Unrelatedly, I retooled the blog, and it’s quite handsome! If you’ve been reading the RSS feed, check it out.

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1. Cue “The Final Countdown.”
2. ROY ’08: The best albums of 2008.
3. No, the key was not in the safe at the time.

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1. Linkwad.
2. Linkwad.
3. Linkwad.

The system maintains a safe distance to the vehicle ahead, drives at a speed selected by the driver, reduces this speed as necessary before a bend, and maintains the vehicle’s central position with respect to lane markers. The system also observes overtaking rules and speed limits. Additionally, stop and start driving maneuvers in traffic jams are also automated.

The good news–or bad, depending on how you look at it–is that compared to the more advanced autonomous driving technologies, Volkswagen’s latest Temporary Auto Pilot is based on a relatively production-like sensor platform, consisting of production-level radar-, camera-, and ultrasonic-based sensors supplemented by a laser scanner and an electronic horizon.

This means that we could see a production version within the next couple of years.

VW is careful to say that owners would need to oversee the system, of course, but this is a big step towards  having personal cabs. On the one hand, this could be great. DUIs could become nonexistent¹, and having a computer in charge of acceleration should produce better fuel economy and better traffic flow. On the other hand, being able to do do things while in the car would give people another reason to forgo mass transit, which is a much more effective way to achieve both those things.

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1. Harm City.
2. Five² for Friday, 21 Aug.
3. Technology is cool.

In the neighborhood surrounding [the Hiram Walker Distillery] Lakeshore warehouses, homeowners were complaining about a mysterious black mold coating their houses. And the residents, following their noses, blamed the whiskey. Doyle wanted to know what the mold was and whether it was the company’s fault. Scott headed up to Lakeshore to take a look. When he arrived at the warehouse, the first thing he noticed (after “the beautiful, sweet, mellow smell of aging Canadian whiskey,” he says) was the black stuff. It was everywhere—on the walls of buildings, on chain-link fences, on metal street signs, as if a battalion of Dickensian chimney sweeps had careened through town.

Bonus quote! “[scientist James Scott] couldn’t name [the mystery whiskey mold] after himself; that’s unspeakably crass in the fungal world.”

When my fiancée and I did the Kentucky bourbon trail last year, the stuff was everywhere. At the Jim Beam distillery, in particular, to keep the original Beam house looking pristine, they power wash it frequently, and still have to repaint it every year¹.

Here’s a closeup of one of the warehouse walls.

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1. Linkwad.
2. Baltimore bounces Brown.
3. Brooklyn zoo.

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Steve pointed me to this Consumerist post about a new “superstreet” design:

Left turns increase the potential for an accident and also waste fuel¹. So traffic engineers have come up with a new street design, called “superstreets” that get rid of all left turns. And a new study says they are both faster, and safer.

The design uses dividers to force all turns to be right hand turns. Want to go in the opposite direction? Use the U-turns located just down the road from the intersection.

Superstreets have been around since the 60′s but now the North Carolina State University study finds that superstreets reduce travel time by 20%. See, the U-turns are actually faster because drivers aren’t stuck at the light trying to wait for traffic to clear enough to turn. Not only that, but the superstreets studied had 46% fewer reported car collisions and 63% fewer collisions that ended in personal injury.

Of course, this doesn’t really help established cities or encourage mass transit use, but it’s a cool idea.

Update: Scott points out that the “Michigan left” has been been a fixture of the state since the ’60s.

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2. What’s the matter with Kansas South Dakota?
3. Don’t worry about the government.

In short, sending power through air (a good insulator) is infinitely massively² less efficient than copper (an excellent conductor). This negates a lot of the fuel-efficiency advantages of electric cars, to say nothing of what happens when those giant battery packs need to be replaced. However, because they’re marginally more convenient, newer, and cooler, I fully expect wireless charging to be commonplace soon.

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1. Another reason for unsubsidized handsets.
2. Linkwad.
3. I really can’t remember the name of that asteroid movie.

1. Full-body scanners are fucking stupid. No one likes them; not pilots, not security experts, and especially not small-donged TSA employees and the sexually assaulted passengers¹ whose images they save. Plus, they (still) don’t work.
2. The Washington Independent‘s down for the count. However, a lot of their reporters have graduated to bigger things, and continue to do great work.
3. Girl Talk’s new LP, All Day, is pretty outstanding, and as always, it’s free.
4. In Florida foreclosures, banks have gotten the courts to help with their legally shaky foreclosures–at a rate of up to 25 cases per hour.

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1. Linkwad.
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3. All eyes on me.

Now, I’m back! And here are some (not-entirely-awful) cell phone photos of my trip to New Paltz to visit Steve and his fiancee Allyson. I’ll just say that the Hudson River valley is gorgeous during fall and Market Market makes a damn good burger. Quite an outstanding, relaxing weekend.

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3. Blame it on the alcohol.

[S]ervicing is all done without venturing to the dealership. An Apple iPad comes with every car and stores the owner’s manual; it also is through the device that owners schedule services such as oil changes or repairs. Once a service is arranged, a technician will pick the car up from the owner’s home, office, or designated airport parking lot, leaving a loaner Equus or Genesis in its place. …When the servicing is done, they’ll swap the loaner back for your car.

Also, remember when I thought the iPad was stupid and useless, and would be a major bust a la Macbook Air?

…Yeah… whoops.

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2. Linkwad.
3. Linkwad (updated).