Random newsy bits

[unixronin]

California Assembly Bill 1200 would change California's motorcycle helmet law to allow riders aged 18 and over to choose to ride without a helmet.  Assemblyman John Longville (D-San Bernardino) of California has introduced an amendment to the bill which would make those who choose to ride helmetless automatic organ donors if killed in a crash.

Personally, I don't have too much of an ethical problem with this, as if they receive head injuries in a crash they'll expect medical treatment for their injuries.  You don't want to be an organ donor, wear a frelling helmet.

What's your call?

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Product placement: "Now he says, 'Mom, you named me after a box!' I say, 'Yeah, but it's a good, strong name.' "  Is it just me, or do some of these parents need a good LARTing?  I can't help but wonder how long it'll be before the first lawsuit from Disney for brand dilution.

The Blue Light: Dell and HP have lined up behind the Blu-Ray blue-laser DVD standard, joining Hitachi, LG Electronics, Philips Electronics, Sony and Thomson.  However, the DVD Forum, an alliance of some 220 DVD companies including electronics and media firms, supports the rival technology from Toshiba and NEC.  Well, maybe we'll end up with only two competing blue-laser DVD standards, instead of five for red-laser DVDs... the deciding factor may turn out to be which format Hollywood goes with, as they're expected to support only one.

Small potatoes: And you thought "disk spud" was just geek slang...

Comments

[koyote.livejournal.com]

Why not?

Granted- I'm in favor of universal health care anyway, but if the riders are going to expect medical assistance after refusing the most basic safety precaution, maybe they should also agree to be organ donors as a 'trade'

The idea of riding without a helmet at all is pretty dumb. I suppose it's not my place to say what another person does in general, but this really *does* affect the lives of others- it's like hitting the black clad person darting out across a 50mph highway in the middle of a rainy night- he's dead, and whether it's his fault or not, the driver STILL has to deal with a lifetime of 'I killed someone'.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

That pretty much sums up my feelings on the subject, yes. And my feeling on the whole helmet-law issue -- riding without one is, IMHO, ass-stupid, but I fully support the right of stupid people to select themselves out of the gene pool provided they do so without taking others with them.

You know me, free will it is

[ariyanakylstram.livejournal.com]

I wore a seat belt when I didn't have to, I wear helmets and will continue to.

*AND* I'm an organ donor. Except for my brain, which goes to Parkinson's research if they want it (being genetically linked to 2 confirmed Parkinson's cases)

So yeah. Sure. If you're old enough to vote, you can vote with your body parts as far as I'm concerned, but if you're terminal, they should just take what they can and toss the rest into the bag for later movement into a coffin/incinerator.

But then again, once I'm done with my body, if my heart or liver or something could save a life, so be it! At least then if they had to scrape part of me up off the pavement I'd be able to pay them back by saving someone else's life.

Of course, I would add 1 little thing. Because People Are Stupid (tm), I'd like to somehow make sure people who opt out of helmets are Very Very Aware of what they are choosing.

Otherwise, I'm gonna go ballistic when some squid's mom starts crying in court about how her son/daughter didn't know.

names

[jmkelly.livejournal.com]

Sheesh. People used to name their kids "my father is peace", "strong man of God", "God is gracious" (Absalom, Gabriel, and Jane/John, in that order)--now they name them after cars and furniture stores. Time for another Flood.

Re: names

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

*nod* Naming your kid "Evian", "Lexus" or fer crissake "Disney" is imaginative? I don't THINK so.

[Disclaimer: For reference, our two youngest daughters' names mean "White Phantom" (in Welsh) and "Queen Thistle" (in Irish Gaelic) respectively. The eldest's name apparently means "sun" in Spanish, but family belief is that it's of Norse origin.]

Re: names

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Just like it takes an act of memory to recall that your name isn't "alaric", I never think of your kids as anything other than Goose and Pirate. And the other one, whose name I can't remember because I've never met her.

-Ogre

Re: names

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

Wen the Eternally Surprised. I'll loan you Pterry's Thief of Time. The nickname fits her very well. She's done a few things that would make a Monk of History pause.

Re: names

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

What would be Wen the Eternally Surprised, she who is also Queen Thistle. :) (Who is starting to talk, and eagerly assists with her own diaper changes.)

[ttocs.livejournal.com]

Actually, I'd be happier if, in a jurisdiction I was paying taxes to support, the law read more as:
Safety Equipment is optional, however, failure to use adequate safety presupposes that the user has opted out of any publicly supported medical services.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I'd prefer that, too, though I think "safety equipment" and "adequate safety" are dangerously vague terms that opponents of $ACTIVITY can be relied upon to exploit. It allows them to essentially legislate $ACTIVITY out of existence simply by specifying a standard of "adequate safety" that no-one can reasonably meet.

[ttocs.livejournal.com]

Ok, I will happily accede to that.
The "Safety Equipment" and "Adequate Safety" need to be clearly enumerated, and established by a reliable standards body.

(Yes I know that then the lobbying just moves to the standards body, but there has to be something, and I'd rather a standards body that wasn't up for re-election all the time.)

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

It's not a completely new trend, of course. Girls have been named Mercedes for decades[.]

Mercedes was named after Herr Daimler's daughter. So, who knows, maybe those people are just using a traditional german name.

Other than that, my reaction is... "*sigh*"

-Ogre

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

It is? For some reason I think of Mercedes as being a traditional Spanish name.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I particularly sighed at that myself.