#semi autonomous driving

[saydams]

video from wall street journal titled: the hidden autopilot data that reveals why teslas crash.

it's 11 min long, and has some great demonstrations of how the camera-based autopilot fails to recognize road hazards.

[danshive]

Semi-autonomous "autopilot" cars are dangerous in part due to how human minds work 🚗

We can't have the car driving itself the majority of the time, and expect whoever's in the driver's seat to be ready in the event of a sudden emergency. That isn't how our minds or reflexes work.

Humans are excellent with tools because we treat them as extensions of ourselves. That sounds horribly cliché, but it's accurate. We gain muscle memory specifically for using tools we're practiced with, and they function as though parts of ourselves.

Cars cease to be extensions of ourselves if we take our hands off the wheel, which you're supposed to do if the car is driving itself. We become passengers.

EDIT - I've been told you ARE supposed to keep your hands on the wheel. I maintain it's still no longer an extension of you because you're not actively steering, but this should nonetheless be corrected.

As passengers, if our intervention is necessary to prevent a sudden crash, we're doing so with reduced odds of success. We have to realize what's happening, take the wheel, shift from passenger to driver, and act accordingly in a very brief window of time.

It's a bit like if you've ever been minding your own business, and suddenly heard "think fast" as something was thrown at you by someone you didn't know was there, and you were holding something at the time.

If a car can't safely pull off fully-autonomous, semi-autonomous isn't a compromise. It's accidents waiting to happen.

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

Afeela Prototype, 2023. Sony and Honda have revealed the latest version of the electric saloon they are jointly developing at the CES. It is due to enter production in 2025 and will offer Level 3 semi-autonomous driving system thanks to 45 external cameras and sensors. Few details have been revealed beyond having all wheel drive, which suggests at least a dual motor set-up.

[wigoutlet]

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[seat-safety-switch]

Usually, when someone tells you that you can make money from home, it's a scam. The bourgeois monsters who control our society demand that we attend to a physical place of work. Even when you're "working from home," it usually only serves to make your house feel like an office. That's no fun at all, so I decided to liberate the human spirit by developing TheftBot.

TheftBot is, simply put, a fully sentient robot for stealing automatic teller machines (ATMs) from nearby convenience stores. Those ATMs, in case you are unfamiliar, are stuffed with cash – the bank's cash – and that money can be spent on goods and services, like semi-slick racing tires or turbochargers.

He's built on an old Kubota forklift frame, with a nitrous-stuffed 500-cubic-inch Cadillac V8 loosely bolted onto it. That provides tons of power to outrun the police and even the most eager private security forces. Importantly, he's fully remote-controllable, which means I both don't have to be in the cabin, and have plausible deniability if his "self-driving algorithm" goes a little kooky-koo and slams through the front of a QuickStop, emerging seconds later with a Diebold-Nixdorf containing approximately nine hundred dollars on average. The autonomous car laws are very loose in my neck of the woods, you see.

Sure, there's a lot of downsides to this kind of hustle culture. The biggest part is all the guilt: ATM theft used to be a heroic, working-class job that paid well. Now I've automated it, a bourgeois action that makes me no different from the banks. I think that buying a few more turbochargers could make me feel a little better about it, though.

[metamatar]

i appreciate ur semi pedantic additions!! i almost always learn things from them. i am autistic though so pedantry rarely bothers me, but!! i do still really appreciate your additions wrt fruit picking, the state of open insulin, etc, and i think they're important to add and you phrase those additions in ways that don't undermine the arguments of the original posts which is a rare skill!!

im cursed with can't let people be wrong on the internet in front of me.

i've mentioned this before but i find the relationship many people have with technology both fascinating and frustrating. tech is simultaneously capable of all the miracles in the ad copy but also all those miracles were actually very easy. there's very little sense of the relative extent to which problems are easy or hard, what counts as a breakthrough and whether those breakthroughs are even generalisable to other problems.

i dont think these really require expert knowledge – say autonomous driving – if you have played with the camera in your phone and then break down all the decisions a driver makes while you drive has you'd immediately understand why that is much harder than an aircraft autopilot and why a camera only sensor suite is dangerous.

people often confuse the actual availability of bathtub-ish hrt with a hypothetical bathtub insulin. think about delivery – you can get birth control in so many forms, injectable, oral, patches. insulin still has to be injected! this is suggestive! looking at how synthetic ethinylestradiol (most common estrogen) is produced vs a biologic like insulin is produced immediately makes clear why these are different problems.

to be clear this relationship is one manufactured by breathless venture capital and the increasing enclosure of science and technological literacy behind paywalls. tech journalism is really bad and basically about access and selling products now.

[justforbooks]

Ratan Tata

Indian business tycoon who turned his family’s Tata Group into a global player, and invested heavily in British industry

Ratan Tata, who has died aged 86, was India’s most celebrated industrialist. He modernised the unwieldy business empire founded by his great grandfather in the 19th century and internationalised it. In the process he spread his interests into western countries, with mixed results.

For the UK, that included the £271m purchase of the Tetley Group in 2000, followed more controversially by the acquisition of the steel company Corus for £6.2bn in 2007. Then, in 2008, Tata, himself a car enthusiast, added the troubled Jaguar Land Rover motor business for a further £1.75bn.

