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Story : Malaysia Hartalega Company & Founder Kuan Kam Hon – USD 5.2 Billion Net Worth & Share Price Could Reach RM24.66
By thecoverage
Who Is The Owner of Hartalega ?
Kuan founded Hartalega Holdings in the early 1980s and controls 49.3% of the company. Hartalega plans to increase its production capacity from 22 billion to 42 billion gloves a year by 2020
Kuan Kam Hon was a high school drop-out who began his career in building and construction in 1969.
He worked at his father's company building high-end homes around Kuala Lumpur.
He set off on his own in 1978 and started Timol Weaving, a manufacturing business that made woven labels and badges.
Founded in 1981, Hartalega Holdings is the world's largest and fastest maker of nitrile gloves, which it exports to 40 countries.
He is now a mentor and spokesman, leaving operations to his two sons. He shares his wealth with his brother Kuan Kam Peng.
Kuan Kam Hon saw the need for rubber gloves during the early years of the AIDs epidemic.
At the time, health-care workers and others were increasingly using the gloves to protect themselves against the virus and other infectious diseases. So Kuan turned his stagnating woven-label and badge manufacturing plant into a maker of latex gloves.
The decision has made Kuan, 66, a billionaire. His Kuala Lumpur-based company, Hartalega Holdings Bhd., has soared 56 per cent this year, reaching an all-time high Wednesday. Kuan and his family own 55 per cent of the company. He has never appeared on an international wealth ranking.
"He is very involved in the installation and design of equipment, in the day-to-day production," said Ang Kok Heng, Kuala Lumpur-based chief investment officer at Phillip Capital Management Sdn., who has known Kuan since Hartalega's initial public offering in 2008.
"He is the person who is everywhere in the factory."
Hartalega : Malaysian Kuan Kam Hon Becomes Billionaire Making 45,000 Gloves An Hour
Hartalega—the company's name is a combination of two Malay words that mean "relief assets"—is now the world's biggest synthetic-glove maker, and one of its most efficient. A robotic system that mimics the human hand motion of stripping gloves off molds has helped it reduce costs and make its production lines some of the fastest in the industry, churning out as many as 45,000 gloves an hour, according to the company.
Hartalega : 'Higher Margins'
Hartalega's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation margin, was almost 34 per cent in the fourth quarter of its financial year ended March 31, about double its competitors', including Malaysia-based Top Glove Corp. Bhd.
READ ALSO Story : Malaysia Supermax Corp Company & Founder Stanley Thai Kim Sim – USD 1.1 Billion Net Worth & Share Price Could Reach RM24.19
"He enjoys higher margins because of low raw material costs, low usage of materials, higher productivity and lower labor requirement," said Ang, who helps manage US$428 million (RM1.4 billion) at Phillip Capital, including investments in Hartalega. "They can produce more gloves per line, which other glove companies cannot do."
Hartalega Has Six Plants That Can Produce 13.6 Billion Gloves A Year
Hartalega has six plants that can produce 13.6 billion gloves a year, according to company reports, and is spending as much as RM1.9 billion to build a manufacturing complex with 72 production lines by 2021. The new lines will produce an additional 28.5 billion gloves a year, the company said.
Hartalega Will Produce An Additional 28.5 Billion Gloves A Year
Kuan started working in 1969 at his father's property development company, Kuan Yen & Sons, building high-end homes in Kuala Lumpur and its suburbs. In 1978, he made his foray into manufacturing by setting up Timol Weaving Sdn., a maker of woven labels and badges. He decided to venture into rubber glove manufacturing when the recession in the 1980s "coincided with the end of the building and weaving businesses," his son, Mun Leong, said in the e-mail.
Hartalega Invested In Nitrile Gloves
In 2002, Hartalega invested in the research and development of thin nitrile gloves that can be used by health-care professionals and patients allergic to rubber protein.
"At the time, nitrile gloves were chiefly used in industrial applications and not in the medical sector due to their heavy weight and thickness, which was a hindrance for medical practitioners in the examination of patients," said the billionaire's 37-year-old son, Kuan Mun Leong, who is managing director of Hartalega. "Nitrile gloves are a necessity as there are people who are allergic to rubber protein."
Kuan introduced the world's first 4.7-gram nitrile glove that bore the elasticity and softness of natural rubber, without the protein allergy risk. The lightest nitrile glove that Hartalega currently produces weighs 3.2 grams, said its managing director.
Kuan Kam Hon Net Worth
Kuan has a net worth of at least US$ 5.2 billion, based on the value of Hartalega shares and warrants held by him and his family, as well dividend income since 2008, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The Kuan family declined to comment on their wealth.
READ ALSO Mukesh Ambani vs Anil Ambani : Why Is Mukesh Ambani USD 82.2 Bilion Richer Than Anil Ambani?
"We would prefer not to speculate on this," the billionaire's son, Mun Leong, said in an e-mail to Bloomberg News.
The patriarch owns his shares through holding companies Hartalega Industries Sdn. and Budi Tenggara Sdn., according to the company's latest annual report. His two sons also directly own shares in the glove maker.
Handing Over To His Sons : Kuan Mun Leong & Kuan Mun Keng
Kuan stepped down as managing director in November while remaining executive chairman, paving the way for his son, Mun Leong, to helm the company. The younger Kuan, who holds a mechanical engineering degree and an MBA, joined Hartalega's engineering department in 2001, according to the company's annual report. The patriarch's older son, Kuan Mun Keng, 38, a certified practicing accountant, is executive director at the company and oversees sales and marketing as well as corporate finance.
"Now, he is slowly handing over to his sons," Phillip Capital's Ang said.
Kuan Kam Hon @ Kwan Kam Onn was appointed as Executive Chairman and Managing Director on 7 May 2007. He stepped down as Managing Director on 16 November 2012, and continues to play an integral role in the Group as Executive Chairman. Kuan Kam Hon is primarily responsible for the overall business, strategic planning and entire operations of the Group, including research and development.
Hartalega 3rd Most Valuable Company In Malaysia – RM 70.27 Billion Market Capitalisation
Third-most valuable company on the local exchange with a market capitalisation of RM70.27 billion, ahead of Public Bank Bhd at RM64.29 billion, but slightly behind Top Glove valued at RM72.67 billion.
Source : The Malaysian Reserve
Hartalega Target Price : RM 24.20
Meanwhile, CGS-CIMB Research analyst Walter Aw raised the glove maker's target price to RM24.30 (from RM20), pegged to an unchanged 41 times calendar year of 2021 P/E (1SD) above its five-year mean.
"Backed by its industry-leading margins, we think Hartalega will continue to benefit from the current favourable operating environment for glove makers, as a vaccine for Covid-19 may be some time away," he said.
Hartelega Earnings Assumption For FY21-FY23F By 50% to 120%
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Public Investment Bank Bhd analyst Chua Siu Li said the research house raised its earnings assumption for FY21-FY23F by 50% to 120% to account for the higher average selling price (ASP) and subsequently raised target price to RM21.70 as well as maintained a 'neutral' call on the sector.
"Hartalega will be raising its ASP by 30% q-o-q in 2QFY21 and 3QFY21. With that, we adjust our earnings forecast for FY21-FY22F by 51%-120% to account for the ASP hike in the coming months.
