text:
Mozambique: The biggest corruption case in Africa
President of Mozambique Filipe Nyusi could use the scandal to lead a fight against corruption in his party. Last September, he spoke at the UN General Assembly (source: dpa)
banking corruption elections foreign investment IMF natural gas
Our experts report on extremely sensitive issues in some of the most challenging regions on earth. We therefore sometimes allow our experts to report anonymously, in order to protect their safety and impartiality.
US authorities have arrested the former Mozambican finance minister, Manuel Chang, and several foreign bankers
The sprawling fraud case has unearthed corruption in Mozambique and threatened aid and foreign investment
Chang now faces possible extradition to the U.S., as politicians angle in advance of October elections
On December 29, 2018, Manuel Chang, the former Mozambican finance minister, was arrested in Johannesburg's O. R. Tambo Airport while in transit to Dubai. South African police were acting under an indictment filed by United States prosecutors, issued by a New York grand jury. Days later, under the same indictment, British authorities arrested three former Credit Suisse bankers: Andrew Pearse, Surjan Singh and Detelina Subeva. In New York, Jean Boustani, an executive at the holding company Privinvest, was also arrested.
The charges against Mr. Chang concern a series of loans he signed, on behalf of the Mozambican government, to secure financing to three state-owned companies: EMATUM, a fishing company, and the maritime security firms ProIndicus and MAM (Mozambique Assets Management).
Ostensibly, the loans were made to these companies to acquire patrol vessels. But they have been revealed as part of a complex scandal that has become Africa's biggest corruption case in decades.
Shady deals
The fraudulent scheme, involving an estimated $2 billion, was orchestrated between Mozambican officials and executives from Credit Suisse and Russia's VTB Capital Bank. American prosecutors allege that the three state-owned Mozambican companies were used to divert at least $200 million to the defendants and senior Mozambican officials.
The French-Lebanese industrialist Iskandar Safa was also involved. His company, the Abu Dhabi-based Privinvest, is the main shareholder of Constructions Mecaniques de Normandie (CMN), located at the Cherbourg shipyard, where the boats sold to Mozambique for the operation were partly built.
The EMATUM deal became public in September 2013, when CMN announced the contract for the construction of several patrol boats, which, at first, did not present concerns. Suspicions arose when the public was made aware that EMATUM's $850 million loan was secured against state guarantees.
From 2015 to 2016, Mozambique's public debt rose from 86 percent to 130 percent of GDP
The other loans – $622 million for ProIndicus and $535 million for MAM – were revealed in 2016, when a hidden $1.4 billion in Mozambican debt was discovered in the midst of the International Monetary Fund's assistance program to the country. The IMF decided to freeze its loans to Mozambique and international donors suspended aid to the country, which had been crucial in balancing its budget throughout the years.
The arrests so far involve only the cases related to EMATUM and ProIndicus, whose loans were granted by Credit Suisse. MAM's debt was contracted with VTB, and there are no known developments as to the investigation involving the Russian bank.
This fraud compromised the country's financial credibility and caused serious damage to its economy – to local banks that acquired related debt, companies and the public. From 2015 to 2016, Mozambique's public debt rose from 86 percent to 130 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
The fact that European banks (Credit Suisse and VTB) were involved gave the case major publicity, with Europeans and Americans discussing the culpability of Western financial institutions in the corruption of African leaders.
Credit Suisse has already made a statement in response to the scandal, declaring that it bears no responsibility and that its former executives who have now been charged acted independently, by manipulating internal rules.
Accomplices and protectors
For his part, Mr. Chang stands accused of conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. On January 8, he was presented to a Kempton Park Court, South Africa, where magistrate Sagra Subrayen confirmed the arrest and decided in favor of the U.S. Justice Department's demand for his extradition.
Mr. Chang's defense team then appealed, and in April, the court again ruled that he may be extradited to the U.S. The court will next consider Mozambique's request to extradite him, although South Africa's justice minister, Michael Masutha, will make the final determination.
The "ghost loans" case has been called the biggest corruption scandal in sub-Saharan Africa since the 1960s
Mr. Chang's arrest caused a wave of fear and rumors among Mozambique's nomenklatura. He could not have acted alone and likely had accomplices and "protectors" in the country's top hierarchy at the time of the loan operation. It is known that $200 million was generously distributed among politicians and senior bureaucrats as commissions and kickbacks to get the approval and necessary silence for the operation.
According to the indictment, more names are involved but have not yet been made public, feeding rumors that point to both probable culprits and others that had nothing to do with the fraud. Signals coming from civil society (especially from critics of former president Armando Guebuza and of the ruling FRELIMO party) and echoing in the independent media suggest that the people were eager to hold corrupt politicians and officials to account. In February, former SISE (security service) officials like Gregorio Leao and Antonio do Rosario were also arrested.
Electoral calculations
In an election year, for both president and the legislature, such a corruption scandal should present a golden opportunity for the opposition. But instead, it has remained mostly silent about the situation.
RENAMO, the leading opposition party, held its congress in mid-January to elect the successor to leader Afonso Dhlakama, who died in May 2018. The winner was General Ossufo Momade, who was already serving as the party's interim president. RENAMO has been focusing on its own restructuring after the death of its former leader and founder, and on concluding the integration of former guerillas into the army and police.
The other opposition party, the Democratic Movement of Mozambique, known by its Portuguese abbreviation MDM and led by Davis Simango, has also shown no enthusiasm or ability to take advantage of the situation.
The loan fraud case has implicated the circle of former president Armando Guebuza, who left office in 2015, and others in the governing FRELIMO party (source: dpa)
But any political exploitation of the case will most likely come from civil society, the independent media and even from the ranks of FRELIMO itself. In the case of the latter, it will come mainly from the cadres and militants who have nothing to do with the issue, innocent of charges and scandalized by corruption and its impact on the party.
The "ghost loans" case has been called the biggest corruption scandal in sub-Saharan Africa since the 1960s. The fact that a foreign entity – and an American court, at that – was needed to push the investigation forward and for some results to surface indicates the level of fear and caution surrounding the matter within Mozambique. British authorities have also been criticized, since the loans involved the London branches of Credit Suisse and VTB.
But following the public indictment by U.S. prosecutors, the case has gradually opened up. The Mozambican Attorney General's office (PGR) has already indicted Manuel Chang, Deputy Minister of Finance and Economy Isaltina Lucas, former governor of the Banco de Mocambique Ernesto Gove, and a group of executives of local companies that at the time of the events worked for Mozambique's security services (SISE). All have been financially (but not criminally) accused by the PGR, which is also trying to have Mr. Chang extradited to Mozambique rather than the U.S.
At the moment, key questions remain. Is the list of suspects to be charged closed? Is President Filipe Nyusi sufficiently free to allow the investigation and judicial process to proceed, even if it implicates his predecessor, Armando Guebuza? And what will be Washington's reaction if South Africa opposes the extradition, under influence of Maputo?
If the investigation goes well and Mr. Chang is extradited to the U.S., he will probably negotiate a deal with American prosecutors. That will most likely involve a trade-off between maximum information and maximum protection, shedding light as to the possible heavyweights involved. In addition, if the Mozambican government decides not to hamper the investigation, the country will be in a better position to convince the IMF and international donors to resume much-needed assistance to the country. This would be a crucial starting point in reversing its current financial and economic predicament, on the eve of the start of the natural gas operations.
Though highly unlikely, if Mr. Chang is not extradited, the others responsible for the financial black hole will go unpunished. Certainly, if a cover-up is attempted, serious retribution by the U.S, the IMF and the international donors should be expected. In that case, Mozambique's situation will deteriorate as the country's credit rating falls, international investors become discouraged and the opposition parties and even some in the ruling FRELIMO do their best to hamstring President Nyusi's government.
The most likely evolution is that President Nyusi will be designated the party's candidate in the election
In any event, President Nyusi holds the key to a successful outcome. He could use the scandal to get rid of the FRELIMO faction that was ultimately responsible for this entire political and economic quagmire, cleaning house and leading a fight against corruption. If so, he will most likely be supported by the bulk of his party and by the people. If not, he will be forced to confront the hostility of the U.S. (and the biggest investors in the natural gas sector are U.S. companies, like ExxonMobil), the absence of the IMF and of other external donors and, consequently, harmful suspicion from investors.
The most likely evolution is that President Nyusi will be designated the party's candidate in the election, after negotiating with FRELIMO members who are untainted by the scandal. He will try to create and hold a national alliance that can include opposition members, to guarantee the punishment of the implicated, the stability of the country, and the fight against terrorism in Cabo Delgado.
After having been postponed due to Cyclone Idai, which caused severe destruction in the center of Mozambique, FRELIMO's Central Committee assembled in the city of Matola from May 3 to 5. The meeting, bringing together around 200 party representatives, was highly anticipated. Terrorism, internal divisions and indecision around pending natural gas projects brought a sense of uncertainty over the country and the party's future, on top of the coming general elections in October.
The main issue was whether there would be formal opposition to the confirmation of Mr. Nyusi as the party's candidate to the presidency – namely from Samora Machel Junior (Samito), the son of Mozambique's first president and founding father, Samora Moises Machel. Samito, who is now actively engaged in politics, is clean of corruption and well-liked among younger party members. He was blocked by the party's bureaucracy from running for mayor of Maputo, and when he tried to run independently, FRELIMO initiated a process to expel him from the party.
Regardless of all the tension, the central committee meeting took place without major conflict. Some say that this "climate of unity" was the work of party elders, including former presidents Joachim Chissano and Armando Guebuza. They may fear that a major internal split could put a FRELIMO victory in October's general election at risk.
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Q: Marshalling C++ Char* In C# I'm working on NFC-4311E RFID tag reader. I need help marshaling this C++ call:
short OpenReader(HANDLE * hCom, unsigned char LinkType, char *com_port)

To C# code. I used this code:
[DllImport("Reader.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
private unsafe static extern short OpenReader(ref IntPtr hWnd, byte linkType, StringBuilder ip)

I'm new in marshaling.

