Hello and welcome to the Grand Line Review, your source for everything one piece. And today I'd just like to have a bit of a discussion regarding one of the most iconic villains in the series, a certain heavenly demon, and more specifically, how effective he was in that role. The desire to embark on this discussion stems from a video that I made an awfully long time ago now, where I selected what I believed to be the top five best villains in the series, and well, Dolphemingo did not appear on that list. Ever since then, almost every second comment that appears on that video has either been asking why Dolphemingo wasn't selected or directly questioning my sanity. So let's get into how Mr. Sunglasses fits into all of this and how I feel about him as a villain as a whole. And first of all, I would like to start by saying that Dolphemingo was one of my all-time favorite characters in the series. His design, his abilities, his backstory, pretty much everything about him hits me strongly. But does that feeling alone make him one of the top five best villains in the series? Yeah, not necessarily, because I mean, someone can tell me all they want that Hody Jones is their favorite character, but not even in the darkest timeline will he be considered one of the best villains in one piece. But let's take a quick look at what Dolphemingo has going for him in that regard. Throughout the large majority of the series, Dolphemingo represented a very enigmatic and menacing presence. His character was essentially epitomized by two features, the first of which being a position of great power as a warlord of the sea and the second being one hell of a smile. And these two features created a solid fear of the unknown because in the pre-times skip era, as much as we knew next to nothing about this man, what we did know was that if Luffy and the Straw Hats ever crossed paths with him, it would almost certainly be the end of them. And that feeling was well-founded because when Dolphemingo's time did come, he did not disappoint in terms of sheer overwhelming power. He was the strongest combatant that Luffy had taken on to date, while excluding skirmishes against admirals and other such beings, and overcoming Dolphemingo took an entire nation rising up in rebellion against him. In addition to that, he wasn't just evil for the sake of evil either, not really anyway, because Dolphemingo did have an understandable past. I mean, I can't identify or empathize with his upbringing as a celestial dragon, but I do certainly understand how he ended up the way he did, which is an integral element in a strong antagonist. Plus, he was poised to be pretty damn intelligent as well, having positioned himself at the center of an extensive underground network, specializing in the trade of slaves and weapons, with many massive clients, all the while blackmailing the world government to attain a position as a wallet of the sea. This dude really did have it all going for him, and with a fascinating and quirky crew to complement it all. But for a quick recap, Dolphemingo was an enigmatic, powerful, intelligent, and depth-filled figure. He's what I would call a good or rounder, a jack of all trades, if you will, but not necessarily a master of any. And to break this down, let's begin with our first key feature, being his enigma or mystery. Now, this is problematic with any villain, because in order to actually explore them, you need to abandon this feature entirely. And after being told the story behind Dolphemingo and viewing his abilities in detail, this layer has all but disappeared from him. Well, well, except for what his eyes look like behind those sunglasses, and I would be very happy to never find out what they look like in order to preserve that teeny, tiny bit of mystery. But the thing is, though, even when we put the mystery of Dolphemingo into context, I still don't think it presents more than what other villains have been able to make from this feature. Because at the height of enigma, all Dolphemingo really was, was a big old question mark looming over the One Piece world, which I loved, but there was no fanatic desire to unravel that enigma. Whereas you look at a villain like, say, Blackbeard, and the mystery surrounding him have fueled the One Piece fan base ever since his introduction. There is a lust for knowledge that he demands, whether it be how he was able to consume multiple devil fruits, or how he can be a member of the D-Clan when he shows such unusual behavior for a D-Wielder. It doesn't matter what it is, mystery isn't thralling, and I don't just say that because we haven't solved them yet. They're just stronger conundrums to be presented to the audience than what Dolphemingo represented. And it's certainly one of the reasons why I placed Blackbeard in my top five best villains list, but certainly not the only reason. But this video is not about Mr. Teach, so let's move on with the next factor for Dolphemingo, which is strength. Now this one is problematic because you can't judge a character be they good, bad, or neutral via power alone. And you know what? If you did, then Dolphemingo would stand even less of a chance of making the top five best villains list with some of the absolute monsters in the series. But that said, strength is important to analyzing context. Because for example, Kaido was such a revered presence in this world, not so much because we know anything surrounding his character, but simply because of the God-like power that he has access to. But on the other end of that spectrum, a good villain certainly does not need that level of power to operate. And I'll be using Arlong as an example of this. Lots of people went absolutely mad when I ranked Arlong over Dolphemingo, and many of them cited Arlong's physical weakness as some sort of reasoning behind that. But Arlong was exactly as strong as he needed to be for the time period, just as Dolphemingo was an appropriate level of power to be perceived as a legitimate threat against Luffy in his era. So the question of strength becomes pretty irrelevant. Well, not irrelevant so much as the question shifts to, okay, so what does a villain do with that strength? And in Dolphemingo's case, as crazy as the events of Dressroser were, I don't think he did quite enough with what he had to work with, which was an absurd based strength, agility and durability, as well as one of the most broken devil fruit abilities awakened devil fruit abilities I should add. And when I look back at how he used the power he had, I generally can't see myself ranking those deeds anywhere near something like Arlong, who used what little power he had to put an army through a truly horrific childhood, or say Sakazuki using his incredible strength to kill Ace. And yes, Dolphemingo did put Trafalgar Lore and King Ruku and an entire nation through a horrendous ordeal, but it just doesn't have anywhere near the same overall effect, not on me anyway. And I don't know why their disconnect is there, but I just don't feel the fear of Dolphemingo's power as much as I do Sakazuki, or you know what, even Arlong, oddly enough, they were both far more effective in commanding fear, whilst Dolphemingo was just kind of cool. And that had a very detrimental effect on him as a primary antagonist. As much as I love the character, I can't legitimately say I was ever truly threatened by him during the Dressrosa saga, not in the same way that I felt threatened by anyone else I've compared him to. And you know what, I'll even throw another name into this mix, which is Crocodile, a significantly weaker existence than Dolphemingo, but his presence was overwhelming due to him using what he had, be it strength, intelligence, and devil fruit abilities, to a much higher antagonistic level. And speaking of the eye word, intelligence is a questionable area when it comes to Dolphemingo. Everything about where his character is in the series would suggest that he has a high degree of it, and that's part of what built him up to be this amazing antagonist. However, almost every decision he made during the Dressrosa arc very much undermines that idea and lessens his potency as a villain to me as a result. Things like casually deciding that he was going to try and kill a marine admiral, or even more puzzlingly deciding not to kill Trafalgar Law, for no reason on multiple occasions, as well as being so arrogant that he actually allowed the Merimerinomy to be put in a chest as a prize in the Corridor Colosseum when he had no intention of losing it. And the thing with that last one is it just doesn't make sense whatever way you look at it. Even if we took Dolphemingo's view that Diamante had a 100% chance of winning the contest, then there is still no point in putting the actual devil fruit in that chest. And should there be a less than 100% chance of Diamante's victory, then it is a wildly unnecessary risk that resulted in a super-powered sabre becoming heavily involved in the events that culminated in Dolphemingo's downfall. And the generally accepted reason for all of this is of course, Dolphemingo's wild arrogance, which is a fatal flaw. All characters have at least one of these and arguably need one, which is fine. I just personally don't feel like a lot of his decision-making is consistent with the character as presented in his position of importance in the world. But none of that is to say that Dolphemingo is a weak villain because of that. He is incredible and he was capable of helming an entire saga by giving us just enough of everything to provide a really solid presence. However, to me, that just is not enough, not in a series like One Piece anyway, to label him as one of the top five best villains. I mean, he's up there, probably quite close to the top five even, maybe like seventh or eighth, but there is so much more that this world has to offer and a whole slew of antagonists out there who deserve that recognition more. But that pretty much does it for whatever this rambling business was. If you enjoyed this video and the content this channel produced in general, then please do consider donating to the Grand Line Review Patreon because the support of all of your amazing people is what continues to make this channel possible. And if you'd like to see more videos like this but applied to other anime and manga series, then please do check out my second channel, New World Review, for all of your wider needs. And if you'd like to join the fun at any time, then please do head over to my Discord server where a wide array of shenanigan retakes place on a daily basis. And finally, please do comment with your thoughts on Dolphemingo as a villain. This has been the Grand Line Review and I'll see you next time. This is Grand Line Review and I'm Grand Line Waifu. Have a great day, everyone. Have a great day. What if they don't want to?  Geez, I'm not in charge of you. Do what you wanna do. Have a bad day. Have a really bad day. You know what? You know what? I take it back. Don't have a good day. You don't get a good day. If you wanted a bad day, you don't deserve to have a good day. So, no. You know what? Just, it's night time now. It's night. No, it's not. It's night. You don't even get a day. You just came in here for an umbrella. I came in for an umbrella and you know what? I'm laying down the law. It's not daytime. It's night time now and you only get night. Eternal night. You forgot the dog. Eternal night. Well, you all just got told.


