And then we are live. Okay, so finally 15 minutes late, but better late than never. This is our MassCom 101 video chat for students of Vivian Medina Messner and Jeff South and Chung Hong's students are also either online or we'll be watching this later on. Our guest is Dr. Ralph Hansen, the author of our textbook, Mass Communication, Living in a Media Age, or a Media World, rather. And so we wanted to pepper Ralph with some questions. We can just maybe start off just with a little bio, Ralph. If you could tell us a little bit about yourself, how you became a media scholar and just what your interest in this field. Okay. Now, Ralph, how are you? I'm getting a beard echo and I'm not going to be up on video. Okay. When you talk, you'll appear on video. I'm going to mute my microphone. And that's always good for the other folks to do too, so that there's no feedback, so that your voice, Ralph, doesn't come into our computer and then go back out through our microphone. So I'm gonna mute my microphone and let you talk. So Ralph, your microphone should not be muted, of course, because you'll be talking. Okay, that sounds great. Well, hello and welcome to the chat. I'm always glad to do this. I think this is the second or third time we've done this. I like to say that I am a Watergate baby. I came of age in the 1970s. I can tell you exactly where I was when Nixon stepped down from the White House. I was 14 years old and I had been riding my bike in the Des Moines Registers Great Bike right across Iowa. And I got to Cedar Falls that evening and we sat and watched on the news, watched Nixon Resign. And I just became enthralled with journalism during that time period. And I went to Iowa State and studied science writing there, which is a little bit different from political communication and got my bachelor's in journalism and anthropology. And then I went on and I worked a little bit in public relations and then I worked for a newspaper for a couple of years. And I went back to graduate school and I didn't really have any big intention at that point except that I had applied for a job and they wanted me to have a master's degree and I didn't have it. And so I went back and while I was doing that, I got interested in possibly becoming an academic. I came from an academic family. My father was a physics professor and I started doing that and I got my master's and then I started on a doctorate in sociology and almost on a lark I applied for a job in Flagstaff, Arizona, Northern Arizona University and wonder of wonders, I got the job and with about a week's notice, moved from Iowa to Arizona and started working as a journalism professor. And while I was working full-time as a journalism professor there, I also commuted from there to Phoenix to, well to Tempe to Arizona State University where I completed my doctorate in sociology. And I've moved around a little bit since then. I lived in West Virginia for 15 years and then an opportunity came to move to Kearney, Nebraska which my wife somewhat mockingly refers to as my dream town, but the simple fact is is that I long thought actually back to when we lived in Arizona some day I would like to live in Kearney, Nebraska. Don't ask me to explain, I can't. But anyway, we've now lived in central Nebraska now for 10 years. When I was at West Virginia University, I had been writing reviews of textbooks and the like for publishers and I had a publisher contact me and say, gee, we'd love to meet with you at a journalism conference and I hadn't been planning on going to the conference but it wasn't far away. So I drove for the day and met with the editor and they said, we'd like you to write an intro to MassCom textbook for us. And that didn't really seem like something that I'd ever thought that I would do and I didn't end up coming to terms with that publisher but McGraw Hill, which is one of the giants of publishing decided that they wanted me to write one and so I did and it took a very long time. It was a lot of work, it was about five years and anybody who ever tells you, oh, we'll just have some people cooperatively put together a textbook and it'll be great. A textbook is an incredible amount of work to do and I wrote it for them and the book wasn't an ideal match for the publisher. They weren't quite sure what to do with it. They had five other competing texts on their line about a year, year and a half after they published it, they said, we're not going to do a second edition. And I go, oh, and that turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me because McGraw Hill is a fabulous publisher. They do a lot of great books but we were not a good fit with each other and they were very helpful to me. They were very good about returning the rights to my book to me. I have nothing bad to say about them other than that we were a bad fit for each other. And then a publisher by the name of CQ Press, Congressional Quarterway Press, found out that I had the manuscript and asked to see it and within two weeks I had a contract with CQ Press and working with them has been phenomenal. And then several years ago, I started getting word that CQ Press was up for sale and I was terrified that it was going to be bought by one of these giant publishers and my life would be miserable and it turned out that it got bought by Sage Publications. And quite frankly, when my book was returned to me by McGraw Hill, my first thought was, hmm, maybe I can go to Sage. And when CQ Press got acquired by Sage, that was fabulous. So there's probably more inside baseball on publishing than you really wanted but I've just now finished, I'm working on finishing the last details on the seventh edition of your textbook. We've been making final, final edits to the manuscript. I've been trying, I have three PowerPoints left to do, they supposedly do tonight. I'm not sure that I'm going to get the last, I'm going to get all of them done tonight and then I have a teacher's manual to finish and the book goes to press in roughly a month. Oh, that's great. Actually, I believe Professor Medina Messner's publisher, Riving, you've got a book coming out from Sage too, as well. Right, absolutely. That I will talk about eventually, but Ralph, I wanted to ask you a little bit, can you share with the students a little bit about how is that process to do research because you of course do a fabulous job with our book and all the multimedia components. Can you talk about how you combine your blog, the multimedia and all those great elements so that professors like us and students can take advantage of all the great things. Okay, well, the book, could we get your microphone? Oh, sorry. When I work on an edition, the book comes out every two years and there's roughly a year of just doing general light duty research and then a year of almost round the clock work on the book. I use a database called Evernote and with Evernote, I can clip articles off the web and from databases and what have you and throw them in there and by the time I am done with the book, I will have collected somewhere in the vicinity of 1100 articles for each edition. I won't reference every one of them, but I'll use a lot of them and then I write a blog, whatever I find an article that I think is interesting, I throw it into my Evernote database and then when I find some that sort of go together on a topic, I write a blog post and you can think of the blog post as being the pre-rough draft of things that I'm going to write. I was supposed to have gotten a blog post written last night and I just didn't have the heart to do it. Today, about the two journalists who look like they've been murdered. There was a woman in Hungary, I believe, who was raped and murdered who was covering the totalitarian regime there and it looks very likely that a Saudi journalist who wrote columns for the Washington Post, he went to the Saudi Embassy in Turkey and to get some wedding documents that he never came out, there are some very, very scary reports coming out that he was tortured, murdered, and cut into little pieces to take out of the embassy. We don't know what happened to him yet, but I just don't want to write that blog post. I have a couple sections where I talk about dangers journalists face and unfortunately these two people are going to likely be featured in the eighth edition about dangers journalists face. I write blog posts about a range of things. I also post videos when I find them. I have a tumbler that I use, it's RalphieHanson.tumbler.com where I put up videos, but a lot of the videos that you're giving me credit for are researched by some other people. My publisher hires some people to help find some of the illustrated videos that go in there. I write a lot of things from my book that not every author does. I write the test bank for it. It's a spam question that you guys get, like them or hate them, I'm responsible for them if your teacher is using the test bank. I write the PowerPoint slides and I write an instructor's manual. Each of those take a fair amount of time and then right as I'm finishing things up I start working on the next edition. I write about a dozen, twenty articles in the database for the eighth edition, even though the seventh edition has yet to be published. I guess that speaks to how dynamic the field is and things are constantly changing. I guess the fact that you've got your blog is a great way for people using the book to stay up on current issues as well as for you to archive things that will go into the next hardback edition or the paperback edition. Wendian, do you have a question you'd like to throw out to Dr. Hansen? You need to turn on your microphone. Yes, I just did. Can you hear me? I don't hear you. Yes, I can hear you. Same here. Fine. Yes, that's fine. Good, good. Actually, I'm a Saudi journalist and I'm a doctoral student here in mathematics. So, I'm going to hit the academia side in my country or some neighboring countries. So, do you prefer or do you think that your book will work there? Because actually we have here five parts. Only the part five talks about the institutions and the states here. So, the first four, I guess, they are general. But what do you think? It certainly has been used in other countries. It clearly is primarily focused on the American media industry and then other media around the world as a comparison point to that. The global media chapter is not the only... There is a big focus on global media there, but I do talk about media from other world or from other countries in other chapters. But clearly, this starts with a... with at least a North American point of view. Do it. I think that would be fair to say. There's a lot of books, and I couldn't name one off the top of my head, but there are a range of books that I use to look at global media issues that would do that somewhat more completely than mine. But I do know that mine is used I know it's been used in Hong Kong. It's been used in Canada. It's been used in Britain. Good. Right. Ralph, I think it's interesting that your doctorate is in sociology. You teach MassCom. How do you see the relationship between those two disciplines? Does one especially inform the other? Well, actually, I would add a third one there, which is anthropology. Specifically, I