Van Gogh, we're back with the 11 o'clock rock. You like my hat? It's a Boy Scouts hat. It was given to me by our esteemed guests today Neil Atabara, MD. He is a member of the board of directors And he's the chairman of Onizuka Day at the Boy Scouts Aloha Council. Welcome Neil. Thank you Jay. Great to see you again Always see you every time. Thank you. Okay, and Jeff Solzbach He is the scout executive and CEO of the Aloha Council Boy Scouts of America. Welcome to the show. Thank you Great to have you guys. Thank you so much. It's going on with the Boy Scouts But first the word Boy Scouts established nationally, right? Right in Like that 1910. Yeah 107 years ago. Okay, and Aloha Council established right after that. Yeah, right same year So October 1910 we've been here for 107 years. Yeah We so this was one of the original chapters of the Boy Scouts very early I was that what happened in Hawaii that made it you know jump on the bandwagon Earlier doctor if you will local artist Howard Hitchcock who was at the time an art instructor at Punahoe school He was in California. He saw Boy Scouts. He said this is fantastic He brought it back here to Hawaii and it started here that same year the Rainbow Patrol was the name of the first group of scouts Perfect at Punahoe. Yeah, so somebody was later. So much has happened and still the Boy Scouts totally relevant As a matter of fact, I was thinking about it on the way in and I have decided and I'll throw this down for your consideration The Boy Scouts is becoming more relevant now Absolutely the way the social structure is working here and on the mainland the way the schools are working the way the connection between the Parents and the schools and the laski problem and all that we need the Boy Scouts for that kind of structure This gives kids the opportunity to find to find themselves in a way that perhaps other structures in their lives Don't allow them to do that nearly agree. Absolutely. Yeah Scouting has always been about developing leadership developing good character And you often think about Scouts as being hikers and campers and doing good deeds and they certainly do that But it's really all about character and now we're really getting into STEM. STEM is another challenge a cognitive Challenge that that helps youngsters bring out character with them themselves and STEM is so important And the Boy Scouts can be a connection to STEM This is critical not only for them for their generation or generations because there are more than one generations of the Boy Scouts But it's also for the country and for the state. We need STEM now Neil is very active in the What is it the Academy of Science and therefore the science fair that science fair coming up in April? And so he can talk about STEM as few people can and so in fact he was a hero in the Academy for something the boys in the I'm sorry the science fair and it made him May I say some of it may be more of it than you like to think made him what he is today, right? Science fair and Boy Scouts Played a big role in where I'm today the science fair Was an opportunity to to really kind of compete on a state level it came from Hilo on a big island which is you know not exactly a grand stage and and From the state science fair went to the international science fair. So that was a lot of fun Boy Scouts has been part of my life, you know from very early on probably when I let me guess you're a Boy Scout I was a Boy Scout and Jeff is a Boy Scout We're both Boy Scouts or Eagle Scouts want an eagle always an eagle and it's it's I think always kept me on track as far as as You know doing the right thing trying to give back to the community It's been a huge part of my life. It's no it's no accident that you guys were both Scouts You were an Eagle Scout too, I guess. Yeah, I am an Eagle Scout And so, you know you remain loyal it's like it's like the guys who go to Yale They remain loyal It's for their whole lives So that's that's a gift, you know that you don't find too often The fact is these kids go through this program and it defines them for life. Yeah, this is a fabulous thing It's interesting. It's an award that most people earn before the turn 18 all people do before the turn 18 You know 15 16 17 years old and yet you carry it throughout your life Which is a pretty significant accomplishment to follow you through your life. Yeah, even when When I'm applying to medical school and even residency after that You don't put anything from high school on there But they actually still ask even though it's not on the resume they ask oh, so we're your boy scout and they say then they say oh we're an Eagle Scout and I think they talk to you a little bit different a little bit more respect there I agree. I think absolutely. I mean it stops you in your track Eagle Scout. Oh, that is something When I grew up I went to summer camp in New York State and right next door was a place called 10 Mile River, right? Huge Boy Scout camp huge and it was it was so well respected. You know, what do you have to do with Sam? I've been I've been a 10 mile river Yeah, because it was that good and they made Eagle Scouts there tough. Anyway, I mean, I think it Every kid ought to have the benefit. That's what I think. Yeah, you know society they need it And if it's available their parents should you know, take them down to the Boy Scout We're working hard to get every kid opportunity to be a Boy Scout to be involved in the community through the scouting program And we're gonna talk to you a little bit more about how we can bring scouting to more young people. Yeah, let's well Let's let's do that now. Let's talk about some of the things that are coming up for example on April 29th You have you have a program. What is that program? That's at the Blaisdell. That's three three of 400,000 People coming down. It's gonna be huge. It's gonna be totally huge We're expecting three or four thousand people. It's a STEM Family fun event called the Onizuka Day of Exploration. It's named after the famous Eagle Scout Ellison Onizuka of course from from Kiala Kikua on the Big Island who flew on the space He was from the Big Island. I am so yeah, that was a subtle plug for the Big Island So so we're naming them them. We're naming this event after after him The original name is the Scout Makahiki, which has been around since 1911 and it's actually the the oldest Continuously running Scout event in the country. Makahiki. It's just Hawaii. Yeah, okay You know Hawaii word. It's so famous the word Makahiki. Yeah, you know back then I mean back when when when we were scouts it was You know, there's only one Makahiki was a Scout Makahiki and today there's lots of organizations that call things Makahiki and there's one of the reasons why we're Changing a name at least to the public and also to give it the spend the STEM theme. So it's going to be For the entire community. So we're really changing it to be a community event. We want everybody from the community to come We're gonna have lots of things it's gonna we're gonna have 12 I'm sorry 22 hands-on STEM activities led by science experts from around the state Science things so exhibits and experiments and whether they're going to be yeah, they're going to be workshops You're gonna learn how to do DNA Electrophoresis dissect a mammalian heart. Wow learn how to deploy parachutes Building electric motor. It's great. Yeah, pretty pretty wild stuff And they're you know, we have professors from you age from shaman odd from from Yolani school So that's that's one component would be 22 workshops. It's open to to the public and it's free Another component is that there's going to be 60 Science activity stations and these are going to be run by the scouts.  I have to go. I have to be there And lights up we have a balloon hover crafts and and and my troops going to make this thing called a augmented Reality sandbox ever seen that this thing is so cool I miss regular sand you play with it and there's a projector up on top and it scans the topology And then it projects a real real-time image on it So it'll show you where the high points are where the low points are and low points It'll like fill with water and you move the sand around in the water would oh, I have seen this. It's really impressive Really cool. Yeah, that's really cool. So there's gonna be stuff like that plus. There's gonna be an elevated ropes course There's going to be two climbing walls. There's going to be a robotics competition Lego car race food and Mr. Jake the wizard who is this amazing Educator and and science advisor. He's been on on Jay Leno's tonight show He's been on the Discovery Channel Jake the wizard. Yeah, can you send it to me? I want to interview him right here Oh, yeah, I've seen him.  