My name is James Marshall and I am the CEO and founder of the Natural Lifestyles which is an Australian based Natural Seduction and Lifestyle Design Company, and I'm a returning speaker two times to the 21 convention My background is pretty colorful and checkered career Unlike a lot of seduction coaches I didn't come from a position where I was say like a technical guy a computer nerd or something and then suddenly figured out some System in my basement and then went out and started picking up chicks You know in LA My background was very diverse. I was a very nerdy shy and musically skilled kid I played the flute and studied opera singing at a young age Which was not the coolest thing you could do in Australia at the time and I paid for that dearly by being beaten up a lot Which led me to start studying martial arts at quite a young age And I became very obsessed about particularly Shaolin Gong Fu or Kung Fu for you guys out there, Kang Fu And this led me on a journey to actually travel to China live in China and eventually study in Shaolin temple So the background of my seduction abilities was actually forged In the mountains of Henan province when I was hitting rocks and meditating Because I learned presence. I learned how to understand myself at a deep level I learned how to have command over my body and my intention and how to read the present moment and there's a lot of talk about being in the now And awareness is kind of a new buzzword in the self-help industry It's very important to develop but it's important to understand this doesn't just come from reading the power of now And and thinking sometimes I should be more aware. It's actually a lifelong process of Truly living in the moment from that your seduction skills skyrocket because a woman wants to Be standing in front of a man who is truly present and with her because then you get to create a magical moment I went from that into becoming a hedonistic musician as I pulled out my flute once again and then started playing wacky funk with it Spent years traveling around Australia as a broke musician having a lot of fun became a massage therapist and had a brief stint as a porn star in a feminist erotic a movie which is quite hilarious and then eventually More or less out of chance started this this business Which has then led me to travel to I don't know 35 countries around the world having wild adventures meeting very interesting men and women and now spreading my message the natural lifestyles coaches primarily men although we have coached some girls from around the world in strategies and principles on how to naturally engage with women without the need to have scripted lines or routines and At the same time how to change themselves from a core level in terms of their belief systems their ideologies in terms of what it means to be a man in this modern world and also strategies on how to develop a lifestyle that naturally draws towards you passive social sexual and financial income and Creates a life that perhaps the Coen brothers would be happy to make a movie about When I first started this company about six years ago, really it started as two guys who were broke Didn't have any skills that they could make money out of You were looking at a Latin dancer and a and a funk musician at the time we started this company essentially to see if we could get paid to get laid and we did and we started to get really good results with the students and Over time as we matured as men and as people we started to draw in a whole lot of other specialists in different areas and What we saw was that in order to be really great with women You need to be a man who works on all aspects of his life Not just going out there and picking up girls because then it's simply performance skill that you turn on and off It's something separate to you and so for myself I know over my over the last six years I've gone through a massive evolution in conjunction with the company and I think what I teach now expresses that in that You need to be continually evolving and growing as a man and testing yourself Internally and against the world if you want to move past stagnation points if you want to remain young and vital and if you want to be attractive and to attract not just women but all the Great things that life has to offer so I see the natural lifestyles as a vehicle for myself to evolve and as I do that Everyone that is drawn in to meet me either clients or you know guys I work with people that I do collaborations with we start to infect each other with these Amazing ideas and then cross-pollinate them so in a way I learned just as much from my students as I do from You know some of the other amazing coaches and the very challenging women that I meet throughout my life so I see the natural lifestyles at the forefront of a new men's movement which a lot of guys such as Anthony Johnson and some of the other very spectacular and Highly men with high integrity in this field are actually at the vanguard of Unlike a lot of the companies in the dating industry We don't teach techniques per se in the sense that we don't teach a scripted ABC method To achieve results with women because in my opinion Seduction and dating is not linear. It's actually very flexible and spontaneous and should be so So instead what we've done is we backwards engineered the principles that men who are naturally gifted with women have and I have Nailed those down to five major principles and these are the basis for everything that I teach These are the ability for first and foremost to have awareness Internal awareness to understand your own emotional state Your thinking processes the way your physiology and your emotions and your thoughts interact and Then to have external awareness of what's going on around you in terms of the environment and most importantly The girl that you're speaking with because it is actually the woman that will teach you how to seduce her through her Responses to your advances From there we move on to the concept of intent which is how you project and assert your own desires Because a lot of men have a lot of shame guilt and fear about the fact that they are sexual beings and Therefore they actually censor themselves Which is a very unattractive thing to women when they're being approached because the women can see immediately that they kind of want them But they're scared to show that from there. We move on to the other core principles from this I've developed some very unique coaching programs that allow guys to have very concrete principles to play with It's not like just go out there be natural It's uh, we do certainly have a strategy in a step-by-step methodology But at the same time it's very flexible to the own personal the own the person the individual and how they want to express that So that experimental process that I and my coaches have been through over the last six years of coaching professionally Has led us to build some very unique coaching programs around the world including the longest term Live-in Residential traveling residential in the world, which is the Euro tour 10-day around-the-clock madcap adventure through Central Europe with in my opinion the best natural Seduction coaches in the world in a very small group as well as other specialist programs such as understanding tantric sexuality sensual massage and Many of the I guess broader and deeper philosophies behind becoming a very successful and long-term ladies man in terms of the success that we've had with Students and coaches on the tour. Well for me, it's been really good because I get to travel a lot and get paid and get laid So that that's nice But more importantly for the for the students on the road Of course, what we see is that guys certainly meet women along the way and have beautiful romances with them but in a way that's more of a side effect to the to the most important aspects which is the fact that the Euro tour is in itself a man's initiation because I think in today's Western societies we tend to lack male initiation ceremonies Whereas in a lot of traditional societies when you are of a certain age you were taken out to perform certain duties or certain, you know past certain tests that would bring you into manhood and because of the absence of Generally the absence of fathers and the you know kind of explosion of the masculine feminine dynamic a lot of men Don't have that and the Euro tour acts like that We see guys going through a massive personal transformation whilst on this trip Not only in the terms of results with women, but in terms of asserting themselves as men understanding themselves on a very deep level Knowing and facing their demons and their fears and not smashing through them But more like just piercing through them gently at one at a time To a point where they come to a place where they are at ease with themselves Which is in my opinion one of the most attractive attributes a man can have to be okay with himself even if he's not perfect Only one or two generations ago pretty much all Boys were brought up in families where there was a man around there was a father where there is a good father or shit father You know, there was a lot of variation on that, but there was pretty clear roles that men and women played and I think most boys had Pretty clear role models and though it was pretty clear about what they had to do in life In order to be a man in whatever society they existed in now I think there are some advantages to that in the sense that you know, you understood where your place was and also some disadvantages in the sense that There was only one place you're allowed to be I Come from a generation where a lot of guys were brought up without father figures and myself included Not that I don't have a father. I do and I love him very dearly, but he wasn't really around when I was growing up and as a result I Got to choose my father figures, which is something I'm very grateful for I didn't have somebody telling me listen son. This is how you got to be a man. This is what you got to do in life and So I got the opportunity to go out there and find my own influences And I think for a lot of guys out there who are in that position they might feel like they're missing out on something or that they were hard done by and That can be true if that's what you believe you can live that crutch all your life That you didn't have a daddy around to tell you what to do and so therefore you never became a man But I would prefer that you take that as an amazing opportunity To go out there and choose your own life and choose your own mentors my influences have been diverse and In some ways contradictory as a teenager. I was really into the doors when somebody going to come up here and love me and nihilist French literature and I thought there was no point to life and so we may as well just have a fucking good time and Then I swung from that into becoming quite a hardcore Buddhist And so my influences were my initial Buddhist and kung fu teachers and to this day I have amazing respect for those men And they influence me every day in the sense that they taught me to take autonomy for myself To not accept anything without experiencing it myself But at the same time to have the humility to be open-minded enough to experiment with a whole range of internal techniques or mindsets or lifestyle decisions The women that I have had the privilege to have in my life as lovers or girlfriends have influenced me greatly I have a profound respect for women and They have taught me more about myself really than anyone else because a really good woman When you meet her Will act as a mirror to you She will hold up to you your strengths and show you things about yourself that you didn't know existed and at the same time she will show you your flaws and your bullshit and Reflect that back at you and go what do you got for me? So the girls that I Spent long periods of time with really shaped and influenced my life as well And I think that's something important to understand if you want to be a great seducer you need to actually really love women There are misogynists out there. There are players out there who fuck a lot of girls but