The 502s – Backyard at Hudson Yards – August 2, 2023

Wednesday was one of those summer night when it just feels good to be outside, and even better if you could also catch a free show in the great outdoors with Maitland, Fla., Americana six-piece the 502s at the Backyard at Hudson Yards.

Photos courtesy of Grayson Wise | @grayokay

Wrestling has had a tough year, here is who we lost in 2023...

Terry Funk, Bray Wyatt, Joyce Grable, Killer Khan, Jim Breaks, Doug McLeod, Kurtis Chapman, Brett Wayne-Sawyer, Emile Dupree, Bart Sawyer, Curtis Smith, Randy Johnson, Bill Howard, Count Drummer, Pat Blake, Sheik Adnan El-Kaissey, Darren Drozdov, Mantaur Mike Halac, Iron Sheik, Tommy Siegler, Tony Peters, Exotic Adrian Street, Superstar Billy Graham, Butch Miller, Rod Bell, Peggy Lee Leather, Abe Jacobs, Rich Landrum, Ed Garea, Brian Dixon, Tim Lyle...

...Beverly Shade, Don Luce, Bill Robinette, JR Bundy, Jerry Jarrett, Jason Silver, Jeff Gaylord, Lanny Poffo, Kenny Jay, Eric Froelich, Jay Briscoe, Johnny Powers, Karl Von Steiger, Mike Pappas, Don West, Sean Patrick O’Brien, Jimmy The Jester, Terry Machalek Sr, Brian Bukantis, Matt Mann, Billy Two Rivers, Rockin' Randy Rhodes, Charlie Norris, Terri Shane and Ed Cheslock.

Taylor Schabusiness, the Wisconsin mother convicted in the methamphetamine-fueled murder, decapitation and subsequent sexual desecration of boyfriend Shad Thyrion, should be given the possibility of parole and "deserves to be happy," her attorney told Fox News Digital.Schabusiness, 25, was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole in the February 2022 murder of Thyrion, 24. She was also sentenced to an additional 7½ years for mutilating a corpse and three years for third-degree sexual assault."I really feel that this young lady should be given a chance at the possibility — not the probability — of getting out on extended supervision or parole some day after decades of work — therapy, counseling," said Christopher T. Froelich of the Green Bay-based Froelich Law Group. He intends to appeal the court's decision on Schabusiness's behalf.Froelich took up the case in February; Schabusiness's previous lawyer, Quinn Jolly, resigned after the woman attacked him in court.VIDEO SHOWS WOMAN ACCUSED IN DISMEMBERMENT SLAYING ATTACK HER ATTORNEY IN COURTChristopher Froelich, left, said that he intends to appeal his client Taylor Schabusiness's life sentence for the meth-fueled decapitation of Shad Thyrion.Some speculated the spit hood Schabusiness wore Tuesday was not to protect court attendees but to obscure Schabusiness's facial expressions. Froelich, however, explained that there were "some issues at the jail" earlier that day.READ ON THE FOX NEWS APPThe convicted murderer has smiled, smirked and appeared to fall asleep in court, behaviors psychologists called by the defense, including Dr. Diane Lytton, said are indicative of her mental incompetence to stand trial."She has been described as smirky — weird grinning — when she’s talking about the crimes," Lytton explained on the stand. "Based on my experience and training, that’s a psychotic person right there."Schabusiness burst into laughter when it was discussed whether jurors would be shown photos of her former lover's decapitated head found by Green Bay Police in a bucket. She also laughed as a jury rejected her insanity plea and handed down her conviction July 27.WISCONSIN WOMAN CONVICTED OF GRUESOME MURDER, SEXUAL ABUSE, DISMEMBERMENT OF FORMER BOYFRIENDChristopher Froelich took over Taylor Schabusiness's case after she attacked her previous attorney, Quinn Jolly, pictured, and he resigned.Froelich said Tuesday he has made "several" attempts to get a mistrial in the case."Should a judge be on a case if they witnessed a fight in the courtroom?" Froelich asked. "I heard she tried to flash [the judge] in court. Would that be another reason to get somebody else, another judicial officer? I have no idea."WISCONSIN ATTORNEY SEEKS SEX ASSAULT CHARGE DISMISSAL FOR CLIENT WHO ALLEGEDLY DISMEMBERED LOVERThe attorney also questioned at least one of Schabusiness's charges."How could there be a sexual assault? He's dead," the attorney said Tuesday. "Once he's dead, it's not sexual assault, it's mutilation of a corpse. Did the jury just go along with it because if she's guilty of one, she's probably guilty of all three? I don't know."Despite the Brown County Court judge's view Schabusiness's crimes "offended human decency," the victim's father told her he would "forgive [her] for what [she] did to [his] son," and that he knew "[she has] a heart, got a mind."WISCONSIN KILLER, BODY SNATCHER ED GEIN'S VOICE HEARD IN UNEARTHED RECORDINGS: BARNEY FIFE WITH A CHAINSAW'"I believe everybody makes bad choices, maybe not to this scale," Michael Thyrion said Tuesday. "It does no good to hate you."Schabusiness's relatives traveled 10 hours multiple times to testify on her behalf and were "dejected" after the sentencing, although they "knew the stakes and what they were up against," Froelich said.Arthur Coronado, Schabusiness's father, took the stand Tuesday in an orange jumpsuit and shackles matching his daughter's. He was sentenced to 12 years in 2018 for sexually assaulting a child."It just shows

