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Tired of striking out at the singles bars? Then you might want to try a Virgin America flight. The airline has launched a new service that allows passengers to send a drink to someone on the plane who's caught their eye. It's done through the airline's in-flight entertainment system. Passengers pinpoint their designated hottie with Virgin's digital seat map, browse the menu and have a drink, snack or meal sent over. Passengers can also follow up with a text through the seat-to-seat messaging system. Virgin launched the service this week to mark the start of its Los Angeles to Las...

I was almost sideswiped by another driver on Interstate 95 today. He missed me by a couple of inches and I looked over with alarm as he passed to see him looking down into his lap and not out the windshield. No proof, naturally, but it's a safe bet he was texting on his cell phone. If fact, I had been watching him in my mirror as he approached from behind in the passing lane, and his directional control was marginal, to say the least. Who among us has not been witness to an inattentive driver using a cell, whether...

(Newser) – Texting while flying may have been a major factor in the 2011 crash of an emergency medical helicopter, according to National Transportation Safety Board investigators. Pilot James Freudenbert died along with three other people when he crashed in Missouri after running out of fuel. The NTSB, implicating distraction caused by cell phone use in a commercial aviation crash for the first time, found that Freudenbert sent and received seven messages during the flight, Bloomberg reports. Freudenbert, who was arranging dinner with a coworker, was breaking company rules by using an electronic device while at the controls. "This is...

If this isn't the perfect PSA for the dangers of texting and walking, we don't know what is. British radio personality Laura Safe was typing messages to her boyfriend when she walked straight into the icy water of a canal in Birmingham--and it was all caught on CCTV. "I thought the canal was pavement because it looked dark out of the corner of my eye," Safe told the Sun.

SNIPPET: "Social media is no longer simply a fun way to share updates on the harmless idiosyncrasies of our lives. It can undermine national security, and there ought to be a more robust discussion between the Bay Area technology world and Washington on what to do about it. Cyber-terrorism, especially the potential for electronic tampering with U.S. industrial or military installations, is a paramount national security threat that Washington is working to forestall. We're all working to protect our accounts from hackers. But the cyber-threat getting far less public attention involves the social media networks we use every day and the...

The Kodiak Daily Mirror reports she slipped as she was texting on her phone at the same time she tried to toss a cigarette butt over the cliff edge. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/09/27/alaska-woman-falls-off-60-foot-cliff-while-texting/?test=latestnews#ixzz27lhu2uif

<p>HAVERHILL, Mass. (AP) -- A Massachusetts teenager has been found guilty of motor vehicle homicide and negligent operation for causing a fatal car crash while texting on his cellphone.</p> <p>It was the first time someone had been tried in Massachusetts for the crimes while sending or receiving a text message.</p>

Yesterday in a Haverhill courtroom, jurors heard a taped police interview of Aaron Deveau admitting he was “tired,” “distracted” and speeding when his Blue Chevy Malibu hit the red Toyota Corolla driven by 55-year-old Donald Bowley Jr., who was killed, and Luz Selena Roman, 58, who was severely injured. But Deveau, 18, denied he was talking on the phone or texting, though he is accused of vehicular homicide in the state’s first texting-while-driving case. Attorneys here clearly expect many more of these cases — and more survivors of those injured to sue for damages from not just texting teens but...

Full title - Can you be blamed for texting a driver? Couple who both lost a leg in crash sue student for sending messages to boyfriend, 18, before he hit them with his truck A couple who each lost a leg after a driver careened his truck into their motorbike is suing the man's girlfriend for texting him while he was behind the wheel. David and Linda Kubert, both 59, were in Mine Hill, New Jersey when they saw Kyle Best, then 18, looking down at a text message as he swerved towards them. After the September 2009 crash, police...

I guess smartphones are now going to have to come with smartusers: Avid texters beware: Fort Lee, N.J. police said they will begin issuing $85 jaywalking tickets to pedestrians who are caught texting while walking. “It’s a big distraction. Pedestrians aren’t watching where they are going and they are not aware,” said Thomas Ripoli, chief of the Fort Lee Police Department. Ripoli said the borough, which is home to approximately 35,000 residents, has suffered three fatal pedestrian-involved accidents this year. He hopes his crackdown on people who display dangerous behavior while walking will make his town safer, but not everyone...

