Some states now have clearance in passing regulations where a car driver can get tickets for coming too close to a bicycle. With cams in place this could be a huge revenue source for a city..
In other states same lane passing is flat out illegal. Any car that is partially in your lane when on a bike can be ticketed. And if there is a yellow line in the center of the road passing a bicycle is illegal under any conditions.
Making cars illegal in cities would help.
If an employer has the right to spy on me then I certainly have the right to spy on an employer. Notice that the equality under law for all people does not change with ownership or status of an individual. Frankly my experience has been that when employers use covert tactics that employees tend to catch on and find many ways to exact revenge. One foreman I knew, in a machine shop, was taking very expensive products and throwing them in the dumpster in an effort to bankrupt his company. He had been told that his future with the company was in doubt as his abilities and respect for others limited his potential for any promotions.
I wonder if some of these shooters that go nuts and walk in to their job site blasting away are victims of unwarranted surveillance.
You are not far from the truth. Public boat launches often have fees these days. If you want to back down the ramp and float your john boat it's ten bucks for the privilege. And that is after the town zoning department allowed private owners to buy all the waterfronts effectively leaving the boat ramp as your only possible choice.
Drones have an ability to make truth more evident. Not only people but governments do not like it when truth is available. Any effort to make good use of drones will be met with huge resistance. For example we are willing to spend billions of dollars on a border control as long as it does not work. Imagine what a fleet of drones could do to halt illegal immigration. Now tell me just how likely it is that drones will be heavily used to patrol our borders. I have seen this same phenomena in police work where a couple of cops came up with a great way to curtail drunk driving. Two cops simply waited outside popular bars and stopped drivers who pulled out of the parking lot late at night. Almost 100% of the stops resulted in a valid drunk driving arrest. The city quickly halted the practice. The problem was that the town bordered another town and when word got out people simply drove a few hundred yards to get drunk in the next town's bars. In other words the real working policy of the city was to make a show of stopping drunk driving while making sure that they really did not stop drunk driving.
Drones work too well. By using drones we can expose situations and that endangers all kinds of social institutions. With a good swarm of drones on patrol we could really knock out almost all home burglaries at night. But how many companies and jobs depend on a busy criminal justice system? Society really is that perverted.
Passenger airline traffic has the potential to disperse a world wide plague more deadly than all past wars combined. It is another issue which is shrouded by deliberate blindness as the cure would be very disruptive.
Actually the cross bred polar bear, brown bear has been studied and well documented. It occurred due to a hunter being charged with killing a polar bear with the hunter insisting it was a brown bear which was legal to take. Genetic testing clearly proved that the cross bred bear existed. The theory is that the wealthy used to keep private zoos in the 19th century and that one or two of these bears were created in captivity and either escaped or were released into the wild. From that point on nature simply kicked in and these bears mated with wild bears. The best policy in dealing with these cross bred bears is never, ever, find one.
Few libraries could hope to compare to Project Gutenberg. Although books must be free of copyright to be on the site that is not such a disadvantage. Somewhere at around 1920 the use of the English language became rather crude whereas before radio and television were highly present the use of language was quite superior. Often the books of the earlier period were vastly superior to the expensive books now in book stores. But for those that insist we do need an electronic lending library that releases current materials. If we include a 14 day auto delete function as well as a good anti-copy scheme an electronic library could be as fair to publishers as the ink and paper routine.
Most people who read a lot still like paper and ink which means there is something lacking in electronic screens or electronics.
If anyone wants a block buster product idea how about an electronic score sheet for musicians such that a foot pedal could do the page changes as on plays. Imagine if we could store our sheet music in a screen like device and select the tune to play and turn the page with a foot pedal. And for another item how about a device that can listen to a tune and then write the melody as sheet music in the requested key and clef? Imagine using an FM radio that can be transcribed for any instrument at the push of a button. Want to be a billionaire?
We have a basic conflict with our schools and our thought processes. The nonsense doctrine is put forward that we must include all young people and we must not have any of them lost to the school system. So what does a teacher or school official do when confronted by the fact that there are kids that are mean, unreasonable, and with savage desires and actions? Dare we to toss the punk out on his or her ear? That would force us to admit that the system is not for everyone. We wait a bit until we start tossing kids out of the educational system by things like the price of college etc..
