I WROTE A POST ABOUT WRITING: Chiaroscuro.
IT MIGHT BE OF INTEREST TO YOU IF YOU WRITE. BUT BECAUSE OF THE ILLUSTRATION I CHOSE, AND MY FANS’ GOOD OFFICES, I FELL DOWN A RABBIT HOLE THAT LED TO: The Truth Behind the “Judith Beheading Holofernes” Pasta Sauce Label.
Since Judith is one of my favorite Biblical figures (yes, indeed. Is that your shocked face?) I found the whole thing fascinating. I think what her face on the label is saying is “you mean there’s no meat in this?”
THIS IS MY SHOCKED FACE: With illegals flipping elections now, Democrats’ opposition to a wall is all about their grip on power.
THE WORLD CONTAINS MORE SOCIALISTS OF THEIR STRIPE THAN DOES THE AREA THAT WOULD BE DEFENDED BY THE WALL: Democrats Can Fund the World, but Not the Wall.
THE TOCSIN IS SOUNDING. ARE YOU STILL ASLEEP? Two Completely Unrelated Stories.
WELL, DID IT COME WITH A RECEIPT? I KNOW, WALMART CAN TAKE PRACTICALLY ANYTHING BACK EVEN WITHOUT A RECEIPT, EVEN IF THEY DON’T SELL IT. I SAY WE TAKE HER BACK TO WALMART! THE REFUND SHOULD BE ENOUGH TO GET A PACK OF CHEWING GUM. Ocasio-Cortez, the gift that keeps on giving.
WHERE CAN I DONATE TO THE PEOPLE PROMOTING CALEXIT AGAIN? Gavin Newsom To Provide All Illegals Sanctuary And Healthcare No Questions Asked.
IF YOU AREN’T ON FACEBOOK YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO SEE THE VIDEO. IT MIGHT ALSO — CURIOUSLY — BE BLOCKED ABROAD, OR AT LEAST MY FRIENDS ABROAD WERE COMPLAINING. BUT THE DESCRIPTION SHOULD GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF WHAT IS NOT BEING REPORTED: “the revolution is not being televised” Nye Bevan News shares apparently buried clips of Yellow Vest.
SO DON’T SCREW IT UP: Grand Cayman tops list for best islands in 2019.
SHE’S NOT WRONG: Democratic Congresswoman Calls Out Fellow Democrats for ‘Religious Bigotry.’ “Representative Tulsi Gabbard, a Democrat from Hawaii, published an op-ed in The Hill yesterday, implicitly criticizing two of her fellow Democratic congresswomen for subjecting a judicial nominee to a religious test as a result of his Catholic faith and his long-time membership in the Knights of Columbus.”
AT AMAZON, save on Vitamins and Dietary Supplements.
CES 2019: Robomart — The Future of Law Enforcement Supermarket Delivery.
Customers can use a smartphone app to hail the closest robot, which arrives packed with fresh produce. The app unlocks the doors, and the robot tracks what customers have taken using an array of cameras. Robomart charges the customer accordingly and moves on. The company has not revealed its delivery fee or a price range for the produce.
Robomart surveyed an unknown number of women between the ages of 24 and 44 and found that more than 85% of those polled said they do not shop for fruits and vegetables online because they think delivery is too expensive or because they do not trust the service to pick their produce. With Robomart, customers can cherry-pick their groceries from the vehicle, so are could be less concern about quality.
The vehicle is the culmination of 10 years of work from Ahmed, a serial entrepreneur. It’s about the size of a Sprinter van equipped with LiDAR, radar, and cameras that help it see and drive without a human operator. Ahmed said he expects Robomart to be fully autonomous this year.
In San Francisco, supermarket chains that use Robomart may have to keep a close watch on their vehicles. A security robot from startup Knightscope was vandalized and toppled after it was deployed outside an animal rescue group in December.
As Business Insider notes, “A robot grocery called Robotmart is coming for the humble delivery worker in California.” Fight for $15!
FROM MY FORMER STUDENT ESTHER ROBERTS, My Friend Sam,
MEANWHILE, BACK ON THE KOREAN PENINSULA: Kim Jong Un reaffirms denuclearization commitment, vows efforts for second summit with Trump.
Dig:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has reaffirmed his commitment to the denuclearization and vowed efforts to produce good results from his second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, Chinese state media said Thursday.
