Informed Weekend: 10 Links I Learned From This Week (Vol. 20)

Here are the ten(ish) links I learned from this week:

  1. Presidential Election Update
    1. Clinton takes New York
    2. Trump wins in New York
    3. 3 winners and 2 losers from the New York primaries (Vox)
    4. Where they stand: Candidate vs. candidate (The Washington Post)
    5. Presidential primaries delegate tracker, 2016 (Vox)
  2. The controversy over Harriet Tubman, Andrew Jackson, and the $20 bill, explained (Vox)
  3. Three state and city officials facing criminal charges in Flint water crisis (The Washington Post)
  4. Trump Doesn’t have a Monopoly On Intolerant Supporters (FiveThirtyEight)
  5. Obama Immigration Plan Seems to Divide Supreme Court (The New York Times)
    1. Further Reading: What you need to know about Monday’s hearing in the Supreme Court immigration case (Vox)
  6. Welch v. US: a surprise Supreme Court decision will let some federal prisoners out early (Vox)
  7. The most important primary is … wait, Indiana? (The New York Times)
  8. 5 huge challenges that self-driving cars still have to overcome (Vox)

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"Hillary Clinton in Hampton, NH" by Marc Nozell (CC BY 2.0)

“Hillary Clinton in Hampton, NH” by Marc Nozell (CC BY 2.0)

25 thoughts on “Informed Weekend: 10 Links I Learned From This Week (Vol. 20)

  1. Clinton takes New York is an interesting article. As stated, everyone now is saying that Sanders does not have a chance to get the DEM nomination (but delegates not state wins matters).

    “The New York primary came at a historically odd moment in the presidential election cycle.” This is a reflective and interesting point, since as discussed in class, most states want their primaries to matter (the concept of “frontloading” – NY didn’t seem to do this – maybe they felt that the timing of their primary would have an important consequence?).

    Plus the fact that Clinton was a senator from NY (and NY and the Northeast has a diverse population) is a plus for her.

    “New York 2016 primary results: Donald Trump wins big” states a similar theme (delegates, competition, etc.). Trump was a big name in NY state, but still the REP delegate count there is less (NY State is a strong Democratic Party state).

    The point that I gather, is while the media seems to think that the primaries are settles, reading deeper there is still a race.

    • I agree with the quote “The New York primary came at a historically odd moment in the presidential election cycle.” the prediction of the media prier to the primers results it was completely different than the results.

      • Hamza, again, you need to provide more substance to the arguments that you make. I’m not sure what you are trying to say here. Please refer to my comment on your last post.

  2. Hillary Clinton wins New York Democratic Primary
    The country is not shocked as Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton destroys Sander in the New York primary. Not only is New York her adopted state, but its is known to contain most of African American and Hispanic vote, that Clinton is know to grab in each election. The results of the primary is a huge success for Clinton for it breaks her losing streak, while putting an end to Sander’s seven state winning streak. Therefore, placing him ever further from a chance at winning enough delegate to win majority. Since New York allocates its 247 delegates by congressional districts, the number of delegates she will receive is not clear, however in any outcome she will still obtain more delegates than Sanders. Therefore, making the next state primaries crucial for both Sanders and Clinton.

  3. “5 big challenges that self-driving cars still have to overcome”

    First off I found this article very interesting and intriguing. Technology has and is still coming so far, we are able to do things today that we could have never dreamed of even just 10 years ago. The idea of a self-driving car is something that is very cool and exciting to us and something that seems to not be so far off in the future but at the same time there are still many challenges that need to be overcame for the self driving car to be reality. One of the first concerns and challenges is maintaing maps for self driving cars. Right now google is the farthest along with this, they are having people drive around to create these maps, taking notes of the streets, intersections fire hydrants ect. That seems to be working some what well, but that is a lot of work and something that will take awhile, you also have to take into consideration how roads are constantly changing. Constantly changing roads makes it hard for these maps to stay accurate. Another challenge that goes along with this is that in driving their are social interactions involved, seeing bikers, people crossing the street at the right and wrong time and other things like that. These cars can detect these things but they aren’t able to decide 100% of the time how to respond and that is something that is needed. Weather is also a big challenge the car detectors don’t work as well in the rain snow and fog and that could cause big problems and major Accidents. Connecting to accidents, regulators are going to want to know how safe these things are and if they are safe all the time. We are going to have to test the safety and determine if they are even safe enough to be out on the roads. The final concern is a concern we have in all aspects of life and that is security safely and when it comes to these cars cybersecurity, how do we make sure these cars don’t get hacked. self driving cars are coming along but there are still many challenges and obstacles that must be figured out before we start seeing them on the roads

