This just goes to show you that Fox News is not the only one who will happily edit or take out of context something they feel will boost their ratings or meet their internal bias/views. It's why I've stopped watching/reading all mainstream news. I just occasionally glance at "smaller"news sites and browse/. (though most/. summaries also twist the facts to meet the submitter/editor's own bias/views, but the topics are generally more interesting to me.)
Considering the weight we put on our Jury system, this kind of reporting should actually come with heavy penalties. AFAIK, Zimmerman has yet to go to trial (if ever), and reporting like this will only improperly skew the potential jury pool one way or another. And because many Americans still trust "news" (be it Fox News or NBC or CNN), they will take things like this as absolute fact; a correction never gets as much time or weight as the original story, so they're far more likely to miss that. This American Life's correction a few weeks back was the proper way to go about it, and that's likely a millennial event. And I'm too lazy to look it up, but a few months back there was a report on/. that even after someone is told that a previously stated "fact" was actually a mistake or outright lie, an alarming portion of people still hold the previous "mistruth" as fact.
Furthermore, an incident like this actually helps Zimmerman--there's plenty of evidence, circumstantial or otherwise, to lob against this guy, so when you go out of your way to make up or twist such things it only lends credence to the idea that the guy isn't as bad as he seems.
Any properly formatted document available on the web is also properly printable. Make the document for the web first, and print out things when needed. Depending on the percentage of parents connected, you can either print out copies first and hand them out to everyone, encouraging the more connected parents to recycle on said paper (opt-out style), or have students/parents request printed copies to be sent home (opt-in style).
Since they print the document up anyway, typing it up using something like Wordpress and then printing is fairly trivial. If they want to do something fancy in Word, type it up in word, print it out, and upload it; or, set each teacher up with a directory that will auto-list contents for download online so they can just save to that network location.
Teachers would likely be more willing to read if they would stop assigning arbitrary requirements. "Three sources", "2-5 pages", etc. They do nothing but give easy checkpoints to lower the overall value of the actual content of the paper.
Instead, shoot for conciseness. A lot of people have been trained by schools to say far more than necessary, which leads to confusion and wasted time. It will also build vocabulary by using words that express a wider idea or emotion. Still require sources (not that most public school teachers check them), but no min length (max is fine). If the student can talk about the major points of the War of 1812 in a page and a half, let him/her.
and if fearing the money drain to imported panels, they could even have made "for use on domestically made panels only" a condition for such rebates/allowances
Do we do that? If not, why not? It would seem to solve the supposed issue without this tariff. You want cheap panels, fine, no rebate for you.
Of course, if difference in panel price > rebate/tax break allowance, that doesn't matter much, I suppose.
I'm not talking about the able/rich or power plants producing electricity from solar for the poor, I'm talking about decreased demand on the power plants due to the able/rich not needing as much because of their own solar panels. I'm no power station expert, but less stress on the plant likely means lower overall costs which could be passed on to the remaining customers in the form of slight reduction in cost (or, much more likely in my pessimistic mind, a delay in the rising of costs.)
The people who are the most likely to be impacted by high energy prices, the poor, are the least likely to benefit from the solar rebate scheme because they lack the capital to pay for the installation.
While I'm not big of the idea of "the long tail" or "trickle down economics", I would think this would help the poor in a small manner. By those able to afford it having solar panels, the power companies have less demand for their energy and so the poor are less likely to see an increase in power prices (and, rarely, a slight reduction). This is, of course, assuming things like the able don't have their own, separate power station from the poor, enough able people install them to actually make some sort of dent, etc.
Even if they get no impact from it, "the poor still can't afford them" doesn't seem like a valid mark against such a program; I didn't see anyone complaining that the tax breaks to those who bought hybrids were bad because the poor still couldn't afford hybrids.
Huh. For some reason, I just lost 100% of my interest in SimCity 5. Good thing there are lots of other games that don't require the worthless Origin service and can be played offline--such as most of my games on Steam, for instance.
