IANAL, but I'm calling bullshit. I'm starting to think you're a troll, shill, or simply clueless about how the internet works.

Which is exactly the point. What is the cost to society of piracy? Any solution like what you're proposing that would work and have a noticeable effect on piracy would cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

It's a big factor. Here is a piece from NPR covering a beat cop working in Skid Row. Skid Row is pretty much a worse case scenario for law enforcement. He's been patrolling the same neighborhood for almost 20 years. He's familiar with the community and they're familiar with him. It has made a huge impact on how the people and the police interact with one another. http://www.npr.org/2014/10/14/...

Correct, but look at the lists from the last 20-30 years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...

The NSA has an interest in strong encryption as much as they do in subverting encryption. Take as an example the work they did with (read "for") IBM on DES.

"It took the academic community two decades to figure out that the NSA 'tweaks' actually improved the security of DES." -Bruce Schneier

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Encryption_Standard#NSA.27s_involvement_in_the_design

Yeah, you're right. We should just give up.

I know they're a long way off, but the scientific predictions are way more terrifying.

From Wikipedia, "The heat death of the universe is a suggested ultimate fate of the universe, in which the universe has diminished to a state of no thermodynamic free energy and therefore can no longer sustain motion or life.'

WTF? I don't even.

So they made these comparisons and wrote all of these inflammatory things betting on the HOPE that Mann would sue them for defamation so they could drag all of these documents Mann's been alegedly hiding out into court? Is that what your saying? That seems like a bit of a stretch to me.

how Goose died in Top Gun?

Not if those "assets" have been repossessed! **shudders**

I'm not saying it's not plausible that VR was CIA. However, given the circumstances, if you think that to be true, then it would follow logically to believe that his participation in EVE was of some serious significance. Why else would he insist on staying online right up until the shooting started? I've heard of being a game addict, but damn. If I'm CIA on a super-duper sensitive mission and shit is going down, then I think I'd have more important things to focus on besides playing some vidyuh. Unless, of course, being online had some significance to the mission/clusterfuck at hand.

Wow, that is pretty obnoxious. I don't know if I agree with the "top notch audio editor to cut out those parts" bit, though.

I thought everyone was required... Oh, dammit! Am I getting "wooshed"?

FTA: "...Google and Apple have upgraded their capabilities to aircraft-based photography that can see through windows and capture detailed images with four-inch resolution."

Four-inch resolution? I guess I don't have anything to worry about!

I think you're close, but not quite there. I moved to WV my freshman year of high school and graduated in 2006. As far as I could tell, the supplies were fine. I don't think we were hurting for funding (at least not technology funding). Hell, my school (about 1500 students) had three full dedicated computer-classrooms that would typically only have classes in them 2-3 periods of the day with as few as 5-10 kids in each class. I never shared a book. We always had plenty of supplies for science and art classes. However, I think they might underpay their teachers (more so than other places, it would seem). In my four years, I watched three of the best teachers I knew leave for jobs just across state lines where they could make almost twice as much. I know this is anecdotal, likely contains sampling bias, and is a bit off topic. I thought I would share anyway.