The second point is that we are so anti violence that kids can not defend against bullies very well or in some cases the victims have an almost robotic programming that will not allow them to deal with a bully. Frankly the best way to deal with a bully is to beat them down so badly that they will quake in fear over the thought of ever offending you again. If they are stronger use tactics, weapons, or several strong friends to kick them half to death. On a junior high campus the message spreads really quickly that bullies get hurt bad in ways for which the suffering will tend to last them for decades.
The problem with surveillance now is that we can catch more criminals than we can afford to catch. It seems as if the US has way too many people who live outside the law or at least turn to crime occasionally. But every time we catch a criminal the cost beats us over the head. Catch another heroin dealer and there goes 40K a year just for his prison sentence and lord knows how much for police and courts. Then to top it off when we release these folks their lives are screwed up and one way or another some kind of welfare will have to be given to keep them from rotting on the sidewalks. Then we also have the children and mates of these folks who also are very likely to end up in poverty and crime as well. So the more spying we do and the more catching we do the poorer society becomes.
Then we get to stamp the label of monster upon ourselves as we confront the effect of criminal justice. Certainly we can not use prisons without providing medical care to inmates. But we still have honest, working poor, who are denied medical care. In a way that forces us to provide socialized medical care of some sort. In the end the only way out of this loop is to have a population that is devoutly religious. Faith does work to limit crime.
From time to time bicycle thieves get caught. And we really can't lock them all up for long periods due to cost restraints. A very long probation sentence with community service thrown in and the probation fees could discourage that kind of thief. For example ten years of probation with 12 hours a week of approved community service and a $100. per month probation fee might cut the mustard. Also a life time denial of a driver's license might help.
I hope that Wikileaks can continue to get information to the public. I suspect that government agents have infested WikiLeaks in every way they can and wonder if Wikileaks can still function.
Tesla has won the game at this point. The death knell of GM, Chrysler and Ford rings loudly. Ford will have some life due to the F150 line of pickup trucks until Tesla or some other new outfit comes online. The big three resisted real progress and have effectively committed suicide. Toyota is strong enough to have a chance at survival but most imports will fail. Idea like the new Fiat import are way too late and frankly the quality of former Fiats speaks against any likelihood of current success. The public has had enough of over priced junk that costs a fortune to keep up and running. Tesla got the message and as the prices of Tesla models drop they will dominate the market for decades.
Prior to the automobile the keeping of horses was an industry beyond imagination. It occupied untold masses of employees and also kept home owners busy caring for horses as well. Automobiles quickly devastated the huge horse industry and the total number of people required to produce and maintain automobiles was far less than what had been required for horses. Now we are seeing a situation where electric cars and automated assembly lines can replace almost 100% of all auto workers. Even repairs will fall to next to nothing with electric cars and gas stations will fall to unmanned charging stations.
This is a continuing process in technology elimination of human labor. It is only a problem if social and economic changes do not confront what is occurring. We simply will have to pay people not to work. It can be done and it makes economic sense. Taxation will supply the pay checks and the public will spend the money they receive supporting automated businesses.
The shock is that it will cause all of us to admit that no system of fair and just economy has ever existed. To put it all in context consider the Civil War in America. Men were free to pay a man to stand in for them to avoid combat. The equivalent is to send a robot to work for you as a surrogate. So the robot (technology) will earn while the human spends.
Philosophers tend to want to create specialized definitions and terms in order to project that philosophy so that it can be more broadly applied. I think this is what we are seeing here. In specific they mentioned slime mold and encoding and decoding. Actually slime mold is encoded with DNA and the function of the slime mold in navigating the maze reveals the decoding expressed as the function of slime mold. If our human abilities were more advanced we should be able to determine the future functional abilities or probabilities of a function by examining the DNA encoding directly rather than determining its function by observation of the slime molds activity.
Essentially they seek clarity on what defines computation. In this muddy world clarity is rarely available.
For those of us who are absolutely worthless and without talent this type of article provides one heck of an opportunity. You to can me a morality wizard. America has tens of thousands of such folk who make it their goal in life to judge whether actions fall within some supposed universally agreed upon mold. It is almost like having 11 items at the check out in the 10 item line at the grocery store. Some old hag will inevitably bitch that I have violated a proper rule. At that point I usually shout with glee "Praise Jesus Christ. The Lord has delivered unto me a judge of proper conduct.". No longer do i need to make up my mind about the right or wrong of an action as these self appointed moral wizards will always do it for me. I am free at last to not be bothered with having an internal debate about the morality of harming a filthy cockroach.
