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• Commented on Announcement time!
  Anyway, with my mother in law, she got upset with me talking loudly during a family visit. More than once. Finally I told her to then turn down the TV so we could talk to each other or we'd...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  (West) Germany was expected to be a battlefield in the Cold War so a large mesh of interconnected rail lines was a military necessity. Of course rail networks are first and foremost a military infrastructure, but you've got the...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  Why can't I just walk into the train station whenever it's convenient to me and check the departures board for the next train going to a different city? Well, that's what we already have in Germany. Basically all train...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  re: the German railway system: It is still (I believe) the densest railway system in the world, with practically everywhere in the country more or less easily reachable by train. However, it has been badly (mis-)managed for almost 40 years...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  no all-encompassing, ill-defined "right to free speech" There is usually a qualified right to free speech I agree. My qualifiers were meant to convey what you explained in more detail....
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  Some additions to the "policies of an ordinary EU-country"-list: mandatory ID-cards for everybody (may be a matter of contention not only for USians, but also for Brits) mandatory registration at your place of living (no going "off-grid") lower drinking age...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  From the excerpt cited by Kardashev: An insurance broker, Gary Giulietti, who testified for Trump during the civil fraud trial, signed an affidavit stating that securing a bond in the full amount “is a practical impossibility.” [snip] Trump’s lawyers have...
• Commented on A Wonky Experience
  In German there's always the fun question of whether you sort the letters with umlauts with the "base" letter (e.g., ä with a), or after the z in the alphabet. Both are wrong. The second is particularly wrong. (I...
• Commented on Same bullshit, new tin
  So you're saying that in Australia and most other countries that retired politicians can't go to work for big businesses at big salaries? In Germany there were some high-profile cases of retired (or voted-out) politicians then working for companies...
• Commented on Same bullshit, new tin
  Out of curiosity: in your view, what exactly are the "American ideals" you're referring to? Can you name them? Also not meaning to be insulting. But the claim that "American ideals" are exceptional implies that they are different, even radically...
• Commented on Worldcon in the news
  I'm not a member of SF-fandom, other than liking OGH's books and reading this blog, so please indulge me: what does the frequently popping-up acronym SMOF stand for? I have no idea....
• Commented on Same bullshit, new tin
  about the fines TFG has to pay now (I haven't been following the news): Can you tell me whether these verdicts are final? Or how many times can his lawyers still appeal, file motions or lawsuits of their own? In...
• Commented on Same bullshit, new tin
  Also, the first law of the current USA seems to be that Trump can't be jailed for anything, ever....
• Commented on Same bullshit, new tin
  Tying two subthreads of the ongoing discussion together: item 1: There was a subthread about the (physical) requirements of the mars colonists: they need to be healthy, fit, preferably young (because they'll need to wait for some years before beginning...
• Commented on The coming storm
  But what about Chem Trails? My own theory about chem trail conspiracy theorists is that the government is spraying substances to make people stupider—and that they're at least partly successful. /s...
• Commented on The coming storm
  …unilingual me… There's a question that I've been meaning to ask for a while, and I don't mean to be judgmental or offensive about it, I'm just curious. You're Canadian (or at least living in Canada for a long...
• Commented on The coming storm
  There is of course a simple and obvious solution to all translation woes, whether regarding the Bible or any other piece of literature: don't translate at all, but require all who aspire to read the work to learn its original...
• Commented on The coming storm
  The translations from the original Biblical Hebrew often are made according to the translators' theological understanding and/or the desired way they might affect the readers. That's not really limited to translations from Biblical Hebrew or to translations of religious...
• Commented on The coming storm
  One word. Wait, no, actually six words: Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. Very droll! However, what about academics from those parts of Germany that never belonged to the Holy Roman Empire (East Prussia)? And what about the...
• Commented on The coming storm
  I think it comes down to a regional identity rather than a country specific identity. Yes, France isn't England and Germany isn't France, but they share a region and (broadly) similar attitudes, ethics and morals. Would anyone say they...
• Commented on The coming storm
  My understanding is that according to some Islamic Scholars, arabic was the language chosen by God as the only language on Earth via which his message could be conveyed. Additionally, there is an obligation upon all devout Muslims to...
• Commented on The coming storm
  I just did my annual diversity and inclusion training at work and saying something like that of a colleague would be considered a dismissal offence. … and rightly so. That's why I don't understand why you insist to commit...
• Commented on The coming storm
  Okay, I think I now understand where you're coming from. You seem to conflate "Arab" and "Muslim" as if the two had the same meaning or were interchangeable. That's a category error. "Arab" is either a geographical, ethnical, or linguistic...
• Commented on The coming storm
  Has anyone told the Revolutionary Guard and Mullahs? What exactly are you referring to? Has anyone told them that they could make fun of the ruling elite of the US by calling them Hispanic? Or do you actually mean:...
• Commented on The coming storm
  Iranians view themselves as non-Arab Ahem. They don't view themselves as non-Arab, they are non-Arab. Persia is located in a different part of the world than Arabia, has a different history, a different culture, a different language; you name...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Season of Skulls
  I don't, but I don't need to, because I'm not the one making a wildly counter-intuitive claim. Hamas operates from densely populated areas, e.g. they shoot rockets towards Israel from densely populated areas, and they run their tunnels under densely...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Season of Skulls
  Like most of the Israeli claims about Hamas, the 'human shields' one is mostly black propaganda, used to justify Israeli atrocities. https://www.amnesty.org.uk/gaza-questions I'm wondering why nobody has called you out for this so far. Maybe it means that nobody...
• Commented on Crib Sheet: Season of Skulls
  I was curious about how old the 'Jews must return to their promised land/Israel' theme was because my impression was that this was first proposed in the 1930s or so. If you're interested, Wikipedia is a good starting point:...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  like whitroth I'm not entirely clear what the third one's for In my mind, the third dishwasher is for the edge case: you have used all your dishes from the 'clean' dishwasher and have put them into the 'dirty'...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  To those of you thinking of having to move out of a split-level house: aren't stair lifts a thing in the US? Here in Germany they have helped elderly people to stay in their multi-level homes for decades. The one...