13-minute read.

did/does Russia support or oppose the ongoing Tavush border delimitation process?

Some pro-West figures in Armenia believe that Russia is against this delimitation process because that would further reduce the need to have Russian boots in those regions, and Armenian government member(s) have publicly stated that there will be no need for Russians to stay there. Others cite a recent statement made by Russian MFA spokeswoman Zakharova to suggest Russia supports the delimitation. Others believe Russia organized this delimitation process by using its "puppet" Mher Grigoryan - the head of the Armenian border commission.
Let's recall the events.
March 18: PM Pashinyan announces a plan to delimit the borders and to start it from Tavush. Says the chance of a war is high if Armenia doesn't return the 4 (2.5) Soviet-era Azerbaijani villages where civilians used to live.
March 20, Moscow, Zakharova: There is a mechanism for delimitation and Russia is ready to assist the parties with our expertise. We are ready to cooperate [suggests that Russia is not currently part of that process]. That is the role we could play. Now regarding the role we certainly do NOT play today. We have nothing to do with the decisions voiced by the Armenian government. Do me a favor, understand and remember, that whatever Pashinyan said, must not and cannot be associated with Russia. Armenia held no consultations with Russia in advance, no contacts, this is an exclusively Armenian decision based on Yerevan's consultations with the West. This is the West's zone of responsibility. The questions on what agreements they have reached, what the [West] was pushing Armenia to accept, should be directed at Yerevan. The Armenian government should not blame Russia for this. //
Fast forward to April 19. Armenian government announces a breakthrough agreement with Azerbaijan. Territorial-wise, it is more favorable for Armenia than many expected, with Armenia maintaining control of crucial roads and most of the Soviet-Azerbaijani territories during this phase of the delimitation.
Following this agreement and the successful launch of the border marking process, Russia's Zakharova makes a generic statement welcoming any diplomatic effort: "Let me remind you of our [Russia's] traditional position. We support the settlement of all issues related to the demarcation of the state border between Azerbaijan and Armenia, without exception, exclusively by political-diplomatic methods."
Do you believe Russia organized, supported, or truly supports this process? Leave your opinion in the comments below.
video, source, source,

Armenia's ruling party met Ben Cardin, the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee

A delegation of ranking ruling MPs and Armenia's Ambassador Lilith Makunts were hosted by Senator Cardin on Wednesday.
They discussed the AM-AZ peace process and the Crossroads of Peace regional logistics project that aims to lift the blockade on Armenia.
Cardin expressed support for Armenia's sovereignty and democracy and expressed willingness to further deepen the US-AM relations.
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tens of U.S. Representatives urge Congressional Appropriators to allocate $200 million for Artsakh refugees

66 members of the House want to...
(1) Expand the US military aid to Armenia. $20M in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and $10M in International Military Education and Training (IMET).
(2) Suspend all US military and security aid to Azerbaijan.
(3) Urge Blinken to develop a potential sanctions package against the Azerbaijani regime.
(4) $200M for Nagorno-Karabakh refugees.
(5) $10M for law enforcement reforms in INCLE
(6) $10M in democratic reforms under OTI
ANCA welcomed the letter by the Congress members:

With tens of billions of American dollars being shipped overseas to crisis zones around the world, the less than $20 million that President Biden has set aside – but not yet allocated – for displaced Artsakh Armenians is truly an embarrassment

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United States Commission on International Religious Freedom recommends listing Azerbaijan among "countries of particular concern" like Afghanistan, North Korea, and Cuba

The USCIRF made that recommendation to the US government in its 2024 Annual report.
It also urges the US government to allocate funds to restore, preserve, and protect Armenian religious and cultural sites in Nagorno-Karabakh.
The report notes that in 2023 the Azerbaijani government continued to pose a threat to religious sites in Nagorno-Karabakh. For example, the chairman of Azerbaijan's official State Committee for Work on Religious Affairs Mubariz Gurbanli urged Armenian Apostolic priests to leave the Dadivank Monastery, falsely claiming that they had no ties to the religious site.
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U.S. Treasury Department sanctions an Azerbaijani business for assisting Russia to bypass the weapons sanctions

An Azerbaijani company is accused of acting as an intermediary to negotiate and execute business deals on behalf of sanctioned Russian entities.
source, source,

Azerbaijani president Aliyev praises Russia's role in "ensuring security" in Caucasus and globally

Ilham Aliyev hosted the Russian Senate's deputy leader Kosachev and the head of the Eurasian Integration Committee Leonid Kalashnikov.
RUSSIAN SENATOR: President Aliyev's insightful speech at the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue regarding the restoration of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and [the anti-French speech about] neo-colonialism were very relevant under today's conditions. Mr. Aliyev's recent visit to Moscow was very successful.
ILHAM ALIYEV: My visit to Moscow was very productive and it once again displayed the strategic nature of the Russian-Azerbaijani alliance. As neighboring states, we provide maximum support to one another. Russia plays an important role in ensuring security not only in the region but also in the wider area.
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Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Ukraine discussed bilateral and regional issues over the phone

Emphasizing the efforts to achieve lasting peace and stability in the South Caucasus, Ararat Mirzoyan attached importance to the unconditional respect for the principle of territorial integrity in the process of border delimitation, the commitment to the 1991 Alma-Ata Declaration and the position expressed by international partners

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Armenian government approves the package to establish Police Guard as part of ongoing police reforms

EXECUTIVE: Purely police service will be created with new weapons and trained personnel in accordance with international standards, which will be entrusted with the maintenance of public order and public safety, the protection of state buildings and important objects, the escorting of delegations provided for by the state protocol, as well as ensuring the legal regime of martial law and state of emergency.
At the same time, the adoption of the drafts will contribute to more effective realization of the right of citizens to hold assemblies, and will exclude the risks of use of disproportionate force against participants of rallies.
INTERIOR MINISTRY: Police Guard will be one of the 4 pillars of the police reforms [Patrol Police, Police Guard,...]. We have been working with the Council of Europe and Armenian NGOs to develop this reform. It has received a positive evaluation from international observers.
The Police Guard will have civilian management and be monitored by the parliament. In comparison, the existing Police Forces operate under a different code. The Police Guard will be formed as an entirely new structure and won't be a legal successor of another division.
New international standards will be implemented for the use of force and weapons. This will come to replace "inaccurate" formulations in the existing structures.
Today we have reports about a disproportionate amount of force being used by police, or other inappropriate conduct. That is because these police officers were never trained and educated for years. The Police Guard applicants will receive training on how to ethically communicate with citizens during mass events, how to negotiate with citizens, what the citizens' rights are, etc.
The main law will go into effect in September, launching a process of bringing other laws in line with the new code. The head of the Police Guard will be appointed in January 2025; it will be fully formed two months later. We decided to do it slowly so as not to compromise the quality and to give enough time for applicants to study and join the service.
PASHINYAN: This is the next important reform in the police. We have decided to do it slowly but accurately. We need to standardize how much force the police can use and when. The correct boundaries will protect not only citizens but also the officers who will avoid harsh consequences by not overstepping their boundaries.
source, video,

Armenia and US extend agreement on cooperation in the area of counterproliferation of weapons of mass destruction

MOD Papikyan hosted Ambassador Kvien. They discussed the current state of AM-US relations and future developments.
The US expressed readiness to continue to support defense reforms in Armenia.
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Armenia will join an EAEU mechanism to identify the true origin of goods

There is a unified system of determining the origin of goods that helps streamline the movement of goods.
EXECUTIVE: This will significantly facilitate trade, as goods from the EAEU member states, as well as from countries that have or are planning free trade agreements with the EAEU, will undergo minimal inspections and enjoy favorable trade regimes. The unified system will simplify the procedure for processing documents.
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the government discusses changes to the tax code for businesses

FINANCE MINISTER: (1) We need to raise the turnover tax rate to reduce the difference in tax burden compared to the VAT/profit taxation system. (2) Turnover taxpayers should improve their documentation discipline. (3) Certain types of activities won't enjoy the privileges of microbusinesses and turnover tax. The latter must be more targeted.
As you know, the purpose of the turnover tax system was to simplify the tax system and have a milder approach to certain businesses. However, the research shows that the turnover tax system has turned into a system of "privilege". We compared the tax burden under profit/VAT and turnover systems and found that in almost every sector, the profit/VAT burden was much heavier than the turnover-based burden, ranging from 2-3x.
Moreover, recent years' experience with turnover tax and microbusiness shows that these systems often include types of business activities that resemble activities that are prohibited under the turnover tax system.
Therefore, it is necessary to double the turnover tax for most cases to address the aforementioned issues.

the tax rate for trade enterprises will be set at 10%, for production enterprises - 7%, and for the catering sector - 12%. At the same time, the limit for turnover tax will remain unchanged at 120 million drams per year (equivalent to about $300 thousand), and if the business exceeds this threshold, it will be forced to switch to VAT and profit tax

At the same time, the final turnover tax rate will be lower in practice than the existing rates for certain businesses that properly document their activities.

retailers will be able to reduce their minimum tax rate from 1.5% to 1%, manufacturing companies from 3.5% to 3%, and the catering sector from 4% to 3.5%. Full report.

