Like "Sanctuary" Cities, Easy to Proclaim Your Virtue Until You Have to Step Up

Data centers in northern Virginia (WSJ photo)

The tech giants all profess to be "green," but when the choice is between net-zero carbon emissions and the creation of power-hungry artificial-intelligence data centers, watch what they do, not what they say. [bold added]

An explosion of so-called hyperscale data centers in places such as Northern Virginia has upended plans by electric utilities to cut the use of fossil fuels. In some areas, that means burning coal for longer than planned.

These giant data centers will provide computing power needed for artificial intelligence. They are setting off a four-way battle among electric utilities trying to keep the lights on, tech companies that like to tout their climate credentials, consumers angry at rising electricity prices and regulators overseeing investments in the grid and trying to turn it green...

Many new data centers coming to Northern Virginia are known as hyperscale, or facilities that are far larger than previous generations of data centers. The big ones use as much power as the city of Seattle...

Wind and solar can’t serve data-center demand around the clock, so growth will need to be supplemented by natural-gas-fired power generation, said Arshad Mansoor, chief executive of the nonprofit Electric Power Research Institute.

“You can be an idealist,” Mansoor said. “But if you’re a realist, you’ll add a ton of solar and you can balance that with gas.” The only other option to new gas plants is delaying coal and nuclear-plant retirements, he said.

The moguls who run the mega-cap tech giants know very well that the artificial-intelligence gold rush will delay national decarbonisation for years. By talking a good environmental game (and deflecting blame onto the utilities) they hope to retain their ESG credentials and keep consumers and regulators off their backs.

Inordinately High Gunfire

The headline in this morning's Mercury News triggered my sardonic sensibility: "Gee, if only Alameda road shootings returned to normal."

But it really is puzzling why East Bay gunfire is much higher than the rest of the State:

Alameda County has one-sixth the population of Los Angeles County, but has a freeway and highway shootings-per-capita rate five times higher since 2021, according to the data, which was provided by the California Highway Patrol to this newspaper in March. Last year, Alameda County surpassed L.A. for a first-place finish no one wants: 79 reported highway shootings, compared to 71 in L.A., a place known for being the capital of the nation’s car culture...

Across the state, reports of shootings involving firearms — as opposed to BB guns, pellet guns and the like — last year dropped 27% from 2021, easing from 477 to 347, according to the analysis. Yet reports of shootings in Alameda County jumped to 79 in 2023, up from 66 and 72 the two previous years. The most dangerous highway was Interstate 580, particularly in Oakland and east of Dublin...

“These shootings are notoriously hard to investigate,” said Michelle Rippy, a professor of criminal justice at California State University, East Bay. She specifically pointed to the fact that there are often fewer witnesses to freeway shootings; by their very nature, such incidents mean suspects and victims leave the scene almost instantly.

Criminals are opportunists, and they know that there is very little chance of getting arrested if they take a shot at an enemy on the highway. Reducing these incidents seems to be one of those multi-faceted problems that will take years to solve, even by a competent government.

Meanwhile, I'll avoid driving on certain East Bay freeways, just as I avoid going into certain neighborhoods in San Francisco.

Cafeteria Catholics

The 2013 Time Person of the Year

I disagree with the Catholic Church about some fundamental doctrines (which is why I never considered joining it), but I do admire the Catholic Church for its consistency. Its views on same-sex relationships, transgenderism, abortion, and capital punishment are all principled, if unpopular. And certainly Pope Francis' views on "unfettered capitalism" as the "new colonialism" and instigator of climate change haven't endeared himself to political conservatives.

Earlier this month the Church published a declaration of "Dignitas Infinita" (on the infinite dignity of individual human beings) that unifies the Church's teachings. It's a salutary effort, and what does seem clear after its publication is there's a point at which one can go overboard in picking out the teachings that one agrees with and rejecting others that don't suit one's preferences. In other words Pope Francis shuts down cafeteria Catholism: [bold added]

On an Easter Sunday appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Cardinal Wilton Gregory, archbishop of Washington, lamented that President Biden is a “cafeteria Catholic” who “picks and chooses dimensions of the faith to highlight while ignoring or even contradicting other parts.”

