Welcome to the programme. That is the thing, trying to not overplay the situation but acknowledging that the air has been thick with Fedspeak since they last met. Anything to sway the reserve and believe that really it needs to do something rather than nothing in this environment? Are they just mindful of the macro risks and prepared just to sit it out? Hi Carson, thanks for having me. Today is actually quite a heavy data release day today. We've had the retail sales this morning and that came in weaker than expected. We also had building approvals as well which was mixed and this is just prior to the RBA meeting tomorrow as you mentioned and so neither of those prints are really big enough to sway I think the decision of the RBA tomorrow. We are expecting it to be unchanged. I think at the Bloomberg has a 0.5% chance of a cut in zero chance of a rate hike at the moment so it will be a matter of just waiting and seeing but no real change and adding to this as well is the new macro potential measures being introduced by APRA and this is going to cool the housing market in both Sydney and Melbourne and take the pressure off the RBA as well to do anything because these are stricter lending regulations are going to come into play there. Are you surprised just on that measure that the focus is switched to the interest only part of the market and that investors proper have been sort of the heats come out of that onward pressure that there could have been the lowering of thresholds that hasn't been adopted instead we're looking at a section of the market that arguably an interest only impostors not as seriously felt as a light on the stand on investments in the round. I think the main thing to come out of here though with those interest only loans is that at the moment there's only over 40% of loans out there that are interest only so they're going to change that in capital 30% so that does go to show how many interest only loans are there and how that is also fueling the market at the moment it is very much in the investors you know borrowing power that they are able to get their hands on the this funding so in capping that there I do think it has been a switch and not as was expected but I definitely do think it will be efficient in cooling the market there. Let's go over to the US where the lack of any urgency by Fed officials and principally the the chief herself to follow up the March hike with anything in June has taken the wind out of the sales of the greenback about a 5% slide since that March tightening now to that extent do you think the Fed's comfortable in that universe or it's believes it may need to start a little bit of strategic jawboating of the greenback. No I actually do think they're comfortable with it at the moment I mean that has moved you know quite it moves around quite quite a bit with you know whoever is out speaking from the US and we had just recently William Dudley and James Bullard actually saying that the there is a possibility that the rate hikes will be enacted slower than what the market actually anticipates and then we've seen a reaction you know with the US dollar into that as well so I think they'll very much will wait and see but I do think that they're quite comfortable with where it is at the moment. The idea though that personal income and spending in February the core PCE as of last week showing a slowdown is that looking as if it could become entrenched and if it were to do so you know never mind a slowdown what about an actual freeze on on those moves. Yeah it is because and it's a really good question and it's a good point there I don't so much as think it'll be a freeze I do think it will just be a slowdown or watch how that all does play out but yeah at this stage that there's nothing really too alarming there. Demand for investment grade bonds in this environment as you do though you do see a wall of money going back at the same time competing for interest into EM so you look at EM currencies look at EM markets that were fearing capital outflows they look as if they're looking like safe harbours for a longer period to your point before about a slower path of US rate rises. Yeah that's right I mean this theme of cautiousness we're seeing in the market is flowing through to demand that clients you know what they are investing in and what they want to put in their portfolios and that definitely is more towards investment grade and also higher rated bonds as well and so we have seen demand for the tier two investment grade floating rate note bonds and also senior debt as well which sits higher in the capital structure as well so it is very much a safe haven play and that seems to be where the the market is going at the moment. Sovereign bond issues by emerging markets hitting their all-time quarterly record in Q1 so speak to that how does that fit the the broader thesis. Yeah we actually have and this week itself it's kicked off with quite a bit of issuance and we have in the last couple of weeks or so seen a bit of issuance coming through so there is very much demand at the moment it's partly a chase for yield and also this demand for investment grade as well so it's quite a mixture across all of this new issuance between investment grade and high rated paper as well and so there has been quite a demand for it and we're seeing more and more companies corporates come to market with it. And sector-wise where would you say the the key focus remains now is there an even spread throughout industrial into through banks I mean we've seen the Suncorp the hybrids for their tier one capital but beyond that what's been the where's the real battle for hearts and minds. Yeah I do think there is continued demand in in banks and financials and I think that's also a bit of a safe haven player as well in that we had Heartland Bank and New Zealand Bank on Friday come to market as well and launch a new bond a new issuance there as well so it is quite a mixture of issuance but I still do think that it seems to be more in the financials at the moment. Okay well let's just hope for a bit more of a diversification through the next six months and it'll be Jessica thank you for now. Thanks Carson. Jessica Russell there from FIG let's move on.


Hello and welcome to the session. I am Deepika here. Let's discuss a question which says in the given figure a horse is tied to a peg at one corner of a square shaped grass field of side 15 meter by means of a five meter long rope. Fine one the area of that part of the field in which the horse can graze to the increase in the grazing area if the rope for 10 meter long instead of 5 meter. The given problem is based on the area of a sector and we know that the area of the sector of angle theta is equal to theta upon 360 into pi r square where r is the radius of the angle of the sector in degrees. So this is a key idea behind our question the help of this key idea to solve the above question. So let's start the solution part 1 In the given figure a horse is tied to a peg at one corner of a square shaped grass field of side 15 meter. It means the side of the square is 15 meter by means of a 5 meter long rope. So the horse is grazing this sector where the angle of the sector is 90 degree because it is a square shaped grass field and the length of the rope is 5 meter that is the radius of this sector is 5 meter. From the given figure sector that is theta is equal to 90 degree and radius of this sector is the area of the field in which the horse can graze equal to area of this sector of radius 5 meter and angle of this sector that is theta is equal to 90 degree and according to our key idea it is equal to theta upon 360 into pi r square now theta is 90 degree. So this is equal to 90 upon 360 into 3.14 into 5 into 5 meter square. So on cancellation we have and this is equal to 1.57 into 25 meter square upon 2 and this is again equal to 39.25 upon 2 meter square and this is equal to 19.625 meter square. Hence the answer for part 1 is 19.625 meter square. Let's move to the part 2 now in part 2 we have to find the increase in the grazing area if the rope for 10 meter long instead of 5 meter. So when the length of rope increased in meter then r is equal to 10 meter. So the new area the horse can graze when radius is 10 meter and angle of the sector is 90 degree is equal to 90 upon 360 into pi that is 3.14 into r square 10 into 10 meter square. So we have this is equal to 3.14 into 100 upon 4 meter square or this is equal to 3.14 upon 4 meter square and this is again equal to 78.5 meter square. So when the radius was 5 meter the grazing area was 19.625 meter square, but when the radius is 10 meter then the grazing area is 78.5 meter square. Hence the increase in the grazing area equal to 78.5 minus 19.625 meter square and this is equal to 58.875 meter square. Hence the answer for part 2 is 58.875 meter square. Hope the solution is clear to you. Buy and take care. Thank you.


