Drayke Newall

My hope which I know would never come to pass post Covid-19 is that all the governments will see how bad pollution has been by seeing what the world looks like when there is none. Lots of things have become so clear without the pollution due to lockdowns such as India for the first time in 30 years being able to see the Himalayas. https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/people-in-india-say-theyre-seeing-the-himalayas-for-first-time-in-decades-amid-drop-in-air-pollution/ar-BB12sfkY?ocid=spartanntp Not to mention all the animals coming out to play that are rarely seen so close

Hmm I think there is something wrong with my HR department I can access everything from my computer... Oh wait I'm the boss... phew.

By tap and go or pay wave I meant debit/credit card not phone. It's what we call contactless payment by card in Australia. No idea what it is in America, but no not (just) using phone for payment. I am the same as you except whilst I have a smart phone, I still don't use the phone to pay as its just too annoying, can be lost, hacked, etc.

Just to clarify as I might not have been clear. Whilst anti-discrimination laws exist and are given federally of which these cant be altered or changed by states (i.e. conflicting laws) as I mentioned in my earlier post, we do have state 'anti-discriminative acts', however these are actually called (or are implied as such) equal opportunity laws. 99% of these acts just follow or reinforce the federal ones (overlap) though both still need to be adhered to if one adds something different on a state level (i.e. if the state operates a different institution or office they would be included in the state act due to them being different). The reason for this is so that there is an insurance that all aspects are covered (per before mentioned different institution names etc) and also due to each state having its own state commissions. This also allows for multiple tiers of avenues a person can take just like courts. If you aren't happy with the state ruling you can take it the federal Commission or go straight there. Like the USA, Australia is similar in that it is a commonwealth and whilst it is federated under the constitution (federal anti-discrimination laws come from this), each state still has its own courts, laws, jurisdictions etc. Just in discrimination, the laws always operate alongside, never conflict and never can be changed on a city level. This is why generally the state laws are the same as the federal and just overlap. That said the anti-discrimination laws are separate and complimentary to the employment laws. Employment laws are covered by the federal government under fairwork for 95% of employees and states don't have their own employment laws other than specific fairwork acts for state government employees (the remaining 5%). Hope that clarifies it a little.

Ah I see. Little different in Australia. All of our laws involving such issues are given at the federal level such as the anti-discrimination law (covers all groups and individuals) and state governments cant override those or attach other addendums to those laws. We also have an independent body that is mandated and supported by the federal government that fights for the worker called 'Fairwork' of which they also are responsible for increasing our minimum wage and in cases representing workers rights etc and representing them in court. This body is separate from the unions and covers those that aren't in a union though you can also be part of a union. This body is the enforcement along with the courts. We also don't have such things called affirmative actions. Perhaps this is why we don't see those clauses at the end of job adverts and just hire based on skill as in general whilst people still need to prove discrimination fair work helps them do that freely and the fines and penalties are not low if they are proven to have infringed on the law.

Agree, though the risk is there for USA to default and therefore mean a devaluation of their money and all those countries you mention will indeed dump their US assets to try and sell off before the devaluation goes to far. As you state in the quoted section above, this is the current nightmare scenario America needs to avoid and why the huge stimuluses' from this downturn is very worrying. With GPD issues looking to be likely as well as a potential issue in raising the debt ceiling for the umpteenth time it is looking more and more like a massive risk and issue the longer these lockdowns continue. Hence we have the situation of do you save lives from the virus or from economic ruin. As you also mentioned economists and many businesses are looking on the situation with a keen eye as any form of impact on the US dollar and trade will mean financial ruin for most if not all countries. Something no one wants. This is why I also think that we need to start looking at ways in which we can remove the reliance of countries on the USD for this reason and also why given Australia's huge gold reserves unmined Australia would be better on the gold standard and increasing the physical gold assets as well as gas etc. But that topic will most certainly be off topic.

