Yeah, so I'm David Last time I saw you guys. I was in better shape. I'm surprised. I made it here More on that later. I'm gonna talk about nosy neighbor. Nosey neighbor is a tool. I've been working on Open sourcing for everyone to use Hoping it makes some waves in the Golan community Talk a little bit about the challenge finding bugs in open source go projects and a little bit of the motivation so Ethereum really loves go Some stats here get the counts for 82 percent of execution clients 42 percent of the consensus layer clients are running prism and this is as of like last week These metrics actually used to be higher like 90 plus on the execution side and like 60 70 plus on the CL Mev boost is also written in go. It's the only production open source Mev client for flash bots right now It as of like I think last week 48 percent of blocks on main net were Flash blocks, so I won't go into a mev and all that fun stuff But what I'm trying to kind of hit home here is that go is like critical in the ethereum stack So somewhere I would say like maybe three quarters of nodes or more are using go at some point So it's super important. Let's see Lots of code got to run two chains the execution chain the consensus chain We've got the entire EVM all kinds of stuff.  We do do menu reviews here All of these things have been reviewed at least once most likely if not twice or more times, but they're moving targets. We've got Every six months or so we've got hard forks on both the EL and the CL So it's just kind of something that if we can automate anything we should we should automate finding issues here my task There's a few of us at the ethereum foundation working on the consensus layer security research team My task is to kind of like look right now and focus on the go stuff. This is kind of a daunting thing So a few months ago, I guess about a year ago started looking at this and trying to understand the problems that we have So talk a little bit about it. First of all Go is memory safe, which is awesome. We don't have remote code execution issues stuff like that very often The memory safety stuff helps also a lot in the I'll talk more about in this talk But making it possible for me to make a tool like this a lot of common mistakes and go though There are some that are queryable, right? There's a lot of these like little issues like the colon equals sign this like quick variable assignment It makes writing go really easy and and human friendly But it also means like you can have these shadow variables where if you like declare a variable in a loop You override it and you might reference it later thinking you're talking about the first version of the variable if you call it go routine and and You kick off like which is basically like for non-go people It's like a it's like a P that create under the hood The variables that are passed to that are not the same variable that you might think they are so if you have Like racy type things later. You don't really know and go doesn't complain So we can query for certain things like this. This is a good example of like one query go sec It just says like hey, you need to manual review All these uses of unsafe probably not the best example But we have code ql sim grep and go sac or like just major tools You can look up for like automating querying static analysis, right? Another big one is race conditions. So goes I think the reason it was designed and the design decisions They made was to make parallelization very easy So they have like this concept of channels and they have this concept of go routine So it's very simple to be like hey Just go on another thread go do something and then come back and Google made it to be memory safe But also efficient and human readable but to process massively large data sets And so we can do a lot of parallel parallelization very easily, but the problem here is that It's so easy that it's really easy to introduce race conditions So like one thing we have been doing is running these thread sanitizers This little terminal prompt right here is an example of actually a main net Geth bug a race condition that was causing some memory corruption, which if you see memory corruption and go It's usually something race-related or you're using like seago or some native library because go is relatively like almost 99 I would say percent safe if you're not in one of those conditions as far as memory goes There's also some other sanitizers. There's a san msan UBSan things like this. We're running nodes on Robson, Sepolia The Prater girly test net and also on main net that have all these sanitizers running So we're like we've kind of automated, you know this querying we've automated Like sanitizers running stuff like using dynamic analysis. So we've kind of checked both of those boxes But you know, what else can we do and that is where nosy neighbor comes in? So how else can we cover these? 583,000 lines of code the solution Let's talk a little bit about the problem. I'll rewind just a bit Obviously already mentioned the huge attack surface one thing I do want to point out here is that denial services are like critical for us Not just like for other go repos necessarily, but a blockchain Cannot have a denial of service.  It's not considered critical There's no information disclosure. There's no remote code execution and thus there's not usually privilege escalation So people aren't like lifting keys, but if you have, you know, more than 35 percent of the network running some kind of go Under the hood and there's denial of services in those goes Go routines or or these repos then you end up in a problem where the Ethereum network could like be brought to its knees We obviously have a multi-client architecture So these other clients would be kind of like carrying the network during that time But it's not something we want we wouldn't have finality for those of you that are like really familiar with proof of stake It would be pretty big deal So we kind of have this like weird issue where we the worst kind of bugs We don't really see but like we care a lot about these smaller bugs The good I mentioned RCE is rare. We have the source. This is really great I've been a security researcher for a long time and I've not had this source very often in my career So this is like a whole new ball game Go strongly tight all of the panics and stack traces and failure reporting is like excellent So if you write a fuzzer and it finds a crash It doesn't bring down your fuzzer and your fuzzer doesn't commit suicide So that's really helpful and I'm gonna talk a little bit about the tooling This is a big deal. So go 1.18. I guess like maybe six months ago They released native fuzzing support. So this is an example of like in the testing library I can fuzz this function so the function on a test on the right side And I lifted this straight from like the go fuzzing like native fuzzing design doc Foo is the function under tests here. So we can fuzz foo We can say hey f dot fuzz give it a function interface I say I want an int and I want a string which are the two argument types to foo We can add a test corpus of like right here It says five and hello any time you want to like prevent like regression You can add like previous bugs into your test corpora this way and it will automatically tell you if the bug is reintroduced So that's really cool It's automatically covers guided all the test cases when there is coverage They get added to the test corpora and they get mutated on Errors are super descriptive don't need health checkers because all this stuff is built in natively. It's awesome This is kind of the next piece of the puzzle Discovering this kind of like open my eyes to the possibilities of what we could do here The AST is exposed the parser library and the go types library Expose everything about the source so when the compiler reads your code and then compiles it Everything that it sees you can see right here. So like this is an example of the AST It kind of is pretty printed you can see like there's a variable you can see at the top It says like AST if statement that's saying there's an if statement here The first directive is x the value is Two there's all this information here. There's more information than you ever want here So that's really cool. So what can we do here? We can parse all the go code in a repo We can basically collect all the dependencies for the packages and the types We can collect all the function declarations the package declarations the type declarations all the interfaces We can see what every function looks like like does it does it take like, you know Arrays slices bytes strings complex structs also if it takes a complex struct What is that struck made of and recursively down the whole thing? So you can basically go all the way down to all the built-in types In go and you can see all the information you want about something so using this we can generate valid fuzz harnesses for all these functions that we have typed and We can fuzz them we can round robin them we can fuzz them While you know the target's running and I can talk a little bit about that more later But then yep find their bugs profit. I know this isn't like a security specific conference, so this is a reference to An old frack magazine Smashing the stack for fun and profit. I'm not profiting off these. I promise I want to clean up all of these bugs That's what I'm paid to do. That's how I profit Oh, and then you can repeat on every commit which is kind of why nosy got its name It's the nosy neighbor. You can integrate it into your CI Hopefully people will do this and then when bugs are introduced like the moment they're introduced We can just like automatically fuzz a function before even the tests are written for the function and we can find these bugs So it's like really annoying and really nosy to developers because there's like this old granny across the street That's like always looking in your business. That's where the name comes from I just call it nosy nosy neighbors way too much. So I'll refer to it as nosy from now on so nosy in action It basically has three main stages. There's an initialization There's the harness generation and the fuzzing you can put this all into like one seamless, you know action if you're integrating into your CI But for the purposes of like the tool as I made it You might want to debug stuff in the harness generation. You might want to add test corpora There's all kinds of like interesting things you can do in between these steps So I have it broken up into these three steps just for like kind of sanity reasons This is the input every time you run nosy no matter which of the three like actions you tell it to do You're gonna give it this YAML file and this YAML file Contains a bunch of stuff. The most important thing though is the URL to the repo. So it'll pull down this repo You can say I want this particular branch You can specify different go versions Like prism for instance is like one of the big repos that I always look at and it won't build with go Night 1.19 right now So this is really easy as long as it's like 1.18 and above because that's what supports native fuzzing You can kind of use older versions and that sort of stuff There's also these like ignore declarations. I put in there like maybe you have a bunch of test functions Maybe you have things that use networking stuff that writes to the file system that you don't want to fuzz because you don't want to pulverize your file system You can declare at the package the function and the object level to ignore these kinds of things It also has substitutions what this will do if you're familiar with go if you put a substitution in here It's you just put both packages in there and it will put a little replace directive in the go.mod file And this is really nice if you like want to knock out all of your like signature checks You get a lot more coverage this way like obviously your fuzzer is not going to be like signing ecdsa signatures correctly That would be a whole another talk and and we'd be having bigger problems if that was the case The initialization It uses docker It basically makes this little fuzzing environment and building environment all in docker And there's kind of a lot of reasons for that one is that we don't want to pulverize our host file system We have a lot of ease with dependency If you're like looking through and you're trying to Dynamically write code writing all these fuzzing harnesses then it's a lot easier to not use your own go route So this makes a valid go route inside of a docker container It makes everything it adds all the dependencies for nosy for doing the The source parsing and the harness generation and all the fuzzing and all this stuff That was it in this little docker container and initializes it inside this repo Or initializes the repo inside this container It has a shared like host file that you'll