everyone and welcome. This is Melissa Armel. Happy Presidents Day, everyone. Presidents Day is Monday and so I'm offering a Presidents Day education package and this is to help really the people that have never traded before and are new and want to do the golden gap class, want to learn shorts, want to learn longs, want to do options, want to do day trades, want to do it all. So if you'd like more information you can email me at Melissa at thestockswish.com or call me at 929-3200 Gap. Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or Skype. So this is the Presidents Day education package. It's a package deal that's going to include a bunch of things to help new people get started. If you're interested in thinking about trading for a career, whether doing a full-time or part-time while you make adjustments into a new and different job from your current job into a new one, I say learn it all. This is your opportunity to learn everything and save and learn everything in one package for one price. Learning season is a great time to trade. Why? Because there are a lot of gaps and for those of you that don't know what I do, I exclusively trade gaps. I don't use any other method or any other system. Whether I go long or short, that's all that I look at. Alright? So the Presidents Day education package will include what? First and foremost the golden gap courses is the most important class I do. I do this once a month. You learn how to short the 26 points for bearish gaps. We mostly short in the day trading room, although we will occasionally go long. It also includes the bullish golden gap course. I only do this class once or twice a year. It's a great class. You will learn how to go long and I think it's important and in fact it's very important specifically because the market is bullish and if you want to do options too because I've been calling a lot of calls in the options letter. So this will help us issue with that. The points are not the same from the bearish golden gap to the bullish golden gap. They are different and also when you go long and short it's something very different. Again as specific as you can be, as intricate and detailed as you can be, the more money you can make. And you really, it's all technical analysis because I'm seeing it in the chart. So it will also include the Presidents Day education package. Special will include the gap options course. This will help you with the gaps options trades and calling in the letter, money management, how to see the gaps, how to determine targets, how to get out, understanding options. This package will also include the gap options newsletter for one year. So that this is huge. You'll get all the options trades for one year. I call anywhere from 10, 15 maybe more options trades in a month. Calling quite a few trades lately. We've had a lot of gaps and a lot of calls actually in the market too, in the market ETFs. So also it includes the stocks will show live trading room for one year. One year for free. So this is included in the package. So this is Twitter, closed here, gap down, fell. Okay. This was a day trade call that I called here on the live day. Again this includes the room where you be in the room for one year get all my calls, money through Friday in the live trading room. It's a great call on Twitter was a short followed through the next day. Also includes the trends course. This is a course on how to look at long term trends. This is a chart of Starbucks. Starbucks is one of the strongest things right now in the market. Starbucks just made a brand new all-time high today. 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You start immediately with the room, the newsletter too. The Golden Gap course is February 23rd and 24th. The Trends course is February 25th. The bullish Gap course, the Gap Options course, one year the Gap Options newsletter, one year the stocks will show live trading room. That's what everything includes. So it's $15,000 U.S. for the president's day big education special price. Huge savings and you'd be set learning all of this stuff and getting all of my trades for pretty much the entire year going into 2020 then because this would be from February 2019 when this would take you to February 2020. Getting all my trades. The sale ends president's day February 18th. So if you're interested, email me at Melissa at the stockswush.com. This is a great offer. If you've been looking to get started and you want to jump in, now's the time to do it. It's earning season and I'm offering a really nice package here that encompasses everything to help you be the best trader that you can be. Thanks everybody. Have a great night.


Fundamental principles of freedom, rational self-interest, and individual wonders. This is the Iran Book Show. All right, everybody. Welcome to Iran Book Show on this, uh, what is it? I don't even know what it is. It's Wednesday. It's Wednesday, March 13th, almost in the middle of March. Thanks, uh, thanks, everybody, for joining me here. And, um, welcome. I'm still in London. Last day, last day, I will be in San Juan, Puerto Rico, tomorrow, flying, uh, flying in from, uh, from London. So, um, last opportunity to, uh, um, yeah, for those, uh, for those of you in the UK to be in the same time zone as me. Uh, all right, let's, uh, today, what do I do today? Oh yeah, I spoke at the Henry Jackson Society, which is a foreign policy think tank. I think it was, uh, uh, Douglas Murray was involved in it, uh, for many years.  It is dedicated to the defense of political freedom. And really nice guys, uh, you know, we had a little classroom about 25 people there. I think they, uh, they, uh, streamed it. So, uh, and you can watch it now on YouTube. So if you look it up, I put it up on Twitter. I, uh, linked to it on Twitter, but you can put it up and, uh, and watch it. It, it was good. It was a good summary of my position on Israel and the Palestinians. The audience seemed to be basically friendly. Uh, it was a, uh, very positive audience. And, uh, yeah, I think, I think I got the points across. And hopefully you guys will watch it and let me know what you think and, uh, and so on. I did have lunch at a, uh, uh, really fantastic restaurant today. Uh, my new favorite restaurant, I guess, in London is a Koko, a-k-o-k-o, uh, and it is African. My previous favorite restaurant in London was also African, uh, Ikoi. Uh, Ikoi is still around, uh, but Ikoi got a second Michelin star and, uh, it's basically become too expensive to go to on a regular basis. It's like $300 a person, 300 pounds a person, more than $300 a person. So I haven't been going recently. I don't think I've been there since they moved to their new facility and, um, don't know when I'm going to go. That's a lot of money. Anyway, a Koko, which is not that much money. It's, it's less than half of that, uh, is, uh, it's fantastic. It really is, maybe as good as Ikoi, uh, and, uh, and really, really good. Every dish was incredibly, incredibly flavorful, lots of flavor, lots of spice. I like spicy and, uh, any great restaurant. So a Koko, for those of you interested, African food, Western African food. A lot of us are used to Ethiopian kind of East African food. This is West African food, uh, super flavorful, a lot of unusual flavors. And, uh, tends to be spicy. So if you like that combination, uh, check, uh, check them out, a Koko in, uh, in London. Uh, all right, uh, what else do we have? No, no news yet on any of the pending, uh, big news items. I'll, I'll be, uh, I'll update you as soon as I, as soon as I hear anything. And, uh, yeah, let's, yeah, let's just jump into, uh, to what, what we have. On Friday last week, Donald Trump basically, uh, merged, announced that, uh, Laura Trump, uh, his daughter-in-law, I think she's the daughter of, uh, uh, Donald Trump Jr., uh, is basically going to co-chair the Republican National Committee. Uh, they also have another co-chair, another, uh, who is a Trump, um, uh, supporter has been for a very long time. And, uh, and, uh, uh, the two of them, uh, basically are now co-chairing, uh, the, the, uh, the, the woman who co-chaired it, the Republican National Committee has left, resigned, um, basically at the request of Trump. And basically now the Republican National Committee has become a, uh, a branch of Trump Enterprises, a branch of the Trump campaign, uh, they have fired a significant number of the, uh, people who worked for the Republican National Committee. And you really get a sense that Trump now views the Republican Party as his, not just that he is the nominee, but it's his, his party to decide what will happen, what, uh, you know, who will do what, who will get what positions, uh, and also as a financial resources, the part of the discussion is about using the, uh, resources, the money, the, the, the money raised for campaigns by the Republican National Committee to take care of some of, uh, Donald Trump's financial bills. We'll see if that happens. But that seems to be in the agenda. I think this is now officially unequivocally without