Alex Cox, your iPhone Duo review.

The thing that...

Let's just say I was binging reviews this morning.

I kept seeing, like, you know, everyone's like, there are weird software things, and yeah, of course, obviously.

But also, this form factor, I've been thinking about since September.

Because, sure, yeah, woo, new phone form factor, but it is a new handheld form factor.

Because while we've had folding phones forever, this is a different...

I think that's important.

So this all could have been moot because it sounds like there was a deal that was in place.

Yeah.

I don't know necessarily if moot is the right word, but I think some people – I think more or less it's – i don't know if moot is the right word but i think it's a fair word to use here um i don't know any details of this deal um i have not been able to uncover that in my reporting and um the council members i've spoke to um have said they have not heard specifics of the deal um we'll kind of speak about that a little bit more later but after the parish attorney um decided to file to intervene in this lawsuit to you know help settle the state Edwards essentially came out and released a press release, essentially distancing himself as far as he could from the decision and even announcing this nebulous kind of deal.

And the wording wasn't even necessarily specific, that there is ink drying on the final language of a deal.

The precise...

He just portrayed it as, you know, they were very, very close to the finish line.

And then this just completely wipes it out because now both sides are in litigation.

day So to put this in a larger context, how does this all fit into East Baton Rouge politics as a whole?

Alex, what about you?

I was really not necessarily down on the idea of self hosting stuff.

It's more of I'm like, I love this in theory.

In practice, I have not been able to get it to work.

And I'm a nerd.

And I don't know how I'm going to convince other people to do it.

And in the past couple of years, especially with a Synology and a specific example of software I use is Audio Bookshelf, which is a way to self-host your audio books in your own library so that you don't need to use...

said no and so if i had purchased it then i would need your absolution um but yeah i there's not tech right now that i feel guilty about having purchased um because as i mentioned i've really kind of stopped buying tech for a little while i'm in my protest era right now Alex, what about you?

Alex, what about you?

I was really not necessarily down on the idea of self hosting stuff.

It's more of I'm like, I love this in theory.

In practice, I have not been able to get it to work.

And I'm a nerd.

And I don't know how I'm going to convince other people to do it.

And in the past couple of years, especially with a Synology and a specific example of software I use is Audio Bookshelf, which is a way to self-host your audio books in your own library so that you don't need to use...

said no and so if i had purchased it then i would need your absolution um but yeah i there's not tech right now that i feel guilty about having purchased um because as i mentioned i've really kind of stopped buying tech for a little while i'm in my protest era right now Alex, what about you?

take us to the debate around the library? How are people arguing against funding it?

Yeah, so essentially the debate is focused on the use of tax dollars here, just kind of like any time you see a tax on the ballot.

So first things first, I need to reiterate that is a dedicated millage.

And so essentially that means the funds can only be used for the library, nothing else.

And, you know, looking at Thrive, people really bucked at trying to reallocate that.

What they're kind of talking about, people are essentially saying a millage rate of 9.5 is a lot of money and it's pushing against people's tax limit.

And so, you know, they'll point to things like the district attorney, the public defender roads and say, we could be spending money elsewhere, but we need to start shaving off to increase people's appetite for new taxes, right? Even the city of St.

Can you go more into that?

Uh, would you choose one of these over a smartwatch or a ring or other tracking device? Uh, and why or why not, if you wouldn't? Alex?

I would if this were, I suppose, a decade or, or, or two decades ago, when Fitbit was its own company, and, uh, you could easily export and delete all of your data.

And I just no longer trust most of the companies that are, you know, collecting this data, and i- is this data useful? And so far, the answer has been no when I've used the Oura.

In the future, if these companies, like with the Apple Watch or Apple Health, like you could connect it to different service providers and, uh, healthcare, uh, like, like my doctor or w- or Quest, like, you know, blood test companies that I have some, like, modicum of trust in and can, uh, or are, you know, supposedly follow- following certain HIPAA laws.

But I, at this point, it's, it's both, like, an, "Ooh, I don't know how much I want them to know about my hormone levels," and also I don't know if it'd be more beneficial than an Apple Watch.

A- and that being said, though, if Apple were to put something out that had all of the features of Apple Health and was just gathering that data and sending that off to my healthcare provider, I would very much be into that.

A- as well as any sort of weird open source option that wouldn't work in, like, two years, I would still try that.

All right, Amanda, your turn.

Uh, would you choose one of these over a smartwatch or a ring or other tracking device? Uh, and why or why not, if you wouldn't? Alex?

I would if this were, uh, I suppose, a decade or, or, or two decades ago, when Fitbit was its own company, and, uh, you could easily export and delete all of your data.

And I just no longer trust most of the companies that are, you know, collecting this data.

And i- is this data useful? And so far, the answer has been no when I've used the Oura.

In the future, if these companies, like with the Apple Watch or Apple Health, like you could connect it to different service providers and, uh, healthcare, uh, like, like my doctor or w- or Quest, like, you know, blood test companies that I have some, like, modicum of trust in and can, uh, or are, you know, supposedly foll- following certain HIPAA laws.

But I, at this point it's, it's both, like, an ooh, I don't know how much I want them to know about my hormone levels, and also I don't know if it'd be more beneficial than an Apple Watch.

A- and that being said, though, if Apple were to put something out that had all of the features of Apple Health and was just gathering that data and sending that off to my healthcare provider, I would very much be into that.

[laughs]

Why is that?

The answer is essentially the crisis has been solved.

And so the way I like to explain it is essentially if you look back at Thrive, that was one potential solution.

We were in election season, and a part of it is a lot of the mayor's office team is new to government, and so they'd only been in office for a short period of time, so they just came up with a solution to the problem.

And then they went, went on to their second solution, which was kind of taking in conservative fiscal policy.

Mayor-President Sid Edwards said, you know, "I'm glad.

I think Thrive failing is one of the best things that happened to me." Because if we think about it this way, local politics doesn't necessarily like to brand people by their party, but I think it is informative here, is because, you know, they handled it as conservatives.

How does she play into this?

Can you illustrate those arguments for us?

Yeah, so I'm going to use the words of one of my sources.

Her name is Caitlin Joshua.

She is a member of the PAC Pulse 225.

They are against the creation of St. George.

And she is a mother.

You know, she just told me that when this started, her teachers went out and picketed because there were too many black kids in her class, in their class.

So what will the impact be on the existing East Baton Rouge school district if this passes?