Autonomous Automobiles

 And VERY BIG Rigs

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
  The juxtaposition of the titles of the two articles on the left above, next to the picture of a driverless truck on a major highway is interesting. Among the problems noticed now with driverless taxis is the one mentioned in the top article. If you are alone in a car without a driver, a pedestrian can essentially keep the vehicle from moving. More from that article:
   "In January, Doug Fulop was riding home from a night out in San Francisco when a man crossed the street in front of his car, doubled back and began screaming at him. The man punched the car’s windows and tried lifting up the vehicle. He then yelled that he wanted to kill Mr. Fulop and the other two passengers for giving money to a robot.
   A taxi driver would have simply driven away. But Mr. Fulop’s vehicle had no driver — it was a self-driving Waymo. “We felt helpless,” said Mr. Fulop, 37, who works in the tech industry.
   Self-driving cars are designed to stop moving if a person is nearby. People can take advantage of that function to harass and threaten their passengers. In 2024, a San Francisco man tried covering the sensors of a self-driving car that had stopped, effectively disabling it, while passengers were inside. Another video from that year showed three women screaming as a group of vandals tagged their autonomous taxi with spray paint.
   Handing the keys to a robot has added bizarre and, at times, worrisome new quirks to car travel. Passengers have shared videos of their autonomous cars getting stuck driving in circles or becoming lost in a parking garage. Last week, a video showed a Waymo in Austin, Texas, that had stopped under a railroad crossing gate just short of the tracks before a train sped past. There were no riders in the car, Waymo said."

    One wonders what "worrisome new quirks" will be found when more big semis are moving very fast on our freeways. One already noticed is "phantom braking -- the problem of autonomous systems, particularly those driven solely by cameras, “seeing” nonexistent obstacles, leading them to stop abruptly and potentially cause an accident. And given the size and the weight of the trucks, the impact of such collisions could be quite severe."
   You are likely thinking this a problem you do not have to worry about, but in the "progressive" state of Texas, the future has arrived. 
   "The operator, Aurora Innovation, said it was the first fully autonomous commercial trucking operation of its kind on U.S. highways. The company’s runs between Dallas and Houston on the I-45 corridor quickly racked up 1,200 miles on the road for customers including FedEx and Uber Freight.

There’s no question that finally putting driverless semi trucks into regular interstate runs will be a turning point for the industry....

   A consensus is emerging that fully autonomous Class 8 trucking on major highways will arrive in 2027, with multiple companies prepared to roll out fleets, mostly in Texas, beginning later this year. (Trucks are classified from 1 to 8 and 8 is the biggest.)"
   It's coming because it is cheaper. Drivers cost money and are limited in the number of hours and miles they can drive without stopping. A truck without a driver can keep on barreling through.

  Over in Sweden, driverless trucks are being used in mining operations and in remote places without much traffic. A company there, Einride, has created a cabless rig that is already being used to move cargo around in Tennessee.

Sources: 
  The titles of both articles are provided above and both were in the NYT on March 17, 2026. Erin Griffin authored the first and Jim Motavalli, the one about the trucks. 

   

   

London's Bicentennial (Snippet 7)

 Wine of Cardui - Probably the Only Wine in London in 1902
   Straight from Chattanooga, this elixir was used to treat "women's diseases".

This ad. is found in The Madison Daily Leader (South Dakota), on June 28, 1902. I am not sure if Miss Markell existed, but you can find plenty about the Wine of Cardui. And, there are empty bottles for sale on Amazon and ebay..

Another School Denaming

 The Return of DWEM Days
   A few years ago the winds of sanctimony blew in, mainly from the south. Statues were toppled and names disappeared from schools. My sons had attended Ryerson Public School which could not withstand the sanctimonious blast. Committees met, meetings were held and after considerable deliberation this captivating moniker was delivered: Old North Public School.
  There was an American casualty as well. The F.D. Roosevelt Public School became Forest City Public School because of “F.D. Roosevelt’s historical connection to racism and controversial approach to Jewish refugees during the Holocaust, which are inconsistent with the school board’s values and commitments to human rights and equity,” the school board said in a statement."
   More committees undoubtedly were needed to update the school signage, change the logos, toss the stationary and put down the mascots. Self-righteousness can be costly. 

