Not only are USA jobs not secure, the tech head-hunters routinely inflate job requirements in order to fill IT positions with cheaper foreign workers. Compound this with new vetting processes dealing with security background checks, especially directed by the government, and there is a (surprise, surprise) shortage of skilled IT workers.

The only IT jobs available in my 'stomping grounds' have switched to requiring a TS security clearance, which can take up to 18 months and cost the equivalent of 2 years salary. Many employers are disinclined to hire new talent for a year or more before placing them into the IT slots that require a security clearance. At first, many of those jobs were taken by exiting veterans with preexisting security clearances. But after new stop-loss programs and recycling veterans through multiple overseas tours of duty, many of the unscathed survivors can make far more money working as military mercenaries through defense contractors.

Then there is the DHS largely unadvertised policy of black-balling people that arouse the ire of the Powers That Be. That is what happened to me. I made the mistake of publicly challenging the official fairy tale about the events leading up to and subsequent to the terror attack of 9/11/2001 by way of Letters To The Editor at the Washington Post. None of my letters were posted, but the PTB black-balled me from employment, basically anywhere.

That IBM would reject Cloud storage is totally understandable, or at least I understand it. The most sensitive information My Company would want to preserve from prying eyes is stored on Hollerith Cards pre-positioned in RFIDed burn bags. Everything else is stored on an internal fiber optic ring network on a robust ftp server running patched Novell 4.0.1. & Unix Services. Try to match that for a category of ancient information security (and no, cuneiform-engraved-into-beeswax-on-stone doesn't count).

Now, you young whippersnapper, get off my lawn ...

Direct cylinder injection of small quantities of water would alleviate both pre-ignition detonation and excessive combustion chamber heat, but would complicate engine design (a second injector per cylinder, plus plumbing & computer controls) and drive up manufacturing costs substantially. While bringing higher engine efficiency would be beneficial to consumers, it would negatively impact the fiscal bottom line of USA's petroleum industry. Who do you think the USA government favors more, lower costs to consumers or greater profits to energy companies?

Apparently, you're not a vehicle racing enthusiast. Otherwise, you would know that the highest performance racing engines use alcohol (methanol) as fuel, not gasoline. Methanol requires a rather extensive re-engineering of the entire fuel system, since it is destructive to many of the plastic & rubber components there unlike the usual 10% ethanol found in today's gasoline blends. A widespread consumer switch to methanol-powered vehicles would be anathema to the petroleum industry, since all the methanol required to power all USA vehicles could be produced from the cellulose from domestic plant materials such as sawdust.

In the USA there is no political will to overthrow crony corporate petroleum interests in favor of new energy start-ups that could offer the USA real energy independence, even when the huge costs of overseas military adventures required to secure foreign energy sources are factored in. Some of the biggest chunks of corporate welfare are hidden from taxpayers in plain sight.

Well, not so much the EPA as petroleum chemistry itself. More gasoline can be extracted from crude oil than an equivalent amount of diesel fuel, since hydrogenation is used to create more ingredients for gasoline blends that aren't suitable for diesel fuel. Fewer gallons of fuel derived from a given barrel of oil by economic necessity demands a higher cost. And without any surprise, the energy density of gasoline is lower than that of diesel, even before ethanol is blended into gasoline. Ethanol is an oxygen donor suitable for reducing emissions, not an additive designed to improve mileage.

This sounds like a near-perfect solution for my ideal, a serial diesel-electric hybrid vehicle whose diesel engine is only used to run a generator to recharge the batteries. Diesel engines designed to run only at a fixed RPM can be far more fuel efficient than any gasoline engine. These should have already been made available in the USA marketplace, particularly ones whose batteries can also optionally be charged via household mains power or a bank of photovoltaic panels. I'm still waiting for USA vehicle manufacturers to catch up with available technologies, which never seems to happen without outside coercion.
     

The USA's vehicle emissions and crash standards appear to be designed to protect crony corporate interests rather than either the environment or passenger safety. USA consumers are constrained from purchasing many foreign vehicles that would more closely match their demand for fuel-efficient vehicles, to the fiscal benefit of the USA automotive industry AND the USA energy companies. The GW Bush regime delayed the USA introduction of low sulphur diesel fuels long enough for enhanced emissions standards to kick in, and largely kill off the early popularity of VW's TDI technology.

A veritable flood of highly fuel efficient vehicles based upon TDI type technology would have done far more to lower aggregate vehicle emissions than the tightening of emissions standards itself accomplished. Improvements in USA driver & passenger safety to a certain extent could be accomplished by an influx of vehicles equipped with anti-lock braking & stability control replacing older vehicles. There are already different USA fuel & emission standards applied to distinct weight & usage classes of vehicles, and vehicle curb weight impacts both fuel economy and safety standards.

