Hi, my name is Danny and welcome to Esoteric Moment. Today I have another book review for you and that is The Earth Path by Starhawk. This is a book that I read as an e-book and I did that not because I didn't think it would be great to have but because I already have a few other Starhawk books and try to keep my book collection as small as possible. By Us Alert, I love Starhawk. She is one of my favorite authors. Her activism and connection to divine feminine just really rocks and fits well into my spiritual practice. There are some things that not so much but generally I really really appreciate her writing. So The Earth Path is an interesting read because well it talks about a lot of the things that Pagan books often talk about like magic, connection, daily practice, things like that. There's really more on how do Pagans understand the actual natural world. So there is some science and there's a lot of politics. The book uses journal entries of Starhawks to not only show the real struggle and highlights of having a connection that deeply rooted in the natural world but also kind of proves that the things the author is talking about and encouraging you to do is something that she herself does both when it succeeds and when it fails. I like to the journal entry. There are kind of a lot of them but I think it's a great addition to the book and different from some of the other bits I've read by Starhawk.   Everyone can go to a million protests or rallies like Starhawk but there are small things and even just voting I think is really really important and we have an election coming up so I encourage all of you to vote whatever way you want to but participation I think is really key. The earth path also talks about some more details of the science behind the natural world and why metaphysics and paganism talks about some of these phenomena in the way that it does. So there's a lot on seeds and death and life cycle, evolution. Those are really fascinating bits. Of course if you're in the sciences or you have a firm understanding it's not going to teach you anything new probably but it is great to see a pagan author really emphasize that science and spiritual belief can mesh really well and the pagan outlook often does this seamlessly. So if you are a reader who already loves Starhawk of course read this one it's great and you'll enjoy it. If you're a pagan reader who's looking for something that kind of encourages you to get off your chair and do something this is also a great read and I think it's appropriate during an election to read some more books that are encouraging folks to get out and be involved in our political process and kind of spread the messages that paganisms have not to convert people but to say that yes we are here and we care and we want changes. In the comments below I would love to hear if you think that politics and paganism mesh really well or if you're more like no those are separate realms. Thanks for watching and as always may you find peace in the sacred grove. I think tattoos are phenomenal ways to show our beliefs, our inspirations, our art style in a really permanent and meaningful way. Of course I love those people who have a spiritual meaning behind their tattoos and my tattoo that I have is filled with spiritual meaning.


I'm joined today by medically retired Marine Corps Corporal Michael Jernigan and proudly served with Company E, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment. On August 22, 2004, while on a deployment in Mamadiyah, Iraq, Michael's platoon was on patrol when it was hit by two 155-millimeter artillery shells that were buried in the ground. The blast caused life-threatening and life-changing illnesses or injuries. Forty-five percent of Michael's cranium was crushed in. He had shrapnel enter his right eye and exit through his left eye, which cut everything in between, and he had to have two fingers reattached and his right hand fully reconstructed. He fractured his patella, he cut his femoral artery, and Michael went through 30 major surgeries in the first 12 months and spent 16 months in hospitals and rehabilitation facilities. But since that attack, Michael has taken this second chance at life and turned it into something that is never taken for granted. He's a volunteer. He graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of South Florida, and he was also featured on the HBO documentary, A Live Day. He's also been a contributing writer to the New York Times.com's Home Fires blog, and congratulations to him. Most recently, he was selected as the 2020 Citizens Honor Service Act Award recipient from the Medal of Honor Society. Mike, thank you for taking the time to speak with DAV today. Thank you, Rob. How are you doing today? I'm doing great. I get to talk to you. I think it's a lot better. I appreciate that. There we go. Since learning about you, I've been amazed by the amount of things that you've accomplished in spite of your injuries. But even with that superhuman will and resilience, you have really been tested by this COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting social isolation. Can you tell us about when you first started to notice something was off and that the isolation was taking a toll on your well-being? You know, I'll be honest. I think my wife noticed before I did. You know, but we were in D.C. doing some lobbying for the foundation back in late February. And then we came home. And I mean, I had been reading about this coronavirus issue in China and as it was spreading in the Wall Street Journal. And then mid-March here, I live in Fort Worth, Texas now, we got locked down. And, you know, it was interesting because it's not necessarily, I didn't have any place to go, really. But for some reason, just being told that I can't go anywhere, just had a bad effect on me. And I started getting a little aggressive. I started getting irritable and angry. They got a little volatile around the house. You know, and I'd say that was probably three weeks in, two to three weeks in. It really started to go. And through that trying period, you somehow another find your way to mine. I'll tell you, what was interesting about our experience in the beginning was, you know, the first week of the lockdown, we had a plumbing issue. OK, our toilets weren't draining. So we wound up having to call the city. And the city came out and they were checking the pipes out back. And they were trying to blow air into the system to see if they can dislodge a clog, right? And in the process, they blew wastewater up through our toilets and sinks into our bathrooms. And we had wastewater about two to three inches deep in the bathrooms, right? And this is wastewater from five different homes in the neighborhood.   You know, luckily, we had people that had cleaning supplies that were willing to help and dropped off Clorox and that type of stuff. And the city of North Richland Hills, Texas, where I live, they stepped up and they took care of us and they got it fixed. And our landlord was great in helping through the process. But you know, this was a four or five day process to get this thing fixed.  Yeah, that'll do it. Yeah, and there's a lot of that kind of kicked off. OK, this is what this quarantine is going to be like. You know, I think that that incident and in addition with being told, you know, you can't go anywhere and the stress and the frustration of trying to deal with the city because the city workers were we're not working at the time, right? So I've got to convince the city of NRH here in Texas to to get their guys out here and help. And then, of course, when the problem happened, they kept telling me, well, this could be weeks before we get it fixed. And, you know, so there's that type of thing. And luckily, the city stepped up and within days they got it fixed, which was great. But, you know, it's just a whole way to kick off the quarantine and it kind of set my mood for this quarantine is what I'm trying to say. And you told me recently, though, that you you found some despite those challenges and that. Yeah, so OK. So that's what I'm doing. So this was manifesting itself with a lot of anxiety, a lot of aggression and anger. So I decided to call the Vet Center because I do counseling at the Arlington Vet Center and I asked if they do any anger management type counseling and they said no, but they referred me to the Fort Worth VA outpatient clinic and I got in touch with somebody there to do some anger management. Well, they normally do their anger management like group counseling and there's in a group session with a workbook. And there wasn't a group session going on for obvious reasons. So I'm trying to go through this workbook by myself and I'm trying to do this with a counselor that's normally in a group session, it just wasn't working. And I told the lady, you know, with all due respect that this isn't working for me, I think I need to go a little deeper with like counseling counseling. So I got set up with a doctor at the Fort Worth clinic there and he started talking about mindfulness practice, right? And we're hearing a lot of this. We're starting to see commercials for these apps on TV and talking about meditation and how this can help. And, you know, I'm finally at the point at 15 years after being wounded, I'm willing to try anything, right? If it's going to work, there's a chance it'll work. I'm willing to try it. So I started trying this mindfulness practice and I have gotten some some good benefits from it. Can you tell me what that practice is like for people who aren't familiar with mindfulness?  Yeah, you know what I did was, you know, I asked the counselor, I said, so what is mindfulness?  How do you define this? And he said, you know, mindfulness is really just the art of practicing being in the moment at the time, OK?  So being the student I am, I got my history degree. So I go searching for information. I went into audible.com and I found a book called Practicing Mindfulness and I downloaded it and started reading it to get an idea of what mindfulness is. And, you know, they think the best way I can define what is mindfulness really is. It's the it's the practice of bringing your mind back to what you're doing at the moment, OK? Because our mind wanders all the time.  Our mind wanders. We start getting hungry. We start thinking about food. You get the idea. But it's being able to refocus the brain on the task at hand. And I'm thinking he's caught me just right now thinking about what my next question was going to be. How are you trying to how are you how are you able to to incorporate mindfulness into your everyday life? What is that practice like? Well, you know, I started meditating, OK? So I'm doing at least 30 minutes of meditation a day. And I'm just trying to throughout the day. And this was a great thing about that book. I picked up practicing mindfulness is it has a bunch of exercises on how to how to build this capability because this is something that, yes, we can do, right? It's but it's something we're not really used to doing. As Americans, we're we're always on the run, right? We're always working. We're always going. You know, I was listening to a song the other day that just came out called Work. And the guy the guy's crooning about how he's always working. He's always working. He's always working. And then when he actually interacts with people, it's just through his phone, you know, and we're disconnected. But we're always stressed out. So meditation has been extremely beneficial for me through all of this. And I this might be a strange question, but you are our Marine. I was Marine. I am Marine. Is there any similarity at all? And I know that I think about back to rifle training specifically, and that feels like almost like a meditative practice, you know, just, well, you know, it's funny, like you're talking about like snapping in, right? Yeah, we can follow that type of stuff. It definitely is, you know, and you see people religious, people in religious sex, they do this through prayer and that type of stuff. You know, I think the meditation for me is a way to just try to focus on nothing, right? And the way I do this is I'll sit down, I'll lay down on my bed flat. I'll get comfortable. I'll sit out later for a couple of minutes because, you know, you get fidgety and you got to find a comfortable thing. I've got noise canceling earbuds. I put them in as far as like mindfulness goes. I think the military conversion, devil