It's okay, This American Life. Slashdot has been lacking in fact checking, posting sensationalist stories, and using untrusted sources for years. You'll be fine, don't cry.
I can't see how this would be an issue. You can already modify stuff in Photoshop to change things like terms, this "unprinter" wouldn't change anything. It might be a bit easier to change the terms (assuming the original paper was printed with a laser printer in the first place--this won't work for ye standarde inkjet as far as I know; after actually RTFA, it provides no more or more accurate information than the/. synposis, and the full thing is behind a paywall), but the cost would be expensive even if they become mainstream (only groups that would need one would be offices that have a laser printer, so likely not something you'd just swing by Best Buy and grab), so a cracked copy of Photoshop it is.
Even without this, people need to keep copies of contracts (banks do, after all.)
I'm a big states-rights kind of guy, and I applaud California and Nevada on taking initiative in a technology that will hopefully become widespread sooner than later, but this is one situation where the federal government should be involved (cars often cross state lines, after all) and at least form a committee/study (insert committee uselessness here) to set a ceiling on limitations for these vehicles. States can relax the limitations as they see fit (open-space areas like Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming might allow a higher auto-speed), but if each state is left to set its own devices you'll get a large amount of different standards that each automaker has to adhere to in order to sell the vehicle on a national or even regional level. The fed is going to step in at some point, but better sooner than later; not only will they create a nice standard for all states (/. likes open standards, right?), but it will make a lot of states that are on the fence about the whole thing (or not even caring) have an extra push to allow the vehicles (assuming the feds don't allow them nationally in addition to standards).
I haven't read up on the various rules put in place (or recommended), but I sincerely hope there's a size limitation on the vehicle. No more than T tons, no more than XxYxZ dimensions to be allowed an autopilot. That way in the case of a catastrophic failure (we'll get at least a handful) the risk to other drivers is far less. Also, energy savings. Maybe even create a standard within the auto industry for censors that can be included in an "autopilot only" lane to enhance the cars capability in those environments. (Ooh! How about extra sensors within parking garages so that the car auto-drives itself to the closest available open spot?)
it's easy money for Valve because they don't even do most of the work.
But even more important than that, any item that is approved and included automatically grants the original creator a percentage of store sales (I want to say 25%, but am not sure). While it certainly makes Valve's job easier, it also is financially rewarding to those who submit items (as well as the fame they might have garnered anyway) and keeps a more invested community.
This is a country where a dollar-per-gallon increase in gas prices almost starts a riot
It will never come close to starting a riot. All it will do is make a lot of talking heads on TV talk about gas prices more, some people will drive a bit less, one guy will start taking the bus, three guys will each buy a bike but only one will ever use it, and everyone will post to Facebook about how much gas prices suck.
The only thing that will make Americans in general riot these days is if their sports team of choice does... something. Win, lose, disband, it doesn't seem to matter, it all leads to civil unrest. (I really don't understand this, either.)
Society these days is far too much about 'respect' for those who have none. I don't know how it was in the "old days", because it seems to have been this way as long as I can remember, but almost no one is willing to just go to someone and politely ask that they lower their voice/music/movie, take their call somewhere else, etc. It's amazing how willing people are to oblige to simple, respectful requests, but instead everyone acts in fear of being sued for assault (or being assaulted themselves), so the assholes of the world get away with it. True, there are many times it's unwise to approach someone, but on a bus or train just asking someone to lower their voice will cause a ruckus only from the most stubborn of selfish people, and at that point you're very likely to have someone stand up and agree with you (spurred on by your apparent courage.)
But instead people try to "game" society so we get assholes (but of a different type than the loud ones) like the guy in the article who inadvertently ruin everyone's phone call in a certain area, or scratch up paint/slash tires on someone's car for parking in an annoying (but not obstructive) manner, and pass blanket laws that ruin things for everyone instead of going after the actual incidence or individual.
Episode 3 will be the pack-in title. That's why we haven't seen it yet, because Valve made it for the Steam Box but the box is taking too long to come out.
