Welcome to Episode 200 of the Postal Hub podcast. I'm Ian Kerr. First up, Mada Krajewski from Last Mile Experts and my co-host for the Last Mile Profits video series joins me to talk about how city centres are transforming post-COVID and what this means for the last mile. Then James Hale from the UPU shares some examples of how posts are delivering social services during the pandemic. Joining me on the line is Mada Krajewski from Last Mile Experts. Mada, we've been doing what I think is an interesting series of videos over the past couple of months, posting them on LinkedIn under the banner, the Last Mile Profits. The videos are available on LinkedIn and on YouTube, but we really want people to get involved, don't we? Absolutely, because I think that the material we do is only as good as the input we have, the comments and the questions. And we've been getting some quite staggering feedback from some people as well. Ian, if everybody was as active as the cargo bike lobby... I've called them the cargo bike lobby. I've called them the cargo bike lobby and I'm never going to live that down, I fear. But we had a very interesting discussion about cargo bikes and their applicability and appropriateness in Last Mile Profits, which I just want to go into that before we move on to other things. We just want to promote the videos, but I actually want to talk about this. We are seeing a growing number of cities in Europe as they emerge from lockdown, closing off streets or closing off lanes to traffic.  What do you reckon, Marduk? What do you think is going to come out of this and how posts and parcel operates? Do they have to transfer form somehow?  Well, absolutely, and if it's like the Polish scenario, and I think it is in many places, electric vehicles can use those bus lanes. So the limitations do not extend to most electric vehicles, and I think that's an important point so that will have influence. But the second thing, and you know what I'm going to say, tell me, what am I going to talk about? Something about out-of-home delivery, I assume. Absolutely, the reality is if you want to deal with it and if you want to maintain capacity, it's all about out-of-home, and if you have any doubt, ask the Chinese, you know, a thing or two about that. And I do think that there'll be more out-of-home delivery if the local councils, the city, what do you call them? The city hall. If they say, or basically whatever, administering the roads and all that, if they say, well, you know what, the Milan City Council says, we're going to have our own set of parcel lockers. We're not just going to shut down the lanes, we're going to put in our own parcel lockers and they're going to be carrier agnostic. I can see that as being something that could start happening across Europe. So that could be an impetus for your favourite topic, carrier agnostic parcel lockers. And I think Ian, it is going to come, it's going to take some time. It will be the most forward-sighted local authorities. We know transport for London for a while has been doing a lot of work in this space. And, you know, let's see where it takes us. The thing that is absolutely clear, post-COVID, the e-commerce boom is going to be even bigger and we cannot maintain capacity operating the way we are. The ecological issues are secondary but it's part of the same picture. It is, it is, there's capacity, there's technology behind things as well. And I know I've been ranting a bit lately about postal operators not giving customers the most customer-centric options when it comes to receiving their deliveries. But there is an environmental aspect to this as well. And we've discussed this on our videos for the last mile profits about the comparative emissions for lockers versus home delivery and all those sorts of things. And there's knock-on effects for things like traffic congestion. I just, I do think that we are at a point where what local authorities are doing in terms of their roads, loading zones, access into green zones, things like that will have a profound impact on the last mile in those areas. And it doesn't mean that you should just plow all of your money and then investing in cargo bike manufacturers, by the way, everybody. In our last video, we asked about having union members and leaders send their comments. I would love to hear from local authorities or smart cities who've done something interesting because they're the guys on the front line. It would be really cool to understand, what are they thinking? Where are they going? Where do they think they might be? Because I've perceived some of these local authorities as just having a war on white vans. I know that sounds like an odd thing to say. But for example, I've seen the messaging put out by some councils in an effort to seem environmentally sensitive, perhaps they're saying, well, we have to cut down on the number of vans in our city centers. Okay, that's great. But how are you going to get the goods to those businesses that need the stock, for example? Or how are you going to deliver the parcels to people who live in the cities? So there has to be this whole sort of thinking about how our beautiful white vans fit into the equation. And we're just talking about the last mile here, everybody. I mean, if you talk to anybody involved in heavy haulage and transport and construction, that'll give you some very colorful opinions on how trucks get access to city centers and building sites. That's another story all together. You know what, though, the concept, Ian, is the same. It's about seeking to rationalize, standardize, share resources, rather than everybody doing their own thing. So I think a lot of the views at the moment that are presented by some of these smart cities make a lot of sense. What would be really great, though, is to have some examples, we could discuss them. Yeah, I'd love to hear some smart cities, people. Contact me, Ian, at thepostallhub.com, leave a message on LinkedIn or on YouTube or wherever you find us and let us know what you think, because there are levers being pushed at the moment in cities that will have profound implications for the last mile. Anyway, getting back to the original point of this discussion, please watch our videos. Please watch our videos. You can find us on LinkedIn. Just search for last mile profits on LinkedIn. You can also find us on YouTube. I'll put a link in the news letter I send out on thepostallhub.com so you can find the videos there one way or another. Martin. What's important is, you know, by asking us questions, watching the videos, liking it, if you like it, then you're helping us continue. We do this pro bono, so it'll be really great to get as much input as possible from you. And if you're an industry supplier and you want to sponsor the videos, you can drop me a line, Ian. It'll be less pro bono even, I like that. Ian at thepostallhub.com is my email address. Mata Krzeczki from Last Mile Experts and the Last Mile Profits. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you, Ian. Thank you, everyone. Joining me on the line is James Hale. James is managing the Postal Social Services Project at the UPU. James, welcome. We're going to get stuck into a whole load of non-parcel related stuff that's happening in the postal world. In particular, services that the posts are providing that really come to light. Come to the fore since the pandemic has hit. James, can you just give us a bit of a background before we get into some examples of what's happening on the ground in various postal operators around the world? What's been happening? Because this is something that you and the team at the UPU have been working on for not just since the pandemic hit, but even last year. Just fill us in on what's been happening there. So for the last, well, for actually quite a few years that the UPU has been involved in developing a series of sustainable development projects and initiatives. And historically, we've really focused on environmental sustainability. So this will see a huge push to reduce the carbon emissions associated with delivery of mail and everything that goes on with involving logistics and delivery networks. But as well as the environmental sustainability aspect, we are very keen to help posts deliver a lot of goals related to human wellbeing. So really, it's this kind of two aspects to our work, the environmental and the social. And so in 2019, we started to develop some projects with some of our partners. We asked ourselves the question, what could we do to support posts who want to diversify? Which is obviously really important. I think in terms of improving the resilience of postal businesses, but also trying to offer social services. And so by that, we mean services around education and health and community wellbeing. And these are things obviously people, there's a demand for those services from the public, but also many national governments have policies that they struggle to implement, let's say related to education and health. And posts are often very well placed to help them implement those policies. And we just mentioned an interesting thing there, which is about the way that not, basically not every post is the same. That whilst we think