Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Give the people what they want. Your weekly movement news roundup. Hello, welcome to episode 140. It's quite a milestone of give the people what they want. Your favorite weekly news show where we bring you stories from across the world, stories from movements, stories of geopolitical interests brought to you by People's Displies. It's O&I and Globe Trotter, Vijay is reporting right now. We're anticipating that he might somehow make it to the show. Fingers crossed on that. Very, very, very important week. This one, you know, it's apt in some senses if you're doing episode 140 because the past few days have seen, you know, the past few weeks, all the topic of discussion throughout has been bricks. And I think it's very difficult for people to have missed it. So a lot of debate, a lot of debate from the West. In fact, many Western media sources seem very keen to sort of declare bricks a failure before it even started. But the three-day summit producing a lot of interesting results. And, you know, the most important thing everyone is talking about, of course, is the expansion bit. Six new countries have been invited to join in January by January 1st, 2024, very, very interesting choice of countries. Argentina is always going to be talking more about it soon. But you have also Ethiopia, which, you know, was facing a civil war where the government was battling forces supported by the United States. You have Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. And Egypt, for that matter, long considered to be very close allies of the US, sometimes even termed US proxies in West Asia and North Africa who have also joined the bloc. And you have Iran, which is probably the other end of the spectrum, if you look at it. So nearly two dozen countries showing interest in joining the bricks grouping. And the six countries who have been chosen, actually, I think it's a very, very interesting choice. People are going to spend months discussing the implications of it. One thing very obvious, the fact that together now, if these six countries join, bricks becomes one of the largest oil producing blocs with the addition of Iran, with the addition of UAE, Saudi Arabia, and also existing countries like Russia. Bricks becomes a huge part of, becomes a huge oil producing bloc in some senses. Its share of the GDP per capita also increasing considerably. Of course, a huge segment of the population as well. And I think all of this shows, it seems to indicate that the bricks leaders chose a very measured approach to expansion. In the sense that I think that on the one hand, what came out finally completely dented the criticism from the West that bricks was too divided, bricks could not agree on something like that. They made a very clear step towards expansion and not only did they expand, they also said that we could expand even more in future and we sort of discussed and talked about criteria to have these discussions. On the other hand, it was not a full-fledged expansion in terms of 10 or 15 countries and it is a very carefully chosen set of countries. So definitely a very interesting summit that came out of it, the kind of speeches that came out also very interesting. A lot of talk about, of course, no country was named, but a very clear stand taken against the sort of imposition of the agenda by the G7 and its allies, which has really become quite common at this point. A lot of discussion also on alternatives to the dollar. Now, again, I think it's a bit premature to talk about an alternative currency and I don't even know if that was really on the agenda, but what definitely does seem to have been on the agenda was the possibility of countries trading in their own currencies, having more cooperation in terms of trade and building those kind of networks and infrastructure and that definitely is a much more feasible, much more practical first step at this point of time and I think this definitely leads to some very interesting moments in the coming years. We already talked about how the Ukraine war in some senses set off certain developments because it became clear that the dollar was a very powerful way of sanctioning countries and as long as you traded in the dollar, there was always risk that you could be sanctioned, that your reserves could be seized, countries could really do nothing about it. Earlier it was the smaller countries like Iran and Venezuela and Cuba, which faced many of this, but we saw that with the Ukraine war, even a country as big as Russia faced this and I think it is a wake-up call for many countries that how long can you sort of continue trade in this reserve currency that is the dollar and can you think of alternatives and there has been this profusion of discussions on various alternatives. Brazil and Argentina discussed this too, if I'm not mistaken, at some point in time. Russia and China, Russia and India, all of these countries having discussions. So the fact that the BRICS actually brought this on the agenda made it one of their points very interesting to note, also significant to note that they raised the question of the United Nations a more equitable UN is something that BRICS is a block is very much concerned about. We know that India, Brazil, South Africa, all of them are interested in that in permanent seats and many of these countries feel that the kind of importance that the global south has is not reflected in the way the United Nations is structured today and I think that is very much on the agenda. So on the whole I think a very, you know, a meeting that will resonate for a very, very long time. I think it's absolutely fair. I think to call this very historic meeting because as opposed to many earlier summits of BRICS as well. And I think we have to be very clear of the fact that it's not that the BRICS is not like G7. It's not, you know, it's not being driven by one country's agenda. BRICS countries have, they have differences. They have often varying agenda points. But the point is not that these countries all are, you know, adjoined at the hip or anything. The fact is that there is a space for these countries to come together to discuss outstanding issues to present a different perspective to the world. And I think ACT is a forum which can attract more countries. ACT is, you know, you know, give voice or present a voice which actually draws more countries from other parts of the world. And I think that is what explains the kind of appeal that BRICS is having today, which is why I say countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, long, you know, very close allies of the United States are also interested. Now, this does not mean that Saudi Arabia or the UAE are going to ditch the United States or turn anti-U.S. tomorrow or on January 1st, 2024. But the fact that there are alternative forums available is I think what makes this really important for the whole world as a whole. So very, very important months coming up as these details are operationalized. And I think it will be very, you know, we'll definitely be coming back to this topic time again on the show. Well, yeah, and just to add slightly about the integration of Argentina into this block, as you said, it was definitely one of the biggest news items, made all of the headlines that six new countries incorporating into the block also has kind of sent shivers down the spines of a lot of imperialist nations. I saw the Atlantic Council's email today was specifically discussing the incorporation of these new countries. What does this mean? Is this et cetera? And in Argentina, it's specifically interesting because this happens as we know in the middle of the electoral scenario. And this is the incorporation of Argentina. And really it's no surprise in some senses because the relationship between Alberto Fernandez and Lula da Silva have been very, very close. Argentina said time and time again that their partnership, economic and trade partnership with Brazil is the most important. They have a very, very close relationship. Alberto Fernandez went to see Lula when he was in prison. Lula was one of the first to congratulate Alberto when he won. Likewise, Alberto congratulating Lula. And the economies of Argentina and Brazil have historically been very, very linked, very intertwined. And so, as you said, they, of course, also mentioned the creation of a new currency in South America. And this had the incorporation of Argentina into Berks had been one of the big promises of their relationship. And so reports say that Lula was fighting extremely hard with, you know, making the case for Argentina to enter Argentina beyond Brazil. It also has very, very important economic relationships with India and with China as well. Argentina is a huge export country. And these, it has key commercial ties with these. But what's interesting is, as you say, this does not orientations. The Argentinian candidates, Patricia Bullrich and Javier Millay, have both rejected the incorporation of Argentina into the Berks block. They've said that we don't negotiate with Communists, that this is a bad development. And it's something that they've both vowed to kind of reverse when they're in office. Despite this, Lula says, I don't care who wins the Argentinian elections. This is about an economic relationship. It's about negotiating with the state itself. It's not about who's in charge of it. But I think that this will be definitely a very interesting point to kind of follow because these both Patricia Bullrich and Javier Millay are hard to write, politicize everything. So will Argentina be able to continue? How will that impact once there's a new government in office that remains to be seen? Absolutely. It's, I think, something we talk a lot about to show the zig-zags of history because we have seen in the past where, especially with Bricks, a concern that the right-wing government in Brazil, for instance, really downplayed Bricks, did not push the possibilities of Bricks at all under Jair Bolsonaro. And that's a big question as far as Argentina is concerned. But moving on to, we talked about Africa and how it is so essential to the future of humanity, especially considering the demographic dividend as they say, especially considering the intense growth that is taking place