USSR is not equal to Russia. Less than 60% of the population of the former USSR was accounted by Russia, while the remainder was distributed in the remaining 14 republics (especially Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Belarus). Also, the Russian team from 1896 to 1916 included countries such as Finland and Poland. For Germany, the calculation looks OK (still not perfect, as the boundaries of Germany before 1945 is very different from what it is now). Among the top-5, only the United States had constant political boundaries during entire duration of the Olympics.

Underdogs on top in both the ODIs that are ongoing now. Sri Lanka has made 68/0 after 11.3 overs, while Zimbabwe is in a strong position at 225/5 after 43.1 overs. Both the teams badly need 10 points from today's games, as they are currently placed at the rock bottom of the ODI World Cup League points table. Sri Lanka should have had 15 points, but they recently received -2 in penalty for slow over rate. If these teams can't get points from the ongoing series, then they can say goodbye to their chances of directly qualifying to CWC 2023.

LOL.. do you really think that Japan will be able to challenge the American dominance? Japan was placed #6 last time, behind UK, China, Russia and Germany. This time, at the most they may be able to finish at 3rd or 4th position. I don't expect anything more than that. Great Britain was the surprise package last time, as they managed to finish ahead of China. But I guess this time China will be having the upper hand. Russia is going through a lot of turmoil. So I don't expect them in the top-5 this time (last time they were 4th).

No one is mentioning about the ongoing protests in Cuba? It looks as if the Cubans had enough and they are protesting in the streets for the last few days, demanding an end to the socialist rule. The same has been happening in Venezuela for the last few years. Let's imagine a scenario where the socialist regimes in these two countries are taken down. It is very likely that the new government will take a more favorable view towards cryptocurrency, because in these two countries crypto is now regarded as one of the weapons of resistance against the regime.

Boult's overall record is good. But I remember a couple of occasions, when he conceded a lot of runs in the depth overs, resulting in Mumbai Indians losing the match. I agree that New Zealand is a dark horse, with star performers such as Boult, Jamieson and Ferguson. My main concern is that they may find the UAE conditions challenging. Also, one thing we need to remember is that the world cup will immediately start after the IPL. So those playing in the IPL may benefit from getting accustomed to the conditions. But then, most of the main players from New Zealand, Australia, West Indies and England will be taking part in the IPL.

Almost everyone does this mistake when he makes the first investment with cryptocurrency. Even I invested in some shitcoins during my early days (2017) and lost some of my funds. It takes some time to realize that in the cryptocurrency sector, all that glitters is not gold. A lot of information is available online, and if you go through them it will be possible to avoid scams and mistakes 99% of the time. But even in my case, I went through this information only after I incurred some losses early on. In my case, it was OK.. because the losses were not that huge (but still not insignificant).

Sometimes I feel that these sort of corrections are necessary. Some of the noobs still daydream that they will become millionaires in a day or two by investing in Bitcoin. It is very much necessary to shake off such non-serious investors from the Bitcoin community. When the prices stay low for 4-5 months, these guys will lose patience and will make their exit after dumping their coins. Only serious investors will remain. And this will reduce the chances of a mass-selloff in the future and reduce the volatility of Bitcoin.

Blockchain.com is one of those wallets which allow you to export the private key. So in case the coins get stolen, it is most probably due to your fault (since you are the only one who has access to the private keys). So it doesn't make sense for Blockchain.com to refund the stolen coins. Also, if they start refunding these coins, then it will open a Pandora's box. A lot of guys are going to claim that their wallet got hacked, after transferring the coins to wallets that are under their control. As far as I know, none of the wallets issue refunds (here I am talking about wallets, and not exchanges).

The problem is with the way they calculate inflation. They don't usually give a sector-wise breakup of inflation. So obviously some of the assets that are less prone to inflation (electronics, foodgrains.etc) are grouped together with assets that are prone to inflation (such as crude oil, fruits/vegetables.etc). On top of that, real estate, bullion.etc are also added in, and in times of difficult economic conditions these assets will have a negative inflation. So in general, the inflation remains at 4% or 5%, eventhough groceries and other essentials may have gone up by >20%.

Playing in different conditions is good. But a few years back, there was an initiative to prepare some of the domestic grounds to be more supportive to pace bowling, similar to the SENA ground conditions. After one or two years, this initiative was silently rolled back. One rumor that I heard was domestic teams are heavily dependent on spinners and they refused to play on surfaces that are supportive to pacers. It is not the bowlers who suffer from the lack of such grounds in India. India is producing good pace bowlers. But is it the batsmen who suffer from the lack of exposure to such conditions.

