Free Republic

We made two stops for this Cool Schools report: Leesburg, Va. and the White House. A team of fifth graders came up with an invention so impressive, the President of the United States even noticed! Learning about the war in Afghanistan could be pretty daunting and the graphic scenes can be scary, but for these 11 year olds, it was a motivation to do something positive. Jack Dudley, a student at Stone Hill Middle School in Ashburn, Va. told us, "Our inspiration for the project...Specialist Robert Warren lost part of his skull in an IED blast in Afghanistan." Virginia 5th...

Sledding is permitted in Roosevelt Park although children under 12 must wear helmets, but the ordinance limits sledding to only Beaver Borough residents.

Driver was unaware of new passenger after 'non-injury collision with a twist' A Southern California motorcyclist rear-ended a minivan and was thrown through a window into the back seat but escaped unscathed, police said. After the incident on Thursday, the driver of the minivan continued driving and pulled into his own driveway nearby, unaware that he had a new backseat passenger, the Victorville Daily Press reported. "We're calling this one a non-injury collision with a twist," Karen Hunt, spokeswoman for the Victorville Police Department, told the newspaper. Victorville is a town of 115,000 people on the southwestern edge of the...

<p>A bareheaded motorcyclist participating in a ride to protest mandatory helmet laws was killed when he was thrown over the handlebars in Onondaga, New York.</p> <p>Philip A. Contos, 55, of Parish, New York, was on a ride organized by the Onondaga chapter of American Bikers Aimed Towards Education (ABATE), state police said Sunday.</p>

ONONDAGA, N.Y. (AP) — Police say a motorcyclist participating in a protest ride against helmet laws in upstate New York died after he flipped over the bike's handlebars and hit his head on the pavement.

Dad loses appeal of ticket he got holding 5-year-old's hand as child learned in skate park OCEANSIDE, Calif. — A dad who was baffled when an Oceanside police officer gave him a citation for not wearing a helmet inside a city skate park was found guilty Wednesday when he tried to fight the ticket in traffic court. But his fine was suspended. “Are you serious?" That was the reaction by Steve Malfatto after Officer Gary Truscott gave him a citation on Oct. 29. Malfatto was upset because he was wearing sandals, didn't have a skateboard, and was simply holding his...

Unbreakable The U.S. Army and Marine Corps have found that their new Enhanced Combat Helmet (ECH) is even more bullet proof than expected. While testing the ECH, it was discovered that the machine firing metal fragments at the ECH (to represent shell and bomb fragments) could not fire fragments fast enough to penetrate. The ECH was supposed to be invulnerable to pistol bullets, and it was, but some types of metal fragments were expected to still be dangerous. So ECH was tested to see how well it could resist high-powered rifle bullets. ECH was not 100 percent invulnerable, but in...

Imagine a future when a Soldier's helmet is an integrated communications center with a heads-up computer display, night vision, thermal sensors and enhanced hearing. That future is nearer than many think. During the 2010 Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting Oct. 25-27 at the Washington Convention Center, civilian researchers from the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center displayed futurist equipment design concepts to senior Army leaders, congressional staffers and Soldiers attending the show. "What we're trying to do is tell the story of how we're setting the force for the future," said Jean-Louis "Dutch" DeGay, Strategic Outreach,...

Alenia Aermacchi, a Finmeccanica company, recently carried out the first flight tests of the new sophisticated Helmet Mounted Display (HMD) system That Will Be fitted to the M-346 advanced training aircraft Masters. The HMD system, a true interface between the pilot and aircraft systems, complements the Head-Up Display by offering the pilot to receive attitude, navigation, tactical and mission information directly on the helmet visor, independently of the direction in which he is looking. The HMD system, a true interface Between the pilot and aircraft systems, complements the Head-Up Display by offering the pilot to receive attitude, navigation, tactical and...

EDINBURGH, Scotland - A Scottish college student said her invention, a clear plastic helmet with openings at the face and ears, is designed to help people talk in noisy bars. Elaine McLuskey, 23, an Edinburgh Napier University student, said the sound bubble is designed to cut out background noise and help friends converse without straining in busy bars and pubs, the New York Daily News reported Thursday. "(There's) that frustrating situation of trying to catch up with a friend in a busy bar. You want to hear their news and have a proper chat, but you have to shout over...

As the aggressive battle wages against the Taliban in Marjah, may this story remind us to pray for the safety of our troops and those Afghans fighting alongside them. This week, US and Afghan troops have been fighting Taliban forces in Marjah, Afghanistan, and the opposition has been fierce. Hoping that they will be able to root out the enemy strongholds in the city—much like they were conquered in Iraq's Fallujah—the Afghan and US troops in Afghanistan have endured some of the most intense combat so far. Out of that mêlée, though, came a miraculous story on Monday, when—as the...