  4. I find the article, “5 big challenges that self-driving cars still have to overcome” very interesting and mind blowing. To me, mapping would be very hard to keep updated all of the time. Areas like Ohio State and areas with lots of construction would be a constant pain of updating the map and be very time consuming. I think the best bet would be to perfect the sensor and camera on the car to where that has to do the majority of the work. The most impressive part to me was the cars ability to slow down and notice the cyclist putting out their arm to turn into the lane. Even though weather is a big part to the puzzle to be able to fix, I think they will be able to figure it out considering all of the great strides they have already overcome. Even having a self driving car in good weather conditions is amazing. It will be hard for people to be able to trust these cars I believe and that is what makes it so tough and takes a long time. I think they should have volunteers or block off a large area for a decent amount of time and see how the self driving cars do. I believe the car being hacked is just like cell phones and will be able to be safe and not be a problem. This article really opened my eyes and helped show me how fast technology is advancing.

    • Max, what do you mean when you say “have volunteers or block off a large area for a decent amount of time”?

  5. “5 big challenges that self-driving cars still have to overcome”

    I found this article very interesting. I knew that there were several companies working on this type of technology, but I never thought about it in the in depth manner that I did while reading this article. I understand these problems and could pose another one – what happens when someone who is speeding in their own car tries to drive quickly and weave in and out of lanes? What happens when someone needs to speed such as to bring someone to the hospital? If there are 3 lanes of cars all going the same speed then it will be almost impossible to pass them and could cause an outside source of danger. There are many problems that these automated cars have to face, and I think that the need for humans to feel like they are in control may just be another one.

  6. “5 huge challenges that self-driving cars still have to overcome”

    Google’s car project director, Chris Urmson, said that functional self-driving cars could happen in about 30 years. However, there are current limitations and problems with self-driving cars. First, it is hard to make a map for the cars to follow. The designers need to build a 3-D map of roads and also add features like, driveways, fire hydrants and intersections. This would be an extensive amount of work in order for cars to stay on the road and would need to be consistently updated if roads have construction, part of the street is closed or when new roads are built. A second problem is that the cars don’t understand the social part of driving. The cars cannot recognize cyclists and interpret their hand signals. The cars also cannot see if a pedestrian at a crosswalk is paying attention while crossing the street. These are serious problems that would result in accidents if they don’t get resolved. Another concern is how the cars will respond in bad weather since the only areas where the cars have been tested are where the weather is good, like California. Every day is not going to have sunny with clear skies and the cars have to know how handle the weather conditions like if the car skids on ice. From these current limitations, the designers would need to collect an absurd amount of data in order for the cars function properly in certain conditions and how to respond in critical situations. It brings up the questions like, are self-driving cars going to make us safer? How achievable is the goal? And are self-driving cars necessary?

  7. “Hillary Clinton wins New York Democratic primary”

    After a 7 state winning streak, the Bernie bus crashes in New York. Because of this loss to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, it makes the delegate harder for Senator Bernie Sanders to clinch the Democratic party nomination.

    What is more interesting is how Clinton won the state of New York. Sanders surged in states like Wyoming and Utah because the demographics were on his side. However, In a state like New York where there is a larger minority population, Clinton receives the demographic advantage. The states that vote on April 26th are also more advantageous for Clinton, due to the demographics.

