These big corporations have been fine with their dark, secret, unholy alliance with the government until Mr. Snowden came along shining a bright light on their dark deeds in cahoots with the government. Now they fear and rightly so, that the public and many businesses will not entrust them with data services, because these tech companies have been and probably still are unwilling to sever their comfortable relationship with our out-of-control government. Now that their bottom line is affected, they are starting to squawk, but now that may be too late for them and their profit driven business models, disregarding any ethics or legalities. Even before the government's unconstitutional misdeeds were brought to light I have never entrusted my nonpublic data to any of these companies' cloud services. I sincerely hope that most people will not put their data in the cloud and that these companies will have many idle data centers as punishment for their disregard for their customers privacy.
He was an intrinsically good person and the only Democrat for any public office I have ever voted for. Unfortunately, he was not very assertive and was not successful in persuading his fellow Democrats of much, so he was perceived as a do-nothing president. As far as integrity goes, he is orders of magnitude ahead of Obama.
Smart license plates, smart cars, smart phones, smart meters, smart tollbooths, smart appliances and who knows smart everything else are perhaps not always so smart after all. Maybe what we need is smart people, especially in government. There seems to be a shortage of those these days. Is there a "smartness" conservation law that ensures that the smartness in the universe remains constant? Are gadgets becoming "smarter" while people are becoming dumber?
Seeking a solution to such government misbehavior in the courts is like bailing out a leaking boat without plugging the leak first. All these so-called "laws" which are blatantly unconstitutional were passed by politicians on both sides of the aisle who failed to represent the people. The patriot act and other unconstitutional laws are what gives these agencies the go-ahead to do whatever they like. These self-serving bought and paid for politicians don't represent the people that elected them, but the elite moneyed class. The quickest way to change the situation by far, rather than the courts, is for ALL incumbent politicians to be voted out and exchanged for some new ones who would at least for a while listen to the will of the people who elected them. Only they could nullify the past unconstitutional legislation and dismantle much of the bureaucracy enabled by such legislation. After that the Constitution would have to be amended to impose strict two term limits on every political elected office. Unfortunately, you are correct that the courts are not really the branch of government that can fundamentally correct these abuses of power. Unfortunately also, a snowball in hell has a better chance than this kind of political reform.
You should consider NSA/FISA by now as mobsters, and what they sell is "protection", specially from the law. And considering how much Microsoft has been protected from the law in the last 20-30 years, i'd say that their cooperation with US intelligence agencies goes back to the last century.
These three letter agencies are not really the culprits, but the politicians in Congress who made the laws that these three letter agencies operate under are at fault. It is your so-called "representatives" that are not representing you, but themselves and those who shovel money in their direction. If it were not for laws such as the Patriot Act, the NDAA and laws creating the rubberstamp FISA secret court and other enabling legislation for all these bureaucratic agencies, these abuses of power could not exist. All of the laws enabling the Nazis to do what they did were all duly passed and approved by the German legislators of the time.
Businesses dont go out of their way to increase their costs with no tangible benefit. There is either a tangible benefit (Quid pro quo) or it was the best of a group of bad options (not doing it will cost us more.)
I don't see what the NSA/FISA has to offer in return, so its probably being done due to a threat, and at that point you have to wonder what other companies are also doing for the same reason.
I agree, that it was most likely a threat that would cost more to fight against in court than it would cost to comply. There are not very many people concerned enough with ethics or morality, especially corporations, that will spend the incredible piles of money that are required to legally fight an entity like the US government which essentially has an infinite money supply compared to any particular person or corporation. I think the whole idea of a secret court or other government entity with the power to compel a person or other entity to do clearly wrong and unconstitutional acts In the dark, is in keeping in what once was a free and great nation.
The main reason why those in power are so incredibly upset about what Mr. Snowden did, is that they knew all along that they were doing evil and evil-doers hate their evil deeds being brought to light more than anything else. It is the Congress that are the evildoers in this case, because they passed the Patriot Act, the NDAA and other enabling legislation that allows the three letter agencies to do what they are doing. That is why a number of such evil legislators labeled Mr. Snowden as a traitor. I am certain that back in the days of the American Revolution, Paul Revere and others like him would have been hanged by the government, that is the English King, if he had been caught by the British authorities of the time.
