The Biden administration is leaning toward sending a significant number of Abrams M1 tanks to Ukraine and an announcement of the deliveries could come this week, U.S. officials says - WSJ
...The announcement would be part of a broader diplomatic understanding with Germany in which they would agree to send a smaller number of its own Leopard 2 tanks & would also approve the delivery of tanks by Poland and other nations https://twitter.com/Faytuks/status/1617901132566921219
Oh wow, my street is getting FTTH in the second half of the year, finally! Not shitty Virgin Media either!
What's wrong with Virgin fibre optic? Mine is solidly 300+ (500+ in the room with the router) and I have a fairly big house. It's also extremely stable – only one outage in three or four years.
That said, I use Orbi rather than Virgin's freebie router which I assumed would be rubbish.
Latency is not great and they have congestion issues.
Long term they're also going to FTTH, so it won't be an issue much longer
Isn't it already FTTH?
Depends on area. New areas it is technically fibre to the outside of the home and then coax into the home. Older areas it is coax from the cabinet to the home.
Surely, in the depraved ranks of His Majesty’s Honourable Guild of PB-ers, there must be one miscreant who can give me the skinny on Tramadol
Did it once at a party, a few tablets ground up and it was honestly a lovely experience but I got in a lot of shit from a very close doctor friend and despite having been very tempted in the years since I have avoided it as I can see it would become very addictive very quickly so avoid like the plague.
I’ve kicked heroin and Xanax, reckon I can take Tramadol, no probs
Oh wow, my street is getting FTTH in the second half of the year, finally! Not shitty Virgin Media either!
What's wrong with Virgin fibre optic? Mine is solidly 300+ (500+ in the room with the router) and I have a fairly big house. It's also extremely stable – only one outage in three or four years.
That said, I use Orbi rather than Virgin's freebie router which I assumed would be rubbish.
Their service is shit. If anything goes wrong, good luck getting it fixed.
Also, they hung onto offering very slow upload speeds. And still do in many postcodes. Which is rubbish for video calls.
Unlike a proper fibre connection which should be symmetrical.
Fair point about upload speeds – mine are 10% of my download speed. That said, I never have a problem with video calls so they are seemingly good enough.
Surely, in the depraved ranks of His Majesty’s Honourable Guild of PB-ers, there must be one miscreant who can give me the skinny on Tramadol
Did it once at a party, a few tablets ground up and it was honestly a lovely experience but I got in a lot of shit from a very close doctor friend and despite having been very tempted in the years since I have avoided it as I can see it would become very addictive very quickly so avoid like the plague.
I’ve kicked heroin and Xanax, reckon I can take Tramadol, no probs
See you all in 8 years after jail & rehab
Really just don’t do it - you do it today and Sean Knox will copy you tomorrow and where will it end. But seriously don’t do it, too addictive.
Nothing about FTTP necessitates symmetrical speeds BTW, that is just convention from alt-nets.
Openreach will probably never offer symmetrical speeds, they might do when they offer XGS-PON (currently being trialed) but more likely they just offer higher upload.
I think 1000Mbps down 200Mbps up would suit most just fine
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
Kids are going to be reading and discussing this stuff on the internet and in the playground way before 14. Naive.
Yes of course, kids will be kids and 14-year-olds all have phones now. That’s very different from bringing it into the classroom as a discussion topic.
Anyone come across these changes in the Highway Code? Came in nearly a year ago. There seems to be little awareness of the changes and they seem radical. I've not noticed anyone complying with new rules re: pedestrians at junctions for example.
My experience has been around 50% compliance when I'm crossing the road and someone wants to turn in. So far, nobody has driven into me while I am exercising my right to cross.
Do you mean when you have started to cross or just intending to cross?
If you are poised, ready to cross, the car should wait to let you cross. A couple of times I have already stepped out, and a car has still turned across in front of me.
In my experience, I'm one of the few motorists who knows this rule:
leave at least 1.5 metres (5 feet) when overtaking people cycling at speeds of up to 30mph, and giving them more space when overtaking at higher speeds
Two feet seems more typical.
It used to say 6’ for overtaking cyclists. As someone who was a cyclist before he was a driver, I tried my best to stick to that when in the car.
“People cycling at speeds up to 30mph”, are either going down a big hill or training for the Tour de France. Although in the last year or two, they might have one of these “it’s definitely not really a motorbike because it’s electric” motorbikes.
It's poorly worded but it's talking about the car's speed. And yes, a good rule of thumb is a car's width (about six foot as you say).
And if you can't find six feet safely then – guess what? – you have to wait behind until you can.
I see lots of people break that rule – while I'm driving and also while I'm cycling. And it's one of the best and most important rules in the Code.
These changes in general are poorly worded.
For example: "give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way (see Rule H2)"
The first sentence conflicts with the second. It says give way if pedestrian is crossing or waiting to cross and then says if the pedestrian has started to cross he/she has priority. So if they have not started to cross they do not have priority? Or do they?
This is a recipe for chaos. Seems to me that drivers have not adopted these rules (maybe they have in cities dunno) and if some do a car will stop unexpectedly and get rammed from behind.
The comms around them has been woeful. I was beeped at last week for stopping to let a pedestrian cross while turning into the road (I only knew about the new rule as someone had posted it on PB!).
That said, you get beeped at for anything in north London: Driving at the speed limit (20mph). Owning an Audi. Driving while it's raining.
UPDATE: Former senior FBI official Charles McGonigal, now indicted for money laundering and conspiracy to help Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, is now being represented by -- wait for it -- Rudy Giuliani's old law firm. https://twitter.com/TristanSnell/status/1617877901113978880
This for PB's chief anti-tipping activist (you & we know who you are!)
Associated Press - Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes
Across the country, there’s a silent frustration brewing about an age-old practice that many say is getting out of hand: tipping.
Some fed-up consumers are posting rants on social media complaining about tip requests at drive-thrus, while others say they’re tired of being asked to leave a gratuity for a muffin or a simple cup of coffee at their neighborhood bakery. What’s next, they wonder -- are we going to be tipping our doctors and dentists, too?
As more businesses adopt digital payment methods, customers are automatically being prompted to leave a gratuity — many times as high as 30% — at places they normally wouldn’t. And some say it has become more frustrating as the price of items has skyrocketed due to inflation, which eased to 6.5% in December but still remains painfully high.
“Suddenly, these screens are at every establishment we encounter. They’re popping up online as well for online orders. And I fear that there is no end,” said etiquette expert Thomas Farley, who considers the whole thing somewhat of “an invasion.” . . .
In my experience, I'm one of the few motorists who knows this rule:
leave at least 1.5 metres (5 feet) when overtaking people cycling at speeds of up to 30mph, and giving them more space when overtaking at higher speeds
Two feet seems more typical.
It used to say 6’ for overtaking cyclists. As someone who was a cyclist before he was a driver, I tried my best to stick to that when in the car.
“People cycling at speeds up to 30mph”, are either going down a big hill or training for the Tour de France. Although in the last year or two, they might have one of these “it’s definitely not really a motorbike because it’s electric” motorbikes.
Lunatic ride those things everywhere. There was an idiot practising wheelies on the embankment not far from where I live. It’s one thing to cycle slowly - it’s a mixed crowd of cyclists, walkers etc.
This guy was hitting more than 30. Until he raced round a corner. A boat club was taking a rowing boat out of the shed. He smacked into it.
Fortunately he didn’t hit anyone carrying the boat, and it was a practise tub. So built like a battleship. Not even dented.
He was in a bad way, though.
Based on where I live, everywhere except the cycle lanes...
I should hope not. Motorbikes aren't allowed in cycle lanes!
Surely, in the depraved ranks of His Majesty’s Honourable Guild of PB-ers, there must be one miscreant who can give me the skinny on Tramadol
Did it once at a party, a few tablets ground up and it was honestly a lovely experience but I got in a lot of shit from a very close doctor friend and despite having been very tempted in the years since I have avoided it as I can see it would become very addictive very quickly so avoid like the plague.
I’ve kicked heroin and Xanax, reckon I can take Tramadol, no probs
Anyone come across these changes in the Highway Code? Came in nearly a year ago. There seems to be little awareness of the changes and they seem radical. I've not noticed anyone complying with new rules re: pedestrians at junctions for example.
My experience has been around 50% compliance when I'm crossing the road and someone wants to turn in. So far, nobody has driven into me while I am exercising my right to cross.
Do you mean when you have started to cross or just intending to cross?
If you are poised, ready to cross, the car should wait to let you cross. A couple of times I have already stepped out, and a car has still turned across in front of me.
That's not what the Highway Code says. I quote: "If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way".
Has any PB-er ever tried Tramadol? You can buy it OTC here….
Made my wife vomited copiously* after an ear op - phoned the post-op helpline and the doc said a few people react that way so we stopped the tramadol and the vomiting stopped. You have been warned
*I'd made a particularly nice red pepper soup. We never made it again after that
The SNP voted down an amendment to prevent rape defendants from legally changing their sex before trial. To help avoid sort of defence advanced by defence barrister in this case, that this now-convicted male rapist shouldn’t be seen as a “predatory man”
[Thankfully this means the jury rejected the extraordinary argument from Bryson's KC that "if you accept that evidence, that she is transitioning ... that goes a long way to acquitting her of these charges."]
Key facts: this convicted rapist started transitioning in 2020 AFTER he raped two women in 2016 and 2019 with what was referred to in court as “her penis”
But, no, it’ll never ever happen and women are crazy to fear that male sex offenders will cynically abuse a system that allows them to change their legal sex with barely any safeguards.
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
Kids are going to be reading and discussing this stuff on the internet and in the playground way before 14. Naive.
Apparently I got quite a detailed lesson on the mechanics at school when I was about 7 and came home and explained it all to my mum (no, my very existence did not give me a clue that she might have mastered some of this). She was greatly embarrassed and that was the end of that for quite a few years.
Surely, in the depraved ranks of His Majesty’s Honourable Guild of PB-ers, there must be one miscreant who can give me the skinny on Tramadol
Did it once at a party, a few tablets ground up and it was honestly a lovely experience but I got in a lot of shit from a very close doctor friend and despite having been very tempted in the years since I have avoided it as I can see it would become very addictive very quickly so avoid like the plague.
I’ve kicked heroin and Xanax, reckon I can take Tramadol, no probs
See you all in 8 years after jail & rehab
Don’t be silly. It’ll fuck you up.
It’s really not gonna fuck me up. I’m too old and grizzled for that. I’ve done EVERYTHING
algakirk asked: "Do I just infer that Cyclefree's answer is that some male natures just are that way and it is unstoppable?
May I call for a further article from Cyclefree on exactly this question. This subject matters."
A good question, but I inferred from her "Cultures" that she was excluding genetic explanations. (Understandably, considering how much grief one can get after appealing to such explanations.)
And cultures do differ greatly in these matters. I recall reading, many years ago, that the Western tradition, in which women outrank men socially, is not found in most other cultures. And, as far as I can tell, that's correct.
But perhaps that is changing in our own culture, what with the breakdown of so many families. To take an extreme example, I suspect that most of Jeffrey Epstein's victims did not have fathers in their lives.
