Cars are now sophisticated computers on wheels. The technological improvements have enabled them to approach the point that they may be able to drive themselves. But that means that, like any computer, they are also now vulnerable to hacks by people who can break into those computer systems and take control of the car out of the driver’s hands and operate it remotely.
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Another day, another unarmed person dies in police custody. This time it is a black woman Sandra Bland who is the victim when a traffic stop for what is a minor offense ends up with the police officer seemingly taking umbrage because she did not cower sufficiently before him, resulting in him assaulting her and throwing her in jail for three days before she was found dead in her cell. The authorities claim it was suicide but it is being investigated. It should be noted that the county where this occurred is notorious for being racist.
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As was inevitable, someone has been taken to court for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples and using god as a defense. In a US district court, Kim Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky, got all teary-eyed as she explained why her faith required her to deny couples a right they were entitled to by law. (This Davis is different from Casey Davis, a clerk in another county who also refuses to issue licenses.)
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The reactions to the deal between the P5+1 nations and Iran have been predictable. The most vociferous opponents have been the Republican party who have dutifully brought out the Munich appeasement analogy that seems to be now the standard trope for any foreign policy deal negotiated by the Obama administration. Then of course Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke out in apocalyptic terms, calling the deal a ‘historic mistake’, and this is usually the precursor to him extorting even more aid from the US in order to keep him quiet until he next feels the need for more aid. This was even predicted on July 14, 2015 by the satirical site The Onion.
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This is a famous 1953 play by Samuel Beckett that is in the absurdist tradition. It features two older men who have been together for a long time and have clearly seen better days, as can be discerned by their current shabby clothing coupled with their highly sophisticated use of language and their recollections of good times in the past in various parts of Europe. A man named Godot has told the two of them to wait for him by a tree on a desolate road. The two dutifully wait, clearly expecting their fortunes to improve once he arrives.
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Hot on the heels of the news last week from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that 2014 was the warmest year on record comes another report that the first half of 2015 was also the warmest first half of the year in the 136-year record and that June was the warmest June as well.
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Ohio’s governor John Kasich announced today that he is running for the Republican nomination for president, making him #16 to do so. In his favor is the fact that although he is pretty much a standard issue pro-oligarchy conservative, he is not a totally hateful nutso candidate, which makes him slightly different from most of his competitors.
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In the US it is not uncommon for business people to regularly claim that they know how to ‘fix’ education and that if the educational system were run like a business, then it would produce much better outcomes than it currently does. School districts sometimes fall for this line and hire business executives and companies to run systems. In fact, some wealthy business people like Bill Gates use their financial clout to muscle their way into school policy making and get their pet theories implemented (the ‘small schools’ model for one) that have very little research backing.
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Of all the elements that make up the Catholic church in the US, I am most sympathetic towards the nuns. In their modern incarnation, they seem to do genuine good works among the poor and needy and seem less interested in pushing the church’s official positions against contraception, abortion, and homosexuality, for which lack of zeal they were reprimanded and placed under investigation by pope Benedict though pope Francis has quietly shelved that process.
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I hate wasting food. I really, really hate it. And it really sticks in my craw to see the amount of food that is thrown away in the US. Sometimes it is due to people just buying more than they can eat but at other times it seem just willful. For example, I am appalled by people and events that go out of their way to waste food, such as those contests involving butter sculptures and food eating contests and those all-you-can-eat buffets that seem to be designed to induce people to eat more than they would normally do.
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