e standard plus one to bravery So they can make a lot of attacks Yeah, but then again as soon as you Pass 10.  Um So, you know, there's there is still ways of stacking saves in When when you start out on a six plus you're only ever going to be a five plus at best, right? So Yep, yeah, I mean they I should mention here. They are a battle line in drakfoot. So if you're you know If that's your build to negate ward saves, they are another battle line option for you Um, 10 of them for 155 points Okay savage bore boy maniacs, uh, so the bore boy maniacs Uh are five for 145 Effectively they have the bore boy profile right three attacks on four three's no rend and then their little tusks and hooves are three attacks on four's four's no rend um You get the same rule of one to the attacks characteristic of this unit's Uh chompas if the unit made a charge move uh in the same turn and then the tusker charge You had one to hit rolls and wound rolls for attacks made with tusks and hooves if they made a charge move So, you know on the obviously they want to be charging at which point you go four attacks on the guy on top and three attacks at threes and two or sorry threes and threes. I apologize for the for the bore um And they do as well have the plus one to charge built in Uh, I assume you're probably a normal bore boy As opposed to the maniacs, right? Yes, I think so The I mean just the five up save characteristic. What makes such a big difference? Yeah, because there is there's one there's one source of Uh, there's only one source of it now. I think a plus one save. I think it's from the dance But then obviously you've also got mystic shield. You've got all our defense So the five plus save I got a much better chance of going on four plus save and rolling against One or two rend I think sure And yeah, yeah, and they still get the same they still get the tusker charge. They don't get the extra Back I think the most e-damage is going to come from anyway. They'd Say in one profiles because of the the spell that gives extra red. Uh, yep Yep, I think the other one's slightly cheaper as well from there hundred and four Yeah, so the comparison we'll get to him in just a second.  They're a conditional battle line in there. So at least there's that Um, but yeah, I mean, so then they would go to three attacks in that And then if you're targeting a monster your sting of O has a rend of one So, uh, 10 of these for 145 points battle line and bone grins Okay Yeah, yeah We're a long way from the early doors of uh, of of, uh, of the ruck and rolling like millions and millions of millions attacks Yeah, I'd say the the the only one thing in their face that Uh, all out attack You know like you used to be only be able to buff one unit when you when you multiple units You had the spell that gave them plus one to hit Uh, but you could only buff one unit and when they were hitting on fives, they're you know, they're obviously just garbage Then regardless of how you're getting so all out attack does Just move the dial on them a little bit because you can put that on one unit now as well as the right No, because the spell actually don't get it if you You don't get the plus one to hit for shooting from the spell anymore So you kids you still can't only do But at least you don't have to cast it you can do it for free. So sure it's an automatic which is better. Yeah Okay, keep moving the wargog prophet. Oh, here's our new fun guy. All right Uh, he's a build around piece. So there you go. Um, the wargog prophet Is uh 150 points Uh, he is a double caster Which is fun, but he probably won't be doing that Uh So because of other reasons Um He at the start of the hero phase instead of attempting to dispel an endless spell or cast any spells with this unit in that phase You can pick one enemy unit within 12 inches of this unit that is visible to it and roll a die On a three plus that enemy unit suffers d3 mortal wounds If you wish you can say this unit will continue staring at the enemy unit if you do so roll an additional die On a three plus the enemy unit suffers d3 mortal wounds on a one two this unit suffers d6 mortal wounds You can keep rolling until either the enemy unit is destroyed or this unit is destroyed or you talk you Uh, try to stop or you decide to stop So, uh, obviously with the green totemies thingy, whatever it is the The little the little artifact that gives you a four up ward effectively This guy can stare and stare pretty hard and just try to melt somebody We should note this is at the start of the hero phase you make this choice So you don't have the chance to like teleport him around or anything like that first Because it is a start of the hero phase ability But it's a good thing. It does a lot of damage like he can the four upward guy can stare real hard Yeah, yeah that has potential like the the threat of that alone is incredible like that has the potential to spike and do I mean it can also just But I think the the threat of it is massive I really do think that like I think there was another guy in the chat who Who killed 20 20 more talk in a turn with it There was a guy who killed 10 brutes and six pigs over the course of a couple turns as well and this there there are others of Now as well. Yeah, if you stick the glow I think there's a good chance that people will just either completely avoid him or Once you finally get him into place. He should be killing whatever You put him against really. Yeah, he is a mortal wound machine gun. That's for sure. Um, so Yeah uh, all right savage big boss, uh the Hilarity of taking six of these guys is not lost on me Uh, because after this unit has fought the combat phase for the first time You can pick one friendly bone splitters unit that has not yet fought in that combat phase This is then three inches of an enemy unit and that unit and holy within 12 of this unit that unit fights immediately And oh the comedy of having five or six of these guys and just having them run forward like lunatics and then chain activate right in a row Probably accomplishing not a huge amount, but they are six attacks on threes threes neg one two damage. They're not terrible Um, yeah, and this my points. That is cheap now. We come to the magic. Yes, my friend So the mega boss's profile is 140 points, right? He's only got two more attacks other than that's the same profile Right eight attacks on threes threes neg one two damage this guy six But this dude I really like because he is 65 points Crazy For that profile. Yeah, mm-hmm like that's a good attack profile on 65 points. I'm sorry, but it is Yeah, like four of them is only 260. That's 24 attacks at threes threes minus one rend two damage For 260 points. That's pretty good. And they're all attacking first as well Right. They just like one gets in and then the other one's just like yeah boss. Let's do this. Yeah. Yeah Yeah, so you can like legitimately run three or four of these and have a comical thing happen for almost no points Um, I mean if I told you a unit Right, so let's let's imagine the unit. Here we go. This is the unit. Okay The unit is 260 points and the unit makes 24 attacks on threes threes neg one damage to rend Okay Yeah, that's a good unit. Mm-hmm. I'd be like, yeah, that's a pretty decent unit right So i'm just saying it's an option. It's not going to break the world, but it's not terrible Uh, yeah, I would also point out you can you can uh, you can pull this trick in big Wa where they could all be on twos and twos Like your other heroes would be one more chanta and one Um Profit or whatever one were gogg profit, obviously. Uh, so that way you're getting the full You know the two points the one point off the chart bonus Probably one of those is your general and uh You know, they could eventually get up to the point where they're just running around like lunatics Just twos and twos making tons of attacks So It's fun. All right, uh savage Savage oryx the the only thing that we just left the only fun page left in this army by the way Um savage oryx and savage bore boys. Um, the oryx now, this is your base oryx These guys are obviously still battling their 10 models for 165 points. They are still on a five up base save You get plus one to wound rolls for attacks made by this unit if they made a charge move. So you go to um Potentially fours and twos or fours and threes depending on your loadout Uh, and which is not a bad bonus by the way like plus one to wound on the charge is actually pretty good Um, they make a decent addition number of attacks. Uh, they do still have plus one to charge Built into them on there because they're a musician And yeah, they're like there are a lot of wounds. They're 20 wounds for 165 points They're okay Oh, in what world are these guys more points than wardens I don't have an example. I do not have an explanation for you there other than I like it's it's the wounds there It's like it's because of the way their calculator calculates wounds Yeah, it seems like it doesn't it as this book, you know seems to High like that. Yeah, we've got rippers that we've got rip is in these guys. Yeah It's because of how heavily their point calculator calculates wounds, right? Like yes, it takes into account some the quality of the wounds, but they just assume there's a raw value of wounds, which isn't wrong But I think they overweight it that would be my argument. Yeah Like there was a there was a point with with horde discount bonuses when these guys used to be 330 That was like 60 wounds for an extra Well, an extra 40 wounds for an extra 135 points right to be yeah, but I think I think the one of the One of the upsides of the army is the wound the potential wound wound counts, but I think at 165 points you can't burn a unit of 30 of those anymore like that's all I I I understand dear my me going on about warhammer for five hours would be white noise to my wife for sure She just said I watch war briefly when I eat white noise Uh savage war boys. Yeah, I mean, I think this is probably the pick right now between the neg to rend spell Right. And just sort of the other capabilities. They also pair well with some of the other spells They have a good move like they pair well with the plus one to hit spell blah blah blah thing of the Werebore or whatever as well Um, I just love how we randomly decided to insert werebores into this world Okay quick aside what There are werebores in this world Like I know what werebores are from from dnd and love all of the lycanthropic creatures I think like dnd has an amazing menagerie of wonderfully awesome lycanthropes from Werebores and bears and rats and wolves and everything and it's super fun And I love all the different ones and they're different alignments and goals Um, we don't even have werewolves in aos and you're gonna just jump to werebore Like where's that? Where's that at? Where's that army? Where's my werebore transformers? But anyways, that's sorry We we blew past that and I really feel like uh That was it like start Start pushing around that territory gw. Let's let's get good nuts Okay So, uh, I mean it took magic almost 20 years to make a uh, no about 20 years to make a a lycanthrope related set so You can do it too Yeah bore boys, um, plus one to hit and wound for the the the uh with a savage stick Or tusks and hooves if this unit made a charge move the savage stick of being the two inch range weapon that's on fours and fours um So the chompas basically have no Bosses with bonus other than the fact they don't need to charge and they just want better to wound all the time Uh, and they still have plus one to charge built in and they have a 12 bench base move Importantly these guys are battle line in ice bone Which is really nice because they do generate a lot of attacks Hence a lot of potential for mortal wounds, right? So you're making five attacks per model um You know, they're five for 140 as battle line five attacks per model with sixes to wound going automatically to mortals and then lots of chances to To Wind fury totem them to more attacks, right? So so Yeah So Uh, yeah bore boys. Uh, yeah, definitely sense. So so far. I'm hearing wargog prophet four boys And maybe a couple spell as many of the the the 65 point bosses as you can fit in reasonably some bosses Yeah To back to back up overall Benjamin. What what do you think a competitive bone splitter list