text:
Dr Indongo
Physician to the Namibian President. Former Deputy Minister of Health
The interview was held by Bertil Högberg on 15 June 2005.
Dr Indongo was in charge of the health and social services within SWAPO for many years. His engagement started when he was elected as a member of the Central Committee of SWAPO and its Secretary for Health and Social Services at Tanga Consultative Conference in January 1970. Dr Indongo was involved in a medical aid project, building hospital and worked as a medical doctor together with volunteers from the Nordic countries.
Bertil Högberg: This is 15 June 2005 and we are sitting here in Windhoek with Dr Indongo who for a long time was in charge of the health and social services within SWAPO. What is your present occupation?
Dr Indongo: At the moment I'm still a physician to the President, former President, Sam Nujoma, and I'm in the process of to retiring from the government services.
Bertil Högberg: So you have been employed by the Ministry of Health?
Dr Indongo: Yes, for a long time, since 1991. I worked for 4 years as a Deputy Minister of Health and then I became a special advisor to the ministry as well as the physician to the President, I have just retired from the position as special advisor.
Bertil Högberg: Okay, I think you have the right to retire, I think you reached that age now.
Dr Indongo: Oh yes, I'm now 67.
Bertil Högberg: And that also means that your involvement with the struggle must go quite a long time back. When did you become involved in the struggle for Namibia's liberation?
Dr Indongo: I started when I was elected at Tanga Consultative Conference in January 1970. I was elected as a member of the Central Committee of SWAPO and its Secretary for Health and Social Services.
Bertil Högberg: But you had been involved with SWAPO quite a long time before that hadn't you?
Dr Indongo: Yes, before I left Namibia I was working with the SWAPO leadership in Windhoek as a Deputy Treasurer for the SWAPO branch in Windhoek.
Bertil Högberg: And you are talking about which time?
Dr Indongo: That is 1960.
Bertil Högberg: 1960?
Dr Indongo: Yes, after that then I left in 1962. On the way to Tanganyika. I stayed for about 8 to 9 months in Tanganyika before I was sent to study in Kiev, Ukraine, where I did my 7 years of medical studies.
Dr Indongo: I stayed there from '63 to '70.
Bertil Högberg: So when you were elected Secretary of Health and Social Services you were very fresh just coming from your education?
Dr Indongo: Yes, just from school.
Bertil Högberg: And in practice what did that mean? The work you started to do for SWAPO where did you start to work then?
Dr Indongo: It was a challenge because we were the first secretaries. Nothing to read from, nothing to learn from, you have to start from scratch. And Dr Libertina Amathila was my Deputy Secretary. Of course the guidelines were stipulated in the SWAPO constitution so there were duties to be performed, like organising medical services, establishment of clinics and so on and so forth. This we started with.
Bertil Högberg: And that was both for the civilian side and for the military side?
Dr Indongo: It was for both yes, because military people by then, in the '70s, were very few. But the refugees especially from Caprivi there were a couple of them.
Bertil Högberg: So where did you set up your headquarters?
Dr Indongo: The headquarters was then still in Tanganyika.
Bertil Högberg: Okay.
Dr Indongo: We moved from Tanganyika – oh, no, wait a minute, the headquarters had already moved then from Tanzania to Zambia. But we both had first to do our internship in Tanzania at a hospital. Libertina finished first then she joined her husband in Sweden. I stayed there for 2 years and I came down to Lusaka, Zambia. But the majority of our people by that time were in Western Province so I started my practice in Zambia at Mongu Hospital.
Bertil Högberg: Okay, where was that?
Dr Indongo: Mongu is the capital of the Western Province of Zambia. In fact it's where I met my wife.
Bertil Högberg: Oh, yes, she told me about that.
Dr Indongo: Her mother is a Zambian, her father is from Caprivi.
Bertil Högberg: Yes, the borders didn't mean anything to families in those days.
Dr Indongo: No. Now while in Mongu the news came around in 1974 that it was likely following the coup in Portugal the route through Angola would be opened to a lot mass the refugees coming from Namibia. Then there was a need for me to move from Mongu up north closer to the Angolan border, to a place called Kalabo. I was the sole medical officer there when in May the first group of refugees arrived from Namibia.
Bertil Högberg: And they came in many thousands then.
Dr Indongo: In thousands through Angola. And we had now to move these people from near the border to places like Nyango and the other places. Now we had to make a clear separation between refugees and freedom fighters. Freedom fighters as you know they were closer to the border to enable them to perform their duties while the civilians had to be far away in the interior where we thought it was a little bit safer from attacks and raids by South Africans. The job was tough because you had to supply both the component of freedom fighters near the borders and the civilians. The military had to transport their own things but from time to time one had to go there for check ups. I had to supervise those medics because they had rather short term training, sometimes only 6 months. They needed continuous training, so some lecturers were organised and sent to them.
Bertil Högberg: You mean the medical officers that were in the guerrilla teams or?
Dr Indongo: Yes. Whereas mothers and children behind needed their education and other help, that's why we called these centres "health and education" centres. Well we stayed on doing these things, by then Libertina had joined me back from Sweden. Then a new front was opened in Angola so I had to leave my colleague behind and come down to Angola and organise the same thing. That's where we met; I was just coming from Zambia to come and put up these health services and was joined by a group of teachers.
Bertil Högberg: And so you started in the south of Angola, didn't you?
Dr Indongo: When I left Luanda for the south the first stop where I found a group of people was Huambo. From Huambo we moved to Kassinga and while in Kassinga too many people were coming, especially children. They needed a proper place and a peaceful place to do their schooling so we were given another place, a former mining camp nearby at a place called Njamba. That is where we settled with kids and children. Kassinga became a receiving place for new arrivals and they were busy sorting out kids and children going to Njamba and those who were fit for guerrilla business going towards the border to be trained. And as you recall in 1978 the South Africans came and attacked around Kassinga so all of us had to be taken away from there to Lubango. It didn't take too long before the South Africans already knew that we were there, so people were taken away from there, especially civilians, from Lubango to Kwanza.
The first place we arrived at in Kwanza was near the river. I went for a short time to Senegal, just to refresh my mind at a certain institute of planning, in Dakar, Senegal, that is towards the end of 1978. When I came back I found people at this place near the river that was an old farm but it was infested with mosquitoes and tsetse flies. I started now to catch these tsetse flies, taking them to Brazzaville, in Congo, just to test whether they were infected with sleeping sickness. The answer was that there was no sleeping sickness but the malaria was taking its toll, the children were dying too much. So I started thinking "What is going on that there are no neighbours surrounding us, it's a good place, plenty of water but people are dying and it's too hot at the river?" So I went around up the mountains looking where the people were. I found that people were up the mountains where there were no mosquitoes in a coffee plantation at Kabuta, where you met me. I used to stay alone in Kabuta, coming down to work in Kwanza, up to when approval was given by the leadership of SWAPO to take people up there where it was a little bit better as far as malaria was concerned.
But unfortunately the hand-dug wells that were the source of drinking water were infected by all kinds of infections, like coli and even bilharzia that caused people to have difficulty to urinate. So there was a need for potable water. The wells were many but the water quantity was not enough, not only in quantity but you can talk about quality because the quality was very, very poor. So we struggled hard to convince UNICEF to sink some wells there, modern wells, and after we got potable water everything came back to normal, children could study peacefully because they were under protection of tall trees and coffee plantations and the South Africans couldn't do anything there because you noticed there was always a mist?
Bertil Högberg: Yes. And it's also quite far away from the border.
Dr Indongo: No, they used to come, they used to come with their pilot less plane trying to spy but the protection, that nature was very protected.
Bertil Högberg: Yes, it was quite lush vegetation there.
Dr Indongo: Yes, right.
Bertil Högberg: How many people were there in those days in that settlement?
Dr Indongo: It's very difficult just to estimate because people were on the move all the time, some were going to school, just passing, going to school, and some were coming back, so there were around 30,000.
Bertil Högberg: And what kind of medical personnel did you have at your disposal?
Dr Indongo: The first group of foreigners that we got as medical people they were two Cubans who came before Kassinga massacre, but after Kassinga massacre they left us. They went instead to support the military component, so we were joined by the former DDR doctors and later on by the Scandinavians, either from Sweden or Finland. These were quite a number of people, most of the time they were four; DDR would have at least two plus myself.
Bertil Högberg: What type of personnel were you most in need of? You had some Namibians that you had trained yourself.
Dr Indongo: Yes, the Namibians we trained were most of the time nurses. From '74 we sent some people to medical school but as you know it takes 7 years for somebody to complete the first training so they came a little bit later. After '82 they started coming gradually. But some nurses had either started or completed school of nursing here at home or abroad. They were helpful they were many but we were not satisfied with the Bantustan education, we used to send them still for short courses assisted by the World Health Organisation that helped to train them.
Bertil Högberg: This decision to invite doctors and nurses and lab. technicians from Sweden and Finland was that a difficult one? I recall that some wondered whether one could let foreigners into your settlements.
Dr Indongo: Yes, it was about whom you trust. We trusted people from Sweden and Finland because Finland, for instance, had been working with us for a long time in our churches, especially in the north. As for Sweden their neutrality encouraged us to trust them. It was not very difficult because SIDA was always having discussions once or twice a year with us, not only in the field of health alone but concerning all our activities. Most of the time all the sectors came together and were joined by the group from Stockholm, and then we discussed about our needs. Every sector gave its needs so at one time we were even invited to go to Stockholm and attend such meetings there.
Bertil Högberg: Yes, I remember meeting you at least once or twice I think in Stockholm.
Dr Indongo: Yes. No, it was several times indeed.
Bertil Högberg: The SIDA support also included quite a lot of medicines and a few other things, but also this medical aid project that was run by the Bread and Fishes and the Africa Groups also had quite a big component of medicines and other utensils. What was the difference between those two operations?
Dr Indongo: It was very difficult for a person far away to make a clear distinction between the two because this was a job for our representative in Stockholm at that time. They were either Ben Amathila or comrade Hadino Hishongwa. They were practically involved to negotiate, to look at it, whereas we on the receiving end it was hard to know exactly which came from whom because some of the things had to be packed right there.
Bertil Högberg: I remember from our discussions then you had to ask SIDA so long in advance for the medicines that sometimes you ended up with a shortage of some drugs or an emergency arose. It was this long-term planning with SIDA assistance that made that problem. So that's why I think we went into a kind of agreement that we supplied in the short-term.
Dr Indongo: Yes, it's true because your government they brought us, it used to take sometimes, not always but sometimes, longer because they were involved in many other things. Apart from medicine there were clothes, for example, to be supplied and pre-fab. material, I mean pre-fab. structures that are easy to put together when they arrive, and so it was a lot of things that came from that part of the world.
Bertil Högberg: And part of that was through this medical aid project but some was in the more traditional way that Bread and Fishes and Emmaus sent regularly. We were also able to use these wooden containers for shipment that could be turned into houses.