As of 2022, we had 56,000 businesses paying turnover tax. That's twice the number of businesses in the profit/VAT system. These turnover-based businesses paid only 2.3% of the share last year. This is a very low number. We need the tax system to be fair.
PASHINYAN: Our conclusion is that the turnover tax system has been promoting bad motivations. Our goal was to allow businesses to grow so we believed that by providing certain privileges, certain trampolines, to allow people to "kickstart" their businesses, it would allow them to grow and in turn grow the economy. The goal was to allow them to grow and exit the turnover tax system and enter the VAT system.
Today the turnover tax threshold is ֏120M so you pay turnover tax for under ֏120M, and VAT for turnover above ֏120M. For microbusinesses the annual turnover threshold is ֏24M.
The research shows that as soon as the business reaches this threshold, instead of using the trampoline to jump, it for some reason hits the brakes. It turns out that how well businesses perform on paper is mysteriously tied to whatever threshold we set. The turnover reaches ֏118.5M but never crosses ֏120M. This system promotes a shadowy economy.
It is time to gradually abolish the turnover tax system and set healthy motivations for businesses. If we want to have a country, we have to collect taxes. Having an independent state is the most expensive project in the world. Every looma you pay to the tax authority helps strengthen Armenia.
IRS CHIEF: Another amendment sets January 1, 2025, as a deadline for turnover tax businesses to improve their paperwork discipline. If we find discrepancies in the business's product inventory not explained by paperwork, we will be able to demand a 20% tax.
PASHINYAN: I don't get it. This system existed since the early 2000s. Does that mean for 20 years the tax code promoted and allowed illegal activities and we're fixing it only in 2025?
IRS CHIEF: (nods in approval)
PASHINYAN: Why did we not fix it sooner, after 2018? Can anyone explain how it slipped through the cracks? This is why we need to develop Armenia's institutions. This problem is everywhere. We have thousands of state employees presenting daily nonsense reports but not the important things. Sometimes I read stacks of documents, never understand anything at the end, and develop the impression that it's a ploy to keep you distracted from the important. Why are you grinning right now? I know you have all experienced this. Let's fix this.
We must step-by-step abolish the turnover tax and establish one taxation system in Armenia. Businesses that require help will receive help, but we must end this economic deformity. //
full, source,

government authorizes allocation of another $125 million to assist Nagorno-Karabakh refugees

It will keep the monthly payments going until December.
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Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan could swap parts of their territories to address border demarcation issues

KYRGYZSTAN: It's possible, but only after discussing it with border villagers. The border delimitation work is reaching its end. We have seen two conflicts and we have sustained losses among civilians and servicemen. People are concerned and there is fear among the border populations on both sides. In some regions, the border passes through communities but it's necessary to make mutual concessions, without which it will be impossible to resolve this.
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Russia expands the scope of anti-migrant retaliation to include citizens of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan

About a thousand Tajik citizens, many of whom were students studying in Russian universities, were detained at the airports and borders. Now the same is happening to Uzbek and Kyrgyz citizens.
Russian NGO: The migrants are being arrested at the airport. They have accumulated around 4,500 people at airports since April 24, and a similar number was blocked on land borders. This is the first time restrictions are applied at this scale. We receive letters that the travelers are left without food, water, and toilet, and that their cellphones are being taken away without an explanation. Some of them got deported within 2 days, while others had to wait a week. //
Foreign ministries of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have urged their citizens not to travel to Russia. Tajikistan's MFA sent a note of protest to the Russian embassy.
source,source,

Georgia’s Western trajectory is at risk: U.S. government

STATE DEPT: The United States condemns the Kremlin-inspired “foreign influence” legislation advanced in Georgia’s parliament and the false narrative government officials have adopted to defend it.
Members of the ruling party have been clear that the intent of the law is to silence critical voices and destroy Georgia’s vibrant civil society, which serves as a critical check on government in any democratic nation.
The statements and actions of the Georgian government are incompatible with the democratic values that underpin membership in the EU and NATO
Comments mischaracterizing foreign assistance in Georgia – which we have provided for 32 years to strengthen Georgia’s economy, democracy, and ability to deter Russian aggression – fundamentally undermine the strong relationship.
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What is happening in Georgia? Protests continue in Tbilisi over the "foreign agent" bill.

The government says the law is necessary to protect the country from foreign influence and that it could be revoked/amended later if the EU decides to accept Georgia. The opposition says it's a Russian-style law that aims to punish pro-West NGOs and will derail Georgia's path to the EU.
UGULAVA (ex-mayor of Tbilisi): The vast majority of the population is against this law. If you take the speech by the ruling party leader Bidzina Ivanishvili and replace "Georgia" with "Russia", it won't be any different than the speeches made by Vladimir Putin. Ivanishvili publicly announced that the West is the enemy of Georgia. He even distorted history and announced that the 2003 Rose Revolution was a Western conspiracy. That is an identical copy of how Putin described the revolution. This angered many Georgians, who felt that they didn't "sign up" for this. Modern Georgians have two elements that shaped their identity: (1) Georgia is part of Europe and is a European nation, (2) the Georgian identity was formed during the struggle against the Russian Empire. The separation from the Empire was the biggest achievement of the 20th century.
Ivanishvili also announced that the October elections are a "formality" and that he plans to arrest his opponents as part of a "de-Nazification" crackdown. He plans to declare [Saakashvili's] United National Movement as an illegal organization. He said it point blank during his public speech. [needs fact-check]
REPORTER (RainTV, Russian opposition): Many observers have indeed noted how open and direct Ivanishvili's confrontation was with the West in his speech. He almost promised repressions against the opposition.
UGULAVA: This is a Putinization of Georgia. They have declared Georgia as part of the "Russian world" that must fight for traditional values, etc. but the population is against this en masse. Over 100,000 protesters took to the streets of Tbilisi, which is not a large city.
May 17 is Diversity Day [against anti-LGBT hatred] but the church wants to convert it to Family Day. They are provoking. On that day they [traditional value defenders] often organize mass unrest. This is what Putin does. Ivanishvili, the reactionaries at church, and Putin are operating in tandem.
source, [source,]

9th Crusade is officially launched in Armenia

Robert Kocharyan's MP son Levon Kocharyan's assistant released a statement after assaulting a pro-government journalist over a report critical of an opposition churchman and his involvement in businesses. Context in May 1 news.
KOCHARYAN's ASSISTANT: Yes, there was an incident between us. This young man has adopted a mission to discredit the church, which is unacceptable for me as an Armenian, as a Christian. I attempted to explain this to him in the backyard of the parliament building. It is my duty as an Armenian to defend the church. Spreading falsehoods about the church and its figures is an act void of morality. He accused me of the same, so I punched him once [you telling on yourself, bud, get a fucking lawyer]. He fell to the ground. He got up and started screaming at me but I didn't fall for his provocations. He yelled and said "but I didn't touch you". I told him "you touched my church", that's the same as touching me. //
He has been jailed for 2 months pending a trial.
full, source,

Edmon Marutyan has released a statement in support of opposition church figures and delimitation protesters

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update on "ծակվավ" story

The opposition activist who was seen poking a van's tire in Tavush is charged with a crime, and so is a 17-year-old who gave him the knife. Context in April 27 news.
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the construction of Park of Life is underway in Yerevan: VIDEO

Dedicated to soldiers, it will be located in Yerevan's Botanical Garden. There will be a pond, newly renovated cascade stairs, alleys, and a parking lot for 180 cars.
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what share of the IT workforce is Armenian?

Last year there were 34,000 registered IT workers, a +62% YoY.
44 percentage points of the 62% increase was caused by the influx of foreigners, mostly Russians.
Share of foreigners in the IT workforce:
2022: 4%
2023: 27%
The number of Russian IT workers in Armenia:
2023 Jun: 8,600 (peak)
2023 Dec: 8,300
The gross output of the IT sector:
2022: ֏585B
2023: ֏837B ($2.1B)
more,

the reptiles are among us

The Nature Ministry (which apparently still exists) responded to concerns raised by residents about an increasingly frequent encounter with lizards.
The ministry says there are 27 types in Armenia and almost half of them are in the Red Book so try not to kill them, they are benign, and they help protect crops by feeding on harmful invertebrates.
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I'm currently editing my resume for min. wage jobs. The resume summary will change according to the job description.
Side note: I know it's not necessary to have a summary but I need to beef it up a bit. I didn't do any extracurriculars or side projects which is why I need to fill it in it up, so it doesn't look too empty.
For the moment, this is what I have;
https://preview.redd.it/ojzewm5ef3yc1.png?width=551&format=png&auto=webp&s=ea0012978bd24b2e5b2840954c7d95c2d844b39f

