Overcast with low clouds mingled with some ground fog this Friday afternoon on California’s north coast — supposedly, a low pressure system will move through the area starting maybe later today, and lasting through Monday, carrying at best, ‘light‘ rain.

Odd refection — science and black humor…

Technology can be way-dangerous, even a killer in a distracted way. Obvious the point in warnings of texting while driving a vehicle — seems a bad idea. Apparently, a built-in problem (Distraction.gov): ‘At any given daylight moment across America, approximately 660,000 drivers are using cell phones or manipulating electronic devices while driving, a number that has held steady since 2010.’ And this only increases the possibilities of a car crash, and plausibly cause a clamor at the scene. But accidents are inevitable and if they ever transpire, the first step would be to conduct patience and talk to one of the guys at https://www.hornsbywatson.com, who are experienced attorneys ready to extricate you from the situation.
One survey last year reported ‘one-third of drivers admitted to texting while driving, and three-quarters saying they’ve seen others do it.’
Forty-six states and Washington, D.C. have banned all drivers from text messaging.

In an effort to get out the word ‘not to text’ while operating a moving vehicle (Duh!), a Canadian advertising agency figured on going all dark — the photo above was found this morning at Toronto’s CBC News outlet, along with an explanation:

That’s the message splashed across a billboard on the Gardiner Expressway — that can’t help but catch your attention.
At first blush, it looks like it’s sponsored by Wathan Funeral Home.
But — gotcha! — it’s actually a public service announcement, albeit a somber one.
Wathan Funeral Home has a website that says it’s actually a fake.
“It is a horrible thing for a funeral home to do,” a statement written on the faux-funeral home’s website.
“But we’re not a funeral home. We’re just trying to get Canadians to stop texting and driving.”
When the idea came across Angus Tucker’s desk, the co-executive director at John St. ad agency said he knew it would hit home with drivers.
“It’s three words — text and drive — but I think the fact that it doesn’t say ‘Don’t’ in front of it, which what you’re so used to seeing … it makes you look at it and go, ‘What’s this all about it?” Tucker said

Opposites un-attract — texting seems to block a mysterious human perception for survival, even when distracted.
New study-research results via Science Daily yesterday:

In all three interventions — absent minded, emotional and texting — the researchers found that the drivers’ handling of the wheel became jittery with respect to normal driving.
This jittery handling resulted in significant lane deviations and unsafe driving only in the case of texting distractions.
In the case of absent-minded and emotionally charged distractions, jittery steering resulted in straighter trajectories with respect to a normal drive and safer driving.
“A likely explanation for this paradox is the function performed by a part of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex, or ACC,” Pavlidis said.
“ACC is known to automatically intervene as an error corrector when there is conflict.
“In this case, the conflict comes from the cognitive, emotional and sensorimotor, or texting, stressors. This raises the levels of physiological stress, funneling ‘fight or flight’ energy to the driver’s arms, resulting in jittery handling of the steering wheel.”
…
“The driver’s mind can wander and his or her feelings may boil, but a sixth sense keeps a person safe at least in terms of veering off course,” Pavlidis said.
“What makes texting so dangerous is that it wreaks havoc into this sixth sense.
“Self-driving cars may bypass this and other problems, but the moral of the story is that humans have their own auto systems that work wonders, until they break.”

And from LiveScience:

Normally, “the driver’s mind can wander, and his or her feelings may boil, but a sixth sense keeps a person safe, at least in terms of [avoiding] veering off course,” Ioannis Pavlidis, a professor of computer science at the University of Houston and the lead author of the study, said in a statement.
“What makes texting so dangerous is that it wreaks havoc into this sixth sense,” Pavlidis said.

You can’t see dead people — you’re dead…