porscheblack

It seems like politics has become more about entertainment and partisanship than about the issues and the real life effects they have. Do you think there's a way that journalists can help address the trivialization of political discourse or do you think this trend will continue with the way cable news networks handle the topics?

For me, the ride up was the worst part. By the time the door opened, I made peace with death and I was relaxed during the freefall. I only got nervous again once the chute deployed and we were gliding down, as I suddenly remembered the will to live.

NASCAR is smart not to try and expand its road courses. First, road courses don't really fit their current audience. There are some fans of NASCAR that like road races, but there are many that don't, especially the more casual fans. Now let's suppose that NASCAR decided to forego the casual fan for some reason and target the road course enthusiasts. They would have a hard time because they're not the premiere car for road courses. Part of what makes NASCAR such a good oval track car is that they can weather a bit of beating and banging. That gets lost on road courses where there are fewer opportunities to pass and the cars run more spread out among the track. And you get road course specialists that only race the road courses, which dilutes the weight to the overall championship race.

And then there's the track experience. I'm not trying to say that road courses aren't fun to watch live, but they are a different experience. Fans who attend the race aren't able to see the entire track from their seats. NASCAR, like many sports, is currently fighting to find ways to get more people to the tracks to watch the race live, instead of sitting on their couches and watching it on TV. Road courses pose the most hurdles to overcome as you need to be dependent on video/radio to follow everything that's going on. If you're already going to need to rely on other forms of media to understand what's going on, why not stay home and watch it?

I don't see how this is really a problem and I actually think it prevents more problems than it creates. Imagine that a doctor knows the various costs of treatments and services. They get a patient they believe to require a $2,500 treatment but know that they can't afford it. That could lead to the doctor deciding against that treatment in favor of something cheaper that could be less effective. When it comes to health, cost just shouldn't be a factor into the equation and as it stands now it's not. I'm sure there are cases where doctors prescribe treatments or run tests that weren't necessary which ends up adding unnecessary cost but the opposite is necessary tests not being conducted and opening up doctors and hospitals to malpractice suits. The problem, as has been made in many places throughout this thread, is that there's no consistency towards pricing and the lack of standardization creates opportunity for exploitation.

Any advice for someone going there for the first time?