Monday, February 28, 2005

A New Kind of Drug War. The conventional one has been highly costly, with little return. Making narcotics legal -- and very expensive -- can reduce addiction and crime [BusinessWeek Online -- Top News] Very interesting stats that cover the reduction in tobacco usage and beer consumption tied almost exclusively to economics.. Don't smoke campaigns, my ass. 9:23:49 AM    comment [] Labour bids to woo parental vote. The government announces maternity pay is to be extended from six to nine months by 2007. [BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition] but can we just at least say who is going to bear the burden of this as well as get a non-benefit due to their life choices?  SINGLE PEOPLE.  It won't be the employer who suffers because they won't spend the money to replace the mom who is out for nine months.  It will be the people who are still at work and not having childre (fathers and single men and women) who pick up the slack.  And, the single men and women will do it without getting any equivilent benefit. I wonder, can you sue on the basis of marital status until the civil rights act?  Family friendly is one thing but backwards paternalism is another. 9:09:45 AM    comment [] Cyberspace to Outer Space, Let's Have a Conference and Go There. Esther Dyson, the Internet pundit, has a new mission. She is planning a conference called Flight School to discuss how best to send people to outer space. By By MATT RICHTEL. [NYT > Technology] ok, Esther may be a little wacky but put this together with the earlier article about Gates and the schools and it makes you wonder:  do the kids know something about the world they are going to live in that we don't?That is, they don't need the kind of crap our schools are teaching them about how to interact, what to know. etc.  They are going to space and like pioneers before them, their survival will depend on the kinds of things Oregon trail teaches plus some kick ass mcgeyver type knowledge. 9:05:30 AM    comment [] Gates: U.S. High Schools Need a Makeover. Microsoft chairman has told the nation's governors that U.S. high schools are obsolete and need radical restructuring. By Dan Balz. [washingtonpost.com - Technology] So is that our schools are so bad and our colleges so worthless that only 18 out of 100 graduate in six years?  Or, is it that kids realize this isn't now relevant the world they are going to be living in and go out and sit until we offer them something that makes more sense.  We can't see the future, our parents couldn't either.  But, at the same time, we didn't have things so nailed down and tightened up from a beauractic control and political correctness perspective that we couldn't do some adjusting along the way either.  8:51:26 AM    comment []

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