transportation

Congressional crashes, children's coffins and pedogate Puck + this day in history w/the murder of Daniel Pearl and our song of the day by Tune-Yards on your Morning Monarchy for February 1, 2018.

Recently, a Tesla on autopilot slammed into a parked fire engine at 65 mph. It turns out that there was no malfunction. According to Tesla’s manual:

Traffic-Aware Cruise Control cannot detect all objects and may not brake/decelerate for stationary vehicles, especially in situations when you are driving over 50 mph (80 km/h) and a vehicle you are following moves out of your driving path and a stationary vehicle or object is in front of you instead.

Barely a day passes without a new development in the war on social media – that is, the war on us. Today, it is a report that Twitter has emailed hundreds of thousands of its users, warning them that they shared “Russian propaganda”.
As WSWS notes:

Twitter is warning its users that it knows exactly what they are viewing and sharing on social media, implying that if they post something that falls afoul of the US government, they may be subject to investigation or prosecution.

Britain is ill, and even as the opportunists and populists scramble before the hardened negotiators of the European Union over imminent exit, revising optimistic forecasts and notions of sovereign greatness has begun.  Within Theresa May’s decaying state comes yet another economic disaster, and one that has prompted a revival of government assistance before the vicissitudes of the market. This, from a Tory government extolling the divine nature of free market enterprise.

RMT demonstration at King’s Cross Station in London (RMT Photo)

The market for viable and affordable electric vehicles (EVs) has just been kicked up a notch.  With cars boasting features such as facial recognition to unlock doors, a 49″ screen across the entire dashboard, autonomous driving and quick-battery changes, several Chinese automakers are in competition for the burgeoning electric car market, and they are giving the market new choice and real competition.

The stick insect with pale lips, a jaunty manner, and the sense of still being attached to mummy gave a definitive statement of Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle.  “The plane cannot be located.”  It had a name; it had an identity.

Today, December 19, 2017, the US Congress voted for A Trillion dollars in tax cuts for corporations and the rich, but no money for train safety.
Yesterday, six people were killed, scores injured as a train jumps tracks and crashes in Washington state, December 18th, 2017.  The train had no positive train control system.
Remember the Metro-North Railroad Hudson Line passengers’ train derailed December1, 2013- killing 115 passengers, and injuring another 61. It was caused by a Lack of safety controls.

It sent patrons and users into fits of puzzled anger.  It numbed a good many more who had placed mistaken faith in its operations.  Rapacious, predatory Uber, a ride-hailing company famed for its international ruthlessness, had behaved accordingly.  Last week, the firm revealed that it had received a massive hack in 2016, failing to notify customers and regulators that a breach of security had taken place.

by Gaius PubliusEvery national instance of Rule by the Rich is accompanied by a great deal of violence, inflicted on the many by the few.—Yours truly (paraphrased)As you ponder the criticism of the Antifa ("anti-fascist") movement for engaging in violent tactics in Berkeley, consider the following.▪