Murder is inherently wrong. Owning a gun is not.

EA is certainly not the first to have the problem of release-day loads, but game companies need to stop expecting to ride out the release boom and actually implement a solution that works. I don't expect them to spend huge amounts of money on extra server capacity just for release day, but there are other potential solutions. For example - stagger release dates by geography, random chance, or some other method.

Is there any possible a close encounter to Mars that might cause C/2013A1 to act as if it were orbiting mars, (at least for half a rev duration of that single pass)? And if so, just how much can Mars deflect the orbit of C/2013A1 from what it might have been for centuries?

It is not possible for an object orbiting the sun to become captured by the orbit of a planet, due to conservation of energy. The only way an object can be captured is by either using rockets or aerobraking. However aerobraking alone does not produce a stable orbit since its orbit would continually decay each time it passed through the atmosphere. In order to aerocapture you have to slow down through the atmosphere and then apply thrust at apoapsis to raise the periapsis out of the atmosphere.

I'd imagine the per-kg cost exceeds the value of whatever you could possibly return, even if you found an asteroid made of solid gold and all you had to do was de-orbit it.

Gold = $50k/kg
Delta-IV Heavy = 9000 kg to Earth escape velocity @ $250 million = $28k/kg

If the delta-V requirement to bring a NEO back to earth from earth escape is ~4 km/s, and your rocket was say a RL10 with 100 kN @ 450 Isp, than the final rocket mass m1=mo*e^(-deltav/Isp*g0) would only be ~3600 kg. Assuming the engine + tankage weighs around 1000 kg, we're talking maybe 2600 kg payload return. Again at $250 million launch cost that is $96k/kg, almost double that of pure gold. And it's not like there are actual pure gold asteroids just floating around either. We're looking at a factor of 5-10 or even worse cost difference here.

I don't understand how asteroid mining could be profitable with current technology. What is the delta-V budget for sending engines+fuel+mining equipment to a near-earth asteroid and returning it to earth? I'd imagine the per-kg cost exceeds the value of whatever you could possibly return, even if you found an asteroid made of solid gold and all you had to do was de-orbit it.

Gold = $50k/kg
Delta-IV Heavy = 9000 kg to Earth escape velocity @ $250 million = $28k/kg

If the delta-V requirement to bring a NEO back to earth from earth escape is ~4 km/s, and your rocket was say a RL10 with 100 kN @ 450 Isp, than the final rocket mass m1=mo*e^(-deltav/Isp*g0) would only be ~3600 kg. Assuming the engine + tankage weighs around 1000 kg, we're talking maybe 2600 kg payload return. Again at $250 million launch cost that is $96k/kg, almost double that of pure gold. And it's not like there are actual pure gold asteroids just floating around either. We're looking at a factor of 5-10 or even worse cost difference here.

How is Dominion going to charge more for electricity when once the plant is shut down they won't be producing any in Wisconsin?

No.

There is no demand for products which do not exist. Demand does not exist until the product does.

How much demand was there for an iphone before the iphone existed? Zero.

How many jobs as Apple created to make the iphone? Eleventybillion. Mostly in China, but that is besides the point.

You can't "base jump" out of the ISS unless you have a portable jetpack capable of decelerating you to deorbit. You need a delta-V of around 225 ft/s. If you step outside the ISS, all that will happen is that you will continue orbit the Earth with the ISS. You would starve to death before deorbiting solely due to atmospheric friction.

Welcome to America, the land of freedom! ._.

So what is the exact number of books allowed to be imported for re-sale per unit time where by any additional books would constitute "prohibited mass exporting".

No. Citizens United case lets people, including groups of people organized into organizations such as corporations or unions, SPEND unlimited money on political speech. In other words, you are now allowed to not only spend a little money on cheap leaflets, but you may spend large amounts of money for example publishing a book or making a TV show. Before Citizens United case, you COULD NOT PUBLISH A BOOK, OR MAKE A TV SHOW that was considered by the court to be political in nature, before an election.

Let me repeat. Citizens United had NOTHING to do with GIVING money to politicians. Citizens United was about spending money on speech.

So my numbers and facts are complete BS, because of you don't think 1,000,000 R/hr is a "VERY severe hit on your nervous system" based on watching Star Trek II? Really? Really?

While free neutrons are unstable, unless they are flying through empty space you would not notice. The mean lifetime of a neutron bouncing around matter before being absorbed is on the order of microseconds, while the half-life is 10 minutes.

Dose from an unshielded spent fuel bundle (or research reactor) is far greater than other typical sources - on the order of 50,000 to 1,000,000 R/hr. These kinds of doses can be instantly fatal. An HP tech explained to me once that if you placed a spent fuel bundle on a football field, and ran towards it as fast as you could, you would drop dead before you could touch it. If you swam to the bottom of a research reactor to try to touch the fuel you would most certainly become incapacitated by the time you got close enough to touch it.

If it's actually on fire, then YES.

If you pass a law banning the yelling of fire in a crowded theater, even when it actually is on fire, then what will the result be?