Self Driving Topic

 The Volkswagen CEO came out this past week and said between 2025 and 2030....he expects self-driving cars to be a happening thing.

He doesn't say that folks will ask for the option, or that it would be affordable.  In fact, he doesn't suggest the price-tag for this option.

Will it even be authorized in US or European markets?  There's been an order given by the German government for regulations to be created in the next couple of years and prepare for this.  

So this scenario would start to unfold.  You'd walk into a Volkswagen display area, and here is X-model which features self-driving.  You'd ask questions...to find that the government has authorized it and it's an option.  Then some guy would quote you the price (probably more than $5k), and you'd just grin and walk away.

Two years would pass, and you'd now find the option is more like $2.5k, and you might be willing to pay this.

What you'd discover is that you still sit in the driver's seat, but mostly sit there with a cup of coffee....watching some episode of 'Three's Company' or reading all of your office e-mails over the forty-minute drive.  The car pulls safely into the parking lot, and detects the closest parking spot to the front door (your preferred program instruction).  

After four months of this, you are pretty much sold on the whole concept, and will never drive any car other than this. 

Eventually, you start putting the seat down and sleeping the whole way to work each day.  

After five years of this....you basically come to admit one day....you've lost all of your driving skills and can't operate a car.  

At that point, the car companies have you in a bind....you can't go back to the old way, and they can raise the self-driving option another $5k to $8k, with no real argument from you.

Just Ten Observations

 1.  About one-third of comedians that exist today....aren't that funny (at least in my humble view).  A lot of this has to do with networks and programing which is reaching a desperate stage and willing to put on a two-star comedian with a shelf-life of six months.  

2.  Just because you make a law....doesn't mean a sheriff or police chief will allocate man-power to enforce it.  We are probably reaching a stage where one out of every four laws created....will just sit there on a shelf, with no one enforcing it.  In this case, is it even worth the political cost to accomplish such a law? 

3.  Does Disney own Fox News/Fox Business?  Yes.  This deal was done in the spring of 2019.  Most people missed the announcement, and are fairly shocked to find out that Disney runs the network.

4.  This 'civil war' we are in....it's more about persuasion, 'dirty' political tricks, and misinformation....than actual warfare.

5.  How long did Blockbuster survive?  Well....from the first initial shop (1985)....it was mostly spiraling after 2000, and 'dead' by 2010. Cable TV and streaming video doomed it for the final ten years.

You have twenty-old 'kids' today asking what the hell was Blockbuster, and you sit there....it was your 'must-have' situation in 1995 and you rented six to eight movies every single month.  

6.  If we'd ever put as much emphasis on rubber condoms as we did on forcing everyone to wear masks....we could wipe out sexual disease in 100 days.  Our slogan ought to be 'wear a mask and a rubber'.  Course, if masks don't work, then the odds are that condoms probably won't work that well either.  

7.  Are folks sitting around the house in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis....quietly triggering more than average day-trading?  Some numbers are suggesting this (it's not something that normally is tracked that much).  A Covid-19 'bubble' in the financial world being created?  Well....it's just an odd thing to consider.  Guys sitting at home....who ought to be doing Home-Office, and wasting two hours a day (supposedly in work)....doing a fake wave situation.

8.  The Moderna Covid-19 vaccination offering only three to four months of decent immunity?  Well....that's the story out in the news today.  It begs the question...would we have to go and do three to four shots per year?

9.  NBC News says that US intelligence is blabbering over a report that says China has a new agenda.....'people testing' going on with the Chinese army....trying to make soldiers with "biologically enhanced capabilities." 

Fact or fiction?  Unknown.  It sounds like something that the KGB would make up and pass around as fake news for the CIA to accidentally 'discover'.  If true?  Steroids would likely be somewhere in the middle of this, and developing a bunch of medical issues for Chinese ex-soldiers as they get into the mid-30s....with rage issues.  

10.  The US Space Force was all set to announce it's ranking system and preferred titles for each rank.....then Congress got involved....dictating that rank addresses have to be naval-related.  

Yeah, it was pretty much set to be Air Force-related.  Now?  It's all in a discussion stage, with the former Air Force quietly grumbling that they have to adapt to naval terms. 

Can Santa Make It?

 In the midst of the Covid-19 era, the topic of Santa ought to come up.

First, can Santa survive Covid-19 or because of his unhealthy lifestyle (over-eating, lot of soda-drinking, etc)....is he a 'goner'?

Second, can Santa cross over the New York state line without a Covid-19 test?  Will he have to wait two weeks in some Brooklyn quarantine situation?  Will the governor just give him a waiver?

Third, will Covid-19 affect the elves?

Fourth, can the reindeer be affected by Covid-19?  If so, can we get Ford to engineer some type of clean-fuel delivery vehicle for Santa before the evening of the 24th?

Fifth and final....if Santa has Covid-19 symptoms and touches 15 million toys....will the virus 'critters' survive the delivery phase and infect 300-million kids world-wide?  Would it be wise to wipe clean (with Ajax or Windex) all toys that Santa delivers?