Barring any "patent continuation" shenanigans, any patents covering its technology should have expired two years ago at the latest.

Someone wanted their snake oil and patent medicines back.

So I don't know which password to change

All of them. At least twice. And then nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

The problem with this is that the naive folks who bought cryptocurrency on its run up, mortgaging their homes and running up their credit cards, aren't going to be in the market that way a second time.

You just wait for the next generation of naive folks. There's a sucker born every minute ...

Stuff between galaxies that is a) accelerating the expansion of the universe and b) through its negative gravity, compressing galaxies so it looks like they have extra mass?

Dark matter is considered to be "invisible" mass that makes galaxies behave the way they do by its gravitational effects. But the dark fluid stuff could be sitting between galaxies, and "push"/compress them via negative gravitation?

We shuffle the CVs, split the pile on two, and throw away half - they were the unlucky ones!

This is a way for reducing the number of possible candidates that is unbiased. There are worse methods ... like HR criteria that are actually biased against competent candidates.

The thing is, if you really want to make a long-term self sufficient outpost on Mars (or another planet), you will need to think big.

"Big enough". You will need to figure out what exactly to ship to Mars in what order to creat a settlement that can expand on its own with a minimum of regular supply flights from Earth.

This may include some technologies that are not available yet. I would put a universal, configurable chemical synthesis apparatus (capable of synthesizing decent-sized quantities of complex molecules from simple precursor substances) and fusion power fairly high on the list.

Heat: Antarctica lowest: Ã'89.2 ÃC Mars lowest: Ã'153 ÃC

Compared to Antarctice, Mars does not have any atmosphere to speak of. Compared to Antarctica, heat losses by convection will therefore be tiny. Also unlike Antarctica, you won't have people opening doors to go outside all that often.

Power isn't free either, you need a whole bunch of equipment with a limited lifespan in a very harsh environment (see above) producing an AWFUL lot of power just to keep the temperature up and the lights on.

The equipment generating all this power will be *inside*, where the environment isn't harsh enough to kill people. Getting the equipment and the supplies there is a matter of those supply flights I mentioned. Those are an issue, not the generation of power itself.

Water: Collect it from where?

Mars. Heck, if you really can't manage to get it from the frozen sources near the surface there, or find it deeper underground, you could condense it out of the atmosphere.

And that food doesn't grow out of nothing. It requires energy. From the soil, fertilizers, the sunlight, etc.

Again, we have arrived at the two real problems I have mentioned - regular supply flights of sufficient capacity, and how to set up a production infrastructure to reduce the dependency on those supply flights eventually, preferably to zero.

Small groups may be able to survive for limited amounts of time presuming they have a reliable supply of very expensive and heavy equipment coming from Earth all the time.

The point of having a small group there and sending all the expensive and heavy equipment there should eventually be to reduce the need for sending all those things there from Earth. That is the real challenge. What is the minimum amount of stuff you need to send to achieve self-sufficience, what exactly do you need to send, how do you get it to survive the trip, and what as-of-yet unavailable technology do you need? (I would assume that a near-universal chemical synthesizer that can build custom molecules in appreciable quantities from simple precursors is very high on the list, so you don't have to wait half a year for that aspirin, fertilizer, glue or lubricant).

The "North" pole is paradise compared to Mars.

Mars has two big advantages: Far fewer people than the North Pole. Second, Mars kills stupid people much more quickly than the North Pole.

It's not reasonable because it's so cold. And there is hardly any water. There's absolutely no food, and the big thing, I just remind these guys, there's nothing to breathe.
Cold? Well, you are going to generate power somehow, and most methods generate plenty of heat as a by-product.
Hardly any water? Well, collect some and keep reusing it. Sounds icky? Well, here on Earth we're doing the same thing, except that the water here has been recycled and reused for millions of years. That's even more icky than anything you'll find on Mars.
Absolutely no food? We've just talked about power, heat and water. If you have those three, you can make/grow food.
Nothing to breathe? There's CO2. There are plants (for growing food, see above). Why shouldn't there be oxygen?

Seriously. Dismissing life on Mars and then talking about the things that are among the easiest? What about radiation, (temporary) dependence on supply flighty that take half a year to arrive, or how to build a production infrastructure (so you can build enough domes that taking a walk won't involve donning a space suit)?

> we will have AI and self-driving cars.
Fusion-powered flying cars, please.

The chapter ended with a simple, and straight-forward comment to the effect of: nothing is better than simply placing a small pebble in one of your shoes.

... if you're trying to figure out if someone is following you, look at their shoes. Your shadow might be able to change clothing, headwear, glasses, gait, etc. fairly easily, but few people carry an extra pair of shoes.

The chapter ended with a simple, and straight-forward comment to the effect of: nothing is better than simply placing a small pebble in one of your shoes.

shoes. Your shadow might be able to change clothing, headwear, glasses, gait, etc. fairly easily, but few people carry an extra pair of shoes.

... when applied to other peoples expensive Apple gadgets.

Considering Kepler found 2600 exoplanets (maybe a few more will be found in exising data) by looking a small sliver of the sky, more advanced telescopes looking at different parts of the sky will certainly yield even more worthwhile discoveries.