Category Archives: General

Autonomous Autos…again

If you’ve followed my ramblings you know that I’m incredibly fascinated with the concept of the self-driving car.  Any stray article that comes my way about this potentially revolutionary new field (once its implemented) and its impact on our society has my attention.

What’s most fascinating is the fact that there are so many factors to consider when/if such a technology becomes the norm, something I suspect will happen soon rather than later.

For example, how will such a technology affect the economy?  Will we need to buy vehicles for ourselves if we can simply “order” a driverless car to come pick us up with our smartphone and have it take us wherever we need?  Will driverless cars lead to significantly less traffic and accidents and deaths (I suspect yes).

But there is one thing I hadn’t considered until now: Will safer driverless vehicles be allowed to run at greater and greater speeds and will this, in turn, allow us to live farther and farther away from our worksites?  If that’s the case, how will that affect the environment?

Joseph Coughlin and Luke Yoquinto offer a fascinating article regarding just this issue for Slate magazine.  I highly recommend those interested in this emerging technology give it a read.  Just click on the link below:

The Long Road Home

The Politics of Personal Destruction…

So there’s this guy named Luis Lang who hails from South Carolina and is one of those staunch Republicans who absolutely hates “Obamacare” and all it entails.  Thing is, he’s going blind now and…well, this is the upshot:

(he) declined to sign up for Obamacare because he “prided himself on paying his own medical bills,” and is now upset that the Affordable Care Act won’t bail him out.

To read the full story, check out the link below:

http://gawker.com/man-who-would-rather-go-blind-than-get-obamacare-now-go-1704019495

Politics are like sports.  You have your “team” that you root for and you hope the other team will fail…after all, they’re the “enemy” and therefore everything they do has to be wrong, amIright?

I rarely discuss politics in this blog because, frankly, I don’t want to expend the energy on something that might cause wheels to turn ’round and ’round without any resolution.

However, news like this make me both incredibly sad as well as incredibly angry.  For years I’ve been alarmed by conservative, hard right talk radio as well as the rise of Fox News.  Spreading the attitude that somehow conservative thought is the only “legitimate” philosophy and everything else is dead wrong and unacceptable is to me, well, unacceptable.

I’ve had a rather unique life in the sense that I was born and traveled in my very early years between two Cold War era Communist countries, then lived in a European style socialist country, then what I like to describe as a “right wing wet dream” capitalist country, before finally settling in the United States, a country I would describe as straddling the line, at least in recent years, between socialist and capitalist ideals.

Brother, I’ve seen -and experienced- ’em all.

And I’ve come to realize that if people keep preaching pure negativity about something, especially something like Obamacare that just might be helpful to them, you’re going to get many more Luis Langs…people who could benefit from a service if they could only get past their pre-programmed and illogical dislike of it.

Will Mr. Lang realize this at any point?

I wonder.

Self-Driving car accidents…?

So yesterday the news featured stories about four crashes since September in California involving “self-driving” cars.  Much was made of this.

Some was to be expected:  From some quarters alarm that self-driving cars aren’t (gasp!) perfect.  That they could get into accidents at all.  How in the world was that possible?!

To which I have to say: Really?

The self-driving vehicles aren’t in full production yet.  They’re still being tested, for crying out loud.  In California, there are fewer than 50 such cars on the streets and until now they’re under the supervision of either Google or Delphi or whomever is testing them.  Oh, and this testing has been going on longer than last September as the early trials were done in closed circuit courses before the programmers were confident enough in their product to release them under supervision to the streets.

Given the fact these companies are still testing these vehicles, and the further fact that they’re driving on streets populated with real-life drivers, it would have been more surprising to me that the self-driving cars hadn’t had so much as a scratch in all the time then the fact that there have been only four collisions.

