Yes, weird timing. Perhaps she read my post and decided she needed to withdraw from the tournament

It's just like the ICO craze of 2017. Back then, there were times when it seemed like any new offering sold out almost instantly, regardless of whether or not the project was any good. It's the same now with DeFi. There are a lot of people who are willing to buy anything at all that says DeFi, the impression is that it's an all-but-guaranteed route to huge profits, when that's obviously not really the case. Basically it's unscrupulous people taking advantage of the huge FOMO surrounding DeFi at the moment.

I am starting to think that she won't win another slam. She has stumbled quite a few times in the later stages of finals recently, and she is also showing uncharacteristic vulnerabilities as in the first round here. The second set was easy, but the first really was not. I think the problem is mainly mental, but obviously with each tournament the physical side becomes harder as she nears retirement.

Yes. The more data there are available, the easier it is to be selective with your sources. Charts and graphics are particularly vulnerable to this sort of manipulation because by their nature these visualisations are largely divested of context, and exist as standalone 'truths'. One way to direct us towards what is actually true could be the weight of consensus. If we assume that - taken as a whole - scientists are somewhat more impartial than media and politicians, then an overwhelming scientific consensus on a topic - such as human-caused climate change - can be convincing. Of course with Covid 19, data on confirmed cases and cause-of-death are highly subjective, and certainly politically manipulated, which makes the health effects of this pandemic particularly difficult to assess.

They've made a bad start, but I don't think they're in as much trouble as Fulham. Sheff Utd had a decent last season, and finished in the top half. They've strengthened slightly since then. Whereas Fulham came up through the play-offs, haven't strengthened from a team that couldn't even finish top 2 in the Championship, plus they have the memory of what happened last time they were in the top flight weighing them down. Unless some dramatic reinforcements come in for Fulham, I'm confident that they will finish below Sheff Utd.

Fulham look like an absolute disaster. They look certain to be relegated even at this early point of the season; I certainly wouldn't bet that there are three teams who are worse.

The comparison with Villa is quite striking. Both team got promoted and spent over £100m in a desperate attempt to not get relegated. Villa miraculously survived on the final day, and were able to consolidate and strengthen key areas, so they look like a mid-table team this season. With Fulham however the gamble didn't work, and they went straight back down. This time they've come back up and not spent... and it looks like the outcome will be just the same as it was before, with an immediate return to the Championship.

DeFi and the upgrade to 2.0 are two good reasons to buy and hold ETH. The future looks very promising for the leading smart contract platform. Development is strong, and use-case is one of the strongest in all of crypto. There's a reason that ETH is the top altcoin. I can't see any reason why it will not remain as the best bet outside Bitcoin. I am not concerned here with short-term price movements, this is all about the longer-term.

I disagree with the rest of your post, but your point about number of positive cases being dependent on the extent of testing is of course valid, and it infuriates me when I see media reports that don't take this into account. Of course testing is much higher now than it was back in April/May, and this means more confirmed cases. Charts such as the below are overly simplistic and very misleading. I don't know if this is sensationalism or incompetence - perhaps, probably, a bit of both.


_{https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/28/covid-cases-and-deaths-today-coronavirus-uk-map}

I think it's very likely that Ripple the company will be a huge success. The only question really, and one that hasn't been conclusively settled, is how this translates into the price of XRP the coin. Personally I do think that we will see considerable rises in the XRP price in future, but it's also true that prices have been low for a long while now. It's difficult to tell how much of this is due to the court cases, but I'd imagine the legal issues have certainly had an effect. History does suggest that whilst XRP does not tend to increase in price in response to good news, when it does increase, it can do so extremely rapidly (xRapidly? ). This does mean that it's difficult to try to just buy in at the right time, because if prices are already rising then you're probably too late. If you do think the price will rise in future, it's probably best to hold some in advance of any new price movement, rather than once that movement has started.