A: Firstly, welcome to stack overflow.
Although asking questions is encouraged, you should be aware that your question should contain an actual question. This is not a question, you haven't even stated what the problem you're dealing with is. So make sure you ask questions in the future.
But the way I generally marshal a string is like this:
[DllImport("Reader.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode)]
private static extern short OpenReader(ref IntPtr hWnd, byte linkType, [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPString)] string ip)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Learn From Kim Jong Kook And His Scoliosis - Assalamu'alaikum. Hallo everyone. Welcome back to my blog. Before I start, I will show you a picture of man. If you ever watching Running Man, you may know who is this guy. Ok, one, two, three, here we go.
Anyone know him? Yap, Kim Jong Kook. A strongest member of seven members in Running Man (now only six members, bye bye Gary). Sparta Kook is one of his nickname because he could beat many opponent team. Beside it he has a very muscular physique.
Why i am talking about him? Is there anything happen with him? Don't worry I am not telling about gossip or rumor. On November 3rd, I saw my friend share a post in line. I'm so surprise when see my friend's caption. She wrote that Kim Jong Kook has scoliosis.
That's why I will share my mind about Kim Jong Kook and his scoliosis on this blog post. In this case i amn't commenting his decision about mandatory national service. So, what will i talk about? Spirit. I will write down my appreciation to Kim Jong Kook. Why? Because he can proving and achieve something that many people thought was impossible.
Actually I ever watch Running Man (ep 147) and I was surprise when Kim Jong Kook remaind FD Dongwan and worry FD Dongwan will get scoliosis if he doesn't sit properly. From that time I'm realized and happy if Kim Jong Kook have scoliosis awareness. But to be honest I never expected if he has scoliosis.
For your information, being scolioser is mean you will faced many pitiful. Like Kim Jong Kook said in his instagram, "I'm gritting my teeth, sleeping less." What he talk about it is true. Because I has scoliosis too and I know how he feel.
Talking about weakness. Since high school, I started to think that my scoliosis is not a weakness but my strength. Scoliosis is not the enemy but my friend. Never complain and blame my scoliosis is not the solution. Try to accept and believe this is happening because God knows I can go through it.
I think Kim Jong Kook doing work out with his spine because he know that he can do. But I don't know, did Kim Jong Kook have consultation with his doctor about his work out. However as it should be of course he did.
In this case, I just want to say to my scoliosis fighter, please don't give up and feel you can't do anything with your scoliosis. Please don't hate your back spine. Because we are special that can life with it. Climbing, painting, photographing, traveling, archery, playing soccer or whatever you want to do. So ya do. But the first important thing you should keep in mind, don't forget to consult your doctor, please.
1. Is your sholuder higher than the other?
2. Is your shoulder blade sticks out more than the other?
3. Is your side of the rib cage appears higher than the other?
4. Is your hip appears higher or more prominent than the other?
5. Is your waist appears uneven?
6. Is your body tilts to one side?
7. Is your leg may appear shorter than the other?
If the answer from question above is one or more than it, my suggestion is go to doctor for make sure the truth.
Ok. That's all my blog post (Learn From Kim Jong Kook And His Scoliosis). I am sure in out there are still many scoliosers like Kim Jong Kook - Don't give up and makes excuses to do nothing. I hope you like and this post is useful. For my dear scoliosis fighter, keep smiling and don't worry because we are the same boat. Let's give each other support. And for all my friends, let's keep our awareness of scoliosis *big hug*. See you on my next blog post. Bye~(Salam).
Shailene Woodley has scoliosis too. Did you already know?
Ga kenal sama masnya tapi salut sama motivasinya buat diri dan fansnya, hehehe. Tp walaupun skoliosis dia ganteng ya,hahaha. Slalu menginspirasi ya neeng..


Just recently we have established small spinning mill of 2200 spindles in a remote village in Bhavnagar District. It is just same machinery as conventional spinning mill i.e. Blow room, card, draw frame, speed frame, 5 ring frames of 440 spindles and cone winding machine. We have connected cotton ginning with it to produce lint cotton. I am sure it will be highly profitable. We have purchased old running machinery from Ahmadabad and shifting it to a village. I have decided not to earn a single rupee from this activity. During this process, I am pondering over further decentralization of spinning machinery. I am not at all expert in this field but I have deep rooted faith in my heart that everything must be decentralized upto village scale and home scale. So I am narrating my ideas and you can give me your opinion whether it is foolish or it has some sense.
1) Blow room has 6 to 7 motors. I do not know what is process in it, but I felt that if we reduce the effective width of the blow room machines to 25%, then motor HP should also be 25%. So if motor is of 1 HP or less, then PV panel can work to generate that much power easily. Total load of blow room is say 20 HP and then it becomes 5 HP with 5 to 6 different motors of 1 HP or less, then all these motors can be operated by solar panels. Fast production and high production is not the criteria in village economy. So if production capacity is reduced by 20 times i.e 5% only then it will be best suited to village size blow room. Conveying and elevating can be totally removed and human labour can be replaced. Effective width should not be more than 6 to 8 inch. Please do not bring question of viability for such a small unit. I have proved in 85 countries practically that my tiny oil mills are far more viable than giant oil complexes. So I am sure that blow rooms, once produced in hundreds of pieces will be far cheaper. I am master of making the machines very cheap. You kindly advise me technical feasibility.
2) Carding machine also can be reduced in width say 25% or 6 to 8 inch width and diameter can also be reduced 25% or 50% so that 3 HP motor becomes 0.5 HP motor in tiny card. Please give me your views whether this is possible or not.
3) I have seen draw frame with 2 parallel lines in which 8 ropes are going together to make one rope but 8 times longer. Some how this machine should also be operated by half to one HP motor to process 4 ropes only and we have to repeat this process twice or thrice with the same machine of one HP or less.
4) I have seen the speed frames of 96 and 132 spindles which can be reduced to 16 spindles simply by cutting the length so that it may be driven by 1 HP motor. I understand that head, gears etc will cost more but it can be simplified with simpler and cheaper gears as we see in Amber Charkha.
5) Ring frame in conventional form of 440 or more spindles is not required at all. One expert textile engineer with 35 years of experience in big textile mills told me that spinning quality of Amber Charkha will be same as big ring frames in textile mills. Amber Charkha consumes less power per kg of yarn compared to big textile spinning ring frames.
6) Cone winding also can be split up from 120 to only 10 to 12 cones and motor size will also be reduced to 200 Watt instead of 3 HP.
In this way I have thought out a concept of entire spinning mill run by many motors with total load of 10 HP but all motors will be smaller than 1 HP. All motors will be DC motors and there will be totally solar power. So energy bill will be zero. If this is technically feasible, then I have a full courage to make it economically viable. I have no knowledge of textile technology at all. But still I feel that there must be some way to utilize modern textile technology into villages with solar power. If this solar powered spinning mill becomes equivalent to 100 spindles production of big textile mill, then it will become viable in villages and it will be owned by farmers and mostly yarn will be produced in farms itself not bringing the cotton in village.
I have observed that when technology is disseminated upto grass root level, then most sophisticated machines can also be produced at throw away price by common people. This has become reality in Rajkot in case of Lister and Peter diesel engines which are produced in abundance even by illiterate people maintaining very high accuracy. So I am confident that decentralization of spinning technology must be possible.
If you know some persons in textile technology who are committed for decentralization, kindly put them into my contact. I will highly appreciate your valuable opinion in this matter, no matter it may be against my thinking.
If you get some time kindly go through the attachment CREATING HAPPY INDIA.


I really hope to not come off as a brat here, but does anyone else feel overwhelmed by the amount of beauty minis they have? I don't even know where all of these come from! I do know that I want to use them up. I feel like a hoarder.
These are some great products – some are new products to be tested and some are old favorites.
I pledge to use up all of this by fall. Fall starts September 23, so hopefully by then I will have all of these in my "empties" bucket.


I ran across these skits online by a guy named Jason Justice and they were wrote for puppet skits but we used the the kids to act it out instead. We added some crafts that the kids made themselves to wear during the skit. The skits have been great and the kids are enjoying them.