That’s not to say, though, that Google and Delphi shouldn’t be more transparent regarding whatever accidents their cars get into.  Of the four such fender benders, the companies claim they were all caused by the other driver/car, and that in only two of the four cases were the vehicles in their autonomous mode.  Further, they state that the accidents happened at very low speeds and were very, very minor in nature.  So no Terminator-level autonomous vehicle carnage to report, thank the Gods.  Having said that, we have to take the company reports at face value as the actual accident information remains out of public reach.

Will Oremus for Slate.com provides an interesting and more detailed article regarding these four collisions and comes to many of the same conclusions I did above.  If you’re as interested in self-driving cars as I am, I highly recommend you read it.  You can find the article here:

Self-Driving Cars Have Been Getting Into Accidents.  Is That A Problem?

If you’ve read my posts in any detail you know that I’m a big proponent of automated cars.  I believe they are the future of transportation but I’m not foolish enough to believe they’ll arrive in some kind of otherworldly immaculate form, both accident and trouble free.

There will be (ahem) bumps along the road.  There may even be injuries to passengers or, tragically, even fatalities.  But every new transportation technology has had to contend with such issues and automobiles today, driven by flesh and blood humans, still get into many accidents on a daily basis and, yes, some do result in death.

Despite all this, I believe the future is bright for self-driving car and expect that in my lifetime I’ll see its full implementation and use on the roads and highways.  I would go so far as to predict that when that happens, we’ll see a precipitous drop in accidents in general and an almost overnight elimination of traffic woes.

We’ll see.

What was the Venus de Milo doing with her lost arms…?

For those who are not familiar with the classic Venus de Milo statue (shame on you!), a refresher:

As you can see, the statue (famously) does not have its arms, having lost them in antiquity before her discovery in more modern times.

Shamefully, it never occurred to me to think what the arms were doing in the original statue, but my incuriosity happily did not fall on others who have offered theories as to what the pre-busted statue might have looked like.

Virginia Postrel offers an absolutely fascinating article for Slate.com and an equally fascinating video showing one possibility, that the statue originally had the Venus spinning thread.  Check the article out here.

If you’re too lazy to do so, here’s the 3D presentation regarding what the complete statue might have looked like.  This can be found in the above article.  Of course, this is all speculation, but it just might be close to the truth:

Venus de Milo Spinning Thread by CosmoWenman on Sketchfab

Oh dear…

Sometimes I despair for the human race:  A woman was sentenced up to seven years in jail for opening fire on a McDonalds after she was twice given cheeseburgers without bacon:

http://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/woman-gets-up-to-seven-years-jail-for-opening-fire-at-a-mcdonalds-store-after-her-cheeseburger-was-missing-bacon/story-fnh81jut-1227316430519

I mean, come on, you don’t open fire until at least the third time the staff fails to serve you the bacon on your cheeseburger, amiright?!

For the humorous challenged: JUST KIDDING!

Getting serious now, this story just goes to show the things that are so very wrong with our current state.  The first and most significant thing is that within the United States guns are waaaay too plentiful and by the law of averages such lethal tools can’t help but eventually falling into the hands of people that really, really shouldn’t have them.

The second thing is the idea of entitlement.  This woman orders food from a McDonalds, hardly a five star dining experience, and because she isn’t given bacon in her cheeseburger she complains (which is well within her rights) and is offered a free replacement cheeseburger.

Things turn from bad to worse (I could have said things turned ballistic but I wouldn’t hit you with such a terrible pun, or would I?) when the free replacement cheeseburger also didn’t have bacon in it.  That’s when our unhappy camper goes from upset to deranged.

I’ve been to plenty of McDonalds in my lifetime and there have been many, many occasions where they’ve screwed up my order.  At times I’ve complained and at other times I didn’t realize the order screw up until I was long gone and unable to get it corrected.

But if I were in this woman’s shoes, when I received that second bacon-less cheeseburger, I would have probably shrugged my shoulders, shaken my head in disgust, and simply walked away while making a mental note of never going to this particular McDonalds again.

I mean, there are only so many fights -and fights of far greater importance- worth fighting in one’s lifetime, right?

