Hey everybody, I'm Lance Coyke and after about five months of use with the Soul SB900 bike I'm gonna give you my impressions what I like what I don't like and Hopefully help you decide if you're gonna buy one or not So Allison and I have had this Soul SB900 for a few months now I think this is exclusively what I've done for my my low-intensity cardio and I got my heart rate monitor hooked up here and we're just gonna do a little workout well I kind of talked through some of the things I like about it and you know things. I don't like about it. And this is our When do we buy it probably December? So this is maybe a four or five month long review Biggest things are I mean, it's super sturdy I was pretty sure about that when we first bought it and that was I mean primarily I My biggest concern was I don't want to buy a bike twice I want a nice bike that doesn't feel rickety isn't very loud not disruptive to our home here And I think we found that definitely. I believe this costed a thousand dollars Brand new we bought it from the Soul website. I'll leave that in the description So primarily the thing that I was concerned when I was researching home exercise bikes to buy Was sturdiness. I didn't want to buy an expensive bike and then have to replace it later on I'd been on the Peloton bikes and I kind of Knew that we would like that They're they're pretty sturdy. They're, you know, very metal construction But they're just so expensive and it didn't make sense to me shout out to my nose strip helping me breathe during the Allergy season here. I was looking at we thought about the the Peloton bike, but I Figured we could probably find a better value And I came across this one as one of the you know more top rated ones on the internet And it's great. I mean it really is super sturdy. It's very metal um That hurts the the Nobs and the connection points are all pretty steady. The only thing that kind of makes Some sounds that I'm not anticipating or not looking for is the handlebars Kind of do this like skew side to side if I'm really cranking on them But if I tighten it down, it's really like it's not even squeaking. It's got a little wobble It's not even squeaking So I Mean I would say If you're biking you're not supposed to be you know, it's not an arm workout necessarily You shouldn't be putting a whole lot of stress there. You should try to keep the stress in your legs So that to me is not a problem. I do have these two hand towels here One of the things that I was thinking about a lot with selecting the bike I want to be able to write a program for a client on my laptop here and This uh, we'll get to this connector later But what we wanted to be able to do is just set a computer or a laptop up here or a laptop or an iPad up here and Work through stuff if Allison's studying. She's in PA school right now physician assistant school And if she's got to do her notes like there's no time for exercise. So our big idea with this Was to find a way for her to exercise while she's studying And I think that worked Really well for her. It's worked tremendously well. She had some bad blood tests. I'll have to link up here to our first tea time 001 episode where we kind of talked through her bad blood test. She's young. She's mid 20s But her cholesterol is getting high and it kind of scared her She's really stressed with PA school and stresses a big component to that. So this bike was part of the solution She needed she didn't have the time to do exercise But needed to find the time and this was a good compromise. So she can just do it here in home for me. I've got a Giant TV right here. This is actually where we leave the bike for lighting purposes I almost didn't want to film here, but I wanted to show you this is exactly where it goes We bought this mat. It goes on the ground. It's black came from soul. It's fine. It's just a mat I thought it was going to be something super special. It's just a mat But we just leave the bike here and I'll watch YouTube while I work out and it makes the easy cardio less monotonous and more fun to do and more likely to do it, you know and I think I mentioned this but I haven't Done any other kind of cardio. I've done like High intensity interval stuff to supplement this training and I've done plenty of strength the training work But for my moderate intensity cardio, it's this bike Two or three times a week generally Haven't gotten bored of it yet in four or five months here So the construction very sturdy they shipped and I had to put it together I have an unboxing and an assembly video that I'll link to in the cards in The upper right-hand corner of this video Was pretty straightforward. Honestly. I mean it took a little bit longer than maybe I would have hoped But I couldn't imagine having somebody else put it together. It wouldn't it was just fine for me if you're Not Looking forward to manipulating very heavy exercise equipment Then maybe you don't want maybe you need someone to help you out there It does have wheels and the wheels they don't stick out very much So it's nice for the aesthetic of a home I'll come back to the pedals the wheels on the front to move the bike around They go round and round right they don't stick out a whole lot from the crossbar on the bottom the base crossbar so When you're wheeling it around we have hardwood and really thin Carpet here in our living room and it works Pretty well on that stuff, but actually this exercise mat it gets stuck on because the exercise mat Is maybe Quarter-inch thick and it's very compressible And so when I get on the wheels that actually takes up the slack the clearance of the wheel From the crossbar, and then it just gets stuck So I have to kind of like drag it through all that it's much harder than I would have anticipated You might be better getting away with a slightly thinner mat Maybe not from soul if you frequently need to move it now. We don't frequently move it We did early on just to kind of figure out where we wanted to put it But we found that here in the corner kind of away from everything was the best option and still Here by the TV and everything you could look outside a big thing that I like to do when I take breaks from work in the middle Of the day is I'll hop on the bike like I'm doing now, but I guess I'm still working right I like to look outside because I've been on the computer all day and the computer is really close and Makes your eyes converge, and they just get tired. They need to rest You need to look far away It's a good way, especially if you have a lot of fail a lot of eye strain or neck strain That you can attribute to working on the computer Definitely try something like that All right back to the pedals pedals are super sturdy the the cage on here It was important to me to not get pedals that I had to get biking shoes to clip into because I'm not like I'm not a cyclist. I don't do cycling classes I just tend to feel good if I put my seat pretty low and I do moderate intensity Like my hips don't have problems with that. They generally have problems with other stuff like heavy deadlifts and stuff That doesn't feel very good. Lots of jumping and running my hips don't like that But doing something low-impact like the bike and with the seat low helps a lot So I just want to put my shoes on my normal shoes my indoor shoes here and put them in these little cages and Pedal around they were really loose for the first two months And then I looked at them and I thought there's got to be a better way to connect these are these broken There is in fact a better way to connect them. I will Show you a little bit of a layover video here, but essentially I had to just like Take the the strap out and feed it through a different way And now it's really easy to just pull it tight And it's really easy to just flick with my thumb outward to loosen my foot and get it out Actually very ingenious design. I haven't seen many public bike stationary bike pedals like this that stay together. Well So I'm actually really happy with these now moving up. We talked about levers levers are good everything steel Adjustments are great. I've got forward backward on the handlebars I've got upward downward and I think forward backward. Yep, though. We only set that once On the seat here and so I can get in really nice spots I was telling you that we wanted to be able to do work on this and not just sit here and Grind our legs out, right? So it was important to us to be able to be a little more upright So I'll kind of drive the seat forward I keep my seat low and my handlebars stay forward So I'm not very bent over and then like I said with the computer stuff Like if I'm looking at something really close, it's kind of your eyes don't get a rest It's just like being on the computer except with less Poisonous eyesight unless you're just looking at another screen here, and then it's exactly the same What I wanted to do is to be able to be upright and then look away at the TV that gives me a few extra feet of space Then we've got levers here So this black lever in the middle and this red knob that twists here The red knob is the resistance for the pedals and the black lever stops the pedals so I put that down the brake engages and then This knob turns a lot. It's easy to get a precise measurement, but it rotates all the way around very easily so it's not like Your you've got a consistent position of the knob because it will make a few revolutions When it goes through its whole resistance range If I go all the way down. Oh My goodness I'm not controlled at all and it's almost effortless like I'm not pushing At all. I'm actually just slowing down so that I don't fall over And if I go all the way up There's a bunch of turns here Yeah, check that out So if I go all the way up, that's probably too much for sitting down to be efficient So here you want to stand up? and I like to just kind of Keep the tension on the legs as much as possible and just use my hands to keep my torso steady So I'm not doing a lot of this rock inside-to-side stuff But this is The max resistance so I'll normally do this just to give my Paraneum down here a little break because it hurts your butt to sit on these seats I don't know if this is a bad seat or if it's just narrow or if all bikes feel like this It does hurt. I do lose feeling down there So I do like to stand up sometimes and I don't necessarily want my workout to become this High-intensity sprint when I do that So I'll normally keep a pace like this my heart rate. I'll jump up to you right now. It's 147 I try to keep it under 150 when I'm doing this and then after a couple minutes I'll just come back sit down and lower the resistance a few spins My biggest complaint about the knob though is that if I'm Tracking my power output on the screen here if I crank the resistance up my power output plummets Because the only thing that the screen and the sensor are detecting is how fast the pedal and the wheel is moving It's not detecting the amount of magnetic resistance that you're throwing into the workout So even though I've put this resistance up and it is hard It is objectively harder. I'm not getting an increased power output measurement So my watts have dropped down to like 50 right now just because I'm moving so slow But they were at you know an easy 300 when my resistance was all the way down so for Interval type stuff you can't be super precise because of how much this rotates I don't know how you would standardize your Resistance other than I'm going to do a test with it a maximally minimum and then I'll do a test with it at its maximum resistance and those are just not Very conducive resistances for training So for our purposes of just doing low to moderate intensity cardio Every other day works super well But if I'm gonna run Conditioning tests or something. I'm probably gonna be better off with something like an air bike Though that's gonna be super loud.  