Just recently got back after a 3-week stay in Tokyo
1. QR CODE at the airport - if you want to have a smooth/quicker immigration process, it helps A LOT if you fill up the immigration questions on “Visit Japan Web” in advance (I did mine at home before flying). It will give you a QR code at the end which you need to save on your phone (as screenshot) so you can use it later at the airport, either a staff will ask for it or you tap it on a machine there, or both.
2. SUICA - there is a shortage but yes you can still get this in some places. A lot of people here have reported that they were able to get it from the airports. When I arrived in Haneda, the first kiosk I saw was Pasmo so I instead got this. However it was only valid for 30 days so the last 85 yen was forfeited as I didn’t get the chance to spend it anymore. I also was able to get a physical Suica card at Tokyo Station. I went to travel office/tourism office of some sort and showed my passport.
Another option is, If you are an iPhone user (newer models), you should be able to add Suica as your travel card on your apple wallet. It’s already pre-installed and you just need to add it/choose it as your travel card, then you can top it up via Apple Pay using your debit or credit card that is also in your apple wallet.
Once you have digital Suica, you don’t really need anything anymore as a form of payment. Travel cards such as Suica, Pasmo, ICOCA etc. can be used as a form of payment virtually everywhere. You can pretty much pay contactless anywhere except in very very few places like temples, games like grab machines, capsule toys etc, coin-operated laundry, otherwise you don’t need cash. I withdrew about 10k yen for this purpose and I just made sure to spend every bit of it so I don’t have to carry it back home. But you will still survive without cash at all. It’s mostly contactless now. 15 years ago on my firs trip to Japan, it was still cash-based! Now, not anymore.
3. CASH - If you still prefer cash, then 7/11 is your bet. I withdrew from 7/11 atm machine next to my hotel. It has the best rate and did not charge me any international fee. In some train station, you will also see 7/11 atm machines.
4. E-SIM - this is an easy problem to solve, at least for me. Based on my readings here, I found that either Airalo or Ubigi is the best to go. I downloaded both apps on my iPhone and only Airalo was easier to use because the Ubigi app just didn’t work, it just didn’t let me press some buttons so I eventually gave up and went for Airalo which was absolutely easier to use. I bought a 20GB that’s valid for 30 days. Reason being it’s just a few dollars additional to double from 10GB to 20GB. But it ended up UNUSED cos for 3 weeks I was only able to use 8GB and that is with HEAVY use for the entire 3 weeks, lots of social media browsing and I even uploaded photos and videos. So, unless you’re a heavy user, 10GB or lesser should be fine.
Feel free to use my code "RO8362"to get a $3 dollar off.
5. LANGUAGE - there was absolutely no moment where I froze or hesitant or scared because I didn’t speak Japanese. I only know a few words (Konnichiwa, Arigato gozaimasu, sumimasen, oyaho..) and to be honest I only used two words most of the time. To open a conversation I’d say Konnichiwa then proceed in English, then of course I thanked them with Arigato, and a bit of a bow. That’s it.
6. RESERVATIONS - as long as you don’t go to establishments that Social media are hyping, you don’t need to be scared of not getting in. I’ve never once had to reserve for a seat. I just walked in all the restaurants I went to. There are tons and tons of good, if not better restaurants out there that are waiting for your business. You don’t need to rely on social media for a good restaurant experience. Chances are, you’ll have a better experience at restaurants that are not endorsed by social media!
7. SHOES - I only brought one pair. They are hiking shoes, very very light and waterproof. It’s been broken in for at least a year so it was really comfortable and perfect for a Japan trip. Because my trip was not rigid and planned, I didn’t really stress out with walking. Most of the time, I go out without even a plan. I was staying in Shinjuku so I would just go to Shinjuku station, look on my google map and decide right there and then where I want to spend my day. I take the Metro all the time so it helps a lot in walking less. I never once felt I was tired from walking. Maybe because I walked with ease and I wasn’t chasing this and that, I was taking my time. I had plenty.
8. SHINKANSEN - I did travel very short distance - coming back to Tokyo from my Yokohama excursion. It’s my first time to ever ride a Shinkansen and buy a ticket. It was a breeze. There’s an English option and you just follow the instructions. It will spit out both the ticket and the receipt. Make sure you keep them both. When I arrived in Tokyo Station, I first did some food shopping before I proceeded in finding my next train to Shinjuku. After arriving in Shinjuku and exiting, the machine gave me an error reading and won’t let me exit. I tried several times and eventually gave up so I asked for help from the station staff in a window and explained to him what’s happening. All I had to do was to show my Shinkansen receipt, it’s a proof that I indeed pay my Yokohama-tokyo trip before ending in Shinjuku so he just charged my Tokyo-Shinjuku trip. If I threw away the Shinkansen receipt, he would have charged me from Yokohama - Shinjuku.
9. LUGGAGE - if you can help it, travel very very light. The hotel I stayed in wouldn’t let me deposit my luggage before and after check in and they were apologetic about it. Of course some hotels have space so find out in advance. I arrived 5 hours early so I had to kill time first. Because, the hotel had no space for luggage, I went to Shinjuku station and lounge about there. There were so many coin-operated lockers but I’d rather just sit and wait for a few hours. Also, if you travel light, you can use the extra space in your luggage for your purchases later such as souvenirs!!!
10. WHERE to stay? - this really depends on you but if your main consideration is safety, anywhere is safe. If your concern is getting to your hotel early, then choose a place next to a metro station. If your main concern is shopping options, then stay near Ginza. In my case, I wanted to stay near the area where there’s non-stop entertainment so I chose Shinjuku, a city that never sleeps they say lol. 15 years ago on my first trip, I stayed in Akasaka and it was absolutely gorgeous there as well. So anywhere is fine really, depends on your priority.
11. HOW TO BEHAVE - there are only three things I am very very familiar with and I follow ALL THE TIME: (1) NOT TALKING on public transport (2) NOT EATING while walking (3) making sure you take your trash/rubbish with you. You should be fine if you follow these three at least. Generally, just don’t be a dick and you will not get in trouble lol.
12. TAX-FREE SHOPPING - I don’t even bother queuing for tax-free shopping. It’s not worth it. It’s about 10% so if I spent a total of $1000 dollars on shopping spree, I’ll be happy to give that $100 dollars to JAPAN cos I know they will spend it wisely. All consumables don’t qualify for tax exemption anyway, so why bother. If you’re still inclined to save a few penny, then by all means. But be prepared to queue and show your passport at the counter.
13. TEAMLAB PLANET vs BORDERLESS - if you can only afford one, choose either, they're both unique on their own. Planet has route you have to follow so once you're done you can't reenter anymore. Borderless has no route so you go from one installation to another in random, you might miss some or not, and you decide when to quit and find the exit door.
14. TOKYO SKY TREE - the only important tip I have here is book the combo package that includes the higher observation deck (i think its called Tembo?). The higher observation deck has better layout cos the sun can give a natural lighting effect in your photos while the lower observation deck doesnt have that effect.
15. NAVIGATION - yes it's true. Google maps really works well with planning your trip in Japan. I didn't know google maps can be this helpful until I used it during this trip.
16. PRICES - If you want to quickly translate the price in yen to the price in your own currency, just remember how much is 1 dollar (for example) in yen. I'm from UK and at the time 1£ was roughly 192 yen. So I can quickly translate how much is my meal in £££. If I see a ¥1000 yen ramen bowl, I know it should be roughly £5 (1000/192 = 5.20). If I buy a ¥650 key chain, i know it's around £3 something, etc.
Happy travels!!!🎌

English: before

1. prior or preceding in dignity, order, rank, right, or worth
   
2. preceding in space
   
3. farther onward, in place or time
   

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Translations

• Catalan: abans que
  
• Chinese: 以前、在...之前、先于
  
• Esperanto: antaŭ ol
  
• French: avant
  
• Galician: antes de que
  
• German: vorher / zuvor / früher
  
• Hindi: समक्ष
  
• Italian: prima
  
• Japanese: 前に / まえに
  
• Portuguese: antes
  
• Romanian: înainte (de)
  
• Spanish: antes
  
• Swedish: före
  
• Welsh: cyn
  

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Report an incorrect translation @ https://wordofthehour.org/translations

Just got back from Vegas and figured I would give some input Quick version Restaurants: Buddy Vs Sunday brunch definitely worth it China Poblano worth it Grand luxe cafe one of the better values Top of Binion steak house mostly worth it Mon Ami Gabi mostly worth it Hells kitchen not worth it at all, get the sticky toffee pudding at the bar at his pub and skip
Shows Absinthe totally worth it Fremont street totally worth it(hell it’s free) Beatles love worth it Sphere post card from earth, worth seeing but not for the price
Attractions Grand Canyon west wonderful Red rock canyon wonderful Hoover dam worth taking the tour
Long version
Restaurants: Buddy Vs Sunday brunch buffet. Obviously not the variety of the Wynn but good quality. Some of the highlights meatballs were very good, Mac and cheese some of the best I’ve ever had. The made to order French toast was amazing
China Poblano we got a variety of dishes between us and it was a bit hit or miss but overall good. Best item ants climbing a tree, worst 20 vegetable fried rice. Got 2 salt air margaritas one excellent the other awful which was weird. Grand luxe cafe: chain food but good prices and quality for the strip Top of Binion steak. The view amazing, the service was just ok but that may have been due to large loud crowd next to us. Steaks were good but not spectacular. The bread pudding was amazing. Where they failed were the sides. Mac and cheese was dry and bland, risotto was awful, garlic mash decent.
Mon Ami Gabi mostly worth it. Everything was pretty good but the warm baguette and brie appetizer were the highlights, and that speaks to entrees not being amazing. This was for diner have been to breakfast before and found that excellent.
Hell’s Kitchen. The food was entirely mediocre. It took about 45 seconds after ordering to get our meals. Obviously bad sign as this means nothing is cooked to order. Primary flavor on everything was just salt, no layers of flavor. Got braised short ribs and the potato pancake that comes with was inedible. The sticky toffee pudding was good.
Shows Absinthe have been before but brought friends and wasn’t sure they would enjoy. They loved it and we still loved it. Every acrobatic act was new to us. Fremont street: not going into to much detail here but good quality cover bands, great people watching and good vibe Beatles love. Very trippy and wish I was more a fan or at least had a better grasp of Beatles music. I don’t partake myself but probably better under the influence
Sphere post card from earth, most important thing here do not listen to the reviews about getting there early. We went to 2pm show and doors do not open until 2 the movie starts at 3pm. The technology and the movie were good but simply not worth the cost
Attractions Grand Canyon west: ok this gets hammered for being a tourist trap. I completely disagree the view at guano point is amazing maybe not as spectacular as south rim but much more doable in a day. The 60$ admission is fair, not like the infrastructure is free and obvious the locals are not rolling in money. I would skip the sky bridge as the 30$ to walk out plus 50$ish for photos doesn’t seem worth it to me. Spend 180 on helicopter and take all the picks you want
Red rock canyon: for something only 30 min outside of the strip I was surprised what was available. Good hiking, good views obviously don’t go when it’s 130
Hoover dam. Definitely worth seeing and I would at least do the power plant tour (total 15$). Not sure the extra $ for the dam tour is worth it really only includes one extra stop with a look out but also only 15bucks

BHARAT EPILOGUE PART 1
(In this post: Beef Bans, Ethnic Tensions, Recession, and Elections)
More than a decade of independence, the 50s in Bharat was a time of prosperity and growth for the country. With the death of Nehru, the INC undertook a massive shift away from his Fabian vision for the country. After a number of contingencies, the Liberal C. Rajagopalachari was selected as the Prime Minister of Bharat. His tenure in the first few years was shaky, but PM Rajaji was able to pass his trophy legislation, The Swatantra Act, releasing Bharati citizens from the possibility of a “Permit Raj” as described by Rajaji. The economy expanded almost three-fold in the following years, with the government developing transportation and capital goods manufacturing to facilitate the movement of money.
 
The Roaring 50s, as it has been called, was a time of great change and relative stability in Bharat. While the country was developing, the secessionist neighbor, Pakistan, was developing alongside Bharat. The Indus River development, mediated by the United States, facilitated the building of state-of-the-art hydroelectric and irrigation dams along the Indus River and its tributaries, providing electricity to Punjab and irrigating the arid lands on either side. Indo-Pak relations were unwavering in this time, with more development projects cooperatively supporting both economies. In the late 50s, the Union of Hindustan was established, building upon the Customs Union put to law at partition and allowing other states to join. Though it was limited in scope for much time, it was the first big leap in the cementing of friendship between the two brotherly nations.
 
The end of the 1950s would serve as the prologue to a time of crisis in the 1960s both economically and politically. The first struggles were clear when the CM of Uttar Pradesh signed into law a ban on the slaughter of cattle for beef, violating the implicitly secular nature of the constitution of Bharat. Ethnic tensions, especially in the south of Bharat would prove to be a flashpoint for political change, while the supercharged economy was much overdue for a slowdown. These issues would define the 60s for the country and for the INC.
 
Uttar Pradesh Parliamentary Crisis, 1959
The riots in UP and the scandal in Chief Minister Sampurnanand’s government caused a strong anger in the office of the Prime Minister. Rajaji ordered a federal investigation into the actions of the police in failing to contain sectarian riots against Muslims, claiming a necessity to enforce the Rule of Law and ensure that public servants will serve the entire public. Sampurnanand criticized this move by Delhi as overreach by the government, but the investigation continued as planned.
 