So this clearly frustrated woman goes way overboard and grabs her firearm and shoots a bullet into the McDonalds.

What exactly did she think that would accomplish?  Seriously, will doing that somehow get the bacon on her (pardon my language) fucking cheeseburger?

What if someone in the store had been killed, all because of (again pardon my language) a missing slice of fucking bacon?!

So now she’s been convicted and faces up to seven years in jail.

Seems like a bargain.

Opening day glitches…

Fascinating article listing all the problems Disneyland had on opening day, July 17, 1955:

http://www.frontierlandstation.com/2013/04/10/disneyland-opening-day-what-you-didnt-know/

Wow.  Just…wow.

I recall going to Epcot very early on after its formal opening.  My memory isn’t exact but I believe it was within a month or two after the actual opening, and I found the whole thing so underwhelming.  In part, and again, if my memory serves me (it can be off here), I recall there many rides that were either closed or not opened yet.  The whole thing seemed to me like it opened too early.

It annoyed me, along with all those corporate sponsorships of each ride.  But nothing like all the problems listed above!

Ah well, just goes to show, when you open/run a business things aren’t always going to operate super-smoothly.  The trick is in addressing/fixing your problems as quickly as you can to make the experience better.

As they say, thank you Captain Obvious!

About that ESPN reporter berating the Tow Truck Company clerk…

It’s been in the news for a couple of days now, the vicious, insulting statements ESPN reporter Britt McHenry made against a tow truck company clerk when she went to retreive her towed vehicle…

Ouch.  Amiright?.

Seems the entire internet has turned on Ms. McHenry, offering some choice words regarding her behavior and comments.

So, you think I’m going to pile on?

Nope.

In fact, while I cannot condone her words, I feel sympathy toward her and her situation.  Further, based on my own experiences with tow truck companies, I can completely understand why she blew her top.

You see, when I”m not writing I work in a high density area where tow trucks are an ever present constant.  As a business owner, you have a love/hate relationship with these companies.  On the one hand, you appreciate what they do.  On our property, there have been innumerable times when cars have illegally parked in our parking area.  Sometimes the offending parkers don’t realize this area is our space and when you point it out to them, they’re quick to move their vehicle and offer apologies.

Sometimes, however, they know very well what they’re doing and/or are rude to you when you point out their illegal parking and ask them to leave.

Sometimes, the very worst of times, someone illegally parks in our lot and we don’t realize this until we find that one of our legitimate vehicles is blocked in.  If the legitimate vehicle’s owner has an urgent meeting or needs to get out quickly, the illegally parked vehicle -and nowhere to be found owner- can create a big problem for us.

In cases like these, I’m pleased I have the option of calling a tow truck to remove the illegally parked vehicle and free the blocked-in vehicle.

But though I appreciate the tow truck services in this case, I’ve seen enough cases and read enough stories -some reaching the local news- of predatory towing to make me very uncomfortable with their business.

I don’t know all the details of Ms. McHenry’s towing situation.  I don’t know the hows or whys of her vehicle getting towed.

But I can completely understand -if not condone- her anger.

A sign of the times…

Perhaps one of the best known/watched TV shows today is HBO’s Game of Thrones.  This past weekend, as they are wont to do, HBO offered a “free” weekend of viewing for those who don’t have the cable station as a way to give them the premiere of this season’s Game of Thrones (it aired Sunday).  Of course, the free “taste” of the fifth season of this show is intended to get people to, hopefully, subscribe to HBO.

But even before that first episode aired came news that the first FIVE episodes of the fifth season had already leaked and were available to be downloaded at various pirate websites:

http://gizmodo.com/nearly-half-of-game-of-thrones-season-5-just-leaked-1697305966

As I said in the heading, this is unfortunately very much a sign of the times.  If you have anything that is popular and desirable, be it music, movies, books, and, yes, TV shows, chances are good you’ll find pirate copies of them available online.

And that’s too bad.