You forgot step 4, that is to include the equivalent of a Rosetta Stone to help those in the distant future derive meaning from all that stored data. The Babylonians and ancient Egyptians came up with data storage that is quite durable and does not need any special equipment in order to read it.
The history of science has shown over and over again that mainstream scientists, the vast majority have often been wrong in their interpretations of experiments and observations. Modern cosmology and astrophysics is no exception to this. In 1929 Edwin Hubble measured the red shift for the first time. That measurement was puzzling and he as well as others have sought an explanation. The Doppler shift of sound commonly experienced was the basis of the interpretation that applied this principle to electromagnetic radiation, including light.
An astronomer in Arizona by the name of William Tift observed that this red shift is quantized. Other reputable scientists have repeated his observations to ever greater accuracy. This quantization falsifies the mainstream Doppler effect interpretation of the red shift. You can Google His name and anything you want to know about the red shift.
Quantum phenomena arise in the atomic and subatomic realms and govern the emission spectra of light as well as radioactive decay. Planck's constant is involved in atomic processes and subatomic motions. Planck's constant is inversely related to the speed of light. The undisputed fact that light from distant galaxies is quantized is powerful evidence that atomic processes and not motion are the cause this quantization. The atomic clocks mentioned in the article are also governed by Planck's constant and are therefore subject to change. Scientists will likely never see this change in several human lifetimes because it is immeasurably small today. Evidence of the red shift however shows that this change was very large billions of years ago.
Another problem is that in order to measure something, such as the accuracy of the clock or anything else for that matter requires a standard of comparison. If you have several super accurate clocks, the they can be compared with one another, but if they are all drifting at the same rate there is no way that can be known. If Planck's constant changes, all clocks will change by the same amount.
The history of science has shown over and over again that mainstream scientists, the vast majority have often been wrong in their interpretations of experiments and observations. Modern cosmology and astrophysics is no exception to this. In 1929 Edwin Hubble measured the red shift for the first time. That measurement was puzzling and he as well as others have sought an explanation. The Doppler shift of sound commonly experienced was the basis of the interpretation that applied this principle to electromagnetic radiation, including light. This interpretation is and was the basis of the present "Big Bang" theory with its requirement for never observed black holes, dark matter and dark energy.
An astronomer in Arizona by the name of William Tift observed that this red shift is quantized. Other reputable scientists have repeated his observations to ever greater accuracy. This quantization falsifies the mainstream Doppler effect interpretation of the red shift. Another astronomer by the name of Halton Aarp at Mount Wilson also made other observations that falsify the idea of the Big Bang. You can Google the names of these people if you are interested.
Quantum phenomena arise in the atomic and subatomic realms and govern the emission spectra of light as well as radioactive decay. Planck's constant is involved in atomic processes and subatomic motions. Planck's constant is inversely related to the speed of light. The undisputed fact that light from distant galaxies is quantized is powerful evidence that atomic processes and not motion are the cause this quantization. The atomic clocks mentioned in the article are also governed by Planck's constant and are therefore subject to change. Scientists will likely never see this change in several human lifetimes because it is immeasurably small today. Evidence of the red shift however shows that this change was very large billions of years ago.
Why have milk and honey been associated with good and abundance for thousands of years in many cultures? Can you show me some articles based on real research that show that milk and honey are NOT healthful foods?
In nature everything always changes over time, especially over millions or even billions of years. There is some evidence that the so-called "red shift" observed from distant galaxies is caused by fundamental changes within the atom because Planck's constant was considerably smaller at one time in the history of the universe. There is no way you or any scientists on Earth can prove that these atomic "constants" have NOT changed over time. Electromagnetic radiation, such as light, arises within atoms the behavior of which is governed by Planck's constant among other things.
Nothing in nature is as constant as change, especially over long periods of time. What reason can you give that the so-called "constants" of physics have remained the same over millions or even billions of years?
