BruceVC

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/programs/geoeconomics-center/dollar-dominance-monitor/ Fascinating new study on the dollar dominance and the success and failures of the whole de-dollarization initiative Some people may dismiss Atlantic council as " Western\US" propaganda but the article gets it data around metrics like foreign reserves from the IMF which is the global institution that currency think tanks and analysts use This article really provides some relevant data from all sides of this evolving reality but if its TLDR then this link is a summary of the article that is based on the Atlantic link https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/us-dollars-dominance-secure-brics-see-no-progress-de-dollarization-report-2024-06-25/#:~:text=Dollar dominance — the outsized role,into other international and reserve Particularly pertinent "It noted that China has actively supported renminbi liquidity through swap lines with its trade partners, but the share of renminbi in global foreign currency reserves dropped to 2.3% from the peak of 2.8% in 2022. "This is possibly because of reserve managers’ concern about China’s economy, Beijing’s position on the Russia-Ukraine war, and a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan contributing to the perception of the renminbi as a geopolitically risky reserve currency," the report said."

Gorthfuscious do you still play GW2?

Trump could win, no one knows for sure And this article is nothing official and its more a suggestion but it puts pressure on both Ukraine and Russia to end the war if Trump decides to do it Putins demands have been very unreasonable so this might put pressure on him to really get to the negotiation table, Im not sure how Putin will respond to this type of threat " We tell the Ukrainians, 'You've got to come to the table, and if you don't come to the table, support from the United States will dry up,'" he said. "And you tell Putin, 'He's got to come to the table and if you don't come to the table, then we'll give Ukrainians everything they need to kill you in the field."

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/julian-assange-reached-plea-deal-us-allowing-go-free-rcna158695 Assange is a free man, interesting that the US government that " was going to kill him if he ended up being extradited " has cut a deal with him Disappointing outcome but it is what it is

I am watching S2 of House of the Dragon and as predicted its good but after watching S1 I read the book Fire and Blood which is what the TV series is based on And books are always superior than what you can create on the screen. I doubt the TV series will follow the book completely but already I can see some similarities like how the rat catcher and gold cloak killed the prince so the TV series will probably follow the book around who dies and who lives and how they die Anyway, it means the excitement of not knowing is ruined for me but I will continue to watch the series because certain things are unique

I was about to post this, it looks excellent and its " day 1 " watch for sure Vampire movies need to be dark and terrifying. I dont like this recent interpretation of Vampires where they go around helping people and saving cats in trees This is exactly the type of Vampire theme I want to see and its based on the Dracula classic book

Absolutely, Duck l'Orange and similar dishes are delicious I always love to find how certain ingredients compliment a main meal like orange and duck But you must have lots of excellent Chinese restaurants where you live in Oz? I assume you have tried Peking Duck ?

https://en.thebell.io/the-hidden-reasons-behind-russias-mega-tax-rises/ Yes I see that, another consequence of Western sanctions on the Russian economy and the cost of the war The tax changes reflect a wholesale change in Russia’s philosophy when it comes to fiscal policy, said Buklemishev. For the last 20 years, the financial orthodoxy and core ideology was that Russia saved in the good years and then spent what it accumulated during rainy days or on grand investment projects. But this approach no longer holds up, because it is impossible to rely on being able to quickly raise funds to cover shortfalls without access to the Western financial market and convertible currencies. That means Russia can only fund planned new expenses by raising taxes. Buklemishev is skeptical of whether the Chinese yuan, which has become a vital part of the Russian financial system since the invasion of Ukraine, can fill the gap. “First, this is not a convertible currency. Second, it's hard work placing yuan in liquid instruments that generate normal returns. Third, we don’t know what will happen with the yuan as a currency over any longer-term perspective, because it is managed slightly differently from any other currency in which we have invested,” he said.

