I started typing a long, in-depth reply but it's easier to just link to the Wikipedia article as it covers your questions pretty thoroughly.

Chicagoan Arrested For Using Cell-phone Jammer To Make Subway Commute Tolerable For Himself at the Expense of Everyone Around Him

Spot on. Demonstrating that accountability exists when law enforcement agencies and government officials break the law is the only way they can restore public confidence. Right now, their attempts to wrap themselves in the flag while shitting on the Constitution it represents isn't doing them (or us) any good.

My first thought is this has some interesting applications for things like CQB where not everyone in there is going to be the enemy. Like hostage rescue teams.

Apple has stated that anything with an A7 or newer CPU has a unique code embedded in the hardware that is combined with the PIN to serve as the encryption key. Apple doesn't record the hardware key, and they are the only ones that possess the keys for the software used by the secured enclave in which it resides. So without Apple's help, the DOJ would have to first break into the secure enclave, which I presume is so difficult as to be impractical, and only then could they try the brute-force method you described, which would be much easier.

I was part of the conversations.

I was just there a couple weeks ago and everyone was using Didi, and there were several conversations around how it was similar to Uber. Which no one there had heard of. Until I read this I didn't even know Uber operated in China.

I couldn't see where the app you referenced sources its block list, but I believe what I use (pfBlockerNG) is probably better.

I maintain that scalability is a big issue you aren't addressing. It's probably fine and certainly better than nothing for one or two Windows desktops, but what about even a small SOHO network that could contain any combination of desktop, mobile, and server operating systems, not to mention embedded devices that may include ffmpeg, like smart TVs and NAS boxes?

There are just some small scalability issues involved in that process.

Once you put a malformed video file on a system with a vulnerable ffmpeg, and ffmpeg is used to access the file, it makes an outbound connection. Most firewalls are configured to happily pass along anything originated from the inside network.

Ffmpeg is used in some capacity in just about every video application I can think of. VLC, Kodi/XBMC, MythTV, Handbrake, Plex...

It's tangential to the core issue here, but interesting to read. Aliens and ghosts, claims of levitation and healing powers. http://content.time.com/time/w...

There's a difference between privacy and trust, but browsers don't make that clear to the user in a consistent or even useful matter. That said, nothing will ever completely fix a layer 0 issue except education.

Telemedicine is for people who would otherwise lack access to care.

That isn't a problem it is trying to solve. I know no one reads TFA, but it's all laid out in TFS.