text:
jenNYdreams
travel, wedding, random musings
Tag: madrid
Madrid + Toledo
September 11, 2019 December 26, 2019 Posted in TravelTagged daytrip, madrid, mazapan, medieval, moors, mudejar, spain, toledo, travelLeave a comment
Four years ago, Anthony and I went to Europe for three weeks, and our last twenty-four hours happened to be a layover in Madrid. Because we were young and cheap and curious about Spain's notoriety for staying out late, we sacrificed a hotel room and spent those twenty-four hours roaming the city. We hung out at Puerta del Sol, we saw a major accident occur (a truck backed into an awning that fell on top of a woman dining outdoors, severely injuring her), we ate jamón and spent an embarrassing amount of time eating churros at Chocolatería San Ginés, and we napped in Retiro Park. It was an odd experience, and I felt pretty ambivalent about Madrid. Since that was my only experience with Spain, I also had no real desire to return to Spain — until a couple of months ago when I found round-trip flights to Madrid for an astonishingly low price of $261.
Madrid's sleek airport
Most of our trip was spent in Andalucía, but we did spend a couple of days in Madrid, as well as a day-trip to Toledo. Turns out, I still don't love Madrid, but at least I finally appreciated how livable this vibrant metropolis is.
We stayed at an Airbnb in the trendy neighborhood of Malasaña, which I'd highly recommend. It's connected to everywhere by metro, walkable to all the touristy sights, and filled with award-winning restaurants, colorful street art, and vibrant plazas swarming with madrileños (locals).
View of Madrid rooftops from our Airbnb living room
We spent our first morning doing the touristy Gran Vía stroll, starting at the elegant Palacio de Cibeles, which was once a post office, and ending at Plaza de España. It's basically the Fifth Avenue of Madrid, with interchangeable chain stores and foreign tourists moving slowly, but it's interesting to see the phases of architecture along Gran Vía, from Beaux-Arts to Art Deco. One of the more interesting stores to drop into is an H&M housed in a former theater.
Palacio de Cibeles
The Metropolis Building was designed by a couple of French brothers. The dome is topped by a statue of the winged goddess Victoria, which replaced the original bronze statue of Phoenix and Ganymedes when a rival insurance company purchased the building and the original owners took the statue with them.
The rest of Madrid felt so comfortable, like any other cosmopolitan European city, that we sometimes forgot which city we were in.
Revisiting Mercado San Miguel, which we visited last time we were in Madrid
One of the unique things about Madrid is that you can find Mudejar arches scattered here and there
We loved seeing these same-sex traffic lights, put up during Pride and never taken down
Most of our diet in Madrid consisted of churros con chocolate, as we went to Chocolatería San Ginés pretty much after every meal. It's an impressive place, open 24 hours yet retaining a classy feel. Servers run around balancing elegant mugs of thick chocolate and little plates of churros.
Apparently we were missing southern Spain already because our favorite meal was at Torre del Oro Bar Andalú, which is an Andalucian tapas bar just off Plaza Mayor. The gory photos of bullfighting filling every crevice of the restaurant is a bit corny, but the food is authentic and even served Granada style (a free tapa with every drink!), with a stream of regulars — perhaps Andalucian transplants? — throughout the afternoon.
Legit!
Since it was August, a lot of the restaurants I wanted to try were closed for vacation, so one night we reluctantly went to La Barraca, a historic paella restaurant. It reminded me of Delmonico's, a New York institution with white tablecloths and awkwardly stuffy service. However, we couldn't deny that the paellas were very good. The next morning we cooked our leftovers for breakfast, and we couldn't have been happier.
Best paella on our trip
Afternoon Trip to Toledo
Just a half-hour train ride from Madrid is the wonderfully preserved medieval town of Toledo. Once the capital of Spain, it felt like a mix of Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Germany and Dubrovnik in Croatia, some other favorite Medieval towns of mine. Toledo sits high up on a circular rocky hill protected on three sides by the Tajo River, like a moat. It has 2,500 years of tangled history between the Romans, Jews, Visigoths, Moors, and Christians. The city reached its peak in the 1500s, when Spain was in its Golden Age. Emperor Charles V made it his "Imperial City," and El Greco made his home here. Cervantes' wife came from near Toledo, and he often wrote about it. In 1561, Philip II moved the capital to a small town north of here called Madrid, beginning the slow decline of Toledo. The whole city is a UNESCO World Heritage site, remaining largely intact despite numerous violent takeovers throughout history due to the fact that it was considered the holiest city in Spain. Its ornate cathedral is one of the most impressive structures in Spain, taking over 250 years to build.
Old winding roads of Toledo
Cervantes is beloved here
Perched up on a hill, overlooking La Mancha
Mudejar touches everywhere
The impressive train station sits below the town center, so we caught a city bus into town. You can catch #5, #11, #61, or #62 to Plaza de Zocodover. One thing we love about Spain is that buses give out change.
Sunset views from Toledo
Mudejar style train station
Spain claims that marzipan ("mazapán" in Spanish) was invented in Toledo by nuns of the Convent of San Clemente during a famine. There was no wheat but plenty of sugar and almonds, so nuns created a paste out of these ingredients and fed the undernourished people. Mazapán de Toledo is protected by D.O., which means it must be made in the province of Toledo and be at least 50% almonds. We tried mazapán from Santo Tomé and El Café de las Monjas, and both were much better than any marzipan I've had in the U.S. Each one is lovingly shaped by hand, and a box of assorted mazapán is the perfect gift.
Besides mazapán, swords are another popular souvenir in Toledo, as Toledo was famous for making the very best steel during the Middle Ages. Knights considered having a Toledo-cast sword to be the highest status symbol.
Unlike on the rest of our trip, Toledo doesn't have a thriving tapas scene. Instead, Toledo excels at game, which is hunted in the hills to the south. Typical dishes include partridge, venison, wild boar, roast suckling pig, and baby lamb. We had a lovely dinner on the outdoor terrace of Restaurante Placido.
Roasted baby lamb
Tips for future travelers:
It's simple enough to get from the airport into Madrid by subway, but if you have a lot of luggage or don't want to transfer, you can also take the comfortable Exprés Aeropuerto to Atocha train station, and then getting a cab. This yellow bus departs every 15 minutes, runs 24 hours a day, and takes about 40 minutes to reach Atocha.
For our few days in Madrid, buying a 10-pack of Metro tickets was perfect for us. We first had to buy a cheap refillable card, and then we were able to share the ten rides. Madrid's Metro system is fantastic and reminded us of Paris. Lines are color-coded and numbered. You can just tap your Metro card to the yellow pad to open the turnstile — no need to take it out again to exit.
The best itinerary for Toledo is to take a late afternoon train there, so you can see things just as the daytrippers are leaving for the day, and watch the sunset. Then leave the following morning, after exploring a few of the sights that had been closed when you arrived the previous day.
Buy your train tickets to and from Toledo in advance, as they often sell out to commuters. (Since Toledo is so close to Madrid, it makes sense that some people live in Toledo and work in Madrid.)
When on Gran Vía, take a break and head up to Gourmet Experiences (a food court in El Corte Inglés) for a spectacular view of the Schweppes Building.
October 4, 2015 September 7, 2017 Posted in TravelTagged jamon iberico, layover, madrid, New York, overnight, spain, vacation1 Comment
What's the best way to end an epic vacation? Plan a layover in a city that you're pretty ambivalent about before going home. Thanks to our 23-hour overnight layover in Madrid, I wasn't as depressed returning to the U.S. as I had been when leaving Positano and Milan earlier. I tend to get emotionally attached to certain places, so I look for ways to protect my heart.
Anthony and I didn't want to waste our layover at a hotel, so our plan was to roam around the city and hop into different places throughout the night. Coincidentally, Spaniards are known for staying out late, so Madrid was an ideal place for this all-night venture.
We started in one of the most touristy parts of Madrid, Puerta del Sol, which means "Gate of the Sun". It was originally one of the gates in a huge wall that surrounded Madrid in the 15th century. When we arrived, there was a mariachi band playing in front of an imposing statue, which at first made perfect sense, like finding a hula dancer performing in the middle of Waikiki. But then we remembered — hey, wait a minute, mariachi is from Mexico! Wrong continent, guys.
The area reminded me of Rome, with old buildings, cobblestone roads, and perfect uplighting. We stumbled into a tapas bar called La Antoñita and were led all the way back into a courtyard perfect for intimate meals. We ordered some charcuterie and a glass of rioja. Holy smokes, Spain, I finally get it. I understand now why Spanish ham has such hype. Our plate of charcuterie included jamón ibérico, which melted in our mouths and was nothing like those sad cold cuts you buy in American grocery stores. Jamón ibérico is made from black Iberian pigs in Spain and Portugal. After the fattened pigs follow a strict diet of barley, maize, olive, and acorns, the ham is salted and dried for two weeks, dried for another four to six weeks, then cured for at least twelve months. I would travel to Spain again just to eat more ham.
After wandering around the city and passing through the famous Plaza Mayor, we decided it was time for dessert and headed to Chocolatería San Ginés. This famous café has been serving chocolate con churros (hot chocolate and churros) since 1894. It didn't close until 7 am, making it the perfect place to hang out overnight. The interior felt like an upscale diner, with lots of mirrors, wood paneling, green velvet seats, and marble tables. The thick, strong, dark hot chocolate was served in a mug, and the churros were light and crispy. We must have sat there for hours, slowly eating our churros and noticing the waves of crowds trickling in throughout the night. The workers were so kind, always giving us free water and never questioning our stay. During our time there, Anthony taught me how to play Griddlers, a picture logic puzzle that he had been playing on subway rides back home. I ended up becoming quite addicted to Griddlers. He later told me that this moment was one of his favorites on our entire trip.
Eventually, we were too tired to even sit still, so we left Chocolatería San Ginés and continued our journey. It was extremely late by then — especially for us, as we're usually in bed by 11 every night — and roaming around in a foreign but somehow familiar city felt surreal. As we were walking, we heard a huge truck racing down the street. It hastily swerved past us, and just as Anthony turned his head to glare at the driver, the truck stopped and started backing up slowly, straight into a huge awning. The truck knocked off the entire awning, which landed right on top of a woman sitting at an outdoor restaurant. Glass was shattered, and the woman was completely bent forward onto the table. She remained motionless as we cautiously walked toward her. Surprisingly, the woman eventually stood up and looked shocked more than anything else. It was a terrifying incident to witness, but as more and more people arrived to help her, we knew we could be of no use — especially with our level of Spanish — and left the scene. Surreal, right?
We made our way to Retiro Park, one of the largest parks in Madrid. It once belonged to the Spanish Monarchy but became a public park in the late 19th century. The night was windy, so we had to huddle together for warmth. By the crack of dawn, dozens of joggers were out and about, and we noticed how fancy the neighboring area is.
Streets in Madrid have signs with graphics on the buildings. This is the dancing street, obviously.
In the daytime, the city felt different. Last night, we had been surrounded by shady study abroad students and late-night locals. Now we passed tourists and office workers starting their day. We spent the rest of our time in Madrid eating and sightseeing, napping in front of an opera house, and walking through palace gardens. We had more amazing jamón ibérico for breakfast at a cheap cafe, and then shared paella and tapas at a food market that felt just like Brooklyn. We missed Rick Steves, whose guide books had been so useful in Italy and Paris. I hadn't bothered to buy a guide book for Madrid since we had less than a day here, but I regretted that decision, as we could sense the lack of commentary as we meandered through town.
Honey mustard bacalao, garlic pepper octopus, and bacalao with tomato and vegetables
By the time we had to return to the airport, I was emotionally ready to go home. Madrid had been more fun than I expected, but, at the same time, felt bizarre. It had put enough distance between Italy and New York, and now my heart was sufficiently protected.
My first day back in New York was beautiful, with clear blue skies, 80-degree weather, and little humidity. It was as if New York knew it had to impress me. When I left my apartment to go to work, I was faced with film trailers parked all along our street. In New York, you get used to your street being used for films, but, after being in awe of so many places the past few weeks, it was a nice reminder that other people are actually in awe of your home. The ease with which I was able to refill my Metrocard was much appreciated after struggling with other cities' transit systems. And once I got onto the train, I relished the blast of air-conditioning that filled each car. I got off at my stop near Columbus Circle and was overwhelmed by how attractive this area is. As I walked to work, I noticed some European tourists and was excited for them. Glad to be back, New York!
Traveling is even better when you know you're coming home to the best city in the world
If you're like me and get emotionally attached to places, plan to have a long layover in a city that doesn't intrigue you. In fact, make it a challenging layover like ours. Instead of getting a hotel room, we roamed around all night, so we were looking forward to a bed — any bed, even a bed back in America.
Layovers are a great way to explore a city that you wouldn't necessarily want to visit for its own sake. As long as you have at least five hours, I would definitely recommend leaving your luggage at the airport and finding the quickest way into town.
You can control how long your layover is with a little trick that I learned while planning for my next international trip: I needed to fly from Manila to New York but noticed that most of the cheap flights had layovers in Seoul, a city that I would love to visit. Unfortunately, the layovers were just a few hours long. Since I wanted at least a few days in Seoul, I changed my search to a multi-city search: Manila to Seoul, and Seoul to New York two days later. For the same price of a flight from Manila to New York, I can now have my two-day layover in Seoul.
If you want to avoid paying for a hotel on an overnight layover like we did, do a little research first. Make sure you'll be in a city that is safe at night. We lucked out because Madrid is alive practically all night. Then, have some late-night places in mind that can be hangouts when you're too tired to roam around. We didn't just stumble into Chocolatería San Ginés; I had found it online and knew that it would be open all night and was a good place to hang out.
¡Olé!
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Below you will find a list of discussions in the Motorola Droid X forums at the Android Forum. The Motorola Droid X forum is for discussion of: The Motorola Droid X Forum on Android.net. This forum contains all general Motorola Droid X Phone discussions..
The Motorola Droid X Forum on Android.net. This forum contains all general Motorola Droid X Phone discussions.


