Archive for the ‘USA’ Category
July 9th, 2011 | 
Author: ALERT: FMCSA bans cell-phone use
fleetowner.com11/23/11
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration formally banned all hand-held cell phone use by commercial truck and bus drivers during the operation of their vehicles.
US DOT Bans Cell Phone Use By Truckers and Bus Drivers …
kansascity.injuryboard.com11/29/11
From the US Department of Transportation: U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced a final rule specifically prohibiting interstate truck and bus drivers from using handheld cell…
A comprehensive study, that was commissioned by the non-profit Governors Highway Safety Association, and funded by State Farm Insurance concluded that there is no conclusive evidence that hands-free cell phone use while driving is any less risky than hand-held cell phone use.
And it also suggests that there is no evidence that cell phone or texting bans have in any way, reduced crashes.
The findings come after nine states have imposed bans on hand-held cell phone use while driving, and thirty four states have imposed texting bans for drivers behind the wheel.
Despite the findings, The Governors Highway Safety Association does not recommend that restrictions on cell phone use or texting be lifted in any of the states where they presently exist.
But it does recommend that those forty one states which don’t ban talking on a cell phone hold off on enacting new legislation.
The study found, and suggests that:
Drivers are frequently distracted by any number of factors ranging from eating, to talking to texting, perhaps as much as 50% of the time they spend behind the wheel.
Drivers adapt by paying more attention to driving and and less to distractions, when the road risk level increases.
States should enforce existing distracted driving laws, but should consider that such enforcement takes away from other traffic enforcement efforts.
Two-thirds of all motorists reported using a cell phone while driving and about one-third of them routinely.
One-eighth of all drivers reported texting while driving, although observational studies during the daylight hours in 2009, suggested that only 1% of all drivers were observed to be texting.
In conclusion
The authors make a number of recommendations including;
Enacting a total ban of cell phone use for novice drivers.
A total ban on texting bans for all drivers.
Greater use of highway engineering solutions, such as rumble strips and automotive technological innovations which are said help reduce distracted driving accidents.
Posted in 
Rupert Murdoch's News International 'Sought to Destroy My Life …
www.hollywoodreporter.com11/30/11
At a Leveson Inquiry hearing, Mark Lewis recounted his horror at seeing the publisher's surveillance tapes of his 14-year-old daughter.
Rupert Murdoch Sells Nearly All His Nonvoting News Corp. Shares …
mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com11/22/11
Rupert Murdoch has sold almost all of his nonvoting shares in News Corporation, but because of the company's dual-class voting shares he still controls the company. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission …
Twenty years after flirting with bankruptcy, Rupert Murdoch is now on the verge of his biggest deal.
The proposed transaction is a complete takeover of UK satellite television operator British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB), which would cement News Corporation’s move away from relying on the cyclical advertising market to drive earnings.
Instead, the BSkyB business, as well as News Corp’s global suite of cable TV channels and satellite TV businesses in Italy, Germany and elsewhere, would put the company squarely in the content and distribution business, and be far less prone to advertising’s vicarious ups and downs.
It would also continue News Corp’s migration towards direct consumer subscription revenues!
* Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG, born 11 March 1931 is an Australian-American media mogul and the Chairman and CEO of News Corporation.
Risk And Reward
Twenty years ago Murdoch was facing bankruptcy!
He’d invested heavily in BSkyB which had pretty much drained News Corporation, and it was rumored that he recently paid of his mortgages, which caused a great many investors to sweat.
But today Sky is the giant of television and in addition to soccer Sky Arts, National Geographic and the History Channeland much much more.
How Much Does Murdoch Control The Content?
In the two decades that he has owned the channel, not one editor or journalist that I know of has suggested that he interfered or even made suggestions about news coverage.
How incredible!
Now, twenty years later, Murdoch is on the verge of the biggest deal of his life, benefiting from the greatest of all capitalist drivers, namely risk and reward.
At a conference in London recently he used a quote about the lack of business adventure in Britain:
"We’ve got to get rid of the fear of failure in this country. In America, people start things, fail and shake themselves down and start things again. The animal spirit of capitalism is stronger there".
How Did Murdoch Achieve A Monopoly?
In a nutshell, nobody else had the guts, the nerve or the stunning management skill to take on the establishment.
When he was losing literally hundreds of millions on Sky, his competitors were delighted but now that he has made the greatest television success in all our lifetimes, they yell foul.
What The West Is Now Lacking
Surely with the US and Europe facing bankruptcy, what is urgently needed are more people like Rupert Murdoch.
And dare I say it, "No more Obamas!", because he and his ilk have yet to understand Margaret Thatcher who famously said, "Socialism is fine, until you run out of spending other people’s money!".
