A dash-board smart phone?

 I have to admit, I am addicted to my Blackberry. It's never more than an arm's reach from me - even when I am in bed. It has Twitter, Facebook, CNN, Washington Post, and of course texting.  I started using it as my alarm clock when mine broke about 2 years ago.  So, yah, I'm addicted.  But I try not to use it in the car.
Here they recently passed a law against using a hand held phone while driving.  Texting while driving is illegal everywhere, or at least it should be.  It's pretty easy to spot someone who is texting or talking.  6 chances in 7 if someone is swerving they aren't drunk, they're on the phone.

Just recently I saw an article on CNN.com  "Will your next car be a smartphone?"  They are putting Facebook (voice operated) and twitter and other web applications on a touch screen in the dash of the car.  I have one word for that .  YIKES!  My next word ... gimme :)  (The last one comes from the little tech-child in me.)




According to the article: "Ford, General Motors and several other automakers are pitching the systems as a safer and easier way to let drivers do what many of them are already doing -- using their smart phones while driving."  Apparently, they think they can make it safer.  I think this is a little like making drunk driving safer by putting shot glasses in the steering wheel.

Studies show that talking on cell phones, regardless if it is hands-free or hand-held, reduces speed of information processing.  So, chances are putting it in the dash is not going to make texting any safer - even if it is done by voice.
 
According to Edgar, Snyder & Associates

• In 2005, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that 10% of drivers are on handheld or hands free cell phones at any given hour of the day. 
• 4 out of every 5 accidents (80%) are attributed to distracted drivers. In contrast, drunk drivers account for roughly 1 out of 3 (33%) of all accidents nationally
• The majority of Americans believe that talking on the phone and texting are two of the most dangerous behaviors that occur behind the wheel. Still, as many as 81% of drivers admit to making phone calls while driving. 
• Studies have found that texting while driving causes a 400% increase in time spent with eyes off the road. 

"We saw this trend of mobile devices increasing, and we said this is an area where we can offer the customers a safer way to use those in the car," said Ford spokesman Alan Hall.

I'm sure that's exactly what a car company who was barely surviving on the billions of dollars in money from the government was thinking... safety.   Technology is a great thing.  It keeps us in touch, for better or worse, in ways we would not have been before.  It has changed our world. 

I just hope we don't start putting Internet in the shower. 

-FairEnough

Who is Alvin Green?

When the days are getting shorter and my mood gets darker I turn to my favorite place to read about politics, South Carolina. It's usually a reliable place to go to put a smile on your face. Like comic strips only for real.

Right now, my smile comes from someone named Alvin Green.

Alvin Green

In 2000 Mr. Green earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of South Carolina.  After college he served in both the Army and the Air Force but was involuntarily discharged in 2009.  Although he received several medals he also received poor evaluations.  His superiors said he lacked the ability to put his thoughts in order.  He currently is facing criminal charges for showing pornographic pictures to an 18 year old.

Alvin Green decided to put his hat in the ring to run on the Democratic ticket for Senator of South Carolina.

Vic Rawl

     

Green faced Vic Rawl in the democratic primary for Senate. Rawl was an officer in the SC National Guard for twenty-six years.  He started as an enlisted man but retired a Lt. Colonel.

Rawl was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives four times and served from 1977 to 1978 and from 1980-1986, for a total of eight years. From 1980 to 1986 Rawl worked on the State Reorganization Commission, S. C. Housing Authority, and S.C. Prison Overcrowding Project.

Alvin Green somehow won the primary with 59% of the vote.. So what happened?

Greene hired South Carolina attorney Suzanne Coe as his campaign manager who was struck by his honesty and offered to work for him for free. Green never spent any money at all on the campaign. In fact, there is some question as to where he got the money to put in his application.  Nonetheless, a study by the Pew Research Center released in late July found that Greene's campaign has received the most media attention of all of the 2010 political campaigns.
 


So, if you are not impressed by all the money being spent this year on advertisements for tea party candidates. If you don't think exposure alone works, well, even though it wasn't tea party money it looks as though it was just that kind of exposure that worked for Mr. Green.

Here is a 1:27 min clip of an interview with Alvin Green.
What was the name of Forest Gump's friend in the army?



-FairEnough

Terry Jones gets a car?

Terry Jones

When the odd-ball Terry Jones was planning to burn 100 Qurans on 9/11/2010, a car dealer in Florida named Brad Benson made another one of those craaazzzyy car radio ads.  Only this time in his commercial he said he'd give Jones a free car if he didn't go through with his anti-Muslim Quran burning hate-fire.

Apparently Jones didn't know this until a couple of days ago.  So he had one of his representatives call the car dealership to see if the offer was still good..

2011 Hyundai Accent

 

Benson was surprised when he got the call .  Jones asked for a 2011 Hyundai Accent, which retails for about  $14,200.

Benson asked for a drivers license to make sure it really was Jones. 

He claims he plans to donate the car to an organization that helps abused Muslim women.  "We are not trying to profit from this. We are not keeping the car for ourselves," Jones said by telephone from California, where he was taping television appearances.


There is no report of what group Jones is exactly donating to or why he wanted this specific car.  I guess we'll see if Terry Jones feels it is a good idea to 'test drive' the car for a while before making the donation.


-FairEnough

Leave it to Billingsley

June talking to her son, Beaver

Leave it to Beaver was a conventional middle-class 1950's television show. When I see it I can't believe anyone would think this was anything close to an actual family.   June Cleaver wore pearls and high heals and would greet her husband when he came home with a kiss on the cheek.  She had dinner ready and would tell him of the trouble the kids got into that day. (a broken window or the neighbor was woken up because they were too loud)  Then she and her husband Ward would dispense moralistic advice to their sons.

Actually, the show was rather sweet.  And who didn't want a family like that, even if it was only for half an hour.


It can't have been as easy as that for a budding actress.  After 1 year of junior college, (then) Barbara Combes went to New York.  She was a model and had several small unlisted roles in movies before landing Leave it to Beaver.

After the show was canceled in 1964, she was typecast as a 'sweet as sugar' woman and had difficulty getting other jobs. 

Billingsley spoofed her wholesome image with a brief appearance in the comedy Airplane! (1980), as a passenger who could "speak jive".







There really is no surprise punch here.  She wasn't a closet tigress who threw her weight around.  She was, however, a talented and very hard working woman.  Jerry Mathers (The Beaver) is quoted as saying:

As I say, Barbara was always, though, a true role model for me. She was a great actress. And a lot of people, you know, when they see her talk jive talk, they always go she can do other things besides be a mom on Leave It to Beaver. And I tell them, Airplane!  (1980), she's been a great comedian all her life. And in a lot of ways, just like All in the Family, we kind of stifled her, because her true talent didn't really come out in Leave it To Beaver. She was like the straight woman, but she has an awful lot of talent

She was a strong person with an ability to inspire.  Barbara Billingsley is survived by 2 sons, Drew and Glenn, and 4 grandchildren.

Barbara Billingsley (December 22, 1915  – October 16, 2010)

I am the very model...

I know, I know, I've been putting up a lot of You Tube videos.. but this one I can't help.




-FairEnough