Meanwhile, the legislature in UP stirred with talk of replacing Sampurnanand, with the Socialists taking the strongest stance against him and his allies in the INC. His INC rivals too, in reaction to the investigation and the criticism of him from the INC leadership, began negotiating with INC MPs in UP to mutiny against the CM and remove him from power. His popularity, though, limits the success of these negotiations, but the triumvirate of Charan Singh, Kamlapati Tripathi, and Chandra Bhanu Gupta succeeds in rallying under half of the INC MPs to their side. The Socialists, already united against the CM, make for natural allies in this maneuver, and they agree to vote together on any motion to remove Sampurnanand from his position.
 
The federal investigation, which lasted for three weeks, found that the police chief did in fact have private sympathies for the riots against Muslims and did not deploy riot control as necessary or call on help from Federal forces. The investigatory committee ruled that the police chief was at fault for the excess deaths of Muslims in the riots and advised for his removal and replacement. At this news, the Triumvirate and their Socialist allies moved for a vote of no confidence against Sampurnanand to remove him from his position as Chief Minister, succeeding with just two votes for removal.
 
This move was previously unprecedented in Bharati history since independence, creating new precedents in politics, that the national leadership can interfere with the politics of the states, and that the INC may successfully mutiny against itself. The dangers of such a precedent were clear to the triumvirate and the Prime Minister, but to them the precedent of allowing the state to be ruled by a nationalistic and vigilante government was more dangerous. After the fact, the INC in conjunction with the socialists negotiated to elect Charan Singh to the position of Chief Minister, where he spearheaded land reform efforts in the state and conceded some political favors to the Socialists and to the industrialists led by Tripathi. Additionally, the Singh government reversed the Beef Ban put in place by Sampurnanand.
 
Ethnic Tensions, 1959-1961
The South of Bharat was ethnically diverse, and several movements for autonomy and even secession were followed and advocated for, though typically by a minority of people. However, in the 1960s, this trend would grow to political relevance. Particularly Tamils in the south were particularly strongly for the reorganization of states for the creation of ‘Tamil Nadu,’ a state made entirely of Tamil people. Similarly, Marathas, Telugu, and – in the northeast – Assamese movements were on the rise and calling for autonomy. For the most part, the INC leadership saw this as inefficient and only leading to further bloat of the Bharati state. However, Delhi knew the dangers of keeping the status quo as it is. The 1953 Andhra movement led to a clash that killed several and injured thousands, something that did not bode well for the future of the country. As such, the parliament passed an act that mandated the printing of all literature in states in the local language as well as English – rather than Hindi – so that the local populace could live and work with their native language and understand a shared national tongue in the form of English.
 
Of course, this did not solve all problems. The multilingual state governments had linguistic roadblocks as well, leading to frustration for voters and MPs alike. In an attempt to solve this issue, New Delhi provided resources for the hiring and use of translators and new translation methodologies in state parliaments, though there was trouble in their implementation which did not fully assuage the concerns of the delegates. This frustration manifested itself as protests for the reorganization of states, though not of an unprecedented size.
 
Prime Minister Rajaji, a Tamil native, made speeches in Chennai and other Tamil cities advocating against the linguistic division of Bharat, recalling the British use of divide and conquer to keep the Bharatis subjugated and fighting amongst themselves. However, he recognized the importance of not subjugating one language or people to another simply due to their residing in that state. He spoke in full support of the linguistic and cultural freedom of people within the states, especially directing the audience’s attention towards the Telugu in the north of Madras as brothers and fellow Bharatis. He received a standing ovation from the crowd, but his efforts were still in vain to maintain Madras as it was.
 
Madras was not the only problem area with linguistic issues. Bombay, the city and the state, was feeling its own movement for reorganization. The movement came to a head when protests in Bombay led to the deaths of 100 people in riots when they were shot by police. The various Marathi samitis, which advocated for the annexation of Bombay into the union state as its capital, staged various protests burning effigies of Chief Minister S.K. Patil, – a disciple of Morarji Desai – Minister Desai, and Prime Minister Rajaji in the streets, and the momentum against the INC in Marathi-speaking portions of Bombay has grown.
 
This police violence has been to the detriment of S.K. Patil, a man who was considered to be a candidate for top political office for the next generation of political leaders in Bharat. He has been pinned as a potential leader of Rajaji’s pro-free market, liberal caucus in the INC and has made a name for himself in this regard. He as well as Desai and Rajaji have been vocally against the incorporation of Bombay city into the wider state, citing the cosmopolitan nature of the city and the various benefits that independence has had for the city. In fact, Marathi first-language speakers do not make up a majority of residents of Bombay, with only 40% of people using it in the home on a daily basis. 27% of people use Hindustani – either Hindi or Urdu – on a daily basis, and 15% of people use Gujarati primarily. The remaining 18% of residents speak languages ranging from Tamil to Assamese to Kashmiri and even foreign languages like Arabic. English and Hindustani make up the vast majority of second languages in Bombay city. This fact, they claim, more than justifies its union territory status in Bharat and makes its incorporation into a theoretical Marathi linguistic state unnecessary.
 
Socialists in Bombay state and city have allied with the Marathi advocates, mostly due to the potential of unseating the pro-capitalist Patil from his influential position in the city. Though the image of Bombay city independence has not been helped by the endorsement by the Bharata Jana Sangh and M.S. Golwalkar, claiming that linguistically organized states would “sap the soul of the Hindu people and divide them among themselves,” though not explicitly for the benefit of the pro-reorganization peoples. Patil, Desai, and even Rajaji to some extent, denounced the BJS and Golwalkar as motivated by impure and unfounded positions, and denies their backing for the independence of Bombay.
 
Patil is strongly for the independence of Bombay city, and in his tenure so far improved Bombay with the intention of making it a model city. For the most part, this has come true, with tens of thousands of Bharatis and foreign workers moving every year. He presided over one of the largest growth periods of the city’s history, gaining almost 50% new residents in the course of the 1950s with the help of national developments in transportation to facilitate it and the importance of Bombay as an industrial and commercial hub. His influence on the city has weight, and his camp has the support of several national INC leaders.
 
In January 1961 the State Reorganization Committee was formed with the task of devising a reorganization of the administrative divisions in Bharat. It was clear that some reorganization needed to be done, and this was the decisive moment that the divisions would be redrawn. First, the enclaves and exclaves were simplified, leading to an enlarged Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. Bombay state remained mostly unchanged save for a few adjustments. Bombay city remained an independent union territory, to the dismay of Marathi activists. Most significantly, Andhra Pradesh was split from Madras, creating a mostly Telugu state. Andhra Pradesh was decided to be split mostly due to the overextension of Madras, and the increased autonomy would allow for greater development at the cost of more bureaucratic red tape.
 
Assam was treated differently. Instead of splitting it into many small states, the autonomist regions were granted a special status that allowed for a degree of autonomy without the de facto division of the state. Nagaland and other tribes were granted autonomy within Assam, allowing for the central organization of the state alongside linguistic and semi-political autonomy.
 
Protests inevitably followed the State Reorganization but subsided in due time.
 
Economic Stagnation, 1960-1962
Though it was monumental in the post-independence history of Bharat, the Roaring 50s had to come to an end at some point. The release of the Bharati market after the Swatantra Act led to an explosion in economic activity, especially in the region of manufacturing. Though the government made efforts to ensure the continued functioning of the economy and its access to resources to build high-value-added products, the unprecedented growth in Bharat forced enterprises to import much of their needed goods to maintain production. This increased costs of goods produced domestically, in turn incentivizing the purchase of goods made abroad. The Bharati economy, which to this point enjoyed a significant ~15% yearly GDP growth on average, had effectively slowed down to a crawl.
 
It was not the high-end goods that were being imported in mass per-say, but the raw industrial goods that domestic production simply could not keep up with. Iron and food for canning, copper for electrical components, coal and oil for energy and manufacturing; all of these were for the most part imported from elsewhere since the domestic extraction industries could not keep up with the pace of growth so far. Bharati steel manufacturing more than sextupled in the course of the 1950s, allowing for the export of steel to other countries like Ceylon, the Philippines, Nepal, and Pakistan, and capital goods like heavy machinery and precision milling tools had begun manufacture and grown healthily for years. However, the resources that these machines were made of were in desperate shortage, necessitating the import from abroad.
 
The Partition-enabled Customs Union with Pakistan allowed for economic expansion in Bharat to continue, with raw resources from Pakistan fueling the creation of high-value goods to be brought back to Pakistan. However, this would not be enough. Pakistani extraction operations were less efficient than Bharati ones simply due to the red tape not present in Bharat, and the expansion of operations was not nearly as fast as necessary to fuel the exponentially growing economy of Bharat.
 
Stagnation led to the depressing of wages and the increase in the price of good in Bharat, which many began to blame the INC leadership in New Delhi for causing. Some criticized the government for not having the foresight to speed up resource extraction while others railed against the free market as a whole, advocating for the nationalization of industries to be better planned by the government so as to not run into problems of shortage. Prime Minister Rajaji, the pioneer of the free-market caucus in the INC, was a true believer in the ability of the free market to correct itself, which in this case would mean the expansion of domestic extraction enterprises to fulfil a niche in the Bharati market, but this did not come to pass fast enough.
 
Already embroiled in a sectarian crisis in UP and a communalist uprising elsewhere, the economic crisis only exacerbated the protests and movements of the early 60s. People who once saw the country going in a good direction now were cynical and saw the INC as not doing enough for the people. Additionally, this sentiment only enflamed the right-wing of the INC, which had Hindu Nationalist sympathies as seen in UP.
 
1961 Election
1961 was an election year, right as the crises were at their inflection points. Prime Minister Rajaji had announced in December of 1960 that he would not be seeking reelection in 1961, choosing to retire after an eventful decade of governance. In his announcement, Rajaji cited his age as the primary reason for stepping down, saying that he could not in good conscience continue leading any longer and hoping that this would set a precedent for future leaders of Bharat to limit their terms as Prime Minister. In his speech, he mentioned the development that Bharat had experienced under his watch and emphasized the dear necessity for the government to respect the freedom and dignity of all people, privately, politically, and economically.
 
The Socialist Praja Party and Hindu Nationalist splitters took this announcement in stride and began ramping up their campaigning efforts across Bharat. Jayaprakash Narayan, the leading figure behind the Socialist Praja Party, began his tour across the country visiting major rural centers and rapidly expanding industrial cities being hurt by the overheating economy. In February of 1961, Narayan announced an electoral coalition of left-wing and Hindu parties for the unseating of the Indian National Congress from power. This coalition was based in the unrest surrounding the heightened income inequality, difficulty for smallholders to effectively sell their goods on the market, and the frustration from Hindus following the INC’s crackdown on the Uttar Pradesh Beef Ban. Political spectators and media figures commenting on the coalition wrote that the various views expressed by politicians in the alliance have little in common other than a unity against the INC, serving as a point of attack for INC nominees.
 