"We also highlight that the nitrile butadiene prices are expected to trend higher given the tight supply, however, we believe the increase in cost can be sufficiently covered by the rise in ASP," said the analyst.
Besides, Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd also raised its target price to RM24.66 (from RM22.30) based on an unchanged 43 times CY21E revised earnings per share as it reiterates 'outperform' on Hartalega.
Its analyst Raymond Choo Ping Khoon raised Hartalega's FY21E/FY22E net profit by 10% or 11% after imputing higher ASP.
"We like Hartalega for its solid management, constantly evolving via innovative products development, and its booming nitrile gloves segment," Choo noted.
Hartalega RM 219.72 Million Revenue – 134% Jump In Net Profit
To recap, Hartalega reported a 134% jump in net profit in the first quarter result ended June 30, 2020 (1QFY21) to RM219.72 million as revenue rose on higher rubber glove sales volume and ASPs.
Source : The Edge
Kuan Kam Hon Net Worth Jump 130% From RM 9.14 Billion To RM 25 Billion
The king of the hill is Kwan Kam Hon, the founder, executive chairman and managing director of Hartalega Holdings Bhd. Kwan, 73, owns a 49.5% stake in the largest nitrile glove maker in the world and has seen his net worth breach the RM20 billion level to hit a high of RM25 billion — a 130% jump from RM9.14 billion at the end of last year. The company's share price has risen 122.6% year to date.
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At 50, you obviously do not consider yourself an elderly. Yet if conference singles of your age is very important to you, then you will certainly be much better served on senior single dating sites. Numerous websites exist that deal with your age, as well as deal fascinating rewards. Some totally free sites will certainly enable you to send an email to an additional member, however you typically need to come to be a paying member to reply to any e-mails. Consequently, it seems optimal to join a rich men dating site in order to converse.
Obtaining details on these sites is rather simple. Do a general internet search of the name of the sites you want and also try to find testimonials. This will certainly give you an excellent suggestion as to what is required of a rich men dating site as well as what various other members think about their experience.
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Historic pay raise coming for state troopers, officers in Northam's proposed budget
A pay raise could be coming for Virginia State Troopers, correctional officers, deputy sheriffs and regional jail officers thanks to Governor Ralph Northam's proposed, two-year state budget.
By: WTVR CBS 6 Web Staff
RICHMOND, Va. -- A pay raise could be coming for Virginia State Troopers, correctional officers, deputy sheriffs and regional jail officers thanks to Governor Ralph Northam's proposed, two-year state budget.
If approved, it would be the largest dollar investment in public safety in Virginia history.
Under the proposal, newly-sworn state troopers will receive a 7.7% pay raise, the starting salary for new correction officers will increase by 25% and the average entry-level salary for deputy sheriffs and regional jail officials will increase by approximately 20%.
Northam's budget also includes funding to address pay compression and provide additional raises to a range of targeted officers and sworn personnel, according to his office.
The governor made the announcement Tuesday morning at the Commonwealth Public Safety Memorial in Richmond as part of his "Thank You, Virginia" farewell tour.
The announcement comes as police across the state are facing staffing shortages. In fact, Virginia State Police has 335 open positions right now.
"I know that the past couple of years have been challenging in our public safety agencies," Northam noted. "I know that the public debate over policing has been difficult. I know that even as some changes will be beneficial, it is not easy to hear your profession criticized."
One major issue the governor said he's been working to fix is pay compression for law enforcement, meaning the bumps in pay to new officers have them earning almost as much — and sometimes more than — those who have served longer. This budget proposal addresses this.
"You've seen some places do better than others, but it has to do with salary," explained Brian Moran, secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security. "There's no question about that. Over the last two years, we have seen a scrutiny of it in law enforcement. So to attract the best and retain the best, you must pay them a salary that will keep them."
"The bonuses and pay raises given to public safety officials every year during the Governor's term have boosted morale and changed lives," said Virginia State Police Superintendent Colonel Gary T. Settle. "This announcement comes just in time for the holidays and will mean so much to all of the officers and their families."
The governor said this historic pay raise for law enforcement is made possible because of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding. He will make his full budget recommendation, which also includes a 10% pay raise for teachers, next week.
NOW: @GovernorVA makes an historic announcement regarding law enforcement compensation. More details on @CBS6 at Noon. pic.twitter.com/EtDFB28PQA
— Caroline Coleburn (@CColeburnTV) December 7, 2021

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


"So quiet and green, you forget you live near a city"
East Alder Street off of Lake Washington Blvd. winds through the trees, providing seclusion and peacefulness so you almost forget that there's a big city just over the hill. While there is no swimming in Lake Washington, the views it offers are nice, though I personally prefer sunsets over the water rather than sunrises. There are only a few homes nestled in among the huge trees on East Alder, but they're very well maintained. There's actually a bit of a stretch on the north side of the street that consists solely of huge leafy and evergreen trees, giving that much more of a sense of solitude.
While there are other routes to Lake Washington Blvd from Madrona and Cherry Hill, East Alder does provide one of the nicest drives, so the street can see more than just residential traffic. While it is a curvy road, it still doesn't take that long to drive to downtown, though Seattle Metro does have a few stops on this street, so residents can leave the car at home and not have to battle downtown traffic and parking.
There's a marina at the end of the road for residents with boats, making it a short walk from home to sailing or power boating and water sports.
Travelling to East Alder St?


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Artificial Intelligence Featured Post Healthcare
UPS delivers pharmacy drugs by drone
UPS and CVS Health Corp. have teamed up to deliver prescriptions by drone.
by Adam Mayers
The U.S. healthcare system is being pushed towards a less costly, more efficient model and the debate about how to do it continues to be in the spotlight of the 2020 election campaign.
One area where hospitals and insurers see savings is in healthcare logistics, which refers to the distribution of supplies and consumables to hospitals, doctors, and pharmacies. It also includes the just-in-time delivery of temperature-sensitive drugs, biologics, and organs and tissues used in transplants.
Among the biggest players in this field are shipping companies like UPS. UPS is the world's largest package delivery company, with a market capitalization of US$87.6 billion. It operates in 220 countries and territories and employs 481,000 people. Its operations include a cargo airline, freight-based trucking, and 5,000 franchised UPS stores.
UPS has been testing the use of unmanned drones to deliver medical supplies to remote places in Africa and also between hospitals in North Carolina.
Through the UPS Foundation, UPS has combined blockchain and Artificial Intelligence software to deliver drugs by drone in remote parts of Ghana. The Foundation is building a medical drone network in partnership with Zipline, a privately-held California-based automated logistics company.
The start-up is backed by the likes of Google Ventures, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang.
UPS recently announced an expansion of its drone program. Two weeks after unveiling a partnership to explore drone shipments of drugs with CVS Health Corp., the companies completed the first commercial medical prescription drone delivery in the U.S.
UPS and CVS Pharmacy have formed a partnership to deliver prescription drugs by drone. Credit: UPS
A drone finished two short, autonomous flights to customers' homes near a CVS store in Cary, North Carolina. The prescriptions were lowered via a cable while the drone hovered about 20 feet about each address.
UPS said one of the packages was delivered to a customer with limited mobility, which makes it difficult for them to make the trip to a nearby store. A UPS drone operator who was on hand to take over the flights if needed.
The Raleigh News & Observer captured the flight with a video.