He joined the family firm, Tata Steel, in 1962. Educated in the US, and newly qualified as an architect, the young Tata had, he said, no intention of returning to India. But family ties won out. When his ailing grandmother, Navajbai, who had raised him, asked him to return he did so. He was soon promoted, building his reputation with tough reorganisation, followed by more troubleshooting at the electronics and textile companies.

In 1981, he was made chairman of Tata Industries, and found himself confronting an assortment of separate businesses, with different ownership patterns over which there was little formal control. He made a blueprint for reorganisation, having spent time at the Harvard Business School, but it was rejected after opposition from semi-autonomous bosses.

However, in 1991, the 81-year-old patriarch of the group, JRD Tata, chose him as his successor as the overall chairman. Asked why, he replied: “He has a modern mind.”

Tata soon demonstrated it with a tough programme of reshaping that, against continuing opposition, brought closures, job reductions, and the departure of the heads of the steel, hotel and chemical businesses.

He began to focus more on brands and less on heavy industry, and he benefited from the deregulation of Indian industry championed by Rajiv Gandhi. As part of it, he took the company more heavily into the motor industry. Tata lorries already dominated Indian highways, but now he moved into the car business in line with his own enthusiasms. While always seen as a man of modest habits, he had his own lovingly maintained collection of high-powered and classic cars, and delighted in driving them along Mumbai’s Marine Drive most Sundays.

Tata produced what was called “the first Indian car”, designed by and for Indians, in 1998. Ratan did some of the first drawings himself. The Tata Indica was a success. But when he went further a decade later, and the company conceived the Nano, a tiny saloon described as the world’s most affordable car at a price of about £2,000, the project failed. Such a cheap car was not enticing even to those “on two wheels” whom he hoped to attract.

In 1999 Tata had travelled to Detroit to discuss the sale of the motor business to Ford, only to be asked why his firm had gone into the passenger car business when it clearly knew nothing about it. Later he would turn the tables, buying underperforming Jaguar Land Rover from Ford and reviving it.

With sell-offs and cutbacks, Tata reorganised the group into 98 operating companies from more than 250, reducing the labour force by more than a third. He forged alliances with foreign companies and went into information technology.

He stepped down in 2012, observing the compulsory retirement rule he had himself introduced, but was still regarded as “chairman emeritus” and was brought back unhappily for a few months when his successor was sacked four years later.

His most shocking day came in 2008, when terrorists took over the Tatas’ Taj Mahal hotel on the front at Mumbai with great loss of life. The company has continued to support staff affected and the families of those who died.

Ratan was born in Mumbai, into the large Parsi Tata family, whose wealth came from a scattered collection of businesses including textiles, hotels, engineering, steel and tea. His father, Naval, had been adopted by the son of the founder, Jamsetji Tata. After Naval and his wife, Soonoo, separated when Ratan was seven, the child was brought up with his younger brother, Jimmy, by his grandmother in a grand Tata mansion in central Mumbai.

Aged 17 he was sent to the US to attend Riverdale Country school in New York City, from where he entered Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He studied engineering before switching to architecture, graduating in 1959. He worked as an architect for a while in Los Angeles before returning to India, and Tata Steel.

In his 20 years at the helm, Tata’s sales grew by 22% annually and its international revenues rose from a quarter to 58% of the total, while Tata Consultancy Services became Asia’s largest software company.

His British investments have been among his less successful. Corus was bought for an over-the-top £6bn just before the global financial crash devastated the industry. Tata claimed it as “the first big step that Indian industry has taken as a global player”. It was later described by a senior Tata executive as “worthless”. The firm is currently negotiating terms of new investment at Port Talbot, which would be accompanied by hundreds of redundancies, while huge plants on Teesside and Scunthorpe have already been closed or sold for a nominal sum.

Jaguar Land Rover was initially a happier story. Tata’s major investment, including in research and development, made the company for a while the largest foreign investor in British industry. But eight years of profits have been followed by losses since 2018.

Surveying the British scene in 2011, Tata told the Times: “Nobody seems to want to exert the effort to make the UK truly competitive. It’s a work ethic issue. In my experience in both Corus and JLR, nobody is willing to go the extra mile.”

He was a major figure in the international business community, close to US politicians as well as the Indian government, advising the former prime ministers Gordon Brown and David Cameron, and sitting on the boards of multinational institutions.

He was also known as a major philanthropist. Many of the Tata companies were owned through trusts he chaired, and huge sums were provided for medical research and university projects both in India and abroad, particularly in the US, where a number of campuses have buildings bearing his name.

A softly spoken man, renowned for his courtesy, he never married, although he described himself as having come close four times. He was known for living modestly, although his recreations included flying his private jet and driving his collection of expensive cars, as well as a speedboat. He was noted for his love of dogs. The Tata headquarters in Mumbai had kennels and made provision for street dogs, and he was a donor to canine charities. In 2014 he was made GBE.

He is survived by Jimmy, by his stepmother, Simone, a half brother, Noel, and two half sisters, Shireen and Deanna.

🔔 Ratan Tata, businessman, born 28 December 1937; died 9 October 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[winterpinetrees]

Finally, Adult Supervision (The Gap Years part 21)

July 2nd

Shiprock, NM

For a single day, the story’s timeline aligns with real life! The party finds a somewhat trusted adult. Clay does not believe in respecting his elders, but he doesn't want to get murdered by an old elven man either.

