The patent claim includes any image generated by the user, not only facial images.

I wonder how many people already use, um, other body parts to unlock devices.

Quick googling: Peter F. Paul was extradited from Brazil to USA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_F._Paul#Securities_fraud_conviction_and_jail_terms

I'm a brazilian, and I can say that, though Brazil has matured politically in recent years, Assange is not entirely safe here either.
The current government is leftish, but if the political climate swings back right, the relationship between Brazil and USA will change and Assange would be a good bargaining chip.
Corruption in Brazil will still be a problem for the decades to come.

In important industrial applications, a set of 3 sensors is used.

If they all agree, fine.
If one of them disagrees by a certain margin, use the information of the other two and light up a warning.
If they all disagree, turn it to manual and blast the alarms.

In really important stuff, like nuclear stuff, it is used up to 5 sensors, each with a different functioning principle.

What's the problem with that? Put a speed cap on each user, limit the number of users, drop the connection and rename the wifi every 30 minutes... there's a number of tricks that can be used so that people would be able to check their e-mails or check a map but not torrent 24/7.

And this stuff isn't free, you would be paying it with your taxes. Remember, taxes buy civilization.

The way I see it, the cause of the housing bubble was the excess credit then, which increased only the demand for houses. To get a matching increase of offer, the prices had to go up. That alone generates inflation, and when the credit dried, prices dropped back to normal, and people got stuck with the debt.

One way to avoid that is for the government to work on both ends of the market, both demand and offer. The president can lower building taxes, outright subsidize building, or the government can just build houses, though I don't see that last one happening in USA.

When the credit dries, taxes go back up and prices stay the same.

The same goes for education, if there is too much credit for the population floating around, there should be more funding for public schools and universities.

It is possible to counter these market movements that generate bubbles. When they happen on such a large scale, they are easy to spot too.

The universe is the totality of everything that exists.

If we can interact, through gravity or anything else, with another "universe", it just means the universe is bigger than we thought.

If there are other universes, they must by definition not interact with our own and therefore be inverifiable. Multiple universes are mathematical constructs only.

You can however say that what we, at this moment, judge to be "the Universe" is only a D-brane among many others. But the universe still is everything, regardless of what we actually know of it.

"Because it takes so much stimuli to bring their serotonin levels up to normal, they seek out quick fixes, like eating sweets, watching TV, and playing video games simultaneously; or masturbating 5-10 times a day"

So a depressed girlfriend would play video games and put out more?

Interesting...

Hollywood accounting is possible for specific projects, but not for an entire industry.

If it is possible for a whole league of companies to inflate costs, to avoid taxes and any other debt that applies to profits, there is widespread corruption and money won't be the biggest problem.

The advantage of energetic independence is that the government can set all the rules.

In particular, refineries can make long-term only contracts for oil purchase (usually 5 year long contracts). And there should be many purchase contracts, so you don't have to renew all of them at the same time. That way the shock of oil price spikes is absorbed , and you get a nice steady line if prices do increase over time. Predictable prices are very, very important for business and people in debt.

Instead of relying on the global oil price, the government can even set the rules backwards: take the cost of oil production, add royalties and corporate profits, and you have the national oil price. Of course that price can't be much apart from the global oil price, but it is a way of keeping everyone happy: companies, government and the public.

That is pretty much what we do in Brazil.

When you're talking about a 25 years payment, don't forget the interest rates. I would say one third to half of the total money goes to interest rates.

The math isn't like this, you pay interest as you go, but considering the bulk values, I believe a house costs about 3 man-years to build, but you will pay that with 25% of what you earn for 12 years, and then another 12 years to pay interests.

If you think that's excessive, try paying rent until you can buy your house upfront.

So is it a wow with light sabers and Neverwinter Nights 2 quests?

If you can't run a sanity check over what your computers are doing, you aren't an engineer or administrator. You are a message boy, slave to the computer and to who really understands what's going on.