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Transformation in next 30 years: Q&A with WPG Holdings CEO Frank Yeh
Julian Ho, Taipei; Rodney Chan, DIGITIMES
Frank Yeh, CEO of WPG Holdings, is optimistic about the overall IC industry, which he expects will be driven by demand for Chromebooks, 5G handsets and others arising from the stay-at-home economy, and by new energy vehicles.
But CEO of one of the world's top IC and components distributors, told Digitimes that while industry outlook next year is positive, more attention should be paid to the next 10 years or the transformation that may take take place 20 or even 30 years from now.
Q: What's outlook for the semiconductor industry and distribution channel next year?
A: The COVID-19 epidemic has fueled demand for remote work and learning, with the strong shipments for Chromebooks in the education segment and for flat panel TVs, notebooks and others in the consumer electronis segment. These are all driving the demand for CPUs and various ICs.
It is worth mentioning that the EV trend is already unstoppable and the EV era can be said to have officially taken off. This is a brand new opportunity for the existing semiconductor industry.
For semiconductor industry, from upstream, midstream to downstream, the market will still be a prosperous one next year, and the development trend of 5G and EV will continue to push forward, so in the future, TSMC, the foundry leader, will still need to build more fab and production capacity.
Q: What is the impact of the US-China trade war, the outcome of the US presidential election, and the arrival of the "post-Huawei" era on the industry?
A: In fact, Huawei Group has invested heavily in HiSilicon, in line with China's IC self-sufficiency campaign. But the Trump administration has indeed hit where it hurts most, namely the semiconductor equipment. Huawei and HiSilicon didn't see it coming so fast.
Recently, Huawei formally spun off the Honor cell phone business, which should still create some business opportunities for Taiwan's semiconductor supply chain. But the actual internal plans of Huawei are still unknown. With the conclusion of the US presidential election, it seems that the attitudes of both parties in the US towards China do not differ much. But the Biden camp has stated that there is still room for "appropriate cooperation" amid the competition with China.
Q: The world seems to continue heading towards a G2 (US and China) structure where supply chains have to set up separate, regional operations. With the global supply chain broken, how do companies respond?
A: I have a positive view on the IC industry in 2021, and Taiwan's semiconductor supply chain has a rosy outlook because of the opportunities arising from pandemic. But it is time to think about the key to industry transformation in the next 10 years or 20 years. And I would even suggest we look further ahead in the next 30 years.
In fact, if we look at the example of the development of Taiwan's semiconductor industry, we can see that 35 years ago, the vision of the Kwoh-Ting Li - the architect of Taiwan's economic miracle - and Morris Chang built up Taiwan's powerful semiconductor industry step by step. TSMC is now dubbed the "guardian of the nation," which clearly indicates its importance for Taiwan's economy. But TSMC had difficult times during 1985-1995.
Taiwan faces a lot of changes in the future, such as the "new normal" of working from home, demographic transformation, digital natives entering the job market and digital transformation.
The logistics-as-a-service (LaaS) smart warehousing model I am proposing is to further reduce transaction time and cost and to better serve customers. At present, the first phase of WPG's South China smart warehouse project is expected to be completed by mid-2021, and the second phase is expected to be completed by the end of 2021.
The transformation of the industry must be built on digital platforms that enhance internal operations at enterprises.
Frank Yeh, CEO of WPG Holdings
Photo: Michael Lee, Digitimes, December 2020
Source: https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20201217PD216.html
WPG Holdings Copyright © 2021 WPG Holdings All rights reserved.


Milton Keynes Theatre sits in beautiful Milton Keynes. The theatre was first campaigned for in the 1970s. After 25 years, the theatre was finally complete and has stood virtually uninterrupted ever since.
Milton Keynes is a premiere theatre offering a variety of productions from Dinosaur Zoo to Dirty Dancing and Swan Lake.
The theatre was designed by Bionski-Heard to include the utmost in technology at the time. The theatre first opened its doors on October 4, 1999. The goal of the theatre was to provide a center of entertainment for the growing city and since 1999, this has been successful.
Moving Ceiling: The auditorium's ceiling can be lowered or raised to meet the needs of the production. This allows for true flexibility during a production.
Seat Arrangements: The seating can all be changed to meet the needs of the production. This allows for a vast array of seating arrangements and less or more seats as needed.
Scale Acoustic Model: The acoustics found within the theatre have already accounted for the difference in ceiling height. Sound quality will be the same whether the roof is lowered or fully extended. This is done through a 1:50 scale.
Even now, the theatre has some of the best technology seen in a theatre.
Productions large and small are welcomed at the theatre. The capacity can be changed easily. The low capacity of 900 can be achieved with lowering the ceiling and rearranging the seating. Alternatively, when the ceiling is fully extended, it is possible to fit 1,400 seated persons in the theatre.
Seating is divided into the Upper Circle, Circle and Stalls, which are closest to the stage.
There are handicap exits available on all levels of the theatre. The theatre features six wheelchair spaces on the Stalls level. There are lifts for all levels of the theatre. Ramps have also been included to the backstage area for guests that want to meet the cast.
Sound Amplification: An induction loop necklace allows a person with a hearing aid to easily amplify the sound of the production. This is an adjustable control feature that allows for the utmost in hearing at all times.
Headsets: Ideal for persons without a hearing aid. Headsets can be used for older viewers or those that have slight difficulty hearing and do not want to miss a second of the production.
Guests that have guide dogs are also welcome within the theatre. There are toilet facilities that provide full wheelchair accessibility.
Open at 6pm. The bar plays piano music, serves premium wines and offers specialty cocktails. Anyone that needs a boost of energy before the show will be happy to know that Barista coffee is served at 7pm at the Piano Bar.
Guests that want VIP treatment can opt to book their tickets along with the Ambassador Lounge. This will have guests greeted as they enter the theater and be taken to the new, exclusive lounge.
Red Label: Just 15 pounds, this allows for a cloakroom as well as a glass of Prosecco.
Purple Label: Available for 45 pounds. Guests receive chocolate, cloakroom, a theatre gift and a half bottle of chilled champagne.
M1: Take the M1 to Junction 14 towards Milton Keynes.
A5: Take the A5 to A509 Junction. Follow signs to Milton Keynes.
The theatre is located at 500 Marlborough Gate in Central Milton Keynes.
The Central Rail Station stops right at Midsummer Blvd right near the theatre. A taxi can be taken for a short 5 minute drive to the theatre.
The local train station is also another option to reach the theatre. Buses will pick up guests right outside of the rail station wherein they will follow our by bus section.
Milton Keynes Theatre puts on shows that the whole family will love. There is everything from kids shows that will keep even the most fidgety child stuck to their seat to musicals and opera. When looking for something to do in Milton Keynes, the theatre is an affordable option.


I had posted this on The Herd back in December, but now that the AAF season is underway, I thought it was worth posting again.
What is the AAF? No, it isn't a new government agency spying on you through your iPhone in order to send you ads about your favorite mint chocolate chip ice cream. No, the AAF is something way cooler than that. The AAF (Alliance of American Football) is a new spring league for pro football with mostly the same rules as the NFL. It is unrelated to the NFL, although many players and people who've been involved in the NFL, are also involved in this new league. Put simply, it is a B league made up of 8 teams with games beginning February 9, 2019. The season is 12 weeks long with the Championship being played the weekend of April 26-28. The season opener, one game/week and the Championship will be televised on CBS. All other games can be viewed through the AAF app. For more information about the league and teams go check out aaf.com.
I love this because it means more football to consume during the slow months leading up to the draft. It is also another opportunity for former NFL players and college players with less notoriety to work their way onto NFL rosters potentially. Who doesn't love a good Kurt Warner working in a grocery store story right? How does all this relate to the Rams? Well, there are several former Rams in the AAF. So let's take a look.
The most notable name? Head coach f the San Diego Fleet, none other than Mike Martz, former offensive coordinator and head coach of the then STL Rams. Last seen in the NFL in 2007 with the Detroit Lions, Martz had a reputation for leaving quarterbacks exposed and airing the ball out. Much of a love/hate guy for Rams fans, it'll be interesting to see what he does in the AAF. With a .609 winning percentage, he likely is looking to air the ball out again while NOT being a buddy to any young quarterbacks.
Next up? GM for the Atlanta Legends, the second part of the four pillars movement, Billy Devaney. Former GM of the Rams from 2008 to 2011, he was last seen working as Executive Director of player personnel at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2017 and as an analyst for ESPN. Devaney worked alongside Steve Spagnuolo to implement the four pillars. Notable draftees include; Chris Long, James Laurinaitis, Sam Bradford, Rodger Saffold, and Robert Quinn. Other names you may remember; Donnie Avery, Jason Smith, Mardy Gilyard, Fendi Onobun, Lance Kendricks, and Austin Pettis. I could go on, but the list ain't pretty. That is how you get to a 12-64 record.
Ready for an actual player? Look out for Zac Stacy. Yikes! Am I right? Stacy was a running back who had a little, albeit short-lived, success with the Rams. Taken in the 5th round of the 2013 NFL Draft, Stacy played, well…like a ram from 2013-2014. His rookie year saw him rumble to 973 yards, 7 touchdowns, and a 3.9 YPC. Then he stumbled to the tune of 293 yards and one solitary touchdown in 2014 while another Ram's running back garnered more attention. Then in 2015, came Todd Gurley and as fast as the famous 'Yikes' tweet came, Stacy's career as a Ram ended. Last seen with the Jets in 2015, Stacy looks to continue playing the game with the Memphis Express. All Aboard!
Next up, the great white hype himself. Compared to every other white receiver known to man and still managing to never stick on a roster. You guessed it, Nelson Spruce. Spruce was an UDFA for the Rams who saw some minor pre-season success with the Rams from 2016-2017. Oft-injured, Spruce although a solid route-runner with solid hands, could never quite make the roster. Spruce was like a really overhyped Cooper Kupp. He is everything you want out of a white receiver; sneaky athletic, coach's son, squeaky clean off the field. I joke, but in all seriousness, Spruce just wasn't good enough for the NFL and injuries didn't help his ability to stick around. Last seen fighting for each other and for a spot on the Charger's practice squad this pre-season, Spruce yet again didn't make it. Now he'll look to see if he can find some of the success he had at Colorado with Mike Martz and the San Diego Fleet.
Lastly, we have a speedy receiver who at one point looked like he would become a consistent deep threat for the Rams and then seemingly fell off the face of the earth. Chris Givens, drafted in the 4th round of the 2012 NFL Draft came into the league and put up 698 yards and 3 scores and looked to continue to develop into a good player. Then he became a one-trick pony that couldn't even master that one trick. Scoring only two more times over the course of the next four years, he was last seen in 2016 with the Eagles before being cut and playing 2017 in Canada. Givens looks to go deep for the Memphis Express this year.
Ultimately, we'll see if the AAF is successful in any capacity. Hopefully it is and some players can find their way onto an NFL roster because of it. Maybe we'll even see some former Rams have some success. Maybe there is a gem or two that earns a shot with us someday. Regardless, it will be interesting if nothing else and offers another opportunity to watch football in the months that football goes quiet besides draft talk. Listed below are other notable Rams players who you may remember as well.


