That was my thought as well. Given past history, and the fact that all economies are under strain due to the pandemic, we can expect some tension between member nations. Italy and Spain were badly hit, but so was France in the north. Greece escaped the pandemic with few infections... but the south, and Greece again, is particularly reliant on tourism, which for obvious reasons is the worst-hit industry.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see tensions once again between north and south, and once again between Germany and Greece. Greece's problem this time not being economic profligacy, but simply its geographical position.

One possibility is that their aim is to dissuade people from getting involved in crypto by making the stock market more appealing. Perhaps in an attempt to protect citizens from scams and extreme volatility in an unregulated market. No evidence for this though, just speculating.

I think a lot of governments didn't really understand it, and hoped it would just go away. Obviously that's not happened, and as the amount of money in crypto grows, governments are being forced to face it. The fact that there is such wide variation between jurisdictions on not only what taxes to apply but also, fundamentally, on what bitcoin 'is', suggests that there is still a lack of understanding, and that new definitions and laws are required to meet this new technical innovation.

If I was buying alts right now, then ETH is certainly the number one choice. Not only is it the top-cap alt with the strongest use case, it also has the move to 2.0 and the start of staking coming up very soon. Add to this that - in my opinion - it looks underpriced vs bitcoin, and ETH seems a really solid choice for an alt at the moment.
Some people have mentioned XRP, but it might be worth staying away from that until the legal situation is clarified somewhat.

It's true that polls
a) represent only a fraction of the electorate, which may quite easily be unrepresentative of the whole, and
b) represent only how people say they will vote, not how they will actually vote.

We can reasonably expect that if we have a candidate who is divisive, and who appeals to people's baser prejudices, and whose skills are largely those of a mob agitator or demagogue... then they may be a sizable proportion of people who will vote for him, but will not admit publicly they they will do so... in which case, yes, Trump's eventual share of the vote may be under-reported in polling.

But I still think Biden will win, and still think that Trump will refuse to accept it.

Certainly, when measured, the result is 0 or 1, either/or, with 100% probability. I agree that far. But when we say that a qubit is 'simultaneously 0 and 1', that is a simplification. What we mean is that, prior to measurement, the qubit is best defined as a wave rather than a particle. The Schrödinger wave equation is the best description of what the qubit 'is'; really it makes no sense at that point to say that it is both 0 and 1, because 0 and 1 are classical end states. But we can say that the qubit, because of its wave-like nature, can resolve to either possibility. It has the potential to be either a 0 or a 1. This phenomenon can be described as the qubit 'exploring all paths', but the fact remains that the power does scale 2^n, because all possible classical states are potential outcomes upon measurement.


Quantum mechanics describes how the universe behaves at an extremely small scale. It does not make sense in terms of our everyday, macroscopic view of the world. We have evolved to hunt food, search for shelter, escape predators. This is how our brains are built. Our understanding of what constitutes reality is heavily influenced by our sensory apparatus. A rainbow, for example, only appears as does because of the way our eyes work; other eyes would see it differently, and the mathematical description would see it perfectly.
Any attempt to explain QM in everyday human terms will fail; this is why no human really understands what the quantum world 'is'. But we have mathematics that describes it. And we have devices built on that underlying mathematics, and these devices function correctly according to the laws of QM. We cannot say this is wishful thinking, rather it is verifiable, reproducible experimental evidence. It is fact. Modern computers are built on quantum mechanics. It is impossible to describe semiconductor-based electronics without quantum mechanics.

It might also be useful - although probably fairly difficult - to include some measure of how stable a coin's price will be given the magnitude of any recent price change. If for example a coin rises in price by 20% in a few hours, then it is perhaps fairly unlikely to remain at that new price. As I say though, difficult to devise a formula.

These are all valid points, yes, particularly the one about momentum, which is indeed ever-shifting.

But I do still think Biden will win, in large part due to the Covid19 figures from the US. Lockdown was implemented quite halfheartedly and lifted way too early, with some truly shocking infection numbers as a result. The economic fallout is only just beginning, and I can't imagine that by November the situation will be better than it is now - even if we have a vaccine by that point.

I would not be at all surprised if Biden wins the election, but Trump refuses to acknowledge defeat and just tries to brazen it out by declaring certain aspects invalid or fraudulent or unlawful - postal votes being an obvious possibility.

Can anyone imagine Trump accepting that he's been beaten in a two horse race?

Reading between the lines a bit, and the fact that the news has been almost nonexistent ever since the accident, I think we can assume unfortunately that the injuries are profound and there is zero chance of a full recovery, and that this was apparent to doctors and family immediately.
It takes a certain type of person to be an F1 driver, almost as if they either have no sense of danger or else just enjoy it, and being right on the edge. On the surface, it seems bizarre that someone could compete in a sport as dangerous as F1, and then only succumb to a severe injury after retirement and in something completely unrelated... but it is of course related, the common factor being the type of person that is involved, and that fearlessness and willingness to take risks that makes great drivers great.

Doesn't 2*0.8x*10% just simplify to 0.16x% ?
I'm kind of surprised it's that straightforward, but I suppose you are taking an overall trend.
Are you saying the price change is linear with respect to x, so it charts as a straight line? Or am I being stupid (quite likely) and missing something?

One position is that resilience of the economy can be determined by how much intervention was (and will be) required to prop it up during CV19.

