All right, good, good afternoon everybody. My name is Yemi Babintin-Ashay. I'm a director at the World Economic Forum. Thank you so much for joining us today for what promises to be an exciting, unexciting announcement for the continent of Africa. With me, if you allow me to please introduce our panelists today. We have Mamadou Bite, who is the head of Rockefeller Foundation for Africa. We have James Mwangi, who is the head of Dahlberg for Africa as well. Global. Global, forgive me, forgive me. I'm so sorry. We have Mr. James Mwangi, who's the CEO of Dahlberg globally. Thank you very much. And then we also have Mr. T. Schieda, who is the director of projects for the export trading group based in Maputo Mozambique. Yes. All right, thank you so much. All right, without further ado, I know we need to get straight to business. I also want to welcome our live audience online. We have typically a few hundreds of people watching. We have a special announcement. I'd like to invite Mr. Mamadou Bite to please share with us. Okay. Thank you very much, Yemi. Ladies and gentlemen of the press, dear viewers, thank you very much for joining us today for this exciting announcement. The Rockefeller Foundation, Dahlberg Global Development Advisers, represented here at my left by James Mwangi and IITA, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, announcing a joint cassava innovation challenge. The challenge will provide up to one million dollar in grants to global innovations that enhance the shelf life of cassava in Nigeria and around the globe. Earlier this year, and during the Global Forum, the Global Forum for Innovation in Agriculture in Abu Dhabi, we announced the cassava innovation challenge and our pledge to launch it this month. Well, here we are proud to be here today as a culmination of all that preparation. Why cassava? Earlier this year, we announced the yield-wise initiative at Davos. Our $130 million initiative that aims to reduce food loss by 50% by 2030. Nigeria is one of the focus countries for the initiative and cassava, one of our focus crops under the roots and tubers crop categories, in part because how it is handled in the post harvest process. Cassava is grown mostly for subsistence and is the main source of calories for over 500 million people and providing a source of livelihood for about 300 million others across Sub-Saharan Africa. The crop has enormous commercial potential. Its derivatives can be used in dozens of industries from food production to pharmaceuticals to bioethanol, which remains largely intact in Sub-Saharan Africa. Capitalizing on its industrial potential would generate additional income for smallholder farmers, drive domestic industrial growth and job creation and reduce reliance on imported commodities like wheat, starch and ethanol. Commercial production of cassava is properly organized, if properly organized would uplift the economic and social well-being of thousands of rural communities and contribute to national food security in affected countries. Despite the enormous economic potential, post harvest losses have plagued various stages of its supply chain, I mean cassava supply chain. Take Nigeria for example, the largest producer of cassava globally, yet post harvest losses are estimated at 40 percent. 40 percent of all cassava produced in Nigeria is lost every year and with an estimated economic value of 850 million dollars a year. Of this amount, approximately 35 percent is lost in the form of, is lost in the form of Garry during marketing. 24 percent is lost fresh at the farm gate. Another 24 percent is lost fresh during processing. 10 percent is lost as Garry during processing and 5 percent is lost as starch during storage and processing. Such high losses are driven by the nature of the cassava crop. It has a short shelf life of 24, 48 hours after harvest, requiring rapid access to markets for the fresh produce or for processing. These losses are further exacerbated by lack of effective infrastructure to enable efficient handling and transportation. Recently, Nigeria's processors are experiencing an upsurge in demand for cassava derivatives by large commercial conglomerates serving the regional markets. Which promises to revolutionize cassava as a new cash crop for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. It's a great opportunity. However, the farmers are unable to meet the latent demand as the short shelf life, poor infrastructure and even lack of awareness on impeding issues increases the cost and complexity of securing a consistent supply from smallholder farmers. With only 10 percent of Nigeria's cassava currently being processed, there is a huge potential to capitalize on their proven success in production driven by smallholder farmers to encourage the processing of value added products like cassava chips, cassava starch and cassava flour among others. In keeping with the foundation's rich history in innovation, we are excited to invest in a challenge that will provide financial and technical support, both financial and technical support to novel solutions from across the world to tackle one or more of the following barriers, three areas we are focusing on. First is access to existing cassava varieties. Through cassava varieties with extended shelf life exists. Farmers have little access and knowledge about them. So there is an issue of awareness of what is already out there. And this is due to lack of reliable commercial supply system in Nigeria. So it's not really reaching them. Number two, we are also focusing on effective preservation between harvest and processing. Inefficient harvesting, as well as poor handling storage and transport, usually damages roots or leaves them exposed and reduces starch content and shelf life. And third, the one challenge is the distant and inefficient processing. The available cassava processors are located far from the farm and used in efficient manual peeling methods. So how can we also bring processing closer to the farm and produce? So the challenge winners will also receive technical assistance in business development and product design to catalyze and scale innovations at the intersection of agriculture and technology. Through the challenge, we aim to galvanize solutions that could revolutionize the cassava industry in Nigeria and globally, improve food security in the country and the region, and yield economic benefits to small older farmers. So my friend here, James Mwangi from Dalberg, who have been partnering with us in developing this challenge, will give you more detail about how this challenge works. Thank you very much. That is fantastic. I hope you got the story. I'd like to understand, is each grant a million dollars? No, it's a total price of one million, a really to support the winning solution, but James will give you more detail. Maybe James, if you can just please share with us, why are you on board? Thank you very much, Mamadou, and thank you, Yemi. And once again, my name is James Mwangi. I'm executive director of the Dalberg Group. And on behalf of Dalberg, it is a real pleasure and a privilege to be partnering with Rockefeller on this initiative. Dalberg over the last few years has worked extensively on questions in the agricultural space, looking at a range of actors and helping improve agricultural performance across Africa, and increasingly with a particular focus on Nigeria because of its large population size. It's increasing focus on agriculture and the huge potential for agricultural processing in the country. Working with the Rockefeller Foundation on the yield-wise initiative, it provides an opportunity to take a new approach to creating partnerships and starting to address some of the issues we've heard from Mamadou about how much of Africa's agricultural produce is actually lost between the farm and the consumer. Specifically, we are now working on this Kassava Innovation Challenge. Again, targeting the question of food loss, where Rockefeller has been a real leader in trying to come up with innovative solutions to actually not only just increase yields across Africa, but address the fact that so much of Africa's agricultural yield is lost before it's ever consumed. And so with an eye to Kassava specifically, we are launching this challenge officially today. And those wishing to enter the challenge will be able to find information on it on the Rockefeller website, www.rockefellerfoundation.org. And it is open for applications until the 8th of July, 2016, so just over two months or so. The application form is going to be quite simple, two pages, looking at basic information on the applicants and organizations rather than individuals. So rather, looking at basically for mission from the applicants. Organizations rather than individuals are eligible to apply. And there will be a lot of information on the rules and eligibility criteria on the website. I do want to say that intriguing thing here is less about, I mean, it's a substantial price, but we're trying to be innovative by saying, let's actually not just pick one or two solutions that we're aware of. If we look at the questions around the varieties of Kassava, the questions of preservation, the questions of distance and inefficient processing, how do we actually attract innovators and entrepreneurs from around the world, innovative organizations from around the world to bring their best ideas to the fore and that the best ideas, the highest performing ideas, win. In that, we will be working very closely with our partners at IITA and with ourselves at Dauburg. And we have deep experience, both in the agricultural sector in general and in the unique challenges of Kassava in particular. And also applying that specifically to Nigeria. Again, Nigeria is a critical market. Kassava is the crop, but the idea is really tracking innovations that may be applied elsewhere on completely unrelated areas but could meaningfully have impact on the Kassava question. After the initial applications, we'll inform the successful applicants by the end of July, 31st of July, and they will be invited to submit a full application. At that point, we will then run a process until August. By the 26th of August, we'll expect to get full applications from our finalists. And we hope to announce the challenge winners in October of 2016. Our fervent hope is that we will get a real diversity of applications in the coming months, across different kinds of business models, organization types, solution approaches, and so on, to really raise the returns that we're getting off of this crucial crop across Africa. That's fantastic. Thank you so much, James. Okay. I already have questions. I'm sure you do too. But before we dig in, I'd love to invite Sridhar as an export trading organization. You're clearly one of the stakeholders of what this challenge is working on. It'd be great to hear your perspectives. Thank you, Yemi, for giving me an opportunity to present this case here. Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am Sridhar. I am, ladies and gentlemen, sorry I missed you. Sorry. Yeah, we have a few ladies here. You can see on the camera, hi, ladies. But we do have both ladies and gentlemen. Yes, please. More ladies than gentlemen. Okay. I missed it. That's fine. I'm Sridhar, a director of projects from ETG, a conglomerate involved in agriculture procurement, processing, transportation, import, export, and distribution. A complete value chain of agricultural commodities. We handled approximately 5 million tons of commodities last year. Incidentally, cassava is the second most consumed and cultivated crop in Africa. And that did find that much important place in that 5 million tons, what we moved. Because of problems, what they are, they have come up to address today. That's one of the biggest challenges we have in this product, particular product. It has a peculiarity it has a peculiarity by itself. The crop can remain under the ground for four years, no issues. But once you harvest it, it stays alive for only 48 hours. So, it is not like any other commodities where we use the hub and spoke operations where you need to procure goods, store it in a place, accumulate it, move it. We can't do this here. Both myself as an operator and the farmer as an engineer, look at each other with desperation. We can't do anything about this crop. But this is the major crop in Africa. Cassava has such a kind of importance in Africa, not only I'll tell you, if you look at the case, cassava defines the poverty of a country. This is what I will sell. In Africa, the cassava productivity is approximately 10 tons barring Nigeria where they are far ahead. Other countries, they are approximately 10 tons. The countries are in poverty. In Latin America, the productivity of cassava is approximately 15 tons per hectare. They are food self-sufficient. In Far East Asia and India, if you look at it, the yield per hectare of cassava is between 25 to 45 tons. Unbelievable. And they are in the field. It has transformed them. A simple equation, cassava in the hands, if he gets 10 tons a hectare, his annual income is $500. If the farmer is able to get 25 tons, it becomes $3,500. That's the difference. The farmer is not able to produce, is not willing to produce, because there's no buyer. I'm not buying because I can't process it. I can't move it. The logistics are a big problem. The solution, where to find? Cassava, we as industrial people, we have normally no where the demand comes from. What the industrial future is? Where to put our money? We look at cassava as a very, very strategic product in our list of products what we handle. However, we are perplexed how to handle it. The latest study by McKinsey, the lines on the move, talked about an immense migration, urban migration of African population leading to middle income growth. That means middle income population growth in Africa, which is non-existent at present stages. What it implies, a middle income group comes into a continent means they don't want to go to the basic food materials. They need a semi-processed or a processed food. And Africans have been eating cassava for long and they love the product. How to process it and make it semi-processed, make it available to them. There is going to be a very great demand. Forget about export of cassava starch to Europe, cassava chips for animal feed to Africa, China, forget it. The cassava is going to be the basic food need and that has to be circulated within Africa. We need to process it, but we have an impediment of not able to process it, not able to procure it and move it. The logistics is an impediment. Here only, I stand up and salute Rockefeller Foundation for throwing open this challenge fund. It is going to induce people. Put up some idea. Think about it. Bring out something. I will cite one example of it which we take for granted. When innovation comes, we don't recognize how it comes, where it came, what is the use of it. We all love to eat cone ice cream. Before 1904, cone ice cream was used to be served in cups, glass cups, plastic cups or some way. In 1904, at St. Louis Food Fair, World Fair, one gentleman called Ernest Humvee was selling ice cream. He ran out of the cups. He didn't know what to do. Next to him, another guy was selling, what do you call, waffles. He ran to him, picked up waffles, made a cone, packed ice cream and gave it. People eat ice cream along with the waffles. We don't know how much that one single act has changed the society. Forget about all other things. Garbage. The kind of garbage it would have generated, it has solved that one single idea. That is what we are looking at as the response from the people, individuals, institutions, organizations, scientists, whosoever it may be. The challenge is open. It's like a lottery ticket, gentlemen. You provide an idea, you get a million dollars. courtesy Rockefeller Foundation. Thank you, sir. That is brilliant. Thank you so much. And I request at the end of this, I make one small request to my press fraternity. Kindly spread this message. We do not know where that earnest who is going to give the solution is sitting in, which country, which village, we do not know. Like Rockefeller Foundation, we as a guys, a commodity guy who is interested in cassava, earnestly looking for that earnest here to come out with a solution and addresses. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, ladies. Thank you so much for that. Thank you. He corrected himself there. That's brilliant. Okay. Do we have questions? If you have a questions, I can see hands. Very good. We'll come to you shortly. I have a couple of questions first. And James, for you, just a clarification. Applicants can come from any country? Anywhere in the world. Yes. Okay. Wow. All right. Fantastic. Thank you. Second question to clarify. Mamadi. You talked about the the estimated value of crops that are lost in Nigeria, cassava, at about 850 million. Now, that's Nigeria alone. So other producers, surely the number will add up to several billions. You know, what you need to know is that here, cassava is the largest produced crop in Africa. So, and this is not just in Nigeria, but Nigeria is the biggest one. Okay. So the aggregate goes to several billions. And which actually, if you compare to the billions, 43 billions that we spend every year to import food on the continent. So we are focusing where the losses are highest in Nigeria. But this solution eventually will trickle down to all cassava producing countries on the continent and beyond. That is brilliant. I've got my marching orders. That sounds compelling enough for me. The deadline is the 8th of July, 2016. So we have just under eight weeks to solve a multi-billion-dollar problem. To clarify, Yemi, that's a deadline for the initial application. I know, I know. It's a deadline for the first phase. We'll get the winners in October. But if you don't get in the first phase, well, the train has left the station. So you have less than eight weeks. Now, we need to help people who want to apply. So I'm sure you have questions that can help them understand this and questions that can help you write stories. Can we get a microphone, please, to the gentleman in the front? Thank you. My name is Niyi Adeyubibi. I'm from the Nair of Africa. Your microphone is closer to your mouth, please. Okay. I'm Niyi from the Nair of Africa. I want to ask, we've talked about the challenges and the specific types of innovation you're looking at for the challenge. Who wants to take that? No, I can take that. And we have identified a number of challenges that are driving loss in the cassava. As we said, one is around planting materials because this can be improved to actually address also the shelf life. That's one area. And as we said earlier, some research has already done some progress on that. And some of these types of planting materials are available, but not getting into the hands of the farmers. So that is also one other challenge. And the other one is around preservation. Their technology is actually that can help increase the shelf life during storage. What those solutions are? Are they chemical? Are they mechanical? Which ones are they? The other area is addressing the transportation or processing. How do you get processing closer to the product? Because the other thing that we need to know is that cassava is highly comprised of water. Over 70% is water. So basically transporting cassava is also an inefficiency because you are virtually paying to transport water. So one of the things is when you bring processing closer to the farm, then also that is one of the aspects of addressing not just the shelf life issue, but also efficiency around handling the product in the value chain. So it's solutions that would help address the issue around those three main areas that are mostly driving the loss. Thank you. Okay. Can we just, I think we should take a few questions because I saw some hands earlier. So if you have a question, I'd like to see your hand. Get a microphone there please. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Harriet. I work for Channel Salvation Lagos, Nigeria. My question is general and still an offshoot from what you asked. The challenge you say is open to everybody, but what would be used, would everybody be given a fair chance to show what form of innovation it is that they have that want to present for us to preserve cassava? All right. Thank you. That's a great question. I want to see if there's another question to take at this time. If you have a question, thank you. Can we get a mic there please? Hi. I'm Kanika Seigl from African Business Magazine. I just had a simple question, just wanting to ask, why is the challenge open to institutions as opposed to individuals? Great question. I'm happy to take one more because we're short on time. So if you do have a burning question that will help get the story out, please put your hand up. Okay. Let's go with those two questions. So first question, will people have a fair chance to show what kind of solutions and models they're proposing? I think that's a great question. I think the commitment that we have as Dalberg with our partners at IITA is we will be focusing on the underlying facts. So we'll be looking at the actual concept of the idea and the actual measurable impact it can have. So really the question of who you are is not the question of who you are the question. It's really about what is the measurable impact that you can potentially have. And that's where the technical expertise both around understanding the market but also understanding the crop and the details around the nature of the crop will be applied to assessing each idea. Great. Thank you very much. So the second question, I know who wants that, why is this open to institutions and not individuals? Okay. This is mostly related to how we can actually, when we have the solution, work it. Because one of the ways is also that the solution needs to be, we would like it to be institutionalized if you wish. And we know that the innovation might come from individuals as well. But how these individuals who have great ideas can also work with institutions that can provide the platform for really driving the solutions the solution further. So individuals can also work with institutions to participate in this. It's not exclusive. Thank you very much. We have another question. Monsieur Petier, just in relation to the comment that you just made, what happens if an individual in a village somewhere comes up with a great idea? How can they be assured that they'll get a cut? Because, you know, we do hear of big corporates taking ideas and then usurping them. And yeah, and then the individual doesn't get a cut. Okay. Who would like to take that question? Or do we have another question? Because we're running short of time. Okay. I think it's a great question. How can we guarantee, I guess, effectively the intellectual property of the person with the idea? Mm-hmm. No, I think that's a very, very, very important question. And this is a, we would like also to really ensure that where the ideas come, because we will be looking at the origination of the idea as well. But as Jim said, we will, initially, there are different criterias to choose. The choice of the solution will depend on the impact and the solution, certain characteristics associated with the idea. But once we actually select or the jury, let me say, that will be put in place, selects the best idea, then actually there is a whole process that we will go through. And I can guarantee that in this process, we will make sure that everyone who is associated with this actually will be recognized. So, yes. Okay. Thank you so much. We have precious little time left. There will be time to interact with them once we are done. So this is an advantage you have for being physically here, as opposed to our audience online. At this point, I'd like to invite our panelists to please maybe share some closing thoughts, if we can brief just so that we can let everybody go on time. Maybe about 60 seconds each, if you like. See that? Yeah. I will reiterate the points which I made again on that. We as a people who are in the industry who see this potential an African made to be served in Africa, but there is no way we can do it when we are looking at a peculiar situation. This kind of a fund which is coming in, giving a grant, giving a challenge fund to open up some ideas, break up some brilliant things to come out. It's a wonderful thing can happen. And I request all the people to take part. They need to propagate the message first. We do not know where from the idea will come, which will be a million dollar idea. That's what. Brilliant. Thank you very much. James. I think for my part, it's to emphasize two things. I think that the very nature of innovation is that often it comes from sectors that haven't been directly involved in an area of finally paying attention to it. And we hope that people in other geographies or other sectors, once they understand some of the challenges around Kassava, we'll find that some of the tools and capabilities that they've been building, in the way that the waffle cone, for example, came about, we'll see that there are applications to what they've been doing in the Kassava space. So the wider the group and the net that we cast the better, that does demand then that our due diligence and our evaluation of ideas be both broad minded, fair and factual. And I think there's been a number of questions raised about that. And we're being very careful to construct a process that's really about digging into and understanding the idea and really assessing its value and testing its viability. But in that process, of course, it'll give us real clarity on who came up with the idea and who's working on it. So we will have a lot of visibility into the idea and we'll work very hard to make sure that this, if it's going to work as an incentive for the future, it needs to encourage new people to bring ideas. That doesn't happen if we end up recognizing the wrong person or recognizing something that doesn't work. So we're very much focused on exactly working hard to do our due diligence, get down to the right person and act and recognize the right thing. Thank you very much. After, of course, thanking very much our partners, particularly Dahlberg and IITA and Shree. I would like, and of course, the World Economic Forum for facilitating this. I would like to say that humanity has always find ways to address the biggest challenges that it has faced. That's also part of human history. And I think that we have come to a place where actually, with growth of population and the challenge around prosperity, the challenge around health, the challenge around sustainability and environment really posh harvest loss becomes one of the biggest and most serious issues of our time. A long overlooked problem. And particularly for Africa. Most of us would think that if you think about food security challenges on the continent, you would think that Africa has a gap in production. By the way, that is not true. Africa produces more than its needs. Africa produces a surplus of 30%. But we face those challenges because 60% of that production is lost. And that cassava is the biggest driver for that. I spoke earlier about the importance of that crop in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere also in the world. So addressing the main challenge, not the only, but the main challenge around cassava which is its shelf life will have the huge impact. I think that it's an idea, a challenge that is beyond one million dollar. It's an incentive. It's something that will help work the solution. But I think really the biggest price is the impact that the solution will make to the continent and to humanity. So thanks also ladies and gentlemen from the press for really spreading the world. Thank you so much Mamadou. Thank you very much. All right. The ball is in your court. Members of the fourth estate. I would like to thank our panelists. I'd like to thank especially of course the Rockefeller Foundation. I of course have to correct myself at least twice. So the first correction is of course James the CEO of Dalberg, Executive Director. I'd like to thank of course Sridhar who's the Director of Projects at ETG and Mamadou who is the Managing Director for the Africa Region and Rockefeller Foundation. The second correction is I invited you here to discuss a million dollar challenge. It's obviously a multi-billion dollar challenge. So thank you for your attention. We understand now as Sridhar pointed out that this is also a mystery an agricultural mystery where something can stay in good condition for four years on the ground and then within 48 hours it perishes. So you can call it a conspiracy theory of sorts but we're all together now to try and unlock one of the largest agricultural constraints to Africa's growth. Thank you so much for joining us.