see like in a little bit It's an asset directory that keeps everything that the host needs to get So you do all your fuzzing inside this like protect protected environment If you're a security researcher and you're familiar with like jailing a target This is just like a charoute under the hood except that we get to stand on the shoulders of docker and you know We get to like potentially neuter all of the the networking we can like control things and like really jail stuff It also makes it where you could like run this on your host computer and like only give it a few cores And you could still like work and you know, maybe you're you're kind of like dual purpose using a fuzzer That's also like your desktop for research Let's see generate harness generate harness will Copy all the assets in and then it will spit out this one liner And if you double click this one liner and run it it'll start generating all of the harnesses And so you can kind of see like the lower half of this terminal It's spitting out all of these fuzz nosy test.go files All of those files are placed into the respective package under test directory The reason I do that instead of having them all in one is that one bug doesn't prevent the whole thing from Compiling and having go complain. The other thing is that we can fuzz internal Functions you might not want to fuzz internal functions. So nosy has a flag for that But if you do want to fuzz everything and get like this serious breath first coverage of your target This is the best way to do it that I found So this gets to the fuzzing You same thing spits out a one liner it creates it adds all the assets to this asset directory And then you start fuzzing so you can see on the right side here It started fuzzing it found a crash like right off the rip It minimizes the test case that produces the crash and then it spits out the like panic output. So Kind of funny that one found one like right off the rip This is an example repo that I have that comes with nosy so that you guys can all test this Um, I don't provide yaml files For all of the targets i'm testing because there's I don't want to give you guys free bugs and uh nosy's still kind of like a work in progress So I will release Other stuff further down the line as I've like hammered out all the bugs that are there Um, I think what I'll probably do is kind of like have this like private repo That's maybe like three months ahead and then as we've kind of like shaken out all the bugs so that this fuzz I can find I'll open source the other parts of it But you can copy the example yaml file for this target repo that I've made and you can point it at the Go standard library. Um, I haven't had time to do that. I'm sure there's tons of bugs out there like I have One thing nosy does do is it causes like a decent amount of false positives, but it does find bugs So I have like a ton of crashes to look through. Um, before I'll release all this other stuff Um, oh that was the this is an example of like the round robbing So when there's not a test when there's not a crash found this was what the output will look like So it'll fuzz for like 10 seconds on each thing The yaml file has a little variable there where you can say like how long how many seconds you want to fuzz for as you um Generate like larger test corpora that are getting better coverage You might want to bump this up to like, you know, six minutes per function or something like that Uh, this is just a little shot of like what the script looked like like what does the round robbing? This is a shell script that's just like kicked out into the asset file that's run on the target So there's some reasons that this is not the best way to do it So I don't think I'll be doing this way forever But if you can see right here it basically calls the go test fuzz on the function you want If there is a test data fuzz inside of that package now that means that we found a crash Copy that in the asset directory so that it's available on the host If the fuzz or user either commits suicide or if you're done fuzzing You don't lose this a lot of people like know that use docker your container might not be persistent If you don't have some like asset directory where you save stuff off too So this prevents you from kind of losing work that you've done. All right example findings I made this little repo so that everybody can kind of like see nosy in action and have an example So they can point it at their own repos These are all the root cause of all of these bugs are copied from real bugs that nosy did find And I'll talk a little bit about like the type of bugs it finds because it doesn't find everything And it's really good at finding a few things and and I'll talk about that Looking at these here. So This is just showing like the panic line like this is identifying the type of issues that we have It looks like there's two index out of range The second one actually has another bug. There's two bugs in that function. So I included the wrong screenshot It should be like a divide by zero So these four functions on the right Show the vulnerable functions So these are the kind of things that nosy like if you say like spend three seconds on a function nosy will find these things like immediately And if you notice what these are their panics, they're not like remote code executions. They're panics where things stop So if you have some uh blockchain software, it's highly social It's listening to all these peers every time it receives a packet If you have like a g rpc handler and it's meant to like panic gracefully and it just panics in that go routine You're fine But if you have this in like core code This panic can like make the panic go all the way up the stack And just completely bring down your note. So these like true like packet of deaths They're a big deal and this is kind of the thing that like keeps me up at night Because panics are not always handled gracefully, especially in uh like these huge systems So like the evm for example if you found a panic in it You might actually crash that part of the process and then get would just be like completely worthless, right? So let's talk a little bit. I've only got five more minutes left So i'm going to talk really quickly about like what these functions look like So this is the most basic, right? So uh, if you look at this, this is the same native supported testing The input to the top is is it it's actually a test function. It takes in the testing object from go Uh, you hand it a function interface, right? So this function here all I'm saying is hey, uh, I want to fuzz this Log validator web off, right? I just picked some random function. Uh, it takes a string a string and a string, right? So You know, this is the kind of thing I need to tell go fuzz. Hey, I want strings when you mutate like I need a valid type string Super simple This is something that go testing does not support complex structures So if you see the second line there, what it accepts is actually a byte array Um, what this does is I use right now nosy ships with the open source version We'll ship with go fuzz utils from trail of bits There's some reasons that and I won't go through them unless I have time at the end why That's when it ships with the biggest one though is that you see all of these fill errors It will return if you don't have enough data So if I have like, you know a bunch of nested structures and like you can imagine My function or tests like needs basically like 2000 bytes to fill all the data correctly It'll it'll say hey Return there's no issue or anything. Give me something larger. It doesn't really say give me something larger But it it keeps letting the fuzzer mutate until it finds, you know, further pass and this is coverage guided So the fuzzer will very quickly make it all the way to that last line So what happens here? That last line is acm import. It takes a context variable I need a valid context variable I want to basically test import, but I need acm. This is a this is an actual like object So it doesn't just fuzz functions. It fuzz is like methods on receivers, which is goes version of an object So methods on objects. We need a valid object created. We need the argument there That kind of stuff yet more complicated Here we actually have a constructor. So why make like an object and fill it with random data when there's custom constructors made? So like, uh, you know, these these large blobs for the evm Um, maybe like different peer structures, maybe like beacon blocks, things like this We've already got constructors for them. So like why make them ourselves? We're going to get a bunch of like no pointer D refs and false positives So what nosy will do and this is hugely inspired and borrowed from fc gen even like probably like 60 in the code for this type of interface is Borrowed from that But what we do here is we go look and say hey Is there a function that returns this object and only this object that doesn't take that object as an input? And you know, it can either just be that object or that object in an error And if that's the case we say oh that is a constructor sometimes you see false positives for this But in reality, um, they're actually really good at still generating valid objects So in this case, I need a new key manager. I didn't have to write new key manager Some developer that made the new key man the the key manager object wrote this constructor. That's what he uses It takes, you know, this configuration deal and then whatever c1 is a context variable So what happens here is nosy recognizes this builds not only its own version But a second function defuses that relies on the constructor and whichever one gets, you know, more coverage can find the bugs Um, so right here, we we basically find the constructor and we know how to see a function interface So we build everything we need for that constructor And then we make the constructor hand us the object and then we also provide everything for the function under test Which in this case is fetch validate Something prove key. I can't really read from here, but this is just like a random example They're splitting to choose from uh one thing I forgot to mention out of the 50 583,000 lines of code there's Over 15,000 functions the in the in those five repos which is basically all of the dependencies for mevboost Geth and and um prism that are supported. So that's 15,000 functions that I can get coverage in That's coverage guided fuzzing that I don't have to write the the harness for that's kind of like the value out of this tool here um and and Yeah notice here that like no nosy didn't only like create the valid arguments to fuzz here It created the object and by doing that The way that it did that was it created the valid arguments for the constructor So everything that needs to happen here to try to get like as close to like a real test case as possible We have mistakes learning. I'm gonna go really fast. I got a minute and a half Um version one actually there's like a version point five.  