safety

FCC wireless auction for police and fire departments too

There's a tremendous amount of attention focused on whether the Federal Communication Commission's September auction of new wireless spectrum in the 700 MHz band will be "open access," available to many mobile providers and applications, or be limited to whatever the auction winner wants to do with it.

There is also an important public safety issue in this debate that is not getting as much attention. That is whether some of this valuable wireless real estate should be reserved by the FCC for our first responders--the people who drive our ambulances, show up for fires, and … Read more

Online safety needs to go beyond 'Don't talk to strangers'

As a previous generation of children was given the blanket advice "Don't talk to strangers," today's kids are told "never give out your personal information online." A new study suggests that this well-intentioned advice is not sufficient to protect children from unwanted sexual solicitation and harassment. The study comes to the controversial conclusion that sharing information online is not correlated with victimization. Many other online safety experts maintain that privacy protection is always a good first line of defense, though clearly not the only step.

The study, published in the February 2007 issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine and reported by the AP, found that victimization is likely to be associated with online behavior such as talking about sex with people met online, or intentionally embarrassing someone else on the Internet. … Read more

Voyeurs 'R Us: What parents need to know about Stickam

My recent posting about child abuse concerns inherent in "$100 laptop" distribution in the developing world elicited strong responses both in favor and against my position. A new report about the ties between a live Webcam chat site, Stickam.com, and a large online pornography conglomerate underlines the seriousness of these risks, hitting us close to home here in the United States.… Read more

Feds footing the bill for municipal broadband?

NEWTON, Mass.--Many people think municipal broadband is only used for free public outdoor Wi-Fi, but it may be its lesser known uses that get it paid for.

According to presenters here at MuniWireless New England, some towns are using public safety grants for law enforcement wireless networks to cover their initial costs for building a broadband infrastructure.

"Police are the biggest users of the network and they all are telling me their cruiser has become their desk. The only time they need to come to headquarters now is to book someone, deliver physical evidence or to get their … Read more

The science of New Orleans: Getting out of town alive

Escape from New Orleans, a topic for scientific inquiry--and who better to study the problem than a scientist at Louisiana State University? Now Brian Wolshon has gotten a federal grant to continue his research. In an emergency, how do you get people out of town?

Even back before Katrina hit, the folks at LSU were thinking about disasters and the incumbent evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people.

Computer modeling developed at Los Alamos National Lab will be used in a new effort to understand, plan and predict evacuation. And the variables are daunting. Just try predicting the kind of … Read more

Photos: The safest cars of 2007

Following our round up of state-of-the-art car safety features, we're continuing our Car Tech safety kick with a roundup of the 18 vehicles that the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has chosen as its top safety picks.

The shortlist is pretty evenly split between American, European, and Asian manufacturers, with two entries each from Ford, Acura, Subaru, and Audi. Take a look at the gallery here.

Careful of that iPod, it could be dangerous

The iPod may not be as innocent as it looks. And there's something even more dangerous than the terrible music the person next to you is listening to. A study by medical doctors and one inquisitive teenager shows the iPod may interfere with the activity of cardiac pacemakers. No other handheld music players were tested. So the iPod joins a long list of electronic devices that may interfere with pacemakers. They range from microwave ovens (even if you don't stick your head inside) to radio transmitters.

Could we be seeing surgeon general warnings on iPods and their cousins?… Read more

Going backward for car safety

Car makers are increasingly looking backward in their visual safety features--as in Webcam screens built into their rear-view mirrors in an effort to eliminate blind spots once and for all. While we're all in favor of the idea, for some reason we have a feeling that the cost of such add-ons will involve bodily appendages such as arms and legs.

But SkyMall, of all places, is offering a "Wireless Backup Camera" that plugs into the license plate light socket and feeds video to a 2.5-inch color display that can be fastened to a visor or the … Read more

Piczo goes multilingual

Piczo, which is a San Francisco-based social networking site for teens that touts extensive, parent-friendly safety features, has started to reach beyond the U.S. and U.K. The company announced an initiative to expand into other countries by introducing international versions of the site, and today, Piczo announced the first phase of this expansion: into Germany, France, and Spain. There are already sizeable chunks of Piczo's 25-million-member base from those three countries, according to an official release (including 1.2 million in Germany), but now they'll be able to opt into using the service in their home … Read more