I realized I was the only one aboard, and the boat was driving itself.

It hit the shore at first light, approaching from a perfect angle that allowed the sun to just peek out over the back of the island. I hopped over the side, and watched as the boat slowly put itself into reverse, turned, and headed back out to sea.

“Hello.”

The soft, froggy voice startled me. I turned around to face an approaching figure. It was Larry Page, naked, save for a pair of eyeglasses.

“Welcome to Google Island. I hope my nudity doesn’t bother you. We’re completely committed to openness here. Search history. Health data. Your genetic blueprint. One way to express this is by removing clothes to foster experimentation. It’s something I learned at Burning Man,” he said. “Here, drink this. You’re slightly dehydrated, and your blood sugar is low. This is a blend of water, electrolytes, and glucose.”

On a very related note to that petition by Elizabeth Warren to lower student lone rates.

The Obama administration is forecast to turn a record $51 billion profit this year from student loan borrowers, a sum greater than the earnings of the nation’s most profitable companies and roughly equal to the combined net income of the four largest U.S. banks by assets.

Petition Background

The interest rate on federal subsidized Stafford student loans is set to increase from 3.4% to 6.8% on July 1st. If Congress doesn’t act soon, millions of college students will see their student loan payments jump.

Some argue that it’s too expensive to keep government loans at low interest rates, but the federal government makes low interest loans all the time – just not to everyone. Big banks can borrow money through the Federal Reserve discount window at a rate of about 0.75%.

The biggest banks in the country – the ones that wrecked our economy and cost millions of Americans their jobs – pay next to nothing on their debt, while students pay nine times as much. That isn’t right.

The Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act lets students take advantage of the same low rates offered to banks for one year while Congress finds a fair, long-term solution on student loan interest rates.

Unlike the big banks, students don’t have armies of lobbyists and lawyers. But they do have us. Let’s do what’s right and bank on students.

Take like 15 seconds and put your name on this. There are already more than 300,000 signatures. And as always, thank god for elected officials who proactively do things like this like Elizabeth Warren.