any question. Uh, I think, uh, I don't know what is happening here. This is now Donald Trump's political party in a way that I don't think we've ever seen, uh, in, um, modern American politics. I just don't think we've seen, uh, the kind of dominance that Donald Trump is going to, I expect to exert on Republican politics. Of course, he already does that through the influence he has on House members and senators and voters and everything else. But, uh, I think his takeover of the R&C is a, uh, is a, uh, next step. Uh, and it's not, uh, you know, and there's no question in my view that, uh, this has nothing to do with draining a swamp and this has everything to do with money, money, yeah. Trump needs money. And, uh, with power, this gives Trump, uh, a major, major boost to his control over everybody else, uh, in within the Republican Party. So, uh, that's it. There is no Republican Party. This is now Trump's party. So, uh, and maybe that's an opportunity. Maybe that's a true opportunity for a, uh, for a third party to arise. It is, it is interesting that a number of conservatives in the House of Representatives is now resigned. Not only resigned, but if not, I'm not waiting until to be replaced in the next election. But resigned, quitting, giving up, walking away. Uh, the latest is Buck, uh, from Colorado, uh, who is a, uh, uh, a pretty straight down the line conservative. And, uh, he basically is resigning and saying that he can't function, that nobody can function. The Republican Party is dysfunctional and that, uh, it is, uh, incompetent that the House of Representatives is the most incompetent, uh, he is, uh, he has ever seen. Of course, get rid, uh, according to Scott, getting rid of anybody that Trump doesn't like is thumbs up when it comes to Scott. So, yeah, we've got Kevin McCarthy has gone. Kevin McCarthy was a Trump ally, was a conservative, but not quite good enough for the, for the, for the crazies, for the crazy mega people in the party. As a consequence, even today, um, even today, uh, the Republican Party has what? I think a two seat majority in the House given the vacancies because of the, um, because people are resigning. So Republicans have a mega, mega, mega, uh, you know, uh, majority that is going to make their ability to do anything that they want, almost impossible. All right, um, let's go from the political swamp that is the Republican Party, uh, under Trump to, well, not a swamp, but a disaster zone, which is Gaza. Israel still has not, uh, initiated any kind of action against, um, against, uh, Rafa, the, the one area in the Gaza Strip that, uh, that Israel has not occupied. I mean, there's still a lot of pockets, uh, within even northern Gaza and certainly in central and southern Gaza that Israel does not have control of, uh, pockets in which terrorists are still, uh, rising up from tunnels and, and, uh, creating mayhem and killing people. Uh, you, you, you know, uh, uh, you still get, uh, uh, significant areas where that happens, but there was one big area where basically Israel has done very little other than bomb from the air and that is the area of, uh, Rafa, which is in the south of Gaza. But there are about a million refugees in Rafa. So, uh, it is, uh, incredibly densely populated right now. Israel has been, I don't know what, what, what the term to use, but it's been delaying, postponing, not making a decision, um, in order to, uh, in order to, in, in, in terms of going into Rafa and in doing, in terms of doing what is necessary. Rafa is the final area that needs cleansing of Hamas. It is, uh, the final area that after Israel gains control over it, it should have basically at least above ground for control over the Gaza Strip. It is the area where the hostages are probably being held. It's also the area in which the senior leaders of Hamas are present. Israel did, in all likelihood, kill the number three person, number three, number four, depending on how you count in Hamas a few days ago, uh, in a home, uh, in, uh, in one of the refugee camps in central, central Western Gaza. Uh, and, uh, so that is the most senior Hamas leader Israel has managed to kill. And, and, uh, they, they, there's no hundred percent confirmation, but it does look like they did kill him. At least if he's not dead, he's severely injured. Uh, but again, even there, that's still, he was in an area that still is not completely controlled by the Israelis. So there's still a lot of work to do in Gaza. And, and Israel is not moving. It's acting slowly. It's, uh, hesitating, uh, to going to Rafa, Rafa in the south, uh, it is going to have to, according to, um, according to, uh, international observers, it would have to evacuate, uh, the civilian population from that area. It would have to make sure that that evacuation Hamas did not escape. So it would have to control that evacuation. It has not started that process. That process could be lengthy. I'm not sure what it's waiting for. Well, I, my suspicions, I'll tell you in a minute, but, um, it's, um, it's just dithering. It's just dithering. And it's not doing what's necessary. And of course a lot of this is focused on fear and the fear is the fear of, uh, the Biden administration, the fear of the international community, the Europeans, the fear that, uh, that if they go in strong, that, uh, the United States will start, uh, withholding aid. There has been some rumors that the Biden administration has threatened not to send Israel weapons systems. If they go into a rougher, too strong, i.e. to win, there's also a lot of pressure from the international community on Israel to, you know, moderate, modify, slow down and not kill as many people.  Israel is at war. And the war is existential. The enemy wants to destroy Israel. The enemy wants to eradicate Jews from Israel. The enemy is not an enemy to be compromised with. It's not an enemy that can be negotiated with. It's not an enemy that one can appease. Appeasement is what Israel has been doing for the last at least 20 years with Gaza and appeasement has blown up in its face. October 7th is the direct consequence of Israeli appeasement of Gaza. So Israel is finally trying to go into the Gaza Strip. It's doing it in a way that is clearly self-sacrificial and clearly in a way that is minimizing civilian casualties on the other side. Nobody cares. The world doesn't care. The left accuses Israel of committing genocide. And the right, at least some on the right, just want to get what they want. They want the US to get over their obsession with Israel and basically to abandon Israel. The Tucker Carlson of the world. The, uh, what's her name? I forget her name. The commentator on, uh, on, uh, the commentator on, um, Shapiro show, right, on Shapiro's network. Anyway, uh, Israel is doing what it needs to be due to defend itself in what is clearly existential war. And, and I brought this up in my talk today. The West is basically suicidal. The West sees the threat of Islam and shrugs.  They see in England here, they see the hundreds of thousands of Muslims demonstrating in the streets, violating the law. And they shrug. They see clearly what Hamas is all about, what the Palestinians all about in October 7th and they don't care. The West is basically being on a suicidal track for decades now. Really for, for, since World War II, but, but well before that, certainly since the Bill and wall, the, the West has been complacent and, uh, and, and, and borderline suicidal. I mean, I got a lot of questions today, some of them after the recording ended, uh, but got a lot of questions like, but what about the Geneva Convention? And what about a global standards for how to fight a war? Um, and it's very simple. Who cares? The bad guys never care about conventions, Geneva or otherwise.  You can't win a war on the terms of the enemy. You just can't. If the West wants to win, it has to embrace tactics, strategies, the win. Israel being part of the West needs to do that. The last war the West won was World War II. And it won not based on the standards that they today live by. Indeed, they would have lost. They would have lost if they were fighting by today's standards. By the standards they forced Israel to fight by. Israel has to be ruthless. It has to be determined. It's still got a shot at winning this. It doesn't look like it's going to take it. So Israel still says their committees are going to rough up, but it's going to be delayed and delayed and delayed. We're probably looking for at least two weeks. The more they delay, just like I told you at the beginning of the war, the more difficult it becomes. The more they delay, the less likely it is that they're successful. The more they delay, the stronger Hamas becomes.  