I like it. I use it. I have some. I keep it in a jar above my refrigerator. I'd like to put some more money in that jar. That's where the employer comes in.

Veterans typically are only eligible for "free healthcare" if they are poor or disabled. For example, the income threshold for benefits around here is $30k/yr. Above that, VA typically won't even consider you. Below that, they might assuming you have a service-related disability, a Purple Heart, or served in "high risk" (e.g. Agent Orange) theaters; even then, the "healthcare" typically is focused on your service-related disability. A veteran who is earning anything above around $15.00/hr isn't going to receive "free" health care. Don't believe me? Here: http://www.va.gov/healthbenefits/ Disclaimer: I am a disabled combat vet. I haven't bothered applying for VA health benefits because my employer benefits are light-years better than anything VA could offer. I can also get in to see a doctor when I'm sick, as opposed to waiting a month or two for an appointment.

Here's your proof. Genomic evolution during a 10,000-generation experiment with bacteria http://www.pnas.org/content/96/7/3807.short

You've obviously never taken a real IQ test if you think it is all about "memorization of facts and conclusions". The primary objective is assessment of reasoning and cognitive ability. Analogies, puzzles, spatial reasoning.

The beauty of streaming is that it can be easily monetized by adding advertising.

The mere fact that these lab rats are allowing themselves to be continuously geolocated doesn't say much about their brains. I suspect the smarter people are busy working in the lab and don't need games to improve their "brain performance."

To say nothing of the equipment...IRMS, ICP-OES, SEM, TEM. You don't get access to those for $100.00.

Add in two young kids and it gets even worse. Even so, 50k to 75k of debt for a STEM graduate degree isn't a big deal and pays for itself in a few years. Just skip a Volvo or BMW for ten years. No big deal.

Billions. http://www.spacex.com/press.php?page=20081223 "HAWTHORNE, CA – December 23, 2008 – NASA today announced its selection of the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft for the International Space Station (ISS) Cargo Resupply Services (CRS) contract award. The contract is for a guaranteed minimum of 20,000 kg to be carried to the International Space Station. The firm contracted value is $1.6 billion and NASA may elect to order additional missions for a cumulative total contract value of up to $3.1 billion."

The company would not exist without billions in NASA funding. SpaceX isn't any different than Rockwell, which built the Apollo capsules, or McDonnell-Douglas, which built the Mercury capsules. We've just gone full circle back to the '60s, is all.

From TA "Many prodigies like painter Van Gogh, author Jack Kerouac and mathematician John Nash had displayed self-destructive behaviors, and it is unclear as to why humans have evolved this trait. " Many people who *aren't* prodigies display self-destructive behaviors *all the time*.

Training with a purpose is more productive than "training to train", in any event.

I would have though Chianti and fava beans...

He had a youth. It just wasn't a typical youth. It doesn't say anywhere that he didn't have toys or exercise his imagination. In any event, a kid that smart isn't going to have a "normal" youth by any standard. How would he even relate to another teenager? When you are that smart you are, in a relative sense, surrounded by morons when you are in school. He'd have more in common with his teachers than the other students, even if he was lucky enough to be in a full-time gifted program. I suspect that this young man has a great life ahead of him, and I wager it won't be filled with regrets of a "robbed childhood".