What's going on YouTube? It's been a minute since I posted. I know this I know this man You don't believe the year that I have I was going on vacations. I was going to Europe Japan all these places man not the cap To be honest, I was really just doing this a lot of this and a lot of this What and to be completely honest with you guys, I did miss you guys a lot in a long year I know I haven't posted in about like says like eight months, but feels longer than that You know just taking a little break. Hopefully I get back into it. I'm not gonna say that well, but I'm trying you guys. I really want to I just recently hit 10k made me want to start, you know, posting more But with the help of you guys and support of you guys, I know I can do it I thank you guys a lot for you know sticking with me you guys and it really means a lot to me 10,000 people actually like me. So That's a good thing, right? I mean spoken to you guys since like Well, it's been I think since like March April maybe I hope you guys had a great holidays Thanksgiving Christmas and New Year's I'm gonna say this at the end of the video to remind you guys too as well just Comment down low to how the holidays went for you guys So, yeah, you guys I hope you guys enjoy this video Doing a mid fade. I'm a boy. So I'm gonna take you guys to the video. So hope you guys have a good one Stay tuned guys What is going on YouTube? It's your boy. I'm back So we are doing the mid low or mid drop or mid fade I like dropping my mid phase low at the back Underneath the cipro bone. So that way it gives it kind of like a drop fade look I do it because I like keeping shapes in my haircuts. I've said that in previous videos Doing I feel like myself doing the shape and shaping it up Based on the client's hair and head or not hair head is head shape. It makes the haircut look even more better You guys don't have to do that, but this is this is personal preference for myself so make sure that you have the the ball line straight and Make sure you have every single hair On this next step, we're gonna be taking down the hair with a number five guard As you guys can see I am using the style craft. I think the style craft pro I'm not too sure, but they're made their style crafts clippers. They're just the same as Master not masters seniors or magic clip. I feel like myself Like they're a little bit better. If you guys don't have any you guys can just try to pick it up You should go to style craft The link would be on the bottom right right here But I'm doing a five against the grain Make sure that you guys always comb through the hair comb it back down and then and then cut comb back down and cut Come back down and cut So that way it just gets all the hair all the hair that you cut off of the head And also it just makes sure that the hair is laid down straight So that way it makes a better cut. Sorry. I'm studying you guys but I do eventually close it up halfway or maybe all the way All the way close this means that it just gets it basically all the hair that can possibly get with that guard So number five y'all I'm gonna make a guideline open with my style craft pro clippers These cut like budger as you guys can see they they kind of feel like Seniors and magic lives, but in my I feel like they're a little bit better. They use the wall guards and everything so and they also come with the Some some magnetic guards. So if you guys could take a look at their Instagram page I did put it previously about like 25 seconds ago Maybe 30 seconds ago on the bottom right corner. Yeah, just take a look at them And I do appreciate them sending me stuff I do I like getting their their clippers and try them out and everything. So yeah, take a look if you guys can But back to the haircut we just make sure that the the the guideline is straight and So that way your blend can be straight as well So we're gonna be getting into closing out the lever in a bit right here so what I like doing is I close it at first to see what the guideline on what the The clippers gonna do to that guideline then I open it up some more and then I play with the levers a lot I do close halfway and then open close halfway and open. So you know not to go past that That previous, you know open open lever. Don't go past that line anything above an open lever, so So just close it up a little bit use the corners of your blade That is very important when you do want to fade or taper because you want to be more precise Think of it as like a pencil, you know You have one little area to draw just like as a clipper you just have that little area of your clipper I'm not using the full blade. I mean, I'm not using the corners of it Actually, I am right here. It just doesn't look like that because I mean I'm going so fast But make sure you do use the corners you guys You So on this next step We'll be using a number one guard and we're gonna make the guideline half an inch about an inch about an half an inch actually About an inch. Yeah about an inch you guys Make sure that the guideline is straight make sure when you get to that top part of the End of the guideline you want to flick out You don't want to make a hard line because it's gonna be really hard to take out because I'm eventually gonna go in with my Clipper over comb technique and take that sucker right out So make sure that when you get to the top of your your guideline point You just flick right out you guys just flick out. That's that's important. Okay guys So when it comes to the clipper over comb technique, you want to make sure that the The comb is straight up at an angle and you just boom you see the hairs that are sticking up That's the ones you want to cut So what I like to do is I do that and I look at the front of the head and To see what like how the shape is and I just go from there I'm basically kind of like using this as like a guard I Mean this is basically what guards do they cut the hair based off measurements and everything so this is right here I'm just freestyling so I'm going straight up with it And I'm just clipping all the hair that I see that's poking out of the comb At first it does it is a little bit tricky to do clipper over comb But once you get the hang of it it is the best thing you could possibly do if it speeds up your hair cuts And it just makes everything so much better. Okay guys, so Now that we're done with that we are going to be going out and taking that Guideline that we made with a number one We'll be using the zero guard. So we have the lever all the way open using the corner of the blade And then we're just gonna be brushing it down every time you you want to brush you want to brush like every three to four to five Swipes I don't do that sometimes, but I try to So use your number one guard number zero guard. Sorry number zero number zero Number zero and you just use the corners Open and close it and then halfway you want to play with it a lot play with it play with it and to see what What lever takes out which dark spot? That's how I see it because not every lever is gonna take out something You know, it's not gonna take out the spot that it's supposed to so you got to improvise you guys So just open it up and close it halfway. Just play with it a lot And if you see any little dark spots hit it With the corner of the blade and just this flick out. Yes, just make sure you use a lot of flick out methods So we are going to the line up part I come to here down and I'm using a one and a half and I'm just taking off the hair that is hanging over This is very important. Try to be careful when it comes to this.  So that way the hair is shorter and it's easier for me to line up So to this lineup part We're gonna be starting from the middle and then make them away from side to side I like doing it like that because That way you get that that base of where you want your your hairline to be So you just start off that middle and then make sure that the sides match You guys don't have to do that. Everybody has their own preference of how they want to do their lineups I do that way because I've been doing that since I started cutting hair It is easier. I actually I've tried a lot of different Like methods of lining up and this was the best for me I mean, I'm not saying it's the best for you guys But just try try this out and if it doesn't work, then it doesn't work, but it doesn't hurt the try so You can try this out. I am using my my baby's gold FX liners I don't know if they're called FX is pretty sure they are if not. I'm wrong These are my hitters. I love these ones a lot. These are probably like one of my favorite trimmers to use I do have cordless t-out liners, but unfortunately The corded and they get in the way. So I use these instead So I am gonna be using some enhancements in my clients hair I don't really need to but I just did it for the video. So it makes everything pop out So you want to make sure that your your hairline is straight as possible So that way when you do add the enhancements, it's just gonna be so much easier for you You don't want to keep making a new line and try to make sure everything's all straight with the paint and everything didn't just Yes, it's a hassle to do and it happens to everybody, but just try not to do that I'm using the kiss express. I think that's what the pain is called I'm using my airbrush machine to add the enhancements and it just makes everything better And it just makes everything more pop. Some people don't like it, which I understand, you know, it's not for everybody but I like doing it for my videos to make sure that the hairline pops out so much more so Yeah, just make sure that it is straight and everything is straight and we should be straight So this video is about over I want to thank you guys so much for sticking with me with this journey of my YouTube I recently hit 10k so that kind of gave me motivation to keep uploading more because I'm already there I just got to keep going you guys. I'd be lazy. I know I know it's a sickness To be lazy. It's horrible But thank you guys so much for sticking with me and whoever's watching this you guys are real. All right, so Just bear with me with the videos I try to come out as soon as I can but in the meantime, thank you guys so much. I hope you guys had a good holidays Thanksgiving Christmas and New Year's if you guys are still here. Just let me know how everything went I'm excited to know you guys. So my Instagram will be at the end of the video. Please don't forget like comment subscribe This is Arlen. I'm out. Take it easy you guys.


