Here I thought this would be about talking to single ladies at couples clubs.

And if the super-strong cable also does Ethernet, you wouldn't even have to raise it back, unless gravitational escape velocity also applies to electricity.

Since electrons have mass they're susceptible to gravity. So no, you couldn't get any kind of signal out of a black hole.

No it doesn't beg the question, it raises it.

The 4th Amendment says the government can't search our private effects without a warrant. The NSA has been doing just that. If some asshole in a robe says that's legal that says more about just how broken our government is than whether it really is legal or not.

You have the basic question wrong. Snowden revealed classified information. It isn't a question of true or false, it is a question of who is legally allowed to see it. He compromised American intelligence operations, and those of allied nations. Snowden broke trust, and people are confused about it.

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Snowden alerted the American people to illegal actions that circumvent the Constitution. I don't care how classified it was. The Constitution and our civil rights are far, far more important than what some bureaucrat thinks we ought to know.

Snowden arrogantly undermined democratic principles and acted like a vigilante.

You're fucking high. You should be tarred and feathered along with the assholes who have been shredding our Constitution, you fucking bootlicker.

No, we don't all know that. Because he didn't pursue his crusade using any of the procedures that would grant him that protection. Not even close.

True, but only because the previous NSA whistleblowers were all silenced and screwed over, too. What's the good of playing by the rules when the powers that be won't do the same?

Snowden, like other government workers (even contractors), took an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. By revealing the depth of the spying done on American citizens by our own government he upheld that oath. Whether he "went through proper channels" is bullshit and academic. He did the right thing and we should give him a ticker tape parade while tar-and-feathering the real traitors, the people who create the surveillance state and those who still support and defend it today.

Snowden fulfilled his oath to protect and defend the Constitution from domestic enemies. If doing that is against the law we're even more fucked than any of us have realized.

So yeah, he broke no laws by releasing that data. The people he blew the whistle on are the lawbreakers, they're the ones who belong in Leavenworth.

Hear, hear. If I had points you'd get one.

Well if they're using Perl in their security software no wonder they got hacked...

I know, it's crazy. I started hanging out here before my oldest son was born; he'll be 16 next month. I finally got a login around that time. One of my life's regrets is not getting one as soon as I found the site, it probably would've been a five-digit one.

My deepest desire is for an party that is a cross between the Tea Party and Occupy.

Such a party already exists; it's called the Libertarian Party.

It doesn't have to, you anonymous idiot.

I've had an account at /. for over 15 years; you don't even have an account. So shut the fuck up and go to Techdirt if you don't like it. /. has never been solely about "science and technology". It's always had a very strong political part to it, and this cock up at US Customs plays to that part of the site.

Don't like it? Too bad, we won't miss you.

I'm pretty sure his name is Mel.

An article about a service failing and no comments about whether Netcraft confirms it or not? Slashdot, you've changed.