From Albania to Vietnam and a hundred countries in between…Meatballs come in a wide variety of styles and flavours. Known as Albóndigas from Spain and Latin America to the Danish Frikadeller to the Indonesian Baksos, they are all variations of the humble meatball.
I have to admit, I am a cooking show junky, and after watching numerous episodes of Guy Fieri's Triple D, settled on a method of cooking meatballs that renders them so juicy and tender, you will never go back to regular, pan-fried, dried out meatballs.
Which I call the Triple Mix.
Equal parts of Ground Beef, Ground Pork and Ground Veal.
From there, you can alter the spices and herbs to match any culture's cuisine. Here at the Northern Homestead, we favour making our meatballs in Nonna's Italian style, but we also enjoy them occassionally in a sweet and sour sauce format, when we are trying to curb the carb fetish.
Here is our basic meatball recipe, but by all means, add/subtract spices/herbs to suit your own taste.
In a large bowl, combine meats until well incorporated.
mix and knead until thoroughly combined.
on the large size) and place in a large, glass baking dish.
Now here is secret # 2 ~ Pour a large jar of preferably home-made pasta sauce over the meatballs, cover with aluminum foil and bake for about 35-40 minutes (depending on the size of your meatballs) or until internal temperature of meatballs reach 155°F.
Baking them in a sauce is THE secret to moist, tender, delicious meatballs.
Remove from oven and let cool for about 15 minutes if not using right away. Otherwise, divide enough meatballs with sauce for future dinners and freeze in small, foil containers.
This batch made close to 70 meatballs, which is plenty for future rushed weekday dinners.
You don't need to spend $$$ on a jar of Italian Seasoning mix when you already have all the spices/herbs in your pantry to start with….
Using a mortar and pestle, grind all ingredients until desired consistency is achieved. Store in an airtight container.
Looks good but do they "hold together" baking them in the sauce? I usually brown mine and then finish cooking in sauce.
Looks good but do they "hold together" baking them in the sauce? I make mine similar but usually brown first then finish baking in sauce.
OK, THIRD try with posting a comment.
They do indeed hold together in sauce Ramona and I seriously considered answering this three times LOL!
OK! Gonna try it out!
Have made these two times this week!! Awesome!! My brother in law said they were the best meatballs he's ever had!!!
That is awesome! Glad you (and your brother-in-law) love them!
Love these!!! My husband is Italian, and these are by far his favorite meatballs! I make these on a Sunday and freeze them to use for future use. They taste even better after they've been frozen!


text:
const Command = require('./command');
const chalk = require('chalk');

// we use logins as the basis for our offset
const datum = {
    table: 'members_login_events',
    column: 'created_at'
};

const helpText = `Updates the Ghost db and shifts all dates up to present day.
By default the offset is based on the date of the last member login.\n
${chalk.red('warning')} This is a destructive operation for testing purposes only. DO NOT run it against a database you care about.`;

module.exports = class TimeTravel extends Command {
    setup() {
        this.help(helpText);
        this.argument('--offset', {type: 'number', desc: 'Specify a date offset (in days)'});
        this.argument('--force', {type: 'boolean', desc: 'Continue without confirmation'});
    }

    async handle(argv = {}) {
        const _ = require('lodash');
        // knex has to be loaded _after_ the call to setup()
        // the db connection requires nconf which passes argv to yargs,
        // which intercepts --help and stops execution
        const knex = require('../server/data/db/connection');
        const schema = require('../server/data/schema');
        const {DateTime} = require('luxon');

        if (!argv.offset) {
            const datumPoint = await knex(datum.table)
                .max(datum.column, {as: datum.column})
                .first();

            if (!datumPoint[datum.column]) {
                this.error('No data to use as baseline. Use --offset instead');
                knex.destroy();
                return;
            }

            argv.offset = Math.floor(
                DateTime.utc()
                    .diff(DateTime.fromJSDate(datumPoint[datum.column]), 'days')
                    .toObject()
                    .days
            );
        }

        const dateOffset = argv.offset;

        this.info(`Timetravel will use an offset of +${dateOffset} days`);
        this.warn('This is a destructive command that will modify your database.');

        const confirm = argv.force || await this.confirm('Are you sure you want to continue?');
        if (!confirm) {
            this.warn('Aborting');
            process.exit(1);
        }