There may be merit in using data to get sharper students to be surrounded by other sharp students and for lesser students to be surrounded by those like themselves as well. Kids usually want to be popular and seen as up and coming types of people and using this tactic may cause students to strive to be lumped into the group of better students. I doubt that we do any favors to kids when we try to cover up the fact that everything is about discrimination. For example the first string on the football team is valued by school kids and second string or not on the team at all is a big negative. Those chosen for the first string are the boys who have demonstrated their ability on the spot. None of the potential ability nonsense is in play. It is rather like applying for a job in which there are many applicants. Usually it is what can you do for me right now that lands the job. Academics might want to try a similar tactic and clearly let the kids know that there are winners and losers in education and it is one heck of a lot more important than being popular on a sports team.
For most people any serious charges will result in financial ruin and perhaps a couple of years in jail awaiting trial. Imagine being accused of rape. If you are arrested your job is gone and perhaps your professional credentials as well. Your wife and family will probably be gone and if you can't make a very large bail your home, your car and your savings can vanish as well. So obviously for most people accused of rape and if they are really innocent it is best to talk to the cops. The next issue is whether the detectives believe you or not. Many times they don't know and will simply want the courts to sort it out. A trial is a brutal form of punishment in and of itself.
In the end it shakes out like this: If people said absolutely nothing to the cops they would be found not guilty a lot more often. However a lot of people would be ruined that might have converted a really bad situation into a small inconvenience simply by talking to the cops. But if you get into a situation with a corrupt or rogue cop you really will be in it up to your ears. There are cops in this world who would stick a bag of dope in your pocket and gleefully make a false arrest simply because your brother dated a girl the cop wanted etc..That stuff is a lot more common than most people think.
China and Russia both have a huge history of insane lack of regard for human rights. The Muslim states, with one or two exceptions, have been driven back into the dark ages by lack of education and fanatical, twisted versions of their religion. Russia remains so broken that crime seems to be the major industry with getting drunk as the national activity. The Muslim states are pretty much lost to civilization or even hope of civilization. China has put away much of their negative behavior and is advancing in many ways.
Extra security measures on credit and debit cards are welcomed by myself and some others. Identity theft and store credit can be aimed at many innocent people. I've already had it happen. Someone went into Home Depot store and wanted very expensive tools and applied for credit on the spot in my name. Fortunately the store as well as their bank called me and I was able to prevent the transaction. A good national ID card combined with more secure credit and debit cards could save this nation a fortune. I'm in a smaller town and the sheriff tells me that about two people a day come to his office to report credit card types of thefts.
We do need some laws that would limit the threats a prosecutor can make or imply. We saw a similar problem with condominiums in Florida. The condo associations would file suits for huge sums against a condo owner. The condo owner would be forced to retain expensive legal talent to defend and then the association would drop the suit. The condo owners were made aware that they could be bankrupted by that tactic as numerous suits just might be filed against them. The legal solution was to force the completion of each suit filed by a condo association. The same could be done for criminal law. A defendant could only be tried for the highest charge stated or implied. Since the prosecution knows they only intend to prove a lesser charge it forces the prosecution to only indict for the actual crime they feel they can prove. It takes bluffing out of the game.
Like so many other situations only one side of the issue is being weighed. The nay sayers will point to all the supposed negatives that just might happen. But no notice is taken of the good these drones can do. Drones are so new that we haven't even imagined what can be done with drones. Obviously drones can stop a lot of crime. Drones can also save lives and do so already. Maybe soon we will see drones delivering pizza. But all we will hear about are the supposed negatives of allowing drones. We can not allow the extreme conservatives to constantly inhibit new technologies. Human activity has risks. Usually we can not calculate the benefits but that in no way implies that the benefits do not far outweigh the negatives. And as adults we do need to understand that we simply can not measure the good results from many activities. It is time to change our usual modes of behavior and thoughts.
