The snowflaking of our youth was justified with scientific-sounding, failure-excusing "educational theories" - and the biggest was the assertion that "we have different learning styles."

Nope.

Students did not benefit from studying according to their supposed learning style - link:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/04/03/another-nail-in-the-coffin-for-learning-styles-students-did-not-benefit-from-studying-according-to-their-supposed-learning-style/?utm_source=Dan+John%27s+Wandering+Weights&utm_campaign=0b273f9c07-DJWW165&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d663067162-0b273f9c07-36692721&mc_cid=0b273f9c07&mc_eid=0f9e2f2f98

Women tarnish through gossip the reputations of attractive, flirtatious, and provocatively dressed same-sex rivals -

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103117304195

Police stalling in release of Las Vegas shooting records

https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/shootings/judge-says-police-stalling-in-release-of-las-vegas-shooting-records/

The ACLU has lost the plot -

https://www.aclu.org/blog/executive-branch/crime-fraud-exception-michael-cohen-case

Summary judgment? whoa. Havard only wants the data necessary to make a decision released...

The group was able to view the documents through its lawsuit, which was filed in 2014 and challenges Harvard’s admissions policies. The plaintiffs said in a letter to the court last week that the documents were so compelling that there was no need for a trial, and that they would ask the judge to rule summarily in their favor based on the documents alone.

The plaintiffs also say that the public — which provides more than half a billion dollars a year in federal funding to Harvard — has a right to see the evidence that the judge will consider in her decision.

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2018/04/05/asian-americans-suing-harvard-say-admissions-files-show-discrimination

The law of unintended consequences. Measure twice, cut once.

https://youtu.be/10RhpLA8LqU

How about "no"?

http://theweek.com/articles/764821/why-cities-should-just-annex-suburbs

I'm old enough to remember when pop music chicks sang about feelings and love and such, but now it's my vajayjay this, my vajayjay that.

https://nypost.com/2018/04/10/janelle-monae-wears-vagina-pants-in-new-music-video/

On cities annexing the suburbs, they often can't. Many suburbs are incorporated cities all on their own. Without the agreement of those smaller cities the large city can't annex them. By law they are both just cities. Neither has authority over the other. Not wanting to be annexed is a major driving force for incorporating.

Apparently the US has fairly bad statistics on maternal mortality. And EHRs haven't helped.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/04/a-crummy-drop-down-menu-appeared-to-kill-dozens-of-mothers-in-texas/

What I found fun was that no one in the comments or the article could understand why mortality went up recently. Can't admit that Obamacare actually caused more problems than solutions and resulted in higher mortality in general. Some did realize that poorer people have far worse outcomes than wealthier people. But once again couldn't recognize that medicade causes worse health outcomes than doing nothing at all (the source of most of the health issues with Obamacare).

Democrat and Republican politicians are probably green with envy.

Suspect thought he was safe among 70,000 concert-goers

He thought he was just another face in the crowd.

That was what a Chinese man told police when he was arrested at a music concert in China thanks to facial recognition technology.

https://www.abacusnews.com/digital-life/wanted-man-caught-concert-thanks-facial-recognition/article/2141370

How about "no"? ~ I R A Darth Aggie at April 12, 2018 7:34 AM

Darth, very interesting link. I remember reading an article many years ago comparing Chicago and Atlanta. Chicago was going broke from "white flight" where the money left for the suburbs and bigger housing and the city's tax base shrunk.

Northern cities, like Chicago, are ringed by incorporated suburbs, whose denizens commute into the city for jobs. These commuters use city services and go home at night, paying their property taxes to other governments. So, Hinsdale gets fat while Chicago starves.

Suburban malls cut down on shopping traffic in the city as well, starving the cities of sales tax revenue.

That's why it is so expensive to park in many cities. Parking tax revenue is an attempt to make up for lost property and sales tax revenue, ironically driving suburban shoppers to suburban malls and further starving the cities of sales tax revenue.

