ReptilianBrain

A few years ago I started making loans through the micro lending site kiva.org. I figured it was a way to make a difference in someone's life in a developing country that didn't use state violence. If you aren't familiar with the concept, lenders make small loans ($25) to people worldwide. The loans are pooled and entrepreneurs and small business people get loans to improve store, buy inventory, buy livestock, fertilizer, etc. Kiva.org acts as a resource to connect the lenders to the micro loan groups working in different countries. The micro loan groups act like banks except the money isn't conjured out of thin air. Kiva takes donations but otherwise doesn't make a profit on the loans, neither do us lenders. But as the loans are repaid, you can withdraw your money or re-lend it. I always re-lend it and donate a little to Kiva each month. It isn't much but I get the satisfaction that I helped someone less fortunate than myself. Kiva.org has lending teams/groups where the team can support each other, etc. I started a Free Domain Radio team (actually I renamed a team I had started and was the only member of). Recently had someone else join and remembered that I never mentioned it in this board. I invite other FRD board members to join: http://www.kiva.org/invitedto/free_domain_radio/by/stephenayer I'd also like to hear your thoughts on the value of micro lending in building a free society. peace Stephen

In the future massive 3D printers will manufacture homes inexpensively. The floors, walls and ceiling will be 'printed' with plumbing in place and empty space to run the electrical.

With 2013 coming to a close, I am wondering... What do you think of "New Year's Resolutions"? Are they worth making? If you make them do you keep them? for how long? If you fail to keep the resolution, do you feel bad? depressed? thanks, Steve

Interesting idea, you have obviously put a lot of thought into it. My first thought after reading it was that whether a small group of people could really pick a business model/idea that was worthy of investment. But I guess that is what happens at venture capital firms. Do these reality TV shows have any track record for picking winners? My other concern is that the people donating bitcoin would not have anyway of knowing what their donations were going to support or what benefit they would get out of it. The only benefit being the positive feeling of helping the "freedom" community. I have been participating in Kiva (kiva.org), a mico-loan, service and wishing that there was a way to actually earn some interest on the money I lend to entrepreneurs in developing countries. I guess this is different from your idea, but I was wondering how hard it would be to set up a micro-loan service where the borrowers were liberty folks that wanted to start/expand a business etc. I would be more likely to contribute money if I got something back from it, even a small interest payment.

I remember taking a course in college called "the history of science and religion" or something like that. We discussed how religions influenced scientific thought and how religious views were changed by science. Bottom line: religious views are constantly evolving to account for progress in human knowledge. Does that make religious folks hypocrites? Who cares?

Do you have a reference for that? I really doubt it is true. By comparing DNA sequence data, one can determine which species are more closely related, evolutionarily. If one species of fish was more closely related to a cat than another species of fish, we would not be able to use DNA sequence alignment to determine the relatedness of species.

You fail to account for all the value that the "old" have provided the younger generations. All their inventions, technology, infrastructure, etc. The young today start life with so much more than my generation had. And my generation had so much more than our parents had.

Obviously, Bitcoin has lost a lot of value since this thread was started. Looking at a chart of Bitcoin prices, I am predicting it will continue to fall and then settle in the $200-300 range. <- just my prediction.