u/C0smicM0nkey

HD Version here

I've spent the last few months working on this in a gargantuan spreadsheet. (Almost) all data has been updated to 2026 numbers, and the data has been aggregated from over a dozen different sources.

Assumptions:
-Solo Traveler staying in Hostel Dorms (When possible. In countries with no hostels, I used the average price for a two-star hotel room instead.)
-Exchange rates are based on the average over the last 12 months, not necessarily as it currently stands in August of 2026. Countries with unstable currencies might see their numbers fluctuate quite a bit month-to-month. Using the average exchange rate is a way to partially counteract this, but it's still a thing that can't fully be predicted or adjusted for
- Costs for each country are based on a weighted average of the most popular cities/towns among backpackers (For example, Portugal's cost of travel is about €6/day higher due to the Algarve being weighted as 20% of Portugal's total.) In general, I used the the Top 5 or 6 most popular destinations, but for smaller countries (like the Caribbean islands), it may have been only 1 or 2, and for large countries like the United States it may have been closer to 8 or 9.

What is included:
-Accommodation (See above)
-Food and Drink (Streetfood or Fastfood only, no sit-down restaurants. In most cases this calculated as the cost of a cheap breakfast, cheap lunch, cheap dinner, a cup of coffee plus misc. snacks.)
-Local Public Transportation
-Attractions (Museum entrance tickets, park fees etc.)
-Cellular Data
-Visa Fees, but only if the fee is charged daily.
-Sales Tax/VAT (when applicable)

Not Included:

-Long Distance Travel (Domestic Flights, Intercity buses etc.)
-Visa Fees (If charged one-time on entry)
-Travel Insurance
-Other Miscellaneous Expenses

I also didn't include either North Korea or Turkmenistan since both countries require all tourists from US/EU/CANZUK to visit the country as part of an organized tour, so backpacking isn't really possible (and the tours cost at least €130-€140 per day anyways)

I don’t know exactly what number they have to hit to the break the record. The highest official number I could find online was 12,500 at Bianca del Rio’s 2019 show at Wembley. I think CMF has an official capacity of 14-15k so it does sound feasible.

Disclaimer: This isn't a wishlist, just my best attempt to predict what Nintendo is likely going to do.

In 2028, for the 10th anniversary of SSBU, Nintendo will follow the format that they've used for Mario Wonder and Mario Party Jamboree and release a Switch 2 Edition alongside new content. The Upgrade Pack will be sold for $20 USD, or the entire game for $80. (DLC not included, although all DLC you've already purchased can still be used in the Switch 2 Edition)

Upgrades/Updates:

• Visual/Performance upgrade on Switch 2 (native 4k/60fps docked)
• Balance Update for all characters (also on Switch 1 edition)
• GameChat/camera integration for lobbies/spectators (not gameplay)
• Improved Online Matchmaking (we can hope). Cross-platform play between Switch 1 and 2.
• GameShare on Switch 2 (limited to local wireless matches only, probably limited to a maximum of 4 players)

New Content:

- Smash Coliseum:

The main new content of the Switch 2 edition. Essentially, a completely revamped online mode. Switch 2 exclusive. (although the existing online mode will still be available)

• Built-in brackets for online tournaments: 8-player, 16-player, maybe 24 and 32-player.
• Built-in Tournament Rulesets. (Includes pre-set rulesets for things like picks/counter-picks etc.)
• Official Crew Battle mode with stock carryover.
• Official Ironman mode where each fighter can only be used once.
• Official Character Lock mode (once you win a match with a character you cannot use them for the rest of the bracket)
• Expanded Squad Strike mode
  • Online Squad Strike available.
  • 8v8 Squad Strike added
  • Random Strike, where both players are given random characters
  • Draft Strike, where players take turns drafting their squads.
• Better spectator tools, so friends can watch matches without the current arena jank.
• Replay sharing hub
• A new online ranking ladder and progression system that's separate from regular online play, includes player profile cards and online achievements/badges/stickers (whatever Nintendo ends up calling them).
• Coliseum Dojo - An improved Training Mode with better frame data display, save states, CPU recordings & DI/tech practice.
• Rotating events with fun rulesets, like “heavies only,” “classic stages,” “no swords,” etc.

