I do not see a thread discussing the United Rugby Championship and the final being played between the Stormers and Munster tomorrow, so I just want to know who do you think is going to win that match? It is being played in South Africa, giving home field advantage to the Stormers, but Munster has won the Stormers at their home field before, so I do not know if it actually gives them a large advantage.  This is going to be a hard match and too close to call... There is only one Rugby thread K. All competitions are discussed here. I have been covering the URC. United Rugby Championship
The two semi finals have come and gone with one predictable win and one shock win!
As most expected the DHL Stormers won their semi against the visiting Connacht 43-25.
I have given Connacht a half chance of winning but my $1 bet didnt materialise.
Second semi final on Saturday brought the upset, home side Leinster were looking to setup
a second final and win the double with the Heineken Champions Cup but the visiting Munster
were able to stay with them and win with a 77th minute drop goal. Leinster had prioritised the
Heineken Cup by resting some key players for the coming final on Saturday.
Grand Final
DHL Stormers v Munster
Munster are on a bit of a roll ATM and are surprising finalists after beating Leinster in the semi's, who everyone tipped to win outright this alao means my bet is dead!Stormers are worthy finalists though and are playing at home, but week 17 of 18 Munster beat the Stormers 24 - 26 on their own turf! TBH I'll probably back Munster being the Irish side, but its really hard to call. |
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IMO I dont see him winning anything in the near future no matter what tournament.
Qualifying at Roland Garros is in play now so he really only has this tournament to get
extra play time in before he starts in RG.
Unfortunately for him with the recovery from injury many players have progressed while
he seems to have stayed static. this is reflected in his ATP ranking outside the top 20! I agree. Unfortunately. The problem is his thoughts and mind. Tennis is decided a lot in the head. His fitness is fine. But something happens during his game that he thinks about too much. He said that in a recent interview. And if the opponent takes advantage of this time, even if it only lasts a few minutes, then it will be difficult for Zverev to get back into the match. Time will tell if he will mange it. This is just his opponent winning the psychological warfare in my opinion. Let's not forget every man has to face the demons which he has created in his mind. You have to conquer yourself before you conquer the world. As a top level athlete, you absolutely cannot let any doubts get close to your mind. And that's the thing which he seems to be not able to do in certain situations. He has to learn how to not doubt himself in key situations. Probably he needs a good psychologist by himself. On psychology, did anyone see the match between Fils and Ymer at the Lyon Open? Ymer totally lost it at the end of the first set after losing a game to bring the set to 6-5. It was a strange atmosphere and Ymer was playing a French opponent. After one of Fils shots was in Ymer challenged it and asked the ref to check the mark, the ref refused to get off his chair and go check the mark, after about 5 minutes of discussion Ymer played on and lost the game, he then went to the ref's chair and smashed his racquet against it and damaged the chair, he was disqualified. The situation got to him after a difficult atmosphere. |
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7's series has finished Timelord! it kind of passed us by without many bets placed.
NRL
Yea good win by the Dolphins, that keeps their top half positioning alive, they have
slipped a bit in the last few rounds and I thought they might end up in the bottom
half, we will have to wait and see.
Such a weird line up tomorrow's game, Eels v Cowboys, two powerhouses from last
year battling it out to stay away from the wooden spoon spot. I wont be betting on that one.
Saturday sees the Warriors take on the Broncos, that could be a good one, I dont know
who could win or who I would like to see win, Broncos maybe?