dog is situational awareness, right? That was drilled into our head from day one was situational awareness. Be aware of the situation you're in right now. You know, we focus on the mission at hand, right? Because the mission at hand is the mission we're doing right now. We want to focus three weeks from now. We've got to focus on what we're doing right now. And that's where it kind of interlimes with our military training. Do you think that there is a resistance maybe from the military, from veterans, to getting into something that almost has like a bit, and maybe you experienced it, it has a bit of a woo-woo sound to it, you know? Yeah, you know. I mean, so that's maybe stuff, right? Yeah. This is a stepping stone drug for something else. Meditative mindfulness is a stepping stone drug. I don't know, I don't know. We'll see. You know, it's funny. My wife, Kimberly, is a wonderful woman. We got married back in 2017. But when we started dating in 2015, I was on antidepressants, anti-anxiety medication. I was taking Sultana for sleep, and I was still anxious all the time. And she started doing some research, and she got me on lavender oil, right? And using melatonin, and I was able to get off all those medicines. Then now I'm doing meditation. Oh, did I mention my wife's from Southern California? Yeah. It's a pie. It is, and I was, so it's funny, because a few years ago, I think it was 2017, I was living in Florida. My wife and I were living in Florida, but we came out to Texas for a two-week program for traumatic brain injury, because obviously I have traumatic brain injury. And they taught me a meditation practice to do for 20 minutes a day. They told me it could help me lower my blood pressure. I think, okay. And I went home, and I tried it for a little while, and I just didn't stick with it, because some of the other stuff they told me I didn't like. I think it is that military mindset that, you know, this is, I'm thinking of, you know, long-haired hippies putting flowers down, rifle barrels at protests, or you think of Buddhist monks and loin cloths sitting there for hours meditating. It just, it's not what we're trained to do. We're trained to be conflict resolvers, right? We're trained to come in. And we're also told that we can handle anything, right? It's drilled into us in training. It's necessary for our mission in the military, but it affects our life from the military forward. You know, and we take that mindset into the rest of our life. And sometimes that doesn't convert to a stress-free life. I was hesitant. I had, you know, the word is escaping me now. But you know, I was hesitant to do it because the meditation had just seemed like, how's that gonna help?  But like I said earlier, I was at the point where I was willing to try anything. Well, Michael, I appreciate you sharing that journey with DAV today. You look great. You sound great. I saw you in February and was just right before this pandemic started and it really does my heart good to see you and talk with you again. And I really appreciate you sharing your mindfulness journey with our audience. Well, here's the thing. If it can help anybody else, it's worth it. You know, I know that I'm not the only one facing this. If I'm facing this, there's a lot of other guys and girls that are facing the same thing. You know, it's funny because you get so used to being on the run. You get so used to doing things that when you're confined to your house and all of a sudden you've got nothing to do, you don't really know how to organize your time and your brain kicks into a hyperdrive.  It's used to move and it's used to doing things and then you gotta be able to deal with it. You know, I look at this and it's just another tool in my rucksack. You know, it's just another tool in my rucksack. So now I've got this tool. So when I face problems, I can pull this out and I can apply it and it'll help me accomplish whatever mission I'm trying to do. Again, thank you. Thank you so much for sharing that tool with DAV. And we look forward to talking to you again. Thanks, Michael. Yeah, definitely.


The colors blurred together, creating a coagulation of static and shadow on the screen. I cursed silently under my breath, removing the cartridge from the Nintendo 64 and inspecting it with an impatient eye. I couldn't see anything wrong with it, but this was the third time the game had frozen on me. I blew into the seams of the cartridge, trying to dislodge any dust that might have been stuck in there, then put it back into the console. Before I could boot up the system again, the door to my bedroom jerked open. How many times have I told you to knock? I muttered, without taking my eyes off the screen, waiting for the game to load. Sorry, sorry. My dad said calmly as he leaned his heavy frame against the doorway. Just came to see if you're alright. All ready for prom? I frowned, my fingers resting against the controller without pressing anything. I don't think I'm going after all. From the corner of my eye, I saw my dad's eyebrows come together, casting a shadow over his face. What do you mean? Well, I mean, my friends want to blow off prom to have a game night instead. I figured I might as well join them. Sounds more fun, anyway. I cleared my throat, brushing a fleck of dirt off the controller. You want to skip prom to play video games, which you can do any other day. He pointed out, and I shrugged sheepish. Do you really not want to go? I don't know. I admitted.  When it's not, I'll probably just forget about it in a few weeks. My dad sighed heavily, stepping further into the room. Prom's more than just one night. It's an event you'll remember for years after. I know my prom night was definitely a night to remember. He said, I shuffled up along the bed to make room for him to sit next to me. We rarely had these sorts of father and son talks, so I stared down at my feet, not really knowing what to say.  He continued. His frame was towering beside mine, and I almost felt like a kid again, standing in his shadow. Like I said, my experience is one I still remember. I don't think I'll ever forget it. I was the man of the moment. He chuckled quietly to himself, lost in reminiscence. I was one of the only guys who went without a date. He said, much to my surprise, I flicked a glance towards his face and found him grinning, a childish, unruly sort of grin that I'd come to expect from my dad. But boy, did that work out in my favor. I ended up at the end of the night with more numbers than I can count on one hand. Anyway, it was a great night. Well, apart from one unfortunate tragedy at the start of the night, tragedy, I asked, my voice thick. My dad looked away, seeming to regret bringing it up. Yeah, one of the students died in a car crash on the way to prom. It was horrible. I remember hearing the sirens. Geez, dad, someone died, and you're trying to convince me that prom's great. He grimaced. That's not what I meant. It was horrible. I knew the girl even tried asking her out once, but she completely blew me off. She was one of the popular ones, you know. I can't even remember her name now, but everyone was still talking about it months after it happened. It even got the attention of the media. I can't remember how many times the school got interviewed by different news crews. It all got a bit out of hand, really. His voice had turned bitter, and I decided to change the topic. Well, anyway, I'm still not decided. I said, I'll see how I feel on the day. I still have a week to decide. Dad nodded and gave my hair a playful ruffle. I swatted him away. Good, you never know who you might meet on prom night. So think about it, okay? I nodded, and he left the room, leaving me in silent contemplation. A week had passed, and the night of prom was dreary. It had rained all day, painting the city in shades of dirt and grime, and a hazy mist had eddied into the streets out of nowhere, souring my mood as I looked out the window.  My fingers slipped once more, and the tie skewed into a knot. I threw up my hands with a huff. I'd been trying for almost 10 minutes, and I still couldn't get it on properly. Need some help? I said nothing, letting him fix the tie with practiced movements. Thanks, I muttered, straightening it up as I caught my reflection again in the glass.  The suit was slightly too big around my shoulders, and there were shadowy crevices beneath my eyes from staying up late. I'd been unable to sleep last night, so I'd ended up playing video games until well past midnight. You all ready? That asked, a grin in his voice. I shrugged without looking at him, I still wasn't exactly enthusiastic about going, but my dad had seemed excited for me, and I didn't want to disappoint him.  I rolled my eyes, but tucked my lips into a slight smile, and my dad nodded approvingly. There we go. He said, chuckling as he took a picture, I'm sure you'll have a great time. Oh, and don't forget these. He reached into his pocket and withdrew his car keys, jingling together softly. I started in surprise, staring at the car keys he held out to me. He never let me drive his car. Thanks. I said, taking them from him. Not a scratch. He warned, and no drinking and driving. I scoffed. I was underage anyway. And please be careful, I don't want little David's running around next year. I'm not ready to become a grandpa just yet. I flushed fiercely at the insinuation, my ears going hot beneath my hair. Yeah, I know, dad.  The evening was humid after the rain shower, and a bead of sweat clung to the nape of my neck as I drove to the prom venue. Mist congealed around the corners of the streets, forming strange illusions beneath the hazy glow of the street lamps. So I took it slow. The clock on the dashboard read 748, which meant I was later than I thought. I just hope that wouldn't make things too awkward. I was lucky enough to find a parking spot not too far from the entrance. There were still a couple of students loitering outside, girls in bright, fancy dresses and guys in suits. I didn't recognize some of them, others I'd glimpsed only occasionally around school. It was fair to say I wasn't exactly a social butterfly. I could hear the music before I made it inside, thrumming through the walls of the building.  Why hadn't I agreed to the game night? I'd much rather be there than here, in a place I didn't belong with people out of my reach. I slipped into the shadows of the room, almost as soon as I got inside. The dance floor was a crush of bodies, and the music was already hurting my ears. I noticed a couple of lone figures throughout the room, girls waiting for a dance, but I could hardly muster the courage to go up to them. Never mind, ask them to dance with me. Most of the night was passed beneath the shadowy eaves of the room. I felt like some kind of ghost lingering in the gloom, watching everyone have fun while I was stuck there in a limbo of anxiety and loneliness. I might as well have been invisible. I was starting to feel stifled lingering in the corner of the room and went for a walk around the outskirts, debating whether to just leave. So far the night had been nothing like my dad had described. I was hoping that tonight I might finally meet someone who thought I was cool, or fun, or anything but the outcast I usually was. I was hoping that tonight I might finally be seen. As I was trying to slip past the throng of students, my foot must have slid on the silky trail of someone's dress, because the next thing I knew, I was stumbling forwards, with the lights flashing above and undulating around me. I couldn't see where I was going, nor could I steady myself. My elbow hit something hard, a table, and I crumpled forward, straight into the fondue fountain. Chocolate splashed up the front of my suit, some of it landing on the edge of my lips. Somehow it tasted bitter and dark, and a shudder ran through me. A chorus of laughter immediately exploded around me, and my whole body fluctuated between hot and cold as embarrassment flooded my veins. I struggled to my feet, trying to wipe the chocolate off my clothes, but everyone was staring and laughing and pointing and I couldn't take it. Clenching my hands into fists, I shoved my way roughly through the gathered students, staring at the ground with hot tears blurring my vision. What a disaster. This had been nothing like my dad had told me. Why did I bother listening to him? I made it outside, feeling the damp breeze wash over my face, drying the chocolate on