It's amazing to see how far this has come to. Google has supposedly managed to create autonomous car that are really reliable. It's really interesting to see all those concepts that could reshape the industry. I wonder how much it's going to take until the next generation of cars starts taking over.

Let's talk about art 

Is that porpoise servicing that cow?

I'd rather... TURBO BOOST!

They are getting him on his cam links. I know that he is dropping those in between 'normal' pic to make some money but I am will to skip past that spam to see the rest, of which I enjoy very much. Oh well...good while it lasted.

God no - I think that's Katsuni, and I could stare at her for a long time! Just wondering if staying with this thread so long is odd.

My favorite games of all time is Need for speed. I really like this games because it is very fun and I can play it all day and night long. I am never bored when I play it.

Environmental idealism from ZH? Has the world gone mad?


True, but it's also a competitive trend that evolved naturally, just as peacock feathers evolved naturally (we presume). And programmed cell death is also a natural thing. I used to be against planned obsolescence, but I've discovered some arguments in favour, so I'll share them:

It seems to be just a matter of time before the accumulated maintenance, repair, and total cost of ownership in an unplanned life-cycle start to outweigh the "planned" alternative.

If something is built more solidly, that's uncompetitive if others can supply the same thing at a lower cost. That aspect of it is just competition, not some sinister conspiracy. The downward pressure on product lifespan is balanced out by contracts that demand a set minimum, like a 3 year warranty. Then manufacturers put all the pieces together so that the product lasts 3 years. They don't waste production costs (and the environment) on making some parts last 10 years when some other crucial part is going to be broken by then anyway.

Repair costs can be pretty vague and easily underestimated. For instance, fixing an old car might require a lot of miscellaneous costs like, the time spent hunting down spare parts, calling repair centres for quotes, shopping for the best rental car, waiting in queues, spending weekends fixing stuff when you'd rather be doing something else. It's easy to overlook that if you buy an old-fashioned product with vague promises (which the seller won't commit to) that the product "should" last 20 years if properly maintained.

Now multiply a one-off repair millions of times around the country. That's millions of man-hours, a high social cost. It seems ridiculous to mass-produce something at low cost, only to have millions of people individually working on each copy to extend the lifespan.

Quality control for high-volume items should mean that they at least have some idea about what's going to break first. Then low cost repair centres can be set up to do it more efficiently. The end-game is when a high volume product is simply recycled when it breaks, because everything is perfectly timed to break simultaneously and there are no parts worth rescuing.

Seeing a Tesla is about to get a lot more wild, as the company is preparing to install its self-driving software in the Model S fleet. The autopilot feature will only work on highways... as the technology may not yet be legal in the US.

Tesla will roll out an auto-steering software update for the Model S in the next three or four months, and owners won’t even have to go into a Tesla store for the upgrade, founder Elon Musk said at a Thursday press conference.

READ MORE: ‘Personal roller coaster’: Tesla Motors unveils electric Model S that drives itself

Drivers will only be able to engage the autonomous system while on highways, despite having the technical ability to do a lot more.

"It is technically capable of going from parking lot to parking lot," Musk said. "But we won't be enabling that for users with this hardware suite, because we don't think it's likely to be safe in suburban neighborhoods," he continued, noting that such streets often lack posted speed limit signs and pose obstacles like children playing in the street.

“There’s certainly an expectation that when autopilot on the Model S is enabled, that you’re paying attention. But it should also take care of you if you have moments of distraction," the Tesla founder added.

The company has been testing the software mainly between San Francisco and Seattle.

“We’re pretty excited about the progress we’re making there,” Musk said. “We’re now almost able to travel all the way from San Francisco to Seattle without the driver touching any controls at all.”

The driverless car technology also raises the question of liability in an accident, which may need to be decided by the courts, rather than by legislation.

“If it’s fully autonomous, who’s responsible if there’s a mistake? The driver or the company who made it?” Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, told the Times. “I don’t see how Tesla’s going to clear the hurdles. They may have to go to each state legislative body and convince them, and that takes time.”

AFAIK, you can't. Just somewhere between 775 and 1030 activity.

I've been in bed with a temperature for 3 days so far so I don't feel like contradicting anyone this time sad. Maybe you could post some more jokes or vids or anything funny, need some major cheering up

Because arms manufacturers prefer to operate at very comfortable profit margins.

And I always thought it's Russian weapons that always get lost somewhere and then resurface in the hands of rebels all over the world.
If you don't know the reason, usually it's money. Maybe you've seen Lord of War. A very good movie if you want to learn the mechanics of weapons trade and smuggling.

I disagree somewhat with the premise. Technological obsolescence is inevitable, it is not planned. It is the result of competition and the profit motive, and the constant innovation is good. No one forces anyone to upgrade their devices; to the extent there is any "pressure" to do so, it is self-inflicted by a vanity driven populace. This contrasts to the other type of obsolescence, of the manufacturing kind. Perhaps there is something there. <snip>

This series is about how those in power have used Freud's theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy. Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, changed the perception of the human mind and its workings profoundly.

His influence on the 20th century is widely regarded as massive. The documentary describes the impact of Freud's theories on the perception of the human mind, and the ways public relations agencies and politicians have used this during the last 100 years for their engineering of consent. Among the main characters are Freud himself and his nephew Edward Bernays, who was the first to use psychological techniques in advertising. He is often seen as the father of the public relations industry.

Part one documents the story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays who invented Public Relations in the 1920s, being the first person to take Freud's ideas to manipulate the masses.

Part two explores how those in power in post-war America used Freud's ideas about the unconscious mind to try and control the masses. Politicians and planners came to believe Freud's underlying premise that deep within all human beings were dangerous and irrational desires.

In the 1960s, a radical group of psychotherapists challenged the influence of Freudian ideas, which lead to the creation of a new political movement that sought to create new people, free of the psychological conformity that had been implanted in people's minds by business and politics.

This episode explains how politicians turned to the same techniques used by business in order to read and manipulate the inner desires of the masses. Both New Labor with Tony Blair and the Democrats led by Bill Clinton, used the focus group which had been invented by psychoanalysts in order to regain power.

I'm finally figuring him out. He's promising to be good if we stop picking on him