(Part 3) Top products from r/jacksonville

whew, what a long read! 2,800+ words. in this day and age of tweeting and snapchat, that's like a book! something caught my attention though,

> Dennis told WJCT he was slowly and carefully working toward a resolution. “If I’m going to go out there and be an advocate and help change the culture, I want to go with facts. I don’t want to go with emotions or perceptions, but facts,” he said.

> Eventually, Dennis filed a bill that he said is meant to incentivize independent city authorities like JEA to hire more non-white employees. Currently, just under 17 percent of JEA’s workforce is African-American, while the census puts the black population in Jacksonville above 30 percent.

> Dennis said the intent of his proposal is to “embarrass” companies into hiring more people of color by forcing them to present their demographic reports to the City Council every year around budget time. The measure doesn’t mention penalties or punishment for not meeting diversity goals.

if i had one question for Councilman Dennis i'd ask, what factual evidence do you have that the number of blacks who desire to work for JEA--not just those who are merely seeking employment, anywhere, but those truly would desiring to work for a local utility--represents approximately 30% of the JEA's workforce needs?

if i had two questions, my follow up would be, since the opposite side of the coin of underrepresentation is overrepresentation, how would you handle overrepresentation in other companies?

the subtitle from linguist John McWhorter's, even longer but more substantive, article titled, What’s Holding Blacks Back? is profound: It’s black attitudes, not white racism, that’s to blame. it's a great read and i encourage others to spend the time reading it, or any of McWhorter's thoughts on race. in this article, and his book Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America (another great read i highly recommend), he states three elements hold blacks back in this modern age: victimology, separatism, and anti-intellectualism. i'd argue concerns of underrepresentation and the need for diversity fall square between victimology and separatism. i'd further argue Councilman Dennis, despite likely good intentions, exacerbates the problem with proposals to embarrass companies into hiring the "right" mixture of people. economists Thomas Sowell and Walter Williams provide great insight into the negative impact of representation for diversity's sake--high failure rates. diversity quotas at JEA won't necessarily result in failures; however, it most certainly won't match people with the position most appropriate for them.

that said, any racially discriminative practices found within JEA certainly requires attention, but nothing less and most certainly nothing more.

The switch will be connected directly to the pi's GPIO, which will control a relay. The electrical wiring in the walls will be connected to that relay which is connected to the light. I'll be using a 2 channel relay, something similar to the link below. There are also 8 channel relays, so you can control 8 devices with only 1 Pi. I plan on using an 8 channel relay for a Pi controlled thermostat. Also, prices are much cheaper on eBay if you're willing to wait a few weeks for shipping.
http://www.amazon.com/SainSmart-2-CH-2-Channel-Relay-Module/dp/B0057OC6D8

But yes that would also work if you want to wirelessly control the relay, you just have to be connected to your WiFi.