Ski Helmet Use Isn’t Reducing Brain Injuries

On Thu, 2 Jan 2014 12:32:07 -0800 (PST), wrote
this crap:

On Thursday, January 2, 2014 12:44:24 PM UTC-6, wrote:
On Thu, 2 Jan 2014 09:18:52 -0800 (PST), wrote


Do you also wear flannel shirts and jeans with chaps?

I'm from Texas, not from Stupidville.

That's news to me.

Chaps are only useful when traveling through thick brush.
In snow, the brush is all under the snow, or else the
terrain is impassable on skis.

I thought all Texans wore chaps for their sporting events.

Flannel shirts don't function well for skiing because they
don't breathe properly, regardless of fiber content.

I wouldn't know. I've never worn a flannel shirt.

Jeans are not recommended for skiing since cotton
readily absorbs water (you know, that stuff that snow is
made of) but unlike wool, dries from the outside IN, and
hence readily conducts excessive heat while doing a very
poor job of insulating, even if dry.

Everybody knows that. But I thought Texans wore jeans everywhere,
with a huge belt buckle.

So the answer to all three is NO, although I never make disparaging
remarks about skiiers who dress like they are from Cleveland
or other failed rust-belt cities.

However, if you can share some pointers with us on how you cause
your river to spontaneously catch fire, I think we'd all be
interested to know.

I keep telling you I live in Detroit. My brother Steve lives in
Cleveland.


There's no need to fear if Trunky is near.

On Thursday, January 2, 2014 3:37:27 PM UTC-6, wrote:
On Thu, 2 Jan 2014 12:32:07 -0800 (PST), mo...gmail.com wrote


However, if you can share some pointers with us on how you cause
your river to spontaneously catch fire, I think we'd all be
interested to know.


I keep telling you I live in Detroit. My brother Steve lives in


My bad.

Detroit is where the residents set each other's houses on fire each year as a Halloween prank. Cleveland is where the river catches itself on fire to purge the stench of the unwashed Polacks from the air.

It's OK, I can say that -- I was born in Cleveland.

You've heard the saying,

"I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as soon as I could."

There's another one about the rust belt --

"I WAS born there, but I got the hell out as soon as I could."

You have my deepest admiration for being able to survive and thrive in such a godforsaken part of the world. The band of states just south of the Great Lakes is the American version of Siberia ... as I am sure you noticed today.


Jim in Texas
experiencing a chilly 55 degree bluebird day with a crisp, smog-free* north wind of about 15 MPH


*not counting the aroma of oak-fired BBQ pits full of slaughtered pigs, cattle, chicken, and an occasional freshly killed Bambi

On 1/2/14 1:37 PM, wrote:

I've never worn a flannel shirt.

I thought you were from Detroit, up in the North Woods?
In the North Woods everyone wears a flannel shirt, including Babe the
Blue Ox's care-taker.

comadrejo wrote:
lal_truckee wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/01/sports/on-slopes-rise-in-helmet-use-but-no-decline-in-brain-injuries.html

I think I'll continue to wear mine.

Helmets are designed to take the blow and crumple, to dampen and
disapate the impact. Their intention is not to prevent head injury
but to lessen it. I like this quote from the article.. They are
far from being panaceas to a serious problem.

""There's no 100 percent prevention of brain injury," said Alan
Weintraub, the medical director of the brain injury program at Craig
Hospital in Englewood, Colo. "Because the more the head and brain are
protected, the more risks people take, the more velocities happen
with those risks and the more velocities are transmitted to the skull
and brain."

There is the same debate about bike helmets. i am all for helmets,
because anyway to lessen head impact the better. It also shows how
fragile and delicate the human brain and skull to any sort of
traumatic injury.

What happened to Michael Schumacher, was that he hit three rocks in
succession, the first rock, probably destroy the integrity of his
helmet and the next two rocks did further damage. He has a very
serious brain injury, but it probably been worst without a helmet to
take some of the impact on the first rock he hit.

They said he would be dead without the helmet.

The idea that people takes more risks BECAUSE they are wearing a helmet I find
to be rediculous. Certainly I never think "I'm wearing a helmet so I can do
this". I'm sure the reason injuries are still going up is purely due to the
mentality of many people who just know it can't happen to them. I know a few
people like that, one of whom broke his back in a few places last season, and is
already scaring people this year with the jumps he is taking. There are just so
many more people trying the really extreme chutes, jumps, and tricks and going
beyond their skills. Some of them don't even wear a helmet. The helmet didn't
make them do it.

On Thursday, January 2, 2014 4:58:01 PM UTC-6, Bob F wrote:


The idea that people takes more risks BECAUSE they are wearing a helmet I find
to be rediculous[sic]. Certainly I never think "I'm wearing a helmet so I can do
this". I'm sure the reason injuries are still going up is purely due to the
mentality of many people who just know it can't happen to them. I know a few
people like that, one of whom broke his back in a few places last season


Actually, there are a number of studies that document that when people have dependable safety equipment or measures in place, they actually DO take greater risks. I don't feel like researching any of these for you right now, but it might be of merit to the discussion eventually.

However, consider these anecdotal observations:

-- How many Mac OS or Linux users do you know who are careless about their online security because "nobody targets *nix for malware"?

-- How many Volvo owners do you know who are really ****ty drivers because "their cars are safer"?

-- How many people do you know who get unprotected (i.e. no condom) blow jobs or give unprotected cunnilingus because "you can't get AIDS from oral"?


I can think of at least one former user of this group who is a motorcyclist who used to eschew helmet use because wearing a helmet made him more likely to suffer a massive cervical spine injury. He's come around to wearing a motorcycle helmet now.