Behind all this accuracy is on the assumption that the atomic constants, such as Planck's "constant" are truly constant, because all atomic behavior is governed by this. There is evidence that for long periods of time these so-called "constants" have drifted and still are drifting, because they are related to the size of the universe. All the equations for atomic behavior contain a time element as part of these so-called "constants". The equations for gravity on the other hand to not contain any terms referring to time. Gravity clocks and atomic clocks to not run at the same rate, especially over long periods of time. Therefore the supposed of accuracy of these and all atomic clocks is an academic exercise based on faith.
If things are done and perhaps this should be as you suggest, all it does is shift the responsibility to other human beings. At some point human beings have to have access to restricted, classified data no matter how many times you've encrypted it. Data security is in the end a human problem and there is no amount of technology that can get around that in all of eternity. Somebody has to be trusted with the secret Coke recipe.
No explanation, really. The threat of having your life taken away from you is enough to keep most toeing the line.
There still are a few, very few for whom integrity and doing the right thing is more valuable than their own life. What do you think the English King would have done to Paul Revere if the king's minions had caught him? What about some of the other early Americans that participated in the revolution? There are still a few people on this earth who will subscribe to the notion of "Give me liberty or give me death". To me it looks like Edward Snowden is one of these people.
Don't system ADMINISTRATORS traditionally have complete and full access to the systems they are hired to administrate? If they don't, they shouldn't be called administrators. Evidently Mr. Snowden had administrative access to systems that contained sensitive data which he felt was evidence of wrongdoing by those who hired him to administrate their systems.
NO SIMPLER: No one person should have so much knowledge and access to secret data.
In order to be useful data, SOMEONE must have access to it. If that person is not trustworthy, honest and reliable, that data will fly the coop and no technological measures will ever prevent that. If the employer is doing something immoral or illegal, a trustworthy, honest and reliable person WILL have a problem and MUST report this to someone who is in the position to do something about it.
Yes, well, perhaps in La-la Land. Here, in reality, no matter how good your organization may be (for whatever definition of "good" you choose to use), you may still end up with bad employees. The question of securing your data shouldn't be about good or evil, or any particular moral judgment, but simply about how to make sure you're critical and confidential data doesn't end up being ripped off.
I do not know why you were modded down, but in the end it IS a question of good and evil as well, as it is a question of trust or distrust. Every employer ultimately has to have some people they are willing to trust with the crown jewels of the business. Someone, somewhere does have access to the secret recipe of Coke. When an otherwise reliable and trustworthy employee is confronted with the unmistakable fact that the employer is doing wrong or illegal things, such an employee must choose between being loyal to their employer, to their own conscience or society as a whole. Another factor that comes into this equation is where the basic loyalty of the trusted employee lies. Paul Revere was a traitor to the English king, but a hero to the American revolutionaries. Edward Snowden is considered to be a traitor to the American government, but many consider him a hero to the American people. King George was the government in Paul Revere's day. Snowdon started a worldwide debate on how far a democratic government should go in the nasty business of espionage and surveillance. Nobody, especially people with power, such as those in government like to have their evil deeds exposed. Such people will always find a way to excuse their misdeeds.
Quantum mechanics can be experimentally verified in many different ways, but this cannot be done for anything that has supposedly happened in the past.
Anyone that can cook or has a spouse that can, shouldn't need to go to a fancy restaurant all that often. I know that I prefer the home-cooked healthful meals my wife makes above any restaurants I have ever been in. Cooking at home is the only way to know for sure that you are eating healthful foods that have not been concocted in some chemistry lab. Avoiding things prepared with high fructose corn syrup and damaged fats is difficult, because most restaurants don't publish the ingredients list of their foods.
In the information economy we have today, the geographical location of many workers is becoming more and more irrelevant. Smaller communities and even many rural areas have reasonably decent Internet connections which are necessary for remote work. Remote workers have to be more self-motivated since they don't have their bosses of the beehive cubicles breathing down their necks. It is grossly inefficient to move heavy material objects such as people or their cars when those people are mostly dealing with information. The problem is that there are not that many diligent, honest, self-motivated workers these days anymore. Too many people want to get away with as little work as possible. Many bosses also feel that they do not have enough control over their minions if these workers are hundreds or even thousands of miles away.
