Thank you so much for joining us today. My name is Molly Witt. I'm the Associate Director in our Office of Admissions that oversees our international admissions process. And I'm so excited for you to be joining us here today. We will be getting to our student panel shortly, but I just wanted to start by having our team introduce themselves. So with that, I'm going to have everyone on our team join us and just say a quick hello. Hi, everyone. My name is Caitlin Healy and I work as the Assistant Director of International Admissions here at the University of Vermont. And I work with students coming primarily from East Asia, Central Asia, Oceania, Middle East and North Africa. So great to have you all with us this morning. Hi, everyone. My name is Titi Nguyen. I'm also an Assistant Director here at the Admissions Office. I oversee recruitment in Southeast Asia, Bronx, New York, Kentucky and West Virginia. Glad to have you all here. Hi, everyone. I'm Helen Wang. I'm a sophomore student at UVM and I'm studying mechanical engineering. I'm from Zhongzhou, China. Very nice to meet you here. Hi, everyone. I'm Mia. I'm a senior at the University of Vermont. I'm from the Republic of Georgia. I'm studying international development and I'm really excited to see someone here who have joined us this morning. And hi, everybody. This is Sophia. I'm a senior student on double majoring in Spanish and global studies and one of the student ambassadors. It's nice to virtually meet everybody and I'm excited for the panel. I appreciate everyone jumping in to say hi and you get a chance to see all the faces that you've been hearing from throughout this year. I know this year has been pretty challenging with everything that's happening lately. It's really challenged us to think differently, to live, to learn and work in a new way, all with the intent to keep us healthy and safe. And I just want to start off by saying that I truly hope that that that is the case for you all, that you're healthy and safe. This virtual platform is becoming much more comfortable, but this is still a work in progress. And we hope things run smoothly today, but please bear with us. We hope to eventually have you here on campus when it's safe to do so. But in the meantime, we appreciate you taking time out of your day to connect with UVM in this way. To start off with, I just want to give you a sense of what our time together will look like. We're going to start with a video from our president, President Garamella, who originally came to the United States as an international student himself. After that, we'll discuss our response to COVID-19 pandemic and how it's impacting the work we're doing in admissions. And then obviously we'll get over to the more important part of the day, which is our student panel with our current students, Helen, Nia and Sophia, who you heard just earlier. So just to get started and make sure you're using that chat function effectively, I'd love to hear and read where everyone is joining us from. So could you just take a second to list where you're calling in from? This is great. It's great to see so many places represented. So as we continue, you feel free to list any questions you have in that chat box and we'll get to as many questions as possible with our time together. Without a further ado, let's kick things off with a quick four minute word from our president, President Garamella. Hello, everyone. Suresh Garamella here. The reason I've always loved my job as a professor is the energy I get from the hustle and bustle of campus, the rhythm of campus, of young, inquiring minds of my faculty colleagues committed to discovery and scholarship, and our dedicated staff who make the university what it is. Over the last 30 years of my academic life, summer breaks have always been a welcome time to recharge, to catch up with research and other projects I've put off. But when the fall comes and all the students have crowded back on campus, that's when I'm reminded of what was missing in those summers and what the core of a university is. When I look out on our beloved campus today, I know that's what we all are missing right now. It's a shame that the coronavirus has deprived us of just what the university means. Community, contact, camaraderie. I woke up this morning to a reading on NPR from Minnesota poet Laura Kelly Fenucci that went, When this is over, may we never again take for granted a handshake with a stranger and on it went. As a parent with two kids back from college, I have some sense of what this forced isolation is doing. I know some of you have more challenging circumstances and that learning under all this stress is not easy. At your university, we're managing the pandemic with the best information available at the time. We're consulting our doctors, our public health specialists, we're working closely with the Vermont Department of Health as we make decisions. As you know, we have limited on-campus living to only those students who have a demonstrated need to be here. We've been offering different kinds of technology support in terms of laptops and broadband access, emergency funds to students who need it due to unexpected travel and such. Our faculty are working in overdrive to provide the best education possible under these trying circumstances that came without warning or any preparation time. Our staff are doing what they do best, supporting the university in the myriad ways in which they underpin all aspects of our operation and they're doing so with dedication and a positive approach. And proving the strength and connection of the Catamount family, our friends and alumni are pitching in to support our dedicated pandemic fund. We're partnering with the state in providing medical resources and public health guidance. You wouldn't recognize Patrick Jim today as it's been transformed into a surge space for our hospital should the medical situation call for it. Amid the gloom, we're contributing important solutions that only we as a university can. Our doctors are working with the state to increase capacity for coronavirus testing. Faculty from several disciplines are mapping the spread of the virus so that we can stem it better. Our engineers are making simple 3D printed face masks and designing an inexpensive ventilator. We can do spirit of our community and the selfless sacrifice of our frontline medical professionals and volunteers is what we all know defines our core. And looking forward to happier times and there will be happier times coming. Our admissions folks are providing the best virtual experiences possible for our admitted students who cannot currently visit campus. As we all work diligently under and under less than ideal conditions, let us look forward to when we can experience again the joy of a hug or a handshake. When we can crowd our classrooms, our cafeterias, our libraries again and for the new students who will join us for the first time this fall, I promise you you're in for a treat. You all have my sincere best wishes and gratitude. Please say safe, strong and healthy and support each other the best you can. Thank you. We hope you enjoyed that message from President Ghiramala. He's been a really strong and empathetic leader during these challenging times. Next, I wanted to share some of our offices responses to COVID-19 pandemic and how we've been working through some of the challenges and changes within our own office. And we recognize that so much has changed in the last few months and we know you've been working through a lot of challenging transitions. Everything from transitioning to remote learning, having sports events canceled, proms and other school activities, including even your socialization, you're not able to go out with friends and really enjoy your senior year. We recognize that this Rift can cause major challenges in your life because our team focuses on admissions. We know that a lot of this time of transition and change impacts next steps for coming to college. Here's a few things that we're doing at UVM. As you can see this list, we're being as flexible as possible when reviewing final transcripts. We realize that a change in your learning style means a change in your final grade, something you're probably not anticipating. When we receive final transcripts and we can see those final grades, we will remain as flexible as possible.  Second, accepting school grades in place of final exams. So let me explain this one a little bit because it might not apply to all of you. In order to be eligible to start at UVM, all students need to prove that they've completed their secondary schooling. Now, each country does this differently, but it often comes with a transcript from the school saying that the student has graduated and that is more than sufficient to meet this requirement. In other cases, though, and again, depending on the country, this might mean taking an external exam to prove high school completion. Now, we've heard from a number of those external examination boards that are canceling in-person exams to ensure the safety of all their students. Two exams that come to my mind initially are the IB and the A-level exams. We also understand that there's plans in place for awarding final grades and we're more than happy to accept those final grades issued by the school instead of by the external examination board. For those of our non-U.S. citizens with us today, we're going to continue to issue I-20s for the fall semester. There's been some guidance from the U.S. government that U.S. universities can send I-20s through the mail. At this time, UVM will continue to send I-20s through the mail, though. We recognize that many embassies are closed at this time. What we do know is that when they reopen, there will be a priority on processing visa applications. But if for some reason we're not able to get you here in time for August orientation, we are more than happy to work with you to see if we can defer to a future term. The next on our list is preparing for on-campus classes. Just so you know at this point, UVM is planning to run in-person classes for the fall semester. If that were to change, we will let you know immediately. And then finally, we recognize that every day has been a new challenge and we know that things will continue to change and that requires transition and flexibility and adaptability and will continue to be as flexible and as adaptable as possible. So I hope that gives you a sense of what we're doing on our end and hopefully it's helpful to hear that. But I know you're hoping to hear from our students. Let's transition to our student panel. As a reminder, you can list your questions in the chat box and we hope to get to as many as possible. Hi everyone, this is Helen Wang and I'm a sophomore student at UVM and I'm from Hunan, Zhouzhou, China. Hi everyone, I'm Mia. I'm from the Republic of Georgia in Eastern Europe and I'm a senior here at UVM. Hi, I'm Sophia and I forgot to mention where I was from the first time because I was just too nervous but I'm from Xi'an, China. It's where the terracotta is. And I'm a senior student at UVM. I'm a double major in Spanish and Global Studies. Great, thank you all. Just to get us started, I wondered if you could share what it is that led you to UVM. So for me, I'm glad to start this conversation. So before I come to UVM and heard about the professors and instructors in UVM are really nice and kind, easy to talk to. So as a student, I think that's a really important point when you have problems and when you have somebody to ask for help. And on the other hand, I also heard about the UVM, like Burlington in Vermont, this city is a really pretty safe place. So overall, I think UVM in Burlington must be a great place to study. Yeah, for