Benveneschti, Max!


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The problem with "Step Three" as listed above is that it completely ignores the Immigration Process Reform Act, which I myself currently have in the Hopper and will be continuing to refine with feedback from the community once the new Cosa is seated.

One of the central tenets of the bill — one I am more adamant on proceeding with — is that the review of immigration applications is handled by a committee of at least three, as opposed to the unilateral, "secret" discretion of the Immigration Minister. In other words, it neutralizes the same concerns to Public Process Act claims to address.

Additionally, one of the committee members must be nominated by the Opposition — meaning that the workings of the Ministry will be known to the very people intended to keep the Government accountable. This also serves to better balance the committee politically, assuaging concerns about political bias affecting immigration applications.

One of the big advantages in the committee method under the IPRA as compared to the Public Process Act is that the committee approach still increases transparency and Ziu oversight of the immigration process, without subjecting the Ministry's day-to-day operations to Ziu micromanagement. There is a difference between the two.

To claim that a government run by the person who put this committee approach forward (me) would somehow be more secretive is a level of dishonesty bordering on the comical.


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Quote from: Françal I. Lux on Yesterday at 08:08:24 AMSure let's try it! I appreciate your help :)


F. I. Lux

How's something like this? I used a different shape for the escutcheon (rather fond of the Tudor arch tbh), muted the colors a bit, and made it so that all the diagonals that make up the chevronels and lozenges are parallel.

I mean, your arms are pretty simple as they are, haha. I have an idea or two on how we could at least make them a bit more visually appealing, if you're willing to give me a day to work on it.

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on November 02, 2025, 12:05:29 PMSo how about it?  Should we get started figuring out the questions, and maybe we can do it on the ninth?

Suggested rules:
Five questions from each party.  The moderators (His Majesty and Sir Ian) may request questions be rephrased before they accept them.  After the questions are finalized, the moderators will decide on the order in which they will be asked.  They will alternate, but otherwise questions on the same topic will be together.

During the debate, no one will interrupt.  Candidates will be afforded three minutes apiece on each topic.  Moderators will decide who goes first for each question.

The goal is to help citizens make an informed choice.  All decisions should reflect that goal.

If Mic'halgh and Sir Ian send me their preferred email address, I'll them to a Google Doc I started for this.

I think that sounds good. My email for Talossan business is pretty straightforward, lol: m.autofil@gmail.com

Quote from: GV on November 02, 2025, 09:18:45 PM

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on October 21, 2025, 08:19:37 PM

Quote from: Joseph Morris on October 21, 2025, 08:17:28 PMDang! I didn't know we had all this history!

I suggest this as beginning reading material

It was on about 23 March 2004 Ben Madison began falsely accusing Kane Dal Nava on Wittenberg of domestic abuse. 

This is the most important event in Talossan history since the start of the Cybercit Era and is left out of the page Miestra links here. 

Sort of surprising, as it doesn't ever seem to have been mentioned there at all. Like, comparing against previous edits doesn't show it as having been deleted.

On a semi-related note, anyone who's never read through A Nation Sundered is missing out. Quite possibly the most interesting history book I've ever read.

Quote from: Françal I. Lux on November 03, 2025, 11:20:48 PMIs there any way I can request to change or edit my coat of arms? I have no idea what I was thinking when I made that mess


F. I. Lux

While I don't believe there's a way to change the blazon, you could always refresh how it's depicted? I could do it for you, if you wanted. (Only slightly related, I note your blazon isn't actually recorded on the Arms of the Gentry page...)

Welcome!

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on October 29, 2025, 08:32:53 PM

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on October 29, 2025, 05:56:50 PMI think an issue with your "We are the Good and you are the Bad" view of Talossa

I'm honestly surprised that you're that upset by a reference to the title of a 1966 spaghetti Western.

Especially when one considers that he is purposefully and blatantly misquoting you, and not even doing a good job of hiding it. That's twice now he's done it (emphasis mine):

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on July 29, 2025, 05:03:04 PMEnough of that. Onto "the Bad". Well, that's mildly unfair. Certainly not bad people. But bad politics.

...

Quote from: Baron Alexandreu Davinescu on October 27, 2025, 11:44:01 AMCan we agree not to lie about stuff, though?

I don't know, can you?

I'm glad to see His Lordship is on board with the URL plan to incentivize recruiting and reward cultural development, at least. I would however argue that something like a Living Cosa is a better way to "put a human face on the Government", as opposed to doing TikTok videos "since that's what the kids like".

Anywho, correcting of disinformation aside, I've gone through the citizenship database and the Infotecă records back to January of 2019 and every single month's count of naturalizations is accurate. The record from January 2019 to September 2025 is three new citizens in one month, which occurred four separate times: April 2022, October 2023, March 2024, and January 2025.

