Riding Around in Electric Shopping Carts: The End of Humanity

Earlier today I was at the grocery store. I observed something that severely irritated me both as a physician and as a fellow denizen of this great society.



As a bit of a background, many grocery stores now provide devices such as this for their patrons...







This particular store that I regularly frequent has several, at least 6-7 by my count. Of course, there is the cost of purchasing these for the store. But, there is also the costs of charging and maintenance.



The troubling part today was my observation of one of the particular customers riding around in this type of cart doing her shopping. She was not overweight. She was not on an oxygen tank/nasal cannula. I would estimate her age at late 40's, early 50's. There were no other immediately obvious signs of physical limitations to this person, and this is coming from a trained eye. (I fully recognize there can be all manner of heart conditions, neurologic conditions, or other other disorders that you can't "see". I am a doctor, after all.)



However, my suspicions began to be confirmed when, at one point, she bounded up out of the cart in apparent frustration with her teenage son who couldn't seem to figure out what she wanted in the meat aisle. Again, there was absolutely no observable indication of physical limitation. In fact, she walked around for several minutes, reached above her head without a problem, picked up several packages of meat and inspected them without a problem. There was no festination in her walk. There was no slow, cogwheeling moves. There was no obvious hemiparesis. She moved quickly and rapidly and stayed out of the motorize cart for several minutes before climbing back in. While I did not confront her (because what's the point) and ask her what her ailment was, it did not immediately appear to me that she actually had an ailment necessitating being in an electric shopping cart.



Now, stores provide these carts in good faith to those customers who genuinely need them. My problem with this situation is as follows:



(1) She's potentially unnecessarily tying-up this cart robbing a resource for someone else that might actually need it.



(2) There is evidence to suggest that these devices overall can actually make people's health worse because it discourages even minimal cardiovascular exercise associated with ADLs such as grocery shopping, etc. (http://ift.tt/1ffktf1)



(3) The cost of putting these into stores, notwithstanding the good intentions by the shop owners, overall raises the costs to the rest of us, the consumer, in buying their products. Why should consumers pay for these devices if ultimately they are going to be abused by patrons? Should you have to "check them out" at the front of the store and provide a reason for your disability? Do the stores even care or are they just pandering?



This is obviously not the first time I've seen this and suspected this, and I'm sure several of you have witnessed similar instances as well. But, this was so blatant today that it chapped my hide a little. Certainly, the usually-obese patron that I often see in these chairs would probably benefit instead from walking around the store rather than riding around it. But, bottom line (and I freely admit I have no way to prove this) is that I believe that this lady was simply being lazy and didn't want to walk around the grocery store. At least in the short time I was there, I so demonstrable proof that she needed this shopping cart to get around the store.



I know there are more important things to worry about in this world. But, this really bothered me today. Similar to people who abuse handicap parking.



~Dr. Imago

DIY PC Build

Hello, hope someone can advise.



My old graphics card is on its last legs with the fans sometimes spinning, sometimes not, and GPU temps going up to 115C before a hard shutdown occurs.



Probably time to get a new PC then, but reckon the only way of getting what I want on the budget I want is to build one myself. The off-the-shelf ones and custom built online ones are well prices but never have quite what I want, and the local independent computer shop simply isnt competitive.



So then - how easy is it to build a PC? What about ESD? Do I need an ESD mat and wristband? Any useful youtubes to watch or things to read? Anything to not do?



I have been using uk.pcpartpicker.com to select the components.



Thanks!

2014 AMMACH alien abduction conference

I just heard about this conference on the BBC TV South-East news, so I looked it up:



http://ift.tt/15ePS60



I live in St. Leonards, a few minutes walk from the venue, but don't think that I'll be attending. It could be very amusing, though.

RAF Intercepts Russian Bombers

As the title says.



A routine occurrence by all accounts, but linking this for the fantastic pics taken by a Typhoon pilot.



Cracking looking plane, if you were to ever imagine a 'Cold War' styled plane this is what I would picture in my mind. Have never seen that propeller configuration before! Even a wee gunner position at the back?