While shows like Game of Thrones no doubt earn their investment dollars many times over, the fact is that not all works of art and their creators/investors are as fortunate.  Piracy, even in small amounts, hurts the bottom line.  While there may be those who illegally download something and later on legally pay for the same product, there will always be some percentage of these people who get material illegally and for free and do not bother to pursue it any other way.

One of the great concerns I have today is that artistic creations have become dangerously devalued.  There are great and powerful industries out there that create wonderful machines that allow you to see and experience artistic works (smartphones, computers, tablets, etc.) and as consumers we’re willing to pay sometimes big money to have the latest of these items…yet the things the machines allow us to see/hear -from music to movies to books- are for the most part unprotected.

You have the latest iPhone or iPad or Samsung or HP computer, etc. etc. and with them you can go to assorted websites and illegally download a movie/music/book/etc. you want to see.  Sometimes, this movie/song/book hasn’t yet been formally released!

The end result, I fear, is that the ease with which people can get these items creates a sense the act of creating them didn’t involve much actual work.  I’ve noted before the weird (to me) idea that authors “shit out” their books in their free time while and during the rest of the hours in the day pursue a life of fun and leisure.  This concept has been exacerbated by TV shows such as Murder She Wrote and, more recently, Castle.

I fear this idea is permeating other creative fields.  Coming up with a song/album?  Come on, how hard can that be?  Drawing a 22 page comic book?  Shouldn’t take more than a day, right?  Writing a story?  Can’t take much more to create it than it does to read it.

Even worse, there are those who know creating such works takes time and effort and they just don’t care.

If I work somewhere -from a Wall Street office to a McDonalds- eight hours a day for two weeks, at the end of this time I expect to get a check for my work.  With artistic creations, you may do the very same time and work just as hard and for just as long…and your hard work can then be taken from you, posted online, and whatever monies you might have made are now subject to that loss.

I’m not saying anything anyone out there shouldn’t know already.

Piracy is, at least as of now, a sad reality of life.  Perhaps in time there will be a way to more securely protect your artistic works so that they don’t end up pirated online.

Or perhaps there will never be a way of doing this.

Regardless, the irony is that the people who will ultimately be hurt by this are the consumers.  The Beatles took years to practice their trade and be properly paid for their work until they were able to create some truly memorable songs and albums.

Somewhere out there might be a band that, with time, might have become just as good as them, but they make no money from their music because it simply doesn’t sell as much as it is pirated.  Unlike John, Paul, George, and Ringo, the members of this band eventually have to break apart…they simply cannot sustain themselves.

And we, the public, will never get to hear what this band might have made.

Or see what this director could have created.

Or this writer.

Or this artist.

Your daily dose of anxiety…

Today, let’s worry about the rise of Artificial Intelligence machines, and the fact that so many scientists and figures involved in high level technology have expressed concern regarding the imminent appearance of said machines:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-barrat/hawking-gates-artificial-intelligence_b_7008706.html

For those who have read all five (so far) of my Corrosive Knights novels, the concept of Artificial Intelligence, along with a few others, are a central concern.  I have wondered about the possible appearance of a self-sustained AI and, like many in the article, worry what will happen once such a creature appears.  Will it view humans as an obstacle?  I can’t help but think it will.  And depending on how much power it controls, the effects could be devastating.

It is certainly something to think about…yet another worry to ease you into your day.

Welcome to the future…part deus

After the scary news of hackers shutting down a major French TV network, here’s some good technology news: It would appear the clean energy “revolution” is ahead of schedule:

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-04-08/clean-energy-revolution-is-way-ahead-of-schedule

How interesting that as we reach what seems to be a tipping point regarding global warming/pollution, we’re moving pretty quickly into the area of far cleaner renewable energy.

To this, all I have to say is I couldn’t be happier.  If there is an alternative cleaner energy source out there to use, why would anyone want to continue using the older, dirtier methods?  Why would anyone want to live in a world increasingly filled with polluted skies, land, and water?

Here’s hoping at least this part of the future is bright.