Most city folks can't even imagine what it is like to live in a place where the nearest neighbor is half a mile or more away. Many city folks have never seen a glorious mountain sunrise or the Milky Way and all the other stars. City dwellers rarely find out what it is like to breathe pure air that has not been contaminated by car exhaust and industrial fumes or drink pure water fed by an underground stream that arises from the melting snow of the surrounding mountains. City children don't learn how to saddle up and then ride a horse, raise a steer or pig, collect fresh eggs from the chicken coop and pick fresh raspberries and blackberries. Our children were raised this way and now our grandchildren are also growing up in an environment where they can learn how to live apart from the rat race of the big city.
I used to live in San Francisco when that was still a nice town and also in Palo Alto working for Stanford University. We gave up all the dubious conveniences of city and suburbia living for the country. With the help of Amazon and other Internet merchants I can have all the high tech toys I could possibly want. Once every month or two we drive 140 miles round-trip to Costco to stock up on items not available locally.
"save that the Creationists tend to ignore the parts of Evolution that we can actually prove"
What parts of evolution can we actually prove? I would say that this depends on how you define "evolution". If evolution is defined as for example bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics or birds growing larger or smaller beaks, then this can be shown to be true. If evolution is defined as a mouse and elephant and the chimpanzee all having the same ancestor, then that is pure conjecture that can never be proven unless someone can invent a time machine to go back to the time when this possibly may have happened.
"There's also exactly zero evidence that those plots were even real."
Does anybody at all to believe *anything* the US government says? Why could that possibly be? Is it because of the Benghazi cover up, the IRS fiasco, the Justice Department's monitoring of reporters, the commandeering of phone records of private citizens, "data mining", the so-called kill list, drones with the power to spy and kill, the proliferation of surveillance cameras, DNA swabs after arrest, Obama care, the fast and furious debacle, unrestrained spending and unrestrained debt? Of course habitual liars hate people who tell the truth. That is why they want to arrest Mr. Snowden ASAP. There is no more justice in this country, because that blindfolded lady with her scales has fled the USA.
Slashdot Mirror
These big corporations have been fine with their dark, secret, unholy alliance with the government until Mr. Snowden came along shining a bright light on their dark deeds in cahoots with the government. Now they fear and rightly so, that the public and many businesses will not entrust them with data services, because these tech companies have been and probably still are unwilling to sever their comfortable relationship with our out-of-control government. Now that their bottom line is affected, they are starting to squawk, but now that may be too late for them and their profit driven business models, disregarding any ethics or legalities. Even before the government's unconstitutional misdeeds were brought to light I have never entrusted my nonpublic data to any of these companies' cloud services. I sincerely hope that most people will not put their data in the cloud and that these companies will have many idle data centers as punishment for their disregard for their customers privacy.
He was an intrinsically good person and the only Democrat for any public office I have ever voted for. Unfortunately, he was not very assertive and was not successful in persuading his fellow Democrats of much, so he was perceived as a do-nothing president. As far as integrity goes, he is orders of magnitude ahead of Obama.
Smart license plates, smart cars, smart phones, smart meters, smart tollbooths, smart appliances and who knows smart everything else are perhaps not always so smart after all. Maybe what we need is smart people, especially in government. There seems to be a shortage of those these days. Is there a "smartness" conservation law that ensures that the smartness in the universe remains constant? Are gadgets becoming "smarter" while people are becoming dumber?
Seeking a solution to such government misbehavior in the courts is like bailing out a leaking boat without plugging the leak first. All these so-called "laws" which are blatantly unconstitutional were passed by politicians on both sides of the aisle who failed to represent the people. The patriot act and other unconstitutional laws are what gives these agencies the go-ahead to do whatever they like. These self-serving bought and paid for politicians don't represent the people that elected them, but the elite moneyed class. The quickest way to change the situation by far, rather than the courts, is for ALL incumbent politicians to be voted out and exchanged for some new ones who would at least for a while listen to the will of the people who elected them. Only they could nullify the past unconstitutional legislation and dismantle much of the bureaucracy enabled by such legislation. After that the Constitution would have to be amended to impose strict two term limits on every political elected office. Unfortunately, you are correct that the courts are not really the branch of government that can fundamentally correct these abuses of power. Unfortunately also, a snowball in hell has a better chance than this kind of political reform.