Dr Indongo: Yes.
Bertil Högberg: But I remember, for example, you sometimes sent a telex to the Stockholm office asking for certain types of medicine because you had an outbreak of something somewhere and then we could supply it quickly by air.
Dr Indongo: It's a normal case in medicine that from time to time you have an outbreak of this or of that, whereas in planning you may not have known that that would take place. Sometimes when we had a typhus fever, we had to request emergency supplies. We had some even from World Health Organisation but sometimes things are not enough when it comes to emergencies.
Bertil Högberg: These settlements were now situated close to Angolan villages because you said you moved to where the Angolans actually were living?
Dr Indongo: Correct.
Bertil Högberg: So what was their relationship to the medical services and so on? Were they also able to receive assistance from you?
Dr Indongo: Yes, we treated them. We had an agreement with the Angolans that we could refer as many Namibians as we could to Luanda, whereas wherever there was a Namibian settlement the Angolan medical services had nothing to do with that area, it had to be directly our responsibility.
Bertil Högberg: Also for the Angolans?
Bertil Högberg: Now when you got Swedish medical personnel coming into the camps what was your first impression of them when they came?
Dr Indongo: Usually when you have people coming from a different environment they are highly sophisticated and highly qualified people when they come but in the bush you need certain orientation to get an understanding of what the surroundings look like. So at the beginning they have to have some sort of orientation practices before they get used to everything. It was not very difficult because we didn't have any sophisticated machines and all that. This is a tricky thing that you have no proper lab. Yet you must diagnose. In a sophisticated set up the laboratory will tell you what to do after looking into it saying "Oh, here we have such and such infections, the treatment after sensitive testing is this". You are just fed by the machine but there you had to think and find out without much help from the laboratory, for example.
Bertil Högberg: But did the Swedes and Finns fit in well in this environment?
Dr Indongo: Oh, perfectly, yes they did. People are quite different, there are those who needed a longer period but most of the time they tried their best.
Bertil Högberg: What would you say was the biggest contribution that these medical teams made to the services in the camps?
Dr Indongo: Well as I said I was the only Namibian on that side, my colleague had to be on the Zambian side, had I not had their assistance we couldn't have managed because I was not sitting only in Kwanza, from time to time I had to check down closer to the border what the others were doing, what was happening there.
Bertil Högberg: So they were sometimes left completely on their own to run the thing?
Dr Indongo: Yes, I couldn't just sit working with them, but I was on the move. Angola is a big country, when you come to the Namibian border it will take you almost a month before you are back.
Bertil Högberg: We sent quite a lot of collected second-hand material and there were sometimes discussions back home – is it right to send second-hand material. What do you think about all this second-hand material that you got?
Dr Indongo: I think it was helpful because the stay in Angola for us was not going to be forever, it was for a short duration and after that we were always prepared to come back home, and eventually that took place. So it was helpful. It was helpful because it didn't take a long time from '80 to '89.
Bertil Högberg: But you decided anyway to try to build some more permanent structures, to build some hospitals?
Dr Indongo: Yes, correctly so because nobody knew exactly when the day, D-Day, would be with us. One had to put up some strong structures. We thought that should we come back home the Angolans could make use of this and benefit from it. But unfortunately those Kwanza places are no-go areas because they are mined; they are mine-filled now so you can't make use of them.
Bertil Högberg: And I also understood that UNITA came in and destroyed quite a lot of the things when you had left?
Dr Indongo: Yes, they came in, took what they wanted and put mines all over. And anybody else trying to get there they had their limbs taken off, if they were not blown up to death in fact.
Bertil Högberg: But were you able to rescue some of the material there and bring it back to Namibia?
Dr Indongo: Yes, of course we did but we could only take what we could, not everything. Most of the things were left behind. Even our own history, anything we got while there was left behind.
Bertil Högberg: Oh, that's a pity.
Dr Indongo: It's a pity; we didn't come with much documentation. But modern equipment like machines to test HIV/AIDS we came with those because one has to prioritise when choosing, sorting out what you can carry. We thought we could go back for the rest later, which then unfortunately couldn't take place.
Bertil Högberg:This issue about HIV/AID erupted in these times at the beginning of the '80s. I think I remember that one of our doctors that worked in the settlements, Susan Beckman, she went to one of the very first AIDS conferences in Brazzaville.
Dr Indongo: Susan, yes Susan accompanied me to some of those conferences, yes.
Bertil Högberg: What precautions did you take after that on the HIV thing within SWAPO?
Dr Indongo: Well what we did what was useful with this machine was just to sort out a student who was going abroad. Locally in Angola it was a war-zone, HIV was not prevalent and not really an issue but students since they are moving up and down they are able to get it.
Bertil Högberg: It was more in Zambia?
Dr Indongo: Well even in Angola because somebody could have come from secondary school in a certain country, all over the world, come back and get a scholarship to go and continue with university studies, then they needed to be checked because it was a requirement those days that whoever was going abroad had to have a certificate of being free from HIV.
Bertil Högberg: Okay, so that was a requirement by some of the ones that offered scholarships then?
Bertil Högberg: Okay. Did you think that the support that you got with personnel and material when it came to the health side was sufficient for your needs?
Dr Indongo: It can never be sufficient.
Bertil Högberg: It wasn't?
Dr Indongo: But that was very, very important support we got because without that support we couldn't have survived the severe conditions in Angola because here you can see this is a different climate altogether compared to Angola where you have tropical conditions. People were not, for example, when it came to malaria they had no what we call resistance.
Bertil Högberg: Yes, that's right.
Dr Indongo: They were very vulnerable to it.
Bertil Högberg: Only those that came from the real north of Namibia where they have malaria were resistant?
Dr Indongo: Yes, the northerners could stand it a little bit but for example you hardly find malaria in Windhoek.
Bertil Högberg: When it comes to clothes and things there was quite a number of Swedish and also other Danish and Norwegian organisations that were providing you with clothes, was that enough for you?
Dr Indongo: Oh, yes, enough.
Bertil Högberg: I assume that you even got too much.
Dr Indongo: In clothing you don't need to have heavy things, like here in wintertime they have not winter so it was quite sufficient.
Bertil Högberg: But wasn't it so that you sometimes got too many clothes, more than you needed for the refugees?
Dr Indongo: We would not call it that because the neighbours, the Angolans, had nothing so even if we got enough our neighbours needed them.
Bertil Högberg: So they were also distributed there?
Dr Indongo: Yes, you can't call it distribution but they were getting clothes. When they were in hospitals they had to get something to put on when they went back home.
Bertil Högberg: And now I think I recall a story that some of the Namibians they used clothes sometimes to barter with Angolans for things that they couldn't get otherwise.
Dr Indongo: Also you can't be on tinned food forever, you need something fresh.
Bertil Högberg: Yes, exactly.
Bertil Högberg: Is there any special memory you have from this cooperation between Swedish doctors and yourself, a special occasion or something that springs to mind when you think about all those years?
Dr Indongo: Yes, I recall some naughty Swedes sneaked out of the camp and went as far as Malanje. Malanje was almost the headquarters of UNITA those days and when we caught up with them they were almost reaching or almost encircled by UNITA and by then the South African government had issued a warning that wherever they got hold of a Swede he was to be captured and kidnapped. So that I can't forget about.
Bertil Högberg: So that was a real controversy?
Dr Indongo: A very challenging incident.
Bertil Högberg: But you didn't send them away?
Dr Indongo: They were volunteers, they were controlled by their embassy in Luanda but for us in the bush to have a record of somebody kidnapped from us it would have been very, very sad. So we were a little bit upset with that but nothing else, I'm telling you we were quite happy and good friends today. Most of the time, when a team comes from the organisation to Windhoek, we have to have a coming together to celebrate.
Bertil Högberg: You made a lot of personal friends there?
Dr Indongo: Of course, I mean as you saw those houses at Kabuta we were just neighbours. We shared everything.
Bertil Högberg: So except for this incident now when people sneaked away to Malanje were there any other conflicts that you had with them?
Dr Indongo: Not at all. That was the first and the last. Of course we had to explain to them how difficult it would be because should anyone be kidnapped that would be the end of their assistance to us and we were going to suffer the consequences. And not long after some other Swedes were kidnapped in the north of the country, you recall?
Bertil Högberg: Yes.
Dr Indongo: So I think that became a good lesson, so there was no more repetition.
Bertil Högberg: Were you able to have open discussions around your needs and what could be provided from the Swedish medical aid project? How were these discussions going on?
Dr Indongo: It was negotiations like all other negotiations. I think that time we were preparing ourselves to take over the government. It was serious negotiation just government to government. We negotiate, everybody putting their needs, maybe it's too much, you have to renegotiate it, to be cut by that much, this year you get so much, this time you get that, and you put your case on the table and negotiate. Serious negotiations.
Bertil Högberg: I've got only one question left here now, you said that around this time that people sneaked away to Malanje that they didn't really understand the security concerns, the security problems that you had. Were there any other ways that you thought that the Swedes were too naïve or didn't really understand the severity of the situation? Any other ways?
Dr Indongo: Yes, I think people took the war situation lightly. You may call it naïve but since they never saw fighting they were just taking the things as not so serious. It was really serious, it was really serious.
Bertil Högberg: That must have been a problem, I remember some of them writing that they heard that they were fighting around them, they were sometimes so close that they at least could hear gunfire in the camps, but that maybe was a rare occasion?
Dr Indongo: Yes, those were the last days when we were about to come home, when UNITA learnt that we were going home they had to be closer to us just to monitor that we had left so that they could take over these places.
Bertil Högberg: What did you hope then when you were returning to Namibia? What were your expectations from us in Sweden? What did you tell the Swedes? "Now it's time″ - for what?
Dr Indongo: The time for even stronger cooperation, that was the message and the hope and for sure that continued. You know we were lucky, the Ambassador we had in Luanda and his wife.
Bertil Högberg: Sten and Berit Rylander.
Dr Indongo: Yes, these people were the first to open the embassy here and we had known each other for a couple of years, I can't remember where we met them, but we knew them very well and when they came here. The assistance was enormous at the beginning because then we needed everything, South Africans left nothing behind here, and we had to start from scratch. So we are thankful for that enormous assistance.
Bertil Högberg: I think also that one of our last doctors to work with you in the settlement, Kirsti Paaianen, she came also as the first doctor to independent Namibia, for a year.
Dr Indongo: Right.
Bertil Högberg: So that was a kind of link between the two things.
Dr Indongo: Right. The Africa Groups are coming every year to Namibia and since independence we are always meeting, whenever they come we come together.
Bertil Högberg: Okay, is there anything else you would like to add that we forgot to touch upon?
Dr Indongo: Sure, it's just to say maybe what is very important for this assistance you are giving and that is that continuation is needed. I'm very glad that you came to see me at my residence.
Bertil Högberg: Okay, thank you very much.


