The Off Topic Topic

[HVC]

Serbia had their chance to be part of Austria and threw it away. No seconds chances for Serbs!

[The Larch]

In other Balkan news, although this time maybe also related to EU political tendencies, Zagreb has just elected a Green mayor in a rather overwhelming manner (45% of the votes), so it can be said that the "Green wave" is not limited to Germany or Western Europe.

The previous mayor had been around for ever and the Greens came from, I think 3% in the last round, but I feel like that does happen in CEE elections a lot more than Western Europe where you have long-established parties. There's more churn of political forces tied to personalities suddenly disappearing or erupting in CEE?

Yes, they were already a municipal force with a few council members and something like 7'5% of the votes, but I believe they had a broader coalition this time (as usual in this kind of groups, they're a bunch of smaller parties and initiatives that join together for elections), including a recently created national party called "We can", so maybe this can be somehow linked to the "alcaldías del cambio" that we had in Spain between 2015 and 2019.

[Legbiter]

The volcanic eruption here has completely filled up a couple of the surrounding valleys and is starting to head south toward yet another, but that valley has underground fiber optic cables and next to it is the actual road for the local fishing village, Grindavík. So engineers quickly designed and threw up two embankments to try and nudge the lava flow into a different direction. At least delay it's progress for as long as possible.

[Maladict]

Wobbling Chinese skyscraper, it would probably look even more terrifying if someone could hold their camera steady.

https://twitter.com/hkfp/status/1394561276710248449

[grumbler]

Wobbling Chinese skyscraper, it would probably look even more terrifying if someone could hold their camera steady.

https://twitter.com/hkfp/status/1394561276710248449

Yeah, it's not even clear until the end of that video which building is supposed to be the wobbling one.

[Syt]

Hey there boyos. I have sold my house in Nevada, and now I'm a Texan. Again.

I'm camping out here in Ft. Worth and trying to find a new place to live. We've lost seven bids so far.

Heya! Good luck with finding something soon. What prompted the move?

[Tamas]

Youtube showed me a collection of brief interviews/stories by Hungarian WW1 veterans.

One guy, pretty old already on the black and white footage (I am guessing anywhere between 1960-1980) offered a summary of 20th century Hungarian history, after finishing his glass of wine:

"-I ain't telling anything more about the front to anyone"
-Why, why is this lack of trust?
-Because first I was beaten up for being a communist, then later for being a fascist"

[celedhring]

Yeah - I saw that. It's super-interesting. But I have no idea what it means and I'm left speculating wildly and coming up with theories


The previous mayor had been around for ever and the Greens came from, I think 3% in the last round, but I feel like that does happen in CEE elections a lot more than Western Europe where you have long-established parties. There's more churn of political forces tied to personalities suddenly disappearing or erupting in CEE?

Podemos' splinter party Más Madrid, which was the only success story for the left in the past regional election, seems to be trying to brand itself as a green party while it builds on that election's success.  It feels like they are just going for the only niche nobody has ever claimed convincingly in Spanish politics, but let's see if they succeed.

[mongers]

I have been officially deemed "broken" by the VA, and now get pretty sweet parking, with a sign and everything!   

  ..

[The Larch]

Podemos' splinter party Más Madrid, which was the only success story for the left in the past regional election, seems to be trying to brand itself as a green party while it builds on that election's success.  It feels like they are just going for the only niche nobody has ever claimed convincingly in Spanish politics, but let's see if they succeed.

Spain's Greens (Equo) were initially allied with Podemos, and even got to elect a couple of MPs, but after the split they went with Errejón and are now part of the Más País coalition.

[Admiral Yi]

Hola Mimsy.

[Valmy]

I have been officially deemed "broken" by the VA, and now get pretty sweet parking, with a sign and everything!   

How did you manage to be deemed that? Nice to see you here btw

[MadBurgerMaker]

  ..

How did you manage to be deemed that? Nice to see you here btw

I finally went back and got my rating upgraded after 15 years of being a dumbass about it.  Apparently my feet and knees are more messed up than I thought.    They bumped it all the way up to where I get those DV plates and handicapped placards and all that kind of stuff.  No more paying UTPD to be able to park where I work!  Hooray!  Texas is pretty cool about it in general, actually.  The DV registrations are $3 a year (still need the $7 half of the inspection) instead of $85 or whatever mine had gone up to, and they also give you stuff like property tax breaks.

[celedhring]

I'm having a bout of gastritis so I dropped coffee for a while. The withdrawal is *brutal*.

Thank god I've never been addicted to a proper drug.

[MadImmortalMan]

Hey there boyos. I have sold my house in Nevada, and now I'm a Texan. Again.

I'm camping out here in Ft. Worth and trying to find a new place to live. We've lost seven bids so far.

Heya! Good luck with finding something soon. What prompted the move?

Covid made Mrs. MIM's job permanently remote. At that point pretty much everything was possible. So we made a goddamn killing on the place and left. I'm looking for something in the hill country. Fredricksburg, Kerrville, Boerne, Canyon Lake.