Since the internet was an outgrowth of US-government-supported research, how about a flat sales tax (say 5%) on internet sales, not otherwise subject to state sales tax, that would go to fund scientific research of all sorts, including both basic and applied research. The government can take the difference from what it now spends on research, and give it to the states to compensate for lost revenue.

This way, scientists can be assured of a consistent source of funding. This will make America smarter, and more competitive.

IMHO, Mankind is evolving to be closer to God, more Godlike, even though we will never reach God's Level.

I have summed this up as four principles:

God is a loving Parent to all humankind - and Who made the universe such that we could live in it.

God is Unique and is One, each human being is unique and different, and so humankind is diverse.

God is Perfect, we are imperfect - therefore God has made us diverse, so that, in our diversity, we can approach, but never reach, Perfection.

God has given us free will, and wants us to grow in understanding - to grow towards, even if we never reach, His Wisdom.

See http://www.godsgrownchildren.org/.

In a sense, ancient texts, including the Bible, are little-children's books that God inspired His Prophets to write for us, so that things will be explained to us. Even though the Biblical accounts of the Creation of the Universe are not scientific, they do contain moral lessons which we should still heed.

Dr. James Powell, co-inventor of superconducting Magnetic Levitation (MagLev), is also a co-inventor of a system called StarTram, that uses similar electromagnetic technology to launch manned and unmanned vehicles into space.

Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarTram
http://www.startram.com/

This is also described in the book "The Fight for Maglev"; see http://www.amazon.com/Fight-Maglev-America-Century-Transport/dp/1468144804/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330015138&sr=8-1

I use the NoScript add-on the block JavaScript, and I have no such problems.

I also find that previous version of FF would slow down after a while, especially if they were chewing up a lot of Gigs (I have 8 GB RAM on this computer), and I had to restart. Fortunately, I always got my tabs back, and there must be a couple of hundred of them.

FF 11 does not seem to have that problem anymore. I guess I'll stop referring to it as Firefux!

I thought of something along very similar lines about a decade ago, and rejected the concept because of overriding safety concerns. Besides which, how do you transfer yourself and all your luggage in the short period of time allowed before the vehicles undock? Instead, I propose a system of modular cars that can travel on regular roads for local travel, and high-speed MagLev rail for longer travel. The vehicles are stationary when transferred from one mode to another, avoiding most all the safety problems. The same rail network can also be used for freight. Please, please, check out http://www.levicar.com/ for more details.

Anyone in for a Class-Action lawsuit against S&P? The plaintiffs will be just about all US citizens, with certain obvious exceptions like guys who work for S&P, judges, and twelve randomly-chosen people to be the jury. We'll sue them for $14 trillion, or about $40,000 for each plaintiff. I could use an extra $40,000.