Wouldn't that be fun? You know with Neil on your board and with Neil working as the chair of the Ellis and okazoo Oh You know program here on April 29th, what he what's left for you to do Jeff I'm the cheerleader. I am the cheerleader right now I'm here to support a great group of volunteers There's a group of about 20 volunteers have gotten together to work on this some of them are board members Some are coming from our troops and our packs They're all working together and that will cascade out amongst all of our packs and troops across the island of Oahu To take this on and make this a day for the community and we see it as a community service opportunity So not only is it our scout Makahiki kind of being reinvented But it's also an opportunity for us to reach out to the community and say come on in Learn about science learn about STEM and become a scout for a day and hopefully just hopefully it'll stick. It'll stick That's exactly right. Yeah, that's right. One of our little Opportunities inside the blaze is to have a model campsite which isn't really a campsite We're called the space station and they'll go through five or six different scout type activities as a part of that space Space station most of them are STEM themed as well And at the end they'll have a chance to learn more about the scouting how to become part of that Well, that raises a whole issue about scouts Engaging with each other being in pure groups learning from each other forming teams to do, you know collaborative effort And getting out in the in the outdoors. Yeah, which I'm afraid to say that you know an hour day I say our day I'm lumping up the generations in our day We get out in the outdoors more than it seems to me that a lot of people get out in the outdoors now Especially in Hawaii where we have outdoors, you know, and after we come back from this break I would like to discuss with you, you know the the general activities that the scouts do And how that works in terms of the engagement the activities in the ordinary course That is that is when you're not having elves in okazuke day Ok, we'll be right back. Good I pity the fool who ain't watching this show at 12 o'clock on Friday afternoon Stan the energy man watch it I'm Ethan Ellen host of likable science here on think tech Hawaii every Friday afternoon at 2 p.m You'll have a chance to come and listen and learn from scientists around the world Scientists who talk about their work in meaningful easy to understand ways They'll come to appreciate science as a wonderful way of thinking way of knowing about the world You'll learn interesting facts interesting ideas. You'll be stimulated to think more Please come join us every Friday afternoon at 2 p.m here on think tech Hawaii for a likable science With me your host Ethan Allen Okay, we're back. We're live Neil Avara and Jeff the souls rock You know the breaks, you know, sometimes the best part of our show right and we're talking about how you guys are building That special generation and how neal is bringing something special to it that he has had years of experience With not only as a scout, but as an organizer of the science fair So can you talk about the generation you're trying to build here in hawaii and how that relates to the future of our of them and our state Yeah, so you know the current generation of young people Right before the break we talked about, you know, what are they doing today? What are they interested in are they getting outside? Are they getting away from their screens and all that type of thing that you know We're all concerned about as parents and as community leaders scouting still does all that the outdoors We think it's still the best classroom for young people It really pushes them into the elements and forces them to confront things that they maybe don't confront otherwise You have to live with consequences when you're outdoors Decisions you make our decisions that you're going to have to live with and that builds leadership It builds character builds Perseverance of young people which is all part of what scouting does through the program day in day out that said 30% of all of our merit badges today And there's over a hundred merit badges are science related And so science and STEM is really a core part of the scouting program It always has been we're just taking a kind of a new direction as we reinvent our makahiki. Yeah. Well, that's great And I remember, you know, I have a godson who went through the scouts and he was an eagle scout too here, right? And Boy, I went to that ceremony where they invested him as an eagle scout and I saw these hundred merit badges I couldn't believe in all these really sophisticated things. You know, some of them are college college credit courses kinds of things Some of the things you mentioned, you know as the exhibits and in the makahiki and I said to myself Gee, this is great value. This is like school But but it's easy in you know in terms of You know finding comfort with it and learning can be fun and getting outdoors and having your buddies do it with you and all that stuff So, you know, to me, this is really critically important to bringing people together in a world that might otherwise isolate them You know, I don't I don't think Hawaii is different from other places kids become isolated And what we can do that special was to gather and bring them together and let them learn from each other And give them value and nutrition and which is what you guys are doing And that's relevant just as it was in 1910 one of the great things neil mentioned our event uh on april 29th We'll have over uh 2000 scouts and families there as part of the scouting community They come from all over the island so they come from right here in Honolulu They come from the Waianae coast they come from up on the north shore from all over the island coming together Uh, they're gonna look kind of similar. They're gonna be in their scout t-shirt So they'll be in their scout uniforms. How about the red hats? Some will have red hats here. That's right Yeah, uh, and so you won't know where they're from when you see them because they're all going to be scouts They're in the room coming together for a common purpose and learning together That's great. So did you need to reinvent? I mean you're talking about reinvented the makahiki That's been going on as you said a long long time for the beginning Um, how was it doing before you reinvented it? Uh, was was there a need to evolve it a special way? It's a great question in 2010 we took a shift from having the For a while the makahiki was actually done in a campsite. It was done off by itself and we said You know what 2010 is a centennial anniversary for Boy Scouts Let's go out into the community and bring the community You know to scouting, but we didn't really know how to do that Uh, because we really still doing kind of the same old same old thing which was more inward focused It was scouts getting together challenging each other doing different types of competitions But how do we actually reach out and bring the community into the program? We weren't sure how to do that at the time. And so this is one way we're doing that We want to stay relevant. I think that's really important to us So we're relevant and we want to really find a way that people can approach scouting in a way that maybe They're not used to as neil said, you know, they're used to seeing scouts hiking camping doing community service Those are all things that scouts do but what else do scouts do and we're going to show them? Yeah well, you know I was thinking as you were describing this that in in this country In the sort of the opening of the west There were these great gatherings Between the settlers and the cattlemen in the member way back when you know in the days of lewis and clark And they got together every now and then an open clearing And so this was this was part of the rich culture of of finding the west And I think when the boy scouts were established This was how to be makahiki and kind of gathering like that how to be part Or how to be an extension of what was going on in the country So it's really deep roots is what it is And very valuable to see it play and it's completely still to me totally relevant In fact is something we have to look back to you know, we can't forget our own history Especially in the case where it's been successful the way it's been for you So when when they get together What exactly what kinds of things do they do it customarily now before the evolution sure what were they doing and what You know, were they not including science then some of them were but it was I think more It was the two types of activities. Some of it was more like carnival type activities Where they're actually doing different types of games and competitions Some of it was showing scout skills everything from fire building and not tying we had a in the past makahiki We've had some historic Hawaiian games were you know, you know things like Throwing the rolling the rocks and things like that that were historic games that were part of Hawaiian tradition So those are all things we brought forth to the makahiki Science not so much that wasn't things that we really were so that's the new element. That's the new element. Yeah Well, that's fabulous. So you got to have a guy like Neil for sure Absolutely, but tell me about your board. Tell me about your executive. Tell me about your staff. How does it work? Where are they from? What do they study? What do they bring to you? Yeah, so our board of directors are 60 people on the board So we've got a big group 60 60 60 they represent Most walks of life throughout our community here in Hawaii We have people from each of the islands that are part of our board of directors We have attorneys. We have business people. We have people that are working. We have parents So the board is really a diverse group of people With doctors on the board. So you name it. That's part of our board Their job is to provide stewardship to provide provide governance and leadership and to give Direction and Neil is one of the board members who picked up and said here's an area where I can contribute and give direction Oh, perfect choice. Yeah good good work. But so you're looking for people who can help in certain areas Yeah, always always. How about your staff? What do you get them from? What are they? What is their training? What are their background? I mean in general, I'd say our staff today are about half Alumni of the scouting program. So about half of them were scouts themselves. Some Eagle scouts Some not the other half are people who are interested in young people And really helping to nurture the next generation and bring them forward and into adulthood Are they engaged they need to come out? Yeah, they're gonna be there. They'll be there. They'll all be there. Absolutely. They'll be there 100% Yeah, that's great. So, um, you know, uh, Neil, what's it like for you? You put a lot of time in Do you don't you fundraise? Do you fundraise? Because I know you're good at that. Tell me. Tell me how you handle that kind of thing And what