Home » Archives for January 2015

Cradle To Grave Sexism: Colleen McCullough and Yvonne Brill

Friday, January 30, 2015 0 comments
The Australian author Colleen McCullough died at age 77. The obituary in The Australian begins as follows:
COLLEEN McCullough, Australia’s best selling author, was a charmer. Plain of feature, and certainly overweight, she was, nevertheless, a woman of wit and warmth. In one interview, she said: “I’ve never been into clothes or figure and the interesting thing is I never had any trouble attracting men.”
The writer began the obituary by saying, basically, that she was unattractive and fat, but men still wanted to have sex with her and she was fun to be around.

This is, of course, sexist - it suggests that the first judgment of a woman must be to what extent she was or was not attractive to men.

We've been through this before. It reminded me (and no doubt many others), of the New York Times obituary of Yvonne Brill, rocket scientist. It began (it has since been edited, but the public editor commented here):
She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job and took eight years off from work to raise three children. “The world’s best mom,” her son Matthew said.
But Yvonne Brill, who died on Wednesday at 88 in Princeton, N.J., was also a brilliant rocket scientist who in the early 1970s invented a propulsion system to keep communications satellites from slipping out of their orbits.
Here it's not to what extent did people want to have sex with her in general, but her maternal skills in the kitchen and child-rearing.

I wrote about Brill a few years ago when I put together a piece for CNN on the sexism my daughter was encountering as a four-year old. I wrote:
When the rocket scientist Yvonne Brill died in March,The New York Times celebrated her as the maker of a "mean beef stroganoff" and "the world's best mother." When my 4-year-old daughter, Ellie, a wildly creative and interesting girl, finished a year of preschool last week, her teachers gave her an award for being the best dressed.
This is cradle-to-the-grave sexism, always judging women by their appearance and the extent to which they do or do not conform to the gender roles assigned them by patriarchal norms. No accomplishment is as important as whether they were attractive. And read this explanation by the Times' obituary editor on Brill.
“I’m surprised,” he said. “It never occurred to us that this would be read as sexist.” He said it was important for obituaries to put people in the context of their time and that this well-written obituary did that effectively. He also observed that the references in the first paragraph to cooking and being a mother served as an effective setup for the “aha” of the second paragraph, which revealed that Mrs. Brill was an important scientist.
And the writer himself:
The writer, Douglas Martin, described himself as “just so full of admiration for this woman, in all respects.”
“I was totally captivated by her story,” he said, and he looked for a way to tell it in as interesting a way as possible. The negative reaction is unwarranted, he said — a result of people who didn’t read the obituary fully but reacted only to what they saw on Twitter about the opening paragraph.
It hasn’t changed his mind about how he wrote it: “I wouldn’t do anything differently.”
For these two male writers (I'm guessing white male, but I don't know them), the backlash was a surprise and unwarranted. They just wanted a good, "aha!" That, too, is a bow to patriarchy. Mother AND rocket scientist, aha! You never saw that coming, as most scientists are terrible mothers, and vice versa (the article suggests). The use of the surprise there reinforces the idea that such achievements are unusual.

Blank Gravestone. Blah.
Language matters. Internet writers are having one of those interminable debates in which successful white male writers say that telling them that language matters is really mean and fundamentally useless anyway, while tone policing feminist discourse down to silence. I'd refer them back to "how to be an ally," but I think step 1) Listen, is not really in their wheelhouse.

So instead we look at these obituaries. Fabulous, successful, women who cannot be remembered except through the context of patriarchal gender roles.


Girls Read Comics Too! An Awesome Letter from Rowan, Age 11, to DC Comics.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015 0 comments
Marvel comics made a movie about a talking tree and a raccoon awesome, but you haven't made a movie with Wonder Woman.

Girls read comics too and they care.

Rowan is an 11 year old girl. I know her and her parents and am posting this with all of their permission (especially Rowan's). She loves comics and she wrote this letter to DC Comics.

Transcription below.


I love this and hope DC listens. I've written about my own daughter's love of comics here and here, and hope Rowan helps make comics a little more girl-friendly (and less pink and purple).

If anyone at DC (or anyone else) would like to contact Rowan, I'll be glad to put you in touch with her family.

The letter reads:
Dear DC comics,
My name is Rowan and I am 11 years old. I love superheroes and have been reading comics and watching superhero cartoons and movies since I was very young. I’m a girl, and I’m upset because there aren’t very many girl superheroes or movies and comics from DC.
For my birthday, I got some of your Justice League Chibis™. I noticed in the little pamphlet that there are only 2 girl Chibis, and 10 boys. Also, the background for the girl figures was all pink and purple.
I remember watching Justice League cartoons when I was really young with my dad. There are Superman and Batman movies, but not a Wonder Woman one. You have a Flash TV show, but not a Wonder Woman one. Marvel Comics made a movie about a talking tree and raccoon awesome, but you haven’t made a movie with Wonder Woman.
I would really like a Hawkgirl or Catwoman or the girls of the Young Justice TV show action figures please. I love your comics, but I would love them a whole lot more, if there were more girls.
I asked a lot of the people I know whether they watched movies or read books or comics where girls were the main characters, they all said yes.
Please do something about this. Girls read comics too and they care.
Sincerely, Rowan.
Girls do read comics and they do care. Now the question is, does DC care?

Update: Yes I know Wonder Woman is coming. Rowan will be 13 by the time she gets to see her first movie with a female lead.

Update 2: Reprints of the letter are welcome. Please link to this page and send me a note, just so I can keep track.

Update 3: For more on the coverage of the letter, please see my post Anatomy of a Viral Tweet

Georgia Shakes the Foundation of our Legal System - Executes Intellectually Disabled Man

0 comments
Last night, Georgia executed Warren Hill. Hill was clearly intellectually disabled as judged by pretty much every standard, except the ones used by the most bloodthirsty states. It's a gross violation of universal human rights.

Here's a statement from The Arc.
“Georgia’s ability to ignore experts and cross the line drawn by a more than decade-old Supreme Court ruling shakes the foundation of our legal system for people with intellectual disabilities. Just last year, the Supreme Court reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring justice for individuals with intellectual disability, with their ruling in Hall v. Florida, and it is extremely disappointing that following this decision justice did not prevail in Georgia.
“The facts in this case are clear – experts unanimously agreed that Mr. Hill had intellectual disability, yet the appeals at the state and federal levels were ignored. The state’s actions in this case are unconscionable,” said Peter Berns, CEO of The Arc.
It was allowed by the Supreme Court for reasons I can't say I understand (in terms of why it doesn't violate the 2002 Atkins ruling against executing the intellectually disabled), except that SCOTUS is allowing states to define intellectual disability however they please. So Georgia has drawn a severe line and now killed this man.

