Free Republic

WASHINGTON — As America's road planners struggle to find the cash to mend a crumbling highway system, many are beginning to see a solution in a little black box that fits neatly by the dashboard of your car. The devices, which track every mile a motorist drives and transmit that information to bureaucrats, are at the center of a controversial attempt in Washington and state planning offices to overhaul the outdated system for funding America's major roads. The usually dull arena of highway planning has suddenly spawned intense debate and colorful alliances. Libertarians have joined environmental groups in lobbying to...

Video at source. A proposed federal rule that would require black boxes or event data recorders (EDRs) in every U.S. automobile may mean “Big Brother” could be in your passenger seat for every drive. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rule requires all light passenger vehicles be equipped with an EDR by Sep.1, 2014. Ninety-six percent of new cars already have them - measuring such inputs as speed, lateral acceleration, pedal effort, seat belt use, wheel spin, steering wheel turn and direction. Black box data retrieved from U.S. car accidents in a single day would provide more information than a...

A teenage motorist who is believed to have been racing when he caused a crash that killed two Brandeis High School students has been indicted — five months later — on manslaughter charges, court records show. Antonio Flores, 19, a Brandeis senior at the time, plowed his 2012 Mitsubishi Lancer into a 2011 Chevrolet pickup while he and a group of students were on their lunch break Feb. 19, police and school officials said. The wreck, which occurred at the northbound access road of Loop 1604 just before Hausman Road, killed back-seat passengers Gabriella “Gabby” Lerma, 17, and Georgina Rodriguez,...

Chuck the telly! At the Fullness of Faith, David has posted Throw away your Television, quoting a song by "Red Hot Chilli Peppers." He says "Not only is the telly full of mindless junk, not only does it eat into spare time that could be used for prayer, study, family and Blogging...it is also largely inimical to all that our Catholic Faith stands for. Why do we pay to watch it in the first place?" Well, I sold my presbytery's television in January 2003 and have not had one since. I thought this would be a sacrifice but actually, I...

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) - Fuel-efficient cars are designed to save people money on gas, but those who drive them could soon start paying a mileage tax. The government has been collecting taxes at the pump to pay for building and fixing roads for years, but drivers of electric cars avoid the gas tax because they don't fuel up. State legislators are looking at adding a tax for cars that get at least 55 miles per gallon, with the money going toward state roads. Some Portland residents say area roads could use the help.

I fear for the loss of our freedoms and liberties under the Obama administration. We expect our government to be run by people we elect. If they don't perform well, we have the opportunity to throw them out. But with the proliferation of "czars" appointed by the president, we are out of the loop when it comes to controlling our own destinies. They are in charge of such areas as borders, Medicare, manufacturing, electronic health records, faith-based initiatives, workplace issues and so on. The list now contains about 35 czars, whose names, backgrounds and goals we know nothing about. Van...

New Law To Require 'Black Boxes' In All Cars New Law Mandates Black Boxes In All Cars By 2015 By Bailey Johnson A recently passed bill will require all cars to come equipped with "black boxes" that record vehicle data. These Event Data Recorders (EDR), similar to their airplane counterparts, will record data such as speed, brake force and electrical systems monitoring. The days of a car crash being one driver's word against another look to be history. Senate Bill 1813 (known as Map-21) mandates that automakers install EDRs in all new vehicles starting in 2015.

A new controversial measure could potentially impact every American who owns a car. Beginning in 2015, all cars will be required to be fitted with a black box data recorder, known officially as “event data recorders” or EDRs. These black box recorders work much like the ones on airplanes, capturing data related to a crash. In some cases, authorities can tap into a car’s EDR to check vehicle speed, airbag deployments, and pedal application a few seconds before and after impact.

Black boxes in cars? We’ve reported on it before, but a bill requiring such devices has recently passed the U.S. Senate and is expected to fare the same in the House. If it goes all the way, cars built after 2015 will all have tattlers to give specific information on a car’s activity. If implemented, the devices are meant to be used by emergency responders during an accident, but the applications are far from limited to those incidents. Some are worried that installing such devices offer unprecedented invasions of privacy, bordering on big brother level surveillance of everyday citizens. Going...

