I can see where it could be abused, but maybe the original intent was to interact with traffic services so people could build better traffic reports (i.e. traffic on route X moving at 15 MPH, recommend alternative route Y moving at 45 MPH).

Even if not publicly known, as long as it is something that can't be used against you, it is fine. Saying you "view porn" online isn't that big of a deal for most people. Would I want my parents to know something like this? It wouldn't be my first choice, but if they found out, it isn't that big of an issue. I'm sure my parents wouldn't care to explain some of the "romance novels" my mother had or magazines my father had. The ability to blackmail someone with this sort of information is greatly dependent on the individual, but I'd guess that most people prefer it remain private, but wouldn't care much if it became public.
b The greater concern here, as others mentioned, is the use of government systems or even employer owned systems. I doubt most people will accept funding people viewing sites like these. The viewing also opens up possible harassment lawsuits, which may end up further funded by the public.

Do you have any evidence showing that all contractors make less than fully employed equivalent employees? I'd be surprised if that was the case with more skilled IT folks.

Anything in business is a risk. Even a contract wouldn't necessarily help if the company collapsed. Contractors need to set their rates appropriately to account for events like this. I tried to convince my father on this while he briefly tried to start up a small plumbing company. He had a hard time justifying in his own mind his labor rates above what he thought he would get paid if working as an employee at another company. He'd charge about $20/hr, way below what it cost him to run as a business. He wasn't factoring in travel, tools, insurance, taxes, etc... Needless to say, his company didn't last very long.

Contractors don't necessarily cost the company less. I worked as an on-site contract employee at a local government site. The county director wanted to pull a few of the contractors in to work as government employees (we were working on the 911 system conversion). When I compared my pay and benefits from being a contractor to what the government offered, I was better staying where I was employed. Add the overhead of the company i worked for and I'm sure the cost for me as a contractor was significantly better than a direct employee.

Public transportation isn't necessarily that much better in more densely populated areas. I live between Baltimore and DC and you'd think I would have plenty of options to get to/from work using public transportation. My transportation by self driving is about 25-30 minutes ( 14.3 miles) normally. I did a route plan exclusively using public transportation (did not include a taxi) and the shortest available trip was about 130 minutes and it would cost me about $4.60 one way. The fuel cost is certainly getting closer to what I'd pay for the commute (normally get about 32 MPG), without factoring in the rest of the cost of owning/operating a vehicle. The big problem is the amount of time. Not only do the trips involve more than double my current time, they add about 1 mile of walking and that time as well. All this for a trip that takes me toward DC. I use to work at a location west, so wasn't really going toward either city, and the trip was longer and more expensive still.

I've seen several examples of this, two affecting my me and my wife, one affecting a neighbor. - Me: My Visa debit card had a few mysterious charges that were caught by the bank before I even had my next statement. I was inconvenienced by it since I was out and my card was declined at a restaurant. The bank cleared up all the charges, but I was fortunate to have some cash on hand to cover the bill when the card was denied because of the bank deactivating it.

- Wife: Similar situation, her card had a few small charges on it and one big charge from an auto repair shop over in Pakistan. We caught that one when the balance ended up way off. I recall it being about 4 smaller charges that could be accounted by both of us having access and the total for those being less than $25 total but the $1500 charge for the auto repair shop jumped out at us.

- Neighbor has the last name Smith and someone apparently with the same name (living about 10 miles away from us) opened several accounts/cards in their common name with the rest of her information but another address. My neighbor spent about 2 years trying to resolve the problem.

I don't think the parents examples are too extreme.

My parents both drive (since you brought the "car" into this) and my father does all the vehicle maintenance. My mother knows little other than that they do require maintenance, but she'd take it to a garage if my father isn't available. Expecting everyone to understand the basics is a bit optimistic when they can rely on others. Some people simply don't care enough to dig deeper into how to use their desktop, they just expect things to work. While it would be nice for everyone to learn the basics, I don't think that will happen. It would be nice though to not have some of my time for each family visit dedicated to desktop maintenance but I don't see that happening.

