Hello, everyone. Welcome to the session on parallel databases. Now, in this session, we will see what exactly parallel databases means, how it works, what is architecture. Now, talking about the learning outcomes of this session, at the end of this session, you will be able to describe or illustrate the need of parallel database and what is the aim of its database. And you can illustrate the different parallel database architectures, how it is using, what kind of architect machine architecture it is using. Now, let us start with the basic goal of this database management system. What exactly database management system is doing? It is providing the way to store and retrieve the information. Any kind of information we can store or we can retrieve through this one. And the important part is it is using very convenient and efficient way for it. Talking about the management of data, what exactly means management of data? It means that it is defining some structure, fixed structure for the storage of a particular information. And it is providing various mechanisms for manipulating that information like how you are selecting, how you are updating, modifying, deleting, reading, writing or all these one we can say as the data manipulation things. And the database management system is providing a effective mechanism for this one. Let us start with an introduction that what exactly, why the importance of database is there and why we are going for this parallel database, starting with the database thing that we know that the databases are growing increasingly nowadays, everywhere, everything whatever you are doing that will be considered as an information and that is stored in some database. You can see now on any click of the internet, any message what you are sending or any mail you are sending everything in even if you are going for e-commerce or if you are buying anything online, everything whatever the transactions you are doing that will be considered as part of a data and that data is stored somewhere as a database. So it is increasingly it is growing very high nowadays. Now we know that so based on that the data what is generating that is in a very high volume and it is collected and stored for many of the analysis means everything whatever you are doing online that will be taken as a data and that is analyzed for the future development for how the customers are interacting, what is the interest in the customer and many of that thing. So that is also one of the major reason where the database is growing increasingly and now we know that database is not exactly only data as a format, it is having images, videos, audio, video everything will be considered as a data and that is effectively handling. So multimedia objects like images are also increased and stored in a database. You can see we people are using many social media sites for uploading our images, our pictures, we are doing that as our memory using that social media. So that is also one of the major use of the database where we are using. Now what is the need of the parallelism in this case? We know that as the large number of volume of data is there many manipulations are there, the storage is there, retrieving is there. So it is required that we have to improve the speed of the execution, the speed of storing, retrieving, everything. So for that we are taking the help of the parallel machines. What exactly parallel machines are? Parallel machines are quite common and nowadays even your smartphone, your systems, your laptops, everything is increasing in the form of the parallelization. We are talking about earlier it has started as a single core, now it is multi-core, your mobile phones are also having many cores in that one. So those are very common nowadays and the prices of these like microprocessors, memory disk, whatever the peripheral devices we are using, electronic devices we are using, those are dropping sharply. So the recent desktop computers they are having many multiple processors, many multi-cores and this is accelerating day by day. Now the basic goal of parallelism is what as I told earlier also that large scale parallel database systems are increasingly used nowadays. So for many reasons one of the thing is what we are storing that for large volume of data. We are processing that most of the volume of data for decision support system where most of the decisions are taken by the organizations. So these decision support systems are having very time consuming. And the basic thing is why we are using this parallel databases. It is providing high throughput for the transaction processing because as most of the transactions are there, many of the transactions are at a time working means we have to get a proper throughput based on that. That is what the goal of the parallelism is. So this all thing totally where it is moving is it is moving towards the performance improvement. So most of the system when large volume of data we are manipulating many operations we are working on that one it may get more time for it. So to reduce this time to improve the performance of that one in the form of time we are using the parallel systems. So that is what the goal of the parallelism is. So talking about the parallelism in databases here what we are doing the most of the data the large volume of the data is we are accessing through the parallelism in that one. And how it is there it is partitioned across the multiple discs and using the parallel IO that is parallel input and output where at a time we can read and write multiple discs. So automatically the work is pallorized here. So you can see the scenario here. Here I have taken a very small database example here relation here which is having some data in that one but we are talking about in a large volume of data. So if the data is very high large volume in this one so that particular relation can be partitioned in many discs. So what we can do is at a time different processors can read this discs. So that is what we call it as a parallelism in database. So talking about the relational operations like whatever the operations we are doing on that one database manipulation operations like sorting is there join is there aggregations are there these are requiring more time usually for the execution. So these can be utilized using the parallel techniques. So most of the process parallel processors are there the parallel discs are reading them. So it is working on a parallel thing. So consider this scenario here what we are doing a single query is there for sorting but this sorting it is doing in parallel. So where the sorting of A to G we are taking some example of sorting in ascending order. So according to these one it is parallel sorting the thing. So at a time it is sorting like this and finally it is adding it we will see these one in detail later. Now data is partitioned in various discs as I told earlier and every processor is assigned to it you can see here that this large volume of data is partitioned in different discs and every disc is having its own processor. So what at a time three processors that is processor P1, P2 and P3 are accessing simultaneously disc D1, D2 and D3. So automatically the work is distributed and the work is in parallel simultaneously every processor is working there. So speed is increasing here. Now queries are expressed in high level languages and every SQL query is translated in relational algebra for the parallelized system and different queries can be run in parallel with each other at a time. So sorting might be there joining is operation is there selection is there many of the things whatever those can be working in parallel system and talking about the concurrency control concurrency control is taken care of conflicts and all that one by the database management system. So databases are naturally lend themselves to parallelism automatically. Now the parallel database architecture you can see this architecture here what exactly is there that most of the nodes are here and these nodes are using these these are shared. So this is what the database parallel database architecture is the disk might be shared the memory shared the processors are shared whatever it is. So what we can see is machines are physically close to each other you can see here the nodes are physically close and they are connected by the LANs and dedicated high speed LANs. So whatever the communication is going on in these one though that is by the intercommunication channel this channel might be a high speed LAN and the communication cost is as it is using only high speed LAN it is very small and many of the architecture you can use here that is shared memory is there shared disk is there or shared nothing architecture is there. Let us see all these one one by one. Now in the shared memory architecture you can see here how it is working the memories are shared and this is the intercommunication network and every processor that is P processor these are the various processors and every processor is associated with an individual disk. So what is shared here only the memory shared doesn't matter that how many the number of memory memories and the number of processors are equal there might be various number of memories also and these are shared by these processors. But remember here every processor is having its own disks. So what we can say every processor has its own disk and this it is using a single memory address space for all these processors and reading or writing of to the memory is more expensive here because as memory is there and the intercommunication network it is using so it may it is somewhat costly we can say here and every processor can have its own local memory also is one if it is not shown here every processor like P is having its own memory here this one is also having but these memories are shared here. Now you can pause the video here and think of this architecture can you guess what what exactly this parallel architecture is having like in this one what is happening is see what is shared here and we can say that this is an inter communication network and these are the processors and this is a memory. So if this is the case then what exactly shared in this one you can see this one like yes you can guess here that it is a shared disk architecture why because the disks are shared here and every processor is having its own memory. So let us talk more on this one it is called as a shared disk architecture where the disks are shared this is the intercommunication channel where the communication is going on and every processor is having its own memory so memory is not shared here only disk is shared. So every processor is having its own memory all the machines are accessing only disks and the number of disks here also is not necessary that those are equal in as a number of processors it may vary. So what is the application the Oracle system digital equipment corporation is using this shared disk architecture. The next one is shared nothing architecture what it is there here nothing is shared means every processor is having its own disk its own memory it is nothing is shared but all these are working in parallel with its own things and these are the most common architectures nowadays every machine has its own memory and disk and many cheap machines commodity hardware communication is done through high speed network and switches. So the application is this one these are my references thank you.