studied archaeology. And I think they all fit together beautifully. First of all, I think that journalism and archaeology are amazingly closely connected. Now, granted, you don't go out in the field and work with trowels and dig in the dirt and run the dirt through sieves and find artifacts. But you are digging through and trying to tell a story. And you are trying to collect information and figure out what information does that story tell. And you do that with anthropology and you do that with journalism. With sociology, do you have a doctoral program in journalism, MassCom? We do not. We've got a task force that's looking at developing one. And what we do have is an interdisciplinary program that Wedgen referred to called MATX, Media, Art and Text. And it is a collaboration among the School of MassCom, Robertson School, the School of the Arts and the English Department. Okay, interesting. Because one of the things I say that sometimes gets me in trouble is that I think that there's a lot of mass communication that's very much a sub-branch of sociology. I think and I take a very strong sociological approach to my study of mass communication. I'm not supposed to say that around places that have that's why I asked about the doctorate. Places that have doctorates in MassCom they don't like me to say that it's kind of like a sub-area of sociology. I started at it honestly for pragmatic reasons. I was at Iowa State University for my masters and bachelors. And when I started working on a start work on a PhD there and the sociology was the closest thing there. When I went to Arizona State at the time, Arizona State now has a fabulous MassCom doctorate at the Cronkite School and in all honesty, if I were going there at the point where had that been available to me I would have looked into it. However, I studied with two fabulous, fabulous media sociologists Robert Snow and David Altidie at Arizona State and so I mean I studied media sociology there and was absolutely thrilled with the education that I got there. Now, would sociology have been as good for me other places? Perhaps, but I had two great media sociologists to work with so it was a good call for me. But one of the things I've noticed in journalism is that you see people with a range of degrees at a big journalism program you will typically see one or two people who have law degrees you will see one or two people who have history degrees it is possible you will see somebody with a political science degree or a sociology degree and a lot of people with calm or mass calm degrees and one of the things I like about the field is that not everybody has the same education. Vivian? Oh yes Ralph, you were talking a little bit about telling stories before well actually this week we're going to be talking about movies and television in my class can you talk a little bit about the need to have more diverse stories and diversity and television and movies can you also talk about maybe some opportunities for our students who will be future producers writers directors yes, if you can talk a little bit about that Okay, let me I'm just real quickly opening up the table of contents for the seventh edition of the textbook we made a huge push for increasing diversity within the new edition simply because and it wasn't even I don't even know if it was deliberate it was just it kept happening and so for example we open the the media effects chapter with the Me Too movement and looking at that in terms of critical theory and we open the audio chapter with Lin-Manuel Miranda and his bringing of hip hop into Broadway and into new audiences also taking a little bit of a look at Kendrick Lamar there as well and then when we get to the chapter on movies in your edition we open the book chapter with looking at Ta-Nehisi Coates and his work on the Black Panther comics comic books the Ta-Nehisi he Mr. Coates gets a one of the genius what's the name of the genius grants the MacArthur Foundation genius grants and what does he use the money for to give him time to go write comic books for Marvel and then this time around I'm opening the movie chapter with is it Ryan Coogler who did the Black Panther movie directed and wrote and and the cast of Black Panther Black Panther was a stunningly diverse movie not just from having a black writer and director and almost all black cast I don't use the term African-American because it was not necessarily an African-American cast there were a number of of black actors from literally all over the world as a part of it so I open with that movie it was also interesting because it had a particularly diverse cast in that it had a large number of women working on it much larger than typical and you know it's now the number three movie of all time in terms of absolute dollars not in terms of adjusted for inflation that will always be some older movies from higher attendance times but it's the number three movie of all time and you know part of part of it was just an incredible movie but part of it was not just that it was a movie telling an African story but it was because it was telling a different story than the story that we keep getting told again and again we keep getting told white male stories and they're great and there's nothing wrong with telling white male stories but that's pretty much all we get and so one of the reasons that I think that Black Panther was so successful is that it told us a different kind of story it told from different perspectives different goals different different things I mean you know instead of being rescued from Arab terrorists in the United States you have his ex-fiance Black Panther's ex-fiance rescuing girls from Bokeh Haram or it wasn't Bokeh Haram but it was that at the beginning of Black Panther and so again you're dealing with different stories and I think that that's one of the critical things is that we have a variety of stories a range of stories and that's part of why we're getting such excitement right now I mean if you look at Hamilton Alexander Hamilton is a fabulous figure and he was long past due for some sort of dramatic interpretation but having a Puerto Rican kid who grew up on hip-hop and went to an arts high school in Manhattan and say how do I combine my status as someone of an outsider who loves hip-hop and tell the story of an outsider and how can I create a new kind of show that wasn't even Miranda wasn't even trying to write a Broadway musical he was just trying to write a concept album and then it turned into the biggest hit on Broadway in decades really interesting because you can see the interest and appeal in diverse content in so many different forms and Wedyin wrote a Facebook post for my class Rich Crazy Asians and how that movie took off and it was perhaps not as exciting maybe as Black Panther but in its own way told a story with diverse content with a cultural angle that is usually not you know that you're not going to see in Sleepless in Seattle or whatever you know rom-com hit you might point to exactly and romantic comedies are never as financially successful as action movies are but Crazy Rich Asians was the most successful rom-com since the 90s so telling a different story with different actors different writers different characters when the movie came out my Twitter feed just absolutely exploded with people saying oh my god I never thought I would see such and such and I can't remember the details but there were all these cultural aspects that were saying oh yeah they never do that they never get that right in movies and this just nailed it and so it was one of the things that was you had a great cast you had a fun story you had you know and it's I mean my wife used to write my wife and my mother-in-law used to write romantic comedy for Harlequin and you know wrote a bunch of books for them and you know Crazy Rich Asians is cultural touchstones that make for a fabulous story and one of the things that is so neat about it is the importance of families and how these families interact and you you have this friend of hers of the woman the heroine from high from college and that she comes and stays with them and it's sort of she's outside that and you think at first that her dad sort of this buffoon but her dad is this incredibly engaged loving father who is completely involved with them and that loyalty a family there I don't know I do not like romantic I do not like comedies period because usually they make people look stupid and I hate movies where people look stupid and this was a wonderful romantic comedy where people do bad dumb things but they're not dumb people and I thought it was a tremendous tremendous movie and just boy you know if it had come out earlier I probably would have talked about that one as well um Wedyen would you like to ask another question yes actually I have a question regarding the Saudi journalist you mentioned before Jamal Khashoggi regarding this story there are many news organizations said that he was killed first later on they changed their mind that it's not he's not killed so these shifts or if I can say political ideologies frames are these related to media literacy boy this is this is a difficult um we have a story here that we know that this person has disappeared and we don't really know what has happened yet and there is there was a story that came out from a Turkish news site that had the he has been murdered tortured murdered and hauled away story which is where that story first saw I did not pass that story along on twitter because I didn't know anything about the news source I'm not saying that it was incredible it's that I don't I don't know anything about it um and I don't I know that you know most Americans in dealing with international journalism know that free speech in the Saudis don't go together well I don't know that they have had a reputation like some countries do of murdering critics Russia's got a pretty strong reputation for journalists who start being critical of them wind up dead there's been something you know a really long string of them and so I think you know if there was a media frame it was what's been happening to Russian journalists over the last 10 years that frame sort of got applied there some places have been far more cautious in how they're reporting it the Washington Post did which was they pulled something that came out of South Africa back when during the apartheid era when the newspapers were being censored in South Africa when they had stories being censored they would leave blank spaces in the paper to show that a story has been censored and eventually the South African government said that it was illegal to publish blank spaces to show that a story had been censored and the Post printed a blank space where the gentleman's column was supposed to have been he's been gone a week now I personally do not hold up much hope that he's going to show back up there were cameras all around that area that would have shown if he had come out on his own but it's a it's a difficult one and then there are frames about telling stories about how the American political administration is responding to this they've had a very very cautious response to that there have been people who have been who are very very