Hi everyone, my name is Steph, this is Kid Lit Joy and today I'm here to review Tree by Claire Saxby. This is illustrated by Jess Racklieft and it is a gorgeous narrative non-fiction book that is being published by Alan and Unwin who sent this to me for review, so thank you very much to them. This author illustrated duo worked together on a book called Iceberg which I don't know if was reviewed on this channel or my other channel. If it's not on this channel I'll do another review for it because it's an absolutely gorgeous narrative non-fiction story all about icebergs. Claire Saxby is just a master of weaving in factual information into a fictional text and this is the story of a 300 year old mountain ash that exists and it is almost a day in the life of this tree and the way that it supports the ecosystem that lives around it, the floor and the fauna. What I loved about this book aside from Jess Racklieft's gorgeous illustrations like this book is just visually stunning to look at. Claire Saxby's writing is beautiful, lyrical, she's incredible at choosing vocabulary and words to enhance her writing. I think I had examples down for word choice for misty, bustle, scaly, scurry, burrow, launch, like those are really powerful verbs that you can unpack with children like they're just absolutely gorgeous. As I said the illustrations, the watercolor in here is just so beautiful to look at and also the way that Jess Racklieft depicts different perspectives of this tree because it is so large from the very ground all the way to the tops of the tree. Honestly, I just, I read this book and I just had to go back and reread it straight away because I just loved the way that the words and the images encapsulated how old this tree was and how important it was to the environment. So again, that like this has an important message of, you know, we need to take care of our forests and take care of our really old trees because they are so important to the spaces where they exist and it's taken them time. Like these trees have lived through hundreds of years. They've seen so much history and are part of the fabric of forests. So it was totally blown away by this book. There is also, which is a trademark of these two, an incredibly beautiful fold-out page that sort of shows the scale, kind of included in one camera screen. The scale of it is just, just gorgeous. Ultimately, this is a great call to action for us as humans to take care of our environment, to take care of things that have been around for a really long time, particularly when trees like this are under threat from humans and deforestation and things like that. So it is absolutely gorgeous. I thoroughly enjoyed my reading experience with this. So thank you again to the publisher for sending me a copy. It's the kind of book that makes you want to read more and to learn more about the world around you. Like it just invites you in and it shares the secrets of the trees and it's just beautiful. In the comments, I'd love to know if you are planning on picking up Tree by Claire Saxby, or if you have other books that are similar in that narrative nonfiction vein that are just so immersive and beautiful and factual while still being an entertaining read. If you just want to let me know that you're here but you don't want to leave a comment, feel free to leave any kind of Tree emoji down below. Otherwise, I hope that wherever you're in the world, you're staying safe and healthy and I will see you in my next video. Thanks so much for watching. Bye everyone.


We will all be deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Winnie Ewing, an inspiring and hugely influential politician, an MSP, an MP and an MEP, and of course the first person to chair the reconvened Scottish Parliament in 1999. I know members will wish to join me in conveying our deepest sympathies to our colleagues Annabelle Ewing and Fergus Ewing and to all her family and friends. As a mark of respect, I have asked for the flags outside to be lowered for today. The next item of business is portfolio questions. In light of your news, I wonder if I could, on behalf of the Scottish Labour Party, offer our deepest condolences to Fergus and Annabelle Ewing and all members of the family. There is no doubt that Winnie Ewing's contribution to Scotland and to this Parliament was immense and I remember well listening to her as the very first person to speak and open this Parliament. I'll now move to my question. To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there was a delay of more than 80 days in processing 70 per cent of adult disability payments in April 2023. Cabinet Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville. Thank you, Presiding Officer. With your permission, Presiding Officer, I thank Jackie Baillie. For her kind words, Winnie Ewing was the first Presiding Officer of this Parliament. She reconvened this Parliament and much will be said about her role in the SNP and the independence movement. I still have the courage she sent me when I was first elected in my office and I looked at it before I came downstairs today. Hence, I think why I'm so emotional. She was a trailblazer for women, particularly in my party, but not just for the SNP. There will be much that will be said about her role in the SNP and the independence movement, as I say. But I hope today that the whole Parliament can join with me to pay tribute to Winnie. A life well lived, her contribution to public life in Scotland is hard for us to measure. Can I, on behalf of my party and our members, pay tribute and give our deepest condolences to Fergus, to Annabelle, to Terry and their families, at what is the hardest time for any family, but particularly people in public life? Presiding Officer, I can now move to the answer for Jackie Baillie. 53 per cent of decisions on ADP were made in less than four months. However, we know that some people are waiting on an acceptably long time for adult disability payment. Urgent and concerted action has been taken to speed this process up with every step of the application and decision making process having been examined. Social Security Scotland will continue to deliver ADP in a different way to the DWP, supporting people to apply and where required, collecting supporting information for them and the previous system people had to do this themselves before applying. The agency's focus is also on getting the decision right first time in statistics show that this is working with only 6 per cent of people asking for a redetermination. People can also be reassured that all payments are backdated to the date of application. The average processing time for applications has in fact increased every month since the adult disability payment was launched from 45 working days in September 2022 to 96 working days in April 2023. The Scottish Government did promise a fairer and more compassionate social security system in Scotland, but people in Scotland are now having to wait even longer than people in the rest of the UK, which I'm sure was not the intention. Disabled Scots need this support during a cost of living crisis. So, what specifically will the cabinet secretary do to address these delays and deliver the working social security system that we need as a matter of urgency? As I said in my original answer to Jackie Baillie, there are a number of differences between what happens with the DWP system and what is now happening with Social Security Scotland. The most obvious one is the collection of supporting information that the agency does on behalf of the client. That is necessarily taking more time to do, but I reassure Jackie Baillie on the issue that every single aspect of the journey is being looked at all the way from the application form to the information that goes along with the application form to how the decisions are made. We are looking at every single part of that seriously. To give but some examples of that, there have been a number of ways that we have changed in the agency how calls are handled. Staff have been redeployed in a different way. There have already been changes to application forms, particularly about the issue about supporting information. I would say this to everyone in the chamber. If there are constituency issues or lessons that can be learned, both the Government and the agency stand ready to learn. What is still a new system that we are developing and we are determined to do better than we are with processing times at the moment? On behalf of the benches here, we also want to pay our respects and to associate our comments that you have made about Winnie Ewing. I had the privilege of meeting her on a few occasions. She was a woman who was formidable, but she was also seeking to encourage all those who wanted to get involved in public life. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family at this time. I ask the cabinet secretary that it is not just ADP about our experience and unacceptable delays. The average and poor sense of time for funeral support payment was 39 days in March of this year, meaning that many families are having to wait well over five weeks before we can even start to organise a funeral. Can the cabinet secretary tell the chamber why these delays are happening and will she commit to investigating ways in which that can be fixed and will port back to this Parliament? I thank Jeremy Balfour for this important question on funeral support payment. Again, with all aspects of the work of Social Security Scotland, there is a great deal of focus on processing times, on the issue of funeral support payment. Some of the work cannot be completed until the agency has all the information from a client to allow them to process a claim. However, I am more than happy if I can receive further information from Jeremy Balfour in writing to be able to look at any specific issues that there may be or specific cases with a constituent's permission to see if more can be done to again learn lessons to speed things up where at all possible. Willie Rennie. Can I echo others about when he was doing, she was certainly a towering figure, she made quite a mark on Scottish politics and I can understand why people are feeling so emotional about her passing. We want to, from the Liberal Democrats, pass on our sympathies to those people who are feeling this great loss. One of my constituents has been waiting since last October. He has a degenerative spine condition and his mobility is declining. Even though this complaint was upheld, he has only been allocated the basic rate of mobility, so he is now asked for a redetermination, so the wait is even longer because of that. The trouble is that expectations were incredibly high after the Government promised so much about this new social security system. In addition to the changes that the ministers outlined, how is she going to restore confidence among those who are applying for this system so that they do believe that it is worth it and that they do believe that they are going to get their benefits on time? Cabinet Secretary. I thank Willie Rennie for that and for the discussions that I have had previously with him on particular issues. Confidence in the system is a very important one. I was up in Dundee at social security offices to talk to staff and also to clients who had both applied for and received the Scottish child payment and child and adult disability payments. They were very clear to me, as has been shown in the client surveys that the agency has produced recently, that there is a high degree of confidence still in the service that is being provided, that people are felt that they are being believed, that they are being trusted and that they are being treated with dignity, fairness and respect. That is a very important one. We know, however, that there is much to do on the processing times and I hope that I have given some reassurance to members on that today. As I said previously, there are a small number of decisions that are going forward to a redetermination. That is a necessary part of the system and we will endeavour, of course, within the agency to make sure that everything is being done, that that process is as smooth as possible for people too. 2. Alexander Burnett Thank you, Presiding Officer. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child Incorporation, Scotland Bill. Cabinet Secretary. I will provide an update to Parliament on the UNCRC Incorporation, Scotland Bill before the summer recess, which I am confident will provide sufficient reassurance to stakeholders about progress, the reasons for the time taken to bring the bill back to Parliament and how we propose to amend the bill and our continued commitment to incorporation. 