Recently my cousin's head was run over by a car. This is what's left of her helmet. My cousin completely survived because of this helmet. Please think of this before riding a bike without a helmet next time!
This happened to a friend of mine at the beginning of the month. He didn't do so good in the accident, but the helmet obviously saved his life. Thankfully is on his way home tomorrow: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit...
- Steve Lacey
I used to ride my bike without the helmet even though it is mandatory in Chennai, India. But after reading this I am not even going to the next street in my bike without helmet.
- Sudar
I never wear a helmet. When hearing things like this, I always think of this article.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1.... In the Netherlands no one wears a helmet. It seems safe to me.
- Peter Stuifzand
I was hit while riding to work in summer 2006 & did not want anyone to touch my helmet at all costs. If my brain was scrambled, I did not want anyone to touch my egg:) I highly recommend a helmet especially if you think you will not need one! Mine was almost the same color too & manufacturer, but there is no conspiracy there:)
- Roney Smith
Bicyclists/motorcyclists that don't wear helmets are better called future organ donors
- Brian Sullivan
Thanks for sharing. I ride often at traffic time between cars. always wear my helmet...itsg good to know that It does work :)
- jonathan
from twhirl
Wow, glad to hear your friend is doing well after that. I agree, helmets save lives. Regardless, I've many intentional close-calls by drivers who don't want to share the road. Unfortunately, this is the common attitude where I live (southern US).
- pete
we wear helmets for everything: mtb, snowboarding, wakeboarding, skateboarding & even surfing - skulls are fragile why not put a protective layer around it (i also try real hard to not ride on streets - a high percentage of drivers are oblivious to bike riders)...
- mike "glemak" dunn
I always ride in my helmet and stay to bike lanes as much as possible. Nice to know the safety tools work. Now, if I can just avoid that NYPD cop with a penchant for knocking people off their bikes. Hopefully, he won't transfer to LAPD.
- Jason Toney
Peter Stuifzand, my cousin would be dead if she did not wear her helmet. That article is BS. Wear your helmet!
- Jesse Stay
from twhirl
Point blank. You are a moron if you ride without a helmet. Sorry, but that's true and you're just going to play into Darwinian theory should you continue to ride without one. Any 'real' cyclist (e.g - you've been hit by a car - and yes, I have been) will tell you this without reservation. Helmets work without a doubt.
- AJ Kohn
I survived a nasty motorcycle crash in my youth and would also be dead without that helmet - which cracked in 2 like an egg (that would have been my head, as the nurse aptly put it!).
- Susan Beebe
A friend who's a cop refers to motorcycles as donorcycles whenever she sees someone riding without a helmet. I figure that applies for bicycles, too.
- ha3rvey, not a sweetheart
I was on the way to work Monday morning while it was raining, when the third car in front of me spun out of control and flipped twice into a ditch. When I pulled over to help her out she was just fine. She only had a scratch on her left shoulder from the broken window and was not hurt anywhere else. THE REASON: She was wearing her seat belt. It's nice to hear that these devices are actually helping us!
- David Cook
Awesome. I ride my bike to work everyday and I see a lot of people with no helmets on. I don't know how they do it.
- Clint Ecker
Wow! I wear mine! Didn't for years - I was lucky I guess. Thanks for posting that!
- matthew hunt
OMG... Jesse, do you have a link other than here on FF? I have friends whose kids refuse to wear theirs, and seeing this may help.
- Cyndy
If it's nice enough to ride, I probably won't be bothering with the human-powered bike any longer. I always wear a helmet on my gas-powered bike.
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
As long as we won't have mountains, we Dutch will not wear those things. Otherwise we won't be able to recognise the tourists on bikes.
- Ton Zijp
Thanks for sharing - I had a mishap with a car, wasn't wearing a helmet at the time, was lucky. If they don't see you, it doesn't matter either way. Wear the helmet!
- Rick Bucich
This isn't as extreme as this but when I fell off my bike onto a sidewalk and broke my arm, I thought I was fine for a while. Later, my dad noticed that the whole front of my helmet was all scratched up and the visor in front was torn off! I realized that if I wasn't wearing my helmet on the 2 minute trip down the road, I probably wouldn't be typing this comment right now! Not that I'd be dead but I would have suffered some head damage, limiting my ability to do most things.
- Kevin Lyons
Helmets for cyclists are mandatory in Australia. Still gives me the shudders when I'm travelling and see bareheaded bicyclists on the roads.
- Kate Foy
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Shey - I'm OK but a friend lost 75 % of hers, mostly new. Was just going to do a blog post but I'm sure someone will and just a busy morning :) I think this is actually worse than Twitter going down. People sorta got used to that ?!
- Charlie Anzman
I think they told us what's going on -- they're nuking spammers. This is a good thing.
- Dave Winer
i lost 90 :( and a decent amount of follows. no biggee. it will fix itself or it wont. i was looking to clean mine up yesterday, but now i don't have to
- Kyle A Koch
I lost 30 odd. No (genuine) spammers for sure as I am very choosy.
