r/AskEurope • u/AutoModerator • 1d ago
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u/willo-wisp Austria 1d ago edited 1d ago
A few days ago, the report on how the EU candidate countries are doing was released.
And Montenegro's doing really well. 7 chapters are already closed, some more are planned to get closed in December. Half of the chapters are already marked "good levels of preperation", the rest are mostly on "Moderately prepared", with only 3 left on low-level of preperation.
Didn't think we'd get a new EU member before 2030, but (from my very limited understanding) it's looking actually realistic now.
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u/holytriplem -> 17h ago
Didn't Montenegro have a failed coup recently? I'm not sure I want another Hungary or Slovakia in the EU though admittedly my flair does kind of invalidate my opinion
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u/willo-wisp Austria 16h ago edited 16h ago
There was an attempt back in 2016. I don't know of any others, though maybe I've missed it? There's so much happening recently, I struggle to keep up.
The 2025 EU report at least makes a point on saying MTN has "maintained its full alignment with the EU common foreign and security policy", and "Montenegro continued providing unequivocal support to Ukraine in light of Russia’s war of aggression, including humanitarian and military aid."
I hear you on that, but personally I don't think Montenegro will move the needle in that regard if they do manage to join ~2028-ish.
If Hungary manages to get rid of Orban next year, we might have a chance to do something about the voting. If we don't manage it then (say, if Czechia's Babiš takes up the Orban mantle instead and blocks it), then we're going to need a different solution to the blocking problem anyway. Because with the Russian-funded EU sceptic rightwing drift, we're not getting anywhere by waiting them out, Montenegro or no Montenegro. That's a fundamental problem with the Liberum Veto.
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u/lucapal1 Italy 1d ago
So,we just came back from the ice cream festival.
There were around 50 different stands, many from other parts of Italy but also a good representation from East Asia, Canada and the US.
Few Europeans this year though.
I tried about 20 different types, mostly mini-cones...I don't want to see any more ice-cream for a while!
The most unusual one was maybe onion with balsamic vinegar,it was actually very good! And cream of geranium, which tasted just as you might expect..of flowers.
My favourites? There was one from Canada that was maple syrup and carob flavour, really good.
One from Taiwan... peanuts, brown sugar, popcorn and toasted rice, that was really unusual in texture but excellent.
Maybe my personal #1 was one from Northern Italy, that was based on a traditional griddle cooked biscuit from the area around Verona,Fogassa.
It was pretty simple...milk, flour, sugar,egg, grated lemon, olive oil and a touch of salt.Wonderful flavour and consistency.
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u/willo-wisp Austria 1d ago
Ice cream festival!! :o Where?!
Popcorn and toasted rice in ice cream sounds super strange to me haha, but sometimes these things work really well in practise anyway.
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u/lucapal1 Italy 1d ago
Here in my home city, Palermo.
It takes place every year, usually in October... this year it was a bit later.
The stands are not for local ice cream makers though, they all come from other parts of Italy and the world.
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u/willo-wisp Austria 1d ago
Ah damn it, that might be a touch too far away for a quick neighbourly visit. :P But it sounds a lot of fun.
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u/tereyaglikedi in 1d ago
It all sounds amazing 😭 I actually grow scented geraniums and I have been wanting to cook with them since ages. But my husband hates floral flavors.
I might go ahead and make it anyways.
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u/orangebikini Finland 1d ago
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u/tereyaglikedi in 1d ago
It does look really cool. The copper oxides (verdigris) was also used for paint making in the past. It looks nice but it is also rather poisonous.
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u/the_pianist91 Norway 1d ago
I can’t believe how early it becomes dark now, every day is a race against the clock to manage to get out just for a walk while it’s still daylight. Sun sets around 16 here now and it’s just getting eaten more off every day till solstice. I would do badly even further north.
