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Spending Time With Triple 9s and New Pokemon Goodness
December 4, 2020 Vincent Mahoney	Leave a comment
Welcome to Save State, where games sometimes change substantially post-release. It's not uncommon, especially nowadays, for a game to have an update or DLC pack that dramatically corrects-course for a problematic title. Pokemon Sword and Shield were two games that, upon their release, had a significant amount of baggage that dramatically hindered enjoyment of the games. The end of the gym challenge seemed rushed- with one of the final towns and gyms being nothing more than a single hallway. Missing Pokemon, mediocre patchwork online systems that were worse than the offerings just a couple generations prior- you name it. Within the last month the second DLC pack for Sword and Shield released, the Crown Tundra, and I took a brief journey back into the Galar region to both finish the Isle of Armor and experience the Crown Tundra for the first time.
Sword and Shield had a lot of missed opportunities- being the first main series Pokemon games on home consoles should have been a huge affair, but it's obvious that time crunch, or something similar, got in the way of the game's vision. The Wild Area showed how a more free-form approach to a Pokemon game could actually work, and that's precisely what the Isle of Armor DLC for the 8th generation Pokemon titles does. On the Isle of Armor you can pretty much wander and freely explore new locations, with areas like the Forest of Focus which are much more visually appealing than many of the base game's areas. A much-beloved feature of having Pokemon that follow the trainer has returned- though only on the Isle of Armor and the Crown Tundra areas.
There's no real, powerful connecting story in the Isle of Armor DLC- you meet a young legendary Pokemon named Kubfu and will acquire it and help it evolve by completing various trials around the island, which will include brief battles with a new rival as well as the master of the island's dojo. This process does not take long at all, but thankfully you'll have new areas to explore and new Pokemon to catch as you wander around the island, since around 100 Pokemon that were missing in base Sword and Shield were added back in with this expansion. There are also 150 Digletts randomly hidden throughout the island, of which finding those will reward you with Alolan variant Pokemon like Vulpix and Marowak for every so many you find.
For the most part, exploring a new location and finding a bunch of returning Pokemon was a great time, because the more that's available to catch, the happier I am (it appeals to my inner collector). The new move tutor actually has a number of moves that are extremely valuable, and a new NPC in the base game's Battle Tower will appear who will make it so that you can use Pokemon from a previous generation in ranked online play. Typically, only Pokemon born in the generation you're playing can be used online, but now you can sacrifice the occasional egg move to have a previous generation's battle-ready team back in action quickly; this is especially useful if you shiny hunted in a previous generation. There's also a soup that you can cook and feed your Pokemon that will unlock an applicable Gigantamax form, which were originally somewhat annoying to acquire- now that shiny Hatterene you hatched can be used on your Trick Room team if you wanted it to have its special Gigantamax form, giving more options to the players (which is always a good thing).
Check out our full review of Pokemon Sword and Shield.
That said, the Isle of Armor was short, and every battle was insanely easy. Once you complete the story component and catch what you want, the only reason you'd visit the area would be to use the move tutor to teach Grassy Glide to your hidden ability Rillaboom, or something. The Crown Tundra has a little bit more going on than that, initially, as it reintroduces a ton of older legendary Pokemon back into the games. When you get off the train station for the Crown Tundra, you'll immediately be dragged into a father-daughter argument and introduced to the Crown Tundra's special gimmick, Dynamax Adventures
The Crown Tundra story is about a Pokemon called the King of Bountiful Harvests, and you'll play through a brief 3-4 hour excursion on discovering why that legendary Pokemon lost its power, as well as return its noble steed to it. Along the way, you'll also encounter puzzles involving the Regi Pokemon from Gen III, as well as two new Regis never before seen.
For Dynamax Adventures, you embark on an expedition involving battles in which your damage and status ailments carry over from one battle into the next. You and up to three friends select from a pool of rental Pokemon and venture forth to battle four Dynamaxed/Gigantamaxed Pokemon in a row, with a powerful legendary Pokemon from a past game waiting for you at the end. You can select the paths you want to go, with hints showing what type of Pokemon you will be battling next- pink clouds obfuscate your full vision of what the Pokemon may be, but one of its types is clearly shown to you, making for an easy game of, "What's that Pokemon?" as you progress through the lair. Once you beat a Pokemon, one of the four players can elect to swap out their current pocket monster for the recently defeated one, which can be useful for building type advantages going into the final battle of the lair.
Dynamax Adventures is actually an incredibly fun little distraction- with almost every legendary Pokemon from previous generations available (excluding mythical Pokemon like Mew and Celebi), there are 48 total legendary Pokemon that can be caught, including the Ultra Beasts from Sun and Moon. There's also a higher than normal chance for Pokemon in Dynamax Adventures to be shiny, which incentivizes players to catch every Pokemon they encounter along the way to the legendary at the end of the road. Unfortunately, if you, for example, catch all four Pokemon along the route, you only get to keep one of them). You can also only catch the legendary Pokemon once per save file, so if you're hunting a shiny Rayquaza or Mewtwo, you'll likely need to run them multiple times and avoid taking the legendary at the end, or else you'll need to start a whole new save file just to have another attempt.
Overall, the DLCs for Pokemon Sword and Shield added a total of 221 Pokemon, mostly returning old Pokemon sprinkled with some powerful new ones, meaning that out of 898 Pokemon, 234 of them are still unavailable in Sword and Shield. This means you could still be unsatisfied if one of your favorites is something like Greninja, Honchkrow, or Medicham, which are all still not present in the games. The new environments are great, and changes throughout the last year have improved online play, though not quite enough to actually be called good. Link codes were changed from 4 digits to 8, which reduces the chances of pairing with someone who isn't your intended partner, but there is still zero excuse to not let you just select friends to trade and battle with, making the link code aspect a complete step backwards even for Dynamax Adventures.
For what the DLCs offer, though, they're quite enjoyable and give a lot for collectors to do. If you're looking for a strong story or for the national Pokedex to be fully fleshed out again, then you'll want to avoid the Sword and Shield expansion pass, but if you enjoy collecting and enjoy playing with other players to collect various Pokemon, new and old, then you may find the expansions worth the cash.
The second game looked at this last week was the first entry in the Zero Escape series, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors for the Nintendo DS. I had just finished Virtue's Last Reward in preparation for the third game's release, Zero Time Dilemma. Due to a weird shipping issue, a broken watch preorder bonus, and a broken 3DS, I wound up not being able to play Zero Time Dilemma on its release day, which was a shame, because its apparently heavily relies on the player having an understanding of events that took place in 999 and Virtue's Last Reward. Years later, I found the watch that was shipped to me broken four years ago, remembered I hadn't yet played the third game in the Zero Escape series, and decided that I'm going to embark on a journey to experience these games again. The largest difference between my playing 999 years ago, and doing so now, is that I'm bringing you folks along for the ride!
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors opens with a young man named Junpei waking up in a haze in the room of a ship adrift on the ocean. After some brief exposition of Junpei trying to trace his steps to determine how he wound up there, he quickly realizes that he's been kidnapped and the room that he's in is flooding. At this point players will need to solve puzzles throughout the room in order to unlock the door and escape in the larger portions of the ship, where you will encounter eight other kidnapping victims. It is here that the protagonist is exposed to the mysterious Zero, who informs the cast that they've been thrown into a life or death event called the Nonary Games. You have nine hours to escape the ship, and everyone will have to work together to escape the number-themed puzzles of this life and death game.
The characters quickly introduce themselves, and players will quickly discover an extremely enjoyable cast of characters with their own motivations, methods, and moxie. The premise is just the initial way to hook players into the story, as well, considering that Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, hereafter referred to as 999 for brevity, lets players choose the story path they wish to follow like an old "Choose your own adventure" book. You'll be given various dialogue choices that may determine the fate of Junpei or other characters you've come to love, and even your choices of who to take with you through various doors can be enough to completely change the ending you receive.
One of the neat things about 999 is that spoken dialogue between characters will be displayed to players on the top screen, while inner monologue or action information will be divulged to players on the DS's bottom screen. It sounds silly, but the information presented on the bottom screen, in an almost ebook-esque fashion, really does a lot for world building to the point that it's much more easy to get wrapped up in the game's story. The story paths of 999 are insanely branching, as you'll be presented with different doors only specific combinations of characters can move through, which can be hard to keep track of as you progress through the game.
Later iterations of Zero Escape fix this particular issue by implementing a flow chart that shows what story branches you've completed, but the original DS of 999 does not. From what I understand, however, the PC and PS4 version called Zero Escape: The Nonary Games, which includes both 999 and Virtue's Last Reward, does include a flow chart to make it easier to navigate the various story paths. If you're playing the original DS version, however, you mostly need to remember what you've completed, and you'll need to use the game's skip feature to speed up reaching the next branch, which can be a little tiresome if it's your second or third time through a particular escape room.
The escape rooms themselves form up the gameplay of 999- characters will walk into a specific room and get locked in, and need to solve various puzzles in order to successfully progress to the next story segment. Some of these puzzles can be quite ingenious, and several take full advantage of the features of the Nintendo DS (it's my understanding that some of these puzzles were changed for the PC/PS4 release, but I do not know in which way). Many of the puzzles involve unique ways to utilize numbers, chemicals, and the like, and while they're not so overly challenging that they become stressful- honestly they make a great break from the growing story developments.
There isn't much that can be said about 999's story- it's not quite a masterpiece, but it's one of the finest tales spun on the Nintendo DS, or almost any visual novel-type game to come after it. Kotaro Uchikoshi's writing is incredible, with fleshed out characters, excellent use of tension and branching paths, as well as puzzles that are extremely satisfying to solve, incorporating all of these elements to form an extremely competent package that is uniquely entertaining. Even for someone who isn't a huge fan of visual novels, like myself, I found 999 to stand alongside the likes of Steins;Gate with relative ease, which is one of the highest compliments I can give.
That said, these are the two games that jumped out at me over the last few weeks. Join us some nebulous time in the future in which we'll discuss a couple more possibly forgotten games that deserve a second look.
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Home > Projects > Saudade
Assanhado
Interview w/ Neon Jazz
1 Assanhado — Jacob do Bandolim
2 The Girl From Ipanema — Antônio Carlos Jobim
3 Beatriz — Edu Lobo, Chico Buarque
4 Aquarelle: II. Valseana — Sérgio Assad
5 Aquarela do Brasil — Ary Barroso
6 Bachianas brasileiras No. 5: I. Aria (Cantilena): Adagio — Heitor Villa-Lobos
7 Ponta de Areia — Milton Nascimento, Fernando Brant
8 5 Preludes, W419: No.1 in E Minor — Heitor Villa-Lobos
9 5 Preludes, W419: No. 2 in D Major — Heitor Villa-Lobos
10 5 Preludes, W419: No.3 in A Minor — Heitor Villa-Lobos
11 5 Preludes, W419: No.4 in E Minor — Heitor Villa-Lobos
12 5 Preludes, W419: No.5 in D Major — Heitor Villa-Lobos
13 O Mundo É Um Moinho (feat. Maria Rita) — Angenor de Oliveira
14 Recuerdos de Ypacarai — Zulema de Mirkin, Demetrio Ortíz
15 Samba do Avião — Antônio Carlos Jobim
16 Gracias A La Vida — Violeta Parra
17 Se todos fossem iguais a você / Águas de Março Medley — Jobim
18 Menino (feat. Braimah Kanneh-Mason) — Sérgio Assad
Decca Gold is thrilled to announce the signing of 27-year-old Brazilian classical guitarist Plínio Fernandes. Plínio will release his major label debut solo album "Saudade" on July 8th. The first track, "Assanhado," is available to stream here, along with an accompanying music video, which you can watch here.
On signing with Decca Gold, Plínio says,
"It's really a dream come true: the opportunity to be signed by Decca Gold. All my heroes recorded for the label, especially Andrés Segovia. Being the one chosen to carry through that legacy is amazing, but such a responsibility."
Born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, Plínio Fernandes's musical talent has brought him all over the world, including to the Royal Academy of Music in London where he received his master's degree and has lived for the last seven years. With "Saudade," an entrancing collection of works for solo guitar, Fernandes makes his auspicious recording debut for Decca Gold, weaving together all his musical loves and telling his complex and captivating international story in sound. "I chose songs that I grew up listening to," Fernandes explains, "and in many cases I fell in love with the guitar through them." We hear that boundless love, that charge of artistic talent in early bloom, throughout "Saudade."
The album also features special guests Sheku Kanneh-Mason on cello in Villa-Lobos' flowing and lyrical "Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5: I. Aria (Cantilena)," Braimah Kanneh-Mason on violin in "Menino," and renowned vocalist Maria Rita in a rendition of "O Mundo É Um Moinho."
World Music Report reviews: Plinio Fernandes - Saudade
World Music Report's Raul da Gama writes…..The brilliant young guitarist Plínio Fernandes proves once again [although he probably did not set out to do so] that well before Johann Sebastian Bach – and just as Igor Stravinsky might have said, but didn't – the African was musically sophisticated in ways that his European counterpart would become years later. He knew, for instance, to create a curlicue of a ba...
Plinio Fernandes chats with Neon Jazz about 'Saudade'
Decca Gold is thrilled on the signing of 27-year-old Brazilian classical guitarist Plínio Fernandes. Plínio has released his major label debut solo album "Saudade," and on the signing with Decca Gold, Plínio says, "It's really a dream come true: the opportunity to be signed by Decca Gold. All my heroes recorded for the label, especially Andrés Segovia. Being the one chosen to carry through that legacy is am...
Plinio Fernandes - Saudade is the WFMT: Featured New Release
Decca Gold is thrilled to announce the signing of 27-year-old Brazilian classical guitarist Plínio Fernandes. Plínio releases his major label debut solo album "Saudade" TODAY!! - July 8th. The first track, "Assanhado," is available to stream here, along with an accompanying music video, which you can watch here. On signing with Decca Gold, Plínio says, "It's really a dream come true: the opportunity to be s...
Plinio Fernandes makes JAZZIZ: The Week in Jazz
Decca Gold is thrilled to announce the signing of 27-year-old Brazilian classical guitarist Plínio Fernandes. Plínio will release his major label debut solo album "Saudade" on July 8th. The first track, "Assanhado," is available to stream here, along with an accompanying music video, which you can watch here. On signing with Decca Gold, Plínio says, "It's really a dream come true: the opportunity to be sign...
Plinio Fernandes signs To Decca Gold and releases solo debut album / BroadwayWorld
