Title says it all. Got my practical drivers test tomorrow morning. Give me advice or ask me whatever. Here's to hoping I pass.

So from what I've been reading, Trump's top picks for his cabinet include:

- a climate change denier as the head for the Environmental Protection Agency whose top priority of the past few years has been fighting "global warming alarism".

- a creationist who believes that evolution and the big bang theory to be satanic and false as the secretary of education.

- an oil industry executive as secretary of the interior, who would be (partially) responsible for things like the oversight of national parks and wildlife refuges as well as decision-making on offshore drilling, fracking regulations and the protection of endangered species. He also said (lpretty much lierally) that every time oil companies can't drill more wells in the US, terrorism is being funded. That, or Sarah Palin is apparently being considered as well.

- the CEO of an oil company as the potential secretary of energy.

Obvious disclaimer: until they're actually appointed, this can all still change.

Welp.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-britains-biggest-potato-chips-maker-walkers-hikes-prices-after-brexit-2016-11?r=US&IR=T

Britain's most popular chips (or crisps, rather) are becoming 10% more expensive because of the Brexit vote. As a result of this, thousands of people took to the streets of London, wearing Guy Fawkes masks and protesting this new development in regret of the referendum.



#StrongerIn

http://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/8D3bkT

Thoughts?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor  (€339.65 @ Amazon Deutschland)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  (€36.44 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: ASRock Z170M Extreme4 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard  (€130.02 @ Mindfactory)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  (€103.33 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  (€97.84 @ Mindfactory)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  (€75.63 @ Mindfactory)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Windforce OC Video Card  (€435.34 @ Mindfactory)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case  (€62.84 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: Corsair CXM 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter  (€41.21 @ Mindfactory)
Monitor: Asus VG248QE 24.0" 144Hz Monitor  (€274.52 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €1596.82

Tell me what to do in Poland, guys.

PC and Xbox 360/One only.

It's my birthday and people want to give me things. I don't know what things to ask for. Step in, give me good suggestions, receive my eternal gratitude.

Thanks fams.

Also, older games are just as welcome. I only recently played through Brink and Rage and liked them both.

The Guardian - Gun inequality: US study charts rise of hardcore super owners.

Harvard's Institute of Public Health and Northeastern University recently conducted a study and survey on American gun ownership. Their research is already being considered the most comprehensive and definitive insight into the details of gun ownership conducted since Duke University did the same thing in 1994. The full study is not yet published, but is scheduled to appear in a peer reviewed journal some time next year.

The article is quite lengthy so I'm not going to quote it all, but the key findings are:

- An estimated 55 million Americans own guns.
- 3% of American gun owners own half the guns.
- The percentage of the U.S. population who own guns decreased slightly from 25% in 1994 to 22% last year.
- Between 300,000 and 600,000 guns are stolen each year (that's one every minute).
- Gun owners tend to be white, male, conservative, and live in rural areas.
- 25% of gun owners in America are white or multi-racial, compared with 16% of Hispanics and 14% of African Americans.
- Handguns have become increasingly popular over rifles.
- There are an estimated 111 million handguns nationwide, a 71% increase from the 65 million handguns in 1994.
- Firearms are bought primarily out of fear of other persons, despite (violent) crime rates continuing to drop.

In other words, the research confirms much of what was previously suggested by earlier studies and surveys. Violent crime continues to drop while the part of the population owning guns is decreasing. While the amount of guns sold and owned by private persons keeps rising due to their non-perishable nature, it is caused by an increasingly small and tiny minority stockpiling more and more firearms while gun ownership among the general public keeps falling.

What are you drinking tonight, Flood? I myself am in for a real treat.


I'm sure some of the real beer fans on here don't need more of an introduction after just seeing the bottle and label, but these are the one and only Westvleteren XII and VIII. Brewn at a single small monastery in Belgium which only sells enough locally to stay in business, does not export and almost never sells commercially. And, of course, widely considered to be the single best beer in the entire world and winner of many awards.

http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/top-50/
http://uk.businessinsider.com/best-beer-in-the-world-westvleteren-xii-2014-12?r=US&IR=T

Has anyone else here had the opportunity to enjoy it?