text:
David Moyes responds to Jan Bednarek transfer talk amid update on Craig Dawson's West Ham future
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Southampton defender Jan Bednarek has been linked with West Ham and Aston Villa. (Image: (Photo by Robin Jones/Getty Images))
West Ham manager David Moyes has refused to talk about speculation over a move for Southampton's Jan Bednarek, but has confirmed there has been an offer for Craig Dawson.
The Hammers have been linked with a move to sign Bednarek before the summer transfer window deadline at 11pm on Thursday, with speculation over the Polish international's future after not starting either of Southampton's last two games in the Premier League.
Bednarek has also been linked with Aston Villa, who are 19th in the table after a disappointing start to the new campaign, but The Athletic have reported that West Ham are looking to agree a move to sign the 26-year-old, with Craig Dawson being strongly linked with a move away from the London Stadium.
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But speaking after West Ham's 1-1 draw with Tottenham this evening (Wednesday), Moyes did not want to comment on a potential move for Bednarek, although he did confirm that West Ham had received a bid for Dawson.
Asked if there was any update on Bednarek and talks with Southampton over a move, Moyes said: "No. I couldn't talk about players at other clubs, I wouldn't do that anyway."
Moyes added that he was unable to confirm whether Dawson would still be at West Ham beyond the transfer deadline, stating: "I couldn't give you an answer to that, other than we have received an offer for him but apart from that, I wouldn't go any further."
Bednarek, who has a contract with Southampton until 2025, has played three times for Ralph Hasenhuttl's Saints so far this season, with two appearances coming in the Premier League and one in the Carabao Cup.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Everyone starts posting pictures of their kids in fields of bluebonnets (state flower). I don't have any kids, but I do have Lucy. Eileen and I took the dogs to the dog park today, and the field next door was full of bluebonnets, so we figured we might as well.
She was more interested in what was going on behind her (in the dog park), but she behaved very well. And one more, with her snazzy new doggles on.
The last time I had her in the car, I noticed her eyelids flapping in the wind as she stuck her head out the window. Doggles seemed in order. She doesn't seem to mind them when she's actually sticking her head out the window, but the minute the car stops, she wants them off!
I've been very busy with recording lately. I have five ACX projects in process, due between April and August. My part of Uncommon Grounds by Sandra Balzo is done. It's now in post-processing at ACX. I'm still working on Poison in the Blood and Gunnora's Dragons. I've also just started work on the second book of the Summer Chronicles, Forsaken Harbor; and I've just been offered The Digital Sea trilogy by Thomas K. Carpenter. I'll be starting work on that once I finish the other three.
I had to get some dental work done a couple of weeks ago, and during the recovery time, while I was loopy on vicodin, I started working on some simple hats to donate to capsforacure.
There's this tree in the back yard that grows almost horizontally for the first eight feet or so, and then, just before it hits the fence, it goes vertical. Lucy has always liked climbing that tree and watching the world go by next to the fence.
Within the last few months, though, she decided it would be great fun to just jump over and go exploring. Unsupervised explorations are not on my list of allowed activities, though, so I built a little addition to the fence.
This worked for about a month, till she tore the netting and started jumping the fence again. So I tried something sturdier within the frame.
Nice and sturdy, but she decided to just go over it. That fix didn't last more than 24 hours! So now I have to be a total meany and block off her access to the tree entirely.
Still, better a meany than splat-dog in the street.
About a year ago, I bought Lucy a new bed. It lasted intact for about three months, I think, then she started ripping out the bottom and strewing the fluff everywhere. It got a little more ripped one time when she was staying with E's dog, Huxley. I think they decided it was a tug toy.
I'd had it on top of my bedside mat so she wouldn't be sleeping on the wood floor, but it just wasn't pretty. I kept intending to make a sort of quilted bottom for it, to replace the torn one, but I never got around to it. Last weekend I happened to be in Tractor Supply Company and saw a pretty nice sheepskin-ish bed for not too much, so she finally has a bed with a bottom again.
Today was a beautiful day! After weeks of cold, rain, sleet, snow (yes, sleet and snow in C. Texas!! Not constant, but still), we had a warm, sunny day; warm enough for t-shirt and shorts, during the warmest part! A perfect day for a little yard work.
About eight years ago, our next door neighbours planted a few bamboo shoots along their back fence. Needless to say, there's bamboo everywhere now. Last spring I was going out every two or three days to cut down the new sprouts that were coming up all over the yard.
I'd been meaning to thin out the thickets along the back fence for ages; there's a rosemary bush back there that's completely hidden in the thicket, and a pretty little tree that's all but surrounded, but it was hard work with a hand saw, so I never did too much.
Another thing I bought while I was at TSC last weekend was a reciprocating saw (cashier had the nerve to ask me if it was a Valentine's present. Hmpf! Yeah, sure, Valentine's present to myself, maybe!). We now have a mountain of bamboo in the yard.
The back fence looks much better now. You can get to the back gate without resorting to a machete, you can actually see that there's a tree back there, and there's still enough bamboo to provide shade and privacy.
Gosh, look, there's a door back there! And a tree!
The brown patch in the middle of the bamboo is the poor rosemary bush, which is half dead, but we're hoping, if we trim it back and stake it down a bit, it'll re-root and grow back this spring and summer.
E also suddenly remembered that she had a picnic canopy that was sitting around gathering dust, so she offered me the use of it so I could have semi-covered parking for my scooter. Great fun putting that up, because by that point, the temperature had started dropping again and a fairly brisk wind had picked up. Always the best time to put up tents, when it's blowing a gale!
Finished recording the latest Ignatius book today. Just need to proof-listen the last section and upload it. Those long sections were a challenge, though, even divided up into three recording sessions each.
So a few weeks ago, the Cachinnator wrote a post in which he asked whether they still made whole Heath bars, or if they only ever came in crumb form these days. I am happy to announce that I have found the answer to his query. Yes, Cach, you'll finally be able to get some sleep, instead of pacing the room all night wondering about this. Yes, Virginia, they do still make whole Heath bars.
This particular specimen was found at a convenience store in Georgetown.
'Course, now I have a Heath bar on my desk. I guess I'll have to eat it. Honestly, the sacrifices I make.
I got Lucy a new bed yesterday, since she has refused to sleep on her cushion (which she used to love) since I washed it about a month ago. I was in Ikea yesterday looking for little tables, and saw a bin full of cheap, Lucy-sized dog beds. She took to it immediately. I'm kind of shocked. It usually takes her a few days at least to warm up to new things. But not this time!
She napped in it while I took my nap, then napped some more while I was working on the computer, slept in it (as far as I can tell) all night, and is napping in it again as I type now.
I heard back from the publishing company about my audition. They were pleased with my audio (something about the accents making the text come to life :D) and will be calling me within the next few days (all email so far), so fingers still crossed!
I picked her up from the local no-kill shelter in mid-September and since then we've been getting to know each other, doing some training and going for walks every day. She's an Australian Cattle Dog mix. Not sure what the mix is… possibly some sort of terrier or pointer.
Other than that, I'd been working on Children of Eden. It was fun, but I don't think I'll do anymore shows where Tommy is music directing by himself. He's much too vague without Lise. She's got the true teacher instinct (she should; she's a teacher!), so she makes certain that everybody knows everything they're supposed to know ad nauseum. Tommy was all, "I'm going to treat you like professionals, so you just study your music." All very well, except we're not professionals, and not everybody could read music! Still, it ended up being a decent show.
At one point I'd been interested in directing Dial M for Murder, which came after CoE, but I was having health problems around the time the proposals were due and it just didn't happen. I might have auditioned for it, but I learned that Scott was going to be directing A Christmas Carol, so I decided to audition for that instead. I was offered the role of the Plain Sister (in the scene at Fred's house), but around the same time, I got a couple of projects with January deadlines at work and thought it might be safer not to take the part, since I didn't know how much extra time I might have to devote to them. Tonight I got a call from Beth asking if I would please reconsider and take the part of Fred's wife (same scene) as they were having a bit of an upheaval in the show and needed all the people they could get. So… three and a half weeks before opening, I'm suddenly in the Christmas show (panic!). Well, at least it's not a very big part. I'll get to do some carolling in Act I, possibly be a background person in the Fezziwig scene, and then be Mrs. Fred in Act II.
Author kruthie73Posted on Wednesday, 12 November, 2008 Friday, 11 February, 2011 Categories lucy and georgie, pics, theatre6 Comments on I love Lucy!