at that point of time. And it's no surprise that Africa is becoming, in various ways, a space where the former colonial powers and the more recent colonial powers such as the United States are really trying to sort of, as much as possible, maintain their grip. And I think there's no country where this is most clear in recent times as is Niger, which we've been talking about for the past few weeks right now. And there's a situation of very political flux prevailing not only in Niger, but in the whole Sahel region as a whole. The Tricontinental has an excellent red alert that has been recently published, which talks not only about the recent developments, but also places it in context in terms of its history. I'd urge all of you to take a look at it. But what is happening right now in Niger is, in a sense, a period of uncertainty right now where the CNSP, which is the regime that came to power after the military coup of July 26, has consolidated its power. It has won a lot of, it seems to have won a lot of support among people in terms of mass rallies being taken place. A lot of these rallies taking place against France, against the presence of French soldiers, against the fact that so much of Niger's resources are sent to France. There's very famous statistics, which I think all of us need to sort of memorize it. One in third of France's light bulbs are powered by uranium from Niger. And it's very important to note, but this is just one aspect of it. The fact that France has retained control over the economies of the countries of Sahel, the politics, the security situation of the countries of Sahel is something that is extremely unpopular across the region. And we are seeing this in Mali, we are seeing this in Burkina Faso, we are seeing this in Guinea, and we are seeing this in Niger, where there has been, on the one hand, a military coup, but also I think a mass mobilization against the presence of French soldiers and the agenda of the French. And right now, this is thrown the elites of the region, who are right now mobilized under the banner of the ECOVAS, the regional grouping, in a bit of a tizzy, because on the one hand, ECOVAS did initially threaten to militarily intervene to restore the house to President Mohammed Bazoum. But ECOVAS leaders soon realizing that the possibility of military intervention was highly unpopular within their own countries, and that has given them some pause. So on the one hand, they have declared that the D-Day has been decided. On the other hand, they have nonetheless chosen to, they have said that they are giving diplomacy a chance. They sent a delegation to Niger, which met with the new authorities of Niger as well. And the authorities have taken a very, you know, I think a very pragmatic stance in the sense that on the one hand, they have said that they have sort of asserted their sovereignty, which I think is something that a lot of people in the country, in the region are very concerned about. On the other hand, of course, they've also talked about a transition period, and they have also chosen to engage not only with ECOVAS, but even with the United States. So the authorities in Niger are also being very practical, but also understanding that they have also received support from, say, countries like Mali and Burkina Faso, which have, I believe, sent forces as well. So definitely a clear polarization taking place on the one hand. Here are the traditional elites backed by the France, backed by the United States, backed by those structures, which have enabled them to sort of be in power for so long. In control of repressive structures, which have destroyed popular movements, which have sort of suppressed trade unions, which have sort of attacked assertions by the people. That's on one hand. And on the other hand, you have military forces supported by the people, but also mass mobilizations taking place. For instance, recently we carried an article on the situation in Senegal, where again, there is a huge amount of opposition to military intervention in Niger, as well as the rule of President Mahkeesal, the kind of repression he's unleashed. So multiple struggles going on in the Sahel region against imperialism, against colonialism, against the co-option of their local elites by these powers for sovereignty. And I think many of the future of these struggles will really determine what happens not just inside the Sahel region, but also in the whole of Africa and in fact the whole of the world itself. Yes. Well, I mean, for anyone who's been following People's Dispatch, you know that that is definitely, it is definitely the place to get all of the latest updates on the situation in Niger. If you're not already following us on all social media platforms at People's Dispatch on most platforms, People's Dispatch.org, our website, please do so right now. You can share this program because it's important. I think what we've tried to do in our coverage is always highlight the fact that this is not just about some geopolitical movements. This is not just about these shifts at the top, but this is really reflecting the sentiments of the people. And so speaking to those unions, hearing their voices, I think is really what makes our coverage different from the rest. And you won't be able to find that at other websites. So again, share with your friends, share on your different social media pages at People's Dispatch. And now moving to the other side of the Atlantic. We've covered a lot of the trade union struggles in the United States despite, you know, attempts by the ruling class in the U.S. to decimate trade union activity. I mean, it does have, there are historic lows in the numbers of affiliated workers, etc. In recent years, as we've been covering, there has been this sort of upsurge in both organizing new workplaces, but also a radicalization of existing unions, of union leadership. We covered the Teamsters' struggle with UPS workers very closely. And this week on August 22nd, the UPS workers, remember this is over 340,000 workers who are organized with the Teamsters at UPS. They voted to ratify the contract that the leadership of the Teamsters had fought for back in July. This was an extremely, extremely militant struggle. It was not only about the union leadership in the negotiating table and the bargaining table, fighting for an end to the tiered system, fighting for, you know, non-economic demands like air congestioning in the trucks, but it also was about the union kind of reactivating what it meant and what it means to be part of union. That means mobilizing. That means doing practice pickets, informing workers about what these demands mean. And it really has changed the game. I think that there's already, there's already being reflected in other sectors, which is why this struggle was so important and why it was so important to constantly highlight this, because once you have over 340,000 workers who are militantly involved in this kind of struggle, it really shows people in other sectors that there's another way, another way is it possible, and that actually the unions can and will fight for these demands. And so right now we have been following this as well. The negotiations happening with United Auto Workers, specifically in this historic workplaces of the Big Three, for General Modus DeLantis. For many people who study trade unions and union militancy, I mean this is historic, not only in the US, the auto motor sector, but internationally it's very well known these, the kind of development of the workplace, workers fighting for their rights in this context, and essentially, again, a new union leadership in the UAW who has looked at the mistakes of past leaderships who have given historic and pretty significant concessions to the industry, to these companies and have said, it's not lost terrain, we're going to refight for these rights which past leadership conceded, and we're going to actually get rights for the workers. And in this case, in the UAW, they're currently involved in negotiations, again, with the Big Three, Sean Fain, who's the president of UAW, has had an extremely strong position, and they're fighting not only for an end to this tiered system which is in formal workplaces, having, for example, workers who get full benefits, pension, paid overtime, and then having workers who get significantly less on different tiers. And so he's fighting for an end to this, also for a 32-hour work week. I mean, these are crucial demands, again, that are not only for auto workers but could really shape labor rights across the country. And so they're currently involved in those negotiations. They're going to go to a strike authorization vote. Their contract expires on September 14th, and so if no new negotiation, if the negotiation is unsuccessful, they don't reach a contract, we could see, once again, over 100,000 workers from this militant, historically militant sector of auto manufacturing going on strike. So very, very interesting developments there. I think we'll continue to see the impacts of these militant trade union negotiations and organizing for years to come. My thoughts are a very significant strike because, like you said, because I think it resonates to an earlier tradition of struggle, of fighting for their rights, and the next story we're talking about is something which is something, again, decades of struggle that we almost cover every second episode and give the people what they want, and that's really what's happening in Palestine at this point in time. Sometimes it feels like, you know, every week brings with it its own set of bad news but also news of struggles and continuous fighting back against repression. This week, though, one of the highlights was some very extremely offensive comments by Israel's far-right Indian Minister Itwar Ben-Guyit who basically said that his right to movement and that of his family was far more important than that of the Palestinian people or the Arab population. And, you know, this is a kind of statement which is textbook in some sense. It's a classic definition of what you would call apartheid, what you would call racism. And, you know, it has been vitally criticized, of course, but I think the more important thing is the fact that Itwar Ben-Guyit saying something like this just exemplifies