We started off with at least the half hearted assumption that this was the case, then the web and the net went mainstream. Society assumed our paranoia was irrational and silly. It might have been for a bit, but it clearly wasn't in the long run. One of the assumptions we made in the interim and that many folks still make is that, "There aren't enough watchers to watch every one of us" or "They might have access to my e-mail, text and data but they don't have enough people to read each and every one of those things" because we the people society at large, just don't get technology, even those of us who do, Watson super-computing and the Google search algorithm can be applied to you and I our behavior associations and the possibility that we will do something bad in the future... BUT brothers and sisters nevermind that, think for a moment of the possibility that those in charge, or some of them, with access to the spying they might use this access to do something bad, like leak secret e-mails from a popular Governor, that show he closed a bridge, or those who work for him did, as some sort of act of dickery, and so we catch him lying about it, and thus remove the threat of him becoming president... Really... Don't tell me why he is in fact a dick.. he probably is, I could care less, the idea is those with access to the NSA cloud can decide who is in and who is out in terms of eligibility for admission to the public sphere.

You know I hope in the long run we develop some sort of program to deter people from starting nicotine in any form, while also encouraging the lapsed quitter to deflecting his or her relapses to e-cigs or vaping because while I doubt that it's wonderful for your health I can't see how cutting out tar, carbon monoxide and burnt paper can make anything worse for you.

Everyone dies, but I'm saving it for last. Don't smoke do whatever you can to encourage others to not smoke. Really not only are the health consequences devastating the power of the addiction is intense, some of you haven't quit, or haven't gotten fully addicted yet don't believe me. But I'm 47 I've smoked maybe ten years or so in my life, quit several times, have been currently been quit for several years, but I still struggle with it sometimes. I could start tomorrow, hell tonight, and be back at it for however long it took to quit again. Really don't smoke, stop now don't reply with some BS about willpower or choice. Look at the statistics count up the corpses do you imagine that you're really so far superior a being to all those who couldn't quit? Don't take that chance. Quit.

If I wasn't so tired from shoveling snow I would work out some mathematically logical rational for low userid posturing and posing. You know, based on numbers of orders of magnitude lower than the current newest userid, or perhaps one's place in the percentage of total all-time accounts (This would maximize my 115K bragging rights I think.) and then someone else would work up some clever theorem based on who's userids are prime and who has the lowest and highest prime userids and of course the cool 4 digit one's which coincide with memorable years or even the users birth, and it would spiral into something more interesting than /. beta, but about this time they'd make beta go live and ruin the whole thread causing /.ers to launch some insidious DDOS attack which at first only take out /. but would then spiral out of control and trigger some unforeseen double data copying in the NSAs echelon project, thousands of NSA data centres would catch fire and explode, Leading a nuclear winter and the extinction of life on earth. Good thing I shoveled all that snow after all.

I'm a bit paranoid when it comes to this sort of abuse by those in power. If the data is streamed back to "police Hq" then there is a layer of oversight there to reduce the abuse, it's not about whether or not the deputy who decided he didn't like the look of you decides to ignore or delete this information, it requires a larger conspiracy by those who are supposed to responsible and accountable, and those who didn't make some mistake or abuse their power to begin with, so it's not unlike dashcams for policemans hats. Also seeing this article with the XKCD extension that replace Google Glass with Virtual Boy made me smile.

At first I didn't hate it, but then I tried to, and actually did reply to a few comments, and WTF they've broken the discussion system? Also I can't see anyone's userid# damnit, what's the point in having a low six digit userid# if I can't subtly flaunt it? Really... Also hotgrits and natalie portman.

We should also ad an X-do not oppress field to everyone on Earth's birth certificate or equivalent? That way if they don't want to be oppressed, they can just say so, and surely oppressive governments will abide by the rational, peaceful and nicely expressed desire of their citizens to be, or not be oppressed. Right?

Corporations of the giant sort aren't faceless. They are people now didn't you know? Don't discriminate against Bank of America!

As to the existence of an external universe we have only the flawed testimony of our own unreliable perception.

A big part of the problem is that in the USA we have defined "CAR" to be a relatively large, powerful vehicle, which must travel at 60+MPH while potentially trading paint with trucks which are up to sixty-thousand pounds and traveling at the same speed. Add to this a lemming-like, almost suicidal traffic pattern, and you see how it becomes impossible to go out there and travel around your daily ten mile or less errands in a reasonable, lightweight vehicle, which however it was powered would lower the emissions (Both local, and global) immensely. Part of the problem with fixing THAT of course is that we've built an entire country, and interstate highway system around the old model. Now, we're not paying enough to sustain the roads, bridges and infrastructure we have now. So something will have to change in the future.

Most things in nature are chaotic, the tiniest variations and deviations from the purely uniform in the starting conditions can lead to great irregularities in the final state of the system. I hadn't given much though to the matter of the heliopause, but I think a little thought would have lead you to expect it to look like a snowflake, or a raisin, or maybe a supernova, galaxy or nebula, rather than a light bulb, other than the rainbow which was put there by the almighty as a promise to not end the world again by flood most natural phenomena are pretty irregular, aren't they?

I would have you believe it's my heroic abilities and self idealized individual ruggedness that allowed me to survive the first thirty-four years of my life, and then the last two (Voluntarily) with no cell phone, but hey, really it's no big deal. The actually spun before twitter and facebook as well, although I'm not sure it wasn't all cannibals and dinosaurs, asteroid impacts and human sacrifice before /. but my memory of that dim before time is pretty vague.

That post must of been below mine. Am I supposed to read all posts before replying? Now interestingly the wiki article you link to says that the Chicago area encloses parts of 3 different states, Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. While I thought the greater Chicago area may include Gary, Indiana, I didn't know it included any of Wisconsin.

So, to follow up, can a person take public transit to go from Wisconsin to Gary, Indiana? That is other than Greyhound and other national or regional transportation systems? After all your reply was about public transit. And the Greater Houston is also 10,000 sq miles.

Since we're considering metro areas, why don't we expand that to include Megalopolis (city type)? Then Chicago is only a part of the Great Lakes Megalopolis.

Falcon

The Chicago area is 234 sq miles (606.1 km). Jacksonville, FL at 885 sq miles (2,292 km) is the largest city in the 48 contiguous states and is more than twice Chicago's size but still is not nearly as big as 10,000 square miles.

Falcon

I am arguing with your statement that "You can actually back up all your stuff to another machine across the Internet in a reasonable amount of time." As I've said twice, and will again, that statement depends on how "reasonable amount of time" is defined.

Falcon