This week the Vatican published a “declaration” from its doctrinal office titled “Dignitas Infinita,” or “infinite dignity,” in which Pope Francis strongly affirmed the “inherent” dignity of every human being and identified a list of assaults against it: abortion, surrogate childbearing, euthanasia, capital punishment, poverty, war, the travails of migrants, human trafficking, sexual abuse, marginalization of the disabled and digital violence.

Unusually for Pope Francis, the text quotes extensively from his predecessors—the title is a phrase used by St. John Paul II—demonstrating that concerns for human dignity inform all of Catholic teaching and can’t be neatly aligned with a conservative or liberal political agenda. Mr. Biden likes Pope Francis on immigration but not abortion. He thinks the pontiff is bringing him a menu. Pope Francis, for his part, thinks the president mistakes table d’hôte for à la carte.

Much of the media paid attention to the document’s language on gender theory, which Pope Francis has previously called “the ugliest danger” today. The text was unambiguous: “Therefore, all attempts to obscure reference to the ineliminable sexual difference between man and woman are to be rejected.” That’s broad and would seem to cover not only medical interventions but the use of language, including forms of address and prayers.

Frankly, I don't see why Catholics, or any Christians for that matter, don't leave their church and find one that's more agreeable to their sense of right and wrong. There are plenty of denominations to choose from. But if one chooses to stay, pipe down and let your fellow church members worship in peace.

I Want to be Part of It, New York, New York

New York still retains its allure (Chron photo).

Back in my day every MBA who majored in finance dreamt of going to New York, the financial capital of the world. The big banks and the investment banks were all headquartered there, and the latter paid by far the highest salaries, double and triple what other employers were offering. The sights, sounds, and cultural attractions were an added bonus, and the only major drawback was the high income that was required to live in NYC.

50 years later technology has eclipsed finance as the largest and most glamorous industry. Silicon Valley is the Mecca for techies, but after a few years of enduring the high cost of housing, traffic, and California taxes, many of them are leaving for other hubs that are far more amenable to buying a house and raising a family.

It may come as a surprise that a sizable contingent of Bay Area tech workers are leaving for a city that's even more expensive than San Francisco. Yes, NYC still appeals to young dreamers. [bold added]

many early career Silicon Valley professionals have migrated east despite a higher cost of living there. A recent study found that tech workers who leave the Bay Area are most likely to move to New York, where apartment rents have reached record levels, meals out are among the country’s most expensive, and the average income is lower than in San Francisco.

Until now, New York hasn’t figured as highly in the tech exodus narrative. Austin, where there are no state income taxes and four-bedroom houses often have mortgages the same as a one-bedroom apartment rental in San Francisco, was touted as a hot destination for Silicon Valley expats during the pandemic. For a bit, Miami was also talked up as a relocation option.

Now flush with wealthy investors, companies big and small, and thousands of Bay Area defectors, New York has cemented itself as the nation’s No. 2 tech hub. Its $29.5 billion in venture-capital investment in 2022 ranked second only to Silicon Valley’s $74.9 billion.

...With offices shuttered throughout the country during the pandemic, reports surfaced about Silicon Valley tech workers fleeing to Austin, Denver, Atlanta, even Puerto Rico — anywhere their money could stretch further. Why, then, would more tech employees leaving the Bay Area now choose New York over any other city?

...Aaron Sines — director of technical recruiting for Edison & Black, a New York IT consulting firm — has seen a surprising amount of tech people who can work remotely, yet still choose to move to New York. Not so shocking: Almost all those employees are in their 20s.

“A lot of it is just the overall idea of wanting to live in New York,” Sines said. “A lot of people just want that experience before they get married and have kids.”

It's not one of my major regrets, but we had our chances to move to or nearby NYC before settling down. That door has long since closed, but sometimes I wonder....

Priorities

Menthol shelves are well stocked (WSJ photo)

The Biden Administration has been criticized for overstepping the constitutional powers of the Executive (e.g., forgiving $billions of student loans, banning fossil fuel power plants) and ignoring Executive responsibilities (e.g., controlling the Southern border). However, I suspect that the majority of Americans would approve this action that would save hundreds of thousands of lives: [bold added]

The Biden administration proposed a national ban on menthol cigarettes, advancing a regulatory plan that could sweep from the market more than a third of all cigarettes sold in the U.S. The products represent more than $20 billion in annual sales.