The brain at births is not equal in all babies. The home is not equal for the first three years for all babies. After the age of three the outcome is already determined. Those born with ability and nurtured in a really good home will tend to do well and those that have a child that are not so great or an environment that is not so good will tend to fail no matter what. The only known programs that do well with the lesser children involve removal from the home and put in a very advanced learning environment. The parents and living conditions are the issue. Things like inadequate money in the home, parents who are not academic by nature, both parents working, are sufficient to ruin the life of a child. If the child is born with a better mind and nurtured in a better home then it still takes luck to produce an excellent outcome. A baseball to the head, an overwhelming teen romance or experimentation with dope can ruin a child's chances completely. The sad fact is that parents need to get used to the notion that most offspring will have a second or third rate life. We now have many top notch kids whoa re out of college and living at home due to vast economic failures in our society. Everything matters.
Anyone who doesn't think that technology eliminates jobs needs to really think a bit. All technology is designed for the simple reason that it eliminates labor. Why else have technology? A can opener makes it easier and quicker to open a can. I no longer need 25 men with scythes to cut the lawn. One man with a power mower does the trick. We no longer have 90% of the public dedicated to raising food. Getting an ice cube in my soda no longer requires men to climb tall mountains to transport blocks of ice hundreds of miles. Technology simply eliminates human labor. The real threat is not the elimination of jobs as there are ways to handle that. The urgent issue is that we have become dependent upon too much technology and the slightest glitch can bring us into starvation and collapse. For example a passenger jet can bring people to us from far away very efficiently. And we can have an economy based upon fast travel. But one germ rapidly transported, far and wide, can spread a plague that we can not deal with at all. Technology also causes us to reproduce at absurd levels and one day we will reach the crash point at which we can no longer feed and shelter the majority and the pollution and violence will bring it all down to rubble.
I suspect that a child dull enough not to be able to judge the size of a piece of pie is unfit for education anyway. Just being in a classroom with normal kids should indicate some level of intellectual function. Part of the ruin of our schools is an effort to educate the ineducable children. That hole is so deep that it will not be filled. The best path might be to get them out of the schools by sixth grade and put them into a menial work situation such as picking oranges or washing dishes. These unfortuante American kids do get displaced by illegal immigrant labor.
Slashdot Mirror
Some states now have clearance in passing regulations where a car driver can get tickets for coming too close to a bicycle. With cams in place this could be a huge revenue source for a city..
In other states same lane passing is flat out illegal. Any car that is partially in your lane when on a bike can be ticketed. And if there is a yellow line in the center of the road passing a bicycle is illegal under any conditions.
Making cars illegal in cities would help.
If an employer has the right to spy on me then I certainly have the right to spy on an employer. Notice that the equality under law for all people does not change with ownership or status of an individual. Frankly my experience has been that when employers use covert tactics that employees tend to catch on and find many ways to exact revenge. One foreman I knew, in a machine shop, was taking very expensive products and throwing them in the dumpster in an effort to bankrupt his company. He had been told that his future with the company was in doubt as his abilities and respect for others limited his potential for any promotions.
I wonder if some of these shooters that go nuts and walk in to their job site blasting away are victims of unwarranted surveillance.
You are not far from the truth. Public boat launches often have fees these days. If you want to back down the ramp and float your john boat it's ten bucks for the privilege. And that is after the town zoning department allowed private owners to buy all the waterfronts effectively leaving the boat ramp as your only possible choice.
Drones have an ability to make truth more evident. Not only people but governments do not like it when truth is available. Any effort to make good use of drones will be met with huge resistance. For example we are willing to spend billions of dollars on a border control as long as it does not work. Imagine what a fleet of drones could do to halt illegal immigration. Now tell me just how likely it is that drones will be heavily used to patrol our borders. I have seen this same phenomena in police work where a couple of cops came up with a great way to curtail drunk driving. Two cops simply waited outside popular bars and stopped drivers who pulled out of the parking lot late at night. Almost 100% of the stops resulted in a valid drunk driving arrest. The city quickly halted the practice. The problem was that the town bordered another town and when word got out people simply drove a few hundred yards to get drunk in the next town's bars. In other words the real working policy of the city was to make a show of stopping drunk driving while making sure that they really did not stop drunk driving.
Drones work too well. By using drones we can expose situations and that endangers all kinds of social institutions. With a good swarm of drones on patrol we could really knock out almost all home burglaries at night. But how many companies and jobs depend on a busy criminal justice system? Society really is that perverted.
