Just need to vent...

I've heard of some boarding schools having very good improvements in engagement -- outside of class too -- by limiting residents to just non-internet flip-phones.

 

That's what our daughter bought for the two oldest grandkids - 14 & 12. They can text but that's it. And taking them away as a consequence for bad behavior really works well! Same with PC screen time
.

 

You can try this:
AVG Ultimate 2024 - 10 Devices - 2 Years - [Download] | eBay
It isn't the greatest VPN/Antivirus but it covers Android, Windows, iOS, and Mac - good for 10 devices.

 

Glad I do not live in one of them.

I do not mind states giving schools the authority (FREEDOM!) to proscribe cellular use on campus, in class, etc but my ears perk up when states say "You Cannot!"
What about a child with Type 1 Diabetes or other condition that requires a BT (or other) app?

We have enough state governments outlawing enough activities already.
Let schools, school - and give parents the ability to move their children out of the ones that don't.

Gee....
I wonder what made the FAA change their minds about a November approval?
Actually, given the scale of the flights involved, I'm GLAD that the FAA is as deeply involved as it is!!
We're talking about the world's largest heavier than air flying object landing it's booster in a (nearly) populated area after hypersonic suborbital flight.

Is it just me or are people missing the other major accomplishment?
SpaceX soft-landed a larger-than-Space Shuttle vehicle from near orbit, next to a buoy on the other side of the planet.....
The real-time from Starlink was nothing short of amazing.

I wish "they/them/those" were better at it.
I would spend far less time looking for 'stuff and things' on the interwebs.

I'm frequently very amused at the erroneous presumptions that big data make about me.
I do vote and have a nearly 100 percent attendance record, but I'm not foolish enough to be registered with a political party - so I get nearly zero political material in the mail.
Most of that stuff is centered around getting money out of people.

@ VPNs:
You have to admire the chutzpah of a for-profit company that gets people to route all of their data through THEIR servers in order to 'keep it private and anonymous.'
- especially the 'free' ones!
There are 2-3 VPN services that actually have 'good intentions' in this space, but they're profit centric, and thus are also cost sensitive.
That's sort of like watching a certain midwestern governor handling a shotgun.
Nothing bad happened THAT time (especially to a pheasant) but it does not inspire confidence.

I had all of my SF-86 (government security application) data scraped and sold during the Obama Administration, and I'm not into illegal or unsavory activities online - so 'data privacy' for me is a wholly unnecessary fallicy.

 

Didn't the space shuttle solid rocket boosters have some type of capability to be detonated if they went awry ?
It would stand to reason SpaceX incorporates the same safety features
.

 

The Shuttle's boosters did - human activated, at least once iirc.
NASA is dot.gov owned and operated....so it was probably a civil serpent's finger over a button.
We used to watch them tow the boosters back into P-Can after an STS launch when I was in town on a boat.
(They contracted THAT part out, probably.)
SpaceX has an automated termination system for both Falcon stages that probably gets a regulatory proctology exam before every flight, and a hot wash after.
Starship has one as well for both stages, I would bet.
As I said before, I'm glad that the FAA is keeping them honest, and I will even stipulate that there is a theoretical chance that the elongated pause between IFT 4 and 5 was not 100 percent politically influenced.

SpaceX is playing with BIG stuff.
Somebody SHOULD be watching them.

MORE transparency will result in FEWER conspiracy theories.

(See Also: FEMA)

 

All major space launch rockets have this capability. Well, at least the Western civilian ones. This is for the safety of people on the ground (or ocean surface) in case something goes badly wrong during launch.

The self-destruct charge doesn't actually detonate the whole vehicle, but merely rips it open to spill liquid fuels, or to depressurize the combustion chamber of solid fuel motors. Though viewed from a distance, the results may look similar.

Their targeted advertising is for their benefit, not yours. If successful, they will be guiding you to the choice that most benefits them, not you.

And to having you pay the highest price they think you'll pay. This goes beyond common dynamic pricing, to individualized dynamic pricing. Learn what triggers each individual customer to buy, and what their price sensitivities. Don't let individual customers see prices lower than they are willing to pay. Figure out which individuals don't even look at price (like my late elderly dad in a grocery store) and charge them higher prices.