about the post, just as we could think about the post as an organization that handles letters and now handles letters and parcels. But there is these gigantic post office networks attached to or part all of the posts. And the services that are offered there can vary quite differently depending in part upon the mission of the post on the legislative background to the post and the ownership of the post. And then as you've just said, the government's own goals, shall we say, in terms of delivering services, delivering social service and so on and so forth. How did you go out and find out what was happening out there in the different postal operators around the world? We've actually got funding from the Japanese government to look at this. So we had funding for a year. And the project was divided into, I suppose, a first section was really, as you say, try and find out what's going on. Then we, from this kind of desk study and questionnaires that we developed, the aim was then to use that to develop an analysis and producing best practice guidance. And ultimately to start rolling out a series of pilot projects. And so the initial work involved a questionnaire which we sent out to all our members and we got a very high response rate. So that in itself suggests that this is something that's posed to very interested in. And we asked them some very basic questions because there is really no, there's not lots of data out there. So people have highlighted in the past all the different positive things that posts are doing for communities. But this was really the first time that we were gonna start to get an overview of what was going on. And we had a very high response rate as well. So we had 108 posts replying, which is very high. And out of those 79% said they'd already offer some sort of public or social service in addition to their core business of the mail deliveries. So how do you define a social service though? Is it just the fact that you have a post obviously in a community that otherwise might not have any sort of retail business? Or is it more than that? Is it offering something that somehow classified as a social service was dealing with the elderly or offering government services over the counter or something like that? How do you define it? We had to be quite careful with that because what we didn't want was, as you say, people just using examples of how the presence of the post has helped the community. I think that's very clear and that there's quite a bit of research to show that simply having mail carriers on the street has a positive effect on the neighborhood. There's people's sense of safety, for example, or that people having access to postal deliveries obviously has these economic effects which have spillover effects on people. So I think that's well known and accepted. What we wanted to do is go beyond that and really start to say, okay, how is the post expanding its scope, I suppose, in different countries from this core business to things like providing educational services? So it's quite a lot of different examples we've got. We've got I think just over a hundred examples that were sent in the different things. I mean, Switzerland we're on base now, the post operates a bus service, for example. That's quite unusual. But posts are often involved in awareness campaigns, about all sorts of socially important subjects, delivering medicines, blood donation in post offices, the list goes on and on. And that's, I suppose, one of the benefits of doing this is until we ask, we don't really have a sense of what the posts do. So we didn't give too many categories. With the pandemic hitting earlier this year, how did that change what you were doing? Or did it sort of refocus what you're doing? Around about March, we realized that we started looking at very social media feeds. We started to see that quite a few posts were reacting to this quickly. Essentially, you've got a situation where most of the businesses within some of these countries have effectively stopped operating or they've certainly reduced their activity. So you've got the emergency services and then really you've got the post that is providing an opportunity for people to access services. I mean, it's quite strong. It's quite clear that a lot of the services that were being offered as maybe fringe services or to a relatively small group of people, community, were now in demand by a much larger group of people. So pretty quickly, we realized that this was, we had to respond to this and what we decided to do was pause our main project. We'd already got a sense of all the different services the posts were already offering in terms of social sustainability, let's say. So we then decided, well, let's try and gather all these examples. Let's talk to our members. Let's keep searching on the various news feeds that we have access to and provide like a central location where we can gather all this information. Not being too judgmental, not necessarily saying it's best practice, but saying, look, here is what's happening. As a resource that is obviously very useful to our members because they can actually say, okay, maybe they wanted to introduce a home checking service, for example, for seniors by clicking on the examples that we've got, but we include the links to various articles. They can see that, okay, two or three other posts are offering this and maybe we can learn from them and we don't have to start from scratch effectively. So what are some of the examples that you've seen coming out of this that, through your monitoring of what other posts are doing and the sharing, what are some of the things that various posts are doing that's different when it comes to providing social services or how they've become essential services during the pandemic? So a really good example would be the home checking services that have been offered for quite a while in places like Japan and France. So you have a system where the, because in many countries, the mail carrier is going to people's front door, then that's a great opportunity to provide them with other services and you have a lot of elderly people in some countries who are isolated from their relatives. Just before the pandemic, this is just a demographic reality. So posts have been looking at that as an opportunity to provide a public service but also to generate revenue. And that's something that's quite common, for example, in Japan. What we're seeing is that services like that, other operators are starting to look at these services and implement them. So this is something that happened in Ireland. We actually created a series of what we call technical commentaries which reflect effectively case studies on different operators. And we focused so far on Ireland, France, and Australia. And the first article was about unposted in Ireland because they were very quick off the mark and they worked apparently night and day to try and implement some of these services and quite a variety. So home checking of the elderly is one where you can register yourself or a relative just to have a mail carrier knock on your door and check you're okay. That's people peace of mind. But obviously in the context of COVID that suddenly becomes critical because you have a lot of old people maybe living alone. You can't check on them yourself if you're a relative. So suddenly that becomes quite an important surface for people's health and wellbeing is if mail carriers can do that. And they can also ask, do you need any medicines delivered or do you need some food deliveries? So the mail carriers their role which maybe has been historically the post often played that role in formally checking on people. That's become formalized. And in the context of the pandemic it's there's no one else out there really doing that. So it's kind of raised the profile of these services. The check on neighbor or check on the elderly service is something as you mentioned that La Poste in France has been doing a Jersey post actually had to suspend theirs for a call correctly because of social distancing norms. But anyway, returning to La Poste there's other other things that La Poste has been doing apart from this check on a relative or check on an elderly person service. If you recall, we have these kind of broad categories looking at health, education, wellbeing. And we decided to focus on La Poste because of the educational services that they've introduced. Now, obviously many people are aware many people sitting at home are aware that as well as having to work from home a lot of schools are closed. So a lot of children at home. And the response from schools and education ministries has tended to be, well, you can keep working at home you keep doing your homework, just go online. Your lectures or your classes will be given virtually and you can download the documents which is all fine and good. But there's still quite a lot of people that don't have a computer in the family or if they do, they don't necessarily have internet access. So in France that was identified as a particular issue that even again, before the pandemic there were families who couldn't get online to access educational materials for their children. And the children being