        // map schema to {table: [dateTimeColumn,...]}
        const dateTimeFields = _.pickBy(
            _.mapValues(schema.tables, (table) => {
                return _.keys(_.pickBy(table, (spec) => {
                    return spec.type === 'dateTime';
                }));
            }),
            fields => fields.length > 0
        );

        const totalFields = _.reduce(dateTimeFields, (result, value) => {
            return result + value.length;
        }, 0);
        const progressBar = this.progressBar(totalFields);
        const db = await knex.transaction();
        for (const table in dateTimeFields) {
            for (const column of dateTimeFields[table]) {
                progressBar.update({status: `Updating ${table}.${column}`});
                await db(table)
                    .update(column, db.raw(`DATE_ADD(${column}, interval ${dateOffset} day)`));
                progressBar.increment();
            }
        }
        this.info(`Updated ${totalFields} fields`);
        await db.commit();
        knex.destroy();
    }
};

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
The World Health Assembly revisited: renewed focus on regional governance in 2015
The Sixty-eighth World Health Assembly opening in the Palais des Nations, Geneva on 18 May 2015.
The 68th session of the World Health Assembly is being held in Geneva from 18 to 26 of May. The focus for this year's Assembly is 'Ebola: Ending the current outbreak, strengthening global preparedness and ensuring the World Health Organisation's (WHO) capacity to prepare for and respond to future large-scale outbreaks and emergencies with health consequences,' and 'Health in the post-2015 development agenda'.
What is missing from the agenda is whether and how regional health governance in Africa can be strengthened to enable the WHO to prepare for and respond to future large-scale outbreaks.
The argument for strengthening regional health governance is evident in the work achieved by the Union of South American Nations/South American Institute of Governance in Health and the South East Asian Regional Office. Regional health governance in these two regions focuses very much on collaborative governance between states on key health issues, including HIV/AIDS, Chagas, malaria and regional support for regulation of medicines and development of healthcare systems in both regions.
The situation in sub-Saharan African is relatively different.
Considering the size of the continent, the proliferation of disease and poor established healthcare infrastructure, the path of communicable diseases is more deadly and difficult to control. This is evidenced by the Ebola outbreak in 2014 and the proliferation of HIV/AIDS on the continent. Regional organisations in West, East and Southern Africa, despite having established presences, are heavily reliant on the intervention of donors in assisting to curb the spread of disease, develop adequate healthcare systems and horizontal approaches to tackling communicable and non-communicable diseases in each region.
The reason for this could be a different understanding of regionalism and regional health governance in sub-Saharan Africa. The role of regional organisations differs from that of the South American and South East Asian equivalents. The focus of regionalism in sub-Saharan Africa is very much on regional integration, development and the creation of monetary unions to promote economic improvement. As such, the dedicated health arms are not developed as regional health governance bodies.
Using the example of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) as a specific example, there is a dedicated policy directorate for social development. There is no specific regional health body that is concerned with regional governance and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases. However, the SADC Secretariat has had successes in developing cross-border health initiatives for malaria and HIV/AIDS. Although the focus of controlling disease is at a national level, there is a means of regional involvement, although not direction. The same goes for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the East African Community (EAC).
The focus at the World Health Assembly is still very much a vertical approach to controlling disease and support for development goals. A beneficial addition to this discussion could be whether renewed focus on the creation of regional health governance bodies, or that sub-Saharan regions take the lead in healthcare development, as opposed to a national-regional bottom up approach, has the potential to benefit disease control in each region. The regional successes are underplayed by the role that donors play and the involvement of the WHO regional bodies, multilaterals and major organisations including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Clinton Health Access Initiative.
The imbalance of political power in sub-Saharan Africa is also perhaps a dominant factor in hindering the growth of regional governance in the continent. Additionally, the ambiguous role played by the African Union (AU), and its positioning against SADC, ECOWAS and the EAC, creates confusion as to whether the AU is a regional body or continental body responsible for co-ordinating regional health response collaboratively with each regional organisation. The weight of power carried by countries such as Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya often creates a regional imbalance as these countries often carry the weight of funding in each region, or can create problems in how policy is developed.
As the highest decision-making body for global and regional health, the WHO World Health Assembly should consider elevating the status of regional health organisations in Sub-Saharan Africa and consider providing increased technical assistance for strengthened horizontal healthcare systems, at the same time as providing expertise for the region to enable regional health bodies to manage communicable disease outbreaks and provide support for non-communicable diseases. This would address both the key themes of the Assembly.
Considering Ebola's prevalence in West Africa and the need for renewed focus on health in the post-2015 development agenda, these issues are extremely pertinent and must be a priority for the meeting of the Assembly.
Watch a short video with the author, 'What can we learn from Ebola?' or read a recent opinion piece 'The Economics of Pro-Poor Health Policy.'
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), HIV/AIDS, Project: PRARI, Southern African Development Community (SADC)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Google Apps Script How to create code to download an existing PDF file to the local Download Folder on the PC without HTML? So, I have the codes shown below, and it works fine!.
The pdf file in question is named 'targetfile.pdf, which already exists.
Question is:
How do I take the pdf file and move/copy it to the browser download file in the local computer. I just need the codes for that. The idea is that the code will run and the pdf file is automatically sent to the 'download' folder in the PC.
I have tried several coding but to no avail. This is my request for help after I exhausted all other actions. Please help. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
function starthere(){

var doc = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();

var key = doc.getId();

var folder = DriveApp.getFolderById(key);            // testFormSheet

var folderid = folder.getParents().next().getId();   // id of folder

var folder = DriveApp.getFolderById(folderid);       // testFormSheet

Logger.log(folder);

Logger.log(folderid);

Logger.log(folder);

Logger.log(doc.getName());    //testdownload

// for this test, the target file to download is 'targetfile.pdf'.
// we must find a way to download the file.

var dfile = folder.getFilesByName("targetfile.pdf");

  while(dfile.hasNext()){

    var currfile = dfile.next();
  };

Logger.log(currfile.getName());     //  targetfile.pdf

Logger.log(currfile.getId());       //  file id of targetfile.pdf

A: You can send a base 64 encoded string to a web app
This will allow you to hide both the id and the URL.
See the following example:
index.html
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <base target="_top">
  </head>
  <body>
    <button id="button">download pdf</button>
  </body>

  <script>
    const button = document.getElementById("button")
    button.addEventListener("click", downloadPdf)

    // Will send a request to the back-end to get the base 64 encoded string
    function downloadPdf(){
      google.script.run.withSuccessHandler(serverResponseHandler).getPdfBlob()
    }

    // Will create a hidden download link with the pdf and download it.
    function serverResponseHandler(base64String){
      const linkSource = `data:application/pdf;base64,${base64String}`;
      const downloadLink = document.createElement("a");
      const fileName = "abc.pdf";
      downloadLink.href = linkSource;
      downloadLink.download = fileName;
      downloadLink.click();
    }
  </script>
</html>

Code.gs
function doGet() {
  return HtmlService.createHtmlOutputFromFile("index")
}

// Converts a pdf to a base 64 encoded string
function getPdfBlob(){
  const file = DriveApp.getFileById("[FILE_ID]")
  const blob = file.getBlob()
  const bytes = blob.getBytes()
  const b64 = Utilities.base64Encode(bytes)
  return b64
}

Walkthrough

*

*The HTML contains a button with a click handler.

*When the button is pushed it sends a request to the Code.gs file to get the base 64 encoded pdf.

*With the base 64 string, it will create a link to the pdf with the base 64 encoded string. This way, at no point do you need to reveal the id of the file or the URL.