That is a minimum, minimum, minimum for any kind of success. Hamas leadership needs to be completely destroyed and annihilated. And Israel needs to do it and they really do. They really need to tell the Biden administration to go take a hike. They need to ignore the Biden administration. They need to stop taking them seriously. I mean, I don't know how dependent Israel is on the supply of American weapons. I hope they're not very dependent. I hope they can win this without those weapons. They just need to go in and do it and get it done with. Faster the better. All this prep time is prep for Hamas to undermine Israel's ability to win. So, oh, one other thing about Gaza, well related to the war generally. South Africa today announced that if you are a dual citizen of Israel and South Africa, and you served in the Israeli military, you will be arrested when you arrive in South Africa. Now, this is stunning, arrested, right? Because you're a South African citizen who's fought in Israel's war. This is stunning. Of course, that would mean, you know, my father, when he, if he, well, he probably will never go. But if he ever goes back to South Africa where he has two brothers and many, much family could be arrested. My father has fought in the Israeli army several wars and has dual citizenship. I guess technically I could probably get South African citizenship. Maybe it's too late now, but thankfully I don't have it. But I fought in the Israeli military. And there were a lot of Israeli South African dual citizens. There was a very large Jewish community in South Africa that moved to Israel. That emigrated to Israel and kept their South African citizenship. But now they can get arrested if they go back to South Africa.  And upsetting that the world is basically taking a stand that basically is equivalent of, what kind of support you, but we don't want you to win? What support you, but, you know, you're going to have to, you're going to have to let the Palestinians survive in a sense of a viable political entity to fight again another day. You're going to have to let something, maybe it won't be called Hamas, but you have to let the Palestinians have some political. And it's stunning because you think the West would have learned from Afghanistan or Iraq? No, nothing. You think the West would have learned from them? They're completely out of failures? Nothing. Israel's doing the job of the United States and the UK and Europe? Nothing. They don't appreciate it at all.  And if you really think about it, the United States should be involved in this war and the United States should be active in this war and destroying Iran. Instead, the United States is busy building a floating dock off of the coast of Gaza so that ships can bring aid to the Gazans on a daily basis to feed the Gazan population. Why? What have the Gazans done to deserve all this European aid and American aid? What have the Gazans done to deserve all this food and money? I mean, all the money that they got in the past clearly went to building the tunnels, to buying the weapons that were used so horrifically on October 7th. Why is it that the world keeps arming these people? Why is it that the world keeps supporting them, supplying them, feeding them? And the answer is, the answer is obvious, I guess, the answer is altruism. It's the suffering that gives them a moral claim against the West. It's the poverty that gives them a claim against the wealth of Europe and the United States. It is the fact that they are hungry, which makes them deserving of food. It is the fact that they are under attack by the Israelis, which makes them deserving of European and American protection. Altruism, altruism, altruism, through and through, through and through. And altruism is killing the West, altruism is preventing the West from doing what is necessary to win their wars in the Middle East, to deal with the West's enemies in the Middle East. It is altruism that prevents the West from winning any wars.  It is altruism now that is costing Israel so much in blood and in youth, the blood of its youth, I guess. All right. As you probably know, RFK Jr. is running for president. He still has to register in all the states. I don't think he has yet. And as a shortcut for doing that, I've mentioned this earlier. I mentioned this a few weeks ago. He is still considering a run for the Libertarian Party's nomination. I mean, wouldn't be amazing. And I think fitting and appropriate. If RFK Jr. became the nominee of the Libertarian Party, he is after all a socialist, regulator, environmentalist, and on and on and on. I mean, this guy is really bad on economic liberty. But the Republican Party, I mean, sorry, Libertarian Party, true also of the Republican Party. Doesn't care anymore about economic liberty. They only care about social issues, primarily, you know, vaccines, COVID, immigration. And of course, one thing they care about, which is problematic for RFK Jr., is that the Libertarian Party hates Israel. And the Libertarian Party is filled with Jew haters, Israel haters, and the hate Israel may be even more than the hate America. And RFK is a support of Israel. And that might be the basis on which they don't accept him as their presidential nominee. I think it would be perfect. I am rooting for RFK to be the Libertarian Party nominee. This will be the best indication ever of the Libertarian Party's complete and out of bankruptcy, complete and out of stupidity. RFK is going to be announcing his VP candidate any day now. I guess in order to register an independent candidate, not part of the two-party system, has to also declare who his VP is. The two leading candidates, two leading candidates for RFK's VP choices. Anybody know who they are? Aaron Rodgers, the great quarterback from the Green Bay Packers. I mean, he was a great quarterback. You have to give him that, one of the greatest. Not sure about how good he would be as a VP, as a politician. He did do interviews with a copy of Al Shrug in the background. So we know he's read that book. Beyond that, I just think he's just, again, what does unite him and RFK? They both hate vaccines. So it's a vaccine hatred candidacy. The other one is Jesse Ventura. You remember Jesse Ventura, the wrestler who then became, I think, Governor of Minnesota. And was fairly successful Governor of Minnesota. So, yeah, we'll see. Aaron Rodgers or Jesse Ventura, pick your pick. That is going to be RFK. I mean, the more time goes by, and we have Trump and Biden doing their crazy nonsense. You know, the more RFK looks just as bad, not worse. We'll have a lesser of all evils, not three evils, all evils. And Jesse says, Ken says, Jesse has mental issues and he's a conspiracy guy. That's pretty funny coming from you, Ken. So is Trump. Trump has mental issues and he's a conspiracy guy. And don't tell me Trump's not a conspiracy guy. He led the whole conspiracy on Obama's Booth thing. So Trump's a conspiracy guy just like RFK.  Trump's exactly like Jesse Ventura. What's different? Anyway, God, this is American politics now. It's a question of which mental guy and which conspiracy theories are we going to vote for this time? Or we're just going to vote for the senile guy who doesn't even know what conspiracy theories are. That is the standard. All right, let's see. So yeah, I think Aaron Rodgers is my candidate. It'll be fun. It'll be fun to watch. Finally, some good news. All right, good news. It really looks like commercial nuclear fusion over the last year. Just year has gone from like, yeah, right, that's never going to happen to soon. Soon we're going to have the ability to produce electricity commercially using fusion. Which is stunning, stunning achievement. All right, Wes, thank you. $100, really, really appreciate that. Okay, if I'm doing thank yous, let me do this quickly. But something, something, thank you. Really appreciate the support and Jonathan Honing. Those are all stickers. Anyway, Britain's first light fusion announced last week that it had broken the world record for pressure at the Sandia National Laboratories in the United States. Pushing the boundary to 1.85 Tera Pascal. God, this is just hard to imagine. Five times the pressure at the core of earth. I guess this is essential for producing fusion energy. Days earlier, a clutch of peer reviewed papers confirmed that Commonwealth fusion systems near Boston had broken the world record for a large scale magnet with a field strength of 20 Tesla using the latest high temperature superconducting technology. This exceeds the threshold necessary for producing net energy or a Q factor above one. So it's basically, you know, taken the ability to produce, to use fusion to produce cost effective electricity from very unlikely to very likely. And this is a complete revolution. Fusion could generate electricity for the grid at a viable cost by 2035 or by 2040. Some, some companies, Fusion Industry Association says that some of its members think they can do it by 2030. That's what, six years from now. That basically makes almost every other so-called clean energy source meaningless. This is, if this is really cost effective, then this is more reliable, endless, low cost and amazing energy that basically replaces everything. This is the true revolution, if it indeed is happening. It does look like serious scientists all over the world now think it's a reality and it doesn't have the risk profile of regular nuclear. So it doesn't seem to have anything that would prevent, doesn't seem to have anything that would prevent, you know, that would cause people to rile up against it except just the general hatred of civilization that many on the left have. But it doesn't strike me at all as this is something that politicians will stop because there's no basis for it. They usually need an excuse like, oh, the whole world will blow up, there's radiation, there's no radiation here. Now the question is going to be, is it viable cost wise? I think that's the real question. Can they get the cost curve down enough? Can they create these massive magnets at a cost that makes it possible? We got one, Henry Allen, Lord Milk says, even fusion generates nuclear waste, but it is radioactive for much less duration.  