never learn much about women or about themselves as a result and I pity those men because it's very very short-term greedy goals I see seduction as a lifelong pursuit something that both sexes benefit from and both grow from if done in a In an ethical and honest way so Yeah, my influences Jim Morrison monks chicks and Of course the guys that I have come to Considered to be brothers and fellow warriors on this path that I've met through being a coach in this I've met some absolutely amazing men And I've also met some amazing charlatans and con artists who've you know taught me about what I don't want to be and What can happen if you follow the dark side too long as a mentor and a coach in this industry? What I find is that in order for me to feel good about myself I need to make sure that what I teach and what I do is Incomplete alignment now I'm not saying that I have a monopoly on the truth that I understand everything or I'm a master And I think the moment you think that you must have mastered something It means you stop learning so for myself. I'm constantly growing I'm more than happy to receive feedback criticism and to engage with new ideas but at the same time when I'm coaching I need to have conviction about what it is that I'm doing and In this industry as a leader in this industry It holds me constantly accountable And I think some people are okay with having a product or a service they sell which they don't believe in or they know Is bullshit or you know, it's pure marketing and then can live their own life and feel asleep at night for myself I'm not able to do that and as a result One of the best things about being in this industry is that I am constantly held up to my own standards that I if there's something That I expect somebody else to do then I must be able to do it myself I would never ask a student to do something that I have not done myself and at the same time I Would never expect him to Have a deep internal shift or to confront his demons or to face his ego Whatever else if I was unable to do it myself Which is why I think it's good that I have been through a very wide spectrum of life experience I have been a fuck-up in some ways at some points, you know, I have Experimental with drugs. I have hurt women in the past. I have lied. I have cheated. I have done those things at the same time I have you know push myself to extremes of what I would say would be spiritual purity or living in complete alignment with my integrity and because I understand the light and the dark and I've been through those and I've seen the consequences of living in both of those I think I'm more than qualified to be able to coach guys from more or less any position. They've gone through Unfortunately because this industry is completely unregulated. No government body has Dared to come and look at it look at us yet, which is you know good for tax, but not so good for regulating it There's There's a lot of men who come to this because they are lonely because they are scared because they are broken because they Missed out in life. They're vulnerable people often who come to to be coached and Unfortunately, that means that a lot of vultures circle around them and try and squeeze as much money out of them before discarding them as possible And as a result of that we're seeing a backlash where a lot of guys who've come into the community Received coaching probably overpriced and overhyped and not really gotten any change out of it have then thrown out the whole idea that you can be coached to become better with women or your lifestyle or to change your beliefs Which is really sad when I got a guy come to me who's spent 3k on a boot camp that he considered to be a rip-off The worst thing is not the money he lost It's that because he was coached by the best in the world and it didn't work for him It means to him that he can't be helped and if a guy feels like there's nothing else for me. I can't be helped That's that's a really tragic thing so I think it's very important for myself and for the other coaches who I know have integrity and teach very well and get results that we actually start to call these people out and more importantly than that we band together and creates Systems and standards that coaches must adhere to in order to be able to call themselves lifestyle coaches or seduction coaches Question is where did the game go wrong or right? I don't think it necessarily went wrong I think what it did is it it appeared out of a particular city, Los Angeles, which is a bizarre place It's not like most cities on the world on the planet and It it came out of a knee-jerk response to a bunch of guys who were nerdy guys who couldn't get laid with LA club chicks and So they kind of modeled what was going on in the club and worked out Well, what did what girls responding to and cobbled together? Some techniques that would kind of mimic what a high-value guy in that situation would be doing I think the game in itself is a really positive thing in the sense that it created a You know a public knowledge that this was possible that it was possible to go up and talk to a girl across the street or across the Bar without knowing her without her being in your social circle and that you could have a shot at it And I think that's a really powerful thing anything that gets a guy to walk across and talk to that girl is better than nothing But at the same time the presupposition that it was built on all that all indirect schools are built on is flawed The presupposition is women won't like you for you Therefore you need to pretend to be something that is not you and you need to trick them in order to get them into bed All indirect schools are built on that presupposition and it's it's a really terrible mindset to come from so that brings us to the Debate the question of indirect versus direct style of seduction In my opinion you should always be direct and Not just in terms of the opener that you use when speaking to a girl But in terms of your life in general a man must be able to assert himself He must be able to put forward his desires.    That's that's not calibrated at all Directness first comes from your intention.   I really like you I want to make get to know you because so many guys have so much fear about The judgment they're going to receive if they let a girl know that they want her and so it's great You just go out there and put it out there dozens if not hundreds of times and see that usually girls are very receptive to that Even if they're taken or they're not interested they will respect you for having the balls to come up and let them know that yeah, they like you and Over time as you get more subtle with this More refined a lot of that doesn't need to be stated It can be implied through a look through a touch through through verbal flirtation Which creates more sexual tension than overt statements of interest and to the point where you can reach You know kind of Zen Mastery seduction where it all pretty much happens in the ether in space I think one of the most important skills a man can have in life is the ability to see Opportunities when they arise and take them where other people would be scared to and I know for myself The reason that I'm sitting on this park bench, which is very glamorous in Regents Park in 2012 near the end of the world is Because I took a chance and invested everything that I had on a small opportunity I was given I think four years ago to the day at the time I was speaking at a very small dating conference in Sydney in Australia and there was a guy there very larger than life character called Vince Calvin who many of you would know and Vince liked my speech and he invited me to come to the POA Summit in Hollywood and at the time I couldn't afford to do that You know the business was in its infancy. We were really just getting by and I took a big jump there. However, I had to I made sure that I went to that conference And I made sure that I delivered a speech that was very unique and was something completely out of left field To what most of the guys had seen and heard before and as a result that I met another young gentleman there by the name of Anthony Johnson and I Think to get what you want in life. You have to have this perfect blend of audacity and humility Because men who are arrogant and try and force things in life Tend to hit walls all the time. They tend to get judged They tend to have to deal with a lot of conflict and they surround themselves with sick offense Whereas a man who is too humble and sits back and waits Tends to have life passing by But you need to have a balance of these two things if you want to get what you want You need to go for it and just go yep I want this and maybe it's not my turn, but I here I am at the front of the queue at the same time You need to have humility and to understand where the other person is coming from and not trying to push your agenda too hard and So when I had a chat was a very casual chat with Anthony You know over ten minutes And we just I think we just clicked on an on an intentional level on an intention level on a philosophical level It was a casual chat and I let him know I would like to come and speak at your conference and that was about it so I think it was the next year or the year after I found myself in London in almost the same situation where again I couldn't really afford to be there and I Decided it was a very rocky time in my life. I was separating from my long-term partner There was a lot quite a lot of challenges going on in my life at that time But again, I decided I need to fucking take this opportunity Because you never know what's going to happen who you're going to meet and out of that my reputation spread a lot I met another guy called Sasha D game who I've now been collaborating with for the last year and has highly influenced me and I think I've done the same to him and Now the sky's the limit so I Count the 21 convention the first time I spoke of that as one of those pivotal moments in my life Where if I hadn't have just bitten the bullet and gone for what I wanted then maybe I'd still be just hanging out in Australia doing All right instead of conquering the world in 2011 I first spoke at the 21 convention here in London and That was a very challenging experience for me because although I'm very skilled at being able to Be calm and remain present. I was actually going through a pretty rough time And if anyone can look at the video and pick it out then You're doing well because I know how to look stoic and in control at all times even when I'm not But that was a really fantastic experience for me because Up until I remember trying to write that speech for quite a long time And I'm a good public speaker and I usually am very confident about what I'm going to do and up to the last minute Before I stood on stage. I really didn't know what I was going to say I had prepared some things, but I just every time I went to go and practice this speech just nothing was coming out and I got up and I think I did a pretty good job and I think that's a testament to the fact that I have conditioned myself through a whole range of Experiences to be not dependent on my state in order to be able to deliver what I need to deliver And I think that's an important message for guys, particularly when they're looking at approaching girls or seduction You're not always going to feel on top of the world and confidence is not a static state It's something that comes and goes depending on what's going on in your life or what experiences you're having your mindsets and all those kinds of things and Confidence really comes from in those moments of challenge in those moments of feeling weak Stepping out into the abyss and doing it anyway and seeing that it didn't destroy you You know the worst thing that could have happened to me in that moment Is I would have got up and choked and some dudes on some forums would have laughed at me and life would have rolled on and Instead, you know something good happened So that that time of my life was actually really pivotal It was it was me testing myself once again against the edge and that's what I love to do in life the moment I feel really comfortable Like everything is cool. I'm in control. I just dismantle it and throw myself out into the deep end again Which is what I'm doing now moving to Budapest in two days. I don't know anybody there I don't really know how it works and that's awesome because that means I get to be tested once again So the experience at 21 convention was was fantastic It was it was really in livening for me It gave me a real shot in the arm and really kicked me back on my track so that when I hit the Euro tour after that And dragged along Steve Mayeta and Sasha day game. We had the best tour we've ever had I've spoken at a lot of dating conferences around the world Which I have positive things to say about all of them But what I've noticed about the 21 convention is that it tends to attract The cream of the crop the very best in my opinion, you know, I might be wrong Maybe they're all liars.  