Be sure to replace the [FILE_ID] with the one you want.
References

*

*blob.getBytes

*Utilities.base64encodedata

*base 64

A: So I have this 'global variable' in my codes:
global variables
And in the doGet(request) function I assigned values to those variables.
Assigning values
I have created 2 functions in code.gs to be accessed by the 'download.html' file. Also, 2 extra functions not used. They are: functions
Then in the download.html file I have the following JavaScript codes:
javascript in download.html
I know. You can see that I'm a novice. But it works, and that's what matters. And the codes written this way makes it easier for me to understand. At least now my GAS project can move forward.
Thanks for all who have helped me with this. I appreciate this a lot.
Thank you X 100. :)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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IBM, Huawei, And Hikvision Are Battling To Sell Facial Recognition Technology In Dubai
May 31, 2019 0 Comments Technology
BuzzFeed News; Getty Images
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — As a backlash against facial recognition technology grows in the US, a host of Chinese and American firms are competing to supply Dubai's police force with biometric surveillance and artificial intelligence products.
This month San Francisco banned police from using facial recognition altogether, and other bills in the US aim to do the same. Amazon faced pressure last week from activist shareholders over sales of its Rekognition system to US government authorities. And Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez expressed concern that face recognition could be used as a form of social control.
But even as the technology comes under more scrutiny in the United States, tech giants such as IBM, and China's Hikvision and Huawei, are marketing biometric surveillance systems in the UAE, where citizens have fewer options to push back. The UAE has used cellphone hacking software to spy on hundreds of dissidents, journalists, and suspected criminals, and has invested heavily in surveillance technology, according to human rights groups and international media reports.
"It is absolutely terrifying," said Sarah Aoun, a digital rights technologist who works with human rights activists, including in the Middle East, on privacy and security. "In a place like Dubai, where there is not much freedom of expression and people are being jailed for what they say, when you introduce artificial intelligence, it's used by systems of power to reinforce their control over the population. They are weaponizing this technology."
"They are weaponizing this technology."
Police in Dubai have begun rolling out an ambitious program, dubbed Oyoon, the Arabic word for "eyes," that will implement facial recognition and analysis driven by artificial intelligence across the city. Police say the program will reduce crime as well as traffic accidents. An analysis of hundreds of government procurement and regulatory documents make clear the scope of Dubai's high-tech policing ambitions, showing the police have sought video analytics platforms meant to record and analyze people's faces, voices, behavior, and cars in the time it takes to do a Google search. And a review of dozens of company marketing materials and interviews with officials show global tech giants are eager to provide the police with the technology they are seeking.
Facial recognition is being taken up by police departments and security forces all over the world, from China and Ecuador to the US and UK. Biometric surveillance systems have swept up the faces, voices, and personal traits of millions of people into government databases in countries across the world with little to no transparency or regulatory oversight.
It has sparked an outcry from civil rights advocates who say the technology's unchecked use in public spaces presents a grave threat to individual privacy and could exacerbate the most abusive practices of police forces, from racial discrimination to arbitrary detention.
At a recent government-organized conference on artificial intelligence in Dubai, representatives from technology companies including Huawei, which the Trump administration recently put on a trade blacklist as a threat to national security, China's Hikvision, and IBM said they saw the UAE and other countries in the Persian Gulf as an exciting market to sell their video analysis platforms, which they say can do everything from analyzing the behavior of groups to automatically blacklisting individuals based on their faces.
Other governments in the Persian Gulf, such as Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, are also using cellphone hacking and other high-tech surveillance measures to monitor and intimidate dissidents, including exiles. The UAE meanwhile has poured money into developing its surveillance capabilities.
"In looking at the way they're using spyware, they are more aggressive about becoming a surveillance power," said Bill Marczak, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and a research fellow at Citizen Lab who is one of the foremost analysts of surveillance systems in the Persian Gulf. "They're not only targeting people in the UAE but they're also using spyware beyond their borders to conduct operations in other countries."
Megha Rajagopalan / BuzzFeed News
A still from a demonstration video at the AI conference in Dubai.
The police have said little about the specific kinds of technologies that are being used in the Oyoon program. BuzzFeed News reviewed procurement records that show the police have sought face and voice recognition technology since as early as mid-2016, including products like the Vectra M3, a program marketed toward skincare professionals that aims to create a 3D model of a person's face, and NeoFace Reveal, a software made by the Japanese company NEC that says it matches faces from photographs and crime scene videos to preexisting databases of images. The police also sought a voice recognition program called Batvox, described as a "new public security weapon" by its manufacturer, Massachusetts-based Nuance.
The Oyoon program, which was unveiled last January, aims to bring thousands of video feeds from cameras used by government authorities throughout Dubai into a central command center, according to local news reports and people familiar with the program. The command center uses artificial intelligence and face recognition to identify security threats. "[Oyoon] security system employs artificial intelligence to watch Dubai around the clock!" proclaims a graphic on a PowerPoint slide in a presentation on the UAE's artificial intelligence strategy given by an adviser to the UAE government.
Police in Dubai have boasted the program has already led to the arrest of more than 300 people.
Studies have shown racial bias baked into leading facial recognition platforms, raising questions about misidentification of suspects. In the UAE and elsewhere, there have been no independent audits of these platforms for accuracy or freedom from bias.
"The application of artificial intelligence to CCTV systems opens a Pandora's Box of uses and misuses," said Sam Samuels, a former police officer and consultant on CCTV systems in Dubai. "At the end of the day it will be a human being who has to validate the information generated by the system."
While facial recognition has proved divisive in the US, it is in China that its use has been particularly controversial. The Chinese government has come under fire internationally for large-scale surveillance of ethnic minorities. Hikvision, the world's largest supplier of surveillance products, already supplies Dubai — as well as cities from London to Shanghai — with thousands of CCTV cameras. It has also outfitted mosques and internment camps with face recognition cameras in China's far west — a region where Muslim minorities are under unprecedented surveillance and where upward of a million people have disappeared into the camps. But at the AI conference in Dubai, Robert Wang, an executive for Hikvision in the Middle East, did not mention the company's work in Xinjiang. Instead, he set up China's approach to surveillance and security as an example for the audience of UAE government officials and corporate executives.
"The challenge for us now is not that we no longer have enough video. The problem is that we have too many videos."
China, he said, is one of the safest countries in the world, saying it needs relatively few police officers per capita.
He said the reason is the 250 million surveillance cameras the country's domestic security authority has installed throughout the country.
"This kind of massive data provides for us all of the evidence, and all of the clues," Wang said. "The challenge for us now is not that we no longer have enough video. The problem is that we have too many videos."
BuzzFeed News spoke to several former detainees, prisoners, and human rights advocates who focus on the UAE. They said the widespread use of face recognition in Dubai is likely to lead to misuse and could do serious damage to privacy rights.
"This is good technology if it's used in the right way," said Khaled Ahmad, a computer engineer, prisoners' rights campaigner, and former detainee in the UAE. "But with the UAE government, they arrest people just for tweeting, for publishing on Facebook, just for speaking about freedom and human rights. It's good technology if it's used against criminals, but not if you use it to cover people's mouths."
The Oyoon program is being rolled out in cooperation with several UAE government ministries, including the State Security Agency, according to the Dubai police. In a sign of how seriously Dubai's leaders are taking the program, Dubai's Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum visited a local police station in a district where facial recognition–equipped cameras were already thought to be in place last October.
The police also sought programs to help with video analytics, extracting deleted data from computers, recognizing license plates, and breaking into cellphones, procurement records showed.
But the true power of video analytics lies in not any one of these functions, but in the profiles it enables law enforcement to build of individuals when many sources of data are put together.
Dubai police did not reply to repeated requests for comment on the Oyoon program by the time of publication.
Hikvision and Huawei declined to comment on the statements in this article.
A spokesperson for IBM said the company has "robust processes in place to ensure potential client engagements are consistent with our values, as well as US and local laws."
Facial recognition has been around for more than a decade. One of its earliest known uses for law enforcement was in Tampa, Florida, in 2001. The technology remains problematic and has faced questions about everything from its ability to distinguish between nonwhite faces to its overall accuracy, but it is now being widely used by law enforcement agencies to build profiles of individuals in new ways.
File storage costs have become significantly cheaper over the past few years, making it much easier for users to store video. And algorithms that adjust to compensate for real-world variations in people's appearances, as well as new technology that makes it easy to slice videos frame by frame, have made facial recognition and other biometric surveillance programs cheaper and more effective, said Os Keyes, a PhD student at the University of Washington who is researching the history of facial recognition.
One thing that's changed is the speed at which sophisticated computer programs quickly search and analyze thousands of hours of camera footage. A camera in a shopping mall, for instance, can capture many different angles of your face over time, enabling a computer to model the way your head looks from different angles and making it easier for police to spot you.
"What they've come up with is algorithms that, instead of comparing two photos of you, take a whole sequence of photos of you and use it to construct a 3D model of your head, which they can then rotate to the angle of a photo they already have," Keyes said. "If you're taking a video, you can just get 10 frames of a person and wait for one frame where they look up and don't have a baseball cap in the way."
And now video analytics programs can search footage for combinations of people's traits. An official from BriefCam, an Israeli firm that is owned by Japan's Canon and has a tech partnership with HP Enterprise, demonstrated this at the AI conference in Dubai, showing a screen with a search bar that pulled up dozens of women who had worn red dresses with midlength sleeves in a shopping mall.
"The main use case is security," the BriefCam official said, adding that BriefCam would be happy for the opportunity to work with the UAE security apparatus.
Stephanie Weagle, chief marketing officer for BriefCam, said in a statement that biometric technology has "significant public safety benefits" including identifying suspects and finding missing children. "The expectation is that technology designed for public safety is used in accordance with applicable laws and to uphold civil rights," she said.
China's Huawei displayed a data analysis platform labeled FusionInsight that could quickly comb through thousands of hours of footage for faces and license plates. A company official said the platform had the ability to blacklist individuals. When asked about this, Huawei declined to comment.
Microsoft displayed a video analytics platform that claims to detect the face, age, and emotional state of people seen on camera, as well as the size of crowds, though company officials did not refer to applications in law enforcement. Asked whether the platform is being used in the UAE, a spokesperson for Microsoft pointed BuzzFeed News to a blog post by the company's president calling for governments to regulate facial recognition technology.
To illustrate the prowess of Hikvision's technology, Wang, the company executive, showed a six-minute film shot in the style of a primetime cop drama. In the film, a team of Chinese police officers, whose voices had been dubbed in American-accented English, use the company's suite of products to track down a jewel thief wearing a black ski mask. The police eventually find the suspect using footage of a small black tattoo on his wrist, matching images of his license plate–less car, searching for people who frequently appeared near the jewelry shop in the weeks past, and directing cameras in public spaces to find him by using images of his face. The man later tries to hide from cameras by wearing a baseball cap, but it doesn't work.
