Stage B. It is my great and abiding pleasure to introduce Dr. Katherine Flick from the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility at De Montfort University in the lovely United Kingdom. Ladies and gentlemen and everybody else, please welcome Katherine. No. Thank you my dear friend here. We've been friends for a long time so it's all good. Hi, I have to apologise a little bit for the state of my slides which are a little bit quick because I've been trying to fight fires most of today trying to get the stages actually moving so please apologise. Please accept my apologies. I'm basically here with two hats on. I'm a technology ethicist and I'm actually on the Committee of Professional Ethics for the ACM. Some of you may be ACM members, don't worry I won't get you to put your hands up or anything but some of you may know what the ACM is, it's the Association of Computing Machinery. It's the largest professional organisation for computing, anyone who does anything with computing basically. So computer scientists, games designers, game art people, even like we have financial service people, it runs the whole gamut of tech. And what we've done recently, oh yeah before we start, if you have questions I probably won't be able to get to them but what I will be able to do is look at them and then possibly write something about them later. So I have a Slido, Slido.com and if you put in, so if you open up your phones and put that in and then have hash, just the join code is emfcode and you can put a dilemma or a question in there and it may get turned into a case study for the code of ethics if it's like we'll obviously anonymise it and all that sort of thing but it may turn into a generic style case study if it's an interesting dilemma or if you want to come and talk to me afterwards or if I get time I'll go through the best ones. Okay, so the code of ethics, so like I said the ACM is a really big computing organisation and we had a code of ethics, it was sort of a code of conduct before 1992 which basically said these are things you shouldn't be doing and then in 1992 they actually decided to sit down and write an actual code of ethics and what then happened is they said oh well we'll update it frequently and then they didn't and then the internet came along and AI came along, well machine learning as we know it currently came along and a whole bunch of other things came along and then it got to 2018 and they were like yeah we probably really do need to update it now. So over the last two years I've basically been part of this process, I was on the steering committee for updating this code of ethics and it was a huge participative experience where we got loads of people to basically comment on drafts and all this sort of stuff so it's pretty much ground up built but based on the original code so there are some similar things and some different and some new things so I'm not going to expect you to have read the code, what I'm going to do though is take you through a few things that might be useful to look at if you're an ACM member. If you are an ACM member one of the conditions of your membership of the ACM is that you abide by this code so you probably really want to have a listen to this. You also probably got a bunch of emails from us saying please help so thank you if you did help us. So why do we need something like this? Well it's really interesting as a technology ethicist I've been doing this for a really long time now and like 10 something 15 I don't know a really long time longer than I would like to think and basically it was only about a up until about a year ago I was the one knocking on people's doors saying you need to think about ethics. About a year ago something happened Cambridge Analytica and a bunch of AI stuff that people got worried about and I started getting all these invitations to come and talk at like particularly AI conventions like big industry conventions and now it just seems like the flood gates have opened so it's really good for me I guess. I would actually really like to be out of a job at some point because then we'll have solved all these problems but basically there seems to be a lot of call for ethics right now because people are realizing that technology can actually have some significant social harm attached to it. So one of the key focuses that we really wanted to put into the new code of ethics was a focus on the fact that we should be using our skills as technology creators, software developers etc innovators of any kind that has anything to do with tech we should be using it for the public good and we should be using it for the social good. There's no point in making tech for tech's sake if it doesn't actually have some benefit to somebody somewhere and then it's about then also things like benefits looking at the benefits versus the harms which I'll get into in a bit. But the key thing was the first sentence of the preamble we wrote computing professionals actions change the world to act responsibly they should reflect upon the wider impacts of their work consistently supporting the public good. The ACM code of ethics blah blah blah expresses the conscience of the profession and we claim that it expresses the conscience of the profession mostly because it has been a ground up activity like we really wanted to make sure that this wasn't just a bunch of people from ivory academic towers coming down and preaching upon preaching the words to the you know the people we wanted to make sure that actually everybody was involved we wanted to practice what we preach why we wanted this to actually be relevant to people actually doing things in the real world. So the very first principle that we have is that a computing professional should contribute to society and to human well-being acknowledging that all people are stakeholders in computing so it's no longer accept acceptable if you're creating things to like basically kind of do it in a bubble if especially if it's going to have some sort of social impact you need to be out there making sure that you're doing it with the public good in mind and also collaborating with stakeholders anyone who might be impacted by the technology that you're creating. So a couple of the major changes that happened between 1992 I mean we had the internet showed up we had a whole bunch of awakenings and I think the previous talk is a really good example of how kind of things have shifted over the past you know 2030 however many years we're now like much more aware of women's role in computing computer science and how that's an unlike there's there's still a long way to go there before there's kind of equal treatment of women in computing area although there's a lot of work being done which is fantastic so there's a much broader description of discrimination and what that entails so before the code didn't have anything about say harassment particularly sexual harassment that's now specifically in the code and it's basically there are also a whole lot more aspects of like discrimination that are covered so we used to just have kind of like race gender and something else but we now have a whole bunch of other other aspects that are now covered. There were two big things on intellectual property rights so it used to say basically you must abide by intellectual property rights which I'm sure you guys many of you here would be horrified to think that that was something that we would be that would be required to do and me too so I was given the homework as part of this thing to redraft the intellectual property section which basically turned into respect the work required to reduce new ideas inventions creative works and computing artifacts which now basically puts the emphasis on respecting the decisions that creators make within reason and there are basically if it's ethically justifiable to break these things you've got an out in there as well so there's there's a there's a way to get around that now yeah anyway design and implement systems that are robustly and useably secure back in 1992 there was very little security apart from physical security so now we are requiring security by design which is something that most people hopefully do anyway but it's something that you now actually are required to do by the code of ethics 3.6 use care when modifying or retiring systems this was certainly not on anyone's radar back in 1992 but things like Microsoft retiring certain operating systems and various other large-scale things google reader comes to mind is one that really annoyed me basically if people are using your software you have to have a really good reason to retire it and you then also need to help shepherd them on to something that will like basically replace the thing that you're retiring 3.7 recognize and take specials to care of systems that become integrated into the infrastructure of society facebook right if you're twitter facebook anything if you're creating something that then goes on to become not just that thing you did in your garage or with a couple of your mates but becomes like a massive infrastructure thing you need to be really careful about how you handle that and there's some guidance in the code of ethics that helps you to do that now so how do I actually use this practically well the idea is basically it's supposed to be a way for you to reflect on what it is that you're doing it's not a step you know a how to do things ethically there is no one size fits all rule for any of this stuff ethics is not a set of rules it's a way of getting you to think about what it is you're doing there are no easy way outs in ethics you need to actually sit down and think about it so I'm going to take a take through a few examples of some things so this is slightly adapted from a video games conference that I went to recently but I've tried to kind of adapt it to be a bit more general so I'm going to take you through just a couple of ways of how you might think through these issues so if you're creating technology for vulnerable people so children old people anyone with various disabilities that might be make them be considered vulnerable there are a whole bunch of things that you can think about that the code will help you think through for example there's a whole section on avoidance of harm and what it is about what exactly is harm and how you can like you know make sure that the technology that you create doesn't inflict this on people I'm going