researcher88

Isn't there a difference though?

If I want to have a Scandinavian child, I just reproduce with someone from Sweden.

If I want my child to be immune to the sun and skin cancer, I just add a gene from the leaf of a tree, inject it into his DNA and see what happens?

I support GMOs but nuance is important.

Rand had a cool limited bumper sticker silhouette with just his first name, like this. Seemed like good branding-http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/5522b0ec6da811ae3f3...

Her Facebook page is working now. Earlier when I clicked on it, it would just go back to my newsfeed. (She was on my friends list prior to this story. She already had 5,000 friends.) Perhaps some bug or automated restriction, maybe from a bunch of people reporting her profile.

Her page is facebook.com/shona.banda

I was friends with her prior to this.

Her profile is working now. Not deleted but something was broken with it earlier.

Terrence McKenna's lecture on McLuhan is also excellent-

https://youtu.be/9dROH6aOIUc

Her profile appears in my friends' list but when you click on it, it goes nowhere and opens back up my feed.

Reminded me of George Carlin's last standup special, where he said "it's part of their [cops'] job to commit perjury whenever it helps the state's case":

https://youtu.be/jgxyCudDiM4

As a metaphor, it will get you to outerspace but you may miss your target. You don't actually need to guide it, there's so much thrust/traction that you'd have to be super talented and purposely trying to sabotage it for it to fail.

That being said, Snapchat has made some incredibly good decisions, new products and so forth.

Child abduction by strangers is extremely rare and around 100 per year in the US although that may be an outdated number. The one stat I just checked said 515 stranger abductions between 1990 and 1995. And that was when free range children were far more common than today.

Evan Spiegel is clearly smart but it's weird to hail him as some visionary when someone else came up with the concept and someone else coded the app.

When an app takes off like that, is it even possible to fail running the company? You get funding, all types of input from experts and all you need to do is guide the rocket you are attached to.

I think you are overreacting. Maybe he does have a better grasp on a few areas in life than you or I do.

It's just a book. One that might make people think a bit and question their own life more.

What I find gross are people scared of criticism and offended by anything that remotely challenges one's beliefs or actions.

Seems related to why I feel compelled to say "ummm" or "uhhh" before responding to a Subway employee asking me what I want on my sandwich. It just feels like I am being nicer and not barking out commands.

Well you can't really be a Keynesian and think inflation is bad. Who does it favor? Governmentts and the rich who get the new money first.

For regular people, it encourages them to spend money now and not save. And the only way around it is to invest in the stock market etc where they may make mistakes.

As for your implied notion that it's been stable inflation, I'm not so sure. In the last 40 years, the average price of key foods have increased 400 to 500% when agricultural science and distribution has improved dramatically.

No, just highly educated. I meant that he is less likely to use religion to define his beliefs. He is a critical thinker and a smart guy, so he surely recognizes the contradictions and problems with religion. He can call himself a Christian, like many secular people do, but he is not religious like Santorum or Huckabee. Rand and his father rarely talk about it.

And he certainly has a strong belief in its separation from government.

I think it makes him a politician more than anything. The guy has an MD from Duke; I doubt he is as religious as he seems.

The reality is, there is little upside in a Republican primary for saying he thinks gays should marry or for promoting a nuanced view on abortion. Just like his dance on saying he will increase defense spending after first proposing to cut it.

Don't you mean federalism? A lot of people seem to use it to signify states rights and a balance of power. Such as the historian podcaster Dan Carlin.

Edit- I can't reply below but you are using the term incorrectly and in the context of Anti-Federalists from the 18th century. From Wikipedia on federalism:

> In contrast, Europe has a greater history of unitary states than North America, thus European "federalism" argues for a weaker central government, relative to a unitary state. The modern American usage of the word is much closer to the European sense.

If anyone is a threat to the Establishment, it is Rand Paul. He is not perfect but he can't be if he wants to win. He has a serious chance of getting the nomination and will help propel the conversation on surveillance reform and criminal justice reform. In another article, it said that he wants to eliminate jail time on all non-violent drug misdemeanors.

