Quote from: Açafat del Val on January 02, 2021, 12:37:27 PM
Is that the Czech Republic which you're referencing?

I didn't know that Prague was in such poor shape. Much luck to you.

Hopefully the EU can help out. That would be the purpose, one would hope, of an economic confederation.

yes, it is czechia. our PM boasted during spring that we are "best in covid" not knowing, we really will be later, but worldwide in number of deceased per citizen and overall appalling anti-epidemic measures :'(

thnx, at least there is the EU not allowing our politicians to capitalise each and every foul idea they come up with. the central controlled distribution of vaccine is among the things, i hope, which will be helpful quite a lot.

the former eastern block is still under the dark spell of the past, our civil society never really grew strong, and people seem to be prone to distrust and wild conspirations (i can only speculate why american and east-european societies became so similar). "funny" fact, according to latest polls, around 25 % of poles are afraid of covid, but almost 50 % are of the anti-covid vaccine... where is any sense in it, except for it being product of general fear, absence of education and proper critical thinking?

i really envy the NZ its government and political culture.

almost total absence of credibility of local CZ politicians causes people to disrespect even rational measures, not to mention increased conspirationistic attitudes fuelled by disinformation sources, which are thus more credible than official sources. plus, local politicians are really quite incompetent, causing economic havoc where they should calm it down. would you say, that facing the biggest state budget deficit, our parliament approved significant decrease of taxes with increasing mandatory expenses? moreover, the change in taxes favours rich people much more that the poor ones. and common people rather consider not to go quarantine when ill or suspected, because with their low incomes, the 14 days isolation without proper compensation (it makes 36 % of the regular income) cripples their family budgets. the social tension is so high, that people go rather for a dance macabre of frequent parties that considerately stay at home. oy vay :-\

laßetz që ça serà miglhôr që c'estava :)

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on December 20, 2020, 02:34:35 PM
Mohlo by to být mnohem horší. Můžeš být Angličan.

well, yes, bojo, brexit and covid seems to be powerful combo. anyway, i suppose you would agree that billionaire by european subventions slash former commie secret service agent slash PM slash i-can-manage-anything-cos-i-am-genius is a fair competition.

ps. conditionals are tricky in any language, definitely for me in english. it is supposed to be "mohl bys být angličan", similar to use of past tense after if, if i get it right in english, a condition not real.

Quote from: Éovart Andrinescù on December 20, 2020, 07:39:18 AM
Ahem... Czechia...

happy to see someone not confusing it for chechnia :)

anyway, czechia or czech republic, we are ripe to become 17th federated state of germany or else, cos ar gobbermint iz iffictivilly non-existent. i haven't feel so frustrated in ages. sorry, the steam must vent out.

here is an emergency broadcating with an urgent message. i would like to ask talossan officials to seriuosly consider immediate annexation of czech republic czechia. this is a critical situation, i repeat, this is... aaaaaargh... gh... uh

your problems and rothschildt's money, that's what i miss of all right now, is what we use to say here when seeing someone to solve interesting pseudo-problem :)

within entities like talossa, it hardly matters that much if they have king or president, monarchy or republic. you always need some extent of likemindedness of its members to keep it alive, but the formal ones, which attract 90 % of new members who then simply vanish with the wind, those are really pointless (i made a typo "pintless" which i somehow like). i like the idea of having fun doing things together with friends which allow me to take some new social roles i did not (and mostly do not want to) try in real world. it has to be a process, vivid thing, otherwise it fades into inexistence. remember penguinea-pangea-polyphony? ;) we have to admit we grow older, things funny once are not that much today. do you see a new generation of agile and clever talossans, 25-30 yrs, trying to kick (y)our ol'butt of (y)our comfort chairs? i do not. that has to be here. king or dwayne elizondo mountain dew herbert camacho, not important. good feeling, important. no good feeling now.