I don't know but in my opinion the best that the world has to offer and I think that's obviously largely in part of the I Think that is largely to do with the discerning judgment of Anthony Johnson because he's the guy at the end of the day Who decides who speaking? but also it's because Guys who can't handle it who are not good enough are not willing to stand up there and be exposed there are other places where they can get up and waffle and You know do convoluted sales pitches and use in a nlp tricks and it'll kind of pass But here it won't because the other speakers know what they're looking at game respects game and recognizes game and It's a pretty horrible thing to be in a room full of people who know what they're doing and to be standing They're pretending that you know what you're doing. So I think a lot of guys just Would not be willing to put their balls on the line to be exposed so the convention attracts high quality because it demands high quality and as a result the attendees Reflect this as well And I see this in my own business is the guys who come to me for training are awesome They guys I would be friends with the guys who tend to have their shit together in other areas But for whatever reason have just not refined their social skills Or maybe they have and they want more or they want better And that's a fantastic thing to come to a convention where every guy that comes and asked me a question or that I speak to Is a legit person is somebody who can look you in the eye who can shake your hand who's not trying to prove themselves or amog you or You know cut holes in your theories just to validate themselves They're people who are there willing and able to learn because they have already reached a certain point of their own personal evolution and This is simply a reflection of what we're putting out there Anthony came with pure ideals. I'm sure they will change and grow and evolve over the years But his integrity has remained the same He's attracted men to speak with integrity and attracted attendees who want to live that live that truth as well so having that experience where a young guy who maybe was feeling lost himself maybe didn't have direction in life and maybe thought that the the jewels that life was promising were not his to have And to see suddenly that he has that look where he knows that he can have it He can go out there and be much bigger and much more than he thought he was is a profound gift to to receive as a teacher and Knowing that from that he's going to go out there and live a kick-ass life is a fantastic thing because that's not just going to affect him that's going to affect the people around him ultimately the woman he chooses to breed with and therefore the spawn that he sends out to the world so Seeing that coming from a shaky place at that time and knowing that even me at my weakest was still Causing ripples in a good way really gave me a lot of inspiration to go out there pick myself up and to For myself to be to again become more than I thought I could be The other awesome thing was the connections that I made with some of the speakers that year was quite profound in the sense that I connected with Anthony Johnson on a deeper level and I connected with Steve Mayeta and Sasha day game and I then invited those guys to come and join me on the Euro tour and out of that has come the most Profound and successful collaborations of my career to date because finally what I think we're seeing is the cream of the seduction industry starting to find each other and To be honest, there are a lot of guys in this industry who should not be teaching Not so much because they're ripping guys off which they are but mainly because If they're spreading information that is not correct or that is leading guys to put more masks on to be less of themselves Then they're causing long-term serious damage to the guys and therefore the girls are going to meet and I look forward to a time when the In a circle of guys who know what they're doing get together and create industry standards Which is not far away because you're seeing a lot of complaint Which is completely justified from a lot of guys who've been burnt along the way by fly-by-night Comment and we're coming to get you Where do I see the 21 convention in five years time? Well, that depends on a number of things firstly whether the world ends at the end of this year Which I really hope it doesn't because I'm starting up a really great time And I'd like to have at least five more years to complete my plans This is also going to depend largely on Anthony Johnson in terms of his commitment in terms of his ability to grow and evolve as a man because he's a guy who has got a lot of passion a lot of willpower who's very disciplined and Well beyond his years in terms of what he's achieving But at the same time I think For this convention to continue to evolve and a grow and grow That's going to be led primarily by his growth and evolution and so I look forward to him taking the feedback the the responses from the audiences both online and live and In terms of him internalizing the learnings that he's gathering through all the speakers that he pulls together Because as his as he grows as his understanding of the world of life of women of exercise of you know philosophy and all that stuff grows So too will the convention grow it will be limited by how much he's willing to to grow and I see in him Pretty much unlimited Potential for growth so as long as he's evolving and I'm evolving and everyone else in the the crew is evolving I see it jumping from strength to strength over the years to come.  Yeah, I would like to go to one of these events Or I'd like to do coaching or you know, I want to engage with this information But I feel like that makes me a loser Please understand it doesn't it makes you a warrior on a path to personal growth to To actualization to becoming what you could actually be Let people criticize let people they say let people winch and wine That's their prerogative. That's their life, but don't let them drag you down So come to places like this because these are think tanks of progress of progressive and positive thinkers These are men who are skilled in their areas and are here not to make money off you They're here to pass on information They're here to pass on their wisdom because that gives them validation Of course they get paid for it But the reason that all of us as coaches are here is not for the money It's not easy to be a dating coach or a health expert or somebody who thinks outside the box and make a million bucks It's quite difficult But because we believe in what we do because Anthony believes in what he does We are here to deliver this and we will continue to do it as long as men are willing to stand up and go Yes, I want to change So the path that I took to get here today is certainly not a linear one Certainly not a straight line and I certainly didn't plan it this way What I did plan was to live life to its extreme On multiple levels I have been a an extreme aesthetic in the terms that I was essentially a monk living in a mountain at the same time Well, not at the same time following that I became an extreme headnest living purely for pleasure, I guess But the consistency there is that I do not want a pedestrian lifestyle I do not want to like I it's not so much that I don't want to live in the box I don't think I'm allowed in the box. I really don't think I should be there. It's not the place for me. I See my role to exist Throughout all sorts of systems to be like lukewarm water as they would say in spinal tap To to move through life and to gain pure experience to try and master things that I apply my mind and my will to and to create influence not through You know forcing anybody but but making people think by exploding their realities by questioning their Presuppositions about what is and what is not possible or what you shouldn't shouldn't do because I've done everything you shouldn't do really and I'm very successful in the sense that I love life. I have a great time I get to travel I get to do exactly what I want to do and that's not because I was born in privilege I was born in a very poor single-port parent household And had a you know pretty rough childhood I didn't have the backup to be where I am today, but I refused to have life crush me and that's The the message that I want to pass on to to young men is that no matter what background you come from no matter What racial group or you know religious background or anything like that? It's not about just positive thinking you can't just think your way like yeah, everything's gonna be great You must face adversity You must also face the fact that life has a lot of awful things that you're gonna have to confront at some point but if you do it in a way that is joyful and that is looking at At the same time towards a great future and at the same time Experiencing whatever you truly are Involved in in the moment, then you don't waste any time then your life is a beautiful story Rather than something that passed you by So where this is going to lead me I have no fucking idea, but I'm really excited about finding out Judging from where I came from six years ago to where I am today You know God knows I could be running a small South American country Or I could be back in Shaolin temple It's let's let's wait and find out it's gonna be fun if you would like to find me Good luck because currently I live nowhere and everywhere If you would like to start to find me the easiest way is to go to my website Which is the natural lifestyles comm if you're interested in joining me for one of my madcap adventures through Eastern Europe You can go to the euro tour comm There's a few places left on the last tour for this year Who knows what's gonna happen next year if the world ends you're gonna really regret not coming this year So come and check it out. My blog is the James Marshall comm I'm pretty easy to find Online and if you're really really committed come find me in Eastern Europe. You won't regret it


Dozens of students gathered in Boston University's College of Communication for the first ever staying safe conference for journalists. The event, organized by Professor Chris Daly, stressed reporter preparedness and the possibility of experiencing dangerous situations in the field. An idea very real to BU students in light of the Boston Marathon tragedy earlier this year. The faculty took that as a wake-up call. We recognized the need to give our students these talented, brave, driven student journalists some practical tools and training. The conference began with a video highlighting journalists who have found themselves in risky situations while doing their jobs, followed by a Skype interview with Com alumni. I did feel as safe as you can feel when you're that close to a dangerous person. Just before the floor opened up to questions from the audience, a panel of professors and professional journalists took the stage to share their experiences and advice. While many of the panelists stressed that it is impossible to be prepared for everything one may encounter in the field, students left feeling a bit more aware of the steps they need to take to stay safe. For BU TV, I'm Chelsea Glinsman.