- 4-8 New Stages:

• Not sure exactly what they would be, but these are my guesses, in general order of likelihood:
  • Great Sky Island (Tears of the Kingdom)
  • Mario Kart World Circuit (travelling stage that goes to various locations in Mario Kart World)
  • Waddle Dee Town (Kirby and the Forgotten Land)
  • Ingot Isle (DK Bananza)
  • Flower Kingdom (Super Mario Wonder)
  • Planet Viewros (Metroid Prime 4)
  • Spire of Order (Splatoon 3: Side Order)
  • Area Zero (Pokemon Scarlet/Violet)

- 50-100 New Music Tracks

- 2 New Fighters (1 Unique + 1 Echo)

• Unique Fighter: Bandana Dee (This is, of course, assuming Sakurai is involved).
• Echo Fighter: Octoling

- 6-8 New Mii Outfits (free)

• My guesses: TotK Link, ToTK Zelda, Splatoon Raiders gear, Pokemon Scarlet/Violet trainer outfit, Xenoblade 3 Noah outfit, MP4 helmet/armour, Mario Wonder Poplin costume.

- Another 10-15 New Mii Outfits available for purchase as DLC

• Probably released slowly in 3 or 4 mini-waves over the course of several months.

Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Iceland are all already boycotted the 2026 event due to Israel’s participation, and it’s believed that Belgium and possibly more countries might join the boycott next year.

Since the NDP has been the party most vocally critical of Israel, do you think they should advocate for Canada to boycott the event as well? Do you think they will?

I GTA-ized the entire U.S., including every urban area over 450,000 people. In a few cases, I combined nearby smaller urban areas into one fictional metro area (eg. Hartford,CT & Springfield, MA)

I also created fictional in-game states based on what I think Rockstar would plausibly do: not necessarily one-to-one state equivalents, but wider satirical regions that feel like they could exist in the GTA universe, like how San Andreas parodies both California and Nevada.

Some of the city and state names are ones I think are pretty clever and plausibly Rockstar-esque; others are more tentative and could probably be improved.

Which names do you like the best? the least? Feedback and better name suggestions are welcome.

(Also if you need me to explain a name, please comment below)

Electoral System:

Party List Proportional Representation. Each region has it's own list, apportioned by degressive proportionality:

Eastern - 33 Seats
Central - 19 Seats
Bonobos - 10 Seats
Western - 10 Seats
Nigeria/Cameroon - 3 Seats

Parties:

• Dominant Male Coalition - Led by established alpha and beta males who argue that hierarchy, order, patrol discipline, and experienced leadership keep communities safe.
• Canopy Commons Party - A broad food-sharing and forest-welfare party focused on reducing violence and protecting common feeding grounds.
• Matriarchal Alliance - A bonobo-led and female-coalition party built around social peace, mediation, anti-infanticide politics, and coalition power.
• Nutcracker Progressives - A western chimp–rooted party of tool use, technological innovation, and practical forest education.
• Forest Sovereignty Front - A hardline habitat-protection party focused on defending ape territory from humans, logging, fragmentation, and rival encroachment.
• Eastern Autonomy League - A regionalist eastern chimp party from the Rift Valley/Great Lakes region that wants more power for local tribes & communities rather than domination by pan-chimp central institutions.
• Young Males’ Movement - A populist breakaway from the DMC, formed by lower-ranking and ambitious young males who think the older males are unfairly hoarding all the status, rank, and hunting opportunities.
• Cross-River Survival Party - A small minority-rights party focused on survival corridors, habitat protection, and guaranteed representation for Nigeria-Cameroon chimps.

(Image unrelated)

I'm curious, of all the animals which have gone extinct during since the dawn of modern humans (c. 150-200k years ago), which do y'all think would be the likeliest to have eventually been domesticated if it had survived until the 21st century, and how might history be different if it happened?

