I've always called it... NCGH = No Child Gets Ahead

veterinarians too... NPR's Marketplace did a story on it.

single payer is really the only solution to controlling medical costs. Hopefully we'll wake up to it eventually.. probably not in my lifetime.

Yes, Musk can be a jerk, but why downplay what SpaceX has done to help your father? Maybe you should be grateful he's not on dialup or geosynchronous satellite?

I agree competition is good and the whole license fight has gone both ways. I just find it annoying when people act like Musk is responsible for everything all Musk attached companies do. He's a jerk.. ignore it.

SpaceX has talked about moving Starship testing to Florida... maybe they should consider moving it the few miles to Mexico. I'm sure they would welcome it.

You'd lose that wager... I work out of the house. Since the trip is only one-way, there's about 15 minutes to take my daughter to school and pick her up. (as apposed to half hour each way it takes me). Throw in a post work trip to get the other hour. I think it's a safe bet that more than half of the local population isn't going to work at the same time.

I do agree that 66% may be a little generous, but your 12% is much too low. Do you really think more than half of all vehicles are on the road at the same time? Does an entire office building ever arrive at the same time? Even still, "congestion pricing" could cause people to vary times. I can see 40-50% being a floor... much higher than 12%. Still plenty of room for profit.

(BTW, I doubt we would get to automated taxis, but this is all hypothetical).

I use my car daily... about 2 hours on average. If an automated taxi runs 66% of the time (18 hours), it could still be cheaper than my 8.3% load factor.

We choose to go to the moon and do the other things, not because it is easy, because it is cheaper...and easier.

Once we go to the moon, we can store all our nuclear waste there... what can go wrong?

Many Guitars were saved.. because we all know United Breaks Guitars.

ReplayTV and Tivo came out at about the same time. Both were similarly priced, and ReplayTV also went to the low-unit cost and subscription model. (not just lifetime units)

TiVo did a much better job of marketing, but IMHO ReplayTV had a slightly better product. (I found the Tivo UI annoying and slow.)

The 4000 and 5000 units had automatic commercial skip, and the networks sued ReplayTV into bankruptcy. The final model had commercial skip disabled, but it was too late. Eventually the company was gutted and sold for parts/patents.

On 7/15/2015 DNNA (the final owner of the guide service) declared bankruptcy and guide service stopped (The community has found ways to provide guide data!) DirectTV still owns the patents and the name.

It will be interesting to see if Tivo is sued out of existence as well.

As much as I'd like to think he "saw the light" and decided to care about the already-born, I don't think that's the case. He would be much more effective if he used his position and tried to steer Congress to be in line with compassion until they voted him out (which would have also been a statement).

I suspect he was planning this for a while, but stuck around until after the Pope's visit.

I don't agree with many of his positions, but I do thank him for his service to the country.

I was in the same boat. I am severely near-sited late 40's.

Doc prescribed progressive bifocals, then later switched me to "computer" glasses, which were basically monovision with a focal point at arm's length.

I soon realized that I always forgot to switch glasses when I got up from my desk. This year I just have plain "computer" monovosion glasses and skipped the expensive progressive bifocals.

I do have a distance monovision prescription which I'll probably fill this summer with sunglasses.

I think progressives and bi-focals just don't work for computer users. Docs prescribe them out of habit.

The headline says "focus". I take that to mean a lot of time has been spent on internal failures and external ones just need more study. That's not unreasonable. When I worked at one, I could imagine a movie plot military attack easily getting through security. I suspect that's the sort of thing they need to give more thought to.

I've developed payment interfaces for PayPal, Google Checkout (may it RIP), and Amazon Payments.

Amazon Payments is by far the most sloppy interface I've used. Embarrassingly bad.

1. There's no way to search transactions on their web interface by email, only transaction id.
2. You can't use the "monthly statement" to reconcile because the "beginning balance" is at the *END* of day 1, not the beginning! (opening balance doesn't match previous monthly closing balance)
3. The math in a transaction report never adds up (opening + Payments - Fees - withdrawals=balance) because (I assume) factional fees aren't reported and always seem to round in amazon's favor.
4. Support is only available through their forums, and answers are slow coming if at all. (hint.. if you're going to use a forum for support, unanswered issues from years ago makes you look worse!)

I still offer it because the code is done and it is functional.... still annoying though.

Some (most?) parts of the government have not been funded for FY 2014 and have shut down.

The Health Care Exchanges were funded under a separate law (The Affordable Care Act) so are not affected by the shutdown.

U.S. Republicans are holding up the primary funding bill because they want to amend (defund) an existing law not directly related to the funding being withheld.

any policy purchased on the exchanges don't take affect until January 1.