We are, sometimes, a savage nation.

Republican Vision for Higher Education - More NBA Arenas.

0 comments
Over the border from me, the Scott Walker experiment to dismantle the state of Wisconsin continues. He wants to create Kansas-North. Conservatives are loving it, and he's just the kind of boring white guy with an allegedly criminal past that the GOP establishment might nominate for president.

Not long after President Obama unveiled his ideas for Free Community College, a proposal that, among other things, articulates a vision of public education as a common good, Walker has come out with his own brilliant plan for higher ed - more NBA Arenas.

In the last few days, Walker has proposed a 300 million dollar budget cut for the UW system. At the same time, he's proposed a 220 million dollar giveaway to the Milwaukee Bucks, owned, like all NBA teams, by one of the richest humans in the history of the world. The Republican love for corporate welfare knows no limits (and it's a smart investment, as the masters of the universe turn around to fund their campaigns and hire them after their political career is over), and Democrats are equally willing to shill for pro-sports teams (the new Vikings stadium in downtown Minneapolis is going to be a neat place, except for the bird-killing). Still, to have these simultaneous announcements come out from the Walker administration does reveal their priorities fairly neatly.

Corporate welfare = "An investment." In the link above, Walker talks about how much money the NBA team brings to Milwaulkee.

Higher Ed Cuts = Making the UW system "more independent." Indeed, so independent he's stripping out tenure and faculty governance from state law, so that his appointed Regents can chip away at a world-class network of institutions.

To lose an NBA team means losing tax revenue, to be sure, although in general stadiums create only service jobs and concentrate entertainment revenue in a certain spot, rather than create more revenue. I wonder, though, how much revenue Wisconsin will lose over time with a less-educated citizenry? It will be less quantifiable. It won't involve any billionaires. It will come, though.

As my bandmate Kurt said, That Ain't Right.



Meanwhile, I love that one of my hero bands, the Dropkick Murphys - union lovers and Southie Boston working men all, called out Walker for using their music for his intro (seriously, GOP, you get most country music and Ted Nugent and that's it).

Dual Threat: Two-Tone Scion tC Release Series 9.0 Available Now

Tuesday, January 27, 2015 0 comments

Double trouble has arrived in Scion dealerships. Scion paired up with Jeremy Lookofsky of Cartel Customs on the two-toned Scion tC Release Series 9.0. The new model combines style and substance and is based on a concept car developed for custom car shows.
 
A new walk-around video shows off the limited-edition color combination of magma orange and sleek black carried through both the vehicle’s custom exterior and interior. Even the front badge shows duality: the familiar Scion logo blacked out for the first time. Just 2,000 of these models have arrived in dealerships around the country, ready for purchase.
The Release Series 9.0 vehicles target drivers who feel at home both on the show floor and the open road. The unique exterior features a center exhaust, Cartel Customs-designed aero kit and eye-catching alloy wheels and matching caps. Inside, it’s all about the exotic orange: from the custom stitching and front seat belts to pops of painted details.

“There won’t be a way to miss the Scion tC Release Series 9.0 now that it has arrived in dealerships,” said Scion Vice President Doug Murtha. “This two-toned tC lets Scion fans have an everyday driver that looks like it’s straight out of a car show…because it is!”   

The series vehicles come with either six-speed manual transmission or a six-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters and Dynamic Rev Management® technology. The manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) is $23,190 for the manual transmission and $24,340 for the automatic transmission, excluding the delivery, processing and handling (DPH) fee of $770.



Down Syndrome is "Hell on Earth."

0 comments
Austen Heinz is the typical silicon valley disruptor superstar. Edgy. Controversial. Disruptive.

He was profiled for his DNA Startup which allows you to "create life."
In Austen Heinz’s vision of the future, customers tinker with the genetic codes of plants and animals and even design new creatures on a computer. Then his startup, Cambrian Genomics, prints that DNA quickly, accurately and cheaply.
“Anyone in the world that has a few dollars can make a creature, and that changes the game,” Heinz said. “And that creates a whole new world.”
The 31-year-old CEO has a deadpan demeanor that can be hard to read, but he is not kidding. In a makeshift laboratory in San Francisco, his synthetic biology company uses lasers to create custom DNA for major pharmaceutical companies. Its mission, to “democratize creation” with minimal to no regulation, frightens bioethicists as deeply as it thrills Silicon Valley venture capitalists.
Thrills capitalists! Fights bioethicists! Sounds like a amoral Silicon Valley winner to me.

Here's the hate speech [my emphasis]:
Heinz and other scientists have years of technical hurdles to clear before they can create living, breathing humans from a plate of printed DNA. Such an act is not possible right now. But he doesn’t hide his enthusiasm about the possibility.
Is he essentially enabling eugenics? He rejects that term, which to him means government interference with reproductive rights. He insists that it differs from his approach, which he describes as allowing individuals to eliminate future suffering in a more humane way than abortion, “which is pretty barbaric.” “A decent percentage of people have really nasty mutations that cause really bad, horrible things,” like Down syndrome and cystic fibrosis, he said. “These are basically like hell on Earth, and I think it’s smart to be able to avoid those things.”
1. Eugenic principles/ideologies are not state sponsored eugenic programs, but it's still eugenic principles and ideologies. I write about this a lot (most recently here). [UPDATE: Here's a useful article on who Heinz is as a provocateur]

2. What really bothers me about the "hell on Earth" line is not just that he said it, but that it was
I deal with being angry by
using silly pictures.
presented here as a simple acceptable opinion.

Would a racist talking about how blacks are inferior be simply permitted to make their statement without rebuttal or some kind of comment from the journalist? An anti-semite? A homophobe?

It seems to me that most journalists, when they have subject saying such terrible things, deal with it sensitively. It's correct to report that Heinz is, in fact, one of the new eugenicists, ignorant and filled with hate for people with Down syndrome and cystic fibrosis. He'd like them to be eradicated, at least for future generations, preferably while making vast sums of money. This is what the new eugenics looks like.

But using this horrible line as your concluding sentence in a section, then blithely starting off into the science of the startup, is not, I think, best journalistic practices. I suspect that Lee, the author and business editor, didn't even notice. She's just interviewing a wunderkind, reporting what he says, trying to sell copy.

And this is part of the mission of the disability rights movement. We need to make it clear that ableist language, ideologies, and discriminatory acts are prejudicial and not to be simply left to hang in mainstream discourse without retort, context, criticism.