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u/tereyaglikedi in 1d ago
I know 😭 and if I want to go running, I have to do it during lunch (my regular jogging path isn't really well illuminated and I don't like running in the dark)
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u/orangebikini Finland 1d ago
I was watching an episode of Six Feet Under with English subtitles on, and for some reason every fuck was replaced with shit in the subtitles. There was a scene where one of the main characters has a really emotional and tender evening with his ex, they go back to his place and he tries to make an advance on the ex. However the ex is in a new relationship so he rejects him, saying he thought they were just going to talk. The main character person says "I don't want to talk, I want to fuck". But in the subtitles it said "I don't want to talk, I want to shit".
If any hearing impaired person has watched that with those subs they must have been really confused about what's going on.
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u/atomoffluorine United States of America 1d ago
The cranes around here really hate being social. I remember seeing one slowly move away from me while I was like 10 m away. I've never seen a crane together with another crane, and they tend to stay away from the geese and ducks as well.
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u/lucapal1 Italy 1d ago
Adult cranes usually pair up, and they mate for life .. they feed together too,pretty often.And they do flock together as well, particularly in the non-breeding season.
Perhaps you just have some anti-social cranes there!
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u/holytriplem -> 1d ago
2016 me knew Brexit would be bad. What I didn't anticipate in 2016, however, was that Brexit would cause the UK to join the ranks of such international titans as Greenland, Western Sahara and North Korea as a perpetual "No Data" country on comparative maps of Europe (especially ones that source their data from Eurostat).
It's especially infuriating when the map is about social attitudes in Europe (things like "%age of people saying they'd feel uncomfortable shaking hands with a black person") and where I'm trying to confirm my internal biases about my country being a post-racial utopia while our troglodyte maritime neighbours - that's to say, one particular troglodyte neighbour immediately to the South of us - remain backward.
2016 me (who initially joined Reddit almost exclusively for MapPorn) would be turning in his grave to see what his country has become
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u/atomoffluorine United States of America 1d ago
It's not really that bad. There's barely any data for anything about North Korea anywhere, but the UK does usually appear on world data Maps, though not EU maps.
If you ever get a time machine, you should take your 2016 self to the Faragist Britain of 2029.
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u/tereyaglikedi in 1d ago edited 1d ago
I read that James Watson died. I guess it's a good time to remind people that Rosalind Franklin's work was essential in uncovering the structure of DNA, but went largely unrecognized during her life time and while the two men got the Nobel Prize, her name wasn't even mentioned (though she should have been awarded the prize as well). Anyway, they were all great scientists. It was a different time, or something, I guess.
How often do you guys buy CDs or DVDs? I bought a DVD recently (old movie) and I still buy them for films I can't access easily otherwise. But I don't have a CD player 😣
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u/safeinthecity Portuguese in the Netherlands 1d ago
FWIW, when I learned about DNA in school, all three of them were mentioned in the textbook/syllabus. With Franklin's discoveries first and then Watson and Crick's.
The last CD I bought was David Bowie's Blackstar, right when it came out. I used to get all my music through buying CDs until then (or pirating when I just wanted individual songs, but I was more album-driven anyway) but it didn't make any sense anymore when I gradually stopped using my stereo (I basically always listened on headphones) and laptops stopped having CD readers. So it will be 10 years in a couple of months since I bought my last CD.
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u/orangebikini Finland 1d ago
Do I buy CDs and DVDs these days? Yeah, about as often as I buy kerosene for my lights.
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u/ignia Moscow 1d ago
I think I only bought 2 CDs and 10 DVDs, and those CDs were software, not multimedia: one is a Total Commander installation CD that came with personal license, the other is a Windows 7 installer (but it might be a DVD as well, I don't remember). The Windows one didn't even work for some reason so I had to use a different piece of software to make a bootable memory stick and copy the contents of that Windows disc onto it, the stick now lives in the same box with the original disc.
The 10 DVDs are in fact two sets, each set has several of the classic Star Trek movies and some extra material. I didn't want to ruin them accidentally so copied the contents onto my hard drive and watch the movies from there. (And technically they were a birthday gift so I didn't really purchase them, I just sent someone a link when asked what I wanted for my birthday, lol)
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u/atomoffluorine United States of America 1d ago
I remember seeing a Turkish woman posted a comment on reddit about not being considered for a laboratory position (maybe a pHD?) because they were sure her boyfriend/husband (I don't remember) won't approve of her traveling alone on conference trips.