But really, considering how often computer hardware changes, if they're smart they'll make this a hybrid of console and PC gaming; each year they'll release a model, likely using higher-end hardware from the last year to keep prices down, with set standards to make it easy for developers to program for the future and to let things degrade nicely for the past (say, the standard will be to support the last three-five years of models). This way someone can buy one once and have the same cycle as consoles, or if they have more money they can buy each year's model and sell the older one. And Valve won't give two shits about the "used market", because the distribution will be mostly digital and they'll need to make their own Steam account to get into the PC (even if they use Origin, ha) and that will likely lead to money for buying from Valve. It's like TF2 and hats, but the game is physical (hats are still digital, sadly.)
Even if it doesn't take off, they might be able to form an industry standard "definition" of PC gaming ability to make it easier for people to figure out if their PC will run certain games.
Agreed; this is actually something I realized myself recently. Much like how politics is actually a grid (where X is financial stance and Y is social stance, or vice-versa) instead of a straight line where you're either left or right, so is intelligence. It is made up of a grid where X is ignorance (for lack of a better word at the moment) on the left and knowledgeable on the right, while Y is "smart" (common sense might be a better term, but isn't quite right either) at the top and "stupid" (or lack of common sense) at the bottom.
This is how someone can be incredibly intelligent (i.e. they know [i]a lot[/i] of useful stuff) but still make horrible mistakes (they have the wrong knowledge for a situation or are unable to apply the knowledge they do have to the situation) while those with "common sense" can do alright in life but without knowledge won't have many opportunities for advancement.
A better term instead of "common sense" might be "comprehension" or "situational awareness".
Okay, so let's raise some ire over this. The government responds. They do so in one of two ways:
1) Fire Stratfor, which closes and reopens under another moniker (I hear "Blackwater" is available these days), then hire "new" company at a lesser amount. (Or, if the right two people are pals, a higher amount.)
2) Fire Stratfor, use the money to hire a competent intelligence firm.
I think in this case we can all bitch and moan about government limpness, but should go no further. Considering the current crop of morons in power in all branches and levels, it's highly unlikely for someone to go "maybe we shouldn't hire external private firms and instead put money into doing real intelligence with our own intelligence agencies". If the article's description of Stratfor holds for other companies they hired, I'd rather let incompetence feed incompetence at this point and focus more on election reform.
Knowing the rules (and not just for leap day)
on
The Math of Leap Days
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
One of my first projects in Computing and Algorithms I in college was to make a calendar that would print out in console with days correctly placed on the day of the week. The instructions specified to take special care for leap day; everyone thought they understood leap day, so no one bothered to check on the rules. The fact that round centuries do not include a leap day except when (year mod 400 = 0) meant that every one of our calendars[1] was wrong for certain years (but right for others, IIRC). And our professor docked us points as such. Back then, the entire class (along with myself) felt that we were misled or cheated, but looking back on it now that was an important lesson on project management, specifically researching requirements and checking with the interested party about how things are.
I reckon this lesson was missed by many, which leads to the various issues we see for software on Leap Day, including Microsoft's Azure as mentioned in a recent/. article.
[1] For the half of the class that completed the project, this 101 class was used to weed out those who couldn't actually program for crap and the EEs just needed a C to meet their requirement.
Another reason I recently realized that recaptchas are useless: The whole idea is that one of the words could be read by a robot [spoiler]from the start[/spoiler] to be included in the rotation. Now, granted, they've modified the word to try and anti-robot it, but the fact remains that at some point it was readable; the other "word" never was. Thus it had a limited lifespan until the spambots caught up in OCR to Google's bots.
Sadly, I was more a code monkey than a PM; after the project was completed, my only involvement in it was bugfixes and a few minor enhancements. I didn't keep track of how the new data changed the workflow, though the few times I had to look at reports to fix stuff there seemed to be a decrease in 4/5s.
My manager related to me that the application was well received by everyone involved, though, so I imagine it lessened discrepancies somewhat.