text:
To buy or to lease a car in France?
The Connexion outlines how to take out a long lease on a car in France, often with a later option to buy, and advantages and disadvantages of doing so
When you rent, the package almost always includes the first services of the vehicle, and the annual services which follow – although you still usually have to pay for things such as replacing tyres.
Long leases for cars (la location longue durée, LLD) and long leases with the option of buying (location avec option d'achat, LOA) started slowly in France around 20 years ago but are now the most common way of "buying" new cars with finance.
The latest figures available, from 2017, show that for cars bought with finance that year, 55% were with LLD or LOA contracts, 31% with car loans (where the car is collateral for the loan) and 14% with straightforward bank loans.
This compares with 9% LLD and LOA in 2000, when 50% were car loans and 41% simple bank loans.
Leasing packages instead of straight car loans
The reason is that banks, under tighter regulations since the 2007 financial crisis, found they could get away with tying up fewer reserves against loans if they offered leasing packages instead of straight car loans.
For buyers, things are usually simple: once you have agreed on a car and the price, the sales person will explain the package to you – usually involving putting down a cash sum of between €2,000 and €5,000, then leasing for a monthly sum for two to four years.
The monthly amount depends on the price of the car, the size of the cash down-payment at the start and the length of the loan.
At the end of the period, you return the car and can, after another deposit payment, start again in a new vehicle.
If you have a contract with the option to buy, then at the end of the agreed period you pay out a lump sum, usually related to the rents you have already paid on the vehicle, the cash sum at the start and its price, and the car is yours.
If you do not want to do that, you can either switch to a new vehicle with a lease agreement, or carry on renting the same vehicle, depending on the terms of the contract signed.
There is normally an agreed limit on the annual number of kilometres on the car – 20,000km is common – although penalties for slight overruns are small.
Some sort of breakdown cover, usually involving the car brand's network of garages, is always included.
Insurance almost always remains the renter's responsibility, and most contracts stipulate that the insurance must cover the cost of bodywork repairs to a new standard or, if the car is a write-off, the price of the vehicle.
The car's carte-grise shows the owner as the bank or finance house giving the loan, with the driver's name on it for speeding and other tickets.
For people who like driving new cars, the advantage of LLD is obvious
You get a new car without the hassle of selling the old one, every two or three years, and your motoring expenses are unlikely to have any nasty surprises.
LOA to buy has advantages too for people who like keeping their car for a long time, but do not have the cash to buy outright.
The overall cost of finance is now usually competitive with borrowing on a car loan and cheaper than an ordinary consumer loan.
Drivers can often save, or plan to pay, the lump sum to buy the vehicle after three or four years, knowing they have the full history of the car.
A disadvantage for some is that they know the car is not "theirs" until the lump sum has been paid off, but that can also apply to car loans where the bank has a title on the car until the loan is paid.
Another disadvantage is that if sales staff at a dealership know you will be going for a loan package, they will probably steer you towards more expensive vehicles in the range.
They might adjust the monthly payments by extending the length of the loan, and not offer you significant discounts on the price of the car.
These cars are nice to have but beware of breaking the budget for the car you set before entering the showroom.
The car rental market is constantly evolving
German car-hire company Sixt, which usually specialised in short-term rentals and is suffering with Covid 19, started in October to offer long-term rentals of cars in its French fleet, on a month-to-month basis, with no extra expenses if the car is returned at the end of the month.
Prices of the package, called Sixt+, start from €359 a month for a small car of Renault Twingo size, and include an agreed number of kilometres, insurance and service costs. Electric cars are included in the offer.
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Q: Unidrectional OneToOne relationship SqlAlchemy in Python I'm trying to make a OneToOne relationship in SqlAlchemy, where the child's table ID is already the Foreign Key, but it is throwing me the error:
sqlalchemy.orm.exc.DetachedInstanceError: Instance <Vetor at 0x7fcc81307070> is not bound to a Session; attribute refresh operation cannot proceed

Below, the two models and the service..
class CUBE(types.UserDefinedType):
 def get_col_spec(self, **kw):
   return "CUBE"

class Vetor(db.Model):
   id = db.Column(db.Integer, primary_key=True)
   data = db.Column(db.DateTime(), default=db.func.now())
   vetor = db.Column(CUBE)
   sistema_origem_id = db.Column(db.Integer)

   def __init__(self, vetor, sistema_origem):
       self.vetor = vetor
       self.sistema_origem_id = sistema_origem

   def __repr__(self):
       return "<Vetor(id='%s', data='%s', vetor='%s', sistema_origem_id='%s')>" % (self.id, self.data, self.vetor, self.sistema_origem_id)

class FBinary(db.Model):
    id = db.Column(db.Integer, db.ForeignKey("vetor.id"), primary_key=True)
    binario = db.Column(db.LargeBinary)
    contenttype = db.Column(db.String())

    def __init__(self, id, binario, contenttype):
        self.id = id
        self.binario = binario
        self.contenttype = contenttype

    def __repr__(self):
        return "<FBinary(id='%s', binario='%s', contentype='%s')>" % (self.id, self.binario, self.contenttype)

The class that tries to commit both:
    ....code.....

    face = Vetor(vetor, 1 )
    db.session.add(face)

    binario = FBinary(id=face, binario=foto_bytes, contenttype='')
    db.session.add(binario)

    db.session.commit()

A: I could not reproduce your error. That being said, a possible solution should be:
    face = Vetor(vetor, 1 )
    db.session.add(face)
    db.session.comit()  # Now your database has an entry in Table vetor with id 1

    binario = FBinary(id=face.id, binario=foto_bytes, contenttype='')  # reference the id from your face object.
    db.session.add(binario)
    db.session.commit()

I assumed that vetor is some kind of data and not a Vetor object (why would you try to save a Vetor object in the vetor table?).
Hope that helps. Please consider to provide a minimal reproducible example in your next question.


text:
NCIFF
Membership / Sponsorship
Scott Lerner
L. Scott Lerner teaches Italian, French, Comparative Literature and Judaic Studies at Franklin and Marshall College, where he is the Arthur and Katherine Shadek Professor of the Humanities. Most recently he co-edited, with Jonathan Druker, The New Italy and the Jews: From Massimo D'Azeglio to Primo Levi.
He has written extensively on Jewish literature and culture in modern Italy and France. With support from a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, he will spend 2020-2021 writing Italy Out of the Ghetto: A Catholic Nation in the Jewish Mirror. He is also at work on a novel-like history of a twelve year-old Jewish girl who was abducted and taken to the House of Catechumens in Rome, to be converted, in 1847 (The Mystery of Gentile Urbino.)
In the area of Italian cinema, he has authored several articles on filmmaker Davide Ferrario. [He is a graduate of Yale University (B.A.) and Harvard University (M.A. and Ph.D.)]
View other featured guests
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Design of Low-Capacitance Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Protection Devices in Advanced Silicon Technologies.
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) related failure is a major IC reliability concern and this is particularly true as technology continues shrink to nano-metric dimensions. ESD design window research shows that ESD robustness of victim devices keep decreasing from 350nm bulk technology to 7nm FinFET technologies. In the meantime, parasitic capacitance of ESD diode with same It2 in FinFET technologies is approximately 3X compared with that in planar technologies. Thus transition from planar to FinFET technology requires more robust ESD protection however the large parasitic capacitance of ESD protection cell is problematic in high-speed interface design. To reduce the parasitic capacitance, a dual diode silicon controlled rectifier (DD-SCR) is presented in this dissertation. This design can exhibit good trade-offs between ESD robustness and parasitic capacitance characteristics. Besides, different bounding materials lead to performance variations in DD-SCRs are compared. Radio frequency (RF) technology is also demanded low capacitance ESD protection. To address this concern, a ?-network is presented, providing robust ESD protection for 10-60 GHz RF circuit. Like a low pass ? filter, the network can reflect high frequency RF signals and transmit low frequency ESD pulses. Given proper inductor value, networks can work as robust ESD solutions at a certain Giga Hertz frequency range, making this design suitable for broad band protection in RF input/outputs (I/Os). To increase the holding voltage and reduce snapback, a resistor assist triggering heterogeneous stacking structure is presented in this dissertation, which can increase the holding voltage and also keep the trigger voltage nearly as same as a single SCR device.
Dong, Aihua, "Design of Low-Capacitance Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) Protection Devices in Advanced Silicon Technologies." (2018). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 5992.


text:
\section{Introduction}

Experimental data-driven artificial intelligence (AI) approaches have
been used successfully in recent years to solve variety problems in
the fusion community including disruption prediction \citep{kates-harbeck2019be,Yang_2019},
magnetic field control \citep{Degrave2022}, surrogate model \citep{clayton2013electron,coccorese1994identification,Bishop1994,Jeon2001,Wang2016a,Joung2020},
and experiment planning \citep{wan2021}. One of the Priority Research
Opportunities for application AI approaches in fusion is fusion data
machine learning platform development \citep{Humphreys2020}. The
platform development includes a more suitable data management system
design for fusion AI R\&D.

The data-driven tokamak AI modeling approach is different from the
simulation approach. Because the data-driven approach requires large
amounts of data and has to process long sequences of inputs, whereas
typical simulation approaches \citep{Falchetto2014,Li2022b} do not
require such sizable experimental data inputs. For example, in the
fusion recurrent neural network (FRNN) \citep{kates-harbeck2019be},
one of the most famous disruption prediction works, 8959 shots were
used, which would be unimaginable in the conventional simulation code
development. Except for large data requirements, data-driven tokamak
AI model research requires high IO data read/write, MapReduce metadata
calculation, data alignment, sequence partitioning, error correction,
sequence concatenating, and distributed operation support. These operations
are not supported by the existing MDSplus database of EAST \citep{wang2018studyof}.

To meet the new requirements of the experimental data-driven fusion
AI research, we propose a data management system that combines MongoDB
\citep{mongodb} and HDF5 \citep{Folk2011} files and develops a backend
engine more suitable for tokamak fusion AI research. The HDF5 is very
suitable for high I/O and large-volume data management. However, the
HDF5 files are hard to retrieve and preprocess since HDF5 files are
file-level data management in principle. The MongoDB is suitable for
data retrieval and pre-processing, while the entry of MongoDB is limited
to 64MB. We design a hybrid database that combines the advantage of
MongoDB and HDF5.

\section{System design}

\subsection{Architecture}

The system is designed based on a combination of MongoDB and HDF5.
The data management system is divided into two parts, the low-level
original data management and the operational engine. Fig. \ref{fig:workflow}
shows our data management workflow. The yellow and blue boxes in Fig.
\ref{fig:workflow} are the data management and the light green boxes
are the operational engine. The main operations are listed as follows:
\begin{enumerate}
\item The MDSplus tree data are extracted and saved as an HDF5 file shot-by-shot.
\item MongoDB are saved HDF5 files metadata, location information, node
statistic property, etc.
\item The single process was used to read an HDF5 file.
\item Parallel processing was called by bucketing, concatenating buffer,
and calculating the global metadata.
\item Set bucketing (explained further in section \ref{subsec:Engine-design})
boundaries.
\item Obtain the bucketed distributed and aligned sequence.
\item Set buffer time step $\delta$.
\item Get concatenated sequence from the buffer.
\end{enumerate}
\begin{figure}
\begin{centering}
\includegraphics[width=0.7\paperwidth]{\string"Images/sysArchitecture\string".pdf}
\par\end{centering}
\caption{The data management. \label{fig:workflow}}
\end{figure}

\subsection{Database design}

The MDSplus database is designed as a tree structure to store the
complex tokamak experimental data. The MDSplus database is unsuitable
for AI modeling data retrieval and generation.. However, recently,
using experimental data-driven AI modeling in tokamak research is
becoming increasingly popular and these methods need high robustness,
parallelism, and high IO support of the database or the data management
system and also require the database to have the ability to compute
global metadata in the distributed MapReduce way.

