Not a helpful answer. If you think that all there is to parking a car is the mechanics of getting it into a parking space, you haven't been driving long enough.

Several people have responded to my query, but every answer is a knee-jerk, "how-can-you-be-so-stupid?" type of douchbag answer. Every answer describes a system where:
1. There is a huge infrastructure that the car depends on for information, which is apparently still fully functional after a tornado, hurricane, or earthquake.
2. All other cars are self-driving and connected to some sort of secure and completely trustworthy network.
3. All cars are able to know which parking spaces are restricted and which are not, and how they are restricted ("only customers of Bob's Tacos can park here"), etc.

Conclusion: we have only scratched the surface when it comes to solving the problems with self-driving cars. Self-driving cars are not just around the corner, but are, in fact, decades away. Therefore, it is reasonable to require some sort of steering mechanism on so-called "self-driving" cars.

I like the idea of a self-driving car, but I still don't understand how the self-driving car finds a parking space, or gets eased into place in the garage for maintenance. How does it find it's way around an unexpected hazard, like a downed limb, or washed-out area of the road? How does the self-driving car know that the road is flooded or otherwise undriveable? How does it know that the power is out at an intersection that normally has traffic lights?

For the most part I have no regrets over my career choice. I liked it 30 years ago, and I still like it now. I sometimes imagine what it would have been like to be an archaeologist, or a writer (other career choices that appealed to me), but that's just daydreaming. What school did not prepare me for was all the "detective" work involved. A lot of my career has been studying data flows, and re-engineering old processes with no documentation. When I was in school, the emphasis was on writing new applications, not bolting stuff onto old ones.

Exhibit 153B. Sociopaths in natural habitat.

Well, I don't think it's time to pass out the pistols yet. There may still be plenty of work available to those with Asperger's. I can sympathize with your situation, but the problem is that you're using the BA as a sort of "seeing eye dog" for your condition, and a lot of companies are finding that they don't want to pay six-digit salaries for "seeing eye dogs".

I've been in IT for over 30 years and I've seen a lot of changes. My first program was coded onto punch cards and read into the system that way. Nowadays I'm doing some traditional programming and SQL, but also working with some new tools like SAP's Data Services and Dell's Boomi. These newer platforms are very visual in how you hook up your components, yet still offer the flexibility to write special modules in languages like Java or ABAP. This, I think, is the future of programming, where a lot of the repetitive drudgery is taken out of the coding. This will mean changes in how application developers work.

When I first started out, there was less spcialization. The coder was expected to understand the business and to meet with the users to discuss design, and solve problems. In time, so-called "Business Analyst" and "Project Manager" positions were created because not all coders were good at working with users, and many of them have only a vague understanding of how business functions. However, companies are learning that all this specialization overhead is expensive (and perhaps even redundant). Specialized "code-monkeys" will be less in demand. So will "business analysts" who cannot design solutions. The future will belong to those coders who can be good analysts, who understand business, who can deal with users, and still understand how to configure modules and link them together in order to produce applications.

I don't think it's fair to think of the characters as being mentally handicapped. I've known people like the Sheldon character, including my own nephew, and I even wonder if I hadn't been born in the 60's if even I might have been diagnosed as autistic as a child. At any rate, none of the people I've known who are autistic are any where near as full of themselves as Sheldon Cooper. He is continually reminding everyone around him how much smarter he is and how great he is at everything. His ego is boundless, and in most situations he shows no regard for anyone but himself. That's not mentally handicapped, that's just being an ass.

I don't get the controversy. I like the show. It makes me laugh. I don't care what the actors get paid. It's none of my business. I think the comparisons to "black face" are in error. Poking fun at people because of their behavior is not the same as poking fun at people because of their skin color. It's just a sitcom. They come and go. It hasn't jumped the shark yet (not for me, anyway). When it does I'll probably stop watching. And if CBS should cancel it tomorrow, I won't care. My life does not revolve around characters on a tv show, nor does it revolve around the actors and writers. They're getting $1million per show... yawn.

I agree. Almost any farmer or rancher can attest to this behavior. My uncle was a farmer who raised cattle, and I spent a great deal of time at the farm with my cousin who was the same age. My uncle would typically have about 60-70 head at any given time and he pretty well know each one as an individual. Their behavior, such as who they "hung out" with, and so on, would give him clues to how they were faring; such as if an individual was sick, pregnant, or in some kind of distress.

Nevertheless, I understand the need for scientists to want to get real numbers on this sort of thing for the sake of understanding behavior better. It's just that articles read like this is new and surprising information.

I don't get why more people don't do this.

The answer to that question is simple: gardening can be a chore. The benefits have to outweigh the effort, and I think for a lot of people the effort is too much. I used to keep a garden, but I found that I did not get that much enjoyment out of tending one. It was great to have the fresh tomatoes, eggplant and chiles, but not THAT great. Even though it wasn't for me, I think you will see more people starting to do this as the effort/benefits ratio begins to tilt. If I ever do it again, I think I'll try just putting out a few plants in pots, rather than lots of plants in beds.

Personally, I take a very darwinian approach to my lawn. That is, so long as it grows, and can put up with the lawn mower, it can stay. I don't water. I don't spread chemicals. The result is that I have all kinds of fauna in my yard, some of which I am not sure are even native to this solar system.

You make a good point. However, just playing devil's advocate here, your generators will only run so long as you can keep them supplied with diesel fuel. If the transportation and distribution system that the pipelines and trucks rely on to get the fuel from point a to point b is disrupted, you may have trouble keeping those generators running.

Most disaster preparedness is built on the assumption that help will arrive from the outside. But when EVERYWHERE is affected, help may not be available.

Nevertheless, the article is indeed a bit FUDdy.

That has always been true. The share is even higher for other degrees. Probably 70 percent with degrees in Liberal Arts lead to other jobs -- waiting on tables, for instance.

Finally! Portable holes, like in the old Warners Brothers cartoons!