Google Camels, Insite Drug Injection and Revenue Canada

GOOGLE: "Street Views" Of The Liwa Dessert

 

   Google has become famous for it's wide range of unusual "Street Views" such as mountains, oceans, and volcanoes.

  Not to mention the funny scenes accidentally captured.

   And then there are their amazing  "Time Machine views."

   Somehow, the idea of a camera "viewing" a dessert "street" struck me as funny. Just when I didn't think Google could still surprise me anymore.

The Insite Safe Drug Injection Sites Saves Lives

      There was a flurry of nearly 40 potentially fatal overdose incidents last week in Vancouver. Workers at Insite saved these lives by delivering naloxone (an effective and easy to administer antidote for heroin overdose). Without Insite they would have died. Several Canadian cities are looking to expand the use of a medication that has been shown to save lives by countering the effects of a life-threatening prescription drug overdose.

     There is obviously a need not only for controlled injection sites such as Insite, but also for outreach programs that can deliver naloxone to users who accidentally overdose on faulty prepared heroin wherever they may be. Overdosing is a part of life (or death) for addicts. It is an addiction - not a sin
     The federal Canadian government has made no secret of its dislike of supervised injection facilities. June 5, 2013, the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, announced new legislation for supervised consumption sites in a press release. On the same day, the Conservative Party of Canada initiated a “Not In My Backyard” campaign. We thus have a surreal situation in which a government is introducing a bill to seemingly advance an objective that the ruling party is actively resisting.

OUR CANADIAN GOVERNMENT IN "ACTION"

1) The Charities Directorate of Revenue Canada has cracked down on a small group of 300 nature watchers as the latest group to worry that its charitable status may be revoked because of "political activity". What had they done? They had written a letter to the government concerning the effects of pesticide chemicals on the bee and bird populations. I don't see how this is "political activity" unless the bees are being encouraged to  vote NDP. Or maybe our government is concerned about too much interest in the "the birds and the bees"?

     In 2012-13 a special squad of 15 auditors started to enforce this tax rule on charities, starting with a number of environment groups. It went on to target some 52 charities like social justice and poverty groups, many of them critical of Conservative government policies which they choose to consider as "political activity".
     No group has been de-registered (so no money has been saved), but the audits have been expensive and disruptive for many of the groups which operate on a shoestring. The threat of de-registeration is nothing but bullying.

2) This week Canada Post is beginning the closure of delivery to Canadian homes in favor of "Superboxes". There have been concerns about the whole idea, although it is widely used in the USA. So widely used that Canada is purchasing our Superboxes from USA companies without giving any chance for Canadian firms to bid on the rather lucrative contract(s).

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 (disclaimer)

The following is kind of political but is not meant to be partisan. We are having a Federal Election on October 19, 2015, dictated by LAW (although somehow our last election was held earlier than that). I thought I should make some acknowldgment of the "funny" things around out election. It is held 36 days after it is called, but we are already in FULL ELECTION MODE.

1) In "Party of One" (just published, so I haven't read it yet), investigative journalist Michael Harris closely examines the majority government of a prime minister essentially unchecked by the opposition and empowered by the general election victory of May 2011.

Harris looks at Harper’s policies, instincts, and the often breathtaking gap between his stated political principles and his practices.

 2) The Government has put out a Trudeau attack ad by email to their faithful. In their email they are urging people to pass it on, so here I am - advertising for the Conservatives.  It is called transparency.

From their email:

"As you’ll see, the Prime Minister’s job is a serious one, and only one leader is up to it.
  I encourage you to take a minute and watch it here:    www.conservative.ca/?p=5577
  This is an ad we want all Canadians to see, and I hope I can count on you to share it with 3 people who haven’t seen it yet."

Funny that they only send it out to people they know. If you visit their site to view it they will first ask for your name, email and postal code. They don't seem to care if it is a real name, let alone yours . . . or a valid postal code ... or email address. 

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Autonomous (driverless) Cars and Robots

(SOON WE WON'T NEED PEOPLE EXCEPT FOR MAINTENANCE)

 1) Robot Dude Hitches Across Canada

     Armed with little more than a primitive ability to beg for rides, a Canadian robot aiming to hitchhike from Halifax to Victoria has already made it to the Quebec border in its first 24 hours.
      Now, hitchBOT — a device constructed from a plastic bucket, solar panels and a tablet computer — only needs to cover the remaining 5,600 kilometres without being smashed, stolen or dismantled.
     The device is equipped with arms and legs made from pool noodles and a simple LED screen displaying a smiling face. It has no moving parts and is designed to cajole drivers into picking it up, using a rudimentary ability to understand human speech.
    When they ask the inevitable “where are you going?”  the robot’s electronic voice responds:
           “I’m headed to Victoria BC, as far west as I can manage. Going my way?”
     Drivers are also asked to plug the robot into their car’s cigarette lighter to charge its batteries.

