It was originally legislated to protect workers from factory closure, but applies to many workers who get laid off without notice. Severance (though not in that name) is mandated in the Penalties section when due notice is not given: "An employer who violates the WARN provisions by ordering a plant closing or mass layoff without providing appropriate notice is liable to each aggrieved employee for an amount including back pay and benefits for the period of violation, up to 60 days."

I realize that the large severance pay typically given to IT employees is not intended to comply with this law (though it would would prove satisfactory in cases where WARN applies, should anyone investigate), but merely wanted to point out that it exists.

Actually, depending on the terms of the dismissal (particularly how much notice is given), severance pay is not a benefit in the US, but required by law - http://www.doleta.gov/programs... In many of these cases, however, they're basically offering you that 3months+ of pay to be quiet (among other things). Even "I worked for a tech company that I'll not name, and was laid off when they hired foreign workers" may be in violation of the terms, especially when you start to ponder the strength of their legal team vs. yours.

"Viral growth" isn't only for youtube videos. One major thing to consider is that disease can spread exponentially.

I apologize that I don't have time to construct a proper reply, but this article gives a nice explanation of how majorana fermions can be used to make qubits (hopefully it's not paywalled, but I'm on a university network so it's hard for me to tell): http://www.nature.com/nphys/jo...

In some cities, the combination of red-light cameras and shorter yellow lights encourage looking at the timers. I know I'm extremely guilty of this, but feel like I wouldn't have enough time to stop if I didn't. Many drivers are more concerned with getting tickets than driving safely - not a good incentive if you ask me.

I think what a theologian would argue is that God would respond "No, because they don't want to leave." Free will and all that, ya know?

I realize the desire to tout the fact that you use a quantum computer and that if D-wave is selling a "quantum computer," they should deliver something that performs quantum computations. However, if it does what it's supposed better than other classical computers, then the money is not a waste. Unless the spending was just for show, then too bad.

If I pay for 100GB of data, but only use 5GB, then I should retain my remaining 95GB for the future. I did pay for it. Otherwise, move to a true utility model.

For one example, for one project let's say I have roughly 300GB of simulation data. Of out that data, how much will be used to generate a figures for publication? Maybe 1%? The rest of it is from testing, fine tuning, and exploring the parameter space. The real problem isn't where to save it all, but that there is exteremely little incetive to to go through the trouble of sifting through and archiving the important stuff. 80% is proably a lower bound, IMHO. Futhermore, let's say you save that im portant precious data. Good luck future scientist in figuring out what is in those files and how to analyze it.
I realize that not all science is like this, but I think I'm speaking about the majority, not the minority.

"They are amazingly good at what they do."
True story, I don't think anyone forsees desktops vanishing, but they are moving more towards becoming something you replace when it runs out (e.g. toilet paper), than something you keep constantly up to date by buying the latest and greateast.

I trust they've now upgraded to the far more secure 12345678?

"Your age probably determines whether you think of Blockbuster Video as a fond memory or a dinosaur predestined for extinction."

How about neither? When they came into town, the locally owned ma & pop video rental that had been around since the dawn of home video rentals closed almost immediately.