That M.A.D. example has been deprecated. The new canonical example is "threat of 9/11-style terrorism".

The 'threat' only seems to be from our own government. What about our enemies?

Just like all the bank CEOs who work really hard producing things of value we take for granted. They need to be paid for such a hard life and creating all sorts of innovation.

If we didn't have CEOs, to whom would we give our money?

Charging $5 to use an ATM is not innovation.

Charging more dollars for DSL (a 10-year old technology) than 4G wireless internet is not innovation.

Underpaying H1-B employees instead of hiring qualified domestic workers at market salaries is not innovation.

They also know your real name, address, pet history, tax history, and the real reasons for all your social and romantic failures.

The average joe probably knows all the details of the a particular play during 1984 by a Pittsburg NFL team.

[I for one, have no understanding of why the rest of the United States is so damn fond of watching 'football']

F1ST P0ST!

Or did everyone else get infected?

Who is going to buy $1.6 trillion of bonds from a country on the verge of defaulting on its existing debts and/or lowering its credit rating?

If you haven't diversified out of dollars and into something else by now, you are screwed.

Well, it's a surely a good thing then that my investment is my house (real estate!).

Devaluing the dollar might be one way to end the real estate crisis!

Indeed. Only non-mathematicians could mistake "x^3" as being "e^x".

[Write out the Taylor series for "e^x" and you will see that this mistake is extremely silly]

What kind of voter are you if you can't think critically, or if you don't understand politics and science? Can you manage your financial decisions without and understanding of math and business? Think about what a better neighbor, parent, and traveler you would be, if you could speak a foreign language.

Answer: an ethnocentric American Republican.

My company values mid-career hires much more than the 'new guys'.

During my first four years (hired as a 'new guy'), I mastered our ~600k line codebase, solved more than 100 difficult software bugs, . For a new product, I was the main contributor to the feasibility study, successfully proposed radial new engineering design (that avoided many technical issues of the traditional design), and effectively functioned as the lead developer.

I also oversee 4 people, three of which make 30%-50% MORE* income than I do. WTF?!?!

BTW, I'm open to employment offers!

The way I look at it, Osama bin Laden is no more evil than George W. Bush.

The way I look at it, Osama bin Laden is no less evil than George W. Bush.

There. Fixed that for ya.

The claims require a physical implementation (e.g. "An information storage and retrieval system").

You mean the algorithm has to be implemented/executed on a physical device? How difficult is that? Let's assume that a patent doesn't restrict the target algorithm to a restricted form of implementation such as a digital watch processor, a cell phone, etc. How is this different than patenting the math itself? Moreover, restricting the form of implementation would only necessitate that the patent submitter submit several patents, one for each conceivable application of his algorithm.

When patents become as broad as claiming usage of algorithm 'x' in 'a communication system', is this really any different than patenting algorithm 'x' itself? Does it matter if 'a communication system', is a remote-control changing the channel on a TV with IR LED pulses, a 4G cell phone, a low-earth orbiting satellite link, or tin cans connected by string?

It's probably also AGAINST THE LAW. Christ. Submitter is an unmitigated moron. People are going to jail for HIPPA violations and you want to dump any old crap on the hospital network for a CALENDAR? Just use an external web based thing ya moron. Try Google Apps.

Did you read your comment before posting?

Do you really think that using Google Apps to maintain appointments {which might be medical related such as "do 'x' surgery on patient 'y'" are acceptable under HIPPA?

You must be one of those people who use their personal laptop on the company LAN and use GMail for 'saving' company documents...

Who are you to say that a donkey couldn't run a country better than previously elected humans?

Basically, what you are saying is that if I were to obey the Church's teachings, then we shouldn't go to church!

Interestingly, if you replace 'Satanism' with 'terrorism', and replace 'Jesus' with 'X political party', you have just perfectly described many national governments. I guess separation of "church and state" really means "divide and conquer".