Women win the right to go topless in 6 states

 

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It’s unlikely that mayhem and anarchy will ensue

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals recently struck down a ban on women being topless in public in Fort Collins, Colorado. The court’s decision makes it now legal for women to go topless in all of the states that fall under the 10th Circuit — Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. Brit Hoagland and Samantha Six had sued the City of Fort Collins in 2015 on behalf of the #FreeTheNipple movement.

They called the ban an attack on gender equality because there were different laws for men and for women. Considering female breasts to be inherently sexual in a way that men’s breasts aren’t, was discriminatory said the plaintiffs. Determining that male breast nudity is different than female breast nudity and only criminalizing one in effect criminalizes being a woman. The city did have an exception for nursing mothers, but otherwise, there was a $250 fine for any female over the age of 10 who exposed her breast below the top of the nipple.

“Hey, my body is not indecent if his is not indecent,” said Brit Hoagland.

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Baidu wins China’s first commercial license for self-driving buses

 

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A self-driving bus with Baidu’s Apollo autonomous driving open platform is displayed at the 2018 Baidu World conference. © Reuters

 City of Wuhan also picks two other operators for network using Huawei 5G

CHONGQING — Chinese search engine giant Baidu is among three companies to win a license from the city of Wuhan to operate a commercial transportation service using self-driving vehicles, in a first for China.

Authorities hail the move as the start of the world’s first 5G-based driverless commercial service.

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Self-driving taxis roll out in Shanghai

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A man holds a door to a Didi self-driving car during last month’s World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai. Picture: REUTERS

Ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing plans to start using self-driving vehicles to pick up passengers in Shanghai and hopes to expand the scheme outside China by 2021.

Local authorities in Shanghai last week issued licences — the first in China — for operational tests of smart and connected cars with passengers in them, that would pave the way for commercial robotaxis in the future.

The licences were given to car-hailing ride service Didi Chuxing as well as to car manufacturer SAIC Motor and BMW that allow them to conduct autonomous driving projects in real urban scenarios.

Each of the three companies are permitted to run 50 vehicles for pilot programs including robotaxis, unmanned deliveries and other autonomous driving services. The licence holders can increase the number of test vehicles after six months if there are no traffic violations.

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Autonomous taxis have made their driverless debut in London

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Are London cabbies’ days numbered?

SELF-DRIVING taxis have hit the streets of London for the first time during a week-long trial in the capital.

The culmination of a 30-month development process lead by the government and industry-supported the DRIVEN autonomous vehicle technology consortium, the tests saw a collection of Ford Mondeo-based test cars complete short runs on a pre-programmed course on public roads through Stratford, in the east of the city, a short distance away from the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, venue for the 2012 Games.

While this isn’t the first time autonomous vehicles have been tested in an urban environment (the same self-driving research vehicles were put through their preliminary paces in Oxford earlier in the year), DRIVEN said these tests have been “the most ambitious” yet, due to the demands that come with driving in a megacity.

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Hyundai to start mass production of driverless cars in 2024

 

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South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor Group will start mass production of self-driving cars within the next five years, said Chung Euisun, the heir to the auto giant, as he made a hefty investment in a joint venture the company established with Aptiv on Sept. 23.

At a luncheon session held in New York with Korean correspondents on the same day he signed the $4 billion deal with the US software developer, Chung said the company would apply the autonomous driving technology to be developed jointly with Aptiv to Hyundai cars starting in 2024. The executive vice chairman, who holds the second-highest position in the carmaker — his father, Chairman Chung Mong-koo, is No. 1 — said the company had decided to hold the same number of shares as Aptiv, rather than be a minority shareholder in the venture, in an effort to transform itself from a mere car manufacturer into a future mobility solutions provider.

“We expect the era of autonomous vehicles to come early, but it will be possible for customers to go anywhere they want in a driverless car after 2030,” said Chung, who has taken the lead in the absence of his ill father.

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Top companies hiring for autonomous vehicle talent

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Over the last few years, the autonomous vehicle industry has grown rapidly. Here are thoughts and stats from Indeed for the top companies hiring for autonomous vehicle talent.

When news about autonomous vehicles filled headlines a few years ago, it was characterized by bold claims: that entire lanes would be dedicated to hands-free driving by 2020 and door-to-door autonomous trips would be possible around 2030, for example.