Hi, welcome everyone. I'm Mark Andrew with the WordPress training team. I'm here today with my co-host Wes, who will be shepherding us through this. It should be fun and hopefully informative. Feel free to ask any questions throughout, put them in the chat. Wes will be monitoring that. I'll check in periodically and I'm going to save some time at the end to go over everything. What I'm going to do today and hope to get across are some real basic building blocks and showing how mobile is almost exactly the same as your desktop experience. If you've experienced that. And if we can, I'm just going to start sharing my screen. We're going to jump right in. This is being recorded. It will be uploaded later to WordPress.TV. We have slides for the presentation because I'm on mobile. I won't be able to share them with you like we would normally do. But those links will be in the chat here and that will also be in the video upload later. So you can follow along and dive back in after. So I'm just going to start sharing my screen and we'll begin. So I am just on a regular Android phone and what you're seeing is my home screen. And I just wanted to show you what is absolutely necessary to build a website, a WordPress website for your mobile phone. And that is the browser in the bottom right here, Chrome. That's it. That's all you need. But to show you my entire stack, exactly what I use and what I suggest. We have these four other apps up top here. The first thing you need is a place to keep track of everything. So I'm going to use Workflow for me. And as you see, I'm in my online workshop presentation and we are right here at our talk. And this is just an outlining app. There's nothing special. There's no project management software. Literally just pen and paper will do the same. The other thing we're going to get into today is the Jetpack app, which looks the same as the WordPress mobile app currently. And when we pull it up, you'll see a list of websites. And today we're going to be working on mobile. And we're going to be adding some media from here. Okay. Next to that is simple note. So this is a part of the WordPress family. This is what I use to publish all my blog posts. I'm going to click on unleash. And again, this is a very simple note taking app. And here is the one I'm working on for WordPress. And once I got ready to publish, I would click three dots. I would click share. I click WordPress posts. And there you go. And lastly, for those of you who might be into coding or coming from more development background or want to get into that, I just want to highlight this. You can do that as well from your mobile phone. You can set up an entire development environment. And I use a code. I'll pull this up very quickly for you to see. That is a theme dot Jason. So this is a theme I'm working on. And this is a code editor just like you would have on desktop. So everything you can do now from a desktop is possible from a mobile phone. And in some instances, I feel even easier. So let's dive right into it. I have a nine step process. So let's find out what we need to get started. Minimum a domain name. I need hosting. I need website backups. I want my website to be secure. So an anti spam plugin. And the most common and what almost every WordPress site has and will come preinstalled with is a kismet. Which is vital for, especially if you have a blog or comments or a community that you're building and people are interacting. Lastly, a place to keep track of everything. And that is where we are. So let's go to step one. What's the best practices for setting up? What do I need to keep in mind? So this is a basic timeframe. So as you see today, we're going to have this entire thing up. And at least the good structure, some good bones built in. Before this hour was done. But to finish it all and to put all of my, you know, to have it say and express exactly what I want might take some time, even for those of us who've worked with it for a while. So a good frame of reference is about four weeks. Look at a month or so and take your time. Second login security. You should always use two factor logins. You should use it for everything, but especially for your website. If you're having someone help you with it, or you run into an issue, never share your login. Make a new user. Okay. It's in the settings and the admin panel under users. And then this point right here, I'd like to get across. If you take nothing else from this, please take this. Your website is already almost perfect. WordPress itself has been worked on for 20 years coming up in two more weeks by some of the smartest people on the planet that do this. So they've thought about accessibility. They've thought about how it's impacting a power, the environment. They've thought about optimizing your images. They've thought about being found by search engines, by Google. They thought about making it fast. So people get the content they need, or those who don't have as strong as signals or live in other parts of the world where the devices might be a little bit older, can still access what you're trying to show. If you take it. Let's pull back out. So step two, we're going to identify our goals. The goal of my website is to create a WordPress website with a community that will have its theme available for download when completed. So this is session one. And within two or three, we'll see how it goes. We'll work together and we'll get that done. Think about who you're trying to speak to. I'm trying to speak to good humans interested in attaining the things they value by using WordPress. So I'm trying to speak to you, everyone listening. This is a very good place to get started, right? So if I have no frame of reference, where do I go? Look at a website similar to your own or in the same field, or even just a website that you like the aesthetics of. So I found one called full site editing. That has to do with WordPress. And if I take a look, I'll see that this looks completely accessible. It looks like the point of this website is to get the information across when you check the menu. Let's see if we can do that. Great. I'm going to go back. I've done that. Let's go on to step three. Now that we know what we want to express, what we want to give out, what we're doing, and we know who we're talking to. Let's determine what pages we need to make that conversion happen. For our site today, we're just going to use a welcome page, a blog page, a contact page. And a privacy policy. And I'd just like to highlight all your WordPress websites come with this and draft. They'll have a draft privacy policy. I would suggest publishing it. And not only that going through it, it will both save you legally. It is both best practice. And it will also help you determine. Exactly the information your website is taking in and what you're comfortable with and where your security is. Okay. I'm going to pull back. And I'm just going to stop briefly. Wes, are there any questions so far? I know I've been going quickly, but as I said, I want to just give you the building blocks. All the links will be in the slides. And then shortly we'll, we're going to dive right into the website building. So no questions at this stage. So yeah, it sounds. Like we've got a foundation to build from. So please go ahead and show us. Awesome. Thank you. So we're going to go to step four. All right. So we know we want to build something. Now we need something to build it with. Right. We need our paint. We need our brushes. So. We're going to do a color palette. And I myself am not very good at this. So. As far as knowing the technical colors and what they mean. So I'm going to pull up coolers. Link. Or. In the slides. I'm going to start the generator. And I'm going to click generate. And as soon as I see a color, I like. Like this one. I will lock it. And I'll keep doing it. And as soon as I see another one, I will lock it. And that is it. And then I will copy the color. And I'll come back and I will save it later. A lot of times you'll be, you'll have, might already have a logo or working with someone who has logos, but maybe not a color palette. So what I would do then is I would. Pull up Adobe. Color. And we're going to click on image. And I'm going to click on image. And I'm going to click on image. And I'm going to click on image. And we're going to click on image. And I've already created a logo for this website we're doing today, mobile lonely. So I'm going to tap here. And upload it. And as you see, I have a color palette pulled from everywhere. And for us, I want the background of our site to match this logo. So I'm going to make sure. It is up. And here. And copy. So I have my color palette. Second thing we usually look at it would be the fonts. So how do I find a good font? I'm going to pull up Google. I'm on Google fonts. I'm going to type categories. On select. And I'm going to leave display. And as it sounds display is usually used for headings, you know, or to give it that extra flavor that your site wants. And I would scroll. And find when I liked. Comfort. That sounds great. So I would save that. And just put the name down. Next. I grab all my images. I'm going to use from my site. I want to make sure I've named them correctly before I've uploaded them. And I also want to make sure they're as small as possible because this is the single biggest offender. The images and videos of slow website speeds. And a lot of times the issues you run into. So I have an image. I want to compress it. I pull up squish. I tap. Pick my image. I'm going to go with that logo I made. And if you'll see down at the bottom, the original image is 67 kilobits almost 68. And if I compress, I'm down to 15. And I'm going to go with that. And I'm going to go with this bar right here. We'll show me the difference. Before and after. And that looks great to me. So I'm going to download the image. And that's it. I would do that for each of my images here. Written content. So exactly as this page you're looking at is laid out. It's how I would lay out my website. And I'm going to go with that. And I'm going to go with that. And I'm going to do an essay. As writing. Headline headers and headlines and then paragraphs. And then just continuing that down the page. If you do that with your pages, it will one make it easy to. Navigate. And two search engines will be able to. Scan it better because it's laid out in a way they can understand. So I'm going to go with that. And I'm going to go with that. And I'm going to go with that. So I'm going to go with that. And I'm going to go with the header. One, two, three. With information below those. Those using screen readers will love you. So I'm going to pull back out. And we've got everything we need to get started. So let's do it. I've got my hosting. I installed WordPress. We'll go to a new tab screen. I'm going to zoom out so you can see where our frame of reference. If anyone hasn't been on mobile before. And you see the main navigation and all the settings are on the left. I'm going to zoom back in. Mobile view. Hamburger menu. And we are here at our settings. So the first thing we want to do now that we're here. Is install our plugins. I've already installed the plugins I've determined from the pages I've needed. And the work we did before. And I'm going to install one more to show you how it's done. I go to plugins. I'm going to add new. I'm going to search for it in the directory. And we are looking for. Create block theme. This is what's going to give us our fonts later. And this is made by WordPress. So. This is recommended. And we're going to activate. Okay. And as you'll see here. There's a very few plugins. And I'll zoom back out just to make that point clear. And the only reason there's Gutenberg today that plug in there is just to show you what's coming in WordPress 6.2, which will be out shortly. So really, and we're going to get rid of the create block theme plugin. So we only have two jetpack and a kismet will be lapsed. So we've got our plugins installed. Next we want to set our permalinks. So I'm going to go back to my main menu.  