As a builder, the simple ability to right click on a linked object, edit it and click a tab that allows me to see all the names of every linked object in the build and select the individual part from there based on name. And better inventory management tools.

Never said it was, pretty sure I even said that there are probably some people that do discriminate. I simply said we don't have such clauses on our job adverts as we hire based on who is best for the job.

No Handshakes. Its been thrown around as a possibility but considering it has been around since BC times I don't see that changing. What else could you do? No Cash. Cant see this happening in America given that a lot of places still don't have tap and go, pay wave etc. Other countries such as in EU and Australia it may just become that as we have already seen a huge drop in people using cash before all this mess. Reserve Bank of Australia has already hinted that this new paper currency change we have atm will be the last. I think this is going to change a lot of things. More money spent on healthcare, better healthcare systems, future proofing the economies. Hopefully best of all will be manufacturing brought back to the respective countries instead of relying on one country to produce everything.

This has got me curious. Does America have an anti discrimination law that states that an employer can not discriminate from these kind of things? Just find it interesting that over in Australia we don't need such clauses in Job adverts as we just hire the best suited. Though I am sure there are a few that do discriminate over here, the laws in place allow the potential candidate to then claim discrimination and have the business fined etc.

Getting a little off topic but just wanted to reply to this even though it does tie into LL and its potential continuance due to people potentially having less money to spend. No, actually America does need to pay it back, it just refuses too despite its promises. It has now got to the point where America's debt and constant debt ceiling raising is a joke and a disaster waiting to happen. This becomes a problem and is why every few years they get into trouble when they need to increase their debt ceiling due to the risk on defaulting on their debt. This debt ceiling increase was postponed until after the 2020 elections, however when this was postponed there was no thought of another up to 6 trillion dollars being added (instantly) to the already enormous 25ish trillion dollar debt. If America defaults on its debt, countries around the world will pull all its cash out of America meaning America will fall and hit the bottom very badly. Given China holds an enormous amount of US Cash, them dumping that (as people were hoping they wouldn't in the 2008 crisis) would basically make America the next Zimbabwe. https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-debt-ceiling-why-it-matters-past-crises-3305868 https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-debt-default-3306295 Economists state that a country can at most usually borrow 90% of its GPD without slowing the economy however any more will be bad. Currently before coronavirus and with these bailouts America is over 100% over its GPD. Considering the 16 million people filing for unemployment, numerous bankruptcies as well as already close to 4 weeks of many companies making NO money meaning a reduction in tax revenue and GPD, this GPD is predicted to shrink in America by up to 30% according to economists with best case scenario being -3ish% over the year. This means that the debt to GPD ratio is ever more enormous. In the article mentioned below take note of the last sentence quote "As long as the GPD grows more than the interest payments on the debt America will be fine". The problem facing America now is that that GPD is looking to contract not by just the mentioned 2.1% interest increase but an ENORMOUS amount (almost 30%) more. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-stimulus-package-pay-united-states/ https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/us-gdp-drop-record-2q-amid-coronavirus-recession-goldman-sachs-2020-3-1029018308 This before mentioned article shows the GPD reduction estimates however given the drastic events since then I'm thinking it may be even more. Goldman Sachs at the time estimated unemployment will reach 9%. USA has already exceeded that amount. The other issue is that all that is happening now is the government is putting a band aid over a massive gaping wound. They did this in the 2008 crisis and is why we are suffering for it now as there was no other avenue that America could take to limit the impact. All America is doing is kicking the ball down the road hoping that it never reaches a dead end. There is a reason why Trump has coined the phrase "the cure cant be worse than the virus". If LL wants to stay afloat during this time then as I hinted in my post they should be looking at many avenues to increase their revenue that doesn't solely rely on the extras of individual peoples income. They need to start looking at viable ways in which business etc can help increase their revenue rather than individuals whilst also making the world more accessible to people. You never put all your eggs in one basket. All good and understand, though as far as I see it the thread op does fall within the scope as the economy directly impacts on the userbases' finances which also impacts on SL.

