... I don't like eBooks. There is no problem with APIs, DRM, ravenous megacorps, etc. when lending a paper book to someone. There is no lending fee and the loan event is not recorded.

As eBook development ascends the experience/technology curve (robustness, display quality, etc.), such devices could become a realistic alternative. But all this tethering and associated DRM kill the idea stone dead for me.

While I agree with you, I think you missed the parent poster's joke. Of course, that makes the non-trivial assumption I understand the joke.

Instead of appealing to authority, just read the emails. Then come back and tell me you'd accept that kind of behavior from someone in, say, the medical research field.

Yes, of course there is. But that doesn't change the fact. Just read the emails. The manipulation is obvious. A real scientist would not talk of hiding and deleting data.

Had the exposed emails I read been from scientists working in some other discipline, I think there'd be no doubt cast on the accusations of manipulation. I suspect that the huge political and financial agenda behind the so called global warming movement (political control, taxation and the sale of carbon credits) is whitewashing what any reasonable person can read as blatant manipulation of data.

Forgive me, but perhaps the problem here is not so much the extortionist crap the media distributors, etc. are foisting on people. Perhaps the problem is more that rather than tell them to go to hell, you'd accept it by paying an additional $500 (not to mention the effort you seem to have expended). Is it really that important to watch TV?

... yet I can't help thinking that it's akin to the classic black body. Light hits it and is absorbed. I assume the energy is re-emitted from said anti-laser in the form of heat or some-such.

No doubt there's more to it than this. But TFA isn't clear.

... maybe I can see the point. But for long term reference material or for books I value, there's no way I'm going to use any of the eBooks. Sure, they're portable. But they come with more points of failure that can prevent the contained books from being read. Also, the text isn't (yet) so clear and sharp as ink on paper.

But even were there no technical issues, the DRM makes it a non-starter for me. I've had /.ers beat me up about my opinion on this subject. Still, it doesn't fix the "rub". When the distributors can reach out and remove books remotely (as Amazon has already done), or restrict what one can do with them, or charge for lending, or provide no mechanism to buy anonymously, etc, I'm just not interested.

PS: if you tell me that the distributors promise not to delete books remotely again, you are then telling me that you trust large corporations to keep their word.

Actually not. SS is now entering the phase where more is being drawn than being contributed (somewhat ahead of schedule - http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TRSUM/index.html). Further, there is no surplus - there hasn't been for many years. Federal law prohibits it ( http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/51264.pdf). Any surplus must by law be rolled into the general fund (referred to in the document as "borrowing from the Social Security trust fund"). Given that the federal government is currently in debt to the tune of approximately $14Trillion, there is no actual SS money accumulated anywhere.

The situation is dire. Not only is the debt not being reduced, but the deficit is accelerating. Extra taxes aren't going to cover it (they'll probably make the situation worse). Medicare/Medicaid are in even worse shape - and the prior administration made that worse still by signing into law the Medicare Drug Prescription Act.

Bleak indeed.

Zimbabwean dollars became worth less because a great many more of them were printed (and added to computer databases - which is trivially easy to do), thereby diluting their value. Another way of viewing it is that the intrinsic value of Zimbabwe was divided through more pieces of paper (or database entries). Generally speaking, once it becomes clear that the dilution process is underway, people look to put their worth elsewhere. This can accelerate the process.

By comparison, producing another Troy ounce of gold is extremely difficult. This is a simple statement of fact. Because of this (and its rarity and durability), people tend to move toward gold in times of stress.

I make no such claim - and your assertion is wrong. Commodities that have not benefitted from technological advances in extraction/production have not changed in value much relative to gold. Elsewhere in this thread I posted a graph of the gold/oil ratio over the past few decades. You'll see that the ratio fluctuates around a value of about 15. Compare that to the dollar/oil and/or dollar/gold ratio - especially after the closing of the gold window. This is but one example. You can find others.