Another SciFi Starter Kit

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Establish a prison in Antarctica. Cells with no social media or news of the outside world, past the date of internment. Each cell with a door to the outside and freedom, and totally sound proof. Only one of said cell door per square mile can open once every 24 hours, unless the person returns to it. Each cell with an unbreakable picture window, looking out at the snow. 365 day sentence for anyone found with an illegal gun, very brief trials, one level of appeal. Lose that and you are penquin for a year.

The Future of the World, and Schools

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The wheels of cultural change move slowly. From what I can see, both sides are blind to the biggies. Factories will become much more automated. Robots will become much improved, and most common jobs will be taken over, or done remotely drone style through robots by the lowest bidder, even if they are on the opposite side of the planet.

Thus a great deal of the population will become “surplus” in the job market, yet still in need of the basics of food, shelter, clothing, and medicine. Letting youngsters know at an early age that they will have to choose to chart a course to avoid being stuck on the bottom of this 2050 food chain is crucial, and actively exploring alternatives and directions with them will be at the heart of any educational plan that will do them any good. As for public schools I would see them changing drastically, into spots where many are informed of their fate, as they watch the ultra rich grab onto more any more of the previously general public’s wealth, and given “common core” skills, just so they can understand their predicament, and make a non rioting transition to this Brave New World.

I will predict that in time legislation will show up to encourage later pregnancies via 90% ed credit, 5% retirement, and 5% mad money payouts, to those, male and female, who do not reproduce before age 22 or so, DNA ID required, obviously. How will they catch the boys? DNA registry.

I will also predict that students with drive will quickly realize that they can learn faster at home or in the library or in special parts of schools with zero tolerance for time wasting and full internet suites. The biggest problem in public schools is students who literally make a career out of “chewing up the clock,” not only for themselves, but everyone else in the classroom around them. Most who bitch about administrators being too many and paid too much don’t realize that a great deal of their time is spent dealing with such “clock chewers.” The administrators have evolved into these roles, and yet the general public has no clue.

This is the 21st century. You can’t turn back the cultural clock to 1950, and the world wide markets have made damn sure of that, especially the evolving capitalists in the USA. Here’s where the bulk of the Tea Party members want so desperately to go, but you can’t go home, anymore: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J55S38xwxnQ

Bicycle Safety, on Highway 49, between the San Juan Ridge and Nevada City

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A Thread Dealing with People Who Drive Highway 49 between The San Juan Ridge and Nevada City, and the apparent total disregard some of them have for bicyclists, who might wish to travel the same route.

If you try to drive the whole thing at 45, it is narrow and windy. If you relax and do 20 to 45, as portions of the road and safety dictate, it is way more than wide enough, with each scenic turn revealing a new vista of joy, unless of course you run into those who believe that 45 is a mandatory requirement instead of an upper maximum limit, and have strayed into your lane because of it.

The freedom to travel safely was an assumption of the Founding Fathers, otherwise it would have been ahead of the 2nd Amendment. They never considered the possibility of bandito automobilius infesting the public right-of-ways.

Many are blaming the bicyclist, exercising his lawful rights, for the unsafe driving of the motorist, at too high a speed to avoid a 3 foot wide 6 foot long colorful object, on a roadway that is 10 to 12 feet wide minimum, per lane.

If blocks of concrete of the same size and colorations were randomly placed each night along the edges of the road, you can bet that after the first five or six crashes, motorists would learn to SLOW DOWN in the riskier spots. In short, if there was a clear and present danger to the motorists themselves, for which they would be held fully accountable, and quite possibly medically endangered, they would learn to drive the road safely and respectfully.

If you do not wish to hit a bicyclist, drive at a speed that allows you to avoid doing so. The "speed limit" is just that. The fastest speed allowable without a ticket on SOME parts of the roadway so marked. All the rest of the roadways are governed by the BASIC speed law, which is, no faster than what is SAFE, for everyone one, it's not just about YOU.

If you truly cared about the well-being of bicyclists, and not just you ability to go slightly faster than is safe for them, you certainly would NOT promote the idea that if a bicyclist got bumped off, "well it's his fault, he shouldn't have been on that road, motorist in a hurry hurry, is excused." Yes, being bumped by a vehicle is as bad as rape, and it is totally avoidable, and spreading attitudes that might make high schoolers or adult jerks think is is OK to open a door, as it will be the bicyclist's fault for being there, is just plain vicious, and brings you down to their level, and makes you an accessory, in my eyes. You don't like how I see things, so be it, I have a right to my own opinions, just as you have a right to yours. Happy Venting!