what's like being on the board? What's like being the chair of the Onosuka? Makahiki. Well, it's a great privilege to be on the board. I mean, it's um Uh, I see it from a whole different perspective, you know I've always been in the scouting program as a youngster got all the way through and I see it from that aspect And it was fascinating to me that the work that the board does is largely transparent Or actually largely invisible to from a scout perspective And I think that's the way it should be A scout should just go out have fun Learn as they go along and maybe not even realize it but not have to worry about Things like fundraising or things like organizing on on a broader level But on as um as a parent and and as a leader in my in my troop and as a board member Now I see it from a different aspect And it's it's um, it's more challenging in some ways, but it's definitely more gratifying I think I actually get more out of scouting as an adult than as when I was as a as a youngster Because um, I can interact with my with my sons with my two sons Who are both scouts? I'll assume Yeah, they're both And the truth you mentioned is their troop That's right, right right three twenty five Three twenty five shout out to three twenty five And I get to um, um interact with with their friends, you know, I think I would not have been able to Understand the things that they go through and and their peers if if I weren't so actively So I I'd like to um Give a plug for being being an adult leader to Be a scout and and also be an adult leader because you get a lot out of it Yeah strikes me from what deal says, you know that as as you alluded to in the first place Um scouting is lifelong and therefore it doesn't stop when you sort of take the uniform off where you You know finish the program so to speak Be ego scouting all that um that it plays out in the in the community So for example, I want to form a partnership and the fellow on the other side of table says I'm an eagle scout And I say I'm an eagle scout There's more chance that I'm going to have a good partnership with that And I'm going to be more likely to cut a deal with him to trust him and so forth because we have this Common denominator. We both came up through the same process have the same Exposure of these values, but um, you know Can we say that putting a kid through the scouts program Enriches our business community in Hawaii. Does it does the scouts have an influence in the business community? Yeah And if so, how how is that no question about it? I think the relationships that you you brought up is a key component of that and you know Hawaii is a very relational type of place Yeah, you know that the relationships are strong They're deep being a scouts another connection And when you get a group of scouts together whether they're eagle scouts or not They'll talk about where was their troop? Where did they grow up and how do they actually get through that process? And that's a common thing we all can share together By the way, this Friday night our Eagle Scout alumni group is getting together They're going to have a gathering at Oahu Country Club John Henry Felix right there. We expect to be there. He is the Eagle Scout one of our Distinguished alumni absolutely. Yes, you bet Oahu Country Club Friday night starting at four o'clock We're having a little barbecue there very informal a chance to have our alumni come together share some old stories and Hopefully form those bonds that can help them in their professional lives too Yeah, these are formative years when kids are scouts and and they they they carry that all through and Remain connectives like an alumni associate. Well, that is what it's called. Yeah, you bet alumni association Like from a school that you really like to go to and you always have that bond going forward I think there's um, there's a lot of organizations that focus on community and leadership even sports But the unique thing about scouting. I think is that um, that's the main the main purpose for what for meeting is To help build character in in our youngsters That's actually the only reason that we're that we're meeting So I was talking to young to to parents who have Kids who are thinking about joining scouting and I tell them that you know when they start for Boy Scouts And when they start they're definitely boys, but when they end they are young men And there's a lot of things that happen in that crucial time period And it's a good time for For them to grow in a structured environment Where we start every meeting saying that we're going to work on these things We're going to work on being trustworthy Loyal helpful friendly courteous kind of beating cheerful 50 wave cleaners Those are things those are 12 things that we're going to work on every time we need Exactly what kids need and so often they don't get that you know And if we don't hold our society together, we need lots of people who hold those values who have that structure But I want to ask you one more thing on the way And also I was listening to a story about the the current, you know thinking in the military About how they organize their efforts these days and small groups maybe larger groups And one of the things that they want to be smart And one of the things is whatever they do they learn by it They have a special kind of procedure now whatever mission they go on when they come back They talk about it. What did we do right? What did we not do right? What do we have to do better next time? So you guys are going into the Makahiki April 29th at Blaisdale I get that right Every 20 every 29th, okay, so You're going to be looking for you know new things to learn In this new model of the Makahiki. What do you be looking for? What do you hope to learn about making it even better in 2018? Well, I think the main thing is we want to engage the community We want the community to come see what scouting is like Um, have a have a good time learn some stem and if they like what they see they might even consider joining Secondly, we want our scouts an opportunity to serve We want them to serve the community serve the community. They want to um, because that's part of that's a huge part Of what being a scout is to selflessly serve without thinking of reward And that's that's a lesson that we want to be integral with with the scouts activities in this working for the common good Yeah, we absolutely have to have that you know think tech believes in that so deeply right and that you know Survive as a as a robust healthy society Which Hawaii has the possibility of doing if we all work for the common good, you know We'll all be better off every man woman child and the Boy Scouts are doing just that that's scouting at the core right there It's working as a team scouting every level of scouting. It's always team oriented We call them dens or patrols working together for common good So if I wanted to join if I wanted to find out more about the makahiki Ellison Onizuka makahiki. Yeah this year. April 29th the Blaisdell. Where would I go? Where would I look? How could I join? Yeah our website scouting hawaii.org real simple scouting hawaii.org I could remember that. Yeah scouting hawaii.org. There you go. Yeah, that's it closing words Well, thank you for having us on there. Jay. It's always it's always a pleasure. Thank you, Neil Neil Latavara MD and the chair of the Ellison Onizuka Makahiki this year 2017 and Jeff Solzbach the executive of the Boy Scouts Council What's it the Aloha Council? Aloha Council of America right here. Join us on April 29th. It's free It's for families. It's gonna be a lot of fun. Come down watching


Statistics and Excel standard deviation and variance for a population comparing two data sets related to weight. Got data? Let's get stuck into it with statistics and Excel. You're not required to, but at first a word from our sponsor. Yeah, actually we're sponsoring ourselves on this one because apparently the merchandisers, they don't want to be seen with us.  Like our crunching numbers is my cardio product line. Now, I'm not saying that subscribing to this channel, crunching numbers with us will make you thin, fit, and healthy or anything. However, it does seem like it worked for her, just saying. So, subscribe, hit the bell thing and buy some merchandise so you can make the world a better place by sharing your accounting instruction exercise routine. If you would like a commercial free experience, consider subscribing to our website at accountinginstruction.com or accountinginstruction.thinkific.com. If you have access to one note, we're in the icon. Left hand side, one note presentation, 1467 standard deviation and variance for a population comparing two data sets of weight tab. We're also uploading transcripts so you can go to the view tab, immersive reader tool, change the language if you so choose. Be able to read the transcripts or listen to them in multiple different languages using the timestamps to tie in to the video presentation. One note desktop version here, data on the left hand side related to weight and prior presentations. We've been thinking about how to take our data sets, summarize them, represent them in ways so we can draw meaning from that data using both numerical calculations and pictorial representations. Numerical calculations including our standard statistics such as the mean or average, quartile one, the median, quartile three, and so on. And then pictorial representations including the box and whiskers or box plot as well as the histogram. Now we're concerned more with these presentations on the spread of the data, the histogram giving a very nice pictorial representation of that spread. The numerical representation we're working on then being the standard deviation and the variance. So here's our data on the left hand side. We're mainly focused on the weight information here. Also note that we have not included the entire data set because