UPS is combining its traditional competency with new technologies to give it an edge. These initiatives show how it is adapting to new technologies to maintain its dominance.
FedEx, UPS see healthcare logistics future
UPS drones delivering medical supplies
New technologies are transforming healthcare
TagsArtificial Intelligence • CVS • Drone delivery • Robotics • Technology • UPS
About Adam Mayers
Adam Mayers writes about investing and personal finance. He is a contributor to the Globe & Mail's Globe Advisor and a contributing editor to Gordon Pape's Internet Wealth Builder newsletter. Adam was Business Editor and investment columnist at The Toronto Star and is the author of six books.
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Soccer notebook: Austin Soccer Foundation's gala going virtual this year
Chris Bils
cbils@hookem.com
Once each year, luminaries from the Central Texas soccer scene get dressed up and gather in support of the Austin Soccer Foundation. The Gala is an event I've grown to look forward to, and one at which I've met many future sources and friends.
The Gala, as it's usually constructed, won't happen this year, but the creative folks over at the Foundation have put something together that our entire community can enjoy.
The 5th Annual Austin Soccer Awards Gala kicks off at 7 p.m. Thursday on Facebook Live, and will feature keynote speaker Tony Sanneh, appearances from Austin FC head coach Josh Wolff, Sanneh's former U.S. men's national teammate, and honors for some of the area's most accomplished players, referees and builders.
Longtime supporters of the local game will want to tune in for a tribute to Wolfgang Sühnholz and a special segment dedicated to Nigel Bowman.
Four academic scholarships will be awarded to graduating high school seniors headed to college, and American-Statesman players and coaches of the year from the spring will be recognized. A name will join Brian Young, Sühnholz, Nick Barbaro and Ismail Elfath among Austin Soccer Lifetime Achievement Award winners.
There will even be a musical performance from current ASF president Scott Adair.
Whether you've been caring about the sport since the 1980s, since the Austin Aztex days or just started paying attention recently with the arrival of Austin FC, the Gala should be a nice history lesson and a reminder of the phrase Sühnholz used during his keynote speech in 2017: "Austin is a soccer city."
This might be the last Gala before the world finds out.
Raise a glass: On Sunday, the Houston Dash brought the first women's pro soccer championship to Texas with a 2-0 victory over the Chicago Red Stars in the NWSL Challenge Cup final.
The victory was a huge breakthrough for the Dash, who have still never made the playoffs in their six-year history. Houston didn't concede a goal in three knockout matches, riding the Golden Boot performance of captain Rachel Daly (3 goals, 2 assists) to hoist a trophy that was made to hold Budweiser.
The partnership between Daly and Canadian forward Nichelle Prince was especially fun to watch, as was the breakaway goal to seal the title by Shea Groom. Afterwards, Kristie Mewis celebrated with all the gusto of an overshadowed sibling.
Austin tuned in, too. The match drew 653,000 viewers on CBS, with the Texas capital coming in as the No. 9 market in the country. Not a bad sign for those pushing for an Austin NWSL team.
Local ties: When Austin Bold FC gets back on the pitch, there will be a familiar name on the roster. Nathaniel Adamolekun, a 21-year-old forward who got his start with Lonestar Soccer Club, was added last week.
"I'm grateful for the opportunity to get out there and make my mark, doing what I can to help the team reach the playoffs and try to get beyond that," Adamolekun said. "I've played with the guys, I feel like the chemistry is there."
He fills a big need for the Bold, who lost top strikers André Lima and Kris Tyrpak prior to the season restart. Adamolekun had been playing for FC Pinzgau Saalfelden in Austria, and prior to that he spent time at two different clubs in Portugal.
Adamolekun left Austin as a teenager to join the Orlando City SC academy, then played two seasons of college soccer at North Carolina. His sister, Olufolasade Adamolekun, played in the World Cup last summer for Jamaica. She'll begin her sophomore year at USC this fall.
"I'll joke with her, and she'll be like, 'But have you played in a World Cup, though?'" he said. "It's just a little back-and-forth. It's great seeing her succeed and I always remind her that she wouldn't be as good as she is if she didn't have me."
The Bold are scheduled to return to action Saturday against San Antonio FC, despite multiple players testing positive for COVID-19 within the past week. Two matches were postponed last week, in line with USL Championship return-to-play protocols.


CERN's Large Hadron Collider is the world's largest, most complex experimental facility, generating the world's largest data volumes. This calls for extremely smart data handling and storage solutions, and one of the smartest is distributed between four Nordic countries.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) outside Geneva, on the border between Switzerland and France, is the latest addition to the accelerator complex at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The LHC allows physicists to test different theories of particle physics, mainly by accelerating beams of protons or lead nuclei up to almost the speed of light. When the particles are flying fast and carrying very high energies, researchers smash them together in order to see what happens.
The LHC is not only an extremely advanced and complicated research facility, the multitude of sensors and instruments along the LHC also produce enormous amounts of data. The current production amounts to hundreds of petabytes per year, and production is expected to increase by 10 to 100 times in the near future. That is why CERN needs the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG). The WLCG is exactly what the name implies: a global collaboration of more than 170 computing centres in 42 countries linking together national and international grid infrastructures.
"The structure of distributed computer centres was chosen because no institution alone would have been capable of receiving, storing and processing the total output of data from CERN," explains High Performance Computing expert Mattias Wadenstein at NeIC. He is also the manager of the distributed Nordic Tier 1 site in the WLCG.
The grid is composed of four levels or "tiers", of which Tier 0 is CERN's own data centre – which is distributed between Switzerland and Hungary. All the data from the LHC passes through this central hub, but it provides less than 20 per cent of the grid's total computing capacity.
Tier 1, where Mattias Wadenstein is working, consists of 13 computer centres. They provide round-the-clock support for the grid and are responsible for storing raw and reconstructed data, as well as for performing large-scale reprocessing and storing the corresponding output. The centres are also responsible for distributing data to Tier 2 institutions, typically universities and other scientific institutes that can store sufficient data and provide adequate computing power for specific analysis tasks. The majority of the grid's resources are located in Europe, but there are resources in North America and East Asia as well, and centres in other parts of the world also contribute to this global effort.
One of the Tier 1 centres is located in the Nordic countries, and it functions like any other Tier 1 computer centre. But a closer inspection reveals that the Nordic Data Grid Facility (NDGF) Tier 1, which is part of the globally distributed network, is itself a distributed network with storage facilities at the universities in Oslo, Bergen, Linköping, Umeå, Espoo and Copenhagen.
"The Nordic facility is in fact one of the smaller Tier 1 facilities, although it is still a massive undertaking. But the most interesting thing is perhaps that the distributed structure has worked so well that it is now being seen as a model for the future," Mr Wadenstein explains.
According to a recent evaluation report by Dr Josep Flix, the Nordic model provides a unique set of competencies and is a successful example which other data and computing centres around the world could learn from. The evaluation report states that the Nordic distributed model may even prove critical for the worldwide LHC network's future capacity to handle large volumes of data from CERN.
One of the requirements for being a Tier 1 computer centre is that it should appear to be one site. Therefore, the Nordic team built a solution that hid the distributed nature effectively. "That was a challenge, and was only possible because we managed to recruit a good technical team that can maintain and evolve the setup," Mr Wadenstein says.