The political will necessary to legislate the entry of light-weight very fuel efficient vehicles in order to let consumers themselves decide via the capitalist marketplace is needed. USA vehicle manufacturers have no particular compulsion to adopt such expensive new technologies as this diesel-like timed direct injection gasoline engine would appear to promise, regardless of the level of government incentives offered. But the USA is no longer a free market of capitalism, and most legislation & regulation is designed to meet the needs of crony corporate special interests, not the needs of the majority of citizens. What happened to the electric car, and whatever happened to transportation based upon hydrogen fueled vehicles?

Government subsidies for ethanol additives to gasoline have drastically driven up consumer food prices, while falling far short of the promises made for vehicle emissions since fuel mileage drops with the percentage of alcohol added. It could not be otherwise, since fuel energy density drops correspondingly. Ethanol-enriched fuels, over all, has been a disaster for USA consumers. OTOH, Corporate socialism is doing rather well, since it is predicated upon "privatized profit and socialized risk". "I'm the government, and I'm here to help you" is a simile apropos to corporate rather than citizen benefit.

Both main USA political parties seem to be very well politicians with all the traits of Tyrannical Authoritarian Kleptocrats. Look at who keeps "cheer-leading" for more wars overseas, and then look at who keeps legislating for a more repressive "national security" surveillance police state on the brink of martial law domestically ---- both parties are well-represented in those TAK categories.

Disclaimer: I am all for more personal rights and liberties, rather than bigger government holding all the liberties to all our rights, so that would put me in a small minority of either political party, at least as far as representative among those in elective office.

The USA's Department of Defense used to be called the War Department, but that was before the passage of the National Security Act of 1947 that created the CIA and NSA -- you know, before George Orwell's 'NewSpeak' took over and continuous serial perpetual warfare became the new normal.

Which came first, perpetual wars against enumerable shadowy enemies OR the intelligence agencies that 'discover' such 'threats' AND the military industrial complex? The answer can be easily resolved by answering the question, "Who benefits?".

The USA and UK are 'country cousins separated by a common language' bound into sovereign debt slavery by the same masters, the crony corporate socialist military industrial complex jobs-preservation agenda, private for-profit central bankster-vampires that feed off of sovereign debt, and the globalist new world order new Roman Empire 'axis-of-evil'. EMP weapons, Al Qaeda 'Air Force' threat to the Olympics, Iranian 'loose nukes', M-80 equivalent underwear bombers, and disgruntled 'returning veterans' that support the Constitution & Ron Paul are all part of the 'War OF Terror' political theatre. All are designed by our kleptocratic masters to attempt to maintain the unsustainable economic order based upon the petrodollar, fiat fractional reserve banking, and neo-colonial perpetual warfare, all while reducing the productive Middle Class into neo-feudal serfs.

I would dispute that the rest of the world 'lives in peace'. Rather, much of the rest of the world that is in conflict where NATO is not involved is still struggling with addressing previous generations of colonial empire. NATO-involved conflicts and pending conflicts are driven by neo-colonial aspirations revolving about nearly obsolete petroleum-based crony corporate interests. The memes of 'divide & conquer', 'order out of chaos', and perpetual warfare are shared by both traditional colonialism and neo-colonialism. George Orwell's "1984" was not so much a dystopian political novel as much as a blueprint for the ascension to world domination by the tyrannical technocratic authoritarians, the international bankster cabal.

"War is peace." "Freedom is slavery." "Ignorance is strength." "Those that control the present control the past, and those that control the past will control the future." "Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia (or was that Eurasia?)." The class hierarchy can only be maintained by organizing society around resistance to an external threat, while the expenditure on military is designed to remove excessive manufacturing capacity from benefitting the masses. "If you want to know the future, imagine a jack-boot stomping a human face, forever." You must learn to not only obey but also to love Big Brother, lest you be dragged away to Room 101. Thought crimes will be more severely punished than real crimes, especially economic crimes waged against the 'proles'. Doesn't this all have the ring of relevance, and truth?

Let's presume that building an advanced technology starship is the ultimate goal, and we don't have that technology yet. Let's also presume that no one will repeal the laws of gravity any time soon. The prerequisites to starship construction wouldn't rely upon technology that is currently out of reach. The premise is that building and launching any starship from a low gravity environment is far preferable to launching it from Earth. The first of those "baby steps" towards building starships is developing the technology to perform robotic asteroid mining. Low orbit robotic refining, smelting, and construction would be the next step.

Rather than building a space station / shipyard in Low Earth Orbit, build it closer to the asteroid source of the materials in Low Mars Orbit. That location also puts mankind closer to the water & carbon-based fuel resources we already know exist on the moons of Mars and Saturn. Even supposing that it takes 30 years to get that combined space station & dockyard built, it doesn't preclude parallel scientific discovery of technologies that would make realist travel between the stars possible. But it would give humanity the infrastructure necessary to build such starships, even if we don't know what those technologies will be or what the starship design would ultimately look like. We already have a good idea of what a LEO / LMO space station / dockyard would look like if it is to be human habitable -- a vast spinning wheel, with spaceship docking and construction "dry-dock" near the hub.

