Well, thats all well and good, however, in the US the rich don't pay taxes. So more paid by whats left of the middle class, the poor go to prison.

Jack Horner did a great TED Talk about this very issue as it applies to paleontology.

Here is a video of Steve Jobs saying "app" from 1992: Link!. Don't have to wait long, at 0:16 mark.

The way copyright is intended to work, after copyright expires the work falls into the public domain. Hence, anti-private.
The way patents are intended to work, the cost of patent protection is that the way your invention works is public record. Again, anti-private.

I am not arguing that this is a bad thing, but I do believe his claim is correct.

However, as long as copyright never expires and you can fudge your patent application with false or incomplete disclosure you can argue the other way.

Spot on. The only thing a ratings system would accomplish would be handing out salaries to a handful of cronies tasked with compiling a worthless metric. Unless you are born into privilege (money, athletic, or scholarly ability) and you are going to college, its going to be the local state university. Hopefully one that caters do your chosen discipline without extreme financial burden.

Gut Homeland Security (by extension TSA), cut military spending, stop spending money on the militarization of local police. Stop taxing labor so working families can afford to send their kids to college.

Invest in education, don't subsidize tuition. Distribute more money to universities through grants. Invest more into agencies like NASA that can outsource some of their work to universities. Create an environment where universities can be flush with cash so that tuition becomes known as a barbaric tool used in the past by the elite.

Several times per day. I work in a pharmacy.

The problem is that the medical bill was $500k. The cause of the problem is insurance and government. A working solution will never include insurance or government.
There used to be a things called charities and community. There was also a time when doctors were allowed to charge varying rates according to what people could afford.

Did your grandparents speak of the horrors of medical costs in their youth? Their parents not being able to afford a procedure that could have saved one of their siblings, so they died? The stigma of needing to declare bankruptcy because the hospital bill for when Grandma went it to give birth to Dad was over $20,000?

I know it from how the princess says it: http://youtu.be/-wntX-a3jSY>"The more you tighten your grip, Tark, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."

I used to agree with you, but lets think about this for a minute. The warrant was given for them to seize weapons and ammunition, not all her notes and electronic devices used for her profession. Remember, folks, just as she as a constitutional right to perform her profession as a journalist, ( 1st Amendment) she as the constitutional right to bear Arms (2nd Amendment).

So how the hell did the feds get a warrant that allowed them to violate the first two amendments to the Bill of Rights? Her husband was arrested for resisting arrest in 1986!! Then, who was it that showed up to present the warrant and perform the search? The Coast Guard, who falls under the authority of Homeland Security. That means not only did HS violate the 1st and 2nd amendments, the warrant's existence itself was a violation of the 4th!

Epson makes a great inkjet, but that ink dries out FAST. Before I bought a laser, I loved them because they worked with any operating system and the ink cartridges were cheaper because they were just that, ink cartridges. They didn't have the print head built in like many other inkjets. However, their ink dries up FAST. It would only take a month of non-use and the ink cartridge would be worthless. After a couple-three replacements, the ink lines would be clogged with dried ink. Going through school, I would have to buy a new printer twice a year before I finally invested in a laser.

Yes, and just because one has insurance means one as the means to pay their hospital bill.

No, you have it wrong too. I work in pharmacy and can tell you that if pharmacy benefits are very much done in real time. Lets say you brought in a prescription for amoxicillin to me, but your doctor faxed the same prescription to my competitor across the street. If they submitted the claim a nano second before I did, I would get a reject saying it was too soon and they weren't going to pay a dime. I would tell you your insurance company won't pay for it because you just got it (I would have no idea where, just that you didn't fill it with me), and you would make a scene.

The issue that your link talks about is that medical coverage (Doctor's visits / Hospital / ER), durable medical equipment (walkers / prosthetics / nebulizers), and pharmacy benefits (drugs) have traditionally been separate plans and each are billed on different systems. They have never nor ever intended to talk to each other. And using the terminology the authority uses, each could very easily and often do use a different benefits manager. By different benefits manager, I don't mean Joan, Todd, and Tedd in three different offices in the same company. I mean three completely different companies each who do things very differently from each other and have no means to communicate with each other.

In other words, your medical benefits and your pharmacy benefits have always been two separate plans. The way the billing infrastructure was designed and built never intended for the two to intertwine. (This is what she was talking about with the two bank accounts). Billing is such a legal and technical mess, your insurance really doesn't want to deal with it, so they outsourced it to two different companies, one specializing in medical billing, and the other in pharmacy billing since each has very different laws, regulations, and entities to do business with. All three parties use different systems built up and customized over the decades, and now Congress requires them all to speak to each other in real time with real legal ramifications for the people rendering the actual services you are using.

The kicker is the insurance lobby wrote most of the law, so they knew this was in there, and they knew the technical ramifications of it. Like others have said, they want Obamacare dead. They made sure there wouldn't be single payor as they would no longer exist. And they can't exist with the law in its current form. She is threatening that its going to take a day plus to process prescriptions and people are going to die waiting to get their time sensitive medications and come election time heads are going to roll. They are already raising premiums, and raising what you have to pay at the pharmacy counter. All parties involved with the writing of obamacare have no intention of it surviving or any part of it implemented including the President, Congress, and the insurance companies. Its healthcare theater.

Wow, good for you. I'm very glad that worked out for you. What did you end up flying?

I'll gladly do it... they'll have to overlook the fact I am in my early 30's and don't have 20/20 vision. If they did, I'd sign up immediately.

For the business users still running XP, I don't see them flocking to buy new Windows 8 hardware. They are still on XP because either the software they run won't run on anything else, or they are small businesses that don't have an IT budget. As long as the hardware and software works, they aren't going to go out and buy new systems.