me, it was really important to have a college experience kind of centered on a university campus. But I also didn't want the campus to be like the end of my experience. So it was really important to find a place that had a balance between like campus and then town or like a city that also had opportunities beyond just like, you know, the classroom. So I think I really found that with Burlington and UVM. And I also wanted someplace that I was interested in many different paths. So when I came here, I wouldn't be locked into just like the major I had chosen when I applied and I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. Yeah, and for me, the reason was pretty simple. It was just geography. So I'm from a really big city. So when I started to pick for college, the location was really important for me as I didn't really know what I was going to study. So I really wanted to find a place that's small and quiet. I didn't even know if I existed. And then so it was just for me, the location was the biggest part. And I came and it turned out to be the perfect place, the perfect size, it's small, quiet, but not small enough where you feel like you're stuck. So yeah, so that was my reason. Great. Thank you all. Sophia, I heard you say that you have a double major. I wondered if you can talk about it, like how possible that is at UVM and what led you to wanting to double major. Right, so it's definitely possible for everybody as far as I know. So I think there's seven colleges at UVM, correct me if I'm wrong. So I study at the College of Arts and Sciences and both of my majors are from Arts and Sciences. So for me, the double major made sense because I'm a global studies major and my major required us to speak at least another foreign language. So you either minor in foreign language or you just take certain amount of classes and I started taking Spanish my first day in college. So it just makes sense for me to double major, which is like a lot of people do with a global studies major. And as far as I know, you can double major in anything. You can make any combination you want. The two majors don't have to be related. I think you can also do it across college. And I think you can even triple major. So UVM is really flexible with that. For me, I didn't even decide or I didn't declare my double major until the end of my sophomore year. But for that, I did like a million switches until eventually I decided I would sit on the double major. You just simply go online and choose the major minor you want. And yeah, it's just pretty simple and really flexible. Great. Thank you, Sophia. Yeah, I wondered if you could talk about what it's like to actually physically get to Burlington. How do you travel here? Yeah, for sure. So most of you probably know that Vermont's kind of, well, it's a small state. So we have an international airport, but it's international because we have flights that connect Montreal. So there's that. Most people that come from overseas will fly either into New York or Boston. I primarily always fly into New York because I'm able to then catch a connect and fly up to Burlington. A lot of people will fly into Boston and then take a bus up to Burlington. So Burlington is really accessible for if you're coming from anywhere in the Northeast, especially from like New York or Boston. People also come from Montreal, though. There is a question about English courses.  And I wonder if you can speak a little bit about that experience or and also to get to the question that Finn has about English classes. If you don't mind commenting on any courses you've had. Yeah, definitely. So in terms of English classes, there's a GTP program for international students with a global gateway program. I didn't come to UVM through the program. But I know for that it's intensive focus on English English classes for second language or non native speakers. And and then there's also the English classes just for everybody from I think arts and sciences from the basic level like English when I took, I think it was just basic the basic and then go to the highest level if you major English. So I'm a writing tutor at UVM since sophomore year. And in order to become a tutor, I had to take a year long English class. And those classes that I took were focused on tutoring because that's what we're doing. And then and then for international students as a tutor, I was also a facilitator for a couple of our English classes for international students. So I helped out with conversation skills and also just on writing. So yes, I had experiences of both the GTP English classes for international students specifically and also the regular English classes to become a tutor. So I don't know if that answered the question, but those are the experiences I've had. Yeah. Great. Thanks, Sophia. Helen, I'm wondering if you can talk about what it's like to live on campus.  I wonder if you can speak about what it's like to be a student on campus and living on campus. Yeah. I personally love living on campus. And I also, in my first year, I was living in MIT, which is like a lot of, it's like, like a lot of international students live there. And the sophomore year, I live in another place, living and learning. So it's a different, I think it's like UVM, like suppressed students in different learning communities rather than you pick the dorms. So I do get some messages like some students interested in like what is learning community. It's like different major, a student in different major and the interest in different things. And you can be putting the, like the same dorm. And so sometimes we have the activity holding this specific place. So I feel like when, when I was in living and learning in the sophomore year and where I live, there's so many different type of houses, like Germany house, Japanese house and hip hop house, coffee house, movie house, so many places like, like you can choose. So there's so many options. And also live on campus. You'll feel like you can reach out your friends and on the weekend or study together. Also, so many dorms are really close to dining halls and the dining hall food is, I really like the dining hall food in UVM. And so I have a really great like living experience on campus, even though like at this special special time, I'm like, no, I'm kind of, but I do really miss there. Yeah. Thanks, Helen. Yeah, I wondered there was a question about how easy it is to find people from your home country. And while the question was specifically asking about other Polish students, I think of you coming from the Republic of Georgia, maybe in a similar situation. And I wondered if you could talk about finding community on campus. Yeah, for sure. So to my knowledge, there aren't any other Georgian students at UVM right now. There was one girl who came the same year I did. I think she may have transferred. There's a few athletes and a few other students that are from Russia, which is I'm half Russian. So I've definitely met those people and we have a little kind of like Russian group. But the Office of International Education puts on a whole bunch of like they start with international student orientation. So from the get go when you first get to UVM, the Office of International Education is going to facilitate a lot of events that help build the international community here at UVM because it is pretty small. But if you're active in everything that the OIE puts on, it's a really easy way to meet other people from international students in general. But it's also an easy way to meet somebody if there are people from your home country. So there's things like a waffle breakfast that they'll put on every month, which is just free waffles. You come in and there's so many international students there that includes like transfer and exchange students. And so it's just a really easy way to meet people outside of who you might be living with or going to class with. So I can't speak specifically to finding people from my country because I haven't found anyone from my country, but there's definitely ways to get really involved with the international community here. Great, thank you. There was a question coming from Carrie that I just wanted to follow up with quickly on a question around if classes were to go virtual for fall semester. What the recommendation would be for students who may be considering coming to UVM for the first time. And I just wanted to say I think that's really up to the individual student. I do think that you lose something in the community and trying to join a new community when you join virtually. But if you're also ready to start your education, there's that balance there. So I certainly don't want to say one way is better than the other because I think it really depends on the family. But I think we'd be happy to talk one-on-one with each of you after this if you'd like to have a chance to really talk through some of the pros and cons of the scenario. But like I said, at this point we're still functioning as if fall courses are going to happen and we're really hopeful that we see that happen. I wonder if we could talk a little bit about research. And Nia, I know you've done some research already. And I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that. Yeah, for sure. UVM has a ton of research opportunities that they advertise. Like when I was choosing colleges, UVM was one that stood out to me because it was like most undergraduates are involved in research is what I heard. So I was like, okay, that sounds awesome. So I'm glad you're here. It like totally turned out to be true. I've been involved in research for two years now. I started my junior year and I'm actually wrapping up like my research presentation for my senior research project is next week. But yeah, for me, it was really easy to get involved in research and most people I've spoken to it's been the same. And a lot of the time we'll start with a professor who's in your department. When you first come to UVM, you'll be in a lot of introductory classes, which are pretty huge. They can be like over a hundred people. And as you get more advanced in whatever major you choose, those classes will almost always shrink. So most of my classes now are like 15 to 25 people, which is pretty small for a college this size.  And so it was through one of those more advanced classes. I just got to know my professor. And then it was coming time for me to choose what to do for my senior thesis and research. And I just sat in his office hours. I was like, I don't know what to do. I'm so lost and he was like, great. I have a project that just got funded. And I know you can write and you can research. Do you want to work with me? Yeah, it's really easy in. And a lot of students have found that just knowing professors is a really easy way to get into research. And then there's additional opportunities if you're in the Honors College. It's something that you're more like prepared for from the get go when you come freshman year.  And so being in the Honors College can definitely help because it opens up more advising and things like that. I was actually in the Honors College and I dropped it because it didn't really fit with my major too well. So, but even having dropped the Honors College, I can have a problem finding a research project or getting funding for my research, which I got through the university. Great. Thank you. Helen, being a sophomore, I wonder if you could talk about how accessible your professors have been and what your experience in your courses have been like. So, I mean, so far I feel like I'm, so I'm a mechanical engineer major. So I take a lot of like some subjects like math, physics. So I feel like, so in this field, I have to feel like if you have a question, it's really important to figure out in time. And also just also really important to have somebody to reach out to ask help for. So with my professor, like I used to go to office hour or ask a help for a tutor, like TA that class, and solve my problem in time. And so that's like my experience with my professor in class. And also the courses is like really optional.  