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday published proposed rules laying out the details of the plan. The ban would prohibit the sale of menthol cigarettes and all flavored cigars. The FDA said it is considering allowing exemptions on a case-by-case basis for certain products, such as heated-tobacco devices or cigarettes with very low nicotine levels. The ban wouldn’t affect menthol e-cigarettes...

The plan, which has been in the works for more than two decades, is the biggest move the federal government has made to curb cigarette sales since the FDA gained regulatory control over the tobacco industry in 2009.

The policy could save hundreds of thousands of lives, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said Thursday. He said in his career as an intensive-care cardiologist, he had seen many people die of smoking-related diseases.

The government has the legal authority to enforce the ban, so what's the holdup? Politics from its own base (hint: it's not Big Tobacco):

The Biden administration is reversing course on its plan to ban menthol cigarettes, after the White House weighed the potential public-health benefits of banning minty smokes against the political risk of angering some Black voters in an election year.

The administration said Friday that it is delaying a decision on whether to impose a ban, contending that it needs more time to consult with outside groups on the matter. There is no timeline for the administration to revisit the decision, as President Biden competes with former President Donald Trump for votes in November.

Menthols account for more than a third of all cigarettes sold in the U.S. each year and are predominantly used by Black and Hispanic smokers. Some 81% of Black smokers used menthols in 2020, compared with 30% of white smokers and 51% of Hispanic smokers, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

The Administration has no hesitancy in banning carbon-producing activities because it knows better than the people what's good for them (Pew--August, 2023: "This ranks climate change 17th out of 21 national issues included in a Center survey from January.") However, it refuses to outlaw menthol cigarettes, which are certain to cause thousands of deaths in the near future. That's one inconsistency that is tough to explain, if only there was a single truth-searching reporter that would ask them about it.

No Light and No Truth

When I was here, Frisbees were flying in April, not invective (WSJ)

When college "protestors" call for the extermination of the Jews, I finally saw how the Holocaust could happen. Throughout my high school and college years the Holocaust appeared to be an anomalous event in human history, when a uniquely evil and magnetic demagogue could persuade millions of Germans that all their problems were due to the existence of a specific race of people. That could never happen to us Americans--we could never blame an entire race for our problems, and we had a strong sense of individual morality that would stop us long before such madness took hold.

When I hear the chant, "from the river to the sea" or "death to the Jews," I think of my college roommate--would they kill him, too? He was the first Jewish person I was ever close to, and I admired him. He came from a working-class Midwest background, a graduate of a public school, and was the son of terrific parents who welcomed this nerdy kid from Hawaii to their home over Thanksgiving.

Nearing the end of our college years, when some roommates and I went out partying, he was studying Organic Chemistry--one of the toughest courses in the entire undergraduate curriculum--in order to get into medical school. He passed the MCATs, attended Case Western Reserve Medical School, interned at UCLA, and returned to his hometown where he practices internal medicine to this day.

He was no privileged member of the patriarchy and worked for everything he got. He was certainly no "oppressor" when I knew him, and his lifelong profession belies the notion that he was ever an oppressor lording it over other people in the hierarchy.

Nor would he, as would I, ever call ourselves oppressed. We were just lucky to have gone to a good college, and I, for one, weep for what it has become.

Unusual Sight, Even for San Francisco

Maybe this is a sign that Disney is getting back its movie mojo:

On Wednesday, April 24, actors in realistic-looking ape prosthetics were indeed trotting around the northern edge of the Presidio, making a journey back and forth along the pedestrian promenade with the Golden Gate Bridge serving as the backdrop while filming a commercial for the Wes Ball blockbuster ["Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes"], due in theaters May 8...

The unusual sight is part of an elaborate marketing stunt to promote “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” the fourth installment of the rebooted sci-fi action franchise. The film follows a young chimpanzee hunter named Noa (Owen Teague) and a human girl, Mae (Freya Allen), as they embark on a journey that could determine the future for both apes and humans.

Despite being surrounded by onlookers, the "apes" kept their stoic expression and maintained the tradition of Disney's "fur" characters not speaking.

Earlier this week the marketing team duplicated the stunt at Venice Beach, which is 20 miles from where the "twist" ending was filmed in Malibu in the original 1968 Planet of the Apes movie.

Let's hope this story turns out to be worthy of its buildup.

