Waffle Zoo on Rumble. If the normies continue to be blank slates and won't hear any reason or logic, how can we expect anything to ever actually change?  Here's the thing, Waffle Zoo, they're about to become cannon fodder. Once people feel the pain, they tend to wake up.  They are still caring, they have the ability to care, they have the ability to love. They have souls, they have spirits. We can't just write them off as nothing. I know I call them NPCs, but that's just because they haven't awoken yet. They haven't found who they are yet. They haven't connected their spirit yet. But once they go through enough pain and suffering, they will and guaranteed the western world, the population in the western world is about to go through a lot of pain and suffering. There's no doubt about it. It's many have, many have woken up and the majority is just lagging behind. And this isn't just about inflation, cost of living. This is about everything. This is about everything. So don't give up on humanity yet. They're just sometimes a little delayed. That's why I believe the sensors on sensor tube and Twitch and some of the other platforms have prevented us from using the word delayed that you can translate into French. We say low IQ, it starts with an R. Right? So there's a lot of people that are delayed. They don't stay delayed all the time. They're going to come out of it because we don't mean it in a derogatory term that implies that that is that will always be their state of being. No, they're just delayed. The information is delayed.


Now this is the second video cast on research ethics. The first was on ethical theories. The third will be on ethical research practice, and in this video cast I'm going to look at ethical principles starting with the Όystian advisors. which are around the regulation of research ethics. Research ethics is regulated through a system of ethical governance. Which is set up by universities, health authorities, some government research departments. ac mae'r rhymaradau ar hyfry a'r hyd-gy cuesu yn ei rhaneniu'r cyfry ofycisio. Fynnodgive gwneudom at chances y maen i ddweud hynny. A O stehen i gwneudwch am ddysg ac hynny diwylliant времени. Rwy'n medau beth o dweud fylguogi'r wybodaeth i fyny eisiau, mae wedi gwneud gennych teulueth o'r byrddechol. The systems of ethical governance are implemented through systems of ethical review and this is carried out by groups of people, committees called in the UK research ethics committees or in the US institutional review boards and they receive applications for ethical approval from individual researchers and from teams of researchers. Again ostensibly they're primarily interested in the welfare of participants and their well-being and making sure that that is cared for and of course that is very important and should be very important ethical consideration for all researchers at all times. It can also be argued that systems of ethical review, these committees, these groups of so-called experts are really interested in protecting the institutions that commission and carry out the research from any risk and particularly from risk of being sued by participants who may not be happy with how they've been treated during the research process or may not be in agreement with the findings of research. So there are disagreements about what ethical governance and what ethical review are for. There's a very interesting book called Behind Closed Doors by a woman called Laura Stark who carried out an ethnographic study of three institutional review boards in the United States and found that they work a lot on the basis of precedent so if they've approved a similar study they're more likely to approve another study in that style. They also work a lot on who they know, they trust people more if they know them better. There are other aspects to this ethnography too and I would encourage you to look it up and read it if you're interested in this topic because it's very well written, it's very fascinating. Another resource that might be useful is an online database called TRED which stands for the Research Ethics Applications Database which is hosted at Oxford University and it's a database of research ethics applications that have been successful from around the world. It's interesting to look at those and looking through all of the ethics applications on the database which I did a year or two ago reveals that most ethics committees are indeed interested primarily in participant wellbeing and data storage. Of course research ethics committees are not all the same and some are becoming now much more genuinely interested in helping researchers to act ethically at all stages of the research process or at least at more stages than simply when they're collecting data. But even the mechanisms of doing this, filling in a form for a decision to be made behind closed doors, some ethics committees will welcome researchers to the meeting to discuss their project but they very rarely will take the decision in the presence of that researcher. So there is a question that is raised by some researchers and by some ethicists about how ethical really is the system of ethical review, how ethical are the ethics committees. There has been some progress on this in recent years. So for example there was a conference called the Ethics Rupture Summit held at Frederickton University in Canada and that resulted in the New Brunswick Declaration. It was by invitation only this conference and there were 30 or 35 ethics researchers there. I wasn't part of that group as I wasn't so involved myself at the time. But it's interesting to me to read the New Brunswick Declaration. It's only a page long and it speaks of some of the principles that we saw in the last video cast and more from the indigenous research paradigm in the Euro-Western paradigm. So it incorporates principles such as respect and the importance of research benefiting participants, not just researchers. And there were people there representing countries where there is a strong tradition of indigenous research such as New Zealand and Canada and other such countries. I don't know whether indigenous researchers themselves were present but certainly some of those principles made their way in whether or not the people who do that kind of research were there in person. Then the Academy of Social Sciences worked hard over several years to create some core principles for research that people could use to base ethical guidelines, ethical codes on or just to help them think through how they would act ethically. I was involved with this process and there were several symposia with researchers from different disciplines talking about what was important to them and discussing what needed to go into the core principles. And while these principles are perhaps more firmly located in the Euro-Western paradigm, they explicitly privilege democracy for example, they also do look at issues of relationship and reciprocity and respect. So this is widening out the whole system of Euro-Western ethics or certainly trying to. More recently in New Zealand, at least one research committee, research ethics committee has made its work accessible to community-based researchers. So it's not only researchers working for or working within institutions like universities who can go to research ethics committees for guidance on how ethical their research might be. Overall, this kind of move is moving away from the principle of regulation and moving towards the principle of ethical education for researchers for all of us because nobody's got all the answers. The greatest research ethics expert in the world doesn't have all the answers to all the ethical dilemmas that everyone may encounter. And another form of this progress is moving away from the old biomedical principle of do no harm, which is really very low baseline now for research ethics and moving towards promoting social justice alongside research and through research and for research to be done in the interests of social justice. So Euro-Western principles are about regulation and also about progress in terms of that regulation. It's not static. We're moving towards something even more ethical than our existing ethical systems. Indigenous ethical principles are different in some ways and interesting and not universal. Talking about indigenous ethical principles like talking about Euro-Western ethical principles makes it seem as though they're universal and they're not. In practice, there are variations, but there are some common features. So, for example, Wilson and Wilson put forward these four principles that they regarded as pretty much core to indigenous research ethics. One is that knowledge belongs to everyone. They don't use experts in the way that Euro-Western paradigm does in Euro-Western research and in Euro-Western society more widely. We will assign expertise to a particular person, someone may be an expert on glaciation, someone else may be an expert on nutrition. But in the indigenous paradigm, knowledge is regarded as belonging to everyone. Everyone is their own form of expert. And it's about bringing all those individual knowledges together that creates an ethical way of knowing. Then relationship, which is key, as we saw in the last video, cast key to indigenous research ethics. Every relationship should be mutually accountable, and that's another key principle of indigenous research ethics. And then reciprocity, every relationship should be reciprocal as well. And that's relationships between people, relationships between people and communities, relationships between people and organisations and so on and so forth. And also that there should be a holistic approach that knowing isn't purely cerebral, it's also emotional, it's also spiritual, that knowledge may be held by ancestors who may not now be living, that knowledge may be held by the land, and that knowledge can be gained by being in relation with ancestors, with the land, for example, and with other aspects of being and aspects of experience. There's a nice quote here from Bagelay Chiliza, a professor in Botswana, which kind of sums up most things about indigenous research ethics. I'm just going to read it to you in case you can't see it on the screen. She says, a post-colonial indigenous ethical theory recognises power sharing within diversity as an integral part of fairness and social justice and as a means to challenge power structures in order to transform lives. So there are many elements within that quote. It's about power sharing, it's about a balance of power, not inequalities of power. And it's about power sharing within diversity, so however different people may be within that group or within that community, they all have a right to share power and that this is integral to social justice. It's not only that though, it's not only fair and just, it's also a way of challenging imbalances of power and ultimately it's about making a positive change to people's lives. That's what research ethics is for, that's what it's about. And Bagelay Chiliza, in her book on indigenous research methods, which is a very interesting book and well worth reading, she came up with the four Rs in terms of indigenous ethical principles, which are really quite similar to the principles set out by Wilson and Wilson, but not exactly the same. So again, we have a clear similarity in the first one in that relationships are important and everyone's accountable for those relationships particularly in research, of course, the researcher. And then the second one, in research, researchers need to listen carefully, listen deeply, really pay attention, really listen, not just collect data that becomes an artifact for them to use, but to listen fully, not only in terms of paying attention intellectually and cognitively, but paying attention emotionally and making sure that there's space for other knowledge systems than their own and for other voices than their own within that research. Whether it be qualitative, quantitative or mixed method. Then again, we have reciprocity, but Chiliza goes a little further than Wilson and Wilson here. She recognises research as appropriation. This is where you're collecting data and taking it away. You're appropriating data and appropriating knowledge. And it's important to remember, I think, that research has been a tool of oppression and subjugation by colonial peoples, of colonised peoples, and this is perhaps a legacy of that. But again, here we see the need for research to benefit participants and benefit communities, not only benefiting researchers. And then Chiliza acknowledges the regulation principle, which is where we started in the Euro-Western paradigm, that she is arguing there is scope within indigenous ethical principles for regulatory protocols, which will explicitly give ownership of research to colonised and marginalised people and ownership of the knowledge produced by research. And this is enshrined now in research ethical protocols in countries such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada, where there are big indigenous populations conducting indigenous research.