Good evening. My name is Quinn man. I'm the vice chair of the South Burlington development review board today is Tuesday, March 5th for 1 of our regular meetings. Happy 10 meeting day. I will begin by introducing our other board members. We have Stephanie Wyman. John Moscatelli and Charles Johnston and for staff to my right, we have Marlekeen and Marty Gillies. So, before we begin, just a few housekeeping items. There's a few ways you can attend tonight's meeting. 1 of those ways is attending in person. We have quite a few folks in the auditorium with us tonight. You can also join by. Zoom virtually and you can also join by telephone, whether you're in person or online. It's important that you sign in signing and allows you to seek interested person status in this situation. You may want to an appeal decision. We ultimately decide tonight. You know, not tonight that we discussed tonight, rather if you're in person, you sign in in the back of the room. If you are online, you can set send your contact information through the chat or you can email Marlekeen at M Keen M K E E N E at South Burlington V T dot gov to provide her with your contact information to sign in. And so that's making sure you sign in for those folks who are online or on the telephone. Just a reminder to keep your micro microphones muted. Cameras off unless we recognize you. To speak and on that note, if you're attending and are looking to make comments on any of the items that are being discussed tonight. Please note, there will be a time for public comment provided at the end of that agenda item after the board has discussed it with the applicant. All right, and so. Moving to our 1st item emergency evacuation procedures for those who are in the auditorium tonight. There's 2 doors sets of doors behind you and the event emergency go out either of those doors turn right or left. You'll find yourself outside the building. Pretty easy agenda item number 2. Additions deletions or changes in the order of agenda items. So we will have a minor change to the order of agenda tonight agenda item number 7 is for the board to approve minutes from past meetings. We are going to move that up to agenda item number 6. That's because 1 of our board members is recused from the item number 6. So, we want to do that and allow that board member to leave. So, they don't have to stick around till the very end to approve the minutes at the end. So, again, we will be moving agenda item number 7 up to be agenda item number 6. And agenda item number 3, any announcements from the staff. Or the board, nope, I did invite the clerks to come in and tell us the results of the election if they so choose, but told them it was not quite sounds good. If someone comes in looking like a fresnel clerk waving their arms, give us the announcement in real time. Very good. And then agenda item number 4 comments and questions from the public not related to the agenda. Are any of those this evening on 1st, or anyone in person or online. All right, I'm hearing none. So we'll jump into the items we have on our agenda today. Agenda item number 5. This is site plan application, S. P. 24. Oh, 4 and conditional use application. See you 24. Oh, 2 of the Roman Catholic diocese of Burlington to amend a previously proved plan. For a 126,875 square foot educational facility, also known as rice memorial high school. The amendment consist of reconfiguring and installing turf on the existing athletic fields. Removing the existing track and bleachers, construction, new pervious walkways and other minor site improvements. And this is at 99 proctor as. It looks like our applicants have found their way to the to the podium, if you will. And is it just you guys that will be talking for the applicant tonight, or is there anyone else online or in the audience. Okay, sounds good. And so, if you could begin just by stating your name association for the record into the into the microphone. Sure, my name is Andy, I'm the principal of rice memorial high school. Welcome, thank you. And I'm Greg Dixon, the civil engineer on the project from Cribson, Lansing. All right, and then Jeff, can you, sorry for getting your last name. Yeah. Okay. And yes, and Ella. Excellent. Thank you. And if all 4 of you could raise your right hand, we're just going to square you in for this application. I think there might be 1. Oh, I'm so sorry. Yeah, I'm also Chris. Okay. Excellent. Thank you. So did you say your last name again? Just for the minute. Take her. Yeah. Okay. Thanks Chris. Thank you and right hands. Excellent. Thank you all 5 of you. So, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth under penalty of perjury? Yes, yes. Excellent. Thank you. All right, so we have a staff report here. I am going to start by just chatting through a little bit of context here. There's. Yeah, just a quick disclosure. Nope. Just a quick disclosure. I previously worked with Chris. Affirm many years ago, but I don't think that'll have an impact on my ability to proceed tonight. Excellent. Thank you so much. Sorry, I do forget to ask for that. Um, so the staff report we have tonight. Um, I know some of your engineers are kind of familiar with our process, but, um, we have a staff report with items that need discussion outlined in red. We'll walk through those discussion points. So, to begin just to provide a little bit of context, because the staff report does focus on kind of a distinction that needs to be made here with. The purpose of the athletic field. And there's a little bit of nuance to that. So. The existing development is in residential zoning district 4. So, the current use of educational facilities is allowed as an educational or as a conditional use. Um, and the. Educational facility is a facility used for or in support of education, instruction, or research in any branch of knowledge. So, there are existing athletic fields on site as we noted, but the project description. And so, this the the way they exist currently, there's a relationship of the fields with the users of the educational facility in a distinction. I just want to make before we jump into the staff report is the residential zoning district for prohibits outdoor recreation facilities. Which are defined as commercial recreational facilities for activities wholly or partially outside of any building structure. So. That is a certain type with commercial recreational facility that would be prohibited in this zoning district. And again, this distinction will kind of come up some of the. Comments that that we're going to address, so just wanted to set the stage a little bit. Um, and with that. So, I'm just going to read the 1st comment we have here. Oh, yes, thank you. So sorry. And before we begin. Into the comments, could you just provide a brief overview of the project that you're proposing here. Yeah, so what rice is intending to do is to kind of take away what you can see right now as the as the circular oval track. As well as the baseball field, and those would be rebuilt using a turf. Synthetic grass product and. It they would bring back the football field and the baseball field so they would still be fields, but the track would would not. Be part of this project. There will be some walking paths and some other amenities we have. Work to make all of those pervious so this is actually a net drop in. Impervious surface as we have designed it and. Yeah, there's not too much more than that unless you had anything to add, but. I mean, it would just end up creating a much more consistent reliable dependable. Durable surface for our student athletes to be on and it would just be a nice upgrade for them and just be a field or set of fields that we could depend on more. Okay, excellent. And I know I jumped the gun a little bit, but just before we jump into the. Comments anyone on the board have any clarifications or questions on the overview provided before we jump in. Okay, excellent. So, I'm going to read this 1st comment staff recommends that the board and applicant discuss the envisioned usage of their turf field space as it relates to the definition of educational facility and outdoor recreational facility. The zoning district standards, which prohibit outdoor recreational facility in the residential for zoning district. So, as a reminder, the connection of defining this, these athletic fields as an educated part of an educational facility is a relationship to to the students and the educational establishment. So, if you could speak to the intended use of the fields. As upgraded sure the intended use would be exactly what we're using them today to play football field sports like soccer across baseball field hockey. So, as an educational facility for students and so this, I think, ties directly into comment number 2, which it's our