So we wrote some python that would like basically Generate harnesses to fuzz those that was version point five then version one Was in python. This is just like to show you my pain I'm grepping for regex here in python all that gibberish. I felt like jr token like basically like writing elvish or something This was no good. Um trying to do this for for complex structures and stuff was like a total pain So moved on to the ast objects that you get from the mcgill parser library But you guys have seen this this is kind of cool. It looks sort of pretty printed. It still sucks All that stuff is like you don't really know like this ast I didn't on the fourth or fifth line that x is you got to like do a type check on all those So you end up with like this massive parsing thing that's got like, you know A gazillion nested case statements still better than python, but still really ugly Then I uh ran into fc gen uses the go type libraries to write that like more complex function interface that I showed I it blew my mind. I can't believe I wasted all my time for six months on these other things So I basically grabbed all the code that works from there threw it in here. It was a minimal rewrite for me Cool, uh talked about why we use docker these fuzzers will find the go binary and delete it They will write all kinds of crazy stuff to your file system if that happens You can just restart nosy and your host isn't screwed. Um, let's see various fill libraries I talked a little bit about trail of bits. I have a proprietary version That I'll talk a little bit more about here last slide that really matters. I know I'm out of time Things that we want to do auto corporate bootstrap. So you can imagine here We already know how to dynamically cut write code. We can dynamically rewrite code So if I point it towards a repo and I say hey, I want to run go ethereum You know, let's say I support 7500 functions in it Then what I can do here is I can say all of those 7500 functions instrument them run go normally run it on main Net if you want save off every valid call to all of those functions and and receivers and then Mutate on those so I can I can bootstrap a corporate that way I can automatically fuzz in a separate go routine in a docker image or something In real time you can be like continuously fuzzing mutating on real valid test cases Let's see auto object fuzzing you can find race conditions this way You could say hey, I know I support this constructor. It's got 10 methods on it Write a fuzzing function that will kind of round robin those there's some work like this in fc gen that I'd like to copy as well I think if you run that with the thread sanitization, you'll find a ton of race conditions that way Lockdown networking you can do ast walk to say like hey I want to like look at all the reachability from this function if it writes the file system Excluded because I'm tired of something something's pulverizing my file system and it's destroying my fuzzer that kind of stuff final task test case minimization at the end of a run And all the coverage analysis this would be really great if I had this done today because then I could say hey look You know prisms testing library has this much coverage And I added this much coverage automatically with nosy neighbor. That would be really cool. Maybe I'll have that in six months for you guys All right, uh, I will open source this in the next 24 hours. That's my promise to you My creative excuse as of all procrastinating engineers Has a creative excuse. I got bit by one of these snakes like four or five days ago I wouldn't be here if my wife didn't like do so much to get me here I spent a lot of time in the hospital. I've been elevating this foot Hence why I came up on crutches. I'm starting to be able to put weight on it But yeah, I actually have like a real excuse this time the doc didn't eat my homework One of those guys like legit bit me. It was a whole thing follow infosec you all on github or twitter I'll drop the repo links probably later tonight will latest like this time tomorrow depending on how the rest of the day goes Real quick. I do want to thank fc gen trail of bits for that. Uh, phil repo Zinshada and and justin traglia for various things that they added to this repo into this project The go fuzz folks and then everyone in the go for slack. That's been like super helpful Any questions? Yeah with that david I am going to say you can go ahead and take questions over to the side But thank you so much for a making it here through all of those different hurdles and for giving us your great Presentation. So thank you so much. If you do have any questions for david, please feel free


This is Chichu, welcome to my channel. Now what I want to do in this video is do a follow-up to the politics video that we put out a few weeks ago, because in that video what I mentioned was basically if you're getting most of your news, your main source of news being mainstream media, then you're basically going to be left out in the dark, right? And we sort of talked about some of the things that were going on in that video and whatnot. And I had a few people leave comments and send me messages saying, you know, we're not supposed to get our news from mainstream media, then where do we get our news, right? So people were asking me what some of my main sources of news are, right? And I replied to people and the question kept on coming up, so I figured it was a good idea to put a video together and sort of give you some links, some sites, some people share with you some of the sources where I get my information from, maybe economics or politics. These are specific, almost strictly economics politics related, okay? So I figured I'd share this with you just in case you're interested and you do want to expand beyond where it is that you are getting your information from right now, okay? Just a small disclaimer, I don't agree with everything that all of these sources share. There isn't any one particular source that I agree with everything that they share, right? So take the information coming from these sources if you want with a grain of salt, if you want layer it with other sources of information that you may have, that's what I basically do. You know, if I'll follow a certain topic, I don't rely on one source to give me all the information.  So basically what I did is sort of break this down into two main categories. The first category, my main category that I always go to is my trusted sources of information and these are just individuals, people, right? They're not associated with any organization that I follow, right? So some of these people have jumped around from different organizations, different groups, different channels, I guess, different publications. Some of them have their own website or their own YouTube channel where they're making streaming video, updated news and stuff like this, okay? So the first type of sources that I go to are trusted sources that I found throughout the years that I, you know, some of these I check out almost everything they put out, necessarily from beginning to end, not as entirety, the stuff they put out, but definitely what interests me or what I'm following. If they put out an article or some kind of streaming news summary or what not. I do tend to read or watch the entirety of whatever they put together regarding this regarding certain topics and I do skim through, if not watch the whole thing, the rest of the stuff that they put out, okay? So the first type of source that I have is individuals, people that I trust and that's huge, journalists, analysts, whatever they might be, right? And the second type of news I have here is basically either programs or sites that I go to, to either read articles or watch broadcasts around tables or summary or interviews or what not, okay? And again, I don't agree with everything all of these people have to say or all these sources have to say, but I do pay attention to them because I believe they're authentic, okay? So and one other thing I'll mention is if you're interested in following this stuff, you know, seeing who some of these people are, I will provide the links in the description of this video. So there will be links in the description pointing towards whoever I am listing here, okay? Now, as far as journalists, analysts, individuals that I follow and I basically check out everything that they put out to see if I'm going to wash the whole thing or what not, okay? And this is not in any specific order. I'm not organizing this from the best to the worst or most common to the least that I go to. It's just randomly put together, okay? Some of these I follow way more. Check out more of their material. Some of them I check out everything they put out, right?  As far as individuals go, Paul Craig Roberts, I check out almost everything that he puts out. And he's been around, he's old school. He's been around a long time. He was in Reagan's administration and he puts out a lot of articles and he does get interviewed a lot.  And I do read almost all of his articles that he puts out. It's a great source of info politics, geopolitics specifically. And he's really straight out. He just lays it out the way he sees it, right? There is no agenda there for him. No secondary agenda anyway. Another person that I check out is Richard Wolff. And specifically I check out the stuff he puts out on Democracy at Work, where he does a monthly summary of what's going on on the economic front, okay? Then politics as well, but a lot of economics. So he gives it like an hour and a half lecture or something, a talk and summarizes all the stuff that he's gathered throughout the month, okay? It's a good source of info. Another person that I check out and you would have heard me mention him before through either how to read a textbook where we took a look at one of his books or through other stuff that I've, other videos that I put out. And that's Chris Hedges. And right now he's on RT and he's got his own program. It's called On Contact with Chris Hedges. Well worth checking out. And he jumps around a lot, goes local and global. Well worth it, well worth it, okay? Another person that I check out almost everything that he puts out regarding his main channel is James Corbett and he does amazing analysis. And again, he's really straight out. He tells it the way he sees it and he doesn't pretend to know it all or know everything about a certain topic. He doesn't know a lot about certain topics, that's for sure. But he does a lot of interviews and brings a lot of people onto his show and talks to them. And it's very much worth checking out. And he does have secondary site, secondary information with the extras and stuff. And I sometimes do check those out as well. Another person that huge respect, one of the best journals out there and 100% sincere, very passionate about her work is Abby Martin, okay? And right now she has her own show called Empire Files and she's with Tela Sera from Venezuela and that's where it's being broadcast or that's the hosting company where he's putting her show together. Then she was with the RT before and someone else before that, she was independent before that. But her stuff is worth checking out. I do tend to watch at least segments of everything that she puts out and the stuff that I'm really into, I watched the whole thing 100%. Another amazing show, 100% real, 100% worth checking out is the Laura Flanders show. And she's a journalist that's been around for a long time. And again, she's sincere. She brings a lot of people onto her show and talks to them and interviews them. Well worth checking out, well worth checking out. A lot of local activists and activities with Laura Flanders, okay? Another person, a journalist, he's Brazilian and he's lived in Asia a lot and he's had an amazing perspective on Asia. Just basically, if you wanna know what's going on with Asia and all the economics involved there and what's going on geopolitically, Asia and South America is a Pepe Escobar and his articles are absolutely fantastic. He's got an interesting sense of humor and he does get interviewed a lot on different shows. So you will catch him, same with Paul Craig Roberts. Their interviews are well worth watching and he does have lectures out as well and his lectures are well worth watching, especially the economics stuff that he talks about in regards to Asia. Another journalist, which blows most journalists out of the water with the in-depth articles that he puts together is Max Blumenthal and he takes deep investigative journalism as best and his articles are well worth reading and Max Blumenthal as well gets interviewed on a fair bit of different sites, a lot of independent because a lot of these people you won't find in the mainstream media and if you did in the past, you won't find them anymore, most likely because it doesn't fit the narrative of the propaganda coming out from the mainstream media. So Max Blumenthal for sure, check out, especially if he's being interviewed on any channels any shows that you're following. Another analyst, geopolitics, global, mainly, would be Tarik Ali and he's got an amazing perspective on, a good perspective on the Middle East and Asia as well as South America.  Well worth reading his articles and he does have sort of lectures, talks that he does, either it's sort of irregular, weekly, bi-weekly. He puts them out and he talks about geopolitics, global anyway, in large part. Another person, which is 100% worth checking out is Norman Finkelstein or Finkelstein. Very few people know the Middle East better than him. I don't know anyone that knows the Middle East better than him. And the stuff that he puts out is straight up as you can get. He paints a pretty grim picture of what's going on in the world. Rightfully so because there are things that are happening, there are pretty grim, right? So those are some of the main ones that I look up. If not daily, weekly, 100% monthly, I do visit them and see what they've put out. Some of these people put out multiple stuff per week so I do visit them on at least a weekly basis to check out what they've put out. Two other people that I have checked out a lot in the past and I do tend to check out when they put out extensive articles, in-depth articles really and some of them, especially when they're being interviewed on shows, one of them would be Noam Chomsky, more so in the past than in the present. And the other one would be Seymour Hirsch, okay. And Seymour Hirsch's articles, I tend to read what he puts out because he does really in-depth analysis, sort of investigative journalism. You know, he's one of the grandfathers of investigative journalism and his in-depth articles are well worth reading. So those are sort of the individuals that I follow no matter where they're going. You know, if they change their shows, Chris Etges just started on contact a few months ago. Well, within the last year anyway, before that he was being interviewed a lot. He didn't have his own talk show but he put out a lot of articles on different sites so I would definitely follow that and read that. And if you want to get a feel for Chris Etges, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, the book that he did with Joe Sacco, absolutely fantastic. And if you want to know what's going on globally, he pretty much sums it up with sacrifice zones in that book, right? Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. Two other people that I do follow but they're not, I don't know if they call them journalists but they share information, their perspective and their political cartoonists, okay? And political cartoons are huge. They provide a lot of information just in one image, right? It's the same goes, what is a thousand, a picture's worth a thousand words. Well, a political cartoon is worth a thousand, I wouldn't say thousand articles but dozens of articles, political articles. One of them is Mr. Fish and he's sort of I guess left leaning and I like his work and not all of it but I do like his work. And the other one is Ben Garrison and I guess he's right leaning and I like his work as well and not all of it but I like his work. So it's a really good idea with political cartoons to get both sides of the spectrum, okay? Well worth watching or well worth tracking down and taking a look at those political cartoons that they put out. As far as news sources, that sort of aggregated news sources that share a lot of information and provide daily briefings of what's going on in the world, one of them is the Real News Network that I check out every day, multiple times a day because they load on, constantly load on articles and they give news briefs and they also interview a lot of people from all sides of the political spectrum. So it gives you a really nice broad overview of what's going on in the world. You could consider left leaning but they do have right in there as well as good source of info and just one of the one thing regarding Real News Network, one of the producers of Real News Network is Paul Jay and Paul Jay was one of the producers for a show that was on Canadian news that was called Counter Spen, CBC. I believe it was on CBC and it was an amazing show, if you can find archives of that show, it was called Counter Spen it ran from 1998 to 2004 and they canceled it because it was sort of anomaly as far as mainstream news goes, even in Canada, because it was providing a perspective on the world that brought people from each side of the issue together around table and audiences and people would debate and then they would ask questions from the audiences, we're absolutely magnificent and it wasn't gonna last long and I basically stopped watching cable mainstream news when that show got canceled. The last episode, you know, once it finished, I turned off news, cable news, mainstream news and it was a fantastic show, if you can track it down. It was so good actually that for the, I guess a year, I was videotaping all their episodes, all their shows on to, or at least a few months anyway, towards the end because I knew it wasn't gonna last very much longer. The discourse was too real to be on mainstream news. It wasn't the agenda of the propagandists to have this, it didn't fit their narrative, right? So actually videotaped the last few months of that show and I have the one VHS at some point I'll upload those and create a torrent of them and release them under the pseudo name, I guess, because I guess they're all copyrighted still. Back to the news sources that I follow, another one is Democracy Now Daily or on weekdays, I guess five days a week, they do news summaries and they do segments, focus on certain issues and I do follow them, check out Democracy Now on a daily basis and again, I don't agree with everything being shared on all of these sites but I like the authenticity of it, the energy that's put into it because they are trying to be real and present the information as they see it, okay? An Amy Goodman, huge respect to Amy Goodman. Especially with the stuff she did in Latin America, with the cover she's done there and the Middle East as well, right? And locally, within the United States. Another news source that I follow, I guess this could be considered to be underground but everything's underground if you're covering anything real, right? This mainstream is mainstream, right? It's mainly propaganda but anything that's covering anything that's happening in the real world should be considered underground for the last few years anyway, right? It's been taken out of this course of the mainstream media. It would be Submedia TV Stimulator. He's actually based in Vancouver and he did some work. He came off of Democracy Now, he was working at Democracy Now for a while and his stuff is pretty raw and straight up. Raw in terms of, he doesn't really hold back on what he shares and it's good to have that perspective and it's well worth checking out his stuff. I do check out all the stuff that he puts out. Another news source that I check out is Telesura and for Telesura, their YouTube channel, I really like the news briefs that they put out from the global south. I think they call it a camera, what they call it. But basically it's like a few minutes of news coverage summarizing everything that's going on in the world. Well worth checking out, well worth checking out. Another one recently that I just started last few months visiting their site is, I don't know how to pronounce this, D-I-E-M-25, which is basically a collective that's got together to discuss what the alternatives will be post-European Union, after the demise of the European Union, which looks like we're pretty much headed there. So sort of offering new perspectives of how as a community we can get together locally and build up real movements coming up and deal with some of the issues that we're going to have to deal with and we are dealing with. Another show that I check out is Enter the Buzzsaw with Sean Stone. I don't necessarily watch everything that he puts out in his entirety, but I do check out what he puts out and if it interests me I do. I do watch the shows, watch the episodes, and he basically does interviews and provides certain perspectives, gives a voice to people that in general don't have a voice or don't have a voice in mainstream media. Another podcast that I do check out would be the Joel Logan experience. I don't check out everything that he does, but when he's interviewing he's really focused on bringing people on and talking with them, getting their perspective and their long podcast two to three hours. But the people that I'm interested in he does a good job of interviewing them, so it's worth checking out. Having the podcast on your radar. Two other shows that I check out, everything that they put out, they're both at RT, okay just like Chris Edges. I check out all of Chris Edges' work and these other two shows together with Chris Edges make a triple set that is definitely worth checking out. One of them being crosstalk and it's a sort of panel discussion on geopolitics, global what's going on really focused on the Middle East and Asia right now but mainly focused on the Middle East and Europe because there's wars brewing, right? So they do an amazing job presenting the information in a palatable way where it sort of cuts through the BS. That's on the political front, so crosstalk on RT. On the economic front, the Kaiser report on RT as well, put out a few shows a week, maybe four, same with crosstalk four or five. Well worth checking out on the economics front. The Kaiser report again, the first segment they provide sort of a summary of some of the things that have occurred, a lot of chart discussion and then they bring on for the second half interviewing someone and they present their perspective. Kaiser report, crosstalk and on contact, that triple set is a fantastic triple set if you want to know what's going on in the world. Two other news programs that I sort of check out, one of them would be Reason TV and I go there and there's a lot of short videos that they put out and if the topic interests me, I do watch those shorts and sometimes the longer segments. So Reason TV is a pretty good source. And the other one is a person that does sort of analysis on certain topics, he picks the topics regarding geopolitics and does his take and it's the Caspian report and he does in general a pretty good job. Some of the stuff that I know where he's covering, where I know he's not presenting the whole picture, you know I've caught him doing that sometimes. So I do take his work with a grain of salt, especially with stuff that I don't know. The details of, I don't take his word as being set in stone that covers everything, but he does a pretty good job and it's worth checking out. That was the Caspian report. Some of the other sites that I use to get information, especially articles, sort of a broad range of news coming to me from different sources, different writers, different journalists I guess. One of them is the Intercept. So I do visit the Intercept multiple times a week and I read, especially read articles from writers, journalists that I really like, that I've been following for a while. And I do check out some of the articles from the other writers that are there that have that platform to present their information. So it's a good source of info, the Intercept, 100%. Global research, I check out, not all the articles, but some of the articles. And they do have a YouTube channel where they put out videos. So global research is worth checking out, for sure. Another one is disinfo.com.  Or I have been in the past, I haven't submitted anything for the last two years or so, two, three years, where I decided not to follow politics or not to write about politics anymore because I sort of figured out for myself where we're headed and what can be done to sort of direct us down the right path instead of the wrong path. And I sort of talked about that in the politics video that is leading up to this, right? Disinfo is a good place and it's fun as well. It covers everything. It covers entertainment, media, news, geopolitics, economics. And a lot of tribal stuff, community stuff, some shamanism stuff, some esoteric stuff. It's a good source of info, I like it. And the last thing that I would say is the one thing that I follow is WikiLeaks, 100%. If you're not following WikiLeaks, you really don't know what's going on in the world. And there's a reason why the mainstream media and the powers that be are trying to silence WikiLeaks. In the future, people are going to be looking at this period and their jaws dropping as to what's really going on, especially with the stuff with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange and Bradley Manning and Snow in the Nenall, the whistleblowers, before them that have come along, telling us what our governments and corporations are up to. As far as WikiLeaks goes, I do check out WikiLeaks on a regular basis, but I also check out articles put together by journalists and analysts that are presenting information that has come through WikiLeaks, right? Any information or so-called news sources that are attacking WikiLeaks and Julian Assange on a personal level, in general, you can consider those news sources to be compromised. If you want the best word I can come up with, right? They're basically useless news sources if they're actually attacking WikiLeaks and Julian Assange because they're not really looking at the content that they're sharing, but they're sort of doing the bidding of the powers that be whoever WikiLeaks is exposing, right? Where the information is coming from, okay? So those are some of my news sources. I check them out, all of them out, if not in a week, in a month, I've gone there multiple times. Some of them, I check out multiple times a day, some of them multiple times a week, some, I check out all their content, some, some of their content, some, I just want to see what their perspective is on it, okay? And I sort of piece together what I can and my interpretation and what I know with the information that they're sharing, okay? So I hope this answers your questions for those of you who've been wanting to know what my news sources are, where I, you know, what I check out to be informed as to what's going on in the world, on the economic front and on the geopolitics front, right? Geophysics is a different game. And on the geopolitics front, right? So I hope this helps you out and I will have the links available in the description of this video if you want to check out some of these sources, okay? Yeah, that's it for now. I'll see you guys in the next video.


