Divemedic

The recent uproar about the Christmas song, “Baby it’s cold outside” has become somewhat of a big deal since I first posted about it a few days ago. We are now at the point where radio stations in Denver, Cleveland, and San Francisco have banned the song. One one of the articles, I saw the best comment ever:

“I wonder what future analysis of Kanye West’s new song “You’re Such A F**king Ho. I Love It!’’ will reveal?

Maybe these radio stations should start with rap before they go after more ambiguous music.

Growing up, my father insisted on a family tradition. Every year, my siblings and I were forced to watch “Miracle on 34th Street” on Christmas day. Not just any version, the old black and white version with Natalie Wood. Every Christmas. By the time I was 18 years old, my brother and I would roll our eyes and make a face every time we were forced to watch it.

Then, I had children of my own. The tradition lived on with my own kids.

The day eventually came when dad passed away. My kids are grown and have lives and families of their own. I still watch that movie every Christmas, and it brings back memories of childhood days spent with my family: the one I had as a child, and the one I had as a young parent.

Suddenly, that tradition didn’t seem so senseless. Dad would have been 78 years old this week had he not passed away 14 years ago. I still miss him, but he still gives me a Christmas gift every year when I watch that movie.

Cherish the senseless traditions. They become some of the best memories you will ever have. 

I decided a couple of years back that I wanted a smart house. Since I was being spied upon by technology anyway, I figured I might as well put the fact that I am living in the future to use. So I invested the time and money in having a smart home.

The house is automated with voice control. We can turn appliances, ceiling fans, and lights simply by speaking a command. We have a robot vacuum that cleans the carpets when we leave the house.

There are all sorts of automations that run in the background.

When we leave the house, the system activates the alarm system, turns the thermostat to a more energy efficient setting, and turns off the lights. When night falls and no one is home, the system automatically turns lights on and off to make it appear as though someone is home.

When we are home and leave doors and windows open for more than 5 minutes, the house announces the fact, and then turns off the air conditioning. Close the doors, and the air conditioning is turned back on.

I am continually adding capabilities to the house. I feel like George Jetson. Living in the future is great. All I need now is a robot to fold the laundry.

Rabid leftists are destroying everything. Now one of my favorite Christmas time songs has fallen victim. Rabid feminists have demanded the removal of “Baby, it’s cold outside” and an Ohio radio station has complied.

I recently posted that we are throwing money at underperforming and poor students without getting much of a return. A reader left a comment, asking if I have suggestions for improvement. I do.

First, some facts: 
Three in ten jobs in the US do not even require a high school diploma.
Two out of three jobs do not require a college degree of any sort.
4 million students a year begin high school. 90% of them graduate.
70 percent of those who graduate from high school go on to enroll in college, despite the fact that only one third of jobs require a college degree.
Of course, of the 63 percent of high school students who attend college, less than half of them will actually graduate with a four year degree.
Of the students who get a college degree, twice as many get degrees in park, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies as there are students who receive degrees in mathematics or engineering.
Ten percent of college freshmen want to become a medical doctor. Less than 0.4% of them actually DO become doctors.

In other words, Americans are overeducated for the jobs that are there. We need to get away from the idea that every student needs to be ready for college, because even with all this money we are throwing at the issue, they just aren’t learning. Here is my proposal:

At the end of the eighth grade, all students are given a proficiency exam. Students will be tested on proficiency in reading, vocabulary, and math skills. There will be no adjustment for special needs or learning disabilities.  Your score determines what taxpayer funded school you attend. If a student wishes to attend a higher level of school than the test determines that they are qualified for, then they can pay for the difference in cost out of their own pocket.

The lowest performing quintile will be sent to a school for the next two years to be taught how to be an adult: they will learn about  budgeting, along with basic life skills. At age 16, they will graduate and be able to get a job. This is all you need to mow lawns, work at a retail or fast food job, or any other job not requiring an employee to solve algebraic equations or write sonnets.

The second and third quintiles will attend a vocational high school. In this school they can learn general vocational skills like use of tools, construction, culinary, or mechanical skills. They can graduate at age 16 or 17 with the basic skills needed to work at the apprentice level of the skilled trades.