This reminds me of an internal application I (re)developed for a very large shipping company. The company used conveyer belts to move most of their packages between sections of a central shipping hub. At the end of the shift the floor manager for each section would walk along to find issues with the belts in their sections, which could then be submitted with a rating of 1 (unimportant) to 5 (critical). Without fail, the floor manager would rate every problem 4 or 5. This caused issues when running reports for higher management because they would see a bunch of 4s and 5s that had been in the system for weeks. Despite instructions to stop doing this, it continued.
I took the (spaghetti code) application and rewrote it, including a large number of enhancements. One was that whenever one of the mechanics went in to check on a problem, they could assign it their own level of importance, which was usually far closer to the actual severity of the issue. Then they'd take care of what they considered 5s, then 4s, etc. In addition, the floor managers got to see what the mechanics rated an issue. While I'm sure they didn't like their problems being downgraded, it gave better feedback, and if they felt an issue was truly a 4/5 then they could take it up with someone higher; maybe they didn't explain the problem correctly. Reports also showed both ratings so there was a better understanding all around.
In short, let the users dictate their own priority, but with the understanding that it's not the ultimate priority. IT can then assign their own, and if the user feels wronged they can go higher about it. (Obnoxious users will do this anyway, but having a system that compares the two gives one more wall for them to climb.)
"Against warrantless entry of your home? You must be abusing a child!" "Against public cameras tracking your every move? You must be planning to abduct a child!" "Against drug prohibition? You must want to give drugs to children!" "Against warrantless wire-tapping? You must be talking about internet surveillance legislation!"
...that just because you are a teacher doesn't mean you are intelligent. This is something I figured out fairly early on in high school, but believe kids should be told it up front so they don't treat everything the teacher says as absolute fact. Not that they should disregard everything a teacher says, but teachers are people and people can (and, in my opinion, usually are) stupid. So they can certainly be wrong, not that many teachers will own up that fact (the good ones will.)
Let's just have all minors dress as nuns until they turn 18. Not only will this remove the possibility of jailbait, but it means that if someone is wearing normal clothes you'll know they're legal and can go about things without worries.
(What was that quote? "The best thing about teenage girls is that they remain the same age as I get older"?)
Slashdot Mirror
This just goes to show you that Fox News is not the only one who will happily edit or take out of context something they feel will boost their ratings or meet their internal bias/views. It's why I've stopped watching/reading all mainstream news. I just occasionally glance at "smaller"news sites and browse /. (though most /. summaries also twist the facts to meet the submitter/editor's own bias/views, but the topics are generally more interesting to me.)
Considering the weight we put on our Jury system, this kind of reporting should actually come with heavy penalties. AFAIK, Zimmerman has yet to go to trial (if ever), and reporting like this will only improperly skew the potential jury pool one way or another. And because many Americans still trust "news" (be it Fox News or NBC or CNN), they will take things like this as absolute fact; a correction never gets as much time or weight as the original story, so they're far more likely to miss that. This American Life's correction a few weeks back was the proper way to go about it, and that's likely a millennial event. And I'm too lazy to look it up, but a few months back there was a report on /. that even after someone is told that a previously stated "fact" was actually a mistake or outright lie, an alarming portion of people still hold the previous "mistruth" as fact.
Furthermore, an incident like this actually helps Zimmerman--there's plenty of evidence, circumstantial or otherwise, to lob against this guy, so when you go out of your way to make up or twist such things it only lends credence to the idea that the guy isn't as bad as he seems.
Any properly formatted document available on the web is also properly printable. Make the document for the web first, and print out things when needed. Depending on the percentage of parents connected, you can either print out copies first and hand them out to everyone, encouraging the more connected parents to recycle on said paper (opt-out style), or have students/parents request printed copies to be sent home (opt-in style).
Since they print the document up anyway, typing it up using something like Wordpress and then printing is fairly trivial. If they want to do something fancy in Word, type it up in word, print it out, and upload it; or, set each teacher up with a directory that will auto-list contents for download online so they can just save to that network location.
