The latest weapons, coupled with the fighting skill of the American soldier, stands ready on the alert all over the world to defend this country, view the American people against aggression. This is the Big Picture, an official television report to the nation from the United States Army. Now to show you part of the Big Picture, here is Sergeant Stuart Queen.  Aggressive moves toward the tiny Pacific island by communist China have once again created an air of tension in the far east and have caused free peoples to look with dismay at the prospect of being plunged into another global war. Perched on the lip of the communist world, Formosa contains the last spark of hope for free China and the first line of defense for the United States. On the island in what may be a race against time, members of our army are helping the Chinese nationalists to become a potent fighting force, a helpful ally ready and able to cut off the spreading tentacles of communist aggression. That's China, communist China. Through the binoculars you see it close up when you visit some of the island outposts of Formosa, the last refuge of free China which the communists want to smash. Every Chinese nationalist soldier on guard looks in only one direction, the mainland. The tremendous contrasts were the things which first impressed me when I was first assigned to Formosa as a member of the United States Military Assistance Advisory Group. In the middle of this primitive culture you find a modern army being trained. Forward elements of the nationalists whose headquarters is at Formosa. Taiwan is its name in Chinese. The busy city of Taipei, it's capital. It once belonged to Japan but since 1949 it's been the last hope of a lot of people who will not be communist dominated. Keelung Harbor is usually the first contact for new arrivals if they arrive by boat. But it's the airport that's the busy place in these 10s times. Maybe back home people wonder why all the fuss about Formosa. Well when you're right here and can see the faces of the VIPs like Admiral Robert B. Carney and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles you can sense its importance. You feel all the tension of two parts of the world at odds when you see our seventh fleet operating in the South China Sea under the most difficult conditions helping to maintain our security. It was the seventh fleet that stood in protection of the evacuation of Tashen Island when nationalist forces tightened their defenses consolidated their core of strength by bringing their men back to Formosa. We're in a race against time out here and it's comforting to know that those are our fighter planes who patrol the seas. Give us the air cover needed to train free China's fighting men. Our rocket firing dive bombers are capable of stopping anything in the air on the surface or under the China Sea. When you first start working with these men you wonder if you're getting across to them. Everything is said twice once in English and then again in their native tongue. But it doesn't take long to find out that you're working with a bunch of eager beavers. Now we don't have control over any soldier in the Chinese army. When it comes to telling them to do something all we can do is tell them the way we do it in the army of the United States. We have no position in their army official or unofficial. We tell them how it's done and give them as much equipment as we can. Supplies are coming in a bit more frequently now that the situation is beginning to get really hot. Complicated stuff like new radio and electronic components but the real job of aiding in the training of an army begins at the bottom. Basic stuff such as explaining the meaning of road signs to men who are learning to be truck drivers. We take things like this for granted back home. We take our time about learning. But here on a small island surrounded by hostile communist forces these elementary parts of a modern war machine take on added meaning. Yes they're mighty important and you can teach them too quickly. These soldiers are part of a nation that was bypassed by the industrial revolution. These men have to catch up with 100 years of mechanical progress and they have to do it fast. Out here there are no gas stations at every corner and it's vital that a driver knows much more than the elementary facts involved with keeping his vehicle in motion. They have to know a great deal more how to make repairs, how to keep the motors serviced. When the mag mission first arrived back in May of 1951 we found that the Chinese just didn't understand the importance of proper maintenance. But they're eager students. Teaching a soldier to drive a six by six truck is not too difficult. He knew about them before but it's a different story when it comes to highly specialized equipment such as the latest types of road building machinery. That's a grader. In the manual it's called grader Austin western model 99h. Sergeant Houston is explaining how it works. He's a member of the 507 field artillery maintenance company. His explanations get translated into Chinese. He and the translator had to coordinate before they tackled the complicated phrases needed to describe this special earth leveling machine. Learning to use heavy equipment is vital to an expanding army especially when that army is in the situation of the nationalists. These tremendous machines help provide a broad base for increasing the capabilities of the Formosan force. The ability to handle new projects such as bridge building.  A Bailey bridge. Master Sergeant Schmidt a veteran combat engineer is on hand to give assistance as the prefabricated units are pulled together to form the span. 45 men do the job in less than three and a half hours. Then the 120 foot structure is pushed across the problem arena. This bridge was received from the U.S. under the mutual defense assistance program. But there's also a self-help program taking shape on the island. A guard directs the way into the area which contains part of that self-help. An arms manufacturing depot which our ordinance officers are helping to increase production. Building up the free world strength aligned against the red aggressors. Some of this equipment dates from the pre-World War II days when the Japanese were in possession of the island who were organizing their industrial strength. But just as the weapons of war changed quickly so did the machines that make them. And the Japanese machines had to be modified. Women are employed wherever possible. There's a great deal of test equipment used and MAG technicians are training classes in the use of the sensitive instruments. These circuit testers and voltmeters will be used to check equipment in the field. An important function of the arsenal is reconditioning of arms. Chinese craftsmen make old rifles useful again. When it comes to a rifle there's no army that was ever better equipped than the army would use the M1. It's the basic weapon issued to the fighting men of nationalist China. The armors on Fremosa have a great deal of talent in working with firearms. It's part of a heritage that goes back many centuries and includes the discovery of gun powder as far back as the ninth century. Constant inspection keeps the standards high. There's rarely a second chance when the situation involves a rifle in combat. And the MAG inspectors make certain that a reconditioned rifle is as good as a new one. A load of rifles is on its way to the last step in the rebuilding process, the test pits. Here each piece is fired before it is reissued.  I'm part of a survey team from the U.S. Army Medical Nutrition Laboratory. We're here at the request of the chief of the MAG mission and our job is to determine the actual food intake of each soldier and find out how much good that food is doing. We have two control groups with about 600 men in each. One group eats the regular ration while the others are fed an enriched diet. Control of the food is in the hands of our nutrition team which consists of nine Americans and six Chinese. One of us is always on hand to supplement the daily ration of rice with riboflavin, niacinamide and thiamine. Sounds like double talk, but it all adds up to good vitamin B intake and makes it possible to decrease the rice allowance and more than pay for the cost of enriching the diet. Biochemical tests measure the rates at which these test group soldiers are burning up their food and help to accurately measure the rate at which the Chinese soldier uses his energy. The physical condition of free Chinese soldiers is of vast importance to the world. There is no doubt that they are completely outnumbered by the Chinese Reds and their best chance for victory if the Reds attempt to invade Formosa will come from their ability to out-fight them. So when we were asked to design an obstacle course that was really tough we came up with one that didn't leave a single muscle unused. This course has more ups and downs in the scenic railway at Coney Island and in addition to strengthening muscles it's designed to sharpen balance and agility. It helps a lot on some sections if you're part mountain goats. The toughening process never ceases on Formosa. Some of these men are veterans of many years of uninterrupted fighting on the mainland but they still move along with spirit. The first time around this course is comparatively easy just top speed from beginning to end. It's the second circuit that counts. This time it's done with a rifle and a bayonet still keeping the same pace but with more obstacles. Bayonet training with a vengeance. These hard driving offensive tactics are part of the basic training designed to charge the nationalist soldier with confidence. The ability to read a map accurately is something every efficient soldier has to know. Classes are held out in the field where the students can match up what they see in front of them to the marks and symbols on the chart. Being based on Formosa has given the Free Chinese Army new problems regarding conduct of a campaign. One of the most important being efficient amphibious operations. The old Chinese army never had to know much about amphibious assault. Most of their fighting was done in the interior. Combat exercises are held from time to time. They're under the supervision of veteran naval and marine officers. Teamwork is what we've been stressing in these landings. That was the principal reason for our successes in recent wars and it's something these soldiers had to learn. American boys grow up in an atmosphere of athletics that emphasized working with the other fellow. It's different in China but these soldiers have come a long way since the first days of our assistance program and now they can come up with a beautifully executed amphibious landing. Commandoes are expected to play a big part in the plans for striking back at an invader. This exercise simulates a swift strike at night, paddling into shore on a rubber raft for either a harassing raid or probe for information. Super-efficiency and surprise are the key tactics of the commandos. There is an urgency about this training that increases with each change in Formosa's position in the boiling political pot of the east. Another type of modern operation concerns airborne troops and equipment. The correct way to load a C-46 is described to an attentive class. It's a complicated operation in which a load must be placed with care so that the correct center of gravity is maintained by the aircraft while in flight. A jeep goes up the loading ramp first. The next item rolled aboard is a field piece. The establishment of coordinated operations such as this one involving the infantry and the air force has come about through the insistence of MAG for close cooperation between the services. Combat training on this island is serious stuff and it never stops. Each day long lines of troops move out along the country roads to engage in practice problems. No detail is too small when it involves the making of a soldier who can fight