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Text-Messaging Behind the Wheel
theodp writes "TIME interviews 21-year-old Taylor Leming, creator of the 600-member Facebook group I Text Message People While Driving and I Haven't Crashed Yet! While Alaska and Louisiana just became the latest states to pass laws banning text-messaging behind the wheel, Virginia resident Leming is still happily texting away while driving despite some near-accidents. 'Sometimes it just seems easier to text 'Be there in 5' instead of calling,' explains Taylor."
Why is it important to text that you'll be there in 5 minutes anyway? You can also wait 5 minutes.
And I hope when he crashes and kills himself he doesn't take others with him. Driving and calling (even hands free), texting, or doing anything else (tuning the radio, setting up your nav system) for that matter is just dangerous.
despite some near-accidents
Enough said.
Also, just because someone hasn't had an accident in the past, it doesn't mean they won't have an accident in the future.
Those using pirated Tinysoft signatures(TM) are a real threat to society and should all be thrown in jail.
I can't believe these people! What's so "fun" about text messages? Why the aversion to real communication? I'd much rather talk to someone than exchange emoticons while risking the lives of those on the road around me.
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What a moron!
With a bluetooth headset, I say the person's name, my cellphone dials the number, I say what I have to say, and never have to fumble around with the phone.
Any bets on how long before this guy gets his darwin?
Kevin Smith on Prince
I also hope her insurance company reads time.com.
the really effective way to make people drive more careful is to replace the airbag in all cars with a big pointy spike aimed at the driver's head.
Sure people are dumb. But how can anyone be so mind-boggling stupid that they would think that texting while driving is a good idea? I mean, why not just go to the next step and drive blindfolded? There shouldn't even need to be a law because no one should be dumb enough to do this. But I guess I have too much faith in humanity.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
I am starting another group:
"I am drunk While Driving and I Haven't Crashed Yet!"
It sucks that we have to make laws to compensate for commonsense.
I've lost two people in pointless car crashes.
Please use your goddamn head and pay attention to the goddamn road.
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
when society looks down on physical violence. A solid punch to the chin and that guy may see the error of his ways.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
We can all remember this thread when the asshat wins a Darwin Award. I've been near clipped many times by people fumbling with their phones. Usually they are gabbing, but more and more it's young kids texting. Youth tends to think it's invincible anyways.
They even reference 'near accidents'. All it takes is for one other person around you to also have a lapse of attention to turn that 'near accident' into a real accident.
If you need to say 'be there in 5' then pull over, or just make them wait 5 minutes. Duh.
Too vague ... one person's "due care and attention" is anothers recklessness.
Besides, banning texting for the driver while on a highway is a no-brainer ... because obviously people with no brains think they can do it "despite a few near-accidents."
I finally bought a bluetooth earpiece when the laws changed, even though my cell already has speaker-phone capability, so it already was "hands-free"; after a couple of weeks, I now wish I had bought it sooner. (Hint - buy a good-quality one with noise and echo cancellation - you don't want to sound like you're talking in a garbage can).
Kevin Smith on Prince
Given that at some point the rate of new members signing up will equal the rate that existing members die, calculate the maximum number of members of 'I Text Message People While Driving and I Haven't Crashed Yet!'
Never shake hands with a man you meet in a fertility clinic.
It's thrilling to think of driving south on I-95 in the left lane and see someone driving five feet behind me staring at a phone than my bumper. Isn't that how road-rage gets started? It's more than an accident waiting to happen.
I would like to make organ donation compulsory for these people. At least they can be of some use after they crash.
I like the idea of compulsory organ donation, but why wait until after they crash, when the organs might get damaged?
I nearly got killed a few years ago by a "distracted" driver who was happily chatting on his cell phone while running a traffic light. It took me over a year to recover and be able to work again and I'll feel the secondary effects of this accident for the rest of my life (definitely NOT a nice thing, trust me).
In most European countries, using a cell phone while driving is considered impaired driving and you basically face the same consequences as if you were drunk in case of an accident, meaning your insurance will happily run away from you and you'll be declared responsible for the accident even if it's not initially your fault.
I'm looking forward to the day it'll be the same here in Ontario as a lot of people don't seem to be able to distract themselves from their crackberries while driving. Maybe a $1000 ticket and a license suspension will teach them a lesson before they get to injure or kill someone.
I for one hope this moron eliminates himself from the human gene pool without injuring or killing someone first.
-- It's always darker before it goes pitch black.
Text used to be a noun, now it's used both interchangeably as a verb and a noun. So many words in modern English are starting to be used like this.
Verbing weirds language.
I am not a crackpot.
Higher cognitive load.
Carrying on a conversation is more mentally taxing than turning a radio dial, and isn't as interruptable, since you're only in control of half of it. See, for example, this research:
"the Carnegie Mellon study, for the first time, used brain imaging to document that listening alone reduces by 37 percent the amount of brain activity associated with driving. This can cause drivers to weave out of their lane, based on the performance of subjects using a driving simulator."
I drive a motorcycle in NYC, which is already really dangerous even when people are running only one machine, their car. It's even worse now that people are in their SUVs, sealed from the rest of the world and throwing their weight around in traffic - especially when they're not really NYC residents, but drive those trucks mostly in the suburbs where there's room for them to drive like fools. It's even worse than that with them talking to their phones pressed to their heads, distracted by what's in their hands rather than concentrating with their hands on the wheel. The worst are the SUV drivers with phones in their hands, and of course the very worst are the ones with both hands on a phone, looking at it while they text someone. It's totally insane, though they don't care since they feel like their giant truck will protect them in a collision.
A month ago, one of these assholes cut me off downtown, almost driving me into a parked car (except I'm a very good driver, so I barely recovered to save my life). They raced to the next red light, which was only a block away anyway. I drove up next to their window and waved at them. I wanted to tell them to watch out, as most of them just aren't aware of motorcycles at all, which don't register in their vision like cars do. They were busy texting someone, as they'd clearly been while they cut me off, and they ignored me. So I knocked on their window. They ignored me. I knocked harder, angrily now. They glanced up at me, obviously having seen me the entire time, and waved one hand, mockingly making an "oh, I'm scared" face (even though I wasn't threatening them or anything). They laughed silently inside their big truck, and bent back down to resume texting.
So I bashed off their side rearview mirror. I ripped it from the truck, and smashed at their truck over and over again while they watched in shock.
Then I drove away and got lost among NYC's millions of other cars. Fixing that mirror's got to cost hundreds of dollars and days off the road. If only I could have smashed their window and grabbed their phone, I'd call to check in on how it's going. Maybe next time. If they haven't learned to just shut up and drive already.
--
make install -not war
Is already illegal to drive impaired. Why do we need another law to say the same thing is illegal?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
http://www.dhbolton.com/articles/diy-emp-generator.html
the site suggests making the entire device DIY, but i think finding a nice titanium alloy tube that is extremely thin, and extremely strong, to propel a shotgun/handgun round pushing a magnet through EMP coils would be easier, and would launch a much stronger, larger EMP shockwave... the ignition chamber can be thick iron, just the tube needs to be extremely thin and long enough, to create the EMP wave. the coils are going to be a real expensive part, because tightly wound coils cost a lot to make. if you doubt me, just consider the development cost of magnetic containment fusion devices... they're in the millions, for conventional magnetic devices, and tens of millions for superconductive super magnetic coils.
besides, i somehow doubt a nail would create enough electrical charge pushed through coils no matter how thin or however tightly wound to create a large enough EMP to kill a cell phone..
https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html