.................

Marin is asleep again, his head resting against Zerada’s shoulder. Clay is on the other side, turning a little yellow-capped bottle in his hands and thinking about their chances. It’s been five hours since the elf was shot. His alien body is reacting about how a human world, the splint is holding together, and he doesn’t seem like he’s in too much pain. That’s really all of the good news they have. 

They’ve taken a winding path northeast, though not as winding as they would have taken a day before. It’s all about balancing the risk of capture against the reward of finding allies of Zerada’s family. Somehow they were tracked and found despite their best efforts yesterday, so Clay’s vote was on efficiency instead of stealth. She and Marin had explained that Genus Adust oversees a region of the elven world about parallel to the Colorado Plateau, and that her genus is large enough that it wouldn’t be a good look, or really feasible, to remove all of them. Instead, the new regime presumably killed the most elite nobility, imprisoned anyone with a claim to power, and left the rest to continue life as they always have.

Clay is suspicious of the idea that it wouldn’t be feasible to replace the entire genus. Coups are always sweeping actions, and while he isn’t as much of a historian as Brian, he knows that the semi-autonomous Navajo Nation they’ve just driven onto is proof that far more people can be moved and removed by a far less organized force. They really, truly, don’t have any other options though, so to yet another unincorporated settlement they will go. 

“Can you stop doing that?” Sierra says, making eye contact with him through the rearview mirror. She only has her right hand on the wheel. That’s partly because the road is empty and the car can drive itself, and partly because of the curse. He stops turning the bottle in his hands. It’s full of pills and makes a shifting noise when he turns it. Clay rarely fidgets. It’s a sign of weakness to not know what to do with your hands, though Marin does it quite a bit and he’s a prince. The cap of the bottle is marked with a circular design that reminds him of a less threatening biohazard sign but is apparently the elven symbol for medicine that sedates and reduces pain. The high nobility are so fragile that coffee is considered a drug, and these pills contain something a lot more powerful than caffeine. In the human world, the legal manufacture of narcotics is how the Shepard family maintains its fortune. Legal manufacture. He almost laughs at that. The law works for his father, not the other way around. Brian’s dad holding the governor’s seat for the past three years has only made things easier. 

Clay shoves the bottle into his pocket. Then the car is silent again. They’ve left the music off so Marin can sleep, even though the elf seems to be able to pass out anywhere, and it feels wrong to make polite conversation. The others have lost that optimism that Clay never had, and his first impulse is to think that they are all driving toward their deaths. The evidence doesn’t add up though. Except for the final shot that shattered Marin’s humerus, the soldiers were shooting to stun, not kill. The apex wants all of them alive. He remembers a young young man languishing in a laboratory cell, in an entire hallway of cells, in a building full of hallways. Zerada said that it couldn’t have been the only lab when he lifted his concussion rifle to try and damage a room full of samples. She’d pitied him.

Clay spent the rest of their time in Vegas rereading online sources and worrying about every ache in his exhausted body. Hell, the true symptoms of smallpox could take fifteen days to appear. It’s been nine. There are parts of this world that he loathes, but plague is an awful way for a society to die. Disease slips in through the cracks. It strikes the groups that Marin’s elven society (and human society too…) try to erase and lurks wherever the money isn’t. He left some people behind in San Francisco. The idea that they might face the worst of this conquest while he is presumed already dead and imprisoned in an alien realm, is enough to keep the gun in his hands even when all logic says to betray the nobles and surrender. 

Marin shifts beside him. Clay reaches out to stop him from rolling onto his broken arm.

“Are we there yet?” he asks, green magic glowing in his eyes. 

“We’re thirty miles from the Arizona border,” Clay replies. 

“Which is also the Colorado border, and the Utah border, but we’re going to New Mexico,” Sierra adds. 

“My mother hated that place,” Marin jokes. He stares out at the landscape behind Clay.  “It’s only been a few hours, hasn’t it?”

Clay can interpret the statement under that. My arm hurts and it hasn’t been long enough to do anything about it. 

“Do you want an ice pack? I sound like a school nurse, but I do have them”. 

He’s almost out of chemical variety, but bought a ten-pound bag of ice at a gas station an hour or two ago. The inside of Marin’s messenger bag is magically insulated, but now it is also a bit damp. 

So he wraps a plastic bag full of ice around Marin’s arm and tries to ignore how his smile, a strained one only given for Clay’s benefit, makes him feel. Brian is already acting like an idiot. He has a reputation to maintain as the sane one, and falling for the other half of a royal couple will not fix things.  He notices a faint glow under his dark skin as well, but Clay can’t tell if it’s his broken bones glowing or something else. 

“How are we supposed to know which of your allies are willing to hide you and which aren’t? It’s not like you have a signal our enemies don’t know about,” Brian asks. 

Zerada doesn’t seem worried. “Loyalties are literally in our blood. Anyone still flying Adust colors will be thrilled to see both of us free. Occasionally someone will drop out of the nobility and go farm…” She and Marin share a look,  “but there aren’t traitors”. 

Clay narrows his eyes at that. Hadn’t he heard them say that there was a noble elf (Deanna? No, that’s from Star Trek…) who did switch sides. And this whole scheme to take over the world seems like it’s breaking tradition. They can’t just go knocking on doors and begging for help, right? 