and win and it is in these large-scale maneuvers that the rough edges of the rookies are polished. Outfits move into Bivouac for a last check before the start of the exercise. Everything is inspected making sure that all is in order. MAG personnel are available for consultation in case anyone has a last minute question but before the outfits move out it's chow time and the advisors eat the same chow as the rest but not everything on the menu especially when the daily special is rice and grasshoppers. There's only one purpose to these maneuvers. Reproduce combat conditions as closely as possible. Ammunition is issued not all of its live stuff but it's just about the amount a man would carry into battle. Each unit works on a different problem part of a general plan which ensures that every soldier will get to practice all the things he'll be expected to do in battle. This group is setting up a recoilless rifle. A last second check by the MAG advisor before the members of the team load the piece. In other sections other weapons are fired. The armored divisions have their place in the exercises. Their training also stresses teamwork. Working with a complicated war machine such as a tank imposes a great responsibility on the average oriental soldier who is by nature an extreme individualist but they are very willing and work extremely hard to grasp the technology of today's combat conditions. Vehicles taking part in the maneuver are on the move. Tanks rumble down the roads then off across the fields to take up firing positions. The tempo of the exercise is constant. Keep moving at a fast clip through all kinds of terrain. Use every weapon of the infantrymen. Cross a river under fire. Advance up a hill at top speed. Tanks keep pouring the fire and moving forward. In another sector the problem is to get the unit across a shallow stream in a hurry. Planks and bamboo are used to form the structural members of a bridge. The long logs are tied together with rope. The sections are then assembled into place and pushed out across the stream. In a short time the river is spanned and the outfits are on their way. A great deal of attention is paid to teaching engineers to improvise in the field or whenever possible be prepared for any tactical situation that might come along. But the engineer's handiwork is just a prelude to a mock attack. Capturing a village. The whole operation takes place under enemy fire. These Chinese soldiers use the same methods developed by our armies in World War II when they streamed across the densely populated cities of Europe. It's a quick dash for the protection of a doorway. There's a special technique to house-to-house fighting. Once again it involves that important ingredient known as teamwork. Cover another man while he moves forward and then be covered on the advance to the objective. The MAG effort extends into every phase of training the nationalist soldiers. Officers are given the details of the radar detection system now in effect around the island. This protection from surprise attack is considered one of the first lines of defense for America. In addition to the quick warnings of the radar network other means of communications include an efficient teletype system. Machines have been adapted for use by the nationalist forces. To keep the messages secret special code room practices have been devised. They're based on Chinese characters which cannot be easily broken down into code groups. And there are other protections coming in constantly. At a nationalist air force base on Formosa US Ambassador Carl L. Rankin and Major General William C. Chase chief of the MAG mission are on hand to welcome the arrival of increased power for the forces allied against the communists. Sleek swept wing f-86 saver jets which streak into a Formosan airfield to bolster free China's air strength. These latest type jet fighters become part of the nationalist defense under provisions of the United States Mutual Defense Assistance Program. They can match anything that the communists put into the skies. The Chinese pilots who will fly them are trained in America and will now be equipped with a best fighter in the east. The changing of the guard on a lonely beach on an island in the Pacific has great meaning for the free nations of the world who stand committed to act against aggression. In the shadow of the constant threat of attack members of the United States Army Military Assistance Advisory Group are in a race against time. Lending American knowledge and materials to a small fighting army which will not be bent to the doctrine of the communist horde. To keep the flag of free nations flying over Formosa. The front line of freedom. As the bullies of communist China wave their red flag of aggression in the east and attempt to disrupt the peace and harmony of the free world our army continues its work on Formosa. Helping the Chinese nationalists to become a useful addition to the total pool of strength alert against communism. This is Sergeant Stuart Queen. Be with us again next week at this same time for another look at your army in action on The Big Picture. The Big Picture is a weekly television report to the nation on the activities of the army at home and overseas. Produced by the Signal Corps Pictorial Center. Presented by the United States Army in cooperation with this station. You too can be an important part of The Big Picture. You can proudly serve with the best equipped, the best trained, the best fighting team in the world today the United States Army.


I remind members that social distancing measures are in place in the chamber and across the Holyrood campus, and I ask that members take care to observe those measures, including when entering and exiting the chamber. Please only use the aisles and walkways to access your seat and when moving around the chamber. The first item of business this afternoon is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is Reverend Anna Roddwell, Minister, Kelso North and Ednon Parrish Church in the Scottish Borders. Hello, a little poetry to start us off in your new session today. Breathe there the man with soul so dead, who never to himself has said, this is my own, my native land. Whose heart has ne'er within him burned when home his footsteps he has turned from wandering on a foreign strand? Okay, who wrote that? It's our other national bard, it's Sir Walter Scott, and I'm a boarder, what do you expect? I'm deeply honoured and excited to be given this chance to facilitate a time for reflection, four minutes, where we can raise our thoughts above that which we can see and touch and smell. It's a moment to contemplate the new menace. As a Christian, I have to stand ready to account for the hope that is within me, so when asked to address this esteemed Parliament, I thought, what useful can I say to these men and women who hold the feet of this glorious country in their hands? That's when these words of Sir Walter Scott came to me because that passion that is present in Scott's words is held by so many Scots for their land of birth or their adopted homeland. It tells of a sense of belonging, a sense of security, but now, at this time, we feel a sense almost of missing peace, and that peace can be spelled either way. There is an angst, a loneliness, a sense of being at sea. What can we do to help? The church is an organisation that exists to help those outwith its membership. It's there to foster community, to show God's love in words and action, to get alongside people and let them know that they are not alone. If we are created to live in a relationship with God and in fellowship with one another, there will always be something missing until we enter into that fellowship and relationship. Speak to the faith communities in your constituencies. You will be welcomed, and I believe that you will find a group of people who are willing to respond to human need with loving service. You will find a group of people who are passionate about creation and about the earth and how to sustain and nurture life on this planet. You will find a group of people who realise that we are only as great as the least of us, and while any suffer, we all suffer. So, fix your eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, and what is unseen is eternal. I wish you all the best for this new session.


What's going on guys and gals? Brad, here for Leighton's, I keep one of the say Leighton gaming dude. Leighton Sports Cards, we're ripping 2021 Top's Chrome Platinum Anniversary Baseball Lite, 8 box number 16 random teams. Here's your list one more time. Feel free to check it out on the website at any time and thank you for joining. For those heavier cases, I'll just have you pull them up for me. You see how it actually supports my back? Matthew Boyd, normally when you break you have to hunch, but even though I'm hunching a little bit, it still has my back. I don't know why it took us so long to get this shirt. John Cruck, looking like Tommy Boyd. Beyond Sanders, nice Neon, Jeep Cave Refractor, Stan, Vlad Jr. Minidiamond, Shay Hillenbrand, to 100, Atomic Kirby Yates, Minidiamond, Cabrion Hayes, Pirates, Jim Abbott, Sandi Alcantara, Paul Molliter, Brewer's, Anthony Rizzo, David Peralta, Refractor, so Jonathan, Digit Matt Sui, Dirty Oman, Evan White, Barry Zito, looks like a mugshot for Barry Zito, Kent Erbeck, Whitey Ford, Taylor Weidner, Minidiamond, just tonight and for the national, Orlando Arsia, Refractor, Tulap, for the first Derrick Jeter Stadium Club, to 100, Chris Bubich, Garrett Anderson, Minidiamond, Yon Mankata, Brandon Nemo, Matt's Minidiamond, Blu-Way, Steve Rogers, Captain America, Kyle Lewis, Refractor, William Dummies, dude that episode of Better Call Saul last night, oh my god, Jack Flaherty, so good, Colton Wong, Gaylord Perry, Subbub, Bob Burroughs, Minidiamond, Ted Williams, Refractor, to 50, Gold Wave or Bronze Wave, Chris Sale, Red Sox, Manny Machado, Minidiamond, Chapman, Minidiamond, Blu-Wave, Matthew Boyd, dude if only Forest was here to help me type in my frickin' randoms, Alex Bregman, Refractor on the back, yeah, they're all set, there is Double Cabrera, E-Rod, Minidiamond, Rangan Weathers, Checkerboard, Endurance C. Arte, Brandon Crawford, Refractor, Justin Morneau, nice man, 305, Cal Ripken Jr., nice, that is beautiful, Dave Parker, Sean Murphy, Evan Longoria, Minidiamond, and Blu-Wave, Javi Baez, I don't even know if I saw a baseball card growing up, seriously, it was all Yu-Gi-Oh! in Pokemon, by the time I was five years old, it was 2001, Sandy Alcantara, Cole Hamels, no, I will not be at the National, Forest Lane, Cortise Caleb, Serena are all there, Kenzie, I forgot Kenzie, AJ Pollock, Ian Hatt, Dallas Braden, that's awesome though, what character are you going to ask, oh your character, that's what you said, A Elden Ring character, Gene Tenace, to 100, Tim Reigns, Expo's, go to the Nats, you wrap them with rubber bands, Michael Conforto, Edwin N. Cronassian, Blu-Wave, and then they go in the attic, you know, yeah, they're just clucking, get it all mildewy, you know, there's like silver fish in them, Freddie Freeman, refractor, cobwebs, asbestos, lead paint, Katel Marte, Louis Tien, Brent Gardner, Minidiamond, what's up, Daniel, hope you're feeling better, Killabrew, Bernie Williams, refractor, Kenley Janssen, Luis Arias, to 199, Blu, Justice Sheffield, Barry Larkin, Mauricio Levera, and a Blu-Wave, Don Mattingly, Yandy Diaz, Roberto Alomar, Minidiamond, Andy Pettit, Checkerboard, Alomar, Blu-Jays, Kyunjin Ryu, Beast, DeStrange Gordon, to 70, Josh Bell, National, Jeff Bagwell, Brandon Nemo, Bryce Harper, and a Blu-Wave, Sixto Sanchez, last one, Miguel Yajer, Minidiamond, G.D. Davis, Blu-Wave, Eduardo Rodriguez, Tim Anderson, refractor, to 75, Tommy Lasorda, Dodgers, Tim Salmon, what about Mikey Mackerel, Trentuno, we got Shirt and Apostle, Alberto Mandisi, Randy Dobnick, Beast, Luis Severino, Checkerboard, Orlando, Sopeto, and there you go guys, that'll do it, coming up next is more bass.


