Great moments in driving

While the fatal crash involving a Tesla car on autopilot mode attention has naturally focused attention on whether self-driving cars can be trusted, we should not lose sight of the dangerous levels of outright stupidity that human drivers are capable of. I was reminded of this when a few days ago I was stopped at a red light and looked in my rear view mirror. In the car behind me the driver had his cat perched on top of the dashboard exactly between him and the windshield.
[Read more…]

More anti-abortion laws ruled unconstitutional

Rachel Vorona Cote provides a roundup of the way that anti-abortion laws are being targeted following the recent ruling by the US Supreme Court in Whole Women’s Health v. Hallerstadt that struck down laws that are labeled TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) that seek to impose on conditions on clinics that provides abortions that are not required for other procedures that might carry similar or even greater risks.
[Read more…]

Tesla autopilot car crash raises questions of responsibility

As self-driving cars become more a reality with multiple companies developing them, the issue of who would be responsible for accidents has become an issue. Sadly, that debate has come to the fore because of the crash of a Tesla car that was in self-driving mode with a tractor-trailer in which the ‘driver’ of the Tesla car was killed. This seems to be the first fatality involving such cars.
[Read more…]

Good news! I am not possessed by demons

Richard Gallagher has written an article reporting on what he has learned about the signs of demonic possession after about 25 years of studying it. He is a practicing Catholic which naturally raises questions about his impartiality so he emphasizes his academic credentials, to assure us that he is not some kind of religious nut. His byline tells us that he is a “board-certified psychiatrist and a professor of clinical psychiatry at New York Medical College.”
[Read more…]

“Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our graves”

The title of this post is taken from King Lear because the sudden withdrawal of Boris Johnson yesterday from the campaign to become the leader of the Conservative Party, following the victory of his Leave side in the Brexit referendum and the subsequent decision by David Cameron that he would resign shortly, took most observers by surprise and has revealed a web of political intrigue that truly deserves the title of Shakespearean, only with less blood.
[Read more…]