My Good Fellows of the Society.

As the law allows, I hold the power at my own discretion to establish schools within the society.

I wish to ask the membership how they would feel about the establishment of schools around the main schools of knowledge, which refers to the different groups of philosophical thought that explain how human beings gather, test, and understand truth.
Basically put:

Quote1. Empiricism (Truth from Senses)The Core Idea: You gain knowledge only through your physical senses (sight, touch, hearing).Analogy: Your mind is a blank notebook. The world draws pictures and writes notes in it as you experience life.
2. Rationalism (Truth from Reason)The Core Idea: You gain knowledge through logic, math, and clear thinking. You do not just rely on your eyes or ears, which can sometimes trick you. Analogy: Solving a math problem in your head. You find the answer by using the rules of your brain, not by looking outside.
3. Constructivism (Truth from Experience). The Core Idea: Knowledge is not just facts waiting to be found. People build knowledge actively by mixing new information with their past experiences. Analogy: Building a house of blocks. Each new block (lesson) is added to the blocks you already put down.
4. Scepticism (Truth through Questioning)The Core Idea: Sceptics question whether absolute, certain knowledge is possible. They challenge beliefs to see if they hold up to heavy testing. Analogy:  A detective at a crime scene. They do not accept the first story they hear. They look for proof before trusting any claim

It is that time again: Talossas most succesful and longrunning cultural tradition is about to start!

For reference:
http://wiki.talossa.com/Talossan_Music_Top_20 _{(Unfortunately I notice the results from 2025 and the 2026 special edition aren't on the wiki yet. I don't have time to update these at the moment, but maybe later.)}
https://wittenberg.talossa.com/index.php?topic=3765.0

The past couple of years this has been very succesfully organised by @Sir Ian Plätschisch. However, after very quickly talking to him it appears I will be doing this one as Sir Ian is rather busy outside of Talossa. Of course we are all very grateful to him for all the past editions he's organised and I'm very much hoping for his participation in this edition as well.

2026 TMT20 Nomination Rules

Nominations are now open. Everyone (including guests and prospective citizens) is invited to nominate songs to make up the 2026 edition of the Talossan Music Top 20.

The competition will consist of 150 songs. 100 songs have qualified automatically based on their performance in the 2025 TMT20. Additionally 6 songs are nominated based on this years special edition. Therefore, there will be a total of 44 new nominations.

We have somewhat of a tight schedule this time. For now we will start with 3 nominations per person. If we don't have enough songs by Noon TST on July 11th, everyone will be free to nominate one new song every 12 hours.

We are voting on the written combination artist (or composer) + title, rather than the specific version that is being linked to, in case people do not like that version.

If you can, please include a link to YouTube or some other video or audio file of the song. Otherwise I will find a link myself, but I might not always find the best version.

All genres of music are welcome. Nominating an entire classical symphony is probably not a good idea, however, because it doesn't really work with the song-format and some voters may decide to skip it.

Do not worry about nominating songs because they are not popular enough (or because they are too mainstream). You do not get a prize if your song wins. If you get someone to listen to a song or genre he did not know or like before, that is nice too. We all seem to love our 70s rock classics, and if your all time favorite song happens to fall in that category, go for it! But if it does not, adding some diversity to the list is just as good. Just nominate whatever song you think deserves to be in the list for whatever reason.

The Senior Fellow has now been added to the Membership Roll on Membership, and should the Author wish, the Society would welcome the produced work to be included within the Archive of works for posterity.

With the necessary membership review period now elapsed and with membership seconded, and by the powers invested in me by the Crown and the Ministry of Culture, I hereby confirm the membership of Crement Itravilatx to the Royal Society for the Advancement of Knowledge. I thus grant them the rank of Senior Fellow, and they may style themselves with the post-nominals of "SF-RSAK"

Thus Mote It Be And So Say We.

Quote from: Tierçéu Rôibeardescù on June 14, 2026, 09:29:43 AM

Recommendation for Membership

Your essay's central thesis is fascinating, not an area I could have spoken to, and sheds light on Diasporic Coping Mechanisms that I had never considered. I can, however, speak to the "absence-guilt", having felt it myself when my grandparents died. My Nana died 4 months before I attained citizenship, and her funeral was the day I left for my gap year, and I was unable to attend. It is heartening to me that this is not just something I feel but indeed is part of cultural and spiritual practice in cultures I am not even familiar with, truly eye and soul soothing to me.
Autoethnography is often a fascinating form of study, and in terms of this society's future work, it offers an accessible yet meaningful alternative to wider academic forms of phenomenology. Our pool of potential participants is relatively small, but it offers greater insight than many quantitative studies can capture.
I do, however, have some Peer Review Feedback.
Although not a failing in writing, I do feel that the ontological or philosophical alignment between the specific drumming tradition and the Bon Odori may not quite be clear. To elevate this past the risk of aesthetic extraction, the paper needs to briefly explain if/how these two traditions share a common understanding of rhythm as a spiritual portal or community anchor. Speaking as a media academic, the drum beat and its representation and use in such applications as horror is often used to represent the heartbeat and the feelings on an automatic level of the characters being portrayed, fast for high tension, slow for despair, etc. There is something primal about this, and I'm sure transcendent across many cultures; I just feel that your essay should attempt to state it outright.