Can you elaborate? Private prisons do spend millions lobbying-

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/06/23/251363/cca-geogr...

If a prosecutor thinks they will lose a case and the defendant rejects all plea deals, the prosecutor will sometimes dismiss the case citing lack of evidence. Preventing an accused person the ability to be found not guilty.

Even Justin Bieber took a plea deal in his DUI case when it appears his BAC was .014 and the cops lied or exaggerated the facts during the arrest. Perhaps he was still guilty of reckless driving but there's no consequences for the cop who seems to have lied. He likely could had won the case or forced the prosecutor to drop the charges.

Beyond facing a greater sentence, to fight the most minor of misdemeanor charges will cost $2,000 to $5,000 for a lawyer or just pay $250 and get it reduced to an infraction like jaywalking. It makes a mockery of the idea of justice.

And my friends would be amused by your friends. I know a few DoD-type guys who operate in these informal government contractor circles. I have seen some wild stuff involving private companies, NASA and intel agencies. Lot of these CIA things are being outsourced to contractors. Similar to the private intel network of Sid Blumenthal providing info to Hillary Clinton, from an easily hacked AOL email no less.

The power and influence, along with whims of eccentric players, in these contractor groups is really getting out of hand.

And we all want attention in some way, including you for posting your comments and me for mine. It could be both a noble thing Snowden did and something he wants some recognition for doing. Basing your analysis on whatever he did in high school is quite silly. Most everybody was looking for some attention then and likely going about it the wrong way.

A few years ago the EU proposed banning cars in all major European cities by 2050. And they wanted to restrict 50% of all trabel over 186 miles to trains. The plan was rejected by the UK and was criticized as draconian.

Why is this so easily accepted?

In Denver, the weed sales tax is upwards of 21% with a previous 15% excise tax from cultivator to retail outlet.

In Colorado, it's less than 8% tax on a 6 pack of beer and the great majority of this is a federal tax.

Weed is demonstrably safer and thus less sinful than alcohol and tobacco. I dislike how easily the tax argument is received. If you can show a relationship that adds to healthcare costs then by all means institute sin taxes, including for soda. But if you are only making a moral judgement about what not to do, then I think the argument is without merit.

More details-

http://reason.com/blog/2013/03/22/whatever-happened-to-treat...

Even married couples with kids who make $100,000 a year and live in the midwest couldn't intelligently afford to use this service regularly. This is just my experience with a family that is able to cover expenses and put $500 in savings each month.

True. 6,000 people died of cocaine abuse in 2006. Another statistic said 17,000 died in 2000 from all illicit drugs. Now surely moderate cocaine abuse is causing deaths in people who aren't known addicts.

But tobacco is certainly far far worse at 443,000 annual deaths. Occasional responsible use of hard drugs is likely not that bad for you.

President Bush gave Charles Colson the Presidential Citizens Medal. All Colson did was conspire to kill a US journalist while working as White House counsel. And conspire to firebomb the Brookings Institution and orchestrated the Watergate burglary. The guy was awarded 15 honorary doctorates and praised by so many Republicans.

Jack Anderson would possibly be dead since the conspiracy only halted when Watergate happened.

Surely there is redemption for Ross. Colson spent less than a year in prison even though the others (eg G Gordon Liddy) admtted they were planning to kill Anderson.

In Citizenfour, Snowden had a copy of the sequel, Homeland, while he was in Hong Kong. Kind of a surreal moment.

People buy that stuff just to help out kids though. Going door to door selling a 'magical candy bar' that can radically change someone's life for eternity would be much harder. I guess part of that is also conviction in what you are selling.

Schneier said there are three. The 2nd leaking the Merkel and X-KEYSCORE and the third connected to NCTC.

Also one was supposedly raided by the FBI at the end of October but that story was never updated.

When I read about FanHero on techcrunch, I thought it was a good idea despite the article's tone.

Mainly because I watch a lot of alternative content and listen to podcasts, and I want a way to support what I like. It wasn't an original idea but with awesome execution I think it could had worked.