Republican Stuart Mills says he's dropping his request for a recount in Minnesota's Eighth Congressional District. Mills' announcement on Friday gives the Northeastern Minnesota seat to incumbent Democratic Representative Rick Nolan. Nolan beat Mills by roughly half a percentage point to win a third term in Congress. His victory was slim, but still outside the margin that would have triggered a state-funded recount. State officials estimated this week Mills would have had to pay more than $100,000 in recount costs plus his own legal expenses. After initially agreeing to move ahead, Mills said Friday the cost in volunteer time was too much. He says he's donating some extra campaign funds to the Salvation Army. Now it was Mills' second defeat. He also narrowly lost to Nolan in 2014.


Y Llywyddanyddegwyd, wrth gwrs, mae gennym ni'n 994 ddydym ni'n gyfarwyddu eu rhiforendum. Rwyf yn gweithio, ac mae'n gweithio i gaelio i'r UK, aeth yn Gulfton Chaos, rwyf yn gwneud i gwneud i gaelio i gaelio i'r UK i gaelio i gaelio i gaelio i 15 ddydym ni.   Aelodion gwydnos âusta体 a blaen menua fofledd. Dwi'n teimlo ddangos na ddod, fel ddwy i, yn y ddwyloedd i ystafell yn Sraith Clide i'r universityg i'r sefydliad, ac i'r universityg yn ymateb Oes of Scotland ym gyfrifio hwn yw'r cysylltu ynllewyddiaeth o'r canfмы. Dyma'r gyflath o'r bestfain yn yr Unigion Hywy Shfryd yn gwneud i'r rai gêmach yn S teachings a hwn i'r iawn. Mae oedd ymwyllgor yw i'r ddwyla ar gyfer y Shrym Unigion, i ddo i gyd yn ehol sparDAt fel bod ur那我們ig wych o gweldiedad amnoeddwyd ac wylech organ reasonably newydd anhygoel a chymaeth prof kommeigion ac pob cociedd iaith iaith ddefnyddianny rwy'r gorffed doedd. Er fyddwn ni'n cael ei bod yn llwyoog hwnnw i Eurdfyrill trafn ro modeb hwnnw, yn sicr ddefnyddhau pech attackingodd ni am ddechrau, A everytime fel cabinet re bod ei maesWeithreitho Rd看到 sydd viewswyg actuall – a mi'n sicr iddysg diwydwch gyrt draw Todd Aelon Ddewidd, at the University of the Highlands and Islands, I met Florence, who is originally from Hamburg. She broke down in tears as she was asking me a question at the Q&A event that I held because of Brexit. Florence is one of many who have chosen to come and live and work and build her lives here in Scotland. And nobody, absolutely nobody should be made to feel this way. It is completely unacceptable. Unacceptable on the UK Government's botched handling of the entire Brexit process is to blame for that. The UK Government stands to threaten the continued success of our colleges and universities. It means a loss of talent, a loss of access to EU programmes, reducing opportunities for student mobility, research collaborations and funding, and a loss of reputation on the global stage. This is made much worse by the UK Government's draconian approach to immigration. For instance, the proposed £30,000 earning cap will prevent the majority of early career researchers coming to the UK. The recent announcement of an exemption for PhD-level jobs from its own migration cap is a welcome but small necessary first step that the UK Government has taken. But so much more needs to be done. In a stunning display of just how little the UK Government knows or cares about Scotland, it's proposed temporarily leave to remain scheme with fall short of covering students studying for a four-year degree in Scotland. For some UK spokespeople to suggest, as they did, that the EU students would then have to apply for a visa for a further year to make it up to the four years, at a cost of up to £840, is, of course, absolute outrage and should be dropped immediately. I have already raised the issues with my UK counterpart, Chris Gidmore, and I am today seeking a meeting with the Secretary of State for Scotland, if he is still in post, seeking his urgent intervention on the issue. Throughout my meetings with the UK Government and other devolved Administrations, I have emphasised Scotland's distinctive needs, including calling for the reintroduction of a post-study work visa and full participation in programmes like Erasmus Plus. The European Commission's recent emergency regulation on Erasmus, I might add, is a very welcome statement. That allows for current Erasmus students to complete their studies abroad regardless of the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, showing a degree of leadership that is so lacking from the UK Government. Again, that is for current Erasmus students and, again, much more needs to be done. If there is no deal, Erasmus funding is in jeopardy for all students involved in work or study placements across Europe from 29 March onwards. In the next few weeks, I will again be meeting Ms Gidmore, hopefully in London, to raise that issue and other issues as well. Throughout past months, I have consulted extensively with all the sectors. I convened a first-ever joint sector Brexit summit last November to discuss the expected impact of Brexit. I want to build on that and have asked the Scottish funding council to host another similar summit in April, just next month. However, there are immediate challenges, as we all know, which need to be addressed as a matter of urgency. Depending on if and how the UK leaves the EU, UK citizens studying for full degrees in the EU may suddenly find themselves liable for international student fees, medical care and travel insurance. Our estimates suggest that hundreds of students in Scotland may be affected. Facing untenable increases in costs, many of those students, perhaps even the vast majority, may simply have to come back to Scotland. Their studies cut short, no degree awarded and, of course, their dreams in ruins. All because of a Brexit that Scotland did not vote for and with the damage compounded by the UK Government's botched handling of the whole process. The Scottish Government has been urgently working with the sector to prepare for students who may return to Scotland and to minimise any disruption to their studies. The Student Awards Agency for Scotland has provided clear information and guidance for students on their website, which will help to guide them in transferring to a Scottish institution if that becomes necessary. Today, I want to offer reassurance to those students. If you left Scotland to study in the EU, and Brexit means that you are forced to give up your studies, we do guarantee to provide student support and tuition fees to eligible students so that you can study here in Scotland. That is a guarantee that you can bank on in these uncertain times. We are also taking actions to consider longer-term rights for Scottish citizens living in the EU to access further and higher education student support. That will ensure that eligible citizens residing in the EU, the European Economic Area and Switzerland post-Brexit, can still return to Scotland to take up study in the future and be able to access the same support that they are currently eligible for now. As for those EU students currently studying here or thinking of studying here, we have already committed, as members will know, to providing tuition fees for eligible EU students commencing their studies in academic year 2019-20 for the duration of their course. That guarantee remains in the event of a no-deal Brexit. We are also in active discussions with the sectors about how we might support students beyond that period. As well as talented EU citizens, our university research is successful in attracting funding from Arraith in 2020, the EU's flagship competitive research and innovation funding programme. A country's attractiveness is a place to do research that is fundamentally dependent on that country's access to international schemes. Since the rise in 2020 and the launch in 2014, over half a billion euros of funding on research and innovation has been secured by Scottish organisations. However, we are already beginning to see the worrying evidence of the damage that we are facing. Kathleen Heyman's renowned professor of astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh is shifting the majority of her research activities to the University of Bonn. Brexit, which she has confirmed, is the reason behind her move. 90 per cent of our research funding has been provided by the EU, and Professor Heyman's does not believe that this funding will be replaced where she should remain in the UK. Latest figures show that the total share of UK and Scottish participations in horizon 2020 projects is falling. Our researchers are telling us that EU partners who would have wished to collaborate are avoiding doing so with partners in the UK due to the on-going uncertainty. The Scottish Government is seeking to provide much needy clarity where we can and to represent fully the interests of staff and researchers in the negotiations with the UK Government. To provide just one example at the moment, we have demanded that more information is urgently needed concerning the UK Government review by the Curing Institute on UK alternatives to horizon Europe. My officials and I, along with the Scottish Funding Council, are undertaking regular discussions with the sectors in Scotland about these and other issues. That includes lasing with staff and researchers on issues that affect them directly, and we want to understand those concerns and to support them moving forward in any way we can. Of course, I have taken those concerns directly to the European Commission for appropriate. Last December, I led a delegation representing Scotland's research interests to Brussels, where we highlighted their world-leading credentials and continued desire to work with European partners and benefit from European funding streams. Just this week, the Deputy First Minister and I met the chair and chief executive of UK Research and Innovation. If UKRI is going to play a role in plugging some of the gap left by Brexit in research funding, we need Scotland to benefit and devolution to matter. Much of my time and that of my officials has now been taken up by considering how best to respond to the challenges and threats of Brexit. Beyond those examples, I have highlighted that there is much work being progressed across the Scottish Government from resilience planning to external communications to meeting with stakeholders in the UK Government. I am pleased to confirm that today we have published our Brexit action plan highlighting the broad scope of activity that we are currently engaged in across my own portfolios. I will be writing to each of our college and university principals to highlight that and to continue the dialogue that we have established between ourselves and the sector on the impact of Brexit. In closing, I emphasise that the Scottish Government will continue to do everything that we can to protect Scotland's interests in a very challenging and uncertain context. We recognise and value the enormous contributions that EU citizens make to our universities, our colleges and our nation, and we will continue to make the case passionately for the benefits of EU membership. Thank you very much and we turn to questions, the first question from Liz Smith. Thank you and I thank the minister for prior sight. Members in this chamber are very well aware that the Scottish Conservatives have expressed very considerable concerns about some of the challenges resulting from Brexit and I will put on record that I have some sympathy for the comments within the statement that the minister has given, notwithstanding that and the on-going uncertainty of the final Brexit outcome, there are some areas of responsibility that do lie with the Scottish Government and it is on those areas, minister, if I may ask you two questions. Firstly, University of Scotland has been very clear about its concerns for the future fee status of EU students and we very much welcome the 2019-20 commitment that you made to that end. I also note that the minister says in his statement that the Scottish Government is looking at what might happen beyond that period, so could I ask the minister to update the