The Death of the Mind

Eyal Li, Union of Concerned Scientists
It’s well known to sustainable transportation advocates that our transportation sector is the largest source of carbon emissions in the United States — and cars and small trucks account for the largest share of this pollution. Still, people frustrated with congestion on their commutes often clamor for building more and bigger highways. The reality is that these projects usually increase emissions without making getting around any easier, yet elected officials keep forging ahead with them.
Gov. Larry Hogan’s proposed managed lane expansions to I-495 and I-270 is a textbook example. The stated purpose of this project is to reduce congestion. But studies show that highway expansions don’t really relieve traffic — they can…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://usa.streetsblog.org/2021/02/15/op-ed-highway-expansion-proposal-would-take-md-in-the-wrong-direction/

A few months ago, someone noted in the comments that they hadn’t heard about the Therac-25 incident. I was surprised, and went off to do an informal survey of developers I know, only to discover that only about half of them knew what it was without searching for it.
I think it’s important that everyone in our industry know about this incident, and upon digging into the details I was stunned by how much of a WTF there was.
Today’s article is not fun, or funny. It describes incidents of death and maiming caused by faulty software engineering processes. If that’s not what you want today, grab a random article from our archive, instead.

When you’re strapping a patient…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://thedailywtf.com/articles/the-therac-25-incident

Enlarge / Supporters of former President Donald Trump, including Jake Angeli, a QAnon supporter known for his painted face and horned hat, enter the US Capitol on January 6. (credit: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Facebook has gone out of its way to help law enforcement officials identify those who participated in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol, the company said in a Thursday conference call with reporters.
“We were appalled by the violence,” said Monika Bickert, Facebook’s vice president of content policy. “We were monitoring the assault in real time and made appropriate referrals to law enforcement to assist their efforts to bring those responsible to account.”
She added that this “includes helping them identify…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1741881

Enlarge / Why did the flywheel hybrid never catch on for road cars? (credit: GKN/Jonathan Gitlin)
When a Speed network television crew interviewed Margo T. Oge, then-director of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Transportation and Air Quality, during the 10-hour-long 2010 Petit Le Mans Series race at Road Atlanta, Porsche’s experimental 911 GT3 R Hybrid race car held down a top-20 position in the 45-car field.
The broadcast crew took every opportunity to call attention to the presence of the new Porsche. Hybrid street cars were becoming mainstream, and “road relevance” was repeatedly cited by Oge along with energy independence and low carbon emissions as EPA imperatives.
But, like its similarly new Formula One hybrid race car…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1741928

DeJoy has another plan to slow down some first class mail.

External feed Read More at the Source: https://stallman.org/archives/2020-nov-feb.html#14_February_2021_%28Slowing_first_class_mail%29

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released unscientific, politically motivated guidelines intended to justify school reopenings everywhere.

External feed Read More at the Source: http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/02/13/scho-f13.html

Martin Gugino spent nearly a month in hospital after a Buffalo cop pushed him over, cracked his head on the pavement and left him to bleed there with a fractured skull. Though charged after the incident, officers Robert McCabe and Aaron Torgalski are off the hook: the charges have now been dropped. — Read the rest

External feed Read More at the Source: https://boingboing.net/2021/02/12/charges-dropped-against-cops-who-shoved-elderly-mans-head-and-cracked-his-skull.html

Enlarge / NASA originally studied nuclear thermal propulsion in the 1960s. Here is concept art for the Nuclear Energy for Rocket Vehicle Applications (NERVA) program. (credit: NASA)
Getting humans to Mars and back is rather hard. Insanely difficult, in fact. Many challenges confront NASA and other would-be Mars pioneers when planning missions to the red planet, but chief among them is the amount of propellant needed.
During the Apollo program 50 years ago, humans went to the Moon using chemical propulsion, which is to say rocket engines that burned liquid oxygen and hydrogen in a combustion chamber. This has its advantages, such as giving NASA the ability to start and stop an engine quickly, and the technology…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://arstechnica.com/?p=1741878

As President Biden gears up to give electric car buyers a federally subsidized discount, advocates are urging Congress not to forget the other electric vehicle that can do far more to save the planet: the humble electric bicycle. Congressional Bike Caucus Chairman Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.) are pushing the Electric Bicycle Incentive Kickstart for the Environment (E-BIKE) Act, which would offer Americans of all income levels a refundable 30-percent tax credit for purchasing a pedal-assist bicycle. Notably, the credit would be renewable every three years, and married people who wanted to each buy their own e-bike would both be able to take advantage of the program. The bill was applauded by advocates who think…

External feed Read More at the Source: https://usa.streetsblog.org/2021/02/11/new-bill-would-help-americans-buy-e-bikes/