Hello and welcome back to the craft box. My name is Brenton today. We're in episode 18 nearly forgot there 18 of the pirate 101 privateer series last time if you haven't checked it out already we Made it into cool ranch. We did up. We defeated a whole bunch of guys and Today we are continuing looking for Mary with a clerk I talked to this guy off camera just before we started because he kind of spoke to me before Like as soon as I landed here He basically just said our chief has him. It doesn't really matter. We're not listening to dialogue, but I leveled up to level 17 Which is fantastic Couldn't get any spells. I went over to see Commodore couldn't get anything but we get two things next level, which is great Leveled up all of the companions. They're all level 14 now And we are heading on in to This tent the bison lodge amazing Switched up the order just a bit. We're now rolling with Emmet just for that heel As soon as he's promoted, which I'll do Probably off camera. So before the first episode next week I'll get him up promoted just so we don't have to wait around for that forever So, yeah Here we go Let's do this. Oh two people. Okay two v two. Um We'll do that for sure Buccaneer and musketeer. Okay, we should be fine. Um, yeah, let's do this. This should be fun Um, so yeah level 17 fantastic. Um, we're actually leveling up really quick at the moment, which is great. Oh slow down Quite significantly soon. Oh three v two. Thank you, Billy. Um, I'm gonna go for you You hold him over there. Um, I'm gonna smite this kid Glancing blow me get nice But um, I'm still considering whether I'm gonna go more of a Um, Starfy witch doctor. I'm I'm not Starfy witch doctor. Starfy um privateer. I might just because Naturally everything we get boosts will and that might be quite handy Um, also it means I can crit on people who Like who I wouldn't normally crit on like Like this guy here and this guy because they wouldn't you they don't typically have a lot of will Look at this all the crits. Yes, this crit bubble amazing. Um, so good Um, so yeah, I might I might start doing that um from Level 20 on this. Oh my god. Look at that. Look at that. He's just destroyed Usually he's the last one I destroy as well because he takes forever, but we got him out first is amazing Um, yeah, we're gonna do that. Um, could have probably put a Armor on none and none and because he's taken a bit of damage, but Yeah, we might put an armor on him Um, what are you doing here? Okay Yeah, I might put an armor just because I mean these guys don't have too much health, but Well, he'll be fine for a bit Yeah, he'll be fine. Well, we can do this. We can do this Blocked. Okay. Here's a lot of block though. Like that's kind of surprising. Yeah, go for me. That's a good idea What why why milly why why would you do that? I don't understand you. Oh, well, we'll just keep smashing him a bit Um, he's half health, which is good and There we go. Keep going Okay, we will heal He'll or nah, he'll be fine. He should be fine We should be fine He can't do like He can't do 187 and one hit. This isn't balance here part two Yeah, sweet fantastic. Okay. That was not too bad. I think there's another one But um, we'll find out in just a sec We'll fling this intruder all the way back to the city of the claw feet Yep, we're definitely fighting another one. I like how the quest era was like the question mark is where do we go? Who knows where's fun to who knows? Um, okay two again. We can do this. Um What are you you okay? They're both the same this time. We'll do this again It seemed to work out last time. So we'll just continue um Especially for me it worked out may not work out this time just because These guys are buccaneers blocked nice And okay, you just kind of chill in here for a good day They have relentless. This is where we start getting relentless and it's Well, we start seeing relentless and it's kind of annoying. Um, I'm going to go up there and do I'm actually we might just both focus on him for a bit We probably won't crit as much this time. Um, those crits last time was so crazy. They what? They should all try and hit me Um, so saying that he didn't but that's cool. We might the armor on No, no, no Millie comes up. It'd be great. We might actually bomb Just because we have both of them here might as well, you know Didn't crit which is obscene, but should be fine Okay Oh There we go Millie's here fantastic. Um I want to do this we can get an extra hit on him if we Do that would be good No, it's okay. That's fine. He's not even half healthy. These guys have a lot of armor. So Yeah, they also dodge a lot which is not good I mean, I've been dodging a lot as well, which is a surprise um Yeah, we should be fine.  Um, I am going to Both hurt Just because we can okay. We killed with me. That's fine Okay Again nice I'm really considering going kind of as a will Driven musket here. I think that might be good. Oh, nice This crit we've seen all day from none or none, which is good. Okay. Look at that amazing Okay, cool um How much of one two one we should be fine for next this round at least Oh, look at that nice place. What are you doing? Millie?   Um I'm gonna do this just so Millie can get through if she needs to If she chooses to oh no, we didn't trick him. I'm like, well, maybe we trick him into like not knowing that it's common And it comes anyway See there we go Millie Dodge nice attack Okay, fantastic easy peasy One chest eight xp pretty shit, but that's fine. The stranger has fought with bravery and honor My eyes see him When the spirits are at peace the claw foot clock will go free Okay, so by bringing me the sacred charm Yeah, we have to basically before you go So kind of like the whole reason why we're here is we need to get the next map piece and clock Father went to has one. Um, but we don't know Okay, um, oh really up to this but okay, that's cool. I didn't realize this was so soon. Jeez Um, it's all moving so quickly. I'll be back once I've collected the Location um, so I'll be back in just a bit Okay, I am Back um That was hard. Um got it first time, which is great, but um, yeah battles in here are kind of hard Um, yeah, so we'll see how we go at this Um, we found out that there is a secret ranch that they have which is here obviously because that's where I am um And basically this is a dungeon that is I don't know how long it is, but we two of our companions died none of an egg Yeah, they kind of got bombarded. Yeah, that's don't want to talk about it. They crit a lot. I'll just say that Um, but yeah, we should be fine. Hopefully You looking for trouble little pirate? Well, you found it. Um, okay Well then, uh, who do we have? We have all the privateers fantastic Um, we will do you we will Slow you too. Sure. We will do you and we will just chill for a sec. We'll do another will buff. Um, afterwards just for The sake of I still don't know what in it uses. I think it's a jelly But I could be wrong um Yeah I know Monkey uses will an unpushable jack uses will as well. So we'll see So yeah, these guys crit a lot all the ones on the boats did. Um, I don't know if it's the same here They did we'll use this one Move you up because you have a limited range we'll move You up there and you up there. We'll just kind of keep them together. I suppose. Um Hopefully so we can keep the enemy together a bit more would be good Who knows Also means they're in range of healing at all times um Okay, he's going on a lot. He's going out by himself. I might send jack over here They're just taking their time to get here.  You can go for you and so can monkey And you can go I really don't like these guys, but I'm gonna wait until They get I get into their overwatch range So they don't overwatch me just because overwatch is annoying and I mean, let's not take unnecessary damage here Okay, fantastic. Oh, there we go both of them are surviving Good job Okay, maybe attacking him wasn't the best idea I didn't realize he had quick draw didn't see that That's fine Okay, that should be fine If this goes well, I might um swap out the others for justice team Um, because I mean, I really like this team. It it seems to be working. So I mean if something's working We'll just continue doing what it's doing Um, it's changing it to something that failed before, you know Um, yeah Companions are very You have to like this Yeah, it kind of takes a while on the new character to kind of suss out exactly who you want that.  Um, okay, cool. You're on our range now. Great. We can hit you Um, okay What do you have you have double top overwatch?  Maybe should have focused on the buccaneers, but that's fine Mega that'd be nice. No, okay. Yes, that's fine Epic nice fantastic No dodge unlucky. Epic nice Hopefully we get a lot of crits would oh super. Oh my gosh. That's good. That's really good I'm impressed with that one. He's gonna vengeance. No, he doesn't have vengeance his first strike. I think he is first strike. Okay Epic nice Okay, we're getting all these crits. I think I might go will if just because there's So few people who we face that are either privateers or Witch doctors that I think it's just better Because yeah, we're gonna do that. I think that's a good idea. Millie. Hello. Um What are we gonna do? Let's do this and that sounds like a great idea.  