Spacecraft Design; Delaying Death; C++

Some light linkblogging...

Akin's Laws of Spacecraft Design

The odds are greatly against you being immensely smarter than everyone else in the field. If your analysis says your terminal velocity is twice the speed of light, the chances are better that you've screwed up than that you've invented warp drive.

Holidays, birthdays and postponement of cancer deaths
I was always amazed how the human body had the ability to stave off death for special occasions. Until I found out it was a myth, that is.

A careful analysis of the timing of over a million deaths reveals no evidence that cancer patients can intentionally postpone their demise in order to live long enough to reach an emotionally significant or meaningful event

Articles Forum - Elegance and Other Design Ideals
Stroustrup tells it like it is...

I have noticed a pattern: When C++ programs succeed it's very often credited to "other factors" or it is even claimed that the success was "despite the use of C++". On the other hand, a failure is attributed to C++ without any possibility of excuses.

Unfortunately, I can't say I'm surprised, and the effect can be observed for any successful language. However, C++ is so prominent that the effect is embarrasingly (for the professional software community) common and obvious.