In the summer of 1998, Max Levchin, a twenty-three-year-old Ukrainian-born computer programmer, had just arrived in the Bay Area when he heard Thiel give a talk at Stanford on currency trading.

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The idea came to him as he was preparing to give a talk at a conference on user experience in Web design.

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On Wednesday, Dan Geer, Alex Hutton and Greg Shannon plan to give a talk at the cybersecurity-focused conference SOURCE in Boston on using prediction markets to gain foresight into future events in cryptography research, cyber threats, and even data security-related regulation.

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Schultz agrees: "Appearing on late-night talk shows give us a slice of who they are, " he says.

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On one particular morning, Schwarzenegger was scheduled to give a talk to a Chamber of Commerce breakfast in Sacramento.

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So, I can't give you a definitive answer on that until we consult with our legal attorneys and also talk to, you know, some others.

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His books always seemed to come out around election time, almost as if he were using a potential candidacy as a reason to go on chat shows and talk about his latest proposal to outsource Medicare to Mars or give fat people tax credits for gastric bands.

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