Driverless Delivery Vans: Welcome to the New World

When I wrote The Cylons Cometh at BlogHer, I had not yet heard about the caravan of driverless vans (video below).

Four driverless electric vans successfully ended a 8,000-mile (13,000-kilometer) test drive from Italy to China — a modern-day version of Marco Polo's journey around the world — with their arrival at the Shanghai Expo on Thursday.

One of the engineers in the MSNBC video talks about how dangerous human drivers are and how driverless vehicles might make the roads more safe. What do you think?

Lie to Me: What Was that Business About Butterflies?

Yes, I did see Tricia Helfer, who played Caprica Six on Battlestar Galactica, in her guest role on Fox's Lie to Me, Season 3, Episode 4, "Double Blind." While she is a talented actress, I was more curious about character Cal Lightman's reference to the Monarch and Viceroy butterflies. So, I looked up how butterflies use mimicry to confuse predators. (Tim Roth plays Lightman)

As explained at Henderson State University in Arkansas, the Monarch (Danaus plexippus) is the dangerous one, just poisonous enough to make birds ill but not kill them. The Viceroy benefits from mimicking the Monarch's color pattern, but only taste bad:

Another butterfly, smaller than the Monarch but mimicking its color pattern, can be found in areas inhabited by the Monarch. Compare the left photo of the Monarch to the right photo of its mimic. This mimic, called a Viceroy (Limenitis archippus), does not feed on milkweed and is not toxic. It would be acceptable food for a bird, but if the bird has already learned not to eat a Monarch, the bird will leave the Viceroy alone as well. If a bird ate a Viceroy first, it might not learn that the color pattern is meant to be a warning. That would make the mimicry less effective, so there are fewer Viceroys than Monarchs. Lower numbers of Viceroys increase the chances that the first contact a bird has would be with a Monarch.

Nature. WOW! Double rainbow, man. Double rainbow!

Elizabeth SanFilippo explains at Gather how this butterfly issue relates to Lie to Me's "Double Blind" episode.

... (Tricia Helfer's character) Naomi (is) a Viceroy butterfly, mimicking the poisonous Monarch butterfly so predators stay away. Since Naomi is so skilled at deception and Lightman has difficulty reading her, he realizes it’s in his best interests to stay away, too. Although that doesn’t stop him from giving Naomi time to escape.

I don't get to watch this show the way I used to. I caught this episode via cable's On Demand.

Garry Wills Calls Tea Party 'Racist': Watch Your Back, Man

Wills has also argued in the past that Obama is willing to buy a second term with the blood of young American soldiers.

Historian and Pulitzer-prize-winning author Garry Wills says to Stephen Colbert that "of course" the Tea Party is racist (video below). Wills better watch his back. Remember when the NAACP called the Tea Party racist? One of its media henchmen hell bent on teaching the NAACP a lesson posted an edited video to YouTube misrepresenting something a speaker said at an NAACP function, and the woman speaking, Shirley Sherrod, ended up being fired from her government job. The Tea Party and its supporters and candidates like to dish out inflammatory rhetoric but they can't take it when others dish it back.

Wills, whose new book is entitled Outside Looking In has some tough words for President Barack Obama as well. The Huffington Post reports that Wills, writing at the at New York Review of Books says Obama wants to be a two-term president and that's why he's willing to continue at least one of the wars started by George W. Bush. The implication is that Obama is willing to buy a second term with the blood of American soldiers. Now that's harsh.

Wills posted the NYR piece in November 2009. While its live link is showing the article page as an error, you can read the cached piece here. I don't know if the webmaster moved the piece and that's why the live link is broken or if Wills himself changed his mind about Obama.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Garry Wills
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election March to Keep Fear Alive

Obama's Poll Numbers Up Says Newsweek Poll

According to a new Newsweek poll, President Barack Obama's approval rating has jumped by six points, from 48 percent to 54 percent. His disapproval rate has dropped to 40 percent, "the lowest disapproval rating in a NEWSWEEK Poll since February 2010."