What? You have never eaten famous duck dishes like Peking Duck? Please do me a favour, take your wife out this weekend to a local Chinese restaurant and order Peking Duck to share. Its a great experience with pancakes and hoisin sauce and you make your own little pancake meals. Its a fantastic social meal like a Cheese Fondue Here are 5 restaurants in Chicago that serve Peking Duck (hopefully they still open ) https://stevedolinsky.com/top-5-peking-ducks-in-chicago

https://www.thedailybeast.com/kremlin-tv-drops-new-tucker-carlson-show I found this hilarious, only in Russia would you find the state controlled propaganda machinery creating a " Tucker Carlon show " without Carlson being part of it "It’s all fake obviously, like most stories in American news media. Of course I have no partnership with Russia. The first I'd heard anything about this was (this) morning,” he said. The CEO of Tucker Carlson Network, Neil Patel, said no deals had been done with Russia. "

What about NWN2? Didnt you enjoy that

Wow, that looks excellent. Definitely very interested

Sorry Zora but no ones ever heard of Diego Garcia, I always thought it was someone's name but I looked it up and it is real. Its an island @Gorth do you agree if we have never heard of a development then it cant be counted in the list

Absolutely, Cyb2077 is another example that games can survive terrible launches It just takes commitment from the development studio and mods can also address certain problems

But what other countries or examples would that apply to because Im missing the point you making?

I like to read posts like this because it confirms what I was hoping and expecting for Starfield The game had its predicated but still disappointing bad launch but now official updates and mods will change that initial bad experience and Starfield will start becoming a much better game I wont touch it for another 24 months

Wormie !!! No need for racism, this is a forum of tolerance and acceptance But there is a legitimate debate around playing the vanilla game first to understand " what was intended " and I agree with that sentiment But that typically doesn't apply to Bethesda games for several reasons or rather why I mod there games to change . And this includes the following HD textures and graphic mods dont change the narrative or mechanics except for improving on something that didnt exist at the time of development. So they become " must have mods " in the interests of enhancing the visual experience A game like Oblivion had some incredibly bad designs like level scaling, the idea that a rat can challenge you when you level 20 makes no sense and there should always be monsters that can defeat you on early levels like in Gothic games. So loading mods that change this is about the immersive experience and that for me is very important I dont load mods that change the fundamental narrative and all my mods are lore friendly And of course loading chainmail bikini mods is all about gender equality. I am a feminist and I always support a liberated and confident women and we must never tell any women what they can or cant wear. Even @HoonDingwill agree on this But in summary the mods I use improve bad designs and development shortfalls but they dont really change the vanilla experience because the vanilla experience isnt suppose to be a bad or a lazy design Of course there are exceptions to this, when I play Skyrim for the first time I am going to play Requiem but thats more the exception because thats a major overhaul mod but its the type of game I want to experience from the beginning

Yes but the Council of Europe, European Commission, the European Council are just 3 examples of the 78 who signed it Its easier to understand when you see the list and its definitely not mostly EU countries. There are African and South American and Asian countries "Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cabo Verde, Canada, Chile, Comoros, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Council of Europe, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, European Commission, European Council, European Parliament, Fiji, Finland, France, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kosovo, Latvia, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Palau, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Rwanda, San Marino, Sao Tomé and Principe, Serbia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Somalia, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Timor Leste, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay" But I do find it interesting how Russia's EU " allies " that include Slovakia, Hungary and Serbia signed it I would have assumed they wouldnt have signed it?

