(image courtesy of Florida Today.)
As with many things, it started small….a spark….a bad “joke” and stupid comments on Facebook.
The comments made by Brevard County Commissioner Bryan Lober has left many scratching their heads.
Then this one:
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It has become de rigueur for people to ask police for their name and badge numbers when interacting with police.
What happens if you aren’t interacting with an officer, but a robot?
After 16 months of research and development, [Reuben] Brewer –– a senior robotics researcher at the nonprofit SRI International in Menlo Park, California –– has unveiled his solution: a robot that allows police officers to conduct traffic stops without leaving the safety of their vehicle.
“The main advantage of a robot over a human is that physical danger no longer matters,” Brewer wrote after being reached by email. “The robot is purely defensive, so it can’t hurt the motorist. If the motorist damages the robot, it’s only money to replace it.”
“People are more dangerous when they’re scared, so the goal is to remove the possibility of being physically hurt so that they’re less scared and less dangerous,” he added.
It’s an interesting concept, but we’re not sure how it would work in the real world.
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Imagine wanting to go from Frederick, Oklahoma to Santa Fe, New Mexico. According to googlemaps, the trip is about 480 miles and will take you over 7 hours by car.
Now imagine that you are two brothers named Abernathy – 9-year-old Louis “Bud” Abernathy and his 5-year-old brother, Temple who want to make the journey. Now what?
In 1909, Bud Abernathy and his brother asked their father if they could ride by horse from Oklahoma to Santa Fe. The father, law man Jack Abernathy, said “yes” in order to “toughen up” his two young children whose mother had died.
Off the brothers went.
The trip was not without perils.
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There are speeches and then there are memorable speeches.
(The fun starts at roughly 1:20 into the video.)
San Ysidro High senior Nataly Buhr’s speech began the way most valedictorian addresses begin: She thanked her parents for their love and support, her friends for the memories she will cherish, and a few select teachers for helping her achieve success.
Then Buhr broke from tradition when she thanked a school counselor who she said was regularly unavailable to students. She didn’t name the counselor.
“To my counselor, thanks for teaching me to fend for myself,” Buhr said. “You were always unavailable to my parents and I, despite appointments. Only in these past few weeks, with the awards ceremonies and graduation coming up, did you begin making your appearance.”
Buhr went on to thank the school’s main office staff for teaching her to be “resourceful.”
“Your negligence to inform me of several scholarships until the day before they were due potentially caused me to miss out on thousands of dollars,” she said.
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This is somewhat interesting as at this time, people aren’t quite sure what it means. Is the City throwing in the towel on a lawsuit the City Attorney claimed would be an easy and inexpensive win? Is this the sign of mediation? A delaying tactic by the City?
Hopefully in the coming week at the City Council meeting, what is going on will come out.
When is a terrorist attack not a terrorist attack?
When you are working for the BBC, that’s when.
The BBC has been accused of ‘sanitising’ terrorism under plans for an effective ban on journalists using the word ‘terror’.
Reporters will be told to avoid using the word to describe any terror attack, unless they are quoting someone else.
Instead, they will refer to terror attacks by naming specific details, such as the location and the method of slaughter used.
The controversial edict means that the BBC will no longer use the phrase ‘terror attack’ to describe the massacres at London Bridge or Manchester Arena, as the corporation did when the atrocities occurred.
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When the Cities of Cocoa Beach and Palm Bay decided to discuss an change in their codes that would allow police to issue civil citations rather than misdemeanor charges for possession of marijuana there was discussion on the merits of the idea with some people agreeing and some disagreeing.
What was clear to all was that this would be a stepping stone to the legalization of marijuana.
We’ve looked at the arguments for legalization before and they never seem to work in the real world what people who want pot legalized say will happen in theory.
Now another article has come out looking at the ideas on how legalization will remove the black market for drugs as well as get organized crime out of the pot business.
According to the City Journal:
It takes lots of marijuana to make 1 billion joints, but that’s how much pot Oregon has on hand right now—enough to supply the state’s marijuana “needs” for six years, even if production stopped right now. The vast oversupply is causing worries that growers, who have made huge investments in their business ever since Oregon legalized recreational marijuana use five years ago, will turn to the black market to dispose of inventory. That, state authorities fear, could lead to new federal enforcement in Oregon—prosecutors busted a black-market ring there last year. To stem the excess, Oregon is moving to deny new licenses to growers, but the state will likely have to take away some current licenses, too, or watch some growers go bust, before the problem disappears.
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We’ve been looking at videos from Boston Dynamics and their work in robotics.
This one caught our eye.
“How’s he so good at dancing?”
Boston Dynamics “AlgoRHYTHM baby!”
The robot is named “Spot Mini” for somewhat obvious reasons and is part of the Boston Dynamics “family” of robots:
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