It can be. It's just going to cost money.

Purifying Helium is simple in principle: Just make it VERY cold. Every other element or molecule will turn to liquid or solid and can be drained or filtered away. What's left is pure helium. The problem is that it takes a significant amount of energy and technical effort to get the temperature down to where it needs to be. You have to get it down to between 4.2 and 20.28 Kelvin to really get it purified.

So it's all about cost. If you go to the effort and cost to collect all the helium gas used in the manufacturing and recycle it, then there's no shortage. But it costs money.

Also note that Helium is a renewable resource. It comes from the alpha decay of radioisotopes deep in the Earth's crust and collects in gas pockets that can be mined for it. So we're not doomed if a little of it is wasted: But we should be careful with it anyway.

There are many industries where an engineer has to sign off work before it goes into production.

Frankly it's about time someone said that a professional has to put their chop on critical work. It's an important part of delivering and managing important infrastructure and systems.

"Windows 10 users must enroll in Microsoft's paid Extended Security Updates program to get the new certificates. "

Holding your system to ransom. You never really thought it was "your" PC, did you?

The interesting issue here is that Bitcoin is a fiat currency, but it is backed by nothing. It's not that other currencies are not fiat currencies, but they are backed by something.

The US dollar is "backed" in the sense that if it crashes, the USA will do "something" to relieve the crash, and it's currently a currency that is needed to buy oil worldwide, and it's currently accepted as a "reserve currency". Could all of this change and the US dollar become worthless? Yes, of course but that would not happen until the US economy is completely destroyed. Most people would consider that unlikely, so they accept the fiat US dollar as a stable investment.

I suspect Bitcoin survived this long since it developed a little bit of real-world usefulness as a tool for moving and laundering criminal proceeds. As law enforcement gets better at attacking that criminal revenue chain, that usefulness is going to fade.

In a sense, the fact Bitcoin is a fiat currency backed by nothing is part of its allure: That makes it volatile. That makes it really attractive to gamblers or the professional gamblers who take big risks and call themselves "investors"

But eventually there will be a run on Bitcoin, just as there always is with any bubble. Perhaps this is just a big run. And there will continue to be runs as long as Bitcoin exists.

Here in Toronto, we have thousands of people riding around on ebikes and scooters. We are supposed to have a law that they need to have working pedals, but that is completely ignored unless the cops do a blitz. Anyone on a gas-powered moped needs a license, registration, proper helmet and insurance. These e-bikes are just as fast and just as hazardous, but the rules don't apply.

We have a LOT of drunks wobbling around on these: They don't need a license. Users of these things often go along with their feet dragging, no gloves, and a bicycle helmet instead of a real helmet. And a lot of them buy the "hop up" kits that make these things just as fast as small motorcycles and way faster than a moped. These things are deathtraps for the users in this city.

As far as I'm concerned, the licensing, insurance, registration and PPE requirements should be the same for ALL powered vehicles on the street, electric or gas. New Jersey is absolutely right to enforce these requirements.

It's a shame you don't understand police work. Evidence is actually needed: Public video is very valuable, as is citizen-posted cell phone video and reports, provided they are not "edited" for malicious purpose.

Look at what happened in Minnesota: Lots of video of the murder of the woman in the SUV has been very helpful in keeping that horror from being swept under the rug. (Note: I don't consider ICE as "police": They are racist and untrained brownshirts.)

And your Denver situation is far more a straw man argument (Or "argue by exception") than mine.

Next time you're carjacked, robbed in public, or assaulted in broad daylight in public, please make sure you get permission from the EFF and Amnesty International before you permit the police to use any video to track down the criminal who hurt you and recover your property or get restitution.

You may not get any justice, and a criminal may be free to commit violent crime against others with impunity, but think how morally superior you will be!

So a bunch of cameras are streaming live video of a public space on the Internet.

So what? It's a public space with no expectation of privacy. Does a camera have to point to a coffeepot to be acceptable?

We can make more money if we put the seats closer together on the airplanes. Screw the proles: Treat them like sardines!

We can save money by having all the air traffic controllers in some "regional center" instead of having them locate at the airports so they can better see what's going on. Screw the proles: Safety is for the rich!

We can let the agribusinesses make more money if we get rid of food standards. Let them clean filthy chicken soaked with chlorine instead of actually implementing cleanliness standards. Screw the proles: Good food is only for the rich!

And now, we can save money on salaries if we make the proles walk further for the bus. Screw the proles: Make them walk!

So the "vision" is that the ultra-rich own all the computers and everyone else gets to rent them. Sounds like the vision for real estate: The ultra-rich will own all the properties and we will all get to rent them. And food: The ultra-rich will own all the farmland and we get to buy the food from them.

What this really is, is the WEF vision of "You will own nothing and you will be happy". There will be no middle-class allowed to own property: Just the ultra-rich owning everything and the rest of us will be a "working class" only allowed to work to survive.

This is just "Neo-feudalism". A few ultra-rich and a serf class.

Time to break out the guillotines, friends.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. "Engineers" have standards and responsibilities to meet those standards. This does not exist in the software industry.

There is another strong force against "expensive" software and that is FOSS. Justifying "expensive" versus "inexpensive" when there is competition that is free is extremely difficult for manglement who can only see $$$.

Remember that when a mangler sniffs and says "I can't hear you if you don't speak to me in MY language" they really mean "You have to tell me how you are going to make me money or GTFO.".