A School Bell No Longer Peals for Pepys
  Although things have been relatively quiet here, over in England where the other London is located, a school has decided to take Pepys' name off of one of the houses on their campus. The image above came with this telling headline: "Cambridgeshire School Which Dropped Historic Sex Offender Samuel Pepys' Name Reveals Replacement Figurehead," Gemma Gad, Peterborough Telegraph, Mar.11, 2026. 
   "A Peterborough area school which dropped the name ‘Samuel Pepys’ after learning of the historic figure’s sex offences – has now chosen a replacement. Staff and students at Hinchingbrooke School, in Huntingdon, have voted Olivia Bernard Sparrow as the new figurehead for one of its pastoral houses."

  It is astonishing to learn that they just learned that Pepys could be problematic. It is also interesting that the students participated in the name change selection, a precedent which it would be prudent to not adopt. One hopes that Ms. Sparrow did not keep a diary. 
   Readers of MM will know that I cancelled my subscription to the Washington Post. Before doing so, I grabbed the following piece and will provide portions of it, since the author and I are in agreement about denaming:
  "Another Ludicrous Canceling of a Name From the Past: Shaming the Dead is an Asinine Culture Warriors' Pastime: Now Its the Great Diarist Samuel Pepys's Turn," Andrew Doyle, Feb. 9, 2026.
   "Samuel Pepys was, famously, an extraordinary diarist, offering a vivid first-hand account of life in Restoration England from 1660 to 1669....This squeamishness over the diaries has never gone away. Recently, Hinchingbrooke School in Cambridgeshire — where Pepys was an alumnus — decided that one of its pastoral houses should no longer bear his name. This is just the latest example of an institution rewriting or minimizing aspects of its own history to fulfill the moral expectations of the present day.....The shaming of the dead is one of the most asinine pastimes of today’s culture warriors."

   One of the uses for AI at WaPo, was for summarizing the comments made about the articles written. I found it useful, some readers did not. Here is what AI concluded from the over 1,150 comments about the Pepys' piece. 
   "The conversation explores the decision by Hinchingbrooke School to remove Samuel Pepys's name from one of its pastoral houses, with participants expressing a range of opinions on the broader implications of renaming buildings and the concept of "cancel culture." Some commenters argue that renaming is a necessary step to align with modern values and to stop honoring historical figures whose actions are now considered reprehensible. Others see it as an overreaction or a distraction from more pressing issues, suggesting that it is part of a broader trend of erasing history. The discussion also touches on comparisons with other historical figures, such as Woodrow Wilson, and the actions of the Trump administration in altering historical narratives. Overall, the comments reflect a debate on how society should handle the legacies of historical figures and the criteria for honoring them in public spaces."

Oh-oh or Uh-oh: Denaming on a Massive Scale
  In the province of Quebec there is an attempt to enforce laicity, an action with which I am mostly sympathetic. Sometimes, however, the scale of sanctimonious actions can be considerable. To wit: this article was in the paper yesterday:

"Remove Religious Names from 'Secular' Schools," Raphaël Melançon

London Free Press, March 17, 2026:

"Guaranteeing a truly religion-free school environment."...

But is it really a "religion-free environment" when your school, despite prohibiting its employees from displaying their faith, still bears the name of a Catholic saint?

  In the village where I grew up, near Joliette, the local elementary school is still called Sacré-Coeur-de-Jésus, carved into the stone facade of the building. Every morning, when children walk into their school, they see reminders of the profoundly religious past of their community.

   And it is far from an isolated case. According to a list I compiled from various sources, out of nearly 2,000 public elementary schools in Quebec, more than 500 are named after a religious - most often Christian figure. That means more than one in four public elementary schools in this province bears the name of a saint, biblical figure or former prominent member of the clergy.....