We read a verse, we read a parable. In this parable Jesus tells us a story. He says one man had a vineyard and he decided to look for people to work on this vineyard. He goes to the marketplace in the old days and in some of the remote areas in the world today. This is still done like that too. Without access to Greg's List, without an access to a work source or without an access where people can apply online, what usually rich men would do or employers is he would send a servant to a certain place in the city where all the unskilled low-paying workers would gather in hope for a job. These men had a very rough life because every day they worked at a different job side and every day they worked for a different employer. They didn't have a stability in their job. They would come every day hoping somebody would hire them for that day. And this man, instead of sending someone, he went himself to this market at six in the morning. That's when the Jewish day, the work day began, not at nine, six in the morning. He went in there and he took some men and he hired them. But the Bible says that the first men he hired, they agreed with him on the price, which I am assuming this is how it happened. He came and he says, anybody looking for work? Hey, it's me. It's me. I am looking for work. How much are you going to pay? He says, well, how much do you want? Can you give me one denari? A denari in that time was equivalent to $7.50 or about $8. For that time, $8 a day was considered a Roman soldier's average pay, which was a government job. So it's considered a very lofty salary. $8 per day, I mean, just not long ago in America, to receive $1.50 per minimum wage was considered a luxury. And so $8 2,000 years ago was a lot of money for that day. So I can assume the owner says, oh, fine, I can pay you one denari. Let's go to work. They go and they work. He goes at 9 o'clock in the morning again and sees some other brothers. He says, guys, I have more work. Do you want to go work? Yes. Except these guys don't ask for a salary. They don't even find out how much they're going to get paid.  What if he's going to say, well, whatever you did for this day is for the glory of God? You know, like one of those Christian people, can you do it for the glory of God? Means I'm not going to pay you. He comes at 12 o'clock and he gets guys and says, could you go and work at my vineyard? They said, yes, we'll go work at your vineyard. But these guys don't ask him how much will you pay us? Then he comes at 3 o'clock and hires guys again. And then last time he comes around 5 o'clock in the evening, one more hour left till 6 o'clock to send him home. And he hires guys and he doesn't tell them how much they're going to get paid.  That's a lot of trust. That's a lot of risk if you have a family to support. The day is over. And so the guys who came last, who only worked one hour, they're surprised. They're like, I wonder if we're going to get paid at all? If he just simply took us and made us occupied. He comes and he gives them 8 bucks. He gives them a full day's wage. You can imagine the smile on their face. You can imagine the joy. Oh my God, this is so awesome. We did not waste all day. Though we were waiting, we actually got paid for the hours we did not work. How awesome is that? Then the guys who came first, who bargained and who agreed and probably had a sign by their lawyer, make sure they get one dinari to their greatest surprise. They got one dinari. Except now, instead of being thankful for receiving a luxurious pay, they started to grumble. Because why didn't they get more since they worked longer? And the owner looks at them and he says, I thought you wanted one dinari. You asked for one dinari. These guys did not ask for anything going on a limp, trusting. I am going to be good. And I'm going to be fair. But you guys asked for a salary and you got a salary. I want to share with you few simple nuggets from this. People who fight for fairness rarely experience favor. When you come to God and you bargain for fairness, you set your limit and you begin to put a limit and you begin to say that this is what I want and that's it. I am going to work eight hours and I want eight times ten, eighty dollars. When you set a limit for your life, you will have what you bargain with. These men who got hired at six o'clock, they only received what they worked for. Not one dollar more, not one dollar less. The guys who got hired last, they did not get what they worked for. They got so much more on the top. They worked for one hour and got paid for twelve. That is favor. Favor is not when you don't work at all and you get money. Some of us think that's favor. That's called laziness and steroids. Favor is when you do work. But the work that you do, you get rewarded much more. Favor is not when you don't study for your school and you show up at the math exam and God just supernaturally downloaded all the knowledge and you know all the answers. That's called plagiarism. That's not favor. Favor is when you do study, but maybe you did not have enough time to study and God adds His touch to it and you receive more than what you actually studied for. Favor is when you sow a peanut and you don't receive a peanut back, but you receive a hundred peanuts. Favor is not when you, I worked for one hour and I received, that's called fairness. Favor is when you get what you also did not deserve. I want to encourage you this evening to remind you your God allows you to set a limit on Him. You can experience His faithfulness or you could experience His favor. The guys who had hired at six o'clock, they experienced that the owner who hired them was faithful. The guys who had hired at six in the evening experienced the owner that hired them was full of favor. How will you experience God? Many times we allow our wallet to determine the size of our dream. Many people allow their education to allow to measure the size of the expectation of the kind of future they want. God does not want your future to reflect your discipline. He wants your future to reflect His goodness. He wants you never to be able to brag and take credit for yourself and say, look what my discipline, prayer and fasting has done. He wants you always to be able to say, I prayed, I fasted, I gave, but what God gave me supersedes what I inputted in. He added His favor on the top of that.


This paper presents a review of hydrogen storage systems suitable for mobility applications, highlighting the ideal characteristics for such a medium, including high energy densities, quick uptake and release, safe use and cost effectiveness. However, current hydrogen storage technologies have significant drawbacks, and while compressed hydrogen is the leading industry standard, it is not perfect and other options are being explored. This article was authored by A.T.N. Ravard, Michel Trudeau and Karim Zagib.


