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Comment: Fully accepting personal responsibility (Score 1) 1651

by mcouper (#41527951) Attached to: To Encourage Biking, Lose the Helmets

is the ONLY way I'd advocate for revoking helmet laws, whether they are for bicycles or motorcycles. If you're willing to give up any and all rights to any assistance to cover your medical or other expenses due to injuries that could have been prevented had you worn a helmet, then I'm good with it. That includes not only public assistance, but private (insurance) assistance as well; unless you're willing to pay significantly more given the additional risk you're willfully taking.

I used to have the same attitude that many of the posters have regarding speed and helmets while skiing. That was until a very good friend of mine, who is an expert-level skier, caught an edge while traversing a blue ski run and self-arrested on a rock. By the time I reached him, a halo of blood had formed. Fortunately we were able to get him off the mountain quickly enough that he survived and was able to make a full recovery.

I have another friend who was skating at a very slow speed and was clipped by another skater coming in the opposite direction. He wasn't as lucky, and has permanent brain damage.

You want to ride/skate/ski/whatever without appropriate protective gear, fine, but don't expect me to foot the bill for your stupidity.

Comment: brilliant marketing plan (Score 1) 149

by mcouper (#37352584) Attached to: App Enables Surfing Over SMS/MMS Through T-Mobile

By proxying searches/browsing/etc, they instantaneously gain profiling data for every user that uses the service. I can't imagine that data won't be mined/used for remarketting purposes. Of course, like Comcast has told me on numerous occasions, using my email/browsing data simply allows them to improve my overall Internet experience...

Books

Puzzle In xkcd Book Finally Cracked 90

Posted by kdawson
from the be-there-or-be-somewhere-else dept.
An anonymous reader writes "After a little over five months of pondering, xkcd fans have cracked a puzzle hidden inside Randall Munroe's recent book xkcd: volume 0. Here is the start of the thread on the xkcd forums; and here is the post revealing the final message (a latitude and longitude plus a date and time)."
Earth

Breaking the Squid Barrier 126

Posted by timothy
from the calimari-for-the-5000 dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Dr. Steve O'Shea of Auckland, New Zealand is attempting to break the record for keeping deep sea squid alive in captivity, with the goal of being able to raise a giant squid one day. Right now, he's raising the broad squid, sepioteuthis australis, from egg masses found in seaweed. This is a lot harder than it sounds, because the squid he's studying grow rapidly and eat only live prey, making it hard for them to keep the squid from becoming prey themselves. If his research works out, you might one day be able to visit an aquarium and see giant squid."
Image

Living In Tokyo's Capsule Hotels 269

Posted by samzenpus
from the living-in-the-hive dept.
afabbro writes "Capsule Hotel Shinjuku 510 once offered a night’s refuge to salarymen who had missed the last train home. Now with Japan enduring its worst recession since World War II, it is becoming an affordable option for people with nowhere else to go. The Hotel 510’s capsules are only 6 1/2 feet long by 5 feet wide. Guests must keep possessions, like shirts and shaving cream, in lockers outside of the capsules. Atsushi Nakanishi, jobless since Christmas says, 'It’s just a place to crawl into and sleep. You get used to it.'”
Idle

Hand Written Clock 86

Posted by samzenpus
from the up-to-the-minute dept.
a3buster writes "This clock does not actually have a man inside, but a flatscreen that plays a 24-hour loop of this video by the artist watching his own clock somewhere and painstakingly erasing and re-writing each minute. This video was taken at Design Miami during Art Basel Miami Beach 2009."
Image

Want to Eat Chocolate Every Day For a Year? 158

Posted by samzenpus
from the dental-nightmare dept.
Scientists from the University of East Anglia are studying the potential health benefits of dark chocolate, and need 40 female volunteers who would like to eat chocolate every day for a year. The chocolate loving 40 must be post-menopausal and have type 2 diabetes so it can be determined if the flavonoid compounds in chocolate can reduce the risk of heart disease. Dr Peter Curtis, of the UEA's School of Medicine, said, "Our first volunteers are about to return for their final visit to see if the markers of heart health - such as blood pressure and cholesterol levels — have changed. A successful outcome could be the first step in developing new ways to improve the lives of people at increased risk of heart disease."

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself. -- A.H. Weiler

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