that Taylor had family members … that really cared about her, had relationships with her," Froelich said. "She's not a throwaway, she's not a waste. … We should give her a chance. That's what I'm trying to do."Pictured is a diagram created by a medical examiner showing the damage Shad Thyrion's body underwent before it was discovered by police.WISCONSIN WOMAN CLAIMS SHE SAW 'DARK, SHADOWY FIGURE' WHEN SHE STABBED EX-BOYFRIEND 19 TIMESFroelich described photos submitted into evidence of Schabusiness before her meth addiction took hold. Unlike dozens of gruesome autopsy and crime scene photos that left Froelich lastingly disturbed, he said, these "show who she really is – not this monster person.""You can see … what kind of person she was as a little kid, a teenybopper, a young lady kissing her baby, holding her brother as a kid," he told Fox News Digital."She asked, 'Can you flip this one, can you flip that one?’ It was a happy day for her," he said, describing how he maneuvered photos for a restrained Schabusiness at her presentencing hearing. "I told her I was happy to see her smiling because [she] deserves to be happy."Also submitted into evidence was a pre-murder photo of Schabusiness smiling beside a photo of infamous serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who carried out most of his 17 sexually-motivated killings and dismemberments two hours away in Milwaukee.Froelich said he was a law school classmate of one of the lawyers who represented Dahmer."[Now], I have the lady Dahmer," Froelich said.Original article source: 'Lady Dahmer,' who beheaded lover in meth-fueled tryst, 'deserves to be happy': lawyer

BIX 7 HITS 45 AND SAYS SO LONG TO ED FROELICH

Davenport, IA. – The Quad City Times Bix 7 Road Race is one of the American Road Race classics. Now it is 45th year, the Bix 7 is celebrating the final year under the leadership of Ed Froelich who is in his 40th year at the helm as race director. In his term, Ed transformed the BIX from a local/regional fun run to a national and internationally celebrated event.

Davenport Mayor Frank Klipsch…

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Ricorrendo l'anniversario della nascita, si è svolto lunedì 5 marzo 2018 a Viterbo presso il "Centro di ricerca per la pace e i diritti umani" un incontro di studio sulla figura, il pensiero, l'azione e l'opera di Rosa Luxemburg (Zamosc, 5 marzo 1871 - Berlino, 15 gennaio 1919), l'illustre pensatrice e militante per la liberazione dell'umanità, che per la sua luminosa lotta fu perseguitata e infine assassinata.  *  Una breve notizia su Rosa Luxemburg  Rosa Luxemburg, 1871-1919, è una delle più limpide figure del movimento dei lavoratori e dell'impegno contro la guerra e contro l'autoritarismo. Assassinata, il suo cadavere fu gettato in un canale e ritrovato solo mesi dopo; ci sono due epitaffi per lei scritti da Bertolt Brecht, che suonano così: Epitaffio (1919): "Ora è sparita anche la Rosa rossa, / non si sa dov'è sepolta. / Siccome ai poveri ha detto la verità / i ricchi l'hanno spedita nell'aldilà'"; Epitaffio per Rosa Luxemburg (1948): "Qui giace sepolta / Rosa Luxemburg / Un'ebrea polacca / Che combatté in difesa dei lavoratori tedeschi, / Uccisa / Dagli oppressori tedeschi. Oppressi, / Seppellite la vostra discordia". Opere di Rosa Luxemburg: segnaliamo almeno due fondamentali raccolte di scritti in italiano: Scritti scelti, Einaudi, Torino 1975, 1976; Scritti politici, Editori Riuniti, Roma 1967, 1976 (con una ampia, fondamentale introduzione di Lelio Basso). Tra le opere su Rosa Luxemburg: Lelio Basso (a cura di), Per conoscere Rosa Luxemburg, Mondadori, Milano 1977; Paul Froelich, Rosa Luxemburg, Rizzoli, Milano 1987; P. J. Nettl, Rosa Luxemburg, Il Saggiatore, Milano 1970; Daniel Guerin, Rosa Luxemburg e la spontaneità rivoluzionaria, Mursia, Milano 1974; AA. VV., Rosa Luxemburg e lo sviluppo del pensiero marxista, Mazzotta, Milano 1977.  *  Nel corso dell'incontro sono stati letti e commentati alcuni testi luxemburghiani e del suo maggior studioso italiano, Lelio Basso, a sua volta una delle figure più illustri della vita civile italiana e dell'impegno per i diritti e la liberazione dei popoli, l'autore del fondamentale articolo 3 della Costituzione italiana.  *  Si è naturalmente anche riflettuto sull'esito disastroso delle elezioni politiche svoltesi ieri, con la tragica e ignobile vittoria della destra qualunquista, razzista e golpista; è stata quindi evidenziata la necessità di un ancor più intenso impegno nonviolento per la pace e i diritti umani di tutti gli esseri umani, in difesa della democrazia e della Costituzione della Repubblica italiana, democratica ed antifascista.  *  Nel ricordo di Rosa Luxemburg proseguiamo nella lotta nonviolenta contro tutte le violenze.  Contro la guerra e tutte le uccisioni.  Contro il razzismo e tutte le persecuzioni.  Contro il maschilismo e tutte le oppressioni.  In difesa dei diritti umani di tutti gli esseri umani.  In difesa dell'intero mondo vivente, casa comune dell'umanità.  Soccorrere, accogliere, assistere ogni persona bisognosa di aiuto.  Da ciascuno secondo le sue capacità, a ciascuno secondo i suoi bisogni.  Oppresse e oppressi di tutti i paesi, unitevi.  Solo la nonviolenza puo' salvare l'umanità.  Viterbo, 5 marzo 2018 Il "Centro di ricerca per la pace e i diritti umani" di Viterbo