assigned homework online. So this was already identified as an issue. So they'd already started to develop some projects. Two projects. One was simply the post was involved in distributing unused school equipment, school computer equipment to families in need. And the second example is slightly more complicated but essentially what happens is it's called homework at home and it's the schools set email La Post the homework and then postal staff print out the homework and post it. I thought you were going to say the postal staff print out the homework and then complete it. In which case, it sounds like a great service. Yes, I'd definitely apply for that. But it sounds slightly convoluted but I can't actually think of an alternative really. If there's people that are being asked to unload their homework and they can't do it and they can't print it out and etc. So the post is stepping in and providing that service and then they return it to these centres within the post by mail using a free envelope and then the postal staff scan those documents and email them back to the schools. So it's a kind of a hybrid between, there's the kind of digital aspect between the posts and the schools and then there's the kind of more traditional way of, I don't know if it's analog but certainly it's a more traditional way of completing your homework on the other side of things. So I think that's a really nice example in the next couple of days, we're going to publish a technical commentary which is really a case study and an analysis that tries to understand how on earth can you put in place a new service so quickly in response to a pandemic because it's typically these projects to roll out over maybe six or seven months and now some of the staff are being asked to put these things in place immediately. So that's the kind of question we're actually asking, we're phoning up and having interviews with various project managers to try and ask how they do that and generally the answer is that they're working very hard, they're working weekends, they're delegating responsibility a little bit more so there's a bit less bureaucracy. So it's been interesting to see that actually how these things, we caught the first article I think it's called behind the scenes done post and it's really to try and understand not just what they're doing but how they managed to do that so quickly. And this is a key point though because posts have a reputation, a well earned reputation in my experience of being slow to move when it comes to bringing out new products or new services. So in some respects the urgency of the pandemic and the need to find solutions and the post's unique position is being a national organization having the post office network having the post delivery network puts them in that position and they're often also deemed to be an essential service so they're continuing to operate in some shape or form during all of this they've been able to learn how to really roll things out quickly. It'll be interesting to see if other posts are able to learn from the examples that you've just mentioned from Unpost or from La Post. We've got a few more minutes just James have another example there of something that's come across your desk or as part of the project that has really piqued your interest. Another example would be from your home country from Australia. Previously I've had contact with several posts about what I would call experienced providers so in terms of social services so we've probably got about 10 or 15 posts worldwide that have got a whole series of different initiatives that they'd already put in place and Australia was one of those posts that had quite a few social services already in place so they were already on our radar. Then we'd noticed that there was an article that was talking about how in Australia how the post had developed a pharmacy home delivery service. Now there's a series of questions that we ask including things like how is this resourced? How did you organize the team to put this in place? One of the questions we ask is who came up with the idea? And the actual initial idea came from the Pharmacy Guild of Australia. So this was a body representing a lot of the pharmacies within Australia and they were lobbying the government to say look we want to respond in some way and then through that contact the post then had a discussion with the government about how they could maybe ease some of the potential pressure on pharmacies but also allow people to stay at home.  So they very rapidly within a couple of weeks managed to put in place a home delivery service where people could get their prescription medicine delivered by the post to their front door. And you had to qualify, you had to be there's a whole set of criteria but essentially you had to be identified as being vulnerable. So that based on your age or your medical history but the Australian government put in place very quickly a funding package for that meaning that the pharmacies when they used effectively an adapted express mail service to deliver these medicines and then they could claim back the cost of that delivery from the government in a rebate. So it's quite simple but it was rolled out very quickly and it's something that may well be commercialized in the future because it's obviously very convenient. A lot of people don't have the time or are not particularly interested in going to a pharmacy to collect their medicines. So that's a nice example of how they introduced a service in response to the pandemic very strong benefits for people but also you can see how that helps governments direct because it's part of the government response but also it's helping people and it could be commercialized at a later stage. James, if anybody listening to this wants to find out more about either the project that you're managing there at the UPU, some of the case studies that you've been looking into or if they've even liked to share something that they've been doing in their own country is there information available on the UPU website? Absolutely. So you should be able to get to that webpage from the main landing page of the UPU website. We're really keen to hear about case studies what's basically just examples, what posts are doing. We have lists of examples for social services also for financial services. There's also a section on these technical commentary articles which are quite in depth really focused on a postal audience or a government audience. They're well worth a read and if anyone wants to get in contact with us we have on our webpage a dedicated email address for anyone who wants to find out more about social and financial services. So I'll stick a link on the postal hub.com to the relevant part of the UPU website. We go straight to the UPU website and you should be able to dig it up through there. So lots of really interesting stuff that's really come to the fore. A lot of projects are already underway in some cases or projects have been developed very quickly at the posts as a result of the need to respond to communities during this pandemic. James Hale from the Postal Social Services Unit at the UPU. Thanks for joining us today. Thank you. Coming soon on the Postal Hub podcast, Bertron Spate from Keyzie Tracking on modern parcel tracking and the customer experience. You can subscribe to the podcast on a variety of podcast platforms including Apple podcasts, Spotify and Google podcasts. If you have an email address, put it to good use. Spruce up your email inbox with a weekly burst of Postal Hub goodness. Sign up for the Postal Hub e-news later. It's a weekly email update with the latest podcast and other news. Go to thepostalhub.com and sign up there. If you're on LinkedIn, send me an invitation to connect. I love to hear from podcast listeners when you send that invitation to connect. Include a note to say that you're a podcast listener and that way I'll say yes to your invitation to connect straight away. If you want to contact me about anything at all, maybe you want to suggest a topic for a future episode of the podcast, email me direct at ianatthepostalhub.com. I'm Ian Kerr. Thanks for listening in and look forward to your company next time on the Postal Hub podcast.


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Five highlights regarding the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. Millions of people have fled their homes, thousands have died or been injured, civilian infrastructure has been heavily damaged and destroyed. Ukraine is now one of the most weapon-contaminated countries in the world. It's estimated that 10% of agricultural land is now littered with explosive hazards and remnants of war. Access to safe drinking water remains a critical challenge for communities near the frontline. 17.5 million people require urgent assistance. It's estimated that some 40% of healthcare facilities in eastern Ukraine are no longer functioning and 60% have been partially damaged. Education in Ukraine is at grave risk, with 5.3 million children lacking access to education because they have been displaced or their schools have been destroyed. The needs are still vast. We continue to support the most affected and vulnerable people.