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BP Midstream Partners (ticker: BPMP) has launched its IPO today, marking another step in the process of spinning off the company's pipeline assets.
BP will offer 42,500,000 common units at an anticipated price of between $19 and $21 per unit. This equates to a total of between $800 and $900 million, making it among the largest IPOs by the industry this year. The underwriters of the offering have a 30-day option to purchase up to 6,375,000 more units. BP Midstream Partners will trade on the NYSE under the ticker "BPMP".
The units being offered represent an interest of 40.6%, or 46.7% if the upsizing option is executed. BP will own the remaining interest. According to the company's S-1 Registration Statement, all proceeds from the process will be paid to BP in a special distribution.
BPMP owns one onshore crude pipeline, one onshore refined products pipeline, one onshore diluent pipeline and interest in five offshore pipelines. In total, these represent over 850 miles of pipeline, with a capacity of roughly 2.9 MMBOPD.
According to Reuters, BP has been considering spinning off some of its midstream assets for the past five years. The oil price downturn shelved those plans, but the company has revived the opportunity as it seeks new funding.
Several major companies have spun off midstream assets in recent years. Shell (ticker: RDS), for example, received nearly $1 billion when it offered its midstream assets. The most recent of these was Oasis Petroleum's (ticker: OAS) offering in September, which was relatively similar and may provide an outline for the timing of BP's offering.
Oasis Midstream Partners was announced on September 11, when the company announced it would offer a 27.3% interest. The price target set was $19 to $21. On September 20, Oasis announced that it had priced the offering, at $17 per unit. The units began trading the day after, and the offering closed on September 25.
The stock first closed at $16.75, below the initial price, but has since improved. Oasis Midstream closed at a high of $17.98 on October 13, and is currently trading at $17.25.
While the timing of BP's offering may differ, it seems likely that BP will announce the price of its offering in roughly one week, with trading beginning soon afterward.


University College Dublin (UCD) is Ireland's largest and most diverse university with over 30,000 students. UCD is the national leader in research funding, attracting quality investment that has helped the university to establish a reputation as a world-class destination for leading researchers.
The School of Mechanical & Materials Engineering (MME) has three research priorities reflecting the expertise and interests of the academic staff: materials & manufacturing (including advanced manufacturing science, production systems, surface coatings/plasma, and production operations/supply chain management), energy and bioengineering. In addition, the manufacturing research group has recently launched a Learning Factory in Smart Precision Engineering incorporating data analytics.


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U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Compensation fo...
U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Compensation for Former Death Row Inmate
In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court today overturned a jury verdict and lower-court rulings awarding $14 million to a former Louisiana death row inmate who had sued then-New Orleans DA Harry Connick Sr. after prosecutors neglected to turn over evidence that would have been helpful to his defense.
John Thompson was convicted of armed robbery in Louisiana in 1985 and served 14 years on Louisiana's death row before he was set free.
Thompson alleged in a civil case that he had been wrongfully convicted as a result of a pattern of prosecutorial negligence and misconduct and a failure to properly train prosecutors of their constitutional obligations to criminal defendants. Prosecutors appealed the decision on the grounds of prosecutorial immunity, but the court majority said the mistakes in the case did not amount to 'deliberate indifference,' according to The Times-Picayune.
Of the 16 federal judges, eight held that the jury had already spoken after hearing the facts, while the dissenters said it is an outrageous burden to hold a district attorney's office accountable for employees' misdeeds.
The ruling, written by Justice Clarence Thomas, means that Thompson will not collect the money.
In response to the ruling, the Innocence Network released a letter signed by 19 innocent people who were wrongfully convicted in part because of the bad acts of prosecutors demanding greater accountability for prosecutorial misconduct. In the letter, the exonerees explain:
In many of our wrongful conviction cases prosecutorial misconduct was found but later declared "harmless" by the courts. Nothing could be further from the truth. In our cases, each act had profoundly harmful effects on our lives. Together we represent hundreds of years in prison, separated from our wives, husbands, children, parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents and other loved ones, who suffered their own shame and wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on lawyers and spent countless sleepless nights worrying about our well being. The misconduct contributed to nearly unbearable depression and unhappiness, loss of jobs and career opportunities, the derailing of educations and forever destroyed hopes and dreams. Each of us has worked long and hard to repair what has happened to us, but we will never regain the lives we had before we were wrongfully convicted at the hands of careless or deceitful prosecutors.
Read the decision
Read the Innocence Network press release on the decision
Read the letter urging action to stem prosecutorial misconduct

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The United Nations has appealed for millions of dollars in aid from donors to tackle an acute humanitarian crisis in famine- and drought-stricken Niger where 2.5 million people, including 800,000 children, are facing famine.
Landlocked Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, was devastated by an invasion of locusts that ate everything green last year, followed by a severe drought.
"We are having an acute humanitarian crisis in Niger in which children are dying as we speak," said UN relief coordinator Jan Egeland.
He added that Niger's severe food crisis could have been prevented if the United Nations had a reserve fund to jump-start humanitarian aid while appeals for money were considered.
"We need a central emergency fund so that we can have some predictability," Egeland said. "As of now we have none."
The United Nations first appealed for assistance for Niger in November and got almost no response. Another appeal for $16 million in March got about $1 million.
The latest appeal on 25 May for $30 million has received about $10 million.
The UN "needs money now. Every day that the world's richest countries look the other way, more people face starvation. They have to put their hands in their pockets before it's too late", added Oxfam spokeswoman Natasha Kafoworola Quist.
On Wednesday, a first cargo plane packed with 18 tonnes of aid left France for the northeastern town of Maradi in Niger.
The airlift was to continue on Saturday and Sunday and were to make between eight and 10 trips between Ndjamena and Maradi over the weekend, taking 40 tonnes of grain and 28 tonnes of groundnut oil.
The operation is being financed by several big companies.
"The situation is desperate. Even the limited food that is available has soared in price, rendering it unaffordable for most families, and there is no hope of any harvest for at least three months," said Quist.
"Families are feeding their children grass and leaves from the trees to keep them alive."
But the West African state's situation is not unique - more than 18 million people are faced with serious food shortages in 10 African countries, a food security monitoring group said.
The US-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network said in a report released late on Tuesday that more than 18 million people in 10 African countries faced food shortages because of poor rains and high crop prices.
"Families are feeding their children grass and leaves from the trees to keep them alive"
It added that diminishing water supplies and dry pastures were fuelling conflict among rival tribes, and child malnutrition was reportedly rising in parts of the Greater Horn of Africa region.
The food shortages were concentrated in Ethiopia, where more than half of the 18 million affected people live, the report said. At least half of neighbouring Eritrea's population of 4.5 million was in peril, as well as 2.69 million in Uganda.
Other countries affected include Sudan, Djibouti, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi and Somalia, it said.


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The list of characters from the Magic Knight Rayearth anime and manga series by CLAMP. (Note: many characters' names are either taken from or related to cars).

Main characters

Hikaru Shidou
 is an eighth-grader with bright red eyes and scarlet hair, who is small for her age and often teased for her boyishness. She helps her parents and her three older brothers (Masaru, Satoru and Kakeru) to run a school for Kendo. She is headstrong and determined, and in many ways very childish, but she is fiercely loyal to her friends. In particular, she wants to save Cephiro in the first arc in order to return home to her dog, Hikari, her precious childhood friend. She uses fire-based spells, such as Arrow of Fire (Honoo no Ya) and Crimson Lightning.

Hikaru is very popular with fans, especially with boys, because of her sometimes childish behavior; for example, in the manga, where Fuu is "asking" Ferio to help them, Umi catches on to what she's doing, but Hikaru has no idea what's going on. When Ferio agrees, Umi cheers, as does Hikaru, though she still doesn't get it. It's also mentioned that she's the most popular girl in her all-girls school by her classmates in both adaptations.

She becomes best friends with Umi and Fuu in the first season. In the second season, she falls in love with Lantis, and becomes friends with Eagle Vision of Autozam. However, in the manga, Hikaru is only hinted at being romantically involved with Lantis, despite him hinting that he has strong feelings for her. Hikaru claims to love everyone, and due to her innocent nature, probably loves everyone equally.  In the anime, Hikaru's affection for Lantis becomes much more apparent.

In the second season, when the need for a new Pillar of Cephiro is urgent, people from many different lands flock to Cephiro to become the Pillar. It is apparent from the first moment the girls are told they will be Magic Knights that Hikaru is the most strong-willed and passionate of the group; this leads to her eventually becoming the new Pillar at the end of the season. Hikaru decides that she would rather Cephiro not have to depend on one person's self-sacrifice, and uses her power as the Pillar to destroy the Pillar System and allow Cephiro to function on its own.

In some language adaptations, her name was changed to  Lucy and Luce.

, Aya Bejer (ABS-CBN Tagalog) and Mitchiko Azarcon-Tiongson (GMA Tagalog), Venus Terzo in original English dub & Tara Jayne (English) in OVA.

