@ToaKraka's banner p

ToaKraka

Dislikes you

1 follower   follows 6 users  
joined 2022 September 04 19:34:26 UTC

Verified Email 

				
User ID: 108


				
				
				

			

		

	














	


		


			



	

		

			

			

				

					

						

							
						

						

							
							

								
ToaKraka


								

								

								
								
								

								
							
					
 
				


				
Dislikes you

				
				
				

				

					1 follower  

					follows 6 users  

					joined 2022 September 04 19:34:26 UTC
				


				
					

					



				

				

				

				

				

					

					

					
					
					

					
User ID: 108


					
					
					
				

			


					

						
							
								Verified Email
							
						
					



		

	

 











			
			

			
			

			




	


		

			
‎

			

				
				

					Hour
					Day
					Week
					Month
					Year
					
				

			


			
‎

			

	
	

	 Hot Bump Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
	



		

	






	

		
		

		
		
	

	

  







		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for June 5, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Very interesting document from ICC (International Code Council): The EFSP (Essential Fire Safety Provisions)


Apparently, the goal is to provide an entry-level, stand-alone document that can be adopted in undeveloped countries without all the complexity of the full-fledged IBC (International Building Code) and IFC (International Fire Code). Editor's note:




During my career as a fire-safety consultant, I have had the opportunity to promote the adoption of modern fire codes outside the United States. On many occasions, when I engaged with authorities, I received comments indicating that these codes were too overwhelming. I remember a meeting with the mayor of the city of Asunción, in Paraguay, after a devastating fire in a supermarket in which 428 lost their lives. After I suggested to the mayor that his city should adopt NFPA 1 [an IFC competitor], he told me in no uncertain terms that, if he were to propose adopting such a voluminous code, his days as a democratically elected politician would be numbered.


Years later, I came to understand that the mayor was right, and I began exploring different approaches to making modern building codes more accessible in emerging nations with limited implementation capacity.




The EFSP appears to consist of abridged versions of the following items.


EFSPOriginal



Chapters 1–6IBC chapters 1–6


Chapters 7–10IBC/IFC chapters 7–10 (they are not identical, but do have a lot of overlap)


Appendix AIBC chapter 33


Appendices B–DIFC appendices B–D


Appendix EIFC chapter 32





In print, it amounts to 363 pages—a whopping 75-percent reduction from the combined 1444 pages of the IBC and the IFC. The price of a watermarked PDF is just 56 dollars, versus 322 dollars for IBC+IFC—an 86-percent reduction.


All three of these documents have official Spanish translations. ICC also has worked with governments that are neither Anglophone nor Hispanophone, such as Oman and Pakistan.




Fun fact: Incest between consenting adults is legal in New Jersey. In recent years, bills that would ban it have been submitted by politicians of both major parties (Democratic 2024–2027, Republican 2014–2021, Democratic 2014–2017), but have died in committee.


According to Wikipedia (1 2), incest between consenting adults is illegal in almost all the other states of the US, including Pennsylvania (example conviction) and New York (example conviction).




Interesting report from the United Nations Secretary-General on the UN's drive for multilingualism




Websites under the purview of the Department of Global Communications continued to demonstrate a high level of parity across official languages. As at 30 September 2025, 90 per cent of the 318 web properties on the un.org domain were available in the six official languages. User engagement data for 2024–2025 show that page views remained highest in English, followed by Spanish, Russian, French, Chinese and Arabic.


UN official languageProportion of page views on un.org (%)



English61.5


Spanish17.7


Russian7.6


French5.4


Chinese4.7


Arabic3.2









For several entities, multilingual web and social media activities were increasingly constrained by resource limitations. Funding cuts and staffing gaps led to the suspension or significant scaling-back of updates to non-English web pages, the accumulation of translation backlogs and greater reliance on prioritization of essential content. As a result, in those cases, if content was made available in more than one language, it was often the more stagnant content, and short-lived content was not being translated. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that the ad hoc and limited updating of its multilingual web content may have contributed to the decline recorded in readership and website traffic.






The 60 United Nations information centres played an instrumental role in conveying the Organization’s messages in multiple languages, including non-official languages to address the needs of local audiences. Information centres translated and disseminated over 4,500 informational materials in 45 languages, produced press releases and press statements in 27 languages, disseminated over 300 local op-eds in 15 languages and produced 150 podcasts in Arabic, English and Spanish. They also produced videos in 24 languages, which were widely shared on social media platforms, and organized 130 Model United Nations simulations in 17 languages, reaching approximately 40,000 students worldwide. Information centres maintained websites in 36 languages and social media accounts in 31 languages. [lengthy footnotes listing the languages omitted]




See also the Strategic Framework on Multilingualism.