Hello everybody. We are live. It is Tuesday. We are back Thanks for indulging and Thanks for your patience Sorry, I missed you guys last week, but last week I had a chance to Spend a little time with with my girlfriend Marianne before she starts school She actually started with some online classes that there she is started with some online classes today and she should have some in-person in classroom classes tomorrow, so congratulations to Marianne for going to school and doing something cool and fun so But she's busy now she's she's a full-time student now and and I wanted to make sure to spend a little time with her before She got started so That's for the reason why That's for the reason why I missed last week But we're back So excuse me who we got here? Other than Marianne. Hello Marianne. Hey, it's peg warmers It's nice to see peg warmers and from the hilt and zazel nice to see zazel and yes I saw JLS comics sneak in there. Hello firefly and beach head the gang's all here. There's sparkster. Hello sparkster Thank you very much for being here. Hello Chris. Hello cyclonus. Oh guys It's been it's only Tuesday. It's and it's been a heck of a week. Hello McClure Turg And and Niba and Nyquist. How do you do? It's already been a heck of a week. Hello John so Spoilers ahead I have to spoil something that I was going to review because I got to explain what happened Hello Zemot nice to see you Yeah Zemont said I keep an eye on the weather if you're planning on attending winterfest in Kentucky It's been cold and snowy. Yes, and I am intending to attend intending to attend Winterfest in Kentucky. I wish I'd grabbed the link for that, but I didn't I expect the the weather should be cleared up by then but it is cold here Hello treasures for trigger. Hello. Yo, Joe guys We've got okay this this Livestream is gonna be a lot of announcements. Okay a lot of announcement Which means I don't think I will have a chance to open gung-ho. I we I think we're not opening gung-ho This week, but hopefully we can open gung-ho next week But this week there's a lot to go through I skipped a week So I got lost to talk about I saw I saw I saw I saw hello comic tropes. Nice to see you Have you read Duke Cobra Commander comes out tomorrow. I haven't have not read Duke It's for reasons, but I will I will get to it. It's it's been more difficult than I expected to Get to a comic store to pick up Duke, but but we'll get it. We'll get into it. We get into it But hello Bart Bart says cold it was like I can highlight then Cold it was 15 today. I woke up and it was eight and we're talking Fahrenheit, right? It's 15 Fahrenheit now And let's see. What was it? Oh? Yeah To yeah, we have a yeah We have a low of eight degrees Fahrenheit here for today as well in other words It's cold. It's really cold It's cold in here like my heat is running, but it's not keeping up It's still cold in here, so I'm gonna have to I don't know set the set the place on fire or something JLS is 62 there in Phoenix. Well, that isn't that nice. I am so happy for you Yeah, it's it's really really cold. Hello Victor. Thanks for being here nice to see you So I've got a lot of announcements and I'm gonna try to get through them I want to start as we always start. Hey, there's Paul nap. Nice to see you mr. Nap Mr. Paul nap if I can wow my highlighter is not working Yes, look forward to July. Oh, yeah, we we got Announcements announcements Okay, I want to start as I always do it's Tuesday That means there's a new episode of half the battle from Timmer this week It is another episode of pyramid of darkness the mini series It's been a while since I've watched pyramid of darkness and so I forget how nutty it is, but it is nutty Hello, David Sharp. Nice to see you And oh Colonel Chrome nice to see you as well. I hope I'm hello Dustin Jeffrey I hope I'm catching everybody. Hello Zork dork. Nice to see you as well. Yeah, it's cold It's like it's cold in most of the country, right? So the NFL playoffs were started this past weekend and It's cold everywhere Well most places and not not where JLS comics is apparently it's warm and toasty there or warm ish But everywhere else it's freaking cold So hey Rob Vegas nice to see you there But that's not that's not what I have to talk about. That's that's that's not That's not the topic So, yeah, oh, yeah According to Rob, it's 85 Fahrenheit and raining there. That sounds lovely I'll be right over. I'll see you in a minute So new episode of half the battle link is in the description After this live stream what's on Joe mind will be live so make sure you Check out their live stream after this one link is also in the description Announcements we're wall-to-wall announcements. It's you've tuned into oops all announcements Because I've got a lot of announcements and this is what happens when when you skip a week now I Because I was Out of pocket I did not keep up with Like GI Joe news. I'm not the best at that anyway So, I mean there are other great channels that that cover the the breaking GI Joe news So I leave that to them I try to report on things as I'm able to but I haven't been able to keep up with anything And and thank you Thank you again peg warmers one of the the genuinely good guys here on the internet in the end in the community Hold on JLS comics says I flew into Houston last week on the day when the championship game was happening That was a mess.  Well, I Can I can sympathize? Oh, thank you Jay famous 13 for the super chat what character from all GI Joe media and history would you most like to see made into a classified figure? Also Your car is awesome. Oh, thank you. Thank you very much My car I wouldn't describe my car is awesome, but I thank you. Thanks a lot You mean the cat the cat that keeps walking and Let me tell you about that. Let me tell you about this cat Well, let me tell you about this cat I was I was about to start the show he's doing it again I was about to start the show and I was sitting down ready to Get started then I have my drink here which I need I need I need something to drink You know for my pipes I got a talk here for an hour and he was being all sweet being all nice And then he did something he hasn't done for a while. He just reached up there and knocked the thing over just Do you know and he knew what he was doing? So let's let's not Let's not keep too much praise on it, but to answer your question. I think it's obvious Python patrol crystal ball. Let's get that happening Python patrol crystal crystal ball. Let's go Let's go Hasbro if you had any courage Python patrol crystal ball really Um Most of the characters The off the top of my head that I want to see in classified form. They have done in classified form So like I wanted a classified sergeant slaughter. They did that. I wanted a classified Stalker they did that The dread knocks are coming through They did they did a couple of the original three dread knocks and they're working on on more um It's it's kind of tough because um, well, I'll tell you. No, I got it. I got it. Um Uh flash That's it flash Because I would love to have a complete set of the original 13 figures The the original green 13. I'd love to have all of them um And so every time they do An 82 character I'm I'm happy to see it Uh, and I look forward to it. So I'm I'm interested in seeing how they would interpret Flash, uh, thank you cheapest big spender for the super super chat. It's he says Evening htc just reminding everyone larry. Hama is in cedar rapids, Iowa A february 5th at the cedar rapids comic and toy show. Thank you for reminding everybody um, absolutely, um cedar rapids, Iowa if I um february 5th if I had The means of going I would go to that. Uh, because I like to uh, see larry. Hama when when feasible Um, and I like to go to gi joe shows. Um, I have, uh Um, thank you again for the super chat. I have already committed to going to winter fest in kentucky on january 27th, I believe Um, I'll post more about that as we as we get going. Uh, thank you for Uh, the super chat Uh, thank you for the super chat comic tropes. This is for your tiger force robo joe fund. Um, I will, um Add that comic tropes had a recent episode um about about mickey mouse, which is um, something that's been in the news lately because of uh, the reversion of a steamboat mickey to the public domain. Uh, and, um, it would I really enjoy the comic tropes episodes. Uh, that Dig a bit into history Um, especially something that's historically important like that, uh, or these, you know, the golden age of comic books Which are probably not the the most popular episodes. Uh, but I I'm not a popular guy So I like the I like the uh, the less popular stuff, but the the things that allow me to Uh, to learn a bit uh to to learn about something Uh, that I might not uh, have Looked at or considered so that that's a lot of fun for me. Um announcements What do we get to we got to Uh, tiger a tiger We got to timmer. I haven't been drinking. This is this is tea I've had no alcohol. It's just been a long day. Uh, we got to timmer. We got to watch on show mine We got to winterfest. Um, I I need to stop