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Comment already lost (Score 1) 236

My kids were born in the 1990s and my youngest daughter was in her early 20s when she was talking to a cousin 10y younger than she. The cousin had asked about a sweatshirt she was wearing that had cursive text - nothing complicated, probably "dogs are cute" or somesuch - and my daughter AMAZED her by being able to read the script.

Then the cousin asked "It's cool that you can read that, can you speak it, too?"

Yeah, I'm not sure mandatory cursive classes are going to help at this point.

Comment Re:BNPL groceries = groceries on credit cards (Score 5, Informative) 90

People buying essentials on credit has been around for a very long time.

Longer than most think.


You load sixteen tons, what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter, don't you call me, 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

-Sixteen Tons, Tennessee Ernie Ford

Comment Re:Need a prescription. (Score 1) 49

A few things to note...

Over the past couple of decades, more and more roles within the British healthcare system have become able to prescribe - pharmacists (as noted in the summary), nurse prescribers, physicians associates (who technically should be under the supervision of a GP, but the way the NHS has that set up its very much a "PA prescribes, GP actually has little say")...

The role of doctors in the British healthcare system is being diminished and replaced by lower paid, lower trained positions, and GPs are particularly hard hit by it - which is why GPs are retiring or moving overseas at record rates, far beyond the ability for the current GP training schemes to replace them.

The UK is actively doctor hostile these days, and British doctors do not want to be part of it any more.

It's not just in Britain. All across the West, there's a shortage of native-born doctors. The expense and hassle of getting an MD is bad enough. Then you also have the modern stresses of being an MD (which in America, includes a highly litigious culture where doctors have to get maddeningly expensive malpractice insurance). The workload is huge, and the money is only good for the hyper-specialists now. The home-grown family doctor is an endangered species in the US, and we're addressing it in two ways: handing doctor duties to those lower on the chain, and importing doctors from the third world. Every single new doctor at my not-large Southern US hospital in the past three years has come from 3 places: India, Pakistan, or East Africa. This of course, robs those areas of badly needed doctors. And it doesn't really matter if your system is private or nationalized. Look at the ranks of doctors that staff your local services. You'll see similarities everywhere in the West: there's fewer of them, and they tend to come from overseas.

Comment Re:Not as important as bringing back flashcards (Score 1) 236

There was an educational movement just after 2000 where for some reason teachers decided that rote learning was bad, so the activists within the ranks of teachers went through and got rid of everything that was strictly memorization and practice-based. This included everything from phonics to flash cards and of course cursive. In fact I think keyboarding was also a victim. My kids didn't take any of these things in school (we're in Ontario, Canada). Their handwriting is awful.

The best schools always included a mix of techniques in teaching. You had "drill 'till it kills" in math, THEN you had logic and reasoning exercises. You had memorization of names and dates, THEN you had deep discussions of historical events. A good education includes both rote and discussion, and always has.

Comment Re:It a guidebook... (Score 5, Insightful) 236

How to watch republicans piss away taxpayer money on utterly useless crap, trying to get back to a past that time forgot...

Oh FFS. There are lots of knowledge that isn't "practical" yet is valuable to our culture. You people piss and moan about children not being properly educated, but when someone suggests that things like cursive writing and other finer points of civilization should continue to be taught, you scoff with bullshit like this.

My mother's generation had mandatory classes in Latin during high school in the early 1960's. As a culture, we're the poorer for having dropped those kinds of requirements. There's a reason the finer schools still require them. I'm all for more of a focus on the practical for kids... more shop classes, more practical math (loans and interest, basic accounting, etc), but to suggest that we should chuck all of the finer points of culture into the trash because it's "trying to get back to a past that time forgot" is complete and utter horseshit.

Comment Re:how are data centers "dirty"? (Score 1) 71

But in that sense we're getting into semantic hairsplitting. "Annoying" != "dirty"
To your points:
* Noise of generators and cooling systems, the DC being built too close to existing homes, more of a zoning council fail but it happens as DC money can make the council turn a blind eye to the local residents desires.
Zoning issue, as I mentioned.

* Vibration, lots of big engines and such can create vibrations that travel thru the ground (or very low frequency) that can disturb sleep and such even if it doesn't measure on the sound meter.
Zoning issue, as I mentioned.

* Diesel exhaust if that's used for generators.
CLEARLY a Zoning issue, as I mentioned.

* Water supplies can be consumed (& denied to locals) or even "contaminated" (like being warmed too much for the local wildlife), or aquifers can be drained faster than they can replenish.
Not a zoning but pricing issue; I've been involved in commercial/industrial planning, and water consumption is certified; if it exceeds capacity, it shouldn't get a permit (zoning issue, basically) at all. Otherwise, it should be charged for what it takes; if the price is calculated accurately this shouldn't be an issue.
The warming of local aquifers and surface water is 100% a valid point though as I don't know of any regulatory system that comprehends/accommodates/costs this into the factor. Good point.

* Electricity as this article is about
Pricing issue. If it's slated to need X mwh, then it should be charged for it. If the local grid has to build capacity to accomodate, that's a planning issue and likely a surcharge for the major user(s). If this isn't happening, again, local regulatory issue.

* Dropping local property values of existing homes
If a business is properly zoned, compelled(!) to comply with local ordinances about noise, emissions, vibration, traffic, etc there's zero reason this would impact local home values.

* Taxation issues because cities want to bring the DC in and give tax abatements, but there are still local services required so the extra costs get passed on to others
The tax abatement issue is absolutely a genuine one; such arrangements HAVE TO ensure basic services are paid for, and that only the marginal 'profit' from such projects' taxation is in play. Most local councils have some level of corruption, unfortunately, and too few local residents give enough of a shit to make any change.

Comment Re:how are data centers "dirty"? (Score 1) 71

"The company naturally took a build now/ permit later approach to essentially building their own power plant, as one does."

I live in MN. We were building a coating plant here in the late 1990s and it involved a thermal system to burn away solvents that escaped from our coating process (we're a EU firm, and have been recycling this back into power for our dryers for years reducing solvent emissions to basically 0) so I was heavily involved with the MN PCA and EPA who (surprisingly) had no algorithms to comprehend such a system yet in the US. So I had a year or more of fairly deep engineering discussions with regulators.

TN certainly has its own rules but I don't understand how a company could have a "The company naturally took a build now/ permit later approach to essentially building their own power plant, as one does." Doesn't your example VERY SPECIFICALLY support my point that this isn't so much an issue about the data center but about the lax implementation of basic regulation and zoning limits that the could do so and even survive the regulatory consequence?

Comment Re:Oooh! 56 million whole bucks? (Score 1) 182

I genuinely don't know. I don't have all the answers.
But when the literal best dirt the Dems can come up with is "Trump is mentioned!" even then the point isn't what they're trying to make it seem: ...yes, he's mentioned because he was telling them to STOP BEING PEDOS.
"In one of the emails, dated January 2019 and sent to columnist Michael Wolff, Epstein said of Trump: âoeOf course, he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.â"

https://www.theguardian.com/us...

Comment Re:Oooh! 56 million whole bucks? (Score 1) 182

Where did he claim this?

He famously said the Epstein and he shared a love of women but Epstein's tastes 'ran a little young'.
He tossed Epstein out of Maralago for creeping on young female staff, and volunteered cooperation with Epstein's only prosecution.
Epstein papers that have been released show he seethed about Trump.

The Dems tried a docudump that - if they had anything - would have ABSOLUTELY included damning evidence. "Trump knew about the girls" - sure, Epstein himself talked about it, but not in the way that helps your point:
(From the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/us...) In one of the emails, dated January 2019 and sent to columnist Michael Wolff, Epstein said of Trump: âoeOf course, he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.â
He's literally mentioned telling them to STOP. Are you people stupid?

Now Trump is fighting his own congress to get the papers out.

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