is going to look like right now? Is it just like going all like as many wounds as possible the tons of bore boys? Yeah, I think it is It's definitely bore boys. I do I do I do think I would put kragnos in Okay, if I was going to do an event. Why not? Yeah, there's nothing there's there's nothing else that comes close to Uh Fill in his rock. I don't really like the rogue idol in there. Any, um But yeah, it would be I would run one potentially two uh gugs. I would be tempted now maybe to three of Three probably three. I know peter was trying out a few Yeah, I I'm a savage or yeah. Oh, yeah Yeah, he had multiple wargog bore boys and he actually had quite a few big stabs and unless he was trying It didn't go all that well, but yeah, yes Yeah, no, I would I would avoid big stabbers. I think I'd put kragnos in in for For the render and the output potential um, and then yeah, you'd just be clogging up the bore with With lots of bores And and you go ice burn probably Yeah, I'd go ice burn and Okay, yeah I mean it's it could go three two with that list, but sure I think he struggles with anything better than three two Yeah, it is sad that all the flavor that's been lost because it was pretty clear That's why a lot of folks like you were playing it in the first place And yeah, it was like a it was a super technical army before really technical Um, I mean the no retreat was was a big part of it. I think it was a big part of what made the army good On I mean still even like in you know just in the monster The monster ghp of the monster edition the monster hunter army becomes the not monster hunters. Yeah, it's the weirdest choice. Yeah Yeah, yeah, all right. Let's get through these last couple scrolls guys before we hit five hours Let's do this. Okay. Here we go. I I I need to call it a night at some point. I love you both, but But we gotta we gotta wrap this up okay Maniac weird knob on the mount. He's your one cast wizard He is on a mount so he can take the non monster mount traits, which is funny On me on his little bore he can go right around and take those little things like he can do a fast and actually You know potentially reposition once again His bone spirit spell casting by seven range of 12 pick one friendly bone splinters unit Holy within range invisible to cast her to your next hero phase add one to wound rolls for attacks made with melee weapons By that unit so decent enough buff but hard to cast on a seven and he has his little tusker charge And then the war doc our old friend the war doc our little dancer our private dancer our dancer for money Instead of casting he's also a wizard obviously, but instead of casting He can attempt to do a dance. He can dance if you want to He can leave all your friends behind and just he dances. Uh, so you can do still has his three dances. Um, Which are all of Yeah, they're fine. Um You know, they're just the same as they were yeah Yep, an extra save or Burst cast and unbind isn't it Yeah, it's I don't think these got any worse. It's a question of the larger synergies that are lost right And it's like how much is this actually worth it now with with what it is? Um, yeah, you'll be able to do it as well as cast So you used to be able to take the war uh the the law spell and do that and then even in the In the short interim between a os three book He used to be a priest as well. Yeah, he lost three keyword.  I don't think no Right. Yeah, and and I Want one thing that I really drove home into everyone in the bone splitters chat that you can't go you can't take Bone splitters to an event without at least four docks. It was like a mandatory I made everybody like I turned everybody in that like you have to take four war docks in every in every list Because there was four or spells And you used to be able to stack the save so you could do more dances, you know put rightable saves on um Yeah, they were they were fantastic and they used to be like a Best value war scrolls in the game like that like hands down So much utility in that war scroll um And yeah, they were undercosted when when they went when they became priests and when they were able to take They they Taking away their ability to cast and dance Time is just Yeah, it just cripples them. I think yeah, they're only 80 points and I'm not sure they're worth it That's a real statement Right, like that's boy. Is that a statement? All right, and then lastly Head racka the gob of cork our little um, what's his name the This is the guy from underworlds and his little mop. He's the only one I included in here Um, I didn't pull the iron jaws guys. I I skipped the iron jaws guys, but here's my summation of them They're both actually fine and good and can find places in your list is my honest answer I'm sorry. I didn't pull in the scrolls. I didn't have them But they're both of the iron jaws ones are fine So there you go um, I actually really really like the art boys If you already have three battle line instead of using five regular art boys, I would use the Uh, the underworlds unit every time of the four art boys They're way better Is my answer. I use them. I was very happy with them They have their like a five up ward on one of their dudes and they were just yeah, they're good so head racka is He is a double caster, um, which is you know, that's cool.  There he is He is 220 for him and his three boys Um, he has a double caster Um, he has neg one to be hit all the time because of his little mask Um, he can pick one enemy unit with an 18 inch to this unit and visible to it until your next hero phase Add one to hit rolls for attacks Made by this unit that target that enemy unit in addition until your next hero phase add one to hit rolls for attacks Made by a friendly head racka's mob unit Okay, that could have been the best ability in the world if it was just add one to hit rolls for attacks to target that unit But it is not Uh, he has this little venomous fight. Um, where he can push people to mortal wounds And his spell is bone crush a Um casting value of six in a range of 24 inches pick one enemy unit within range and visible to the caster If that unit is within six inches of the caster it suffers t6 mortals if that unit is more than six inches It suffers d3 mortals. Uh, if it's more than 12 inches away, it suffers one mortal so Yep, he wants to have a little close-up spell and the important part about his mad mob is they they have a built-in body guard So they for a ward him effectively Seven wound five up save double caster for 220 Yep He's uh, it's too expensive No Yeah, and doesn't have a word Yeah, he doesn't have the actual wargog mask. He doesn't have the stary her to ask. Yeah, sure. Yeah Yep. Yeah, that's that seems like a lot of points.  That's what he's paying for but it's okay Yeah, like yep Um, so there we go. That's it. We did it gentlemen. We got there That's the end of the day All right, well for all of you out there who stayed with us for this marathon Oh my goodness. I can't believe tyler only you could could empower us to go longer than the storm cast You've you've done it again. You've done it again, sir Uh, if you're safe with us hit that like button, uh, we really appreciate it I know this was a long show. I like you for sticking around and watching. Thank you to everybody who's still here Hit that like button And uh, subscribe if you haven't already Uh, benjamin, you're an absolute titan a champion a legend for staying with us for the full time Even though it's 3 a.m. Where you are. So thank you, sir I really want to assist you too. Well, we deeply appreciate it So thank you very much everybody benjamin. We'll have you back again Probably when we're doing a normal show and not believe in keeping you up until All hours of the morning, but you're welcome back again anytime Best I can do is four hours benjamin Best I can do For all of you, thank you so much for watching. We really appreciate it as always We'll see you next wednesday


James Carroll is a transhumanist, Unitarian, Universalist, Buddhist, Possibilian, and a Bayesian Utilitarian. I am the very model of a, no, just kidding. He has a Ph.D. in Computer Science and a minor in Ancient Near Eastern History. As a graduate student, he taught Pearl of Great Price, Isaiah, and the Book of Mormon in the BYU Ancient Scripture Department. He is currently a scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory doing ensemble machine learning research and computer-assisted radiographic image analysis for nuclear stockpile stewardship. His interests include artificial intelligence, machine learning, statistics, linguistics, consciousness, comparative ritual, RC model planes, and photography. Glad to have him. Thanks. Excuse me. Traditionally, religion was the vehicle that provided both a sense of truth and a sense of meaning for mankind. Hugh W. Nibley, the brilliant Mormon apologist, liked to talk about what he called the terrible questions, namely, who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? He proposed that without answers to these questions, life was essentially barren and meaningless. The brilliance of Mormonism, he said, was in providing answers to these very questions, answers that could be obtained in no other way. Joseph Campbell famously thought that the myths of religion provided the vehicles whereby the psychological principles of how to live a good life could be conveyed. And he thought that this could best be done when the myths are no longer viewed as historical or literal realities but are seen more like dreams with symbolic and psychological import. However, the literal interpretation of these myths can also be a powerful vehicle for finding a sense of truth and meaning in life. For example, the belief in a literal creator can cause us to believe that the world was created for a purpose, and thus we find the meaning of life. Belief in a literal life after death and an eventual resurrection can also give people a sense of meaning and value by convincing us that this life with its failures and imperfections is not all that there is. The LDS Church is very good at this. A literal and fundamentalist belief in the LDS Church's teachings seems to provide a set of answers to Nibley's terrible questions. Who am I? A child of God or a divinity. Why am I here to get a body to be tried and tested to see if I'm worthy of becoming like our heavenly Father?  One psychological research has taught us just how important this sense of meaning and purpose really is for living a happy and a well adjusted life. Without it people tend to suffer from lethargy, depression, disconnection, and sometimes suicide. All indications are that we are living through a time when many members of the LDS Church are beginning to question the literal narrative that they have been told. What happens to people who have based their sense of value, meaning, and purpose on a myth that they now begin to doubt? These results can be devastating. From my own faith transition I reached out to a wide community of ex-Mormons, hoping for help and solace. What I saw in their lives demonstrated just how devastating the loss of fundamentalist religion could be. It seems that the more immersive and essential was the initial religious experience, the more severe and negative reaction can be when it is lost. While some few people came out the other side with their faith transition in a much better and happier state, almost all of them at first found themselves crushed by anger, depression, and even despair. Their lives suddenly became harsh and even absurd. Nearly all of them faced a crisis that they called existential angst. My goal today isn't to tell people what they have to believe about Mormonism's truth, but to try and help people establish a sense of purpose and meaning that can survive a faith transition if one should come, or to re-establish a healthy sense of purpose and meaning after one has occurred. If you've already had one, hopefully, if you've already had one, hopefully what I say will be relevant whether or not you believe in the literal truth of the religious church's teachings. As someone interested in artificial intelligence, I hope I've spent a certain amount of time contemplating how to mathematically formalize concepts that are kind of obscure like truth, meaning, purpose in order to import those concepts into an AI. I've found that such