it Stop it. Sorry. The cat is is really wanting to cause cause trouble. Where are the kittens? The kittens are supposed to keep him occupied. Okay, I've got to talk about Yes, I've got to talk about, um And warning there's a spoiler for uh, potentially an upcoming review, but it was supposed to be Uh, classified tiger. See there you go. Um It was supposed to be this week's review. Okay, because The first review of the year I usually review a vehicle. Uh, usually a larger vehicle and what I wanted to do Was this The retaliator, okay I've been looking forward to this. I got this at joe fest and I've been looking forward To doing this Since I got it. Um, so I did some uh, I got my notes together. I did some research on it Looked through a lot of Uh print material about it. Uh got what I thought was a pretty good set of notes A pretty good outline for a video and I start to shoot the video and then I run into an issue and the issue is this The issue is this See that That's where That's where this goes It should it should go. I know I know the front end is missing, but I took the front end off um It don't go in there. Why don't it go in there because This post This post connects to a piece inside there Um in order to stay attached and for the For the, uh Spinny mechanism to work um the piece That it connects to Is this piece Okay, this uh this little uh This this little gear And how it connects check this out It connects just like this. Uh, yeah, just like this. Um I'd say that and uh, it worked a second. Yeah, there we go. It fits just like this All right, the problem with it Is that it just frictions in right so Um, I just went to grab the thing to move it because I was sure I was in the in the act of shooting the video um And uh, so I just picked the thing up and usually it's it's safe to pick things up like by the rotor blade There's a good good hand hold on these helicopters But what happened I lifted up and and this thing comes off and it falls down Into the into the innards And then it rattles around And then you like how the heck do I get it out? So I'm playing with the thing Uh, this missile launcher here comes off and I managed to get the part out, but the problem is Once you get it out There is no way that I have found To reassemble it because this has to go inside this has to go This goes in the In the fuselage in the housing right in there it has to go right in there and then And then this has to friction on top of it now the only way To to do that Is to open this thing up, but this is factory assembled this is not a part that you put together out of the box um, so there are some screws um Here and there's another one About here or about here you can unscrew it, but um some of the parts That hold it together They they clip on in such a way that they don't Uh, they don't Come apart right they once they are together They are very difficult or impossible to Open up and take apart without breaking the the pieces so I have this thing. Um, I am still uh trying to fix it and I want to try to fix it without breaking it so i'm Still working on it, but the point is um, there's no way i'm going to have that ready for Uh a review to go up this sunday, but I don't want to wait Uh another week for the first review of the year, especially since there was already a Review scheduled for the following week, so I can't just kick it out another week um So here's what here's my plan. Okay. Here's my plan um I'm instead of doing the um Instead of doing the um Uh The vehicle review as the first review of of the year i'm going to do uh the poll winner for um The patreon poll winner the patreon poll winner that went up and it was supposed to go up next week Uh, i'm going to do that this week. Um, I don't normally start the year with a um with with a an action figure review I usually try to start with um I usually try to start with a vehicle preferably a large vehicle, but this this um I I think I can fix it, but I have not uh, I have not Been able to yet. Um, so oh, hello. Hi there diana davis Um nice to see you. I hope you're feeling better. I hope you feel what feel better Um, it says okay. I'm just going to turn on chico and demand That's that's lovely. So, uh, technically Technically, this is not broken technically like none of this is actually broken as in there are no Plastic parts that have been snapped off this Is designed in such a way that it just frictions in and once it pops off and look at look at how little pressure it takes to To remove it look at how little pressure it takes to remove it. That's well, okay now It's going to stay on but anyway the point is um, it just frictions and uh, it can come off and once it does come off um It's not impossible to get it back on anyway, um There uh, so here's the plan. Um, oh first of all here first of all um There is a review of the retaliator that is um That's you that's already up by chaplain's assistance motor pod. It's an audio review. I put the link to that in the description of this video. Um, and It's a really good review and part of the review does cover an issue that I think is this one Which apparently is a pretty common issue This is this is very interesting This is a puzzle That I haven't figured out how to put together yet. So I will I will work on that but in the meantime, I'm not gonna Make you wait another week for uh, a review I'm I'm jumping on uh, the one that was supposed to come after and I will get that going. I've got Again a pretty good Outline ready for it I just need to shoot it and edit it and all that. So, um, I'm gonna jump on that this week So that should be ready this coming sunday rather than the following sunday um, now I also wanted to point out that In dan clingensmith's book, uh Creating gi joe volume seven there is this lovely entry here for Uh for the yeah It's got this lovely parts breakdown For the retaliator and uh for for any reference this this offending This offending gear here That is part number five And in description for part number five is small bevel gear um, so this was designed by Uh frank coronius So frank coronius, I would like to have a word because If this is designed this way This is bound to happen a lot This either has to be glued in At the factory or it needs to clip in once it goes in so that it's not just frictioning in there So this is a problem that is not just with this. This is a problem. Um This is a problem that apparently is an issue with the retaliator in general. So, um I I guess that's something I can add to the review when I eventually, uh Yeah, I get them on the phone, uh when I eventually do it because I want to point this out This is something that um It's it's a it's an engineering problem. Um, I I don't know like it's a really complex toy But um And it's got lots of moving parts. I mean, that's that's fine. That's good. But you can't have like This piece uh frictioning in such that Um, I mean with normal. I mean not even play right Not even like playing with the thing Uh, just picking it up, uh is enough to Is enough to do that so we will Work on that stay tuned But in the meantime the winner of the patreon poll will get a Get a review um this coming week rather than the following now what will I do for the following week? I'll figure it out. But anyway, so that's That's that that's that's what's coming up In the near future and I will get to that retaliator. Um, I'll um, I'll work on it So what else do we got to announce we got we get we did the the timour we did the what's on joe mine We did the winterfest we did the retaliator um Okay Well, anyway, I guess we're done. No, we're not done. We're only 23 minutes in. Um Um Bart says pick that up like that many times since I bought it in uh new in 1990 never had an issue Well, that's awesome. Um, but I guess I guess um I guess Gary um on chaplain assistant motor pod He's had this but he didn't know it until you know after he got it But we'll I think okay another issue that I have with it is Getting it apart Because I can see how it goes together. I can see how it goes together But In addition to the screws that need to be removed to open it up There are also some pieces that are clipped together and I'm really trying not to um Not to break the clips, right? I don't want to break it to get in all I want to do Is to open this thing up so I can slide these two pieces back together and I and permanently this time and We will um We will proceed Anyway, um, oh, okay. Uh, jeffery says youtube just started showing an ad midstream. Okay. Hold on No, we can't have that youtube. Hold on a second Let me see if I can fix it. Sorry guys I don't want youtube doing midroll ads in the live streams Uh, hold on I'm gonna I'm fixing that right now. Hello cat. You're not my friend No You knock that over again. I'm gonna be so sore Hang on. Hang on. Hang on Uh, let's see content Uh, okay, okay All right live Uh, let's see Uh, let's see. Let's go here And I should in theory Be able to Turn that off Okay, all right. Just just just off just off save Okay, sorry about that guys. Um Um, thank you Thank you comic tropes for the super chat. Uh, what would it take to get a defiant review this year? Money donations a friend lending you one. Um, no chance. I don't know the defiant is is such a mess um, I I kind of think that The defiant is a challenge.  