Google likes to give its employees little toys every year for Christmas. There aren't that many Google-related toys out there to give, so they could end up picking a phone even if it's nothing special.

Oooorrr... it could be teh awesomest Googlest phone evar.

Correct. I like to experience content, and certainly more than "once only" as you won't absorb every minute detail of a dungeon in one run, but after 10 or 15 times of successfully clearing the entire place with no effort the repetition is quite old.

It's worth pointing out that there are as many level 80 dungeons+raids as there are level 1-60 dungeons put together. And something like Naxx or Ulduar is about three or four times longer than even the biggest level 1-60 instances. And that's not even counting the fact that since raiding (and even heroic dungeoning) is so much harder than any level 1-60 content, it will almost certainly take many tries before you really truly learn the fights and progress to the content past them. If you are redoing an instance 10-15 times at level 80, either you aren't making an effort to try new things, or you've already been at that level a loooooong, loooooong time.

Look, scientologists are a bunch of assholes. No doubt. But vigilante harassment is the wrong way to deal with them. Massive spam, DoS attacks, bomb threats, etc. are never okay. And the penalty for them should be much longer than a year, regardless of who the victim is.

You think these guys are heroes or something? Do any of these attacks help the people being duped by the CoS? Are they going to bring down the organization? No, not even close. They're just going to make life really hard for some poor brainwashed secretary answering the phones, or some poor IT guy trying to make a living. And of course the attackers will get to congratulate themselves on their own cleverness, which is the real point.

Every sentencing likes this sets precedent both legally and in people's minds for the future. And a 1-year punishment for DoS attacks and death threats is setting the wrong kind of precedent.

Yeah, but on the scale of evil bastards, I'd rather spammers get comeuppance than the scientologists. Especially if the spam included DoS attacks, hacking, and bomb threats. For most people, scientology is just a bad joke, but spammers are screwing with the everyday lives of pretty much everyone out there. And one year in jail is not enough disincentive.

I'm sorry, but I don't believe people should get cushy publicly funded jobs if they aren't qualified for them, even if they want those jobs for idealistic reasons.

If most professional researchers are not doing useful work (they aren't) and yet most graduates still can't get a job as a professional researcher, the solution is NOT to just create more jobs. Keep the jobs how they are, and instead give students a more realistic assessment of what they're on track for job-wise.

A PhD is generally considered a prerequisite for research jobs. And Einstein hadn't bothered to get one at that point.

Well yes. But on most ordinary scales, the $250k + excellent perks that a top researcher gets is very attractive. The fact that you can also make a fortune for stupid reasons is a different problem.

Over-sensitive much? I referred only to math, specifically since you brought it up.

I also never said I'm one of the brilliant people. I'm just good enough that I worked with the best people before leaving academia, but I'm not at that level myself.

We can't pay important people well, because we only want people who are really motivated in these positions.

Nice straw man.

You missed the part where top researchers get $250k+, tenure, and the best job perks known to man. The fact that we don't pay academic also-rans well is the okay part.

Well I only know math and theoretical computer science (algorithms, AI, complexity theory, etc), but since you specifically bring up math...

Doing good academic research is HARD. The vast majority of current researchers are putting out random crap that will never go anywhere useful because frankly they are not good enough to make real progress. Your 99% of people who couldn't even get jobs in academia would be in even worse shape than those guys. It's good they went into something else where they might actually contribute something of value.

As for the job sucking, it's actually amazing... if you're one of the few people who's brilliant enough to make a difference. At that level, you'll get tenure no matter how hard you work, and then you have it easy. Six figure salaries are standard at reasonable research universities, and top universities routinely give out 250k+ in addition to the option of consulting on the side and all the other benefits of tenure with almost unlimited freedom.

Sorry if this sounds harsh. But academia is one field that does not benefit from having more mediocre people doing make-work. And if you're even concerned about whether tenure will be a problem for you at a good university (such that you're working 60+ hours a week to make it happen for example), you ARE going to be mediocre. Math and CS research are progressing as fast or faster than they ever have before. The system is fine, and the majority of great mathematicians / computer scientists are still doing research.