The Off Topic Topic

[Grey Fox]

While trying to remember what music I enjoyed back in 1993, it came to me that my daughter is the age I was in 1993. She's not really into any music.

[The Brain]

Most friends were listening to Mr Vain and the likes in '93, and there I was listening to Radiohead, Type 0 Negative, Sepultura, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, and Faith No More.

You're not like other guys. You're quirky.

[mongers]

Got into a vehicle* for the first time in 3 months. 


*a local bus.

[Josquius]

WANT

https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/about-us/property-and-church-buildings/properties-for-sale/properties/churches-and-halls/borthwick_church_new

Seriously. What's the catch here. Looks lovely and just outside Edinburgh.

Oh the sacrilege I could weave.

[garbon]

WANT

https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/about-us/property-and-church-buildings/properties-for-sale/properties/churches-and-halls/borthwick_church_new

Seriously. What's the catch here. Looks lovely and just outside Edinburgh.

Oh the sacrilege I could weave.

Presumably this tab: https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/about-us/property-and-church-buildings/looking-after-church-buildings

[Syt]

I need to check the concert programs more often. John Williams recently was at the Musikverein, and it completely passed me by.

[dps]

So, I'm still learning the radio stations here in Indiana.  There's a classic rock station in Indianapolis with the call letters WJJK.  Misheard the call letters the first time as WKKK and I was like wtf?  How does that fly?

[The Brain]

So, I'm still learning the radio stations here in Indiana.  There's a classic rock station in Indianapolis with the call letters WJJK.  Misheard the call letters the first time as WKKK and I was like wtf?  How does that fly?

A wizard did it.

[Josquius]

WANT

https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/about-us/property-and-church-buildings/properties-for-sale/properties/churches-and-halls/borthwick_church_new

Seriously. What's the catch here. Looks lovely and just outside Edinburgh.

Oh the sacrilege I could weave.

Presumably this tab: https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/about-us/property-and-church-buildings/looking-after-church-buildings

That's about active churches. Not owning a former church.

I do suspect there would be super heavy red tape somewhere about changing anything to make it habitable and it would end up costing many times more than the asking price in legal fees alone.

Nonetheless I dream. Seems quite a perfect place to live, possible tourist intrusion notwithstanding.

[mongers]

Ok, that was annoying, running for a bus and I slipped on some hard wet gravel and went down like a sack of potatoes, never been winded like that before. Cut up / bruised my knee and hand quite a bit, but I'm not going to A&E for just a few stitches.

Luckily it happened near to home and not in a road or landing on concrete, but it'll put back some of my plans for the next few days. 

[dps]

Put a topical antiseptic on the abrasions so they don't get infected.

[Josquius]

Has anyone else after a day of travel ever been really fucking amazed at what they've just done?
Like... This morning I was here on a map.
Then I was here on a map.
And I still got to just the right point.
TECHNOLOGY

[Syt]

So this happened in the German state of Thuringia. These are the seats in their parliament; the Minister President is elected by the members of parliament and then forms a government.



Recent elections made it a bit difficult to find a majority in parliament. The Left would join with the Social Democrats and Greens, but they didn't have a majority. Still, the incumbent Minister President from the Left tried to get elected in parliament, hoping to form a minority government. Not an unreasonable gamble, as he's pretty popular in the state, his party's performance at the polls notwithstanding.

However, he failed twice to get an absolute majority.

The parliament rules state that if there's not absolute majority in 2 votes, then the third vote is decided with simple majority. The AfD (which is even more right wing in Thuringia than in the rest of Germany, with a rather controversial party leader in that state) said they would nominate their own (non-partisan) candidate for round 3. The FDP which scored 5% of the vote and barely squeezed into parliament said they would nominate a candidate themselves if the AfD nominated a candidate, and so they did.

After a break the vote was held ... and the FDP candidate was elected with votes from Christian Conservatives (who didn't think of setting up their own candidate), FDP, and AfD - the latter of which cast all the votes for the FDP guy and 0 for their own candidate.

So now Thuringia has a Minister President from a party that barely made it into government and that apparently will have to rely on AfD to maintain a majority.

This is huge in Germany, because so far all parties have refused to cooperate with the AfD or include them in state governments.

The FDP guy has been criticized for accepting the vote, but he says he has to accept the will of the people - I find it questionable, though, that the voters in Thuringia expected or wanted this outcome when they cast their votes, especially that their state would be led by a guy whose party almost didn't make it in at all.

[Valmy]

I mean it sounds like the AfD planned to get the FDP to nominate a candidate just so they could vote for him. I guess it was just a ploy to screw the Left.

Do you think the FDP was in on it or were they just duped?

[Eddie Teach]

Why wouldn't the FDP want to pick the leader?

I'm not sure how this screwed the left if the right-wing parties had a majority.