Milwaukee to Detroit? Indy to Louisville? If these were profitable or even good ideas, they would have already been done. Do you think there's even the population density to support those routes?

I would say this is why decoupling the link between health insurance and employment is necessary. Next my glucose levels will be tested to make sure I'm not at risk for diabetes.

OT: That god character wasn't angry at Cain for not being his "brother's keeper," god was pissed because Cain flat fucking lied to an omniscient being. Double or nothing in a modern fairy tale: Cain would say "He's fucking dead because I was jealous." That god character would be all like "Dude, you kind of suck at yo job. That's why I was being so hard on you. Maybe you should pick a different profession. Also, get fuck out of the garden. How hard is it not to kill people?"
 
Anyways, I would like it if people quit using that phrase to mean "I need control of your life. Now shut the fuck up and give me a urine sample."
 
I think I've had too much coffee.

Most religious folks with which I have spoken seem only to care that the LGBT community does not get to call it marriage because to them marriage is a religious term. The LGBT community wants nothing to do with the religious definition and only wants the privileges the state bestows to H couples. I think a lot of religious types think the LGBT is trying to subvert their religion by using the term marriage.

I see two solutions to this issue.

• Abolish 'marriage' by the state and go straight to contracts. Open the contracts up to polygamy as well.
• Have the state perform civil unions and have religious organizations perform marriages. Although, a marriage would mean nothing in the eyes of the state.

The profit motive works fine, but the current incentives for profit are mis-aligned against the consumer (you). Most consumers have a third party (your employer) paying their medical bills. The consumer now only worries about the co-pay, instead of the actual cost. Third parties receive large tax breaks for large policies. The product provider ( insurance companies) caters only to the third party, wether the consumer gets qaulity service is no longer the provider's concern. The provider is now only concerned with appeasing the third party. Costs now will never decrease because microtransactions (procedure costs) are no longer being negotiated by the actual consumer with the product provider. I offer lasik as example of the consumer cutting the cost of a microtransaction.

I think the key to good healthcare reform is to slowly decouple the employed/heathcare link. Unfortunately, the PPACA only increases this unnatural market link and bring the consumer back in the loop.

I miss my Telegraph Citizen Bill of Rights.

I had forgotten that government is in charge of producing all ideas. Angry Birds, as we all forget, was government funded project to create fun for children.

I do somewhat agree with your description of coercion is government.

Well, it seems no government and a fully authoritarian government seem to have very little to do with wealth.

The 'no shit' will continue with soccer players' brains next.

I feel like society wants me to feel bad for these men playing a child's game for millions of dollars. To me the football brain damage 'revelation' is similar to the 'revelation' that smoking isn't good for you and may cause cancer.

In ye olde England, Stone Soup was the first 'crowd sourcing' project. Whenever I read these 'first' summaries all I think is the shoulders of giants, this one experiment.

OT: I have a friend who lives in St. Louis and will only recycle once the city of St. Louis lowers it's murder rate. He just wants the random murder rate lowered. Getting murdered affects his long term outlook more than making sure he recycles.

In addition, the U.S. should stop subsidizing it's farmers. Having to compete with a country that pays for over production is very tough.

Forget video. Just post a transcript of the interview to Slashdot and a link or embed the youtube video. I really enjoy being able to read the TED talks because I can't stand watching most of the videos. I like reading because it's faster than listening to some one pause between concepts.

Good question. http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66

I haven't checked the fact checker.

Tax money spent on government education has more than doubled on a per pupil basis in the last 30 years.

In K-12 education, no results have been seen since the customer, guardians, have no involvement in the pricing, i.e. tuition, pay. This leads to a lack of quality, since the customer is told to take the product, education, as is or pay an exorbitant amount of money, private schooling.

Colleges are a mess due to the ridiculous subsidizing that occurs with their customer. The more customers the college gets the more funding, government loans, the college gets. This drives prices skyward.

I'd say banning printing presses and burning books is in general a bad sign. Partially defunding schools without making alternatives available is worse than continuing to fund them. I say demonize the whole failed government education system. Teachers' unions are part of the failed government education system that perpetuates the ideas that only the government can educate children.

The government complains about plenty of things in which it's already heavily involved. The last thing those sectors need is the government to start helping.