BroadwayWorld's A.A. Cristi writes….Decca Gold is thrilled to announce the signing of 27-year-old Brazilian classical guitarist Plínio Fernandes. Plínio will release his major label debut solo album Saudade on Friday, July 8, 2022. The first track, "Assanhado," is available to stream here, along with an accompanying music video, which you can watch here.On signing with Decca Gold, Plínio says, "It's really ...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Almost Dying for the Story: On Michael Scott Moore's "The Desert and the Sea: 977 Days Captive on the Somali Pirate Coast"
By Tristan McConnell
I MET A PIRATE once. It was the summer of 2009 in Somaliland, and I'd made the hot drive across a scrub of desert date, myrrh, and acacia trees to Mandheera, a no-stoplight town. A couple of miles off the road stood the most prominent building in the area and Farah Ismail Eid's home — a whitewashed, colonial-era prison.
Eid was something of a celebrity, being one of the only convicted Somali pirates who conceded his guilt and would agree to be interviewed. Later, at a prison in Berbera, one pirate declined my offer ("Fuck you," he told me in surprisingly idiomatic English) while another simply spat at my feet before retreating into the sweaty dark of his cramped, shared cell.
Back then, piracy off Somalia's lawless coast was a big story that worked on a number of levels: it resonated broadly — thanks to Johnny Depp's Hollywood adaptations of a theme park ride — had a direct impact on the global economy by disrupting one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, full of oil tankers and cargo vessels, and was a genuinely new iteration of Somalia's long-running chaos.
Eid told me the Somali pirate origin story: untrammeled illegal fishing by foreign trawlers, toxic waste dumped on the shore, depleted fish stocks and wrecked reefs, lack of opportunity in a shattered state that has suffered decades of clan-based civil war, the necessity of protecting your livelihood, even if it meant law-breaking, and the imperative to survive.
He was a victim, as he saw it. "These problems fell on us like rain," he told me, with a poetic flourish. "We are quite aware that what we are doing is wrong, but this is a way of shouting to the world. The world should ask, 'Are these people wrong or were they wronged themselves?'" It was a call-to-arms, and an apologia.
Few journalists have risked finding active pirates, and for good reason, given the risks. One of the few is American journalist Michael Scott Moore, who was betrayed by his hosts and spent close to three years in captivity. He relates the story in an enthralling memoir called The Desert and the Sea: 977 Days Captive on the Somali Pirate Coast (2018).
Moore was living in Germany when he found himself covering the trial of 10 Somali pirates in Hamburg in 2011 who had been involved in the failed hijacking of a German cargo ship. "[I]t seemed to me that a book about the case and some underreported aspects of Somali piracy might be interesting," he writes. He was familiar with the sea, having written a previous book about the history of surfing.
His reporting initially takes him to Djibouti — a godforsaken chunk of scorched rock on the Gulf of Aden that consists mainly of ports, military bases, and sand — as well as to Nairobi, the Kenyan capital. He knows there's more to know, "[b]ut I wavered about going to Somalia."
During the trial, however, Moore meets a Somali clan elder who, he believes, can arrange safe passage from the central Somali town of Galkayo to the pirate village of Hobyo, 125 miles away on the Indian Ocean coast. In early 2012, Moore sets off. In Galkayo, he meets "the mayor of Hobyo" who, in a quintessential Somali-diaspora fashion, is a London bus driver when not flaunting his impressive, if hollow, job title.
Moore feels queasy while reporting in Somalia but buries his fears and carries on. He makes it safely to Hobyo and back, but it is on the relatively innocuous journey between Galkayo's town and its airport that his trip goes terribly wrong. A Mad Max–style "technical" — a Toyota pickup with a heavy machine gun welded onto the flatbed, so named because foreigners hiring them for security in the early 1990s would reclaim the cost as "technical expenses" — stops his vehicle. Moore is wrenched from the car, beaten, and abducted. His glasses are smashed, after which "everything looked like Monet."
The self-inflicted horror of his situation, and the journalistic hubris that brought him to it, dawns fast. "What did I think I would find around here?" Moore writes. "Pirates who trusted writers? Truth?"
Once he is captured, his kidnappers demand a "pathological" $20 million ransom from his mother, 72 years old and retired with her second husband in Redondo Beach, California. Foreigners held in Somalia have commonly been released for less than $1 million, but pirates, it turns out, are less often aggrieved fishermen like Eid. They are chancers, and stubborn, often inept ones.
That reality was mostly obscure at this time to Western editors who loved Somalia's 21st-century pirates because they seemed to bleed romantic, renegade history onto the news pages. The story drew journalists from Nairobi and further afield. Most of us did secondhand reporting, speaking to self-declared experts, negotiators, shipping monitors, and shady ex-soldiers who would either airdrop plastic-wrapped bricks of cash onto hijacked vessels or retrieve hostages from dust-blown air strips.
Some journalists made more of an effort, attending pirate trials in the Kenyan port town of Mombasa and the Seychelles, visiting Eid in his jail cell to exchange khat for quotes, or joining the international naval patrols whose warships were intended to deter pirates in their little motorized skiffs. This was dangerous work. Colin Freeman, a London-based foreign correspondent for The Daily Telegraph, was nabbed by his own security guards and held for 40 days while attempting to cover Somali piracy in 2008, as recorded in his book Kidnapped (2011). Jay Bahadur, a young Canadian journalist — precocious, foolhardy, brave — rocked up in northern Somalia with some flimsy connections and a truckload of luck, eventually writing The Pirates of Somalia (2012). Years later, in 2015, James Verini wrote a compelling article for The New Yorker about the experience of pirate hostages, interviewing the surviving crew of the MV Albedo (captured in November 2010, freed in June 2014, a year after their boat had foundered in a storm off Hobyo). Moore showed great courage in going after the story at its source, and paid a huge price for it.
After weeks of shunting him from one dingy safe house to another in a series of SUVs, the pirates move Moore to the Naham 3 — an Omani-flagged Taiwanese trawler with a mixed Asian crew and a freezer hold filled with immense tuna and, grotesquely, the body of the vessel's captain, shot dead during the hijacking. This shift underscores an important point about "Somali pirates," which is that they are not really pirates at all, but opportunistic kidnappers who happened, mostly, to work at sea. The cargo was irrelevant and rarely touched, neither when it was millions of barrels of oil nor a freighter full of tanks and rockets.
Moore's sense of hopelessness deepens as he reaches the rusting trawler. "For the first time in Somalia, but not the last, I considered suicide," he writes. Fantasies of escape recur. They often take the form of a heroic blaze of glory — seizing an AK-47 from a dozy guard, rescue by Navy SEALs, or a leap to freedom from the gunwales (the latter he actually does, relishing fleeting moments of liberty in the sea, before his recapture) — but more often the escape he dreams of is suicide.
The struggle is constant, but throughout his captivity, hope penetrates the carapace of despair: Moore persists in using the LED torches on cheap cigarette lighters to signal to the presumably American drones that he hears buzz overhead, he tarries when ordered inside as light aircraft or helicopters fly by — as they regularly do, sometimes photographing the ship — and he risks smuggling German phrases identifying his location into the occasional phone calls home in which the pirates force him to beg for a ransom payment. Scrounging pens and notebooks, Moore jots down a series of scrappy prison diaries. Written where and when he can, and frequently confiscated as punishment or out of malice, these become "an essential refuge from prison."
The other constant is the pirates' inability to comprehend the gulf between their demands and Moore's reality. In a moment of rare candor, a pirate guard called Dag, incredulous that Moore's mother won't pony up the ransom, desperately tells him he just wants "the Good Life," the American Dream fed to him via television and smartphone. "I don't have the Good Life, Dag. You guys kidnapped the wrong man," Moore replies.
It is a measure of the misery of solitary confinement that Moore's months at sea seem almost jolly in comparison to his time in the desert. There was a shared experience on the Naham 3, but no shared language, so the captives concocted a pidgin ("Hai dao loco-loco": "Pirates crazy"), cooked for one another — including regular sashimi carved from the frozen tuna store — and watched Tom and Jerry DVDs. Most of his fellow hostages were "hip young Asian youth" who were either conned onto the trawler by unscrupulous employment agencies or lured by the promise of relative wealth. Moore has sympathy for the crew, but little for his captors, who are portrayed as cruel, sometimes comical and often stupid, a "bumbling criminal tag team" of guards, negotiators, and bosses united by greed and clan.
Moore's talent for dark observational humor is used to great effect and leavens what might, in another writer's hands, have been a relentlessly bleak book.
His eventual release, after the payment of an undisclosed though undoubtedly more modest ransom than initially demanded, and scratched together by his mother, offers almost instant Schadenfreude for the reader when his pirate captors get into a deadly altercation over the ransom. There follows a disappointingly short section dealing with Moore's struggle to readjust to a liberty so long lost, which seems only to skim across the surface of a psychological distress that, one imagines, must linger.
Moore did not die for his story, but he suffered deeply and helplessly. Yet the book Moore has written, while clearly not the one he would've chosen, provides rare insight into Somali piracy and is an important addition to that most traumatic and illuminating genre of nonfiction, the hostage memoir.
Tristan McConnell is a foreign correspondent in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Desert and the Sea
977 Days Captive on the Somali Pirate Coast
By Michael Scott Moore
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Carly Fiorina Is Dead Wrong About Paid Parental Leave
Netflix's policy shows precisely what's wrong with relying on the private sector to do "the right thing"
By Elizabeth Bruenig
Over the weekend, Republican presidential hopeful Carly Fiorina followed up her much-lauded debate performace with a CNN appearance in which she came out against any federal mandate regarding paid parental leave: "I don't think it's the role of government to dictate to the private sector how to manage their businesses," she told CNN's Jake Tapper, "especially when it's pretty clear that the private sector, like Netflix, like the example that you just gave, is doing the right thing because they know it helps them attract the right talent." But Netflix itself disproves Fiorina's theory that the free market, if left to its own devices, will do "the right thing" when it comes to paid parental leave.
Netflix was rightly applauded last week for its decision to grant unlimited maternity or paternity leave to its employees for the first year after having or adopting a child. But the new policy does not apply to employees in Netflix's DVD division, the Huffington Post's Emily Peck reported on Thursday. In contrast to the generally salaried workers of Netflix's streaming division, Peck explained, "Most of Netflix's DVD workers aren't highly sought-after, high-skilled engineers." That accounts for the disparity in their benefits package: An anonymous worker told Peck that the DVD division's policy is one month of paid leave, with the option of further leave at reduced pay.
Because the United States is one of just a few nations that don't guarantee its workers paid parental leave, policies like Netflix's function as attractive benefits to draw highly skilled workers to well-paid jobs. In other words, our abysmal national policy on maternity and paternity leave—the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 only guarantees 12 weeks of unpaid, protected leave—ensures that secure, fully paid time off with a new baby is a privilege only some workers possess, despite the fact that all babies (rich or poor) need equal care in the earliest stages of life. That gap between paid leave policies for upper-tier workers and those for the rest of the workforce has several obvious negative effects, not least that it punishes babies for the income level of their parents.
But there are more insidious effects, too. First, the gap between the best and worst parental leave policies encourages well-to-do workers with generous parental benefits to resist any national efforts to assure workers a standard amount of paid leave. The conservative think tank YG Network (now known as Conservative Reform Network) seemed to realize this potential in an anti-parental leave screed it published in its 2014 policy packet "Room to Grow," where it criticized the FAMILY act, a piece of legislature that would ensure protected leave and a stipend during time off.
"Proponents claim [the FAMILY act] would inexpensively provide needed assistance to those lacking paid leave, and would particularly benefit women by providing paid maternity leave. But while it would assist some women, it would also disrupt the employment contracts of the majority of working Americans who currently have leave benefits. This new federal entitlement would encourage businesses currently providing paid leave programs—including more generous leave packages—to cease doing so."
As the argument goes, a federal law guaranteeing protected, paid leave for parents could cause some employers currently providing cushy maternity benefits to reduce them to merely meet federal standards. This law could feasibly reduce the benefits of some women with the kinds of high-earning jobs that tend to come with generous leave policies; on the other hand, the fact that parental leave does function as a perk suggests a federal minimum available to all workers likely wouldn't do all that much damage to extant policies. Nonetheless, the fact that parental leave is treated as a privilege to earn, like year-end bonuses and sweet parking spots, provides fuel for this kind of rhetorical move against parental leave for all. Don't support universal parental leave, moms and dads, or you might get stuck with the same measly benefits the poor workers have to deal with.
Perhaps more concerning yet is the pacifying effect that highly publicized but ultimately limited paid leave policies have on national policy. When companies like Netflix and Microsoft—joined on Monday by yet another tech company, Adobe—roll out brand-new parental leave policies, they generally don't point out that many workers at other companies are still more or less on their own when it comes to taking time off to care for infants. But the veneer of free-market beneficence allows politicians like Fiorina to suggest that federal intervention in paid leave policy isn't necessary because companies seem to be "doing the right thing" on their own.
They are not. As Caroline Fredrickson points out in her 2015 book Under the Bus: How Working Women are Being Run Over, "According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 11 percent of the workforce has paid leave—that means the other 89 percent are left to their own financial resources (if, indeed, they have the right to take leave at all). According to one survey, almost three quarters of workers with an income below $ 20,000 per year did not have paid leave, as opposed to only one quarter of employees whose income fell between $ 50,000 and $ 75,000." Fredrickson cites a 2012 study by the Department of Labor that found 46 percent of workers who wanted to take time off were not able to because "they could not sustain the loss of wages." However promising the policies of companies like Netflix might be for some of their workers, those earning less in lower skilled positions don't seem to be getting in on the progress.
So it's time to re-conceptualize parental leave. Rather than thinking of it as a perk due to some lucky workers (Congratulations! Your skills are rare enough to earn you the right to nurse your baby!) we should think of it as a period of care due to all infants. Since all babies require the same care as they arrive in the world, all parents should be assured the protection of time off and the stability of continued pay while they look after their newborns. The fact that so many families lack the ability to take time off to care for their infants illustrates how keenly income inequality is felt, even in the earliest moments of a child's life. All of the American Dream rhetoric undoubtedly to come during the 2016 election season cannot conceal the fact that poorer kids simply start off with less, a condition that can only be remedied by giving their parents more.
@ebruenig
Paid Leave, Politics, Netflix, Carly Fiorina, Republican Primary 2016, Business, Economics, Families, income inequality


