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jokoon

first world problems of somebody living in the silicon valley ?

sorry but most of those things either stems from politics or lack of market development.

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I found it a little bizarre too, e.g.

> 11. Get a quick, binding divorce online.

This makes absolutely no sense to me, in so many ways. Presumably a divorce should be a rare enough occurrence that doing it in person is not a burden?

Besides that divorces tend to involve such little details as children and the division of a large amount of property and it should be regarded as a good thing that one spouse can't pressure another into a 'quick and binding divorce' without at least a little bit of outside vetting.

Lawyers tend to make divorces harder for everybody and seem to be very good at lining their own pockets so I'm sure there is room for improvement but 'quick and binding online divorces' seem to me to be a dangerous road to go down on.

Just like you can't quickly and easily marry online.

Uncommon as they may be, I imagine getting a divorce is currently a complicated, expensive process, even if the couple are in agreement about terms. Sounds like a good pain point to solve, though I have reservations about trying to automate complex legal, financial and emotional decisions like this.

Saudi Arabia has solved this problem - at least one Saudi Arabian man divorced his wife via text message: http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2009/04/09/70302.html

http://www.wevorce,com

> 31. Be able to get a $100 MRI. It can be done for this price.

> 32. Be able to get into an ER for under $100. It's ridicoulous that a mere 15 min consultation can cost somebody (the system) $1000+.

A good number are Silicon Valley (or US) problems, the $100 MRI is pretty much the cost of an MRI in Europe, but then, it's free for the patient. Same goes for the ER.

> A good number are Silicon Valley (or US) problems, the $100 MRI is pretty the cost of an MRI in Europe, but then, it's free for the patient. Same goes for the ER.

FWIW, while the patient-facing cost is about that, I think the actual cost (after accounting for taxes, charitable donations, the radiographer's time, etc) is quite a bit higher.

In the EU, the supply of medical services generally qualifies for exemption from VAT, among other taxes. Same applies with charitable donations... that is pretty much a US thing too. The $100 number is an all-in cost. I know this as I come from a family of doctors, unfortunately I'm not one.

Living in Brasov, Romania: price of MRI for a knee is around 400 Lei or around $110. Proportionate prices for others. Not sure but I think these might be the lowest prices in Europe. If you're desperate and your British NHS doctor doesn't agree then this is an answer though I suspect the doctor will then ignore the scan because it was not produced by the NHS (open to correction).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/15/w...

> In the EU, the supply of medical services generally qualifies for exemption from VAT, among other taxes. Same applies with charitable donations... that is pretty much a US thing too.

Just to check we're on the same page: I was talking about taxes and donations that are used to fund the purchase and maintenance of the scanner, radiographers, etc. That is, the patient-facing cost (or consultant-facing cost, or researcher-facing cost, or whatever) might be $100, but how much more expensive would it have been if taxes etc hadn't gone some way towards funding it?

I don't know the answer, but I suspect it comes out to be a fair bit. I do academic research using MRI, and (from what I've heard) we see significant price differences according to where a researcher's funding came from, and whether the scan counts as being "on the NHS" or not.

Or just dumb ideas.

Call the police from an app? Your phone is still a phone ...

While it's easy to call emergency services by 911, it's more difficult to call, say, the local sheriff's office for something that's not an emergency especially when you're traveling. An app could help solve that and resolve the best non-emergency number for you in your current location.

Establishing a non-emergency number is not hard. Dial 101 in the UK and you're put through to your local police force: http://www.police.uk/contact/101/

In the US and Canada, apparently you can also call 311 for non-emergency calls (whereas 911 is for emergencies).

http://ec.europa.eu/digital-agenda/en/about-112

112 is an emergency number, though.

In the UK we have 101 for non emergency police and 999 (or 112) for emergency. I think 111 does a non emergency call to the health service where they will listen to your problem and give you advice (ambulance, doctor the next day, your fine etc.).

Isn't that called a phone directory? I can go to my country's directory website, type "police", choose "near me" (it gets the location from the device) and click search to get the number.

There's an app for that in Colombia, works well.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.com.ceiba.c...

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