In my experience, I'm one of the few motorists who knows this rule:
leave at least 1.5 metres (5 feet) when overtaking people cycling at speeds of up to 30mph, and giving them more space when overtaking at higher speeds
Two feet seems more typical.
It used to say 6’ for overtaking cyclists. As someone who was a cyclist before he was a driver, I tried my best to stick to that when in the car.
“People cycling at speeds up to 30mph”, are either going down a big hill or training for the Tour de France. Although in the last year or two, they might have one of these “it’s definitely not really a motorbike because it’s electric” motorbikes.
Lunatic ride those things everywhere. There was an idiot practising wheelies on the embankment not far from where I live. It’s one thing to cycle slowly - it’s a mixed crowd of cyclists, walkers etc.
This guy was hitting more than 30. Until he raced round a corner. A boat club was taking a rowing boat out of the shed. He smacked into it.
Fortunately he didn’t hit anyone carrying the boat, and it was a practise tub. So built like a battleship. Not even dented.
He was in a bad way, though.
Based on where I live, everywhere except the cycle lanes...
I should hope not. Motorbikes aren't allowed in cycle lanes!
The problem is the electric motorbikes. Modified vehicles that don’t conform with any laws at all.
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
In my experience, I'm one of the few motorists who knows this rule:
leave at least 1.5 metres (5 feet) when overtaking people cycling at speeds of up to 30mph, and giving them more space when overtaking at higher speeds
Two feet seems more typical.
It used to say 6’ for overtaking cyclists. As someone who was a cyclist before he was a driver, I tried my best to stick to that when in the car.
“People cycling at speeds up to 30mph”, are either going down a big hill or training for the Tour de France. Although in the last year or two, they might have one of these “it’s definitely not really a motorbike because it’s electric” motorbikes.
It's poorly worded but it's talking about the car's speed. And yes, a good rule of thumb is a car's width (about six foot as you say).
And if you can't find six feet safely then – guess what? – you have to wait behind until you can.
I see lots of people break that rule – while I'm driving and also while I'm cycling. And it's one of the best and most important rules in the Code.
These changes in general are poorly worded.
For example: "give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way (see Rule H2)"
The first sentence conflicts with the second. It says give way if pedestrian is crossing or waiting to cross and then says if the pedestrian has started to cross he/she has priority. So if they have not started to cross they do not have priority? Or do they?
This is a recipe for chaos. Seems to me that drivers have not adopted these rules (maybe they have in cities dunno) and if some do a car will stop unexpectedly and get rammed from behind.
The comms around them has been woeful. I was beeped at last week for stopping to let a pedestrian cross while turning into the road (I only knew about the new rule as someone had posted it on PB!).
That said, you get beeped at for anything in north London: Driving at the speed limit (20mph). Owning an Audi. Driving while it's raining.
Notwithstanding its conflicting statements I mentioned earlier, the HC says "At a junction you should give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning".
So this makes pedestrian crossings near junctions redundant. In effect, the HC designates ALL areas around a junction a pedestrian crossing.
Surely, in the depraved ranks of His Majesty’s Honourable Guild of PB-ers, there must be one miscreant who can give me the skinny on Tramadol
Did it once at a party, a few tablets ground up and it was honestly a lovely experience but I got in a lot of shit from a very close doctor friend and despite having been very tempted in the years since I have avoided it as I can see it would become very addictive very quickly so avoid like the plague.
I’ve kicked heroin and Xanax, reckon I can take Tramadol, no probs
See you all in 8 years after jail & rehab
Don’t be silly. It’ll fuck you up.
It’s really not gonna fuck me up. I’m too old and grizzled for that. I’ve done EVERYTHING
It’s heroin. It’ll fuck you up, just like it did years ago.
Surely, in the depraved ranks of His Majesty’s Honourable Guild of PB-ers, there must be one miscreant who can give me the skinny on Tramadol
Did it once at a party, a few tablets ground up and it was honestly a lovely experience but I got in a lot of shit from a very close doctor friend and despite having been very tempted in the years since I have avoided it as I can see it would become very addictive very quickly so avoid like the plague.
I’ve kicked heroin and Xanax, reckon I can take Tramadol, no probs
See you all in 8 years after jail & rehab
Don’t be silly. It’ll fuck you up.
It’s really not gonna fuck me up. I’m too old and grizzled for that. I’ve done EVERYTHING
Please provide citation, for this obvious quote from Evel Knievel?
In my experience, I'm one of the few motorists who knows this rule:
leave at least 1.5 metres (5 feet) when overtaking people cycling at speeds of up to 30mph, and giving them more space when overtaking at higher speeds
Two feet seems more typical.
It used to say 6’ for overtaking cyclists. As someone who was a cyclist before he was a driver, I tried my best to stick to that when in the car.
“People cycling at speeds up to 30mph”, are either going down a big hill or training for the Tour de France. Although in the last year or two, they might have one of these “it’s definitely not really a motorbike because it’s electric” motorbikes.
Lunatic ride those things everywhere. There was an idiot practising wheelies on the embankment not far from where I live. It’s one thing to cycle slowly - it’s a mixed crowd of cyclists, walkers etc.
This guy was hitting more than 30. Until he raced round a corner. A boat club was taking a rowing boat out of the shed. He smacked into it.
Fortunately he didn’t hit anyone carrying the boat, and it was a practise tub. So built like a battleship. Not even dented.
He was in a bad way, though.
Based on where I live, everywhere except the cycle lanes...
I should hope not. Motorbikes aren't allowed in cycle lanes!
Motorbikes, no, but e-bikes and e-scooters are AFAIK.
Oh wow, my street is getting FTTH in the second half of the year, finally! Not shitty Virgin Media either!
What's wrong with Virgin fibre optic? Mine is solidly 300+ (500+ in the room with the router) and I have a fairly big house. It's also extremely stable – only one outage in three or four years.
That said, I use Orbi rather than Virgin's freebie router which I assumed would be rubbish.
Their service is shit. If anything goes wrong, good luck getting it fixed.
Also, they hung onto offering very slow upload speeds. And still do in many postcodes. Which is rubbish for video calls.
Unlike a proper fibre connection which should be symmetrical.
It is still miles better than any of the various types of DSL that most people use.
Besides that VMO2 have a very large fibre programme going, with a target of something like 21 million properties to be covered with 10 Gb/s XGS-PON. So you really do want to see Virgin Media digging up your street.
This for PB's chief anti-tipping activist (you & we know who you are!)
Associated Press - Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes
Across the country, there’s a silent frustration brewing about an age-old practice that many say is getting out of hand: tipping.
Some fed-up consumers are posting rants on social media complaining about tip requests at drive-thrus, while others say they’re tired of being asked to leave a gratuity for a muffin or a simple cup of coffee at their neighborhood bakery. What’s next, they wonder -- are we going to be tipping our doctors and dentists, too?
As more businesses adopt digital payment methods, customers are automatically being prompted to leave a gratuity — many times as high as 30% — at places they normally wouldn’t. And some say it has become more frustrating as the price of items has skyrocketed due to inflation, which eased to 6.5% in December but still remains painfully high.
“Suddenly, these screens are at every establishment we encounter. They’re popping up online as well for online orders. And I fear that there is no end,” said etiquette expert Thomas Farley, who considers the whole thing somewhat of “an invasion.” . . .
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
Kids are going to be reading and discussing this stuff on the internet and in the playground way before 14. Naive.
Apparently I got quite a detailed lesson on the mechanics at school when I was about 7 and came home and explained it all to my mum (no, my very existence did not give me a clue that she might have mastered some of this). She was greatly embarrassed and that was the end of that for quite a few years.
Following my wife's explanation of the mechanics to our 4 year old, she looked at her mother and announced, awestruck "you've done it three times!"
That article is rather embarrassing dribble by someone who knows for sure who she doesn't like but doesn't actually understand any of the details.
The key to Zahawi, in my opinion, is the word "careless". In the tax world, when you have made an inaccurate or incomplete declaration in your tax return, you can either be prosecuted for fraud and quite likely, certainly for these sort of sums, spend a period in jail or you can be deemed to be "careless". It is a very specific meaning quite different from ordinary usage that arises from your duty to make a true and accurate declaration.
Zahawi has accepted that he was "careless" in this context, that he failed to make a true and accurate declaration of monies he received in his tax return. It was not in any way "careless" in the conventional sense, it wasn't an oversight or a mistake, it was a decision made not to disclose receipt of relevant funds.
The test for fraud, especially in tax matters, is a high one and it is easy to understand why inspectors of HMRC might well accept that there has been a "careless" failure to make a true declaration rather than taking on the onus of proving criminal intent beyond a reasonable doubt. But do not be deceived by the technical use of the word: this man, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, has accepted that he did not make a true and accurate statement of his tax liabilities and has paid a substantial penalty as a result. That really should have been the end of any role for him in public life.
Chris Philp was already spinning the careless "small c" interpretation of the HMRC judgement saying there would be an enquiry and we shouldn't pre-judge, whereas as you note, "careless" has a very particular meaning akin to negligence and indicates that he has already been deemed as such under that meaning.
I think the Cons are going to try to rely on the man on the Clapham Omnibus thinking "careless" means careless.
They're also pushing the "presumption of innocence" line. Which I thought applied to criminal cases, not whether an individual is a fit person to hold a senior political appointment.
In the latter case, an attitude of determined scepticism seems more appropriate..
The wonderful thing is how nothing at all has changed from the way Boris Johnson used to deal with doomed ministers. The same dismal progression from saying there's no case to answer until the revelations become too shocking to ignore, and then the same manoeuvring to kick the issue into the long grass of an inquiry and hope everyone forgets about it. And they're even still having to do it for Johnson himself and his appointees!
Anyone come across these changes in the Highway Code? Came in nearly a year ago. There seems to be little awareness of the changes and they seem radical. I've not noticed anyone complying with new rules re: pedestrians at junctions for example.
My experience has been around 50% compliance when I'm crossing the road and someone wants to turn in. So far, nobody has driven into me while I am exercising my right to cross.
Do you mean when you have started to cross or just intending to cross?
If you are poised, ready to cross, the car should wait to let you cross. A couple of times I have already stepped out, and a car has still turned across in front of me.
That's not what the Highway Code says. I quote: "If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way".
Highway Code rule H2:
"At a junction you should give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning."
Surely, in the depraved ranks of His Majesty’s Honourable Guild of PB-ers, there must be one miscreant who can give me the skinny on Tramadol
Did it once at a party, a few tablets ground up and it was honestly a lovely experience but I got in a lot of shit from a very close doctor friend and despite having been very tempted in the years since I have avoided it as I can see it would become very addictive very quickly so avoid like the plague.
I’ve kicked heroin and Xanax, reckon I can take Tramadol, no probs
See you all in 8 years after jail & rehab
Don’t be silly. It’ll fuck you up.
It’s really not gonna fuck me up. I’m too old and grizzled for that. I’ve done EVERYTHING
Anyone come across these changes in the Highway Code? Came in nearly a year ago. There seems to be little awareness of the changes and they seem radical. I've not noticed anyone complying with new rules re: pedestrians at junctions for example.
