hmmm... i cannot offer any pictures of our "myška" (the car is dark grey, so we call it "a little mouse"), as i have none and probably will never shoot any ;) for me as a villager, the car is a tolerated necessity, but no hobby and none of us enjoy driving. we use the car only cos of the lack of local transport. buses to the city go mostly once an hour and do not allow you to transport much of a stuff when needed, e.g., during the weekend we visited our parents-in-law (230 km, locally seen as a serious distance ;) and we took the car, cos we moved some stuff back (ca 100 kg), but usually we take the train. in a city, i use 100% mass transportation, also when travelling long distances with trains being the most preferred, buses then and car or planes as a last resort. we here enjoy the near-perfect system of urban mass transport (a dense net of buses, trolleybuses and tramways in a 400k city). in a densely packed central europe (there is a village each 6 km, smaller town each 25-35 km), the car has a much negligible role that in let's say australia or US of A with vast uninhabited areas.

enjoy the day of the automobile though :)

Quote from: Mic'haglh Autófil, MoFA on August 05, 2022, 10:53:56 AM
The main contact for Liberland has referred me to their representative in the territory of the United States, who has not yet returned my email.

liberland? o rly?  :o

it is more of a libertarian/anarcho-capitalist prank played with a poker stone face. the people who founded it are infamous in our small pond of czechia. if to label someone as an attention whore, vít jedlička would be a good candidate. an unsuccessful local politician begging for any media attention  :-[

i am quite satisfied with the "strange new worlds" series after the first season, quite satisfied.

what i am not happy with, is the second season of "picard", which is awful. absence of logic, lots of auctorial violence so that the logic could be left behind and the characters are doing all the fancy things what the author what them to do, not what they would do. what is surprising, is the amount of disgust and disillusionment of our time projected into the story located to 2024 by the screenplay writers. i cannot say i do not agree with them on many topics, but still, it is surprising to see it on screen in SF movie, particularly on star trek.

the latest season of discovery is still ahead of me.

enjoy the city! being euro-talossan, i am slightly off paris (some 1200 km, which on european scale is a quite some distance). also, planning a weekend visiting my parents-in-law and on monday we have state final exams for the master's programme (also on tuesday, but i think you will be already not there).

take care, it will be damn hot there till saturday, above 35 °C (95 F).

bon voyage :)

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on June 04, 2022, 05:56:44 AM

Quote from: Ián S.G. Txaglh on June 04, 2022, 04:58:29 AM
sophisma (in that good ol'greek meaning aka σόφισμα), dear baron, is not going to bring us anything, but let your yes be yes, and your no, no.

i want, not, i demand the TNC comes forward with what they want for a monarchy in talossa. tricky statements, tomfoolery, pallaksch pallaksch and other evasive maneuvres aside. cos you do not even have the two to say you are against any reform of monarchy, you just hide as hrafnasueltar behind the vetoing king.

We can't have a productive conversation about this issue under duress.  We will not comply with threats.

::) so predictable, so pointless...

sophisma (in that good ol'greek meaning aka σόφισμα), dear baron, is not going to bring us anything, but let your yes be yes, and your no, no.

i want, not, i demand the TNC comes forward with what they want for a monarchy in talossa. tricky statements, tomfoolery, pallaksch pallaksch and other evasive maneuvres aside. cos you do not even have the two to say you are against any reform of monarchy, you just hide as hrafnasueltar behind the vetoing king.

i saw recently the first three episodes of "strange new worlds" and i am ok with that. modern outfit, some refreshing comedy acting, otherwise classic modern ST, i am looking forward to seeing more.

"discovery" is one of the best STs ever. as for "picard", i saw only the first series, which was fine, not as good as "discovery".

wow, three parallel STs at our times, aren't we lucky?

and i have also killed my childhood dreams watching some episodes of the original series. i started with ST as a kid, although living in the eastern bloc, we were so close to austria (60 km), that we were able to watch austrian TV (ORF), where they started ST in 1976, when i was just six years old. i hopelessly fell in love with the series (and later with another similar old fashion one - space 1999 / mondbasis alpha 1 in german). i still have homemade black&white photos of the old TV screen with enterprise, spock and kirk (no merch at that time ;). well, watching the same stuff when you are 50+ does not really bring the same joys to put it mildly :) the music still gives me chills, all the sounds of comms and suchs are so familiar, but the screenplays, acting, stories, oh my, too much of a prediluvial SF.

i would go with the first change to remove the necessity of voting for a candidate i do not want to vote for, as it is reeeeeeally hilariously ridiculous. logically, with two candidates, there is no need to order them purely formally just for the sake of a case with 3 and more candidates. even if the second candidate would be acceptable, what would be the point? does it make the evaluation easier or clearer? nope.

the second change (write-in of any cosa member) is imho unnecessary once there is a nomination process.

Quote from: Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir on May 01, 2022, 01:39:24 PM
Thought id put my ideas for slight tweaks here.


