Ban Cell Phones While Driving

Ban Cell Phones While Driving Almost every American has one. Some people use them strictly for business while others strictly for leisure. Most of us use them for both. They are always at our side ready to be answered, receive text messages, check email, or update our Facebook status. Cellphones have almost become a necessity in society. People regularly engage in a wide variety of multitasking activities when they are behind the wheel. Data from the 2000 U. S. census indicates that drivers spend an average of 25. min each day commuting to work, and there is a growing interest in trying to make the time spent on the roadway more productive (Reschovsky, 2004). Unfortunately, this leads to drivers being distracted on the road. I was a victim of an accident caused by a distracted driver on the telephone. I was in a parking lot about to park and a woman backed into me while she was talking on the phone. She profusely apologized and said she didn’t see me. It wasn’t that she couldn’t see me; she wasn’t paying attention because she was on the phone. Luckily, no one was hurt and there was minimal damage to my car.It’s just annoying and disheartening that people can be so careless. Cellphone use while driving needs to be banned in order to protect drivers and pedestrians alike. This isn’t just my personal opinion on the matter. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommends that states to  ban drivers from any non-emergency use of cell phones and other electronic devices that aren't built into their automobile (Alhers, 2011). It also called on wireless companies to create technology that would â€Å"disable the functions of these portable electronic devices within reach of the driver when a vehicle is in motion† (Alhers, 2011).The recommendation came out of an investigation of a 2010 pickup truck-school bus pileup in Missouri last year that killed two people and injured 35. The investigation found that the pickup driver who caused the accident sent 11 text messages in the 11 minutes leading up to the accident, including some just before impact. The NTSB lacks the authority to impose regulations, but its safety recommendations are highly regarded and have led to many state and federal laws and regulations (NTSB 2011). On Oct. , 2009, President Barack Obama issued an executive order banning the use of text messaging while driving for federal government employees on official business or while using government-supplied equipment. He said, â€Å"text messaging causes drivers to take their eyes off the road and at least one hand off the steering wheel, endangering both themselves and others† (Obama, 2009). Texting while driving is banned in 37 states and the District of Columbia. 30 states ban all cell phone use for beginning drivers.Ten states prohibit all hand-held cell phone use while driving; however, no states currently ban the use of hands-free phones while driving. Most people don't put Bluetooth or Sync in their cars anyway because it’s too expensive. Talking on the phone, hands-free or not, puts the driver’s focus on the conversation and not what is going on around them. It’s impossible to accurately gauge how many car accidents nationwide are cell-phone related, but according to the Department of Transportation, distracted driving killed 3,092 people in the United States in 2010. David L.Strayer, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Utah, stated the following in their Summer 2006 study comparing cell-phone use and intoxication while driving: It is now well established that cell phone use impairs the driving performance of younger adults. For example, drivers are more likely to miss critical traffic signals (traffic lights, a vehicle braking in front of the driver, etc. ), slower to respond to the signals that they do detect, and more likely to be involved in rear-end collisions when they are conversing on a cell phone.In addition, even when participants direct their gaze at objects in the driving environment, they often fail to ‘see' them when they are talking on a cell phone because attention has been directed away from the external environment and toward an internal, cognitive context associated with the phone conversation†¦ (p. 382) Strayer and his colleagues, with respect to traffic safety, found that the impairments associated with cell phone drivers may be as great as those commonly observed with intoxicated drivers.The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Ad Council have launched the new Stop the Texts. Stop the Wrecks. This is a public service advertising public service announcement campaign nationwide. All of the PSAs direct audiences to StopTextsStopWrecks. org, a new campaign website where teens and young adults can find facts about the impact of texting while driving, and tips for how to curb the behavior. The website also has an ar ea where individuals can post and share their solutions to stop texting and driving on Facebook.The NHTSA also reported that pilot projects in Syracuse, New York, and Hartford, Connecticut, produced significant reductions in distracted driving by combining stepped-up ticketing with these high-profile public education campaigns. Before and after each enforcement wave, NHTSA researchers observed cellphone use by drivers and conducted surveys at drivers license offices in the two cities. They found that in Syracuse, hand-held cellphone use and texting declined by a third. In Hartford, there was a 57 percent drop in hand-held phone use, and texting behind the wheel dropped by nearly three-quarters (Wellenbach, 2011).There are many arguments against banning cell phone use infringes on the personal rights of motorists. Receiving a cell phone traffic ticket may negatively reflect on your driver record and can increase your insurance premiums. Those opposed to the ban feel it’s impos sible to enforce because a police officer can mistake a driver for texting someone when they are really changing a song on their