The SWAT-T Black model is made with a black color for use in tactical environments. Instructions for use are printed on the tourniquet along with the trademark pressure application measure showing just how much pressure to apply to reach occlusion. Stretch the band until the diamond appears and there will be enough pressure to stop or slow severe bleeding.
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text:
Q: Google BigQuery SQL: how to convert procedure to function that returns table? I wrote a procedure that works well:
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE project.dataset.test_procedure
    (v_month int64, v_year int64)
BEGIN
    WITH CTE AS
    (
        SELECT
            Date,
            User_ID,
            Amount
        FROM
            test_table
    )
    SELECT
        User_ID,
        SUM(Amount) AS Total_Amount
    FROM
        CTE
    WHERE
        extract(month from Date) = v_month
        AND extract(year from Date) = v_year;
END;

I need to create a function that returns a table by two variables (include CTE statement):
CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION project.dataset.test_function (v_month int64 , v_year int64 )
Returns  table
(
WITH CTE AS
(
SELECT Date,
       User_ID,
       Amount
FROM test_table
)
SELECT User_ID,
       sum(Amount) AS Total_Amount
FROM CTE
WHERE extract(month from Date)=v_month and extract(year from Date)=v_year;
END;
)

I have seen some examples, but I can not figure out how to write a function correctly that returns a table...
How to do it right in BigQuery?

A: See below toy example of exact what you are looking for
create temp table test_table as
  select 1 User_ID, 10 Amount, date '2021-01-01' Date union all
  select 1, 20, '2021-01-01' union all
  select 1, 30, '2021-02-01' union all
  select 2, 40, '2021-01-01'
;

create temp function test_function (v_month int64 , v_year int64 ) as (
array(
  select as struct
    Date,
    User_ID,
    Amount
  from test_table
  where extract(month from Date) = v_month
  and extract(year from Date)=v_year
));
select User_ID,
  sum(Amount) AS Total_Amount
from unnest(test_function(1, 2021))
group by User_ID

with output

A: CREATE OR REPLACE
TABLE FUNCTION `project.dataset.test_procedure`
(v_month int64, v_year int64)
AS (
    WITH CTE AS
    (
        SELECT Date,User_ID,Amount
        FROM `project.dataset.test_table`
    )
    SELECT User_ID, SUM(Amount) AS Total_Amount
    FROM CTE
    WHERE extract(month from Date) = v_month
      AND extract(year from Date) = v_year
    GROUP BY User_ID
);

https://cloud.google.com/bigquery/docs/reference/standard-sql/table-functions

A: Standard function is more complicated, but work too
CREATE OR REPLACE
FUNCTION `project.dataset.test_procedure` (v_month int64, v_year int64)
AS (
    --------------------------------------------------------------------
    -- declare v_month int64;
    -- declare v_year  int64;
    --------------------------------------------------------------------
    -- select *
    -- from unnest(`project.dataset.test_procedure`(v_month, v_year))
    --------------------------------------------------------------------
    ARRAY (
            WITH CTE AS
            (
                SELECT Date,User_ID,Amount
                FROM `project.dataset.test_table`
            )
            SELECT AS STRUCT User_ID, SUM(Amount) AS Total_Amount
            FROM CTE
            WHERE extract(month from Date) = v_month
              AND extract(year  from Date) = v_year
            GROUP BY User_ID
          )
  );

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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text:
package com.sixt.service.framework.health;

/**
 * HealthCheck information is polled from configured sources and merged together.
 * If all are of PASS status, the result is PASS.  Any WARN or FAIL statuses will
 * set the overall status to that, and contributed messages will be available.
 */
public class HealthCheck {

    public enum Status {
        PASS, WARN, FAIL;

        public boolean moreSevereThan(Status other) {
            if (this.equals(WARN) && other.equals(PASS)) {
                return true;
            } else if (this.equals(FAIL) && (other.equals(WARN) || other.equals(PASS))) {
                return true;
            } else {
                return false;
            }
        }

        public String getConsulStatus() {
            return name().toLowerCase();
        }
    }

    private String name = "not_set";
    private Status status = Status.PASS;
    private String message = "";

    public HealthCheck() {
    }

    public HealthCheck(String name, Status status, String message) {
        this.name = name;
        this.status = status;
        this.message = message;
    }

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public void setStatus(Status status) {
        this.status = status;
    }

    public Status getStatus() {
        return status;
    }

    public void setMessage(String message) {
        this.message = message;
    }

    public String getMessage() {
        return message;
    }

    public boolean isStatus(Status s) {
        return status.equals(s);
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "HealthCheck{" +
                "name='" + name + '\'' +
                ", status=" + status +
                ", message='" + message + '\'' +
                '}';
    }

