SarahKB7 Koskinen

@Rolig LoonRussia, Canada and China are all larger (in area size) than the United States and all have national sales taxes. Using country size as an excuse to not have a national sales tax is just a poor excuse. @Drake1 Nightfire Please do not confuse Europe the continent with the European Union (EU), they are very different things. Despite having a flag and an anthem, the EU isn't a country, its only a political and economic organisation with 27 member countries within it. There are a total of 44 countries in the continent of Europe, with 27 of those in the EU and 17 not in the EU. As for population, there are a total of 750 million people in the continent of Europe, with 447 million of those living in EU countries and 303 million not. The US has a total population of 332 million. The area size of the total European continent is 3.931 million mi², with the EU taking 1.634 million mi² of that. The US area size s 3.79 million mi².

No company employee in England files their own taxes, its the duty of the company or employer to do so on behalf of the employee and pays that tax directly to our national tax collector (HMRC). Its a system we started in 1944. All the tax deductions are listed in the employees monthly pay cheque. It is possible here for an employee to work their entire lives and never need to fill in a single tax form or document. For self-employed people, they must calculate and complete their own taxes.

After a bit of reading up on it, what a ridiculously inconvenient and overcomplicated tax system the US has! I thought you were supposed to be the United States? You're more like a Loosely Aligned Federation of States... (LAFS!) Why can't you just have one single all encompassing nationwide Federal VAT sales tax level that ALL US citizens have to pay, without all the individual states, counties and cities being allowed to set their own local taxation levels? From all this hypothetical nationwide Federal VAT sales tax, your government could then allocate the necessary funding to all the individual states, counties or cities that actually need it? I was also surprised to learn that the US doesn't even have PAYE (Pay As You Earn) income tax for employees! PAYE is a system where all companies and employers automatically deduct all necessary national taxations and deductions from an employees monthly salary - without the employee ever needing to fill in or complete a tax return document.

Here in England, the displayed (real world) store price already includes the VAT as default, so there's no extra charge to pay at the point of transaction. All store reciepts have a VAT registration number printed on them, so the customer may claim back the VAT from HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs) should they need to for business tax reasons. I like our VAT system. We all pay in and we all get something back in return, such as our free access to doctors and hospitals with no medical bills. Ever.

Does this mean that displayed store prices will not actually be the same price Americans have to actually pay at the vendor?! 😜

SSPVCR = Super Secret Project Video Cassette Recorder. 😜

Undoubtably, that structure in Newbank is Newbrooke's public fighting arena....

At what altitude is the surface water at in those ponds and lakes? Standard 20m or not? And what will fill the separation void between Newbrooke and Chalet homes? Another water channel, hills, plains or left as a void?

Please don't change Gundyloo's name to Armitage Shanks.... 😜

One of the new regions (1084,1006) has had its name changed from Charade to Newbank.

Gardyloo is an archaic English warning shout given by a home occupant before they threw "dirty water" (chamber pot contents) out from an upstairs window down into the open street below. It comes from "regardez l'eau", or "look out for water!" Gardy = From the Anglo-Norman-French regardez = to look out, to watch out. Loo = from the Anglo-Norman-French l'eau = water Toilets are still commonly called loos in the UK today! Could the 22 homes in Gardyloo be provided with chamber pots please?! 😜

Ooh, nicely found! Yes, I see 49 too. But they're north-west of the Chalet's. So they're nowhere near Satori's west coastline. Grr. 😜 The two most northern are called Charade and Coin Toss. These two are placed up on the same latitude as Satori's Yeeowler region, but are 17/18 sims west of it, with the Chalets stuck in between.

😜

Hello all I thought I would share a photo of a very unique occasion in SL history.... This is a very historic and famous corner of Da Boom region, the oldest sim region and centrepoint of the Second Life grid. Today at precisely 8:46:40pm SLT, I created a brand new prim on top of the Oldest Known Prim - which was originally created at 8:46:40pm SLT on 25th January 2002. The 2 prims are exactly 20 years of age apart. I will call my newer prim the +20 Prim ! Top prim: +20 Prim. Lower prim: Oldest Known Prim. Location: Da Boom (0,0 corner). Date: 25th January 2022

I went back to Satori's east coast today and managed to sail south a further three sim regions from Ptesanwi through Afanasyev, Ninisinna and reached Ludjatako region. This was possible as the southeast corner parcel owner at Afanasyev has apparently cleared a small but navigable space through the corner which had ended my journey there last time (see quote above). But the voyage south now ends at the southern border of Ludjatako region, there is no further protected sea channel to navigate through.

There is no one single future. The present (and past) affects the direction and possibilities of many differing futures. The correct question should be "Which future are you afraid of?"

@Leora Jacobus Morla is already at SSPE2754 along with Artax, the white horse.

I did! Where'd you think I just took the photo from?

No, they're still around, they've been compressed into a tightly packed block. And I still think that the Fourth Day of Christmas region should have been called Colly Birds, not Calling Birds.... 😜

I'd actually like an alternative SL viewer for Standard English (aka British & Commonwealth English), so that it doesn't constantly irritate me with its hardwired US spellings of meter, color, harbor etc. Dark Blue = Commonwealth nations. Orange = Standard English, but not in Commonwealth. Light Blue = British Overseas Territories (within Commonwealth). Oh and L$ to become L£ too.... 😜

I've noticed this about Americans, that when they compare their country with others, it's always (and I do mean ALWAYS!) done by a very simplistic area size comparison. They judge other countries not by population, culture, history or economy, but only by physical country size. And if a country is found to be smaller than theirs, this somehow equates in their American psyche as something "inferior" and something to be ridiculed and joked about. It's a very strange mentality. So on this strange comparison scale, Russia, Canada and China are bigger countries than the US, so this then means those countries are not only larger, but also superior to the US too ?! I blame the consumer and advertisement culture that exists in the US, the people there have long been indoctrinated by their media and retail industries to believe that bigger = better. I also believe that their school system is to blame, their children's education regarding world geography and history is laughable and almost exclusively focused on their own country alone. And on terms of population, Americans only account for 4% of the world's total human population, with 96% living in other "inferior" countries. And barely any Americans even own a passport or have visited another country that does not border the US. The US even has amusement parks like DisneyWorld or Las Vegas that build often incorrect and outdated stereotypical "replicas" of countries or their landmarks for their people to experience other countries without even having to leave US soil, from which they also form strange opinions about real countries they may never visit.

Peeve: People who call the electrical charge stored in their electronic devices as "battery". "Oh no, I'm out of battery!", they cry when their electrical device has depleted its power. Did their device's battery physically fall out of the device and is now somehow absent? No! Most phones don't even have removable batteries any longer! You are merely out of electricity, electrical charge, or power. Not out of battery.

^ It would seem Fantasseria has some coastal erosion issues at SSPE2775....

If you had ever wondered, there's exactly 251 regions in Fantasseria, which includes the connecting sea region named Dannielles at the very top. And by remarkable coincidence, this is page 251!😜