Car Tipping May 9, 2012May 8, 2012 WORST. SOCIALIST. EVER. “If President Obama is truly a socialist,” Ezra Klein writes, elaborating on Floyd Norris’s recent column, “then he’s not a very good one.” For the first time in 40 years, the government sector of the American economy has shrunk during the first three years of a presidential administration. Check it out. VEEP You haven’t started watching? It’s a half hour Sundays on HBO — or anytime, anywhere on HBOGO (free to HBO subscribers) — and wicked, wicked funny. Check it out. BRAVE NEW WORLD Thanks to Shelley Palmer for pointing to this story on AT&T’s plans to wire your home for remote control and your automobile to remind you if you’ve forgotten something before you drive off to work (your wallet? your cell phone? your keys? your charger? it will be looking to detect their RFIDs) . . . and to this one wherein Google has received a license to begin testing cars that drive themselves on Nevada roads. And holy Toledo! Look at Samsung’s new phone. I’d like to point out that when my grandmother was born there were no phones . . . and photographers stuck their heads under a cloth and exploded something that might ultimately produce a very expensive, very stiff, black and white portrait. Samsung’s contraption is a little different. It fits in your shirt pocket; calls whomever you’re texting half a world away when it detects that you’ve lifted it to your ear; shoots 20 color photos in a single burst, then chooses the best one for you. (Oh: and recognizes your friends IN those pictures and offers to send them copies.) CAR TIPPING You’ve probably seen Smart cars. Tiny. I’ve seen quite a few of them parked around the city, but I never saw one in motion before last night when it slowly rounded a curve in front of me as I was about to cross the street. Small as they are — and strong as I am (like bull) — I don’t think I could tip one over when parked. But rounding a curve, if I caught it just right, adding some oomph to its own centrifugal force? I almost surely wouldn’t do this — I’ve never gone cow-tipping, either — but it’s oddly empowering to think that there’s a car on the road today to which I, as a pedestrian, might pose more hazard than it does me.