They've been bullshitting us about self-driving cars for over ten years. Where are they?

I see where Waymo (short for way more bullshit, apparently) is doing yet another trial of driverless vehicles. These trials, and there have been dozens by various entities over the years, inevitably end the same way. Everything goes great 80 or 90 or 99% of the time, but just before regulatory approval, there's a front-page story about how 12 children on their way to Sunday-school were trapped in their driverless taxi for six hours when the door-locks malfunctioned, and are permanently traumatized. So the magic of driverless cars remains but a dream. Here's what I had to say about the matter more than ten years ago. ************* Saturday, May 31, 2014 Google's driverless car is the public transit of the future. Think about it. A car that doesn't require you to drive it can come to your house empty and pick you up. When it drops you off it can pick up somebody else somewhere else. You'll never have to worry about parking! With efficiencies of scale kicking in, one of these transportation pods will be makeable for a few thousand dollars. Goodbye multi-billion dollar street-car and subway infrastructure projects. The Google-mobile uses surface roads that are already there. Real-time GPS monitoring will make sure you get where you're going, and a vast network of hardware and software will ensure these "cars" are used as efficiently as possible. I think they're onto something! ********** One thing I know for sure is if I'm driving I want a steering wheel and a brake pedal.

The war Israel and USA started ten days ago now threatens the future of both

I caught a brief CBC News segment where they had somebody on the ground in Israel showing damage from an Iranian missile. It's only in the last few days that Israel's information management system (otherwise know as censorship) has allowed foreign media limited access into the country. The segment still promoted the fiction that a missile landing in Tel Aviv is a novelty, as the vaunted Iron Dome + David's Sling + Arrow systems + Patriots and every other US Air Defense system take down at least 90% of incoming. In reality, ten days into the war on Iran, it has become obvious that AD has collapsed. Things have got so desperate the Israelis have concluded there's no longer any point in pretending. The reality in Israel right now is that both Iran and Hezbolla are raining down missiles and drones at will. The Iron Dome is shooting down next to nothing. Trump called Putin today, and the Russian transcript of the call looks to me like Donald is angling for Putin's help in finding an off-ramp. Meanwhile, we still see Rubio and Hegseth bragging up American greatness. My understanding is that every US base in the Gulf is at this point out of commission. US casualties, officially pegged at 7, are closer to 700. America can survive this. Being humiliated in Ukraine and the ME still leaves it with its usual vassals in the EU and the Western Hemisphere to slap around. But Israel? At least 200,000 Israeli's have left since Oct 7. The ones leaving tend to be from the highly-educated Ashkenazi elite. The ones clamoring for more death, more war, more genocide, are exemplified by the "hilltop youth." When they're not terrorizing the Palestinians, they're studying the Torah. I don't see much of a future for Israel.

Let's take a moment to consider our values

We are constantly reminded that Canada and our allies represent superior values than those held by our adversaries. We've had to struggle over that since the President of the US, the leader of the free and democratic world, has gone a bit nutso-kookoo in his second term. Some of his policies, for example the deportation of undocumented migrants, are an affront to Canadian values, which has motivated our PM to search for more agreeable allies amongst the remaining Nations of Virtue, as "Western Civilization" imagines itself. Not only have we been disappointed in our former Ally Number One, many Canadians have been shocked by the actions of one of our other bestest allies over the past two and a half years; to wit, Israel's holocaust in Gaza and the West Bank. For thirty months Israel has bombed, strafed, rocketed, and starved the captive population of Gaza. Most of the world correctly calls this genocide. On 28 February our two rogue allies joined forces to mount an entirely illegal attack on Iran. Our PM gave his qualified approval, but hinted that Canada would not join in with our allies. But wait a minute - seems a lot of our other allies with whom Carney was hoping to establish an anti-Trump coalition are signing up to support the Bibi-Trump war on Iran. Yesterday a German frigate arrived in Cyprus. Today Italy announced it would stand with the Free World's assault on Iran. France is sending it's aircraft carrier. Starmer planned to send the UK's carrier too, but alas, had to settle for a lesser contribution. Looks to me like all those toadies who were aggressively denouncing Trump mere weeks ago are now busying themselves sucking up to a pair of war criminals. I'm guessing it's just a matter of time before Carney caves and commits Canada to this war on Iran too. So much for "values." Empty talk won't butter our bread, but kissing up to billionaire war criminals just might.