Fourth and fifth quintile students will be eligible for the college pathway. They graduate after taking classes on algebra, chemistry, composition, literature, and civics.

To be honest, we are doing this now. The school where I work pulls out the best performing students and puts them into “honors” classes or “AP” classes that are designed to prepare them for college. The remainder of the students are placed in fluff classes that are essentially babysitting to keep them out of their parents’ hair until they are eighteen years old. All this would do is save us money by getting them off the gravy train earlier, and also give them life skills instead of paying lip service to the idea that every kid needs to be ready for college.

So much data has been spent complaining about how smart devices are spying on you. There are many bloggers that I have a lot of respect for that say they will never own a smart device because those devices will listen to every word you say.

As for me, I think that ship sailed years ago. Many people stay away from Social media because it spies on you and sells your information. Guess what? Do you have a cell phone? It spies on you. So do frequent shopper cards. Your email provider does, too. As does your credit card provider, your bank, and your ISP.

I own my own business and I advertise online. One of the features offered is a “pixel” campaign. You know those pictures and memes that get passed around the Internet? Companies offer the ability to add a pixel to those picture files that acts as a tracking beacon. Every time someone looks at that picture, the pixel executes a program that mines information about the person viewing the picture.

Even if you refuse all of that, there are companies who are tracking your shopping habits by tracking your purchase history by your credit or debit card numbers. So you say, never mind, I will avoid using customer loyalty cards, credit cards, a cell phone, an email account, and the Internet. That will not work either, because there are companies using facial recognition and license plate readers to track you as well.

Data mining is the new gold rush. Most companies have large databases of information on people, and they sell that information to anyone who wants to pay for it. Big brother is watching you. It is now impossible to live in this country without someone somewhere having the ability to track your every move.

I teach at a title one school. The reason my school is a title one school is that more than 70% of the students receive free or reduced lunch. Being a title one school entitles the school to receive a large amount of additional funding. For my school, that means an additional half a million dollars in title one funds. Our budget is somewhere north of $15,000 per student.

In addition, students and their families are entitled to:
– free breakfast for all students, regardless of whether or not they qualify for free or reduced lunch
– free coats for students who request them
– free groceries that can be sent home for the families of students who need them
– free daycare during days when school is not in session (winter break, summer, etc.)

Throwing money at the problem isn’t going to fix education. There is a well known connection between poverty and poor performance in education, but after spending 5 years as a teacher, I think I know why:

Whether it is nature or nurture, affluent parents generally have smart, well educated children. The reason for this is simple: parents who are successful tend to be smart and well educated themselves, and pass this trait on to their children.

Parents who are poor do not.

The funny thing is that students who need public funds to buy food all seem to have smart phones with data plans. Several of my students have taken cruises this year, even though they are on food stamps.

We as a society are wasting gobs of money for little return. No one believes this money will fix anything. This is just another scheme for redistributing wealth.

Tell me again why the Republicans are the party of small government…

the more it looks like the liberal paradise of Chicago.

The former police chief of Biscayne Park, a city in Miami-Dade county, was sentenced on Tuesday to three years in prison for ordering officers to arrest black people for crimes they did not commit in order to give the impression that his department was solving crimes, court documents say.

Every person arrested of any crime at all in that city should immediately request and receive a new trial. All evidence provided by that police department should be disallowed in those trials. This case is less about racism and more about cops who will do anything to look good, even if that means destroying the lives of the very people that they are sworn and paid to protect.

The officers of this department are nothing more than a street gang with qualified immunity.

Even local news station weather forecasters are beginning to doubt global warming.

Interestingly, some scientists have stated that increasing snow is consistent with climate change because warmer air holds more moisture, more water vapor and this can result in more storms with heavy precipitation. The trick, of course, is having sufficient cold air to produce that snow. But note that 93% of the years with more than 60″ of snow in Boston were colder than average years. The reality is cooling, not warming, increases snowfall. Note the graph depicting declining January through March temperatures for 20 years at a rate of 1.5 degrees F. per decade in the Northeast!

Meanwhile, it is 40 degrees outside of my home as I type this. That’s pretty cool for this early in the season for Central Florida.