this was quite a long data set. So we're just giving a snippet of the data set to give an example of the process. Then we're going to do our standard calculations which of course in a very long data set gets quite tedious but using Excel quite easy calculating the mean or the average. We can just use the average formula adding up all the data, dividing by the number of data there are. The min, the smallest number in our data set at 7801. We've got quartile one, the middle point of the first quartile, which could be this formula in Excel, quartile.exe. But we have to have the second argument representing quartile one. We've got the first quartile. We've got the median which is the second quartile. We could use the same formula and put a two there, but it's easier to use the median which will pick up the middle point if we were to summarize the data from top to bottom and pick the one in the middle which again could be quite tedious if you have a very long data set as this one is or is in practice we snipped it here. Quartile number three, the middle of the third quartile and we have the same formula here except we're now picking quartile number three with the second argument. The maximum, the largest number in our data set at the 170.92. Then we have the standard deviation. This being our point of focus is at the 1166. It's as easy to get in Excel as just putting in the function equals stdev.p.p representing the population as opposed to .s the sample. We're imagining we have all the data for the entire population at this point. We'll talk about samples in future presentation. The variance equals var.p, similar kind of thing with the p versus the f's population versus the sample. And then we've got the standard deviation for the sample just as a comparison note. So you can see those two formulas down here. If it was a sample, you got the .s instead of the .p. Okay, if we look at our data, we can see we've got pretty smooth data because this is a large data set related to weight, which is kind of similar. I believe this came from the same area as we had with the height data where we had a very large data set. Because we're dealing with something that's in nature, you would expect then that we'd have this kind of distribution. If we have a very large sample, most of the items being in this center point, and then it basically tapers off to either side in a fairly uniform way. Then we've got the variance and the standard deviation in formula format. So even though we entered the function in Excel and got the answer, sometimes it's relevant or sometimes useful to do the calculations and look at the steps along the way if nothing else to get an idea of what the function is telling us. So the variance is going to be represented by sigma squared. And here's the formula for it. You can see that whole variance is part of the standard deviation, everything under the square root. So as we calculate the standard deviation, we're going to basically be doing the variance along the way. So if we do this in more of a manual method, but a way that we can kind of see what is happening, we can take each of these data points, which would be quite tedious because there's a long data set. But if you're in Excel, pretty easy to do. Take each of those data points and subtract it from the middle point, the mean, which was that 127.08 that we calculated before. This is the distance from each data point from the mean. Now, we've got this whole long data set. We snipped part of it, but if you added all of those up, there would be positive and negative numbers, and it would add up to zero. It doesn't here because we only snipped part of the data set. But remember that the characteristic here is if that's the middle point, and I take every piece of data minus the middle point, the fulcrum point, then I'm going to get the sum of the differences will be zero. Again, you can't see any of the negative numbers here because we just have part of the data set. But then we're going to square the data, so we're going to square all of it, which removes the negative numbers and squares it. And then if we did our calculation down below, we're summing this up. Remember, this is not all of the data set, but if I had all the data set it with sum to this, you could check it out in Excel if you would like to see the full data set and work with it yourself. Square difference, there it is, and then we're going to divide by the count. The full data set had 25,000 points in it. So if I counted all the rows of the full data set, 25,000, and that gives us a variance of 135.97, and then if I take the square root of that, we get to the 11.66. So there's our 11.66 that we calculated using the function over here, 11.66. But you'll note that doing it this way gives you kind of a pretty nice intuitive sense of what is going on with the data set. In this data set, what I have done is taken the same data set of weight, but then removed some of the numbers in the middle, resulting in two data sets that are very similar but different. And the reason this could be useful is because when we look at our statistics over here, note that when we look at the average or the men, quartile one, the median, quartile three, and the maximum, those give us a sense in and of themselves about the data set. But the standard deviation and particularly the variance oftentimes are more difficult for us to visualize in and of themselves and sometimes become more relevant if we're comparing two separate populations, right? So now if we had two different populations and we were to take these two numbers, then sometimes that's going to be a way for us to see where we might use those numbers like in practice such as like a variance type of number. So remember the general idea with the standard deviation is the smaller the standard deviation, the less of the spread that you would expect around that middle point, the fulcrum point, the average and the greater the number, the more of the spread. So in this case, I've removed a lot of the numbers like in the middle, the numbers that are closest to that middle point of the spread. So that's going to increase, you would think, right, the standard deviation and the variance. So let's check it out. So if I look at these two numbers and I compare the new data set versus the old data set, we come out to a pretty similar mean or average, 127.06 versus 127.08. The minimum number is the same. That's because I deleted the data in the middle so we still have the same bottom point. Cortile 1 is different but not substantially different. The median, the middle of the data set is 124.19 versus 127. Again, different but not hugely different. Cortile 3, 136.8, 134.89, pretty close still. The maximum is the same because I deleted numbers in the middle. Therefore, there's the same maximum, but the standard deviation is now higher. So now I've got a 1301 versus 1166, which gives us an idea of the spread, which we might not have gotten a difference in the spread between when I'm looking at just these numbers up top. These might not have given me a sense as much as possibly a standard deviation of possibly more spread in the data but the same with the variance, right? 135.97 versus 169.25, another kind of measure of the spread. And that should give us an indication that there's something possibly more going on than maybe I would have picked up with just the first numbers up top with regard to the spread of the data. And then if I looked at those with the sample, these are just a comparison with the sample. They also being higher if I use the sample calculation instead of the population. And here's the actual histogram so you can see what happened here. I deleted a lot of the data in the middle. So notice if I think about, well, what would have happened with my numbers? Well, you would think the average would still possibly be pretty close to what it was because now you've got these two sides that still kind of average out to something that's pretty close to the mean. And then notice the minimum and the maximum are the same. So minimum, minimum, maximum, maximum are the same because these outliers way to the end. I didn't delete any of those. So that kind of makes sense. And then if you look at the quartiles, they're pretty close. And you would think maybe the quartiles would be substantially different if I did this in a small data set. But because the data set was so large, then I didn't really impact a whole lot of the quartiles if you just picked the number in the middle of the first, second, and third quartile because even though I deleted a whole lot of data in the middle, we had a pretty significantly large data set. So you still end up with pretty close on the quartiles more than you might think. But the standard deviation kind of does give us an idea. So you might say, well, these all look similar, but then the standard deviation does give us an idea that the spread looks significantly different as does the variance. You're like, okay. And obviously that's represented here in the pictorial representation. Now just to wrap this up, if I did the same kind of calculation over here, I took my weights of my new data set where I deleted the numbers in the middle. I subtracted out the mean or middle point. This is the 127.06 now. Here's our differences. And the differences if I added them all up would add up to zero. I don't have all of them here because it was a very long data set, but it would still add up to zero with the new data set. And then if I square all of them, this is the squared amount. If I added up all the squared amounts, I would get to this, and then I would take that and divide it by the count, which now I only have $19,999 instead of I think it was 25,000 data sets before. So we removed a significant amount of the data, which is going to be a variance of 169.25, and square root of that would be the 1301, 169.25, and 1301 is what we got here, 1301, 169.25.