I'm the comic weekly man, the jolly comic weekly man. And I'm here to read the funnies to you happy boys and honeys. Yes, boys and girls, it's comic weekly time.  Right out of the pages of Puck the Comic Weekly straight into your living room, your friend, the comic weekly man, the jolly comic weekly man. Hello, hello, hello. Hello, hello, hello. My little Miss Honey, how are you today? You know something? I did the very same thing. I feel lazy too. Well, maybe it's a good thing that's the way it turns out. Because if you're lazy, you take things a little bit easier. Yes, and in a way, that's good. Yes, I agree. That's a very good thought. Thank you. You're welcome. Well, what I said was true, I think. And what's that?  Oh, I'm not too lazy for that. Puck the Comic Weekly? Very well, I'll read that in just a moment. But before I do, let's listen to this nice man. Oh, with Puck the Comic Weekly, and on the first page under bringing up father, Beatle Bailey. Magic words for the music, please. Very well, my lady. Toot me a toot and tweet me a tweedle. Squeeze out music for Bailey the Beatle. Today, Beatle and his squad are to have special practice in finding their way to a destination by reading a compass. So we find them lined up in the supply room, getting their problem sheets from an officer. Beatle sees a sheet of paper with a lot of numbers on it lying on a desk beside him. He says, why stand in line? Here's a problem sheet. A few minutes later, the men are gathered outside the building around the sergeant who announces, you'll find a stake at your destination point. Beatle looks at his sheet of paper with the directions written on it and says, M-O, 1,500. I guess that means north, 1,500 paces. And he starts for north, counting off his paces. 1, 2, 3, 444, 445, 4147, 777, 7178, 7179. And last picture top row, he walks into the office of General Halftrack, who's in the midst of a conference with several other generals. 9105, 9106, 9107. And up under the table he walks and right across it. Who's his half-man? Hey, what's the meaning of this, yeah? And don't mind me, boys.  And first picture bottom row, he's in front of the dressing room of the wax, the girls in the army. Now right, 50 paces. He turns right and marches toward the open door of the girls' dressing room. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 4, 11, 12, 3, 4. Well, he's in the PX in front of a soda fountain, so he stopped for a quick soda. And last picture, his commanding officer and the sergeant find Beatle in his quarters in his own little bed, taking it easy. The CEO roars, what are you doing in the sack? Beatle smiles sweetly. This is my destination. Where are the stakes? The sergeant jerks the piece of paper out of his hand, takes one look, and roars, you dope. That's the combination to the company's sake. Oh, wasn't that silly? He did. Beatle thought that he had the direction to where to go. And here all the time, he was reading a common dope. Yes, he is. And now I'll give you a little dope about where we're going next. Turn over the page to page 3. Oh, and here after those three mean men had captured him and taken him away. What happens now? Well, Val was furious when he heard what the three men had done, so he and Boltar and Tillicombe had sailed away to the town of Kerloft, where those three men are to punish them. And now Val's ship has sailed into the harbor in front of the town. No, let's see what's going to happen. Very well, here we go with Prince Valiant to the days of King Arthur. Hecate, brecate, gray, malkan, and quince. Music romantic for a fair, fair prince. Val's crowded war vessel menaces the whole town. Last picture top row, Val, Tillicombe, and Boltar leave the ship and ascend the path leading to the high tour, which is the castle at the edge of the town. Val is a prince and is ushered before the chief of the castle. First picture, second row, Val speaks. You're charged with the crime of abducting a prince of a royal house. Are you guilty? Before anyone can answer, Tillicombe points to some men and says, those three servants were among prince son's abductors. This is enough for Val. Looking sternly at the leader, he commands last picture, second row. Arm yourselves and go to the courtyard. Then Val looks at Boltar. And for the first time, they grin. Val draws his sword. And followed by Boltar, they too leave for the courtyard. It's poor against two. And the four criminals are hardy men. But Boltar and Val are possessed with the strength of men of justice avenging a cruel wrong. And though it takes time, the four criminals learn they've made a grave mistake when they try to run away with Val's son. And then the battle is over. And the criminals are reformed. Second picture, bottom row, Val, Tillicombe, and Boltar leave the castle to join their comrades on the ship. Their clothes are torn, and Boltar wears a bandage or two. Angry muttering follow them as they walk through the streets. But no one makes a move to touch them. For Boltar and Prince Val bear famous names. They reach their ship in safety last picture. And the moment they're on board, they sail for home. Good for taking away little arms. Good for taking away little arms. You bet they did. And it was a good thing they brought Tillicombe along, because she knew in a way. Yes, she has an eagle eye, and she doesn't forget. I wonder what'll happen next. Well, maybe Val will have some adventure on the way back home. We'll find out. Now I'm sure you'd like to see what's happening to Flash Gordon. Oh, yes, I would, because he's on the planet Venus, and he's in great danger. You bet he is. So let's turn over the page. Go past page four, past page five, turn over page five. And there on page seven is Flash Gordon. And remember, Flash had been captured by King Tsang on the planet Venus. Yes, and Flash had been sent to guard Queen Vicki when she went out into the forest with the harvesters. And they were attacked by the blue ones, very vicious creatures. And when Flash and Queen Vicki escaped from the danger, they ran into a wild, furious storm. And I don't know how they'll ever save themselves from it. Well, let's find out if they do. Here we go with Flash Gordon. Rigger, rigger, doon, doon, sash, gem, attach. Let's have music for heroic Flash. With a swiftness of a tornado, the Venusian storm is upon them, and catches Queen Vicki's jet car in its power. Flash sees he doesn't have a chance against the terrific winds. And at the risk of crashing in the wind-wipped Venusian jungle, Flash drives Queen Vicki's jet car down, down, down through the storm's supersonic updress, hoping to find some clearing in the dense woods. But not even Flash's skill is enough to guide his tiny craft to a safe landing amid the wildly thrashing tree ferns and giant fungi. Lipped out of the crashing car, Flash clings desperately to the storm-torsed branches. He hangs to the tree desperately, while the raging storm's own fury carries it away. Flash picture top roll, as Flash is pulling himself up, he hears Vicki's anguished wail. He looks up to see Vicki menace first picture bottom roll by a huge beetle. With its prehensile legs, the huge creature is pulling Vicki toward its pincers and gaping jaws. Quickly, Flash whips out his chemigun to dissolve the monster in a stream of acid. The earthman is dismayed to see the acid blast wilt the trees, but Flash harmlessly off the scarab's armored shell. Immune to Flash's weapon, the monster only tightens its grip on the struggling queen. Flash scrambles through the trees, and Flash picture in a last desperate effort to divert the giant beetle's attention. Flash leaps on the creature's back and belabors it for the tree branch. Startled, the beast releases its grip on Vicki and turns on Flash with razor-sharp claws. The vicious creature even flashes gun has no effect on it. That's something we'll have to find out next week. Now it's time to turn over the page. And here we are on the last page of the first section. Yes, at the capital of the United States, Washington, DC, was being attacked by the British. And you mean for the attack that was supposed to come? I wonder what'll happen. Well, let's read now and find out. Here we go with Dick's adventures. Say the magic words with me. Regally pack, kazak, kazik. Let's have music for adventurous Dick. Tragedy hovers over the panicked stricken city. The city is Washington, DC, the year 1814. Dick and a handful of grim-faced Americans take up positions around the abandoned White House. And then the attack comes. The British have swept through the streets of Washington. They're one aim to destroy the capital of the United States because they believe if the White House is destroyed that the spirit of the Americans will be broken. And it'll be easy then to make the country surrender.  But defense is futile. Moments later, the British swarm in, intent on destruction. The attack is swift and furious, and the defenders are driven away. First picture, second row, the British set fire to the building. The newly built White House roars up in flames. All throughout the city of Washington, the same thing has happened. The small, poorly equipped army of American defenders has driven out of the city by nightfall. And last picture, second row, they stand on a hilltop some distance away and see building after building, going up in flames, set by the attacking British. The frightful night sky is lit up with ghastly bonfires all over the city. The treasury building, the war office, the arsenal, and the capital, all blazing furnace. Then suddenly, first picture bottom row, the greatest flames of all leap up. The Navy Yard in all its ships are put to the torch by the American defenders themselves to prevent their capture by the British. Across the bridge, men, quick! The only means of escape from this brick and city is by way of the Great Bridge over the Potomac and the Virginia. Dick and his band race across it, only to discover that the British are setting it afire. As they stop to turn back, last picture, they see that in order to prevent the British from crossing, the Virginia militia have fired the bridge at the other end. And they're taking his friend's stand on a bridge, burning at each end, and no way of escape for them. No, I can't remember a time either. I'm just rushing. That was a terrible thing to do, but the British thought that if it destroyed the capital, the Americans would surrender. I'll bet you the Americans don't. No, they don't, and you'll find out next week how they continue this brave fight for freedom. But now look at the bottom of the page. There's Rusty Riley. Oh, yes, and I'm anxious to read that. Well, I'll read that in just a moment, but first, here's that nice man again with something interesting to say.  