Teachers would likely be more willing to read if they would stop assigning arbitrary requirements. "Three sources", "2-5 pages", etc. They do nothing but give easy checkpoints to lower the overall value of the actual content of the paper.
Instead, shoot for conciseness. A lot of people have been trained by schools to say far more than necessary, which leads to confusion and wasted time. It will also build vocabulary by using words that express a wider idea or emotion. Still require sources (not that most public school teachers check them), but no min length (max is fine). If the student can talk about the major points of the War of 1812 in a page and a half, let him/her.
That's a good point that I did not consider previously.
Do we do that? If not, why not? It would seem to solve the supposed issue without this tariff. You want cheap panels, fine, no rebate for you.
Of course, if difference in panel price > rebate/tax break allowance, that doesn't matter much, I suppose.
I'm not talking about the able/rich or power plants producing electricity from solar for the poor, I'm talking about decreased demand on the power plants due to the able/rich not needing as much because of their own solar panels. I'm no power station expert, but less stress on the plant likely means lower overall costs which could be passed on to the remaining customers in the form of slight reduction in cost (or, much more likely in my pessimistic mind, a delay in the rising of costs.)
While I'm not big of the idea of "the long tail" or "trickle down economics", I would think this would help the poor in a small manner. By those able to afford it having solar panels, the power companies have less demand for their energy and so the poor are less likely to see an increase in power prices (and, rarely, a slight reduction). This is, of course, assuming things like the able don't have their own, separate power station from the poor, enough able people install them to actually make some sort of dent, etc.
Even if they get no impact from it, "the poor still can't afford them" doesn't seem like a valid mark against such a program; I didn't see anyone complaining that the tax breaks to those who bought hybrids were bad because the poor still couldn't afford hybrids.
Huh. For some reason, I just lost 100% of my interest in SimCity 5. Good thing there are lots of other games that don't require the worthless Origin service and can be played offline--such as most of my games on Steam, for instance.
Michael Bay makes me miss Uwe Boll.
HOW.
It's okay, This American Life. Slashdot has been lacking in fact checking, posting sensationalist stories, and using untrusted sources for years. You'll be fine, don't cry.
I can't see how this would be an issue. You can already modify stuff in Photoshop to change things like terms, this "unprinter" wouldn't change anything. It might be a bit easier to change the terms (assuming the original paper was printed with a laser printer in the first place--this won't work for ye standarde inkjet as far as I know; after actually RTFA, it provides no more or more accurate information than the /. synposis, and the full thing is behind a paywall), but the cost would be expensive even if they become mainstream (only groups that would need one would be offices that have a laser printer, so likely not something you'd just swing by Best Buy and grab), so a cracked copy of Photoshop it is.
Even without this, people need to keep copies of contracts (banks do, after all.)
I'm a big states-rights kind of guy, and I applaud California and Nevada on taking initiative in a technology that will hopefully become widespread sooner than later, but this is one situation where the federal government should be involved (cars often cross state lines, after all) and at least form a committee/study (insert committee uselessness here) to set a ceiling on limitations for these vehicles. States can relax the limitations as they see fit (open-space areas like Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming might allow a higher auto-speed), but if each state is left to set its own devices you'll get a large amount of different standards that each automaker has to adhere to in order to sell the vehicle on a national or even regional level. The fed is going to step in at some point, but better sooner than later; not only will they create a nice standard for all states (/. likes open standards, right?), but it will make a lot of states that are on the fence about the whole thing (or not even caring) have an extra push to allow the vehicles (assuming the feds don't allow them nationally in addition to standards).
I haven't read up on the various rules put in place (or recommended), but I sincerely hope there's a size limitation on the vehicle. No more than T tons, no more than XxYxZ dimensions to be allowed an autopilot. That way in the case of a catastrophic failure (we'll get at least a handful) the risk to other drivers is far less. Also, energy savings. Maybe even create a standard within the auto industry for censors that can be included in an "autopilot only" lane to enhance the cars capability in those environments. (Ooh! How about extra sensors within parking garages so that the car auto-drives itself to the closest available open spot?)
