A friend of mine is a family practice doctor whose clinic works with low-income families and people from rough situations. She has noticed that people with smaller or no support systems come to the clinic more often for small complaints. With no one to talk to and share difficulties with, small health problems can feel overwhelming. My friend said it breaks her heart to see, and what she really wished she could do was prescribe these people some friends. Friends are very powerful.

Quoting Utah Phillips, who was relating a conversation he had with Ammon Hennacy:

You know you love the country, you just can't stand the government, get it straight. He quoted Mark Twain to me... "Loyalty to the country always; loyalty to government when it deserves it."

(Yes, that is a quote of a quote of a quote.)

A guest on an NPR show the other day speculated that a partnership with Facebook was part of the motivation for the split. The gentleman described Facebook's new "tell everyone exactly what you are doing right now including naming the movies you are currently watching" plan, and then speculated that current privacy laws wouldn't allow Netflix to share information about DVD rentals. The privacy laws for streaming, he thought, might be a bit hazier, and by separating the two Netflix might be free to share that information with Facebook.

Sorry I can't find a link to the article at the moment. It was the first not-insanely-unreasonable argument I had heard for the division. (although perhaps still a bit unreasonable.)

should stop the wooshing, whining, and otherwise audible exterior ship noises.

Exactly. The department I teach in at the university is constantly under pressure to stop failing students. It puts them behind a semester, because they are failing prerequisites, and after failing a second or third time, they often drop out. The administration is unceasingly concerned about the retention rate, both for their reputation, and the money they are losing; they are thinking about the years lost, not just a semester or two of tuition. (If they would quit dropping their enrollment standards it might just sort itself all out, but that is a whole different kettle of fish.)