Magic words for the music, please. Very well, my lady. Gallop and run till the road is dusty. Give us music for his horse and Rusty. This was the last day that Mrs. Jones had to pay Mr. Marlowe the $1,000 she owed him. If she could not pay, Mr. Marlowe would take her farm away from her. The $1,000 certificate that Rusty had won in the horse race was not good enough, and just when the situation looked hopeless, Rusty's friend, Clem, came in and told Rusty that the insurance company had given him $1,000 for his part in saving the ship from being destroyed. Rusty quickly hands the check to Mr. Marlowe, who turns to the sheriff and says, what is this, a devil cross? If I got to accept this check in settlement, and Mrs. Jones debt to me, must I share it? The sheriff answers, I guess you do, Marlowe. When Rusty Riley endorses that certified check, it's the same as current same. And then he turns to Mrs. Jones, hands her the piece of paper that is her agreement with Mr. Marlowe. Here's your mortgage, Mrs. Jones. You can tear it up or burn it. And I'm mighty glad it turned out this way. Mrs. Jones exclaims, Oh, sheriff, it's like a wonderful dream. Then she turns to Rusty, last picture top row, and tells him she can't let him do this. The money belongs to him. Rusty replies, Oh, shucks, Mrs. Jones, what did I do with it? Besides five minutes ago, I didn't even know I had it. Then Tex, who had stepped in through the door and had overheard what had happened, comes forward, first picture bottom row. Well, I got back here right in the middle of this here deal, so I'm just getting a set up. I'm all for what Rusty did, and I'm putting in my check too. And Rusty's friend Pete says, Yeah, in mine too, Mrs. Jones, honest, I don't want it. Mrs. Jones shakes her head. I'm a real proud woman, Mr. Tex. And boys, I just can't take money. I know I can't pay back. Now, now, now, don't lose no sleep over that, ma'am. I got some news for you.  Man sakes, somebody better pinch me. I, I, I must be dreaming. Last picture, Tex says to Rusty. Oh, by the way, Rusty, I phoned Mr. Miles this morning. There's a telegram for you up there. I had him read it, and I'm afraid you won't like it. Oh, Jeepers, Tex, what's wrong? Yes, it was lucky that Clem got there when he did. Yes, he did. That's the way he deserved to be. But, we'll find that out next week. Now it's time for Dagwit and Blondie, so let's pick up the first page of the second section. Oh, yeah, it happened to Dagwit today. It always does. Well, let's see what it'll be. So here we go with the first page of the second section of Puck the Comic Wiggly and Dagwit and Blondie. Ram-a-foo, ram-a-fum, zim-zam-zum-by. Can't you be music for Dagwit and Blondie? Dagwit is lying on the sofa, taking a nap. Oh, hey Blondie, will you answer the phone? I'm taking a nap. So Blondie answers the phone. A voice asked for Mr. Bumstead. Did you say miss? Blondie, sadly, puts down the phone. And in a second is in the living room looking very unhappy. Last picture top rose, she says. Some girl wants to talk to you, Dagwit. What? I don't know any girls. But he goes to the phone anyway and picks it up. You must have a wrong party. There are thousands of other men. Blondie whispers angrily. How long is this thing going on? No, I don't remember meeting you. I never promised you a date. Last picture, second row. Blondie with tears in her eyes says. And to see. Dagwit, who is now in a complete tizzy, still howls in the phone. You're mistaken. I did. And he slams down the phone and dashes out the door, first picture, third row. She claims I made a date for the last summer and she's on her way over here now. By the time you can go, Blondie has caught him and is shoving him back to the house. I'll join the army.  Last picture, third row. Blondie has put the children upstairs into the bedroom and Cookie asks. Why do we have to stay in our room, Mama? You must never know of this terrible thing that's come into our lives. Then the doorbell rings. Blondie goes looking for Dagwit, but he's not in the living room, bedroom, kitchen, stove, refrigerator, bathroom, bathtub, and he's not in the cellar. Oh, yes he is. Dagwit. Blondie finds him hiding behind a barrel. Come out of there, Dagwit. She grabs him by the foot and starts to pull him out. And Dagwit, hearing the doorbell shrieks, there she is. Come, Dagwit, I'll stick by you even though you don't deserve it. And a moment later, Dagwit and Blondie open the door and see a sweet, chubby old lady standing there on the doorstep. Oh, don't you remember last time I missed the bumpstead? You promised to buy your Christmas cards for me this year. And Dagwit goes.  They sit on the sofa and Blondie says, I'll look over your sample cards. And the lady looks at Dagwit, still lying there in a dead faint. And she says, is there something the matter with your husband? Yes, it was. Now can we find out what's happening to Robin Hood? Well, we certainly can. Turn over the page and go past the Lone Ranger and there's Robin Hood. And I've been especially anxious to read this today because Robin Hood and three of these men have gone into Prince John's castle, disguised as some of the men of Sheriff of Nottingham. Yes, they'd gone there to rescue the maid Marion from Prince John. And they found her locked up in a cell, but she was all right. And Robin told three of these men to take her out of the castle while he stayed to keep watch over the sheriff to make sure that she got away safe. And when they were out of the castle, Robin told the sheriff he would spare his life if the sheriff would keep quiet while Robin rode away and the sheriff promised on his vow of knighthood not to shout. So Robin mounted his horse and rode toward the gate. But then the sheriff broke his word. He shouted to the guard to stop Robin. They wonder what'll happen. Well, let's read now and find out. Here we go with the story of Robin Hood. It's Mary, Mary, England in days long ago. Time now for Robin Hood. So music, hi-ho! As Robin approaches the gate, the sheriff shouts, Hold that man! And immediately two guards stop before Robin's horse. One comes at Robin with a spear, catching him in the shoulder. Robin falls off his horse. And he's on his feet in a second. And he's at the guard with his fists. The sheriff shouts, raise the drawbridge! Raise the drawbridge! Terrified by the clashing of arms, Robin's riderless horse drums across the bridge as it begins to rise. Last picture-trap, Roe wounded. Robin strikes down the second guard. And he staggers toward the drawbridge, which is slowly being raised. He tries to get to the end so he can drop over to safety. Just as his fingers touch the end, first picture-trap, Adam Roe, the sheriff's spear, pins Robin's tunic to the plank. But he wrenches himself free and clamors painfully toward the narrow opening. One of the guards climbs up after him, but Robin kicks him back. And last picture, with a supreme effort, Robin struggles to lift himself over the edge. But he falters and slips back. Well, if a man is a liar and a crook in the first place, it just goes to show you can't trust him for anything. Yes, the sheriff certainly proved that. You bet he did. Well, there is. Well, we'll find out next week. Now it's time for Roy Rogers. So let's go over the page. And remember that Roy and a friend named Brimstone Barlow, a very strange character, were trying to capture a ring of outlaws under the leadership of a man called the Sphinx. And the outlaws had their hideout and an old mission. And last week, Roy and Brimstone found the gate open and so they walked in. And a trapdoor opened under their feet and they were dropped into a pit. I wonder what's gonna happen now? Well, let's read and find out. Here we go with Roy Rogers, King of the Cowboys. Hi, yippie-yo. Now here we go with Roy and Trigger. Hi, yippie-yo. The outlaws stand at the edge of the pit and the man named Gusty laughs. Ha, ha, ha. Welcome to the Sphinx's robber roost, aunts. Roy and Brimstone find they've been caught in a tarpaulin which had been stretched across the pit's bottom. So they haven't been hurt by the fall. Brimstone growls. They'll wall the dirty, honoury tricks. Roy says, hey, quiet, Brimstone. They're inside the outlaw hideout at last. The outlaws drop a rope around Brimstone and then they start to pull him out. They blast your hides, dumpin' a couple of brother bandits into a hole, ain't my idea of makin' friends. Gusty answers, yeah, well, the Sphinx never heard of you or your pard hog like Harrison. Roy scrambles out last picture top row. Then suddenly he shoves one of the outlaws into the pit. Hey, see how you like it down there, mister? That first picture bottom row, Roy whirls around, gun in hand, and now nobody move. Brimstone, if this tinhorn gang doesn't want us, I know another place where we can hole up. Brimstone grins. Yeah, right, Roy, a hog leg. Gusty says, hey, that young homebrew's fast with an iron Sphinx. Should we let him stay till we can check up on him? The Sphinx makes a sign of agreement. Okay, Mars. Gusty leads Roy and Brimstone off. The Sphinx says you can say. You'll see how you handle yourselves when you raid Pine City again to Mora. Roy exclaims, Sphinx isn't very talkative, is he, Gusty? Gusty stops in front of the building and opens the door. The boss will drop by later for a powwow. Meanwhile, you'll be safe in here. Roy answers, thanks, Gusty. And Roy and Brimstone walk into the room and behind the door, a beautiful girl gun in hand stands quietly waiting. Where's Mr. Gunn? I wonder too. It's plain to see she has a look on her face that makes me believe she's worried about something and doesn't want to be seen. Maybe. And maybe she'll have information that can help Roy fool these outlaws. What do you think that could be? We'll find out next week. Now, that's all the time I have. But before I go, here's that nice fellow with some more interesting information. Hey, and all you boys and girls, I've got to go now. All right, Mr. Cromick, remember, I'll be waiting for you next week. I'll be waiting for you next week. I'll be waiting for you next week. OK, that's a date.  Be sure to meet me with our little friend Miss Honey next week when I read Puck the Cromick Weekly. For I'm the Cromick Weekly man, the Jolly Cromick Weekly man. I'll be back to read the funnies to you happy boys and honeys. Don't forget, boys and girls, see you all next week. Your friend the Cromick Weekly man, the Jolly Cromick Weekly man.