But even more important than that, any item that is approved and included automatically grants the original creator a percentage of store sales (I want to say 25%, but am not sure). While it certainly makes Valve's job easier, it also is financially rewarding to those who submit items (as well as the fame they might have garnered anyway) and keeps a more invested community.
Oh, that I had mod points. However, one note:
It will never come close to starting a riot. All it will do is make a lot of talking heads on TV talk about gas prices more, some people will drive a bit less, one guy will start taking the bus, three guys will each buy a bike but only one will ever use it, and everyone will post to Facebook about how much gas prices suck.
The only thing that will make Americans in general riot these days is if their sports team of choice does... something. Win, lose, disband, it doesn't seem to matter, it all leads to civil unrest. (I really don't understand this, either.)
I am.
Society these days is far too much about 'respect' for those who have none. I don't know how it was in the "old days", because it seems to have been this way as long as I can remember, but almost no one is willing to just go to someone and politely ask that they lower their voice/music/movie, take their call somewhere else, etc. It's amazing how willing people are to oblige to simple, respectful requests, but instead everyone acts in fear of being sued for assault (or being assaulted themselves), so the assholes of the world get away with it. True, there are many times it's unwise to approach someone, but on a bus or train just asking someone to lower their voice will cause a ruckus only from the most stubborn of selfish people, and at that point you're very likely to have someone stand up and agree with you (spurred on by your apparent courage.)
But instead people try to "game" society so we get assholes (but of a different type than the loud ones) like the guy in the article who inadvertently ruin everyone's phone call in a certain area, or scratch up paint/slash tires on someone's car for parking in an annoying (but not obstructive) manner, and pass blanket laws that ruin things for everyone instead of going after the actual incidence or individual.
Episode 3 will be the pack-in title. That's why we haven't seen it yet, because Valve made it for the Steam Box but the box is taking too long to come out.
But really, considering how often computer hardware changes, if they're smart they'll make this a hybrid of console and PC gaming; each year they'll release a model, likely using higher-end hardware from the last year to keep prices down, with set standards to make it easy for developers to program for the future and to let things degrade nicely for the past (say, the standard will be to support the last three-five years of models). This way someone can buy one once and have the same cycle as consoles, or if they have more money they can buy each year's model and sell the older one. And Valve won't give two shits about the "used market", because the distribution will be mostly digital and they'll need to make their own Steam account to get into the PC (even if they use Origin, ha) and that will likely lead to money for buying from Valve. It's like TF2 and hats, but the game is physical (hats are still digital, sadly.)
Even if it doesn't take off, they might be able to form an industry standard "definition" of PC gaming ability to make it easier for people to figure out if their PC will run certain games.
Agreed; this is actually something I realized myself recently. Much like how politics is actually a grid (where X is financial stance and Y is social stance, or vice-versa) instead of a straight line where you're either left or right, so is intelligence. It is made up of a grid where X is ignorance (for lack of a better word at the moment) on the left and knowledgeable on the right, while Y is "smart" (common sense might be a better term, but isn't quite right either) at the top and "stupid" (or lack of common sense) at the bottom.
This is how someone can be incredibly intelligent (i.e. they know [i]a lot[/i] of useful stuff) but still make horrible mistakes (they have the wrong knowledge for a situation or are unable to apply the knowledge they do have to the situation) while those with "common sense" can do alright in life but without knowledge won't have many opportunities for advancement.
A better term instead of "common sense" might be "comprehension" or "situational awareness".
Okay, so let's raise some ire over this. The government responds. They do so in one of two ways:
1) Fire Stratfor, which closes and reopens under another moniker (I hear "Blackwater" is available these days), then hire "new" company at a lesser amount. (Or, if the right two people are pals, a higher amount.)
2) Fire Stratfor, use the money to hire a competent intelligence firm.
I think in this case we can all bitch and moan about government limpness, but should go no further. Considering the current crop of morons in power in all branches and levels, it's highly unlikely for someone to go "maybe we shouldn't hire external private firms and instead put money into doing real intelligence with our own intelligence agencies". If the article's description of Stratfor holds for other companies they hired, I'd rather let incompetence feed incompetence at this point and focus more on election reform.