It'll show you an average of your Speed your rpms your watts and your beats per minute if you have your heart rate monitor hooked up to it I've been able to do that successfully. I don't do it regularly because I like to keep track on my polar app on my phone instead And then it'll also show you maxes of all those numbers And then right here above the screen We've got this little tablet holder. It has these two screws that I was worried I was just gonna strip the threads of the plastic holder when I screwed them on So maybe I didn't screw them down enough, but this is Really loose It's not like rickety, but just the leverage of something sitting on the plastic holder is so Tremendous like the torque is so hard that I always feel like it's gonna pull pull open if I put my phone in there It's totally fine. I'm not worried at all and I think even Allison's iPad totally fine If I put my laptop up there, however I have to like wedge it in the bottom and then the bottom of the laptop sits up here And then the screen angles up like this that Is precarious there's not a whole lot holding it down and Extending out the laptop holder here Just isn't the greatest solution. It doesn't the laptop holder It's more of an it's marketed as a phone or I or tablet holder It's not marketed as a laptop holder. It's just because it's not big enough. It's not resilient enough So for me what I do with the laptop is I just generally put it on the windowsill over here So I can reach it still, but I don't really look at it I just cast my YouTube to this TV and then I keep pedaling One of my favorite parts about this bike That really made the win over the Peloton. It's not just the value and the cost of the bike But it's that there's no software. I Don't need to plug it in for it to work And we don't need to worry about finding, you know running an extension cord To another plug because we've run out of plugs in this corner That was just tremendous. It's so low headache for us Sometimes the screen is a little weird I had one issue where it would my heart rate monitor was connecting to the screen Before it could connect to my phone and it then happened while Allison was biking And I was still wearing it because we had traded off. That was less than ideal But it's only happened once Normally when I'm here alone, it's just fine I set up my phone first and then I hop on the bike and there's no confusion Now if you want to do high intensity interval training on this, it's totally totally possible totally easy You're just not gonna be able to track your progress Just cuz you can't standardize the resistance, but I could always, you know, I generally pedal at this speed Keep my heart rate around 130 But if I wanted to do a 20-second bout I Could go in two one go And I could pump that up and now it's slowing me down pushing way harder I'm just trying to keep the watts up to where they were 10 more seconds and Break and I just got a turn quick that works totally fine If you're really into tracking your power output, it's not gonna be the best option. You don't want a Spin bike or a fan bike like I had said earlier, but for just doing workouts. I can highly recommend this. I did have some questions about standing up at maximum resistance and I showed you that earlier, but I think if you're going Slowly enough it can still be a cardiovascular kind of thing and maybe a little less stressful on your knees. I Suppose I should probably do it while I'm talking about it, right? It can also be super intense Because you don't get the support from your butt and torso So it's really easy for this to just for me my heart rate Almost up to 160 already Just because I'm actually pushing here. You got to kind of Pull yourself down with your hands on the handlebars. Just keep yourself anchored But yeah, I mean you can hear me laboring my breathing 163 So it holds up for me I'm about 185 pounds 180 pounds somewhere in between there If you're heavier, I would say I mean it's still gonna support you mid 200s with a magnetic resistance much over that I think you're gonna I don't know It's hard for me to hypothesize, but I would think It would be more intense for you because your weight's gonna push the pedal down more Faster harder, and you're gonna have to control that It's essentially you're falling right and you have to catch yourself every time you fall When you get your weight over the pedals rather than me pushing the pedals with my legs when I'm sitting So it's it's just a totally different exercise, but you can do both and it adapts well One quick thing to mention that I forgot to do while I was biking is these water bottle holders They have these little hooks at the bottom and then they have a section for the water bottle to sit into at the top I find they encroach on my legs when I try to keep My stance so short like I try to move the seat close to the handlebars and the handlebars close to the seat It allows me to sit upright while I'm biking But these handlebars do get into my legs when I pedal while standing up and hopefully you can see that in the video Alright, I think that's everything I wanted to say about it. I want this to be kind of concise You got to see me actually work out been on the bike for 23 minutes here This is usually about the time. I'll stop maybe about 30 minutes As long as I alternate sitting and standing I don't get much problems with numbness in my Downstairs area. I have not tried to replace any seats If you've tried that, please leave a comment below Let everyone know about it and thanks for watching If you learned something hit the like button and subscribe to be notified when I release new videos about fitness or nutrition or whatever If you need something else to watch well, you know, this is kind of the culmination of our bike review series But I also like having dumbbells in your home Especially adjustable dumbbells. You don't I would buy dumbbells before I buy anything else really Maybe bands if you need them to be portable But dumbbells are awesome So I have these power blocks over here that are great They go up to 90 pounds and I'll just lay on the floor and do my bench press there But it's really hard to get the weights onto your legs Before you do the bench press. It's much easier when you're on a bench so I got some tips on the Technique the execution of that check out that video


27 Mary's house was a chill and mega-contrast to that of rose, but there was nothing cold in Mary's welcome. To Debs, darling, darling, and smothering embrace of furs, the slim woman responded with a grip and pressure that represented all her strength. Debs, although not the eldest, was the mother of the family, as well as the second mother of Bob. Where is he? Were Mary's first words, and Debs mould inwardly to see her as absurd in her mother's vanity and preoccupation as rose herself. But this was a case of a widow's only son, and the visitor was thankful for such a beginning to the interview. Where is he? cried the anxious voice. He was to have met you, and he never fails. This is not like him. Oh, Debs struck ineasily. He was there all right, looking after his old aunt like a good boy. He wanted to bring me, but I told him he could be more useful looking after Rosalie and my things. I thought we'd rather be by ourselves, Molly, poor old girl. You know, I never heard a word until he told me, just now, your letter did not reach me. They kissed again in the passage at the little house. You will send away the carriage, Debbie, Mary urged, without visible emotion. There are stables in the next street.  Indeed I will, dearest, if you will have me. Are you alone? Quite alone. Where's the old lady? Oh, dead, dead long ago. And Ruby? Mary looked confused. Ruby? Ruby is, don't you know, an actress in London doing very well? They tell me, Miss Pearlor Gold, in the profession. Gracious, why? I've seen her, burlesque tights. The mix, well, she must be coining money anyhow. I hope she doesn't forget to make some return for all the trouble she has been to you. She forgets everything, said the stepmother, and we are thankful for it. Bob hates the thought. It is hard on him, who is so different. Don't allude to it before him, please. He feels it too keenly. Debbie, what did you think of my boy? Oh, splendid was the cordial response. I could hardly believe my eyes. Is he not the fond mother urged? And it is not only his appearance, Debbie. They say he is the cleverest lawyer in Melbourne. He is so learned, so acute. He has a practice already that many a barrister, well known, and twice his age, might envy. The pale woman, for her bricky colour, had faded out, thrilled and glowed. Yes, he told me, said Deb, and it was good hearing indeed. But I always knew what he had in him. To herself, she said, why, if he is so well off, does he let her lip like this? Poverty, though decent poverty, proclaimed itself in every detail at the main terrace house, which stood in the most depressing street imaginable. It made the wealthy sister's heart ache. And how are you yourself, Debbie?  How is Francie? We want you to tell us all about the grand doings. Bob is greatly interested in his Italian aunt. He thinks he would like to take a vacation trip to see her some day. By the way, did he tell you that Rose has another? Isn't she a perfect little rabbit? And quite delighted, desire says. As she talked in this detachment from her personal affairs, she led the way up bare stairs to a small bedroom. The resplendent woman behind her took note of the widow's excessive thinness, the grayness of her straight, tight hair, the rigid lines of a black stuffed gown that had not a scrapper trimming on it, not even the lawn sleeve bands widows use, and though a Bennett Goldsworthy's old time annoyance when his wife was proved to have fallen behind the mode. And she has expatuated upon the charms of Rose's 11th baby. Deb's bright dark eyes roved about Mary's room, in which she recognised a few of the planar furnishings of the Nuptial Chamber of the past, but not a trace of the person who had been so much amongst them once. His boots on the floor, his clothes on the door pegs, his razors and brushes on the toilet table were gone. So were a basin and newer from the double washed stain. So was the wide bed. In place of the latter, a small one, originally Bob's, had been set up at the head of which lay one large pillow, fairly glistening with the shine of its fresh, although darned, linen sheath. Carpet and curtains, essential to the departed housefather, had disappeared. The bare windows stood open to what fresh air there was. The floor polished, and with one rug at the bedside exhaled the sweet perfume at these wax and turpentine.   