my clothes. I paused outside the building for a moment, trying to gather my thoughts. There was no way I could go back inside now. I might as well just go back home. I folded my arms across my chest, hoping to hide the mess, and was about to cross the road when a voice caught my attention. Hey. My steps faltered for a second, my heel almost catching the curb. I quickly recovered, stepping down out of the road. Hey, you. I stopped again, glancing behind me. A girl was staring at me. She had her hands in the pocket of a jacket she had draped over her shoulders. Beneath, she wore a simple ruffle dress. You alright? I blinked at her, my lips opening and closing uselessly. As it dawned on me that I was the target of her question. Yeah, I'm fine. Her eyes flickered down to the mess on my clothes, and I looked away, my ears going hot. Was she going to make fun of me, too? They shouldn't have laughed at you. She continued, her voice sinking into a gentle murmur. I saw what happened. I didn't find it funny. My eyes darted back towards her, struggling to conceal my surprise. I shuffled a couple of steps closer, away from the road. Um, my name's David. I blurted out, pushing aside a strand of chocolate-smeared hair. Sorry. The girl laughed, a sound like bells in the night, and I found myself struck by how pretty she was. Although her outfit was far more casual than others I'd seen tonight, something about the way she looked beneath the pale glimmer of the moon drew my attention. I'm Wendy, she said shortly, tilting her head slightly to offer me a smile. Want to go back inside with me? I dropped my gaze to my feet. How could I go back inside after everyone had seen me make a fool of myself? Don't worry about the others, it doesn't matter what they think. Let's just enjoy what's left of the night, okay? I found myself nodding, even as I felt uncertain. Why was a girl like her helping me anyway? I didn't even recognize her. I had at least passed familiarity with most of the students here, but I don't recall ever seeing a face like Wendy's before. She offered out her arm, and I took it tentatively, following her back inside. The lights inside had dimmed since the last time, causing a haziness around the room, and nobody spared me a glance as Wendy and I stepped onto the dance floor. I began to relax slightly, out of any immediate scrutiny, and focus on the girl in front of me. How did I end up with one of the prettiest girls I'd ever seen after such a disastrous start to the evening to you don't have to be nervous? She said softly, relax your arms. I did as she said, loosening my muscles as I kept my hands on her waist. There, you'll enjoy it more if you're relaxed. She said, I felt my face flush slightly, but for the first time that night, a smile fell naturally onto my lips. We were getting into the fourth song when Wendy's expression changed. Her face paled slightly beneath the glimmering spotlights, and I felt her freeze in my arms. I, I need to go. I stared at her, my lips parting with surprise. Why? I promised my dad I'd be home by midnight.  I need to find my friends. They're supposed to take me home.  There was a frenzied panic to her that struck me off guard. Wait, wait, I'll help you find them. But I mean, I could always drive you home, if you want. Wendy's gaze returned to mine, and I suddenly noticed how bright her eyes were, green, with little flecks of gold and brown. I cleared my throat, looking away, but she caught my hand. Her skin was surprisingly cool against the warmth of my palm. Thank you. That's very sweet. No problem. I replied, Wendy's hand still clasped in mine. We both headed back outside. I'd almost forgotten the whole incident with the chocolate fountain. Wendy's smile had whisked away all of the anxieties that had plagued me most of the night. As we reached the car, Wendy quickly slipped her hand out of mine and climbed into the front passenger seat. I went round to the driver's side and started up the engine. Where do you live? I asked. It's a bit of a difficult neighborhood to reach. I'll guide you. She said, gesturing for me to take the road straight ahead. So, uh, when did you start attending our school? I don't think I've really seen you around much. Really? She asked. Her voice pinched with surprise. Then you must be living under a rock. Everyone knows me at school. I was actually going to ask where you've been. Oh, I said, squinting to see through the mist that swirled and eddied over the road like something alive. I mean, uh, my friends and I usually hang out in the quieter areas at school. I'm not really surprised if you haven't seen me. Wendy hummed quietly and I reached over to switch on the fan as the window started to fog with white plumes of condensation. Turn left here. I glanced across at Wendy. Her voice had gone faint and stilted almost as though she was uncertain. And there was a clamminess to her cheeks I hadn't noticed before. Hey, you okay? I asked. The pallor of her skin had gone waxen. She looked ill. Yeah. She didn't look at me. She kept her eyes straight ahead, but I could feel the whole mood shift into something sad and uneasy. You can just, just make a right over here. I followed her directions, winding through the serpentine roads of the neighborhood. Not a place to find very easily. A soft sniffle caught my attention and when I flicked another glance at Wendy, I saw a tear glistening on the ridge of her cheek. Had I upset her somehow, we'd been having such a good time. What had changed? Are you sure you're all right? Do you want me to pull over and talk? Maybe we could go get ice cream or something. She shook her head. It's okay. I need to be home before midnight, remember? Oh, right. Yeah. I muttered, glancing at the clock on the dashboard. It was almost eleven fifty-two. Silence webbed between us and I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, trying to think of something to say. Just around this corner, she said, raking the back of her hand roughly over her cheek to wipe away the tear. I took the turn and pulled up outside the house. It wasn't what I'd been expecting. Even under the shadow bruised sky, I could see its drab facade. There were no lights on inside and each window peered down at me like vacant eyes. The driveway was clotted with weeds, some breaking up through the gravel and spreading thick cracks through it. There was no car park there. Four weeds and thistles grew out of the bricks of the house and a naked bulb swung from a porch rich of cobwebs. Something about the place seemed untouched, unloved. I almost felt reluctant to leave Wendy here. Well, um, we're here, I said, twisting my fingers nervously in my lap. Wendy unclipped her seatbelt and turned to face me. Her beautiful green eyes were still glistening with unshoved tears. Thank you, David. I had a truly wonderful night. I just, I'm sad I won't get to experience a night like this again. Me too, but I'm sure we could have fun together another night. I said, hopefully, after all, it's just a DJ and a dance floor. We could do something again sometime. I said, Wendy smiled. I'd like that. She said gently, then flicked a glance towards the house.  I guess I'd better go. Goodbye, David. I can walk you to your door. I said quickly. I didn't want her to leave just yet. Oh, no.  I'm sorry. It's okay. I said gently. Then how about your number so that I can call you? Wendy smiled and reeled off her number from memory. I didn't have anything to write it onto, so I chanted it repeatedly in my head. Got it? She asked. I think so.  Okay, then. I guess I should go now. Yeah, well, hopefully I'll see you again. I said. She pushed open the car door without saying anything else and stepped out, closing it gently behind her. When she glanced back to wave at me through the window, I noticed that her smile had turned sad again, slipping down at the corners. Then she headed up the drive, the moonlight casting in almost ethereal glow around her. Anything to make sure she got inside, okay? I waited in the car, watching as she went around the side of the house and then disappeared behind it. I wondered why she didn't use the front door, but I figured she might not have wanted to wake her dad. As soon as she was gone, I started up the engine and drove home. The morning broke upon another dark, overcast day. The events of the previous night were still fresh, and I went down to breakfast with a grin on my face. My dad was reading the paper, nursing a cup of steaming hot coffee in one hand, but set down both when I walked in. Good night, then, eh? He asked, his eyes twinkling with his usual mischief. I shrugged, thinking of Wendy, the only girl to notice me the whole night. Something like that. I said. Oh! You know, I remembered the name of that girl. It was bugging me all night. You know, the one that died. Dad, is that really important? Wendy. Her name was Wendy. He said, and my body went cold. I don't know why, but it just wouldn't leave me alone. So anyway, there we are. Came to me this morning as I was reading the paper, Wendy Hallos, poor girl. I swallowed, my throat suddenly feeling dry. Surely, it was just a coincidence, right? There were probably dozens of people called Wendy in the area, and anyway, that was decades ago. There was no way. I left the kitchen before he could say anything else, hurrying back to my room. I'd scribbled Wendy's number down as soon as I'd gotten home last night. Maybe it was too soon to call her, but something about what my dad had said troubled me. Just hearing her voice would reassure me that I was just being silly. I dialed the number into the landline, but there was no dial tone. Just static, humming faintly in my ear. I frowned, punching the number in again. This time, a voice emerged through the static. It was an automated message telling me the number I'd dialed was no longer in use. Had Wendy given me a false number? Or had I simply remembered it wrong? Either way, I couldn't shake away the unease that something wasn't right. Slamming the phone back onto the cradle, I went back to the kitchen. Dad, can I borrow the car again this morning? You going somewhere? Yeah, I just want to check up on something. Aha, you mean someone, huh? Sure, just be careful. Thanks, I said, already throwing on a jacket as I grabbed the keys from the side. I'll be back later. My thoughts were in a whirl as I drove, trying to remember the way to Wendy's house. It was probably nothing, but something was bugging me about last night. Something she'd said, I'm sad I won't get to experience a night like this again. I was probably just reading into things too much. But something about the way she'd said it struck me as odd, and the fact she shared the same last name with a girl who died at my dad's prom. I turned the last corner, recognizing the azalea bushes growing from the property on the bend, and pulled the car to a stop. My heart thundered in my chest, every part of my body shuddered beneath a chill. The house was gone. There was nothing but an empty plot of land. Had I taken a wrong turn somewhere? Was this the wrong street, the wrong neighborhood? It didn't make sense, I was sure this was where her house was. Getting out of the car, my legs felt suddenly unsteady, and I had to lean against the door until the weakness passed. What was going on here? The Wendy that I met last night, was she not real? But how was that possible? I spotted the sign for a local liquor store up ahead, and found myself walking towards it in a daze. The harsh jingle of a bell when I walked inside snapped me back to my senses, and I went up to the cashier. Excuse me, would you mind telling me what happened to the house that used to be there? I said, pointing to the empty plot through the window. The cashier gave me a funny look. He was an older man. He a few years over fifty, and spoke with the voice of a smoker. Why, Vlad, there hasn't been a house there in years. It was knocked down some time ago for renovation. What about the previous owners? He shrugged. Last I heard, the family that lived there moved on after losing their child. My throat closed up, and I thanked the man in a stifled voice before making my way back to the car. Surely, he was talking about Wendy. The Wendy I met last night, and the same Wendy who had died all those years ago, on the night of her prom. That's why she'd been so upset last night. It was the last time she would ever get to experience a night like that. And she'd chosen to spend it with me.


