Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror

Comment to be clear (Score -1, Flamebait) 153

I think homeschooling is generally a bad idea; what you learn from school is imo only about 1/3 from books, it's at least half about socialization and how to get along with your fellow humans in the myriad of contexts of human interactions: friendships, fights, love, hate, power relationships to authority, conformance (or non-), etc.

NONE of that extra stuff is really available for homeschoolies, aside from pre-programmed 'playdates' or whatever is the equivalent at older ages which help but are insufficient: part of the lesson IS the spontaneity, unplanned context of humans in groups.

THAT SAID, at least in the US schools are deeply fucked up.
They throw more money at each student than anywhere else in the world, and get worse results than most of their industrialized peers.
There is little to no ability to discipline students. (St Paul public schools for example were unhappy with the higher rates of punishment for black students, their answer was to change the rules so black students were not punished as much for the same penalties as white studients....I shit you not: https://www.apmreports.org/sto...)
Seattle schools abandoned math standards as "racist". (https://www.reddit.com/r/SeattleWA/comments/wfddoi/seattle_schools_teach_students_that_math_is/)
They are ideologically captured, with Teachers generally being the reliably highest % donors to Democrat candidates for decades. Moreover, the 'crazy years' that we're only just emerging from seem to have enabled the most radical teachers to believe they could bukkake their radical (eg trans & other entirely inappropriate) agendas all over the kids down to the kindegarten level without consequence, and largely they're right.

I think homeschooling is bad, but until schools stop abandoning actual education in favor of being bastions of leftist indoctrination, I fully see why parents will make such a choice.

My kids are in their 30s, thank god, because I honestly can't tell you what my reaction would be if I heard some teacher had the audacity to tell me to my face the words of their union leader: "The children are always ours. Every single one of them. All over the globe." and later "Yes, we do [think your children are our children]." (https://x.com/DeAngelisCorey/status/1937316711159443658)
I fear how I would react.

Comment Re:College is not middle school (Score 1) 237

Sadly, while they sneer at for-profit colleges, the "real" colleges are no better.

While there are still noble souls who believe in things like open discourse, the intrinsic value of education as betterment, and the service of our whole society by making better people - the reality (and certainly the management) of the collegiate institutions today is farming fundraising, milking foreign students for full-fare tuition (which is obscene), and building the endowment.

When my son was being recruited to play college football (2010), St Thomas here in Mpls was starting a 10 year fundraising drive to raise $70m for a new student center. I believe they hit the target in 4y.

$70m for a single 225,000 sqft (~22500sqm) building that's basically a glorified cafeteria/study area/some meeting rooms.
Is this a building focused on education and betterment? https://www.tommiemedia.com/an...

Comment Re:Alternate headline (Score -1, Troll) 74

Also, you're just a dumbfuck if you can't understand 14 words.

"...the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed..."

Not a lot of wiggle room.
Yes, the clause before it says why it's a good idea, but there's no legal authority EVER that has sided with your dumbass interpretation that 'explanatory note' = conditional constraint.

Comment let's see actual statistics (Score 1) 246

Is this
1) (stupid) antivaxxers, as so very many ideologically-motivated comments here have immediately assumed?
Or is it
2) millions of unvaccinated illegals entering the country since 2020? ... Or something else?

I find it curious that so many commenters here are insanely militant and aggressive about vaccination, I didn't recall those same voices ever insisting that the tidal wave of illegals submit to vaccination... Do you?

Comment already lost (Score 1) 243

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: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?

Slashdot Top Deals

I don't do it for the money. -- Donald Trump, Art of the Deal

Working...