The Off Topic Topic

[Josquius]

So some (minor) French politicians have proposed a resolution for French to become "the only" working language of the EU. And their statement is everyhthing you could hope for. Brexit is a "unique opportunity" to reverse the encroachment of English and "Anglo-Saxon culture" as English is now only the mother tongue of 1% of the EU's population.

I particularly enjoyed their thoughts on why not German: "it may be objected that German is today in the European Union the language with the largest number of mother tongue speakers. To put forward such an argument would be to forget, however, that German does not have the same international status as French."

I alost wish they'd worked through the entire union explaining their objections to each language.

"As to the Dutch. Mais non. That's just a German with a throat infection is it not?
Spanish? Much too American.
Polish? What are we peasants?"

[Jacob]

Google has 559 million Spanish speakers worldwide, with 270 million French speakers (and 130 million German speakers). Seems to me Spanish has a higher global standing than French....

[The Minsky Moment]

It is very hard to find good wine from the USA in the UK; but I know from direct experience that the USA produces some good wines. The American market is large though, so my working hypothesis is that they drink all the good stuff and only export a small fraction of it.

There is plenty of good wine made in the US; the problem is value for the money. The "Cult Cabs" and similar wines command stratospheric prices and get grabbed up by US tech millionaires and fund guys.  There are more reasonable priced wines - Chateau St Michelle (Washington State) is an example of a mass market producer that provides decent value, but the focus is on traditional European varietals like Cab, Riesling, Chard, and after export and shipping costs are added in, it is hard to compete overseas with the European originals.

[Josquius]

It is funny you don't hear the Spanish ever making a peep about this.

[The Minsky Moment]

Btw, Down the Rabbit Hole had a good video about the 1980s wine poisoning scandal in Austria (which has, in turn, led to an overhaul of wine production in Austria and improving quality considerably): https://youtu.be/qhN-o2ame-4

Antifreeze, I remember that one.
Austria has had a good 21st century, oenologically speaking.  And one of the areas that could stand to benefit relatively from warming.

[The Larch]

It is funny you don't hear the Spanish ever making a peep about this.

The position of Spanish in Europe is not that strong, it is at the international level where it is used as official language for international bodies.

[Syt]

From the lovely https://twitter.com/Jimllpaintit

[celedhring]

The lava delta created by the La Palma eruption has already reached 100 acres in size. There was a 4.3 earthquake today in the island, the highest since the eruption began. Still no estimation when it will end.

[viper37]

I seem to recall an anecdote of a 16th century Swedish king who got a letter in French from the king of France, and sent his answer in Finnish.

I believe all Kings of the time wrote in their native language to one another.  It's not like the King would read himself what was on the letter anyway.

[viper37]

The lava delta created by the La Palma eruption has already reached 100 acres in size. There was a 4.3 earthquake today in the island, the highest since the eruption began. Still no estimation when it will end.

while I know it's real, this picture looks like a bad photoshop operation.  That's very weird to look at.  It's like the lava was painted on top of another picture.

I'm not used at all to volcanic eruptions.  It's probably how it looks like from above.

[Jacob]

Did Sweden ever have a king whose native language was Finnish?

[viper37]

So some (minor) French politicians have proposed a resolution for French to become "the only" working language of the EU. And their statement is everyhthing you could hope for. Brexit is a "unique opportunity" to reverse the encroachment of English and "Anglo-Saxon culture" as English is now only the mother tongue of 1% of the EU's population.

I particularly enjoyed their thoughts on why not German: "it may be objected that German is today in the European Union the language with the largest number of mother tongue speakers. To put forward such an argument would be to forget, however, that German does not have the same international status as French."

I alost wish they'd worked through the entire union explaining their objections to each language.

I think I like that guy!

[Maladict]

Google has 559 million Spanish speakers worldwide, with 270 million French speakers (and 130 million German speakers). Seems to me Spanish has a higher global standing than French....

Not in Europe though. I'm not even sure Spanish is more widely spoken than Italian.

[viper37]

Did Sweden ever have a king whose native language was Finnish?

It wouldn't be abnormal for a French king to write in French.  That the Swedish king answered in Finnish is probably a myth.

[celedhring]

The lava delta created by the La Palma eruption has already reached 100 acres in size. There was a 4.3 earthquake today in the island, the highest since the eruption began. Still no estimation when it will end.

while I know it's real, this picture looks like a bad photoshop operation.  That's very weird to look at.  It's like the lava was painted on top of another picture.

I'm not used at all to volcanic eruptions.  It's probably how it looks like from above.

I think some parts are indeed composited. I took it from a local magazine.

Anyhow, this is Spain's first territorial expansion since we swindled Olivenza off the Portuguese. The Empire is back babyyyyyyyyy. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS-_EZgRb0w&ab_channel=LuisdelaCruz