Sorry about that, i think the brackets in the wikipedia-link somehow messed up the formating. I swapped out the link to another one from the UN.

Also shorting before could be seen as insider trading, right? Not that something being illegal means it wouldn’t happen, but feels like that would be hard to hide.

Sorry, if i missinterpreted your post.

Even if the wording was more explicit, do you honestly think Obama and the Americans wouldn’t chicken out in 2014 and would be willing to fight to kick out the Russians from Crimea?

That’s a difficult one to answer, but yeah it wouldn’t have been a certain thing. However i don’t think we’d have ever arrived in the same circumstances like 2014, had the US given explicit security guarantees.

They didn’t give those, because they didn’t have to and Ukraine wasn’t in a position to force the issue (similar maybe to how there wasn’t any formal pact regarding Russia and NATO’s expansion). But had they signed any explicit form of mutual defense arrangement i’d imagine that this would have lead them to build some form of permanent military presence in Ukraine. And that would almost certainly have changed everything. Would Russia ever dare to invade, if there was a US military base in Ukraine? And in that scenario i would answer your question with “yes, Obama/the Americans would likely not have chickened out and fought back”.

I wouldn’t trust the US either, although having economic leverage helps. But are you referring to the Budapest memorandum with

They guaranteed Ukraine’s integrity in return for denuclearization

If yes I don’t understand how this misunderstanding still has to be corrected. Read it for yourself here (swapped link to something working, pdf warning)

At no point does it promise defense against foreign third-party attacks except in case nuclear weapons get involved. Every security assurance only covers the nation themselves. Something Russia has obviously broken (but there are no penalties stipulated), whereas the UK and USA have held up their part of the deal. Unless they have invaded Ukraine themselves without my knowledge.___

What I don’t understand about the whole thing is who ends up holding the bag of all that debt?

Like banks that lend them billions must be intelligent enough to know how private equity takeovers like this work. So if they lend them money, they surely would want to get that off their books asap. But who do they sell it to? I can’t imagine there is any type of reinsurance for this, since insurance providers should know even better.

I imagine some of the debt is to employees and small contractors, but can that really account for such a massive sum?

The concept of the movie “In Time” imo has the potential for a decent series.

Not everything has to be for everyone, but are people really gonna pay to see a movie about Facebook? I feel like, if you have Facebook, it should be free to watch on that platform at least. Maybe on Instagram/WhatsApp/whatever other Meta services.

First of all who says it wouldn’t be about everything Meta/Zuckerberg have done? Although even focusing on Facebook would give a ton of material.

I think the first one was quite interesting and since then there have been a ton of technological and social shifts, with Facebook being both a driving force behind them and a platform that reflects those changes. I really can’t see how this is at all similar to the “Emoji” or “Angry Birds” movie, which are just niche things.

If anything you could maybe compare it films like “Blackberry”, “Air” or “Tetris” which have come out in recent years and focus on a founder+product. Admittedly i have watched none of those, but especially compared to the later two i feel like there are deeper themes to explore with a Facebook movie compared to the rest. And aditionally the topic would be vastly more relevant to people.

Without context that actually isn’t as crazy as it sounds, considering some of the absurd budgets of TV shows nowadays. But for a show with seemingly so little cultural impact and from Netflix it really is suprising.

I mean Amazon spend way more on the terrible LOTR series and Citadel cost like 300m for a single season without having any cultural impact. But that is just typical Amazon throwing money in the fire hoping for their own GoT, whereas Netflix usually seems to be much more about numbers and cancelling shows if no one watches them (so apparently the viewership numbers are still solid?).

And recently Andor came in at over $600m for two seasons, but especially the second season was basically like 4 high quality movies (each 3 episode block being roughly one). Which puts the whole budget into perspective and i feel like the repairs it did to the damaged star wars franchise brand were huge.

More like: “They are already mad at us, might as well push through some unpopular changes now. They’ll be mad at something else tomorrow. It’s not like there are many alternatives out there.”

And sadly I think this is probably correct from a business point of view.

Good to know and thanks for doing all this work!

My take:

Is it even worth trying to invest $15K?

Yes and no. What i mean with that is that investing can mean a variety of things from investing in stocks/etfs to investing in yourself, your education and new experiences. Also while $15k is substantial and if put into a broad market fund and not touched until retirement will grow into a substantial sum, if you are on track to getting a good education and wellpaying job you are going to make this many times over during your carreer. To the point where you might enjoy the luxury of being in a position similar to your generous brother-in-law, for whom $15k is “pocket money”.

The goal of investing is not just to put as much money as possible into your retirement account at all cost, but to smooth out your lifetime earnings over your whole life. Since you will earn most of that in your 30-60s that ofc means setting aside a good chunk for retirement after, but it is just as valid to spend some during your teens and 20s, where you equally will have lower income.