We'll heal next with Emma and me team heal Hopefully we can get Maybe I should have focused on one of the buccaneers a bit more. Oh, well, that's fine Oh, okay. Jack's dead. Okay. Bye They crit so much It was in it, um, okay Okay, that was good one down two down. Okay two to go. Um We'll go for you I'll go for you. We'll get at least one of them out if not both. You never know Who we're gonna get out they may block. Nope super nice Okay, fantastic and This guy here is toast. Okay, cool Nice nice, um Mix battle Boop boop boop boop boop What do we got next boys? We're going in here.  I found you first. Um, okay. Who do we want to go for? Oh Let's do this We'll move you up. We'll um, I mean Also, those guys down we'll do that Might as well get some will it doesn't matter. I'll do critical next And yeah, okay Fantastic critical. No, I don't really want to hit him but it's gonna wait I can hit him with this. That's good. Um, and I just don't want to get into their Um range because I just don't really want to get overwatched for no reason Okay, we'll get critical up. That's probably Okay He's gonna just be annoying. That's fine. He's gonna be a nuisance. We're gonna have to go up from um I'll go up from it's fine. We'll just keep the others actually you can keep pounding him Um, he's you're gonna get hit as well, but might as well. We'll just Two people go up and the others can stay behind. That's probably the best idea Musketeers are annoying.  He only has one that's right I'm a doofus. I'm a doofus Dodge blocks. Nice second chance block. Okay. This guy has second chances. This is the first time we've seen second chance in a while I think last time was at the um scarrakeet cave Um, okay, we can One of you probably a good idea Go for you and we'll just continue going at you. I suppose Okay, he's nearly did which is good blocked. Okay. Did yes. Okay one down. That's great Okay I might have to heal Millie yay, you can help a lot. Um, we haven't got we've got like no hits on him.  Jeez. Make it nice. Okay. That's good Okay, he's nearly dead. Um, which is good Okay, chill boy. Okay, elusive. I'm gonna have to heal.  It's kind of annoying. Didn't realize that one. Um, I should really check what they have heal Okay, you heal You done. It's got like no health with the emet 46 and what's this? Hopefully it crits and that didn't hurt. I'm lucky Still getting a decent kill out of that. Okay. He's nearly dead nearly nearly dead so close Okay, chill Thanks Nice. Uh, go Millie. He's dead. Fantastic. Two left. Um, how much health do you have? 85 We'll just go all at him because he's annoying.  Okay Um, what are you doing? You're moving over here Okay, you found that we were like getting kind of good job. Okay that blocked. Oh gosh mega Uh, oh, that did a lot that did lots boy Nice dodge there go Millie go Okay, he's done a lot. It's good.  Okay, here we go. Can you do it monkey? Can you do it? No crit? Nope. Okay, that's fine Okay, that emet that's cool Okay, that was interesting Millie go Mega, okay Cool and one left And how are we gonna do this? We might just Do that done 102 he should be gone. Yeah, he's dead. He's so dead Yeah, he's Bye Okay, that did more than help you have to start with fantastic Okay That was good And let's go Oh, I hope we're saying this that's right I need help Um, okay, we are going to do this just because I know there's another battle out here most likely I'm pretty sure there is and I'll skip that one just because We will oh nope over here. Oh, I remember this but this better. We can't really skip this one. It's kind of important That's unfortunate you have to watch more battles. Um I think this is the important one who knows Is it is epic? No Slow jake.  So, um, I'll be back once I'm at the bison village. Yay Actually, it's not bison villages out of bluff. Whoops Okay, I am back again. He made it back and seven storms. Hello Yay level 18 Fantastic I am actually really happy You must overcome them. Level 18 amazing. Um two levels of one one day. I'm impressed Oh, hello Let's discuss this in a tavern cell array. What? Oh, I'm so lucky. I have so many people to promote. Yay me Um, so I am going to quickly just level these guys up. I'll wait for him to be finished. Um, I'll give them all powers in a bit Um, I'm just gonna leave a mark here We are going to head back to skull island collect two new things from the commodore And then we will end off the episode. Um, kind of short but decently I've been recording for a wee while now. So, yeah, I've also got to get some other videos ready for the next couple days because as you're seeing this I am Nope, nope. That's tomorrow. I'm going away. Um, but yeah, I'll be Don't worry. There would be videos Um, why am I going down? Oh god.  Let's reverse back and go up again Why am I going down? I don't know. I don't know. Please Thank you Okay, cool, um So, yeah, we should have two new We little powers and things and stuff and cool things for for us to use I think one of them is tough. So we get more health, which is fantastic Um, yep tough two and quarter arms, which is accuracy 25 accuracy for four turns, which is great Um, 20 we get resistant artillery To get, yeah, so basically we're nearly there. What was that iron wall tower of the iron well Interesting. That's quite cool. Um, anyway, so I'll see you next time Thank you for watching me to leave a like and subscribe and if you're very subscribed press the little bell So you know exactly when I post another video and remember craft outside the box


From an ancient Celtic stronghold to a genius that invented modern artillery, yet also advocated for renewable energy, Bambra Castle isn't just breathtaking, it links so much fascinating history together. It was also the location of many scenes in the Netflix series The Last Kingdom, serving as the long lost home of Uhtred of Bebenburg, torn between his Saxon and Viking past. But was Uhtred a real historical figure or a fictitious character? Who were the Celtic peoples of Bambra? And who was this Elon Musk type figure of his time? I will answer these and many other questions in this video. This is the story of Bambra Castle. First up, let's look at the Celtic origins of Bambra Castle, where this site was an ancient Celtic brothonic fort known as Dinguri. Sitting on top of a volcanic rock and with great views, it's clear to see the strategic benefit of building a fort here, but what Celtic tribe built the original settlement? Well, it is thought it was a stronghold of a people known as the Gdóðinn, a brothonic people that occupied the central region of Britain after the Romans left. The Gdóðinn were one tribe and a region that was known as the Hennog Leve, or the Old North, a region that had strong connections to Wales. The people of this region would have spoke Cumbric, which is closely connected to Old Welsh. In the 6th century, Angles invaded the territory of the Gdóðinn and established the Kingdom of Burnisia. The first known king of Burnisia was Aida, who ruled from 547 until his death in 559. It is not fully clear to what extent the Gdóðinn were replaced or if they were assimilated into the new kingdom, but we know there was at least some bloodshed. A Welsh medieval poem called the A Gdóðinn tells the tale of the Gdóðinn and their allies in an epic war against the Angles at the Battle of Catraith around 600 AD. The poem tells us how a force of around 300 warriors were assembled. Some from as far afield as Pickland and ancient Wales. After spending a year feasting at what is now Edinburgh, they attacked Catraith, thought to be cataract in North Yorkshire. After several days of fighting against overwhelming odds, nearly all the warriors were killed. Around his time, Ethelrith, another king of Burnisia, passed the fort on to his wife Beba, and it is from her that the early name was derived, as it was known as Bebonbar. The Kingdom of Burnisia would later merge with its neighbour, the Kingdom of Díra, to form the Kingdom of Northumbria in the 7th century, with Bambra an important stronghold. Now given its location right on the coast, it should all become as a surprise that the Vikings soon arrived, and are thought to have completely destroyed the original fort in 993. The Viking period in England and the tension between Christian Anglosaxons and pagan Vikings was amazingly explored in the Last Kingdom Netflix series, which was inspired by a series of books called The Saxon Stories. Now let's face it, ads can be annoying. If you want ad-free content and other exclusive benefits, please consider supporting my work on Patreon, the link will be in the description below. Thank you and I will end the video. The show uses Bambra Castle for some exterior shots, although I think they built a set in Hungary for a lot of it. The main character of the show is Uhtred of Bebenberg, whose ancestral home was Bambra or Bebenberg. But was Uhtred a real character? The series of course rearranges timelines and events and adds lots of fiction. But there was a real Uhtred of Bambra, who was known as Uhtred the Bold. He was the ruler of Bambra and from 1006 to 1016, he held the title of Elderman of Northumbria, clearly connected figure. He was given the hand of the daughter of King Ethelred of England