3. Alexander Burnett In January, the cabinet secretary said that our government remains absolutely committed to incorporating the UNCRC into Scots law as far as it is possible within devolved competence. However, instead of making this a priority, the SNP Government has chosen to air its constitutional grievances by embarking on a costly legal battle with the UK Government to defend its flawed gender recognition reform bill. My question is why has the Government chosen to prioritise the GRR bill over the UNCRC bill and when can the Parliament expect to see a draft of the updated UNCRC bill? Cabinet Secretary. I think that Mr Burnett was not just reading a preprepared second question and listening to what I said, Presiding Officer, he will get more information on it last weekend. Genuinely, I know that we have differences on gender recognition, but the first question was about incorporation of children's rights. If we could just rise above a bit of a dig about gender recognition and recognise the sheer difficulty that we have as a Parliament where we are literally having to pick out supporting children's rights because of the devolutionary setup, then that does unfortunately take time. I am very sorry that the member feels that he would want to complete those two issues. They are entirely separate, entirely different, and this Government will report back to Parliament on the UNCRC issue next week. I look forward to the statement next week. Is the Scottish Government confident that its decision making children and young people's participation, which was updated on the 20th of June, in particular the UNCRC devolved general comment 12 on the involvement of young people, has manifested itself in its outreach work so far on the UNCRC? I hope to be able to say slightly more if the member will forgive me on this next week. With the Parliament's permission, I will move forward with a statement on this. I think that he does raise a very important point about how we continue to involve children and young people in issues. As I say, if he forgives me, I will perhaps say more on that next week. To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on whether it plans to resume the supersponsor scheme for Ukrainian refugees. Since the war against Ukraine began, over 24,700 people sponsored by an individual or the Scottish Government have arrived in the UK. The decision to pause the scheme was difficult. A surge in applications combined with pressure on short-term accommodation meant that it was needed to ensure that we could continue to welcome those already with a visa. A review of the decision against the greed set of criteria is under way and Parliament will be updated in due course. In the meantime, people can apply for a visa with an individual sponsor. The Scottish Government seems to have overstretched itself with its capacity and resources with the supersponsor scheme for Ukrainian refugees, leaving many in a perilous position unsure of where they will live and when the Government's short-term housing may run out for them. Can I ask the cabinet secretary what measures, if any, she has taken to ensure that every sponsored refugee taken in by the Scottish Government will be given long-term housing options as soon as the short-term housing option contracts end, given the fact that the scheme was paused in July last year due to a lack of availability of housing? The people that we are speaking about have come under circumstances that we cannot even begin to imagine coming to Scotland. That is why it is very important that there is a reassurance that the short-term welcome accommodation is there. Of course, there is a great deal of work going on around long-term accommodation with the private rented sector and councils. That is why there are a number of councils that have taken up the opportunity of using the Scottish Government funding to bring back voice and to bring other accommodation back into use for our Ukrainian guests. That is something that I would be more than happy to provide further information to the member on, if she wishes. To ask the Scottish Government regarding any implications for refugees from Ukraine, whether it will provide an update on the disembarkation of the MS Victoria prior to the ship's planned departure from the port of Leith on 11 July. There are matching teams on board the MS Victoria, supporting all guests to move on to suitable alternative accommodation before the contract ends on 11 July. The teams work closely with guests to encourage them to consider a range of housing options, including social housing, private rented sector properties, hosted accommodation or alternative welcome accommodation, including hotels. We remain on course to safely disembark the ship ahead of the end of the contract, with the majority of guests that were resident now having already departed or with plans to disembark in the coming weeks. I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer and pay tribute to all those involved in this operation. I appreciate and welcome the work under way by matching teams on board the MS Victoria to provide assistance and minimise the inevitable disruption by helping guests to successfully transition to new accommodation through a trauma-informed and person-centred approach, as the cabinet secretary has emphasised. I would also be grateful if the cabinet secretary could provide an update on the ongoing discussions between the Scottish Government and the private rented sector to help to remove any remaining barriers to access to suitable accommodation for my constituents, especially regarding the cost of deposits to secure tenancies. I thank the cabinet secretary for that question and pay tribute to the work that he and the Erdurie Broke MP have done to support their newest constituents while they have been in leave. In addition to providing £1.72 million in grant funding to bring 100 properties in the city back into use, we are working with COSLA and local authorities to consider whether we can bolster existing local authorities support packages that help people with their needs. We are working with the cost of deposits and other barriers to accessing private rental properties. Officials and the Minister for Housing have also engaged directly with lighting agents, landlords and credit reference agencies to understand and overcome some of the non-monitory barriers to accessing private rental properties and ensured to displace people from Ukraine that are able to access information about private tenancies. The cabinet secretary has further constituency work, as we have done in the past. I would be more than happy to work with him alongside my colleague the Minister for Housing. Miles Briggs. I associate myself with the words of Bang MacPherson. I also take this opportunity to thank those who work in our schools in Edinburgh and have offered a very warm, supportive learning environment to these young people while they have been educated here in Edinburgh. My question was in relation to maintaining connections between these young people. We know that many of them will now be moving to different parts of the country, but their support network is here in Edinburgh, so I wondered what support will be provided to make sure that they can continue to keep these relationships going in the future. Cabinet secretary. I associate myself very much with the remarks that Miles Briggs has made about the warm welcome that has been given within our schools, particularly but not just in Edinburgh to our youngest Ukrainian guests. It is very important that councils are working together on this. The City of Edinburgh council has not been the only council that has been on board the ship, many others have as well. The council within Edinburgh and other councils are working exceptionally closely to make sure that we are doing everything that we can within public agencies and indeed the third sector to ensure that we are doing everything possible to maintain connections and make the transition from NS Victoria to other accommodation as seamless and as easy for people. On Monday, at the CPG for mental health of which I am a co-convener, we heard a presentation from Edinburgh-based charity Fenyx on the mental health and integration needs of Ukrainian refugees settling here. Its findings from those responding to their survey suggest more support is required in terms of refugees navigating the system and accessing services such as mental health and children's services. What additional measures can be provided to those who have sought sanctuary in Scotland to ensure that they get all the support that they need and what can be done to ensure that the support is trauma informed? Another very important issue about the fact that this is not just about housing or indeed schooling but about ensuring that we wrap around as much support as possible for Ukrainians as they come to Scotland. For however long that may be. The issues around support whether it is in the health service or indeed wider services is something that Scottish Government officials and councils and other public agencies are working very closely on. If there are particular concerns from the cross-party group, I would be more than happy to receive further feedback on that. I would be very interested in the results from that to see what we can learn. As the Scottish Government, what support is being provided to Social Security Scotland in light of the continued transfer of cases from the Department of Work and Pensions and increase in applications? We are working closely with Social Security Scotland and the DWP to safeguard the transition of client awards to the agency. This is a joint delivery programme. We are prioritising the safe and secure transfer of client data. We are closely monitoring the number of applications for disability benefits against our forecasts and exploring a range of ways to improve our application processes, including taking a comprehensive look at every step in the journey from people applying for a disability benefit to getting paid. I think that the cabinet secretary for that response. I have been contacted by several constituents citing delays to their payments. With one constituent advising, they have waited over four months for their paperwork to process and a decision to be made. During that time, they were supporting an ill family member residing in the same household and had to travel to hospital appointments with very little income. To that end, can the cabinet secretary confirm what support the Scottish Government can provide to Social Security Scotland to ensure that they continue to maintain a person-centred approach whilst implementing their first come, first served case management system? As I mentioned to members in previous answers, there is a great deal of work going on within Social Security Scotland and the Social Security Directorate in the Scottish Government to ensure that action is being taken on every step of the process to see what can be done to speed up processing times. Progress is being made. I reassure members that more decisions are being made per week now than they have been in the past. We are seeing improvements. I go back again to the issue of the fact that the agency collates the supporting information, which is very different to what happened under the DWP, where it was the client that had that responsibility. We are looking carefully at the agency and the Government about what more can be done to speed up the process of receiving that supporting information and the decision being made. If Michelle Thompson has particular constituent cases that she would like me to look into, I would be more than happy to do so. We know that the Government has spent almost £180 million on an IT system for the agency with no end in sight, and we know that there are significant challenges to people getting a response on the phone or online. Can the cabinet secretary say what action has been taken immediately to ensure that people can get through and get an answer on those issues? The IT system delivers a Scottish child payment. There is one end that we have already well in our sites that provides support directly to children and their families across the country. I have made that point. I will say that there is an issue around telephony. That is why the agency has, and we will continue to see