P.S.A.: Pregnant Women Should ALWAYS Wear Seatbelts

Yesterday, a pregnant woman and her unborn child died on I-94 in metro Detroit.  From the Detroit Free Press:

A 23-year-old pregnant woman died in a car crash on I-94 on Tuesday morning, along with her baby, who was ripped from her body along the freeway.

Shardae Homesly of Detroit was not wearing a seat belt as she rode in the front seat of her SUV, driven by her fiancé, Michigan State Police Sgt. Linda Mys said.

The couple were heading westbound near Morang on Detroit's east side shortly before 11:45 a.m. The fiancé, whose name wasn't released, swerved to avoid hitting a van that began merging into the SUV's path in the far-right lane.

Think about that for a moment.  The baby was "ripped from her body". 

Some pregnant women refuse to wear seatbelts because they are worried that it will "hurt the baby". 

Forget that.  If you are unrestrained, and get in an accident, you and your baby could die. 

The safe way for pregnant women to wear seatbelts is to raise the shoulder belt slightly, so that it crosses the chest above the belly, and to pull the lap belt down a little so it crosses over the hips below the belly. 

Eggs On Windshields: Urban Legend

I got a chain email the other day, warning about a new carjacking tactic. Bad guys would throw eggs at a persons windshield, and then follow them. The person would supposedly have to stop, because windshield wipers would smear the egg around and make it impossible to see.

According to Snopes, this is pure urban legend. Link.

Chevy Volt Driven!

Finally, GM has allowed someone in the press to drive a Chevy Volt with the gas engine enabled and write about it.   Paul E. at DetroitBureau writes,

In normal mode, Volt delivered reasonable acceleration, launching from 0 to 60 in what we estimated to be around 10 seconds.  But switched to Sport mode we got an unexpected jolt.  Electric motors deliver maximum wheel-spinning torque the moment they start to turn, and with Volt, that translates into a very sporty launch feel and 0 to 60 times of about two seconds quicker.

Farah had intentionally given our prototype Volt just a limited charge, just enough so that we could experience the vehicle on battery power then have it automatically transition to extended-range mode – a fancy way of saying its inline-four-cylinder internal combustion engine fired up.  The transition was all but seamless and even with the engine running, the cabin remained surprisingly quiet.

Good news--the gas engine is quiet when recharging the batteries, even in Michigan winter conditions.

You can read the whole thing here.

Oh, and 100 points if you can find the typo, with which Eisenstein accidentally demotes the Volt to a Mitsubishi product.

McFly's Hyundai eBay Nightmare

User "McFly" of Hyundai fan site Gencoupe.com won a used Genesis coupe on eBay in an non-reserve auction for $16,000.  The dealer, Glenn Hyundai of Lexington KY, screwed up and forgot to put a reserve price on the car, which is worth closer to $19,000.  Since the auction is supposed to be a legally binding contract, McFly called and tried to finish the deal.   However, the dealer refused to sell the car at the eBay price.

McFly is giving the dealer hell, doing wide ranging internet publicity, approaching news outlet, as well as his state's vehicle sales commission to get justice.  You can read the whole mess here.

Politics

THANK YOU MASSACHUSETTS!

CFL Dissapointment

I have been using the spiral-type CFL bulbs in a few places at home, such as in the basement. But recently I broke one of these off by knocking something into it. I replaced it with a new fully encased bulb from GE, which has the flourescent tube and electronics encased in a round glass bulb, looking very much like an over-sized traditional lightbulb.

I'm not happy with this product at all. It takes a very long time to warm up and come up to full brightness, so long that you really notice it. When it is cold, and you first turn it on, it is very dim and gives off a small amount of purplish light.

After about 1min or so it is bright, which seems like an eternity.

I wish VU1 would hurry up with their claimed "next best thing" ESL bulb.

On Comment Spam

A quick note to all you comment spammers who keep dribbling your business all over my blog. I watch the comments, and when I see spam, it is deleted.

So don't bother, you are just wasting your time.