"One of the advantages with the Nordic structure is the national co-funding, which offsets some of the extra costs that come with distribution. In addition, the structure brings a lot of competence closer to more universities than would otherwise have been the case," he explains. He adds that the NDGF Tier 1 is a meta-centre under the shared control of different national organisations.
"In my opinion, this is an excellent example of Nordic collaboration rising to the challenge of receiving and storing huge data flows. The key to success is a combination of good routines, a high-quality platform, and continuous development of the open source software that we are heavily dependent on," Mr Wadenstein says.
The LHC started up in September 2008 and achieved its greatest success so far in 2013 with the discovery of the Higgs boson, one of the most fundamental components of the fabric of our universe. Far from closing the books, this discovery opened up whole new areas of research into the stability of the universe, why it seems to hold so much more matter than antimatter, the composition and abundance of dark matter, and so on.
Mattias Wadenstein adds that the researchers at CERN and the LHC are throwing away more than 99.9 per cent of the data from the experiments because they are only interested in observing the collisions and special events. They are looking for "the needle in the haystack", so they have no use for data about the hay. But the remaining amount of data, which must be stored for future research, is still enormous.
The LHC machine is taken down for upgrading from time to time. The latest upgrade, in 2015, was so successful that the experiments started to generate more than twice the amount of data than the Tier 1 facilities were prepared for. That was of course a challenge to which the Nordic facility rose.
According to Mr Wadenstein, one of the advantages of the distributed setup is that the system is very scalable. The future will be bringing new challenges because a planned LHC upgrade in 2022 could lead to a factor 100 increase in data volumes to be stored and processed.
Read our article Studying dark matter to read more about the Nordic Data Grid Facility and how it is supporting the study of dark matter.


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These $1 Italian Houses in Troina, Sicily, Come With Up to $30,000 in Restoration Grants
BY Ellen Gutoskey
Bepsimage/iStock via Getty Images
In the northeast region of Sicily, Italy, is a small prehistoric town called Troina, which boasts all the trappings of, well, a small prehistoric town. There's a crumbled castle and vestiges of an ancient cemetery, walking trails once trod by shepherds, and cobblestone paths beneath arches. Summer brings fairs, festivals, and theater performances; and the stars, far from urban interference, shine extra bright. The sky isn't the only striking sight; Troina is nicknamed the "Balcony of Sicily" for its views of the surrounding landscape, which includes the still-active volcano Mount Etna to the east.
If you haven't already decided to move there immediately, this next revelation might do the trick: City officials will sell you a house in Troina's historical district for a single euro (or just over $1). For all its bucolic appeal, the aged epicenter has essentially been deserted in recent decades as residents have migrated to newer abodes on the outskirts of town or sought greener pastures in other areas entirely. As Mayor Sebastiano Fabio Venezia told CNN Travel, the real estate initiative is a way "to save our old district from the grave and recover its lost grandeur, when it was the Norman capital of Sicily." It's an alluring offer, but not an original idea; Italy has played host to plenty of similar real estate deals in the past, from Naples to the Italian Alps.
Your daily neighborhood walk could use an upgrade.Rudolf Ernst/iStock via Getty Images
Your bargain home would admittedly be more than a bit of a fixer-upper, but Troina's government is willing to help with renovation costs. In addition to €15,000 (about $18,200) for "restyle bonuses," you could also qualify for another €10,000 (about $12,100) to install energy efficiency systems. You will need to put down a €5000 (roughly $6100) deposit, which you'll get back after you're done restoring the house. There's a timeline for that, too—send in your design plans within a year, start renovations within two, and finish all work within three.
For anyone who dreams of settling in Sicily but isn't quite so confident in their home improvement capabilities, Troina has already-inhabitable houses on the market, too. These also come with tax breaks and government grants, though most are listed for tens of thousands of dollars.
The houses are available to anyone from anywhere; Venezia has even mobilized a group of multilingual real estate experts to prevent expats from getting "lost in bureaucracy" or overwhelmed by "tedious paperwork." You can explore all the pricier options on HouseTroina right now, and the $1 homes should appear on the site in the next several days.
[h/t CNN Travel]
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Friday's Top eBooks
Please be aware that prices may change at any time. Always verify the price before downloading
Snowed in with Grumpy
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The Magic Island
by Julia Zheng
Children's Fantasy
Imagine an island divided into four seasons, where giant bees give you a ride among cotton candy trees, a pond magically changes your skin color, boys made of sand play with coconut balls, there is a river that tells your future and past, unicorns pull a sleigh for you, and an ice queen rests under a spell, longing to be rescued.
Little did Leon Lee suspect when he was assigned to write about his summer vacation that he would have so much to tell! #ad
Tall Tales and Wee Stories: The Best of Billy Connolly
by Billy Connolly
In December 2018, after fifty years of belly-laughs, energy and outrage, Billy Connolly announced his retirement from live stand-up comedy. It had been an extraordinary career.
Tall Tales and Wee Stories brings together the very best of Billy's storytelling for the first time and includes his most famous routines including, The Last Supper, Jojoba Shampoo, Incontinence Pants and Shouting at Wildebeest. With an introduction and original illustrations by Billy throughout, it is an inspirational, energetic and riotously funny read, and a fitting celebration of our greatest ever comedian. #ad
Star Trek: Discovery: The Enterprise War
by John Jackson Miller
Hearing of the outbreak of hostilities between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire, Captain Christopher Pike attempts to bring the USS Enterprise home to join in the fight. But in the hellish nebula known as the Pergamum, the stalwart commander instead finds an epic battle of his own, pitting ancient enemies against one another–with not just the Enterprise, but her crew as the spoils of war.
Lost and out of contact with Earth for an entire year, Pike and his trusted first officer, Number One, struggle to find and reunite the ship's crew–all while Science Officer Spock confronts a mystery that puts even his exceptional skills to the test…with more than their own survival possibly riding on the outcome… #ad
KINDLE NOOK AUDIBLE
by Lisa Jackson
The most hated woman in Savannah, Georgia, is about to be set free. Twenty years ago, beautiful Blondell O'Henry was convicted of murdering her eldest daughter, Amity, and wounding her two other children. Though she swore she was innocent, the prosecution insisted that Blondell did it all to be with her lover. But Blondell's son has now recanted his crucial testimony.
Reporter Nikki Gillette is determined to get the truth for her true crime book–as well as personal reasons. Amity was Nikki's childhood friend. The night she died, Amity begged her to meet with her, insisting she had a secret to tell, but Nikki didn't go. Now Nikki's fiancé, Detective Pierce Reed, worries for her safety… #ad
Stealing A Second Chance
by Kristin Lee
Wils – I've been pretending for so long, it's become normal. To the average person, I have it all…a multi-million-dollar contract to play baseball, four homes, and if I choose–my pick of any gorgeous woman on my arm. The only problem? The one woman I want–no, need–in my life completely erased me from her memory when we were only teens. I'd give everything up for a second chance with Kenni Davis, my best friend's little sister. A tragic event that should have brought the two of us closer together, ripped us at the seams. She blames me for all of it.
Kenni – When a ghost from my past is traded to the Sarasota Sharks–where I'm the Public Relations Director–I'm hit with the realization that I cannot keep running from my past, no matter how desperately I want to. The moment our eyes meet, I know he still loves me… And I can't deny that I still love him, too. But betraying my brother isn't an option… #ad
Peril at the Party
by Aubrey Elle
Once grand and gorgeous, the castle-like Baycourt Hall is now on the brink of closing. If business stays steady for the party venue, newly hired event manager Anna Glenn might be able to help the owners–handsome handyman Sean and his bubbly grandma Ruby–save it from failure.
