If You Can't See A Parked Red Fire Truck, How Are You Gonna See Sophia? -- Don Asks -- January 22, 2018

Great question. Wow, doesn't this just about change everything. If you can't see a huge red object in the middle of your pathway, what does that say about seeing a child that darts into the middle of a street -- link here.

A Tesla Model S reportedly on “Autopilot” smashed into the back of a fire truck parked at a freeway accident scene Monday morning, authorities said.

The union representing Culver City firefighters whose truck was hit around 8:30 a.m. on Interstate 405 in Culver City tweeted that the Tesla driver said he had been using Tesla’s Autopilot system, which performs automated driving tasks.

The California Highway Patrol and Culver City Fire Department confirmed the southbound Tesla had struck the fire truck, but could not immediately confirm whether the vehicle had been on Autopilot.

My hunch: somebody's lying.

What was the blood alcohol level of the Tesla?

Somebody Is Lying, Dixie Hummingbirds
By the way, this is why pilots/co-pilots go through a checklist before takeoff and before landing. It's easy to forget to do something. If this guy is not lying, it's possible he "thought" he put it on autopilot.

Or autopilot has a flaw.

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Bulls-Eye

On November 2, 2017, I posted this:

After "Blade Runner 2049" I told my wife I was never going to go to another movie. LOL. But then I saw the trailer for "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri." After seeing the trailer, I told my wife that, depending on the reviews, I really want to see this movie. 

 

Well, I've seen my first review and it looks like a winner. Can't wait to see it. In the WSJ: humor and sadness in the Ozarks. 

About 20 minutes into Martin McDonagh’s new film, Mildred, played by Frances McDormand, delivers a tongue-lashing soliloquy to the local priest. He has come by her house to warn her against taking on the powers-that-be in their small town. Her sudden rant, invoking the history of the Crips and the Bloods (don’t ask), tears the clergyman limb from limb—and leaves the audience in delight, if slightly uneasy.

For an Anglo-Irish playwright like Mr. McDonagh, it is no big stretch to take a swing at the Catholic Church. “That’s what it’s there for,” he says. “They’ve been doing it to us for years.”

That’s just one scene in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” however, and soon he’s moved on to something different. Like the movie’s marketing-unfriendly title—“I like its clunkiness”—he’s the opposite of pandering: This writer/director does what he wants.

When I first saw the trailer, I thought it was a Coen Bros production, but apparently not. But with Frances McDormand in it, one wonders. 

It is now being said that "Three Billboards" could sweep Hollywood's award season. Whoo-hoo!