These results do not mean that Democrats will win much next week, says the poll article, but some races may be closer than previously thought.

The poll also says that about 24 percent of voters support the Tea Party. That number is high enough to make me uncomfortable about the direction in which this country may be going, tilting toward greater polarization. Nevertheless, the number also indicates the Tea Party is not as strong as some mainstream media outlets make it appear to be. To watch CNN and MSNBC, you'd think the Tea Party is already as powerful as the GOP and that every middle class white person favors the Tea Party's agenda.

Everytime I turn on cable news lately it seems some Tea Party pundit is on defending the movement or some expert is analyzing the Tea Party's influence. And I'm so sick of hearing about Christine O'Donnell, I'm tempted to turn off the TV for the next two weeks.

What to Do When Ginni Thomas Calls You

The Virginia "Ginni" Thomas story last week about wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas calling Anita Hill almost 20 years later to ask for an apology had me feeling like we'd been hurled into Bizarro World. So, I needed a laugh. Thanks to Andy Borowitz, I got one.

Blogging at New Yorker, Borowitz tells us "Three Things to Do When Clarence Thomas’s Wife Calls You." Number two begins, "When she says, “This is Virginia Thomas,” reply, “No, this is Virginia Thomas. Who’s calling? Wait a minute—is that you, Anita Hill?”

If you need not only a laugh but a thorough post on what one writer's called "The Thomas Clown Affair," I recommend you read Kim Pearson's post at BlogHer.com. She was working at a news magazine when the Clarence Thomas hearings captivated America and makes salient points about this latest chapter as well as the old one.

In other Thomas news, one of the Supreme Court Justice's old girlfriends, Lillian McEwen, has broken her 19-year silence to say Thomas loves hardcore porn. What's more, says the 65-year-old retired law professor, he was obsessed with big-breasted women and often tried to date some of the women with whom he worked. Did we ever doubt that?

Now the real test here is to see if Google picks up this post. For some reason the Googlebot is reading posts from two years ago and skipping the new ones. I may not be blogging as much as I used to, but that's no excuse for the Googlebot to ignore me. So, this has been a test of the Google Broadcasting System.

Thomas-Hill photo collage from the New York Times.

Virginia Thomas Wants Anita Hill to Apologize: After All These Years, Why?

Related: What to do when Ginni Thomas calls you



Embedded above is video of Anita Hill in 1992 after the infamous Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings. The late Ed Bradley interviews her on CBS's 60 Minutes.

I believed Anita Hill when she accused Thomas of sexual harassment in 1991. I watched the hearings as did much the rest of the country. It was the greatest show on Earth," pre-O.J. trial, and I thought the people who came to Clarence Thomas's defense weren't believable. Neither was Justice Thomas himself credible.

Now the New York Times and other sources report that Virginia Thomas, a Tea Party leader and the Supreme Court Justice's wife, called Hill recently and asked her to come clean and explain "why you did what you did with my husband."

Hill, a professor at Brandeis University, thought it was a prank. She reported the call to campus security and the FBI was contacted. Thomas explained to a reporter that she was calling Hill to offer an olive branch. Can we just say that her olive branch resembles Poison Ivy on a stick?

Prof. Hill told ABC News:

“Even if it wasn’t a prank, it was in no way conciliatory for her to begin with the presumption that I did something wrong in 1991. I simply testified to the truth of my experience. For her to say otherwise is not extending an olive branch, it’s accusatory. ... I don’t apologize. I have no intention of apologizing, and I stand by my testimony in 1991.”

Thomas reportedly said in an earlier interview with her husband before this incident that she looked forward to forgiving Hill one day whenever the professor might call to apologize. This kind of fantasizing about your enemy's attempt at redemption reveals a woman who's sitting around blaming Anita Hill for whatever bitterness she has in her own heart. Dear Virginia: Let it go!