Umi Ryuuzaki
 is elegant with dark blue eyes and long, flowing blue hair. She is an only child of rich parents, the two of which dote on her mercilessly and for whom she has great affection. A fencing champion, she is quick-tempered and at first uncaring (though perhaps the best-suited for the task at hand), as well as the most reluctant of the three Magic Knights: she is under great pressure to attend a fencing contest and is unsure of the land of Cephiro. Umi tends to go slightly ballistic at times, and provides a bit of comic relief during her fights with Mokona. Initially she seems to dislike Mokona, and even when she does become fond of him, occasionally still seems annoyed by his behavior. However, Umi is very dedicated to Hikaru and Fuu, wanting nothing more than to save Cephiro and return home. She uses water-based spells called Water Dragon and Azure Hurricane.

In the anime Umi is totally clueless of Ascot's affections for her and she has feelings for Clef but he seems not to be too interested in love.

She's friends with Tatra and Tarta, the princesses of Chizeta, whom she defeated in sword fights at different points in the second season. During the same arc, Umi appears to be slightly more mature.

In the manga, she is apparently a fan of Häagen-Dazs ice cream, Denny's and MOS Burger (she becomes panicked at the thought that Cephiro does not have any of these – similar to Miaka Yūki in Fushigi Yûgi, who, upon hers and her best friend's arrival at another world, complains about the absence of her favourite restaurants). The brand names were removed from the anime dialogue, presumably to avoid copyright infringement.

Her lovestory in the manga is very different, she develops a very close relationship with Ascot who blushes whenever they are together. Although she doesn't realize Ascot's feelings she has a more proactive attitude with him offering and asking him for help on several occasions. They seem to have a special affinity and Mokona shows us that there is a connection between them. It is strongly implied that there is a budding relationship between Umi and Ascot near the end of the story. A relationship with Clef is non-existent in the manga.

Curiously, her parents have a minor cameo in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, another Clamp series that has many crossovers.

In some language adaptations, her name was changed to Marina and Marine.

, Daisy May Carino (ABS-CBN Tagalog) and Grace Cornel (GMA Tagalog), Amy Birnbaum (English) in OVA.

Fuu Hououji
 has snapping green eyes and short blonde hair (light brown in the anime) and wears glasses, except when in full armour (Fuu is notably the only Magic Knight whose hair and eyes do not share the same color base). She is more quiet and reserved than the other two members of the group and serves as the voice of reason. Along with specializing in archery, she is also highly intelligent and logical, though this is more akin to book-smarts than street-smarts. Fuu often states the obvious and is very blunt in a fairly humorous way, much to Umi's dismay in some situations. Fuu deeply believes that her belief, along with Hikaru's and Umi's, is her strength in saving Cephiro. She often has moments where she doubts herself, but comes out strong and resolved in the end. Her spells, Winds of Protection, Winds of Admonishment, and Winds of Healing, are air-based and are mostly healing and defensive in nature, though she has some offensive attacks, such as Emerald Typhoon and Emerald Cyclone.

Fuu is in love with Ferio, the estranged brother of Princess Emeraude, who has been helping them since they met in the beginning of the first series. In the second arc, she grows closer to Ferio, and though she is torn knowing she helped kill his sister, his feelings for her never waver. In the second season, Fuu wins an archery contest against Lady Aska, after which they become friends. Fuu is very polite and calls people Sir or Miss (-san in the Japanese version). Fuu also has an older sister named Kuu.

In some language adaptations, her name was changed to Anemone and Anne.

, Lisa Ortiz (English) in OVA.

Characters of the first season

Clef
 is the chief of all sorcerers in Cephiro, and was formerly Princess Emeraude's attendant. In the anime, he is turned to stone by Zagato shortly after being introduced to the three girls in the first episode, although he fights the spell and communicated with them through Mokona. In the manga he is referred to as Guru Clef and is not turned to stone. In the second arc he also leads all of Cephiro until a new pillar can be found. In episode 48, he used all his willpower to create a castle to hold the castle from further collapsing.

In the manga Clef is often seen with Presea, but nothing special is ever mentioned between them. In the anime he is both loved by Sierra and the deceased Presea. When he first meet the girls, he reacts very unpleasantly to Umi who called him a "child" or 10 years old as stated by Umi; when in fact, he is actually 745 years old.

In season 2 of the anime, it was hinted that he cares for Umi when she got abducted by the Twin Princess but he never showed a love interested for her.

His name is derived from the Mazda Clef.

, Immy Uncle (English) in OVA.

Mokona
 is a mischievous, nonsensical rabbit-like creature, possibly a Carbuncle, with a striking similarity to a white manjū bun, with a red gem in his forehead above his eyes. From this gem he can produce a tent for the girls to sleep in, food, and other necessary supplies. He is unable to speak, aside from repeating the sound "puu", although Hikaru seems to be somewhat able to understand him. In the manga, Mokona is revealed to be the Creator of the Earth, Cephiro and the other planets, as well as the laws for each planet. In the ending of the second arc, Mokona and the rest of the Mashin announce that they will be traveling to other dimensions.

Mokona of Rayearth is a separate character from Mokona Modoki from ×××HOLiC and Tsubasa -RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE-, though Yūko implies that those Mokonas were based on Cephiro's Mokona, and saying she might not have known about other worlds if she hadn't met him.

Mokona was named after Mokona, one of Clamp's artists.

, Charmaine Cordoviz (ABS-CBN Tagalog) & Filipina Pamintuan (GMA Tagalog).

Ferio
 is a warrior whom the Magic Knights first meet in the Forest of Silence. A tough young man wielding a sword taller than he is, he quickly develops a soft spot for Fuu and the feelings grow to love near the end of the first arc but by the second season his feelings have evolved into a strong love for Fuu. Never completely honest with others, he made himself difficult for the heroines to trust.

In the anime he gives Fuu a jeweled orb. Since he has one identical to it, he uses it to communicate with her throughout the first series. In the manga series, he gives her a ring identical to the one on his ear. Fuu loses it when the three go home to Tokyo in the first series, but in the second series, when they return, he gives it to her for a second time. Both items were given to him by his older sister Princess Emeraude in his youth.

In the anime's first season, Ferio once pretended to join Ascot, Lord Zagato's child summoner, who set a trap for the Magic Knights using his sound-sensitive monster, Pajero. Also, while the Magic Knights are facing Inouva's true form, Ferio regains his memory from his younger years. He realizes that he was Princess Emeraude's only brother, and hears his sister's voice coming from his own orb telling him how to defeat Inouva. Ferio relays the info to the Knights and they manage to kill their enemy. In the manga Ferio knows of his origins and meets the Magic Knights on his way to try and save his sister, using his fighting skills in exchange for passage out of a forest he had become lost in.

In the OVA, he is initially a villain who can summon and control swarms of insects. He appears to have a close relationship with Ascot, and in a twist of his original character, he is the villain who does battle with Fuu. After eavesdropping on Lantis' conversation with Hikaru and the others, he assists Lantis in fighting Cephiro's spirits, and later delivers Lantis' sword to the combined Mashin to help them fight Eagle.

Ferio gets his name from the Honda Civic Ferio, and Ascot's monster from the episode featuring Ferio is named after the Mitsubishi Pajero.

, Jim Ensz (English) in OVA.

Presea

 is the top blacksmith in Cephiro, known there as a Pharle or "artisan". She is one of Clef's students and seems to have a crush on him. She aided the Magic Knights by making their legendary swords from the mineral escudo.

In both the anime and manga series, she shows something of a sadistic side, plotting ways to punish Mokona for making a mess in her study (including yanking his ears, hanging him upside-down while she dances about him dressed as a Native American, and prying his ever-closed eyes wide open). Her trap captures the Magic Knights by mistake, so she ponders whether to stretch their cheeks or boil them in a big pot, again wearing a feathered headdress and doing a war dance. In the anime series, she is killed by one of Ascot's beast summons. This death happens only in the anime, and unfortunately created a plot hole for the second season when Presea becomes a necessary character in the manga counterpart.

In order to fill this plot hole, her twin sister, Sierra, is created to pose as her. The only ones to realize that Sierra is not Presea are Clef, Mokona, and Alcyone, who recognizes Sierra's deception as stemming partly from her love for Clef. When Clef confronts Sierra about why she is posing as her sister, Sierra replies that it is to help the Knights with their mission and continue her sister's legacy, but does not reveal her own feelings for him.

Presea's favorite food is listed as V-tek, a kind of candy from Cephiro (though she enjoys the candy from Earth that Hikaru gives her as payment for using her weapons).

Named after the Nissan Presea.

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Alcyone
 is an ice sorceress who tutored under Clef and was intended to attend to the Pillar. However, she fell in love with the high priest, Zagato, and for this love became his servant, although the affection is entirely one-sided. In the manga she is killed after failing Zagato twice by his own hand. In the anime she lives on until near the end of the second season; moments after Zagato and Emeraude's deaths, she's captured by the evil witch Debonair, who brainwashes her into becoming her slave. Lantis captures Alcyone in battle, but she has lost her memories. When she recovers them, she reveals Debonair's plans for Cephiro and Debonair's location, and is killed shortly after by Debonair for her betrayal.

In the Sega Saturn game, Alcyone is apparently killed by Lafarga. She survives despite her injuries and, after realizing that Zagato loves Emeraude, Alcyone loses her sanity and dies fighting the Magic Knights one last time.

Her name is occasionally misromanized as "Alcione" – this was featured in the first run of the English-language manga. Her name comes from the Subaru Alcyone SVX.

, Angora Deb (English) in OVA.

Ascot
 One of the followers of Zagato, is a young child with the ability to summon monsters, whom he considers to be his friends. Although hideous, they have no ill will, but villagers still fear them. Homeless and without parents, Ascot was never well received anywhere with his monsters until Zagato offered to give him and his friends a home in exchange for serving under him. Consumed by hatred and loneliness, his heart is full of selfish feelings reflected in a poor image and attitude of evil and cruel child. His real age is unknown so we don't know if Ascot is really a child and it's possible that his physical appearance is produced by the poverty of his soul and the lack of affection.