And in places like France, they do a very good job at basically recycling the nuclear waste. So in France they have very little nuclear waste at the end of the day. Anyway, exciting. You know, a lot has happened in a very short period of time. We went from complete skepticism about fusion to billions of dollars of venture capital money flowing into the space in the hope of creating an energy revolution.  I think it's by a company called Cognition, which is founded by Peter Thiel. Devin AI is an AI that specializes in writing code. And they claim it is a real revolution in terms of code writing.  Supposedly you'll be able to give Devin AI assignments in terms of the functionality and it will be able to write the code for you. It's supposed to be a massive breakthrough in advance beyond anything AI can do today in terms of assisting code or writing code. And this is going to happen. We're going to see more and more and more of this. Once certain breakthroughs happen with AI, we're just going to see more and more and more applications and more and more and more breakthroughs because more and more capital is going to chase it. And it should be super exciting. I am interested in those of you who are programmers. Let me know what you think of Devin AI. Is this just hype? Or is there something really revolutionary here that can really change the nature of the work that you do? I assume for the better, ultimately. But it will mean fewer programmers, probably, unless you're programming AI and then you've got plenty of work. All right. I think that covers the news that I had. Let's see, anything else we want to talk about? Well, let's see where these questions take us. Remind you that the show is funded from support, from listeners, viewers like you. The show is funded through the super chat. Stickers and questions and questions are great because you can ask questions and you can steer the conversation. And is also funded by support from monthly contributors that contribute on a monthly basis. And that's amazing because that's predictable. And you can become a monthly supporter of The Iran Book Show on Patreon on www.uranbrookshow.com. All right. Thank you, RDF came in with a sticker. If everybody did a sticker right now, we would be in great shape. So please consider that form of support. All right, Jody QT, Jody Quiet says, I was starstruck meeting you today. Thank you so much. My question was, how did we lose universities to the left? Why does their ideology resonate with them and the media? Yeah, thank you, Jody. You know, no reason to be starstruck, but I appreciate it. I wish I was even more of a superstar in that sense.  Not quite there yet. Maybe one of these days, but not quite there. But let's talk a little bit about this question because it's a great question. It's an important question. So let's see, you know, how did we lose universities to the left? Well, here's the question and it's really important. Who's we? How did we lose universities to the left? Who's we? We, at least objectivists, have never had the universities. So we never lost the universities to the left. And what were universities a hundred years ago?  They were mixture. Already a hundred years ago, the progressives, the left of the time, were already starting to dominate the universities in terms of the faculty members. You know, think about it this way. When universities like Harvard and Princeton wanted to become world-class universities, wanted to become, you know, America's universities, what did they do? Well, they needed to get the best faculty in the world. And to do that, they went to Europe and they brought European faculty to the United States. So in the late 19th century, early 20th century, the best American universities imported faculty from Germany and from France, from the UK to come and teach in the United States. What were the beliefs of these faculty? What were the beliefs of these faculty? The beliefs were not classical liberal. The beliefs were not the beliefs of the founding fathers. These intellectuals that came to America in the late 19th century, early 20th century, really started in the mid 19th century, were, you know, students of German continental philosophy, almost all of them. They were one form or another of Kantian's adherence to Kant's philosophy. A philosophy that rejects reason in favor of some kind of intuition and ultimately in favor of faith. Because reason, you know, Kant is for reason, but he divorces reason from reality, from the real reality. Therefore, we can never know the truth.  Kant rejects the pursuit of happiness and so do philosophers of the 19th century. They reject the pursuit of happiness and they reject capitalism and liberty. They are authoritarians. You know, maybe they were influenced by Plato's Republic or in one way or another they are collectivists and statists. They're coming from Europe after all, a place of collectivism and statism. They are not adherence to the founding principles of the United States. That is not the orientation, that's not what they know, that's not what they understand, that's not what they care about. And they start taking the privileged, the leading position, they have the word privileged, the leading positions in American universities. And of course they are the ones who educate future PhDs, which means they educate future intellectuals and future professors. And while they're not overwhelming at the beginning, by the 1960s all American universities are dominated by leftists. Now leftists in those days were a little better than leftists today. They were Marxists, real Marxists, scientific Marxists, Marxists of different flavors. I mean there were also Kantians of different types, Hegelians of different types. But there was almost nobody who was an advocate of the American system. There was almost nobody who was an advocate of the American ideas. Even the ones who were claimed to be were heavily influenced by Kantian philosophy, heavily influenced by Kant and undermined their own defense. In the 1960s the new left arose to object to the optimism of the Marxists. The Marxists believe in economic growth, they believe in man dominating nature, they believe in industrialization. And with the rise of environmentalism and with the rise of the new left, all that went out the window. And a lot of those activists on campuses who demonstrated against the war and demonstrated against their professors and who did the sit-ins and the radicals, the hippies, the Woodstock kids of the 1960s, what happened to many of them? Well most of them, not most of them, many of them stayed at the universities, got PhDs and became professors. And they developed the kind of ideas which I think from today, whoops computer went flying. They're the people who ultimately developed everything that you know today is woke into sectionality and it's them and their immediate descendants. The whole identitarian ideology that dominates the left today was, you know, these people brought to the forefront, the whole woke agenda. And it's just the development of postmodernism which is a philosophy developed in France. Again, Continental, it's where our intellectuals came from. The fundamental problem is not the left sweeping the universities. It's not the attractiveness of socialism and communism, although they were. I mean if you watch the movie Oppenheimer, I think the movie actually whitewashes us a little bit, but a significant number of our scientists in America in the 1930s and 40s and 50s were communists. They believe in communism, they upheld communism. That's scientists, never mind the humanities. And so what really is the problem here is that nobody defended capitalism. Basically capitalism was, oh yeah, you know, the system that doesn't need the defense, it just is. Those who believe in capitalism didn't go into academia, they went into business. But there weren't many people who intellectually, thoughtfully, philosophically defended capitalism. They ignored the need for such a defense. Those who are pro-capitalism. This is the businessman who said, yeah, who cares about ideas? Eh, who cares about the universities? Well, here you go. So there was no defense of capitalism. The Enlightenment died, it just