The Brookings Institution??? Why would anyone give a damn what some think tank, er, thinks?

By definition, a think tank's job is to simply rationalize their clients opinion.

Well, you don't need to guess. I don't have the link, but there have been stories in the press about exactly that. There are paid-for commentors all over the Internet. They range from everything to psy-ops, think tanks, political parties, three-letter-agencies, and so on. They post everywhere too. After all, they have the resources. And they all stem from Right-Wing sources, as was reported. Yes, the Internet is a terrific source of propaganda, even in the forums. Just wait till election time, it's always much more obvious then.

Wait... does anyone seriously think that Congress will pass funding for anything related to NASA and the space programs? The current, Tea Party locked, science committee that recently called Climate Science "not science at all", Congress???

Good luck with that.

Unless it's a back-scratch back-room subsidy for their ilk and/or a state they wanna buy votes outta, forget it. Not ... going... to... happen.

Do you here that? It's the sound of a billion people on the other side of the world loling.

Well, the Assange flick (The Fifth Estate) was based on a book from a disgruntled former WikiLeaks guy's book. A book that was mostly a hate fest directed at Assange. What has been announced here is a film based on Glenn Greenwald's journalism, for which he won the Pulitzer this year. Huge difference, I reckon.

Damn you Blizzard! I pay a subscription, you're down again and... oh wait. nm

I've got it!!! We could send some sort of waves out that would be easily picked up by some sort of antenna. We could have stations transmit these waves so there's no gap, and best of all they would cover wide areas as the waves would bounce of the atmosphere. People would only have to buy a receiver set with the antenna and all the programing could be paid for with advertising alone! No more bills! ;p

How Japan Plans To Build Orbital Solar Power Stations?

With giant freakin' robots! Obviously.

There's a thread of rather amusing ignorance about government and corporate interests happening all through here, I had to comment. Well rant really - There's more than a few people saying that corporate interests, either as just a natural outcome of superior innovation or whacking gobs of cash, won out here because that's Capitalism. Others lament that government, in this case the FCC, only exists to serve itself, not The People (which is their mandate), and thus like all government is naturally going to defer to it's nature.

What kind of social Darwinian claptrap is this?

Face it. The truth is the problem is money in government. It's way out of control and that's why the FCC has deferred to corporate interests. Essentially moving to turn the Internet into your cable TV box, or radio frequency spectrum sell offs. Which we here are ALL against. Why? It's the fact that the FCC and the lobbiests for those corporations are THE SAME FUCKING GUYS. The "revolving door" of people who have worked at the FCC then "moved on" to lobby positions at these corporations is wide open. That's the problem. That's why this, ultimately, happened. There has been legislation against this 'revolving door' in the past (I'm sure someone will point that out) but it was just fucking ignored. Lobbiests like this are supposed to refrain for something like a year. Didn't happen. They showed up in Washington the next day. Literally! No one was fined, arrested, or even saw a raised eyebrow.

So please, let's speak of the reality of what's happening at the FCC instead of vomiting bullshit theories about the "nature" of shit. M'k?

Labour unions are parasites? Thanks for the update John Galt.

U.S. tech firms have ideas? Last I saw it was just a lot of - "how can I completely manipulate, patent troll, and keep an iron grip on this market"?

Really, if you think Facebook or Google is somehow a wonderful idea, you don't understand markets. It's also a major reason the US top tech firms are failures, really, and why they have to maintain those markets so no one notices. It's a self destructive cycle.

Let me get this straight...

You're telling me that because one is lucky enough to get a job they should happily accept being forbidden to do things, like drink coffee? There's a word for people like you.

Because the F-35 is, I shit you not, IS, an American plane. That's a fact.

Wow, you just had to completely fuck that up in your head and then post it on one of the most read tech sites in the world. You are just fabulously fucking stupid. There really should be some sort of voting radio button for 'fabulously fucking stupid'. Something so marvelously and completely wrong that it needs to be stickied or pinned or some such thing, just so the rest of the world can see the drop dead idiocy one individual is capable of. Bravo. *golf clap*

Don't worry, all that copyright, trademark,etc. stuff that is such an international headache will be solved with the TPP. Corporations have already sent their bag-men to secure the deal. Men like, oh what's his name, Barry Obama er something.

I'm replying rather late, but I wanted to say thanks for the added history david_thornley.

The US provided materials to Britain well before they entered the war, which is why I mentioned the US. Heck, the US would provide materials secretly too! As a Canadian, it's well known that US materials for planes would be secretly moved over the US border to Canada and then promptly assembled then flown (by famously female pilots) over the Atlantic.

Oh yea, and david_thornley... best .sig ever. lol! :)