understanding that there's some historic usage. Of the existing athletic fields that might be outside of that criteria that have a direct relationship to the student body. So, are there any. Existing tournaments or that sort of thing that are hosted on the field on the fields currently that you would like to continue to have that opportunity to do moving forward that might not fit that educational facility definition. We don't have any existing tournaments beyond the tournaments that we already are beyond the games that we already host there. You know, as part of the VPA. Okay, okay. Okay, so I think, yep, go ahead. So, you're saying is you don't host activities beyond what is. Consider a school event on the fields. That's correct. Not used to sitting in this position. So, I forgot. All right, I think with that, we can move. Down, that is doing. So, this next comment is related to this same kind of distinction of uses the field. So. We will be looking to craft the condition that clearly prohibits the outdoor spaces from being used in a manner that fails to comply with what's allowed for this conditional use. So, that would be prohibiting the school from, you know, renting out this space for a fee for some purpose that is not serving the student body. And so it sounds like you don't have any intention of doing that. So, I think we have all the information we need to draft such a condition. Is that correct? All right, do you guys feel that way? Yeah, I think just for the board's consideration, I did receive an email from someone on the applicant team by Jill. Who's wasn't sworn in, but is here. And so that's in the supplemental folder and it was just that it was like a draft condition that is just for the board's consideration. Certainly not something they have to adopt verbatim or have to adopt at all. But just worth, I think, speaking into the record is that we received this. And so this is just the applicants first crack at a condition like the 1 suggested to be created as part of comment number 3. So, no need or no pressure to make a decision on this now. Obviously, this is just something to take under advisement at this time. But if you have questions falling up, that's a big good time. Because just one thing to expand on being an archdiocese facility, there's no intention of bringing in many other groups from outside, part of the archdiocese, but outside the school that would partake of the use of the field as well. Strictly rice. That's correct. Strictly what we're using it currently for. Okay. Okay. I don't have any other for their comments on this proposed condition. Anything else from the board? Is there any intention to significantly expand the athletic offerings at rice, which would incur greater field usage? Right now, there's no plan to do that currently. The teams that we have fill up our fields quite well, and this actual turf field is going to help us out a lot. And again, just to clarify, you know, the existing activities that we have on the field that are all educational and are already happening. Those are the only ones that we'd be having. We wouldn't be adding anything new to that. Yes, we appreciate the emphasis of that clarification. So, that I will move on to comment number 4. So, this is regarding what the final grade might look like on the site. So, you know, there'll be some excavation of the space needed to establish that sub base to support the field and the drainage and everything. So, on sheet 1.1 that I believe Marla has just brought up for us. It states final grades in this area may vary based on amount of excess fill from the project. So, we just wanted to hear from you kind of what that variation might look like. If you could speak to putting more bounds on that. Um, just if you can. Yeah, so right now, if you go out to this field, basically, you can see that the parking lot in the school sit a little bit lower than the existing fields right now. And there's a little slight slope up to them and our point with sort of that note in that area would be that we would. Extend that slope a little bit closer to the field. So, effectively, it wouldn't feel a whole lot different, but it would be a place to store excess fill. Obviously, we're taking away a lot of material to dig out the field and put in this turf and the stone and stuff. That will support the field and we're hoping to keep a lot of that material on site and not have to truck it off. So, that area we're kind of looking to. Take up with some excess fill. So it will it could be a difference of 3 to 4 feet, but I don't think it would visually look different. It would just sort of blend in kind of as the hill does today or no, it won't be like a mound. Right. Okay. Yeah, I think maybe the one consideration I would have is, you know, a strong water team did work with you on this one and reviewed this project. And so, I just, you know, I don't know if changing the slope at all would would be of any interest to them. But I guess that's something that I would be curious on their feedback on, I guess, or if you could define the parameters a little bit. Yep. Tighter or I don't know. So, I haven't heard back from storm water yet. I did reach out to see if they have come up with anything right now. The steepest that I know it looks really steep in that little section there, but those are still 4 or 5 on ones, which is a pretty gentle slope. It'll still be grass. I don't expect there to be any extreme erosion or anything like that. Most of not changing the hydrology. The area. It this is a high point fields are high point. It slowly drains down to a low point down by proctor abs. So it's effectively keeping the same hydrology. It would just sort of be a place used to to tuck and fill. And we could try to gentle up that slope as much or as little as. The board like the only reason I was showing it a little bit tighter is so we could limit some of that disturbed area. But you could push that slope, make it more gentle even and and feel more of that area. Thank you anything else from the board or staff. Okay, great. So the next item is about potential protections for an existing 12 inch tree. That's on the west side and of the existing track. So, could you speak to any potential protections that might be put in place to ensure that that tree is. Preserved in the midst of grading and all that, even though it's not directly in the project area. Yeah, I tried to limit the scope of grading if you kind of zoom in on I don't think that's it's it's for the north. Yes. It does and actually the tree doesn't look like a tree. It looks like a circle of the dot in the middle of it. Okay. But I tried to limit you can see the the grading sort of ties into existing grade at that location. So we won't be adding fill around the base of the tree. And we won't be removing material from around the tree. It is a 12 inch tree. Normally 12, the caliber of the tree can sort of give you an estimation about the root ball as well as the the canopy of. The tree that normally pretty consistent of inches to feet. So, basically the root ball would be about 12 feet and so is the the bulbus of the tree. We can we'd be happy to put some erosion prevention sentiment control around that sort of at the limits of the root ball 12 to 15 feet sort of. Diameter around that tree. Okay, and just for moving forward with that, that's. We wouldn't need an updated plan that just a condition we could write in specifically around that. Okay, great. Any other comments from the board. Right and moving on to comment number 6. So, we were anticipating updated storm water comments sounds like we're still waiting on those. Yes. So, I don't know, I guess, I don't know. I don't know procedurally more like what that means for sure. So the board can accept no information after the hearings closed, including from internal city departments. Um, do you have you or Greg have any sense, like, if their comments are likely to be something. Substitutive I can explain sort of. What we went through to develop the storm water that. Would give the board a better feel of what we're playing talk to our city storm water department and all though. Yes. Okay. What was their initial feedback? Like, the fact that we were reducing the impervious surface and doing a heavy amount of pervious paper. I think was I got a, yes, we're very excited about that sort of email from, I believe, Melissa. Yeah, I talked to Marisa as well and she, she said that she was trying to get to this, you know, but it sounds like she was going to formalize some, some off the cuff comments, but it didn't sound substantive to me. Okay, the level of review. Okay, so here's what I would recommend in this case, since it sounds like the condition might be sort of like. EPSC related or, you know, small detail related, the city's storm water ordinance applies regardless of whether the DRB has issued a decision on the project or not. If they were saying that the storm water standards of the LDR weren't being met, I would have more concern, but it sounds like it might be details that are covered by the storm water ordinance. So, I think that the board can probably receive and let the storm water department cover storm water related stuff. That sounds okay.  