text:
Washington Free Beacon Editors
Soros-Funded Fake News Operation Pushes Facebook to Reinstate Trump Ban
FACT CHECK: IRS Watchdog Destroys Media Claim That Trump Ordered Audits of James Comey and Andrew McCabe
James Comey | Getty
Liberal media outlets like the New York Times and MSNBC claimed former President Donald Trump ordered audits of former FBI chiefs James Comey and Andrew McCabe for political payback. According to the Internal Revenue Service's internal watchdog, that's not true.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration determined that the IRS randomly selected Comey and McCabe for audits of their tax returns from 2017 and 2019 as part of a program the IRS uses to refine its technology, according to a report released Thursday. The watchdog found no evidence of malfeasance on the part of Trump or any Trump-appointed officials.
It's the latest media-propelled narrative disproved by federal watchdogs. The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general exonerated border patrol agents who were accused in the liberal media of whipping Haitian migrants as they crossed into the United States from Mexico. The Justice Department's inspector general debunked the infamous Steele dossier, which the media cited as evidence that the Trump campaign conspired with Russia to influence the 2016 election.
The audits of Comey and McCabe, which the New York Times reported on July 6, fed the narrative that Trump sought revenge on Comey and McCabe for opening an investigation into his campaign in 2016. According to the Times, Comey and McCabe were subject to "intensive" audits of their tax returns from 2017 and 2019. The paper followed up with an analysis of the audits and determined that there was a "minuscule" chance that the audits were random.
Breaking News: James Comey and Andrew McCabe, former FBI officials who Donald Trump wanted prosecuted, were both subjected to rare, intensive IRS audits. https://t.co/0TiHYvn7Uy
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 6, 2022
Comey and McCabe said they believed they were targeted for the audits.
"Maybe it's a coincidence or maybe somebody misused the IRS to get at a political enemy. Given the role Trump wants to continue to play in our country, we should know the answer to that question," Comey said.
"The revenue agent I dealt with was professional and responsive," McCabe said. "Nevertheless, I have significant questions about how or why I was selected for this."
Michael Schmidt, the Times reporter who broke the story, said in an MSNBC interview that because of Trump's "continued harping" on Comey and McCabe, "it's hard on the face of it to simply accept that this is random."
Schmidt and MSNBC host Chris Hayes further suggested that then-IRS commissioner Charles Rettig, a Trump appointee, may have had a hand in the audits. Schmidt noted that Rettig had supported Trump's argument to withhold the release of his tax returns during the 2016 campaign. He also said that Rettig "owns two properties at a Trump property in Waikiki, Hawaii."
"Because of Donald Trump's continued harping on these two individuals, it's hard on the face of it to simply accept that this is random," says @nytmike on the IRS audits of James Comey and Andrew McCabe. https://t.co/uQnXM3hfcn
— All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) July 8, 2022
But according to the watchdog report, Rettig was appointed months after the audit program that selected Comey and McCabe started. Rettig told the inspector general's team that he had no discussions with the Trump administration regarding the audit program.
CNN, too, pushed the conspiracy theory that Trump was behind the audits. Pundit Chris Cilizza wrote that "it's *very* hard to see the audits of former FBI officials as coincidence." McCabe, a CNN law enforcement analyst, told CNN's Don Lemon it was "scary to be targeted" in an audit.
Comey's and McCabe's claims to have been unfairly targeted by the federal government marks an ironic twist given their mishandling of the investigation into the Trump campaign and Russia. Both signed off on surveillance warrants against a Trump campaign adviser that were based on faulty information from the Steele dossier. The Justice Department's inspector general found that the FBI failed to verify information in the dossier, which was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign, before using it as part of the investigation into the Trump campaign.
Trump fired Comey on May 10, 2017, after Comey publicly testified that the FBI was investigating the Trump campaign. McCabe was fired from the FBI in 2018 after the Justice Department's inspector general found that he lied to federal investigators about his role in a leak of information about a bureau investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
Published under: CNN , Donald Trump , IRS , James Comey , MSNBC , New York Times


