PageRank is designed around the 'random surfer' model (15% chance to jump to a random webpage) and returns the probability that a surfer will arrive back at the same page after a large number of links. A node that only has two edges can easily have the highest PageRank.

If all they want is to find highly-connected nodes, then the Oracle of Bacon-style average length solution would work just as well.

Those states are also ALL in the top 6 for lowest average teacher salaries. The causation is clear.

You think those unions have more of an effect than the fact that American society doesn't want to raise scientists and nerds? More important than the ever-slipping knowledge requirements for a given grade? Every couple of years we teach a certain age group even less than we used to, and increase the best incomes on the planet for managers and athletes. Culturally we foster ideas like, "you don't need to know this algebra" or "truth is about what you feel is right" or "if anyone makes you feel bad, just sue".
The military gets over fifteen times the federal funding that education does, because state and local taxes are supposed to pay for it? Thank god we are keeping with the resigned "some areas just deserve shitty schools" position; it really paints us as the most developed country.

Yeah, that movie gave me the courage to upgrade from a lowly window-peeper to the full-time, restraining-order-crossing stalker of Marissa Tomei I am today.

When you take out a student loan, are you pocketing the cash? No, you are immediately paying your tuition. The schools are owed nothing, they are extorting on behalf of the lender.

I always took the swaths of free mailed coasters as a sign that my friends and I should drink more.

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to PROVE that your consumer electronics will not interfere with the avionics. It is even more difficult to prove that the other 150 passengers' electronics will not do so, when they are all broadcasting different packets at different frequencies. Obviously, for an organization in charge of this sort of thing (FAA), the only easy choice is to say, "Do not use wireless transceivers during the most critical points of flight." No, breaking this rule doesn't bring down the craft. But guess how many on-board cell phones the plane is rated for? Zero.

Sell treasure maps to bags of 'potpourri' or 'green tea' on ebay?

I have seen this tragic attitude on Native American reservations as well. The parents openly ridicule education and root for their children to fail, so that they will stay at home for their entire lives. It is a terrible cycle and is yet another contributing factor to the cultural suicide they seem intent on committing.

Back in the Counter-strike heyday, my friend would commonly get banned from a server after a few rounds for cheating. All he had was surround-sound headphones and the fast-twitch accuracy of a Korean but I'd get banned by association. Being labelled a cheater doesn't prove guilt; why wouldn't they use VAC analysis rather than hearsay?

And the 'disable scores' check-box does nothing but fix it.

It's exactly as vague as where all the money went. How strange.

By testing it in a sandbox, of course! Here's a super-nifty free binary analyzer that runs in your browser: http://anubis.iseclab.org/

While we've had plenty of CG characters visually designed from scratch, it's a far cry to say that we're near being able to synthesize their voices. Even our most carefully-crafted synthesized characters (Wall-E, GLaDOS) used augmented human recordings!

For those who want to sign a probably-ineffective petition, http://www.freepress.net/comcast