So if you did go to one know, what would be your ideal nerd theme be, and what costume would you wear?

Hm...that's not too bad.

I would agree. The EU in it's current form is mostly a bloated bureaucratic institution - i really like the european idea but the current EU fails to achieve that...

The strike is a bit difficult to describe. There are two important union within the Deutsche Bahn and the smaller one the - the striking one - aims for labour agreement for all their members not just the train drivers. They also want equal payments for different types of train drivers...i think these are the basic points...i'm sorry it's difficult to explain...

Edit: That's odd. The union's website is currently offline....

Ugh... that's a tough one... I'm not much of a cosplayer, and frankly, the women always have the more awesome costume options. Also I don't like to wear heavy masks or helmets or thick make-up, so the more impressive outfits aren't for me... I liked the Doppler effect costume of Sheldon Cooper. Other than that I would probably go for some Ninja/assassin type, or a fantasy hunter/archer outfit. So my ideal theme would be something that supports this (some LARP convention maybe).

I said to Moon a little while ago, what the EU needs is flexible laws that take into account each nation, not blanket laws that are horrible for some, okay for other, and very profitable for a few. They can't treat every nation the same, that is why the EU is failing and so many nations want to leave. We also need to make the EU power neutral, not have Germany seemingly being the leader and manipulating it for her own gain (no offence). It should be shared power where all nations opinions are considered, not just a few nations (France & Germany seem to be the worst for this).

No need to be sorry, I think I understand. I was just curious, as often one of the biggest causes for a strike recently in the UK has been to do with pension schemes.

The media here are totally corrupt in this regard, one-sidedly bashing the striking people... Which is no wonder, since the media are owned by the same bunch of rich people who don't want to pay fair wages and create good working conditions for their employees.

Welcome to the wonderful world of capitalism. :-)

Agreed, and no offence taken by me. In fact, if you define Germany as "the people", they gain nothing... all that money and power goes to the hands of a few select, while the ever-growing low-wage sector is working it's ass off just to stay afloat. The "trickle down effect" worshipped by the neo-liberals is just not happening, on the contrary. Every year Germany "on the whole" gets richer, but at the same time the concentration of that wealth reaches new extremes too. The upper 2.5% own about 50% (!) of all wealth. The lower half (!) of the people have a bit more than 1%.

Time to bump the Conversational FFA Thread Song(s) of the Day!!! :D

(two songs instead of one, to make up for no song being chosen yesterday)

The jug goes to the well until it breaks. Mainstream media are losing customers - lot of them. They have overdone things in regard of the "Russia conflict", the BND/NSA scandal and the strike topic. Even most Germans aren't that dumb (although they still vote for "Mutti" Merkel *sigh*) and stupid propaganda can be an eye-opener...

Volker Pispers? ;)

When it comes to things like politics, I worry that people take things as a personal attack, and I would not want that, hence why I implied I meant no offence. I also understand that the average German is not doing too well at all, despite Germany manipulating the EU, as you said, it seems to be going into the pockets of a select few, rather than the people. I though that the German economy was predicted to slow down soon? That the industrial centre was slowing down due to other nations realising some of the underhanded methods the German government has been doing to ensure Germany remains strong in the EU (again, no offence intended). As for those percentages, I would think it is similar in nearly every country. That is the true colours of capitalism, the rich get richer and the poor stay poor, generally speaking.

No offense taken. The problem is that especially profits from the current situation like the crisis in the southern european states. The original idea to get the states to a similar level has been abandoned....
And i definitely agree the power in the EU should shared among all members.

Yeah exactly - iirc there no other european state where gap between rich and poor rises faster than in germany. But the government has the media on its side to keep the silent majority silent...

Among others... The "Mutti" meme is rather wide-spread, and an obvious choice, since she's being staged like that.

That's true. Just look at how many nations are starting to reject the EU and it's practices of helping the criminals and the rich and not the average person. I think that in 2017, the UK is due to vote on whether we stay in the EU or not. But rather than this vote be left to the politicians, the people will get to decide. Personally, while I see some good in the EU, for the UK at least we are better off without it. Perhaps if the EU treat the UK like an equal and not using us like a cash cow, then maybe it would be different, but as long as they continue to abuse us and force unacceptable laws on us, the UK people will want to leave.