Steamroll city department, but it sounds like.  I mentioned 1 other thing that could help your decision. This project is going through the active 50 process. So it will also be looked by at by state entities. It will have a state. Erosion prevention and sediment control permit required and there's an existing storm water permit on this site. So, state storm water will also look at it. So, I think it's going to kind of go through quite a few storm water. If the city storm water department does have big, big questions, they can request. You know, reconsideration just like an applicant could request reconsideration for information that came to light after hearing was closed. Overall, you've reduced the runoff from the site. Yeah, we've reduced impervious surface by almost 0.7 acres. And you have more infiltration than you did before. Yes. So, it's a, it sounds like we would be in the position of closing the hearing with. Small, it sounds like low risk, low risk for the storm water department to ask for reconsideration. So that that sounds fair. Great, thank you. So, moving on to comment number 7. This is about the requirement around bicycle storage. So, it looks like at this point that has indicated that the capacity of rice is 500 students. So, based on the LDRs, this would require required 25 short term bike parking spaces. The current plans propose 9. New bike wraps or bike. Yeah, storage racks and then there's a new location of an existing. School yard bike style rack. So, I think. Or so, I'm just going to read this now. That's context that requirements of board require the equivalent provide as a condition of the approval. A table calculated the plan capacity of the existing educational facility. So, you know, a revisit at that 500 number in case it's different at all, just confirming that the number of short term bike parking space is required. And then an inventory of all existing and proposed short term. I think maybe it's just not clear what is fully on the property currently. And then demonstrating that it will need that minimum requirement. And again, this could be a condition of approval. That you can provide after awards, right? Yeah, and Greg actually did get this to me, even ahead of this meeting. So, on top of that. Okay, great. So, it sounds like you're okay with providing that because he already did and we'll make sure that's all in compliance. Sorry, is that something in supplemental that you want to pull up? If you want to, yeah, I mean, it's just, I think I maybe miscounted when I wrote this staff report, but. It was just exactly what I had asked for in the condition of approval, just laying it out pretty simply. Just the numbers and locations. So, providing the detail needed to confirm that there will be enough bike parking on the property. Well, now I'm curious and I want to look at the plans. Oh, it's just a picture. It's just a picture, but this is this. This is not the plans. Yeah, there's, there's, there's what 13, 14 new. You rex, don't that's an existing 1, right? And that's why that's a lot. Yep, so there's, I think there's going to be a collection of 2 sort of spots out by the field 1 by the baseball field 1 by the football field. And then we added a very larger 1 kind of closer to the entrance of the school. Right. And again, we, we designed a pervious. Way to put those in very good. Alright, that brings us to the end of the red comments. I did just feel like it might be worth noting the last point. That's not in red about exterior lighting. So. There's no newer revised exterior lighting proposed at the time of the application. A lot of times, you know, that is in conjunction with a turnover to a turf field. So worth highlighting. Marlar Marty is could you also speak to if there's any restrictions because this is a conditional use of any potential future lighting or just speak to that. Just so I know we have members of the public here as well. Sure. Yeah, so as a conditional use any amendment to a conditional use also triggers a conditional use application. So, because rice exists as a conditional use anytime rice wants to do pretty much anything they need to come in for a conditional use conditional uses our board applications. They cannot be done administratively. So, there is no real mechanism for us to prove anything to happen at rice without coming to the board here. Anything of significance beyond the zoning permit, you know, to do like a wall or something. So, the conditional use process always involves public hearing and installing exterior lighting is a not currently permitted based on the zoning district and be even if it were to be permitted or if rice wanted to submit an application anyway. That application would have to come before this board and be warned as this meeting was warned to that process is is non negotiable and as as Quinn noted, I'm not part of this application. And just to touch on that somewhere saying, if they increase the sound system or something to accompany again, sometimes what we see would turn over to turf field all that would fall into that as well. Just to kind of emphasize those pieces that aren't proposed currently, but if at any point where they would come back to this board and a public process. So, and so we work through the staff report. I think we have some members of the public here that might want to make comments before we take public comment. Do you have any closing remarks or notes? You wanted not much. Thank you guys for considering us. We did want to ask if there wasn't a whole lot of pushback about the project. If there was an opportunity to waive the appeal period. Just because we are kind of tight on time, but that's just a question. It's not. Yeah, absolutely. So the appeal period for a decision is 30 days that can be waived with the signature of the applicant property owner and all interested parties. So that'd be most of the folks in the audience here tonight would all qualify as interested parties. So if you could get signatures from everyone here and I guess those participating online as well. It's only people who have participated in the hearing. Oh, sure. Okay.  And is there a chance we could just get the list sort of later on next week or something like that? Yeah, I mean, it should be signed in. Yeah. Appreciate it. Yeah, of course. All right. I could just one other thing and just emphasize that, you know, again, we're focusing on preexisting uses of the fields. And, you know, we do have situations where, you know, some of our diocesan diocesan schools have already been using the fields. Nothing else is changing beyond that, but they will probably still be using them for those particular situations. Excellent. Thank you. Yeah. And thank you very much for everything. Yeah. Thank you. All right, so this is the point where we would take public comment. I'm going to start with the folks that are in the room. If you would like to make a public comment. You can use this podium that's to my right or left. And you can come on up or if you have questions. Yep, do you have do you want to. Yeah, and we just have to have you use the yep. And when you get up to the podium. Yeah, could you just state your name and if your address just so we know your relationship to the project. I'm Lonnie Robbins and I live 69 joy drive in the condos that are butted up to this property line where the I'm assuming where, where the new turf is going to go. I have a question about runoff. If we were to have a significant snowstorm rainstorm. Where does it go when it melts. I would all that water and moisture be accounted for. Sorry, just for clarification of public process we typically how this runs is may comments and we're going to be making decisions on it so you can direct comments to us. If you want to ask questions of the applicant, they're not obligated to respond, but just the nature of it is you should try to direct your comments to the board. Oh, okay. Yeah, I was. But yeah, no, no, your sign of it and the materials. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so since since you did direct that if the applicant has a response, go right ahead. But that was just more of a general for everyone. So, thank you. This, this entire property is under an existing. State storm water permit. And so the whole thing kind of the high point of the property is kind of over by the softball field and they kind of all internally drains into this. Towards the school where it's collected and either catch basins or drain band holes and stuff like that and actually directed around the building. Marla, if you could kind of go to the corner where it meets proctor have on the. You might have to go to the first page or zoomed out. So, so recently rice with the city developed a storm water pond. It's going to be a gravel wetland. Sorry, it might be on the next page. And so you can kind of see the limits of the grading on this plan up in the top left hand corner. And so the intent is that this, this really wouldn't change that hydrology. The whole project would still go in that direction and be collected in that storm water treatment system. It would now just be receiving 0.7 acres less of impervious than it was designed for. But that is how the whole property drains kind of from the high point up where the softball field is down towards proctor street. Thank you. Any more comments from anywhere in the audience. Yep. Go right ahead to the podium. And again, just a reminder when you get there if you could state your name and your address. It's helpful for us. Hi, I'm Kelly McClintock. I am the field hockey coach at rice along with the lacrosse coach. I don't know much about the building and X's and those these guys are amazing what they do. But I wanted to just get up and advocate for my athletes, especially the female athletes. Our field hockey field at rice is not legal. We can play home games there, but come play off time. If we are a top seat, we never can host. So there is no home field advantage. We've won multiple championships, but we never can host a home game. And especially representing female athletes. It's a killer, you know, to see all the male sports get to have home games or playoffs and females not. I want the best for the female athletes. Some would say, well, why not just play on top of the football field? Well, football cleats dig a lot deeper field hockey. You need a flat surface. So those surfaces don't work out well to share the space and this would solve a lot of the problems. And then with lacrosse. We've had many seasons where we're four weeks in the gym, because we get unexpected snow storms and we've had games where our first time on the field is our first game, which doesn't necessarily set our athletes up for success. And I'm just here to advocate for our athletes and wanting the best for especially the female athletes is would provide immense opportunity for them. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else in person in the audience want to provide comment. Yep, come on up. Oh, sorry. Yeah.  I am jam honey and 69 joy drive. I'm on the east side of the football field. So, I'm just wondering. You're taking down the bleachers. How are people going to watch the football games? What are you putting up? Are there any plans for viewing this games? If you don't mind responding. I have to. I think we do show a few sort of sporadic bleachers around. We've also developed sort of a in between area in between both the. Football field and the baseball field where. People can stand and watch, but that large bleacher complexes is proposed to be taken out and not put back in. Is there a reason for it being taken out? It's mostly because we needed the space to fit it in for the turf. Yeah, they fit both of the the fields and some safety concerns as well. Hi, my name is Jonathan. I have 1 child at rice and soon to be 2 and. A 3rd 1 coming eventually I wanted to advocate for the field for the baseball. Reason in Vermont, the baseball season is very, very, very, very short. And this field will. Really help aid the students at rice to get on the field much earlier. Anyone that's been part of the baseball season here knows that it starts. Late April at the best and then sometimes you get pushed off the field, even in the middle of the summer or in the middle of the end of the end of the season because of weather. These fields are so well designed to. Get rid of water and allow people to be able to play on them early in the year. The rice boys will start practicing. About, I think, April or March, March 18th, and they'll be in the gym all the way until. Game 1, which is whenever they left outside. So this field is going to allow them the opportunity. You know, today is a beautiful day. They could have been outside playing on that field today, but they wouldn't be allowed to do that. If they don't do the upgrade to to to just want to advocate for the baseball players. Excellent. Thank you. And I didn't see anyone other hands, but just want to. Going on, it's going twice for folks in the audience. And then with that, is there anyone online members of the public? If you want to make a comment, please. Make that known. Go ahead. Oh, can my my audio. We can hear you. Okay, great. I'm Joe Larkin. I'm, I'm a south branch and resident for rice grad and I'm in support of this project. I pulled the school diagram on the project team to help get it this far. I just, as we discuss, sort of limiting use on the field and understanding that it is a conditional use and that we don't want this to be recreation facility. I just asked the board and to deliberate and think about an old sort of a flexible approach to limiting the space rice in my mind does not need to use this as a recreational facility or broader but I the idea of field sitting empty. When they can be being used by the broader community as well if it makes sense for rice is something I want to caution against I suppose I suspect rice would be fine with limiting use to only a bright student athletes. And, you know, maybe some under schools, but I think we want to make sure that we balance that so that these fields can become a broader resource. So that's just a thought as I as I've been working on this. Great. Thank you. Not seeing any other online commenters. Oh, then. Yeah, the last comment just got me thinking, you know, I don't know how to. Oh, sorry, just, I guess your name son. Could you state your name? Sorry. Oh, yes. Sorry. Benton Taylor and I live at 69 joy drive as well. Sure. The last comment just got me thinking about, you know, if the, the way that rice uses the field or, you know, if they were to rent out to other teams programs, whatever, how like the excess noise excess traffic. And that might affect the people that do live behind those. Thank you. All right, I don't think we have anyone else online. And with that, with all those public comments, I think we are in the position to close this hearing we're not waiting for anything else. I have a motion to quote. I'm sorry, I moved close. Second second. All right. All those in favor of closing, say I, I. Against abstain motion carries. Hearings closed and you'll be hearing from us. Thank you. I'll just pull up the minutes. Yes. And as a reminder, we're just going to quickly. Approve some minutes. So there are, I believe, two sets of minutes. There's the December 5. And there is January 17. Any edits or comments on the draft minutes we have. All right, doesn't sound like it. So I entertain a motion to approve. Second. Excellent. All those in favor. I against abstain motion carries for approval of the minutes. And that leads us to agenda item. Now, number seven. And we might have some. Unfortunate news on this front. I don't know if you guys were already counting while you're in the audience. But Stephanie is recused and. That means we do not have a quorum. And unfortunately, that means we can't hear this project tonight. So we also cannot vote to. To continue. But what that means is staff basically gets the authority to decide when to continue it to. Okay. The only thing on the next agenda is that. So I think that the next hearing should be fine. Okay. We apologize for that. We were not anticipating not having a quorum. Otherwise we would have. So can you guys be here on the 19th? I can, but we'll speak for. Oh, very looks at the back there. Yeah, that's fine. We were holding out. I think the 19, we can make the 19th work. Okay. So rescheduling for the 19th. And I don't anticipate any form issues that night. Okay. And then is it. I was playing out being here later. So if you guys want to hang out and talk. I'm happy to do that. Yeah. If you want to take that opportunity to like clean up any lingering stuff. So you have a really fast hearing on the 19th. Absolutely. Well, I just meant like the next 10, 15 minutes too. Yeah. All right. Well. Thank you very much. I guess. At least kind of hadn't come in this evening. It's up too soon. Thank you. All right. And so. We do not need to vote to close, but I will say the meeting has closed. Or ended. I don't adjourned. Thank you. I forgot the language. The meeting is adjourning at 746 p.m.


