Basically all we export is minerals (iron, coal, uranium) and ag (sheep, wheat, barley).
We don’t make anything locally anymore. 
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Wow, this is quite a discussion here. I was not even able to read it entirely.
I always stress about the need to define words. Often we use words without even knowing their real definition.
Anyway, without looking in a dictionary, for me an atheist, is a person without a religion. Religion means believing. So, actually we cannot say that a person believe that there is no god, hence is without religion. If he believes that then his religion is science. He believes in what science says.
On the other hand, agnostic for me is a person who is aware that he does not know. Gnoseology is the science of knowledge. Agnostic means without knowledge. So, in the true sense, only Sentinelese are agnostic (of our religions, even they may have their own religion). But when somebody says that he does not know, already learned about that respective religion(s). All they do not know, is if they are true or false. Believers are also agnostic, because they do not know either, they just believe. Anyway, I am aware that definition is not used stricto senso So, when someone declares that he is agnostic, he actually is something lesser than an atheist. An atheist, knows that believers are deceived by clerics. He knows that there are not superior beings in other realms controlling us. But an agnostic is not anymore sure about that, and hence he says I do not know. In a way, he believes that there is something out there, but is not sure.
I grew in a communist country. Religion was still accepted, but discouraged by authorities. So I grew atheist. I step my foot in a church at 10 when a neighbor died, and second time at 37 when I got married. I accepted the charade just to please the family. But everybody warned me, take care of what priest you choose. they will skin you. So I asked the help of a relative. She was in good terms with church and popes. She arranged everything. Except the godfather. As a godfather church forces you to some expenses, and hence I do not quite found. one. Even my childhood friend after initially accepting later refused me even I stressed that I will secretly take the burden of expenses. I had the luck of a club member who regarded me highly and took the burden. To make a long story short… months or years later my godfather confessed to me that the priest tried to squeeze some more money from him. And so, from accepting religion as customary, I become a furybund atheist. I mean anti religious. But I was in the same time agnostic. I practiced yoga, and experienced things not explained by science. So, I know that there are energies not explained yet, but I do not know what they are. Anyway, priests are even less religious than me since they are so greedy and merciless.
We reverse engineer the nature. So it seems that nature, this nature is engineered. But I see no proof. So yeah, maybe was self engineered. Or maybe not. I do not know.
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I am not sure how that market works exactly, but as far as I can tell getting LNG via huge pipelines is cheaper by getting it via ships. That’s were a lot of shipping profits come from, after all.
I wonder if this works practically though. 
For example, the olive oil shortage has driven the price to 6-7 euros per kilo (whereas it used to be 3-4 a few years ago). This increase has led a lot of farmers to re-invigorate their olive fields which had been largely left to their own devices or in many cases uprooted and replaced with other kinds of trees or more ephemeral cultivations.
Now they are expecting to get a return from their investment of time and money and, so far, they are getting it. However if the price goes back to 3-4 euros per kilo, they will abandon the olive harvesting because it will not turn a profit at all.
And this is just trees which are flexible by nature (you can let your trees untended for a few years and nothing bad will happen to them). If you apply a similar plight to produce that demands more investment in time, personel and facilities (e.g. a factory and a supply chain), if the price gets reduced on your product, while the rest of the economy does not similarly adjust, then you are facing bankrupcy.
Maybe he thinks that Australia doesn’t exist. Has anyone checked? 
eeeehhmmm… no?
The very definition of science is the organised, concentrated and repeatable effort of reducing belief in any idea/thesis and establishing its veracity.
I do not “believe” that **K.E. = (m * v * v)/2 ** … there is actual evidence of that being the case. And even if you “believe” that π should be a “good round 3” then good luck drawing a circle (unless you are B.S. Johnson ).
If the average priests were even slightly religious, most of them wouldn’t even dare come out of their houses without an industrial grade lightning rod covering their path 
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I’d say that when a person believes that no god exists, it doesn’t imply that they have a strong faith in science (I assume atheist flat-earthers exist). Neither is it the case that when a person has a strong faith in science, it implies they believe that no god exists (the father of the Big Bang theory was a Catholic priest). Science does not reject the existence of gods, nor does it accept the existence of gods. You could say science is itself agnostic.
Nor is it the case that when a person believes that no god exists, they are irreligious, or when a person believes that god(s) exist, they are religious (defining “religious” as participating in practices and rituals associated with a community that believes in a specific god according to their shared dogmas).
Also, I think there is a difference between “believing” in science and believing in the existence of a god. Scientific findings can be objectively confirmed by probing the real (observable) world with measurements, while the existence (or not) of a god cannot really be measured (how would you even approach such an experiment, which measurement devices to use?).