text:
est un film américain réalisé par William C. Dowlan et Henri D'Elba, sorti en 1918.

Synopsis
Un homme se fait passer pour une femme pour se venger des escrocs qui ont ruiné sa famille. Mais il va tomber amoureux de la nièce d'un de ces escrocs.

Fiche technique
 Titre original :
 Réalisation : William C. Dowlan et Henri D'Elba
 Scénario : E. Magnus Ingleton
 Photographie : Elgin Lessley
 Société de production : Triangle Film Corporation
 Société de distribution : Triangle Distributing Corporation
 Pays d'origine :
 Langue originale : anglais
 Format : noir et blanc — 35 mm — 1,37:1 — Film muet
 Genre : Comédie dramatique
 Durée : 50 minutes (5 bobines)
 Dates de sortie :  :
 Licence : Domaine public

Distribution
 Pauline Starke : Betty
 Casson Ferguson : Dick Browning, alias Mary Brown
 Arthur Millett : Hewlett
 Eugene Burr : Watson
 Sidney De Gray : Carnac
 Walter Belasco : Oncle Ike
 F. Thompson : Gunter
 Richard Rosson : Weasel
 Alberta Lee : Mme Browning

Liens externes

  Alias Mary Brown sur Silent Era

Film américain sorti en 1918
Film américain en noir et blanc
Comédie dramatique américaine
Film muet américain
Film dans le domaine public

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Frik (în ) a fost un poet armean din Evul Mediu care a trăit în secolul al XIII-lea și secolul al XIV-lea. El a trăit în timpul ocupației mongole a Armeniei.

Versurile sale au fost scrise în spiritul fatalismului religios; în același timp el a criticat clerul pentru ipocrizie și, chiar dacă a fost creștin, s-a îndoit de valorile creștinilor.

Biografie
Frik a trăit în perioada anilor 1230 până în anii 1310. Nu se știe dacă Frik era numele său real. Mulți cred că numele său era un pseudonim sau o prescurtare a numelui său original. Învățatul armean, Zhamkochian, a identificat locul de naștere al lui Frik și a ajuns la concluzia că el sa născut în Armenia occidentală. Zhamkochian a observat că scrisul său armean era foarte asemănător limbii folosite în Regatul Armean al Ciliciei, așa că a considerat că acest regat este locul său de naștere. Se spune că mai mult de 50 de poezii ale lui Frik au supraviețuit de-a lungul anilor. Unele dintre poeziile sale sunt Din Protest, Un extras și Cântec.

Poezii
Câteva poezii ale lui Frik au fost publicate pentru prima oară în 1930. Două dintre cele mai cunoscute poezii ale sale au fost Plângere față de Hristos și Împotriva destinului. Ambele poezii conțin îndoieli puternice față de credința religioasă și pun la îndoială valorile celor care se numesc "creștini" și care nu acționează conform cuvintelor sau credințele lor.

Opera lui Frik a fost considerată poezie armeană medievală, deoarece era de origine armeană și a apărut la două secole după ce Imperiul Mongol a zdrobit curtea regală armeană Bagratuni în timpul invaziei. O mare parte din inspirația sa a provenit din modul în care puterea politică poate fi folosită adesea în mod greșit, în loc de a oferi indivizilor egalitate și libertate. El a fost și creștin, dar a pus la îndoială credința sa din cauza negativității promovate de clerul bisericii.