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Sunday 22nd August 2004
Heike (my wife) and I arrived at 4.30pm in Wespelaar. We met Suzanne and were able to have a brief talk with Barry before his gig.
There were maybe 1000 - 1200 people on the festival-terrain. The weather was sunny (great)!
Apart from us we saw nobody (except a former Albatross roadie) wearing Barry McCabe T- shirts.
Unfortunately this shows once again, that he's one of the most underrated musicians.
Before Barry's gig we saw some other bands playing - I think these bands were more or less local bands. They did a good job and played their programme - but without making any real impression. So the audience sat on plastic chairs in front of the stage or were busy drinking beer in one of the beer tents around.
At 7.15pm Barry's band came on stage and Francis Mc Ilduff opened the concert with a fast pipe solo - only Barry wasn't on stage yet. Then you could hear the guitar and Barry came on stage too.
And then "the post went on" (as we say in Germany for a "fast growing athmosphere").
The first track was a hard rock song with some great bottleneck solos. (if I remember correctly it was "Pick a Bale o'Cotton").
Within a few minutes the plastic chairs were thrown aside and most of the audience moved closer to the stage.
The show was (once again) brilliant! The band was able to get the audience going within a very short time.
The set consisted of some fast rock and rock `n' roll with some great guitar playing and fantastic solos. Barry took some time for solo improvisations - with flageolet and "violin-tones" a la Rory (with the volume pot of his guitar). It was fantastic!
Just in front of us there was a guy sitting on a chair who was wearing a Rory Gallagher T- shirt. Before the concert started I said to Heike: "Hey, do you see that guy there? I'm 100% sure that he will be off his chair three minutes after the band start to play". What can I tell you - indeed he did. The guy stood near the front of the stage and was `rocking' from the first moment.
At the beginning there were a few sound problems but only for the first 15 minutes.
After a while Barry took his acoustic and played "The Emigrant", together with Francis and his low whistle. Before he started to play he mentioned that this song is dedicated to Rory Gallagher and he got several ovations from the audience.
Then he also played a really fantastic version of "(Gotta) Let It Go" with his acoustic - this was also a great highlight for me. I can't remember having heard this song live on stage before. Fantastic!
After the acoustic part the whole band played again and the performance got better and better. Songs like "One of These Days", "Oh Well" and some other songs from the "Albatross" days hit the audience over and over.
Around us were only rocking and dancing people. Barry was running across the stage from one corner to the other - like a dervish!
The concert ended after one and a half hours and the band left the stage. The crowd was shouting for an encore. The show was only planned for 75 minutes and we thought it was over ... but the audience wouldn't stop shouting for an encore. And then it happened. Barry came on stage again and started (alone) to play "The Peace Within". Then the other members came on stage. It was an extended version of "The Peace Within", including an exchange of solos between Barry and Francis with his pipes, who played a great performance!
The concert was fantastic!
While nobody paid us (Heike and me) any attention before the show - after the concert people were pointing their finger to us (not because we're so pretty *lol... no, because we were the only people wearing Barry T- shirts). Some people came up to us and told us how much they liked Barry and his band.
We wanted to visit Suzanne after the show again - she was in a tent with some merchandising items - but we had no chance. The tent was full of people and Suzanne had no time. She was busy selling CDs and whatever else from Barry to the people.
A good while later we met Barry again backstage and he seemed to be very satisfied.
Lastly:
Barry was not the "headliner" of the evening. After him Lazy Lester went on stage and played his concert. But it wasn't his evening. He really had no chance to hold the performance on the same level as Barry did before. Heike and I didn't see the whole concert of Lazy Lester - we preferred to go back home. I think Lester was the looser of the evening and Barry was the winner. If you want to know what I think about that personally - I really knew that before Barry started his concert!


I've had another productive Sunday- I didn't have much of a choice today as the weather has been spectacularly rubbish. I tackled a new craft- partly because I wanted to add it to my repertoire and partly for my next craft swap with another talented friend of mine that for purposes of keeping the surprise intact, shall remain nameless. Fabric buttons are so adorable don't you think and as it turns out, very simple to make although it did take some trial and error!
After a little experimentation I was left with some darling little Cath Kidston buttons. The ones attached to the blue starry card are for my next craft swap...and the bigger ones are just left overs! Now all I need to do is purchase tonnes of buttons from ebay and make more and more!
The blue card, by the way, was cut from the back of some cupcake boxes (from M&S). The boxes were far too pretty to throw out so I cut up as much of it as I could...just goes to show that you can recycle and upcycle anything if you keep an eye out!


Google.com Google Store: $250.00 Off Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL Smartphones Take $250 Off Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL!
Snap the highest-quality cat photos with a new Pixel from the Google Store, because you can take $250.00 off all Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL smartphones!
Originally released in October 2018, the Pixel 3 and 3 XL are Google's flagship Android smartphones and come with one of the best smartphone cameras on the market. Both models are available in three colours with 64GB or 128GB of storage and the $250.00 discount matches Google's Black Friday 2018 pricing for both phones.
We've listed the pricing for each storage configuration below.
This offer is effective online only until March 31 and all Pixel 3/3 XL configurations qualify for free shipping.
Even though the price is right I would consider this deal to be warm given that the phone only has 4GB of ram. While I really enjoy the pure Android experience and full Google Assistant capabilities, the complaints regarding performance issues scare me for a phone that is only 6 months old.
Sounds like it's only a matter or time Koodo will offer it for $250 on Tab M.
4GB is not enough? What are you using the phone for? Graphic designing?
Many users experience issues with poor memory management, particularly when multitasking. For example, taking a picture while streaming Spotify can cause the Spotify app to shut down suddenly. People have speculated that this is due to the 4GB memory becoming full, but apparently it is poor memory management in the version of Android.
Your Oneplus 6T will give you better software experience. Pixel has better cameras. That's about all the main difference that I could think of having used both.
Nothing special, save your money for the Pixel 4. This phone is always on sale, not for a good reason.
You double posted yourself to get more upvotes!!!!
Get the Pixel 3, and skip the 3XL.
At Costco now, you can get the Pixel 3 for free. You pay $246.99 for the phone but you get $300 costco cash. The cheapest Fido plan is Medium for about $60/month for 4gb. So free phone and relatively low rate plan.
It's not a free phone. The $60 medium plan doesn't have any data according to the Fido website. The cheapest one with data is $65 for 4gb data. That same plan is $50 byod. This means you're paying $15 extra per month for the phone.
No is not possible lol. if you buy it at fido you are probably under contract. there is no really reason to buy a phone at full price from a service provider.
The Best options is buy the phone at full price directly from the constructor. I do it since many years.


text:
Nitish elevates Kishor as JD(U)'s vice president
Agartala's 'Baahubali' theme pandals recreate Mahismati palace
Tropical storm kills three in Oman, Yemen
AFP | Aden Last Updated at October 16, 2018 14:40 IST
https://mybs.in/2Vqke8D
One dead as Cyclone Mekunu hits southern Oman
Death toll in Oman, Yemen from Cyclone Mekunu rises to 30
3 Indians among 11 killed by cyclone Mekunu
Indian national among 5 killed in Mekunu Cyclone
Schools in southern Oman close ahead of cyclone
At least three people have been killed and 33 injured by flash flooding in Yemen and neighbouring Oman caused by Tropical Storm Luban, the UN and local authorities have said.
Mahra province in the far east of Yemen and the neighbouring Dhofar region of Oman are the only parts of the Arabian Peninsula that have a monsoon climate governed by the tropical weather systems of the Indian Ocean.
Mountains rising to 1,300 metres separate a fertile coastal strip from the infamous Empty Quarter in the vast desert interior.
Most of the Luban's casualties were reported in coastal districts of Mahra, where two people were killed and 33 injured by widespread flooding, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said.
In Oman, the civil defence said one man was found dead in Dhofar. Mahra governor Rajeh Bakrit said on Monday the province had been devastated by the storm.
"The situation is catastrophic in the province and beyond the capabilities of the local authorities," he said, according to the government-run Saba news agency.
Yemen President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi cited the "failure" of the government's efforts to respond to the "catastrophic" storm as one of the reasons for dismissing prime minister Ahmed bin Dagher late on Monday.
UNOCHA said more than 2,000 families had been significantly affected by the flooding in Mahra with many finding emergency shelter in displaced to public buildings.
It warned there were expected to be more casualties and homes washed away in areas that had yet to be reached by emergency teams.
In May, Cyclone Mekunu smashed into southern Oman and the Yemeni island of Socotra, killing at least 11 people.
Residents of Mahra and Socotra have long complained of being left to fend for themselves as Hadi's beleaguered government focuses on wars against Huthi rebels, who have controlled the capital Sanaa and much of the north since 2014, and against jihadists, who have a major presence in neighbouring Hadramawt province.
First Published: Tue, October 16 2018. 14:40 IST