“Alcuni vi diranno che siete pazzi, e quasi tutti si chiederanno, a che serve?”. L’avventura di Apsley Cherry-Garrard, l’uomo che sopravvisse alla disastrosa spedizione di Scott in Antartide

Roald Amundsen, l’Aquila Bianca della Norvegia, li aveva battuti per un soffio. Era l’inverno del 1911-1912. Quando la spedizione “Terra Nova” di Robert Falcon Scott, nel gennaio 1912, raggiunge l’Antartide, una bandiera norvegese sta sventolando: il rivale Amundsen aveva raggiunto il Polo Sud qualche settimana prima di loro. Durante il lungo e faticosissimo viaggio di ritorno, il capitano Scott perde la vita, insieme a quasi tutti i membri della spedizione. Eccetto uno. Il giovane Apsley Cherry-Garrard, unico superstite di quella eroica impresa.

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Sulle tracce di questo storico personaggio si snoda la vicenda del romanzo storico L’indicibile inverno – Una storia bipolare, pubblicato da Oltre Edizioni, della scrittrice italo-svizzera Benedicta Froelich (pseudonimo di Benedicta Cagnone). Cherry-Garrard era stato scelto da Robert Falcon Scott, nel 1910, per il ruolo di assistente biologo. Il trauma di ritrovare Scott e i membri della spedizione morti fu talmente doloroso che Cherry-Garrard, già affetto da sindrome “bipolare”, fu poi afflitto da un disagio psichico per tutta la vita e da un grave attacco di catatonia nei suoi anni maturi. Sopravvivere a quell’avventura ha significato portare con sé l’ombra, lo spettro del senso di colpa, di non aver potuto salvare le vite di quegli uomini. Ma la tragica storia di Sir Robert Falcon Scott diventa il fulcro di una vicenda attualissima che Benedicta Froelich affida alla voce e allo sguardo di Frida, anche lei afflitta da disturbo bipolare, che scopre, leggendo il giornale, la storica avventura di un secolo prima.

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Da tempo l’autrice Benedicta Froelich – giornalista e traduttrice dall’inglese e in inglese, oltre che interprete consecutiva, ha curato l’edizione italiana di Like English Gentlemen di J.M. Barrie (La Finestra Editrice, 2017) e tradotto le poesie di Paul Vangelisti per Pinocchio (Edizioni Galleria Mazzoli, 2018) e Imperfect Music, sempre di Paul Vangelisti (Edizioni Galleria Mazzoli, 2019) – è sensibile al fascino di un particolare tipo di narrazione, fiction, storica come aveva già dimostrato attraverso le intriganti pagine di Nella sua quiete, opera vincitrice, nel 2013, del premio Guido Morselli e pubblicata, nel 2014, da Nuova Editrice Magenta. Quelle pagine restituivano al fascinoso Lawrence d’Arabia (già celebre film del 1962, diretto da David Lean, vincitore di ben sette premi Oscar), T.E. Lawrence, suggestive pagine sulla sua vita eccezionale e della sua morte altrettanto straordinaria. In questo romanzo, la narrazione scavalca un secolo e si trasforma in un gioco di specchi e simmetrie, di corrispondenze al di là dei confini angusti delle vite dei protagonisti.

