I also suffered something similar on multiple occassions in my late 20s and early 30s - growing rainbow zig-zags accompanied by graduals loss of vision in both the center of my field of view and edges of my peripheral vision, although never to the point of total blindness. Incidents would last between one and two hours. But, after several ophatmologist and visits to other physicians, I finally found the trigger: it happened roughly 18 hours after consuming 2 or more glasses of absinthe. Stopped drinking absinthe, haven't had an aura in years.
I've seen two explanations for why the US government gives money to the Tor Project. One reason is to support dissidents in countries like China. Another is that US agents use Tor, but that the network requires a degree of popularity in order for agents to "hide" in it.
Another option is an effort to identify cryptographically-capable individuals around the works as targets for potential contact, work, on behalf of the U.S. and its allies.
Isn't there a third possibility that US security services are capable of breaking Tor, and want to popularize it in order to encourage Tor usage among potential targets?
Anyone care to bet that within 18 months some Microsoft C-level will be complaining about "lack of company loyalty" over something an employee has done?
While I served > 10 years ago, you could classify everyone into a couple types: mercenaries (time servers, GI Bill folks, can't get any other job, in for the benefits, etc), and zealots (true believers in either the Red, White & Blue or in some flavor of dominionism, with plenty of overlap).
The Federal government doesn't make rules just for the sake of having something to do. Aviation in particular is a complex and risky pursuit, and having a single set of rules has been a huge commercial and safety advantage for the US. I shudder to think what air travel would be like if there were 50+ different state regulators. Also, bear in mind that things like FAA rules are not drawn up in a vacuum, but with the participation of commercial aviators from small to large. My impression from talking to people who pilot planes is that the FAA is one of the better-functioning parts of the federal government, along with the NTSB.
You don't know the federal government very well then. It is _exactly_ why they do it. It is the sole reason why our government is deemed to have been "productive" by the number of laws it passes. Because the government is not a market governed by scarcity, make work and busy work is exactly what keeps it busy and speciously relevant and necessary.
I think we do just fine not changing regulations too quickly. The banking industry worked smoothly until we tinkered with regulations starting in the 90s. The Internet was private enough until the Patriot Act. Also, anyone in a regulated industry can tell you, regulations change every year (or more often) and many resources are poured into just staying compliant.