basically what his policy, what the policy of the Israeli government and, in fact, even previous governments has been for many, many, many years now. So, you know, while there's a lot of outrage over this comment, I believe the United States condemned it, et cetera, et cetera, the fact is that the policies on the ground that are taking place are exactly reflective of this, which is why, over time, even relatively conservative rights organizations or organizations which often don't take such a stand have ended up saying that Israeli policies are apartheid, which is something the Palestinians have been saying for many, many decades at this point now. And, you know, if you just consider, if you just take a look at some of the articles we have published on Palestine, they actually reflect. In this, we actually reflect what I'm talking about. On the one hand, you have, say, UN representatives saying that 2023 is already a more deadlier year than 2022 and we just eight months, we have four more months left for 2023 to end. The number of people that have been killed in the West Bank, I believe, is 167, which already crosses last year's numbers. On the other hand, for instance, you have Palestinian prisoners going on strike. Many of the, a large part of the reason for people going on strike is, in fact, the policies of this very same Hitmar Ben-Gui, who after coming to power has undertaken some extremely repressive, extremely brutal policies on prisoners, about their rest time, about the kind of basic amenities they get in jail, about the possibility of meeting families. In such a vicious and brutal way, he sort of attacked the rights of Palestinians in prison and their families and he's done it very proudly as well. That's a very important thing to note in the sense that the way he sort of functioned and the way this whole government has functioned. On the other hand, for instance, you have the fact that, you know, say Palestinian councils inside historic Palestine or inside the state of Israel, basically, are also on strike because of the fact that they have been denied funds, again by the finance ministry, which is run by another completely right-wing Israeli leader, Bezler Smotrich. So, you know, every week, I think, brings with it various bits of various assaults, assaults begin small by the Israeli state. You have raids continuously taking place in the occupied West Bank, you know, a number of deaths. You have these kind of bureaucratic hassles of bureaucratic obstacles placed in front of Palestinians which prevents them from leading a normal day-to-day life. You have this vast and violent policy of settlements which is basically tearing Palestinian land into pieces, driving Palestinians out of their homes, destroying schools, destroying hospitals, destroying basic amenities. So, in every sense of the term, there is an attack, that the attack on the Palestinians continues. And despite all this, you don't see a decline in aid. You see, like we often talk about, you see what is called the thoughts and prayers approach where sometimes when something like, someone like Ben Guir makes a very offensive statement, you know, there is this global chorus of condemnation, but there is very little condemnation or action that greets the day-to-day attacks that are taking place on Palestinians. So, you know, I think when we listen to something like this, very essential to sort of keep it in context of what is not just one or two actions or one or two statements, but an entire policy, a policy of apartheid, a policy of discrimination which the Palestinians are not only facing, but also resisting. Well, as we often do on this show, Latin America elections last Sunday, there were two major races, which were very important and we've been following at People's Dispatch for some time now. One was, of course, the first round in the early elections in Ecuador, as we know Guillermo Lasso had dissolved the parliament and implemented the cross-death mechanism, meaning that our early elections would be held, that his term would be significantly shortened. And in this first round of elections, it was quite interesting, a surprise victory for Daniel Novoa, who came in second, and the left progressive candidate, Luisa Gonzales, who came in first with just over 30% to some of the citizens' revolution movement. Pretty significant, given the situation in the country, there was fear that a candidate like Jan Dalpiek, who's a mercenary and has a very tough-on-crime standpoint, there was fear that due to the security situation in the country, that someone like him who has quite specific policies would actually be headed to the runoff, but is the son of a millionaire, Daniel Novoa, and the progressive candidate. And so that's going to be a very, very interesting race. From the progressive camp, many people are comparing the situation to what happened to 2021 when Andrés Arrao also won the first round, but was unable to kind of channelize and build enough momentum to win the victory in the second round. So I think that because they have that experience from 2021, they definitely have their work set out for them. It will be an interesting road from now until the second round of elections. We're extremely concerned about the security situation there. Violence continues to be a primary concern of people. And then up in Central America, in Guatemala, the candidate of Movimiento Semilla, Bernardo Arrivalo, won the second round of the elections against Andratores. This was a historic victory for many reasons. For one, of course, is the fact that progressive candidate won a country that has been dominated by ruling class politicians that are denominated, the pact of the corrupt, people who have dedicated to kind of robbing and stealing funds from the state, under developing the countryside, making the country a safe haven for multinational extractive companies. And so this is a significant victory in the terms of having someone who has this very, very strong anti-corruption agenda. He's more progressive, more to the center than any other politician in the recent history in Guatemala, especially given that all the others have been accused of being involved in extensive corruption schemes. However, the other element of why this is historic is because his party has been under a serious, serious attack. And we know that these elections have been in the midst of serious irregularities by electoral authorities in the country. We know that many different candidates were disqualified from running and not only progressive candidates, but even candidates from the center, from the right. His own party, as I said, right after he won the first round of elections, his own party was disqualified by electoral authorities. And since his victory, there's been several concerning developments. The Inter-American Commission for Human Rights has called for the state of Guatemala to institute protective mechanisms for Bernardo Arlevalo, the president-elect. They state that there have been serious and concerning attacks and, sorry, attempts on his life that there's plans underway to assassinate him, and they want there to be sufficient mechanisms in place to protect his life, given these pending threats. He was also threatened by the president of the Foundation Against Communism, who we have written about before, Ricardo Mendes. He is basically someone who attempts to deny the entire history of the military dictatorship in Guatemala and says that all the people who died in this conflict were terrorists and communists, and he essentially has attempted to say that the movimiento semia, which is very clearly a centrist, center-left progressive party, has no affiliation to really any communist ideologies. He says that they're communists, that they're terrorists, et cetera. And so, the CDAC, the AICHR, has called for protective mechanisms. This will be very important. In order for democracy to respect in the country, that there's no attempted violence against this president-elect, that the will of the people is respected, and that violence does not reign over the will of the people. So this is very important to keep in mind. We'll be following Guatemala, we'll be following Ecuador, and all the rest of the people's struggles and key developments from across the world. So stay tuned, follow people's dispatch, bookmark it, add us on social media, and we'll be back next week, hopefully with B.J., and more updates on the latest.


This afternoon is a chance to have a direct dialogue with the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force. Thank you. Hello, hello. Can y'all hear me? What's going on y'all? How are you? When I came in our Air Force it was very different. Back in the early 90s we had at that time almost double the amount of airmen serving in the United States Air Force. Back then we were focused on really three primary domains, air, land and sea. You had to be strong. You had to have strong armies, strong Navy, strong Air Force and really that was it. And so what I might offer is 2022 and now here we are in this inflection point in history where it's not just good enough to be strong in air, land and sea, but you have these other domains called information, cyber and space. And I might offer that if we lose in any of those last three domains we lose, period, right? You can't even generate air power if we lose in those last three domains. And that's why when I say, hey our job is to compete, deter and win from the National Defense Strategy I would offer we cannot do that without our cyber and IT professionals, period. And because we're at this inflection point in history, General Brown penned his eight page strategic approach when he first got in the sea called Accelerate, Change or Lose. And he said, the way we're going to get after it is these four action orders, airmen, bureaucracy, competition and design. What's our Air Force need to look like in 2030? What's it need to look like in 2035 and 2040? How can we make sure that our force is what it needs to be to be able to defend our nation and be the force that our nation is going to require of us in 10 years from now? We cannot continue to play the short game. We have to be focused on the long game. And I'll tell you that from my seat that's absolutely what we're focused on.