October 2025, not yet over, has five.

Let's keep Talossa moving forward; stick with the URL.

Welcome Mia, and congratulations!

Setemvar XLVI / September 2025

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Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/x6UsMBY4

Royal News
King Celebrates Monarchy Day
HM Txec issued a proclamation in celebration of Monarchy Day, the anniversary of the accession of Florence, Talossa's first constitutional monarch:
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=4357.0

A Royal Anniversary
His Majesty celebrates 13 years of Talossan citizenship, with hopefully many more to come:
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=4397.0


Government News
Cosă Enlarged by One (Again!)
New citizen Carteir Montagnhă claimed his "new citizen's seat" in the Cosă, bringing the number of seats to 202 for the final Clark of the term:
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=4384.0


General News
Chancery Conducts Census
Secretary of State Sir Lüc da Schir conducted the biennial census throughout September, with a 23% increase in respondents over 2023:
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=4351.0

Politeia Cjovani Publishes New Issue
Iason Taiwos revives a "current but irregular" publication on the Cjovani Belacostans and their delightful and peculiar way of life:
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=4388.0

TCAT Spain and the 2025 Season Conclude
The third and final leg of the 2025 Talossan Cycling Association Tour concluded in Madrid on 15 September; Gordon Hiatus Support Team took the leg, finishing a nail-bitingly close second to Esqipă Velocostă for the season:
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=4340.30

TMT Special Edition Gets Underway
Glüc da Dhi launches the category vote for this year's second running of the Talossan Music Top 20 Special:
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=4372.0
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=4326.30


Immigration News
Two new citizens immigrated in September: Carteir Montagnhă and Nicolás Masquiarán-Díaz.

Additionally, five citizenship applications were received in September, from Ariana Ehrhardt, Facundo Miño, Abdul Ahad Ali, Ozymandias Plasticbag, and Tim Tiberius Müller.

Hm, ok -- it seems tagging people on mobile doesn't actually tag them properly. So if he'll forgive the ping: @Sir Lüc , wishing to bring the above to your attention.

WHEREAS it has been more than a fortnight since [mention]Mia Jaeger [/mention]  first posted on Wittenberg, following her introduction to the citizens of the Kingdom by officers of the Immigration Ministry, and

WHEREAS she has, in that time, demonstrated an active, genuine, and continuing interest in Talossan life, language and culture, and

WHEREAS she desires citizenship in the Kingdom of Talossa, and

WHEREAS by all indications it appears that she would be a loyal and dedicated citizen, and a credit to this nation if she obtains the grant of citizenship she requests,

THEREFORE I, Mic'haglh Autófil, a citizen of good standing of the province of Belacostă and of the Kingdom of Talossa, do hereby petition the Secretary of State [mention]Sir Lüc [/mention] to issue a grant of citizenship to Prospective Citizen Mia Jaeger, as specified by law.

Welcome!

Quote from: Istefan Perþonest on October 14, 2025, 09:56:21 PMI have an admittedly-odd hobby of reading old (1970s, 1980s) computer magazines. As I go along, I'll often see something that piques my curiosity, and so I'll do an Internet search for more tidbits about the item. Well, about a third of the time, the LLM box will confidently assert that the thing I just read about did not ever exist. Even when there's a directly-relevant search result a handful of items down.

Similarly, I tried, a few months ago, to have several LLMs perform a quite simple task -- take a list of the countries that are parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, take a list of countries by population, and give me the combined population of the countries that are members of the ICC. Every single time, the LLM crapped out. Even given explicit instructions on how to complete the task, a model would at most get a dozen countries in, and then quit in favor of some method of estimation. With results that were all over the map (as it were).

(Incidentally, Wolfram Alpha, which is not an LLM, will give you accurate-for-2023 stats for the member countries in the case of any number of  organizations, including the ICC. Manually adding Ukraine and subtracting the Philippines is easy enough, and indicates that every LLM estimate was off by at least 10%, and usually more.)

I accordingly am of the opinion that the thing LLMs are most suited for is enabling students to cheat on their homework. Facile regurgitation of shallow knowledge, an inability or unwillingness to work, and an obligation to answer instead of saying "I don't know" -- LLMs do a great job of emulating a sixteen-year-old just trying to skate through a required class.

I recently had the AI atop the search results tell me that one sheet metal was thicker than the other because one was X thick, while the other was Y thick, and X is a bigger number than Y. This would make sense -- if you ignore that one of these numbers is natively expressed in inches, and the other in millimeters...

I'll always cast my vote for Wolfram Alpha supremacy.