A gridlock between republicans and democrats on passing the Obama Care bill has lead to the closure of "non-essential" government services. The effects of this have rippled all the way to me in my little office at the University of Waterloo.
I can't even get a reliable number for the mass of a proton on the government funded NIST site anymore because universal health care is apparently the end of the american way. Guess it'll have to be Wikipedia until these politicians finally agree on something.