Considering the amount of computer-based identity fraud in the world, all this would accomplish is to get millions of people unjustly pegged for crimes they didn't commit. Suppose that identity is conferred via X.509 certificates. What is to stop a garden-variety rootkit/botnet from using these certificates for their own purposes? My spam trap is filled with hundreds of messages each day from unsuspecting victims; why would it make a difference if these messages were digitally signed?

The problems are

1. The falsifiability of the credentials.
2. The juridical ("DNA testing") status these credentials would take on.

For eons, West and Lexis have been making staggering sums reselling primary legal material to all and sundry. Best of luck to this project in prying that material out of their hands, and in surviving the massive lobbying and astroturfing that will ensue before the project achieves that goal.

Modern scientists do not believe in Zeno's paradox. This is an ancient article, but take a look at Adolf Grünbaum's "Modern Science and Zeno's Paradoxes of Motion," circa 1968. It's reprinted in Zeno's Paradoxes, edited by Wesley C. Salmon.

The joke's still funny, but it stereotypes scientists as theory-crazed and impractical -- which I suppose is the typical point of view of an engineer.

If the laser beams only detect and disable CCDs, then, in theory, conventional cameras should be unaffected.

Let's suppose, for the sake of argument, that all the websites out there started charging the eminently "reasonable" $5/month for access to content. In truth, it is likely that sites run by the likes of Barry Diller will charge decidedly more than this.

Before the economic collapse, I had a monthly books/CDs/entertainment budget of, say, $150. After the collapse, that budget is closer to $40. Assuming that I choose to spend 100% of my discretionary income on nothing but paid websites, and assuming that these will all be the cheapest, $5/month websites, that gets me eight websites, out of all the sites available on the Internet. I might as well shut down my browser and head to my library to peruse some dead trees.

I can't be the only person like this. Mark my words: the Internet will route around this damage.

Aptera (http://www.aptera.com) has done exactly this. They have gotten the California Department of Transportation to classify their three-wheeled hybrid vehicles as motorcycles. Goodbye, automobile safety standards. Of course, potential drivers of the vehicle might be surprised at the hurdle of getting a motorcycle endorsement on their license, and possibly a little peeved at the need to wear helmets while driving.

(ObNothing: Those rule-flouting "tough guys" who wear the "Kaiser Wilhelm" bare-minimum-required-headgear helmets must be a neurologist's wish come true.)

I realize that plagiarism detection represents an interesting problem in computer science, and that it goes some distance toweard solving a serious problem. However, I read an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, behind a paywall, alas, which leads me to believe that it is only a partial solution to academic dishonesty. The article suggested that, thanks to the Internet, the costs of human capital are now so low that hiring a ghostwriter to compose one's papers, sidestepping the problem of plagiarism to begin with, is far more expedient than plagiarism itself. It described a Russian-"businessman"-headed network of Filipino paper-writers, most paid between $1 and $3 a page, who are able to market their services to the West through a web site and remote call centers. At $20/page to the end-user, with no possibility of plagiarism detection, I think that most desperate students would find this a good deal. In my opinion, ghostwriting will supplant plagiarism as time goes on.

What is a teacher to do? In-class writing samples would seem to be the only hope of detecting ghostwriting. Students could, of course, argue that at home, they can "polish" their papers, and that therefore they will not resemble the in-class samples. Moreover, checking samples against papers is a thankless and time-consuming task which is only a preliminary to actually evaluating the work. Perhaps there is a computer-based solution to this, but, in the meantime, perhaps potential ghostwriting customers could take their desires to their logical conclusion, and simply buy their degrees on the Internet directly.