Robot Lawyers, Self-Driving Cars, Killer Bees
Happy Monday! This morning, Gizmodo picked up a story about how law firm Baker & Hostetler has created a robot attorney based on IBM’s Watson. I’m sure there’s some kind of lawyer joke to be made here, but then I look at the growing field of PR startups, and one's inner comic quickly quiets.
A wee bit o’ housekeeping: the next two weeks involve flying back and forth to Newark twice, two weddings, and a 10th college reunion. Which is to say, the Missive may be missing a couple of days. Or it might not. Or it may include musings on life and getting older and wanting to move to a farm in upstate New York.
Speaking of which, today’s a bit light on the content, mostly because I discovered Hulu’s The Path and essentially lost my Sunday to it. It’s so, so very good. If you've read Under the Banner of Heaven or Going Clear, you’ll recognize much of the language and splintering relationship conflict, but it's also a beautifully shot show with an amazing cast. It’s a really interesting take on a homegrown religion / cult at an inflection point, as well as study of community in crisis. If you’re in Phoenix, may I suggest you apply for a $20-an-hour gig as a Google autonomous vehicle ‘driver’, wherein you sit all day behind the wheel just in case something goes awry, while another 'driver' sits next to you and records data? You'll have eight hours a day together in those cheerful steel bubbles -sounds like the start of a glorious romantic comedy plot, if you ask me. And today, in terrifying climate change, a beekeeper in the Bay Area accidentally set off a swam of killer bees over the weekend. These “Africanized” insects were living in his hives. When he tried to move them, the killer bees swarmed and stung him through his suit, attacked his parents and neighbors, as well as two local dogs. As the Chronicle reports, "the incident would be the first known attack in the Bay Area by the invasive species, whose ominous movements northward have been documented for decades." The dogs later died.