Fun fact.. that same surgeon general reversed that guidance and recommended masking after. ~https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-surgeon-general-jerome-adams-wearing-masks-face-the-nation/

I'll trust decades of practice and established protocols that show masks do work... versus a surgeon general/anesthesiologist... who should know better, and eventually reversed course- and word his tweets better... that tweet was contrary to the CDC, and nearly every health professional on the planet/ advisory agency/infectious disease expert/etc... (plus he was appointed by the orange clown that bungled the whole response to Covid since day 1, you know... the one that said injecting bleach will fix it)

Even in that tweet... the reason he had for telling people not to buy masks is because the medical staff fucken need them... if they didn't work at controlling the spread of covid, why do the medical staff dealing with the infected need them?

The doctors and nurses that wear masks as PPE around infectious patients or doing research on infectious diseases (BSL-2/3 and - depends on the type of mask- surgical vs N95) are not doing it for the fucken fun of it... Some infectious agents are mitigated by the use of masks.. Covid-19 IS ONE OF THEM... Surgeons and other medical personnel that wear a mask, do it for the benefit of both- no transmission from patient, and to the patient.

Masks do work... and were proven effective when used correctly, by the majority. and consistently. You can even pull up a pile of research post Covid that shows this.

Some reasons people don't trust scientists and doctors are because:
- there is an effort to discredit them...
- political/industry meddling
- the voice and weight of a dumbass's opinion is seen equal to someone that has spent decades learning the field...
- any idiots opinion, while wrong- is still seen as valid because they have the "right" to their opinion instead of being called a fucken idiot as they should.
- people are science illiterate
- a friend of a friend once heard from someone some bullshit... so it must be fact, although there are no facts behind it and tons of proof countering it.
- science/truth is boring... conspiracy is exciting
- don't be a sheeple and believe what you are told.
- ease and sheer number of biased "studies", funded by vested interest being pushed forward as legitimate studies
- ease and sheer number of biased, industry funded organizations/news sites/web sites/etc pushing their own agenda, and ensuring there are "facts" supporting their agenda (look at sugar industry)
- countless more...

i.e. the whole vaccine and autism bullshit started when one asshole had his own agenda (his own vaccine), forged data, wrote a paper... bullshit got picked up by a famous twat, popularized... and although countless papers, time, effort and money has been spent disproving it... the bullshit still exists and lives on in mainstream media as "truth"... Instead of the believers being called out as dangerous cunts, and the bullshit being recognized for what it is- Bullshit... so people refuse to vaccinate their kids, they get sick and die...

so.. you cite a singular example... out of 115,171 schools... which by the way.. in your highly researched example...it's NOT EVEN A SCHOOL FOR KIDS... it's a teaching hospital - did you even read the article you cited?

  "The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is probing "a major pediatric teaching hospital" over the alleged firing of a nurse who sought a religious exemption to avoid administering puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children."

A teaching hospital is your "school", and the person having an issue/fired, is someone hiding behind religion and refusing to administer treatments. You know what... maybe when you're in need of treatment, and a nurse says my religion forbids me from saving your life or treating you.. you need to wait for someone else to get treated... you'll grasp why you can't have nurses/medical staff picking and choosing what they want to do on the job... if they have an issue, they can choose an alternate line of work..

If you want an issue to back for "think of the children"!!!... why not focus on some actual problems...
- sexual abuse... the roughly 3,000 cases a year of kids sexually assaulted by staff
- the roughly 2,400 kids killed every year..
- the 2,300 kids that commit suicide a year
- the roughly 14 millions kids (1 in 5) with food insecurity (a fed child learns a lot better... fun fact - this is a national security concern... a smart populace means a strong economy)

no... you're right.. this singular AND incorrect example is the true root of evil... ohh. how will we protect the children from this non-existent fucken republican talking point...

Considering your example here about the teaching hospital, not sure how much anyone can trust the story about Ritalin and even if true... that usually happens from a doctor, after an assessment of the child... and doubtful that assessment was done without parental(YOUR) presence/permission, and without any history of behavioral issues... BUT if true... here is how it likely played out: child was exhibiting behavior that warranted an assessment, school spoke to you about it... asked about doing an assessment... and the result of the assessment was a prescription for Ritalin to HELP the child... and your response is threatening to sue those trying to help your kid? You could take the child to another expert for a 2nd opinion since you "have the resources"....overprescribing is an issue... but there are kids out there that actually need help and benefit from monitored treatments.

wish there were more concrete solutions in the "treaty"... once you get past the majority of the articles covering this talking about how the US isn't part of it... instead of a focus on WHAT IS ACTUALLY IN THE TREATY... which doesn't seem like much... it sounds like a conceptual agreement, with no specifics and no specific solutions to the problems identified - mainly- hoping for more timely vaccine dispersal in poorer nations. And enhanced sharing of data between manufacturers and health orgs.

this might not be the worst thing if there is a response from the market to take over the stewardship of the program for the long term... or DHS finally complies with requests from the government to sperate the bill for this program from a bulk 5 year budget with MITRE for a crap top of other varied services with no clarity as to where the money is actually going and for what... and gets funded in the mean time (fingers crossed).