what more can be done to improve the call waiting times. There has been improvements again in this area because of some of the steps that the agency has already taken. I am more than happy to share further details of that with the member in due course, Shuri Wish to see them. 7. Paul Sweeney To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the levels of child poverty in Scotland. As our progress report published last week shows, our focus on tackling child poverty is unequivocal and making a significant difference. However, there are still too many children living in poverty in Scotland. Economic modelling published last week estimates that 90,000 fewer children will live in relative and absolute poverty this year due to Scottish Government policies, with poverty levels 9 per cent lower than they would otherwise have been. That includes lifting 50,000 children out of poverty through the Scottish child payment. We are, however, doing this with one hand tied behind our back, given the UK Government's decade of austerity, a hard Brexit and their mishandling of the economy, which is why we will continue to argue for the full powers to tackle that. 7. Paul Sweeney The cabinet secretary will be aware of shocking statistics because she mentioned them just there that showed that a third of children in Glasgow are living in poverty and the neighbouring local authority South Lanarkshire around a quarter of children live in poverty. I agree wholeheartedly that cruel Tory policies such as the two child cap should be scrapped, but the Government could and can do more here to eradicate poverty. One way it could be doing that is through funding local authorities to enable them to continue with their summer holiday food programmes, which provide targeted support for families in need and ensure that children at least get one hot meal a day. The Government has provided no clarity whatsoever on funding that will be available for local authorities to deliver on those programmes, and both Glasgow and South Lanarkshire councils are crying out for clarity. So when will the Government confirm that funding? Schools in Glasgow close for the summer tomorrow and South Lanarkshire schools finish on Tuesday. Thousands of children look set to lose out on this crucial provision simply because of this Government's indecision. I'll be happy to provide the member with further information about the refocusing of the funds in that issue. I'm really glad that some of the welfare policies should be scrapped and changed. It's just a shame that UK Labour don't agree when there's no change that's happening at this level within the Scottish Conservatives and their masters down south, and indeed with UK Labour as well. It is deeply disappointing that, once again, we have people coming here expecting the Scottish Government to have to admit against the worst of Tory and, apparently, now labour welfare policies. Collette Stevenson. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Analysis shows that 90,000 fewer children will live in poverty as a direct result of the actions and decisions that the Scottish Government is taking with its limited powers through the Scottish child payment and, of course, mitigating cruel Tory policies such as the bedroom tax and the benefit cap. However, as the cabinet secretary has mentioned, we are acting with one hand tied behind our backs. Can the cabinet secretary remind the chamber what the impact would be on child poverty levels in Scotland if key UK welfare reforms were reversed? The UK Government's welfare reforms have been hugely damaging to people in Scotland, and they did right across the UK. They are driving people into poverty, and that is a political choice that the UK Government has made. They've also mean that some Scottish Government policies are simply mitigating against the impact of UK Government cuts. Scottish Government analysis published last year showed that reversing key UK Government welfare reforms since 2015 would bring an estimated 70,000 people out of poverty in Scotland, including 30,000 children, in 23-24. We have repeatedly asked the UK Government to reverse these cuts, which are inflicting damage upon households right across the country. 8. David Torrance To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its plan to cash first towards ending the need for food banks in Scotland. Earlier this month, Scotland became the first nation in the UK to publish a plan to work towards ending the need for food banks. The plan includes a new £1.8 million programme to improve urgent access to cash in a crisis. As the Trussell Trust notes the efforts of this Government to tackle poverty, concluding through the Scottish child payment will help to raise incomes so that fewer people need to turn to emergency food parcels. David Torrance I thank the cabinet secretary for her answer. Data from the Trussell Trust indicates that the Scottish child payment has reduced the demand for emergency food bank use. At the same time, we know aspects of the UK Government welfare system, such as sanctions in a five-week wait for universal credit, has caused an increase in demand for food banks. Does the cabinet secretary agree that there is a limit to what we can achieve here in Scotland while we are under Westminster control? Cabinet secretary David Torrance is quite right to point out the limitations that we have within our devolved powers and a fixed budget. The Trussell Trust is right to note that the efforts of this Government to tackle poverty, in particular child poverty, through the Scottish child payment, will help to raise family incomes. It is a shame that the UK Government does not share our determination to tackle child poverty, to lift children out of poverty so that they can reach their full potential. That concludes portfolio questions. I will allow a moment for front benches to organise themselves.


Hi, it's Bridget at Above Life Channel. This is a follow-up video to the channeling conversation I had with Paul Walker. I wanted to do a follow-up because I felt like, I felt like I, I wasn't sure about, I don't know much about him. Like I was really upfront about that and I wasn't sure about the details, like the things that came through that I shared. I wasn't sure about, I wanted to know it was accurate. I really did. And as I have shared before in other videos, psychics aren't always accurate, mediums aren't always accurate, people are not always right, even though they might think they're always right. They are not always right. And it's hard, I really, I really want to be accurate. That's a big thing for me. So I went into a little bit of fact-checking, just a tiny, because I wanted to, I just wanted to know, first of all, simple things like, how old was he? Because I got the vibe that he was like right around 30. Turns out he was like 40 years old. Man does not look like he's 40. In fact, I said it out loud in the kitchen talking about the channel and how I channeled him and, but I got some stuff wrong, you know? And I hate that. I hate that. And I said, yeah, I thought he was like 30. And I'm like, dude's like 40. And my daughter said, he's not 40. My daughter's like 17. She's like, no way! Like, he's so good-looking. You know, she's like, he looks really good to be an old guy. I'm like, 40 is not old, honey. I'm like, not old. When he died, he was 40. Oh, crazy. Anyway, so he looks young. I don't know about the age thing, eh, whatever. Okay. But I was not accurate either about his family. Like, it felt like there was a five-year-old boy or a young boy there at the scene of the crash when he died. And I'm like, five-year-old boy. I still don't know what that means. Why there was a young boy? And I felt like, was it his son? I wasn't sure. It could be a step son, something. I wasn't sure. He has a daughter. And I didn't know that. So that didn't come through. But he didn't really want to talk about his family, so I don't know about that. But I'm thinking, so here's what I think now, all right, you guys? So it came to me this morning, I thought, when I found out that, so I googled, and then just a little blurb came up, that's what, and it was back-checking. And I found out that the accident that he had, he crashed into a tree and like the car started on fire and he wasn't driving. And I said in my interview with him that he was driving because it felt like he was driving. And it felt like there was another guy with him, but he was driving. And then I felt like somebody got ejected or something. It was weird. I didn't understand that. It was kind of confusing. I felt like he was alive for a little bit, but everything was numb. It was really kind of complicated. And so when I found out he, you know, it was a situation where he was actually stuck in the car.  He did not talk about that. He did not talk about that. He didn't share that. And oftentimes, Spirit won't do that because they don't really dwell a lot on the details of their death. Even if it's a mystery, it's like, they're kind of like, what? It's like one moment in my life do not define my life by my death, please. It's kind of ridiculous. Humans have a fascination with it. But I understand as a person, I mean, it's really intriguing. You wonder, well, how is this, how can this happen? What is this mysterious death moment thing that happens to us eventually? All of us experience it, right? So I felt like I got some things really wrong. But this morning, something came up to me and I was like, oh my god, it could totally be. I don't watch Fast and Furious. I haven't watched any of the shows. I know that they're like car shows and stuff. That's what I know. But apparently, he may have been sharing with me the last movie. He may have been showing me scenes from the movie. I don't know if he has a son in the movie. I don't know. He may have been showing me that he died in the movie, like a car crash in the movie. You know, somebody was ejected from the car and they're talking about it. I don't know for sure because I didn't watch the movie. Have you seen the movie, the Fast and the Furious movie, the last one with Paul Walker? Can you please comment below and fill me in. Tell me. I'm almost feeling like I should go watch the movie because I feel like what he was sharing with me was his last work. And I feel like I should probably talk to Paul again. I can kind of feel his energy and he's like, you're right. He's like, you're right.  He's like leaning forward, kind of like putting his hand kind of down. He's like leaning forward.  I'm like, he's charming. He's so good looking, you guys. It's like, and we're the same age actually. So, just saying. If you were still in the person body whenever the same age, but he looks so young. It looks like a total California boy. Really good looking. Oh my God. Oh my God. Okay, okay. Focus. Focus. So, please put in the comments below. Tell me a little bit about the Fast and the Furious movie, the last movie. Like, did Paul's character die in the movie? Did it? And if so, how did he die? And did he have any kids in the movie? I don't know. I have no idea. And do you have a kid or whatever? A son, a boy, whatever. And or also, then can you tell me who is the five-year-old boyish? Like, about five? I just feel like a young boy, young boy, that I saw at the scene of the crash at the real-life crash scene for Paul Walker. And can you also tell me, there's one other thing I was going to ask you guys to tell me about, what was it? So, the five-year-old boy at his crash scene, real-life, Fast and the Furious movie scene. Like, did he die in the movie? I'm assuming he did.  Was he ejected from the car? Did they talk about that? I'm curious about this because I don't understand all this, the details of this.  So, that would be great. And he's very charming. I'm a really good looking guy. So, it's kind of distracting because he's cute. He's so handsome. Anyway, this is Bridget. This is a follow-up video on Above Life channel from the interview that I did with Paul Walker. It was the first interview I ever had with him. And I don't know him real well, but he was very easy on the eyes even in the afterlife and pretty easy to talk to, I think. So, I hope you enjoyed that video. If you haven't watched it and you're watching this one, first go back and watch the Paul Walker conversation, afterlife conversation. This is Bridget at Above Life channel. Remember, the purpose is to inspire your spirit to fill you up with hope. It's your life. So, live it. Just live it. Thanks for being here.


