The Government of the Kingdom of Talossa notes with sorrow the passing of Dolly Rebecca Parton, who died peacefully in Nashville, Tennessee, on the 25th of August, 2026, at the age of eighty. While the world will rightly remember her as one of the great voices of American music, it is for her works of generosity and compassion that we particularly remember her.

Dolly Parton understood, from the poverty of her own childhood, that dignity is not a luxury. Inspired by a father she loved who never learned to read, she built the Imagination Library -- now the largest early childhood book-gifting program in the world, with more than 300 million free books delivered to children across five countries (including my own). Through her Dollywood Foundation, she reduced her home county's high school dropout rate from thirty-five percent to six, funded children's hospitals, and created thousands of jobs in a region that badly needed them. When wildfires struck the Great Smoky Mountains in 2016, she raised over twelve million dollars for displaced families. When the COVID-19 pandemic threatened the world, her million-dollar donation to Vanderbilt University helped fund the early research behind the Moderna vaccine -- and then she rolled up her rhinestone sleeve on camera to get the shot, because she knew her people trusted her more than they trusted a press release.

The Kingdom of Talossa extends its deepest sympathies to the Parton family and to the countless communities she lifted. Her legacy is not measured in platinum records, but in children who learned to read, in families who kept their homes, and in lives that were saved because one woman from the hills of Tennessee decided that she could help. May she rest in peace.

closed

Probably at least two of the five I didn't vote for...

A week (and 5 hours) left to vote. I have just sent a first voting reminder to all 84 eligible voters who haven't cast a ballot yet; two more votes have been cast already, which pushed turnout over 40%. Atatürk was the first province to reach 50% turnout, but M-M has now overtaken it.

All six voters affected by the Google ballot tampering have re-cast their ballots now, and the countermeasures I implemented seem to be working, as I haven't spotted any further suspicious log entries ever since.

I'm also happy to report that I received an email vote over the weekend (that is, someone returned a compiled PDF ballot by email), meaning all four legal ways to cast a ballot have been used by at least one voter each.

10 votes in with 5 hours to go.

The current standings are:

To final
? - 45
? - 38
? - 38
? - 33
? - 29

TMT 20 16-20
? - 26
? - 26
? - 26
? - 22
? - 22

Eliminated:
? - 21
? - 18
? - 17
? - 15
? - 14

Anyone feel like making a prediction for which 5 songs will make it to the final?

The event did take place in the sense that I was available to answer questions, but no other citizens arrived to ask them, so after a while I took the opportunity to do a little stumping, maybe offer a bit of clarity to people who haven't voted yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK6vpW_BACI

My mic was weirdly quiet on the YT upload, it sounded fine when recording, so you may need to turn up your volume

8 voters so far. Only 18,5 hours left to vote!

Stage 3   »   Gruissan - Aude  ›  Font Romeu (Cancelled)


The peloton was surprised by the weather today as they face heavy rain and hail on the final climb. The conditions were bad enough that the riders decided collectively not to continue and the stage was cancelled as a result. We therefore only get classification points today (and a few breakaway/kom/sprint points collected on the way). This does give us a nice insight into who is collecting the most classification points at the moment. Turns out its...

The Menceis.

Similar to last edition they are raking in a whole bunch of assist points from picking Pogacar teammates. This time it gets them the stagewin, although without stagepoints today was too low scoring to affect the standings much.


Standings after stage 3:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	1220	+121
2nd	(=)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	1162	+119
3rd	(=)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	1096	+123
4th	(=)		The Manilows (MAN)	1037	+99
5th	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	985	+164
6th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	768	+79
7th	(=)		Port Maxhestic AC (PTM)	696	+95
8th	(=)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	666	+65
9th	(=)		Dirnalaiset Mortescu (DED)	600	+52
10th	(=)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	539	+85
11th	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	314	+51

Tomorrow we get a proper Pyrenean mountain stage around another micronation (Andorra). Even though the stage ends with a long downhill (interrupted by a short category 3 climb) this still looks like one for the climbers and GC favourites.

Edit: Just realised its really short as well (100km) so might be pretty explosive.

Quote from: xpb on Yesterday at 12:50:21 PM

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on August 23, 2026, 08:25:40 PM

Quote from: xpb on May 02, 2025, 08:23:04 AM

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on April 29, 2025, 04:01:19 PM

Quote from: xpb on January 30, 2025, 06:06:43 PM

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on January 27, 2025, 07:29:47 PM@xpb Connected to the first novel, have you had a chance to read the first novella in the series, Livesuit? I thought this was just as good.

I didn't know about that will have to look it up...

@xpb Did you ever end up reading Livesuit, the novella set in the Captive War universe?

Alas not yet, perhaps after my final exam on Monday...

A very good read which provides some context for the first book.

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@xpb Did you ever get to check out The Captive War series from the authors of The Expanse? Amazon has decided to bring the series to TV.

I read the first on awhile back - will try to read Livesuit which appears to be a volume 1½ prior to vol 2 Faith of Beasts.  They had several of these novellas in The Expanse series.

I still think the novella is the best entry in the series so far.