I wonder how long before people start investing in awnings, nets, kites, balloons and other devices that can hide what's happening on the ground?

I don't like mark-to-market. Even these billionaires need income. I would guess that their income comes from dividends. Let's just tax the dividends at the normal income tax rate. The different dividend tax rate is a large part of why billionaires pay less in taxes.

Does this mean that there is no cost to infringing on an open source license? If that's true, then there is no penalty to breaking an OSS license. This worries me.

Yes, but some or all of those are already being monitored by the government. I wonder if this is a ploy to get more government access to Twitter's database.

What can I do with my own laptop and wifi router to make my own situation better?

On my CV, I list things that I have less than 2 years experience, but I put skill level qualifiers like "Novice" ,"Intermediate", and "Expert"

Yes, I have seen versions numbers for platforms on CV's. I have them on my CV and I look for them in applicant CV's. I'm a Linux admin who manages two student interns (Jr. Admins). I do the screening of my interns as well as helping to screen full-time co-workers. When reading CV's, I give a higher weight to those with version numbers. I'm not too worried about minor numbers (i.e. RHEL5.4 vs. RHEL5). I'm not too worried about older versions. Version numbers act as a shibboleth to weed out the posers from those who have actually worked with a technology.

When interviewing a potential Linux admin, I always ask what version and flavour of Linux that they have experience with. If they can't give something credible, then I don't rate them as having that skill.

If the original owners own the satellite, then would they be liable for the space junk they leave behind? Company A's space junk takes out Company B's working satellite. Let the corporate lawyer death-match commence! If there was real punching, then I would buy a ticket.

What should the US be doing instead? I'm being serious.

Even though universities are separate legal entities, they are owned by the state for the most part. Public universities are still considered part of the state, and are subject to most of the same rules as regular state employees along with a few new ones like FERPA.

Get a cat instead, they probably work better.

Most software licenses have waivers of liability, and have a limit on the monetary damages. The limit is usually the purchase cost of the software. So, you can get a refund, and that's it. The only place I see that isn't waived are safety-critical applications, like medical devices, nuclear devices, vehicles, and factory floors. These are typically hard real-time systems. Besides, you can always blame the owner for not patching the system! The "unlock your car or home from your iphone" apps really worry me.

This sounds almost exactly like a library catalog system. If the system doesn't index articles, then just treat each article as a book in a multi-volume set. I know that several open source library system exist. Look into those.

What really tipped me off about the insanity of the bureaucracy was when my doctor's billing person didn't know what what my insurance would pay. They just submit it and see what the insurance will pay.