Lev, an Aronian beat Nigel shot with the black pieces and is now on 5 out of 6. Let's get his thoughts on today's game. Lev, it looked like you were always in control. A crucial win with the black pieces. Couldn't have gone better today? Yeah, somehow. I think Nigel was a bit tired after the battle of the sexes. So, it was an easier game for me than usual. Right, now you played the night off today and we've barely seen you employ the Sicilian. But not a common opening choice for you. Give us some insights into your opening prep for today's game. Yeah, I was a nighter player till I turned about 20 or 21, I don't remember. And then I kind of quit. And I thought, you know, normally when people get older, they get seen out. They like to come back to the things they were doing.   I don't know much in nighter, but normally Nigel himself avoids it and plays some off-beat lines, which are not that dangerous.  More or less, yeah, because he plays either A4, A3 or some rare lines. That's some good advice for people when they're preparing against their opponents. Now, were you expecting the A3 setup? Not really, I thought he would go for either Bc4, which he used to play a long, long time ago, or something else. But I checked up this idea, it looks natural, and I felt confident to play it. Because the thing is, Night Dorf and the Rui Lopez has very, very similar common ideas, especially the Night Dorf with E5. So, I don't need to completely learn, you know, a new type of structure, so I can play it by heart. Right, now you said you were also nostalgic for the night off, but I'm sure it involved a lot of preparation as well. And did that preparation also involve looking at a lot of Maxime's games? Absolutely, many different players of modern age defend Night Dorf, but Maxime is the one who religiously defends it. And well, since I also play for myself, it helped, you know, because you get to look for the things with white. And that's always a good way to prepare for Black. Very interesting. At what moment today did you feel that you had a decisive advantage? Yeah, I felt when I played G5, I felt this should be a very difficult position for White to play. And then, okay, maybe he didn't defend in the most precise way, but anyway, the position is very unpleasant. Black's play is very natural. Right, and after getting a good position out of the opening and being satisfied with the way things went, did you ever doubt your advantage at any point in the game? No, I thought that maybe I didn't choose the most precise ways at some points, but I thought it should be sufficient with any play because the Bishop only 5 is too overwhelming. Right, now earlier in the event you had a draw against Sara and against Maria. Can you give us your thoughts playing them because you don't often play against women players? Yeah, I thought that Maria was playing very well at some point. I mean, she managed to get slightly worse because of some mistakes, but then she defended in a very, very nice way. And against Sara, well, I just blundered that I cannot mate on the eighth rank. But I mean, she's having a tremendous tournament, but I think the game she played against me was definitely not a good game for her. Right, now you've played more female players here than you would probably play in your entire year put together. Yeah, it's a lot of fun, but at the same time it's kind of difficult because the girls are normally well prepared. Are you aware that at the last night's Battle of the Sexes, your today's opponent, Nigel, was captaining the men's team, which actually lost to the women's team? Yeah, well, because I couldn't take part, I was too tired after my game. Well, these things happen, you know, when you don't recruit the best players for the match. So you think Nigel made a big mistake by not having you on his team? Yes, yes, and he paid for it fully. Give us your impressions so far about playing in Gibraltar? Yeah, it's always fun, especially when the weather is so good. You know, you feel that you're in the middle of the summer, so it definitely works good for the mood of the players. And I think most of the players are enjoying playing here. And we're at that stage in the event when things are really going to start heating up and getting tougher. So what is, can you tell us what is the shift in strategy or thought process? Well, I'm going to try to stay in the aggressive mode and just follow the chase. The aggressive mode is what the fans love. Thank you for joining us and for your time, Lev, all the best. Thank you. Thank you.


So let's go met these laws of nature first. Let's do laws of nature, laws of nature. Now you needn't have gone to university or to college to know Newton's three laws. Laws of motion, those are laws of nature. And we can have a look at Newton's second law. Let's say Newton's second law. You can say, well, if you call in A and we can make this a vector, in A a vector. I mean you just learn that, that is just the way it is. But how can you come up with this as a physicist? Well, you don't know that this is the relationship. You don't know really what a force is, but you see acceleration. You notice when you get a layer that if you drop something, it falls, it goes fast and fast. If you roll a ball down an incline, it goes fast and fast. There's some acceleration. And so you know that acceleration exists. It's a vector because it has quantity, it has size and it has a direction. And you think to yourself, let's make a proportionality. Let's make it proportional to something and we call that something, a force, which is also a direction. You've got a choice. You can say, well, let's make it inversely proportional. Let's make it proportional to the square, the thing that we created. We call it proportional to the square of the acceleration. There's lots of things you can come up with. But let's start simple and we just say, well, it's just proportional. And if that's a linear proportionality, remember it's linear, that's to the power 1, that's to the power 1, it's not inverse. This is linear proportionality. You can put in, let's just write things the proper way round. So you say, if it's proportional to the acceleration, now you can put in a constant of proportionality and let's call that inertia, inertial mass. You say, that looks good, let's try and test this. I have an effect and I have a cause. And I can change that cause. I can push something and I can now change this proportionality and see if this constant of proportionality see if my effect is different. I can now go out and test this. And if I do lots of tests and I can find no experiment that proves otherwise, I accept this as a law of nature. That is a law of nature. And no one has ever found within the realms of classical mechanics. Now if you're interested in physics, if you know anything about it, you'll know that this is just a very special case. We're talking Newton's laws of the special case in various circumstances, say for instance of general relativity. And you know that's not completely true, that there's a warping of space time due to a large gravitational mass, or a large mass. But within the realms of classical mechanics, no experiment has ever found anything different and we now call it a law of nature. Now we go to the first law. The source actually should be called Galileo's law. He stated this and then some suggest, well, you just set this equal to zero. Remember acceleration is dv dt. And that's zero, but anyway that the derivative of something is zero, zero vector, well, zero vector, anything that at the first derivative of zero is if that velocity is a constant. The constant's either zero, so the object's standing still, or it's some value, so there's linear motion in the same direction at the same velocity. We call that Newton's first law. Let's not need this first law. That's a derivation of the second law. If it's just simply a derivation, why do we call it a law? It is a law for specific reason because it sets the existence of an inertial reference frame. And an inertial reference frame is something in which equilibrium holds. So you've created this law, you've created this circumstance. You call it the first law. Under those circumstances, a type of space in which equilibrium holds. In other words, you need no cause to give you the effect of something standing still or going at constant velocity. You need no interference with that. If you create a system, a universe like that, that is a law of nature and it has nothing to do with this derivation, it stands completely on its own. In the next section, we'll have a quick look at Newton's third law.


In this module which is the continuation of the previous module which is fermented design but particularly in this module we will talk about aseptic operation and containment. What is containment and what is aseptic operation? So, as we have studied in our previous modules that while talking about the basic requirement of any good fermenters. So, we have discussed 13 different requirements are a basic characteristics of a good fermenter. The first characteristics of a fermenter so the fermenter that can be maintained aseptic conditions for a long term when the fermentation process is going on as well as that is able to maintain the containment level regulations. So, what is containment level and this that? So, aseptic operation involves the protection against the contamination and the containment involve the prevention of escape of viable cells from a fermenter or during the fermentation process or when there is a as we have studied that upstreaming process and as well as the downstreaming processes. So, it is very easy to understand that aseptic operation refer to that there will be no more contamination inside the fermenter and the containment that there should be no release of the viable cells from the fermentation process or later on in the downstreaming equipment. So, first of all the containment guidelines were initiated during 1970s. So, in order to establish the appropriate degree of containment which will be necessary to grow a microorganism so it and in fact the entire process must be carefully assessed for potential hazards that could occur should there be accidental release. But when we say that when there is a fermentation process is going on and the microorganism which are we are using for the mass culturing that can be a pathogens. So, there are so many miss happens during this fermentation process so in such cases that we have to assign some hazardous levels so that basically deal with that that how we can have some hazardous group that is only based upon the processes so the different assessment procedures are used depending on whether or not organism contain the foreign DNA mean genetically engineered organisms. So, once the hazard are assessed then an organism can be classified into the hazard group for which there is an appropriate level of containment be awarded. In general speaking there are four different levels in common sense when we called about biosafety levels there are four different biosafety levels which we can also called as the hazard levels. So, before giving the level to any organisms that we have to assess that what level of the risk is involved by culturing of that organism colon 1992 report 8 point risk assessment criteria according to that criteria the first criteria that is that we should know about the pathogenicity of the microorganism which we are going to use in fermentation process. We should be very clear about the type of that organism either that it pathogen or that is non pathogen mean environmental friendly. As an example that if we are using scaromyce servici I mean baker yeast that is non pathogen on other hand if we are using bacillus anthrox or any other such kind of the pathogen salmonella etcetera. So, we should clear about the our organism which we have to use in the fermentation process that either that is pathogen or not pathogen. But as concerned the second criteria if we know that our organism is a pathogen we should know about the virulence mean the level of pathogenicity. So that either the disease caused by that microorganism that is that will be the mild or very serious either that is not very much serious. So that is the second criteria. So first if the organism is pathogen then second is the level of pathogenicity and the third is that how much number of the organisms required to initiate an infection. So if that organism is pathogen and the level of virulence is very serious then we should know that how much amount of the cells required to initiate the infection. It is very clear that we are talking about the salmonella type of organism. So even one or two number of cells are sufficient to start the disease. And the fourth criteria that is the root of infection. So what is the root? Either that is direct intact blood contact either that is by air inhaling or by some food items and etcetera. So we should know about the root of infection of that organism by which that caused the disease. So the fifth criteria that the known incidence of that infection in the community. So where we have to run the fermentation process in that area is there any case of such disease is reported already. Very clear example with reference to Pakistan that in if we go behind 10 years we have no any report case of the dinghy. So that was the first chance in Pakistan community that we have the dinghy problem. So but now if we are dealing with the dinghy then almost we have some incident and then we have some precautionary measures. So if we are using such pathogens in our fermentation process we should know about that the disease caused by that organism either there is already case reported in our society in our community or not. So that and the sixth that the amount or the volume of the organism used in fermentation process. That means that what scale of the fermentation we are using. Either we are using on a laboratory scale or on a pilot scale or on an industrial scale. So another hand that is also as well as the volume of the fermentation we have to look about that what kind of the process we are using either solid state fermentation either the submerged fermentation. So we should clear about the volume and the type of the process in fermentation we are using. So that is very related to know the risk factor in associated with that organisms which we called as process organism. The seventh criteria that is the technique which I have already mentioned while expressing the sixth criteria that what kind of the techniques we are using. So there are number of techniques in fermentation process. So how that either that is exative sterilization, in-sative sterilization and then how what are the techniques we are using for handling the up steaming and the down steaming along with that either solid state fermentation, submerged fermentation or surface culture fermentation. So that is very critical. So the last criteria for the risk assessment that is the ease of prophylaxis and treatment that meant that is there any precautionary measures either there is vaccine or such kind of treatment which we called as prophylaxis kind of actions are already we know or not. If that organism is known pathogens and we have some prophylaxis and then that is the major part of that by which we can know the assessment level the hazardous level. So by using this eight point criteria we can determine the assessment then we can give a level to that organism in a fermentation process.