in marriage. He was probably a man of action and helped defend this region against attacks from Scots in 1006. Like in the show, Uhtred had to balance the English and Scandinavian pressures throughout his life. One version of his death also sounds like something out of a TV show. The story goes that Knut, who ruled the kingdoms of England, Denmark and Norway for a period, forced Uhtred to make a truce with him. As Uhtred met with Knut to agree the truce, Knut's men were hidden behind a curtain, stepping out the ambushed Uhtred, slaughtering him along with 40 of his men. There is another Uhtred connected to Bambra as well, who was the son of Edwulf the First of Bambra, who ruled in the 10th century. Boudre the Bold was probably the main inspiration for Uhtred in the last kingdom. Now, what about the more modern history of Bambra Castle and who was this genius inventor? Well, the castle was under Norman influence for a period before the property came under the control of the reigning English monarch. If we fast forward through time, after the castle changed hands numerous times, it was finally bought by the Victorian industrialist William Armstrong in 1894, who completed some restorations on the castle. It is still owned by the Armstrong family, a good Scottish border clan name. William Armstrong was actually a fascinating character himself. He founded Armstrong Whitworth in 1847, a major British manufacturing company that built armaments, ships and other vehicles. After giving his gun patents to the British government, Armstrong was knighted in 1859. He is often considered the inventor of modern artillery, and invented such weapons as the Armstrong gun. He seemed to have no issue in being involved in the war industry as well. He once said, If I thought that war would be fermented or the interests of humanity suffer by what I have done, I would greatly regret it. I have no such apprehension. It is our province as engineers to make the forces of matter obedient to the will of man. Those who use the means we supply must be responsible for the legitimate application. Despite being involved in designing and manufacturing weapons, he was also heavily interested in renewable energy. In collaboration with the architect Richard Norman Shaw, he built Cragside in Northumberland, the first house in the world to be lit by hydroelectricity. He once stated that coal was used wastefully and extravagantly in all its applications, and predicted in 1863 that Britain would cease to produce coal within two centuries. He was also an advocate for solar energy. I respect with what your thoughts on this matter are. It's interesting that he was thinking about such things 150 years ago. As we have seen, Bamberg Castle isn't just breathtakingly beautiful. It also links so many parts of Britain's history together. But what impact did ancient migrations have on the genetics and DNA of Britain? To find out, please click here. Thanks for watching, please subscribe and hit the bell, and tell your friends and family about this channel. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below as well. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.


You should always be self-interested, rationally self-interested. It's redundant. You cannot be self-interested without being rational. But it's always good to remind people we mean rational selfishness. Because it's so easy to misconstrue or to distort or pervert Einwann's ethical theories. So the whole framework, the whole framework is my life. Making the most of my life, living the best life I can live as a human being. And that's where the rational comes in because what does it mean to be a human being? What that means is to be a rational animal. What that means is to exercise my reason in living my life to the best of my ability. So that's always the framework. It's how to live the best life that you can. Well a big part of that is ultimately identifying your values. Identifying the things that are important to you. The things, if you will at a concrete level, that are going to lead you to success. Are going to drive your happiness. Now we've talked a lot about abstract virtues. About the virtues that are involved, the actions one needs to take. And the values, reason, purpose, self-esteem, the one needs to engage in. But how do you operationalize that? How do you operationalize, for example, your purpose? How do you operationalize a hierarchy of values? How do you operationalize choosing the things that you're going to devote significant amount of energy, significant amount of effort, significant amount of time, significant amount of effort to pursuing, to achieving? And this is where the common language of dreams comes in. Now what are dreams? What does it mean to pursue your dreams? What does it mean to have big, audacious dreams if you have them? What does it mean to dream in this context? Now it can mean fantasies. It can mean things detached from reality. And the terminology of dream is a tricky one because dreams are things that you have when you're asleep. You're not completely conscious. And it's very dangerous to just assume that our dreams are just things we don't understand. They just appear out of nowhere. They happen to be there. And they're probably not attainable because they come out of nowhere. And certainly not the context in which I mean dreams in the context we're talking about here. I think a dream in the context we're talking about are not, as Tom says here, pipe dreams. We're going to answer this question, I think, implicitly. But the dreams I'm talking about here are big, audacious goals. And most of those dreams are going to be focused on kind of what you want to do in life. Like the big goals that you have in the various areas that are important in your life. Most of that is going to be around issues related to your career. Which is related to around your central purpose, the integrating purpose, the integrating activity that you engage in in life. So dream here just substitutes for my big, audacious goal. The thing I really, really want to achieve. The thing I think, you know, the Everest I want to climb in whatever area of life that Everest happens to be. That could be that you want to climb on to Everest. That could be a dream of yours. So dream just means big and audacious. It does not mean, and it's actually a bad word. Maybe I shouldn't even use the term dream. Because it does connote subconscious, unachievable, unknowable pipe dreams, as Tom writes. But dream also brings forward a particular emotional context. Dreams are goals we're passionate about. Dreams are goals that we have energy, hopefully, around achieving. That it's just hypothetical. It's not just something I think is good. But I really want to achieve. And I've got a lot of my energy and my emotion tied up in achieving. So that's what I mean by goals, by dreams, sorry, big, audacious goals. One second. So the first question is, how do you discover your dreams? How do you know what your dreams are? Now some people know what those are. They've had them from when they're young. They know they want to build a skyscraper. They want to be an architect.  They've got some big, audacious goal. They want to understand a philosophy. They want to be a teacher. Some people just know. Even then, that's not good enough and we'll get to that. So we'll get to people who know what their dreams are and what they need to do. As a first step before acting to achieve them. But many people, many of us, don't know what our central purpose should be, what we're really passionate about, what we want to do with the rest of our lives, what we want to achieve, what we want to attain in our lifetime. What that big, audacious purpose, what that big, audacious goal value should be. And here is where introspection and trial and error are so important. Generally, I think trial and error are not appreciated enough, generally, in life. Knowledge just doesn't just implant itself on you, knowing how to do things, knowing what to do, knowing what you should do in life. It's rare that you just know trying things, succeeding, failing, figuring out, introspecting. What you enjoy, what you don't enjoy is crucial. So some people just know. How do they know? Well, they know because during their childhood, they developed certain values. They connect to certain activities. They relate to certain things in a particular way. It's hard to tell exactly why. Some people just latch on. I think it's partially how they're raised, how independent they are, what environment they're in, and the choices they make, the choices they make, the things that attract them and how introspective they are as kids in identifying what excites them and what doesn't. What they enjoy and what they don't. But most of us don't have that clear knowledge. So what's required, and you know, Harry Benz wearing was on the show, what, two, three shows ago? Two shows ago? One show ago? I don't know, recently. And he talked about introspection, and I got some questions about how one introspects. And it's a great question. And one of these shows, I'll bring in somebody who is an expert on this, but let's take a stab from a non-expert, me, in terms of how to introspect. Because I think introspection is such a key feature of living a good life. Introspection is such a key feature of identifying your values, recognizing them, and then being able to achieve them. So introspection involves identifying your own responses, identifying your emotions and your thoughts, thinking about them, assessing them. I really, you know, I really enjoy solving math problems. Why? What is it about? This is asking yourself the questions. What is it about the math problems I enjoy? In what way is that joy being expressed? So introspection is about asking yourself questions about your own responses, about your own mental and emotional activities, trying to understand where they come from, testing them out.  