In the anime he destroys Presea's house with his monsters, and essentially causes her death. Later, he confronts the Knights again but Umi slaps him for using his friends and causing them pain. This causes a change of heart in Ascot, he learns the true meaning of friendship and he then forsakes Zagato. In the second series, his appearance changes, now he is a tall and nice young man who has managed to grow thanks to the lessons learned in the past, the power of his will and the love he feels for Umi. Now his behavior is calm and sweet towards people. While he still summons monsters, he has learned other spells from Clef to avoid using his friends as living weapons. He is able to tell Umi his feelings before she leaves to fight Tarta & Tatra. Umi replies that she loves him as well, but just as much as everyone else in Cephiro, and that she didn't have any romantic feelings for him. This saddens Ascot a bit, but he still continues to try and win her heart.

In the manga, his story is similar to the anime in the first season, he starts as an evil child who changes thanks to Umi's lessons, the only change is that he never kills Presea. In the second season, he becomes in a tall young man as well for the same reasons described above. He decide to use his own magic instead of the "summoning magic" to avoid hurting his monsters and to learn how to fend for himself. Even though he never confesses his feelings to Umi, he gets Umi's affection much more than in the anime. They are closer and always smile when they are together, even Mokona shows us that there is a special connection between them. It is strongly implied that there is a budding relationship between Umi and Ascot near the end of the story so it is a more fortunate relationship than in the anime.

He is named after the Honda Ascot.

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Caldina
 (changed to Gardina in Tokyopop's manga) is a dancer who speaks with an Osaka accent (which is translated as a deep Southern accent in the English dub, due to the translations including words like "y'all"), wears extremely skimpy clothing because her body is too sexy to be covered, and has an endless passion for money.

Zagato hires her as an assassin after his other minions fail; in addition to her dancing skills, she is an accomplished illusionist and hypnotist. In the anime she has great affection for Ascot, whom she treats as a naïve younger brother, and she joins him in deserting Zagato. It is revealed in the second arc and season that she is native to Chizeta. It's also been shown that Caldina is incredibly good at cards and other games of chance. Caldina hypnotizes people by making the red jewels on her gloves, earrings and shoes flash and send out bell sounds.

Romantically, Caldina becomes involved with Lafarga in both versions of the series.

Caldina also appears in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle as a bartender. Her name comes from the Toyota Caldina.

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Lafarga (Rafarga)
 is the Captain of the Guard and charged with protecting the Pillar. Although Cephiro is mostly peaceful, he kept himself busy slaying the occasional monsters that would appear. In his takeover of the country, Zagato hypnotized him into trying to kill the Magic Knights as a last-ditch effort to stop them before they challenged him personally, but the girls managed to bring him to his senses. He goes against Zagato roughly at the same time Hikaru must meet Rayearth, and she in fact manages to summon her Mashin while trying to help Lafarga fight Zagato. In the second part of the story, he is romantically involved with Caldina. While he possesses no magical ability, he is a devastatingly powerful swordsman.

Named after the Honda Rafaga, a sister car of the Ascot.

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Inouva
 is an anime-and-game-only character sporting an elven appearance and manner. He was a devoted servant of Zagato's—in fact, a birthday present from Emeraude to her High Priest. Inouva is not humanoid as he appears, but an animal-shaped elemental of lightning who assumed a human form to better serve his new master. His true form resembles a giant wolf with two tendrils streaming from his back. His weak spot proved to be the gemstone embedded in his forehead in either form. He first challenged the Magic Knights in the Sky Shrine, and would have defeated them if not for Windam's revival. He later resumed his true form and was destroyed by Hikaru.

In the Spanish version of the anime he's known as Nova, which is also the name of Hikaru's darker half in the original source material. His name comes from the Honda Ascot Innova.

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Emeraude

 is the current pillar (and princess) of Cephiro. Little else is revealed concerning her nature until the climax of the first series, although she is highly loved by her subjects.

In the anime it is revealed that she was once a noblewoman of Cephiro, and had later used her power as the Pillar to prevent her younger brother Ferio from being punished for stealing something from her. He had forgotten she was his sister because, at his own request, she had used her magic to help him forget about her so he would not miss her or feel sorrow, and asked that she in turn forget him, so that she could focus her thoughts and prayers only on Cephiro. In the manga series, she is Ferio's older sister as well, but there is no mention of Ferio stealing something from her, and he does remember that she is his sister; in fact, he left the palace on his own will.

The Pillar of Cephiro must spend every waking moment of their existence praying for Cephiro's benefit, and when Princess Emeraude fell in love with Zagato the High Priest, she was constantly thinking of him and not Cephiro, and eventually imprisoned herself in a water dungeon (resembling a large peony in an underwater cavern beneath Zagato's court in her own palace) in hopes of being able to focus on only Cephiro. When she is unable to do so, she summons the Magic Knights. Zagato, who had in turn fallen in love with her, discovered Princess Emeraude's true feelings for him and visits her often, telling her that he does not care for the fate of Cephiro, and that there was only one thing in the world that he cared about – Emeraude herself. Believing if he destroyed the Magic Knights, he would be able to keep Emeraude safe and that by sheer will everything would turn out all right, he sent his minions one by one, each one failing to carry out the task.

When the Magic Knights awaken the Rune Gods and arrive at the palace, Zagato is waiting for them. He confronts them in a Rune God he created with his own will to kill them and protect Emeraude, intent on making his one desire come true. But the Magic Knights emerge triumphant and kill Zagato. Emeraude, devastated by the loss of her beloved, collapses under the tremendous weight of her own guilt and grief. Transforming into an older- and more sinister-looking version of herself, she breaks free from the water prison. This form is only filled with anger and pure hatred for the Magic Knights for killing Zagato, forgetting it was she who summoned them in the first place.

Zagato's court begins to fall apart beneath her anger, and she dons her own Mashin and grabs Zagato's fallen sword. She begins to fight the Magic Knights in their Mashin, and they see fleeting visions of the real Emeraude who tells them of her plight and how she has realized that it would be better if she died than tried to rule Cephiro with a heart tainted with grief and regret. No one of Cephiro is allowed to kill the Pillar and the Pillar cannot will itself to die, so the "girls from another world" (the Magic Knights) are there solely for that purpose: to don the Mashin and kill the current Pillar of Cephiro, as death is the only way for the Pillar to abandon their duty.

The Knights resist at first, but tearfully give in when Emeraude begs them to send her to "where she may think only of Zagato" and be with him. Emeraude dies, using the last of her power to send them home to the exact moment they disappeared from Tokyo Tower. The last image of her they see is her purified adult self in Zagato's arms, smiling sweetly and thanking the Knights for granting her last wish.

It has been speculated that Princess Emeraude was based on The Childlike Empress from Michael Ende's The Neverending Story (Die unendliche Geschichte), being as they are both directly linked to their kingdom (if one should die, so shall their empire), they both do not play a direct role despite the fact that their powers are the most revered, and they are both depicted as young women, no older than the age of ten to thirteen. Furthermore, though they are both young in appearance, they are both considered "ageless". Lastly, their stories, though different in ways, are also similar. Recalling the fact that Emeraude sent for earthlings to kill her (for no one in Cephiro could do her harm), The Childlike Empress sent for a human boy, for no one in her kingdom of Fantasia could give her a new name. Also the Proof of the Pillar which took the form of Emeraude's tiara could also be related to The Childlike Empress' AURYN, which was the symbol of her absolute power in Fantasia.

Sometimes known as Princess Esmerald or Esmeralda, and misnamed Princess Emerald in the official English translation of the Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle manga. She gets her name from the Mitsubishi Emeraude.

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Zagato
 is the primary antagonist of the first season, his younger brother is Cail Lantis (introduced in the second arc and season). When he is first introduced, he is seen as a terrible villain who has kidnapped the beloved Princess Emeraude, watching cruelly as Cephiro crumbles without its Pillar. However, this image is far from the truth.

High Priest to Princess Emeraude and Clef's right-hand man, Zagato fell deeply in love with the beautiful and kind Princess. Despite her best efforts to put Cephiro first and foremost, Princess Emeraude fell in love with Zagato as well. When Emeraude goes missing, Zagato came forth as having had kidnapped Princess Emeraude. In reality, Emeraude was so upset by her lack of will that she imprisoned herself in the water dungeon to avoid seeing Zagato. Zagato does not reveal this to the Magic Knights or Cephiro's people, aiming to destroy the knights when they come after him.

The reason Zagato is this way is because of his deep love for Emeraude and equally deep hate for Cephiro's Pillar System. The Pillar must devote every moment of their existence to praying for Cephiro and never seek happiness from anything except seeing the planet prosper. Zagato was tormented to see Emeraude chained down as such and even more so when she had to resist the love that had grown between them. He decides that instead of Emeraude returning as the Pillar and continuing to be a slave to Cephiro, he would rather have Cephiro cease to exist.

In the end of the first season, he is killed in battle by the Magic Knights in a final attempt to protect Emeraude; his last words tell her to "be free". His death caused Emeraude to become lost in her own grief and rage, causing her to also be killed by the Magic Knights, who were only forced to.

Zagato is the name of an Italian automotive design studio.

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The Three Mashin (Rune Gods)
The Three Mashin (Rune Gods) are the three legendary guardians of Cephiro. Umi's is Selece (as transliterated in the original manga artwork by CLAMP - also known as Ceres, Seles, or Celes in some translated versions), who first appears as a large blue dragon. Fuu's is Windam (Windom in the official English release of the manga), a great four-winged bird. Finally, Hikaru's is Rayearth (Lexus in the OVA series), a wolf with a mane of fire. The three are old and ancient, and are in fact mecha used by the Magic Knights to help them combat Zagato and ultimately kill the Pillar.

The three Mashin are able to combine into a greater and much stronger Mashin (unnamed by the authors, but sometimes named by the fanbase as "Combined Rayearth" or "Big Rayearth"). In the OVA, the combined mashin is named Rayearth. The "Rune God" name was only used in the official English release of the anime series. "Mashin" has a bit of a double-meaning; it is katakana for the English word "machine", but is a homonym of the Japanese word for "evil spirit", "magical spirit", or "demon god". They also feature as "Kudan" (a kind of protective spirit) in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, also by Clamp. Rayearth is assigned to Syaoran, Celes to Kurogane and Windam to Fay.

In the ending of the second and final part of the series, Mokona and the rest of the Mashin declare that they will be travelling to other universes.

