still have to say the first argument is the first element of the vector the second is the first and the second the third is the first the second and third. That's also cumbersome, but with cumulative some we can arrive at the same result. So where I'm getting with this. So we abstract away what the, the, the sum calculation does, and we use this reduce operator. Essentially, if we apply the reduce operator as a concept to a specific instance which is the function plus, then we can see that we can get the same result as some. So that we have to, we have the flexibility with the use function to define which function want to apply. And if we want to use a cumulative some set of some, then we use this accumulated once through which is works like the cumulative some it just keeps all the immediate values. And now, why this is relevant to our case. To do that, I will show you two alternatives for the reduce and accumulate that come from the pair package that have some benefit compared to the base our functions when we are going to be using them in the second webinar for production. So, some of the data output is more type is type stable, and we have some more consistent way of expressing the arguments within the function. So, now let's do a couple of exercises so the first exercise is to use the accumulate and define the function. The function is a square plus be and use the function iteratively successively on these two three and five. So according to our definition of accumulate the data is x the vector and the function is a function. So we can see how this works the first argument is the result of the previous application. So essentially, when we start this just to so essentially, we have nothing plus two and then we have to. And then for the second argument, we have the previous which is the two to the power of 24 plus three, seven, and then we have seven to the power of 249 plus 554. So, any, any function can be calculated with these accumulate very carefully. Let's make a little more difficult exercise. Now we don't have a function with two arguments like we have here and be we just have one argument. And instead of having a vector like we had here we had just one value. So essentially we have a single value. And we have to iteratively apply a function to the single value. So the accumulate function again. We will allow us to define an initial value x, which is this tool and apply it for the length minus one times. And again, we see that we have the two to the power of two becomes four to the power of two 16 and so forth so forth. So we can see that this accumulate can work for a single value and a function with one argument. Now, if we go back to the data that we use before the inputs that we had, and we have already defined or observed from using at the Excel file, what is the value of the loan, which is the previous value plus the interest minus the equivalent of the monthly installment for each of the next one. I will translate that as a function.  I use this function onto the data set that has the length of my arguments minus one using the initial value as a I get the output that matches the output of the Excel file. So, I believe I have sort of solved this problem as well. So, if I put it all together, what I hear is I have a data and parameter inputs, which is a then years into in interest in years. And the immediate calculations, which are the monthly, the number of months, the monthly interest rate and this equivalent monthly installment. I'm defining the function, which I call it function three before I will use the more evocative name amortize for for the loan amount. I will apply this accumulate function over over the results. Now, just to save myself of space, I will print the first six values. So, what I observe from here is that many working patterns are common between Excel and R. And the claim I'm making here is that it often pays off to switch my simply to express its computing and programming. So, from this space saving succinctly describing the is the problem statement. The really the benefits are the scaling of the solution to several thousand or 100,000 lines without even getting any, any bottlenecks in the calculation plus how to production life, which will be what will cover next week. So, this, this webinar sets us up for some more advanced topics that we'll cover next week. And the, the first topic would be how we can build functions over this logic so we can reuse them, because we have 300,000 policies to to apply we don't want to copy paste it, and also abstract away the complexity. We will have understood what the function does we give it an informative name, we don't have to look at it again unless we want to even to to to understand what's going on and then we can use it as a building block. How can iterate over all the data and we saw in one example before how loops sometimes are quite the both. And for the iteration over the 300,000 data we will use some functional programming approach, which again will allow us to succinctly describe what we need to do. And then, and then we'll think about how to communicate that with others. So, first of all, to other programmers so quite often when we build a solution, we might want to share it with others this essentially other programmers is done by putting this functions into the package. So it's a programmer to program and if you if you allow me to say interface, or like we saw on the screenshot of the website I showed you before with the graphic interface. You might want to expose it as a graphic interface to to a car someone that doesn't care about coding. And this can be done in our using the sign framework. You can be able to build something more sophisticated and then you want to create a computer to computer interface. So how can this function then, instead of turning it into a package or a shiny application, how you can expose as a web API. So, so the in the next week's webinar, we will build upon on this and so how, how all of this can happen. I will, I will open for for Q&A in a minute. I just want to also make one more remark. Switzerland joined the