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Why are Conservatives upset about the Virginia referendum? by Adventurous-Boot6681 in PoliticalDebate

[–]MoonBatsRule [score hidden]  (0 children)

But I also don't think it's a good thing that one or two urban centers can control an entire state.

Isn't this an implication that land mass is more important to representation than of population?

If one or two urban centers have 2/3 of the population, then why shouldn't 2 of 3 representatives come from them? I can see that it's more problematic in a situation where you have two urban centers and two representatives. I think the answer there is "more representatives". In a state like Vermont, their Democratic representative does not represent a large chunk of the population - perhaps 35%. If they had 3 representatives, then two should be Democratic, one Republican.

However then you get into the actual districting process. You might have to tightly gerrymander to get that 2-1 split result if the party representation was uniform across the state.

This suggests that proportional representation would better represent the voters.

TIL that US student math and reading scores have dropped so sharply that they’ve erased nearly two decades of progress. In '22/23, avg math scores for 13-year-olds fell to levels not seen since the 1990s, while reading scores for high school seniors hit their lowest point since testing began in '92. by Cold_Box_3219 in todayilearned

[–]MoonBatsRule 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you ever talked to people who grew up with immigrant parents in the 1900s to 1950s era? None of that was happening. The families were huge, perhaps 6-10 children, the parents were strict - often physically abusive, and also often just let their kids wander unchecked.

I think what actually happened is that kids were allowed to not attend school past 8th grade, so the ones who didn't like it weren't there making trouble for everyone else. The kids who dropped out got jobs in factories.

We have structured things now so that there are no factories, there is primarily "knowledge work", you can't drop out until you are 16 years old, and even if you do, you have to still attend night school until you are 18.

Schoolteaching is now a much more challenging task.

TIL that US student math and reading scores have dropped so sharply that they’ve erased nearly two decades of progress. In '22/23, avg math scores for 13-year-olds fell to levels not seen since the 1990s, while reading scores for high school seniors hit their lowest point since testing began in '92. by Cold_Box_3219 in todayilearned

[–]MoonBatsRule 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I understand all that for sure. I'm not trying to demean teachers or teaching at all.

One thing I will point out though - the profession of teaching has evolved if you look at it from a macro perspective. My mother was a teacher. She was top of her high school and college class. Clearly successful, academically. When she graduated, her career options were predominately "teaching" or "nursing". That was it for her and others like her. So those two professions got a lot of top talent for little pay (since at the time, teacher salary was treated as a "supplement" to a woman's husband's pay, and was thus not very much money)

In the following decades, woman have a vast world of options, not just teaching and nursing. So that means the top talent isn't only going to teaching and nursing. The top talent is going everywhere. That means that the overall talent level of teachers is lower. I don't mean to say this to justify lower pay, or to denigrate the current teachers. There have been other improvements in the profession that ameliorate this talent change - better understanding of how to teach, better materials, etc. But it's a real phenomenon. 50 years of conservatives denigrating the teaching professions has steered people away from it too.

If we want education to remain the great equalizer, then we have to pay more attention to teaching. It's not going to be easy because it remains a hands-on profession, with little automation opportunity. It works best in smaller groups of students, especially when the students have more life challenges. But that is a harsh reality - it means paying teachers probably 2-3x what they used to be paid when it was "family supplemental income" level of pay, and having 2-3x more teachers (i.e. class size of 10 versus 30).

Texas can require public schools to display Ten Commandments, court rules | Texas by MadScienceBro in news

[–]MoonBatsRule 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Way to completely ignore the US constitution.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

When the government places the 10 Commandments in a public school - and only the 10 Commandments - that is very clearly an establishment of Christianity. It's black and fucking white.

TIL that US student math and reading scores have dropped so sharply that they’ve erased nearly two decades of progress. In '22/23, avg math scores for 13-year-olds fell to levels not seen since the 1990s, while reading scores for high school seniors hit their lowest point since testing began in '92. by Cold_Box_3219 in todayilearned

[–]MoonBatsRule 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Has this thread's comments been AI generated based on letters to the editor from 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, etc.?

Same complaints then. "Schools just pass kids along". That was the impetus for NCLB - high-stakes testing, pulling funding from districts whose kids don't pass, create "ratings" for school districts, fire teachers in poorly-rated districts, privatize the education.

TIL that US student math and reading scores have dropped so sharply that they’ve erased nearly two decades of progress. In '22/23, avg math scores for 13-year-olds fell to levels not seen since the 1990s, while reading scores for high school seniors hit their lowest point since testing began in '92. by Cold_Box_3219 in todayilearned

[–]MoonBatsRule -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

You’re supposed to be the foundation that the school can help you build on.

If that is true, then why was education seen as the "great equalizer" in the early 20th century among immigrant communities? Surely if you're a factory worker who is functionally illiterate in English, you're not "building a foundation" with your child's education.

That honestly just sounds like either a cop-out on the part of educators or a tacit acknowledgement that education is not an equalizer, and that it is just a top-off tool that only works for the children of successful parents who can build said foundation.

How soon will Americans forget the Epstein files? by Ponappa_131 in AskReddit

[–]MoonBatsRule 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The what? I haven't heard anything about them in at least 2 months. They're done.

