My understanding is that patents are to protect novel new ideas. If something’s already bean described in fiction, what innovation is protected by the patent?
So, I’d think “it’s a tablet” wouldn’t be patentable because that was described in Star Trek. But, "screen technology blah that makes tablets practical "would be patentable.
Venlafaxine did help. The first time I was on it, I remember walking down the sidewalk and just doing of double-take of “oh, this feeling. I think I’m happy. This is what ‘happy’ feels like. Weird.”
I haven’t had anything so flagrant this time (and the flavor of stress I’m under is different), but I think it helps with my anxiety.
I’m on 37.5mg Venlafaxine for the second time–tried Zoloft for a bit in between. What’s wicked weird is that the first time I was on Venlafaxine I got brain zaps from missing a dose. This time I don’t and I kind of miss the built-in kick in the pants to take my meds.
When I got off Venlafaxine XR the first time, I weaned myself off very slowly. At first, I counted down the tiny pellets in the capsules, then I got a medication scale. I was able to avoid brain zaps.
If the voting experience is sufficiently onerous, people will still not vote and pay the penalty (or go to jail). Then it’ll be just another tax/burdon on people in disadvantaged areas.
Looks like Western Australia charges $50 for repeated failure to vote. $50 Australian ($31 USD) to not take off work to stand in line for 3 hours getting sunburnt? That’s less than minimum wage in my state. It would make financial sense to just go to work and pay the penalty, ignoring the less tangible potential long-term benefit of effecting change in favor of paying rent.
I can’t help but feel this is an optimistic view. There’s plenty of things everyone has to do in America that are still much more convenient or differently funded in rich or white areas. For example, going to school or getting government ID.
I don’t believe ignorance or lack of familiarity is the root of all racism, or even most, just a factor in some of it.
I grew up in a practically all-white school system because I grew up in a practically all-white rural county. I had to unlearn a lot of things when I move to New England. A lot of people never leave their comfort zone.
I believe exposing kids to people from varied backgrounds helps them not grow up to be bigoted. I don’t believe it’s fair to expect minority kids to represent their minority–I had a small taste of that growing up with an unusual last name and accent in my town. I don’t know how to reconcile those two beliefs.
I firmly believe that lack of exposure to people of different cultures or races leads people to be racist and not necessarily realize it. If you’re never around X, how can you know you have an inappropriate reaction to X?
To illustrate this, I didn’t know about my escalator phobia until I moved away for college. I entered the mall, saw these moving stair-things, and felt a deep fear in the pit of my stomach. I hadn’t seen an escalator since I was a toddler and, if you’d asked me on high school, I’d have denied having a phobia.
(I’ve successfully worked on my phobia over the last decade, showing that changing inappropriate reactions is possible)
I read an article about it recently. If a student asks to be called by a name other than the one they were registered with (for example, Benjamin asks to be called Ben or William asks to be called Sir Buttface) the school is supposed to inform the parents and get approval. A “side” effect of this is outing trans kids to their parents.