A Valuable Hole in the Ground

Long before I joined it, my former employer did a leasing deal with an energy company at the height of the early-80's energy bust. At the end of the long-term lease my employer, as owner, made a few bucks selling the heavily used equipment (aka "residual value"). It also retained ownership of an underground salt dome used for the storage of natural gas. The people who did that deal were mocked incessantly for years as buying a "hole in the ground."

Underground salt domes are valuable commodities in the energy industry for their ability to store large quantities and varieties of substances. The latest application is hydrogen storage. [bold added]

Salt caverns like these are emerging as one possible solution to the question of how to store solar and wind energy for later use.

It’s a three-step process. First, electricity from solar and wind farms is used to produce hydrogen. Then the hydrogen is stored in caverns like those scheduled to be completed next year at the Advanced Clean Energy Storage project in Delta, Utah. Finally, the hydrogen can be used as a green substitute for climate-warming fossil fuels in uses ranging from power generation to steel manufacture and shipping...

The problem is that renewable power generation can fluctuate a lot depending on the time of day or year. Solar-panel output, for instance, stops when the sun sets, and in California can roughly halve in winter versus summer.

Utilities are building big battery installations that can suck up some of that renewable electricity when it’s plentiful during the day, and release it for a few hours in the evening. But the lithium-ion batteries most commonly used today are too small and expensive to absorb the massive amounts of power needed to balance out grids over months or seasons, energy-industry executives say...

Capturing that renewable power by making hydrogen with it and storing the gas underground isn’t cheap. Industry executives say the cost to make a salt cavern could easily exceed $100 million, on top of expenses for the equipment needed to produce the hydrogen. But trying to provide similar storage with batteries is much pricier.

Green Hydrogen International, a company planning a cavern project in South Texas, estimates it would take around 38,500 Tesla Megapacks—a type of battery popular for large-scale utility installations—at an estimated cost of $59 billion to store the amount of energy it is hoping to keep in its caverns, which it estimates will cost $150 million to make...

Salt caverns have been used since at least the 1940s to store fossil fuels. The U.S. keeps a good portion of its natural gas underground, as well as its emergency crude-oil reserves, which reside in four huge salt caverns in Texas and Louisiana.

The caverns are typically hollowed out of deposits of rock salt, formed from the remnants of ancient seas that have hardened into layers or been squeezed into pillars or mushroom-shaped domes of salt underground.

Salt deposits have advantages for storing hydrogen, a notoriously tough gas to trap. They are more leakproof than other types of rocks used for storage sites—a feature especially important for hydrogen, which is the smallest molecule in existence. And the rock salt doesn’t react with hydrogen, which can be corrosive to tanks when it is stored above ground.

To create a cavern, engineers drill deep down into a salt deposit, then flush it with massive amounts of water, which slowly erodes the salt and forms a long, tubelike hole, a process that can take two or three years.

As for my employer's hole in the ground, it was sold for a multiple of the original cost of the entire project (it helped that the dome was required to be filled with increasingly expensive natural gas when it was turned over to us). And the men who did that deal became CEO's and Executive Vice Presidents.

A Rare Public Works Project

Sometimes it's not the story itself but the reaction to the story that makes news. The completion of the infamous $1.7 million toilet for $200,000 occurred quietly last week.

The citizens of the Noe Valley neighborhood held a potty party on Sunday.

A group of acrobats juggled plungers. Children circled a maypole clutching long strands of toilet paper. Partygoers downed lemonade and chocolate cupcakes adorned with poop emojis. Organizer Leslie Crawford said the event, dubbed the “Toilet Bowl,” embraced the oddity of honoring an otherwise unremarkable public potty.

“This whole thing got so ridiculous, so why not be ridiculous?” Crawford said.

On second thought, a completed public works project that minimized waste is so rare that it is indeed worthy of celebration.

Good Shepherd Sunday

Roman catacombs, circa 2nd century (aleteia)

On Good Shepherd Sunday the hymns, Bible passages, and sermons may vary, but one constant is always the 23rd Psalm. The lady minister said today that there are two major themes: the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for His sheep, and the feast that awaits us. It is a Psalm that many learned in Sunday School and is often read at funerals.