“Brian and I are going to go into town, and if we don’t come back in an hour, assume we have been captured. But that is not going to happen”. And that is the end of the debate. Brian doesn’t even argue about being the chosen escort/bodyguard/sacrifice. 

They continue to drive. It’s flat here. Really flat. The red color of the ground has faded like something bled the landscape dry, and the only landmarks are a few spines of earth and a single massive rock formation. Their maps call it Shiprock, but the thousand-foot-tall spike is small enough on the horizon that he can cover it with his thumb. Otherwise, the sky above them is an unbroken hemisphere of blue. Clay is a bug at the bottom of a glass.

Sierra has noticed the rock too. “Please tell me the elven settlement is on top of that big rock. That would be so epic”. 

Marin turns to her in confusion, then winces when he jostles his arm. “Why? Where would the water come from? And this place would be terrible for a stronghold”.

Brian moves to, presumably, ask about the details of elven warfare, but Sierra is faster. “Well, I’d love to live on the side of a cliff,”

“Your society is based on appearances and waste, that’s why,” Zerada snaps back. “The village is built on the plain, where the river runs in the elven world”. 

There is a river in the human world too. It’s about seven miles north and has likely dried to a trickle because of industry and climate change. 

Zerada directs where to park the car (the side of an unpaved road, against one of those ridges of rock that may not be natural) and steps out. Her tall boots kick up clouds of dust and Brian throws some of it over the car and its license plate. Then they’re gone, walking off into the distance where it’s difficult to tell what distortion was caused by heat waves and what was caused by illusions. Marin shifts out of the awkward middle seat to the left side. Sierra tentatively reaches out for the radio and switches it on.

One of the songs is more familiar than the others and for a moment he mistakes Marin for someone else. There is a boy back home with shorter locs and darker eyes, but Clay likes to think that he has the composure of a fantasy elf, and maybe that’s the reason for the mistake. He’s probably at work now. Clay almost laughs at that. He’s waiting for a princess to find survivors of a coup, and his ex is stocking inventory on the Pacific coast. He says something meaningless to the duo and does not let the car go quiet again until Brian returns. 

He does eventually return to the car. He’s pulled his baseball cap down over his face, but he’s smiling. 

“Zerada found someone. An old teacher of yours? Litayo?”

“Yes! He‘s one of Zerada’s relatives. Does he still have a fox? It would be a different fox by now”. Brian nods slowly. 

They step out of the car and run as quickly as they can towards a village that reveals itself suddenly from the plain. Marin is still capable of casting some magic, but not enough for the schemes they’re used to. Brian leads them between the short buildings. His memory for locations isn’t anywhere near as good as Clay’s, but it’s enough in this village.  The building is a short hexagon made of earth, with holes for airflow and a door that leads underground. He sweeps the curtain covering the entryway open and looks down. The stairs must be very steep because there are two reflective red eyes lower than where he would expect eye level to be. Then the eyes blink and a dust brown dog not much larger than a chihuahua rushes towards him. He bends down to one knee and catches the little thing in his arms. It has a pointed nose and floppy triangle ears. Is this a fox? Then his eyes have adjusted to the dimness and he looks further into the room. 

Zerada and the oldest elf they’ve seen sit at a table. He wears a simple tunic in Adust orange, and his gray hair has a few streaks that show it might have once been dark. Zerada looks out of place beside him with her jewelry and human clothing.

“This is Litayo,” she explains. “He’s one of my grandfather’s cousins”. Dead father. Dead mother. Presumably captured brother. He doesn’t know the language that the casualty list was written in, but if he did, how many of them would have had that same last name? 

The fox, if it can even be called a fox at this point because it just isn’t right to call a dog a wolf and this floppy-eared thing is clearly domesticated, tries to lick his face. The old elf stares down at him. The lines on his face are like the cracks in the desert ground. 

“So you made the splint for His Highness’s arm? It’s capable work”. 

His Highness. Clay had almost forgotten that Marin was a prince. He’s… well he looks eighteen. He’s wearing a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off. He misplaces his earrings and thinks that Princess Leia is a better character than Luke. He can feel that Zerada is a noblewoman, but when it’s Marin’s turn to play music and he scans the radio stations for old rhythm and blues Clay can almost think Marin’s day-one brainwashing was true and they have known each other for years. 

Marin confirms that he made the splint, but then he keeps talking. Clay is their best shooter. He has common sense. It's been a while since someone has defended him like this. His father might have disowned him by now if he wasn’t the best at everything he did, and it’s not like he really wants to spend the next four years at Harvard but once he got in it was clear that his father wouldn’t pay tuition for anywhere less. He's had to justify his existence himself. Now why does Marin think it's necessary to do it now, and only for Clay?

Clay is still kneeling on the ground with a rambunctious fox six inches from his face, but he straightens his back and sets his jaw. “ I killed a nobleman to save Marin on the day of the coup. I am more than capable”. 

He bites back an additional reply. What did this nobleman do when the rest of Zerada’s family was dragged off or killed? The thing is, Marin needs a decent cast, Sierra needs a curse removed, and it won’t do to anger their best shot. When Sierra starts to defend him, he shoves the fox into her arms. Someone here needs to have common sense. 