Our architecture is designed based on MongoDB and HDF5 to meet the
new requirements of fusion AI research on tokamaks. MongoDB is a source-available
cross-platform document-oriented database program. Classified as a
NoSQL database program, MongoDB uses JSON-like documents with optional
schemas and supports high IO. Mongo also with the ability for high-performance
data retrieval. Although MongoDB has lots of advantages, on the one
hand, even with the latest MongoDB, the maximum entry size is only
64MB. One tokamak experiment usually produces over 1GB of data. On
the other hand, if each entry had a considerable size, the retrieval
performance and robustness would be bad. We use HDF5 files saved as
low-level source data storage to solve this problem. The HDF5 is an
open-source file format that supports large, complex, heterogeneous
data. HDF5 uses a \textquotedbl file directory\textquotedbl{} structure
that allows users to organize data within the file in many different
structured ways, as you might do with files on your computer. The
HDF5 format also allows for metadata embedding, making it self-describing.
The HDF5 is robust and supports high IO since it is only a file stored
on disk, not a server layer required. Our approach is a hybrid architecture
of MongoDB and HDF5. The approach uses MongoDB as the data indexing
layer and stores metadata in the MongoDB database. As shown in table
\ref{tab:MongoDB-data-structure}, the metadata includes the discharge
duration time, every signal mean, variance, existence flag, etc. The
original data is saved on HDF5 files on the cluster disk for high
IO data read/write.

\begin{table}
\caption{MongoDB data structure \label{tab:MongoDB-data-structure}. <node>
is a general name of EAST diagnostic signal. It can be replaced by
WMHD, Ne, etc.}

\centering{}%
\begin{tabular}{ccc}
\hline
Key & type & meaning\tabularnewline
\hline
shot & int & Tokamak experiment shot number\tabularnewline
file\_location & string & The corresponding HDF5 file location\tabularnewline
discharge\_time & float & Discharge duration time\tabularnewline
<node>\_existence & bool & Signal existence of this shot\tabularnewline
<node>\_mean & float & Signal mean\tabularnewline
<node>\_stDev & float & Signal standard deviation\tabularnewline
<node>\_start & float & Node start time\tabularnewline
<node>\_end & float & Node end time\tabularnewline
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

\subsection{Engine design \label{subsec:Engine-design}}

We have developed an engine for this database operation because this
hybrid database is not easy to operate directly. The engine has five
main components: Single data obtaining process, parallel data processing,
bucketing, concatenating buffer, and error correction. The single
data obtaining process is used to read a shot of data from the hybrid
data management system, the different signals data will be aligned
with an identical time axis. Users define the time axis start and
end, and the default value \textquotedbl start\textquotedbl{} is
equal to zero, and \textquotedbl end\textquotedbl{} is equal to the
discharge end time. The parallel data obtain process calls the single
data obtaining process to get multiple shots data. Bucketing sets
some parameters that fit the entire discharge research sequence generation
of fusion AI research and cache some data in memory to solve the different
speeds from data generation and AI model training. Concatenating buffer
concatenates sequences from different shots to generate the aligned
subsequences. Finally, error correction is used to check for NaN (invalid
value) and Inf (infinity value) read from the original data. In this
step, if the input data has NaN or Inf will be replaced by a linear
interpolation value and $3.2\text{\ensuremath{\times10^{32}}}$(it
is not the maximum value of the float 32 type, but it is large enough.
And it can still be calculated without overflowing), respectively.

The mini-batching gradient descent \citep{dean2012large,Huang2013}
is a general technique helps enhance GPU performance \citep{Chetlur2014}
and accelerates the training convergence of AI models. The loss gradients
are computed for several examples in parallel and then averaged. The
tokamak experimental data processing is difficult to use the mini-batching
since the tokamak experiment is all-time sequence data and has different
sequence lengths. For this approach to work efficiently, the AI model
training for forward and backward passes of each gradient computation
must be equal for all the examples computed in parallel. This is not
possible if different training examples have different lengths. Therefore,
there are three options for AI model training of experimental data
of tokamaks. 1. Using time slicing techniques, dealing with time slices
instead of sequences. 2. Time sequence padding techniques, padding
sequences with the specific values to the same length 3. Time sequence
concatenating. Option 1 is straightforward to implement, so this work
does not give the corresponding interface. The engine developed an
approach called \textquotedbl bucketing\textquotedbl{} to meet option
2 requirements. For option 3, we have developed an approach based
on a sequence concatenating buffer to meet this requirement.

\subsection{Bucketing design}

Bucketing is a partitioning algorithm that is used to speed up the
training time of long sequence datasets. We assume there is a set
of sequence $S=\left\{ s_{1},s_{2},\ldots,s_{n}\right\} $ is our
train set. $l_{i}=\left|s_{i}\right|$ is the length of sequence $s_{i}$.
And we use mini-batch approach to train a AI model for that train
set. Each GPU processes a mini-batch sequences in a synchronized parallel
manner, so a mini-batch $I_{\text{batch}}=\left\{ s_{1},s_{2},\ldots,s_{k}\right\} $
cost time is proportional to $O\left(\text{max}_{i\in1,\ldots,k}l_{i}\right)$.
Therefore, the processing time of the entire train set is expressed
as:

\begin{equation}
T(S)=O\left(n/k*\text{max}_{i\in1,\ldots,k}l_{i}\right).\label{eq:1-1}
\end{equation}

If the sequences of the train set were shuffled randomly before mini-batch
generation, mini-batch's minimum and maximum sequence lengths would
be very different. As a result, the GPU would do useless work for
processing the meaningless padding tails of shorter sequences. Additionally,
the too-long sequence with a bit bigger batch size would cause overflowed
easily due to the GPU memory capacity limit. Specifically, using the
same mini-batch size for long sequences input as for short sequences
input will take up more GPU memory than expected. We developed a customized
bucketing backend to optimize the batch training to overcome this
flaw and reduce training time. All sequences was partitioned to $B$
buckets by the lengths. Let $S_{i}=\left\{ s_{j_{1}},s_{j_{2}},\ldots s_{j_{k_{i}}}\right\} $.
For every bucket, we perform the mini-batch training with different
batch sizes. The processing time of the whole set is expressed as:

\begin{equation}
T(S)=\sum_{i=1}^{B}O(T(S_{i})).\label{eq:}
\end{equation}

The sequences within every bucket were shuffled randomly. And then,
the sequences were generated batch sequences batch-by-batch. To train
batchwise with a batch size $M$, we need M independent shot discharge
sequences of the same bucket to feed to the GPU. Zeros padded the
different length discharge sequences to the same length. We did this
by using M processes to read sequence data in parallel. The M sequences
were fed to a buffer first to solve the problem of GPU and CPU speed
mismatch since data from HDF5 files are read through a CPU.

\subsection{Concatenating buffer design}

Another way to handle variable-length time sequence data is concatenating,
which is also supported by our data management system engine. Fig.
\ref{fig:Buffer} shows a concatenating buffer to input M equal length
sequences to feed to the model in our engine. The sequences come from
different shots. Firstly, we need to set a time step $\delta$, before
using the concatenating buffer. $\delta$ is the minimum time-dependent
length. For example,the time-dependent length in disruption research
is always set to \textasciitilde 100$ms$ \citep{kates-harbeck2019be}.
Before shots are fed to the buffer, they are cut into multiples of
$\delta$ steps at the beginning. Whenever a shot finishes in the
buffer (e.g., the blue shot in Fig. \ref{fig:Buffer}), a new shot
(red) is loaded. The buffer allows the training of shots of different
lengths in batches. Shot acquisition calls the parallel data obtaining
process.

\begin{figure}
\begin{centering}
\includegraphics[width=0.45\paperwidth]{\string"Images/buffer_design\string".pdf}
\par\end{centering}
\caption{\label{fig:Buffer}Buffer training engine design. The Fig. illustrates
how batchwise data generate from buffer with batch size M. The different
horizontal bars with different colors represent different shots data.
A color change in a given row means that a new shot starts. At every
time step, the leftmost chunk is cut from the buffer and output. }

\end{figure}

The concatenating buffer data input and the bucketing data input are
suitable for different model training. For example, suppose the entire
tokamak discharge modeling is research \citep{wan2021}. In that case,
the bucketing method is a good choice. The concatenating buffer is
a general option if the model is to study local time dependencies
(like disruption prediction). On the other hand, if the model does
not require time-dependent, the easily slicing approach is more common.

\subsection{Data conversion}

The dataset is selected from the EAST tokamak MDSplus database original
data. Since the MDSplus server cannot support high IO computing, we
wrote a series of scripts to convert MDSplus original data to HDF5
files shot-by-shot directly, and one shot is one HDF5 file. We also
use the error correction engine to clean the data in this step.

\section{Performance analysis}

In this section, we compare in detail the performance of our system
with the convention database in tokamaks. We compare the bucketing
with conventional shuffling and do not compare the concatenating buffer.
The concatenating buffer is a solution-suit tool for specific machine
learning model training and does not have a counterpart in the fusion
database.

