Ben's scary headline: Worker Killed By Robot
The Robot Revolution has begun! Robots are attacking us! EMP them all!
Actual FT Headline: Worker killed in Volkswagen robot accident
Wait, now, what? Accident?
Story: Robotic device activates during installation, crushes technician.
Oh. Never mind. Not rogue AI. Human error.
Horrible way to go, though.
Horrific story of personal agony.
Yesterday morning, picking up the pet food bowls, I managed somehow to snag my big toe in the cuff of my pantsleg. Maybe in another sixty years I'll learn how to walk.
I know, I know, wearing pants was my first mistake.
Falling down hard is an experience I've learned gets more dangerous as the decades pass, which lesson flashed through my mind, as I fell awkwardly, hitting on one knee, and crashing into a plastic dome pet house. To my astonishment, the pet house was soft enough that I did not injure my arm and did not even tear the pantsleg nor injure my knee!
But of course I couldn't get away clean. I must've really bent my toe, because it's still swollen and purple today. Really did a number on it. At least it's not broken; I can still walk. Would hate to stub it or have somebody step on it, though.
Pants should come with warning labels. I'm going to write my congressman about this. (Oh, wait, my congressman is a sensible person. I'll write your congressman.)
Absorbed Vic's news. (Thanks, rocking-chair guy.) Now I yam fortified against the day.
USA - Common Core 2015 Map - a mindful webwork
What will be taught as the "United States" in public schools, from now on.
http://bit.ly/usa-cc-2015
...
Grand Canyon still included, but renamed Michelle Obama Gorge... waut...
Hillary's Private E-mal Server
Too appropriate; must be intentional, not a tpyo.
...In a 7-2 opinion the Supreme Court found the placement of the monument on the grounds of the state Capitol violate Article 2, Section 5, of the Oklahoma Constitution which prohibits the use of public money or property to directly or indirectly benefit a "church denomination or system of religion."
--Randy Ellis, NewsOK
http://bit.ly/oksc-vs-10comm
In utterly un-related (ha!) news, a serious movement is afoot to impeach the entire Oklahoma Supreme Court.
HH: Constitutional carry goes into effect today in KS. You can CC without any permit.
@votermom: Cool! Any other states like that?
Well, according to the 2nd Amendment, they're all like that....
Vic News Links buried in the ONT
http://bit.ly/vnn-2015-07-01
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...president of the American College of Pediatrics... Dr. Michelle Cretella, said [T]his is a tragic day for America's children. The SCOTUS has just undermined the single greatest pro-child institution in the history of mankind: the natural family....
--Ashley Edwardson, AllenBWest.com
http://bit.ly/1HwOzIx
LDC: Teenage girl with toilet phobia dies from heart attack after going eight weeks without going poo.
No $#!+?
Several major websites including Instagram, Pinterest, Netflix and Amazon crashed at midnight UK time, with many offline for around 40 minutes.
If a leap-second causes that many problems, I can't wait for the solar prominence effect.
A sun blast would be kind-of like a neutron bomb. Except, instead of wiping out all the people and leaving the infrastructure, it wipes out all the (electronic) infrastructure, and leaves the people - helpless, gasping, crying, clutching their cells and tablets.
...It was taken 35 years ago. In the picture, an Army sergeant is on his belly, pinned down by enemy fire, looking grim and determined. In the foreground is a dead GI, in the background, a seriously wounded one. The person behind the lens that day was me: a skinny young civilian war photographer experiencing his most terrifying day in Vietnam.... I decided to try to find him, see how his life had turned out. ... "I know who that sergeant is in your photo," he said. "That's Sergeant Rock. Joe Musial."
--Robert Hodierne
http://bit.ly/1GZ2SlW
h/t All the Right Snark
http://bit.ly/1LCRcbF
DiT: Andy didn't tell me how hard this was.
All those flashing buttons and mysterious levers. Just remember: Don't push the big read button!
I'm used to the locker-room smell and the piles of cans and ashtrays full of cigar butts on a late-running ONT, but this thick brown goo on the floor is... unusual.
It's alive!
Vic: ...Gee how awful. 11 fatalities and 10K injuries in a country with over 300 million people. And it would be interesting to see how they arrived at those figures....
Every little owie is important to your Big Brother.
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Every summer in my youth, we partied out here at the ranch, but especially on the 4th. Lots of friends and relatives, swimming, picnicking and, of course, shooting off tons of fireworks, ending with a modest but fun pro show at night.
I know of three injuries in all those years.
One, some friend of a friend, unclear on the rules everyone else knew, threw a Black Cat at my back. Stung a little. Ruined my t-shirt. I mighta been nine. Made me mad.
Two, despite our father's repeated and explicit instructions and warnings about how to handle fireworks, my oldest brother had to go to the hospital one year when the roman candle he was holding in his hands exploded. Providing a fine lesson for all the rest of us. See? It does happen!
Three, the one year I got to go sit out by the Big Fireworks launch area. My older brothers decided to end the show with a double big bang.
Problem was, the big bang fireworks fit in the small mortar.
No problem, they decided, we'll use the big mortar anyway. (You see where this is going.)
Firework in the correct pipe went up and went boom high in the sky, as intended. Firework in the wrong pipe went up, went back down, and went boom right in front of me, knocking me off the tailgate of Papa's station wagon and deafening and blinding me for quite a while. Spectacular!
Accidents happen. More often, they're Carelessnesses. If not outright Knew-Better Stupids. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Americans should revere the right to allow Darwinism to be in effect with fireworks.
I think I'm late and it turns out I arrive just in time for Vic's Views and News. Yay.
Overnight Morning, Glories!