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Il racconto storico si intreccia con la finzione narrativa perché Frida scoprendo la storia di Cherry inizia a scoprire se stessa e a esplorare il disagio psichico, quel disturbo popolare di cui soffre. Mettendo così a contatto e a confronto il suo malessere con quello di Cherry-Garrard, dando vita a una sorta di testimonianza, e di cammino di guarigione attraverso l’empatia e la solidarietà nei confronti di quell’uomo vissuto un secolo prima. Si crea così un legame straordinario attraverso la conoscenza di un doloroso cammino esistenziale, specchiandosi in lui e, a sua volta, introiettando il personaggio dentro di sé, così trovando la propria salvezza e liberazione. Il percorso è anzitutto attraverso una sofferenza fisica, prima ancora che psichica, ma la salvezza nasce da legami indissolubili come l’autentica amicizia, fatta di condivisione del dolore: “Quella sofferenza terribile era stata resa sacra dal fatto di averla condivisa con loro: perché era stato solo grazie a quei due uomini, per lui presto divenuti dei fratelli nell’angusto e gelido spazio di una piccola tenda antartica, che non si era arreso, che non si era lasciato cadere nella neve per attendere la morte”.

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Cherry non è un eroe, ma una persona consapevole delle proprie fragilità: “Era rimasto un giovanotto apparentemente insignificante, e per di più goffo e imbranato in ogni circostanza ‘ufficiale’: in società era timido e impacciato, per non parlare dello scarso ascendente da lui esercitato sulle donne”. Un giovane che era riuscito a prendere parte a una spedizione, nonostante le sue debolezze. “Era diventato amico di Edward ‘Bill’ Wilson, e grazie a quest’amicizia era piombato nella vita di Cherry il Capitano Robert Falcon Scott, e con lui la Spedizione Antartica Britannica”. A lui era andato il privilegio, o la disgrazia, di prendere parte ad un’audace, eroica impresa. Ma c’era un rovescio nella medaglia. “Tutto era cambiato, dal nulla era giunto uno scopo, e un nobile obiettivo aveva occupato la mente di Cherry: un’avventura indicibile, apparentemente terrificante, nelle terre più inospitali del pianeta, quel continente antartico che a pochissime persone era concesso di vedere con i propri occhi. Cherry aveva puntato i piedi, aveva agito, aveva lottato, e infine, contro ogni probabilità, era riuscito ad essere accettato come membro di quella che sua madre definiva, sprezzante: ‘la nave dei folli’. Nello spazio di meno di tre anni, era felice come mai avrebbe pensato di poter essere. Finalmente era stato utile, e benvoluto; stava partecipando a qualcosa di grande, unito in una profonda comunione d’intenti”.

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Non è forse per questa sintonia, per questi attimi di assoluta perfezione che una vita è degna di essere vissuta? Ma Cherry era sopravvissuto. Oppure aveva semplicemente fallito. Com’è possibile sopravvivere alla scottante consapevolezza della propria incapacità? “Loro non avevano mai fatto ritorno dall’ultimo tratto del viaggio che, insieme al Capitano Scott (‘il Proprietario,’ come tutti lo chiamavano), a Lawrence ‘Titus’ Oates e al marinaio Edgar ‘Taff’ Evans, li aveva portati fino al Polo. Il loro ambitissimo traguardo era stato raggiunto dopo mesi di marcia, a costo di atroci fatiche e sofferenze, soltanto per scoprire che il rivale norvegese Amundsen li aveva battuti sul tempo di appena pochi giorni. Il massacrante viaggio di ritorno non li aveva risparmiati, e mentre i suoi amici arrancavano verso la base senza nessuna possibilità di sopravvivenza, Cherry era divenuto infine inutile e impotente, soltanto un elemento di poco peso all’interno dell’equazione – l’ingranaggio difettoso del meccanismo: benché inviato con una slitta trainata da cani a cercare di incrociare il gruppo di compagni sulla via del ritorno nella speranza di assisterli, aveva fallito. La sua inesperienza come navigatore, la sua invalidante miopia e gli ordini confusi lasciati dal Capitano Scott avevano fatto sì che, dopo qualche giorno di attesa, lui si arrendesse”.

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Inoltre, la sorte ha voluto che lui toccasse con mano l’evidenza della tragedia. Era stato, infatti, lo stesso Cherry a ritrovare i resti del suo capitano, dei membri, dei compagni della sua spedizione. “La primavera successiva, lui stesso aveva rinvenuto la ‘tenda della morte’, dove si era trovato davanti i corpi congelati del Proprietario e dei suoi due grandi amici Bill e Birdie. Giacevano in mezzo al nulla, ad appena dodici miglia e mezzo dal punto in cui, mesi prima, lui, Cherry, aveva fatto voltare la slitta per fare ritorno alla base. Condannando i suoi compagni di un tempo a una morte impietosa, e riservando a se stesso una punizione forse ancor peggiore – la solitudine e l’eterno, costante senso di colpa: la consapevolezza di aver scritto l’atto finale nella vita che i suoi amici si erano lasciati alle spalle”. La forza di una tragedia è ritratta nella consapevolezza della perfetta, felice sintonia, in cui si trovavano poco prima del momento più terribile. “Ma i giorni dell’inverno polare del 1911 costituivano forse per Cherry i ricordi più preziosi dell’avventura antartica, tanto che erano rimasti intoccati perfino dalla tragedia che era seguita. Ripensava spesso al giorno del Solstizio d’Inverno, quando, laggiù nell’hut, avevano goduto tutti insieme di una splendida cena di più portate (con tanto di menu disegnati e dipinti uno ad uno su cartoncini a forma di pinguino), scherzando e chiacchierando fino a notte fonda; o a quando Birdie aveva trascorso ore a fabbricare un perfetto albero di Natale artigianale, dal quale penzolavano regalini per tutti quanti e perfino decorazioni impeccabili, che gli erano addirittura valse i complimenti di Scott. Oppure, ancora, quando, allo scambio dei regali, Titus aveva sorriso come un bambino nel ricevere una pistola giocattolo, ed era corso in lungo e in largo per tutta la casupola, pregando i suoi compagni di accontentarlo e cadere a terra, come fatalmente colpiti, ogni volta che lui ‘sparava���, facendo affiorare alle labbra un forte bang ad effetto”.