Passenger airline traffic has the potential to disperse a world wide plague more deadly than all past wars combined. It is another issue which is shrouded by deliberate blindness as the cure would be very disruptive.
Actually the cross bred polar bear, brown bear has been studied and well documented. It occurred due to a hunter being charged with killing a polar bear with the hunter insisting it was a brown bear which was legal to take. Genetic testing clearly proved that the cross bred bear existed. The theory is that the wealthy used to keep private zoos in the 19th century and that one or two of these bears were created in captivity and either escaped or were released into the wild. From that point on nature simply kicked in and these bears mated with wild bears. The best policy in dealing with these cross bred bears is never, ever, find one.
People are not acting up about being spied upon because most of us have known it was going on for quite some time.
Few libraries could hope to compare to Project Gutenberg. Although books must be free of copyright to be on the site that is not such a disadvantage. Somewhere at around 1920 the use of the English language became rather crude whereas before radio and television were highly present the use of language was quite superior. Often the books of the earlier period were vastly superior to the expensive books now in book stores. But for those that insist we do need an electronic lending library that releases current materials. If we include a 14 day auto delete function as well as a good anti-copy scheme an electronic library could be as fair to publishers as the ink and paper routine.
Most people who read a lot still like paper and ink which means there is something lacking in electronic screens or electronics.
If anyone wants a block buster product idea how about an electronic score sheet for musicians such that a foot pedal could do the page changes as on plays. Imagine if we could store our sheet music in a screen like device and select the tune to play and turn the page with a foot pedal. And for another item how about a device that can listen to a tune and then write the melody as sheet music in the requested key and clef? Imagine using an FM radio that can be transcribed for any instrument at the push of a button. Want to be a billionaire?
We have a basic conflict with our schools and our thought processes. The nonsense doctrine is put forward that we must include all young people and we must not have any of them lost to the school system. So what does a teacher or school official do when confronted by the fact that there are kids that are mean, unreasonable, and with savage desires and actions? Dare we to toss the punk out on his or her ear? That would force us to admit that the system is not for everyone. We wait a bit until we start tossing kids out of the educational system by things like the price of college etc..
The second point is that we are so anti violence that kids can not defend against bullies very well or in some cases the victims have an almost robotic programming that will not allow them to deal with a bully. Frankly the best way to deal with a bully is to beat them down so badly that they will quake in fear over the thought of ever offending you again. If they are stronger use tactics, weapons, or several strong friends to kick them half to death. On a junior high campus the message spreads really quickly that bullies get hurt bad in ways for which the suffering will tend to last them for decades.
The problem with surveillance now is that we can catch more criminals than we can afford to catch. It seems as if the US has way too many people who live outside the law or at least turn to crime occasionally. But every time we catch a criminal the cost beats us over the head. Catch another heroin dealer and there goes 40K a year just for his prison sentence and lord knows how much for police and courts. Then to top it off when we release these folks their lives are screwed up and one way or another some kind of welfare will have to be given to keep them from rotting on the sidewalks. Then we also have the children and mates of these folks who also are very likely to end up in poverty and crime as well. So the more spying we do and the more catching we do the poorer society becomes.
Then we get to stamp the label of monster upon ourselves as we confront the effect of criminal justice. Certainly we can not use prisons without providing medical care to inmates. But we still have honest, working poor, who are denied medical care. In a way that forces us to provide socialized medical care of some sort. In the end the only way out of this loop is to have a population that is devoutly religious. Faith does work to limit crime.
From time to time bicycle thieves get caught. And we really can't lock them all up for long periods due to cost restraints. A very long probation sentence with community service thrown in and the probation fees could discourage that kind of thief. For example ten years of probation with 12 hours a week of approved community service and a $100. per month probation fee might cut the mustard. Also a life time denial of a driver's license might help.
I hope that Wikileaks can continue to get information to the public. I suspect that government agents have infested WikiLeaks in every way they can and wonder if Wikileaks can still function.
Tesla has won the game at this point. The death knell of GM, Chrysler and Ford rings loudly. Ford will have some life due to the F150 line of pickup trucks until Tesla or some other new outfit comes online. The big three resisted real progress and have effectively committed suicide. Toyota is strong enough to have a chance at survival but most imports will fail. Idea like the new Fiat import are way too late and frankly the quality of former Fiats speaks against any likelihood of current success. The public has had enough of over priced junk that costs a fortune to keep up and running. Tesla got the message and as the prices of Tesla models drop they will dominate the market for decades.