[Snip]...As part of Senate Bill 1813 (known as MAP-21), Congress has inserted language that would oblige the Secretary of State to revoke or deny a passport to any U.S. citizen who the IRS Commissioner deems as having "seriously delinquent tax debt."...For starters, in what may be one of the most depraved Big Brother moves on record, section 31406 of the bill makes it mandatory for "black box" event recorders to be installed in every new passenger vehicle starting with model year 2015.

France has found what could be the first concrete clues to the location of black boxes missing from last year's Atlantic jet disaster, but warned on Thursday there was no guarantee the breakthrough would lead to their recovery.The defense ministry said the boost had come through detailed follow-up analysis of sonar readings taken in the first few weeks after an Air France jet crashed into the Atlantic killing 228 people on June 1 last year. Finding the black boxes is seen as essential to help crash experts and relatives understand exactly what caused flight 447 to plunge into a remote...

Regarding our current political climate and my discussions on this blog, I try to keep my focus on the major issues–health care, environmental extremism, immigration, general Government encroachments–and stay away from Obama’s citizenship status and other such diversions, though there have been times where I couldn’t resist. However, two stories this weekend raised red flags for me, and, at the risk of being labeled a “kook” or “paranoid extremist,” I’ll relay the stories and my concerns with them. First, out of the Washington Post. In the fallout of the Toyota brake “crisis,” we have the introduction of a bill that...

All new cars would have to be equipped with "black boxes" that record performance data and federal safety regulators would be granted the authority to order immediate recalls under newly proposed auto-safety legislation being considered by Congress. The draft of a bill was released Thursday by one of the House committees investigating Toyota's massive recalls for unintended acceleration in its vehicles.

It's all in the name of research on finding a better way to tax motorists, and the pay is $895. Wanted: 250 Maine drivers willing to let a stranger put a black box under their dashboard. The reward: $895 and the opportunity to speak their minds about the highway tax experiment to a researcher. University of Iowa researchers are seeking 250 motorists in Cumberland, York and Sagadahoc counties willing to have a computer tracking system installed in their cars for 10 months. The system could someday be used to tax drivers according to the number of miles they drive, rather...

Investigators have recovered the black box of downed “King of Pop” Michael Jackson, just hours before the search was to be called off. The pop singer’s voice and data recorder is designed to emit signals with an infectious beat for 30 days after an accident.

Perhaps more analysis is needed on the merits and methods of grass roots democracy - for conscience votes. Mechanisms exist (speaking as an engineer) to make it possible if the will of the people were there to support it - for conscience issues. As salt and light in the checker/reversi board of life, the most we can do is preserve and inform/educate so nothing would be lost by it. Conservative and liberal constituencies might have their preference shown as a group using those mechanisms if necessary, a little like with other forms of voting - for conscience issues. Either a...

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BRUSSELS, Belgium — International regulators must ban the public release of cockpit voice recordings from fatal accidents since their sole purpose is to assist accident investigators, the main international pilots federation said today. The London-based International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations also denounced the publication in Vanity Fair magazine of audio clips of an executive jet and a Boeing 737 involved in a deadly collision over Brazil two years ago. The association said in a statement it was "outraged to learn that once again the cockpit voice recordings of aircraft involved in a fatal accident have been leaked and...

"The numbers from the cartridges that print out vote tallies and the paper-tape backup didn't match..."

. . . The results of the accident investigation contradict the original account the state police gave in the first 24 hours. Colonel Fuentes himself said Thursday night that “speed was not a factor” in the accident. When asked Tuesday whether he now believed that speed played a role in the accident, Colonel Fuentes replied: “What do you think?” “Speed is always a contributing factor in any accident,” he added later. “It goes to the heart of what damage you may have on the vehicle.” . . . It now seems clear that Mr. Corzine’s own vehicle was responsible for...