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...there is nothing that can take away the money printing machines, the government will keep printing money because they like been the printer, they can't print Bitcoin
Your uncle is 100% correct! but only about this snippet of text, when taken in the full reasoning of his rant he is 100% wrong. The fact that the printing machines continue to run is one of the reasons why Bitcoin WONT fail. The fact that they cant print Bitcoin is another reason why it wont fail. He couldnt be more wrong really in what he states. |
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Well done to Argentina! great result to end up in second place overall. I havent been following the series at all apart from dipping in when darxiaomi comes here to mention it. Finishing in second place by only 21 points behind New Zealand is a fantastic result. Ireland finished kind of mid table. There hasnt been any news throughout the series about our team on the sport sections of the radio I listen to which is dissapointing, its not a big sport here with all the focus on the Rugby 15's.  |
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I'm curious about the forum's membership reduction and what can be to blame. A community with 3.5 million registered users has 2.7 million banned/nuked accounts, 700k accounts are dormant, and just 56k individuals have been active for the past three months. I did some analysis and there is a somewhat high chance that the forum will disappear before 2030 if the information on https://bpip.org/ is accurate. Since the forum is losing traffic each month, which is awful from a financial standpoint, I'm wondering what might be the issue.  unfriendly environment for Newbies/users ? DT members oppression ? ( so much red than green these days) The merit system (high demands for quality) ? The moderation/rules ( using the ban button more often) ? Low Bitcoin adoption ? Lets Talk...  DT members, merit system, moderation rules and bitcoin adoption has nothing to do with bitcointalk's popularity. This forum has the best rules, moderators, educated and professional users, etc but the problem is that forum has no clear goal, if any, and probably the owner has no motivation to do something with it, he just hosts it and that's all. This forum doesn't meet the average standard that people expect. It has an old and outdated user interface, features, doesn't have a mobile application, epochtalk is abandoned. I think it's pretty clear why this forum loses people and it makes me really sad because I recently discovered this amazing forum with amazing history and amazing community and I don't wat to see it vanish. The fact that the forum is not smartphone friendly is a big deterrent, I'm here 6 years and I really only access the forum on my smartphone and have got used to Zooming, I know 2 people who have accounts here who couldnt be bothered visiting because its too difficult to navigate on a mobile. So gea its a very good point made above. On the points made by the OP are also valid as are many others, social media is also a big factor including messaging apps which are really convenient. Also I think after the madness of the ICO era a lot of people left after either getting badly burned or lost interest... so yea lots and lots of reasons for the big drop off in membership/active members. |
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Zverev is already in the quarter finals. Zverev vs Wu is on 25th May. The other six players of the three matches in the quarter final are still to be decided.
Fritz, Rudd, and Dimitrov are certainly popular choices to go through. Let's see what happens.
Zverev has been given a wildcard in Genf. Since he needs match practice and more self-confidence, I am not so sure whether it was the right decision for him to accept the wildcard. For him it is a preparation tournament for the Fench Open. Maybe it would be better if he played more matches. It is important that he improves his mentality in his head. He has to reach the semi-finals in Genf. There he will meet Ruud or Griekspoor. IMO I dont see him winning anything in the near future no matter what tournament. Qualifying at Roland Garros is in play now so he really only has this tournament to get extra play time in before he starts in RG. Unfortunately for him with the recovery from injury many players have progressed while he seems to have stayed static. this is reflected in his ATP ranking outside the top 20! |
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For the Eels and Cowboys and partly in the case of the Roosters I think its going to be
really difficult if not impossible for them to get into the top half of the ladder and into the
finals. This coming round the Eels are playing the Cowboys and in the rounds after
this one they go on to play the top teams.
At the top of the ladder its very close between the top 5 sides all with 7 or 8 wins so far.
In the next few rounds they should be winning all their games. In round 14 the Broncos play
the sharks, 4th v 3rd!
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In passing I quickly glanced over an article about an underwater tennis court being built for professional use... No idea if that was true or what but it looked pretty awesome. I'll admit that the idea of watching a tennis match has never excited me, but I would jump at the chance to see a sporting event underwater. Although when you think about it, it really is a recipe for quite a spectacular disaster.
And this got me thinking about how are they going to work that with players wearing oxygen tanks and breathing masks and what would the ball be made from so that it doesnt sink or float to the top...... But of course "under water" means actually under the water not in the water. Interesting though, a very unique experience. https://www.arabianbusiness.com/industries/construction/423745-where-are-they-now-dubais-underwater-tennis-stadium |
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Not all coins are or would be available to buy
Not all miners are located in one jurisdiction so no single central bank would be able to
buy all miners, so it would end up theoretically with a number of central banks owning
all the miners.
Then when the dust settles and the mining people and firms have been paid their FIAT
for their mining farms there is nothing to stop them from building newer farms with newer
equipment to compete with the central banks!
That is why it would be nonsense for it to happen.
Thats the beauty of decentralisation.
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on a very limited temporary short term basis it would be a "storm in a teacup" there would be
so much talk and speculation about it, it would seem almost to be the only thing which would
be happening.
On the network - it would just get confirmed just like any other Bitcoin transcation.
But yea, who is going to sell and buy 1,000,000 Bitcoin now or in the future, I could see it
happening about 10 years ago though.