to get there's a little bit of a complication to the harm thing which I'm going to get to in a bit obviously if you need to be honest and trustworthy particularly with with vulnerable people and this is because they don't often sometimes there are reasons why they're not able to make very good decisions for themselves so I've got the picture up here of revenue generated by premiums children premium children's games in the mobile game industry because basically that's one area where children are not able to consent to say pay money for games necessarily and it gets very you need to think about that when you're developing it fostering public awareness and understanding of computing related technologies and their consequences principle 2.7 basically what this asks you to do is make sure that people can understand what it is that you're creating and yes for the machine learning people out there I know this is complicated but you need to have a go and if you have actually struggle with that I do a lot of that sort of thing so if you want to come and talk to me at some point this weekend I'm more than happy to help you explain you know I can explain Bitcoin in 15 seconds for the local radio station so I'm quite good at simplifying things 2.9 design and implement systems that are robustly unusably secure basically security by design you've got to protect people you can't just throw stuff out there now that's not got actually security by design in it another one data analytics so basically discrimination obviously is a huge people are worried about bias of algorithms the fact that a lot of the data that is put into the training for these systems is biased to start with how do you remove bias this is an ongoing question that machine learning people need to think about particularly and data analytics people need to think about and it's not that I'm there's a solution in the code but it basically says you need to think about this and you have to have really good reasons behind the decisions that you make about what you include and what you exclude and how you anonymize and all that sort of thing respect privacy hopefully is self-evident on a confidentiality this happen can have this is an issue about basically if you're if you're got confidential information you need to be careful with how you treat that and that just kind of goes into data analytics so some of the information you might be dealing with might be confidential high quality in the processes and products professional work this basically has a section in it that basically says if you don't understand what your analytics is doing if you don't understand how your machine learning algorithm is making decisions then maybe that's not something you should like I know this is a really complicated area so I don't want to simply oversimplify it but you need to really think about what it is that you're actually doing with that algorithm and how it how it might work and what information actually might be those key kind of things that that then used for decision making and that's part of the quality in testing and I've got a picture of Tay Bot which some of you might remember who was basically thrown out on the internet and became very much like a horrible person very quickly and basically this principle would say that you need to test you need to test things better and if you don't and if you're not able to test them sufficiently beforehand you need to monitor them while they're out in the wild doing their thing and pull it back if it's doing terrible things quickly um oh my laptop's just turned off uh knowing respect existing rules pertaining to professional work stay in the law where you can there are exceptions for if the laws so we've got a lot of exceptions for basically we're worried about um kind of fascist regimes and things like that where uh and this is actually something that in 1992 they weren't so worried about but we are now and um so there are basically if there if the rules are unethical there are ways of challenging the rules and there's some guidance in the code for you to do that and basically like I said before this should all be done with the public good as the central concern I'm going to skip over diversity hopefully I mean it's mostly just for time because I want to get through the rest of this stuff but you see what I'm kind of doing I'm using aspects of the code get to basically um get questions up in your heads about perhaps what it is that you're doing to challenge what it is that you do and some of that might be uncomfortable and that's totally fine um but it doesn't mean that you can ignore it it means that that needs to be something that you need to start thinking about integrating into you how you do your work that sort of reflection that reflection time um and I'm going to talk about that in a sec so some frequently asked questions we get at the code central which is ethics.acm.org what if my boss thinks codes of ethics are for losers so basically what if like your boss asks you to do something that is against the code of ethics if you're an ACM member you can actually hold this up and wave it at them and then if they sort of say well screw you you can there are actually ways of going through whistle blowing and stuff and the ACM is we have to be very careful about how we promote that aspect of the code because although it's been used for like legal decisions and things in the States it's actually very difficult like obviously for an organization to help support people all around the world but we're able to give people guidance but ultimately unfortunately when it comes down to it the the rules of the land are the rules of the land you have to understand that you might be breaking those in some ways right um uh yeah so another question we get is what if I'm in the military or security does that mean that the code of ethics isn't for me because I'm obviously going to be harming people and that might not be the public good may not be the center of my concern um and basically we have been very careful to word the code so that if you are in the security or military domains and you do do things that might be considered slightly um that there are ways of thinking through the code that actually can keep you in in this process so for example in the harm the the avoid harm we change that so many times you hear about do no harm right and that's kind of like the Hippocratic oath we don't say that specifically and that's because it's about um justifiable ethically justifiable harm and sometimes when you're in security there may be some ethically justifiable um attacks you might need to make against a system or something like that that might be um considered otherwise against the code of ethics why didn't I plug this thing in um but um or if you're in like weapons development or something like that there might be times where you like your efforts might be um better spent sort of working on how to make it so that other people aren't harmed by the specific weapon I mean these are all things we had to think about and it's really really complicated and not we're never going to please everybody although I really I mean I'm a pacifist so this stuff is really uncomfortable for me to talk about but I can kind of see the point that um uh basically we want to keep people in in thinking about this we don't want people to like people in these sectors particularly just to say oh well this isn't for me um basically like as far as I concerned if the code gets some thinking about this sort of thing and then thinking well actually maybe military or um you know bad security isn't actually for me then that's a good thing as far as I'm concerned um but you know there are kind of these very fine lines are very difficult to work walk along I have to say come and see me up at the bar after I've had a few drinks and I'll tell you more um how how is this code different from other codes so some of you may know the IEEE software engineering code um it's different because it's firstly it's newer uh and also it's um a much more general and it's an aspirational code so the software engineering code's much more a list of don'ts um but the ACM code's very much aimed at students to kind of inspire them to do things well as opposed to you know slapping them on the wrist if they don't do it um but speaking of that what if I break the code uh if you're an eight if you're not an ACM member nothing unless you break the law in which case that's a different thing uh if you are an ACM member we can discipline you which sounds scarier than it is um but also we have oh that's not what I wanted to do there we go um also uh basically uh the committee it's very complicated but we have a much better system now if someone or if you think someone has broken the code of ethics that might be an ACM member um there are um the the committee on professional ethics will actually take it on as a case and then we kind of deal with it um and there are a range of disciplinary actions that we can take including stopping you from coming to our conferences and that's probably about the worst one you'd get from the ACM unfortunately as far as I'm concerned but anyway um yeah um so that's basically yeah if you break the code you're an ACM member that's not good all right so previously I talked about integration of this sort of stuff into your ways of working so how can you actually do this practically well there's another um uh thing that we do in Europe called responsible innovation and this is actually my other hat my academic hat is now on um responsible innovation is basically the idea of creating technology with and for society and the this is ethically aligned the idea is to get people thinking about ethics and getting them to integrate it into the ways that they work uh with the innovations that they they make so this area framework is um the one that we mostly use in the UK uh and in parts of Europe as well but basically it's about getting you to asking you to anticipate what the potential impacts of um your in of your technology or your innovation might be on society reflecting on the ethical and social issues that might raise so you can use the code for that that's a really good place to use the code of ethics engaging with relevant stakeholders to help them i to help identify potential issues and mitigate those and not just in any testing stage but the very beginning of the um innovation cycle um and then act by