AC is correct.

In motorsports few seconds is a very long time. The lap times are not mentioned.
The raceway in question is probably this: http://thunderhill.com/staticpages/index.php?page=TrackMap
But which variation? Long version 2.866miles record times tend to be just over the 2minute mark for somewhat normal cars.
Short version is 1.769miles for which SCCA website is missing the record times, the medium version is 1.814miles and record times tend to be close to 1:30 mark with somewhat regular cars.
Also they don't say how good race car driver was the AI against, there is a huge variety of race car driver skill levels.

Few seconds? They are being vague, i bet it was more than just 2 seconds because they are being vague.
Some racing series have 3% rule to qualify, ie. within 3% of the best time, for 1:30 lap time that is 2.7seconds, in other words this AI wouldn't even qualify. :)

All that being said, great work! Got to start from somewhere.
In theory AI could become better than humans, but then again AI will most likely always lack intuition, so could well be that a human will always surpass AI.
Nevermind that a very highly skilled human with very high motivation can do some insane reaction and completely remove the guesswork some of the time when surpassing the limits, ie. see Ayrton Senna. For AI we'd need sensor capable of few ms polling rates with data returned, then compute all the data within few milliseconds and then some insane fast and accurate servos to achieve that level.

Few millisecond polling rate doesn't sound like much until you realize that for example USB has 90ms, PS/2 is in theory capable of 5ms, and serial port even faster, but that doesn't account for data transfer rates.
There's a reason why we cannot even build a simple ECU/EMS with standard off-the-shelf hardware: Polling rates are too slow.

US:
Domains are being taken completely off the hands of the owners without due process, not just censored.
Censoring happens via DMCA in avery widespread manner, "under penalty of perjury" doesn't do much to stop abuse.
US tries to impose it's laws and regulations to other nations.

At the opposite is countries which are trying to cut off themselves form the global internet.

But there is also countries which have total freedom on internet usage, we don't just see it on news because they don't censor etc. causing debacles like that.

I would prefer all countries in the world have a say, in relation to their populace connected, with streamlined same rules for everyone.
Currently as a business owner i find it sometimes overwhelming trying to conform to a bunch of different laws different organizations are attempting to enforce on us at times. Sometimes our upstream providers laws have direct conflict with our laws, and the situation gets very delicate not to break either our law nor our upstream provider's.

A intergovermental, global organization could make rules the same for everyone, and this would help greatly businesses to provide services. Probably also would make it easier for companies like Netflix to provide their services globally.
BUT only if it's a sensible, sane organization, not under the influence of US corporate lobbyists. It also needs to transparent, so thinks like SOPA, ACTA, PIPA, CETA cannot be sneaked in.

and in many countries that is illegal because you are circumventing copy protection.
Illegal even if making backups or converting to another media for playing it on different devices is legitimate.

Here in Finland you are permitted to make anyway you wish a backup of any copyrighted material for your own usage.
Just the bypass of copyprotection is illegal, but there is no punishment for that.
Also downloading anything/gaining a copy of protected is legitimate for the individual, but distribution is illegal, which in some rare cases does result into fines or even jail time.

To add insult to the injury, every single CD, DVD, BluRay, any media to what you can save data, includes a copyright fee so you are free to copy for your own personal usage.

Businesses can purchase non-copyright fee media for backup purposes and other proven legitimate uses. Also many order media directly from Estonia to avoid the copyright fees.

Someone mod parent up and quick!

Exactly what is going on globally everywhere.
Just couple days back here in Finland i read news that a online TV broadcasting firm is being sued for copyright violations. What they did was rebroadcast the channels over internet, allow recording etc. basicly a TiVO/DVR via the net. For each customer there was even a receiver attached to stay on legal side.

They were sued by all major finnish tv channels, even our BBC counterpart which is funded by actual taxes starting 1st of Jan, 2013.
They did not rebroadcast paid channels, only free channels.
All the channels stood only to gain if they just worked with the internet broadcasting company, which has been under discrimination and persecution ever since it's inception.

They also provided access to Finns living elsewhere in the world, because things are so shitty here (A lot of it has to do with taxes and how those taxes are spent). A LOT, and i mean A LOT of finns move abroad, some of them eventually come back like my dad, some frequently visit finland, but many of them never comes around anymore.
It was the only means for "out finns" to watch finnish broadcasts. In that case however it's questionable legitimacy as "out finns" don't pay the public broadcast tax, but ad sponsored channels again stood to gain a lot. Ethically and morally i think "out finns" should be eligible to watch any Finnish TV or Radio channel for free, after all those are the very same guys taking the finnish culture out there - so why should we deny them from appreciating finnish culture in the form of TV or Radio?

indeed and the heated air raising up and being ventilated out will cause lower pressure -> ie. draw the cold in as well :)

and batteries cannot store at sane cost significant enough amount of energy.
There is a reason why massive battery arrays really don't exist ...