Hello du ru ti. Nice to see you. Hello jeffrey Um, okay guys, uh, come on. All right Okay, all right. Anyway, um That's the sort of thing that I would do for a first of the year review if I had it ready So I don't I don't I don't have a I don't have a perfect answer on the defiant. Sorry. I'm a little distracted that the cat the cat is already Knocked over one drink and I'm trying to not have that happening. Yeah, do you just sit there? You just sit there Um, what else do we have to announce? We're just we're just about halfway through We're just half halfway through the show. So I better come up with some more announcements um The review that's coming this sunday, uh, if you're on patreon that you know what it is So that's a little bit of a spoiler, but it would have been a spoiler. Anyway, um, the only difference Um, the only difference is uh, it'll be a week earlier So instead of put instead of waiting until next sunday It'll be this sunday And I I'm looking forward to it. I think it's going to be a lot of fun It's the one that that won the poll. I think is a fun one. Um I would say my my patrons have Uh a sense of humor, uh, and I hope they enjoy what I have planned for uh For that review, uh cat and grape soda.  Hello white vegeta. Nice to see you He hasn't caused trouble in the quite some some time But tonight he's decided he's gonna be trouble Okay, other announcements, um Informal announcements, okay, um My p.o. Box. Um, I The next time it comes due for renewal Which should be in about five or six months from now. I believe Um, I am going to close the p.o. Box. Uh, it's been a lot of fun getting stuff in the p.o. Box. Um, but I um, I'm not able to make it out there very often. Um, I feel like You know, I I've I've taken enough stuff from From you guys. I don't really need to to get anymore So the p.o. Box. It's not closed yet. Um, I'll I'll check it periodically between now and What is that like? June I think ish. June ish is when it comes up for renewal again. Uh, but after that We will uh, we're I'm gonna discontinue the the p.o. Box. Thank you to everyone who has sent donations It is very much appreciated. I just want to be careful that I don't take More than I should from people Um, people will be very have been very generous. I don't want to take advantage of people's generosity. So We're just going to let that go on. Um Who asked, um, oh Deruti said, um Have uh bought classified hawk yet. Um, I I actually haven't. Um, that's one I'd like to get and you know what hawk Is an 82 character. They didn't do the 82 design, right? They did the 86 design for classified hawk, but it still counts and Even though i'm not collecting a lot of classified right now I would like to get a full run of the 82 characters while hawk is included in that so I do need to get one. I haven't picked one on it yet I have seen some and they do look pretty good but um, but I will um Um, I'll I'll I but I haven't yet. I'll I'll pick that up. Um Uh, thank you, uh, the lilith says but htc you do so much for the community. Thank you very much. I I'm trying to Um, let's let's not forget though that the the community does more much more than I do um, and that is Uh, one of the reasons that we do cobra conversions every july um, and I guess that's like It's not exactly an announcement yet, but just a preview announcement um, the calendar for Uh, cobra conversions eight, uh should Uh Should hit pretty soon. You should see that pretty soon and we should start having some announcements um And that's coming up like like within the next couple weeks or so I'd like to actually get uh, get that going by february if I can Because there's so much to do. Uh, we've got A a larger roster than ever Um, we will we will be at joe fest. We will have a physical presence at joe fest We will have opportunities for you to decide Uh, what will be done on my channel For cobra convergence and don't forget co on my channel. It's cobra convergence all month Right everything through july is cobra convergence for me. So so, um Uh, that's that's not exactly an announcement yet, but you will see start to see announcements soon as we start highlighting the participants in cobra convergence eight and as we get the calendar out there We're doing everything earlier this year Uh, because there's a lot more to do We're organizing The joe fest thing we're gonna have exclusives there. Uh, we're gonna have you know fan participation there We've got more people. We've got more to promote Um, we've got more. I don't know. It's graphic design to do just all these things. It's more to do But um, but it's it's it's going to be bigger. It's going to be bigger than ever and I really sincerely hope you all enjoy what we're doing and When I say we I mean, I really mean them. I mean, it really mean all of the uh dozens and dozens of featured presenters um who Who really are the heart of the event Uh, they really do it. They really do it. Um, okay, bart. Um Bart has uh Yeah, so if you were at uh joe fest last year Uh, you you could you had the chance to attend the pizza party that um You know, I'm surprised we're not still waiting for the table I called ahead to reserve a table, but that apparently did nothing And so we were just standing there in in the in the lobby In the the waiting area Waiting for the table that I reserved waiting for like an hour For the table I reserved to actually come open. Uh, so thank you for that and but thanks. Thanks to everyone who actually um Who actually stuck with it? And and actually hung out it was really nice to see everyone. Uh, that's one of my favorite times of the year is uh is joe fest um, it really is kind of a big family reunion and um, I would sincerely miss uh That opportunity to see people if I didn't have it um and that's why I missed what two years during the pandemic and I hated doing that It was necessary. Uh, but I've been to each one since and Um And I I would I would really hate to miss one now because Uh, you never know you never know when when an opportunity might be your last opportunity to See somebody that you care about to see a friend to talk to somebody that you care about um You can say oh, maybe next year. Maybe next year But sometimes next year doesn't happen.  So I will be there. Um if you Uh are so inclined, please join. We're gonna have a lot going on. It should be a lot of fun. Um, and and We'll have some cobra convergent stuff. There's gonna be a cobra convergence eight panel Um, there's gonna be a cobra convergence booth Uh, there will be things to get at the booth and participation stuff that you can do um So, uh, yeah, let's see There we go. Uh, have we talked about super seven having a booth at joe fest haven't talked about that Haven't talked about that actually Uh, thanks for the segway firefly um, not not to super seven but a segway to something else. So um Uh Joe joe fest has announced one guest, but it's an obvious one sergeant slaughter is coming back For uh, joe fest this year Sergeant slaughter is a pretty cool guy and a really fun person to meet.  He he's very enthusiastic. He's Very personable. He really does make it worth it and you can tell that he is enjoying the interaction with gi joe fans. He really he really um I think cherished his role in gi joe, you know back in the 80s uh when um When he was actively involved and and he still comes back to it, you know, he still uh keeps it alive And uh, and I appreciate that very much. So that's the first guest that they have announced I don't I don't have any Insight, you know, I don't have any insider knowledge about what other guests are going to be announced. So I'll try not to jump the gun um I'll try not to jump the gun, but um, I'll try to You know, keep you guys abreast of who all is going to be there But who is definitely going to be there Who who has two thumbs is going to be at joe fest this guy? Um, and I hope I have a chance to see some of you and uh and actually hang out in person So there is there's an announcement Uh Oh, and they're right there marianne will be there um Oh, thank you for the super chat what's on joe mind.  