My experience has been around 50% compliance when I'm crossing the road and someone wants to turn in. So far, nobody has driven into me while I am exercising my right to cross.
Do you mean when you have started to cross or just intending to cross?
If you are poised, ready to cross, the car should wait to let you cross. A couple of times I have already stepped out, and a car has still turned across in front of me.
That's not what the Highway Code says. I quote: "If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way".
"give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning"
Anyone come across these changes in the Highway Code? Came in nearly a year ago. There seems to be little awareness of the changes and they seem radical. I've not noticed anyone complying with new rules re: pedestrians at junctions for example.
My experience has been around 50% compliance when I'm crossing the road and someone wants to turn in. So far, nobody has driven into me while I am exercising my right to cross.
Do you mean when you have started to cross or just intending to cross?
If you are poised, ready to cross, the car should wait to let you cross. A couple of times I have already stepped out, and a car has still turned across in front of me.
That's not what the Highway Code says. I quote: "If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way".
Highway Code rule H2:
"At a junction you should give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning."
But you omitted the second sentence which conflicts with the first:
"give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way".
In my experience, I'm one of the few motorists who knows this rule:
leave at least 1.5 metres (5 feet) when overtaking people cycling at speeds of up to 30mph, and giving them more space when overtaking at higher speeds
Two feet seems more typical.
It used to say 6’ for overtaking cyclists. As someone who was a cyclist before he was a driver, I tried my best to stick to that when in the car.
“People cycling at speeds up to 30mph”, are either going down a big hill or training for the Tour de France. Although in the last year or two, they might have one of these “it’s definitely not really a motorbike because it’s electric” motorbikes.
Lunatic ride those things everywhere. There was an idiot practising wheelies on the embankment not far from where I live. It’s one thing to cycle slowly - it’s a mixed crowd of cyclists, walkers etc.
This guy was hitting more than 30. Until he raced round a corner. A boat club was taking a rowing boat out of the shed. He smacked into it.
Fortunately he didn’t hit anyone carrying the boat, and it was a practise tub. So built like a battleship. Not even dented.
He was in a bad way, though.
Based on where I live, everywhere except the cycle lanes...
I should hope not. Motorbikes aren't allowed in cycle lanes!
Motorbikes, no, but e-bikes and e-scooters are AFAIK.
E-bikes have to automatically cut off the motor at 15.5 mph, if they want to count legally as bicycles.
Those who think Trump is the prohibitive favorite to win the Republican nomination -- should he run -- are ignoring the steady erosion of support for him, and this powerful reason for Republicans to choose someone else: "Polls of the 2024 race since then have been piecemeal and mostly focused on the GOP primary, showing DeSantis eroding and perhaps erasing Trump’s status as the presumptive favorite. (We’ve had DeSantis ahead of Trump in our 2024 GOP nomination rankings for a while now.) But the few that have compared Trump and DeSantis in general election matchups appear to confirm the difference in viability.
Most recently came a survey from a GOP pollster for the Club for Growth. It shows Trump trailing President Biden by eight points in a 2024 rematch, but DeSantis with a three-point lead (which is inside the margin of error) — which amounts to a gap of 11 points between their respective margins." source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/18/growing-trump-desantis-electability-gap/
Trump is a loser, and that is slowly becoming clear to many Republican voters.
In my experience, I'm one of the few motorists who knows this rule:
leave at least 1.5 metres (5 feet) when overtaking people cycling at speeds of up to 30mph, and giving them more space when overtaking at higher speeds
Two feet seems more typical.
I know the rule but it is pretty hard to fully comply with on streets that are often 3-4m wide, unless accepting that a 10mph cyclist dictates traffic speed which will probably lead to road rage from behind. I would generally overtake if a 3 feet gap was there rather than waiting for a 5 ft gap to be honest.
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
Kids are going to be reading and discussing this stuff on the internet and in the playground way before 14. Naive.
Apparently I got quite a detailed lesson on the mechanics at school when I was about 7 and came home and explained it all to my mum (no, my very existence did not give me a clue that she might have mastered some of this). She was greatly embarrassed and that was the end of that for quite a few years.
Following my wife's explanation of the mechanics to our 4 year old, she looked at her mother and announced, awestruck "you've done it three times!"
I recall at school a classmate so horrified at the thought that his parents had done it insisted babies could also happen "naturally". My enquiries were answered carefully about an egg from the mummy and a seed from the daddy. On further questioning about how the seed from the daddy knows when to go to the egg I got "oh it knows"....and matters rested there for several years....
In my experience, I'm one of the few motorists who knows this rule:
leave at least 1.5 metres (5 feet) when overtaking people cycling at speeds of up to 30mph, and giving them more space when overtaking at higher speeds
Two feet seems more typical.
It used to say 6’ for overtaking cyclists. As someone who was a cyclist before he was a driver, I tried my best to stick to that when in the car.
“People cycling at speeds up to 30mph”, are either going down a big hill or training for the Tour de France. Although in the last year or two, they might have one of these “it’s definitely not really a motorbike because it’s electric” motorbikes.
It's poorly worded but it's talking about the car's speed. And yes, a good rule of thumb is a car's width (about six foot as you say).
And if you can't find six feet safely then – guess what? – you have to wait behind until you can.
I see lots of people break that rule – while I'm driving and also while I'm cycling. And it's one of the best and most important rules in the Code.
These changes in general are poorly worded.
For example: "give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way (see Rule H2)"
The first sentence conflicts with the second. It says give way if pedestrian is crossing or waiting to cross and then says if the pedestrian has started to cross he/she has priority. So if they have not started to cross they do not have priority? Or do they?
This is a recipe for chaos. Seems to me that drivers have not adopted these rules (maybe they have in cities dunno) and if some do a car will stop unexpectedly and get rammed from behind.
The comms around them has been woeful. I was beeped at last week for stopping to let a pedestrian cross while turning into the road (I only knew about the new rule as someone had posted it on PB!).
That said, you get beeped at for anything in north London: Driving at the speed limit (20mph). Owning an Audi. Driving while it's raining.
For the driver behind you it would have seemed like an erratic move. You saw the pedestrian round the corner but the driver behind you, and the driver behind that ... may not have.
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
Kids are going to be reading and discussing this stuff on the internet and in the playground way before 14. Naive.
Yes of course, kids will be kids and 14-year-olds all have phones now. That’s very different from bringing it into the classroom as a discussion topic.
Do you not think it may be safer for 14-year-olds to be taught what's what by suitably-trained teachers rather than finding out from randoms on the internet and porn sites?
Oh wow, my street is getting FTTH in the second half of the year, finally! Not shitty Virgin Media either!
What's wrong with Virgin fibre optic? Mine is solidly 300+ (500+ in the room with the router) and I have a fairly big house. It's also extremely stable – only one outage in three or four years.
That said, I use Orbi rather than Virgin's freebie router which I assumed would be rubbish.
Latency is not great and they have congestion issues.
Long term they're also going to FTTH, so it won't be an issue much longer
Oh wow, my street is getting FTTH in the second half of the year, finally! Not shitty Virgin Media either!
What's wrong with Virgin fibre optic? Mine is solidly 300+ (500+ in the room with the router) and I have a fairly big house. It's also extremely stable – only one outage in three or four years.
That said, I use Orbi rather than Virgin's freebie router which I assumed would be rubbish.
Latency is not great and they have congestion issues.
Long term they're also going to FTTH, so it won't be an issue much longer
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
That's fair enough; except how do you define ‘alternative lifestyles’ ? Kids learn a lot of this stuff quite early; a friend's son has a schoolfriend who has two mums. My son asked me about it, and I said they loved each other. He accepted it. What's the harm in that?
Also, leaving learning about these things too late might also lead to difficulties; the last thing we need is kids to think that 'alternative lifestyles' are dangerous things because they cannot learn about them for a few years.
Also, with some kids starting puberty earlier, at 8 or 9, I'd argue the 'birds and the bees' in the vague sense needs teaching earlier than 10 or 11, especially as some kids will have older siblings going through things they need to contextualise. Although I'd say that should be a broad approach at that age; the yucky details can wait a few years.
(When I was at school I was annoyed a friend had two dads - though that was not a gay relationship; one was his biological father, the other his stepdad. I was jealous because his dads used to try to outcompete each other to buy him things.)
The SNP voted down an amendment to prevent rape defendants from legally changing their sex before trial. To help avoid sort of defence advanced by defence barrister in this case, that this now-convicted male rapist shouldn’t be seen as a “predatory man”
[Thankfully this means the jury rejected the extraordinary argument from Bryson's KC that "if you accept that evidence, that she is transitioning ... that goes a long way to acquitting her of these charges."]
Key facts: this convicted rapist started transitioning in 2020 AFTER he raped two women in 2016 and 2019 with what was referred to in court as “her penis”
But, no, it’ll never ever happen and women are crazy to fear that male sex offenders will cynically abuse a system that allows them to change their legal sex with barely any safeguards.
The proposition that the KC, one of the most experienced at the Scottish bar, put forward in that case was little short of outrageous. I am relieved that the Jury were not misdirected from the real issue in the case, namely whether 2 very vulnerable young women had been raped.
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
Kids are going to be reading and discussing this stuff on the internet and in the playground way before 14. Naive.
Apparently I got quite a detailed lesson on the mechanics at school when I was about 7 and came home and explained it all to my mum (no, my very existence did not give me a clue that she might have mastered some of this). She was greatly embarrassed and that was the end of that for quite a few years.
Following my wife's explanation of the mechanics to our 4 year old, she looked at her mother and announced, awestruck "you've done it three times!"
The SNP voted down an amendment to prevent rape defendants from legally changing their sex before trial. To help avoid sort of defence advanced by defence barrister in this case, that this now-convicted male rapist shouldn’t be seen as a “predatory man”
[Thankfully this means the jury rejected the extraordinary argument from Bryson's KC that "if you accept that evidence, that she is transitioning ... that goes a long way to acquitting her of these charges."]
Key facts: this convicted rapist started transitioning in 2020 AFTER he raped two women in 2016 and 2019 with what was referred to in court as “her penis”
But, no, it’ll never ever happen and women are crazy to fear that male sex offenders will cynically abuse a system that allows them to change their legal sex with barely any safeguards.
The proposition that the KC, one of the most experienced at the Scottish bar, put forward in that case was little short of outrageous. I am relieved that the Jury were not misdirected from the real issue in the case, namely whether 2 very vulnerable young women had been raped.
The general public appears to have remained sensible through all this, unlike some of their more excitable politicians....
Anyone come across these changes in the Highway Code? Came in nearly a year ago. There seems to be little awareness of the changes and they seem radical. I've not noticed anyone complying with new rules re: pedestrians at junctions for example.
My experience has been around 50% compliance when I'm crossing the road and someone wants to turn in. So far, nobody has driven into me while I am exercising my right to cross.
Do you mean when you have started to cross or just intending to cross?
If you are poised, ready to cross, the car should wait to let you cross. A couple of times I have already stepped out, and a car has still turned across in front of me.
That's not what the Highway Code says. I quote: "If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way".