Just kidding, it's actually an almost 10,000 word long overview of Trump rapidly changing his positions, policy plans and opinions on just about every political topic there is. An impressive feat for someone who's only been into politics for a year, as a lot of his claims and statements are polar opposites to what he said just weeks or days before or after. I would quote the article, but it's 30 pages and 40,000 characters long when I pasted it in Word, so I'm gonna leave it like that.

And yes, >CNBC is trash and some of his position changes are more elaborations than the exaggerated complete changes, but I couldn't resist at least mentioning this after the one actual Trump supporter I know in real life told me that at least Trump doesn't flip-flop but tells it like it is and has a clear and decisive plan.

Seriously though, how can people support stuff like this? It's borderline insane.

Yes, this needed its own thread.

I've just started my playthrough of Fallout 4 and figured I'd share my progress, questions and criticisms of the game with the Fallout fans of this site.

My prior experience with the series is limited to Fallout 3 and New Vegas, both of which I spent some time playing but never fully completed. I was going to play the game in Survival mode, but the whole lack of manual saving and the need to eat, drink and rest would kill the game for me. So Very Hard difficulty is what it'll be.

---

Progress so far:

- woke up after being frozen for 200 years
- cleared out Sanctuary with Codsworth
- discovered the Red Rocket gas station and recruited a dog
- found the cave under the gas station after reading about it on the terminal
- found a house with a bed and safe (can't open yet) near the city
- cleaned out the raiders, rescued the survivors and got into my power armor with minigun
- killed everything in sight and safespotted the Deathclaw from inside a shop
- discovered a path into the sewers under the city but didn't proceed due to lack of inventory space
- escorted the people to Sanctuary

---

Character:

I'm going for a build focused primarily on stealth and utilising small arms / rifles and melee weapons. Any recommendations are always welcome. So far, I've put my first 2 level ups in general SPECIAL points and the third one into Locksmith which allows me to pick advanced locks.

Level 4.

Strength = 6
Perception = 5
Endurance = 2
Charisma = 3
Intelligence  6
Agility = 6
Luck = 4

Weaponry: 10mm pistol (10mm), Tactical Calibrated Pipe Pistol (.38), Pipe Revolver Rifle (.45), Short Double-Barrel Shotgun and Tire Iron for my melee needs.

Equipment: Drifter Outfit and Hard Hat with Welding Goggles at the ready for that 1 perception boost if necessary.

---

What is the best course of action to deal with looting stuff? I used to just use the simple formula of "is it worth 10 caps per 1 unit of weight" to decide on whether or not to loot something, but the whole crafting thing seems to have complicated this a lot. So far, I've been picking up stuff that looks useful (ductape, steel items, oil cans...) and managed to fill up my inventory pretty quickly.

What's the deal with multiple weapons? Is there any point in having more of them? In the previous games, you just used them to repair the ones you've already had. Now I have a dozen pipe pistols (I stored them in the workbench in Sanctuary) that don't really appear to have a use.

For part 1 on economic happenings after the referendum, see my previous thread. This is all from the last 2-3 days.

The Bank of England cut its interest rates to 0.25%, which is an all-time record low in the 322 year history of the Bank and the first cut since the 2009 recession, with most BoE policymakers expecting to cut the interest rate even more later this year after their recent sharp downgrade to the economic outlook for the UK in 2017 (the largest revision to the Monetary Policy Committee's GDP forecast in history). As the BBC summarizes, the Bank of England is "not very confident" about the future of the British economy, as the economy will be 2.5% smaller in 3 years than the bank thought it would be before the referendum, growth will false close to 0 for the rest of the year, unemployment will rise (although only marginally), inflation will rise, real income growth will slow and house prices will decline. As such, the Center of Economics and Business Research expects economic growth to fall dramatically and that a recession will be "difficult to avoid", along with the National Institute of Economic and Social Research expecting the British economy to shrink in the following months and giving the country a 50% chance to end in a recession by the end of the year and the CBI seeing the fastest falling rates of business confidence since 2009.