One final maxim of mine:

What's going on with prenatal testing right now is a test-run for the future of human procreation. We're failing the test. Left alone, it's going to mean that disability codes for poverty and lack of access to modern medicine, rendering the world even more divided than it is now. We've got a lot of work to do.

Also, Down syndrome is not hell on earth.

Nico and his Sister. 1. It's too snowy for hell. 2. They love each other a lot.

BMW i3 Super Bowl Commercial "Newfangled Idea" Released

Monday, January 26, 2015 0 comments


Even though the Super Bowl is still about a week away, today BMW released the 60 second i3 commercial which will air during the big game.

The commercial begins with a flashback to a live filming of NBC's Today Show in 1994 with Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel Talking about the internet. They have absolutely no idea what it is or how one might use it. They even can't agree on what the "@" symbol on a keyboard means. It's really hard to imagine this, since in the 21 years that have passed since this was filmed, the internet has integrated its way into all of our lives so much it is difficult to image life without it.

That's the whole point of the commercial. Things that seem foreign to us today may be the norm very soon in today's rapidly evolving world of technology. After the flashback, Katie and Bryant are sitting in an i3, and their conversation sounds very much like the one they had 21 years ago, struggling to understand what the i3 is and even how it was made. At one point Bryant looks out the window at a cyclist who is waiting next to them and says, "Katie said she thought this was a car," inferring that he doesn't even know what to call it.

I must admit, the first time I watched it I was a little disappointed. I was so excited when I heard BMW bought a full 60 second commercial during the Super Bowl just for the i3, and I immediately began to imagine what angle they might use. I was hoping for something that expressed how much fun the car is, how people just love to drive it, and how easy they could integrate the electric lifestyle into their life. I've been critical of all of the automaker's marketing efforts when it comes to their electric vehicle offerings. I don't believe anyone has really captured the essence of driving electric or why someone might consider getting their first electric car. So in my mind this was the angle I was hoping BMW went for. I also had a little fear they would just go entirely the sustainability angle, at which point I may have just banged my head on the kenaf fiber dashboard of my i3 until I was unconscious.

So I was a little surprised when I watched the commercial, but then I watched it a couple more times and I started to see why this may indeed have been the proper angle to take. No, it's not as heartwarming as the Clydesdale horses in the Budweiser spots, or even as cool as Leonard Nimoy's Audi commercial from last year, yet it does drill home the point it was trying to. Electric mobility is on the verge of becoming mainstream, and even though it may seem foreign to most people today, in only a short period of time they will wonder why they were ever living without it. I can live with that. Well done BMW.  Hit or miss; what do you think? Leave your opinions below in the comments section.

Bonus clip: The making of the commercial with Katie Curic, Bryant Gumbel and BMW's Trudy Hardy interviews.



Monday Roundup - Justice, Disability, Freedom, Lies

0 comments
Usually I post my roundup on Sunday, but just so much is going on that I wrote a post instead. And I should have an article going up later today. Here are my recent posts.
Thanks for reading. More later today when my piece on a job ad for an Associate Dean of Eureka Moments (no, really) goes live.


Seattle Museum Turns Down the Lights for Kids with Sensory Issues

Sunday, January 25, 2015 0 comments
In general in disability journalism, I'd like to see us emphasize needed accommodations over diagnoses. In other words, what do people with disabilities need over what they "have."

Here's an example. I titled this blog post "for kids with sensory issues," but I'm referring to a piece actually called "Museum Opens Doors, Turns Down Lights For Autistic Kids." It's a lovely story from NPR about a Seattle museum working to be less overstimulating so kids on the spectrum can enjoy it:
Loud noises, bright lights, crowded spaces: This is exactly the situation Mike Hiner tries to avoid with his 20-year-old son Steven, who is autistic.
He's one of the many children and young adults in the Northwest who have some form of autism spectrum disorder, or ASD: In the Seattle School District, 10 percent of the special education population has ASD, and in nearby Bellevue, that figure is 17 percent. And because overstimulation can be painful for children with autism, many parents with autistic children avoid crowded, sensation-filled situations altogether — which can mean missing out on fun outings.
Steven Hiner, with his sister Elizabeth and his mother Carol Hiner, visited the Pacific Science Center before regular hours, so Steven could enjoy the exhibits without the crowds or bright lights.Jennifer Wing/KPLU
But some museums, including the Pacific Science Center, are recognizing the problem, and toning down the sights and sounds. One Saturday each month, the museum opens up early for families with ASD — like the Hiners, here before official hours begin.
This is great. Public spaces have really improved in terms of universal design, but sensory issues can be so tricky. The exact kind of noise and light and excitement that make a place better for many children can bar others from participating. So a special morning like this is a good thing.

I also liked this tidbit from the article.
Other museums and organizations across the country have similar programs, from the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., to the Dallas Museum of Art. Even NASCAR holds events where autistic children go to the track to watch a live race from a quiet room.
Again, I'm for all of this.

But I'd like to contrast the rhetoric to the Sunday-morning "Everyone at Play" at the Kohl's Children's Museum.

My son doesn't have autism, but has similar sensory issues. So do many children I know with Down syndrome and plenty of others with various kinds of sensory processing disorders. I'm concerned with the emphasis on autism in the journalism here and in some of the advertising for these programs (even though I'm sure many of the museums are not in fact exclusive to autism only).

Instead of emphasizing a diagnosis (autism), I'd like to see us emphasize accommodations (the need for lower sensory stimulation). That way any child who needs this accommodation (and his or her parents) feel welcome, regardless.

And I think this is a general rule that journalists and institutions would do well to follow: Focus on the need, not the diagnosis.

Nicholas Kristof and How to Be an Ally

Saturday, January 24, 2015 0 comments
A tweet is just a tweet, but when you have 1.5 million followers, many of who believe in your power as a social justice hero, these kinds of tweets matter.

On the face of it, the tweet makes no sense. Michael Brown was killed on August 9. Tamir Rice was killed on November 22.  By the time Rice died, activists had been invested in Brown's case for months. Brown's Grand Jury decision was on November 24, so perhaps that's what Kristof means.

Or more likely, he's just comparing Rice to Brown and thinking about how much more media friendly the little boy is.