putting methods in place to ensure issues are resolved so this is like having good HR policies and processes having good testing qa that sort of thing it's about basically codifying a lot of the good practice you probably do already into methods that you follow every single time and hopefully those are responsible ones so um benefits to behaving ethically um oh this is left over from my video game store which is great i'll leave that one there um so we've been doing some work with companies i've been working with cyber security companies in the uk for the last two years now getting them thinking about responsible innovation and ethics in what they do um and they've uh talked to me about what they feel is the the other benefits that they've been getting from this um basically it's all about trust um they have better reception from the public so they have better a better reputation which builds trust they have employee satisfaction which builds trust within the employees that they have because people like to work for ethical companies uh they have better quality innovations uh because people are stimulated to work and do things better uh and you get a wider audience than just nerd bros um which sorry for all the nerd bros out there but you are actually a minority uh and there's a much broader audience out there for all sorts of technology uh than just the power users um sorry i'm not equating power users to nerd bros so they're different not doing that um and you're doing the right thing so you can sleep at night so that's nice as well um so more on ethics and technology um basically there's a bunch of links here um if you just google acm code of ethics you can find the acm code of ethics tier and i do a podcast on video games and ethics if you're interested in that um tier's been doing a fabulous job here in stage b all day so thank you um and also there's a there's the responsible innovation stuff that i talked about um is available at orbit rri um which is the main center for the uk's responsible innovation um information stuff and you can find me on twitter and the acm ethics stuff is on twitter and we've done reddit stuff i mean we're trying to really get the word out and if you'd like a sticker that has acm ethics like that one um come down to the green room and i'll give you one because i was stupid and forgot to bring them up um all right so got a dilemma have we got time tier how much time have we got we got some time i think we have time okay good all right i'm gonna refresh my slider and see if anyone's put a dilemma oh here we go here we go people have said stuff fantastic okay um we're at the peak of hype for tech ethics when we get out of this phase and it's less hip again what is the biggest thing that will have changed in the world oh i think actually what will probably happen is that um tech companies will have much broader stakeholder work like they'll they'll work much more with the general public in ways that are much more inclusive of not just people who are white middle class people who can afford to go to a one day workshop and try out a new piece of technology it'll be ways that will include people who perhaps are of lower socioeconomic status who can uh you know don't perhaps who may only use the technology in uh kind of emergency situations who are much more removed from the direct usage of a technology and i think that actually will really improve a lot of that will be the biggest thing that will have changed i'm not quite sure if that's what you meant when in terms of biggest thing that will have changed uh there probably will be deaths of some big technology companies in some ways but anyway oh yeah i wanted to mention how google um so the google employees who are pushing back against this the chinese censorship recently used the new acm code of ethics as a basis to push back to their employer um and actually i wrote a uh a piece in the conversation about uh google and and google in china and how the acm code of ethics thinks that's a bad idea and then they use that as um like which is really nice so i was quite happy about that um all right uh i just anonymous asked you're all anonymous that's great i just completed a computer science degree ethics seemed included by necessity rather than doing due to understanding its importance what can we do to change this attitude uh employ ethicists to teach the ethics courses not just people who um like often in computer science departments it's left to someone that has like spare time and or maybe like they've mentioned that they were interested in ethics once and now they're kind of lumped with all this teaching that isn't computer science i know certainly in some departments that ethics is considered because you need it to get bcs accredited in the uk right so the british computing society requires you to have a certain amount of ethics in your degree program uh if you want to get accredited by them uh and certainly i've known uh certain departments which i will not name that uh basically see it as um something that is taking away from teaching students tech and that that's a bad thing and so it has a negative like lump that comes along with it even at the the top level so it's it's about changing attitudes like with the cyber security companies i've been working with the only way you can get uh companies to take on kind of an ethical culture is to change the minds of the people at the top otherwise it really doesn't nothing i mean unless you've got a really big workforce and they're all aligned with being ethical which rarely happens um you're you're gonna it's difficult to push back against a ceo or a department head that doesn't want to do this sort of thing um good they're coming in quick and fast do let me know when i'm out of time to um two minutes okay what should facebook do to act responsibly about their role in society specifically in relation to political advertising data they have internally well specifically with in relation to that they should probably delete it um but um i mean i think they have they're really doing a lot of soul searching at the moment which is a good thing um i still wouldn't have a facebook account um yeah i wrote about that too i wrote a thing about informed consent on that and that was very interesting um anyway um uh what should they do so what facebook didn't do let's just say so let's let's let's let's talk about what facebook didn't do what they didn't do is they didn't um establish a method for reliably communicating consent aspects uh when it came to the data that they were collecting so they weren't very good at communicating what data they were going to collect and how they were going to use it and they also didn't do a very good job of um managing the um kind of fault basically they did did a very poor job of managing the kind of political aspect of that so actually there's a really good um radio lab if anyone listens to the radio lab podcast on facebook and how they do a lot of their content moderation for example and the fact is they have all these rules about what can and can't be on facebook and they're just like the problem with ethics like i said before is it's not a how to you can't step through and say step one do this step two do that the same thing is when you come when you have a whole lot of context and you have to then make decisions about do we allow this on our platform or do we not allow this on our platform it usually comes with a lot of context and when you're a worldwide company you have a lot of worldwide context and it gets really really complicated because in china you can say things that you can't you can't what you can't say things that you can say in the uk or america or the netherlands or where it is and and and everything gets very very complicated and i think they really did that very poorly and i mean in some ways it was kind of inevitable but the way that they can solve this problem now is probably to be honest to really kind of scale back their operations certainly on the political side really focus on kind of going back to what it is that they actually wanted to do which was to be a way for people to communicate with their friends and family but then also and this is sort of walking a fine line just be very careful about what sorts of content that those sorts of communications actually have but that's that needs to be something that's agreed with the community as well like they need to build it up with certain groups and i guess very very complicated come see me in the bath that would be a good one one more or are we good one more all right laws are very slow to change and adapt this is a really good good one laws are very slow to change and adapt compared to evolving technology what can we do in the meantime to counter the groups unwilling to follow the code so i mean this is a classic more policy vacuum and this is something that technology is just we've we've all like this is going back generate like many many many years we've been dealing with this what we can do is we can do things we can be good examples we can show the benefits of doing things ethically so these cyber security companies for example who've been doing this you know that like they are now being like they're sort of being held up as kind of pinnacles of good tech and we can also you know vote with our pop you know with our wallets right so don't get a facebook account you know don't sign up to the latest thing just because it's there i actually have a look at what it is and what they want to do and also educate your friends and family that may not be as tech savvy as you are that's certainly a big thing that you can do help them make informed decisions because at the moment they're not able to really do that because they're not being informed very well okay thank you very much i can do more of these in the bar afterwards well actually i'm gonna i think i'm gonna emcee the next talk so


That's breaking, that's breaking, that's breaking. What we're doing out here today is part of our cold weather operations. It's a break through the ice drill. It's where a marine will put a combat load on and they will practice what would be breaking through the ice and going into the cold water. So it'd be getting your body and mind used to the shock of smudging yourself into a frozen body of water. We at the School of Winter Warfare have a saying that if you can do it here in the Arctic, you can pretty much do it anywhere.