Do I always hate it? Are there circumstances where I don't hate it? Let me try it. Let me try it and see. Let me alter the circumstances. Let me see. Do I hate math because I've got a bad teacher? What if I take a math class on the Khan Academy online? Do I still hate it? I'm bad at languages. Am I? Let me do a Rosetta Stone thing to learn a new language. I'm really bad at languages. So testing is part of an evaluating. Oh, that worked. I did okay. It was pleasant. I hated that. So thinking about your own values, thinking about your own actions, thinking about your own mental states, thinking about the reasons for it, and what you can learn from it, and whether you like. I've got this horrible emotion. Where is it coming from? Is it rational in sense that it doesn't seem justified based on the facts that I'm observing out there in the world? Should I reconsider? What would I have to do to reconsider? Is it so bad I need to see a therapist or I can try to do this by myself? So a big part of introspection, a big part of pursuing your dreams, discovering what your dreams are, discovering what your values are, is this kind of process. What do I enjoy doing? What do I like? What do I don't like? What do I get excited about? What really is thrilling to me? What kind of activities? And if nothing, why are there activities I haven't tried that might be interesting, might be thrilling? So identifying your values is about thinking about what gets you excited. What makes you energized? What gets you thinking in positive ways about excited about the activity? So it's about discovering your own set of values. And again, sometimes you'll never discover the thing, oh, this is the thing. I want to be a doctor. You might have to go out there and say, OK, what kind of activities do I like? What kind of activities make me excited? What kind of activities? I think it's this. I don't want to sit at a desk all day and stare at a computer screen. OK, so all those professions that evolve doing that are out. Let's think about professions that don't. Let me go study this. Let me go achieve this. And then you have to go and try. It's very difficult to project into the world, to project in your mind how you will respond to a variety of experiences, a variety of activities. You have to live them. Now, something's obvious. Some things you can, of course. Travis says he gets excited by many, many things. Yeah, I do too. So if you get excited by many, many things, you have to start prioritizing. Or is there a common denominator between those things? Is there something I could do that will achieve all those things? This is where you get big, audacious goals that could integrate a wide array of exciting phenomena, exciting things.  Well, can you integrate all of those? Or can you integrate some of them? Can you start a business that deals with some of these other aspects? If so, how? What would be the steps for you to achieve that ultimately? Or are there things that get you excited? You're going to have to put to the side as hobbies or something that you don't have time for now. Maybe you'll get back to it later and focus on the things that are most important. So first, one has to identify what one is excited about. Make a list. What your dreams are if you already have a dream. Then the next step is to screen those. Which one of these dreams are just superficial? Or short-term? Or very narrow and concrete? When I was a teenager, I really wanted a Mercedes Benz, what is it, LS450? Like the convertible, the two-seater convertible, two-door.  I mean, that's fine. That's fine. But in running my life, that never became a priority. It was never something where I said, okay, making a choice about these things. This is what I'm going to do. Even in choosing cars that landed up, there were more practical or better automobiles that I chose over that. Even though somewhere back there, there's still this feeling of, yeah, I used to want to have one of these Mercedes cars. It's dissipated because it's shallow. Or there are a lot of things we dream of when we're young that it just turns out are not that important. And one of the things that's really, really crucial to do is before doing anything about your dreams, your values, your goals, is to figure out which of them are important. And which of them can guide you toward happiness and which of them are just fun, interesting, nostalgic, nice, but not important. So you've got to figure out what is important. And this is where you create a hierarchy. Which of your values are more important to you? Which are less important to you? And you've got to figure out the ones that are important to you. And then at some point, you've got to have some kind of a dream, some kind of a goal, some kind of a mission in your life. It could be simple, but it's got to be, this is the purpose. You've got to have a purpose, something meaningful, something creative if you're creative. Something where you're creating value for you and for the world, so that you can trade. Because otherwise, you spend most of your life working on stuff that is leading nowhere. Where you're not passionate, where you're not excited, where it's not your dream and it's not important to you.  People dislike what they're doing. They feel like they're wasting their lives. They have mid-life crises. What have I done with myself? Even people who are very, very successful because they didn't do what they really wanted to do. They didn't give it a shot. They didn't give it a try. And you spent a huge amount of effort in your work, expend massive amounts of energy on your work. It has to mean something to you, not to anybody else, to you. Otherwise, it's just in a sense, waste the time. And of course, we started out by saying, you have a limited time. The one thing we're limited with is time. So, oh, Troy, thank you. Really appreciate that.  Introspect about what you want to be doing, how you want to make a living, what kind of activities you want to engage in in the majority of hours of every day. What is your productive purpose in life? Is it important? Is it rational? Doesn't integrate with your other values? So, again, a dream can't be divorced from everything else you're living. And then go back to that process every few years. Go back to it. Re-evaluate it. Test it against your experiences to date. Figure out, am I on the right path? Am I moving towards achieving my dreams? Am I moving towards achieving my values? Am I moving towards success? Have my values changed? Is my dream altered? Have my values changed because I know my ideas have changed, my experiences have changed. I'm older. I want something different. I was on the wrong path. I made mistakes. I don't know, whatever it is. I did things because my family wanted them done, not because I wanted them done. I wasn't selfish enough. I wasn't independent enough. At any point in life, you should stop periodically and ask yourself, what are my dreams now? I mean, maybe when I was 20, I had X dream, but now what are my dreams right now? What do I want to achieve right now? And then figure it out. Take into account everything you've learnt. We all grow, hopefully, in life. How do I, you know, give in everything that I know today? What do I want to do with my life? What do I want to focus on? What do I want to achieve? What's my dream now? You don't, you should never stick to a dream because it was your dream in the past. You should never just accept, create a hierarchy of values in a sense and stick with it because it's your hierarchy of values forever. You've always got to, you know, be thinking, be judging, be evaluating. Is this really what I want to do? Is this really where I want to be? Are these really my values? Am I gaining what I thought I'd gained from them? And if not, why not? And where should I go in life from here? Thank you for listening or watching The Iran Book Show. If you'd like to support the show, we make it as easy as possible for you to trade with me. You get value from listening. You get value from watching. Show your appreciation. You can do that by going to iranbookshow.com. I go to Patreon, subscribe to our locals and just making an appropriate contribution on any one of those channels. Also, if you'd like to see The Iran Book Show grow, please consider sharing our content and of course, subscribe. Press that little bell button right down there on YouTube so that you get an announcement when we go live. And for those of you who are already subscribers and those of you who are already supporters of the show, thank you. I very much appreciate it.