Note

Vezi și
 Listă de armeni

Nașteri în 1234
Decese în 1315
Poeți armeni
Scriitori armeni
Poeți din secolul al XIII-lea
Poeți din secolul al XIV-lea


text:
About Oaklins
Go to team
Martynas Visockas
Martynas is a co-founding partner at Oaklins Baltics in Vilnius. During the course of his M&A advisory and banking career in Lithuania since 2003, Martynas has worked with various Lithuanian clients in different sectors on sell-side, buy-side and capital raising transactions. Consequently, he has a very wide network of local business connections. He has particular expertise in TMT, e-commerce, retail & wholesale, services, healthcare and catering. Notable clients he has advised include City Service, Pigu.lt, BaltCap, Cili Pica, INVL Technology and Tele2.
Before co-founding the Lithuanian office in 2013, which became the #1 M&A advisor in the market by volume, Martynas worked at the investment banking unit of Swedbank and at the M&A boutique Prime Investment. Martynas has a Bachelor of Science from the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and a Master of Science in Strategic Management from EDHEC Business School in France. He has also completed the CFA (chartered financial analyst) Program.
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"Denis McQuail's Mass Communication Theory is not just a seminal text in the study of media and society - it is a benchmark for understanding and appreciating the long and winding road people and their media have taken to get us here." - Mark Deuze, Indiana University and Leiden University "This is a unique work tested by time and generations of students around the world - North, South, East and West." - Kaarle Nordenstreng, University of Tampere "McQuail's Mass Communication Theory continues to be the clearest and best introduction to this sprawling field." - Anders Hansen, University of Leicester With over 125,000 copies sold, McQuail's Mass Communication Theory has been the benchmark for studying media and communication for more than 25 years. It remains the most authoritative and comprehensive introduction to the field and offers unmatched coverage of the research literature. It covers everything a student needs to know of the diverse forms of mass communication today, including television, radio, newspapers, film, music, the internet and other forms of new media. Denis McQuail shows that more than ever, theories of mass communication matter for the broader understanding of society and culture. Unmatched in coverage and used across the globe, this book includes: Explorations of new media, globalization, work, economy, governance, policy, media audiences and effects New boxed case studies on key research publications, to familiarize students with the critical research texts in the field Definitions, examples, and illustrations throughout to bring abstract concepts to life. McQuail's Mass Communication Theory is the indispensable resource no student of media and communication studies can afford to be without.
This unique volume brings together original essays by well-known mass communication experts--master teachers--who provide practical information on teaching the communication and journalism courses in which they specialize. Its contributors include eminent specialists such as Maurine H. Beasley, who offers advice to teachers of media history; Dan Nimmo (political communication); Roy L. Moore (media law); Jay Black (media ethics); and John De Mott (media management). Chapter authors suggest course outlines, teaching strategies, and methods of testing, and provide reviews of current texts and supplementary materials such as films and other audio-visual aids.
"Peyton Paxson succinctly describes the forces deconstructing the establishment media while providing a grounded introduction to mass communication." Bick Treut Communication Studies, Raritan Valley Community College, New Jersey Mass Communications and Media Studies: An Introduction serves as a primary text for media studies courses at two-year colleges. It briefly surveys the history of mass communication media, discusses the current state of each medium, and anticipates the future of mass media. Its focus is a study of the mass media industry and the role it plays in society, which distinguishes it from books that focus solely on communications theory. The book's presentation addresses the needs of both students and faculty members. It includes helpful pedagogical features at the end of each chapter, containing discussion questions and links to additional online resources. The format of the book allows it to be used in courses that analyze the mass media through social and cultural criticism as well as in courses that emphasize the economic structure of the mass media industry. Mass Communications and Media Studies: An Introduction is comprehensive yet concise. Divided into twelve chapters, it can be used in either 16-week semesters or 12-week terms. Focused in its approach and comprehensive in its coverage, this is the textbook of choice for mass communication and media studies students.
This major text by the author of Mass Communication Theory offers a comprehensive analysis of the growing field of assessment and evaluation of the performance of mass media. Across different societies, with varying media systems, there is evidence of increasing concern with the nature and quality of media output as well as about the independence and diversity of media systems. In this broad-ranging overview, Denis McQuail outlines the varying means of media performance assessment which have been attempted. He analyzes the central questions of what the public interest' means in this context, which criteria are relevant for assessing media performance, how such values are established and how they can be reconciled with the economic, industrial and audience market contexts. Both encapsulating a major area of recent debate and research, and advancing it to a new level, this book will be essential reading for students of media and communication studies and for those actively involved with media policy and practice.
This comprehensive resource on mass communication theory is structured around the key conceptual areas of text, audience, media, production and society. Using illustrations from popular genres - particularly film and television - Arthur Asa Berger combines his broad knowledge of the mass communications field with his unique ability to translate difficult theories and models into comprehensible terms and accessible language. He concludes with suggestions for further work and discussion plus an up-to-date bibliography, making this an excellent introduction for students of communication.
The literature on mass communication is now dominated by "objective sociological "approaches. What makes the work of Stephenson so unusual is his starting points: his frank willingness to adopt a "subjective "and "psychological "approach to the study of mass communication. In short, this is an internal analysis of how communication processes are absorbed by individuals. The theory of play is not a doctrine of frivolity, but rather a way in which Stephenson gets at such sensitive areas of communication theory as what is screened out and why. Without a notion of the play element in communication one would be led to imagine that every televised docudrama would be immediately lived out by every adolescent. Clearly, this is not the case. People can distinguish quite well between imaginary and real events in mass communication contexts. "The Play Theory of Mass Communication "is a work that studies subjective play, how communication serves the cause of self-enhancement and personal pleasure, and the role of entertainment as an end in itself. In short, for those who are tired of cliche-ridden volumes on the political hidden messages and meanings of communication, or the economic management of media decisions, this volume will come as a refreshment, a piece of entertainment as well as instruction. But with all the emphasis "on "aspects, Stephenson's volume is shrewdly political. He takes up themes ranging from the reduction! of international tensions to the happily alienated worker to such pedestrian events as the reporting of foreign Soviet dignitaries in their visits to democratic cultures. This is, in short, an urbane, wise book--sophisticated in its methodology and critical in its theorizing.
The rise of mass communications has fundamentally reshaped the modern world. In this comparative introduction, Lorimer surveys not only the different types of media and their attendant technologies, but the theories used to understand the subject. He provides an international perspective, drawing on examples from the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Japan and various European countries.


An employee may have to submit fuel receipts to verify that the company's money was indeed spent on gasoline.
Since gas gosts money, employers often reimburse employees who use personal vehicles for company business.
When an employee uses his personal vehicle to conduct business for the benefit of his employer, he may receive a repayment for associated costs in the form of mileage reimbursement. By doing this, a corporation absorbs some of the fuel expenses and automobile wear and tear at a predetermined rate, easing the financial burden of employees. In the United States, this is an optional benefit; as such, the US government may also allow a tax deduction for companies or individuals who use cars for business purposes. Usually, corporations base the mileage reimbursement rate on the guidelines set by national governing agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the US, but not always.
Employees who work for organizations that offer mileage reimbursement are typically required to provide an accurate account of the business miles they drive. Most companies have a standard form, called an expense report, whereby the employee completes pertinent information that outlines the places where he drove, the number of miles he traveled to get there, and the business purpose for each particular visit. When management approves the expense report, the employee is then reimbursed for the costs he incurred. This is usually calculated by taking the number of business miles driven and multiplying that figure by the current reimbursement rate established by the employer.
In the United States, the IRS publishes optional standard mileage rates based on the cost of operating a car. Gas prices from the previous year are generally considered in the estimate as well. Employers may elect to reimburse staff members based on this suggested rate. They can also deviate from it at their discretion.
Some companies choose not to offer mileage reimbursement at all. When they do, however, they may then be entitled to include that expense as a tax deduction on their corporate returns. Likewise, people who do not receive mileage reimbursement from their employers may also be eligible to itemize auto expenses as a deduction on their personal income tax returns.
Travel from a person's home to a job site is not usually reimbursable for either an employing unit or an individual. In other words, if a person typically drives 20 miles per day from his home to his office, he cannot usually claim that as a legitimate expense. Throughout the day, however, if he drives to other locations to make sales calls or conduct business for his employer, he can usually request compensation for the additional travel when mileage reimbursement is offered.
What is a Deduction for Mileage?
What is a Gas Mileage Calculator?


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This is presumably a standout amongst the most imperative things you can do to broaden the life of your auto and keep it running easily. While there are heaps of "fast change" type organizations particularly for this administration, there are points of interest of utilizing the equivalent, normal group to replace your oil and different liquids in your auto. They will start to assemble a history with you and your vehicle to make them more fit the bill to see other potential issues previously they occur.
Most producers suggest vehicle registration at certain mileage levels. Amid these visits, the professional will check your liquids, belts, and by and large motor wellbeing. Check with the business to perceive what is taken care of in the expense of the registration versus separate expenses relying upon what they find. A respectable shop ought to likewise run over any issues with you before they address them, so you have an opportunity to state no or if nothing else know about the additional charges.
Not all Auto Repair Shops in Denver offer tires, but rather most will turn or repair tires. It is vital to get your tires pivoted all the time so there isn't uneven wear that can accomplish more harm to the general arrangement of your auto. You may likewise require a tire settled sooner or later, for example, on the off chance that you keep running over a nail or generally harm the tire. On the off chance that they don't offer tires, they can likely suggest somebody who does.
Regardless of whether it's on account of a mischance or due to ordinary maturing of the auto, you may wind up requiring huge repairs to your vehicle. This can run from supplanting a radiator to supplanting a motor. When you have this sort of need, ensure the shop you're working with has encountered specialists that will do quality work in the most proficient way that is available. They ought to be acquainted with the make and model of your auto. On account of a mischance, the shop should enable you to explore the protection necessities and let you know whether there are any noteworthy contrasts between what they trust should be done and what the insurance agency considers. Since a few issues can require a significant stretch of time to settle, you will need to get an expected conveyance date and cost.
While looking into Denver Auto Repair Shops in your general vicinity, set aside opportunity to discover however much as could reasonably be expected about their administrations, experience and notoriety. You can discover one that gives quality administration at sensible costs!
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Dr. Chetan Bettegowda offers comprehensive treatments for adult patients with benign and malignant brain tumors, specializing in the treatment of patients with primary brain tumors such as gliomas, meningiomas and pituitary tumors. He performs both open surgery and stereotactic radiosurgery for patients with metastatic tumors to the brain, and also provides stereotactic radiosurgery for other neurological disorders, including spinal tumors, trigeminal neuralgia and skull-base tumors.
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Mr Neil Kitchen, Consultant Neurosurgeon and Queen Square Gamma Knife Centre's Clinical Lead is taking on three challenges for The National Brain Appeal to raise money for the Neurosurgery Fund that helps to provide state-of-the-art equipment and better facilities for the National Hospital for Neurosurgery and Neurology's neurosurgery unit. He will be running the London Landmarks Half Marathon, the London Marathon and the Royal Parks Half Marathon! Please read his story and make donations here.


