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The medical examiner would seem to disagree:

Jennifer Nicole Bowers, an assistant chief medical examiner for the state, said she conducted an autopsy on Heyer two days after the crash. She determined that Heyer died as a result of blunt force injury to her torso.

Among other injuries, such as a broken femur and lacerations on her legs and back, Heyer’s thoracic aorta — the largest artery in the body — was severed.

Or so we have been told.

Y'know, I mock the Randians as much as the next free-thinker, but dammit if some of her screeds aren't proving a bit prescient.

So plainly the notion that money is the absolute determinant in politics is false.

Oh no, the Republican gerrymandering is also a significant factor.

North Carolina, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Florida, and Georgia all demonstrate the effectiveness of that manipulation.

Of course, they already lost in Arizona, so it won't be long before the people start taking back the power. Then what will they do?

And we have for almost a year now.

(We had trolleys first too.)

It should be noted that the Henrico County, Va program ( where I live and know kids that have the computers ) don't supply electronic textbooks. Students need to carry all the text books plus the computer.

IMHO, Henrico County got the computers but decided on minimal support on the backend and little thought to how to integrate the computers into the learning experience. The students I know only use the computers for sending email through various unblocked email sites to their friends. They don't use it for writing papers because there were only a few printers to use at school and long lines meant being late for class. It was easier to just write the paper at the last minute like we used to do in the good old days. Teachers did not accept emailed papers because the teachers didn't have enought space on the file server to do that.

The students can't use it much to do research because the software is locked down and limits the sites you can visit. Its easier just to use your computer at home where it isn't blocked. Those blocks also apply when the laptop is at home, unless you use the modem to make a dialup connection.

Originally the computers were sent home without any lockdown, and no usable application, not even Apple Works. 6 months later, the school system was shocked to find teen age boyes with pornography on their laptops and locked everything down.

It's a 3 day suspension to add software yourself, or change your desktop picture, so the student mostly don't put any files on the laptops.

There have been some hardware problems with hinges, latches, and cdroms. If you turn it in for repair, it's weeks before they get them back.

The student I know think Mac laptops suck because of all these reasons and will never buy one.

It should be noted that the superintendant who implemented the laptop plan has decided to take a job elsewhere.

The problem of theif is address by epoxying large metal tags with ID numbers onto the laptops marking them as part the Henrico laptop program.

I'm a Comcast customer in the metro Richmond, Virginia area. It's what I'm surfing right this moment, actually :-).

We have several alternative broadband providers, and neither me nor any of my fellow terabyte-a-minute consuming buds has heard so much as a peep. I dare them to complain to me. I'd switch so fast their heads would spin like a Russian ice skater.

Plus many of my friends and I also have our phone and digital cable through them. So there might be additional incentive for them to be nice to their "good" customers, but I'd be surprised if their CRM tracking is that granular.

When Henrico County near Richmond, Virginia did this, they initially had considerable problems with systems breaking. Part of that was educating students in how to handle the systems properly. Part of it was underestimating the support needs of 25,000 laptop users. Even if 1% of the systems break each year, that's still 250 repairs a year. Initially, the county didn't have an on-site repair shop; machines had to be shipped to DC to be fixed.

Interestingly, after two years of iBooks in schools, the issue has generated enough controversy to be an issue in school board elections. The results? Two incumbents were voted out - including the chairman.

The quote from the Henrico Co School System reminded me of one problem that Henrico had when they started their iBook program - the systems and especially the LCD screens broke frequently. Or more accurately, usage by teens and pre-teens tends to generate a higher rate of damage to the systems.

fraserspeirs mentioned the arm being a risk for breakage. I'd imagine that both the LCD and Arm on the new iMac might fare poorly in a public school. The eMac seems blissfully free of moving parts except for the mouse and keyboard (which are easy to replace) and an optional adjustable stand. In short, it looks like the eMac is designed to be a little more rugged.

Feel free to check out a recent article that Richmond.com did on us. Hope you'll find it helpful! :-)

Feel free to check out a recent article that Richmond.com did on us. Hope you'll find it helpful! :-)