Service bureaus (Was: Tek 4051 firmware listing

[Ian King]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-
> bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Charlie Carothers
> Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 3:25 PM
> To: On-Topic Posts Only
> Subject: Re: Service bureaus (Was: Tek 4051 firmware listing
> 
> On 12/20/2010 4:26 PM, Fred Cisin wrote:
> > On Mon, 20 Dec 2010, Jonas Otter wrote:
> >> Now now, Tony, you are being unfair. I don't know about those
> Americans
> >> who play that game where they run around in padded suits and
> helmets,
> >> wrestling each other to the ground (I think they call it football
> for
> >> some reason), . . .
> >> Brawn doesn't preclude brains.
> >
> > Unless you play without a helmet.
> >
> Recent news seems to me to suggest that helmets are insufficient
> protection.  I know it's heretical, but I seriously suspect that US
> style football should be banned as being way too dangerous.  (If I'm
> forced to wear a seat belt, why should they be allowed to do *that*?
> But I'm not bitter...)
> 

Funny you should bring that up.  I ride motorcycles and I'm involved in motorcycle advocacy.  Motorcycle helmet technology is crippled by two things: the litigious society in which we Americans live (there isn't a single helmet manufactured in the United States!) and the way the law is written.  There is a federal law, FMVSS218, that is a *construction* standard: build a motorcycle helmet like this and this.  It's not a *performance* standard (there is no testing involved), and implicitly allows for no progress - despite the fact there has been significant innovation in the design of (for example) football helmets.  

We motorcyclists are told that if we drop a helmet from waist height onto a floor, we should replace the helmet.  Football helmets are used week after week, day after day (think about practice), impact after impact....  -- Ian