MP3 player. Another counterargument is that holding a conversation on a cell phone while driving is no more distracting than being engaged with a passenger or rowdy kids in the back seat, eating fast food or messing around with the radio.Motorists know that using a cell phone while driving is distracting and should refrain from doing so. Another argument against banning cell phones is the use of Global Positioning Systems (GPS). Most GPS’s displays three-dimensional renderings of virtual surroundings. At least 10 states that ban texting while driving offer some type of service that allows motorists to get information about traffic tie-ups, road conditions or emergencies via Twitter (DeMillo, 2009). There is also an argument to implement hands free devices in all motor vehicles.Enforcing such advanced technology to be built would be extremely expensi ve. This technology, built-in speaker phones or no use of cell phone if driving over 30 miles per hour is not cheap. It is not cheap for the manufacturers or for the customers. The average prices of cars would rise, and if there are be technical errors, it would cost more to repair the car. Assume that the United States did enforce this law upon manufacturers in their country. What if someone drove to the United States from neighbor countries, where cars are not equipped with this technology?Should those drivers from the neighbor countries, then, be allowed to use cell phones? No. The best thing to do is having a strict law, banning cellphone while driving until such advanced equipment in cars becomes basic technology, and fairly priced. In a survey I conducted revealed that 80% of drivers between the ages of 16 to 24 use a cell phone while driving. 90% percent of 16 to 24 year olds have been on the road and noticed drivers swerving and talking/texting on the phone while driving. My research indicates that only 20% of drivers 55 and over admitted they use a cell phone while driving.This shows that younger people are more at risk to be involved in some sort of collision or accident. The last question of the survey was have you ever been at a red light and have someone honked at you while you were at a red light looking at phone? Even though the survey was anonymous I don’t think people wanted to admit that this has happened to them. Only 40% of all who took the survey answered yes to this question. I think if had a larger survey pool my information would have supported my argument further. Here is a graph of the results of the question Have you used a cell phone while driving:Several technology start-ups will release new products for phones that can detect when a car is in motion and automatically log incoming calls and texts much as a personal assistant would. All the products have provisions that allow both incoming and outgoing calls during emergencie s. The following products are services available to reduce driver distraction. The first one is Key2SafeDriving. Parents can set up a password-protected profile that won't allow calls or texts when a Bluetooth device detects that the car is in motion. Next, there is Aegis Mobility Drive Assist.This is downloaded software will use a phone's GPS to determine whether it is in a moving vehicle, then log incoming calls and texts, and respond with a message that you're driving. And finally the least restrictive of these three products, ZoomSafer, is downloadable software that lets you dictate text messages and updates to social-networking sites while you're driving (Cruz 2009). This is similar to the talk-to-text program that my Droid phone has. I have tried to use it while driving and it hasn’t been too successful. I have to push a button that records what I want to say and then â€Å"listens. The majority of the time the words are totally wrong and I’m more distracted bec ause I have to go back and delete everything. I know technology will evolve and create a safe way to communicate while operating a vehicle. The evidence from studies showing the negative effects of cellphone use while driving is overwhelming. People need to be less concerned with emails, social networks, and texting and be more focused on the road. There is no simple solution to get everyone to agree or follow the rules if such as ban was put into action.It will take a long time to give up their right of cellphone privileges, but the outcome is worth the sacrifice. References Ahlers, Mike. (2011, December 13). NTSB recommends full ban on use of cell phones while driving. Cable News Network. Retrieved from http://articles. cnn. com/2011-12-13/us/us_ntsb-c ell-phone-ban_1_smart-phones-texting-pickup-truck-driver? _s=PM:US Cruz, Gilbert. (2009, August 24). Distracted Driving: Should Talking, Texting Be Banned? Time Magazine. Retrieved from http://www. time. com/time/magazine/article/0, 9171,1916291-1,00. html DeMillo, A. (2009, Sept 19).Mixed Messages on Texting and Driving. Retrieved from Associated Press and Fox News website: http://www. foxnews. com/us/2009/09/19/states-send-mixed-message-texting-driving/ National Transportation Safety Board. (2011). No call, no text, no update behind the wheel: NTSB calls for nationwide ban on PEDs while driving [Press release]. Retrieved from http://www. ntsb. gov/news/2011/111213. html Obama, Barack. (2009, October 1). Executive Order 15313. Retrieved from http://www. whitehouse. gov/the-press-office/executive-order-federal-leadership-reducing-text-messaging-while-driving Strayer, D.L. & Drews, F. A. (2006). A Comparison of the Cell Phone Driver and the Drunk Driver Vol. 48, No. 2, pp. 381–391. Reschovsky, C. (2004). Journey to work: 2000, Census 2000 brief. Retrieved May 19, 2012 from http://www. census. gov/prod/2004pubs/c2kbr-33. pdf Wellenbach, P. (2011, Dec. 8) More American drivers are texting while driving despite additional legal measures. New York Daily News. Retrieved from http://www. nydailynews. com/news/national/american-drivers-texting-driving-additional-legal-measures-article-1. 988991#commentpostform