Good morning. Good morning. How are you? Very well, you? Not too bad, thank you very much. Good to see you. Good to see you too. The old contract. Hope you approve. Is it this way and smile? Yes, that's brilliant from me. And then just spin it around for me. I think in solidarity with the players moving forward we should also just wear one layer. Ryan's loving it, he's big thick. And then point towards the camera. Do that again and then point out the lens. All that light is just a little bit up. There you go, that shot. Okay, Darren, we're not going to be ready mate. That's great. I'll do one for you, this is slow motion, that's alright. That lens. Whenever you're ready Darren, that's the one. That's the one. Do you want to get the walkings there? I just want to be interested in getting the lights all the time. Yeah, I think so. I think to have one part of the kit. That's what I was thinking when you first set up the three lights. There we go. So I think it's going to be a sort of looking down, looking up for a couple of seconds and then walking towards James and then that way and you go with it. That is eight.


Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the Stock Squish show live. This is a play review here of TGT. This is Target I did this gap this morning. It took a took a stop in it I decided to redo it here in the afternoon so far. It's playing out I don't have the same targets here though for this afternoon as I did this morning And I did take a stop in this today, but I liked this gap this morning and after I closed out the training room I thought gosh, you know I went back and reviewed what I was seeing in this overall chart here that made me have the conviction to like this today this morning Even though it didn't play out and I still saw it and I still saw it was valid So I decided to do an afternoon trade here, which I am currently in and I just have different targets for this now We'll see if this gets down here and breaks the low of the day 5825 is the first number here for me now Actually, 5845 5825 58 and then the other targets I had originally on the on the day Dream target for this. We got two and a half hours left in the day would be like 57 60 ish that's a buck from here. If we're a minute that would be amazing And I did do a really tight stop in this just because of the fact that it didn't work in the morning So actually let's go through the morning play first, which which didn't work going going going Okay, actually was up on this first play This didn't didn't get out with anything Stock rally took it drop drop bounce off a 58. It was up. I was up in this almost 50 cents Didn't didn't take any off told some people that could take some off solid Didn't want to take any off thought it could fall thought it could have a move liked it like the gap and didn't want to get out for that I I'm probably the only person ever does things like this where I would be up, you know It's kind of money and then knock it out of anything But you know, I'm looking for momentum I'm really not a scalper and there's got to be reasons for me to go into stuff and out of stuff And I'm looking for targets and I didn't have 58 as a target today But it ended up being where it opened and where it bounced. I mean, this is where it's at now staying. I'm playing it through This is working down here though Yay All right, so rally back Loved it looked good Drop down couldn't break a new law rallying all the way up. Boom got stopped up and It is what it is. So that was the situation Here's where it didn't look good at this point then for the morning It was 1015 went over the high now I Just you know, I like the gap that gap ready good for my system And I looked at the daily chart and I like the gap and I saw the congestion this morning The way it was working through it But after I watched this rally all the way up here and went back and was analyzing it After I closed out the room. I see what it did I see exactly where this rally stock rallied all the way up here held this level of resistance Do you see this here? I don't think this is getting over this today So this has two choices here now flatline the rest of their fall This is way beyond any maximum level of resistance I set for the stock and I'm really good at finding levels of resistance that the stock should hold in The gaps in the morning and then to have the follow-through. I didn't have this number written down anywhere today though It's an ugly number quite frankly to short the stock into a crappy ugly number because the setup that would happen in this to Take the first set up and this is so so late for it to rally in here And I like to do morning plays and usually gaps to work immediately in the morning into the open But I'm doing an afternoon play here now because I still like the gap in every once in a while You can do an afternoon play. It's not ideal, but you know, I just didn't want to give up on this thing I liked it. I did not want to give up on it So I'm back in this and we'll just see where it goes. I mean, I'm up here now and I'm just gonna play it on through This you could have taken I did not do it. It would have been aggressive to do it here after the rally and The I just wasn't doing it But then as I was analyzing this whole configuration and the daily chart pretty much is where I get lots of my information for the daily chart I was thinking gosh, this is still good. So I ended up deciding to do this here Right in here on this break into the 15 minute and I put a very very very very tight stop Back again here and this time I put it over 59. Oh five. I Didn't even want to give it any room at all And I and I took it and then merely broke and dropped in here and I thought okay good and then the 60 minute triggered here Under 75 so this is fine. This is getting some thought for here. Jeez Wow, I'll be thrilled if this goes down to 58 today near the low of the day from where I took this Well, let's just play it out here. I'm really gonna have to watch it in here though So if I get any bounce in here, I'm gonna have to get out of half Otherwise, I'm gonna play it on through this to basically into the close of the business today because it's 130 Or three o'clock major reversal time three o'clock major reversal time are you know into 330 into the close pretty much Which I I so rarely take anything this late in the afternoon, but I like the gap I like the gap and I thought to myself. This is bizarre a world of this isn't working But the stock had a big lift over the high there after it opened and dropped and fell and pushed it back But I know who's in control of this chart It's the Bears and I know he's in control of this whole thing and for the morning It seemed that you know the stock was almost getting bought off of 58 But I thought that doesn't make any sense because I know who's controlling this stock So The gap just didn't work out in the morning claim through here now into the afternoon We'll see where it goes. It's this does not happen that often the gaps usually work very quickly in the morning And you're in and you're up and you're done But for this thing today, it's didn't work right this morning with the fall through although it did have a to our trade in it I just didn't get out of it with profit before it flipped flipped on over and down back in this thing So we'll see where it goes. Maybe I'll even be able to get a buck out of this boy That would be really I'd be very happy with that here in an app for an afternoon play to get a dollar out of something The afternoon is Beautiful is amazing. So we'll have to say I'm gonna be on this like crazily here this afternoon But this was a nice scat so I had the conviction a step with it conviction is everything It makes a difference whether you like something with you don't like something we stay with it We don't stay with it, you know It really really makes a big difference and you got to give yourself a couple trades every day I typically tried to do only one stock and one trade per day, but every once in a while you have to take You know more than one trade in a stock So I'm back in this target. We'll see where it goes I'm really gonna be watching it like a hawk here in this afternoon period and you have to watch stuff very carefully in the afternoon Anyways, this is Melissa with the stocks wish comm. This is target stocks wish show play of the day today one of three And if you're interested in learning how to trade gaps and rate gaps and find the targets and find the setups and Take the trades the gap passes this week on August 9th and 10th email me at Melissa at the stocks wish calm Hope everybody has a fantastic day and we'll see what we get tomorrow Some goodies out tonight. I'm gonna be watching obviously now. I'm here sitting here.  I'm making money So gotta do what you've got to do some days. All right everybody. Have a great day


I guess it seems only logical when we start any new endeavor, such as the sojourn into intercultural communication, to ask, why? Why is this important? Why do we need to know this and what benefit we'll have for us in the long run? So I wanted to do just that with this video, and let's take a look at why study intercultural communication? Why is this important? Well, before we jump into the why, let me start with the what, and let's define intercultural communication. Intercultural communication is very briefly and very simply. It won't take long because intercultural communication is just communication between people from two different cultures. It's as simple as that. People from two different cultures. So in the broadest sense, we tend to think of cultures as people from different countries, and that's certainly true. Different countries generally have different cultures or will have different cultures, and so that's an appropriate topic of conversation, but culture doesn't just exist in different countries. Culture exists in different people all around us. We all have different cultures and co-cultures that we subscribe to and that we belong to. So when we communicate with virtually anybody, we're really communicating with somebody from a different culture. So let's start with that, that intercultural communication is communication between people of two different cultures, and that really describes just about anybody we're going to come across to some extent or another. Some are vastly different than us and some are less significantly different than us in terms of culture, but just about everybody has a different culture, cultural makeup than us in some way. So now that we know what intercultural communication is, let's talk about what we call the imperatives for intercultural communication or ICC intercultural communication. These imperatives are just things that the people generally point to as why this is important. Why do we study intercultural communication? Why is it important? It's important for these six things that we're going to talk about, these six imperatives. The first is the imperative for peace. I think mostly across the world people are generally interested in living in peace with other people and to a certain extent co-existing with other people and living their own lives as peacefully as they can, and the best way that we can do that and one of the best ways that we can help to ensure that peace or encourage that kind of peace is to know people because the more you know about someone else and about their culture then the less likely you are to really see them as bad or even remember culture is not about bad or wrong or right or wrong or good or bad or anything like that, it's just about difference. So the more we know about them, then the less foreign that they will seem and the less different than they will seem to us and those differences will seem smaller. The more we get to know somebody, the more we can personalize that and bring some humanity to that situation. It's not that different than when I used to go to my grandparents farm as a kid or growing up in a farm and community, but we go to my grandparents farm and I remember talking to the people, my grandpa and my aunts and uncles, so what's that cow's name? They raised cows and I said what's that cow's name and my grandpa would say that's number 96 or that's number 42 and I said no, what's their name, they don't have a name. It's just a number. That's how we keep track of what cows we have and who's healthy and what not. They don't really have names though and I said well why don't they have names and he said well honestly it makes it harder when they get older to do what we need to do which is to either sell them off for beef or when they're no longer productive then we don't really