In addition, billions of pounds of stimulus were released to cushion the economic shock in what the BoE chief's economist wish described as "using a sledgehammer to crack a nut". As the Bank is expecting the British economy to stagnate in 2016 and suffer very weak growth next year, it's hoping that these stimulus measures will help boost the economy.  As said by HSBC Holding, "The question is whether all this ... will have a significant impact on the real economy. Yields are already very low and uncertainty is the biggest obstacle to growth." And while the stimulus package is hoped to help and not expected to lead to another financial crisis, the Bank's Governor is still expecting that the British economy will "slow sharply" in the near future.

The UK labor market has entered a 'freefall' after the Brexit vote, according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. The number of permanent jobs placed last months showed a major decline and fall at the fastest pace since the economic crisis in 2009, in addition to the smallest growth of starting salaries in 3 years. REC's chief executive said that "economic turbulence following the vote to leave the EU is undoubtedly the root cause". While cautioning not to jump to conclusions, it is clear that businesses are affected by the referendum and are limiting themselves to short-term prospects due to the uncertainty. These findings are in line with Markit's Report on Jobs, concluding that the number of people securing permanent jobs has been falling since the referendum as nearly 40% of all recruitment consultants stating they're managing to place fewer people in stable positions. While not as high as other financial institutions have predicted (Credit Suisse is expecting a 6.5%), this alligns with the Bank of England suspecting unemployment to rise by 2017 for the first time in years. In addition, Bank of England Governor Carney expects more than a quarter of a million of jobs to be lost in the next years due to the Brexit-induced economic slowdown.

Markit's all-sector Purchasing Manager's Index has now been completed for last month and paints an even worse picture than originally suspected. It found the "steepest month-on-month decline on record after big falls in activity at private-sector services, manufacturing and construction firms." According to its chief economist, "the unprecedented month-on-month drop in the all-sector index has undoubtedly increased the chances of the UK sliding into at least a mild recession". The numbers point at the largest shrinking of the Brisith economy since the height of economic recession in 2009. The British service sector, which is the country's primary focus and has been growing consistently for almost 4 years, was expected to suffer the least but has been found to still be shrinking at the fastest pace since the 2009 financial crisis, with the month-on-month decline in business activity being the largest ever observed in the history of the surveys which started in 1996. However, it's worth noting that it's unclear if this is merely a knee-jerk reaction to the vote or the start of a steeper decline. While several other large surveys have shown major falls in business and consumer morale and activity, there is no official output data available yet.

Following the Brexit vote, UK construction is shrinking at the fastest pace since the 2009 recession according to Reuters reporting on Markit's PMI for the construction market. The current economic uncertainty resulting from the referendum was frequently cited as the main reason for construction order books being hurt. However, company reports are giving off mixed reports. While some major companies are reporting little impact so far, others (including Britain's largest) are noticing the effects and are bracing for further downturn in demand. In addition, construction companies have cut staffing at the fastest rate since 2009 and the prices of goods and materials for construction and manufacturing have been found to increase rapidly.

London house and property prices have fallen at the fastest rate since the 2009 recession since the Brexit referendum. According to Reuters, this is the latest sign of a possible slowdown in Britain after a closely watched survey on Wednesday showed Britain's economy is shrinking at its fastest rate since the financial crisis. Commercial property took the biggest hit in the wake of the EU referendum with investors pulling out money from funds, forcing some to be suspended. However, it is worth noting that not all of this can be attributed to the vote, as changes to the property tax already made buying property less attractive. These findings are in line with those of mortgage lender Halifax, experiencing a fall in house prices all across Britain but saying it's too soon to attribute it all to the referendum. As a response to this, Britain's biggest housebuilder is considering slowing the pace of construction and prepare for the expected slowdown in demand.

