Merry Christmas!

The clock has just ticked over to midnight here¹. It’s the 25th now.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

メリークリスマス！

Joyeux Noël!

Feliz Navidad!

Nedeleg laouen!

Add your own language greetings…

¹ France

Vesel Božič!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Ich wünsche allen ein gesegnetes Weihnachtsfest.

I’ll chip in with two languages:

Gleðileg jólin!

God jul!

Crặciun Fericit (Romanian)

Well Merry Christmas all.

Note: Andrew blew the record on the forums managing a full 12 hours with no posting – only had a few more minutes.¹

I guess his toys weren’t as good :) Or not built yet?

¹ I noticed the quiet a little while back in a pause in the tidy and meal prep.
The family gathering is actually tomorrow on Boxing Day

blew the record on the forums managing a full 12 hours with no posting – only had a few more minutes

Maybe we were all out last night trying to spot the ISS?

It passed directly over here…

…in the only hour all night that had cloud cover. Bleedin’ typical!

Maybe we were all out last night trying to spot the ISS?

17:22 local/GMT/UTC¹ That was during the drinks and nibbles round the corner

It passed directly over here…

Directly? I thought it was 45 degrees (locally) so not much better in France.²

…in the only hour all night that had cloud cover. Bleedin’ typical!

Clear skies. Big debate over whether it was ISS³ or Santa :) But that might have been the drinks.

¹ UTC is essentially GMT but the French are OK about it.

² Why aren’t France in GMT/UTC and Eire in UTC -1 ? The zone map shows 90% of France in Z. OK rhetorical, the French would never want to be aligned with the English :)
³ ISS to me means the company that do cleaning, portering and car parks. The latter at exorbitant rates while complaining the hospital doesn’t let them make enough and asking for payment to keep the prices “low”

Edit: Actually, looking carefully, the 90% should probably be 99% plus

Andrew blew the record on the forums managing a full 12 hours with no posting – only had a few more minutes.

Oops sorry guys! :)

Directly? I thought it was 45 degrees (locally) so not much better in France.

It doesn’t orbit the equator. The track on Channel4’s website (the NASA one was “not responding”, great job guys!) showed the path went pretty much directly overhead. The next sweep, 90 minutes later, was maybe 400 miles or so west so will have crossed land over Portugal or Western Spain (it is sort of not-quite-diagonal) and might just have been visible. The pass afterwards (clear skies), it would have come around mid-Atlantic.

Why aren’t France in GMT/UTC and Eire in UTC -1 ? The zone map shows 90% of France in Z. OK rhetorical, the French would never want to be aligned with the English :)

Perhaps they consider being on the same timezone as a large part of mainland Europe to be beneficial? Certainly the sky goes dark in midwinter a little after half five. I couldn’t handle the idea of it getting dark around half four. I’m so glad I’ve left that behind…
Besides, do you really think any part of Europe is going to willingly agree to “that place Nigel is from”? ;-)

I couldn’t handle the idea of it getting dark around half four.

More like half three up here in Edinburgh, or with the weather recently half two!

Ich wünsche allen ein gesegnetes Weihnachtsfest.

Steffen: A mega-powerful witch in Madoka Magica has no real name (that has been identified), the other characters refer to her/it as “Walpurgisnacht”. I can figure out “nacht” is night. What is “Walpurgis”? Is it connected to witches? Faust/folklore?

Walpurgisnacht

My sister’s birthday (30th April)¹
Also Feast day for St. Walpurga – an abbess or something back in the 8th century.² Bound to be a wikipedia item.

¹ If I’ve got my dates right

² Amazingly, I recall my sisters birthday better than the history bit, or even my own – yes nearly missed it one year

Vrolijk kerstfeest

From the Netherlands

Wiki to the rescue: “Walpurgis Night is the English translation of Walpurgisnacht, the German name for the night of 30 April, so called because it is the eve of the feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess in Germany. In German folklore Walpurgisnacht is believed to be the night of a witches’ meeting on the Brocken, the highest peak in the Harz Mountains, a range of wooded hills in central Germany between the rivers Weser and Elbe”.

(it then talks about Satanism, but that’s America so can be ignored¹)

Looks like one or more of the Madoka writers did their homework regarding old European legends; though I wonder if they probably only used it because “it’s cool to have stuff in random European languages”? German crops up a fair bit, and two of this season’s series are subtitled in French for no reason other than “because”. ;-)

¹ Most of their religion is a corruption of what it was originally, so…

that’s America so can be ignored

Latest laugh? Obama with the comment about another country trying to apply their legislation/values on the USA.

No? So it isn’t a two way street then?
Thankfully Eire feel happy about smacking them down

So it isn’t a two way street then?

Wait… Was it ever?

Thankfully Eire feel happy about smacking them down

Damn right. US law applies in the US. The end.

Somebody might want to show Obama a map of Europe and point to Ireland and say “here’s a place we haven’t invaded yet”.

Wait… Was it ever?

Irony:- doesn’t always involve removing creases from clothes :)

Nice trees.

I’m a little late, but Merry Christmas/Meri Kirihimete everyone :)

Damn right. US law applies in the US. The end.

Well as of next week the EU are trying to impose laws on all businesses world wide with the VAT on Digital downloads to EU customers:-/

Well as of next week the EU are trying to impose laws on all businesses world wide with the VAT on Digital downloads to EU customers:-/

Following Steve Fryatt’s input – check the element regarding VAT registration. i.e. it doesn’t apply if you aren’t VAT registered and you don’t need to be unless your turnover is over 80k

it doesn’t apply if you aren’t VAT registered and you don’t need to be unless your turnover is over 80k

Source? The impression that I get is that this applies if you trade only with the UK. The moment you trade with the rest of the EU, and with no lower boundary, you are obligated to register with MOSS (and as a side effect you loss UK VAT exemption and this must register that as well). Even if you make two £10 sales in a year (one locally and one to Belgium).

I’d love to be proved wrong as this is really stupid, but…
https://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/5/topics/3001#posts-37878

Source?

cough:

https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=vat+registration+threshold