    If Senator Sanders is to clinch the democratic nomination he would need approximately 56 percent of the remaining delegates before the New York contest.

    Senator Sanders is winning however when it comes to the number of elections and caucuses he has been able to take away from the former Secretary of State. He also fairs better when voters are polled nationally. Although those don’t count that much compared to the delegate count that Clinton has built up in her favor.

    The main questions being:

    1) How will both candidates fair in the April 26th elections in 5 states?
    2) Can Bernie Sanders still clinch the nomination, if so, how?
    and lastly,
    3) Does the national polling suggest that the likely nominee, Hillary Clinton has a little more work to do to influence voters on the national stage before November?

  8. Clinton’s recent victory in New York brought her losing streak to an end. Clinton has dominant demographic support from the Latino and African-American populations. Since New York in home to many voters from these demographics, this was a huge advantage to her. As discussed in this course, presidential candidate’s appeal to certain populations can play a major role in elections. New York is also her adopted state, which gave her another leg up. The states that Sanders has recently won were not demographically in Clinton’s favor. However, the next states that will vote on April 26th are. Although Clinton is currently leading in the states, it’s delegates that will be the determining factor for the Democratic nomination. Currently, Clinton has 1,446 delegates and Sanders has 1,205. In order to win 2,383 delegates are needed. Clinton currently holds the majority, but the full delegate total won’t be known until results from all congressional districts are in.

  9. “Three state and city officials facing criminal charges in Flint water crisis”

    This article talks about three government officials face criminal charges because of ongoing crisis in Flint. Two of them are officials at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and one of them is a Flint water quality supervisor. It’s surprisingly to see that all of them are professionals in their area. They know the horrible results of Flint treatment plant that it would not provide clean and safe water to the community at first. The Flint water quality supervisor even alters the reports for state regulators by lowering the lead level in the water. Their willful negligence of duty brings harmful results to people who live in the city. The water contamination largely disturbs citizens’ daily lives. Most people now still drink bottle water and toxic chemicals can still be found in tap water. Criminal charges faced by the three government officials is a good example to caution against government officials acting responsible for people and taking delicate regulations with considering of any possible results.

  10. Donald Trump wins in New York article is very interesting. Many are not surprised by this win, but the question still is will Trump have enough delegate votes to win. As we all know state wins do not matter it is all about having the majority of the delegate votes at the national convention. I found the part about Trump having to get 50% of the votes for the district to receive all three delegate votes very interesting. I did not know specifically how the delegate votes were broken down, but I see that this is a very complex system. Once again this shows that even though Trump won the majority in New York all together, does not mean that he won all the delegate votes, which is what really matters at the end of the day. This win for Trump was big, as he had been struggling for the past month in the polls, but now with this win things will begin to look up for Trump. It will be interesting to see if Trump has enough to pull through and take the majority of the delegates, or if someone who does not win the majority in the states, will take the majority in the delegates.

    • Heather, yes, the delegate system is complicated! Each state, and each political party in each state, has a different way of allocating delegates – some are winner-take-all, some are proportional, or some variation of both. Your statement, “As we all know state wins do not matter it is all about having the majority of delegate votes at the national convention” is not entirely true. Winning states in the primaries does matter. The winner in each state most often walks away with the most convention delegates. Not only does the winner of the state receive delegates for the congressional districts they won, but they also receive additional delegates for being the state-wide winner. Thus, winning states does matter – because winning states gives you more convention delegates.

    • Hamza, what do you mean “Bernie is more close to the issues that exists in NY”? In what ways is Bernie closer to the issues in NY? Yes, education and immigration issues may be important to NY voters, but how is Bernie Sanders closer to these issues that Hillary? Additionally, I’d be careful about the sources that you can find on the internet. The Democratic and Republican parties in New York did not allow registered independent voters to vote in their primaries, thus, a decrease in voters may have more to do with the fact that registered independent NY voters were unable to vote in the Democratic or Republican party primaries in New York. Does that make sense? Yes, it can be argued that if independent voters were allowed to vote in the Democratic or Republican party primaries, the results may have been different. However, registered independents also had the opportunity to re-register for one of the two political parties and vote in their primary. Many registered independents did not do this, however. State parties are legally able to determine who and who cannot participate in their primaries.

