No, it's not new that governments want information about how to commit illegal actions blocked, but the big issue isn't "websites engaged in illegal activities will be blocked." Instead it is "how do you know those sites actually engage in illegal activities?" It might be very easy for some random site to be accidentally added to the list or for some government official to add a site because "I think that sort of thing should be against the law." If you get a political group with enough power, this blocking could be used to silence dissent and strengthen their political power. If you go online to read the news and only see positive things about GUY_IN_CHARGE and negative things about POLITICAL_OPPONENT, you're likely to support GUY_IN_CHARGE and oppose POLITICAL_OPPONENT.

This is why checks and balances are important, but they rarely seem to appear in connection with website block lists.

Followed up with "How will the scope of this block expand in time?"

Let's say we accept that these websites are so horrible that they deserve to be blocked. Fine, they're blocked. Except now, there are some sites that the government wants blocked because they sympathize with the terrorists (though they don't actively promote terrorism). Then, there are sites that promote other heinous illegal activities that are requested to be blocked. Then some not-so-heinous illegal activities (e.g. copyright infringement). Eventually, you get to the point that any site is blocked if the government disapproves of it.

This leads to the other question: "How will the list of sites to be blocked be managed?" In other words, will it just be "Government says X should be blocked so X is blocked?" Or is there some sort of process that will keep false positives (or abusive blocks) from being added to the list?

And with any social media platform, you can control what you see based on who you follow. Don't want to see stupid memes, astrology posts, and endless photos of people's food*? Don't follow people who post these things. There are plenty of people on social media having actual conversations so you can follow them and completely block out the rest of the garbage**.

* Full disclosure: I've been guilty of posting photos of my food on social media, but I try to keep it limited.

** Always keep in mind that one person's garbage is another person's valuable content. I might not care who CURRENT_BIG_POP_STAR is dating, but other people would love to hear this information. Social media (and the Internet in general) is big enough for all of us to post our content while we ignore the content we have no interest in.

As an identity theft victim, this doesn't surprise me. The whole system is set up to protect the large companies from any liability should your personal information be misused and to place the burden on you to prove that it was indeed misused.

Given that names, DOB, address, and SSN were likely breached - which together could be used to open credit lines in a person's name - my recommendation would be to freeze your credit if you were one of the affected. It's a pain because you can't open up any new lines of credit yourself unless you first thaw your credit (and pay for it), but neither can anyone else.

It's curious that they and Anthem discovered the breaches on the same day. I know coincidence doesn't prove a linkage, but still this seems a bit suspicious.

If history is any guide, it will be a terrible name. It might even be a recycle of a previous terrible name. I'm going with Kin.

Microsoft Clippy-Zune?

Actually using a soldering iron isn't anything like me, personally, as I've never used one. I was aiming for "encourage the little girl to use her mind instead of acting like brainless bimbo is a life goal."

Youth has the edge on age when it comes to body fitness. However, age has the edge on youth when it comes to experience. By the time you get to 40, you've made a ton of mistakes and have (hopefully) learned from them. You know what works and what doesn't. Youth likes rolling its eyes at Age and running headlong down a path that Age says won't work. Sometimes Youth succeeds, but more than likely Age is proven right.

Or, maybe, the child could have a conversation with her toy and use her imagination to have the toy reply. Why does everything need to be preset and electronically prepared for our kids so that they don't need to use their imaginations to play?

A thousand points to the person/group that does a "positive hack." Instead of the obvious string of obscenities, have Barbie embrace geekiness and the maker culture instead of being a brainless bimbo.

Little girl: "Barbie, do you want to go shopping?"
Barbie: "Sure. I could use a new soldering iron. Also, my favorite comic book has a new issue out. I can't wait to read what happens this issue!"

If you've got nothing to hide using bananas, you've got nothing to fear?

My phone (Motorola Droid Turbo) has a voice-activated assistant that I can enable to help launch apps, perform searches, read/reply to texts, etc. It requires an activation phrase to work (which you can customize). Unfortunately, it recognizes too much speech as the activation phrase. I set it to "Droid Activate" and it would activate with "She has a record." It got so annoying hearing the "I'm ready to take your command" beep coming from my phone during ordinary conversations that I disabled it. I didn't lose much because I can either launch the apps manually or, if I'm in a position where I can't launch apps like when I'm driving, I can just wait until I can.

Common Core isn't a curriculum and has no required materials or teaching methods.

Teachers that think outside the box can still think outside the box under Common Core.. especially because the STANDARDS set aside in Common Core have been around for decades in a lot of states!

Not in New York. Here, Common Core was implemented using EngageNY which is a series of scripts that tell teachers what subjects to cover, what to say, how to say it, what questions to ask, what kids' responses should be, and how long (down to the minute) to spend on each section.

My wife and I are fighting back against just this in New York state. Here, the politicians have enacted EngageNY which is literally a script for teachers to read. It tells them not only what subjects to cover, but what to say, how to say it, what questions to ask the kids, what their responses should be, and how long (down to the minute) to spend on each section. Gone are the days of teachers using their brains/skills and tailoring lessons to the strengths of each kid. Now, they are required to read the script and emote on command like an actor. Each kid is required to learn in exactly the same way because the politicians decided that one size really does fit all when it comes to education. And if it doesn't work, don't worry. Pearson and other big education companies are standing by to sell "solutions" such as training seminars for teachers. (Teachers need to take time off to attend Studio Classroom sessions where they learn how to follow the EngageNY script.)

Oh, and what if teachers go off-script? The politicians have that covered. Tests are administered and if the kids don't continually keep getting better on the tests, the teachers can be fired. So if a teacher wants to keep his/her job, they should spend as much time on test prep and following EngageNY as possible. Actual learning is not required.

My wife was a teacher. When we were expecting our second son, we did some budgeting and realized that, after daycare, after school care for our oldest son, and other expenses for her to continue teaching, we'd be PAYING money for her to keep her job. Her salary as a teacher was just too low. Not to mention that she had to deal with so much stress (from kids, parents, administrators) and worked so many long hours (begin before kids arrive to set up, stay late to grade tests, work on vacations to come up with new lesson plans, etc). Anyone who thinks teachers are high paid, have a cushy job, and work short hours doesn't know the first thing about teaching.