Well, hello and welcome to Understand Men Now. I'm Jonathan Asley of johnathanasley.com. I'm so excited to be shooting this short video for you today. Our topic, how to bring strong, strong manly men back into your life. Okay, really quickly before we get started, if you've been interested in seeking help when it comes to men trying to understand men and maybe you're in a relationship with a guy and you're like, I just want some perspective, check out the link below for a free discovery call. Or even if you're single and looking for love and you want some assistance because my information resonates with you, click this free discovery call, the schedule call to see if working with a coach might be right for you. Okay, how to bring those strong manly men into your life. Look at that, I've got some muscles now. I've been working out. I didn't think of it when I wore this shirt. So this particular share actually comes from, I'm gonna share a little story with you. This relates to something that happened to me about three years ago. And three years ago, I did something called the Hoffman process. And if you're not familiar with it, here's the book, The Hoffman Process. But what's interesting about this experience, it's an inner child workshop where you heal your childhood wounds and traumas. It was done at a facility in Northern California, actually up in Napa. There were 40 people. There it was 20 men and 20 women. I don't think that was by design. It just happened to be 20 men and 20 women. And the experience was very much individual.  But it's very introspective. You are interacting with people, but not a lot. And not that that's overly important, but one of the things is, is you're not allowed to tell people what you do for a living until the end. So why this is so important that I'm sharing this with you is I scan the room of men and women and I see them doing their work. I was just very impressed with everybody that was doing the heroic work of working on themselves. They were really investing in themselves. And I remember the second to the last night, oh, and by the way, coincidentally, this happened to be the weekend of my birthday, which this video is coming out, the week of my birthday. So there's some coincidence here. But there was this great ceremony that we did. And it was like, it was a birthday ceremony. It was like being wrapped in a blanket of self-love. And hence why I wrote a book called What the Heck Is Self-Love Anyway? But it just, it gave you that impression of what it feels like to be wrapped in a blanket of self-love. And some of this may sound very feminine. Some of it may sound very soft and compassionate and sensitive and everything. So it doesn't sound very manly or strong, but I can tell you the strongest thing you can do, for yourself, whether man or woman, is to do deep introspective work. Because a man's masculinity isn't based on how much he can lift or how chivalrous he is. It's actually his masculinity or his strength. A strong man is one that can go inward and faces inner demons. That's what a strong man does. That's what a strong manly man does, is faces inner demons. It's not about going out into war. Well, no disrespect for our warriors out there and our soldiers who protect us and our cops that protect us and our firemen that do all that. And every individual that protects children and whatnot, it's certainly a sense of strength. But I'm here to go to another layer of strength and that's to go inward because there is nothing more powerful than to face your demons with a level of strength. And these men, these 20 men and 20 women did that. Okay, so now this is where the important part of the story comes in. So the last evening, we get to share with everybody what we do. And people went around the room and what was interesting, there was this one guy who looked like an ultimate fighting champion and had tattoos up and down his arms and he looked like the Marlboro man, right? And when he got up to share what he did, he's a professor at Stanford of microbiology. I mean, such a contrast to the way he looked.  We had an actor in the group. We had attorneys, we had all housewives, all different kinds of people. And I shared, I'm a dating relationship coach. Okay, fast forward to that evening. When we all hung out at the jacuzzi because this was kind of a retreat center, all the women flocked to me, all the women flocked to me because they heard I was a dating relationship coach and all the guys were getting pissed. That was kind of funny. But one of them took me aside afterwards and she said, Jonathan, I wanna share something with you. I had a profound, profound experience here relating to men. And a huge shift in perspective. And she said, when I got here, I scanned the room of guys and there were two guys I was attracted to. Now she mentioned the Marlboro man. I can't remember his name, but she mentioned him. And she mentioned me. She said, you seem like the strongest, most masculine men here. And I was highly attracted to you guys when I got here. I go, well, thank you. I really appreciate you sharing that. And she goes, why I'm telling you this is because I looked at the other 18 guys and I wouldn't have given them the time of day from a dating perspective. But after going through this experience and recognizing the humanity of all of us in this room, particularly the brave men and women, the brave men, she said, these other 18 guys who leaned into their demons, who leaned into their sovereignty, that leaned into their personal development and self-help work. She said, I would date any one of these guys because I saw their heart. Wow, she saw their heart. She saw the strength within them because it came from the men's hearts. And if I had to share with you ladies what the greatest challenge is today is that we don't get to see people's hearts because it's all armored up with the illusion in the mask we wear. And all it takes is an invitation, a little bit of curiosity, because she said to me, she felt so bad for actually judging all these men based on looks and not based on their heart. So how do you bring strong, manly men into your life? You shift your perspective on men and recognize that we are all human beings, that we have flaws and we're trying to work through our stuff at the best we can. And some people don't work on their stuff. Most people do on some level. I'm here to invite a deeper level through personal development, self-help, and spiritual work. That's why I wrote my book, What the Heck is Self-Love Anyway, as that invitation. You see me talking about a variety of books. But I'm here to say, you know, being open and receptive to men and also shifting your perspective on men will help you see them as being strong, manly men. Yeah, just a shift in perspective. And look, ladies, I get the frustration.  The dating process is riddled with men who are very selfish and myopic, okay? I get it. And ladies, you guys are no different. You ladies are no different. If you can point the finger at men, you can point the finger at women. And as I always say, most men are good guys. They're just bad daters. So how do we get to see their heart? This is the hard part in dating because it requires compassion. And that's my invitation for you. So if you have a bad experience, just chalk it up to, hey, he's just having a bad day. Have some compassion for him. But if you want to see men as strong, manly men, then start to shift your perspective and start visualizing every man is strong and manly from a perspective on dating apps. I tell my clients, when you're on a dating app and you're swiping and you see a guy you're not attracted to, just send, and say, if you're gonna swipe left, send them love. Just say, thank you, I love you, thank you, I love you. Just shift your perspective by simply saying that, even though you may not be attracted to him because if you're judging the way he looks, you are never going to see strong, manly men because then you're waiting for the Marlboro man or me who's six foot two, full head of hair, decent shape for a man over 50. But I'm the rarity, I'm in the top 2% of height. But there are so many amazing men, all it takes is taking the blinders off to see and it starts with compassion. So my invitation for you is to lean into compassion.  I'm here to suggest leaning into compassion for yourself and for men because when you do that, you'll begin to see men for who they are as beautiful human beings. It's not about strong or weak, it's about the beauty within each soul and that's my invitation for you. Wow, shared a lot.  There are great men, just like there's great women. And my invitation is to shift your perspective to compassion and you'll start seeing strong, manly men. All right, you got the gist of where I'm going. Hey listen, if you found value in this, please check out the links below. Scheduled discovery call with me, check out my book, What the Heck Is Self Love Any, check out my podcast, What Would Love Do and check out my free gift. And again, if you want some help and can't afford it, check out my VIP group called Midlife Love Mastery. All right, I'm gonna wrap up this video as I always do first off, giving myself a big gigantic hug of self love, I'm gonna give you a hug of love, I'm gonna ask you to turn to someone and give them a hug because hugs are a great source of love and we can all use more love in our lives. Thanks so much and wishing you a super-duper wonderful day, bye-bye now.