Mrs. Goldsworthy returned the embrace tenderly, but not the emotional impulse. You are so dear and kind, she said, in a gentle but quite steady voice. I am so glad you came, so thankful to have you, but we won't talk about that if you don't mind. I think it is best not to dwell on troubles if you can help it. Tell me about yourself. I suppose you have had lunch. Well, then, we will have a nice cup of tea. Take off that heavy cloak. What lovely fur. And your hat too.  You always have such taste. No, I am not wearing crepe. It is such rough, uncomfortable stuff, and so perishable. And the rule is not hard and fast nowadays, as it used to be.  Do you want a comb, dear? How brown your hair keeps still. Then let us go downstairs to the fire.  A tea table was drawn up to the half. The kettle placed on the coals. There seemed no servant on the premises, but the neatness upstairs was repeated below. Everything was speckless, polished, smelling of its own purity. Well, it was a good thing poor Molly could interest herself in these matters, and her resolve not to brood over her troubles, if it was genuine, and not only a heroic pose, both noble and wise. So dead reflected, and such was the calmness of the emotional atmosphere. The cheering effect of tea and rest, and sisterly companionship, the discursiveness of the talk, that she soon found herself telling Mary the secret that she was so sure the widow would hear with special sympathy and understanding. It is awfully selfish she began to bother you with my affairs at such a time as this, but you've got to know it sometime. The fact is, some folks will say there's no fool like an old fool, and perhaps you'll agree with them. But no, I don't think you will, not you, for you know the fact is, don't laugh, but I'm sure nobody can help it. I have been and gone and got married, Molly, there. And, after all, it seemed that she had not come to the right place for sympathy and understanding. Mary did not laugh, but she stared in a wooden manner that was even more hurtful to the feelings of the new wife. Well, she cried brusquely after a painful pause. Is there any just cause or impediment that you know of? You'd look as if you thought I had no business to be happy, like other people. Oh, if you are happy, but I am surprised, who is it? Guess, said Deb. I could not, I haven't an idea, some Englishman, of course. Deb shook her head. European, then. Some prints all count, as big as Frenchies, all bigger. Deb wrinkled a disdainful nose. It is no use, Mole. You would not come near it in fifty tries. I'll tell you, Claude Delzel. What? The deadly enemy. This time Mrs Goldsworth did laugh. Deb joined in. Funny, isn't it? I feel, sarcastically, like going into fits myself when I think of it. It is so screamingly absurd. And how it happened, I can't tell you, unless it is that we are fallen into our dotage. I suppose it must be that. You, in your dotage, marry Mott, with an affectionate sincerity, that was grateful to her sister's ear.  Do you ever look at yourself in the glass, upright as a dark, and your pretty wavy hair, so thick, and scarcely a grey thread in it? Of course. I don't know how it may be with him. I have not seen him for such ages. Oh, he is a perfect badger for greatness. Not that I ever saw a badger, by the way. And he walks with a stick, and has dreadful chronic things that matter with him, from eating and drinking too much all his life, and never taking enough exercise. Quite the old man. I should have called him a few months ago. But he is better now. Mrs. Goldsworthy gave a little shudder, and her unsympathetic gravity returned.  His infirmities appealed to your pity. You married him, so that you might nurse and take care of him. Not at all, dead broken, warmly. And don't you talk about his infirmities in that free and easy way. He is no more infirm than you are. Did I say he was? That was my joke. He always was the handsomest man that I ever set eyes on, and he is the same still. No, my dear, I have not married him to take care of him, but so that he may take care of me. I'm lonely. I want somebody. I've come to the time of life, when I am of no account to the young folks, not even to Bob. Who would not give me a second thought if I was a poor woman? No, my dear, it is no use your pretending. You know it, as well as I do. And quite natural too. It is the same with all of them. Nothing that money gives me importance in their eyes. And what's money? It won't keep you warm in the winter of your days. Nothing will, except a companion that is in the same boat. That is what I want. It may be silly, but I do. Somebody to go down into the valley of the shadow with me, and he feels the same. Something in Mary's face as she stared into the fire. Something in the atmosphere of the conversation drove her into this line of self-defense. Oh, there is no love-making and young nonsense in our case.  It is just that we begin to feel the cold, as it were, and are going to camp together to keep each other warm. That's all. Mary remained silent. Well, I must go, said Deb, jumping up, as if washing her hands of a disappointing job. The carriage must be there, and Bob will be starving for his dinner. No use asking you to join us, I know. But you must come to Redford soon, Mollie, or somewhere out of this, when you feel better and able. You shall have rooms entirely to yourself, and needn't see anybody. I will come tomorrow, and you must let me talk to you about it. Mrs. Goldworthy was stooping to sweep as sprinkle of ashes out of the fender. She was like an old maid in her fatty tidiness, and when she turned, her face was working as if to repress tears. Deb called her up, a moan bursting from her lips.  But, darling, after all, you have had the good days, a child of your own, a home. We shall get only the dribs at the bottom of the cup, so it is not so very unfair, is it? Then Mary's pent emotion issued in law. With her face on her sister's shoulder, she tried herself to silence it. I can't help it, she apologized. I would if I could. Debby, don't go. Oh, my dear, don't think I envy you. Don't go there. I want to tell you something. I may never have another chance. Of course, I won't go. I want to stay, said Deb at once. And she stayed. The coachman was dismissed to get his meal, and instructed to telephone to Bob to do the same. The sisters had a little picnic dinner by themselves, washing up their plates and dishes in the neat kitchen, Deb insisting upon taking part in the performance, and sat long by the fire side afterwards. Fortunately, although the season was late spring, it was a cold day, for the clear red fire was the one bit of brightness to charm a visitor to that poor house. It crackled cosily, toasting their toes outstretched upon the fender bar, melting their mood to such glowing confidences as they had not exchanged since Mary was in her teens. No lamps were lighted. The widow was frugal with gas when eyes were idle. Her extravagant sister loved fire light to talking. But for a while, it seemed that Mary had nothing particular to communicate. Deb did not like to put direct questions, but again and again led the conversation in the likely direction to find Mary avoiding it like a shining horse. She would not talk of her husband, but interested herself for an hour in the subject of Guthrie Carey, Guthrie's wife, his child, his home, discussing the matter with a calmness that made Deb forget how delicate a one it was. Then Mary had a hundred questions to ask, probably on Bob's account, about the countess of whom she had known nothing of late years, while Deb had learned something from time to time, and could give an approximately true tale. Quite another hour was taken up with Francie's wrongs and wrongdoings, as to which Deb was more frank with this sister than she would have been with Rose. It is no use blinking the fact, she said straight out, that Francie is no better than she should be. I can't understand it, no penny quick that ever I heard of took that line before. She has a dulled life with that ruffian, no doubt. And of course the poor child never had a chance to enjoy the right thing in the right way, though that was her own fault. I don't think Mary broke in, that anything is anybody's fault. That's the most dangerous heathen doctrine, my dear, but I'll admit there's something in it. Poor Francie. She was born at a disadvantage, with that fascinating face of hers set on the foundation of so light a character. She was too pretty to start with. The pretty people get so spoiled, so filled with their own conceit, that they grow up expecting a world made on purpose for them. They grab right and left. If the plums don't fall into their mouths directly, they open them, because it gets to be a sort of matter of course, that they should have everything, and do exactly as they like. And the plain ones, they are born at a worse disadvantage still. No, they are not. Look at Rose. Francie, with her gilded wretchedness, thinks Rose is, like quite, despicable.  