So YouTube team keep it clean. What's going on? It's engraving here with another video and in this video This is something that actually wanted to talk about for a long time now And it's funny I just finished watching the hard boss part of the press conference from today And it was brought up again So we always talk about how timing is everything and it absolutely is because the last question of his presser From Jameson Hensley from ESPN shout out to Jameson He asked how hard is it to pick who's gonna win that third QB spot on the Ravens and Harbaugh he gave the right answer for coach. Hey, it's really hard He said you want me to grade it on a scale from one to ten But he did say it's gonna be really hard because everybody's at a different level of their development right now So he didn't mention any names. He didn't throw anybody under the bus anything like that and that's good so it's going to be between Tyler Huntley and Trace mix sorely and it is a very very interesting battle nonetheless because This this third QB spot It's a spot that Yeah, it can get overlooked because you obviously got your first QB and you don't expect anything to happen to him Then you got your second QB and you like oh well if we nothing's gonna happen to the first QB Then we ain't gonna have to even worry about the second QB then it's the third QB. There's a whole another spot It's like oh, okay, he'll just be chilling most of the season And of course that was Trace McSawley's role last season he was more of an insurance policy and With an insurance policy is one of those things that you don't expect or you don't anticipate having to use But it's good and it gives you peace of mind moving forward in life It's like car insurance.  Hey today is the day that I'm going to get into a car accident Today's the day Nobody looks at things like that. Well, I would at least hope nobody looks at things like that But today's the day that I'm gonna go get into a car accident So you always think okay, whether you're gonna go to work whether you're gonna go to the store Whether you're gonna go here there you anticipate just get in there safely But sometimes unfortunately things happen accidents happen So it's nice to always have that insurance policy in your back pocket So just in case something does happen Then you have a go-to and that's the same way that it is with that third QB Just in case you don't anticipate it getting there because you go ahead to go through your first QB then you had to go through your second QB then your third but just in case it's nice to have that insurance policy and The John Hubbaugh actually announced on August 7th an oppressor from August 7th The reason that I remember the date is because I planned on talking about this For the longest and it's funny because I actually had recorded this video about 12 minutes ago But then I deleted it because I was like, oh wait a minute. Oh Hubbaugh just talked about it again So we had to make sure we got that piece in there and real quick Shout out to those of y'all that that came through on the Ravens live stream during training camp today Because y'all showed insane love man. I appreciate y'all so much man For real. I love y'all y'all are the best team keeping clean ain't nobody like y'all man. There's nobody like y'all but anyway the competition is between An undrafted rookie free agent and Tyler Huntley. I believe from Utah and Then Trace McSorley second year quarterback was a seventh round pick last year. I believe from Penn State So both of them are pretty unproven in the NFL Trace McSorley obviously has more experience than Tyler Huntley So that gives him a leg up on him But Tyler Huntley comes in and he ain't no bad quarterback now because I remember when I watched his film The one of the things that I saw is that he got a big on he has a big arm and he has some very underrated speed That's what I picked up on when I watched his film. The only thing that I noticed is that He can get he's gonna be even better with NFL coaching Because I thought he could use a little bit more touch on the ball a little tiny bit better placement But that dude got a big on man. He got a he got a big arm So his arm is ready for NFL And with Trace McSorley He's going that they're gonna have to battle it out man As our ball has already said but they are going to have to battle it out and it is not going to be a gimme Now I know who I believe will win that last that last QB spot and the QB that I think is gonna end up taking it Well, I'll save that for a roster prediction video. We can talk about that then But it's it's gonna come down to it man, and we should know fairly soon. I think they'll I Think they will cut the final QB On Friday because I mean they don't have to wait to Saturday for that one I mean they can because Saturday they may do like a Adjusts and it may be an influx of roster cuts on Saturday, but they've already started. They started yesterday They started yesterday with the four moves that they make they made three cuts and one injured reserve So they made announced some more today. We'll see but throughout the week They're gonna be trimming that roster because it's cut downtime and it's time to go So with the QBs, like I said, I would anticipate I don't anticipate that coming down to the very end But they may actually want to make it come down to the very end So you can have that camp on all the way through as long as you possibly can And then they make that announcement so who that announcement ends up being we will see very very soon So teamkeeper clean. I appreciate y'all. I love y'all and I will see you all later today with some special announcements


Hello friends, in this presentation I will be introducing and summarizing the content of my article in the journal Baha'i Studies, Baha'u'llah and the God of Avicenna. The article analyzes the theological teachings of Baha'u'llah and Abu Baha and compares them with the core metaphysical principles propounded by Avicenna, who is the preeminent philosopher in the Islamic tradition. Specifically, the article argues that Baha'u'llah and Abu Baha affirm the metaphysical or philosophical principles that underlie Avicenna's argument for God's existence. This argument for God's existence asserts that he is the necessarily existent, the volgible voodoo, the self-subsistent reality that upholds all the rest of existence. The article furthermore argues that Baha'u'llah and Abu Baha affirm the rational content of how Avicenna deduces that this necessarily existent being has certain divine attributes. And it concludes by considering how Baha'u'llah and Abu Baha also confirm Avicenna's philosophical account of how God, or the necessarily existent, creates the world. To this end, the article is organized in three parts. In the first part, I present Avicenna's argument for God as a necessarily existent, and then I show how Baha'u'llah and Abu Baha affirm this concept of God in their writings, specifically that he has the attribute of necessary, or inevitable, or self-sufficient existence, in precisely the same way that Avicenna teaches or argues for. In part two, I show how Avicenna argues philosophically and deductively that the necessarily existent being, or God, has attributes that are considered divine, and these include simplicity, which is less commonly talked about, which means that God doesn't have any internal parts. He's completely one, includes singleness, that God is unique, immutability, eternality, perfection, and goodness. And I show that Baha'u'llah and Abu Baha affirm the self-same attributes of God that Avicenna does, and also the reasoning behind Avicenna's attribution of these attributes to God. In the third and last part before the conclusion, I present Avicenna's account of how God, or the necessarily existent being, creates the contingent world, or the realm of creation. And I show the remarkable similarities between Avicenna's account and that of Baha'u'llah and Amdubaha. Who then was Avicenna? I think that he really was the pre-eminent philosopher of the Islamic tradition, and he remains one of the most influential and important philosophers in world history. The reason is that he inherited the philosophical tradition that began in Greece with Socrates' Aristotle and Plato, and which then developed in the Aeneal-Platonic tradition of Platinus, and which then flourished in the Islamic world after the translation movement of Greek texts into Arabic in the 9th and 10th centuries. Avicenna inherited this tradition, and through his synthetic genius, he was able to have a picture of this philosophy, this rational philosophy that wasn't in chord with the truths enshrined in Islamic Revelation. Moreover, he was able to excel in pretty much every discipline of his time. This included the various branches of philosophy, logic, physics, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics, but also things such as medicine. The Canada medicine, his medical textbook, was in use in Europe even until the 17th century. Thus, Avicenna was able to be the intellectual consummation of all the intellectual tradition that preceded him, but he also set the terms of intellectual debate and of philosophy that came after him. And it's as such that he was an indelible influence even in Europe because he affected the thought of people like St. Thomas Aquinas, Don Skotis, of William of Ockham. So, Avicenna really was not just the important or preeminent philosopher in the Islamic tradition, but he was an important figure in the whole tradition of philosophy, of world philosophy. Some of his most influential contributions to intellectual life, however, were in metaphysics, which is the branch of philosophy which studies being, the nature of existence itself. And to this end, he had a number of compendia, philosophical compendia, that are mentioned in my article, including Asche Fall, which means the healing, that is the intellectual kind of healing, and Najat, the Salvation, and the Dhanishnomiya Alawi, which is in Persian instead of Arabic. Each of these compendia have metaphysical sections, and it's these that are specifically used in my article. But why is Avicenna relevant to us as Baha'is? Why is it worth anything pointing out ideas of his that Baha'u'llah and Abu Baha'a affirm? I think the reason is that we as Baha'is take it that our beliefs are rational. Baha'u'llah and Abu Baha'a don't tell us to take things on faith. They say, think for yourselves, and discern the reasons for your beliefs. And Abu Baha'a tells us in some answer questions that today, the peoples of the world require rational arguments, that are ele at liye. So Avicenna, since his philosophy and his theology are rational