A monolithic dome has been on my to do list for awhile now . . .

"Very few states divide their electoral votes. so the third parties wouldn't be getting any electoral votes anyways. "

Um, yes, if you read further down in the original post that is addressed as a concern.

"He will not get those 39 electors unless he takes a state or two."

Those numbers were provided for the sake of example. A more realistic scenario might be that Obama gets 236 electoral voters, Romney gets 235 electoral voters, and Johnson wins New Mexico to get 5 electoral voters.

"Even if a president had to make a pact with a third party non elected person, there is no way to enforce the pact."

Good point, but it would likely be political suicide for a first term term president with no hope for re-election.

"I think you might have some romantic concept that the federal government is supposed to represent you. They are not, they are supposed to represent the union of states. "

Agreed, but the US has been moving more and more away from that model. Senators used to be chosen by the states' governments and not by popular vote within the state. I was just looking at trying to more closely follow that model within the existing framework. Baby steps.

I do not understand why people think that voting for a third party is throwing away your vote. I don't understand why third party candidates don't point out that even if they do not get enough electoral voters to win, that if they get enough electoral voters to swing the vote they could make a huge difference.

With the way the electoral college is set up if Obama wins 250 electors, Romney wins 249 electors, and Johnson wins 39 electors, guess what? Johnson's not going to win, but he could ask his electors to cast their votes for one of the other two guys. That's quite a bit of power and influence. Not a bad method of actually representing the will of the people either. Of course the problem here is that with the exception of Maine and Nebraska the electors in other states are picked in a winner-take-all fashion. Also, about half of the states impose some minor penalty for electors voting for anyone other than who they were chosen to vote for.

Personally, I would hate to see election by popular vote. I would hate to see the country being run by someone that only 51% of us chose. I'd much rather see the country run by the guy that 40% of chose and who had to make concessions to the guy that the other 20% of us voted for. It really is a much better representation of a larger portion of the population. but I guess we haven't really had a representative government for some time now. :P

I don't understand why people get up in arms about female circumcision but don't think that male circumcision is a big deal ? ? ?

Another option I'm surprised has not yet been mentioned is the four day school week. Some schools have already gone this route with interesting results.

I recently listened to a show on NPR with the author of the book "The First Twenty Minutes". The book focused on exercise, but they also discussed how the body tends to shutdown after sitting for about twenty minutes. Merely standing for a minute or two out of every twenty prevent the body from going into sedentary mode and supposedly can have health benefits that can surpass daily exercise. Not that you shouldn't also have daily exercise mind you!

I second this. I tried going all digital with my calendar, and found that without the electronic reminders the various things on my calendar were totally out of mind. When I wrote them down they registered better somewhere in my brain. I don't remember the exact dates of various tasks without looking them up, but I always have a sense of what's going on and when.

I haven't researched the phenomenon, but I speculate that it has to do with the basic idea that the three primary modes of acquiring information are auditory, visual, and tactile. When the lecturer is speaking and displaying text, the auditory and visual are covered. When you handwrite down the information you probably get a much better tactile experience than just pounding keys on a keyboard

Agreed. Eighty per cent of my students benefit from the free or reduced lunch program. Their families are hardly candidates for bilking money out of.

. . . and to be clear, the district will provide a lot, but often, time is the real cost. Either you spend precious hours filling out forms for twelve dollars worth of supplies that can be purchased at a grocery store, or you have to wait three months for the supplies to arrive from an approved vendor. Government bureaucracy at ti's best!

Okay, I have to interject here . . . I am currently teacher. Yes, my annual salary is $50,000. During the school year, I arrive at my building at 6:00 am and I do not leave until 4:30 pm. On a good day (all of my students are caught up on their work lol), I get a thirty minute lunch. I get exactly three 5 minute breaks throughout the day to use the bathroom, etc. I am told that at some of the other schools in my district that teachers are expected to be at their door monitoring/greeting students. They are only allowed to use the restroom if an administrator comes to fill in for them. Unfortunately, I am not able to accomplish all that is expected of me at school, so I spend an additional 5 to 10 hours working in the evenings or over the weekend. I do not get the summer off, but I do have a great deal of flexibility from mid-June to mid-August. I get to choose which workshops and trainings to attend during those two months in addition to all of the preparation I am expected to do for the year's upcoming classes. Oh, and of that $50,000 salary, I easily spend $2000 or more of that purchasing supplies that the district hasn't approved or hasn't approved in a timely manner. As far as teachers doing a "shitty" job, just like any other profession there are good teachers and bad teachers. Unfortunately, a lot of good teachers are discouraged by all of the stupid policies put in place to prevent the shitty teachers from doing too much harm. Anybody know of any entry level Software Development jobs in java looking to hire a slightly rusty Software Engineer!?