Highway Code rule H2:
"At a junction you should give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning."
But you omitted the second sentence which conflicts with the first:
"give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way".
OK got it now.
Doesn't actually conflict though does it? You should give way if they are waiting to cross. If they are already crossing give way.
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
Says that "Sex education is not compulsory in primary schools" - it is mostly handled in Secondary School.
At the risk of summoning @ydoethur, the National Curriculum in this area seems both liberal and reasonable.
What do you mean by 'sex education?' If you mean the mechanics of sexual activity, you're right, that's secondary school. If you mean 'different types of sexual relationship' that is taught in primary schools and as is made clear in your own link that is part of the national curriculum.
The SNP voted down an amendment to prevent rape defendants from legally changing their sex before trial. To help avoid sort of defence advanced by defence barrister in this case, that this now-convicted male rapist shouldn’t be seen as a “predatory man”
[Thankfully this means the jury rejected the extraordinary argument from Bryson's KC that "if you accept that evidence, that she is transitioning ... that goes a long way to acquitting her of these charges."]
Key facts: this convicted rapist started transitioning in 2020 AFTER he raped two women in 2016 and 2019 with what was referred to in court as “her penis”
But, no, it’ll never ever happen and women are crazy to fear that male sex offenders will cynically abuse a system that allows them to change their legal sex with barely any safeguards.
The proposition that the KC, one of the most experienced at the Scottish bar, put forward in that case was little short of outrageous. I am relieved that the Jury were not misdirected from the real issue in the case, namely whether 2 very vulnerable young women had been raped.
The general public appears to have remained sensible through all this, unlike some of their more excitable politicians....
The problem though is what does the Scottish Prison Service do with this person for the next 5 or so years? She will no doubt want to go to a women's prison. The risk assessment connected with that is going to be horrendous. In fairness she would not be safe in a men's prison either.
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
Kids are going to be reading and discussing this stuff on the internet and in the playground way before 14. Naive.
Yes of course, kids will be kids and 14-year-olds all have phones now. That’s very different from bringing it into the classroom as a discussion topic.
Do you not think it may be safer for 14-year-olds to be taught what's what by suitably-trained teachers rather than finding out from randoms on the internet and porn sites?
Or, perhaps, parents? There are lots and lots of aspects of life which kids may want to find out about. Teachers can't teach kids everything. I find it puzzling that schools focus so heavily on teaching kids about the various forms of non-heterosexual sexuality. They don't tend to give anything like the same amount of emphasis to DIY, personal finance or driving, to give three random examples.
Those who think Trump is the prohibitive favorite to win the Republican nomination -- should he run -- are ignoring the steady erosion of support for him, and this powerful reason for Republicans to choose someone else: "Polls of the 2024 race since then have been piecemeal and mostly focused on the GOP primary, showing DeSantis eroding and perhaps erasing Trump’s status as the presumptive favorite. (We’ve had DeSantis ahead of Trump in our 2024 GOP nomination rankings for a while now.) But the few that have compared Trump and DeSantis in general election matchups appear to confirm the difference in viability.
Most recently came a survey from a GOP pollster for the Club for Growth. It shows Trump trailing President Biden by eight points in a 2024 rematch, but DeSantis with a three-point lead (which is inside the margin of error) — which amounts to a gap of 11 points between their respective margins." source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/18/growing-trump-desantis-electability-gap/
Trump is a loser, and that is slowly becoming clear to many Republican voters.
But how clear is that to primary voters ?
There's a large disconnect between his Presidential and nomination odds. Narrow favourite for the latter, but trailing DeSantis considerably for the actual Presidency.
Plain common sense does not seem to play much part in GOP nominations these days. Will that have changed once the nomination contest gets underway ?
Anyone come across these changes in the Highway Code? Came in nearly a year ago. There seems to be little awareness of the changes and they seem radical. I've not noticed anyone complying with new rules re: pedestrians at junctions for example.
My experience has been around 50% compliance when I'm crossing the road and someone wants to turn in. So far, nobody has driven into me while I am exercising my right to cross.
Do you mean when you have started to cross or just intending to cross?
If you are poised, ready to cross, the car should wait to let you cross. A couple of times I have already stepped out, and a car has still turned across in front of me.
That's not what the Highway Code says. I quote: "If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way".
Highway Code rule H2:
"At a junction you should give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning."
But you omitted the second sentence which conflicts with the first:
"give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way".
The principle is that you should be able to walk briskly along the pavement stepping across side streets without having to crane your neck through 180° like that girl in The Exorcist. The practice is somewhat different and, I suspect, always will be. However it will never be as bad as Saigon where you just launch yourself across the road while the traffic weaves all around you.
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
Kids are going to be reading and discussing this stuff on the internet and in the playground way before 14. Naive.
Yes of course, kids will be kids and 14-year-olds all have phones now. That’s very different from bringing it into the classroom as a discussion topic.
Do you not think it may be safer for 14-year-olds to be taught what's what by suitably-trained teachers rather than finding out from randoms on the internet and porn sites?
Or, perhaps, parents? There are lots and lots of aspects of life which kids may want to find out about. Teachers can't teach kids everything. I find it puzzling that schools focus so heavily on teaching kids about the various forms of non-heterosexual sexuality. They don't tend to give anything like the same amount of emphasis to DIY....
Did anyone here used to do the Naruto run in school lol, was having a conversation with a few mates who are a bit older and it's going around again lol
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
That's fair enough; except how do you define ‘alternative lifestyles’ ? Kids learn a lot of this stuff quite early; a friend's son has a schoolfriend who has two mums. My son asked me about it, and I said they loved each other. He accepted it. What's the harm in that?
Also, leaving learning about these things too late might also lead to difficulties; the last thing we need is kids to think that 'alternative lifestyles' are dangerous things because they cannot learn about them for a few years.
Also, with some kids starting puberty earlier, at 8 or 9, I'd argue the 'birds and the bees' in the vague sense needs teaching earlier than 10 or 11, especially as some kids will have older siblings going through things they need to contextualise. Although I'd say that should be a broad approach at that age; the yucky details can wait a few years.
(When I was at school I was annoyed a friend had two dads - though that was not a gay relationship; one was his biological father, the other his stepdad. I was jealous because his dads used to try to outcompete each other to buy him things.)
Yes, that sort of thing, that kids discover by themselves, is absolutely fine.
The “yucky details”, as you put it, can be reserved for the teenagers rather than the seven-year-olds.
Corruption in Ukraine. There are two emerging procurement scandals. Both show that corruption is episodic but the culture shift to fight it is systemic. This is my view as a former UA economy minister. 1/ https://twitter.com/Mylovanov/status/1617266983669534721
Surely, in the depraved ranks of His Majesty’s Honourable Guild of PB-ers, there must be one miscreant who can give me the skinny on Tramadol
Did it once at a party, a few tablets ground up and it was honestly a lovely experience but I got in a lot of shit from a very close doctor friend and despite having been very tempted in the years since I have avoided it as I can see it would become very addictive very quickly so avoid like the plague.
I’ve kicked heroin and Xanax, reckon I can take Tramadol, no probs
See you all in 8 years after jail & rehab
Don’t be silly. It’ll fuck you up.
It’s really not gonna fuck me up. I’m too old and grizzled for that. I’ve done EVERYTHING
FTTP from Openreach isn't symmetrical @Malmesbury. They don't prioritise a symmetric service and probably never will for consumers.
It's something like 2.1Gb per PON and they'd rather that was used for download rather than upload
That's BT for you.
Technically, there are reasons for it, they don't want to over-subscribe the PONs. In actuality it's because Virgin don't offer anything good on the upload either.
Their FTTP rollout itself has been magic now Openreach has been separated, the rare example of regulation working very well and the Tories oversaw it - probably the only good thing they've done.
In my experience, I'm one of the few motorists who knows this rule:
leave at least 1.5 metres (5 feet) when overtaking people cycling at speeds of up to 30mph, and giving them more space when overtaking at higher speeds
Two feet seems more typical.
It used to say 6’ for overtaking cyclists. As someone who was a cyclist before he was a driver, I tried my best to stick to that when in the car.
“People cycling at speeds up to 30mph”, are either going down a big hill or training for the Tour de France. Although in the last year or two, they might have one of these “it’s definitely not really a motorbike because it’s electric” motorbikes.
Lunatic ride those things everywhere. There was an idiot practising wheelies on the embankment not far from where I live. It’s one thing to cycle slowly - it’s a mixed crowd of cyclists, walkers etc.
This guy was hitting more than 30. Until he raced round a corner. A boat club was taking a rowing boat out of the shed. He smacked into it.
Fortunately he didn’t hit anyone carrying the boat, and it was a practise tub. So built like a battleship. Not even dented.
He was in a bad way, though.
Based on where I live, everywhere except the cycle lanes...
Judging by the way they lashed him the board, completely with foam blocks around his head.....
Anyone come across these changes in the Highway Code? Came in nearly a year ago. There seems to be little awareness of the changes and they seem radical. I've not noticed anyone complying with new rules re: pedestrians at junctions for example.
My experience has been around 50% compliance when I'm crossing the road and someone wants to turn in. So far, nobody has driven into me while I am exercising my right to cross.
Do you mean when you have started to cross or just intending to cross?
If you are poised, ready to cross, the car should wait to let you cross. A couple of times I have already stepped out, and a car has still turned across in front of me.
That's not what the Highway Code says. I quote: "If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way".
Highway Code rule H2:
"At a junction you should give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning."
But you omitted the second sentence which conflicts with the first:
"give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way".
OK got it now.
Doesn't actually conflict though does it? You should give way if they are waiting to cross. If they are already crossing give way.
I think it does conflict. Unless it means that if someone is waiting to cross the driver should stop by way of guideline whereas if they have started to cross the driver must stop by way of law.
In any case, what does waiting to cross mean? It's not always clear. And, as I've pointed out, it makes actual pedestrian crossings reductant at junctions.
Why would a pedestrian press the button when it is now their right of way anyway? If the pedestrian does press the button and the driver does not stop then has the driver committed an offence? The HC has been so sloppily drafted that we cannot tell.
As a further point, as a pedestrian I wait for a gap in the traffic before I cross as this is the polite thing to do (not inconveniencing folk unnecessarily). If I linger a metre or so from the kerb and a car stops when I didn't need it to this is really annoying and maybe dangerous if a car goes into the back to the stopped car.
Those who think Trump is the prohibitive favorite to win the Republican nomination -- should he run -- are ignoring the steady erosion of support for him, and this powerful reason for Republicans to choose someone else: "Polls of the 2024 race since then have been piecemeal and mostly focused on the GOP primary, showing DeSantis eroding and perhaps erasing Trump’s status as the presumptive favorite. (We’ve had DeSantis ahead of Trump in our 2024 GOP nomination rankings for a while now.) But the few that have compared Trump and DeSantis in general election matchups appear to confirm the difference in viability.
Most recently came a survey from a GOP pollster for the Club for Growth. It shows Trump trailing President Biden by eight points in a 2024 rematch, but DeSantis with a three-point lead (which is inside the margin of error) — which amounts to a gap of 11 points between their respective margins." source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/18/growing-trump-desantis-electability-gap/
Trump is a loser, and that is slowly becoming clear to many Republican voters.