"Add him to the criminal database and track him down," the lead police officer barks.
At the end of the film, Wang told the audience the surveillance technology, and the way it could work together, was all real — "not science fiction," he said.
"This is not a system that one manufacturer can build alone," he added. "I'm glad to be here today if users and partners are interested. We would like to be open and to cooperate."
Chinese companies like Hikvision, which have benefited from Chinese government programs promoting the development of homegrown artificial intelligence technologies and from being able to test their tech on the Chinese public, have become leading players in facial recognition. Hong Kong–based SenseTime, the world's most valuable AI startup, told BuzzFeed News it is setting up an office in Dubai — the company's first outside Asia. Discussions between Smart Dubai, the city's "smart city" authority, and SenseTime about implementation of its facial recognition products are progressing, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Smart Dubai said it met with SenseTime in Shanghai last year to identify possibilities for working together. Asked about the discussions, SenseTime said it could not disclose "commercially sensitive information."
Hong Kong–based SenseTime, the world's most valuable AI startup, told BuzzFeed News it is setting up an office in Dubai — the company's first outside Asia.
George Huang, head of SenseTime's international business group, said at the conference that mining data from social media could help provide information for public security purposes.
The data helps SenseTime and other AI companies around the world train algorithms to manage public safety, he said. Data like this, he added, is crucial for smart cities.
A spokesperson for SenseTime said the company is "committed to fair and responsible applications of AI technology. In addition to complying with local laws and regulations in the markets we operate in, we also have internal processes to safeguard our technology to ensure it is being used in a fair and responsible manner."
Beyond recognizing individuals, video analytics platforms have the ability to alert law enforcement authorities to gatherings of people in real time. IBM, Huawei, and other companies displayed platforms that could automatically measure both crowd sizes and characteristics — for example, flagging a certain article of clothing, whether someone was walking in a certain direction, or whether someone was lingering for too long. It's easy to imagine uses for this kind of technology outside policing — determining whether everyone on a dangerous construction site is wearing a hard hat, for instance, or automatically flagging an injured person who has keeled over. But video analytics platforms like these can also easily be used by security services to quickly crush protests and other peaceful gatherings. A representative for IBM at the conference was quick to tout the company's PowerAI Vision platform's utility for law enforcement, saying the company would like to sell it to police and security services in the UAE. A spokesperson for IBM noted the platform could not recognize individual faces, but only label "objects" in a video. Demonstrations of the product show labels on both objects and human beings.
"Watching the traffic of people, we can prevent crimes and terrorism."
Huang promoted SenseTime's crowd analysis software as key to managing the density of crowds. It can automatically count the number of people present and analyze the level of safety, he said, flagging "abnormal behavior," including too many people gathered at once. "Watching the traffic of people, we can prevent crimes and terrorism," he said.
"We can understand the time, the location, the method of the crime, the moving habits and area of activity of the suspect," he added. "That allows the city to invest more efficiently in fighting criminals."
A demo of SenseTime's product showed a crowd with color-coded circles that appeared around people's bodies, when they loitered too long, for instance, or when "chaos" happened, referring to disorder.
The extent to which Dubai's security services and law enforcement already use facial recognition cameras — as well as complementary tech like gait recognition, car recognition, and data analysis — is not known, though analysts said it is likely widely in use. Requirements published by Dubai's regulator for the security industry specify that private video surveillance systems must be connected to a centralized system called VideoGuard, which allows Dubai police system access.
"Every single conference center, every single hotel, every single road today has a camera. That is true of the UAE, it's true in the US, it's true in China and everywhere," Omar Al Olama, UAE minister of state for artificial intelligence, told a Gulf News reporter in May. "We have no ambition to do this for the sake of surveillance. We're going to do it if there is a way for us to become the safest city on earth."
Dubai police have purchased technology for license plate detection, which developed much earlier than facial recognition, for several years, according to procurement records. And as part of the Oyoon program, Dubai has placed facial recognition cameras in at least one city neighborhood called Al Muraqqabat. Located in eastern Dubai, it's a relatively dense residential area that's also home to shopping malls and cinemas. Industry analysts said it is likely that face recognition cameras and other biometric surveillance systems are already in wider use in the UAE, including in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but that authorities have not yet made it public.
AFP Contributor / AFP / Getty Images
A police officer walks through a security tunnel at a technology exhibition at the Dubai World Trade Centre, October 2017.
The UAE, with a population of about 9.5 million people, has among the highest rates of political prisoners per capita in the world, according to scholar Kristian Coates Ulrichsen. In the years since the Arab Spring uprisings swept across the Middle East, the UAE has invested in surveillance technology, which it has used to spy on both activists and dissenters within its own borders, as well as conduct espionage operations abroad. Reuters reported in January that the UAE retained US operatives to hack into the iPhones of hundreds of activists, political leaders, and suspected terrorists.
"They focus on preventative surveillance," said Joe Odell, a campaigner at the International Campaign for Freedom in the UAE. "It's about control to prevent street mobilizations through establishing a wide-reaching surveillance state, where they can nip anything in the bud before it even happens. They've spent millions of pounds on that."
Human rights activists say torture is common in the prison system. Several former UAE prisoners interviewed by BuzzFeed News, who had been jailed or detained over allegations ranging from leaking information to defaming the country, said they had faced abuses and torture in prison, including beatings, electric shocks, and sleep deprivation. They also said they had their eyes scanned, their fingerprints taken, and their devices confiscated — treatment that prisoners in countries including the US also face. Asked about these allegations, Dubai police said the issue was not within their jurisdiction.
Ahmad, the Palestinian computer engineer, did technical support for a firm controlled by a senior Emirati government official before being detained without explanation in Abu Dhabi for months. He said he was blindfolded and taken to a secret prison whose location he still does not know. During interrogations about his work — police seemed to believe he had access to sensitive information — security agents put him in an electric chair, turned it on for 20 seconds at a time, and threw cold water on his face to revive him when he passed out from the pain.
Ahmad said one of the first things the police did was confiscate his cellphone and computer. They demanded the passwords, and he gave them incorrect ones, hoping to stall for time. His interrogators later told him they had broken into the devices anyway. He believed them, he said — one day an officer began joking with him about a woman friend whose pictures were on his phone. She was sexy, the officer said.
Five months after he was first detained, Ahmad was blindfolded and taken by car back to the airport in Abu Dhabi. He was deported to Lebanon without any explanation as to why he was detained in the first place. The police even apologized and told him he was innocent, Ahmad said.
"They've imprisoned all those people or intimidated and harassed them into keeping quiet."
Ahmad eventually moved to Sweden, where he now lives; after he became a Swedish citizen, he began writing about his ordeal in prison. His former employer sent him a letter, which he shared with BuzzFeed News, stating that he could be prosecuted under the UAE's cybercrime law for allegedly stealing confidential information from the company. Though he now lives abroad and says he has nothing to hide, the idea that he's being surveilled through his devices is something he thinks about all the time.
Last year, Ahmed Mansoor, who is perhaps the country's best known human rights activist, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined about $270,000 over posts he made on Facebook and Twitter that a court found had damaged the UAE's reputation abroad as well as its "social harmony and unity." People in the UAE can be arrested under the country's cybercrime law, which bans defamatory statements on social media.
Mansoor, who had called attention to human rights abuses throughout the Middle East on his Twitter account, had been under heavy surveillance by his government and had been targeted with spyware on his devices.
"Ahmed was very open about what he did and why he did it, but he was very conscious of being under surveillance. He would meet people in hotel lobbies, and he'd leave his phone at home," said Nicholas McGeehan, a researcher who formerly worked for Human Rights Watch in the region. "He assumed he'd be under surveillance anyway. You couldn't make a phone call, couldn't send an email — everything was funneled through one or two interlocutors who were willing to take a chance."
"They've imprisoned all those people or intimidated and harassed them into keeping quiet," he added.
Controls on social media and the perception that authorities may be spying on cellphones has already chilled discourse, say free speech advocates and former UAE prisoners. Rights groups said they worried the growing presence of surveillance technology in physical spaces could make things even harder.
"The government has shown a willingness and a desire to go after peaceful opposition," said Citizen Lab's Marczak, who has worked with Mansoor. "If they have powerful tools to track your movements outside your house, and then they have spyware to hack the devices inside your house, then there's pretty much nowhere that you're not being watched." ●
May. 29, 2019, at 14:37 PM
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's name was misspelled in an earlier version of this post.
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Every business faces a few common challenges. They need to stay profitable, they need to stay popular, and they need to innovate. You cannot do one without doing the others, either. You need the volume of sales in order to gain the profits, you need to innovate to keep them up to date and current, and you need the profits to innovate. If you are already struggling with your sales and your bottom line, however, this cycle stops.
Although, rather than give up, you must restructure and reorganize.
Do More with Your Data: There is a lot of potential and money to be found with data. On the grand scale, this potential is commonly referred to as Big Data, and it has the potential to completely change life as we know it.
For your business, you have the opportunity to streamline production, make smarter decisions about key areas of your business, like how a product is made, what materials you use, or what supplier you partner with.
If your operations exist in one building, then simply using management systems is a great place to start. If you want to take it one step further, of course, migrating your data to the cloud is a great step to take.
If your business is large and spans over multiple locations, however, you will have to centralize your data for effective production. If you don't, it will take too long to get production going, and that time is money and customers lost. What you want is to give your production team the ability to update your inventory on what they have on hand in real time.
This way your inventory team can contact one of their baling wire manufacturers to resupply your production team's stock before they run out. Streamline workflow this way, by using data more effectively, and you will save money by keeping the ball rolling.
Invest in Your Employees: Another way you can reorganize and improve your company is to invest in your employees.
If you don't invest in their future and their potential, then you cannot all grow together, and your employees may have low morale. An example of how investing in your employees can better your whole operation would be if you were to sponsor one employee to go to a workshop event in your industry.
When they come back, have them devise their own workshop so that all of your employees can benefit, learn, and grow. Innovation will come from their hard work and great thinking, after all, and it is up to you to give them the tools they need to succeed. An added bonus is that this is also a great way to bolster employee loyalty so that you can benefit from your efforts in the long run.
When your company is failing, you must change. Start first by doing more with your data so that you can increase production while decreasing costs, and then work on innovating. Help your employees learn and better themselves, so that they can have the knowledge and tools they need to help your company innovate in the right direction.


