Even worse though, is that it doesnt even have to be you submitting your data. Several killers have been caught because their family members have submitted DNA and the killers have been tracked down using DNA ancestry. It really sucks, because it only takes one gullible person to really expose your family to data mining.
Or even worse, premiums went up because you could have inherited costly diseases (but didn't), and they have no way to verify it unless you also prostrate yourself on the altar of no privacy.
How confident are you that the government of the country you live in will use the ability to genetically trace the entire population through long range genetic scanning to harm only people you think deserve to be harmed? Keeping in mind that as long as these databases are allowed to exist, the genetic information itself remains relevant for hundreds of years?
Basically, this let's the government put a tracker on every person as long as they can get to where that person was within a couple of months to years (depending on conditions), and every future government gets to decide exactly who should be subject to that level of surveillance, what crime is bad enough to justify it. Do you trust the government of the United States 100 years from now to be that aligned with your personal views? Zero concern that a Hitler-figure could arise in the US and use that power to exterminate large numbers of people?
Two wrongs don’t make a right. I object to non-consensual collection of newborn DNA as well.
And it’s not bringing murderers to justice per se. It’s the implications to others. I don’t want MegaCorp extrapolating my medical history via my cousin’s DNA.
Yeah, but now you're associated with a killer, whatever SNPs you share pile up into correlates.
Insurance companies see you as feckless, lenders see you as risky, law enforcement sees you as a likely criminal, justice sees you as a burden.
And maybe it wasn't even you that volunteered the sample. And maybe I share some of the SNPs, and maybe I have some countermutations, but they aren't properly analyzed. Now my feet are in the fire despite no predisposition to violence or recklessness just an association.
This is one step and I expect another. For the greater good, for security, for the safety of the nation, for the children.
I sure hope they don't use my DNA to catch any criminals. I hope they roam around undetected as before, I would never harbor any bad feelings towards any members of my family regardless of their rape, murder or other crimes. You don't want them in prison either, and wouldn't believe they did anything wrong regardless of the DNA and OTHER substantial evidence would you?
Was a principal about 15 years ago when the "whole language" approach to learning reading and writing was a fad. Had a Grade 1 teacher who emphatically refused to even try it, she was sticking with teaching phonics come hell or high water.
Most of the younger teachers fell for the fad with limited results. The 'old school' teacher consistently produced a class of kids who were reading proficiently by the end of the year, while other classes struggled with that success rate.
Its overdue. As a principal I used to ban phones in our school. Back before every kid had one.
If they were caught playing on them or if it rang during class, the phone went to the teacher's desk til the end of class. If it happened a second time, it came to my office til the end of the day. And a 3rd violation meant it stayed in my office til the end of the week.
That last one rarely happened as any child who lost access for a whole day nearly went into panic mode without their pacifier for an entire day.
At my son's school, they all have to put the phones in the 'phone hotel' at the beginning of the day and pick them up at the end. Sorta worked, until the kids all just started bringing in old phones to drop in the phone hotel and keep their actual phones with them. That and the Apple watches and chromebooks mean pretty much no kid has any trouble doing whatever they want even without their phones.
What could you actually do with an Apple Watch though? Sounds like a better solution if you really need a communication link that isn’t as distracting as a smart phone. Texting is still possible, just not very convenient.
Do students these days learn to text without seeing the screen? It strikes me as more difficult to do with a touch screen, but we used to do it with T9 phones back in the day.
Companies could give students a special form of (e)sim card where the school could disable data and block calls that does not go to family, emergency services etc. during class, and then unblock it automatically when there are no classes.
I'm sure it's not as simple as suggested above, otherwise someone would have made it already. But perhaps there is a similar technical solution for this problem, as parents and schools are unable to fix it on their own.
When I taught high school English, admin never drew such a hard line. Teachers were additionally told that we would be personally responsible for the replacement cost of a phone should it become damaged/lost if taken from a student. As you would expect, phones were rarely taken off students, and they were a constant frustration.
What's "yikes" about that? I'm a parent and I'd love it for a principal to take a hardline stance like that on distractions. Kids (and adults for that matter) can't be trusted to use phones responsibly.
They're half-formed people who do often need their behavior controlled in some way. Some students or student bodies may be mature enough to be responsible for themselves, but not all.
There's a stark difference between setting boundaries and treating people like objects.
I've experienced both. Some schools are really good. The private K-12 religious school I went to treated kids like people and still set boundaries. The local public high school did the same. The public grade school was a horror show. College was particularly interesting. Most of the administration did not care about students as people. Everyone else did.
> There's a stark difference between setting boundaries and treating people like objects.
You need to talk to work with some high schoolers then. There is a large chunk of that population that the school is in their orbit. They casually treat people like objects. They don't just tune out, but actively disrupt anything going on, ruining the days of teachers, staff and students -- for sport.
Eldest is 10. No phones yet. We're getting them a dumb phone to share for certain situations, soon. They can get a smartphone when they can buy it and pay for the plan on their own. No taking it to school.
[EDIT] My main concern over the next few years is social pressure of the "you have no phone, so your family must be poor" sort. We've had a 2nd grader teased for being poor because she "only has one backpack". LOL. I have some uncharitable thoughts about those families.