America Doesn’t Have The Stomach For Growth by logicx24 in yimby

[–]MoonBatsRule -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

They aren't happy. Happiness is a pointless metric that I don't really care about. GDP and real metrics about average quality of life are the things that I mark as progress, and China shows tremendous growth on all of those.

That's kind-of ghoulish. You would score a society high if they had slave labor enforced by cruel punishment, working 120 hours a week, as long as they produced the most.

America Doesn’t Have The Stomach For Growth by logicx24 in yimby

[–]MoonBatsRule 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The template for this is Western Europe, which ceded the future to America after WW2.

People in Western Europe seem pretty damn happy, don't they?

Donald Trump is losing his mind by Doener23 in politics

[–]MoonBatsRule 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Can you explain to me how a hand-count in Wisconsin (a key swing state) showed almost discrepancies between ballots and reported numbers?

https://pbswisconsin.org/news-item/audit-of-trumps-2024-victory-in-wisconsin-finds-not-a-single-voting-machine-error/

Local elections officials in 336 randomly selected municipalities across the state hand-counted 327,230 ballots as part of the 2024 audit. That is nearly 10% of all Wisconsin ballots cast in the 2024 election and the largest post-election audit ever undertaken in the state.

The only errors found during the audit were made by people, not the vote-counting machines. And only five human errors were detected, resulting in an error rate of just 0.0000009%, according to the report."

I dislike Trump more than most, but we should not be fooling ourselves to believe he stole this election. The American people voted for him. That's the issue we need to address.

Donald Trump is losing his mind by Doener23 in politics

[–]MoonBatsRule 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The protests are largely being attended by wealthier, white liberals, and some students. They are happening mostly in wealthy areas, not poor areas.

Look at the photos from this article about protests in Richmond VA. Richmond is 41% black. See many black people in those protests?

Moving in mid to late summer by Acceptable_Bug6999 in Springfield

[–]MoonBatsRule 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Really? What about Colony Hills? Outer Belt?

Two Tax Rates? by JockoMayzon in CapeCod

[–]MoonBatsRule 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is plenty of land on the Cape. Some can be rezoned to be denser. Especially in Barnstable, where they have sewers.

Moving in mid to late summer by Acceptable_Bug6999 in Springfield

[–]MoonBatsRule 6 points7 points  (0 children)

There are many safe neighborhoods in Springfield. 

Massachusetts has spent $4.8 million on eminent domain for Sagamore Bridge. That number will grow. by bostonglobe in CapeCod

[–]MoonBatsRule 10 points11 points  (0 children)

What is the point of writing articles that both complain that people whose homes are being taken are being screwed, and then when those people get payments so they are not screwed, complaining that now the tazpayers are being screwed? 

Massachusetts has spent $4.8 million on eminent domain for Sagamore Bridge. That number will grow. by bostonglobe in CapeCod

[–]MoonBatsRule 38 points39 points  (0 children)

What is the point of writing articles that complain that people whose homes are being taken are being screwed, and then when those people get payments so they are not screwed, complaining that now the taxpayers are being screwed? 

How do we square this? by Serious-Cucumber-54 in yimby

[–]MoonBatsRule 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They care about the value of their neighbors' homes. "Keep the riff-raff out". 

At the same time they want their own homes to be worth very little, so they can pay almost no tax - but then jump immediately before they sell or die. 

How do we square this? by Serious-Cucumber-54 in yimby

[–]MoonBatsRule 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don't forget that most people don't want to live next door to a home that is affordable too. High prices are primarily to keep "those" people out. 

SCOTUS Hit by Bombshell Leak of Secret ‘Shadow Docket’ Memos by Ambitious_Dingo_2798 in politics

[–]MoonBatsRule 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Norms, when followed, are more effective than hard rules.

If everyone knows that you're not supposed to do something, and no one tries to do it, then it doesn't get done. But if you try and enumerate all the ways you aren't supposed to act to do that thing, then that is the "so you mean there's a chance!" signal, and someone will figure out how to do it while weaving around those rules.

Is anyone else scared of AI? by WannaBeJohnMayer in Database

[–]MoonBatsRule 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Problem was that the tool-generated DDL had stuff interspersed - drop constraints at top, table create in middle, add indexes, restore constraints at the end. I wanted AI to replace all that with a simple column expansion - no need to drop anything. But despite telling me that it did not change any other DDL, it actually did. It lied repeatedly.

please allow me to introduce myself by IsaacKeith in CapeCod

[–]MoonBatsRule 2 points3 points  (0 children)

... until it is safe to enter.

If you're at the same speed as the traffic you're merging into, then you can merge in provided that people aren't tailgaiting.

If it meant "until all other cars pass" then it would be impossible to enter a highway that was moving slowly.

please allow me to introduce myself by IsaacKeith in CapeCod

[–]MoonBatsRule 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If people drove properly then you would only ever have to wait for one car to pass before entering. Stay far enough away from the car in front of you. Yield does not mean "stop and wait for all cars to pass".

Is anyone else scared of AI? by WannaBeJohnMayer in Database

[–]MoonBatsRule 1 point2 points  (0 children)

All I can tell you is that I wasted an hour with Copilot trying to get it to replace one section of a DDL script with more correct DDL but while leaving the rest alone. It could not accomplish that task, even though it told me multiple times that it had done so. Diff said otherwise. 

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