The last person you want running an organization that might draw negative attention from powerful entities is a guy who grew up (for a period, at least) in a white supremicist cult and then was pursued by them for years after he and his mother fled.
Assange might be paranoid and an ass, but the White Supremacist Cult which you describe is anything but that. Its a relatively harmless hippie type commune. Please do not to resort to falsehoods to bolster your case.

2880 is so far away we have nothing to fear. If humanity survives in some form to the 29th century it will be sufficiently advanced to make a meal out of the said asteroid. It may not even make prime time TV.
If its 2080...yes we may have something to think about.

US has a serious problem with militarization of police. Its ironical that the "munitions" - what an inventive word by the way - are now targeted against your own citizens. The images coming from Ferguson remind you of Ukraine and/or other war torn nations.
All those police snipers/SWAT teams pointing laser weapons at protestors...one mistake by an adrenaline junkie will happen and you will get FPS action against your own citizens broadcast live around the world.
The superheroes, the best and brightest who planned putting military gear into the hands of police should be sent to GITMO.

You are right. But then without tax and revenue from licensing how will the government function?
We can always argue whether a specific regulation is needed or not, but are you are using the usual "small government", "starve the beast" idea?

Look at this way...a connected fridge is utterly pointless, but I can see how it will create new jobs.
There will be people employed to create software and hardware interfaces, test the interfaces, and finally when it breaks down or exploited, to fix them.
At least its going to be some extra buttons or a panel on a fridge...there is not going to be a significant hit to the environment. So lets not use the argument "what is the need".

What an interesting state...cave, Dick Cheney, sink holes, fossils.
Go Wyoming go...

'What I am' does not matter. You will be employed if your skills are in demand, whether than involves frameworks, bit chasing...it does not matter.
Good to know you are employed. Now please stop being condescending.

Sweet explanation on the 'recent grad'.
I am guessing you (and your C++ wife) were programming equivalents of sliced bread when you started your career compared to the "unschooled" Java programmer.
Why is Java popular...its good enough for most of the tasks and reasonably competent people can write non-scary code.
Not every programmer needs to understand "bit bashing" and a mental model of computers at the assembly level. Its an overkill.

Outsourcing is bad, but as an Indian who renewed his passport recently, I have to say the process was smooth.
The document verification/IT/software/hardware part of the Indian passport application/renewal operation is now handled by TCS. You make an appointment online - for both fast track and slow track - and arrive at the local passport center with your documents. The TCS grunts allot a token, make sure documents are in order - if they are not you are sent back to get them corrected, take your fingerprints, photo and for final verification you meet an Indian government employee. He/she either says YES, or says YES with police verification.
In my case it was the latter as my passport had some damage - usual wear and tear, but visible.
A few days later a policewoman came home after fixing an appointment over phone, verified my documents/address and in two weeks I got a fresh passport.
I was impressed by the whole process. AFAIK Indian government and TCS is doing everything right as far as passport renewal goes...it was better than getting my experience in getting a drivers license/immigration papers in Toronto/Chicago/San Francisco.
May be US government should indeed outsource the operation to TCS...if they can do a good show in an anarchic chaotic mess like India, I am sure they can do the same in US.

Publishers ARE evil, but they do more than being middlemen.
Even good writers need good editors. Look at the complaints on Slashdot summaries...the issue is poor editing, and that's a skill different from being a good writer. Editing is more than correcting spelling mistakes/grammar. On many occasions a book becomes much more enjoyable when a good editor spends time and energy on the manuscript.
Fringe benefits like an advance on an upcoming book. Even if they take the rights perpetually, and the advance is too low, an advance is important.
The books they reject may not be worth much even they got published. Look at the all the books in Amazon...a majority of books are worthless, they were made/published only because they could be published. For every example of a good book being rejected by publishers there are hundreds of examples of a bad book being rightly rejected.
A writers job is to write. In the world of Amazon he/she will have to wear different hats...the marketing person, the editor (or find the editor), do the cheer leading to make his/her work standout etc. I have no idea how a real talent can emerge out of this madness.
But the world will adapt and evolve and my fears are misplaced. For every publisher who closes shop, there will be people announcing their skills for a fee. In the end a new publishing order will appear, which is probably going to be the old itself, but working on smaller margins.

Saudi Arabia is ISIS, the only difference...Americans think "they are bastards, but they are our bastards".

What most of us - including the politicos - forget is the fact that the "idea of being the POTUS" is attractive, not actually "being the POTUS."
BO was sure he is going to create history. And he did create history being the first black prez and all that. But then the actual job sucks. I have no idea how sane people willingly fight for this!
Still its better the illusion remains. Else the top decision makers will be much more worse than what we have now.

Amazon is the worlds best organization for packing and shipping stuff. If they expect the money they can spend will give them an advantage in creating an exciting phone...its called hubris. A smartphone is a piece of jewelry. Its not like a book reader.
Amazon's smartphone breakfast, lunch and dinner will be eaten by companies like Xiaomi http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-07-22/the-latest-slick-cheap-smartphone-from-xiaomi-chinas-rising-mobile-power?google_editors_picks=true. They do only one thing...and they do it well.

Not black holes, nor galaxies, but da chicken came first.

When the current generation who grew up on Star Wars go away, will it remain in public memory like paintings or music, or even cinema? And that too at Chicago, home to excellent museums.
Me thinks there is no permanence to Star Wars. Its already looking dated and silly.
Meanwhile '2012 A Space Odyssey' still feels fresh.