Trump supporters will put that down to MSM smears. I think Trump could well win the nomination.
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
Kids are going to be reading and discussing this stuff on the internet and in the playground way before 14. Naive.
Yes of course, kids will be kids and 14-year-olds all have phones now. That’s very different from bringing it into the classroom as a discussion topic.
Do you not think it may be safer for 14-year-olds to be taught what's what by suitably-trained teachers rather than finding out from randoms on the internet and porn sites?
Or, perhaps, parents? There are lots and lots of aspects of life which kids may want to find out about. Teachers can't teach kids everything. I find it puzzling that schools focus so heavily on teaching kids about the various forms of non-heterosexual sexuality. They don't tend to give anything like the same amount of emphasis to DIY, personal finance or driving, to give three random examples.
I wish we lived in a world where all parents could be trusted to give dispassionate, objective information to their kids on the various forms of sexuality. But we don't, so there is a role for teachers (though admittedly not all of them can be trusted either).
Having criticised the media's reaction to the weekly deaths reported for the week ending 23 December (cold weather, so not a surprise), I'm shocked at how little attention these figures are getting at the moment. We've averaged over 2,000 non-COVID deaths in excess of the five year average for the last four weeks. That's a lot.
I started a new job at the start of the year, so don't have much spare time to look into this more closely, but I will do if I get a chance this weekend.
Week-ending | 5-year average | COVID deaths | non-COVID deaths | non-COVID deaths in excess of the 5-year average
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
I'm slightly more permissive - I'm fairly relaxed about young children knowing about the mechanics. But I don't see why primary schools should be teaching children about gender (which is hardly a uniformly accepted concept) or sexuality.
But I find the amount of attention given by educators to the subject baffling. When I recently visited my local high school, fully a quarter of the library was given over to explorations of various aspects of the rainbow flag.
Yes, it’s a social contagion, encouraged by the educational Establishment at every stage. It must be terrifying for those parents right now.
There's a view that the cause of that graph is increased social pressure on girls and the rise of online resources on trans identity from the more affirmative groups - you're a girl, you don't fit in at school, you have some 'male' interests, you maybe are on the autism spectrum -> you are really a boy.
(There's also an alternative view that this goup always existed and really do identify as boys and we're just getting better at diagnosis and treatment, take your pick, we don't really know).
I my view, it's much better for girls (If you favour the first explanation as the more likely - and even for those under the second explanation) to have a suitably qualified person (teachers may not be at this point in time, but could be) explain the issues, the full implications of going down the transgender pathway, the rates of desistance among those who believed themselves to be trans at some point and some other solutions, rather than leave them to stumble on to an online forum and get a crib list of all the things they need to say (and not say) on their first visit to The Tavistock a regional clinic to get on to puberty blockers and start the pathway to physical transition.
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
Kids are going to be reading and discussing this stuff on the internet and in the playground way before 14. Naive.
Yes of course, kids will be kids and 14-year-olds all have phones now. That’s very different from bringing it into the classroom as a discussion topic.
Do you not think it may be safer for 14-year-olds to be taught what's what by suitably-trained teachers rather than finding out from randoms on the internet and porn sites?
Or, perhaps, parents? There are lots and lots of aspects of life which kids may want to find out about. Teachers can't teach kids everything. I find it puzzling that schools focus so heavily on teaching kids about the various forms of non-heterosexual sexuality. They don't tend to give anything like the same amount of emphasis to DIY....
Unfortunately phrased.
Some things kids will have no problem figuring out for themselves.
Anyone come across these changes in the Highway Code? Came in nearly a year ago. There seems to be little awareness of the changes and they seem radical. I've not noticed anyone complying with new rules re: pedestrians at junctions for example.
My experience has been around 50% compliance when I'm crossing the road and someone wants to turn in. So far, nobody has driven into me while I am exercising my right to cross.
Do you mean when you have started to cross or just intending to cross?
If you are poised, ready to cross, the car should wait to let you cross. A couple of times I have already stepped out, and a car has still turned across in front of me.
That's not what the Highway Code says. I quote: "If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way".
Highway Code rule H2:
"At a junction you should give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning."
But you omitted the second sentence which conflicts with the first:
"give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way".
The principle is that you should be able to walk briskly along the pavement stepping across side streets without having to crane your neck through 180° like that girl in The Exorcist. The practice is somewhat different and, I suspect, always will be. However it will never be as bad as Saigon where you just launch yourself across the road while the traffic weaves all around you.
I'm going up to London and take a look. I suspect these changes are being ignored, partly because they are unknown and partly because they are bad. Imagine a junction in the city, rammed with vehicles and pedestrians, a vehicle turning may have to remain stationery for ages whilst never-ending streams of pedestrians cross the road round the corner.
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
That's fair enough; except how do you define ‘alternative lifestyles’ ? Kids learn a lot of this stuff quite early; a friend's son has a schoolfriend who has two mums. My son asked me about it, and I said they loved each other. He accepted it. What's the harm in that?
Also, leaving learning about these things too late might also lead to difficulties; the last thing we need is kids to think that 'alternative lifestyles' are dangerous things because they cannot learn about them for a few years.
Also, with some kids starting puberty earlier, at 8 or 9, I'd argue the 'birds and the bees' in the vague sense needs teaching earlier than 10 or 11, especially as some kids will have older siblings going through things they need to contextualise. Although I'd say that should be a broad approach at that age; the yucky details can wait a few years.
(When I was at school I was annoyed a friend had two dads - though that was not a gay relationship; one was his biological father, the other his stepdad. I was jealous because his dads used to try to outcompete each other to buy him things.)
Yes, that sort of thing, that kids discover by themselves, is absolutely fine.
The “yucky details”, as you put it, can be reserved for the teenagers rather than the seven-year-olds.
TBH I think it depends on the kids. One of my son's friends is a boy, and has a sister. They are 8 and 7 respectively. Their mum is a doctor, and she explained things to them at a young age, explained what the body parts are and what they were *generally* used for. It doesn't seem to have done them any harm.
I've told my son (8) a few things, but he thinks kissing is yucky, and girls are just more people to play with, so we're not pressing it. We're giving information on demand.
Good parents will talk to their kids well. The problem is kids whose parents are not good, or do not want to give them the information when they need it. That can be problematic, and it's something schools probably cannot win with.
(as an aside: I think he knows more than he lets on. One day I bought him a GCSE science book he wanted in Ely, and he read it as I drove home. He went very quiet. I asked him what he was reading, and he said "reproduction". A few minutes later he said: "I feel sick..." )
What is Tramadol? Is it a brand name for something else
Toy tram which can carry dolls.
A toy which represents the trolley problem for kids. "should you pull the lever to divert the runaway trolley onto the side track and kill your brother's Action Man, or leave it to run over your doll?"
In my experience, I'm one of the few motorists who knows this rule:
leave at least 1.5 metres (5 feet) when overtaking people cycling at speeds of up to 30mph, and giving them more space when overtaking at higher speeds
Two feet seems more typical.
I know the rule but it is pretty hard to fully comply with on streets that are often 3-4m wide, unless accepting that a 10mph cyclist dictates traffic speed which will probably lead to road rage from behind. I would generally overtake if a 3 feet gap was there rather than waiting for a 5 ft gap to be honest.
You should wait. The truth is that the cyclist does dictate the speed in that scenario, just as the lead motorist dictates the speed in any queue. In practice, most cyclists pull over in short order to let cars pass when they are backing up traffic on country roads. Try it.
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
I'm slightly more permissive - I'm fairly relaxed about young children knowing about the mechanics. But I don't see why primary schools should be teaching children about gender (which is hardly a uniformly accepted concept) or sexuality.
But I find the amount of attention given by educators to the subject baffling. When I recently visited my local high school, fully a quarter of the library was given over to explorations of various aspects of the rainbow flag.
Yes, it’s a social contagion, encouraged by the educational Establishment at every stage. It must be terrifying for those parents right now.
There's a view that the cause of that graph is increased social pressure on girls and the rise of online resources on trans identity from the more affirmative groups - you're a girl, you don't fit in at school, you have some 'male' interests, you maybe are on the autism spectrum -> you are really a boy.
(There's also an alternative view that this goup always existed and really do identify as boys and we're just getting better at diagnosis and treatment, take your pick, we don't really know).
I my view, it's much better for girls (If you favour the first explanation as the more likely - and even for those under the second explanation) to have a suitably qualified person (teachers may not be at this point in time, but could be) explain the issues, the full implications of going down the transgender pathway, the rates of desistance among those who believed themselves to be trans at some point and some other solutions, rather than leave them to stumble on to an online forum and get a crib list of all the things they need to say (and not say) on their first visit to The Tavistock a regional clinic to get on to puberty blockers and start the pathway to physical transition.
The government looks set to outlaw your preferred approach, though, in their rush to appease the TRA lobby and a few stupid MPs.
I don't know about British schools, but American schools have always chosen books for their kids, and almost always the schools choose books in part because of the moral lessons those books teach. (In parts of the US, parents are removing their children from public schools that teach moral lessons the parents disagree with.)
So I don't see any general objection to Florida Governor DeSantis wanting to continue that. (Though I should add that I am no fan of his.)
Similarly, I think Amazon was within its legal rights to refuse to sell Ryan T. Anderson's "When Harry Met Sally" and to refuse to allow the publisher to buy ads on Amazon for Abigail Shrier's "Irreversible Damage".
Neither, it seems to me, can be described as "book banning".
(Full disclosure: I have mostly stopped buying books from Amazon, and bought a copy of "When Harry Met Sally", partly as a protest, from their competitor, Barnes and Noble. And I hope to to get around to reading the book, real soon now.)
In my experience, I'm one of the few motorists who knows this rule:
leave at least 1.5 metres (5 feet) when overtaking people cycling at speeds of up to 30mph, and giving them more space when overtaking at higher speeds
Two feet seems more typical.
It used to say 6’ for overtaking cyclists. As someone who was a cyclist before he was a driver, I tried my best to stick to that when in the car.
“People cycling at speeds up to 30mph”, are either going down a big hill or training for the Tour de France. Although in the last year or two, they might have one of these “it’s definitely not really a motorbike because it’s electric” motorbikes.
It's poorly worded but it's talking about the car's speed. And yes, a good rule of thumb is a car's width (about six foot as you say).
And if you can't find six feet safely then – guess what? – you have to wait behind until you can.
I see lots of people break that rule – while I'm driving and also while I'm cycling. And it's one of the best and most important rules in the Code.
These changes in general are poorly worded.
For example: "give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way (see Rule H2)"
The first sentence conflicts with the second. It says give way if pedestrian is crossing or waiting to cross and then says if the pedestrian has started to cross he/she has priority. So if they have not started to cross they do not have priority? Or do they?
This is a recipe for chaos. Seems to me that drivers have not adopted these rules (maybe they have in cities dunno) and if some do a car will stop unexpectedly and get rammed from behind.
The comms around them has been woeful. I was beeped at last week for stopping to let a pedestrian cross while turning into the road (I only knew about the new rule as someone had posted it on PB!).