What's missing in this job ad: Send in your resume and if you are successful we will be in touch to organise an interview Soon™

Iceland back in March found scientific evidence that it had mutated 40 times. Going by this figure and the time period I would have a guess to say more. Then again research from UK shows that there are 3 variations with Type A being the original which is found in USA and Australia now and Type B being the mutation of A found in Wuhan and Type C being in Europe. Oddly if this is correct and if I am reading the article correctly, it seems to imply (if one reads between the lines) that if Wuhan is Type B and mutated from Type A and USA and Australia have Type A then China's statements of USA being the origin may be correct. I may be reading the article wrong or the article and research may be hogwash however interesting none the less. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8204255/There-THREE-separate-types-coronavirus.html Also came out in a similar article that the virus seems to be able to 'hide' from tests once someone has recovered making tests show them being negative and 'cured'. Some have suggested this may be just tests being not 100% accurate, however there is still so much uncertainty as to how the virus is spreading and whether immunity is actually possible. It is important to realise as well that medical experts say a true vaccine for a coronavirus has never been developed. For example: "Vaccines to combat deadly coronaviruses "are not easy" and "in fact, up to now we've never had a successful vaccine against a coronavirus,' Australia's Deputy Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly says. " I see your Kentucky and raise you Kansas https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8202787/Kansas-lawmakers-OVERTURN-limit-social-gatherings-people-head-church-Easter-Sunday.html EDIT: Forgot to mention. Whilst technically it is a little to soon to be definite (though hope it isn't and is true), to those saying social distancing and lockdowns don't work. Keep in mind it is per capita and the graphs at the various lockdown stages should be telling enough. As to Australia's death toll, keep in mind that many of those were from the Ruby Princess which for some reason the NSW government allowed to disembark (reckoning coming for them I'm sure). https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8202873/Jacinda-Ardern-declares-victory-coronavirus-lift-strict-lockdown-measures.html

Don't be to embarrassed after all it was a Scotsman that holds the title of The Father of Capitalism for the ideology (which was flawed). Just that America embraced it more than any other country.

The legacy of The Untitled States of America to the world. Capitalism.

Interesting, thanks for the clarification. Must say though that the last batch is still a bit odd, though suppose different countries different systems. Generally, when submitting a tax return over here in Australia you give your primary bank account details for them to deposit any refund into, however the tax office already has all of our bank details anyway as the bank has to declare to the ATO interest earned etc on any monies for each account. When opening an account with the bank we have to give our tax file number to them so this allows the bank details to be directly linked to our tax file.

Didn't get a chance to update my post before you quoted it, but now seems 16 million unemployed in USA 10% of working population. As to your idea of drive thru's, why would that be needed? Surely your tax office or social security can simply send it direct deposit into your bank account like they do over here in Australia. Also why is it taking till September to get the money? Took Australia 2 weeks to organise our one off payments of $750 to our unemployed and senior citizens and deposit it directly in to their banks. Unless you are serious and America is actually still handing out cheques? If that's the case, I have no words as to how ancient the USA is looking right now. As to Linden Lab and Second Life, I am not suggesting at all they would not survive this, however blanketly claiming "will weather this changed world just like every other business" isn't the best way to describe business at this time, when we have mass bankruptcy claims going through, requests from governments for bailouts of major companies. I wouldn't call those businesses weathering the storm with a change here or there. That's called sinking.

