Clothing makers looking to monitor and optimize social-media marketing campaigns involving tens of millions of socially connected consumers, thousands of SKUs, tens of thousands of retail outlets, and a booming online presence have to be able to make decisions across all of those variables as quickly and unexpectedly as those millions of consumers change their minds.

FORBES: OracleVoice: You Can Get A Chip Slower Than The New Sparc T5, You Just Have To Pay More

In the energy world, things can change unexpectedly and quickly.

FORBES: If America is the New Saudi Arabia, What Does That Mean for Our Energy Future?

Mr. Dupnik then returned to the podium and unexpectedly provided fresh details on the investigation and quickly made his feelings about the shooting and Mr. Loughner known.

WSJ: Arizona Elicits Sheriff's Criticism

They planned for the scheme to operate until 1 November or until the money ran out, but sales volumes have been unexpectedly high, and the funding is drying up more quickly than had been predicted.

BBC: US seeks to continue car rebates