That said, you get beeped at for anything in north London: Driving at the speed limit (20mph). Owning an Audi. Driving while it's raining.
For the driver behind you it would have seemed
like an erratic move. You saw the pedestrian round the corner but the driver behind you, and
the driver behind that ... may not have.
It feels weird doing it, but traffic moves so slowly around here it’s rarely a big issue. I can see how it could be, however. But to my mind, the “no-one has priority at a crossroads when both cars are turning right” is measurably worse - and that that has existed for years.
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
That's fair enough; except how do you define ‘alternative lifestyles’ ? Kids learn a lot of this stuff quite early; a friend's son has a schoolfriend who has two mums. My son asked me about it, and I said they loved each other. He accepted it. What's the harm in that?
Also, leaving learning about these things too late might also lead to difficulties; the last thing we need is kids to think that 'alternative lifestyles' are dangerous things because they cannot learn about them for a few years.
Also, with some kids starting puberty earlier, at 8 or 9, I'd argue the 'birds and the bees' in the vague sense needs teaching earlier than 10 or 11, especially as some kids will have older siblings going through things they need to contextualise. Although I'd say that should be a broad approach at that age; the yucky details can wait a few years.
(When I was at school I was annoyed a friend had two dads - though that was not a gay relationship; one was his biological father, the other his stepdad. I was jealous because his dads used to try to outcompete each other to buy him things.)
Yes, that sort of thing, that kids discover by themselves, is absolutely fine.
The “yucky details”, as you put it, can be reserved for the teenagers rather than the seven-year-olds.
TBH I think it depends on the kids. One of my son's friends is a boy, and has a sister. They are 8 and 7 respectively. Their mum is a doctor, and she explained things to them at a young age, explained what the body parts are and what they were *generally* used for. It doesn't seem to have done them any harm.
I've told my son (8) a few things, but he thinks kissing is yucky, and girls are just more people to play with, so we're not pressing it. We're giving information on demand.
Good parents will talk to their kids well. The problem is kids whose parents are not good, or do not want to give them the information when they need it. That can be problematic, and it's something schools probably cannot win with.
(as an aside: I think he knows more than he lets on. One day I bought him a GCSE science book he wanted in Ely, and he read it as I drove home. He went very quiet. I asked him what he was reading, and he said "reproduction". A few minutes later he said: "I feel sick..." )
In my experience, I'm one of the few motorists who knows this rule:
leave at least 1.5 metres (5 feet) when overtaking people cycling at speeds of up to 30mph, and giving them more space when overtaking at higher speeds
Two feet seems more typical.
It used to say 6’ for overtaking cyclists. As someone who was a cyclist before he was a driver, I tried my best to stick to that when in the car.
“People cycling at speeds up to 30mph”, are either going down a big hill or training for the Tour de France. Although in the last year or two, they might have one of these “it’s definitely not really a motorbike because it’s electric” motorbikes.
It's poorly worded but it's talking about the car's speed. And yes, a good rule of thumb is a car's width (about six foot as you say).
And if you can't find six feet safely then – guess what? – you have to wait behind until you can.
I see lots of people break that rule – while I'm driving and also while I'm cycling. And it's one of the best and most important rules in the Code.
These changes in general are poorly worded.
For example: "give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way (see Rule H2)"
The first sentence conflicts with the second. It says give way if pedestrian is crossing or waiting to cross and then says if the pedestrian has started to cross he/she has priority. So if they have not started to cross they do not have priority? Or do they?
This is a recipe for chaos. Seems to me that drivers have not adopted these rules (maybe they have in cities dunno) and if some do a car will stop unexpectedly and get rammed from behind.
The comms around them has been woeful. I was beeped at last week for stopping to let a pedestrian cross while turning into the road (I only knew about the new rule as someone had posted it on PB!).
That said, you get beeped at for anything in north London: Driving at the speed limit (20mph). Owning an Audi. Driving while it's raining.
For the driver behind you it would have seemed
like an erratic move. You saw the pedestrian round the corner but the driver behind you, and
the driver behind that ... may not have.
It feels weird doing it, but traffic moves so slowly around here it’s rarely a big issue. I can see how it could be, however. But to my mind, the “no-one has priority at a crossroads when both cars are turning right” is measurably worse - and that that has existed for years.
We have a similar crossroads not a mile away. It does cause hesitation when opposite cars arrive at the junction at the same time. Usually, though, one car gets their first and it is that car which has priority (assuming the junction is otherwise clear).
Those who think Trump is the prohibitive favorite to win the Republican nomination -- should he run -- are ignoring the steady erosion of support for him, and this powerful reason for Republicans to choose someone else: "Polls of the 2024 race since then have been piecemeal and mostly focused on the GOP primary, showing DeSantis eroding and perhaps erasing Trump’s status as the presumptive favorite. (We’ve had DeSantis ahead of Trump in our 2024 GOP nomination rankings for a while now.) But the few that have compared Trump and DeSantis in general election matchups appear to confirm the difference in viability.
Most recently came a survey from a GOP pollster for the Club for Growth. It shows Trump trailing President Biden by eight points in a 2024 rematch, but DeSantis with a three-point lead (which is inside the margin of error) — which amounts to a gap of 11 points between their respective margins." source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/18/growing-trump-desantis-electability-gap/
Trump is a loser, and that is slowly becoming clear to many Republican voters.
Is it? Trump leads DeSantis 61% to 39% on a forced choice in a new poll of GOP primary voters
I don't know about British schools, but American schools have always chosen books for their kids, and almost always the schools choose books in part because of the moral lessons those books teach. (In parts of the US, parents are removing their children from public schools that teach moral lessons the parents disagree with.)
So I don't see any general objection to Florida Governor DeSantis wanting to continue that. (Though I should add that I am no fan of his.)
Similarly, I think Amazon was within its legal rights to refuse to sell Ryan T. Anderson's "When Harry Met Sally" and to refuse to allow the publisher to buy ads on Amazon for Abigail Shrier's "Irreversible Damage".
Neither, it seems to me, can be described as "book banning".
(Full disclosure: I have mostly stopped buying books from Amazon, and bought a copy of "When Harry Met Sally", partly as a protest, from their competitor, Barnes and Noble. And I hope to to get around to reading the book, real soon now.)
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
That's fair enough; except how do you define ‘alternative lifestyles’ ? Kids learn a lot of this stuff quite early; a friend's son has a schoolfriend who has two mums. My son asked me about it, and I said they loved each other. He accepted it. What's the harm in that?
Also, leaving learning about these things too late might also lead to difficulties; the last thing we need is kids to think that 'alternative lifestyles' are dangerous things because they cannot learn about them for a few years.
Also, with some kids starting puberty earlier, at 8 or 9, I'd argue the 'birds and the bees' in the vague sense needs teaching earlier than 10 or 11, especially as some kids will have older siblings going through things they need to contextualise. Although I'd say that should be a broad approach at that age; the yucky details can wait a few years.
(When I was at school I was annoyed a friend had two dads - though that was not a gay relationship; one was his biological father, the other his stepdad. I was jealous because his dads used to try to outcompete each other to buy him things.)
Yes, that sort of thing, that kids discover by themselves, is absolutely fine.
The “yucky details”, as you put it, can be reserved for the teenagers rather than the seven-year-olds.
TBH I think it depends on the kids. One of my son's friends is a boy, and has a sister. They are 8 and 7 respectively. Their mum is a doctor, and she explained things to them at a young age, explained what the body parts are and what they were *generally* used for. It doesn't seem to have done them any harm.
I've told my son (8) a few things, but he thinks kissing is yucky, and girls are just more people to play with, so we're not pressing it. We're giving information on demand.
Good parents will talk to their kids well. The problem is kids whose parents are not good, or do not want to give them the information when they need it. That can be problematic, and it's something schools probably cannot win with.
(as an aside: I think he knows more than he lets on. One day I bought him a GCSE science book he wanted in Ely, and he read it as I drove home. He went very quiet. I asked him what he was reading, and he said "reproduction". A few minutes later he said: "I feel sick..." )
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
I'm slightly more permissive - I'm fairly relaxed about young children knowing about the mechanics. But I don't see why primary schools should be teaching children about gender (which is hardly a uniformly accepted concept) or sexuality.
But I find the amount of attention given by educators to the subject baffling. When I recently visited my local high school, fully a quarter of the library was given over to explorations of various aspects of the rainbow flag.
Yes, it’s a social contagion, encouraged by the educational Establishment at every stage. It must be terrifying for those parents right now.
There's a view that the cause of that graph is increased social pressure on girls and the rise of online resources on trans identity from the more affirmative groups - you're a girl, you don't fit in at school, you have some 'male' interests, you maybe are on the autism spectrum -> you are really a boy.
(There's also an alternative view that this goup always existed and really do identify as boys and we're just getting better at diagnosis and treatment, take your pick, we don't really know).
I my view, it's much better for girls (If you favour the first explanation as the more likely - and even for those under the second explanation) to have a suitably qualified person (teachers may not be at this point in time, but could be) explain the issues, the full implications of going down the transgender pathway, the rates of desistance among those who believed themselves to be trans at some point and some other solutions, rather than leave them to stumble on to an online forum and get a crib list of all the things they need to say (and not say) on their first visit to The Tavistock a regional clinic to get on to puberty blockers and start the pathway to physical transition.
The problem is that an eight year old kid says ‘I feel a bit funny’, in response to one of these classes. They then meet a dozen “professionals”, all of whom have been trained by Stonewall, who conspire to send the child on the lucrative pathway to “transition”.
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
I'm slightly more permissive - I'm fairly relaxed about young children knowing about the mechanics. But I don't see why primary schools should be teaching children about gender (which is hardly a uniformly accepted concept) or sexuality.
But I find the amount of attention given by educators to the subject baffling. When I recently visited my local high school, fully a quarter of the library was given over to explorations of various aspects of the rainbow flag.
Yes, it’s a social contagion, encouraged by the educational Establishment at every stage. It must be terrifying for those parents right now.
There's a view that the cause of that graph is increased social pressure on girls and the rise of online resources on trans identity from the more affirmative groups - you're a girl, you don't fit in at school, you have some 'male' interests, you maybe are on the autism spectrum -> you are really a boy.
(There's also an alternative view that this goup always existed and really do identify as boys and we're just getting better at diagnosis and treatment, take your pick, we don't really know).
I my view, it's much better for girls (If you favour the first explanation as the more likely - and even for those under the second explanation) to have a suitably qualified person (teachers may not be at this point in time, but could be) explain the issues, the full implications of going down the transgender pathway, the rates of desistance among those who believed themselves to be trans at some point and some other solutions, rather than leave them to stumble on to an online forum and get a crib list of all the things they need to say (and not say) on their first visit to The Tavistock a regional clinic to get on to puberty blockers and start the pathway to physical transition.
The government looks set to outlaw your preferred approach, though, in their rush to appease the TRA lobby and a few stupid MPs.
That's a law that needs some very careful drafting.
I am a bit conflicted on this. It was once prevailing thought, afterall, that teachers were turning kids gay and we shouldn't promote homosexuality. It will be interesting how we think about trans issues in 20 ir 40 years.