We cannot know Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala. This is a very common objection that look Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala is beyond our understanding We should not talk about Allah. We should just talk about Muhammad and Ali Muhammad alayhumu-salaam because they are within our reach My question is Can anyone here stand up and claim that they can understand Muhammad and Ali Muhammad Is there a man yet born who can say that I have Ma'arifa of Nur Muhammadia? Is there? You will not find a Muslim unless he is a madman who will tell you That I know who Hussain is. I will tell you who is Hussain. Is there anyone who can say I have Ma'arifa of Hussain? So that means now let's not talk about the Imams as well because we don't have their Ma'arif Right, let's just talk about ourselves So here's the problem. The Quran is there, but I can't talk about it because we're not supposed to understand this Only the Imams can understand that right? They were not here to teach us about the Quran. The Quran is only for them Now when I Listen to what the Imams are saying. I look at Nahjul Balaghah I see Amir al-Mu'minin al-Salaam is talking about Tawheed every other sermon He's praising Allah describing things in very deep philosophical terms. I look at Kitab al-Irshad of Sheikh Mufeed I find Imam al-Sadaq al-Rasalaam is having philosophical debates with atheists. I look at Sheikh Sadukh's Ayun al-Akhbar al-Ridha two volumes The Imam is having debates with people of all kinds of faiths deep deep philosophical debates on proof of God Existence of God and so on and so forth. I Look at Hadith mufaddal of the six Imam again. There is profound ideas being taught there I look at the Hadith of the six Imam He says Allah revealed Surat al-Ikhlas, Surah Qulhu Allahu Ahad and the last verses of Surat al-Hadeed Because he knew there will come a future generation in time who will be able to understand the meaning of these verses What do I do with all this Hadith? So I have the Quran, but I'm not supposed to comment on it I have the Hadith, but we're not supposed to talk about it We're only supposed to talk about the Imams themselves The question is is this fair to the Imams? Are we being fair to them? And that is why I have said this time and time again that when people ask me to define the prophet and the Ahlul Bayt Who are they? My standard definition to everyone is first and foremost. They are teachers of Tawheed They are teachers of Tawheed the main reason why any messenger of God came was to guide people back to God To show them how to journey towards God and we said that journey is not physical and the Imams as the heirs To the prophets their mission is the same. They are teachers of Tawheed. Now. Is it not ironic?   Where? I Will tell you where we dropped the ball we dropped the ball because we took the Imams, but not their teachings We took the Imams, but we didn't take their teaching Even when we take the praise right from our Imams Who is the Imam? We praise the most Amir al-Mu'mineen, Ali ibn Abi Talib, salawatullahi wa salamu alayhi We say Ali is the madhar ilahi He manifests Divine attributes right there are people who speak of him in glowing terms of How Ali demonstrates things why people were misguided and the thought Ali was God Right when Ibrahim alaihi salam challenges Nimrod and tells him that my God brings the dead back to life The king kills a man and spares another one and says I can do the same thing Then how does Ibrahim defeat him? He says my Lord brings the Sun from the east and sets it in the west You bring it from the other side if you're God Ali did that So he manifests things that give people reason to say he is God right But who is Ali now what we do is we praise him and praise him and praise him to say look at how God manifested his power his Knowledge his ability in Ali Amazing definitely But then we stop there we forget that the reason why Ali came was to point us to Allah. We said don't talk about Allah That is too deep and in doing that we are unfair to Ali because if he came now he would be disappointed and And I've given this example before that if you take an infant in your hand and you see a full moon before you and You point to the full moon The infant will look at your finger.  He is showing you the power of Allah. We are looking at Ali. We're not looking at Allah He is trying to show us Something and I will give you proof for this When you ask Amir al-Mu'minin himself to describe himself in the most glowing terms after the demise of the prophet Blessings and peace be with him. What does he say? He says ma lilahi ayatun akbar minni Allah does not have a sign or an ayah greater than I. I am the greatest sign of Allah He describes himself Undoubtedly he is naba ul-Azeem. He is the greatest news of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala after the prophet But when you praise Ali and you bring him to that level after that as well Let mankind see The God that Ali introduces in Nahjul Palagh So that they understand who are the rightful owners of Tawheed that Tawheed should come from the teaching of the Ahlu al-Bayt and Not from those who are their enemies


Republican Party if you vote for this.  I've taken it up from 10 agencies. I put it all on bill. I got the best administrator up there, Sergeant Sriver. I got 195 votes. I got Mendel Rivers this afternoon, which is 196. Now, I have counted you and I've counted Thomas. Now, somebody had saw Thomas today and Thomas said, well, I've been thinking about this thing and and I just believe I'll follow my chairman. I'll get you the money, but I just have to follow my chairman and I haven't made up his mind. Well, you just be quiet. You get you get something else. You vote against me on a dozen things, but for God's sake, we only got five in the Texas delegation against us at this moment. Doughty and Fisher and Burleson, by God, he never can vote for this. I don't know why. Well, I've been very quiet. I know it, but I got to have you unquad. I've got to have you help me with something. I've got a whole Psykes on there. You ought to help me with him something. I got to, I think, Carl Vincent down here. He says he thinks he can help me with the, with the, he got me Rivers today and maybe Hagan. I've got Rivers and McMillan against me in South Carolina. And Hardy and Downing, then Virginia. You see, they pick off four or five. They pick off five or six Democrats in Texas, three or four from these other states. And that winds up. That gives them 30 Democrats and they hold a solid Republican line and they rub my nose in it. I passed it two to one in the Senate. Two to one. I got 10 Republican votes for it in the Senate. And every one of these boys that will work on this job will become taxpayers. And there's, when they get out of here, instead of tax-eaters. And I got a good program and they'll just let me do it.  And I want to get these boys out of these damn cities and put them to work and have them doing something instead of lauding around, breaking in store windows and everything else. And I passed it through the Rules Committee eight to seven. And I passed it through the Senate. And I passed it through both committees. All the Republican voted against me on this Labor Committee. I had 19 to 13 strictly party vote. I've got to have a strictly party vote on the floor. And I got to have my chairman of my Appropriations Committee to get out there and make some of these wayward fellas that get in line like old Bob Sykes.  And this is a party measure. This is party responsibility. If I lose this, it's telegraphed around the world. If I gosh, the Republicans roll me and roll me good on the key measure, the only single Johnson measure that was sent up. Everything else was Kennedy. Well, let me have a prayer session with Thomas. You just get Thomas. Don't have any prayer session and you get one of the Sykes. And you bail me out of this one. And I'll try not to have you bail me out anymore. I'll be bailing you out. All right. And anything you've got to be bailed out on, I'll move the Navy to Lubbock or I'll do anything you need done, whatever it is. I don't care. But this is one that you've got to get Thomas. I didn't know you had that kind of influence on it. Well, that's what he said. Now, listen, do you want me to try to work out something without you sending up a budget estimate on this? Yeah, if I can. If I can, that's what I want to do. And I'm going to talk to Freeman tomorrow. I can do something about that if you'd like to work it out. Yeah, that's why I'd like to work. Sure. Well, you just talk to Freeman, tell Freeman. I'll do it. I'll do it. That's what I'll do. And if you've got anything you want me to do, let me know. That's the best way to do it. And if you can't do it that way, and you thought that, well, if it don't mean anything to you, I don't want to do it. If it does, I want to. Doesn't mean a lot to me. Well, if it does, I can work it out so it won't. If you can't, all right. If it doesn't, and you want it, it'll be done, period. That's the way I operate. I'm a man. And you can't do anything that I can do and I won't do. But Well, you let me look at this with Freeman. If you'll get the word to Freeman, then I'll talk to him. I'll get it. I'll get to him. And now I'll see you Monday. And for God's sake, get up right now and get a hold of Bob Sykes and Albert Thomas for me. Don't let them leave you over the weekend. Well, I'm still in the office. I got Bob Wagner over there waiting to eat dinner with me. But I've been this, I've been here all day long. Hanging, tooting, forest, rivers. I've got old rivers. A-Bear, Hardy, Sykes. That's what I got. Well, I'll be in touch with you next week. Good night.


