Martin Jambon 🌍🌎🌏 @mjambon@qoto.org

I was wondering why the UK was not called a "federation".

After some back-and-forth, ChatGPT clarified:

In a federation, there's typically a constitutional division of powers between the central government and the subnational entities (states, provinces, etc.), and this division is usually fixed and applies uniformly to all members of the federation. Each level of government has its own sphere of authority, as defined by the constitution, and these powers are often enshrined and protected by law.

In contrast, the UK's system of devolution is more flexible and asymmetric. The powers devolved to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have been granted through separate pieces of legislation (Scotland Act, Government of Wales Act, Northern Ireland Act), and the specific powers vary between them. Additionally, these powers can be amended or repealed by the UK Parliament if there is sufficient political will to do so. So, while devolution grants a degree of autonomy to subnational entities, it does not involve a fixed constitutional division of powers like in a federation.

@dlakelan how do you decide who gets to be an artist, programmer, or other content producer and gets paid a stable salary for it? Do you want committees to select which musician is good enough or leave it to the listeners to decide? Or maybe allow anyone to be a paid musician if they want to?

@johncarlosbaez I doubt they carry Hitler-style literature. https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/local/2023/12/20/lauren-groff-the-lynx-new-bookstore/71931165007/

@MattMerk obviously, it's rude to ask someone about their bank account. Not sure what you're getting out of this.

What's more suspicious than someone with their country's flag in their display name?
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A display name with flags of countries they've never been to.

@The_Whore_of_Blahbylon the TV series sequel "the Sarah Connor Chronicles" isn't bad either.

@narain @gregeganSF good job. I was really hoping for a rare variety of bug or a hidden message, though.

@gregeganSF ... or it's a secret message to be decoded by the chosen ones.

@gregeganSF I got it, it's (callnative, taed L9LS, alterken) -> (called L9LS, taken, alternative)

@gregeganSF still doesn't make much sense, though.

@gregeganSF curious, they need to rotate suffixes: (callnative, taed, alterken) -> (called, taken, alternative).

I'm still puzzled that the phrase "I was today years old when ..." makes sense to people. Let's see what we have:
- <today> is a placeholder for the person's age;
- the grammar is wrong unless we view "today" as some sort of placeholder, making the expression funny;
- this is to hide the embarrassment of just having learned something important that they wish they had learned earlier;
- there's nothing wrong in learning something late, making it hard for me to read to whole sentence other than literally: either you think it's cool to mock the lack of knowledge and want to pass for someone who knows a lot already, or you're humble about what you know and you're ignoring grammar completely which is weird for someone who reads.

#english #grammar #learning #boring #weird

@dlakelan obviously

Acrylic on oil. There are no rules.
#art #artistonmastodon #experimental

@passenger oui mais les Français aiment bien leurs intellos en général.

@passenger fwiw "nerd bullying" is almost unheard of in France. In fact, there's no word or slur that matches "nerd" in meaning and breadth of usage.