Stuck in a rut: Pakistan's Political Scene

This is a guest post by Usama Guddar. (hey, I came up with the title).

With Raja Pervaiz Ashraf getting the premiership, I decided not to worry about Pakistan anymore. I was determined to move from here as soon as I find an opportunity. However, today again I feel like I should post something. It's all about the "selection" 2013. (Yeah you heard that right! Not election, I said selection)

Starting from the fiascoes of the PPP government to Nawaz Sharif's so called opposition party, to Pervaiz Illahi's becoming the deputy premier (that was an invention, btw) to Imran Khan fever among all the kiddos of the country, I have a lot to say. Lets not talk about PPP or Nawaz Sharif and confine ourselves to Imran Khan today. Allow me to talk about the "Jinnah" of this gumrah-kun nation.

Imran Khan rose up with such a momentum that we all thought he will clean sweep this time. Those music concerts, t-shirts posing IK as the revolutionist of the century and the heated speeches of him (not to mention those memes) are still up on my mind. To tell you how much our people got obsessed by him, those idiots started comparing him with Jinnah. I got this text from someone counting the similarities between the two. Jinnah was in the Hall of fame of his university and so do Imran. Jinnah did this and Imran also did the same. Guess they wanted Imran's photo on the currency notes instead of Jinnah's. Isn't it too much?

Automated Traffic Fines? Vehicle-To-Vehicle Communication

The Internet police have cracked down on peer-to-peer file sharing as a result of pressure from the music and recording industries. Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication would be music to the ears of municipal police and drivers if it works the way developers plan.

The Transportation Research Institute at the University of Michigan, along with the U.S. Department of Transportation, began a project last fall to study the effectiveness of V2V communication in real-life situations. The $25 million in-vivo experiment follows the driving activities of 2,800 local residents who volunteered to have their vehicles equipped with the the transmitters and receivers. The vehicles will not only communicate with their drivers via audio and visual alerts, but also with devices installed at various street corners and intersections. The study is scheduled to last through the summer of 2013.

How It Works

Ray LaHood, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation, said smart cars could ultimately reduce traffic accidents by up to 80 percent. The dedicated short-range communication technology allows equipped vehicles to warn drivers of road hazards, of imminent collisions and can even tell a red light to turn green when no other traffic is around.

LaHood told Annarbor.com that the study will determine whether a federal mandate can be implemented requiring every vehicle on the road to be equipped with the technology. The biggest hurdle, besides the effectiveness of the program, is cost. But Consumer Reports noted the price is nothing compared to the savings on medical bills (which it estimates to be $99 billion annually) and the lives saved because safer cars of V2V communication.

Automated Traffic Fines

Researchers at Carlos III University in Madrid said the automated systems could work with existing V2V technology to send driving violations directly to the vehicle through municipalities. The ticket-administration program, known as Communications and Information Technologies (CITs), would allow drivers to report who is breaking the law, while allowing offenders to communicate with nearby drivers to ask them to act as witnesses. According to an Arizona car dealership, some cars are already being equipped with communication systems for emergencies.