Despite many attempts to make the passages sound modern, your humble blogger has always preferred the King James version. See if you agree, dear reader, with the KJV and NIV (New international Version) laid side by side:

Psalm 23: KJV	Psalm 23: NIV
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.	The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures;	He makes me lie down in green pastures,
He leadeth me beside the still waters.	He leads me beside quiet waters,
He restoreth my soul;	He refreshes my soul.
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his Name's sake.	He guides me along the right paths
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death	Even though I walk through the darkest valley
I will fear no evil;	I will fear no evil,
For thou art with me;	For you are with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.	Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;	You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
Thou anointest my head with oil	You anoint my head with oil;
My cup runneth over.	My cup overflows
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,	Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will dwell in the House of the Lord for ever.	And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

California: Blaming Everyone but Itself

Once again California's high gas prices have made the headlines: [bold added]

'Gas prices are spiking again in the Bay Area — as much as 20 to 30 cents a gallon higher than the California average and at least $2 a gallon more than the rest of the country, according to the latest data from the American Automobile Association (AAA).

The national average on Friday was $3.67 a gallon, compared to the Golden State’s $5.45, the highest in the U.S., according to AAA.

Bay Area drivers who are sometimes stuck paying close to $6 a gallon said they are suffering and finding alternate ways to get around.

AAA's Andrew Gross provides part of the explanation for the Bay Area's "premium" over the national average:

Gross said spring is also the time where gasoline is switched from winter blend to summer blend, which is more expensive to refine but helps keep air quality cleaner.

“And then you have to take into account location. The West Coast is what many consider an oil island in that it is far from the main oil production centers of Texas, Oklahoma and the Gulf Coast and those mega refineries down there as well,” Gross said. “And west of the Rockies it’s more challenging to build pipelines, so you tend to move product by rail and truck more than say east of the Rockies. So you also have higher distribution cost that factor in as well.”

Oil Price Information Service's Tom Klosa points to refinery closures:

In 2020, Marathon closed its refinery in the Bay Area, and over the last year Phillips 66 stopped processing crude oil at Arroyo Grande in San Luis Obispo and Rodeo in Contra Costa County, Klosa said.

“Both companies idled their refineries and are concentrating on supplying renewable fuels such as renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel. Neither is making gasoline, and that leaves the area without a safety net. Should one of the remaining refineries (Chevron Richmond, Valero Benicia or PBF Martinez) have issues, supply can become very challenging,” Klosa said.

The American Energy Alliance adds two more factors, taxes and regulation:

California has the highest gas tax in the country at 68 cents per gallon, compared to 39 cents for the national average, according to the American Energy Alliance.

The state also has a cap-and-trade program and low-carbon fuel standard that adds roughly another 46 cents a gallon, according to the group.

As surely as night follows day, California blames high prices on greed and price-gouging:

Newsom in November accused “Big Oil” of raking in “huge profits” last summer while gas prices spiked and said that “we’re continuing to hold them accountable with the new tools from our gas price gouging law.” But it remains to be seen how the new Division of Petroleum Market Oversight will affect gas prices.

California's blaming the industry is reminiscent of its railing against insurance companies until enough of them stopped writing policies. It's mystifying to these non-businessmen that oil refiners and insurance companies are leaving the State instead of getting in on that price-gouging action. Over a year ago we wrote:

It's also clear that a persistent price premium must have an explanation other than capitalist greed, which, if that were the case, would exist peculiarly only in California. My hypothesis: gasoline producers have only 12 years to recover their investment [because of the ban on new gas-powered vehicles starting in 2035] in California plant and equipment, after which the market for gasoline will dry up. In the rest of the country refiners can count on a useful life of 20 years or longer, thereby lowering the prices they require to turn a profit

Not all California's politicians are that stupid, of course. They know full well that the high gas prices that their policies have caused are forcing drivers to consider buying EV's, but they're deflecting blame on to the fossil fuel industry, the left's whipping boy for the past 50 years. Very few in the media or academia are calling them out, so they continue to get away with their disingenuous explanations.

Keep Telling Yourself It's the Safest Way to Travel

My brother's flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu on Thursday was delayed by a stuck door handle. The pilot announced that the problem was "fixed" and the United Boeing flight went on to Honolulu.

Normally I wouldn't have given the matter a second thought but for the spate of recent headlines:

February 6: Boeing 737 MAX Missing Critical Bolts in Alaska Airlines Blowout, NTSB Says

April 9: Boeing Engineer Says Company Used Shortcuts to Fix 787 Jets

April 17: Boeing’s Quality Complaints Mount as Another Whistleblower Comes Forward

We all were relieved when brother landed safely.

