A couple of things I’m wondering about the situation. In the Toyotas why weren’t there more fail safes? If the computer is controlling fuel injection which is based user input on the accelerator why aren’t there several check systems in place that the drivers foot is actually on the accelerator.

Secondly why couldn’t the driver just shift into neutral or kill the engine by turning the key? I’ve had older cars since I started driving and not one car ever prevented from changing gears while driving. It’s not a wise thing to do but quite a useful for safety.

With all the BS sensors in new cars, I mean seriously they have senors that tell you when to change the oil. Why aren’t car manufactures putting censors on important systems or upgrading the existing sensors? I’d rather start the car and have it not go anywhere because of a bad sensor then be driving along and have sudden acceleration that I cannot control or not be able to brake.

As much as I am a tech guy computers have made cars infinitely more complex for very little gain overall and when there’s a glitch in a cars computer it’s whooper of a bill to repair/replace.  Perhaps, it’s time to go back to the basics and just drive cars without all the bells and whistles afford by the integrated computer systems.

It is the month of August, on the shores of the Black Sea. It is raining,
and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is
in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town.

He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 Euro note on the reception counter,
and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one.

The hotel proprietor takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his debt to
the butcher.

The Butcher takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the pig
grower.

The pig grower takes the 100 Euro note, and runs to pay his debt to the
supplier of his feed and fuel.

The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 Euro note and runs to pay his
debt to the town’s prostitute that in these hard times, gave her “services”
on credit.

The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 Euro note
to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she
brought her clients there.

The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 Euro note back on the counter so
that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.

At that moment, the rich tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms,
and takes his 100 Euro note, after saying that he did not like any of the
rooms, and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and
looks to the future with a lot of optimism..

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States Government is doing
business today.

My local newspaper’s website has a comments section on every article I frequently read through the comments. Today being Sunday there were a lot of fluff pieces such as local success stories and the like. Along with a cop stabbing and negative piece about a local hospital there were two positive stories one a about a local girl who grew up in a bad neighborhood and made something of herself, another congratulating a local police force for cleaning up gang a gang infested apartment complex.

Here’s the number of comments for each story:

Cop stabbing: 14 comments

Hospital: 9 Comments

Gang Cleanup: 2

Successful Girl: 0

What does that tell you? Is all the negativity being reported truly the media machine’s fault for publishing mostly the worst in people or are negative stories what people demand by reaction and viewer ship?

I tell you what I think; Even though a lot of people complain about the news people still like to know there are people more screwed up then themselves out there. This way people can sit on their little perch, gloat about how great they are, ruminate on how they would never do such a thing, where things went wrong, and judge others. You know the old saying “Sex Sells”? Today it’s “Sex, Violence, and Negativity sell.”