formalizations have enriched my own sense of truth and meaning, too. Given this audience's focus on transhumanism, therefore I hope it won't be too technical if I share some of my thoughts from that sort of mathematical AI perspective. So, let me start with a formalization of the concept of truth. You can think of the entire universe as a large state space representing the quantum information that fully describes each particle in the universe. And then there's a transition function that dictates how these particles will evolve into the future and have evolved into the present. You can think of the state space as the arrangement of matter in the universe and you can think of the transition function as the laws of physics that dictate how the arrangement will evolve. If we treat the state space and the transition function as unobserved random variables, then we can see use the laws of probability statistics, which we sometimes call science, to try and learn how things were in the past, history, how they are now, reality, and how they will be in the future, prediction. That means that truth is indeed a knowledge of things as they really are, as they really were, and as they really will be, as Joseph said. And it means that a scientific method is probably the best tool for determining truth. So, while the quest for truth may be extremely difficult, it seems to me that this element of the existential problem is comparatively simple. But what of meaning and purpose? You'll notice that in these above equations, and the real reason I put them up there for you, is that there is no place there for purpose or meaning. There's also no way to prefer one state over another. For with this formalization alone, a state where mankind flourishes is just as good as a state where mankind is exterminated. Neither any more preference preferable than the other. They just are. Meaning and value are non-existent. The philosopher David Hume noticed this problem a long time ago. He expressed it as follows, you cannot determine ought from is. My equations determine is. They don't tell you anything about ought. In order to find meaning in life, in order to determine ought from is, what we need is some other assumption, some other axiom that we can add to this, beyond what we would define as simple truth. One possibility for this axiom is to turn to God. And to appropriate his purpose and desires as our own. Ought exists outside of what is in this way because ought involves God's sovereign will. God created the world for a purpose. Therefore, his purpose of life is our purpose of life or should be, since we live in a created world. But if this is our source of meaning, then what happens if we begin to doubt, perhaps even to doubt the existence of a creator? Whether or not you believe in God, it's worth considering whether there really is any less potential for truth and meaning without or with the belief in God. Again, I want to turn to analogy from my work in artificial intelligence. As part of my master's thesis in reinforcement learning on artificial intelligence, I created an artificial world.  I had a purpose in this creation. I wanted to study which algorithms for transferring information from one type of problem to another would function best. From my dot's perspective, there was a God, me. One who had created the world for a purpose. This is the simulation hypothesis, and it's the creation principle from Lincoln's New God argument in action. But does the existence of a creator solve the ought from is problem for my dot? The answer is surprisingly no. My goals differed from those of my dot, whose purpose was to maximize his own reward structure. And consider, if there wasn't already a way for me to have purpose, then I couldn't transfer that purpose and meaning to my dot. I'm trying to find a way to find purpose. Because I was created, my dot's trying to find a way to find purpose. Because he was created by someone who himself doesn't have purpose. It doesn't work. If there is a creator, then it may be wise for us to align our sense of meaning and purpose with that of the creators. However, for that meaning to transfer, there has to be a way for meaning to already exist within the mind of a conscious creature, the creator. Therefore, the existence of a creator does not produce meaning and purpose for created things in and of itself and it never did. Something else is needed.  But what? Some derive a sense of meaning and purpose from their belief in life after death and eternal life. When I was a believer, my mother, I gave the funeral sermons for both my mother and my maternal grandmother.  I said even helping other people can't provide meaning without a belief in eternal life because those others will die too and eventually all of our influence will fade away into nothingness and all will be meaningless and purposeless at bleak thought indeed.  So somewhat ironically, I had already begun to lose some of my faith when I spoke those words at my mother's funeral. It's easy to imagine the depth of sadness and heartache caused by this simultaneous loss of life, love and faith. But was it true? Simple reflection indicates the error in what I said then. If our lives are not already of value, in a very similar way to what we saw with the creation hypothesis, then tacking an eternal onto them does not create meaning out of nothing. It only creates an eternity of meaninglessness. Nor marriage is not of value if they aren't eternal.  A good temporary relationship is bliss even if it eventually ends and lasts no more than a few moments. Love is of value in the moment even if that love does not last for more than a moment. Yet again we find something else beyond eternal is needed to create value and purpose in life and it always was. While fundamentalist religions seem to provide the missing ingredient needed to produce meaning, in reality it simply pushed the ultimate need for something else down a meta level. So near the end of a modern myth, Marvel's Avengers, the Age of Ultron, Vision and Ultron briefly debate existential philosophy before predictably trying to kill each other. Their interaction illustrates some of what I've been saying, so let me quote it. You were afraid of you, of death, you're the last one. You were supposed to be the last. Stark asked for a savior and settled for a slave. I suppose we are both disappointments. I suppose we are. Humans are odd, they think order and chaos are somehow opposite and try to control what won't be. But there is grace in their failings, I think you missed that. They are doomed. Yes, but a thing isn't beautiful because it lasts. It is a privilege to be among them. You are unbearably naive. Well, I was born yesterday. So, notice, Vision speaks to the fear of death, Vision speaks to the fear of death. Also notice the very subtle reference to purpose in life from creation. Vision and Ultron were both created to be saviors. His vision really a slave because he chose to serve that purpose. Or is there value and meaning in his choice to fill the purpose for which he was created? Vision says he finds meaning and purpose not through what is or what won't be, but through more subtle characteristics such as grace, beauty, privilege, and it is through these things that he chooses to enact the purpose for which he was created. Notice also his explicit rejection of the philosophy that meaning and value come from permanence. A thing is not beautiful because it lasts. A thing is beautiful simply because we find it so. My mother's life and my relationship with her was beautiful regardless of whether it will continue into a life after death. I believe that the transhumanist quest for life extension is of value, but it is only of value because life itself in this very moment right now is already of supreme value. So-called Mormon plan of happiness is only of value because we already desire happiness. Eternal life, the resurrection becoming like God, living together forever with our families are all things that provide meaning for Mormons because those things are the things that we as humans desire to make us happy. As the Book of Mormon itself says, men are that they might have joy. It is my belief that this is the actual axiom under which Mormons and the Mormon plan of happiness determines ought from his and thereby establishes a sense of purpose and meaning in life. Today I wanna argue that if this desire for joy could provide meaning before a faith transition as it did for so many of us, then it can also provide it after. That means there is no less potential for meaningful life now than there was before. What is needed is something else to add to this equation on the board. Something more than what is, something from outside, I'm sorry, from the outside of our minds, all states are equal, but from the inside of our subjective experience of as conscious creatures, all states are not equal. Our own desires provide a value function, a utility function, if you will, as part of my introduction, right, that I'm a utility function that puts ought out of the sea of that which is, which pulls an ought, sorry, out of the sea of that which is, I believe that if we are to find an ultimate source for meaning, it will be found somewhere within our various subjective experiences. Subjective experiences and human desires provide the solution to Hume's dilemma, but because we may all have slightly different subjective experiences, we may come to slightly different mechanisms for establishing meaning and purpose in our lives. Ultimately, that means that I can't tell you exactly how you should find meaning in your life. However, as Richard Feynman once said, I would rather have questions that cannot be answered than answers that cannot be questioned. As I've said before, I no longer know for certain if there is a God. I've spoken here before about the transhumanist reasons why I think that there probably is. Some of very similar arguments, by the way, to our last talk. However, I no longer find meaning in my life to be directly connected to that belief. Meaning is something that I derive from living my life in a way that leads to humanity's internal desires and preferences. While I can't claim to have the final answer to the meaning of life, I can share with you a few of the things that I have found to provide meaning in my own life. For example, take a moment to really feel the weight of your own body on your chair. Listen to the sounds that surround us. Truly see the colors in the windows behind me. The miracle of consciousness is perhaps the least understood aspect of reality, and it is a miracle. I believe that there is some value and beauty in the very moment, despite and perhaps because of its intrinsic impermanence. As human beings, we share some common preferences. For example, we all desire things like safety, security, pleasure, love, relationships, connection, compassion, joy, ecological sustainability, social justice. Many of us will find meaning and value in striving to build a world that better matches those preferences. We can find that meaning in the struggles, despite the imperfection and even pain that we encounter in the world around us. It comes from the struggle to make the world better and to compassionately remove as much of the pain and suffering of others as we can. Far from despair, noticing these failings in the world can light us with a burning fire of purpose and motivation and conviction. Finally, I am a finite being, but in forging deep and abiding relationships with the difference of the other, I feel like I touch the divine. Connecting myself with something larger and more beautiful than myself, loving others is thus the greatest of the sources of meaning that exist in my life. The Buddha is said to have taught that if there is a life after death, then we can most likely attain a good resurrection and rebirth by living a good and compassionate life here and now. However, if there is no life after death, then by living a good and compassionate life here and now, we gain the advantages and joys that come from a life well lived. There is peace, purpose, meaning, and yes, even joy to be found even after the loss of faith in what used to be believed in fundamentalist religious teachings. I sincerely hope that I can play some role in helping each of us to find it. Thank you.