A wedding reception starts on a rocky note, but when the party wraps up, it turns downright deadly. Before the guests can depart, Anna discovers Father Asher stabbed in the foyer. Baycourt isn't only crumbling, it's a hotbed of peril. #ad
Apples for Teachers
by Frank Hamrick
Apples for Teachers features 180 devotionals taken from the Book of Proverbs.
Apples are a traditional gift for schoolteachers, and it's our hope that this devotional will give you an "apple" a day of encouragement in your classroom ministry. Combining humor, love, and an insight gained from a life of teaching, Frank Hamrick challenges you to become a wise teacher. #ad
A Scout for Skyler
by Heather Blanton
An only child, Priscilla Jones has never done anything but follow behind her pa and learn the ways of the outdoors. On his death bed, he announces he's sending her off to become the mail-order bride of an army captain. His dying wish is that she make the man a good wife, be happy…and wear a dress once in a while.
A recent widower, Captain Skyler Corbett is an arrogant Scotsman who believes women should have babies not opinions. Regardless, the last thing he needs is a wife. His daughter is coming of age, however, and friends argue she needs a woman's influence. When the headstrong, unrefined and unexpected Priscilla Jones shows up, Corbett is not inclined to marry her. Ever. Priscilla agrees, firing back that the snooty Captain Corbett is no prize, either… #ad
Murder at Marble House
by Alyssa Maxwell
With the dawn of the twentieth century on the horizon, the fortunes of the venerable Vanderbilt family still shine brightly in the glittering high society of Newport, Rhode Island. But when a potential scandal strikes, the Vanderbilts turn to cousin and society page reporter Emma Cross to solve a murder and a disappearance…
Responding to a frantic call on her newfangled telephone from her eighteen-year-old cousin, Consuelo Vanderbilt, Emma Cross arrives at the Marble House mansion and learns the cause of her distress–Consuelo's mother, Alva, is forcing her into marriage with the Duke of Marlborough. Her mother has even called in a fortune teller to assure Consuelo of a happy future… #ad
Princess of Passion
by Caprice Langden
Hatred is an evil process and it consumed me. I rotted from the inside out, so much so that at the time, I didn't think twice about letting her go. I used Lilly Calegari to get to her brother, but he bested me at my own game. She didn't love me, so when the time came to choose between me and her family, Lilly walked away with her head held high, leaving me to pick up the broken pieces of my family.
But there was more than my wounded pride at stake. Lilly had gotten under my skin. She'd worked her way into my world where she didn't belong. She owned my heart and conquered my soul…something I didn't even know I possessed until I met her. I had a choice – stand up for my family and the sister who'd always been there for me, or risk my life to put Lilly in her rightful place beside me as I ruled my kingdom. I chose her. Check out Caprice Langden's The Calegaris series! #ad
The Munich Girl
by Phyllis Edgerly Ring
Anna Dahlberg grew up eating dinner under her father's war-trophy portrait of Eva Braun. Fifty years after the war, she discovers what he never did–that her mother and Hitler's mistress were friends. The secret surfaces with a mysterious monogrammed handkerchief, and a man, Hannes Ritter, whose Third Reich family history is entwined with Anna's.
Plunged into the world of the "ordinary" Munich girl who was her mother's confidante–and a tyrant's lover–Anna finds her every belief about right and wrong challenged. With Hannes's help, she retraces the path of two women who met as teenagers… #ad
KINDLE NOOK KOBO APPLE
Newport Harbor House
by Cindy NIchols
Widow Jen Watson is looking forward to having a blissful summer at the family beach house all to herself, for the first time in years–until she finds out her family has been scheming to sell it. They don't want to put any money into making necessary repairs when they could sell at a nice profit instead.
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The Rise of the River-Man
by L. S. O'Dea
Imagine a world filled with human-animal hybrids. They're stronger than us. Faster. More deadly and hungry. Always hungry. Now, step inside the laboratory and witness their creation. Created as weapons. Designed to obey. No one expected them to want revenge. This is Mutter's story.
For the first time in his life he's afraid. Afraid of the shots his new master is giving him. Afraid that if he doesn't escape, he'll become food for one of the creatures in the nearby cages or worse… He'll become one of them. #ad
The da Vinci Legacy
by Jean Pierre Isbouts & Christopher Brown
For the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death comes an immersive journey through five centuries of history to define the Leonardo mystique and uncover how the elusive Renaissance artist became a global pop icon.
This extraordinary volume, lavishly illustrated with 130 color images, is the first book to unravel these mysteries by diving deep into the art, literature, science, and politics of Europe from the Renaissance through today. It gives illuminating context to both Leonardo and his accomplishments; explores why Leonardo's fame vastly overshadowed that of his contemporaries and disciples… #ad
The Enemy: A Jack Reacher Novel
by Lee Child
Jack Reacher. Hero. Loner. Soldier. Soldier's son. An elite military cop, he was one of the army's brightest stars. But in every cop's life there is a turning point. One case. One messy, tangled case that can shatter a career. Turn a lawman into a renegade. And make him question words like honor, valor, and duty. For Jack Reacher, this is that case.
New Year's Day, 1990. The Berlin Wall is coming down. The world is changing. And in a North Carolina "hot-sheets" motel, a two-star general is found dead. His briefcase is missing. Nobody knows what was in it. Within minutes Jack Reacher has his orders: Control the situation… #ad
A Sweet Florist's Thorny Ruse
by Aurora Hanson
Monica Nelson simply adored working alongside her beloved uncle at his flower shop. So the day he dies, her whole world is thrown into turmoil. In his will, her uncle leaves everything to her… and her husband.
The problem is that Monica is single. Desperate and bewildered she doesn't know which way to turn. Can Monica make a husband appear out of thin air or will she fall prey to those who wish to rob her of the business? What if her salvation ends up being somebody who has been there her whole life? #ad
Swann Series: Books 1 – 3
by Ryan Schow
How do you turn a broken girl into a weapon? And what do you do with her when she loses control? Meet Savannah Van Duyn… USA TODAY Bestselling Author, Amazon ALL-STAR AWARD winner, and Top 10 Sci-Fi writer, Ryan Schow, presents a deliciously dark tale that begs the question, can you genetically alter and perfect an imperfect child? And what happens when an experiment spins wildly out of control?
Within weeks of being sent to an academy so elite not even Google has its listing or location, 16-year-old Savannah Van Duyn will cease to exist. This unsuspecting young girl will soon become something else, something on the verge of not-quite human. Is this a cure for her social anxiety disorder, her body dysmorphic disorder, and her overall depression? Or is there a deeper agenda at work here? #ad
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text:
Q: Loopback3 and Swagger Connector: Error loading swagger file I am trying to create an api model from a swagger file (my-api.json) using Loopback's Swagger connector (assuming that's what this connector is for!).
