dpatru

49 ms·

361.
by dpatru 16y ago
Too much state looting (and printing money is a way to loot) discourages production and investment besides causing political trouble. So there's a limit to how much any state can devalue. To illustrate, your employer could make itself more
362.
by dpatru 16y ago
Currency devaluation is a way for governments to tax their populations surreptitiously. All governments that have control of the money devalue it to some extent, but generally not too much for the same reason they don't directly overtax or
363.
by dpatru 16y ago
Thanks for posting this.
364.
Michigan Police Search Cell Phones During Traffic Stops(thenewspaper.com)
101 points by dpatru 16y ago|56 comments
365.
by dpatru 16y ago
The legitimate purpose of law is to protect rights, or at least to benefit society. Eg, speed limits should be in place for safety. What makes people angry is when the law is used for plunder. When speed limit laws are used to raise revenue
366.
by dpatru 16y ago
You might want to read Rothbard's What Has Government Done to Our Money. It's available free both in pdf and mp3 at mises.org. The tl;dr reply to the arguments in podcast 3 (banks fail if forced to redeem paper for gold) is that fractional
367.
by dpatru 16y ago
Can you cite some specific claims where the lecture was wrong?
368.
by dpatru 16y ago
> Fructose can only be processed by the liver. That means, by definition it is a poison. Thanks for this summary. I didn't realize that if a substance can only be processed by the liver, it's a poison.
369.
by dpatru 16y ago
The experts disagree on sugar's toxicity. The NYT is not going to come right out and say, "Don't let your kids eat sugar." But there is enough evidence presented and cited in the article to make this a reasonable conclusion. I found this pa
370.
by dpatru 16y ago
NCAA : college :: Pro sports : real life. Thiel is saying, "Think outside the box. The best way to prepare for real life may not be to go to college." His 20 under 20 program is seeking to demonstrate this by starting at the top. He's seeki
371.
by dpatru 16y ago
It's probably reasonable to assume that many of the kids attending Harvard do have access to "crazy amounts of excellent connections", $100,000, and personal mentors. Many of the kids at Harvard come from the richest, most "privileged" clas
372.
by dpatru 16y ago
There is a control group: the classes that are now beginning at elite schools. Presumably Thiel's kids would be among them if they were not selected for Thiel's program. To make a proper study, all that needs to be done is to track Thiel's
373.
by dpatru 16y ago
> Thus, as a social experiment Peter Thiel's dropout scholarships are worthless. They do not show anything unless Mr. Thiel creates a control group by investing in kids that do stay in school or investing in kids that just graduated col
374.
by dpatru 16y ago
The bubble in education is not at the Harvard and Stanford level. Membership in that club is probably worth the cost. The bubble is in the lower-ranked schools that cost almost as much but don't deliver the exclusivity of Harvard. The peopl
375.
by dpatru 16y ago
Traditionally, if you wanted to become competent, you went to trusted school, worked hard at the course of study provided by the school, and if you completed the course requirements, you got a degree in which the school declares you compete
376.
by dpatru 16y ago
Rather than build a site where users go to, I think Google should do for the Internet what Microsoft did for desktops and focus on helping developers to 1) easily build sites that users love and 2) make money. Google already does this with
377.
by dpatru 16y ago
Immunity from liability (or limited liability) is a fundamental reason why governments and corporations are not to be trusted. When government officials, financers, and corporate (stock) owners are shielded from liability, they tend to take
378.
by dpatru 16y ago
Technology is driving huge changes in the education industry. First the price of the technical information that comprises "an education" going to zero. The information that used to exist only in textbooks is now mostly available for free, o
379.
US inventors on their marks for race to patent office (newscientist.com)
2 points by dpatru 16y ago|0 comments
380.
by dpatru 16y ago
The problem is that Google offers a recommendation which the searcher can't evaluate until later. This is especially true with ads. Google recommends a business to me (by showing me an ad) but Google doesn't know if the business was good to
381.
by dpatru 16y ago
Why can't private companies build duplicate lines and compete? It seems to me that what's keeping broadband prices high is government-enforced monopolies, usually awarded to a private company. Allowing government itself to have a monopoly
382.
by dpatru 16y ago
You're viewing government as a benevolent force. The reality is that government as an organization is funded through coercion (taxes aren't voluntary). It also protects itself from competition through violence (try competing with any of the
383.
by dpatru 16y ago
The biggest flaw in tnis is that the OP criticizes khanacademy videos by showing that vastly inferior videos don't work. Khan videos are good b/c they make it easy to think: there are no distractions, just a blackboard and an intelligent vo
384.
by dpatru 16y ago
Without patents, companies that wanted to maintain a research lead would not publish. Information would be scarce, researchers would end up re-inventing a lot. With patents, a lot of information is public, but if you want to use it directly
385.
by dpatru 16y ago
Kind of like a huge ycombinator.
386.
Half tau day(halftauday.com)
9 points by dpatru 16y ago|0 comments
387.
by dpatru 16y ago
Illinois should cut its spending.
388.
How Terence Tao simplifies complex papers(profiles.google.com)
13 points by dpatru 16y ago|0 comments
389.
by dpatru 16y ago
If broadcasters offered an ad-free option, presumably their best audience (from advertisers' view) would choose this. This would make the ad audience much less lucrative for the broadcasters.
390.
by dpatru 16y ago
When people are left free, they tend to work out effective solutions. In a free society, there would likely be a multiple authorities to judge physician competency. The consumer would get to pick. A big problem with doctor certification tod

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