Should this new Asian-American doll that is supposed to rival Barbie represent for all types of Asians? Why are why not? Let's talk about it. Yeah, this got controversial in the next shark Instagram section Andrew Obviously an Asian-American doll designed a rival, you know American girl or Barbie from silly to serious I'm definitely gonna put this in the silly lane firmly Andrew But there was some serious conversations that emerged from it, but long story short Andrew There is a entrepreneur that started Jilly Bing Asian-American dolls Andrew because she said that dolls are our children's first friend They also help make a child make sense of the world around them It makes a huge difference when the toys they interact with showcase real-life Images and customs that they are familiar with so long story short Andrew She saw the Asian-American dolls that Barbie or American girl put out and was disappointed She made her own but some people are debating it right and what is the major debate here? I guess I guess most people are not against this doll. I mean, I think that's good. Obviously dolls are representation It is a toy. It's a media. It's all these types of things that mean certain things to especially girls or and boys growing up But I guess like what's the what's the issue here? Well, I guess the main issue in the IG comments section Andrew It's certain sort of turned into a how come East Asians are the only Asians that get to be part of Asian-American representation But then a lot of people were arguing being like but she's Chinese-American and it's her own company Right, of course, she's gonna make it in her likeness Well, it's because people saw the doll and the doll was representing Essentially an East Asian girl like a Chinese girl right and obviously the woman who's creating it is Chinese-American So of course, she's making the doll in her likeness now She only has one doll out right right She does have plans to create other dolls But just the fact that this sparked into a gigantic thread where people were going back and forth It does reveal something that is a deeper discussion in the Asian-American Honestly, I have seen a lot of comments recently I think particularly from Southeast Asian people and these are just comments on the internet not that people are not that every Southeast Asian person feels this way exactly But there is a lot of like hey, how come East Asians whenever they do something that is supposed to represent Asian-Americans It's always very East Asian focused very Chinese Korean Which is a fair question. No, let's talk about it And the next issue that got brought up in a lot of serious stuff that got brought up from the silly topic Andrew It's who cares about dolls Do we need Asian-American dolls to feel whole and why do we put our self-worth in something that's not even a part of our culture? Because in Asia, I guess girls don't really grow up playing with dolls as much Maybe the Philippines is the one exception. Oh, why? No, they just have more American culture of playing I'm saying in Eastern culture. They don't traditionally play with dolls, right, right? It's well, it's not or especially I would say hyper realistic dolls Yeah, yeah, yeah, and then of course last but not least who's actually to blame some people were like well Asians only make up six percent So why are you coming crying saying our whole society's racist just because we don't got dolls that look like you? Interesting. Yeah, okay. All right. Let's get in the comment section because there are a lot of different thoughts Real quick Andrew. I got to show the Korean tan doll that she was dissatisfied with from American girl, right? This is the Jilly Bing right here and boom. I got to hit you at the end with the Barbie representation Andrew This is Renee Chow apparently an ABG. Yo, though. I don't know. Are those supposed to be Asian Barbies They look like Italian girls from Jersey Shore. No, no these don't look like full-on ABGs I would say this is the new glamour like Laguna Beach ABG archetype. I've been starting to see in 2023 Oh, this girl looks like a skater kind of like whitewash Asian girl. Anyways, let's get into the comment section Someone said are there American American dolls in China, huh? How come there aren't like are there just like why would we have Chinese dolls in America? Well, yeah I mean obviously America's an immigrant country and prides itself on that not every country does so I think there is some entitlement and Expectations somebody says this is so great. You got to make people feel good in their own skin These are sort of the ones basically like saying, you know, you saw a void in the market You saw a problem you attacked it good for you, right? Okay?   Yeah, I think from the economic standpoint How much does it cost to change the Barbie dolls to look more Asian and what's the market for Asian American kids to buy dolls? I mean who knows but maybe this this woman's trying to make this doll to slip in there and that becomes the Barbie for all Asian American women Yeah, I mean, I'm sure that's the hope she said cute But how come they only care about diversity when one doll represents one Asian ethnicity? What about Filipino and Indians this doll does not visually represent us Maybe they should have waited in this and releasing this and released like three dolls or more dolls beforehand Because Joey dolls released various ethnicities at once. So it made all the Asians feel represented to some degree I was kind of offended by this Okay, so I do see what she's saying in the sense like if you're gonna peg yourself as making the Asian American doll And then it's only one doll and the doll clearly looks more East Asian I do think it's fair for people to ask and be like, hey, are you launching other Asian dolls? Or is this just the Chinese American doll? Should you just call it Chinese American doll? And if she just called it this is the first Chinese American doll Then would she even be in trouble because that would be completely accurate, right? Some people were saying well, she has to start somewhere and it's a very small business probably with limited capitalization So how could she launch like a full line? She actually does have some drawings of other types of Asians South Asians Southeast Asian I believe she has some biracial dolls as well But some people doubted her someone said nope You will never see her launch a company or make dolls of other races I believe that was from like a Polynesian girl kind of like there's some doubt I guess in some of the lesser represented Asian worlds And I'm not saying it's from everybody but from certain people that the East Asians care about them Oh, you're saying that they doubt that a lot of the East Asians with the power are actually going to help them be represented Right, right, right because the East Asians they feel invisible To relative to I guess white people or black people But then Southeast Asians or Polynesians or you know other people that are even less visible within the Asian subgroups are like doubting them Well, here's the fact is that not all Asians care about other Asians Not all East Asians care about other East Asians Obviously as Chinese guys or East Asian guys we do a good job and we've grown up around all types of Asian people So we obviously try to include everybody's perspective and everybody's culture on our channel So I feel like we do a good job, but not everybody thinks like us Yeah, I would agree with that and you know, they don't necessarily have those life experiences in their toolkit or their composition I do agree with this though And do you agree with me that the creators of crazy rich Asians because they made so much money on that movie They probably could make a smaller indie movie that incorporates all the Asians to feel more inclusive, right? I'm not saying that they will I'm not asking everybody to be do it how I would do it You know what I mean because obviously everybody can make their own decisions with their own life and their own funding and their own Time however they want that's how just life works in general But I guess are people just gonna have to settle for being inspired by CRA But do the creators of something ultra profitable like CRA have any responsibility to the community to bring it all together in a Maloo I think there's a little bit of responsibility for sure There sure definitely is but I think as far as like giving a motion picture just for the sake of giving it out I feel like that would seem like charity and ultimately you need that project to be good So if there is a good Southeast Asian based story which there are out there Especially like books that are written about Southeast Asian lies that are really good I think pushing for those good stories is very important But yeah, I don't know about like just giving it for like you don't want to make it feel like charity I would even like to see the one for charity for me. That's how I think that's fair That's fair Somebody said before anybody complains about the price because the doll of Jilly being Andrews about $70 Look at how expensive American girl dolls are So basically people are like what so they're gonna be using the same Manufactured in China child-driven labor did she even care about diversity and someone says oh you didn't give a f about cheap China made products your whole life But now this first woman wants to create the Asian doll and now you all of a sudden care so much Hilarious debate hilarious debate someone wants to make an Asian doll and this is what it turns into yeah Somebody said I have no idea what's going on I used to play with Barbies when I was young and I never thought of the ethnicity of color and then of course some people got into this Some people got into that somebody said stop infantilizing women to act like they're so impacted by beauty standards But other people were arguing back by saying well, that's just biology women are impacted by the dolls that they play Yeah, and those beauty standards. So like I said Andrew silly to serious Jilly being it's such a silly thing, but it turned into some really serious arguments Funny is besides even just how Barbie actually looks because Barbie it's not clear I mean Barbie. There's some Asian people and non There's some Arabic Italian women who look like Barbie, you know different ethnicities woman with like I guess really large features in a Really small head that's like considered Barbie beautiful just looks like there's even some black women who look kind of like who have that shape of Barbie Right possibly a different skin color, but I think to me. It's a lot of Barbie's lifestyle That was very white. So to me. It's like her lifestyle was very blonde very Laguna Beach right may have influenced people, but I think nowadays with the amount of media and Art and movies and shows that we have now I do think dolls don't mean as much to a young woman's life That it would have been nice to have this Jilly Bing product and I'm not say go out check it out Jill would check out the website see if you like it or not, but like 10 years ago or maybe 20 25 years ago Like women our age that grew up with dolls before this whole media boom You're saying that that would have been even more impactful given the metrics of that It's not just Barbie and her blonde hair is Barbie in the pink car. It's Barbie's house.  