I have total schoolboy fascination with those pics :)

Family of Dead Cyclist Sued by Driver That Killed Him

For her pain and suffering.



http://ift.tt/1pyMOS6

Quote:

According to a statement of claim filed in Ontario Superior Court last December by the woman’s lawyer, Sharlene Simon “has sustained and will sustain great pain and suffering,” including “a severe shock to her system” as a result of the crash. “…her enjoyment of life has been and will be lessened,” the document says. Also named in the $1.35-million suit are two other boys who were with Brandon Majewski when Ms. Simon’s Kia Sorrento hit the trio, and the County of Simcoe, responsible for maintenance of Innisfil Beach Road in the town of Innisfil, about 80 kilometres north of Toronto.

Face the facts, when you die you are dead forever

You say:

When you are dead, you are dead, and you are dead for an eternity. There is no more existence for you. That is it. Lights out you are gone, and nice to know ya.



I say:

The universe is basically the same as when it was a singularity (defined as the condition of being singular). It is one thing. It has expanded greatly into an infinite number of temporary and constantly changing divisions of itself, yet is still the same as ever, one single thing. No matter how much space is consumed in its expansion and no matter how seemingly huge it gets,,,it is still the one thing it was before. Still as connected as it was then. Much of what we call Quantum Weirdness is proof of this connection.

You and I are part of this one thing. What we call consciousness is this one thing, this one energy. Our bodies are temporary forms, but the energy we are made of and what flows through our minds in the form of awareness is not temporary. It is the one energy, and since the one energy is all that really exists, it can be nothing else.

You, John Smith are a temporary form the universe has taken called life. You were born and you will die. But the energy that makes up your body is not temporary. The energy that flows through your mind not either.

John Smith will die and never return, but the energy that flowed through John Smith’s mind will never die, it will just flow through another mind. It can only do this one at a time, so the death of John Smith means the birth of Jane Jones, and the death of Jane Jones means the birth of another life etc… etc… etc… One awareness at a time, each birth completely and utterly new and each death the very last.

You have never been John Smith, it has all been a perfect illusion, all you have ever been or will ever be is the only thing you can be,,,,the one energy. The only time you will ever know this for sure is on your death bed, when you must at last give up everything to the unknown, everything including your false ego must be completely and utterly surrendered.



You say:

That is a load of nonsense, show me your proof. When I see someone dead, I see them rot and smell and eventually disappear into the dirt, therefore I know for sure that when you die you are dead forever. When people are born, they come from their mommies tummies. Babies are brand new, they have never seen the light of day before.



I am an individual who will happen just once. I am not at all important, and my existence in this universe basically means very little or nothing. When I am gone, I am gone forever, I will be forgotten and my role here was basically meaningless.



I believe in what I see. There aint no God and their aint no afterlife of any kind. We are not part of the universe. I am separated from it utterly and completely.

I know that when I die I am dead and gone forever. I don’t mind this reality because I am tough, I am cold and I face the facts.



I say:

That little child with cancer, that child who has only lived 3 years and most of it in the most horrifying fear and pain, will live another life. The next time round will be her turn for joy. In fact that child has already experienced an infinite number of lives, some good, some bad, and many average and she is sentenced to continue this.

You say:

That little child with cancer was born once and will die painfully once and her dreadful experience is all that she will ever know. It is sad to see her suffer, but that is life. It can be cruel and heartless, and oh so completely meaningless, but that is just the way it is.



I say:

You are the universe and if this is true then the universe is full of love and kindness and in your case full of apathy and selfishness as well. You are the universe and if this is true then you statement that the universe is meaningless is also meaningless.

As we discover more about the real universe, as we learn more about the quantum world, we see how strange things really are. And one of the strangest things is how important we are. How important our observations are. For we are not poor little temporary John Doe or Jane Jones, we are actually the universe itself fulfilling an important law,,,existence.

We see that this temporary body is just one chapter in an endless story called existence.



I say:

You are tough, you are cold, you face the hard facts.

And this is really nothing more than a rather thinly veiled attempt at self flattery.

"New" book on Pearl Harbor, attack analysis.

The Attack on Pearl Harbor: Strategy, Combat, Myths, Deceptions

by Alan Zimm



Anybody else read this? I'm about finished with it and will be posting my notes when done. For now I can say that it's for hardcore folks, the faint of heart need not apply. :cool: