Recent Posts

Browsers & Technology / Re: E-readers

Last post by ersi - 2026-10-11, 16:10:16

Two new devices have cropped up.

XTEINK - small (below 5") in versions of slightly differing screen sizes

Auteur, another e-ink authoring laptop similar to Freewrite and Zerowriter.

I still get by with Boox Palma + bluetooth keyboard.

Edit: By the way, Auteur comes with an implementation of Fountain.

The Lounge / Re: The Holiday Greetings Thread

Last post by Frenzie - 2026-10-06, 18:34:59

Interesting, I had no idea.

DnD Central / Re: War

Last post by ersi - 2026-10-03, 21:11:32

Here's a summary of the Iran war in Trump's own words (so it's messy). Also, I think it's what wars in general look like from now on for the rest of the century.

https://youtu.be/cHxLz3vu1aE

The Lounge / Re: The Holiday Greetings Thread

Last post by ersi - 2026-10-01, 11:07:52

Reflectors have their own day.

Quote from: https://www.rauma.fi/en/blog/reflector-day-will-be-celebrated-on-october-1/

National Reflector Day (Heijastinpäivä) will be celebrated on Wednesday, October 1. The day serves as a reminder of the importance of wearing reflectors and encourages people to stay visible in traffic during dark hours.

DnD Central / Re: What's Your Favorite U.S. Supreme Court decision?

Last post by jax - 2026-09-29, 13:31:58

Risk with gerrymandering is if the opposing party surges significantly higher than the safety threshold, the result would be the opposite, and the gerrymanderers will end up with fewer seats than they would in a fair election. This I'm told the Americans call a dummymander.

DnD Central / Re: The comings and goings of the European Union

Last post by ersi - 2026-09-16, 09:45:58

Von der Leyen held another Union address https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/state-union_en

Early in the speech she speaks in favour of acceleration (of economic growth and activity) and against "goldplating". Especially the latter has been a massive problem that tanked the reputation of EU in newer member countries. As usual, it is too little too late, while trying to give the false impression as if the initiative is now from the commissars themselves. No, the commissars were the brakeblock for decades.

Well, not an all-bad speech, I guess. For example nice to see a rapprochement with Canada. I have not made it to the end yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iZuv5bOQDc

DnD Central / Re: I'm bemused: No one here wants to discuss the Gaza-Israel war

Last post by ersi - 2026-09-09, 19:33:15

Days before Oct. 7, UAE leader warned Netanyahu Hamas was planning war, but PM did nothing with info - report

Quote from: https://www.timesofisrael.com/days-before-oct-7-uae-leader-warned-netanyahu-hamas-was-planning-war-but-pm-did-nothing-with-the-info-report/

Some 10 days before Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was personally warned by the leader of the United Arab Emirates that Hamas was planning a major offensive move against Israel, but did not update Israeli security leaders and did nothing with the information, according to a report on Tuesday.

An Emirati source familiar with the conversation confirmed the Haaretz newspaper’s report to The Times of Israel later Tuesday, and said the warning came during a phone call between the two leaders.

I heard quite early in the war that Netanyahu and/or Mossad knew about the attack plans and let it happen in order to wipe clean the prime riviera real estate that Gaza is. Now that it's in Israeli newspapers, there's no walking it back.

DnD Central / Re: A blast from the past… :)

Last post by ersi - 2026-09-09, 15:30:09

“Would a woman be a good president?” in 1963 in USA.

1963 was not some Victorian era. By the way, Victoria was a woman, mind you.

DnD Central / Re: US Election enquiry a farce?

Last post by ersi - 2026-09-06, 06:51:28

Topical: In Texas, Tarrant County’s November elections will have 92 fewer places to cast ballots

Quote from: https://fortworthreport.org/2026/09/01/advocates-demand-increased-voting-access-as-tarrant-county-considers-cutting-polling-sites/

Tarrant County commissioners voted 3-2 Tuesday to approve a list of polling sites for the November elections that included 92 fewer sites than the 2022 midterms. [...] Commissioners voted along party lines...

And why?

Quote from: https://fortworthreport.org/2026/09/01/advocates-demand-increased-voting-access-as-tarrant-county-considers-cutting-polling-sites/

Historically a Republican stronghold, Tarrant County has shown occasional signs of trending purple as voters narrowly supported Democratic candidates at the top of the statewide ballot in recent elections. Democratic Sen. Taylor Rehmet’s landslide victory in the northern half of Tarrant County in a special election in January, followed by unusually high voter turnout in the March primaries, spurred Democrats’ hopes of victory in November.

DnD Central / Re: US Election enquiry a farce?

Last post by Frenzie - 2026-09-04, 16:38:18

Quote from: ersi – on 2026-09-04, 15:08:39

Did you know that in Georgia it is illegal to distribute water to people in queue?

I don't think I did, but then again there are so many things along those lines it's hard to keep track.

I believe it remains the UK that has the record for least representative government ever (in what we consider a proper democracy) in the sense of which party people voted for compared to which is actually in power, but of course that'd be a deeply flawed way of looking at it because how else are people going to vote in a two-party system anyway.

Curiously, Omtzigt wanted to reform the Dutch system to be more like the Swedish system, even if it's transparently worse in how representational it is. Larger parties tend to like less representational systems because it would increase their amount of seats.