Archive - 2016 - blog

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Uber can now track their passengers' locations after they are dropped off and even when their app has been closed.

A new update to Uber's app allows the global taxi service to collect passenger data up to five minutes after a journey has finished.

Previously Uber had only been able to do this when their app was open.

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Image courtesy Reuters and PA

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2016/12/02
Students at Hampshire College were upset 02Dec2016 Friday when school officials decided to raise the American Flag once again to full-staff after students demanded it be placed at half-staff because of the election of Donald J. Trump.

Students at the Amherst, Massachusetts college had initially lowered the flag to half-staff in protest against the results of the November 8 election. Days after that move a group of students later pulled the flag down and burned it.

The controversy at the college continued when on Veteran’s Day college officials raised a new flag to memorialize the armed forces, but students again launched into protest. Eventually Hampshire College President Jonathan Lash pulled the flag down entirely and opened a “dialog” on how the flag controversy was affecting the school.

2016/11/26
The Mayor announced his plans to protest in a news release sent to 22News on Saturday:

"Mayor Domenic J. Sarno will attend in support and stand in solidarity with our cherished veterans and our American flag in protest of Hampshire College’s continued refusal to fly the flag, which is so disrespectful to those who have given the ultimate sacrifice in order for all of us to live the lives we lead. God Bless America."  read more »

Brown was passionate about his driverless car which was speeding into truck trailer and killed its master

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Washington: Joshua Brown, 40, a former Navy SEAL is the first person to die at the wheel of his confidently-trusted self-driving car. His computer-guided Tesla Model S hit a tractor trailer on a freeway in Williston, Florida, in May.

And here's what the Model S owner's manual has to say about Autopilot: "...Always drive attentively and be prepared to take immediate action." (Note: How fast can you switch yourself from relax mode into controlling the wheel to avoid a fatal accident?)

"When machines unsure to make decisions

Where's the lane? Self-driving cars confused by shabby U.S. roadways

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Photo courtesy heavy.com, Reuters / Mario Anzuoni, and Ben Cawthra / Rex / Shutterstock

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2016 Ends with Three Supermoons
Step outside on October 16, and take a look at the moon. Not only will the moon be full, but on that day, the moon will be at its closest point to our planet as it orbits Earth. This makes the October full moon a supermoon.

The term supermoon has entered popular consciousness in recent years. Originally a term from modern astrology for a new or full moon that occurs when the moon is within 90% of its closest approach to Earth in a given orbit, supermoon now refers more broadly to a full moon that is closer to Earth than average.

Since the moon’s orbit is elliptical, one side (perigee) is about 30,000 miles (50,000 km) closer to Earth than the other (apogee). The word syzygy, in addition to being useful in word games, is the scientific name for when the Earth, sun, and moon line up as the moon orbits Earth. When perigee-syzygy of the Earth-moon-sun system occurs and the moon is on the opposite side of the Earth from the sun, we get a perigee moon or more commonly, a supermoon!  read more »

Image courtesy @FoxBusiness

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...the computers that will tally the final vote, saying the outcome is so easy to manipulate that even a monkey could do it.

And they showed video of a monkey hacking the system to prove it.

In the minute-long video produced by Black Box Voting, Baxter the chimp is shown deleting the audit log that is supposed to keep track of changes in the Diebold central tabulator, the computer and program that keeps track of county vote totals.

On October 20, 2016, Otto and Budweiser completed the world’s first shipment by self-driving truck.
The truck drove itself on I-25 from Fort Collins, through Denver, to Colorado Springs.
The driver was out of the driver's seat during the entire 120 mile stretch of highway.

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Image courtesy Voting Machines and lybio.net

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On 31 Oct 1892, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle, was published. The book was the first collection of Holmes stories, which Conan Doyle had been publishing in magazines since 1887.
Conan Doyle was born in Scotland and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where he met Dr. Joseph Bell, a teacher with extraordinary deductive power. Bell partly inspired Doyle’s character Sherlock Holmes years later.

After medical school, Conan Doyle moved to London, where his slow medical practice left him ample free time to write. His first Sherlock Holmes story, “A Study in Scarlet,” was published in Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887. Starting in 1891, a series of Holmes stories appeared in The Strand magazine, and Conan Doyle was able to give up his medical practice and devote himself to writing. Later collections include The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894), The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905), and The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (1827).

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Image courtesy natedsanders.com