This program is one of those things that needs a stable, long term funding solution and to be decoupled from the effects of DOGE like antics. Even if it means crowd/industry funded. The problem with industry funding is that a vendor will say- "no, it's not a 9.9 CVE it's a 4... we have a share holder call this week and can't afford this stock drop... have it as a 4 or we withhold funding next year"... Government/crowd funding ensures independence. Government funding in theory ensures stability.

I can't imagine it being too expensive to run this program, and hopefully- the secondary GNA's will take over the work while the MITRE (Primary GNA) goes dark.

For those complaining that the US government is paying for this - MITRE is non-profit, and provides a shit ton of good and services FOR the government, AND the industry/economy... which then is more productive and makes more money as a result. It's as if people forget that nothing exists in a fucken vacuum. Your business relies on many other things to go right and work. You want to run a farm- you need people, health care, housing, infrastructure, vet medicine, fuel, machinery, weather forecasts, clothing, and a market to sell your farmed goods and the list is endless... for any of those things you depend on to work, they themselves have a whole web of sub industries to function/exist... and so on and so on... you eliminate one or DEGRADE it, and it has a negative impact throughout the network... costing potential billions in losses... i.e. CVE program goes down... ability for any organization that utilizes computers to respond to cyber threats is slowed... this then results in more down time and losses for those businesses, and those that rely on their services...

imagine if-
-your payroll processing company is taken offline for a few weeks and thousands of your employees can't get paid
-your bank goes offline and you can't buy/pay for something for a few weeks
-your food/meat processing plant goes offline and can't process your goods that is only viable for a short time and rots as a result...
-or your daughter is pregnant and the hospital computer network is down and she can't get admitted, nor get the medicines their baby needs etc...

It's almost as if that is what taxes are supposed to be used for- enabling the economy for the good/benefit of all. The CVE program is an enabler, it produces more good than it costs.

Wonder what the response would be if the program was taken over by ETH Zurich? would the US feel comfortable with another country running it?

between "$300 and $6,750" for average cost of a CT scan... they are literally incentivized to do as many as possible. The joys of a healthcare system fueled by profits and not results..... which also has the perverse result of causing conditions that will require additional CT scans...... plus insurance companies declining procedures, needing a 2nd opinion- which results in additional scans... google powered patients thinking they know better requesting doctors run the scans... there are many many causes... some good (availability), some bad ($/ignorance).

the good news- from my understanding, the tech in CT scans has been improving, lowering the amount of radiation actually needed for even sharper scans... so as long as the tech is adopted and replaces the old machines (and not just used in conjunction to do more scans) it's a less risky future

on an anecdotal note- doctors in Europe, Asia (vs the US/Canada) rely less on diagnostic imaging for everything...

It's funny how when you eliminate due fucken process... you have errors like this... such a small error too/s... but if we want to talk about actual citizens, born and raised in the US... why yes.. they have deported multiple "accidentally"... The issue isn't where the guy/people got deported, it's that IT EVEN HAPPENED. You can stop trying to reframe the issue and pivoting.

And green card holders have nearly the same constitutional rights as a citizens, there are a few restrictions...like absolute Protection from Deportation: Unlike citizens, green card holders can be deported for certain crimes or immigration violations. Feel free to provide the laws he broke, and the system that found him guilty of it? Something guaranteed in the constitution.

Just because orange face says something, does not make it law. The ICE agents that deported him are supposed to be following a legal process... All of it was ignored. This is ONE of many known cases...

How people aren't rioting due to complete disregard for the LAW by the current administration is beyond me. Guess the only constitutional protection that matters to Americans is the 2nd amendment... the rest can be torn up.

Land of the brave and free my ass. Time for a new anthem - you lost the rights to that one.

-lol-...ohh boy... labour and the US prison system have a very special relationship too....