critical of the current administration who have been quite harsh on things and there was one journalist who talked about some of the things that the Saudi journalist had done that a lot of people were saying you know if this guy's not dead now with what you've revealed you might end up but it's difficult because I don't think one of the hardest things to research for this book is Middle Eastern media and until Northwestern started doing their annual surveys about 5 years ago about 8 countries Middle East and North Africa there was nothing available there it was the hardest research I had to do was what are the media like in these countries and there was just nothing there and then Northwestern set up a cooperative project with the university in Qatar and there started to be some regular survey research being done in the area and all of a sudden there started to be a lot more detail in the 5th and 6th editions and now the 7th but before that study got started boy it was it was tough there was not much so we were a little bit over half hour and so I thought we might want to wrap it up with one more question and Vivian I'll leave that one to you if that's okay if you've got something. Yes I would love to hear Ralph can you give some tips to our students in terms of future jobs that of course in mass comm we talk about so many different angles of the media and so can you give them some tips some things to look forward to with everything that they're learning in their classes. I'm going to tell my youngest son was a sports management major but he also had two minors essentially a major in journalism and mass comm and he works in sports communication when he was an incoming freshman they were getting ready to hire a new athletic director here at University of Nebraska at Carney and as an incoming freshman he went to each of the public presentations given by the new the candidates for the athletic director and he went and I don't know if he asked questions there but he was there he introduced himself to each of the athletic directors and when he showed up to be a student here he was the sports editor of the student newspaper his first semester here he had a radio show at our student radio station for about two and a half, three years he volunteered and worked at sports information at games he even did field announcing for wrestling matches and so the thing is I'm not supposed to say this but employers don't care that much about your grades don't tell they care about what you've done and if you are not doing all the time in school you're not going to get to where you want to be yes you need to do well in school but you also need to be working at the student paper working at the radio station working at the student TV programming working for the campus PR working for sports information when there is an opportunity to do something go do it one of the most successful people I went to school with at Iowa State as a photographer by the name of John Jay Gaps the third and there was a freezing cold night it was 20 and fraternity house a big old school brick fraternity house one of the fancy ones out of animal house was on fire and he went out and shot pictures of it all that night and it turned into an ice palace you know from the firefighting and then he went out at sunrise and shot it in color this is back in the film days ask your parents and he shot it in color and he was on the front page of every newspaper in the country the next day with those photos shipped them out through the Associated Press and the day after that fire every photo editor in the country knew who John Jay Gaps the third was now did he have a great opportunity because there was this dramatic fire when it was freezing cold and there was dramatic photos yes of course but the thing that made the difference was not that there was this big fire it was 20 below at night and he went out and spent the night taking pictures and so what you have to do is that when there are opportunities you have to go out and be doing them and that's what will get you success I mean that's really really good advice for students who want to start their career regardless whether it's in mass comm or any other field to combine that practical application with what they learn in the classroom so that's great I think that should do so thank you so much for visiting with us Ralph and for writing the textbook and for updating it for the next time we teach the class so I guess the new book will be out you said before the end of the year mid-November okay cool great well thanks again and like I said we'll put this or this video automatically archives on YouTube the same link that I sent out before but I'll make sure that everybody gets it so that if you didn't catch this the first time around you'll be able to watch the entire episode and thanks again for joining us Ralph and Vivian and Wedyen so great thanks everybody all right take care if you have any questions send them to me on Twitter just Ralphie Hansen okay good good thank you all right thanks so I'm going to click the stop broadcast button the same one I could not find earlier which threw us off but thanks again everybody for especially for putting up with the technological problems no problem take care bye bye


Welcome, traders, to another tip mail chart. With me, Patrick Manley, I want to draw your attention to potential opportunities. We're looking at the dollar index on the daily timeframe. First of all, I want to draw your attention to some seasonal statistical analysis, which suggests that over the past 10 years, from the 30th of April to the 28th of May, the dollar index has registered positive returns 90% of the time. So, with that in mind, I want to see where we are from a technical perspective where we're just in testing this trend line, monthly range support, 9052. If we can hold here and put in a bullish reversal pattern, I think that sets up for a at least a three-way corrective pattern to take us back into the 92 area on the dollar index, and that will obviously feed into the euro-dollar swissie, which I'll be covering in subsequent chart hits. As always, trades plan the trade, trade the plan, manage your risk. Thanks very much.


Governor Gatwin Obaseki has rewarded a toasted medalist at the 2020 National Sports Festival in Benning City. At the reception for the athlete, Obaseki announced cash rewards of 250,000 Naira, 150,000 and 100,000 Naira for Gold Silver and bronze medal winners respectively, while also promising to reward the para-athletes. The governor was commanding the team for finishing second at the Games, urged Nigerian youths not to give up or be discouraged following several challenges in the country.


Good evening and welcome back to Byline. This is a public affairs show here at Amherst Media and it's co-sponsored and developed with the Amherst League of Women Voters. And for those of you who've been following, we've been bringing on our newly elected legislators both at the local level and at the state level so you can get to know more about them and what they're working on and what's going on. And today's guest is our newly elected state representative, Mindy Dom. Hi Stan. Welcome. Thank you very much. It's really great to have you here. Mindy, you're no stranger to the people here in Amherst having run the survival center and guided that wonderful organization through its capital campaign and building a new building and bringing on new programs and serving a lot of people in our community and surrounding communities with a series of programs and ways of helping them be more a part of their community and giving them a hand when they need it. And so we're delighted to have you here. Thank you. This is your first appearance on this show. I know you were here with me on election night. That was fun. That was different. That was, you know, you were still on pins and needles, sort of kind of, but you knew that that was going well. I had a good feeling, but it was great to be here with you that night and be able to anticipate celebrating with you. Very good. So, let's start with your committee assignments because the legislature is organized around subject matter and we have the right of free petition in Massachusetts, which very few states have, which means any resident of the Commonwealth can go to their legislator and say, please file this bill on my behalf. And you may or may not agree with the idea, but you have an obligation to file the bill. And I know you filed some bills, 16, if I remember correctly, of your own. And you co-sponsored a zillion others. Not quite a zillion, about 520. 520. Well, you'll get over that in a few years and you'll recognize how hard it's going to be to follow all those bills. But of course, those 16 are your passions. But let's start with the committees for a minute here. So you were appointed to four committees, three of them were joint committees. Yes, with the Senate. And with the Senate, which means both senators and reps are sitting in the same room. We're together. Hearing the public testimony. There's two chairs. There's two vice chairs, one from each body. Very good. And so those joint committees are? They are the Joint Committee on Higher Education, which I'm thrilled about. How can you be from Amherst and not have higher education on your agenda? Exactly. It was my number one preference. So in the House, leadership sends around a forum about a week into the term. And they say, give us your three preferences. And so I didn't know if they even look at the three preferences, but my first preference was higher education. So I am extremely excited. And you got it. I got it. And you're sitting on that committee with another neighboring legislator? Yes, with State Senator Joe Cumberford. And she's vice chair. Yeah, and she's vice chair on the Senate side. So we'll have very good representation. Plus Rep Aaron Vega from Holyoke is on that committee. So Western Massachusetts, I think is pretty well represented both from UMass Amherst perspective as well as community colleges. And what's your top priority on that committee? More public investment and higher education. And also looking at student debt, student food insecurity, the changing landscape and how that maybe should increase our commitments to public higher education, as well as strengthening the community college UMass sort of connection. But also that committee covers all of higher education as one of our five largest industries in Massachusetts. And we have some 90 or so private institutions. They're dropping like flies. We lost a few last year. And we know there's some work going over at Hampshire College, which we'll reserve that for another time because these shows are taped but broadcast later. So by the time the show is on, a lot of other stuff might have happened to Hampshire. So we'll leave that for another time. But I think that changing landscape is really an important piece to what the committee is going to have to look at. And that's the point that I wanted to make was that it isn't just public higher education and you have three colleges in your district and you are in the five college region and you have a community college, Greenfield Community College that actually does classes in North