What is wrong with people today?

[Mack Technician]

2 hours ago, 41chevy said:

The justice system treats the criminals 100% better than the elderly and veterans. We give the convicts  health, education, internet, cable t.v., 3 square meals and now in many states felons will get their voting rights back. (NOT a right it is a privilege)   What we give the elderly and many vets is a couple of bucks to pay for their healthcare and some cat food. A few politicians on the full term abortion band wagon are also pushing for the euthanasia of the elderly with Alzheimer's,  Dementia and terminal issues to unburden the healthcare system. A short step to target other "burdens on society".

We  treat the illegals better than the old and vets.

A good gauge on society is how they take care of the old and their veterans. Where do you think we stand  by that criteria?

Gets worse. Old fella at work was telling me a story about his son-in-law. Son-in-law worked at the prison, Black River Falls Correctional. They brought in an LGBTQRSTYBlah blah-whatever person. The person was in the middle of Hormone treatments to become a woman and had some reconstruction already underway. The prison system was forced to complete the surgical procedures and hormone treatments to finish the job. Oops, now he’s a girl, can’t stay here for the sake of prison rape. Get another judge and put her in his own block till we figure something out. The whole thing is madness. 

[41chevy]

6 hours ago, Mack Technician said:

Gets worse. Old fella at work was telling me a story about his son-in-law. Son-in-law worked at the prison, Black River Falls Correctional. They brought in an LGBTQRSTYBlah blah-whatever person. The person was in the middle of Hormone treatments to become a woman and had some reconstruction already underway. The prison system was forced to complete the surgical procedures and hormone treatments to finish the job. Oops, now he’s a girl, can’t stay here for the sake of prison rape. Get another judge and put her in his own block till we figure something out. The whole thing is madness. 

There is a cure for the alphabet person syndrome . . . I believe it involves numbers

[JoeH]

14 hours ago, Mack Technician said:

Gets worse. Old fella at work was telling me a story about his son-in-law. Son-in-law worked at the prison, Black River Falls Correctional. They brought in an LGBTQRSTYBlah blah-whatever person. The person was in the middle of Hormone treatments to become a woman and had some reconstruction already underway. The prison system was forced to complete the surgical procedures and hormone treatments to finish the job. Oops, now he’s a girl, can’t stay here for the sake of prison rape. Get another judge and put her in his own block till we figure something out. The whole thing is madness. 

That is madness. How is it the prisons financial responsibility to finish what this idiot started?? If the person can use the bathroom then just lock em up! If they didn't want to get locked up with a bunch of other criminals then they shouldn't have done whatever they did!

[kscarbel2]

The Wall Street Journal  /  July 1, 2019

Nike Inc. is yanking a U.S.A.-themed sneaker featuring an early American flag after former NFL star-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick told the company it shouldn’t sell a shoe with a symbol that he and others consider offensive.

The sneaker giant created the Air Max 1 USA in celebration of the July Fourth holiday, and it was slated to go on sale this week. The heel of the shoe featured a U.S. flag with 13 white stars in a circle, a design created during the American Revolution and commonly referred to as the Betsy Ross flag.

After shipping the shoes to retailers, Nike asked for them to be returned without explaining why.

“Nike has chosen not to release the Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of July as it featured the old version of the American flag,” a Nike spokeswoman said.

After images of the shoe were posted online, Kaepernick, a Nike endorser, called Nike officials saying that he and others felt the Betsy Ross flag is an offensive symbol because of its connection to an era of slavery.

Kaepernick refused to comment.

.

[kscarbel2]

This country has gotten too "thin skinned", too politically correct.

In this case, what in the world???

If one "cherry picks" facts for the sake of argument, one can now successfully argue for or against anything.

Whatever happened to telling those in the minority........."no". It's impossible for everyone to get their way.

[kscarbel2]

"If we're in a political environment where the American flag has become controversial to Americans, I think we've got a problem."

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky)

 

[kscarbel2]

Cultural decay, and declining standards of behavior......the depth of problems in society today are shocking.

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Texas Walmart shooting: El Paso gun attack leaves 20 dead

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49221936

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Mass shootings in the U.S.: From Columbine to El Paso

https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/mass-shootings-in-the-us-from-columbine-idUSRTX723MM

[41chevy]

You should watch the CNN  tirade on how white plastic "skin" on robots is racist. White robots are a sign of dominance  over minorities.

https://twitter.com/cnn/status/1156916257834381312

 

(CNN)Have you ever noticed the popularity of white robots?

You see them in films like Will Smith's "I, Robot" and Eve from "Wall-E." Real-life examples include Honda's Asimo, UBTECH's Walker, Boston Dynamics' Atlas, and even NASA's Valkyrie robot. All made of shiny white material. And some real-life humanoid robots are modeled after white celebrities, such as Audrey Hepburn and Scarlett Johansson.

The reason for these shades of technological white may be racism, according to new research.