For the first time in my life, I'll check the price of flight insurance the next time I take a Boeing flight.

It's Da Bomb (for Toilets)

Sure, ChatGPT can help us draft letters and research topics faster, but artificial intelligence has so far not come up with blockbuster products that live up to all the AI hype. That is, until now. [bold added]

Clorox thinks it can help with a new toilet bomb, a tablet of pre-dosed cleaner that foams and fizzes in the toilet bowl and releases a pleasant scent. “People are looking for a spark of fun and joy,” said Rhonda Lesinski, Clorox’s general manager of cleaning. “We all know the world can get messy, but we understand the link between a clean environment and one’s physical and emotional well-being.”

As part of what Clorox calls a “consumer-obsessed” approach, staffers started using artificial-intelligence tools last year to scan digital media for new ideas. The Foaming Toilet Bomb, going on sale nationwide next month, is its first product from this initiative.

The phrase "toilet bomb" doesn't immediately evoke "a spark of fun and joy" in most people's minds, but let's give AI a chance. Like Steve Jobs, maybe AI has come up with a product that we didn't know we needed.

When There's No Pressure to Do Something, Nothing is Done

San Diego, March 22, 2024 (Calmatters/Mercury)

One could suppose a one-party state like California may impose a solution to homelessness because there is no effective opposition, but one would be wrong. [bold added]

For the second year in a row, Democrats on Tuesday voted down a bill that sought to ban homeless encampments near schools, transit stops and other areas throughout California.

Despite the fact that cities up and down the state are grappling with a proliferation of homeless camps, legislators said they oppose penalizing down-and-out residents who sleep on public property...

During Tuesday’s hearing, more than three dozen people voiced their opposition to the bill, speaking on behalf of organizations such as the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union California Action.

The bill’s supporters, who numbered far fewer, included the mayor of Vista and a representative from the city of Carlsbad.

The lone “yes” vote came from the committee’s only Republican, Sen. Kelly Seyarto of Murrieta.

“We had a slew of people that came forward to tell us about what we shouldn’t be doing,” he said. “But what the hell should we be doing? Because right now we’re not doing anything.”

Any solution would cause some inconvenience to the homeless, so the politicians do nothing, and the encampments continue to befoul the sidewalks. This is what happens when politicians have no fear of losing their jobs, and, as we've said before

Californians keep electing the same crowd that spends $billions, produces negative results, then keeps raising taxes because we supposedly haven't spent enough on these problems. As a believer in democracy, I suppose we're getting what we wanted.....and deserve.

Round and Round We Go

Slowing the traffic in the old neighborhood.

I encountered my first traffic roundabout in New England over 50 years ago. Navigating it was intuitive because it was a single-lane circle, and all cars had to make a right turn to enter. It wasn't obvious who had to yield to whom, but because the roundabout slowed everyone down, there were usually no accidents, and those that did occur were at low speeds.

Traffic circles have become so ubiquitous that there's even a simple one five blocks from my parents' home in Honolulu. It was installed in 2021, probably to slow the cars headed to Waiola Shave Ice.

Intersection of Hwys 156 and 25 in Gilroy (Merc)

The traffic engineers may have pushed a good thing too far with the installation of a "turbo" roundabout, whose rules are hard to learn when driving a car at highway speeds. [bold added]

When drivers first crossed this particular roadway in San Benito County last February, they encountered an intersection never before seen in California — a multi-lane “turbo roundabout” shaped like a cartoon hurricane.

And, while the turbo roundabout has a history of making intersections safer throughout Europe, here the Scandinavian rotary has led to confusion among some drivers who have been seen entering the intersection backward, hopping over lane dividers, and cutting through yield signs...

In the weeks following the opening of the roundabout, the intersection saw crashes at more than three times the rate than the year before it was built — jumping from about one accident approximately every eight days to one accident every two and a half days, on average...

But despite the spike in incidents, officials and experts said they are confident this is all part of a “learning curve” that often happens with new roundabouts, and point out that deaths and serious injuries have dropped to zero since the new intersection was completed.

Californians view themselves as smarter than people who live in the rest of the country. This is a real-world test of that hypothesis.