Phi for All

I think it's a mistake to call it community service. Call it Civic Leadership, make it a required class and give credit for it at all levels. I always jumped at the chance for off-campus activities.

Completely awesome! I want one too, but scaling it up? Surely the sideways motion would be too unsettling for passengers on a large-scale version. I doubt people would take a second ride on the Hindenbass.

Amen. I get so tired of every criticism of the military being reduced to troop level. It's like arguing with creationists. Again though, we have to nip and tuck where we can. It's not going to be any one idea that saves us money, it's going to be many ideas together that add up. We need a lot of analysis on where we can pare down stupid spending that has always been hobbling us and which is now crippling us.

Listen, the idea is not to take the bullets away from the soldiers. I'm not arguing for a depleted military, but a more efficient, streamlined military. And really, the idea is to do as many smart, efficient things as possible so it totals up to some real savings. Pay for what works, and cut loose the superfluous and inefficient ways we've been clinging to, mostly because we funded it and forgot about it. I'd like to hear more from outside the US. You all have been sitting in pubs for years bantering this around, haven't you?

The one who doesn't try to spam links on a science forum full of smart people.

Agreed. But I'm more concerned that someone we don't know very well might be getting the email addresses of our other members. Let's just discuss this idea here because hey, it's what we do.

Absolutely. Sometimes the far extremes help define the middle.

bloody_thorn, you obviously don't care about your hotmail account, but I don't want you getting anyone else's email addy from their response. No offense, but we don't know you at all. This is a discussion forum, so let's keep all discussion open for everyone, as iNow suggests.

Yeah, it's too bad there are no alternative ways for people to get around in NY the way they did each time the LIE was expanded, or an effective way to give people notice that there will be a period of inconvenience that will result in less road maintenance, less wear and tear on their cars and smoother driving. So, for busy roads, I guess it's automatically NO WE CAN'T.

Perhaps those who drive that Expressway should pay extra for their convenience. Short-sightedness and impatience costs extra.

You're right, education is another area that needs real change, but I didn't even know where to start to fix it. The best I could come up with was a funnel system where young people start out with broad learning parameters and get more specialized into certain areas as they progress, with the aim of educating them into careers they not only want but are best qualified for. I think one state needs to figure out something really progressive and effective and when that state's kids start outperforming all others, the rest will jump on board. But who will be willing to forgo federal funding? As long as we don't fall for this current trick of trading convenience for durability, privatization could work. I believe Germany makes it's contractors guarantee their roads for 10 years. I think the taxpayers would trade extra detours and redistribution of jobs for lack of potholes, huge tax savings, driving safety and longer vehicle life. But from what I've seen of privatization so far, it just means more expensive. We're already paying too much for roads unnecessarily. I think unifying the military is a practical solution, rather than just cutting military spending and forcing them to do without. Rivalry (albeit friendly) has cost us much over the years, as has "tradition".

Let’s talk about change. There are two major changes I'd like to see in the US that I’ve been chewing on for years. Any major change is viewed as radical in the US, and thus most politicians steer clear of them. We’re now seeing that, in hindsight, moderate changes in our energy policies thirty years ago would have helped us a great deal to avoid our current oil dependencies and the need for radical change. This is probably the best political climate EVER to gain support for some sweeping changes we can make now to avoid regrets later. The first change I’d like to see is in the military. Back in the 60’s, Sen. Stuart Symington (D-MO) proposed unifying the military under one Chief of Staff and abolishing the separate commands that cost so much money. One of the reasons we spend more than the rest of the world combined on our military is that we have four hands reaching for every dollar allotted to defense, with four complete administrative staffs filing all the necessary formalities. And because the buying power of the military isn’t unified, we spend ridiculous amounts of money satisfying petty procurement differences (like when the Air Force wanted to give up the A-10 Thunderbolt because they didn’t like it’s close support mission and wanted the Army to support itself with helicopters while the AF flew high in fighters; the Army loved what the A-10 did for close support in the first Gulf War but wanted it’s own version, partly because they didn’t like AF snobbery over the matter). By unifying the military into a single fighting force, part of which is trained for sea missions, part for land and part for air, we don’t lose capabilities and most likely gain more bang for less bucks. This is something that needs to transition starting as soon as possible in order to realize the savings while maintaining superior defensive capabilities. The second change is the way we build our roads. Allowing people to drive on asphalt the same day it’s put down guarantees potholes and repaving within the next year or two. This keeps a lot of people working but wastes a tremendous amount of money. Let asphalt cure for 90 days before anyone drives on it and you get glass-smooth roads for at least 10 years (Germany does this with the Autobahn, the most pleasurable driving surface I’ve ever experienced). For the transition period between not-curing and curing, the savings can be used to retrain superfluous road workers. Even if this results in the same amount of money being spent (at least until the system stabilizes), we trade some inconvenience for Autobahn-style pothole-free roads. I’d like to hear about some changes you’d like to see in the United States of America, whether you live here or not.