And you have the specific advisor for you. And if you have any question, you can reach them out. And normally, like I feel like all the advisors at UVM, they respond pretty quick and in time. And so you can get the respond back in a short time. And so mostly they won't give you really useful like help or advice, like what course you should take and what's the plan for you for the four years college. Like so very clear and specific. So I feel like there's some support like back to me. And I like, I feel like I'm not alone. Like when I study. So yeah. Great. And along those lines, I wonder, Sophia, I know it's been a while. What was it like to choose your first year courses? So I came to UVM on declared. I didn't know what I wanted to study. So when I first met with my advisor, I just had absolutely no idea what classes I would take. But even if you were on declared, for example, the College of Arts and Sciences, there are a set of classes that you are like required to take. I think at least 30% of those classes are required for all first year students like such as, so I think my words, I think you have to take at least one English class, one in math, and then one in music or diversity, D1, D2 might have changed. But yeah, so even though I didn't have a major, I met with my advisor. She gave me a list of the classes that I needed to take that I could choose from. So for example, if you need a class in math, then there's like algebra and all the other classes. So it was pretty flexible. So yeah, so anyway, so I had a list and I picked whatever I liked. And also I chose a lot of classes that were just something I was interested in to explore, since I didn't know what I wanted to study. So I took like those random classes like custom designing I think took that and the guitar, just a lot of flexibility. And then once you know what you want to major in, there are also the requirements for those classes that you need to take. But I think at least 30% of classes are also elective, which means you can take whatever you want. So there's a good portion of the classes where you have to take and you're free to take and you need to take for your major. But yeah, but my advisor was like really helpful in that process. She kind of guided me through how it works. And I think, yeah, and you can look up classes online all the time with the other with the options. Great, thank you. Nia, I wonder if you can reflect all the way back to orientation and can you discuss what that looked like for you if you can remember. So I came to international student orientation, which happens like two days before all other freshmen move on to campus. And so orientation for me was really helpful because it was a way to get to Burlington and campus without having that rush of like 2000 students and their families moving in all at once. So that was, for me, that's like what stands out most about orientation because you'll come and it'll be pretty quiet. It'll just be mostly international students or like summer students. And then two days later, it'll actually just be like, I've never seen that much traffic in my life. So it's a way to move on to campus a bit earlier. And then also it's just a really easy way to, you know, learn everything you need to know about immigration rules and what can you and can you not do when you have a student visa, you know, learn all the resources that are available for you and meet the people who are behind those resources. So a lot of the Office of International Education will introduce themselves and like run a lot of workshops that most are mandatory. Some are like, you don't have to go but you can if you want to, but they were all really helpful for me because it was just a really easy crash course on what can I do in this country as an international student. What can I not do and who is there to help me? Like what sort of support services do I have here? I wonder if each of you could talk about how you landed on your current majors and did you start off wanting to major in that? So for me, like, I was like, so before I come to UVM, I was like choosing, I was about to choose my major as my major. But as I study here, I like gradually realize like I'm not like really like, like interesting in this major and it's like I'm more interesting in some other than like STEM subject like mechanical engineering major. So I talk to my advisor and so I mean, I think like in this question, like talk to your advisor is really important because we know a lot about like the dynamic different major the details and they will offer you information. So I went to talk to my advisor. I say I really interesting engineering major and like which like I like math physics and so which which like get into and he gave me a lot of like information like papers or details or like see how the different major is like. So finally I just all I think I like the mechanic engine I'm really interesting mechanical engineering. So here I am. So like that's how I manage my major and I think my advisor gave me a lot of like great suggestions of advice. So that's really important for me. For me, I actually changed my major. I can't remember maybe four times. I think the major I have now is what I declared for fourth time when I change my major. The office that like changes majors like you again. So that was yeah freshman year was kind of crazy. I didn't really know what I wanted to study. So I kept changing majors just because a lot of time to register for a certain class will get priority if you're in that major. So I I changed colleges. I changed majors. And really how I landed what I'm studying now is in that freshman year I came in with a lot of credits already just from AP exams and whatnot. So I didn't have to take a lot of those introductory required classes. Like I didn't have to take an initial English class because I had credit from AP literature or something like that. And so that really opened up room in my schedule for me to take a lot of classes that weren't necessarily in my major. So I kind of explored. I took classes in different colleges and just saw what was out there. And so I didn't even know the major that I am now existed when I first came to UVM spring of college. So I took a class in my major that I am now and I really enjoyed it. And then I was like, okay, let me look more into this major. And it was just exactly what I had been looking for. I just didn't know that I was supposed to look for it like in that college or under that name. So I really encourage you if you're not sure what you want to do to really take classes outside of what you think you might want to do. So pretty similar to me. I think I changed my major also at least four or five maybe six tons. I took a lot of classes. And then the requirements that I mentioned before, so language, foreign language, also one of the requirements for us arts and sciences, you need to take a foreign language. So I took Spanish because I just knew that I always wanted to learn Spanish. It's just been what I wanted to do since I was little. So I started, I really loved it. But then I still didn't know that if I wanted to major in it just because it started from zero. So I really just didn't know what I want to do. And the one thing that really helped me was the Korea Center, which is the place they can help you with with your major. And later on with internships. So they, so the advisors and concerts, they're really helped. And then freshman year I actually took a class called major choice. It's a one credit class and that class teaches you about that the majors and minors and then what like what you can do with them. Then I discovered the major global studies, which sounds really broad. But because I, one of the reasons I didn't know what I wanted to do was also because there were so many things I wanted to do. And so I found global studies and then the interdisciplinary and you'll learn everything about the globe. And then another thing with a major is that you need to study abroad for at least one semester. So my junior year I studied abroad in Spain, which made sense because I was taking Spanish. I came back from Spain and I just really, really, really loved it. And then I switched my Spanish minor to major. And that's how I got to the double major. And I also have a minor in psychology, which at one point was my major. You take more classes, talk with more people. And it kind of becomes, it starts to become clear that what you want to do. And there's definitely tons of options that, you know, eventually you will just feel like what's right for you. Great. Thank you so much. There was a question about studying abroad. And Sophia, I know you've done some study abroad. And while the question is specific to Germany and I can answer the question, yes, there's study abroad programs to Germany. If you could talk about, Sophia, what was the process like to apply for study abroad? And can you just briefly talk about your experiences studying abroad? Yeah, so I definitely know a lot about study abroad. A study abroad five times, two semester long, one summer program, one winter break and one spring break. So the process, it's in general really easy and simple, the international or the OIE, the Office of International Education. It's the, it's the office that oversees study abroad and helping students. There are different types of study abroad from UVM Bellator Exchange and the external program and then travel study. So each process looks a little bit different depending on how you are doing it through whom. But, but they, but in general, it's, it's very simple, very easy.  And then the UVM will provide you with a list, like a checklist of the things you need to do and you check up the list by a certain deadline. After everything, there's also the pre-departure orientation where you can learn about what it's like studying abroad. And then until you get there, and then once you get there, you also keep in contact with the UVM. And I'll be through the process with transfer credits. So in the entire process from choosing a country until coming back from the country and everything, UVM makes it really easy and really helpful with the entire process, which is why, you know, I got to do it so many times because it's just simple and easy. Great. Thanks, Sophia. Lynn, I wonder if you could talk about the housing selection process, particularly as you were looking at coming into your second year. What did that process look like and how did you determine which learning community to apply into? So I, there's many different like learning community and also different campus at UVM. So like the main campus, Trinity campus. So also a lot of different like learning community like art and creativity community or cross country, like culture crossroads community or outdoor experience community. So after you decide where you want to leave, so you need to apply first if the, they get you like get the appropriate, get in then you are in. So that, that will be a really great experience for your college year. Also the structure of the housing are really different. Normally most of the dorm is like double, double that you will have a roommate. And so where I was living, I myself more year I was in a suite. And so you will have food made a common, like living room. So that's kind of a little bit different. And so that's pretty much all my like housing, choosing housing or health experience