She would not change places with the Queen. But Rose is not plain. Rose is the happy medium, and they are the lucky ones. The inconspicuous people, the everyday sort. What's luck, dead vaguely moralized? I suppose we make our luck. It doesn't depend on our faces, but on ourselves. I know Mrs Goldsworthy received the well-worn platitude with a laugh. We don't make anything. We are made. It is just a dance of marinettes, Debbie. Poor puppets of flesh and blood, treated as if they were just wood and nails and glue. Who set us up to make a game of us like this? Who does pull the strings, Debbie? It is a mystery to me. Then Deb waited for what was coming next. Possibly it will be cleared up someday, she murmured, putting out her strong, beautiful hand to touch her sister's knee. Whether it is a fairytale or not, one must cherish the hope. Not I, Mary cut in swiftly. That same Mary who was once conspicuous in her family, for pious orthodoxy. No more experiments in human existence for me. A few years of peace and cleanness. As I am, as I now am, I hope for that. And for nothing more. I don't want anything more. I'd rather not. To be left alone for the rest of the time. And then to be done with it. That sums up all the hope I have, all need. I, my dear. No, Debbie. Don't look at me with those eyes. Don't pity me in that tone of voice. I am only a heathen against my will. Not so brokenhearted as not to care what happens to me, which I believe is what you think. I am not even sorry. I wish I was, but I can't be. In fact, I am so happy, really, that I am going about in a sort of dream, trying to realise it. Happy? Perhaps happy is not the word. I should say, un-miserable. I am more un-miserable than I have ever been. I think, since I was born, Deb's swift intelligence grasped the truth. Ah, then she was not so insinate as we thought, but made allowance for what she diagnosed as a morbid condition of mental health. Are you happier than you were at Redford, young and loved, and with everything nice about you? Yes, because then, although, of course, I did have everything, I had no idea of the value of what I had. You can't be really happy unless you know that you are happy. I did not know it then, but now I do. Deb's glance flashed round the poor room, and out of the window into the squalid street. She thought of Bob, who almost openly despised the mother who adored him. She calculated the loneliness, the poverty, that to her ugliness of the existence which marries, as I am, was intended to describe, and she groaned aloud. Oh, my dear, was it really so awful, as that, that the mere relief from it can mean so much to you? I am not going to complain, said Mary. It was not awful by anybody's fault, certainly not by his. He did his best. He was really good to me. It could not have happened at all, except through his being good to me, doing what he did that night. I am not in the least bitter against him. He was, as he was made, just as I am. It had to be, I suppose. The maker of the puppets didn't care whether we belonged or not. The hand that pulled the strings entangled them jerked us into the mire, together anyhow. Oh, don't plead to Deb. Don't blaspheme like that. What is religion for if not to keep us from making blunders, and to help us to bear it when they are made, and to trust, to trust where we cannot see? Deb was unused to preaching and broke down, but her eyes were sermons more impressive than any of the thousands that Mary had heard. Someday, said Mary, when I'm getting to a place where I cannot hear religion spoken of, nor sing it practised, I may learn the value of it. I hope so. I have a chance of it now. The way is clear. I am through the wood, at last. Deb drew her filmy handkerchief across her eyes. Yes, I know, Mary smiled at her sister's grief, but it is only for this once, Devidere.  I shall not say such things again. I'm not going to shock anybody else, for Bob's sake. Bob, of course, must be considered, after all. It was his father. None of us, even the freest, can be a great agent altogether. I understand that. I shall hold my tongue. The blessed thing is that, that will be sufficient, a negative attitude, with the mouth shut. One is not driven any longer to positive deceit, without even being able to say that you can't help it. O Debbie, you have been a free woman. Why? Why didn't you keep so? But with all your freedom and all your money, you don't know the meaning of such luxury as I live in now. Deb gazed at her sister's rap place, glowing in the firelight, and wondered if the brain behind it could be altogether sane. To call that happiness, she ejaculated, with sad irony and scorn. If you must fix a name to it, yes, the widow considered thoughtfully. After all, unmeasurable does not go far enough. I am happy. For Debbie, turning to look into the dark, troubled eyes, I'm clean now. I never thought to be again. To know anything so exquisitely sweet, either in earth or heaven, I'm clean, body and soul, day and night, inside and outside, at last. O poor girl, dead mode, with tears when she realized what this meant. Rich, corrected Mary, rich dear, with just a roof and a crusted bread. Well, said Debbie presently, what about the roof and crusted bread? Since we are telling each other everything, tell me what your resources are. Don't say it is not my business. I know it isn't. But I shall be wretched if you don't let me make it mine a little. How much have you? I don't know. I don't care. I haven't given money a thought. It doesn't matter. But it does matter. You can't even keep clean without a bathtub and a bit of soap. But what am I thinking of? Of course, you will settle all that with Bob. The little word of three letters brought Mrs. Goldsworthy down from her clouds at once. Oh no, she cried quickly, almost fearfully. On no account would I interfere with his arrangements. His career. He would do everything that was right and dutiful. I am sure. But I would sooner starve than take charity from my own child. But there's no need to take it from anybody. I have all I want. How much? I couldn't tell you to a pound or two. But enough for my small wants. They do seem small indeed. Where are you going to live? Won't you come to me, Molly? Redford is big enough. And it's morally yours as much as mine. You should have your own rooms. All the privacy you like. No, darling. Thank you all the same. I have made my plans. I am going to have a little cottage somewhere in the country where there is no dust or smoke or people where I can walk on clean earth and grass and smell only trees and rain and the growing things. Alone? Oh yes, of course. I shall see you sometimes. And my boy. But for a home, all the home I can want or wish for now, that is my dream. I don't think, said Deb, that I ever heard human ambition and happiness expressed in such terms before. It was the final result of Mary's experiment in the business of a woman's life. Deb drove back to her hotel, thoughtful and sad and tired. When Rosalie had left her for the night, she wrote to Claude by way of comforting herself. She told him what she had been doing, described her interviews with Rose and Mary respectively, and the impressions they had left on her. Of all the four of us, she concluded her letter, I am the only one who has been fortunate in love. I found my mate in the beginning before there was time to make mistakes, the right man whom I could love in the right way. And we had been kept for each other through all these years. Although for a long time we did not know it. And now we are together or shall be in a few days, never to part again. It is the only love story in the family. I don't accept roses because I don't call that a love story, which has had a happy ending. End of Chapter 27, Chapter 28 of Sisters. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. This reading by Lucy Burgoyne. Sisters by Ada Cambridge. Chapter 28. Down the middle of the big two-shaped wolf shed in two rows of six pens each, with an aisle between them, the bleeding sheep were masked. They had been driven into that aisle and thus distributed, as a crowd of soldiers might be packed into their fues at church, and twelve little gates then been shut upon them. Each gate had a corresponding one at the opposite end of the pen, opening upon a broad lane of floor, and facing a doorway into outside pens and the sunny paddocks of the background, between gate and door on his own section of the bordered lane, a sweating, bare-armed man with shoes performed prodigies of strength and skill. Every few minutes he snatched a heavy sheep from the pen beside him, flung it with a round turn into a sitting posture between his knees, and with the calm indifference to its violent objections of the spider to those of the fly that he makes into a parcel, sliced off its coat like a cook peeling a potato. The fleece gently fell upon the floor, as you may see an unnoticed shore slip from an old lady's shoulders, and before it could realize what had happened, the poor naked animal found itself shot through the doorway to stag a headlong down the sloping stage that was its returning path to freedom. Twelve of these stalwart and strenuous operators lining the long walls at regular intervals, six aside, were at it with might and main, pavement by results being the rule in this department of industry, and attended boys strolled up and down, picking the fleeces from the floor and carrying them to the sorter's table. One was the tarboy, whose business was to dab a brushful of tar upon any scarlet patch appearing upon a white undercoat, where the shears had clipped too close. The sorter or classer stood behind his long table, above at right angles to the lines of sheep pens and cheerers. Near him, on either hand, were racks like narrow loose boxes, built against the walls, behind him the hydraulic press cramped and creaked as its attendance fed and manipulated it, and the great bales that others were sowing up, weighing and branding, were mounting high in the transeps of the building, the two arms of the capital T. The air was thick with woolly particles and the smell of sheep. The floor was dark and slippery, and everything one touched, humid with the impelpable grease of the silky fleeces, circulating all about the shed. Stripped, downright, dirty business was the order of the day. The manager, Jim Urquhart, grey-bearded, in a battered felt hat and a slouchy old tweed suit, stood by the sorter's table, his wide, ranging vigilante eye suddenly fixed upon it. As each fleece was brought up, shaken out, trimmed, tested with thumb and finger, rolled into a light bundle, inside out, and flung into one another of the adjacent racks, he followed the process as if it were something new to him. The shade of difference in the texture of the staple of one fleece, as compared with another, appeared of more concern to him than the absolute difference, which seemed to shout for notice between Deborah Delzel and the other features of the scene. A snowy, lacy petticoat, all that swept the greasy floor, and equally spotless skirt, fresh from the laundry, gathered up in one strong pendant hand, gleamed like light against its background, a greasy woodwork and greasy wool. The majestic figure of the lady of Redford advanced towards him, her lord stroll behind her. Often, but not for many a long day, had the vision of her beautiful face come to Jim in this fashion, a radiance upon a prosaic business that it was not allowed to interfere with. Now, for the first time, his eye avoided, his heart shrank from recognising it. Then he lifted his gaze at last, for she was close beside him, a modern ray of loving old comradeship shone on him from those star-brite orbs of hers. Undulled by the years that had lightly frosted her dark hair, she put out her hand and held it out until he had apologised for his greasy paw, and given it to her warm grasp. Why haven't you been to see me, to see us? she asked him, smiling. Didn't you know we came home last night? I thought you might be tired or unpacking. Jim lamely excused himself. But whenever it is convenient to you, Deb, Mrs. Delzel, I am always close by. I can come at any time. He looked at her husband. Claude, you remember Jim? It was so many years since the men had met that the question was not uncalled for. They