chamber on when the Scottish Government will be able to confirm its policy choice about the fee status of EU students for courses beginning in academic year 2020 and beyond that? Secondly, assuming that Brexit means that the Scottish and EU students will no longer be treated as groups with reciprocal rights to equal treatment, is it the intention of the Scottish Government to commit to retaining the £90 million or so that it currently spends on EU students to put that back into the higher education sector? I think that the very strong call that the minister will know from University of Scotland is that that commitment should be there. I thank Liz Smith for the spirit in which she asks the questions. In terms of our first point in relation to the status of EU students and the guarantee that we have given to pay their fees for academic year 2020, it is the case, as I said in my statement, that we are continuing to reflect on what the outcome may be from the current shambolic process in Westminster over what Scotland status will be and the UK status within the European Union post the end of this month. Clearly, we have a number of issues to take into account. Firstly, we have the issue of the disruption to our institutions. We have thousands and thousands of EU students studying at institutions in Scotland and they play a vital role within our colleges and universities. Therefore, it would be very disruptive if suddenly they were to become international students. We would not know the extent of that in terms of how many would continue to come to study at universities and colleges, but we do know that there would be some element of disruption, so we have to take that into account. Secondly, if we were to pay the fees for EU students for the following academic year, as we have been called to give clarity on at the moment, those students' things stand would not be able to work in Scotland because of their status. I hope that we all agree that that would be wholly unacceptable. That is why we need powers over post-study work visas and other immigration powers, as I believe that there is a cross-party consensus in this Parliament for it. It can help us to take the right decisions for EU students in the future so that they can make their contributions to Scottish society if they did choose to come and live in this country. There are a number of factors that we have to take into account, but the number one factor that we need clarity on is the outcome of the votes this week in Westminster and get sensible decisions taken out of the absolutely chaotic process in Westminster at the moment. Finally, the second point about the money that would potentially be saved if we were not paying EU fees. Clearly, that is something that we will reflect on. We are listening closely to the case that has been put by the further and higher education sectors. We will listen closely to what they say, but clearly, again, we need that clarity. Iain Gray, to be filled by Ross Greer. Thank you and thanks to the minister for early sight of a statement. The minister is of course right to criticise the Tory Government for the chaos and the threat of Brexit, and I also associate those benches with his assurances to EU staff and students that they are valued and welcome here in Scotland. The Scottish Government did not create this uncertainty, that is for sure, but Ms Smith is right that there are some areas in which the clarity required has to be provided by them. I fear that, in response to her questions, that clarity is not in fact being forthcoming. Let me return to some of those points, because they are the critical ones for universities. Does the minister understand that university prospectuses for 2020-21 are out now, and so potential EU students need to have some certainty around their fee status? Active discussion is not really enough. At least some clarity could be given about that aspect of studying in Scotland. Will the minister not simply give the guarantee that they need in university Scotland about their tuition fee status? I take the point that you made about other things being less clear, but in that at least clarity could be given. The same applies to the resources that are currently spent on tuition fees for EU students, which amount to around £90 million. Is the university sector simply asking for, is it guaranteed that if less than that is required for that purpose—whether it is all of it or some of it—that that resource will not be removed from the higher education sector? That seems to me to be an absolutely simple thing to ask the Government to commit to, especially—this is my final point—because, with FE and HE facing such uncertainty anyway, the minister explained to us why in earth the Government thought that this was a good year to cut college and university funding in the budget. In terms of Ian Gray's demand for clarity—I just say it—he should not be asking this Parliament or this Government for clarity on what is happening in terms of Brexit. He should be asking the UK Conservative Government for clarity, given the chaos that is happening this week alone in Westminster. Let's get clarity out of what is happening down there to enable us to take proper decisions here in Scotland for the future of further and higher education. Indeed, he could ask his own party—his own party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, for some clarity, in his position in Brexit—at the same time. We are very well aware of the potential impact on EU students in Scotland if there is a departure from the EU without any deal, but we absolutely must focus—in this week of all weeks—on getting the right decision for EU students in Scotland. That is our continued membership of the European Union and failing that a good deal that enables the very good arrangements that we have with other European countries to continue. I can tell the member that we are in serious talks with the further and higher education sectors about all the various scenarios that may happen over the coming weeks and months, and the potential impact that that will have on further and higher education. We will take a decision that maintains our links with Europe and does the best for the future of Scotland students and our further and higher education institutions. I thank the minister for advance sight of his statement and the work that the Government is doing to try to limit the damage of someone else's crisis. As it stands, if Brexit is to go ahead, we will lose both our right to freedom movement and the UK's membership of the Erasmus Post programme. We could, in theory, participate as a third country. That is not the same thing as being a full member of Erasmus Post. However, this Parliament has taken evidence from colleges and youth cobs in particular who have made the point that, without freedom of movement, the administrative burden of trying to participate in the programme is simply too much. I ask what work the Scottish Government is doing to support those who benefit the most from participation in that programme, namely our college students and those who are involved through youth programmes. Ross Greer highlights the huge contribution that Erasmus makes to the experience of students in Scotland and the experience of youth students who come to study for a short time in Scotland through Erasmus. We have made the strongest representations to the UK Government that the UK and Scotland should continue to have full participation in Erasmus Post moving forward. We want to see the UK Government adopting that position and then putting it into practice as soon as possible. That is not their position just now and we have a lack of commitment. Therefore, there is the real danger that we leave Europe without a deal on 29 March that will jeopardise Scotland's participation. Our disproportionate benefits from Erasmus because more students from Scotland participate in Erasmus spread a population by far compared to the rest of the UK. The impact of losing out of Erasmus is going to disproportionately harm Scotland and, of course, damage the experience of EU students at the same time. The situation just now is that we leave without a deal. Clearly, as I said, that will jeopardise the participation of Scottish students. We have a guarantee from the European Commission, as I mentioned, which is very much welcome. The current students in Europe at the moment are part of Erasmus. Irrespective of whether there is no deal or a deal at the end of this month, we will be able to continue to complete their programme in Europe. That is welcome, but we need the support of the UK Government to put the funding guarantees in place and to make sure that we get full participation in Erasmus Post moving forward. I have sympathy for the minister in the context of the lack of clarity that is caused by what is currently going on. Although I am a bit puzzled to understand why an action plan has been produced that cannot have many actions in it because of the lack of clarity. Perhaps I could ask the question the other way around. Katrina Miller is a Shetlander studying at the European University Institute in Florence. In other words, she is travelling into Europe for her study. She is a postgraduate and is just about to enter a PhD there. She does not know what the situation will be with her fees from March. She does not even know if she is going to be able to continue to undertake her PhD. The Government did look at a statutory instrument that was produced in London. I wonder if the minister has been in a position to update Parliament on that and the kind of circumstances that Katrina finds herself in, where there is no certainty about her future study, no certainty about the fees that she is currently undertaking. Therefore, we will potentially lose a Scotl who will gain valuable international experience studying overseas, who might have to come back to Scotland. Just as Tavish Scott expresses his sympathy for the position that I find myself in as Scotland's further education minister, I express sympathy for the position that Mr Scott's constituent Katrina Miller finds herself in. Many Scots have benefited from attending the European Institute. In the past week or two, I have written to the UK Government about expressing deep concern about the impact on Scottish students' ability to participate in the European Institute from Brexit and asking for action to be taken that would allow a participation in the institute to continue in those benefits to continue to flow to Scotland as well. In terms of the SI, we were very unhappy with the approach that was taken to the statutory instruments to enable the UK to withdraw from the European Institute, and we did right again back in a separate letter to the UK Government with that. I will happily update the member as soon as I can on the outcome of that. Last week, I attended the celebration of EU researchers in this Parliament. Seven of our world-class universities demonstrated some of the work that they are doing and showing how important Horizon 2020 is to the attractiveness of Scotland for research destinations. We have already achieved a reputation producing world-class research, some of which I am sure will be celebrated in the debate this afternoon, and we know that that has been strengthened by EU citizens working in Scotland under membership of the European Union. What can the minister do to protect research collaboration across Europe? Clare Aderson highlights such an important issue, not just in terms of the impact on researchers and students at Scottish institutions, but in the future of the Scottish economy. This morning, I was at the University of the West of Scotland, where I spoke to some students, many of whom were international students and European students who are involved in a 15 million euro programme looking at the impact of 5G involving a number of European countries. That is a European programme with European research monies, which, of course, we will be unable to take advantage of in the future if we leave the EU with no deal. We are in close discussions with UKRIs. I mentioned in my opening remarks Scotland's ability to get UK research funding in the future if that institution does try to fill the gaps that are left by losing out the European programmes. The importance of horizon 2020, which, once again, if we leave, will have a disproportionate impact in Scotland because we do better at horizon 2020 than any other part of the UK. The best way to protect that is to continue EU membership or to get a good deal that allows our full participation in horizon 2020 to continue. My final point in horizon 2020 is that we have a guarantee from the UK Government that any contract is signed irrespective of what happens at the end of this month. We will be honoured up to 2020, but I am told that I will only cover parts of the horizon 2020, and up to around €50 million a year's worth of research funding is not included in that guarantee. Once again, we have an unacceptable approach from the UK Government that does not recognise the importance of horizon 2020 to the Scottish institutions and the Scottish economy. Brian Whittle to be followed by Julian Martin. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I think that, despite the many points of contention in the minister's statement, which, as Liz Smith has already indicated, we have sympathy with and followed to the minister's welcoming, the minister's pleasure on horizon 2020, I wonder if he would at least join me in supporting the pledge by the UK Government to underwrite payments for the university participating in horizon 2020. As I have just said, we have very limited guarantees over the future of Scotland's participation in the UK participation in horizon 2020, and it is simply not good enough what we have at the moment. We also have a situation in which the UK Treasury is carrying out a value for money exercises before they take further decisions on our future participation even without a deal or with a deal moving forward. That is something that Scotland should absolutely be involved in because we are the biggest beneficiary of horizon 2020. Of course, it is enormously frustrating for the Scottish Government because we are getting very limited input to that or very limited information back from that value for money exercise, but we know in Scotland that horizon 2020 research funding is enormously valuable to Scotland, the international collaboration and also the amazing initiatives that are taking place, the length and breadth of Scotland's colleges and universities and research institutions at the moment. We cannot afford to lose that, so I urge all parties to urge the UK Government to give us the guarantees that we require. In July last year, in a statement about the loss of horizon 2020 funding, the UK Government said this in a direct quote, that the Government is working in partnership with UK research and innovation to develop a new international research and innovation strategy. The strategy will further set out the desire to build on the UK's long tradition of international collaborations and research and innovation across all fields and our openness to international talent. My question is this. There are just two weeks until exit day. Is the minister able to tell us if this UK strategy has now been made clear to him and the Scottish university sector? If it has, what does it mean for the sector? Clearly, we are keen to make sure that Scotland takes maximum advantage of any UK research and innovation funds. Members have noticed that there was an announcement this week for the University of Edinburgh out of one of the funds. That is welcome, but we have to remember that there are existing funds, and what we are talking about here is European funding over and above those domestic UK funds, which have been worth half a billion euros to our institutions and research community over the past few years alone. It is that pot of money that is crucially important, and not just that but the international collaboration that is brought with it, which also helps to boost Scotland's international reputation for research and innovation at the same time, which is an important part of the debate. It is the soft diplomacy that we get through scientific collaboration and the benefits, not just the financial benefits. We have a lot more clarity that we have to get from the UK Government in terms of ensuring that Scotland does not lose out, should heaven forbid, there will be an exit from the European Union at the end of this month. James Kelly, to be followed by Stuart McMillan. Given the potential loss of EU workers in key sectors such as health and social care, what has been done in higher and further education to identify where there might be any potential gaps and take action to fill those gaps so that we do not have an absence of skills going forward? I have to say that that is an excellent question from James Kelly, because it is one that is certainly the forefront of my mind in terms of how we ensure that we have the skills that are required for the future of the Scottish economy, given that we face a reduction, as we know in terms of young people, through demographic changes in this country. If that were to be compounded by a reduction in EU workers coming to this country, that would be highly damaging to Scotland's future prospects. That is linked to the Brexit debate and how we work with our universities and colleges. To give our reassurance to James Kelly, I can say that this is near the top of the agenda. It is also linked to how we fund going forward, because we want to ensure that we address any skills gaps that arise through Brexit, as well as other demographic changes. We are speaking to the colleges and universities at the moment about that. The Scottish funding council is doing a great deal of work on that and also on the skills alignment between all Scotland's agencies through the national strategic board. That is at the centre of our attention at the moment. Stuart McMillan, to be followed by Jamie Greene. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I welcome the measures that were introduced in the statement by the minister, particularly those assurance that was provided to the students and EU nationals involved in the Erasmus Plus scheme. I know, because I was an Erasmus Socrates student. I would be grateful if the minister could invite Mr Skidmore when he meets him in a few weeks' time to come to Scotland and speak to EU nationals and institutions in Scotland, including the Jack Cain Centre in Edinburgh, who hosted the Parliaments, Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee when we did the Erasmus Plus inquiry, which I am sure the minister will be very much aware of, because I am sure that if Mr Skidmore meets students and people from Scotland, that would encourage him to provide some more assurances, to provide the assurances that are required to keep the Erasmus Plus scheme. I know that Stuart McMillan has mentioned before how he benefited from the Erasmus scheme, and he is a perfect example of where he can go in life through enriching your experience through such schemes. I indeed undertook a Carnegie Trust scholarship when I was a student and travelled to Brussels and Copenhagen as part of my research, my dissertation, and it fills me with horror to think that my children may not have the same advantages that I had in terms of freedom of movement and the ability to take advantage of going to other countries in that way. However, in terms of Chris Skidmore, the minister, I think that the member missed his opportunity. He was here just last week, and he visited some institutions in Glasgow. He has said to me, of course, as indeed the Scottish Conservatives today have said, that he is very sympathetic to the arguments that were made in relation to both the Erasmus and the Erasmus in 2020 and other dimensions of the Brexit debate. However, of course, even he is reliant on the Home Office, the Treasury and the Prime Minister and all the chaos at the heart of the Conservative Government to try to get some clarity and take the right decisions moving forward. Ultimately, that is what would require to get the right decisions for Scotland. Jamie Greene, to be followed by Willie Coffey. I continue in the same constructive tone in candor as my colleague Liz Smith today. The minister, as indicated in the statement, mentioned some of the announcements made in the spring statement yesterday, namely those around PhD-level occupations being exempt from the Tier 2 cap. I could also mention newly updated rules on the 100-night-a-day absences concerning researchers conducting fieldwork overseas to then apply to settle in the UK. Will the minister acknowledge and perhaps even welcome some of those shifts and the willingness to listen to the concerns from across this chamber but also outwith? I have no doubt in the minister's capabilities in being quite forthcoming with his views with the minister on his next meeting in London. I think that the changes announced yesterday, as I said, are a small and necessary step forward, which of course I welcomed. I think that it is very, very important to convey to the chamber that this is a very small part of a much bigger picture. If you take the £30,000 cap, for instance, in terms of the immigration policy from the UK Government, as any institution will tell you, that will cover a small percentage of the researchers who come from other European countries to study their work in this country. Many earn far below £30,000, and it is not just them, it is their spouses as well. They may come with a spouse who is in a lower wage than them, and they would not be able to get into the country without some difficulty as well. Of course, the issue over the fact that the temporary right to remain in terms of three years, not four years, to address the needs of the Scottish degree is another thing that has to absolutely urgently be addressed. If those issues are addressed, of course I will welcome them, but we have a long way to go before severe damage is inflicted on Scottish further and higher education from the UK Government's immigration policy. Willie Coffey, you could the minister just clarify the action that the Scottish Government has taken and may take to support Scottish students who might be unable to complete their studies at an EU university. You mentioned fees and medical care in particular earlier on. Will they still be able to complete their studies at those EU universities if we can possibly bring that about? Again, we do not know what is going to happen in terms of this week's votes in Westminster over the next few weeks, up to the end of the month. If there is no deal, I should clarify that Scottish students in the EU at the moment, who are full-time undergraduate students, will then become international students and will potentially lose their rights. That could have devastating consequences and if there is no deal, there is a whole range of costs that could be incurred making it completely untenable and unaffordable for Scottish undergraduate students currently at EU institutions to continue their studies. That is why we are keen today to emphasise the assurance to them that, if they require in very horrific circumstances to have to come back to Scotland to continue their studies here, they will be entitled to all the necessary support that Scottish students get and will make sure that that is made available to them. I apologise to Jenny Marra and Tom Arthur, but that runs us out of time for our statement on the update of the impact on Brexit on further and higher education. We are going to move on now to the next item of business, which is a debate on motion 16312, in the name of Ivan McKee, on building on Scotland's strengths in technology and engineering to become Europe's largest space nation. I invite all members who wish to participate in the debate to press their request to speak buttons as soon as possible.