Malcolm X : Identity Formation

Multicultural Issues Identity Formation: Malcolm X Everyday African-Americans go through identity formation. Identity formation is the development of the distinct personality of an individual regarded as a persisting entity. While watching the movie, Malcolm X, starring Denzel Washington as Malcolm, he shows many stages of identity formation. His whole life, he went by taking chances. The choices and decisions he made either ended good of ended bad. By the end of the movie, it ended in a tragic massacre that sadly ended his life. Throughout the movie, they jumped around about his life.They showed flashbacks of his childhood and continued from on through his life. I’m going to begin with his life transformation. As a child, he was faced with bad racism. His family would be tortured by the KKK (Ku Klux Klan). His father did everything he could do to protect his family. The KKK (Ku Klux Klan) killed his father after all the torturing. Malcolm and his siblings were taking away. Ma lcolm was sent to an Orphanage where in school he was the only African-American (black) student in his class. His teacher even told him he couldn’t become a lawyer. He should consider becoming a carpenter.Malcolm was faced with man racist comments. Later on in his life he lived the life of a â€Å"street hustler. † He went to prison and that completely transformed him. We must transform ourselves, as a people, as a condition for securing our freedom from oppression. This was the beginning of his phase of identity transformation, Who are you? The question Malcolm stressed. The first time Malcolm was asked that he said Malcolm Little. He was told that’s the white’s man name for you, now who are you? He didn’t have an answer. He had to find his self. Then he gave his self the name Malcolm X.The â€Å"X† representing the unknown name of his African ancestors and their culture that had been lost during slavery, discovering all of this after six y ears in prison, after being convicted of robbery and sleeping with white women. This identity transformation was also spiritual and intellectual transformation. He undertook a rigorous process of self-education. He was all about Black Power and the Power of the Great and Almighty Allah. This was a form of his identity transformation One aspect of the African-American life in society today, as well as in the movie, is the role and identity of women.The women serve as the backbone of the family that prays and request that God would watch over and protect the family. The focus of my writing is geared towards discussing the woman’s identity development in the African-American culture and the world at large. Research express that in order to be able to understand what the significance of identity development in African-American women consists of, it is important to get the picture of the racial undertones in society. Throughout our country’s history, African-American women have been subjected to digesting negative stereotypes about themselves in comparison with their Caucasian counterparts.The belief behind this statement is that Caucasian females were closely associated with having more positive qualities than African-American women. As a result, a sense of shame has been connected with the concentrated effort to explain what it means to be an African-American that leads to an existence of racial consciousness in the minds of everyone within the culture. Moreover the conversation continues by stating that research that focuses on identity development in African-American women includes the suggestion of oppression and the requirement for self-determination and/or strength through resilience.In order for African-American women to move towards self-determination through resilience, they have to acknowledge both the commonness and the actuality of racism and sexism in today’s society. These â€Å"isms† impact the everyday lives and experien ces that they have and will encounter at school, at work, and in places where they may receive any form of public assistance. An author named Black talk about faith in God as foundational in a woman’s life toward the development of a sense of identity and value as the women eal with the trials and tribulations that she faces. The use of faith helps her to keep perspective on God as a loving, caring person as she learns to redefine what adversity looks like. Another writer named Mattis says the study’s focus on African-American women is intentional because they weave together culture and spirituality as part of how they identify themselves . Moreover, Black comments that an African-American woman’s faith and how she interacts with God is effective because there are two key components to their relationship: reciprocity and familiarity.These two characteristics work together as a way to help African-American women deal with their struggles because: a) their self-wo rth is rooted in the fact that God loves them and b) no matter what they face in this life God has a plan to reward them now and forevermore. Just like any other family, we you grow up, you go through a reaching transformation. As I stated before, in African-American families religion is an important factor to their culture. Just like in the movie and in Malcolm’s real life, he became educated and went around the world teaching.He taught was it means t be black, what it means to worship the Nation of Islam and becoming Muslim, and opened the world up to the real racism of society. When he became Muslim, he seized to live in the society of whites. He believed in going back to our roots, back home, back to our original civilization, back to West Africa, South Africa and Central Africa. These teachings cost him his life, yet his legacy live in his family and around the world of African-American and Muslims

