Why Modern Cars Are So Much Safer

Popular Mechanics: The Physics of Why Modern Cars Are So Much Safer, Explained in 146 Seconds

The science of why you should learn to love the crumple zone.

Car crashes are still extremely deadly—32,719 Americans died in car accidents in 2013, or almost 90 people a day. But the number of people dying in car crashes—particularly when expressed as how many people per 100,000 die in an auto accident—has essentially steadily declined since the early 1970s. the early 1970s.

CSN Editor: The problem with cars that easily "crumple" is that it is easy to damage them at minor speed ... hence higher insurance rates. But it is a still a no brainer .... at moderate to high speeds it is better to be in a a car that crumples than being in a car that does not.

What Went Wrong On The Costa Concordia

What Went Wrong On The Costa Concordia -- Popular Mechanics

The sight of behemoth pleasure vessel Costa Concordia sideways in the sea became an indelible image around the world. Here's the full story of how this entirely avoidable vacation-turned-nightmare unfolded.

Antonello Tievoli, headwaiter on the Costa Concordia, stepped onto the bridge of the cruise ship at 9:15 pm on Friday, Jan. 13, of this year. From the wide windows, Tievoli could see the glittering lights of his home, Giglio Island, drawing closer.

Capt. Francesco Schettino knew that Tievoli's sister lived on Giglio, and invited him to the bridge as they cruised past. With its 13 brightly lit decks, the ship was more brilliant than anything on the island. The 4200 people onboard outnumbered the island's residents four to one.

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My Comment: Something to think about should you decide to go on a cruise.

Undersea Search Resumes For France Flight 447

From Discovery News:

On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447 disappeared in turbulent weather en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. For the remainder of the summer, two major efforts were launched by search and rescue crews to find the remains of the plane and the 228 people who had been on board, with great hopes of also finding the two data recorders. So far, 51 bodies and 1,000 pieces of wreckage have been found, but not the data recorders, which only emit signals for 30 days.

Finding the so-called black boxes is key to understanding what happened to the airplane.

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Why ARE So Many Planes Falling Out Of The Sky? A Spate Of Disastrous Crashes Reveals One Terrifying Common Flaw...

Some of the debris from the missing Air France flight was eventually recovered

From the Daily Mail:

Three hours into the flight, none of the 216 passengers would have had any reason to be concerned. As the dinner plates in business class were being cleared away, the beaches of northern Brazil, 35,000ft below, were slipping past at 550mph. Some of the passengers might have ordered an after-dinner drink, others might have been crawling beneath their blankets, hoping for a few hours' sleep.

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Could A Helmet Have Saved Natasha Richardson?

Natasha Richardson. Andrew Crowley / Telegraph UK / Zuma

From Time Magazine:

There is still more speculation than information surrounding actress Natasha Richardson's fateful ski accident. Part of the confusion is the very nature of the accident — an improbable injury, little more than a head bump on a bunny slope, that has felled an otherwise healthy 45-year-old woman. It has also left onlookers wondering not just what happened to Richardson, but whether a helmet could have prevented it.

The details of Richardson's accident are sketchy, but what is known sounded benign — at first. She was taking a lesson on a beginner slope at the Mont Tremblant ski resort north of Montreal, with an instructor but without a helmet. She fell at the end of the lesson and struck her head, but was alert and conversational afterward and did not complain of any ill effects. An hour later, in her hotel room, she developed a severe headache. The next day, she was flown to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City in critical condition, where she died on Wednesday.

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