Hampton now. So you have a lot of responsibility around higher education in general. Absolutely. And in Amherst's Pelham and the first precinct of Granby, higher education is our number one economic sort of driver. So for us, it's both in it. It's a value. It's a product. And it's the economy. Okay. Next committee. The Joint Committee on Revenue. On Revenue. And it was another one that I asked for. And I didn't think I was going to get it. Why did you want it? I wanted it because, well, first of all, I'm not afraid to ask for money for important things. Well, we know that because of your work in the community. Exactly. And throughout the whole campaign, all I kept hearing about and I shared this was a sense that people want things to get done. They want funding for schools. They want funding for transportation. They want funding for infrastructure. Or they want the public transit. They want a better school. All that takes money. So we need to start looking at how we're going to raise revenue. And I'm a big supporter of raising it in a more fair, progressive way than we have in the past. So there's a bill that's been introduced that sort of takes that fair share amendment that was kicked off the ballot and puts it into law. I'm hoping that that's going to come through that committee. And we can really sort of address other ways to sort of make taxation and fees more fair in the Commonwealth to be able to fund some of these really important issues. Great. And perhaps more progressive. Absolutely more progressive. Very good. And let's see, your third committee... Is the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional License. And again, that's another joint committee. It is. House and Senate meeting together. And it is. It's not that I put down as a preference, but I am excited about it. I think that from what I've read about what the committee is, I haven't yet met with the chair, although by the time this show is put on, I will have met. It looks at credit. It looks at potential predatory lending and where credit starts to really affect low income folks in bad ways and how lots of people can be taken advantage by it about that. Student debt becomes a credit issue. So I'm really sort of interested in, are we going to address those issues? On professional licensure, we have a lot of folks in the district who rely on that, but I'm also interested in how that can be used to address shortages. So in Western Mass, we have a primary care shortage. We have a mental health shortage in terms of providers. How does our licensure help that or impede that? And we also have a lot of folks who provide a range of services sort of out of their homes and how do they get impacted by licensing? So it'll be sort of an interesting committee, I think for me. And so it wasn't anything you expected, but you're going to find ways of using the committee to benefit our region and your constituents. I think that's my job, right, is to bring the district there and to also figure out how I can do that. If it's not automatically on the agenda like higher ed, which is obvious, UMass, Amherst, the five college area will be on that agenda. If it's not obvious, how to make it a little bit more comfortable for us to address those issues. And the fourth committee, which is just the House committee, is on bonding capital expenditures and state assets. And yeah, so that's a money. That's a money committee and that's a very important committee. So bond bills, which are filed by the governor, basically is a bond bill is a capital expenditure vehicle. And so let's say it's housing or the environment or higher education of the courts or well, so many other areas where you're going to buy something that you're going to pay for over a long period of time because it's not a one-off expenditure that you buy and use like, I don't know, some gasoline or food in one year, you have to use it over many years. So you pay for it over many years. So you're going to have a direct voice in trying to advance bond bills. But you just pointed out that this is a House committee. There's also a Senate bonding committee. And do you have any insights yet into which areas the committee might be entertaining bills around? I don't know yet. I know that I think of bringing sort of well, coming from this area, there are some projects happening in the district that are going to hopefully benefit from some bonding. For example? Well, I'm thinking libraries or municipal buildings of sorts, schools. So water infrastructure. But I'm also thinking about issues like the Green New Deal that's going on in the federal level and how the Commonwealth can be sort of shovel ready for those kinds of programs and how bonding kind of addresses that. And I'm also thinking about how we can make sure that people get back to work in Massachusetts and how bonding can sort of support, if it's construction, how it can support people from Massachusetts to have some of those jobs. Yeah. You didn't mention transportation in that mix. Yes, I did. And there are projects here. And it's been a few years since it's been a transportation bond. And they're talking about an infrastructure bill in Washington, which includes transportation and also water and sewer. You didn't mention that. So getting ourselves organized and ready with the matching funds that are needed and queuing up projects so that we're ready, so we're ready to go. And how we can sort of address people's, I think, really strong interest, especially from this district in climate action with those bond bills, so even when we look at transportation bond bills. So how do we view transportation then in the next 10, 15 years? We know that we have to start investing more in it as a way to reduce fossil fuels. But then how can we even do more, right? Do we want to look at bonding for an electrified fleet? Do we want to, so it becomes more than just making sure that people can get from point A to point B, but how is that going to mean? That's very consistent with the conversations we've been having with town counselors when they come on and talk about the climate change work that they want to do in our town government. And it's the same attitude that you're now reflecting we should be doing at the state level, which is in every area, as you move your bond bills forward, what kind of policies can you embed? Exactly. That will help us address climate change, greenhouse effect, et cetera. And so there are key choices that could be made when you're making those decisions. I think so. And I'm looking forward to finding out how receptive the committee is to that. I think in the past they have been. So I'm very encouraged and excited. And for the benefit of our viewers, the bond bills typically start in a substantive committee, which is, let's say, housing or transportation. And then it moves to the bonding committee. And then the bonding committee gets their bite at the apple, which means that's where you could do the kind of work you were just describing. And then when it leaves the bonding committee, it goes to the Ways and Means Committee, because they have to decide how much we can afford to spend. And then it goes to the floor, where you get to offer amendments for projects or policies. And then it goes over to the Senate. And bond bills usually start in the house. And then they go over to the Senate. They don't have to start in the house, but they usually do. And then the Senate goes through the same process. And then eventually you reconcile the differences, and it goes to the governor's desk. And he signs it. Or he doesn't sign it. Well, actually, governors usually sign those bond bills. They may send back an amendment or two with some of the details that they disagree with. That almost always gets signed. But then the real work begins, because there's always more authorized than dollars to do. So just because you've got a streetlight or a project in there doesn't mean it's going to happen next year. The legislator then has to work with the administration to get them to fund it and actually release the money. So that's a big part of the job that you'll be. That's good. Taking on. I like taking on. I like having very clear benchmarks of when you need to advocate strongly for things. So it's good. Terrific. Now, committees, that's one way to participate in the policy development and in the decisions. But you don't get to sit on every committee. And there's some 22 or three joint committees now. We're probably up to about 25 joint committees in our legislature. And then there are the House committees and the Senate committees, which are separate. But you can't sit on all committees and you're sitting on four of them. But you want to have an impact on some other issues like, say, regional transportation or tourism or arts or whatever. And so we've got caucuses. And the caucuses are voluntary gatherings of members. They self-organize. They declare themselves to be a caucus. Nobody has to give you permission to form a caucus. And you figure out your own structure. You're going to have officers, who's going to chair it, how often you're going to change the chairs. And then you have to decide what you're going to do. You can educate. You can develop an agenda and try to push the substantive committee. So what caucuses are you looking at joining and why? So I'll be joining a couple of different caucuses. Because for me, I'm looking at it as an educational opportunity. Even if it incorporates specific advocacy around legislation, it'll give me more exposure to information as well as other elected officials who are also concerned about those issues. So number one, I'll be joining the higher ed caucus. And even though I'm on the committee, I see them as sort of companions. Not everybody who's going to be in the caucus is on the committee and vice versa. So it's a good way of also reaching more of my colleagues. I'll be joining the Regional Transit Caucus, Medicare for All Caucus, which is new. It'll be co-chaired by both Senator Cumberford as well as Representative Sabadosa from North Hampton. And that's going to be, I think, both an action-oriented, but also very much geared towards education and self-education. The Massachusetts Women's Legislators Caucus, which will deal with about two or three specific issues. Trying to think what else. And the Progressive Caucus. And the Progressive Caucus, from what I've seen so far, has been very effective in utilizing our best resource, which is our staff people, to really sort of brief members on the legislation that's coming up that other members have introduced. What it consists of, what it doesn't, and what we can do to support it. Terrific. So as a constituent, I want to ask you to look at the Arts Caucus. That'll be on my agenda. I did ask for that committee, but I didn't get it. Well, hopefully you'll be able to join the Arts Caucus and lend your voice. And interestingly, as I was getting to know our town councilors, four or five of them actually have some background in the arts, dancer, painting, just various art forms. And so that you'd be able to team up with them and think about how. Well, you know, Emmerst is remarkable. We have about five or six museums, galleries, lots of folks who do work in their