Probability has lots of functionally equivalent interpretations. Ask a Bayesian and they will tell you that random variables indicate your level of belief. The simplest interpretation of the world is that nothing is "truly random." We use the concept of "random" to refer to unspecified complicated and unpredictable interactions.

Which is all entirely irrelevant to what I said.

The US national guard website is "configured to block access from [my] country" so I can't be sure, but I expect the "cyber soldiers" might be doing a lot of carrying backup tapes around and typing things like "tar -xz" and "passwd -l".

You can, yes. But if you wish to push your beliefs on other people you need to have something to back it up.

You can claim that those beliefs are based on the literal word of an omniscient god but it's a bit of a problem when you then decide that infallible god decided whoopsie, ignore that old stuff, here's the NEW stuff. It's also a bit of a bummer to make an argument based on Christian theology when your argument is heresy according to every major Christian sect.

Speaking of which, does anyone have any kindling?

This is certainly a viewpoint that was given in an influential book or two.

The actual stats suggest that MD planes were, if anything, safer than contemporary Boeing ones, and both were death traps by today's standards.

All the plane manufacturers had to figure out how to actually run a profitable business after their basically unlimited wartime funding ran out, and even more so after the cold war ended. The CEO of Boeing for ten years before the merger was an MBA.

Lots of people and companies use fixers, local guides, handymen, personal assistants, concierges, etc.

Some people even still have butlers.

The downtown dog owner types I know spend several hundred dollars a month on dog walking. Making a little web page to help match up dog walkers and clients seems like a pretty reasonable idea.

On demand rather than regularly scheduled, well, maybe. Hiring 2400 people to run your little web page, not so much. Spending half a billion dollars building your little web page, also not great.

The 90% that it can be "up to" is probably some ideal situation where your "coins" are actually an account on some exchange they have an agreement with and the transaction gets done as an entry in that exchange's very conventional ledger.

Ah, a Marcionite!

Are you sure you want those kind of laws? Credit card numbers are one thing. User comments are quite another.

Distributions describe random variables. They're called random variables for a reason. If your returns are distributed, they ARE random. If they weren't, you wouldn't invest in the low payback ones in the first place.

It probably is possible to bias the distribution towards higher returns, but are some people much better at doing this than others?

That's incorrect. Visa has been pulling the same shit in Japan, forcing manga and anime stores to drop adult content or get de-credit-card'ed. This included a store owned by an elected national representative. It's gotten so bad the Japanese government has recently started an anti-trust investigation against Visa.

Probably not. Remember Ashley Madison, that matchmaking site for adultery that leaked everything? It's still around. The parent company changed its name and they switched their tag line for a couple years, then switched back. Apparently they've still got tens of millions of members.

Your government, bank, insurance, physician, all of these have quite extensive laws regarding the security of your information.

Giving your personal information to a random dude on the Internet (and yes, it's a random dude)? A random dude on the Internet who's encouraging you to gossip?

And gives instructions for how to perform an abortion.

I suspect the anti-abortion Christians just want pregnancy to be a punishment for having sex.

See subject. :-) Slamming TX representative, more than its citizens as apparently 78% of Texas voters think abortion should be allowed in some form, UT poll shows - meaning their representatives pass these things against citizens' wishes. On the other hand, the people keep voting for them, probably for other reasons, so that's on them.

But, more seriously, ...

Agreed.