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The DBS Battery That Lets You Have It All.
A 25 years battery life* with no automatic shut off
Healthcare Professionals > Neurological Surgery > DBS Battery
At Boston Scientific, we're proud of the battery we developed that powers our DBS System, and we stand behind it 100%. Let's set the record straight about our battery.
The DBS Battery That Lets You Have It All
No planned obsolescence the rechargeable vercise dbs system has a 25 year battery life* with no automatic shut off.
Gives your physician programming options for managing Parkinson's disease as it progresses.
Battery charging as little as once a month1
With a prolonged battery life, patients are less likely to endure the worry or risks associated with battery replacement surgery.
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The infection rate for patients undergoing battery replacement surgery is three times higher when compared to patients undergoing a primary procedure.4
At standard settings, the Vercise Genus™ DBS typically has to be charged once a month1, but many people prefer to make it a routine to change for an hour a week while watching TV or relaxing.
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Our Battery Comes With a 15-Year Warranty5
The Vercise Genus DBS battery is warranted for 15 years5. Some batteries lose strength over time and require more frequent charging. But the Vercise Genus DBS battery contains a proprietary lithium ion Zero Volt™ technology that keeps the battery going strong. In fact, after 15 years of use, our battery is still going strong-operating at 90% of its capacity. That's why we can afford to give it such a powerful warranty.
Read our warranty
*The battery life is dependent on the stimulation settings and conditions.
1. Yu et al. (2013). "Characterizing Rechargeable IPG Charge Cycle Time in DBS." NANS 2013 Poster.
2. Peterson et al. (2010). "Does Rechargeable Neurostimulator Battery Capacity Change after Implant?" NANS 2010 Poster.
3. Medtronic Inc. et al. (2014, Feb 13). Getting a Replacement – DBS Therapy. Retrieved from http://www.medtronic.com/patients/parkinsons-disease/ living-with/replacement
4. Pepper et al. (2013). "The Risk of Hardware Infection in Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery Is Greater at Impulse Generator Replacement than at the Primary Procedure." Stereotact Funct Neurosurg. 91: 56-65.
5. Boston Scientific warrants to the patient who receives a Vercise™ Gevia Implantable Pulse Generator (referred to as the Stimulator) that the Stimulator will be free from defects in workmanship and materials for a period of fifteen (15) years from the date of surgical implant of the Stimulator. This warranty applies only to the patient who has the Stimulator implanted and no other person or entity. This warranty does not apply to the leads, extensions, or surgical accessories used with the Stimulator.
6. Based on nominal DBS settings of 3mA, 130 Hz, 60μs. Data on file.
All cited trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Products shown for INFORMATION purposes only and may not be approved or for sale in certain countries. Please check availability with your local sales representative or customer service.
CAUTION: The law restricts these devices to sale by or on the order of a physician. Indications, contraindications, warnings and instructions for use can be found in the product labeling supplied with each device.
Information for use only in countries with applicable health authority registrations. Material not intended for use in France.
Product available in the European Economic Area (EEA) only. Please check availability with your local sales representative or customer service. Results from case studies are not necessarily predictive of results in other cases. Results in other cases may vary.
NM-814505-AB (c) Copyright Boston Scientific or its affiliates. All right reserved.
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Boy born in 2009 adopted to the USA using Adoption Advocates International (WA, USA) via Forum for Street Children (Dire Dawa) and Layla House. Child was left at Dil Chora Hospital in Dire Dawa.
Additional information about the child Chlld's exact birthdate is unknown. He was born in late 2008 or early 2009. Investigation revealed a witness saying she saw his mother and a friend at Dil Chora hospital where they left the baby before giving the name of the mother.


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Indonesia Asks If Death Penalty Can Curb Terrorism
Twelve years after the deadly Bali terror bombing, whose suspects were executed, Indonesia struggles with the implications and efficacity of capital punishment.
Anti-death penalty protest in Jakarta
Dandi Zulkarnain/Xinhua/ZUMA
SourcesSocietyKBRIndonesiaCountries
Rebecca Henschke
JAKARTA — October 12 marked the 12th anniversary of the Bali Bombings in Kuta that killed more than 200 people. It came just on the heels of the World Day Against the Death Penalty.
The men found guilty of carrying out the Bali bombings were executed. Compared to China, Indonesian judges rarely hand out the death penalty, but there has been an increase in the number of executions in recent years, raising debate in the country about whether killing terrorists is the best way to stop violence.
During a political play staged to mark World Day Against the Death Penalty, in the parking lot of the Jakarta art and cultural center Taman Ismail Mazuki, three men are forced by armed guards to kneel in front of the audience. "Why must we die?" they cry out, before having black hoods placed over their heads. The guards then march forward, turn and pretend to shoot the men dead.
The actors then turn to the crowd and shout, "Abolish the death penalty!"
"For us, the death penalty is a failure of justice, the death penalty is against the constitution, against the fundamental right to life," says Usman Hamid, former head of the leading rights group KONTRAS, which organized this event. "As long as the judicial system remains corrupt and open to abuse in Indonesia, it'll be very difficult for us to make sure that no mistakes or human errors are made in implementing the death penalty."
They staged the play largely to protest the controversial execution of three Catholic men in 2006 who were convicted of inciting mass violence between Christians and Muslim groups in central Sulawesi. Their executions sparked riots in east Indonesia, with demonstrators saying that the men were scapegoats and that the evidence against them was highly questionable.
More and more executions
"While I believe that those three men were somehow involved in the killings, I am sure that there was someone more powerful behind what took place in Central Sulawesi," says Mugiyanto, who heads a group called the Association of the Families of the Disappeared.
"They were scapegoats," he says. "There is still a very large possibility, with the Indonesian system, that the wrong verdict will be handed out."
Indonesia has had the death penalty since its independence in the 1940s, though judges have rarely used it — and when they did it was only in cases of murder with intent or drug trafficking.
But in recent years the types of crimes punishable by death have expanded to include terrorism and corruption in time of economic crisis. This has meant a dramatic increase in the number of executions.
At the Jakarta demonstration, an activist reads out a letter from Australian Brian Deegan, whose son died in the 2003 Bali attack. "The killing of those men accused of the bombing will not bring back my son or heal the pain in my heart," he wrote.
Support for the ultimate punishment
But many Indonesians disagree with Usman Hamid and the anti-death penalty movement. For example, watching the demonstration from afar is a teenage couple on a date.
"The punishment should fit the crime," one says. "I totally think that the people who did the bombs in Bali should get the death penalty. They killed loads of people."
Next to them are two poor Bajaj drivers for whom the activists' dramatic performance has changed nothing.
"Drug traffickers are responsible for destroying many young lives, the future generation," one says. "So there must be a strong punishment for them. The death penalty must be handed out."
Political support for the death penalty also remains strong. With no political will, the campaign to have it abolished faces an uphill battle.
Liz Garrigan
A pan-Asian news operation with correspondents across the region, KBR Asia Calling publishes TV, radio, and digital content in multiple languages.
This Happened—January 26: Happy Birthday To Hockey's Great One
This Happened USAWORLDCRUNCHSourcesCountries
On this day in 1961, Wayne Gretzky was born.
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How did Wayne Gretzky start playing hockey?
Growing up in Brantford, Ontario, Gretzky practiced his skills on a backyard rink and played junior hockey. Though he was small in stature, Gretzky's intelligence, stamina, and knowledge of the game would lead him to greatness.
How many Stanley Cups has Wayne Gretzky won?
Gretzy has won 4 Stanley Cups playing for the Edmonton Oilers. Nicknamed "The Great One", he has been voted the greatest hockey player ever in a survey of hockey writers, former players, general managers and coaches.
"Here, He Wasn't Hiding" — How Mob Boss Messina Denaro Defied His Fugitive Status
Modi's Fight Against "Fake News" Looks A Whole Lot Like Censorship
sweden can't join nato
How Blocking Sweden's NATO Bid Plays Right Into Erdogan's Election Campaign
Why More Countries Are Banning Foreigners From Buying Real Estate


Toasting Dr. Ehinger: Krista (far right) with her Ph.D. advisor, Ruth (second from left), and her family.
Celebrating Dr. Raj: Ruth (left) with her academic first-born, Dr. Alvin Raj (right). Check out Alvin's custom DoG t-shirt!
An academic family portrait: Nathaniel (center) with his Ph.D. advisor, Ted (left), and committee member, Ruth (right).


