Visitor Look at: Supervisors are generating wise choice with investment decision for mobile service on trails | Editorial

Visitor Look at: Supervisors are generating wise choice with investment decision for mobile service on trails | Editorial

Roger Watson’s view piece in the BHC on Sunday titled “Supervisors expend $600k to reward squirrels with cellphones” was extra than a minimal disappointing.

The dearth of genuine info was shocking … particularly as Mr. Watson is the taking care of editor of this paper. So, let’s look outside of the “squirrels” for a moment:

The whole premise of Mr. Watson’s piece rests on a sliver of info, which is presented as the total story. Mr. Watson unsuccessful to point out that Washington County has been granted roughly $60M to deliver world-wide-web obtain to quite a few of the unserved sections of the county.

Certainly, the Washington County Board of Supervisors not too long ago voted to employ Ernst & Younger, a company specializing in broadband infrastructure, to help with the setting up, configuration and, eventually, the execution of this huge job. The supervisors are executing their because of diligence — they are seeking the details that will guideline the long term determination-producing connected to this essential obtain. In other words and phrases, they are proving to be excellent and nicely-informed stewards of shut to $60M in grant funding to enrich the lives of our citizens and guests. To present this $600K financial investment as the “whole tale,” without the need of context or history, is merely misleading.

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Mr. Watson argues that these cash are squandered on “squirrels with cellphones.” Quite the visible, sure, but even this vibrant description does not obscure the details:

Path protection should really be everyone’s worry. Accidents occur on the two the Creeper and Mendota trails as they do at all recreational internet sites. So far too does the sudden onset of emergency wellbeing challenges like coronary heart assaults, strokes or other medical crises that involve an instant

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Editorial: Synthetic intelligence is not instructional taboo

Editorial: Synthetic intelligence is not instructional taboo

Science, technologies, engineering and math.

The relevance of these subjects has been obvious in the swift growth and progress of new industries — notably personal computer-associated ones — due to the fact the 1970s. Nonetheless, that worth has only been codified for schools under the acronym STEM considering that 2001.

That was when the Countrywide Science Foundation put a new emphasis on how essential training in those people fields was. It has led to a challenging thrust for universities to up the prospects for children to explore, find out and increase both of those exposure to and foundational know-how of these areas.

Practically each college seems to be to wedge STEM into a lesson any way achievable, in addition to extracurricular actions that shore up how exciting science and creation can be.

So it is a tiny bizarre to see a debate arise about whether or not a science course is as well substantially for a child to cope with.

Greensburg Salem college board member Emily Miller not long ago elevated concerns about a science class for seventh graders.

The class in query is not about your usual subjects that provide up issues at college board meetings. It is not about sex schooling or politics. It’s not about race or historical past or banned publications. It is “Computer Science 2: Synthetic Intelligence in Our Globe.”

“While it’s most likely incredibly appealing, it’s not ideal for 12-year-olds,” Miller stated.

But why not? What would make this sliver of science less appropriate than something else? It is not training kids to program self-mindful armed forces drones. It’s educating children about the way the technological innovation is now in use all around them.

Synthetic intelligence in our life is not a science fiction tale about Arnold Schwarzenegger-shaped androids bent on destruction. It is

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Editorial: A governor clueless about pcs has no company overseeing cybersecurity | Editorial

Editorial: A governor clueless about pcs has no company overseeing cybersecurity | Editorial

A cybersecurity excellent storm has been brewing for years in Missouri’s condition authorities pc techniques less than the supervision of a governor who obviously is clueless about desktops and details. Condition personal computer systems and on the web facts networks are antiquated, working with programming languages that became out of date a long time back. Current reviews by Gov. Mike Parson recommend he thinks that folks in white coats with floppy discs and bins of punch cards are what make people dang personal computers operate.

The Office of Administration underneath Parson’s way is not to be trusted with cybersecurity as lengthy as the governor insists that he’s suitable and the relaxation of the globe is wrong when it will come to determining hackers. The Legislature and State Auditor’s Workplace need to workforce up to devise an unbiased auditing program to be certain the delicate individual knowledge of point out workforce, contractors and learners simply cannot be inadvertently exposed due to the fact of the governor’s willful incompetence.

The stakes are far too higher to have confidence in that the executive branch won’t once again blunder its way into another mishap like the one particular Submit-Dispatch reporter Josh Renaud exposed in October. Even though reviewing on the web trainer-certification knowledge, he found out that teachers’ Social Stability numbers have been embedded in resource code on a condition web-site. He alerted state authorities and withheld publication of a story until the delicate details could be secured.

Alternatively of thanking Renaud, Parson labeled him a hacker, ordered an investigation by condition troopers and requested the Cole County prosecutor to contemplate criminal expenses. The prosecutor was not able to justify wasting taxpayer pounds on it. A 158-website page Missouri Freeway Patrol report showed that Renaud hadn’t accessed just about anything that was not publicly

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