Tragic Texting

Legislation was recenty proposed by Senator Chuck Schumer that would place a ban on text-messaging while behind the wheel. We have all heard the tragic stories of texting and driving, and the life altering (and sometimes ending) consequences that this seemingly harmless act can cause. While 14 states have already enabled similar proposals to be accepted, not all 50 states have incorporated the proposal.
As a means of motivation for these states to indoctrinate the ban, federal fincancing for highways would eventually be cut by 25% for the states who do not comply. In response, and in order to restore itself on top of the automaker industry, Ford has publicly stated that they agree with the proposal and that they back it. While most of the article is centered around Ford Motor Company and what heroes they are for backing the bill, I think we have a larger issue on our hands. I do not understand how only 14 out of 50 states have complied with this ban.

In my experienced opinion on the matter (as someone who has seen first hand and second hand how distracting and dangerous texting while driving is), I would go as far as to make the claim that texting and while driving is as dangerous as drinking while driving. While drinking and driving your reaction time may be slowed down, your depth perception may be miscalculated, and your motor skills will be below your normal skill level. HOWEVER.. if you are not even looking at the road, and instead have your eyes glued to a small telephone screen, your reaction time, depth perception, and motor skills are dwarfed by those of EVEN A DRUNK PERSON. In fact, your skill set is zero, zilch, nada... because you are not even driving the car. A 3500 pound steel machine is being driven at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour by a human who might as well have his or her eyes closed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/11/business/11ford.html?_r=1

Trashing some Technology

The article.. which turned out to be more of a slideshow with captions.. was another fine product of The New York Times Technology section. The premise of the article was to examine how robotic technology in Japan has become less useful in the recent months. Being that Japan is taking part in the "deepest recession in more than a generation", the exporting bohemeth has found that much of its robots have been idles or sent back to their manufacturers as a result of limited production in the manufacturing industry. Aside from robots with the primary function of work, other robots (used for entertainment or even as pets in some cases) have also been scrapped as their price tags seem rediculous in the current economic state.

This article is interesting to me because it helps to see how the current economic state of the United States has affected the entire globe. Giant robots that help to build Nissan automobiles in Japan are being returned, or put into the attic simply because the market for new cars in the United States is down from previous years. It's amazing to see how various countries and regions of the world are affected so greatly as a result of this growing gobal economy that we live in today.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/07/13/business/20090713-robots-ss_index.html

First Blog

Hola!! Welcome to my first blog! From what I understand, the entire purpose of my blogging is to talk about various advances and components of technology and to examine their impact on society. Well, for the first blog I have a great article that pertains to new technology and its positive influence on society. I read a New York Times article that was composed of interviews of firefighters and other rescue personnel who respond to accidents. Recently, advanced high-strength steel has been incorporated into car manufacturing as opposed to a much weaker type of steel. The high-strength steel is mainly in door pillars and roof rails, making the car so strong that it is nearly impossible to cut through, even with high powered cutting tools such as the jaws of life. While this could slow down the rescue process of an injured victim in certain cases, I would be interested to find out how many lives it has and will continue to save in "rollover" type accidents. In my opinion, technology prevails in this case.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/science/15steelside.html