Doesn't matter really, because for wind farms, solar etc. this is way better store of energy than batteries.

1) Build a huge ass solar plant in desert
2) Have these turn it all into gasoline
3) Haul the gasoline on cheapest energy consumption method to everywhere in the world
4) PROFIT

OR

Have an existing wind farm/solar plant but it produces more at times than can be consumed nearby. Use these to turn the excess into gasoline. When there is no wind or sun shine burn the gasoline to supply the baseline, all excess gasoline sell at the pumps :)

I'm sorry but i got to say you don't have much experience driving cars hard, while better cars WILL make you faster, you should be able to take a corner of your description.

Learn counter steering, weight transfer and get a feel on the car, most modern cars, even sport cars, lack a proper feel. If you want a new car to learn with i suggest GT86 from Toyota, excellent response from the chassis i hear. Doubt it's anywhere near what the car's icon was, but closest thing to the real if you want a new car.

Not sure what's tight roundabout in your sense, and were you trying to go full 360 on it, or straight, or a 90 degree turn to the right, ie. the first out.
Now, go and do the same on snow (with STUDDED tires also containing friction ribbons or whatever they are called in english) and take it at 80km/h entry speed maintaining at least 60km/h exit speed if you are taking first or going straight.

Better yet, take a small, nimble, agile RWD car to a track day, you WILL have a blast while learning to drive better. Just start slow and at each lap go slightly faster. At the go too you could take it to a tiny autocross setup and learn dynamics of grip and weight transfer.

But you are absolutely right, regular cars have a boat feeling to them. I got gifted a Calibra as a daily driver, it's sufficiently old that it only has ABS and very low fuel consumption so i use it for daily driving etc. while my proper cars are at garage, it's absolutely terrifying experience at any speed above crawling when exiting corners, being automatic and FWD. Fortunately i'm going to use for the winter my '83 Corolla with a '97 1.6L 20valve VVT-i engine, roll cage, heavily modified suspension, heavily stiffened chassis with about 160whp and now that i finish this round of upgrades HOPEFULLY weighing in at just 840kg :)
The next model of that car is still the best in F-group rally. Shares same chassis bottom plate even, almost everything can be just bolted in from the next model to this older model, but this older model as Sedan model is some 150kg lighter from the factory.

Except evolution has been speeding up in the past century - significantly.
That's because travel is so much easier and there is so much more diversity everywhere.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071211-human-evolution.html

Further some scientists have argued that today evolution of the way we think is very rapid, can't find reference right now :(

100 years ago it was rather rare to see chinese men in america, or african at japan. Nevermind places like Finland where i live.
Still very little cultural mix in most Finnish cities, but in large cities there's a lot of variety. Just here in Helsinki there is A LOT of people form Africa, Turk, Philippines, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany, UK, Israel etc. From all everywhere in the world, especially a lot from Russia and Estonia as they are our neighbours.
I know quite a few people who's wifes/girlfriends are from outside finland.

Yes, there has been foreigners for centuries, but in modern day long distance travel is in the reach of all but the poorest!
I even know couple of people who has married with someone coming from very long away. One of my best friends married a mexican girl.

Now tell me that won't speed up things vastly! ;)
Yes it still takes generations to weed out the most desireable genes, but now more genetic variety is being introduced to the pool! :)

Oh yeah forgot to mention BMW E90 traction control system is outright dangerous in conditions where you need to avoid hitting an obstacle.
Just at the wrong time it takes away all power, so you cannot return to your line safely, results most often in a spin.

It's a heavy car so after heavy braking while avoiding something, it does still feel good, it looses just enough grip on the rear to allow you some very good response into avoiding the collision, but when you start to flick it back (ie. not to wind up into a ditch) you are essentially doing inertia drift (feint drift for some of you), the problem is to pull it off you need some significant slip on rear tires for control, problem is that the BMW system pulls of all power just at the wrong time, either causing one of two things:
  - Rear tires grip and you get a pendulum inertia drift effect, you know after a weight shift if you do weight shift at correct time you get that much stronger weight transfer, causing you to spin out of control to the opposite direction you are trying to get.
  - You cannot apply sufficient force forwards causing at least half a spin to the direction you wanted to go, 90 to 180 degrees, with insufficient steering lock there's not much that can be done. Sounds counter intuitive i know "shouldn't it just straighten out then? You did a mistake earlier!" Nope, since tires have better grip forwards applying force allows you to also push the front and by weight transfer enables more grip on rear tires.