ones, since they're backed up with serious intellectual thinking, he provides a helpful model. This is especially true since his reasoning is explicitly and implicitly affirmed in the writings of Baha'u'llah and Amdubaha. His argument for God's existence, which doesn't depend on faith whatsoever, but merely logical reasoning, is confirmed in the writings. So Avicenna provides a helpful model for us when we are articulating and defending the rational foundation of Baha'i theology. A critical point I should make at this juncture, however, is that by affirmation, I do not at all mean derivation. When I say that Baha'u'llah and Amdubaha affirm the ideas of Avicenna with respect to God's existence, when they affirm his argument for God's existence, or perhaps his account of different divine attributes that God has, I don't mean that they have derived these insights from Avicenna. I think that Avicenna came to certain important truths about the nature of reality, and that he did so through the method of rational inquiry that he inherited from Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, and from Islamic philosophers before him such as Al-Kindi and Parabi, and that he furthermore was illumined intellectually by the teachings of the Quran, and that in so doing he came upon certain truths, certain reasoning that affirms the existence of God, and that later on Baha'u'llah and Amdubaha have affirmed the truths that Avicenna did reach. I don't think, however, that they've had to borrow these insights from Avicenna. My personal conviction as a Baha'i is that Baha'u'llah possesses an innate knowledge and comprehension of the realities of things, and a knowledge of God which nobody can equal or possess other than himself, and then Amdubaha is his authoritative and infallible interpreter, the infallible interpreter of his writings, and that therefore the insights they have affirm the truths that Avicenna reached deductively and logically, but which are not at all dependent on Avicenna. In any case, what then is Avicenna's argument for God's existence? It's based on two fundamental principles, metaphysical principles. For Avicenna, there are two possible modes in which, or by which, a thing can exist. A thing can exist either contingently or necessarily in itself. A thing can be either a contingent being or a necessary being. Now we know for sure that there are contingent beings. There are beings that exist contingently, that exist that is in a manner that is contingent or dependent or conditioned upon other things. All the things of our experience are contingent. We are contingent because we would not exist if it weren't for the existence of our parents. We wouldn't exist if it weren't for the maintenance of certain conditions, such as the composition of our elements. This table, for instance, would not exist for or not for the composition of the wood and the glue and the nails. So all the things in our experience are contingent beings. They would not exist without certain conditions, that is, without certain causes being in place to support and to sustain their existence, and in many cases to have originated their emergence. Now, these contingent beings in themselves are only possibly existent. They're made actually existent for Abbasana when their cause causes and sustains their existence. So we know for sure that there are these contingent beings. The question that arises for Abbasana is whether everything is contingent, or if there is at least one thing that is necessarily existent in itself, that exists without any need for a cause, that exists in a way dependent on no cause or condition whatsoever. For Abbasana, this unconditioned kind of reality would not be a momkana buddhud. It would not be a contingent being. Rather, it would be vodhipal buddhud. It would be the necessarily existent of itself. It would exist in a manner that is independent of any condition whatsoever. It would exist by virtue of its innate nature. Now, for Abbasana, since this thing would not be dependent on anything else whatsoever, it would be an ultimate and absolute reality that could serve as the cause for all other beings in existence. Now, if God exists, he could not be a contingent being. He could not, for Abbasana, be a created thing, a dependent thing. Because anyone be God, he would be subordinate to something else. So for Abbasana, determining whether there is something that is vodhipal buddhud, something that is necessarily existent, is essential to establishing the existence of God. Therefore, for Abbasana, in order to see philosophically whether God exists, we have to see if everything is contingent, or if we have good reason to believe that there is at least one thing that is necessarily existent of itself. Abbasana argues for the necessarily existent being in light of the following premises leading up to his ultimate conclusion. So the first premise that Abbasana would have us think about is that every contingent being, in order to exist, requires a concurrent cause. If there weren't some factors that enabled it to exist, at every single moment it would revert to non-existent. For example, a person's body relies on the coherence of its elements and certain external factors in order to be maintained in existence. Contingent beings don't have this innate power to exist, they're reliant upon external conditions, even if that is the composition of their parts, the composition of their matter and their form, and a surrounding environment. Therefore, every contingent being requires a simultaneous or concurrent cause. Now, when we go into premise two, we see that there are two possibilities. Either every contingent being has a cause and that cause of cause, and that cause of cause, to infinity, or the causal chain terminates in a cause that is not itself contingent, but which is necessarily existent of itself, a cause that is not dependent for its existence on another cause, but which is self-sufficient, which is self-subsistent. Now, as we go into premise three, we see that Avicenna thinks that there is not an infinite sequence of contingent causes. And he thinks this because the totality, if that were the case, the totality of these contingent causes in this chain would not itself have a cause. So individual contingent beings within the causal chain would have causes, but not the totality, since it would just keep on going on forever with additional causes. But Avicenna realizes that this cannot be the case, because then the totality of contingent beings would not itself have a cause. But it's a contingent being itself. The totality of contingent beings for Avicenna is itself a contingent being, because it is an entity composed of parts. And anything that's composed of parts is itself contingent, since it relies upon, it is contingent upon the existence of those parts. Therefore, since every contingent being requires a cause, and since the totality of contingent beings is itself contingent, the totality must have a cause. Now, the cause of the totality cannot itself be contingent being, because then it would require a cause, and in fact would be within the totality of contingent beings. Rather, the cause of the totality of all contingent beings could only be a necessarily existent being. And therefore, there is something in existence, at least one thing that is necessarily existent of itself, dependent on no other. Now, Avicenna, after he establishes the existence of something necessarily existent in itself, establishes also that that thing has to be a divine reality by deducing certain other attributes for it, which are divine attributes. At this stage, however, I also show that Baha'u'llah and Amdo Baha identify God as the necessarily existent reality that Avicenna talks about. They do this by explicitly affirming that God is vajib, that he is necessarily existent, and by talking about the creation as being contingent, using the same kind of philosophical terminology that Avicenna does, or in other places using different terminology that affirms the same ideas. Baha'u'llah, for instance, states that, the habitation wherein the divine being dwelleth is far above the reach and can of anyone besides him. Whatever in the contingent world can either be expressed or apprehended can never transgress the limits which, by its inherent nature, have been imposed upon it. God alone transcended such limitations. So, literally, Baha'u'llah says that that God transcends, literally, whatever is in the station of the contingent, the condition of the contingent, and that he transcends the limitations of contingency. Furthermore, repeats an argument from contingency for the existence of God in some answer questions. He says that, so long as the contingent world is characterized by dependency, and so long as this dependency is one of its essential requirements, there must be one who, in his own essence, is independent of all other things. And this is precisely an affirmation of the reasoning underlying Avicenna's argument, that there is contingent existence and necessary existence, and that the contingent world relies upon a necessarily existent being that is God in order to exist. It is in this light that Baha'u'llah distinguishes between creation and God by affirming that God is Baljeb or necessarily existent, that creation is contingent. He states that there can be no type direct intercourse to find the one true God with his creation, and no resemblance whatsoever can exist between the transient and the eternal, the contingent, and the absolute. Here Shoghi Effendi perceptively translates Baljeb or necessary as absolute, because absolute means non-contingent, non-conditioned, and the like. After showing that the Baha'i writings affirm Avicenna's conception of God as a necessarily existent, I show how Avicenna deduces that this being, this necessarily existent being, has divine attributes, and I show that Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha affirm the same attributes to God. Now the fundamental thing, the fundamental principle underlying this discussion, is that for both the Baha'i writings and Avicenna, we deduce that God has certain attributes through negation. We realize that he transcends the limitations and attributes of contingent beings, and thus cannot be constrained by the attributes of such beings. So when we affirm certain attributes of him, what we're really doing is negating from him certain imperfections, such as Abdu'l-Baha states, he says that, such things as we affirm for creation to be among the requirements of origination, we deny in God, for to be sanctified and exalted above all imperfections is one of the characteristics of the necessary being. Avicenna in the same