"Secularism in our public institutions and schools is a non-negotiable principle," Drainville said to justify his government's recent decisions....

   But if the Education Ministry wants to be consistent with that same principle, it should start by examining how public schools across the province are named.

   And by doing so, it could get rid of relics of a long bygone religious past to bring the names of hundreds of our public schools into the 21st century."

  I will leave the conclusion to Twain:

   "We despise all reverences and all objects of reverence which are outside the pale of our list of sacred things. And yet, with strange inconsistency, we are shocked when other people despise and defile the things which are holy to us."

 The Bonus: 
  Those of you who are naughty and now curious about Pepys, can click on this link to his diary. What comes up is the diary entry for the day from about 365 years ago.

The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Daily Entries Form the 17th Century London Diary

London's Bicentennial (Snippet 6)

 London Police Blotter - 1908

Source: University Missourian, Oct. 26, 1908. (United Press)
  This newspaper started in 1908 when the U. of Missouri School of Journalism opened. They probably used the UP item as filler. Located in Columbia, the paper reportedly closed in 1916.

London Bicentennial (Snippet 5)

 Another Building Collapse in London - 1907

Source: "Building Collapses at London, Ontario,"  Daily Kennebec Journal, July 17, 1907.(Maine) The following is found on the website of the London Fire Department Historical Society. 

Dyslexia and Decorum

  A lack of the latter was again displayed in what passes for public discourse these days. On a book tour, California Governor Gavin Newsom has mentioned his dyslexia which is covered in his book. President Trump took notice and, with his usual empathy remarked that Newson “said, in a speech, he was dumb, had low Boards, can’t read, has dyslexia, and has a mental disorder — A Cognitive Mess!”
  I should note that Newsom’s response was also a little less than decorous: “Newsom fired back at Trump on the social platform X, saying, “I spoke about my dyslexia.” “I know that’s hard for a brain-dead moron who bombs children and protects pedophiles to understand,” he added.”

This is not the first time the Trump administration has demonstrated a lack of concern for those with dyslexia, among, it must be admitted, a very large number of other groups for which little concern is shown.

Font Fights

    In the Great Reaction and backlash to the somewhat excessive efforts of the DEI folks, there was one you likely missed. It came at the tail-end of last year and involved typeface, which was just typed in a different way and you may not have noticed. For people with various visual disabilities, like dyslexia, the types of typefaces can make a difference.
  Way back in 2023 during the Biden Administration, Secretary of State, Antony Blinken issued a directive that the State Department drop the typeface, Times New Roman and adopt Calibri. Calibri is more accessible it was argued and Blinken said “that Times New Roman “can introduce accessibility issues for individuals with disabilities who use Optical Character Recognition technology or screen readers.”

  On Dec. 9, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a new directive. Marco’s memo has, as its subject heading: “Return to Tradition: Times New Roman 14-Point Font Required for All Department Paper,” Rubio called Calibri “informal” and said it “clashes” with State letterhead. He also criticized it as a “radical” diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiative.” The reaction was immediate.

  On Dec. 10, this response to the Times New Roman directive appeared in The New York Times. Since it is likely you chose not to read this typeface article, given all the other Trump news, much of it is reproduced below, where the issues and arguments are displayed in Arial.

“A Typeface Falls Victim In the Push Against D.E.I.: Secretary of State Marco Rubio Called the Biden-era Move to the Sans Serif Typeface ''wasteful,'' Casting the Return to Times New Roman as Part of a Push to Stamp out Diversity Efforts,” 

 by Mike Crowley and Hamed Aleaziz.
    Secretary of State Marco Rubio waded into the surprisingly fraught politics of typefaces on Tuesday with an order halting the State Department's official use of Calibri, reversing a 2023 Biden-era directive that Mr. Rubio called a ''wasteful'' sop to diversity.
  While mostly framed as a matter of clarity and formality in presentation, Mr. Rubio's directive to all diplomatic posts around the world blamed ''radical'' diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs for what he said was a misguided and ineffective switch from the serif typeface Times New Roman to sans serif Calibri in official department paperwork.