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/80-countries-at-swiss-summit-agree-ukraines-territorial-integrity-required-for-peace Not really, the EU consists of 27 countries and 100 countries attended. And 78 countries signed it So the outcome definitely wasnt just an " expected " EU response. And its based on the UN view around respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty That hasnt changed and never will, you cant just invade a country and create your borders and the support for this document is more or less the same as how UN votes go around the war where Russia gets very little support but countries abstain But it wont stop the war, Putins committed to his warmongering and the invasion. Its more symbolic

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-passes-defense-bill-automatically-registering-men-draft Great idea and one I support but its unlikely it will pass the Senate vote Lots of young people in the US nowadays are despondent, populist and entitled and this type of law should go a long way to changing that bad attitude It doesnt mean you will be sent to war, you could do civil service work or something like national guard work

The outcome of our national elections and the coalition parties that have now been created have worked out really well, its exceeded my expectations on numerous levels We have now a GNU (government of national unity ) which is technically different to a coalition government but it has some similarities But first important outcome was the ANC has been absolutely magnanimous and accepting of its loss from 57% to 40%. I am not anti-ANC, I am generally opposed to there foreign policy decisions and Im opposed to ANC dominance because it has created a culture of impunity around dealing with corruption and public sector inefficiencies But the ANC supports and respects the Constitution and legal outcomes and this election is another example of this. And the concern from some, which I didnt share, was that the ANC being a liberation party wouldnt accept its loss of majority like we have seen in other African countries And that didnt happen So the GNU that now exists is parties that I support and the so called socialist, anti-white, racist,pro-Russian EFF not only lost seats in Parliament but they have been shutout of the GNU and this was primarily because of there populist and unrealistic demands and thats the best news ever Going forward the GNU has lots of work to do around our numerous domestic problems but at least we now have a stable political foundation after the election and thats necessary before you see any real changes...the government has to be stable But in summary, great election results and more important a great outcome around the GNU and which parties are in it

It depends what you mean by online? I generally dont take anything seriously I read on SM around topics like economics or politics. And economic predictions are often notoriously proven to be untrue because of the different ways you can measure an economy But BBC is a good source of information and I consider them generally credible The article seems accurate but there are few considerations, most Russian economic data is classified and then growth is relative to GDP size The UK for example is the 6th strongest economy in the world with nominal GDP of $3.5 trillion and Russia is the 12th strongest with nominal GDP of $2.1 trillion. https://www.forbesindia.com/article/explainers/top-10-largest-economies-in-the-world/86159/1 So growth matters but other metrics are equally important to understand overall economic strength. The entire African economy is a $3 trillion economy, I find this type of data in the link below really interesting when you looking at economic strength and growth. For example if South Africa somehow gets a 20% growth thats $80 billion, which means our economy would become $480 billion. So its possible to think "South Africa is doing better than the UK because of its 20% growth "but the UK is a $3.5 trillion economy " https://www.visualcapitalist.com/breaking-down-african-economy-by-country/ So GDP growth matters but its relevant to the size of the economy

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/putin-pledges-a-cease-fire-in-ukraine-if-kyiv-withdraws-from-occupied-regions-and-drops-nato-bid/ar-BB1odPGs I am not sure how updated this is or accurate but it seems to be? Putin is prepared to end the invasion of Ukraine and has a list of demands that include giving up the Donbas and NATO aspirations and then " demands for peace that the Russian leader listed included Ukraine's non-nuclear status, restrictions on its military force and protecting the interests of the Russian-speaking population in the country. All of these should become part of “fundamental international agreements,” and all Western sanctions against Russia should be lifted, Putin said "

This is something I have been advocating for since the invasion in 2022 when the Russian assets were originally frozen, use the Russian sanctioned resources to fund Ukraine in its defence against the invasion Russia has nationalized Western investments so its not like there isnt precedent The legitimate concern was always " but this might create uncertainty in investing in the West " but thats going to happen or not happen irrespective of this decision and thats fine. Investors will always decide for themselves who offers the lowest risk and best return on investments And Im not concerned its going to have make a major difference if you think the Russian assets were frozen over 2 years ago and the US stock markets still see new records being broken for investment appetite https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/dow-jones-hits-record-high-40000-points

Wouldnt killable children mod give you similar satisfaction " This mod enables you to kill any or all of the children in Fallout 3. Along with adding consequences for such actions. Please see full description inside for full details " https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/376