Hundreds of millions of people are unable to walk just a few hundred meters because of disabilities like amputation or stroke or simply the effects of aging. Many more labor under strenuous walking conditions, for example in disaster relief. My colleagues and I want to design wearable devices that enhance these people's mobility and not just restore it but enhance it. Prosthesis that gives you superhuman balance. An exoskeleton that allows you to walk faster than before your stroke or carry a heavy pack all day without tiring. These devices should be efficient and cheap so everyone can have one. Such technology would improve mobility for all of us. Delivering on this promise is much harder than it seems. For the thousands of prototypes designed over the past century, our best handful have provided only modest improvements in performance. The problem has not been a lack of attention or investment. Rather, in the design approach itself. See, people tend to think that making a good exoskeleton requires only clever mechanical design. The real challenge is in how these devices interact with the user. Humans are highly complex. No two of us are the same and we're constantly changing. So designed by intuition or tinkering is ineffective. One way to overcome this problem is to bring humans more fully into the design process. By continually testing actual users to find features that help them. Of course that could be laborious. So we need tools to speed and systematize the process of discovering the best features. One such tool that we've developed we call a universal device emulator. Users wear a lightweight prosthesis or exoskeleton tethered to powerful off-board motors and computers. These systems are not mobile, but they are exceptionally versatile, enabling tests of designs that can later be made and taken home. Emulators allow the user to experience a wide range of devices without the need to build new specialized hardware. It's like virtual reality, but for your legs. Any design, real or hypothetical, can be programmed into the emulator, allowing measurements of human response in days rather than years. Taking this approach a step further, we can even automate the process of iteratively guessing at new designs, tightening the loop to minutes. We call this human in the loop optimization, in which device features are systematically varied during use so as to maximize human performance. The user drives design directly. We recently demonstrated this approach using an algorithm that adapts alongside the user during walking to determine individualized patterns of assistance for an exoskeleton worn on one ankle. Optimized assistance improved human energy economy by 24% more than any other device to date. With this approach, it's relatively easy to make emulators for different objectives, like a multi-actuated prosthetic foot for improving balance on uneven terrain, or an exoskeleton to offload injured joints during running. We can then try to optimize many aspects of human performance. Commercial emulators, like this one from a spin-off of my lab, could soon be found in storefronts and clinics where they will identify specifications for custom devices that are then fabricated and used in daily life. Those custom devices should be as efficient and cheap as possible, so we finally do need clever mechanical design. For example, this ankle exoskeleton we developed uses a mechanical clutch in spring with no heavy motors or batteries. It uses no energy itself. It reduces the energy cost of human walking. Unpowered assistance techniques like this, discovered by emulators, lend themselves to elegant and inexpensive products. To extend what's possible in such products, we'll need better robotics hardware too. This electrically controllable clutch we've developed weighs less than a penny and could run off of the battery in your smartphone for decades, enabling some very exciting new system designs. Now, everything I've been telling you about today is right on the cutting edge. Until just three years ago, no device had succeeded in making walking easier than normal. Now, with techniques like emulation and human and loop optimization, we're finally starting to figure out what your device should do to assist you. With efficient and low-cost hardware, we can finally start to make products that are widely accessible. The future of human mobility is bright. If we recognize the real challenges and invest wisely, we have the opportunity to create affordable, customized, assistive devices changing life for millions of people and allowing all of us to overcome the limits of our current bodies. Thank you.


And the thing is, Exxon is a living thing. So if the head of Exxon, if the CEO of Exxon goes down to Peru with his son and does some ayahuasca and has an epiphany and suddenly sees the world as you and I do and realizes what's going on and what his role in that has been. And he goes back to headquarters and has a meeting on Monday morning saying, gentlemen, we need to stop this. We can't do this deep water drilling. We can't be on the North slope. We have no idea what we're doing. We can't protect the planet. What's gonna happen? He's out. He's out before lunch. And what if the board of directors happens to agree with him? They're out. What if the whole company goes and does ayahuasca? Exactly. What would happen? They would all be fired and other people would replace them because people don't run companies. Companies run people.


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All right welcome back Almost come to the end of this chapter just a few points Let me just present Okay, so we've been talking about Nehmaya, right and how he was able to build a wall Now look at the outcome of What happened from when he led this entire project, right? Nehmaya chapter 6 15 and 16 it says the people saw great success After 52 days of work the entire wall was finished on the 25th day of the month of Elul When our enemies in the surrounding nations heard this They realized that they had lost face Since everyone knew that the work had been done with God's help Remember the vision the vision was God is with us God will enable us When the end with the with the mission the values all of that incorporated the people themselves knew That this was accomplished because God was with them Right so powerful that is Nehmaya didn't go and tell the enemies God is with us They realized it But when he shared the vision he shared it with the people Said God is with us. We can do it. Nothing can stop us and they realized it Right, and so that's why it's very important that we keep reiterating the vision have certain values and Certain cultures and walk with that We can achieve great things right just a few more points on this chapter very important Let's go down. Let's go into the next point, right? That's just a sample Work culture that you can read about later, but history is important Capture it and repeat it Right, so judges chapter 2 7 through 11 Right, can we read that? So the people serve the Lord all the days of Joshua and all the days of elders who Only Joshua Who had seen all the great works of the Lord which he had done for Israel now? Joshua the son of none the servant of the Lord died when he was 110 years old and There buried him within the border of his inheritance at Timnath In Nath here's in the mountains of Ephraim or On the north side of Mount gosh When all the generation had been gathered to their fathers another generation arose after them Who did not know the Lord nor the work which he had done for Israel? Then the children of Israel did he will in the sight of the Lord and served the boss Look at this worse worse Tim very sad worse When all the generations have been gathered to their father that means all of them had died and passed on Another generation rose who did not know the Lord and did not know the work that God did for the people of Israel So nobody shared it Nobody sat down made their children sit and say hey listen we were in Egypt for about 400 years Then with one in one day God brought us out of Egypt Right, we were and when we came out of Egypt. There was a big sea and God parted the season to to we walked on dry land Then we didn't have enough food God sent food from the heavens We didn't have water there was a rock that followed us and the stream of water followed us wherever we went Or even our sandals did not wear off God did great miracles Where we were so follow the Lord. He's you know, they didn't do anything. They didn't teach the next generation And so the worst leaven says damn the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served the boss Now whose fault is it? Was it their fault or was it the fault of the of the generation that was above them? All they had to do is share and impart History is important. We got to capture it. We got to repeat it Right now we don't live in the past. We don't keep talking about history, right? We got to look ahead Right, but when we when you know all the mistakes that we've made all our success stories our failures The journey that we've gone through. It's very important To share it right to the two people, right? Look at some of the examples, but also history Helps us to see the progress we have made and every small success Inspires us to move forward right now Look at Moses He did he make mistakes? Yes right But he pushed on right and he writes about his own mistakes. These are mistakes. I mean look at Peter Did he make mistakes? Yeah Do you think it came up to his mind? Yes But he looked on further, right? Look at Apostle Paul. Did he make mistakes? Yes, and Only once he writes about his own account Right. He says, you know, I was a sinner like this like this. I think it was in Galatians It says these are the things that I did wrong But by God's grace he called me to be in the ministry only once So history is important, but we don't live in the past Right. We looked at what? You know, we can't live in the glories of the past Hey, I did this that time. Okay. It's good. What's ahead? Paul didn't say I started five churches in Galatia now. That's enough. No, so what's ahead and Timothy he says that's the most No, but by reading that itself, he's almost going to be killed. He's old. He's going to die He says I press on to know more of God. I said Paul how much more you want to know God? You've done so much enough Just go in peace. No, I press on For the price that he asked for me Forgetting what is behind Now forgetting means you didn't forget the churches For getting the glories of the past All the churches planted all the Miracles and the missionary work. Okay. All that is there I've raised up a next generation the Timothy's and the Titus and all of them. I'm pressing on for what is ahead right, so when at the opportune time relevant stories Narrate stories from the past laugh about mistakes made But always remember to narrate