However, when running the loopback-cli, I get the following error:

? Enter the swagger spec url or file path: my-api.json
Loading my-api.json...
events.js:183
      throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
      ^

TypeError: Cannot read property '$ref' of null
    at C:\Users\Nick\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\loopback-cli\node_modules\generator-loopback\swagger\spec-loader.js:124:13
    at baseClone (C:\Users\Nick\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\loopback-cli\node_modules\lodash\lodash.js:2641:27)
    at C:\Users\Nick\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\loopback-cli\node_modules\lodash\lodash.js:2711:34
    at arrayEach (C:\Users\Nick\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\loopback-cli\node_modules\lodash\lodash.js:516:11)
    at baseClone (C:\Users\Nick\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\loopback-cli\node_modules\lodash\lodash.js:2705:7)
    at C:\Users\Nick\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\loopback-cli\node_modules\lodash\lodash.js:2711:34
    at arrayEach (C:\Users\Nick\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\loopback-cli\node_modules\lodash\lodash.js:516:11)
    at baseClone (C:\Users\Nick\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\loopback-cli\node_modules\lodash\lodash.js:2705:7)
    at Function.cloneDeepWith (C:\Users\Nick\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\loopback-cli\node_modules\lodash\lodash.js:11120:14)
    at parseSpec (C:\Users\Nick\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\loopback-cli\node_modules\generator-loopback\swagger\spec-loader.js:123:19)
    at C:\Users\Nick\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\loopback-cli\node_modules\generator-loopback\swagger\spec-loader.js:160:5
    at C:\Users\Nick\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\loopback-cli\node_modules\generator-loopback\swagger\spec-loader.js:86:11
    at FSReqWrap.readFileAfterClose [as oncomplete] (fs.js:511:3)

Here's the my-api-json swagger file:
{
  "swagger": "2.0",
  "info": {
    "description": "my description",
    "version": "0.0.2",
    "title": "my title",
    "termsOfService": "TBD",
    "contact": {
      "name": "John Doe",
      "url": "http://www.myname.com",
      "email": "johndoe@aol.com"
    },
    "license": {
      "name": "TBD",
      "url": "http://www.myname.com"
    },
    "x-classificationRecord": "Classsification of this swagger file - APPROVED"
  },
  "basePath": "/myPath",
  "schemes": [
    "http",
    "https"
  ],
  "consumes": [
    "application/json"
  ],
  "produces": [
    "application/json"
  ],
  "securityDefinitions": {
    "AdminSecurity": {
      "type": "apiKey",
      "in": "query",
      "name": "apikey"
    }
  },
  "paths": {
    "/admin/vcap": {
      "get": {
        "tags": [
          "admin"
        ],
        "security": [
          {
            "AdminSecurity": []
          }
        ],
        "x-swagger-router-controller": "misc_info_controller",
        "operationId": "getVCAP",
        "produces": [
          "application/json"
        ],
        "responses": {
          "200": {
            "description": "Success"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "/query/getAllTopicEntity": {
      "get": {
        "tags": [
          "database"
        ],
        "x-swagger-router-controller": "db",
        "operationId": "getAllTopicEntity",
        "produces": [
          "application/json"
        ],
        "responses": {
          "200": {
            "description": "Success"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "/query/getAllTopic": {
      "get": {
        "tags": [
          "database"
        ],
        "x-swagger-router-controller": "db",
        "operationId": "getAllTopic",
        "produces": [
          "application/json"
        ],
        "responses": {
          "200": {
            "description": "Success"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "/query/getAllEntityFacets": {
      "get": {
        "tags": [
          "database"
        ],
        "x-swagger-router-controller": "db",
        "operationId": "getAllEntityFacets",
        "produces": [
          "application/json"
        ],
        "responses": {
          "200": {
            "description": "Success"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "/query/getAllTopicEntityFacets": {
      "get": {
        "tags": [
          "database"
        ],
        "x-swagger-router-controller": "db",
        "operationId": "getAllTopicEntityFacets",
        "produces": [
          "application/json"
        ],
        "responses": {
          "200": {
            "description": "Success"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "/query/getAllTopicEntityRelation": {
      "get": {
        "tags": [
          "database"
        ],
        "x-swagger-router-controller": "db",
        "operationId": "getAllTopicEntityRelation",
        "produces": [
          "application/json"
        ],
        "responses": {
          "200": {
            "description": "Success"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "/query/getAllTopicPropertyFacet": {
      "get": {
        "tags": [
          "database"
        ],
        "x-swagger-router-controller": "db",
        "operationId": "getAllTopicPropertyFacet",
        "produces": [
          "application/json"
        ],
        "responses": {
          "200": {
            "description": "Success"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "/query/getAllTable13": {
      "get": {
        "tags": [
          "database"
        ],
        "x-swagger-router-controller": "db",
        "operationId": "getAllTable13",
        "produces": [
          "application/json"
        ],
        "responses": {
          "200": {
            "description": "Success"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "/query/getAlltblComponentType": {
      "get": {
        "tags": [
          "database"
        ],
        "x-swagger-router-controller": "db",
        "operationId": "getAlltblComponentType",
        "produces": [
          "application/json"
        ],
        "responses": {
          "200": {
            "description": "Success"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "/query/getAlltblElement": {
      "get": {
        "tags": [
          "database"
        ],
        "x-swagger-router-controller": "db",
        "operationId": "getAlltblElement",
        "produces": [
          "application/json"
        ],
        "responses": {
          "200": {
            "description": "Success"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "/query/getAlltblFeature": {
      "get": {
        "tags": [
          "database"
        ],
        "x-swagger-router-controller": "db",
        "operationId": "getAlltblFeature",
        "produces": [
          "application/json"
        ],
        "responses": {
          "200": {
            "description": "Success"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "/query/getAlltblSymbolPlacementInst": {
      "get": {
        "tags": [
          "database"
        ],
        "x-swagger-router-controller": "db",
        "operationId": "getAlltblSymbolPlacementInst",
        "produces": [
          "application/json"
        ],
        "responses": {
          "200": {
            "description": "Success"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "/query/getAlltblSymbolElementLink": {
      "get": {
        "tags": [
          "database"
        ],
        "x-swagger-router-controller": "db",
        "operationId": "getAlltblSymbolElementLink",
        "produces": [
          "application/json"
        ],
        "responses": {
          "200": {
            "description": "Success"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "/query/getAlltblSymol": {
      "get": {
        "tags": [
          "database"
        ],
        "x-swagger-router-controller": "db",
        "operationId": "getAlltblSymol",
        "produces": [
          "application/json"
        ],
        "responses": {
          "200": {
            "description": "Success"
          }
        }
      }
    },
    "/query/newQuery": {
      "get": {
        "tags": [
          "database"
        ],
        "x-swagger-router-controller": "db",
        "operationId": "newQuery",
        "produces": [
          "application/json"
        ],
        "responses": {
          "200": {
            "description": "Success"
          }
        }
      }
    }
  },
  "definitions": {
    "Generic": {
      "properties": {
        "message": {
          "type": "string"
        }
      }
    },
    "GenericError": {
      "required": [
        "status",
        "statusCode",
        "error"
      ],
      "properties": {
        "status": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Status indicating there was an error, should always be error",
          "enum": [
            "error"
          ]
        },
        "statusCode": {
          "type": "number",
          "description": "HTTP Status Code for the error"
        },
        "error": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "String indicating what the error was"
        },
        "trace": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Original Error Message providing more detail if available"
        }
      }
    },
    "ErrorResponse": {
      "required": [
        "code",
        "message"
      ],
      "properties": {
        "code": {
          "type": "integer"
        },
        "message": {
          "type": "string"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

Any tips on how to fix? Thank you.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Every good Tico eats tamales for Christmas (Navidad) and this year I not only ate them, I learned how to make them. I also discovered why Costa Ricans only make tamales once a year – the labor intensive process takes an entire day and is exhausting! But the tamales are scrumptious and I'm going to teach you how to make them or at least make you tired from reading about it. Get jealous – I have 80 in my house right now, waiting to be devoured for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Are you ready?! These are going to be the best tamales you've ever eaten!