You crash in a car and an air bag inflates to cushion the blow, but what happens if you crash on a motorcycle? That's the problem that the Thermahelm, a brain-cooling motorcycle helmet, tries to solve. It's a potentially life-saving technology--80% of all motorcycle fatalities involve head injuries. The carbon-fiber helmet, designed by British motorcycle enthusiast Jullian Preston-Powers, contains two chemical packs in its lining. One pack contains ammonium nitrate and the other contains water. When a crash occurs, the packs mix together and create a cooling reaction that stabilizes brain temperature and eases swelling for up to 45 minutes--that...

Updated 2:43 PM PST, Thu, Dec 31, 2009 Gang task force members in Hemet are lucky to alive Thursday after they noticed their office was flooded with natural gas in an apparently deliberate attempt to cause a deadly explosion, police said. "It was basically designed so that once somebody came in and moved around a little bit, it would have gone off," said Hemet police Lt. Duane Wisehart. "At the very least, it would have leveled the building and killed whoever was inside." Wisehart told the Southwest Riverside News Network that there is no doubt the trap was meant for...

Ever since I saw the F-35 demon helmet—which gives a 360-degree spherical view of the battlefield—I have wondered how it really looks inside, for the pilot. No more: Jump to minute 3:50.The helmet projects an augmented reality world inside its visor. This image is created by a visualization, targeting, and situational awareness marvel called Electro Optical Distributed Aperture System, which combines the feeds from six advanced infrared digital cameras located around the aircraft and other sensors—like radar—into a seamless 360-degree spherical panorama, all in real time.The panorama inside the helmet effectively makes the F-35 completely invisible to the pilot. In...

April 30, 2009 Imagine being able to pinpoint an enemy shooter in difficult terrain with such deadly accuracy that you can see whether they are kneeling or standing and not only what kind of weapon they are firing but the caliber too. Well, engineers at Vanderbilt University's Institute for Software Integrated Systems (ISIS) have developed such a system by turning soldiers' combat helmets into "smart nodes" in a wireless sensor network. The ISIS location system ISIS has developed the technology with the support of the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency and Vanderbilt University has patented the system's key elements. The...

<p>OTTAWA (AFP) — A Canadian lawmaker on Thursday said the government was "irresponsible" for not mandating newer standards for safety helmets on ski slopes after several injuries and deaths, including actress Natasha Richardson.</p> <p>"The recent serious brain injuries on Canada's ski slopes are tragic reminders that these brain injuries are preventable," opposition MP Hedy Fry said in a statement.</p>

The death of Natasha Richardson has sparked a debate about whether it should be mandatory for skiers and snowboarders to wear helmets. There's been a sharp rise in the number of people wearing helmets after several high-profile ski accidents this winter and some compulsion has already come in. However, the medical evidence is not conclusive and it's not thought any widespread compulsion is imminent in the Alps.

This intriguing helmet concept from Canedo Studio and spotted by Yanko Design is said to be inspired by the protective headwear worn by Roman Gladiators and we mention it mainly because, well, it's a very cool design. Although on one hand it may look like an industrial brain slicer, the design is indeed intended to protect one's noggin, with weight being distributed evenly across the arch structure to reduce pressure on the bridge of the nose. According to Yanko Design, the helmet is adjustable via a range of rubber attachments that brace the ribs on the frame. Breathe-ability certainly wouldn't...

A police force spent £100,000 on a failed attempt to find protective headgear that fits over Sikh officers' turbans. West Midlands Police started its search after one Sikh constable decided he wanted to join the counter-terrorist Operational Support Unit. The man, thought to be in his mid-20s, was refused a place because he was unable to fit the necessary helmet and respirator over his turban and beard, both of which are requirements for strict adherents to his faith. According to a police source, the unnamed constable claimed he was being discriminated against and was then assigned the task - while...

Two whistleblowers claim that a $1.9 million fine leveled against their former bosses - who allegedly underweighted the bulletproof material in combat helmets to save money - is too measly and part of a Pentagon cover-up. Jeff Kenner and Tamara Elshaug, who worked at the Sioux Manufacturing Corp. in North Dakota, had charged that their company was involved in the "underweaving" of the bulletproof fabric in more than 2 million "P.A.S.G.T." helmets handed out to National Guardsmen, Army Soldiers and Navy Sailors across the country. ... "Any time there's less Kevlar, there's less protection. The American people should know about...