Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal accident investigators recommended states ban the use of cell phones and other electronic devices by all drivers except in emergencies. The National Transportation Safety Board's recommendation followed a finding by the board that the initial collision in a deadly highway pileup in Missouri last year was caused by the inattention of a 19 year-old-pickup driver who sent or received 11 texts in the 11 minutes immediately before the accident. The pickup driver and a 15-year-old student on one of the school buses were killed. Thirty-eight other people were injured. The NTSB's recommendation makes an exception for...

If you are like us, every day you pick up a smartphone and you send email, visit with friends on Facebook, send a text message or even log into your bank's website and pay a bill. These modern day conveniences have become routine. We all believe that our passwords are secure, our data is protected, and life is easier if we don't have to write a check to pay a bill or dig around and find a stamp to send a friend a quick note. But this morning we are no longer sure. The tech world is in a fury,...

Bishop Claudio Silvero says the devices are "accursed and tools of sin".... [SNIP] ....mobile phones ease access to pornography and aid in "inappropriate relations." He says about 40 percent of Christian families suffer damage "because of the bad use of cellular phones and the Internet." His campaign is not shared by many in the church. Cell phones are common among Vatican officials and the church has produced some of its own applications for them.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Attention holiday shoppers: your cell phone may be tracked this year. Starting on Black Friday and running through New Year's Day, two U.S. malls -- Promenade Temecula in southern California and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va. -- will track guests' movements by monitoring the signals from their cell phones. While the data that's collected is anonymous, it can follow shoppers' paths from store to store. The goal is for stores to answer questions like: How many Nordstrom shoppers also stop at Starbucks? How long do most customers linger in Victoria's Secret? Are there unpopular...

SEOUL (Reuters) - Secretive North Korea is expected to register the one millionth cellphone user on its new 3G network by the end of the year, barely four years after people were thrown into prison camps, or possibly even executed, for owning one. Most of the users are in the capital of Pyongyang, home to the impoverished country's elite and powerful who have the cash to splash out for a device and the calling fees. "There has been an astronomical increase since even two years ago," said Michael Hay, a lawyer and business consultant based in the capital for the...

Call it arrest-app development. Midwood-based software developer Jason Van Anden has created a smartphone application tailored to the Occupy Wall Street crowd — a program that allows you to send a mass text message at the moment you are getting collared by cops. It’s called, appropriately, “I’m Getting Arrested.” “It’s a technology that fits well with democracy,” said Van Anden. The software designer came up with the idea after hearing that a Wall Street-occupying friend had come within one nightstick swing of being arrested. It made Anden wonder how he would have known if someone close to him had actually...

FRIDAY, Oct. 14 (HealthDay News) -- One in six cellphones in Britain may be contaminated with fecal matter that can spread E. coli, likely because so many people don't wash their hands properly after using the toilet, a new study contends. The findings also suggest that many people lie about their hygiene habits, according to the researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary, University of London. The study authors went to 12 cities and collected 390 samples from the cellphones and hands of volunteers, who were also asked about their hand-washing habits. Ninety-five percent...

Cue the outrage button. A South Florida woman got a shock when she opened a recent cell phone bill: she owed $201,000. Say what! It was no mistake. Celina Aarons has her two deaf-mute brothers on her plan. They communicate by texting and use their phones to watch videos. Normally, that's not a problem. Aarons has the appropriate data plan, and her bill is about $175. But her brothers spent two weeks in Canada and Aarons never changed to an international plan. Her brothers sent over 2,000 texts and also downloaded videos, sometimes racking up $2,000 in data charges. T-Mobile...

In the recent Bloomberg/Washington Post Republican presidential debate the moderators wanted the candidates to get specific regarding their economic/jobs plans. That's sort of amusing considering that the level of specificity we got from Obama in 2008 was "hope" and "change you can believe in." It turns out that we didn't get much hope, but Obama kept his promise to "fundamentally transform the United States of America. With his 9-9-9 plan Herman Cain might be getting a little too specific. Actually, it's not the specificity; it's the rigidity that Cain has been displaying which will eventually hurt him. I think Cain...

Do you think debt collectors should be given access to your cell phone number? Not sure. Doesn't this open up the whole issue of cell phone privacy? No. Cell phones are meant to be private, not for use by bill collectors and solicitors. Yes. A lot of people use their cells as a home phone, so what's the problem? Other (post a comment).

