What you're describing here are pedantic objections, though, of which there will always be some to any question that isn't qualified to absurdity.
No, you just have to ask it in an appropriate way. There are professional survey writers who will take the questions you want to ask and then write them in a way that is very hard to misinterpret, not qualified to absurdity and not suggestive of an approved response.
For your example, the rest mass of an electron is smaller than the mass of any atom, so the wavefunction of any electron will be smaller than that of any atom at the same velocity (de Broglie wavelength) and in the same environment
Ok, lets try doing the calculation. The de Broglie wavelength is lambda=h/p where lambda is the wavelength and p is the momentum which is 'mv' for non-relativistc quantum. So for an atom with the same velocity as the electron the atom's momentum will be larger which means the wavelength of the atom will be SMALLER than the electron i.e. the free electron is bigger than the atom it would form.
However your argument is actually flawed because in the same environment thermodynamics requires the free electron to have the same kinetic energy as the atom. If you are capable of doing the calculation you'll find this means that the wavelength goes as 1/sqrt(mass) so even then the electron wavelength is larger than that of the atom.
So the correct, scientific conclusion is that a free electron is bigger than an atom if both are in thermodynamic equilibrium. Thinking of the electron as smaller than an atom means that you do not understand the implications of quantum mechanics or are letting your gut instincts override your rational reasoning. Quantum mechanics is often counter-intuitive and your instincts will often be wrong.
Or simply, since an electron is a component of an atom, any constituent electron will be smaller than the atom it inhabits.
You are thinking of Newtonian physics. What you say is just not true for quantum mechanics. The electrostatic potential well of the nucleus traps the electron wave and effectively compresses it over what a free electron would have in the same environment. To be more technical the addition of a potential term in the Schrodinger equation means that you end up with 3D spherical harmonic standing waves (at least for hydrogen) which have a shorter wavelength in the ground state than the free electron wave under the same thermal conditions. Still not convinced? The go read "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics" by David Griffiths which will go through the details provided you have enough maths to be able to cope with simple partial differential equations (since you have to solve the Schrodinger equation in spherical polar coordinates).
Isn't there a line that protects both free speech and human dignity?
There is. If the pictures were taken without the consent of the person in the picture when they had a reasonable expectation of privacy or are released without the consent of the person who took them e.g. they were stolen by hacking a computer, website, phone etc. then their release should be illegal. However I would be surprised if that is not already the case in which case the person releasing them should be held accountable not the website.
However if the pictures were taken openly and with the consent of the person in them the photographer owns the copyright and can release them as they see fit. If you want to preserve your dignity don't agree to pose for such a photograph. Of course it would also help a lot if the response of society to having a lapse of judgment taken cruel advantage of by an ex was one of compassion and understanding and not firing the victim from their job. Perhaps if we had a society like that people would be less inclined to run to pass new laws every time some idiot comes up with a new way to be antisocial.
OK, aside from science fiction, find me the worthwhile reason to go.
Survival of the species. It is an established scientific fact that there have been mass extinctions on earth associated with massive volcanic eruptions and meteorite impacts and it is only a matter of time before there is another (although hopefully a long time!). Having a self sufficient human colony on a different planet is the best way there is to ensure that we survive as a species plus whatever species we take with us would survive as well.
With polarizing sunglasses, it could be a 3D screen.
That will work well while driving at night!
The free market created innovation, so the established players want to shut it down. They go whining to legislators, who will put in a reglation because their donors tell them to.
True but completely free market gives the same results. Without regulation the established players will shutdown competition by selling services at below cost until competitors go out of business, paying for exclusive rights, using vendor lock-in or any one of a handful of nasty tactics to kill competition. So the problem is not that they go to governments asking for legislation - after all that is what the small, innovative companies have done too. The problem is that the politicians rarely seem to make decisions based on what they think will give the best outcome for society.
In a civil society privacy is expected even when we are walking down the street.
Not necessarily. Pre-industrial revolution most people lived in small enough communities that they would be recognised by many of the people they would meet in the street. The difference was that you would recognize the observers so it was a symmetric loss of privacy. With modern surveillance it is a one-way privacy loss: you have no idea who is doing the observing and yet they can look up all your details and track your every move which is a bit different from having the village gossip noticing your comings and goings.
That would actually make perfect sense, insurance companies tend to give benefits to people exhibiting responsible behavior.
People exhibiting responsible behaviour have no need of a system to watch them and enforce rules. They would not drive when they felt very tired because it would be dangerous to do so. The only reason for the insurance companies to want this is because they are not sure that you are a responsible person.
The problem is with a system like this is that it has to never give a false positive. Even if one time in a million it gives a false positive there will be thousands of people every year who will suddenly be unable to use their car for no good reason. It seems unlikely that the system is that accurate unless its threshold is set so high it triggers on the drivers snoring.
You may be a great researcher but can you teach worth a damn? One doesn't automatically imply the other.
True but in most institutes unless you are an absolutely incredible researcher you have to have a reasonable level of teaching ability or you don't get tenure.
Where you have professors who have been in school for years and have next to no real experience.
Experience of which industry? I'm a physics prof. Our grads work in fields as diverse as finance, medicine, IT, natural resources, academic and industrial research etc. in a diverse range of positions. University is supposed to give you deep understanding of a subject and a broad range of skills that are useful for a wide variety of positions both in academia and industry it is not a training scheme for job X. Being involved in research means that I can take the latest research results and bring them into lectures so the students learn about them and perhaps find ways to apply that knowledge wherever they end up. This is not only good for the student but good for society as a whole and someone from industry is unlikely to be able to do that.
This seems to be a return to some very old models of research
Not entirely. Aristotle, Da Vinci etc were given leave to "explore". They were funded to do curiosity driven research as well as the "build a better widget" kind. Today's billionaires, very like governments, are focussed on getting better widgets rather than improving mankind's knowledge. The problem is that it can take 50-100 years before our new fundamental knowledge can be applied so by the time that they all wake up to find that applied science has slowed to a crawl it will be a long time before the damage can be undone.
If A = B and B = C, then A = C, except where void or prohibited by law. -- Roy Santoro