Number 4. Gateway Hispanic. The AI police cyborg 1.0 promises security in Thailand.
Don’t worry, we only have your safety as our highest priority!
Thailand this year debuted the first-ever cyborg policeman. Data on the new Cop-Bot is sketchy — there are no videos online, no official descriptions of duties or deployments, no substantive press releases — but the few photographs are, at best, way scary.
The annual Songkran festival in Nakhon Pathom province, Thailand, is a joyous celebration of spiritual roots, tradition, national identity and freedom. What better place to introduce an unspeaking, faceless robot in a brown-shirt uniform who can identify your face, hear your chants and take note of your friends?
The new cyborg, while appearing in a photo where he towers over fellow human officers, is said to have non-functional legs. No doubt the uniform pants were an adornment for the photo op to make him appear more approachable. Or maybe to strike fear.
It is not clear why he had to be shown standing among peers on a half-foot-tall platform, except that the platform probably was required for the immobile titanium beams covered by his trousers.
I suppose that chasing down evil-doers at the festival of freedom is more effectively executed by the cyborg’s camera eyes relaying data, rather than by engaging in physical pursuit.
Interestingly, there is no official government video of the cyborg’s participation in the festival. Just as interesting, there is no crowd-sourced video from smartphone cameras showing him. How do you have a festival with — what, maybe a hundred thousand revelers — and no one has a smartphone?
That fact alone may tell the most about the current state of affairs in Thailand: No access to individual data, but a uniformed robot with access to everything about you.
Long live the celebration of freedom!
It was a bold dream worthy of the Golden State 20 years ago: A $30 billion dollar high-speed train between San Francisco and Los Angeles, facilitating commerce and improving quality of life.
Now, with the first round of public debt already spent without a single mile of track laid, the dream is rapidly unravelling into nightmare.
A bond issue in 2008 indebted citizens of the State of Fruits and Nuts to $10 billion. The state has actually spent $13 billion to date, which does not seem surprising.
It is not clear from the article what the money has been spent on — certainly not railroad tracks — but I presume each disbursement was for something reasonable, like engineering design and legal fees. Or maybe therapy for those overwhelmed by the thought of a new construction project.
I would love to see more detail about the inevitable right-of-way wars, as seemingly every living non-human entity in that state appears to be in danger of extinction.
To add Trumpian insult, the current presidential administration is considering pulling another $4 billion previously committed to the project.
In a very public effort to solve the problem by throwing yet more money at it, the California High-Speed Rail Authority appointed a new CEO, one Ian Choudri. Mr. Choudri has spoken confidently of getting the project back on track, so to speak.
The new target for completion is — wait for it — 2045, at a total price tag of $100 billion.
I am not sure how the west-coast citizenry feels about the news that Florida built a similar high-speed rail line between Miami and Orlando for $6 billion, and completed it in only 4 years.
On the other hand, maybe the only critters threatened in Florida were the gators.
At any rate, it sounds like a good reason for Californians to seek therapy.
Number 2. Breitbart. Driverless trucks are now rolling down Texas Highways.
Say hello to a semi-truck barreling down the four-lane with no one at the wheel.
After years of technological development and human ride-alongs, Aurora trucks are finally ready to solo. The Dallas-to-Houston route has been a testbed for fully autonomous tractor-trailer rigs since 2021.
Industry estimates are that in the next decade, 10 percent of long-haul trucks will be driver-free. Cost savings for transportation is estimated to be on the order of 42%.
This is all good news, I guess, unless you are an over-the-road truck driver. Being the dogged digital armchair sleuth that I am, I spent a solid 2 minutes researching other news releases. There was a companion article naming exactly how much experience Aurora trucking has with this Dallas-to-Houston route. The press release suggests trucks have been making this run for 4 years without a hitch — or rather, with a hitch, but only the one pulling the trailer.
Morning Brew dot com gives slightly more detail. Aurora has logged 1,200 driver-free miles. The two customers served have been Uber Freight and Hirschback Motor Lines, which happen to be business partners with Aurora.
That’s all well and good, until you do the math. The Dallas to Houston run is maybe 225 miles on I-45. At 1,200 total miles logged, that comes to 5.3 trips, total. In four years. Those are one-way trips.
I know its the wave of the future, but this seems more like an announcement to attract investment than the celebration of a baked cake.
I read once that when railroads first invaded the American West, naysayers complained that it would put conventional freight haulers, using horse-drawn wagons, out of business. This market segment was called drayage: A horse-powered wagon carrying cargo was called a dray.
In fact, when railheads were established across the prairie, each terminal became a magnet for local shipping. Every farmer with a buckboard wagon and a pre-teen son was suddenly in the freight business, hauling goods to and from the local rail station.
So perhaps driverless trucks, like everything else automated, will find their place in our economy. But I do like the idea of a separate trucking lane, guarded by a concrete barrier, for the occasional glitch or reboot. And I am sure no one would ever contemplate a malicious hacking attack against harmless driverless trucks.
Number 1. Artnet dot com. Hikers find gold in Czech Republic.
It is said that hiking a mountain trail can be rewarding. That proved to be exactly the case for a pair of European outdoors types earlier this year.
Hiking the Krkonose mountains in what we now call Czechia, but what we used to call Czechoslavakia, before there was a Czechia and a Slovakia, the explorers came across a treasure chest, partly buried near the trail.
Inside a tin box they found 600 gold coins, neatly wrapped. A companion box held what appears to be trade goods: Cigarette cases and jewelry. The total haul weighed 15 pounds and was turned over to the Museum of Eastern Bohemia.
The coins date from the 19th and 20th centuries. The oldest is from 1808 and the newest from 1921. The speculation is that this was a hoard secreted away during the Nazi invasion across eastern Europe in 1938, or during the post-war period by a German citizen who feared theft. The origin of the coins, however, suggests they all traveled a long way to get to northeast Czechia.
The hoard has been valued anywhere from $300,000 to $700,000. Someone has determined that the pair of hikers were entitled to a finder’s fee of 10% of the haul. That would be maybe $30,000 split between the two.
After finding such a hoard, that sounds a little underwhelming, but — merely speculating — it may have been sweetened by a small handful of coins pocketed trailside.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Humphrey Bogart, 1948, comes to mind. Following the rabbit trails of my mind, I recall that movie was parodied by Word Entertainment in about 1993. In their delightful kids’ series Jungle Jam & Friends, there is an episode called The Treasure of the Sierra Marbles. Find it on Apple Podcasts.
Your kids and grandkids will love it. So will the grownups.
And thanks for joining The Alligator News Roundup for Friday the 9th of May, 2025. Plan an outdoor adventure to get out and enjoy nature. Maybe take along a knapsack to carry any treasure you might find. And keep a wary eye out for the Cyborg patrol, sure to become increasingly numerous in the never-ending and well-intentioned effort to keep you safe from yourself.
Have a good weekend!
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