I consider that formula more a definition of the concept of kinetic energy than an actual law of nature. Also, I consider Newton’s 2nd law (F = m ⋅ a) a definition of the concept of force and perhaps of mass. They are useful in that they are quantitative (allowing them to be used mathematically and experimentally), and that they define concepts to describe the phyical world in a coherent paradigm. But they don’t actually reveal the rules that the physical world seems to follow: how the physical world changes/evolves with the passage of time, on temporal and spatial scales ranging from extremely tiny to extremely large.
In my view, examples of actual laws of nature (physics at least, to our current understanding) are conservation laws, such as the conservation of (angular) momentum, energy and electrical charge, and also force laws such as Coulomb’s law (or in more detail: the Standard Model [1] and General Relativity [2]).
[1]
[2]
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While I agree he alone shouldn’t be exempt from the dress code, the reaction seems a bit over the top.
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This might explain it:
Carlsen, who was handed a defeat by Denis Lazavik besides being held to draws by Awonder Liang, Gleb Dudin, and Aleksandr Shimanov on the opening day and was struggling on the second day as well reasoned why he would not come back and play.
This was funny though:
“And well, at that point it became a bit of a matter of principle for me.”
The Norwegian slammed FIDE for enforcing rules.
As if behaving like a spoiled brat is now virtuous
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It’s not particularly virtuous, but sometimes rules are also stupid, and I feel this is very much the case here.
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Sometimes rules tend to be - or seem to be - silly or even petty, however when everyone else follows the rules and the “star of the event” does not, then that is not a good look for anyone involved. Carlsen now pretends to not care and to have been an accident, but such petty power-plays are par for the course on many levels/instances of life. Good for the organisers for upholding the rules (which were posted and known beforehand - it was not something that changed at the last minute and he was caught flat-footed).
As for why they have a dress code? Not for a silly reason. They are expecting to run marketing campaigns with the footage and photos. They may have sold ads and coverage for the event. You cannot appear in the “group photo” where everyone is in a suit and you are rocking the “Big Lebowski” (for example) look just because you are the biggest name in the event and your ego is now so inflated that you are too bored to respect the other players and the event itself.
Case in point for such an inane rule is the “yellow card if you get your shirt off when you score a goal” in football. Who asked for that? Certainly not the players
The organisers though have three logical reasons for this (even thought they do not admit to any of those three hehe):
a) The goal and its celebration is the most important time of the game and the few times you get a close up to the players (and thus the corporate logos on the player’s shirt 
)
b) The players many times used to have another shirt underneath with messages that were not to the liking of the organisers.
c) Some sponsors/advertisers/cultures might find the whole thing offensive or “too much” for their products/viewers.
Appearances are important when you run a professional league.
So when you score and take your shirt off, even if you are Messi or if you are just a random dude in the 4rth division, you get a yellow card. Those are the rules set beforehand, everyone knows them and thus and they should apply to everyone.
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Maybe Carlsen likes to take some liberties like at the 2022 blitz
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I’m not saying Carlsen should get a pass and the rules shouldn’t apply to him. I also agree the staff is not in the wrong and had no choice but to apply the rules they were tasked to enforce.
I am, however, saying this rule is very much stupid, and that there is some value in refusing it, and accepting that the consequence is that you’re out. At the very least it may cause such rules to be re-evalued rather than kept as is “because we always do it this way”.
Carlsen just happens to be in a position that allow him to clash with FIDE without worry (as opposed to most other players who can’t afford to damage their career over such things).
For the record:
- Carlsen wasn’t rocking a “Big Lebowski” look; he was better dressed than many at the event. It just didn’t fall within the silly FIDE rule:
- while this outfit was deemed ok because it’s “not jeans but trousers that look like jeans”.
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Carlsen just happens to be in a position that WANTS to clash with FIDE too
There are a lot of money to be gained if he manages to discredit the FIDE and replace them with chess dot com.
Yes, which is why I said “for example”:
Rules do not break all the way on day one. You start with “one item” being wrong and once you let that slide, then a few tournaments later some contestants are on a quest to get their rag back
Maybe in 2025 we can have the chess discussion in the actual chess discussion thread
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on to something else then, that didn’t change much in 2024 and won’t change in 2025 either:
also this:
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On the internet, no one knows you’re not wearing any pants.
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I’m just gonna leave this here
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/infographic-the-countries-most-optimistic-about-2025/
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Japan knows what’s up
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We could do a similar poll here and add OGS to the graphic. The new version might go as viral as the first one and people might wonder which new country is “OGS”
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You need to be careful with equating religion with a belief in God. An atheist is a person who, in some sense, is without a belief in God. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they are irreligious though.
In the West when we talk about religion we are primarily thinking of the various Abrahamic religions, with the Norse, Greek and Egyptian pantheons in the background. But out there in the wider non-western world there are a variety of religions - some forms of animism, Buddhism or Taoism for example - that have supernatural concepts and entities - such as souls - but which don’t have deities.
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