The difference, to my mind, that a young person being confused about/exploring sexuality doesn't lead to life-long consequences in the way that someone believing themselves trans might. But then 40 years ago having a homosexual encounter while young could also have lifelong career consequences, I guess, particularly for someone in the public eye.
The SNP voted down an amendment to prevent rape defendants from legally changing their sex before trial. To help avoid sort of defence advanced by defence barrister in this case, that this now-convicted male rapist shouldn’t be seen as a “predatory man”
[Thankfully this means the jury rejected the extraordinary argument from Bryson's KC that "if you accept that evidence, that she is transitioning ... that goes a long way to acquitting her of these charges."]
Key facts: this convicted rapist started transitioning in 2020 AFTER he raped two women in 2016 and 2019 with what was referred to in court as “her penis”
But, no, it’ll never ever happen and women are crazy to fear that male sex offenders will cynically abuse a system that allows them to change their legal sex with barely any safeguards.
The proposition that the KC, one of the most experienced at the Scottish bar, put forward in that case was little short of outrageous. I am relieved that the Jury were not misdirected from the real issue in the case, namely whether 2 very vulnerable young women had been raped.
The general public appears to have remained sensible through all this, unlike some of their more excitable politicians....
The problem though is what does the Scottish Prison Service do with this person for the next 5 or so years? She will no doubt want to go to a women's prison. The risk assessment connected with that is going to be horrendous. In fairness she would not be safe in a men's prison either.
No she wouldn't be safe in a mens prison as she herself has demonstrated, twice.
Those who think Trump is the prohibitive favorite to win the Republican nomination -- should he run -- are ignoring the steady erosion of support for him, and this powerful reason for Republicans to choose someone else: "Polls of the 2024 race since then have been piecemeal and mostly focused on the GOP primary, showing DeSantis eroding and perhaps erasing Trump’s status as the presumptive favorite. (We’ve had DeSantis ahead of Trump in our 2024 GOP nomination rankings for a while now.) But the few that have compared Trump and DeSantis in general election matchups appear to confirm the difference in viability.
Most recently came a survey from a GOP pollster for the Club for Growth. It shows Trump trailing President Biden by eight points in a 2024 rematch, but DeSantis with a three-point lead (which is inside the margin of error) — which amounts to a gap of 11 points between their respective margins." source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/18/growing-trump-desantis-electability-gap/
Trump is a loser, and that is slowly becoming clear to many Republican voters.
Is it? Trump leads DeSantis 61% to 39% on a forced choice in a new poll of GOP primary voters
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
That's fair enough; except how do you define ‘alternative lifestyles’ ? Kids learn a lot of this stuff quite early; a friend's son has a schoolfriend who has two mums. My son asked me about it, and I said they loved each other. He accepted it. What's the harm in that?
Also, leaving learning about these things too late might also lead to difficulties; the last thing we need is kids to think that 'alternative lifestyles' are dangerous things because they cannot learn about them for a few years.
Also, with some kids starting puberty earlier, at 8 or 9, I'd argue the 'birds and the bees' in the vague sense needs teaching earlier than 10 or 11, especially as some kids will have older siblings going through things they need to contextualise. Although I'd say that should be a broad approach at that age; the yucky details can wait a few years.
(When I was at school I was annoyed a friend had two dads - though that was not a gay relationship; one was his biological father, the other his stepdad. I was jealous because his dads used to try to outcompete each other to buy him things.)
Yes, that sort of thing, that kids discover by themselves, is absolutely fine.
The “yucky details”, as you put it, can be reserved for the teenagers rather than the seven-year-olds.
TBH I think it depends on the kids. One of my son's friends is a boy, and has a sister. They are 8 and 7 respectively. Their mum is a doctor, and she explained things to them at a young age, explained what the body parts are and what they were *generally* used for. It doesn't seem to have done them any harm.
I've told my son (8) a few things, but he thinks kissing is yucky, and girls are just more people to play with, so we're not pressing it. We're giving information on demand.
Good parents will talk to their kids well. The problem is kids whose parents are not good, or do not want to give them the information when they need it. That can be problematic, and it's something schools probably cannot win with.
(as an aside: I think he knows more than he lets on. One day I bought him a GCSE science book he wanted in Ely, and he read it as I drove home. He went very quiet. I asked him what he was reading, and he said "reproduction". A few minutes later he said: "I feel sick..." )
Interesting: rather leaves open the question of what age one is supposed to transition to blended whiskies, never mind single malts. (I was drinking single malts from 18 myself.)
BTW the other ads on that page include the Everclear alcohol Sea Shanty was lauding some time back as a useful if taxed source of not too dilute ethanol sans the denaturants.
Nothing about FTTP necessitates symmetrical speeds BTW, that is just convention from alt-nets.
Openreach will probably never offer symmetrical speeds, they might do when they offer XGS-PON (currently being trialed) but more likely they just offer higher upload.
I think 1000Mbps down 200Mbps up would suit most just fine
"necessitates" - no.
But it is very useful - bring on the day when whole machine backup to offsite is available for all.
Fox & Friends joins the new MAGA ‘Woke Xbox’ fake culture war talking point (they announced they are adding a power-saving shutdown mode): “They’re trying to recruit your kids into climate politics at an earlier age.” Host - “You’re right - they’re going after the children!” https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1617921670450380803
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
That's fair enough; except how do you define ‘alternative lifestyles’ ? Kids learn a lot of this stuff quite early; a friend's son has a schoolfriend who has two mums. My son asked me about it, and I said they loved each other. He accepted it. What's the harm in that?
Also, leaving learning about these things too late might also lead to difficulties; the last thing we need is kids to think that 'alternative lifestyles' are dangerous things because they cannot learn about them for a few years.
Also, with some kids starting puberty earlier, at 8 or 9, I'd argue the 'birds and the bees' in the vague sense needs teaching earlier than 10 or 11, especially as some kids will have older siblings going through things they need to contextualise. Although I'd say that should be a broad approach at that age; the yucky details can wait a few years.
(When I was at school I was annoyed a friend had two dads - though that was not a gay relationship; one was his biological father, the other his stepdad. I was jealous because his dads used to try to outcompete each other to buy him things.)
Yes, that sort of thing, that kids discover by themselves, is absolutely fine.
The “yucky details”, as you put it, can be reserved for the teenagers rather than the seven-year-olds.
TBH I think it depends on the kids. One of my son's friends is a boy, and has a sister. They are 8 and 7 respectively. Their mum is a doctor, and she explained things to them at a young age, explained what the body parts are and what they were *generally* used for. It doesn't seem to have done them any harm.
I've told my son (8) a few things, but he thinks kissing is yucky, and girls are just more people to play with, so we're not pressing it. We're giving information on demand.
Good parents will talk to their kids well. The problem is kids whose parents are not good, or do not want to give them the information when they need it. That can be problematic, and it's something schools probably cannot win with.
(as an aside: I think he knows more than he lets on. One day I bought him a GCSE science book he wanted in Ely, and he read it as I drove home. He went very quiet. I asked him what he was reading, and he said "reproduction". A few minutes later he said: "I feel sick..." )
Interesting: rather leaves open the question of what age one is supposed to transition to blended whiskies, never mind single malts. (I was drinking single malts from 18 myself.)
BTW the other ads on that page include the Everclear alcohol Sea Shanty was lauding some time back as a useful if taxed source of not too dilute ethanol sans the denaturants.
This was all covered in whisky lessons during year two at my secondary school.
DeSantis is running - otherwise is there any point to this crap ?
Florida teachers told to remove books from classroom libraries or risk felony prosecution https://popular.info/p/florida-teachers-told-to-remove-books ...In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called "media specialists" and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a "library media center" includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal. ..
Hasn’t it always been the case, that school libraries don’t contain porn, but rather age-appropriate resources?
The problem now, is that too many people in the US education system appear to be in favour of the porn in schools.
“Banning books” is wildly popular with parents, once the context is explained.
This law makes it a criminal felony offence for a teacher to have any books in the classroom not pre-approved by a librarian.
It's nuts.
Yes, it’s a felony to show porn to children. Why shouldn’t that be the case?
No, it does more than that. Stop lying.
We are talking about books such as “Gender Queer”, which is very much an adult book, and contains graphic descriptions and illustrations of unusual sexual activity between adults. That is being introduced into primary schools. That’s what this law is about.
Read the description (from NPR, as close as America has to the BBC) of this book, and tell me it’s appropriate for seven year olds.
A question; in your view, what should a seven year-old know about sex and gender? If not seven, how old should they be to learn such things?
Fair question. I’ll admit to being pretty conservative on this sort of thing.
I think that seven-year-olds should know that there are boys and girls, with the ‘birds and the bees’ at 10 or 11.
In my experience, the the mechanics of human reproduction were first discussed in biology lessons in the second year of secondary school, aged 12, with the social side of sex and marriage a year later, in the context of general studies and religious studies. (Private Catholic boys’ school).
I think that academic discussion of ‘alternative lifestyles’ might reasonably be broached at 14 or 15, with a lot of context and age-appropriate material. Which still doesn’t include graphic descriptions and depictions of unusual sexual activity that isn’t informative, such as explaining what can and can’t result in a pregnancy.
I'm slightly more permissive - I'm fairly relaxed about young children knowing about the mechanics. But I don't see why primary schools should be teaching children about gender (which is hardly a uniformly accepted concept) or sexuality.
But I find the amount of attention given by educators to the subject baffling. When I recently visited my local high school, fully a quarter of the library was given over to explorations of various aspects of the rainbow flag.
Yes, it’s a social contagion, encouraged by the educational Establishment at every stage. It must be terrifying for those parents right now.
There's a view that the cause of that graph is increased social pressure on girls and the rise of online resources on trans identity from the more affirmative groups - you're a girl, you don't fit in at school, you have some 'male' interests, you maybe are on the autism spectrum -> you are really a boy.
(There's also an alternative view that this goup always existed and really do identify as boys and we're just getting better at diagnosis and treatment, take your pick, we don't really know).
I my view, it's much better for girls (If you favour the first explanation as the more likely - and even for those under the second explanation) to have a suitably qualified person (teachers may not be at this point in time, but could be) explain the issues, the full implications of going down the transgender pathway, the rates of desistance among those who believed themselves to be trans at some point and some other solutions, rather than leave them to stumble on to an online forum and get a crib list of all the things they need to say (and not say) on their first visit to The Tavistock a regional clinic to get on to puberty blockers and start the pathway to physical transition.
Indeed. But I'm rather sceptical that a school which is so keen to fly the trans flag (or indeed, any part of tge public sector which appears to have been captured almost wholesale by the trans lobby) would be likely to impart any message which might cause trans-curious kids to demur.
Comments
...The announcement would be part of a broader diplomatic understanding with Germany in which they would agree to send a smaller number of its own Leopard 2 tanks & would also approve the delivery of tanks by Poland and other nations
https://twitter.com/Faytuks/status/1617901132566921219
Long term they will upgrade it all to FTTP.
See you all in 8 years after jail & rehab
I was given a 7 day course.
