Tag: blocked
Trash Headed for Oceans Blocked by the Ocean Cleanup Project’s ‘Trash Interceptor 007’
“But I can’t help wondering where it all went… Does it all end up in the ocean?”
To answer that question, I turned to the experts at L.A. County Public Works, who oversee storm drains and waterways across the region. The good news is that there are a number of ways that trash is caught before it reaches the open sea. All manner of filters and screens and basins — and something called the Trash Interceptor 007 (I am not making this up) installed last fall at Ballona Creek — are employed to collect many thousands of tons of litter before they end up bobbing around the Pacific Ocean, releasing toxins and being mistaken for food by marine animals.
Trash Interceptor 007 is a sleek solar-powered boat from The Ocean Cleanup project. Last weekend it caught 11.6 tons of plastic, garbage and debris, and from October to January collected more than 42.5 tons of trash.
That’s the good news, the Times notes…
The bad news is that in storm conditions like we’ve just experienced, the trash busting systems get overwhelmed and some of the debris washed from the streets ends up on the beaches or in the ocean, along with the dog poop, oil and chemicals that slip through even the best filters. Ugh. All of this is to explain why the many efforts by cities, counties and the state to reduce trash, especially the nonbiodegradable plastic variety, are so important.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Abortion websites would be blocked in Texas under new bill
A new bill in Texas would require internet service providers inside the state to block sites that provide abortion information, as well making it illegal to host or even provide domain registration for sites that help people in Texas obtain or pay for abortions.
The bill, filed February 23rd by representative Steve Toth, attempts to crush access to services that ship the pregnancy-terminating drugs mifepristone and misoprostol, as well as aid funds that raise money to cover the cost of abortion-related expenses. Under the new bill’s rules, it would be unlawful to “create, edit, upload, publish, host, maintain, or register a domain name for an internet website, platform, or other interactive computer service that assists or facilitates a…
Wikipedia Blocked in Pakistan Over ‘Sacrilegious’ Content
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Netflix’s anti-password sharing will force you to sign in once a month – or get blocked
Blocked Traffic, Disrupted Firefighters: Why San Francisco Wants to Slow Robotaxi Rollout
The city’s transportation officials sent letters this week to California regulators asking them to halt or scale back the expansion plans of two companies, Cruise and Waymo, which are competing head-to-head to be the first to offer 24-hour robotaxi service in the country’s best-known tech hub.
The outcome will determine how quickly San Francisco and possibly other cities forge ahead with driverless technology that could remake the world’s cities and potentially save some of the 40,000 people killed each year in American traffic crashes…. Neither vehicles from Cruise or Waymo have killed anyone on the streets of San Francisco, but the companies need to overcome their sometimes comical errors, including one episode last year in which a Cruise car with nobody in it slowly tried to flee from a police officer.
In one recent instance documented on social media and noted by city officials, five disabled Cruise vehicles in San Francisco’s Mission District blocked a street so completely that a city bus with 45 riders couldn’t get through and was delayed for at least 13 minutes. Cruise’s autonomous cars have also interfered with active firefighting, and firefighters once shattered a car’s window to prevent it from driving over their firehoses, the city said….
“A series of limited deployments with incremental expansions — rather than unlimited authorizations — offer the best path toward public confidence in driving automation and industry success in San Francisco and beyond,” three city officials wrote Thursday in a letter to the utilities commission, the state agency that decides if a company gets a robotaxi license. A second letter expressed concerns about Waymo….
Cruise has argued that its service is safer than the status quo.
A Cruise spokesperson also provided letters of support “written by local San Francisco merchants associations, disability advocates and community groups.” And U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told Quartz last year that “it would be hard to do worse than human drivers when it comes to what we could get to theoretically with the right kind of safe autonomous driving.”
But in 2021 CBS reported that dozens and dozens of Waymo’s robo-taxis kept mistakenly driving down the same dead-end street. And in 2018 a self-driving Uber test vehicle struck and killed a woman in Arizona.
More stories from the Verge:
In July, a group of driverless Cruise vehicles blocked traffic for hours after the cars inexplicably stopped working, and a similar incident occurred in September. Meanwhile, a driverless Waymo vehicle created a traffic jam in San Francisco after it stopped in the middle of an intersection earlier this month. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into Cruise last December over concerns about the vehicles blocking traffic and causing rear-end collisions with hard braking… [San Francisco] city officials also express concern over the way driverless vehicles deal with emergency vehicles. Last April, officials say an autonomous Cruise vehicle stopped in a travel lane and “created an obstruction for a San Francisco Fire Department vehicle on its way to a 3 alarm fire….”
Other incidents involve Cruise calling 911 about “unresponsive” passengers on three separate occasions, only for emergency services to arrive and find that the rider just fell asleep…. Officials say companies should be required to collect more data about the performance of the vehicles, including how often and how long their driverless vehicles block traffic.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
San Francisco wants to slow robotaxi rollout over blocked traffic and false 911 calls
San Francisco transportation officials want Waymo and Cruise to slow the expansion of their robotaxi services in the city due to safety concerns, as reported earlier by NBC News. In two letters written to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the officials on San Francisco County’s Transportation Authority say the expansion of either service “is unreasonable,” citing recent incidents involving stopped driverless vehicles blocking traffic and obstructing emergency responders.
The GM-backed Cruise and Alphabet-owned Waymo are currently the only companies permitted to offer driverless rides to passengers in San Francisco. In June, Cruise won a permit to charge for rides in its autonomous vehicles (AV) between 10PM and 6AM,…
Twitterrific shuts down after being blocked by Twitter
Watch as furious boat owner tows ‘selfish driver’ out of car park with screeching tyres after he blocked in his trailer
THIS is the moment a fed-up boat owner TOWED a car out of his way after being boxed in.
Footage shows the moment the disgruntled boatie hitches his Ford 4wd to the parked Toyota at the Jacobs Well Boat Ramp on the Gold Coast, Australia.
The white 4wd with its boot up connected a tow rope to the white sedan[/caption]
In a moment of frustration, the boat owner pulled the white sedan from its spot[/caption]
The white 4wd pulled the sedan around the corner as its tyres screeched[/caption]
The white sedan was seen parked in front of the white 4wd[/caption]
As the parked car is hauled from its spot, its wheels are heard screeching as it is towed across the parking lot.
The clip was posted to Facebook with the caption: “Road rage at its best.
“When you park in front of someone’s boat or jet ski trailer and block them in, they won’t be happy,
“The car being dragged blocked in the other bloke’s trailer.
“They left him b***** all room to get it out and luckily he was able to get it out by hand… but he was not happy.”
A photo appears to show the vehicle taking up a space near the ramp which are reserved for cars with boat trailers.
The video gained more than 6,000 reactions, with over 2,000 sharing their views in the comments sections.
Many viewers viewers their sympathy for the boat owner who took matters into his own hands, with some even praising his actions.
One person said the owner of the parked car was “so inconsiderate”.
Another wrote: “This guy get Australian of the year for the next 2 years! Absolute legend!”
Someone else said: “Would have loved to see the car owner come back to find his car moved and his tyres knackered.”
A fourth said: “Consequences! Not enough of this going around these days!”
Queensland Police said no reports had been made over the incident, 7News reports.
How to Tell If Someone Blocked Your Number on Android
Have you been trying to reach someone on their phone but to no avail? They may have blocked your phone number. Here are a few ways to know if someone blocked you on your Android phone.