Languages spoken confidentlyProportion of Secretariat staff (%)



19


239


3 or more52







				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You have to add two extra spaces at the end of a line in order to make a line break.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I am very surprised to find a survey claiming that, in year 2012 (14 years ago), 76 percent of USAians would address a stranger at least 10 years older than themselves as "sir" or "ma'am". This article explains that in year 1980 (46 years ago) this practice was extremely regional—80 percent in the South but only 25 percent in the Northeast.


In my Northeast location: While working, I was considered a bit of a stick-in-the-mud for using "Mr./Ms. Lastname", as implied in my previous comment. And I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that, to the best of my recollection, I've never called anybody "sir" or "ma'am" in my entire 32 years. (Though I did once have occasion to call a judge "your honor".)


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
In past discussion, he has claimed that police officers in his area demand that citizens call them "sir". That definitely is degrading in the casual modern age, where people laugh at you for even calling your coworkers "Mr. Lastname" rather than "Firstname".


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
(1) My intent was to point out that both you and VIM were making overbroad claims. Iraq did "fire chemical weapons directly into an Iranian town" (not a city), though those weapons did not "kill hundreds of thousands of people".


(2) The second linked article indicates 100 Iranian civilian deaths.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Wikipedia indicates a few tens of thousands of civilian injuries from Iraqi chemical weapons, some Iranian and some Kurdish in an Iraqi city recently captured by Iran.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yes. It is unreasonable for a person to take seriously a "threat" made by a random person, when it is overwhelmingly likely that the random person has no actual willingness or capability to follow through on that threat. 1 2


It can be argued that, in the modern context of high-speed travel and remote SWATting, it is less unlikely that the random person is willing and able to harm the target. But it still is extremely unlikely.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
US Supreme Court on this topic


Sending a hyperbolic "threatening" communication does not count as intimidation if you are not in a position to actually follow through.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Yes, but note that that second image is not part of the original comic.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
GOG? Itch .io?


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 31, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
You replied to the wrong comment.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
The trademark is the name of the work, not the plot and the characters. Just call your fork Legends of Crystalia, and mention on the same page that it's a fork of Legends of Gemlands not endorsed by the original creator, in order to avoid any confusion. (Though if the characters are trademarked separately—e. g., using a specific gemstone character that figures prominently in the plot as the logo for Legends of Gemlands—then you will have problems.)


For a real-world example, see the recent controversy between Notepad++ (trademarked) and a fork that dared to call itself Notepad++ for Mac without authorization.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
That's trademark (identity), not copyright (content). Nobody is suggesting that trademark be abolished.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 31, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


I've heard that Worm is obscenely long.




To be a bit more specific, the word count is 1.7 million.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


by money




*by work


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Weekly Finance Thread (without clever alliteration)
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
A cursory search yields this FINRA allegation. tl;dr: UBS allowed its representatives to recommend that clients buy "syndicate" (presumably, UBS-associated) preferred stock (allowing UBS to pocket a 2-percent commission that it then shared with the representatives) and then sell the same stock at a loss 91–180 days later. (Sales of preferred stock were flagged for supervisory review only if they occurred after 0–90 days. This supervision was loose enough to fall afoul of a FINRA rule.) In a settlement, the company paid out 3.5 M$ (2.65 disgorgement, 0.5 fine, and 0.35 restitution), but did not admit any wrongdoing.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 31, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


Apologies to @ self_made_human.




He has mentioned that he actually does not have an Indian accent.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 31, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
(1) Is a goshdarned furriner authorized to judge such nuances in the first place?


(2) My memory of exactly how annoying accented English is fades as my distance from my immigrant-filled workplace increases. But it is my impression that any language-based variation is drowned out by proficiency-based variation. I can say that 80-percent-intelligible Indian*-accented English < 90-percent-intelligible Cantonese-accented or Vietnamese-accented English < 100-percent-intelligible Sri Lankan*–accented English. But that doesn't give any information regarding the languages.


*Yes, I know these aren't languages, but I don't know the actual native language of the speaker.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					

				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Source


ItemPrice increase from April 2016 to April 2026, not seasonally adjusted (%)



Rice, white, long grain, uncooked, per pound+53


Beans, dried, any type, all sizes, per pound+16


Milk, fresh, whole, fortified, per gallon+31


Flour, white, all purpose, per pound+4.2


Ground beef, 100 percent beef,  per pound+81





				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
It would be extremely funny if a next-level masochist were to obtain the catalog and floor plan of a real library and create a similar game with that dataset. There could even be separate game modes for different classification schemes—e. g., Universal Decimal vs. Dewey Decimal.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Unfortunately, I am an Insightful Thinker, not an Elusive Shadow.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					


At this point you may be thinking: "My family gets along."




