- an administrator mode is accessible from the customer interface? And if they really insisted on doing that, they don't even require some kind of special admin credit card or key to be inserted? What moron designed that?

Dunning-Kruger strikes again.

17.5? Why not 15? Or 30? Cherry pick much?

No need for all of it to be, increasing ocean volume is enough, the comments you are responding to are the explanation of why sea level does not rise the same worldwide. Your failure to notice that does not bode well for your powers of comprehension.

Since the melting Greenland ice is mostly above ground, the melt causes the mass of Greenland to reduce. This reduced mass produces less gravitational effect on the surrounding ocean. Consequently, as Greenland ice melts, the sea level nearest the Greenland melt will actually drop, even as more volume is added to the ocean from this particular melt. It is basic physics, and contributions to sea level from various reducing ice masses can and has been estimated. Europe actually is at somewhat less risk of sea level rise from such gravitational changes than the South pacific or the US east coast. That is why Florida is at increased risk, while Italy, not so much.

The continents exert gravitational effects on the ocean that affects sea level. And this can change over time if the continent contains significant ice that is melting away. The melt of Greenland for example, is expected to actually DROP sea level nearer to Greenland, even as the melt increases ocean volume. This is because gravitational effect is lessened when the body's mass decreases (the body here being Greenland). This is basic physics. Increased ocean mass due to glacier melt will have a disproportionate effect in areas where change in gravitational and/or temperature or current effects are less, such as in the south pacific. Also, ocean temperature is not static, warm water moves around due to currents and the related temperature expansion of the water volume does too. But keep pretending the ocean is just a big bathtub, it's certainly appropriate to the level of your ignorance in the matter.

That's because the earth is not a bathtub. Current, gravity, rotation, temperature, etc., all have effects in sea level. The moon isn't the only force that affects sea level.

Don't forget gravitational and rotational effects.

Sea level is not constant or consistent across the SAME body of water. This is due to gravitational, rotational and current effects. Virtually all of the islands in the south pacific AND the north and west of Australia has been experiencing significant sea level rise. To suggest they're all simply sinking is completely ignorant of the facts. And note that some are ALSO sinking as well, it's not mutually exclusive.

Yeah, and every other politician too. And most of the mainstream media. Or maybe the latter is merely incompetent...

So does that mean if I make a statement like, "the NSA is perfectly competent to protect us from terrorism," that they will take it as a complement?

We've been over this. Binney followed the process. Drake followed the process. Wiebe followed the process. They were persecuted for their trouble. Snowden knew this and knew better. He did EXACTLY the right thing given the circumstances. Tyranny always comes waving the flag.

Time to fill up your facebook profile photos with thousands of bogus images.

They're worried that at the next incident they'll get blamed and then dismantled because they failed to prevent it. The solution-- throw even more technology and data collection at the problem-- technology and enough data can fix anything, don't you know?. And then when they get called up to testify before Congress why they weren't able to prevent it, it won't be because they didn't collect the right data. Of course, it'll be because they had so much data they couldn't make useful sense of it, but that's another story (technology can fix that too, can't it?).

I absolutely agree Grace Hopper needs a good documentary. But $45,000? that won't even pay for the trailer...