There is an interesting Coindesk article from a female crypto insider here. Some insights are a Greyscale report suggesting that 43% of Bitcoin investors are women, and a Gemini survey putting that figure at a very close 41.6%.

There's not a huge amount of verifiable information out there on crypto developers, but it does seem - as we might expect - that women are hugely under-represented in this area. This 2019 study does find some predictable results:

This is true. For example, some people believe that vaccines are effective, some people believe they aren't. Some people believe the Earth is round*, some people believe it's flat. Some people believe in human-caused climate change, some people think it's a scam.

The issue is that some opinions align with the data, and others do not. Some opinions are reached based on what the data tell us. For other people, opinions are often formed without any consideration of evidence, and then selective evidence is sought to bolster the pre-determined conclusion. Approach the data with an open mind, and you'll generally head towards the truth.


*okay, an oblate spheroid, but with mountains and stuff.

Atletico are back up to 6 points clear now, and Barca still have to play Real Madrid, so at least one of the chasers will drop points. It's starting to look like Atletico's title push is back on track... but having said that, in the remaining 12 league games they still have to play everyone else in the top 6 (except Real Madrid). Difficult call, but I'd still make Atletico favourites for the title even after their recent blip.

The only reason I didn't bet on this is because I didn't want to wait years to collect my winnings

Yes, the chance of humans landing on Mars by 2024 has to be effectively zero. People underestimate the logistical challenges. It's a far far different proposition to sending people to the moon. Keeping the crew alive on the journey is hard enough, but landing them safely and bringing them back alive too is a phenomenally complex (and expensive) task.

Thanks, and this is definitely the correct approach with merit - one that too few people take. The forum (and the merit system) would be better if everyone followed your example.
I've also merited posts I disagree with in the past because I appreciate the discussion and well-argued points... but it's certainly a difficult thing to do, and one that I still find to be a huge challenge. It's often easier to merit people who agree with you even if their posts are vacuous or insubstantial, and more difficult to merit people who are arguing well but from the opposing viewpoint.



Agree to an extent, it's not 2+2, no, societies are messy and there are far too many potentially contributing factors to explain things perfectly. But anecdotally, and from a UK perspective, the drop after April coincides (with a bit of a delay) with the implementation of what was a quite strict initial lockdown, including school closures.

Also I'd add that the way that virus infections progress exponentially is a factor - this can lead to quite pronounced spikes on a linear-scale chart... so for example the excess deaths in later parts of the year following a lockdown could be much lower because we are starting from a much lower base point.

Vaccination.

Look at the historic price charts with a logarithmic scale. Linear tells us next to nothing about a thing that has exponential growth, it just makes the latest upwards move seem like an outrageously improbable and unsustainable event, and smears previous price history to a flat line... but this is not the case. A logarithmic view demonstrates a clear and steady upwards trend over the years.

I wonder if there's a correlation between people who identify as 'super straight', and people whose response to BLM is 'all lives matter'.
I would assume there's pretty much a 100% match. Probably a bit difficult to acquire data on this, but perhaps if someone is willing to go to Washington and stand outside the Capitol with a clipboard, ready to question 'passers by' the next time it's stormed, we might get some interesting information.

It does seem a bit of a 'What about me? I'm not a minority but I'm important too! Stop focusing on oppressed people/groups!' kind of thing.

They still have an outside chance of Champion's League qualification... it's a stretch, but certainly not beyond them if they can suddenly turn their form around now with ten games left. The question is, how long will it take for them to return to their 'normal' form? Will a single victory suddenly fill them with confidence and see them racing up the table?

Perhaps the issue is that they gave up months ago once they realised they weren't going to win the title... never suspecting that they might even lose their Champion's League place.

Paypal integration is a part of bitcoin becoming mainstream, yes. It's obviously not a full service from Paypal at the moment, it's an initial toe-in-the-water kind of thing... but as bitcoin's price increases, more people start to buy it, and the price increases some more... which starts to draw the attention of major players both within and outside finance.

I don't think you can have either a high bitcoin price or mass adoption without companies like Paypal becoming interested. Would we have $50k bitcoin right now if it wasn't for Tesla buying $1.5b?