Southern cities, like Atlanta, on the other hand, simply annexed the suburbs, expanding the tax base. Buckhead became a retreat for wealthy Atlantans from the noise and bustle (and taxes) of the city, taking money from Atlanta's coffers. As a result, Atlanta annexed the town in 1952.

To cut costs, other Southern cities combined overlapping city-county functions like emergency services and school systems. It's why you have agencies like the Miami-Dade Police, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, the Atlanta-Fulton County Recreational Authority, and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Jacksonville went all the way, merging its city and county governments in 1968.

Annexation may not solve all the problems. Even now, there is a movement in Buckhead to secede from Atlanta, mostly due to the taxes Atlanta imposes. The wealthier residents of Buckhead are looking over the fence at lower-tax Sandy Springs and seeing greener grass. Richer suburbs tend to fight annexation while poorer suburbs tend to welcome it.

The ring of smaller independent towns surrounding St. Louis was at the crux of the Michael Brown fracas. Wealthier residents escaped the city into a small incorporated suburb where the residents imposed low taxes with almost no city services. Less wealthy residents followed for the lower taxes, driving the wealthier to flee farther out to escape the influx of undesirables. The newer, less wealthy, residents demanded more city services, of the sort they had become accustomed to in the larger city of St. Louis.

Left with running a town whose remaining wealthier residents were resistant to any increase in taxes, city administrators were forced to find other ways to generate revenue. Regulation and fines were increased, intended to put the touch on people traveling through, but pinching poorer residents as well. The racial divide between the remaining earlier arrivals and the latecomers exacerbated the financial tensions.

That begs the question why not just change how you tax things Conan. If all you have are the businesses that everyone works at an no houses why not charge business taxes and drop the property taxes? Inertia I guess.

Here in Houston many of the suburbs incorporate to keep Houston from pulling them apart and only taking the good stuff. Houston likes to annex along the highways. That way they can get the businesses people work at, the shopping centers people shop at, and don't have to take the houses which require services they have to pay for. But most of Houston taxes are franchise (business) taxes and sales taxes. Property taxes mostly fund the schools but not police/fire/EMS. And since schools are ISDs they aren't part of the city budget anyways.

Hugs are now sexual harassment -

https://twitter.com/NYCCHR/status/981951602142556160

It's why you have agencies like the Miami-Dade Police, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office

According to my understanding is that is due to "consolidation": there is only a county government, not separate city units in the county.

In theory, it streamlines parts of the government, so you don't have as much duplication. So, for instance, just a sheriff, not a sheriff and a police chief. And one set of regulatory bodies, one permit application office, etc.

My city/county proposes that every now and again, and it goes down in flames at the ballot box. Not sure why the people within the city limits vote enough against it to ensure defeat.

It is obvious to the outside the city limits people why its a horrible idea: their taxes will go up immediately, and the services they're paying for? oh, you'll get them. Eventually.

I say we lift off, and nuke from orbit.

https://twitter.com/aggierican/status/980458494305492992/photo/1

Back in the day, college meal plans were the greatest thing since sliced bread. But they probably serve "healthy" but otherwise unappetizing fare nowadays.

Temple/HOPE respondents were asked questions such as whether they feared “food would run out before I got money to buy more,” or “Did you ever eat less than you felt you should because there wasn't enough money for food?” Redefining hunger as abstaining from second servings makes for a push-button crisis.

The study asserts that 26% of students with a college meal plan are “food insecure.” Did they oversleep and miss breakfast?

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/04/11/obesity-not-starvation-real-problem-universities-column/500855002/

Heh. An example of intended consequences, the authors of the bill never thought their party wouldn't possess the White House.

Mick Mulvaney, the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), told a Senate panel on Thursday that he's not legally bound to answer lawmakers' questions, only to appear before them, in comments meant to stress his agency's independence.

"While I have to be here by statute, I don't think I have to answer your questions," Mulvaney told the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. "If you take a look at the actual statute that requires me to be here, it says that I 'shall appear' before the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs of the Senate. And I'm here and I'm happy to do it."