Brexit uncertainty is becoming an increasing cause of concern for large foreign investors as Nissan, while claiming to be reasonably optimistic, has just decided to put its long-term investment plans for Britain on hold. Its chief executive warned that its future investments with Britain will hinge on the terms of outcome of Brexit negotiations. Customs, trade deals and product circulation have been cited as the biggest concerns for post-Brexit trade with the EU. In addition, other corporations such as Goldman Sachs are increasingly considering to restructure their British operations in light of the referendum outcome, as US banks may follow suit in order ot serve the Eurozone over Britain. Others, however, are not making any drastic changes just yet, as BMW's CEO found no significant impact to its car sales following the Brexit vote and says it'ss still too early to draw up Brexit plans.

Finally, the actual triggering of article 50 appears to become increasingly less likely, as bookmakers continue to lower the odds of such a decision ever going through, Peers in the House of Lords talking about delaying or stopping Brexit altogether (good read, would recommend), European voters increasingly favor a tough Brexit deal for the UK, scientists in Britain becoming increasingly unsure and coming out with more stories of issues of funding and concerns about work permits and anti-immigrant hate crimes still being on the rise following the referendum.

Anyone else starting to think that Brexit may not be Brexit after all? The stimulus package should work, but the general trend of the post-referendum data coming in is rather negative. The best window to push article 50 through was immediately after the referendum, as I feel that it's becoming less likely as time goes on. I genuinely wonder if it's ever going to happen at this point.

I haven't been making many threads about Brexit after the vote to avoid being "that guy" who constantly points out the negatives of a policy he doesn't agree with, but this one is pretty important.

One of the best ways to judge the state of an economy is by looking at the output of service and manufacturing businesses and how consumers' purchasing habits have changed. After the first shock to the pound, this information, which is an assessment of business activity in companies and an illustration of business and consumer confidence, has been considered one of the most important staples to assess the current post-Brexit situation and is theorized to influence the Bank of England's interest rates and the spending plans of the Chancellor.

This PMI (Purchasing Managers Index) has been known since yesterday and revealed an even larger drop than what most negative predictions suspected. While this data is still preliminary and the full extent of the PMI's won't be known for another few weeks, many fear that the full numbers will paint an even worse picture as some of the fields expected to have been hit the hardest by Brexit (such as construction) are not yet accounted for. Some snippets of major newspapers:

BBC: Brexit causes dramatic drop in UK economy - plunges to worst level since 2009

Britain's decision to leave the EU has led to a "dramatic deterioration" in economic activity, not seen since the aftermath of the financial crisis. Data from IHS Markit's Purchasing Managers' Index, or PMI, shows a fall to 47.7 in July, the lowest level since April in 2009. A reading below 50 indicates contraction. Both manufacturing and service sectors saw a decline in output and orders.

Chris Williamson, chief economist at IHS Markit, said the downturn had been "most commonly attributed in one way or another to 'Brexit'." He added that the economy could contract by 0.4% in the third quarter of this year, but that would depend on whether the current slump continued. "The only other times we have seen this index fall to these low levels, was the global financial crisis in 2008/9, the bursting of the dot com bubble, and the 1998 Asian financial crisis," Mr Williamson told the BBC. "The difference this time is that it is entirely home-grown, which suggest the impact could be greater on the UK economy than before. "This is exactly what most economists were saying would happen." A subset of the PMI figures, shows that service companies, such as insurance or advertising, are feeling less positive about the future than at any time since the height of the recession.

Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the figures provided the "first major evidence that the UK is entering a sharp downturn". Although he added that the "confidence shock from the Leave vote might wear off over the coming months". Neil Wilson, markets analyst at ETX Capital, said he thought the UK was "heading for a recession again", and that the data would almost certainly prompt the Bank of England to roll out further stimulus. The pound has fallen in response to the publication of the data.

