He points out that, with the exception of an informal system in California, no country in the world has yet set up regular probabilistic earthquake forecasting that can be used to guide emergency actions.

ECONOMIST: An extraordinary manslaughter trial starts in Italy

The sequester is sending everyone scrambling, and it looks like the federal prison system is no exception.

FORBES: Sequester Impact On Federal Prisons

Generation X and Y may have noticed that their elders have made a mess of quite a few things, and our monetary system is no exception.

FORBES: A Return To Stable Money Requires More Intellectual Gasoline

But to others the system represents a shining exception to what Brazilians call panelinha, the habit of giving preference to one's connections.

ECONOMIST: Race in Brazil

Declan Roche, a criminologist at the London School of Economics, points out that, with the exception of jury service, the judicial system is almost entirely undemocratic.

ECONOMIST: Restorative justice

This exception is essential to the operation of the federal system itself, which would otherwise be rendered meaningless.

ECONOMIST: Gay marriage

The result is that the efficient, equitable studio system started to unravel, and, with the exception of a second Golden Age from 1967 to 1974, so did overall film quality.

FORBES: The Coming Age Of The Teaching Megastar

Currently, there is an exception for personal jailbreaking (allowing individuals to install unapproved applications by altering the phone's operating system), but developing, selling, trafficking or discussing the underlying technology is still illegal and there are no personal exceptions for tablets or other devices.

CNN: Unlocking your cell phone is no crime

One exception came in 1994, when Republicans were emerging from a 40-year period in which the incumbent-protection system worked mostly for Democrats.

NPR: What Would It Take To Flip the House?