LSC has been manufacturing lighting control consoles for just on 30 years. Continuing on with this tradition, we are pleased to present our latest offering LSC Clarity – a powerful PC & Mac based lighting and media control package.
Promising to excite even the most experienced user, LSC Clarity is truly feature packed and offers seamless integrated control of any type of light on a stage be they PAR cans, LEDs, moving fixtures, colour scrollers, LED matrix walls and even Media Servers all from the one intuitive user interface.
Two types of Wing available for for direct hardware control.


text:
Q: Change http requests to https using .htaccess file in Zend framework 2.0 I have an application written in Zend Framework 2.0. The ssl certificate has been configured in the production site. HTTPS requests made by the user is fine. I want to change all the HTTP requests made by the users to HTTPS.
I used the code written below in my .htaccess file inside public folder (in IIS server).
 RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
    RewriteRule ^.*$ index.php [NC,L]

    RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
    RewriteRule ^.*$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]

But, the problem is Let I type the URL http://carecenter.helptocare.com. It's changing to https://carecenter.helptocare.com/carecenter/public/index.php.

A: You could simply google it. Here's a quick example:
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}

Found here

A: You seem to have apache server, not IIS, this will not work for IIS. The order of rules are important here:
RewriteEngine On

RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !=on
RewriteRule ^ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [R,L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteRule ^ /index.php [L]


text:
import re

from streamlink.plugin import Plugin
from streamlink.plugin.api import http

_url_re = re.compile(r"http(s)?://(www\.)?tv(3|6|8|10)\.se")
_embed_re = re.compile(r'<iframe class="iframe-player" src="([^"]+)">')

class ViasatEmbed(Plugin):
    @classmethod
    def can_handle_url(self, url):
        return _url_re.match(url)

    def _get_streams(self):
        res = http.get(self.url)

        match = _embed_re.search(res.text)
        if match:
            url = match.group(1)
            return self.session.streams(url)

__plugin__ = ViasatEmbed


text:
The Utility Players Present: National Hangover Day
For those of you still able to move the day after St. Patrick's Day, we invite you to continue drinking and laughing with us for another hilarious episode of improv comedy with The Utility Players. What's your go-to hangover cure? What's the last thing you remember from last night? And how many more times will you continue to do this to yourself?
Reno-Tahoe's #1 live and unscripted comedy show, The Utility Players, returns to the stage for their 13th Season on March 4th, 2017. Season 13 runs every Saturday night through May 27th inside Jester's Theater at Sands Regency.
Created and hosted by Jessica The Jester Levity, The Utility Players have been playing together since 2009; every improv show is a unique co-creation between The Utility Players and their audience. Tickets for their regular season shows are available at the Sands Regency Box Office, or online at www.sandsregency.com.
This show features 90 minutes of hard-hitting, side-splitting, classic short-form improv comedy in the style of 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' that will keep audiences entertained all night.
See it once, or see it every week, this show is always fresh, always funny, and guaranteed to hit the spot. Learn more at www.utilityplayerscomedy.com
Sands Regency » Events » Entertainment » The Utility Players Present: National Hangover Day


Trammell Crow Residential announced plans to build a luxury apartment project near American Airlines Center. The high-rise would include 365 apartment units within a 12-story residential tower and a five-story building.
The two-building property, called The Alexan, will also include a 5,000-square-foot restaurant on the ground floor of the tower, according to the Dallas Business Journal. The Dallas-based developer also plans to build a 616-parking-space underground garage for residents.
The architect of the luxury project, Good Fulton & Farrell, projected a waterfall-inspired property. "We'll have a flowing waterfall behind the sign and incorporate it into our pool area and courtyards," the Dallas publication quoted Steve Bancroft, senior managing director of Trammell Crow Residential, as saying.
TCR plans call for a completion date by June 2015, with the first apartments scheduled to be ready in the third quarter of 2014. Monthly rents will start at $1,300 and will reach to more than $4,500 for a penthouse.
Back in November, TCR also announced it would build a 200-unit apartment community in Oak Cliff, on the banks of the Trinity River. The project is expected to break ground in February 2013 and is reported to cost about $19 million. Read more about the four-story apartment project in Multi-Housing News.
According to a Marcus & Millichap report on the multifamily market in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, 9,600 of the 15,000 units under construction list a 2013 delivery date, which will stem vacancy reductions this year, and the pipeline has grown to include roughly 35,000 planned and proposed apartments. Moreover, in 2012, growth in asking rents reached 3.4 percent, pushing the average throughout the Metroplex to $823 per month, as illustrated in the chart at left.
Photo of the Alexan Deer Park Apartments property, developed by Trammell Crow Residential in Deer Park, Texas.
Charts courtesy of Marcus & Millichap Research Services.


text:
class TwitterBirdMigrationGenerator < Rails::Generator::Base
  def manifest
    record do |m|
      m.migration_template 'migration.rb', 'db/migrate', :migration_file_name => "twitter_bird_migration"
    end
  end
end


Bloch S0514 Trinity dance/jazz sneaker is extremely lightweight with flexible non-making outsole. It also had a Tri-pod front sole with stick or spin pods for excellent levels of floor control and low profile heel for streamline look aimed at intermediate/advanced dancers with limited inbuilt arch support. Available in Black and White. Full size range from Bloch 4 – Bloch 14 includes half size. Designed in Australia.
Suggested fit for Girls for Bloch S0514G: Order same as your regular USA street shoe size.
Suggested fit for Ladies for Bloch S0514L: Order 1 to 1-1/2 sizes larger than your regular USA street shoe size.
Suggested fit for Men for Bloch S0514M: Order 3 sizes larger than your regular USA street shoe size.


The holidays are almost here, which means you'll likely be hosting a dinner party or going to a dinner party. On Sunday, Paul Kalemkiarian, the president of the Wine of the Month Club, appeared on KCAL9 News to discuss the latest in the wine industry. Amy Johnson reports.


When Arthur Pepper discovers a mysterious charm bracelet in his late wife's wardrobe, he sets off on a journey to discover, charm by charm, her secret life before they met. Having been married for over 40 years, 69-year-old Arthur Pepper is mourning the loss of his wife. On the anniversary of h er death, he finally musters the courage to go through her possessions, and happens upon a charm bracelet that he has never seen before. What follows is a surprising adventure that takes Arthur from London to Paris and India in an epic quest to find out the truth about his wife's secret life before they met, a journey that leads him to find healing, self-discovery, and love in the most unexpected of places.
Do you ever read a book and think this is what I wanted so and so to be, well this was what I wanted from the 100 year old man who climbed out the window. We meet Arthur, a grieving husband who is nearing the first anniversary of his wifes passing, and has decided maybe by clearing her belongings will gain a sense of closure. Arthur did not expect to find a golden charm bracelet, something so unlike his wife, and even more hidden away from him.
What Arthur decides to do next shocks not only his friends, but himself - he decides to seek answers. What do these charms mean? Why are they hidden away. We follow Arthur on adventure across the globe and even coming face to face with tigers as he seeks the answers he longs for.
The Curious Charms Of Arthur Pepper is not only a wonderfully funny read, but heart melting too. Arthur is a wonderful character, just the right amount of set in his ways, and the right amount of wanting answers. The characters we meet on the journey are colourful and eclectic, which makes for a wonderful read. This book is packed with adventure, romance and laugh out loud situations but most of all its packed with real heart warming family love.
It was everything I wanted it to be and more - it melted my heart, it made me cry and created a soft spot in my heart for Arthur. If you want something that's light enough for a holiday read but deep enough that leaves you thinking about it long after you have finished then please please pick this up.


text:
module Conrategalleries
  class PhotoUploader < CarrierWave::Uploader::Base
    include CarrierWave::RMagick