While IHS Markit's reading on the UK economy was worse than most analysts expected, its verdict on the wider eurozone economy was more cheery. Although business confidence dropped to an 18-month low, the overall pace of economic growth was in line with pre-Brexit trends, and employment across the eurozone rose. The optimistic outlook is in line with comments made by the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mario Draghi, who said on Thursday that Europe's financial markets had "weathered" the uncertainty caused by the vote.

Reuters: Britain's economy wilting fast after Brexit vote

Britain's economy is shrinking, the broadest survey of business confidence since last month's historic vote to quit the European Union showed on Friday, leading Chancellor Philip Hammond to pledge a loosening of purse strings if the weakness endures. The Bank of England has also been clear that easing monetary policy may be necessary. The flash, or preliminary, Markit survey of purchasing managers - executives who make spending decisions at 1,250 big firms - fell by the most in its 20-year history.

It was consistent with an economy contracting 0.4 percent in the third quarter, contrasting with an actual reading of plus 0.4 percent in the first quarter. "July saw a dramatic deterioration in the economy," said Chris Williamson, Markit's chief economist. "The downturn, whether manifesting itself in order book cancellations, a lack of new orders or the postponement or halting of projects, was most commonly attributed in one way or another to Brexit."

The Markit PMIs, which give an early indication of how gross domestic product is likely to perform, suggest the 1.8 trillion pound UK economy is shrinking faster than at any time since the aftermath of the global financial crisis. It showed the services sector - one of the few British growth drivers - has been hit especially hard by Brexit, with orders plunging and confidence crumbling. A major concern among businesses is the access Britain will have to the EU's single market after leaving. Britain insists it want to limit freedom of movement of workers; the EU says such freedom is a condition of the single market. The PMI for the services sector fell to 47.4 in July from 52.3 in June, the steepest drop since records began in 1996 and the worst reading since March 2009, around the low point of the global economic recession. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a much smaller fall to 49.2.

The Guardian: British business activity has slumped as clients cancel orders and postpone projects - economy shrinking at the fastest rate since 2009

Neil Wilson of ETX Capital says the UK PMI survey is “truly abysmal”, and suggests that the EU referendum vote has - as feared - hit the economy. “Today’s super-weak PMI is the first hard evidence that Brexit has already had an impact on the UK economy. There was a sharp fall in activity in July and it now looks like the Bank of England has the data it needs to launch fresh easing at its next meeting at the start of August. Quite simply, the UK economy contracted at the fastest pace since the start of 2009, when the global financial crisis plunged us into recession. The readings suggest we are heading for a recession again and it is almost certain the BoE will pull the trigger on aggressive stimulus to boost aggregate demand.

Financial Times: PMI survey signals sharp downturn in UK economy

The Bank of England and the government are poised to take action to cushion an economic downturn after closely watched figures showed British business activity suffered its sharpest reverse in July since the financial crisis.
The purchasing managers’ survey is the most significant evidence yet of damage to the economy from the EU referendum result, but the data has not always been an accurate predictor of a recession. A snapshot of July’s PMI figures yesterday sank to a level associated with recession, economists said, pointing out that equivalent surveys in the rest of Europe and the US showed these economies unaffected by Brexit. The Markit/CIPS survey, which tracks activity across the manufacturing and services sectors, fell to 47.7 in July from 52.4 in June, indicating that UK business activity was contracting. This is the lowest reading since the spring of 2009, though still much higher than the indicator’s trough in 2008. The decline in activity was most evident in the services sector, accounting for 80 per cent of the UK economy, with new orders falling at the quickest rate in more than seven years. Data for future business expectations also showed the largest monthly fall on record.