  11. Controversy over the $20 Bill
    The change from Andrew Jackson to Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill really has no real difference in our lives, however there is a lot of news and controversy surrounding the topic. Jackson is not being removed from the bill entirely and will still be on the back which seems very odd. They are “removing” him without actually removing him.
    Originally it was going to be Alexander Hamilton being replaced on the $10 bill however people were more upset about this because he is the founder of our banking system. Jackson on the other hand was a slave owner and was opposed to paper currency. The bill will not be out until 2030 while in 2020 we will still be seeing Hamilton on the $10 bill with tributes to suffrage activists on the back.
    Tubman on the $20 is a grey area. On the one hand it is a step towards reducing the white male dominance that our country still demonstrates, however she is still a controversial figure so to be putting her on this bill, replacing a president, is not favored by some people.
    The part of the article that interested me the most was the list of more beneficial things they could be doing with our currency instead of worrying so much about who appears on the bills. Our money doesn’t accommodate those who have impaired vision. We also could get rid of $100 bills to make fraudulent crimes more difficult. The last suggestion was something I had never heard of. With the elimination of paper money we could end recessions. This suggests that banks would control all of our money and could gradually get rid of your money if you don’t spend it. This seems like a very good idea and a horrible idea at the same time because it seems to be punishing people if they save money, but it is definitely something to think about.

  12. “5 big challenges that self-driving cars still have to overcome”

    Google has been working on self driving cars for awhile now, and it could be the next big thing. However, Google’s car project director, Chris Urmson, explained that this innovation could take another 30 years. Although it may seem like a long time, there are still many aspects that Google is working on to perfect this autonomous vehicle. For instance, Google workers start by driving the vehicle around, adjusting it to its surroundings, while capturing footage of the obstacles it encounters, such as intersections, fire hydrants, and driveways. They use the footage to create a rich, detailed 3D map of the area using the rotating camera. So far, Google has only created detailed maps of a few test areas. For the self-driving cars to go mainstream, they will have to build detailed maps of roughly 4 million miles of public road throughout the country. It is now understandable why the estimated time of release is thirty years. Roads are also constantly changing, and Google will have to update the maps frequently. It is a very time consuming process. Another issue this technology faces is the social interaction limitations a robot has. They need to be able to interact with cyclists, pedestrians, and drivers which is still difficult for them. An additional issue is bad weather conditions. Car sensors do not work as well in the rain, fog, or snow, which can cause severe problems in those conditions. However, Google does not believe this is an unsolvable problem. In regards to cybersecurity, it is a concern that these cars can be hacked. They are still working on the security aspect of the vehicle but assured that this should not be an issue. Urmson believes that the self-driving car will not be released all at once, but rather small steps at a time. The release of this vehicle could change the future for us and for generations to come. All we can do for now is sit back and wait.

  13. I found the comparisons of the candidates interesting for several reasons. The first I found interesting was that there was no mention of LGBTQ rights stances, due to the bills in Alabama and North Carolina regarding these rights. The absence of this makes me feel like there are more categories that could and should be added to the comparison of the candidates. I also found it interesting that Ted Cruz is the only candidate who flat-out opposes abortion, with the exception of the life of the woman being at risk. I saw this as a shift in many individuals views regarding the topic of abortion. The other point I found interesting was that Bernie Sanders was the only candidate to oppose restrictions on late-term abortions. I am curious if these views in general regarding late-term abortions will shift or remain the same in 2020.

    • Yes, there are definitely a lot of issues left out of this resource. Interestingly enough, most Americans are in agreement on abortion (when and when it should not be performed), but the media and political elites can often use this issue to severely divide us. And to clarify, Bernie Sanders is the only candidate, according The Washington Post article, that does not opposed restrictions on late-term abortions. All other candidates do support restrictions on late-term abortions.

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