The Off Topic Topic

[The Brain]

Something is happening to the Paradox forum where users names are being scrubbed away and replaced with Sanitized [# of forum member based on join date]. I now know I was user 7571.

Are you a number?

[garbon]

Something is happening to the Paradox forum where users names are being scrubbed away and replaced with Sanitized [# of forum member based on join date]. I now know I was user 7571.

Are you a number?

I am a married man.

[The Brain]

Something is happening to the Paradox forum where users names are being scrubbed away and replaced with Sanitized [# of forum member based on join date]. I now know I was user 7571.

Are you a number?

I am a married man.

 

[garbon]

Only slightly an exaggeration.

These are the deranged worthless morons the "meritocracy" has allowed to rise to the top.

"I knew one day I'd have to watch powerful men burn the world down – I just didn't expect them to be such losers"

[Sheilbh]

I yield to no-one in my dislike of Piers Morgan, but it was fantastic broadcasting to just let things silently proceed with Russel Brand here

[Tamas]

I yield to no-one in my dislike of Piers Morgan, but it was fantastic broadcasting to just let things silently proceed with Russel Brand here

 

[viper37]

There is a site in Quebec named Bicolline (literal translation: two hills).  It's a medieval fantasy roleplay reconstitution permanent site.  There was a fire tonight, but it seems the worst has been avoided, despite the worryfying images:
Text in French


Non paywall link

[Syt]

Austria had its first wildfire of the season. Nothing near as big as what you guys face on the regular, but it took a while to get it under control and it properly spooked some people since it's way too early in the year for this. Then again, this is another year with significantly less rainfall in spring than the long term average, and this seems to occur more and more often (Austrian climate warms up faster than the global average).

Difference of precipitation in 2026 so far compared to previous years:



2025 was, in total, 15% under the average.

[mongers]

40 years ago today:

[Jacob]

Looks like Australia is taking a second kick at the can for taxing social media giants to fund journalism: https://apnews.com/article/australia-tax-meta-google-tiktok-journalism-8022cacf561f2fc254999b04346eac87

[crazy canuck]

Yeah, I think they have correctly determined that the Americans have already done their worst, trade wise, so there is nothing to lose by pissing them off.

[Valmy]

Looks like Australia is taking a second kick at the can for taxing social media giants to fund journalism: https://apnews.com/article/australia-tax-meta-google-tiktok-journalism-8022cacf561f2fc254999b04346eac87

That is not a bad idea since actual on the ground journalism is what gives news people on social media the materials they need to do their jobs and that is a part of those giants make their money.

[Sheilbh]

Looks like Australia is taking a second kick at the can for taxing social media giants to fund journalism: https://apnews.com/article/australia-tax-meta-google-tiktok-journalism-8022cacf561f2fc254999b04346eac87

Australia's really interesting - see also the social media ban for under 16s.

The previous Coalition (which means Liberals and Nationals in Australia) government created the News Media Bargaining Code which basically required the social media companies to negotiate deals with Australian media companies (plus some specific payments for indigenous and local news services). This raised a few hundred million dollars a year. If they didn't reach commercial deals with publishers then the government would impose mandatory fees.

I think there was always a plan to look at it again after 4-5 years. At the end of the deals they'd negotiated in 2023-4, publishers basically said Meta hadn't renewed and weren't interested in renewing. Meta turned off their "news" tab in Australia to try and position themselves as not interested in news. Then last year Google also decided not to renew its agreemnts. So the choices facing the government were to impose the fees or come up with this tax. I think the advantage of this approach is it basically closes off platforms saying they're not interested in news because it's just on revenue.

[Sheilbh]

On the state visit I see Trump is saying about how Queen Camilla said "wow!" on seeing the Oval Office redecoration. I think "wow" from a posh old British lady reads differently to me than Trump may realise

[Richard Hakluyt]

I expect she found it absolutely amazing