The Chinese government will tolerate Bitcoin as long as it doesn't interfere with the fiat based economy. But with Bitcoin being recognized as legal tender in at least some of the world nations, the equilibrium has changed. And this is problematic for countries where the national currency is heavily manipulated, such as China. Now the Chinese government has reached the conclusion that the harm that can be done by cryptocurrency adoption outweighs any potential benefits from allowing Bitcoin mining. This time they seems to be quite determined. 

Ideally you should be holding your coins when the exchange rate is low, and selling them when the prices go up. What you are doing is just the opposite. A few months ago, Bitcoin was trading at $8,000 per coin. If I understand your post correctly, then you were converting your coins to fiat back then. If you had held on to your coins, you could have sold them at 4x prices. Anyway, I am glad that you are now saving some of your coins. Now don't repeat the same mistake when the prices go down again. The biggest mistake a Bitcoin user can do is panic selling.

The reason why I don't want to give too much chance to England and New Zealand is due to the fact that the ground conditions don't suit them. They don't have any world class spinner in their squad and are too much dependent on pace attack. And even their pacers are not exactly T20 material. Jamieson and Boult are bowlers who are more suitable for the longer version of cricket. IMO, I would give India and West Indies almost equal chances, followed by New Zealand and England. Under current circumstances, none of the remaining 12 teams have any real chance of lifting the trophy.

If the vaccine was used only in Russia and the trials are not completed, then these tactics would make sense. But tens of millions of doses of Sputnik V have been administered in countries around the globe, and a total of 68 countries have given authorization to this vaccine (including some of the European countries). So I don't think that there is any solid reason for this hesitancy, apart from fake rumors. And I have heard that now Russia is witnessing close to 1,000 deaths per day from COVID 19. This is definitely not a good sign.

Sometimes I feel that the Sri Lankan team is sliding to oblivion. Given their recent performances, I don't think that they can remain competitive against the top teams in cricket. Hard to believe that this is the same team that was crowned as the champions two and half decades ago, during the ODI world cup. Back then, they had world class players, such as Sanath Jayasuriya, Muthiah Muralidaran, Aravinda de Silva and Arjuna Ranatunga. While other teams (such as Bangladesh and Afghanistan) are improving their performance, Sri Lanka is perhaps the only test playing nation whose performance has gone down.

A lot of politicians are now proposing to tax unrealized capital gains. The first one was perhaps Ron Wyden (Democrat Senator from the state of Oregon). And I am afraid that at some point in the future, it will be implemented. Governments are moving towards more populist policies, by increasing the number of freebies and handouts. In order to do that, they need to dramatically increase the tax revenue. Since the income tax levels are already sky high, the only remaining options are increases in corporate tax and capital gains tax.

It was a flat track and the Indian bowling lineup was composed of inexperienced players. Putting up a total of 262 is nothing out of ordinary. And from what I can see, India is off to a great start with Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw destroying the Sri Lankan bowlers. Both the Sri Lankan bowlers (Isuru Udana and Dushmantha Chameera) look completely clueless on how to handle these two. And once again, it shows how good the surface is for batting. It will be interesting to know Arjuna Ranatunga's opinion at this point. He called the Indian squad "second string" a few days back. BTW.. Prithvi seems to be in some trouble after getting hit in his helmet.

Well.. that's not how things work in Russia. If you don't "remember" the password to your wallet, then you will be in very big trouble. When they ask for your money, just give them and quit. Else really bad things may happen to you. Do you know what happened to Vasily Aleksanyan (former Yukos VP)? He was arrested in 2006 (at the age of 34), after Yukos refused a deal from the Russian government. While in prison, he contracted HIV and liver cancer. He died within less than 5 years. If this can happen to someone who is so famous, imagine what can happen to some ordinary person in Russia.

Well.. I would not say that the FIFA/UEFA guys are all angels, but they did a lot of good things in the past to increase the popularity of the sport. Football is now the no.1 sport in the world, partly due to their efforts. I have seen other governing bodies such as the ICC (cricket) function, and I would say that the situation with football is much better. Now coming to the topic of the Confederations Cup, one of the issues may be related to the COVID situation. The revenue calculation also plays a part. For FIFA, it is more profitable to hold a club world cup, rather than the Confederations Cup. It benefits the fans as well. For example, there are huge number of fans for European clubs such as Real Madrid and Manchester United in Asia. But they never get the opportunity to see any of these clubs take on opponents from Asia. 

For my part, I am OK with this bill. I don't expect a lot many countries to make Bitcoin as the legal tender (similar to what El Salvador did). Paraguay is having its own national currency, and therefore it is not practical to make BTC as the legal tender (in case of El Salvador, the national currency is no longer in use after 2001). And the restrictions that are being proposed are similar to those existing in other Bitcoin-friendly countries such as Japan and Germany. The problem is with the Bitcoin community. They don't have the patience to wait and want everything on a platter in a few days.