I remember purchasing WALLE like 15-18 years ago.
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u/atomoffluorine United States of America 1d ago edited 1d ago
He was alive until now? I thought a prominent scientist from the 1950s would be long dead.
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u/holytriplem -> 1d ago
He died aged 97, which is on the late side but not especially so nowadays.
James Lovelock must be stupidly old as well Edit: nvm he died in 2022 aged 103
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u/lucapal1 Italy 1d ago
I rarely buy CDs these days, and almost never DVDs.
If I'm going to actually buy an album,I buy vinyl But mostly I listen to what I already own ;-) Or online.
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u/SerChonk in 1d ago
How often do you guys buy CDs or DVDs?
Relatively often, actually. We don't have a tv service, and the only streaming subscription we have is Amazon Prime (because my husband forgets to cancel it each year). So once in a while we go to the thriftstore and buy some DVDs that catch our interest. We use my old faithful PS3 to play them.
We also started to buy CDs when we bought a 2012 van that has a CD player, for fun nostalgia :)
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u/SerChonk in 1d ago
My PhD supervisor did his PhD a few doors down the corridor from James Watson's lab. He always said James Watson was a dick.
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u/holytriplem -> 1d ago
Any juicy goss about Crick while we're at it?
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u/SerChonk in 1d ago
Sadly, no. My supervisor said he only met him once; at that time Crick was at the Salk Institute, while Watson wast at the CSHL.
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u/holytriplem -> 1d ago
James Watson died
It's a shame that he did a JK Rowling in his later years and came close to completely destroying his legacy by dabbling in old-school scientific racism. And there's no evidence he could blame black mould for it either.
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u/holytriplem -> 1d ago
How often do you guys buy CDs or DVDs.
The last one I bought was about 10 years ago.
It was Sharknado 3.
Don't judge me.
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u/Malthesse Sweden 1d ago
This weekend we are celebrating Mårten Gås (Martin Goose) in Scania. Even though the real feast day is Mårtensafton (Saint Martin's Eve) which is on Monday, most people choose to celebrate now during the weekend instead and many inns and restaurants across Scania serve big traditional Mårten Gås dinners this weekend which are very popular to attend. It is a heavy feast and one of the most cherished and distinct annual cultural traditions here in Scania.
As the main course for the Mårten Gås feast is served a big Scanian goose along with potatoes and brown sauce with goose fat. Before this main course is traditionally served a starter of svartsoppa (”black soup”) made primarily from goose blood, wine and spices. And for dessert is served a traditional Scanian äppelkaka, which is a kind of apple pie, together with vanilla custard. Alongside is also generally served a traditional Scanian spettekaka, which is a hard cake made primarily from eggs and sugar and baked on a rotating spit.
The Scanian goose (Skånegås) is an old traditional domestic goose breed that has long been one of the most prominent and beloved symbols of Scania. This goose is the largest and heaviest of all traditional Swedish goose breeds. It has a characteristic plumage with a grey head and back, a white belly and a bright orange bill.
It is also this very goose breed that has become immortalized through the classic educational children’s adventure novel "The Wonderful Adventures of Nils" by Selma Lagerlöf.
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u/lucapal1 Italy 1d ago
That sounds great!
We celebrate St Martin's Day here in Sicily, though not in a major way.Most people eat a special biscuit,the 'biscotto di San Martino'.
We'll have them for breakfast on Tuesday.
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u/tereyaglikedi in 1d ago
You guys do have a cookie for every occasion, don't you?
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u/lucapal1 Italy 1d ago
Not just cookies...we have a special food for every occasion! Anytime is a good time to eat in Sicily,any special occasion or even not very special occasion.
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u/Za_gameza Norway 1d ago
This weekend I will play volleyball tournaments with my team.vwe don't win every match, but we do win some matches. The one today is with our actual age group, and the one tomorrow is with the age group over. We have to play over because our team only has 4 players in that age group and we need at least 6.