stories in a positive manner Never share stories that can put people down Right encourage them lift them up right use teachable illustrations and that's what Jesus did right when I share about times when I've led worship There are times I've shared with you right so many times right the mic has moved off The guitar is top. I've forgotten the scale of the song. Which is which scale is the song Right or sometimes, you know, the lyrics have gone from verse one to verse next I've gone to verse three directly We made those mistakes But we learn from them. You can laugh about it learn from it, right? And then how did I? Improve myself to get better at what I'm doing, right? It's not like I did a mistake and then okay leave it there No, you improve yourself, right? So they're relevant stories. I always share with young people, right? I was from yesterday at church or sharing with a few young guys. So we were at the VIP back. We were talking and So I was talking the young guys from one of our colleges here All in the early 20s, you know, I'm so encouraged to see them They are coming to church all friends from different parts of and they're not from Bangalore So, you know, you know parents are not saying go and sit in church They're coming on their own and One one guy said, you know, we really need some Bible teaching in our college. How can we start? And I was like, wow Look at this young guy 21 odd years old. See we need some Bible teaching in the colleges He's just hearing those things I began to share a few stories of how I was able to you know, just start these small groups and he was so happy He said, okay, let me try it out. But I told him I just In the half an hour break, you know 10 minutes, but eventually that grew Became like a small group and people would come people were You know outside, they were very happy. They showed themselves happy but inside they were all hurting broken Right. So this is something that I did and he was sharing. Maybe I'll try it And that story it was a simple story Right, but it invigorated him Then even I can do right so so these stories can this is a way of helping the next generation encouraging them, right and We must understand to use history correctly Used to learn from it, but never let it hold you captive Meaning when you when you talk about history and you're talking about things that happen in the past Don't let it hold you kept. Oh because I failed in this area So then I'm never going to do it again. No When you talk about history, it should spur you to action. Oh, I can do this more better Right, I can I can know if it's if it's preaching if it's teaching five years back I did this way maybe the next five years coming next five years I got to get better at it and so let me learn from my mistakes what I made in the past and Improve myself, right? Everyone getting me, right? You're getting me. Yeah. Okay. Oh Success stories next point success stories are invigorating share them I'd problems 25 25 as cold water to a weary soul. So is good news from a far country one as an organization Success stories are invigorating meaning they They encourage everyone Right. We celebrate people celebrate teams celebrate progress. I remember share this example that happened, right? And then we'll go into the next chapter. I Joined after my college, I wanted to work for a while and so So I joined us call center Right, so I was taking calls and it was an American inbound call center. So people would call in But one of the things in this organization was they always had You know these He called in those Certain targets and they had competitions right between teams, you know, maybe seven eight teams and There were competitions who are wins the entire team will get goodies, right? So since it was an American company, they would Send in, you know, all these goodies and all of those things. I said if our team wins We would the entire team. So we're maybe 15 people in our team the entire team gets it Now there was a season where I'm talking about 2005 but they Do you know the they would send us they would say, okay, whoever wins this? It was every two weeks. So who wins the this two weeks competition will win a home theater 2005 will win a handy camera right those those old handy camps which used to be there or they would win a Backpack or a or a headphones, right? So always there were goodies and these competitions were there. I remember I was people were actually You know, they would get these sleeping bags and they would sleep in the conference room because they want to sleep two Three hours and go back to calls And it was intense right they said you work you work you wanted you have to do it But I remember we we just called our team we got together and we came up with ideas So we made sure that two people would never take a break at the same time Right and things like that, right and we were so captivated the vision was This week, you know, it's a DVD player. Okay, if we win all 15 of us get DVD players Right. These are like the proper DVD system And we would only work hard and most of the time We win we wanted there were targets that we reached which were you know, so if it if the target was maybe 70 We would reach 110 120 right because you put in more than 110 percent in our work but what what I remember from that is That you know These when I when the next teams would come in so every time there would be new people coming in we would share these stories Hey, these are the things we have one better not slack off You've got to work hard because you're part of the team now unless you're part of it you're With us in mind and in passion and seal only then we can win it Right and the new guys they started coming in they started doing well and really success stories can Really encourage people Right how you share it is very important, right? Okay, so let's go to the next chapter Which is any questions on this chapter? Any questions any thoughts? Yes, so we see the thing of Nehemiah, yeah So that case like people are all with one mind and they're with So if we are running an organization or anything people are against division like they're not cooperating How do you handle that situation? Yes, very true So so if you read the story of Nehemiah, what happens is in between people were not in one mind right in between when when San Balat said no, we're not going to let you build a wall there were opposition there were enemies So some of them said let's go back to what I was doing Do we really need to build I don't want to risk my life. So people were not 100% with the vision So at that time Nehemiah had to come forward as a leader. He didn't go and hide You had to come forward and say, okay. I know that this is what see This is what you're feeling. This is what you're going through But remember God is on our side. What did he do? He reiterated the vision. So there will be times remember Organization ministry is about people People go through ups and downs people go through different challenges different one day there with the vision one day They say I don't want this vision That's where our leadership skills come in right, we begin to Share with them. Hey hold on now even during that people may leave and go Right, but you can't hold them, right? You can't say no, you have to stay because if the vision has gone out of them You can't hold them back. They're only going to become a burden What will they do they'll start sharing with others We can't do this we can't do this remember what happened when the people of Israel came out of Egypt But one or two people said Moses is gone. He's not going to come back What we'll do we'll build a calf they did it right, so if you are in Leadership He pre-eatenating the vision if people want to exit out or the vision has gone Let them go don't hold on to them But if you're part of an organization and you see what is happening like there's no unity that people are mining You know doing their own things You hold on to the values and the culture that you know the values that of the organization If they say 30 minute break you take 30 minute they may take one hour You take that I'm talking about small things and these small things God sees and he will bring reward right Now if you're a leader reiterate if you're if you're under leadership Be faithful Right and and people will notice remember.  This is also a very interesting topic Competitive advantage and strategy Now every organization right Luckily in ministry, there's no competitive advantage. There's no competition and ministry But when you talk about an organization Definitely there is competition, right? So if you got two companies that have for example Two motorbike companies or two car companies, obviously there is competition Right You can have a Mercedes or a BMW They both are High-end brands and now they both are in competition. Okay, you're doing this. I will do this I will give you a better You know premium Quality I will give you better Whatever there's competition on every side right now with competition We need new strategies, right without a strategy will be the same There's no new product And there is no competition the other organization may get better and better and better. We are stuck here in the same place Right, so let's look at what is competitive advantage It is what makes your product and your service better and different from the others From the other competitors. That's competitive advantage. Why should I go? Example right, there's just an example why should I Go to buy a apple product When I can buy a HP Just an example, right? No, don't say HP is not right. Okay Why why do why is it There's certain advantages Right, it's HP. Good. Very good. It's apple. Good. Very good What's the advantage? There are certain advantages. There are some certain services that are different Right in each of these products Now that is called competitive advantage If you look around us everything, right, it could be even chairs Right chairs chair companies can have competitive advantage right, so What competitive common differentiators include Speed greater value cost product skill raw materials all of these things But let's look at scriptural principles on competitive advantage Scriptural principles To undergird our professional knowledge and to practice competitive advantage. Now remember It's nothing wrong in competition. How the competition is good Right, there's nothing wrong in it, but there are biblical principles that we must keep in mind number one Know what you are against Right, uh, I love this verse and look 14 28 to 33. Let's read that look 14 18 14 28 to 33 Luke 14 28 to 33 If one of you is planning to build a tar You sit down first and figure out what it cost To see if you have enough money to finish the job If you don't you will not able to finish the tar after laying the foundations And all who see what happened will make fun of you You begin to build but