…………………

The fox-dog is to this thing (a kit fox) as a labrador is to a wolf. soft and loveable.

@lokiwaffles

[kaxenart]

"The AI does half the driving"

"Yeah, but the car AI doesn't fuck"

"FUCK HOW?!"

The mech's official designation is "Semi-Autonomous Bipedal Assault Vehicle" and SABAV for short.

[marcusrobertobaq]

I honestly don't know why Connor flicks and shakes/trembles when doing a wireless connection.

Actually I know this wasn't a thing at all, Bryan who probably came with the idea for some reason and Cage let it.

I just can't find a reason to explain this canon event using in-game logic and explanations. What could be happening is wireless connections common stress (electricity - data flow) triggering stuff in his body without control, meaning his wireless interfacing is... unpolished, unfinished, defective?

But it's weird thinking about it cuz he's a model made to deal with high stress situations and urgent decisions. Even if he's a prototype still an advanced one. Did CyberLife made some modifications with the whole semi-autonomous thing or any other bs and fucked with other systems but they decided to let it like this cuz wasn't relevant cuz of RK800 being a test drive?

[maledivine]

Sexual relations with deities

So just some background: My relationship with God, mediated through Baha'u'llah, His prayers, His writings and His teachings, is the core of my spiritual life. I’m a Baha’i religious practitioner, worshipper of the God of Abraham, Moses, Christ and Mohammed, of the Supreme Godhead and Ultimate Reality known under different names and qualities in other traditions; and also practitioner of solo sexual tantric alchemy. I’m a highly erotic person and easily enter non-ejaculatory orgasmic states. Orgasmic and religious ecstasy often converge for me, so it happens that, when I pray -- and I get into passionate states of prayer -- I also have orgasms. And I usually experience orgasms as prayers. But in these cases I don’t see myself or experience myself as having sexual intercourse with God.

Although I’m a monotheist, I do acknowledge the existence of other spiritual entities, deities and spirits, but as a principle didn’t seek relationships with them. But this changed almost a year ago as I was traveling in Nepal. I was driving past a small village temple, and something about a Shiva statue caught my eye. We were driving fast and already had passed the temple, and I suddenly told the driver to turn around to visit the temple. When I was exploring the temple and approached the Lingam, I felt a strong energetic force arising in my heart. It led me to repeatedly turn back to it and to offer reverence to it. When we drove away, I felt the presence of Shiva with me as my heart continued to feel the energy. I felt he was a local god who had been confined to his village, and now was coming along with me to see the world. I had multiple orgasms in the car as I felt myself holding his hands and embracing him.

He became my lover and I learned to call on him with a Shiva mantra. The relationship became completely sexual as whenever I call on him he enters me. For the first six months or so, it was literal intercourse. Although obviously not physical, the effect was deeply physical, triggering in me the most explosive, intense orgasms. He entered me from below and his penetration opened my anal orifice until my whole body becomes a cosmic space charged with spiritual energy. It is unbelievably powerful. Owing to my practice I have many types of orgasms and bliss, but this is a category on its own.

In the past few months, the sense of being engaged in palpable intercourse has diminished. While my experience of Shiva was always primarily energetic and only slightly visual, now there's rarely if any image of him at all. Now, when I call on him, I feel his energy directly entering my body, and then my body merges with his. My own body becomes Shiva, filled with a blueish cosmic energy melting me with the cosmos. His entering into me gives me a jolt of sexual energy. When I engage in tantric lovemaking with my wife, I often mentally say the Shiva mantra, which will lead to a sudden energetic turbo-charging of our love-making.

To be honest I don’t know what’s going on. At one level this is largely my own mental creation. But it’s not like normal sexual fantasies which are energetically depleting and which I don’t engage in since I started my sexual cultivation. The experience at the temple, where I unexpectedly "met" Shiva and he followed me on my journey, was not something I was seeking or consciously mentalizing. There seems to be something beyond my self-contained mental activity going on.

My understanding now is that, on the one hand, the supreme God is absolutely transcendental, self-creating, self-subsistent, and fully independent of human imaginations. Minor and local deities, spirits and beings, on the other hand -- such as this local temple Shiva -- are co-created with humans. Like humans, they represent real energies with a semi-autonomous will and existence, but our relationship with and imagination of these energies add to them and affects the way they manifest to us.

So then another development was, for some reason, after meeting Shiva, at one point I was curious if this could be replicated with another deity, and so I thought of Apollo whom I have some affinities with, although I hadn’t thought about him in years. And calling on him he also came down, and he was even more powerful in bed. Again, as with Shiva, after some months the experience of sexual intercourse subsided, though the energetic flow continues when I call on him. He comes down from above, as a river of light flowing into my third eye, that then manifests as his body that fills mine with light.

Then I realized that he’s the perfect counterpart to Shiva who’s a lunar deity (yin) while Apollo is solar (yang); and Shiva is associated with kundalini serpents while Apollo is a slayer of the serpent. Shiva is Oriental and Apollo is Occidental. I ended up with an inner sexual ritual in which both of them make love with me in turn, and then they enter my solar plexus and make love with each other. The alchemical union of the lunar and solar powers, of nurturing and slaying sexual desire, is mind blowing in its mystic meanings and in the powerful and exstatic energies that it releases and combines within my body.

[danshive]

I've gotten a couple replies on a previous post saying you're supposed to keep your hands on the wheel when letting the car drive itself, which is interesting.

I've watched self-driving videos before, and they have something in common: Hands off the wheel. I've got one for the Tesla "Full Self-Driving Beta 11.4.6" from two months ago on now. The steering wheel is in full view with no hands in sight.

It's possible, however, I used incorrect terminology. By semi-autonomous, I was referring to what is being marketed as "Full Self-Driving" with the expectation that the driver is there, attentive, and ready to take control.

If I was inadvertently referring to something else, I apologize.

[carsthatnevermadeitetc]

What a difference 26 years makes juxtaposition of Cadillac Escalade, 1999 & Cadillac Escalade IQ, 2025. The new electric SUV has been revealed with a dual-motor all-wheel-drive system that provides 680hp (up to 750hp in Velocity Max mode) and a range of 450 miles from a 200 kWh 24-module battery pack. It will come standard with the Super Cruise hands-free semi-autonomous driving system with pricing starting around $130,000

[newstfionline]

Sunday, March 5, 2023

Storms roll east after slamming South; 10 deaths reported (AP) A large storm system took aim at the Northeast on Friday, threatening heavy snow and coastal flooding after heavy winds and possible tornadoes damaged homes and buildings, left thousands without power and caused 10 deaths in a wide swath of the South and Midwest. Three people were killed by falling trees in Alabama as severe weather swept through the state. In Mississippi, a woman died inside her SUV after a rotted tree branch struck her vehicle, and in Arkansas a man drowned after he drove into high floodwaters. News outlets reported two people died in Tennessee when trees fell on them. Three weather-related deaths also were reported in Kentucky in three different counties as storms with straight-line winds moved through the state. The National Weather Service in Louisville called the storm Friday “powerful and historic” with peak wind gusts between 60-80 mph (96-128 kph).

Technology Replaces Even The Repo Guy (Car and Driver) While companies like Google and Amazon are looking into autonomous driving technology in order to operate self-driving taxis and freight vehicles, Ford Motors is implementing the technology for a different purpose: repossessing cars. Recently, a Ford patent was formally published outlining a new suite of features in the field of vehicle repos, including a fully self-driving system that could have repo’d Fords drive themselves back to the dealer. The patent includes full- and semi-autonomous systems to aid in car repossession, alongside a few other features that might make holding onto a repo’d vehicle just plain exhausting. For example, Ford could remotely shut off an owner’s access to air conditioning, radio, or cruise control, or even play annoying sounds through the car stereo to ward off an owner from using their car. The systems could even escalate to fully turning off the car’s ability to drive. Most of these intermediary steps would be taken before the car actually up and drives itself back to a dealership.

Argentina inflation seen speeding in 2023, central bank poll shows (Reuters) Argentina’s inflation rate is seen hitting 99.9% in 2023, speeding up from last year’s rate and topping previous estimates which saw a slightly slower rise, according to a central bank poll of analysts released Friday. The forecast, which is 2.3 percentage points above the 2023 rate projected in last month’s poll, comes amid a prolonged financial and social crisis in one of Latin America’s largest economies. The annual inflation rate in 2022 hit 94.8%, according to Argentina’s statistics institute.

In Britain, ‘warm hubs’ emerge to beat soaring energy costs (AP) On a blustery late-winter day in Shakespeare’s birthplace, the foyer of the Other Place theater is a cozy refuge. Visitors are having meetings over coffee, checking emails, writing poetry, learning to sew. It looks and feels like an arty café in the picturesque streets of Stratford-upon-Avon, but it’s a “warm hub” set up by the Royal Shakespeare Company drama troupe to welcome people struggling to heat their homes because of sky-high energy prices. Warm hubs have sprouted across Britain by the thousands this winter as soaring food and energy prices drive millions to turn down the thermostat or skimp on hot meals. Research by the opposition Labour Party counted almost 13,000 such hubs, funded by a mix of charities, community groups and the government and nestled in libraries, churches, community centers and even a tearoom at King Charles III’s Highgrove country estate.

U.N. Russian Official Warns of Nuclear Clashes (Foreign Policy) Speaking at a U.N. conference in Geneva on the subject of nuclear disarmament, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov warned that western support for Ukraine could lead to a nuclear conflict. Ryabkov blamed “the U.S. and NATO policy of fueling the conflict in Ukraine” and warned “increasing involvement in the military confrontation is fraught with a direct military clash of nuclear powers with catastrophic consequences.” That Russian President Vladimir Putin suspended Russian participation in the 2010 New START nuclear treaty was, Ryabkov stressed, a response to this involvement. Ryabkov did say that Russia would continue to respect caps on nuclear weapons under the treaty.

Heavy fighting as Russians advance in Bakhmut (Washington Post) The battle for Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine continued to rage Friday, with Russian forces “constantly hitting the city randomly with artillery, Grads and mortars,” Ukrainian soldier Yuriy Syrotyuk, 46, who is stationed in the north of the city with Ukraine’s Fifth Independent Assault Brigade, said by phone. But Ukrainian forces were still in control of some parts of Bakhmut and have not been ordered to retreat, Syrotyuk said, despite new claims Friday from Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the leader of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, that Russian forces have “practically surrounded” the city. Other Ukrainian soldiers said that further reinforcements were being deployed to Bakhmut, even as some specialized units were told to redeploy to long-planned fallback positions. Ukrainian troops have pleaded for additional support from the West to push back the Russians from the city, whose value has become largely symbolic over the past months as the Ukrainians have resisted ceding territory in the east. One of the greatest challenges continues to be a lack of ammunition.

