Spokesman for NASA, David Weaver said that, just like the rest of the federal government, the space agency has to make 'tough choices and live within our means.' [ ... ] NASA is reassessing its current Mars exploration initiatives to maximize what can be achieved.

Today marks a glorious day of initiative reassessment! Rejoice, Democrats, Republicrats, and Bureaucrats alike, for today, NASA embarks on a new mission - the maximization of the achievable through the reassessment of initiatives! ONWARDS TO RE-ELECTION! VICTORY IN 2012!

When a former associate administrator for science named Edward Weiler, suggested that the cuts were "totally irrational and unjustified. We are the only country on this planet that has the demonstrated ability to land on another planet, namely Mars. It is a national prestige issue", Speaker Weaver reminded him that "having one's title removed was a dignified means of ending a career, certainly less painful than having one's gelsac.... no, wait, you call them something different here... what's the word... nerds, narf, na-- ah, there we go! ...less painful than having one's national prestige fall to the floor", other members of the press corps stared in blank confusion, and omitted the mysterious comment from the CBS news report.

(And when a junior reporter from Slashdot realized he forgot to uncheck the "Post Anonymously" button one Saturday morning, he blamed it upon invaders from Mars stealthily occupying positions of high import within the Terran economy, including a range of positions from his local bartender to high-ranking positions within the NASA bureaucracy. Seems the most likely hypothesis these days, doesn't it?)

I think what perhaps critics donâ(TM)t appreciate is that there is a lot of luck in getting a good sound. It's not all about the equipment, spectral response and compressing. It's all about the quality of the musicianship, the songwriting and the sound reaching the microphone ... that's crucial. It's often been said, "garbage in means garbage out," so if that's the case you wonâ(TM)t get a good sound.

All true, Mr. Parsons, and entirely beside the point. Music lovers care about the music, but they're listening to you because you're exceptionally talented. They love your music so much they're even willing listen to put up with crappy 128kbps encodes on YouTube.

But we're not talking about music lovers here, we're talking about audiophiles.

Audiophiles don't use their equipment to listen to your music. Audiophiles use your music to listen to their equipment.

From TFA:

But what the Google and Wikipedia blackout showed is that itâ(TM)s the platforms that exercise the real power. Get enough of them to espouse Silicon Valleyâ(TM)s perspective, and tens of millions of Americans will get a one-sided view of whatever the issue may be, drowning out the other side.

Cary Sherman still thinks this is a battle between "Google and Wikipedia" vs "Media Companies". And that the only reason his companies lost is because the other companies had better PR.

He still doesn't get that what happened was the people who consume the content - content linked to by GOOG, content distributed by Wikipedia, and content licensed by RIAA and MPAA - who finally got off their duffs and exercised their rights as citizens to demand that their elected representatives actually represent them.

I can't be too hard on him. When I ask "Who does Sen. or Rep. X represent", my answer is typically a company or group of companies that funded his/her campaign, and/or hired the lobbyists to write the bills that the politicians sponsor.

To put it in language that Sherman can understand, it's not that Rep./Sen. X changed from (R/D - MPAA) to (R/D - GOOG). It's that, this being an election year, and there being tens of millions of active internet users who are also eligible voters, Rep./Sen X represented (R/D - wishes of their constituents as tallied by their staffers, regardless of donation size).

Fellow Citizens, as we draw close to the Fourth Anniversary of the Invasion of the Twins and the ensuing Battle for the Plains, let us not forget the words of K'Breel, Speaker for the Council:

The last remnant of the invading force sickens us with its decadent, passive, lackadaisical attitude. Even as one of its bastard progeny spirals inward to a fiery doom in the toxic atmosphere of the blue world, and its nuclear-powered cousin bakes in the radiation of a solar flare, the last so-called warrior still actually infesting our world sits idle, with an apparent intention to spend the entire winter sunbathing.

If sunbathing is what passes for war amongst these blueworlders, so be it. Rejoice with your podmates! Wriggle your gelsacs in gleeful anticipation! If the enemy wishes to sunbathe, we shall give this newest inbound invader a sunburn it shall not soon forget!

When a junior reporter inquired as to the absence of gleeful wriggling from the general direction of Citizen #64226, K'Breel had only this to say: "...and would that be nuked or fried?"