- Unemployed people who use the Internet for a living…use the Internet when they’re unemployed.
- Won’t someone please think of the children! Relatedly, NPR had a good series on the bail bond industry earlier this year.
- Wait, you mean “Top Secret America” didn’t fix the problem?
- Google’s privacy dilemma.
Tag: news
Linkwad.
That’s why we’re still waiting.
From the NYT Mag:
Is adulthood now so malleable, with marriage and employment options constantly being reassessed, that young people would be better off just getting started on something, or else they’ll never catch up, consigned to remain always a few steps behind the early bloomers? Is emerging adulthood a rich and varied period for self-discovery, as Arnett says it is? Or is it just another term for self-indulgence?
I’d say more self-indulgence. This is not necessarily a bad thing–on the whole, I’d say that things like, say, Teach for America were less harmful than the super-driven, high-achieving folks who came up with mortgage-backed securities.
Linkwad.
- The ACLU starts pushing for gun rights. No word on who Fox News will use as a liberal boogeyman now (via Radley Balko).
- I don’t really understand much except the first sentence.
- No one makes phone calls anymore.
- The Arcade Fire’s pretty-great new album, The Suburbs, is streaming on NPR.
- The Mythbusters get interviewed.
Linkwad.
- A former writer for The Tonight Show details how Conan got screwed.
- Moving may or may not be problematic for kids, especially introverted and neurotic ones. Via @Maryvale.
- Was the Toyota runaway vehicle panel unqualified?
- New deportation rulings are a step forward, but probably won’t help anyone already kicked out.
Crash test dummies.
So it turns out that Toyotas don’t accelerate wildly, and people are just shitty drivers:
The U.S. Department of Transportation has analyzed dozens of data recorders from Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles involved in accidents blamed on sudden acceleration and found that the throttles were wide open and the brakes weren’t engaged at the time of the crash, people familiar with the findings said.
…The initial findings are consistent with a 1989 government-sponsored study that blamed similar driver mistakes for a rash of sudden-acceleration reports involving Audi 5000 sedans.
The Toyota findings appear to support Toyota’s position that sudden-acceleration reports involving its vehicles weren’t caused by electronic glitches in computer-controlled throttle systems, as some safety advocates and plaintiffs’ attorneys have alleged. More than 100 people have sued the car maker over crashes they claim were the result of faulty electronics.
A while back, I suggested (while drinking, if I recall correctly) that anyone who crashed a Toyota should just blame their mistakes on a vehicular HAL 9000:
One case studied by U.S. regulators involves Myrna Marseille of Kohler, Wis., who reported in March that her 2009 Toyota Camry accelerated out of control and crashed into a building.
…Police in Sheboygan Falls, Wis., investigated and believe driver error was to blame, Chief Steven Riffel said Tuesday. He said surveillance video showed that the brake lights didn’t illuminate until after the crash. But Mr. Riffel said that determination is preliminary and that his agency has turned over the investigation to NHTSA.
…Ms. Marseille sticks by her story. “It makes me very angry when someone tells me, ‘She probably hit the gas pedal instead,’ because I think it’s a sexist comment, an ageist comment,” she said.
In the long run, it looks like God’s down with the assholes.
Via Radley Balko.