See, thats where it doesn't make sense. They have the infrastructure to make the kinetic energy storage devices and to continue bio engineering, so they should be able to produce solar/wind/hydro/tide power, and did use a limited amount of fossil fuel generated electricity. Even if it wasn't economically viable for the masses, certainly the rich and or gov't would have been able to afford some as a prestige item or for critical purposes. Both solar and wind have major drawbacks, but in a time of such energy scarcity, the draw backs could be lived with.

There were a lot of interesting ideas discussed in the book, but it fails to really explain why things like solar power were not used... at all... not to mention any other form of green energy that is available even today. It seemed a pretty big hole to me.

Actually, I wouldn't worry about the results not getting released. Instead we would get loaded questions designed to influence the results. A skilled pollster could move public opinion pretty far based on how they ask the questions, and there is no way they would be unbiased. "Do you support closing the gun show loophole" vs "Do you support the ban on the sale of guns between private citizens without requiring a gun shop as an intermediary" Same outcome, but will get very different results.

Who needs to come back. We should send a one way craft, there would be countless volunteers even if it was clear that they are never coming home. Once there, you could start working to establish a sustainable off planet colony... Would also make getting there a lot cheaper.

So first I needed to enable javascript for the site. Now it wants me to allow some random website to install a plugin so that it can tell me if my security is up to date... yeah if it can't detect a security vulnerability without me going through a bunch of hoops and ALLOWING it to install on my system, I'm going with the whole thing is BS.

The idea is cool, but I would be really pissed if someone could put ads on my car without my consent. But how else will they rake in the money for the state? (Maybe make it optional and split the ad revenue with the driver?)

You want the data turned over to the government? That is the absolute last thing I would want if google inappropriately collected my wifi activity. The government should supervise the destruction, not be given the data set to do with as they please...

From the google bug tracker: "we (the UI design team) made the choice to purposefully remember incognito zoom levels."

Sounds like the intentionally gutted the security of the incognito mode for the zoom levels... Its one thing if its an oversight, but to do it intentionally reveals a total disregard for the privacy someone using incognito expects.

I use a VISA card and have never had a problem with an online merchant refusing a transaction after I declined to use verified by visa... Of course I only use my card when dealing with major retailers, is there some segment of the market the author is dealing with that is paticularly prone to charge backs or something?