Hi, this is your host, Tim Bhartia, and welcome to another episode of TFR Let's Talk. And today, we have with us Stephen Kim, CTO of the Care Group, and Nathan Harvey, developer advocate at Dora and Google Cloud. Stephen, Nathan, it's great to have you both on the show. Great to be here. Thanks so much for having us. Today, we are going to talk about the State of DevOps Survey. But before we go there, I would love to learn a bit more about DevOps Research and Assessment Program, or Dora. Talk a bit about it. Dora, as you mentioned, DevOps Research and Assessment is an ongoing research program that's been running for, wow, almost a decade at this point. This research program really seeks to answer the question, how do teams get better at delivering and operating software? And does that matter to organizations? And of course, not surprisingly, what we find is that, yes, technology drives value and innovation across organizations of every shape and size, and that there are proven ways to not only measure, but also ways to improve how teams accomplish that, that software delivery and operations performance. Can you talk a bit about what kind of data is being collected and how and what to learn from this data? When we talk about Dora, we really think about, of course, commercial outcomes as an organization performing. But then we have to look at some metrics to understand how is our software delivery and operations performance going. And for the metrics, we use four key measures for software delivery performance. Two of those measures look at throughput, two that look at stability. On the throughput side, we ask these questions of, how long does it take for a team to get changes into production, and how frequently are we doing that? And so we call those, respectively, your change lead time and your deployment frequency. Of course, we want to move faster, but we need to do so safely in a way that's stable. And so on the stability side, we have the question of, how frequently are those changes that you're pushing causing a failure or interrupting your customer's experience? And then finally, on the stability side, we know that we don't live in a world where there is zero risk. There's always a risk in our systems. So we have to look at, when we do have an outage or an incident, how quickly does a team react and respond and restore that service to our users? So to recap the four metrics, deployment frequency, change lead time, change failure rate, and then your time to restore service. Taken together these four measures help us really assess how well is any one application or service performing. And so we ask in our survey each year, getting to your question of, how do we get this data? Well, each year we launch a survey and we go out into the world with that survey and try to collect as much data as we can. And in fact, we'd love for you to participate today at dora.dev slash survey. And in that survey, we ask the questions about those four key metrics, but then we go deeper and we ask about different capabilities that drive performance of those four key metrics. Those capabilities cut across technical process and cultural capabilities. Technical like, are you using version control? What does your test automation look like? Process such as, what does your change approval process look like? And how much work do you have in process at any given time? And how do you prioritize that work? And then culture, things like, how does your team collaborate with one another? When there is a failure, what sort of lessons do you take from that failure? Or do you just look to figure out who should you fire because of that failure? Please, please don't do that. But these are the types of things that we dig into in the survey each year. What Nathan is talking about here was actually really useful to me to understand how Dora has the four metrics. Obviously, it's a delivery and the performance of a software organization. It's very complex and it's nuanced. And with the things that Nathan is describing here and what we gather in the survey and try to do introspection on, really highlights how the four Dora metrics is can really be an effective conversation piece, right? To go and say, okay, let's start here, but really beneath that surface is, as we imagine, a lot of different directions that we can explore, ask questions about and measure and gather input on to get it ultimately toward a productive goal. What should we do, right? What might be some efforts that we might kick off? What might be some focus area that we start looking at a little bit closer as a result of the conversation that we've had? That way, Dora, that it's widely accepted, has been really, really useful for a company like Carrick, for example, where we come on sort of a common substrate that we can go and embark on a productive conversation. If you look at the previous 2022 report, can you share some of the highlights that were there? And then we'll see if you're expecting something different this year. There were definitely, so as part of the research we publish an annual report, the Accelerate State of DevOps report, and so in the 2022 research and then the subsequent report, one of the tight focus areas for us was around security. We often think about security as the department of no, the department that's slowing down our deployment frequency, but we wanted to test that in our data. And one of the things that we saw is that the teams that have better security practices are actually able to have better software delivery practices and better organizational performance. So better security doesn't slow you down, but then probably the most interesting thing we found about security was the number one predictor of the capability, the foundational capability that predicts better security practices was culture. It wasn't a specific tool. It wasn't a specific technology. It was the culture of your team. How does your team work together? How do we collaborate? How do we learn from one another? Do we have a culture of learning within our organization? It might not come as a surprise, but we have data that backs this up and shows that culture is that key driver. One thing that Nathan and I spoke about earlier in the week was the survey is gathering response from humans. And the Dora metrics as described, as we said, are measurable. They're objectively measurable. What is your lead time? What is your defect rate? What does it mean in terms of remediation? And we talked about do they and how does what humans say about what happens and what we go and observe and measure? How do they compare? And what we found in our conversation and looking at the information was that they do align and they converge over time. So it's really interesting to me because obviously the adoption of best practices and endeavor to try to go and improve developer output and team productivity is one that is a combination of technology and process organizational behavior culture, really, as Nathan goes and describes. And so I really appreciate how the survey, honestly, a little bit of a confession, Nathan, sorry, this was the first time that I did a survey and I wanted to respond to it, but I was pleasantly surprised by sort of how broad it captured information from a human perspective in support of relevance to the Dora metrics. Thank you for taking it, Stephen. The more insight we get, the better. And one of the things that's key to Dora and sort of foundational to Dora is that it is program and platform agnostic. And Dora recognizes that this is a journey of continuous improvement and improving doesn't mean just throwing new tools at the problem all the time. It's us, it's the people in the system that matter probably more than anything else. And so your developers, your operators, your QA testers, your security folks, we really wanna get at the heart of their lived experience and understand what does that tell us? And you mentioned a journey of improvement. It's the people that are on that journey and we have to maintain that commitment over time to really building that practice of continuous improvement. And so it is so important that we start with the people. These surveys, these reports, they do help, not only the community, the ecosystem, Google, all these things as well. I also wanna look at the folks that who are taking these surveys. How does that benefit them? So when they are taking the survey, they are like honest to just like folks like Stephen, when they take survey, they do know what they are going to get out of that as well as well. I think that's a really interesting question because of course, it helps us all to learn from each other. But how does it help you to take the survey? Well, first, it's an investment and I wanna be very clear about that. Sharing your insights into this data is an investment of your time and your capacity and so forth. We do try to keep the survey to about 15 minutes so it's not a huge investment. But what's your return on that investment? I think importantly, and I hear this feedback all the time, Stephen actually mentioned it just a few minutes ago, Dora is about driving discussions. I think as an individual, as I sit down to take the survey and I carefully consider the questions that are posed in that survey, I immediately start to identify areas where my team is doing really well and probably some areas where my team has opportunities to improve, maybe things that I hadn't even thought about. And so after I take that survey, going and sharing that with my team to help drive improvement, I think is so powerful. And so the more people, frankly you can get on your team to take the survey, maybe we'll find places where we're well aligned and maybe more interestingly, we'll find places where we disagree on some of the answers. That's the place where I wanna go and focus a conversation with the team. Let's learn from each other. And it's survey though, if you look at just organizations, it's not that