of mine. Great. Thank you. Nia, I wonder if you could talk about Burlington and what there is to do there. There was a question about the music scene, et cetera. And I wonder if you could comment more on that. Yeah, for sure. Burlington is after four years at UVM like Burlington, that aspect of the university, just the fact that Burlington is here is 100% my favorite part. What I like to do in Burlington is super seasonal. So in the summer it'll be, you know, one of our beaches or swimming holes or hikes and the winter it'll be skiing as much as I can. But in town, those are all like kind of in the outlying areas of Burlington, which are still pretty easy to get to because we're not so small. But Burlington itself is, it's a small town. It's definitely a lot smaller than where I'm from, but it's there's so much going on in terms of the music scene. Yeah, that's one of the things Burlington is definitely really well known for. We have a ton of like live music venues and they can be small or they can be really big. I have friends who I met freshman year and they met freshman year and they started bands and now I'm seeing them play in like some of the downtown venues. So that's really cool. We have a huge like food scene here, restaurant serve, very good, very popular. Yeah, there's just always something going on. Burlington is definitely a very creative oriented town. So there's always, you know, music or art or something to go look at or some nature related thing to do. So I've never been born in Burlington except now where we have to stay indoors, but it's for the best. Great. Thank you. I'm going to take this question and then ask everyone a closing question, but I wonder if Helen, you can talk about how do you get around town? So I think like the downtown is a really great place to go. Help you explore more about Burlington and it's pretty close. I think take you like 15 to 20 minutes to walk there. Like walk, it's like walk down the house like now that hard. And also normally I also take the bus with my friend and the Burlington bus is like you can get out of the bus for free. Like you use your student card so you can also take the bus to different places like downtown, which is very close or you can go to the mall to go shopping. It's also like another direction, but it's pretty close. You can walk there or take a bus. And if you want to explore more, like go further and you can like go ski if you're interested in that. Like take it a school bus on the weekend or join the steep club and then take the bus. And so I don't have a car personally. So my first two year on campus, I normally like take the bus or work if it's not too far or school bus or if you have a car, you can also like have a car ride together. So yeah, that's pretty much how I travel around the town. Great. Thank you. I want to ask you all one last question as you know, all of everyone who's joined us today is thinking about joining us as a first year student in the fall. I wonder what advice you could give to somebody who's considering joining UVM as a new student. Okay, I can go first. Like, so I feel like as a you are becoming a college student, I feel like the time management is really important. So during college life, you you need to work hard on school and you need to socialize with a friend or join different clubs. For me, I think it's really important to have a good time management and to do what you want to do in the future and also like for your future career or so it's always good to have a plan and to manage your time well. Yeah. I think if there was one thing that I heard when I was a freshman that is actually something that really, really helped me. It's not something I really actively thought about, but it's just some advice that I really took to heart and kind of acted on is don't limit yourself to one thing.  But don't limit yourself to that because UVM has so many opportunities, whether that's, you know, for research or for majors or for things you can do around campus, you know.  There's so, so, so many opportunities here for all kinds of different things. So take the time to find those opportunities and also take the time to try them out. You don't have to try everything that's not practical and it probably won't be fun. But try some things. Yeah, I would say my advice is pretty kind of similar to Nia's. I would definitely say be open and do things.  Basically looking back, I think a set of academics, which is really important, of course, one of the most valuable things about college for me is really the experiences and then the people you met, the things you learn, all set of classrooms and just the life experience is that you have, which is not something you can, you know, just get anywhere. And I think UVM is a really, really, for me, it's the perfect place for, you know, for how accessible everything is and for the opportunities that it offers and, you know, just for the community and for everything, which, you know, I definitely transformed myself, you know, as a person, I think I would have not been able to do so had I not really really opened up myself and, you know, and just reach out to people, get out of the comfort zone and, you know, this is like a, this is a time to, you know, really explore. Yeah, so if I just gave one advice, I would say be open and stay out of your comfort zone and, you know, explore. Yeah. Great. I want to thank Helen, Nia, and Sophia for helping answer a lot of your questions. And because we are at time, I would like to just briefly talk about what your next steps are. We do have another virtual opportunity for you all if you haven't participated in it yet. There's an admitted student visit day. It lasts approximately three hours, but it's something you can jump into and out of at your leisure. Please feel free to sign up for one of those. You will need to register for the event in order to attend. I would highly encourage you to also go on a virtual tour of our campus, and you can see the go link there, go.uvm.edu slash tour. It's let out by two of our current students and just gives you a great sense of our campus. I encourage you all to stay connected with us. We'd love to hear more from you, and you can find me and Caitlin and T.T. through our go.uvm.edu contact us site.  I want to thank you all so much for joining us today. It's been an absolute pleasure, and we hope you stay healthy and safe, and we look forward to seeing you here in the fall. Thank you all so much.


It is now time for you to make your choice of who will be in the Super Bowl, representing the AFC and NFC of this 2021 season, whenever it ends, February 12th or whatever it is. Chief's Packers. Okay. So I was potentially going to say, I'm not Chief's and Buccaneers. Ooh. Again, right back. Wait, so you were going to take the Packers though? Yes, I was going to. So you were pumping Tampa Bay up yesterday all day saying how they're going to go undefeated and nobody can beat them. So you were going to pick against them until you heard my pick. Well, the only reason why I was going to pick against them is because there's a guy who seems to be more motivated somehow than he was even last year. And his body feels good. And he might be, this might be like another like proven type year. And that's Aaron Rodgers. He was MVP last year. It seems like the only right thing to do for him going into Super Bowl. Yeah. I mean, and we don't take steps backwards around here. We take steps forward, especially with this entire thing. But I can't just bury you all Super Bowl week if we have the same exact thing. So that's what I'm doing.


Hi guys, I am Arjun. If you are using WordPress, you would have seen most of this time, most of the times you will be seeing an error, seeing that there is an error establishing a database connection. So this will have, I got into this problem like I ran my own blog in Amazon Micro Instance and WordPress has a problem like the Apache uses most of the CPU. So what happens is like somebody tries to hit a website, the MySQL goes down. So there are so many forums in online where they describe how to solve this issue but really we are not able to solve into it because something plug-in uses most CPU so that the MySQL goes down. To overcome this, I have turned a small node.js application which monitors our MySQL connection to see if MySQL is up. If it goes down, node.js application just reboots the WordPress. So I am just using, this is the program which I am using in Amazon Micro Instance, EC2. I have used the MySQL module. Then I am just using the configuration and the child process. I am using domain here and this entry to send emails whenever there is a restart of my server. So here is the thing. So the watch service is the one which is like auto initiated program which gets started, a function which gets started by itself. So I am looking for the error from the domain to see if anything goes... Oh, sorry. This watch service is the auto initiative function which gets started by itself. And the first is the domain error. If there is an array error in the function which is below here, this part, if anything goes wrong here, the domain errors gets called up. So this checkMySQL is the one which runs for the set time out what I have given there. So whatever the time we are given here in the config, we will be taking care. And I am just checking the whole connection to see if MySQL is up in my WordPress. So I have just given the user ID password of my MySQL thing and the port number. So this is the command to just restart my WordPress server. I am just using the bitnami WordPress in the Amazon so that whenever something goes down, I just go in there and restart it. And here is the command. This part is for if you want to run your part as the sudo thing. And if you don't want sudo, you should just use this thing. And if there is an error, any error in the getting the pool connection, this thing gets executed and this executes the restart of the WordPress. If there is no error, this just executes MyCheck function again. If anything goes wrong here, then automatically something goes wrong in the domain part, the main function, I'm sorry. If anything goes wrong in the MyCheck SQL, then what happens is it comes to the domain error part and just sends an email. And again, it restarts the server and restarts, sets the time out for what service. This is this function. And I'll just show a small demo of it. Right now, the WordPress is up. I'm just going to bring it down. I'm just bringing down the MySQL part alone. Let me start the... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Something D got added, that's it. So I've just set it up in a way like it runs for every six seconds. But you could set it for how much of a minute you want. I'm just, in production, I've set it for 10 minutes. And I'm just going to stop the MySQL now. MySQL is down. And it has got restarted again. MySQL not running. So it has restarted the server. It's back and up. Why don't you use something like MySQL? I'm sorry? Why don't you upstart, deny it like there are so many things, what kind of OS port is it? For the... Which one? Node.js? No, for starting MySQL or running service, it is down. I just wrote it in Node.js. That's it. Sanctuary is a paid service, right? No, it's a free thing. It's a free... It could... Daily send, I think, maybe some thousand emails kind of stuff. I'm saying if you're really using it in production, you can better use upstart. Upstart. Okay, let me try it out. Is it a proper source? Did you put it on the code? Yeah, it's there in the Chitub. It's in ChitubTK12040. If you want to... Yeah, it's there in the Chitub as well. Next speaker. I guess you guys all know him, right? It's John. He will introduce you to S3 front. So...


