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Here's a trivia question:' Who invented the car seat belt?The answer?' Volvo's first safety engineer, Nils Bohlin, who invented it in 1959.' Prior to this invention, Bohlin designed a catapult ejector seat for airplane pilots.'This month is the 50th anniversary of the three-point safety belt, an invention that has saved hundreds of thousands of lives globally.' Volvo also made the patent available to other car makers, because they were convinced of the life-saving potential of this invention.Of course, just about everybody was against it at first:' it added cost to the car, no one wanted to promote cars as "death traps" by saying seat belts were there to save lives, and some people envisioned themselves trapped by a seat belt while a car was aflame or sinking into a watery grave.'Facts eventually won out over emotional responses, and safety experts estimate that seat belts increase your chance of surviving ANY collision by roughly 50 percent (according to a Fox News story).Of course, these days, there are many more safety precautions available to the average driver:' front and side air bags, pre-tensioners which tighten the safety belt straps when a collision is imminent, anti-lock braking system, and cars that talk to you when you're too close to a wall or to another car.'Nonetheless, all roads lead back to the seat belt.' You're just plain stupid if you don't use seat belts, and excuses like "it pinches," or you don't believe you'll ever have an accident or you forget just don't fly.The facts are that you will more likely die by ejection if you don't buckle up.' If you insist on not using your seat belt, please take out a million dollar life insurance policy for your family and friends.' That way, they can at least enjoy some benefit from your being so stubborn! More >>

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"Technology is the Evil Empire, Bent On Destroying Family Intimacy!" That's the headline I'd like to put on this post, but guns don't shoot people - people shoot people - so technology is not destroying families. People are destroying their own families.The technology I'm talking about is texting, video gaming, Facebook, email, Twitter, MySpace and more. Remember when the only complaint about lack of communication in families was when family members were all in separate rooms watching different television programs? Well, now, family members can all be in the same room, totally ignoring each other for the sake of fake friends and useless information, instead of for family conversations. Some family members even text each other from different parts of the same home, rather than walk the 15 feet, hug, and talk to each other.I remember the not-so-recent TV ads that promoted a family eating dinner together. Now, if you showed an ad with a family at the dinner table, there'd have to be a sign nearby that said "No Wireless Zone." I wonder what depth of interaction is being missed because one is getting superficial "quickies" from texting or emailing or Facebooking?' On the other hand, I already know that we're less able to engage in reasoned, significant discourse and profound intimacies these days, because, from the age of 4 or 5, we're geared toward the superficial, faceless exchange of comments on each other's web pages.Parents, you must get yourselves into gear and limit the amount of time per day donated to the wireless world outside of work. Otherwise, over time, there'll be no need for lips and vocal cords and eye contact, and we'll evolve into "thumbs only" beings who just peck away with a false sense of actually participating in the real world. More >>

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While I was having a healthy breakfast the other morning, I became incensed at a particular TV commercial for TUMS.' TUMS itself is a fine product for relieving excess stomach acid, but that's NOT how the commercial was positioning the product.A man, standing in the evening rain, is looking through the glass into a restaurant, gazing hungrily and sadly while the cook is frying up a bunch of meat and pouring cheese all over it.' The music accentuates the man's painful disappointment.' The scene is a "take-off" on the situation where a starving child has his nose against the glass watching rich people dine, while his stomach has shrunken to the size of a raisin.It was not very funny.The next shot is of a TUMS bottle.' The shot after that is of the man who had been looking into the restaurant eating this ferociously unhealthy sandwich of meat fried in a ton of oil with artery-clogging cheese melted all over it.Not very funny, either.So, here is a product which is NOT being promoted as a rescue effort for someone struck with a little excess acid.' This product is now being promoted as an ENABLER of horrible eating habits (Hey!' Eat that rich, fattening food - because now we have a way to get you through it with minimal discomfort!) Since two thirds of Americans (including children) are fat or obese, this is so irresponsible that I am ALMOST speechless.' Showing people they can indulge in unbelievably unhealthy eating with the help of TUMS sounds like something you would see in a comedy movie, but not in an actual promotion of a supposedly healthy product.I liked it better when they were touting the amount of calcium in it for strong bones.It's not the fault of the TUMS tablets.' It's the fault of the greedy folks behind it, who are willing to let people hurt themselves, if it sells a tablet. More >>

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