Without knowing your specific circumstances, here is what i would do, assuming you are otherwise financially healthy (otherwise paying off debt and stuff is likely more important):

• Take a substantial sum, maybe $5k and put it into a broad market, low fee fund. Depending on your preference that can be one following an index tracking the total market, the developed world or the S&P500. You will have plenty of time accumulating more wealth once you land a good job, but from a psychological pov there is a difference of looking at historical data and coming to the conclusion that investing is worth it, vs having actual skin in the game and seeing the ups and downs affect your own money. If you feel like it, pick 1-3 stocks of companies you believe in long term and buy a few shares, but set yourself a hard limit of maybe 10-20% relative to what you put into the diversified fund. However you should see this as a risky bet and mentally mark it as 0, maybe you’ll get lucky and hit the next nvidia, but likely not. This is an investment with a time horizon of at least 10-15+ years (a time frame which is historically enough to ride out market downturns,) so do so only if you expect to not need the money for at least that long.

• Take another chunk, maybe 2-3k and spend it on sensible “luxury” purchases that you otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford. With that i mean maybe you get a new laptop that you could also use during university (if that is where you are headed) or otherwise a good pc setup, a nice bike, some better quality gear for your hobbies, maybe some good clothes etc. . Still try to get good price/performance, but opt for something that lasts.

• If you have the time, then travel. Taking a few thousand and spending it e.g. traveling a month or more all accross europe, asia or south america might be a once in a lifetime experience worth many times over what you spend. Maybe you end up getting to know new friends or even a partner, maybe you get to know something new about yourself, you’ll learn about different cultures and so on, which might end up changing what you want to become and where you want to live.

• Does your brother-in-law have any interest or hobbies that you know of? Or maybe you yourself have some interesting idea that he might also enjoy. If you can think of something good i might take a few hundred $ and ask him whether he would like to do some unique experience with you for a day or a weekend. If both of you are thrillseekers you could do something like skydiving, as an example. If he’s a car person, maybe there is a opportunity to go to a race track and drive a few rounds in a cool car. If he’s a sports person, go to see a game together.

• Maybe take a few hundred and spend it “irresponsibly” just having fun. Go to concerts, in the cinema, eat a huge pile of ice cream. idk whatever you can think of. Or maybe do something nice to someone else by including them in those things or getting them a way larger gift that you’d overwise have done.

• Whatever is left, which should be a few k into readily accessible saving (if there’s something that also pays a bit of interest even better), because there most certainly will come times that you unexpectedly need some of the money. For example when you need it as deposit for renting a new place.

I have to admit that somehow i still got massive blindspots, in fact even though i’ve watched a ton i feel like my gaps are massive. I’ve for example yet to properly see the sopranos, the wire or blackadder, and never actually fully watched Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul. Somehow i never found the time and mindset to properly sit down and completely watch them. And i don’t want o just binge them wihtout paying them proper attention (also for BB/BCS i have kind of been spoiled already i assume most major plot points). There’s a very high likelyhood that at least some of them would end up in the top 10 once i come around watching them properly. But i guess in that case i’d have to wait until there is a reset and this list gets restarted. I’ll post a short breakdown of my reasoning in a comment below.

1-8 were somewhat easy to come up, but i had to think a bit longer as to what to fill the last spots with. In the end i decided to include 2 animated shows that are well deserving and to maybe also balance things out a bit

As to why my list is what it is:

• The Good Place: Imo just the complete package. Great from start to finish, never settling and drawing things out, instead moving ahead with new story lines. And most importantly it achieved something outstanding in being funny, profound and optimistic at the same time, especially the last part imo is not easy to do in todays times.
• Die Sendung mit der Maus (The Show with the Mouse): Still ongoing German educational children series. Huge part of my childhood and i think its positive impact on all children growing up with it can’t be overstated. This manages to not just be a good series, but make the world a better place.
• House: Yes it has it’s flaws, like the new additions to the team towards the end not being as strong and in some ways the formulaic structure does hold it back in some ways. But it also has some outstanding highs (epsiodes like “three storie”, “one day, one room” or “House’s Head”/“Wilson’s Heart”), amazing performances (especially from Hugh Laurie) and great characters. There’s also a good bit of personal nostalgia playing into the high ranking.
• Scrubs: Sometimes extremely funny and at other times it emotionally wrecks you. Every single character is great. Also great soundtrack.
• Andor: I am admittedly a star was fan (although not so much of most of the stuff disney has recently release).The most recent addition to the list. Never easy to include something so recent, but i think this one will hold up over the long run. Insane cinematography/constumes and so on, but more importantly also amazing performances by so many actors/actresses. Its themes are timeless and at the same time extremely relevant to current times (e.g. mon mothma’s speech)
• Futurama: I debated quite a while whether to include it or not, since it is currently ongoing again, because of the reboot. I haven’t seen that much of the new episodes, so this is more of a vote for the episodes up until the most recent cancellation.
• The It Crowd: Another comedy, but the “The work outing” episode might just be the single funniest episode ever created. That one alone might have been enough, but It Crowd manages to not just have the occasional high, but consistenly be insanely funny.
• Chernobyl: Wasn’t sure if i should include limited series, as being done in one season is a very different thing compared to having to sustain quality over multiple, but in the end i decided to include it.
• Avatar the last Airbender: Actually only ended up watching it as an adult, so there is no nostalgia, but imo it’s just objectively a great show with great characters and themes.
• Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood: Wanted to also include an anime and it was between this and Stein’s Gate. Ended up settling on this one, but feel like it could have gone either way. However if i’d include unfinished series Frieren would take the spot, however the likes of Westworld/Game of thrones have taught me to wait until the end to judge a series.

