I'm not sure what microfilm has got to do with this. Plenty of national libraries have extensive digital collections of various artifacts - books and even websites. Check out the National Library of Australia as an example: https://www.library.gov.au/discover/what-we-collect/archived...
Fair question but haven't we been doing this for decades? Very few people know how to write assembly and yet software has proliferated. This is just another abstraction.
> To me, this absolutely feels like a NOBUS vulnerability, if the SIM manufacturers and/or core network equipment vendors are in cahoots with the NSA and let the NSA take those keys, they can potentially listen in on all mobile phone traffic in the world.
This feels like the obligatory XKCD comic[1] when in reality there isn't any secretive key extraction or cracking...things are just sent unencrypted from deeper into the network to the three-letter-agencies. Telco's are well known to have interconnect rooms with agencies.
> I've always considered insurance false-economy and avoided it wherever possible, especially for events with losses <$20k.
Everything is relative, right? Self insurance is fine if you can afford it. Most people can't wear a $20k hit without potentially ending up homeless or in significant financial distress.
We/Australia has a massive focus on early detection of skin cancer due to our overly sunny weather. It's possibly that we detect more cancer and treat it earlier thus the better outcomes?