Inside Detroit's Failing Public Schools
If it's not apparent from my posts lately, I've been thinking about Detroit a lot. This video from The Atlantic uses a drone to briefly fly over several derelict schools in Detroit to give a top-down view of the utter destruction of this school district. It's very sad. So much potential just gone to waste because of a history of mismanagement and a declining local economy.
The next time I go to Detroit, I'm bringing a drone with me. Maybe I'll catch some of those newly repainted buildings.
The negative effects of 'Zero Tolerance' policies
I think growing up as a person who knows I have flaws has really shaped the way I think about 'zero tolerance' policies. I've always thought of them to be pretty stupid in the majority of cases (very rarely have I ever read or heard of them used appropriately in terms of a kid being expelled or suspended from school for an actual dangerous weapon) and often lacking in common sense. Don't get me wrong though. I firmly believe that dangerous kids should be dealt with accordingly, but not with the heavy hand of the law or the criminal justice system [in most cases]. As Eric Holder says very clearly in this Retro Report, sometimes kids are just going to be kids. Meaning some kids will misbehave, cause a ruckus, and disrupt classes. But that doesn't mean they are criminals. Treating them as such however is surely an express lane to that life.
No need to fear, robots are still pretty dumb
This is an interesting Retro Report that seems to talk more about the future than the past. Basically, it debunks the myth that humans are very close to creating AI that will overtake human cognitive ability. While it's true that some robots in recent history have begun to exhibit some cool and somewhat frightening behavior (like running and crawling and other autonomous movement), the fact remains that these robots have a looooonnnnngggg way to go before they begin to act on their own using anything remotely considered to be human-like intelligence.
As a result, we have all this technology at our disposal, but the fears of creating an autonomous robot army that might kill us all is quite a far reach even for the most advanced of projects.
When will people learn that fad diets just don't work?
As I suspected, no fad diet is going to change your life. Only a fully balanced meal that includes a little bit of everything (including the stuff we have been told is bad for us) will translate to a healthy life. All things in moderation is better and easier than simply saying none of this ever.