I'm specifically asking about domestication, ie. significant physical and behavioural changes as the result of generations of selective breeding (like horses or dogs), and not just trained or tamed (like elephants or ostriches)

Some of my thoughts:

• Dodo: Could be a good meat-source like turkey? Large, docile, flightless, easy to contain. Also applies to its slightly smaller cousin: the Rodrigues solitaire.
• Quagga: Reportedly more docile than zebras, maybe could be a farm animal in hot desert climates? Given how many generations true domestication takes, it probably wouldn't have been fully domesticated by 2026, but Quagga/Horse (Quorse) or Quagga/Donkey (Quonkey) hybrids could be popular?
• Paleolama/Camelops/Any extinct North American Camelid: Seems pretty plausible, actually. How would the Plains First Nations be different if they had camels as pack animals?
• Passenger Pigeon: Would these be like domestic pigeons? Despite the physical similarity, they're actually a completely different genus than domestic pigeons, so maybe not?
• Wooly Mammoths: Probably would be harder to train than elephants, but I can definitely see it being used as a work animal (definitely not domesticated, however).

This was fun, I tried my best to realistically predict not only the hosting countries, but also the winner and runner-up in each year. I kept every year that falls on an actual World Cup (1930, 1950, 1970, and 2010) the same as OTL, since I'm not sure how much different they would actually be. (although I did change the host for the upcoming 2030 Cup to a joint Colombia/Ecuador/Peru bid, since in this timeline Spain & Portugal hosted the covid-affected 2021 Cup.)

Generally I don't think the way FIFA runs the tournaments or selects bids would be too different in this timeline: rotating continents, an attempt around the turn of the millennium to expand into non-traditional markets like Africa and Asia, and an expansion to 48 teams for 2025 (now the 100th anniversary).

Interestingly, even though there's 3 fewer Cups in total compared to OTL (19 vs. 22) , there's actually more countries in total that have been represented in the final.

Apologies if someone has done this already, but I figured it was time for a new Marble League award: the Beryllium Cube, awarded to the team the receives the fewest Lead Cube points in a Marble League season. It's interesting to see how a small number teams tend to do really well in this category, and also how different the results can be compared to the overall standings.

Note: Yes, I know that technically a Magnesium cube would be lighter than a Beryllium cube, but Beryllium has a lower atomic mass, and it just sounds fancier and more prestigious.

Note #2: Gliding Glaciers..... How????

What problems does it solve? I don't know. Is it better than the current system in any way? Probably not, but it's fun to think about. My best attempt to create a borough-system for Calgary, while also still trying to account for future growth. Population figures are based on 2021 census data.

(If it's not clear, Chestermere is not a borough but I figured it should be included for reference anyways)

As requested, this is a follow-up to my previous post about the Mediterranean Bronze Age. Second image is the same as the first, just with different colours, so it's hopefully easier for colour-blind folks to read.

Known = regions that one of the included Bronze Age civilizations had direct, repeated, practical contact with through settlement, conquest, diplomacy, warfare, trade, tribute, colonies, or named political relations.

Semi-Known = regions known indirectly, partially, or vaguely through trade chains, prestige goods, frontier peoples, sailors’ reports, caravan routes, myth-geography, or distant source-land awareness.

This my best attempt to map the the combined geographic knowledge of the Egyptians, Nubians, Mesopotamians, Elamites, Hittites, Minoans and Myceneans, c. 1200 BC.

Known = regions that one of the included Bronze Age civilizations had direct, repeated, practical contact with through settlement, conquest, diplomacy, warfare, trade, tribute, colonies, or named political relations.

Semi-Known = regions known indirectly, partially, or vaguely through trade chains, prestige goods, frontier peoples, sailors’ reports, caravan routes, myth-geography, or distant source-land awareness.

(Obviously this only focuses on the Mediterranean Bronze Age civilizations. Bronze Age China's known world would be very different.)