As the date of the election was coming around, some political scientists in universities around Bharat wrote pieces critical of the INC and the corruption that plagued many electoral districts around the country. Some pointed out the machine-like nature of some local party organizations, receiving bribes from individuals, companies, and even criminal organizations in return for looking the other way on illegal activity or regulatory oversight. However, a change in power via the election of the anti-INC coalition, they wrote, would not be the solution to the problem of corruption. They predict that entrenched patronage networks have two likely futures in the event of an INC unseating: first, the patronage collapses and takes whichever local economy it was propping up, and second, the newly elected government continues the system of patronage. These academics were almost universally criticized by political figures on the whole political spectrum, but their theories would live up to scrutiny in the future, almost certainly too late.
 
The election came and went in a particularly hot August. It was a troubling election cycle, with protests across the country aligned with both sides of the electoral battle. However, to the surprise of some, the Narayan-led coalition won a majority of the seats in the Lok Sabha. The election was not a fully left-wing victory. The Narayan coalition required the support of some BJS MPs in order to ensure an uncontested government, meaning it would be at the whims of local Hindu policymakers. This was not ultimately an issue for Narayan since he was not publicly against Hindu lawmaking as the INC had been.
 
For the next four years, the Narayan Coalition would be responsible for the future of Bharat. Globally the 60s was a critical and chaotic time, and Bharat would certainly not be spared from this fate.

They called it ‘the year the world went to sleep’. At least, that was one of the gentler monikers. Some of them called it a zombie apocalypse and, of course, there were heaps of people calling it God’s judgment. My dad called it ‘sad’ and ‘scary’. My best friend always changed the subject, that was a talent of hers, so she barely talked about it at all. It felt like she was under the impression that if we ignored it, it might all resolve itself.
Spoiler alert: it didn’t.
My dad talked about the pandemic he went through when he was my age, COVID-19, explaining that much of it was similar. The mask wearing, the hoarding of supplies, the race for a vaccine, the cancellations of large events and the closures of schools. But there was always something in his voice when he talked about COVID-19 in the context of BASE-38 that made me want to hold his hand. Not to comfort him, but to comfort myself with the solid presence of my father.
When the news channels started reporting on it, translating the science into a form English we could understand, the nerd community (of which I’m a part) shouted Reavers! From the television show Firefly had come a scientific experiment to calm the human population, causing them to become so passive that they simply laid down and let themselves die. Of course, on the show, a small amount of the population went rabid, creating the monsters called Reavers.
We didn’t have Reavers. We, unexcitingly, just had low self-esteem.
That’s how the news put it at first. The illness gradually affected the brain, resulting in depressive episodes that progressed into nihilistic thoughts and then catatonia. In rare cases, the diseased skipped that part and went straight to suicide.
The world managed it at first, as we did any pandemic. Dad said that many countries, the US at the top of the list, botched the COVID-19 response and we had leaders in charge now who looked back and saw the mistakes that had been made. They were determined to not make the same mistakes, especially with a virus that was much more successful at transporting itself through the air we breathed.
It didn’t matter.
You see, the tiny invisible monsters that preyed on us clueless humans ended up being too good at their jobs. Dad talked about that too, how unlikely it was to have a disease that killed its host too quickly, but we weren’t the desired hosts, you see. The virus had targeted pigs. We were just collateral damage. That did quite a bit to the self-esteem of those who remained uninfected, I’m sure, that we fell as collateral damage to an attack on pigs.
The year the world went to sleep was like a slow-motion car crash. It wasn’t like those movies where things escalated to keep the audience engaged. It was painfully slow, leaving us at home watching the progress, desperate for news of any kind, good or bad, desperate for something, anything to happen. But all we could do is wait.
And die. We did a lot of dying.
I remember the moments toward the end the most, as the hill we were rolled down became steeper and steeper, the car crash speeding up, the vehicle finally hitting a pothole and flipping through the air at half-speed. The shutdowns of the hospitals. The broadcasts being shifted from reporters to governmental messages. I remember the quiet. We didn’t live in a highly populated city of Georgia, more like a quaint town, but there was always something. I went out one morning to sit on the porch one day and there was just silence. The brush of wind across the last leaves clinging to the trees and the stirring of a bird at our feeder.
My father died October 8th. It was agony to watch him withdraw inward, become unresponsive, turn into a shell of himself. I buried him that evening. And then it was just me.
At sixteen, it was the worst curse to be among the survivors. To be alone. I considered suicide many times, because when they say you always have something to live for, I don’t think they were talking about being the last local survivor of a pandemic. Surely there were others that had been immune, but clearly they were far from plentiful if I couldn’t find any.
I would sit in the tub, opening and closing my dad’s folding knife, thinking of the way to get it over with quickest. But day after day went by and I just couldn’t. Plastic-packaged water and nonperishables lasted me for a while, but I knew they wouldn’t take care of me forever. I eventually took a trip to the local library for, instead of fiction, survivalist research. And that’s when I found a dog.
Since he had no name on his tag, I ended up naming him after Captain Jack Harkness, a sci-fi immortal. Maybe I subconsciously wanted to impart some sort of protection upon Jack, desperate not to lose him. He was a cattle dog mix of some sort and, after leading me back to his home, I found his food bag ripped open in the kitchen, half-empty. It had been a month since I’d left my own home, so he’d likely been alone for at least that long, and I think the only reason he’d survived was his front door had been left open. It still was, with muddy tracks up and down the hall marking Jack’s path, and from other critters having made their way into the home to scrounge for food.
I kept to the kitchen and didn’t search the rest of the house. I didn’t want to find the source of that smell.
Jack seemed ecstatic to have company again and barely left my side. After packing the car full of books, we stopped at the pet store and I grabbed his brand of food, as well as a year’s worth of flea/tick meds. And he followed me in and out of the house a few times until he finally got tired of that and lay down in the front yard, soaking in the sun amidst the chill of fall. When I shut the trunk and called him, he didn’t hesitate, bounding after me into the car.
And that’s where I find myself. I suppose this is the beginning of a story, though to me it feels like the end, since so far it’s been my whole life. I don’t know where tomorrow will take me. I don’t know where the world will end up, how humanity will fare. But one of my father’s last heavy conversations with me was about how badly he wanted me to survive.
So, I’m going to do it for you, Dad. I’m not sure if I’ll survive, but I’ll try.
***
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I moved to Winnipeg from a small, northern community with my family in 2005. I used to go to all the grocery stores at first. I hated Superstore. It was always crazy busy and I hated bagging my own groceries. But their prices were so cheap that eventually I just got used to the crazy crowds and the headache shopping there. The grocery bill has always been part of our disposable income. If I had to get my vehicle repaired or some other unforeseen expense then it meant we had to cut down the grocery bill. There were always items I could get to stretch out food for my family. Lunch meat for $.99-$1.50 per 100 grams, apples for $.99-$1.50 per pound. No name products. I honestly felt that Superstore cared about getting affordable groceries to me. I felt that they worked hard to help me and my family eat for years and their no name products were good quality. Fast forward to 2022. I'm single, my kids are grown up. My vehicle got stolen and I didn't have a ride for 4 or 5 months during the spring and summer, just my bike. My condo is right across the street from Save On Foods. They seemed pretty expensive. Some stuff was cheap. After 5 months I got a new vehicle and I went to Superstore for the first time. I couldn't believe their prices. Apples were $2.99 or more. Lunch meat was $2.99 or more. No name French fries went from $1.79 to $2.99. So I stuck with Save On Foods. They're the same price. They're cheaper if you know how to find the deals. Then Superstore came out with that commercial. "Were freezing prices all over the store." I thought "You fucking asshole. You jacked up the price of groceries 60-80% and now you're gonna freeze price on products? You're supposed to do that before you jack up the prices." That was the day 18 years of having a good reputation with me turned sour. Superstore isn't on my side. Superstore doesn't have a commitment to help my family afford groceries. They keep their prices lower just to beat out the competition, not to help hard working Canadians. I've been sharing this boycott with all my friends and family, my coworkers. Time to stick it to the man. Time to fight back. We're not just sending a message to Superstore, we're sending a message to all the giant corporations. We're sending a message to all the food producers who took advantage of inflation to make record profits. This movement isn't going away. We're going to keep growing. It's going to spread to other countries. We're going to win. By the time Superstore takes the corrective action, it's going to be too late. It is too late. Let's do this! Let's work together! Let's all send them a message and hit them where it hurts!

