Have they thought this through?

Who says people wouldn't put these devices elsewhere than in cars?

Cincinatti, OH (AHN) - A UPS delivery driver turned inventor has come up with technology that blocks a driver from using a cell phone.

Inventor Fred Wenz and a partner have a provisional patent on a device that blocks cell phone signals within a 5-foot radius. The pair formed the company Try Safety First and are reportedly seeking investment capital to begin production of the device with an estimated $10 retail price.

Wenz reportedly began working on the device after becoming upset over the growing number of drivers who were paying more attention to cell phone conversations than they were to their driving and who became safety hazards.

The device was patterned after technology that prevents a drunk driver from driving.

However, critics say that the 5-foot radius is too large and that in many cars it would block passengers in the back seat from making cell phone calls and it could even interfere with occupants in another car that pulled alongside at a stop light.

More:

While on a run a few years ago, he came up with the idea for a device that blocks cell signals around a driver's seat. It's modeled on ignition locks that make a convicted drunken driver blow into an alcohol tester before the car will run.

"I witness it every day on the road, and I just thought, 'There has to be a way that you can prevent this electronically,' " says Wenz, 40.

Wenz and longtime friend John Fischer have formed Try Safety First and filed a provisional patent on what they call the owner compliance key (or OCK) late last year.

The device blocks signals to and from cellphones for a 5-foot radius, effectively the space around a driver's seat. It also can be set to be effective only on a secondary key, such as one a parent gives a teen.

Is this device designed only for functioning in cars? Or for ten dollars would we see people putting these all over the place? Shut down cell phone access in a place you want to rob, say? Deliberately mess with cell phone talkers in elevators? Teenager's rooms?

They also need to address this:

There is also the issue of the 1934 federal law that bans jamming commercial radio signals, including cellular transmissions. But the duo say their safety argument is strong enough to merit an exemption – much like the television industry was granted in 1996 for the v-chip, which lets parents block inappropriate content for their children.

And experts disagree over whether talking on a cell is enough of a distraction to merit a legal ban - especially when the overall number of accidents is declining. But that is exactly why Wenz and Fischer believe their product is the perfect solution.

But in addition to trying to secure funding, Wenz and Fischer are lobbying to have their technology made mandatory in all U.S. vehicles, a novel yet time-consuming approach to creating demand. They have had audiences with several regulatory agencies as well as U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the Senate minority leader. The strategy is to get regulations in place to require automakers to include such technology in new cars, thereby instantly creating customers.

Fischer acknowledges it has been slow going, especially with U.S. automakers, even though he proposes selling it as an option at first for $99, which he says could net General Motors as much as $1 billion in extra revenue a year. At the same time, auto industry has presented other technologies, most notably the hands-free Sync system created by Ford in conjunction with Microsoft.

Wouldn't enforcement and heavy fines for cell phone usage while driving do the trick? Traffic school for the parents as well as the teen? Removal of a driver's license for the under 20 crowd? Make it an emphatic part of the driver's ed program?

I'd rather be able to call in an emergency such as a collision than try to figure out that the car I've been hit by has one of these devices shutting off my 911 calls....

Breaking yet another capable and important federal agency

The loyal Bushies take away another protection from the American people.

Blue Girl at Blue Girl, Red State:

Julie Gerberding has trashed the CDC, and spent a few billion of your dollars doing it. She took an agency that worked, that was the global gold standard 0f public health, and demoralized the staff, drove off the top talent, changed the structure of the agency so it now has a centralized command structure, and, in general, ruined it. (This is considered "success" by the Bush cabal.)

And in no department within the CDC has her ham-fisted politicized management style been more acutely felt than in the vaccine safety office. The vaccine safety office was, until 2004, led by a charismatic Taiwanese immigrant named Robert T. Chen.

Thanks, Julie. When the next pandemic hits, we'll think of you.

That's MY drinking water you're wasting!

Via Cookie Jill at skippy the bush kangaroo, The Christian Science Monitor:

Lake Mead and Lake Powell, which supply water and power to millions in the American Southwest, stand a 50 percent chance of running dry by 2021 unless dramatic changes take place in how the region uses water, according to a new study.

Causes include growing population, rising demand for Colorado River water, which feeds both lakes, and global warming, according to scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., who conducted the study.

The results underscore the importance of water-conservation measures that many communities throughout the region are putting into place. Other studies, some dating back nearly 20 years, have projected that Lake Mead could fall to virtually useless levels as climate warmed, but they lacked a sense of the timing. The new results, the Scripps scientists say, represent a first attempt to answer when lakes Mead and Powell would run dry, squeezing water supplies in Arizona, California, Nevada, and New Mexico.

Here in Southern California, we've been through droughts. The worst came with restrictions on water usage: no washing of cars, no watering of lawns, no automatic glasses of water given at restaurants, a certain percent drop demanded of each household based on the last year's usage unless appealed. We had neighbors reporting on each other, dead of night furtive sprinkler usage, general idiot behavior exposed for what it was. Politicians cringe at activating drought prevention programs. We need to make it part of normal life so people don't feel their liberties are being denied when they're asked not to waste water.

We need to educate from kindergarten up: respect potable water no matter where you live. Water that has been processed so that it is safe to drink is a wonderful luxury and we need to respect it.

Start by turning off the water while you brush your teeth. Do you realize how many gallons you just saved?

Update: In China: (my bold)

Beijing, China (AHN) - More than 40 percent of drinking water in rural China is unfit for drinking, a health ministry study said Monday. The drinking water in the country's rural areas has failed to meet government standards leading to outbreaks of diarrhea and other diseases, a Ministry of Health spokesman said.

[snip]

Unhealthy water led to outbreaks of diarrhea and other diseases, with 40.44 percent of surface water and 45.94 percent of ground water below the regulatory standards released in 2006.

The Ministry of Health and the National Committee for the Patriotic Public Health Campaign conducted a joint survey of nearly 7,000 samples from villages across the country. The survey found that 74.9 percent of people drank underground water while 25.1 percent drank surface water.

"Most people living in rural areas do not have their drinking water sterilized. Often they just drink the well water, which may have been polluted," Mao said.

The unhealthy water is mainly attributed to unchecked industrialization, polluting factories that cause disruptions to water supplies and microbial contamination.

However, in densely populated areas, 85.23 percent of people living in villages or counties often having their water boiled before drinking, thus lowering the chance of contracting a serious enteric infectious disease.