nodded to each other across the enormous gulf that separated them. While Deb explained to her husband what an invaluable manager she had, Jim had grown homelier and shabbier with his advancing years. Claude, more and more, exquisitely finished. Until he now stood in his carefully careless costume, his short, pointed beard, the same tone of silver grey as his plain old suit, his finely chiseled features, the hue of old ivory, a perfect model of patrician form. Only there was plenty of vigour still manifest in the Bushman's bony frame, while the man at the wheel were a valedudarian air, leaning on the arm of his regal, upright wife. A. Isn't it like old times, she mused aloud, as her eyes roamed about the shed, where every sweating worker was finding time to gaze at her. I see some of the old faces. There's Harry Fox, an old David, and isn't that Cassiah's grandson? I must go and speak to them. She left her husband at the sorter's table, that he and Jim might get reacquainted. Men never learned to know each other while women were in the way, and it seemed to them both a long time before she came back. Claude asked questions about the clip, and other matters of business, and he criticised the manager's management. Rather behind the times, isn't it? For a place like Redford, I thought all the big stations sheered by machinery now. I've only been waiting for Miss, Mrs. Delzal's return, to advise her to have the machines, said Jim, scrupulous to give Deb's husband all possible information. We must have them, of course, I believe, in scientific methods. Mr. Delzal did not ask Jim how his sisters were, and how his brothers were getting on. Did not remember that he had any. And when Deb came back to be gently but firmly ordered out of that dirty place by a new Lord and Master, the latter failed to take, although he did not fail to proceed. The hint of her eyes that Jim should be asked to dinner. No, said he, linking his arm in hers as they left the shed. No outsiders, Debbie, I want you all to myself now. And the words and tone were so sweet to her that she could not be sorry for the possible hurt to Jim's feelings. She was young again today, with her wild, weary husband making love to her like this. That theory of their having come together merely to keep each other warm on the cold road to the grave was laughingly flung to the winds. She laid her strong right hand on his, limp upon her arm, and expanded her deep chest to the sunny morning air. Oh, Claude, oh, isn't it wonderful, after all these years? You remember that night, that night, in the garden? The seat is there still. We will go and sit on it tonight. My dear, I dare not sit out after sunset, so subject as I am to bronchitis. No, no, of course not. I forgot your bronchitis. This is the time for you to be out, and this air will soon make another man of you, dear. Isn't it a heavenly climate? Isn't it divine, this sun? Look here, Claude, we've got some capital horses, all we had. I'll ask Jim, what do you say to a ride, a long, lovely bush ride, like the old rides we used to have together? Words cannot describe the pang that went through her when he shook his head indifferently, and said he was too old for such violent exercise now. Stuck, she cried angrily. Besides, I haven't been on a horse for so long that I shouldn't know how to sit him. He teased her lazily. You wouldn't like to see me tumble off at your hall door before the servants, would you? Oh, Claude, and to think how you used to ride. But, of course, she knew this was a joke and laughed it off. It's nothing but sheer indolence, said she, patting the hand on her arm, that shapely ivory hand, with its polished, filbert nails, and I see that my mission in life is to cure you of it. Come, we will make a start with a real country walk. She began to drag him away from the bowered homestead, but he planted his feet and took his hand from her arm. Not now, Debbie, he ejected gently, but with that subtle note of mastership that had struck so sharply into Jim's sensitiveness. It is mailday, and the letters will be at the house by this time. What do letters matter to us? That we can't tell until we see them. They went in and out of the sunshine to their armchairs in the shade. The English mail had arrived, and it was very interesting. Letters from lords and ladies, piles of papers, a fashionable intelligence, voices from that world, which one of the pair had already begun to hanker to be back in, although not yet distinctly conscious of it. The bride fetched her work basket and busied herself with a piece of useless embroidery, while the bridegroom read aloud to her passages from the epistles of his title correspondence, and from the printed chronicles of their doings here and there. She had dreamed of his reading again the sort of things that he used to read while she sewed and listened, but in the life that he had lived and grown, to there had been no room for learning and the arts. He had dropped them with his health and his horsemanship long ago. The coronated letters and the morning post occupied them until luncheon. At luncheon, as at every other meal, despite the new husband's expressed desire to have his wife to himself, his valet was present as butler, watching over the deceptic diet, and seeing that the wine was right, neither master nor man trusted anybody else to do this. It was a large crumble in Deb's rose leaf, Manton's limpet like attachment to Claude, who seemed unable to do anything without his servant's help, and the latter's cool relegation of herself to the second place in the menage. It was all very well for her to give her husband the premier place. She did it gladly, but for Manton to take possession of Redford as a mere appellage of his lords was quite another matter. It was still the honeymoon, and he might do as he liked, or rather, as Claude liked, but it was not difficult to foresee the day when the valet who dictated to her court would become too much for the proud spirit of the lady of the house, with whom it had either been dangerous to make too free, or to foretell what would happen then. Claude does through the afternoon, like most idle and luxurious men, he drunk a great deal of wine, which made him sleepy, and Deb took the opportunity to go all through her house and put everything in order. They met again at tea, and had a stroll about the garden, arm in arm, and happy. Dinner was rather silent function. Deb wished for Jim, and regretted her easy abandonment of him. Claude never talked when he was eating. The business was too serious, and Manton was there. But while her husband smoked over his coffee, serene and charming, she sat alone with him, reveling in his wit and gaiety, telling herself that he was indeed the splendid fellow she had always thought him. Then they went up to the big drawing room. He was used to big rooms, and he flung himself at full length upon one of the downy couches, and she put silk pillows under his head. While she was doing it, he pulled her down to him and kissed her. It's nice, isn't it? He murmured in her ear. For answer, she pressed her lips to his ivory brows, and he dropped eyelids. Her big heart was too full for speech. Now I am going to play to you, she whispered, and went off to the old piano, that the tuner had prepared for this sacred purpose. What years it was since she had cared to touch piano keys, and never since the love-time of her youth had she played as she did now. All the old things that he had ever cared for, with the old passion in them, and while she played, he slumbered peacefully. Jim, when his day of hard work was over, went back to his manager's house. All the home he knew had a bath, put on clean clothes, ate perfunctorily of roast mutton, and bred and jam, and sat down with his pipe on the top step of his rander, where he hugged his knees and watched the stars come out. He was a confirmed old bachelor now, set, his sister said, in his bachelor ways. None of them lived with him, to keep his house and cheer him up. It was too dull for them, with the mistress of Redford never there. And besides, he did not want cheering for himself, he preferred dullness. An old working housekeeper did, for him, cooking his simple meals, eggs and bacon, alternating with chops for breakfast, and mutton and bread and jam, for his tea dinner, with a fowl for Sundays, keeping his tube-plane rooms clean and his socks mended. A hundred or two a year must have covered his household expenses. The hundreds remaining of his handsome income went to shore up the weak need of his kindred, who had the habit of falling back on him when their funds ran out, or anything else went wrong with them. He was a great reader, books lined the walls of his otherwise meagrely furnished rooms. They represented the one personal extravagance that he indulged in, and newspapers and magazines came by every mail. In these and in his thoughts he lived, were not intent upon the affairs of the estate, which in the eyes of some appeared holy to absorb him. Tonight his thoughts surpassed, the latest parcel from Mullins lay untied, the new American periodicals and wrappers intact. Deb was home again, that was enough food for the mind at present. But, oh, what a homecoming, his own and only boss no longer, as here to fall, but subject to a husband who clearly meant to be his master, and has clearly meant him to have no mistress any more. Neither in the way of business, nor in the way of sentiment, could she be again to him what she had been throughout his life, the altar of his sacrifice, the goddess of his simple worship, his guide, his goal. He must not hope, nor try, nor even long for her now, that one last comfort was taken from him. Well, he walked about, while the fiercest paroxysms raped him. As some of us in our pain torments rushed to lotion, or anodine, he sought the soothing of the starry night, the cool darkness that had so often brought him peace, to get away from the faintly audible tinkling of the shearers banjo and their songs. He strolled in the opposite direction, and that was towards the dark mass of the trees, encircling her house, her home, in which he had no park. Mechanically, he noted a garden gate open, she had left it so, open to the rabbits, against which its section of the miles of wire netting fencing, the grounds, had been so carefully provided, and he went forward to shut it. Being there, he had a distant view of the big drawing room windows, thrown up and letting out wide streams of light across the lawn. And while he stood to gaze at them, picturing what within he could not see, he heard the piano, Debbie playing. And so she had an appreciative audience, although she did not know it.  It was the most exquisitely miserable hour of his life, or so he thought. He did not know what a highly favoured mortal he really was, in that his beautiful love story was never to be spoiled by a happy ending. End of Chapter 28. End of Sisters by Ada Cambridge, read by Lucy Bergwain.


Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, wherever you are. So welcome to the session at KubeCon. I am Garmer Creos. I am the HSE lead. The HSE is the health service executive in Ireland that the organisation tasked with both fighting COVID-19, but also delivering health services to every citizen in Ireland. And I'm the lead for the COVID tracker app, which is our digital contact tracing solution. I'm also chair of the Linux Foundation Public Health Advisory Committee. So this is a story that happened that started over a year ago for me. It's a story about COVID-19. I think we all know what this is. At that time, so back in March of last year, we could see, so it was like glimpsing into the future, we could see what was happening in China, we could see what was happening in, in Italy, we could, and we're now seeing what's happening still. And it's, it's awful to watch what's happening in India at the moment. But we're seeing health systems come under huge intense demand and dealing with the capacity. So you've got to find a capacity when you're faced with something like COVID-19. And a challenge like that, it's how do you deal with something like that? So at that time, I was working in the health service executive. So I work as a digital advisor for the CIO, working on eHealth projects and arranged different things like that across the board. And but my, but my background is I'm an architect. So we got thrown into this, it was myself, another guy called Tim Willoughby and another guy called Owen Harris. So we're kind of at the heart of this. But it was developing, or trying to understand where we choose technology to, to help the fight against COVID-19, in particular with the area of contact tracing. So cast your minds back to this time last year, we didn't know about apps, we didn't know about Bluetooth based detection of contacts, no, that stuff existed. It's all new, but the technology exists and the ability to do it in the proof concept, but certainly nothing that was kind of shovel ready to go. So the graph that you're seeing at the moment is the graph of cases from March of last year up to July, which is kind of the period that we were working in. So it was a very intense, pretty short period. And I think the reason I use it is because it sets the context for just the intensity, because you could see this mounting, mounting, mounting. And we actually thought that if we didn't get something done really quickly, that this would be over. And it would be pointless doing the things that we were doing. Now it turns out that we were wrong, that this has gone on an awful lot longer than most people expected. I think it's, it's met my expectations anyway. So the challenge that we were set ultimately was once we defined what the problem was, was trying to find two people who were too close for too long, where one of them had tested positive for COVID-19. So we're subject to guidelines from the European Center for Disease Control. They had to find two closest to meters and too long as 15 minutes. This is obviously all being thrown out the window with new variants, B117, which seems to have no respect for these guidelines that were given out by the European Center for Disease Control and seems to want to go at further distances and shorter timeframes. But at that time, that was what we were working towards. So Neil and Fred, if Neil has COVID and Fred is too close, we want to identify Fred and then get Fred tested to figure out what's going on. So the search begins. And again, as I said, we didn't know that Google app exposure notification system, none of that existed at this point in time. So it began a search around what technologies could we use. And this was, wasn't just kind of just a desktop thing. So we were actively experimenting, gathering data, going out and testing things, trying it. So the first incarnation of the app was a big data-based kind of geo-timebox piece where we were trying to put two people in the same timebox, in the same place, and trying to identify if that worked. Obviously, there's limitations with GPS in terms of what you can do with that. We looked at agent fires. We looked at kind of other location-based technologies. We looked at cold data records from telcos. We looked at social media data. We looked at beacons. We looked at getting people to scan in with QR codes, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So it was a, and it was a big team. And we're all running in parallel, trying to coordinate and trying to run as fast as we could. So this is the team. And it was a multi-agency. It wasn't just the HSE. So the team included people from the Department of Health, people from the HSE, people from, so central governments, the guy in the middle of the top there is the CIO for Irish government. We also had Tim Willoughby from the police force, Andrew Sullivan from the police force. We had the Defense Forces involved. We had Central Statistics Office, Organ and Survey. You name it. Anybody who could help did help in this effort. And it all came together very quickly. Most of us had never worked together before. So for anybody who's been in that situation, the usual forming, storming, norming happened at an incredible rate as people were trying to figure out how do they help each other and how do they work together. So also what was happening is around the world, everybody else was trying to solve a similar problem. And Singapore were ahead of the game because they could see this happening. They'd been through situations like this before. They'd activated their, their digital government team and a guy called Jason Bay led a team that released Trace Together, which was the first, and I guess it's the first Bluetooth proximity based contact detection system is born. So it comes up and it's using Bluetooth as an estimation for distance. And then I'm recording time. So have I seen this phone? Have I seen this phone again? Have I seen this phone enough times within a 15 minute period to kind of look to call it a valid close contact? And for anybody who's familiar with the Bluetooth stack, that's not a great, it's, it's not specifically designed for something like that. So a lot of the work that's been going on has really been in terms of trying to understand, understand what it can do, what it can't do, its abilities in different phones, if you've got different antenna rays in different phones, there's different signal strengths coming off it. So the transmission power comes into play. So there's a bunch of different things to do with Bluetooth that we, which I wasn't very familiar with beforehand, but I kind of speed pretty quickly to try and solve some of these problems. Another piece that happened at that time as well was this debate was raging around centralization versus decentralization. So this is the idea that am I collecting information about the people you've met? Or am I collecting information about you and making that available to the people you've met should, should one or either of you test positive? And it became this good versus evil debate. But actually, if you look at how public health works and how contact tracing works, contact tracing works by developing graphs and depth of people. So it's knowing who the index patient is, who's the person who's tested positive, and tracing it through to other people in that chain and trying to follow that around. If you try and have a conversation with heads of public health, which I did, and explain to them how we're going to do this and not have an index patient, there is this baffled look as they've never considered a world without an index patient, because it's not the way they think. However, there are concerns around if I'm developing this massive graph of every connection with every person, then what are the impacts of that? And what does that mean? Because obviously, it has privacy implications as well, and a breach in a system like that would be correct. So this whole thing, this whole episode was a series of trade offs, a series of proofs. And again, from from operating inside of government, a lot of things, some things take time, like government is actually quite good in situations in a crisis in terms of responding quickly. But usually the default is we'll take our time, we'll do the analysis, we'll work through this. And seeing is believing. So our first working prototypes were within a couple of days of us starting. So we were showing people the whole way through and just making sure and bringing them on that journey and building confidence that we could actually do this, because it was a novel technology in a novel space under incredible pressure. So how do we do something like that? And the critics define the meme space. So the meme space is kind of the stories that were kind of going around in the media at that time, the screamers, the superstars, the concerned idealists, the uber experts, they were all there. And this was going to be the end of days, as far as some people were concerned. The key thing that came out was the right demands for transparency. And we had committed very early