A 26-year-old Massachusetts man was arrested and charged today in connection with a plot to attack the Pentagon and the Capitol, the Justice Department announced.  Rezwan Ferdaus, a U.S. citizen, is accused of planning to use a remote-controlled aircraft filled with explosives to attack the buildings. He was also charged with attempting to provide support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization — specifically al-Qaida, the organization behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I know what you're thinking, PC police: "That's unfair, you Islamophobe!  Just because his name is Rezwan doesn't mean he's a Muslim, or that his planned attacks were...

SNIPPET: "Dan Folk (21), an Israeli who was invited to the event in which over 100 students took part, ended up getting a business card and memento from Ahmadinejad. "It was at his hotel in Manhattan, we got there and had to wait in the security check line for nearly an hour," said the student, adding, "we gave them our cell phones and any kind of camera we were carrying. During the security check I showed them my Israeli driver's license and the Iranian security officer smiled at me." Folk said he had mixed feelings over the question of whether...

Yesterday, I had an experience that shows why Microsoft should kill the Windows Phone brand and name its new phones something fun like Mango. I went to Radio Shack to buy a cheap audio cable. The clerk was excited because it had just become an official Verizon outlet as well -- the front of the store had a special Verizon awning, and there was Verizon advertising all over the place. As I paid, the clerk and I began talking about phones. He said he used to work at the Apple Store, and was well-informed about the upcoming iPhone 5 and...

SAN FRANCISCO -An illegal, Orwellian violation of free-speech rights? Or just a smart tactic to protect train passengers' safety from rowdy would-be demonstrators during a busy evening commute? The question resonated Saturday in San Francisco and beyond as details emerged of Bay Area Rapid Transit officials' decision to cut off underground cell phone service for a few hours at some stations Thursday. Commuters at stations from downtown to the city's main airport were affected as BART officials sought to tactically thwart a planned protest over the recent fatal shooting of a 45-year-old man by transit police. Two days later, the...

Pennsylvanians on public assistance now have a new 'civil right' -- free cell phones. Meanwhile, the rest of us get to pay higher cell bills as a result. Recently, a federal government program called the Universal Service Fund came to the Keystone State and some residents are thrilled because it means they can enjoy 250 minutes a month and a handset for free, just because they don't have the money to pay for it. Through Assurance Wireless and SafeLink from Tracfone Wireless these folks get to reach out and touch someone while the cost of their service is paid for by...

A civil-rights group is calling on Boca Raton High School to stop its practice of searching confiscated student cellphones and punishing students who don't provide access to their text messages or other content. The National Youth Rights Association of Washington, D.C., on Monday outlined its concerns in a letter to Boca Raton High Principal Geoff McKee. This complaint, which is the organization's first challenge on this issue, contends the school's practices "infringe upon the fundamental freedoms of its students and run counter to the holdings of the Supreme Court and the dictates of the Florida Legislature." The letter acknowledges the...

The Federal Communications Commission has stopped its 180-day review “shot clock” for AT&T’s proposed merger with T-Mobile, saying it needs more time to evaluate new information AT&T promises to deliver to the commission later this month.

A TSA representative presented an overview of the administration's Intermodal Security and Transportation Exercise Program (I-STEP) as a vital resource to help school districts and private bus companies develop table-top training to prevent criminal and terrorist attacks on and using school buses. Paul Pitzer, branch chief for policy, plans and stakeholder coordination within TSA's Highway and Motor Carrier division, explained to the attendees of the STN Webcast event that the main objective of I-STEP is to establish communication systems with school bus drivers. The program meets Homeland Security and 9/11 Act requirements. Congress required TSA to complete a school bus...

China's Real Estate Bubble Is Making Your Cell Phone Obsolete--And Valuable BY Greg Lindsay Today In the latest installment of Butterfly Effect, we follow the impact of China's bulging real estate market on commodities such as copper, the latest tech innovations those commodities enable, the scrap they create, and the subsequent recycling opportunities--in China. 1. China's Ghost Cities /snip 2. What Goes Up… Must Come Down? /snip 3. Warehouses Full of Copper /snip It worked like this: They would buy copper on foreign exchanges, receive letters of credit from government banks or some other form of financing, and pledge the...

A World Health Organization panel has concluded that cellphones are “possibly carcinogenic,’’ putting the popular devices in the same category as certain dry cleaning chemicals and pesticides, as a potential threat to human health. The finding, from the agency’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, adds to concerns among a small but growing group of experts about the health effects of low levels of... --snip-- The group didn’t conduct any new research but reviewed numerous existing studies that focused on the health effects of radio frequency magnetic fields, which are emitted by cellphones. During a news conference, Dr. Samet said...