Do you think the department of education writes the textbooks, standardized tests (SAT, ACT, etc.), grading and student management software, learning management systems (Google Classroom, Canvas), or manufactures its own classroom tech (Chromebooks, tablets)?

Each one of those has a bunch of particular nuances, but in general - yeah, I think they could and should in a lot of those cases

The education system is full of for-profit businesses that can jack up the prices, and they do.

Yeah, it’s a big problem with a lot of little parts to be tackled

The DOE simply doesn’t have the resources to create these things themselves

Then government should give them the resources (actually, I think a whole separate agency that develops open source software for any government agency or anyone else who wants to use them should be established, but that’s kind of besides the point).

and would cost them far more if they tried

I don’t think that’s true, and even if it were I think we should be willing to pay premium to make sure essential systems that support the public good are being administered in democratic ways (e.g. by public agencies that are required to give public reports to elected lawmakers and be subject to citizens’ FOIA requests).

the business model has existed forever

A lot of stupid ideas hang on for a really long time. Like, we still have monarchies in the 21st century world.

Personally, I’m more concerned with the use of Google products in schools. A company that’s sole business is harvesting user data and selling it to advertisers should have no place in schools or children’s products. But they’ve embedded themselves into everything so people just accept it at the cost of privacy

I 100% agree this is a significant problem too, I just haven’t come across any good articles about it recently

Exactly, they’re a captive audience, and moreover they are legally incompetent to consent to a contracted business relationship like this

If this was a department of education AI or even some kind of transparently administered non-profit organization I’d be fine with this, but the fact that this is being developed for some for profit company that can just jack their rates and cut off public schools whenever they want to is bullshit. Like, I’m not opposed to the technology of LLMs at all, I think they’re actually pretty neat, but our social and economic systems have a lot of exploitative trash in them that cool technologies can inadvertently exacerbate.

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Yeah, I’m not a Texan but I also disagree about this. Also, Austin has produced some amazing music over the years (for example, random Austin band I’ve been in love with recently is Being Dead).

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=Cgv522f5wfU

“I don’t think it matters”

Tame Impala’s “Solitude is Bliss”

he thinks he knows the person who did it but he censors their name

A smarter/more caffeinated person than me could say something really intelligent about how there’s a whole motif running throughout all of Kendrick’s work about knowing things you can’t talk about and how we have to suppress important parts of our histories and leave traumas unprocessed to fit into society and how the official stories of things leave out events and people because of this

The devices should be returned to inmates immediately, prison administrators should then slap themselves in the face one time for implementing them poorly to begin with, slap themselves in the face several times for overreacting to a viral story without having any reason to believe there was an active or imminent problem with any of their inmates, and deliver a tooth-loosening punch to their own faces for thinking they could punish these inmates by taking away their education to cover their screw up.

After that, hire a real IT person who knows what they’re doing by paying them decently allowing remote work and not drug testing, and then listen to them.

Not victimizing all of the student inmates because the prison invested in a poorly designed system that could potentially be exploited when none of the students have attempted that exploit or were likely even aware of it

Every prisoner who knew about that password

Meanwhile, back in reality

Wright confirmed no one incarcerated in Washington prisons had attempted to unlock their devices but said the decision was “made out of an abundance of caution.”

They were taken for reasons that inmates had nothing to do with, they have not been replaced, and it’s unclear when they’ll be returned. Inmates who are enrolled in college courses are having to handwrite papers that are due soon.

Hell yeah, love AC, they’re such a weird drum circle of a band that sounds like they’re about to fly out of control any moment but actually has a weird complex logic to everything they do. Also, they have some of the catchiest and most earnest vocals that just always put a smile on my face.

Adding synths and stuff to their sound was definitely a great way to grow it to something stadium sized and make it totally unique, but their earlier smaller stuff like We Tigers and Grass are always gonna be super nostalgic for me.

Nice, Glass’s work is so hypnotizing and wonderful, and I actually fell into it from being a fan of sample based things like turntabling and electronic genres, but it started me towards having an appreciation of what classical and opera were capable of

Floe and Night Train* still just blow my mind no matter how many times I listen to them

*That one basically requires the lore to begin to make any sense (and that just makes me love it even more)

e; found a better video for the Einstein on the Beach piece

Ah, that does help, thanks!

The fact that they tried to pull this with them of all bands might top Paul Ryan’s “I love Rage Against the Machine” moment

Tennessee spends time declaring its official state amphibian the Tennessee cave salamander - I sleep

Tennessee attempts to recognize Grammy award winning artist who lives in their state - real shit?!

Hell yeah, the amount of genius crammed in to Donuts’ 43 minutes is completely mind blowing, before you even consider the fact that Dilla was literally on his death bed when he was putting it together. It’s definitely one of my favorites of all time and probably did more to change how I hear music than any other single thing I can think of.

Just one of those brilliant moments - the sample flip on Don’t Cry

Also, if something is technically possible but illegal for the CIA/FBI/etc to do, it just means they have to try to hide the fact they’re still doing it

Few decades from now there’s gonna be a four part PBS special narrated by Ken Burns about the impact those games had