Prior to the automobile the keeping of horses was an industry beyond imagination. It occupied untold masses of employees and also kept home owners busy caring for horses as well. Automobiles quickly devastated the huge horse industry and the total number of people required to produce and maintain automobiles was far less than what had been required for horses. Now we are seeing a situation where electric cars and automated assembly lines can replace almost 100% of all auto workers. Even repairs will fall to next to nothing with electric cars and gas stations will fall to unmanned charging stations.
This is a continuing process in technology elimination of human labor. It is only a problem if social and economic changes do not confront what is occurring. We simply will have to pay people not to work. It can be done and it makes economic sense. Taxation will supply the pay checks and the public will spend the money they receive supporting automated businesses.
The shock is that it will cause all of us to admit that no system of fair and just economy has ever existed. To put it all in context consider the Civil War in America. Men were free to pay a man to stand in for them to avoid combat. The equivalent is to send a robot to work for you as a surrogate. So the robot (technology) will earn while the human spends.
Philosophers tend to want to create specialized definitions and terms in order to project that philosophy so that it can be more broadly applied. I think this is what we are seeing here. In specific they mentioned slime mold and encoding and decoding. Actually slime mold is encoded with DNA and the function of the slime mold in navigating the maze reveals the decoding expressed as the function of slime mold. If our human abilities were more advanced we should be able to determine the future functional abilities or probabilities of a function by examining the DNA encoding directly rather than determining its function by observation of the slime molds activity.
Essentially they seek clarity on what defines computation. In this muddy world clarity is rarely available.
For those of us who are absolutely worthless and without talent this type of article provides one heck of an opportunity. You to can me a morality wizard. America has tens of thousands of such folk who make it their goal in life to judge whether actions fall within some supposed universally agreed upon mold. It is almost like having 11 items at the check out in the 10 item line at the grocery store. Some old hag will inevitably bitch that I have violated a proper rule. At that point I usually shout with glee "Praise Jesus Christ. The Lord has delivered unto me a judge of proper conduct.". No longer do i need to make up my mind about the right or wrong of an action as these self appointed moral wizards will always do it for me. I am free at last to not be bothered with having an internal debate about the morality of harming a filthy cockroach.
There may be merit in using data to get sharper students to be surrounded by other sharp students and for lesser students to be surrounded by those like themselves as well. Kids usually want to be popular and seen as up and coming types of people and using this tactic may cause students to strive to be lumped into the group of better students. I doubt that we do any favors to kids when we try to cover up the fact that everything is about discrimination. For example the first string on the football team is valued by school kids and second string or not on the team at all is a big negative. Those chosen for the first string are the boys who have demonstrated their ability on the spot. None of the potential ability nonsense is in play. It is rather like applying for a job in which there are many applicants. Usually it is what can you do for me right now that lands the job. Academics might want to try a similar tactic and clearly let the kids know that there are winners and losers in education and it is one heck of a lot more important than being popular on a sports team.
For most people any serious charges will result in financial ruin and perhaps a couple of years in jail awaiting trial. Imagine being accused of rape. If you are arrested your job is gone and perhaps your professional credentials as well. Your wife and family will probably be gone and if you can't make a very large bail your home, your car and your savings can vanish as well. So obviously for most people accused of rape and if they are really innocent it is best to talk to the cops. The next issue is whether the detectives believe you or not. Many times they don't know and will simply want the courts to sort it out. A trial is a brutal form of punishment in and of itself.
In the end it shakes out like this: If people said absolutely nothing to the cops they would be found not guilty a lot more often. However a lot of people would be ruined that might have converted a really bad situation into a small inconvenience simply by talking to the cops. But if you get into a situation with a corrupt or rogue cop you really will be in it up to your ears. There are cops in this world who would stick a bag of dope in your pocket and gleefully make a false arrest simply because your brother dated a girl the cop wanted etc..That stuff is a lot more common than most people think.
