For those of you on the paranoid-lunatic-aluminum-foil-hat fringe, here's the M.I.T. grad student study you have always needed:
http://people.csail.mit.edu/rahimi/helmet/
Last sentence of the conclusion:
"It requires no stretch of the imagination to conclude that the current helmet craze is likely to have been propagated by the Government, possibly with the involvement of the FCC. We hope this report will encourage the paranoid community to develop improved helmet designs to avoid falling prey to these shortcomings."