I'll add to that...
anyone want to go to a country where:
-they'll deport their own people "accidentally"....apparently a green card doesn't qualify you for protection, nor does a court order...
-removed due process for anyone they deem to be a non-citizen
-they are happy to arrest/deport people based off of a tattoo... (I guess the only amendment that matters is the 2nd one)
-send armed cops to schools to arrest kids for deportation
-arrest students that speak out against the administration
-are happy to confiscate your electronics and copy the data, access your social media accounts (ICE & CBP).... within 100 miles of the border (usually at the point of entry) and if they don't like what you said about the current administration- block access and send you back.
-local population calls ICE on their own co-workers and friends
-dismantling peoples rights (especially due process, privacy, and what were once cemented constitutional rights)
-dismantling the courts
-puppets running LEO's, Intel agencies and DOJ
-where people are openly racist
-where child marriage is legal in 37 states (banned in only 13)
-where leadership is actively talking about annexing Canada and Greenland - two allies that have bled, and lost their own people in the aid of the War on Terror.
-where leadership has started trade wars with nearly EVERY country on the planet for no reason, and with no plan
-local population providing active/tacit support for these actions
-god help you if you don't have medical insurance while traveling and get sick/injured/shot

for people that likely had ancestors that died/fought authoritarian rulers - Nazis, Russians... they'd be leaving healthier food at home, safer streets at home, health care systems...

What VALUE is there in traveling to the US? Where the US administration has called your people "parasites", "free loading", and "Pathetic"...

in fairness... they got to see his policies in his first term... and then voted him into office AGAIN... not sure how defensible the statement "Trump voters are not all idiots" can be...

If you get hit by a car once... you don't need a high IQ to avoid getting hit again.

anyone keeping track of how much $ went to the federal gov in additional revenue from the Tarrifs since trump imposed them?

While the people and businesses suffer... the US government will (should) be flush with cash.

at last check... they've wiped out $9.6 Trillion from the stock markets in the US... So.. good luck with that retirement/college fund...:/

on a side note- anyone want to explain why in the fuck a trade deficit between a country(ies) matters? I can be importing $10 billion in a good that would cost me $100 billion to produce locally... while exporting only $1 billion to that country... it's a $9 billion trade deficit... but on the back end... i just saved $90 Billion... so i am still up by a large margin... so this focus on trade deficits between countries is idiotic to me, it doesn't reflect anything useful.

i guess that's one way to go about it... add the safety mechanisms AFTER the fact. But curious, and not sure what the answer is for these question, and they are rather basic- will depend on what society is comfortable with, and laws at the time in the various jurisdictions.

-Should the answers from an AI prompt be censored? I mean, if you go online and search the same subject and get answers, but the AI is filtering results at the end stage, where it's interfacing with the user and blocking that access. Should that be a thing? Especially if the AI is literally trained on that data that is then blocked from the user. Same with search results on search pages? If it's in print, you don't find libraries (most) filtering the access to what books they have. Why do we treat access to print, digital, and now AI differently? Should we?

If i google how to make cyanide, i can find out online.. if i go to a library, i can find the data.. but if i ask an AI, I shouldn't be able to get the data?

If the AI is giving back result that it isn't supposed to, why was it trained to make cyanide in the first effin place? Considering all the "we take care to make sure the training data is "good".

It's almost as if there is no real care taken on what data is fed into these systems, and nothing really controlling what is "learned/taught". Just scrape what you can access and go forth...

The ability to lie and get away with it is only reserved for the current administration.

Stay in your lane...

For companies, they need a different playbook. When something can be demonstrably proven, them lying about it, and then proven to have lied is just stupid.

actually- Ukraine has only ever asked for material support- if the US provided the weapons they needed at a rate that they actually needed... Ukraine could have retaken their land a long time ago.

When they say they need 40 HIMARS systems (as a simple example) to do enough damage and retake territory, and only 4 are provided (now 20.. with 18 more maybe?)... not sure what war you're fighting with 4 systems... or tanks? fraction of what they needed, at much slower rates than can be useful... and yet they have still held back a much larger army. All they asked for was ammo and systems... Air defense to protect themselves and their domestic capability to build the infrastructure to build their own systems, and repair others... this takes years to do... while under attack... but they've managed to build out a 4 million drone/year production capability (as an example, and are slowly building their own armour systems).. they are slowly building their own weapons systems while under fire.

If they actually even got the systems PROMISED, not even just the ones they asked for... this war would have been looking much different. The only reason Ukraine is slowly losing is because of the INACTION of the US, and the ACTIVE sabotaging of Ukraine efforts.

" far more interested in denying Russian victory rather than reducing the costs of that victory on the people of Ukraine. " read some history and tell me how the people of Ukraine were treated by Russians in the past? how the people of ANY country Russia invaded were treated? Russia being pushed out of the borders of Ukraine is not a defeat of Russia... Russia still exists, it's people are safe and can carry on living their lives without outside influence.