At any rate, I have a few short reactions.
  1. Movements do not emerge from central committees waiting for perfect victims. Sometimes legal cases do (Loving v Virginia, Lawrence v Texas). 
  2. Kristof has a bad history of looking for perfect victims. One would think he might have learned.
  3. There's an implicit "no angel" behind Kristof's tweet, a suggestion that Brown's lack of childlike innocent perfection makes him culpable for his death. Such not only works directly against the principles of #BlackLivesMatter, but I think ignores how willing people are to blame any black victim of police violence. Tamir Rice has been blamed. His parents have been blamed. People who want to defend cops from the consequences of their actions will blame the victims.
And so it's time to remind Nick Kristof, and indeed all of us, as I struggle with this plenty, how to be an ally. You don't tell groups fighting for justice that they are doing it wrong, you don't play white-savior, but you say - what do you need, how can I help, what should I do? And if they're too busy to answer, just be present and listen.

Here, not for the first time, are my rules for being an ally.
  1. Listen.
  2. Remember it's not about you.
  3. Remember it's sometimes about you (calling out bigotry inside your own group.)
  4. Mostly, though, it's not about you, so elevate the voices of those inside the movement instead of your own.
  5. Don't expect gratitude for just being a decent person. 
That fifth one is tough. One wants recognition for, as a white person, standing up against racial injustice. But remember, it's not about you. 

Another thing I like to say is that if you have the power inside an issue (and as a straight, white, tenured, abled male I almost always do), the first thing you have to do is listen. And the last thing you have to do is listen. In between, you speak, you make it clear that the injustice is not in your name, and then you go back to listening again.

So that's all I have to say for now. I'll be listening.

Video: The Power of Teamwork (Hulk Smash! Thor Hammer! O Captain My Captain?)

Friday, January 23, 2015 0 comments
So I was going to write a post about another killing, but I'm tired. My son was up much of the night (he has a cold so his breathing isn't great so he's restless and wakeful). I have a lot of work to do today despite the exhaustion. So here's something great.

My daughter got some new action figures and asked me if she could make a movie. She's read a few starter-comics, but hasn't seen the cartoons (she's never really liked the superhero cartoons) and CERTAINLY not the movie (they are not kids' movies, people).



A few thoughts, beyond the joy.

1. These were bought in a set of three. I don't care about Iron Man. Where is Black Widow? Girls do need girl superhero toys. Also, boys can play with girl superhero toys. Superheroes are cool. [Related - Where is Gamora?]

2. Imagination is awesome. Feeding it is pretty much in the top-3 jobs of parenting (along with, oh, meeting basic needs and loving). 

Off to write. If I write enough, I can nap. If I nap enough, I might be a functional parent by the time my kids come home this evening, and then ... then we can play.

#CultOfCompliance - Wheelchair Users Attacked by Police

Thursday, January 22, 2015 0 comments
Recently, video has surfaced of police trying to throw a man in a wheelchair from his chair. Allegedly, the individual ran over the officer's foot.


Here are some other incidents worth remembering. And these are just the ones caught on tape.

That's just five that happened to be caught on video. How many more are out there?

There are circumstances in which a person in a wheelchair might indeed threaten an officer. Wheelchair users are human. They can carry firearms. They can break the law. I do not believe, based on what we know, any of these incidents meet that standard. I would suggest the following guideline - if you, as a law enforcement officer, would not consider breaking the individual's legs, also do not knock them from their chair.

If a wheelchair user does something requiring a law-enforcement response, such as intentionally rolling over a foot (those chairs are heavy), two choices emerge. 1) Arrest/cite them. 2) Let it go, the way one might at a little nudge from a shoulder as someone brushes by you. There is no option #3 - dehumanize them.

Because that's what these acts are - dehumanizing and intentionally so, stripping away the one tool which allows a wheelchair user real independence. They say - your ability to be a human is contingent on our say-so.

And as always, notice the intersections. It isn't necessary to be black and a wheelchair user to be victimized, but when race and disability intersect, things get dangerous fast.

BMW Partners With Volkswagen & ChargePoint. Announces Beginning of Large Scale CCS Fast Charge Rollout in US

0 comments

Today at the DC Auto Show, BMW announced they have partnered with Volkswagen and ChargePoint to begin what will be the largest roll out of CCS Fast Charge stations in the US. This first phase will consist of the installation of roughly 100 CCS Fast Charge stations, split between the East and West Coasts. 

On the East coast, there will be locations approximately every 50 miles between Washington DC and Boston, and on the West coast the new "CCS Highway" will span from San Diego, CA all the way to Portland OR. All of these locations will feature 50kW dual-head Fast Charge stations, including CHAdeMO charging capabilities as well as CCS. In addition, these locations will have multiple Level 2 ChargePoint EVSE's, allowing the user to "top off" once the vehicle reaches 80% state of charge from the DC fast charger. 

In addition to the "CCS Highway" locations, BMW is also going to install a network of their 24kW DC Fast Chargers at secondary locations which are somewhat off of the main arteries. 

I spoke with BMW infrastructure manager Rob Healey today and he wanted to stress how this announcement signifies only the beginning of the commitment that BMW and their partners have to proliferate the deployment of DC Fast charge infrastructure. He pointed to the fact that the decision to include CHAdeMO on all their 50kW locations on the East & West coast deployment indicates their commitment to the success of overall e-mobility, not just their plug-in offerings. Healey used the phrase that "a rising tide lifts all boats" and in this case I believe he's absolutely correct. 

BMW and their partners are still identifying locations and are working with public and private entities to secure locations that are a maximum of 50 miles apart. There isn't a set time frame on completion of this first phase but the installations have begun on the West Coast and will soon begin on the East. BMW has already installed three 24kW DC stations and four dual-head Level 2 charging stations at their North American Headquarters in Woodcliff Lake, NJ. I was even invited there to test them out with my i3 this week, which I did. All of these stations will be open to the public 24/7 and they already appear on the ChargePoint map. 


I believe this is a great first step for BMW and their partners with regards to DC fast charge, but it's only the first step. There will also be attention paid to the other areas of the country that aren't included in this announcement. It's a big country, and areas like Atlanta which have become EV hot spots aren't going to be ignored, but these two corridors were considered the most important ones to begin with. I also believe we're going to see even more collaboration between the OEMs. It's no secret BMW and Tesla have had discussions in the past, and in my opinion, installing CHAdeMO on all of their locations on the CCS Highway is extending a huge olive branch to Nissan. How great would it be if Nissan then turned around and said they will do the same thing now? This little detail could end up being the biggest thing to come out of the whole announcement...