Kim made the pledge during his summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Tuesday, according to Xinhua News Agency. Kim was in China for a four-day trip, his fourth visit to the neighboring ally in about 10 months.
“The DPRK will continue sticking to the stance of denuclearization and resolving the Korean Peninsula issue through dialogue and consultation, and make efforts for the second summit between DPRK and U.S. leaders to achieve results that will be welcomed by the international community,” Xinhua quoted Kim as saying during talks with Xi.
Yeah, Instapundit readers, Kim’s a Commie liar, like Angela Davis. But he’s a scared Commie liar.
So we’re on the same page, check out this column which discusses South Korea’s close encounter (inspection) with North Korea’s utterly abysmal railroad system.
In December…South Korean railroad experts conducted a close inspection of North Korean railroads. Over two weeks, a South Korean train crept along some 2,000 kilometers of North Korean track, gathering highly granular data on North Korean rail infrastructure and verifying its miserable condition.
Pyongyang wants Seoul to help rebuild its railroads. South Korea says it will — after denuclearization. Denuclearization requires inspection and verification within the secretive North Korea. Paranoid North Korea let South Korean railroad experts inspect and verify. Was it a tentative first step toward accepting the nuclear weapons inspection and verification regimen CVID requires? Perhaps 2019 will tell provide a few more clues.
CVID = Complete, Verifiable and Irreversible Denuclearization.
Where can you get more details? Yes, of course. Cocktails from Hell. Go ahead. Do it. Order now. Rejoice. Finally, reality is a sales gimmick.
YAMAHA’S NEW CONCEPT MOTORCYCLE WOULD LET YOU SLALOM INTO THE FUTURE:
Yamaha spent the week at the Tokyo Motor Show airing out a few truly ridiculous reference designs, but none were more outrageous than the Niken three-wheeled motorcycle. Tricycles aren’t new, and this isn’t even the first leaning trike. But it’s the first idea like this to come from a major motorcycle company like Yamaha.
Being a reference design, there aren’t really any specs to speak of. Yamaha says that this “Leaning Multi-Wheeler” uses a liquid-cooled 3-cylinder engine and 15-inch wheels, but that’s about it.
Really, it’s all about seeing this thing in action. The video Yamaha released starts off with an actor pretending to ski down a road before doing the same action on the concept bike. (Well, technically, it begins with an actor swinging swords around while tapping touchscreen displays, but I digress.) The implication here is that the dual front wheels (and their discrete tubes and forks) would allow you to slalom down a winding mountain road more confidently and, hopefully, decrease the chance of eating it.
Yamaha’s in-house Stig certainly seems to be enjoying himself:
And it looked cool (albeit quirky) and futuristic at CES today:
NOW THIS IS THE 21st CENTURY I WAS PROMISED: Bell’s hybrid-electric flying car will be available via Uber by the ‘mid-2020s.’
Bell may have other motives in joining the hype parade at CES than just showing off a cool air taxi concept. The helicopter industry has experienced one of the sharpest disruptions caused by the slide in global oil prices. Bell is owned by global aerospace conglomerate Textron, which also includes Cessna Aircraft, Beechcraft, and other flight companies. A pivot from helicopters to electric VTOL would be a signal to investors that the company is looking toward the future.
In 2016, Uber first introduced its plan to bring its ride-sharing capabilities to the airspace over cities, but the project still faces significant hurdles. The kind of aircraft Uber envisions shuttling passengers from rooftop to rooftop — electric, autonomous, with the ability to take off and land vertically — don’t really exist yet, nor does the infrastructure to support such a service. Experts suggest that engineering and regulatory hindrances may prevent flying cars from ever taking off in a meaningful way.
That’s not to say flying cars aren’t having a moment: at least 19 companies are developing flying-car plans. These include legacy manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus, and small startups like Kitty Hawk, owned by Google founder Larry Page. Meanwhile, Uber has made significant strides in partnering with a handful of aircraft manufacturers, real estate firms, and regulators to better its chances of developing a fully functional, on-demand flying taxi service.
Only all-electric VTOL aircraft will be included in Uber’s air taxi service, though, which would seem to preclude a hybrid propulsion system like Bell’s Nexus vehicle. That said, Mark Moore, engineering director of aviation at Uber, said the concept was an important “first step” toward an all-electric, fully commercial flying taxi service.
It certainly looked awesome at CES today.
GREG BENFORD HAS WON THE 2019 Robert Heinlein Award, and it’s richly deserved.
OPEN THREAD: Hump Day.
