海角大神

There is perhaps no greater test of devotion than an attack on those engaged in prayer. But what links the responses to such attacks across belief systems, our writer found: startling expressions of faith in the face of hatred.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez鈥檚 confrontational style has the young New York congresswoman both leading charges and serving as a lightning rod. Back home, constituents say someone鈥檚 finally speaking for them.

You鈥檝e heard plenty from the dug-in extremes in Britain鈥檚 Parliament. This piece looks at a breakaway bloc that鈥檚 been reclaiming the middle. Can it become a more influential player?

A focus on fighting can highlight its cost and futility, and nurture a desire for a better path. That鈥檚 the thinking behind a new exposition in the Afghan capital. 鈥淎fter this,鈥� said one Afghan who attended, 鈥淚 really need peace.鈥�

Once called 鈥渢he Thoreau of our era,鈥� W.S. Merwin was an environmentalist who transformed concrete language into evanescent poetry that reflected on war, spirituality, and the natural and metaphysical worlds.

The recent crashes of two Boeing 737 Max 8 airliners provide a reminder of the difficult choices the world faces as it moves even faster toward 鈥渋ntelligent鈥� transportation systems. Though the exact causes of the air crashes are still to be determined, the inability to make a successful shift from automated control to pilot control seems to be a common factor. That should be a useful lesson for almost all forms of transport being built to reduce the high costs of tragedies caused by human error.

Whether in the air, on highways and railways, or on the water, the transportation industry is undergoing a revolutionary transition in the use of artificial intelligence. Fully autonomous vehicles are already being tested on roads. A year ago, a pedestrian in Tempe, Arizona, was killed by a self-driving Uber car undergoing such a test. Despite the questions that the tragedy raised, Tesla founder Elon Musk said recently he was certain his 鈥渁utopilot鈥� cars would soon be able to fully operate hands-free.

Such confidence is up against widespread fear. More than 70 percent of American drivers would be afraid to ride in a self-driving vehicle, according to an AAA poll. Despite those sentiments, the truth is that technology is constantly making travel safer and bringing down the death toll of decades past. The Canadian Pacific Railway says it will soon become the first rail line to use electromagnetic sensors to detect tiny cracks in rail car wheels that can lead to fractures and derailments. Partial automation is already in newer automobiles, often equipped with features such as lane-change warnings and controls that keep a certain distance from a vehicle ahead. Half of the cars sold in the United States today are equipped with automatic emergency braking that requires no foot on the pedal. Such equipment is expected to be on virtually every new car by 2022.

In general, air travel is safer than ever because of constant innovation and better pilot training. But the consequences of any lapses in safety are so profound that eternal vigilance is requisite. It鈥檚 likely that the cause of the two recent crashes will lead quickly to corrective measures.

Today鈥檚 most innovative transport relies heavily on automation during crucial moments. Problems arise when operators take too long to regain control after a system fails. Long stretches of inactivity can produce what is called 鈥減assive fatigue,鈥� which may lengthen their response times. Ironically, as planes and road vehicles become more automated, pilots and drivers will have less and less 鈥減ractice鈥� controlling their machines.

The next leap in such technologies will be to leave humans out of the equation altogether and avoid the tricky handoffs in the human-machine interface. Despite the recent troubling setbacks, 鈥渓eave the driving to us鈥� will probably be the motto of the machines that convey us in the future.