Hello, students. This is Mr. Nagesh R. Tambake, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Valkchon Institute of Technology, Sholapur. Today, we are going to discuss the topic that is Mechanisms of Lake Machine. Learning outcome. At the end of this session, students will be able to explain mechanisms of lake machine.  Now, first of all, we will think on this particular question that is, what is lake machine? A lake machine is a machine tool which is used to remove metals from a workpiece to give a desired shape and size. In other words, it is a machine that is used to hold the workpiece to perform various metal removing operations, such as turning, grooving, chamfering, knurling, facing, forming, etc. with the help of tools. Lakes are widely used machine tools in the mechanical industries, factories, warehouses, and manufacturing units. Now, this is the center lathe in which the entire setup is fixed on a rigid legs. On the legs, the rigid bed is present, that is made up of a cast iron. And on the lathe bed, we are having the headstock and tailstock. On the headstock, we are fitting a chuck inside that the job is going to hold. And to the chuck, the motion is given by the speed cone pulleys. And that is also called as live center. And at the opposite end, there is a tailstock. Between these two, the job is going to hold and the operations are performed. And to cut the metal, we require a tool and that tool is going to fit on the tool post and which is fitted on the swirling compound rest. And that swirl compound rest is fitted on the carriage. And carriage is covered by the apron and inside which whatever the mechanism is placed, that is called as apron mechanism. And now we will see the mechanisms of lathe machine one by one. This is the speed cone pulleys drive. Now, in this particular schematic sketch, you can see two cone pulleys are having four steps and are placed parallel to the spindle cone pulleys. Both the cone pulleys are connected by a flat or V-belt. The belt can be arranged between the steps A and H, B and G, C and F, and D and E. The cone pulleys at the bottom is connected to the electric motor by a V-belt. So the cone pulleys at the bottom rotates at a particular speed. Now in a schematic sketch, if you see, the spindle speed will be maximum when the belt is arranged between A and H. And the spindle speed will be minimum when the belt is arranged between the D and E. As we know simply, when an input shaft is having low diameter and the output shaft is having more diameter, in that case we will get more torque and less speed. And in the reverse case, vice versa, means we are getting a maximum speed but less torque. Back gear mechanism from the previous whatever the speed cone pulleys that we have discussed, from that we are getting four speeds that are the forward speeds. And that are the maximum speed where the material is very soft. For that purpose, we are using a more speed. Now with this back gear mechanism, we are getting four lower speeds. With this back gear, what will happen? The torque is going to increase. Suppose the material is, if it is very hard, then definitely we are going to use this back gear mechanism to remove the material from the job. Now how it is operating? In this type, power is transmitted to the spindle via two step cone pulleys and requires the use of belt drive to connect them. A pinion gear is mounted with small end of cone pulleys. In this type, a bull gear is also used which can be locked or in unlocked position through lock pin and is keyed through that particular a bull gear. So here whenever we apply the key that time what will happen? So whatever the bigger gear, bigger gear of back gear is there that is connected to the smaller gear of the speed cone pulleys and likewise the torque is going to increase and we are getting less speeds to the spindle so that we can remove the material of the harder offset. Next one, tumbler reversing mechanism. Whenever we require a job to be removed, a bore material, that time initially we need to take a forward, forward speed. In that case we are removing the material and whenever we apply the tumbler reversing mechanism that time carriage is going to run in a reverse way so that the tool is going to place again in the original starting position so that continuously the metal is going to remove. So in this how the mechanism is going to operate? Reversing mechanism is used to change the direction of carriage either from headstock to steel stock or vice versa. Change gear quadrant with quick change gearbox is used to provide us different feed rates to lead screw and feed rod. The sole purpose to use tumbler gear mechanism is to reverse the direction of lead screw and the feed rod automatically. Gear headstock. This particular gear headstock we are using instead of the speed cone pulleys. Here you can see at the left hand side the fast and loose pulleys is present. Whenever a belt is connected between the fast pulley of the gear headstock and the motor that time the motion is transmitted to the gear headstock from the motor and whenever the belt is going to shift towards the loose pulley then loose pulley is continuously rotating but in from the gear headstock no gear is going to rotate. So in this particular figure how it is operating that we will see in this type the constant motor speed is provided to the gear arrangement but depending upon the requirement of speed it changes using gear arrangement which is controlled by levers. These levers change their position to generate different combinations to acquire different speed. For example if now in this case in this particular figure now g2 gear is measured with g5 and g5 gear is measured with g8. Now what is happening the belt is connected between the fast pulley of the gear headstock and the motor and that particular motion is transmitted to the g2 gear and g2 to g5 and g5 to g8 and that particular speed is going to apply to the life center so that with that speed the workpiece is going to rotate. Likewise different nine combinations that we are getting from this particular headstock and different nine speed that we can obtain from this gear headstock. Apprent mechanism this mechanism is situated inside the carriage and that whatever that housing of that particular mechanism is there that is called as apprent and inside which what the mechanism is located that is called as apprent mechanism. Apprent is attached to the carriage and hangs over the front side of the lathe bed. It is useful in providing power and hand feed to both carriage and cross slide. It is also used to provide power feed to the carriage during thread cutting through two half nuts. Now here in this particular schematic case you can see whatever the g6 gear is there that is connected to the lathe screw that is placed transversely to the lathe bed and which will give the transverse motion to the carriage of the lathe machine and whatever the g3 gear is there that will give the longitudinal field to the carriage of the lathe machine and here at the right hand side you can see the half nut that is connected to the lathe screw and that particular half nut mechanism we are using whenever we need to cut a threads on the chop. This is half nut mechanism in the detail. Half nut mechanism is used to move carriage on the lathe screw and also for automatic thread cutting. In this case you can see whenever we apply the lever that time what will happen two half nuts are coming closer to each other and it is going to hold the lathe screw and that time what will happen a half nut is going to engage with the lathe screw and that time the carriage is moving with the lathe screw and initially whatever the tumbler mechanism is there that is connected that is connected to the lathe screw and due to that automatically the lathe screw is rotating with the help of that lathe screw the lathe screw is connected to the half nut and whenever half nut is having some threads due to that the carriage is moving over the lathe bed for cutting the screws cutting the threads on the work piece. These are the references Bloom's Taxonomy and Hazra Choudhary elements of workshop technology volume two media promoters and P N Rao that is a book which is of that is published by P N Rao manufacturing technology metal cutting and machine tools Tata McGrawill publications New Delhi and also you can refer a Raghu Moshi book that is manufacturing technology again. So in this particular session we were discussed different mechanisms of the lathe machines from which we are going to we will get how the mechanism is going to work inside the lathe bed and how that are operating and one will know how to operate the machine with the help of this knowledge.