Voiced by: Lex Lang (Rayearth), Terrence Stone (Selece), Lex Lang (Windam).

Characters of the second season

Lantis
, Zagato's younger brother, is a powerful Cail or Kailu (magic swordsman) who journeyed abroad for a great deal of time and returned to Cephiro after meeting Eagle in Autozam. Lantis has made his first appearance in season two when he returned to Cephiro. He desired to remove the Pillar System in order to prevent the tragedy and pain that Zagato and Princess Emeraude had experienced. He is regarded with suspicion due to his reclusive nature. Nevertheless, Hikaru approaches him, though at first it's because she feels extreme guilt about killing his brother. Though his intimidating manner can be off-putting, he is gentle at heart; in fact, he forgives Hikaru and the other Knights for Zagato's death.

In the anime version he falls in love with Hikaru, which she reciprocates, while in the manga there are only hints of any romance between the two. At the end of the manga, Lantis asks Hikaru how people of Earth convey love. When she explains that they usually marry, Lantis asks if there is anyone she'd like to marry, to which Hikaru replies that she'd like to marry everyone as she loves them all.

Lantis also appears in Tsubasa. His name comes from the Mazda Lantis.

In Super Robot Wars games, he has a Mashin which is a mirrored version of Zagato's.

, Dan Stevens (English) in OVA.

Primera
 is a fairy who has acted as Lantis's guardian ever since he saved her from a monster attack. She's very jealous and possessive of Lantis, and thus harbors a deep dislike for Hikaru. From the start, Mokona likes to tease Primera, causing her to greatly dislike Mokona. When Hikaru and Lantis start to become friendly with each other, she pops up to stop them out of jealousy, but Mokona either chases her away or eats her and later spits her out. She can use low-level healing magic when necessary.

Primera makes an appearance in Tsubasa in the Hanshin Republic and is later mentioned in the country of Piffle, by Shogo Asagi. Rather than being tiny, she is the size of a normal human. She is named after the Nissan Primera.

Sierra
 is an anime-only character. She is Presea's identical twin sister, and the only way to tell them apart is by the feather-shaped birthmark on Sierra's chest (first noted by Caldina when all the girls are bathing together). She makes her appearance throughout the anime's second season, corresponding with Presea's presence in the manga. Sierra pretends to be Presea to alleviate a portion of the pain of the Magic Knights, who blame themselves for not being able to help Presea, and of Ascot, who blames himself for killing Presea. Clef falsely tells the Magic Knights that Princess Emeraude made a wish to revive all the people who died while she was imprisoned, though in truth no one can revive a life once it is lost.

Sierra is in love with Clef, as was Presea, though her love is one-sided (Alcyone confirms this after learning of Sierra's true identity). She cannot make weapons out of Escudo, but she can help revive the weapons once they are lost; she did this to help Hikaru regain her sword after Nova broke it.

She is named after the Ford Sierra.

Eagle Vision
 is a well-known and respected commander from Cephiro's neighboring country, Autozam, a technologically advanced world reliant on the mental energy of its citizens for its power. It is clear right away that Eagle is an enigmatic and forceful tactician, and though a gentle and chivalrous gentleman, he is the leader of Autozam's invasion of Cephiro. He is also the son of the President of Autozam. When Lantis visited Autozam during his travels, he and Eagle became best friends.

Eagle comes to Cephiro with hopes of duplicating the Pillar System back on his home world, and also wishes to actually become the Pillar for personal reasons. Eagle is in fact very sick and wasn't even supposed to be alive by the time he made it to Cephiro. Eagle reveals to Hikaru that he wants to become the Pillar to spare Lantis' life and be in an eternal sleep with Cephiro.

In the end, Hikaru tells him it is unfair of him to leave all his loved ones behind and saves him, bringing him back to Cephiro and starting him on the road to restoring his health. In the anime, however, Eagle sacrifices himself in order to save the Magic Knights. It is unknown what happened to Autozam after his death, but in manga, Autozam becomes an allied country of Cephiro.

In the OVA he is Emeraude's brother and does his best to keep his sister happy. This includes trying to destroy the Earth because he's certain that's what his sister wants.

Eagle also appears in Tsubasa alongside comrades Lantis and Geo. He is named after the Eagle Vision, and the FTO (mecha he pilots) is named after the Mitsubishi FTO. Autozam is named after a line of Mazda cars, Autozam.

, Adam Masterelli (English) in OVA.

Geo Metro
 is the second-in-command of the Autozam invasion of Cephiro. Muscular and good-natured, loyal and over-protective, he acts much like an older brother to Eagle Vision and has a weakness for sweets. He is featured with Eagle in Tsubasa.

Named after the Geo Metro. His mecha, the GTO, is named after the Mitsubishi GTO.

Zazu Torque
 is the mechanic of Eagle's forces and is quite short for a teenager. He wishes to have a girlfriend and he is fascinated with all kinds of machinery. As a mechanic, he can fix anything from microwaves to mechas. He likes to drink alcohol and also has a strong taste for sweets. Zazu is friends with Geo, Eagle and Lantis.

Zazu shares his name with ZAZ from Ukraine. He is often portrayed as having a crush on Hikaru.

Lady Aska of Fahren
 is the First Princess of the country of Fahren and the head of the Fahren invasion force that attacks Cephiro. Her ship is the Dome, an immense dragon-shaped vessel. She laughs constantly and arrogantly, and tends to refer to herself as "we" instead of "I". She is very young, self-assured and appears fairly bratty (she wants Cephiro so her every whim will become reality, and in the anime version she wants to become pretty to impress Sanyun), but can use all the legendary forbidden spells of the Royal Family, including the ability to conjure up creatures that she draws on ceremonial paper that she uses to attack with.

In the anime series, Aska looks up to Fuu as a sort of heroine; this relationship is non-existent in the manga, as Fuu doesn't spend time on their ship. Aska later decides not to rule Cephiro because Fuu (Eagle in the manga) told her that the Pillar can think only of Cephiro, but since Lady Aska loves the people of Fahren, she cannot complete the task of Pillar in Cephiro. She gave this same reasoning when she decided to concede invading Cephiro in the manga. Her face looks like that of Meiling Li of Cardcaptor Sakura.

Named after the Isuzu Aska. Fahren also happens to be the German word for "driving."

Sanyun
 is Aska's loyal servant and childhood friend. He's much more thoughtful and studious than Aska (though he really doesn't look it) and hopes to one day assist her in ruling Fahren.

In the manga, there are slight implications of a relationship between Aska and Sanyun.

He makes a short appearance in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle as the Kudan of Masayoshi Saitou, and again in this form in the Country of Ōto, working for Chang Ang in a sword shop.

He shares his name with the SsangYong Motor Company of South Korea.

Chang Ang
 is a Fahren cabinet member and current ruler of the realm until Aska comes of age. He puts a lot of pressure on Aska to become a good ruler, which causes her to think of him as a "preachy old man"; in the English version, a "bigmouth". In the manga Chang Ang assists Lady Aska in her invasion of Cephiro. Throughout the second story arc, he constantly loses his temper with her because of her rash actions and silly decisions.

Chang Ang also makes an appearance in Tsubasa in the Country of Ōto.

He shares his name with the Chinese car manufacturer Changan Automobile.

Tata
 is the hot-headed princess of the planet Chizeta, which sends its forces to conquer Cephiro and expand its territory.  She is especially good at sword combat and can summon the djinn Rakoon. She wants to rule Cephiro as the Pillar to give a better life quality to the people of Chizeta, since their planet is too small.

In the anime, she has a friendly rivalry with Umi; when each of the Magic Knights are taken to one of the invading countries, she and her sister face Umi aboard their battleship.

Tarta shares her name with the Tata Motors from India.

Tatra
 is Tarta's calm and seemingly airheaded older twin sister who, when focused, is in fact a formidable warrior. She can conjure the djinn Rasheen to do her bidding and go into battle for her, or choose to use a whip against her enemies. According to Tarta, Tatra is in fact the best fighter in Chizeta.

Tatra shares her name with the Tatra auto manufacturer from the Czech Republic.

Nova
 is introduced as the daughter of Lady Debonair and is an anime-only villainess, able to use Hikaru's attacks as her own while using the Mashin Regalia. She is rather slender with pink hair and elf ears, and appears to be close in age to the three heroines. Throughout the series, Nova gives the impression of being an unstable character, often switching between expressing affection and giving death threats in the space of a heartbeat. Most of her schemes involve capturing Hikaru, whom she obsessively loves enough to kill while expressing disdain towards those Hikaru cares for.

Nova is eventually revealed to be a fragment of Hikaru's soul that broke off from Hikaru's inability to cope with killing Emeraude and became a separate being, unknowingly left behind on Cephiro. While Nova searched for Hikaru, she was instead found by Debobair and is manipulated into her service. But once Nova learned the truth that Debonair only used her, she loses against Hikaru and willingly merged back into her after Hikaru admitted that Nova's creation might have been her subconscious attempt to overcome her self-loathing over Emeraude's death.

Nova's character was created by Toshihiro Hirano. She was originally one of his characters from a different anime that was never realized and produced. She is named after the Chevrolet Nova.

Debonair
, an anime-only character, is the head antagonist of the second season who awaits the day when Cephiro will crumble due to lack of support from Princess Emeraude. Debonair is ultimately revealed to be an embodiment of the collective darkness within the hearts of Cephiro's citizens, thus possessing tremendous power with a desire to rule over Cephiro. She is not present in the manga, which instead focuses on the battles between Cephiro and the three invading countries of Autozam, Fahren, and Chizeta.

She gets her name from the Mitsubishi Debonair. An alternate version of her appears in Tsubasa as the Kiishim.

