I heard that certain batteries, Lithium-Ion, have been banned for overseas shipment for certain carriers. Any truth to this?

There has been a lot of hate against the U.S. and British governments because they have technical capabilities to "spy." Many people have argued that the fact that they can do something implies that they are doing things illegally. Could it be that they there is good that can come from having satellites that can take pictures from space?
Several global powers have provided technical support, radar, and images from space to help with this search. Without information the global community would be out searching every square mile of the ocean with no hope in a million years to ever finding this plan. Consider.

Those who hold am amateur radio license would be able to build experiments to develop end-point radios with modulation techniques found in today's modern wireless communications systems. The trouble is that many of the folks in the amateur radio community are not 'pushing' the state of the art in communications technologies. Amateur radio operators have licenses to transmit but many lack the background in signal processing and software design to make it happen. The community as a whole needs amateur operators to embrace these areas and innovate.

There are good reasons why base band processors cannot be opened up for anyone to use. Opening up the base band would allow hackers to run wild disrupting operating of networks.

That is like saying the freedom of speech allows me to walk into a movie theater and shot fire. In this case the person is exercising their right of free speech but it is not serving a purpose for the betterment of a society as a whole. There are so many more ways for artists to exercise their gifts to demonstrate the benefit of this expression.

I agree that many modern games promote violence in general. I bought the Left4Dead games but stopped playing them. As a parent why should my kids not play games that have violence if I am not willing to not play them. I stick to sports games.

What issue are the 'artists' of Grand Theft Auto exactly exploring and hoping to change?
I liken these games to an 'artist' in a major city once stripped off his cloths, sat in his own excrement, and did disgusting sex acts to himself in the presence of others.
In my mind both of these 'artists' are disgusting and are serving no purpose to promoting beneficial forward progress in our society.

I have not played "Leisure Suit Larry" but wonder what would happen if you started quoting lines from certain games in the work place?
My guess is you would be visited by a member of HR informing you that someone filled a sexual harassment complaint against you.

You make a good point about the need to have diversity in games.

--Martin Niemöller
Live is good as long as your are not one of the groups being maligned. Once you become one of "them" you will start to worry and not be 'tired of this crap'.

I wonder do male gamers with daughters think differently about games that promote violence against women then single male gamers with no children? As a father of girls I cannot in a clear coconscious buy games that have sexists concepts and promote violence against women.

I personally find games that promote sexist themes and violence against women disgusting and I do not buy them. I mostly play sports games and have found mature well balanced people on online gaming session. I have also found a fair share of egotistical disgusting sociopaths who frankly need mental health counseling. Even if companies stopped making these games for consoles they will just seek out another outlet to live out their fantasy of committing violent acts against women.

The program in question on this thread targeted foreign governments, terrorists, etc. The Supreme Court has ruled that the 4th amendment protects US citizens home and abroad BUT only foreign nationals inside of the United States (http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2819&context=flr) The government has strong legal grounds for the program and procedures of due process and oversight.

Does the government need to obtain a warrant to obtain this information? My impression in reading news articles is that they must get warrants. If they must get warrants does this change the situation?

You have hit the nail on the head. This program was approved by the Executive, Legislative, and Legal branches of the government. I understand folks do not agree but it is the law. Just because you disagree with the law does that mean you can release information to enemies of the United States?