faded away. And there were a few classical liberals left here and there, very few. The ones who were left had very little to say, very little to say that was interesting. Certainly very little to say that was inspiring. Many of them were Christians and therefore tried to defend capitalism on the basis of faith and a basis of religion, on a basis of emotion. Nobody was buying that. And there was just, there was just no, there was just no intellectuals of capitalism. I mean, there were a few, the Austrian economists, but they got shunned from the universities and there weren't many of them. Again, the classical liberals, the people who go to Montpeler and society meetings. But even they are pretty weak, pretty weak, very weak, in philosophically, intellectually, morally defending capitalism. So guess what? They lost. They lost. They lost. The left, which is much more idealistic, which is much more passionate, which is much more consistent, which is much more interested in intellectual pursuits, dominates. And has dominated for a hundred years. People are only noticing it now because it's affecting them. But the left has dominated for a hundred years. And they're noticing now because the left is more wacky, more crazy, more insane than it was in the past. But part of, a big part of this is the fact that the better people, the people who uphold claim, at least, uphold capitalism, defaulted on their responsibility, didn't provide a proper defense of capitalism. Alright, Jeremy, another $50. Thank you, Jeremy. So far, AI helped code. Helping code is very much helping give input for consideration, extremely helpful for my job, and doesn't replace me. I like the formulation I saw on Acts that LLM type AI is like a subconscious that brings things up as inputs to be considered. Interesting. That's a formulation I would expect from an objectivist. So interesting that you found it on Acts. That does sound like a good thing. I am curious, Jeremy, after you look at this new Devin, I guess, Devin AI, let me know what you think of it. Supposedly when I'm reading it's a game changer, it's very different than the LLM AIs that we've seen so far. But of course that could be complete hype. So I'm curious if you and the other programs on here, I know a number of your program is. It would be great if you guys actually went out there and tested it and came back with an evaluation. I'm really curious what you guys think. Thank you, Jeremy, really value your input. Alright, Clark has a $200 question, but it looks like it's a part one. So I'm going to wait with it until he posts the part two because otherwise I have a feeling you're going to be stuck in the middle. Okay, so we've got other questions to do in the meantime. Is it likely that Netanyahu is deliberately slowing the war in order to keep himself in power and beyond the reach of prosecution and existing criminal indictments? No, I don't think it is.  I think he's slowing the war because he doesn't know what to do. He's slowing the war because he's intimidated by Biden and by the Europeans. But I don't think it's politics. The reality is that Israeli public doesn't want the war to be slowed down and is upset with him right now for slowing the war down. So I don't think he's gaining the political credentials or the goodwill that you would assume he would because the Israeli public wants this over with. They want Hamas defeated. They want their kids home. They want it over with. And I think it's world pressure. I think it's his, you know, Netanyahu has been a weak prime minister for 20 years. There's no reason he would change today. He's already done more than I expected he would do. But he hasn't done it with the kind of forcefulness that he should have done. Okay, monotropic, monotropic. In his Davos speech, Millay said that worldwide average annual GDP per capita growth has increased from under 1% during the 19th century to 3% in the 21st century. Is this correct? I don't know, but that sounds right. Primarily because the 19th century economic growth was limited to a very small part of the planet. It was limited to the United States and Europe. And there was very little economic growth anywhere else. So if everywhere else in the world is growing at zero and that's where most of the population of the earth lives, then even if the West and the United States are growing at 4%, 5%, 6%, the average is only going to be 1% and that makes sense to me. Today, you've got, you know, if you believe the numbers out of China, they're growing at 5%, India's growing at 7%, 8%, and that's like, what's that? Just those two countries are a significant portion of the world population. Even in Africa, there are countries that are growing at a significant percentage. So, yes, I think it's reasonable. So even though the West is only growing at 1%, 2%, 3% on average seems reasonable. Yeah, I haven't looked at it. I haven't looked at the global worldwide GDP per capita growth, but it doesn't seem far-fetched that he's saying that. And that doesn't mean that freedom in the 19th century and the places where it was applied did not work. Argentina was going really, really fast at the end of the 19th century because of the pro-freedom constitution that they put in place. Thomas, the Palestinians are clearly anti-Semitic. Would you call the hatred of Israel among Westerners, both on the left and on the right, more anti-Semitic or anti-Western? I think it's a combination of both and I'm not sure you can separate it out as I think Marx understood Jews are very much leaders within Western civilization. They were very involved in the establishment of capitalism. They are very involved in the intellectual ideas of the West. They're very involved in business. They're very involved in science, very, very involved in science. So, you know, I think hatred of the West is almost always going to include hatred of Jews. Now, what is the driver? I think the driver is probably hatred of the West and then it's combined with hatred of Jews. But I think most Westerners are anti-Semitic, but they're also anti-Western. I can't think of anti-Semitic people who are non-anti-Western. It's not like right or left. They're all anti-Western if you understand what the West is. You cannot be anti-Semitic and not be anti-Western, but I do think there's a real hatred of Jews. And there always is, it seems, in times of intellectual upheaval. Sadly. That dudo bunny, where did the spineless weirdos come from and how did they get power? Which spineless weirdos? I mean, which ones?  We are spineless culture. We're a culture of spineless people. We're a culture dominated by a philosophy of altruism. We're a culture dominated by an ethic of altruism. We're a culture dominated by Christianity, by the morality of Christianity. And as long as we're dominated by the morality of Christianity, we will be spineless.  What will emerge from tech advancement and increased political controls? Can we continue to progress materially and regress politically? We can't, to some extent, look at China. So we can't, to some extent, less than what we have the potential for. And ultimately, if it gets bad enough politically and culturally, then no, we will stop progressing materially. We will decline materially. And indeed, I think that some of the precursors of material decline are there, depending on the kind of policies that, depending on the kind of policies that whoever wins the White House imposes, the potential for material declines sooner rather than later is absolutely out there and available. All right. Here's Clark's multipart question. I guess the long questions, it has to be in a number of questions. $100. Thank you, Clark. Really, really appreciated. We're only $71 away from the goal, $79 away from the goal. So please consider supporting the show. Getting us to our goal really, really helps. We need to do a little bit of catch up as well for March. All right. Part one. Never believe that the irrational are completely unaware of the absurdities of their replies. They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge. But they are amusing themselves for it is their adversaries who is obliged to use words responsibly since he believes in words. The irrational have the right to play. They even like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons. They discredit the seriousness of their inter-cultures. They delight in acting in bad faith since they seek not to persuade by sound argument, but to intimidate and, to intimidate and disconcert.  I think that's mostly right. I mean irrational, but you make them sound too sophisticated and too whimsical and too almost fun loving. I mean, no, this is the ugly, the angry, because their irrationality leads to anger, leads to frustration, and it leads to fear because they don't know how the world works, because they can't really engage with the world because of the irrationality. So they feel a lot of fear, but I think that's right. They don't care about words. People say, how can they say that? How can they believe that? How can they hold that? Because they're irrational. That's the essence of irrationality. It's to reject reality, reject truth, reject the obvious.   