It's a stretch to say Armenia is in the Middle-East. The Armenia/Azerbaijan conflict is over Nagorno-Karabakh, it's a territorial/ethnic/religious conflict that has been going on for decades. It's not a war over oil. There is perhaps some danger that the conflict will endanger the oil pipeline that runs through the area, but that originates right over by the Caspian Sea. In short it's a conflict near (not in) the Middle-East, which may have some impact on (but is not about) oil or oil prices. This all originated with the collapse of the Soviet Union - N-K is predominantly Armenian (and Christian) by ethnicity, but under Russian rule was part of the Azerbaijani (and Muslim) administrative area.

OP, you said in March that oil prices would rise. This was all but inevitable. Prices in March were extremely low due to the global CV19 lockdown causing a massive reduction in demand. I think it was quite apparent that the lockdown would not last forever, and that prices would rise once economies opened up again. I'm not convinced that this is evidence of exceptional foresight.

I know it's a typo, but it does make me think about the controversy over Trump's golf scores

The economic situation at the moment has been determined largely by the Covid pandemic. I'm extremely skeptical that you knew in Oct 2019 exactly what would unfold in 2020. We will never know what 2020 would have looked like without the pandemic, but I don't think you can say that predictions made in 2019 were proved correct, because there is zero reference or consideration to what turned out to be the largest contributing factor. If I predicted that Trump wouldn't make it to the end of his term of office, and I based my assessment around the possibility of impeachment, then I wouldn't say I was correct if his presidency ended early because he died in a plane crash.

I wonder this as well. He's been disliked ever since he started. There's no obvious reason for it.

He does get a bit petulant at times, but the thing is, so do the other drivers. Max for example is probably worse. Vettel is certainly worse. Hamilton is certainly no worse than his rivals in this regard, so I don't think this is a valid reason for disliking him.
Yes, he has the best car and best team... but this doesn't change the fact that he's also the best driver. Ferrari have been close to them in quality of car for the last couple of years (this year obviously not)... but they weren't a championship threat because their drivers aren't as good.
Not convinced either that he's luckier with steward decisions.

They did give him 2 points, to take him to 10 and within 2 of that one race ban. But...
They've now gone back on that decision, and fined Mercedes instead (because it was the team's fault, rather than the driver's).
So Hamilton is back to 8.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/54318727

The question for this season is whether Barca's disintegration continues. Obviously they've forced Messi to stay, and he's not happy about it. This is a test of how much of a professional he is... are we going to see him giving 100% in every game? Personally I think he will try to give 100%, but obviously it's difficult when you don't want to be there. Surely it's going to affect his concentration and desire.

Today is another race where what looked like a routine Hamilton win was thrown into doubt because of outside events rather than wheel-to-wheel racing. 2x 5 second penalties for practice starts, and Hamilton now has to fight his way back through the grid. He did ask his team if it was okay, and they said yes... the fault lies with the team, but should Hamilton have got the penalty if it was entirely the team's fault? I think probably yes... he has the best car because of the team's decisions during the design process, so it's only fair that he also receives the negatives from when the team makes poor decisions.

Avoidance is morally dubious but legal.
Evasion is morally dubious and illegal.

They're both wrong, really. It's just that one of the wrongs is permitted. I'd say we need to examine the idea that performing immoral but legal actions should be lauded. This idea is a part of what puts people like Trump in power. Morality is of course subjective, but I am using it in the sense of obeying the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law.

Qualifying is the same as the races this season. Basically Hamilton wins, unless there is a crash from someone else which creates unforeseen problems for him.
He got pole anyway today, but he may have a further problem as a result of the Q2 chaos - it means he has to start the race on softs...

DeFi isn't a threat to other coins. It might be if there was a fixed amount of money in crypto, and money going into DeFi took money away from other coins... but that's not the case. DeFi is drawing in new money. Also if we are talking about it being a threat to the top cap coins... the opposite is true in the case of ETH, on which a lot of the DeFi projects are running.

Unfortunately it doesn't work like that. People with money are often able to work from home in comfort, with indoor and outdoor space and no loss of earnings. Compare with say a city centre cleaner who lives in a tower block - they can't get away from other people, have no outdoor space, little indoor space, and have either lost all earnings or else have to risk crowded public transport every day.

In theory it's a great leveller that can strike rich and poor alike. In practice some people are having a much worse time than others, and as always it is the poor who are affected most.