Risk mitigation techniques like wearing helmets are ONLY mitigation techniques. The key is that you need to be wary of behavior modification you do post-mitigation that changes the risk equation enough to negate the positive value of the mitigation.

For my part, in the latter years when I used to motorcycle, I always wore a helmet, but I also used to knee-drag on the street a lot. That negated the value of the helmet.

Nowadays -- the next time I ski, I'll wear a helmet, but I'm so damn old now that I physically cannot engage in my dangerous behavior of 15 or 20 years ago. So except in the case of a totally unexpected encounter (collisions with knuckle-draggers excluded), potential disadvantages of wearing a helmet such as reduced hearing acuity or reduced peripheral vision just might outweigh the benefits of helmet use.

But if the helmet is stylish or keeps my head warmer? That's different, and THOSE benefits would outweigh the risk mitigation or loss thereof involved in helmet use.

By now ... my kids are almost grown and I am not depending on six terms in Congress, so my life is less precious to others than it was a decade or two ago. Of course, like most of the folks in the highest skiier death rate group, when I started skiing I was utterly convinced that I was immortal, invincible, and indestructible; I started skiing long after my motorcycling career proved that I *was* immortal, invincible, and indestructible -- eight fractured vertebrae and nearly half a dozen other bone fractures while motorcycling proved it.

And now with two stainless-steel hips I unconditionally cannot break a hip, just smash my pelvis or fracture a femur.

I should be good to go!


Jim in Texas

On Thu, 2 Jan 2014 14:02:52 -0800 (PST), wrote
this crap:

On Thursday, January 2, 2014 3:37:27 PM UTC-6, wrote:
On Thu, 2 Jan 2014 12:32:07 -0800 (PST), mo...gmail.com wrote


However, if you can share some pointers with us on how you cause
your river to spontaneously catch fire, I think we'd all be
interested to know.


I keep telling you I live in Detroit. My brother Steve lives in


My bad.

Detroit is where the residents set each other's houses on fire each
year as a Halloween prank.

Nope. Only abandoned houses. We have our morals.


Cleveland is where the river catches itself on fire to purge
the stench of the unwashed Polacks from the air.

Wrong again. It only happened twice. Both times the fire was started
by sparks from passing trains.

It's OK, I can say that -- I was born in Cleveland.

You've heard the saying,

"I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as soon as I could."

There's another one about the rust belt --

"I WAS born there, but I got the hell out as soon as I could."

You have my deepest admiration for being able to survive and thrive
in such a godforsaken part of the world. The band of states just
south of the Great Lakes is the American version of
Siberia ... as I am sure you noticed today.

Wrong again. Did you notice the weather in Minnesota or Wisconsin?


There's no need to fear if Trunky is near.

On Thu, 02 Jan 2014 14:38:45 -0800, lal_truckee
wrote this crap:

On 1/2/14 1:37 PM, wrote:

I've never worn a flannel shirt.

I thought you were from Detroit, up in the North Woods?
In the North Woods everyone wears a flannel shirt, including Babe the
Blue Ox's care-taker.

You should check a map. Detroit is in Southern Michigan. Paul Bunyan
country is Minnesota, hundreds of miles away.


There's no need to fear if Trunky is near.

On Thu, 2 Jan 2014 16:10:38 -0800 (PST), wrote
this crap:

On Thursday, January 2, 2014 4:58:01 PM UTC-6, Bob F wrote:


The idea that people takes more risks BECAUSE they are wearing a helmet I find
to be rediculous[sic]. Certainly I never think "I'm wearing a helmet so I can do
this". I'm sure the reason injuries are still going up is purely due to the
mentality of many people who just know it can't happen to them. I know a few
people like that, one of whom broke his back in a few places last season


Nowadays -- the next time I ski, I'll wear a helmet, but I'm so damn old now
that I physically cannot engage in my dangerous behavior of 15 or
20 years ago. So except in the case of a totally unexpected encounter
(collisions with knuckle-draggers excluded), potential disadvantages of
wearing a helmet such as reduced hearing acuity or reduced peripheral
vision just might outweigh the benefits of helmet use.

I don't wear a helmet while skiing for one good reason. I don't fall
down while skiing. I don't fall while walking, I don't fall while ice
skating, I don't fall while rollerblading, I don't fall while
bicycling. I don't fall when playing the banjo. So I don't need a
helmet.


There's no need to fear if Trunky is near.

On Friday, January 3, 2014 7:44:00 AM UTC-6, wrote:

I don't wear a helmet while skiing for one good reason. I don't fall
down while skiing. I don't fall while walking, I don't fall while ice
skating, I don't fall while rollerblading, I don't fall while
bicycling. I don't fall when playing the banjo. So I don't need a
helmet.


Remember Dr. Robert Atkins, inventor of the Atkins diet?

He died from falling while he was walking to work. Granted, it was on an icy New York sidewalk, but he fell while walking. And died.

And YES, it was his "last walk of the day."

Someday Steve Martin is gonna die from playing the banjo. Keep that in mind, Horvath.

On Fri, 3 Jan 2014 06:35:17 -0800 (PST), wrote
this crap:

On Friday, January 3, 2014 7:44:00 AM UTC-6, wrote:

I don't wear a helmet while skiing for one good reason. I don't fall
down while skiing. I don't fall while walking, I don't fall while ice
skating, I don't fall while rollerblading, I don't fall while
bicycling. I don't fall when playing the banjo. So I don't need a
helmet.


Remember Dr. Robert Atkins, inventor of the Atkins diet?

He died from falling while he was walking to work. Granted, it
was on an icy New York sidewalk, but he fell while walking. And died.

And YES, it was his "last walk of the day."

Someday Steve Martin is gonna die from playing the banjo.

I thought the arrow through his head was a killer.


There's no need to fear if Trunky is near.