I think I understand your point that it's a bad thing, but I missed your argument as to why Congress would be against funding a bad thing.

Transparency is how you reduce government's murder rate. It's how you reduce a lot of their other evils too.

The first time that an attack takes place in which it turns out that we had a lead and we couldn't follow up on it, the public's going to demand answers.

Public, I already have your answer. You problem is that back around 1789 you moved to America. If you wanted the needs of a police state to come before your freedom, you could have lived pretty much anywhere else. And you still have a lot of options, if you're simply convinced that America is a bad idea.

Why not good old fashioned MP3 which is playable anywhere on anything?

I was going to say, "because not everyone has permission to use MP3," but then I realized I first played an MP3 about 19 years ago. The patents just can't have too much longer to go, assuming they haven't already expired.

Wikipedia says that star is 17-23 light years away. If it passed nearby only 70000 years ago, then that means it must be moving at nearly at about 1/3000 to 1/4000 the speed of light. So, like, about ten times faster than the Space Shuttle or five times faster than V'ger.

Forget ion drives; let's build star-hooks.

I have two children with it, and they're at different points in the spectrum. One is closer to "normal." He doesn't grasp social constructs, but if they are explained, he'll happily follow them. So if you fall down a flight of stairs, he will watch, then say "I'm so sorry, can I go get help?" because we've taught him "That person could be hurt. You should check on them and offer help." The other is further out there. She neither grasps constructs nor cares about them. She would laugh about you falling down the stairs because it looked funny to her. If asked if she thinks it hurts, she would probably say "I don't know, and you should ask her." For the first one, these therapies are HUGELY helpful. If taught carefully the rules of society, he'll follow them to the letter, and be happy doing it. For the second one, these therapies are very moderately helpful in curbing the worst behaviors. So, it depends.

In my country there are zero bears (outside a zoo) and zero bear incidents.

Do the people in your country always stay in your country, or do they sometimes travel abroad? (BTW, you made me google "how often do zoo escapes happen?" and while I didn't really get a useful number, it happens often enough that the event type already has a "ten weirdest.")

I think you have nonzero bear risk. In fact, I just happen to know that you, personally, are going to be killed and eaten by one within the next seven minutes.

(Oh wait, or is that seven iceage cycles? Excuse me, I need to go double-check my units. BRB.)

the lottery ticket often has net value for its worth as entertainment. It's fun thinking about what you'd do if you suddenly had $200M.

Have you ever thought about stealing the lottery's entertainment? I can get your $2 entertainment for $0.

It's not like the daydream police have the resources to check everyone's tickets. The chances they'll pull you over, are a one in 175 million!

People don't gamble for a guaranteed payout of the expected return. If that were the case, casinos would consist only of a teller window where you'd hand in a $100 bill and get $70 in return.

You just described exactly how I see casinos. And perceiving it as just a $70-for-$100 offer is what causes it not be fun, which means that I really do get only $70 for my $100. Other people are getting $70 plus .. something else, but not me.

Scientists tend to have tunnel vision and have made mistakes with global impact in the past.

People have tunnel vision and have made mistakes with global impact in the past.

If you think you can make a case for how this is a thing specific to scientists, or that scientists have an even slightly-above-average tendency to be like that, please make your case. We're listening.

I think scientists have a below average tendency to be like that, so they're less likely than most people, to have tunnel vision and make mistakes with global impact. The reason I think this, is that scientists have a system, however imperfect, for finding and correcting mistakes. And scientists love doing just that, even to their closest peers. Most non-scientists don't have such a system. And then when someone does find a mistake, there are social pressures for hiding the truth. Outside of science, those social pressures are called "being a pal" and are generally encouraged. In science, those social pressures are considered the one and only unforgiveable sin, and are always spoken of as being totally repugnant. (Thus: scientists are more likely to find a mistake, and then are also more likely to try to correct the mistake.)

That's my argument, at least. Perhaps you have a better argument for your counter-intuitive (but perhaps correct!) assertion. Let's hear it.

My understanding is that what you're talking about, is how these services are claiming to work. Trust is still happening, but it's moved from trusting a data service to not provide keys to adversaries, to trusting a code repository (i.e. the user trusts Apple/Google/Microsoft to have not included (or include in an automatic update) a backdoor in the user's OS, which causes your computer to give up keys upon request).

That's a step in the right direction.

And I think people can see the obvious next step from there, which is that it's undesirable to be getting any locally-run code from any of the service providers that you use. (e.g. if you use Apple's storage services then you shouldn't be running Apple code to access it. And same for Google, Microsoft, etc.)

If that worked, then it would work for every "criminal mastermind" ever prosecuted.

"You say I hatched this ingenious plan! But if I were that clever, you never would have caught me!"

Here's a link to one of their articles which shows the contents of a cartridge. Hopefully that'll work?

The nice thing about WordPress is the EAV antipattern. I hope you love shitloads of joins and aliases to the same table over and over and over and over and over again. There's nothing like taking what ought to be a tiny query and having to write an unreadable 3000 character monstrosity, to make non-techies think you are a Database God when they see the resulting strings.

I tell people, "I can teach you SQL" and then they look at my repetitious ".. join foo_metakeys as alias234523 on .." and nope, you ain't teachin' me nothin'.

I swear, all because of one fucking wordpress site I inherited, everyone in my company thinks thinks I can built a working 747 out of paperclips and rubber bands.

Wordpress is one of the most expensive things I have ever seen. I struggle to think of a better believable way to multiply the cost of a project.

Yep. Global warming might be confirmed through repeated observations, but just like the existence of electrons or the existence of gravity, there's always the chance it might some day be falsified.

Alas, the hypothesis has no competition. Things like global-warming-denial and creationism will never, and can never, be falsified. Spread thermometers across every square meter of Earth and taking reading every second for the next hundred years, and in 2115 no matter what the observations are, global-warming-denial will still be just as viable, and the reasons for choosing it will be just as compelling, as today.

Faith manages. Those who underestimate the power of the blue pill, will never understand this.