Everything is fluid. Everything is up to interpretation. Everything at the end of the day is determined by emotions, not by reason, not by thought. And they really do hold that. That is really their agenda. Thank you, Clark. Really, really appreciate the support and I agree basically with your comment. All right, Liam, my government takes $100 then spends $120 on $70 worth of stuff that I didn't ask for. Yep, that's pretty typical of governments. I don't know which government you're talking about, but that's pretty typical of status governments in the world today.  Why would anyone drink this alcoholic ketchup? It's not just the English.   I don't know. I guess it's like that tomato sauce that can be a little spicy. It can be pretty good. But ketchup can be pretty good.  Michael said, is having a wedding at City Hall in Maui, shouldn't that special day be a huge event? No, no. Why should it be a huge event?  It's completely up to you and your values.  I find most big weddings boring. Nobody seems to really have fun. No, I think small weddings where everybody knows each other, where people can really have fun, where you can be really intimate, where you're celebrating with people you really care about, not a long list of people you felt obliged to invite.   I don't want to, I don't want to, I'm not interested in celebrating with huge numbers of people. And again, going through certain motions that I didn't choose that kind of, this is the ceremony, this is how it's always done. This is what everybody else does when they get married. Who cares? So it really depends on you. It really depends on you. I mean, some people love big events, some people don't. Some people love to do the ceremony things. I don't. Don't do it because of me. Do it based on what your true values are. All right, Dean says, was super cool meeting you at the convention in Amsterdam. Thanks again for spreading your knowledge. Yeah, it was super cool to meet you, Dean. Thank you again for all the support. And it was great to see many of you at the, many of the Europeans and the Israelis at the Amsterdam conference. It was a terrific, terrific conference. Really, really good. Those of you who still have an opportunity to go to Austin for that conference, I encourage you to do so. But I have to say that the format and the way it was structured, much about the Amsterdam conference, which was new. I thought was excellent and worked perfectly. And I think the students and the adults had a great time there. All right, let's see, Applejack, thank you for the support. These are the stickers. I saw a couple of others. Maybe not Gail, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, then we're back to Wes. Thanks, Wes again. All right, Michael. A man is never supposed to seek. He's supposed to attract. I forgot which philosopher said this, but is there something to it? A man of good character and sense of life will attract good people to him. Yeah, but why shouldn't he seek good people? Why shouldn't he seek? Other men of good character and sense of life. I don't understand that. Why would he be passive? Why would he wait for them to find him rather than him going out to seek them? Do you remember how it worked in the Fountain Inn? Go seeking Mallory, Mallory, the sculptor, and helps him and gets him back on his feet and supports him. So he seeks him. You know, time and time again, the heroes of Atlas Shrug seek out the great man. So it's way too passive to say, oh yeah, just stand around, people will find you. So absolutely, you know, a man should seek. Should seek other people of good character and sense of life should seek friendship, should seek love, should seek good people. Should seek employees who are good, should seek people, good people. So no, I mean, whoever said this is, I mean, does, how do I, does work not seek Dominique? Does Gold not seek Dagny? Does he just attract? Is he just passive, waiting there for him? Well, I mean, the context of Atlas Shrug maybe. Is it written? I mean, no, no, no. I mean, this is superficial and dumb, right?  Good relationships with good people for good purposes. This idea that friends will just come to you, good employees will just come to you. That's completely wrong. This Andrew says, Rand said her fight for rational culture was selfishly motivated. Out of psychological curiosity, do you relate to that? And are you able to consistently keep that selfish perspective of fighting freedom? I think so. I mean, I hope so. And I do, I mean, yeah, I mean, I don't know what it would look otherwise. I don't know how to do it otherwise. You know, this is, this is what I do for me, for the things and the people that I love. So, yeah, I mean, the older I become, the more selfish it is. Jennifer, I recently read from Mark Twain, quote, the Jew has made a marvelous fight in this world and has done it with his hands tied behind his back. I like how he refers to the Jew as an individual person. Yeah, Mark Twain was amazing. I mean, you read quotes of his on all kinds of subjects and he was just, he was just an amazing person. He, he traveled a lot. He was actually in Ottoman Palestine and wrote on how it was a desolate place, empty of people. There was nothing there. And but he just, he just had an amazing sense of life and he had a way of using words and he has this commentary that is, you know, almost always incredibly insightful. He's not a philosopher. He's not a philosopher, but he's a good cultural commentator. All right, we reached our target. Thank you guys. I really appreciate it. And we've got like four questions and I'm fading. I am so tired today. Let's see, why do prohibitionists think that the problem caused by prohibition can be solved by more prohibition? Because that's all they understand. All they understand is force. All they understand is authority and force and all they know is kind of a command economy, a command government, command politics. And they can't imagine that freedom leads to anything good. It's not that they believe that prohibitions, help or prohibitions, new prohibitions will help deal with the old ones, with the problems of the old ones. It's that they can't imagine any alternative. They can't imagine freedom. They can't imagine that freedom can be good. Their whole philosophical context is anti-freedom. James Taylor, do young objectors come across as kind of descending and preachy? I mean, I think less so today than in the past, my experience. Now, maybe I'm not meeting the right kind of them, of young objectors, but I think a lot less so than in the past. I think I probably came across as kind of descending and preachy when I was young. I think a lot of objectors I met 30 years ago who were young came across as that. I don't see it as much today. I think it's a good influence of some of us. Michael, Trump and Orban over at Mar-a-Lago, despicable. I foresee Trump 2.0 being emboldened to making more fascist moves and Antifa would be burning down cities in response. Quite possible. I agree with you completely on how despicable it is. I mean, Orban is not a good guy, but Orban is the type that Trump wants to associate with. Orban is what Trump strives to be, corrupt and in command, and authoritarian. Orban has no media opposition because he's basically taken out all the media that opposed him. He's arranged for them to go either out of business or to be bought by people, by his friends. Orban Page has a question in the chat I'm going to answer quickly because he didn't pay. I think altruism can be entirely rational, agree or disagree. Disagree thoroughly, not even a tiny bit of agreement. I think altruism through and through is irrational because it is detached from reality, the reality of morality, the reality of the requirements of man's life, the reality of the requirements of man's flourishing and happiness.  James says, a psychiatrist who has worked with elderly dementia patients said, Biden exhibited signs of stimulants used to mass cognitive decline in his amped-up, aggressive state-of-the-union speech thoughts. I don't know, I wouldn't be surprised. Stimulants are in use and it's quite possible. But I've also seen people with early dementia as Biden has. He doesn't have well-developed advanced dementia. He has early stages. I've seen them, they can amp themselves up and be high for a particular period even without drugs. But would I be surprised if he was using drugs? No, not at all. Not at all. And would I surprise any of our politicians using drugs? I think they all do, on one extent or another. So, no, not surprised. But I don't know, I'm not an expert. Alright guys, thank you. I will see you all on Friday, probably a morning show with news and then an evening show with some topic more in depth. Thank you for all the superchatters, you were great. Thank you for the support and I'm flying all day tomorrow. Wish me luck on the flight and see you Friday. Bye everybody.