Global free market capitalism has proven to have almost zero resistance. Those countries where business has the strongest voice are those that have been most reluctant to implement and maintain lockdowns and other approaches that might mitigate the spread of the pandemic. Take the US as the extreme example of a nation where the companies have too much power. The politicians are in their pockets, and the pressure to open the economy again was too great, resulting in a re-opening far too early and the horrendous situation we have there now, which will only worsen. Whereas those countries where the government is stronger, are more resilient. Looking at China, in particular. For all its human rights abuses, the lockdown when it happened there was swift and decisive, and not lifted until the correct time.

I agree that Trump's Covid-19 response has little to do with foreign policy, other than leaving the WHO and the public relations fallout of decisions such as that to buy the complete global supply of remdesivir.
But many of his other decisions point to America turning its back on the world and focusing inwards, which is not what is required in a global leader. For all his belligerent posturing, he is no interventionist throwing troops in everywhere and asserting an American presence. As another example, he pulled out of Syria.
For Trump, it's America First. A consequence of this is that it's 'rest of the world last', which means relinquishing that position as the global leader. The question is does this open the door for China?

All that anyone needs to know is that he's not Trump. As the effects of the mismanagement of Covid19 become more and more apparent, Trump's popularity wanes. Biden doesn't need to do anything to win, Trump is doing it for him.

The unintentional effect of Trump's foreign policy is to weaken the US in the eyes of the world. In areas where the US led the world, they are now a weakness and a liability. The US is the world's strongest nation, and should be leading the fight against this pandemic. But the US is withdrawing from the WHO. The US is withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord. It's almost like a return to pre-WWII isolationism.

I don't think there's much that Biden needs to do now. He is starting to look very very likely to win the race, just as the 'non-Trump' candidate. Trump's woeful mismanagement of the pandemic is obviously a huge contributor to this. People deserve a competent leader, and we are really seeing a concerted effort even amongst some republicans to get Trump out. It's not just support for Republican candidates who oppose Trump, there is even gathering momentum to actually vote Democrat. There is a willingness to accept defeat in 2020 if it means ousting Trump and healing some of the damage he's done to the party, in the hope's of getting back into power with a 'normal' candidate in 2024.

I'm not sure about the past tense in the thread title. Lockdowns may be over in a lot of places (although there may of course be further lockdowns if cases rise again), but the economic effects of CV19 are barely beginning. I think we are all aware that there will be huge economic fallout from this. We are starting to see job losses and business closures, but these will get worse, and the huge amounts of money that were printed out of nothing in order to keep economies afloat must be paid for. As the problems of fiat are thrown into stark focus, that is when bitcoin becomes more appealing.

It's a weird situation. Principal factors putting players off seem to be:
Proximity to clay court season,
The fact that Covid19 is running rampant across the USA,
Quarantining after international travel.

With a lot of major players not taking part, this is perhaps the best opportunity that a lot of players will ever have to win a grand slam tournament. The fact that they are having to balance something they've aimed for their whole careers against the effects of an ongoing global pandemic is bizarre and unprecedented. But that is the situation.

Regardless of whether or not this particular instance is a scam...bitcoin can be used in criminal activity. But so can fiat. Illegal drugs and arms and people-trafficking existed long before cryptocurrencies. But you might argue that it is easier for people to commit anonymous crimes whilst using bitcoin. Arguably this is true, but we might also - fairly convincingly I think - argue that people who want to commit crime, and particularly big, organised crime, would find an avenue to do so anyway. And we also have to remember that whilst bitcoin can potentially bring anonymity, blockchain also provides a verifiable history of all transactions.

I think there's almost zero chance of him retiring after this year. This year's Mercedes car is so far ahead of the others, it's ridiculous. It's like the first year of the turbo-hybrid era all over again. Bottas is Hamilton's only competitor this year, so Hamilton looks an overwhelmingly strong favourite for a 7th title.

But remember that the regulation change for 2021 has now been put back to 2022. And development for next year will be constrained due to CV19. Next year's cars won't be too dissimilar to this year's. It looks likely that Mercedes will dominate next season as well, giving Hamilton a great shot at an 8th title (assuming he gets that 7th this year).

And when we get to 2022 and the radically new cars, if Mercedes suddenly go from being the best to being mere also-rans, as Red Bull did after 2013... maybe that will be the time for him to retire. But end of this season? I can't see that happening. Hamilton doesn't seem like the sort of person who would be content to merely equal a record.

I don't think it will have too much of an impact from the perspective of gamblers.

Decnetralisation is certainly one of the big draws of crypto, and a principal reason for its superiority over fiat. But... just looking at bitcoin, we all know that the price is a lot higher now than when it started. The rising price brings new people into bitcoin, in expectation of profit. Whilst decentralisation is still a key motivator to a lot of people, there are plenty more, probably the majority, who just want profit irrespective of the medium. I don't think a semi-centralised dapp for alt gambling will have a problem.

China has become a superpower and is starting to behave accordingly. We are seeing Chinese expansion everywhere, most notably their attempt to control the South China Sea.
One thing I would say about the situation in the Himalayas, and I've said it before in other threads, is that that specific area will be vital in future because it is the source of the major rivers in South East Asia. This is why China puts so much effort into controlling Tibet.
If we look at how the climate has changed in the last couple of decades, and anticipate that this will continue... and then couple this with the fact that SE Asia is heavily populated and becoming more so... control of water sources could be absolutely vital in the world of the near future.

Hi, apologies for messing you around - I am leaving the campaign.
Best of luck, I think you will do well with this. It is an innovative idea to focus on the Politics board.