Apparently, Osama bin Laden was wasting his time working for the wrong organization. He should have sent his résumé to the Federal Reserve.

This rogue agency will destroy billions upon billions of dollars worth of American commerce before its done.

Perhaps we should start some kind of outreach program: "For only $600.00 a day—the price of dinner at an exclusive Manhattan restaurant—you too can bring hope to an exotic supermodel. Please, pick up the phone and make the call."

Something like this needs to be seen and understood by the populace at large. But, you know what? A lot people would look at this and think, "Oh, good! I hate drunk drivers!"

Apparently the police were more interested in trying to detect movement of people []

That would be my concern too, but for the fact that I suspect something else entirely.

I'm going to guess that someone in industry, eager to sell a product, got together with someone at the police department, eager to carve out a brand new, bureaucratic niche for himself; and putting these two together is why the scanners got bought—not for any legitimate police work. The cops in their cars don't really care about the scanners, and neither do their superiors; because catching stolen cars doesn't do as much for revenue generation as does writing tickets for expired registrations, pulling over drunk drivers, or setting up good old-fashioned speed traps.

When hearing deteriorates, the frequencies affected are way beyond the fidelity of what is transmitted over a phone call. I explained where I thought the traditional calls were superior, and I stand by what I said.

When we can trust the Chinese to not use lead in children's toys I think we should take a look at this gallium thing.

So you dump your desperate criminal in a bunch of helpless and confused hostages.

If you have one of these and you're the criminal, you dump the police car pursuing you in a mass of 40 stalled vehicles.

The call quality on both cell phones and IP phones is worse than those on traditional phone lines. IP phones echo and stutter. Cell phones give no aural feedback in the earpiece of the person speaking, which is why everyone is always yelling over their cell phone, and cut out when no one is speaking, which sounds like a dropped call. I think anyone who enjoyed two, three, or more decades in the last century, making phone calls over POTS lines, would agree that we have taken a step back in call quality. Every phone call is like an overseas call from the 1970's. Pulling up the POTS lines would be a mistake.

Bruce Schneier commented on this a while back:

I'm not sure he's thought this through, though. I would be more worried that someone would kill me in order to get the documents released than I would be that someone would kill me to prevent the documents from being released. Any real-world situation involves multiple adversaries, and it's important to keep all of them in mind when designing a security system.

I'm not sure what Snowden's alternative is, but a doomsday switch isn't exactly foolproof.

Was that professor of yours one of your professors in your MBA program, or a professor you had while earning a different degree? Also, if you don't mind me asking, it's not definitively clear to me whether you're agreeing with that professor or not. (I think you are.) Can you state unequivocally?

Finally, if you don't mind, I'm intrigued by this quote from the article:

[MBA programs] teach people that you must be special, and it causes people to close down their feedback loop and not rigorously examine when they are wrong.

I don't get it. Do MBA students have this kind of smoke blown up their asses by their professors or the departments? Did you experience anything like this as an MBA student? What are some of the kinds of things that MBA students are told? Thanks.

I'm setting up a free service. Anyone can contact me with a question about some topic. I'll search all the books in my fairly large and diverse personal library, and if I find something cool on the topic, I'll get back to you with full bibliographic information and read to you a short excerpt from the book. Oh, and, of course, I'll also read to you a very short, but interesting and personalized, advertisement. I apologize that I won't be able to handle the same volume as Google, nor can I promise the same extensive results to your query. What I can promise is a personal touch. Google can't give you that.

What's in it for me? Whatever money I make from advertisements, and enhancement to my personal brand. (I mean, the chicks are going to dig this!) But, as previously noted, the service is completely free to the end user. So, support the honest efforts of an enterprising individual. Lines are open!

When people say "our outcomes are worse," isn't it the case that they're painting with a really broad brush, lumping in the uninsured with the insured? Medicine in the United States is first-rate.

Ancient Greece did this before Rome. In Athens, for example, slaves did all the work. The genesis of Western Culture comes from what the non-slave elite did. On the one hand, they developed theater, sculpture, architecture, philosophy; and on the other hand, they killed Socrates.

I would be happy to accept your $20,000 on behalf of The Human Fund. We are an open source organization providing human contact—via email, telephone, in-person, or through web forums—to individuals like you and companies like yours. If you've read this post, you have already benefited from our service! Your donation will enable us (me, mainly) to spend more time online, providing human contact to others. I eagerly await receipt of your check. Have a blessed day!