Full Press release:

Washington, D.C., January 22, 2015– At the 2015 Washington Auto Show, two of the top automakers, BMW of North America and Volkswagen of America, together with ChargePoint, the largest electric vehicle charging network, announced an initiative to create express charging corridors along heavily-traveled routes on the East and West Coasts. Designed to increase the number of fast charging locations, the initiative will help meet the large and growing demand for convenient, publicly available electric vehicle fast chargers, including direct current (DC) Fast charging locations, and support the adoption of electric vehicles in the United States. In the initial phase, the aim is to install nearly 100 DC Fast charging ports across both coasts, with plans to expand the program to increase access to fast charging across the country. These newly installed DC Fast chargers will be added to the growing ChargePoint network of more than 20,000 charging spots in North America.

With more than 280,000 electric vehicles sold in the United States, EV owners need more charging flexibility while on the go. The express charging corridors will provide electric vehicle drivers access to DC Fast chargers along the most heavily populated and highly-trafficked regions on Interstate 95 on the east coast, from Boston to Washington, D.C., and on the west coast covering and connecting the metropolitan areas of Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego. The installations will occur both within and between relevant metro areas, strategically-spaced at a maximum of 50 miles apart, making it even easier to take long road trips in an EV.

“A robust network of conveniently located DC Fast charging stations will go a long way toward increasing electric vehicle adoption and making electric vehicle ownership even more enjoyable,” said Robert Healey, Head of EV Infrastructure at BMW of North America. “The express charging corridors are another important step in the development of the U.S. e-mobility infrastructure that makes longer distance travel a real option for consumers, particularly along the most heavily trafficked portions of both coasts—making the BMW i3 and other electric vehicles even more appealing.”

“Volkswagen believes in a holistic approach to e-mobility in order to create a seamless experience for the consumer,” said Jörg Sommer, vice president, product marketing and strategy, Volkswagen of America. “The investment in the express charging corridor will provide e-Golf and other electric vehicle owners with the added support to travel their day-to-day and popular long distance routes.”

Each fast charging location along the express charging corridors is expected to include up to two 50 kW DC Fast chargers, or 24 kW DC Combo Fast chargers with the SAE Combo connector, used in both BMW and Volkswagen electric vehicles as well as many other electric vehicles that incorporate a DC Fast Charging capability. When charging at a 50 kW station, both the BMW i3 and the Volkswagen e-Golf can charge up to 80 percent in 20 minutes. Both vehicles can charge up to 80 percent in 30 minutes at a 24 kW station. Locations will also include Level 2 chargers, currently the most commonly available public charging stations, which are compatible with all electric vehicles. Level 2 stations can dispense up to 25 miles of range per hour of charging, providing a full charge for the BMW i3 and the VW e-Golf within 3.5 to 4 hours.

The DC Fast charging stations will be part of the ChargePoint network and can be easily accessed with a ChargePoint or ChargeNow card or with the ChargePoint mobile app.

“Our goal at ChargePoint is to get everyone behind the wheel of an EV and provide EV charging everywhere they go,” said Pasquale Romano, ChargePoint CEO. “With strategically-placed stations where drivers need them, these express charging corridors will give EV drivers the freedom to go farther and have an EV as their only car without limitation.”

Installations have already begun on the west coast, with the first location in San Diego County. There is a target of nearly 100 DC Fast charging ports in the first phase, available by the end of 2015. DC Fast chargers along the express charging corridors are expected to be installed in convenient locations such restaurants, shopping centers, rest stops, and more. ChargePoint will leverage its existing customer base and knowledge on usage to pick strategic locations either where drivers currently charge, or to fill in spaces where there is currently a lack of infrastructure.

With the investment, BMW, Volkswagen and ChargePoint are providing drivers with the ability and confidence to enjoy longer distance driving and recharge their electric vehicles quickly, ultimately leading to greater electric vehicle adoption. 


BMW Group In America
BMW of North America, LLC has been present in the United States since 1975.  Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC began distributing vehicles in 2003.  The BMW Group in the United States has grown to include marketing, sales, and financial service organizations for the BMW brand of motor vehicles, including motorcycles, the MINI brand, and the Rolls-Royce brand of Motor Cars; DesignworksUSA, a strategic design consultancy in California; a technology office in Silicon Valley and various other operations throughout the country.  BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC in South Carolina is part of BMW Group’s global manufacturing network and is the exclusive manufacturing plant for all X5 and X3 Sports Activity Vehicles and X6 and X4 Sports Activity Coupes.  The BMW Group sales organization is represented in the U.S. through networks of 339 BMW passenger car and BMW Sports Activity Vehicle centers, 147 BMW motorcycle retailers, 122 MINI passenger car dealers, and 35 Rolls-Royce Motor Car dealers.  BMW (US) Holding Corp., the BMW Group’s sales headquarters for North America, is located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

About Volkswagen of America, Inc.
Founded in 1955, Volkswagen of America, Inc., an operating unit of Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (VWoA) is headquartered in Herndon, Virginia. It is a subsidiary of Volkswagen AG, headquartered in Wolfsburg, Germany. VWoA’s operations in the United States include research and development, parts and vehicle processing, parts distribution centers, sales, marketing and service offices, financial service centers, and its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Volkswagen Group is one of the world's largest producers of passenger cars and Europe's largest automaker. VWoA sells the Beetle, Beetle Convertible, CC, Eos, e-Golf, Golf, Golf GTI, Jetta, Jetta SportWagen, Passat, Tiguan, and Touareg vehicles through approximately 651 independent U.S. dealers.

About ChargePoint
ChargePoint operates the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) charging network, with more than 20,000 spots to plug in and charge. We are transforming the transportation industry by providing the charging stations, mobile apps, analytics and the charging network that allow property owners and drivers to benefit from EV charging. We are also transforming the energy industry by providing intelligent solutions to help people and businesses shift away from fossil fuels and use electricity more efficiently. Our mission is to get all drivers behind the wheel of an EV and provide them a place to charge whether at home, at work, around town or out-of-town. 

Over 165,000,000 gas-free miles have been driven on our network, and our drivers have collectively avoided more than 6.9 million gallons of gasoline and 51 million pounds of CO2 emissions. Real-time network information is available through the ChargePoint app and in many top-selling EVs.

Academics: Say Nothing if you Want a Job.

0 comments
A new survey of chief academic officers is out from Inside Higher Education. Among the findings: Provosts really care about civility and think it should be part of the framework for hiring and tenure.