text:
The Edge of the Sky: All You Need to Know about the All-There-Is
By Roberto Trotta
Read by Bronson Pinchot
Roberto Trotta Blackstone Publishing, Blackstone Publishing 9780465044719
From the big bang to black holes, from dark matter to dark energy, from the origins of the universe to its ultimate destiny, The Edge of the Sky tells the story of the most important discoveries and mysteries in modern cosmology—with a twist. The book's lexicon is limited to the thousand most common words in the English language, even excluding physics, energy, galaxy, and universe. Through the eyes of a fictional scientist (Student-People) hunting for dark matter with one of the biggest telescopes (Big-Seers) on Earth (Home-World), cosmologist Roberto Trotta explores the most important ideas about our universe (All-There-Is) in language simple enough for anyone to understand. A unique blend of literary experimentation and science popularization, this delightful book is a perfect gift for any aspiring astronomer. The Edge of the Sky tells the story of the universe on a human scale, and the result is out of this world.
From the big bang to black holes, from dark matter to dark energy, from the origins of the universe to its ultimate destiny, The Edge of the Sky tells the story of the most important discoveries and mysteries in modern cosmology—with a twist. The book's lexicon is limited to the thousand most common words in the English language, even excluding physics, energy, galaxy, and universe. Through the eyes of a fictional scientist (Student-People) hunting for dark matter with one of the biggest telescopes (Big-Seers) on Earth (Home-World), cosmologist Roberto Trotta explores the most important ideas about our universe (All-There-Is) in language simple enough for anyone to understand.
A unique blend of literary experimentation and science popularization, this delightful book is a perfect gift for any aspiring astronomer. The Edge of the Sky tells the story of the universe on a human scale, and the result is out of this world.
"The extraordinary story of the Universe and our journey to understand it is not an easy one to tell to the general public. But because it is the story that binds us all together, it is important to tell it in myriad ways to reach as many people as possible. The Edge of the Sky is an inventive, enjoyable, and thought-provoking contribution to that effort." —Nature
"[A] surprisingly clear, and often poetic, primer on such complicated topics as the big bang, dark energy, and the possibility of multiverses." —Scientific American
"The idea behind this book…is to explain everything we know about the world using only the ten hundred most used words. This is much harder than it sounds because a lot of the words that people who study our world (and all that is outside it) like to use are ones that not many people use very much." —Physics World
"In less capable hands, this experiment could backfire and become confusing rather than charming. In Trotta's, ordinary words are bent and spun to achieve extraordinary results. He uses his self-imposed limits to find new ways to describe reality…One of the pleasures of the book is the way it grounds distant places or obscure concepts in homely language…Another is the little surprises that pop up in Trotta's sentences, which detonate like scientific Zen koans…[A] playful, elegant little story." —Columbus Dispatch
"Trotta's deft word choices quickly draw the reader into a surprisingly vivid alternate reality where student-persons (scientists) strive to pierce the mysteries of the All-There-Is: the universe….[T]he spare writing is elegant, even poetic. Literary experiments tend either to work or to flail with awkwardness; in Trotta's hands, this beautifully written book, with its limited vocabulary, soars." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A simplified but by no means simplistic introduction to modern cosmology and physics…An entertaining exercise, in the end, for those student-people who like to ponder the All-There-Is while testing the always-inadequate limits of language." —Kirkus Reviews
"Bronson Pinchot's superb performance showcases what turns out to be a charming masterpiece of scientific storytelling. Pinchot introduces listeners to the 1,000 most commonly used words. His recitation takes on the quality of poetry, with its changing meter and playful inflections. Who knew a list could be so enchanting? From there, the story of all-there-is unfolds, and Pinchot's careful narration brings Trotta's creative wordplay to life so that listeners quickly learn to translate simple words into complex concepts. A treat for the imagination worthy of repeat listens. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award." —AudioFile
"How many different chords must you know before you can appreciate a symphony? How many different brush strokes must you master before you can appreciate a painting? How many different words do you need to use to appreciate the wonders of the universe? Roberto Trotta claims just one thousand and bravely put pen to paper to try and prove it in this enjoyable short volume." —Lawrence M. Krauss, foundation professor and director of the Origins Project at Arizona State University
"Cosmology and astrophysics are confusing at the best of times. But, against all the quantum odds, Dr. Roberto Trotta has managed to explain the topics using just one thousand unique words. Readers of The Edge of the Sky will be treated to a delightful, poetic journey into our world, other worlds, and beyond without ever feeling like their vocabulary is holding them back. And yet that is not this book's greatest achievement. More impressive than the linguistic poetry and more profound than the hard science herein is the overwhelming sense of awe and wonder this book gifts the reader." —Stephen Follows, writer and film producer
"A wonder-full not-afraid story-telling try-it-and-see, about big-sky-study of today with only the ten-hundred most used words. Very not-usual, most good. Fun, too. Buy now!" —Ian Stewart, mathematics professor emeritus, University of Warwick, and author of Visions of Infinity
"In a style akin to magical realism, Roberto Trotta tells the story of the cosmos—an engaging and informative book." —Arthur I. Miller, author of Colliding Worlds: How Cutting-Edge Science Is Redefining Contemporary Art
"It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but this unique book reverses that old adage by employing only the thousand most commonly used English words to paint a wonderfully vivid picture of the story of our universe. The Edge of the Sky contains a compelling, almost poetic account of cosmology, encompassing the Big Bang, dark matter, dark energy, the Higgs boson, and much more and is presented in a manner that will be accessible to all. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in learning about our universe, from here to the Edge of the Sky and beyond." —Mike Hobson, professor of astrophysics, University of Cambridge
"In this unusual and engaging book, short in length but long in ideas, Roberto Trotta uncovers the mysteries of the universe, from the Big Bang ('Big Flash') to the dark energy ('dark push'), in a highly original and understandable way. Once I started reading, I could not put the book down." —Carlos S. Frenk, Ogden Professor of Fundamental Physics, director of the Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University
"The Edge of the Sky ranges from exoplanets, through dark matter and dark energy and even supersymmetry…without any technical words. Speaking as someone who works on the 'Big Ring' in the 'city in a land full of safe places to put your money in': this is big fun, and amazing that so much can be said in so few words." —Jonathan Butterworth, professor of physics, University College London
"The Edge of the Sky is a highly original book, which explains the foundations and the latest discoveries and ideas in astronomy: from planets and life elsewhere in the universe to dark energy and the multiverse. Roberto Trotta, a leading cosmologist from Imperial College London, has managed to achieve this by only using fewer than the thousand most common words of the English language. This is an inspiring book for everyone." —Ofer Lahav, Perren Professor of Astronomy, University College London
"Never before did we know so much about our universe, the All-There-Is. But are we getting any closer to understanding essential components of its true nature, dark matter and dark energy, which dominate by far over the visible, familiar matter? With rare candor and true learning, Roberto Trotta takes us on an intimate adventure in search of possible answers, as he charts the story of our universe from a tiny fraction of a second after the Big Bang to the present—while conveying at the same time the very human, at once exhilarating and humbling experience of this search. All this by using merely seven hundred and seven out of the thousand most common words of the English language, charmingly arranged to shake off the familiar, leaving us to marvel at our Home-World and at the mysteries that lie beyond its edge." —Laura Baudis, professor of physics, University of Zurich
"Jargon is a perpetual problem in communicating frontier science to a general audience: everyday specialists are so immersed in their specialized argot that we cease to be aware of the barrier it creates. I therefore applaud this attempt to describe the current state of cosmology in the most stripped-down language possible. The result is transparent, and also full of marvelously vivid turns of phrase, such as 'Mr. Einstein's Dark Push.' Definitely an original and distinctive addition to the literature in this area." —John Peacock FRS, professor of cosmology, University of Edinburgh
"A tale as beautiful as the great spiritual stories—with the difference that this one is built on a solid foundation of fact." —David J. Hand, mathematics professor emeritus, Imperial College London, and author of The Improbability Principle
"A delightful little gem for adults and children alike that leads you on a unique journey with its hypnotic, disarming prose. There are many books that attempt to creatively explain the universe in simple terms; this is one of the few that succeeds." —Bruce Bassett, head of cosmology at the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences, professor of applied mathematics at the University of Cape Town, and author of Introducing Relativity
"Enjoyable…[Trotta's] extremely original approach conveys all the information with the most minimalistic use of language. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning about the latest discoveries about our universe within the framework of an 'avant-garde' and experimental writing style." —Raul Jimenez, professor of theoretical physics and astrophysics, University of Barcelona
"Roberto Trotta's clever metaphors illuminate dark matter and dark energy. This book is a delightful, poetic, and informative read about all there is in the universe." —Edward Frenkel, professor of mathematics, University of California, Berkeley, and author of Love and Math
"The Edge of the Sky is an enthralling read that turns on its head the conventional (and in my view thoroughly misguided) wisdom that complicated scientific ideas can only be described using complicated language. Roberto Trotta takes the reader on a fascinating and entertaining journey through the very latest discoveries in astrophysics and cosmology, using only the thousand most common English words but never compromising on the clarity and detail of his scientific descriptions. The Edge of the Sky captures with child-like wonder the mysteries of the cosmos in language accessible to everyone, making it eminently suitable for children of all ages!" —Martin Hendry, professor of astrophysics, University of Glasgow
Author Bio: Roberto Trotta
Roberto Trotta is a theoretical cosmologist in the astrophysics group of Imperial College London. He has held research positions at the University of Geneva and the University of Oxford, as well as visiting positions at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cape Town, the Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, and the University of California at Santa Barbara. One of the world's leading figures in "astrostatistics," a new discipline focusing on the use of statistical methods to solve problems in cosmology and astrophysics, he has published more than fifty scientific papers, contributed to two books, and received numerous awards for his research, including the Michelson Prize of Case Western Reserve University, the Lord Kelvin Award of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Public Engagement Fellowship by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK.
Category: Nonfiction/Science
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
AE Catalog ID: E4B209


Elegant little pocket pill cases keep vitamins and medications close at hand while traveling or just on the go. A mirror on the inside lid allows for quick touch-ups. Each comes ready for gifting in its own elegant gift box with bow!


