Whether you’re creeping down a rocky trail or navigating a slippery incline with a heavy load, Ford’s Hill Descent Control (HDC) is like having a specialized cruise control for the way down. This feature takes the stress out of steep grades so you can focus on what matters: steering.
What is Hill Descent Control?
Hill Descent Control is a driver-assist feature that helps your Ford Super Duty maintain a set speed while driving down steep or uneven slopes. Instead of you constantly riding the brake pedal, the truck uses its traction control and anti-lock braking (ABS) systems to automatically pulse the brakes at individual wheels. This prevents wheel slip and keeps your descent smooth and controlled.
How to Use It
Getting HDC up and running is straightforward:
Activate: Press the Hill Descent Control button on your instrument panel (typically near the traction control button). You’ll see a light in the cluster and hear a chime to confirm it’s ready.
Set Speed: Once active, you can set your desired speed by using the accelerator or brake pedal to reach it, then let off. You can also use the steering wheel cruise control buttons to make fine adjustments.
Operating Range: The system typically maintains speeds between 2 and 12 mph (though it stays “armed” up to 20 mph). If you exceed 37-40 mph, the system will automatically disengage.
Why You’ll Love It
Off-Road Confidence: It’s a game-changer on gravel, snow, or mud where manual braking might cause tires to lock up and slide.
Towing Support: While primarily designed for off-road use, it can be a massive help when trailering, as it prevents a heavy load from “pushing” the truck downhill too fast.
Reduced Fatigue: By handling the constant brake modulation, it reduces the driver’s workload and fatigue during long, tricky descents.
During a similar campaign beginning in November 2023, the IRGC CEC-affiliated cyber threat actors known as "CyberAv3ngers” targeted U.S.-based PLCs and HMIs, causing disruptive effects. Private industry and open sources also refer to this group as Hydro Kitten, Storm-0784, APT Iran, Bauxite, Mr. Soul, Soldiers of Solomon, UNC5691, and the Shahid Kaveh Group. These attacks compromised at least 75 devices, targeting U.S.-based Unitronics PLC devices with an HMI used across multiple critical infrastructure sectors, including WWS. For more information on this group’s activity, see the authoring agencies’ Joint Cybersecurity Advisory IRGC-Affiliated Cyber Actors Exploit PLCs in Multiple Sectors, Including US Water and Wastewater Systems Facilities. Ongoing Threat Actor Activity Against U.S.-Based Programmable Logic Controllers
The FBI assesses a group of Iranian-affiliated APT actors are targeting internet-exposed PLCs with the intent to cause disruptions—including maliciously interacting with project files, and manipulating data displayed on HMI and SCADA displays—to U.S. critical infrastructure organizations. Iranian-affiliated APT targeting campaigns against U.S. organizations have recently escalated, likely in response to hostilities between Iran, and the United States and Israel.
Since at least March 2026, the authoring agencies identified (through engagements with victim organizations) an Iranian-affiliated APT-group that disrupted the function of PLCs. These PLCs were deployed across multiple U.S. critical infrastructure sectors (including Government Services and Facilities, WWS, and Energy sectors) within a wide variety of industrial automation processes. Some of the victims experienced operational disruption and financial loss.
In other words, a massive solar spill is expected today, turning meters hooked to solar panels everywhere, as we move on with life after a Tuesday when the President was threatening to end a civilization which promised in turn to end fossil fuels. And I own a $60,000 SuperDuty though I’m sure with the 77 miles and week parked on driveway, it’s worth far less then that now. I’ll be in my office on northside of Assembly Data Center and Printing Plantoverlookingthe old city garbage dump, so I have no fear of getting a sun burn.
The sun is shining this morning, ☀️ and while cold for a mid-April morning, it is a sign of hope as we got beyond through the freaky day when the President threatened to remove one civilization, with maybe the collateral damage of removing all civilization and fossil fuels ⛽ from society. And yeah, I bought that F-350 SuperDuty. 🛻 I ordered strips for my EZ-Pass and changed the plates to commercial ones on EZ-Pass system. No, I can’t take the new truck on parkways, but there really isn’t many of them Upstate. 🚀 I continue to watch Artemis II flies past the moon, with both a curiosity and indifference like most Americans. Just another freaky event, not exactly something I care about, but I get the benefit of space exploration and investing in science and technology ⚙️ even if we don’t know the immediate result. The Apollo missions also was greeted with indifference or thoughts of this is a wasteful spending that President wants, except for a very brief period in 1968 which images of earth and men stepping on the moon 🌎 filled the screen, interrupting the devastating news about assainations the Vietnam War.