Quote from: DNVercaria on October 02, 2020, 06:00:59 PM

Quote from: Ián S.G. Txaglh on October 02, 2020, 06:21:18 AM
we substitute the physicality by meeting here, virtually, which cognitively creates weak bonds and does not inspire much activity. to our minds, it is not much real and subconsciously appealing. we have to accept, that embodiment and enactment are irreplaceable in social life. "out of sight, out of mind" proverb says that with full force; "sight" means here a physical interaction (sorry for obviousness, but i want to be as precise as possible).

What about literature, art, music, science, religion etc? Sometimes the biggest adventures are happening in our minds, and there's a lot of social life going on merely by intellectual exchange. Looking at where we (the two of us) are coming from in terms of our micronational experiences, Penguinea, Rep. Talossa and what not eventually provoked our real world meetings, but before this, we couldn't escape from getting lost in an overwhelming narrative which created strong bonds, iMHO.

Being part of a "real" nation may be generating less feelings of "strong bonds" for various reasons. I'll never meet all the 82 and then  some millions of people who make up the country where I am living. But a nation and a culture aren't constituted exclusively by physical meetings.

of course penguinea and republic were quite inspiring, but also kind of explosive, it was a boom of creativity, which did not have the anchor to bind it to the ground. it burnt bright, but then just ashes and memories are lying around. i am more for less flammable more stable approach, kind i know from elsewhere (ark), it is mostly the personal and physical what creates the core on which you may build the art and suchs. i am not proposing any particular approach, i am not that bold, i am merely trying to analyse the life cycle of micronat... nationettes  ;) my concern is a long term stability and viability.

i would like to share the last comment i made in this survey:

the physically meeting citizens and unambiguous physical manifestation of talossa would be better for its stability. problem is, being scattered all over the globe, we hardly can meet in person. also, talossa is too bound to a large urban environment fully occupied by non-talossan activities. there is nothing physically & distinctively talossan, a phenomenon in which a passer-by would notice its differentness and possibly even talossanity without necessity of prior knowledge - artefacts, places, presence...

we substitute the physicality by meeting here, virtually, which cognitively creates weak bonds and does not inspire much activity. to our minds, it is not much real and subconsciously appealing. we have to accept, that embodiment and enactment are irreplaceable in social life. "out of sight, out of mind" proverb says that with full force; "sight" means here a physical interaction (sorry for obviousness, but i want to be as precise as possible).

Quote from: Dr. Txec Róibeard dal Nordselvă, Esq., O.SPM, SMM on September 24, 2020, 08:49:56 AM
Teaching online is far more difficult I have found than doing so in person!

it is very tiresome. one would say sitting at home would make it comfortable, but the brain is not used to read peoples faces and speech in the even tiny tiny time-delayed visual comparing to live talk. i feel like a squeezed lemon after a videocon lecture or seminar, but i am never sure if my juice made a good gin fizz or just spoiled a milk. what is even worse, the commented ppt presentation. i envy all actors to be able to do that, but speaking to "faceless" microphone is the worst psychotorture i ever went through, considering talking to people when i was a teenager.

Quote from: Eiric S. Bornatfiglheu on September 24, 2020, 09:23:24 AM
Boy howdy you're right.  Though with the theatre closed, my workload has pretty much evened out.

i hope your theatre will be open soon and people will be coming back for plays. here, they are allowed to play live, but only with proper social distances around 2 m and face masks, meaning four to six time less people come than when at full capacity. i also feel with all those who had to work or study with face masks whole day on. this monday i sat like that for 10 h during theses defence and i had quite a difficulty to keep myself focused due to the limited breathing.

i am really worry about the people, who are vitally dependent on the vivid society and human contact - actors, small & local business, teachers on elementary schools. it is not that bad in europe (and AUS or NZ, afaik) with all the social backing from government (but even that might be better, imho, at least here), but e.g. india and similar countries are going to suffer greatly. 謝謝小熊維尼主席...