Have a nice day. Well, this major was having a pretty good day until a familiar voice called him on the phone. That's true. Now, wait a minute, Doc. You don't mean that a half of our graduates can't... You saw it yourself? I don't know what to tell you. I'm fresh out of alibis. Hold it for a second, will you? Hey, Chief. Yes, sir. Get me the test results on the 211 class, will you? The part on using clinical instruments. All right. I'm going to check the test scores on that class, Doc. But if half of them can't take a decent blood pressure reading for you, something's got to be haywire. Yeah, for sure. And hey, why don't you call me... Yeah, call me with some good news once in a while, will you? I'll get back to you. Results you asked for. As you can see, they all passed. Yeah. On the, uh, what is that, the sphigmomometer, they had, let's see, how many was that? Two questions in the written test. And 94% of them got the right answers. 94%. So if they passed the test, why can't they perform on the job? Possibly the reason is the school didn't test them on their ability to perform, but on their ability to answer some questions. Having knowledge about a job is one thing. Being able to do that job is something else entirely. That's where performance testing comes in. This is another film in the Air Force series on instructional technology, the state of the art. As you know, criterion reference testing doesn't measure each student against all other students, but rather against a criterion, a standard. The criterion test derives from the course objectives, stating what skill the student must demonstrate, the conditions of the test, and the minimum acceptable performance. Whatever the stated objectives of a training program may be, the true objectives show up in the test at the end. If the student knows he's going to have to actually fix a malfunctioning radio in his test, he'll practice with that radio. Take it apart, handle its components. If he knows he's just going to have to write answers on a question sheet, why handle the radio all that much? Just study the tech order. Students aren't down. They'll learn whatever they're going to be tested on. Let's hear now from Dr. F. W. Shofoltoski, Technical Director of DCS Plans, Headquarters Air Training Command. Finding out if the student has learned enough from the instruction to meet the objectives is a critical part of the ISD process. Where the objectives call for the student to be able to do something, the best way to determine whether the student is really able to do it is to use a performance test, such as we're doing here with this flight simulator. Let me stress that word performance. While performance testing may be done by paper and pencil or simulation, the more a test resembles a hands-on measurement, the easier it is to reach an accurate performance measurement. With me is Hilton Goldman, and he's Chief of the Advisory Service Branch, Headquarters Air Training Command. First of all, let me ask you, even though performance tests are the best measure of a student's skills, they're comparatively expensive and time-consuming, so with that in mind, when should a performance test be used? Use it to validate the instruction. This is necessary to be sure that instruction teaches what it's supposed to teach. However, once instruction has been validated and as long as there is no major change in student characteristics or subject matter, performance tests can then be limited to critical tasks. Now by critical tasks, I mean tasks where a loss of life or property or mission failure could result from misperformance. Incidentally, the same performance test item that lets you know if the student can do the job also lets you know if the student has acquired the related knowledge. Let me show you an example here. Now, here's a performance test item using a Webster's abridged dictionary find and state the correct pronunciation, the meaning, and the part of speech for the word charisma. Okay, here are some knowledges that this would test. How words are arranged in the dictionary, that it has a key to pronunciation, how to use the key to pronunciation, identify what part of speech a word is, and these are some of the skills that it tests. Ability to locate a word, ability to produce sounds indicated by the symbols and word examples in the key to pronunciation. Now, must the student always use actual equipment in a performance test? In some cases, it may be either too expensive or inappropriate to use actual equipment, or the actual equipment may not even be available. In such cases, it is necessary to use simulation. Often, there may be a choice of degrees of simulation. Take flying training as a good example. It's not feasible to test the student pilot's ability to perform emergency ejection procedures on this T-38 aircraft. However, you might use this very realistic instrument flight simulator or this classroom training aid to teach emergency ejection procedures. Notice, as we went through this list of alternatives, the simulation device became less expensive, but also it provided less fidelity. Well, if you have several alternatives, on what basis do you choose which one to use? Use the simplest form of simulation that will let you measure the tests or skills you want to measure. In the emergency procedures example that we just mentioned, if you only want to test the student's ability to accomplish critical procedures, the ejection seat trainer provides all that is needed. Now, how can you be sure that what you've chosen will do the job? You must validate the simulation. And how do you do that? Well, try the test item in a group of people who can do the job and also in another group who cannot. The former group should pass the test item and the latter group should fail it. And it doesn't work that way. The test item is not valid and should not be used.  Similarly, to test if the student can perform a procedure task, placing a machine in operation, assembling a unit, filling out a form, have the student do it. But for many procedures, the skilled aspect of the task is mental. These are procedures that could be performed with little or no practice. If one knows what, when, and how to do them. In such cases, you could measure proficiency by multiple-choice test items, like the one you see here. Troubleshooting. How you test for ability to do troubleshooting depends on the objective you're testing. If you want to test whether the student understands the logic of a system, you can do this with a paper and pencil simulator. In this example, the student is given a wiring diagram. A problem. And this representation of the panel's are these points. Find and repair the trouble if one exists. Circle each measurement you use. Instead of actually making the measurements needed to find the trouble, the student draws a circle around each measurement he would use. I need to know the voltage at this point. For each measurement he indicates he needs, the student gets a picture of the reading he would get if he actually used the voltmeter. The voltage is a positive 30.05 volts. This point here. Of course, if you want to test the student's ability to use the voltometer, then have the student use it. One of the attitudes to be taught in basic training is respect for the flag. You can identify certain behaviors that would be displayed by someone who has this attitude. Then observe those who have completed the training and see if, without prompting, they behave appropriately. In this case, obviously the instruction was not effective. So now you're convinced that performance tests are necessary and you know what makes up a performance test item. Is that all there is to know about performance testing? Not quite. You also must know how to conduct a performance test. That involves trying it out to be sure it measures what it should, administering it properly, and scoring it. Before any performance test is incorporated into a training course, it must be tried out. Let's say the test is for dental technician trainees on the assembly and disassembly of the anesthetic syringe. Today you will be tested on how to properly assemble and disassemble a dental syringe using the long and short needle. You'll have five minutes to complete this test in with 100% accuracy. Do you understand the instructions? Yes. Let's go. Since the end result of their work must be a properly assembled syringe, and since assembly requires following precisely a series of steps, the observer will make note of any missteps. On this test item, mistakes will show up in two ways, exceeding the allowed time limit or an improperly assembled syringe. But this is a triad. Perhaps the test itself is faulty, so the students who don't do well should be questioned. Did you understand the instructions for this test? Yes. Do you feel that we allowed you enough time to complete the test in? Well, I guess so. Was it the same type of syringe that you had been trying with? Yes. Okay, that's the end of the test. Where the answers to those questions, among others, are answered yes, the test can be considered validated. In administering a performance test, the procedures you set up must not contaminate the test results and also must ensure fairness to each student. This makes it essential that the administration of the test be standardized. But performance testing, by its very nature, introduces a possibility that not every student will be tested in exactly the same way. Where variables may exist, sometimes an extra effort is needed to counter them to prevent their affecting one student or one group of students, adversely in comparison to other students. Let's talk about environmental variables for a moment. Environmental variables include conditions such as lighting, temperature, and background noise level. So the conditions required for testing should be stated in the directions. It's the responsibility of the tester to ensure that these conditions exist at the time of testing. Now, let's consider the next item. Personal variables include personal, physical, and emotional conditions. Again, where these conditions are important in your testing, it's up to the test supervisors to ensure the timing of the test. With relation to meal time, rest time, exercise time, and work time is standardized for every student. Now, for the final item on our list of variables, and by far the most critical of all, instructional and tester's variables. These are items that test-administering personnel can control and should in the interest of fairness. Instructions to students who are about to begin a performance test must be standardized. Consistent, agreed upon in advance by all testers and observers, and they should be delivered to all students without variation. One good way is to hand each student a written instruction sheet or to read them aloud and check to see that they're clearly understood. All right, you know what you're supposed to do. You're supposed to show me how smart you are. I want you to disassemble that piece there. Don't get any of the parts dirty. Reassemble it like your life depended on it. Now, let's just get this over with. Go. Add living the instructions verbally is in good practice. Different testers will have different ways, not all of them strictly impersonal. That's what you might call rough and ready instructions, but a true performance test doesn't start that way. The tester left out the time limits, some of the conditions of the test, and the exact end performance expected. So students' performance cannot really be measured, except in the subjective opinion of the tester. And what about the attitude that was displayed? It's far better to give test instructions orally from a written text and then give copies to each trainee. Do you understand your own wrong? Don't help each other. Bob, how much time does it take for the test? Ten minutes. How many left readings are we going to take? Four. Okay, both radios and frequency cameras? I'll fire that in a little bit before you go. Do you have any questions about the test? No. Everything's clear then? Yes. Okay. Let's surround the radios and remember, we've got ten minutes. Where test instructions are clear, the results of the test should be reliable with all trainees month after month, provided other conditions are also standardized, which brings us to tester's variables, meaning the personal behavior of test givers and observers. You've already seen two examples of tester attitude, one just wanting to get it over with, the other taking care to assure a fair start. There's no question as to which is the proper approach. The tester's manner must be strictly impersonal, calm, reasonable, and noncommittal. No hint of favoritism or antagonism must be given. One of the easiest ways to ruin a performance test is for the tester to motherhand the trainee by giving hints or making corrections. At the end, the trainee may have done the job correctly, but it'll be more of the tester's work than the trainee's. Now we come to the bottom line in performance testing. The result of the test in terms of the score awarded the trainee. You may have done everything else right, but if you haven't established a proper method of scoring your test, well, you've wasted a lot of your effort. Let's run down this list briefly to help you select the method best suited to your particular needs. Assisted testing versus non-interference testing is pretty much self-explanatory. Let's say a chief cook is testing a food service trainee in a mess hall. Assisting is quite appropriate here.  One quick note on the dispatch. You would note afterwards that the trainee needed help in that step in breakfast preparation. Comparing the number of helps needed with a criterion achieved gives you a relative score for that segment of training. The go-no-go method of scoring is generally used to score simple, objective processes or products. Here, either the performance standard is met or it's not. There's no middle ground. For example, a test involving removal and replacement of the power supply in a receiver transmitter. The trainee's performance is measured as go or no-go on two criteria. First, was the correct part removed and replaced? And secondly, does the transmitter work properly afterward? The go-no-go scoring method can of course be used on much more complicated performances involving many separate steps. The advantage of this method is that the tester's subjective judgment is not a factor, and the result of the test is a clear cut, yes or no. Fixed point scoring is appropriate to tasks where the trainee obtains the end product through processes which aren't necessarily lined up in a rigid order. A welding performance test is an example of this type of scoring. Normally, a checklist is used, which sets forth all the behaviors required in preparing the tools and the materials to be welded, the method of handling, the safety precautions to be taken, and so on. In a typical welding performance test, there may be as many as six different points on tool and material preparation, ten points on work procedure, six on safety measures, and ten on evaluation of the finished product. Was the tool held at the proper angle, one point? Was the base metal preheated, one point? Was the fire extinguisher placed within easy reach, one point? Was the bead free of irregularities, three points? With the fixed point scoring method, the tester can set up a test and as many separately scored behaviors as deemed necessary. At the end, the tester will know at a glance which areas require additional training, and if a consistent pattern of poor performance in one area is seen over a period of time, it's obvious the training program needs to be revised. Our next item, mixed scoring, applies to tests where two or more types of scoring methods can be applied. An example would be a two-fold performance test with a distance measuring navigational receiver transmitter, where the trainee is required to first identify and correct a malfunction in the receiver and then calibrate the receiver with a signal generator. The first part of the test would be scored on a go-no-go basis, and the second part on a basis of points given for accuracy within a specified tolerance. Mix scoring can be appropriately used in any performance test where the trainee must perform troubleshooting on an item of equipment and then operate it. Now we come to the rating scale type of scoring. A simple type of rating scale would be one in which values are assigned to behavior on basis of its closeness to perfection, such as marching, and in this particular example, flight drill. Each marching movement to be graded is assigned a value on an explicit basis so that independent raiders are able to agree consistently on their scoring. This type of rating scale is especially useful where the criterion objective specifies characteristics of an acceptable action or product. When a rating scale involves qualities that can be quantified, then the judgment of the tester must be a major factor. Here's an example. To rate this cake, you could use a descriptive scale, such as this one, but it's not a very satisfactory way because judgment may differ, and the trainee has no way of knowing what the tester thinks is important. Appearance, texture, volume, moistness, flavor. A performance that is rated excellent by one tester may seem only fair to another. If this type of scoring has to be used, the best way to ensure fairness is to have a list of factors that should be considered and the relative weight for each and to use several testers as a cross-check against one another. If you have a choice in the matter of scoring methods, these two, go-no-go or fixed-point scoring, are the most valid and reliable measures of a student's performance. But however you conduct or score a test, the important thing is that you do performance testing, that you make it the goal line, so to speak, that the student must cross. Performance testing ensures that trainees will be able to perform productive work immediately on going out into the real world of the Air Force. Course objectives almost always require a student to do something, yet too many get only a multiple-choice test when actual performance tells the real story. Yes, performance testing takes time, and no, you needn't demand it for every detail of a lengthy job. Be selective. Take the most important parts of the job for hands-on testing. Remember what was said earlier, that students aren't dumb. They'll learn whatever they're going to be tested on. Believe me, if they know they're going to have to perform, they will prepare themselves.