\subsection{Comparing hybrid data management and MDSplus}

Highly concurrent data read directly through the server in EAST's
real MDSplus database are difficult to achieve. With so many people
working on the EAST MDSplus database, we can't perform high-risk operations
on it. So we built a simple MDSplus database for data reading efficiency
comparison. The demonstrative database contains 100 signal data from
the EAST original shot in range \#74000-76000. We compared the time
to read 100 signal data in shot range \#74000-76000 from MDSplus and
our data management system. The simple MDSplus and our system were
deployed in the same cluster to minimize interference from different
environments. Although our model has high concurrency support, we
used four processes in both systems for data reading in this test
since the MDSplus does not have high concurrency. The results was
contained in table \ref{tab:Comparison}.

\begin{table}
\caption{Comparison of our hybrid data management and MDSplus. \label{tab:Comparison}}

\centering{}%
\begin{tabular}{ccc}
\hline
Function & MDSplus & Our hybrid data management\tabularnewline
\hline
Demonstrative reading time & $4289s$ & $167s$\tabularnewline
Bucketing support & False & True\tabularnewline
Concatenating support & False & True\tabularnewline
High IO concurrency & False & True\tabularnewline
AI Algorithm Support & Normal & Good\tabularnewline
Visualization support & True & False\tabularnewline
Number of plug-ins & Many & None\tabularnewline
Diagnostic raw data interface & False & True\tabularnewline
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

Table \ref{tab:Comparison} shows that our model has an advantage
in AI-related operational support. MDSplus, on the other hand, has
the advantage of supporting mainly traditional simulation studies,
and it can be directly interfaced with fusion diagnostic systems,
which is something our system cannot do at the moment. Our data management
is good for fusion AI research but can not substitute the MDSplus
database.

\subsection{Bucketing performance}

We test the model's training time in 300 shots sampled from the EAST
2020-2020 campaigns. Fig. \ref{fig:Training_time} compares the bucketing
approach and the entire dataset shuffling approach. In this example,
we train a single layer long-short term memory (LSTM) neural network
with same learning rate, optimizer, weights initializer, bias initializer,
and loss function etc. The input parameters come from the experiment
data-driven discharge modeling \citep{wan2021}, the output parameter
is stored energy $W_{mhd}$. The bucketing is more efficient than
conventional random shuffling in this model training. The blue line
of Fig. \ref{fig:Training_time} is random shuffling and this approach
is converges more slowly than the bucketing. We provide a bucketing
backend engine that is able to speed up the training of the model.

\begin{figure}
\centering{}\includegraphics[width=0.45\paperwidth]{\string"Images/train_comp\string".pdf}\caption{\label{fig:Training_time}Training time comparison}
\end{figure}

\section{Summary and future work}

A new data management system suitable for fusion AI model R\&D of
EAST tokamak has been designed and developed. The system has the following
main functions: data conversion from MDSplus original data, error
correction, concatenating buffer sequence generation, bucketing sequence
generation, and data statistics. All functions have been developed
and have been tested on the latest machine learning work about outermost
magnetic field reconstruction.

We will test our system in several tokamak databases and develop compatible
visualization tools in future work. The error correction engine will
be upgraded by analyzing each tokamak diagnosis and will process the
values exceeding the corresponding diagnostic limitation. An automatic
data cleaning will be developed to automatic filter out outlier experiments
and error experiments.

\section*{Acknowledgments}

The authors would like to thank all the members of EAST Team for providing
such a large quantity of past experimental data. The authors sincerely
thank Prof. Qiping Yuan, Dr. Ruirui Zhang, and Prof. Jinping Qian
for explaining the experimental data.

This work was supported by the National Key R\&D project under Contract
No.Y65GZ10593, the National MCF Energy R\&D Program under Contract
No.2018YFE0304100, and the Comprehensive Research Facility for Fusion
Technology Program of China under Contract No. 2018-000052-73-01-001228.

\bibliographystyle{unsrtnat}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
News Analyst
Hypocrite 'View' Berates Behar for Touting Castro, After Defending Him in Past
February 25th, 2020 1:44 PM
The View co-host Joy Behar faced pushback from her liberal peers on Tuesday's show, after she started defending Bernie Sanders comments praising Fidel Castro. However, some of her co-hosts shared her soft take towards the dictator in years past.
The hosts opened the show coming out strongly against Sanders. Behar focused her criticism on Cuba saying the "quality of life was awful" and the "infrastructure was horrible." However, her co-hosts berated Bernie for praising Castro.
"It's a dictatorship," Whoopi Goldberg pointed out repeatedly, adding forcefully, "There is nothing groovy about a dictatorship!" Meghan McCain then gave a lengthy list of why many Cuban refugees fled to Florida. Sunny Hostin also came out harshly against Sanders, saying that Latinos "would not forgive him for this position," and that there was no excuse for touting literacy while leaving out the rest of Castro's destruction.
All this Bernie bashing finally got to Behar.
"He said Fidel was a bad guy. All he was saying was there was this one thing they did. And American voters don't understand nuance! They hear communism, and go crazy!" she proclaimed.
Whoopi berated her.
"No, no no. There's no way around that. This is as bad as you know who saying there were good people on both sides. It's the same," she stated.
While Hostin and McCain backed up Whoopi, Behar grumbled, "I don't agree." Whoopi kept scolding Behar, saying this was as bad as defending Hitler, "to a Cuban person."
McCain then strangely claimed, "we're all on the same page on this," even though Behar clearly wasn't.
But Behar wasn't done. Later in the show, Shark Tank stars, investors Mark Cuban and Kevin O'Leary were on to talk about the 2020 race and the economy. Behar asked O'Leary his thoughts on Sanders. Amazingly, Behar kept defending Bernie, even comparing Cuba's education system to the United States:
O'LEARY: They don't even like to talk about him, and here's Bernie out there with, 'yeah, you know, this dictator isn't so horrible.' Yeah, he's horrible.
BEHAR: He did one good thing, he said.
O'LEARY: By the way, that literacy program that he was talking about was a re-education program.
WHOOPI: Yes, it was.
O'LEARY: There's a big difference.
HOSTIN: There you go. Propaganda.
O'LEARY: If you are a historian and look at what occurred there, there's nothing good about Fidel.
BEHAR: I believe the literacy rate did jump quite a bit after that.
MCCAIN: Let's not. Let's not.
HOSTIN: From reading propaganda
O'LEARY: I'm not sure they're getting a really good dose of world history.
BEHAR: [grumbles] Do they get that here?
After O'Leary pointed out Americans didn't want Bernie to turn the U.S. into a "communist country," Behar protested, "Of course, he's not going to do that!"
Yikes. Well at least Behar is being consistent. In 2016 after he died, Behar also gushed about Cuba's literacy under Castro. What's ironic is that her co-hosts shared her much softer take towards Fidel Castro as well. After Barack Obama praised the dictator, Whoopi Goldberg defended the president's comments as "proper" and "diplomatic" because Cubans were "mourning" him. She also said that a lot of Cubans "didn't grow up with the Castro regime as being bad." Hostin tried to have it both ways, saying she was "surprised" by Obama's "sanitized" comments, but she liked his "diplomacy" as well.
As NewsBusters has noted, The View creator Barbara Walters has been the most effusive about Castro, calling him "charming," "charismatic" and praising Cuba as "one of the freest nations on earth."
Sunny Hostin
2020 Presidential
NB Daily


All the thing Sammy Sosa do for society?
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Our main head office is based in Willenhall West Midlands where I have a fantastic and dedicated team of staff.


For cervical cancer, the number of diagnoses could "rise by at least 25% to over 700,000 by 2030", mainly in low- and middle-income countries, said a statement from the Lancet.
Cancer is already killing one in seven women around the world, said the ACS report – the second highest cause of death after cardiovascular disease.
All four of the deadliest cancers – breast, colorectal, lung and cervical cancer – are mostly preventable or can be detected early, when treatment is more successful.
In poorer countries, a much smaller proportion of cancer cases are diagnosed and treated than in rich ones, while a much bigger group dies. The relative burden is growing for developing countries as people live longer due to better basic healthcare.
Women in these countries are also increasingly exposed to known cancer risk factors "associated with rapid economic transition", said Cowal, "such as physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, obesity, and reproductive factors" including postponing motherhood.
"Due to these changes, cancers that were once common only in high-income countries are becoming more prevalent," said the report entitled The Global Burden of Cancer in Women.
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, there were 6.7 million new cancer cases and 3.5 million deaths among women worldwide in 2012. Of these, 56% of cases and 64% of deaths were in less developed countries.
"These numbers are expected to increase to 9.9 million cases and 5.5 million deaths among females annually by 2030 as a result of the growth and ageing of the population," said the ACS report.
Cervical cancer can be staved off by vaccination against the cancer-causing human papillomavirus (HPV) and can be detected through regular Papanicolaou (pap) smear tests.
The Lancet report, comprised of three research papers, said a basic cancer control package could be introduced in low- and middle-income countries for as little as US$1.72 (£1.40) per person – the equivalent of just 3% of current health spending in these countries.
"The global community cannot continue to ignore the problem – hundreds of thousands of women are dying unnecessarily every year," said Richard Sullivan of King's College London, who co-authored the Lancet report.


The content includes information related to mental and emotional distress and it might be upsetting to some people. If you or someone you know have thoughts of suicide, have attempted suicide, or experience emotional distress, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1–800–273–TALK (8255) or Live Online Chat. To get general information on mental health and to locate treatment services in your area, contact SAMHSA Treatment Referral Helpline at 1–877–SAMHSA7 (1–877–726–4727).
Managing symptoms of plaque psoriasis is difficult enough, but emotional and mental challenges can also arise. Often, people aren't just coping with one chronic condition, but several, and it can have a negative impact on the mental health of patients and their caregivers. We conducted a large survey of people living with chronic health conditions, such as plaque psoriasis and asked many questions to understand the mental health challenges that result from living with one or more physical conditions and how they're recognized and managed.
As if plaque psoriasis wasn't difficult enough to manage and live with, most people also have to cope with a myriad of mental health-related symptoms. People have experienced an average of 12 mental health symptoms, with many (almost 40%) having to deal with these symptoms on a daily basis.


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In an effort to promote health, wellness and giving back locally, Giant Food's Registered Dietitian team created month long meal plans volunteers can follow to offer families staying in the DC area houses a varied menu of healthy and delicious options. These meal plans will be available to volunteers in each house as well as online.
Please click the Ronald McDonald House location you would like to volunteer at and see more information about how to set up a volunteer opportunity to help us Feed the House!