I'm going right to the top of the lineup to DJ LeMay who the Yankees have said is their off season priority. We reported on our first hot stove show that LeMay who's side was seeking five years and an excess of a $100 million. So how deep are the Yankees willing to swim into those financial waters? They've talked about how they want LeMay who they need LeMay who we know how different he makes their lineup when he is in it. I think it's a move they absolutely have to make. So I definitely want to hear what Brian told Meredith about where those negotiations stand.


laser always sounds very exciting how are you going to apply it ready we're going to learn in this talk now Dr. Matthias Koch is a biological physicist and on the side he also was interested in building gardens whereas PhD he was applying lots of different technologies for laser spectroscopy he's also interested in compilers biology he also dances Wendy hub please welcome welcome to this Congress and here the stage is free for Dr. Matthias Koch hello hi Matthias Koch I would like to first give a quick introduction have a PhD in biophysics I was using this technology for my PhD thesis while I was studying I was thinking what is happening today and I was thinking and it would be better if I investigated this myself and here I am with this topic what happens when we're shining this in we have a lamp here and first we're going to look for an overview of what is happening here sometimes it happens that the molecule after the excitation drops back to another band and so maybe and maybe there's a difference between the absorbed photon and the radiated photon so maybe if we shine a red blue laser into into a solution we also get a green and red light out so and so the first excited state if we sometimes the photon then gets absorbed and there's an interaction between the molecule and the light and this is called the the Raymond Stokes radiation and and sometimes it is lifted to another vibrational state and and it and it goes back without radiation into the low state of the first excited state and then there are many possible state changes for the lower band for the electronic base state and this means that the radiation is rather broadband and because of the first first state that doesn't radiate and so the state the frequency of the radiated photon doesn't really depend on the laser that you shine into it so now we look at the spectrum and the wavelength scale shows the rainbow from violet to red and that's a wavelength of 400 to around 700 nanometers and the sensitivity of eyes at the edges is relatively low and the photon energy is between 1.8 electron volts to 3 electron volts at the violet and so this setup we have a glass and there are algae in it and so it's liquid in the liquid and it's a special algae and and it can be used for creating dyes and in this glass there's a plexip on a perspex plate and there are lamps in it that are used for calibrating the spectrometer and below the perspex plate is a mixer and the culture to to mix it so that each individual molecule will only come into contact with the laser very briefly so doesn't isn't changed by that and and there's also a fiber bundle and to shine the laser into into the solution and there are different other fibers which pick up the light and send it to the spectrometer and we have a blue laser with 473 nanometers wavelength and 50 milliwatts and this laser is a it's a single mode laser and has a very narrow band of only 12 picometers and then we have a spectrometer which also has a CCD camera and we see the broad back from the spectrometer in this case without the low pass filter and this very strong signal is the Rayleigh diff Rayleigh diffraction of the and in red we can also see some artifacts that also across by missing the low pass edge filter and there's something between 550 and 600 nanometers it's also an artifact and the inner surfaces are not perfect in the spectrometer and part of the light is going to other directions but in a very strong signal there also can be relatively strong artifacts so we have this low pass edge filter and the Rayleigh peak and the little artifact peak are now gone and the strong signal that we see now between 650 and 750 nanometers is the chlorophyll fluorescence chlorophyll fluorescence is from the green in the leaves and absorbs blue and red light and and also the low red and here's the same spectrum with a logarithmic intensity scale and the chlorophyll peak is in green and we see in between 550 and 600 nanometers there's a little bump this is the spectral line of water and we can see that the line is much smaller than the chlorophyll fluorescence and I marked this one little peak and it's a permanent line of the carotoid and this is the place where the filter becomes transmissive the calibration for the calibration we have these little neon lamps and it lights up in orange but it has also lines in the green blue range and they can use them for calibration if there are many there are many ways to calibrate the spectrometer but the little neon lamp is a very simple way to do that neon has very very many lines so we can so we can use them to calibrate it and here we see that again and now the chlorophyll fluorescence has been cut off so you can see the Raymond lines much better and the strong signal here from the water at 560 nanometers and we can also see the neon lamps so the position of the spectral lines can be compared to the published values and we see that it doesn't fit completely but it's quite close and with a correction of 5.25 nanometers then we have the exact position of the neon of the neon lines the small range around 500 nanometers has another neon spectral lines and it shows which range the spectrometer can normally record and this is the very wide range that the spectrometer can and this is to show the total spectrum and to create that it took about half an hour to record this total spectrum and here are the Raymond lines and there's a shift compared to the excitation and in the Raymond spectroscopy we can sometimes use a scale of the so called relative wave number and it's a very strange unit but it is proportional to the and it is created from the reciprocal reciprocal from the two wave lengths and here we have cut off the Raymond line and is the Raymond spectrum of the current noids and this is created by matter that is only present in small quantities and there are several algorithms and I have invented one of those and published it in a scientific paper and to remove the baseline when we move the baseline we are left with the Raymond spectrum alone and who wants to know more about this and has to do some detective work with the literature and so the Raymond lines above 2,000 wave pairs and the lower Raymond lines who can read anymore in the literature can find these but this is outside the scope of this of this talk to show this I have shown the pure better keratin so only carrots and excited it with two different wave lengths in the blue line we have 500 nanometers and then we have the green line to compare this with the spectrum line you see that it's a little bit steeper it's a little bit higher so you see that it's a little bit stronger this line the frequency is dependent so that as it's a growing stronger you see the blue line the here we see the keratin and ethanol resonance card resonance map this small part of the spectrum it shows as it goes up that the frequency and these things are relative to each other there's something to watch here we have to count relative waves we have 500 nanometers it's better keratin like in the map together we have it with the spectrum resonance and absorption it's a maximum it's the first response and see how it goes up high then it goes down again so there's a response from the chemicals the the status goes high and then back the proton is responding to the more energy it's very very strong here so this is an excitation wave lengths a different and through the logarithmic scale we can also separate the anti-stokes lines the special of the anti-stokes lines is they cannot be covered by fluorescence and they they have a dependency on the absolute temperature because the vibrational states correspond to the Boltzmann distribution and there you can so you can measure the absolute temperature with a laser with a laser beam for after this small overview of the effects it's now we are talking about how we can use that at first the selection of the laser we usually have to use a blue or violet laser that's a very simple reason for that if you know where it is even if you use the laser laser protection goggles other lasers may be much more extensive more expensive but with a red laser you might be tempted to remove your goggles but you should never do that so you can see the light so a blue laser is good so you can use a piece of paper with a sharpie and then you can hold it into the beam and see where it is and the skin will also fluoresce a little in yellow and so you can see with your finger where the laser beam is for here's a small do-it-yourself for a spectrometer and the spectral range is important and you if you have the whole visible range that's good but if you want to do the rayman spectroscopy you need a very high resolution and you need to be able to filter parts of the spectrum and the sensitivity is a bit like the aperture in photography and so you have a grid