How was it to get the entire offense out here this week? Get things going here and practice? Yeah, it's a great feeling. It's a great feeling to see all the guys out there and practicing hard. It's fun to play football with those guys. You see how much they love football. And I've mentioned a couple of times the way we practice is very intense here. And everyone who was not at every practice definitely didn't miss a beat. So it was great to have everybody around. Solid players there. Cardinals? Oh yeah, they're studs. Obviously, we're really familiar with JJ. He's given the Tennessee Titan franchise problems for many, many years. Chandler Jones is extremely athletic and tall and long. And he's got a lot of power behind him. Golden 44 is really powerful.  That guy, long hair, white guy, kind of looks like Pat Tillman. That dude brings the heat on Bull Rush. I'm not even kidding. They all have juice. All those guys play really hard. Extremely athletic inside linebackers. I know Simmons is a stud. He lines up at, seems like every position, just a true athlete. Man, the way he plays the game is, it's very impressive. So we've got our hands full on Sunday. This is going to be a huge challenge for us. And I'm really excited for the opportunity. It's been a long wait for you. I know you've talked just about your excitement for the season. You always count the hours at this corner, what you're saying. I'm nervous. Like I remember, I went to bed Monday and I barely got any sleep on Monday. I've never been nervous on a Monday for a game on Sunday. So I'm nervous. I'm excited. I'm so happy to play football again and be feeling the way I do. It's, I just feel really lucky. And I just am super grateful because I never took anything for granted. But at the same time, there were times that you took practice. I had another Wednesday practice at another camp. And you don't realize how lucky you are in my situation to be on the same team for eight years. And to be a part of a program that went through what it did in 14 to 15 and to be a part of a culture change, that's really cool. And to get hurt, put a lot of things into perspective for me. It challenged me a lot emotionally, physically. And so I'm just really, really happy to be able to go play Sunday. I can't wait. Knowing you have all that excitement and anticipation, do you think that you have to kind of like throttle down a big pregame or just make sure that you're safe? No, I mean, I'm just going to go, I mean, I never did well over thinking things. So I'm just going to go play football. You know, I don't need to, I just need to go play ball. I'm excited to get out there. It's a huge, like I said, it's a huge challenge.  So it's going to be a really cool opportunity for me to come back and play get some elite talent. I know you're his teammate, but is there some part of you that he gets kind of excited about seeing what a future Hall of Famer is likely? That's cool. Yeah, future Hall of Famer. Yeah, no doubt that having Hulie on the team is awesome. You appreciate those guys. I mean, you appreciate the young talent we have on this team. There's a lot of talent on this team, but it really doesn't mean anything unless we do something with it. So it's, you know, I'm very excited about the opportunity we have and what we can do is just a matter of doing it now. It kind of goes along the same lines, but you talk about the culture change. You've been on some teams here that weren't very good. Yeah, they're really, really bad, actually. We were really, we were terrible. So what's it like in the season with the expectations are high? And I imagine you guys not looking for respect.  Is that the mindset going in?  You know, that doesn't mean nothing. So week one, it's taking one game at a time and not taking anything for granted and going to play ball. So like we have a good football team. We have a lot of talent in this football team. No one's questioning that. But it doesn't mean anything if we don't put it together. So Sunday is a huge opportunity for us. Proud of your team that quit it there. I mean, David Lee, David Lee. Yeah, last year all left and it's like been getting a ton of right tackle this year. Yeah, happy with what he's been. Yeah, no, David and I worked out with each other in the off season. And the off season before that, I think, you know, I don't know if there's another person in this team I respect more than David Lee.  Him as a football player, his talent. I love the guy. And so I am excited. I'm excited for him. I'm excited for all the guys that are going to play. Yeah, I'm a huge fan of David Lee. That man, he's sneaky. Like when I do mobility stuff with him, I get kind of embarrassed. Because this dude is flexible. He can move, you know, he's got a punch in the eye, Paul. Someone finally gave it to you.  Yeah, I bet it is.  He's extremely strong. He's powerful and athletic. So yeah, Dave's got all the tools. He's definitely has all the tools to do it. Real game didn't come out late and last year it kind of took the guys a little bit. It's very astute. What changes, what changes that this time around? Nothing.  Like you can't just come out here and assume we have a 2,000 yard back again. You know, people have shown that people have got the 2,000 yards the next year they don't. And so we have history against us. We know that we know we started off a little slower last year. My gut out of there. Those guys kicked it in high gear. So hopefully I can pick my up a little bit.


It's 9 30 so we will Convene the opening of the 36, North Carolina Science and Engineering Fair. Good morning to everyone I'm Tom Williams a member of the board and co-director of the state science fair On behalf of our foundation board the North Carolina sound the North Carolina science fair foundation The proud sponsor of the North Carolina science and engineering fair We want to welcome each of you for being here today We also want to especially recognize and thank our host site North Carolina State University For affording us the privilege of having a space where we can convene everybody in the same room at the same time For the opening program as well as for awards. I would like to just quickly Encourage you to follow us on social media. We have three accounts out there. We'd love to see you Celebrate things that you experience today This slide is going to be on the last slide as well If any of you haven't already taken a picture of the QR code It will take you to our website that will give all of the bookmarks for the key things around the fair today So I'd encourage you to take a picture of it now. If not the last slide It's going to be up there for you again at the end of the program At this time it's my privilege to recognize dr. Gary Keller Kelly our chairman of the foundation board to bring welcoming remarks Gary All right. Good morning Oh Can we try one more time? Good morning? I know it's a little early. All right. All right I want to welcome all each and every one of you to the 36th Annual North Carolina Science and Engineering Fair that is sponsored by the non-profit North Carolina Science Foundation We appreciate you all coming in this morning We hope that you all have a great day and we wish everyone best of luck in there in the projects today. All right so we also want to thank our Platinum sponsors the Burles welcome fund good night foundation good night educational foundation the North Carolina Science Mathematics and Technology Education Center our gold sponsors RTI Broadcom Foundation Pfizer DLH North Carolina Central University The Triangle University's nuclear laboratory Our silver sponsors the strategic educational alliances and also our bronze sponsors Rowe red hat Smith's in that architecture Cryo therapeutics Bolton and mink. I also want to congratulate all of you All of you here because you did all the hard work you are the very best in your regions both virtual and in-person So I wanted to do my sincere congrats from all the board here and I want to give you all Also want to thank our 170 plus judges that you all will be able to meet today and our 100 plus volunteers who have helped to make this event possible And I'm now a brief word from Governor Roy Cooper. Hi everybody Governor Roy Cooper here It's great to say hello to our state's future scientists engineers medical professionals teachers technicians and so much more Congratulations on your success in the science and engineering fair competition Your hard work and dedication will take you far as you continue to pursue your passions and interests And thanks for your teachers school leaders parents and judges for supporting these outstanding students As you plan for your path ahead It's important to take advantage of all the resources that are available by reaching out to your school counselors Now it is my pleasure to introduce you to our long-time volunteer Fed director and our proud Volunteer that we've had for a very long time Mrs. Judy day So you may or may not have seen me do a double-take when I walked in the door I didn't know my family was going to be here this morning. So this was a surprise to me This is one of the highlights of my year and students.  You've wanted a school fair possibly. You've wanted a local fair. You've wanted a regional fair So whether or not you take home an award today You have already accomplished a great deal So you will always be able to say that your project was selected upon Many many projects to participate in the state science and engineering fair And I'm really excited to meet you and to look at your projects. I've spent a little bit of time in the project room I'll be back over there later So hopefully I'll get to see you in person there and then in the award ceremonies later But to begin with I want to talk a little bit about when you're judging So when you're talking to your judges There's some of you that are just very quiet spoken and like this and you can't hear anything All right, so it's going to be loud over there today. We can't do anything about that So students you're going to have to be just as loud So that the judges can hear you you want to look up at the judges You want to smile And you want to be excited about your project If you're not excited about your research and your project Then why do you think the judges would be excited? So you have to share your excitement with the judges when you're talking with them You have to let them know all the things that you've learned all the things that you've accomplished along the way And be sure and you know if you don't understand a question say Can you ask that again? I'm not quite sure what you're asking so that you can answer the Question that the judges are asking and if you don't know the answer But you think you know you can it's always better to say well, I'm not really sure But I think the answer is such and such If you don't have the faintest idea Don't bluff it because if you answer it wrong then they're saying well, they don't really know this stuff And they're trying to pretend they do Instead say, you know, that's something that I really didn't cover in my research But that's an interesting question Okay, and that leaves it so that you're still excited. You're still seeking out knowledge Any but you know, you really don't know that and sometimes there are a few judges that will ask you questions Until all right. This is what the students know, you know, they want to find, you know, how In depth your work has been So they are all excited. We actually had more judges We had some that told us at the last minute they couldn't come our total was like over 190 And all of these people have dedicated their time All these judges to come and talk with you Some of them judged on wednesday for the virtual judging and the rest of them are here today So you need to realize how much it means that they think your research Is so important that they're going to spend their saturday talking to you And I had a message from a judge this week when I was talking to him say I was so pumped when I left. He said I was so excited I really wanted to come back.  