LONDON (Hypebot) — Last.fm has named F. Scott Woods SVP and Managing Director, Germany. Woods, who joins Last.fm from Google where he served as Head of Strategic Partnerships and Business Development, Northern & Central Europe, will oversee the expansion of the Last.fm presence in Germany, the country with the second largest Last.fm userbase after the US. Woods will help set up a Last.fm office in Hamburg, where he will manage marketing, advertising sales and business development partnerships in Northern Europe.


i had a long list of 'things i wanted to finish before the baby arrives' and one of the items on it was our bedroom. i knew we wouldn't have the time (or inclination) to do it later and i just wanted to freshen it up. sometimes i get bored of how a room looks and i just have to change something to make me happier! we decided to remove the gallery wall, declutter the cupboards, take away our old bed and repaint the walls.
there was one thing on my bedroom wish list that i've been lusting after some time now- linen bedding. the only downside? the cost. as a serial bedding buyer i couldn't really justify spending £100-200 on a full set when there was so much we still needed to get for the nursery.
the most affordable linen i could track down was from h&m at a more reasonable cost of £80. but before i could purchase them i found a better deal.. yeah you guessed it, ikea. they've recently introduced the puderviva range in four colours. dark grey, white, green and the natural colour that i opted for.
at £55 it's the most affordable linen bedding set i've found.. hurrah!
the other scandi purchase was our shelving unit. we already own some of the super cute scandinavian string shelves but this large wall unit from sostrene grene was half the price and more than double the size.
i tried a few ways of styling these shelves, eventually deciding on a less is more approach with just a few trinkets and books.
if you're looking for scandi style shelving i've also found some other affordable styles at hema which are worth a peek.
Linen bedding is lovely to sleep within but ironing?


Bumpin' 1988 house version of Cerrone's disco classic 'Supernature'. This workout is nicely touched up with a cheeky acid line, some 808 action and of course….a classic chicago bassline to get y'all fooz jumpin.
This entry was posted in FUNK, HOUSE, OLDSCHOOL DISCO, REMIXES // EDITS and tagged 1998, cerrone, Chicago house, supernature. Bookmark the permalink.


text:
Мурзенко Володимир Григорович (26 квітня 1937 - 1 грудня 2017) — начальник дільниці АТ Шахта «Червоний партизан».

Біографія
Народився 26 квітня 1937 (с. Провалля, Свердловський район, Луганська область).

Освіта: Кадіївський гірничий технікум, гірничий електромеханік.

Служив в армії. Працював слюсарем з ремонту на шахті «Червоний партизан». З 1960 — на збагач. фабриці «Червоний партизан». 1962-64 — електрослюсар, 1964-67 — механік дільниці, 1968 — гірник очисного вибою, 1969 — змінний механік, механік дільниці, з 1970 — начальник дільниці, бригадир комплексної бригади шахти «Червоний партизан» «Свердловантрациту» (Луганська область).

Помер 1 грудня 2017 року в Довжанську.

Нагороди
 Звання Герой України з врученням ордена Держави (19 грудня 2001) — за самовіддану шахтарську працю, досягнення найвищих у вугільній галузі показників з видобутку вугілля
 Орден «За заслуги» II ст. (26 серпня 2004) — за високий професіоналізм, значний особистий внесок у формування та реалізацію пріоритетних напрямів інноваційної діяльності у вугільній промисловості
 Орден «За заслуги» III ст. (11 лютого 1999) — за дострокове виконання завдань 1998 року по видобутку вугілля, значний особистий внесок у підвищення ефективності виробництва
 Герой Соціалістичної Праці (31 грудня 1973)
 Ордени Леніна, Жовтневої революції, Дружби народів
 Заслужений шахтар України
 Знаки «Шахтарська доблесть» I, II, III ст., «Шахтарська слава» I, II, III ст.
 Лауреат премії Ленінського комсомолу

Примітки

Посилання
 Довідник «Хто є хто в Україні», видавництво «К.І.С»
 Мурзенко Володимир Григорович // Сайт «Герої України»

Уродженці Довжанського району
Нагороджені знаком «Шахтарська слава»
Нагороджені знаком «Шахтарська доблесть»
Персоналії:Довжанськ
Українські гірничі інженери

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Veneno Vivo is an album by Brazilian singer Cássia Eller, released in 1998.

Track listing

"Brasil"
"Amor Destrambelhado"
"Obrigado (Por Ter Se Mandado)"
"Vida Bandida"
"Billy Negão"
"Farrapo Humano"
"Nós"
"Mis Penas LLoraba Yo"
"Todo Amor Que Houver Nessa Vida"
"Ponto Fraco"
"Faça O Que Quiser Fazer"
"Geração Coca-Cola"
"Todas As Mulheres Do Mundo"
"Eu Queria Ser Cássia Eller"

References

Cássia Eller albums
1998 live albums
Universal Records live albums


text:
/*
 *  This file is part of the WebKit open source project.
 *  This file has been generated by generate-bindings.pl. DO NOT MODIFY!
 *
 *  This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 *  modify it under the terms of the GNU Library General Public
 *  License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
 *  version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
 *
 *  This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 *  but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 *  MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
 *  Library General Public License for more details.
 *
 *  You should have received a copy of the GNU Library General Public License
 *  along with this library; see the file COPYING.LIB.  If not, write to
 *  the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
 *  Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
 */

#include "config.h"
#include "WebKitDOMTestCallback.h"

#include "CSSImportRule.h"
#include "DOMObjectCache.h"
#include "Document.h"
#include "ExceptionCode.h"
#include "JSMainThreadExecState.h"
#include "WebKitDOMDOMStringListPrivate.h"
#include "WebKitDOMFloat32ArrayPrivate.h"
#include "WebKitDOMPrivate.h"
#include "WebKitDOMSerializedScriptValuePrivate.h"
#include "WebKitDOMTestCallbackPrivate.h"
#include "WebKitDOMTestNodePrivate.h"
#include "gobject/ConvertToUTF8String.h"
#include <wtf/GetPtr.h>
#include <wtf/RefPtr.h>

#define WEBKIT_DOM_TEST_CALLBACK_GET_PRIVATE(obj) G_TYPE_INSTANCE_GET_PRIVATE(obj, WEBKIT_TYPE_DOM_TEST_CALLBACK, WebKitDOMTestCallbackPrivate)

typedef struct _WebKitDOMTestCallbackPrivate {
#if ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE)
    RefPtr<WebCore::TestCallback> coreObject;
#endif // ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE)
} WebKitDOMTestCallbackPrivate;

#if ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE)

namespace WebKit {

WebKitDOMTestCallback* kit(WebCore::TestCallback* obj)
{
    if (!obj)
        return 0;

    if (gpointer ret = DOMObjectCache::get(obj))
        return WEBKIT_DOM_TEST_CALLBACK(ret);

    return wrapTestCallback(obj);
}

WebCore::TestCallback* core(WebKitDOMTestCallback* request)
{
    return request ? static_cast<WebCore::TestCallback*>(WEBKIT_DOM_OBJECT(request)->coreObject) : 0;
}

WebKitDOMTestCallback* wrapTestCallback(WebCore::TestCallback* coreObject)
{
    ASSERT(coreObject);
    return WEBKIT_DOM_TEST_CALLBACK(g_object_new(WEBKIT_TYPE_DOM_TEST_CALLBACK, "core-object", coreObject, NULL));
}

} // namespace WebKit

#endif // ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE)

G_DEFINE_TYPE(WebKitDOMTestCallback, webkit_dom_test_callback, WEBKIT_TYPE_DOM_OBJECT)

static void webkit_dom_test_callback_finalize(GObject* object)
{
    WebKitDOMTestCallbackPrivate* priv = WEBKIT_DOM_TEST_CALLBACK_GET_PRIVATE(object);
#if ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE)
    WebKit::DOMObjectCache::forget(priv->coreObject.get());
#endif // ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE)
    priv->~WebKitDOMTestCallbackPrivate();
    G_OBJECT_CLASS(webkit_dom_test_callback_parent_class)->finalize(object);
}

static GObject* webkit_dom_test_callback_constructor(GType type, guint constructPropertiesCount, GObjectConstructParam* constructProperties)
{
    GObject* object = G_OBJECT_CLASS(webkit_dom_test_callback_parent_class)->constructor(type, constructPropertiesCount, constructProperties);
#if ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE)
    WebKitDOMTestCallbackPrivate* priv = WEBKIT_DOM_TEST_CALLBACK_GET_PRIVATE(object);
    priv->coreObject = static_cast<WebCore::TestCallback*>(WEBKIT_DOM_OBJECT(object)->coreObject);
    WebKit::DOMObjectCache::put(priv->coreObject.get(), object);
#endif // ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE)
    return object;
}

static void webkit_dom_test_callback_class_init(WebKitDOMTestCallbackClass* requestClass)
{
    GObjectClass* gobjectClass = G_OBJECT_CLASS(requestClass);
    g_type_class_add_private(gobjectClass, sizeof(WebKitDOMTestCallbackPrivate));
    gobjectClass->constructor = webkit_dom_test_callback_constructor;
    gobjectClass->finalize = webkit_dom_test_callback_finalize;
}

static void webkit_dom_test_callback_init(WebKitDOMTestCallback* request)
{
    WebKitDOMTestCallbackPrivate* priv = WEBKIT_DOM_TEST_CALLBACK_GET_PRIVATE(request);
    new (priv) WebKitDOMTestCallbackPrivate();
}

gboolean webkit_dom_test_callback_callback_with_no_param(WebKitDOMTestCallback* self)
{
#if ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE)
    WebCore::JSMainThreadNullState state;
    g_return_val_if_fail(WEBKIT_DOM_IS_TEST_CALLBACK(self), FALSE);
    WebCore::TestCallback* item = WebKit::core(self);
    gboolean result = item->callbackWithNoParam();
    return result;
#else
    WEBKIT_WARN_FEATURE_NOT_PRESENT("SQL Database")
    return static_cast<gboolean>(0);
#endif /* ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE) */
}