and the camera and if the slit is very low then there's only very little light and there's only very little light on the camera but so good resolution and so it depends on how the optics are built if maybe there are other apertures or small small parts and you have to look what is better here so for rayman spectroscopy it's very important to be very precise there and you have to experiment a bit another important part is the dynamic range a normal camera has maybe 10 to 12 bits dynamic range whereas the camera which I used to record it has 16 bits of dynamic range and you have to experiment a bit with that as well and but with a webcam which has only eight bits per channel isn't very helpful if you don't want to look at the fluorescence but also some some other more interesting things and another part is that if you exceed the maximum contrast from from from the camera of the camera then you are looking only at so if you have a very strong a very strong beam then it may be diffracted inside the camera and then you if you have optical low pass filters they are very expensive but the spectrometer if you build it yourself you can disassemble it and and put a little a little blind there and so you can easily find that and block it out if there's and maybe you already have something like that in your do-it-yourself box and LEDs can can be used as sensors for example and I have measured a few LEDs and what their receptive spectrum is and I have published it the most easily accessible range is is dependent on the material of the sensor for example silicon can use thousand hundred to a thousand and and you have to improvise maybe if you need another range other semiconductor materials have other ranges and the silicon carbide goes of 200 to 400 indium gallium arsenide goes from 800 to 1700 and germanium is from 800 to 1800 nanometers and and some some tubes also create ultraviolet light and you have just have to experiment a bit maybe it's also possible to you open up a germanium power transistor and use that as a sensor but the sensitivity will probably be very low and for measuring rayman lines that's a really technical challenge and the absorption can be measured relatively easy so I want to show you some examples how such measures can be broken down such measurements for classical measurements where you use a lamp and a monochromator and then you have use a photodiode as a sensor and then it goes through a beam splitter and through a photodiode and then through the through the liquid that you want to measure into a photodiode and then you can find out the specific wavelength and the absorption is dependent on the thickness of the material and and an absorption coefficient that is also dependent on several parameters besides the lamp and a monochromator and and there may be variations in the intensity of the lamp and to compensate for that if we can have something where the very LEDs have a very very stable intensity and so the intensity can be measured with a photodiode and the intensity of the LED itself can be measured that way for example there's a probe both of those can be shined through the finger and a photodiode can can be measured with a photodiode and the blood oxymeters work like that and shine through this through the finger and that way you can measure how much oxygen is in the blood and you can use a spectrometer to look at the light of the sun and with several LEDs with different wavelengths you can also experiment with ours a good example is the infrared hygrometer it used the sun as the light source and shines them through through as a sample and use LEDs as the sensor for 880 or 940 nanometers and the water vapor has an absorption line near 900 nanometers so you can figure out the water vapor concentration in the air and can build a hygrometer that way and here's another example if you want to examine chlorophyll fluorescence if you look at the leaf with a shine on it with a blue or green lamp and with a blue LED you can shine at the plant and use a dark red filter but it's not easy to record that on video but we'll see you can still see it in this photo and you have perhaps seen these spectacular infrared photography photos and you can use a dark red filter for that and you can see that the sky becomes blue because the blue is absorbed by the filter and the leaves become very bright and on this photo you can see on the right it is very bright and the tree on the left side is much less bright and that is because the chlorophyll fluorescence is a reaction to get rid of superfluous additional light and so that the leaves don't get overloaded with light you can also take photos like this from satellites or airplanes and can figure out where it is dry or if there's a danger of forest fire and if you measure the chlorophyll fluorescence you need three LEDs a blue one for excite the fluorescence and two red ones for detecting the fluorescence and the emission spectrum of this LED is at 700 nanometers and you can see that they overlap and the reason is that we have a semiconductor with a band gap between and so red and yellow LEDs have similar band gaps and so they can see their own light and the green blue ultraviolet LEDs have an indirect band gap semiconductors and emission and sensitivity are separate so they cannot see their own light but only in different bandwidths and the sensitivity is either it starts at the emission spectrum or is and here is a bright red light red LED and if you look at the sensitivity of the two LEDs together with the chlorophyll fluorescence you can see that the light red LED cannot see the chlorophyll fluorescence whereas the dark red LED can see the chlorophyll fluorescence and so we have everything that we need and we can excite it with a blue LED use the light red LED as a reference and use the dark red LED for measuring the data and you can see the result of the chlorophyll fluorescence from a leaf which I have created with these three LEDs and for the blue for this measurement the blue LED will flash and then I use the two red LEDs with an operational amplifier and you can see the red curve is the measurement and the blue curve is the reference and you flash the blue light into the leaf and sometimes the LED will light between the measurements and and they fluoresce very strongly for a short period of time and so continue the time adding so this curve is known as the Kautzky effect at the end I give you some literature tips for people who are still curious and some areas that can be very interesting for example lighting the light emission of the sea and you can use a microscopy for example and so and the main component analysis can be done and maybe you can use hyperspectral cameras which can record a very large spectrum and they use a diode and two very shortly very short excitations so and see you again in the Q&A so what a complex matter my head is really rotating I learned a lot thank you very very much for this huge impact I feel like I'm fried by a laser and and saturated with information thanks thanks a lot due to touch with the laser the probe one moment the laser only has 50 milliwatts for the probe and the probe is touched and there's only a part it it only is together for a current moment a fast moment that means you tickle the probe with 50 milliwatts yes it's a clear answer yes sondern mit lebendigen organismen setzt du diese proben nicht unter stress is not stress for the measurement does it influence it matthias has replied that yeah there may be surprises and for example that maybe foaming or abiding over


Good evening and welcome to ongoing election coverage by Town Meeting TV. This is one of a series of forums that we are bringing you in advance of the general election on November 8th. Town Meeting TV hosts forums with all candidates and items on the ballot that you will see, all items that you'll see on your ballot. Our election forums introduce you to community decision makers and also connect you to issues that shape your local community. My name is Emily Brewer. I'll be the moderator for tonight's Vermont Attorney General Forum. And I am joined by candidates Charity Clark and Michael Taglevia. Thank you both very much for joining us tonight. We really appreciate you coming in. Glad to be here. Thank you. And for those of you in the audience that are watching live, we do welcome your questions at<PHONE_NUMBER>. And we'll put you live on air and we will prioritize your questions so the candidates can answer them. And you can watch Town Meeting TV on Comcast Channel 1087, Burlington Telecoms Channels 17 and 217, as well as online at youtube.com-town-meeting-tv. With that being said, let's jump right into it. And we'll start with Michael for an opening statement. Can you please tell us why you're running and what experience you bring to the position? What will be different for the people of the state because you have been elected to this position? I am running for Attorney General because I can be silent no more. We are seeing a state there. We have rising crime mostly due to issues with drugs and a problem with a revolving door of the bail system. And we're seeing that people no longer feel safe in even rural towns in Vermont and especially in big cities like Burlington. I bring my life experience and my experience running a business and I want to take that experience to the Attorney General's office and make it as efficient