References

External links
The Magic Knight Rayearth Car List

Clamp characters
Characters
Lists of anime and manga characters
Magical girl anime and manga characters

ja:魔法騎士レイアースの登場人物

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Lydford Gorge Circular Walk
Parks & GardensFarms, Zoos & SanctuariesWalking & CyclingWaterfalls & WaterwaysNature Trails & ReservesTors & HillsValleys, Cleaves & GorgesStones, Crosses & CirclesUNESCO World HeritageWildlife
Lydford Gorge Circular Walk, Lydford, Dartmoor National Park
When we first moved to Dartmoor in 2008, we were told repeatedly that the National Park was bleak and wet. Whilst sections of the high moors on both the north and south plateaus can be challenging landscapes in cold months, much of the National Park is extraordinarily beautiful and far from the bleak stereotype. This is particularly true of the many cleaves (valleys) and gorges that fringe the moors. Walking in these places is a very special experience. The Lydford Gorge Circular Walk is one of the best.
Lydford Gorge (National Trust) is a National Trust property on the western border of Dartmoor National Park. It consists of a steep sided wooded valley and vertical rock walls cut by the fast flowing River Lyd. There's a three mile circular walk around Lydford Gorge that we'd recommend you complete if you're visiting the National Trust property.
Start from the main National Trust car park that's just down the road from English Heritage's Lydford Castle (English Heritage) and Lydford St Petroc's Church. Show your National Trust member card, or buy a ticket, in the office by the shop. We've walked here dozens of times over the years and the staff have always provided a map of the walk. Leave the ticket office and you'll pass a toilet block and cafe before you pick up signs on the lip of the gorge that guide you one way along the upper wall of Lydford Gorge to the area at the top of Lydford Gorge White Lady Waterfall. Again, note that this is a one way walk. The paths get narrow so it's important you complete the walk in the right direction!
From there, the path drops to the valley floor. You have two choices for the descent. One is a steep path that zig-zags down to the foot of the White Lady Waterfall. The other is a more gentle descent that takes you to a pretty area on a bank of the River Lyd from which you wander to the waterfall. It's a quite stunning sight, especially after a period of heavy rain on the high moor.
Cross the wooden bridge and follow the path that runs up the side of the River Lyd. There are hand rails and special walkways in sections of the gorge and it can be slippery owing to spray from the river. We've walked with kids as young as four so it's not difficult but take care as there are some big drops.
The gorge becomes increasingly beautiful, and loud, the further up you go. The whirlpools below huge vertical rock faces at the Tunnel Falls are superb. At the upper end of the valley floor is the Devil's Cauldron where water powers through a narrow neck of rock. It's amazing. We'd also suggest you Facebook the National Trust's Lydford Gorge videos to see this place after really heavy rain when it's closed to the public. From the Devil's Cauldron, follow the path that climbs to the cafe. They sell excellent cream teas, cake and ice cream.
If this type of walk is of interest, we'd also suggest you try the Teign Gorge Circular Walk. The Dart Gorge Circular Walk is much more difficult.


Acrobats, jugglers and clowns will take to the stage to show off their breath-taking skills in Hostel Paradiso.
The performers from Lost in Translation.
The show from Lost in Translation is taking over Circomedia in Bristol on April 12.
The audience meets the quirky and ineffective staff from Hotel Paradiso, who are involved in a battle of wits against the dastardly banker who wants to repossess the building.
Six skilled acrobats, clowns and jugglers tell the story of the tenants' battle to save their home and livelihood with daring aerial skills and acrobatics.
Lost In Translation are renowned for putting on a 'good old fashioned contemporary circus' with comedy, storytelling and acrobatics.
The performance is taking place in St Paul's Church, in Portland Square, at 7.30pm.


Specialising in automotive seating systems, Adient is looking at addressing the seating needs of CV manufacturers.
Adient has begun work on a new facility at Pune. It will be the company's technology centre, and complement the existing facility not very far from the new facility. Keen to address the seating needs of CV manufacturers in India, Adient is looking at the Pune technology centre to support its future endeavours, which under the term 'Seats of Tommorrow' point at trends like safety, electrification, light weighting, connectivity, urbanisation, shared ownership and shared rides, Internet of Things, smart materials, autonomous driving, individualisation and new shapes. Catering to Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra, Adient is keeping a close tab on the developments in the CV industry in India with the view of providing smart and intelligent seating solutions. Having identified major mid-term trends that are expected to drive the change in the way seating is perceived in commercial vehicles, the company, according to Dr. Detlef Juerss, Vice-President, Engineering and Chief Technical Officer, is looking at level-three automation (partial automation), automotive electrification, fuel efficiency, shared mobility and customised interior solutions.
Expecting autonomy to scale up to level-five, Adient is looking at new service and maintenance business models to drive growth. Working on integrated safety seating systems for commercial vehicles, the company is also working on features like heating, cooling, controls, lights, and storage, which are prevalent in passenger vehicles. Offering seating solutions that range from standard to premium, Adient is paying particular attention to quality. Keen to exploit the ability of the Pune technology centre to prototype, the company is increasing its reach in India. Of the opinion that the market in India will witness a significant shift in terms of content and functionality, Dr. Juerss mentioned, "The tech centre will be the first of its kind and the largest such facility in India." Eyeing full scale development, the technology centre, scheduled to go on stream in later 2018, will mark a significant upgrade in the technical abilities of the company. Being built over 20,000 sq. m. of the land parcel, the technology centre will work in close co-operation with other Adient centres the world over.
Delving into Computer Aided Engineering (CAE), Computer Aided Design (CAD), automation, and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to conduct full-scale prototyping, testing and trimming, the technology centre at Pune will be also instrumental in complete product verification. This would be done in accordance with the global customer and regulatory standards. Expected to drive significant cost savings, Adient is investing USD 30 million to optimise its engineering footprint the world over. Present in 37 countries, the company wants to deliver global standard product development and innovation capabilities according to Dr. Juerss. "What makes the new tech facility crucial is that it will enable us to take full ownership of global projects besides accelerating product development cycle by eliminating the need to ship products overseas for testing," expressed Dr. Juerss.
An important part of the technology centre is claimed to be a just-in-time setup for complete seats and metals, hot and cold metal assembly processes, stamped parts, tubes, wires and fixtures. If a part of the space would be used to manufacture seating systems for OEM supply or to simulate a seating systems manufacturing line before it is installed at a manufacturing site is not clear. Said Dr. Juerss, "Full trimming capabilities will include CNC fabric cutting, lamination, SAB and leather sewing apart from fabric testing." Said to act as a supply base for metal parts, plastics and foams, the technology centre will have CMM, Faro, scanning, and material testing equipment. It will also have a Servo Sled with BioRID, dummies and a high speed camera, a six-axis shaker with modal and vibration analysis, road durability testing setup, comfort lab, and an airbag testing setup.
Set to enhance Adient's capability to provide a 100 per cent Design Verification Plan (DVP) for global and Indian OEMs, the technology centre is expected to significantly improve the lead time, and thus help the seating systems specialist to avail of cost benefits. At present, 35 to 80 per cent of the tests for Indian OEMs are claimed to be conducted at the company's German, Japanese, and North America facilities. Developing next generation seating systems for commercial vehicles, the company has a team of 850 engineers in India. These engineers work in close co-operation with 150 engineers the company has outside of India. Together they address the company's global programmes. Supplying complete seating solutions for commercial vehicles, Adient has 25 global programmes led by the Indian team. Operating nine assembly plants, and addressing the needs of over 11 customers in India, the company has thus far launched 60 programmes locally. Accessing Adient's global technology reserves and experience, the Indian operations have come to cater to a diverse customer base in India.