as the populistic epidemiology continues to worsen the situation here under brilliant leadership of our local PM (similar kind of idiot as bojo or trump), effectively, the whole new semester is going to be taught on all unis online and we expect another lock-down (they expect to lose the grip over the situation in two weeks; prague is already without any ICU for covid patients). moreover, my parents-in-law are in not an easy situation, both recover after surgery, nothing fatal, but still serious, so i am very much consumed by all this stuff. being deputy for study on our institute and myself a reader of 6 lectures and two seminars, i have to fully move to online teaching, which i only improvised in the half of the period during spring (we had 6 weeks of total lock-down). to prepare such stuff that it makes sense and can be attained by students who are cut off involuntarily due to health and technical issues is a big challenge.

so, my attention to talossan matters is weakened, i hardly read witt in the last week and hardly pick up any strength to participate. "fortunately", talossa is not a boiling pot right now, which fact sets me a bit at ease ;) just to let you know.

hopefully, i have tons of books to read, films to see, perfect wife to survive the cabin fever, large garden and two funny cats (funny, but serious, yesterday, zaerti has brought us a weasel, and ate half of the poor sodder, which explained the mystery of strange shit found all over our lantifundiae and strange sounds too. she also brings snakes, time to time. aneru is more specialised in birds. lovable killers).

mouse over :)

regarding monarchism, i am not impressed by the arguments presented in la s'chinteia XIV. i do not much care if the person is called president or king or shah or big-violet-bambaloo, until she/he has such a position in our political system, that it is substantiated, she/he cannot play a partisan or possess absolute power over anything.

if talossa needs a royal backbone for a long term stability, i do not really like it, cos it would be an artificial glue; talossa needs a strong civil society to survive, not an empty shell refillable at need. one (wo)man cannot be talossa, we all have to be.

i would understand a ceremonial, entertaining and representative role of the head of state, but never anything beyond constitutional monarchy with strict division of powers. we need no figurehead, but also no robert-the-first-like l'état, c'est moi tyrantosaurus.

what kingdom of talossa definitely needs is a good jester. jesters of bohemian kings are legendary (brother paleček or žito the mage).

it is all new to me :) i claim my two seats.

sorry for late reply, i was out of net.

Quote from: Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial on July 29, 2020, 11:57:49 AM

Quote from: Ián S.G. Txaglh on July 29, 2020, 11:35:08 AMnext, the form of talossa needs also not to the most attractive to people with so so many possibilities to be with other people. let's face that, fascination of "playing" or "being" a nationette fades face to face the new world. what was new and funny in 90ies is an old, worn shirt in 2020. yes, there are still lots of youngsters doing micronations (yes, yes, i know), but in their own way mostly. talossan tradition seems to not so appealing in contrast to do things on their own, with their close friends.

So, the appeal of micronations hasnt diminished since the 90s. Instead, people do the exact same thing that lead to the creation of Talossa in the first place: "do[ing] things on their own, with their close friends". In fact, creating a micronation has never been easier, and there are a whole bunch of online meeting places where micronations can interact with each other (often in toxic, cringy ways -- I suppose that's what Ben meant by "bug nation"). What's stopping us from doing more publicity for ourselves? Sealand continues to be wellknown even outside the micronational community, and they have waaaaaaaaaaay less to offer than us.

i am lecturing interlinguistics for some time and i came across an interesting observation, which is imho applicable to micronationalism too. the auxlanging community (made mostly of esperantists) is increasing in numbers, but proportionally to the total number of people, the dynamics is much lower. speaking a bit more scientificallish - if we imagine a very simple model of community dynamics as a linear function, the slope for auxlanging is lower than for general growth of population. which in fact means that the community draws less attention over time. also the structure of auxlanging community changes (also seems applicable model to micronationalism), less and less people are organised, more and more are "wild", unorganised fans mostly through social media, whose interest is different from the let say original intention to create an international by auxlang connected community. also younger people are consciously more sceptical to the goal of international auxiliary language. i noticed that in my courses too (i teach also conlangs). recent advances in cognitive linguistics shows that it was always the matter behind hindering the spread of the idea, but today it reaches the surface of the consciousness. that may be also answer to your second question - people are doing optically the same stuff but with different motivation. those micros still surviving at large, namely ladonia, are location based, core is off-line existing and ladonia specific. they are centred around physically reachable specific artifacts and locations. talossa is also attached to specific places, but those are not non-interchangeably talossa specific, non-talossan people do not see them as talossan, whereas those objects in kullaberg are directly linkable to ladonia. it is a strong point. mind is a strong thing and we still do not understand much how it works, what we already know pretty well, is that we fool ourselves a lot when it comes to layman's opinions on how mind and the stuff around work.

