AI AND EDUCATION...GOOD OR BAD? I've got CU associate professor in the Department of Information Science Casey Fiesler, who studies technology ethics and online communities, on today to talk about ChatGPT and how it can be used or abused in education. She joins me at 1.
DOWNTOWN'S HEALTHCARE IS OUT OF DOWNTOWN My friend and client Gary Rademacher of Downtowns Healthcare has officially left downtown Denver. Why? I'm going to let him tell you today but you won't be surprised. Luckily they have a beautiful office in Lowry with plenty of parking and no scary drugged out homeless people wandering around. He's coming in at 2 to talk about it.
THAT "PRESS CONFERENCE" YESTERDAY WAS AN EMBARRASSMENT The Denver Public Schools Board gave a whopping fifteen minute press conference after they sent a memo to the Superintendent laying out how cops can be allowed in school, but not TOO in school, lest children meet some cops and get to know them. The coward Tay Anderson showed up in a wheelchair and when someone asked him a question the Board President, who already beclowned herself by announcing that she is a naturalized citizen of Latino descent, jumped in to protect his sorry ass. Watch the whole thing here if you need to become angry and frustrated. Click here if it doesn't load.
SEEMS LIKE JEFFCO IS SERIOUS ABOUT SCHOOL SAFETY In this article about "student safety plans" the reporter spoke to JeffCo schools as well as Denver Public Schools to ask about the practice. First, neither district would explain what exactly these are or how they are used or HOW MANY kids are being patted down before school. Not acceptable. However JeffCo schools then went on to share how it protects their students. From armed security and SRO's to single access point schools, they have taken this matter very seriously. DPS just hasn't. If I were a Denver parent I'd be furious. This story from the Denver Post does a better job explaining the myriad of reasons for a safety plan, but as the range is so broad, we need to gather better data on exactly what we're doing here. From the article:
Safety plans cover everything from a student having a weapon to someone “throwing a teddy bear,” said Rachel Childress, a DPS spokesperson. Denver Public Schools officials said Thursday that they did not know how many students across the district have school safety plans, saying that such measures are “broad and hyper-focused.”
Searching students for weapons is frequent in Denver schools, said Michael Eaton, former DPS Department of Safety chief.
“In addition to searching them or their belongings for past behaviors, we’re also trying to put in measures or support services to support that student,” said Eaton, who led the department for more than a decade and left DPS in November.
PARENTS DESERVE REAL DATA ON SAFETY PLANS There is a big difference between telling someone that a specific child is on a safety plan and releasing statistics about those plans. The former is an invasion of privacy, the other is a data set. Superintendent Alex Marrerro refused to answer a question about how many students are on a safety plan saying the number was "fluid" and changes from day to day. Okay then, how about an AVERAGE? How about releasing the underlying reasons a kid could be on a safety plan? Parents deserve to know if their kid is going to school with a kid who may cause significant harm. More importantly, we need to talk about why a kid on probation for a weapons charge was not enrolled in online school. I want answers to all of these questions.
APPARENTLY PEOPLE ARE JUST DISCOVERING "ROOMMATES" HERE This story is borderline ridiculous to me. It's about how rents are so high people are living with...ROOMMATES! GASP! The horror! I have lived completely alone for about a year in my life. The rest of the time I had multiple roommates, sometimes as many as four. Why? Because rent was expensive. Now it's a news story. Does this seem stupid to anyone else?
WHY ARE LANDLORDS PAYING A FEE AND THE CITY DOES NOTHING TO HELP TENANTS? The owner of Mosaic Apartments is a slumlord. The apartments are infested with mice, rats, and roaches according to the tenants, and the City knows about it, but yet, nothing is being done. Why are landlords now paying a fee to the City if the city isn't going to do anything to help people with actual slumlord landlords? I'm not even kidding here. What's the point?
THE WORLD'S DUMBEST DENTIST IS CHARGED WITH FIRST DEGREE MURDER And this trial is going to be a Lifetime movie really quickly I'm guessing. Dr. James Craig is being accused of poisoning his wife so he could make a new life with his mistress. He left so many clues and evidence that my daughter could have solved this crime.
