It's hard to trust anyone who's work is disseminated by the government or media today. Research and reports are spun mercilessly for the gain of whoever needs it. It may not be scientist's fault but when you hear something like "the sky is falling" and then hear it refuted over and over, one starts to take things with a grain of salt. Take, for example, Global Cooling back in the 1970's. That was refuted with Global Warming in the 2000's and now it's simply Global Climate Change which seems to be a catch-all. I don't deny GCC but I certainly want to see the data. What's the old adage that Regan grabbed from the Russian's; "Trust but Verify" I think was it.

"...how initial concern over an asteroid strike wasn't sustained long enough to establish consistent funding..."

I would be much happier if we could sustain concern over our infrastructure like roads and bridges and forget about something that will probably never happen in our lifetimes or our great grand children's lifetimes.

Correct me if I am wrong but stealing thousands or millions of records through an accessible UI doesn't seem feasible to me. If the data itself had been encrypted, even if the thiefs had access to the storage directly, they would have been stealing encrypted files. Maybe encryption isn't the holy grail but I would sure feel better knowing my data wasn't readable after downloading. I mean make them work for it anyway.

Obama has promised again and again to safeguard our liberties. Now he has morphed into George Bush. What did I miss?

For all intents and purposes, who cares?

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/for_all_intensive_purposes

It's not really a volcano. It's global warming making the earth hotter and melting the rocks. Nature couldn't possibly be destroying her own environment, could she?

This is what happens in a country that takes their citizens right to bear arms away. Higher taxes to better support government bloat is first, next it will be further intrusion into personal lives and jailing people without due process. At some point Australians will be slaves to their government and they won't even know it.....
I know what you are thinking; that's all happening in the US too. At least here in the US we will be able to gather our guns and shut it down when we get tired of it.

I give out my DNA all the time. As long as I don't have to pay child support, I am not concerned.

Why is it, that after nearly 40 years in the workplace, I have never seen any of the things this article presupposes as reasons why women's numbers are lower in the engineering community? Call me blind if you will but I work with several engineers who are women and they seem to get along just fine.
This is just annoying, feel-good, liberal crap. Women's numbers will never increase because most want a family at some point in their lives.

Shoot, now there will be a CO2 shortage and my soda will be flat.

Certainly the blessed Democrats are not complicit in this at all. I mean they have rallied to get rid of the Patriot Act, right? Oh wait, no they haven't, not even our President who compromised on government snooping oversight and totally bailed on his campaign promise. I loathe people who want to just throw blame. Oh and you are a pussy and a douche bag for posting anonymously.

I am well beyond millennial status and I approve of what Snowden did so I am not sure I believe the survey results. While I do approve, I also wrestle with the fact that he broke the law and put Americans in jeopardy. That makes me wonder how the questions were asked. I mean I can certainly dislike someone but approve of what they did.

To continue your point, the automakers are hamstrung by government compliance rules like California's CARB or ridiculous Federal mandates that require an entire manufacturers fleet to meet certain mileage goals. Safety requirements are another mandated and expensive area where manufacturers pretty much eat the cost of compliance. Manufacturers invest billions to meet those requirements through R&D and software, so it just makes sense they should try to protect what little magic they create. Additionally, warranty work directly caused by consumer mods can be expensive.
What we need to have is legislation that clearly defines who is liable when a consumer modifies their vehicle along with a foolproof way to prove it.

Nothing would please me more. I went to vocational school and have been turned away by several employers because I don't have a degree. My personal opinion is that college is a business that has effectively promoted itself into being necessary for survival. Certainly someone with 20+ years of experience should be allowed to teach within their field, shouldn't they?

As a school board member in my community, I know that we would like our teachers to closely represent our district demographics. Our district is a combination of urban, suburban and rural so it's a challenge to maintain these numbers even though we have a university in town churning out new teachers. The fact of the matter is, people of color are not choosing education as a major and if they are, they are being hired right out of college by larger districts.
For the record, I think the premise of the article is outrageous and most likely wrong. While I do believe kids need mentors, I also believe those folks can be anyone who cares. Kids can relate to whomever as long as an effort is made to understand their situations and any judgements are withheld.