text:
Worry for electricity producers as number of large users decline :: Kenya
The Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Chairperson James Rege (L) visits power plant station behind Sony Sugar company in Migori County (Photo Kingwara, Standard)
The number of large businesses connected to the electric grid declined by 12.7 per cent from 4,196 in 2008 to 3,662 in 2017, signalling worries to the power producers who lately have increased their output.
This is even as the number of domestic customers supplied with electricity by Kenya Power increased five-fold from 779,856 to 4,685,877 during this period.
Sh10 billion estate street lighting project goes dark
Most of the power generated in the country is consumed by large commercial industries.
Kenya Power has been struggling to grow its large and industrial electricity consumer numbers, even as its customers on the domestic grid grew six-fold over the last ten years.
The firm experienced a major reduction in the number of its large customers in 2008 and has over the years been unable to grow to match the 2008 levels.
According to data by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), Kenya had 4,196 large and industrial customers in 2008 but the number fell 39 per cent 2,533 in 2009.
The number has since then been on a growth path but is yet to reach the 2008 levels. KNBS in its Statistical Abstract 2018 noted that Kenya Power had 3.662 large customers by end of last year.
Avoid becoming a victim of Fake News. Subscribe to the Standard Group SMS service by texting 'NEWS' to 22840.
However, an official from the power utility firm told The Standard that the decline was due to the reclassification of some of the large industries into small commercial firms.
The number of high paying large consumers is in comparison to the growth experienced among domestic consumers to reach 4.68 million, an over 500 per cent increase from 779,000 in 2008.
The growth in domestic consumers has been driven by Government's push for the universal connection that has largely focused on this category of power users. The large consumer category of consumers is however critical for the company as it accounts for more than half of the company's revenues, according to its financial reports.
US firm wants Kenya Power to pay dues
The large customers last year used 4.2 million kilowatt hours (KWh), which is 50 per cent of the 8.4 million KWh that Kenya Power sold to all its customers.
This is in comparison to the domestic consumers, whose consumption at 2.3 million KWh accounted for 27 per cent of the total electricity that Kenya Power sold despite their huge numbers.
According to Kenya 's annual report for the year to June 2017, large power consumers paid Sh55.7 billion, which accounted for 45 per cent of the power utility's revenues during the year, which stood at Sh120 billion. Kenya Power has in the recent past faced difficulties that have threatened its bottom line.
The firm, whose managers were arrested and charged with corruption last month issued a profit warning, indicating its profit would fall by more than 25 per cent.
It later said it had asked for permission from the Capital Markets Authority to delay in publishing its results. It is expected to release its results for the year to June 2018 this morning.
The firm has been defaulting on paying debts to power producers including KenGen and OrPower. It recently paid Sh18 billion to KenGen, which could have eaten into its profits during the year.
It also faces an uncertainty with a law proposing to allow the licensing of other power distributors.
Kenya Power ordered to reconnect power supply
While it might take years for a formidable competitor to establish the level of infrastructure that Kenya Power has, electricity generators such as KenGen are eyeing the market.
KenGen is in the process of setting up an industrial park where it will supply power directly to large consumers.
KenGen has also voiced its concerns on the limitations of the law that requires power producers to sell power to one firm, noting it poses a threat to its future survival, especially against Kenya Power defaulting on paying for electricity supplied.
Government to tap Sh50 billion bond :: Kenya
Airbnb homes in on African growth story :: Kenya
General News1 hour ago


text:
Q: Lost installed ubuntu os after restart, Computer starts on try-without install or install ubuntu What the title says, happened to a friend. While trying to transfer some files to his usb stick, a notification popped up, which he couldn't close, so he restarted his machine. After restart, his was prompted with the try ubuntu, which is automatically selected or install ubuntu. I asked him what the notification said, to which he told me he didn't pay attention to, but it had the word net. Any ideas to what happened?
Edit: Problem solved, friend is stupid. The usb he used had Ubuntu installation files. Thanks for the tips!

A: This looks very much like the installation started afresh after every reboot.
The most common cause for this is that the installation media (USB stick,...) is still plugged in.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
E03: What Is Dead May Never Die
Game of Thrones: The HBO TV Series
[Book Spoilers] Ep 203 Discussion
By Ran, April 15, 2012 in E03: What Is Dead May Never Die
What is Dead May Never Die
ASoIaF
GRRM
The Nerdly Knight
Location:Louisiana
So looking back one other thing that has caught my eye/attention was that the conversation between Bran and the Maester Luwin in the books takes place after the arrival of Reed's children, Meera and Jojen. Jojen tries to share his dreams from the greenvision which sparks that whole conversation among some other interesting things like Summer and Shaggydog going nuts, Bran being called a warg, etc. I'm wondering if we will see the Reed children here next week now that we are also seeing the Greyjoy's preparing to move out?!
I don't disagree. But Sansa has been traumatized. As others have observed, did you notice how much she looked like Cersei this episode? She is doing her best to identify herself with her captors, to make herself less vulnerable. She is saying all the "right" words.
Yes, she has definitely been traumatized. I love how she is so strong inside though. I remember long ago after reading GoT for the first time, I thought there was a chance that Sansa might side with her captors, but she didn't. She really is sharp.
I would say she is probably suffering from some serious PTSD, and it just gets worse the more and more things and "supposed" things happen to her family.
Reeds are cut :( Sorry to break it to you. It sucks.
Edited April 16, 2012 by dannister
Bran the Bummer
Location:Land of Desolation
Simply put, I just can't wrap my head around why two men would be attracted to each other. Men are at best unattractive to begin with. Like...George Clooney or this Loras fellow. So Not Hot. So why bother?
Simply put, this is homophobia. Whatever you believe about gay people, you ought to keep it to yourself. Straight sex is not hot to me, but you don't see me complaining about it. It's a part of the show and it's a fact of life. Sheesh.
CrypticWeirwood, True Northerner, Ororo727 Jon Snow Fangirl and 8 others reacted to this
Bastard Walder
jesus christ. :ack:
I know. What the hell are 'tiddies'?
Ororo727 Jon Snow Fangirl and SelaBela reacted to this
redraike
It was a pretty dumb comment, but I don't think it was necessarily homophobic.
So there's something wrong with not finding men attractive? Seriously?
I think you're a little hyper-sensitive there, friend.
I thought it was hot and I'm not gay :D
I was a giggling fool when Renly said "I want to pray. Alone."
Oh oh something I hadn't mentioned before...maybe I'm easy to please, but I liked the Sansa scene. She's a 15 year old (I think that's her age in the show?) who's held captive by the family who killed her father. I didn't see her as "bratty" toward Shae. I found her to be more broken down and way too depressed to deal with someone.
I've taken that last comment back, because I (briefly) forgot that Sansa thinks her bedsmaids are Cersei's spies.
Yeah, I was giggling then too. We all know what "praying" involves with Renly ;)
But you were the one complaining in the first place.
About Renly: I don't think he was all that well developed in the book, and is he getting similar treatment in the show. His character is more of a vehicle for the real heir to the throne (and his red headed lady friend) to show off what he can do. I had very little invested in Renly in the books, and non-readers have very little invested in his character in the show.
Otherwise, I'm glad they got that Cat line in about "playing war." It's a little different in ACOK, but they got still the point across.
I also loved how they started the show from Summer/Bran's point of view.
Lady Octarina reacted to this
Although the Sansa/Shae was forced, book Sansa herself did think to herself how sullen and sulky Shae was. She caught "looks" out of the corner of her eye, or somesuch.
From a non-reader perspective, the Myrcella selling scene was confusing. My gf said "but wait, did he just promise her to 3 different people? Why?" So I had to explain it. I think we've lost a great deal of the reasoning behind Tyrion's actions, even if the scene was well done. Missed him ticking off his fingers, though.
No. I just said I don't understand all the fuss. That's all. Calm down.
I think it's more like...if you don't like it or it grosses you out, whatever, you may want to keep that to yourself. Otherwise, you will come across as homophobic to many people on here. If you haven't noticed, the people on this forum are generally pretty liberal and open-minded when it comes to homosexuality.
Silmarien reacted to this
CrypticWeirwood
The Wizard in the Tree
γνῶθι σεαυτόν
Winter's Knight reacted to this
Doesn't she know that female polygamy is all the rage in Westeros?
glad they left the line in about "playing war." It's a little different in ACOK, but they got still the point across.
Agreed. And calling them the knights of summer. Showed her disdain/disbelief in what was going on.
J_Crews and Silmarien reacted to this
TheTrueMithrandir
newcomer with a few thoughts:
-Brienne was impressive!
-I like that actress that plays Margaery Tyrell, she was great in the Tudors, I'll be curious how much more screen time she will get this season since she is very minor in the book, but come time ASOS and esp AFFC she'll be front and center
-they really are setting up Varys to look great and cunning, the show version of Littlefinger on the other hand isn't looking as impressive
-you can tell they really are trying to hash out the complexity of Theon's character and his story line with the small amount of time that they have, I really enjoyed his scenes tonight
-so they combined 2 parts of the Arya epic into one cohesive scene, no biggie I guess, I was just really hoping to hear Hot Pie yell out "Hot Pie!" during the fight :*(
Kyle Foster reacted to this
Lol I wasn't freaking out, not sure where that calm down came from.
Maroucia
Location:Montreal
No no, not as in storyline. I totally get that. And whether they are "very important" or not is kind of arguable.
Um, now that you are talking about it, yeah, you are right, men are SO unattractive... :ack:
I guess I'll just leave my boyfriend and turn lesbian.
All you girls should do the same.
We'll leave all those guys by themselves and have ourselves one hell of a party!
Then, they'll have to turn gay too…
teemo reacted to this
Go To Topic Listing E03: What Is Dead May Never Die