our consortium two years ago, because we believe it helps us protect our investment in open source, and also allow us to learn from others in the industry. I will note that the our consortium has strong membership from from the pharmaceutical companies who collaborate on on this technical aspect, and it provides a lot of benefits to to the our community but also to the companies themselves we have the same benefits in our, in our membership as Switzerland by inviting experts from the Microsoft membership to our conferences and learning from each other. So I would, I would encourage organizations if you, if you are planning to invest in our, or you are already investing in our to consider joining their consortium. I'll just open now for for Q&A and I will also invite Benedict to join me for the Q&A session. We have a few minutes available on the official time, but both myself are happy to stay longer for for informal chat or discussion around what we have seen today. Thank you very much. I believe you can either type your questions, or potentially allow yourself to unmute is that an option. I see a simple of the chat. Okay, yes, we can type the questions. Okay, I think a couple of questions are coming up. Hi, the first one. Hi there from Francesca. Hi there. Do you offer quality assurance support for colleagues who are coding in our and want to check the work. Yes, we do offer. If you want to know more about the Atelier program, if you search online on the Atelier program and the name of our group to factory Philip long, you will find an interview he gave to the actual magazine. A few months ago that described a little bit more approach. First of all, we have an internal guidance, best programming guidance note. Essentially, we try to borrow ideas from the professional software industry of how to apply DevOps and DevOps practices. And quite often all this information is available, but the examples are not really written for for our users in mind so we have taken some of these best practices. We have written examples that can be quite relevant, but we also run more formal code reviews and more formal live coding sessions where we, we interact with members of several months on a weekly basis where we provide some feedback and improvements of coding and then we invite them to our internal annual conference to present to the community that's opportunity for them to build momentum. And happy to pick up the conversation on this topic. Outside the benefit as well. A question from George. What are the benefits of using R versus Python? Why do you prefer R? And Noel also says second they are Python questions so we have a Python question here. I will, I will say, use whatever you, you prefer. The reason I prefer R is I discovered it when I was in university many years ago, but then I never used it because I remember I was even scared to load it into to request it to be a put onto my machine. When I first joined Swiss history, but then I accidentally discovered that whatever I could do in Excel I could do in R and because I already knew. And all the material was there and the community was supporting I became good at using it and the community grew as it is. That like in human languages, but in Switzerland they are for formal languages, the questions between which language we use it typically is a history question rather than a question about all what is in the vacuum considered the best programming language, but this is a very big topic and we can, we can always discuss it in a bit more detail I'm very happy to engage on that. Will the slides from the presentation the future ones be available. Yes, they will also the presentation I believe is recorded. Hi, did you have any challenges implementing R studio from an IT security perspective and also for hosting local sign ups. That's a very good question. We are preferred to allow Benedict to answer this question because that's the topic of expertise as well. Yeah, happy to give it a go. See, I believe, taking the two aspects of it so I think we are very happy it's a three that for, let's say, our studio desktop and regular on your computer or laptop. We support from IT through some IT certification that makes sure that it's probably configured and secure from an IT security perspective for use for hosting shiny apps I think more recently or more recently as we are also managed to get some of the positive formula studio from the company products that allow us to easily share shiny applications or auto documents or presentations like the one that George is currently showing on a server. We also supported by or by a very small internal IT team, we sent you make sure that the servers up and running and that people can deploy that say they're shiny apps there and it's available. And yeah, as I think George already mentioned as was very valuable if there are some active user community that helps guides or helps motivate or formulate these requirements to your internal IT teams to make sure that they are heard and implemented as useful to the users. Thank you very much. And as you rightly noted, this presentation was done in part of published on our talent positive connect and sharing it live here. A technical question on the topic at heart by Russell in your accumulate example how does I know what the previous value is do you need to ensure the data is sorted group in a particular way. That's very good question. Yes, the data are sorted and both in Excel and in our by the month which they have been occurred so it's a would you be able to say time series. Yes, it's a it's an order data set. Absolutely. Okay, Fran Federica, could you highlight a few key advantages of transitioning to our for these tasks. I think if the simple task for this one is just like one task and you can build it in a quickly next cell. That's that's a very good stop. In this specific case, the person that was doing it had to run 300,000 policies on it, and also not just once. Similarly, when you run to produce some casual analysis you might have to use different basis. Essentially, you might have to have a best estimate basis some