I took two days worth and it was great, sadly my father found out I was on it and threw the rest away.
Openreach will probably never offer symmetrical speeds, they might do when they offer XGS-PON (currently being trialed) but more likely they just offer higher upload.
I think 1000Mbps down 200Mbps up would suit most just fine
That said, you get beeped at for anything in north London: Driving at the speed limit (20mph). Owning an Audi. Driving while it's raining.
UPDATE: Former senior FBI official Charles McGonigal, now indicted for money laundering and conspiracy to help Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, is now being represented by -- wait for it -- Rudy Giuliani's old law firm.
https://twitter.com/TristanSnell/status/1617877901113978880
Associated Press - Is tipping getting out of control? Many consumers say yes
Across the country, there’s a silent frustration brewing about an age-old practice that many say is getting out of hand: tipping.
Some fed-up consumers are posting rants on social media complaining about tip requests at drive-thrus, while others say they’re tired of being asked to leave a gratuity for a muffin or a simple cup of coffee at their neighborhood bakery. What’s next, they wonder -- are we going to be tipping our doctors and dentists, too?
As more businesses adopt digital payment methods, customers are automatically being prompted to leave a gratuity — many times as high as 30% — at places they normally wouldn’t. And some say it has become more frustrating as the price of items has skyrocketed due to inflation, which eased to 6.5% in December but still remains painfully high.
“Suddenly, these screens are at every establishment we encounter. They’re popping up online as well for online orders. And I fear that there is no end,” said etiquette expert Thomas Farley, who considers the whole thing somewhat of “an invasion.” . . .
https://apnews.com/article/tipping-fatigue-business-c4ae9d440610dae5e8ff4d4df0f88c35
*I'd made a particularly nice red pepper soup. We never made it again after that
[Thankfully this means the jury rejected the extraordinary argument from Bryson's KC that "if you accept that evidence, that she is transitioning ... that goes a long way to acquitting her of these charges."]
Key facts: this convicted rapist started transitioning in 2020 AFTER he raped two women in 2016 and 2019 with what was referred to in court as “her penis”
But, no, it’ll never ever happen and women are crazy to fear that male sex offenders will cynically abuse a system that allows them to change their legal sex with barely any safeguards.
https://twitter.com/soniasodha/status/1617881626503155716
May I call for a further article from Cyclefree on exactly this question. This subject matters."
A good question, but I inferred from her "Cultures" that she was excluding genetic explanations. (Understandably, considering how much grief one can get after appealing to such explanations.)
And cultures do differ greatly in these matters. I recall reading, many years ago, that the Western tradition, in which women outrank men socially, is not found in most other cultures. And, as far as I can tell, that's correct.
But perhaps that is changing in our own culture, what with the breakdown of so many families. To take an extreme example, I suspect that most of Jeffrey Epstein's victims did not have fathers in their lives.
So this makes pedestrian crossings near junctions redundant. In effect, the HC designates ALL areas around a junction a pedestrian crossing.
Besides that VMO2 have a very large fibre programme going, with a target of something like 21 million properties to be covered with 10 Gb/s XGS-PON. So you really do want to see Virgin Media digging up your street.
"At a junction you should give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning."
https://www.highwaycodeuk.co.uk/
Can't find your quote there.
But you omitted the second sentence which conflicts with the first:
"give way to pedestrians crossing or waiting to cross a road into which or from which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way".
"Polls of the 2024 race since then have been piecemeal and mostly focused on the GOP primary, showing DeSantis eroding and perhaps erasing Trump’s status as the presumptive favorite. (We’ve had DeSantis ahead of Trump in our 2024 GOP nomination rankings for a while now.) But the few that have compared Trump and DeSantis in general election matchups appear to confirm the difference in viability.
Most recently came a survey from a GOP pollster for the Club for Growth. It shows Trump trailing President Biden by eight points in a 2024 rematch, but DeSantis with a three-point lead (which is inside the margin of error) — which amounts to a gap of 11 points between their respective margins."
source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/18/growing-trump-desantis-electability-gap/
Trump is a loser, and that is slowly becoming clear to many Republican voters.
Also, leaving learning about these things too late might also lead to difficulties; the last thing we need is kids to think that 'alternative lifestyles' are dangerous things because they cannot learn about them for a few years.
Also, with some kids starting puberty earlier, at 8 or 9, I'd argue the 'birds and the bees' in the vague sense needs teaching earlier than 10 or 11, especially as some kids will have older siblings going through things they need to contextualise. Although I'd say that should be a broad approach at that age; the yucky details can wait a few years.
(When I was at school I was annoyed a friend had two dads - though that was not a gay relationship; one was his biological father, the other his stepdad. I was jealous because his dads used to try to outcompete each other to buy him things.)
Doesn't actually conflict though does it? You should give way if they are waiting to cross. If they are already crossing give way.
There are lots and lots of aspects of life which kids may want to find out about. Teachers can't teach kids everything. I find it puzzling that schools focus so heavily on teaching kids about the various forms of non-heterosexual sexuality. They don't tend to give anything like the same amount of emphasis to DIY, personal finance or driving, to give three random examples.
There's a large disconnect between his Presidential and nomination odds. Narrow favourite for the latter, but trailing DeSantis considerably for the actual Presidency.
Plain common sense does not seem to play much part in GOP nominations these days. Will that have changed once the nomination contest gets underway ?
The “yucky details”, as you put it, can be reserved for the teenagers rather than the seven-year-olds.
Corruption in Ukraine. There are two emerging procurement scandals. Both show that corruption is episodic but the culture shift to fight it is systemic. This is my view as a former UA economy minister. 1/
https://twitter.com/Mylovanov/status/1617266983669534721
Encouraging, if true.
Their FTTP rollout itself has been magic now Openreach has been separated, the rare example of regulation working very well and the Tories oversaw it - probably the only good thing they've done.
In any case, what does waiting to cross mean? It's not always clear. And, as I've pointed out, it makes actual pedestrian crossings reductant at junctions.
Why would a pedestrian press the button when it is now their right of way anyway? If the pedestrian does press the button and the driver does not stop then has the driver committed an offence? The HC has been so sloppily drafted that we cannot tell.
As a further point, as a pedestrian I wait for a gap in the traffic before I cross as this is the polite thing to do (not inconveniencing folk unnecessarily). If I linger a metre or so from the kerb and a car stops when I didn't need it to this is really annoying and maybe dangerous if a car goes into the back to the stopped car.
https://tinyurl.com/4tnjfdw8
Having criticised the media's reaction to the weekly deaths reported for the week ending 23 December (cold weather, so not a surprise), I'm shocked at how little attention these figures are getting at the moment. We've averaged over 2,000 non-COVID deaths in excess of the five year average for the last four weeks. That's a lot.
I started a new job at the start of the year, so don't have much spare time to look into this more closely, but I will do if I get a chance this weekend.
Week-ending | 5-year average | COVID deaths | non-COVID deaths | non-COVID deaths in excess of the 5-year average
07-Oct-22 | 9,835 | 400 | 10,807 | 972
14-Oct-22 | 10,091 | 565 | 11,134 | 1,043
21-Oct-22 | 10,224 | 687 | 11,251 | 1,027
28-Oct-22 | 10,013 | 651 | 10,594 | 581
04-Nov-22 | 10,278 | 650 | 11,145 | 867
11-Nov-22 | 10,743 | 518 | 11,020 | 277
18-Nov-22 | 10,786 | 423 | 11,156 | 370
25-Nov-22 | 10,705 | 348 | 11,135 | 430
02-Dec-22 | 10,725 | 317 | 10,990 | 265
09-Dec-22 | 11,007 | 326 | 11,368 | 361
16-Dec-22 | 11,203 | 390 | 11,999 | 796
23-Dec-22 | 12,037 | 429 | 14,101 | 2,064
30-Dec-22 | 7,925 | 393 | 9,124 | 1,199
06-Jan-23 | 12,037 | 739 | 14,244 | 2,207
13-Jan-23 | 13,749 | 922 | 16,459 | 2,710
(There's also an alternative view that this goup always existed and really do identify as boys and we're just getting better at diagnosis and treatment, take your pick, we don't really know).
I my view, it's much better for girls (If you favour the first explanation as the more likely - and even for those under the second explanation) to have a suitably qualified person (teachers may not be at this point in time, but could be) explain the issues, the full implications of going down the transgender pathway, the rates of desistance among those who believed themselves to be trans at some point and some other solutions, rather than leave them to stumble on to an online forum and get a crib list of all the things they need to say (and not say) on their first visit to The Tavistock a regional clinic to get on to puberty blockers and start the pathway to physical transition.
I've told my son (8) a few things, but he thinks kissing is yucky, and girls are just more people to play with, so we're not pressing it. We're giving information on demand.
Good parents will talk to their kids well. The problem is kids whose parents are not good, or do not want to give them the information when they need it. That can be problematic, and it's something schools probably cannot win with.
(as an aside: I think he knows more than he lets on. One day I bought him a GCSE science book he wanted in Ely, and he read it as I drove home. He went very quiet. I asked him what he was reading, and he said "reproduction". A few minutes later he said: "I feel sick..." )
https://www.erowid.org/pharms/tramadol/
So I don't see any general objection to Florida Governor DeSantis wanting to continue that. (Though I should add that I am no fan of his.)
Similarly, I think Amazon was within its legal rights to refuse to sell Ryan T. Anderson's "When Harry Met Sally" and to refuse to allow the publisher to buy ads on Amazon for Abigail Shrier's "Irreversible Damage".
Neither, it seems to me, can be described as "book banning".
(Full disclosure: I have mostly stopped buying books from Amazon, and bought a copy of "When Harry Met Sally", partly as a protest, from their competitor, Barnes and Noble. And I hope to to get around to reading the book, real soon now.)
has priority at a crossroads when both cars are turning right” is measurably worse - and that that has existed for years.
Give him a few years…
https://twitter.com/wearebigvillage/status/1617908154280611846?t=ucseEOQqpmz94T33XVkxHQ&s=19
https://www.ebay.com/itm/384590912988
I am a bit conflicted on this. It was once prevailing thought, afterall, that teachers were turning kids gay and we shouldn't promote homosexuality. It will be interesting how we think about trans issues in 20 ir 40 years.
The difference, to my mind, that a young person being confused about/exploring sexuality doesn't lead to life-long consequences in the way that someone believing themselves trans might. But then 40 years ago having a homosexual encounter while young could also have lifelong career consequences, I guess, particularly for someone in the public eye.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11670803/Transgender-woman-guilty-raping-two-women-man.html
https://morningconsult.com/2024-gop-primary-election-tracker/
BTW the other ads on that page include the Everclear alcohol Sea Shanty was lauding some time back as a useful if taxed source of not too dilute ethanol sans the denaturants.
But it is very useful - bring on the day when whole machine backup to offsite is available for all.
Fox & Friends joins the new MAGA ‘Woke Xbox’ fake culture war talking point (they announced they are adding a power-saving shutdown mode): “They’re trying to recruit your kids into climate politics at an earlier age.” Host - “You’re right - they’re going after the children!”
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1617921670450380803