Where I'm originally from I'm seen as pretty right wing, then I moved to a very different city and was seen as very left wing. I've noticed while people describe themselves as left or right if they say you're left wing or right wing what they mean is "You're left/right of me", even if you're still closer to them than to average.

I'm also open to the possibility I'm just really argumentative and contrary, and love disagreeing with the views of my friends.

Firstly the submitter didn't say if this was a programming exam, or what it was. It could be a test on memorising the capitals of African countries.

But more importantly is that allowing access to the internet doesn't just allow things like documentation, and other resources I might have in the workplace, but might allow me to ask my friend to email the entire solution, or even send the question to a guy in India and get the solution back for a fee. It's a comprimise between testing some memorisation and in the cases of some students, testing nothing at all.

I think you're fighting a battle that was lost long ago. In the minds of most, what was once called cracking is now hacking.

http://xkcd.com/974/

Maybe that's how it works in the USA but not over here. I go to one of the best universities here, and it's a "well known fact" that everyone has to do loads of extracurriculars to get in. I did barely any (or at least any that were recognisable enough to put on the application), and still got in ahead of those who were attempting to game the system. I later asked my tutor about it, he just said what I'd suspected, they don't care about all that stuff, they didn't bring you in to chat with you about your hobbies, all they care about is aptitude and passion for the course (notable exceptions things like medicine where you can't just be overly obsessed with biology and have no personal skills). Lots of people here now had lots of extracurriculars yes, but in reality its largely because a) they got them because they thought they needed them or more often b) they're just people who like doing lots of interesting things, and have the time-management to do so.

Paper cuts are the worst kind of injury because they hurt like hell but no one gives you any sympathy.There should really be a movement to recognise the seriousness of the paper cut.

What? By those standards the fact that the CIA probably has people reading newspapers implies that they work for them too. The CIA probably reads Iranian government press releases too. Going through public domain information to find useful intelligence is exactly what they're supposed to do.

Because they want to make money, by selling people things? Bear with me, but my theory is they think they can make consoles at a cheaper price than people will be willing to pay for them. So crazy it just might be true.