Yes, I think that will be a challenging approach to take :) I do wish more people were as thoughtful about it as you are. Setting good phone & Internet habits is really, really hard for everybody, students & adults included. Hopefully setting some good examples early will help them with that later.
Heh, well, yeah, that's the plan anyway. We'll see if it survives "contact with the enemy", as the saying goes. I think years 12-15 are gonna be rough, but after that, like... if it matters that much to you, go get a job and pay for it? That seems totally reasonable to me. If they don't, guess it didn't matter that much after all. I figure if they're responsible enough to plan and get a job and save, they're ready for the phone—if not, they'd better grow in those ways, if they want one. I'm hoping this ends up being one of those Pro Gamer Moves where I force them to improve and learn something to get what they want, but who knows, may not work out.
The UK has been watching Canada. Our Prime Minister had people's bank accounts frozen and their vehicles impounded and hundreds charged with mischief for attending a peaceful, albeit 3 week long protest in our capital. There was NO violence, no vandalism, no injuries and certainly no deaths and yet our PM chose to use the strongest law in the land, the one reserved for emergency situations like invasion or nuclear attack, to lock down protesters. Their primary crime was being too loud and too long.
The Squad is a great concept. But the problem in America is not great concepts. Its convincing the public, and therefore investors, that small, lightweight road machines are viable.
Aptera is facing the same challenge. The concept is fantastic. Its got amazing engineering and unlike the Squad its a highly designed, efficient machine. But finding funders is the hard part.
Its the hard part for every start up. Which is why EV startups fail at nearly 100% rate.
My Fiat 500e has been the lowest maintenance cost vehicle Ive ever owned. And Ive had approx 50 so far (Im a collector). In 5 years of ownership its cost me one 12v battery ($80) and two headlights ($60) because one burned out. That's it.
Yup I have to register and insure it but its ridiculously low cost compared to everything else.
This site (which currently wont connect) was created by some redditors. I understand the sentiment, and the reasoning but I predict it will fail as did previous attempts to create a very similar landlord rating site.
Why? Because unless there is rigid control over who is allowed to input and some verification of that input, there will be an influx of garbage comments that will make the site completely useless. Much like YELP reviews, you can read 'em but do you actually trust what they say? Is the submitter an actual tenant, the landlord, or the landlord's family and friends? Who knows?
Secondly, I think a single lawsuit may bring it down. There have been similar private sites for tenant information that landlords shared among themselves that have been shut down by the privacy commissioner. My understanding is that this site is going to try and anonymize certain data, but Im not sure how its going to hold useful data and anonymize it enough to make a landlord unidentifiable at the same time.
Yes, everyone has a bad landlord story. But every landlord has quite a few bad tenant stories. If this site flies, prepare for the same to be done for tenants.
I couldnt have written that any better.
And THIS is why thousands of people showed up in downtown Ottawa and stayed for three weeks. Because we were disgusted and DEEPLY offended by the hubris.
And what was the gov's response? An even greater swing toward authoritarianism - the Canadian government literally locked people out of their own bank accounts, seized property and arrested and charged hundreds.
Incredible. Absolutely incredible. The anger is still palpable. And its going to simmer til our current gov is replaced.
This is exactly what I thought of when I saw "social media-induced illness": MSMI
I saw this in the school I led, especially in young girls. One of them starts cutting, suddenly we have multiple girls cutting. One of them struggles with bulimia, suddenly the guidance counselor is reporting that she has an inordinate number of girls coming in for counselling about bulimia.
I dont think its any different with claiming to be transgender. And my current school counselor contact confirms that - for every one child she sees that she believes may actually struggle with body dysmorphia and she believes may be trans, there are 10 more coming in because its the 'thing' to be. These are usually kids who are troubled and are desperately seeking attention and care, legit needs, but going about it the only way they see that's acceptable. They gain attention, they gain power, and in an odd way, status among their peers for 'being who they are.'
> I saw this in the school I led, especially in young girls. One of them starts cutting, suddenly we have multiple girls cutting. One of them struggles with bulimia, suddenly the guidance counselor is reporting that she has an inordinate number of girls coming in for counselling about bulimia.
When you showcase suicides on TV you also have upticks in suicides. Same goes for mass shootings, copycat murderers, and even political protests.
When the 101 dalmatians movie was released, there was also an uptick in demand for dalmatians.
I fail to see how this means it's ok to fabricate diseases to downplay the effect that mass media has on people.
I dont rent often but definitely go with Enterprise when I do. They are the only one left in my city that offers unlimited mileage and my typical trip is 1800 km round trip so it matters.
Last trip Enterprise was fully booked so I did try Budget. Their office is so small that you actually have to arrive at our local airport and THEN call the attendant who comes in from her house to book out your car. That took almost an hour.
The return process is even sillier. Write your mileage on a poorly photocopied slip of paper, and drop it on her desk with the keys. No pics. No checkout inspection, just 'trust us not to charge you extra'.
Fortunately I took a ton of pictures including the odometer so when they couldnt do math and tried to charge me an extra 1000 km, I fought back with pics and got those charges dropped. That's the last time I use Budget.