Wealth management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Wealth management - Essay Example There is no standard definition for wealth management that will be generally accepted, though according to Maude â€Å"a basic definition for wealth management would be financial services provided to wealthy clients, mainly individuals and their families† (Maude, 2006). â€Å"a type of financial service that combines personal investments, tax planning strategies, estate planning and legal counsel. It is designed to provide a broad array of services within the confines of one office† Detailing the key elements that differentiate their services from other forms of retail financial institutions, wealth managers draw attention to the exclusiveness of their client relationships, which are extensive in that they cover all aspects of a client’s financial life, and with great respect to the adviser’s devoted knowledge of a client’s priorities and values. Likewise, this breadth and depth of the manager-client relationship allows the wealth manager to form and apply specially designed solutions that meet all key elements of a client’s financial welfare. The following three criteria distinguish a firm as a wealth manager: - The relationship between wealth managers and their clients, in regard to both terms of breadth (such as â€Å"holistic†, â€Å"comprehensive†, and â€Å"all-inclusive†) and depth (â€Å"intimate† and â€Å"individualised†). Since wealth management has scored the fastest growing in late 1990, all of the financial services industry sector and even through the recession after that wealth management still attracts investors. In term of the population growth the number of millionaires till 2006 the number increased which is more than 7% a year referring to the devolved in the economy in Europe and North America. â€Å"Given that financial markets and economic growth in 2008 has been far worse so far than 2007, I expect flat growth or a contraction in the millionaire population in 2008.

The Fate of Taamail's Export Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

The Fate of Taamail's Export - Assignment Example The World Trade Organization (WTO) regulatory context relevant in this case goes back to the Generalized System of Preferences as established under the Enabling clause of the GATT, allowing for the preferential treatment of the developing countries over their developed counterparts in matters of trade relationships (EC, 2004). The relevant legal issue is whether the recent change in the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) as developed by Solia are in violation of Article I and Article III of the GATT of 1994. The most relevant legal issue in this case, however, is the existing inconsistency between the provisions of Article I: 1 of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (GATT 1994), as required to apply to all the members of the World Trade Organization, and the Enabling Clause as implemented by the member states of the GATT. The provisions of Article I: 1 of GATT 1994 requires that any preferential treatment in relation to tariffs that is offered to one of the member states should â€Å"immediately and unconditionally† be accorded to all the other members in relation to similar products and other associated trade measures (GATT, 1979). On the other hand, the Enabling clause of the GATT provides for preferential treatment of some nations over the others in relation to similar products and associated trade measures, based on certain considerations and requirements for fulfillment of assigned conditions under their specified Generalized System of Preferences (Mckenzie, 2005) . Nevertheless, the applicability of the Generalized System of Preferences as provided under the Enabling clause of the GATT should be subject to authorization, and subsequent WTO waiver of Article I: 1 of GATT for a specified period of time (Gowa & Hicks, 2012).