The construction of Moon bases and Mars bases for human habitation would go more quickly with a space-based source of materials, rather than fighting Earth's gravity like we are doing now. Extraterrestrial sources of necessary raw materials would break any reliance upon Moon or Mars based resources such as water and carbon-based fuels for anything other than short-term emergency measures would be a good thing. Governments waste far too much money on useless military junk that predisposes those governments to view every problem as a raised nail when their only tool is a hammer. Not surprisingly, most of the USA's Military Industrial Complex has also been involved in space exploration. The money is there for such a vast & bold enterprise -- it's only a matter of political will to refocus our efforts & monies on space exploration & construction rather than destruction.

Let's get it done ... beginning tomorrow morning.

Fear-mongering for fun & profit seems to be the new & improved USA business model, especially for governments at every level. Afraid of terrorists? Obviously, they are everywhere, and can strike at any time. Be afraid. Surrender all your rights & liberties, and (especially) your money to the government. The "war on terror" will save you, even from yourself. The DHS has spent over $1 Trillion fighting "terrorism" since its' founding. Is life without any risks whatsoever really living? And can one even prove that the benefit outweighs the cost, when success is only proven with a negative result? And the only positive results, aka real terrorism, for the past 25 years have been government promulgated?

The "war on terror" is a black hole the USA throws money into, without actually making anyone safer. In fact, just the opposite is the case. Vastly increased sovereign debt threatens those very government programs & infrastructure that do help to keep us safe, healthy, and happy. Our infrastructure, like bridges, public health system, national power grid, water purification plants all suffer from competition with the "war on terror". OMG, man-made carbon dioxide is threatening us with global warming -- quick, let's ship all our industries overseas. OMG, there are religious fundamentalists half a world away that hate us for our freedoms -- quick, let's spend $4.5 Trillion in 10 years on perpetual warfare against these people. Surely they will not hate us any more if we drop money-bombs on them along with bloody expensive military ordinance, including their wedding parties and funerals. OMG, someone smuggled the equivalent of an M-80 firecracker in their pants onto a USA-bound plane -- quick, let's spend $250 Billion on terahertz-wave body scanners and place them everywhere, not just airports. Before we surrender more of our individual rights & liberties or more blood & treasure, let's get the answer to "Who benefits, and why?"

The truth is, if you feel personally at risk of bodily harm due to acts of terrorism, go out and buy even 1 lottery ticket because the odds against you winning are only 1 in 175 Million, while an act of terrorism (a real act of terrorism not fabricated by government) is closer to 1 in 1,000 Million. Feeling "lucky" -- buy that lottery ticket. Ignore things like auto accidents with uninsured drunken drivers, or getting struck by lightening four weekends in a row when you go play golf.

Industrial Control Systems have no business with internet access to operational processes, rather than merely an alarm or data monitoring channel, in any case.

It is one thing to bleat in the press about global warming, which is happening to every planet in the solar system, and another thing to blame global warming only on mankind. Let's ignore the one factor that makes the most sense for every every planet in our solar system, changes in the Sun. Let's cripple all of the economies of the developed world, and send our wealth to the international banksters as penance for not being "carbon-neutral". It's not as if the international banksters, or Al Gore, don't have enough of our money already.

I suppose that all of those robotic probes that mankind has landed throughout the solar system are generating so much CO2 from their internal combustion engines that we are causing the global warming of these other planets (besides Earth). It just could not be cyclical changes in the Sun, or the impending arrival of an exo-planet with enough mass to cause tectonic plate shifts and resistance to rotation of the Earth's molten core, could it?

Focusing on CO2 levels, instead of radiation from nuclear power plant failures, use of depleted uranium for warfare, deadly chemicals in our air, soil, & water, and genetic franken-foods aren't the bigger threats is really, really short-sighted & misdirected.

Not the BSOD.
If the OP had used open source "tripwire" on known-good files in each filesystem on his Macbook, and saved the resultant data output to a USB thumbdrive formatted with FAT32, the OP would have had a good chance of determining all corrupted files. In this case, an ounce of prevention would have prevented several pounds of "cure".

Check out http://tripwire.org./

London is the very last place I would want to be this summer. False flag terror attacks are used by every government to create an external threat that justifies consolidation of police state powers, especially democracies. The USA has had our false flag attacks, beginning with the USS Maine in Havana Harbor through to 9/11. The British have been somewhat less prolific in their false flag terror attacks, but they are trending toward more as the drumbeats for war with Iran beat louder, just like their 5/11 (?) metro transit attack.

One thing about SA missiles in London -- there's always a chance for an errant missile to strike the City of London (where the real global terrorists are located) rather than kill some videographer with more ambition than common sense in a plane over the Olympics.

The way things are going now in the USA, I'm not certain the USA's Big Brother nanny state would let me leave the USA, or once gone let me return, or while gone strip me of my citizenship and put me on a drone "hit list". The German Nazis lost World War 2, but found a new home for their best National Socialists (fascists) thanks to Operation Paperclip right here in the USA.