Every year about this time, I long to live in Europe, where holiday lasts for a month. I’m on the beach on the Riviera (because in fantasies, one can always afford the best), soaking up the rays. I’m also skinny, tan (yet cancer-free) and well rested.
What’s that familiar ringing sound interfering with my fantasy?
Oh, it’s the parade of cell phones. What’s with Europeans and their wireless devices? It seems the Brits are just as enamored with their cell phones as the rest of the world. Have you seen these headlines?
AP reports a British oil worker who refused to switch off his mobile phone on a plane was convicted of endangering an international flight. Prosecutors said Neil Whitehouse repeatedly ignored the cabin crew’s requests to turn off his phone while on a British Airways flight from Madrid to Manchester, northern England, in September. “It cannot be underestimated the alarm and concern your arrogant conduct must have caused the 91 passengers and crew on this Boeing 737,” Judge Anthony Ensor said. “I believe that because of the seriousness of your conduct, a prison sentence must follow.”
Sentencing was pending.
The Evening Standard told its readers people’s lives are being put at risk in London because of how many mobile phone users are accidentally calling 999 emergency service, Scotland Yard warned. “Police believe the calls are being made by people accidentally nudging the keypads of their phones while they are carrying them in pockets or bags or next to belts.”
Finally, a British inventor is working on a security bra that can tell if its wearer is attacked and notify authorities. The bra has a built-in GPS locator and wireless phone, according to author Leander Kahney.
When we explore where today’s technology will lead us, there is one avenue I never would have guessed we’d go down.
