Take my experiences for what they're worth, but almost everyone on the team I am part of--roughly evenly split between men and women--uses language that is not polite in mixed company, in mixed company. This includes development, QA, operations, customer support, management, and just about everyone else from middle management on down. We embrace what might be described as "delightfully inappropriate" behavior and other assorted silliness internally, as an outlet that helps keep morale and team spirit high. We're mature enough to know where the boundaries are; we just limit professionalism to where it actually matters: customer interaction and the quality of our work.
(We're in the US, and have been around for about 30 years.)

Then how do you explain, for example, Xera? (I don't follow Spanish music generally, but I discovered Xera by accident and happen to like them. For the curious, in a hyphenated word they could be described as "electro-folk".)
Since their primary language is Asturian rather than Spanish, I would be surprised if they had much of a following in Latin America. And even if they do, most of them probably haven't contributed monetarily, as the two albums they've released so far have been under a Creative Commons license. (Note the "download album" links right on their website...)
Yet they're busy working on a third album, performing concerts and participating in Spanish music festivals. Maybe music festivals in Spain pay their acts well? Or maybe the members of Xera all have day jobs and do this mainly for the love of music. The bottom line is that they're producing "high quality studio albums" despite any issues with lax IP laws.

It makes sense that companies would want to pay top dollar for stellar software developers, given that (I would assert that) the variance in developer quality is generally greater than the variance in developer pay. Presumably this extends to other positions and fields too.

It's all about bang for the buck, and if you can get someone three times as productive as an average developer (for some reasonable definition of "productive" and "average") by paying that person two average developers' salaries, it's the logical path to take, setting aside potential pitfalls such as putting all your eggs in one basket.
Not to mention this point: "The real trouble with using a lot of mediocre programmers instead of a couple of good ones is that no matter how long they work, they never produce something as good as what the great programmers can produce."
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/HighNotes.html

The Fonz has jumped the shark more recently too...

My dad worked for IBM on the sales and management side for over 30 years.
He told me on several occasions in the 80's and 90's how important it was that IBM was investing in fundamental research, even if the research didn't have an obvious, immediate application. They could afford to throw a lot of things at the wall and see what sticks, and things that did stick could become part of products IBM could introduce and/or license technology to (at their option, whichever is more profitable) some 10 to 20 years later.

Of course this was a lot easier to say in the 90's when the economy was healthier. It's good to see that this line of thinking hasn't been abandoned.

True, but you can already watch that here. Brief ads, but no Netflix subscription needed.

This list may be biased toward Nintendo franchises, since that's what I have the most experience with. Or maybe Nintendo is just well known for having sequels/spinoffs to their Famicom/NES games.

Pac-Man: 1980 Pac-Man (arcade), 2010 Pac-Man Party (Wii)/Pac-Man Champion Edition DX (XBLA/PSN)
Donkey Kong: 1981 Donkey Kong (arcade), 2010 Donkey Kong Country Returns (Wii)
Mario: 1983 Mario Bros. (arcade)--origin in Donkey Kong series, 2010 Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Wii)
Bomberman: 1985 Bomberman (Famicom), 2010 Bomberman Live: Battlefest (PSN/XBLA/WiiWare)
Castlevania: 1986 Castlevania (Famicom), 2010 Castlevania: Lords of Shadow (PS3/XBox 360)
Dragon Quest: 1986 Dragon Quest (Famicom), 2009 Dragon Quest IX (DS)
Metroid: 1986 Metroid (Famicom), 2010 Metroid: Other M (Wii)
Zelda: 1986 Legend of Zelda (Famicom), 2009 Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS)
Final Fantasy: 1987 Final Fantasy (Famicom), 2010 Final Fantasy XIV (PS3)
Mega Man: 1987 Mega Man (Famicom), 2010 Mega Man 10 (PSN/XBLA/WiiWare)
Street Fighter: 1987 Street Fighter (arcade), 2010 Super Street Fighter IV (PS3/XBox 360/arcade)
Ninja Gaiden: 1988 Ninja Gaiden (Famicom), 2009 Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 (PS3)

Mortal Kombat was released in 1992.

By saying that you're actually claiming to live at the General Electric world headquarters. As far as I can tell no residence in Schenectady has a 12345 zip code.

Palin has on multiple occasions demonstrated that she has a profound misunderstanding of the First Amendment. I can respect someone I disagree with, but I can't respect someone who would swear to uphold the Constitution (had she been elected Vice President) yet gets such a critical part of it so fundamentally wrong.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2008/10/31/palin/index.html

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2009/05/14/palin-backs-miss-calif-blasts-liberal-onslaught/

https://twitter.com/sarahpalinusa/status/21534515854

With many celebrities you'd have a point, but Natalie Portman? You're picking on one of the few celebrities who has an Erdos number.