Let's get a response. All right, so have a wonderful day And we'll be seeing you later in the three different awards ceremonies. There'll be more seating space then And good luck and best wishes to everybody and enjoy the day. Okay. Thank you This is why I have time. Oh, there's two other things. I want to thank all the amazing volunteers this year. I let the Fair note that I was going to be stepping down as the director in june last year and we had Volunteers that have been members of the board that have been active with us that have stepped up and taken on task And helped organize the event today They've done an amazing job And I would like personally to thank all the people that have taken on the task And and made the day happen today and made it successful. It has been so Now there's someone that I met a couple years ago two years ago three years ago, so Ishan bar who is a student at duke But he has been to the international competition that we take our high school students to That is sponsored by our general on international science and engineering fair And he has going to tell you a little bit about that just for a few minutes But he's also going to make an announcement about our first ever t-shirt contest that we had this year Hi all good morning. Thank you Mr. Stay for that fabulous introduction before my remarks I want to begin by recognizing the person responsible for the fabulous t-shirt designs that you all got yesterday and today So, please join me in giving me a warm welcome to kena zeng Kenner's our first ever t-shirt design contest winner So we are very appreciative. We love the shirt design you can imagine the amount of compliments we've gotten this year on it So thank you so much. I also want to thank our student advisory board members ethan sud and abhi german They're not here today, but for organizing this competition and making it happen for very excited and Next year, we'll be definitely be doing it as well Um, so now with that out of the way. Good morning again, everyone. My name is ishan braher It's a pleasure to join you all I join you all not as just a duke student Or a member of the board of the north carolina science fair foundation But also an alumnus of many science fairs just like this Today, I wanted to share with you the journey i embarked Thanks to science fair and the lessons and insights i glean that continue to endure to this day My hope is that some of these reflections and it will underscore the immense value of student research and the science fair experience I started science fair in fifth grade when I wanted to understand how different pot materials affected cooking rates From there I continue to ask questions based on the world around me I worked to understand the impact of blue light on sleep quality or how different natural food compounds could serve as antibacterial Conserve as antibacterials Looking back I realized how now that these projects were just questions that were built off my natural curiosity Built off the back of observations for my day to day Progressing into high school. I found myself engrossed in a multi-year project the topic of that project You guessed it a urinary catheter Only the parents laughed at that joke because none of the kids know what a urinary catheter is So if you don't know what it is ask your ask the adults Uh, I know this also is exactly what you'd expect any any high schooler to be interested in This project just like years past was born out of my own experience when I learned about the issues of catheter associated urinary tract infections After shadowing a physician during my freshman year of high school This illness kills about 13 000 people every year in the united states and after conducting research I realized that a redesign of the catheter could solve the problems that were causing this infection in the first place And hopefully prevent lives lost every year My ambition however was soon met with a logistical challenge I didn't have a research lab that I could access and I didn't have mentorship and guidance in my own community Undaunted however, I pivoted and my home became a makeshift lab My mom hated this to my lab my lab consisted of our garage So she was not that excited about it, but she supported me along the way I used a 3d printer and leveraged the internet essentially to my advantage For the sake of time and focus, I will not be getting into the actual specifics of the catheter If you are interested you can email me or just find me if you do want to talk about urinary catheters, but My sophomore year I brought my redesigned catheter into our local fair earning my way to the state level And then eventually the international science and engineering fair or what we like to call icef The experiences I had at these fairs were nothing short of remarkable I forged invaluable connections engaged with peers across the globe and received feedback from experts at the forefront of medical research I also met many incredible friends many of whom I consider some of my like some of my best friends to this day Motivated by this fair I continued to redefine my or redesign my catheter And was honored with first place in my category at the international science and engineering fair in 2021 The connections. Oh, thank you The connections and guidance from my fair experiences continue to help me to even to this day I recently several judges during the fair encouraged me to patent my device and I'm proud to share that the patent was accepted last year Isef. Oh, thank you Isef and student research opened my mind up to what was out there and enabled me to cultivate skills and confidence To continue to build on my high school experience at duke I now work in a bacterial lab at the jones lab where I work on projects related to medical infections Without the science fair I would have never realized my passion for solving big medical problems in science research So to end I'd like to very quickly impart some lessons on my journey that science fair bestowed upon me Firstly and foremostly, I'm asked of the art of embracing failure The path of science research has won a trial and error just as many of your judges It can often be slow and meticulous But story behind the data often includes numerous pivots and restarts And I encourage you even to share some of those failures with your judges today Secondly, I came to understand that science is woven into the fabric of everyday life Initially, I believe that meaningful research had to be earth shattering akin to noble prize endeavors However, I realized that inspiration for research often comes from our daily experiences to do good research to get out there Just look around you do what makes you happy and I promise science and inspiration will follow wherever you go Finally, I want to impart some thank yous firstly to the parents and educators here today My heartfelt thanks without your unwavering encouragement events like this wouldn't be possible My parents were always the first to celebrate my success And the first to give me a hug when things weren't going well So thank you again for your time and dedication Secondly to everyone who made this fair possible including the organizing team all the volunteers including judges and organizing staff and our sponsors Science fair has given me incredible skills and more than just science public speaking communication skills graphic design You name it science fair has taught it to me without your help and support events like this wouldn't be possible And finally to all the students out there. Good luck. I can't wait to see your research projects Y'all have dedicated hours and hours Onto these projects and I'm so excited that you guys have the opportunity to share them with folks who were just in your position Many years ago. So good luck amazing work And now it's my pleasure to introduce you to this year's co-director Tom Williams for our closing for our closing remarks. Thank you On behalf of the north carolina science fair foundation and the north carolina science engineering fair and our extended family of our local teachers our school districts our 10 regional partners and all Our supporters across the state. It's my pleasure to make a special presentation at this time to our longtime fair director miss judy day Thank you Before I make my remarks I'd first like to thank members of judy's family and friends for being here today Her son david powell his wife eileen mcdonough and his daughter leila powell are here with us Joining david are his sister rebecca powell her husband tony roco and her daughter alex delfabro And finally david and rebecca's aunt and uncle tom and betty jones who have joined us as well Thank you all for being here today We are delighted on behalf of the science fair family to have you here. Thank you judy has been our director for 22 years beginning in 2003 at that time without her Stepping to the plate bringing with her a small group of passionate and dedicated STEM workhorses The ncscs future at the time was uncertain to say the least Since then the state science and engineering fair has grown and in april of 2009 Became the signature program of the newly formed 501c3 organization the north carolina science fair foundation Under judy stewardship the science and engineering fair became the north carolina state affiliate to the international science and engineering fair sponsored by the society for science In 2004 we were allotted two senior projects to compete at isaaf Due to the growth in the numbers of seniors advancing from our 10 regional competitions Isaaf allowed us to increase our projects First to four Then to eight and for the last six or seven years Our current allotment is up to 12 senior projects that will advance to the science and engineering fair in los angeles california Judy to celebrate and recognize your upcoming retirement as our state director on july 1st We have a few things we'd like to do Those of you've been here before We don't normally buy flowers for our podium But we've got an assortment of flowers here today and we want judy and her family To take those with her and enjoy them for the rest of the day If um, there are a few other things we want to do First if anyone has ever earned a north carolina science and engineering first place or exemplary award It's you judy as a keepsake. We'd like to present this first place category award which reads In recognition of outstanding service judy benton day director north carolina science and engineering fair 2003 to 2024 presented on march 23rd 2024 Thank you judy for earning this first place award in addition the science fair foundation board of directors Unbeknownst to judy through private Chats and private google votes and everything else Has established a special Honor in recognition of judy It is the resolution of the north carolina science fair foundation And the establishment of the judy benton day award for outstanding service, and i'm going to share it with you just a minute judy Whereas the north carolina science fair foundation is the proud sponsor of the north carolina science and engineering fair competition Which serves as a state affiliate to the international science and engineering fair And whereas the north carolina science fair foundation is dedicated to promoting and nurturing the scientific curiosity and talents Of elementary middle and high school students throughout north carolina And whereas the north carolina science fair foundation recognizes the need to honor and celebrate individuals and organizations That have demonstrated a sustained and profound commitment to advancing the mission of actively engaging students Engraved three through ten in STEM education and research And whereas judy benton day has exemplified exceptional leadership and service by dedicating 22 years of her life as the state director of the north carolina science and engineering fair Significantly contributing to the success and growth of the north carolina science and engineering fair And whereas it is fitting to establish an award in her honor That will recognize outstanding service to the promotion of student led STEM research Now therefore be it resolved that the north carolina science fair foundation hereby establishes the judy benton day award for outstanding service This award shall be presented annually beginning on march 23rd 2024 during the north carolina science and engineering fair competition The recipient of this award shall be selected through an open and rigorous nomination process Conducted by a committee appointed by the north carolina science fair foundation The science fair foundation shall promote and publicize the judy benton day award for outstanding service To encourage continued support and recognition of STEM education and research initiatives Be it further resolved that this resolution shall take effect immediately Upon its adoption and shall stand as a testament to the enduring commitment of the north carolina science fair foundation To foster and celebrate excellent in STEM education adopted this 23rd day of march 2024 north carolina science fair foundation board of directors Signed by our chairman dr. Gary kelly judy. Thank you and congratulations on this honor I don't usually cry at these things, but you may get me started I just want to thank All the people that i've worked with through the years This is not a one person show it takes so many people doing so many moving parts To make this happen And i've just been blessed to have some amazing people to work with through the years and Tom and gary. Thank you. Yeah for all that you've done There's some other ones back there to recent marines back and in the volunteer room. She's one of those I saw Pamela lovin sending the back if I start naming names I'm going to forget somebody But I just want to thank everyone that there are many people that have been working with me For 10 and 15 years. So again, it's not a one person show. We all work together