keep them around. So if they had names that would be harder to do. So when we start to think of cows as these cute, godly creatures with personalities it makes it more difficult to kill this type of animal or to eat this type of animal. Fortunately it's not difficult for me because first of all they're delicious and secondly that's not how I grew up, the culture that I grew up in, but you can understand that the more we know about a person or a creature then the harder that would be. So the same applies to people though really. The more we know about these people the less different they seem and the less foreign they seem they become people if we can understand them and we can learn more about their culture we communicate with them effectively in an intercultural way then we can help establish peace in general with the people around us. Another imperative for intercultural communication is what we call demographic, the demographic imperative. So we can look at people as a makeup of different statistics or different areas, different ages, different genders, different generations, different things and so the more we understand about the differences in the demographics then the more we will again sort of be at peace with them and the more we will understand them and we live in an increasingly shrinking world where we're exposed to people from different cultures more and more often now. But even here in the United States it's always been sort of known as the melting pot right the United States is the melting pot and there are some people who say well that's not necessarily the best analogy possible maybe it's not such a melting pot because we don't all merge right we see different cultures still exist within the United States so it's more like a tossed salad the American tossed salad maybe where you have all these different ingredients and they all bring their own flavor and things and then you have the sprinkling of of Americanisms and that where they kind of blend together in a pleasant way but they're not melting together in terms of everybody giving up their own identity and their own culture and things but so we understand the demographics of a population and the background and their history and the unique and vibrant things that their culture brings then we can have a better understanding of how to communicate with them and how to live again in peace together and coexist more effectively so when we understand the demographics that's another imperative for why we should be concerned with intercultural communication so that we can truly appreciate those demographics and understand their importance in effective communication there's also an economic imperative quite frankly just to you know if we want a bottom line things was an economic imperative for intercultural communication again the world is a shrinking place we see this massive growth in globalization of economy right that that companies are no longer you know you think about the time of of John DeRocco fellow for example where they had to have a special dispensation to do business in a different state he had you know the part of the challenge that standard oil faced under Rockefeller was that they were only legally really allowed to operate in one state so they had to find ways around that while now you can throw that out the window right I mean at this different states is crossing state lines is no longer an issue that's I mean that's a done deal now we're talking about crossing global lines and and the globalization of an economy so if we're going to be part of a global economy on which we certainly are in the midst of then we ought to increase our intercultural communication skills so that we can effectively communicate and you know to leverage that that economic status to the best of our ability so just to you know and again if you just want to pure bottom line reason for studying intercultural communication there's an economic component here an economic imperative to it that can't be overlooked there's also a technological imperative I can I keep coming back but we live in an increasingly shrinking world right we live in what McLuhan called Marshall McLuhan called a global village right and the technology that exists now has has caused our world to really shrink in terms of communication we're communicating across the world much more frequently and much more easily than we ever did before which has sort of created this global village in a sense in in the sense of an interconnectedness because of this technology that did not exist necessarily before and certainly become enhanced and in recent years this the technology has it can cause the world to shrink to a certain extent in terms of the amount of exposure we have to people from different cultures it's also on the flip side of that created this sort of digital divide what we call a digital divide though right the kind of the haves and have nots of technology used to be that you know that the big technology divide was did you have a computer or not or did you have a smartphone or not and that still exists to a certain extent now it's really what kind of internet speed do you have if you're one of the fortunate in the world that has a high capacity internet speed then you are certainly better off than folks who do not because so much of the world relies on technology and if you're missing that then you're really at a disadvantage right so we have this digital divide between the technological haves and have nots as well but I'm so increasing intercultural communication can help us not only shrink that divide but certainly understand it a little better and understand the impact and the importance of that and how we relate to others there's also an imperative related to self-awareness this is again shrinking world right we're in a shrinking world we're coming across other cultures more and more all the time or more exposed to them we're engaging with people from different cultures in big ways and small ways on a daily basis right so there is a danger of things like ethnocentrism and different things but we need to be more self-aware we need to have an understanding of ourselves so we need to be cautious first of all of things like ethnocentrism which is this belief that your culture is inherently superior to another when we talk about culture it's not about better or worse it's not about good or bad or right or wrong it's about different cultures are just different and they just are it's not a matter of but ethnocentrism says well my culture is inherently better than you right so so I'm better than yours we need to avoid that we need to watch that so increasing intercultural competence will help with our self-awareness and help us to divert from and avoid ethnocentrism to a certain extent but also just it helps us engage in self-reflexivity self-reflexivity meaning understanding of oneself and one's place in society in terms of how we fit in where we fit in you know what's our what's our place what's our role what's our contribution and just in self-awareness and understanding an increased understanding of intercultural communication will help us fill in that picture a little more will provide more depth to that picture of ourselves even and then finally we really just have an ethical imperative there's an ethical imperative for intercultural communication this this ethical imperative and in intercultural communication really is the sense of a moral compass whether something is you know again culture is not about good or bad it's not about right or wrong but but there is certainly a sense of of being aware of privilege for example related to a culture we're welcoming to a new understanding of what that means and whether it's racial privilege or economic privilege or whatever privilege we are experiencing we're not experiencing there's certainly that's a part of this as well and we have an ethical obligation to understand like in our place and our the privilege that exists and and and how our culture and our perspective impact all that then there's also this idea of a relativist versus universalist philosophies the idea that for example in culture when we talk about relativist views of culture we talk about the idea that all perspectives are unique and valid as opposed to a universalist philosophy of culture which is that there are fundamental absolutes regardless of where you're from and what your beliefs are there are certain things that are absolute and the truth is really probably somewhere in the middle I mean there are certain there's certainly validity to every cultural perspective and there's certainly room to consider those different things now are there are there things that are probably fundamentally you know absolute sure you know I think most cultures would agree that murder is bad for example and that we ought to take care for children and that we you know things like that but but these can be taken to extremes as we have an ethical understanding from an intercultural sense to understand where our culture lies in that and where other cultures lie in that and how then we can best relate in those situations and understanding that there are you know there are different perspectives on different things or just are and so people may see the world differently it doesn't mean again doesn't mean they're right or wrong or good or bad it just means that they are different and that our culture does impact our ethical perspective and view of the world and then we just you know intercultural communications is important because we are all connected more and more on a daily basis we are connected to people all around the world we're connected to people in our community that we may not have been exposed to before we're just connected to people who are so different from us in many ways and yet so similar to us in many ways that intercultural communication really is the the cornerstone for coming to a renewed understanding of one another for all of those reasons because of increasing peace and a demographic knowledge and ethical understanding and all those different things so intercultural communication really is just a responsibility that each of us has if you have questions about anything related to intercultural communication including why we study intercultural communication or why it might be important questions comments things i'd welcome those please feel free to email me and be happy to chat with you about those in the meantime i hope you will really commit yourself to understanding not only your own culture but that of others and the way that those things interact and engage in the process of intercultural communication


Sad to know where all the best toys are and this December many of the hunter's smartphones are just a penny with service in Appalachian Wireless. Stop by your local Appalachian Wireless to check out all of the great smartphone deals that consistently top the nice lists. Ho, ho, this Christmas is truly going to be bigger and better than ever. Better service, bigger savings, that is. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho. That's today's Appalachian Wireless. Ever wonder what Christmas was like before Black Friday or even Cyber Monday? Well, folks in Johnson County were given the opportunity to experience an old-fashioned Christmas here at the Mountain Home Place. We actually try to change things around to make people realize what Christmas used to be about. And on our farm, which is an 1850s farm, we do the live nativity scene. We do the Christmas story in the church, and then in our cabin we give away hot chocolate and cookies. The first season that we did it, we didn't actually take people on to the farm. We had everything set up out front, you know, our nativity scene, everything set up front. And so last year we decided, you know, to move everything on to farms so people could see how it looked in the 1850s. It takes you back. If you grew up in Eastern Kentucky like I did, it takes you back to kind of their childhood. And we grew up, or I did, on like a farm. And it just takes you back, and you relive that. So that's what makes it so enjoyable for me, you know. I love that aspect of it. Well, that's probably why we came here even this summer. We liked that aspect of being here and just enjoyed it so much. And when they mentioned the Christmas event that they were going to have here, I was like, wow, we've got to come back and see that. That's just going to be awesome. And so far we've really enjoyed ourselves. For more information on the mountain home place, visit them on the web at www.visitpaintsvilleky.com. Reporting from Paintsville for EKB News, I'm Shawn Allen.


