"and to monitor privileged user actions for unauthorized or inappropriate activity" Wouldn't that require "backdooring" privileged user accounts? I doubt normal administrative monitoring would warrant mention as something new, unless, the statement is just political puff 'n' stuff..

"Nine of the worlds biggest banks have figured out how to game bitcoin"

If the UK actually goes through with something this stupid, and thier track record indicates they probably will, I will simply geo block the UK.

Anonymity in all its forms can be used for nefarious purposes. Isn't that right, Mr. Anonymous Coward?

But I get the distinct impression that what diet is "good for you" is determined by what foodstuff the agricultural commodity markets feel is undervalued this year.

I may be going against the flow here; but I have the distinct impression that allowing a crypto currency to be exchanged for a fiat currency is one layer of abstraction too far. Thus, I think the Russian central bank got it right by banning the stuff and that the bitcoin bubble is going to burst within the year. If Mt.Gox collapses it might not last the week.

The consumer market is migrating away from the desktop to mobile devices enmass while business clients couldn't give a rats ass about some GUI eye candy. The Metro interface seems to prove, to me at least, that Microsoft has lost its way. If MS doesn't quickly segregate it's development to "consumer" (devices) and "business" (desktops) the next five years are going to be brutal for their bottom line.

Because we turn most of our tech into weapons. However, as long as we don't make autonomous killing machines out of them, we have nothing to worry about. Oh, wait...

"When fascism arrives, it will appear on a Harley with a cheeseburger and a credit card, not wrapped in a flag carrying a Bible." That's where LG dropped the ball; they didn't bundle the snooping with an obvious feature. I'm certain the Panopticon will be bundled with free games that use a camera on the TV for for in play motion detection and the snoop data will be hidden in proprietory encrypted game data. Now back to polishing my tinfoil hat.

This reminds me of the novel "A Mote in Gods Eye" by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Who knows, maybe one day we'll be that "mote". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mote_in_God's_Eye

I really don't know why the Canadian government is involved in these negotiations at all as the treaty doesn't stand a snowballs chance in hell of being ratified. Mostly because it would require an admendment to our Charter of Rights and Freedoms in order to become law as it will be kicked out of court on it's ear otherwise. Also, the Copyright Board of Canada would have to be disbanded in spite of having a Royal Charter. We're talking a great big messy Constitutional crisis over file sharing. Not a good idea at the best of times and for a minority Conservative government it is tantamount to political suicide. Should be fun to watch, though.

Maybe or maybe not. I did a quick look through the Dallas news for crime articles related to Bryan Adams school and the place looks pretty scary with assults on teachers doubling in recent years. It might be that at least some of the truants are displaying well honed survival skills. After all, the teachers are scared.