as we can bring the criminal justice division up to speed so that we can meet the challenges that are coming with the criminal issues regarding drugs. Drugs need to be addressed as soon as I hit the ground running on day one. And that would be the main thing. It will not be the only thing, it will be crime, excuse me. Victim advocacy as well because we're seeing with the rising crime that people are feeling forgotten and I want to let Vermonters know that they will not be forgotten with Mike Taglovia as the Attorney General. Thank you very much, Mike. Now, Charity, same question for you. Please tell us why you're running and what experience you bring to the decision. Sure. Well, my story begins in Southern Vermont where I grew up working in my family's grocery store. I worked my first day when I was 10 and my last day when I was in law school and I saw all kinds of people come through my line at the checkout. I saw people thriving, people on their way to work and I saw people struggling. I took the store with me. When I grew up I became a lawyer but especially these last eight years working at the Attorney General's office I spent the last four years as the Chief of Staff at the Attorney General's office and I was a member of the leadership team making decisions on all the major issues that came to the Attorney General's office. I always tried to lead by serving that every day for Monter. I believe that this background and experience is what the Attorney General's office needs and it's next Attorney General. We need someone who understands the scope and breadth of the office across seven divisions who has the legal skills and leadership abilities to meet this moment in history and who knows how to leverage the office for the best results for Vermont.  Thank you very much. And we'll stick with you Charity as we move on to our first question which is the Vermont Attorney General is the Chief Law Enforcement Officer in the state of Vermont. What degree do you believe this office is also responsible for challenging and encouraging law reforms such as decriminalizing drugs, bail reform, etc.? Well one of the important roles of the Attorney General is to be an advocate and advise the legislature. It is something that I spent time doing as Chief of Staff and it is something that I look forward to doing in January as Attorney General. When it comes to this particular topic there was actually a division created called the Community Justice Division in 2017 under a past Attorney General and part of what that division does is advocate for these reforms and as Attorney General I would absolutely keep that division I would be an active part of the work that they do as I have been these past especially four years when I was serving as Chief of Staff. One of the important elements of that division isn't just advocacy but also managing what's called the pretrial services and court diversion program which really was on the vanguard of criminal justice reform when it was started I think 30 years ago and what we see and what the work that they do because they provide you know wraparound services and supports for offenders is just lower recidivism rates and great success so I would be a support to that division as well. Thank you very much. And now Mike, to what degree do you believe this office is responsible for challenging and encouraging law reforms? I think it is very important in challenging and encouraging certain reforms and decriminalization. I do not believe that marijuana should have been decriminalized I think it only makes our effort in drug enforcement harder. I do believe that the Attorney General should counsel the legislators with respect to legislation that they're considering and also with respect to legislation that's already in effect with regard to removing some of it if it's either redundant or it's been shown that it's not as effective as it could have been or as it was intended. We find across the country that we see the law of unintended consequences in a lot of cases especially with the decriminalization of marijuana and what I don't want to see is in the interest of tax dollars because of the decriminalization that we find teen use of marijuana and mental health issues with teens because they're using marijuana just as one example but I would like to use the bully pulpit of the Attorney General's office not only with respect to the legislature but also with Vermonters in general to keep them informed on a regular basis of progress we're making and things that I believe would be helpful to change to help make Vermonters safer. Thank you very much Mike. And with that we'll move on to our next question. We'll stick with you and you can start. The question is how would you envision working with the state's attorneys from around Vermont? Do you anticipate any challenges or opportunities? I anticipate many opportunities. I will on day one make an effort to just drop Mike. I will make an effort to contact every state's attorney and reach out to them in an effort to coordinate with all aspects of Vermont law whether it be criminal or civil whether it be victim advocacy or helping seniors with identity theft issues but I plan on acting as the chief law enforcement officer and keeping in constant contact with the county officials, the state's attorneys so that they know they have a partner in the state and we can meet the challenges head on and through keeping those avenues of communication open we can hopefully deal with the criminal aspects that are concerning Vermonters in a much faster and more efficient way. Thank you very much and Charity, same question to you. Well this is an important point. It requires a certain collaborative spirit because our 14 county state's attorneys are independently elected. They're not overseen by the attorney general and relationship building, collaboration and just a colleague's ship is a really wonderful attitude to bring to the role of attorney general when dealing with the county prosecutors. One of the opportunities I had as chief of staff was to oversee the expungement clinics that we did every other month with various state's attorneys we would go from county to county and I would build on those relationships I've already formed in that process with the state's attorneys to continue that collaboration and communication and relationship building. I also would continue the expungement clinics that I mentioned I think they're really important but yeah you have to have that collaborative spirit when interfacing with the attorney general's office and the state's attorneys. Great, thank you very much Charity and before we move on to our next question which is around statewide politics I'd just like to remind anybody who's watching at home if you'd like to call in you can call in with a question at<PHONE_NUMBER> and Mike and Charity will answer that for you. That being said we'll start with Charity for this one and the question is in what ways have you seen the attorney general's office make statewide impact that you want to follow up on or change? Well you know this is a statewide office so you know it has influence on many many issues but I just want to focus on a couple here tonight first is reproductive rights when the DOB's decision came down which reversed Roe v. Wade I within three days created a safe harbor plan to make Vermont a safe harbor for those affected by the DOB's decision that includes people who are seeking abortions and also those providers in Vermont who provide abortion care and would continue working on that in January with the legislature and making sure that we're using the laws like the Consumer Protection Act that are already in place to protect folks who are impacted by DOB's. The other issue I want to highlight is domestic violence there are 40,000 victims of domestic and sexual violence in Vermont every year and half of homicides relate to domestic violence we have in housing the attorney general's office the domestic violence fatality review commission which is a bunch of stakeholders who review the fatalities related to domestic violence and then provide recommendations and as attorney general I would amplify their voice to make sure that the legislature, the public and the governor sees those recommendations and knows what the recommendations are so they can be implemented so just highlighting a couple of issues there's many many that the attorney general has influence over Thank you Mike, same question in what ways have you seen the attorney general's office make statewide impact that you would like to follow up on or change? There are a few ways but I'd like to respond to something that Charity said about the road decision I think it's important to point out that the road decision actually just reaffirmed or affirmed states' rights federalism the day after the road decision came out there was no change in Vermont and as far as abortion abortion was still available because Vermont has laws allowing for abortion so I just wanted to make that clear that states' rights and federalism and it was a good decision all states can make their own laws regarding that as the Constitution of the United States says it should and that's the way I think we're best served but as far as statewide politics I think one of the things the attorney general did was he stepped in I believe in a case that was involved in the Chittenden County states