On Saturday, the government health ministry of Canada reported the first presumed case in Canada of a patient with the so-called Wuhan virus, officially known as Novel Coronavirus 2019-nCoV. Read the rest

Petition demands recall of 500,000+ cars over alleged defect

Electric car maker Tesla said on Monday there was no unintended acceleration in its vehicles, as petition signature-gatherers demanding a federal safety investigation have claimed. Read the rest

Both Phrma (the lobby for the global pharmaceutical industry) and Biotechnology Innovation Organization (biotech lobbyists) provided letters to a US-UK government meeting to discuss post-Brexit trade terms, in which both organisations called for substantially higher British prices for essential medicines after Brexit. Read the rest

Women and girls, Uber at your own risk. Read the rest

Hopefully you won't find yourself in a situation where you'll have to see if the "wipe away the flame" technique demonstrated here really works.

Image: LiveLeak Read the rest

Protesting the rise of right-wing populism and our increasingly oppressive nations is so hot right now. Ideally, living in a democratic society (at least for now) as we do, Americans and Canadians have the stone-cold privilege of being able to assemble and protest peacefully without fear of violence from extremist nuts, the police and, why the hell not, the military.

In theory.

As they say, life comes at you pretty fast. Sometimes, life comes at you firing tear gas (which often isn't actually a gas at all but rather, 'aerosolized solid or liquid compounds.) Wong Tsui-kai of YoungPost offers some fine, hard-earned tips on what to do to keep yourself and those around you as safe from the compound inside of the canister lobbed your way as possible.

Leave the area to fresh air, ideally to high ground as the vapour is heavier than air. If it is used in a building, exit the building. Keeping your arms outstretched will help the gas come off your clothing. Do not rub your eyes, as that will only agitate the crystals and make it more painful. Rinse away the chemical from your eyes and skin with large amounts of clean water or saline. An eye flush can be done by tilting the head sideways and letting the water travel from the inner eye to the outer corner, aiming the stream at the bridge of the nose. Make sure not to let the liquid flow to the other eye, spreading the chemical. The affected person should keep their eyes open during the rinse.

Ship's captains and outside monitoring firms have reported waves of GPS jamming around Shanghai's ports, on a scale and of a severity never seen before: the jamming causes ships' locations to be incorrectly displayed and to jump around; the observations were confirmed via an anonymized (sic) data-set from a short-hire bike firm, whose bikes are also mysteriously appearing and disappearing at locations all through the region. The spoofing has created a massive local shipping hazard and has led to spectacular shipwrecks. Read the rest

In Mumbai, India, the Western Railway deployed a police officer dressed as Yamarāja, a Hindu god of death, to educate commuters about railway safety and enforce the laws. From Zee News:

Railway Ministry's handle warned the people in Hindi, "Do not cross the track in an unauthorised manner, it can be fatal."

"If you cross the track in an unauthorized way, then Yamraj will be standing in front of you," Railway Ministry added.

In 2018, as many as seven people on an average lost their lives on a daily basis due to carelessness in crossing railway tracks illegitimately. At least 1,476 people had lost their lives while crossing the railway tracks while over 650 people died after falling off the trains.

Read the rest

"Improving Automobile Safety by Removing Blind Spots" is 14 year old Alaina Gassler's prizewinning science-fair project, which uses cameras mounted to the exterior of the car and feeding their video to internal projectors, which projection-map them onto the a-pillars that otherwise obscure the driver's view. Read the rest

This Halloween safety video from 1985 starts with puffs of dry ice smoke set to funky music. It then cuts to floating disembodied masks, and it just gets better from there. Read the rest

Nancy Mumby-Welke lives in rural Saginaw County, MI; yesterday morning she was about to let her horses out when she discovered the crashed, humming remains of a Samsung satellite on her property. Read the rest

Apparently a 6-year-old got ahold of someone's prescription medication and decided to experiment with her friends.

Arizona's ABC15 reports:

According to Phoenix Fire Department, four elementary school students took "what appears to be heart medication pills" on the school bus Thursday morning.

Phoenix police say a 6-year-old girl took the prescription pills from an adult family member and gave them to four other 6- and 7-year-olds while they were on the way to school.

A staff member at the school became aware of what happened, brought the kids to the nurse's office, and called 911.

Today, Wired advises you to "Stop Renting E-Scooters Every Day and Just Buy One Already!", which may or may not be good advice in terms of your own safety and the safety of others, but if you like the idea, you don't need to spend $1000-$1600 to risk your neck and the necks of everyone else on your commute. Read the rest

Via Youtube and The Ontario Provincial Police:

A public safety film narrated by Peter Fonda with special guest Evel Knievel who provide safety tips and guidance for motorcycle riders. Features performance riding by the Los Angeles Police Department. (OPP Museum accession number 2012.51.5)

Credits and Copyright: Filmfair Communications Incorporated (1973)

Ryan Alden, a 39 year-old professional sack of filth/security technician, was charged with 28 felonies after getting caught by the cops doing some incredibly invasive, heinous shit.

From Gizmodo:

Nichols Hills Police Chief Steven Cox told News9 that one of the homeowners had called a heat and air company to come and take a look at a climate control issue in their home. Cameras were then found zip-tied to air vents in the teen daughter’s bedroom, bathroom, and closet, according to court documents. As the home was under renovation, several different crews had been in and out of the residence and Alden became a suspect.

After an investigation into Alden’s personal devices, it was discovered that there were victims outside of just the individuals in the homes he had serviced, and an officer with the Edmond Police Department said the recordings could fill 12 spindles of compact discs, News 9 reported. Police said that there was child pornography on five of his computers and two of his phones.

But it doesn't stop there. According to the Associated Press, the investigation into Alden's crimes uncovered that he'd also installed cameras in public bathrooms, clothing store change rooms, schools and gyms. The investigation, which started in 2018 after one of the clients serviced by Alden's company uncovered the cameras secreted away on their property. Upon raiding his Alden's home, the police discovered that he had what was described as "tens of thousands of files" in his possession. Alden was found guilty of all 28 felonies and, for his crimes, was committed to life in prison, plus 150 years. Read the rest

Two years ago, the EU Aviation Safety Agency warned that some Airbus 350s required a hard reboot every 149 hours to be safe to fly; two years later, most of the affected planes are still being rebooted to cope with the bug. Read the rest

Women wearing seatbelts are 73% more likely to be killed or seriously injured in a car crash than men in seatbelts, and while it's not entirely certain why this is, it's a pretty good bet that sampling bias in crash-testing is to blame. Read the rest