On the Churchill/Atlee Election and Self-Driving Cars

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Spock
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On the Churchill/Atlee Election and Self-Driving Cars

#1 Post by Spock » Mon Mar 05, 2018 7:30 am

We were watching "The Darkest Hours" last night with the Spocklette (16) and Littlest Spock (15) and the topic of the 1945 Election loss of Churchill to Clement Atlee came up. At first blush, Churchill losing that election doesn't make any sense.

I know I have repeatedly mentioned my favorite author (George MacDonald Fraser-GMF) and his masterpiece memoir of WW2 in Burma-"Quartered Safe Out Here."

In a few paragraphs taking in the views of Fraser's platoon mates-just regular soldiers in the 14th Army(The last vestiges of Kipling's India)-Churchill's loss makes perfect sense.

Fraser makes completely understandable in a few paragraphs what stacks of academic histories can't begin to explain.
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I have made no secret over time of my distaste for the full-speed ahead rush to self-driving cars. I just don't see the point of it, it doesn't seem like it would be any fun.

Are people who absolutely love to drive-such as myself-going to have that freedom taken away from us?

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mrkelley23
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Location: Somewhere between Bureaucracy and Despair

Re: On the Churchill/Atlee Election and Self-Driving Cars

#2 Post by mrkelley23 » Mon Mar 05, 2018 8:02 am

Living where you do, I would say the chances are remote (sic!).

But for people like me who most emphatically DON'T like to drive, it's an exciting prospect for my retirement.
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled. -- Richard Feynman

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ghostjmf
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Re: On the Churchill/Atlee Election and Self-Driving Cars

#3 Post by ghostjmf » Mon Mar 05, 2018 12:00 pm

I hate the thought for myself, but self-driving cars would be an improvement over most Boston drivers, who would crash right into them, & would be a big help to disabled people, especially the blind, who could afford a car over constantly contracting for a taxi service. In wide-open-spaces-country, where there are few or no contractable services, its a no- brainer.

As an internet-friend in Texas who is legally blind said years ago, "I'M NOT VISUALLY CHALLENGED, I'M *BLIND*!".

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