Technology and automotive companies touting self-driving cars as the future of transportation may have some work to convince San Franciscans, who keep attacking the vehicles. A third of traffic collisions involving autonomous vehicles in 2018 so far featured humans physically confronting the cars, according to data released by California. In one case, a taxi driver exited his cab and slapped the front passenger window of a General Motors Cruise parked behind him. No one was hurt, though the car sustained a scratch. In another case, a pedestrian hurtled across an intersection despite a "do not walk" sign, shouting as he went, and rammed his body into a different Cruise's rear bumper.

Russian president Vladimir Putin wanted world leaders to have regulations in store for superhuman soldiers in the future in case they turn in to mass killers who feel no pain or fear, The Express reported Monday. The statement came after he warned attendees of the "World Festival of Youth and Students" Saturday. Genetically-modified superhuman soldiers are a possible danger, because scientists are close to breaking the genetic code. "He can be a genius mathematician, a brilliant musician or a soldier, a man who can fight without fear, compassion, regret or pain," Putin said in his speech for the festival's closing ceremony, according to Express. "What I have just described might be worse than a nuclear bomb," Putin proclaimed, in front of the 20,000 young women and men attending the festival, which was held in the Olympic Park in Sochi.

On Sunday, the Japanese prime minister turned up at the Olympics closing ceremonies to promote the 2020 Tokyo games dressed up as Mario, the eponymous hero of the popular video game series created in 1985. Who is Mario and how did he come by his global appeal? Japanese animation and game characters from Hello Kitty to Pac Man also made appearances in the closing ceremonies. But none of them may have the global reach of Super Mario, the game franchise that was a hit when Nintendo's video game system and Game Boy burst onto the scene in the 1980s. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's appearance as Super Mario was a crowd-pleasing reminder of how much the game helped spur on the videogame revolution in the U.S. and globally.

On Sunday, the Japanese prime minister turned up at the Olympics closing ceremonies to promote the 2020 Tokyo games dressed up as Mario, the eponymous hero of the popular video game series created in 1985. Who is Mario and how did he come by his global appeal? Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appeared as the Nintendo game character Super Mario at the Olympics closing ceremonies to promote the 2020 Tokyo games. Mario Brothers is the best-selling video franchise of all time, with more than 490 million units sold since 1995, according to research firm NPD. There are more than 100 games, for various gaming systems, ranging from Donkey Kong to Super Mario Kart, in which Mario is the primary character, and many more in which he makes appearances.