In addition to speculation about Virginia Thomas's mental and spiritual state, I lean toward others' ideas about why the Tea Party leader might be digging up the Hill controversy with phony offerings of olive branches--political shenanigans.

You may watch the Thomas hearings on YouTube.

Related: What to do when Ginni Thomas calls you

Wal-Mart's Going for Smaller Urban Stores? Say What!

My dad told me yesterday that he heard Wal-Mart was going to stop building mega stores, to get away from big box monstrosities and try to look more like the "little guy." I thought that maybe he had confused the news, but he was fairly accurate in his report.

Wal-mart will purue urban areas with smaller stores. That will be good for some communities that grocery stores have abandoned.

And its bigger picture in context of going with smaller stores also seems to include aims to overhaul the global food supply chain, meaning they will go local, use local farmers. How kind of Wal-Mart to recognize its own footprint on the world and system. Have they been listening to Bill Gates's speeches on calls for a kinder capitalism?

See these articles:

• From Detroit News:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, expects to open 30 to 40 smaller-format stores in fiscal 2012 as it seeks to enter urban markets to jump-start growth in the U.S. ... The company sees a true need for stores smaller than its supercenters, which average about 185,000 square feet, Bill Simon, U.S. stores' chief, told investors today at a conference in Rogers, Ark.

• Walmart Will Shrink Big-Box Stores to Chase Urban Shoppers
• Wal-Mart Focusing on Smaller Stores, Discounts
• Bloomberg Would Support Wal-Mart Stores in NYC
• Wal-Mart plans smaller, urban store near 100 Oaks Mall
• Wal-Mart's Plan for Small Farmers Expands Private-Sector Climate Agenda
• Global Agriculture Gets the Walmart Sustainability Treatment
• "Wal-Mart to Sell More Local Produce"
• A Peek Behind Wal-Mart's Sustainable Ag Push
• Wal-Mart's Holiday Wish: Better Sales

All I can say to this news is this:

1. I hope they are sincerely concerned now about people as much as money.
   
2. Remember the Gulf Oil Spill and BP, a company that presented an image of being green in order to capitalize on changing attitudes about energy and the environment.
   

I'm in New Orleans, and we could use more stores that sell groceries and fresh produce at a reasonable price in some areas of the city. Consequently, I'll give Wal-Mart a thumbs up on its goals as it currently states them. Nevertheless, let's not be naive here. Wal-Mart may be only concerned about its shrinking bank account and its image as nemesis to the American worker and mom and pop store. So, let's keep our eyes on Wallyworld and not assume its quest to grow its bottom line has been exchanged for a halo. Let's hold it to living up to the greener, more urban-friendly image it wants to craft by continuing to look periodically behind the mask. I'm just saying.

Joel Burns, a Fort Worth Councilman, Tells Teens "It Gets Better"

Right now on CNN, Joel Burns, an openly-gay council member in Fort Worth, TX, is being interviewed. His emotional appeal made Tuesday night, October 12, at a city council meeting has gone viral. It's posted below the CNN video here in its entirety and was aired earlier today on the network. Burns gave the speech in response to the rash of suicides resulting from bullying in general and homophobia-driven bullying in particular.





At BlogHer last month, a staff member posted another "It gets better" video from two gay men who also addressed teens who are being bullied. View that one here. It's part of an organized project by the same name.

Everyday is a Winding Road

Why I keep paying dues to AuthorsDen is probably worth some reflection; however, until I do that I keep my own words on the bio page: "Life is a winding road of lessons and opportunities. Wear good shoes." Those words are working through my life more than ever right now since I'm in graduate school. About once a week I panic and ask myself, "Why are you doing this? You're too old for grad school. All your classmates are younger than your firstborn child."

This graduate school endeavor is reminding me of being a child again and facing those moments of feeling alone in a crowd. But I'm all about the lessons these days, both formal and those spiritually formed by the Cosmos.