1. The Good Place
2. Die Sendung mit der Maus
3. House md.
4. Scrubs
5. Andor
6. Futurama
7. The It Crowd
8. Chernobyl
9. Avatar: the last Airbender
10. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

I bet I’ll think of something i forgot to include or that i’d do the ranking differently the moment i post this. But it is what it is.

Timothy Oliphant is definitely delivering a great performance, but i feel like him having limited screen time benefits the character as it helps sustain some of the mystique of what he is scheming.

Honestly, imo they wouldn’t even need to get off Twitter and other platforms completely. Just make their own mastodon instance (or something similar that they control themselves) the primary source of truth and place of interaction. They could still link and reference it on other platforms to increase visibility, but make sure that all primary information is in a freely accessible place and not beholden to unreliable entities.

Or an established player in the market that wants to keep competitors out (but I guess in a way that is someone who dislikes change). While legislation like this can sometimes be great (e.g. the recent changes forcing longer support for mobile phones) there comes a point where it cuts the other way and it becomes an entry barrier.

Imo the better solution would be to legislate what happens after support ends. Like forcing the disclosure of at least some documentation that allows others to continue servicing the product or at least transfer out data and install other software on the device.

I’ve seen all 3, but it’s been a while:

• The Thin Red Line: beautiful movie with outstanding cinematography and I am a huge fan of some of Terrence Malicks work. But I’d say if someone is “In the mood for WW2” it wouldnt necessarily be my first recommendation. Really creates its own mood.

• Fury: if I remember correctly more gritty and you get action straight from the start. Also it’s based in Europe so you get the US vs Germany setting.

• Hacksaw ridge: you get the full arc from training to getting deployed building up to the finale. Also it’s the Pacific war theater so you get the US vs Japan setting.

Really depends on what you are looking for. But ofc there are also plenty of other movie options depending on what you are looking for and haven’t seen yet. There are just so many movies out there with WW2 setting that capture different aspects, locations and events.

Just set this up a few days ago and so far am very happy. Ended up choosing it over other options since I wanted something that saves the downloads in a humanly accessible way by simply putting them into channel folders with the video names as title.

If you want to setup a stack take a look up TRaSH guides. Then it goes roughly like this.

You have software that search and make the download requests: radarr (movies), sonarr (TV shows), lidarr (music), bazaar (subtitles, if you need to add more that don’t already come with the movie/show). But there might be others e.g. for porn or like here for YouTube.

Those forward the request to a downloader like Sabnzb if you are using usenet or qbirtorrent for torrents.

Those above are the main ones and from there you can add things that make your life easier:

• Prowlarr: sonarr/radar need an indexer to search, instead of configuring them in each software this allows you to do it once and then sync across the other apps

• Overseerr/Jellyseerr: if you want a nicer frontend to search and make download requests instead of doing so in radar/sonarr.

• Recycler/Notifier/Configarr (all do roughly the same): sonarr/radarr allow you to configure specific profiles to score the quality of downloads so you can get them in the format you desire (e.g. so you want 1080p or 4k, HDR yes or no). These allow you to sync custom formats with sonarr/radarr that others like trash-guides have developed.

• Tdarr: if you would like to reencode and compress movies to save space this allows you to do so in an automated way. Although you usually I’d imagine it might be easier to just setup a better profile in sonarr/radarr and download the desired version (should you e.g. want x265 encoded versions)

I don’t have one myself, so I can’t really recommend a specific model from experience. There are many available, but I’ve e.g. seen beelink mentioned a few times. Maybe someone else here is running one and can give some recommendations?

If you are facing availability issues I’d to the reverse and rather then asking for recommendations look at what’s available and then do a quick search or ask about it (e.g. if someone has already used it with whatever Linux distro you plan on using). Should you have access to something like AliExpress then there are plenty of options.