homes or bring it out. And for me, I look at it as it's not only an asset and a value here, it's also a way for economic development. So put that next to the transportation and it's a nice little niche. I'm also joining one other caucus, which is new, which is a food systems caucus, which looks at both food insecurity as well as food production. So it's the way to bring farms and hunger activists together. And I'm really looking forward to that as well. Great. Well, let's take a few minutes and talk about some of those 16 bills that you filed. Obviously, they're like your children now and it's going to be hard to choose one or two or three of them to push. But tell us which ones you particularly want your constituents to know that you're working on and why are you focusing on those among others? Well, the first bill that I want folks to know about is to establish a diaper benefit program in Massachusetts. And I'm working with two other elected officials on it, Representative Pignatelli from the Berkshires and Senator Loveley. And so it's been introduced in both houses, the House and the Senate. And it would essentially establish a pilot program that would fund organizations to buy, store, and distribute children's diapers to low-income families across the state. And initially, it would set up 12 of these programs. And then hopefully from there, with evaluation, it would grow. And this comes directly from my experience at the Amherst Survival Center. Diaper insufficiency is something that many people experience. One out of every three families doesn't have enough resources to adequately diaper their baby. You can't use snap or wick to buy diapers, and they're expensive. You can go to the store, and if you're going to buy a big box, it's going to cost you about $30, $40, and kids wear them, and they go through them. And the consequences, when you don't have enough diapers, not only are there health consequences for the baby because parents may resort to reusing diapers, washing diapers by hand to try to do it, and so there's rashes and other kinds of things. It also isolates the adult. They're embarrassed that they don't have enough diapers, so they don't go out of their house.  So this is an issue that I saw families coming to the center who really needed diapers, who really were grateful and appreciative that the community supplied them with diapers because as a community, we responded. We had a diaper drive, and we provided those diapers. And it's time for the Commonwealth to step into that also and help not only those babies but their families and their parents. So that bill, I'm hoping, and that bill also gives me an opportunity to learn about not only what it means to introduce a bill to set up a program, but then hopefully get it funded in the same year, right? Because it's one thing to set up a pilot, it's another thing to get ways and means to say the same thing. Are diapers taxed? They're not, no. Okay, that's good to know. And in this session, there's a whole range of bills that deal with personal care items, which is just interesting. So we have a children's diaper bill, but there are other bills that have been introduced that I'm a co-sponsor of that also deal with feminine hygiene products in shelters, jails, and schools. And so it's really wonderful to see this awareness on the part of elected officials that personal care items can be very burdensome economically for folks and that we have to sort of step in and help them. So that's one bill I'm very, very happy and proud and looking forward to supporting and ushering in the room. Another bill that came from constituents is the effort to make sure that all state forms of documentation and applications are able to have a non-binary, non-gender marker. So for transgender folks or non-binary folks who feel that male and female do not address how they see themselves, there's an opportunity for them to indicate who they are on a state document. So that means when you register to vote, you see yourself on that form. Or when you go get a driver's license, you have the opportunity to mark X, not male or female. And is that your bill? Yes. And in the house, there's also, there's other bills in the house, there's another bill in the house that deals just with driver's licenses. I wanted to deal with all, not just pick one at a time. And in the Senate side, Senator Cumberford has her own bill also that deals with it. For me- Is hers general or? It's overall. It's overreaching too. Overarching. Overarching. Hopefully not overreaching. We don't want to overreach. We want to overarch. But you know, we just came off of a referendum that reaffirmed people in Massachusetts feeling that we stand by transgender folks and we support them and we want them to be visible. We want them to have access to public accommodations, bathrooms, whatnot. What could be more of a public accommodation than registering to vote? So we need to make sure that they see themselves there too. A third bill? A third bill is also regarding bathrooms actually, but it comes, the reason why I want to cite it is because it comes from constituents. Before I was elected, I was approached by students at UMass because UMass was going in for a variance to be able to make one of their gendered bathrooms a non-gendered bathroom in their dorms. And UMass supports it, but according to the building code in Massachusetts, you're not allowed to do that in a public building. And so they had to go in for a variance. So I supported it and they got their variance, but it also raised the issue of why do we need to do this every year? This needed a legislative fix. So the other legislative fix was to amend the building code so that public buildings could have non-gendered bathrooms and wouldn't necessarily need to get a variance to be able to do that. Very good. But that touches on higher ed, but do you have an omnibus type of policy bill around higher education? I don't, but I'm a cosponsor of one. So I didn't author it, but there's one called, the anachronym is cherished. And it's really about recommitting ourselves to adequate funding for public higher education. Senator Cumberford is actually the author on the Senate side. I believe I could be wrong about this, but I think Representative Paul Mark is one of the authors on the House side and I'm a cosponsor of that bill. And hopefully that will come before the committee on higher ed and we'll be able to not only support it, but flesh it out like with all the background and the documentation about why it's needed, really dive deep into the rationale for it so that it can move forward.  You get to set some patterns for yourself and transparency and civic engagement. Our two priorities in this community, people are very engaged. How do people get to be working with you? What kinds of mechanisms are you going to use to communicate with your constituents to keep them informed, to engage them, to hear them? So give us a little thumbnail about how you're going to approach all of that. So far, and I look, this will be moving forward, I've scheduled office hours in each of the towns that I represent at least monthly. So Palem has monthly two-hour office hours. Amherst has a little bit more because one of them is at the senior center and one of them is at the library and I really want to sort of do them at different times as well, as well as in Granby. So that's one thing, is that office hours and I can talk about how I publicize them in a moment. During the campaign I also did coffee hours and I'm continuing to do those and that's if you're going to get coffee between eight and nine and somewhere in Amherst or Granby, you're probably going to see me if you're in my district at one point over the next couple months. We have a specific schedule though that we make available through social media as well as an electronic newsletter that I send out every month. So those are additional ways. I try to be not prolific on social media but informative on social media. It ends up being sort of a daily practice on my end but I'm on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. They're all at M-I-N-D-Y-F-O-R-M-A so that's the handle for all of them. You don't have to be on them to be able to access my page so you can go facebook.com slash Mindy4MA and pull it up. There's an events page on that that will always list office hours, coffee hours. The other thing that we've just started to do which I'm thrilled with is that the other elected officials representing the Valley get together once a month for what we call legislative listening sessions. And there are Friday afternoons from one to four groups can sign up and it's an opportunity for advocacy organizations that want to kind of advocate all of us at the same time to do that. And it's a great opportunity for all of us to hear the information all at the same time to see each other at least monthly and to debrief some of the issues that have come up. And it's going to move around. It's going to move around from district to district. And is it all Franklin, Hampshire, Hamden? Yeah, it's not Hamden. It's all within Center Cumberford's district. So last time was in Sunderland which was Rep. Blay's district, Rep. Natalie Blay at the Sunderland Library. This coming month in March it will be in Amherst at the Jones Library. In April, I think it will be at South Hadley and May, I think it's in North Hampton or Williamsburg. And you have to sign up in order to have a slot. Right. And there's three slots. So you can't just show up. You can't just show up. But here's the interesting thing that happened in Sunderland. So we just we expected that the people who signed up would be the people that showed up and they did. But so did members of the public. They wanted to see what our people are asking us to do. We had no idea that the public would be interested in listening. So we set out chairs and sure enough, there were like 12 people who came to listen. Just to observe and see what was going on. Right. So moving forward, we didn't tell organizations that. But moving forward, we're going to tell people be prepared. The public is watching and it's OK with us. So if it's not OK with you, you may want to schedule another time. It's a terrific idea. Yeah. So that worked out. I think that was an exciting exercise in real transparency right there. Terrific. Well, I'm hoping that we'll have you on periodically. Of course. And we'd be great if you were here three or four times across the year. I'd love to do that. And believe it or not, we're out of time. And so I just want to thank you very much. Thank you, Stan. For stepping forward to do an important job for us. And we're looking forward to seeing really great things happen. Thank you. Under your leadership. Thank you very much. Thank you all very much for joining us. And you can see the show rebroadcast on Monday evening just before town council meeting. If there is one on that particular Monday, it's broadcast 6 p.m. on Monday. And the show will also have been seen at 8 p.m. on Friday evening. And you can watch us also online through the website, YouTube. So there are many different ways that you can keep in touch with what we're doing here on the show. Thank you again for joining us.