I see this as potentially troubling. When the Steven Salaita controversy broke, I wrote a piece for the Chronicle called "Don't Speak Out," in which I read the Salaita affair through the lens of my interest in public engagement for academics. I said that the lesson for academics was that if you ever wanted a job, or might want to move from one job to another, don't have strong opinions about things.
We need more public writing, not less. We need to open pathways for more academics to speak out in public, not punish Salaita for doing so in ways that have provoked such strong feelings. But we can’t ask scholars to embrace the risks of engagement in a system in which partisan bloggers and local papers can push timid administrators to fire, or in this case unhire, academics who leap into public debates.
In theory, Provosts agree with this and support public scholarship. At the same time, from IHE:
Generally, provosts expressed concern (with little difference by sector) about civility. Asked if they were worried about "declining civility among higher education faculty," 27 percent said that they were very concerned and 44 percent were somewhat concerned. Only 5 percent were not concerned at all.
But in more detailed questions, provosts had varying perspectives on where faculty civility is lacking.
Generally, they feel more confident of faculty civility with regard to students than to fellow professors or (in particular) administrators. And provosts typically believe that their institutions display more civility than higher education as a whole. (A pattern in Inside Higher Ed surveys of administrators is that they think their institutions are doing better in many respects than the rest of higher education.)
So they think their institution is fine, but others aren't so much. They think faculty are civil to students (which is as it must be, due to the power dynamic at work there). But about 80% of all provosts, across all sectors, (download the whole survey here), believe that civility is appropriate to consider for hiring and tenure/promotion.

So that's it. It's a massive majority. And so we're stuck back where I started this post.

If you ever want to get a job in higher education or be considered for another job in higher education, don't speak out on important controversies. Stay cautious. Stay silent. Stay detached.

This is not what the academy needs. It runs counter to the message we share with our students. It runs counter to the NEH call for more public humanities. It runs counter to everything I've been writing about for the last year.

But the data is clear. So be careful out there.

#SOTU4PWD - The Fight for Economic Justice is the Fight for Disability Rights

Wednesday, January 21, 2015 0 comments
Yesterday President Obama mentioned "Americans with mental illness or physical disability" as part of his long list of inclusive terms. This is not my preferred language. It excludes my son, who has neither a mental illness nor a physical disability (he has an intellectual disability). It excludes a lot of people, and moreover separates people into categories in ways I find unhelpful. Still, it's good to see some entry disability in inclusive language in such a high profile address.

On Twitter, #SOTU4PWD (State of the Union for People With Disabilities) contains an ongoing discussion of that clause and what it might mean.

Here's my contribution, or at least some opening thoughts. Comments always welcome.

We are in an era of intensifying income inequality matched with political movements that want to shred safety nets and basic supports. Fights against those political movements and in favor of greater equality are, it turns out, fights for better lives for people with disabilities.

It's vital to keep this in mind, because in the U.S., the GOP plan is to divide and conquer. They play off the disabled vs the poor, the poor vs the elderly, the chronically disabled vs those hurt on the job, people with Down syndrome vs people with Schizophrenia, and more. If your political philosophy despises concepts like universal healthcare, social security, and basic income guarantees - and the GOP despises these - divide and conquer is the politically viable way to fight otherwise popular program.

So they have pitted Medicare vs the Affordable Care Act. Social Security for the elderly vs for the disabled. People with disabilities diagnosed under age 26 vs people with disabilities diagnosed after 26. The alleged "fakers" on SSDI vs the worthy disabled. The working poor vs the not working poor.

We fight back by refusing to be divided. Good policy is good policy and should be available to all. The fight for economic justice is the fight for disability rights.

At the same time, we have to advocate for our specific causes and specific needs, lest be rendered invisible. We need the president to nod to disability in his speech, if he's going to list problems. We need to demand that he say, as he did, "transgender," the first time that word appeared in a State of the Union.We need to make #BlackLivesMatter, rather then letting it fall into the softer, meaningless, all lives matter (because all lives do matter, but black lives are specifically treated as disposable). We need to be specific.

The way to be both specific and universal is called intersectionality. I write about it a lot - on abortion, on police violence, on mass killings, and so forth. It's a frame of mind, a mode of argument, and an analytical tool that pushes you to both see the specific issue at hand, not derail it, but link it to other kinds of issues.

In fact, intersectionality demands that we make these kinds of links, emerging from black feminist

arguments that we had to focus on race AND gender. Disability AND poverty. Poverty AND race. Etc.

Intersectional disability studies enables the focus on specific needs and reforms that people with disabilities require, but also keeps us from demanding that our issue, whatever it is, is explicitly on the table all the time. When people are marching because black lives do matter, people in the disability community don't have to say - why aren't you marching for us? Instead, we rally together, because your fight is our fight.

Your fight is our fight.

The fight for economic justice, in whatever form it takes, is the fight for disability rights. And the fight for disability rights, in whatever form it takes, should matter equally to those outside the community, working for economic justice.

Three new NissanConnect Mobile Apps available in equipped Nissans now

Tuesday, January 20, 2015 0 comments

Nissan drivers will be more connected than ever in 2015 with NissanConnect℠ Mobile Apps – Nissan's global connected services platform – offering Twitter® and TripAdvisor® along with the launch of iOS support for Pandora®. These latest additions to NissanConnect Mobile Apps join an already-established list including Facebook, Google and iHeartRadio.

These important additions further strengthen NissanConnect Mobile Apps, which was named the Telematics Detroit 2014 Industry Newcomer Award Winner in June.

NissanConnect Mobile Apps is an innovative infotainment system that uses driver's smartphones to help drivers stay in touch with the outside world and personalize their driving experience. NissanConnect Mobile Apps is currently featured in many Nissan vehicles, including the Altima, Rogue, Sentra, Frontier, JUKE, Versa Note and Versa Sedan.



Academic Freedom - Carol Swain, Steven Salaita, Deborah O'Connor, Susan Douglas

0 comments
Carol Swain is a Vanderbilt University law professor and noted Islamophobe. In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, she wrote a thoroughly nasty column for The Tennessean. Protests and counter protests and accusations of censorship have followed.

I wrote about related issues for The Chronicle of Higher Education a few months back, in the wake of a Florida State professor (Deborah O'Connor) being fired without due process after saying despicable homophobic things. In that piece, I talked about Steven Salaita, and how support for due process in one case means there must also be support for due process in the other.

Of course, principles are hard. People who rallied to O'Connor then immediately turned around and demanded the resignation or firing of University of Michigan professor Susan Douglas, who wrote a column called, "It's ok to hate Republicans."

Of course, the next time a group of progressive students get upset at some war criminal speaking at their graduation, those same Republicans who criticized O'Connor will talk about how wimpy US college students are these days (as David Brooks did here).