As you see here, the permalink structure, we have plain day and name, month and name, post name. Most websites will go with post name. There's a lot of good info on learn WordPress. And in the documentation, if you want to dive deeper into this, but basically your two options would be having the date. Or just having a plain post name. Meaning if I wrote a blog post called called WordPress mobile design, it would be my website WordPress mobile design. And day and name and month and name appends the date. So if what you're publishing is time sensitive, pick one of these. For most people, most of the time, go post name. And then we save. I'm going to jump back. Next, we want to add blank pages. So we're going to put in the pages that we're working on and we determined we wanted welcome blog and contact and privacy policy is already there. So I'm going to hit the plus button at the top here. I'm going to click page, tap on the title. And we're going to call this welcome. This will be our homepage. And I'm going to tap on publish. I'm going to click add new page right next to view page here in the middle. I'm going to add blog and click publish. And that third page we wanted. Oh yeah, contact. So I'm going to add new page again and click contact. Publish and we're done. So I'm going to go back to the main menu here. And I'm going to look at all my pages. And as you see, we have our blog contact, the privacy policy, as I said, which is in draft form, the sample page, which comes with every WordPress installed and the welcome. So we don't need that sample page. I'm going to hit trash. And we're left with these four. Pull back out to my design. Next, we're going to change our general settings. I'm going to go to my menu, go to settings, go to general.  Mobile lonely. If I had a tagline, like this cool site, I could put it in here and then we'll click save. And again, all of these settings, everything that's in here on learn WordPress, we dive deep into all of them. We have courses, tutorials and online workshops. I will answer questions for you at the end. So let's see what our next step is. We want to go to the reading setting. I'll jump back. So I'm in settings on the tab admin. Reading. Now that we've created the pages and we've set our permalinks. So that way, when we add pages or posts, we don't have to change anything in the future. We're going to make a static page for our homepage. We're going to select welcome. We're going to pick our blog page. I'm going to change the instead of a full text, I'm going to change the excerpt, although your theme might override this just FYI. And we're going to save go back. Next, we have at our media. And this is where that mobile app is going to come in really handy. I love this. So I'm going to pull back out. And I want to pull back up my jetpack. And this would work again, does the exact same way with your WordPress app. So the first thing I want is my site logo. And as you see, it says my WordPress site. And it has the logo right there. And it's blank. So I'm going to tap on that. I'm going to add the icon. And we're going to take that image that we compressed. That looks good. And we're going to add it. So now I have an icon. It will show up in the site logo as well. They're interchangeable, but there are toggles. And I'll show you that later. I'm going to scroll over to media. And now I'm going to start adding my images. I'm going to click the plus button at the top, right? I'm going to choose from my device today. I'm going to select my image. I want to point out here, if you see the paint brushes at the top with little one and the green, I'm going to click on that. That gives you a lot of options for cropping, rotation, et cetera. But I like the image the way it is. So I'm just going to click on the check mark. And I've added it to my WordPress site. So I'm going to pull back out. Go back to the mobile browser. Check my media library. And there you go. And I'm going to pause right there for a minute and check back in with Wes. Do we have any questions, Wes, so far? Yes. So John has asked, is there a way to have a local server to do development on phone, like the app? Yes. So before you answer, I mentioned with one of my, with one of my posts that I use, I've got a staging website for development. But then I also, I use local on my desktop for, for development work. And then John answered, he's got local on Linux and Windows, but not Android. So yeah, I was, yeah, we were wondering. So there was a local server to do development on phone. Yes. So yes and no, the answer is yes. And John, you might be a perfect person for this. If you want to contact me later or any of us in the training team or core, I can put you in touch, but I'll do this very quickly. So that editor I showed you a code, if you pull it up, I'm going to click my menu. And I'm going to go to the console. So literally this is an ID on the phone running Python, JavaScript, Ruby on rail, all of it. React.  I'm learning more, but I use it for theming, but you absolutely can. And if you want to help out the community by exploring that with us, that would be fantastic. Okay. Okay. He said, we'll try that. Sounds good. Thanks. Is that it with? Yes, that's it. Thank you. Sorry, just one question. The way I understood the question, maybe I misunderstood the question. So local. So there's no, so there's no app for local on your phone. To just make a practice with. Right, but you have. You can run a local development environment, but your actual install local WP, you can't just add that as a zip and run it and set it up that I know of. Gotcha. And then one more question. Sure. Do you know of any other tested alternative for iPhone? You mentioned a code. Any tested alternative for iPhone. Or maybe you don't know. I'm off the top of my head. I don't. But I could definitely look into that. And we could put that in the. The message notes for the zoom chat. Great. Thanks. You can continue. Awesome. Great questions. And thank you, Wes. Cool. So let's just review quickly. We have our hosting. We have our website. We have WordPress installed. We put in our plugins. We adjusted our formal links. We added our blank pages. We adjusted the general settings, which is our site title. We adjusted the reading settings. To display our homepage. I didn't go over discouraged search engine. So let's just jump there real quick. And I'll touch on that because that's come up a few times. Which is this. So in those settings, when you click on reading.  You'll see this checkbox right here at the top. It says search engine visibility. So if I click it as I'm building. Theoretically, it would discourage search edges from indexing in the site, which means Google. Trying to put up your pages before you have everything in place. But this doesn't always happen. But you can try. So to begin your site. We could do that. For myself, I usually, I don't touch that setting just because it takes Google or the other search engines so long anyways. By the time they get there, the site is built. We added our media. We use jetpack app to upload them. We compressed them. We made sure the titles when we uploaded them were correct. But they were descriptive. So now we're going to add our fonts. So I'm going to go back to my dashboard here. Pull up the side. And now if I go under appearance, because we installed create block theme, you'll see manage theme fonts. I'm going to click on that. And you can add a local font as you see in the top right there. This shows me what's installed already. But I'm going to add that font that we searched for earlier on Google fonts. And so right, I'm going to click add Google font. And I believe it was comforter that we, I thought I liked. So I'm going to scroll and look for this. And here it is. Click on comforter. Now this has given me the options of weights that it comes in. And I'm going to take them all. Because with fonts, it's not how many fonts your website has. It's not how many variations it has. It's how many shows up on the same page. So when that page goes to load, if you have. 10 sites saved here on the back end, but only one font on the front end, it's only one font. That has to be rendered. So I'm going to save all these for future use and add them to my And there we go. So now if I pull back out. And I manage theme fonts. We'll see I have a whole new family right here. And I'm going to pull back out one second right here to desktop again just to give you a better frame reference of what we're at and what this looks like. So I can even pull down and see what fonts are available. What they look like. So my fonts are installed, my media is installed. I've set all my settings. So now let's add our color palette. So I know I have those colors from earlier that we saved when we pick the colors. Right here. And that's what I wanted from my background color. I'm going to go back down to mobile view. I'm going to click our menu. And we're going to go to editor. I'm going to edit my page. I'm going to click on the three dots on the top right. And I'm going to zoom out again. Just to give you a frame of reference. So this is where we are on desktop. This is what that side panel look like on desktop. So just keep that in mind. The only, this is the only major difference currently, but this is being improved upon every release is the screens that you see here. So just keep in mind there might be some things that we're not quite seeing if you're on mobile. So if you don't see something you can zoom out. Or what I do is just turn my phone. And go to landscape. That will work as well. I have my colors. I open my menu by hitting the three dots at the top right. Click on styles. And this is another instance where I have to pull out in order to change it, but if I click on the colors, you'll see what's there currently. It shows me a palette up at the top. And it shows me what is currently set for my background, text, links, headings and buttons. So I'm using the default 2023 theme, which I love and honestly, I start most of my website builds for others with this. And I'm going to zoom back out for you to be able to see this better. So I know I want my website to have this pinkish color for the background. So a solid color background. So I'm going to look under in the styles. And I'm going to browse styles and see if there's something already in there. That's close. And these look pretty good. So once I'm here, I'm going to click this little eye looking at me.  Which will bring up. As you see here on the left, this is every element of your website in the style book. So as I make changes on the right, it will show up there on the left. And sorry about that. Internet must have pushed it back out. So I'll just show you. And see. These are all just variations of the default theme. So thinking of exactly if someone had already done, did the steps that we're going through now, this is the end result. And these were all done by really smart people, really good people in the WordPress project. We spent a lot of time and effort making these look great. So for myself, let's see what we like. I'm actually going to start with pitch. I'm going to start with this as my base. Okay. And I'm going to zoom back down. Which might pull that color off for us. As I said, this is an issue with mobile. So I'm showing you where the menu is. But the way you would do it is the exact same. I'd click the three dot menu. I'd click styles. I'm going to go to my styles. I'm going to pick pitch. And now I'm going to save. You see that tells me that that this is going, this custom style is going globally. So this is going to affect my entire site. I save it. I'm going to exit back out. And look at our site. And this is where we're at. So I blog, my contact page, my welcome page are there. And I've changed it to a darker theme. Okay. Now I'm on this homepage. So instead of in the admin settings where we went to the editor, I'm going to click the paintbrush up at the top left. Back right in my editor screen. For the site editor. Close out of that menu. I'm going to go back to my styles. So three dots on the top right. Back to styles. And now I'm going to set my colors. We'll go landscape here for this. I think it'll be easier for you to see. So here's my current color palette. I'm going to click on the 17 colors. And you'll see my theme. So pitch gave me these colors. That's where these five colors right here are the salmon, the black, the gray. And these default color palette. This comes with it. This is that every word press install. And I can create my own here too. But I'm going to change the theme because I want this. And I'm going to show details. I'm going to click on base. Because as I said, I want this background to be the same color as my logo. Scroll up. We'll get rid of that. And we'll paste in. The text code we had. An extra hash, it shouldn't be there. And we click save. I'm going to pull it back over here. So we have the color there, but now as you see, the text is very, very wrong. So let's go back to our colors. And styles. And now when I pull up colors. Instead of going to the palette, I'm just going to change the elements. So as you see my background, because I set that as the base color in my palette here. Change the background there. So every one of these colors, depending on the theme you're using. The first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and we'll be named different primary