OK, we're ready? Everybody? All right. I'm trying to thank you for some morning and afternoon. Good morning. Last night at approximately 11 PM, a suspect approached a RTD, Contract Uniform Security Officer at 15th and Mancoop, and shot and killed the officer. Thanks to the swift and dutiful work of members of our police department, DPD, the arrest was made a few blocks away without further incident. Obviously, we consent off serious condolences to the family members of the lost contract officer. You know, it's really disheartening when anyone loses life, especially when we have someone out there really providing safety to our community at large. The victim was a security officer, and we are investigating to determine if the most of his life had anything to do with the fact that he was wearing a uniform. At this particular time, I'm going to turn it over to the commander of our major crime unit, Commander Bob Archer. She'll ask any specific questions that she can answer without compromising the investigation. Bob? Good morning. So I'm Bob Archer, the commander of the major crimes division. So as the Chief White just said, last night around 11 o'clock, the police officer responded to 16th and wine coop on a column of shooting. When they get there, they discover a male victim who has an apparent gunshot wound to the head. He was transported by ambulance to Denver Health Medical Center. He later died of his injuries. Through our investigation over the last 12 hours, we've learned that two women were talking to this victim. He's, again, a security guard for our TV, and they were asking him for information about light rail routes trying to find their way back. While they were talking with him, they saw a male approach the victim from behind. The male pointed a gun to the victim's neck, and then the witnesses heard a gunshot. The victim felt that the suspect ran on. Officers arrived. They were given some general descriptions and started looking in the area. They had a description of the suspect. They had his path of travel. They also were able to view video from a nearby business that helped them further pinpoint the direction that the suspect ran. They began their search, and shortly thereafter found a male who matched the description. They took him into custody in the 1,600 block of 14th Street, and this was about 20 minutes after the shooting. He was taken into custody without any incident. We did recover a gun that we believe may be involved in the shooting. Our investigation will tell us if that comes true. At this point, we don't believe that we have any other suspects that we're looking for. We do have concerns, though. Was the victim a target because of the uniform that he was wearing? Our investigation is continuing. We're still pursuing the information that will tell us if that's a part of this or not. We do commend officers for their quick response. Like I said, we got him arrested within 20 minutes. And the other thing we ask is that were other witnesses in the area who may have seen something, may have seen or heard the shot, we'd like them to come forward if they feel like they have anything that would be helpful. That's the information I've got right now. You said that you recovered a gun from the suspect. Are you identifying the suspect right now by name? Yes, his name is Joshua Cummings. I'll spell that as C-U-M-M-I-N-G-S. His date of birth is very 5th of 1979. And have you heard of him before? Is he someone that has been of interest to DPD or other agencies? We have not had any contact with him before. He lives in the area. Can you tell me how similar the RTD uniform is to an officer uniform? It's dark blue, as is the demo police uniform. Yeah, and the important part of the question, we also sent something out to all the members of our department. And we probably sent that out to members of the law enforcement in this region. Not knowing exactly what the cause of the victim was, we're sending something out to our department to other departments, asking the officers to remain vigilant at this particular time. I would also say that we don't have any reason to believe that this individual acted with anyone else, but just as a safety precaution to members that are out there providing safety to our community, we did want to send something out to them and remind them to remain vigilant, as they go about doing their work every single day. So this is completely unprovoked? As far as we can tell. Your description almost makes it seem like it's an execution. Is that a possibility? That's an interpretation, I suppose, if you don't know. Can you talk about the suspect's demeanor? Was he hiding? You said he gave up on that incident, but was he hiding? Did he say anything? I can tell you he was hiding in the officers' condom, hiding in that 1,600 block of 14th Street. I can't tell you what he said at this time. You mentioned that you haven't had any contact with the suspect, but do you know if he's been flagged by federal authorities before? I do not. Is the suspect cooperating right now? Has he said anything about Emoto? He's in custody, and that's part of our ongoing investigation. Can the two ladies that were there were talking to the security guard? Can they say anything about what this man says, if anything? They heard him say something to the effect of do as I tell you to, and then they show up and that's what they heard from him. Are you guys working with federal authorities on this? We've heard that there have been some communications between them and you guys. So any questions regarding a federal involvement? We would ask you to contact the FBI. Could you not say if you're working with them? We always work with our local law enforcement agencies, so if there's information that we can share, we do. Does this suspect have any other weaponry on him? That's part of the investigation that I can't release right now. If you think this person might have been targeted for his uniform, is there anything else about the victim that he could have been targeted as well? Well, again, we're not 100% sure what motivated this particular individual to shoot the victim. But as I stated, as a precautionary matter, given the fact that he was, the victim was wearing a uniform, we certainly wanted to remind all of our officers and other officers to be vigilant as they go about doing their job of providing safety for the communities at large. So again, his motivation, as of this point, has been undetermined. And obviously, that's one of the important factors in the investigation is to try to understand why this particular victim and why this particular individual, who we eventually arrested, why his actions were targeted towards that particular person. What do we know about the victim? I've heard that he's a family man. He's got children. I can tell you he's 56 years old and does have a family. And that's as much information as I can really see on him. The coroner's office will release his name later today or tomorrow. You mentioned he lived in the area. Does he have a residence, or was he homeless? He who? The suspect. The suspect. He has a residence. OK. As far as the officers concerned, I know you're limited in what you can say. And this may be an RCD question, but can these officers make arrests? Are they armed? I mean, what kind of authority can they have? So our victim was an armed security guard. So in the city and county of Denver, that's what we call a merchant guard. And there are different levels of that license. He had the appropriate license to carry a weapon if he was armed. But he's not someone you can make an arrest, right? Make a citizen's arrest, if you will. Are there any other unusual details about the arrest that you can share with us? The arrest is very straightforward. I told you this would happen. OK. Is there anything you know on the suspect's background at this point that you would be able to tell us? He has an arrest from over five years ago, out of state for a misdemeanor. And do you know if he's been a long time Colorado resident? I don't know. And do you know what kind of work he does? I know that the security guard was not a police officer, but does it have more impact? Because he's in uniform, and he is providing service to the public. Does it have your impact on the police department? I think anytime you see somebody in uniform, whether it's a military uniform, a police uniform, a security guard uniform, like the chief said, they're out there providing a service and a level of protection and safety for the community. So it's kind of a barrier of protection that maybe it's been penetrated. Again, we really appreciate you all taking the time. We get more information that we can share. We'll be sure to do that. Thanks a lot. Thank you guys. Appreciate it.