I liked that car A LOT, but driving the stability control on at slippery conditions was outright dangerous. Taking it off tho, BMW E90 series is VERY GOOD, it surprised me A LOT how can that heavy of a car be so nimble, agile and easy to control.
I haven't taken the car to public roads, just drifted it so don't know how good it is at roads, but knowing BMW it's probably very good.
E90 is one of the very few newer cars i'd like to actually own and use as a daily driver... As long as i can figure out a way to have the stability control off at all times and still have it insured :)

First time i drived a ABS enabled car on ice+snow with friction winter tires, not studded, was the last time i will drive a car with ABS + friction winter tires, even if they are brand new like in that case. Couldn't stop at all :(
The ABS wouldn't allow me to brake efficiently, it took all braking power away, finding the maximum amount of brake without ABS kicking in was the only way to even attempt stopping and dancing at the edge, any less brake and braking distances would have been at least 10 times longer than normal.
Thing is, most systems fail to recognize that slippery conditions such as snow or ice REQUIRES certain amount of slip for maximum grip, in snow it is as high as around 20%!

The only acceptable electronic traction control system is the Skyline ATTESA, as that system provides you with just enough oversteer that you will not end up in the ditch or tree: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATTESA

Then again i'm not joe average driver, i actually know a few things about driving.

wtf? seriously?
can't be

And either could be worked around.

Online voting, for utmost security.

Each voter gets a specialized browser install based on a normal browser with few key differences:
  - Cache is flushed every 60seconds
  - Only 1 SSL key is accepted
  - Only 1 host with which communication is accepted
  - All communication over HTTPS only

Then the webservice portion, and i'm basing this how things work in Finland. Here you can authenticate with your real life details using your bank account details.
So you login via your bank, which requires 2-factor authentication (password + rotating PIN).
Add RSA dongle which is given personally to every single voter (cost 10-20€ per voter)
So you have many forms of authentication before you are able to login to make absolutely certain you are who you say you are.

Absentee voting is not allowed. Only the voting right holder is allowed to vote.

Then just have a normal online poll type of solution, but with extra information, and extra steps to ensure the voter has given some thought to it.
Allow semi-anonymous commenting by different voters, ie. every voter is given a random "voter id"

In database the votes are saved by voter id.
the voter id to real life information data is only viewable for very precisely vetted small group of people, to basicly ensure every one is voting for themselves only, and everything is technically working.
Every one else will not see the actual identities, unless a voter expressly wants to reveal that (ie.in a comment has revealed his personality). A voter can be given a new pseudo-anonymous voter id at request as well.

Allow absolutely no one to log in as someone else. Databases are fully transactional only -> no modifying records directly etc. every single action against the database is logged. that way this database can be append only, and a cache database which can be at any time be rebuilt by following the log.

So this can be in extreme cases still traced to a specific voter, but i don't see why that is needed at all.

The biggest problem will be the people involved in this system, without making it technically impossible to manipulate the voting data even by administrators it will not be a sound system. Even government itself shouldn't be able to trace pseudo-anonymous voter id to voter at will and especially not in mass.

Quite simply tetris.
Teaches hand-eye coordination, planning ahead/strategy, mental 3d visualization & modeling skills. The infinite growth of difficulty will keep hooked up.

Mirrors:
Defeated with a group of very tiny droid satellites scattered for multiple angles.

Really long away: Can't really hit the enemy, and if you can see the enemy, they likely will see you too.

Lasers: As fast as light soooo -> best weapon to use if target doesn't have reflection ;) When they see it coming, they are already hit.

Getting away: Better be the fastest around, otherwise you are screwed

Getting hit: Your course will change as well, even if hit by laser, tho with laser it is very minimal amount of course change.
Shooting anything with mass or which generates surface heat: Your course will change and you need equivalent opposite force.

Mass drivers OR in other words: Rail gun is going to be super effective as there is practically zero drag except gravitational.

Targeting systems will be of utmost importance too.

Missiles, rockets, space torpedoes: Can be very fast in space, with huge acceleration BUT distances are so long that they need to be guided. Unless you are shooting a scatter of tiny rockets.

Initially as well everything will be very weak, get hit by pretty much anything and you are totally screwed, single hit will often be quite enough until we can get sufficient payloads sufficiently cheap into space to build any sort of armoring apart from reflectors.

Dark paint: I would guess visual cues are only semi important, anything in space will have infrared etc. so you might as well paint your warship bright orange, won't make much difference.

Battles are most likely to be very long and mostly quite boring tactical undertaking due to the vast distances and vast detection ranges.
Kind of playing chess in 3D, where movements are dictated by your engines and position (gravity etc.)
Decisions needs to be quite swift but not fraction of second swift usually, you are likely going to have quite a bit of time to see where it leads.
Probably also will be alot about psychology: Knowing your enemy and knowing how they will react.