secondary. Some might be called contrast. Some might be called background. Will affect all of the elements of your site. And the way to find out how it affects it is to change the colors and then view the site. Using that storybook is the best way. So let's change our texts. And I'm going to just choose this dark color here. And for my links. I'm just going to keep it simple here as well for today. And same thing for my buttons. Let's actually we'll throw a blue in. And there's the background color is at the bottom. Pull it back. So now as you see, it shows that my elements have the background that I set, the text color I set, the links. And I could also change the heading colors if I wanted to. I could change them globally. Which is all the elements. Or I could do it one by one. H ones. H twos. I'm going to clear. And go back because I don't want to change them. So we will click save. And we're going to pull back out. And let's check it from the front. So I have all of my building blocks in place. I have the pages that I want in place. I have my color palette in place. I have all my media uploaded. We've added our colors. So. Next we're going to go for. We're going to add our fonts. And I'll pause right here and check with West. If there's any questions because we're going to add our fonts, which will take just about literally 60 seconds. And we're going to add some page content quick. And then we're going to open it up for questions. Yeah, no. So just a comment. Miga said having a code, I would go and add the colors directly on theme.json. And I just said, yeah, if you are confident using theme.json, you can do so much there. But there was a question about themes and free themes. Okay. I just thought it's important for us to highlight this. So somebody asked, is it true generic free themes are less secure? And I just reminded the person that all themes in the theme directory are three. So maybe you just want to shed some light on that. Sure. Yes. Everything on WordPress.org is free. There is no paywalls to any of the information. There's no paywalls to these workshops. None of the themes cost any money. You might have plugins there. You might have free versions and then maybe upsells that aren't part of WordPress, but the themes themselves, what's in the directory, these are free. They're free to download. The ones that when you search for a theme, let's do that. Let's add a new theme. I'll show you quickly. So when I pull up this to add new themes and I look for, let's say the latest themes. Every one of these themes has been vetted by people working on WordPress. They're vetting it for accessibility. They're vetting it for security and just, you know, best practices. So there is a checklist. There's overview of all of these things. What comes after that? So if there's theme developers that might have pro packages, that's a completely separate thing, but everything that I have from here, like I like Xeno, I can pull it up. There's a free theme. And if I want to check the details on any of these themes, I can go to the theme directory and do so. I can see the reviews and the ratings as well. And finally, I'll just say, I'll go back to the theme that we have, which is the default 2023 theme. The entire intent, the entire purpose of this theme is literally to give you that starting point. WordPress itself as I hope I'm getting across somewhat at least today by the ease with which we changed the settings, the ease with which we added the pages, the ease with which we changed the colors and added fonts, is a page builder. It's already built to make your website. That's what the software does. This is what it's about. And I'm going to finish up here. So let's do the fonts. And I'm going to add some page content and I'll show you how easy that is. I'm going to go back to my settings. Last part of the building blocks. Back to silence. So we added our fonts with the create block theme and I picked out that comforter. So I'm going to click on typography. And I'm going to change my headings under typography in the middle, it says font default. And if I click on that, you'll see all of my installed fonts. So I'm going to pick my comforter for the headings. And I'm going to click save. So we've put all the blocks in. So now let's add some content. Okay. So we have header Twitter in our page content. Let's start with a header. I'm going to add a site logo and we're going to change our menu and navigation to places. Most people start and you should. So again, I am in my site editor. I'm going to click on mobile only at the top. And I'm going to click in until I get to the navigation part. I'm going to click three dots at the top and I'm going to remove site title. Now I can notice by the icon of the rose right below my site icon above. That this is the block we're in, but I can pull this up as well to check. And if you see there at the bottom, it says remove row by hitting the three dot menu. So I'm in the row. I'm going to just add back what we took out. We took out the site title and I'm replacing it with the left. And as you can see, it's right here. But if it wasn't, I would click on search. I'd look for what it was. I was trying to find. And we put it. So we're going to add our site. So as you see, we have the icon at the top left, which we put in through the jetpack app. So for our site logo, I'm going to tap. Going to select. There we go. And I'm going to use these arrows at the top. I'm going to click the left arrow. To move it over in my room. And let me click save. And I'll pull up to desktop real quick to show you where we're at. Again, for a frame of reference. If I pull up list view right here. You see we're working on the header. And if I zoom in here. Now you can see. Right. So that's where we're working on here. So we're working on this. And list view is one of those things that I'm looking forward to when the update comes to mobile, because as of now, as you can see that my options at the top are to add a block with the blue. Plus. To check what. Template what page I'm working on by clicking the arrow here. We're going into settings here. Again, a workaround for this once again. And we can get to our list view. I've got everything in place. Now I'm going to work on the menu. I'm just going to tap into that three times, pull up my menu. And this is the first time editing it. So this isn't a navigation menu yet. It's a page list. It's a list of all your pages. But once I click edit. I'm going to turn this into an admin. I'm going to click into my contact page. And then I'm going to click the right arrow at the top left to move it down. And we'll click into our welcome. And move it up. And I'm actually, I'm going to make this match our theme colors. So we're going to go into the settings. I'm going to click over to the right here. So I didn't go up to the navigation block. I didn't select the parent block. That's why the option wasn't there. So we go back to settings. Now we can change our color. And I'm going to change the submanual overlay background to our theme color. I'm going to change the submanual overlay text to our text. We're going to save. Now let's go back to our site. And then obviously there's a lot of blank in the middle, but that's looking very good. Let me check where, where I would be, which is I've worked through my fonts. I've added my header. I've added my site logo and my menu navigation. So I would do the same thing with my footer. And the exact same manner. And I won't go through the entire thing because it's the exact same process, except on the footer. So I would go to my site editor. And I'd scroll back to navigation. And I'd scroll back to my template parts. Click my template parts. And I find my footer. Click on my footer. And now we would edit. I had mentioned that search bar looked pretty good in that website that when I did my research so much my own. So let's look for that. And you see right here, I can just add that. And we'll click save. And we'll go back to our site. Much better. All right. Our time is getting short, at least in session one, so I'm going to be following up as I said in diving much deeper into this, but let's finish off with some page content. So I'm going to use some patterns for my contact page. I'm on my site. I'm going to go to my contact page. And I can edit by clicking the pencil at the top right. Or I'm going to zoom go back. I can go to my dashboard. I can go to pages. And we can edit from here. By clicking on contact. So now I want to add some content. And we're going to do that by clicking the blue plus at the top left. Clicking on patterns. And as you see here, we have a whole big selection to choose from. So we are going to put a really cool header here. I like this one. So this might be my internet kicking out. So it gave me an error, so I'm going to copy the post text. So that copied everything that was on that page to my clipboard. So I didn't lose anything. And then I'm just going to go back. I want to go back to my contact page. And I'm just going to paste. I'm going to go to my settings. I want to change that text color. Make that black. Make the links black. And I'm going to exit out. There we go. So I have that really cool header. And lastly, I'm just going to make sure that the page that we're working on by clicking page. If you see template. I'm going to click on page. So we've adjusted our templates. We adjusted the header and the footer in the site editor. And now that I'm adding content to the page, I can pick from those templates and pick from those adjustments. So I'm going to choose blank. Which means no header, no footer. The only content will be what I put here. So as you see, this is what we have here for now. I'm going to select parent block. And let's just put in one more after it. So give us a little bit more content, something to look at. And let's go with. About a call to action. And for our contact page. Kick me out again. I would do the exact same thing. And just paste it in. And then adjust the settings again for the colors. Over here. So let's update that. And come back up. So it's showing two headers because it didn't save my blank page is what I'm guessing. So let me see if I can adjust that real quick by pulling the page back up. Yep. So it didn't take that page template. So I'm going to click on page again. And go back to blank. And we'll just update that. And now we'll do the page. Perfect. So not a very good looking page with the colors currently, but as you can see, if we go back to our homepage. And we click on our menu. And we go to our contact page. And we zoom back out. So there's about four minutes left from this hour. And within that time. We put together an entire WordPress site from our folks. Obviously there's a lot more work to do with the content. But if you have the content. It's a matter of minutes. And. I'll show you that. In action. Before we end today. What I'm going to do is I'm going to go to the WordPress. Pattern directory. I'm going to go to the block pattern directory. And as you see here, these are all community supported. I'm going to go to the page. And submit it. And I'm going to find something that I like. So I'm looking for an about page. And I would scroll and find one I liked. Already found. I'm going to click copy pattern. I like the looks. I'm going to go back to my website. I'm going to edit my page. I'm going to paste. And click update. So that's how quickly that page went from there was absolutely easy to a pretty great looking. About us page. And 10 seconds. And if we zoom back out. We'll see what it looks like on desktop. And we're at the top of the hour. So for session one, we're going to stop it there. And I'm just going to review very quickly. What we went over. We figured out what we needed to get started, which wasn't much a domain name and hosting, keeping our website secure. A place to keep track of everything. We identified best practices, which is your WordPress website is pretty much perfect. It has issues when things get added. Work with what's there and you will be happy both today and for years to come. We identified our goals, what we wanted to give out and who we wanted to speak to. We picked our pages. We brought all of our content together, which were our colors and the media and the words we needed. And then our design and build. The actual design, as you saw, it did not take much time at all. We went through every single process of changing our links, adding our pages and changing our palettes, our fonts, our headers, our footers, and we even added an entire page. What would fall from there is we would test to make sure everything worked. Then we'd launch it and tell everyone about it. And then we would make sure that we maintained it by keeping everything updated.