attorney where he decided he was going to bring charges where the Chittenden County states attorney did not so that is one of the things I would want to use as a tool also to ensure that Vermonters understand that justice will be done for the victims as well as those who are willing to commit crime in Vermont. Vermonters need to feel safe in their homes regardless of whether in Burlington or in a small town like where I live in Corinth I've seen it I've heard the stories day in and day out whether it be catalytic converter theft we had a friend of mine who was also a candidate his home was broken into took them a while to realize how his home was broken into but I suspect it was someone who was trying to steal for to be able to afford a drug habit so we need to address those issues and we need to address the drug addiction issue and I have a plan that will take care of that reopening some facilities opening some new ones bringing in outside contractors as advisors and also using them as help for facilities to get people who are in the system training therapy and get them back into society as productive members of Vermont's economy. Thank you Mike and before we move on to our next question I just want to give you a chance for a 30 second rebuttal if you'd like or we can move on. You know I think one of the differences between my opponent and myself is a difference of opinion about abortion and about the dobs decision you know that's a choice that the voters get to make. I disagree with the dobs decision I think it is problematic and it's not just it does have an impact on Vermont's certainly those medical providers who are providing services outside of the state it impacts them directly and we need to be responding to that and of course you know it's a problem because we have we don't have access to abortion that means the states that do provide abortions are seeing an uptick in demand which means that the people living in that state might not have access to abortion as quickly as they need it so we don't agree on that point. Thank you Charity and now Michael we'll move on to our next question which is national politics what recent high profile cases with implications beyond Vermont would you hold up as examples of previous work with the Vermont Attorney General that you would either emulate or avoid? I think joining some some lawsuits to enable states to pool their resources and their finances are beneficial to the state of Vermont since it's such a small state but I would not try to use the Attorney General's office to be a social justice warrior in a time when we are facing record high fuel prices and the threat that we are going to have rolling blackouts and brownouts in the northeast including Vermont with respect to electric rates so there's one lawsuit I believe is Vermont versus Exxon Mobile to be one I do not see how I would have to see all the particulars but just knowing that the United States has some of the cleanest oil reserves in the world right below our soil here sometimes as deep as 40,000 feet where we are importing some of the dirtiest oil in the world to refine here it kind of doesn't make sense so I would look very carefully at some of those lawsuits some I'm sure could be beneficial but I would want to look very careful at them thank you Mike and Charity the same question to you sure during the presidency of Donald Trump we saw a lot of harmful policies and negative impacts on those policies here in Vermont and the Attorney General's office got involved as we often do with multi-state lawsuits we join lawsuits that are like-minded states have filed or amicus briefs the so-called friend of the court briefs and sometimes comment letters to the federal government I'll think of a couple of examples we have numerous dozens of environmental cases we have joined on to on the national level and we also got involved with trying to prevent the Trump administration from taking funding away from a government's preventative health care program those are all items I was involved with and certainly would continue as Attorney General it's really important that if in 2024 we see another president like Donald Trump that had those negative impacts we have an Attorney General who can give Vermont a voice on the national stage thank you Charity with regard to environmental issues if there's an issue where there is a a pollution issue with a major corporation I would be more than willing to entertain and pursue a major corporation where there was pollution issues but I am not a fan of using lawsuits to scare especially scare our young people with regard to certain green issues when we know that we are one of the cleanest economies and one of the cleanest states in the United States so we need to use do measured actions in that case so that we don't wind up actually bankrupting the state for environmental reasons if all of the good intentions wind up putting average Vermonters in a financial hole I don't see how that's a positive for Vermont thank you would you like to respond quickly okay great with that being said just one more reminder if you'd like to call in before we get to the end of our forum here please call<PHONE_NUMBER> and we'll answer your questions so moving on the next question we have here is do you have a question for one of your opponents and we can start with charity on this okay I do have a question my question is the Attorney General is responsible for leading an office of 150 people including 90 attorneys without legal experience or even a law degree in what ways are you the best person to serve as the Attorney General I believe I could assemble a team just as the conductor in an orchestra doesn't need to know how to play every instrument if he can get everyone to play their instrument correctly and on the right timing then we can all in the Attorney General's office make beautiful music together for the benefit of all Vermonters if I can assemble a good team which I will be able to I'm sure there are a number of very good members of the Attorney General's office right now who would be part of that team I do want to bolster some divisions but my business experience and my ability to assemble a team and network with people will definitely be an advantage and I also see my me not being Attorney and being able to break the echo chamber and bring a different perspective I think will help Vermonters understand that there is a little bit different opinion and it can be bounced off of me so that the average Vermonter knows that the Attorney General's office is in their corner whether it be victim advocacy crime senior issues with identity theft that they will be able to contact the Attorney General's office and hear from the Attorney General's office more in layman's terms so that they can just be comfortable Thank you Charity and thank you Mike Mike do you have a question for Charity Yes with regard to EB-5 there are questions I know that you've received campaign donations from Peter Schumlin as well as from T.J. Donovan you've mentioned that in previous debates and also in our previous forum that you talked about when the cases were over regarding EB-5 then it would be full disclosure and transparency there are a number of Vermonters that keeps coming up with this question for me they feel as if the case is dragging on and they don't feel as if in particular white collar crime with the case of this is actually going to reap any rewards or that Vermonters are not going to get the whole truth in a timely fashion they're worried that the statute of limitations will run before that any people who may have committed crimes will be able to be charged are you willing at this point because of your involvement with some of the supposed players possible players are you willing to recuse yourself should you become Attorney General No so the Attorney General's office is handling the civil case there's seven divisions at the Attorney General's office there is a criminal division and that is not handling this case the civil division handles all the cases when the state is sued or a state actor is sued so that is the role that we're playing in this case you know people have are completely entitled to sue other people and entities and one of the jobs of the Attorney General is to serve as the lawyer to the state and that is one of the roles that we play is you know serving as the civil attorney in a civil case and so that's what we do that's what we're obligated to do and as Attorney General of course that's what I would do before I got to the Attorney General's office eight years ago I was a civil attorney doing litigation so that is the kind of expertise that I brought to the office when I first arrived great thank you I want to get a chance to get to a couple more of these questions before we wrap up in a few minutes so thank you both for that and I believe for this question we will start with Mike and it has to do with racial justice so the courts and criminal justice system are a central focus in addressing racial justice and equity what do you see as examples of systemic racism and how would you use this office to address historic and current wrongs based on racism well lady justice in this country and in this state is blind everyone is equal in the eyes of the law if there are reports of systemic racism or racism against whether they be public officials or law enforcement they