   In an ''Action Request'' memo obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Rubio said that switching back to the use of Times New Roman would ''restore decorum and professionalism to the department's written work.'' Calibri is ''informal'' when compared to serif typefaces like Times New Roman, the order said, and ''clashes'' with the department's official letterhead….
  Mr. Rubio's directive, under the subject line ''Return to Tradition: Times New Roman 14-Point Font Required for All Department Paper,'' served as the latest attempt by the Trump administration to stamp out remnants of diversity initiatives across the federal government.

   Then-Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken ordered the 2023 typeface shift on the recommendation of the State Department's office of diversity and inclusion, which Mr. Rubio has since abolished. The change was meant to improve accessibility for readers with disabilities, such as low vision and dyslexia, and people who use assistive technologies, such as screen readers.

   Calibri, sometimes described as soft and modern, is typically considered more accessible for people with reading challenges thanks to its simpler shapes and wider spacing, which make its letters easier to distinguish. Mr. Blinken's move was applauded by accessibility advocates.

   But Mr. Rubio's order rejected the grounds for the switch. The change, he allowed, ''was not among the department's most illegal, immoral, radical or wasteful instances of D.E.I.A.,'' the acronym for diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. But Mr. Rubio called it a failure by its own standards, saying that ''accessibility-based document remediation cases'' at the department had not declined.

  ''Switching to Calibri achieved nothing except the degradation of the department's official correspondence,'' Mr. Rubio said. He noted that Times New Roman had been the department's official typeface for nearly 20 years until the 2023 change. (Before 2004, the State Department used Courier New.)

  Echoing President Trump's call for classical style in federal architecture, Mr. Rubio's order cited the origins of serif typefaces in Roman antiquity. Those typefaces, which are used by The New York Times, include small strokes at the edges of many characters.

   Admirers say those flourishes make letters look more elegant and make them easier to distinguish from one another, even though they can also create a sense of clutter.

  Serif typefaces are ''generally perceived to connote tradition, formality and ceremony,'' Mr. Rubio's order said, adding that they were used by the White House, Supreme Court and other state and federal government entities, as well as in the script on the side of Air Force One.

   Many diplomats are unhappy with changes Mr. Rubio has made to the department's structure and leadership, and have reported badly damaged morale within their ranks. But the Biden administration's move to Calibri prompted some grumbling from some traditionalists who preferred Times New Roman. Mr. Blinken also changed the standard font size, from 14-point to 15-point, requiring extra keystrokes that some diplomats found annoying.”

   
  A few days later there was this follow-up piece in the Times: “Is Times New Roman Better Than Calibri for the State Department?” by Jonatha Corum, Dec.13. Perhaps this is the most important point in it: “I wonder if it’s all a bit of a distraction from what the State Department is actually doing, rather than the font they’re doing it in,” said Tobias Frere-Jones, a type designer known for Gotham, Interstate and other ubiquitous typefaces. “But it is an opportunity to talk about what makes things legible.” Perhaps the larger question is not which typeface is best, or the rationale for the change, but whether the clever people in the Trump administration deliberately chose Times New Roman to sabotage Newsom's run for the presidency. One would not want to elect a president who could not read the State Department memos. Or, the hugest question might be, to use a word of the kind often employed by the current President, do you think President Trump has ever read a State Department memo?

Sources: I have provided enough for this typeface topic and you can easily find some on your own. I could offer more, but will just give you the one with the best title: "A New Serif in Town: Trump's Font Culture War" by Will Barker in The Week:UK. CANCON Up here in the north things tend to move at a glacial pace, which has been quickening. DEI mantras arrived here fairly fast, but the Great Reaction is just now beginning and only the most extreme DEI demands have started to melt. On the language front, things seem fairly calm. The Government of Canada has enough problems in sending out memos in the two official languages so font issues are probably on the back burners. It is the case, however, that several new languages, which are very old, have been added and typeface traumas may be in the offing. Fonts for some of the Indigenous languages are being developed, particularly in British Columbia, but there are sure to be complaints from settlers who will not be able to find the characters on their keyboards, which sometimes are now required in official documents. There are many examples. The first one below is an "Acknowledgement" and the second a sign.