more prudent basis basis that the regulators are requesting you by basis I mean different scenarios on the parameters that influence the calculation so it's run might be five or six or seven parallel lines of this 300,000 policies. And then it becomes quite time consuming. The other benefits would would also show on the on the next week's how you can put into production and and say more more professionally. I think that covers Federica but please feel free to approach later for more question. I will ask, I like to ask Benedict to respond to the doesn't object oriented approach help developing your programs in our or is it unnecessary Benedict. Great question and maybe also lightly touches upon the other spy from once a broadly speaking, it's probably a question of style. I mean, I personally, it also depends on how intimately, you know, are but broadly speaking, I think what George is shown today is a more sort of functional style and less than object oriented one. You essentially say you want to apply a function over different objects or here like a vector of cash flows and want to get the results that way. And I think that is a style of programming that is very well supported by our and that at least I found very helpful also for many challenges or issues that I wanted to solve in my work so I definitely think that sort of strictly or encapsulated object oriented approaches, not necessary in our, but I would also think that depending on like you and the team you're working with it could also be a valid choice to solve your problems. Thank you very much Benedict. I've been asked how long has there been a programming culture at Switzerland even for business people. Is it a fairly recent or it has been there for some time, asking because there is no such culture at my company any advice to make such transformation happen. I think that over several years there are pockets, they have always been pockets of people that have been coding and programming. The, the Italian program was kickstarted in 2019, late 2018 and was essentially a program that was sponsored by a group to who have had just joined as a group to factory on this role, previously a different role within Switzerland, and the discussion with the board was about how we can make sure that the actuaries are equipped with data science and communication skills. And we started quite, quite slow and quite basic running workshops in different locations and then the community grew as Philip would say people came out of the woodwork and actuaries are typically were problem solvers and when we're doing Excel we are almost programming.  So, so it's been focusing on the last five years, I think. But if you want to implement something similar to your, to your company. Please feel free to reach out to us to discuss in a bit more detail, but also I believe the our consortium can also help the membership to the concert would help because that's the catalyst for some of the intra, intra company collaboration. So, no, this was a great introduction will be available to see the recording so we can walk through on our own. Absolutely. Yes. Now, Federica and oil. What motivated the decision to focus on the transition from Excel to our in the talks of insurance and actual science. I will try to attempt to answer that but also invite Benedict to give his use here as well. I believe that the sciences is the confluence of information technology and statistics essentially and actually typically we come from a background of statistics. We discover our university, and we come to the office and we started working in Excel and the functional style of our base quite similar to to the Excel so it made the transition easier. Plus, our is a language that doesn't require a lot of computer science background to get you started. So, so I think it will find it easy to get started. But I think the most important element is the community. I believe that quite often are users are not professional programming so they have a domain expertise and also are using our to get a job done. And quite often, they are getting paid in order to communicate their insights rather than build a solution that it will be just judged on how fast it runs or how little fewer bugs it has so that the production farm quite often for for actually is the PDF report you have to be prepared. But still you have to be able to rerun it quickly when the data change to have a transparent way of demonstrating to appear that there's a data provenance. So I think these elements are the ones that are the most striking in favor of of using our, but I will also welcome Benedict to to give his own view. So I think that were very good examples, maybe also touching upon one point that will be part of the somewhat part of the seminar said I would later on this. I think there's also the need or the at least I want to be more efficient so I think everyone enjoys to be able to do their work quickly and see the results for the calculations quickly. See, I think it's a new particular secret that generally data volumes are increasing and the more they do the less appropriate Excel may become for certain types of analysis. I think like George mentioned if you want to calculate something for one policy that may be easy to implement in Excel but if you want to do it for 300,000 that may be more kind of cumbersome. I don't even know I don't think that Excel supports 300,000 tabs that you can copy over anything like that. And I mean like real examples for my work was like a very skilled colleague of mine was doing a calculation in Excel and was just refreshing the sheet to get a new result and was taking a while and in the meantime, I created a sort of equivalent calculation and R and I had the result before he did from starting from scratch when he was just refreshing calculation and that's the situations like these data where people see oh they could be more effective if they transition their work. I hope this also covers no else questions as well. So we have a zero inbox of questions, but we had many questions which was very, very happy to attempt to answer. We are eight