CARS AND HOW TO LIVE WITH THEM
1) Three ways to parallel park:
a ) check YouTube for instructions (only if you want serious help) b ) if there is a small parking space on the other side of the road demo (requires practice and
a Mini Cooper car)
c ) buy a car with self parking feature. The Lexus LS 460 in 2006 had the ability to parallel
park itself. Ford, Lexus, Lincoln, Mercury and Toyota now offer this feature.
2) Go all the way and save up to buy a self-driving Prius car
- self-driving car traveled more than 300,000 miles without a mishap (except for a
parking-lot fender-bender when a human was driving it.
- one of its driverless cars drove a legally blind man to a Taco Bell
- Google plans to have self-driving cars deliver goods from shipper to home 24 hours a day
At present the biggest problem is with the laws which require a driver to be in the car.
Nevada, Florida and California have legalized driver-less cars
3) Electric cars - the looks of the future:
This link connects to literally hundreds of pics of electric cars worldwide with "cursor over" for thumbnail info on each.
Toyota is testing smart cars talk to each other and to the road. Maybe in 10 years ?
SUN MEDIA NEWS
Quebecor is cutting 500 jobs at Sun Media. Not everyone (including me) sees this as a bad thing. See my earlier post, "do-we-really-want-fake-news-in-canada", in which I discuss politicians and others deliberately telling known lies in public and not being challenged in any meaningful way on them.
The USA election provided a rich source of the use of lies and their acceptance. Dave Johnson posted on July 19, 2012: "Regardless which candidate wins the US presidential election on Tuesday, neither of them has been honest to the American people about the scale of the problems facing the country. But Americans have only themselves to blame".
Neil Newhouse, a pollster for Romney, has even said, "We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers."
GOOD NEWS FROM THE USA ELECTION
1 ) Florida did eventually close its polls (and took another 40 hours to count them). It could have been worse.2) Several "propositions" showed the power and will of the people.
.- Marijuana – Washington State,
Colorado, and Oregon will all vote on whether to legalize the drug for - Marijuana – Washington State, Colorado, and
Oregon will all vote on whether to legalize the drug for recreational use and
tax it. Washington looks likeliest to become the first US state to do so.
-
Same-sex marriage - Ballots are
taking place on the issue in Maryland, Washington, Maine and Minnesota
- Right to die –
Massachusetts will vote on whether to allow terminally ill patients with less
than six months to live to request drugs to end their lives.
- GM
Foods – California is voting on whether to require mandatory labeling on
genetically modified foods sold in the state recreational use and tax it.
Washington looks likeliest to become the first US state
to do so.
3) Robocalls advising voters they could vote the day AFTER the last date were discovered and offset quickly. Maybe these activities will become ineffective as more people are willing to use social media to advise large groups of the population when they occur.
Canadarm celebrated in Google Doodle