Reliability – Clients understand we will do whatever it takes to get the job done. Clients do not have to "manage" us to deliver our work on time and under budget and with the highest quality.
Performance – We think constantly on our Clients' behalf. If there is a better way to deliver the project, we will explore all avenues to do so. Our job is to make our Clients lives easier.


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Boston Tea Party

 December 16, 1773. Defying the Tea Act, the Sons of Liberty disguised as Native Americans poured an entire shipment of tea into the Boston Harbor.

Battle of Waterloo

June 18, 1815. Napolean Bonaparte was defeated and ended his reign as Emperor of the French.

Christopher Columbus

"Reached the New World in 1492. Established a permanent contact of the Old World to the New World.

Elizabeth I

Queen of England and Ireland. Ruled for 45 years.

Watergate Hotel

In the office building part of the Watergate Hotel, in 1972 was the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters.

          A group of five men broke into the DNC under (later uncovered) President Richard Nixon.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

A book written by socialist Upton Sinclair to promote the idea of socialism. Readers only retained the disgusting allegations about the meatpacking industrys' practices.

          Led to the passage of The Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906 and the Federal Meat Inspection Act.

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Life Satisfaction, Symptoms, and the Menopausal Transition
Lorraine Dennerstein, AO, MBBS, PhD, FRANZCP, DPM; Emma Dudley, BSc, Grad Dip Epidemiol; Janet Guthrie, MSc, PhD, Dip Ed; and Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, MD
The 395 women were between the ages of 50 and 61 years (mean 54.6 years) when the Life Satisfaction questionnaires were administered (year 6). The menopausal status of the women was as follows: premenopausal, 9%; early perimenopausal, 11%; late perimenopausal, 9%; postmenopausal, 38%; HRT users, 25%; and surgical menopause, 8%. Seventy-nine percent were married or living with a partner, and 67% had paid employment. The median parity was 3 (range 1-4), and 56% of the women had at least 1 child in the home.
The proportion of women reporting a "positive" response to each of the LSI-Z items is reported in Table 1. In 10 of the 13 items, a positive response was reported by the majority of women. Responses to the 5 SWLS items are shown in Table 2. The responses are again overwhelmingly positive.
The LSI-Z and SWLS scales are highly correlated (r = 0.70; P < .0001). Highly significant correlations were also found between these scales and the well-being total score, the positive and negative mood subscales, and satisfaction with day-to-day activities. Correlation with work satisfaction was substantially lower but still significant (see Table 3).
Life satisfaction, as measured by both LSI-Z and SWLS, was positively associated with exercise, self-rated health, presence of a sexual partner, positive feelings for partner, and sexual functioning (frequency of sexual activities, arousal, total score). Life satisfaction was negatively associated with symptoms (number and type), current smoking, interpersonal stress, and daily hassles. Being widowed, divorced, or separated was associated with decreased life satisfaction.
Higher life satisfaction at year 6 was predicted by increased years of education at baseline and by positive attitudes toward aging and menopause.
LSI-Z and SWLS were not related to menopausal status, hormone levels (FSH, E2), age, BMI, hot flushes, HRT, sexual interest, employment status, type of profession, children at home, alcohol, chronic conditions, surgery, premenstrual complaints, life events (major or secondary), and social support.
The estimates and their standard errors (se) from the final models are presented in Table 3. LSI-Z was positively predicted by prior attitudes toward menopause (beta = 3.777, se = 0.912) and positively associated with feelings for partner (beta = 0.827, se = 0.336), and exercise (beta = 0.317, se = 0.129). LSI-Z was negatively associated with hassles (beta = -0.331, se = 0.067), interpersonal stress (beta = -0.424, se = 0.174 ), and dysphoric symptoms (beta = -0.804, se = 0.361). SWLS was positively predicted by prior attitudes to aging (beta = 3.918, se = 1.061) and positively associated with feelings for partner (beta = 1.611, se = 0.382). SWLS was negatively associated with hassles (beta = -0.421, se = 0.075), dysphoric symptoms (beta = -1.167, se = 0.418), and current smoking (beta = -1.785, se = 0.834).
© 2000 Medscape
Cite this: Life Satisfaction, Symptoms, and the Menopausal Transition - Medscape - Jul 05, 2000.
Professor Lorraine Dennerstein, AO, MBBS, PhD, FRANZCP, DPM; Emma Dudley, BSc, Grad Dip Epidemiol; and Janet Guthrie, MSc, PhD, Dip Ed, hold positions at the Office for Gender and Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Australia. Professor Elizabeth Barrett-Connor, MD, is a member of the Department of Family & Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego.
Dennerstein L, Dudley E, Guthrie J, Barrett-Connor E. Life Satisfaction, Symptoms, and the Menopausal Transition. MedGenMed 2(4), 2000. [formerly published in Medscape Women's Health eJournal 5(4), 2000]. Available at: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/408924.
Procedures Estrogen Therapy
Journal Article Sexual Behaviors and Function During Menopausal Transition—Does Menopausal Hormonal Therapy Play a Role?
Journal Article Female Sexuality and Vaginal Health Across the Menopausal Age
Chronically Interrupted: The Importance of Communication With Patient and Family During the COVID-19 Pandemic
According to OBSTETRICIAN / GYNECOLOGISTS


https://www.portmeirion.com/portmeirion-sophie-conran-white-measuring-jug.html?___store=default 3328 Portmeirion Sophie Conran White Measuring Jug https://media.portmeirion.com/media/catalog/product/4/8/487031.jpg 24.0000 35.0000 USD InStock /Collections /Collections/Sophie Conran for Portmeirion/Sophie Conran White /Collections/Sophie Conran for Portmeirion/Sophie Conran White/Bakeware Sophie Conran for Portmeirion is a multi-award-winning collection of dinnerware, cookware, bakeware, glassware and home accessories. Designed for modern-day living by cook and loving mother of two, Sophie Conran, this beautiful range is perfect for easy entertaining. You can create an elegant table setting for a special occasion or use it every day for relaxed meals with family and friends. Beautifully unique and tactile, the Sophie Conran for Portmeirion is also wonderfully strong and durable as each porcelain piece can go from freezer to oven to table. With everything you need for your table and home, this comprehensive home and dinnerware collection is now considered a modern classic, to be enjoyed and cherished for many years to come.
With measurements inside the 1 litre jug and the beautiful signature design by Sophie Conran on the exterior, this practical and stylish Sophie Conran for Portmeirion measuring jug makes a perfect gift for that special baker you know. Dishwasher safe.


How do you grow a better insurance and advisory practice in 2019?
It's time to explore how we can grow your insurance and advisory businesses in 2019 and beyond! What does it take to get your business to the next level of success and impact? What do you need to know to grow your business in these transformational times?
Over 30 years ago, Jay Abraham taught me there are only three ways to grow a business. I have used what Jay taught me to help my insurance and banking clients take their organizations to the next level. It provides a growth mindset that helps you transform your insurance and financial advisory business.
I believe that insurance and advisory services are going to enter the age of infinite possibilities. Are you ready to seize new opportunities new technologies can provide your team? Understanding these three simple principles can transform how your insurance and advisory firms provide products and services.
As you read through this today, consider how you are doing business today. Is what you're doing conducive to building a healthy, thriving advisory business? One that grows through deeper relationships with your best clients?
Many times, when I work with new clients who have been in business for more than three years, I take them through a marketing assessment to see how they are doing business today. It's amazing how much things have changed over a short time. Not always for the better.
It's critical to help them see what has changed. What's working and what strengths should be leveraged to grow a more successful insurance business. They need to change from insurance agent to trusted advisor. Successful agency leaders need to teach their producers how to build strong relationships with better clients.
For success you must know the three ways to grow your business.
The first way to grow your business is to increase the number of clients or customers you have. This is the most expensive way of growing your business. Many insurance organizations fail because they invest so much money getting a new client. New client acquisition is the foundation of the old economy.
Sell, Sell, and Sell some more and, ultimately, you grow your business. In most cases this growth strategy is the strategy your competitors choose as well. It ensures over time the commoditization of your products and service.
Associated closely with this way of growing is adding additional people to your sales and marketing process. You need to invest money and resources to grow this business. Many times, it's about adding new customers and saturating your market with similar products and service that are easy to service. In insurance it could be selling many similar home and automotive policies to your clients.
For many organizations It's counterintuitive to think less is more when serving clients. Most agencies fail because they don't know who their best clients are and why. Its critical to grow your insurance and advisory business with the best clients for your business.
The second way to grow your business is to increase the average dollars per sale. This can be a profitable growth strategy if you understand the key metrics and critical success factors of your business.
What do clients value from your firm? Are you able to add additional products or services that can help your firm grow successfully? Is your insurance business set up to cross sell different products and services? How do you decide what advisory services you can provide your clients?
If you want to leverage this, you need to better understand your clients' current and future needs. Most successful entrepreneurs try to increase sales while increasing value of the purchase. How do you earn more of your client's business? This second strategy can help you increase average dollar value per transaction.
Many times, my successful clients have put together a more complete solution for their clients than their competitors. They know their clients better. They grow through educating clients to what options might be available to them.
The third way to grow your business is increase repurchase frequency. If you sell products that are consumed this can be a great way to grow. Many consumer product goods fall into this category. This also can be the secret of providing you with unlimited growth for your insurance business. I'll be sharing more on this over the coming weeks and months.
How do you sell by not selling? Trusted advisors don't sell. The educate their clients to possibilities that they may not know about. Are you investing time in your client's future?
I recently had an interesting conversation with my insurance agent. He asked me how I was planning to protect the intangible assets in my business for future generations. A great question and one that could change our relationship forever. He was positioning himself as one of my trusted advisors.
I explained most of my intellectual property resides between my ears today. He wasn't certain what to say next. What he could have done is ask a follow up question for clarification. I was ready to buy additional insurance coverage. I was meeting with him. He missed an opportunity to sell me short and long term disability insurance for both myself and key members of my team.
Now we've discussed three ways to grow your business. Are you beginning to see the possibilities for increased revenue in your insurance business? What happens when we begin to combine these different growth strategies? There are endless opportunities to grow your business.
Want to learn more about Jay Abraham? You can find many great free resources from Jay here!
Next week I'll share how to apply these ideas to grow your insurance and advisory business.
Can a CFO's Financial Agility Provide Your Business an Edge?
Why Women Entrepreneurs are Leading the Next Leadership Revolution!
Be the first to comment on "How to Grow Your Insurance and Advisory Business in 2019!"