some one person takes a survey from the whole audience but different teams, they are looking at things differently. So the more people within the same organization take the survey, the better it is not only for the organization but for the survey itself. I should also mention of course that the survey is completely anonymous. We don't know who you are, who's taken it. And that is of course a way to encourage both honest responses so that we can get the best insights out of this data. As you were talking about earlier, some of the key findings of the previous survey, based on those, whatever we learned from that, was there any changes or any improvement or any questions that you asked this year or going to ask this year? So we certainly evolve the questions that we ask each year. There are some tried and true things that we ask every year, like those four key metrics. But we also have to be cognizant of this, how long can the survey be? We wanna keep it relatively short. So we have to stay focused. Otherwise no one's going to complete a survey if we ask an hour's worth of questions. We'll get no data essentially. So this year we are focusing in on a couple of things. First, I don't know if you've heard of this term or not AI, AI. A lot of people are talking about AI. So we aren't going deep into AI within this year's survey, but we're just trying to get a pulse. Where is AI actually being used within your development process today? I think that having that information now here in 2023 is gonna help us as we continue this research. So that's one area that's brand new this year. We're asking a couple of questions about that. We're also doing something that I think is interesting this year with one of those four key metrics, the change failure rate as an example. So change failure rate, we've asked questions like, what is your change failure rate? And we've given you options to select, like zero to 15%, 16 to 30%, et cetera. Sort of these buckets. What we find is that there's not a lot of difference across teams. And we hypothesize that that's because the buckets are just too wide. So we've allowed each individual to basically on a slider, say it's 1%, it's 3%, it's 7%. We think that that'll give us richer data. And then the third thing that we've done really importantly this year, to encourage more global participation, we've done some localization of the survey. Did I mention that it's at dora.dev slash survey? But if you go there, you can today take the survey in Portuguese, in Japanese, and then I think we have a couple of other languages like French, Spanish, and maybe even Russian coming shortly behind that. Frankly, we're running an experiment. If we make the survey available in other languages, do we see greater global participation? So help us prove that hypothesis, please. How can we talk about the involvement of companies like organizations like Kerek there with the survey, what they bring to the table, and of course, how it benefits the larger ecosystem again. The things that Dora and the larger community are focusing on is right up our wheelhouse. And as we talked about, Dora is a really important conversation. It gets the conversations going. And more so, obviously, just about every organization is obviously thinking and talking about it, but it really guides them toward things that we can go and pick up and then do something with, which is the important part as well, right? Kerek's model has always been to embed and work with the organization. We go and employ things like lighthouse and pilot models where we go and improve hypotheses out. And so as we come to, obviously we can go to sit with you and run through a Dora-oriented workshop to go and take baseline measurements of where you are, what some good targets for you might be considering what the things that are asked in the survey, for example, might go in and yield. And then we can go and work towards specific things that go to start moving the needle on the metrics that we collectively agree are important to you. So maybe we're sort of on the backside of the assessment part, but once again, starting the conversation is really, really critical. And so I think that makes Kerek's interest in the survey, Dora.dev slash survey really, it's really important to us. It's really important to us that companies are in a deliberate and really in a guided and tried and true way to join the larger community that is engaged in this journey, rather than trying to go ahead and do one off on their own. They can obviously go ahead and do that as well, but I think the Dora survey and the Dora conversations will be really, really helpful, full cycle of getting tangible benefits to the organization out of this exercise that starts with something like the Dora survey. Yeah, and plus one to all of that. And I think it's so, we are so lucky to get to work with partners like Kerek. I think that so many organizations see the metrics, use the metrics to help drive conversations, but then what comes next? How do we put that into action? And that's where a coach and a partner like Kerek can really come in and help a team start building up those muscles. And it really is, I really equate it to building up muscles of how do we get better? Well, how do we get better at getting better? Kerek is a great partner to help us along that journey. Yeah, if I can highlight two specific things that I think is effective and I'm proud of that we've done. Number one is we actually do instrumentation. So we actually go to build dashboards, we do instrumentation of your code pipeline and your release pipeline, and we go and deliver for our clients the baseline and the ongoing, on an ongoing basis, what is the progression, right? And it's almost always to be up into the right. Where it isn't, it's a surprise, and it goes and brings about interesting further conversations of wait a minute, why is that happening, right? Which then leads to further action. So it's a very, very productive one, that's number one. And number two, the thing that I'm particularly proud of what we do deliberately is we go to an infused culture into our engagements. So as Nathan was pointing out, it's about culture and it's about people and it's about mentality. And that starts with individuals but it also speaks to organizational behavior which then leads you to conversations about everything from empathy to organizational structure and in between, there's a lot to be gained to walk through this, take the experience that not only us, but any other looking outside can bring in of how do other companies that have different measurements, what are they doing? That might be saying more different from what we are doing. But the important part is engaging outside your walls in a deliberate exercise in this. Nathan, Stephen, thank you so much for taking time out today and of course I explained the importance of Dura and also the survey. Thanks for all those insights and I would love to chat with you folks again when the results of surveys are out and we can actually discuss what we learned this year. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.


Nudged presents a song for summer by Eva Ibbotson, narrated by Penelope Rawlins. PART I CHAPTER I In a way they were born to be aunts. Emancipated, eccentric and brave, the Norchester sisters lived in a tall grey house in Bloomsbury, within a stone's throw of the British Museum. It is a district known for its intellectuals. Blue plaques adorn many of the houses, paying tributes to the dead dons and scholars who once inhabited them and even the professors and librarians who were still alive, walked through the quiet London squares with the abstracted look of those whose minds are on higher things. No. Three Gowan Terrace, the home of Charlotte. Sample complete. Ready to continue?


What's up? What's up, everybody? Jason for jazby's case breaks calm 21 22 penini hoops basketball five box Break two round teams each number four just sold out. This is the last five boxes of the case No big rookie autographs pulled yet either, so I'm hoping we get definitely Definitely get some nice hits here remember 15 tol spots every a two-round teams in the NBA all-cards ship So let's do this and a palm run. I just don't want it to get hacked or something I'm used to guys some spam, but I don't care it might not let you so try to like You know change it like to AT instead of like the at and stuff like that like you know You know how this YouTube might not even lie All right, there you go. Let's let's dice roll it boom Five and one six times. Good luck Don't up the names one two three four five And six no foul time Six times six times anthony down to ea.  