Throwaway acct for obvious reasons. Bit of a read because i am going crazy right now.
I need a good and diplomatic way to break up with my gf based on context below.
Basically I come from a religious ethnic background 25M and I have a gf 24F.
The issue is she just told me after 4 months ago that she is not a virgin when i explicitly said in our second date that my deal breaker was previous sexual partners. My almost exact wording is that " hey, you don't have to give an exact answer if you don't want too, but i have never had sexual relationship with anyone and i believe intimacy is reserved for marriage. I wont judge you for your past but if we don't share the same values, its best to cut things off and pursue other people more compatible. Its better to do this now, while no one is really invested because virginity is my main criteria.
I try hard to just be honest no games.
Her response, I am a virgin too. Okay no problem i am not paranoid, I trust in God. We dated, and i dated maybe 5 women prior ( all short term) but when i date its for marriage. So 4 months down, she wants to chat. Basically tells me she is not a virgin ( wont share her number on here) but that all of them were mistakes, ect ect.
Now i want to break up with her due my preference, but honestly, her friend group / my friend group, heck even my own family are saying the same thing: past doesnt matter, she loves you, at least she is honest, you wont find virgin anywhere especially 20+/ we all settle at some point in life with someone who we can just tolerate and just deal with it.
This has caused me a week of sleepless nights until my body shuts down at 4 am or so and its impacting my work. My brain is moving at 1 million miles per hour, like i dont even know what i feel. Like i held my self together (no porn or the other stuff) and this is it, for her!? On the other hand there is disgust involved. So is it pride, disgust, even insecurity. I dont feel lesser or that i cant perform but idk what is involved here. On one hand, is it because i only make 85k i cant get a virgin, or if my body fat goes below my 16% can i get one now? What about 15, 14, 13, i dont even know. Maybe i failed at life and should have just hooked up in highschool like the rest, did i do wrong following this stupid rule while no one else does. Am i child in matters like this because everyone lived that phase during their youth. Did i genuinely screw my one life up. Like i dont know, maybe i didnt become elon musk rich that i failed. Or do i still have time to find one when i break up with her. But i know other people who got one so what gives. My mind is just rambling all night until it crashes. Food has lost all of its taste too.
The only real upside is i lost 1 kg on the weightscale so maybe i should keep this going to go down a bit more haha as an easy cheat code.
So thank you for reading all that, my main question now is how to proceed correctly and diplomatically so one's feelings are hurt.
My current thinking is, i cant yield on this point, its does to much damage to me and no therapists either. When i break up with her, i still have hope and if i cant find a virgin... then honestly whatever i have food water, a good house, loving family, friends. Most people arent that lucky anyway, might as well stay single all life, i am more than prepared to accept. Maybe i can adopt a kid or get a surrogate from those services with some donated eggs. I feel like if i am destined to lose, i might as well choose how i lose.
On the other hand, i have now discovered prayer more intensively to ask God for one since i was slacking before. I hope he has things in order and will take care of me because i got no other solution but what i mentioned. I am going to go to the gym 5 days a week, and sign up to college to learn accounting so i can complement my current deegre. I will make more money be more fit and hopefully that translates to something. My brain oscallates between positive and negative outlooks all the fricking time from my work till i sleep. I could do my whole day in the office in 1 hour of good productivity now it actually takes a full day.
I need to write this somewhere because i cant talk about it with closed ones, they shut me down to quick and i cant hold this in my brain without it exploding.
Oh yes, in regards to my current GF, she is pretty funny, brunette, decent family background with no criminals or onlyfans. She is pretty patient, has tried hard to communicate this week but i have been blowing it off which is not fair to her and honestly breaking up would do us both a favor. I really wish she just said i am not what your looking for and we could have been on our way on the second date like all the other ones. Honestly i asked her this when she told me and basically she wanted me to give her a chance and once i see her for who she is then we can move forward.
What do i do here, not just for relationship but even for my life. Go to gym more? Eat kale? I dont know anymore. I wish she was terrible, this would have been a 2 second descision but she is allright and i feel bad but i know i have to do this. Can someone also give me some good verbiage as well to smooth as much of this over? I am at a critical juncture in my life here.

So I work in fast food, and when French Fries are done, you say "HOT!" so people don't reach in while you are dumping them. So people have started say "Cold!" back to be funny. And then one day I chimed in after a cold with "Lukewarm!" and got a couple chuckles. And now its just a thing I do, most of the time just under my breath.
Anyways, one day when I did this, I just stopped for a second and was like "Hold on, Lukewarm is ... just warm right? Who the heck is Luke then, and why was a temperature named after him?!" Like, I assumed there wasn't ACTUALLY a Luke, but still a funny thought that someone just knew a Luke and was like "yeah, you aren't hot, you aren't cool either, your just, warm" and it became such a thing in their group it moved to other groups, until everyone just started using the phrase.
So yeah, had to look it up when I got home and Etymonline says the Luke comes

• " from Middle English leuk "tepid" (c. 1200), a word of uncertain origin, perhaps from an unrecorded Old English *hleoc (cognate with Middle Dutch or Old Frisian leuk "tepid, weak"), an unexplained variant of hleowe (adv.) "warm," from Proto-Germanic *khlewaz see lee), or from the Middle Dutch or Old Frisian words. "

So Luke means warm, so Lukewarm just means "Warm-Warm". Just an example of Language using another language to double up the meaning of a word to make a new word. (Even if both of the languages are just different forms of English in this case)

English: cough

1. to expel air, or obstructing or irritating matter, from the lungs or air passages, in a noisy and violent manner
   
2. to expel from the lungs or air passages by coughing
   
3. a sudden, noisy, and violent expulsion of air from the chest, caused by irritation in the air passages, or by the reflex action of nervous or gastric disorder, etc
   

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Translations

• Catalan: tos
  
• Chinese: 咳嗽
  
• Esperanto: tusi
  
• French: Toux
  
• Galician: tose
  
• German: husten
  
• Hindi: खांसी
  
• Italian: tosse
  
• Japanese: 咳 / せき
  
• Portuguese: tosse
  
• Romanian: tuse, a tuşi
  
• Spanish: tos
  
• Swedish: hosta
  

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English is not my first language, so please excuse grammar or punctuation mistakes.
So me (16F) and my aunt (40F), let's call her C, were recently on a trip to Florence, Italy for a week. This was supposed to be a gift from her to me for Christmas and my birthday combined, but she invited her two of her friends, who I don't know, with us. I thought it was going to be only us, but whatever I'm not paying for it, so I'm not complaining. We went mainly for the art galleries and stuff because I'm in art school, and it would be really helpful to see the big artists and stuff.
At the end of the trip, C had the idea of taking a picture of some landscape in Florance and giving it to me to paint as a present for my uncle because his birthday was close. I didn't get a say in this plan. She just started telling me all about how I'd paint it and stuff and I guess she got the impression that I would do it. I asked for payment and, of course, I was turned down and called disrespectful because I should be asking for payment from family and after all, they have done so much for me. Don't get me wrong I don't mind giving out stuff that I already had done for school and just this Christmas I had given my uncle one of my favourite paintings I've done, but I haven't seen it be appreciated at all by them.
When we were back in my home country, a few days after the trip, my dad told me that he received a message from C that wanted him to send her back money for all the food I had and some of the activities we did. Mind you, I paid for all the stuff I wanted, like clothes, food, water and little trinkets with the money my dad gave me for the trip. She only paid for the food that I ordered at restaurants which we went to only once a day. It came unexpected to us because she never mentioned that my dad needed to pay her back or anything like that. I mean, I would get it if she reached out beforehand to tell us that she can't afford everything and needs a little help, but she didn't (also she and my uncle are very well off, so I don't get why she would do that).
In the following few weeks, I had to go to her house to get some stuff I left there before the trip. C lives in the city right next to mine, but it's still pretty far away, and she doesn't want to drive all the way to where I live, so I have to get the metro and travel about 20 minutes to the stop where is most convenient for her to pick me up. When I was there, she asked me to choose a landscape for me to paint from all the pictures she took from Florence. Her idea was for her to print the said picture on paper but in low opacity, so I could paint over it (in her words, she makes it easier for me because I don't have to do the sketch). She also wanted the painting done with oil paints, which are very expensive and time-consuming to work with. Also, the material you paint on is very important and just normal paper ain't going to do it. They sell special paper for oil, but she said that I have to use the paper in the studio that she will go to print the thing on. In this case, you can get the thickest paper you can and prime it before painting. After our meeting, she gave me money to buy the primer and some materials I'm missing (I already have everything I need because we study it in school, so i just needed the primer) and said she was gonna call when she gets the prints done.
A week later, I got a call from her that she was going to my cousin's parents' conference at his school (his school is very close to where I live) but she forgot to get the prints in her car at that metro stop and after the conference, I had to go with her to get them, I tell that I'm busy at the moment and that I can't go. She, for some reason, doesn't take no for an answer and starts trying to convince me to come, to which I again say that I can't go. She finally tells me that she needs to go and that she will call when the conference is finished. That happens around 6 pm and I get a call at 8 pm while I'm having dinner with my parents. C wants me to come with her again and I told her AGAIN that I can't right now and that I'm having dinner. Then she again starts telling me when else we will get the chance to meet and blah blah blah. I got fed up, and I told her that I couldn't always take her into account, and she couldn't expect me to be available every time she needed me, because I was busy with school and I gave a life to live. She then got mad at me and told me and I quote,, Yeah ok go to your little cafés with your little friends" I said that I would and hung up.
I didn't get a call or text for a few weeks, which I was relieved about, because in 10th grade in my country, you have to take a kind of an important exam, plus in my school, I have to take two more art exams at the end of the year and everything added up is getting stressful. Then a week before my uncle's birthday I got a text from C. (I'll try to translate the text messages as accurately as I can. Again sorry for any grammar mistakes)
C: Hi (my name)! Does your silence mean that we leave your uncle without a gift for is birthday? I still keep the prints.
Me: Hi C! If you buy him a present, he will have one.
C: I will buy him, of course, but the idea was different and more personal. This surprise would've made him extremely happy! As I said in Florence too, there is a thing called relations between people, as well as between close relatives, such as he is. It's nice when you know how to make the people around you happy!
Me: If you had brought me the prints I would have finished it by now. After all, you have a car, and another 20 minutes' drive won't hurt you. I'm very familiar with relations with people, I'm not a small child, but can you also be a little considerate of me, as I've mentioned several times, I have exams and two very important art exams. I'm busy with school and "going to cafes with my little friends". You already have a drawing that you extorted from me again for Christmas and I haven't seen it hung anywhere in your home or appreciated in any way.
C: (my name), when you really want to do something for a friend, you do it without paying attention to small things like whether it's more convenient for me to come to you or you to come to me. If I have to elaborate, I have a 15-minute journey from point A (her house) to point B (the metro station) by car, you also have a 15-minute journey by subway to point B. I didn't think it would stress you out so much, I apologize! I know you're busy, and that's why I rushed to make the prints earlier, so you have time to manage your time. I don't think that 30 minutes by subway will push your schedule that much... don't forget that I was also a student, on top of that I traveled every day between two cities to go to school. I went out of my way to take you to a wonderful place (I hope you enjoyed it because I didn't get to see that) and I expected you to be able to spare some of your precious time as well. As for your first drawing, it is not appreciated only because your uncle likes landscapes more and cannot appreciate a portrait. And if he knew you feel extorted, that would make him very sad. We don't want to force you to do anything, we just want to communicate properly as relatives (if that matters to you, of course).
Me: 👍 ( I know I should've acted more maturely here but I couldn't deal with this situation anymore)
C: Now everything is clear to me! 😄😄😄
2 hours pass and she proceeds to send me 2 photos of me, my cousin and my uncle from 6 years ago when we would go hiking and skiing together.
Me:?
Her: I just found them because I was digging through some old pictures and I thought you might like to have them.
Me: Aww, thanks they are so cute 🥰
Her: Still, wouldn't you like to finish the project we had in mind for your uncle? I could come to the metro station now and bring you the prints.
Me: I'm not at home or anywhere near so I won't be able to come pick it up. Also, oil paint can't dry in less than a week, even if I could it wouldn't be able to dry in time.
C: Then tomorrow or Thursday? Obviously, we will be giving it to him after his birthday.
Me: I won't be home until Friday. I'll see how my schedule is, this can all happen after the school year when I'm free.
C: I'm guessing you'll be studying all this time for your exams...
Me: Those exams are the least of my worries, I have two major art exams which are the most stressful. But yes, I'll be studying all the time.
I haven't received anymore massages from her. I feel really bad about this whole situation. My parents and my friends are all at my side but I still feel like I was really rude and disrespectful to C.

