Word: text
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...doesn't take much research to figure out that driving and text-messaging is not a wise combination. But a new report is among the first to demonstrate just how distracting it can be to multitask behind the wheel. The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute conducted several high-tech, "naturalistic" studies monitoring truck drivers by video camera as they covered more than 6 million miles. (The authors have said they believe the results are applicable to all drivers). While the report has not formally been released, its initial findings showed that drivers who took their eyes off the road...
...Lawmakers should ban texting while driving, and all cell-phone use for teen drivers: The study warns that danger lurks as today's text-happy teens become a larger proportion of drivers on the road. Drawing on earlier research, they also report that teens are four times more likely to get into an accident related to overall cell-phone use than adult drivers...
...Lowdown: This research confirms what common sense already tells us - texting behind the wheel is a really bad idea. Two recent examples: two months ago a Boston trolley driver slammed into another trolley just after text-messaging his girlfriend, injuring 62 people. In September, 25 people were killed when a California train engineer struck a freight train after texting a friend. And a video of a Texas bus driver apparently striking a car while texting has been making the rounds on YouTube. It's hard to argue against banning the practice for drivers - 14 states already do - though it remains...
...medieval scholar named Mahmud Kashgari - from, as his name suggests, the Silk Road outpost of Kashgar - presented a landmark text to the Caliph of Baghdad. It was the first ever compendium of the Turkish language, the babble of tongues spoken by nomadic tribes who roamed between the shores of the Caspian Sea and the wastes of Siberia. Despite the scope of his work, Kashgari was proudest of his hometown, boasting that the Turkic dialect there was the "purest" and "most elegant" of them...
...impact varies, but Phase 2 has begun to exact a price from those who ignore the popular will. Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, a former member of parliament, told me that some companies have cut back on TV advertising, and some stores have dropped advertised brands. A new boycott of text messaging could be costing a state company more than $1 million a day. "There is optimism that protests will continue one way or another," says Farideh Farhi, an Iranian analyst at the University of Hawaii, "because people who are normally not rabblerousers are finding ways to counter the government crackdown...