I mean I I've already I stayed an extra three hours today But no, I don't think it also won't go because um We still need to sell out spots um Straight up We still have six spots straight up and then we said to do another filler or two So no most likely maybe tomorrow But obviously no guarantee All right guys. All right. Good luck everybody. All right. Let's actually rip the boxes first thinking california the reason why hasn't been approved yet here is because Of all the uh indian reservations and stuff like that. I mean it eventually everything will get Legalized for sports betting and then every state will allow it. It's just a moneymaker. I mean It's just be real They just uh approved it in arizona like four or five months ago So arizona now can legally bet that's how people at draft king's headquarters work tops and uh Sweat have uh sweat have dance so corporate looks like I definitely think so ryan I always think I can pull everything I always accept the challenge. All right guys. So here we go five boxes. Good luck bobby portis It's up to you ryan. Do you want to go to sleep happy? Or go to sleep mad and then wake up happy You know watching the replay Kaminga had a great game today jaden springer lulu yoghach luga garza jalen johnson And keon johnson is our first autograph for the clip show I'll double check for redback right now every every time we finish the box jalen green oops Jamtastic shon kimp All right All right, buddy and a five out of ten. Is that like a gold? Is that bronze? It's like gold, right? Pat williams for the bulls Adam with that one Rolled to the finals devon booker to 2021 lulu jalen sucks I don't know really man. They always will Herbert's always gonna do good for you guys, but I just feel like your charges are just cursed so Get used to seeing harbert dominate, but Charges win. I don't know paul george deo Sharif cooper Reggie bullock Moises moody evan mogley Joel indeed and josh christopher Also, I did find a uh redback hootier In the first box. Let me see if I found another one. That's just the one What was that whole thing right up? Was he not playing with the broons? This season he just like came back out of like retirement or what? I don't I don't understand I seen he signed a year deal with him, but I thought was for like next year that he was already on the team Explain that to me. I mean, I guess I could always look it up, but I've just been paying attention to my king to really to be honest. They've just been rolling As of late teaching mcconnell brandon bosson jr What is moody? giddy up You know i'm gonna lock up the i g inventory unit thing I don't think so So he was a free agent and had surgery Right right am I is this correct? Calvin Murphy Gotcha I hope so too ray like I told people I'm excited during the playoffs Um, especially that they're rebuilding And so matters to make the playoffs Come back from a two and five season And uh, I won't be surprised if they win honestly, I won't be But I also won't be surprised if this I'm just having fun.  Why wouldn't he be starting? See ya Anthony Davis and a wiggins to 99 Oh, no, he had a bad ankle. Maybe what five six weeks ago He missed the game against the Jets But since then he's been five Yeah, he's he's good to go last week, uh The Eagles had like 12 people on covet So they kept them on the covet list and they played pretty much like third stringers and practice squad players against the cowboys so I mean, even though they put up a good fight in the first half, obviously You got players that are literally playing their first like NF first ever NFL game pretty much Or barely ever, you know, so That's why they got smoked But everybody's back even my sound is back too I guess he had surgery secretly after he broke his hand three weeks ago Because I guess they told him best option is for you is that if the eagles make the playoffs And you get surgery like today You should be good to go with no, you know, minimum restrictions to your hand To fix a little broken bone in his hand. I didn't even know that until today So he had the surgery like the day after the game and uh You know, he'd said it today and And yeah, he's good to go. So they should be pretty much at full strength I think of anything their defensive end. Josh sweat Has an illness. I don't know. They said it's not covet related because It's not covet, but he has like a little illness and He's the only one that is still questionable other than that. Everybody else is pretty good The ones that are going into the game a little banged up and out with cova problems is the bux to be honest garland jalen green and tomas an toranski hot signatures It's for the pelicans since you can see right there and they usually it tells you somewhere Uh, I guess this one doesn't tell you They don't tell you, you know traded to this team Well, it's my whole thing, right? Look at I know you guys are talking about Ryan, but tell me this I didn't really read about it.  Is that what happened? Well, that's kind of bs though. I can see why draft kings, uh, wouldn't want to pay people out Not trying to defend them in any way, but I can see why People should be that upset It's kind of like rigged So So what you're trying to say is they weren't quick enough, right?  I'm not saying anything. It's just saying that I can see why people are upset, but I can also see why draft kings is like, nah I'm gonna pay this out. But yeah, you're right They they should have they had the same information that all of you guys had so the fact that they didn't Uh close it or void it in time. Yeah, I guess they're at fault, right? I can see that I But if it took a couple days and they still paid out people then it's all good This is how I win Well, yeah, they probably knew they were gonna lose.  Let's go You know tough it is to pull one-on-one and poops EA with the T-wolves Oh, yeah, for sure I mean, honestly, I'm sure if you're a frequent better, uh, you probably bet on all these different websites You don't just stick to one the last box guys last box The cat's pretty nice. That's for sure All right, four autographs coolio Last box here Stop didn't have a big rookie autograph man. It's crazy James Harden Jaylin Johnson to one 99. It's nice though. That guy is disgusting Giddy up Yeah, well, you know, he'll have time to sign them now Kate Cunningham Whoa Wow that Kate Cunningham is a as a redback Nice, I didn't realize that until I turned it around Sarah with the Detroit Pistons Very nice That's actually pretty sweet. Okay. This box definitely did have some heat. This is the last five boxes Yolk itch another cage just a regular Barza I peed like at least four or five times today. I mean sitting down here drinking a lot of water is not a good thing I break I drink a lot of water Oh, nice. You did get a good rookie autograph Davion Mitchell solid. All right Sacramento king is going to Matthew.  Josh Giddy rookie ain't goes for like 300 dollars. Can you believe that 250 to 300? I was like, no People have a giddy up. That's right The hype is real on giddy People are paying $300 for that and Harrison Barnes to 75 Stuff curry Yeah, giddy is great dude. He's a baller Great passer man. You could dish it. That's right Beat all the mellows record giddy up SGA yesterday was making some people look silly on the nets Had a good day for basketball teams yesterday Kings did well for hockey Oregon upset UCLA. That was great Okay, see All right, here you go guys. So Davion Mitchell, you got the Kate Cunningham red back the one-of-one carlantini towns autographed keon johnson kevin murphy We've got tomas anteransky isiah thomas and we had of course a lot of rookies A lot of potential number cards World to the finals to top look for you guys. So I appreciate you guys. This was the last five boxes of hoops Uh five box break random teams number four If we do post a bit of them, it'll be from a fresh case jaspy's case breaks.com. Thank you guys You


Hi, during these trying times of the pandemic, the City of Columbia Parks and Recreation Department realizes that choices can be limited in enhancing one's physical, social, and mental well-being. The Parks and Recreation staff have been involved in developing a number of videos in which citizens can participate in and enjoy in the privacy of their own home. These videos consist of arts and crafts, gardening, physical activity, and sports instruction, with many more to come as we work through this pandemic. Our videos will be available to you on a number of our social media outlets. We hope you enjoy, and thank you very much. Hi, welcome back to the City of Columbia. Thanks for joining us again in our virtual videos. This is Lorek Park, and I'm Desha Marie Tisdale, Daisy, because that's a mouthful. Today, what I'm going to do is one of my favorite things to do, one of the things I've been doing a lot during the pandemic, and that is read a book. Just for fun, not because it's a school assignment or because somebody made you, and the one I picked today is Fly Guy Presents Castles. A boy had a pet fly named Fly Guy. Fly Guy could say the boy's name, Buzz. Buzz and Fly Guy were visiting a castle. Whoa, said Buzz, this place is amazing. Fly Guy wondered what it would be like to live in a castle, so they headed inside to find out. Castles are fancy homes. Castles are fortresses, too. They're designed to keep those inside safe. They have defenses like draw bridges and gates to keep enemies out. People have used forts for protection since ancient times, but the first true castles of Europe were built in 10th century France. That's more than a thousand years ago. I like it when you randomly learn something. Most of the castles we admire today were built in Europe during the Middle Ages, around 500 to 1500 AD. Here is one in France built around 950. The first castles built in France from earth and wood. Wood burns easily, so castles were soon built from stone. Most stone castles have walls that are at least eight feet thick. In 1066, William the Conqueror invaded England from France and became king. He started building the Tower of London as a large square stone fortress. In 1180, Dover Castle in England is one of the first concentric castles. That means one big ring of stone or wall is built around another wall. The Middle Ages also were called the medieval period. Between 1180 and the 1400s, many castles were built in France. These castles looked fancier than English castles. Many have tall, round towers with cone-shaped roofs. If an enemy wanted to take over an area of land, they had to take control of the castle on that land. Every part of a castle's ground was designed to keep the enemy from getting inside. This is called a parapet. It's a low wall around the top of the tower. The gatehouse is the main entrance, so it's like the front door. Except if your house has a front door and then say a foyer or another room before you get into the main part of the house. The watchtower is a lookout point. You guys could see for miles up there, because they're very high up in the sky. A keep is the castle's main building. That's where everyone would live. There's the tall hill and a moat, which is a deep ditch around the castle, and it's often filled with water. And back then you know it wasn't clean. Outer curtain is the outer wall, and the inner curtain is the inner wall. That's pretty self-explanatory. We're good with that one. Castles were often attacked, so they had many defenses built into their walls. A drawbridge could be raised to block enemies for entering the castle. A portcullis is the heavy wooden or metal gate. It was lowered to keep enemies out. Roofs were made of slate or tile to protect the castle from flaming arrows. Please do not shoot flaming arrows at your neighbors to see if their roofs are made of slate or tile. Cranals were tooth-like gaps in the parapet. Guards could keep an eye out for attackers, and murder holes were holes in the ceiling. Guards used them to shoot arrows or boil or pour boiling water or hot sand on enemies' heads. An arrow loop or arrow slit was thin vertical slit in the castle wall, so guards could safely shoot arrows at their enemies. So they would stand behind and then just shoot out of that little crevice so that they had cover, but the enemy didn't. Attackers used different weapons to try to take control of the castle. A mongo was a catapult. It was used to throw heavy objects at castle walls.  