The Peace President has started WW III

I was listening to DefSec... I mean WarSec "Pistol Pete" Hegseth's update on the Iran war. Apparently the good guys are kicking the shit out of the bad guys, unleashing hell, punching them while they're down, devastating them without mercy - as things should be when you're waging a REAL war in the name of God, as opposed to the faggy woke wars America used to conduct under communists like Obama and Biden. Ya, the exceptionalist rhetoric is utterly mind-boggling. I can't imagine God being on the side of warmongering retarded arseholes like Hegseth. But I've been wrong before. Like when I advised my readers to dump their appl back in 2012, and maybe a couple of other times. I've probably got two dozen posts out there over the last 15 years predicting the demise of the wily Erdogan. To my chagrin, not only has the Sultan defied my predictions, he is wilier and more influential than ever. Trump is taking us into uncharted territory. America's loss of every war they've instigated in the past half century hasn't deterred the Orange Ogre from instigating one with Iran, a country far more capable than any of the failed states America has been driven out of over the past 50 years. The American Empire has never looked more precarious.

Fifteen years in, pot-addled hillbilly's blog passes three million views

That's kinda amazing, considering it's only got, according to my dashboard, a grand total of three (3) followers. I figure that's because of the warning that comes up every time I post, to the effect that my musings somehow violate "community standards." That started shortly after I posted my World Trade Center building seven story, way back in year one. For many years Google wouldn't even find me, even though they own the platform. Anyway, here we are fifteen years later, fifteen years older, and firmly into life's final quarter. Barring a few extra seasons for penalty time, I'm thinking the 25 year warranty on my roof shingles (installed how many years ago?) should pretty much take me as far as I'll need a roof. I've also noticed, fifteen years on, that a lot of stuff I always took for granted, like good health, for example, is a gift from God rather than something you earn or "deserve." Fifteen years ago I took great pride in my hiking adventures on the various trails in our area. My hikes these days are much shorter and show a definite preference for flat terrain. My main challenge now is calibrating the correct balance between my pee pills and my sleeping pills. Last time I visited with my GP he upped the dosage for both. Ponder that for a moment and you'll realize why that calibration process is so important. From time to time I think maybe I should look into those community standards and see what I could do to go legit. Then the "Like" button might come back and folks could subscribe, and I'd be able to monetize the blog. Then again, 3 mil views over fifteen years ain't gonna monetize into much more than a case of beer now and again. Three million a day... now you're looking at something... I could upgrade my Toyota! Fuck that. I write because I like writing, and spending time managing a website isn't on the agenda in any way. Those hours are better spent playing with Bruno or visiting with my grand-daughter. Anyway, I'll keep writing as long as there's anything in the tank. Seeing how the greedbags who run things are more out of control than ever, there'll be plenty to talk about going forward.

Canada hated Trump till he attacked Iran; now we love Trump!

Canada's newspaper of record, the Globe & Mail, has relentlessly been anti-Trump since before his first kick at the can. And their American Exceptionalist choir has worked non-stop to alert Canada to the potentially deadly impact of a Trump 2.0. So imagine my shock when I picked up the G&M the other day, only to find an editorial board op-ed celebrating Donald Trump's bold attack on Iran! The ed board at the Globe are 100% American Empire Loyalists. They utterly hated Trump back when he unleashed ICE on Minnesota.But now that Donnie J has unleashed the entirety of USA military might on Iran, the editorial board is all aboard! Canadian airwaves have been saturated, for six days now, with Iranian expats thanking Trump for bombing their country. We closed our Iran embassy in 2012 because our gay twat of a Foreign Minister at the time was hell bent on getting the blessing of his personal rabbi. They coulda been gay lovers for all I know. And of course it didn't help that our Defence Minister at the time was married to an Iranian beauty queen. What's remarkable is that a political elite that took serious umbrage re: Trump's 51st state fantasies, is totally hunky-dory with Trump's utterly unprovoked attack on Iran.

Trump puts Israel first

Exhibit A; America, the country Trump was democratically elected to lead, has gone full in on Israel's war on Iran. Trump puffed himself as the peace candidate to get elected. Now he has embraced the ultra-nationalist factions in Israel who celebrate genocide. I have yet to see any remotely plausible rationale for America's war on Iran. There is no evidence anywhere of any "imminent threat" whatsoever. What we're doing with this fakery is running interference for the genocidal maniacs who, having destroyed Israel, are keen to bring down the rest of the Middle East too. There must be some prime juicy Trump footage on those Epstein tapes to make Mafia Don do a 180 on his entire election platform, just to please his blackmailer.