You should consider NSA/FISA by now as mobsters, and what they sell is "protection", specially from the law. And considering how much Microsoft has been protected from the law in the last 20-30 years, i'd say that their cooperation with US intelligence agencies goes back to the last century.
These three letter agencies are not really the culprits, but the politicians in Congress who made the laws that these three letter agencies operate under are at fault. It is your so-called "representatives" that are not representing you, but themselves and those who shovel money in their direction. If it were not for laws such as the Patriot Act, the NDAA and laws creating the rubberstamp FISA secret court and other enabling legislation for all these bureaucratic agencies, these abuses of power could not exist. All of the laws enabling the Nazis to do what they did were all duly passed and approved by the German legislators of the time.
Businesses dont go out of their way to increase their costs with no tangible benefit. There is either a tangible benefit (Quid pro quo) or it was the best of a group of bad options (not doing it will cost us more.)
I don't see what the NSA/FISA has to offer in return, so its probably being done due to a threat, and at that point you have to wonder what other companies are also doing for the same reason.
I agree, that it was most likely a threat that would cost more to fight against in court than it would cost to comply. There are not very many people concerned enough with ethics or morality, especially corporations, that will spend the incredible piles of money that are required to legally fight an entity like the US government which essentially has an infinite money supply compared to any particular person or corporation. I think the whole idea of a secret court or other government entity with the power to compel a person or other entity to do clearly wrong and unconstitutional acts In the dark, is in keeping in what once was a free and great nation.
The main reason why those in power are so incredibly upset about what Mr. Snowden did, is that they knew all along that they were doing evil and evil-doers hate their evil deeds being brought to light more than anything else. It is the Congress that are the evildoers in this case, because they passed the Patriot Act, the NDAA and other enabling legislation that allows the three letter agencies to do what they are doing. That is why a number of such evil legislators labeled Mr. Snowden as a traitor. I am certain that back in the days of the American Revolution, Paul Revere and others like him would have been hanged by the government, that is the English King, if he had been caught by the British authorities of the time.
I would rather take the chance and try fend for myself rather than being smothered by a Leftist nanny state.
You forgot step 4, that is to include the equivalent of a Rosetta Stone to help those in the distant future derive meaning from all that stored data. The Babylonians and ancient Egyptians came up with data storage that is quite durable and does not need any special equipment in order to read it.
The history of science has shown over and over again that mainstream scientists, the vast majority have often been wrong in their interpretations of experiments and observations. Modern cosmology and astrophysics is no exception to this. In 1929 Edwin Hubble measured the red shift for the first time. That measurement was puzzling and he as well as others have sought an explanation. The Doppler shift of sound commonly experienced was the basis of the interpretation that applied this principle to electromagnetic radiation, including light.
An astronomer in Arizona by the name of William Tift observed that this red shift is quantized. Other reputable scientists have repeated his observations to ever greater accuracy. This quantization falsifies the mainstream Doppler effect interpretation of the red shift. You can Google His name and anything you want to know about the red shift.
Quantum phenomena arise in the atomic and subatomic realms and govern the emission spectra of light as well as radioactive decay. Planck's constant is involved in atomic processes and subatomic motions. Planck's constant is inversely related to the speed of light. The undisputed fact that light from distant galaxies is quantized is powerful evidence that atomic processes and not motion are the cause this quantization. The atomic clocks mentioned in the article are also governed by Planck's constant and are therefore subject to change. Scientists will likely never see this change in several human lifetimes because it is immeasurably small today. Evidence of the red shift however shows that this change was very large billions of years ago.
Another problem is that in order to measure something, such as the accuracy of the clock or anything else for that matter requires a standard of comparison. If you have several super accurate clocks, the they can be compared with one another, but if they are all drifting at the same rate there is no way that can be known. If Planck's constant changes, all clocks will change by the same amount.
The history of science has shown over and over again that mainstream scientists, the vast majority have often been wrong in their interpretations of experiments and observations. Modern cosmology and astrophysics is no exception to this. In 1929 Edwin Hubble measured the red shift for the first time. That measurement was puzzling and he as well as others have sought an explanation. The Doppler shift of sound commonly experienced was the basis of the interpretation that applied this principle to electromagnetic radiation, including light. This interpretation is and was the basis of the present "Big Bang" theory with its requirement for never observed black holes, dark matter and dark energy.
