"[...] post-9/11 federal spending on homeland security exceeds $790 billion. That's larger than TARP and, when adjusted for inflation, the New Deal." And that is just one random mainstream media source ... but you get the point.

... not completely unrelated and not exactly offtopic, but if we ever land there, I'd like the footage to resemble this: Europa Report.

After a year of monitoring

Yay! It's safe! *phew*

"HSBC faces court threat..." The Guardian, Thursday 23 May 2013.

Unlikely.

I'll just leave this right here:

Holder's confession

Everything Is Rigged

If you have a nom de plume, you can have it in your passport, too. (.de) That guy used quite a few screen names in the past (Kimble, Dr. Kimble, Kimvestor), and as far as I can gather, the Dotcom thing is just that: a screen / pen name.

Ok, I get that, and I also get that none of this is about security, but merely about control and power. What I don't get is why the security theater / homeland security smoke screen is so effective, but that's probably just me and owed to the fact that I've been taught history. History tells us where all of this will lead. As we now by now: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

I can't help but wonder how long until nobody flies, goes to public events, or even leaves their fucking house.

Way to go. Stay home! Shut up! Do not attract attention! When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will.

This is something that really bothers me -- especially when people point out that there were periods in earth's history when CO2 levels were much higher, and temperature levels didn't rise according to the increases in CO2. What they don't seem to understand is that the planet and its climate were completely different systems back then -- today, the forests that used to balance the system just don't exist anymore, and yet, we burn vast amounts of fossil fuels -- the very carbon the system buried in millions of years is released within a few hundred years (in the blink of an eye in geological terms), and we keep removing earth's lungs and mess with dynamic systems that are far from undestood. But some keep saying: nah, can't be us, how could puny humans mess with earth's climate?!

More than 1 billion people don't have access to safe drinking water, and >2.5 billion people lack adequate sanitation. >3000 children die every day from water borne diseases. Go ahead, talk to them about reverse osmosis. Better yet, fund it for them.

Water shortages aren't making headlines

where you live. Just because you are not aware of something does not mean it's not happening. Just saying.

BTW, a drought is something like a water shortage, ain't it?

(same equipment as 2 years ago, I think)

Not quite, according to salon.com, "uncertified, 'experimental' software patches have been installed on machines in 39 counties of the key swing state."

a gold-backed (or silver-backed, etc.) economy ignores several fundamental problems with doing this.

Sure, but your post does not help much as to what they are and how they could be solved. Then again, you seem to suggest to just keep printing new money (which is what is happening globally, cause we're still in a financial crisis, where we will remain, because the system suggests to be held in a 'crisis state', since that increases the interest of those that hold huge values). Without going into too much detail, how bout this: backing your currency with anything but just "let there be money" out of nowhere wouldn't be so bad, would it?

Then again, this doesn't even remotely touch the basic things that are wrong with the global economies and the financial markets, so it's probably a moot point... .

citation needed. should probably read "among the most stringent".

Without followers, evil cannot spread. -- Spock, "And The Children Shall Lead", stardate 5029.5

Discuss. :)

I wonder about that, too, but it looking at this, it seems that watching ocean temperatures might help clear things up, despite of the underlying mechanisms seeming way too complicated for even advanced science and models to predict / assess.

Ninety-three percent of the heat trapped by increasing greenhouse gases goes into warming the ocean, not the atmosphere. So taking the ocean's temperature is the most comprehensive way to monitor global warming.

um, well, yeah. Then again... "intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world's communications" is ok just as long as it does not affect US citizens? That seems to be the main concern round here. Of course YOUR CIVIL LIBERTIES come first, but the fact that for YOUR GOV't (and apparently a large part of /.ers) the rest of the world is fair game does not matter much, does it? The populace might not scream, but the rest of the world already does, cause from outside the US is even more ugly that from within ... . sorry for the rant, but some of the comments here... ugh... .