It may be a fun site but they are also show casing their new Oxford API which does tie in to their business model.

The oil wells and related facilities ISIS was using to raise cash were taken out shortly after the bombing campaign began.

Who do you think was providing the NSA with the data collected in the various European countries? And it is not illegal (in the US) for the NSA to spy on and collect any information they want on any foreign country. If Snowden had only released information about the US domestic related programs he might have been able to get a slap on the wrist. But he released information on NSA programs that targeted foreign countries. Programs that had nothing to do with US citizens. The type of programs that foreign intelligence services are supposed to be conducting. And unless every state security agency in the world disbands don't expect the US to stand down any of their foreign intelligence agencies.

So you are saying the US only produces intellectual property that translates to new products of all sorts and China just builds the products? And what are "typical" Americans? There is not one single country on the planet as diverse in race, culture, or religion as the US population. The US ranks in the top 3 manufactures in the world depending on how the figures are calculated. China is increasingly having to compete against other nations in South East Asia. China's economy has been built on low labor costs and currency manipulations which help lower the prices on their exports. Now there are other countries that can offer the same low labor cost and they are attracting manufacturers. In order for China to continue growing they need to establish a healthy domestic economy so they are not totally dependent on their exports. To do this the workers need to make more money to spend domestically and this is causing a rise in the labor costs China has had to depend on to make their exports attractive.

If they go to MIT or any other University or College a sizable percentage stay in the US to work. And if China has developed some super cool gizmo that puts them 10 years ahead of the US in developing new technologies they are sure keeping quite about it. Maybe they are sitting on a warp drive, anti-gravity generator, an inertial dampener system, or maybe a cure for cancer?
By the way I go to China on business about 3 times a year and the people I meet there are very friendly and courteous unlike the pricks I run into in Europe now and then. For some reason everyone seems to think the President of the US calls me personally asking for advice on government policies.

"decades ahead of the US in renewable energy tech" Can you source this grandiose claim? The only Chinese renewable energy advances were flooding the market with cheap solar panels which were copies of the solar panels designed and manufactured in the US. I am not sure this puts China a decade ahead of the US.

Abraham Lincoln also suspended Habeas Corpus and jailed reporters during the Civil War. And the Emancipation Proclamation was pretty much just words because it included no enforcement mechanisms even after the Constitutional amendments were made. Presidents can over step their authority and get away with it if the results are politically palatable to the general public. Roosevelt made a blatant end run around the Neutrality Act before the US entered WW2 with the Lend Lease program. The US by law could not "sell" war materials to England but the wording of the Act left open a small crack for "Leasing" the equipment. The US immediately "leased" 50 mothballed destroyers to England with the lease paid for with some British land rights. Roosevelt also petitioned Congress for permission to wire tap suspected German infiltrators before the US entered the war and was rebuked with no room for misinterpretation. Less than an hour after the Congressional vote Roosevelt issued an order to have the wire taps put in place. Roosevelt also unilaterally extended the US maritime borders further into the Atlantic so US ships could escort shipping to England a little further and narrow the intercept window for German sub attacks. Of course that move also increased the risk that the Germans might attack a US ship and give Roosevelt the excuse he needed to officially enter the war way before Pearl Harbor. Had the US lost the war, and Roosevelt had not died of course, he would have been vilified and scorned instead of being remembered as one of the best leaders the US has ever had.

The Presidents authority and power is explicitly spelled out and the Congressional and Judicial branches are also clearly codified in law. A President can look strong or weak depending on how he uses his authority and power.

Just like sometime in the future the last human words heard will be "Wonder what happens if you push this button?".

The problem in finding balance with security measures is that no one really knows if any of the current programs, laws, and actions are actually preventing any attacks. I tend to believe that the US foreign intelligence services have their hands full dealing with problems in other countries and have very little time or reason to waste resources on the domestic side of things. Their attempts to automate and electronically compile data to detect security threats has been a failure and that is most likely why no one is really that upset with stopping programs such as the metadata collection effort. The only ones making a big deal over the issue is the feckless politicians looking to score points "fighting for homeland security" or "fighting for privacy rights". The problem the US faces is that the NSA, CIA, FBI, DIA, and all the other law enforcement and security agencies still do not play well with one another. Each agency has their own programs and priorities that sometimes overlap but each agency still guard their turf a little too much. The government attempts to correct this has resulted in jurisdiction issues and possible 4th Amendment violations when one agency collects information under one set of evidentiary rules and then shares that information with another agency who did not meet the evidentiary requirements to legally possess the information and then used it to prosecute a crime.

The President is the Commander and Chief of the US armed services. Under the War Powers Act he can declare war without getting Congressional approval. The President has 90 days after the start of the war to convince Congress to support his decision. If they do not agree they have the power to stop providing the money needed to prosecute the war. The drone strikes are carried out with the permission from the countries where the attacks take place. Yemen, Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghani governments have given the US permission to conduct drone attacks in their countries. No matter how much those governments try to deny it to their general public they have approved the US drone operations. And it does not matter one bit if the Patriot Act or any similar act exists because the national security agencies will still do pretty much anything they want any way. I doubt seriously whether the NSA really cares about losing the ability to collect metadata. And any similar program that involves collecting large amounts of data will also be no big loss. The NSA and CIA can pretty much do anything they want outside of the US just like every other intelligence service in the world can come to the US and nose around. I personally think the US should eliminate the TSA and let you keep your shoes on when you go through airport security. I think the government should do what the people want and roll back all of the security measures put in place since 9/11. I am willing to take the risk of becoming a victim from a terrorist attack. If there is a terrorist attack that kills a sizable number of people the government should just track down those responsible and kill them with absolutely no large military deployments or prolonged presence in a foreign country. When the public starts complaining that the government should have prevented the attack the government can honestly say they discontinued all of the over reaching domestic related national security measures just like the US public wanted.

Have you ever filed a Federal and State Income tax form? If so the government already knows where you work, your income, how many dependents you have, where you live, your age, your marital status, and details about any property you own.They started collecting this information way before there was any electronic information age in all it's various manifestations. And to top it off the government doesn't need a search warrant to access any of this information they have compiled and stored. The IRS makes the NSA look like beginners when it comes to compiling information on it's citizens and I would rather catch the attention of the NSA instead of the IRS. It's a little late in the game to start worrying about what the government knows about you.

You show me a discussion site with a "common bond" and I will show you a site that is no more than an "echo chamber" and mutual back slapping society comprised of people convinced of their own magnificence. Forums so bereft of meaningful discussions that overtime it's participants think anyone disagreeing with them are trolls at best and idiots at worst.

You forgot to include "Tang" in your list of spin off technologies. In reply to most of the posts here the population will be whittled down to a more manageable level after the next big war kicks off. And WW3 is coming and there is not a damn thing anyone can do except build a bigger and more deadly arsenal. And as the resources become more scarce the chance of war will increase.

When a manufacturer is selecting which OS to pre-install the only thing that matters is which one will allow the average user to run the most applications. Believe it or not people use computers to run applications not just an OS. This applies to both personal and business users. If the FOSS OS evangelists spent more time pushing for more applications and development tools that help streamline application development then Linux in all it's variations might actually be used more outside the data center.