The environment varies considerably depending on what agency or department you work for. Many people work for the government because they can be involved with projects that just don't exist in the private sector.

I don't think implementing a few basic security practices are going to cause idea stagnation, yet best practices are constantly shot down in favor of sexy monitoring software. I guess it makes sense for a manager. What you would rather put on your resume?

"Implemented 2 million dollar intrusion detection and anti-malware enterprise software solution with staff of security engineers monitoring network traffic 24/7"
OR
"Took the damn users out of the local administrators group."

If the grandparent's organization is anything like mine, the issue isn't the lack of technical solutions for locking down computers. It's the unwillingness of managers to put their neck on the line and sign off on suggestions like this.

Maybe they should have increased their weapons research budget instead.

Some activities that are considered wrong in some cultures are perfectly fine in others. What's wrong is for huge powerful cultures to pressure everyone else to adopt their moral code.

The degree of a burn refers to how deep the burn is. If the burns affected the full thickness of the dermis and underlying tissue, then they would be considered third degree despite the lack of charring.

Since when does McDonald's sell FOOD?

If you had sex with a human-animal hybrid, could you be prosecuted for bestiality? Of course *I* wouldn't have sex with a hybrid. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I think.

Using laptops may be a very possible solution that is quickly dismissed by management because it is perceived as being too expensive. We have had a long policy of "no laptops...they're too expensive compared to desktops." Then we put two or three desktops in different locations for users that travel. /boggle

This may be a shock, but some IT managers don't have a clue. We have around 10k desktops and users store their files locally. Our users connect to a terminal server, then start another RDP session to connect to their desktop.