It's not just Barbie herself There was a very specific type of girl that I saw on my Instagram stories dress up in Small pink dresses and go see the Barbie movie. I'm just saying you guys tell me Somebody says Well, what do you guys think when you go to Asia and you look at the Asian dolls? They don't even look Asian either just like the animes do not look Asian They look more Western and somebody said no, they're not designed to look as Western they just look more abstract and somebody said no everybody knows that animes and Asian dolls look like abstract Western people so Asians are not even proud of how they look fundamentally This is a lot of this could be like a whole video on its own, right? Yeah Yeah, I am looking at some of these Asian dolls and they look pretty creepy. All right So what I have here Andrew is actually a traditional Japanese doll We used to actually have these in the crib. I remember our mom kind of grew up in Japan Then we also have a traditional Shinto doll from a temple Andrew Here we have the anime dollhouse like French, you know Prince tea house doll. Yeah, so I think they're probably depicting like European people. This is these two girls right here. Yeah, I don't know Yeah, it's tough to say man, but I get you know, that's like a whole Beauty standards, you know, um somebody said she should have looked to the wealth of pop culture in Asia and found the Internal piece that she needed why don't more Asian Americans do this I always watched everything from Asia from soap operas to musics and I never felt like I needed an Asian American version of anything This is a good debate right Andrew. Yeah, so what do you think man?  Well, I think Koreans are in a particular situation Koreans have a lot of great content a lot of amazing Content that they can kind of submerse themselves into and Chinese probably do too to be honest It's not as great, but they have a lot of content wealth of it. Yeah, they have a wealth of content Vietnamese I would say have less to be honest that is accessible Philippines has some but it's probably not as Successful, I mean accessible. So I'm saying like not everybody's in that situation So not everybody has this gigantic hard drive to tap back into but not only that Andrew not everybody relates to it Yeah, I don't I'm not gonna tell a mother that has a daughter that like, yo, don't worry about a Southeast Asian doll Don't worry about getting a Filipino doll. It's not important. I'm not gonna say it's not important But I just don't think it's that important. You know what I mean? Yeah, like I just think there's a lot of other things that you could do somebody said Asians are almost a forgotten minority Efforts to be inclusive often exclude them. That's sad. We can do better and this guy said I'm Asian And I'd rather be forgotten in American site society than be treated like a minority In fact, I've never felt like a minority in my professional life because I work in academia and high-tech business I was the co-founder of a startup Basically, we you know Asians aren't a forgotten minority There are simply people in those fields and that's how I prefer it So this kind of goes to the thing about like Asian Americans depending on what you're raised and what fields you enter And you may not even feel like a person of color that needs to take The steps that a person of color needs to take to feel represented It's because some people were saying well, who's forgotten our Asians forgotten relative to the Western Milo Right to the flow of like the Western potluck But then who even within the Asians and this brings us back to our original discussion about East Asian versus like taekwadi Versus Southeast Asian versus Siberian versus Central Asians our South Asians evens included. Who's the forgotten of the forgotten? Fascinating I know what you mean like the Underrepresented of the underrepresented somebody said she won't be able to make it after two or three years I just checked her website statistics, and it only has 400 unique visitors a month. There's no way she can make enough money to get by What a comment man, maybe not. I don't know if it's not popular It's not gonna happen. I mean, I'll tell you this guys in the game of business Andrew There is nothing moral or immoral, right?  I mean I would say I mean good for her for making the doll It might not be fully successful, and it might just inspire some other people to do their own thing too You know all these things you never know It's that it's just one entrepreneur But maybe she could spark the mind of someone from another group that wants to do something or she she also represents everybody else Dolls and to that point Andrew do we even need this entire Asian American representation movement at all and different people have different answers Right, I have I have a feeling and I'll speak on this from a Chinese perspective I have a feeling that a lot of people are never going to be satisfied with the representation Almost to an extent like they'll almost never be satisfied until they get exactly what they want But I mean to a 10 out of 10 level like their vision Yeah, but I also think a lot of people don't know fully what they want, and they don't know fully what's going to work And what's very valuable, you know, but that's not to say you shouldn't speak up about it I think you should and you everybody can have your opinion I'm glad that this Filipino woman voiced her opinion Yeah, and everybody should leave that comment because ultimately a comment is just really meant to spark a discussion It's not really meant to move the needle per se, but yeah I mean I think it's good to discuss, but hopefully I just think it it just shows another Asian Entrepreneur, and I think that it will spark more Asian entrepreneurs to do their own yeah shout out to a jelly bean check out our website down below I think my final takeaway Andrew is that uh Asian Americans on their general metrics I'm not saying there's not a split between different groups or whatever But on the general metrics are doing pretty well in terms of family stability Income at least some middle-tier career success. I'm not gonna say obviously we've done cover the other articles Maybe the eight nine out of ten success and the ten out of ten success seems a little out of reach depending on what industry You picked but um there's just not a lot of Asian pop cultural representation Yeah, you know I mean and it's just like the pros and cons of our game plan Do you think we need to shift our game plan? Is it a mode now where we need to focus more on some of the soft power that we didn't accumulate? I don't know you guys let me know in the comments down below Let me know your thoughts on all this our dolls important And do you want do does one Asian product need to represent for all Asians? I mean it is tough, but maybe there should be some responsibility you guys let me know in the comments down below We are the hot pop boys and until next time we out. Peace


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The stakeholders have been charged to continually seek measures to monitor the efficiency of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, which was enacted in 2015, for the purpose of fast-tracking criminal trials in all states of the Federation. The charge was given at a two-day training of trainers session on the Administration of Criminal Justice implementation in Nigeria in Benin City, the Adostate capital. The facilitators noted that the seminar is to ensure that all stakeholders are brought to speed with the introduction of the mobile app in a bid to promote effective implementation of the YARGJER 2015. The years in Nigeria will be argued that it's not the absence of law, it's implementation and respect for the law. And so I hope that this conversation we're having, we encourage more people to go back and look inward and see how do we contribute to our quota, either as a policeman, correctional staff, Minister of Justice staff, MBA, now watch, and even you the media, how can we popularize this law, how can we make it more functional? It's our collective responsibility to make this country work. The way forward is for all stakeholders to ensure that the Adostation of Criminal Justice Act, which has been replicated in the Doha and Delta States in the Adostation of Criminal Justice Law, is implemented. The essence of the Adostation of Criminal Justice Law is to solve problems within the criminal justice system. I urge all practitioners, all stakeholders, to walk along according to the details of the ACGL so that we have peace and an equal level playing field for all persons that have to come to justice and have to be tried, for instance, under the criminal justice. I've known about the Adostation of Criminal Justice Law before, but with today I've added value to what I already knew, particularly near evidence gathering to swell and analyze better than what we used to know. So I would not say I have not moved from where I was before to a new point now. It's much better with explanation now. So what is left for us is to go into the field and implement what we have learned. So you get notified about fresh news updates.