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Sopravvivere significa anche lottare con i denti per rimanere in vita. “Cherry era arrivato a un livello di patimento fisico tale da essere disposto ad accettare di buon grado la morte a patto di poter cessare di soffrire, era altrettanto vero che fino all’ultimo lui e i suoi compagni avevano combattuto per rimanere in vita. Perfino quando, nel momento peggiore, la loro tenda (unico riparo dal gelo dell’inverno polare) era volata via a causa del forte vento, e loro si erano visti perduti e condannati a morte sicura, avevano rifiutato di darsi per vinti: nonostante la disperazione e la terrificante prostrazione fisica, si erano messi in cerca di quel quadrato di tela perduto, vagando a tentoni nel buio nero come pece e nel gelo atroce; e incredibilmente, contro ogni logica o previsione, l’avevano ritrovato, molto più vicino di quel che pensassero. Ma questo miracolo non avrebbe mai avuto luogo, se loro non avessero avuto la forza e la costanza di persistere – di rinunciare ad arrendersi, come chiunque altro sarebbe stato ben felice di fare”.

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Nel libro della Froelich si esplorano i sentieri del resoconto dell’avventura di Apsley Cherry-Garrard, il libro Il peggior viaggio del mondo, pagine che aiutano Frida ad esplorare e attraversare il suo modernissimo disagio psichico, in un’autentica passione per una persona che ha incontrato in vita, pur non conoscendola mai, ma trovando in quella persona una sorta di alter ego, un amico e un maestro di vita. Non è il coraggio, ma la paura essenziale per compiere grandi imprese. Come è scritto nel Peggior viaggio del mondo: “L’esplorazione è l’espressione fisica della Passione Intellettuale. E vi dico, se avete desiderio di conoscenza e il potere di dargli espressione fisica, andate là fuori ed esplorate. Se siete uomini coraggiosi non farete nulla; se siete paurosi, potreste fare molto, poiché soltanto i codardi hanno bisogno di dimostrare il loro coraggio. Alcuni vi diranno che siete pazzi, e quasi tutti si chiederanno, ‘a che serve?’. Perché la nostra è una nazione di bottegai, e nessun bottegaio prenderà mai in considerazione una ricerca che non gli permetta un riscontro finanziario entro lo spazio di un anno. E così trainerete la vostra slitta quasi da soli, ma coloro con cui la trainerete non saranno bottegai; e questo vale già molto. Se compite i vostri Viaggi d’Inverno otterrete la vostra ricompensa, a patto che ciò che desiderate sia soltanto un uovo di pinguino”.

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Il dolore più forte resta l’unica strada per la conoscenza, sfiorare e avvicinarsi all’anima di chi ha sofferto davvero è possibile solo per chi ha esplorato una altrettanto vasta sofferenza. Come recitano i versi immortali di Emily Dickinson, in un’epigrafe nel libro: “A un cuore in pezzi/ Nessuno s’avvicini/ Senza l’alto privilegio/ Di aver sofferto altrettanto”.

Linda Terziroli

*In copertina: la piramide di ghiaccio che ha conservato i corpi di Robert Falcon Scott, Edward Adrian Wilson e Henry Robertson Bowers 

L'articolo “Alcuni vi diranno che siete pazzi, e quasi tutti si chiederanno, a che serve?”. L’avventura di Apsley Cherry-Garrard, l’uomo che sopravvisse alla disastrosa spedizione di Scott in Antartide proviene da Pangea.

from pangea.news https://ift.tt/3evB4dY

The Best Cars, Car Tech, and Trends of CES 2020

LAS VEGAS – CES 2020 cemented its role as the most important show for automotive technology, with a handful of new car introductions (and re-introductions) plus lots of standalone technologies this week. Most US auto shows other than perhaps LA don’t generate a critical mass of tech-oriented auto company people, analysts, and journalists. CES certainly did.

Some might snicker when Byton CEO Daniel Kircher called the M-Byte EV “the first smart device on wheels,” but not the people attending this show. Of the vehicle introductions and concept cars, all were electrified – EVs or plug-in hybrids – with no gas-engine-only vehicles introduced.