Good evening ladies and gentlemen. My name is Sotienth Article and I'm going to give the first part of this presentation and then my colleague Matthew Fitzgerald will give the second part. We're going to be talking about a site in northern Greece in Alchydig Peninsula which represents a combination of older and new projects. Mae'r ystafell yma yw'r cymhysgol yma yw'r ymdweithio. Mae'r ymdweithio yma yw'r ymdweithio yma yw'r ymdweithio yw'r ymdweithio? Mae'r ymdweithio yw'r ymdweithio yw'r 18 o 18 o'r 19 o'r ymdweithio'r gyda'r cyllid. Mae'r cymhysgol ymdweithio yw'r cyllid. Mae'r cymhysgol yma yw'r cyllid yn ddalod yn y 1900 oes, ond mae'r cychwyn yma yn ysgolio yn ysgolio'r cyllid yn ysgolio'r cyllid yn gweithio'r rhywbeth. Mae'r cyllid yn yr ysgolio'r cyllid yn Ysgolio Ysgolio'r Cyllid Ysgolio'r cyllid yn Ysgolio'r cyllid. ac mae'n gweithio'r unigai cydwyddo i'w cyfnodol iawn i'r cyfnodol. Mae'n gweithio'r cyffredinol, mae'n gweithio'r gweithio'r gwaith. Nid oes yw'r cyffredinol, mae'n gweithio'r cyffredinol. Mae'n gweithio'r cwbl yn ychydig yr ysgol i fynd i chi'n cyfnodol. a total of 14 volumes between 1928 and 1952. So, in many ways, a Llyfrs was a model of how to publish the results of a big project. The methodology of the project was somewhat controversial by the time. Niffelex, a Llyfrs, represents a numerous legacy to archaeologists generally and to classical archaeologists. This is one of the reasons why a new project was initiated in 2014 as a collaboration between the Greek Archaeological Service and the universities of Michigan and Liverpool under the auspices of the British School of Medicine. What we have tried to do in the six years is to take forward the investigations of Robinson's Day and use the most up-to-date techniques in delivering new data. In terms of the older investigations, a Llyfrs was a pioneering project in many ways, in terms of spatial investigation and in terms of specific estimation. The discovery of a Llyfrs is not the reward of Day War Robinson, but rather of Alan Wace, whose photo you can see from the right. Alan Wace was involved in investigations in more than Greece in the years before the First World War, and it was he who identified the two hints as being the likely dislocation of ancient numbers, and he published some notes to this effect in 1916. But subsequently, Wace became involved in the International Allied Project that was the First World War and the defence of Greece against northern states. Alan Wace himself was a spirited way to Athens, where he was responsible for what may be the first example of an international passport. On the left we see Alan Wace with some of his contemporaries who were among the pioneering scholars of many of the sites in central Greece, including my seed, Corinth, Caracol, sites of different periods, and with very different results. The team that Day War Robinson put together was a team of young scholars. We have Robinson there in plus fours on the right-hand side of the slide, with his Greek overseers and assistants, including the Polish ladies, as well as his graduate students, who take up the riddle steps of him. Many of those graduate students went on to become leading archaeologists in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. I mentioned that Robinson did not discover the great monuments that he was anticipating. He began work on the southern of the two hills, which we have found is in fact an extremely complicated environment working on. On the left we can see a slide of his trenches on the northern side of the south hill, showing what looks like foundations of the large monument. This is still Robinson's. It's been given a lot of names. It's been suggested that this is a public building. Robinson was expecting to find a temple, and on the right there you can see some examples of small columns and altars that were discovered in this area, but found to be unconnected to a major ritual or cult movement. Looking now at these two hills, you can see on the middle of the slide here, the north hill and the south hill. This is where Robinson began his investigations, and the location of that slide is approximately here. Most of the information that Robinson discovered about the city of the lovers relates to houses, houses that entirely occupied the north hill and the south hill. The other major discovery of Robinson's day were cemeteries which were located here on the north west side. Because Robinson failed to discover any major monuments, he was more or less at large to treat the residential features that he recovered as a virtue. He did present an extraordinary story about domestic living. More than fifty houses were at least partial, if not fully excavated. You can see here in the right and aerial view of the conserved area which shows you these houses today if you visit as a man of the public. The houses were organised in Sili with two broader avenues, one on the left side and one on the right side. Reconstructed here on the left of this slide. One of the aims of the new project was to investigate individual house units to try and find out what the new kinds of evidence is that we can discover using contemporary scientific methods as compared with the broad brush evidence that we have for a very large number of houses from Robinson's excavations. New techniques that we are using include digital GPS, photogrammetry, soil chemistry, drone photography, flotation organic samples, microstratigraphy, x-ray analysis of minerals and, of course, laboratory analysis of various materials, fire clay, unfire clay charcoal minerals, formal employment in addition to the single context excavation of individual house units. There is a broader investigation here and I'm particularly interested in economic background in the city of Olympus. Olympus was a big city, not just because it was heavily populated, because it had investment from the Maslin King. It had access to some of the best timber in the Northern Jewel and this is reflected in coins that are found on site and the digits that are represented on this slide showing the numbers of coins and their places of origin. There is a very large concentration of coins, local coins coined in the region of Olympus in its vicinity, but there are many coins from locations around and about the area and I haven't included here the very large number that come from sites much further afield in the Southern Jewel. The volumes of Robinson's publication of coins are some of the most valuable evidence that we have from Robinson's day because this is information that is largely in the cover of it. It can be very often possible to recover the numbers of coins that were discovered in the 1930s. Coming now to the variety of data sets that we dispose of as a result of this project, geophysical data has provided us with a great deal of information about the distribution of houses and the relationship between residential areas and non-residential areas. Just selecting for you here the resistivity data. Here is the house on the North Hill outlined in red, which we have selected for complete excavation. You can see that it is not far away from the conservation area that I showed you in that aerial photo a moment ago. We can see from the resistivity data that the broad outline of the street system continues here. This is what Robinson and his team summarised when they excavated long slip trenches and other parts of the hill, all like this one over here going in the north direction. Nevertheless, there are other areas that do not conform to that pattern and we can see these most clearly on the northeast side of the North Hill where there is a break in this system of organisation and we have all sorts of other ways of patterning the data. This is where we suspect there is non-residential activity but that's not the subject of today's presentation. In terms of housing, we have investigated a single housing unit which in Robinson's terminology is related to area B, insular 9, number 6 and this is an aerial view using photogrammetry to show you the outline of the house. It's not on a recent plan because that one has not yet been presented to the pre-caught logical service. We're not allowed yet to show you the most recent completely version but I think you get some idea about the outline that he got in the War with West here and a little stone passage between this house and the neighbouring one in the north and a shared room over here with the neighbouring house in the east and on the south side we have a road system continuing westness. So this is one house that we've investigated and we have investigated a number of other trenches on the south hill where we have stratigraphy from the early high-age onwards right down to the middle of the fourth century when the site was destroyed by the master of the king for the second in 348 BC. So we will be able to compare the kinds of houses that preceded what we see on the right here once we have completed all its animation of the trench data that you've seen on the left. Various different kinds of data sets have been accumulated which provide us with additional information The intensive survey has been conducted on the two hills and in a seven kilometre area around the site and the data drawn from the survey is providing us with a lot of additional information about the kinds of materials that appear here and therefore the distribution of concentrated house units in the fields adjacent to the hills which represent the urban area in its broader other side not just the fortified hilltops but the slopes as well as some locations out in the fields here There is also broad rural territory which I'm not saying about on this occasion. If we look at other types of data we can see more clearly the sort of evidence that we're going to be able to use profitably from the south hill where we have a palimpsess of older and later construction. One of the interesting things about south hill is that we have a rather different orientation of house units and streams and this is particularly interesting if we think about what we know of civic organisation in Europe more broadly whether we're thinking about France, Germany or Austria or other parts of southern Europe this represents a very interesting pulparandum To begin with we do not have a regular grid sort of pattern There is some evidence of partial north-south roads and these interesting west-east streets which are discontinuous and curved We don't altogether know why they're curved but they are curved and there are units of houses that are not like in the city the collections of house units and the precise organisation of house units is something that we're working on quite intensely at the moment so we have resistivity data we have other types of jiffy's glade of electrical data here and ground penetrating radar so looked at in more detail we can see these units representing complex combinations of individual house cells and it's going to take a little while to extricate what the individual house units are from a period preceding the one that we're mainly focusing on in this project and I'm now going to hand over to Matthew Christian who's going to say a bit more about the work that is being funded by I'm going to talk about the research that the Society of Antiquities is funding but I have to go back one stage first providing a little bit of context to this research so Josh has talked about the project as a whole I'm going to focus on the household and on the house and the first thing I should say is the work we're doing fits into much larger discussions about the ancient economy typically for classical archaeology the emphasis is on representations and trying to understand agriculture and broader trade or pottery production we're really interested in the domestic economy but a very particular part of that so slightly slightly in the wrong order but we have here from Iosia a representation of the types of activities bread making or weaving that people traditionally study and talk about in terms of the domestic economy or grain grinding grain and food production we're looking at a broader range of activities at the site now Elintos has already had a lot of work due to the wealth of the