 

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[<< What about a child with Type 1 Diabetes or other condition that requires a BT (or other) app? >>]

Were there ever any children w/ Type 1 Diabetes before we all had cell phones?!? If there were ... how did they get along and survive?!?

 

I certainly hope you aren't so heartless and backwards as to force people to ditch modern improved medicine and revert to the older shorter-life-expectancy treatments.

 

How did people handle Type 1 Diabetes before cell phones is an excellent question and in the context of this post quite relevant.

I can answer that question - generally individuals would use finger sticks to get a little blood and then read their glucose levels with a glucose meter - depending on the results they would then take a shot of insulin or take glucose tablets depending on if their levels were high or low. All this can be done quite easily in a classroom or school restroom in a matter of minutes.

Now days here is how most type one diabetics manage their condition especially children: They would wear a glucose monitor that is inserted into the skin - it is Bluetooth enabled. They then wear a micro insulin pump that has a cather tube going to their body- the pump receives feedback from the glucose monitor and the pump will feed insulin to the body as needed. This is all done automatically with no intervention by the user. The insulin pump has a screen and is interactive giving feedback and accepting programming instructions from the user if necessary.

Absolutely no need for a cell phone.

Switch2System | Medtronic (medtronicdiabetes.com

A New Artificial Pancreas System for People with Type 1 Diabetes - Blog - NIDDK (nih.gov)

A New Artificial Pancreas System for Children with Type 1 Diabetes - Blog - NIDDK (nih.gov)

In schools where they don't allow cell phones in the learning environment - the kids have the opportunity to use them between classes or at lunch time. Also a child may be excused from the class at any time to go to the school office to make emergency calls home. As always a simple note from a parent explaining why a child must have access to a cell phone for medical or other reasons can easily be accommodated

But you will find none of this matters to unreasonable people with a cause to tilt at windmills. Once you explain the solution to one problem (windmill) they will immediately go on red alert to find another situation (windmill) to charge at. To them it is just another outlet to argue rather than just stop a few minutes and look at another's point of view and see where they are coming from. As a matter of fact, if you would say cell phones should be allowed in schools they will most likely immediately switch ideological positions as to why cell phones should not be allowed.
It is not a discussion on cell phone use in early education learning situations to them but a chance to argue and prove how smart they are by showing exceptional cases to make their point.

Should we ban cellphones in schools? A new survey shares what US adults think. (msn.com)

• A new Pew study found nearly 70% of adults agreed that schools should ban phones during class.
• Teachers have been urging a ban on phones — and more and more schools are agreeing.

 

Whaddaya Know?
That's the same argument that my government uses for my handgun - or used for birth control pills not that many years ago.

I'll leave aside the Type 1 Diabetes argument because (a) it's pretty clear that you've never dealt with that one use-case directly, and (b) it's an unnecessary aside.
If you want to compare and contrast constant monitoring to infrequent data sampling then perhaps another thread.
Maybe in the environmental sub-forum....

My daughter is an educator, and if a school wants to adopt a rule to proscribe electronic devices, I'm here for it.
Since she teaches at a private Christian Academy (still allowed in my state) they get to make RULES like that - which is the one over-arching benefit of putting kids in a private school.
It's not the curriculum, or even the Christianity - although I personally believe that those are value adds, but rather it's the ability to set rules enforceable by expulsion.

Government should write fewer laws, because they suck at it.
Does the law proscribe CELLULAR phones?
Meshtastic packet nodes?
What about watches?
Sat phones?

Seems to me that what we 'have no need of' are more poorly written laws - WITH possible apologies to the Commonwealth of Kentucky, since I haven't read the new 'law?' "rule?' 'regulation.'

 

• short barrel shotguns
• shotguns with too many rounds bird hunting
• fully automatic guns (without application and a tax)
• ghost guns

Personally, I have no problem with low limits on:

• subsonic .22 cal weapons
• magazine round limits (20 being the maximum)
• retaining shotgun round limits to bird hunting limits

Anything more should have:

• proof of recent "range time" in the past two years
• tested knowledge of defense and safety laws

Bob Wilson

 

@ 'ghost gun' - you mean - a non-licensed and non-registered weapon, right?
Why not just say the quiet part out loud?