The E.U. Offered to Embrace Ukraine, but Now What? (NYT) When the European Union offered Ukraine a path to membership last year, it was in many ways an emotional response to the Russian invasion. Leaders were under pressure to show solidarity with the victims of aggression, even though many opposed the idea. Since then, preoccupied with passing sanctions, scrounging up aid and scouring military inventories to send Ukraine weapons, few in Europe have focused seriously on what that commitment might actually mean. But this is a courtship with consequences for the future, not only for Ukraine’s aspirations and survival, but also for Europe’s own security and finances. Ukrainian membership would reshape the bloc and its relationship with a post-conflict Russia. Tensions are already growing between Europe’s desire to maintain its tough requirements and Ukraine’s demand for quick entry into a promised land that has given hope to the embattled country. European Union officials like Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, have been slow-walking expectations for Ukraine, a country that nearly all agree is fundamentally unprepared to join.

Afghan Women, Banned From Working, Can’t Provide for Their Children (WSJ) Since toppling the U.S.-backed government in 2021, the Taliban has introduced a series of restrictions aimed at squeezing women out of public life in Afghanistan. Girls over sixth grade can no longer go to school, Afghan universities no longer accept female students and women are barred from most public-sector jobs. The employment ban is deepening a humanitarian crisis and putting the livelihood of whole families at risk. Widows are especially vulnerable.

Protests break out in Iran over schoolgirl illnesses (Reuters) Worried parents protested in Iran's capital Tehran and other cities on Saturday over a wave of suspected poison attacks that have affected schoolgirls in dozens of schools, according to Iranian news agencies and social media videos. The so-far unexplained illnesses have affected hundreds of schoolgirls in recent months. Iranian officials believe the girls may have been poisoned and have blamed Tehran's enemies. The country's health minister has said the girls have suffered "mild poison" attacks and some politicians have suggested the girls could have been targeted by hardline Islamist groups opposed to girls' education. Sickness affected more than 30 schools in at least 10 of Iran's 31 provinces on Saturday. Videos posted on social media showed parents gathered at schools to take their children home and some students being taken to hospitals by ambulance or buses.

The proud Pakistani tradition of feeding the hungry is strained as food prices soar (NPR) Since the pandemic, Pakistan has been battered by calamities that have pushed up the price of food and fuel: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and two events made more extreme by climate change: a spring heatwave that shriveled harvests, then summer floods that drowned them. Now there’s an economic crisis so dire, the country risks default. Inflation reached nearly 25% last year, but the figure conceals dramatic variations. In poorer rural areas, prices of food rose even higher. Now, the World Food Programme expects that 5.1 million people are likely to be a step away from famine-levels of hunger by the end of March—an increase of 1.1 million people from the previous quarter. “That number is frightening,” says Chris Kaye, the Pakistan country director of the WFP. And it has put a proud Pakistani tradition of feeding the hungry under strain just when it is needed the most.

Why are China’s tech leaders still disappearing if the crackdown is over? (Washington Post) China’s legendary tech dealmaker Bao Fan hasn’t been seen for almost three weeks. Stock prices have plunged for his investment bank China Renaissance, once known for brokering the country’s biggest tech mergers, and all it has said is that Bao is “assisting the government of the People’s Republic of China with an investigation.” Another titan of China’s tech world, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, was spotted days ago in Melbourne, Australia. While keeping a low profile since regulators put the brakes on his planned record-breaking IPO after he criticized them publicly, Ma has also turned up in Spain and Japan. Bao and Ma aren’t the only tech leaders in China who have vanished from public view seemingly at the peak of their influence. Many of the country’s top business executives and influencers—bankers, property developers, movie stars like Fan Bingbing and e-commerce superseller Austin Li—have gone missing without explanation as their power and influence have grown. Some were later hit with fines and accused of offenses like tax evasion or fraud. Officials have said that the crackdown on the tech industry, which saw a flurry of regulations torpedo the influence of companies from gaming to online education, has ended. But Bao Fan’s disappearance—the latest evidence of the government’s willingness to rein in even the most powerful executives—has shaken investor confidence and undermined Beijing’s insistence it supports the private sector.

World Bank: Quake caused damage worth $5.1 billion in Syria (AP) The World Bank said Friday that Syria sustained an estimated $5.1 billion in damages in last month’s massive earthquake that struck southeast Turkey and northern parts of the war-torn country. The quake killed at least 50,000 people, including about 6,000 in Syria, according to the United Nations. Tens of thousands are still missing and hundreds of thousands were left homeless. In a report released Friday, the World Bank says the level of the damage in Syria is about 10% of the country’s gross domestic product. Syria’s northern province of Aleppo was the most severely hit region, accounting for 45% of the total damages in Syria and amounting to about $2.3 billion in damages. Also badly hit was the rebel-held region in the northwest, home to some 4.6 million people, many of them previously displaced by Syria’s war.