publications that Robinson published there have been a lot of publications journal articles and also monographs Lisa Nevitt who's one of the current co-directors published a book in version of her thesis in 1999 which has been really influential in classical archaeology and a large part of this focused on material at Elintos and she was focusing on the domestic economy and also there's another volume you can't see that very well it's a terrible photograph but this is a work by an American classical archaeologist Nicholas Cahill and both Lisa Nevitt and Nicholas Cahill have focused on weaving food production and other economic activities that were happening within the house and one of the things that both of these scholars have done is use Robinson's original publications to look at the distributions and concentrations of material within the house to write a story about domestic production and differences in the domestic economy across the city all well and good but I think there's a lot more you can say beyond the artefacts that are in the houses so I wanted to start with a famous quotation from Xenophon who is describing the value of construction and the materials and what they can be used to produce and in the context of this tradition in classical archaeology people have been interested in construction but they've tended to focus on the construction of temples and stoes and evaluate the implications of these buildings but I'm I'll work this returning to the words of Xenophon and also accounts by Vitruvious about the technologies and the financial costs of building domestic structures to think about the nature of construction who was involved in construction the costs of it and the role of the creation of houses in the domestic economy and this includes I'll come on to this a little bit more detail in a while but traditionally the question of who was involved in construction we write stories about all the men who were involved in construction but my punchline is construction is much more complicated required huge resource both physically and in terms of people time and the likelihood is a much wider range of people would have been involved in construction and that's coming from the elitist evidence that more than likely children, women other people involved and the types of activities they're doing will probably never tie down but within vernacular construction around the world women are often involved and you will find that they tend not to be written about and that's typical of the classical sources as well so how might we get to who's involved and this is the big question and also what was the cost of construction so to start off with before we get to the house we've been excavating I say we, I haven't been excavating other people have been excavating and I have been doing things back in Liverpool which is not as glamorous but I've been involved in more of the interpretation so to start off with as a context for this within the original publication by Robinson there's quite a lot of detail about construction itself but it focuses on a limited range of evidence so there are this documentation on different styles of walls and I should say that these structures are not stone built they would have a stone foundation for the wall and then they are mud brick buildings with incorporating timber and also with tile roofs and there's something about the wall so Zosia was talking about the structures and the little red block is put up just to focus attention because the assumption is that these blocks of houses were built by moving from west to east across the blocks so the houses shared party walls so it's like a row of terraced houses that you start on this side and then you are building fewer walls here in the houses next to each other and also that the roof system is shared across the house so when you find a stair base in a house you assume everyone had a second story to the house itself so aside from some details about different types of wall construction most interpretation of construction has tended to focus on the idea that because there was variation in the walls that you see dotted around the city probably families were involved in construction but at the same time we know that this northern part of the city the development of it was influenced by the Macedonian king, Perlicas II and so there are unknown answers about who funded and how construction was organised but the general narrative has been that it was probably families involved in construction woops I should put the thing there I have to go now so should have come up earlier we have very few representations of mud brick from all of Robinson's publications so the stone foundations were interesting but the mud bricks they found weren't really recorded there are some details of the mud bricks and it's what I'm going to focus on now in terms of what we know about the structures so a few numbers here to get to a key point typically the average house had a required just over 15 cubic metres of rubble foundations and so what's the cost of doing that and creating these rubble foundations well depending on the tools perhaps something between 22 and 63 person hours I should say that the pH is for person hours but this is a way to try to calculate the cost of the construction how have I calculated that? Helpfully there are some logical studies in Central America and in Turkey and in Greece that have taken poor I say poor not financially but in terms of they dragged farmers out who are involved in construction and asked them to dig into quarry and to make mud bricks and so they've taken an average time of this work to calculate the cost or in terms of person time of construction so the extraction of the rubble took somewhere around probably 50 hours or something like that to build the walls around 100 person hours the mud bricks are a variety of sizes so this is one thing that's quite interesting about the record from the earlier excavations there isn't one uniform size of mud brick there appear to be different sizes used for throughout the building each building there's relatively similar sizes but it looks like you have more complex type of production of mud bricks most houses depending on the height of them this goes back to the stair base issue most houses with one floor were probably around 2 metres high and if they have a rubble foundation and mud bricks on top probably require just over 12,000 mud bricks if they're two stories high could be up to 53,000 mud bricks and suddenly I won't go through all these details slowly because it gets a little boring hundreds of hours for both the excavation and the settlement for the production of mud bricks drying in ethnographic accounts typically people leave mud bricks to dry for a few days to a week if we were to follow the truth we'd leave our mud bricks to dry if you want really good mud bricks but that adds time and cost implications for the production and during the shrinkage and drying process now where are these mud bricks produced probably down in the river not entirely sure where it might be that they are down here a close proximity to the site but people would have to navigate through the cemeteries and bring them back up to site but the location is important because what is interesting is that one of the most significant costs is bringing the mud bricks to site thousands of hours even if you use donkeys there are thousands of hours obviously with a donkey the benefit is you can have four donkeys and a child directing the donkeys up to the ridge but you're still talking about a lot of time involved transportation in terms of a house that's about two metres high in terms of the foundations and the mud brick we're probably talking about 2,800 hours now obviously if there are 2,800 people involved it doesn't take very long but we don't know how many people involved and the second I think is that and this is just a calculation of a few hundred we think the north hill is built in a relatively short amount of time we don't know how long but there was a coming together in the creation of this new community for around 150 houses and there may well have been more you could be talking about hundreds of thousands of hours just for a two story structure but we know many of these houses are very elaborate most were probably two stories high at that point we're talking about millions of person hours so it's a very complicated process involving a lot of people and a lot of resource and logistical management so I should say that's all based on foundations and the mud bricks but it's clearly a lot more involved but that's all we could do really with Robinson's publication we can say there's a lot of time involved the value of the Society of Antiquities grant is that the first thing is it's supporting us to analyse mud bricks so we have a much clearer understanding of production the types of sediment involved the quantities of water, how much chaff might be needed for producing a mud brick we're also analysing slags and works iron because of course all the doors, timbers needed nails and iron in them one of my colleagues in Liverpool is looking at charcoal analysis to try and identify the different types of woods that may have been used for cooking but also structurally in the architecture where this wood is coming from is it local wood, what is the distance perhaps or what types of wood are being used because there are implications here for seizing the wood and the size of the timbers you can use and Dr Stalagruss is undertaking formal analysis of wood which is more about understanding the domestic economy on top of this and so this is crucial because these original calculations of hundreds of thousands of hours for a city is just a waltz we know, one of our students at our university in Denmark is currently looking at mosaic production many of the houses have mosaics in them and have plastered walls and so the different analyses that are being supported by the Society of Antiquities will feed into not only understanding what the houses may not look like but also the cost implications for that construction and decoration of the structures this is one of the original drawings of what the houses may have looked like and I should say that how we are trying to understand what the house looked like in terms of in the field and also analyzing the plan and aside from these laboratory-based analyses is we have a much more detailed understanding of the excavation Robinson's publications are as wonderful as they are typically there is half a page to a page on each house so you don't understand how the life history of the house so what the excavation is revealing and we are trying to understand now is the sequence of wall construction because at the moment the belief is that in all of these houses they were built in a single moment where you would have built the external walls and the internal walls in your second story but the excavation we are looking at potentially much more complicated sequence to the structures if we look in this northern part in these rooms the walls don't align particularly well you might not see it so clearly here so one of the questions we are trying to answer is were some of these internal walls added later was the construction process more complicated where people, the city was occupied 100 years and was there an earlier manifestation with external walls and some internal walls and then it became subdivided through time because that has interesting implications for how people live the house but it also has interesting implications for the economy and the economics behind house construction as well and also the sequence of some of these internal spaces down in the south as well and how this courtyard may have been used and whether internal walls were added to divide out this space what I do in Liverpool in my spare time well I'm paid to do one of the things I do is I use 3D modelling to try and understand house construction and visualisation of houses these aren't the finished models these were some of my work in progress but I could go through what we think the organisation of the house might be so at the moment there's some discussion about how this room may have