" They just need to nab the few leaders of any of such effort, jail them on drug charges and are done with it. Or would you want to say that you mean to do some action beyond the words? No. You won't."
Wow that is down right scary... maybe you should not not post such things or you might get busted...
That is just it name any leader" that has had that happen to them.

Keyhole is still ongoing and it has been very useful.

Spying is so useful that sometimes nations agree to it.

"I guess you haven't heard of solar thermal with storage."
Actually the current systems are moving to molten salts...
Not really good enough yet and I doubt it ever will be. The good thing is molten salt could in theory work with other systems like nuclear and even coal. The cost is just way too high to be practical...
And yes I have looked into it.

The fact that you can post this shows that your fears are at best exaggerated.

Every nation will spy to the best of it's ability and within the limits of it's self interest.
This has been true since the beginning of recorded history.

The fact that people find this shocking is what is so bizarre to me. The original heroes of computer science where spying. Bletchley park's function was to spy. You spy in wartime to win you spy in peacetime to prevent war.

True but it is still the same name and will be remembered as the Evil SCO.

The problem is not the that the technology is harmful. It is not. The problem is that people are harmful.
On thing I do not like is this idea of schools as police. If a child bullies another child outside of school why is it any of the schools business?
The problem all comes down to manners, ethics, and morality which should be taught by the parents. The problem is how do you force parents to be parents? If a child is being a bully it should be the parents of the bully that puts a stop to it. A far too large of percentage does so we are left trying to fix the problem using other less effective methods.

"The real issue is that this will require investment in research and that means not making a profit in the next 3 years, which is about the duration of how far a CXO looks."
Ahh... No.
1. There is not enough hydro resources in the US. The US has actually exploited a lot of them already. They US already gets 7% from hydro and has been using it for decades.
2. "And there is dessert enough available to put a LOT of sun collectors." And no effective way to store it for use at night and the evenings. Solar only produces power for around 8 hours a day. Less in the winter. Storage is now and has been a problem forever. Lots of money is being out into battery tech but nothing is shipping yet. Solar production also does not match peak demand. It comes close in summer but still drops to near zero while peak hours are still in effect. Also most desserts in the US are in the south. They have shorter days than areas in the north of the US in summer and much higher temperatures which means lots of AC.
Even Germany which people like to show as Solar working is really not a working system. They are going to massive coal plants for base load.
http://www.businessinsider.com...

Costa Rica is a small mountainous nation that has huge amounts of rain forests. Frankly it was dumb for them to ever use fossil fuels for electricity except as a back up. In many ways they are like Iceland in that regard. The US has a lot of hydro resources and is using them but it is not enough to power the entire US.

"What if you want to make yourself smarter? What if you want to make yourself immune to cancer? What if you want to make yourself live longer? What if you want to make yourself heal better and faster?"

That would genetic treatment versus editing the genome and that is a different issue. Some changes will only be possible pre-birth and some pre-conception.

Like every technology it will be all about how you use it.
Should the mutation that causes CF be removed from the gene pool or does having just one copy give some benefit?
Should we take control of our evolution?
What about people that want to order children that are super tall so they can play basketball? Or super smart. Or have big breasts?
What about if we can remove any genetic factor in sexual preference?

What is good use and what is a bad use? What should be allowed and what should be banned?
Fixing DF seems like an easy answer.

"we here in Germany any many other European countries have some notion left that sometimes, the weak and needy need to be protected and helped."
Umm... The US has welfare, medicaid, medicare, and social security as well as unemployment insurance. While not perfect it does provide some protection for those most in need.

" I can't help feel that its the established players who want to kill any newcoming competition. that - in itself - really annoys me."
In this case the established players have to pay a lot fees and follow a lot of expensive rules.
It would be like a car company that refused to do emission and crash testing.
The cars might be as safe as any on the street but...

It is so sad that SCO which was a really good company is going to be remembered for this. Novell on the other hand while also a sad shadow of it's former self at least will be remembered in a good light.

I find it funny that you ever thought it would be.