People like to argue that these kinds of surveillance and control are legitimate and nobody cares about them; if so, then why are they done in secret?

No, we should follow the same rules as any drug tests. Whether people are law-abiding or not has no bearing on whether we can do experiments on them.

I thought testing drugs on humans -- without their informed consent and successful prior testing -- was banned long ago.

It doesn't matter that the person is a prisoner; in fact the standards are higher for them, because they are much less able to refuse consent. It also doesn't matter that they will die soon; terminally ill patients also must give informed consent.

What kind of sick society experiments on helpless prisoners?

The government invested and invests very heavily in the technology, including R&D, both through the military and NASA (and maybe via other agencies I'm not thinking of). For example, here is NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.

Boeing is a leading beneficiary of these funds. Also, have Boeing and their competitors received tax breaks and other aid?

How does a successful test of a prototype tell you anything about the demand for it? Silicon Valley landfills are filled with successful prototypes of products you've never heard of.

They need someplace to go and something to do up there. Until consumers can spend a weekend in orbit doing entertaining activities, it's hard to imagine many people willing spend six figures (?) on the trip.

(I'm all for commercial space flight, by the way, I just don't see much consumer demand for it.)

That's a very big change. 'Our security is so perfect that any fraud must be perpetrated by the user''?

Thanks, that makes sense.

Hmmm ... given the amount of money involved, doesn't it seem likely that methods for breaking the security are already known?

Could someone explain how EMV chips work, especially,

1) If every consumer and retailer in the world will be able to utilize them to process purchases, how can we stop people from using the same devices fraudulently? If the answer is that they use a PIN, then why not use the old mag-stripes with a PIN?

2) Is anything stored on them besides payment data, such as other personal data? In addition to a payment mechanism, is it also yet another way to track and collect information about people? Could other data potentially be stored on them?

3) Is wireless necessary or even a good idea? Why not require contact with the credit card machine?

Unlike actual philosophy, which is quite rigorous, apparently any statement can be modded up on Slashdot.

As someone else pointed out, when I wrote "rise" of China, I meant the recent economic growth since 1980.

I agree that the time before that was a disaster, one of the worst in human history. In fact, I find it absurd that China's Communist Party claims credit for the "rise". That's like burning down your own house, building a hut, and claiming credit for real estate development.

I genuinely hope it is successful. The rise of China is one of the great humanitarian stories in history, lifting hundreds of millions from poverty. I expect the people of China to make great contributions to the world.

However, it's still 2013 and China's government is still authoritarian, unaccountable and non-transparent, and the Chinese press is still restricted. If the mission failed, would they admit it, or release some photos anyway? (Could they get away with it? Could other governments or amateurs with telescopes see for themselves?)