Here are some highlights from the car and car tech part of CES 2020.

Nissan Ariya EV: Bigger than the Leaf, more range, and an SUV, not a sedan.

Best Debut: Nissan Turns Over a New Leaf

The biggest car debut – of a real car, or one that will be a real car – of CES was the Nissan Ariya. It’s a crossover / SUV intended to replace or (more likely) supplant the 10-year-old Nissan Leaf. The Ariya is bigger than the Leaf, offers two motors where the Leaf has one, and gets up to 300 miles on a charge versus 225 for the Leaf. With even more of the market headed toward SUVs, that’s how the Ariya is styled. The Leaf is a four-door sedan.

All this came down at the same time showgoers got news of how former Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn made good his, ah, departure from Japan, in a shipping box punched full of air holes, on a private jet, and heard Ghosn rail against the accused-is-presumed-guilty system of justice, as he described it. (He also dissed Nissan, his former employer.) The two events had nothing to do with each other, beyond the company being Nissan in both cases.

The Jeep Wrangler gets a PHEV variant. Not many chargers in the Moab Desert, but the e-motor still provides torque for rock-crawling.

Jeep Gets 3 Electrified Vehicles

Fiat Centoventi concept.

FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobile) plans to electrify its entire iconic Jeep line by 2022. That doesn’t mean EV-only vehicles but plug-in hybrid (PHEV) models with up to 30 miles of battery-power driving before the gas engine kicks in. They’ll have vehicle badges marked “4xe” and include the traditional (Jeep-looking) Wrangler, the tiny Renegade, and Compass SUV. In Europe, Jeep said the vehicles will have an electric motor and 1.3-liter turbo-four engine producing 240 hp. “Electrification … will modernize the Jeep brand as it strives to become the leader in green eco-friendly premium technology,” the company says.

FCA also showed the Fiat Centoventi, a 145-inch, four-seater with suicide doors, and room for one to four batteries (they slide in), allowing 100-500 km of range, or 62-311 miles. An upscale model would get a 20-inch display in addition to the standard 10-incher. The late Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne said Fiat was losing $10,000 a car making the Fiat 500e; hopefully, this has better margins.

Sony Vision-S concept with a wall of LCDs across the dashboard.

Front Seat Displays Get Bigger

The Byton M-Byte is the winner with a 48-inch LCD (one single panel) that includes SPF-30 in the glove box. The display in the Sony Vision-S concept car was only slightly smaller. The tiny Fiat Centoventi concept EV can be had with an optional 20-inch panel. Byton even has an LCD panel in the steering wheel. Pimp-my-ride tuners did that years ago. The difference is Byton’s is legal because the airbag is still there in the lower third of the wheel hub. For Byton, it was a re-introduction of the M-Byte as a production-ready vehicle (first cars, late 2020, US 2021) after a CES 2018 unveiling.

Sony shocked CES  – that is, advance word didn’t leak out – with its Vision-S concept car that also had a width of the cockpit array of LCDs, including side mirror / blind spot LCDs on the left and right edges. Not that Sony will build an EV and compete with Tesla; this was a car to remind the automakers that Sony, too, makes a lot of car electronics beyond in-dash radios.

Displays are getting bigger in general. A 7-inch display doesn’t cut it anymore except on the very cheapest cars where navigation is your phone, not a $500-$1,000 navigation package. More instrument panels are now 12 inches and some higher-end vendors pair it with a second 12-inch in the center stack. Mercedes made the small seam between the two fall in with your line of vision and the steering wheel, so it appears as a single panel to the driver. Midsize and bigger cars will need 10-inch center stack displays to remain competitive. The Mustang Mach-E EV gets a 15-inch portrait display.

At the same time, the perceived image size of head-up displays is increasing. This allows for augmented reality HUDs, in this case meaning the car tracks the position of your eyes relative to the HUD, and overlays where-to-turn arrows in your line of sight so it appears to be floating over the actual turn. For this who say “too distracting, too dangerous,” it helps to drive a head-up-display car to see how HUDs reduce distraction.

BMW i Interaction Ease seats: recycled materials, embedded touch surfaces, embedded LED lighting.

BMW Car Seats Become Lounge Chairs

As cars become self-driven cars and the driving controls go away, automakers are imagining big, spacious, amorphous-shape seats for the passengers. BMW fleshed out the concept with not just one but three variants. All three are currently unobtainable; two because they’re concepts, and the third because it will be on the BMW X7 SUV and others in a couple of years and only to those comfortable with a $1,500 lease payment.

The most far-out is the BMW i Interaction Ease concept interior that BMW’s head of development Klaus Froelich described as a “supreme luxury experience …  The merger of advanced technology and design creates an almost human bond with the car.” The two seats are joined together (no room for cupholders! Oh, the humanity!), with integrated leg rests. They embed touch surfaces for selecting, say, infotainment, and in this concept, areas light up in order to confirm a selection or provide ambiance. The concepts also provide immense legroom. BMW says the abstract interior of the i Interation Ease interior “underscores the potential of intuitive, almost human-like interaction between passenger and vehicle.”

