Are you trying to make a sick joke?

Thousands of employees who review patents for the federal government cheated taxpayers out of at least $18.3 million as they billed the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for almost 300,000 hours they never worked, according to a new investigation by the agency’s watchdog.

The report released Wednesday determined that the full scale of fraud is probably double those numbers. Investigators said they interpreted the data they gathered conservatively, often giving employees the benefit of the doubt for the time they reportedly worked.

...

Patent office workers bilked the government of millions by playing hooky, watchdog finds

If someone else has any bright ideas how to mitigate evil behavior incoming from ISPs (because they will take full advantage of this, believe you me), I'm all ears.

If you can shrink this amazing technology down to about the size and cost of a microwave oven, and provide high data rates with low latency, I'd say the problem is solved. A breakthrough like that would permanently eliminate the ability of corporations and governments alike to interfere with Internet communication.

I had the same reaction. For a moment there I was regretting having thrown out my old 486 ... the one with the VESA Local Bus IDE hard disk controller and video card. Oh, and the two ISA slots. One had a 16-bit ATI TV tuner card stuck in it, and the other an esoteric 8-bit controller card for that Mars 105 black & white hand-held scanner I bought from a DAK catalog back in '89.

BTW, for those of you outside the US, the above video link won't work.

I have a friend in Canada who, at least in the recent past with some alternate PBS shows, has been able to view video directly from the PBS site. So ... Canadians may at least want to give that link a try. (And I'd be interested to hear if it does end up working for anyone there.)

Jesse Ventura agrees with you.

Arrrr! The Honeycomb hideout!

Am I the only one that hears this eighties commercial in their head every time the word "Honeycomb" is used for a product?

You might have a point, but maybe in this case we don't want those type of people on the network anyway? Honestly it's just a thought.

I can't help but be reminded of the current Internet before it became popular with the masses. Remember the influx of clueless AOL users?

I don't see how that can work at all.

My initial reaction is to agree with you, but an optimist's response would probably be something like, "Is that a reason to not even try?"

And as soon as I start to think that way, I consider just -- as you suggest -- managing to get cities assembled into their own intranets (not even necessarily connected with one another). Would that not be some type of victory?

And who's to say that, if that were to happen, some corporation or conglomeration of non-profits wouldn't come along and donate "dark fibre/fiber" to connect some of those cities with each other for the good of human-kind?

Or that after setting up city intranets, someone discovers a way to send data using pulsed streams of neutrinos, and that that technology is found to be economically viable enough that it can be used for connecting at least the largest of those city intranets?

Who can predict the future? And seriously ... is there a reason to not even try?

Ridiculous?

Air marshal leaves plane after dropping bullets

Passenger Finds Loaded Ammunition Clip on Southwest Flight

US air marshal leaves gun in airport restroom

Air Marshal Causes International Incident

Air Marshal Accused of Rape at Gunpoint

Marshals Fight Battle in Air and on Ground

From that last article:

"How would you describe the management in the air marshal service?" CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian asked a current air marshal.

"Sexist, racist, homophobic, anti-disabled vet group, grossly incompetent," said the marshal, whose identity was concealed. "That's the general consensus among air marshals."

Nearly two dozen current or former marshals have told CBS News the agency is dominated by an "old boys club" of white, male supervisors -- mainly ex-secret service agents who, they allege, routinely discriminate, intimidate and retaliate against employees who question their actions or authority.

"This behavior has just spread like a cancer and it's out of control," the marshal said.

Well ... it sounds like you called it right: ridiculous.

This Bloomberg video on the Chinese neodymium monopoly starts off as bleak as your post, but the last 45 seconds show that US industry shouldn't be counted out just yet. There is hope. Want to help? I suppose you could buy Molycorp stock.

If it's any consolation I don't think it's just Slashdot. A general-topic discussion site I heard about here on Slashdot years and years ago is plastic.com. It used to be a truly excellent place for really thought-provoking discussions. I think things have slowed down simply due to dwindling participation. Maybe that's at the core of the changes you see in Slashdot -- the prime contributors are finding they've got less and less "free" time to contribute to online discussion forums?

If you're trying to make me feel better:

1) Thank you.
2) It's not working. :-(

I'm disappointed it's a negative reaction that actually prompted me to log in for the first time in a over a year, but this story is crazy. The whole idea is crazy. Not because of technological limitations, but because we don't have a prayer of paying for it.

A few days ago, copponex wrote:

"America is basically like a 7-11 that's about to go under. The shelves are barely stocked, the sign has been broken for months, and nobody really gives a shit because they've been watching the boss raid the cash drawer for years."

I want to believe NASA could pull this off -- and by 2025 -- but I think it's tragically unrealistic from a financial perspective.

Your post reminds me a little of the "Postal Experiments" that I remember reading about amongst some comments here on Slashdot nearly 10 years ago:

We sent a variety of unpackaged items to U.S. destinations, appropriately stamped for weight and size, as well as a few items packaged as noted. We sent items that loosely fit into the following general categories: valuable, sentimental, unwieldy, pointless, potentially suspicious, and disgusting.

It's tough to say what my personal favorite was, but I think the helium-filled balloon at least deserves special mention. :-)