Group to show car that can be driven by the blind

Could a blind person drive a car? Researchers are trying to make that far-flung notion a reality.

The National Federation of the Blind and Virginia Tech plan to demonstrate a prototype vehicle next year equipped with technology that helps a blind person drive a car independently.

The technology, called “nonvisual interfaces,” uses sensors to let a blind driver maneuver a car based on information transmitted to him about his surroundings: whether another car or object is nearby, in front of him or in a neighboring lane.

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Are Libraries Necessary, or a Waste of Tax Money?

They eat up millions of your hard earned tax dollars. It’s money that could be used to keep your child’s school running. So with the internet and e-books, do we really need millions for libraries?

Libraries are quiet havens for the community. They take us to other worlds. They even make us laugh. But should these institutions — that date back to 1900 B.C. — be on the way out?

There are 799 public libraries in Illinois. And they’re busy. People borrow more than 88 million times a year.

But keeping libraries running costs big money. In Chicago, the city pumps $120 million a year into them. In fact, a full 2.5 percent of our yearly property taxes go to fund them.

That’s money that could go elsewhere – like for schools, the CTA, police or pensions.

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Bag of Randomness

  • That was my favorite TV dinner as a child.
  • I walked DogGeeding and OtherDogGeeding last night and was amazed at the amount of gnats outside.  They are better than mosquitoes, but I was curious as to why so many, the rain?
  • It’s weird to hear about other regions complaining about the high temperatures in the middle of summer with the DFW actually having pretty tolerable heat.
  • At the time of this writing, it appears that fan that fell from the upper deck at The Ballpark trying to catch a foul ball is going to be OK.  To be honest, I’m surprised stuff like that doesn’t happen more often.
  • I wonder how the Rangers are going to treat that guy.
  • I remember when The Ballpark first opened that a fan fell from one of the decks posing for a picture and leaning back too far, and that’s how all those wire railings came to be.
  • I don’t follow the Rangers much, but it seems like Michael Young just really doesn’t get much respect.
  • The first thing that went through my mind as I saw Lindsey Lohan crying in the courtroom was . . . it looks like she just hit that first stage of grief.
  • It’s a well known thing that junior high boys fear having to stand up in class because of certain reactions due to puberty.  That thought ran across my mind as I watched this guy who stood next to Sarah Palin.
  • I kind of feel like the local media is doing whatever they can to find the littlest thing to complain about in regards to how the new Dallas police chief and the department is handling the death of his cop-killing son.
  • The Edge of U2 has a playlist on iTunes.  For those of you that don’t have iTunes, here’s a screenprint.
  • George Lucas wants to stop a laser company from making their new, high-powered product because he thinks it looks like a lightsaber.  Seriously.
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