What does upsampling do to the sound quality and how come? And more to the point here, does it pay to buy the Olex Serious G2.1 to do this job? The Serious G2.1 is one of the four products in the G2.1 series. The others being the Aries G2.1 network player, the Viga G.1 streaming DAC and the Leo GX1 master reference clock. As you might know I used the Aries G2 without the .1 edition streamer in my setup 1. The G2.1 series, including the Serious G2.1 reviewed here, has a further refined cabinet on which later on more. Let's first see where the series fits into the stereo setup. The series is to be connected to a digital input on your stereo, like in this example to the digital to analog converter. That connection can be made over SPDIF, TOSLink, AES-EBU or USB. Digital sources are then connected to the inputs of the series, for instance a network player, a CD player and TV. If you own other Olex G2 equipment they can be connected over Olex proprietary Lightning link that uses an HDMI cable for bi-directionally transport of the digital signal, the central clock signal and the control signals. In short the series is connected in between the digital source and the digital to analog converter. The series has a matte black aluminium housing that measures 340 x 320 x 96 mm and weighs 9.5 kilos. On the front we see a standby button, the full color display and a rotary encoder that functions as a volume control or, after pressing, let you scroll through the menus and change settings. On the rear we see the power switch next to a fuse holder and an IEC mains entry. The internet socket is for updates over the web only. Then we get the inputs, AES-EBU on XLR, SPDIF on RCA, Optical on TOSLink and USB Audio Class 2 on USB B. Then the output socket starting with USB Audio Class 2, a USB A output that is highly compatible and a USB A output with galvanic separation. Then the AES-3 outputs, Optical on TOSLink, SPDIF on RCA and AES-EBU on XLR. Lower on the panel the lightning link input and the lightning link output. Both use HDMI cables to connect to other Aurelix G2 and G2.1 products only. They are not compatible with either HDMI inputs or outputs on video gear or I2S on audio gear. Time to show what changed on the DOT1 version. Let's start with the double enclosure. The outside is machined from a slab of aluminium and is opened for servicing by removing the bottom plate. When you done that, you see the inner copper enclosure. This provides improved shielding against electromagnetic and radio frequency interference. The second improvement is the added aluminium base plate with four bonded food assemblies that use springs to mechanically decouple the enclosure from the surface it stands on. Back to the inside. When the copper bottom plate is removed, we see the copper cage. There are three linear power supplies that receive the AC voltage through a mains filter. It looks like the input section on the lower circuit board uses the first power supply. The second one seems to power the Proteus G2 co-processing platform that does the upsampling and the Tesla G1 engine we find in all Aurelix products, handling the system control and data transport. The Proteus G2 is based on the Sionic Arctic 7 FPGA. This powerful field programmable gateway is programmed by bespoke Aurelix software to do the up and down sampling, equalizing and speaker placement correction. After the series is connected, on which later on more, settings like input, output and sampling frequencies need to be set. All the settings are done using the rotary encoder and screen on the series. There is no HTML menu or app like with the Aries G2. Pressing the encoder enters the menu mode and turning selects the menu items. The output sampling frequency can be set globally or through each and every input sampling frequency individually. You can convert all incoming PCM and DSD to for instance 352 kHz PCM or DSD 512. Or all input signals to 96 kHz if that's the highest sampling rate your active speakers support. It is a good thing this only has to be set once since the menu options show up in small characters on the display. Then there are four types of filters to choose from. One for those that listen with their oscilloscope, two others in my opinion pointless filters and one very good one called SMOOTH for those that listen with their ears. Next to the resampling the series also offers an 8 band parametric equalizer to do simple room correction. You can also compensate for less optimal speaker placement by entering the distances from the speakers to your listening position and the differences in loudness. This will then compensate for that in time and volume. The series comes without the remote control but like with the RSG2 you can learn it infrared codes from any remote control you might have. Basic digital to analog conversion is a three step process. The input signal is converted to a signal the converter understands, usually I2S. In the converter plots analog voltages that match the values in the digital signal. For more in-depth info watch my video what defines the quality of a DAC. The analog result needs to be filtered at half the sampling frequency to avoid aliasing. This filter has to be extremely steep. For CD quality the filter of at least in theory 96 dB per whole tone, a single white key on the piano, is needed. Quality filter slopes are expressed per octave so these filters have to be about 7 times steeper than 96 dB per octave. Watch my video Q&A is upsampling better. Good sounding analog filters with that specification are very difficult to make at an acceptable price. An affordable way to solve this is to convert the signal to a higher sampling frequency. This way the analog reconstruction filter can be made less steep and thus easier to make. It relocates the steep 20 kHz filtering to the upsampling algorithm where an acceptable filter is cheaper to make. Acceptable to the mainstream market at least. Audio files appreciate a higher sound quality. Digital sources like CD players and digital to analog converters that use ladder converters offer not only upsampling but also bit depth of 24 bit. The analog output stage is almost never capable of a signal to noise ratio equal to 20 bit, which by the way suffices. Especially discrete ladder converters like the ones by AudioGD, Denofrips and HoloAudio I reviewed over the past year or so perform remarkably good. A technique that was introduced later is to convert the digital signal to a pulse density modulation signal, meaning a 1 to 3 bit signal at a far higher sampling frequency than used for CD. This technique is also used for SACD that uses 64 x 44.1 kHz sampling, 2822.4 kHz. That frequency is so high that a very mild filter would suffice. This gets solved using noise shaping, an algorithm that shifts the resulting noise out of the audio band to higher frequencies. Now filtering at 70 to 90 kHz would be fine although most players and DACs use 40 to 50 kHz filtering. This nowadays is the most popular approach since it is cost effective. Unfortunately DAC chips like all integrated circuits need large volumes to become viable, meaning that they are aimed at the mass market and not to the audiophile applications. Therefore the computational power of these chips is rather limited and thus are the algorithms used for the conversion from 16 or 24 bit to 1 bit. Some DAC chips offer an option to use an external processor for the upsampling. Since developing very good sounding upsampling algorithms is extremely time consuming, it costs a lot of money while economy of scale does not exist in the audiophile market so the many years of development need to be earned back with a limited amount of products. That places a high financial burden on each and every product. It is my experience that both ladder DACs and low bit DACs can perform extremely well. There might have been points in time where products from one category outclass the other only to be overtaken by products in the other category the next year. Functionally the series does the same as the processing found in any upsampling ladder DAC or low bit DAC. The only difference is that it according to Aurelix is done a lot better. How did they achieve this? It starts with the mechanical construction that prevents vibrations in the cabinet. This is important since clock crystals are rather sensitive to vibration or as it is called by technicians, crystals are microphonic. Then the copper in a housing that stops electromagnetic and radio frequency interference. System control is done by the Tesla G1 engine that is also found in all current Aurelix products. The Proteus G2 engine's only job is to do the signal processing, upsampling of multi-bit to low bit conversion or vice versa, equalizing and loudspeaker placement correction. All three can be turned on or off individually. To give you an idea of the computational power the Proteus G2 offers. The same side link FPGA is used for processing 4K high definition video and even when bought in bulk costs over 200 euros each. That must be more than sufficient even for 384 kHz 32 bit audio or DSD 512. In the end it all comes down to the code that is flashed into the FPGA and the definite way of judging that is to listen to it. Equipment of this level can only be tested in my setup one. The Air Acoustic AX520 amplifier that powers the AudioSphysic Scorpio loudspeakers over AudioQuest Robinhood Zero loudspeaker cables. The DA converter is the Mitek Brooklyn powered by the Lexicon Acoustic Syntax Icon Power supply and connected to the amp over Grim Audio SQM balanced interlinks. The streamer is the Aurelix Airis G2 connected to the DAC over AudioQuest Diamond USB A-to-B cable. The Serious G2.1 was inserted in between the Airis G2 streamer and the Mitek DAC. Between the resampler and the DAC I used the AudioQuest Diamond USB cable. As said you can switch off upsampling and when used the equalizer and speaker placement but not the entire processing where the input signal is converted into a high frequency multi-bit signal to remove jitter, after which it is resampled to the required output sampling frequency in PCM or DSD. I compared the signal with the resampler in non-oversampling mode in and out of circuit but heard no difference. So I programmed the upsampling on off function to an obsolete remote control for easy comparing. Aurelix advises to use DSD output for DACs that use a one bit or low bit converter. So all DACs that are not R2R ladder converters. I have tried both modes on the Mitek Brooklyn and did agree, DSD is the best option for the Mitek. When switched on the stereo image opened up a bit more with more spaciousness. Voices became somewhat cleaner and transitions became slightly faster, which by the way probably is the wrong description. I rather think this is due to less time smearing. Inserting the Mini DSP used as direct processor in between the streamer and the resampler limited the feed to the series to 96 kHz and I was curious what the upsampling would bring here. Well it did correct for the same acoustical problems with further sound improvements remain the same. Overall there was an improvement in sound quality but shelling out almost 7 grand for this improvement I don't know. I would rather spend that money on a higher class DAC, like the Denafrips Terminator Plus that I didn't return to Vinshine Audio yet. So I had the opportunity to try the series on this DAC too and I am very glad I did. So instead of the Mitek DAC with the Sintek's power supply, the Terminator Plus was inserted and I started without the Mini DSP in the chain. If you haven't seen my review of the Terminator Plus, now is a good time to do so. The link is in the upper right corner and in the comments below this video on YouTube. In short at about €6500 it is amongst the best DACs I had the pleasure of reviewing. So what could the series add to that? To my big surprise the series upsampling opened up the stereo image considerable as if a fail was taken away. The spatial representation was larger and even more important, far more credible. The same for the stereo imaging. Instruments and voices took their own place in space better with a clear and natural separation between them. Transients like the snare or glockenspiel came better placed in time or put differently they are rendered with less time smearing, thus being more accurate. This too became even more natural and it happened even with albums like 60 Stop 100. Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison, Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys and other tracks from that time, all transcripted from Analog Tape of course, contain so much more information apparently. But also 80 stuff like Simple Mind's Ballad of the Street and Queens Made in Heaven see my video My Favourite Rock Music appeared to be played in large halls with a listener within the reverb radius, the space where the direct sound is louder than the reverb. So no details get lost and just make sure this is an improvement on an already very good sounding DAC. Of course I used the PCM setting for output since the Terminator Plus is an R2R ladder converter. I tried the DSD setting on the series but that resulted in a somewhat thin sound. Said to PCM it unveiled so much more information that apparently is a present in most if not all albums. Apparently the series G2.1 needs a high quality DAC to render the upsampled music to perfection. I wonder if there are high end DACs that do this level of assembling their cells. And if I ever find out, I'll let you know. But as far as the series is concerned, it surprised me twice. The results from the MiTech Brooklyn weren't convincing but the results on the denofrips were far beyond my expectations. The MSRP in Europe is €6699 including VAT and that's a lot of money. For those that have spent equal amounts of more on a DAC amp and speakers, I think it will be almost small change when they hear the improvement the series offers. I hope I managed to explain that this is no voodoo but pure signal processing at the highest level to achieve the best upsampling so to avoid the artefacts reconstruction filters might cause. Which brings me to the end of this video. I love to see you back next Friday at 5pm central european time in a new video. If you don't want to miss that, subscribe to this channel or follow me on the social media and you will be informed when new videos are out. If you liked this video, give it a thumbs up. Many thanks to those viewers that support this channel financially. It keeps me independent and thus trustworthy. Many thanks to those viewers that support this channel financially. It keeps me independent and thus trustworthy. If you like to support my work too, the links are in the comments below this video on YouTube. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com. Whatever you do, enjoy the music.


Hey guys, welcome back to come again TV deal in place on YouTube. We're all geek culture collides today I've got a nice little green lantern comic book haul for everyone. I was at primary colors retro relics the other day Got a huge haul close to $200 worth of stuff That may not sound like a lot, but the prices there got me a ton of stuff so anyway first things first and The prices that are marked on these comics is what I paid for them. So first things first. We've got green lantern number 129 very nice find We have Green Lantern Number 121 Reunited and it feels so good Very cool We have Green Lantern 119 how Jordan is the specter this could be bad very cool we've got Green Lantern Number 50 the emerald twilight Part three it all ends here. It is the glow-in-the-dark cover very cool couple still Silver age I get now Let me not group silver age This is from the 80s so Copper age modern day bronze age whatever you want to call it We have a sapphire story Green Lantern 192 from 1985 Very cool Then last but not least We have Green Lantern number 42 Destroke Determinator is easy prey for the claws of terror Very cool comic book haul. I like it like a lot huge green lantern fan as many of you guys know Let me know what you guys think If you've read any of these issues, let me know in the comments below Let me know how you liked the issues that you've read Which you didn't like about them If you'd like more comic book hauls also leave a comment below Make sure you hit that like button and the subscribe button and we'll tune in again with another great comic book haul Take care my friends If you enjoyed that video make sure you hit the subscribe button right there So you can stay up to date on all things geek culture also make sure you check out one of these two playlists on the side For more videos just like the one you just watched. I'm Shannon for comic getting TV the only place on YouTube We're all geek culture collides Take care Geeks


That concludes topical questions. The next item of business is a statement by Michael Matheson on greenhouse gas emissions statistics 2020. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of his statement, and so there should be no interventions or interruptions. I call on Michael Matheson. Last autumn, Scotland was at the forefront of global climate action when we hosted the international community at COP26. We could not have imagined today's unprecedented cost of living and energy crisis, nor the deeply concerning new landscape of international relations. However, we must not lose track of the threat posed to all of our futures by the climate crisis, the facts around which are becoming even starker. In April, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a warning that it's now or never to limit warming to 1.5 degrees. In response, John Kerry US climate envoy said, we have to still fight for 1.5, as hard as it may be. I remain an optimist because I think that, if we do what we have promised to do, we can achieve a 45 per cent cut in global emissions between now and 2030. I too am optimistic and urge all countries to deliver on the Glasgow climate pact. Of course, that applies to us here in Scotland, too. The purpose of my statement is to update Parliament on the progress to Scotland's statutory climate targets and set out our next steps. Those steps are constrained by the current limits of devolved pilots. We will continue to work with and where needed to challenge the UK Government to ensure urgent action is being taken in key areas that remain reserved and where a lack of pace impacts the ability to meet our more ambitious targets. However, it is also clear that the contribution that Scotland could make to global climate action would be significantly enhanced if we had the normal powers of other independent states. Official statistics published this morning show that the interim greenhouse gas emission target for 2020 of a 56 per cent reduction from the 1990 baseline was met with a 58.7 per cent reduction achieved. The outcome is welcome, as is the fact that the data shows continued underlying progress in reducing emissions across many key sectors of our economy, such as energy supply and waste management. It also confirms that we continue to outperform the UK as a whole in delivering long-term emission reductions. However, it is also clear that the largest changes in emissions during 2020 were significantly influenced by the public health measures that were taken in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. In particular, transport activity was limited as people were asked to stay at home to save lives. There can be no satisfaction taken in emission reductions resulting from such economic and social harm. It must also be prepared for emissions from the transport sector to substantially rebound in 2021. All of that said, today's data does provide a valuable lesson regarding the scale of the transformational change needed in response to the climate emergency and the centrality of the transport sector to achieve that aim. The challenge before us is to achieve those outcomes in a way that is sustainable and just. Whilst 2020 data reflect the impacts of the pandemic, it did not yet capture the step change in action arising through the update of Scotland's climate change plan, which was finalised in March 2021. The updated plan is aimed at achieving our ambitious goals over the 2020s and early 2030s, which go beyond what is needed globally to achieve the 1.5 degrees goal as part of a green recovery from Covid-19. The latest set of annual monitoring reports on the plan laid in parliament last month, alongside our positive response to the climate change committee's latest progress report, contain more up-to-date information than today's high-level emissions statistics. Those reports show welcome early signs of progress on policy implementation and delivery across many sectors. The Scottish Government's focus is on urgently delivering the comprehensive policy package to ensure that future targets can be met through sustainable long-term reductions in emissions across all sectors. In transport, where the impacts of Covid-19 on emissions have been so pronounced, the updated plan contains actions across all modes and has already set out a positive route map for reducing overall car kilometres by 20 per cent over the longer term. The resource spending review confirms our commitment to increase investment by over 200 per cent in active travel from 2024-25 onwards. Low-emission zones have been introduced in four of our cities as of last week, and we are supporting the electrification of public transport, including Scotland's railways by decarbonising them by 2035. Scotland's shift to renewables and support for energy efficiency are also central to our plan. Those are the only real long-term solutions to the current crisis around energy costs. The resource spending review supports our climate actions, prioritises delivery of critical activities such as increasing spend on our heating building strategy and for nature restoration. Our national strategy for economic transformation has a journey to net zero at its heart. I want to look ahead to the key steps over the remainder of this parliamentary session. We are developing just transition plans for Scotland's sectors and regions, beginning with a refreshed energy strategy and just transition plan later this year, including detailed work to assess the pace of transition in the oil and gas sector. Those plans will form part of our economy-wide emission reduction plans, ensuring that future targets can be met in a way that is fair to all supporting green jobs and seize opportunities for sustainable economic growth through leading the global energy transition. We have recently announced the first £20 million of the just transition fund to support those efforts. We are then committed to setting out by November 2023 a draft for Parliament's scrutiny of Scotland's next full climate change plan. That will