Since then, the frenzy about an autonomous takeover of our personal transportation system has waned. But a new reality has set in: Autonomous vehicles are already operating in a number of industries, such as transportation, farming, and small deliveries. While it may not be driving the news cycle, the work on this technology hasn’t slowed down.

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We pit the Uber Copter vs. public transit in a race to JFK — here’s who won

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One is a bumpy, deafening and slightly nauseating way to get to John F. Kennedy Airport — the other is public transportation.

The Post put Uber’s new helicopter shuttle to JFK to the test, racing the car-sharing company and its chopper from Midtown to the hub against old-fashioned New York City Transit — which proved three minutes swifter at a sliver of the price.

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Can video games replace the outdoors?

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Maybe not in our hearts, but certainly in our brains. Plus, they can make you love the indoors far too much—which is why there’s now a full-fledged, woodsy rehab center for joystick addicts who need a soothing pathway back to a normal life.

Joining game in progress.

You materialize at a sprawling ranch near a snowcapped mountain covered with freshly powdered pines. Three horses graze nearby behind a purplish wooden fence.

To open the gate, click the lock.

A jet-black mare wearing a striped blanket approaches, its hooves sinking into the slush and white puffs blooming from her nostrils.

Click horse.

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In-flight seatback screens may be going extinct

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U.S. carriers are split on whether single-aisle fleets need seatback screens. Consumer tastes are changing as in-flight Wi-Fi quality improves.

In the quest to command higher fares and traveler loyalty, airlines are constantly scrambling to market their onboard services as better than Brand X. These days, one highly visible battleground is directly in front of you: the seatback screen.

While such displays are firmly entrenched aboard long-haul fleets, helping pass the hours during ocean crossings, there’s a deep difference of opinion among U.S. carriers when it comes to domestic single-aisle jets. The advent of onboard Wi-Fi has given airlines the option of using your phone or tablet as a portal for films, television shows, and video games, avoiding the expense of costly hardware at every seat.

Three of the largest U.S. airlines — American Airlines Group Inc., United Airlines Holdings Inc., and Alaska Air Group Inc. — are removing screens from their domestic workhorses, the family of medium-range 737 and A320 aircraft sold by Boeing Co. and Airbus SE, respectively. Southwest Airlines Co. has never equipped its Boeing 737s with screens and said it has no plans to change course.

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Tesla Semi electric truck to be turned into mobile music studio by Deadmau5

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Deadmau5, a DJ and music producer, announced that he is getting a Tesla Semi electric truck to turn into a mobile music studio for his 2021 tour.

When launching Tesla Semi in 2017, the automaker said that the production versions of electric truck, which is a class 8 truck with a 80,000-pound capacity, will have 300-mile and 500-mile range options for $150,000 and $180,000, respectively.

Tesla expects that the price and specs will enable a cost of operation of $1.26 per mile, which should result in Tesla Semi providing $200,000+ in fuel savings and a two-year payback period.

Those numbers would revolutionize the transport industry in a big way, but several people have also seen an opportunity to use the electric truck for other purposes than just normal freight.

Deadmau5 is one of those people now.

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Mini brains grown in the laboratory produce brainwaves. Now what?

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It’s hard to study the human brain. It is the most complex in the animal kingdom with its massive collection of neurons, 80-100 billion to be exact, three times more than chimpanzees. Research relating our brains to the brains of mice and monkeys can only go so far. And because of this complexity, scientists often came up short when studying diseases such as schizophrenia, autism, and Alzheimer’s in the brains of monkeys and mice.

Enter minibrains.

Minibrains are small clusters of human brain cells that can be grown in a Petri dish. Floating through the agar, these small gray lumps don’t look particularly impressive, but they are allowing scientists to study actual living human brain tissue in ways they couldn’t before.

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The mega rich are having trouble finding pilots for private jets

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Empty Cockpit

Bad news for the extremely wealthy: airplane pilots are abandoning their gigs flying private jets for more steady work at commercial airlines.

Pilots seem to be attracted to steady jobs that provide regular pay rather than the hourly wages and short notice that come with captaining some rich folks’ private planes, according to The Independent. The result is a labor shortage that’s not only keeping the wealthy grounded but hurting private jet sales as well.

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