Got that? In the real world, we wonder if the extra length that adds to the car is compatible with the desire for shorter vehicles in urban areas. But if they’re self-driving, they can just go somewhere else after you dismiss the car for the evening, and parking is not your problem.

ZeroG Lounger in BMW X7.

The ZeroG Lounger is close to production. Fitted in three BMW X7s for CES, the seat tips back 60 degrees, including the seat pan. An entertainment screen drops down from the sunshade location. An integrated seat belt and cocoon airbag protect a reclined passenger. Most cars with recliners today warn you not to use the feature while driving. (Right.) BMW says the “ZeroG Lounger … will be ready for series production vehicles in just a few years in a similar form.” We can hardly wait. (Seriously, for once.) This is the kind of feature that makes a long trip comfortable for the passenger. It would be nice if BMW could fit one in an X5, a more attainable BMW.

Lastly, the BMW i3 Urban Suite: BMW ripped out the interior of the outgoing i3 carbon-fiber EV and turned the right rear passenger space into a sloped back lounging seat (if you want to sit upright, the driver’s seat is off the stock vehicle). The right front seat is a sliding footrest. The left rear seat is a wood table with a securely fastened lamp. It’s cool, it’s impractical, and it keeps our attention while waiting for the 2021 BMW i4 EV with, we hear, a 530-hp motor, 300 miles of range, and the ability to go head to head with the Tesla Model 3.

The Visteon domain controller (lower left) encapsulates dozens of microprocessors; variants scale for more displays or processing power.

Fewer Control Modules Do More Work

This is geeky, so feel free to skip down to the snow-in-Detroit photo. [But isn’t this ExtremeTech? -Ed] As cars do more things electronically, the number of microprocessors is up around 100. Tier 1 suppliers, the big boys such as Visteon, Continental, Bosch, Magna, and Aptiv, are integrating lots of small modules into a couple of uber-modules, or domain controllers: one for safety, one for infotainment, one for the engine room. That reduces the amount of wiring in the car. There are still connections, but only sharing as much data as necessary, between say infotainment and the safety modules. The telematics modem has to provide in-car Wi-Fi and also has to call for help in an accident, which are separate domains.

Visteon advanced tech director Upton Bowden says a supplier can scale up the microprocessor within a domain controller for more or less performance. or to drive additional displays, all as needed. That means the unit doesn’t have to be certified and tested multiple times for slightly different applications. And the Tier 1 supplier takes responsibility for vetting all the parts inside, giving the automaker, in quaint parlance, just one throat to choke if there’s a development issue.

Detroit’s North American Auto Show. It snows there in January. NAIAS never had a chance against CES on the tech front. Or the weather front. The LA show moved to November and also stole Detroit’s thunder. Detroit reboots as a spring/summer show this June.

CES Did Not Kill the Detroit Auto Show

The North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) gave up its January slot for one in June. Some believe CES blew Detroit out of the water. Actually, the shows are different. Every major auto show (LA, New York, Detroit, Chicago, DC) is more about 10 days of showing cars to customers; the press/analysts days tacked on for 2-3 days beforehand are just a way to get the automakers to build fancy booths and then turn them over to the local dealer associations. Meanwhile, the high-end European automakers realized their market share in Michigan rounded off to zero percent and bailed.

And the LA Auto Show, which had been in January a week away from NAIAS, moved to late November, where it has cemented its role as the show for green vehicles (it is in California) with its press days branded AutoMobility LA. Plus, LA has a goodly number of new car intros, and the Audi-BMW-Jaguar-Infiniti-Lexus-Mercedes-Porsche companies know SoCal is fertile hunting ground. NAIAS took a half-hearted stab at being a tech show with something called Automobili-D, but it was too little, too late, and stuck it down in the basement of Cobo Hall (now called TCF Center).

Anyway, CES is way bigger than Detroit or any other US auto show for media and industry participation. The SEMA show in Las Vegas in early November is more of a tuner/parts show. Comdex, the computer show, could have been an auto tech show but it didn’t survive much past Y2K. And Detroit gets to reinvent itself as an auto show / outdoor festival in June. All that’s left of the January show is the freestanding North American Car and Truck of the Year (NACTOY) at TCF Center Monday. Beyond Detroit, auto shows face an uncertain future as automakers question how much money to invest. Mercedes-Benz also pulled out of the New York International Auto Show (NYIAS) for 2020 even though it’s the company’s most lucrative sales turf. That is a bad sign for auto shows.