There's a lot of buzz surrounding Boston's bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, but first we must look to the Rio Summer Games in 2016 to learn about the story of a Massachusetts native who is diving head first into the opportunity of a lifetime. Imagine going from being a regular college student to being confined to a wheelchair over the course of two years. So when I was told that I would be dependent on a wheelchair, a wheelchair bound, I think automatically a lot of doors are assumed to be shut. At just 21 years old, Leanne Smith was diagnosed with dystonia, a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary muscle contractions that cause slow, repetitive movements or abnormal postures. The cause of dystonia is unknown, and there is no cure to stop or slow down its progression. Not knowing what it is at all was kind of, I think, more shocking than anything else because I had never heard of it. At that moment, too, it's hard to imagine where life's going to take you. Dystonia affects more people than muscular dystrophy, Huntington's disease, or Lou Gehrig's disease combined, yet awareness is very limited. Growing up, she was always so athletic, whether it was softball or soccer or cheering or anything. She was just always out and about doing things and doing it well. So to see her come down with that, especially with something you never heard of before, it was difficult. And then to see what it actually did to her and has done to her, it's difficult. Initially, Smith's dystonia affected her voluntary muscles on her entire left side. With only having full use of her right arm, Smith thought she would never again be able to do the things that she loves, traveling the world and playing sports. So to have those two things that I kind of was really looking forward to kind of ripped out from underneath you in the blink of an eye, you know, immediately in my brain was like, well, I'll never be able to travel, you know, in this situation and how do you even stay physically active in this type of situation? But she was wrong. This is Smith's second year making the U.S. Women's Paralympic Swimming National Team. However, she actually began her aquatic career as a part of her therapy, with doctors believing that it would provide some relief from being confined to a wheelchair. I did that first 25 yards and got to the other end and I was just kind of like, huh, that was, you know, freeing to a whole other level. And not only in a physical sense, but also in an emotional way, in a mental way. Because at that moment I was like, okay, I just completed a task that, you know, only using my arms that, you know, the people in the other lanes are doing as well. Yes, they're using their feet, but I just completed the same task that they did to get from one end of the pool to the other end of the pool successfully. And it was from that moment on that I kind of caught the bug of being in the water and I loved being out of my wheelchair and so I wanted to just be in the water all day every day. To get to Rio, the now 27-year-old is committed to following a strict training regimen to prepare for the Paralympic Trials next spring. What would it mean to you to represent your country at the highest level possible? It would be an honor. It's one of those things that very few people have the opportunity to do what we're able to do, you know, prior to a game. But anytime that you get into the water and you put on your cap and it has your country's flag and your name underneath it, the feeling is, it's overwhelming. However, Smith had to overcome unforeseen obstacles in her swimming journey this past year. Last August, during a meet in California, she suffered multiple seizures and was placed in the ICU. Smith returned to Boston and spent time at Massachusetts General Hospital and then at the Spalding Rehabilitation Center. Those setbacks caused her dystonia to progress with the disorder now affecting her right leg. Smith was forced to relearn how to swim and how to make her movements as efficient as possible. You know, every time she has a setback, she gets a little bit more of her independence taken and she fights back against it and I think that's incredible. And so I think for her that, you know, she's a very resilient person and I think that takes a lot of courage so I'm very proud of her for that. If there's one word that can be used to describe Smith, it's determined. I think a lot of people can only get hit so many times before they stay down but she keeps getting back up and coming back stronger. Three years ago, Smith moved in with her aunt, uncle and two younger cousins because her childhood home could no longer be adapted to suit her needs. She still sees her immediate family weekly as her father drives over two hours each day just to take her to practice. Being here with my aunt and my uncle and my two little cousins, they, you know, are my role models only because, especially because they still see the person I was before. And just what would it be like to see Smith compete in the Paralympic Games in Boston? I think that would be great. I think, you know, knowing the city, knowing how Boston is known to overcome some of these things, I think she'd be, you know, the perfect picture of that. Since Smith's meets are held throughout the world, her family and friends don't often watch her compete in para-only meets. Just to have that kind of in your backyard and, you know, have them be able to experience what I get to experience and, you know, be able to relate on a whole other level just to the environment itself would be remarkable, it would really, truly be remarkable. If Smith is not competing in 2024, she still hopes to remain involved in the games. Prior to her diagnosis, she coached gymnastics and said she would love to help young para-athletes get over their hurdles like so many of her coaches have done for her. Smith hopes to start her own para-program or to be part of a club that works with para-athletes competing in the games. For the Boston University News Service, I'm Kelly Langergen.


Hi, my name is Alex. I'm a librarian at the University of Alabama and today I'm going to show you how to search for articles on Google Scholar. In this video, we'll cover basic keyword searches, refining your search by publication date, Google Scholar's advanced search, and some advanced searching tips. So we're going to be looking for articles about the use of VR in the classroom. We'll start with a fairly basic keyword search. On the right-hand side of the screen, you see if you can access the articles or not. Some are provided through Alabama databases, while others are freely accessible through the internet. One thing to know is that your search is sorted by relevance, not date. That's actually good, but for something like virtual reality, we'll probably want fairly recent articles. This article at the top is from 1992, and therefore maybe just a bit too old. So we can refine our search by date. You can find articles published since a certain year, or put a custom date range in. We'll limit our search to articles published since 2014. Google Scholar lets you refine your search even more when you use the advanced search. You can control the date, look for articles published in a certain journal, or buy a certain author, and be more specific in your keyword searches. So, for example, here I'm searching for the exact phrase virtual reality, and then combining that with at least one of these words. A few more things about the search results page. Under each article, you'll see the authors, a brief blurb, and a few links below it. One is Google Scholar's cited by function, and the other is the related articles button. The related articles button is just an easy way to find articles on a similar topic. The cited by function is important for a couple of reasons. For example, this article has been cited over 300 times since it was published in 2014. While that doesn't mean that it's inherently flawless article, it does show you that it's a relatively important one. You can also click on the cited by link and see a list of articles that cited it, which can be another easy way to find more articles. You can do a similar thing by looking at the works cited page of your original article. If you find an article there that looks promising, the easiest way to find it on Google Scholar is just to copy and paste it into the search bar with quotations around it. And that's all for now. If you have any questions, you can call us, text us, or visit ask.lib.ua.edu to ask a librarian.


Okay, so last time we went over the balance sheet in general. Now we want to look at some of the formatting tools that Xero has to adjust reports. Although we're focused in on the balance sheet, many of the tools we'll be looking at will be applicable to other reports as well. And as we go through them, remember that the balance sheet and the income statement are from a reporting standpoint. In essence, the end result, what we're trying to create when we do the data input entering these forms which create financial transactions, constructing the balance sheet income statement and related reports. Balance sheet represents things as of a point in time. The income statement has a timeframe, a beginning and an end, a performance report.