Texas Jeff
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Waymo on the highways has the potential to kill rush hour traffic jams. Carpooling used to be a thing. Now not so much. Look around the next time you are stuck in traffic. You will see mostly one driver per car. Carpools are hard to arrange and people might get stuck at work during the day if they need to suddenly get home, or decide to stay late. Waymo charges the same per ride for one person per car or four people per car. It's easy math. If two people are sharing a ride, the cost is cut in half. If four people are in the car, the cost is one fourth. There is a huge economic incentive to find a buddy. Waymo has the chance to bring back carpooling, probably between people that live close to each other and work in the same office. Make multiple pickups in the morning and one drop-off and repeat the process after work. If someone misses a ride or is stuck at work, no big deal. They just take a solo Waymo for the extra ride and lose the cost savings for that day. Nobody has to sit next to a rando on the bus. Assume 10,000 cars take 10,000 people to work each day down a road. If half of those cars have two people, that's now 7,500 cars taking the same number of people. An overnight 25% reduction in traffic. Every person that decides to share a ride and save money will take one car off the road. The Waymos are going to be a lot better than humans at avoiding "traffic waves" by maintaining a constant speed, which will allow all of the traffic to go faster. Waymos are not going to crash which will make the drive even more predictable, save lives, reduce insurance cost and car repairs. It's going to change the commute ... I'm not sure when but it's coming.
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I thought we were going with Mr Fusion.
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Texas Jeff started following Rest in Piss, Dick Cheney and Ken Burns: The American Revolution 11/16
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Here's Waymo avoiding accidents ... I would not have been able to avoid all of these:
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Vice President tells NASA to get to the Moon in 5 years.
Texas Jeff replied to atomheartbevo's topic in Daily Texan
Game on my friends... We now have two American companies that can land rockets on ocean barges... Congrats to the New Glenn folks! https://www.blueorigin.com/missions/ng-2 -
Bye Week Fodder- Texas' Historic Game Recommendations
Texas Jeff replied to Sir Ulrich's topic in Football
1996 Texas vs Missouri, one of the most amazing things I have seen in person, and I am not talking about the result of the game: -
They are focusing on the schools that require a turnaround plan, or TAP. These are the lower scoring schools that are at threat for closure. They are also going ahead with the move of the wall-to-wall dual language programs. They plan to vote on this portion of the plan this month. The other portion of the plan, district-wide boundary adjustments and closures for schools not affected by TAPs or dual-language, is paused. The three schools that were slated to be closed but are now paused are Bryker Woods, Palm, and Maplewood. The district is considering additional community feedback on this part and may take action later.
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Tax bills are now out. I think they do not include the Prop Q tax, but I'm not certain. I just compared my 2025 tax bill to my 2020 tax bill. Since 2020: Austin ISD up 22%, average of 4.0% per year City of Austin up 36%, average of 6.4% per year Travis County up 57%, average of 9.4% per year Central Health up 67%, average of 10.8% per year ACC up 53%, average of 8.8% per year Folks say that the school district is most of your taxes so the others don't matter, but the others are increasing their share of the pie. I will give ACC a pass since they are trying to charge zero tuition, which I think is great for the region. Austin ISD is probably right at inflation, even with the big tax increase from last year.
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The people have the power to elect the board of trustees. The trustees have the power to hire the superintendent and set the budget. The superintendent has the power to hire everyone else in the school district. Before the takeover, the people have the power stated above. During the takeover, the commissioner has the power to initially appoint the superintendent and appoint the board of managers. During the takeover, the board of managers have the powers that the board of trustees normally have. During the transition back, the board is a mix of elected trustees and appointed managers. After the transition back, the people have the same power they had at the start, which is to elect the board of trustees.
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Yes, periodically. The commissioner must "decide" for the first time sometime in the first two years. If the decision is to continue, then the commissioner must "decide" again sometime within the next two years, and so on. It is not a fixed two year duration, it can be shorter but not longer than every two years. The decision the commissioner makes is to begin the process of returning control. Once that starts, control reverts over three years.
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Yes, it is generally outlined here: https://tea.texas.gov/texas-schools/school-boards/school-governance/bom-faqs.pdf-0 Basically, TEA appoints a Board of Managers to replace the elected Board of Trustees. The Managers have the power the Trustees normally have. The TEA is supposed to set an exit criteria to reverse the process. Texas law specifies the process for returning control to a Board of Trustees in Sec. 39A.208 of the Texas Education Code. The basic idea is that every two years the education commissioner decides if it is time to start the process of returning control. If it is time, then they replace one third of the board of managers every year until the board of managers is eventually replaced by the board of trustees. The board of trustees/managers has the power to hire the superintendent, who has the power to hire everyone else. They also set the budget. This is the "control" that the board has that leads to overall control of the district, via the budget and the superintendent.
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Vandergrift Marching Band’s truck takes the fast train to UIL
Texas Jeff replied to Celery Man's topic in Music
Got 'em right in the marimba. -
It used to be easy to rank Republicans by how much they sucked. Put Nixon first and Lincoln last. Everyone else goes in between. It's amazing to think that Dick Cheney has probably made it to page 2 of the list.
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The sticks in the road are not going to pay for themselves... You bought the sticks, now the sticks are getting pounded by daily traffic, eventually you will have to buy replacement sticks.
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