Who cares about the margin of error, exact number of years, agnostic versus atheist, church versus state separation or any of the other hair splitting. We're talking that somewhere round 40% of Americans completely discount all fact and science (the proven stuff, no theories involved) and believe that God automagically created humans as they are now. Holy craps Batman! This is 40% of a population that controls the world's only superpower. Give me a minute while I breath into a paper bag. It's one thing for nutcases in Iran to run around screaming Allah is great. It's a totally different case when a substantial portion of the US voting population effectively believes the same thing. I gotta go back to my paper bag......

For a somewhat more interesting look at Internet porn and males, this talk by Cindy Gallop is pretty good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oliuLf7-30 Do note that is 13 minutes long and outside of the porn-saturated attention span of most males.....

If what or who you're hunting has limited intelligence and defenses (typical target of AV spammers) then spears and rocks work just fine.

You have a point that I failed to account for that potential revenue loss. I wonder how much it is though?

Business 101: Never put impediments in front of a customer who wants to buy. This sounds like an HBR case study in the making :-)

You're missing the point. There is a large population that does not want to wait AND would pay (per my other comment) for the convenience of immediate gratification. Internet/downloading has conditioned them. A smart business would take advantage of that desire, get the series online and milk the hell out of it. A year later, the high quality DVDs, interviews with actors, directors and author would follow and the population that waited a year would buy them. Know your market and understand your competition, in this case bittorrents and respond accordingly.

Let me put on my suit and think like an evil, profit driven businessman. I have 3-4 million pirated downloads per episode x 20 episodes to date = 80 million pirated episodes. Let's go for $2.00/episode (Amazon rate) and assume about a 50% conversion (people that would pay versus pirate if it was easy to get). That's still $80 Million in cold hard cash (ok, it's electronic, but you get the idea). I am gobsmacked that HBO simply walks away from this easy cash all to protect possible DVD and network sales. Do both! Rake in the cash from tech-savvy viewers while the show is hot and then pick up the remainder with DVDs. I'm I missing something somewhere?

The best slave is the one who thinks he's free. Soft censorship is so much more effective than hard censorship. I'm surprised it took the Chinese so long to figure it out.

Cell phone use is being banned in cars because studies showed that you effectively drive "drunk" when you're talking on the phone. Science wins on that one. What's the equivalent evidence for GPS systems? I haven't heard of anything. In fact, GPS systems appear to have been designed to minimize such distractions, allow easy and quick referencing and along with voice instructions, allow relatively safe navigation. I think science wins on this one as well. Scrap the regulation.

I'm imagining a talking business card (Hal Holbrook voice of course) simply stating "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

Shouldn't you have ended this with an urgent plea for money to help bribe the guards and set him free?

Iran is pursuing the same approach as China. Rather than block social media sites, leverage their citizen's desire for them by replacing them with similar state-approved (sic - controlled) duplicates. Nothing new. I would be more interested in what Western technologies are making this possible, a more interesting discussion for Slashdot.

Brain teasers are just another fad. In fact, if the interviewer is asking you about your resume/experience then there's another HR fail. The interview is the corporation's one chance to judge your character and personality, e.g., chemistry. Your resume and references show you're a hot shot programmer. Are you also a psychopath who will reek havoc and destruction through the organization? Most HR organizations and hiring managers don't get that and simply spend the interview rehashing your resume. When they do that, the candidate is in control.

In what other profession could you take a professional from 100 years ago and put them in today's work environment and with a few minor adjustments find that they could perform their job? Teaching/education system is about the only one I can think of quickly. That in itself doesn't mean there's a problem but it certainly stands out as something worth reviewing.