Even better, the pentagon/military already funds their own basic research, that's what DARPA is all about -- the NSF is supposed to be separate for NON MILITARY purposes. So now everything is all about supporting the Military Industrial Complex.

The above title represents the ONLY question to be answered by groundbreaking science that will be funded by the NSF from this point on (unless of course it involves new ways to blow stuff up).

So title every grant proposal with "Life The Universe, Everything" and genius politicians will grant you funds to pursue your "science". It's not like they ever actually READ those proposals, just the title, so go ahead and investigate beetle dung like you always have, just be ready to prove how it relates to everything.

I saw that lecture by the lawyer and cop also. The trick that you describe is that the cop & suspect walk into an interrogation room, he starts pulls out a tape recorder and starts doing paperwork. The silence and nonchalance

Of course aliens are coming HERE!
We're cheap labor!
Now, take off those huffman lenses and obey.

And not fanboys?

(For reference, I remember being an actual Apple Developer, and receiving the monthly CDROMs with amusing titles)

So when two planes slam into each other on the runway because there weren't enough traffic controllers, can we FINALLY charge the entire Congress, both democrat and republican with TERRORISM???

Because their inability to work together killed those people as surely as if there had been someone on board with a bomb.

Why do I have to take my shoes off at an airport, but, some congressional wanker with an axe to grind because the president is black cripples safety protocols for all Americans, yet, they won't cut a dime from that white elephant costing trillions, the F-35 joint strike fighter. Oy.

Wait, you mean the NRA's "give everyone a gun" idea is not a good idea? Who woulda thunk that?

So, let me get this straight... Just because I feel like I'm living is bizarro world, where left is right, up is down and evil is good.

If this were to be signed into law, there would be more legal restrictions regarding what you can post on the internet than restrictions regarding background checks, how many bullets you can spray across a crowd per second, and how many pieces of high-end military hardware you can own... fur duck huntin'.

But buying a car requires a credit check at least, buying a ton of fertilizer requires a license and forms to be filled out, and I still can't get on a plane without taking off my shoes or getting groped and naked-scanned.

Seriously, WTF????

"Don't you worry, never fear, robin hood will soon be here!"
"Well, where is he?"

Every damn week, there's another article here on Slashdot about some revolutionary energy tech, and every week it gets forgotten about, and in the meantime we can't even get our country to agree to build a pebble bed reactor to make electricity from all the nuclear waste we're currently throwing into the ocean.

I'll believe this advancement (like the super efficient or the super cheap solar cells), when it's available to the consumer. Because if it's that revolutionary, someone will want to get rich off it. But right now, I still can't afford to cover my roof with solar cells.

So... Steve Forbes doesn't believe in the stock market either? I mean, you can't make money that way, it's too volatile! When it crashes, it takes trillions in wealth and just EVAPORATES!!!

OMG. Forbes might actually have to work for a living!!! Seriously, has this guy ever even wiped his own mouth with a napkin or does he always pay someone else to do it?

Therefore, Gold is too volatile to be money... Sorry all those gold speculators. (and for those of you who do want to get technical, Gold is a commodity, not money, but in almost every corner of the globe gold can be used to buy stuff, so therefore it can be used as money, although again, technically, that's barter.)

I mean yes, if you want to get very technical, "money" is a bartering system put in place by a government, who guarantees that these debt slips can be traded for goods and services. And since bitcoin isn't backed by a government, then yes, it's not money.

It sounds to me like you have poor information regarding what took place before the 2008 crash. Banks were taking the bad mortgages, packaging them into complex financial instruments that were impossible to understand, and then selling them to their clients as AAA+ rated securities (paying off Morningstar to even rate them as such), and then privately betting against these securities because they knew they were junk. What part of FRAUD do you not understand. They did break the law. To the tune of thousands of billions, and they all got away with it. Many in fact, got huge bonuses for fraud.

The CEO of HSBC did not lose his job or go to jail for laundering Hundreds of Billions of dollars for drug cartels, terrorists and even helping to flow money to Iran for their nuclear program. The Bank was fined $1.6 Billion, but that's it, nobody went to jail. My guess is that the fine didn't even impact their bottom line in the slightest, and even if it did, they'll lay off 100 people who had nothing to do with it, and raise fees on their customers to make up for the impact (if any). No top dog's bonus will be affected.

If the IRS can read email without a warrant, then it should be EASY to convict nearly every overpaid CEO in the USA who hides their money via creative accounting and tax dodges. Why have there been no convictions then for the 2008 Economic Crash where the fatcat bankers stole trillions and then got free billions to cover their losses? Surely that money can be traced and found and certain wall street types convicted if the IRS is reading *their* emails.

Oh, but they aren't -- because those people own the government. Because those people are "too big to fail". Because those people have friends in high places and lots of lawyers to defend them. They aren't easy targets, even though they are big targets.

No no, prosecutors want easy convictions from people with no means to defend themselves, using the same tactics as high school bullies -- pick on the weak.

The IRS reading your mail? Pfft. It's to keep the proles in line. The elite have their own laws and their own justice that flows from power. The rest of us just try to survive under the heel of their boot.

If the primary purpose of your "device" is NOT to make phone calls, then... it's something else. It's a handheld digital multipurpose device with cellular capability.