1. Pork Soup (Sopa de Cerdo): water, 5 kilos of big pork chunks, several whole celery, several quartered red bell peppers, rosemary, oregano, cilantro, bay leaves, thyme. Cook all that in your massive stewpot (because everyone has a ridiculously large pot laying around).
2. Saffron Rice (Arroz con Achiote): rice, saffron, finely diced red bell peppers and celery, chopped cilantro.
A big bowl (6-8 cups) each of sliced carrots, tiny green beans, garbanzo beans, sweet peas, and sliced red bell peppers (don't cook these!).
The next step is preparing the leaves that you will wrap the tamales in – plantain leaves (hojas de platano). They are sold in packages by the kilo, pre-smoked and pre-burned. Your job is to cut them up and clean them. These are different than regular banana leaves. Banana leaves are too flimsy – you might have seen banana trees with shredded leaves? That happens because they can't stand up to the wind, much less function as a tamal wrap. Plantain leaves are sturdier and do not shred in the wind or the tamal stew.
First begin by removing the strong vein along the edge of the plantain leaf.
Then cut the leaves into smaller pieces, alternating between two separate sizes – one about 15 inches long and the other about 10 inches long.
Then clean those cut leafies with a rag – just lightly scrub the funk off each side. But rápido! rápido! – by this time the sun is starting to set and you are ready to be done. Patience – there is much more to do.
After the soup is cooked, the veggies are prepped, and the leaves have been cut and cleaned, it is time to move on to the final step in the prep work – preparing the masa mix.
Masa de maíz is dried ground corn and you can purchase it in Costa Rica pre-ground and pre-moistened, but you will have to grind it yourself if you live in the States. You can find the dried corn in Mexican tiendas (along with the hojas de platano…except they are probably banana leaves instead. Maybe triple wrap your tamales to prevent breakage if you only have access to banana leaves).
So gather up your masa (3 kilos), cooked and peeled potatoes, and set up a food processor next to the massive stewpot.
Start by blending together potatoes with the veggies from the pork soup and one coffee mug full of pork soup broth. Dump into giant mixing bowl and repeat process until all the potatoes are blended with all the veggies from the pork soup.
Now add all the masa to the blended potatoes in a massive bowl. Also throw in two giant handfuls of leftover meat grease from your local butcher shop. Mix really well with your hands. This is fun, it's like being a kid again playing with your food.
Mix it real good! …but not too much. It will look like this right before you use the blender to finish the job.
Run the masa mix through the blender, adding salt and chicken stock or bouillon (de caldo o consumme) to taste. Also add more pork broth if needed for consistency – you want it to be about that of creamy mashed potatoes. Empty all of this into yet another giant bowl.
Collect the pork out of the pork soup and cut it into large bite size pieces.
Now gather all the ingredients and set up your workstation for assembling the tamales. In the photo below, you are looking at a smaller, more manageable portion of each ingredient (maybe 1/4 or 1/5 of what was in each giant bowl). The ingredients were portioned out like this because there just weren't enough behemoth bowls or enough counter space to handle the enormous quantity of ingredients.
Take a small plantain leaf and place it on top of a big plantain leaf. Plop a large spoonful of the masa mix in the center of the smaller leaf.
On top of the masa mix, place a spoonful of rice, a piece of meat, a few garbanzos, a few peas, a pepper slice or two, a green bean or two, and 2-3 carrots. Make sure you get at least one of everything inside the tamal, but mixing up the quantities a bit can be fun to make a little variety in the finished product.
Fold the tamale. Raise the edges up lengthwise and fold them under twice like you would a paper bag lunch. Then lightly flatten, while you fold the left and right sides over the center. You end up with a nice-looking little tamale package.
They cook better in pairs.
When the last tamal bundle is tied, they are ready to cook.
Drop them into the humungous stewpot full of pork broth, add more water if needed, cover and bring to a boil. Once boiling, start the timer for 30 minutes (keep covered).
After 30 minutes of boiling, disconnect the heat, but it is okay to leave the tamales inside to cool off. Now you are ready for the next step, the final step.
Tamales from Costa Rica are the B-E-S-T!
I was thinking the same thing today! I haven't had them from all over the world, but out of the few varieties I have tried, Costa Rican tamales are definitely superior.
…we managed to eat all 80 of them. They were suppose to last through the new year!
Do you eat the plantain leaves?
Wow, Erin. I am exhausted! Look so good though!
They were good…we should have made twice as many!
Wow….just likes an Indonesian food ! Like it. Thanks !
The best tamales.. no doubt about it… and my wife & her mom make the best!
It's neat to see how each family does it a little bit different. There should be some sort of tamale festival with a cook-off, and the audience gets to judge, mmm. Thanks for stopping by and commenting, John!
Yes I think so. The taste will be different because the fresh ground masa is obviously more flavorful, but if it's all you have access to, then yes, it will work.
Hola Erin! I've yet to comment, but I think I've read almost all of your entries by now.. reason being that I, a 21-year-old chica from the US, am planning on making the move to CR by myself here in November or January. There's a start date in either month for the TEFL school I plan on attending, but I can't decide which would be a better time! Going in Nov. means spending Christmas in CR, away from my family. January saves that trouble and allows more time for saving $.. but I'm so excited- I want to leave as soon as possible! Did you spend the holidays with a family you met there? I'm planning on staying with a host family for the 4 weeks of the program, but it ends before Christmas.
Christmas in paradise is fun, but only if you have good friends and family to share it with. January, February, March… all those months are as dry and gorgeous as Christmas will be, so you won't miss anything by coming down at the later date. Well, you'll miss the hordes of tourists. Plus you can use that extra money to travel, so you can see more of the country.
But you might be able to work out a deal to stay with your host family through Christmas and then you get a family to share with and tamales!!! I love tamales. You should see if they'll let you stay longer before you make up your mind. If you are planning on looking for a job here after the course, it would be wiser to start looking in Dec/Jan.
Which TEFL course are you taking if you don't mind me asking?
I'm definitely wanting to teach and live there for as long as possible (I've done enough research to decide that I think I can handle it.) Is it accurate that most teacher-hiring is done around January? Meaning that I'd have the best chance of landing a job if I have a TEFL by the end of Dec, rather than the beginning of Feb? As nice as missing the hoards of tourists sounds, I'll need to find work pronto!
As for the TEFL course, I'm deciding between Máximo Nivel (which I was unsure of at first, but only read great things about on eslcafe & lonely planet), and Intesol Costa Rica. If you have opinions about either of these or could suggest one you know is legit, I'd be forever thankful!
Teacher hiring is done at the latest by January for the really nice schools (e.g., international schools). Those jobs are really hard to get though so don't be upset if you can't get one. In fact, living here requires you be flexible all the time about everything, so try to keep that in mind.
