The pies are spheroid?

Typically circular, but there are some regional variations.

There is a whole Wikipedia article about mooncakes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mooncake

That sounds a bit like a fatal infinite loop scenario…

I still see a bunch of possible additional steps before the mandatory “Does it run Doom?” finally deep down at the bottom…

Sounds dope, and is probably what most are doing.

And regarding the “mockery” and atheists/christians/insert_believe_system_here:
Christmas has imo become mainly a secular event by now, and also somehow heavily mocks itself already, so whatever…

The sub headline is kinda important here:

Seoul wants to direct use of homegrown AI chatbots to reduce reliance on U.S. or Chinese options, footing the bill and offering unlimited tokens

Also, it only seems to be access to special purpose chatbots, not e.g. unlimited API access for use with your own tools.

Not quite, but just exchange LOTR with “Die Hard” and you are there!

Do you have any Christmas-equivalent in your life?

I guess most cultures do have at least some cozy family gathering event.

I am especially fond of the idea of the Chinese moon festival, love the idea of coming together, eating moon shaped pies and admiring the moon together! :-)

Well, not completely alone, 2 or three of my friends also stayed far from home, so not sure if this counts?

And it was in Munich while living only a few blocks from the Winter Tollwood Festival, which is one of the most interesting “Christmas Markets” (quotes are on purpose…) in Germany which also didn’t have its closing day on Christmas Eve already, but stayed open until Three Kings Day.

So, during daytime I was working in a relaxed way basically alone in the office, while during the evenings I was at a slightly crazy place eating exotic food and listening to strange, but top notch live bands.

I had a great time, did this twice or so!

Caveat:
I think that only worked because I am one of the lucky guys who have a stable family bond and also know that.
Gives you the safety to try stuff without fearing some none-recoverable loss.

Well, this is definitely not the complete negation of no thing that under no circumstances might not work out as not unexpectedly wrong.

What do Americans gain by changing the name of Lake Ontario?

International ridicule.

The bike with which I had problems at my workplace had an aluminium frame.
The one at the blockaded turning lane already was my new steel bike, though.

But I guess the amount of ferromagnetic metal does make a difference nonetheless.

Here in Germany the induction loops are paved over with regular asphalt, so without a sign reminding them of their presence, you won’t notice them.

For this to consider, you have to know there is a induction loop present in the first place.
While many have a sign beside them, others don’t (e.g. the one of my tale).
Had another unmarked one activating the moving entrance barrier at my former workplace.
First time standing there I got really irritated, as I didn’t find a way to open the barrier for me, until realizing the thing with the induction loop. After that, laying my bike down for a second became my every-morning-ritual before work ;-)

What really annoys me is when there’s an induction loop for cars

Those only annoy me when on a bike, as they often are not sensitive enough to realize you are there.
This led to many annoying and one somewhat funny situation:

I was first in line at a at a the time busy turn lane with hidden induction loop, and inadvertently bringing the traffic in the district to a grinding halt as the cars behind me started rapidly pilling up, even blocking the previous intersection.

After 5 or 6 minutes fruitless waiting things started working again when I finally decided to convert to bicycle-pushing pedestrian mode to cross the intersection on foot instead, and the car behind me moving up then activated the induction loop that I didn’t knew about until then…

Maybe they are really not active, in which case you might just be happy about it.
Thing is, in practically all cases I know of, the buttons having an actual function worsens the situation for pedestrians.
They don’t give you an advantage if you press them compared to the regular cycle, but give you substantial disadvantages for not pressing (being not even considered, pedestrian light just stays red forever…)

That’s the reason why they are commonly called Bettelampeln (“begging lights”) here in Germany, as you have to basically beg to even be considered as traffic participant sometime during the next cycle.

It might depend on the time of day.
Many of this begging-buttons are only active during times of low pedestrian frequency where I live, during other times the lights just turn green each time during the overall traffic light cycle.
Might also depend on other factors, the traffic lights are individually programmed to fit the specific needs at each location.

Funnily, all uses of “America” for the whole continent (including the north) are misinterpretations of the original map drawn by Mr Waldseemüller, who invented the name “America” in the first and used it for Brazil.

On the same map some designation for the northern part of the continent can also be found, stating that it was a province discovered by the command of the king of Castille:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Waldseemuller_map_2.jpg

So, the only logical step will be to name North-America as “New Castille” from now on, to correct for the screw-up of the post-Waldseemüller map-reading-noobs.

Did Afghanistan create the first trebuchet that could throw a plane to a distance of 12000 km (7500 miles)?

I think they didn’t even have to.

Given the fact that the world leading lizard people are living inside of the hollow earth, they just had to drop the plane from there and hit the WTC from below!

They say it was caused by “planes”, which are supposed to be building sized machines made out of metal flying high in the air.

Metal. You heard me right.

Now go outside and lift your car and then tell me a car the size of a building could just fly high in the air and hit the top of a skyscraper.

Pure madness!

Thanks, I guess I should have explained it a bit more early in my original comment.

But I sometimes forget that the the more detailed knowledge about the Nazi rise to power and the Holocaust is naturally not as common outside of Germany (where it is e.g. an extensive part of school curriculums).

Partially inaccurate truths might as well be lies

I would even say they are often worse than lies, as spiked with some surrounding facts, the lies at the core can hide themselves. They then appear plausible, and if done right even more convincing (or at least, alluring) than the hard and inconvenient truth.