MAN FACING CHARGES FOR CUTTING OFF OTHER MEN'S TESTICLES And lest you think he's some of monster to do that to other men, the other men ASKED HIM TO. This is part of an extreme body modification fetish where men want to "look like a Ken doll down there" and who are we to judge? We should let children decide to do this too while we're at it. That last comment was sarcasm and I think you know what I'm doing here.
DESANTIS PROVES HIS RACIST BY FOCUSING ON THE HEALTH OF BLACK PEOPLE You have to read this. The Miami Herald is an especially lefty rag and they HATE Ron DeSantis. HATE HATE HATE him. So it's no wonder they rushed to make the new list of state health goals that the DeSantis Administration put together as required every five year into PROOF that he's the racisty racist around. The problem for the Herald is that the word "equity" has been dropped from the plan. What they don't want you to notice, is that actual health concerns which impact latinos and black people in Florida disproportionately have been pushed to the TOP of the list of priorities. DeSantis also made the racisty choice to sign a bill to create the Office of Minority Health to address disparities in access and treatment. What a horrible person! He must be stopped! Read about it here.
JARED POLIS'S COLORADO OPTION ISN'T DOABLE ACCORDING TO INSURERS And this is no surprise. The law demands that insurance companies lower premiums annually and insurers are now saying what I knew they would: they can't. Why? Read this:
“Colorado’s public option requires carriers to offer the standard plans at artificially and actuarially unsound premium rates,” one insurer, Rocky Mountain HMO, wrote in its filing.
When politicians who don't understand anything about insurance write laws about insurance this is what happens. You can read about it here, but I expect insurers will simply leave the state if they are forced by the state to lower prices into unprofitability.
THE LATEST RICE AND AROD EPISODE!
IF YOU MISSED THE MAYOR YESTERDAY Here's a snippet
WANT TO BE ON HGTV AND HAVE A NIGHTMARE CONTRACTOR STORY? I am so jealous that all of our contractors have been really good or otherwise I could apply to be on Rico to the Rescue, an HGTV show being filmed here in Denver! Click here for more!
TIME FOR LEGACY BLUE CHECKS TO PAY UP As Twitter is phasing out the previous blue check program in favor of the paid program.
TIK TOK CEO'S TESTIMONY DID NOT GO WELL And in this clip, his credibility is shredded by a line of questioning from Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers where she draws a straight line to the Chinese Communist Party and reminds him of the many lies that Tik Tok has told over the years.
Many who covered the hearing said it simply accelerated calls to ban the platform. When you won't answer a yes or no question, you are likely hiding something.
Here he is denying that the Chinese government has never asked for that data as he promises to move the data to the US. Unfortunately he as already caught lying above.
This as the CEO took to Tik Tok to tell everyone how awesome he was and ask them to promote how much they loved Dear Leader, I mean Tik Tok. Watch below or click here.
THE STAAL BROTHERS SAY NO THANKS TO PRIDE JERSEYS The two hockey players declined to participate in the pre game warm up wearing rainbow PRIDE jerseys and cited their Christian beliefs in doing so. This should be a nothingburger story. Freedom is freedom.
NORTHERN COLORADO, IF YOU KNOW JESSICA, YOU NEED TO WATCH THIS I feel really bad for this guy and am DYING to know how Jessica's checkbook ended up in this guy's car! Watch below or click here.
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WHY TO HAVE CHILDREN Watch below or click here.
ADOBE HAS BROUGHT AI TO GRAPHIC DESIGN And holy cow this is cool. Watch below or click here.
WHAT DID KID YOU SWEAR YOU'D NEVER DO WHEN YOU GREW UP? For me it was eat vegetables. I was gonna live on pizza and junk food because I WAS AN ADULT DANG IT. This reddit thread is funny and kinda sad at the same time. Life comes at you pretty fast....
I'D DROP OUT OF THE WEDDING A bride posted a video of her leading a workout for all of her bridesmaids on her wedding day. Yeah. No.