“This place is the unceded and ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and has been stewarded by them since time immemorial.”

March Breakup

 Orlando or Bust?
   There was an article in The Globe and Mail last month with this title: "Canada's Great American Breakup: Most Now See U.S. As a Risk, Not an Ally, Poll Finds," Steven Chase, Feb. 23, 2026. "The poll, by Nanos Research  took stock of deteriorating Canadian opinions of the United States after U.S. President Donald Trump’s first year back in office.The findings suggest a profound level of distrust and a significant recasting of how Canadians see the United States."

“The environment now in Canada is very emotionally charged,” Mr. Nanos said." While some Canadians are putting elbows up, many are not putting sandals on unless they are heading to Punta Canta or Cancun. 

  There have been many articles indicating that travel to the U.S. by Canadians is down to a significant degree. Next week is  "March Break" for many and it will be interesting to see if many chose not to seek the sun, just south of our border.

You Can't Get There From Here
   One used to be able to fly from London "International" Airport directly to some U.S. locations. That is now not the case. Also, some airlines are reducing routes.
   Air Transat has decided to cut its flights to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando. 
   WestJet is also dropping many flights. Here are some examples:

WestJet's cancelled U.S. routes include:

Atlanta (ATL) – Edmonton (YEG)

Boston (BOS) – Vancouver (YVR)

Chicago (ORD) – Edmonton (YEG)

Las Vegas (LAS) – Toronto (YYZ)

Las Vegas (LAS) – Winnipeg (YWG)

Los Angeles (LAX) – Toronto (YYZ)

Nashville (BNA) – Vancouver (YVR)

Nashville (BNA) – Winnipeg (YWG)

Orlando (MCO) – Vancouver (YVR)

Raleigh-Durham (RDU) – Calgary (YYC)

San Diego (SAN) – Vancouver (YVR)

San Francisco (SFO) – Edmonton (YEG)

San Francisco (SFO) – Vancouver (YVR)

Seattle (SEA) – Edmonton (YEG)

Seattle (SEA) – Kelowna (YLW)

  I suppose this also means there won't be as many options from those locations for Americans who might want to visit Canada. 
  One notices the changes in Canadian magazines and travel sites. The Canadian Snowbird Association's winter issue is "The Captivating Canary Islands."
  They are even noticed in RV publications, where the marketing people must be having a hard time: "Winter Magic in Ontario Parks: Firelight Hikes, Family Fun, and Frozen Trails" and "Winter Road Trips in Canada: What You Should Know Before You Go."

Sources: The West Jet cancellations are found in: "WestJet Removes 15 Transborder Routes, Cuts Summer Capacity by 19.6%," Global Media, Feb. 20, 2026. "WestJet is cutting 15 several Canada–U.S. routes as transborder demand continues to soften, leading to a significant capacity reduction for Summer 2026....
As reported, softer demand from both Canadian and U.S. travellers has dampened transborder traffic flows."
   A sample of an article discussing this downward trend is found in The Toronto Star: "Canadian Snowbirds are Avoiding the U.S. in Greater Numbers; Anger at Trump, Poor Exchange Rate Spark Big Drop for Southwest Florida," Francine Kopun, Jan.25, 2026.

Post Script:
  There are other reasons not to fly -- to anywhere. If you are over 5 tall, on WestJet, is one of them.  Also the mid-air tussles have increased along with the turbulence. With regard to the fisticuffs, I have yet to see any example when the "Plane Police" happened to be on board when problems with passengers developed: see, Air Marshals. For the rough flights read: "Buckle Up: Why Is Turbulence Getting Worse?" Burkhard Bilger, The New Yorker, March 9, 2026.