So this next patient is a 40-year-old female in the history of a gastrointestinal stromal tumor involved in the stomach and the staging CT scan was performed for further evaluation. So as we scroll through her CT imaging, we'll note that there is rather large mass within the left hepatic lobe. We can see it over here. Patient is status-posed cholecystectomy and scroll up and down through this indeterminate imaging features. So an MRI was requested to further evaluate this. So we'll start our evaluation of this patient's MRI looking at the T2 weighted sequence. And on the T2 weighted sequence performed without fat saturation, we can see a rather large mass within the left hepatic lobe. And if we were to look at its internal T2 contents within it, it looks different from some of the other stuff we've seen so far in that it's not particularly bright. Certainly not as bright as the CSF over here. And if anything, it sort of looks similar to the adjacent liver parenchyma over here. So I would say this is iso intense or minimally hyper intense with respect to the liver parenchyma on the T2 weighted images. Internally, we note that there are clefts within it over here and over here and over here, perhaps some in this location that are slightly more T2 hyper intense. We'll get back to what those represent in a little bit. On the T2 weighted sequence performed with fat saturation, we can again look at the signal within this lesion. Again, we use these turbospinecophatsat sequences to really determine the T2 content of these lesions. And again, looks quite similar to the adjacent liver parenchyma, maybe iso to slightly hyper intense on the T2 weighted images with respect to the liver parenchyma. And it certainly has these clefts within it that are much more T2 hyper intense. The next set of sequences to look at are the T1 in and out of phase. And this is what the lesion looks like on those sequences. In the out of phase image, it is iso to slightly hyper intense with respect to liver parenchyma. So it looks somewhat similar but not quite the same. And similar to the in phase image, it looks iso to slightly hyper intense with respect to the liver parenchyma. There are no areas of diminished signal on the out of phase images to suggest fat within this lesion. And there's no increased susceptibility artifact on the in phase images. At the periphery of this lesion, there is some increased susceptibility artifact over here. And that just comes from colisostectomy clips in this patient who had a prior gallbladder surgery. We'll then proceed to our T1 fatsat pre contrast image. And on this image, we can also see that the lesion overall has signal intensity that is somewhat similar to the liver parenchyma. But if you look at it very critically, we can see that it's probably if anything a little bit T1 hypo intense with respect to normal liver parenchyma normal liver parenchyma over here. What does it do when we give intravenous contrast? So we move on to our post contrast imaging sequences. We have the arterial portal venous and equilibrium phase images done over here. And I'll just settle in on a representative portion of this lesion right over here. In the arterial phase image, we note that the lesion itself has pretty homogeneous arterial hyper enhancement on the portal venous phase image. The lesion is somewhat ISO intense to slightly hyper intense with respect to liver parenchyma. So if we look at it, you can argue that some portions look very similar to the liver parenchyma or ISO intense. And some portions remain slightly more brighter than liver parenchyma. And finally on the equilibrium phase images, I would argue that it looks very, very similar to the liver parenchyma, almost completely ISO intense. Now there are certain clefts within this lesion right over there that do not enhance on the arterial phase. And these remember were T2 hyper intense. So they don't enhance on the arterial phase, but as you go from the arterial to the portal venous to the equilibrium phase images, we can see that that same area now enhances. And so we have a lesion that for all practical purposes looks very similar to the liver parenchyma on many of the sequences, except for the arterial phase where it's definitively arterial hyper enhancing. And it has a little cleft of T2 signal that fills in on our equilibrium phase images. So if this is all we had, we would suggest that this most likely reflects focal nodular hyperplasia. Now when we evaluate patient focal nodular hyperplasia, or if that's the clinical question, we often do one final phase after giving an agent which has partial hepatobiliary excretion. We brought this patient back and did that final phase. I'll show you what the lesion looks like on those images. And so here are the final set of post-contrast images performed at 20 minutes after giving intravenous contrast agent called eovist that has partial hepatobiliary excretion. So this is with eovist, and we do these as I said at 20 minutes post-contrast. See the lesion here, and it is relatively hyper intense. Some portions may be iso intense but predominantly hyper intense with respect to the liver parenchyma. And so the combination of these findings on the T2 weighted images to post-contrast imaging, the eovist findings makes the lesion characteristic of focal nodular hyperplasia. Now this is the second most common benign liver tumor after hemangioma. It occurs much more commonly in females than males. And it occurs in females typically of child-bearing age. It's often incidental, seen in up to 90% of cases is just an incidental finding. And the thought previously with FNH is that they were not responsive to estrogen at all. But the current thinking is that there may be some response to estrogen such that if patients are going to become pregnant or are pregnant or an oral contraceptive pills there is the risk of a small amount of growth associated with these lesions. However, overall there are no real complications associated with these despite that potential for growth with high estrogen states. On pathology this manifests as a mass with a central scar with radiating septations coming from it. It often looks like a central scar radiating septations. And that central scar is that portion that was T2 hyper intense and that enhanced late on the equilibrium phase. And so oftentimes when I look at a lesion and it sort of looks like an orange to me, you cut open an orange and cross-section, if it looks like that I'm going to think that this could reflect focal nodular hyperplasia.


What's up everybody? Michael Rajaspi is doing a quick recap for our 2023 Topps pristine two box break. Random team number 26 who's done auction style on Fnac's live. Here's the list positive you need to and here's the recap. Soto out of 99. Some rookies. Josh Young to 99. How did Luis Robert popular demand relic auto redemption. Had a Gabriel Moreno four of five for Arizona and then a Freddie Peralta. Relic auto. I think case cards had a main Machado pink to 15. Freddie of a Thompson auto to 99. Bednar Tykov Gold. George Springer auto to 99. Alex Bregman oh snap auto that was orange to 25. Reggie the R to 75 and a Jram auto. So that does it for the recap. Thank you to everyone who got into the break. Thank you guys for watching and I'll see you guys in the next one. Bye guys.