gboolean webkit_dom_test_callback_callback_with_array_param(WebKitDOMTestCallback* self, WebKitDOMFloat32Array* arrayParam)
{
#if ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE)
    WebCore::JSMainThreadNullState state;
    g_return_val_if_fail(WEBKIT_DOM_IS_TEST_CALLBACK(self), FALSE);
    g_return_val_if_fail(WEBKIT_DOM_IS_FLOAT32ARRAY(arrayParam), FALSE);
    WebCore::TestCallback* item = WebKit::core(self);
    WebCore::Float32Array* convertedArrayParam = WebKit::core(arrayParam);
    gboolean result = item->callbackWithArrayParam(convertedArrayParam);
    return result;
#else
    WEBKIT_WARN_FEATURE_NOT_PRESENT("SQL Database")
    return static_cast<gboolean>(0);
#endif /* ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE) */
}

gboolean webkit_dom_test_callback_callback_with_serialized_script_value_param(WebKitDOMTestCallback* self, WebKitDOMSerializedScriptValue* srzParam, const gchar* strArg)
{
#if ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE)
    WebCore::JSMainThreadNullState state;
    g_return_val_if_fail(WEBKIT_DOM_IS_TEST_CALLBACK(self), FALSE);
    g_return_val_if_fail(WEBKIT_DOM_IS_SERIALIZED_SCRIPT_VALUE(srzParam), FALSE);
    g_return_val_if_fail(strArg, FALSE);
    WebCore::TestCallback* item = WebKit::core(self);
    WebCore::SerializedScriptValue* convertedSrzParam = WebKit::core(srzParam);
    WTF::String convertedStrArg = WTF::String::fromUTF8(strArg);
    gboolean result = item->callbackWithSerializedScriptValueParam(convertedSrzParam, convertedStrArg);
    return result;
#else
    WEBKIT_WARN_FEATURE_NOT_PRESENT("SQL Database")
    return static_cast<gboolean>(0);
#endif /* ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE) */
}

glong webkit_dom_test_callback_callback_with_non_bool_return_type(WebKitDOMTestCallback* self, const gchar* strArg)
{
#if ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE)
    WebCore::JSMainThreadNullState state;
    g_return_val_if_fail(WEBKIT_DOM_IS_TEST_CALLBACK(self), 0);
    g_return_val_if_fail(strArg, 0);
    WebCore::TestCallback* item = WebKit::core(self);
    WTF::String convertedStrArg = WTF::String::fromUTF8(strArg);
    glong result = item->callbackWithNonBoolReturnType(convertedStrArg);
    return result;
#else
    WEBKIT_WARN_FEATURE_NOT_PRESENT("SQL Database")
    return static_cast<glong>(0);
#endif /* ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE) */
}

gboolean webkit_dom_test_callback_callback_with_string_list(WebKitDOMTestCallback* self, WebKitDOMDOMStringList* listParam)
{
#if ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE)
    WebCore::JSMainThreadNullState state;
    g_return_val_if_fail(WEBKIT_DOM_IS_TEST_CALLBACK(self), FALSE);
    g_return_val_if_fail(WEBKIT_DOM_IS_DOM_STRING_LIST(listParam), FALSE);
    WebCore::TestCallback* item = WebKit::core(self);
    WebCore::DOMStringList* convertedListParam = WebKit::core(listParam);
    gboolean result = item->callbackWithStringList(convertedListParam);
    return result;
#else
    WEBKIT_WARN_FEATURE_NOT_PRESENT("SQL Database")
    return static_cast<gboolean>(0);
#endif /* ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE) */
}

gboolean webkit_dom_test_callback_callback_with_boolean(WebKitDOMTestCallback* self, gboolean boolParam)
{
#if ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE)
    WebCore::JSMainThreadNullState state;
    g_return_val_if_fail(WEBKIT_DOM_IS_TEST_CALLBACK(self), FALSE);
    WebCore::TestCallback* item = WebKit::core(self);
    gboolean result = item->callbackWithBoolean(boolParam);
    return result;
#else
    WEBKIT_WARN_FEATURE_NOT_PRESENT("SQL Database")
    return static_cast<gboolean>(0);
#endif /* ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE) */
}

gboolean webkit_dom_test_callback_callback_requires_this_to_pass(WebKitDOMTestCallback* self, glong longParam, WebKitDOMTestNode* testNodeParam)
{
#if ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE)
    WebCore::JSMainThreadNullState state;
    g_return_val_if_fail(WEBKIT_DOM_IS_TEST_CALLBACK(self), FALSE);
    g_return_val_if_fail(WEBKIT_DOM_IS_TEST_NODE(testNodeParam), FALSE);
    WebCore::TestCallback* item = WebKit::core(self);
    WebCore::TestNode* convertedTestNodeParam = WebKit::core(testNodeParam);
    gboolean result = item->callbackRequiresThisToPass(longParam, convertedTestNodeParam);
    return result;
#else
    WEBKIT_WARN_FEATURE_NOT_PRESENT("SQL Database")
    return static_cast<gboolean>(0);
#endif /* ENABLE(SQL_DATABASE) */
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Wood of a number of tropical species usually distinguished by its dark color, durability, and hardness; used for carving, ornamental cabinetwork, etc.
When stained black, holly resembles the much sought-after African ebony wood.
The few pieces of furniture consist of tall backed chairs, benches, tables and counters, all made of African ebony.
East African blackwood, African blackwood, Ebene de Mozambique, pao preto, grenadill, Cape danson, African ebony, dialbam, koffo, kio, jeti-edo, munjo, motangu, poyi, mpingo, muengom, samachi, and chella, funiti, shami, babanus, begbio, bokango faiti, rit, and tarem.