How are you guys doing? I'm fine. It's finished. It's finished. We're done. Yay. We made it. We survived. Oh, yeah. I don't have a Finney cam, but there's your Finney. How are you, buddy? He's puckered out by all the connecting. He's puckered out. Yeah. He worked hard. He did 30 profiles this week. I'm not going to move the camera, but Molly's right here too. Okay. She's asleep. I don't know where my dogs are. They're off begging for breakfast, probably. So Greg was just talking about how his CC7 number had jumped. So if yours also jumped, tell us. Chris. You made a point. I'm not going to move the camera, but Molly's right here too. Okay. He's asleep. I don't know where my dogs are. Chris. You made progress there. Mind it. Approximately for that many profiles that I entered. Yeah. And that's a funny thing. That's what I would have expected too. I do remember when I was adding one French Canadian family that I connected to something that already existed. So I got a bonus bump of 10. So I was basically 10 more. But when I just checked it now, I finished with 30 profiles, but my CC7 increase was 120, 121. So somewhere in the middle of the night, someone helped me out. Yeah. Yeah. I was working on my boyfriend's tree and he started at 38. And we noticed that somebody else who was not registered for Connect-a-thon was doing things on Saturday, I think Friday, Saturday. And so it was jumping. But I still, I had this goal in my mind of 100. And I said to him halfway through the week and I said, I'm going to have to teach you how to add profiles. So we, and then he went into a line that was, that was richly connected. We got him to 162. Wow. Wow. That's amazing. I know. That's crazy. Mine went up by nine. Hey, one, you need to report yours. Mine went up exactly how many profiles I entered this weekend. I think I know how many that is. Oh, I'm seeing two 72. Yeah. Yeah. And there was a 400 KT did 400 and some. Yeah. That was 55. That's good. Yeah. I had some increases. Yeah. Yeah. I was connecting someone that was unconnected and then they connected into my tree, like the CC4 level. So I was like, oh, that's enough. I wasn't expecting that. Nice. Nice. Did you connect them to your tree or did someone else connect them to your tree? I was working from an unconnected group. Wow. Okay. Yeah. So it's like creating profiles in it. Yeah. So you hadn't intended, you didn't realize when you started that they were going to be connected to you. Well, I was planning to get them connected. Didn't intend to connect them to me. Yeah. That's great. My CC7. Yeah. I'm just looking at the numbers.  We also have team others. So all other wiki tree years that didn't participate in the phone. And they ended up 27,000 profiles. Is that 1,000 or 2,700? 27,000. Wow. Is that on the, on the, um, the score sheet as well? Team other? It's excluded, but I have the data here in my tables. Uh, well, that's what usually the, uh, uh, at the rate it is on wiki tree. Usually we had approximately 50, 60,000 profiles each week. So that's consistent with that. Oh, good job team others. Yeah. 27,000. That's great. We signed up for the connectathon and we probably went over a hundred thousand. Oh, absolutely. Uh-huh. We were so close. We're so cool. Oh, my goodness. Oh, we're getting closer to 99,000. Mm-hmm. Well, it's over. So whatever's there. Well, I hadn't refreshed so people say it's over. Just three of others, if they would join, we would have additional 1000 profiles. So if you see a change in your CC7 that you were directly or you can go to the CC7 changes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. And see what's been added. Yes. That's a great good. Now throughout, some people have been asking about the watch list and all these profiles we have added automatically become the profile manager of these new ones, right? Right. Right. So there's sort of two schools of thought I've heard. One is just to drop them right away. So to go through today and remove them. And the other school of thought is to wait for a week so that you get the suggestions list so we can tidy them up before dropping them. Yeah. Suggestions on what is the best way to do it. Well, I was asked about this also in the previous hangout and I wasn't able to find the answer to how I did as I promised. So here, Wicked3Plus has one option to search for profile list that I prepare usually during the tons or so. But it will be actually available next week because the profiles were added after the time. But because I demonstrate on the last one, we will connect the first one. And you just enter this, I did include this in the examples here. So here we have a possibility to search for profiles list and here is exactly what you have to search for. Now we can search for last years for the previous connected one. So we found there was 92,000 profiles that do exist there and you can then combine this with your own profiles. So on previous tons it seems I created 39 profiles. And the question actually was which last name at birth was added the most. So you can then go to group by field last name at birth and on the previous tons I added 20 profiles with last name Dimnik, nine with Moditz and so on. Or we can try that also on a complete profile list. So for the complete fun group by last name at birth show this will be a bit longer. So Smith, there were last year, Smith was the most added last name with 560 profiles and so on. So the magic word there is profile list. Yeah, it is documented on the help page. Okay, cool. But it will be available next Tuesday. Next Tuesday. In three days? Not tomorrow. Week after tomorrow. Got it. Yeah. Don't forget that we have a challenge going on right now, the wiki tree, the dash of wiki tree love challenge. So if you feel inspired to pick one of those profiles that you added this weekend and really make it over and dress it up and give it photos and stickers and so that's what I'm going to do. Go for it. Nice. There's a link in the chat. Yes. I can also add the link to the chat if someone wants to click it. Yeah, someone asked for that. The wiki tree plus. But with the preset for... Oh, with the preset. Nice. Profile list. Oh, that would be great. Yeah. It's tiny. I can't read it from here. Yeah. And Darren, the work that we've done on the connect-a-thon, that counts for the 16 for 16? Yeah, so 16 for 16. Yeah. It doesn't... It was one of the missions, yes. So we've got it. So is it just competing, or do you have to have done a certain number to get your point through? Well, the aim was to cry and get 160, but not everybody will. We'll do that. Like a certain people. So if you combine it with next connect-a-thon, that's fine. And I can claim it from next connect-a-thon. So the 16 for 16 is 16 different Russians, colours wiki tree 16, and it's all sorts of different things like sourcing, connecting, cemeteries, social media. I don't have the link on me at the moment, but... I got it. Yeah. There it is. Thanks Betsy. Sure. Yeah. Thank you very much. Betsy got an update whose connect joined in, but we've got over 70 people already doing it so far. Thanks. Okay. Well, so talk about who won. Yeah, the scores are final, so Greg can do the stats. Oh, Greg, you're muted. Greg, you're muted. I was starting to type something, and then I was... I muted myself so you didn't hear my typing, and then, of course, I forgot. And then when I went to mute, then I lost the banner, so, oh, well. So what kind of stats would you like? Do we want to start with the person who got the closest, or do we want to end with that? Let's end with that. End with that. And then I'll do the total. Okay. So let me just refresh one more time just to... Yep, that's the final number. It won't grow anymore. It's not going to grow anymore. No. There we go. Okay. So here is... Let me zoom in. There we go. So he has the final number, 98,937. Oh, we were close. We were really close to the 99,000. We were close. But that's a lovely number. You might wonder, is that a prime number? Well, it turns out it's not a prime number. But there's some other cool things. It is divisible by three and nine, and then two other really large numbers. So nine times 10,993, or three times 32,979, which itself is kind of a cool number. So it's a cool number, not a prime number, but a multiple of three and nine. So it's still, you know, it's pretty cool. And that's a boatload of profiles. Now, is that officially our largest, Thon? I... For Konex, I think it was the biggest one. Have we ever gone over 100,001? I don't think so. Maybe on the last source at Thon, I'm not sure. I have to check. For me, I don't remember going over. I know we've come close, but I don't remember. Yeah, I think we'd make a big deal out of that. Yeah, we would have made a really big deal. But we're really, really close. So close. In terms of the top... No, it seems it's the biggest one. Last source at Thon was 99,000. 