extend the emissions reductions pathway towards the ambitious 2040 target of a 90 per cent reduction and includes estimates of the costs and benefits of the policies to achieve that. In line with the requirement of the climate change act, I also wrote in April to the climate change committee to request its next set of regular advice on Scotland's statutory targets. That is expected in December and will help to ensure that our approach continues to reflect the rapidly evolving global landscape of economic circumstances and scientific evidence. In 2017, in Egypt later this year, we need to build from the legacy of Glasgow. I set out in our new global affairs framework, and building from the travelling of our climate justice fund over this Parliament, Scotland will continue to play a full part on the international stage, helping to ensure that climate action supports the most vulnerable people and communities. As I have set out today, we are also working to ensure a track record of domestic delivery that matches the high ambition set by this Parliament in response to the Paris agreement. The impacts of the Covid pandemic on emissions during 2020 has further highlighted the transformational scale of action needed in response to the global climate emergency and provided a terrible lesson in the imperative needed for that transition to be a just one. In response, the Scottish Government's commitment to building an net zero and climate resilient nation through planned approaches that are sustainable and positive for both people and the economy is unwavering. Thank you. The cabinet secretary will now take questions on the issues raised in his statement. I intend to allow around 20 minutes for questions after which we will move on to the next item of business. I'd be grateful if members who wish to ask a question were to press their request to speak buttons now. At question number one, I call Maurice Cotland. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and I thank the cabinet secretary for an advanced site of the statement for the first time in four years Scotland's emissions targets have been met. It is bittersweet news, though, because it was only accomplished through a nationwide lockdown. Even the SNP have conceded that point and accept that they cannot rely on lockdowns to meet climate targets, but that is exactly what they are doing. Before today, they had missed their emissions targets three years running. In addition, they had failed to meet a whole series of important targets such as household recycling, biodiversity, green jobs and active travel, not forgetting their failure to deliver a ban on sending biodegradable waste to landfill in 2021, as promised. Add in the green coalition's partner's failure to meet the renewable heat target and abandoning their manifesto promises on a deposit return scheme launch and banning new incineration capacity, it has been fail, fail, fail. All of this shows that the Scottish Government needs to be bolder and implement its proposed policies, particularly in heating, agriculture and transport. Chris Stark, the head of the Committee on Climate Change, predicted that the 2020 emissions target would be met, but he issued a warning that the 2021 target would, and I quote, almost certainly be missed. Does the cabinet secretary accept this expert view, or is Chris Stark wrong? I suppose that time will tell, but we do know that the likelihood is that transport emissions, which were a sizable component in the shift that we saw in the 2020 data during the course of the pandemic, are likely to rebound, which will have an impact on the figures next year, which I made reference to in my own statement. I recognise and agree that it is bittersweet that we are in a situation where we have met the targets and no one takes any pleasure from the fact that some of that has come about as a result of the lockdown circumstances. However, I would say to the member that it is simply wrong to say that we are progressing our climate change policy, depending upon taking forward lockdowns. That is not what we have set out in our climate change update plan, which we published back in March just last year, that sets out almost 200 different policies that we are taking forward in order to make sure that we meet our climate change targets. Alongside that, I am no doubt that the member will take the opportunity to consider the underlying data in some of that information that has been published today, which shows that we continue to move in the right direction in reducing our emissions overall and that, in the long term, we continue to be ahead of other parts of the UK. I went all parts of the UK to be in a similar trajectory and working towards reducing our emissions, but it is important that we continue to make the progress that we have been making. I also emphasise this point, because the member made reference to the need for the Scottish Government to get on with delivering the policies that they have set out, in heating, agriculture and transport specifically. I take that as an endorsement from the Conservative Party to support us in those key policy areas. Very often, when we bring forward key policies in those areas, we often find that the Conservatives are in opposition to us on those issues. If you are going to be serious and the Conservative Party is trying to be serious about tackling the climate emergency that we face, both at a domestic and at an international level, it also means stepping up to the plate and demonstrating the leadership that is necessary with the policy ideas that will deliver on that, rather than just thinking about the next day's headlines. After years of environmental failures and mis-targets, last year's lockdown has granted the SNP-Green Government a state of execution. However, the cabinet secretary claims that we will perform the rest of the UK. He knows that our per capita greenhouse gas emissions remain higher than other parts of the UK. If this year's fault is not simply going to be a blip on the radar, we need to have a change, of course. Transport emissions fell this year, but does he really believe that we would have seen that fall had we not had the pandemic? What assessment has the Government made of the impact on transport emissions of the current cuts in rail services? Does the cabinet secretary really think that we will see a fall in transport emissions next year compared to pre-pandemic levels based on the current policy? Let me deal with the three points that the member has raised. The first point is wrong, because the baseline data that is used for assessing progress across the whole of the UK is set out in the climate change act, which is informed by the methodology that is set out by the Committee on Climate Change. It demonstrates very clearly that Scotland continues to be ahead of the rest of the UK on a long-term policy basis, and it is significantly ahead of areas such as Wales, where the Labour Party happens to be in control. Notwithstanding that, I want to see Wales doing well in tackling climate change as well, as I want that to be the case across the whole of the UK and a global level. Whether the pandemic would be a member target had the pandemic not taken place, as you will be aware, the statistics that are provided today do not provide that information. It does not disaggregate figures on the basis of a pandemic not taking place, so we do not have data that is able to demonstrate that. However, I acknowledge and recognise that meeting our very stretching targets, statutory targets here in Scotland, is challenging for us to make rightly so, but it is also important that we take forward the policies that will help us to achieve that. In relation to transport in particular, the range of measures is a very ambitious target of setting around 20 per cent reduction in car kilometres. The measures that we are taking as well as the investment that we are putting into active travel and helping to decarbonise our public transport network are all key contributors to helping to make sure that transport emissions become a smaller part of our overall global climate challenge here in Scotland. That is why I believe that those are policies that will help to deliver the outcome that we are looking to achieve. The independent climate change committee has been clear that Scotland's ability to deliver a green recovery and richer targets is very much dependent on action from the UK Government in areas that, unfortunately, as the cabinet secretary has indicated, remain reserved. What interventions does the cabinet secretary therefore think that it is important that we see at the UK level to help us to achieve our climate ambitions here in Scotland? There are a number of important factors that need to be taken into account. For example, we have raised now on a number of occasions with the UK Government the approach that was taken with its net zero strategy did not take account of policy decisions that are making here in Scotland. It did not consult us in that process to ensure that it was reflective of the domestic policies that are necessary at a UK level to meet our statutory 2045 target, because it is working to a 2050 target. There are a number of areas where greater flexibility would allow us to make greater progress. Fiscal powers, taxation powers, progress in carbon capture utilisation storage, as we have not been able to move forward with the track 1 process for the ACORN project. Alongside that, we ensure that we end the discriminatory charging against renewable energy projects here in Scotland in connecting into the GB grid. Those are policies that actively make it more difficult for us to meet our statutory climate change targets, which is why the UK Government needs to work with us in making sure that they are taking forward the policies that support us in meeting our 2045 target, because to date that has not been approached that they have been taking. Before I move on to the next question, I would be grateful if we could have more concise responses, because there is a great deal of interest in your statement, cabinet secretary. Dean Lockhart will be followed by Evelyn Tweed. The UK climate change committee has expressed doubts on whether the Scottish Government's 2030 climate targets can be met and has called for much greater detail and transparency on policy delivery. One of the policies that will be critical to deliver the 2030 targets is the retrofitting and decarbonisation of heat for over 1 million homes in Scotland. Will the Scottish Government accept the UK climate change committee recommendations, and will the cabinet secretary commit to publish annual targets for the retrofitting and decarbonisation of dwellings for each of the years between now and 2030, so that we have the necessary levels of transparency for delivery of those targets?  