The Altera Centauri collection has been brought up to date by Darsnan. It comprises every decent scenario he's been able to find anywhere on the web, going back over 20 years.
25 themes/skins/styles are now available to members. Check the select drop-down at the bottom-left of each page.
Call To Power 2 Cradle 3+ mod in progress: https://apolyton.net/forum/other-games/call-to-power-2/ctp2-creation/9437883-making-cradle-3-fully-compatible-with-the-apolyton-edition
I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891
Think it's great. I get to buy yankee stuff for cheap.
DISCLAIMER: the author of the above written texts does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for any offence and insult; disrespect, arrogance and related forms of demeaning behaviour; discrimination based on race, gender, age, income class, body mass, living area, political voting-record, football fan-ship and musical preference; insensitivity towards material, emotional or spiritual distress; and attempted emotional or financial black-mailing, skirt-chasing or death-threats perceived by the reader of the said written texts.
Originally posted by Zkribbler
A solid U.S. economy is essential for a solid world economy. If we go down, the rest of the industrialed world goes with us.
My worries over the U.S. dollar don't arise so much from government waste, as with our skyrocketing trade imbalance and our ballooning national debt. We can't keep trying to run this economy on fumes.
The FED uses interest rates not only to fight inflation but also to help economic growth. Real interest rate close to zero (and sometimes even negative) has significant effects : creates an incentive for bad capital expenditures, makes easier a continuous increase of consumption (fuelled by the stupid motto “consumption is the motor of the economy”, when consumption is the final aim of the economy), through progressive decline then total suppression of savings, aggravated by a tremendous increase of borrowings, all trends resulting in a housing bubble, and makes the dollar less attractive than before (when the dollar enjoyed a higher rate) and/or than other currencies (which currently enjoyed higher rates).
The increasing consumption fed by the interest rates caused a considerable increase of imports which were the consequence of the global economy, astutely exploited by Asian countries, and a paradisiac financing of the trade imbalance (May : trade – 60 billion, capital flow 106 billions !).
What can be expected?
- the American consumer, one day or the other, will start again to build savings, therefore reduce not their consumption but its continuous increase;
- the price of imports will progressively increases, due to modernization of China, scarcity of raw material, energy, and foods, all this reinforced by the depreciation of the dollar;
- the dollar policy will not change until a significant portion of the “paradisiac financing” is absorbed by sovereign funds, which will take time, if it ever happens.
- the national debt is not actually a source of worry and will not become one soon.
The worse that could happen
Scarcity could become quickly more than a threat, a fact. As raw materials, energy and foods are strategic, states would take control of them, which would put an end to free trade.
Statistical anomaly.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Originally posted by notyoueither
You sure have a hate on for this thing called 'free trade'.
Did not I qualified the end of free trade "the worse that could happen"?
Generally my opinion about free trade is that it does not solve all the problems, and some of the most difficult problems cannot be solved by or in the presence of free trade.
Free trade is just a useful technic, not an indiscutable ideology.
Statistical anomaly.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
Originally posted by Dis
I'm afraid the U.S. is going to crash and burn like the 30's, or worse.
Particularly if the peg the price of oil to the euro rather than the greenback...........
Then there would be no reason to keep it overly inflated.....
I don't know why he saved my life. Maybe in those last moments he loved life more than he ever had before. Not just his life - anybody's life, my life. All he'd wanted were the same answers the rest of us want. Where did I come from? Where am I going? How long have I got? All I could do was sit there and watch him die.
It might be a good time to learn about alternative currencies, I'm totally serious - these are POWERFUL in times of economic depression.
They make it possible for physical infrastructure - the real world - to continue to function despite some silly numbers in the non-real world going haywire.
Originally posted by notyoueither
No, you said resource scarcity was the worst that could happen, and that might put an end to free trade. It would put an end to a lot more than that.
I think too many of your dreams involve an end to the Anglo-Saxon notion of free trade.
be careful what you wish for. You might get it.
The second sentence of the paragraph starting with "As", I though it would be red as a consequence of the first sentence, and consequently covered by the title. Anyway, I confirm that the end of free trade would be the worst thing happening for the free trade lovers and possibly all others, particularly the poorest part of humanity.
Regarding the scarcity, I think that leaving the dream of perpetual abundance and acknowledging that we have to adapt ourselves to limited resources is likely a real improvement for mankind.
Statistical anomaly.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
The good thing is a weaker dollar will raise US exports. I've already done my part when I ordered a number of books from Amazon thanks to the cheaper dollar.
Skeptics should forego any thought of convincing the unconvinced that we hold the torch of truth illuminating the darkness. A more modest, realistic, and achievable goal is to encourage the idea that one may be mistaken. Doubt is humbling and constructive; it leads to rational thought in weighing alternatives and fully reexamining options, and it opens unlimited vistas.
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
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