Mac OS (yes, the 68k OS) were considered stable every other release as well; all the odd major numbered OS always requires endless number of patches (keep in mind that back then, there was no broadband to ease patch distribution.) With the exception of OS8 (which was released to get out of contracts with Mac clone makers,) even numbered versioned OSes were considered more "mature" than the odd numbered versioned OSes.

Engineers on street corners with cups and signs that say "Please Give"?

... when I graduated. Aerospace department graduates had signs up that said "will build space shuttles for food."

... could be used to increase the storage capacity of batteries

Translation - Fund me, and I might produce something.

"evading the IRS and taxes"

We can starting cleaning up the orbit, and bill them by deducting the cost plus a... modest profit off the US debt they're holding...

until somebody die from it. sorry, but it's been that way for centuries.

and taking anyone near it down the abyss with it.

other cell carriers have a lot more to do with it than common sense in the government. I fear this "outbreak" you speak of is at best, overly exaggerated.

The TSA should engage in profiling, as the Israelis do.

That would require TSA hiring and training intelligent people instead of farming out the work to politically well connected corporations that much rather hire employees being paid minimum wage.

shredded HP stock certificates soaked in their expensive ink and rolled into joints.

based on 120 million GB and 200k drives, the per-drive capacity works out to 600GB a piece. Sounded like they're stringing together a bunch of WD Velociraptors.

Can you just imagine the brown up when they power up the drive farm?
In practice they would be doing sequential spin up. I do however, wonder how long that would take to sequentially spin up 200k drives.

...the US government will probably believe China.

Diplomatic "courtesy" requires the US to believe China. Privately, everyone knows that a deer is a deer.

This is a country that has a history of pointing at a deer and call it a horse, or more recently calling Minnie Mouse a "cat with large ears." So why is this a surprise?

when the backdoor mandated by government is built right into every piece of equipment.