Hello and welcome to NewsClick. Today we have with us as we have every week, Professor Satyajit Rat and we're going to discuss what is happening with the COVID-19 pandemic both in India and globally. Satyajit, we have been discussing this issue for quite some time now but we are reaching a phase where we now have started to see vaccines at least reach a section of the people in different countries. Of course some more in some certain countries in some countries yet to even receive a single dose. So we are into a very differential situation over there. India not so bad because it is indigenous vaccine capacity but we are also seeing the second third waves as they are called taking place numbers rising. So it's clear that without large-scale vaccination we cannot reduce the pandemic to any other disease which is endemic in the world. So we are really in that situation and there is no easy victory over the disease that's very clear at the moment. I'm going to take you through some of our charts the NewsClick chart just to show what is happening so we can discuss that with our viewers. If you see the chart now what's happening in India, what's our COVID tracker chart that's there on NewsClick and if you do the what we do normally the log view of the chart so you can have a look at the larger trend then you tend to see now that there is Maharashtra, there is Punjab, there is Karnataka, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh. Six states which are rising relatively fast compared to what we have seen in the past so we shouldn't think that this is just a small kink in the chart it is essentially showing there is a trend that is now visible and you will also see below it which are the not so colored lines gray lines you will see there are a number of states where the numbers are going up but not so fast I mean not at this rate but numbers are still going up. Kerala has been in the highlight for some time it is a state which has a large number of cases still but you can see the fall is there consistently now for a few weeks if you look at these charts where we have a little more detail then you will see certain other things that you can see that Chhattisgarh for instance is also there West Bengal is there Telangana is there numbers rising but not too high not too steep a rise but you look at the positivity ratio how many tests are being carried out and how many are proving to test positive you will see again that in Marahtra it's it used to be 7.5 per 100 tests now it's 15.5 and you will see similarly for instance Punjab also it was 1.5 a few third about four weeks back it's 5.8 now so all of this seems to indicate that we are seeing what is being called the second wave whatever veins you want to call it doesn't really mean much and if you look at Marahtra what you also see that the cities are at least four cities and you can see the urban areas near Mumbai really Thane and you will also see certain other districts near Mumbai also getting affected but you also Pune and Akpur and lower down your Bangalore and Delhi so again the urban centers being the focus but given Punjab it's also true that it is spread in other areas so Satyajit is it clear that we have a numbers rising again we may soon need to lock down already certain measures seem to be being taken and therefore without now vaccination reaching sections of the people you're not going to see this easily controlled it will still go down after a few months again as it did the last time but this is at least clear that the so-called DST model which had claimed victory by February this is not really what's happening that the epidemic is and will continue to burn into new sections of people. Absolutely let me add a couple of points of interest for the present situation as you know I'm reluctant to refer to it as a wave because the word implies that there is a certain uniformity and that it's going to recede and neither of those is as comfortably accurate as all that so what we are beginning to see is a growing number of simultaneous outbreaks in more and more localities there are two points that should be noted by all of us in this spread number one six months ago the bulk of this spread was in urban hyper crowded working class communities today the major points of spread are characterized by two interesting properties one they have now spread and are coming up in much more urban middle class localities secondly these are not outbreaks that are reoccurring in the same locations that were most seriously affected six months ago this is at least true of localities in for example Pune Mumbai and so on and so forth so while on the other hand it feel on the one hand it feels as though the same cities that were affected six months ago are being affected today within the structure of the cities the epidemic outbreaks have shifted location what this says is two things number one because they have shifted from hyper crowded to crowded localities the rate of increase of spread is going to be a little slower but because the localities are much larger it might even end up being more sustained as a spread secondly this is not contrary to what many people are beginning to think oh these are variants of the virus that are causing reinfection by and large the patterns are not patterns is yet that are explained by reinfection similarly they are not patterns that are as yet substantially affected by vaccinations since India only has about three percent of its population vaccinated anyway so that fraction of the population being vaccinated is not going to make any material difference to the pattern of local outbreaks so those are the issues that we should be keeping in mind and of course as you point out the only way forward we have is a sustained campaign of monitoring the virus and of vaccinating against the virus in the large scale along with support for livelihoods and economy. Saty that brings me to another question do you think epidemiologically there is an argument now to focus on vaccinating populations in centers where we are seeing outbreaks rather than focus on general rules for all states all sections starting with the health workers of course health workers first everywhere that is been taken for granted but above 60 population first and other population next rather than switching tack and saying okay those areas which are seeing very large numbers as of now and Maharashtra is really going up very quickly that those really centers which when we see this outbreaks taking place we should actually give them some amount of priority in the way we are vaccinating it's it's an extremely attractive model in in in vacuum to say oh you have an outbreak here let's just do vaccination there the uncomfortable and messy reality is do we have the kind of logistic supply chains for the vaccination campaign to to expand them explosively and keep in mind that what we are talking about is today's rates which are actually a reflection of transmission 10 days ago so our our picture of what's going on is always an after the fact picture so as as we plan vaccination campaigns even if we plan local intensive vaccination campaigns the time gaps and what will happen to the growth of the the rate of spread locally he might well make the gains really relatively small number one number two the other problem given our limitations we can only supply vaccines and put people in locations of this kind by withdrawing them from others this denial is both going to be a perception problem and quite frankly an actual problem so i'm not sure that this solution which many of my armchair friends are offering with perfectly good intentions and with reasonable anxieties is actually that cleanly implementable and and and i think that needs to be kept in mind attractive as an idea but practically has all kinds of issues one of which is trying to catch our own date so the chasing and if it is chase what is the current rate of infection you're really not chasing the current rate of infection you're chasing something that's happened two weeks back and as we have seen a lot of the places other places also we are seeing the curve rising therefore we seem to have a not exactly a localized phenomena but a relatively larger phenomena so switching tack midway and trying to rush things here and there it's better probably to to expand vaccination in in total rather than try and switch vaccines now that brings me to the next point you know India has a number of companies which have capacity to make vaccines and apart from AstraZeneca there are at least another six to eight companies who do deliver bulk vaccines they in fact India I think produces 60 percent of all vaccines in the world and we know that there are for instance the other tie-ups not just Sedum Institute and Novavax which is there I think it's called the Kovavax vaccine it's Kovavax vaccine Kovavax and then you also have the Johnson Johnson the single dose vaccine which there is a tie-up with biological E so you also have Zyda's cadilla which is vaccine in the offering we also have Dr. Reddy's laboratory which is tied up with Gamalaya Sputnik 5 vaccine you also have Hetero which also is produced going to produce a large amounts of vaccine I think there's another company which has also now thrown its hat with the Sputnik 5 vaccine almost half a billion doses of Sputnik 5 vaccine alone are seem to be in the pipeline if Government of India allows Gamalaya Sputnik vaccine to be actually given clearance so also the Johnson Johnson vaccine what is happening to this clearances because that could really bring an additionality into the vaccine market. So one doesn't know what the CDSCO the regulatory authorities seeing as data and what they are thinking the general pattern is the following as far as vaccines with international tie-ups that are being manufactured and being presented in India for regulatory clearance are concerned what they need to show so far as we understand this to the regulatory authority is a phase one testing in India which shows that the vaccine is safe and a phase two testing in India which shows that the vaccine generates an immune response generates antibodies in respectable amounts the same as it does elsewhere if this evidence is provided from within India then along with protection data from outside India the regulatory authority appears to be willing to provide emergency use authorization and the general rumour is that many of these vaccines that you named are waiting to get this set of data together evidence together to submit and that when they've been turned down they've been turned down because of lack of one or the other of these these what are being referred to as bridging data although so essentially more urgent action from both the government authorities the regulatory authorities in conjunction with the companies which are supplying the data because ultimately these are not large number of people's trials that you are doing for phase one and phase two the numbers are quite small it's actually possible to get it in the month and month and a half and that's that's why I'm surprised we are all surprised why it is taking so long considering that we are now in the grip of another seems to be outbreak which is going to with India's already almost the highest number of new cases in the world we are competing with prison which is not a good distinction to have at the moment so that's not a good sign for us so more urgent steps to be taken by the government perhaps in