Here's my take:

  1. If  you do not extend your principles to those with whom you disagree, you have no principles. I believe in academic freedom and therefore extend it to all of these professors, even the ones whose views disgust me. 
  2. Academic freedom does not mean that there are no words you can say that should come with job loss or sanction. It's just that the bar is very very high. 
  3. I don't have enough information on Douglas, Swain, or O'Connor to judge. On the Salaita case, testimony from years of teaching at Virginia Tech suggested that concerns he would be too scary to pro-Israel students were unfounded.
  4. I'm very concerned about the idea that strident opinions make the classroom inhospitable as a general rule. Having strident opinions is what we, as academics, should be doing. That doesn't mean use the classroom as a pulpit, but I am fearful of the consequences for teaching if we push teachers to be cautious. 
Free speech is hard. It means supporting the right of really nasty people, like Carol Swain, to say really nasty things. 

Here's the good news. Free speech means we get to talk back.


Faux-Information: Indiana and the Collapse of the Pro-Information Coalition

Monday, January 19, 2015 0 comments
Last week I wrote about a new bill in Indiana that forbids disability-selection and sex-selection abortion. The latter almost never happens. The former happens all too often. The combination is an attempt to do two things: 1) split the pro-choice and disability rights movement and 2) gain support for abortion restrictions by nominally pro-choice individuals who nevertheless feel uncomfortable with these kinds of selective abortions. In the linked piece, I talk about the bill and the intersectional approach that we need in response.

I also discussed a bill that did pass last session in Louisana. It's nominally pro-information, but as I've posted about before (here's my blog post, a guest post that I hosted, another good essay), it distorts a movement based on coalition building and makes it just another tool of the anti-choicers. Instead of presenting all the information, the whole point of pro-information as a concept, it makes it illegal for doctors to present termination as a "neutral or acceptable" option. If this continues, the pro-information coalition will dissolve.

What I didn't know is that another Indiana legislator has proposed a bill with the same language as in Louisana (a lot of this legislative language gets written by interest groups and disseminated, so it's not a surprise they copy each other.).

HB 1093 in Indiana "Requires the state department of health to collect certain information to be disseminated by health facilities and health care providers to parents who receive prenatal or postnatal test results for Down syndrome or any other disability."

That's pretty typical and I am in favor of accurate information. I know far too many people who were told simply false information by the medical providers after getting a pre-natal diagnosis, or, more commonly, were simply not told relevant details about the changing nature of life with Down syndrome. We should all be in favor of accurate information.

HB 1093 though follows the LA bill in inserting this clause:
"The information does not engage in discrimination based on disability or genetic variation by explicitly or implicitly representing pregnancy termination as a neutral or acceptable option when a prenatal test indicates a probability or diagnosis that the unborn child has Down syndrome or any other disability."
Several thoughts.

This could mean the end of the pro-information coalition. In my RHRC essay I stated that pro-choice disability rights advocates like myself must agree that disability-selection abortion should be legal AND agree that talking about eugenic principles at play in such abortions can be discussed without undermining choice.

With right-wing legislators using pro-information as a way to further restrict access to reproductive choice, I don't know that I can make that second statement in good faith. I don't know that I can advocate for pro-information bills anymore.

In general, conservative legislatures pass anti-choice bills while simultaneously removing social supports for poor families. Even when the bills explicitly deal with disability-selection abortions, as in the two Indiana bills, they are not disability rights legislation. They are attempts to divide and conquer.

Hopefully, disability advocates, many of them in fact not as pro-choice as I am, will work to defeat or amend the bill in Indiana. Otherwise, I can't be a part of the pro-information coalition and will start strongly advocating for others to reject the model as well. Because even if some states pass neutral bills and others pass these faux-information laws, the former feed the latter, and we'll have to stop the whole project.

The state has no right to tell doctors to lie or conceal information from expectant mothers.

Tips Automotive hosts Media Appreciation Day

Sunday, January 18, 2015 0 comments

Today I had the pleasure of attending Tips Automotives 'Media Appreciation Day' this was right on time because BlueBird aka my 2006 Dodge Stratus was BEYOND dirty -- My car was cleaned to perfection and now I'm riding in style. I will be back in a few weeks to get my much needed oil change. You should definitely check them out they are located at 2081 Bolton Rd, Atlanta, Ga 30318 and online at http://tipsatl.com/

Many thanks to the ladies at Theory Communication for the invitation





Sunday Roundup: Disability Rights and Reproductive Rights - Two Core Premises

0 comments
On Friday I wrote my second piece for Reproductive Health Reality Check about fighting the divide and conquer attempts to sever the disability rights movement and the pro-choice movement. I offer two core premises that I want to make sure you don't miss.
I believe the solution lies in an intersectional approach based on each community acknowledging the genuine concerns of the other. Disability activists must make explicit their support for the right of women to choose to terminate a pregnancy based on a prenatal diagnosis of a genetic disability. Pro-choice activists must similarly acknowledge that expressing concern about prenatal testing—such as arguing against the ableist and eugenic ideologies frequently associated with the procedure—does not inherently yield ground to those fighting against reproductive rights. I have spoken to many disability advocates who believe that any discussion of their trepidations will be met with anger from pro-choice activists. That’s the divide that anti-choice lawmakers intend to exploit. Don’t let them.
So, to recap.

1. Disability rights activists have to do the hard work of saying - it's ok to have a disability-selection abortion. That is very difficult for many people to do. No coalition is possible, though, if we don't make clear that being pro-choice means being pro-choice, no caveats.

2. Then pro-choice activists have to do the hard work of saying that disability-selection abortions are based on eugenic principles. That is very difficult for many people do, as well. No coalition is possible, though, if we don't make clear that a future in people with genetic disabilities are selectively filtered from the population en masse is not the future we want. Indeed, people in the disability community see it as akin to genocide.

Accepting, owning, these two premises is not easy. And once you own them, the really hard work of fleshing out the details matter.

Note - A friend of mine who is a historian of eugenics would like me (and y'all) to distinguish between eugenics as a state-sponsored set of programs and "eugenic principles" which individuals apply to their own decision-making.

And now my roundup.

Three published pieces this week, including the RHRC piece linked to above. I had a piece in the New York Times on parenting children with disabilities and microaggressions.  I had a piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education on the need to include a campaign for adjunct justice in the discussion on "Free Community College."

I blogged about:

  • The need for pockets in girl clothes. Fight the pocket patriarchy!
  • Trials of police who killed civilians.
  • A followup piece on my NYT essay on the gender divisions of shame. Men and women get shamed differently, though neither is "easier," I think.
  • Finally, January 12 was the two-year anniversary of the police killing of Ethan Saylor. Lots of good things have happened since then, but there's been no justice for Ethan. The men who crushed his trachea stay on duty.
Next week I probably have an essay or two coming out, but will try to be disciplined and not pitch anything new, unless there's a national crisis. I need to work on my Big Secret Project.