The Appalachian Wireless Holiday Sale is going on now. Till the end of the year, visit us in-store or reserve online for an unbelievable sale on the hottest devices. We know what you want for the holidays because we are you. We are Appalachian Wireless. The shooting, which led to the deaths of three police officers in a canine in Floyd County, is still fresh on the hearts and minds of those who served with the officers. Many months later, officers are still recovering from the traumatic event. As an agency, it's something that we'll never recover from. It was very tragic. We're moving day by day with the help of this community. Those officers were great men. They'll never be able to be replaced. With help from the community, law enforcement has been able to heal, but many scars still remain. It's been a long road to recovery for our agency. We're brotherhood, so they took our brothers. Those guys, like I said, were great men. I've worked with one since I started in policing. The other one was a good friend of mine, a very good friend, a best friend. But I know how the two men that we lost would want us to do. They would want us to pick up and move forward. Through perseverance and dedication, Prestonsburg Police, as well as the other law enforcement agencies involved, have been able to continue to provide protection to their communities in spite of the summer's tragedy. For Mountain Top News, I'm Kelsey Deane.


This video is going viral right now because he's convincing people that the Chinese language doesn't exist. Yeah, but if Chinese doesn't exist, what accent am I using on my English right now? Let's run the clip. There's technically no such thing as the Chinese language. Linguists classify Chinese as a family of languages that are related but not mutually intelligible. Just like German and English and Dutch are related languages in the Germanic language family, they all descend from a common language that was spoken hundreds of years ago, but now they're distinct languages. The same thing happened with Chinese. The modern Chinese languages descend from a single language called Middle Chinese, which was spoken around 300 CE to 1100 CE. What people call standard Chinese is, for the most part, just a specific dialect of Mandarin spoken around Beijing. Since Beijing is the capital of China, this dialect gets used for official contexts and as a lingua franca across the country. Because of this, most people in China have to know at least some Mandarin in addition to their local language. So how different are these Chinese languages? Well, here's a comparison of words in Mandarin, Yue and Min. Sometimes you can tell that the words are related, but other times they look completely different. The different Chinese languages don't even have the same number of tones. Mandarin has four tones, while Cantonese has nine. So why do people think of Chinese as just a single language? First, all these Chinese languages use the same writing system. This works because Chinese characters generally represent words rather than sounds. The second reason people think of Chinese as a single language is because it used to be. A similar situation actually happened in Europe with Latin. For centuries, French and Spanish were just called dialects or vernaculars in the same way that the different Chinese languages are called dialects today. I'm Danny. I post about the science and diversity of language. Like this video if you want to learn more. Oh my goodness! I felt like he kind of saved himself with the Latin reference at the end, but at the beginning when he was like, yeah, it's just like Dutch, German, and English. I was like, I don't think so. I think the Chinese dialects are way closer than those are. All right, everybody, we're going to break this down. We actually did a lot of research on our own and we're going to talk about is he right or is he wrong? And let me tell you this. He's a linguistics PhD. He's right to an extent, but there's one big thing that he's missing, David, and we're going to break it down. So please hit that like button right now. Smallassoss is out for pre-orders. We're telling our YouTube channel first. We didn't even really announce it yet, except on the YouTube channel. Anyways, David, what is the big thing that he's actually wrong about? So basically, he's right when he's looking at it through a Western linguistics framework that because spoken Chinese dialects are not mutually intelligible, meaning that if you don't speak any Cantonese and I can only speak Cantonese, we can't really fully understand each other more than like 10% in a conversation, right? However, he's wrong because the Chinese language, Andrew, is based off the written language, which is extremely different than pretty much like any other language on earth. Right. And I think that he is right. Obviously, he's a PhD. So he is very smart guys, but also he's looking at it through, he's analyzing it through like the Western lens, which we all understand that Chinese is an Eastern language that comes from a completely different route. And the reason why people say that Chinese has 5,000 years of continuous history, like Chinese civilization, is mostly because of the written language, not as much because of the dialects, because the sounds and the dialects and the words coming out of your mouth have changed over time, but the written language is more or less the thing that kept it consistent. Right, right, right. It's essentially like if emojis existed a long time ago, the emojis never changed, even though the pronunciation of the emojis is completely different. I think nowadays it's easier to understand Chinese now that everybody speaks emoji, because if I use I emoji, there's what? Andrew, let's just say there's like 800 languages on earth, right, or 8,000. Everybody's gonna have a word for I. So what, are we all speaking the same language? If we all can read emojis or speak through emojis, which are essentially advanced hieroglyphics. No, if you come from one end of the world, but you're using the same emoji as me, I understand what you're saying only through the written, because your word for that emoji is different. Right, we're all speaking Apple emoji knees. Listen, if you send a girl the eggplant emoji, it's gonna mean the same thing in every... No, no, no, but you're right, not speaking, not speaking is the key. We're communicating in the same language, but we're not speaking the same language. So his point is true when you're just talking about speaking. Yes, yes, yes. But I guess Western linguistics pretty much mostly focuses on being able to have conversations. All right, David, let's real quick. Now that we got that out of the way, we're gonna go into the comments section soon. But David, what are some like Middle Chinese, like just to kind of rephrase it in our own terms? Right, right. What is Middle Chinese? So Middle Chinese in like, let's say in relation to like Dutch, German, and English would be the original root language that they all broke off from. For example, Andrew, French, Italian, Spanish, all at one point were considered, he said in the video, dialects of Latin. Latin is the original root. Middle Chinese is the root of a lot of East Asian languages. Like I don't want to say fully, but there's like a reason why like Toshugwan means library and Dosukan is library in Korean and Dosukan is the library in Japanese. Because they're all driven from Middle Chinese. Now there are certain dialects like modern day Cantonese is a little bit closer to Middle Chinese than modern day Mandarin is. Right. But a lot of the vocab, if we're gonna draw, like even English is a Germanic language, but it has a lot of Latin vocabulary. It's like all from one root language like a thousand years ago. Yeah, and you know, credit to Cantonese, I believe, and you could read this all over the internet, that yeah, middle, that there's poems, ancient poems written in Middle Chinese that make more sense when you read it or you translate it through Cantonese. No, because they rhyme. Yeah, because it rhymes in Cantonese because Cantonese is closer to Middle Chinese. So the original Chinese language, the one that you could say is the more cohesive written language sounds more like Cantonese or maybe even like Hokkien Fujinese, possibly write the southern languages. Hokkien Fujinese actually came from old Chinese, not even Middle. Whoa, so they came out for poor. You know what I always found was interesting and this is just a personal point is that certain words in Cantonese are very similar to the words in Korean for the same thing. So I'm guessing that those words in Korean didn't come from Mandarin, but they came from Middle Chinese. For example, I always use this and this is a very old food, so you know that it could come from this time. Right, because it's from like 1,000 years ago, right? Kanji, porridge, right? The rice porridge in Cantonese, it's juk, right, essentially? It's juk, right. And then in Korean, it's juk. What in Mandarin, it's joe? So it is similar even in Mandarin, but if I had to say possibly the Korean word for this one in particular comes from Middle Chinese which is more similar to Cantonese. And even when we go to Vietnam, Andrew, what their word is for North and South in Cantonese is pa-fong, lam-fong, but their word is bak and nam. So very similar to bak and lam. Right, right. That's where you get the buckies and namers. Yeah, yeah. So basically guys, Middle Chinese was this era of Chinese where they were exporting a ton of culture to Japan, Korea, Vietnam, but then there was like, then it's like different now because obviously Koreans are going to get tanghulu, which is really trending in Korea right now to eat it. That's just like a full Mandarin word. Yeah, obviously for a lot of the modern things, I would assume that it comes from Mandarin that just because Mandarin is such a popular language now that they're just going to borrow that word. Listen guys, study Middle Chinese. Like I'm not saying learn to speak it, but it's actually very interesting about the development of the language based off this whole written thing. And it's just, it developed. It's interesting because now we're just starting to see the linguistic charts of the East pop up because for the longest time, obviously Western scholars and obviously we're living in America, they're just going to have the good charts for the Western language. Dude, you know what's crazy, David? Is that this Middle Chinese is so old. Like we're speaking of it like, you know, it's been around for a thousand plus years, but it's only considered Middle Chinese. It's not even the oldest Chinese out there. This is Middle, meaning that there's something even older than Middle. It's called Old Ancient Chinese. Old Ancient Chinese, I don't know how many years ago. A lot of people don't understand for English. We have that too. It's just because in America, we don't really study the history of English like they do in England, Andrew. Beowulf from 500 years ago is considered the first thing and it's still hard to read if you're a modern English speaker. It's the first thing that modern English scholars can even read because even old English, O-L-D-E English was like a whole another thing that you can only read like 10% of. Right. That's true. Anyway, let's get to the comment section. Somebody said it's just different accents. There's no differences when you write and someone said no, no, no, it's much more than accents. And this kind of got political. Do you know what I mean? Because obviously right now this whole debate about whether Chinese is a language or are these separate things, it's like because modern China is trying to push Mandarin on everybody, right? It's true for unified reasons, for a lot of reasons. Some people like it. Some people don't. I think there's legitimate arguments on both sides. But a lot of Cantonese people are like saying, oh, but you can't really write colloquial. Like if I write out a Cantonese comic book, which is very slang filled, a Mandarin reader can't read the colloquial slang canto. Because you know, like Haileito in Cantonese just translates to Shini Du in Mandarin, which doesn't mean anything. But here's the thing, Andrew, when you write informal Cantonese, it will make about 95% or 90% chance to a Mandarin reader. Like in terms of intelligibility. Right. So some people said, no, it's all about political oppression.  