text:
The Importance of Automated Testing in Open Systems Architecture Initiatives
March 3, 2014 • SEI Blog
Douglas C. Schmidt
Common Operation Platform Environments (COPEs) Open Systems Architectures Software Architecture Testing
To view a video of the introduction, please click here.
The Better Buying Power 2.0 initiative is a concerted effort by the United States Department of Defense to achieve greater efficiencies in the development, sustainment, and recompetition of major defense acquisition programs through cost control, elimination of unproductive processes and bureaucracy, and promotion of open competition. This SEI blog posting describes how the Navy is operationalizing Better Buying Power in the context of their Open Systems Architecture and Business Innovation initiatives.
This posting also presents the results from a recent online war game that underscore the importance of automated testing in these initiatives to help avoid common traps and pitfalls of earlier cost containment measures.
Overview of the Navy's Open Systems Architecture Initiative
To view a video of this section, please click here.
Given the expense of our major defense acquisition programs--coupled with budget limitations stemming from the fiscally constrained environment--the Department of Defense (DoD) has made cost containment a top priority. In response, the Navy has devised and supported various Open Systems Architecture initiatives, such as the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE), which is a technical standard aimed at enhancing interoperability and software portability for avionics software applications across DoD aviation platforms. The goals of these types of initiatives are to deliver enhanced integrated warfighting capability at lower cost across the enterprise and throughout the lifecycle via
the use of modular, loosely coupled, and explicitly-articulated architectures that provide many shared and reusable capabilities to warfighter applications
fully disclosing requirements, architecture, and design specifications and development work products to program performers
adopting common components based on published open interfaces and standards
achieving interoperability between hardware and/or software applications and services by applying common protocols and data models
amortizing the effort needed to create conformance and regression test suites that help automate the continuous verification, validation, and optimization of functional and non-functional requirements
Overview of the Navy's Business Innovation Initiative
Achieving the goals of Open Systems Architecture requires the Navy to formulate a strategy for decomposing large monolithic programs and technical designs into manageable, capability-oriented frameworks that can integrate innovation more rapidly and lower total ownership costs. A key element of this strategy is the Navy's Business Innovation Initiative, which is investigating various changes in business relationships between an acquisition organization and its contractor(s) to identify rational, actionable reform for new acquisition strategies, policies, and processes. These business relationship changes aim to open up competition, incentivize better contractor performance, increase access to innovative products and services from a wider array of sources, decrease time to field new capabilities, and achieve lower acquisition and lifecycle costs while sustaining fair industry profitability.
Although there's a clear and compelling need for new business and technical models for major defense acquisition programs, aligning the Naval acquisition community to the new Open System Architecture and Business Innovation initiatives presents a complex set of challenges and involves many stakeholders. To better understand these challenges, and to identify incentives that meet its future demands, the Navy ran two Massive Multiplayer Online Wargames Leveraging the Internet (MMOWGLI) in 2013. The Navy used these games to crowd-source ideas from contractors, government staff, and academics on ways to encourage industry and the acquisition workforce to use an Open Systems Architecture strategy.
Overview of the Massive Multiplayer Online Wargame Leveraging the Internet (MMOWGLI)
The MMOWGLI platform was developed by the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, California. This web-based platform supports thousands of distributed players who work together in a crowd-sourcing manner to encourage innovative thinking, generate problem solving ideas, and plan actions that realize those ideas.
The first Navy Business Innovation Initiative MMOWGLI game was held in January 2013. The primary objective of the game was to validate the use of the MMOWGLI platform to gather innovative ideas for improving the business of Naval systems acquisition. This game was extremely successful, and generated 890 ideas and 11 action plans. In addition, the results validated the soundness of the overall Navy Open System Architecture strategy and illuminated many ideas for further exploration in subsequent events with broader audiences.
A second Navy Business Innovation Initiative MMOWGLI was conducted from July 15 to August 1, 2013. The purpose of this game was to generate ideas from a wider audience of acquisition professionals on how to best incentivize industry, and how to motivate the government workforce to adopt OSA business models in the procurement, sustainment, and recompetition of national defense systems. The 1,750 ideas presented through this exercise were later validated and translated into 15 action plans for implementing the Navy's Open System Architecture strategy. More than half of the nearly 300 participants in the game were from industry, and many of these were from the small business community.
Results from the Second MMOWGLI on the Navy's Business Innovation Initiative
Given the current fiscal climate in the DoD, it's not surprising that many action plans in the second Business Innovation Initiative MMOWGLI war game dealt with cost-containment strategies. Below, I have listed several actions plans (followed by the goal of that action plan in italics) that came out of the second Business Innovation Initiative MMOWGLI war game:
providing a bonus to Navy team members who save money on acquisition programs
The goal is to incentivize program office teams to take both a short- and long-term view toward efficient acquisitions by optimizing prompt/early delivery of artifacts with accrued savings over the lifecycle.
rewarding a company for saving money on an acquisition contract: top savers would be publicly recognized and rewarded
The goal is to allow effective public image improvement for both government and industry partners of all sizes and types to receive tangible recognition of cost-saving innovations.
increasing the incentive paid to a contractor if the actual cost of their delivered solution was less than the targeted cost
The goal is to give industry a clear mechanism for reporting cost savings, a clear way to calculate the reward for cost savings, and a transparent method for inspecting actuals over time.
Avoiding Common Traps and Pitfalls of Cost Containment via Automated Testing
Although cutting costs is an important goal, it's critical to recognize that cost containment alone may be a hollow victory if it yields less costly-- but lower quality--solutions that don't meet their operational requirements and that can't be sustained effectively and affordably over their lifecycles. It's therefore essential to balance cost savings, on one hand, with ensuring stringent quality control on the other. What is needed are methods, techniques, tools, and processes that enable software and systems engineers, program managers, and other acquisition professionals to ensure that cost-cutting strategies don't compromise the quality and sustainability of their integrated solutions.
In particular, MMOWGLI action plans that identify reward structures need to be balanced with action plans that avoid situations where contractors--or even government acquisition professionals--game the system by cutting costs (to get a bonus), while ignoring key system quality attributes (such as dependability, maintainability, and security) to the detriment of both the end-users (warfighters, planners, operators, et al.) and the organizations responsible for the long-term sustainment of the systems. Ideally, contractors and the government should be incentivized to control costs, while still ensuring that a quality product is delivered in a manner that is both operationally capable and affordably sustainable over the program lifecycle.
The $640 billion dollar question is "how can we help acquisition professionals and technologists better achieve the balance between quality and affordability?" The Business Innovation Initiative MMOWGLI participants collaborated to provide a key piece of the solution. In particular, some of the highest ranked action plans from the second MMOWGLI game addressed the need for automated testing and retesting as an evaluator and enforcer of system quality.
Testing stimulates an executable component or work product with known inputs and under known preconditions followed by the comparison of its actual and expected outputs and post-conditions to determine whether its actual behavior is consistent with its required behavior. Automated testing is essential to achieve positive cost-saving results in OSA initiatives by ensuring that the components and products delivered at lower costs have the requisite quality as well as the ability to reduce the time and effort required to conduct the testing processes.
MMOWGLI Action Plans for Automated Testing
The top rated action plan from the second MMOWGLI game proposed using automated tools and industry best-practices to reduce manual testing and evaluation effort and increase the coverage of automated regression testing in mission-critical Naval systems. When there are many frequent development blocks--as is the case with iterative and incremental development methods--it is necessary to perform regression testing on the previously developed software to verify that it continues to operate properly after being (1) integrated with the new software and (2) evolved as defects are fixed and improvements are made. Iterative and incremental development cycles greatly increase the need for regression testing, and this additional testing becomes infeasible when it is performed manually.
Another testing-related action plan was also well received, being ranked 8th out of a total of 15 action plans. This action plan recommended reducing certification costs by requiring integrated validation and verification processes to involve automated testing, including assurance cases; test plans, procedures, reports, and scripts; as well as test data, tools, environments, and labs. The goal is to replace time-consuming manual testing methods with formalized automated testing across the lifecycle by defining, delivering, and maintaining testing work products with components to enable effective, efficient, and repeatable testing during component development, system integration, sustainment, and recompetition.
Ironically, the action plans that focused on cost containment alone were ranked lower by the participants (10th, 12th, and 14th out of the total 15 action plans). Based on an analysis of comments, it didn't appear that their low ranking stemmed from a lack of interest in controlling costs, but rather from the realization that without effective automation of testing and retesting, the benefits of cost savings and efficiencies from OSA initiatives may be compromised by inadequate quality.
A Way Forward for Automated Testing in Open Systems Architecture Initiatives
After analyzing the results of the two MMOWGLI war games carefully, the Navy recommended that a subsequent study area in the Open Systems Architecture and Business Innovation initiatives focus on affordable testing. The goal is to establish quality assurance processes that are efficient and comprehensive during the design phase and initial delivery, as well as throughout the sustainment and re-competition phases. It's also critical that these automated tests be delivered with the system and include sufficient documentation so that government or sustainment contractors can both execute and maintain these tests.
Of course, it's also important to recognize the limitations of automated testing. There is a significant up-front cost in automating tests. Likewise, the resulting testing work products must be engineered so that they have high quality. Moreover, automation may not be appropriate--or even feasible--for every type of testing, such as usability tests and tiger teams performing penetration testing.
The take-home point from our experience with both Business Innovation Initiative MMOWGLI games is that by combining effective testing with other action plans, the benefits of cost savings and efficiencies from Open Systems Architecture initiatives may be achieved without compromising the quality of the results. We don't just want competition; we don't just want lower cost. Instead, we need to use competition to get the same or better quality at a cost we can afford.
Our next step is to help the Department of the Navy formulate a comprehensive whole lifecycle testing and quality assurance approach--together with a path towards standardization of automated testing and retesting methods and tools--to assist with lowering the cost and time to field innovative and robust capability. Our goal at the SEI is also to help promote the visibility and strategic importance of testing across government and industry to enhance the quality of delivered components and integrated products, as well as to spur innovation in quality assurance methods and tools by the defense industrial base and commercial information technology companies.
Unfortunately, we see both program offices and defense contractors making the same mistakes repeatedly when it comes to testing. My colleague, Donald Firesmith, has collected and analyzed 92 commonly occurring testing pitfalls, organized them into 14 categories, and published them in the recent book Common System and Software Testing Pitfalls.
A New Approach to Cyber Incident Response
Secure Coding for the Android Platform


