Thank you Internet stranger for the gift of your amusing poop-a-saurous story. It was just what I needed. 👍

I've tried it with younger kids 8-10 and older kids (11-13). When I said "Ok I'll take the trick then." they just stand there with a confused look on their face. Even if I explain that I don't want to give you candy, so go ahead and trick me, I've only had one kid who said "What's that? and pointed over my shoulder." The others continued to stand there confused or started to walk away.

Normally that's exactly what they would do if enough students destroyed their computers to blow through the loaners. The frustrating thing is this is happening right when schools are set to do state testing and state testing is mostly online now. This requires every student in the building to have a device at the same time. Normally all the loaners would be for kids who forgot theirs that day.

USA here. I like in one of the areas with the lowest cost to living in the USA (Kentucky). I just paid my daughter's fall tuition to the University of Kentucky yesterday. It's a state school which accepts 95% of those who apply. Average SAT ~1100. (My point, by no means is it a selective school.) Her tuition for one semester was $6851 or 6275 €. This does not include housing, food, or living expenses.

I don't want to get into USA vs anyone else, as everyplace is different, with their own areas that make them stand out or not. However when it comes to post-secondary education and healthcare in terms of COST (not quality) the USA quantitatively lags well behind Western Europe.

School Chromebooks don't come with games, except for the "No Internet Game" which is baked into Chrome. The games being used are web games. Schools have blocking agents, but the websites mutate faster than the blocking software. (Looking at you .io domains)

My school eventually deployed software that only allows students on teacher approved sites, a "block all BUT..." rule and the little devils learned that if they opened more than 50 tabs that agent stopped filtering. I've also had students buy an identical Chromebook to their school issued one and use a hotspot to bypass all detection and filtering.

I'm so happy that I'm not the only one who leaves spiders (mostly) alone in the house. I had a neighbor once who was like, "Uhh... there's a big 'ol spider in your bathroom." One of my children then goes, "That's Henrietta. She lives behind the toilet and eats bugs." The neighbor looked at us like we were crazy. Henrietta's offspring have been living quietly in my downstairs bathroom eating ants for about 20 years now.

You say, "Oh, how terrible! I guess we will just have to send him to the hospital to be refilled." Then you put Steve on your desk and when all the kids go home, you chuck Steve in the garage and set a brand new Steve out for tomorrow.

I'm a fan of alliteration so....The People's Pigskin, or Iron Curtain Carriers.

Overall I am always for more transparency with those in positions of authority. I will offer a piece of anecdotal evidence why encrypted radios might be used, besides the personal details that everyone mentions.

I work in a small high school (14 - 18 YO) in the USA. In lieu actually tackling the problem of school violence, out state has mandated a police officer in every school. (Without funding it, of course, but that's another post.)

Our SRO (School Resource Officer) is completely awesome and happens to be female. Before she worked for the school, she worked a regular patrol. On patrol she says she would regularly be at a scene and look up to find a random guy (always a guy) sitting in his car watching. She questioned several, "Why are you here?" And the answer was always super creepy. Basically "You are a small girl out here all alone. I'm just trying to keep you safe."

So for that encrypted radios would help disperse the stalkers with scanners.

Not contradicting, but sharing my perspective. I teach 14 - 18 year olds in the USA, 80% of which are male. Andrew Tate peaked in their discussions about the time of his 1st arrest. (Was that last year?) I rarely hear about him anymore and really none this past school year.

If the current conversations I'm constantly battling are any indication, then the content algorithms are mainly serving up Jewish hate. Though surprisingly those comments are not tied to current events in Israel and Gaza.

Don't, "butter your bread where you earn it."

In our town the police day shift wears the shiny bits and bobs, and the night shift is entirely flat black including even a black embroidered badge.

Thanks so much for pointing out the CAFE restrictions. I never knew they existed, and it explains much about the growth of autos in general since 2011.

No. My experience growing up in Appalachia in the 80's was the kids (who were older 15-20) were not trick or treating. They were just going out to cause mayhem. Houses where I lived were far enough apart (miles) that you trick or treated by auto. I remember several Halloweens that were disrupted because someone had cut a tree down across the road blocking it. One memorable Halloween someone piled old tires under an overpass and set them on fire preventing anyone from proceeding further.

No one says eff off to the kids. If you're not participating you turn your porch/outside lights off and kids know not to visit your house. They just move on. 99% of the stories are mischief makers or someone who has a problem with you prior to Halloween. (Like you are a teacher or something.)

Sometimes it's incompetence, or time constraints. Sometimes it's deliberate, as anything to get people talking and your message traveling farther. Sometimes the sheer volume of crap your side is putting out prevents any sort of budget for professionals. Sometimes it's Darwinian, push out a firehose worth of content and see what rises to the top.

Oh, I'm so glad you were not a fan. I thought I was the only one. The hype from friends was overwhelming, and I was excited to see it. BUT my wife and I couldn't finish the movie. The idea that she was THE worst version of herself was interesting, but everything else was just absurd.

While I'm oversimplifying, basically 49 out of 50 U.S. states are at will employment. (A majority have public policy exceptions, and only 3-4 have NO exceptions.) Montana is the only U.S. state that is not at will (after a probation period).