Its more along the lines of them being upset about monopolizing evil rather than a holier than thou stance.

I keep hearing about these wild planets and I can't help but desire to see what it would look like (safely) from the surface. The one panoramic picture I have of Mars is absolutely stunning - but relatively speaking, its a somewhat boring landscape. I would love to see Titan for example.

I viewed it more of along the lines of making a purchase with pennies. Its a way of overwhelming them with worthless data to prove a point.

Impossible - it was fitted with a restraining bolt.

You must have misread. I said that the government pays less than the private sector (about 2/3rds of what you can get in the private sector). The difference is that you pay $300 for specialized labor for the duration of the project or system (let's day 2-10 years then you end the project) versus hiring an employee until retirement (2/3rds the pay but for 40 years, plus pension and benefits). So contractors are expensive, but specialized and disposable making them cheaper.

Yes, but that $300/hour is cheaper than hiring a government employee. The government will just hire someone unqualified because they pay 2/3s of what private industry pays, but they make up for it with benefits and job security... early retirement, 3 weeks off a year, pension, etc. So instead of paying $300/hour and getting someone half decent, you get someone who might be decent for a decade before they go obsolete and you are stuck with them until retirement. The article makes the contractors sound bad, but put the responsibility onto the FBI and watch a real shit show commence.

I'm not sure if this is done out of ignorance or that things are so bad, a functioning captcha isn't going to make a difference. A bit of security theater while they tackle more fundamental issues? Either way its hilariously pathetic.

...they just need more points in Athletics.

I doubt you reference ALL of them. Books relevant to your major/career should probably be bought and kept, but there were dozens of books (each costing $100+) that I have absolutely no use for: math, chemistry, english, history, stat, etc. None of these are relevant to my major/career and I'd opt for a more entertaining book on a rainy day.

Why broadcast signal when you can just have a laser that detects distances. Changes in distance means changing velocity. If a pedestrian walks in front of a car, laser detects the person and brakes.

Cloud water... hmmm... that sounds marketable!

My wife is a nurse in a hospital and wouldn't have health care if it wasn't for me providing it through my employer.

I'm young also and I have really great insurance paying $400 for my entire family. However, I recently filed a claim over something simple and it ended up charging me $400 for a simple doctor visit because of a loophole the insurance company found in the claim. Looks good on paper until you need care and realize that a profit organization will try to swindle their way out of providing service any way they can. Its very easy for me to sympathize for older and/or sick people. More substantial health care reform will happen in the next 10 years or so since the baby boomers will (increasingly) see how ugly our system is.

Switching - I wouldn't recommend it. However, having both installed does make sense. I make sure to install Firefox AND Chrome on every PC/laptop in the home. Firefox is great for casual browsing, but when in a hurry, I find that Chrome is the better browser to use. Especially on older PCs, it starts up much faster. You might not be as safe without the must have add ons, but if all you need to do is check your email, weather, bank account, etc, its worth the minimal risk.

...is that Xbox and Sony are bound to have equal failures.