cudgy

“My kids are allowed to have screen time, but with limits. Most of their friends have similar arrangements.”

Nice. I found almost all of the peers of my kid(s) had virtually no restrictions on phone usage. Needless to say that did not help my efforts.

I think that the amount of money spent per pupil is not a critical factor. It does help I’m sure to a certain point, but the issue with the educational system is not about money. For example, Many inner city schools spend far more money per pupil than suburban schools and yet these inner city school systems have terrible results.

The real issue is what you addressed with the introduction of phonics, which addresses the instruction and the material and how it’s taught. These are improvements that would be felt across all socioeconomic levels and schools across geographic areas. Another critical factor is parents and how they support their children and the time that parents have to support their children. Lower socioeconomic level families do not have time and do not have money to support children academically as they are working multiple low income jobs while trying to survive and pay rent and eat.

Well said. Not everything in life is improved by larger scale and efficiency. Certain concerns like counting votes require accuracy and trust in the process, because distrust in the voting process is detrimental to the whole idea of a representative republic.

“there is a problem with a single company or organization controlling a nontrivial segment of the voting machines used in the US”

Even if you have many companies providing voting machines, it does not deal with the problem of distrust in national elections. Many elections that have recently occurred come down to the votes of a particular small area of the country or district. These districts are likely to be dominated by one voting machine or type of vote machine purchased by the election board at that district. So, effectively you still have a single or a few voting machines determining elections.

How do you know that the digital record matches the printed record? I fail to see how this system solves anything.

All elections should be audited regardless of how close the race is or whether there are any questions. Relying on software to count is an obvious vector for manipulation. Given that. Voting machines provide little benefit and more risk.

401k is voluntary

Says the 19 year old startup founder who drops out of college and has it made before most people even start thinking of what they want to do.

We’re all supposed to believe what? That the extremely rare 19 year old startup founders of the world believe the world is meritocratic? Uh, of course they do.

Calling people “normies” is elitist and snobish, so there is a dichotomy.

Luring people into money-losing/harmful scenarios is by definition predatory.

Underground is an appropriate place for this activity, no? You want your kids betting their savings on this trash? Your mom and dad wasting their retirement?

Maybe divorce, crime, homelessness, bankruptcy, suicide, to name a few?

You have zero clue about my faith. The days of the peaceful anti-war Democratic party are gone, buddy. The sooner that the Democrats realize it and start to reverse course to where they once were, the sooner the Democratic Party can return to being a viable alternative to the Republican Party, particularly as it relates to foreign policy and war decisions.

So, the Democrats would be different as it relates to the current wars? Democratic Party cheered on the Ukraine war. Democratic Party voted for Iraq along with Republicans after 911. I think a single Democrat (who later voted for the Ukraine war ironically) voted against it. Both parties are devout backers of the current Middle East scheme. When it comes to war, the parties are practically indistinguishable.

Might be wrong but a quick search indicates that there have been 20 government shutdowns since 1976. That is certainly not not normal.

Mainstream news is boring, repetitive, uninformative, and mainly representative of the extremes of politics. This type of programming is not attractive to most people, only shallow political junkies consume it voraciously. Most people care about healthcare, housing, education, and community. The value proposition for most people to watch the news is not very attractive.

Lack of spine? Or is it just lack of substance? Lack of credibility? Lack of talent? Lack of focus on the issues that people actually care about? Lack of leadership? Lack of a real true grass roots base?

The Democrats are basically in complete shock right now and probably realizing that they’re gonna have to rebuild the entire party. I fail to see anyone at this point in time within the Democratic party that is capable of taking the reins that has any charisma or plan that really addresses the key issues that most Americans care about.

The only bright spot (as far as liberal media seems to be determined) for the Democrats seems to be a young upstart mayoral candidate in a large American city who they don’t even support.

Interesting. I live at low altitudes and I almost always have to cook noodles longer than the instructions on the box. Now I only use Italian pasta like DeCecco or Rummo.

Your examples of cryptocurrency and sports gambling are a perfect example of my criticism. There are virtually no people that are sophisticated enough to succeed in either of those activities as they are all based on pure speculation and luck. There is no actual asset in either of these cases. While some modern crypto coins might be back with actual assets, many crypto coins are backed by only speculation and no actual assets. Basically they’re scams.

So only snobby elitists get to vote?

True. Average people are sophisticated enough to understand complex financial instruments designed to scam them by an army of lawyers and MBAs trained at the finest financial institutions and law schools.

So you don’t have to buy a new set of cables when you forget to bring them on a long trip?

Not sure it’s practical to hot swap EV batteries right now.

“An electric vehicle battery typically weighs between 300 kg (660 pounds) and 900 kg (2,000 pounds).”

https://poweringautos.com/how-much-does-an-electric-car-batt...

Does this calculation account for the 10-20% electrical energy loss during transmission across the grid?

How do you verify this when AIs are not idempotent?

Reminiscent of the dramatic release of a Syrian prisoner reported on CNN that was determined to be fake.

“CNN is acknowledging that a gripping story it aired last week depicting a Syrian man being let free from a Damascus prison after the fall of dictator Bashar Assad’s regime was not what it seemed.”

https://apnews.com/article/syria-prisoner-clarissa-ward-fake...

I believe the prior post is referring to first generation students that receive their primary education in foreign countries.

Like I said in another post, the environment in these primary schools in the United States is just not set up for success. Their standards are low and they allow smart phones and distracting device devices in schools. Not to mention the overt focus on athletics over academics. However, the last point is not the biggest issue as that’s been a part of primary education in high school in the US for a century at least.

At least they have physical textbooks. Many classes now only provide links to a PDF document and the students still pay $100-$200 for the privilege. Plus, you can’t recover a portion of the cost of the book by reselling it nor can students save money by buying used books.

I disagree that K through 12 is not part of the problem though. The presence of phones in schools, especially smart phones, has definitely had an impact on the learning skills of students. In the old days, if you will, people had to pass physical pieces of paper around in class secretly to communicate, which was riskier and usually a one or two time event. Smart phones are a Pandora’s box of distractions. I also blame schools for lowering their standards to accommodate the lower standards of the students entering their schools. The schools are simply passing these students down the down the river of eventual disappointment. There should be remedial courses and schools should dismiss students that are not willing or able to pass these courses in order to have the ability to perform at an acceptable level.

Taking their money and providing a degree when they haven’t actually learned the material is borderline fraud.

Sorry, but your attempt to reframe my response was not successful. If AI is harmful to society, the “winning” of the AI race may not be beneficial to that society.

What’s bad is the lack of ability to look at one’s own area of the world and recognize the faults in your own backyard while wailing about equal faults in other areas of the world as if they are unique.