Wonder if they'll commercialize it as a claw pick up game for kids

The original question remains: what are you going to use Bitcoin for?

Do you really expect Grandma and Grandpa to set up and manage their individual Bitcoin wallet to go and buy a pint of milk at the corner store? Or maybe one of the thousands of crypto-currencies, out there, that they can choose from.

Crypto-currencies were originally sold as an alternative to national currencies and central bank control, but they seem to have ended up as just another financial speculation gimmick. After more than 10 years, they're barely used as a transaction tool, and then mostly for illegal drugs, firearms and child pornography -- hardly a liberating achievement.

Now, maybe consumer adoption will evolve and expand in the next few years, but the history so far (scams, bankruptcies and criminal investigations) doesn't sound promising.

This story is fascinating because it involves several experienced military professionals, with multiple sightings over several days, and that some sightings were also tracked on radar. But so far, all this remains eye-witness testimony and second-hand accounts, even if the sources are highly credible.

All we have right now are those grainy infrared videos.

And those skeptics' video presentations do a good job of highlighting the limits of that visual tracking technology and the risks of drawing conclusions based on that that footage alone.

Until we get more tangible evidence or measurements, we'll just have to settle with "I don't know" - and there's no shame in saying that.

The original post and articles make interesting points about the changing nature of the economy and technology, but they don't address wider-ranging impacts:

- monopolistic manipulation of markets and rent-seeking,
- unaccountability, except maybe to those precious (few) "shareholders".
- Influence on public policy, either through powerful lobbying, propaganda outlets (i.e., think-tanks, "foundations") and financial support of sympathetic political candidates.

Moreover, the articles authors question the need for breakup, but yet offer only a few hazy bromide such as "new corporate governance rules", "new tax policy" or "decentralized transactions based on the blockchain technology" (yeah, right ...).

Breaking up large corporations is still a blunt and messy option, but I still it's the best one to address the problems discussed here.

I think that's a fair comment - we have to look at all the possibilities (especially the more mundane ones)

What makes these events so interesting, though, is that they include not just human visual sightings, but also the simultaneous FLIR recordings and radar tracking which indicated unusual speed and movements.

Hopefully, more information (and data) will leak out, so we can start piecing that puzzle together.

And remember: the most likely explanation is usually the most boring one...

Funny to hear the Gig Economy gospel from Mr. Sundararajan, a tenured university professor with all the benefits that regular employment can bring, along with the job security that few jobs can offer.

Maybe he should leave the ivory tower and try living out the precarious work life he preaches.

I eventually switched to OneNote, after I decided not to pay for Evernote's Premium features. I do miss Evernote, but I found OneNote to be adequate for the work I needed to do: not great, but good enough for me. I also started getting concerned about losing my content in Evernote, if the company ever went under, given the lackluster management team that they had in the last few years. I figured Microsoft had a more stable footing.

Hopefully the company can find its mojo back, and return to their initial decent, simple (free) offerings.

One can argue that the Surveillance State has grown under Bush and Obama, and that it won't go away.

As the articles in the posting indicate, the US Executive branch has a lot of leeway and discretion in how to use these powers.

What worries me here is Trump's record of singling out people or groups as enemies to be crushed or humiliated. Combine that with his paranoid "Alt-Right" cohort in the White House, and you have the potential for serious mis-use of surveillance powers against domestic adversaries (or anyone who just doesn't agree with them).

Happy days ahead.

I'll always found it interesting that Wikileaks\Assange have a fixation on exposing American secrets, but have shown little enthusiasm in doing the same with exposing Russian or Chinese misdeeds: surely there's lots of skeletons to be found in these two countries' records, especially with their dismal human rights records. Maybe Wikileaks should focus of political killings and the murder of journalists, rather than fixate on petty internal disputes within the U.S. Democratic party.
Same thing vis-à-vis the corporate and financial sectors: I haven't really seen Wikileaks expose the corruption that the ICIJ managed to do with the Panama papers. As time goes on, I'm starting to question Wikileaks' motives and objectives.

Like you, I'm also looking for a good Internet tablet and electronic reader. The closest things I've seen are the Archos players 5 and 7 (mentioned in previous postings), as well as the iPod Touch. Both are excellent products that come close, but not quite close enough for me. There's been lots of buzz about the Crunchpad, as well as some rumors about an upcoming Android-based Archos tablet (apart from the Windows-powered Archos 9). I'll wait until these products come out before making up my mind.