can't finish the job They will say if a king goes out with 10,000 men to fight another king Who comes against him with 20,000 men? He will sit down first and decide if he is strong enough to face that other king If he isn't he will send messengers to meet the other king to ask for terms of peace While he's still a long way off In the same way concluded jesus none of you can be my disciples unless you give up everything you have Yeah, so When we read this Jesus is so practical. What's he saying? Count the cost There is a cost imagine a king is going on battle. He's got 10,000 people But he gets to know that the enemy side has 20,000 people The wise thing to do is hey Let me go And make things right. Let me see if I can You know have a discussion and see if this matter can be resolved Everything every battle puts lives at stake The pursuit of organizational vision Includes or involves a cost That is a price we must pay Right when when we when you know what you're up against Right, there's a cost if I want to start a business or I want to start a ministry There are certain things that I have to do Right. I need to know I have to have enough sufficient funds. I need to know how to start where to start What are the legalities? What I must do what I must not do No, what you're up against, right? So if you're starting a business Right, find out what is already there in the market Right, so for example, I'm gonna start a laptop business Okay, or a or a cycle business find out what's there in the market. Don't just start I find out what is the cost? What is uh, what is retail? How does it come to the market? How how does it go into the You know to the regular shops, how do I do it? find out ways Right learn about it Secondly compete But compete in a clean and a fair manner second the ministry to five says Natalie to runs in a race cannot win the prize unless he obeys the rules It is not enough just to finish the Line what is important also the rules to be obeyed now imagine a runner Okay There are many things While competing in a race Imagine The runner is standing there, you know, they're doing a hundred meter race And before the gunshot, you know, one of the runners start off. What happens? immediate disqualification Why because he's not followed the rules now He may have practiced 10 years for that race And he's come there. He's nervous and he starts early disqualified 10 years gone down the drain He'll have to come back again Okay, now what about if he starts running and he decides to go to the other He doesn't keep his track. He decides to go to the other person's track What happens? Either he gets disqualified or he's going to trip and fall Because you can't do that. He's going to waste time doing that Okay, three, what if he the person starts off very well But he decides, okay, no, I don't want to race. I don't want all of this Somewhere, you know in a 200 meter race imagine 100 meters. He has finished Oh, and then he realizes. Oh, there's another 100 meters. I forgot. It's a 200 meter race There's no use. You can't go and tell the person who was in the Olympics. You can't tell them. Actually, I forgot. I thought it's 100 meters He'll take go and sit down over So you compete but you compete in a fair clean and fair manner that Um, and and nowadays when you look at sports, there's so much of unfairness. That's happening I was reading this article recently about the women's swimming That uh, it was like it's like the olympics So this young girl she had started when she was about six years old swimming she wanted to be a champion and a lot of sacrifice a lot of hard work And she won a lot of medals and trophies and it came to the final like right now. She's in her prime and uh and What happened was A transgender meaning a man Who identifies as a transgender has joined the race Okay, all our women this one is a man Who's identified as a transgender and she's and they and He's partaking in that swimming Competition and he beats the world record And this girl is saying of all my life. I How can you have a man come and compete in the ladies?  It become it became a big issue because it's not clean. It's not fair right when you and I are in business in ministry in An organization compete with one another, but be clean be fair, right? Right develop a winning strategy Proverbs 24 5 and 6 It's better to be wise than strong intelligence outranks muscle any day Strategic planning is the key to warfare to win You need a lot of good counsel now strategy is a military term, right? or war and all of that planning of movement of troops and how to you know Move ahead and battle now when you look at You know even Moses When he brought the people out of Egypt, he had a bit of a strategy Yes, he said okay, we'll go this way But when Dostoe came in the strategies were implemented more effectively right now a winning strategy is our plans and Ways on how you can achieve your goal A lot of input is required in that Right now a strategy would involve Talking to people talking to customers talking to you know survey the market get good advice Strategy is important. So for example, look at this And if you want to start a church you want to start your own ministry you want to start your own You know your own church Can you start without a strategy? You can but it's not going to get you anywhere You need a strategy Right. So what do you do?  Okay. Where is where can I start a church? Okay, you've got the place. Okay. What should I take? Should I take it on a monthly basis? Should I rent the place on a monthly basis? Or should I hire it for? You know once a week Okay strategy To what is the people that I'm targeting a youth families or everyone? Okay everyone What are some of the events I'll do? Right What are some of the ways I'm going to reach out? What are the sermons? I'm going to preach. How is the Flow of this service going to be these are all strategies That you need to apply start church We cannot just say, okay, I started my church. No, you got to have a strategy Yes, if you want to start a business You have to have a strategy. You got to have a capital Meaning you initial funds You need to have all the legal authorities and legal papers everything that is required. You need to have The okay from the government Right from from the legal thing. Everything should be okay And then you implement your strategy Right without a strategy Don't try to start anything Right and over time those strategies can change What you did five years back doesn't mean you have to use the same strategy again Change those strategies, right? Excuse me. So what's important is Have a strategy next one Goliath is not your real enemy fear is We'll not read that verse, but let me just explain and share my thoughts, right? pure Now there were trained people in the army Who were standing and watching Goliath and they were in fear Right, they were trained But they were fearful now what happened David Was not trained, but he was not fearful He was bold Right. So sometimes fear Is not the you know Sometimes Goliath is not your enemy.   So the armies of Israel were all in fear Right Now do you think that they could have defeated Goliath? Armies of Israel if they tried they didn't even try But David He said no, it's okay. I'm going to go He was not fearful. What did he tell king sol sol king sol don't worry.  These are wild lions he killed the lion with his own hand He killed the bear with his own hands So when he looked at Goliath Fellows, maybe what 12 feet high For him it was nothing Why because maybe David is thinking. Hey, I've seen the I've seen a lion up close and personal He's I'm sat on it. I've killed it and I've sat on it He's not stronger than a lion. I've seen the bear. You know bear has these claws They are able they can cut through your entire bow. They can cut you into pieces the body A human body if it really gets a good grip it can cut you into pieces I've killed the bear also So Goliath, sorry David was not fearful at all And that's what got him the victory Sometimes they look at how big Goliath is that's what happened to the Israelites. Did they win battles? They won many battles but fear gripped them David said no He's nothing God is with me number one and two I've I've seen worse things than this sometimes when We are in the organization when we are working Right the fear of failure the fear of the unknown Can leave us in a place of inaction What if I try this and I fail what if I do this and I fail it's okay to fail I'm sure you've heard this right Fear failure is the stepping stone to success Failure is the stepping stone to succeed you fail next time you can succeed So don't be afraid to fail Now don't keep only failure in your mind and say okay, when am I gonna fail? No, if everything's going well good Right keep going right but when failure comes Look at it as okay It's a stepping stone to success. Don't stop One idea could be a good can make you a winner But another idea can make you you know can cause you to fail But doesn't mean you don't have any more ideas You keep doing it. You keep improving yourself, right? Look at this leverage your experience with the lions and the bears to face Goliath I love this the odds were heavily against David No one in their right mind a shepherd Against a trained soldier I would say a minor against a A trained soldier No one would have thought that David will go and defeat But what did David do? He tapped into the history that he had with God Said I killed the lion I killed the bear Goliath was no different for him He had advantage. He had competitive advantage every small success that you have Use it and build on it Right remember the first time You know I was asked to share And it was one of the locations. So I went there and Was really prepared And I shared right But I don't know how it went Time went really fast and and within 30 minutes. I finished my sermon So usually take 45 minutes, but 30 minutes And I didn't know what to do. So I said, okay worship team come up and I closed Uh, but the 30 minutes I remember I I I felt I shared well right So I went back home and I and I said, okay 30 minutes was good, but I was quite discouraged. Why didn't I do 45 minutes? Right, but on the other side I kept telling myself, okay 30 minutes. At least they got a good 30 minute sermon So you take the success from it But you also take areas of learning. Okay So you got to add to the sermon, right? You've got to make it 45 minutes Make sure that it's engaging make the sermon Now how you speak how you give your examples Uh, where to give examples what kind of examples to give these are things that we can learn Build on it. You know what you're good at That becomes your competitive advantage Right, and especially when you have successes in the past Use it for your benefit right next Sometimes just one pebble is all it takes they're talking about David David's strategy against