There are human habitations on this Earth so remote, or the land surrounding their inhabitation so inhospitable to other human life, that these clusters of human beings remained untouched by the modern mainstream developing civilization until much later than any other on Earth. The result of this being the discovery of ancient cultures, some as if unfrozen from the Stone Age, untainted by outside influences and incubated and developed by these isolated locations over untold millennia. If we look at the remote rainforests of northern Peru or Papua New Guinea, etc., many myths exist, although many vicious acts are undertaken in defense by these people. The images of the plain, for example, which supposedly flew too low over an uncontacted tribe supposedly peppered with spears, although later debunked was born from this man-eating kernel of truth, that within these forest regions, head-hunting and the cannibalism of their enemies was a practice undertaken by a vast number of opposing tribes, still undertaken, we believe, in some of the remotest locations on Earth. Among these gruesome tales was the long-told tale of the practice of the shrunken head. With some lucky souls able to either smuggle out or simply leave with these unfortunate victims' shrunken heads, yet nearly always touring them within curiosity exhibitions for money, thus their authenticity strongly argued for decades. This continuing until a true account and possible recording of the shrinking of a human head was recorded, the Encyclopedia of Britannica, quote. In Melanesia, the head was often mummified and sometimes worn as a mask in order that the wearer might acquire the soul of the dead man. Similarly, it was reported that Aboriginal Australians believed that the spirit of the slain enemy entered the slayer. In New Zealand, the heads of enemies were dried and preserved so that tattoo marks and the facial features were recognizable. This practice led to a development of head-hunting when tattooed heads became desirable curios and the demand in Europe for Maori trophies caused pickled heads to become a regular article of ships' manifests. In South America, the heads were often preserved as by the hevaro by removing the skull and packing the skin with hot sand, thus shrinking it to the size of a head of a small monkey but preserving the features intact. There, again, head-hunting was probably associated with cannibalism in a ceremonial form. Despite the prohibition of head-hunting activities, scattered reports of such practices continued well into the mid-20th century, end quote, thus confirming the myth and advances in forensic abilities, managing to confirm many in collections as authentic. The hevaro tribe lived on the eastern slopes of the Andes in Ecuador and Peru, north of the Meranjuan River. Britannica continued, quote, the hevaro were well-known and are still proud of their past technique of shrinking human head to the size of an orange, end quote. Although gruesome, we find the practice of shrinking and the shrunken head itself an incredible macabre curiosity and, of course, highly compelling.


As the whistle-blowing pediatrician who helped expose the Flint drinking water crisis put it, the people in Flint have a 20-year lower life expectancy than people in a neighboring suburb. We were already struggling with every barrier to our children's success, then we gave them lead. Her research showed that the switch in water supplies from the Great Lakes to the polluted Flint River created a perfect storm for lead contamination doubling the percentage of kids with elevated lead levels in their blood. Whereas out in the suburbs, where they kept the same water supply, children's lead levels stayed about the same. That's how we knew it was the switch in water supplies. That's what broke the story of the Flint crisis, a doubling of elevated lead levels. But wait a second, even before the switch, when everyone was getting the same water, lead levels in children in Flint were twice that of the suburbs. There was already a doubling in elevated lead levels in Flint and other poor communities around the country, yet where have all the crisis headlines been? So even with all the bottled water in the world, the children in Flint will continue to live in a lead-polluted environment. Many have pointed out the irony that the new water from the Flint River was so corrosive that the General Motors plant switched back to a clean water source when they started noticing rust spots on their new parts, all the while water quality complaints from Flint residents were being ignored. But there is an additional irony. General Motors is a major reason why the world is so contaminated with lead in the first place, as GM invented leaded gasoline.  In the wake of blaring headlines about the lead-poisoned workers, public health leaders warned of the potential for damage to broad swaths of the population posed by putting a well-established toxin into gasoline. Yet despite these warnings, millions upon millions were harmed, and this entirely preventable poisoning still occurs today. Virtually all the lead in the environment today is because we put it there. It used to be a locked away deep underground or under the ocean, but that was before we drove it around the earth. By the 1970s, 200,000 tons of lead was emitted from cars and trucks in the United States each year, mostly in urban areas. Otherwise, the industry would have to use a higher octane gas, which is less profitable. So the oil and lead industry successfully thwarted government efforts to limit lead in gasoline for 50 years. But how were they able to do that? Because the industry assured the scientific community and the public that there was no danger. OK, I could see how a gullible public could be swayed by slick PR. But how do you manipulate the scientific community? By manipulating the science. The lead industry was able to achieve its influence in large part by being the primary supporter of research on the health effects of lead, and they got the best science money goodbye. Long before Big Tobacco, the lead industry understood the inestimal value of purchasing, quote-unquote, good science. Consequently, the vast majority of relevant studies published for decades were favorable to the lead industry. They even sent a delegation to try to convince the EPA that lead regulation wasn't necessary because they claimed lead was an essential nutrient required for optimal growth and development. Of course, the exact opposite is true, toxic to development. But there are nutritional interventions that can help alleviate lead toxicity. For example, food components that can help decrease the absorption of lead and help flush it out of your body. I've got a series of three videos coming up on specific dietary interventions, particular foods to eat, but spoiler alert, in general, food patterns that reduce susceptibility to lead toxicity tend to be consistent with just recommendations for a healthy diet.


So Kara Gelligan and other philosophers are asking the question of whether personal relationships are relevant to more reason. Well, Gelligan and these other philosophers think that there is some relevance between personal relationships and morality. There is such a thing as right and wrong within personal relationships and there is some extent to which personal relationships affect one's decisions. Well, the next question we can ask very quickly then is how are personal relationships relevant to moral decisions? So at least some conceptions of morality have to do with duty and obligation, which you must do, or even what you must not do. And like our friend represented here by justice, this is blind. It doesn't matter who you are, what other people are to you, you have duties and obligations to them regardless of those kinds of relationships. Under these conceptions of morality, either you've done right or you've done wrong, there's really very little in terms of in between. And with some of these systems of morality, if you have not done right, you are subject to condemnation, judgment, punishment. Now consider our friend Eros here who's going to represent romantic love for us. Now when considering intimate relationships such as romantic love, there are very definitely things you do and things you do not do. Now we think we've got more or less a handle on morality and obligation on the one hand or even Eros on the other. Though let's not pretend we've got either one of these two completely figured out. Nevertheless, we can ask the question of whether there are obligations, duties, rules, standards you must conform to as obligations within a personal relationship.