conjunction with the authority with the companies which are promoting these vaccines that is at least a takeaway we can have from this discussion but last question to you no this is not something which is restricted to India alone and the moment we are seeing free for all in terms of vaccine competition Europe European Union threatening UK for not supplying vaccine back to it from UK production centres when they have supplied 10 million doses to European to UK Europe is not getting vaccine supply of AstraZeneca some they're getting from the United States of the modern Pfizer vaccine Pfizer vaccine was originally a German vaccine but even given that they seem to have done pretty badly in how they're handling the supplies of vaccine and it's clear now that large parts of Europe particularly those inside as well as outside European Union and now tying up the Chinese and the Russian vaccines for their citizens and Serbia is a classic example when they seem to have had a very good run for their money in terms of vaccinating the people and Germany France Italy looking pretty bad of that count this brings me to the last question that I have of you you know European Union has enormous vaccine capacities and offy Merck they all have in house I'm not in house but in country capacity in Europe European Union capacity to produce vaccines we have ideal capacity of the vaccines which is almost as much as supplying the vaccines which are currently in the market now this has been one of the issues and this has now been focused by even New York Times that the global leaders and this is really Europe and the United States who are there funding these vaccine makers and the option to make this really available to the world instead of that trying to reserve it for the population they have neither got vaccines for themselves except the United States neither have has the rest of the world got the vaccines it needs and this is something which the IMF as well as other agencies have said this is a global epidemic if we don't stop it in the globe economies are not going to recover and this is something which is going to affect the developed countries rich countries as much as the poor countries even if the developed countries get rid of the pandemic from their shores do you think this is a classic example of trying to make profits for the big farmers we call it actually ending up by harming themselves they have shot themselves in the foot and of course denying vaccines to the rest of the world well absolutely except that I would extend your argument not simply to big pharma but to the basic model of market-based capitalist delivery of solutions to infrastructure needs COVID-19 pandemic responses demand vaccine supplies as an infrastructure need there is no escaping that to begin to delude yourselves as we have for the past year that the market-based profit competing system of supply can adequately and equitably fulfill an infrastructure need globally was always a mungerilal ka sabna and that's coming home to roost ultimately public health means what used to be called by it was called the Ronald Reagan the dreaded socialized medicine it's kind of the commie version of public health according to the American right this is a huge campaign in the 60s if you remember with the Ronald Reagan is the face of it at that point of time he was not the president he was just the film actors guild chairman or some president or something but that is still the specter that haunts a lot of these countries that socialized medicine is something which is equivalent to socialism and their ideology is private profits will always be more efficient markets will always be better than what you call infrastructure needs thank you Satyit for being with us explaining to us not only the science of what is happening the but also the larger framing the framework within which this is happening this is all the time we have the viewers today thank you very much for watching News Snake and do visit our website as well


Well, that was fun. Well, that was fun is the least exciting way to say that, holy cow. It's good. It's great. It's good. Welcome to Titans All Access from the Bet MGM studio. The Titans are AFC South Champions for 2020. Amy Wells is here. I'm Mike Keith. And the guy that you saw make that kick is Sam Sloman, who will forever be known for that kick in Houston last Sunday. What an awesome way to solidify yourself in Titans history. OK, so you do sidelines for Titans Radio. You're in what is called the Moat this year, which is a little different. What's your reaction as you see the kick? Heartbreak and then a wave of excitement and emotion. When I had a pretty good view of that kick and I saw it hit the side of the goal post and I thought, oh, no. And then I couldn't tell which way it fell, if it fell in a good way or a bad way. So I was watching the officials, waiting for a signal, and then I blacked out. Then I remember nothing. I was so excited. Did you see Derek Henry's reaction on replay? Yes. That was awesome. So great. Yes. I love it. And the other one, too, Ryan Tannehill. So excited. He's like, did he? Wait, what? And then he kind of does this skip onto the field. I don't know that that was his best move. It wasn't as good as his touchdown runs. But I understand. It works. But the best was Sam Sloman himself. So you see it. He's made it. He's missed it. He's made it. And your post game question to him about celebrating with a lot of the guys that he's never met before might have been my favorite of all time. Is it weird or awkward to be having this big celebration with a lot of people you don't really know that well? Not really. They've done a great job all week, getting to know me. And they've been really excited for me for every opportunity. And it was really cool before the game, just talking to guys. And during the game, everybody had respect for me. And they were excited for me, for the opportunity. And it was just awesome after the game. It felt like I'd been here for a long time. So it was a really, really cool feeling. I mean, you've got to think about it. He had been with the full team for five days, six days. Yeah. So don't really know these guys too well. All of a sudden, they're all grabbing you.  Everybody's celebrating together. I'm sure Titans fans have celebrated moments with people they don't really know that well before. Like after the Music City Miracle. Exactly. Everybody just grabs somebody to celebrate with. Pre-COVID. Yeah, pre-COVID. Now we all just look at each other and be excited. Yes. But fantastic. Fantastic moment for Sam Sloman. There were a lot of fantastic moments that got the Titans to the point where they could kick the game-winning field goal. And Dave McGinnis is going to show us some of those as we go beneath the surface with Coach Mack. This is Coach Mack. Welcome to Beneath the Surface, powered by Microsoft Surface. Today, we are going to look at two major contributors offensively to the huge Titans win at Houston that won the AFC South Championship for the Tennessee Titans. First play we're going to look at. First and 10, five-man front. Now you've got eight people in the box. Play action pass. Watch Ryan Tannehill drop back. Beautiful, beautiful protection. And he throws to AJ Brown, who had a monster day. Went over 1,000 yards from the season. Ryan Tannehill stands in there strong in the pocket. Takes a hit as he delivers it. AJ Brown, strong hands catch.  He will be back to put together a marvelous day against the Houston Texans. Now what we're looking at is second to two. We're going to get a nice inside handoff to Derek Henry. I want you to watch a blocking with Derek Henry as he starts on the inside handoff, makes two really nifty skip moves in the backfield and then is able to run through arm tackles. Big run. This is on his way to eclipsing 2,000 yards for the season, only the eighth player in the history of the National Football League. Now what we are looking at, nice man-to-man defense by the Texans and what AJ Brown is doing now sets up the man covering in man-to-man and then the ball is placed perfectly and allows AJ to turn up the field. Great separation in man-to-man. AJ Brown is not only a contact catcher, but he is also an excellent, excellent nuanced route runner. Now the next play we're looking at, we're going to go back to Henry. Now we have eye formation. Houston was loading the box all day. Watch the blocks up front. Watch everybody zone off, hat on a hat. Henry slips through a small crack. Now he's up the sideline. Watch the left suit bone right here to just completely eject the defensive back coming over from the inside to try to tackle him. Great vision. Watch how violent he is with this suit bone from the left arm, Derek Henry. Again, a battering ram in this game. Now to score 38-38, 18 seconds left. Past protection, superb. Superb pocket, trust AJ Brown.  Win this ball game. Massive, massive contributions from AJ Brown from Derek Henry. When Titans All Access returns, we take a look back at the Titans Ravens matchup from November 22nd. Stay tuned. Titans and the Baltimore Ravens coming up this Sunday at Nissan Stadium. It is a 1205 central time kick. You can hear Amy Wells and Rhett Bryan and Jonathan Hutton and Dave McGinnis and me on Titans Radio beginning at 11 a.m. central. We hope you'll tune in. This is actually the third meeting between the Titans and the Ravens in the last 52 weeks. Playoffs last year, you'll remember the Titans won at Baltimore in the divisional round. Was a big upset at the time. In the regular season this year on November 22nd, the Titans went to Baltimore. What do you remember about that off the top of your head? I remember that the Titans won. Well, that's good. Yep. But how about some other details about the victory and let Amy Wells take us through and be a little more specific. The Titans got off to a fantastic start offensively, scoring a first possession touchdown. Ryan Tannehill threw three one yard touchdowns in 2020 and this was one of them. Tannehill under center. Tannehill play fake. Looking, throwing, man is wide open, man is catching, man is scoring. That's John Dooh Smith. Touchdown, Titans! That seven to nothing lead melted away quickly. The Ravens put up the next 14 points of the game as a JK Dobbins score gave Baltimore a seven point advantage. The Titans narrowed the gap before half time on a Steven Goskowski field goal set up by this fake punt. Logan Woodside to Nick Westbrook, Akina, which kept the drive alive. Baltimore led at the half, 14 to 10.  I'm back against the wall right now, we won't come out swinging. At just the moment the game appeared to be getting away from the Titans, their passing attack appeared. Corey Davis and AJ Brown had been shut out in the first half, but the two would combine for nine catches for 175 yards the rest of the way. Their contributions helped lead Tennessee to another Goskowski field goal, which narrowed the Baltimore lead 21 to 13. Then the Titans defense took over with this big play. Play fake, deep drop, Jackson, all day to throw. Deep throw downfield going for DuBernet, intercepted! Intercepted by Hooker at the 10. Hooker taken down by DuBernet at the 15, and the Titans get a takeaway. The Imani Hooker interception led to a third successful field goal, and now the Ravens advantage was down to five. Another defensive stop was in order, and the Titans responded, giving their offense a chance to go on a drive for the lead. Tannehill, looks, fires, Brown makes a catch at the 10, driving his way to the five, into the Arthur, one! With a successful two-point conversion, the Titans lead was three, but unfortunately did not hold. Justin Tucker sent the game into overtime with a late 29-yard field goal.  