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OpenShift Enterprise clusters can be provisioned with persistent storage using GlusterFS.
This topic presumes some familiarity with OpenShift Enterprise and GlusterFS. See the Persistent Storage topic for details on the OpenShift Enterprise PV framework in general.
OpenShift Enterprise nodes can also host a gluster node (referred to as hyperconverged storage). However, performance may be less predictable and harder to manage.
In order to access the HadoopVol volume, containers must match the SELinux label, and run with a UID of 592 or 590 in their supplemental groups. The OpenShift Enterprise GlusterFS plug-in mounts the volume in the container with the same POSIX ownership and permissions found on the target gluster mount, namely the owner will be 592 and group ID will be 590. However, the container is not run with its effective UID equal to 592, nor with its GID equal to 590, which is the desired behavior. Instead, a container's UID and supplemental groups are determined by Security Context Constraints (SCCs) and the project defaults.
Configure Gluster volume access by using supplemental groups, assuming it is not an option to change permissions on the Gluster mount. Supplemental groups in OpenShift Enterprise are used for shared storage, such as GlusterFS. In contrast, block storage, such as Ceph RBD or iSCSI, use the fsGroup SCC strategy and the fsGroup value in the pod's securityContext.


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Two boys drown in a pond in Kuniamuthur
Two boys met watery grave, when they drowned in a pond in Kuniyamuthur in the city last evening, police said today.
The 15-year-old Praveenkumar and Vigneshwaran aged 12 had gone for a bath in Senkulam in Kuniyamuthur area with some friends.
Both had gone deep into the pond and suddenly drowned. Attempts by their friends remained futile, police said. Hearing the screams of the boys on the bank, locals rushed to the spot and
managed to retrieve the body of Praveenkumar, who was studying in 10th standard.
Since there was difficulty in tracing the body of Vigneswaran, a 7th standard student, fire and rescue personnel were requisitioned. His body was recovered in a few hours, police said.
The bodies have been sent to Government Hospital for postmortem.


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Android Niceties
On Flixster
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c0up
A mind in transit…
Are The Oscars becoming irrelevant?
March 8, 2010 c0up@silkcharm, Academy Awards, c0up, irrelevant, Laurel Papworth, movies, Oscars, tech, tv 4 Comments
Short answer, no.
I could have left it at that really, but then I read @silkcharm's blog post and tweets, and felt I needed to justify it that little more.
Television audience numbers are decreasing
So what? Does this mean The Oscars are becoming irrelevant? No. Let's face it, it's a 3 hr+ broadcast, and we're an impatient bunch these days. Try looking on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, the smorgasbord of entertainment sites and bloggers out there blogging, tweeting and uploading videos/streaming it though. How about another graph of how the online audience is faring in regards to The Oscars?
"One of the frequent criticisms of the Academy Awards is that its aging membership does not reflect popular demographic trends."
This whole notion that The Oscars are criticised for not reflecting box office figures and what the vox populi think is complete rubbish. As I commented on her post…
I am more than happy to let AMPAS members determine who deserves these awards. There are enough awards shows out there decided by the population, and I'm sure they'll all start having a "Vote by Twitter" category soon enough. Who knows, maybe even The Oscars will cave in and create another category, but please leave the majority of the show alone.
@silkcharm said:
well with the numbers of audience declining, can they afford to leave it alone?
Yes? I see your point re: the ad revenue, but I would hate for these awards to be dictated by something like that. Maybe that's a naive view of the world, or my love of movies [not just the ones making the $$] talking.
And as @ahmedbaghdadi tweeted, "I think Mo'nique said it best: "Sometimes you have to forego doing what's popular to do what's right."
"I would prefer to watch Sundance awards, not Oscars as the big night of nights"
I love the festival circuit and I wish I followed it more, but festival awards only cover the movies shown at the festival [as far as I know]. The Oscars are almost trying to act like an aggregator of the mainstream and films shown at these festivals. Festivals discover the little gems, act as the big social influencers to some extent in getting independent movies distribution, raising awareness. The Oscars then tries to select the best of what has been shown throughout the year, and no, it was silly of me to say they're like an aggregator. They do the aggregation, but they also do the curation and the analysis via AMPAS members, and I thank them for that. This is what RELEVANCY is all about, and this is a case where I do not want what my social network may like the most to be what wins.
The blogosphere was literally split down the middle in terms of online buzz around the 82nd Academy Awards Best Picture nominees. Both Avatar and The Hurt Locker each maxed out with three quarters of a percent (.75%) of blog post buzz across the web.
The data in question comes from The Nielsen Company, who charted all blog posts since the start of February and found that The Hurt Locker's Best Picture and Director win mirrored the movie's rise in terms of blog mentions over time. Social media as a whole, however, told a much different story earlier in the week, as Avatar had a massive lead in terms of mentions over the film that eventually beat it out.
via Mashable
Interesting that the blogosphere is acting like the "expert" community and its opinion is detached from social media as a whole.
→ TechCrunch and Foursquare co-founder fail
← Oscars 2010 – My predictions
4 thoughts on "Are The Oscars becoming irrelevant?"
Joon says:
The voting members of the AMPAS are making the awards irrelevant by awarding based on criteria that are far detached from common sense and reality and instead gratifying their own wants and needs. This practice has persisted and is the root cause of the decrease in television ratings. Furthermore, the signs of decay have reached new heights in this year's awards; the plain, ordinary Hurt Locker was awarded Best Picture over Avatar, a film which is indisputably and by far the best the world has yet seen in terms of visuals. Note that AMPAS is the academy of "motion pictures". In context of its media of film (versus other media such as books), Avatar and its far, far superior visuals deserved recognition this year as the best motion picture, but AMPAS instead opted for plain, ordinary artistry (and little of it), which ultimately was a move on their part to award the film that focused on the actor rather than the production itself.The AMPAS has been walking down the path toward irrelevance, and took a giant leap toward it this year. Time to wake up and smell the coffee.
c0uP says:
I'd like to think that Best Picture would take into consideration the strength of the story, acting, direction, etc. Not just superior visuals, which I doubt anyone would argue against when it comes to 'Avatar'.It won for Art Direction, Cinematography and Visual Effects, and to me, that's fair, and I thought as much yesterday http://c0up.posterous.com/oscars-2010-my-predictions/shrug
The Oscars are and always have been irrelevant – it's not like good movies would stop being made if the Academy Awards ceased to exist. And there are plenty of amazing movies that are never mentioned in the context of these awards. And other than promoting the winners, it doesn't have any real effect on the industry other than to make the Academy's voters feel overly important. What's sad is the millions of people who think that an Oscar somehow validates a good movie or performance, when really the two have little to do with each other.
You could probably say the same thing about a lot of awards; the primary reason something so good is made is hardly to go up on stage and hold a statuette. That's besides the point though.They're a critical accolade, awarded by peers in the industry, and offer recognition to the winners and those nominated, and there's no doubt that said movies will get a boost. It also helps pick some people from relative obscurity and give them a chance to continue making, acting, etc, in movies. And yes, I *do* feel that they validate a good movie or performance. Yes, they won't be able to give due credit to every amazing movie out there, but they, along with the festival circuit, sure as hell help. In the end, it's another night that helps a great deal in feeding conversations about movies, so all power to 'em.