on to open source this. At the start, it, I guess, it, it was in our heads to do it. But we were kind of working so fast that it was kind of an it basically became an afterthought. So we were, we were kind of said, we'll, we'll get to that piece, but actually open sourcing the technology and making it available and making it visible and sharing the data protection impact assessment, doing all of these things led to an increased transparency and that drove trust. And I think trust is one of the underpinning things in terms of success of these apps. So we hit a point where we could not get Bluetooth working in the background. It just didn't work, didn't work reliably on Apple. There was challenges on Android as well. And you can kind of either face into it and keep fighting and keep fighting, fighting, fighting, or you can decide you're going to take a different path and see if you can do it in a different way. And we were constantly, so all of the options that we were exploring earlier, we kept all of those options on the board. It wasn't like we doubled down. We were kind of committed to building like a Bluetooth based conflict tracing app, but we were also keeping other options open and making sure that we had that optionality as part of our landscape for us. So Google and Apple then stepped in. This was kind of April of last year and announced that they were releasing this Google, Google, Google, Google, Apple exposure notification system. Now, that had two things for us. One is it solved our problem in that they would solve the technology problems, which meant we had ultimately had to rip out about 10,000 lines of code. The other side of this was that we actually went from centralized to decentralized, which pleased the privacy people. But at the same time, we then had to trade off with the public health people to explain to them that you're losing an index patient. You will no longer have that connection, but hard, strong connection between the two people, one who infected another person. Then understanding how that works inside of a contact tracing system that's designed around index patients, that becomes a challenge as well. So we were reeling this really fast. Amazon were helping us. We had a dev team called NearForm who were like building the tech. They're a major contributor into Node. They work in these kind of crazy and sane projects all the time. So we were kind of working with them testing from Xplio. We had security and privacy values from a company called ISAS plus all this government help working in different directions. But Amazon were there as well. So we were working with Amazon to help define this and get there as quickly as we could. So we committed early on to use native services. And that was a commitment at that point in time. And it was really driven by the time constraints and just making sure that we should make this thing work day one out of the box. And we subsequently built an interoperability architecture which allowed us to so we were the first country to deliver interoperability anywhere globally. And that was between us and Northern Ireland. So we put a shared border on the island and we want to make sure that people can travel over and back across that border with ease. And that was in terms of opening up movements and travel. And then subsequently we were part of the first group, the first wave as we were opening up and interoperating with Europe. So that then became another program as we went through it. But meanwhile, in other news, so we weren't the only show in town. So I think we've seen probably more transformation and more, more incredible work gone on inside of government in this country and governments around the world in the past 12 months. Then it's just been incredible in terms of the pace of change. But COVID-19 was just impacting all over the place. And that's where Kubernetes came into the rescue. So it's underpinning clinical information systems. It's underpinning and kind of future, future pieces around how we do healthcare integration across the sector. So there's a lot of work there that it's really been pivotal in terms of building reliable, robust infrastructures underneath that can cater with the load. And it's a lot of systems that really weren't designed to kind of work in this way or scale to the to the demands that they were kind of facing. And COVID really beat the crop out of a lot of things. And so technologies like Kubernetes and some of the other technologies that we're looking at from CNCF are going to play a pivotal part of how we kind of rebuild and reinvest in infrastructure across the board. And I don't think it's not just health. I think it's more broadly across government. So 110 days later. So we had the app in the app store after 100 days, like ready to go in the app store and the play store. We were then without a government because we had an election around this year. We're only around last year. It all the time gets compressed during COVID. So we had this, we had an election that had been run COVID hit. We got stuck. It was determined that this record cabinet decision to go live because it was seen as putting health in everybody's pocket. So it was a big decision. So this was the first decision that this new government that we have now made was to go live with this app. So we went live on the 7th of July. It's a fully integrated content tracing solution. So it integrates into the core manual contact tracing piece that's there. And so it's an end to end. So it's seamless. It's not just a piece of technology that sits on its own and does its own thing. It's integrated into the entire system. So 7th of July, we went live today. So we've got right now we got 1.3 million people on the platform. We've had 15,000 people who've tested positive and uploaded their diagnosis keys. We've notified over 30,000 people. Most of them are contactable. But we have a symptom checking feature in the app and we've had 60 million check-ins on the symptom checker. We're interoperable with Europe. We're interoperable with Northern Ireland. 10 plus releases at this point. But the code, we contributed the code into the Linux Foundation Public Health project. And it's now being used in whole or in part in 10, 10 implementations and there's more coming. So it's working in that it's doing its job. It's doing what it's meant to do. Could it work better? Absolutely. But as we learn about this technology, we're constantly tweaking and tuning and understanding as our Google and Apple. So we're kind of working on this to try and understand how it works better. So I think you're never going to please anybody. But one of the things that happened was that the approach we had taken the open sourcing and the transparency around what we were doing actually won over a lot of privacy. People who would typically be critical of these kind of moves were actually won over in terms of this is a model for how we do things like this into the future. And next steps, well it's a global impacting. So as I said, it's in 10 different implementations. We gave it into the Linux Foundation Public Health project as a contribution in there. We're actively participating in that group with other public health authorities trying to figure out different ways, not just to solve problems of COVID-19, but also to look at preparing for a future. So what happens post pandemic response toolkits? What do they look like? And then other broader public health issues that we face. So I guess for many of you and I know this is an audience from around the world, this will mean nothing but there's a satirical newspaper in Ireland called Water For Whispers that is usually skewering anything that's done by government, anything that's done by public figures, anything that's done by celebrities usually get skewered in the front of it. When this headline came out, and that was August of last year, or yeah, it was actually August when it came out, but it was to do with July. And there had been so much chatter on social media that it'd been so much chatter around the world about how this whole thing would work. The relief that we had, and I know it seems like a very small win, but when you're not being skewered on the front of it, when you're not the subject of the joke then and somebody else is but you're being used as part of that piece. There was a certain sense of relief, a little bit of Shab and Freud, if I'm honest. So this is this is me. If you want to find out a bit of green, the link to the to the open source repository is there. Welcome anybody who wants to ask me questions. Welcome anybody who wants to come in and join community as well and help because I think what we're trying to do with the Linux Foundation Public Health Project is really bring some of this stuff together and bring some of the the enthusiasm, the minds and that that open source community thing, which is for Ireland, it was one of the first real experiences in terms of how this can actually help us solve some of the major problems that we've got in the world. Thank you all for that. And I hope that was worthwhile. Take care.