An astronomer in Arizona by the name of William Tift observed that this red shift is quantized. Other reputable scientists have repeated his observations to ever greater accuracy. This quantization falsifies the mainstream Doppler effect interpretation of the red shift. Another astronomer by the name of Halton Aarp at Mount Wilson also made other observations that falsify the idea of the Big Bang. You can Google the names of these people if you are interested.
Quantum phenomena arise in the atomic and subatomic realms and govern the emission spectra of light as well as radioactive decay. Planck's constant is involved in atomic processes and subatomic motions. Planck's constant is inversely related to the speed of light. The undisputed fact that light from distant galaxies is quantized is powerful evidence that atomic processes and not motion are the cause this quantization. The atomic clocks mentioned in the article are also governed by Planck's constant and are therefore subject to change. Scientists will likely never see this change in several human lifetimes because it is immeasurably small today. Evidence of the red shift however shows that this change was very large billions of years ago.
Why have milk and honey been associated with good and abundance for thousands of years in many cultures? Can you show me some articles based on real research that show that milk and honey are NOT healthful foods?
In nature everything always changes over time, especially over millions or even billions of years. There is some evidence that the so-called "red shift" observed from distant galaxies is caused by fundamental changes within the atom because Planck's constant was considerably smaller at one time in the history of the universe. There is no way you or any scientists on Earth can prove that these atomic "constants" have NOT changed over time. Electromagnetic radiation, such as light, arises within atoms the behavior of which is governed by Planck's constant among other things.
Nothing in nature is as constant as change, especially over long periods of time. What reason can you give that the so-called "constants" of physics have remained the same over millions or even billions of years?
Exactly why do you think that the 52-year-old felon presently residing in the White House is more trustworthy than a 29-year-old contractor?
Behind all this accuracy is on the assumption that the atomic constants, such as Planck's "constant" are truly constant, because all atomic behavior is governed by this. There is evidence that for long periods of time these so-called "constants" have drifted and still are drifting, because they are related to the size of the universe. All the equations for atomic behavior contain a time element as part of these so-called "constants". The equations for gravity on the other hand to not contain any terms referring to time. Gravity clocks and atomic clocks to not run at the same rate, especially over long periods of time. Therefore the supposed of accuracy of these and all atomic clocks is an academic exercise based on faith.
If things are done and perhaps this should be as you suggest, all it does is shift the responsibility to other human beings. At some point human beings have to have access to restricted, classified data no matter how many times you've encrypted it. Data security is in the end a human problem and there is no amount of technology that can get around that in all of eternity. Somebody has to be trusted with the secret Coke recipe.
No explanation, really. The threat of having your life taken away from you is enough to keep most toeing the line.
There still are a few, very few for whom integrity and doing the right thing is more valuable than their own life. What do you think the English King would have done to Paul Revere if the king's minions had caught him? What about some of the other early Americans that participated in the revolution? There are still a few people on this earth who will subscribe to the notion of "Give me liberty or give me death". To me it looks like Edward Snowden is one of these people.
Don't system ADMINISTRATORS traditionally have complete and full access to the systems they are hired to administrate? If they don't, they shouldn't be called administrators. Evidently Mr. Snowden had administrative access to systems that contained sensitive data which he felt was evidence of wrongdoing by those who hired him to administrate their systems.
NO SIMPLER: No one person should have so much knowledge and access to secret data.
In order to be useful data, SOMEONE must have access to it. If that person is not trustworthy, honest and reliable, that data will fly the coop and no technological measures will ever prevent that. If the employer is doing something immoral or illegal, a trustworthy, honest and reliable person WILL have a problem and MUST report this to someone who is in the position to do something about it.
Yes, well, perhaps in La-la Land. Here, in reality, no matter how good your organization may be (for whatever definition of "good" you choose to use), you may still end up with bad employees. The question of securing your data shouldn't be about good or evil, or any particular moral judgment, but simply about how to make sure you're critical and confidential data doesn't end up being ripped off.
