troglodyte_mignon

I’ve never really had that problem, because I almost always carry a large-ish backpack with a cotton bag folded inside, but it would be neat if stores had a box near the checkout where you could leave your extra bags for other clients to use for free.

One of the libraries I go to does something like that, they keep some bags near the front desk and give them to users who need something to carry their books. I’ve given them two bags I had no use for. And I know a bulk food store where you can leave empty containers for other clients to use.

I wish you pleasant sexual encounters as well, most esteemed stranger.

Except in her case, it’s been proved that she’s been embezzling. Your argument makes no sense, you’re comparing two completely different situations.

Right-wing should be defeated in the election and on the streets, not in the court.

This is not about defeating the far right, this is about temporarily preventing several politicians who misappropriated public money thanks to their position from gaining access to positions that would allow them to commit a repeat offence. (Let’s keep in mind that they’ve not even expressed regret about what they’ve done, instead they’ve spent all the trial playing the martyrs.)

1. The decision had nothing to do with the RN’s political leaning. Nothing. It’s beside the point.

2. The RN will still be able to take part in the presidential election. Nobody’s forbidding them to take part in the election. For example, the RN’s current president, Jordan Bardella, has not been convicted or even prosecuted (even though he was one of the fake assistants!), and is free to try to run for the election.

It’s not “instead of”, it’s “in addition to”. And it’s not “at least” 5 years of prison either, it could end up being less than what the prosecution asked for.

How is your comment related to the article? This trial isn’t about the National Rally’s ideas (which are indeed illiberal, fundamentally racist and plainly disgusting). It’s about them embezzling millions of euros from the European Parliament, during more than a decade, by having many of their members be “fake” MEP assistants who got paid for a job that they didn’t actually do. WTF does this have to do with religion or illiberalism.

Although not being French I do not know the extent of laicité.

Indeed you do not. Laïcité, among other things, guarantees the right to believe in (or not believe in) and practice (or not practice) a religion. What you’re proposing is religious discrimination, not laïcité.

France actually was in the same timezone as the UK before WWII and the German occupation. My grandma remembers switching to “German time”. Franco’s Spain similarly changed timezones in 1942 to match their German allies. So, yes, the change was made politically. :-) I’m guessing France is also responsible for Algeria and Morocco being in UTC+1, not sure if they’ve ever discussed changing zones.

Edit: I just checked and I was wrong about the Moroccan time zone. Algeria is in UTC+1 though (all year long, they don’t use DST), not sure why it’s in yellow on your map.

In France, normal time is UTC+1 (CET), and summer time is UTC+2 (CEST), when we actually belong in UTC+0 (and were, before being occupied by Germany). Permanently switching to the so-called “summer time” makes no sense if you’ve ever seen a map of time zones.

And by the way Spain is in the same situation. Spain, which is more western than Greenwich, is going to change time with us this night and we’re both going to spend six months in Egypt and Finland’s normal time zone. That is so wrong.

As far as I know, SEPA payments don’t go through networks like Visa and Mastercard (or CB), it’s a different system. Do you even need a card to pay by SEPA?

In France, there’s the CB network, but I don’t think it works internationally. I assumed there was a similar system in other countries, but maybe I was wrong. I’m not entirely sure how this all works, so please take this comment with a grain of salt, it’s very possible that many things are inaccurate.

My card, like most, has access to 2 payment networks: CB and Visa. (Both logos are printed on the card: see this example.) Most French physical cards have access to these two networks, CB and Visa — sometimes it’s CB andMastercard but I believe it’s less common ? — but I don’t think “virtual” cards (those on smartphones) can use CB.

When I pay online, I can typically choose between CB and Visa. When I pay on a physical terminal, in a shop, it’s also possible to choose in most cases: there’s a default setting chosen by the shop (most often CB because the fees are lower, I think), but if the shop terminal supports both of your card’s network, you can change it by clicking on the yellow button. The fees are different for the shopkeeper, but the price is the same for the consumer, so most people don’t pay attention to it and might not even realise there’s a difference.

I remember once paying in a shop (from a big American chain) where they only accepted Visa. I’m not sure how common that is, because I generally don’t bother checking, I only did it that time because I had just learned about the yellow button and was trying it in every store. :-) Apparently, during the 2024 Olympic Games, you could only pay by Visa in the Olympic venues because the Organising Committee had made an sponsoring agreement with them

As a non-native speaker, I’d say that your summary of the upsides and downsides matches my experience.

maybe there should be a new EU-standard fonetik version.

Or maybe it’s finally time for Shavian alphabet to shine!