The idea is to creep up on a budget deal by a series of small steps.

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The greatest example of off-season creep is the NFL, a near-religion which has successfully repositioned itself from a fall-to-winter pastime to a daily relationship, to be attended to constantly.

WSJ: Jason Gay: Do Sports Fans Need an Off-Season?

It is extremely difficult to measure weather consistently over decades and centuries, but the presence of sites reporting cooling is a symptom of the local variations that can creep in, according to researchers.

CNN: New climate study deals blow to skeptics

But as Schneier points out systems like these are likely liable to "function creep" where a technology is brought in for one purpose, to profile your sex while viewing an ad for example, and then begins to push the boundaries.

BBC: Big Brother is watching you shop

Indeed, there is growing evidence that the American economy is overheating despite the chilly breeze from across the Pacific: consumer spending continues to boom, unemployment is at a 30-year low of 4.3%, and inflation is starting to creep up.

ECONOMIST: As Japan goes?

The special trick is to bring them about in synch, and preferably not at a creep.

FORBES: Middle or Muddle?

"This isn't disclosure creep but a disclosure stampede, and the Internet is part of the solution, " said James Riepe , the ICI's chairman and vice chairman of T.

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This is not only a steep increase in its own right, but one that could creep into the prices of many other things that require oil and gas in their production and transportation.

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"When you start to see the age creep up on a show like that, you wonder whether the show is sustainable, " says Laura Caraccioli-Davis, head of entertainment at Starcom, a media planning agency.

FORBES: Magazine Article