The next item of business today is a statement by Roseanna Cunningham on the Scottish greenhouse gas emissions annual target report for 2016, setting Scotland's future direction on the low-carbon transition. The cabinet secretary will take questions after her statement, so any member who wishes to ask a question, I would encourage you to press your request to speak button now. Roseanna Cunningham, I have an opportunity to update Parliament on Scotland's contribution to global efforts to tackle climate change. The need for rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented global change in response to the challenge of climate change has been clearly set out in the recent report from the UN into governmental panel on climate change. I welcome the report and I am pleased that we have moved away from debating whether climate change is real or not. The evidence that is set out by the IPCC is the culmination of a comprehensive global assessment of the science underpinning the Paris agreement aim of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees. The report makes clear that achieving that, as opposed to allowing warming of two degrees or more, would significantly reduce the negative impacts for humans and the environment. All countries, as well as businesses and individuals, need to act now if the Paris agreement aims are to be met. We can be proud that Scotland has been one of the first countries to respond to the agreement with proposals for strengthened, legally binding emissions reduction targets. That is the purpose of the climate change bill, which was introduced in May. The IPCC report says that we must act quickly. Scotland has already reduced its emissions by almost half, and our climate change plan sets out a credible package of immediate on-the-ground delivery measures to continue driving those down. The new bill sets targets for 2020 and 2030 that are the most stretching statutory goals of any country in the world. The IPCC report says that the world needs to be carbon neutral, meaning net zero CO2 emissions, by 2050. With our current bill targets, that is exactly where Scotland will be. The bill not only sets new targets, but builds on the world-leading approach that was established by this Parliament's 2009 act. That is recognised by representatives of other leading countries, for example Anders Weichmann, chair of the climate kick think tank and former Swedish lawmaker, said in evidence to the ECCLR committee earlier this week that he very much applauds the Scottish approach of including a fair share of the emissions from international aviation and shipping in our targets. I suspect that that is because Sweden does not. The transition to a carbon neutral Scotland will fundamentally reshape our economy and society over the coming decades. There will be many opportunities but also some challenges and we must ensure that no one is left behind. That is why the Scottish Government is establishing a Just Transition Commission to provide expert advice on adjusting to a low-carbon economy in a fair way. Professor Jim Sgear has already been named as chair of the commission and together we will ensure that further commission appointments have the breadth of experience that is needed. The independent expert advice of the UK Committee on Climate Change plays a key role in setting emissions reduction targets that are both stretching and credible. Credibility is vital. Without it, there is a risk of committing future Governments to actions that are in any practical sense unachievable. However, the Scottish Government does want to achieve net zero emissions of all greenhouse gases as soon as possible. It is our intention to get there and we will set a target date for this as soon as it can be done credibly and responsibly. In light of the IPCC's report, I have joined the UK and Welsh Governments in writing to the CCC to ask that it provides updated advice on national target levels. We have asked the committee to provide its advice no later than March next year. If it advises that even more ambitious Scottish targets are now credible, we will adopt them. Certainly, other countries around the world need to step up and match Scotland's ambition and action if the Paris agreement is to be delivered. However, if we look closer to home, Scotland will reach net zero emissions sooner if all parts of the UK work together. Many of the key levers, such as decarbonising the gas grid, remain reserved to the UK Government. That is why it is important that the Committee for Climate Change's advice considers what is feasible across all parts of the UK. The risk of a no-deal Brexit, and what that means for our environment, is also very real. I call on the UK Government to ensure that its approach to this does not jeopardise the delivery of emissions reductions. The Scottish Government supports continued participation in the EU emissions trading system as the most cost-effective route to decarbonise energy intensive industry. The UK Government's approach to a no-deal exit would mean that we would lose access to the EU ETS. We are deeply concerned that the UK Government intends to introduce a carbon tax in its place, which would remove accountability to the Scottish Parliament for emissions reduction from key sectors of the Scottish economy since the tax would be reserved. Such a reduction in devolved powers and accountability is unacceptable to the Scottish Government, and we have written jointly with the Welsh Government to express our concerns and urgently request ministerial meetings between all four Administrations. On a more positive note, I would now like to turn to Scotland's progress to date in reducing emissions. The statutory Scottish Greenhouse Gas Emissions annual target report was laid in Parliament yesterday and confirms that Scotland's annual emissions reduction target for 2016 was met, meaning that we have reached our target for the third year in a row. Most importantly, Scotland's actual emissions are now down by almost half in the long term, a 49 per cent reduction since the 1990 baseline. We continue to outperform the UK as well as Western European countries, in fact, only Sweden has done better. Scotland's excellent progress has been recognised by the Committee for Climate Change in its recent annual progress report. The committee also found that our current climate change plan represents an ambitious statement of intent and a stretching and credible pathway to delivering further reductions. One of the key features of Scotland's current climate change plan is that it includes a monitoring framework that will help us to keep track of where changes in approach may become necessary. Yesterday, we published the first annual monitoring report from the framework. The information in the report complements the annual emissions statistics and independent overviews of progress from the Committee for Climate Change by providing more detail on the ground implementation of the policies in the plan. I appreciate that expectations around the monitoring framework will quite rightly be high. However, it has been less than a year since the plan itself was published and it is simply too early to make an assessment of whether the plan, as a whole, is on track. For example, quality-assured data for 2018 is not yet available for many of the indicators. However, this first year's reporting does provide a baseline for future assessments of progress. It also provides the foundation from which we will continue to develop and improve the monitoring framework itself. The new bill proposes that the framework be placed on the statutory footing for future years with individual sector by sector monitoring reports being laid before Parliament. Most of my statements so far have been about climate change mitigation, but I would also like to take this opportunity to raise Parliament's awareness of our work on adaptation, which featured strongly in this year's programme for government. Next year, a second Scottish climate change adaptation programme will be published. An outcomes-based approach derived from both the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Scotland's national performance framework is being developed. Over the course of the next few months, the Scottish Government will be engaging with stakeholders and consulting widely on how we can secure the right outcomes for Scotland from our approach to adaptation. I have been pleased to update Parliament on Scotland's excellent progress in tackling climate change. This success has been founded on an evidence-based approach and we are committed to maintaining it. We recognise the global importance of the new report from the IPCC and we have joined the UK and Welsh Governments in commissioning updated independent expert advice from the Committee on Climate Change on what that means for our own targets. I will also be proud to take Scotland's positive messages to the UN climate change conference in Poland in December. This meeting, COP24, will take stock of global efforts through the culmination of the Talanoa dialogue process and seek to agree the rulebook for how the Paris agreement will be implemented. Scotland has a very strong message to share with the rest of the world. Our low-carbon transition demonstrates that deep emissions reductions are achievable and that they can be delivered in a way that promotes sustainable and fair economic growth. I should say that this is a statement delivered in keeping with the statutory responsibility that was laid out in the 2009 Climate Change Act. If the new climate change bill comes into force before this time next year, this will turn out to have been the last of those statements. We turn now to questions, and we begin with Maurice Golden to be followed by Claude Abie-Wish. I thank the cabinet secretary for advance copy of the statement. A low-carbon transition is a vital component of reducing Scotland's greenhouse gas emissions and achieving our climate change targets. The recent IPCC report on global warming states that, if urgent action is not taken to cut emissions, global warming could reach 1.5°C as early as 2030. Scotland has already made good progress in transitioning to a low-carbon economy by decarbonising our electricity and waste sectors. However, it is imperative that we look to other sectors, particularly transport, to meet our future targets, specifically post 2032. Both the UK and Scottish Governments have sought expert advice from the UK Committee on Climate Change on achieving an achievable pathway to net zero by 2050. If the UK CCC identifies a pathway, will the cabinet secretary adopt that in full? Yes, that is the commitment that I have made and that the Government has made. What has held us back to now is the CCC being unable to outline that credible pathway. In the absence of that being available to us, we felt that to draft the bill in any other way that we have done at the moment would be unwise, but we do want to get there. If the newly commissioned advice comes forward with that credible pathway, then absolutely we will do so and we will ensure that the bill reflects that advice. Mark Ruskell My thanks to the cabinet secretary for prior sight of the statement. Scottish Labour welcomes the success of a 49 per cent actual emissions reduction between 1990 and 2016, proving to the chamber that once seemingly ambitious targets drive innovation and bolster climate action. The IPCC report has the strongest warning yet, which we all know about. Has or will the Scottish Government assess the draft climate change bill in terms of Scotland's carbon budget and in terms of its contribution to global temperature rise? We must heed the IPCC's call for rapid and far-reaching transitions in the sectors that we are talking about today. That is why Scottish Labour calls for a target of 77 per cent emissions reductions by 2030. Will the cabinet secretary act on that now? We have the information to set a pathway for that now. Finally, given the climate change plan's discrepancies in sectoral ambition, what is the cabinet secretary doing to address that? Has she considered sectoral targets to ensure that all sectors play their fair part to adapt by 2030 and beyond? Scottish Labour wishes the cabinet secretary very good luck for Poland. I thank Claudia Beamish for her good luck for Katowice in December. I hope that, by December, the weather in Poland is amenable to travel in a reasonable amount of time. To take on board her points in respect of the IPCC, I feel as if I have made it fairly clear that we are very closely looking at and heeding the advice that we are getting. We are asking the UK Committee on Climate Change to give us some of the detail and some of the credible pathway advice that they were unable to give us in their last advice. That is because of what the IPCC has said. We have acted as a result of what we have seen in the IPCC. The bill, in the way that it is currently drafted, all of the statements that were made by myself by the First Minister make it very clear that the intention is to do net zero greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible, when it is credible when the pathway is clear. If that is made clear to us in the next few months, then absolutely that is how we will approach it. I think that my response to Maurice Golden made that clear as well. In respect of sectoral targets—this is an old discussion, I guess—we are taking a whole economy approach in respect of it. We do set sectoral envelopes, but we are not fixing statutory targets. That