ToaKraka
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No bio...
User ID: 108
ToaKraka
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1d ago
Well, it's important in context. Many people aren't interested in reading stories that are expected to remain unfinished, but are fine with following ongoing stories as they approach completion.
ToaKraka
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2d ago
ToaKraka
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2d ago
unfinished
*ongoing
"Unfinished" has a connotation of "abandoned" that is not warranted here.
ToaKraka
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4d ago
Gamer Word is an internet slang term sometimes used to reference the N-word, a racial epithet toward Black people. The phrase "gamer word" came to be associated with the racial slur after PewDiePie's PUBG Livestream N-Word Controversy in late 2017 and after a Twitter user defended PewDiePie's use of the word by calling it a "gamer word" instead of a racial slur.
ToaKraka
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6d ago
"Dungeon delving" has been a common phrase for many years.
So... What did he buy if the lot no longer exists?
The municipal govt. could have sued to cancel the sale of lot 16 and enforce the merger within two years after the sale, but it did not do so. Therefore, I think the illegal subdivision stands: Jerome now owns a not-properly-subdivided portion of lot 9, and neither he nor the owner of the other portion can get permits to build anything until the two portions of lot 9 are reunited. (But I'm not a lawyer, so I may be wrong.)
Is this a "no refunds" type of situation?
Jerome did also sue his closing attorney for failing to notify him of the merger issue. That lawsuit was settled out of court.
In looking at your real property that was originally laid out over a century ago, have you ever noticed that it appears to be composed of a zillion super-narrow lots? (For example, my mother's house sits on a 100×112.5 rectangle of land that is composed of four 25×112.5 strips.) Well, here's a fun fact: If multiple lots that are not compliant with the current zoning code fall under common ownership, and merging them would create a compliant lot, then under the "doctrine of merger" those lots immediately merge with each other! (Under my mother's local zoning code, the minimum lot width is 40 feet, so her property presumably has merged into two 50×112.5 lots… is what I was going to say, but apparently the zoning code was thoroughly amended since the last time I checked it, and the minimum lot width has been reduced from 40 feet back down to 25 feet. Can lots merge and then de-merge? I don't know.)
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Gary owns adjacent lots 9 (125 feet wide) and 16 (50 feet wide). Lot 9 bears a house, while lot 16 bears some accessory buildings. The minimum lot width in this zone is 100 feet.
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Gary dies, and his estate sells lot 16 to Jerome, who wants to build a house on it. The purchase contract is conditional on Jerome's obtaining a building permit, but Jerome waives the condition. Jerome is warned by the title company before purchase, and by the zoning officer after purchase, that the lots may have merged, but he ignores the warnings.
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Jerome applies for a building permit, but the application is denied because lot 16 has merged into lot 9. He applies for a variance allowing him to build on a 50-foot-wide lot, but the application is denied because lot 16 no longer exists, so there's no 50-foot-wide lot to which the variance would apply. He sues the municipal government, but the trial judge rejects his arguments, and the appeals panel affirms.
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Richard owns two lots that are positioned back-to-back, facing different streets. Lot 2 is 50×125 with a house, while lot 6 is 50×95 with a garage. Under the local zoning code, minimum dimensions are 75×100, but there's also a grandfather clause for existing 50×75 lots.
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Richard wants to replace the garage on lot 6 with a new house. But he is dismayed to learn that the municipal government considers the two lots to have merged. After the govt. rejects his applications for subdivision and variances, he sues.
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The trial judge reverses the municipal govt.'s determination that the lots have merged, and the appeals panel affirms. The existing lots are compliant with the zoning code's grandfather clause, so the doctrine of merger is not applicable. And, if there were no grandfather clause, a 50×220 merged lot would be just as nonconforming as the existing lots, so the doctrine of merger still would not apply.
ToaKraka
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8d ago
I likened dispatching to playing Tetris
Unfortunately, a cursory search for "truck 'dispatch' game" does not return any useful results.
ToaKraka
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8d ago
See also the 1970s book The High Frontier, which proposes a Moon colony as a stepping stone to space habitats. (And the realism-focused board game of the same name.)
Still, the Moon is not Mars.
ToaKraka
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9d ago
ToaKraka
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9d ago
According to a survey conducted a few weeks ago, support for secession is about one-third in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Quebec, and one-fifth or less everywhere else.
ToaKraka
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11d ago
ToaKraka
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11d ago
Your formatting is broken. Add two spaces at the end of a line if you want a line break after that line.
(I don't have an informed opinion on the question.)
