Rape gangs 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post) 

Were the authorities in the dark about the scope of these gangs? No, they knew, and there have been a few prosecutions like the example in yesterday's post which is now 12 years old. Then why has it continued for many years? Because the crimes were ignored, the story buried.

"It's the biggest crime--and cover-up--in British history. . . Thousands of young girls, mostly children, were systematically groomed and raped by immigrant gangs across the UK over a period of decades. Police turned the girls away. Detectives were discouraged from investigating. Politicians and prosecutors did their best to sweep it under the rug. Journalists skipped the biggest story of their lives."

Different levels of fear motivated the silence according to Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Police feared that they might be called racist. Politicians could lose important votes from immigrant communities. Neighbors and journalists feared violence from Muslim men.

Two other factors are involved: multiculturalism and elite disdain for working class girls.

from The Free Press

To be continued

Rape gangs 1

A journalist spent six months investigating a crime in Britain for NBC : the "organized sexual exploitation of girls as young as 13." He called it a "grueling" experience which gave him nightmares: 

"Graphic accounts of rape and sexual abuse are not easy to put out of mind, especially not when the victims are barely pubescent."

Nine men were convicted of those crimes in 2012. This is old news. But the crimes continued and the number of victims kept multiplying, right up to the present. I've seen estimates that  hundreds of thousands of girls have been assaulted in perhaps fifty cities, some girls murdered.

How is it possible that thousands of these brutal crimes could continue over so many years in so many cities without authorities taking enough action to stop it? That question is suddenly convulsing British politics and capturing worldwide attention.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Freer FB

"Destroyed trust." Head of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, says that his former policies of content moderation and fact-checker censors have destroyed the public's trust. Maybe he was actually sincere last September when he seemed to regret the censorship that Facebook has practiced.

It sounds like the message that Jeff Bezos delivered to Washington Post. It could be a trend, a good one. Many Americans have had enough of media efforts to force their own views down our throats. As they both said, we don't trust them anymore.

Zuckerberg says that Facebook is going to adopt something like X's community notes to function in place of fact-checkers.

Skeptical people think he's just kissing up to the new administration. Whether he is or not, Facebook will be a freer platform . . and that's a good thing.

Canadian

An idea was floated in December: the nation of Canada should become the 51st state of the U.S.A. I thought it was a joke. Maybe it wasn't serious, but I was surprised to find out that the idea is far from new, and is supported today by some.

According to Canadian Kevin O'Leary (businessman, investor, and star of "Shark Tank"), about half of all Canadians are not laughing. They'd like to hear more.

Why might the idea be attractive? According to our president-elect, they'd pay far less in taxes, American goods would be tariff-free, and they'd have more security. That sounds pretty good to some Canadians, possibly the same ones who are real happy about the resignation of their left-wing prime minister.

Nouvel an 3

Follow-up to this post

New Year 2025 must have been fun and festive for many in France, but the annual car burning continued as well, for a national total of 874 cars (photo) destroyed. The government (interior ministry) still wants to point out that it could have been worse: for comparison, 2019 saw 1316 cars torched. 

Gendarmes, security personnel and firefighters (95,000) were mobilized for duty on New Year's Eve.

Another wet blanket may have toned down the festivity that night. Face masks have been made compulsory again, to combat another variant of Covid-19. People (779) were fined for not wearing one when they went out.

from The Business Standard

Robo taxi 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Complete, fully automated self-driving (Level 5) cars are still a remote dream. But Level 4 technology is now in use for "robo taxis." 

"A Level 4 self-driving car can handle everything - but only under certain conditions and in certain locations." Robo taxis can and do operate now under these restrictions, partly because a finite area can be mapped right down to the very small details.

General Motors acquired the startup Cruise in 2016 to pursue GM's position in this market, but they announced last month their intention to kill off the robo taxi idea.

Tesla (photo) is still very much pursuing the goal. It's called Cybercab: "affordable and fast individualized point-to-point transport" that they claim will also be safe and sustainable.

Waymo (yesterday's video) is the most successful so far, operating in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, with plans for Atlanta, Miami and Austin.

Robo taxi

Would you like to put your health and safety in the "hands" of a robotic car, a car with no human driver? Many are already doing that. "Robo taxis" are no longer just a cool theory. They are operating in a number of big cities. 

Two young millennial women recorded their experience renting and riding in a Waymo robo taxi for the first time in the video below for Kia-Hyundai. They called for the taxi on a phone app. 

It's not just a matter of telling the taxi where to go. Some features they discovered that helped or surprised them:

• real time ETA (expected time of arrival) of when the requested taxi would come 
•  an app button to unlock the doors when the taxi arrived
•  a digital display map of their location in both front and back seats
• an app button command option was available to "pull over"
• choice of music

Blessing 2025

Every year since 2020 I sing this blessing along with the recording of these Christians of various churches in the United Kingdom.

God's attitude toward us is that He is for us. A verse not quoted in this particular song but in sync with the revelation of God's good intentions is this one:

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."