Actually all we know is that

The Hospital IT department doesn't offer any iPhone compatible calendar tool

If I had to guess, the hospital probably offers some form of shared calendar through their email system, they may just not offer iPhone support. Given the asker states Most have an iPhone or similar, it is probably safe to say these are personal devices, which may be limited in what they can access (or be sent) from the hospital network (in addition to all the previously mentioned legal concerns about patient data and security).

I think it probably depends on what is going on in your life at the time. I've had periods where monthly contact was pretty regular but after having kids myself, found the contact to be closer to weekly. As my kids grew up and became active (sports, plays, dance, etc...), the calls were 2-3 per week. When my father was in the hospital (a couple months), phone contact with my mother was daily (I live about 270 miles away from them). When my father was well enough to talk on the phone himself, I guess you could say at least twice a day (once with each). Currently I'm in communication closer to the once a week (probably more like once every other week).

So API enables your application to search for YouTube videos and to retrieve standard video feeds and Google Book Search APIs aren't sufficient? Google usually seems to be pretty good about exposing their software to developers.

Sort of doubt Google is the only company to be restrictive about data usage. One could look at the BING Maps Platform API License as restrictive too.

Not sure what to make of this statement since it lacks a lot of detail. Is Google doing anything to actively make it more expensive or have they simply streamlined the process for advertisers?

My wife worked at a number of restaurants where amazingly the claimed tips by servers always hit the 8% mark, nothing more, nothing less. The justification made by her coworkers was that some nights they make less than the 8% so averaging it out was "OK" to them. I always try to pay my meals & tip using a card, that way I'm fairly confident the tips are being captured accurately for both taxes and the shared tips (table bus staff, cooks, prep staff, etc... that may be due a share based on restaurant policy).

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

US DOJ Fraud: Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

Lay Persons Guide to FCPA

Specific section from the PDF:

The following criminal penalties may be imposed for violations of the FCPA's anti-bribery provisions: corporations and other business entities are subject to a fine of up to $2,000,000; officers, directors, stockholders, employees, and agents are subject to a fine of up to $100,000 and imprisonment for up to five years. Moreover, under the Alternative Fines Act, these fines may be actually quite higher -- the actual fine may be up to twice the benefit that the defendant sought to obtain by making the corrupt payment. You should also be aware that fines imposed on individuals may not be paid by their employer or principal.

Additionally, companies can be prohibited from federal contracts, but this probably doesn't happen as often as it should (otherwise I'm sure companies would put in greater effort to avoid this).

I was thinking sort of the same thing. What if the left most lane on roads with more than 2 lanes (each direction) was reserved for trained cars? To enter the train, you get into the lane next to it and the car notifies the train that it wants to join. When ready to leave the train, you go through a disengage process and move over a lane. Basically just keep the one lane reserved as an expressway train lane.

Yes I realize you are trying to be funny but you might be interested in reading an article on the GWB archive.

Electronic Info Dominates George W. Bush's Archive

On Jan. 20, 2014 — five years to the date after Bush left office — citizens will be able to request access to his administration's archives through the Freedom of Information Act.

What would be nice is to see all this information available through searching online, but as I understand it, request will need to go through the National Archives for processing :(.

Could be representative to flaws in the production process or maybe related to the wear of the tires. I had a 2002 and 2004 Nissan Sentra and for an out of state week long camping trip, my wife and I both drove one of the vehicles because one of us had to leave a few days early. The speedometers were close, but not identical (as compared while talking over cell phones). The odometer was off by about 12 miles on a 225 mile trip.

Take a look at the Misuse and Common Practice section for the Wikipedia topic Passing Lane.

"It is also illegal in many states in the U.S. to use the "far left" or passing lane on a major highway as a travelling lane (as opposed to passing), or to fail to yield to faster moving traffic that is attempting to overtake in that lane."

Obviously in heavy traffic, the situation is a bit different since you have a larger volume of vehicles on the road. Ideally the slower traffic and vehicles that are exiting soon will be in the right lanes while the left lane will still be for passing. Those in the left are likely to be going faster as well since they aren't slowing for the next exit.