Hi there, we're here at New Frontiers 2016 in Aroha Valley and we're here with Lou Santsen, the Director-General of the Department of Conservation. Lou, do you want to tell us a little bit about what the department does? Well we look after a third in New Zealand. New Zealand prides itself on putting aside a third of the country for nature. We are, the biggest issues for New Zealand are pests and climate change and really it's about killing things for conservation. Right, so why is it that the pest control is so important for New Zealand? Well New Zealand's a country of birds, you know, we're the last discovered, the loneliest, the loveliest, the land bridges got broken millions of years ago and birds occupy the upper niche of our whole ecosystem.  We have warmer winters, we've got our wilding pine problem so we're really facing two battles. One have introduced pests and one of these guys getting an edge through warmer climate. Right, so we're actually seeing the problem exacerbated at the moment with the climate problems at the same time as we're trying to tackle these challenges with pest control? Yeah exactly, we're seeing things like a Norwegian rat that used to be in the bush now out in the tussock lands predating on some of our birds that live on braided rivers. We're seeing wilding pines, pines that were suppressed by our cold winters now starting to expand across our landscapes. Right, so with this work that the department is doing how does this impact on everyday kiwis and the experiences they have in nature? So what we're creating here is really a movement, a call to arms that this is a battle. This is about New Zealand, this is about our national identity and New Zealand nature is such a big part of what we are as a country. It's on our money, it's on our passports. We wake up every morning to a bird call with our radio station. People love these birds, they want to save them. We've done so much damage, we've got to turn it round. So this is about a vision of predator-free New Zealand. This is reclaiming our nature and keeping these pests at bay. Sure, so is there things that people can specifically do in their area to get involved in this type of work? Well all over the country we've got groups every weekend, we've got something like 15,000 people out there running stout lines, possum lines, taking out wilding pines. It's really how we can help them and their interests. We've got farmers putting in good nature, self-repeating traps in their patch of bush to bring back Bellbird, to bring back Tui, to bring back Kiwi. In every community there are people doing this and we're so proud of it and every community in New Zealand has a group doing something in this space. That's fantastic to hear. Any particular favourite spots of your own to get outdoors in New Zealand? Well I'm from the west coast of the South Island, a place called Hukatika. I just passionately love that place. I love some of those big, wide-open landscapes in the Mackenzie Country and Central Otago. But Central North Island has some real magic too. Those sacred mountains of Tongarero and Ruopei who, those magical rivers around there, some of the cycleways we're building. There's special places everywhere in the country. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks very much for coming along and chatting with us. Cheers.


Here's to the Navy's first touchdown when they beat Army. From the USS Abraham Lincoln Supply Department, let's make it 13th in a row on December 13, 2014. Go Navy!


All right folks, we've got to talk about the Lincoln Project because they have been getting under my skin I think namely because Nobody in mainstream media is doing their job. Nobody is challenging them and as a result All of their careers have been rehabilitated now for those of you who don't know I'm sure that most of you who are watching this already know The Lincoln Project is a super PAC that was created by ex-bush administration officials and these are right-wing grifters They are profiting off of the anti-trump grift. They are much like Anna Navarro on CNN basically they became famous for hating Donald Trump even though they're conservatives So we're supposed to think that they're inherently good because they don't like Donald Trump Well, I mean if that's the case and the bar is much more lower than I had already thought but the reason why they're getting so much praise is because Liberal networks like MSNBC are praising them giving them falling coverage for doing the bare minimum being anti-trump and It's gotten so bad that normies are now starting to buy into this grift I see people in my own social circles who are centrists and liberals Praise the Lincoln Project and talk about how wonderful their ads are and that they've been a bright spot of the 2020 election And that they should know how to clap back on Donald Trump and own him This is gonna make me lose my mind We should not be rewarding People who are lucky to not be in jail right now Because of the roles that they played in Bush's administration I mean, I shouldn't be shocked by this because mainstream media has already Rehabilitated George W. Bush. He should be in prison right now. So of course, you know, they're gonna rehabilitate the Lincoln Project But the reason why so many people Are buying into the Lincoln Projects grift is because the mainstream media has not chosen to hold them accountable The only mainstream clip that I've seen where the Lincoln Project is criticized for their role in the Bush administration Came from a cartoon CBS All Access has a show called tuning out the news which is surprisingly good and they interviewed Rick Wilson And when they pressed him to explain his role in the Bush administration and how this is a grift He was speechless. He was visibly irritated by that Now I can't play the clip for you because if I do CBS will copyright claim this video Even if it's fair use so I'll link it down below But the point is they haven't been held to account, which is why so many people think they must be allies, right? Except finally in an interview with 60 minutes Grifters at the Lincoln Project were asked about their role in crafting the current Republican Party because here's the thing like they can denounce Donald Trump all they want and hate Donald Trump But they're part of the reason why the Republican Party is so extreme. These are the people Who brought us Sarah Palin? These are the people Who pushed the Republican Party to use less dog whistles and to be more explicit in embracing xenophobia and racism? So for them to claim the moral high ground and attack Donald Trump for things that they've previously done I mean if you've had a genuine change of heart that'd be one thing, but we know what this is about This is a grift. They're running a super PAC because they want to make money They want to profit off of anti-Trump hysteria and I get it Trump is bad, but that doesn't mean we rehabilitate Horrible people like the grifters over at the Lincoln Project So I can't play the clip for you because this is a CBS clip But I do have the audio for you where she asks them about their role in the current Republican Party And of course they divert attention away from their culpability and wrongdoing and they try to deflect This is infuriating to watch nonetheless. Take a look and then we'll discuss it a little bit more when we come back And I'm gonna quote their failed strategists who are doing this for the money The easiest way in the world for a Republican strategist to make money right now Is to shut up and say nice things about Donald Trump. So clearly we're in the wrong line of work But they've also drawn fire from some on the left for their own role in creating the Republican politics They now decry Do you bear any responsibility? You personally for bringing the country to where it is When I look at the party and I see what it's become I Think that I was naive about how deeply embedded the Racism issue was in the party Do you feel at all that you're making amends and in all politics? You can look back on things with with honor or regret or what have you I think I'll look back on this I think all of us will look back on this as something we did in the cause of the country So that was infuriating to watch because um, they're lying I mean first of all credit to 60 minutes for even pressing them on this I certainly would have pressed them a little bit harder, but they're lying They're trying to make it seem as if this isn't a grift when this is nothing more than a grift They would be on the Trump train If that would yield them more money Rick Wilson said the easiest way in the world for a Republican strategist to make money right now Is to shut up and say nice things about Donald Trump. So clearly we're in the wrong line of work Oh It's not a grift if we were grifting if we wanted to make money We'd be pro-trump strategists except I don't think so I don't think so at all. We all know That the way to make money currently is to be a former Republican who hates Donald Trump because that is an open Invitation now for you to go on every single mainstream media program to be interviewed about why you hate Donald Trump That generates interest in why you decided to change and have this Ideological shift and then you get a book deal ask a Omarosa About this ask Anthony scarimucci about this ask any other Republican who all of a sudden had this change of heart and doesn't like Donald Trump I mean, you don't even have to be a former bush era Republican To jump on this anti-trump grift you can be From Trump's administration and then become anti-trump and then make money off of it. The anti-trump grift Is very lucrative so they know exactly what they're doing So for him to lie and say, oh We just we'd be pro-Republican if we really wanted to make money.  