China and Russia both have a huge history of insane lack of regard for human rights. The Muslim states, with one or two exceptions, have been driven back into the dark ages by lack of education and fanatical, twisted versions of their religion. Russia remains so broken that crime seems to be the major industry with getting drunk as the national activity. The Muslim states are pretty much lost to civilization or even hope of civilization. China has put away much of their negative behavior and is advancing in many ways.
Extra security measures on credit and debit cards are welcomed by myself and some others. Identity theft and store credit can be aimed at many innocent people. I've already had it happen. Someone went into Home Depot store and wanted very expensive tools and applied for credit on the spot in my name. Fortunately the store as well as their bank called me and I was able to prevent the transaction. A good national ID card combined with more secure credit and debit cards could save this nation a fortune. I'm in a smaller town and the sheriff tells me that about two people a day come to his office to report credit card types of thefts.
We do need some laws that would limit the threats a prosecutor can make or imply. We saw a similar problem with condominiums in Florida. The condo associations would file suits for huge sums against a condo owner. The condo owner would be forced to retain expensive legal talent to defend and then the association would drop the suit. The condo owners were made aware that they could be bankrupted by that tactic as numerous suits just might be filed against them. The legal solution was to force the completion of each suit filed by a condo association. The same could be done for criminal law. A defendant could only be tried for the highest charge stated or implied. Since the prosecution knows they only intend to prove a lesser charge it forces the prosecution to only indict for the actual crime they feel they can prove. It takes bluffing out of the game.
Like so many other situations only one side of the issue is being weighed. The nay sayers will point to all the supposed negatives that just might happen. But no notice is taken of the good these drones can do. Drones are so new that we haven't even imagined what can be done with drones. Obviously drones can stop a lot of crime. Drones can also save lives and do so already. Maybe soon we will see drones delivering pizza. But all we will hear about are the supposed negatives of allowing drones. We can not allow the extreme conservatives to constantly inhibit new technologies. Human activity has risks. Usually we can not calculate the benefits but that in no way implies that the benefits do not far outweigh the negatives. And as adults we do need to understand that we simply can not measure the good results from many activities. It is time to change our usual modes of behavior and thoughts.
The brain at births is not equal in all babies. The home is not equal for the first three years for all babies. After the age of three the outcome is already determined. Those born with ability and nurtured in a really good home will tend to do well and those that have a child that are not so great or an environment that is not so good will tend to fail no matter what. The only known programs that do well with the lesser children involve removal from the home and put in a very advanced learning environment. The parents and living conditions are the issue. Things like inadequate money in the home, parents who are not academic by nature, both parents working, are sufficient to ruin the life of a child. If the child is born with a better mind and nurtured in a better home then it still takes luck to produce an excellent outcome. A baseball to the head, an overwhelming teen romance or experimentation with dope can ruin a child's chances completely. The sad fact is that parents need to get used to the notion that most offspring will have a second or third rate life. We now have many top notch kids whoa re out of college and living at home due to vast economic failures in our society. Everything matters.
Anyone who doesn't think that technology eliminates jobs needs to really think a bit. All technology is designed for the simple reason that it eliminates labor. Why else have technology? A can opener makes it easier and quicker to open a can. I no longer need 25 men with scythes to cut the lawn. One man with a power mower does the trick. We no longer have 90% of the public dedicated to raising food. Getting an ice cube in my soda no longer requires men to climb tall mountains to transport blocks of ice hundreds of miles. Technology simply eliminates human labor. The real threat is not the elimination of jobs as there are ways to handle that. The urgent issue is that we have become dependent upon too much technology and the slightest glitch can bring us into starvation and collapse. For example a passenger jet can bring people to us from far away very efficiently. And we can have an economy based upon fast travel. But one germ rapidly transported, far and wide, can spread a plague that we can not deal with at all. Technology also causes us to reproduce at absurd levels and one day we will reach the crash point at which we can no longer feed and shelter the majority and the pollution and violence will bring it all down to rubble.
I suspect that a child dull enough not to be able to judge the size of a piece of pie is unfit for education anyway. Just being in a classroom with normal kids should indicate some level of intellectual function. Part of the ruin of our schools is an effort to educate the ineducable children. That hole is so deep that it will not be filled. The best path might be to get them out of the schools by sixth grade and put them into a menial work situation such as picking oranges or washing dishes. These unfortuante American kids do get displaced by illegal immigrant labor.