It was cold and blustery 🌬️ yesterday, for the ride home but definately survivable. Cornmeal pancakes 🥞 with lots of spinach last night, this morning was apple 🍏 cinnamon pancakes with lots of shredded carrots. 🥕 Those overpriced carrots I got from Market32 on my bicycle on Saturday, walking past all the yuppies in their SUVs are enormous. But they keep me pooping, cleaning out the digestive system. Didn’t have a lot of flavored coffee ☕ when I was in the office, but also was I running kind of late yesterday. Today, though I need to head in early on my bike as I have work to do first thing, but hopefully some of the supervisors will be back, so my day won’ t be quite so busy, assuming I finally finish up AD 1. The Hamptons are just tough to process. Listening to Pearl Before Swine’s Rocket Man. 🚀 While sunny and calm wind today, going to be fairly cold today. 🚴 But I’ll be riding in.
I still need to decide on the specs on my new truck cap, 🚚 as I really should order that on Saturday. It will be good to take Old Smokey out for a ride, I haven’t driven the big F-350 truck anywhere except home from the dealership and out to my parents on Sunday. Getting a good sprinkle of dirt – probably manure – from the country roads in spring, and hopefully not road salt. I do want to undercoat with lamolin once early autumn rolls around, 🍁 and if I get the flat truck cap, it’s possible I can go through the automatic wash, though ultimately time will eat away even if I do wash the corrosive salts off. ⌛ But I do want the truck if at all possible to last until my retirement in 2040, which is about 14 years away. But who knows if affordable gas will be even around then? I am trying to keep the miles off it as much as possible, plus I enjoy riding my bike and hate driving in city with all the cops with their penises hanging out of their windows, looking to hand out tickets. 👮 And get to Salvation Army, as my work clothes are wearing out. Yes, I’ll be taking my new SuperDuty to the Salvation Army on Central Avenue to shop work clothing. And probably go for a hike in Pine Bush 🌲 until around dark. I might stop at Wally World on way home, though I am also kind of avoiding that, 🚲 as I’d rather ride my 🚲 to buy groceries as it keeps my shopping list small as there is only so much I can haul on a bike. But also, no fires in woods until I get the camper shell, so I’m trying to minimize how much garbage I produce. 🔥
For a fleeting moment, it seemed the era of fossil fuels was facing its final, violent curtain call. During the tense hours before the announced two-week pause on proposed strikes against Iran’s power plants and bridges, the world teetered on the edge of a supply-chain apocalypse. Had those strikes proceeded, the resulting retaliation would have likely seen Iran systematically dismantling the oil and gas infrastructure of its regional rivals. This wouldn’t have just been a regional skirmish; it would have been the “kick in the pants” required to forcibly decouple the global economy from carbon-based energy.
The logic is simple but brutal: Iran possesses the capability to inflict damage on Middle Eastern oil and gas infrastrucutre that would take years, not months, to repair. In that vacuum of supply, the world would be forced to adapt or collapse. While the transition from oil to renewables is often discussed as a gradual, decades-long evolution driven by climate policy, history shows that true systemic shifts are usually born of necessity rather than idealism. Climate change alone has lacked the immediate, visceral pressure needed to dismantle the fossil fuel status quo. A total physical destruction of supply, however, would have left the global market with no other choice but to “move on.”
The impact would be felt unevenly but universally. Europe and Asia, both heavily dependent on Middle Eastern exports, would face an existential energy famine. For these regions, electrification and renewables would cease to be a “green choice” and would become the only available lifeline. Even in the United States, which enjoys greater energy independence, the resulting price shocks would shatter the consumer’s lingering attachment to the internal combustion engine. High costs at the pump serve as a more persuasive argument for EVs than any environmental manifesto ever could.
Critics argue that the world would simply wait for the wells to be rebuilt. Yet, if the incumbent fuels—oil and gas—were severely constrained for a period of years, the infrastructure of the future would settle in. Electric cars and renewable grids are no longer experimental; they are “good enough” to handle the load. Once a nation invests the massive capital required to pivot to a renewable grid out of desperation, it is highly unlikely they would revert to a volatile, vulnerable fossil fuel system once the dust settled.
A devastating blow to Middle Eastern infrastructure would have been a painful, chaotic, and incredibly difficult transition. However, it might have been the only scenario where the world finally leaves the fossil fuel era behind—not because it wanted to, but because it had to.
I was reading the Times Union this morning, and was a bit annoyed by the article titled, “Cannabis treatment not always easy to find“. What I find so triggering about the article is its part of the Times Union screed about how awful high-potency cannabis is and how some users get addicted to it. But honestly, I kind of like the high-potency concentrates, because it doesn’t stink the way conventional cannabis does, and you can take a very quick puff and be good and high.
Is Cannabis addiction a real thing? Well, I have a bit of an addiction to apple cider vinegar, and I like cornmeal pancakes, and would be sad if I didn’t have either one. But it’s hardly a chemical addiction. And there isn’t a lot of evidence that cannabis is chemically addicting, even if is enjoyable to be stoned out of one’s brains. Cannabis treatment has dropped as fewer courts are mandating it for a now legal product. Concentrates are healthier as you smoke much less for the same amount of high.
Operating machinery or driving a car when stoned is not a good idea. Smoking a lot of anything is breathing in carcinogens. But life is not risk-free, and people will do stupid shit. Yet, if it gives people enjoyment on their time off, then all the more power them.
