E-bikes are very different from e-motos
Many people, including journalists, make the mistake of lumping all two-wheeled electric-powered vehicles into the “e-bike” category. E-bikes have pedals, and many of them don’t go unless the rider is pedaling. E-motos often do not have pedals; they have a throttle and typically produce far more power than an e-bike.
The kids wheeling up and down streets, tearing up the Highline Canal (among other areas), and causing the spike in serious injuries are on e-motos. It is important to distinguish between e-bikes and e-motos. People on e-bikes are riding in the bike lanes at regular speeds, not wheeling around town or doing donuts on the Highline Canal.
Jim Mason, Centennial
Coping with the news
Bob Dylan said, “The human mind can only stand so much.” But how do we stand as much as we do? If someone stays informed, the news is almost too much to bear.
Within days of each other, Dolly Parton died and Nepal was flooded, each on opposite ends of the emotional spectrum.
The Iran war reignited. At least 37 died when a Russian drone hit a warehouse near Kyiv (I have a friend in Kyiv). Two died, and others are missing after a flash flood in the Grand Canyon, and one of my neighbors hasn’t mowed his lawn all year.
Somehow, most of us, the ones who are paying attention, make it through the day, with or without coffee.
But isn’t there some kind of cerebral erosion over time? Humpty Dumpty only exacerbates it. And thatap as polite as I can be.
Music helps. Dogs help. What else?
Craig Marshall Smith, Highlands Ranch
AI is the most competent colleague I’ve ever had
I’m an electrical engineer who specializes in industrial control systems. I wrote my first computer program in 1977. I’m still working because I can and I’m good at it. In the past year, I’ve seen AI become not just a useful tool, but an indispensable one. AI is now the most competent colleague I have ever worked with. There’s a dogma that says AI will lead to brain rot in young people. Thatap nonsense. I’m old enough that when I was in the 8th grade I learned to use a slide rule, along with log and trig tables. Sometime in the 1970s I got a scientific calculator. My slide rule and math tables have sat in a drawer ever since. Did that make me dumber?
As far as AI enslaving us all and then killing us off; yeah, ok — if not that, then God’s Armageddon. In the meantime, I own AI, not the other way around.
Tom Chapin, Lyons
Wrapping my head around $40 trillion
The national debt recently surpassed $40 trillion. I have been trying to work my head around what this number means in the real world. To help me understand the enormity of $40 trillion, I turned to AI for assistance. My prompt was: if $40 trillion was bundled tightly in hundred-dollar bills, $10,000 to the bundle, how many 40-foot shipping containers would it take to hold it all? I won’t bore you with the math, you can check for yourself. The answer is 6,800 shipping containers at 2,350 cubic feet per container. If they were lined end to end, they would stretch 51 miles. The weight of the money, about 400,000 tons, is comparable to a large aircraft carrier. If you were loading the containers by hand, one $10,000 bundle per second nonstop, it would take 168 years. Maybe itap time we took this national debt issue more seriously!
Al White, Winter Park
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Update: A previous version of this article displayed a photo of an e-scooter, misidentified as an e-bike.