I vote for mandatory FactCheck subtitles on every ad, infomercial and debate in 2012. And a truth interpreter at every rally, informing the public about what the candidate actually said.

If you're walking along the street, and a gust of cooler wind hits you in the face, it's because the weather pattern, something seemingly random, caused the wind to blow that way. If the temperature were slightly different, or if you were among taller buildings, or were simply walking the opposite direction, the wind may not hit you the same way. But you still have the free will to decide whether to put your jacket on or not. And the friend walking right next to you may decide to do the same as you, or not, or he may suddenly run into a coffee shop. I don't think free will and randomness are necessarily linked.

I'd ask you to define "deceiving the public", but I think I'm just going to pass on this one altogether.

I'm not sure that's possible anymore. We're like a country that's starving and needs a broad menu to choose from to satisfy everyone's tastes, but the restaurant says they're out of everything but hamburgers and hot dogs, so we're forced to defend our choice of one over the other. People who'd rather be eating something else (and maybe trying a bite of someone else's dish?) have to sit on their own side of the restaurant arguing across the aisle about why they made the right menu choice. And in the kitchen, the cooks are waiving their cleavers around while our burgers and dogs burn, hoping we never remember to ask why they always seem to be out of everything but hot dogs and hamburgers. I admit it. I voted for Obama because he has better buns!

I think we had 53 things to vote on total, but only 14 ballot initiatives. Actually 19, but five are pointless because they filed them but later decided the outcomes in arbitration. One of our referendums is hopefully going to increase the signatures needed for some of these citizen initiated measures. We're way under the national average so we get things like "shall the state change the definition of 'person' in the Colorado Constitution to include any fertilized egg, embryo or fetus?"

Ha ha. No. It's a poll you want us to vote in. Why are you surprised we would question the way you worded it? You say you made it specific so people could ignore it if they felt you were putting words in their mouths? I wish I would have known that from the beginning.

I was wrong in my phrasing. A convicted felon probably couldn't get elected (glad Steven's verdict wasn't a month later). Good calls, Pangloss and Mr Skeptic. I suppose anyone who donated money to the campaign of a convicted felon deserves to lose it. Moral turpitude is mostly used to show a wicked intent, something utterly against public standards of conduct. Has the SCOTUS ever ruled that moral turpitude is present in any case of abusing public trust while in elected office? I'm pretty sure they've ruled that way regarding fraud cases.

I wish some of the money would be spent on Spin to English translators so people would know what they're really voting for. For example: The Wetlands Defense Fund = set up by ranchers who want to defend their right to plow under the wetlands on their land if they want to. Don't vote for anything they vote for if you love ducks. Amendment X = despite the three double negatives in this amendment, it's basically just asking for things to remain the same with regard to X. Candidate Y was under investigation for fraud! = along with every other person who had anything to do with the person who is the target of the investigation, as part of normal SOP.

dichotomy, next time you post a poll, you need to stop tweaking the OP after people have already voted. You added "president for ruling elite" to your title. Is this all a slam against the US?

I don't accept the premise of your question. Option 1 is worded differently in the poll than it is in the OP. Why does Obama have to be elected based only on the criteria in your OP? Why does Obama need to resort to "vote rigging" if he's so far ahead in the polls? If "vote rigging" is such a viable option, why wouldn't McCain use it?

How many serious candidates do you usually have? I think the media in the US loves only having two parties to focus on.

I think there's something wrong when a convicted felon can't vote but he can be elected to the Senate.

On reading the OP, I also assumed that the balloons wouldn't be popping (as a given) and that all balloons would be contained somehow directly above the person being crushed. In this scenario, if a balloon weighs an ounce and a human skull crushes around 750-800 psi, it would take... someone else to figure out how many balloons it would take to reach that kind of pressure.