meta-monkey:
... Serve jury duty ...
I do, but always get removed in voire dire due to being "too educated." Neither side usually likes PhDs, MBAs, MDs, or JDs serving in juries. Too much potential surprise factor.
gstoddart:
... the surveillance state has gone way beyond what it should and is undermining everything.
Precisely.
Several foreign governments have outlawed purchase of US-designed, computer-related devices.
Several are also looking into creating their "own" internet system that is air-gapped from "the" internet.
Go NSA! Good job destroying your own country's economy!
sjbe: Explain to me how some leftover vials of a pathogen from decades ago has any relevance...
(1) Labels fall off of vials after a decade or two.
(2) Viruses are not alive, and can remain viable indefinitely.
(3) A pathogen (e.g., influenza) from decades ago can cause another pandemic if released. No one alive will have immunity, which is built up on a per-organism basis, not genetically.
sjbe: In all likelihood, nothing. The CDC handles copies of pretty much every known pathogen on the planet.
Did you read the news about two weeks ago? Smallpox has for decades been extinct, save for two frozen samples in US and Russia.
Oops! Someone cleaning out an old CDC-employee desk found vials of that and other pathogens that had been sitting there for decades.
It's known that plant seeds and bacteria can persist in viable form for millennia. Viruses, not being "alive," probably far longer.
I'm not attacking the CDC. Just you. Don't claim expertise unless you have it.
After Goliath's defeat, giants ceased to command respect. - Freeman Dyson