Well, no, they're not on broadway anymore. I don't believe But i'm sure you can still see them like off broadway like off off You can see them. You can see them in pakip see um What's on your mind don't forget is right after this show. So uh, check out what's on your mind um Check out what's on your mind right after this, uh, which will be in what 20 minutes 20 and a half minutes Uh, I I'm it's been Well, it's been an eventful week, you know There's this thing But besides that It's we've had we had the winter storm here I did a bit of travel last week with marianne got stuck in chicago because of the weather got stuck in chicago overnight Then when we got back home united airlines had lost my luggage Thank you united airlines um But I've been looking forward to getting back in the saddle and doing some review videos. That's why i'm here That's why i'm here. Oh, yeah, uh cober command. Thank you. Thank you There's another announcement cober commander number one is tomorrow. I have heard good things about it I will do my best to Pick it up if I can manage to get out of the house Yes, it was and it was quite an adventure but um Here I am talking about The review schedule for For this month And I haven't actually produced a video yet and that's a bit of a problem Because that's the bread and butter here. That's what we do so You know giving you information making announcements. That's all well and good, but I gotta like get some videos done that is the the purpose of the channel and I've been really slow at that. I've been thinking lately that um You know, it's it's been more difficult Uh in in the last I don't know two years To get video content out and why is that I? Uh, I used to get a video out every Week sometimes multiple videos a week And work full-time and take care of my kids and have a normal life um But I don't know Since I've gotten older and not that much older a couple years older um I I just it's harder for some reason It's just harder to actually crank these out and I don't think I'm doing that much different It does take a little bit more time to write Um, I don't work on I don't use a script exactly. I use notes and an outline rather than A word for a word script Um, but there is a lot of research that goes into it Uh These these books back here these books Back here. Oops. Hold on These books back here are not props um In fact, they're not all back here. Some of them are over there because I I open the books and I look inside each book So it's it's now a routine since I Got a lot more print material and and the invaluable the art of gi joe um It's I've been adding a lot of the print reference material to the reviews as I Write them and that does take a bit longer. It doesn't take infinitely longer Right. It's it's not ridiculously A lot more work, but it's a bit more work um, despite that like my video recording techniques are, you know Basically the same my editing techniques are basically the same um Um, yeah, it could be it could be made of a bob, you know Um, it does prolong the project of reviewing the vintage line Um, now I do work a lot. That is true, you know 12 hours a day five days a week I work a lot, but I've worked a lot before I've worked that much in the past and still Got videos done um, but it does seem to be different and um And I I all I can do is attribute it to to age I guess I I There are times when I just feel older. Is any buddy else like Uh, does that happen to anybody else? I mean, I suppose it does but Uh But yeah, that's that's kind of where I am. Um I'm doing everything else. I have the same otherwise generally the same lifestyle the same amount of exercise The same amount of sleep the same, you know amount of, you know, the same type of uh intake of nutrition and stuff but the The energy to get the things done just isn't there like it used to be and that's frustrating because I want to get it done Um, I love these live streams and I keep doing them But the live streams are not video reviews of vintage gi joe toys. They're not, you know hd camera Fully researched reviews and that's what I've got to get started. So um, I have a game plan I I have the week planned out If all goes as it should um, there should be a fresh new video review on Uh on sunday, uh, and we're gonna make it happen. But um Yeah, you know what? You know what people love. You know what? Like lots of people love is to um click on a live stream For a youtube guy that they're subscribed to And uh, listen to him complain About being old That's what people love Watching a an old gray haired dude wrinkly up great haired dude Complain about on feels old all my back All my back all my knees all my knees but uh It's you know, uh for those of us who came into gi joe in in 1982, you know, we're not None of us are getting any younger. Um I'm on the road to 20k Uh, thank you jail less comics. Um, I uh, we're we're getting there We're getting there. Um But um, yeah, we're My goal is to deliver um The best content I can for you As frequently as I can, uh throughout this year. Hello Look who it really Has needs attention right now Look who really needs attention Yeah, like I don't I don't necessarily want the kale in in my face. I don't I don't need that All right, you know sit down sit down if you want to I don't Okay. All right. Anyway Hi Guy come on cut it out He he's really craving attention he's like you think you You think you would think he gets no love which is not true He gets an adequate adequate amount of love for a cat. Um his size and color. I don't know with it That doesn't make sense, but he gets he gets all the love and he can handle Uh, but if it's just right now, he's just craving attention.  I've got parts here. I don't want to lose them Um Okay, so anyways that went swimmingly Um, I think I've announced all the things. I'm sorry. I don't I don't think I even want to open gung-ho this week I don't think I even feel like opening gung-ho this week. I just I'm just not gonna do it um this year Now he's now he's digging into the retaliator box This year is going to be a year of travel Okay, lots of travel which I got no problem with I love to travel. I feel better When I can travel, uh, right when I'm just stuck Surrounded by these four walls. That's when I feel kind of worn down travel helps right travel does me a lot of good so I've got travel set up for um Not every month of this year But most months of this year there's going to be travel and a lot of that is travel to gi for gi jo stuff So winter fest this month and joe fest joe fest come on guy joe fest in june I I don't have assembly required plans yet, but That's in november um There is uh, well I'm going to london that is mostly A gift for marianne. She there's somebody that a friend of hers that she Would like to meet in london So i'm going to i'm going overseas i'm going to the uk And then i've got a trip planned for For my kids birthday to vegas And what else? Anyway, the point is i've got a lot of travel and that's great That actually helps. I know that travel wears a lot of people down, but for me travel is invigorating, right? So That's that's this year despite that I I already have a calendar mapped out For the first half of the year To to get a significant amount of content By a done and get it out and you know Just turning out content is not That that's not the only goal right because I could I could make a whole bunch of crappy videos. I could I could turn those out but I would like The purpose I think of planning out the calendar in advance Is not to just stick to a rigid schedule He can't stick to a rigid schedule anyway because stuff happens right like like Like this stuff like this happens. So you the schedule has to be flexible, but Being able to look forward and see what's coming up. Um actually gets me more excited about What I get to do right because I can see on the horizon that there's a figure Or a vehicle that I've wanted to get to and I'm finally going to get to it And so I can kind of in my in myself I can start building excitement ahead of Getting that review done. So, um Do setting out a calendar like that. I think helps keep me motivated Not just to stick to the schedule, but motivated to Do the reviews and to do them as well as I can um, so that's That's the goal That's the goal is to get the content done get the videos done But to to do them right to do them As well as I possibly can To research them as much as I possibly can to to crack open these books here And get the information from them and and synthesize that information Um, uh into a video review Uh, thank you for the super chat cheapest big spender tell timmer to meet you in london. Oh, oh, I have Oh, oh, I have I can't guarantee that he will but, um, I would love I would love to meet timmer in person He's one of my oldest friends in the community and I've never actually met him in person. Um I will say that behind the scenes just talking him to him person to person He is an incredibly great guy very nice guy Very helpful just a genuinely good dude, and I think I can say that pretty much about Everybody that I've worked with um I think we're really lucky we have A community that with a lot of people who are just genuinely good people which I think Being a genuinely good person person is more than just about being a nice person um It's beyond that we've got people who are knowledgeable and helpful and considerate and kind and patient um all of these qualities that um That that are maybe too rare In society at large We're really lucky to have a lot of them in this community and as part of the the creator community part of the fan creators within gi joe so um I feel extremely lucky To have worked with a lot of these people Timmer in particular but But that's one I haven't timmer is one person I haven't had a chance to meet In person and I I would love to I hope to have that opportunity someday Yeah, so apparently I'm I'm uh Um I'm getting philosophical I need to not get too philosophical um And I don't want to I don't want to pontificate um I don't want I don't want to get a soapbox um But uh, but you know what I have like five and a half minutes to kill so I'll get on a small soapbox um, I think that um being a good Toy reviewer are really a good critic of anything um Involves more than just uh positivity just more than just being positive I think that you can it you can be artificially positive All right. That that that's a risk if you're just focused on only being positive and not being negative um I think the best critics be it in, you know toys or art or movies Are the ones that That adds some information that adds some knowledge and put The subject in a context that Enhances the enjoyment for uh for the viewer. Oh, thank you for the super chat jofan 84 Who says I turned 40 in uh on march 26?  