Technology Wins!

As most people know, there is a system of license plate electronic readers in many police cars (and on some freeways) that constantly scan license plates much faster than the human eye, and compare those plates with stolen cars and “wants and warrants” – and all much faster than the human brain can even comprehend.

That technology has progressed to parking lots of shopping centers, and in two such lots in Los Angeles there have been 44 stolen cars reported to police and 38 thieves arrested,

This is because the shopping centers installed the system initially to assist drivers to find their misplaced cars – the camera system knows exactly where every car is by license plate, and for traffic control by determining where the open spaces are to assist drivers in finding a parking spot. Since the information is electronically available, it is an instantaneous jump to tell the police electronically, and they can then use the system to scan a parking lot for stolen cars in seconds.

And, electronics has progressed to the point where a police force in Austin, Texas – fearing that the sound of a helicopter would alert a criminal known to posses automatic weapons regarding the service of a warrant in 2009, launched a drone the size of a bird – called a Wasp – that sent back silent video images of the conditions surrounding the house to be served.

That same drone, and others larger and smaller, are alerting authorities about lost hikers in rugged terrain, border jumpers, and even detecting fires in back country.

Technology is not replacing people, but it is helping people be a lot more efficient.

 

 

All Sorts of “Lessons Learned” Here…

There is a book, actually just a 60 page tract, called “Diary of a Dean” on the market, and it is reviewed in the last Weekly Standard.

The author of the book, a dean at NYU for decades (Columbia undergrad, Ph.D. NYU, and Fullbright Scholar), Herbert Loudon, relates episodes from his decades as dean of the NYU University Without Walls (now the Gallatin Division of NYU.)

Loudon was, as dean, a member of the 78 member University Senate, a reliably liberal organization which once voted 77-1 to ban Navy recruiters from the campus because of the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, military policy.

(Loudon was the sole “no” vote.” Loudon was  former East Coast university “peacenik” who, he admits, became enlightened while studying under his Fullbright Scholarship in Australia There he better understood the advantages given to small, virtually undefended nations by the umbrella power of the United States.)

So, Loudon, who also served on the board of the government Board of Naval Analysis with Secretary of the Navy, John Lehman, mentioned the vote to John.

The Secretary of the Navy was not particularly happy, and suggested the time had come to withdraw the $10 million Navy grant just approved to the NYU Courant Institute for Mathematics and Applied Science.

Loudon suggested that before he acted, perhaps it would help if SecNav spoke with the university president.

SecNav did.

In short order, the university president called an emergency meeting of the NYU Senate – which immediately voted 77-1 to rescind their previous vote banning the Navy Recruiters.

(All sorts of lessons to be learned, here…)