Berkeley California disregarded the drink companies' ad campaign and approved a tax on soda.

The tax should apply to all drinks that contain sugar. For instance, fruit juice as sold often includes a lot of added sugar; so it is not good for you. I have stopped drinking all drinks that have sugar, with occasional exceptions when there is something special available.

The latest bad idea: farm out servers to lots of buildings so that their waste heat can provide heat for the buildings.

That would be efficient in winter; not so much in summer. But what about the privacy implications?

The idea of "the cloud" means "Don't ask who stores your data (and can look at it); don't concern yourself with who does your computing (and controls how it is done). Put your blind faith in you-don't-know-who."

With this scheme, you put your faith in an unidentified homeowner as well as several unidentified companies.

Here's a better idea. Get your own servers to heat your water, and store your own data in them.

Robot watchmen are in their infancy, but if they work well in 10 years, they could put a million Americans out of work.

They carry cameras that can be viewed over the internet. We know from experience that many users will not alter the default password, so anyone will be able to watch through their cameras. Quite a joke that will be on whoever uses them.

Journalist Rafael Marques de Morais: 'No politician, however strong, will stop me doing my job'. But they sure try hard.

US citizens: call on Congress to reject plans to encourage export of fracked gas.