Ji'nur'kakf’Eng had worked with humans before. He served on a multi-species science vessel for six standard months. To his pleasant surprise, he had been enfolded by the strange, new species. The few that spoke clicking languages could say his full Name. The rest called him nicknames like “Vamps” and “Batman”, with a strange accompanying song that followed him through the decks. There was some sort of cultural thing about his appearance that nobody had time to explain. Of the nicknames he had been given, he honestly just preferred “Jin.”
This new vessel was a promotion, being the Head Medical Officer of a ship was something he had wanted as soon as he realized his calling to heal. But the ship itself was… very different. Unlike the vast and nearly spherical Galactic Federation ships, this one was a smaller reconnaissance-class gunship from the Terran Union. She was shaped mostly like a triangle, with actual wings (wings!) for in-atmo flight. The front came to a distinct point, with another point on either side sitting more towards the wings and coming less far forward.
“She's a Falconidae model,” Captain Ntuli said, seeing his confusion. “Terran designers will go on kicks and design things based on Earth animals. It's a type of hunting bird.”
“Oh, I see,” Jin answered quietly. He was a man of science, but being on a ship designed to look like one of his species’ major predators made him quickly chitter to the spirits that it wasn't some kind of omen. “What’s her name?”
The captain grinned, her teeth incredibly white in her dark brown face. He didn't shiver at the sight, having forced himself to get over the teeth thing within the first month of his previous post.
“Her name is T.U.S. Kissimmee Asp.” She said proudly. “It's a pun in English, so I don't know if it translates to K'ohe'la.”
Oh! She could use the clicks of his tongue! That was a pleasant surprise.
A tall, red-haired female in grease stained coveralls leaned out of the ramp hatch. “We call her Kissy when she's being nice, and Asp when she's throwing fits,” she interjected, wiping her hands with a rag.
Captain Ntuli sighed, gesturing towards the other woman. “This is one of our Engineering officers, Miss Josephine Drakonos.”
“Just call me Josie! There's another Drakonos on board and it could get confusing as hell otherwise.”
Josie offered her hand with a smile. Jin knew this bit of human greeting. He unclasped the wings around his shoulders and stood straighter, offering his own four-fingered hand to shake hers.
“I'm Dr. Ji'nur'kakf’Eng. Most humans prefer to call me Dr. Jin.” He finished with a greeting click that may have been out of her hearing range, but it was polite.
“Oh, you're the new doc? Cool. We, uh, might get kinda familiar. Engineering can be rough some days,” she said sheepishly.
Jin laughed lightly at that, a crackling sound in his lower throat.
The captain led him onto the ship, Josie scurrying off to yell at some Ensign. She toured him through the slightly cramped galley, letting him nod and click his hellos to the personnel there. (“Oh my God, he's Batman!” “More like the man-bat.” “Could you assholes not be racist for ten fucking minutes?”)
Jin was pleasantly surprised that he wasn't the only non-Terran on board. There were a few Ryeté in the rec room, making humans shriek when they extended their second set of jaws to quickly snatch food out of their hands. A Shex sat in the navigation seat, adjusting things with their tentacles. There was even an Ah'gua as the communications officer.
“The humans call me Penny,” she said, returning his greeting click with a hiss-click of her own. Her feathers were a purely tropical shade of yellow with bands of cobalt blue. “You have no idea how nice it is to actually use my upper voice box to talk. Finally! Someone with working ears!” she whistled.
Jin sent his own click-squee-chirps, quickly arranging for the two of them to commiserate over lunch after the first few shifts.
Captain Ntuli led him out of the bridge towards a small office towards the point of the left wing. “You'll need a quick debrief with our security officer before setting up shop in the medbay,” she said. “Meanwhile, I'll be on the bridge. We're launching in 45.” She gave Jin a firm pat on the back, and he tried not to wince. That was uncomfortably close to his wing joints.
He reached out and knocked on the door, a clipped voice replied, “Come in.”
Sitting behind the desk, in a neatly pressed uniform, was a dour-looking version of Josie. Same red hair and dotted skin, only this one wore her hair tied high on the back of her head. She also looked decidedly less friendly.
“Have a seat, doctor.” She waved towards one of the stools in front of her. Jin was briefly glad that they didn't have those silly chairs with backs.
“I am Head Security Officer Marinne Drakonos, and I have a few things to go over with you.”
She pulled something towards her that looked like a list, but he didn't try to read it first. He didn't want to be impolite.
“Let's go over your credentials here. Honors Graduate of Xinfuah medical school, residency at the refugee hospital on Queree IV, and a six month tour on the GFS Chordata. I take it you have experience with all of the species aboard this ship?”
“I do, yes.” Jin answered with a nod. “My concentration was Aviary and Mammalian medicine, but I have worked with Cephelapods and Reptiles.”
“Good. You were hired before I could go over your file, and I would truly loathe to have someone unqualified,” she said quietly.
He noticed that her eyes were gray, like steel, that there was something hawkish about her profile. The fur on his back rose. All humans were predators, he knew, but this one seemed more predatory than he was used to.
“This vessel will have a large number of ground missions, and something always goes wrong, no matter how hard anyone tries to prevent it. It is the nature of such things,” Officer Drakonos continued. “The cases you get may range from crushed limbs to quarantine level 4 decontamination. I must do my due diligence and know you are prepared. How sensitive is your hearing?”
The question took him off guard. “Um, slightly above average for my species.”
“Hm.”
Her gray eyes roved over the fleshy dish around his nose, his prominent and ridged ears. K’ohe’la had the best hearing above water in the galaxy, with the nocturnal subspecies of Ah’gua coming in second. Jin’s ears twitched under the scrutiny. They were rather attractive by his own kind’s standard, but she surely wasn't admiring them.
She huffed a breath out through her nose. “If you do not have earplugs, they can be provided. At 1400 tomorrow, you will attend the ship-wide briefing and walkthrough of evacuation, crash, and hostile boarding procedures.”
Jin’s ears twitched in surprise. “Do you expect these things to happen? I thought this was a reconnaissance vessel doing planetary surveys for a mining company?”
Officer Drakonos shrugged. “I always expect the worst and believe in being prepared. There will be drills for all of these scenarios, and anyone not following procedure could face disciplinary action.”
She said those last two words with more glee than Jin thought was appropriate.
Three weeks had passed, and Jin had grown more comfortable with the crew, his few fellow scientists, and Penny. O’Donnel played some strange instrument called a Violin. Korfin was the fighting game champion in the rec room. Reyes had a truly delightful collection of poetry. Even the Captain had surprised him with her melodic singing voice during karaoke night (an event he swore to never attend again).
The first survey went off without a hitch, and so far he had only treated a few burns and joint sprains from over-eager engineers and security personnel. Nothing had seriously gone wrong.
He heard the echoing voice of Officer Drakonos in his head say “Yet.”
True to the earlier predictions of Josie, he did see her regularly for small things. Right now, that was a small second-degree burn on her forearm.
“I didn't know it was still hot!” She whined.
Jin crackled in his chest and twitched his ears. He heard something like that from her almost every three days.
“You need to be more careful,” he chided, applying the disinfectant spray. “Otherwise you're never going to take over from Jerimovich.”
“Sweet Christ, you sound like Marinne. It's always 'think of the performance review Josie', 'show qualities of leadership Josie', and 'you're lucky I don't report the still in the bay, Josie'. Ugh.”
Jin jerked back. “There's a distillery in the engine bay?”
“No,” she replied too quickly. “And there isn't a shrine to Danny Devito either.”
“Who is-?”
“Don't worry about it.”
He sighed, reaching for another nozzle to apply the spray on bandage.
“Out of curiosity,” he asked, “How are you and the Security Officer related? Unless you aren't and I'm just being racist.”
“Oh. Yeah, I guess you wouldn't realize. She's my twin sister,” Josie answered, sighing with relief from her burn.
“Twin… oh! When single-bearing mammals have two at once?”
“Yep. It's not that uncommon these days, and our mom is a twin herself.” She shrugged. “Anyway, I'll head back to-”
“JOSEPHINE, MOVE!”
They both jumped and spread apart from the door, and Officer Drakonos burst in with the shex navigator, Firek, on her back. His color was a muted gray instead of his normal shifting chromatophores.
“Set him here,” Jin jumped to attention and guided her to the water tank he had just for Firek. “What am I looking at, illness or contaminate?” He asked, placing electrodes and setting an intravenous patch on the unconscious male.
“Contaminate. Some jackass snuck some blue rass on the ship and smoked it next to a ventilation shaft. Went straight into the bridge.”
Jin nodded and prepped to flush Firek’s secondary lungs and gills, then paused for a brief moment. “Get Penny out of there. She won't be as sensitive as him, but she takes in a lot more. And put out an alert for the Ryeté and anyone with allergies. If anyone starts hacking or having swollen eyes, send them here immediately.”
She nodded, then quickly strode out of the room, her comm already in hand.
Jin adjusted the salinity in the tank, and prepped an oxygen station for when Firek could breathe air.
“Hand me that,” he gestured at the frozen Josie. “I need the beak-appropriate mask, and go push the blue button next to the door twice. It’ll turn on my extra oxygen supply. Don't bother with the yellow one unless Korfin or Kurlok show up.”
“Uh, yeah!” Josie shook out of her surprise and moved quickly.
Officer Drakonos surged back into the room, with a coughing Penny hanging onto her shoulder. “I cleared the bridge, just in case. At least until the filters pick it up.”
Jin got Penny settled, checking her vitals and pressing one of her small pseudo hands over the mask to hold it down. Her lungs were rasping, and there was a faint whistle that told him her upper and central voice boxes had a bit of damage. His ear twitched, picking up the repeated pings of the officer’s comm.
“Fuck!”
Jin flapped for a moment and looked behind him. Officer Drakonos’ face was red, and he could hear her heartbeat pounding in her chest.
“Josie, tell me to not make an example,” she growled.
“Marinne, you’ll get fired if you airlock an idiot for smoking rass.”
“I didn't say anything about airlocking.”
“No!” Josie shouted. “Whatever weird, evil thing going on in your head is not worth it.”
Officer Drakonos inhaled deeply and shook her comm towards her sister's face. “I have now thirteen allergic or adverse reactions out of a crew of thirty people. That is forty-three percent of my charges. For at least two of them, this could have been fatal. Someone is going to pay for this.”
She turned on her heel and marched out of the medbay. Jin swore that the air was colder in her wake.
He glanced a Josie. “Does she normally-?”
“Act like that? No,” she replied. “If anyone had died it would be worse. If something this bad had happened to me? There might be bodies.”
He shivered. “Why would the captain have chosen someone like that to be a security officer? Sounds like an incident ready to happen.”
“Nah, that's what makes her good at her job.” Josie looked at him with the same steel colored eyes as her sister. “Marinne cares. A lot. She puts herself in the position of a mama bear who would do anything to protect her cubs.”
“So this is a… protective anger? Even for those she doesn't know? Those not kin or even the same species?” Jin's people only had something like that on an individual basis. Or a colony would feel emotions as one. One person acting like this for near strangers seemed too much.
“Oh yeah. And she was serious about making whoever did it an example. Humans pack bond, remember? If she thinks they're hers, then they are.” Josie shrugged. “Vengeance is one of her love languages.”
When the next roll call came, they were now a crew of twenty-nine. (“I bet she airlocked Talley!” “Not until he was in pieces.” “Shut up, she is our boss you chucklefucks!”)
Jin watched her, sitting at the back of the mess hall. Her eyes scanned and assessed everyone. Firek was colorful again, sipping his fish paste through a straw. Penny spoke with a slight rasp that only he could hear. O’Donnel’s eyes were still swollen, but he'd be okay. Korlok was already back to snapping up his lunch with both sets of jaws.
Her eyes, cold and metallic things that they were, touched him in turn. They were possessive. Satisfied.
Jin hadn't ever felt anything like this, been subject to a care that was coupled with rage. It was uncomfortable, but something in his chest settled. He was, at least, on the shield side of that care.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HAjztwrwWj4wN7FWBfqjYRoTN5taCnGN/view?usp=sharing - Read this one first. “Indiana Jones Jr. et l”Ampoule Radioactive” is titled “Young Indiana Jones and the Lost Vial of Dr. Curie” in English. It is set in November 1912.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NR7RLC849dez7fMoihBQ6AFMjHwcBFDG/view?usp=sharing - This is the next story in the Young Indiana Jones series chronologically. Indy spends over a month with the Inuits. “Young Indiana Jones and the Sacred Meteorite"
both are PDF’s.