Consumer Technology Association president Gary Shapiro, left, interviews Counselor to the President Ivanka Trump Tuesday. (Photo: CES)

Ivanka Trump Speaks, World Did Not End

Much was made of the Consumer Technology Association (the CES organizer) inviting first daughter and counselor to the President Ivanka Trump to do a one-on-one keynote interview with CTA President / CEO Gary Shapiro. There was concern Shapiro and CTA were trying to tip the scales Trumpward in an election year. (Maybe. But it’s a long way from election day, and enough Democratic officeholders show up at CES to speak most years.) Some resistance formed around the hashtag #BoycottCES, but it meant giving up paid-for $500-a-night rooms, so if there was a boycott, it was of the one-on-one chat.

For the most part, Ivanka Trump didn’t say anything outlandish in her 40 minutes; she mostly restated the company line. For the most part, there are other more women in tech who would have been better role models. The best criticism was “Ivanka Trump Keynoting At CES Is All That Is Wrong For Women In Tech” by Carolina Milanesi in Forbes.

Nobody booed. Many agreed with Trump that “our immigration system is totally flawed,” although some of her related comments about making visa slots available for skilled workers may go beyond what the administration is doing. Tech and car companies are desperate for highly skilled engineers and computer scientists.

The bottom line is: Many CTA member companies do manufacturing in China. They’d rather not see their products tariffed. If a high-profile, softball interview for Ivanka makes the White House like consumer tech companies and go easy on tariffs, it’s the price you pay to make commerce run smoothly.

The odor of burning leaves in Vegas concentrated on overpasses on the Strip.

Mini-Trends and Gossip From CES Week in Vegas

On the Strip, Las Vegas Boulevard, the smell of weed was almost everywhere. Especially on the overpasses necessary to get you safely over the six-to-eight lanes of roadway. A friend from a software-development firm said, “With all our bio-engineering skills, you’d think someone could weed [yes, a pun] out the smell.”

There were multiple EVs,  people-haulers, and transporters of the future — some nicely rounded (Toyota’s concept, top image), others small-and-tall minibusses for a half-dozen commuters. Toyota even envisioned a future Woven City community it will begin building at the base of Mount Fuji in 2021. Mercedes-Benz showed a far-out, doorless AVTR (Avatar) linked to the James Cameron movie. It senses the heartbeat and pulse of the occupant and responds with a welcoming thump on the seatback.

Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) continues to make strides winning converts, especially from the QNX OS. QNX initially took down Microsoft Windows Embedded Automotive when it won over the Ford business to underpin Ford Sync back in 2014. Now it’s pretty much a fight among AGL, QNX, and Android. The AGL consortium announced a reference design to make it easier for automakers to port their cars over.

BMW said it would be the first automaker with 5G in-car telematics, working with telematics partner Samsung, in the 2021 BMW iNext EV. BMW has a long history with Samsung; its now-subsidiary Harman has produced BMW’s last four infotainment head units and BMW’s iDrive system is considered to be the most competent infotainment controller, nearly two decades after the first edition in 2001.

TriEye SWIR camera.

New kinds of sensors may improve driving and self-driving. TriEye showed SWIR, or short-wave infrared lidar, in a camera that improves visibility in dusty, snowy and rainy conditions, the company says. WaveSense talked up ground-penetrating radar for self-driving. Say what – you want to go forward, not down? CTO Byron Stanley says the soil composition, buried pipes, and cables create a unique fingerprint that, once mapped, lets the car know its location within a few inches. And it’s not affected by above-ground weather conditions.

If anything got people upset about CES, it wasn’t the monorail lines (better than in previous years), long waits in cab lines (Lyft and Uber solved that problem), or all the security checks (cursory; you could sneak in a cruise missile). It was paying $25-$50 a day for a “resort” fee. I came in early to see a college hockey tournament at the new T-Mobile Center on the strip when Vegas was still quiet in the days just after New Year’s Eve revelers departed. The first three nights, my $43 (with taxes) daily resort fee was more than the room. (By midweek, some rooms were offered by hoteliers at $2,000 a night.) The resort fee amounted to two bottles of water a day, use of the grandly named health center, and swimming pool access, which in the winter means you can walk out on the patio to admire the drained pool.

CES Las Vegas has always been an international show (and there are consumer electronics shows outside the US). There seemed to be more Asian participants this year, especially from high-level players, but ranging from parts-maker companies with two-person booths to larger companies from Korea (actually, South Korea; not much take coming out of the North), Japan, Taiwan, India, and especially China. Byton (China) had a huge press conference Sunday. Harman, a unit of Samsung (South Korea), took over most of the exhibit hall space at the Hard Rock Hotel (which was bought by Richard Branson and will be rebuilt for CES 2021 as the Virgin Hotel). Car tech, consumer tech, it’s a global business.

Now read:

For Self-Driving Cars, Lidar Amps Up at CES 2020

Behind the Scenes With Aptiv’s Self-Driving Car Nerve Center at CES 2020

In This ‘Avatar’-Themed Mercedes-Benz, Two Hearts Beat as One

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/304585-the-best-cars-car-tech-and-trends-of-ces-2020 from Blogger http://componentplanet.blogspot.com/2020/01/the-best-cars-car-tech-and-trends-of.html

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