From there, it was game over, as Derek Henry finally took over, and then ended it himself. At the 29 of the Ravens, Henry gets the carry running left, Henry to the 25, Henry to the 20, to the 15, to the 10, to the four! Yes! Oh, yes! Who's the three? Yes, yes, yes! DeBoer, with his jacker, hit OT! Our thought went, on the road, come on with a W. Want to get a question in for the OTP crew? Send us your OTP queue. Just go to TennesseeTitans.com slash OTP queue and ask your question. When Mike, Amy, Coach Mack, and Jim convene for the OTP, they'll give you an answer. That address again to submit your questions is TennesseeTitans.com slash OTP queue. Welcome back to the Bet MGM Studio and the continuation of Titans All Access, the playoff edition. Time for our Nissan Insider. And so it's not just big Jeff, it's playoff Jeff. Jeffrey Simmons joining us on Titans All Access. And so good to see you. Two years, two playoff appearances. I hope we do this every year. That would be the goal. Does it feel any different going into the playoffs for a second time, Jeffrey? For sure, you know, going in this year, you know, we don't have a different team. I think especially this year that we know that we have a great team this year and the mindset going into this playoff is different this year. And I feel like just the vibe different around the building, the vibe on the team, you know, especially with the coaches and from the players, you know, I think just like this past weekend, you know, no one was satisfied with what we've done. You know, it wasn't good enough for us. You know, I think we want more as an organization. That's our Super Bowl. That's what our goal is this year. Were you pretty surprised or were you pretty pleased with what you were able to do in the regular season? To be honest, you know, to me, I didn't live up to my expectation this year. And, you know, but, you know, kind of one of the things that don't matter at this point, you know, because right now it's a new season for us. You know, I'm kind of just focused on how can I do more this season here and that's the playoff there. And now, you know, I have one more goal and that's to win the Super Bowl here. Every opponent knows Jeffrey Simmons now. You are double-teamed constantly. How do you avoid frustration with that?  They're going to make the play hard.  Guys like that, they one-on-one. And I'm real confident in them guys they're going to make a play. And, you know, it's one of the things now this first round of the playoff. And if I'm not used to it by now, you know, it's just one of the things you're not going to get used to it. But I can't say I'm kind of used to it now. And, you know, whatever help this season win, I'm all for it. I want you to tell me about the pre-game huddles. I've never seen a second-year player who rallies the team in a pre-game huddle. I've never seen it before. I've been in this league for over 20 years. How did that start? And what are you trying to do when you're pumping up those guys? You know, we have a lot of older guys on the team. We have captains, we have four captains that, you know, I respect to the fullers.  Get right there! Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! It seems like a lifetime ago, but it was actually just over 20 months ago that we met you in person for the first time the day after you were drafted. We brought you in in front of hundreds of season ticket members, and you promised that there would be moments like this and that you would be a part of it. I'm gonna make this promise to you guys today. I will not let you guys down. I promise. I will make it. I will help this team win the Super Bowl. That's my promise to you guys. It's gotta be a special feeling for what has happened the last 20 months for Jeffrey Simmons and the Tennessee Titans and Titans fans. Yeah, I mean, like I said, the job's not done yet, and you know, like I said, I have one more goal. You know, I don't want an opportunity to pass us by. It's about getting to the Super Bowl and winning the Finals and I'm excited for our opportunity to compete. But it's first round of playoff and to get to the next one. And so we can get to the Super Bowl. Jeffrey, good luck against Baltimore this weekend and thank you so much for your time. Thank you for talking to us. When we come back, it's time for the Farm Bureau Scouting Report. John Robinson breaks down the Ravens next on Titans All Access. Titans All Access continues from the Bet MGM Studio. It's time for the Farm Bureau Insurance Scouting Report with John Robinson. And this Scouting Report is about a playoff game. Absolutely. Those are the best kind of scouting reports. John, congratulations on another playoff appearance for the Titans. Very exciting to be back in. You've got Baltimore at home Sunday afternoon, 12.05 kickoff central time. Gonna be a thriller, no doubt. Yeah, we're excited, Mike. Excited for the team and the organization to win the division to be champions of AFC South and to have another crack at the playoffs here and familiar opponent in Baltimore. Now the Ravens are on a five game winning streak. What are they doing so well? Yeah, they're playing really well. You know, they're hitting explosive plays on offense over the last five games. I think they're averaging close to 38 points a game. You know, defensively, they're only allowing about 18 points a game. So they're dialed into both systems on offense and defense. We saw them on November the 22nd in Baltimore. Anything significant change about their club since we played them less than two months ago? No, it's still a ground attack on offense and you know, there's a lot of pressure and a lot of blitzing from Coach Martindale on defense. You know, they got a couple guys back who we didn't see. Avery in the secondary corner, Kaleas Campbell who we know all too well from his time in Jacksonville and then Brandon Williams, you know, big nose tackle in there. Those three guys are back on the defensive side of the ball. The Ravens have the number one run offense in the NFL. What's so hard about defending their ground game?  You know, Lamar is the reigning MVP. He's such an explosive dynamic player with the ball in his hands, whether throwing it or running it. Mark Ingram has been a pro bowl runner. Dobbins is not playing like a rookie. He runs hard. He's a tough guy to tackle. He's got good burst. You know, it's just a really explosive running attack and they, you know, they get to a lot of different runs with different formations, different motions and different ships. John, you mentioned Wink Martindale's defense. The Ravens have 39 total sacks, but when I was looking at the individual totals, it's like every guy in their roster has a sack. Is that one of the real challenges? Is that they will get everybody involved in past pressure? Yeah, they do, Mike. You know, that's kind of his, his MO. He cooks up a lot of stuff. He dials up guys from everywhere. You know, they'll show, you know, what looks like it's going to be a weak side pressure and kind of overload that side. And then they'll bail those guys out in the coverage and guys end up coming from the strong side. They'll cat blitz corner from the boundary, you know, trying to get a, you know, an extra run for player in there. So just a lot of stuff to prepare for a lot of guys to be aware of and account for in the run game and especially the passing game. Baltimore outscores their opposition in the first and second quarters by a lot. I think that's safe to say. What do you do to stop that fast start? Yeah, I think Amy, we've got to, we've got to, you know, try to minimize these explosive plays, you know, make these guys offensively, make them go the long road, make them, make them earn it.  It just gets the defense on their heels a little bit and you're just not quite in sync. So we've got to limit those explosive plays. Got to do a great job of tackling these guys. We've done it before and we're going to need it Sunday. John, thanks so much for the time. Good luck against the Ravens. Hopefully moving on in the playoffs, we appreciate you being with us for the Farm Bureau Scouting Report. Always enjoyed. Thanks guys. Now you have a preview of the Baltimore Ravens. What are the Titans' keys to beating them on Sunday at Nissan Stadium? We have them next on Titans All Access. We've reached the most important part of the show and that is Mike Keith's keys. Mike, we're in the playoffs now, so I need you to really bring your A-games for these. Well, see, before the first Baltimore game, my first key was Control Wink Martindale. Not that Wink Martindale from Tic-Tac Doe. Wink Martindale, who is the defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens. I can't use Control Wink Martindale again, because that would be wrong. That would be cheating. It would be cheating, but defensively, they come with all these exotic looks, these strange blitzes, the things they do in the run game. The Titans must maintain their balance with everything they do to slow down his pursuit. So you gotta run the ball, you gotta throw the ball short, you gotta throw the ball long. You've got to make sure that you block the right men. Wink Martindale may be a head coach in the NFL in a few weeks because he's that good a defensive coordinator. The Titans can't let him and his schemes take over this game. So I guess it's Control Wink Martindale. All right, so the first one was a rerun. How about the second key? Tackle, tackle. You've got to tackle Lamar Jackson, you've got to tackle Edwards, you've got to tackle Ingram, you've got to tackle Dobbins, you've got to tackle Hollywood Brown. They are one of the hardest teams to tackle in the league. So it's really up to everybody. The defensive backs especially have pressure, the safeties and the linebackers, but also the defensive linemen running to the ball. And that's a big thing, is you've got to get everybody involved. So many plays, missed tackles, open up things for Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore offense. You have got to tackle well in this game, which the Titans have done in the two wins over Baltimore in the last 52 weeks. All right, Mike, that one was pretty good. Let's bring it home with the third key. The special teams thing is a big deal to me. You'll remember in the game on November 22nd, the Titans executed a fake punt. They did a really nice job on special teams. John Harbaugh is a special teams coach at heart.  So you've got to watch the return game.  I think special teams going to be a huge factor in this ball game because I think it's going to be close. Your returners and your coverage guys, huge in this ball game. Two out of three ain't bad, Mike. All right, well, it's going to be a good game. It's going to be a great game. If you look at this matchup on paper, it is outstanding. The four seed Titans, the five seed Ravens, both 11 and five, they know each other. It's going to be a great football game at Nissan Stadium. Reminds you, kicks at 1205 Central Time this Sunday. We're on the air on Titans Radio at 11 AM. We hope you'll join us for that. For Amy Wells, I'm Mike Keith, hoping we're back here next week with another edition of Titans All Access. We'll see you next time.