"Robots And Racism," a study conducted by the Human Interface Technology Laboratory in New Zealand (HIT Lab NZ) and published by the country's University of Canterbury, suggests people perceive physically human-like robots to have a race and therefore apply racial stereotypes to white and black robots.

These colors have been found to trigger social cues that determine how humans react to and behave toward other people and also, apparently, robots.

"The bias against black robots is a result of bias against African-Americans," lead researcher Christoph Bartneck explained to The Next Web. He told CNN, "It is amazing to see how people who had no prior interaction with robots show racial bias towards them."

The researchers think this is an issue that needs to be addressed. "If robots are supposed to function as teachers, friends, or carers, for instance, then it will be a serious problem if all of these roles are only ever occupied by robots that are racialized as White," according to the study.

The robots used in the study are clearly robots but have human-like limbs and a head, with exterior complexions that are white -- which is to say, pinkish -- or black -- really, a deep brown. In the "shooter bias" test, black and white people and robots appeared on a screen for less than a second, and participants were told to "shoot" those holding a weapon. Black robots that were not holding weapons were shot more than the white ones not carrying guns.

Run a simple Google Image search on the term "robot." You won't see a lot of color, as pointed out in the study. The researchers see this overrepresentation of white robots as potentially harmful to the perception of other races.

Robot designers come from all corners of the world, Bartneck pointed out, yet they still idealize white robots.

"Human-shaped robots should represent the diversity of humans," Bartneck told The Next Web.

 

"Imagine a world in which all Barbie dolls are white. Imagine a world in which all the robots working in Africa or India are white. Further imagine that these robots take over roles that involve authority. Clearly, this would raise concerns about imperialism and white supremacy," Bartneck told CNN. "Robots are not just machines, but they represent humans."

In a second study, the HIT Lab NZ team added lighter brown robots, finding that as they increased the racial diversity, participants' racial bias toward the robots disappeared altogether. This "potentially means that diversification of robots might lead to a reduction in racial bias towards them," according to that study.

"This leads me to believe that we have everything to win by offering racial options and nothing to lose," Bartneck told CNN.

"In the same way that we do want Barbie dolls in all colors and shapes, we also want robots in more than just white."

 

 

Edited August 4, 2019 by 41chevy

[kscarbel2]

Dealers are being sued because their websites don't accommodate blind people.

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ADA lawsuits prompt dealerships to make websites more accessible

Lindsay Vanhulle, Automotive News  /  November 9, 2019

In May, Juan Carlos Gil, a legally blind Florida resident, sued about 50 AutoNation Inc. dealerships in Florida.

Gil claimed he couldn't access their websites using his screen-reader software — a violation of the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, the landmark 1990 law that requires places of public accommodation to be fully accessible. His lawsuit sought to compel AutoNation, the largest new-vehicle retailer in the country, to make its websites compliant.

AutoNation is not alone as a target of such lawsuits. Dealerships are being swept up in litigation against businesses brought by disabled plaintiffs in several states. Seyfarth, a law firm that tracks ADA-related litigation, projects more than 2,400 federal website lawsuits will be filed in 2019, more than in each of the previous two years. Many of the cases end with financial settlements and commitments to improve accessibility online.

"Our advice to our clients is to promptly embark on this accessibility journey right away, because these lawsuits are not going away," said Minh Vu, a partner at Seyfarth in Washington, D.C. "And it's very important for people with disabilities" to access websites.

Several experts told Automotive News the cases have prompted dealerships to update their digital accessibility practices, something recommended even for dealerships that haven't been sued. The legal actions hitting dealers involve both lawsuits and informal demands.

Many retailers first receive demand letters from plaintiffs' lawyers before a lawsuit is filed, and some companies settle in response to those letters without waiting for the matter to progress to a lawsuit.

Because those settlements happen out of court, there's no way to know how many such settlements are happening and what the terms are, said Randy Henrick, principal at dealership compliance firm Randy Henrick & Associates LLC.

It's a dilemma for dealers. While courts have held that business websites are subject to the ADA, the federal government has not adopted compliance regulations (see box at right). That makes it hard to determine how much to spend on compliance, experts said.

Dealers also don't have sole control of their websites, which are built by outside vendors with required content from automakers. Some third-party dealership website providers have partnered with companies that specialize in accessible technology, including AudioEye in Tucson, Ariz., and Israeli company EqualWeb.

"Not knowing what the law requires, I'm not going to tell a dealer to go out and spend $50,000," said Henrick, a former regulatory and compliance lawyer for dealer technology vendor Dealertrack.

Trying to improve

Digital access for people with disabilities could mean providing video captions for people hard of hearing or enabling keyboard navigation.

A sighted person, for instance, would know to click on an image of a shopping cart to add items for purchase, said Chris Danielsen, spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind, an advocacy group. Someone who uses a screen reader would need alternative text describing the image to perform the same task.

The federation is concerned about the influx of litigation, Danielsen said, adding that it files lawsuits only after working to resolve issues out of court.

Multiple plaintiffs' lawyers who filed suits against dealers did not respond to messages seeking comment.

