You never saw Red Dawn, then?

Because the average 13 year old is too short to reach the pedals of a tank.

Yes, you can enlist in the military in the US at 17 with parental consent.

It is also the obligation of the judge.

No...it is the belief that there is no divine being. Some Atheists are quite fervent in this belief and feel that it is their duty to convert the unwashed masses to their way of thinking. Not very different at all from your prototypical bible thumping zealots.

I think you either got a little too excited or have no clue what a boardgame is. That's like asking if all videogames are alike or if all mammals are alike.

I'll ignore for the moment that the entire United States *is* a "free speech zone" just for the sake of argument.

One issue with these so called "free speech zones" is that they are not evenly enforced. Only speech that the powers that be don't want to hear is shuttled off to these "free speech zones" which are conveniently placed where said speech will not be heard by anyone. Speech that is authorized can be exercised anywhere. Even if for the sake of argument we say that these "free speech zones" are needed for some reason, that is a violation of the 14th Amendment.

You are correct that one person's rights can not be allowed to infringe upon another person's rights without consequence (the basis of laws for libel, threats, etc.) There is also a difference between restricting speech and consequences for speech. Most laws fall into the latter rather than the former. Blocking traffic, etc is separate from protesting and/or exercising your rights to free speech. It can be an example of civil disobedience which is not always a bad thing and is sometimes needed to enact change. Either way, there are mechanisms in place to deal with it. "Free speech zones" are not needed in addition to those.

I think that it magically increases his bandwidth by being magically located in a place that magically has more bandwidth.

Calling LoTRO a WoW knockoff is unfair. It did have some game play innovations when it was released, though it was set in a fairly bland world (tying it to the Tolkien IP dooms it in that way.) It did not play exactly like WoW, though I'm sure that WoW has integrated some of LoTRO's features since then (as it should have.)

DDO, on the other hand, was more innovative, but suffered in the early days from not knowing if they wanted to be true to D20 D&D or be an MMO. Once they ironed that out, it developed into a decent little game. It still has the best combat engine of all MMOs IMHO, but the game is lacking in other areas. A fun diversion, but not a blockbuster.

Not everything is a WoW knockoff just because there is a fantasy element or a couple of similar mechanics. I see that charge leveled against pretty much every MMO...I've even heard idiots call EQ a WoW knockoff (probably the same idiots that think Warhammer stole WoW's ideas.) Every game builds upon those that came before them going all the way back to the very beginning. A truly innovative and unique game is a very rare thing and usually marks the beginning of a new genre.

"Local Time" means exactly what it says. It is local to the reader/listener. You celebrated new years at midnight local time. The spot on the earth that will be pointing in the right direction to see the meteors will be located at a position where it is currently 3am. The direction will not change, but the earth will continue to rotate under it. It will continue to be 3am in that position (give or take a second or two to account for the earth's orbit) for the entire night.

Don't get mad at NASA because you don't understand time zones and their usage.

I think that the mitigating factor here is that the program is outside of the scope of the OP's day to day responsibilities. This isn't a small shell script, but a larger application.

That said, it would be a bad idea to attempt to get money out of his employer for it. That would not be received well.

IMHO, the best way to attack this is to offer to let the employer utilize the solution as more or less a beta test but retain the rights to it so the OP can refine it based upon feedback. That way, the OP gets to be the office hero for solving a problem that is way outside of his area of responsibility and he can still potentially use the (improved) program someplace else for profit if he so wishes.

Better baseball bat technology has direct and immediate usage as a weapon. Where do you draw the line? How about at the point where the research has no other viable purposes? As I understand it (and I could be way off) this research has a very important use in preventing such things, natural and man-made.

They were afraid that he'd open a wormhole that they could use to deliver a nuke through.

"Homework" is a large umbrella. There are so many variables involved that it is impossible to say whether or not it serves any purpose. Some homework actually adds to the in class lesson, but some of it is simply busy work. Some of it is geared towards a specific type of learning, but doesn't do anything for students who aren't wired to learn that way.

Then you have to factor in the students. Schools are (almost) always geared for the average. If a student is behind the herd, he or she might need some extra help in the form of studying and homework, but a student who is ahead of the herd could find homework to be little more than a worthless exercise designed to waste time better used learning something (or watching Spongebob...smart kids don't have any more sense or taste than other kids)

I agree with the first part. There is no room for almost good enough. As far as the rest of it...maybe if you are some sort of mindless drone.