That could throw a lot of poop. Yuck.  It was used to launch sharp, heavy darts at a target. And a battering ram was a hanging tree trunk that attackers slammed into the castle's wooden gates. A siege tower was a tall wooden tower with wheels. Men pushed it close to the castle so they could climb over the wall, so they actually built on wheels like an early version of a tank, basically, like the Trojan horse. They were inside and they pushed it up so they could get over it. Life inside a castle depended on who you were. The king and queen ruled over everyone in the country, and there was a lot of land to protect, so the king often gave land to a rich friend called the Lord. As the king's friend, the Lord was allowed to build a castle to protect that land. The Lord and Lady lived in one of the castle's towers, and their children learned to read and write. Boys might learn to play an instrument, ride horses, fly hawks, or play chess. And girls learned to sing, sew, and help run the household. I would have been bad at pretty much all of the girl things back then. They wouldn't know what to do with me. Singing is not something I can do. Knights also lived in the castle. They worked for the ruler to defend the castle. A boy began training at age seven. That's the same age as some of you. And then when he became 21, he became a knight. See, a ruler would tap the young man on the shoulders with the flat side of his sword to make him a knight. And they still do that in some countries, like in the U.K. where they have a queen. Some people are still knighted, but it's not quite the same ceremony. And it doesn't hold quite the same responsibility. Knights rode horses into battle. They practiced their skills by jousting. Two knights raced towards each other, carrying long wooden poles called lances. Each knight tried to knock the other off of his horse first. I recall my brothers and sisters and I doing something similar, and we got into a lot of trouble, so don't do that.  Won't work. A coat of arms let others know. Which king or lord the knight fought for? See that on his tunic here? His is a unicorn, so that symbol shows which group he belongs to. Their helmets were metal, and their male armor was a layer of tiny, linked metal rings arrows couldn't poke through.  It usually came down to about mid-five. Knights had a shield and a sword, and a dagger, shorter than the sword that was used for stabbing. A full suit of armor weighed as much as three bowling balls, so you're walking around with all of that gear on all day in the heat, in the snow, in the cold. Servants and other workers lived in the castle too. This included kitchen workers, gardeners, blacksmiths, tailors, priests, doctors, gestures, or other entertainers. The blacksmith made horseshoes, tools, nails, and weapons. The tailor made clothing from wool or silk. The gesture told jokes and played instruments, sang, juggled, and did magic tricks. Many pets lived in castles. Cats kept rats in mice away. Falcons or hawks were trained to catch small animals. Pigeons sometimes carried messages to other castles. Where I'm from in New York, pigeons just stand on the sidewalk and pretend like you're not trying to get through. Dogs, such as beagles, were used to hunt rabbits. Horses were used for travel, battles, hunts, and farm work. Flies lived in castles too. Like I said, back then sanitation, not a real big thing. Most parts of a castle were crowded shared spaces. Only the ruling family had its own rooms. These rooms smelled good because fresh herbs hung from the wall so they would actually go out and cut the herbs that they grew and hang them to let them dry so they can smell them. Sometimes maybe your mom or grandma will have potpourri or something like that in your house. The castle toilet was called a garter robe. It was wooden or stone with a hole in the middle. Waste fell down a chute and no one liked shoveling it out, but someone had to do it. This person was called the gong farmer. That does not sound pleasant. Does that sound like something one of y'all would like to know that all, not even a little bit. No. The dungeon was often at the very bottom of the castle below the basement. Some dungeons were rooms in high towers and prisoners were held here. The only way in or out was through a trap door in the floor. Celebrations were held in the castle's main room. That was called the great hall. Fish from fish ponds or the moat might be served at the feast along with beef and lamb. Wild birds would be baked into pies. You might have heard some nursery rhymes about that. Desserts included custards and fruit tarts, and they were usually sweetened with honey. Food was eaten off plates made of wood or pottery, and they were called trenches. Sometimes stale pieces of bread were used. Everyone had a spoon and a knife, but back then there were no forks. Who eats forks? There are castles and buildings all around the world. Many of them were built after the Middle Ages. The Kremlin in Russia has five palaces and four cathedrals. Haimji Castle in Japan is known as White Ygret Castle. It looks like a beautiful bird, and someone who knows how to pronounce that properly, please comment and let me know. I know I butchered it. I'm so sorry. Alcazar de Segovia in Spain looks like the bow of a ship, and the Chateau de Villange in France is famous for its gardens. The Red Fort in India is named for its red sandstone walls. Castles are everywhere. Castles have inspired many works of artists and authors. This castle in Germany inspired the artist Walt Disney to build Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disneyland Park. Brian Castle in Romania is also called Dracula's Castle. Bram Stoker wrote Dracula in 1897, and many people believe this castle was his inspiration. Castles today are often museums. Some are still home to modern families. Frog Castle is home to the Czech president. Windsor Castle is the oldest in the world to still have people living in it. At Blarney Castle visitors kiss the Blarney Stone. My sister's been there. They actually have to hold you upside down over a ledge in order to kiss the stone, and she did it. It's supposed to be good luck. There's even a castle in New York City. Belvedere Castle is actually a weather station. That's where I'm from. See we have castles too. It was fun to learn about castles Buzz told Fly Guy. It's even more fun to make our own. See they're at the beach making their sand castles. Buzz and Fly Guy could not wait for their next field trip, and that was Fly Guy Presents Castles, and I know it was pretty long, but I hope you were interested or at least interested enough to get creative. So what I'd like to see and you can send us a comment or a picture on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, or Instagram. We are all connected and show me what you can come up with. This is what I came up with. Got a little creative. I tried to only use materials you could find at home or the Dollar Tree. I did not have little gnomes, but I thought they deserved to live in this cute little polka dot castle. That's my favorite. I actually used an old gift bag to cover up a box and some toilet paper tubes. This box was one big box and I know you've probably been getting a lot of boxes lately, a lot of things delivered, especially during the pandemic and right now during Christmas. So make sure you save those boxes so you can do something creative with them yourself. We're going to, I'm going to show you some of the other things that you can use at home to make your own castle. And the first and most important thing to remember though is to ask your parents before you start touching anything. So here are some of the supplies that you can use to make your very own castle at home or work with a partner. These are just some boxes that I actually found at a store. Sometimes if you go to a store or your parents are out while you're safe at home and they're unloading, they will let you have the boxes for free and they come in all different sizes. This is just an old ice cream box, some tissue paper, scissors, glue. These little guys, I got at the Dollar Tree, tape, which you probably have a lot of around your house right now. Like I said, I covered the other castle with an old gift bag. And these, I drew the bricks directly on. As you can see, I'm still working on this one, but it is made all out of cereal boxes. And I know you've got some of these at home. And yes, in case you didn't know, do come with marshmallows now and they are delicious. Birthday hats, popsicle sticks, brown paper, twine. And don't forget your book. If you know what book you think we should read next, go ahead and leave that there. If you know a different craft or art project that we could do with the same book, you can let us know. 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