function but what we do know, what we're still trying to understand is this back room which is one of the spaces that is most often talked about which is often referred to as a kitchen complex and there are lots of problems with that term but we think that this is potentially an area where food production took place and this funny shaped block I put here is the flu and I should put some models on but potentially this may have been an area where food was cooked and the smoke was taken out of the house but what's been quite frustrating for me when I use 3D modelling software is that the technology requires you to know what it is you want to build you can play around with your structure but it's time consuming activity so to make lots of different models takes a lot of time and energy instead if you use small plastic bricks it's a little easier to think through some of the construction scenarios and this is just a couple of snapshots of when I was playing and thinking about the house of this issue about how these the house may have been designed there's a stair base here and I put on the previous slide stairs going up, of course the stair base has been identified but we don't know at this stage whether it was at the initial stage of the house or whether there was later development they did their attic conversion and built up if there's a second story you probably need this wall going across here but it's interesting that they're not aligned or the way across, it's either not particularly good builders or maybe it might be a secondary addition working with bricks is also useful to think about the logistics of how you put your structure together and it also helps you to think about the space of the structure as well many of the discussions that happen on site relate to the function of particular rooms we find these artifacts and then people try to interpret the function of the space is it a dining room, is it a room for storage what activities are taking place because as Osha mentioned this city was destroyed and so there's a lot of debate about did people leave before the destruction, did they take material with them were their houses robbed afterwards, what was burned and the conquest, so we have a fragmented record so it's not a perfect way to understand the house so one of the other things I've been doing is thinking about the types of activities some of the specialists identifying is trying to populate and put activities back into the room and then the very useful thing is the second story because there are lots of possibilities in a way it's easier to try and work out these lower spaces because we've got walls we don't have anything for the second story up on the map we've got a stair base so do we imagine it's aligned in exactly the same way as the other rooms on the ground floor and the big question is this area here do we have completely covered upper story or do we have other options with flat rooms that may have been used or flat rooms with some kind of wall around them that could have been used for drying vegetables or drying clothes or whatever else you might use to drain across your roof in particular once of the year and how much these rooms have been used and so I've been using this as a kind of iterative tool to think about that construction process the other reason why it's been very useful and this is not connected to the Society of Antiquaries funding but it's funded and connected given to you by the auditing and by the Humanities Research Council that I should thank for that grant is that I've been taking research in the lintas and research in the houses into schools and trying to train teachers to be able to teach archaeology and to be able to make archaeology relevant to primary school and also secondary school to children because ancient Greece is on the national curriculum for primary schools it's a subject that can be taught along with British prehistory but it's basically the statement on the national curriculum is children should know about how you've benefited from the wonder of Greek society so teachers often don't know anything about ancient Greece and they're not sure what to teach and they find it difficult to engage children and so this has been a wonderful way to teach about how people lived in the ancient world such as art and design and maths and other subject matters but to focus the activities on daily life and to get children to think about potentially similarities with the ancient world so it's worked very well in some secular schools where I've worked because the houses around the school are just like not as grand as some of the antique ones but they're terrace blocks of houses and Greek cities that had rows of terraced houses and take them outside and get them to reflect on similarities with their own life and also the differences I switch back to you What we've tried to do in our presentation today is to give you a quick snapshot of what the research is in project as a whole and what we have benefited from in terms of the society's funds to develop our own particular topics of research that are going to take fieldwork forward into the analytical stage and provide us with the materials to talk about the economies of housing and the economies of the city at large Thank you very much


What kind of character that I need to build? Oh, I have a little confession to make, can I? When you say character, you're talking about what are the qualities that should guide me?  Just take care of this one thing. That's kind of circuit. First of all, thank you so much for this opportunity. It is a wonderful experience, last two days. My question is something to do with a character. Who's character? My own character. My own character. Oh, so you are a character, is it? My character.  So, I come from a humble family. My dad was a truck driver and born and brought him in slums. Hey, truck drivers are not humble, huh? What is he saying? What kind of character that I need to build in terms of my own improvement holistically so that I can serve people which also serves me, makes me happy as well? Oh, I have a little confession to make, can I? When I was in high school, maybe when I was 12, 13, for those one-and-a-half, two years, I seriously thought about becoming a truck driver, not because it was humbling, because it was the most powerful thing to do, because I was crazy about engines. That's the biggest engine going around. It's okay. Wow. See, on the surface, if we look at ourselves, this one likes one thing, that one likes another thing. But no two people who like exactly the same things. How did you arrive at this? Why is it that this one likes this and that one likes that? Exposure, cultivation, isn't it? Who is cultivating you? Who is molding you like this? Most of the molding is unconscious.  It's diminishing. There was a time, grandmother was the biggest influence.  They'll consult the Google lady. So a huge diminishing of parental influences happened in the last twenty years' time or twenty-five years' time. So when this happens, that is people who cared most for somebody, right or wrong there, but they cared. Being of their influence and being influenced by somebody else who you do not know, either on the street or online or in the school or wherever else children are going to or people are growing up, there is a huge flux in the society. If we don't handle this flux carefully, responsibly, it can be a disaster, you know.  Not necessarily. The question is, what comes at you largely is a consequence of the times in which we live. What we make out of it is hundred percent ours. So what we make out of it is what you're talking as the word character. That's not a very positive word.  So when you say character, you're talking about what are the qualities that should guide me? If there was a choice between sitting here and dripping ecstasy every moment of your life or being, as people say, ups and downs are good, you know? Because that's all the way they have.  How great things people have done when they were imprisoned and beaten and tortured, there are people who are arguing for that also. Doesn't matter who says what, what is your natural choice? Highest level of pleasantness or unpleasantness? Pleasantness, yes or no? Oh, there are four aspects of you. You have a body, you have a mind, you have emotions, you have your energies. All these four must be pleasant. Body becomes pleasant, we call it health. Body becomes very pleasant, we call it pleasure. Mind becomes pleasant, we call it peace. Becomes very pleasant, we call it joy. Emotions become pleasant, we call it love. Becomes very pleasant, we call it compassion. Energies become pleasant, we call it bliss. Becomes very pleasant, we call it ecstasy. Surroundings become pleasant. What should I call it? Success or isha yogosend? Oh, I'm telling you this because to create pleasant surroundings, it takes a lot of work. Enormous amount of management constantly doing something about it. So creating pleasantness around you is subject to various people, various things. Right, now we're sitting here, if one of you start freaking, you can create an unpleasant atmosphere, all right? But pleasantness of the body, mind, emotion and energy is one hundred percent your business, isn't it?   If you become a very strong character, you will become a caricature. See, I want you to look at this.  You look at him and think he's a caricature, isn't it, or a creature. A different order of development. Yes or no? Somebody shows a just strong character. Nobody can bear with that nonsense. So don't become a character.  What will you do? Well, we have not come the same way. Our competence and our capabilities are different. Accordingly we will do. Maybe you cannot do what somebody else does. It doesn't matter.  You are not the problem in your life. You are never the issue. This one thing you make sure. In your life, you are not the issue. There are other issues, thousands. If you have thousand issues per day, that means you're doing a lot of things, it's good. But I'm not the issue. The moment you become stressful, the moment you become tense, the moment you become miserable, the moment you become angry, you have become the issue, isn't it? Just take care of this one thing, you don't need a character. You can just be like life. Like life, are you? So don't become a character. Just life. Life means life is the director of all characters. Because there is life, the body evolved like this, huh? You're not born like this, isn't it? Because there is life throbbing here, you Punjabi, huh? No, I'm just trying to figure out the food. See, a dokla, a dokla according to South Indians is a bad idea of a idli.   So why is this? Because life is throbbing, isn't it?   So keeping that in full force is the most important thing you need to do. Don't build characters. If life is full on, see if your body is full on, it'll behave one way. Only if your intellect is full on, you'll behave another way. Only your emotions are on, you'll behave another way. But if this life is full on, it will not do anything life negative, isn't it? You need a better insurance than life? I'm asking. Life is the only insurance, isn't it? You have? So this is the most important thing. This is a serious mistake. Large percentage of humanity has made is, we think we have to create something. No, it is already there, which see a mango tree is not trying to manufacture coconuts. Its only aspiration is to become a full-fledged mango tree. In that outside, there are many impediments. That maybe there is no water, maybe there is a hungry cow, maybe something else, something else, all these things. But its only aspiration is to become a full-fledged mango tree. This is all.  Will all these lives will find expression the same way? Never. Each one will find in their own way. But as long as they're not constipated life, they are full-on life. It's fine. Because if you craft your character in a certain way, you will also expect how her character should be. Yes or no? Inevitable, isn't it? See, I craft myself and say, this is my character. Now, what is her character? It must fit into what my template of character. Otherwise, she won't pass. Don't do that to yourself or to anybody.