Links not related to the antichrist:
1. UN Report: Israel’s Gender-Based Violence in Gaza Amounts to “Genocidal Acts” (March 14, via)
Also: Palestinian deaths in Gaza rise above 50,000 as Israel expands its military campaign (March 23)
2. Tesla Falls for 'Wile E. Coyote-Style' Fake Road Wall (March 17) Oh I am really interested in this test, because working with lidar and camera data used to be my actual job. (I recommend watching the whole video from that link- really cool stuff about sensor data!)
Here's the important thing about sensors for robotics (including self-driving cars): Every sensor has its weaknesses- some situations where it won't give you reliable data. Rain, darkness, objects of a certain color, too far away, etc. So you have to know what the weaknesses of your sensors are, and combine data from different sensors, to make up for those weaknesses. And probably calculate some kind of confidence value to indicate how much you should trust your data. You could see in the test with lidar and the jets of water, the lidar wasn't able to really make out whether there were any objects among the jets of water- so it stops the car there. You have to stop the car, because you can't have any confidence about whether there are any obstacles in there or not. But, the problem is false positives when you take that approach.
Still, though, if you literally can't be sure there's not an object there, the car absolutely should not be driving there. If this gives you too many false positives, you need a different sensor setup- the sensors you're using aren't right for the application you're trying to use them for. Honestly I don't know that there are any sensors (including the human eye!) that can reliably identify whether there are any actual obstacles among sheets of heavy rain- maybe that's a sign you shouldn't be driving at all.
3. George Foreman dies at 76: Heavyweight boxing legend, famous entrepreneur leaves 'big' legacy (March 21)
4. Big Bear Bald Eagle Live Nest - Cam 1 (via) Wow this is great! It's a live webcam looking at a bald eagle nest with little baby chicks.
5. Skin bleaching is terribly popular — and takes a terrible toll (March 25) "Within a few years, she moved on to a stronger product called Dermovate — at the time, the in-vogue skin whitening body lotion, recommended by her friends at high school. They knew most boys in her school were more interested in lighter skinned girls."
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Links related to the antichrist:
1. Columbia University agrees to Trump demands in effort to restore federal funding (March 22) "On Thursday, 41 of the roughly 100 members of the university's history department warned the university against allowing the administration to interfere in its policy. They compared the administration's actions to attempts by "authoritarian regimes" to seek control over independent academic institutions."
2. Why trying to understand what the Trump admin did in response to the TRO matters (March 17) "It is essential that everyone in the structure of government is forced to be accountable for their role in supporting or allowing — or in seeking to stop — illegal and unconstitutional actions."
And also related to that: Judge won’t lift block on Trump use of Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans (March 24) It's scary that this is already happening. People are getting arrested and put in immigration detention- sometimes even deported- without any kind of due process.
3. The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans (March 24) Holy crap. This is WILD. These people are so incompetent.
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| Political cartoon showing two Greek soldiers looking at the Trojan horse. One of them says, "Then, after we unwittingly roll it in, they leap out & attack us, according to this groupchat I'm in with Pete Hegseth." Image source. |
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| Image text: "'I Messed Up At Work Again,' Crestfallen Michael Waltz Texts Wife, National Geographic Editorial Staff" (from the Onion). Image source. |