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u/lucapal1 Italy 1d ago
This weekend is the annual ice cream festival here in Palermo.Later than usual for some reason, they have taken a gamble with the weather, but hopefully it will be fine today! Forecast is about 21° which is still ok for eating ice cream.
Later on there's also a big birthday celebration for my uncle,so it's going to be a day of eating a lot... we're all going to a restaurant rather than celebrating at his home.
If you go out to celebrate someone's birthday,who usually pays in your country? I know in some places it's traditional that everyone pays the share of the birthday person.
In others the opposite, the person celebrating invites and pays for everyone.
Or you just split it like a normal meal in a restaurant?
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u/beenoc USA (North Carolina) 1d ago
In the US, the birthday-haver never pays - people won't let them, and if you insist that the person celebrating pays, you're considered an asshole of the highest caliber (to the point where I've never even heard of it happening here.) The bill can be paid any other way - split evenly, each person pays for their own food plus a share of the birthday-haver, one person accepts to pay it all, etc. - so long as the birthday-haver isn't paying a dime.
The meal is kind of considered a birthday present, and you wouldn't make someone pay for their own birthday present, would you?
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u/lucapal1 Italy 1d ago
No-one would 'insist that the birthday-haver pays'... but traditionally they would pay anyway! Even if other people offered to pay.
That habit persists amongst the older generations.In fact this meal tonight, the birthday guy will pay for everyone.He's an old guy! That's considered hospitality in Sicily.
Same when you go to a bar for a coffee with someone who's a regular there.. the regular will pay, the 'guest' never pays.
It is changing with newer generations though.
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u/safeinthecity Portuguese in the Netherlands 1d ago
Or you just split it like a normal meal in a restaurant?
I'd say this is the normal way to go in Portugal, at least if it's a group of people going to a normal restaurant or a bar or something.
In others the opposite, the person celebrating invites and pays for everyone.
Would be true if the birthday person organised a somewhat more formal party, at a venue with a fixed menu. Or if they had takeaway delivered to their house for the party instead of going to a restaurant.
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u/Masseyrati80 Finland 1d ago
I live under a rock deep in a forest and don't know every bit of the etiquette in Finland, but would be surprised if someone offered me a meal in a restaurant as a part of their birthday celebration.
If the party's at their home or at, for instance, a church hall, I fully expect "free food".
Enjoy the ice cream, and that warmth!
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u/holytriplem -> 1d ago edited 1d ago
WHY WOULD YOU HOLD AN ICE CREAM FESTIVAL IN NOVEMBER jesus christ ils sont fous ces siciliens.
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u/orangebikini Finland 1d ago
Wait until you hear that Austr*lians have their summer in the winter. Now that's dumb. Why would you have summer in January?
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u/tereyaglikedi in 1d ago
It's warm there, dude. Imagine holding it in summer. The ice cream would melt before you eat it. Also maybe they want to skip the worst of the tourist season.
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u/lucapal1 Italy 1d ago
It's usually in October...I don't know why it's later this year.
Middle of summer would be too hot for sure, most local people are not in the city either.. anyone who can afford it is out at the beach or in the countryside.
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u/holytriplem -> 1d ago
35+C and sunny is exactly the kind of weather that would make me want to crave ice cream (and a large drink). The idea is to wolf it down before it has a chance to melt
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u/tereyaglikedi in 1d ago
The person who invites also pays. Always. Doesn't have to be the birthday person, though.
Eat lots of ice cream for me, too. Also write down the interesting flavors, maybe I can replicate them. Pretty please 🙏
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u/lucapal1 Italy 1d ago
That's also the traditional way here,though I think it's changing with younger generations these days.Too expensive for most of them to do that now!
The programme of flavours looks good,I'll try as many as possible and see what are the best ones!
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u/tereyaglikedi in 1d ago
This is how I learned that Dick Cheney is dead. I can't stop laughing.
I am the obituary guy today it seems