ToaKraka
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12d ago
ToaKraka
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12d ago
TIL it is possible to buy a 100-year bond.
IMO, buying 70-year or 75-year bonds for one's grandchildren (matching their life expectancy) would be more inspiring than buying 30-year Treasury bonds for them.
ToaKraka
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13d ago
How do you find these things?
I have been checking the daily uploads of various courts for multiple years, just for fun.
And how are you just gonna glide over the part where Juror 1 apparently threatened Juror 10 hard enough that the defense insisted it was a mistrial?
I think the piss-jug situation is much more interesting than the juror weirdness, personally.
ToaKraka
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13d ago
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Stephens and Teeter constitute a team of long-haul truck drivers. Generally, while one of them is driving in the front of the truck, the other one is sleeping in the back of the truck.
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Since the truck drivers usually drive for long periods without stopping, they often urinate in bottles, leave the bottles on the floor of the truck, and then throw the bottles into the trash at their next stop. Here, however, Stephens is annoyed at Teeter's practices of (1) leaving his bottles of urine on the passenger seat or on the bed rather than on the floor and (2) using spill-prone fast-food drink cups rather than properly-capped bottles for his urine.
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At a truck-stop restaurant, Stephens confronts Teeter over this issue. Teeter gets angry at being called out in public. When the two drivers return to their truck, Teeter unveils a knife and stabs Stephens multiple times, inflicting life-threatening injuries.
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Teeter is charged with and convicted of multiple crimes, and is sentenced to twenty years in prison (with the possibility of parole after 17 years). The appeals panel affirms.
ToaKraka
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14d ago
I think a different commenter stated several years ago that Ukraine's law was bad because it required the country's many small Russian-language news outlets to print a bunch of Ukrainian copies that nobody would buy, which effectively forced them to shut down by imposing large extra costs on them. An extremely cursory Google search indicates that Canada does not have any similar laws forcing small English-language news outlets to translate all their content into French (or vice versa).
ToaKraka
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15d ago
That started because of the 2022 war
No, it started after the 2014 invasion of Crimea. As far back as 2019, the Council of Europe's "Commission for Democracy through Law" issued a scathing report on Ukraine's oppression of the Russian language.
The Commission notes that the State Language Law submitted to its examination in the present opinion also fails to strike a fair balance between the legitimate aim of strengthening and promoting the Ukrainian language and sufficiently safeguarding minorities’ linguistic rights. On the contrary, the State Language Law extends to other areas the differential treatment that the Commission considered in its 2017 opinion as very problematic from the perspective of non-discrimination. Furthermore, the Commission notes that the State Language Law includes several provisions which impose limitations on the freedom of expression and the freedom of association as enshrined in the ECHR. While limitations to these freedoms may serve legitimate aims, the Commission recalls that all limitations must be proportionate. The Commission in the present opinion has found that several articles of the State Language Law require further clarification in order to be proportionate to the legitimate aim.
Article 25 allows publishing of print media in two or more language versions, one of which must be Ukrainian, provided that all language versions are identical in size, format and substance and are issued on the same day. Exception is made only for media issued in Crimean Tatar or other indigenous languages, and those issued in English or other official EU languages (which do not need a translation into Ukrainian). The Law requires that the print media in Ukrainian constitute no less than 50% of selection in each print media distribution point. These rules will apply to national and regional media in two and a half years from the Law’s entry into force and to the local media in five years (Section IX, point 1).
In addition to the very problematic differential treatment provided for in this Article (see supra §44), these provisions raise the question whether the high administrative and financial burden they impose on editors of mass media will not “cause substantial disruption and could have a chilling effect” (see supra §88) on publishing in minority languages, and if so, whether this limitation of the freedom both to impart and to receive information can be considered to be necessary – i.e. also proportionate – in a democratic society.
In view of crucial importance of the freedom of the press in a democratic society, the Commission recommends that the legislator repeal this requirement.
ToaKraka
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17d ago
The Chinese version of the article explains:
About 900 people were forcibly conscripted [by the central government], and Chen Sheng and Wu Guang were elected as the head of the garrison. In July, the two were on their way to Daze Township (now Liucunji, southeast of Suzhou) in Qi County (now south of Su County, Anhui), but were blocked by heavy rain and could not reach their destination as scheduled. According to Qin law, those who were late for the deadline would be beheaded, and all would be executed, so it would be better to rebel.
I think I read somewhere many years ago that "eat hot chip and lie" is a censor-avoiding version of "eat hot shit and die". Ftttg is referencing a meme that incorporates this phrase.
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