Well, the Assange flick (The Fifth Estate) was based on a book from a disgruntled former WikiLeaks guy's book. A book that was mostly a hate fest directed at Assange. What has been announced here is a film based on Glenn Greenwald's journalism, for which he won the Pulitzer this year. Huge difference, I reckon.

Damn you Blizzard! I pay a subscription, you're down again and... oh wait. nm

I've got it!!! We could send some sort of waves out that would be easily picked up by some sort of antenna. We could have stations transmit these waves so there's no gap, and best of all they would cover wide areas as the waves would bounce of the atmosphere. People would only have to buy a receiver set with the antenna and all the programing could be paid for with advertising alone! No more bills! ;p

How Japan Plans To Build Orbital Solar Power Stations?

With giant freakin' robots! Obviously.

There's a thread of rather amusing ignorance about government and corporate interests happening all through here, I had to comment. Well rant really - There's more than a few people saying that corporate interests, either as just a natural outcome of superior innovation or whacking gobs of cash, won out here because that's Capitalism. Others lament that government, in this case the FCC, only exists to serve itself, not The People (which is their mandate), and thus like all government is naturally going to defer to it's nature.

What kind of social Darwinian claptrap is this?

Face it. The truth is the problem is money in government. It's way out of control and that's why the FCC has deferred to corporate interests. Essentially moving to turn the Internet into your cable TV box, or radio frequency spectrum sell offs. Which we here are ALL against. Why? It's the fact that the FCC and the lobbiests for those corporations are THE SAME FUCKING GUYS. The "revolving door" of people who have worked at the FCC then "moved on" to lobby positions at these corporations is wide open. That's the problem. That's why this, ultimately, happened. There has been legislation against this 'revolving door' in the past (I'm sure someone will point that out) but it was just fucking ignored. Lobbiests like this are supposed to refrain for something like a year. Didn't happen. They showed up in Washington the next day. Literally! No one was fined, arrested, or even saw a raised eyebrow.

So please, let's speak of the reality of what's happening at the FCC instead of vomiting bullshit theories about the "nature" of shit. M'k?

Labour unions are parasites? Thanks for the update John Galt.

U.S. tech firms have ideas? Last I saw it was just a lot of - "how can I completely manipulate, patent troll, and keep an iron grip on this market"?

Really, if you think Facebook or Google is somehow a wonderful idea, you don't understand markets. It's also a major reason the US top tech firms are failures, really, and why they have to maintain those markets so no one notices. It's a self destructive cycle.

Let me get this straight...

You're telling me that because one is lucky enough to get a job they should happily accept being forbidden to do things, like drink coffee? There's a word for people like you.

Because the F-35 is, I shit you not, IS, an American plane. That's a fact.

Wow, you just had to completely fuck that up in your head and then post it on one of the most read tech sites in the world. You are just fabulously fucking stupid. There really should be some sort of voting radio button for 'fabulously fucking stupid'. Something so marvelously and completely wrong that it needs to be stickied or pinned or some such thing, just so the rest of the world can see the drop dead idiocy one individual is capable of. Bravo. *golf clap*

Don't worry, all that copyright, trademark,etc. stuff that is such an international headache will be solved with the TPP. Corporations have already sent their bag-men to secure the deal. Men like, oh what's his name, Barry Obama er something.

I'm replying rather late, but I wanted to say thanks for the added history david_thornley.

The US provided materials to Britain well before they entered the war, which is why I mentioned the US. Heck, the US would provide materials secretly too! As a Canadian, it's well known that US materials for planes would be secretly moved over the US border to Canada and then promptly assembled then flown (by famously female pilots) over the Atlantic.

Oh yea, and david_thornley... best .sig ever. lol! :)

Ya know, I'm reminded of the words of one William K. Black (UMKC School of Law), economist and, and the only combination of the two to exist, a criminologist. He was once asked, what is the best way to rob a bank? His answer was; 'be a banker'.

Really, the entire Bitcoin story has been one that was highly suspicious all along. Have you ever read a Bitcoin story that didn't make your left eyebrow raise like Mr. Spock in a room full of illogic? I watched 'The Wolf of Wall Street' recently and thought, *pffft*, soooo dated. I reckon in 20 years someone in Hollywoodland will catch up with reality enough to make a film in that vein about Bitcoin.

Just a comment on the comments... plz 'scuse.

This is interesting history and technology, and I love articles about them both. However, all the posts here seem to be arguing the finer points of whether some difference in technology, such as this plane, would have spurred a different outcome to the Battle of Britain if not the entire war. Well, short answer, no. The simple fact about why Britain, with American help, won the Battle of Britain as well as the war in Europe hinges on one giant fact. Massive manufacturing. They could build more planes in a day than Germany could in a month. Ask any pilot in England at the time about that. They will tell you, though they saw all their planes destroyed one day the very next morning brand new ones would be ready to go. Ask them if they were ever, ever, without a plane and they will tell ya, never. Not once.

Arguing the finer points of technology is always fun, but don't let that muddle your sense of reality or history.

Propaganda works. Sorry.

Point of fact, please pay attention.

Director Clapper did NOT lie under oath at a Congressional hearing. He was never sworn in.

It is common practice *cough* these days *cough* on Capital Hill for high ranking officials to refuse to be sworn in at any hearing. I know, sounds crazy but it happens. Why, you ask? They say it's because, and I shit you not, it would be an insult to their integrity.

I say again, I shit you not.

This is why Clapper is not in contempt of Congress. And that's a fact Jack.