Fines For Texting While Walking In US Town 1:13pm UK, Saturday May 12, 2012 People caught texting on their mobile phones while walking face being fined by police in a US town. The clampdown comes after a rise in the number of jaywalking incidents, where pedestrians cross roads illegally or recklessly, instead of using marked routes. Officers in Fort Lee, New Jersey, have said some people are constantly putting themselves at risk of being hit by vehicles because they do not pay attention. Police are stepping up patrols looking for "dangerous" walkers who are not obeying the rules of the...

ST. JOSEPH, Mich. (WOOD) - A 45-year-old woman was rescued from Lake Michigan after she fell in while texting on her phone and walking on a pier, police said. Bonnie Miller of Benton Harbor told 24 Hour News 8 she was with her husband and 15-year-old son when she lost her balance on the South Pier in St. Joseph. She was fully clothed and had trouble treading water due to the heavy current. A passerby -- Rebecca Van Zant of Mishawaka, Ind. -- jumped into the water and was able to keep Miller afloat until rescue personnel arrived. A male...

Congressman Allen West announced his support and co-sponsorship of the Safe Teen and Novice Uniform Protection, or STANDUP Act, at a teen driving event at Jupiter High School on Tuesday, as reported in BPR’s March 14 article “Allen West hits a Porsche while simulating texting and driving.” The act, if passed, would ban teens from driving while texting, restrict driving with other teens and impose other limitations on young drivers. With 50 members of Congress, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and Allstate Insurance Co., among others, signed on, the bill seems to be “in good hands.” But the conservative...

Federal agents are investigating Florida House Rep. Richard L. Steinberg, D-Miami Beach, for sending a series of suggestive and harassing text messages to a married Miami female prosecutor, court records show. The dozens of messages, sent over the course of more than three months last fall, were sent from a phone that used software to disguise the number. The victim, Assistant U.S. Attorney Marlene Fernandez-Karavetsos, repeatedly begged the anonymous texter to leave her alone.

WASHINGTON — Texting, emailing or using a cellphone while driving is simply too dangerous to be allowed anywhere, federal safety investigators declared Tuesday, recommending that all states impose a total ban except for emergencies. Inspired by recent deadly crashes — including one in which a teen-ager sent or received 11 text messages in 11 minutes before an accident — the recommendation would apply even to hands-free devices, a much stricter rule than any current state law. The unanimous recommendation by the five-member National Transportation Safety Board would make an exception for devices deemed to aid driver safety such as GPS...

The stress of daily life has sparked a new phenomenon - sleep texting. People with the rare condition send incoherent text messages while asleep to their friends and family - completely unaware that they are doing it. Sleep specialist Dr David Cunnington, of Melbourne Sleep Disorder Centre in Australia, said patients had reported incidents of sleep texting - and he has advised people to leave their mobile phones outside the bedroom. I did what? Dr David Cunnington claims 'sleep texting' sufferers send incoherent messages to friends and family members - and have no recollection of doing so I did what?...

A video of a bride texting while walking down the aisle has gone viral. The other bizarre thing is that the video is more than two years old.

A teenage girl died Tuesday night in a one-vehicle accident in Butler County that state police said involved texting while driving. Alexis Summers, 17, of Saxonburg, was killed when the 2003 Subaru Legacy she was driving hit a tree after 10 p.m. off Hannastown Road in Jefferson. Her vehicle veered to the right berm of the roadway and onto a slight grass embankment, police said. Ms. Summers then apparently overcompensated while steering back onto the road. Her car spun around and hit the tree. She was pronounced dead at the scene by the Butler County deputy coroner.

Driving while talking on a cellphone or texting may get costlier if Gov. Jerry Brown signs a bill that passed out of the Legislature yesterday to increase the fines for the offenses. Senate Bill 28, authored by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, will also add a “point” on driving records for second offenses, leading to higher insurance rates for those who do not comply with the state’s hands-free law, which went into effect in July 2008. The bill also will now apply to bicyclists, who were unintentionally omitted from Simitian’s original hands-free law. “Bicyclists also have to abide by...

STUPID WOMAN SUING FOR FALLING INTO FOUNTAIN BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! She could have been hit by a bus. In the mall?