Round 2 deadline: Friday 3rd May, 9pm GMT

Hiiii everyoneeee. 24 hours have gone by and the first round of the Ghosts Survivor has ended. Which is the first to go?
...
A Christmas Gift. It wasn't even close. With over a third of all votes the very last episode has been eliminated. The Hardest Word gained the second to most votes with 3, but for now it will stay in the game.
Vote for the episode that you like *the least. The episode that gathers the most votes will be eliminated in **33rd place in this game. Make sure you have watched all episodes before voting and don't vote more than once. (I don't think you can anyway)*

VOTE IN ROUND 2 HERE

Round 1 results
Episodes alive: (SPOILERS!!!)
S1E1 - Who Do You Think You Are?:

• Alison and Mike inherit Button House
• Ghosts haunt them
• Captain annoyed at Fanny screaming

S1E2 - Gorilla War:

• Mike starts renovating house
• Ghosts annoy Alison
• Alison accepts ghosts as real

S1E3 - Happy Death Day:

• Pat's death day, family visit
• Kitty asks where babies come from
• Captain & Julian try to get rid of builders

S1E4 - Free Pass:

• Film crew arrives at house
• Pat teaches Mary about technology
• Julian puts bet on horse-racing

S1E5 - Moonah Ston:

• Beg-Chetwyns visit for dinner party
• Captain & Mary help kill/prepare pheasant
• Ghosts do Moonah Ston ritual & watch Friends

S1E6 - Getting Out:

• Alison & Mike consider selling to hotel chain
• Ghosts think of plans to make money
• Captain leaves ghosts

S2E1 - The Grey Lady:

• Ghost hunters visit house
• Alison and Mike fake ghosts' powers
• Pat & Thomas start radio station

S2E2 - About Last Night:

• A&M clear house for wedding planner visit
• Party flashbacks
• Plague ghosts angry at Mick

S2E3 - Redding Weddy:

• Captain flashback
• A&M clear garden
• Fanny fancies Mike
• Pat keeps ghosts occupied (moon landing video, volleyball)

S2E4 - The Thomas Thorne Affair:

• Thomas death flashbacks
• Mike worries about meeting Alison's ex

S2E5 - Bump in the Night:

• Alison goes out
• Burglars break into house
• Ghosts try to warn Mike

S2E6 - Perfect Day:

• Claire & Sam wedding
• Pat recognises Keith from his death
• Claire nervous about wedding

S2E7 - The Ghost of Christmas:

• Mike's family visit for Xmas, parents help too much
• Julian feels guilty about avoiding family at Xmas
• Alison gets presents for ghosts

S3E1 - The Bone Plot:

• TV crew making documentary about Humphrey (death flashback)
• Julian thinks Barclay is having heart attack
• Pat tries to make Fanny & Captain laugh
• Thomas prepares Alison for interview

S3E2 - A Lot to Take In:

• Alison meets Lucy
• Julian remembers first day as ghost
• Mike starts new job
• Kitty & Pat dance

S3E3 - The Woodworm Men:

• A&M camp outside during fumigation
• Kitty watches Grease

S3E4 - I Love Lucy:

• Captain spies on Lucy
• Julian changes Mike's emails
• Fanny has affair with Humphrey's body

S3E5 - Something to Share?:

• Kitty shares story about ball
• Mike tries to find way to see ghosts

S3E6 - Part of the Family:

• Mike films promotional video
• Ghosts find out Lucy is lying
• Ghosts do drama/improvisation club

S3E7 - He Came!:

• Homeless guy camps in garden
• Fanny's flashback
• Alison paints Thomas
• Robin tries to make claim for house

S4E1 - Happy Holiday:

• Mike and Alison try to make first guests happy
• Thomas gets attention from plague ghosts
• Pat tells Mary about holidays
• Robin recognises caveman on TV

S4E2 - Speak as ye Choose:

• Annie teaching Mary to say what she wants flashback
• Kitty shows Captain how to live in moment
• Thomas goes cold turkey on Alison addiction
• Mike's old friends stay at gatehouse

S4E3 - The Hardest Word:

• A&M try to have relaxing day
• Ghosts make apology song

S4E4 - Gone Gone:

• Pat cheers Kitty up over Mary moving on
• Mike organises children's birthday party last minute
• Alison helps ghosts deal with their feelings about Mary

S4E5 - Poached Guests:

• Julian helps Alison take revenge on Barclay for poaching guests
• Ghosts discover new ghost in field
• Mike buys giant bubble suit thing

S4E6 - Not Again:

• Robin's death flashback
• Mike buys giant bear
• Kitty starts talking by saying opposite of what she means

S4E7 - It's Behind You:

• Ghosts put on panto
• Alison shows Pat old VHS recordings
• A&M get stuck in traffic on way to parents

S5E1 - Fools:

• Alison does April Fool's pranks on ghosts
• Insurance company person investigates insurance claim for fire

S5E2 - Home - Thomas enters poetry competition - Kitty thinks she's pregnant - Pat & Julian argue over North vs South - Mike stresses about baby
S5E3 - Pineapple Day:

• Ghosts figure out how Kitty died
• Mike discusses selling land with Barclay
• Thomas, Julian & Humphrey want blue plaque
• Kitty watches 'Is It Cake?'

S5E4 - En Français:

• Ghosts try playing game shows
• French woman visits with translator to see land
• Flashback of Robin learning French from Sophie

S5E5 - Carpe Diem:

• A&M have spontaneous night out
• Robin thinks someone will move on before midnight
• Fanny & Julian make most of possible last day
• Captain's death flashback

S5E6 - Last Resort:

• A&M decide whether to keep or sell house
• Obi shows up having been dumped by Brenda
• Kitty struggles to keep secret of baby's sex
• Pat & Robin fight over weather lady

So, back in the 90s (I think) I read a book that I think was originally a French book, translated into English. The basic story was that aliens invaded Earth, and coralled all the people. The book focuses on a group of women/girls who get put into a chain linked (I think) enclosure inside of a warehouse. They have no way of telling time, and a girl eventually figures out that she can keep time by monitoring her heart beat. She is I think the focus of the book. Does this ring a bell for anyone?

English: recover

1. to cover again
   
2. to get or obtain again
   
3. to get renewed possession of
   

––––––––––––
Translations

• Catalan: recupera
  
• Esperanto: retrovas
  
• French: regagne
  
• Galician: recupera
  
• Hindi: वसूल कर
  
• Italian: recuperare
  
• Portuguese: recuperar
  
• Romanian: a recupera
  
• Spanish: recupera
  
• Welsh: adennill
  

––––––––––––
See previous words @ https://wordofthehour.org/past

Hi ModSupport!
Today, I’m excited to share that we are launching Mod Support in three new languages - French, German, and Brazilian Portuguese! This non-English language support is now available in the local Mod network subs FrMods, DeutscheMods, and ModsBr, and includes both direct Admin support and the peer-to-peer Helper Program.
In these three subreddits, Mods can now send in modmail and receive direct support from Admins (via translations from English) in French, German, or Brazilian Portuguese – the same as how Admin support in English is provided in ModSupport.This will include support on safety re-escalations, banned subreddit appeals, and other support needs that Admins can help with.
In addition to offering direct Admin support in these languages, we are also excited to expand our Helper Program to our French-speaking moderators in FrMods to recognize Mods for helping answer each other's questions. This will complement our roll-out of the Helper Program late last year in DeutscheMods and ModsBr.
Similar to how it works here in ModSupport, the Helper Program recognizes helpful mods with trophies based on lifetime comment karma in these communities to empower mods to get quick answers from each other and build connections between them - all in their own language. The comment karma thresholds for trophies are slightly lower in these local mod networks than ModSupport, in recognition that these communities are still growing. We’ve also created new trophies to recognize Mod Helpers from all around the world!
If you speak French, German, or Portuguese and want to receive Admin support or connect with - and help! - other mods in that language, make sure to head over to FrMods, DeutscheMods, and ModsBr!
​
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