Zompist Bboard Again

After roughly 18 months and intermittent complaining, I finally got my 2024 tax assessment from the Luxembourg authorities, and it ended up being a rather plump refund. (On the other hand, trying to figure out how they got to the exact numbers they did is a bit puzzling, but some things are perhaps ...

The question might not be whether it passes (which seems unlikely, though of course one never knows) or not. The idea is probably to get media attention for the separatists and garner support for the rest of their agenda. If the proposal doesn't pass but gets a good score anyway, this might get the...

Random: the other day, I had to drive my friend's car from the repair shop. Thing is that he has a fully electric car and, while I've been in electic vehicles before, this was the first time I've driven one myself. It felt a bit unnerving to not have the sound and vibration cues that I'm used to in ...

Somewhat belated question: how common is it, in real life, that a banknote contains a caption explaining what it depicts? Often, banknotes will have captions of at least the names of the people depicted on them, and less commonly (but still not out of the question) if there are buildings and events...

Boredom begets money, I guess. Is that the new rule now? OK, where can I collect mine the next time I get bored? You have to make it yourself. :P In any case, pretty bird and nice architecture! I agree. What castle is that? It looks familiar. Thanks (to you both)! It's a picture I took from the top...

Boredom begets money, I guess. Would be worth roughly USD 2.70/EUR 2.35/CLP 2600. https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/368fae4f-fdc7-4cbb-b7a4-709ac40d3198/dmw61p0-aa7f1080-6d74-4a89-b4e0-4ce942d05c9c.png/v1/fill/w_1024,h_1195/pearl_islands_20_shillings_2026_edition_by_requindes...

Even by his standards this is ludicrous. Where would the money come from? And such a shame I already returned my ballot. </sarcasm> More seriously, it's a mystery to everyone. Even if (and it's looking very unlikely) his party were to win the midterm elections, Congress would still have to pass an ...

On an unrelated aside, I just sent my ballot in for the midterms (yay for absentee voting). The main state offices in NC aren't up for election this year, as the Governor and the Council of State (the cabinet) are elected in Presidential election years, but there was still quite a lot on the ballot,...

Update: the AfD has missed the majority, but the BSW has announced their support for an AfD governor. Good grief. There's a large part of me that only sees this going the way it went in the Netherlands when they tried for a PVV-led government. (Read: badly, as the government formation took a very l...

And in continuing the "parade", the King of Norway (Harald V) passed away today at the age of 89. (Bit of breaking the trend of most European monarchs abdicating rather than dying on the throne...)

I must also confess to good wishes and curiosity. What Raphael said, but also, how does the project require embroidery? Explanation time! (Hidden from the uninterested.) My project is a fiber spinning project, where we make fibers that should be responsive to stresses of various kinds. The idea is,...

... Trump is old and in bad health and can't run again in 2028. I believe he can run again. It's just that, constitutionally, he can't be re-elected . If the electoral college can't elect a president, then Congress elects the president. I think it's the outgoing congress that does the election, not...

A bit of (tentative) optimism may be warranted here, if only to balance opinions on this thread a bit. If I read the opinion polls right, the Democrats are likely to win the Senate and the House. All MAGA discourse right now is, as the kids say, cope as Trump's presidency is literally undefensible....

Maybe partly because of Germany's MMP system at most levels, I notice very often that most political advertisements focus on party specifically (and this is often what I'd see on visits to Trier during election season), sometimes the lead candidate for whatever office it may be or the local candidat...

On a minor aside, what's funny to me is that the news is making a deal that the ballot paper is a meter/metre in length, and here I remember the ballot paper for the local election I voted in when I lived in the Netherlands: it was massive, and you also only vote for a single candidate. (Same for mo...

I'm too young for 1999 I'm not: that one was totality where I was. :P (I am too young to remember the one in Hawai'i in July 1991, though...) That said, I didn't go outside to see it because I hate people (and everybody went out to see it, plus I still remember the one from 1999, so...), but I saw ...

Currywurst ? Unless I'm speaking with other Americans*, it's normally something like [ˈkʰuɾiˌvʊɐ̯st]: I tend to more have [ɾ~r] for <r> in German, though this is because I grew up in Bavaria where the standard <r> is an alveolar trill. (This was very confusing when I spent a summer in Leipzig.) *I ...

I could not search for it on here, in case we have done this before (I suspect we may have), but how do you guys pronounce it'd , that'd , and what'd ? it'd : [ˈɪtʰɨd͉] that'd : [ˈðætʰɨd͉] what'd : [ˈwʌtʰɨd͉] (I don't normally have [ɾ] for intervocalic /t/ or /d/: there's too much contact of my ton...

While it does come with some minor sadness (because I've had so far no luck with the job applications), my overlord boss is extending my contract until the end of this year! Definitely gives me a bit more room to breathe on that front: even though my Luxembourgishness means I don't have to worry ab...

I like your handwriting! Though I’m a little confused as to why that squiggle is read as ⟨G⟩… Thanks! And here's how that became my ⟨G⟩ (though I use more version 2.0 when I'm writing out Christmas cards): Ah, I see. My ⟨G⟩ looks like the one in the middle. The US shape is unfamiliar to me. The one...