Sorry. A Google search on “aural sex” produces 6,090 hits, so I don’t guess either of us can lay any claims to originality.
Wow! You must be really smart!
No, it’s quite elementary. The question was "Rounded to the nearest integer, what is e[sup]20.7232658369[/sup], and I got “1 billion” as my answer.
Thank you - I’ll be here all week!
There was a teenager in Napa, California, ten years ago who was driving a pickup truck along a curvy road, reached over to change her cassette tape, and wiped out two cyclists who had been on the road for decades.
It seems right on the surface that radios, CDs, tapes should fall under the same law as cell phones. But cell phones aren’t used to maintain alertness. They detract from alertness, because the person on the other end of the line may make any sort of statement … including ones that under normal circumstances would require your FULL attention. (As examples: I just had an accident, we just got a bill we can’t pay, they’re threatening to lay off people at work.)
Cell phone people, if a conversation isn’t enough to distract your driving, what is? A video phone? 3-D heads up display? Do you recognize any limitations whatsoever??
I use my speakerphone while driving. I dial by voice command. I also stop talking when road conditions merit.
I would, in fact, wager that my conversation is less of a distraction than the frothing rage that a viewer might work him or herself into. Also, I won’t be driving angry.
So, rant all you want. I’ll be on the phone. And you’ll continue to not matter to me in the slightest…unless you’re on the phone with me.
Unlike other people, doing two or three tasks at once doesn’t detract whatsoever from your performance of any one of them?
No problem. We’ll just write the law like this: Cell phones are illegal unless using a speakerphone, dialing by voice command, and stopping when road conditions permit.
And if they don’t permit, you don’t answer your phone. And if you do answer your phone and cause an accident, no license.
I’ll buy that law.
The statistics we find all seem to have severe biases, since the more netural articles all say the same thing: “There are no solid statistics yet.” And those that do claim to have them are in two definite camps
From the “cellphones are not dangerous” camp we get these:
This study found that cell phones were causal in accidents .5% of the time
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/2001-05-09-distraction.htm
This one says 1.5%
http://www.pacificresearch.org/press/opd/2001/01-07-09hc.html
And from the “they’re a danger to us all” camp we find things like this:
this one claims 20% of accidents in one place were caused by them
http://www.essexsheriff.com/cellphones.htm
Which all leds me to believe that the stats should be taken with a few boxes of salt.
Now, for something really scary, there’s what I saw a woman doing on Thursday…being the passenger, which is rare, I had more time to figure out what other drivers were doing than usual. My brother complained bitterly that the person in front of him was a moron, and from the way she was weaving around, I agreed. At first I nearly chalked it up to the fact that she’d dropped something then grabbed it off the floor (bad enough) then I realized what she was really doing: she had both hands off the wheel, and with one was brushing her hair, with the other was braiding it or something. While driving 50 miles per hour! People will do anything while driving, won’t they :rolleyes:
Can we get off the SAT scores thing? I was only trying to show the OPer that I’m not a moron.
The point of my post was to show that I’m rather ticked off that cell phone usage while driving is singled out and legislated against, when there are tons of other things that people get distracted by when they’re driving.
peedin posted:
Yes, I AM going to give you this crap about work. I started a new company in April, and time is at a premium. I’ve been working 18 and 20 hour days since April (taking the occasional break to see what’s going on over at the SDMB, of course). I do a lot of driving between NYC and Long Island, where we have several clients. To fail to take advantage of the two hours I typically spend driving on the Long Island Expressway would be silly.
Last week, I had a meeting with a company on the Nassau/Suffolk border, which is a good hour away from NYC in typical traffic. I used this hour to go over strategies with my client, set up a couple of other meetings and connect with my business partner. This is all stuff that I consider important. If I can’t use my time effectively, it means that I bring in less revenue that month. If I can’t bring in enough revenue, I can’t make my car payments. If I can’t make my car payments, I can’t drive to client meetings.
And no, I didn’t manage just fine before mobile phones were common. I’ve had a mobile phone since the day I entered the workforce. They are invaluable tools that help keep small businesses like mine running.
I’m sorry, but I really HATE the “What the heck is so important?” argument. I’ve heard it used to support arguments for banning cell phone usage in public places like restaurants and bars, in addition to supporting the DWY (Driving While Yakking) laws against handheld cell phones in cars. Okay, so maybe my mobile phone conversations aren’t exactly in the “life or death” realm of importance, but they’re important to me and my business.
At the client meeting near the Nassau/Suffolk border, we ended up talking to the client about the DWY laws. One of my partners said it was funny that I sometimes hang up on him to avoid getting a ticket when I’m passing a cop on the side of the road. We also talked about the current state of handsfree kits. I think they suck, and I’ve tried a bunch of them. People have a tough time hearing me through the headset models. The ones that work through a car’s stereo system are crap as well - they either produce feedback or they work like a walkie-talkie in the sense that only one person can be talking at a time.
The truth is, some people have enough mental bandwidth to handle multiple tasks while driving. Some people don’t. I’ve never had an accident that was due to being distracted by an outside influence. I’ve had three accidents in my driving career. Two were caused by slippery road conditions and one was caused by poor visibility.
Meanwhile, my sister has had more accidents that I can count. She totaled a beautiful Mustang convertible because she was paying more attention to the radio buttons than the road. She backs into other cars in parking lots because she can’t change a CD and drive at the same time.
Okay, so it’s tough to write a law that is specific to people who can’t multitask. But the bigger issue is: Why have cell phones been singled out? Why hasn’t smoking in cars been banned? Why not listening to the radio? Why not eating?
That’s my big issue.
Well, this is my thread and think I’m allowed to say that the main problem is we don’t have any of those robot driven cars like they always had in the World’s Fair attractions!:mad: :mad: :mad:
So what’s the story, Mr. and Ms. Scientist?
Where are they??
mmmmm, Robot Cars…