Why reinvent the wheel? If you opt-into this system, the IRS could autogenerate a filled-in PDF copy of the form you select (they already have the PDFs available, and they're editable) and ask "Is this correct?" If it is, you click yes. If you're due a refund, you enter your account information (to have it directly deposited) or indicate you want it mailed to you. If you owe, you enter your account information or you indicate you'll send in a check, at which point you get a form to print with all the relevant details. If there's an error, or you want to add in additional information that the IRS didn't take into account, you download the filled-in PDF and use it as a starting point.

Once could be an accident. Twice starts a pattern.

Assault and battery, probably. And then you'd be the defendant in a civil law suit, which even if you win will require time and legal fees.

A different solution: unless your child has a medical reason (allergy to one of the ingredients in the vaccine, compromised immune system, or the like -- "I don't want it" doesn't count) not to have the vaccine, the child won't be permitted in public school. This includes the classroom, extracurricular activities, etc. The parents will have to arrange (and pay) for alternate schooling, to protect the general school population. The principals, superintendents, and school boards can even describe it as "We're thinking of the children."

Don't lock the door to the room. Lock the doors to the cabinets that contain the equipment, like mailboxes at the post office, in such a way that the person unlocking the door is logged (badges or PIN or something similar.) If someone wants a piece of equipment they unlock the cabinet door, extract the equipment, use it, and put it back. Or they get the equipment out, close the door, and unlock the door again to return it.

Put a small window in the doors so you can easily see if the equipment is present and if it's not the last person to unlock the door either has the equipment or is responsible for explaining where it is or what happened to it.

... or until someone develops an app that exploits insecurities in the phone's software to remotely brick specific/all phones nearby and sells the app or gives it away. Then anyone could brick anyone else's phone for fun or use the threat of bricking to extort money from the phone's owner.

Agreed. In 2013, NASA's budget of 17.8 billion dollars made up one half of one percent of the total US budget of about 3.8 trillion dollars. Rounding to the nearest integer, the largest chunk of the budget pie (the Department of Health and Human Services) had a budget 53 times as large as NASA. The Social Security Administration? 50 times. The Department of Defense? 38 times.

To put it another way, we pay 14 NASAs in interest on the national debt!

It's not going to be presented as a matter of trust. If the proxy bothers to ask the user to opt in, they will ask "Do you want us to use the SuperMegaFast approach to get this page or the normal way that's likely to be somewhat to much slower?" When phrased like that, I think most non-technical users (and even some technically-savvy users) would choose the fast MITM approach.

Hmm ... Hasbro owns Candy Land, and they also published through Wizards of the Coast a little role-playing game called Star Wars: Saga Edition. And we know Hasbro has more than a few lawyers ... how do we bring this to their attention so they can kill two attempted trademarks with one lawsuit or legal nastygram?

It may be worthy of study. Just not in a SCIENCE class.

Sure, we can't observe the early Earth (at least not until or unless we discover time travel.) But we can simulate conditions on the early Earth and see what happens. In fact, the Miller-Urey experiments and others have done and are doing this, and they've found some very interesting results. It'll be interesting to see what would or will happen if such an experiment were done on a larger scale and left undisturbed for a longer period of time.

I think that whatever kill switch mechanisms they put in place will be compromised to let attackers remotely trigger them to brick phones at a distance in a week and a half.

On the down side, script kiddies able to permanently disable phones from dozens or hundreds of feet away is a scary thought.

On the up side, interrupting people who are paying more attention to their phone conversation with their friends than to controlling the several ton hunk of metal and plastic they're driving at 60/80/90+ miles per hour down the road may not be all bad.

Tell whoever's in charge that you need to add tests before you start making changes to the code, to ensure that any changes you make don't break existing functionality. Ask them if there are any specifications, requirements documents, or plans you can use to decide what tests to write. If they agree, lock down the existing behavior with tests, then use the tests as guidance when you enhance/refactor/rewrite the existing code. Test writing IS development -- it's building a scaffolding around the application you're developing, to ensure that the building doesn't fall when you add another story.

If they don't agree, ask them to tell you in writing that you should not write tests first and that they accept and take responsibility for the consequences of not adding tests.

The airlines could make money auctioning off short periods of time in the booth for passengers on flights with screaming babies or young kids who are getting antsy and bored. "How much for 15 minutes away from the babies in the third row? Bidding starts at $50."

Or when (not if) someone hacks the database in which we've stored that information, or when one of our staff members becomes obsessed with someone who drives a Ford, or some staffer gets careless about disposing of the media on which the data is stored, or ...