Putin has stated multiple times how he wants to rebuild the old block... and to have a geographic buffer between NATO... this only means further aggression into Poland, Lithuania, Romania, etc... So to "reduce the costs" maybe we should just offer up all those territories now, save ourselves the fucken trouble.

The only reason i can imagine for this absolute betrayal and bullshit by the US is that the US is thinking they can use RUSSIA in a potential conflict with China. Or that they can't have Russia implode with a loss to Ukraine so China can retake the Siberian territories.

The only reason i can imagine people buying the line that to save Ukrainian lives, they should lay down their arms and surrender is sheer ignorance and cowardice and needs to be called out. I don't want a war, but if the war is forced, i want to be the one that wins it, and the one that started it- to learn a lesson and NEVER do it again with minimal loss of life. Putin has learned that his aggression will be appeased, because people like you have argued that the costs of stopping him are higher than to appease. (we saw how that worked out in history) Wonder if you would have the same frame of mind if you lived there, had family/friends there... if you had mothers or grand mothers raped by Russian soldiers in this war, or WWII... if your brother was taken and summarily shot and put into one of the many mass graves... If Russia was at your border... if you would face any of these people face to face and say- lay down your weapons and surrender to Russia to reduce costs.

not sure what you mean by "competing interests" Ukraine interest- to exist as they had... Russian interest- we want what Ukraine has and we want to rebuild old USSR for an ego boost/legacy for Putin before he retires. you say an American statesmen that competing interests can be negotiated to an end, while the old Prussian said that they can't be argued and only resolved by "blood and iron" (actually first with a sultan in the ME, and popularized by Bismarck)... these are opposing view points.

You say that if this is a good vs evil war, then Russia needs to be destroyed and the cost is a nuclear war. No one argued at any point for the destruction of Russia... Russian media heads love to frame it as an existential threat to Russia to have NATO exist... but at no point has anyone argued for the destruction of Russia. Russian nuclear doctrine only calls for the use of nukes if Russia is in existential peril and about to be defeated. (as in enemy tanks are strolling over red square) All anyone has argued for was to kick Russian forces out of the territories of Ukraine. Very very different things...
Plus- thanks to the US not ensuring the security of Ukraine after they gave up their nukes, and proving to the world that the nuclear umbrella and protection the US guaranteed in the past cannot be counted on - many countries are rethinking their nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and some (Poland and others) wanting their own nukes. how does that factor into your fear of a nuclear war in the future?

Signal is not the issue - use of any app for S&C subject matter is. These conversations are only allowed in a secure environments (a SCIF)... they can be set up nearly anywhere and portable versions exist. There was no reason for this fiasco.

That this chat even existed is the issue. (and most of the people on it knew better than to participate and discuss these matters on there)
What some of the decision makers said in the thread is the issue. And is now out in the public. Good luck pulling those words back and showing the world that the US can be trusted to uphold agreements without first sending money.
The sheer idiocy of the people in those conversations is the issue.
The fact a journalist was added ACCIDENTALLY is the issue.
The white house response full of lies is also the issue- "no classified info was shared"... yes there was, the journalist decided to NOT PUBLISH IT, that doesn't mean it wasn't in the fucking chat- but he can't now legally publish it to prove it, so the white house has it technically contained behind that bullshit of a lie. If he wants to prove the existence of classified intel in the chat, he puts himself in jeopardy just to prove the lie.
The fact that steven miller shut down any dissent with a single message is an issue.
The fact that the military actions are done based off of "as i heard it"... which is a weasly legal way to not get blame/blowback and say oops, i misunderstood... my bad.. insulating everyone above from repercussions... while putting all the heat on anyone below.

as for the security of Signal- it's great that they are open source, and all that... none of that guarantees their security.... encryption can be broken, people at signal can be compromised, hardware can be compromised, unknown vulnerabilities in code/repos/encryption tech, etc can exist and be exploited. End user devices can be compromised, lost/stolen devices... video captures of the screen can reveal data... any number of things can compromise the security, it's WHY IT IS NOT ALLOWED. This should never have been a fucken thing. what a fucken embarrassment. (not a single fucker will lose their job/security clearance for this... Any grunt in the military would get CM'd for far less and face jail time. )

It's says quite a bit when officials in high governmental offices are so brazen with their unethical and likely illegal activities.

I am not informed on the nuance of holding a government position, but i do know there are hard rules - my uninformed thoughts were that there needs to be a record of all activities, minutes of meetings, transparency and again, records of all activities of all official activities, and only using government provided tools for governmental activities.

i know, i am naive...