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November 18, 2009

Simulator Shows Danger of Texting Behind the Wheel (from WDTN)

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By, Kennan Oliphant

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - Many people think they have skills behind the wheel, but when it comes to texting and driving...no one wins. Teens like Katie Glander say texting and driving is quickly becoming a way of life.

"Um, I have seen people texting while driving."

Teen driver Kasidy Muncy admits she's guilty of it.

"I acutally have done it myself now that I have a touchscreen phone I can't do it as much."

According to to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drivers younger than 20 had the highest distracted-driving fatality rate among all age groups last year. The NHTSA said nearly six-thousand people died last year as a result of distracted driving.

How dangerous is it? I found a virtual driving course on line that forces the user to go through gates by pushing a number on the keypad. Once you add the texting part, it all goes awry. I'm hitting gates and can't keep myself in the lane.

You might ask yourself, how realistic is that? When you're in a car you're not trying to use a keyboard or a mouse while you're trying to text and drive at the same time. Instead, I used my blackberry to send a text message to somebody. I thought the familiarity of my own phone would help me out. Unfortunately, I still hit the barriers and could not text successfully.

"Texting and driving is as bad as driving drunk," Jeff Caldwell, a driving instructor at PDS driving school said.

"I mean you just see pictures all the time on the news where people are running into other people because they're paying attention to that phone and not up where they should be." 

Muncy says she will not text and drive because she's afraid of the consequences.

"I'm not paying attention and then if I would hit somebody like that would just be, I wouldn't be able to live with it."

And Glander figures her family will keep her doing the right thing while on the road.

"my grandpa would freak out about it, he's really nervous about it. He'll tell me not to text all the time."

The simulator

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/07/19/technology/20090719-driving-game.html

Rich's results

I found this to be absolutely nerve-wracking. I took a long time to complete because I purposely tried to focus on the gates and not the cell phone in the beginning of the game. As I tried to figure out what to do to respond I found that I would easily be distracted from the gate numbers.

I don't know if it would have been easier with a regular cell phone than the on screen version, but I can guarantee that I was fully distracted at times.

I never saw the grey lady.

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Filed under  //   driving   safety   teens   texting  

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November 6, 2009

Speak Up or Else - Campaign Image

via winstage.vml.com

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Filed under  //   awareness   driving   safety   teen drivers  

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October 28, 2009

How to make costumes flame-resistant

 

How to make costumes flame-resistant

Recipe for safety only takes three ingredients

Updated: Wednesday, 28 Oct 2009, 10:06 AM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 28 Oct 2009, 10:05 AM EDT

(KXAN/NBC) - With cute trick-or-treaters standing at your door right next to a spooky, lit jack-lantern, this typical Halloween vignette can become disastrous quickly.

Halloween costumes look harmless: a cute devil, a lovely princess, a scary evil eye. However it is the combination of costumes and open flames where the trouble cannot start. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said costumes should be flame resistant.

If a costume is flame resistant, if it comes in contact with fire, but then the fire is removed, the costume should self-extinguish.

Watch the video attached to this story to see what happens when fire is touched to an evil eye skull costume, a devil costume and a princess costume. Two of the three are destroyed in less than a minute.

For children and adults, accessories like a feather boa makes a great Halloween costume, but watch out: The boa burns up in less than 90 seconds. And a hula skirt? Same fiery fate, but in less time.

One of the most popular items for making a homemade costume is using a sheet to make a ghost. But, those 100 percent cotton sheets are one of the most dangerous. Within 45 seconds, a ghost costume will be a sheet of fire instead of a sheet of white.

If you want to reduce the risk of your costume going up in flames, the Washington Hospital Center has a recipe that can make your costume more fire resistant.

Recipe:

  • Mix 4 oz. of Boric acid with 9 oz of Borax
  • Dissolve that mixture in a gallon of warm water
  • Soak the costume and let it drip dry

As a homeowner, maybe it is a good idea to keep the lit jack-o-lanterns out of the path of trick-or-treaters, or use a flashlight to illuminate the carved pumpkins.

via wdtn.com

 

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Filed under  //   costumes   fire resistant   halloween   holidays   safety  

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October 21, 2009

NHTSA Teen Driver PSA

(download)

This is an interesting approach by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to educate parents about the importance of setting rules for their teen drivers. It shows the parents to be very nervous about the subject -- nervous enough to employ a lawyer to establish the rules as a contract.

Is this effective? Does it say what needs to be said strongly enough to convince parents to talk with their kids? Do enough parents establish the boundaries that their teen drivers need to know? Don't assume your child will make the right choices. They need to know the limits and we, as parents, must tell them what they are. Don't be shy. They're your kids.

Find out more about teen driver and parent education at http://richpalmer.com/a/teendriver.

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Filed under  //   driving   NHTSA   parenting   safety   teen drivers  

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October 6, 2009

A Week Isn't Enough - ARP5 - Audio Version

A Week Isn't Enough - Arp5 by Rich Palmer Arichperspective. Com  
(download)

Here is my take on Fire Prevention Week. This is the audio version of the blog entry that I posted last week.

Time Curve: Music for Piano by Philip Glass and William DuckworthBruce Brubaker
"Six Etudes for Piano" (mp3)
from "Time Curve: Music for Piano by Philip Glass and William Duckworth"
(Arabesque Recordings)

Buy at iTunes Music Store
Stream from Rhapsody
Buy at Rhapsody
Buy at Napster
More On This Album

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Filed under  //   editorial   fire prevention week   FPW   safety  

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August 19, 2009

My Album is RIAA Safe

My children's album "Sing a Song for Safety" is deemed RIAA safe according to the site RIAA Radar.

Here's what the site says in case you are wondering:
Why is it important to know if an album was released by an RIAA member or not?
That's possibly a fairly long answer, but just the highlights of the RIAA's practices involve price-fixing, blaming its poor financial state on unfounded digital piracy claims (and in turn, blaming and suing its own consumers), lobbying for changes that hinder technological innovation and change copyright laws, underpaying the artists it represents, invading personal privacy to enforce copyrights, and dismantling entire computer networks just because of their ability (of their users) to share copyrighted files. (Feel free to visit the RIAA and Boycott-RIAA.com to learn more!) 

In order to successfully and efficiently support who you like (or not support who you don't like), you need to have information immediately available to know who is who. The RIAA Radar works in two ways: if you're looking to stop buying RIAA releases, it will help tell you what albums to avoid (or purchase secondhand); if you are looking for new music or new alternatives, it works to promote non-RIAA releases by providing similar RIAA-free albums to almost any RIAA release, and RIAA-free popularity charts for several genres in order to showcase viable alternatives.

If you would like to purchase the downloadable version of my album (or the physical version) you can find it at Amazon.com: Sing a Song for Safety

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Filed under  //   CD   education   kids   music   safety  

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