77, sorry. Cool. Okay. Looking at the top 10 people, Eric Bain from the Globe Trotters had 1,088. Actually, let's start at number 12, because look at that. First of all, the top 12 people all go to over 1,000 each. And number 12 is a lovely palindrome there. 1,001. So I applaud you. Let's see, that is... Let me just go across. I think that's Mark. Let me just double check. Yes, Mark Leven from the Appalachia Roots for getting sort of a lovely number. And then the number right above is Sandy Paddock also from Appalachia Roots. 1,011, a really nice binary looking number. But it's not binary, because if it was written in binary, then that would be the number 11, and that's not nearly as exciting. Except it's a palindrome. 11 is a palindrome. And if you would write it as a binary again, then you would get 2. Actually, 3. 3, yeah. The next... Let's see, what do they just do there? Then the next one, that 10, Eric Bain, 1,088. So 1,000 plus the number of keys in the keyboard. That's very cool. The Globetrotters. And then again, with the Appalachia Roots, John Powers with 1,139. Emma Macbeth, captain of the Team Roses, 1,183. Very good there. Margaret Tole from Appalachia Roots, 1,325. Really nice. And the next one's also multiple of 25. 100 more is Leon M. Bezuikenhoet from the South African Spring Box. They were a powerhouse this time. Danita from Team Italy, 1,459 in fifth place. Fourth place for the Legacy Airs was Ben Kelch with 1,502. And then 220 more was in third position, John Graham from Appalachia Roots. And, oh, look at that. First and second position. Just one profile. One profile. They're both sleeping, it seems, because I'm changed. What's that? Yeah. They must have both... They're exhausted. They must have been exhausted from this weekend. I'm from Kay Antwistle at 1,810 and Patty Laplante from Appalachia Roots, 1,811. Wow. Very impressive. But all throughout the weekend, when we were doing stats, and often when I was doing stats, I was often reading numbers from the lower sort of the bottom of the list or the first ones or whatever because every single profile that people added counted I don't know what other people did in the other stats segments, but I usually didn't talk about the top leaders, but I think now is an appropriate time to mention them. And in terms of the teams overall, the Appalachia Roots were just crazy. They're like in another galaxy. They're in another galaxy. We need division, not division 1, 2, they need division 0 or something. And then the rest. Division Biscuits. Division Biscuits. Division Biscuits. I like that. 16,795. That's just insane. Mighty Oaks 8,144. Legacy airs of course 5,414. Germany Genies 5,331. And the Northwest Terriers at 4,322. The top 5 overall. If we look by the divisions. All of those were all division 1 teams. Or division 3. Division 3 in Ohio. In the sec. No, in the sec. I just realized that no, the tree nuts is the fifth position in division 3 with 3,000 foreigners. Germany Genies, which made it in the top 5 overall, it was the leader of division 2. Right. And then also the leading in division 2 splendid spruces with 4,209. Kiwi crew with 3808. Wizards of Oz with 2844. And the team I was playing for this time. Team Italy. 2,717. 2,000. And then division 1. The smaller teams. The Globetrotters were trotting quite a bit. Because they got 3,029. That was a lot of trotting. And the South African Spring Box was a rather small in terms of numbers, but they had power houses. Because look at their normalized score. 353. So that tells you how well they did per person. The Flying Dutchman came in third with 1434. Team Heim with 754. And Little Team on the Prairie with 674. But again, kudos to everyone that all over for doing such amazing jobs. Yeah, really great job. It's very cool. Somebody asked how many we did last year. And it was like 95,000 something and some change. That's a nice job then. And then someone asked about the first connectathon. So when I do the summary for GDG, I think I'll go back and try to find the totals for each year. Oh, nice. That would be interesting to see. What year was our first connectathon? I can't remember. Well, we can check. 20? I'm going to put that in the hard question as well. You just read this part and you will get. So 2019 was the first one. Oh, okay. And on the first one we did 60,000 profiles. And then everybody figured out how to get fast. Now for the first place in the users section, I did check the histogram of Patty and Ellen. As you can see, Patty went to sleep earlier. So Ellen was doing the profiles and he stopped one from the first one. I'm not sure if she went over to the first one. Did you do that for gracious? I think they both deserve the first prize. Yeah. That was very like he did that on purpose. You got it. Most likely he did some purpose. That was very sweet. That was very kind of him to not overtake her when she was sleeping and defend herself. Or maybe he wasn't he didn't want to be the first That's right. Maybe he didn't want to be in the spotlight in the spotlight and here we are putting him in the spotlight. Right. Come on, 1,800 profiles in three days. That's great. It makes my eyes think about that. Wow. I did put the link to the stats in case you in the chat there so you could grab that. And the user histograms those are just so cool to look through. I'm not going to debris through them but it is neat to see people do eventually sleep. Some people do. But some like there are some that don't sleep a lot very often. And then the histogram is the one that you increases like how they go up and it's kind of cool. So you probably want to find your own and see how that looks. So you just control or command the search. So there's mine. So I had a couple little ones and then I jumped. That's where I connected to a family. And then all of a sudden boom something happened yesterday or in the middle of the night. Someone did something that just jumped it. So that's kind of cool. Yeah. So guess the closest one you're all wondering. I can tell you it was let me see. It is Bonnie Day from the Northwest Terrorist. Bonnie Day Good job Bonnie. Good guessing. Yeah. What did she guess? Her guess was let me hide that. Sorry about that. Bonnie where she was only 63 off she guessed 99,000 even. There we go. Good job. Yeah. So that was very impressive. Way to go Bonnie. Yeah. Nice. So I am back to here. And there we have there we have our stats. Congratulations Bonnie. Ewan does she get a prize? She gets a sticker. She gets a sticker. Hey there are some cool stickers. There are cool stickers yes. Bragging rights. Bragging rights. Yes. Good stuff. Well really good job everybody. Mm-hmm. We're all tired can you tell? Yeah. We're all just like this is awesome. So great. Sophia is coming in half an hour so I have to find some energy somewhere. No. Extra coffee. But just having her round will give me energies. Yeah. For sure. She's a little younger. Does she still nap? Yes she does. Yes. And during lunch we get her ready for nap and who's going to go to sleep and so she goes through Sophia goes to nap and Grandpa Greg goes to nap and Nona goes to nap and this crew we all nap and she does. Smart. It's smart. All right. Well the next big thing is the first tech and then the April Connectathon would be the next big thing after that. So get some rest. Get some rest. Yes. Have some vitamin C. Have some vitamin C. Get your veggies. Maybe go out and see some sun if there's any sun. Get some sunlight. Yeah. If only. Unfortunately I don't have any sunlight at the moment. It's completely black. I mean. It's Tuesday morning 2 a.m. Oh my goodness. Thanks for joining us Darren. Yeah. We appreciate it. Thank you to everyone that hosted. You guys all did a really great job and everybody that helped behind the scenes. Greg for your stats. Lesh for your stats. Yes. All right. Anyone else want to say anything else before we go? Just thank you. Thank you everybody. I agree. Yeah. It was a lot of fun. We can choose who's the best. What can we say? They are. I don't just agree. Bye guys. Bye. Happy Monday. Happy Monday. Or Tuesday for Darren. Bye.