is for a very good reason. First of all, the difficulty—I think that I have said this before in the chamber—is the difficulty of assigning measures to particular sectors when they will cut right across sectors. There is a lot of work being done in energy efficiency just now. Do energy efficiency measures contribute to reducing emissions in energy supply? Or do they contribute to reducing emissions in residential and public sector buildings? How do we make that decision? If you set a target for one and not the other, you end up not really achieving what you are trying to achieve. We have done incredibly well. Sectoral targets could also be highly uncertain, because in certain areas, data revisions can have a disproportionate effect on specific sectors. For example, land use and forestry, it would have been extremely difficult to set sectoral targets over the past few years, because the data revisions, the science around all of that, has changed so significantly that any attempt to set sectoral targets would have come apart. Those are reasons why—and it is not just Scotland that does not have sectoral emission targets. From my understanding of the evidence from the Swedish representatives at the committee on Tuesday, Sweden does not do sectoral targets for much the same reason that we have chosen not to do them. We are still of the view that the whole economy approach is the most sensible way to do it, and that sectoral emission targets will provide an unnecessarily inflexible approach and will not be particularly helpful in the long run. Mark Ruskell, to be followed by Liam McArthur. The cabinet secretary mentions the urgent warning in the IPCC report, and we must act quickly. However, what is not mentioned in the statement is the authors warning that the actions that we take between now and 2030 are the most crucial for delivering low-carbon transport, warm homes and greener farming. The proposed target for 2030 sets the bar too low, so that barely any extra action needs to be taken beyond what has already been discussed. If Scotland has to stand any chance of meeting a future net zero emissions target, why is the Scottish Government not committing to more ambition on our next milestone target for 2030? Why is it not considering the benefits that strong technical innovation can bring? Estimates so far have been based on very conservative thinking about what is technically possible. The problem with basing our plans on technical innovations is that we have no idea about creating a difficulty. It is possible that we can take a view that we simply set targets and shrug our shoulders and hope for the best, which appears to be in some places what happens. It is not the approach that we have been taking in Scotland, and I would rather stick to the dogged continued success of the approach that we have taken in Scotland, and it has been shown to be successful in achieving our ends. We continue in that manner because that is the way I believe that we will achieve the outcomes that we are looking for. I remind people that this bill was introduced to Parliament before the IPCC report, so we were already looking at increasing our targets. We were already looking at increasing our ambition. The IPCC report does bring some more urgency into it, which is exactly why we have asked the UK Committee on Climate Change to reassess what we are doing in the light of the urgency raised by the IPCC. We will wait to listen to the advice of our statutory advisers and we will act accordingly. Liam McArthur, to be followed by Stuart Stevenson. I thank the cabinet secretary for early sight of her statement and welcome confirmation that further advice has been sought from the UK Committee on Climate Change. The latest advice from IPCC could not be more stark in the case for upping our efforts to combat climate change more compelling. She referred to the appointment of Professor Jim Ski as the chair of the Just Transition Commission. Could she set out the timetable for appointing the additional members and when she would expect the commission to come forward with recommendations? Given that, in 2015, the energy efficiency of Scotland's buildings was set as a national infrastructure priority since when we have seen residential emissions rise in 2015 and 2016, when does she expect that trend to begin to be reversed? As the member referred to, I have already appointed Jim Ski as the chair of the commission. What we have to do now is to ensure that the members of the commission reflect the range of issues that will need to be discussed. Since our intention is that the commission will run for approximately two years in its initial work, I would hope that we have the commission up and running early in the new year. I am not wanting to put a specific time on that, because it depends on us being able to ensure that we are populating the commission itself with the right people. The member then went on to ask me about some more specific issues in respect of buildings, if I am correct. There is a lot of work being done, as the member knows, that will change the emissions in terms of buildings. Energy-efficient Scotland is going to help to remove poor energy efficiency. That will have a positive impact in terms of fuel poverty, as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The member will know that there is an enormous amount of work currently going on in respect of energy efficiency in this Parliament. We have a number of commitments that we want to make in respect of Scotland's homes and buildings. If the member is looking for much more specific responses, I will ask my colleague Kevin Stewart to write to him specifically on the particular areas. We are on track to deliver a 2016 programme for government commitment in respect of energy efficiency, and we believe that we are going to be able to make good progress in that area. I appreciate that there have been detailed questions and detailed answers. There are now eight minutes for the remaining nine questions and answers. Stewart Stevenson is to be followed by John Scott. John Gummer, when he appeared in front of the Environment, Committee, and he is the chair of the Climate Change Committee, said that it would be challenging to deliver an answer for UK, Scotland and Wales by March next year. Is the Committee satisfied that jointly commissioning advice is the correct thing to do? Will Scotland get particular advice out of that that is going to be useful for us? Climate change is a global issue, and it requires a cross-border response. We are probably in the right place to do that. No one country is going to deliver the whole solution. Therefore, the joint letter that was signed was an appropriate way to progress that. Obviously, some of our activity is influenced by the ambitions and actions of neighbours. I referenced in my statement the issue with the gas grid. For those reasons, I think that joining with the UK and Welsh Governments was the right thing to do. I have asked that the advice be available in time for Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, both to consider it and to complete the passage of the climate change bill before the summer recess. However, the most important thing from the point of view of the bill is that our decisions are informed by the advice of the Committee on Climate Change. I would not want to see the bill proceed before we have that advice. The plan is to get that advice in a timely manner to allow us to take the bill forward, but let us see if the Committee on Climate Change can do so in the timescale that we have asked. John Scott, followed by Gil Paterson. The cabinet secretary rightly recognises that expectations surrounding the monitoring framework for the climate change plan are high. When can we expect an assessment to be made of whether the plan is on track or not, and when will the individual sector by sector reports first be laid before Parliament? That was interesting. I did not realise that the individual sector by sector reports were being awaited so enthusiastically. Future years for the monitoring reports, the timing of that. Obviously, this is the very first one. By its nature, it will not be complete. We are expecting it to be produced each October when it is published. That is the statutory footing that I referred to earlier. Assessing whether individual indicators are on track one by one, for this first year's reporting, the assessments have been based on the judgment of lead officials for that area. That is obviously not what will go on being the case, because we are keen to explore ways to make the assessment process as consistent and transparent as possible for future reports. We are obviously discussing with stakeholders how that will be progressed. At the moment, there are some indicators where I am cautious that there is no data available. It is just a function of this being the very first to be published. Stakeholder engagement is on-going, and we will ensure that Parliament and the committee are kept updated on the work that is being done. Can the cabinet secretary expand a bit further on what she has said on adaptation, and can she confirm that stakeholders' engagement will play a key role in that? Yes, indeed. The Scottish Government is required to set out our climate change adaptation programme every five years. The programme has to include policies and proposals, both for action and for research. We are taking an outcomes-based approach. We are not just identifying risks, we are working on the outcomes that we want for Scotland as we adapt to climate change in terms of our communities, infrastructure and natural environment in the economy, and those are closely linked to the national performance framework and the sustainable development goals. Digital and face-to-face stakeholder engagement sessions are taking place over the next few months to help to develop the programme prior to formal consultation early next year. As part of the process, we are developing adaptation-focused climate conversations to engage communities throughout Scotland from the borders to Shetland. Those people who engage on Twitter may already have seen two Twitter sessions on natural resources and infrastructure have already taken place, and the first face-to-face workshop was held yesterday in Inverness. Engagement has been lively so far and I look forward to that continuing. I look forward to the committee's continued interest. Of course, some of the interesting outcomes in terms of adaptation are seen when you look at things such as the climate-ready Clyde initiative, which has quite a lot of coverage this morning. Edinburgh adapts. Those are often being done on a more regional basis, and I advise members to keep a good look out if there is one coming for their own local area. Pauline McNeill will be followed by Bill Kidd. The textile sector alone accounts for 6 or 7 per cent of the direct and indirect carbon emissions in the world. There are many examples of electronics that are deliberately designed for single use. What action is the Scottish Government taking to improve the sustainability of the growing consumption in the fashion and the electronics industries, both for consumers and the industries themselves? As it happens, I have flagged up to officials that I think that the textile industry in particular is probably one of the coming big issues that is going to confront us. At the moment, it is quite limited in terms of what we can do. One of the big issues will be around the just transition concerns, because, obviously, many of the textile products that we use are made a very long way away by people who do not get paid terribly much but whose jobs are nevertheless important. It is a tricky issue to deal with, and it needs to be dealt with globally. Pauline McNeill can rest assured that I have already flagged up to officials that I have already warned them that we will start getting questions about this, and here is the first, so I congratulate Pauline on being the first. Electronics, I suppose, sits in that same kind of conversation, because none of us want to be without the electronics that we use, but managing a sustainable way to have them produced again is going to take a very big global conversation. Bill Kidd The third, fourth and fifth carbon budgets are excluded from the scope of advice being requested from the Committee on Climate Change. As climate change is a devolved issue, was there ever a possibility that that would mean that Scotland's targets up to 2032 would also be seen as out of scope? No, that was a confusion arising out of the fact that the letter was being signed by three different Administrations. I had presumed that people would see the carbon budget line and know that that was about Westminster, but, since that appeared not to be the case, we have just separately written to clear up that. We want all the targets that are proposed in the bill to be looked at. We have no difficulty with that whatsoever. We have made that absolutely clear. That was just one of those items of confusion that arose out of the fact that you had three Administrations signing a letter. Thank you very much. My apologies to Finlay Carson, Fulton MacGregor, Alex Rowley and John Mason, but I'm afraid we have no time this afternoon. I would ask all the members and ministers to reflect on the length of questions and answers. We'll move on to the next item of business, which is a statement on the Aberdeen western peripheral route update. I will just take a few seconds if we can to change seats.