I do not know why you were modded down, but in the end it IS a question of good and evil as well, as it is a question of trust or distrust. Every employer ultimately has to have some people they are willing to trust with the crown jewels of the business. Someone, somewhere does have access to the secret recipe of Coke. When an otherwise reliable and trustworthy employee is confronted with the unmistakable fact that the employer is doing wrong or illegal things, such an employee must choose between being loyal to their employer, to their own conscience or society as a whole. Another factor that comes into this equation is where the basic loyalty of the trusted employee lies. Paul Revere was a traitor to the English king, but a hero to the American revolutionaries. Edward Snowden is considered to be a traitor to the American government, but many consider him a hero to the American people. King George was the government in Paul Revere's day. Snowdon started a worldwide debate on how far a democratic government should go in the nasty business of espionage and surveillance. Nobody, especially people with power, such as those in government like to have their evil deeds exposed. Such people will always find a way to excuse their misdeeds.
No, we live in the mountains of southern Oregon.
Quantum mechanics can be experimentally verified in many different ways, but this cannot be done for anything that has supposedly happened in the past.
Anyone that can cook or has a spouse that can, shouldn't need to go to a fancy restaurant all that often. I know that I prefer the home-cooked healthful meals my wife makes above any restaurants I have ever been in. Cooking at home is the only way to know for sure that you are eating healthful foods that have not been concocted in some chemistry lab. Avoiding things prepared with high fructose corn syrup and damaged fats is difficult, because most restaurants don't publish the ingredients list of their foods.
In the information economy we have today, the geographical location of many workers is becoming more and more irrelevant. Smaller communities and even many rural areas have reasonably decent Internet connections which are necessary for remote work. Remote workers have to be more self-motivated since they don't have their bosses of the beehive cubicles breathing down their necks. It is grossly inefficient to move heavy material objects such as people or their cars when those people are mostly dealing with information. The problem is that there are not that many diligent, honest, self-motivated workers these days anymore. Too many people want to get away with as little work as possible. Many bosses also feel that they do not have enough control over their minions if these workers are hundreds or even thousands of miles away.
Most city folks can't even imagine what it is like to live in a place where the nearest neighbor is half a mile or more away. Many city folks have never seen a glorious mountain sunrise or the Milky Way and all the other stars. City dwellers rarely find out what it is like to breathe pure air that has not been contaminated by car exhaust and industrial fumes or drink pure water fed by an underground stream that arises from the melting snow of the surrounding mountains. City children don't learn how to saddle up and then ride a horse, raise a steer or pig, collect fresh eggs from the chicken coop and pick fresh raspberries and blackberries. Our children were raised this way and now our grandchildren are also growing up in an environment where they can learn how to live apart from the rat race of the big city.
I used to live in San Francisco when that was still a nice town and also in Palo Alto working for Stanford University. We gave up all the dubious conveniences of city and suburbia living for the country. With the help of Amazon and other Internet merchants I can have all the high tech toys I could possibly want. Once every month or two we drive 140 miles round-trip to Costco to stock up on items not available locally.
"save that the Creationists tend to ignore the parts of Evolution that we can actually prove"
What parts of evolution can we actually prove? I would say that this depends on how you define "evolution". If evolution is defined as for example bacteria becoming resistant to antibiotics or birds growing larger or smaller beaks, then this can be shown to be true. If evolution is defined as a mouse and elephant and the chimpanzee all having the same ancestor, then that is pure conjecture that can never be proven unless someone can invent a time machine to go back to the time when this possibly may have happened.
"There's also exactly zero evidence that those plots were even real."
Does anybody at all to believe *anything* the US government says? Why could that possibly be? Is it because of the Benghazi cover up, the IRS fiasco, the Justice Department's monitoring of reporters, the commandeering of phone records of private citizens, "data mining", the so-called kill list, drones with the power to spy and kill, the proliferation of surveillance cameras, DNA swabs after arrest, Obama care, the fast and furious debacle, unrestrained spending and unrestrained debt? Of course habitual liars hate people who tell the truth. That is why they want to arrest Mr. Snowden ASAP. There is no more justice in this country, because that blindfolded lady with her scales has fled the USA.