Is your car recording your speed all the time?
CHANTILLY, Va. - You may speed around town from time to time and think nothing of it - but not so fast - your car is probably constantly recording your speed.
"Almost every car built since 2004 has some level of this technology," Rusty Haight with the Collision Safety Institute tells WTOP. "We can access currently: GM vehicles going back to the mid-90's, Ford's going back to 2001, Chrysler's going back to 2005 and, at the moment, Toyota's going back to 2006."
This is not a case of "Big Brother" according to Haight. He says the information being recorded in a black-box-type device is for your own safety. The recording device loops information, and its data can only be pulled after a crash.
"Think of the video at the corner (store) -- that video camera is running for eight hours, and then after eight hours it loops through," Haight says.
"This is doing it for (about every) five seconds in your car. Now we have an objective tool to better understand not only how fast you were going, but really in minute detail how severe the crash was. And if we know that, we can make those cars safer."
Still, he admits -- this device could get more drivers to play by the rules.
"If people know this is in their car, there are studies that suggest they actually drive more responsibly," says Haight.
Fairfax County Police officers, along with other transportation leaders, are taking a week long class -- learning how to access this specific crash information while on crash scenes. It's a tool that not only could help clear the scene of an accident faster (because the information could be pulled at a location away from the crash scene) -- but also help provide all the facts.
"You want to know the truth, is what it comes down to," says Fairfax County Police Detective J.J. Banachoski, who is with the department's accident reconstruction division. "This helps you paint a picture of what happened."
The Fairfax County Police Department has been using the technology to its advantage for a number of years, and continues to give its members training on the issue.
Haight says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is working on a regulation that would standardize some basic data recording elements in all cars.
http://www.wtop.com/?nid=41&sid=2565582
i doubt it was a joke, just floating an idea to see if it gets traction and see who is paying attention.
Perdue jokes about suspending Congressional elections for two years
File this in the random-things-politicians-say file. Speaking to a Cary Rotary Club today, N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue suggested suspending Congressional elections for two years so that Congress can focus on economic recovery and not the next election.
"I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that," Perdue said. "You want people who don't worry about the next election."
The comment -- which came during a discussion of the economy -- perked more than a few ears. It's unclear whether Perdue, a Democrat, is serious -- but her tone was level and she asked others to support her on the idea. (Read her full remarks below.)
Later Tuesday afternoon, Perdue's office clarified the remarks: "Come on," said spokeswoman Chris Mackey in a statement. "Gov. Perdue was obviously using hyperbole to highlight what we can all agree is a serious problem: Washington politicians who focus on their own election instead of what’s best for the people they serve."
The Republicans sure are taking it seriously as they look to score political points. Here's a statement from GOP spokesman Rob Lockwood:
“Now is a time when politicians need to be held accountable more than ever. To suspend an election would be removing the surest mechanism that people have to hold politicians accountable: the right to vote. Does the Governor not believe that people of North Carolina have the ability to think for themselves about whether or not the actions of elected officials are working?"
UPDATED: GOP House candidate Paul Coble didn't think much of Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue's idea that congressional elections be suspended for two years so Congress can concentrate on the economy.
“That’s a proposal that only the politicians that have worsened our economic mess could appreciate,” said Coble, who is chairman of the Wake County commissioners. “Governor Perdue and the politicians in Washington may fear the message voters send next November.”
Perdue's full statement:
"You have to have more ability from Congress, I think, to work together and to get over the partisan bickering and focus on fixing things. I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that. The one good thing about Raleigh is that for so many years we worked across party lines. It's a little bit more contentious now but it's not impossible to try to do what's right in this state. You want people who don't worry about the next election."http://projects.newsobserver.com/under_the_dome/perdue_suggests_suspending_congressional_elections_for_two_years_was_she_serious#ixzz1ZDOlvAJL
Too Much of a Good ThingWhy we need less democracy.
In an 1814 letter to John Taylor, John Adams wrote that “there never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” That may read today like an overstatement, but it is certainly true that our democracy finds itself facing a deep challenge: During my recent stint in the Obama administration as director of the Office of Management and Budget, it was clear to me that the country’s political polarization was growing worse—harming Washington’s ability to do the basic, necessary work of governing. If you need confirmation of this, look no further than the recent debt-limit debacle, which clearly showed that we are becoming two nations governed by a single Congress—and that paralyzing gridlock is the result.
So what to do? To solve the serious problems facing our country, we need to minimize the harm from legislative inertia by relying more on automatic policies and depoliticized commissions for certain policy decisions. In other words, radical as it sounds, we need to counter the gridlock of our political institutions by making them a bit less democratic.
http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/magazine/94940/peter-orszag-democracy?page=0,0&passthru=MGU3YjMxNDdlN2UyMjM2MTNhZGZjNDE2MjE2NjE2Nj
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