text:
Inflation and Inversion
With inflation pushing the Fed to hike rates, is the bond market indicating a potentially hard landing?
On April 11, 2022, we sat down with Dominic Nolan, CEO of Pacific Asset Management, to get his insights on the market performance, the Fed's moves to combat inflation, inverted yield curves, consumer behavior and opportunities in fixed income.
The first quarter was tough for most markets. How does the first quarter sell-off leave investors for the balance of 2022?
Yes, the first quarter was very tough. The S&P 500 Index was down 4.6%. Now, that's after a slight rebound in March when it was up just under 4%. So, January and February were not kind. The NASDAQ-heavy Russell 1000 Growth Index was up about 4% in March, but still ended the quarter down 9%. So again, tech has been getting hit.
But hands down, the story of the first quarter were the fixed-income markets. The Bloomberg Aggregate Bond Index (the Agg) was down almost 3% in March, which that month alone would represent one of the worst years for fixed income. And for the year, it's down almost 6%, and the rout has continued in the first week of April.
High yield was off 1% in March and down almost 5% for the year. And floating-rate loans were up four basis points in March and, for the year, off 10 basis points. So that asset class has held.
As of today, we're setting up for probably the worst bond year since the index started tracking—unless something breaks, and you start to see rates decline. The fortunate part is yields are higher. High yield right now crossed back over 6% in yield-to-worst, with BB credits yielding over 5%. For investment-grade U.S. credit, yields were a little over 3.5% with BBBs yielding almost 4%. We are returning to what some people would call normalization, but others could call it just an opportunity.
Let's turn to inflation. Are you expecting it to remain higher for longer?
I would say, "Elevated for longer." There are two elements of inflation? You have the price increases, which, in my opinion, will stay increased for longer. And then there's the rate of inflation. My expectation is still that we start to see that decelerate in the second half of this year.
We are beginning to see some signs of inflation coming off highs. When you look at energy futures and at shipping rates, excluding fuel, they are coming off their highs. We may finally be seeing some demand destruction due to these higher prices.
The market has quickly adjusted to the Fed's messaging on meeting the challenge of inflation with rate hikes, and we sit today with an inverted yield curve. When you look at the 2-year and 10-year Treasury yields, how should we interpret this market signal?
I want to start first with the Fed, and this is a very recent development. The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes from its March meeting were recently released. Judging by those, I'd say in the summer the Fed is going to be very aggressive, and that has elevated rates across the curve.
Let's talk short-term rates. A 50-basis-points rate raise by the Fed is on the table for the May meeting, and the Fed neutral is probably in the mid-twos. So, let's say 2.25 to 2.5%. That would be eight moves from here. And the term they used in the minutes was moving "expeditiously". That tells me the Fed's going to move to that 2.25, 2.5% quicker than most people originally thought.
But the Fed also put on the table expectations for a tighter monetary policy. When you think of 2.25, 2.5% being considered neutral, and the Fed is saying, "Hey, we could make it tighter," then it could very well be that short-term rates move beyond. So that's one thing that came out of the minutes.
Now on the long-term side, balance-sheet reduction is the focus, which you'll hear as quantitative tightening or QT. In the minutes, the Fed said QT was expected to begin in May. Base case is the ramp up is going to take three months, and it's going to be $95 billion a month—$60 billion in Treasury, and $35 billion in mortgage-backed securities.
The market is now discounting an aggressively tighter monetary policy. You have inflation expectations that are being discounted to last longer. So, rates are elevating across the curve, and you're seeing this market weakness.
As it relates to curve inversion, on the short end, the Fed controls that by overnight rates, so that has aggressively moved in line. The long-end is Fed-influenced, with the balance sheet being the primary influencing mechanism. In my opinion, if at any time the Fed changes their short-term result, they could get to a steeper curve. If the Fed came out and said, "Hey, we're stopping at 2%" and then rates hold, you have a steeper curve, and the inversion can be handled.
But when I think about it, if inflation starts to wane and the economy is functioning with short-term rates in the mid-twos, the Fed can say, "Hey, we're going to neutral, and we should have a healthy curve." I think the shock is really if inflation accelerates from here, the Fed has to become even more hawkish. They may end up pushing to an inverted curve, and hence you probably have a recession. The pivot point to me is if inflation accelerates or decelerates. And that will dictate if the inversion really does signal a recession.
Besides 2-year and 10-year Treasury yields, is there another yield curve signal that you would prefer?
The twos-tens has been traditional, but that's factoring in 11, 12, 13 hikes, hence you get that short-term indicator. I think it's okay to look inside the two-year as well. We've seen some research folks indicate three months and six months as indicators, and the reason is because there's going to be so much data coming in over the next six to 12 months around the pace of inflation, obviously impacts from COVID, impacts from the invasion of Ukraine that will affect, on the margin, Fed rates.
I think it's fair to say that the two-year is probably not the best indicator because of the amount of data that is going to be coming in that could influence the direction of short-term rates. So perhaps maybe the six month, maybe the one year. Two-to-10 is really flat. Watch the 10-year though. I believe the 10-year is going to dictate more truth about the economy than where the Fed is.
If we look at sectors of the economy and the consumer behavior, where are you seeing interesting trends?
I'll start broad based, and these are changes over three years based on Bank of America daily credit-card spending. We're going back to pre-COVID to early April of 2019. In general, total card spend is up about 22% compared to that time period. That's pretty healthy.
When you look through to the sub-sectors, the clear outperformers over the past three years were online retail (up 80%), online electronics (up 40 to 50%), gasoline (up 40%) and furniture (up 30%). Then you get to general retail (20 to 30%), and that's excluding auto. Restaurants are up over 25%. All those elements have done well.
The underperformers, as expected, were airlines (up 8%). Entertainment's been pretty flat. Department stores are down, and clothing off about 15%, which if you're going into the office less, you're probably not buying as many clothes. Those last two declines, to me, are really more secular in nature.
One of the things that I found interesting Bank of America broke down the gasoline spend between lower-income and higher-income households. B of A is defining lower income as less than $50,000. Gas now represents about 9% of spending for those lower-income households, forcing less spending on groceries, clothing and discretionary items. For higher income, which B of A defines as over $125,000, gas is about 5% of that spend per year. What they're seeing is lower spending on discretionary, particularly airlines, online spending and lodging.
Here's another statistic of interest. In states that are heavy energy producers, which would be categorized as Texas north through the Dakotas, spending is up about 26%. But in states with high gas prices, which is predominantly the western U.S., spending is up about 20%, and that's excluding energy.
Changing gears now, for well over a year, we have pointed out the potential advantages of floating-rate loans. How is that opportunity evolving based on our current expectations?
I have to say it's been more impactful than I would've guessed and not necessarily due to how stable floating-rate loans have been over the past year-and-a-half. It's really about how far rates have gone and the impact on fixed rate. Take 2021, the Agg Index was down 1.5%, and floating-rate loans were up 5.5%. That's an almost a 700-basis-point delta. This year, floating-rate loans are flat, and the Agg is down 6%. In the past 15 months or so, the difference between floating-rate loans and fixed-rate instruments is close to 1,300 basis points. That's a significant delta.
We still have a strong consumer, strong earnings, strong job market, healthy savings, and low defaults. It's a healthy corporate sector. However, I believe what's on now on heels of floating-rate loans is that fixed rate is becoming more interesting. To me, what has kept floating-rate more comfortable is the adjustments in the forward curve. Today LIBOR or SOFR is below 50 basis points. However, if you start to discount in the forward curve where you have an aggressive Fed, then the coupon and loans may get pretty attractive. I still view floating-rate loans as a defensive trade against inflation. I think it's even more attractive as the market is adjusting to a more aggressive Fed.
Given that, fixed rate is getting interesting. Real GDP is slowing this year. And in 2023, the Fed is expected to continue to tighten conditions. Nominal GDP is expected to grow at a slower pace, and yields are climbing. And again, it's all on the margin, right? I would prefer to see some stabilization and decline in inflation because that'll lead to stabilization of Fed policy. I want to see that before I get really comfortable with duration. I'm not there yet.
Are there other parts of the fixed-income market that look attractive at the present, given the big selloff and jump in rates?
On the margin I'd say interesting, not yet attractive. Again, I want to see that stabilization in either inflation or yield levels before I say attractive.
High-grade credit coming up on 4% is interesting. High yield sitting at 6%, not bad. Given expectations for a slowing economy over the next two years and tightening monetary conditions, if you'd ask somebody, "What are your return expectations for equities over the next three to four years?" I think if the answer is anything less than 8%, then you should absolutely look at high yield because your yield-to-worst right now is 6%. Yield-to-worst is your best proxy for three-year returns. So, if an investor told me, "I think equities will return 6 to 7% over the next three years," I'd say, "Well, then you might want to consider high yield as something to significantly reduce your risk and give you that coupon."
Now it's time for our traditional lightning round. As a reminder, I'll give you a word or short phrase, you tell me the first thing that comes to your mind. Are you ready?
Fire away.
Number of total rate hikes in 2022 and rate target from the Fed.
Eight. 2.25%
Will the 3-month 10-year be inverted at yearend?
I'm a no.
Is inflation peaking?
The rate of inflation, I believe it is.
What are the chances the EU boycotts Russian energy?
I think that's optics. There's going to be a work-around.
The price of a gallon of gas on July 4? Currently, the national average is $4.10.
That's a great question. I'm $3.85. If I believe inflation's peaking, then I should honor that.
What key economic indicator are you most closely looking at right now?
The Producer Price Index (PPI), which serves as a leading indicator for the Consumer Price Index or CPI, a measure closely watched by the Fed.
The two best things that could happen to the economy?
Putin is no longer Putin, and COVID is no longer COVID.
What about the two worst things?
Putin is Putin, and COVID is COVID.
Is the economy over COVID?
I think consumers are; I don't think supply chains are.
And lastly, Elon Musk buying a 9% share in Twitter.
Oh, Elon's brain is a maze. So, he probably sees some opportunities, or it may be just boredom. Tough to know.
Dominic, I imagine many readers took heart your reflection last month about being aware of the future, but not suffering in advance. Do you have a thought today that you're reflecting on?
We spend a lot of time thinking about financial investing, and I would say make sure you allocate the proper time to invest in the non-financial elements in your life—your health, your mind, your relationships, and your passions.
For Financial Professionals Only — Not For Public Distribution
Pacific Asset Management LLC is the sub-adviser for the Pacific Funds Fixed Income Funds. The views in this commentary are as of April 11, 2022 and are presented for informational purposes only. These views should not be construed as investment advice, an endorsement of any security, mutual fund, sector or index, or to predict performance of any investment. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice as market and other conditions warrant. Any performance data quoted represents past performance which does not guarantee future results. Any forward-looking statements are not guaranteed. All material is compiled from sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Sector names in this commentary are provided by the Funds' portfolio managers and could be different if provided by a third party.
Past performance does not guarantee future results. All investing involves risks including the possible loss of the principal amount invested.
Pacific Life Insurance Company is the administrator for Pacific Funds. It is not a fiduciary and therefore does not give advice or make recommendations regarding insurance or investment products.
Investors should consider a fund's investment goal, risks, charges, and expenses carefully before investing. The prospectus and/or summary prospectus contains this and other information and should be read carefully before investing. The prospectus can be obtained by visiting PacificFunds.com.
Pacific Funds and Pacific Asset Management LLC are registered service marks of Pacific Life Insurance Company ("Pacific Life").
Pacific Funds are distributed by Pacific Select Distributors, LLC (member FINRA & SIPC), a subsidiary of Pacific Life Insurance Company (Newport Beach, CA), and are available through licensed third parties. Pacific Funds refers to Pacific Funds Series Trust.
Behind the Trading Desk
An interview with Michael Lonia, head of trading for Pacific Asset Management.
Does the Fed Get Credit?
The central bank's rate hikes battered fixed income in 2022. What does that mean for the 2023 landscape?
After a short COVID shutdown, pent-up demand and cost cuts have benefited the gaming industry.
Past performance does not guarantee future results. All investing involves risks including the possible loss of the principal amount invested. High-yield/high-risk bonds ("junk bonds") and floating-rate loans (usually rated below investment grade) have greater risk of default than higher-rated securities/higher-quality bonds that may have a lower yield. Corporate bonds are subject to issuer risk in that their value may decline for reasons directly related to the issuer of the security.
Pacific Funds and Pacific Asset Management LLC are registered service marks of Pacific Life Insurance Company ("Pacific Life"). S&P is a registered trademark of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC. All third-party trademarks referenced by Pacific Life, such as S&P, belong to their respective owners. References of third-party trademarks do not indicate or signify any relationship, sponsorship or endorsement between Pacific Life and the owners of referenced trademarks.
Index performance is not indicative of fund performance. For performance data current to the most recent month-end, call Pacific Funds at (800) 722-2333 or go to Pacificfunds.com/Performance.