LOL.




Based on the value of the property and the number of shares, a contested partition action is likely to cost your mother more money than she could expect to make from the sale.




I will temper my pestering of her accordingly.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Culture War Roundup for the week of May 25, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
I feel obligated to post a link to the mildly entertaining story Two Gay Furries Kissing in the Backrooms (behind a login wall; here are the first 30 chapters/⁓70,000 words in HTML and PDF), in which two men (an autistic computer programmer and an outgoing NEET living on life-insurance proceeds) (1) are teleported into the backrooms and transformed into anthro/furry characters (a tall fox and a short cat, respectively), (2) meet each other, and (3) fall in love while exploring. Despite the suggestive title, romance does not start until chapter 28 (the end of part 1), and sex does not occur until chapter 54 (part 2 chapter 26, the end of part 2; the characters magically do not need to eat or drink, so no special preparation is necessary). According to the author:




This is a plot-first, long-form, slow-burn romance/slice-of-life story. It's "plot with some porn eventually", so to speak.




But "plot" is a bit of a stretch. IMO, it's the kind of cute-but-utterly-pointless fluff that I used to seek out 15 years ago under the "NaruHina" label on fanfiction.net.


				

				

						

							

								
							

						


						
					

				
			


			
			
			
				

			
		

	






		

			
			
				Friday Fun Thread for May 29, 2026
			
		

	

	

	

		
			

			

				

			

		

			


				

					
Mildly entertaining exercise: Rendition of a random UN Security Council resolution into HTML, with dozens of bullet points added in order to improve intelligibility




Interesting Gallup article on "span of control" (the number of subordinates per manager)




According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is roughly one manager for every 11.5 employees. Gallup data show a similar pattern: The average number of people reporting to managers has increased from 10.9 in 2024 to 12.1 in 2025. This is a nearly-50-% increase in team size [from 8.2] since Gallup first measured in 2013.






At the same time, the median team size has held steady at about five to six employees per manager or leader. In other words, a minority of very large teams is pulling the average up, while most managers still lead relatively small teams. Gallup data show that 37 % of managers or leaders oversee fewer than five people, while roughly two-thirds (66 %) manage fewer than 10. About one in five managers (22 %) has 10 to 24 direct reports, and only 13 % oversee 25 or more employees.






Team size is only as effective as the engagement behind it. Highly engaged teams of 12 or more workers who are supported by effective management—double the current median of six workers per team—can thrive, while poorly managed teams struggle even when small.




There is no information on the number of managers per subordinate.




There has recently been some discussion of partition actions: a property is owned in common by several people, but one of the owners wants to sell his share. One of this website's illustrious lawyer denizens has mentioned how he (1) hates division of property between heirs because it results in huge complications over time, and therefore (2) prefers primogeniture. Do you have any opinions or experiences on this topic?


In the 1970s, my grandfather in the US Virgin Islands (a wretched hive of scum, villainy, and hurricanes) died young. After a probate process that for some reason took eight years (I am in possession of the "final adjudication and decree of distribution" but none of the other court documents, so I don't know the details), his house was split between his heirs—1/3 to his wife (my grandmother), and 1/9 to each of his six children (two by a previous wife and four (including my mother) by my grandmother). As the decades rolled by, all of these seven heirs ceased living in the property. Ironically, at present the property's only inhabitant is a non-heir—the son of my grandmother by a previous husband. He is a layabout and has allowed the property (assessed at market value of 95 k$; Zillow does not produce Zestimates in this backwater) to fall into disrepair.


I am hoping that, after my grandmother dies, I will be able to convince my mother to start a partition action in order to convert her share of this albatross into cash. The USVI has enacted the Uniform Partition of Heirs' Property Act, so if my mother were to start a partition action her siblings (including the half-brother, since he would have finally become a part-owner) would have a chance to buy her out before any forced sale of the entire property. But she expects that they would be either uninterested in, or incapable of, buying her out. Also, there is a possible complication: My grandfather's two children by his first wife (already adult and moved out when he died) allegedly gave their shares to my grandmother (out of charity—my grandfather had no life insurance, so his death threw my grandmother into poverty), but if this property transfer occurred it apparently was never officially recorded. I look forward to the hullabaloo.