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3 hours ago, Cygnia said:

 

Many years ago, I had a friend who had a motorcycle and did NOT like helmets.  He thought they were useless, they restricted your view, etc. and so on.  When Michigan enacted a law requiring helmets for motorcycle riders, he complained up a storm... but bought a helmet and wore it, because he hated being ticketed more than he hated wearing a helmet.

 

One day I stopped by his place.  When he answered the door, I was shocked to see his bruised face.  Of course, I asked what happened. 

 

"I was cruising down the road when a car pulled into the street right in front of me, too close for me to stop.  I ended up hitting them and flying over their hood.  Smacked into the ground face-first.  C'mere, you gotta see this."  He showed me his helmet.  The front visor was so badly scraped that you couldn't see anything through it, and the upper front looked like a hard-boiled egg that had been smacked on the counter.  "If I hadn't been wearing this thing, I have no doubt I'd be brain damaged or dead.  This thing saved my life."  He never complained about helmets after that.

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17 hours ago, BoloOfEarth said:

 

Many years ago, I had a friend who had a motorcycle and did NOT like helmets.  He thought they were useless, they restricted your view, etc. and so on.  When Michigan enacted a law requiring helmets for motorcycle riders, he complained up a storm... but bought a helmet and wore it, because he hated being ticketed more than he hated wearing a helmet.

 

One day I stopped by his place.  When he answered the door, I was shocked to see his bruised face.  Of course, I asked what happened. 

 

"I was cruising down the road when a car pulled into the street right in front of me, too close for me to stop.  I ended up hitting them and flying over their hood.  Smacked into the ground face-first.  C'mere, you gotta see this."  He showed me his helmet.  The front visor was so badly scraped that you couldn't see anything through it, and the upper front looked like a hard-boiled egg that had been smacked on the counter.  "If I hadn't been wearing this thing, I have no doubt I'd be brain damaged or dead.  This thing saved my life."  He never complained about helmets after that.

 

Quite a few years ago now, I remember...I think he was an assistant manager at a local supermarket I went to enough, so got to know most of the regulars.  Saw him in there, shopping, when I realized...I'd not seen him in quite a while.  Turned out?  He rode.  With bike leathers and a helmet.  He got hit by a truck that ran a light, or couldn't stop in time...I forget.  But the truck's fault.  Extensive injuries...but obviously, he lived, and it wasn't worse because he was wearing his helmet, and semi-protective clothing.  OK, road rash might've been the least of his problems but it's no joke either.  Infection is definitely a non-trivial risk, and that can complicate everything else that has to be done.

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1 hour ago, unclevlad said:

 

Quite a few years ago now, I remember...I think he was an assistant manager at a local supermarket I went to enough, so got to know most of the regulars.  Saw him in there, shopping, when I realized...I'd not seen him in quite a while.  Turned out?  He rode.  With bike leathers and a helmet.  He got hit by a truck that ran a light, or couldn't stop in time...I forget.  But the truck's fault.  Extensive injuries...but obviously, he lived, and it wasn't worse because he was wearing his helmet, and semi-protective clothing.  OK, road rash might've been the least of his problems but it's no joke either.  Infection is definitely a non-trivial risk, and that can complicate everything else that has to be done.

 

Of all the people I've met who ride motorcycles, exactly zero of them have not had some sort of bad accident on them.  One of my engineers back in the day laid his bike down and scraped most of the skin of the side of his leg; he had skin problems all over his body for years, because the skin is an organ and you can't do that much damage to an organ without consequence.  Another slid through a street sign and destroyed his knee; he managed to do this when he had no health insurance, so he never got physical therapy and thus had a permanent limp from the age of 22.

 

As a parent I consider myself unusually permissive and supportive, but I have specifically banned my children from playing football or riding motorcycles on the road.  Neither one is even a question of helmets to me.

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At one time I worked in a group where 3 different people had bad motorcycle accidents...altho mostly off-road.

 

In one case, the guy was out for multiple months, IIRC.  The other two were before I joined that group...but one of them had a permanently mangled, only barely usable left hand.

 

I agree that kids (and young adults) and motorcycles don't mix.  Football...for multiple reasons, actually.  Only some of them are safety related.  I might throw mountain biking into that mix, as that's quite risky.  I would at least insist on helmets.    

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4 hours ago, death tribble said:

Lula re-elected in Brazil in stunning upset

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-63451470

 

 

I wonder if the voter motivation in this election isn't similar to that in the last American presidential election: not so much pro-Lula, as anti-Bolsonaro. Particularly since Bolsonaro's party won a majority in Brazil's congress.

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