higginsc

I was about to say, "you can't be serious," but upon further reflection..

The answer is obviously the Russian government.

Not arguing your main point at all, but I wanted to correct your last statement. While not considered safe, cigarettes have proven to be remarkably protective against the development of Parkinson's disease in a slew of studies spanning decades of research. This is relatively little-known outside of the field. I did my PhD in Parkinson's drug discovery, and it was one of those findings that is frustrating due to the lack of other effective therapies for PD prevention and the obvious deleterious effects of smoking on heart disease, lung cancer, etc. Here's a relatively recent review paper on the topic: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5494127/.

Relevant excerpt: "Population-based studies have shown that smoking was associated with approximately 40–50% reduced risk of developing PD. [10, 11] This inverse relationship between smoking and PD was dose-dependent: age-adjusted relative risks (RRs) of PD were 0.8, 0.6, 0.5, and 0.4, for 1-9, 10-24, 25-44, and 45+ pack-years, relative to never-smokers, as shown in a large prospective cohort study [9]. There is also a temporal relationship between cigarette smoking and PD risk [9, 17]. Individuals with more years of smoking, older age at quitting smoking, and fewer years since quitting smoking had lower PD risk. Researchers prospectively observed a significantly lower risk of PD for smoking as early as 15 to 24 years before symptom onset, but not for smoking 25+ years before onset (n = 143,325) [17]."

One of my least favorite aspects of airline seats is that it seems like the curvature is designed for someone of average height--which I totally get--but extraordinarily uncomfortable for people outside of that range. I'm looking at you, United economy regional planes. I'm 6'2", and the base of my skull lands exactly at a sharp, hard edge on those planes and leads to utter misery. I'm not sure how to fix that. Just bitching. This is the internet after all.

Alphabet does have a minority equity stake in Vevo.

Except this is exactly what Prop 13 does in California, and it is incredibly damaging to housing and rental prices.

You started off saying one thing: >You seem to be assuming that, by building more units and increasing density, normal supply/demand forces will normalize the housing market.

And then proceeded to say a bunch of stuff that makes me think you don't believe this assumption.

Think through your own example. Even if landlords collude, "still charging $3-4k a month rent", and more units open up, eventually some of those units will not be rented. Dormant units do not generate revenue, regardless of the asking price. If even more units are added, more landlords will continue to collect $0 on their dormant units.

Landlords then have two options: continue to ask for $X dollars and get $0 or ask for $X-Y dollars and get $X-Y dollars. If $(X-Y) > $0, the law of large numbers, empirical studies, and common sense dictate that landlords will choose option B.

Prices could stay high, however, if more people move to the area, increasing demand to match supply.

Also written as FAANG: Facebook Apple Amazon Netflix Google

I appreciate the effort that went into making this, but I get really annoyed with analyses like this that show heatmaps comparing highly heterogeneous groups (in this case, states, income groups, age groups, and education groups) that use an absolute scale. Of course absolute migration looks extreme in NY and Texas compared to, say Missouri or Iowa. This would be a much more interesting story if they used a lift metric that controlled for state/group size and/or state/group migration volume.

If it follows the trajectory of marijuana, it starts with clinical use and destigmatization. People who wouldn't normally support legalization or even decriminalization can and will be convinced by anecdotes and articles about safe, controlled, and therapeutic use. It happened with MJ, it can happen again.

That being said, safe, controlled use is especially important for powerfully psychoactive substances. Make no mistake--psilocybin is much more powerful than THC. While I support use of psilocybin and the aim of the petition and its authors, I recognize the essential role that medical marijuana played in winning hearts and minds of John Q. Public.

If you feel the same way, check out the work done by the Heffter Research Institute (http://heffter.org/) They've funded many studies on the effectiveness of psilocybin (disclosure: I know the founder).