The other day I was grateful to run into one of my clients. He was hopefully happy to see me I was very happy to see him So we sat down and had coffee and had a chat and he said to me You would be so proud the other day. I was doing some of your culture stuff Now that stopped me in my tracks. There was so much wrong with that statement. First of all my culture stuff Rather than his the second is he saw culture stuff as Workshops he was doing some workshopping with his teams now I've spent 27 years in culture and In the culture space, there's often a misconception around there times when you're doing culture and times when you're not and That usually has to do with training or events. It's the other times that you're doing it Cultures and every day always on experience So I said to him I said well Tell me about your last meeting and he told me about it and I said you were doing culture there Tell me about the last conversation. You were doing culture there Every time a leader steps out and does something or does nothing they are doing culture So the first part to culture shaping as a leader purposeful leadership is to realize it is always on You are always doing culture whatever the last conversation you had that shaped culture whatever you did last that shaped culture and Keeping that in front of your in front of your eyes at all times The second part is that culture is never done So surround sound is required in shaping culture So there is the leader there is what the leader said what the leader did and the leader casting a shadow That's consistent with the culture But there are other parts to it that would be doing culture One is how are you hiring? How are you developing? How are you? communicating What is the the shape of development with your within your organization? There are a lot of pieces. That's just a few to shaping culture So if you're shaping culture always on it's yours not the consultants and The second part is all those formal levers in the organization That actually indicate to people where you're going and what you care about Have to be focused on the culture you want to create. I wish you the best of luck with it


So basically it's partitioned in two parts. Very quickly I'll run through the academic part and then look at how the research applications of it is there. So basically we use it in our academics in the area of systems modeling. Most often we tend to use analytical methods by which is the best way to start teaching mechanics and system dynamics modeling and ask students to write codes themselves and learn from it. There is a tendency now for students to use, if you want to do quick problem solving of advanced applications in, directly in the application scenario, then we use tools like MATLAB and SyLab has been used sparingly, I would say. We also use one of the symbolic modeling and simulation language based software, which is based on bond graphs. I don't know how many of you would have heard of it, but it is a tool developed to model physical systems. And that's more a symbolic modeling tool. You can put in the Google reference to it and get sites. But I will not talk about it in this workshop here, because that's more a symbolic thing and it does not come in the purview of our numerical simulation methods. So if you're talking of teaching people, we are trying to bring in mechanical engineering, education, trying to make people be able to understand dynamics of physical systems and see how they can simulate various kinds of systems. So you may be looking at some very simple systems like this, wherein if you have a constrained mechanical systems where there's motion and linkages, you have a variety of elements. The best way is to use analytical methods to derive the equations, the Lagrangian methods, and come up with the system equations and then solve it by any means. First principles we focus on trying to get the equations right, and then we try to see the solutions for this. MATLAB, SILAB, and all these other tools right now for that. We also look at courses like dynamics of processes, controls, applications, wherein it has a component on the systems modeling, which primarily uses the state space approach, and that's very easily handleable by the softwares, both like MATLAB and SILAB. We have seen that this morning a few examples, and I'm sure in the afternoon we'll have more of it. So I don't want to go through this in details. But as we go towards the controls part, we look at more aspects like controllability, observatory analysis, control systems design, designing of the controllers, tuning of the controllers, et cetera. And I specifically more target these towards applications in manufacturing and robotics in our courses. So basically they work with systems directly in the physical domain when we are teaching like this, like work with mechanical systems or electrical systems right from there, just when we try to implement them in psych for their simulation purposes. I'm glad to hear today morning that we can actually have an interface to psych us with the modelica and actually do this online. Otherwise, our alternative is we use bond graphs for it as well. So when we design control systems, we actually expect students to learn through various aspects of modeling, controlling the loop, and look at its response with various parameters. So I'll quickly now jump into the research applications. I'll pick up three applications which I found it very useful, our students do use it for these kind of tools. And I think Sylab will be very useful here too. So quickly I'll go through this. The first one on sensor network applications wherein the objects of our work, research work is to track objects moving in a field of sensor networks. And it has elements of distributed sensing and signal processing, which also involves distribution computation and estimation of states, essentially modeling signal processing and estimation. And we need to go through multiple simulations. Much of it is currently done by students in a tool like MATLAB itself. I'll expect to see if we can put in proper use of Sylab for this. I'll be very happy to encourage that. So the problem is like tracking an object moving through a sensor network like this. So each sensor collects some data about the tracked object and transmits to a base station. And there is an estimation tracking filter in a base station which computes all this. So basically we model the system through its state space approach, look at its motion. And since this is a sensor real network, the sensing, sense data is often corrupted with considerable amount of noise. So we need to filter that out and come up with good estimates. So this is a statistical process, stochastic process wherein we bring in factors about the signal and its noise which is modeled through probability distribution assuming Gaussian distribution there. We have a model of the measurement model of the system which is typically incorporated in the form of matrices like this. And we come up with the prediction of the state of the system through a set of operations in sequence. This is a very simple sequence we use here is the Kalman filter. I'll not go through this in details, any references. But I'll just give you how we get to use this. So typically when we try to do a simulation, a simulation looks like if a object is moving in straight line through the sensor network which is spread out densely, then you'd like to look at how the state, the x position, the y position of it is estimated. How many sensors are involved? What will be the error it is generated in our estimate? And we look at it as it goes through various steps of simulation. So simulations are typically like in straight line motion or a motion which is non-straight line sinusoidal motion like this. Or you go through circular motion then how the sensors are involved and what is the nature of error we get in this. So the objective of this is basically to design efficient codes or algorithms to get good estimates of these positions. Repeated simulations of this are required and such kind of tools are very useful for us. The next one is an example is in autonomous vehicles. We are actually designing an autonomous vehicle for the Indian government. An underwater vehicle which will move on its own steam with its own ability to navigate itself. So basically if a navigation has two parts it has to localize itself that is identify its own position and then decide what to do next. Much of this design activity is focused on creating a good control scheme which will be implemented in the vehicle and then launched. Several simulations of this have to be done beforehand before we really concretize on it. So typically here the purple element shows and vehicle moving through an area and it localizes itself with respect to certain landmarks and this is what we call a localization and mapping algorithm here. One can do it in the same way like we do a Kalman filter but this is an extended Kalman filter where when we use a vehicle model and a landmark model and we use the sensor model with its noise observation captured in it and you recursively apply an algorithm to predict the state of it. Quickly go through this and we can use applications the sensors like variant sensors with a inertial navigation system and a compass and taking its real data of actual vehicle systems and then look at how an object will move. Like this is a typical simulated output of a vehicle trying to move in a circle and it doesn't know much about the environment. So it takes a few landmarks. The green stars are some of the landmarks. At point to point of its movement it picks up some landmarks at a time and re-estimates its position. So the actual trajectory is, it's supposed to move in a circle which is there but the actual trajectory deviates from that a little bit because of the noise it picks up and a few landmarks it uses. So the trying to define good algorithms for that is required. So we try to look at micro level at the structure what happens here and see the effect of various sensors, et cetera. So this is where all these curves and data is generated out of a numerical computation toolbox and the codes for this are written by in these toolboxes itself. I'm glad to hear today that Kalman filter applications are coming up in the next version of SILAP. So we'd like to see how we can use it. I'll end this with a quick little more detail about how we use control systems in a another mechanical application that's a gripper which we are designing using compliant mechanisms and these mechanisms are actuated by micro grippers which are actuated by piezoelectric devices. So this is a type of a diagram of it not exactly in scale. This is an earlier model. Typically a gripper which is moved by piezo actuators, it can open and close. It doesn't need any joints inside it, no motors and all that. So these are modeled using mathematical representations. So we simplify this into a equivalent mass spring damper model and then get its equations and this is what we can actually simulate and create a model like this in a simulink. This is how a student has done it in simulink. The same block scheme can be used very easily in psychos. You can see that. The also used tools like sim mechanics, it would be nice to see how we can see sim mechanics equivalence in Sylab or psychos. And sim mechanics allows us to directly represent the mechanical system modules into in the simulink version of it. So here we look at again performance with various things. Like when there is a position control implemented, when there is a force control implemented, et cetera, these kinds of things with all kind of PID controllers built in them. I'll conclude with this. Brief is computational mathematical tools are very useful for us and there's no doubt about it if these are available in free domain, I'm sure many users will come in to use it. MATLAB is perhaps more prevalently used right now amongst the IIT students. So it is proprietary, so we have dependence on it. We'd like to move out of it soon. Use of open source tools like in Sylab should be able to extend the innovation in education as well as the design processes here. So if you really want to have Sylab being used, we have to actually think of ways of getting industry also being involved in this process. Maybe you need to have a version of it which is like priced and sold and sold as a product, supported as a product also. Like MATLAB, I'm not sure about its economic viability, et cetera, but then this is a reality. I would say that in projects where there's an end use of the research which is going out, they want deliverables in a code which will be run by anybody in the company, not necessarily people who are graduates from these IITs or other institutions.