Students congratulations. I believe in you The sky is the limit for you And you know Keep going if you don't win today just keep going you never know what's going to happen tomorrow Okay, that's learning and Just want to thank everyone especially the people i'm working with my family for being here I hope to see you this afternoon Junie words can never adequately express our gratitude for your outstanding service and the impact It's had on thousands of students across north carolina over these past 22 years and thank you Before we adjourn I just like to quickly Give my special thanks to dr. Kelly director day and ishan for bringing their remarks today Judges and volunteers. We just could not even be here without you As I remind folks it also always begins with teacher leaders Who are willing to take on the added task of engaging their students in stem research Our sponsors today it would be impossible for us to be in this facility and to sponsor our student awards without them And as you've heard already especially from judy and from ishan Students we want this to just be the beginning of your journey and continued research You received a passport stem passport That you're going to have exhibitors that are going to be opened up from 1130 to 230 primary thing on your mind right now I know is judging Please make sure you go by visitor visit those exhibitor booths get them to initial your passport Turn it into the little box that we'll have there and we'll do a drawing at the elementary and as well as the junior and senior division Parents in just a moment The only students are going to leave the room are our elementary students because their judging starts at 1030 We want everyone to stay seated our junior and seniors until our elementary students leave And then they can go over To car michael and the wellness center to get to begin interacting with the judges at 1030 Parents when you go into car michael or into the wellness center that leads to car michael The gates there are going to be closed only students are going to be allowed to the gates So do your final hugs. Goodbyes here at tally or just outside going into the wellness center I said that I would put this back up And if you want to get a picture of the guidebook, we will leave this up and we will do Uh, june elementary awards at 230 right back here junior awards at 330 and senior awards at 430 elementary students Enjoy your day with the judges take judy's advice Make sure you're clear make sure you engage with your judges elementary students are free to dismiss at this time


Joshua Brickley from the University of Insovria will talk about the logic and geometry of localic morphisms. Thank you very much to the organizers for allowing me to speak of this presentation. The story I want to share with you today is about how we can think about topuses as ways of completing a structure. So we might start off with some structure which doesn't have all of the properties we want it to have and topuses are going to give us a way of talking about what structure there should be there and what what structure we can add. And so in particular, as the title says, we'll be looking at how we can add structure to some certain logics coming from localic morphisms. So the idea behind the presentation I'm going to show you is that we want to utilize our intuition coming from a propositional setting. So in a propositional setting we have localic topuses classifying propositional theories, but we also have localic topuses obviously coming from locales. And so what we want to be able to do is extend this to where we talk in a relative toposclerotic sense about having a localic morphism over a topos and that corresponding to an internal locale. And then on the theory side we want to be able to talk about what sort of geometric theory we might get out of that. So that's the overall picture. I'm going to give some idea of what's going on with these branches of the bridge and then I'll give a specific case which ties in very nicely with the logic. So yes for people who haven't seen the definition before, a localic geometric morphism is a geometric morphism from a topos F to a topos E such that every object in our domain topos is a sub quotient of something in the inverse image of A. So some examples of localic toposes. Every inclusion is localic. That should immediately tell us that every topos comes attached with at least one localic morphism to another one because every topos has an inclusion into a pre-shift topos. And we can also get lots of examples of localic morphisms coming from locales. So when we take sheaves on a locale, this obviously gives us a localic topos, but every arrow between two localic toposes is also going to be a localic geometric morphism. And we can do the same with internal locales and do exactly the same construction relatively. So here we take the locales internal to a topos and we take sheaves, internal sheaves of these locales, and this gives us an embedding of the internal locales into constant toposes that has precisely the same properties that you'd expect from the normal localic setting. And every arrow between these localic toposes is going to be localic as well, although there's a little caveat to that because obviously when we take nevus embedding into here, there comes a choice of the morphism to E. And so it will be localic up to that choice of arrow. And so we also have, by a result from I believe Joao and Tierney, that every localic geometric morphism is going to be, the domain topos is going to be of the form given here that F is going to be the internal sheaves on the internal locale given by the direct image of a sub-object classifier. So this result gives us a very nice description of what the internal locales should be corresponding to a localic geometric morphism. And so this is an example of localic geometric morphism. So what is an internal locale? For the application I'm going to give at the end, we're only going to be concerned with internal locale's pre-sheaf toposes. So an internal locale of the pre-sheaf topos, where C has finite limits, is going to be a functor from C into the category of locale such that all of our arrows have a left adjoint satisfying Frobenius reciprocity. This condition is Frobenius reciprocity and also we have the Beck-Chevrolet condition holding. This, these should be F's down here, I forgot to change that. So those are internal locale's and so now we can appreciate the arches of the bridge here that the the localic morphism is going to go to the internal locale given by the direct image of a sub-object classifier. And similarly internal locale's are going to induce localic morphisms by the projection into C. So now I want to move more onto the logic away from internal locale's but we'll still see lots of localic properties cropping up. And that is in the idea of a localic expansion of a theory. So a localic expansion is where we take a theory, we take its signature and we add new relation and function symbols to that signature and then we take a theory that proves all of the axioms of our previous theory. And now it's a theorem due to Caramella in theory sites and toposes that every localic expansion produces a localic morphism between the classifying toposes. And so we can make the observation that every theory in a signature sigma is going to be a localic expansion of the theory of objects without signature. This is the empty theory in the signature containing just the sorts and the signature of our theory. So no function symbols, no relation symbols, just a quality. And so we're going to have that every classifying topos is going to be localic over the classifying topos of the theory of objects for its signature. So the theory of objects is we're going to build a explicit site for it and it's going to involve the category of relavings of sorts, which I've denoted as sort subscript sigma. Now this category has as objects the finite strings of variables in the in the sorts. And then arrows between these finite strings of variables are going to be relabelings of variables. So that means they are maps that respect sorts. Now obviously if sigma is single sorted, then a finite string of variables is going to correspond to a finite set and any relabeling because every map is going to respect sorts is just going to be every map. And so we have the category of relayed lengths for a single sorted theory is given by fin sets. And so then we can observe since the classifying topos of the theory of objects in the signature sigma is going to be isomorphic to this pre-sheaf topos, we're going to have that every classifying topos is the topos of sheaves on an internal locale of this pre-sheaf topos. So that's that's the sort of motivation for what we're going to do. Next we've seen that whenever we have something that's locale over another topos, we're going to get an internal locale. And here we're going to see that we actually get quite a nice description for the internal locale corresponding to a classifying topos of a theory T. Now obviously since every gottendic topos is a classifying topos of some theory, we're going to have that we're able to perform this construction for every topos. So let's just review our bridge in this restricted context. We have as the unifying notion topos is being localic over this pre-sheaf topos and this is going to correspond to two notions on the one hand the geometric notion of internal locale this pre-sheaf topos and on the other hand the notion of geometric theories in a signature sigma. So that's that's we already appreciate what's going on with this bridge but we need to sort of understand this bridge as well and how they interact. So yeah in order to do that I'm just going to quickly recap some of the stuff from LeForg's lecture earlier. It's not last week you know it is last week it's not this week so at the end of last week I'm going to recall some of the notions from syntactic sites for a geometric theory. So for a geometric theory T we can take the syntactic category which has its objects but formulae in that context and the arrows between two formulae in context are going to be provable equivalence classes of formulae theta such that and then we have these sequence holding and these sequence as LeForg explained just express the fact that theta is the graph of a function. So that's that's the usual definition of a syntactic category and its syntactic topology has this description but to SID is covering if and only if we have this dis disjunction of existential statements being satisfied. And then it's it's very well known that the classifying topos of a theory T is going to be the sheaves on this site with this topology and it's also going to be important later but we'll see we'll see how we can reconstruct it but the topology is sub canonical. So that's the syntactic site but and so it's going to be the classifying topos is going to be localic over the pre-sheaf topos involving the sorts on the signature and so we need to describe what the sort of internal locale is going to look like and for that I'm going to introduce this notion of a substitutive syntactic sites. So here given our geometric theory we're going to give it an internal locale of the pre-sheaf topos so it's going to be a functor from the opposite of sorts to locales and we're going to associate with every context every string of variables x we're going to associate it the locale given by the formulae in that context ordered by syntactic proof and whenever we have a relabeling we're going to send that to the locale with corresponding frame homomorphism given by relabeling under the aneurysm sigma. So here in this notation the frame homomorphism corresponding to us locale is going to send formulae psi in context y to the formulae in context x where we substitute every instance of the variable y by sorry every instance of say like yi in this vector y we're going to substitute for yi sigma of yi which is now going to be a variable in this context and since we assume all of our contexts to be disjoint there's no issues with that there's no issues in the order in which we relabel the variables so this is going to be our associated internal locale how do we know that it's an internal locale it's an internal locale because of this pre-sheaf topos and the Beck-Chevrolet and Frobenius conditions basically are saying that existential quantification behaves well with substitution they're quite easy to show and the second remark I want to make is that the left and right adjoints oh I mean that this this is a wide Beck-Chevrolet and Frobenius hold is that the left and right adjoints of our frame homomorphism are given by existential quantification and universal quantification so this is the yeah and so we have this internal locale and we're now going to take internal sheaves on that and we're hoping that the internal sheaves are going to be closely related to the classifying topos and indeed we're going to see that they are so yes when we take the relative construction when