light says that God has attributes his meaning is negative, such that when we say that God is one, we mean that his reality is such that he has no peer, or that he is not composed of parts. When we say he is eternal, we mean that his existence has no beginning, but these two attributes, oneness and eternity, do not bring about any multiplicity in his essence. That is to say, Avicenna and Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha affirm that God does not have a multiplicity of different attributes. We're not applying many different properties to God. Really he is possessed of absolute oneness. He is absolute oneness himself, but there are different ways of articulating what he is not, different ways of articulating what imperfections he does not have. The first attribute therefore that Avicenna deduces the necessarily existent has is simplicity, which means the lack of multiplicity. Now we saw that contingent beings have an internal kind of multiplicity in many instances. They're composed of parts, and being composed of parts, they rely on those parts to exist and would not exist without those parts. But God, since he is absolutely unconditioned, could not rely on various parts in order to exist, and on some external factor or principle to make those parts cohere. Therefore in him there cannot be composition of any kind, there cannot be physical parts or discrete elements or separable properties or diverse attributes, various internal relations or metaphysical parts either. He could not be a composition of matter and form, he's thus immaterial, and he cannot even be, and I explain some of these ideas more in my paper, a composition of actuality and potentiality. He has to be one indivisible essence for Avicenna. For Avicenna there is an additional radical way in which God is absolutely one, has no composition whatsoever. An important metaphysical idea for Avicenna is that there's a distinction between essence and existence. Now an essence of the thing is just what it is. For example the essence of a triangle is triangularity, the essence of a tree is treeness, but the essences of contingent beings are separate from their existence. They don't exist merely because of their essences. So there is not implicit in the essence triangle the idea of existence. A triangle doesn't exist merely because of what it definitionally is. It's possible for no triangles to exist whatsoever, it's possible for no trees to exist whatsoever, no dogs, despite of their essences. So what something is for Avicenna is distinct from the fact that it is or whether it is.  If he did he would be a contingent being. If his existence wasn't just his essence, if it wasn't just his essence to exist and to be, he would rely on something external to his essence, external to his being in order to exist. Thus for Avicenna God in not being contingent does not have an essence distinct from his existence and thus he absolutely transcends composition of even the most fundamental kind. His essence is to be. What then is God for Avicenna?  He is a perfect being or existence itself. He transcends all attributes. All attributes we ascribe to him are negations of imperfections or negations of properties that entail contingency, thus merely describe in negative terms his essence or existence. And this is what Baha'u'llah and Amdubaha affirm, beyond God as a necessarily existent. Baha'u'llah says, Thou art witness that God is one in his attributes and that multiple attributes are debarred from entry into the court of his sanctity. Recognize, moreover, that the multiplicity of various designations and attributes shall never be joined to his essence for his attributes are verily his essence itself. Baha'u'llah is saying that God does not have distinct properties. He's one thing, his own essence, and his essence is necessarily existent and that when we affirm properties to him, these are just various ways of describing what he is. For example, it's just entailed by necessary existence that God has no parts, but that's not a separate and distinct attribute that we are ascribing to God. Thus, for both Abbasana and for Baha'u'llah and Amdubaha, when we say, when we ask what is God, we can respond glibly, he's simple. As Abdubaha states, simple in the sense of having no parts. The Godhead admits of no division, for division and multiplicity are among the characteristics of created and hence contingent things and not accidents or incidental properties impinging upon the necessary being. And Abdubaha likewise affirms that the essential names and attributes of God are identical with his essence and his essence is sanctified above all understanding. It's also for this reason that Baha'u'llah uses the term essential permanence or existence as a reference to God. In sum, if this existence is essential to God and thus an essential attribute, and if God's attributes are identical to his simple essence, it follows that Baha'u'llah upholds Abbasana's position that God is a necessarily existent whose essence is his existence. If God's essence were not his existence, his existence would not be essential to him, would therefore proceed from an external cause, making him a contingent being. That is just something that I write in the article in talking about Abba'u'llah's and Abdubaha's affirmation of this profound simplicity of God as we find in Abbasana's thinking. In part two of the article, I then show how Abbasana deduces further divine attributes of God by the method of negation, by the method of apophatic theology of negating from God those properties that entail congenitity in order to see that he has the opposite of those contingent properties. So Abbasana concludes using similar methods that God is single, that is unique, that there aren't a number of other necessarily existent beings, that he's eternal, perfect, holy, good, immaterial, possessed of intellect and will, or that his nature entails intellect and voluntary action, and that he is infinite. And I show how Abba'u'llah and Abdubaha affirm these same attributes of God, these same descriptions of his absolute and ultimate reality, which is absolutely one, and how they also affirm the reasoning underlying Abbasana's arguments. Because of time I'm not able in this presentation to go into all these various attributes beyond simplicity, but it's in the article if you wish to read it of course. After showing in part one that Abba'u'llah and Abdubaha affirm Abbasana's reasoning for God as a necessarily existent, and after showing how they share with him the conviction that God is fully simple, and that all properties we attribute to him are negations of imperfections, I show in part three that they also affirm Abbasana's account of how God creates the world. Now for Abbasana the question that needs to be answered is how the many things in contingent existence proceed from the absolute oneness of God. For Abbasana they don't proceed from God directly, but through an intermediary cause he calls the first intellect. For Abbasana the first intellect emanated from God through from all eternity, and it is through this first intellect that all the other things in existence have been created. And Abba'u'llah and Abdubaha confirm this picture in many different instances, and Abdubaha in some answer questions notes that the people of Baha'u'llah, that is Baha'u's, call the first intellect the primal will, instead of the first intellect most generally, but that it's the same reality. Therefore Baha'u'llah and Abdubaha affirm Abbasana's idea of creation as an emanation, as a procession of existence from God from all eternity through the intermediary of the first thing in existence, the first created thing in existence, the primal will, or the first intellect. One way of thinking about the emanation of created things from God is perhaps to picture him as a pure white source of light, and that the first light to emanate from him is the first intellect. But as this light proceeds from him, and as it sheds and illuminates light from itself, it refracts through the prism of contingency to produce the multiplicity of colors and existence. Thus the multiplicity of all things is produced through the intermediary of the light, whereas God himself is the immutable source of that light. I think this idea is rather beautifully reflected by the poet Percy B. Shelley when he wrote, the one remains, the many change and pass, heaven's light forever shines, earth's shadows fly, life like a dome of many colored glass, stains the white radiance of eternity. It is thus said, Baha'u'llah and Amdubaha affirm another characteristic idea of Avicenna. For Avicenna, God does not begin to create, he always creates. If he were to begin to create, that would mean that something happened within him, some change, some alteration. But God, for Avicenna, as we discussed in the article, is immune to change. Therefore, he always willed to create, and therefore his creation is eternal. And this is a concept that Baha'u'llah precisely and explicitly confirms, as does Amdubaha in many instances. In addition to this idea of eternal creation, is that God always sustains the world, and Baha'u'llah, as with Avicenna, affirms this explicitly. At the end of my article, I then consider different possible objections, one could have to the claims that I made in the article, that Baha'u'llah and Amdubaha affirm the arguments of Avicenna and his reasoning, his theological and principles. Because I know that there might be concerns related to this and other possible objections. Of course, there's not time here to go into them. So I think in this presentation, I'll just have a last reflection on why this is important. Why be on the existence of God? Is it of any use to consider how Avicenna argues for different divine attributes, or for the account of creation that we find in the Baha'i writings? And the reason is that we can then show people that Baha'i beliefs on these matters are not arbitrary. They're not simply taken on faith, but rather they have a rational and philosophical foundation. And that Baha'u'llah, given his innate understanding of the realities of things, is able to give us, as humanity, a picture of the world that makes sense, that is coherent, and that can be rationally articulated to other people. And that we have a picture of the world from God's existence, to his nature, to his attributes, and to his mode of creation that can be defended philosophically. And of course, we believe this in the full trust and love and confidence of Baha'u'llah, but we can also use Avicenna as a model of how to articulate the rational foundation of these beliefs. Thank you very much for your time today and allowing me to present.