Related links:

-          NASA scientists build robotic woman — ‘Valkyrie’ — to accompany astronauts in space

-          Japan launches talking humanoid robot into space

-          World’s first ‘highly intelligent’ teddy bear already plotting world domination

2) United Kingdom Authorizes Driver-less Car Tests For 2015

3) Google Cars Can Drive Themselves
            The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles approved Google’s license application to test autonomous vehicles on the state’s roads. The state had approved such laws back in February, and has now begun issuing licenses based on those regulations. Google’s self-driving car is still at least five years away from commercialization, but the team behind the project has made remarkable progress since starting work in 2009 (taken from WIRED magazine).
        Having traveled some 700,000 autonomous miles, the Google cars have learned a lot, such as:
HOW TO:
   Avoid creaming cyclists: In the event a cyclist actually decides to warn traffic before he turns, the car notices. Thanks to laser imaging, the car recognizes the hand waving and will expect the cyclist to move over.
      Be aggressive: It turns out self-driving cars tend to be too polite. Google noticed that at four-way stops, the car stayed behind the stop line, waiting for its turn. Naturally, human drivers, seeing it just sitting there, took advantage and crossed ahead of it. So the team rejiggered the car to slowly inch forward at stop signs, signaling to other drivers that it wants its turn.
     Break the law: For city driving, Google keeps it legal. But on the highway, team members adjust the settings to let the car drive above the speed limit, to safely keep up with the flow of traffic.
     Pick up on potholes:Like with speed bumps, the car spots potholes and slows down before hitting them. It doesn’t drive around them, though, so owners should think about saving up for a new suspension once in a while.
     Predict the future that didn’t happen: Say the driver takes control because he isn’t confident the car will properly handle a tricky situation, like navigating construction. The car shoots all of the info its sensors are picking up, so the team can run a computer simulation of how the car would have acted if the operator had let it handle things. That means Google doesn’t have to find out the hard way it needs to tweak the car’s behavior.

BUT THEY STILL CAN'T:

    Take you to the mountains: Bad weather doesn’t just make traction control tricky, it change how the car sees the world around. Snow on the ground and water kicked up by other cars messes with the spinning laser that sits on the roof, while fog limits how far the radar can see. Fortunately, Google is doing the bulk of its testing the Bay Area, where it will get a lot of practice with fog. Ten bucks says engineers are lobbying for a trip to Tahoe–you know, for snow testing. 

    Go off the grid: Like a millennial, the car gets upset when it can’t get a cell signal, which gives it access to Google’s bank of detailed maps and let it send new information back home. No worries if the connection is a bit slow, but if it drops out, the car will “do something safe. 

    Understand traffic cops: The car will detect that “there’s a person standing in the middle of the road waving their hands in a funny way,” Software Lead Dmitri Dolgov said, but it won’t be able to decipher different hand motions. Rather, it will understand that something unusual is happening, and act conservatively, or ask the human at the wheel to take over. 

    Avoid creaming squirrels: While the car picks up pedestrians who may jaywalk and deer that could bolt across the road, squirrels are still too small for its sensors. The team is constantly working to pick up more and more detail, but hasn’t “done a squirrel test,” Urmson said.

4) Legal Problems and Ethics with Autonomous Cars

    (a) Nevada is accepting applications for licensing driverless cars for 2015
    (b) Who will be liable when an autonomous car crashes with a driver-driven car? Or if two driverless cars collide? The New Yorker (and other Internet sources) have interesting comments and debates.
 

5) What About Speeding Tickets?
   (a) Fines for speeding are always a problem. Different countries have tried different approaches. For instance, setting the fine in accordance with the person's income has led to to HUGE fines in some countries.
   (b) Although one would expect a robot car would never speed, Google's cars are programmed to break the law in the interests of safety in some cases. And then again, there are "speed traps".

                My friend Derrick reported on Facebook the following discussion when stopped by the highway police .

               The policeman :"Didn't you see the speed sign? "

               Derrick: "Of course I saw the sign.  It was YOU I didn't see."

 Will driverless cars be programmed to detect police?

   (c) Who will be responsible for speeding tickets? With driver-driven cars the responsibility is usually with the driver as being in charge of the vehicle. With autonomous vehicles it would probably be the owner? Or the vehicle programer?

(6) The Big Philosophical (but useless) Question:

       Will autonomous cars be programmed to pick up hitchhikers? And if so, will they stop for a hitchBOT standing on the roadside to give him/her/it a ride?   

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