Gee I'm Pleased to be Old.

[OzzyElsie]

I don't mean to sound old, grumpy and kinda smug but gee I pleased to be old - and not have to potentially put up with this shit in the future.

This is a newly developed ap.

http://newatlas.com/drivesafe-driving-a ... b-91999757

Can you imagine this been a requirement to ride or drive, with the cops having the legal right to pull you over and review it, and having the right to book you, lock you up, and/or take your license based on the gathered 'evidence'?

Of course it would not be brought in overnight. The first step would be voluntary to reduce your insurances and to be used after an accident. Then it would be compulsory for repeat offenders (me ? you? ), then to high performance vehicles and then compulsory with a digital link to the ignition so the vehicle can't be started without your every move (and thought and intention) being recorded.

"Known as DriveSafe (not to be confused with the Google Glass application of the same name), the app requires users to mount their phone so it's looking out the windshield.

Using the phone's accelerometer, GPS and rear camera, the software monitors acceleration, braking, steering wheel turns, position within the lane, the manner in which lane changes are made, driving speed (as compared to the speed limit, as posted on online map services), and the manner in which the driver approaches other vehicles from behind.

The app provides real-time audible and visual warnings when it determines that unsafe driving is occurring, plus it records videos and map locations of those moments, which can be viewed afterwards. Additionally, it categorizes the overall driving style of each trip as being either normal, drowsy or aggressive."

With self drive electric cars just ten years down the track the kids of today probably won't know what they are missing. Me? I'll probably miss the worst of it. But today's 20- 40yo's will have some real 'attitude' adjusting to do.

[hybrid]

It would be interesting to determine what they consider to be unsafe.
What is unsafe for a 18 year old may not be for someone with 20+ years experience... then it may become unsafe again for an 80 year old.

I bet it expects everyone to drive like Miss Daisy.
What about merging? Does it consider merging onto a highway at 60km/h (one of my pet peeves) dangerous?

I see so much stupid shit on the roads - I find myself saying to my wife all the time, "I bet that person has a clean driving record and a 10 year license!".

Even the current system is BS. My wife has damaged every car we have ever owned (including my Mustang by dropping something on it), but she has a clean record and recently got her discounted 10 year special license. I have 3 demerit points thanks to a 50km zone that should not be, so my license is more expensive, my insurance is more expensive. It's ridiculous.

[ged]

Welcome to 1984.

[James W.]

Yeah, I see the Stallone/Snipes/Bullock 'Demolition Man' movie was on free-to-air a couple of nights back..

Not that they'd show the real graphic `70s Stallone/David Carradine movie 'Death Race 2000' though, its too 'offensive'
for public viewing these days, esp' after what went down in Melbourne's CBD, & with the cops just on 'watching brief'...

[BRG1200]

I know a couple of coppers and they are grinding their teeth at the web of restrictions and "PC" policies placed on them. They can spot a nutjob a mile off and one of the guys I know would have been straight in to grab anyone doing what that guy was doing while he was still making the big doughnuts and burnouts display, prior to his murderous rampage.
My experience of coppers in the UK and here in SA has been good.
My trust in technology being applied by revenue/agenda hunting bureaucrats is zero.
Politicians and bureacrats are a totally different society to us, like mediaeval aristocrats they don't give a fuck about us, are polarized into tribes, believe totally in their "divine right to rule" and will apply anything they happen to feel like on the public and dress it up as safety.
This technology exists now, will only get stronger and more invasive, and will be applied to us.

Rant over.

[OzzyElsie]

G'day BRG

I think it was Gilbert and Sullivan or sim who said "a policeman's lot is not a happy one', and that was 150 years ago. Not much has changed PC world or not. PC is a new dimension and factor but that about it. My brother was a cop with a wide experience and it had it difficulties even before PC. Society give them the shit to clean up but rarely want to know the detail or the stress involved - "hey ya well paid suck it up". Australian cops are petty well treated even though the public will remember the actions of one bad cop in a thousand rather then the good the majority deliver.

I glad you've had a good experience with cops. I would second that but with reservation for Ned's old antagonists .

But how would you like to be an American cop - half the pay, 3 weeks annual leave and any car you pull over could have three thugs with AR15's on their lap - legally!!!!!!!!!!!! And the Yanks will tell you income inequality in America is "not a problem".

I would agree with your comments about polarizing but I wouldn't lay it at the feet of the pollies. They would tell you they are the victims of polarized politics (join in or be steamrolled in the race to the bottom). PC, feminism, 'left behind angry white guy', racist/muslim victim politics, aboriginal politics and tribalism is generalized into Identity Politics. You might be interested in..........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwJ0DYsBZfw

She talks hard and fast but clearly. The words and concept come fast and furiously and I haven't digested them all and don't endorse anything she propounds - but I find it very thought provoking. Generally I think there has got to be a counter to PC. Too often public debate is stifled by cries of racism etc when it is not racist to criticize a religion for an obvious fault. Ditto aboriginals. That recent cartoon that caused issues I think caused embarrassment rather than offense but in law if one aboriginal says they were "offended" then in law you are a racist - end of argument, end of discussion. And that not good for anyone - the society or the 'victims' - bullshit walks but the truth heals (solves problems).

Ciao, I off outside to take adfvantage of the heat (not the humidity) to spray paint the RD's mufflers. Cheero

[BRG1200]

Sorry, got off track, what paint you using on the mufflers?

[ged]

Great link Ozzy. Cheers. She's a brilliant speaker and makes a lot of sense.

But,

Too often public debate is stifled by cries of racism etc when it is not racist to criticize a religion for an obvious fault. Ditto aboriginals. That recent cartoon that caused issues I think caused embarrassment rather than offense but in law if one aboriginal says they were "offended" then in law you are a racist - end of argument, end of discussion.

I think this strays into the objective/subjective realm that's she's talking about...... 18C has actually worked pretty well I reckon. You can't get more objective than the High Court and I'm happy for them to be the arbiters of what is offensive and what's not. Labelling Andrew Bolt a racist, a liar and dishonest is precisiely the result they should have achieved in that instance, while throwing out the last silly 18C case against the uni students in Queensland, was again the right result.

Blurring the line between objective and subjective realities leads us directly to "Alternative Facts" and "Fake News" and (in a very neat circumnavigation) back to 1984! Honestly, the parralells to Orwells (prophetic) vision are becoming more and more obvious every day..... it's genuinely scary.

[jools]

The ironic thing is Ged, that the very Orwellian thing you're scared of (and we all should be), is well served by 18C.
Orwell's genius was seeing that if you can control language, you control thought, -He called it 'newspeak'.
18C controls language.
The other thing that strikes me about all this is that so many people find it so easy to blame politicians for the mess we're in. In fact they're just easy targets who have limited control... It's the mad-capitalist corporations who control it all. Blame them.
(Well, I can have a rant too can't I?)

[James W.]

It goes back even further than Orwell, though he was using it in a a now - awfully familiar sense...

Lewis Carroll had covered the same essentially corruption/abuse of power scenario with his 'Humpty Dumpty' character.

To paraphrase H-D's ( & D.T.) view...

"Words mean - whatever I decide they mean..."

(A bit like what the missus might well reckon too, eh fellas?)

[BRG1200]

I never argue with my wife. Much.

[Ozhammer]

When I met my wife, I knew I had found Miss Right, I just didn't realise that her middle name was Always!

Tish boom!

[James W.]

& don't mention 'mother-in-law'!

Here's a classic gem from Les Dawson..

"Last time I saw my M-in-L, she was lying face down on the beer soaked floor of the local pub,
with a 1/2 doz big brutal Hell's Angels - whipping her over real hard, with pool cues...

The missus yelled at me, 'Help, help!' - & I quickly replied, 'Of course I will darls, I promise,
- I'll put the bloody boot in - but 1st - lets see if the six of them bikies - can't manage to keep the bitch down...'"