The world is full of distractions. Your smartphone is a powerful computer that fits in the palm of your hand and has access to an entire world of information anywhere at any time. But there are good times and bad times to use it. One of those times is when you’re driving a car, flying a plane, riding a motorcycle, or operating heavy machinery.
Thomas wrote about a recent study that claimed that traffic fatalities increase by a relative 15.1 percent on the day of a music album release. Now, it is an interesting study, but it seems a little imperfect. It doesn’t account for demographics, type of content consumed, or how that content is consumed. Are those drivers trying to read lyrics or watching a YouTube music video? We don’t know. At least the general idea that people shouldn’t play with their phones is pretty solid. Anyway, 10001010:
See?! I’m not listening to only 80s-90s metal because I’m “stuck in the past”, I’m doing this for SAFETY!!!
Rick Garcia:
Metallica is keeping you safe.
Dangly:
Nothing else matters.
SegaF355fan:
“And yet, the number of traffic deaths declined on the release date of Men Without Hats’ ‘Rhythm of Youth’ in 1982. Further study is required to suss out the exact reason why.”
DialMforMiata is onto something:
This… makes very little sense to me. When I put on an album in the car that’s basically 45 minutes of not having to fart around with the infotainment system while I just listen. Are they trying to read lyrics on their phone screens while driving?
Oh crap, that’s it, isn’t it?
Spikersaurusrex:
“NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS),”
I think you mean, NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting Tracking System (FARTS).
Oh, did you know where the name Motorola comes from? Cars? I’ve owned a few does:
I miss the days of creative brand names. Motorola is a perfect example, being a portmanteau of “motor” and “Victorola.”
Refrigerators under the brands of Frigidaire and Kelvinator come to mind. There are nearly countless others.
Jason wrote about a wrought-iron VW Beetle. Shots fired from DialMforMiata:
Ironically (yeah, I went there), the only part of this car you can’t see through is the floorboards.
I wrote about the new Sea-Doo RXP-X 350, and I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who appreciated the buff guy on the Sea-Doo in the press imagery. I_drive_a_truck:
It’s nice to see Vin Diesel branching out into other, non-FF things.
Arch Duke Maxyenko:
Sea-Doo, powered by FAMILY.
Jay Vette asking the important questions:
Forever wondering why these are called such a boring term as “personal water craft” and not “boatercycles.”
Grey alien in a beige sedan:
Temu Vin Diesel sure seems to be enjoying his Ski-Doo as well.
Honestly, I just love the shot of the Sea-Doo getting massive air. Have a great evening, everyone!
Wow. Vin fast.
I guess that video isn’t one I’ve seen before. Wonder how many 80’s music videos had an actor that looked like they were on a break from filming “Time Bandits” and Morris dancers. Definitely something of an ear worm.
Sea-Doo rider was quoted as saying…
“There’s gonna be one speed: mine. If you can’t keep up, don’t step up.”
My first COTD mention. Thanks, Mercedes!
\m/
Is Temu Vin Diesel:
Red Diesel
Vin 87 Unleaded
Vin Jet-A
Safety Dance… I regret clicking ‘play.’ In my head all day now.
Well I guess you’ll just have to dance… if you want to.
And leave your friends behind…
This song has been stuck in my head at various times for the last 25 years.
I managed to not accidentally hit play. I hate that song!
Safety is all about reducing accidents.
Me: “Mom guess what? My comment was mentioned on the COTD post at The Autopian!”
Mom: “That’s nice honey”
I finally knocked this item off of my Bucket List of getting a COTD. But I couldn’t have done it without all those who came before me and provided the inspiration to come up with just the right comment.
Now, maybe it’s time to put my sights on the 5-timers jacket?
The Holy Grail is getting a COTD for a comment on the COTD post.
That’s like being in the movie Inception.
Or being on Pimp My Ride.
I’ve pretty much always owned Motorola phones, and I feel like their name and history makes them feel a bit cooler than all these new brands that are only known for their modern tech
Remember when phones could be dropped down a flight of stairs and survive? Pepperidge farm remembers.
A colleague of mine still misses his old Blackberry.
I had a Nokia or two that were bulletproof.
We still have, and use, four rotary phones from Western Electric. Two of them were built in 1964, one of them was built in 1972, and the newest one, from 1984, is just marked AT&T, but I suspect it’s manufactured by Western Electric as well.
Considering they’re still working and functioning exactly as they were designed to when they were first put into use 42, 54, and 62 years ago, I’d say that by your definition that makes them even cooler.
Those things’ll keep going long after the telcos phase out analog lines. The digital converter you’ll then have to use with them will probably need replacing every 5 years or so. Yay progress!
So far the copper lines feeding our house have 48VDC on them with a city backup battery somewhere. I live in an old mill town and the technician who installed our fiber Internet a few years back said the copper lines were still being fed from the old mill setup.
When the power goes out, our rotary land-line phones still work. For now, we have no battery back-up or converter at our house, but that may change in the future.
We keep an old analog (though it’s touch tone) phone around for just that situation. Though so far the cell phones usually seem to work during power outages as well. Also useful for testing the line coming in so we can tell AT&T, yes it’s YOUR hardware problem, not our in-house telephone wiring. Apparently the wiring in our neighborhood is getting old and crusty and they’ve closed the nearby (switching?) center, have to go a couple cities over.
Someday AT&T is going to totally get rid of landlines, we’ll bid that phone a fond farewell then.
We also have one touch-tone phone for those annoying times where they ask you t0 “Press 1 to continue”, or “Press 1 for English” or any of those times you need to enter a number using a keypad.
I still have my Tyco Super Blocks phone from the 80’s, with switchable tone/pulse dialing! Unfortunately, I haven’t had a landline since 2006, so it’s just a conversation piece now. But it’s fun to remember that I actually used it for conversations back in the day.
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/telephone-super-blocks-telephone-tyco-industries-inc/mgEku2P312Jldw?hl=en