This morning I got up and kept hearing Sheryl Crow's song in my head, "Everyday is a winding road." I've embedded the video up top so anyone who drops by will see where my head is. Most likely, however, no one will drop by that I know because I haven't had time to visit other bloggers, Tweet, or be sociable on Facebook, which sort of makes me feel like a ghost here, gliding with the winding streams of cyberspace.

Back When Mark Zuckerberg Only Wanted to Be Cher, MySpace was Relevant, and Twitter Was a Twinkle, There Was This Forum

This FORA.TV video that includes Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook talking about defining the self online is old. I know it's old because Twitter's not there and the moderator makes MySpace sound like it's bigger than Facebook, but the video's discussion still may intrigue some. Zuckerberg stresses that on Facebook, people communicate as themselves rather than as personas.



I suppose the video's being promoted as a free resources at Learn Out Loud.com today because of the Facebook movie, which is in theaters now, The Social Network. This Commonwealth Club video also includes former MySpace Executive Shawn Gold, the LinkedIn guy, Reid Hoffman, and Robin Harper from Second Life. Zuckerberg says jokingly that online he wants to be Cher. I think this video forum is about three years old.

Scott Sisters Case Gets Deserved Attention

The campaign to release the Scott Sisters of Mississippi is finally getting the mainstream media attention it deserves. As I wrote at BlogHer this summer, a judge sentenced the the two young women to double-life after they were convicted in 1994 for alleged involvement in a roadside robbery. They were given harsher sentences than the young men, teens who testified against them, and the case is riddled with procedural errors that smack of Mississippi corruption. They were also given harsher sentences than the same judge has given to confessed murderers.

The sisters' advocates focus on what they feel is the most compelling aspect of the case, that only $11 was stolen and while one of the male teens had a gun, the sisters did not fire or even handle the weapon. In addition, no one was shot or injured, and the sisters still maintain their innocence.



Multiple news sources report that supporters marched in front of Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour's house recently, demanding a pardon, and the District Attorney who prosecuted the case has gone on record to say the state should consider reducing the sisters' sentences. After the hard work of advocates, such as Nancy Lockhart, the NAACP has begun to throw its weight behind the sisters' case. In the above video, its president Ben Jealous, possibly recalling how many women were offended at the NAACP so easily throwing Shirley Sherrod under the bus this summer following her firing from the USDA, explains why the old organization is speaking out on behalf of the sisters.

Barbour has asked the state parole board to re-examine the case. Vocal advocates declare the women's harsh sentences were influenced by race, class, and gender.

USA Apologizes for STD Experiments in Guatemala: It was Not Just Tuskegee, Rev. Wright

O.K., while it's inaccurate to say the American government infected black men and women with syphilis at Tuskegee (failure to treat is horrific enough), it is clearly accurate to say the U.S. "purposely infected" people in Guatemala with STDs in the 1940s. Shameful! And some of us are shocked to discover that some people of color don't trust the USA.

The U.S.A. has apologized to the people of Guatemala.

A statement by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius called the action "reprehensible."

"We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices," the joint statement said. "The conduct exhibited during the study does not represent the values of the United States, or our commitment to human dignity and great respect for the people of Guatemala."

Read more at CNN.

This nation has sins for which recompense is required. So, Rev. Jeremiah Wright was not really that wrong, was he, in the general sense that our government has indulged in unethical practices at the expense of people of color. While Wright mixed facts, it's still true that America has a record of criminal behavior in the area of human rights violations.

If you believe in God, do you think He or She approves of a nation injecting people with sexually transmitted diseases in the name of science? How about lying to patients in an experiment and not treating them even after a cure is discovered? Is it unpatriotic to ask these questions and ask that our nation do better?

By, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton must be experiencing deja vu. Her husband, Bill Clinton, is the president who apologized for the Tuskegee Study.

Related: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks