| BMW cars that you can't crash
London: German automobile manufacturer BMW has installed the Active Cruise Control system in its 5 and 6 Series cars, which automatically stops the vehicle to avert an accident without having to use the breaks.
The system uses a radar beam to constantly measure the distance to the vehicles in front of it. A driver can set the desired speed and distance to be maintained from the car in front, and then sit back and do next to nothing.
Once activated, the system enables the car to drive on its own, with the only exception that the driver needs to control the steering. It can slow the vehicle a complete stop when necessary, and later scoot back up to the set speed as soon as traffic allows.
The system breaks the car even when someone veers across three lanes to cut you off.
Editorial: Casting ideas for better count of votes next time
Ten days after the Feb. 5 presidential primary, nearly 1 million votes - about 14 percent of those cast in California - were uncounted. Because Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain won their parties' primaries by large margins, there's been no crisis and no outcry. But it could be another matter entirely in November, when an especially long ballot is expected to further delay vote counting. Many counties like Santa Clara probably won't be able to announce conclusive results for 15 to 18 hours after the polls close. It will be weeks before the totals are final - shades of Florida in 2000. By law, the state has a month after an election to certify results. But Secretary of State Debra Bowen must do all within her power and the state budget to cut the wait. The cause of this month's delays was twofold: the forced conversion in two dozen counties from electronic voting to paper ballots, and a substantial increase in voting by mail.
He Put In His Thumb And Pulled Out A Blum
Well, anabolic steroids (even before it was against MLB rules to used them, instituted in 2005.) And Growth Hormone, let's not forget that evil drug, which turns Mario Mendozas into Barry Lamar Himself. Between finally indicting Barry Lamar, the only ballplayer who ever did steroids or HGH (so they say), the epitome of everything that is wrong with baseball (except for Scott Boras, who commits the unspeakable act of trying to fulfill his clients wishes of getting the biggest contract/endorsements they possibly can.) You don't see anyone heaping the kinds of invective and abuse upon roids users who have actually been caught with positive tests such as Ryan Franklin and JC Romero, do you? Why am I mentioning all this? For the simple reason that the owners have FINALLY figured out how to make the ballplayers look bad to the public so they can get away with paying them less and keeping more of the profit for themselves while continuing to raise ticket prices.
Decline in generic drugs draws EU scrutiny and raids
Antitrust regulators have raided big European drugmakers as part of an investigation into whether patents and lawsuit settlements are being manipulated to keep generic products off the market. Inspectors from the European Commission seized information about intellectual property rights, litigation and settlements in patent disputes in a series of surprise visits to pharmaceutical companies on Wednesday. The commission would not identify the companies involved, but Glaxo, AstraZeneca, Wyeth, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Sanofi-Aventis and Pfizer said later that they had been contacted. In a statement the commission, the administrative arm of the European Union, said the investigation was in response to indications that competition in the European market "may not be working well." "Fewer new pharmaceuticals are being brought to the market, and the entry of generic pharmaceuticals sometimes seems to be delayed," the statement added.
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