Quote

Quotei am also conlanger since ages and i still move around young conlangers, but their motivations and work differs from mine/people of my generation a lot and in many aspects.

As a young (I guess) conlanger myself, I'd love to know what exactly you mean by that.
EDIT: On a different note, could I interest you in joining SIGN?

if you think i would of any good to SIGN, i am happy to join. i must warn you, that besides my normal day-to-day job, i am in third year of my phd in general linguistics, so my time available is rather limited :)

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Quotetalossa never really turned into multigeneration ship, we should not blame ourselves. culture changes and soon we will turn into a museum exhibit.

But why does it have to be like this? If culture can change, why can't we? (that's a trick question, we do change -- the early 2010s are as ancient as the 1980s)

we can change, of course, but i do not know how we should do that. i am not a fan of social media but majority of people are, i am not really into this overserious political modelling of freedems (and other people are) or total micronationalistic cosplay with kings and pomp. i am into interesting people :) so some kind of compromise is fine with me, that is why i honestly e.g. run for cosa.

some of you may remember, i was/am still involved in my older group (ark maramia), but we faced the same thing even decade earlier (we were/are on since 1978) - families, jobs and other extra-arkian activities diminished the fire burning when we were younger and otherwise not committed to other stuff. we still "survive" (we meet once a year physically) - i work on language, sloooowly, my friend is an artist, so he creates different artefacts, monuments and stuff. even 25 yrs ago we abolished all the crap we used to play before - money, armies, copycat governments, claiming land. we introduced consensual community, spiritual homeland principle with single-page constitution and five single-page laws (division of power, administration, civil, judical, criminal & language) and we still have fun. it is not that vivid, but i am happy. last citizen came in 2001, last outted 2002. we are three today, the peak was some 20+ people exactly in the time, when we were adolescent kids playing kings and kingdoms at the end of 80ies (no internet and goulash-bolsheviks at power).

so this is what english speakers call a shitstorm, am i right? nice. i always like illustrative examples when learning new words.

and now for something compleeeetely different. guys, could the main reason for appalling attractive of talossa be not the freedems government but simply that we and world around us are changing radically? obviously, some of you have mentioned that outside life takes our attention, but more importantly, i see it on me, the everyday grinding mill of wurck, family and suchs strips me of spontaneousness and creativity. not that i do not want to, i simply cannot. time to time i whip up me myself to do something, but mostly i live in series of slightly variable stereotypes. i do not complain. i accept it as an inevitable necessity of progressing human life. i resist whenever i may, but do not let it fall on me.

next, the form of talossa needs also not to the most attractive to people with so so many possibilities to be with other people. let's face that, fascination of "playing" or "being" a nationette fades face to face the new world. what was new and funny in 90ies is an old, worn shirt in 2020. yes, there are still lots of youngsters doing micronations (yes, yes, i know), but in their own way mostly. talossan tradition seems to not so appealing in contrast to do things on their own, with their close friends.

i am also conlanger since ages and i still move around young conlangers, but their motivations and work differs from mine/people of my generation a lot and in many aspects.

talossa never really turned into multigeneration ship, we should not blame ourselves. culture changes and soon we will turn into a museum exhibit. let us enjoy what we have without stupid bickering and try to attract at least those rare freaks who want to cosplay nationette citizens ;) and it can be hardly done when the only thing they see are old cocks on a heap of manure fighting, pardon my klatchian. being honest is fine, being responsible is good, being too serious never is of any benefit for a jolly company. i am rosenbergian nice nihilist, i love fun (it is the very one good thing we give one to each other) and i refuse, yes, i refuse to stand by such pointless debate as presented in this threat. this is far beyond political discussion, far off of friendly teasing. howgh.