we take the Grottendijk construction of this internal locale which if you you can refer back to Olivia's lectures for the definition of this category but in this in this particular instance we get a very nice description that it's going to be objects, formulae and context and the arrows in this category are going to be relabelings of variables yeah so if we've got a an arrow between phi in context x and psi in context y is going to be a relabeling in the other directions such that we have this sequent holding in our theory and then when we take the induced apology because every internal locale has a induced apology coming with it we end up with a family of arrows in this a family of arrows in this category being covering if and only if we have we have this sequent holding and so because this is the description of the Grottendijk construction and the induced apology we have that the sheaves on the on this internal locale is going to be equal to the sheaves on this site and so if we look at this it looks very much like the usual syntactic category just that we've got we've got the same objects but we've got a lot fewer arrows and sometimes our arrows will be identified oh and I should also mention that that this topologies are generated by two species of covering families and so this this corresponds to the fact that we've got a horizontal and vertical covering data coming in from our relative topography and so yes so indeed we end up with this site being a dense sorry having a dense morphism of sites to the usual syntactic site and the the morphism of sites is going to be given by this functor eta which sends a formula in context to itself and it's going to send a relabeling to this provably functional formula here so I'm claiming that this is a dense morphism of sites and so if that's the case then as a corollary we get that this is a alternative description for the site of a classified topos of the theory T so just to recall what a dense morphism of sites is it's a function sorry a functor from c to d satisfying these conditions s is j covering if and only if it's images k covering for every d we have a k covering family of morphisms 2d and whenever we have an arrow between f of c1 and f of c2 that you know it might not necessarily come in the image of f then we want to show that it can be uh it's it's densely generated by arrows in the image of f and um whenever we have uh two arrows being identified this is the fourth condition um then whenever we have two arrows being identified by f then there exists a j covering family of arrows uh which uh exhibit their equality um and so when we have a dense morphism of sites then we've got an equivalence of categories so let's show that eta is indeed a dense morphism of sites uh so the first one is immediate by definition because the uh the groten-dict apologies are so similar um the second condition that uh it has a covering siv onto every object follows immediately because it's subjective on objects it's the next to which uh less immediate um so let's suppose we have an arrow coming from a provably functional formula in our syntactic category which might not necessarily just be a relabeling of variables um we're going to consider the diagram here um where we uh take the formula witnessing this uh provably functional formula um and now we uh have due to uh all of the um due to all of the sequence that a provably functional formula has to satisfy we have an arrow going to x phi and it's composite we can form the composite as LeVogue showed us in the previous series of lectures um thusly and now uh we just need to show that um we need to show that uh this is uh coming from our substitutive syntactic site is dense and this is also coming from our substitutive syntactic site um but this is immediate uh uh from all of the extra sequence that provably functional formulae have to satisfy uh so this arrow is covering because we have this sequence holding and this arrow is uh um in the image of eta by the equivalence of these two formulae um and for the final condition if we've got uh two relabelings um such that their eta associates the two of them then we're going to have that phi proves that sigma of y i is equal to tau y i for each y i uh in our context um and so now we need to find a series of we need to find a covering family uh that witnesses this equality but this comes from this commutative diagram here where uh this is the co-equalizer because of course all of these relabelings go in the opposite direction this is the co-equalizer um of these two relabelings and uh this is this is the projection this is the map given by projection from this to the co-equalizer and we want to show that it's a covering arrow um but the required sequence namely this uh can be proved easily from uh the fact that uh since these two arrows up here are identified that we have this sequence holding for every y i in our context so we do indeed have a in conclusion we do have indeed have a dense morphism of sites um which is uh nice because now we we we have a nice way of talking about what the uh syntactic site is in terms of a localic morphism and so just quickly um I want to give some uh verifications of previously known results um so for example if we've got uh these are results from theory sites and toposes if we've got t-dash being a localic expansion of another theory t then these are both localic expansions of the uh these are both localic expansions of the empty theory on the source of the signature and so being a localic expansion um we end up with a morphism of locales which we can uh construct uh very in a hands-on way uh we get a morphism of locales which is internal to the pre-sheaf topos sorts on sigma interstates and so because we've got a morphism of internal locales we end up with a localic morphism between the two toposes and so we we uh verify our motivating result uh from earlier but um potentially more interestingly a quotient theory t-dash of another theory t is going to be a theory in the yeah this is a definition is a theory in the same signature um that proves all of the axioms of t and now we're able to uh sort of recognize the um other uh headline result from theory sites and toposes but there's a correspondence between quotient theories and subtopoi and uh the i mean that this that there's there's more work going on here than is immediately apparent on the page but we can appreciate the uh where the correspondence is coming from the subtopoi of a classified topos are going to uh correspond to inclusions of internal sublacals which in turn are going to correspond to quotient theories um and another result uh you uh which was i believe uh joeyal um well first of all it appears in joeyal and terny and secondly joeyal mentioned it at his uh talk at the toposes at ih yes that you can since we've uh since we have that every theory is localic over the um this pre-chief topos here we can use the fact that every theory is marita equivalent to the uh to a theory with a single sort to get that every theory is localic over the object classifier um which which is uh a very nice result that yes as mentioned originally appeared in joeyal and terny um and so finally i want to you know go all the way back to the beginning where i mentioned that we can think about toposes as telling us the information that we're missing out um and so we we had this substitutive syntactic site now where do the um the provably functional formulae come in uh they come in when we take a uh syntact yes they come in here where the syntactic category is going to be the full subcategory of the representables in the classifying topos um and then additionally the syntactic topology is going to be the restriction of the canonical topology so the way to see this is that uh because the topology is sub-canonical CT has to be a full subcategory and indeed it has to have the same objects as the representables so this is where our extra arrows are being added they're being added on the topos theoretic level um and yeah indeed we could also go the other way and uh if we didn't know that the topology was sub-canonical we could define the syntactic category as being the full subcategory of representables and then we would have that the uh induced topology the syntactic topology would then have to be sub-canonical um and yeah and then in Olivia's denseness um on a graph there's a description of how we can do this in an elementary way um so yeah thank you for listening that's my talk up thank you very much


Hello everybody, welcome back to another Adobe After Effects 2022 tutorial in this one. I'm going to show you how to get that shattered text or text shatter effect. Very very common in all sorts of movies, titles, you name it. It's everywhere. Let me show you an example here. I'm going to hit space bar and you're going to see that boom my name has exploded into pieces and I slow roll it here. You'll see that it's shattering and bang off the screen sort of. So here we do. I'm going to show you how to do it step by step. I'm going to delete this here. I'm going to go back to my project. I'm going to delete everything in my project. We're going to start from scratch. First step new composition 1920 by 1080 30 frames per second if you're following along. All right the next step here is I'm going to click on the horizontal type tool or the text tool and I'm going to just type my name Curtis. Yeah man let's go. Did I type it in? I wrote in Kurt. All right let's go Curtis. There we go. All right let's see if I can type today and now I'm going to go back to my selection tool and I'm going to align it in the center and in the center. If you don't see the align workspace or pardon me the align box well you just have to go here and that's all there is to it. Box isn't the right word but I don't care. That's all I talked today. All right let's keep going. I'm going to move the playhead back to the beginning and now we're going to go ahead and left click and make sure you're left click on your text here. Now I'm going to right click and it allows me to select a bunch of different things and we're going to pre compose this and I'm going to name it Shatter because we are going to Shatter my name just like I said we were. Okay guys if you're rolling here let's keep going. Let's go to effect and now you want to go drop down to simulation and under simulation you're going to see Shatter. Heck yeah this looks funny though when you get your first look. We want to go to our effect controls panel now and you'll see here I've clicked on it and now under render you're going to see all but what we actually want to do is we want to adjust the view first so let's go to view and instead of wireframe and forces we want rendered. When we do that well we're back to what we started with but here it is already been applied. Let me just slowly move this forward and you're going to see capresto boom this has been shattered already. So there is a very good chance that if you don't want to make this super fancy and don't want to customize it crazy that we've already solved your problem and you can just click off this video and give it a thumbs up or something like that. If you want to look at it a little bit further in depth I will show you a few quick things. You'll notice here that on the effect control panel under shape we have the repetitions set to 30 and we've got the pattern set to bricks. I generally prefer glass as the pattern because that looks a little bit more of a natural Shatter. So I'm just going to go ahead and actually I'm just going to go ahead and hit spacebar and boom yeah that looks a little better but not quite right. I think I would like to have a few more bits and pieces in the Shatter. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to change the repetitions from 10. I'm going to jack it up to about 30. Let's see what yeah somewhere around 30. Sure now check this out. I'm going to go ahead and hit spacebar again and it's going to explode and that is a little bit more natural to me and I know it's a little bit slow because it's running from RAM. But if we if we just skip through the playhead here we move the playhead to the timeline this looks pretty good to me. Now I will let you guys know that just as a final bit in piece you can go ahead and make all sorts of other changes including things like depth if you want to increase and decrease the radius of the force you can change the gradient you could change the gravity in this if you really want to get crazy but in most cases you generally don't need to do that. Extrusion depth is also another one that you might want to look at. I'm going to just jack this up to 0.6 just so you can see what I'm talking about. I'm going to hit spacebar boom it's a little thicker it's a bit more of a it's in your face of an explosion. All of these things are things you can adjust and you know tailor it to whatever you see fit but that's how you shatter text in After Effects real quickly. Thanks for watching. Time for more stuff coming up stay tuned.