My name is Todd Labrador. I will talk about Canoe Building, Birchbark Canoe Building. So what's the target age group with your program that you work with? Maybe some youth are not accepted as well. So it can be from... Is there a name for the program? Besides Canoe Building. But Canoe Building is really the one that I've got a lot of focus on. So what do you think makes your program or your workshop stand out? Because it's mostly one of a kind. Only practicing does this. I tend to get booked. What impact do you see on the people who take the workshops from being involved? By the trees, the roots, and the wood leaves. Hand tools like crooked knives, draw knives. We'll start with no experience at all. My courses sometimes will run for six weeks. A functional birchbark canoe. Different things away from my courses, they'll take how to use a knife for the first time. Some will learn how to chance, in some cases, participate. Do you see a change in the students over time? Yeah, the muscles that are required. And when they know what they did, some of them are shot. They don't speak well, and as they're working, they develop more confidence and are able to share visitors from all over the world. So I really see a positive change. I've always said it benefits the McMah nation. It benefits the province. Because we have people coming from all over the world to watch. So you have people of all ages learning together at the same time? Yeah, sometimes I'll only work with a few at a time, because I don't have enough skilled helpers. So I'll take two or three at a time. And then, sometimes during the project, we'll have time where people can sign up and come work with me for a couple hours and maybe do some work on the canoe. So I've had people from the ages of probably five years old to probably 80 years old. And sometimes it's only for a few hours. Sometimes it's for, you know, longer period of time. Because it's such a rare opportunity, it goes over very well. Is there a language component to the program?  Mostly my goal is to work with the First Nations youth, the McMah youth, to revive this almost lost tradition. And my great-grandfather was the last builder in our family. After he died, it almost became lost. And so I have people from McMah communities in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. I have people, Indigenous people as well, from all over the country and all over North America. But I also have Germans, people from France, people from all over, and sometimes to take part. What do you tell you that your program is working? Last summer, I built three canoes. Two in Nova Scotia and one in Prince Edward Island. I was born in 1990, 2020, and 2021. So I get so many calls. Last summer, I had 20 requests. And there's more than I can handle. There's programs with youth in schools. I went to Teachers College and studied to be a TechEd teacher. I'm a licensed carpenter as well. Could you talk a bit more about what happens in your program? Sure, it's a six-week course. I will set it up so that most of the roots are harvested. The birch bark is harvested. A lot of the woodworking is done. And what we do over the period of six weeks is we put everything together. From the frame of the canoe to the ribs to the birch bark, we sew everything together. But during that time, we will go into the forest and we will actually harvest birch bark.  We will split the roots. Like splitting roots is a skill that's developed over lots of time. A lot of these things you can't learn in a day or a week. Not many people can take a six-week course and then go home and build a canoe. It's a long-term apprenticeship where sometimes you have to work and develop that skill. It's a skill that you can learn how to build a canoe, but out of that you'll have other skills that develop like how to make birch bark containers, how to make other things with spruce root, how to bend wood, like how to bend wood, how to identify wood. There's many different things that may spin us, I guess, from the project. But also for them to know that this is what their ancestors did with very limited tools. They had stone, bone, and wood. And they created canoes, you know, travels the ocean and across the lakes. What would you say is the aim of the program aside from making a canoe? Like is there maybe a healing aspect or spiritual component or aim? It is. It's our spiritual, harvesting the spiritual because we do ceremonies where we offer tobacco, we do smudging to harvest the canoe, harvest the bark and the roots. We ask our ancestors to help guide us. So it's a healing process. And we've always, my father always said it's a healing process of, as you're building, it's a very spiritual meditating in a lot of ways, too. But also it instills a sense of pride back to our people because the youth come along and they start to develop skills that they didn't have. So that makes them proud. But the elders start coming out and saying, I remember when I was a child and my great-grandfather made baskets. So other than stories come back. Maybe stories that were almost forgotten until the elders saw spruce roots. Then they start telling stories of when they were little collecting spruce roots with their grandparents. So it's a healing process but it's also bringing positive things to the communities where the elders love it because they travel for hours to come and just to be with us for a few hours. And because they are so pleased with what we're doing. Have you found any challenges that you've had to overcome in running the program? Yes, there's many challenges. For me, I always said building birch bark canoes because I didn't really have a teacher. It was like taking the road less traveled because the road I took, people traveled it. But when I traveled it, it had been all grown up because it had been almost lost and the path that was created by my ancestors had not been traveled for a long time. So I had to clear that path again. And to understand today that not every birch tree works only a certain tree works. So I have to find a certain tree but today all I find is clear cuts.  So I have to get permission from Crown Land, the government, Parks Canada, private wood lot owners. And there are times that they want to help but other times they don't want to help. So it's always a challenge to explain to them that this is a good thing. It's valuable for our nation, our youth but it's also valuable for the country and the world. So those challenges, and a lot of times the government will say well how much did you pay for the birch bark or how much did you pay for spruce roots? So my challenge is I can't tell them you know I bought birch bark at Canadian Tire I bought birch bark at home hardware because it's not, you can't do that and I have to go and harvest and dig my own roots. So those are challenges that are, you know I can't go to the store and order 700 feet of birch spruce root. So things like that and also to make the government realize that this is a good thing this is very good for our community our people and our nation and so those are challenges but after you know 20, 30 years I have a lot of people willing to help me now because they do see the benefits of this. Tourism is a huge part of what I do because it's a very rare skill and we usually do it in public so people can come and see. What to you is like a measure of success in your students? I guess for me it's even sometimes a little hard to talk about but it's a smile on the faces of the elders but I can call success when I can see an elder smiling and coming up to me and say you're doing really well, you're doing good you're doing good things but also to have a five year old little boy come over and help me with this canoe and tell me when I get older I want to build a canoe too boys and girls and that you know it's worth more than any money for me, it's really and also the amount of people that these projects attract because I have hundreds of people coming from the country so my people come from Texas from Ottawa and they'll tell me we came here just to see this and I'm really humbled by that they actually think that my father was born in 1874 he died in 1961 he didn't have any electricity but he raised my father because my father was died shortly after World War I and so my great grandfather raised my father and he also kept my father from attending residential school great grandfather would hide my father in the woods every time they came to get him so I've taken that negative thing you know, my grandfather my father's father shot himself made a suicide because of World War I of what had happened when he came back he had one leg he couldn't work he was chased out of town because he was an Indian when they buried him they buried him outside the fence in the cemetery because he was an Indian and bad terrible stories and terrible negative things that had happened in the past you know, I've taken this and this canoe has brought a lot of positive things and it's because of the efforts of my grandfather and my great grandfather and my father and you know, my grandparents that I'm able to do what I do The next questions are more about Indigenous education in general but was there anything else you wanted to say about your program specifically? I would like to see the programs in schools whether it be a training center community college, university I do know one thing is that I cannot do it alone I, you know, I'm getting to the point where I mean I can go for another 10 years but my hands are sore I'm developing arthritis but I have 30 to 40 years of knowledge that I need to pass on so I really need help somehow to get people involved so I can pass this on and somebody will take it because I, you know, this is going to be a day that I'm not going to be around and I hate to see that 30 to 40 years of knowledge that I have, Birchbark and things that I've been taught I hate to see that lost I want it to keep going Do you ever work with the craft college here in New Brunswick? No, I haven't Right now we're back in Nova Scotia probably from May to September sometimes longer but this summer we're building two canoes next summer we're building an ocean canoe for the North American Indigenous Games and that's 21 foot ocean canoe so I'm really, as I said, I had over 20 requests so I'm limited as to possibly next spring so there's a lot of interest out there and mostly what I have to do is for 2020 I have to harvest in 2019 so I have to harvest almost a year ahead so that's what I try to do and it's like one canoe, 16 feet takes more than 700 feet of route somebody to help me to split those routes and learn as they do that would be really good Crafts College would be great you know, Community College would be really nice to see But do you ever work with the Red Road Project? Very little, I did some presentations for them but they only asked me, I think, once at Stone Bear Lodge that I'd never heard from them anymore From your perspective, what is Indigenous education? I say the doors wide open on that because I grew up really not having it in school in saying that I never really had Indigenous education in school and what I did have wasn't good it was negative so I think the doors wide open and we can really develop something incredible there's so much from the land so much that we can do but also modern stuff like right now I'm carving in red cedar because I'm here in British Columbia I'm carving Mignol petroglyphs on 3 foot diameter red cedar so I'm taking an old tradition in modernizing it so there's so many modern things we can do endless so Indigenous education I really think it needs to involve Indigenous people there's so many elders out there with stories and knowledge they want to share unfortunately sometimes in our First Nations governments because of First Nations politics a lot of these elders aren't on their lists and they get missed so in some communities there are elders who don't have a chance to to take part in different things because you know and sometimes maybe it's because of politics so that's unfortunate because our youth lose there and we all lose there because there's still elders out there who have something to give and are being missed so I think that's very important not to miss those elders because once an elder passes that book is closed for the future what is your vision for Indigenous education for the next 10 years? what would you like to see? well for me I will continue to do what I do as long as I can always as I said over the years I can build a canoe or I can do work in my shop with the doors closed but nobody benefits from that I have to pass on things so I always have to be involved with teaching and so I'd like to see it continued I'd like to see schools where people are taught how to make baskets people are taught how to how to skin deer how to tan hide how to make drums I'll have leftover pieces of birch bark I'll have leftover pieces of spruce root but I can't throw it away because what I can't use on a canoe can be used somewhere else it can be used for making little containers I can do etchings on the winter bark and it can be a 2 inch square piece of winter bark it's so much that can be done with that the Abbey Museum in Bar Harbor, Maine incredible work and the youth, incredible things you know, baskets birch bark it's really inspiring to see that I would like to see maybe certain centers in certain areas where you can set up and people can come and learn I'll be teaching, physically I'll be teaching at least for another 10 years but verbally I can still I want to do a book I would like to do videos but I would love to do a book because I have knowledge that some people because I've worked with birch bark for most of my life I do have knowledge that many people don't have and I really think once you gain the knowledge you have a responsibility in our culture my responsibility is to pass it on so that's what I hope to do what do you think makes an amazing like the Indigenous program amazing or effective? you have to get really nice to work with Indigenous people but there are non-Indigenous people that can help as well but I think it needs to be Indigenous run we have to have we have to have criteria that makes it successful but it really needs to be run by Indigenous people and not always do they have to be University educated because I did spend 3.5 years and teach this college and I'm a licensed carpenter but my qualifications are written on birch bark and I I can't go to university and learn anywhere what I know but I can teach it that's it for the questions here but was there anything else that you wanted to add or say? I'm sort of doing similar to what this program is I've sort of been doing it all along sometimes people have incredible ideas but they're travelling parallel it's like train tracks you go side by side doing the same thing never touch so I think if we can come together and help each other it'll become stronger