- John Samuelson
@Dave I lost some people I was following as well -- and I don't follow spammers. I think...
- Shey, Jamaican of FF
yesterday I lost 1200, today 900 are back, I hope the missing ones were spammers
- Dobromir Hadzhiev
@Shey same here. I lost some 100 followers and about 30-40 people that I was following as well. It's great to get rid of spammers but I do not follow spammers.
- santiromero
My mistake -- I was thinking of thinning out in the other direction, spammers following non-spammers. Never mind. :-)
- Dave Winer
I had over 500, now only 376 restored...NOT happy customer.
- Susan Beebe
I don't think I've lost any, but honestly I'm not sure. I never paid attention to the numbers.
- Hutch Carpenter
I never check how many follow me so I wouldn't know....
- Amit Morson
Wondered if they were purging the bots
- tom matrullo
I can't say I pay much attention or care that much. People follow me or they don't. I don't freak out if my total drops a few every now and then.
- Mark O'Neill
I lost around 30. This is nuts. I don't follow some of my followers, so I hope they notice I'm not in their timeline. Sigh...
- Dennis Jackson
I lost all of them (about 24 or so), but I am new to twitter; so fewer to lose. Not cool though...
- JA Castillo
I lost about eighty (out of about 620) followers, and fifty (out of about 360) followees. I have to admit, I'm more concerned about the followees -- I don't have a list of them anywhere and I think it'll take me a long time to "discover" them all again. But maybe Mel's right -- I should just take this as a sign to put social web stuff in a little more perspective
- Nathan Rein
i think the follows that were dropped were all added after a certain date... the people i lost are all new adds. i have a very small list so it was easier to spot.
- Jamie Allen
from twhirl
I lost 74 (June 4 to July 22). Probably a backup-type problem where they may be restored. Not a spam problem (e.g. Michael May, Frederic, Rob Diana, Chris Brogan, Mark Trapp, and Mona disappeared from my list). Analysis of my disappearances at http://friendfeed.com/e... I'm not going to try to fix anything for a few days because I think they'll come back.
- Mitchell Tsai
Duncan hit the nail on the head. Your question implies the person has never done it before, so I'd probably say Facebook, not because it's my favorite but because it's perhaps most likely to familiarize them with the concept, find people they know/like, make them comfortable, enable fun, etc.
- Anthony Citrano
Yeah, I'll have to go with Facebook too. So many people that are on there that aren't on other social networks that it makes it something I'm more sure about.
- AshTR
I think it depends what their goal is. As a student, I use FB totally different than someone that's an entrepreneur would use it
- Phillip Jeffrey
FriendFeed cause even people i knew in "RL" on facebook don't talk to me and friendfeed is more conducive to getting friends i've found
- Cecil Sandus
Facebook. That's the easiest to understand. Twitter or FF are more for the advanced.
- Winston Teo
FriendFeed is my preference, but as already pointed out it is for the advanced user and Facebook has way more users, so there's a much better chance to connect with folks they would know on Facebook. I suspect that will change over time
- Susan Beebe
Hmm.. Come to think of it, actually I would first suggest that they get an IM account, and start connecting with their friends if they haven't even done that. All of us learned how to connect with our "inner-social circle" before we started exploring the "outer-social circle" right?
- Winston Teo
I didn't Winston it just kinda happened it was using myspace and facebook before i ever IM'd anyone it's not till recent that i've started using IM's
- Cecil Sandus
MySpace. They are probably looking to get laid so...
- Hao Chen
They should join the one where their friends are at
- Mike Doeff
FB ? is that serious advise ?? Duncun - how much time do you spend on FB comp'ed to FF or Twitter ? you may know more people you know on FB, but do you really have the 'social' element at FB space ?after all the users wants a social network, not something that is fade , just because all my friends are on it !
- Peter Dawson
facebook. Its the easiest to get started with.
- hadleystern
I'd recommend going for a ride on a bicycle, going fishing, or a long walk in the woods.
- Jason Wehmhoener
none. not before they figure out what they want to do online. are they interested in finding people? probably facebook. conversation? maybe friendfeed, twitter. photography/video? perhaps flickr or youtube. etc. depends entirely on their goals. if they join something and it's not what they are looking for they may get discouraged and be reluctant to enter the space again.
- Jamie Allen
I wouldn't recommend Facebook. It's ugly, confusing, cluttered and intimidating. I only have an account because it's a good way to find people I'd lost touch with (or rather, I let them find me and then I get their email address so we can converse OUTSIDE of Facebook). I am not a fan if you can tell.
- Lindsay
I wouldn't recommend FriendFeed on a first go. FF with other presences online is much more fun. I would recommend Facebook first - as much as I hate that, but it's the easiest to get a hang of if you haven't done any social networking online before..
- embee
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Konigi is a resource for user experience designers. We showcase examples of interface and visual design in our galleries, and point you to some of the best resources for UX in our notebook.
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ChangeThis is creating a new kind of media. A form of media that uses existing tools (like PDFs, blogs and the web) to challenge the way ideas are created and spread. We're on a mission to spread important ideas and change minds
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