It is important that the Government responds constructively to the challenge, in particular the challenge that we have around decarbonisation, not just of domestic premises but non-domestic premises over the course of the period between now and 2030. I assure the member that in our heating building strategy we have a very ambitious plan in order to ensure that we achieve that target alongside record investment of £1.8 billion. I assure the member that the approach that we will be taking is one that is very focused on delivery and is an open and transparent process. How do we go about doing that? A recent report published by the Met office receptors indicates that climate change is having a significant impact on global rainfall patterns. Notably Scotland, along with the majority of northern Europe, is anticipated to experience increasing rainfall during winter. Communities in my Stirling constituency already struggle with the impacts of annual flooding, and with that anticipated to get worse. I ask the Scottish Government what investment is being made in flood defences and mitigations in Stirling. There is no doubt that we are experiencing the effects of the locked-in effects of climate change already, which is resulting in much more intensive weather patterns, which are having a disruptive impact on communities and our transport network, not just here in Scotland and the UK but on a global scale. We have all witnessed that over the last couple of years, which is why it is important that we take the right adaptive measures around climate adaptation. We are increasing our investment in tackling climate adaptation issues and flooding issues, with an increased investment of around £150 million over the course of this parliamentary session. We are also investing some £12 million in coastal erosion programmes for communities that have been impacted by that. If I recall correctly off the top of my head, there are projects in Stirling, Bridget Valley and Calender, all of which are focused on tackling flooding issues that have been supported as part of the funding. I hope that that reassures the member of the investment that we are making along with local authorities to tackle flooding in areas such as Stirling. Thanks to the decline in emissions from the energy sector, the statistics shows that domestic transport is now the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland. The report notes that there was a marked decline in the emissions due to the Covid lockdown, but now the circumstance is behind us. It is crucial for our climate target that we keep this emission as low as possible. This must include having a functional rail network and expanding it to rapidly growing communities like Winchborough in the Lothian region I represent to ensure that people have the choice to opt out of private transport. Does the Scottish Government truly understand the importance of functional and widely available public transport in meeting our net zero target? How will it get from the current chaos to that goal? I recognise the importance that reducing transport emissions has in helping to support us in achieving our statutory climate change target, which is why we have been expanding and developing a rail network, including the decarbonisation of a rail network, with further electrification programmes being taken forward to support exactly that type of approach that the member is looking for. I am also well aware of the issues in Winchborough that I visited the site as well, but the member will also be aware that developers have a stated interest in this matter, and it is very clear about where the financial responsibility for that rests. What I can assure the member is that investing in our public transport network and decarbonising it are key parts of our strategy going forward to meet our climate change targets. Cabinet Secretary will know of my deep concern at the frankly unbelievable decision by the UK Government not to give track 1 status to the Scottish cluster of carbon capture and storage project, which includes the Acorn project in the north-east in reference to Alasdair Allan. The economic and just transition issues are obvious and of great concern, but, on the other hand, can I ask him what discussions he has had with the UK Government counterparts on the impact that this decision has had on our drive to meet our net zero targets as set out in the climate change act? This is an issue that I have raised repeatedly with the UK Government because I believe that they got it badly wrong in not awarding track 1 status to the OACORN project. I think that many in the sector recognise that they got it badly wrong as well. The member can be assured that I will continue to press the UK Government on this issue, particularly as they move towards track 2, to get clarity on the timescale and the process for the Acorn project in order to ensure that it has every possibility of succeeding in achieving track 1 status. However, net zero and negative emission technologies such as CCUS are critical to meeting our climate change targets, and that is why we need to make sure that progress has been made on it. The final point that I will make is that the Scottish Government is fully behind the Acorn project, which is why I have agreed to make available £80 million to help to support the delivery of the project at a quicker pace. What we now need to see is the green light being given by the UK Government to allow the project to move forward so that we can meet not just environmental but also the economic and social benefits that will come from it. I thank the cabinet secretary for early sight of his statement and welcome his acknowledgement that our meeting of the emissions target after three years of failure has more to do with the lockdown that is attributable to Covid than the actions of the Scottish Government. For all the discussions of constitutional grievance, we know that more than 50 per cent of energy used in Scotland goes into heating buildings and that the SNP's funding promises fall short of achieving its retrofitting targets. Given that and the on-going cost of energy crisis, can the cabinet secretary explain how the Government plans to urgently scale up Scotland's retrofitting activity and capacity to ensure that we beat both our future emissions and fuel poverty targets? The key to tackling the energy crisis that we are facing just now and many households are suffering from is to help to reduce individual consumption. That is through greater energy efficiency programmes, which is why we have got record investment going into energy efficiency programmes and why we have committed to investing a record at £1.8 billion in the course of this Parliament to help to support the decarbonisation of domestic premises. That is the type of ambition that will help to deliver the scale of change that is necessary. Plus, we are also working with other private sector organisations to look at how we can lever in additional finance to help to support that transition even quicker. Between the level of ambition that we have set out in our strategy on tackling emissions from properties in our heating building strategy alongside the record investment that we are making with £1.8 billion over this Parliament is testament to the ambition and determination of this Government to reduce energy use in people's homes. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has made many countries rethink their energy policies and focus on energy security. Will the cabinet secretary agree that energy security is best achieved through a focus on renewable and low-carbon energy? The issue of energy security has become central in energy policy in a way that was not there six months ago. It is now very clear that to deliver energy security, if we look at the publications recently from the European Union, is that domestic renewable energy production is seen as being the key way in which we can reduce both energy costs and deliver greater security. That certainly accords with the Scottish Government's view, and its approach will be setting out in our energy strategy later this year. Although transport remains the biggest climate emitter, it is clear that the sharp rise in walking and cycling and decline in aviation and private car use led to huge cuts in emissions in 2020. Transport Scotland's own research into travel trends during the pandemic shows that a new normal for domestic travel is within reach. Does the cabinet secretary believe that demand reduction is important for all polluting modes of travel, including aviation? What plans does the Scottish Government have to establish that new normal? Demand reduction is an important part of trying to change behaviour, because we know that the vast majority of the actions that we need to take in order to reduce our emissions involve behaviour change actions. That is why we have set out in, for example, our national transport strategy, our investment hierarchy, which sees getting investment and into active travel and public transport before looking at single car use. Alongside that, we have also made a very clear commitment to work with the aviation sector to look at decarbonising aviation by 2040, while at the same time looking at the economic opportunities that are in producing sustainable aviation fuel here in Scotland. We believe that the policies that will be set out through the NTS and the wider climate change strategy will deliver on the types of reductions that we need to see in years ahead. One way of meeting targets will be to support rural properties to transition to renewable heat. The Scottish Conservatives pledged in our manifesto to introduce a rural heat decarbonisation fund, as was recommended by Scottish Renewables. The SNP and Greens copied that into their manifestos and restated it in the Bute House agreement, yet nothing has come forward. Can the cabinet secretary show that this Government is serious about delivering its targets by stating precisely when such a fund will be introduced? The member will be aware that we are presently looking at a range of measures around our heat decarbonisation strategy and how we can help to support both homes, urban and rural areas to decarbonise. There are specific aspects and challenges around decarbonisation of properties in rural areas, given that many of them are off-grid, and therefore the costs that can be incurred by rural households are much greater when it comes to decarbonisation. However, I can assure the member that that is an issue that we are presently giving consideration to and how we will make sure that funding is available for that. I will undertake to write to the member to set out more details on that so that he can share that with those constituents going forward, because I am aware that it is an on-going concern for the member. How we reduce our emissions is as important as the reduction itself, and Scotland is a world renowned for having underpinned our net zero targets with a legislative commitment to a just transition. Can the cabinet secretary provide an update on the Scottish Government's just transition fund, which is vital for my constituency, and whether there has been any indication that the UK Government would match that £500 million investment over 10 years? No, we have no confirmation from the UK Government to match your £500 million just transition fund for the north-east and Murray. We have opened up the consultation process just last week to ask for expressions of interest, with the initial £20 million being allocated to that to help to start some of the initial work around the just transition fund. That process is now open, and I would certainly want to take this opportunity to encourage the member's constituents and businesses in our constituency who have an interest in the just transition fund to engage in that consultation exercise and to make sure that we shape the way in which that fund is used in a way that delivers a just transition for the north-east and Murray.