In September, Esserman Automotive Group in Doral, Fla., settled a lawsuit filed against its Volkswagen store in August.

"We went into this almost instantaneously wanting to get our websites ADA-compliant, because we saw no reason for them not to be," Esserman CFO John Hoctor said.

The settlement was for a confidential amount Hoctor called "nominal." The retailer also agreed to improve accessibility.

Businesses want to comply, said Haas Hatic, a lawyer at Greenspoon Marder LLP in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who defended Esserman. Yet a dealership website has individual vehicle pages that frequently change, he said, and the federal government has not adopted a "good-faith standard" that allows for broken links or accessibility gaps without violating the ADA.

"Websites break down all the time," Hatic said. "That doesn't mean the person is being denied access to goods and services."

Executives at AudioEye and EqualWeb said they can solve accessibility issues online using a mix of technology and human interaction.

AudioEye works on more than 3,000 dealership websites for providers such as Dealer.com, Dealer Inspire and Dealer Socket, said Ty D'Amore, AudioEye's vice president of strategic partnerships. EqualWeb has inked a partnership with dealership software giant CDK Global Inc.

Work with vendors

Companies that are proactive about accessibility can win business and support from people with disabilities and their families and friends, D'Amore said.

Dealers should work with website vendors to make accessibility features part of their website contracts, experts said.

Hoctor said Esserman is vetting consultants that can identify problems and develop a plan to fix them. But getting a third-party vendor to make the changes will be its hardest task, he added, since "we're dependent on outside people to do it."

AutoNation settled its case in June, committing to pay a nominal amount to cover attorneys' costs and improve its websites' accessibility. It denies Gil's allegations.

"AutoNation is working to implement software solutions and other measures to enhance website accessibility in collaboration with our business partners," Chief Marketing Officer Marc Cannon said. "Our efforts in this regard are ongoing."

[Mack Technician]

North Fond du Lac man accused of using stolen underwear to set fires

 

FOND DU LAC COUNTY, Wis. (WBAY) - A North Fond du Lac man is accused of using stolen underwear to set several fires in the county.

Michael L. Miller. Photo: Fond du Lac County Jail

Michael L. Miller, 43, has been charged in Fond du Lac County with 27 counts--including arson and possession of child pornography.

Details of the case were revealed in a criminal complaint obtained by Action 2 News. Miller, who was officially charged in Fond du Lac County Court today is being held on $200,000 bail.

MARCH 19

On March 19, at about 3 a.m., fire was reported at a vacant home in the 200 block of N Military Rd in Fond du Lac.

MARCH 20

Several fires were set on March 20.

Investigators responded to a fire at a home on Lakeshore Dr. in Fond du Lac County. An 88-year-old woman was in the home. Smoke detectors went off and she was able to escape. Investigators determined the fire had been lit on the outside near a window.

Three other suspicious fires were set that day in the Village of North Fond du Lac.

A vacant mobile home on Meadowlark Ct was damaged by fire.

A vacant home was damaged on Clinton St. Investigators said the fire was similar in origin to the one on Lakeshore Dr. Men's underwear were found at a back window.

In the 700 block of Maine Ave, a woman's bra was stuffed into the furnace exhaust PVC pipe. A child's swimsuit was stuffed into the intake PVC pipe of the furnace. Both items were lit on fire. The fire damaged the pipes before it went out.

SUSPECT IDENTIFIED

North Fond du Lac Police were able to identify Michael Miller as a suspect. He had known ties to a resident on Maine Ave and a resident on Meadowlark Ct.

During an interview, Miller admitted intentionally starting fires in the county, according to the complaint.
"I don't know what his motive was for targeting the specific homes, but there's no known connection between the homes and the suspect that I'm aware of," said Fond du Lac County Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt.

Officers examined Miller's phone and found "thousands of images of pornography." Some of those images were identified as child pornography.

Sheriff Waldschmidt adds, "My understanding is he didn't take any of them or admit to taking any of them, but in either a case, a child somewhere in the world has been victimized by this an another reason we're happy to have this person off of the streets."

They also found an image of a large fire. Miller stated that he would take underwear from laundromats and use it to start fires, according to the criminal complaint complaint.

"Miller stated that he was wearing women’s underwear during the interview and he buys the underwear at stores. Miller further stated that the underwear he used to light the fires was taken from laundromats," reads the complaint.

Ultimately, Miller admitted to setting 12 fires between December 2018 and April 2020. The complaint states he knew details about the fires that were not made public.

On April 28, multiple charges were filed against Miller in Fond du Lac County:

POSSESSION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY - 5 COUNTS

ARSON OF PROPERTY OTHER THAN BUILDING - 1 COUNT

ARSON OF BUILDING - 11 COUNTS

FELONY CRIMINAL DAMAGE TO PROPERTY - 4 COUNTS

BURGLARY OF BUILDING OR DWELLING - 3 COUNTS

FIRST DEGREE RECKLESSLY ENDANGERING SAFETY - 3 COUNTS

Miller is being held on a $200,000 cash bond.