Oh my goodness um, I'll um I don't know first of all happy birthday Uh second of all your birthday is just before mine or i'm sorry just after my well I forgot how calendars worked there for a second your your um Your your your birthday is right after mine um The week of my birthday I will be in the uk so That might make it a challenge, but i'll see what I can do. I I wish I could promise something I really wish I could promise something but the timing of march 26 is Uh a challenge. I'll see what I can do no promises, but nonetheless Uh happy early 40th birthday. I remember when I turned 40 it was so so long ago You know back when I was young-ish I was young-ish at one time Uh, I'm not sure that I was ever young but young-ish I was I was never a child. I don't I was I was never a child. I was hatched I was hatched at the age of 21 Uh never had a chance to you know, that's why I enjoy toys so much missed out on them um, but um I look at that Firefly that's also my birthday. Oh, it's also my birthday today. Happy birthday Uh, but you can give him this lovely stream. Thanks. Oh, I'm happy birthday Who else's birthday is it? I want to mention. I don't want to miss out because this is I do believe in marking these milestones. So happy early Present or late birthday to whomever's birthday it is or isn't Right anyway, uh anyway, so Yeah, since uh since we we we have a few more minutes that's That's what I look for more so than um More so than than someone being positive or being negative. Um is like What are they bringing? Uh, what are the what are they bringing to the table? What are they doing to to add to enhance to, uh, magnify Um, and I I will be the first to say I have not always done that well I have not always done that well, but um, uh, I read Recently and I can't remember exactly where I read it that um the The essence of art criticism, uh, takes two steps, right two steps Uh, the first being describe what you see or hear if it's music or you know Just first just describe what it is describe Describe what you see And to ask why Those are the two steps to art criticism Is description and then ask why And then the process of trying to answer the why Uh, you reveal um A lot about the art the artist the industry that it produced it The materials that were used to produce it Uh, the process these things you can learn And you can share Um If you you know do those two basic steps first And I've not I've not always done that successfully I I do the best I can I I know that I haven't done the best job of that always in the past, but Uh, but I'm trying to remember that I'm trying to keep that in mind going forward Um, I'll always have my opinions and my feelings about things. I still don't like cobra law. Sorry I just don't like cobra law. That's my preference Um, and I haven't seen anything to convince me to change my mind But I can still look at it. I can still describe it and I can still try to discover why It was done and why it took the form that it took. So that's That's what we're going to try to do this year and going forward.  Hi toy connections Um, yes, it is it's been an hour. I do need to shut it down. Thank you all for Listening to me stutter through this live stream I appreciate it. Uh, and thank you for your patience because since I missed last week What's on your mind? Is going to start their live stream here in a few minutes. So I'll let you guys roll over to that And I will catch you all next week. Thanks everyone. Hey next week I'm I'm really going to try to open gung-ho next week. I no promises, but I'm going to try To open gung-ho next week. I'll see you then. Thanks everyone And see you next Tuesday. Bye everyone


The U.S. Army is on the hunt for innovative science and technology solutions. Small and nontraditional businesses have begun pitching new ideas to panels of Army scientists and engineers in five cities across the country, all with the hope of winning cash prizes and building a working relationship with the Army S&T community. Well, there's a lot of things in it for these companies. First is obviously the award and the prize money that comes with it. Total prize is $200,000, but there's various stages from the initial $1,000 white paper award to a $5,000 award to come to AUSA, followed by a $125,000 award at AUSA to compete in the capstone challenge for $200,000. The Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting and Exhibition, or AUSA, is the largest land warfare trade show in North America. This year's event is scheduled for October 8th through the 10th in Washington, D.C. That's where the Army will announce 12 finalists to compete in the future capstone event in April 2019. The Army Expeditionary Technology Search, or X-Tech Search, mirrors entrepreneurial pitch competitions, where aspiring entrepreneurs make innovative proposals to panels of investors who then choose whether or not to invest as business partners. They just have to give us great presentations, sort of like a shark tanky type thing, you know, give us an idea of that they have great technologies and opportunities that we can actually support the warfighter and just wow the panel and I think they'll do great. Army officials examined hundreds of white papers submitted from small businesses and startups that showcased how novel research and technology ideas might benefit the Army's modernization priorities. Well, I think it gives us potential for future capabilities, but I think probably the bigger impact, at least immediately, is getting people aware of the things we're interested in and then actually increasing our network of people in our ecosystem to try and think about how we solve Army problems. Businesses that made it through the first round received an invite to pitch their proposals in person to Army S&T leaders at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, Maryland, or regional panels in Austin, Texas, Boston, Chicago and Playa Vista, California. What we're really looking for is those innovative solutions that traditionally come from communities we don't reach in order to have good relationships with. Judges said they've been impressed by the caliber of the presentation. I think one of the things that I'm looking for as a judge is, first of all, is this going to be applicable to the Army's modernization strategy and is it really something that we haven't seen before? I think everybody can be a winner in this and that, I think for us, just the conversation with some of these innovators to help shape their idea to make it more applicable to the Department of Defense, and a lot of people don't really know what our challenges are and there are reasons for that. We try to keep things close to the vest because modern warfare is a dangerous business and we want to protect our technology as well as protect our soldiers and so that makes it difficult to have a conversation with a lot of people in academia or industry. Looking to spur innovation, some organizations like the U.S. Army Research Laboratory have embraced an open campus business model. The open campus business model allows us to engage people in different regions that we haven't engaged with before. We're reaching out and we want to hire the talent in those regions. In other words, why should we hire somebody in California and make them come to the East Coast? Now we can hire them there and work with them there. These are all in the vein to reach out to companies and looking for disruptive technologies. We don't know when we talk to these people and they're there to tell us what their ideas are and we're there to help them grow those ideas. Oh, I think there's lots of SKT opportunities out there. I think the problem is many people don't really understand some of the requirements or needs that we actually have in the Army and it's not because of their aspects, it's ours. We don't necessarily advertise our needs very well and that's part of what ECTeX Search is about, trying to get to this non-traditional group of people, companies and individuals to have them start thinking about Army problems and the way they're solving maybe commercial problems and applying that to what the Army needs. I think there's a great opportunity for people today.