So, Rachel Cunliffe and Aaron Bustani here with me to go through some of those front pages. And Rachel, the vast majority of them going with the big day for the Labour Party today, a highly critical report, first of all, into Labour's handling of anti-Semitism complaints and then the Labour leader suspending his predecessor over his reaction to that report.  Yes, while I'd much rather talk about Basil Brush, most of the headlines are leading on Corbyn and the report into anti-Semitism in Labour by the Equality and Human Rights Commission that was published today. And some pretty damning findings from them, they actually found that the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn broke the law, acted unlawfully in its harassment and allegation in its complaints process. And that should have been the main story today. But instead, the main story is actually the response of the former leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who was given the chance to comment on this report that he knew was coming. And instead of apologising, instead of saying that he regretted what he had found and that he hoped Labour could accept the recommendations and move on, he said that he didn't accept all the findings and in fact they had been dramatically overstated basically by his political opponents. So refusing there to take responsibility, he left Sikir Starmer pretty much no choice in suspending him, given that Starmer was saying pretty much at the exact same time that anyone who claimed that the problem of anti-Semitism within Labour was exaggerated was themselves part of the problem. So this report, which I guess we would have hoped to drawn the line under anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, seems to have just sparked the next chapter of it. Well, yes, and it is an extraordinary moment, isn't it, Aaron, for a Labour leader to sack his predecessor from the party. But do you think he had a choice? Well, it's certainly unprecedented. I mean, this has not happened before as far as I'm aware. I just want to correct you on something very quickly. Jeremy Corbyn in his Facebook status very, very clearly said he welcomed all of the recommendations in the report. He said that in black and white. So that's not entirely accurate what Rachel just said. And also the report furthermore said the significant findings. He said he didn't accept the findings. No, no, Rachel, Rachel, please, no, I didn't interrupt you. I didn't interrupt you. You said he didn't accept the recommendations going forward. I'm telling you, if you go on to his Facebook page, if the people watching this go there, that's not true. In terms of Rachel, what you said in terms of the biggest story, I agree with that entirely. I think it's been an overshadowed. It shouldn't have been. I think the EHRC documents are brilliant document. I'm very grateful to live in a country where there's an official, you know, national organisation that can come up with these reports. I think it was very positive. But rather than opportunity for hundreds of thousands of people to learn and as you've said, Rachel, for the Labour Party to move forward, the story instead is Jeremy Corbyn being suspended by his successor. But just to pick up on what he said in reaction to the report that Rachel mentioned, he said that the scale of the problem was dramatically overstated for political reasons. I mean, the EHRC explicitly in the report talks about people's freedom of speech to defend their own actions. And he's not denying they exist. He said anti-Semitism exists in the Labour Party. He said it shouldn't be welcome in the Labour Party. And he said, I accept all the recommendations going forward. I can only repeat, people should go to his Facebook page to see for themselves. Now, I don't think what he said was particularly strategic, or I wouldn't have said it. But is that sufficient grounds to suspend somebody from the Labour Party? Well, we'll have to find out. When asked what rules he'd actually broken, the party general secretary, David Evans, wouldn't give them to the party's NEC, who were meant to be consulted in advance of anything like this, regardless. The question then has to be asked, do you trust people like David Evans or Kirste Dahmer to administer the British state when they can't even run a party properly by its own rules? One of the key findings today was that there shouldn't be political interference by party leaderships. And we saw that literally happen within minutes. And so I think it asks questions about the capacity of these people to run a large organisation. If they can't do that, can they really run the British state, the sixth largest economy in the world? I don't think so. Rachel. I don't think Aaron was quite that passionate about the competence of the people running the Labour Party complaints process when Jeremy Corbyn was in charge. And one of the things that the report says, one of the findings that I imagine is what Jeremy Corbyn was referring to when he said he did not accept all the findings, was that the leaders office had interfered on just 23 occasions of the just 70 complaints that they looked at. The leaders office had interfered inappropriately in order to disrupt the complaints process. And the report also says that the failure of Labour to tackle anti-semitism was not down to ability, but down to a lack of willingness to do so again from the leaders office. Now, the reason that I think that Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour have given for, I'm not sure they've given it, but others in the Labour Party have suggested is for bringing the party into disrepute. And to look at a report that has come out today that specifically says there were issues with the leaders office and the way these reports were handled from the top to say, I don't accept the findings. And by the way, I think they were politically motivated. That is bringing the party into disrepute. He didn't say that. He says, I did not expect all the findings. That's the second thing you've said, which wasn't accurate. For political reasons. That is what he said. No, no. First of all, we started the beginning of this program. What's happened here? And this is barely being mentioned. Two agents of the Labour Party have been found to have broken the lot too. One of who is Ken Livingston. And you're absolutely right, Rachel. Jeremy Corbyn interfered in the process there to get the guy thrown out. And he shouldn't have. And you may remember Tom Watson at the peak for the stuff saying, I want the cases on my desk thirsting Monday morning. That was precisely the problem. The media was saying, Jeremy Corbyn has to get a handle on this, has to get involved. And now we're being told actually that was part of the problem. Now, I think Labour made catastrophic failings over a number of years. I think the complaints process wasn't up to scratch. I think actually the Labour Party generally as an organization hasn't been fit for purpose for probably the best part of 15 years in a number of ways. It's part of the reason why it keeps on losing general elections. But look, the general secretary, the leader of the party has to give the reason for why the guy's been suspended. And they haven't done that. And so, you know, we have to talk about basic elementary questions of due process, principles of natural law, equality under the law. And that doesn't seem to be what's driving this. And so the only conclusion can be they're not that serious about this. This is still being treated as a political football and public relations rather than what it is a hugely important political question. I'm going to get through some more of the front pages. Rachel, the Guardian next, Labour plunged into crisis after Corbyn suspended. He has had John MacDonald come out to condemn his suspension, Len McCluskey as well. I mean, how much is this a crisis for Labour now? How much division is there going to be as a result of today? I think there's certainly going to be a high degree of division. I think that was inevitable because, unfortunately, if you inherit a party that has such a toxic attitude to anti-Semitism as Kirstam did, you are either going to end up upsetting and alienating the people who allowed that culture to flourish, the anti-Semites within it and those who supported them, or you are going to continue to alienate the Jewish community and indeed anyone who believes who can see that Labour's attitude to anti-Semitism over the past few years has been abhorrent. You have to pick a side, unfortunately. You can't please everyone. Now, we're talking about a civil war now, as though a civil war hasn't been going on within Labour for the past four years. There were a lot of people who are suddenly very concerned about a unified party. They'd be unified to be electable, a divided party doesn't win elections. These people were not really the ones trying to unify the party when Jeremy Corbyn was leader and when so many Jewish Labour members, so many people who support Labour's left-wing values but couldn't handle the levels of anti-Semitism within the party, were raising concerns, they weren't really worried about unifying it then and about bringing those voices within. So it seems that they're a lot more worried about alienating supporters of Jeremy Corbyn than they ever were about alienating Jews. I'm going to rattle through a couple more of the front pages, Aaron. The Daily Mail says RIP Corbyn's legacy of hate. The Jewish Telegraph saying anti-racist to his court. Perhaps some of those front pages, as you would predict, they would go. But to go back to Keir Starmer's actions, Aaron, did he not need to take a tough line in order to show the party was taking on board some of the lessons of the report, which was damning, which I'm sure you will agree was pretty tough, wasn't it? And he has to make the party one that Jewish people feel safe in. Well I think actually Keir Starmer did the precise opposite, because his actions today have undermined the primary story which should have been this report. It's undermined a historic opportunity for thousands of people to learn about anti-Semitism, which is clearly an issue. It's an issue also in the Labour Party in the left as well as society more generally, but it's clearly in the Labour Party. And that opportunity was missed, frankly. It's been overshadowed, it's been undermined. And as I've already said, one of the principal recommendations within the report is that any complaints process is independent of the Labour Party leader and the General Secretary's office. And we've had literally the same day the General Secretary's office suspended Labour Party, former Labour Party leader. And so I'm not quite sure really, I think in many ways it just makes a mockery of the whole report. I thought the report was very sober, highly analytical, very rigorous, and rather than actually stick to that which is what we should be doing, we've returned to some partisan hysteria, which actually, frankly, the people that suffer the most from that is Britain's Jewish community. It's a huge tragedy that this opportunity has not been taken for introspection within the Labour Party, but of course in our society more broadly. Okay, I'm sure this is a subject that we will return to in the next hour, but for now we're going to take a pause.