need to be addressed but I would want to see specific examples of racism and the thing that I'm concerned about is the word equity I believe in equality of not equality of outcome but equality under the law if we have equality of outcomes it winds up diluting the people who are more productive in certain ways than other neither of us none of us here at this table are equal for a number of reasons I may be better at certain things than you or charity and vice versa so we need to treat people equally under the law but equity I believe is a dangerous slippery slope because we really don't want equality of outcomes if there are two people with different talents and with regard to justice we don't want justice to be served based on equity we want justice to be served on a crime that may or may not have been committed thank you Mike and same question to you charity we are at a reckoning point in this country with our criminal system that includes the police but you know you asked for an example of systemic racism and unfortunately our entire system is based on a racist system that began right after the civil war we need to take a pause and acknowledge that and then we need to do everything that we can to correct that and something that I have worked on at the attorney general's office and will continue to work on is reforms that you know acknowledge and try to correct that system the justice reinvestment working group is a working group that has been in process for actually several years using evidence to make recommendations on how we can do better here in Vermont I was a part of that process for a short time it's really really effective and I look forward to continuing to do that work in January I should also note that just because I wanted to mention this statistic that the United States has 4% of the world's population and 20% of the world's prison population so there is clearly you know a problem that we should acknowledge and then do what we can to make it better thank you charity and I want to give both of you enough time to have sufficient closing statements and then we'll close up the forum so thank you very much for this conversation today and we'll start with closing statements from charity great so you know we are at an historic moment global warming gun safety reproductive rights and we need an attorney general who can meet this moment I want to be the lawyer to the people I want to fight for families I want to fight for small businesses I want to fight for children with my background and experience I believe I am the best candidate for attorney general and I will be ready to lead on day one thank you very much charity and Michael your closing statements like charity I will be ready to lead on day one as well the phone calls and the meetings will begin immediately I believe that if you as a Vermont voter are satisfied with the way things have gone over the last couple of years then maybe I'm not your candidate but I believe that there are enough people in Vermont who are concerned about the direction of the the level of safety public safety and the issues with drug problems and that if you want change I represent the change that needs to happen we don't need to reimagine law enforcement we need to restore law enforcement so everyone Vermont is young and old cities small towns doesn't matter everyone needs to feel safe as they did not so far not so recent past we can do this we can turn it around now is the time to do it and I'm the person to lead the attorney general's office to make that happen thank you very much Mike and thank you very much charity thank you both of you for joining us here tonight and thanks for everybody for tuning in to town meeting TV's ongoing coverage of general elections you can find this and more forums at channel 17 dot TV and don't forget to vote on or before November 8th all mail ballots were mailed to all registered Vermont voters this year so haven't yet received a ballot in the mail please check in with your town clerk so that you can vote in advance or on November 8th and thank you again for watching and sharing town meeting TV if you're not already please subscribe to our YouTube channel and have a great night


Item number SCP-157 Object Class, Euclid Special Containment Procedures When not being used in an experiment, SCP-157 is to be stored in its cryptobiotic form in a dry, airtight container. It is estimated that SCP-157 can survive in this condition for at least 10 years. Specimens needed for experimentation can be removed from storage and given water then food to restore them to a usable state. Personnel working with an active SCP-157 colony are cautioned not to eat, drink, change clothing, or apply any substance to their body in the presence of SCP-157. Foundation MTF agents are authorized to administer Class-A amnestics to any survivors or witnesses of wild SCP-157 attacks. Description SCP-157 is a previously unknown microscopic animal in the tardigrade phylum adapted to live on land as a predator. Like other tardigrades, SCP-157 is extremely resistant to environmental damage and can enter a cryptobiotic state when no food is present. SCP-157 normally exists as an amorphous mass composed of millions of individual organisms. In this form, it can slowly crawl and climb. SCP-157 colonies are predatory and can attack insects and small animals by engulfing them and then slowly dissolving their prey with digestive enzymes. Humans and other large prey are not normally attacked directly by SCP-157 colonies as they are too large to engulf, and long-term contact is necessary for SCP-157 to successfully feed. The organism has developed an alternative method of achieving such contact. SCP-157 colonies possess an innate telepathic ability. When in the presence of prey that is too large to directly attack, the SCP-157 colony will use telepathy to present the illusion of something its prey wants to eat, wear, or apply to its body. SCP-157 is highly toxic when eaten. Even having done so requires antidotes to ██ and ██ within 20 minutes, as well as immediate gastric surgery to remove the portion that was eaten. When applied to human or animal skin, SCP-157 will produce an anesthetic to encourage prey to ignore pain and leave the organism in place. It then dissolves and consumes the skin within 30 minutes to 2 hours. Dead prey is rapidly consumed and SCP-157 will grow significantly as it feeds. When reaching a size of 5 kilograms, SCP-157 will split into smaller colonies that move off in search of new prey. When in the presence of two or more individuals, SCP-157 will have an inconsistent appearance and may appear to be a food item to one person in an article of clothing to another. This can serve as a warning and prevent exposure to the organism. Addendum, note that due to its resilient nature, SCP-157 can be split into smaller species, boiled, microwaved, etc., and remain alive and dangerous. SCP-157 Capture Incidents Incident 15701 Found with extensive scalp damage after mistaking SCP-157 for a bottle of shampoo and applying some to its hair. Victim was apparently immune to SCP-157 anesthetic and began screaming, attracting the attention of his wife who had been eating a snack. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. He had a pastrami sandwich on his head and it was eating him. Victim treated for chemical burns. SCP-157 Capture Alive Victim and wife given Class-A amnestics and released. Incident 157-02 Found partially consumed by SCP-157 in its office at ████ Co., after apparently believing SCP-157 was a pair of socks and wearing them, Victim bled the death after feet and lower legs were mostly dissolved. Incident 157-03 Standard monitoring of police reports revealed a missing person's case where the investigating officers observed a couch slowly attempting to crawl towards the door of the Victim Department. Couch initially sealed an area by police. Foundation agents later determined it to be an unusually large variant of SCP-157 and contained the specimen. Amnestics administered. Although large enough to attack humans directly, this specimen prefers to use its telepathic ability to attract prey in the manner of smaller SCP-157 colonies.


Hey, good morning, everybody. It's about noon on Saturday, February 23, 2013. I'm up here in Rocky Mountain National Park getting a little workout in. Hey, I just wanted to thank you all for all the support that you've given me on my knee surgery and recovery, doing really well. Thank you. And also with the kind words on the Explorers Club membership. I'm really humbled by that. I'm just really honored to be part of that team. Also, just wanted to thank you also for your kind words on Facebook. Throughout the entire time I've been posting. So anyway, hey, looking forward to a great Everest 2013 season. Unfortunately, I won't be there, but I'll be there in spirit and I will be covering it on the website as usual. But I will be back in Nepal in August of this year and I'll be climbing another 8,000 meter mountain. That's Manuslu and I'm really looking forward to that. So I got a lot of work to do between now and then to get in shape for it. So you'll be seeing quite a few pictures of me out here in Rocky Mountain National Park. Hopefully days like this, so having a great time. Okay, that's all for now. Hey, thanks again everybody for following. Climb on. This is Alan. And remember, memories are everything.