When it comes to the particular ancient uparts that we share, which have a simply impossible age, this, in regard to the modern chronological paradigm of man's historical origins, in which man evolved from the sea to the cave and then into modern civilization, in a supposedly already mapped out and fully understood linear fashion with no gaps whatsoever. A position made to attain undeserved authority over historical teachings. Thus, when an object turns up, which contests these so-called already established factual ideologies, it is either simply dismissed, or those who oppose such possibilities of its existence, go to great length to discredit its authenticity in any way. Furthermore, it must be mentioned that many more than could be contributed to coincidence have mysteriously disappeared over the years, scenarios, and events, which simply strengthen the original claims of the object's authenticity. Our next artifact of interest being no exception, known as the Meister Print. It is an artifact that many have attempted to discredit as an authentic human footprint for good reason, and when one recites the academic opposed theory, regarding the dismissal of said hypothesis of human origin, it exposes how miserably said attempt was. It is simply written off as a portion of Jurassic strata, at which, at some point in the distant past, naturally fractured coincidentally into the form of a human-shaped shoe print. However, this explanation, or attempted dismissal, avoids any attempt to explain away the main feature within the print, which not only proves it was indeed a print once made by induced pressure onto this ancient earth, but why it's claimed as an oopart in the first place. Within the print, there exists a crushed trilobite, which proves this was indeed a pressed print, but also confirms an age of hundreds of millions of years. Thus, whatever made this print had a human-shaped foot, was seemingly wearing shoes or boots, and was heavy enough to crush an ancient arthropod. These facts, along with academia's miserable attempt to dismiss said oopart, we therefore find highly compelling. Thanks to improvements in modern archaeological technologies, and indeed the evolution of satellite resolution imagery of our spinning, living blue marble, we are fortunately entering an era where, thanks to penetrative strata photography, the last remaining legacies of what we have long claimed would be found, that of once highly capable global lost civilization or possibly many, and yet another proof of this hypothesis has recently been rediscovered in Iran. A gigantic artificial wall, measuring approximately 71 miles in length, extending from the mountains of Bamu to an area near the town of Jean-Marg, Iran, has been exposed. To put this ancient feat into perspective, computer systems have estimated that more than 1 million cubic meters of stone would have had to have been quarried, transported and placed where they now lay, and this is a mere remnant of its past grandeur. With an estimated volume of 1 million cubic meters of stone, its construction would have required abundant resources. This in terms of labor, materials, and tremendous toil and time, wrote Sejad Ali-Bagi, PhD of the Archaeological Department of the University of Tehran, in an article published in the journal Antiquity. Although the existence of the wall long claimed as unknown to mainstream archaeology, those who have lived nearby for millennia have known about its existence all along, knowing it as Gari Wall or Gari Chen Wall. The venture party state that due to the wall's poor state of conservation, the researchers are not sure who built the structure and for what purpose. In fact, they are not even sure of its exact width and height. The best estimate is about 4 meters wide and 3 meters high. Its exact purpose remains a complete mystery, one which we find highly compelling. To truly understand the astonishingly true history of the unfinished obelisk, one must first wade through a quagmire of well-financed fallacy, infested with many a false prophet, incomplete or simply illogical conjecture, all of which, defended by countless academic figures of institutions of influence and power, acquired via the funding in their defense of a form of mass worship of academics' perception as if an all-knowing authority. So, with things like the obelisk, for example, one begins to wonder if this all be by Since academic records of this monument began, no one who has described it, predictably, has ever managed to wrap their head around how such a stone could have possibly ever been moved. Ergo, all well-funded explorers, reporters, and journalists alike, with the expectant pressure of their return with a deciphered mystery. It would appear this explanation never arose, yet was skillfully averted. Firstly, the rock had indeed been abandoned abruptly at some point in history, conveniently allowing academia to make nearly all those interested in the obelisk overlook this eventual intention by its original creators, a distraction made by a fault line. Kriston, an independent investigator, held in varied regard, found that details of decoration were already being added to the stone as it was being hewn, running exactly through this so-called fault, disproving this so-long-held academic fallacy. Yet, alas, although the unfinished obelisk lay still attached to the strata of Earth, like that of the larger of the two megaliths in Yangshan Quarry, the largest some 16,000 tons, academia is not required nor would even attempt to provide any logical explanation as to how these blocks would have been moved. Additionally, however, and perhaps most revealing, is the pregnant lady of Lebanon, a 1,000-plus-ton megalith, so large that just like that of the unfinished obelisk, no attempt was ever made to explain the ancient civilization responsible could have moved such stones to their final placements. Yet, remarkably, the proverbial nail in the coffin and vindication of our claim was the excavations made around the pregnant woman, recently revealing that this stone was not abandoned on a slight incline as claimed, but was placed atop another stone of even bigger proportions, suggesting it was part of a once enormous structure and exposing this reoccurring academic strategy when it comes to dismissing the controversial. It is a reality which we find incredibly annoying. Did the Great Sphinx once witness the bottom of a sea? There is evidence, things we have covered on this channel in the past which would suggest just that. Who built these astounding structures found dotted all over the earth? When were they built? Were they really, like academia would like you to believe, built by primitive civilizations with the use of primitive tools, often made of copper and notoriously soft metal? Or is there a possibility that these structures were made by a far more ancient, far more capable, world- traversing civilization? Built in areas of geological interest, most often the center of a land mass or placed upon key lines? Although there is a large number of artifacts and archaeological factors which strongly suggest this exact scenario of events, we feel there is one collection of artifacts, or rather evidence of this people's past existence which, just like their clear originally intended function, could tie these monuments neatly together. Known as the missing ancient metal clamps, given their predicted age and metallic composition, the fact that they are no more should come as no surprise. However, the carved seats that these clamps once sat within are still present in the stonework of many ancient structures found all over the world. Within our own modern day society, a society that can travel the world in a day and speak to the other side in an instant, technological advances are often copied or shared between nations. The concepts being the same, yet the manufacture slightly differing in form, and the metal clamps display this exact phenomena. Slight variations in manufacture that can be seen dependent on the land mass the ruin is found upon, yet the concept behind the construction of these amazing and perplexing structures, often constructed using blocks we have no explanation as to the placement of, remain the same worldwide. Dry stone walling often accompanied by these clamps made with such skill, the blocks are now often perceived to have been made to measure. The builders were clearly very aware of shifting, which can be seen, as blocks settled over the following years. This offers a presumption that these structures were intended to last many centuries, if not millennia, and the metal clips were also designed to indeed rust away to nothing after their function was served. Amazingly, it seems that out of the countless thousands used, a few of the clamps have somehow managed to survive. The clamps from pre-Columbian South America that have been examined show them to be made of a very unusual alloy, 2% arsenic, 95% copper, with traces of iron, silicon and nickel. This composition is particularly interesting within Pumapunka, because there is no source nickel anywhere in Bolivia. The clips are clearly a compelling link between these ancient structures found all over the world, but more importantly, the builders of them. These amazing artifacts clearly deserve much more attention. Thanks for watching guys, and until next time, take care. Contact Prior to Set Event If this be the case, and the evidence we continue to present does indeed support such hypothesis, one would presume that we would see gaps in geological data, along with the forage or paradox we recently shared in our Was Darwin Wrong Special, which is the gap in population growth which one would expect to observe in the data to be present if our hypothesis be true. Intriguingly, it would seem that this gap has now also been discovered, in the history of the human genome, and instead of being coined a paradox, they have instead been labeled a ghost population. According to the British media outlet The Guardian, quote, scientists have found evidence for a mysterious ghost population of ancient humans who lived about a half a million years ago and whose genes live on in people today. Traces of the unknown ancestor emerged when researchers analyzed genomes from West African populations, up to a fifth of their DNA, appeared to have come from the missing relatives. Geneticists suspect ancestors of interbred, with the yet to be discovered, archaic humans tens of thousands of years ago, much as ancient Europeans once made it with Neanderthals, end quote. In other words, there are gaps in our genetic development, which supports the past experience of catastrophe and explains the loss of ancient knowledge. It continues, quote. In the people we looked at, they all had ancestry from this unknown archaic population, said Shiram Sankara Raman, a computational biologist who led the research at the University of California in Los Angeles. Unlike today, the world was once home to many related species or subspecies of human, and when they stumbled upon one another, mating was not out of the question. As a result, modern Europeans carry a smattering of Neanderthal genes, while indigenous Australians, Polynesians, and Melanesians carry genes from Denisovans, another group of archaic humans. Previous studies have hinted that other ancient humans once roamed Earth, but without any fossils or DNA to pour over, researchers have struggled to learn more about them, end quote. We believe these fossils, if found, and they most probably have, due to them not fitting modern paradigm, would either, unfortunately, be misdated or simply vanish. Regardless, we find Shiram's compelling and reinforcing research of a now lost ghost civilization highly compelling.