Just a Few Snippets 

    For the tech side of things, automakers have been working overtime to try and figure out a way out of all the congestion on the inter-city freeways.  They state the statistic that only 25% of the freeway is being used, even during traffic jams.  I've been stuck in those, and I don't even live in the city, but have experienced them while visiting Minneapolis-St. Paul.  I don't have to deal with them on a regular basis, but only a few times a year and I find it frustrating.  I can't imagine going through it on a daily basis.  During a traffic jam, you get some people who are trying to go faster than the cars in front of them, and then thye have to hit the brakes.  This in turn causes the other people behind Mr. Leadfoot to have to brake too, until you have that going on for two or three miles behind him.  Now the So. Cal. freeways are 100's of times more crowded thatn whimpy little Mpls-St. Paul, and the freeways around Bombay are even more of a parking lot.  
    It was while considering these facts concerning Bombay's freeway congestion, that researchers came up with a solution.  Stop letting humans with poor driving habits drive their cars.  Yes.  Let the cars drive themselves.  Just like the cars that will park themselves so people who can't do it well will stop crunching the fenders of other parked cars, use the same sensor and driving program, but in a more enhanced way.  Besides this, the developers say, the cars can communicate with each other so that they won't get all bunched up, and the traffic will flow smoothly.  Mr. Leadfoot will be out of a job.  He won't be able to cause backups anymore.  With that, there will be one more responsibility that people won't have anymore.  They can just plug in the address to where they are going, and get in the back seat and text all they want.  Maybe the more geeky of them can even play World of Warcraft on their laptops during their daily commute.  

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      In St. Cloud, Minnesota a man was apprehended by the law, after he went to the hospital for treatment of some kind.  He didn't have any insurance or money on his person, but convinced the hospital staff there that he was good for it, because he convinced them that he was David Gilmore from Pink Floyd.  Wow, can you say gullible?  
      St. Cloud has an interesting reputation.  It is a college town, but not for the serious kinds of students.  They have some great schools there and some great programs, but by and large it is a town for intense college partying.  They attract students from smaller towns (the 600 or so population kinds of towns) who want to party day in and day out, they attract drug dealers from those same towns who want to sell the "stuff" to the kinds of kids that were always a lot smarter than they were, and they also have a reputation for attracting weirdos.  
      Through the 2000's they had the "St. Cloud Superman."  Actually he's still around there, but isn't the sensation he once was.  The guy actually is fairly harmless.  He stands out in front of a Dairy Queen there in costume and waves at traffic and talks about truth, Justice, and the American way to whoever will listen.  He has a Facebook page, and if you look it up there are a few videos of him on Youtube.  The people of St. Cloud either love him or hate him )it seems that more of them hate him.  He was arrested for disturbing the peace, and was actually asked in court if he used his X-ray vision to look at women's underwear (some women complained to police that he had been doing that - seriously).  Way to go St. Cloud justice system.  For a while he had attracted others to him like bugs to a light.  For instance there was a Spiderman that hung out with him for a while.  Amazing, DC and Marvel getting together in a cross franchise Justice League (or is it S.H.I.E.L.D?).  

      If your kids tell you they want to go to college in St. Cloud, check their bedrooms for pot pipes and booze bottles. 
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      I also heard a story today about one of the victims of the Boston Bombing.  They were interviewing one woman who ended up losing both of her legs (like so many there that day - I don't have words to describe the tragedy of that day).  Her daughter ended up in the same hospital, and the staff let them recover in the same room.  While the woman was feeling especially despondent, they were visited by a pair of Iraqi War vets, one of whom himself is a double amputee.  He showed here that she can still live a normal and fulfilling life.  She was cheered by this.  The two vets have continued to visit daily.  
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That's all the snippets for today.