How is Donald Trump like a socialist dictator? Let's count the way We will build a great wall We're gonna charge you a 35% tax All right, let's pause the list there I'm not saying that Donald Trump's a socialist but some of his ideas are pretty close Mises Institute economist Ryan McMacon says the road to socialist misery is a slippery slope and some of Trump's ideas Put us on that slope Yes, well and Trump is a politician and his methods are the same as all other politicians The idea is to to control to regiment to redistribute wealth and so that's what he's doing How is cutting imports or taxing them? Socialists by imposing tariffs. He's doing a couple things first of all He's raising more revenue for the state to do things and to redistribute wealth But also by increasing tariffs and any restrictions on trade He's telling people what they can and cannot buy at what price they can and cannot buy It's simply another type of central planning last year in Venezuela the dictator ordered deportation of immigrants from Colombia economic nationalism So we're going to use the power of the state to exclude foreign goods foreign persons Any sort of foreign influence in our country on this idea that the things that are foreign are somehow a threat to domestic markets And the foreigners are doing bad things That's right by taxing them more through tariffs that were somehow taxing these these bad foreigners or in the case of Venezuela kicking them out They kicked out the Colombians with the Colombians were often the business people who sold them the things they needed Well, and of course Venezuela is much poorer than Colombia So it's not like a bunch of people are sneaking into Venezuela from Colombia to take advantage of the Venezuelan system These are in that case very productive people that are trying to go do trade and bring wealth into Venezuela, and they're being kicked out Now this crass comparison I'm making Trump got elected a lot of these socialist dictators are Dictators they did Venezuela still has elections and they have a constitution and according to their law these people are legally The leaders of this country and fundamentally no regime is truly unpopular in the sense that nobody wants it Any regime that exists whether they're elected or not enjoys the approval of at least some of the population now under Venezuela's Socialism the government took over the oil fields and it's one reason They don't have enough oil now because they just suck at managing things They then took over agriculture finance they bankrupt in themselves. We're not doing that the US. No isn't nationalizing Companies in that way at all the US prefers instead to really just partially nationalize Industries regulate it perhaps by a stake in it as was the case under tarp Some would argue that Donald Trump by going to Indiana and doing a special deal with the carrier company This is kind of like Nationalizing it's saying do what I want and you're okay, and he's gonna go what industry by into company by company There's this sort of Damocles hanging over all these companies now So I could see then the administration going around to different companies Declaring victory after they get the country the company to stay in the country but really what it is is Well, we're threatening all these people who do to leave with a huge tax But again that tax isn't just on this company and that tax is gonna be on anyone who wants to purchase from that company or in the If carrier were to go to another country People would have had access to less expensive air conditioning in Venezuela the dictator doesn't like the media pointing out that there are problems Like food shortages America's president elect doesn't like the media either. I'm gonna open up our libel laws So when they write Purposely negative and horrible and false articles. We can sue them and win lots of money Now obviously in America. We still have a free press in Venezuela However opposition TV stations have been shut down a newspaper editor gets sent to jail One newspaper is covered in feces anytime we get this information out here that shows the regime isn't doing a bang-up job They're therefore we then go and attack the newspapers and so on but this is just what that as well I has a constitution and it says it protects freedom of expression Yes, and apparently the Constitution is too weak or apparently a large portion of the population is willing to tolerate these attacks of freedom Of speech freedom of speech is much stronger in the US and that's one of the great things about it It is too far so far that's why I was appalled when I was looking at my Twitter feed on my phone and right up top was A personal message to me from Donald Trump Nobody should be allowed to burn the flag if they do perhaps a year in jail Now that creeped me out Well, and it's it's really kind of a moot point the Supreme Court has certainly already ruled on flag burning It's yeah, it's free speech right It's also private property if I buy the flag. It's my flag. I can do to it what I want Say you even made the flag you spun the yarn and wove the flag out of the thread and you made it in your home And then you burn it. Why would the government have any issue? So why does Donald Trump say that and in fact Hillary Clinton wanted to ban it too? Yeah, that's absolutely right Well, I think it appeals to a certain segment of his supporters this idea that there are these un-American Types out there who are saying things that are unpatriotic and and damaging to the United States But of course it would be far more damaging to the US to start to clamping down on freedom of speech Now after making these nasty comparisons of Donald Trump Want to end by pointing out that there are a bunch of things he seems to be doing that we think are good right one of the best things about his Election campaign was that he often spoke about the crushing burden of regulations on business And I think that's why a lot of people voted for him Is they're concerned about their ability to earn a living and cut the regulations. He make good Supreme Court appointees He's got a school choice advocate at the education department, right? And so people want to be left alone a lot of people do Clearly not all you leave us alone excited about the next four years Well, it's so hard to cut through the rhetoric to figure out what he means very Seriously and what he's joking about and that is the problem. We saw in South America is Trump a true believer He's a pragmatic politician. Hopefully he's a pragmatist Thank you, Ryan McMackin


Questions during the presentation can be typed in the chat and we'll answer at the end of the presentation. Once we open things for the questions, you can go ahead and ask the questions. And this presentation is going to be recorded. My name is Salman and I will be the project manager for this project. I want to take a moment to thank council member Kelly Gray for joining us tonight. Council member Gray, would you like to share anything before we begin? Just want to say this project is a long time coming. Thank you everybody for being on the call tonight to our staff and to the citizens. And just look forward to the presentation and I hope everybody is staying safe and staying warm. Thanks. Thank you council member. Right. So this is this project is Highland Hills and we'll be doing a street rehabilitation in this area on the Highland Hills. This project is going to be divided into two phases that I'm going to talk about. First, let's go on with the little introduction of who is involved in the project. I am the city project manager. My name is Salman Shahid and Neil Keim would be the city inspector. And we have two contractors in this project. One of them would be doing the concrete work, a flat work before we do the paving of the streets. So the flat work or the concrete work would be done done by the Moco incorporation. And the pavement would be done by the TPW staff in the house. We have approximately 3 million allocated for this project out of it. About 1 million is going to be for the concrete in flat work, which would be done by the contractor Moco incorporation. The project is submitted to start on February 27. And it's going to, for the first phase is going to last until October 2021, where we will be doing all the repair works on the sidewalks and the curves and girders. So as I said that the project is in two phases. Before we do any asphalt paving work, we want to make sure that the curves and girders around it is in good condition and it can take up the new asphalt. So that's why we are doing the, in phase 1, we are going to repairing the curves and girders and driveway approaches if it is required. And we'll also be doing some ramps in the area, which would be the ADA compliant. And we'll also be repairing the existing sidewalks, if any, in the area. So for the construction duration for the phase 1, it would be from February to October 2021. And we'll be doing the concrete work during this time. So here's the project limits for the sidewalks. This is actually the sidewalks that we identified the existing sidewalks that we identified in this area. And we'll be repairing all those sidewalks that needs that are dangerous or needs to be repaired. And if it has any kind of hazard, we would just like try to eliminate it by replacing that pieces of the sidewalks that needs to be replaced. So there's also we've seen a lot of sidewalk gaps in between. Like there's a missing sidewalks in between the sidewalks. And we'll be going ahead and going to be placing a sidewalk to fill those gaps. But remember, we are not, this is a maintenance project and there's some of the areas where we don't have any sidewalks at all. So we would not be touching that area. So right now, we are in process of like identifying all those, all those areas that are that needs repair and you might see some of the marking signs, which are being identified and needs to be repaired. Besides from the these sidewalks, we are also going through all the routes to look into damage curves and gutters and also the approach tri-ways, which are in very bad condition and needs to be replaced before we put this wall on top. All the existing ramps would also be converted into the ADA compliant ramps and you will be seeing new ramps on this area. And if there's no ramp, we would be adding a ramp. And if one of the ramps, we see a few of the ramps over there, which are not ADA compliant and we'll also change them to ADA compliant ramps. Here's the example of the work that we are going to be doing in phase one. The picture on your left, it is the actual picture of this area. And this is the example of the concrete curb and aprons. You see that the curb is in really bad condition and the water is like pouring over here. That's why it's causing a lot of mess and also damaging the existing pavement. So we'll go ahead and replace such kind of curves and we're going to replace it with the new ones. The picture on your right, you see is the example of how it will be after we do our work. Similarly, we see over here, there's no ramp on the left side. This is also the actual picture of the Highland Hills. And we're going to be putting up ADA compliant ramp just like similar to the one that you see on the right side. This is just for an example. We are going to be putting up the ramps as required according to the area and direction of the crossing. So this is one of the example of the existing sidewalk that is damaged. This is a tripping hazard over here and I mean it's barely walkable sidewalk. So we're going to be identifying all such kind of sidewalks in this area, which are already exist. And we're going to be replacing with the new ones. And the picture on the right is just an example of your sidewalk that we simply placed in another area. So for phase two, we will be doing the asphalt paving. And in this phase, we'll be doing almost all the area of this neighborhood. And we'll be paving all the existing pavements. This is the project limits and you can see almost all the roads are marked except for the main or group rule. So we will be paving all those roads. So here on your left side, you can see the existing pavement condition right now. And you're right, you can see the example of how it will be turned out once the paving is done. In the construction, you will experience some kind of temporary construction impacts. And it could be, you could see additional construction equipment around your area. You might see a limited parking availability and you might hear some sounds of equipment running or some dust going on around. But we are trying our best and we have instructed our contractor also to take good care of these things. And to minimize the impact of this construction, we are putting up the signages around the sites. So everyone is aware of the construction going on. Any temporary