gulai. It was simple David used what he was good at remember what uh things all said, okay So David, you're forcing me You want to go go okay put on all of these Armory the shield and the sword and I'm sure look at look at David He was young boy. Maybe to carry that sword would have taken all his energy or that shield would have stopped him Right to be fast or be quick And he took out everything and he said no, this is not me This is not this is not the way I can you know go and battle against gulai All I need for a few pebbles a few stones I'll use my sling. This is what I am comfortable with Right You are comfortable with the sword The army of his my brothers are comfortable with the sword And you know all of these armory they are comfortable. I'm not comfortable with that. I am comfortable with the sling Now can you picture what king sol would have said? Why At least where the armor and go He said no, this is this is my strength Right, so what is it? What looked like a disadvantage was really david's competitive advantage Most of and most of all david moved out in faith empowered by god Now all david did was used one Sling and one stone or pebble to defeat gulayat He used it as an advantage I'll just picture what if david was forced to go with the Shield and the sword by the time Anything would have happened by the time he would have reached gulayat gulayat may have thrown the spear straight at him But here he was flexible. He knew okay. I can move around. I can do it this way. This is me And he used it to his advantage You don't have to be big You don't have to be better If you can outdo your competition in skill agility innovation and service You don't always have to be bigger If you're skilled if you're skilled you can get better Right, you can you know in Kill innovation you can improve in that area But it's not always about being bigger Right, so Psalms 27 is wonderful some trust and chariots and some in horses But we will remember the name of the lord Finally get god's counsel Get the lord's counsel Your key to competitive advantage and strategy Right consult the lord get his counsel. There are times god reveals Through dreams through visions. He can reveal into your spirit what to do what not to do And in the old testament if you look at the story of jake tub Wonderful story of how god intervened in jacob's life Now jacob ran away and he was living Probably in a little bit of guilt because of what he did to isaw But god spoke to him in a dream God revealed to jacob What he must do right and he aligned himself to that So when you talk about this, uh, you know the speckled flock flocks and The striped and the speckled God gave him the strategy god gave him the idea and you can read that later on and uh, you know, you God spoke to him god revealed to him what to do and how to do it and it was done seem like the himire But spoke to him revealed to him Right. I mean if you look in the book of joshua God spoke and revealed Right. So be open to unusual strategies Just a moment Okay, just three more points. We'll finish it so that next class we can go to the next Chapter. Okay, be open to unusual strategies. Now think of this Uh, joshua chapter six the walls of jericho God tells joshua what Okay, you've come to the place There's this huge wall We all know the story god tells joshua Go and break into the wall What does god tell joshua? Walk around the wall But imagine joshua saying why would we do that? We can just go and break portion of the wall and enter no So what is it? We are thinking small Could they have made one small hole In the bottom of the wall and entered in and gone They could have but god said no God said joshua you go for seven days.   We don't say god. You have to work this way be open to god's unusual strategies But it's normally Something that we may not have thought of but we open to it Okay Down but not out come out with a new strategy remember now there will be times we Will lose There will be times we may fail but remember you're not out Come back with a new strategy now when you look at ministry and the times that I've Come up with some ideas and many times that has not worked out Many many times many plans. It has not worked out, right?  We've sometimes we fail because we may not be Doing things according to the strategy Once we get that winning strategy hold on to it And keep trying don't let failure discourage right Finally time and chance happen be alert at quick And capture the moment Right, Ecclesiastes was 9 and 11. Let's read that I'll return under so under the sun that the rays is not to the 50 Not the bath to the strong nor bread to the wise No riches to men of understanding No failure to men of skill but time and chance happen to them all Yes, so understand the timing and circumstances are important. Good times There are good times good circumstances bad times bad circumstances and they come to all whether you're in business whether you're in Ministry may have good times bad times In all of this what is required is wisdom to handle both Right recognize the opportune times circumstances and capture the moment act quick so Good times act and wisdom Good situations act and wisdom difficult times difficult situations act and wisdom right Now if you're translating this into an organization, you know usually Organizations go through ups and downs right you may have Times when work is Very seamless, but then suddenly you have times when you have to put in those extra hours Right and wisdom at that time don't get upset and you know say, you know, why are you making me work in all of those things? There are times there are seasons act and wisdom ask God for favor and And it's as it says, you know capture the moment Right be quick to act on those moments right Okay, so we'll stop here. I know we did quite a lot, but what we'll do next class is we before we go in we can No, have if you have any questions any thoughts If you want to want to just look at a few more points from this chapter we can do that And then next Next week we'll get into the next chapter, which is Chapter six organizational structure and design Right, right. Thank you so much everyone. Have a great week ahead. I'll see you next Monday. God bless


So thank you very much. So the work I'm presenting today is joint work with my two PhD supervisors, Emmanuel Charzère and Damory Lambert. And together we work in the LPMA in Paris. And we also have an interdisciplinary team which is called SMILE, for Stochastic Models for the Inference of Life Evolution, where we work together with biologists. And the work I'm going to present today was inspired by the following experiment, which was carried by Enrique de Otonio at UNS. So he studies senorabditis elegans, which are small transparent worms. And we start with a population of 180 individuals, which are sampled from distinct populations. So here, each line represents the chromosome of one individual, and they are all distinct, so that's why I paint them in different colors. And he let the population evolve for some generations. And after some amount of time, the chromosomes of the individuals look like this. They are mosaics of colors, because each fragment of chromosome has been inherited from one of the ancestors in generation zero. And after 140 generations, he genotyped all the individuals in the population, so here each horizontal line, this is real data, each horizontal line corresponds to one individual, and it's the chromosome, and each color represents one ancestor. And so we want to study this mosaic of colors, because it may be informative about, for example, if some colors are more present than others, this may mean that some individuals in the generation zero was fitter than the others and had more progeny. So to study this mosaic of colors, we are going to use a model. So the question I'm going to ask, so if this is one chromosome, I call a segment a maximal set of connected points which share the same color, so for example, this is one segment, and they call a cluster a set of points sharing the same color, for example, the blue cluster is here. And the kind of questions I want to ask is what is the size of a typical segment and what is the length or the diameter of a typical cluster and how many segments of clusters are there in a given interval. So the model I use is an absolute right fissure model with recombination, so I assume I have a population of constant size n, and each individual carries one chromosome of size r. And my population follows a right fissure dynamics, which means that I have a discrete time dynamics, and at each generation t, each individual chooses two parents in the previous generation, and then two things can happen. So with a probability 1 minus rho, the individual copies exactly the chromosome of one of its parents. This is what happens here. And with the probability rho here, the individual will inherit a chromosome that is a mixture between the two parental chromosomes. So the two parental chromosomes are cut at what they call a crossing over point, whose position is randomly located along the chromosome, and he will inherit half of the genetic material of the father and half of the mother. So this is the picture of what happens in the population, which is cut with n individuals, which are pairwise distinct. Each one has a chromosome painted in a unique color. In generation 2, individuals may have two colors, or only one, and after a lot of generations, my chromosomes look like mosaic of colors. And what I know about this model is that as I have a fixed population site and my population is finite, my mother will reach fixation, which means that after a finite number of generations, all the chromosomes in my population will look the same, because it's the only observing state for my micro chain, and they want to characterize this mosaic of colors. So I will consider... I will define a process at p and r, which is the partitioning process, which corresponds to the color partition of the system and the equilibrium for a population of size n with chromosomes of size r. And then I will make my population size tend to infinity, and my probability... I will make my probability of recombination of rho dependent on n and r, and I assume that as n goes to infinity, n times rho converges to r. So I make my probability of recombination of rho dependent on the population size. So then what I say is that as n tends to infinity, my process converges to a process pi of r in low, which I call the r-partitioning process. And my question is, what can I say about this process when r is large? Which means for a large chromatome. So I will justify this limit that I know that r, for humans, is quite large. For example, for a human chromosome, the size r is 5 times 10 to the power 4. So the size of the chromosome is denormalized by the effective population size. So the first result I want to prove is the following