I don't see how anything a police department does could count as a trade secret, given that everything they do is covered by FOIA laws. I don't see how admitting to spying on people without a warrant could violate their right to privacy.

An IMSI catcher is a cell tower that re-directs to another cell tower. So all traffic to and from your phone goes through it. Voice, meta data, data, email, text messages. Of course they are legally required to get a warrant before they tap your phone, but the rest is probably up for grabs. Assuming they follow the law.

Dictatorships trying to firewall the internet == under attack by well funded enemies, who are making progress at stealing their secrets and/or undermining their economy. Maybe the NSA isn't as incompetent as we thought.

And what about the space station? Boeing didn't pay for that, and there are real costs associated with visiting (scrubber modules for the life support, if nothing else).

That's why there is an entire occupation devoted to handling legal stuff. I'd tell you the name, but every time I think of it the phrase "first up against the wall" jumps into my mind.

When the oil runs out (or we stop buying) the money will run out as well (over there). At that point their economy will collapse, and the poor will end up on our borders as refugees. So make sure we build the walls and guard towers before we stop buying their oil.

Corn is only cheaper than cane sugar because of massive subsidies combined with import duties. The (right wing Democrat) government of the USA should get out of the way and let the free market deal with this issue.

The sea level during the dino years was also rather higher. The great plains of north America formed UNDER a large inland sea. Nature will adapt to higher CO2 levels, as will we. The question is how expensive it will be. The assorted civilizations of central and south America mostly got wiped out by a warmer/dryer climate (the Spanish helped on occasion). If your retirement fund depends on dumping CO2 into the atmosphere then you will be motivated to argue climate change.

melting ice spreads out. The total volume of ice is less but the area of water covered is larger because the ice won't stick together in taller clumps.

They don't know what Snowden took. For a high security the fate of the free world depends on it computer system that's not what I was hoping for.

Given that the politics of the Democrats and the Republicans are currently close enough to identical that most people couldn't tell the difference, how will voting for either party affect NSA funding? I think you'll need to start a third party before voting alters the situation.

The problem with spying on everyone is you don't have any time left to analyze all that data. The NSA is a data broker, not a national defense agency.

By analyzing the light in the background of a video you can see what is reflected there (the people behind the camera). If someone in the background of a terrorist vid is talking about their next terrorist strike- I'd want to know what he was saying. It's a pre-recorded vid, you can't set up surveillance gear and the vid isn't good enough to show the sound vibrations.

You want the body armour for combat use, so you want an iron man suit. Having powered legs to increase your capacity is useful too, though not as intimidating. As for the batteries- you can run a fuel cell off of diesel using a reformer, and that's easy to get on a battlefield.

How about when you file for a patent it's only a registry, no checks or validity or anything (like now?). And every single time you attempt to use the patent in court it can be challenged (and possibly declared invalid). The government still gets their money, the patent office can continue with their no value added business model, and everyone else can fight the patent trolls in court on an even footing.