closure would be communicated in advance to the residents. We will, we will inform the concerned resident if we had to do any work on the driveway or if you have to close some kind of some drivers or so. So the construction equipment will not be staged in the area that prohibit residential access and parking. So we are making sure that there's no equipment on the road that is blocking any kind of excess of parking in and the driveway approaches. Any changes to the garbage and US postal service will be communicated in advance to all the residents. And throughout the construction communication is our top priority and will be informing the changes for the construction to all the residents. So we have a regular city working hours are allowed for the contractor for Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. And you will just be, you'll see the workers working on during this time only in some cases on a if needed will be issuing a permit to work on weekends. But that totally depends on that if it's necessarily required. And it will be informed before we do anything in that area. So this is my contact information. I'm the project manager and this is my contact number. You can call me if you have any any questions and concerns. Following is my email address also will also be displaying the construction office phone number contact number in case of emergency. I will have will be having a signage project signages around the area and you can contact them if if you need anything or I'll be happy to help. It's required. So now I'll open it for the questions. If you have any, please go ahead. I'll also. The atmosphere is also with us. He's the senior professional engineer with us. And we'll try to answer your questions as much as we can. And we do have 2 questions in chat. If we would start with those. The 1st 1 is from Jerome and he's asking if the street doesn't have sidewalks currently and will that street get new sidewalks installed. So, we are currently not. Unfortunately, our budget does not allow us to complete all the sidewalks. If the block does not have a sidewalk at all. So, we will not be able to do that on under this project for this limited budget.  Missing sidewalk, then we will, we will go ahead and complete that small gap to fill up between the 2 side works. And this other question is, can we give a general estimate of how long it will take to complete construction per block? So, each block that is effective. They're rough estimate of time. So, the contractual completion date for the concrete that work with the contractor is 230 days. But we will not be doing all the work during time. We are starting street by street. So, we'll be starting from the west. West most corner and from. Rami Avenue, I guess so we'll be updating for the schedule to the to the people around that around that area. But it would really it depends on how much work each street has. But overall construction duration is until October for the whole. But remember, this is for for the whole neighborhood. But we'll be doing things much faster. If you're concerned about the specific. Street or a road. Good evening on this. This is on. On the time better block, it's it's going to have because the counter they're going to be working for into more 1 block. If you have ramps on the each block, I think there's like about 4 ramps. Each round will take 2 days because 1 day to remove and format. It's another day to pull the concrete. So, a few days to cure it after that. That's your for phase 1 which is probably the whole thing. They work on 1 block and just consume 1 block. They'll finish those and again, it depends on how much. Concrete work needs to be replaced or start work. So each each block is a bit different. But by average, probably I could say and not more than 2 weeks to finish each each block for phase 2 of the paving. And we can have to mill each block to mill probably in the whole neighborhood and probably less than a week. And if that's all complete. That the baby won't take when we put the duration here for baby until October of next year. But because of the weather and we hit lots of days from from March to May. Sometimes goes crazy on us the weather. And before that it is called we have to be like 55 and rising temperature to pay. But if the mother is good, we can be the whole the whole area in a couple of months. It doesn't take that long to pay. If you want to look at each block by block, if we do block by block, it's half day million and half day paving. But it's unfortunate that doesn't work that way we have to work in the whole area. Thank you. Sonya asked a question. There was a temporary fix done on Oak Grove yesterday. Will we keep patching until the work is complete? We are not doing any pavement work right now. We just starting with the sidewalks and the curves and good. I believe Dave, I also saw that there was some kind of water leak. I don't know if you're talking about that area. And what a department was doing some pay work over there and patchwork over there. But when we will be paving, we will be paving at all at once. Yeah, proud to start the paving, which is during the duration of phase one. We're going to have probably the gas company coming in, adjust their lines. So normally you do that prior to paving because we don't want anybody to come and cut brand new paving within at least 2 or 3 years. So we get all the utilities at the front to come and adjust where they need to adjust. We would see the gas company begin and especially if they have some ramps right in the middle of the ramp or we're going to construct the ramp. So you're going to see him working during the period of phase 1. So this way we'll get everything ready for phase 2. We have a few more questions coming in through chat now. Will there be additional black topping on the existing streets? Yes sir. That's that's the phase 2. That's what we're doing phase 2. What are we going to do? We're going to remove or melt the top 2 inches of the existing surface. And we're going to replace it with a new 2 inches. And if there's some base failures that will be taken care of, we'll take care of that before we start the paving. We do that and we melt the state and we'll put a new tub on it. Yes, it will be tub and like the on the pictures I mentioned earlier before and after. So that's what the ceiling will look like when we when we finish. But that's that will be in phase 2. There's one only for concrete or carbon guard sidewall cramps. Okay, great. One of the new questions is will this in some way affect our house taxes. Property taxes. I hope not. This is not it's not home improvements. I know if you improve your house add to the house permits. That goes through the tax and. I think that's wouldn't deal with taxes, but no. This improvement is the city, the streets. Absolutely not. But if your tax goes up has nothing to do with improving the street. All right, thank you. Sonia says it's Oak Grove and Glasgow road. So I'm on where the patching was done. So if we could look into that. That would be. Be good to see if that was our team. Yeah, you're going to see it.  If there is some some areas needed some areas failed. We're going to have our crew to go and fix it to keep it safe. Also, you're going to see some work department. Sometimes unexpected leaks. But we just so the best few days was taken and I think they're working on it now. Yeah, those are predicted. We don't know. You know, could happen anytime. But nothing really planned. And the last question that Chad is, does this project have a relation to the Oak Grove freeway exit construction? No, sir. This is just maintaining the existing asset the existing streets. An improvement to the highway that's goes through text dot projects. But no, this is not going to impact in any other projects. Council member. If we're referring to the question on will the crews continue to patch during up until repaving. Yes. Crews will continue to go through there and patch as needed. There's another portion of Oak Grove road between England and campus needs to be striped. When is that going to be done? You know, there's a separate project. We just paved the road and our payment marking contractor is really way behind. We waiting on for to do we did cover streets with the park where I think they just finished it a few days ago. We've been waiting on that for about a month. And we had one before it was a met words with probably more than a month. So we are we are we are working with our traffic management team. And they're striping contractor. We will start.  But it will be striped. Yes, it's it's in it's in the process of schedule. And the contract and for chance to given us. It's get exact schedule because of that though other and also they're they're running behind. And he's saying also, I know he's saying based on COVID he's have some of his workers are being taken off. We've got a few more questions. Sonya specifically asking about a street that's not in the project area about it continuing to get patched. Can one of you discuss how that process works with our operation side. Which street is that is in the neighborhood or different neighborhood. I think it's, I think it is it grow that we're actually discussing but that's not part of the project. We'll grow. It's the talk about the concrete. Right. We'll grow itself. Right. Yeah, I'll actually outgrow. Yes. Yeah, I'll grow this concrete. We'll also, we'll go ahead and schedule that when we do phase 2, probably the 7 and then the year. Because this this year very much all our contracts out and we can't add anything to it. But we'll, we'll add it to the next year program to those damaged panels. So what I'm going to do, I'm sorry. Go ahead. I believe Sonya also asked about the Glasgow road will be doing the paving on Glasgow road. But not on the or crew. No, this is we're doing this project is to we've been in the asphalt and the whole area is asphalt except or growth road. All the way down to line rock tribe. Hi guys, this is this is Kelly and I'm going to jump in here because I can type fast enough for this conversation. So let me tell you what Sonya is asking about because we were, I think we're mixing a whole bunch of things together. Sonya is specifically talking about a growth road. You're right that is the concrete piece that is at Glasgow. It has a dip. I don't think it necessarily started out with the dip, but it could be that maybe that the street has collapsed at some point. So it is creating an issue so as cars come through, they are bottoming out. So yesterday or day before someone came, well, some, obviously TPW came and put some temporary asphalt there something very whatever street material, because I don't know exactly what you call it, but they put it there and the concern is, is that that washes away that is just simply a temporary fix to get to we don't know what's next. How do we have somebody look at that street and determine what needs to happen to bring it back to standard. That's what she's asking specifically. Yes, ma'am, no problem. I'll go look at it tomorrow. And if it's something really hazardous, we'll we'll we'll see if we can we can repair it. But if it's just the way described that I drove the road a couple of times last week, I didn't really notice, but I'll look at it again. So it's major thing will jump into it. So can we also Sonya. I'm sorry y'all because it's just easy for me to click in Sonya will you put your address and your phone number if you feel comfortable in the chat so that Jeffrey can get that information to reach out to you if that's okay with you all that work. Yeah, yes, ma'am, no problem. It will be it will be happy to to meet with you Sonya on the site and look at and chat with you on it. So, otherwise, you don't have to me. You can send that to me privately as well Sonya through a private chat if you don't want to post it for everybody there and I'll. I'll make sure it gets to Riyadh team. Sonya, I got it. I'm kind of new to this guys. Can y'all hear me. Yeah, we can. We can. I'm sorry. I'm not tech savvy. But yes, what Kelly was saying it's exactly correct. I've been calling since last year. Towards the end of November beginning of December because every time I call they would come out and put asphalt in as if it was a pothole, but I finally spoke with someone from the street crew who told me I needed a street repair. So if the concrete was actually starting to collapse inward. They came out yesterday, put some asphalt in it. But as the cars start to drive over it. The asphalt is just going to go down and the dip is going to come back. And that's why I was asking will we continuously continue to patch it until y'all actually fix it or how do we address that. Yeah, again, we'll look at it. If something hazardous keep going down, definitely we'll get we'll get into it. The reason for that for the camp for the asphalt and you're going to see lots of asphalt on concrete citywide because our crew go and put the asphalt to keep it safe. Because it's we have limited budget to do to do concrete and we really really behind with that. But if it's if it's really needed immediate attention will put it on top of the priority. I will look at it and something quickly will do it. