F7 is your friend editors! Are you even reading what you post any more?

As someone with even only a passing interest in genealogy, I have the exact opposite reaction - I would find this fascinating, especially if it included things like medical records etc. The possibility of "conversing " with dead ancestors is also interesting. My maternal grandfather died before I was born, but by my Mother's description and stories of him I would love the opportunity to chat.

Would it, really?

Sounds like the idea behind the TED talk given by Pam Warhurst: http://www.ted.com/talks/pam_warhurst_how_we_can_eat_our_landscapes.html

Very interesting, and definitely worth a watch if you have a spare 15 mins.

As the poster below mentioned, Australia currently has one of the strongest economies in the world (in part due to having a lot of expensive dirt, and not letting our banks get away with US-style shenanigans).

Meanwhile the 'Voldemort Tax' you mention isn't to stop complaints about the Carbon Tax, but rather to stop business jacking up prices unfairly, and then falsely blaming it on the Carbon Tax. If their prices do need to increase due to the tax, then they are allowed to state this: http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/1039037

Done: Australia (to name one, there are plenty of others)

Because holy crap, do I hate cleaning! (and the rest wouldn't have a huge impact on my day-to-day life. Plus, I enjoy eating :)

Just posting to undo a bad mod

iOS crashes more than Android (for those who don't feel like trawling through the (not brilliantly formatted) article.

Been there, done that they went feral : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_goats_in_Australia. Though some farmers to make a fair living off mustering the ferals and then selling them for pelts and meat.

Almost 23M (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Australia), and apparently we use 946,300 barrels per day (http://www.indexmundi.com/map/?v=91) making us the 19th highest user in the world.

Not necessarily - I work for a fairly large org (9000+ employees), and our bank charges us enough to deposit cheques that for payments under ~$100 it's actually cheaper to accept the credit card charge.

Would you like some toast?

That's exactly the system we have in Australia - if you request it, the Government pays for your tuition (to a set life-time limit, to stop abuse of the system), and you pay it back as part of your tax once you earn above the designated threshold. The interest rate is set at CPI, and you get a 10% discount if you pay back extra money (extra info here if anyone's interested).

It's a system that works fairly well - you end up with a highly-educated populace (good for the economy), and no-one goes broke trying to get there.

Apart from the political / legal / social implications of this, has anyone considered the health problems it might cause?

Consider this: Little Johnny has the flu, and wipes his nose with his finger (hey, he's a kid, they do gross things). He then puts his finger on the scanner. Little Suzy comes along after him, puts her finger on the scanner, and picks up a nice little viral present left behind by Johnny (being a kid she also doesn't think to wash her hands afterward).

Repeat for 100+ kids, and the viral / bacterial load on the scanner would be a pathologists dream.