Whereas, the recent Senechal elections have revealed a flaw,

Whereas, it is not fair on MC's to force them to vote for their opposition, in a two candidate race

Therefore, the following current text of law :-

QuoteThe method of election of a Seneschál shall be Ranked Choice Voting. Each member of the Cosâ shall have as many votes in the election as the seats which he hold in the Cosâ, but shall cast his votes as one bloc and have no divided conscience. The candidates for each such election shall be nominated by each political party which shall have earned representation in the Cosâ at the most recent general election. (54RZ23) (55RZ22)

No member of the Cosâ may abstain in the election of a Seneschál, and shall rank on his ballot at least two distinct preferences, which itself shall be made public. (54RZ23)

Shall be replaced by:-

QuoteThe method of election of a Seneschál shall be Ranked Choice Voting for 3 or more candidates, for 2, a straight majority vote of the Cosa will be required, limited to voting to one candidate only.. Each member of the Cosâ shall have as many votes in the election as the seats which they hold in the Cosâ, but shall cast their votes as one bloc and have no divided conscience. The candidates for each such election shall be nominated by each political party which shall have earned representation in the Cosâ at the most recent general election (54RZ23) (55RZ22)

No member of the Cosâ may abstain in the election of a Seneschál, and shall rank on their ballot at least two distinct preferences, which itself shall be made public. If the Cosa member wishes to, as a second or third preference, they shall be able to vote for any sitting Cosa member, as long as the First preference vote is for one of the named candidates in the election. (54RZ23)

Uréu q'estadra så
Antaglha Xhenerös Somelieir (MC - FreeDem)

Quote from: Dr. Txec Róibeard dal Nordselvă, Esq., O.SPM, SMM on May 01, 2022, 10:51:25 AM

Quote from: Ián S.G. Txaglh on May 01, 2022, 09:15:15 AM
i hereby cast my vote for ian plätschisch with no second choice.

As per Organic Law, every MC must list his or her first and second choice. Please list a second choice.

??? ::)  ;D if i did not comply, my vote would be invalid, i suppose?

so, to follow this kafkian law, i hereby cast my vote for ian plätschisch with brenier tzaracompadra as the second choice (which second choice i do not want to do, but i have to).

i hereby cast my vote for ian plätschisch with no second choice.

flamewar, sublime flamewar! to paraphrase my favourite quote from battle for dune ;)

honestly, besides we all turn angels right now, i do not see any realistic way of such moderation. we are either willing not to step on others' toes anyway or not, and no moderation is going to rectify it. how it usually ends is, that whatever side is getting "moderated" for misbehaviour is not going to accept it, cos they do not think they did anything wrong, and they would feel hurt and would either retaliate or endlessly whine about it. and instead of the moderated forum, we'll get the forum even more polarised.

plus, we do not have any strong moral authority here acceptable for everyone (or at least for the majority).

personally, i belive not in punishment, but in openness. openly speaking about what i found wrong, supported by arguments (and not emotional outbursts), may have a stronger effect than any moderation. if there is some kind of "ethic-/fact-checking" rather than moderation, i may work better, imho (supported by the research in cognitive psychology). no miracles to be expected, but less tension definitely.

guys, this is talossa, be happy not to have a copy here of the scrumming world outside...

Quote from: Carlüs Éovart Vilaçafat on April 23, 2022, 09:32:19 AM
Ad hominems aside, what it sounds like is there are no regulations surrounding this sort of behavior. I'm still learning the Talossan Political process but is there not a way to draft a rule or rules and put them up for a vote?

sadly, legislation often does not forsee and does not take in account each an every dirty trick played by politicians to get what they want. last 8 yrs in czechia are quite a good example how our idealistic constitution was often used as a toilet paper by the new generation of populistic politicians. this new political "culture" on both sides of the ocean, and as i see, also here, in talossa, unfortunately cannot be solved by rules, cos those can be twisted and surpassed, but only by keeping ethical integrity. otherwise there will be rules to correct rules to correct rules and we'll be in a formalistic legal hell.

can someone remind me why and how the republic of talossa turned into being? [hint, it is a rhetoric question] i do not want it to happen again, although i would gladly leave players like the esteemed senator t. in their sandbox and move somewhere else, where the air is a bit fresher.

i am really shocked by such a lack of democratic standards by senator tzaracomprada. i would go further, what happened is not borderline unethical behaviour, it is far beyond that border.

professionally, i deal with ethical behaviour in scientific conduct, and i am a bit sensitive to such issues. i have already noticed the aggressive political behaviour of TNC representatives in other disco threads and this one seems to fit the same pattern.

yes, oh, man, it is a threatening behaviour. it threatens the democracy of talossa, republican or monarchist. it threatens the political atmosphere and environment, turning it toxic. and it clearly smells of spilt bile, the bile of those who want the power, but were not delegated by the people to hold it.

raton non amusado  :-\

did smth happen or will it?

un raton confusado o_O

if to make a sheldonian list of STs, it would go like DS9, discovery, enterprise, NG, voyager. and as much as i loved OS as a kid in late 70ies (thnx to austrian TV), i never saw it for the second time, and honestly after watching like two random episodes, i don't plan to. and i like picard so far, but it still has to find its place in my chart.

i love DS9 maybe cos it was so not roddenberry, but still very humanistic. dark, struggling, realistic in the overwhelming and not friendly universe. the scene after defeating cardassians and helping changlings to move on, where sisko does not want to toast to such a bloody victory, that was moving. sisko generally was a huge character.

i think, voyager was supposed to be new as DS9, but also keeping the old spirit, which made it lesser than expected. anyway, borgs are as bluetooth, anything with them turns better.

after finishing my current enterprise tour, i plan for the voyager. oh, i remember how hard it was for me the get along neelix. and how i loved the poor holographic doctor for his... doctorness ;-)