With very few exceptions, the private sector economic surveys of the period after the EU referendum have shown very large drops in the measures of sentiment, confidence and production. The GfK consumer confidence survey remains at a reasonably positive level but has not suffered a larger drop than it did in late June and early July for 21 years. Households report a loss of confidence in the economic outlook, their expectations of incomes and whether it is a good time to make large purchases. In the corporate sector, surveys from the Institute of Directors, Deloitte and Lloyds Bank have all shown companies reporting a distinct deterioration in business conditions. The one partial exception to this was the Bank of England’s report of its regional agents, which showed “no clear evidence of a sharp general slowing in activity” so far, although a third of companies thought they would scale back investment plans over the coming year. The PMI indices attempt to measure output as well as sentiment. With activity in the flash survey for mid-July at its lowest level since 2009, there was little good news, although manufacturing was hit less hard than services.

Bloomberg: Brexit wreaks havoc on UK economy as recession risk increases

The U.K.’s decision to leave the European Union inflicted an immediate blow on the economy as business activity shrank at its fastest pace since the last recession seven years ago. In the weeks following Brexit, there was a “dramatic deterioration,” Markit Economics said in a one-time report published Friday. Services and manufacturing shrank and a gauge of the private-sector economy plunged to 47.7, well below the 50 level that divides expansion from contraction. The slump is the strongest evidence yet that politics is propelling the world’s fifth largest economy into recession. It intensifies pressure on the Bank of England to deliver fresh monetary stimulus and on the government to reverse fiscal austerity. The pound dropped after the report was published, with Markit saying its latest readings put the economy on course to contract by 0.4 percent this quarter.

“July’s PMI certainly points to more easing,” said Samuel Tombs, an economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics in London. “We’ve seen a variety of business measures fall to levels not seen since the financial crisis. Although consumer confidence might hold up for the next few months, businesses are putting the brakes on investment.” A gauge of services, the biggest part of the economy, dropped to 47.4. The slide in the composite Purchasing Managers’ Index was sharper than economists had predicted and was the biggest drop on record. It’s now at the lowest since April 2009, when the global financial crisis had helped push the U.K. into five straight quarters of contraction, and then Prime Minister Gordon Brown said an “international hurricane” was battering the world economy.

Question to Meta in specific: how do you think the BoE and Chancellor will react to this? Many are predicting that these numbers have increased the chance of seeing the rates being cut or changes to the Chancellor's Autumn spending plan.

Do yours have a chip or stripe? I've always found it strange how banking security is such a low priority in the US, so I'm glad to hear chip cards are becoming increasingly common there. It's a bit more of a hassle, but that security is just too good. Gotta admit that the swiping is pretty cool though.

Interesting explanation for those unfamiliar with what I'm talking about:

So yeah, I just graduated today and came home from the entire ceremony thing. Pretty boring, but always interesting to see.

How was your graduation, Flood? We don't really do the whole cap and gown stuff, but they're generally similar.

We already have a bunch of threads about specific aspects of the Brexit debate and the EU, but no real comprehensive one for recent news and updates in the final few days before the big vote. Other threads on the subject are obviously still allowed, but this one should serve as a general tracker of the issue.

While preliminary polls never hold that much weight, recent ones have shown a renewed surge of support for the Remain camp. Some of this is expected to be in response to the recent murder of Jo Cox, a pro-Remain politician who was killed by a man exclaiming "Britain first" and now saying in Court that his name is "death to traitors, freedom for Britain".

http://uk.businessinsider.com/r-uks-in-camp-takes-3-point-lead-after-lawmaker-killed-poll-2016-6?r=US&IR=T
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/13/eu-referendum-leave-campaign-takes-six-point-lead-in-guardianicm-polls
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2016/jun/14/eu-referendum-live-polls-sun-brexit-remain-panic

This increased support for the Remain campaign appears to have eased some of the concerns about the UK's role in the global economy, which earlier on lead to hesitant investors and a falling pound. According to recent reports, the pound is picking up steam once again and is heading for its "best day since 2009" as faith in the UK's economy is cautiously restored after recent polls supporting a Remain vote.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/05f69210-3684-11e6-a780-b48ed7b6126f.html
https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2016/jun/20/pound-shares-markets-eu-referendum-brexit-fears-business-live