To conclude, I find your paper to be an excellent fit for the society. Your qualitative research methods, somatic studies, and advocacy for a structural shift away from sedentary, silent, and internalised sorrow toward active, expressive, and cross-cultural physical performance is truly inspiring. The Talossan culture as a whole lacks some of our funary traditions, and this could be explored further in future study and an opportunity to look into how we might learn from other cultures, considering the diasporic nature of our nation.

I, therefore, as President of The Royal Society for the Advancement of Knowledge, Commend to the peers of this society and call upon its members to second my nomination for Crement Itravilatx to join our ranks as Senior Fellow, having offered a paper as their form of lecture and having attained at least a 2-year college degree. What say we?

Stage 3   »   Granollers  ›  Les Angles

TCAT crossed the border into Spain today. There was a break including Baudin (GHS/CHX), Pedersen (REX/VFL/MMM), Van Mechelen (CFA) and Cort (CFA), with Baudin especially scoring a lot of points on the way, but in the end everyone was caught by the peloton. The pure sprinters were dropped on the climbs along the way, but with a lot of riders still remainining in the reduced peloton, but a pretty steep uphill finish, the result was some sort of uphill reduced bunch sprint, which perhaps unsurprisingly was won by Pogacar (CFA/CJO/BDC/GHS/MMM/CHX) who also took the lead in GC and yellow jersey.

Also in the top 10: Vingegaard (BDC/VFL/EVC), Carapaz (CJO/BDC/CHX), Seixas (CFA), T.H. Johannessen (GHS/VFL), Lipowitz (REX/GHS/CHX), Evenepoel (CFA/CJO/REX/VFL), Del Toro (REX/GHS/VFL/MMM/CHX/EVC) and Ayuso (REX/EVC)

The result is a stagewin for Cyclohexane, who climb to 3rd place in standings. GHST also did well and are now in second place, while the Menceis keep the lead overall.

Standings after stage 3:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	1584	+591
2nd	(+1)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	1550	+707
3rd	(+3)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	1523	+761
4th	(-2)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	1495	+573
5th	(+2)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	1338	+671
6th	(-2)		Els Talossaes Rexhital (REX)	1305	+495
7th	(-2)		Esqipă Velocostă (EVC)	1286	+494
8th	(=)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	1172	+570
9th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	1153	+586

Woohoo! The Posse might be in contention for this stage.

Stage 2 Tarragona -> Barcelona

A stage for puncheurs, on paper, but the final circuit in the hilly Montjuic suburb of Barcelona was too hard for most stagehunters and it ended up being an early affair between GC riders. Our two most popular picks (both on 6/9 teams) got an 1-2, with Isaac del Toro claiming the win ahead of Tadej Pogacar, and the other two final podium favourites Evenepoel and Vingegaard taking 3-4 close behind.

High scoring result for most teams, due to TCAT riders comprising the entirety of the top 10 (and 16 of the top 20). It is however Velociposse taking a closely contested stage win ahead of the Mençeis and GHST, thanks to holding four of the top 6 finishers to the other two teams's three. These same three teams also make up the current overall podium, with the Mençeis still on top.

Standings after stage 2:

Pos	±		Team	Pts Ove	Pts Today
1st	(=)		Maritiimi-Maxhestic Mençeis (MMM)	993	+738
2nd	(+3)		Velociposse Florencia (VFL)	922	+762
3rd	(+3)		Gordon Hiatus Support Team (GHS)	843	+698
4th	(=)		Els Talossaes Rexhitais (REX)	810	+640
5th	(-3)		Esqipă Velocostă (EVC)	792	+582
6th	(+2)		Cyclohexane (CHX)	762	+627
7th	(-4)		Cézembre Caçeirs dals Mailintzarăs (BDC)	667	+462
8th	(-1)		Naziun Cjovani (CJO)	602	+462
9th	(=)		Cézembre Fieschā (CFA)	567	+502

Today's stage is already about to finish!

Dang how did I miss this again

Sidenote: corruption in football isn't a new, but the way FIFA is currently rigging the tournament in favour of the US at the request of orange dictator guy is really quite something else.

Updated outlook:

Outlook (all rounds):
min-max
Lüc 76-128
Glüc 67-109
Braneu 68-97
AD 52-87
þerxh 70-107
Danihel 70-125
Breneir 68-97

Lüc's prediction is starting to look really good. If we get a semifinal between Spain and France that may well decided whether Lüc or Danihel wins.