Pockets

Thursday, January 15, 2015 0 comments
Ellie building the Lego "Research Lab."
My daughter, Ellie, who is 5: I wonder why people make pants without pockets. 

Me: It's because clothing designers believe girls don't need pockets.

Ellie: We should go to a clothing designer and say, 'Hey! Put pockets in girl pants.' And they'll say, 'Why? Girls don't need pockets.' And then we'll say 'They actually do need pockets because where will they put things?

So now you know.

I've written about my daughter and clothing before, including in the most viral piece I've ever written, on my daughter's "best-dressed" award.
A boy received best engineer. A girl got best friend. Another girl was the best helper, and another most compassionate. A boy received best break dancer. A girl was named most athletic, and the teacher told us how when all the class raced around the track this girl "beat everyone! Even the boys!" And then my daughter got her certificate, showing her in a funky orange sweater, tight pants, and holding a bowling ball. Her award -- best dressed.

Many decades after the feminist movement of the 1960s, why are we still stuck in this gender-norming rut?
I  finished the piece with this:
If my daughter's creativity shines through in her choice of clothing, then celebrate both that creativity and the critical thinking that lies at the heart of all creative acts with a most creative award. Or we could just let Ellie tell us what she wants us to celebrate. When she picked up her award, she beamed at the picture of herself holding the bowling ball so proudly. "Daddy!" she said, "I won best bowler!"
We have to empower our kids to tell their own stories.

And give them pockets to put things in! 

Lincoln reveals new MKX at the 2015 North American International Auto Show

Wednesday, January 14, 2015 0 comments

The all-new Lincoln MKX, debuted on Tuesday January 13 at the 2015 North American International Auto Show, is designed to attract a wide range of customers in the United States and beyond by offering more technology, engine choices and personalization options.
Lincoln MKX offers the first high-end Revel® audio system in a vehicle, an available advanced 2.7-liter EcoBoost® engine and two all-new available Lincoln Black Label limited-edition designer themes.

“We are focused on delivering engaging and refined luxury vehicles with innovative and thoughtful technologies,” said Kumar Galhotra, president of Lincoln. “The all-new Lincoln MKX reflects that focus.”
 
The all-new Lincoln MKX goes on sale first in the United States this fall, followed by other markets including China, Canada, the Middle East, Mexico and South Korea.
The Lincoln MKX further strengthens Lincoln’s position in the global midsize premium utility segment, which represents 11 percent of the global automotive luxury market and is expected to grow to 12 percent by 2018. It is the one of the largest luxury segments in the United States, representing about one-quarter of the retail luxury automotive market.



360-degree camera, enhanced park assist
Several available technologies, starting with the 360-degree camera, a first for Lincoln in the MKX, help make all kinds of low-speed parking situations easier.
The available front camera deploys from behind the Lincoln Star badging between the two front grilles. The camera system also offers a 180-degree split view, which can be helpful in looking out in cross-traffic situations. The 360-degree view shows up to 7 feet all around the vehicle.
Lincoln MKX has an ultrasonic sensing system with 12 sensors enabling the full range of available parking-assist features: front rear side sensing, perpendicular and parallel parking assist and park out assist.
Key driver assist and safety innovations added
The all-new Lincoln MKX adds pre-collision assist, which may help avoid or lessen the severity some frontal crashes with another vehicle or pedestrian in certain situations and conditions. If the system detects another vehicle or pedestrian, the system will first provide a collision warning and then the system will automatically apply braking if the driver has not taken any corrective action.
Also new is the Auto Hold feature, which relieves the driver from having to press the brake pedal continuously to keep the vehicle stationary in traffic. Auto Hold releases the brakes when the accelerator pedal is pressed.
First for Lincoln, to enhance driver visibility, available LED headlamps include a feature that adapts when accelerating from 0 to 35 mph by adding width to the low-beam pattern through the use of additional LED reflector elements.
Elegance in motion
The exterior design is dramatic, with a modern, contemporary silhouette and well-balanced proportions. Available adaptable full-LED front headlamps are subtly executed as blades, rather than projectors, aligned with the horizontal orientation of the split-wing grille.
The interior design language creates an open yet cocoon-like environment that is as quiet as it is beautiful. The push-button gear shift creates a dramatic open suspension bridge that flows from the instrument panel to the center console, providing two tiers of open space.
Elevated personalized luxury experiences
New available 22-way adjustable front seats with active motion help reduce muscle fatigue in the upper legs and lower back through six adjustable air bladders in the cushion and five adjustable air bladders in the lower seat back.
Further adjustments can be made through the four-way power head restraint and the power thigh extender. The thigh bolster deflates to make exit easier and reinflates after entry to the previous setting.
Always-on, built-in connectivity is provided through an available embedded modem. Via a smartphone app that communicates with the vehicle, the available MyLincoln Mobile™ app gives owners the ability to start, lock, unlock and locate their vehicle, as well as schedule a remote start.**
Exclusive Revel sound system
Uncompromising acoustics and award-winning home theater audio quality comes to the Lincoln MKX through the available Revel audio system.
The Revel Ultima system is standard on Lincoln Black Label editions and available on Reserve models. It features 19 speakers with point source architecture, positioning the tweeter and midrange speakers close together for superior audio quality.
Further performance and refinement is provided by QuantumLogic® Surround Sound technology, which offers three listening modes – stereo, audience and on stage; patented Clari-Fi™ technology offering advanced, real-time music reconstruction for all compressed audio sources; and a 20-channel high-voltage hybrid amplifier for class-leading dynamics and optimized transparency.
A 13-speaker Revel system designed for the ultimate audio quality experience is available on the all-new Lincoln MKX Select and Reserve.
Two new Black Label themes
Lincoln Black Label will be available at launch with four designer themes – two of which are all-new. One is inspired by the fashion, lifestyle and art scene of 1920s Paris, while the excitement, passion and pageantry of high-stakes thoroughbred horse racing create the vision for the second new theme.
Modern Heritage and Indulgence also will be available on the new Lincoln MKX.
Upgraded Lincoln Experiences
When the driver with key fob is within approximately 9 feet, the lower LED daytime running lights gently brighten, while “welcome mat” is projected on the ground from the folded mirrors. Door handles are illuminated, too, tuned to the exterior color.
Interior sequential lighting begins at the footwell, then illuminates the cupholders, pass-through, instrument panel, front door handles, front map pockets and rear doors. The lighting goes off in reverse order.

Copyright © Global Crisis. All rights reserved.