The bajillion stories in the comments about horrible experiences with math just reinforce the fact that I’ve made the right career choice.

I became an elementary teacher as a second career specifically because so many elementary teachers are absolutely terrible at teaching math. (Mostly because they don’t actually understand the math that they’re teaching. In my university cohort, almost 50% of my classmates failed the math entrance exam the first time. There was nothing more complex than 5th grade math on that test.)

Students should be allowed to use the strategies that work for them, and they should definitely never be punished for knowing math from higher grade levels.

If a student in my class knows something more advanced, I will challenge them to use grade-level-appropriate strategies to prove that their answers are correct. And if they demonstrate that they can do both, I’ll give them more advanced work to help them grow.

US expat in Colombia

For the general population, if you’re sick you go to urgent care and maybe wait for several hours. If you need to see a specialist, those appointments can take a couple of weeks to a couple of months, depending on the type of specialty. Either way, the cost is about $3 (all prices are rough equivalents in USD) per visit to see a doctor.

My employer signed me up for private insurance that gives me “concierge service,” so I have access to a different network of doctors with shorter wait times. If I’m sick, I can get a same-day house call. If I need a specialist, I can usually get an appointment in a two-week time frame. I pay about $50 per month for that (in addition to my normal taxes, which are used to fund the public system). My copay per visit, regardless of the type of doctor or procedure (exams, MRIs, etc.) is about $10.

One time, I paid out of pocket for an ultrasound because I didn’t want to wait for the insurance company to approve it and go back for a separate appointment. It cost me about $25.

Same.

I’m no programmer by any means, but I’ve always been more tech-savvy than the average bear. I finally took the plunge and added a Linux partition to my computer because I read enough posts here that piqued my curiosity.

You jest, but I can assure you that alligator is delicious.

My cousin got acupuncture treatments for alpha gal a couple of months ago. She went out for a steak after her last session and wound up in the hospital.

I was raised in the Assemblies of God, and I’m fairly sure that I knew an age-appropriate definition of adultery by kindergarten. Something along the lines of “breaking your marriage vows by being in a romantic relationship with another person.”

I definitely knew the actual definition of abortion by kindergarten because my church had fucked-up priorities.

This is the answer.

My cat is 18, and she has become extraordinarily picky in the past year. The only thing she will eat reliably is Churu. She gets her medicine mixed in it twice a day, which means that now she wakes me up at 5 a.m. daily to beg for her breakfast.

This is exactly as reasonable as any recipe review I’ve ever read. Which is why I stopped reading recipe reviews.

I don’t necessarily buy him as a serious actor. Mad Men was so well written that I think almost anyone could have been an effective Don Draper. My opinion is that he pulled off about 90% of that role based on his looks. (I think it worked overall because there were so many very talented actors surrounding him.)

That said, I love him as a comedic actor. His SNL appearances are delightful, and I’m always pleasantly surprised when he shows up in comedy shows and films.

I think a lot of comedians are this way, and it makes sense. Most of us have a “work persona” that is not exactly the same as what we would consider our “real” personality.

For a more genuine version Will Ferrell, and just a hell of a story of friendship and overcoming challenges, I heartily recommend the documentary Will & Harper.

Yet

Which honestly seems to be an overwhelming majority of people.

Tech companies took a pretty good predictive text mechanism and called it “intelligent” when it obviously isn’t. People believed the hype, so greedy capitalists went all in on a cheaper alternative to their human workers. They deserve to lose business over their stupid mistakes.

In Colombia I get a shocking number of voice messages via WhatsApp. I got a 4-minute message from my landlord last week that had 20 seconds of actual information.

The transcribe option in the app is reasonably good, but it’s not 100% accurate.

It was a bad three-day weekend.

I feel like The Satanic Temple would be willing to do this.

They did something similar with abortion rights, but I don’t think they have gained any legal traction with that argument. (That could also be because they’re waiting for a member who has standing to bring a case.)

404 Media doesn’t require payment for a subscription. Their content is behind a subscriber wall to keep AI bots from accessing their work.

I expect we’ll see more of this sort of thing as AI continues gobbling up everything on the internet so that it can write laughably bad term papers for high schoolers.

What’s your source for this? I find nothing that says therapists don’t have to report cases of child abuse.

I just responded to someone else with a long list of sources that indicate that therapists across the US are required to report child abuse.

I find zero sources that agree with your claim.

I find several sources that indicate that therapists in all US states are required to break confidentiality when child abuse has occurred.

https://psychcentral.com/health/what-do-therapists-have-to-report

https://www.remnantcounselorcollective.com/resources/86536/the-ultimate-guide-to-mandated-reporting-laws-in-all-50-us-states-child-adult-abuse-neglect

https://www.stopitnow.org/ohc-content/when-must-a-therapist-file-a-report

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-therapists-report-confidentiality_l_5d2cf063e4b0bca603641a62

https://www.mentalyc.com/blog/exceptions-to-confidentiality-in-counseling

So either you’re talking about another country’s laws (in which case I’d like to know which country), or you’re just incorrect.

I’m in Colombia, where psychologists are required to report “human rights violations, mistreatment or cruel, inhuman or degrading conditions of confinement of which any person is a victim and of which they become aware in the exercise of their profession.”

A cursory search for “liquid trees micro algae” led me here: https://liquidtrees.org/urban-solutions

Even with ideal light conditions, there’s still more to consider.

I lived in Louisville for many years. It’s fairly green as cities go. In older parts of the city, trees had been planted between the streets and sidewalks … definitely a long time ago, maybe 30 to 50 years? Maybe longer?

Every spring, we lost a number of those trees to thunderstorms. Enough rain, followed by strong winds, would topple multiple trees. Every single one that I saw had a root ball that was exactly the size of the opening where it had been planted, so maybe two square meters and maybe a meter or two deep. (For those keeping score at home, that’s not enough root volume to support a full-sized tree.)

So we’d lose those lovely trees and on a good day, we’d lose the use of the street for a while. On a bad day, someone would lose a car or a chunk of their house.

“Just plant more trees in the middle of the city” is not the brilliant fix that many people seem to think it is.