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Perhaps Alcaraz has more talent, I woudn't question that but Medvedev is much smarter. I've read somewhere he was really good at maths in school and was even planning to become a mathematician but chose a tennis career eventually. It's a pleasure to watch how he chooses the most logical and efficient shot most of the time.
WTA has progressed a lot lately. They are female players with a 200km/h+ serve for example. I remember Djokovic was serving 150-160km/h at around 2015-2016 and it was ok. Jelena Ostapenko has a higher average winner speed than Andy Murray, Maria Sakkari has better physique than many male players etc etc
Alcaraz certainly has a lot of talent. But he will have to be more consistent with his performance. I actually think Medvedev being smarter can cause him a lot of problems. But after all, it does come down to who can play better on a given day. If I have to predict a match between them I will say 50-50 right now. WTA has certainly improved a lot also. The female players are certainly getting better day by day. I think maybe the female players are trying to give the spectators something similar to the male players. That is certainly going to be very hard but it is good that they are actually trying to give the customer a good product. Alcaraz definitely has to improve his consistency, I suppose the same could be said for a lot of top players really. He is still young though and is still learning, no doubt his consistency will improve. Medvedev being more smarter is subjective, he is older and has more experience, he is a different type of player with different skills. On the WTA side what I have learned this year so far is that Swiatek is beatable and the points gap is closing between here and Sabalenka and the next 3 spots are very close so I suppose the WTA is becoming more interesting for me. there are more defined top 5 and top 10 players who can hopefully stay in the top 10 for a while. |
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Happy Bitcoin Pizza day to the community here!
Its definitely a day to celebrate and commemorate if possible the day Bitcoin was successfully
traded for something else and it just happened to be Pizza.
We shouldnt get hung up about todays FIAT value of 10,000BTC. Bitcoin yesterday, today and
tomorrow is being sold or traded for something.
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BOOM - Done and dusted in 2 sets - 5-7, 5-7 to Medvedev!
First set was pretty much on serve until medvedev was able to break Rune and win that.
Second set with Medvedev to serve first then Rune broke Medvedev but he was able to break
back but not straight away.
I thought Rune had a very soft final game, he gave away what seemed like desperation
shots which he didnt pull off.
Anyway I very happy for Daniil, big mile stone reached, lets see how RG goes....
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an unexpected final overall indeed. Medvedev did well, getting the job done in 2 sets but
they were 2 close sets. TBH I wasnt surprised with the out come, I have stopped betting on
Tsitsipas, he has become very unpredictable.
Rune beating Ruud was also on the cards, now for the final today he will be hard to beat,
he is marginal favourite 1.80 to Medvedev's 1.99. It will be amazing if Medvedev wins this, to
turnaround his performance on clay from last year and be able to make his mark this year.
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66-18 for the Wests Tigers is just ridiculous, where have the Cowboys gone this season?
They did so well last year, almost made it to the Grand Final! How can a team turn around
so dramatically?
Todays games results in the two favourites winning, Storm and Sea Eagles. We are
starting to see the top half of the ladder being populated by last years top teams, Panthers,
Rabbitohs, Sharks and the 2 above.
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@Ultegra134 - I totally get you, 100%
There are plenty of people who are very happy to be working the 5 day week and
who are able to have a good lifestyle by their own standards.
There are also plenty of people who are unsatisfied with working full time 5 days
per week but cannot see how to break out of the system, so they remain very unhappy,
which is not good for your soul and mentality.
I believe it is quite possible to break free, it will/could mean simplifying the lifestyle
and I'm ok with that. We are surrounded with stuff we actually dont need, we feel to
do things and lead a life we could do without or not miss.
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Union - European Champions Cup Rugby - FINAL Leinster denied again by La Rochelle ! and also beaten in the semi final of the URC last weekend, thats painful.  Leinster finish the season without any Silverware, same as last season too. They made an error last weekend not playing big key players and relying on second choice players to try and make a place in the URC final which failed so the pressure was on today to win the tournament they prioritised. This is also a bit worrying because the bulk of the Irish international team is made up from the Leinster team and now in a world cup this loss can be correlated into the world cup games later in the year.
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All the suggestions above are good but the best is to start now! You will have a bigger gain
by buying Bitcoin in the first half of 2023 than buying in 2024.
On taking a loan to buy Bitcoin, I dont have a problem with that, I personally have dont it twice
so far and it has worked out.
IMO timing is important and in the first half of this year is optimal (based on the last
halving) I expect the market to start rising sometime in the second half of 2023.
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