@ SBS/SBR - how 'short?'
@ range time and proficiency testing: Much as this would keep certain foolish politicians from Dukakising themselves or shooting their hunting partners with shotguns - HOW MUCH training?
A Master's degree?
Six week course?
10?
Who trains the trainers?
Do we use the *gasp!!!* NRA curriculum for Certified Firearms Instructors or let retired E8s posing as E9s write out the requirements?
@ Magazine restrictions - already somewhat allowed if you do not live on free soil, but wHY 20?
Why not 19?
Is there a 'scientific' reason behind that number besides the fact that most humans have 10 fingers?

Honestly - gun laws should be the 'Don't Let This Happen To YOU!!' chapter in Legislation For Dummies.

 

Is this academy free to the public, paid for by taxation? Where are Christian academies not allowed?

 

Is there anything that makes that objection more or less reasonable than "wHY is the speed limit 20 here, not 19 or 21?"

Reminds me a little of a difference I noticed between Henry Thoreau's and William Paley's ideas about civil disobedience.

Thoreau did write a famous essay with that exact title, but it seemed a bit loosey-goosey for my taste. Seemed you could basically blow off any law you don't feel like following, for whatever reason, and Thoreau would let you call it civil disobedience.

Paley was more strict: you can choose not to follow some law, and you get to call it civil disobedience if your genuine reason is you think it is morally outrageous for any law on that subject to exist at all. If you are speeding down the road because you're convinced it's against all morality for any community to set up a road commission that can set speed limits, maybe that's civil disobedience. If it's because you think the commissioners were idiots for picking the number they picked, or you just don't feel like observing it, that's not civil disobedience, it's just being a jerk.

Paley had some wackadoodle ideas on some other things, but I think in this area I fall in more with Paley than Thoreau.

 

If by 'free to the public' you mean free of cost - then no.
There are no faith-based requirements for admission, but it IS a Christian academy.
To my certain knowledge there are people of other faiths who are enrolled.
If 'paid for by taxation' you mean they receive taxpayer bucks the answer is a little more nuanced.
Christian academies are mostly allowed in the United States as long as they do not accept public funds - something that I believe they should NOT EVER do in the first place.
Many (almost all) private academies, like many churches choose to be tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Infernal Revenue Code - something that I wish churches were wise enough not to do, personally - since (a) this places them in league with some VERY unsavory institutions, and (b) if you take money from dot.gov - you have to take their crap.
That is what that is.

Easy.
Classic liberalism
Questioning authority is fundamentally different than disobeying laws, and if you live on free soil, sometimes it's actually encouraged.

Whether a speed limit, or mag limit is 10 based on for-real science, or just because somebody pulled it out of their colon, I'm going to obey the law.
More so the latter because EDC items are very often size-limited, and because their limitation is a LAW, not a civil code.
It's rather difficult to go to prison because you were caught doing 11 in a 10mph zone - but eleven rounds in a mag if you're unfortunate enough to live in (usually crime ridden) place where you're only allowed 10?

THAT will probably result in more than just a summons to appear.

-WARNING-
REAL 'Vent' topic!!

Sausage biscuits with grape jelly???
WHO THE HECK came up with this weird idea????

I recently tried one (two?)
No....I didn't lose a bet.
That's going to happen in November, unfortunately.
What shocked me is that two foods that HAD to be combined initially because somebody DID lose a bet would be so good together!!!!

who knew?

 

I've never known any sausage to be harmed when the syrup from the pancakes gets on it, so I guess this doesn't sound all that shockingly different.

 

Where are Christian academies not allowed was the question. You said where they are allowed.
The important part is that free public education to the students is provided. Rather than the poor stay illiterate and the wealthy are educated. One step further into that false notion of conservative is bring a king back and he decides everything and everyone works for him. That’s this year’s task, no more Kings.

 

Range time?

Really?

I suppose city slickers may need that but granny and I fire down range quite nicely on our own.

Suppose the days of every child being taught gun safety by their parents is long gone. Hand it off to the govt.