Luftwaffles Posted June 19, 2013 Report Share Posted June 19, 2013 It's more a matter of what the WC stands for and all. For as long as I've remembered the World Cup often goes to a nation with some sort of developing league, strong but still struggling national team, or place that's beautiful but needs a tourism kickstart. You're right, from an economic perspective it does make sense. From a soccer perspective, it's puzzling. Qatar has none of the things mentioned above, and that's before we even get into the topic of the weather the months of the year the WC is typically held. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted June 19, 2013 Report Share Posted June 19, 2013 Qatar itself may not fit that description, but in recent years there's been a push to be more inclusive of Africa and South America (and to a lesser extent the Middle East) in world events like the World Cup and the Olympics, and not just keep them in Europe, North America, and Asia. Viewed in that light both Qatar and Brazil make more sense as hosts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted June 19, 2013 Report Share Posted June 19, 2013 It's more a matter of what the WC stands for and all. For as long as I've remembered the World Cup often goes to a nation with some sort of developing league, strong but still struggling national team, or place that's beautiful but needs a tourism kickstart. You're right, from an economic perspective it does make sense. From a soccer perspective, it's puzzling. Qatar has none of the things mentioned above, and that's before we even get into the topic of the weather the months of the year the WC is typically held. Oh right I see. In that respect yes. But I have nothing but disdain for professional football so I don't care about that stuff. The act of a bunch of people kicking a ball about is nice and all, but the millionaire idiots who play it, the destitute idiots who get into brawls over it, all that crap can piss off. Along with FIFA and the rest of the organisations. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saturnine Tenshi Posted June 19, 2013 Report Share Posted June 19, 2013 Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted July 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 http://www.zdnet.com/eu-votes-to-support-suspending-u-s-data-sharing-agreements-including-passenger-flight-data-7000017677/ EU parliament have voted to back dropping data sharing schemes with US (as in the ones that are legally set up, not the NSA-type). tbh I'm kinda surprised we have these kind of one-way data sharing schemes set-up. UK also in a massive boo-boo too with the GCHQ involvement. Gotta say though, hell of a day to carry out the vote. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saturnine Tenshi Posted July 5, 2013 Report Share Posted July 5, 2013 Good move. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted October 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2013 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/04/us-swiss-pay-idUSBRE9930O620131004 Switzerland to be holding a referendum that will grant every adult a basic 2,500 franc basic income. Would be interesting. I've seen suggestions for similar in the UK, though it would be the basic benefits (~£224/$360 a month) mainly suggested with the aim to spur spending, and thus growth, and eliminate the cost of benefit fraud. If everyone gets it you can't defraud it. 2,500 Francs is quite a bit more (~£1719/$2756) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted October 6, 2013 Report Share Posted October 6, 2013 Being paid for being an adult citizen. Sounds nice but how would it be funded? How would it keep funded? How can you become disqualified for the income? Not like anybody personally will deny about $2800 per month but got to keep it realistic. The money got to come from somewhere. I don't think even Swiss' taxes can cover it all. In American (Californian) terms, the UK one sounds the most reasonable. I can be homeless but at least I stay fed with that amount. The Swiss one can have me pay for rent, utilities, bills and food with some left over. In higher cost areas, you can have people getting together to make it work. Personally, I think a government issued card would work best for this sort of thing but then we got Big Brother watching what we spend it on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted October 6, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2013 I guess you'd become disqualified by dying, or reverting to childhood? As for funding, like any social policy through taxes. From what I've read this isn't overly much in Swiss terms, ever so slightly below NMW. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted October 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2013 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/10/09/oops-azerbaijan-released-election-results-before-voting-had-even-started/ Azerbaijan speed up voting process. Announce winner before votes start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted October 10, 2013 Report Share Posted October 10, 2013 Wow, they picked a really bad cover story. A much better one would have been to say they were conducting an internal system test with dummy results and it accidentally got pushed to the public. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted December 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2013 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25249520 Mandela has died. Aged 95, so not bad going. Terrible end of year for his family mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted December 5, 2013 Report Share Posted December 5, 2013 Honestly, they kept him alive for way too long. He was a pale shadow of his former self for years and I find it to be terrible to keep a person in such a state. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted January 23, 2014 Report Share Posted January 23, 2014 So yeah, Ukraine. http://www.ustream.tv/channel/euromajdan/pop-out and this little gem. Anyways, lets hope that we don't really talk about Sochi in a bad way in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted January 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2014 Anyways, lets hope that we don't really talk about Sochi in a bad way in the future. Hmm? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted January 23, 2014 Report Share Posted January 23, 2014 Winter Olympics is at Sochi in a few weeks. Terrorists really does have an active beef with Russia and have actively let it be known. It wouldn't be unrealistic to think their threats are quite real. Though personally I think they are bluffing since it would be really stupid to get the rest of the world on their asses when they are already dealing with Russia. It would be a bad idea to underestimate people's stupidity though so... we'll see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted January 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2014 Oh, I thought you were getting at some "hey the police in Ukraine are throwing Molotovs, can't really complain about what Russians are doing at Sochi" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted January 24, 2014 Report Share Posted January 24, 2014 (edited) Edit: I'm also malicious but not that malicious... Okay, I laughed. Edited January 24, 2014 by MaliciousH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted March 1, 2014 Report Share Posted March 1, 2014 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=15f_1393628931 I don't know what to make of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted March 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2014 So. Ukraine, Crimea river, NATO, Russia, Putin on the Ritz, shit going down in Eastern Europe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted March 6, 2014 Report Share Posted March 6, 2014 I, for one, look forward to the coming nuclear apocalypse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted March 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2014 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted March 9, 2014 Report Share Posted March 9, 2014 So it is to my understanding Crimea regional government or its something to that effect kind of let the Russians in and at this point in time the Russians and Ukrainians troops are lining up, setting up defensive positions (Anti tank minefields are included in this... I hope there isn't AP mines...). Russia might annex Crimea at this point and they can just sit in Crimea and wait to see what the Ukrainians want to do. It almost seems like Ukraine will have to take this insult since chances are their forces will be split via factions (A fair chunk of their population are/were Russian) and Russia might ultimately pull ahead. It is to my understanding that Russia supply a fair chunk of Europe's oil needs, especially eastern Europe. So they got that going for them as well. If war breaks, that get cut off. Sanction them too hard and that oil is gone too. tl;dr... Russia might be ahead with and without war? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted March 18, 2014 Report Share Posted March 18, 2014 So Crimea incident (Russia by extension and I think she has been around for a while but Crimea just shed light onto her?) gave something to the world that doesn't give a shit that Putin is pulling such a bullshit land grab... Natalia. This shit should be illegal. The attorney general can't be this cute. The denizens of the internet has taken noticed as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted March 18, 2014 Report Share Posted March 18, 2014 So is she Russian or Ukrainian? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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