Would you agree, Andrew? Yeah, because language comes from culture and if you try to erase a language or you say, oh, that language isn't as important, then you're saying, oh, is that culture not as important? Those people are now not as important. People of that culture are not as important. That is the implication. Or become like our dominant tribe or your tribe will become irrelevant, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is the implication for sure. No, for sure. And I think that there's some, I totally understand those are all human feelings that people would have. Somebody said, how come Western people always define everything through their own lens? You have to understand the difference between a logogram and an alphabet, like in a pictogram and a hieroglyphic based system. Right. But isn't that just what he's doing? He's a Western man analyzing through a Western lens. I mean, he is an educated Western man, but and I'm sure he understands what we're saying in this video. You know, Danny, if you're watching this, but, but yeah, like obviously he is seeing it, categorizing it using the Western kind of categories. Basically, Chinese are sort of like, if the ancient Egyptians, Andrew, would have just refined their hieroglyphic system over like many, many phases and just kept writing in hieroglyphics. Obviously, they don't anymore. Right. But I'm saying Chinese basically never stopped. Yeah. They never stopped with the hieroglyphics. They just turn the hieroglyphics into logograms and epictograms and they got the radicals now. And that's just what it is. It's almost, some people said, Andrew, it's more like reading musical notes. Oh. Because you know how musical notes can be played by many different instruments and they sound different, but the notes are the notes. Yeah. And it's more like pictographs because the notes, they tell you what it sounds like, but no, the pictographs actually give it meaning. Like there's a lot of characters that, not all characters, but a lot of Chinese characters that literally look like that thing that they come from. Right. Tian Guo, or if you look at Guo Jia, it just looks like a painting of a country. Like literally, it's kind of crazy if you really understand it. Like middle is like, you know, Chua has like the skewers has the- No, Chua is just literal. Chua might be the most literal one. Yo, Chua is crazy. Chua is crazy. Chua and fire, I would say, are the most literal- You mean like hieroglyphic-like? Most literal pictures, yeah. Somebody said, people just don't understand in America, Andrew. When you see two LB, that means libra pondo. Libra pondo is actually Latin for way by the pound. But how come when we in America see two LB, we are really really read it as two pounds, but we don't even know that it means libra pondo? So it goes to show you in America, we actually do use more Latin than we even know that we use. Oh man. Yeah. So it goes to show you basically like, there's more linguistic like, Andrew, did you know that Italian and Persian actually share a decent amount of loan words with each other, even though Italy and Persia are really far from each other, because they're part of the same language family? So there's just a lot of things that are true, but it's so ancient that everybody like, just doesn't care anymore or doesn't study it.  Japanese, you stole the word from there. Those are our words. See, you guys are just. Jiazhengmian, Jiazhengmian. You guys are just Chinese people. First of all, that's not true. But there are borrowed words, and obviously there is some relation. That's a fact. Yeah, I think it's because there's maybe more beef amongst like the modern day Asian countries that came from middle, that were influenced by middle Chinese than the Latin countries. The Latin countries feel more like, Yeah, we are all Latin. Like it's all tied together by what the Pope says. They shared religion and things like that. Somebody said, when you know, when you see the character for Shui, I'm going to pop that up right now, a Mandarin person sees Shui, a Cantonese person sees Shui, a Japanese person sees Mizu, and even ancient Koreans or ancient Vietnamese would read it as water too, but they would all just say it completely different in their own languages, right? Well, that is how I guess you're able to have such a long documented history is that your written language is somewhat consistent over the years. Right, that makes sense. Andrew, of course, it got into the arguments of why Mandarin is dominating mainland China now. Some people are saying all the school teachers are going everywhere now around the country and they don't speak the local dialect. They're only trained in formal, what is like standard, like neutral Mandarin. So that's going to make the kids not speak as much local dialect. And also people are saying, for example, me and you recently went to Guangzhou, Andrew, remember, people could not speak Cantonese, some people, and you couldn't believe it at first, but you realize there's so many people and there's so much movement and migrant things, and also people were saying that media matters too, because Cantonese media, Andrew, is far from its peak in the 1990s. Right, right, it's almost like what if... I mean, it's kind of like because K-pop is so popular, a lot of people are learning Korean. Right, and then the last people are learning Kanto because Kanto, pop is not as popular. Right, but if Cantonese pop music was like hyper, hyper globally popular, yeah, I'm sure there would be more incentive to maintain Cantonese on some level, you know. Right, right, right. Well, you know what's interesting is as the Korean population shoots downwards, non-Korean people learning Korean is shooting upwards. Yeah, no. I think the Korean language is, in a way, as popular as it's ever been. Globally, for sure. Somebody said Cantonese having nine tones is a myth. I'm actually a linguist and there's only six due to synchronic analysis. So basically, this is like some linguistic nerd's talk where it's like, you know, in the past, Andrew, people used to say all the tones in Cantonese were that was like all nine of them. But some people are saying that's six, but then what characterizes the tone, what doesn't. Do you think it's interesting that Fujianese and Hokkien were more related to old Chinese than middle Chinese? I mean, it does sound pretty different than Mandarin.  I hear a lot in New York and it does sound different. Like when I hear it, I'm like... Yo, what is that? It does sound more old, right? Yeah, no, I don't... Yeah, I don't know what an old language sounds like. Yeah, but I will just tell you this.  And I try to... And I hear... I maybe recognize one word every like 15, 20 words. Right. Specifically, food's old dialect. Yeah, it's pretty different. It's more than shaman. Yeah. Um, somebody said, funny how Westerners try to point fingers at a language it was just had a longer civilization than theirs. And then somebody said, oh yeah, feeling superior, longer history is not giving China any advantage now.  Dude, it's so funny to see the argument in the comments now of like, oh, so you had a longer civilization, huh? You think that's better? Well, you know, I'm just looking at the timeline through the past 50 years and your country sucked. Right. And you guys aren't making anything cool right now. Yeah. And then the other comment is coming about, yeah, what do you mean? Yeah, if it wasn't for us, like you guys wouldn't have paper and gunpowder and look at our languages. It's so we were able to keep it. America is so young, how America is not even going to be around. And then it's like, what are you talking about? We're only speaking for our like, dude, you just, it's a funny, it's a funny battle that goes on in the comments. Well, the truth is if you, I guess the battles of those would just take place on what timeline you're looking at. But I would say most people in America, they look on like a, honestly, like a 20 year timeline. That's how I feel like most people in the West look at it. Ultimately, Andrew, what did you think of this video? Did it, did it connect with you? Did it not connect with you? Is it interesting like to see people debating whether Chinese is even a language? No, I think shout out to this guy, man. Like I appreciate the video.  Obviously he's not Chinese, but like, and he left out certain things, but from his perspective- He did call the Yue language Yue. Yeah, I mean, he made good content. That was good content. It sparked a discussion and good. Now everybody can actually learn more from it. I agree with you. And I think that sometimes, Andrew, it takes these guys with a completely outside perspective on the East. And maybe because the East is so economically relevant now, they're like probably studying it more than they did in their early PhD days. And it's like, then we get to react off that because sometimes when Chinese analyze their own culture to the West, it's different than a purely Western eye looking at it. And then now we get to see Indo-European, and then, you know, the Germanic languages and the Latin language family, and we get to see all the spread.  Can some people understand people in Sardinia or Sicily? Does that still Italian? Yes or no versus standard Italian? It brings up a lot of like, I guess Western world comparisons to help people understand the East, even though sometimes they're not like, 100 out of 100 lockdown. Ultimately, I'll say this, my final takeaway is this. I wish more Chinese Americans or any Asian American would watch these expert opinions from Western people on their culture and use it as an opportunity to learn more. Because sometimes like, I feel like sometimes even Asian Americans, we just like, we just know what our parents told us. Right. Because we're not doing any independent study because obviously on a day-to-day basis in terms of living a lit life or fun IRL life in America, you don't need to know any of this. But I think it would help some people. People who are searching for more deeper truth. Anyway guys, let us know what you think in the comments section below. Is Chinese a language? Are they separate dialects? What are the frameworks? Until next time, we're the Hop Hop Boys. We out. Peace.