[barlettaengineering]

Demystifying the Construction Workforce Shortage

Construction companies are struggling to get a steady supply of skilled and semi-skilled construction workers. Some of the most sought-after professionals include plumbers, carpenters, mechanics, electricians, and project managers. Unfortunately, 25 percent of work opportunities in these spaces are unfilled.

One of the reasons for the current labor shortage is aging construction workers. The average age of the US construction worker is 42. The problem is fewer workers are entering construction than those retiring. For context, the number of construction workers aged 55 and above was 22.3 percent in 2023, up from 19.3 percent in 2015. During the same period, the number of workers aged 24 to 54 dropped by 4 percent.

People aren't just shunning the construction industry. They are also quitting it. They are leaving construction for better pay and benefits in other sectors, a phenomenon called the "Great Resignation or the "Big Quit." Reasons for workers leaving their jobs include low pay, childcare issues, and limited opportunities for career advancement.

The rise of remote opportunities is a major contributor to the Big Quit. Working from home promises to fix many of the issues driving workers out of their traditional jobs. For instance, remote work is more attractive and less costly than commuting to construction sites. Moreover, it frees up workers for personal development.

Experts have also attributed the labor shortage challenges to fewer immigrants. Three in every 10 US construction workers are immigrants. However, since 2019, the US has been less welcoming of immigrants. Consequently, fewer immigrants are entering construction.

Construction companies, big and small, are feeling the pressure from the ongoing labor shortage. Labor scarcity leads to project delays. Delays cost money.

The perennial labor shortage is also driving construction labor costs up. First, without enough workers to deliver work on time, construction companies are forced to contend with the high cost of material prices due to disruption in the supply chain. Two, limited worker supply drives up demand, forcing construction companies to spend more to attract workers.

The construction industry is adopting several measures to address the ever-rising worker shortage. Many construction companies are automating their processes. They are filling vacant positions and reducing the demand for administrative personnel. When they aren't automating tasks with computers, they are digitizing their crew management to streamline operations.

Other technological advances that are helping ease the pressure from low labor supply in construction include autonomous vehicles and machinery. Now, one person can remotely operate two or more machines using a console. Many construction companies are also using drones and robots.

Automating construction operations does more than ease dependence on human labor. It also reduces costs while enhancing worker safety. Moreover, it improves quality control, which has suffered immensely due to the prioritization of speed over quality.

While technology has helped ease the pressure, construction companies can only automate so much. A lasting solution lies in addressing the real reasons workers are shunning construction. Solutions worth exploring include improving construction site conditions and benefits and up-skilling workers. This may help make construction more desirable and change the perception that it has no room for growth.

The labor scarcity facing the construction industry is a reflection of an industry-wide challenge. It may be more pronounced in construction because of the nature of the work. Embracing technology may have helped counter some of the negative consequences of labor scarcity, like delays and high labor costs. Still, there's a need to attract more personnel into construction.

[generationalracoon]

Autocity

In the future, India’s rickshaw could transform into a modular, shape-shifting transport system, revolutionizing the way people navigate urban spaces. These futuristic rickshaws would adjust their size based on passenger load, accommodating anything from a solo rider to a family with luggage. While embracing cutting-edge technology, they would retain their iconic open-air design, providing a familiar yet modern travel experience. Powered by clean energy and operating autonomously, these rickshaws would weave seamlessly through cityscapes, drastically reducing traffic congestion and emissions.

Impact on the People: The introduction of modular rickshaws would profoundly affect daily life. Urban commuters would enjoy faster, more efficient transportation options, freeing them from the frustrations of traffic jams and long waits. The reduced pollution levels would lead to cleaner air, improving public health, particularly in densely populated cities. For rural and semi-urban areas, these rickshaws could provide reliable and affordable mobility solutions, bridging gaps in public transportation.

However, the most significant impact would be on traditional rickshaw drivers—many of whom rely on this livelihood. To ensure inclusivity, drivers could be retrained and integrated into the new ecosystem. Instead of being displaced, they could transition into roles such as fleet supervisors, customer support agents, or technicians maintaining the vehicles. Additionally, platforms could be created to allow these drivers to manage modular rickshaws remotely, leveraging their expertise and providing them with a stable income.

Cultural Resonance and Economic Opportunities: The modular rickshaw would preserve the essence of the traditional rickshaw while embracing technological advancements. It could become a symbol of India’s ability to balance heritage with innovation. For entrepreneurs and small businesses, these rickshaws could also serve as mobile kiosks, enabling new economic opportunities and fostering creativity in how they are used.

Challenges and Solutions: Transitioning to a modular, AI-driven system will come with hurdles. Infrastructure investments would be essential, including the establishment of widespread charging stations and AI control networks. To address concerns about technology reliability, a dual-system approach could be introduced, enabling manual operation as a backup in case of AI malfunctions. Additionally, a government-led initiative to subsidize the technology for drivers transitioning into this system would ensure that the shift is equitable and accessible.

The Future Beckons: The modular rickshaw would be more than just a mode of transport—it would be a testament to India’s resilience and adaptability. By embracing this vision, the country could create a transport system that reflects its diversity, innovation, and commitment to sustainability. In this future, the rickshaw would truly be a pacemaker for the country’s heart, driving not just its roads but its aspirations.