They are as bad as the average republican is So here he is responding to a tweet about anti-abortion propaganda suggesting that he'd probably be even more authoritarian than donald trump Here he is saying i don't care what flavor of islam these dicks are the flavor They need to be is bleeding out of a hole in their temple literally calling for muslims to be killed He also implied that families of victims of the new town shooting are crisis actors And there's a lot more where that came from these people are not good people These people are part of the reason why the modern republican party is so insane Why they're a death cult now and the worst part is the fact that they helped Send us the war in iraq and i think that david sirota put it best in this concise tweet I helped start the iraq war and turned the supreme court into a rubber stamp crushing millions of workers But here's my link in project video of trump farting with curb your enthusiasm music So please send me 50 million and make me an msnbc pundit on brian william's show That's exactly it and then the media does just that gives them a pass and that's deeply deeply fresh writing at the rate we're going I would expect donald trump to be fully rehabilitated like within uh two years after he's out of office because we saw how quickly the media flipped their tune uh rachel maddo at least when uh they found out that he got covid 19 all of a sudden You know we're praying for the president. We uh, we totally are Wishing you well mr.  So they're friends The enemy of my enemy is my friend. No That's not how it works in actuality. The enemy of your enemy is a grifter Who is allowing rubes to send them money who are liberals who are anti republican All because they're preying on anti trump hysteria I mean this just makes me lose faith in Humanity that people fall for it But I think that a lot of people genuinely don't know about how nefarious the lincoln project is but Because there's so much people who don't know about how terrible they are It's you know incumbent on me and people like me with the platform to let people know these are not individuals who are to be trusted And I could see them trying To butter up biden in order to weasel their way into his administration to turn this grift into a long-term opportunity To do even more terrible policies to influence job biden to do uh more shitty things that we don't like To make uh the democratic party the republican party of the 2000s since the modern day republican party is basically Full on authoritarian fascist. I mean we can't let that happen So we've got to sound the alarm and let people know these folks aren't to be trusted these are grifters And they don't care about you. They don't care about the country. They're not even anti trump They're just taking a particular position because it's lucrative for them to do so This is all about self-aggrandizement. This is all about them making a lot of money and getting a lot of attention And uh probably getting a book deal after this if not a job in biden's administration So don't trust them and whenever you see someone praising the lincoln project to make sure that you let them know These people are bad people. They are the reason why we have a donald trump today


There's a great story of Ibn Sina, who he met a man who was he was crying and he was sometimes laughing and he was sometimes what we might call maybe like manic you know just up and down and up and down and just you know sometime to show up and sometime and people didn't know what was wrong with him and so they brought him to Ibn Sina and so he was trying to figure out what was wrong with this man and so he took his pulse to try to figure out what is it that's causing him so much distress and so much anxiety and there's an illness that he talks about in his books and many of the books of that time they talked about something called love sickness and he figured out and he started to narrow down every time he'd say a city a certain city right kept narrowing it down narrowing it down narrowing it down till he figured out what city was causing him the most anxiety and from the people in the city he kept saying all the names of the family the big families of that city all until he figured out which family was causing the most distress and then when he finally got there all the way to the end he realized that his heart this man's heartbeat this technique this man was obsessed by a specific woman and so he realized it was love sickness and he said the way in order to treat this man isn't an isn't a medication I give him it's actually he needs to get married and he beseeched this family on the man's behalf that he married this woman and then the man's symptoms went away this is in his book and the kanun kanun flip or the canon of medicine and he was he said and he says in his book by reaching his beloved I'm amazed how quickly he became re-energized and it's so it's clear to me that human health is obedient and under the control of the mind


Welcome to the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2018 here in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates where I'm very pleased to be joined this afternoon in the studio by Andrew Rugege who is the Regional Director for the ITU Regional Office for Africa. Andrew, welcome to the studio. Thank you Max, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. Now I'd like to talk to you a little bit about the theme for this year's Plenipotentiary conferences is connecting the world together and I wanted to find out how's your region been making strides to get everyone connected over the last four years, let's say, you know, since the last Plenipotentiary Conference. Perhaps I'll start from the back end talking about regional initiatives because that has been our thrust. We've got five regional initiatives for Africa that were decided by WTDC and some of them were continued from the last WTDC before 2017. But these building digital economies and fostering innovation. The second one is emerging broadband networks and encouragement of those. The third one is building confidence and security in our networks. The fourth is capacity building and the fifth is in spectrum management and monitoring. Now those are very broad subjects but when you look at them they include anything that will use ICT to develop Africa. Now if you look at the very first one, building digital economies, you start from what can ICT do to make lives better? What can ICT do? When I say ICT it's telecommunications and ICT which is our main strive. How can it help to make the lives of Africans better? So you look at how can you use ICT in agriculture? How can they use ICT in health? How can you use it in education? And particularly in this cycle of regional initiatives we've been working with other organizations. We seek partners in making ICT work better because we can't do it alone. Now for example, just a few examples, we are working with WTRAW in a project under regional initiative 1 which we are calling digital health for Africa. And what this seeks to do is helping countries build their health systems around digital platforms. There are many many little platforms in every country and they all deal with health but there is no unified platform. So we are looking at educating leaders, creating digital health leaders, we are looking about integrating their systems and so on and so forth. But secondly, we are also looking at how do we develop a generation of kids that understand ICT? How do we bridge that divide? And we started with the gender digital divide and we developed a project with UN women called African Girls Can Quote. And what that is, it's a project that has three objectives. One, teaching young girls at a very young age how to code so they grow up in that culture. Secondly, it is building awareness among countries, ministries of education, ministries of ICT to build ICTs and to build coding into the curricula of schools at a very young age. And thirdly, it is to create a platform where the ones that have built these skills can go. One, continue to engage with their mentors, two, find jobs or find entrepreneurship. So that, we launched that last August I think and we had a bootcamp for these young girls, 17 to 20, for two weeks. You cannot imagine what the result was. Girls who came in not knowing anything about ICT, about computers went back with skills that can do gaming, through coding, that can design things, design nice dresses that you could put on a New York artwork. So it's things like that, that on the one hand you are bridging that divide, but on the other you are giving these young people a livelihood and giving them an opportunity to know that they can choose ICT as a career path. Which will be a very strong one I'm sure in the future as it is now, but it could only grow more. And I just wanted to ask you, in terms of the future, what are ITU's plans for the next coming years for your region? The plans, of course we've got operational plans, but we also have got strategic plans that have been cited, for example, during PPE, during WTDC, but all these revolve again on how does Africa develop and how does ICT become a tool to accelerate? How do they meet these SDGs? You know, apart from SDG-9, ICT is really not, does not really feature, it's not an SDG by itself, but it is that enabler, it is that accelerator that will help us meet the sustainable development goals. So in the next four years we are looking to assist countries meet these sustainable development goals. Along with that, it means we are addressing education, we are addressing water, we are addressing agriculture, and we are addressing employment and particularly entrepreneurship. So that's going to be my focus. My second focus is engaging other sister organizations in the in the UN system. You have to take advantage of every facility that you can get, because in Africa there are very few opportunities with the developed private sector that would be able to contribute. So we have to encourage them along, and so I'm continuing to engage with other heads of agencies in the UN system to be able to come together, synergize, and then use ICTs to achieve their goals, but mine as well. That's wonderful. Now finally, do you have a message for participants here at the Planetary Potential Conference and also to our wider audience as well? Yes, I do. Number one, I would like to congratulate everybody. This has been a wonderful exercise. It's not easy to go three weeks with all the fatigue, with all the work, so I would like to congratulate them. To the Africans, I would like to say this is your organization. I'm looking to work with you. I'm looking for your guidance. I will bring your expertise. This is what ITU does. So we are partners. Let's become stronger partners in meeting your needs. And thirdly, to the wider audience, Africa is open for business, especially in this area of ICTs. We are looking for investors. We are looking for partners and we are giving you a platform to meet, to find the needs. You have the supply, so come and see where you can invest your money. Fine words. Well, we look forward to seeing you in the studio in the next few years, and thank you very much indeed for coming in today. Thank you, Max. It's always a pleasure. Thank you very much.