we have the VR-80 this is a semi-auto shotgun once again a Rock Island both 20 inch barrels this one I really like 19 round mag this has Fioki 7.5 shot high velocity rounds but we'll check it out and I counted those off and that was a true 19 rounds


This is Dr. Gregor in the kitchen where I take the science and put it into practice. Today I'm going to share with you my new favorite dessert, matcha ice cream. Matcha is powdered green tea leaves. What's so great about green tea? It's consumption is associated with lower rates of heart attacks and premature death proven and randomized controlled trials to prevent precancerous colon polish from developing and precancerous prostate lesions from turning into full-blown cancer and so antiviral. There's an FDA-approved green tea compound ointment used to reverse warts caused by the HPV virus. That's why in my daily dozen checklist it is one of the healthiest beverages along with water and hibiscus tea. Matcha is probably the healthiest way to drink green tea since you're drinking it as a whole food. Whereas normally you just make a hot water green tea extract and throw away the leaves.  Think what proportion of nutrition you'd be throwing away. The same thing with tea leaves. Matcha allows you to drink tea whole. That way you'll get all the nutrition but also all the potential contaminants. China was late on the ban on leaded gasoline resulting in higher than average lead levels in the soil on Chinese tea plantations. It gets taken up by the plant but does not tend to leach out into the water when you just make tea the regular way. But if you eat the tea like matcha or if you throw tea leaves in a smoothie or something I would recommend making sure your tea is sourced from Japan rather than China. I have a video about the tolerable upper daily dose for kids pregnant women other adults depending on brewing method and a sourced country. All right now this stuff I have here is from Japan so that's not a problem though. Problem however with any matcha tea is the taste. Matcha has a strong grassy earthy mossy flavor so I figured one put it into ice cream. It could be the spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down. Of course traditional ice cream has way more than a spoonful of sugar not to mention the saturated butter fat and the dairy proteins actually can interfere with some of the beneficial effects of the green tea compound. So how about making a healthy matcha ice cream comprised entirely of whole foods just two whole foods to be exact. Take two frozen super ripe bananas and put them in a food processor or blender alongside with a half teaspoon of the matcha tea. Now more if you can stand it but it's pretty strong stuff so why don't we start there and blend it up. Blended frozen bananas take on this perfect rich creamy ice cream texture. Now the more the riper the better. You want lots of little brown spots on there. Look at that beautiful green color here. All right I'm gonna add a little maybe a little mint garnish here. The matcha actually makes the blended bananas taste better somehow. So we're talking just two whole plant foods.  That's the way desserts should be. If you want more recipes like this incorporating some of the healthiest foods on the planet check out my new cookbook the how not to die cookbook now available for pre-order. I think the I think the ice cream recipe in the book actually uses strawberries almond butter and vanilla extract instead of the matcha but delicious either way cookbook will be out this December right in time for the holidays makes a great new year new you kind of gift all the proceeds I received from the sales of my books DVD speaking engagements all goes to charity I just want you to be healthier.


Hi, thank you for joining me, I'm in the Surrey Countryside today, going from beside the River Mol. The town of Cobham is about a mile, a mile and a half in that direction. I'm heading in this direction here, I've got to go across the M25. We're going to have a look at the Semaphore town. When I say Semaphore, probably most of anything to do with Semaphore in my videos has been Semaphore Signals that you get on railways. That's not what we're doing in today's video. We're going to look at a much earlier form of Semaphore, a communication tower, which was for communicating between London and Portsmouth. There's a whole line of these towers and we're going to go and see the only one that survives. I've come out the fields and away from the River Mol, I'm on a road called Pointer's Road. Getting close to the tower you may just be able to see the motorway. It's 29 degrees today but it's very windy out in that field. Down there you pretty can't see it. There is just some water there. It must be a tributary to River Mol. There's something quite interesting here. It looks like a rather elaborate letterbox post. It is actually the gates to the lodge, which I'm assuming was probably the original entrance to Hatchford Park, which has now been cut by the M25. I'm going to do a separate video. It's my plan for the Hatchford Park because there's something quite interesting. There's an old mausoleum but that's not going to be in this video. You have to like. Is this the world's tallest letterbox? Even if it is a letterbox set in an existing pillar, I think I might have just found the tallest letterbox in Great Britain. If you know of a taller letterbox, please do comment and tell me. Let's go from the tallest letterbox to the tall tower. I've now turned off Pointer's Road and gone up the drive towards the tower. It's where we cross the M25. You can probably hear the traffic. Interesting that there's a concrete block. It's got steps. I think that's for horse riders to dismount their horses.  I'm not sure if there's any reason why they don't want you to ride a horse over the M25. Anyway, here is the M25. So, that way is clockwise. Just up there in the distance, see the junction with the M3. That's probably not M3, the A3. And then looking anticlockwise, a little bit busy. I hope it's not as busy when I want to go home. If it is, I may have to find a different route. Anyway, into the woods and let's find this tower. So, after a pleasant walk through the woods, we're almost at the tower. So, the tower we're going to see, this Semaphore Tower, it's a very interesting survival from the Napoleonic era. It was built following the Battle of Waterloo. They built a string of towers all the way from Admiral House in London, right down to Portsmouth, and they could use it for communicating. And they did, they communicated from 1882 to 1847, but it was never actually used in any form of wartime technology moved on. Before this tower, they would have lit beacons on the hills, but after lighting the beacons on the hills, the next stage of technology was this. This is the Champlain Heave Semaphore Tower. And up on the top is the Semaphore, which can spell out different letters and different numbers as we're going to find out when we go inside. After it finished its use as a tower, it at one point became an estate house. Somebody lived here in the grounds of the estate that we're in. And then eventually it became derelict. Unfortunately, it caught fire and not much happened. And then in 1989, I believe, they began to restore the tower. And then finally in around 2020, the Landmark Trust took on the tower, restored it, and you can now go and stay there, but they occasionally have open days. So you can hide it. If you have a group of four people and you want to go on holiday somewhere, you can stay here, but here. Today, no one's staying there, because we are going to be going into people's bedrooms and stuff. There won't be anyone to sleep. It's open today to go and have a look around. So we're going to go inside, and I suspect we're going to go right up onto the roof. It's going to be really quite good fun. So let's go and explore the interior of the Semaphore Tower. And here we are inside. We're in one of the bedrooms on the second or first floor, depending on whichever way you look at it. Nice big bed. So it's a Landmark Trust property. You can stay here. So you can hide this out and two of you can sleep up here. There's a couple more bedrooms up there. So we're going to have a look around. Now we're going to go right up to the roof. It's really quite exciting. So this is the staircase. That one's coming down. It goes right up to the top. So go up here. So it has the feeling of being a house. So like I said, you can hide this, come and stay here for the weekend. It'd be quite a pleasant place to stay. So here's the other. Let's see what's in here. Now this is the shower room here. So put the door slams shut. The shower, basin, toilet. No need for frosted glass because there's no one's climbing a tree and no one's going to see you. Back into the hallway so basically. Because of the size, it's just a room per floor. But that's what's part of its charm. So this is two beds here. So it sleeps four people. We're going to continue up. See what other rooms. We're going to expect to find a, maybe a lounge and a kitchen. There was also like a little reception area and a big bathroom downstairs on the ground floor. So we continue up here.  Landmark troughs have lots of properties all over the UK. And I think even into Europe. So maybe one day we can go and visit some other properties there. This is the lounge. So I imagine it'd be great to stay here. Sit down here for an evening. No TV, but you know, you don't need a TV. Sit and play a game and chat. Maybe have a drink. Very nice place to come on holiday to. It's quite near to where I live. So wherever I'd come here on holiday, but certainly some of the other places, I may well go to on holiday. Lots of appropriate books of the area. There's even a Swallows and Amazons book there because they did semaphore signaling, which we'll talk about quite soon. When we get to the top, go up another flight of stairs. To view out the window into the trees. By the time we get to the top, hopefully we should be above all the trees. So we continue up to here. Now this staircase, which we've been going up, kind of breaks, here becomes a separate staircase up to the roof. So you can see down there, right the way down, where we've just been. So we've been coming up quite a long way. This room here is the kitchen. That's the landmark across the sky there, which has some of the properties. This is the workings for the semaphore, which we'll have a look at when we get up there. So it's a really nice kitchen. We will continue on up the final set of stairs onto the roof. I've been most excited about it because I always enjoy climbing up the towers. This is mind your head, so be careful. And here we are, we're on the roof of the semaphore tower. And it's really quite... Come up here, there's just people casually sat there at a picnic table and then looking out. That way it's looking towards... The camera won't pick it up. Obviously up towards London, I can see where I'm going to be at. We started down there, somewhere down there, in the Marl Valley. As you can see, we're right up the trees. The chestnut trees look nice, you don't often get to see them on top like this. There's still a lot of chimneys there. If we go over here, we'll have a look at the view on this side. So that way looks out onto the southern country side. And then, of course, the most important thing really up here is the semaphore. And if you were to look at it from this side, it doesn't actually... I looked and the position it's in, there is nothing that could be in that position. So I'm going to make my way back down to our walk, somehow through the trees and then back to where I parked my car over there somewhere. I hope you enjoyed this video. Thank you very much for watching. Do look out for Future Landmark Trust Open Days at both this property and other properties. They do have them, and also, as I said, you can come and stay in them. So thank you very much for watching. Please do feel free to like, subscribe, and comment. And from the view, from the Chantney Heave Semaphore Tower, goodbye.