They are mentioning StuxNet and the like as a threat example? So, the US is in danger of malware created by the US ... perhaps loosing viral code on the world wasn't a good idea.

"We're finding espionage, advanced persistent threats (APTs), and other malware sitting in networks, often for more than a year before it's ever detected," Martinez says.

Now, to "protect" ourselves from our government we need to do what ... turn over more information and control to the people that created the problem? Why would I want to give more power to people that have already proven they can't be trusted with it?

This sounds like nothing more than multi-faceted spin control and manipulation.

What I hear being said:
Look, we need a larger budget to monitor this situation.
And more power to get the information we need without the red tape of actually getting warrants.
For your protection against what we've done, you should just give us all your info, all the time.

Turbo Pascal, the early versions before version 4, rocked the do a lot with a little.

Less than 40K of floppy disk space got you a text editor and a compiler/linker.

I still keep a copy around, although it doesn't see use but about once a year just for kicks.

Very true.
Many, many people in Kansas City, which sits on the border of Kansas and Missouri, buy their gasoline in Missouri and the busiest stations are the ones just on the Missouri side of State Line Road, because the difference in gasoline taxes amounts to about seven cents per gallon.
At current prices in the area, that's about 2%. So it is a fair comparison and a good predictor that people would likely do the same thing for credit card purchases.
I would guess most people, though, could switch from credit purchases to debit card purchases for routine shopping.

CEGEP:

Instead of completing his/her final year at a traditional high school (as would be typical in the US), the student starts attending a 2-year degree and/or vo-tech school. Completion of the two-year program serves the same function as high school diploma in the US and (depending on the school and program completed) may also serve as an Associates degree.

Usually people complete a program like this before turning 20, but there are many reasons why that isn't necessarily the case.

Will you marry me? No? Probably for the best ... but I'm going to quote you, at least.

Most fonts appear to have smoother edges and more consistent curves when rendered as black-text-on-white background, which is why that is the default ...

In the US:
The test is administered in US public schools.
Many of the wealthier people in the US send their kids to private schools, where the test is NOT administered.
Those with lower income backgrounds are almost universally in public schools, where the test could be administered.
So, people from lower income backgrounds are more heavily represented.

Some countries (although usually not "1st World"):
Wealthier people send their kids to school, where the test may be administered.
Those with lower income backgrounds may not even attend school, so the test would not be administered.
So, people from higher income backgrounds are more heavily represented.

Things are changing, but a lot of it is probably what you remember.

Tourist is skateboarding across two provinces right now ... big highway used almost exclusively by construction trucks extending the highway ... then a rocky trail to get over to another highway, also used almost exclusively by construction trucks building THAT highway ... and that was the BEST option for getting from point A to point B.

Given that it is a major pain in the butt to get an assault rifle already ... you do realize this requires an expensive federal permit to even own one? They are effectively already banned.

The current bans being discussed are trying to go further and ban things that are not assault rifles, but merely "look scary".

I really, really hope the parent poster is some type of forum robot (pseudo-AI) whose algorithm/database has run amok ...

Do you know where to send Jack Frost's tax bill? I understand that for any state at a latitude north of Oklahoma he does more damage than all other driver's combined ...

A ? B : C
o__/

Ooh, dude got crushed by ternary!

Finally, legislation I can agree with!

Not particularly technical, but vaguely geeky in their own right.

The company I work for has an entire division devoted to executive compensation analysis. It largely consists of surveying executives to discover trends in various industries' compensation packages. We do the bulk of the work as a "disinterested third party" so companies can obtain an unbiased analysis of executive compensation trends (for a fee - which is one of my company's revenue streams).

Organizations then purchase the analyses of these trends to aid them in determining how they should set up compensation plans for their executives. Organizations with thousands of employees, dozens of executives, and hundreds of managers will usually have at least one FTE (and often several FTEs) of their own dedicated to participating in compensation surveys, analyzing results, and investigating whether the organization should be altering the executive compensation packages by going more heavy in, say, deferred compensation programs versus direct compensation, etc.

The standard practice for the people that do this is to send out both the data collection surveys and the results in spreadsheets, typically in Excel (a few decades ago it would been Lotus 1-2-3).

Analysis of the data is usually performed in SAS or SPSS.

Keep in mind ... there are NO places in the USA where tornadoes occur regularly. Take Kansas (where I grew up), it is in "Tornado Alley". Ooh, dangerous! Not really. There's dozens of tornadoes per year in the state, but tornadoes have a pretty small damage path, usually only a few square miles. Let's say it is an absolutely horrible year, though, and there are 100 tornadoes with an average damage path of 20 square miles, that would be 2000 square miles of damage. Kansas is ~82,000 square miles in size, though. So even in a year far worse than has happened in recorded history, as a Kansas resident for a worst case year you are 40 times more likely to be unaffected by a tornado than you are to be affected.

The downside is, damage from a tornado if you are directly in the damage path tends to be absolute. Grass and foundations tend to be the only items left intact.