Interesting to see it expressed that way, but really I suppose it's just a definition of what a blockchain is, so any transaction can in theory be followed back to an initial point of origin.


I don't know. There are alternatives to PoW. Proof of Capacity is an interesting one. Plus there is the DAG approach - but then I suppose that's getting away from blockchain a bit.

Let's keep going. At some point we may find a new angle or a point of agreement.

If there is a new and widespread disease that has low mortality, then we'd expect to see a small increase in total mortality.
If there is a new and widespread disease that has high mortality, then we'd expect to see a large increase in total mortality.
We've seen a large increase. Therefore...

This does of course assume that there is no other new common factor across nations that could account for the large increase. I'm not aware of any such factor. Also the excess mortality peaks do appear to align very closely to the peak Covid infections.

1. Herd immunity can be arrived at by a) everyone catching the disease, or b) vaccinating everyone. Herd immunity through everyone catching it is deadly and dangerous. Herd immunity through vaccination is not. I'm quite surprised that a doctor can't grasp the difference.
2. The advantage of vaccination over catching the disease is that you don't catch the disease.
3. Putting a mask over your nose and mouth creates at least a partial barrier to transmission. Some is better than none.
4. If you don't believe the reason, then look at data for excess deaths.

Yes. This is the easiest angle of attack. Asymmetric cryptography is vulnerable to a sufficiently powerful QC. Known public keys are the low-hanging fruit.
OP, this thread might be worth a read.

Whilst a viable QC of sufficient power to hurt bitcoin is likely years away, the question of how to defend bitcoin is I believe still open. A post-quantum cryptographic solution would involve everyone having to move their coins to new quantum-safe addresses. What happens to coins that aren't moved? Or that can't be moved because they are 'lost'? Should they be burned? Should they be left to be stolen by a QC, which could quite conceivably cause market turmoil, a tanking price, and prove fatal to bitcoin? There's no obvious consensus here, no easy solution.

Macau presumably? I wonder if the US government will step in to prop up Vegas if people start to think it's only #2 behind China?

I always thought the ultimate Vegas casino would be a 'Las Vegas', which is a perfect scale model of all the other casinos, so that if say someone builds a new 50 storey Volcano casino, the 'Las Vegas' will immediately start work on its own 5 storey version. I hope the money isn't drying up out there, otherwise this dream may never come true.

I'll concede that it's not yet proven, but early studies do suggest a reduction in transmission.



Sounds like Geert Vanden Bossche (DMV, PhD, independent virologist and vaccine "expert") knows less than most vaccine experts, which means he's not a part of the overwhelming consensus that Covid vaccines are a good idea. Healthy debate is important, but at the same time you can always find one "expert" to support any given position.

The best approach is to take the vaccine. This not only protects you, but also helps to reduce transmission and so protects the as-yet-unvaccinated people as well.

But yes, there is evidence that vitamin D helps... and arguably vitamin D supplementation is a good idea anyway for people living at higher latitudes, and also dependent on skin pigmentation.
A healthy lifestyle in general helps to keep your body strong... but vaccination is the most important element here.

I want to see real competition, but have a feeling that the advantage of best 2020 car plus most development time on the 2021 version will give Mercedes a big headstart which will mean easy initial victories, and then, if they cease development midway through the season, we'll see the same second half as 2020, with other teams starting to close the gap.

I hope to be proven wrong of course, as a one team procession does not make for the most exciting racing.

I hadn't realised it was quite that bad! I've had a look and here are those results. Six consecutive home league defeats is relegation form. It's unbelievable.

January 2021
Thu 21st: Burnley, H 0 - 1

February 2021
Wed 3rd: Brighton & Hove Albion, H 0 - 1
Sun 7th: Manchester City, H 1 - 4
Sat 20th: Everton, H 0 - 2

March 2021
Thu 4th: Chelsea, H 0 - 1
Sun 7th: Fulham H 0 - 1

I've got money on a draw, it was very good odds.
And at the moment, at half-time, it's City 0 United 1... will be an interesting second-half. IIRC Man U's last three matches have all been 0-0, so they are on a good run defensively. Can they hold out against Man C for 45 minutes???