In fact, it's called "Silicon Valley" because of the high silica content of the soil, which helped nitrogen propagation in crops. True story!

Maybe in 50 years, but not sooner. I mean, think about the kinds of mass-produced items people buy today, then think about why 3D printing doesn't yet solve the problem of making those things cheaper: Smartphones, consumer electronics, cars, furniture, etc.

A smartphone has hundreds of components of varying complexity.

Can you 3D print a cpu? a PCB?, the hi-res screen? We're decades away from making 3D printing of those components cheaply available.

Could you 3D print a car's engine? Not from plastic. And you know what they call a 3D printer that uses metal? A forge, which most people wouldn't have in their house any way.

Let's face it, there's a a lot "yeah but's" when talking about driverless cars and automation in general. You shoot down someone's pie-in-the-sky idea with purely practical concerns that would occur to someone not vested in "teh futurzes" and you're met with, yeah, but... (insert overly-optimistic impracticable solution here).

I mean, remotely controlled weapons platforms to defend cargo, even if it were legal it'd be an insurance nightmare. "Yeah, but..."

Police aren't security guards. What incentive do they have to protect an out of state shipping container? It's like if I called 911 because I parked my BMW in a bad neighborhood. The laughter at the other end of the line wouldn't be very reassuring. As with all technological utopianism, you haven't thought this out too well have you?

TRIGGERED

How do "intelligence organizations" control he BBC?

Wait, you mean technological progress and anything resembling AI robots is incredibly difficult to implement in the real-world. I thought the singularity was 10 years away?!

Seriously, it's like someone on trial for murder, who has a lawyer that says "now, I'm not saying my client didn't murder the victim but someone else could have done it too, amiright?"

...never mind

"Ulbricht's own lawyer admitted during opening statements that his client created the site. "There's no dispute it was used to sell drugs," said Turner. 'There's no dispute when the defendant was arrested, he was logged in as Dread Pirate Roberts.'"

They're not charging him with the "murders". The government used it in their closing arguments as evidence towards his character, just as how his defense will deny up and down that he's DPR in their closing.

Wait, people use the USPS to receive illegal goods in the mail? Isn't that stupid. Not only is it a federal offense to mail illegal goods through the USPS, but they have the right to open your packages. Isn't that like the easiest way to get caught dealing drugs? I mean, the package has your name on it, or it least your address. What are you going to do, say you're holding it for a friend?

Has the government had anyone by the balls as the do Ulbricht, I don't think so. It just keeps getting worse for this guy. I'm pretty sure they'll probably throw some child-porn charges in there for good measure. This guy is fucked, fucked, fucked. And will get fucked (in prison)!

But inflation is simply the increase of purchasing power of a currency over time. One way you can measure it is: how much have your grocery bills gone up in the last year, last five years, last 10 years and so on. If you really want to be accurate, you can even adjust it per person.

He must be paraphrasing Thomas Hobbes.

I think that's where you have to draw the line. I mean a college-aged girl has to get over the fact that older men will be attracted to her, and make advances. Just because she's creeped-out by it, doesn't necessarily mean it's inappropriate. Ultimately gender equality means others have the right to hit on her, and she has the right to tell them to fuck-off. That's what you do as an adult.

And it's not as if women don't use their sex-appeal when it suits them.