Dr Ben Walmsley, Associate Professor in Audience Engagement in the School of Performance and Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds joins The Audience Agency's board of trustees.
Prior to his academic career, Ben managed a small touring theatre company before working as Operations Manager and then Producer at the National Theatre of Scotland. Between 2010 and 2017, Ben was engaged as an Artistic Assessor for Arts Council England, and since 2014 he has directed the National Summer School for Arts Fundraising and Leadership. Ben is the Co-Editor of Arts and the Market and has published widely in a number of peer-reviewed journals on arts marketing, arts management and cultural policy.
I am delighted to join the board of The Audience Agency at this exciting time in the organisation's development. There is a real sense of momentum at the moment around audience research and analysis, and I look forward to working alongside the executive team and fellow trustees to develop the leadership role that The Audience Agency can play in all aspects of audience development and engagement. I am particularly keen to explore how the organisation can develop meaningful partnerships with the HE sector and disseminate its research with a strong sense of impact and reach.
We're thrilled to welcome Ben to our board of trustees. He brings a wealth of professional and academic experience with him that will benefit The Audience Agency in our role to help cultural organisations improve their reach, resilience and relevance using our national audience data and insight. We look forward to working with Ben to continue building relationships that support the exchange of learning and practice between arts organisations and academic institutions for the benefit of the sector.


The department of the Dutch Railway NS Stations is in Katreinetoren in Utrecht, Netherlands. It develops and services railway stations in the Netherlands.
55m high tower with 15 stories is built right on top of Utrecht Centraal, the biggest railway station in the Netherlands. The width of the building is based on the dimensions of the railway tracks below.
A reconstruction took place in 1999 when the Brutalist mid-seventies building was wrapped in a glass skin. The interior is dominated by this concrete structure: the elevator core and structural beams remain in sight.
The main idea is to introduce a series of perpendicular walls that will organize the space. They can become storage spaces by 'inflating' these partitioning walls.
The shelves can absorb most of the clutter that normally spreads through the office, such as wardrobes, bookshelves, flip boards, archive, and bulletin boards.
The open plan with the thick walls divides the space in several clusters of different sizes. The dividing wall units can be placed in different 'densities' to create fitting floor plans for the various departments. As opposed to a regular layout with cells linked to a corridor, a continuous, flowing space is created. With this unit an endless number of configurations are possible.
The current floor plan consist typical cellular offices along the facade and an oversized hallway in the center. The main asset of this system is increased connectivity; instead of a workforce relatively isolated in cells, here interaction will come natural.
Each floor will be introduced by a 'special', singular piece of furniture located at the elevator core that represents the different departments. This 'conversation pit' is a kind of welcoming gesture.


text:
/* This Source Code Form is subject to the terms of the Mozilla Public
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/*
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 *  header file for pqg functions exported just to freebl
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#define _PQG_H_ 1

/* PQG_GetLength returns the significant bytes in the SECItem object (that is
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unsigned int PQG_GetLength(const SECItem *obj);
/* Check to see the PQG parameters patch a NIST defined DSA size,
 * returns SECFaillure and sets SEC_ERROR_INVALID_ARGS if it doesn't.
 * See blapi.h for legal DSA PQG sizes. */
SECStatus PQG_Check(const PQGParams *params);
/* Return the prefered hash algorithm for the given PQGParameters. */
HASH_HashType PQG_GetHashType(const PQGParams *params);

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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Since I've started the Let's Talk About Genocide series, over four years ago, the discussion around Israel in the context of the crime of genocide has grown substantially. And while many scholars, journalists, and human rights defenders have embarked on the arduous task of examining the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16); many others have dedicated many words to the various, very partial definitions found in most English language dictionaries (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). Based on these inaccurate definitions- that no genocide scholar in either the Political Science or the legal field would agree on- inevitably the authors reach the conclusion that Israel is not committing genocide against the indigenous Palestinian people.
As the committing of genocide doesn't just manifest out of thin air, and is rather a process of cultural norms (in the political sense, not the ethnic sense), it is imperative that our cultural output around the discussion of genocide is precise, and doesn't inadvertently harm victims seeking justice. But we can't ensure this when our basic sources of information are inaccurate.
So, instead of critiquing every article I've come across in the past four years that bases its argument on the dictionary definition rather than the legal definition, I've decided to go to the source. Below is the letter I've sent to Oxford Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Cambridge Dictionary, Macmillan Dictionary, Collins Dictionary, and Dictionary.com.
I'm a human rights defender who focuses on the issue of the Crime of Genocide. I'd like you to consider broadening your definition of the word 'genocide' because I find in my daily work that people rely on the definitions that dictionaries provide. In the context of genocide this can save lives or seal their fates.
Ideally, when discussing such grave issues as genocide, which is inherently a legal matter, scholars, journalists, and pundits would first oblige themselves to the legal definition provided under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crimeofgenocide.aspx), rather than a dictionary definition. It's understandable however that this is not the case, as the unfortunate reality is that genocide is more widely studied in the theoretical realms of Sociology and Political Science, rather than Law, where application can very well manifest a reality of prevention.
I believe that you, [dictionary publisher], can have a part in changing this reality.
As a descendent of Holocaust survivors and those who did not survive, I was raised with the knowledge that "the world knew and did nothing", and the seething question: "Why?" Enacting the legacy forced upon me of "never again", in a decade of collective effort, I believe I have found some answers in the form of collective and individual accountability.
Genocide is an accumulative collection of acts over time, driven by- what the legal definition refers to as- "the intent to destroy a group". The acts can be legislative, economic, socially discriminatory, and directly inciting to violence and enacting physical violence. In the long run, the definitions we ascribe to this collection of acts have the ability to prevent genocide by changing public discourse and deepening our ability to understand the wider implications of what seem to be individual discriminative acts.
Misdefined, however, a definition runs the risk of diluting the meaning of the word genocide; ejecting it out of existing context of a series of brutalities, formalised into state policy and social norm; confusing the public as to what constitutes genocide and under what conditions; which in turn allows us to perpetuate it.
One might assume that learning concepts such as 'tolerance', 'inclusion', and 'diversity' is enough to prevent genocide, but as with all abstract concepts- ejected from context, they remain abstract and come to mean nothing at all. And in the face of genocide, my experience has been that it is these exact noble concepts which are often exploited and contorted in order to commit genocide. It is therefore a moral and concrete imperative that those of us whose profession is words, especially when confronting such words that carry such great responsibility, that we be as precise as possible.
The use of the very limited definition of genocide in your dictionary, rather than the use of the legal definition, has produced countless public materials which are factually flawed, and unintentionally serve to close the doors of justice in the face of victims of genocide. I suggest to you the very concise articles I and II in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. I believe this will lead to a more informed and precise public debate on the topic, focused on accountability and redress, which is the reason why the word 'genocide' was coined in the first place.
Hello and thank you for your message and for sharing your insights with us. I am adding passages of your email to our citation database so that your comments will be considered when our entry for the word "genocide" is reviewed. I will also add material from https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crimeofgenocide.aspx to the database.
I will recommend that the definition in the online dictionary at Merriam-Webster.com be reviewed and expanded to incorporate the material included in the definition in the Unabridged.


The National Youth Council of Ireland and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs want to invite you to join us as we continue the journey towards implementing positive change in Ireland and Europe by looking at the recommendations that have come back with our 3 delegates from the EU Youth Conference in Slovakia, Oct 2016.
WHAT? An opportunity for young people to explore EU Recommendations about, 'diversity', 'inclusion' and 'connections' with a view to influencing policy at National and European level.