The underlying problem is the perpetual screwing that US mobile carriers inflict on customers. How they can defend the devolution of options is perplexing. No great alternatives so we must pay to play. I have lived outside the US for 6 years (while still paying for my US Verizon 5-phone family plan) and from Cyprus to Germany to South Korea the mobile plans are better priced, more robust, and reasonably fair to the consumer.

Could he have selected a more pompous name for the place?

Fair point for a select few home run hitters. Extend that mentality to the entire workforce though and it probably won't suffice.

Unfortunately without accountability humans tend to make some poor choices. As an employer, why would I put up with paying somebody whose 5-min hourly smoke/coffee breaks slink towards 11-min? As a nonsmoking/noncoffeedrinking coworker, why should I be paid the same as the guy who works for 49 and breaks for 11? Now perhaps that guy is more efficient or more effective with hourly 11-min breaks, but that's the subject of a separate study. Without accountability it's easy to spend more and more minutes surfing slashdot and facebook between emails and coding. As with everything, of course, there needs to be a middle ground.

Reminds me of when illness/death comes from some bad source of food and impacts a swath of people. It's always interested me to know how quickly and by what process the source is discovered. I know that when I feel weird and suspect bad food it's a bit of a challenge to think absolutely thoroughly back through every last thing I ate over the past X hours/days. I wonder if there are many other common threads such as this that might yield clues if researchers had more complete knowledge of every person with a particular condition including things that people may never mention thinking it isn't relevant or important.

Yep, if only that were widely understood... I'd like to see more things prefaced with, "Here's what we think we know as of today..." in order to help the larger population realize it's good to question things and continue researching, developing, and exploring. Often the first whack or two are not particularly correct.

You don't suppose US allies are doing the exact same thing or would if they could? Information is power. Naturally, they must feign outrage and disdain, and meanwhile put their own similar programs on lock down. NSA is probably the envy of the international intelligence community.

Each iteration of Skype adds more features I don't want, makes the fundamental features harder to use, and bogs down the host device even further. It would behoove Skype to bear in mind that their revenue comes from people who pay for the VOIP capabilities and focus on making sure that actually works well. Also, don't make it so damn difficult to find the international rates.

So you're trying to tell me that something the scientific community thought was well understood (a la global warming, evolution) turns out to be in question?

Right, and the stuff being done is not a static set. Did we need a F-35? Probably not. But the money got spent because it's relatively easy to print more and/or tax more. I'm all for paying for the essential services and benefits, but my point is it's never enough, no matter who your government is.

What does exec compensation have to do with tax rates?

I agree with your last sentence. Rules are rules. But I'm also suggesting there's a larger problem.

Also, certain things don't scale well. It's conceivable the system that works so well in Scandinavia won't work in more populous countries.

Trouble is that argument implies there is some magic number that equals Enough for the taxing authority, and there isn't. Or it's enough for that year, then it must be raised again. And again. And Again... Entities not paying tax are not the cause of ever increasing rates.

The fact that Congress thinks they have a solution, and furthermore that their solution took 63 pages to explain, tells me it's a stupid fucking idea. Business throttles content, customers get pissed, customers leave, business changes or succumbs to competition. Problem solved.

Idiots. SnapChat for rejecting, and Facebook for offering.

While despicable since megacorps like Apple have no defense for not paying what's owed as part of the cost of doing business, it remains to be said that the taxation system worldwide is completely out of control. No percentage will ever be enough for any government and thus tax paying entities must find techniques to minimize the fleecing.