This is the same sort of hullabaloo that accompanied the advent of third generation languages (3GLs) and then the 4GLs that eventually begat MS Access - business staff (wealth generators) wouldn't have to waste time explaining to computer people what they want the systems to do when they can do it themselves.

The fly in the ointment is that computer people understand how to make the system run efficiently and avoid it doing things it shouldn't.

Quite simply because they don't understand programming. In days gone by programmers would have been burnt at the stake for their wizardly ways.

Seriously I wrote a single page website with some html and php that drove OLA to control the house lights in a hall. Anyone using the the hall is shown the website [192.168.0.10/lights.php] on their phone and can click on the buttons to choose the colour or move the slider to set the brightness. The number of people that are rendered slack jawed when I tell them I wrote it is actually very sad.

We've been doing this in the UK in the highlands where the terrain makes fencing very expensive. So far it seems to be working well, this is an example: https://presscentre.nature.sco...

As about 40% of American Corn and Soya is used for biofuel you might want to check your claim on 70%. Outside feed lots its demonstrably false, in the UK almost all beef is grass fed either directly or in the form of silage over winter and as a consequence of the rising gas prices the quantity of fertilisers have been dropping year on year.

Farmers have been using GPS collars to manage cattle grazing in a way that supports the restoration of fragile environments. Essentially mob grazing but without the need to put physical fences in areas here the terrain would make that prohibitively expensive. It's not the cheapest thing in the world but it does work well.

https://presscentre.nature.sco...

I believe that this is the nub of the problem here, in the UK it is fairly common for insurance companies to fit trackers that report on the driver's behaviour in return for substantial discounts on their premiums and I can also see governments applying this sort of technology to drivers who have multiple speeding convictions.

The total reliance on a service in the cloud will inevitably brick the whole vehicle should that service become unavailable.

There are lots and lots of talented musicians creating new music that is very, very good. I manage a small arts centre that hosts Americana, Bluegrass, and classic folk performers from across North America and the UK. Over the last 10 years they have all brought almost exclusively self-penned music and wile most has been very good some has been good enough to persuade me to buy a CD or vinyl Album with my own money.

However they all complain about fighting Spotify and AI Slop, touring and selling music direct is what allows them to work part or full time as musicians.

Cold Comfort Farm, Fahrenheit 451, 1984, and Matilda are not mainstream blockbusters but are none the less are books that I would recommend to anyone to improve their comprehension of written language and society as a whole.

JK Rowling's contribution to improving the reading skills of children across the planet is one of the greatest unintended consequences of our time.

Nope. Today you can use a drone to produce a 3D image of a site, add the hole or trench you want dug and the excavator will dig it out.

It even senses where the dump truck is and puts all the spoil into it. Yes the dump truck is also autonomous.

I spend some time in a UK academy a few years back as a favour for a headmaster. Each secondary school had their own IT system, each was unique, and every man and his dog had some form of admin rights with a VMWare cluster underneath a WinTel solution and Google classrooms in the cloud. Add in teachers sticking malware laden USB sticks into their desktops (essential teaching materials) and connecting personal laptops to the network.

They were paying just over minimum wage for someone to manage and maintain the whole thing and fair to say they had problems every other week.

Scotland have an issue with leaking pipes due to a lack of maintenance and upgrades but it is masked by the copious rainfall. It will eventually be a problem as the sink holes get bigger and bigger.

Clydesdale Bank, now Virgin Money, do this all the time, Utter, utter, wankers training their customers to give away their security to cold callers.

And yes they call from a withheld number and proceed to ask for all your security details. When you suggest that you will call back to the number on their website and can they have a reference they won't give a reference as you have not given the cold caller your details, If you can be bothered to call the numbers on their website some very exasperated call center minions apologise and commiserate.

When it is done properly with sanctions for clicking on the bait it works. I work on two systems with over 150K users on each, phishing training combined with link security works, It's not cheap, but it works.

Trying to learn Italian I thought I was doing OK and after some success in buying metro tickets in Rome persevered with Duolingo until it started asking me to translate "the elephant is coming to lunch".

That's plain weird.

Here in the UK there are several projects using radar and lasers to dissuade bats and birds from flying into the blade paths. It happens enough for the operators to fund the development and installation of the equipment.