nine minutes over time but that's fine because we, we thought we might be and we will be happy to stay few few minutes longer if there is any, any question or bill has come up with a question. And so we will, we will answer this and maybe I would suggest that we close afterwards if there is no other question coming up before we answer this. How do you manage analyst access to packages and any limitation which package is allowed. It's very excellent topic I'll prefer Benedict to give an answer on that. Mine might be with a lot of emotion so. And I guess it did different angles to this question as well I think one typical angle is the one of since let's say the packages may just be a different person writing some code how do you really know it's doing what it's supposed to be doing that there's no error or no numbers that you get out of it. And I think that's probably more challenging. If you go into the areas that are not as well supported by the community so essentially you have some very expert small niche area that I may not be as much of a community that sort of peer reviews these open source packages and build some confidence over time that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. And I think, yeah, that's, that's more challenging and then I guess depends on you on what kind of trust and responsibility and testing you have done with the package in order to verify yourself whether you trusted or not. And it's results. I think more broadly speaking they are thankfully many very well used and. Many packages again receive a lot of feedback and you on GitHub and you can see the issues, and you know that they are used by millions people over the world, I mean of people over the world so you would actually be able to see that they are widely used and you can also see the source code and probably trust the morse and some proprietary software by some company that says that they have checked it but you don't really know how well they have checked it or whether they actually did. So I guess that's one angle, the different angle maybe from the T security perspective again. That can can also be challenging depending on your view so clearly with with a commercial use or three you need to make sure that we don't violate any software patterns so we don't make any use of software against its licensing agreement, then I think what we also often employ in our context is some sort of automatic scanning for right it licenses and for potential vulnerabilities and software. However, I think we also have a relatively open approach so why we have to sort of created or more well managed set of packages. He also allow people probably speaking in some environments allow people to also, I guess, go out and use the packages that the needs on their own responsibility. Do you want to add anything to that. Just a point of the open source solutions are used by all the companies and by us on a daily basis and we need to be able to find a way to to to utilize that otherwise we cannot operate so companies have come up with solutions of scanning is one that you mentioned as well. We have a quite a strong and I would say robust digital governance framework within Swiss three quite often what the challenges is that although these frameworks have been created with the professional Infotech community in mind actually is there are users sitting usually on the business front might not be able to access some of these tools or might not be able to have a guidance written in a way that can be adopted by them so one of the challenges that we have faith in the communities in the community and we're trying to address is how we can bring the it world and the business world closer together. Instead of operating to binary worlds, where we are divided by Excel, we actually can coordinate the collaborate and some of the examples we'll see next week with this web API is where the domain expert can create a model and then pass it on to an IT professional for a data and system integration this go into into solving those. So I believe this interactions and the sections are things that we cannot value by working together. Not sure if we answer your question but or anyone else, but feel free to write either to benefit from myself directly or find us on LinkedIn or communicate with the app consortium. Hopefully to see you again, again next week. It has been also it will be quite helpful if you provide some of the feedback that it will be requested for you because it will help us shape the webinars and improve the offering. I would then suggest that we bring the meeting to a close now and I would like to thank you for your participation and for your for for spending time with us today. Thank you very much from my side. Bye see you all next week.


I think you were actually throwing the ball well this afternoon. How do you assess it? Well, I didn't get the job done. Yeah, there's soft contact, but there are times when you need strikeouts and swing a miss, and I didn't get it. You look at the stretch, the last handful of games for you. How frustrating has it been for you considering how well you started off this season? Definitely, definitely frustrating. I threw a couple of pitches today that I felt like I didn't convict like I should have.  So I'd rather get burned on a pitch that I had a lot of confidence in, and I didn't do that a couple times today. How do you get to a place where either you don't throw that pitch or you get confidence in what the catcher's putting in? Yeah, I've definitely had it happen in the past. And I just got to slow the game down to live in the moment and know what pitch I want to throw and make sure that I throw that pitch. Higgy and I had a great game plan. Trevi and I had a great game plan. I got some soft contact, definitely, but I just got to execute better. What stands out most on this stretch for you that you've given up to minus on me? I think pitch selection was the biggest thing. A lot of times I went back and looked at notes and saw that I was missing pitches in zones that are hot for their hitter. And so I guess execution as well, but yeah.