I’m sometimes have to scratch my head when reading about published research. Here’s another example’:

Cyclists who wear protective helmets are more likely to be knocked down by passing vehicles, new research from Bath University suggests.
The study found drivers tend to pass closer when overtaking cyclists wearing helmets than those who are bare-headed.

Dr Ian Walker, study author and “traffic psychologist,” suggests “the reason drivers give less room to cyclists wearing helmets is because they see them as ‘Lycra-clad street warriors’ and believe they are more predictable than those without.”
In certain situations, there might be something to this; on some residential roads drivers may give a wider berth to an erratic-riding mountain biker than they give a steady road biker. But to confirm the paper’s conclusion, one would have to control for several factors that I suspect this study failed to do, such as road type, vehicular traffic speed, cyclist speed, cyclist riding style, et cetera.
Moreover, on more “dangerous” roads, drivers probably often can’t distinguish between helmeted and non-helmeted riders, either because: (1) they don’t have time to notice, or (2) the road is so narrow that there’s not much clearance anyway.
In any case, I’m going to continue wearing the helmet. Whatever minimal safety benefit there may be to this study, it’s clearly outweighed by the protection a helmet offers during a low-speed accident.

I generally don’t watch Larry King Live unless he has on a guest interesting enough to carry the show. Why not? Because too often King asks either stupid or shallow questions. If I wanted, I could compile a list of lame ones every show. But I’d have to suffer through the show in order to do that. So I won’t.
Here’s a funny example from King’s recent interview with Andre Agassi. He asks about the tennis star’s wife, Steffi Graf:

KING: Stephanie going to keep on playing?
AGASSI: No, she hasn’t played in seven years now.
KING: She won’t play again at all?
AGASSI: Well…
KING: She played for the last time.

Ooops.
I understand that when you interview a couple hundred people a year, you can’t possibly know everything about all of them. But you’d think if King knew enough to ask about Steffi, he’d know she hadn’t competed this century. And even if he didn’t, doesn’t he have a staff that does research?
If you want to know why CNN’s ratings have gone down the drain the past decade, part of your answer is in the 9:00 p.m. Eastern hour. I’ve wondered why the network continues to have this show. My best guesses are:
(1) King is like that old professor at a college department who no one is willing to fire because he’s been there for 40 years; or
(2) CNN wants to lock in the 80+ year old demographic.
Either way, it’s a waste of prime time air time.

Jon Stewart’s response to President Bush’s “non-political” 9/11 speech. Typically funny, yet cuttingly insightful.
One good point raised: if the fate of the civilized world depends on the Sunni/Shia battle being waged in Baghdad, why are we screwing around with our already failed “stay the course” strategy? Why not send our entire military? Perhaps incorporate a draft.

“You can’t tell Americans we are going to fight for our very way of life and then say there’s nothing we can do to help . . . except trust you. That scares people . . . fills them with terror–which, from what I understand, is a, from what I understand, is the actual word we’re fighting.
Level with us, we know there’s evildoers out there, doing evil. But if your idea is to keep invading all these different countries until the world is completely safe, fella, the world’s never been completely safe.
. . .
If this is a battle for civilization, make your case, and gear it up, let’s World War II this thing, all right. And if it’s not, stop scaring the [bleep] out of everybody ever two years.

It’s a shame our politicians can’t speak with this clarity.

I’ve been watching a little of the September 11 (2001) rebroadcasts at CNN and on MSNBC.
It’s still remarkable how quickly events that morning changed things. One minute the big “news” was a fashion show, then, within a couple hours, the whole world seemed to be blowing up.
The events transpiring were horrific enough. But the terror was compounded by the ensuing chaos. What would happen next? The news broadcasts were littered with unconfirmed reports of attacks across the land. Suddenly nothing seemed impossible; we’d entered a new age of uncertainty.
Over the past five years, much has been made of 9/11, politically and otherwise. But today in particular, we our thoughts and prayers should be with all those lost that day. Especially those who died helping others.
Rest in peace.

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