One of my first projects in Computing and Algorithms I in college was to make a calendar that would print out in console with days correctly placed on the day of the week. The instructions specified to take special care for leap day; everyone thought they understood leap day, so no one bothered to check on the rules. The fact that round centuries do not include a leap day except when (year mod 400 = 0) meant that every one of our calendars[1] was wrong for certain years (but right for others, IIRC). And our professor docked us points as such. Back then, the entire class (along with myself) felt that we were misled or cheated, but looking back on it now that was an important lesson on project management, specifically researching requirements and checking with the interested party about how things are.
I reckon this lesson was missed by many, which leads to the various issues we see for software on Leap Day, including Microsoft's Azure as mentioned in a recent /. article.
[1] For the half of the class that completed the project, this 101 class was used to weed out those who couldn't actually program for crap and the EEs just needed a C to meet their requirement.
Another reason I recently realized that recaptchas are useless: The whole idea is that one of the words could be read by a robot [spoiler]from the start[/spoiler] to be included in the rotation. Now, granted, they've modified the word to try and anti-robot it, but the fact remains that at some point it was readable; the other "word" never was. Thus it had a limited lifespan until the spambots caught up in OCR to Google's bots.
Sadly, I was more a code monkey than a PM; after the project was completed, my only involvement in it was bugfixes and a few minor enhancements. I didn't keep track of how the new data changed the workflow, though the few times I had to look at reports to fix stuff there seemed to be a decrease in 4/5s.
My manager related to me that the application was well received by everyone involved, though, so I imagine it lessened discrepancies somewhat.
This reminds me of an internal application I (re)developed for a very large shipping company. The company used conveyer belts to move most of their packages between sections of a central shipping hub. At the end of the shift the floor manager for each section would walk along to find issues with the belts in their sections, which could then be submitted with a rating of 1 (unimportant) to 5 (critical). Without fail, the floor manager would rate every problem 4 or 5. This caused issues when running reports for higher management because they would see a bunch of 4s and 5s that had been in the system for weeks. Despite instructions to stop doing this, it continued.
I took the (spaghetti code) application and rewrote it, including a large number of enhancements. One was that whenever one of the mechanics went in to check on a problem, they could assign it their own level of importance, which was usually far closer to the actual severity of the issue. Then they'd take care of what they considered 5s, then 4s, etc. In addition, the floor managers got to see what the mechanics rated an issue. While I'm sure they didn't like their problems being downgraded, it gave better feedback, and if they felt an issue was truly a 4/5 then they could take it up with someone higher; maybe they didn't explain the problem correctly. Reports also showed both ratings so there was a better understanding all around.
In short, let the users dictate their own priority, but with the understanding that it's not the ultimate priority. IT can then assign their own, and if the user feels wronged they can go higher about it. (Obnoxious users will do this anyway, but having a system that compares the two gives one more wall for them to climb.)
Alright, gimmie a second...
"Against warrantless entry of your home? You must be abusing a child!"
"Against public cameras tracking your every move? You must be planning to abduct a child!"
"Against drug prohibition? You must want to give drugs to children!"
"Against warrantless wire-tapping? You must be talking about internet surveillance legislation!"
Wait, that last one needs work.
...that just because you are a teacher doesn't mean you are intelligent. This is something I figured out fairly early on in high school, but believe kids should be told it up front so they don't treat everything the teacher says as absolute fact. Not that they should disregard everything a teacher says, but teachers are people and people can (and, in my opinion, usually are) stupid. So they can certainly be wrong, not that many teachers will own up that fact (the good ones will.)
Let's just have all minors dress as nuns until they turn 18. Not only will this remove the possibility of jailbait, but it means that if someone is wearing normal clothes you'll know they're legal and can go about things without worries.
(What was that quote? "The best thing about teenage girls is that they remain the same age as I get older"?)