Choose ANY project from the pre-modern (pre-1750) period Essay

Choose ANY project from the pre-modern (pre-1750) period - Essay Example The need to construct the Suez Canal therefore became imperative with the growing need for quick transportation to facilitate trade and human transport. A French company took the initiative of constructing the canal and obtained a 99 year concession for the canal. Thereafter, the Suez Canal Company was established with much funding obtained from Europe. Ferdinand de Lesseps obtained the concession in 1854 from Egypt and Sudan in order to build the canal (Farnie 58). He brought together a team of thirteen experts who were to be in charge of overseeing the construction of the canal. Indeed, myriad challenges were anticipated and it was expected that these challenges would be addressed in the course of the process. Surveys were done in Egypt and most of the discussions and deliberations were conducted in Paris. A final unanimous report for the construction was therefore produced detailing all the relevant aspects of the canal that would create any relevance at that time and in the future. The real construction work began at Port Said in Egypt on 25th April 1859 (Karabell 89). In order to provide the much needed labor that was necessary for the excavation work, forced labor was effectively used. Sources estimate that at any given time, up to 30,000 people were working on the project. It is further estimated that a total of 1.5 million, at one time or another, actually worked on the project. Challenges often abound in this process. The excavation work was very difficult and so many workers died in the process. The desert conditions where the workers did most of their work were never favorable in any way for such kind of work. Despite the imperative need for the canal, the British government had always opposed the whole idea behind the canal from the outset. In the course of the project, the British government totally opposed the use of slaves as the main source of labor for the construction of the canal.

Investment and Portfolio Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Investment and Portfolio Analysis - Essay Example There was automotive gross cash at June 30, 2007 of $37.4 billion. Ford Motor Company sales and revenue over the last three years has fluctuated tremendously, 2005 was 176.8 billion, 160.1 billion and for the year of 2006 and 172.5 billion for 2007. The current return on investment is -10.4 as of 2007. ( White, 2007). Investment is the commitment of money or capital to purchase financial instruments or other assets in order to gain profitable returns in the form of interest, income, or appreciation of the value of the instrument. (Reilly & Brown). It relates to saving or deferring consumption. Investment is involved in many areas of the economy, such as business management and finance no matter for households, firms, or governments. An investment involves the choice by an individual or an organization such as a pension fund. After some analysis or thought, to place or lend money in a vehicle, instrument or asset, such as property, commodity, stock, bond, financial derivatives (e.g. futures or options), or the foreign asset denominated in foreign currency, that has certain level of risk and provides the possibility of generating returns over a period of time. Investment comes with the risk of the loss of the principal sum. (Myles, 2003) The investment that has not been thoroughly analyzed can be highly risky with respect to the investment owner because the possibility of losing money is not within the owners control. The difference between speculation and investment can be subtle. It depends on the investment owners mind whether the purpose is for lending the resource to someone else for economic purpose or not. Through Investment analysis, an investor is in a good position to understand the trend of performance and the likelihood of getting suitable returns at the end of the investment period. Investment analysis is important to any sound portfolio-management strategy. At most, times, investors find it difficult to carry out

Exercise research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Exercise research - Essay Example Please provide answers to the following three (3) questions. The results of your investigations may be, summarised in a table like the one below. A word count of between 300 and 400 words for each answer is required. Please do not exceed the word count, as this will not gain any additional marks. Each answer must include references to each article you have used to answer each question: Please use the Library Portal to find three (3) sources of information that clarifies this claim. Summarise the nature and extent of the problem based on the information you used from your selected articles. There is no doubt that the frequency of computer related fraud and crime had grown in the past few years. One of the rampant and challenging problems is digital piracy of entertainment material and software applications. Craig Kuhl, in his New York Times article, points out the prospects and problems facing the digital media industry in light of threat from piracy and copyright infringement: â€Å"The stakes are high: Worldwide online video revenue is expected to exceed $4.5 billion by 2012, up from $1.2 billion in 2008. And by 2012, according to In-Stat, 90% of U.S. households will have access to broadband, with 94% watching online video. An IMS Research study estimates that by 2013, 255 million TV households worldwide will be watching HDTV and the number of unique HD titles increased by 161% over the first six months of this year, and the number of on-demand orders jumped to 3 billion in 2007. Meanwhile, the Motion Picture Association of America puts annual losses to film piracy at a whopping $18 billion†. (Craig Kuhl, 2008, p.22) Surely, 18 billion dollars is a significant loss to an industry that is also vulnerable to several other risk factors. Other threats to computer systems worldwide come in the form of viruses, worms and Trojan horses. The issue of financial and information losses from these