Of all the travelers’ tales, stories about being sick can be the most frightening. From stomach ailments like Delhi Belly, to burrowing Brazilian worms, to respiratory illnesses like SARS, no experience of being sick abroad is ever pleasant. To make matters more complicated, even simple ailments can be more difficult to handle in countries where sanitation … Read more
Just how dangerous is texting while driving? It’s 23 times as dangerous as driving without doing it. Text messaging behind the wheel increases the risk of a car accident 23 times, according to a recent study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. By comparison, a driver blood-alcohol level (BAC) between 0.05 and 0.09 only increases the risk … Read more
What’s New Year’s Eve without a glass of bubbly? This is the season to celebrate, but the holidays mean more than an upswing in good cheer and liquor sales—they also herald an annual epidemic of drunk driving. According to a report released in 2007 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), drunk-driving related fatal crashes rise … Read more
Perched in a leather armchair on a San Francisco stage recently, Apple’s Steve Jobs declared a new age of mobile media devices, starting with the new iPad. But for the millions of pedestrians outside in the streets, those distracting gadgets—especially cell phones—are creating some shocking, but mostly unreported, safety risks. The future of computing seems … Read more
“Older driver”—the mere phrase conjures images of Mr. Magoo obliviously driving over fire hydrants and scattering terrified barnyard animals. In real life, frequent news accounts of elderly drivers plowing into pedestrians—such as an 89-year-old who killed a 4-year-old girl crossing a street in Canton, Massachusetts in June, 2009, and an 80-year-old who did not stop after critically … Read more
For many people, the written driving test is the last multiple-choice test of consequence they will ever take in their lives. Too bad that 1 in 4.98 licensed drivers fail it. Perhaps it should be no surprise that 20% of licensed drivers flunk. After all, not everyone is a good test taker. Any surprise probably lies … Read more
There are times when parents lie in bed at night and calculate the odds. Prom night is one of those times. There is that pesky worry about teenage sex—and parental concern is always heightened when high school boys who have showered, shaved, and outfitted themselves in evening attire show up to escort high school girls … Read more
A 4.4 magnitude earthquake rattled the Los Angeles area this morning, striking at 4:04 am. No immediate injuries were reported. This quake follows a 6.6 magnitude quake that hit Tokyo on March 14. This latest series of quakes started with Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake (magnitude 7.0) on January 12. Then an 8.8 monster rocked Chile on February 27, … Read more
What’s the harm in a little spying? Maybe you know the temptation—your significant other’s cell phone is right there on the nightstand while she’s in the shower; it’s just so easy to scroll through the text messages to see if she’s been chatting with her hunky ex. Or his email inbox is left open on … Read more
The plan seemed foolproof, as plans usually do when you’re 17. Several students would stand guard while others used stolen keys to break into the filing cabinets of teachers for algebra, calculus, chemistry, and advanced math honors classes. They would steal copies of exams and distribute them to dozens of students, and all of them would be … Read more