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Kelly. If anyone else has questions, feel free to unmute at this point. There aren't any more questions in chat. So feel free to unmute if you have anything else you'd like to ask hearing anything else. So I'm on would you back up a slide and put your contact information up one more time. Okay, I live at the corner manzale in Glasgow and the sidewalks on both are decaying down into the earth. When will you do you I have an estimated time where I will be doing that in this area. Men's field and Glasgow. Men's sale. Men's sale. Okay, you're down.  Yeah, those if you don't have don't have sidewalk at all. This is going to happen. If you have. If you have sidewalk will will will will repair the. If it needs if it needs repair will repair it during this project. Phase 1.  No, no, no, it's it's whatever can you sell me I can get with the map back there for the sidewalk. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, I've seen. Thank you. Thank you. Sorry. I believe mental in Glasgow we saw that there were some missing sidewalks and we're going to we're going to go ahead and put the new ones over there. Yeah, anything, anything in red, anything in red here. They already have sidewalks and there is missing. We're not going to have any sidewalk. We call them gaps just nothing in between. We will connect it. So it's going to be continuation from block to the to the block. So anything you see in red here. If any side works is damaged. We're going to replace it. We can upgrade all the ramps. I think all of them that's need to be to be replaced because they're not up to current requirements. Yes, we will, we will replace it. The one we talking about will not do inside walk. The area that not marked red, which is they don't have sidewalk at all. So we're not doing anything in those areas. As a sidewalk, but there is curves broken. We will fix that. And this is also for the Hensley drive area. Right. Hensley drive. Hensley drive. We only go into Minso when not continuing all the way to the Corey. You guys are going to do what for Hensley? I'm sorry. On Hensley, we're going to do replace broken sidewalks. And we do not have to sign up for this because I know when I first purchased this house years ago. Everybody on this at this end of Hensley, we're getting that curve. You know, curbside rebuild and stuff, but my house was the only one that didn't get it. And I didn't understand why. So that's why I'm on this call now to make sure that if I need to sign up for something, I need my curve appeal looking just like the other people. Yeah, are you are you between or grow and mince and. No, I'm at the further end of. Hensley drive and I don't even know the name of the streets. I'm so sorry, but I. Yeah, it's it's it's it's yourself right. Yes, I'm on Hensley. Yeah. It's possibly out near limberings and you do have sidewalk in your block, right? I don't have a sidewalk. I just have a curve appeal. My is actually messed up. The curve we will we're going to replace all the damage curve within the whole entire area. Okay, without me having to sign up or anything because like I stated, like I stated years ago when they did the pavement and everything, everybody around me were getting their curve appeal. Rebuild and all the cracks are being filled. The minds didn't. So like I said, if that's the only reason why I'm on this call today to make sure that if I have to sign up for it, I'm here to sign up for it now because it needs to be done. No, ma'am anything at all the streets on this map. Good to the next map. Please. Just making sure. Thank you very much. Anything all of those red marked streets. We will take care of all the curves. If it's damaged, we will replace it when they're going to, when they're going to remove all of them. If it's good, we keep it. But if it's done, it will be replaced before we pave the road. Thank you very much. I believe she's on the phone. So she can't actually, she can't actually see them. She's a calling. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Yeah, you will, you will take care. We'll take care of your car. No problem. Okay, thank you. Yeah. And if you would like, we'll get, we'll be happy to come and meet with you on the site to look at it. See, make sure that we were in the same page since you cannot see the map. Please give us a call or email and we'll be happy to come and meet with you. And, and, and see what can we help you with. Okay, I will do that. Yes. Thank you. Any other questions. That'll wrap it up. Everyone enjoy your evening. Try to stay warm. We will go ahead and stop the recording and please feel free to reach out to someone. If any questions do arise during the project. His phone number is 817 392. 7968. Thank you very much. Everyone have a good day. Please, before you go, please, because we did not see lots of people joined the meeting here, please reach out to your neighbors, let them know. And given the number to have questions will be happy to answer it or meet with them. I know lots of people did not show up. So yeah, just spread the word. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all for joining. Have a good evening. Thanks.


Hello everyone, I'm Steve and welcome to today's Retro Tech. We're going to do another installment, just going to be a quicker, shorter one for this certain installment on our PVM that we're doing our capacitor replacement on. Last video you might have seen where we had taken the whole PVM apart, talked about the job that was upcoming. We documented all our capacitors and the reason I'm doing this video today is I want to just kind of do a kind of shorter in between where I talk about the tools I'll be using in this next part of the job. I'm going to again go through the steps a little bit more clearly and then the capacitors did arrive from the Mouser, the company that I ordered the capacitors from. They all came in the mail today, so I figured it would be a good chance to just take a quick look at them and you can see what it looks like. To have that many capacitors, you're going to have to replace them. I'm talking about almost 130 in total that are going to be replaced on this monitor. So let's just go ahead and take a quick look. Let's take a look down here at the monitor broken down again. You can see right, metal scraps someone wrote on our monitor case here.  But the real thing I'm wanting to do is I'm going to show you in the other video that these rivets, you can just basically pull them apart and slip a screwdriver. I'll show you how to do that, but I'm going to take and break this down into two pieces on the monitor shell. I'm going to break it in two pieces. And then I'm going to actually repaint this. So I did need some help. I wonder what you guys thought of maybe a good color would be on this. I was thinking about priming it and then making it maybe a gray to match the inside of the bezel on the monitor. I'll show you that in a second or maybe a black. I wasn't really sure which one looked better. So if you have an opinion on it, please let me know in the comments. Because as long as it's in the next couple of days before we get started on it, but you will see that again. Let's move over here a little bit more. These are the boards where you're going to be recapping these two, you know, our neck board and then our main board here. And now I've had a lot of people asking me and talking about, you know, why would you recap the whole board? It's not necessary or what do you think about recapping the whole board? And look, there's really, it's not really any right or wrong way about it. You know, you don't have to replace them all. I'm doing that in this because I don't want to have to worry about any other maintenance in the future. And I'm kind of doing to prevent anything from going bad and maybe causing some damage to the board. It could just be something that is not even in use very much, but the capacitor goes bad and leaks out on the board and causes some kind of problem. So this monitor itself is actually well over 20 years old. It's from 1996. While it's all disassembled, I'm going to go ahead and do it. Now, if this was a 2030 or one of those older models that is very large that has like four times this many capacitors, there's probably no way. I had rebuilt it all unless I really had to, and it was worth it. Basically putting about $1,000 worth of time into it. So anyway, let's go down here. Here's the monitor. And this was kind of the gray I was going to try to match on in here in the bezel and then the number color and the Olympus branding and the buttons. I was going to try to get that kind of a gray on the shell. So it have a cooler look than the cream it does now. So those, that's our monitor again. Let's go over here and we'll start looking at the tools that we're going to be using for this. And just have to bear with me on the camera. But we can start off here with the soldering iron. So this is a HACCO and it is the FX888D. I've had this for about three years almost, maybe two and a half. Really solid unit, never gives me any trouble. I have got a couple of extra spare tips for it that are pretty easily available. But other than that, everything on it just works really well. Temperature control is nice and just a solid one for a good price. I can't really remember how much this was, but it was really affordable and a lot cheaper than the desoldering gun behind it, which is in this very nice carrying case right here. I'll try to pick it up without dropping it. I'll be using a lot and this is an amazing piece or tool that will help you hear that click.  And it does an amazing job for quickly and safely removing capacitors and other components. And so those are going to be the two main things while I'm replacing the capacitors. I will have some other tools. Let's go ahead and take a look kind of down here. So I've got just some needle nose pliers in case I need to grab onto a capacitor and pull out of a tight space. My multiple tool, little screwdriver, you never know when you need that. Here's my little nips for anything trimming up components. And then I will use a lot of this flux while I resolder back in and it's a no clean flux. And I use it a lot because it's very helpful. It helps distribute your solder without causing any troubles of this is a solder I usually use most of the time. Now I don't just stick this big portion on the end into the soldering spot. I'll just put a little bit of a dab of this. I'll touch it to my soldering tip like this. As it's hot I'll touch it like this and get some fresh solder on the tip here and then I usually just quickly go over and push that against there. I'll add a top at the top of the tip up here a little bit extra if I need to and then go in and dab it on the spot. That way I don't use too much solder. I can control how much I really need to get on there. You can use a smaller applicator that's fine too or a smaller gauge. That's not a big deal. This is rosin core again so that helps with your connection makes it a little bit easier. So that's just a quick rundown of the tools. And the last thing I've got here is the box of parts. That's right our capacitors came in the mail today. This is how it was looked. It looked like it was just a 30 packs of capacitors, 30 different types. And this is how you get when you get them. I mean you just get them all sent. Which one's bagged individually is 30 bags.  Here's my data sheets too. It gives you nice data sheets saying all the statistics on every single part we order lots of that information. And the mouse here again does a great job. You'll notice most of my caps are either going to be black, or I use these other brands. I'll show you they're red. So they stand out when you change them. They're high quality too and a newer brand that I've just decided to give a chance to and they work really well on my past projects. So I've been using them a little bit more. But this is what you get. And so the next step is just going to be we're going to jump right into the job. I'm going to be set up to start desoldering and soldering back capacitors into the board down there with the monitor. And that's going to be it. We're going to get ahead and get going on the job. You'll see the, you'll see me, I'll replace a few capacitors and you know talk about that and then we'll repaint that shell and we'll put it back together in the next video. Thanks again for watching today. And I'm glad you stuck around for this quick update and have a great day.