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Comment Re:All-party state (Score 1) 798

It was in a public place. There is no expectation for privacy. The bully was not whispering. He and the other teens were talking loudly for the whole class. "According to Love, as the teacher is heard attempting to help her son with a math problem, a student says, “You should pull his pants down!” Another student replies, “No, man. Imagine how bad that (c**t) smells! No one wants to smell that (t**t).” As the recording continues, the teacher instructs the classroom that they may only talk if it pertains to math. Shortly thereafter, a loud noise is heard on the recording, which her son explained was a book being slammed down next to him after a student pretended to hit him in the head with it. When the teacher yells, the student exclaims, “What? I was just trying to scare him!” A group of boys are heard laughing." What privacy is expected when you are trying to make a spectacle to an entire classroom? As well this was done in a public building. During public hours. As well I'm pretty sure that building was riddled with security cameras.

Comment Re:sickening (Score 1) 798

No but a parent will have more control of how their child is treated. In a private school if a parent shows a recording of their child being bullied the principal will work to correct the issue or the child will move to another private school and he will lose income. If not this child the next one the bully goes after will leave. In a public school the principal does not have to worry about income as it is given to the school every year from taxes. He just has to worry about not spending it all or his budget will get cut back. The parent has no control.

Comment Re:WTF?? (Score 5, Interesting) 798

From what I remember from another article (several days ago) the teen recorded the incident to convince his mom that he was being bullied ( he had told her several times but she did not believe him). He had evidently requested help from teachers as well. When his mom saw the evidence she told him to show the principal the recording. The principal then called the police without informing the mother or talking with her about the incident. She was later called in. Mind you this recording was made IN FRONT of a teacher. In a full classroom. I would think there would be no expectation of privacy in a room filled with students and a teacher. In a building with security cameras, in a state that has had schools actively monitoring the students even at home (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School_District).

Comment Re:Generic vs. specific laws (Score 1) 367

I have never understood why driver license divisions do not use technology to handle this. Having to take a driving test in a simulator that actually has road accident conditions randomly thrown at you that you would handle a ton of this. I have found myself reacting to conditions before they happen even if distracted by a person in the car. It was almost muscle memory. And it wasn't just hit the brakes. I have accelerated when almost run over by an SUV and swerved around a person turning wrong. All without even thinking about it. Instant assessment and reaction. That should be apart of driver training. I don't really care if you have a hard time parallel parking. I don't think it should be mandatory for you to memorize the blood alcohol levels if you don't drink. But I think you should know how to stop your car at 65 miles an hour when a deer walks on the road. Or how to slow down around parks because a lot of children are below hood level when walking around a car. Or how to speed up when the car right beside you starts to fishtail all over his lane. Or what to do when that mattress falls off the truck in front of you.

Comment Re:Space travel (Score 1) 357

The times for suspended animation are short (in a scifi sense) but this has happened before and the research is close to 40 years old. Two boys fell into ice a while back and were dead for about an hour to an hour and half. http://www.firehouse.com/forum... As well back in 87 the the was an article about a Beagle that was down for for quite awhile with ice water for blood till they pumped the blood back. From what I understand the big danger is that the brain is sensitive to oxygen when in the suspended state and needs to have oxygen slowly brought back or it caused major damage to the cells. Not quite on the same thread there was a article a while back about a man in Japan that suffered a head injury in the snow and was found a month later and in a self induced hibernation.

Comment Re:Never satisfied (Score 1) 323

People also used have to cook with what was only in their local area. true that might have been only potatoes but they could cook them any way they wanted. Now they get all "persnickety" when they can't choose what type of apple they want. And they want all that stuff fresh! Crazy. It's human to want choices and freedom to choose. I like that I can choose from a ton of books, hard, soft or ebook. Instead of what my local library has not banned or the bible. I like that I can choose what color car I want and not just the black one. I like that I can choose what radio station I can listen to and not just the one that the president is on. I like that I can change channels on the tv and not have to be stuck watching a show about puppets. I like that I can choose what type of soap I use and not just the one the grocer stocks. I like that I can try the music of 100's of countries and not just the 50 records at the local juke box. I like that I can see the news from other countries instead of being stuck with the local "Yellow Journalism". So you can continue to be satisfied with what you had in the past - I'd say about 1950 - 1960's there. I will continue to demand that technology advance to my demand for convenience. As far as passive experiences (like watching what was there, listening to the radio, playing a record, or reading abook, are not passive). Look at what is being done with video games , web series like h+, and the idea of movies for the Oculus drift. All very immersive, all very active in how the user works with them and not passive.

Comment Re:Remove the middleman (Score 1) 323

R.I.P.D made about 100 million last year. Not including international DVD/Bluray sales or streaming. It cost about 150 million to make and distribute. It will pay for itself in about three years. However I am willing to bet that the production studio is going to list that film financially as a loss and get the tax benefit from that. Movies don't lose money, they just have lower profit.

Comment Re:Rentals are too expensive (Score 1) 323

I know it's parody, But if you think about it that business model is quite sustainable. Right now there are tons of television shows that people would love to see but just sit in vaults. There are tons of movies if made readily available could be streamed for more profit than sitting in a vault. I pretty sure more people would buy laugh-in/carol burnet than what sells on infomercials. Even a paid service to access a production companies vaults would be better than sitting on a movie 30 years. Really is Cats from Outerspace really making Disney a ton of money sitting in a vault to come out every five years on a cable channel or would it be better in a video service where a mother can for 8 bucks a month let her kids stream movies all day.

Comment Re:Have we become our own worst enemy? (Score 1) 239

"I imagine that even Bin Laden would be surprised the extent to which a single organized attack could inject its backward thinking into a nation that claimed to be so different than the rest." That backward thinking was already here. It's been here the whole time. Read about J. Edgar Hoover or Nixon. The list is many. Giving any government, power without control is going to create this.

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