And that's a big IF... I had an energy audit run on my house earlier this year and the local power and light sent me a half dozen free CFLs. 3 of them are still functioning after less than a year.

If it's not work-related, they don't need to be going there, same as at my non-governmental job. Lame.

They probably never took the time to figure out how to do it.

That's why you put it in your ear and connect it to your phone while you're stopped. OMGWAFI

Way to leave out salient facts from your link, such as: "The researchers assessed the performance of 200 participants over a single task (simulated freeway driving), and again with a second demanding activity added (a cell phone conversation that involved memorizing words and solving math problems). " So how often do you think MOST people have to "MEMORIZE WORDS and SOLVE MATH PROBLEMS" when they're on a cell phone conversation? Care to try posting a more true-to-life study that doesn't put such unreal conditions on the experiment?

It's one thing when someone's punching the keypad. It's completely different to be talking on the phone but not punching the buttons. By the way, whenever someone admits to "When I see somebody holding a phone instead of driving, I call the police.", I give them a ration of shit. Why? 2 months ago no emergency responders were responding to emergency calls in this city because people like you, reporting non-emergency problems like that, flooded the 911 center. IMHO, you're an idiot.

Sounds like somebody has a bad case of the Mondays...

The point is, people need to figure out what they want before they get in the situation, and then communicate their desires to their next-of-kin. The problem is, this lady and her husband never apparently did that, and left it to the docs, hospitals and insurance companies to call the shots.

I agree, except I'd probably opt for a massive overdose of heroin.

The time to quit is when the patient, in counsel with his/her loved ones, decides it's time to quit. I didn't read TFA because I prefer to go off half-cocked when offering my opinions, but if the widow is now wondering if it was worth it, she and her husband obviously had a failure to communicate before he was stricken.

While you're asking for things, how about some pupils that are interested, rested, fed, healthy and able to behave for 6 to 8 hours a day? How about some parents that actually care whether their children do their homework and respect the teachers? I'd love to teach too, but not when I'm going to be held responsible for delivery of the whole social welfare package instead of just teaching.

Well, I can't speak for the situation in NYC but in my small school district in KCMO, there is a) no such thing as this "rubber room" environment you described and b) teachers, who all belong to the union, are fired on a regular basis for a variety of reasons including incompetence and mistreating students. Your example of the way things work in NYC may be true but it's not typical.

Wrong. Education (public or private) in this country works exactly as well as the provider and recipient makes it work. You come to class and pay attention, don't screw around, do the work, put in a little extra effort and you're going to go somewhere. Most importantly parents have to be involved and stay involved with the education process. Most parents in this country put practically no effort or time into making sure their kids are learning, and it shows. If there's an issue at school, most parents assume it's the other guy's fault and stick up for their kid who doesn't pay attention in class, doesn't do the homework, doesn't behave, doesn't learn anything - to them, it's ALL the teachers' or schools' fault.

Why is it when Johnny can't read we never hold to the fire the feet of the people who have these poor performers in their custody, what, 128 out of 168 hours per week (that's 76% for those of you who can read but not do math)? Or, roughly, 7130/8736 =82% of the hours per year? Who are these people who never get the blame in spite of the fact that they have far greater influence than a (generally) poorly paid babysitter? The parents. When is something going to be done to hold the parents accountable for children who come to school unprepared, emotionally and physically bankrupt and who do nothing but cause trouble when they are there? I'm not a teacher but I surely are am not the only one to notice that when kids underperform, it's never entirely the teachers' fault. Not that I mean to say there aren't some bad teachers out there who need to be fired. But not before a clear pattern is proven that a given teacher has failed to teach rather than the kid fails to learn.

So you seem to be saying it all would have been perfectly OK for the school district to REQUIRE students to take and use these laptops, and have their photos taken when and where the school district decided, had only the school district disclosed that they planned to do so, right? I'm speechless that anyone would think an arrangement like that would have been OK.