Catnip is famous for inducing an almost drug like stupor in cats. It is thought that this herb's ability to produce an almost euphoric state in cats is be due to the phytochemical "nepetalacatone", a substance that also contributes to its sedative effect upon humans.
Known as "catmint" or "nep" in the Middle Ages both people and cats loved Catnip, using it in herbal medicines formulated to treat intestinal cramps, indigestion, to cause sweating, induce menstruation, as a sedative, and to increase appetite.
Catnip is particularly effective in aiding digestive issues, especially constipation, excess flatulence, cramping, and bloating. Catnip is a carminative, helping to remove air stuck in the intestines by pushing it downwards until it's expelled from the body. The relaxing, anti-inflammatory effects of Catnip's organic compounds can ease the knots and inflammation of the gastrointestinal system and relieve tightness and discomfort.
Catnip is so safe it is a long standing remedy for irritability and restless sleep in toddlers and babies. The sedative nature of this wonderfully calming herb helps to induce a fitful and restful sleep, making Catnip the go to remedy for insomnia or other sleep related problems. The phytochemical "nepetalactone", responsible for its effect on cats, also contributes to its sedative effect on humans.
The active components of Catnip are "iridoid glycosides", which are thought to contribute to this herb's anxiolytic and sedative effects. Used by herbalists for centuries to treat anxiety and other nervous disorders, it works particularly well against tension headaches and can induce a sense of relaxation, triggering relief from stress and anxiety.
Fevers are usually regarded as a symptom of an acute infection or underlying illness. In response, the body raises its temperature in order to stimulate the immune system and speed up detoxification. A fever is the body's natural defense against infection or illness and having a fever is a good indication that the body's immune system is taking action. Reducing a fever can actually be counterproductive and may actually increase a cold or virus's duration. Using herbs to help your body sweat out a fever while supporting and strengthening your immune system will help you get well faster. Catnip is classed as a "diaphoretic" herb, meaning it can induce perspiration without raising body temperature to help break a fever. Drinking it hot as a tea will help enhance its effects.
A hot Catnip infusion works as an excellent antiseptic inhalant and as a remedy for tender throats, coughs, colds and flu, in addition to working as a decongestant to alleviate sinusitis and catarrh as well as relaxing croup and asthma.
Catnip possesses antiseptic attributes which are effective in treating skin infections. This herb contains high levels of tannins which help to accelerate the process of repairing damaged tissues and stop hemorrhages from grazes and cuts. The tannins are also useful in curing burn injuries and scalds, insect bites, piles and skin problems accompanied by inflammations.
Infusion or tea: Steep 1-2 tsp of dried herb for 5-15 min in hot water, in a tea pot. Take 1 oz to 1 cup as needed. Take 3 times per day.
Nepeta catataria is thought to have taken its name from the Etrurian city of Neptic (today the town Nepi in the province of Viterbo). Although there is no documented evidence, given the Egyptians love of cats, it is highly likely that they were amongst the first people to give Catnip to felines. The Romans also regarded Catnip very highly and used it in their recipes and herbal medicines. Catnip was introduced to America around the 18th century. Settlers took plant cuttings with them for food and medicinal purposes when they traveled to the New World and there is a recipe from Massachusetts 1712 that includes Catnip in the list of ingredients.
Native Americans also began to use this herb in their medicines and recipes when they came across it. Several Native American tribes used Catnip to treat coughs, colds, pneumonia, sore throats, fevers, and colic. The Mohegan tribes relieved infant colic with a tea made from Catnip leaves.
Iridoids, tannins, volatile oil (mainly alph- and beta-nepetalactone, citronellol, and geraniol) antioxidants, flavonoids, vitamins C and E, minerals (especially chromium, iron, manganese, potassium, selenium, and cobalt.


The main thing to comment on was the food - my first 5/5 in quite some time. My order was simple, but each item was perfectly executed. Firstly the quarter chicken breast, which despite not being the largest specimen I have ever seen, was impeccably cooked, with a rare abundance of sauce. The rice had no dry lumps or sticky bits, and the garlic bread was well toasted, warm, and covered evenly in garlic butter. The whole lot went, and was delicious!
Staff were also very friendly, and did a good job of making us feel welcome. Decoration is pleasant, and what I would expect of a small-town Nando's built in the last couple of years. I suppose the only slight let down was the average speed of service, which was surprising given the restaurant was less than half full - nothing to put me off returning though.


text:
#include <assert.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
#include <stddef.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <string.h>

#include <kernel/bitmap.h>
#include <kernel/memory.h>
#include <kernel/multiboot.h>

Bitmap *mem_map = 0;

extern Multiboot_info *boot_info;

/* Symbols defined in the linker script */
extern uint32_t kernel_start;
extern uint32_t kernel_end;

/*
 * Setup
 */

static void set_region_free(uint32_t base, size_t size)
{
   uint32_t start_addr = base / FRAME_SIZE;
   uint32_t nb_frames = size / FRAME_SIZE;

   for(size_t i = 0; i < nb_frames; ++i)
      clear_bit(mem_map, start_addr + i);
}

static void set_region_used(uint32_t base, size_t size)
{
   uint32_t start_addr = base / FRAME_SIZE;
   uint32_t nb_frames = size / FRAME_SIZE;

   for(size_t i = 0; i < nb_frames; ++i)
      set_bit(mem_map, start_addr + i);
}

void phys_mem_init(void)
{
   /* Get the memory info from GRUB */
   uint32_t mem_size_kb     = boot_info->mem_lower + boot_info->mem_upper;
   uint32_t nb_frames       = mem_size_kb / 4;
   uint32_t nb_frames_bytes = nb_frames * FRAME_PER_BYTE;
   uint32_t bitmap_size     = nb_frames_bytes / 32;

   /* Info about the kernel (4 KiB align the end address) */
   uint32_t kernel_start_addr = (uint32_t) &kernel_start;
   uint32_t kernel_end_addr   = ((uint32_t) &kernel_end & ~(0xFFF)) + 0x1000;
   uint32_t kernel_size       = kernel_end_addr - kernel_start_addr;

   /* Put the bitmap at the end of the kernel */
   uint32_t bitmap_addr  = kernel_end_addr;
   mem_map               = (Bitmap *) bitmap_addr;
   mem_map->address      = (uint32_t *) (bitmap_addr + sizeof(Bitmap) + 1);
   mem_map->size         = bitmap_size;
   mem_map->total_frames = nb_frames;

   /* By default, the bitmap is marked as full */
   set_all_bits(mem_map);

   /* Free the regions that are available to us */
   Memory_map *mmap = (Memory_map *) boot_info->mmap_addr;
   while((unsigned long) mmap < boot_info->mmap_addr + boot_info->mmap_length) {
      mmap = (Memory_map *) ((unsigned int) mmap + mmap->size + sizeof(mmap->size));

      /* Type 1 means available memory */
      if(mmap->type == 1)
         set_region_free(mmap->base_addr_low, mmap->length_low);
   }

   /* Mark the kernel and bitmap space as used so we don't overwrite it */
   set_region_used(kernel_start_addr, kernel_size + bitmap_size + 1);
}

/*
 * Allocation/Deallocation
 */

void *phys_mem_alloc_frame(void)
{
   uint32_t frame = find_first_free(mem_map);

   /* Out of memory */
   if(!frame)
      return NULL;

   set_bit(mem_map, frame);

   uint32_t address = frame * FRAME_SIZE;
   return (void *) address;
}

void phys_mem_free_frame(void *ptr)
{
   assert(ptr != NULL);

   uint32_t address = (uint32_t) ptr;
   uint32_t frame = address / FRAME_SIZE;

   clear_bit(mem_map, frame);
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: Why does FileStream.Position increment in multiples of 1024? I have a text file that I want to read line by line and record the position in the text file as I go.  After reading any line of the file the program can exit, and I need to resume reading the file at the next line when it resumes.
Here is some sample code:
using (FileStream fileStream = new FileStream("Sample.txt", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.ReadWrite))
{
    fileStream.Seek(GetLastPositionInFile(), SeekOrigin.Begin);
    using (StreamReader streamReader = new StreamReader(fileStream))
    {
        while (!streamReader.EndOfStream)
        {
            string line = streamReader.ReadLine();
            DoSomethingInteresting(line);
            SaveLastPositionInFile(fileStream.Position);

            if (CheckSomeCondition())
            {
                break;
            }
        }
    }
}

When I run this code, the value of fileStream.Position does not change after reading each line, it only advances after reading a couple of lines.  When it does change, it increases in multiples of 1024.  Now I assume that there is some buffering going on under the covers, but how can I record the exact position in the file?

A: I would agree with Stefan M., it is probably the buffering which is causing the Position to be incorrect. If it is just the number of characters that you have read that you want to track than I suggest you do it yourself, as in:
        using(FileStream fileStream = new FileStream("Sample.txt", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.ReadWrite))
        {
            fileStream.Seek(GetLastPositionInFile(), SeekOrigin.Begin);
            /**Int32 position = 0;**/
            using(StreamReader streamReader = new StreamReader(fileStream))
            {
                while(!streamReader.EndOfStream)
                {
                    string line = streamReader.ReadLine();
                    /**position += line.Length;**/
                    DoSomethingInteresting(line);
                    /**SaveLastPositionInFile(position);**/

                    if(CheckSomeCondition())
                    {
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }
        }

A: It's not FileStream that's responsible - it's StreamReader. It's reading 1K at a time for efficiency.
Keeping track of the effective position of the stream as far as the StreamReader is concerned is tricky... particularly as ReadLine will discard the line ending, so you can't accurately reconstruct the original data (it could have ended with "\n" or "\r\n"). It would be nice if StreamReader exposed something to make this easier (I'm pretty sure it could do so without too much difficulty) but I don't think there's anything in the current API to help you :(
By the way, I would suggest that instead of using EndOfStream, you keep reading until ReadLine returns null. It just feels simpler to me:
string line;
while ((line = reader.ReadLine()) != null)
{
    // Process the line
}

A: Provide that your file is not too big, why not read the whole thing in big chuncks and then manipulate the string - probably faster than the stop and go i/o.
For example,
            //load entire file
            StreamReader srFile = new StreamReader(strFileName);
            StringBuilder sbFileContents = new StringBuilder();
            char[] acBuffer = new char[32768];
            while (srFile.ReadBlock(acBuffer, 0, acBuffer.Length)
                > 0)
            {
                sbFileContents.Append(acBuffer);
                acBuffer = new char[32768];
            }

            srFile.Close();

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange