+1 Right on. These are about accessing services, and the data they pump through more than functionality they provide. Open source is still the king of encapsulated functionality.

Well, I'm a dad. My ladies will be getting everything they've asked for, and a few things they've forgotten they asked for months ago. For presents, I'm going to be pretty lucky to get a new pair of gloves for the yardwork instead of socks. But there's an unbeatable upside to seeing your 2yr old spontaneously give a thumbs up for Santa.

How long until he can grow bacon?

-1 flame

This is not worth going after, because the ore grades are too low to pull out in an economically viable way. This is a common problem in mining for precious metals and rare earths. For a find to be viable, you need a higher material density or a second valuable mineral (iron, copper, phosphate, etc).

Also, regarding the regulations, those are probably good. Many chemicals used in mining are pretty nasty (arsenic for example). Keeping them controlled is just part of the price the public puts on anyone who wants to develop the resource.

It's like Viagra for your brain!

I set up shop for myself, and found myself in the same position. My wife assists me in my business, which gives us two employees (actually general partners the way the business is setup). As a two employee company, we could apply for group insurance. The insurance broker I work with handles alot of the interactions for me. I was able to get a good price compared to an individual plan (about 30% cheaper) and with better benefits. I would suggest doing the same. Some insurers (Aetna) may make you put money upfront to get underwritten, but a good broker should be able to let you know if that's worth doing.

I learned the same thing in Germany. Salami was the closest thing to pepperoni I could get. Salami plus German pepperoni (aka pepperocini) was very good (not as good as gringo pepperoni and jalepenos).
            In china, I was once served a pizza with potato wedges and sausage. Bu hao. Also, everyone else was using a fork and knife to eat their pizza! Weird!

I think rules like this from the FCC are the least of comcast's worries. After a year of crappy quality service from Comcast, I switched to FiOS from Verizon (it wasn't available where I live when I first signed up for Comcast). For the same price, I now get dramatically better internet service (5/2 Mbps down/up). What I was really surprised by was how much better the television service is. The channels are much clearer, and I get a ton of good channels in the base package. The guide works much better as well.
                If AT&T's uverse is on the same level, then I would expect the cable companies are facing real competition from the traditional telcos.

Twist lock, and built to handle 240V at the designated amperage. I have an L6-20 outlet, and am going to be adding an L6-50 in my shop.

For me, the pricing of Blu-ray has kept me away. Blu-ray discs and players are still priced for early adopters. Most decent movies are priced at $25+ for Blu-ray. I've gotten used to movies being half that price, and I'm just not willing to pay the extra for the HD video (especially for older movies). I also haven't bought any new DVDs in probably two years, because I don't want to buy something twice when Blu-ray actually gets priced reasonably.
              So, until the pricing comes in line with what DVDs are priced at, I'm not buying any more movies. I'll just keep using Netflix and VOD. There is just no compelling reason to buy Blu-ray until the prices comes down.

I agree completely on the debt and spending points. The US budget has debt service taking up about the same amount of money as the military (~20%, http://www.federalbudget.com/, http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=9957&type=1). And that debt service is just the interest on the debt. There is no principal being retired. That needs to get fixed.
          Most of the R&D spending happens from the private industry though. There are tons of DARPA/DoD/etc grants out there to be had, but there are even more from private industry (Which counts, because we aren't socialists yet). I would be shocked if the US is not in fact already spending 3% of GDP on R&D.