legolas2412

What, why was the black plague not developed in the genetic engineering labs by Genghis Khan.. Maybe because the labs did not exist?

How you can compare the history of humanity to the last ten years, the time when we really have started such experiments, is beyond understanding.

Hypothetical function gain research?

You mean the literal proposal to put furin cleavage sites on coronavirus collected in the wild, filed for a grant in 2018, which was rejected for being too dangerous. Also, SARS-Cov-2 is the only beta coronavirus with a furin cleavage site. And if you have ever been anywhere near academic grant process, you'll know that you use a previous grant to do the next grant work, as preliminary results.

So tell me it is just a coincidence that just after writing this grant proposal in 2018 to take coronavirus in the wild and putting furin cleavage sites on them, the first beta coronavirus with a furin cleavage site turns up in the same place right next to the lab, right after they moved their sister BSL-2 lab.

I call bullshit on this. Our best shot at fighting modern slavery is electing politicians who support ending modern slavery and do not conduct free trade with such countries. Anything else is prioritizing neoliberal free trade over human rights.

I see a parallel over this with climate change. Our best shot at solving climate change is not buying from brands that green wash their image. It is to pass a global carbon tax.

I certainly do not look forward to constant unloading/loading, adjusting seats and mirrors, and pairing bluetooth again every 3 hours.

Yeah, I am no trump supporter but found this whole affair hilarious. Federal reserve kept the interest rate near zero from 2008-2015, and only started raising them rapidly in 2016. To a neutral observer, it felt political that they didn't start raising rates in 2012, and instead started QE3 which was as big as QE1 and QE2 combined!

That's a big writeup and with a lot to address.

No, it does not align with my sentiment. I don't think an Indian should be differently treated than say an Australian based on not just their skin color, or what the Indian and Australian governments say or do, but also on them being indians or Australians. That's not a deliberate choice they made, and should not be a facet of having a different treatment for them.

Although, as you said, Indians would like India to give Americans easy access to India, but India might still not do it, because it wants to prevent brain drain.

I'll disagree. No individual should ever be judged on the facets of life they don't control, like country of birth.

Different treatment based on something you can't control like your race is discrimination. And very few people like discrimination, specially against themselves

I've always felt that America always looks everything from the lens of race. Class problems specially are casted as a race problem. I personally think this is the leftover of 1960-70s, when class differences were a taboo because of the red scare, and race differences were being fought against for civil rights. The end result is that even in legitimat class differences like in access to education, it is only seen through the lens of race.

> I feel this country makes it a bit too hard for legal residents to come with work visa, meanwhile I know people that got it much faster via 'fictive' marriages

So true. I have been on a student visa for 8 years, and hence I am a non immigrant. I have the luxury of getting a working visa by a random lottery, with no regards to my skills as a PhD. And when I have that, I have the luxury of entering the 100 year long line for green card for Indian immigrants. They have such racist policies in immigration, but consider Asian Americans privileged.

I find it hilarious to hear politicians talk about immigrants creating jobs, while actually having the worst policies possible for the high skilled immigrants that actually create the said jobs.

> Tesla is overall near parity with human drivers in terms of casualty rates, though with different people at risk.

Unproven claim.

I know. I am criticizing OP on suggesting that it is not hard to immigrate to the USA. As if it is even a worthwhile option to suggest that people leave their families and marry Americans.

What if one is already married? Or in a relationship with a non American?

Consideration means planning.

If you caught a policeman planning to shoot an innocent African American, or if a neo-nazi was found to be planning to blow up a synagogue, would you not suggest taking legal action?

If I planned to kill someone just like the us govt did, I would be in prison the next day.

Assange should be given a fair trial. But the government spying illegally and planning to kill him doesn't give anyone confidence in that.

Wow, that was a good read. Thanks for sharing

That makes so sense. When they say "it's safer than a human", that should definitely translate to a smaller insurance cost than a human driven car.

> Not only were his communication constantly monitored for years, already a breach of client attorney privilege, the US considered flagrant assassination as a potential way to handle him.

Not sure how OP could be more clearer

Not just that. It is "highway miles driven in a high safety rated premium car by a younger set of drivers on better roads in better weather"

> nitpick a little around the edges

It is not nitpicking around the edges when the foundation is shaky and opaque.

A question for you, and all self-driving safety proponents. If Tesla's FSD cars are so safe, why are they not taking the liability of the cars. Why have only a regular car insurance punted on to the owners? When the manufacturers of self-driving cars roll out liability of all owners, or taxi services with a monitoring driver with no liability, is the time when self-driving is actually available. Till then it is vaporware.

I don't sense sarcasm but can't believe you are being serious either

I think they have a weird definition of creating money. Because they did say "The Federal government (through the Treasury) creates still more by issuing bonds to cover deficit spending.". So, they imagine the treasury printing the money, while the bonds are actually an IOU.

This is how I see it. Treasury makes new treasuries, and the Federal reserve buys them (through a bank, but it is a middle man only). Essentially, Federal reserve created money and loaned it to the government, holding the treasuries as IOU. This is further complicated as the Federal reserve is also mandated to give all profits to the treasury. So, essentially, the treasury did not create the money, only got a loan, but its loan payments are going to come back to itself.

I personally find it easier to dispel with the illusion of an independent fed, and just say the government (which includes both fed and treasury) prints money.

> Tesla hid nothing.

But they lied a lot though, right? "Cross county automous summon in 2017" "Coast to coast autonomous drive in 2018" "Tesla driverless taxis in 2019" are a few examples. One may hold the view that Elon musk can make grandiose statements about solving AGI and nuclear fusion in 1 hour and make futuristic statements about that, but when does it go from projection to lying?

It has to map the same set onto itself.

That may be true for you or the Greek person here. Not for indians, Chinese, and Mexican.

Not everything is wealth. A lot of GDP is consumption which is depreciating assets that disappear.

I would be happier if my future income isn't taxed to gift to the wealth of the currently rich. And this extra wealth of currently rich is definitely never getting taxed enough to get it back into the working class hands.

We have gone so far into capitalism that not only we take from labor to give to capital owners, we have started taking from future labor to give to current capital owners.

And have borrowed immensely from the future generations for this. The bill will come due sometime, and some future generation would finally have to pay it up.

Not OP, but let me present my opinion.

Interest rates have been on a downward trend for the past few decades. This is a new thing, that has not happened before. The Fed seem hell bent on making sure that there are no deflationary recessions anymore, and i think that is the true cause of the long term decline in interest rates.

One of the results of this trend is the hyper growth in asset prices. Reduced interest rates dictate a reduced time value of money, and higher valuations. This rewards the owner class with increased wealth, and doesn't do anything (and well actually harms) the rentee class, which pays the same rent for a home.

The problem is that this is not sustainable. I'm not sure if you agree, but we cannot keep decreasing interest rates forever. It would have to slow down and stop one day. What that means is that some future (or present) generation would not be rewarded with increased wealth that past generations have enjoyed. Essentially in order to fight deflation, the Fed has borrowed immensely from the future to openly gift wealth to the present, making the future less rosy.

I think you could buy long term treasuries at the currently high interest rates. When interest rate goes down, your treasury value goes up.

> The admission numbers are not changing because of tutoring

Why is that the only metric? Why not average learning level? Or the average interest in science? Or the number of grad school applicants?

I ask this because i have trouble seeing extra time spent in education as zero sum wastage.