The very fact that you said 'could' means you don't understand the economics of what has been happening around the world due to coronavirus and the impact the necessary lockdowns have made to the individual and to businesses. Your sentence should read "It will happen". Maybe not to every country, but many of the western world. America has seen over 10 million people apply for unemployment in 2 weeks the most since the great depression, and despite any $1200 payment, it is no where near enough to continue to support these people or even those furloughed. Whilst trump may say its all smelling roses, most major economists have already stated America IS already in another recession due to this and is why Trump and most governments want to get back to normal asap as if they don't, it will be depression. England is looking to be in recession. Italy given the extent of which it has impacted them as well as Spain will likely see a deep recession. France was already in austerity measures with protests and so will likely see a recession. The entire sub-Saharan area is looking to be in deep recession and studies released today are showing potentially 100-200 million people going into poverty there, with estimates poverty levels world wide potentially going back to 1990 levels. Australia which has the longest running recession free period for the world in history and has negated about 5 recessions since early 1990 (including the larger dotcom bust and GFC) is predicted to go into recession, despite the government literally paying $1500 PER FORTNIGHT for 6 months at this stage to pretty well most of its working or recently unemployed population (i.e. far greater than USA's once off $1200). So no, it isn't a matter of could at this stage. It is looking like a certain will. Whilst Linden Lab have a company to run and profits to make, I am sure there is a lot of pondering happening in the offices at this stage (and minor panic) in wondering how they are actually going to be able to stay afloat if these lockdowns last anything past May. If they do, most extra funds people spend on luxuries like Second Lab will dry up very quickly and given land is their only real source of income and the most expensive commodity, they will need to plan very carefully on the SL economy and methods to generate income if they see major drops in that. Second Life is a world wide business model. This means that, whilst America may be their primary users, without the EU support they will not see much in profit should/when recession hit the EU. You also need to realise the impact this is going to have on the economy for future generations. The handouts during this time to unemployed and businesses etc, like Americas 2 trillion bailout, or the hundreds of billions from other countries to their citizens, doesn't grow on trees and will need to be paid back by the tax payer. This will likely mean much higher tax rates not only for individuals but also possibly businesses for years. This does not bode well once again when inflation sets in due to quantitate easing systems of the reserve banks need to print money to keep the economies afloat now directly impacting on the individuals budget. I certainly hope not unless you're happy with perpetual unemployment. Governments have for a few years now being trying to work out how to implement a Universal Base Income (UBI) so that when the time comes that the majority of people that cant work because of AI, robots and 'environmental factors' can still live on an income from the government. If you are correct and there is a shift, if there is no UBI in place, it will not be a very pretty picture, let alone for those countries/cities/towns that rely majorly on tourism. And any employment benefits or protections will be out the window. Contract work and Gig work is never secure and generally people are worse off. You have no rights in this form of employment where you can be fired without notice, hours being variable meaning less money rather than a sustained income. Trades are usually sole traders whereby they struggle most times to keep work in a competitive business world as it is now and you are suggesting it would be good to add even more competition? Some competition is good, but to much and you will see business and people needing to reduce profits to the point of being unsustainable and move to bankruptcy.

You expected Wookey not too do something with it? The platform was perfectly fine. It's just LL lacked the foresight of regular updates (as with SL too) and to actually market it properly. Low and behold, take it away from LL's unorganised mess and this is what you get. A well marketed new platform that if done right could out perform LL's original Sansar by 1000 times.

Must have been very few of those parcels direct to sale then, as I have bought numerous parcels on mainland pre Zindra and never came across one directly for sale. Irrespective of that anyway, it should be direct to sale. Alternatively if they just cant sell it remove the sim entirely and shrink up mainland.

True, however that does have its limitations in that you cant have front view syncing and also limits drastically the area in which people can stand to see the stage. Also with most music events 2 sims will be looking at the artists or performers backs.

Hmm news to me. As far as I can remember (been in SL for quite a while) it has always been that once abandoned it was added to the auction pool and stayed abandoned until it came up for auction on the LL auction web page. I have never seen mainland directly for sale from Governor Linden in world unless the user sent a support ticket requesting to buy it. It is due to this system they have used that mainland is always empty looking even prior to Zindra.