THe good news is that language institutions hire year-round due to high turnover rates and you can practically walk off the boat and get a job at one of them.
I'm the opposite. I'm a Costa Rican living in the US. This Christmas I couldn't really visited my family back home. I was hoping to be able to make some tamales, the Costa Rican ones anyway. This seems like a lot of work, but I'll definitely give it a try. If not, I can always go back and get the real deal.
That looks insanely good! I love dishes that are time consuming like that but are well worth it in the end.
Me, too, like a good Mexican mole!


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CD & DVD Reviews
The latest from Sydney Festival
Holst's Planets (Sydney Symphony Orchestra)
Vladimir Ashkenazy pairs a rare Russian giant with Holst's glittering ode to the heavens.
Concert Hall, Sydney Opera House
Reviewed on September 25, 2019
by Angus McPherson on September 26, 2019
Last week Vladimir Ashkenazy, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's Conductor Laureate, treated audiences to a program of well-worn (but well-loved) English classics, and while on the surface this concert appeared to be in the same vein – thanks to the headlining of Holst's popular orchestral suite The Planets – the first half was devoted to a much rarer Russian work, Nikolai Medtner's mammoth Piano Concerto No 1.
Vladimir Ashkenazy. Photo © Keith Saunders
Largely overshadowed by his fellow pianist-composer contemporary – and friend – Sergei Rachmaninov, Medtner's music has something of an Australian connection, with Geoffrey Tozer's advocacy helping to drive a reassessment of the neglected composer, including an award-winning recording of all three Piano Concertos (the composer's only orchestral works) with the London Symphony Orchestra and Neeme Järvi in 1992. More recently, Jayson Gillham followed with his own recording of the First with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Benjamin Northey. For all that, though, this is the first time the Sydney Symphony Orchestra has tackled the mammoth concerto, which was composed between 1914 and 1918, before the composer left the Soviet Union to settle, ultimately, in London.
The work had a robust champion in Russian pianist Alexei Volodin, who delivered the opening gesture with decisive strength, a heavier approach than Gillham's more spritely account, but kicking off a nonetheless swift flowing tempo. Volodin is a forceful player, with an almost percussive touch, which helped cut through Medtner's thick orchestration, before he eased off in the gentler second theme. Throughout the large single-movement concerto, he gave us broad, romantic sweeps, a hard, bright high register, punchy bass notes and muscular trills. While there was much beauty in the heroic arcs of this account, moments of intimacy were few and far between, with even the more meditative unaccompanied sections feeling weighty. The kind of delicacy Volodin produced in his encore, Chopin's Nocturne Op. 15, No 2, could have paid dividends in the larger work, but this was nonetheless an exciting and interesting performance, right to the dramatic death knell of the final notes.
There was, of course, drama aplenty in Mars, the Bringer of War, the terrifying opening movement of Holst's The Planets, written – like the Medtner – against the backdrop of the First World War, before going on to inspire composers like John Williams, in his iconic music for Star Wars. Marshalling huge forces, including the Concert Hall's organ, Ashkenazy brought a taut, fierce energy to the rhythmic opening before unleashing the full power of the orchestra, delivering a rich wave of sound. Such power somewhat eclipsed the planets that followed, but the overwhelming final notes meant the smooth solo by Guest Principal horn Samuel Jacobs in the opening of Venus, the Bringer of Peace was particularly balm-like before Ashkenazy gave us a lithe, restless Mercury. The expansive central movement Jupiter opened with sparkling fanfare, with the strings shaping the hymn melody – almost as iconic as that of Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No 1 – in long-breathed phrases. The uneasily swaying winds and tenebrous lower strings conjured in Saturn a suitably otherworldly quality while Uranus, the Magician, with its apparent tip of the hat to Dukas' The Sorcerer's Apprentice, was colourful and boisterous. The glistening winds, harp and celesta of Neptune, the Mystic brought the evening to a close, the orchestra haloed by singers from Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, whose wordless song filtered into the Concert Hall from offstage before fading once more into silence.
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra performs Holst's Planets at the Sydney Opera House until September 28
Vladimir Ashkenazy retires
The much loved and respected maestro, who became SSO's Conductor Laureate in 2019, has announced his retirement from public performances.
Classical Music, Opera, Opera
Limelight's Top Shows of 2019: Opera
With the year drawing to a close, we look back over the operas that wowed our critics in 2019.
Limelight's Top Shows of 2019: Classical Music
With the year drawing to a close, we look back over the classical music concerts that wowed our critics in 2019.
Sydney Symphony Orchestra names its new Chief Conductor
Simone Young will take up the position in 2022 as the orchestra returns to the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall following its two-year upgrade.
The Sydney Coliseum opens its doors
The impressive new theatre at West HQ gave its first public performance last night with an entertaining Christmas concert featuring David Campbell and the SSO.
Classical Music, Orchestral, Orchestral
Review: American Harmonies (Sydney Symphony Orchestra)
David Robertson bids a fond farewell to the SSO with gifts from home.
Review: A Russian Gala (Sydney Symphony Orchestra)
Behzod Abduraimov gives a thrilling, powerhouse performance of a Russian warhorse.
Passing the Batons
Sir Andrew Davis, Alondra de la Parra and David Robertson are about to conduct their final concerts as artistic chiefs of the Melbourne, Queensland and Sydney Symphony Orchestras respectively. Here's a look back on their time Down Under.
Review: Donald Runnicles conducts Bruckner Symphony No.7
Donald Runnicles and the SSO pair Messiaen and Bruckner in a concert that touches on the divine.
Review: The Four Seasons (Sydney Symphony Orchestra)
Through rain, hail and shine, Andrew Haveron and the SSO take us through four seasons from the old world and the new.
Donald Runnicles: Music gives us a window into another realm
The Scottish maestro is the Sydney Symphony Orchestra's new Principal Guest Conductor. He talks to Clive Paget about early obsessions, managing relationships, and the thorny question of God and music.
Review: Andreas Brantelid performs Elgar's Cello Concerto (Sydney Symphony Orchestra)
The SSO strings take the spotlight as Vladimir Ashkenazy returns for a concert of English classics.
Sydney Symphony Orchestra pulls Alan Jones advertising
The orchestra has followed supermarket chain Coles and others in removing advertising from Sydney radio station 2GB.
Review: Shostakovich Symphony No. 4 (Sydney Symphony Orchestra)
Hollywood did exotic better than Khachaturian, but no one does horror like Shostakovich.
Review: Schubert, Liszt and Ledger (Sydney Symphony Orchestra)
Simone Young takes the SSO to hell and back in the first concert of her three-year Visions of Vienna cycle.
A Fourth to be Reckoned With
With Stalin bearing down on him, Shostakovich withdrew his monumental Fourth Symphony at the very last minute, consigning it to a drawer for the next 25 years. Mark Wigglesworth tells us why the score was so dangerous, and how the composer's music changed forever.
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Q: What are the major motivations to use JNDI for datasources? I fail to understand why someone would use JNDI.
Can someone high light the major reasons to use JNDI for datasources?

A: It allows the configuration of resources to be done outside of the code. Before JNDI we use to use config files and have everything in there. With JNDI the developers of the code do not need to be aware of the configuration parameters of a database or queues.

A: Central management and configuration. It is not the responsibility of the application to wire up the database connection.