[wplug] OT: Risk management (helmet laws)
Jonathan S. Billings
billings at negate.org
Tue Jun 13 10:33:21 EDT 2006
On Tue, 2006-06-13 at 10:18 -0400, Poyner, Brandon wrote:
> Yes, the guy
> was a complete bonehead, but that kind of dare devil attitude of a small
> percentage of motorcyclists can make the whole community look bad. It's
> in the motorcycling community's best interest to convince these people
> not to needlessly endanger themselves and others on public roads.
The problem as I see, is that the motorcycling community attracts
certain risk-taking members, which is what leads to protesting helmets
and popping a wheelie on the parkway.
Risk management, and risk assessment, are actually useful things to
think about, particularly for us computer geeks. But I am guessing that
this thread doesn't want to be pulled in that direction.
Risk-taking has its benefits and failures. Inventors, business
innovators, scientists -- all take a certain amount of risk to produce a
new idea. Explorers discover new and amazing new places. There is a
neurophysiology element to risk-taking, which is probably why you see
such bone-headed behavior on the roads, rather than an attempt at self-
and cultural-improvement. In today's jaded culture, there aren't many
new frontiers to explore, and it takes 12+ years of education or
training to be a scientist or astronaut. Riding a motorcycle is a
"quick fix."
In my opinion, if you want to get a rush of excitement, and risk getting
yourself killed, join the military, go to the middle-east. You'll be
saving people's lives probably, rather than wasting your own.
--
Jonathan Billings
Those who can, do; those who can't, simulate.
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