It's funny, because Hulk/Banner is one of the deepest, most complex characters in all of comic books.

I've completely switched over to NetVibes, but I'm not happy about it. The Netvibes web page is slow to load and has buggy UI on every browser I've tried, especially on mobile platforms. But it does what I want it to do, which is give me my RSS feeds synched on several different devices, and it allows me to permanently save some articles.

TheOldReader probably has better UI -- because it's simpler -- but I don't believe it has the 'save' functionality that I need. Feedly is just god awful for what I need. Bloglines is NetVibes -- literally, it's a front-end for the same service. I don't know of any others that have what I want, but if I find one I'm ready to switch again in a heartbeat.

It's because of this, because of the timing, and because of the latest news reports that some of the information 'leaked' was faulty, that I suspect Snowden may be a Chinese asset. He may not realize it -- his Chinese handlers may be manipulating him in any number of ways -- but it really looks like he's a stooge who has been directed to do the maximum damage possible.

Whether the NSA deserves the damage done to them or not is a separate issue.

Beyond the legal benefits of hiring contractors, there are also budget considerations. An agency might have only a small amount of their budget allocated to staffing, but they can spread the larger share allocated to contracting, and thereby get the contractor's work force. Often it's cheaper to hire a contractor than to get a federal employee.

It all goes back to Congress being unable to set a budget. When budgets get tight, essential positions get contracted out to people who may not deserve them. You get what you pay for, even -- especially -- in government.

No, no it's not. That's the *point*. The law has been twisted and re-interpreted so that the activities that Congress intended to stop are now allowable. PRISM only collects metadata and launders intelligence through foreign services. That slips through a loophole, so that no laws are being broken.

That's why Snowden (indeed, any leaker anywhere) is not protected by the Whistleblowers' act, that's why he will go to jail and that's why NSA surveillance will continue: Because the law is insufficient to stop those who operate without transparency. No matter what law you create, agencies who operate without scrutiny will find a way around the law. There is no oversight to tell them when they've gone too far.

A system of laws require enforcement, which requires oversight and accountability. Take any of those legs away and the whole system collapses into a totalitarian mess. We are way too late to prevent this. The most important question of the 21st century may be, 'How will mankind prosper under Big Brother?'

They don't need to know where the data comes from in order to share it with the NSA. This is how the NSA spies on American citizens, by laundering the data through foreign agencies. The foreign agencies don't have to know or care where the data comes from. In return they're probably sharing data with the NSA in the same way, to spy on citizens in their own country.

Of course the NSA doesn't spy on American citizens. That's against the law.

What they do is allow friendly foreign agents -- like the UK -- to spy on American citizens, and then they share the data together. It's totally different and completely legal.

Steam doesn't have a microphone or camera that's always on. Even if I have them connected to my system, I can turn them off or disconnect them and Steam won't care.

The fact that Xbox One won't work without the Kinect system is suspicious. There's no reason for that kind of design unless surveillance is one of the top priorities of the device.

My dad was a big dreamer, and he saw lots of potential in early arcade games. We had a Pong game in our house in 1979, because my dad thought he could rent it out. Eventually he offered to buy me a game system to get me off the Pong game, and I asked for an Atari 400, mostly because I thought it was better than the 2600, so I could lord it over my friends. My friends weren't impressed because of the smaller game catalog, but I nearly melted that chiclet keyboard as I taught myself to program in BASIC with it. By age 13 I had designed my own version of Breakout (better than Pong, because I could play it by myself) and was working on adventure games.

Buy a kid a computer with any programming language, and they will learn it.

I honestly don't know. I don't know if a taggant added to printer plastic would affect its use or durability. But since 3D printer plastic is sold in lots that can be used in multiple printers, all a taggant would do is tell the cops from which online store the plastic was purchased. That's a lot less specific than rifling marks, which can track down a certain make/model of gun, or the specific weapon used.

We had an ice storm in South Dakota that knocked out power for five days. I spent the first day huddling in sweaters and reading by candelight. After one cold night (17 F outside; about 45 F indoors) I hustled myself to a hotel. I might have stayed longer, but more ice was coming and I was worried about being stuck in a cold home.

I had plenty of food, including canned food that I could live on for weeks. I missed the internet (my UPS box provided 30 minutes of power; I conserved that), but I could live without connectivity. I had lots of batteries for flashlights and the weather radio. The limiting factor was the cold. If I had a generator to run my furnace, or a wood-burning stove, then I could have lasted until my fuel ran out. Without heat I lasted just over one day.

It's not worth it to me to be a survivalist; I live alone, with nobody who relies on me, and I like to pretend that civilization will endure. But I'm seriously thinking about getting a backup heat generator of some sort, just in case.

It takes some knowledge of metalworking and gunsmithing to make your own traditional gun. For a 3D printer all it takes is an internet connection. The authorities aren't worried about one or two crazy gunsmiths; they're worried about 1,000 disgruntled Joe Schmoes who just bought a 3D printer at Staples.

There are only a few different types of plastic available for 3D printers. Knowing that a bullet was fired out of a gun made with ABS won't help if /all/ the 3D printed guns use ABS plastic.

The reason a 3D printed gun is a big deal is because it cannot be tracked. Normal weapons made for consumers and the military have unique tracking characteristics such as the number of rifle ridges in the barrel, the position of the firing pin, etc. These signatures can be used by law enforcement to track down the type of weapon used in a crime -- if not the exact brand and model, then at least the approximate style and manufacture of the gun. The forensic marks on a bullet can be compared to rounds fired out of an individual weapon to prove whether that weapon was used to commit a crime in question.

Now we're entering a world where anybody can create a gun in secret with no identifying marks and then melt it down after use. Law enforcement authorities are justifiably freaking out over this. But nobody said that the police had a right to have easy jobs...

For a SFW (and non-Tumblr) example, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nVjxIKgaGc .

Nopony breaks a Pinkie promise. Or else.