theorem. So I will look at the color clusters that covers the origin of the chromosome. So here it would be the one that I call it in red. And I call L of r the length of this cluster. And I renormalize L of r by log of r. And they say that as r tends to infinity, this quantity converges in low to an exponential of per meter 1. So the idea to prove this theorem is that I'm going to use a process that is dual to my original process. In fact, what I will do is to use the ancestral recombination graph. So I will choose two sites in my chromosome. So if this was my chromosome at the origin, I choose two sites. It's x and y. And I will follow my population backwards in time. So here each line represents the ancestral line for one of these sites, which corresponds to the individual in the past population that is the ancestor for that given gene. So here I choose one individual at random in my population and I will follow which parent was carrying locus x and locus y. And I will see if this is my initial population to which color do they arrive. So if they arrive to the same individual here, if both lineages arrive to the same individual here, that means that in the partition, in the present population, these two points will be of the same color. And if as here they reach different individuals in population at time zero, that would mean that one of my locus will be colored in green and the other in blue. So here for two locus, I will follow two ancestral lines. So they start together and the two lines will split into two with a probability that is L over N, where L is the distance between x and y. And both ancestral lineages will coalesce with a probability that is 1 over N, which corresponds to the probability that in this generation, this individual and this individual have a common ancestor. So what I claim is that this process called the ancestral recombination graph is due to my initial process. Why? Because if here you have my ancestral recombination graph represented for my whole chromosome and I follow backwards in time the lineages that carry each of my genes. It will look like this, where red dots correspond to fragmentation events and the blue dots correspond to coalescent events. And what happens is that here I have my partitioning process that is represented. The probability that the two points are in the same cluster corresponds to the probability that two points reach the same ancestor in my ancestral recombination graph. So what I need is to define my ancestral recombination graph. I show you how it behaves for two particles, but I need to define it for N particles. So for N particles, we have a coalescent fragmentation process, which is a process valued in the set of partitions of 0N with the following transition rates. So each group of lineages coalesces at rate 1 and they have fragmentation at this rate. So if I have some particles that are located here, the probability that a fragmentation event occurs here depends on the distance between these two points. And I show that there's a duality relation, which means that the probability for my partitioning process and sites in my chromosome belong to the same cluster in the color partition corresponds to the probability that my ancestral lineages are together for my ancestral recombination graph. So then to prove the theorem I wanted to prove, what they will use is a method of moments. So I will use a Carleman condition, which says that it is enough to prove that for all N, I have the expectation of LR at the power N, renormalized by log R at the power N is this, which is the moment for the exponential law. And what they do is that I will rewrite this expectation like this. So the idea is that I want to look at the points that are in the same color partition as 0. So I want to integrate between 0 and R, the indicator function that a point is of the same color at the point in 0. And as this is at the power N, I can just rewrite it like this. So it corresponds to the probability that N particles and sites in the chromosome are of the same color as site 0. And using my duality relation, this is the probability that N lines in my ancestral recombination graph are together. So then I need to study this coalescence fragmentation process. So the thing is that the ARG is known to be computationally intractable. And so this is impossible to compute exactly. But I use the fact that as ARG goes to infinity, my fragmentation probability is much higher than my coalescence probability. So if I start with lines that are separated, for example, I will show you an example with three. If I start with three lines that are separate, this will coalesce at rate one into this, and this will be fragmented with the probability that it's proportional to R, etc., and to reach the state that I want, which is this one. I need to coalesce again. And still this will recombine at this rate. So what I show is that this state is the most likely configuration and has a probability that goes to one as R goes to infinity. And configurations that are at one coalescence event distance from this configuration have a probability that is of order one over R. And this one has a probability that is of order one over R squared. And using this approximation, I can replace it here. And they found what I wanted. So I found that this converges to factorial n. So the perspective, I have other results that allow me to characterize the law of a cluster that is conditioned to be at any point x of the chromosome, and also about the number of clusters in my chromosome. And what we want to do with this is to work on a neutrality test based on amplotypes. So that would mean that once I can totally characterize this mosaic of colors, I can compare my prediction to the real data. And if the real data fit my prediction, that would mean that the evolution was neutral, as described in my model. But if for some part of the chromosome this hypothesis is violated, I believe one loci is selected. I expect that then I would have a color cluster that are larger or smaller than predicted. And so that could be like a test for selection, which doesn't need to have mutation, that can work for populations that have a short time. And that's all. So thank you very much for your attention. So thanks Veronica. So Anhi? No, not this time. I don't understand. Is the first cluster, is it special? It's not that it's special. I could do this for any x here. So I think that it's somehow special, because this point has only right neighbors. So the thing is that to compute this, I need to choose one point and then I integrate over its neighbors. But I didn't show it here, but I can take any point here and just I will, what I show if it's, that if I take the cluster that is in any point x, then the length of the cluster in this segment is also an exponential and in the left segment it's also an exponential and at the limit for large r they become independent. So it follows a gamma law. Okay, so the number of clusters is of order n over log n. So sorry, r over log r and this Poisson process with constant intensity? It's not that easy, because the thing is that the number of clusters is the constant c times r over log r and the constant is not one, it's like 1.3. And this was found using simulations in 1977 or something like that by Ruf and Hein. And they just show that numerically. And what we think is that, so here when we are doing that our clusters are size-biased, because I conditioned them to be at a certain point. And we think that there are also a certain amount of really small clusters, kind of a dust. And that makes that the number of clusters is larger than r over log r. Is there any other questions? Well, if not, I have a question. So what made you to make this choice of model? Does it compare well with the real data? So in fact, no. The thing is that we know some biologists at INRA who were trying to work on this type of model because they wanted to do selection tests without mutation, so the thing I mentioned. So we started working with them. So they had some simulations and there were things that they could not explain, so we started working about that. And then we met that guy at UNS who had experimental data who were just fitting our model. But the thing is that in the experimental data he gave us. So the experiment, it's not at the time where it fits our model because as I said in my model, I wait until my publication reaches fixation so that each individual is exactly the same. And here you see that each individual is still different. So we still have to wait a little bit until we can compare our data to his experiments. So there are small worms that are transparent and that have only a thousand cells or something like that so they reproduce quite fast. Yeah, people use them a lot in genetics because they don't have many cells and they develop very quickly and they are transparent. So that's nice for biologists for experiments. So let's send the speaker again.


Welcome to the life of two Australian shepherds week 24 on njroute22.com. As the dogs get bigger, I don't know how long this dog containment crate's gonna last.  In reality, it's standard behavior for dogs fighting, wrestling, and playing. I'll leave you with a 35 second musical interlude so you can enjoy them all melling around our backyard. See you next week on the life of two Australian shepherds on njroute22.com.


In a related development, United States President Joe Biden says Western democracies are in a race to compete with autocratic governments. Biden told a news conference at the conclusion of a group of seven leaders summit in Britain. He also said that Vladimir Putin was right to say that relations were at their lowest point in years, though he suggested that Russia might be weaker than he seemed and that Moscow had overriched in the Middle East. After attending a NATO summit on Monday, Biden will meet Putin on June 16th in Geneva for a meeting that promises to be a combative encounter after disputes over spying, hacking, election meddling, Ukraine, Belarus and human rights. I think we're in a contest, not with China per se, but a context with autocrats, autocratic governments around the world, as whether or not democracies can compete with them in the rapidly changing 21st century. And I think how we act and whether we pull together as democracies is going to determine whether our grandkids look back 15 years now and say, did they step up? Are democracies as relevant and as powerful as they have been? Well, let me make it clear. I think he's right and it's a low point. And it depends on how he responds to acting consistent with international norms, which in many cases he has not. I'm open to if there's crimes committed against Russia that in fact are the people committed those crimes being harbored in the United States, I'm committed to holding them accountable. So you get notified about fresh news updates.