I'm fine with sites regulating trolls. I'm less fine with government curtailing freedom of expression, regardless of how offensive it may be.

It's actually relatively common for custom software to experience feature and scope creep. The source of creep is split between design by committee and leadership changes. When new leadership comes in, the vision almost always changes, and when new stakeholders are added, they pollute the water with their own special interests.

It's arguably the role of developers (or at least business analysts) to push back against ridiculous requirements, and some do, but they're not properly incentivized, since they work for the contractor. BAs should be working for the government, not the contractors. Ideally, one person with software development design and management experience and a clear vision should be in charge of the project. Unfortunately, it's almost always someone with more generalized management experience who doesn't know the difference between HTML and CSS, and comes up with new "great ideas" on the fly.

At any rate, the problem isn't limited to government software -- I've seen the same thing in commercial business software, especially "customizable" software. I'm looking at you, mortgage and scientific industries. We get a little more upset because we fund government software through taxes -- we feel like it's our money -- but we honestly fund almost all poorly designed software, even if it's rolled into our mortgages. It's just less transparent.

NOVA is okay, but they don't seem to produce new episodes frequently, or even on any sort of regular schedule. And since the topics run the gamut from history to current events, and biology to technology, it's hit or miss whether any one particular episode will be of interest to the viewer. With some exceptions, it's usually one episode per topic, so there's limited information presented on any one subject. According to Wikipedia, many of the episodes are rebranded as BBC Horizons (or vice versa), so flipping the channel won't necessarily help there.

A sociopathic boss would look for the best way to alienate his viewers and murder his employees. You're probably thinking of psychopaths.

I don't/didn't have a problem with Deadliest Catch. It's definitely jumped the shark (to stick with the theme of this "article"), having long outlived the point where one can get a better appreciation for the industry, but I still enjoy it enough to watch if it's on. I could do without the explosion of reality shows that followed in it's wake though.

Shark Week definitely jumped itself last year with Megalodon, and that seems to be the tip of the iceberg, unfortunately. I will admit that I'm glad to see less muddying the waters with "sharks aren't dangerous, 'mkay" nonsense though. Nobody would assert that a lion mistook a human for a gazelle, but apologists insist that sharks just get confused when they attack people. The fact is that sharks eat protein, humans are a source of protein, and sharks don't mind eating us.

As for the History Channel, it started its descent long before 2005. In the 90s, it was facetiously called the Hitler Channel, as easily half of its programming was dedicated to WWII in Europe. You could've made a drinking game out of it -- if you wanted to be three sheets to the wind. It seemed like the addition of conspiracy shows was trying to capitalize on the popularity of the X-Files at the time, but that's just my perception.

How many nautical phrases was that, me hearties? Arrr!

We already have freedom of movement, which is enshrined in the Constitution, as interpreted by case law.

What we don't have is freedom of anonymous movement.

So you're telling me that if I want to protect my privacy now, I either have to stop looking straight up while I'm walking around? How the hell am I supposed to see where I'm not going?!? And what am I supposed to do if I accidentally make eye contact with someone???

Dear God, why didn't we think of this sooner? It seems like great inventions are always like that -- so obvious that they're hiding in plain sight. It's like the paperclip, or One Click Payments! Obviously this got the old mental juices flowing, so here are some other things that I'm pretty sure can kill tumors:

• The fainting game
• Sufficient quantities of water
• Ebola
• Sharks
• Ski accidents
• Electricity
• Heart attacks
• Famine
• Other tumors

I was going to be really rich, but then I decided not to.

hacking stories have more elaborations then truth.

That's why I always skip to the end.

I saw that. Get back to work or I'll put your internet in the recycle bin again. And this time I'll make sure it's emptied!!!

Intuitively, I think there is a difference between the smallest measurable distance vs continuous positioning. If we pick an arbitrary value of, say, 1 Lego to be the minimum size of all things, that doesn't mean that a Lego can't move in units smaller than its length; just that we couldn't measure it (although we could interpolate its position with multiple measurements). I haven't seen anything that precludes the same with regard to Planck lengths.

I've heard the Japanese school system is even more intense (with students even committing suicide over the workload, etc.). Maybe someone would like to provide a short comparison in a reply.

Can do!

Suicide Rate by country (per 100,000)
United States: 12.0
Russia: 18.9
Japan: 21.4

Excitement may be a factor, but I suspect fear and stress are the more powerful factors. Most adults don't stay up in anticipation of the excitement of Christmas, but they will lose sleep over upcoming deadlines, during financial difficulty, etc. I suspect it's pretty stressful being in space, between performing mission requirements, being separated from loved ones, and being protected from death by only a few mm of aluminum, not to mention the anticipation of re-entry. Add to that the lack of privacy and alone time, the alien physiological sensation of weightlessness, and restraints and tethers to prevent floating around. I suspect that comfort is in short supply, and that it may well be difficult to truly relax in such an alien environment.

World's most profitable pharma company: Pfizer
2013 Net Sales: $51.6B
2013 Net Income (profit): $22B
Profit as a percent of sales: 42.7%
R&D as a percent of sales: 13.3%

World's most profitable automaker: Toyota
2013 Net Sales: $168B
2013 Net Income (profit): $16.2B
Profit as a percent of sales: 9.6%
R&D as a percent of sales: 4.1%

World's most profitable tech company: Apple
2013 Net Sales: $170B
2013 Net Income (profit): $37B
Profit as a percent of sales: 22%
R&D as a percent of sales: 2.6%