I'm here with Bernard Tyson, Chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente, a leading integrated healthcare provider in the United States. Welcome, Bernard. It's great to have you here. Maybe we can start first by talking about healthcare and the digital transformation or the overall transformation that's taking place. You want to talk about your vision for how this industry in the landscape is going to change? I think we are on the edge of seeing just a complete transformation of health in healthcare as we go forward. I think the opportunities in front of us are just nothing short of going to be amazing. Because we are clearly evolving the healthcare system from a fix me system to the question of what should we expect now going forward. I think as we now start to look at how do we integrate technology at this next level into the healthcare system, new possibilities starts to come forward. The big one for us is really how do we start to think about the holistic approach to a person's life and it's not just healthcare, it's lifestyle, it's behavior. It's the whole ecosystem that makes up a person's day that will be able with digital technology to bring all that together to really understand the whole person. That's fantastic. I mean, not only are you thinking about the broad changes in the industry, but one of the other things that you're driving, again with some of the help with digital technologies is the internal culture. You want to share a little bit about that? Well, you stop and think about it. If every single day our physicians, our nurses, our receptionists, our environmental services workers, they're with the members every single day. They know more about the nuances of what can we continue to do to better the experience, better the relationship, better the trust, better the outcome. So now with the kinds of digital platforms that we're looking at internally and working with internally, it opens up new channels of communication. It's fantastic for us to be partnered with you around Office 365 as it's being used inside and things like Microsoft Teams. It's fascinating to see when you empower the people inside mission-driven organization with the right tools, how that can be a massive accelerant to the mission. And when you get everyone using it, it speaks to it's the right thing that people are looking for and asking for. Everybody wants to use their time efficiently as having these kind of tools and connective tissues as we call it inside the organization where people are communicating and relating to each other in the outside world, it improves how people feel and how they are contributing and it definitely improves how we're providing care and coverage to millions of people around the country. I know you're one of the leading voices talking about mental health and really maybe you can share a bit on your vision for how we can de-stigmatize the conversation around this and then find the right set of solutions to what is something that's so important to all of our lives. We are working hard on de-stigmatizing mental health, creating new paradigms for people to think about it and reach out for help when that is needed. Ultimately, our vision is that people would think of mental health the same way we think about diabetes or cancer or you name it heart disease and it's just recognized as a part of our body and inside it and outside of Kaiser Permanente we talk a lot about reconnecting the head to the body and that simply means to look at the whole person which we also define as total health. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and your leadership. Both at Kaiser Permanente but broadly in the industry and also tackling some of the most pressing challenges for our society. Thank you so much. Thank you.


Hey guys, how are you today? So I thought I would start off the new year with some new file folders for my desk. And there's lots of different ways you can do this. Patty Tolly Parish has a really good series on her channel where she paints some file folders, which is really great, and I've done that in the past. And I actually can grab them really quick. Mine turned out something like this, and I've been using them for quite a long time. But I thought it might be nice to start the new year with new file folders. So I thought I have literally like a ton of napkins. I've done a few swaps with Crazy Island Family that were napkin swaps. I'm not doing any more napkin swaps. Please don't send me any more napkins. I love them, but holy cow, so many napkins. But I pulled out some from my collection. I already separated the layers and kind of tore them into pieces and put them in like color groups. And I'm going to decorate these file folders. I got some file folders from the, I think these are from the dollar store. And we're going to just glue some napkins to the outside of these file folders and create something that's interesting and pretty and has little bits of your all-happy mail on the outside, which is, I think, fabulous and something new for my desk. So I'm going to speed forward through the process and I'll be right back. Okay, you saw the fast forward of me making these file folders. We covered them with some really great napkins and then I used the same two colors of paint to do some stenciling on all the folders in the same colors. These, this turquoise or blueish color in this stencil, which is a handmade stencil that I just cut out of a piece of card stock. And it's got stuff stuck to it. Okay. And then the red color out of some punchinella. So I love that. And then I used a white Montana marker to add a little bit more white to it. And they are fabulous. So I am going to put them on my desk and label them with my label maker. Now, when Patti Tolley Parish did her painted, she painted the outside of her file folders. She also just sewed the inside. I think she does them in black. I don't mind the paint splotches and the smudges. I just think it adds more interest to the folder. So I'm not going to do that. But of course you could cover it with more paper, gesso or something like that. I wouldn't put glossy paint on the inside because if it sticks to each other, it's going to probably get stuck. But anyway, that being said, these are really cool. I have so many napkins. This is a fun way to use some of them up and have them displayed on my desk all year long. So that's cool. Thank you so much. You all have a great day. I'm filming this the day before Thanksgiving. So I hope you have had a great one. And if you go black Friday shopping that you've got some great bargains. I'll see you all later. Don't forget to go out and have a great day and do something nice for yourself because you deserve it. Bye.


But how like, are we just keep going and this will come through or, you know, should we be intentionally trying to create more community?  I mean, what, what do you, what do you see as like this, um, you know, the answer to this lack of community or maybe it's just me and everybody I know. First, first is to recognize the lack, um, to recognize the wanting and validate it because human beings need it. We cannot thrive in isolation. Life itself does not thrive in isolation and we are life. And then also to recognize the difficulty of our circumstances, it's very hard to create community when in many, many ways we don't need each other because we meet so many of our needs through technology and markets. Uh, indigenous community, everybody in that village relies on everybody else for food, clothing, entertainment. You know, you get together and sing. Well, what in a typical modern house, what do you need your neighbors for? And how did that happen? That's what I wrote sacred economics about actually like it's a function of the money system, ultimately, but even deeper than that, the stories of the, of the separate self and so forth. Um, so then, so, so, yeah, so first recognize the validity of the yearning, secondly, um, recognize the difficulty of our situation. And then thirdly, understand what community is. It's not just get togethers. It's that you all care about something more than yourselves. You may have experienced real community on a sports team or on, uh, you know, in a band, something like the show must go on.  We're going to work it out. We're going to find some way to do it because this is important. If you don't have that, then as soon as some conflict arises, the community just splits apart. You've probably seen that happen many times, but so, so ultimately to, to, to reestablish community, we have to care about something together. And I think that one of the gifts of the COVID time is that it has revealed some things that we actually care about, um, and that, that we're willing to sacrifice to work for. Um, and the same could be said in, in the psychedelic space, like it could be legalization. Um, it could be, um, you know, ecological consciousness. Um, or it could be like something much more specific, like, um, getting together to create a healing retreat center or something like that. Something that you can, can devote to. Um, but yeah, there's no easy, like you can't, it's not easy to, it's, I'm not sure if I want to use the word easy, it is, it goes against the general, um, the general rhythm of our society to, to, to start community. I can go around to my neighbors and meet them and invite them over for dinner and stuff. But unless the power goes out, we don't have community. As soon as the power goes out, which it did for a few days, like we started having community. We started borrowing generators from each other, you know, and you have water, our wells aren't working and, and like, like we started having community. And those times could be coming with breakdowns and supply chains, economic collapse, the power grid, who knows, like we might discover community in that way where we have to take care of each other. A community is, is basically a bunch of people who need each other. They could need each other for survival or they could need each other because they're creating something together. But that's what a community is.