For me cactus (nopales) is a lot like okra, slightly gooey.
Cactus has a very mild flavor and is also incredibly good for you since it is high in fiber, antioxidants and carotenoids. Some preliminary evidence shows that prickly pear cactus can decrease blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes.
While thinking about a way of eating more cactus I remembered this smoothie recipe that was indeed this first ever "green smoothie" I ever tried. It was a recipe that my grandma got from a newspaper and it was in her kitchen that I gave it a try with a skeptical face.
And it was then when I noticed if you eat raw cactus is not only not gooey but it also has a milder fresher taste that I prefer. I do find parsley to be a strong flavor on this smoothie so if you don't like your greens as much as I do you could substitute for something less strong in flavor like spinach. Either way I do find it quite delicious and refreshing.
*Make sure your pineapple is ripe and sweet.
I moved to North Carolina about a month ago. One of the first things I noticed was how much more expensive the produce is in here. Cilantro for example is 3 times the price than what it was in Texas, 3 times! Oh and let's just not talk about avocados. When I buy one I feel like I'm buying caviar.
However one of the great things about the area is the incredible amount of farmers and farmer stands there is all around.
So on one of my last visits to a near by farmer stand I got red okra, why? well because it looked pretty. I got it at a neat farm called the farmer's daughter that has some very interesting stuff.
So after a few searches around the internet I found a recipe for oven fried okra fries and I decided to make some chipotle mayo because well everything tastes better with chipotle mayo. The "fries" part of it I guess came from the shape, however this is where I learned that there is a reason behind cutting fried okra into little rounds. It wasn't that big of a deal but if you keep reading you will see what I'm talking about.
First cut the okra in half and add salt and pepper, let it sit for a few minutes so the salt makes the water come out of the vegetable which makes the flour stick to it easier.
Meanwhile add flour, pepper, garlic powder and seasoning to a plastic bag. Once your notice the okra has some water on the surface where you added salt and pepper is ready to go into the bag, shake it and cover completely with the flour mixture.
Mix egg and water on a plate to make your egg wash, then shake the okra to remove excess flour and pass it over onto this egg wash. Last roll it on the breadcrumbs.
Arrange your okra into parchment paper or silicon mat on a cookie sheet and bake for about 20 mins or until golden brown. Then lower temperature on oven to about 120 and let it sit there for another 20 mins or until crispy.
For the mayo just cut up the chipotle in small pieces and mix with the other ingredients, if you want you could start with 1/2 a pepper and add as needed. Chipotle is very spicy so if you want just a mild flavor you could start adding just the adobo sauce that comes in the can.
And this is what I thought it would be, okra fries. The reality is that after I took the first bite it was impossible to chew because of the fibers. So to fix it I just made it into "bites" and cut them in pieces. I would prob do that before baking next time and it may even reduce baking time.
The first dessert I ever made was of course incredibly simple since I was probably around 10 years old. Is a very popular lime charlotte or "carlota de limon" that uses limes (which I got from the tree in my house), condensed milk and maria cookies.
I had been craving this dessert for a few weeks but I wanted to do a grown up version of it. I thought I could use some of the same ingredients and make a tart, then I found a recipe for a macadamia key lime tart which I thought sounded pretty good so I gave it a try.
Stir crushed cookies and macadamia (I crushed both in a blender) and pour over them the melted butter and mix. You are looking for a sand like texture that stays together if you press it, not a dough like or nothing heavy. Firmly press crumb mixture evenly on bottom and up sides of a 12-inch tart pan.
Whisk together eggs, grated lime rind, fresh lime juice and sugar in a non-aluminum saucepan over low heat. Cook this mixture whisking constantly, 8 minutes or until lime mixture is thickened and bubbly. Please dont forget to keep whisking or it will turn into scrambled eggs. For a while you may feel that the mixture is not really thickening but believe eventually it will and it will change in texture in a few seconds. Then add the butter let it melt and keep whisking until is all incorporated. Let it cool. As I said I like citrus desserts on the citrusy side, so if you're not sure add just 1/2 cup of fresh juice and adjust accordingly.
Pour filling into prepared crust; cover and chill 4 hours or overnight. Remove sides of tart pan and garnish with more lime rind if desired.
Tortilla soup is (like many other culinary creations) one of those recipes that was probably originated with leftovers. Take Coq au vin for example, an old tough bird you have to drown in wine to get it to taste good, tortilla soup is better with a few-days-old- tortillas.
I don't mean tortillas filled with preservatives of course but the fresh kind, the kind that will go dry and slightly tough after a couple of days. Those are the ones I used for this soup and believe me it was delicious.
I would recommend to serve just the broth and let your guests pick their own toppings, also make sure you add the tortillas right before you are about to eat. They are not meant to be soggy.
This recipe is for 2 servings so multiply as you need.
1 chile pasilla (dried chile) stem and seeds removed and soaked into very hot water for about 30 min.
A few pieces of the tortillas that you fried.
Start by removing the edge of the corn tortillas then cut up into small strips.
Fry them with some vegetable oil and set aside, I picked the ones that looked more brown and added to the broth.
Soak the chile pasilla in some very hot water until is soft (30 mins.) you can remove the seeds and stem after this.
Chile pasilla is NOT HOT at all so don't be afraid to use it. Is the base for a lot of dishes like enchiladas and asado de puerco. It has a flavor reminiscent of raisins with spice notes that is very unique.
Put in a blender the tomato, onion, garlic cloves, chile pasilla and one cup of chicken broth. Add salt and pepper and blend until combined.
Then add a little bit of oil to a pot and put on medium heat. Pour the mix from the blender, it should sizzle. Let it boil until it changes in color, you should also notice a change in the way it smells. Once it has boiled for about 5 min add the rest of the chicken broth and let it boil once again, then let it simmer for about 10 mins. Rectify the salt and pepper (I also added some chili powder here but that is up to you).
It should have a pretty bright red color and a complex flavor.
Now for the toppings, just chop up the queso, avocado and add them to your soup once you are ready to eat (along with the tortilla chips you made). I like adding a little bit of crema and yes a small pork rind to garnish just they way they serve it in most restaurants in Mexico. Crema is not sour cream, is more liquid and sweeter and not as tangy. If you can't find it you can substitute for creme fraiche. Decorate with chile pasilla rings and fresh coriander.
Serve with some lime juice on the side and enjoy.
Flour tortillas are the staple of almost every house in the north of Mexico. Unlike the south and center of the country where corn tortillas are more popular, flour tortillas in the north are eaten almost as often as corn tortillas and are specially good for breakfast tacos or with the traditional sunday barbacoa.
During my childhood my mom made them almost once a week and she would often receive a lot of compliments on her recipe, I remember playing with the dough as it was play-doh and making small tiny tortillas that she would then cook on the "comal". They are made with just a few simple ingredients but they do require a little bit of patience. Here is the way my mom used to make them, give them a try. Believe me they are well worth the extra time and they are also fun to make. This recipe will yield about 24-30 tortillas depending on the size.
Is important that you find a bowl big enough for you to knead the dough in there so you don't end up with a messy counter. Start by mixing flour, salt and baking powder. Then add the lard or shortening and mix using your hands until you don't see any clumps.
Meanwhile bring your water to a boil and then turn off the heat, water should be very hot but not boiling.
Once all your dry ingredients and shortening are mixed, start adding the water about 1/2 cup at the time.
Make a well in the center and then mix with a spoon or a fork, remember this will be very hot! Once you become an expert like my mom you may go at it with bare hands. Separate the dough from the loose flour and keep making a well and adding more water until is all uniform. You may need less water so keep checking, you don't want a sticky dough neither a dry one. It wont really become uniform until you knead it so you need to look for consistency.
Then we are going to make the "testales" or the small portions that will eventually become the tortillas. My mom would separate all the dough first into balls making sure they are all the same size. She makes this by pressing the dough into her hand until she has all the portions separated. While you do this you want to make sure you let the dough rest in the process. So for the next step start with the ball that you did first and so on so you have a uniform consistency.
Once you have all the balls formed you can let them rest for a little bit while you clean or do something else… like play candy crush or post some pictures on instagram to show everyone you're making homemade tortillas.
Now you will form the "testales". You need to take a ball and push all the edges underneath turning it around while you do it. This process according to my mom is like an extra knead to every portion and is also important for the elasticity of the dough. So you are not only looking to form it into shape but also making sure the dough gets elastic. When you are done your testal will have a top and a bottom where you can see all the edges pulled in together.
Once you have all the testales done they need to rest for about 30 mins. to an hour. The more they rest the better.
My mom would also usually store the leftover tortillas as testales in the fridge so you could roll them and cook them when you would want a tortilla again.
Once they have rested you will need to roll them out into a circle. Be patient with this process, believe me map shaped tortillas will taste as good as a perfect circle tortilla so don't get frustrated.
Make sure your comal or skillet is hot, you need high heat slightly higher than the heat needed to make pancakes.
When you put it in the skillet you will have to wait just a few seconds until you see a few bubbles, then you turn the tortilla and wait until the other side has developed some golden brown spots (if it burns too quickly turn down the heat, if takes too long turn it up). Keep moving it around so it has an even color. Then make a final turn and here is where you would want the tortilla to inflate, don't tear it. You want the air to cook the inside of the tortilla. Also be careful because that air is very very hot.
Once you cook them you can keep them warm inside a kitchen towel.
My favorite way to eat them is just with some very very good butter and roll them up.
A lifelong foodie, I was the kind of girl that would watch cooking shows instead of cartoons. They always gave me the feeling that I was learning and well if there is something I like to do is to learn. Until a few weeks ago I had never seen a food show in English that would showcase Mexican food as Pati does on her PBS show "Pati's mexican table". Her authentic homemade approach shows the true complexity of the Mexican cuisine and the passion and nostalgia that a born and raised mexican has for mexican food.
I particularly enjoyed the show when she talked about the french influences on the Mexican cuisine and made this corn torte that is not corn bread but more of a souffle with corn incorporated on it. A simple light recipe due to the use of rice flour is not too complicated and perfect for the season.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Use a little butter to grease an 8 1/2- or 9-inch square baking dish.
Combine the corn kernels and milk in a blender or food processor; pulse to form a coarse puree. I used fresh corn but you could also use frozen.
Before you start make sure that both your eggs and butter are at room temperature.
Combine the rice flour and baking powder in a bowl. Combine the corn kernels and milk in a blender or food processor; pulse to form a coarse puree.
Separate your eggs making sure that no egg yolk ends with the egg white otherwise they wont rise.
Beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or hand-held electric mixer on high speed until creamy and lightened. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl, then add the sugar. Beat on medium speed until well incorporated and fluffy and when the butter looks pale.
Reduce the speed to low; add the egg yolks one at a time, beating to incorporate after each addition. On low speed, gradually and alternately add the rice flour mixture and the heavy cream, beating until well incorporated. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the corn-milk puree and beat on low speed.
Beat the egg whites and salt in a separate, clean bowl on medium and then high speed to form stiff peaks.
Gently fold about a fifth of the egg whites into corn batter until no trace of white remains, then fold in the remaining egg whites, taking care not to deflate them; some white streaks may remain. It's ok if it doesn't look all combined. Then transfer to the baking dish, spreading the mixture evenly. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes or until springy to the touch and lightly browned.
I baked mine on a larger dish therefore the cooking time was less than instructed on the recipe, so keep checking on it until you see the brown color. Sprinkle some powder sugar and enjoy.


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LA Unified preparing a 'dress rehearsal' for computer testing
Vanessa Romo | February 17, 2015
LA Unified will be conducting a district-wide dress rehearsal on Thursday for the upcoming Smarter Balance exam, California's new standardized test assessing students on Common Core State Standards.
The aim is to identify and resolve any glitches in the technological infrastructure before the tests are given, Lydia Ramos, a district spokesperson told LA School Report.
The only open question is whether the results of the official tests will be used for high stakes accountability purposes, especially federal funding. Superintendent Ramon Cortines is among many high ranking officials around the state calling for a delay in using this year's test scores to calculate future academic growth.
The State Board of Education is expected to make a final recommendation at its next meeting in mid-March.
In either case, LA Unified is using the rehearsal tests to make sure it's ready.
"This way we'll know if there are any connectivity issues or problems accessing the test before kids actually have to take it," Ramos said.
The exam must be taken on a computer, which means a majority of LA Unified students will be taking it on an iPad. However, some older students will have access to laptops.
Every elementary, middle and high school throughout the district will administer the exam to at least one class of students in grades 3-8 and grade 11, Ramos said.
Additionally, schools will be asked to complete a survey Feb 20 to report any issues that arise.
"We're simply trying to get ready for this new world of computerized testing," said Ramos.
The district conducted a similar trial run last year and found many schools experienced technical difficulties; Students were unable to log onto the testing site, connections to the internet were spotty, and many students were booted out of the system, unable to complete the test.
At the time, Cynthia Lim, executive director of the department that oversees the deployment of devices for the Smarter Balanced test and the infrastructure required to administer it, contended a lot of the problems were "due to the fact they delivered the devices so close to the testing dates."
But this year, the district failed to deliver testing devices on schedule. Several hiccups have delayed their delivery by four months. The district had initially promised an October delivery date, but even now, six schools are still waiting on their devices.
Those schools will still participate in the System Readiness test, Ramos confirmed.
"They're going to get support from [the district's central office] to make sure they can take the test," she said. For now, the six schools are scheduled to receive the testing iPads next week.
On a related note, Board member Monica Ratliff informed the board last week that 399 iPads intended for testing have gone missing. She was wrong, says Bernadette Lucas, director of the district's technology project.
"At this point we have 343 unaccounted for iPads," she told LA School Report. "But they're not considered lost or stolen." It is possible, she added, that many of them are in an office or storage space in "off" mode where they cannot register to the system. "They're not pinging because they've been off for a while," she said.
Elementary and middle school students will official take the Smarter Balance test between March 4 through June 4. The window for 11th grade students is shorter, from April 15 through June 4.


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Akira Takeuchi is a Japanese fashion designer. Along with Tayuka Nakanishi, he is the founder and main designer of the Theatre Products fashion brand, which is popular in the Harajuku and Shibuya areas of Tokyo, known as centers of youth fashion.

External links
 Theatre Products Official Website (Japanese & English)

Japanese fashion designers
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
21st-century Japanese people