I've mentioned many things I would like to see done to or in SL so wont repeat them here, however one thing I think they should do I haven't mentioned is due to the sim visitor limit, they should make it so that you can sync sims. This would mean large events could be held such as a live music festival or speech event etc whereby multiple visitors to the region can see the same event live without restriction on numbers. If that isn't clear basically have the stage and performers on a sim and then have it so that that main sim is linked to multiple sims that are not visible to the other sims allowing 1000's of people see the same event live and not just 70+. Hard to explain but hopefully I explained it so people understand. They did something like this last year in the game Fortnite https://www.theguardian.com/games/2019/feb/03/marshmello-fortnite-in-game-concert-edm-producer

So long as there is a cornfield they can come out of. As to the OP, would be cool to be able to go to that in SL. Shame LL cant offer some synced full regions for the needed time and approach the bands that were going to play in RL as well to actually stream live and advertise it. Would not only offer those people that usually go to hear the bands they would have heard, but also get some news out there about SL. Dare I say it similar to what they did for the music event in Fortnite last year.. (ducks for cover for impending flame)

Everyone must keep in mind that LL have for YEARS, and are even still, loosing enormous amounts of money (tier wise) through their lack of converting abandoned land to revenue. I haven't been on a mainland parcel search for a while, however did late last year and unless things have drastically changed (bet they haven't) Governor Linden is sitting on the biggest waste of resources and potential revenue ever. For years there has been swathes of land abandoned of which their auction solution, even the new one (which was just a lie and all they did was update the webpage) just isn't enough to turn it around (most don't even know it exists). They could of course (and should) just make it so that as soon as land is abandoned it becomes for sale instantly and sold by Governor Linden (LL taking the profit of the sale) in world and highlighted on the map like other land for sale. They could even have a bid system on the land in the right click buy menu itself that notifies users that have bid if they have been outbid via IM). Alas, if they haven't incorporated that method (and still gone with the bad out of world auction system) after this amount of time I doubt they even know how to or perhaps a matter of lack of foresight and ingenuity. Hell, they could (and should) even have it that as soon as you decide to not have a mainland parcel any more users cant sell it to others but have to abandon it to Governor Linden. Just like a real life house/land rental system. This would mean that, not only will prices be more reasonable, (rather than $200-$1000USD just to BUY a parcel from a user in a popular area like Blake Sea not including your monthly tier) but also give LL a much needed additional revenue source that will allow them to LOWER tier across the board! That all said and therefore, whilst they refuse to lower tier prices claiming woe is me, we cant lower because we need to have tier high due to cover hardware costs etc, they are sitting on empty un-owned land whereby it isn't making any money to cover the running cost or provide a profit and also not looking at the potential other revenue stream sticking out at them for all to see except LL. For example lets say that they have had on average 200 sims (mainland is around 6-7000 sims - including the numerous sandboxes that are usually empty) worth of land abandoned and not rented per year. That is a total loss of $429,600 USD per year in tier. In another example, lets say on average out of the (approximately but probably more) 3000 rentable sims on mainland of which, say are divided into quarter sims (generous considering the amount of parcels under that on mainland), they see half of those available parcels transfer hands twice every year, they could sell them after abandonment/premium cancelation etc. (rather than user to user) direct to users for $20US or 5000L$ (in addition to tier) they would make an additional approx.: $240,000 US/year. (possibly more if they have inworld auctions). So in total, by providing a better inworld land auction/buy system that will show to more users than their flawed hardly known web auction and potentially selling all abandoned land within a matter of days along with converting the system so users can no longer sell RENTED FROM LL land to users (instead abandoning back to LL for them to sell), per year they could, using the above figures (that are completely approximate), make an additional $669,600 US (tier per month of all abandoned land + revenue by land sale). So whilst many say its an impossibility to reduce tier cause LL will loose to much money, I say it is a pure example of robbing Peter to pay Paul all the while having their head in the sand thinking everything is fine by lacking ingenuity of how to make money elsewhere from areas that aren't making enough money (apart from increasing user fees) to reduce tier.