    #include Sprockets::Helpers::RailsHelper
    #include Sprockets::Helpers::IsolatedHelper

    storage :file

    process :resize_to_limit => [1024, 1024]
    process :fix_exif_rotation
    #process :convert => 'jpg'

    def store_dir
      "uploads/#{model.class.to_s.underscore}/#{mounted_as}/#{model.id}"
    end

    def extension_white_list
      %w(jpg jpeg gif png)
    end

    version :thumbnail do
      process :resize_to_fill => [200, 200]
    end

    def fix_exif_rotation
      manipulate! do |img|
        img.auto_orient!
        img = yield(img) if block_given?
        img
      end
    end
  end
end


Design Home is a leading Canadian sales agency, founded in 1998 by Jay Djang and Sam Rossi. The company grew out of a demand to supply the Canadian giftware industry attractive & marketable products from leading US suppliers.
While many sales agencies and distributors focus specifically on gift or stationery products, Design Home Gift & Paper represents a complete blend of coordinated gift, housewares, furniture, fashion accessories, home & garden, personal care, trend & lifestyle and stationery products, to include 26 brands and 90,000 SKU's. Our product lines are represented nationally through a divisionalized sales force of 30 professionals, supported by an administrative, and sales & marketing management infrastructure. Design Home services 6000 mid. to better independent retailers & regional/national chains, in all categories of trade from general gift, museum, gallery, garden centre, florist, hospital gift, stationery, book, furniture, home decor to lifestyle accounts. Our high-profile vendors include: Two's Company, an award winning, industry leader, dedicated to innovation and trendsetting in the giftware industry; TAG, one of the most highly acclaimed housewares, gift & home décor manufacturers; Mud Pie, an award-winning manufacturer of innovatively-designed and affordably priced gifts, with three divisions: Home, Kids & Women, producing the #1 Baby Gift line in the industry; C.R. Gibson, the #1 Social Stationery line in the marketplace; Thymes, the leading personal care and home fragrance line in the US specialty market; and K&K Interiors, an award winning, industry leading supplier of home decorative accessories & jewelry.
Design Home maintains three permanent Toronto showrooms, located at the Front Entrance of the International Centre, Hall 1, where the Toronto Gift Fair is exhibited. This initiative allows the company to capitalize & expand its visibility to all corners of our industry. No other competitive sales agency or multi-lined distributor maintains a permanent showroom with Design Home's size & high profile locale right on the Toronto Gift Fair premises! Design Home is the second largest exhibitor out of nearly 900 companies, at the Toronto Gift Fair.
In additional to traditional print advertising positioned in leading industry publications & direct-mail marketing initiatives, Design Home also reaches it's retail base through via e-marketing. This ensures that all seasonal or show incentives along with the introduction of new product lines & line extensions, are communicated to retailers, in a fast and efficient manner. Additionally, retailers can also access our manufacturers' catalogues and place orders, through our online e-commerce site.
Design Home takes pride in its professional merchandising & display standards. The company has won the following awards, to include: Best Overall Exhibitor for merchandising & design (Vancouver), Best Booth Prize (Alberta) and Honourable Mention (Toronto).


Material: ABS plastic, Size: Length: 13.5cm/5.3inch, Width: 13.5cm/5.3inch, Height: 12cm/4.7inch.
Powered by: 2 AA batteries installed at the bottom of money bank, you can also take out your coin just need open the lid at the bottom of money bank.
Put coin in the trolley, touch your coin gently or press the red button, the mouse will push the car around the track with music, and the cat is trying to catch the mouse until the mouse delivers the coin into box, very interesting and happy for your children to save money.
Perfect novelty cute cat and mouse coin toy bank, watch the mouse run away with the coin, a perfect gift saving pocket money for the kids.
1) This is the most adorable bank, a funny and cool way to save your money.
2) A great gift for anyone who likes the coin banks but wanted something a bit different, very adorable lots of enjoyment for the babies and kids.


text:
Q: Sobolev chain rule on non-compact manifolds Let $(M,g)$ be a non-compact Riemannian manifold (not of bounded geometry).
Let $f:\mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$ be $C^1$ with $f'$ bounded and $f(0)=0$. Is the Sobolev chain rule valid for functions $u \in H^1(M)$:
$$\nabla_g f(u) = f'(u)\nabla_g u \quad\in L^2(M)?$$
Seems to me true by density of smooth functions but I wonder if I have missed anything.

A: Since $f'$ is bounded, it is clear that $\nabla_gf(u)$ is in $L^2$ if $\nabla_gu$ is.
It just remains to check that your formula indeed gives the weak gradient of $f(u)$.
Weak derivatives on manifolds are often define on the coordinate charts (it suffices to consider test functions supported in a single chart), and it does not matter for such calculations whether $M$ is compact or not.
It sounds like you already know the result is true on compact manifolds, and the noncompact case is not different.


We are looking for our next KPBSD Employee! Are you someone who will do what it takes to help our students find success?
After applying, a school site administrator or a human resources staff member will contact you directly if you are selected for an interview.
Please keep in mind that most school sites receive a large number of applications.
After the interview process, principals will recommend their chosen candidate to human resources for hire.
Human resources will complete a full credential and background check to confirm candidate eligibility.
After receiving approval from human resources the site administrator will call and offer the position to the candidate. If the candidate accepts, the other interviewed candidates will be notified by the site administrator that they did not receive the position.
All other candidates who were not interviewed will be notified by email that they were not selected for the position.
Once you have accepted the position, you will receive an email from human resources with all of the documents you will need to complete prior to starting. These forms will be attached in the email in a memo form. Click on each form link in order to print and complete the document. If you do not have access to a printer you can make arrangements with human resources to pick up or be mailed a hire packet to complete.
Reflection questions, "Are you a fit for KPBSD?"


One of the most dreaded sounds a homowner can hear is the drip from a leaky roof. This is usually a sign that the roof has a problem, and that means spending money. However, even the most courageous and frugal do-it-yourself enthusiast will balk when faced with roof repair, and with good reason. It can be hard for a non-professional to diagnose the problem. Climbing onto a roof and trying to navigate a pitched surface can be both dangerous and difficult for amateurs, and the average homeowner rarely has the needed equipment. For most people, the dreaded drip means looking for a reliable roofer and luckily, when searching for professional roof repair Rochester NY homeowners have excellent choices.
Choosing a contractor who will provide quality work at a fair price can seem like a daunting job for the average person, but there are some basic guidelines which make it simpler. As with all professionals, roofing companies vary, so it is wise to call several. When speaking on the phone to the roof repair Rochester NY, customers should try to determine whether the representative seems knowledgeable, professional, and helpful. If you have an emergency, see how quickly they are willing to respond and if they can provide emergency contact information. In non emergencies, take the time to schedule visits with the top two or three. Be alert to whether they have any scheduling problems and see if they arrive promptly.
A roofing company should be willing to look at your roof and diagnose the problem pretty quickly. When dealing with the company offering roof repair Rochester NY homeowners should note whether they are offered a repair or a whole new roof. Immediately suggesting a new roof could be legitimate, but could also be an aggressive sales technique. If in doubt, check with another company before deciding. Before contracting with a rooofer for any service, find out how long they have been in business, what type of experience they have, and what licenses they hold. Ask for references and, if possible, talk to customers who have used their services. Check with the local Better Business Bureau to see what their record is.


Apple reportedly will release its iOS 7 update at 6pm UK time, so you can stop frantically checking for the download.
That's according to Redmond Pie, which has put together a handy table detailing when iOS 7 will be released across the globe, revealing that the update will arrive in the UK at 6pm BST, despite previous speculation that the software might available from midnight.
However, it's worth noting that Apple has yet to confirm iOS 7 rollout times, but given that iOS 6 arrived in the UK at 6pm last year we've little reason not to believe the rumours. Even so, we've put the question to Apple and will update this if we receive a response.
So, if you can wait until 6pm without smashing your Apple device in frustration, here's how to download it once it is available. First, of course, back up your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to iTunes or iCloud, and from there go to Settings > General > Software update. Once the update has downloaded and installed, you'll be offered the option to sign into iCloud, or to set up as a new device. We'd advise avoiding the latter option.
Be warned however, as if you're planning to try to grab the software as soon as the update goes live, it's unlikely to be as simple as a 10 minute install over the air. Last year, it took a member of our team three hours to install Apple's then latest iOS update - encountering lost data, an iPhone that wouldn't switch on and a severe loss of temper.
If you're not sure whether your device will support iOS 7, Apple has confirmed that it will be compatible with the iPhone 4 and above, iPad 2 and above, the iPad Mini and the fifth generation iPod Touch.


Sweet Dreams Desserts is a specialty cake boutique located in Tampa, Florida. All our pastries: cakes, cheesecakes, cookies and pies are baked fresh from scratch with the finest quality ingredients. We customize the cake or dessert of your dreams… for Birthday Parties to Freedom Parties, Weddings or Corporate Gifts. From cookie baskets, to cupcake bouquets, a single Red Velvet cake or a dessert bar, with over 200 desserts to choose from we're sure to meet your needs.
Delivery is FREE within Tampa Bay and next day nationwide shipping starts at just $29.95!