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/382842-mulvaney-in-senate-testimony-im-required-to-be-here-but-not-to-answer-your

*poof*

https://twitter.com/KnoxKUB/status/984450199287468034

According to my understanding is that is due to "consolidation": there is only a county government, not separate city units in the county. ~ I R A Darth Aggie at April 12, 2018 1:20 PM

Not entirely. For instance, Charlotte and Mecklenburg County are still separate entities with separate governments. Some offices are consolidated - e.g., Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, the school system, etc. Smaller municipalities in Mecklenburg County, like Huntersville, police themselves. Unincorporated areas are nominally policed by the CMPD.

The Jacksonville and Duval County governments were consolidated in October of 1968. A few cities inside Duval County (Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, Baldwin, etc.) were allowed to remain quasi-independent with the City of Jacksonville providing normal county services.

Dade County became Miami-Dade County in 1997 to take advantage of the name recognition of Miami, but the county exists as an entity separate from the city of Miami, using a two-tier system of government.

Fulton County and Atlanta remain distinct entities. The creation of the city of Sandy Springs in 2005 was an attempt by the county to prevent the annexation of any more county territory by the city of Atlanta. So far, Atlanta has been hemmed in by the rest of the county. Atlanta literally splits the county geographically, leaving the affluent northern non-Atlanta areas at odds with the poorer southern non-Atlanta areas over services and taxation.

Cook County is experiencing similar divisions between its affluent townships and its less-affluent townships, a division exacerbated by Chicago's dominance of county politics.

"Annexation may not solve all the problems."

Augusta, GA merged with Richmond County, and simply doubled the graft. It remains a nasty race war, where some commissioners would not approve the next appearance of Christ unless $$ went to the projects.

Well Augusta, Georgia is just no place to be.

One-shot cures for diseases are not great for business—more specifically, they’re bad for longterm profits—Goldman Sachs analysts noted in an April 10 report for biotech clients, first reported by CNBC.

The investment banks’ report, titled “The Genome Revolution,” asks clients the touchy question: “Is curing patients a sustainable business model?” The answer is “no,” according to follow-up information provided.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/04/curing-disease-not-a-sustainable-business-model-goldman-sachs-analysts-say/

The comments section has devolved into Socialism will save us from Big Pharma!

Preach!

SCTV

Remember that time a few years ago when a second-grade girl sa9d it had been her 'lifelong' dream to pilot an airplane across the country with her sinister, manipulative, middle-aged father sitting next to her in the plane?

Well, here's another.

Ben David - ever read this Asimov story?

http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/funtheyhad.html

We read it in 3rd grade - but at the time, I couldn't grasp the idea of a story that takes place in the future - even if I'd read the first paragraph carefully, which I'm sure I didn't.

Anyway, while Margie seems to hate school primarily because there's no human interaction, I wonder if there's more to it than that. (Note what she says in the second half, quoting her mother.)

Also, the third paragraph is interesting - apparently, Asimov was saying that in the future, we wouldn't be ALLOWED the chance to read any paragraph more than once, even for school!

"That begs the question why not just change how you tax things Conan. If all you have are the businesses that everyone works at an no houses why not charge business taxes and drop the property taxes? "

Because the businesses move out too. This is what happened in Detroit. Birmingham too. In the Birmingham area, most of the businesses now are in the suburban cities of Vestavia Hills, Hoover and Pelham.

A dear person has an Asimov story. It does not flatter him.

Remember that time a few years ago when a second-grade girl sa9d it had been her 'lifelong' dream to pilot an airplane across the country with her sinister, manipulative, middle-aged father sitting next to her in the plane?

Well, here's another.

Crid at April 12, 2018 4:27 PM

That plane crashed in a driveway two blocks away from my house. Small world.

That is the fate of any city that refuses to live within their means CD. Letting them rapaciously gobble up their neighbors isn't a solution. People will just abandon the whole area. Heck people are abandoning whole states for the same issue.

Explain, Crid?