Don't forget that the amount of paper gold is orders of magnitude larger than the amount of real gold. A quick google shows that around 3000 metric tons of gold are traded every day, which is about the amount in this ship. Of course, this is "virtual" gold, as none of these investors are interested in acquiring actual metal, but are merely speculating on rising/falling prices through financial instruments. In fact, there is about a hundred times more gold "in circulation" (on paper) than actually exists!

Selling such a tremendous amount of physical gold probably isn't too much of a problem, as many actors (large states mainly, such as Russia and China) are constantly on the lookout for acquiring REAL gold (not the virtual paper variant). It might even have an opposite effect ("herd mentality").

Even the summary reads like an onion story. Is this a joke, parody, or do the editors truly want to share this news on this website with this audience? Some probably russian-related actors bought three ads for the amount of ONE dollar..? This is background noise. You can probably find even more adds of Pakistani people trying to influence the elections in Portugal

Unless there is some fusion/fission going on inside the battery, or exhaustion of fumes, the lithium is going exactly nowhere.

No, someone has to be the adult. An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.

This has already happened. Many conferences are on a yearly Asia - Europe - USA cycle (one year in Asia, next year Europe, next year USA, repeat), for instance several large IEEE conferences and workshops. Some of these have already decided to cut out the USA, and go on a Asia - Europe cycle. The number of registrants for this year's conferences in the USA has dramatically declined, with many countries simply no longer bothering to attend at all. Several Pakistani and Iranian colleagues already had major trouble getting visa for attending conferences in the USA (as in, they never get any), and now they simply gave up completely. Others who work at US universities no longer dare to go home for vacation or family visits, afraid that they cannot return. These are some brilliant scientists by the way.

Even many European colleagues no longer bother, as they have simply become afraid of the USA border and security theater. Last year in Los Angeles, two out of five of my colleagues got held up for 12 hours at the airport for no apparent reason (it turned out one of them had a name familiar to someone on a list, and the second's passport was erroneously on some list as well). They had Israeli and UK nationalities, and nothing that could flag them as suspicious (well behaved, well spoken, well dressed white folks, on an incoming European flight). These stories move quickly in the conference crowd, drawing nothing but disgust, and going to a USA conference is now almost considered a liability.

Also the opposite seems to happen: Recent workshops in Europe seem to draw lots of American attention now, with many American researchers now traveling to Europe, which they didn't do in the past. Even these American researchers no longer plan to attend the USA conferences anymore, and I am not talking about some random PhD student, these are the big shots that organize the conferences and give the plenaries.

Ba, neutrino shakes. Only three tastes, and you can't even be sure it hasn't changed on your drive home from the store.

Well I am renovating a house in an expensive EU country. I don't mind the Polish and Romanian workers at all who help me at one half of the rate I would have to pay a fellow countryman. They are happy, I am happy. Capitalism...!

You do know that in Brussels, one in three speaks Arabic as their first language...?

This is Brussels airport, the lines at security are very short or non-existent most of the time.

I am so much agreeing with your post it hurts. If only I had mod points.

Please, someone at google, read the parent's post, and do something about it. Classic maps is a tremendously useful tool, used almost daily by me and most of my peers. The new maps are a turd, and will have me look for an alternative.

That would explain the quality of some comments...

As a parent, and speaking for most parents in the world, I wish upon you a house full of confetti and glitter, a sick goat locked up in your car, and from now on you're only allowed roughspun wool underwear.

Maybe they stole the backups? Fastest easiest way to get all data nicely aggregated into one spot. Walk out with one box of tapes?

That was in Belgium actually. Belgians are known to be among the most agressive drivers in Europe, and have the worst roads and most congested traffic.

Have you compared the average car in Germany with the ones in the USA? Furthermore, in Germany there are mandatory periodic technical inspections, and these are no joke. Half the cars I see in the USA would never pass these inspections. Also, getting a driver license in Germany is HARD, and the average Autobahn driver is very well disciplined compared to his USA counterpart (exceptions exist, I know I know...)