Kindle featured in Oprah's Magazine...

[TheJohnNewton]

Desertgrandma,

Lol. My favorite is "Are Kindle books abridged?"

If you find that "news item" misleading then... well.. um... no comment.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

I think you are over-estimating the "common sense" of the average user. (all on this board excepted, DONT" HIT ME!) There are STILL posts on amazon discussion with people complaining that they bought the thing and "just now realized my favorite author isn't available!!!" And "Can you share books"?? And "HELP, SCREEN FROZEN"!!! Not much common sense out there, which is why McDonalds got sued for a bazillion dollars because the stupid broad spilled the coffee on her lap and she got burned..."It was HOT! 'sob"

Actually ... let's look at that from the other side. This is why I wish they would involve us evil lawyers BEFORE they toss the product out there on the consumer.

Now, in that particular case, the coffee was "hot" ... in fact it was so "hot" that it gave the elderly lady third degree burns all over her lap and the tops of her legs.

Third degree ... as in total tissue destruction ... requiring several surgeries and skin grafts.

Now, I'm all for hot coffee ... but that gets us down to what the average consumer expects with regard to "hot" coffee. The reason this consumer won her suit was because it was decided that a reasonable person would like to be warned in advance that the beverage they are being given is so hot that it will literally burn through their clothing and through their skin and right down to the bone.

My advice to McDonalds would have been "Don't serve your coffee so hot that you nearly kill your customers. It's bad for business."

My advice to Amazon would be "Don't mislead your potential customers. It's a great product, but if people buy it thinking it will do something it, in fact, will not do for them ... then you will not only lose that customer, but all the potential customers that first one decides to bad mouth you to ..."

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by TheJohnNewton

Oh sorry, forgot you're a lawyer, IMO the "news item" is not misleading.

Much better. I accept that such is your opinion. We'll have to agree to disagree on that point, however. That being because I do not see you as being an average consumer. You are a whole lot brighter than the A.C., and that's the problem (for Amazon ... not for you).

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Actually ... let's look at that from the other side. This is why I wish they would involve us evil lawyers BEFORE they toss the product out there on the consumer.

Now, in that particular case, the coffee was "hot" ... in fact it was so "hot" that it gave the elderly lady third degree burns all over her lap and the tops of her legs.

Third degree ... as in total tissue destruction ... requiring several surgeries and skin grafts.

Now, I'm all for hot coffee ... but that gets us down to what the average consumer expects with regard to "hot" coffee. The reason this consumer won her suit was because it was decided that a reasonable person would like to be warned in advance that the beverage they are being given is so hot that it will literally burn through their clothing and through their skin and right down to the bone.

My advice to McDonalds would have been "Don't serve your coffee so hot that you nearly kill your customers. It's bad for business."

My advice to Amazon would be "Don't mislead your potential customers. It's a great product, but if people buy it thinking it will do something it, in fact, will not do for them ... then you will not only lose that customer, but all the potential customers that first one decides to bad mouth you to ..."

NO NO NO........I fully expect coffee to give me burns if I spill it in my lap, and anything less is just dumb on the part of the customer. Simply put, you don't put yourself in a position to get hurt, and if you do, you don't sue the 'big pockets." tsk.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

NO NO NO........I fully expect coffee to give me burns if I spill it in my lap, and anything less is just dumb on the part of the customer. Simply put, you don't put yourself in a position to get hurt, and if you do, you don't sue the 'big pockets." tsk.

Burns, yes ... pink skin maybe, maybe even a blister or two ... but third degree?? And, that's what it really hinged on. How "hot" does a reasonable person expect "hot coffee" to be?

And, it didn't help McDonalds that the plaintiff was a sweet little old lady. Really bad luck for them.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Burns, yes ... pink skin maybe, maybe even a blister or two ... but third degree?? And, that's what it really hinged on. How "hot" does a reasonable person expect "hot coffee" to be?

And, it didn't help McDonalds that the plaintiff was a sweet little old lady. Really bad luck for them.

Again, it was thru her own negligence. called 'taking responsibility for your own actions" What was REALLY bad luck for them was the sleazy lawyer who took the case. And how much do you think the 'sweet little old lady' got? Compared to the lawyer?

[TheJohnNewton]

Come on now. The real crime is to buy coffee at McDonalds. What was she thinking?

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by TheJohnNewton

Desertgrandma,

Lol. My favorite is "Are Kindle books abridged?"

If you find that "news item" misleading then... well.. um... no comment.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

Again, it was thru her own negligence. called 'taking responsibility for your own actions" What was REALLY bad luck for them was the sleazy lawyer who took the case. And how much do you think the 'sweet little old lady' got? Compared to the lawyer?

Well, they had a lot of evidence in that case about what was/was not a "proper" temperature for hot beverages to be at in order to be considered safe for sale. As I recall, there was even a memo floating around that mentioned how dangerous it might be to sell coffee or other hot beverages at temperatures that were too high.

But, hey ... it's sort of like Ford and the Pinto. They did a cost benefit analysis and decided that "most" of the gas tanks wouldn't explode, and that it would be much cheaper to fight lawsuits over those that did, rather than have a massive recall or to redesign the product.

McDonalds had more or less the same cost benefit analysis. It's just that the court disagreed with their logic.

As for the negligence of the lady who spilled her coffee. As I mentioned before ... the court simply decided that a reasonable person would not expect their coffee to be so hot that it would land them in the hospital for a series of surgeries. That's the standard that the courts generally use.

I have no idea if the attorney took the case on a contingency basis or for a fee. I do know that the injured woman had hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical costs to pay, as well as a hell of a lot of reconstructive surgery costs, and rehabitation therapy so that she could walk again.

I have no firm opinion on whether the attorney was sleazy or not. Some litigators I know are ... others not so much. I (and I may be a cheering section of one ...) happened to really admire the litigator who took on the KKK after they murdered one young (black) man, and forced them to give over their headquarters to the mother of the murdered man.

In short ... the court system generally does not set the "reasonability" standard for people in this country at a particularly high level. To me, that speaks more to the lousy education many of our citizens receive.

Oh .... and completely and totally aside .... today, when I went to visit Mrs. Moon, her family had given her a game called "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader." Now .... the fact that a group of (apparently) otherwise well educated people could find that game challenging is beyond me. Now, I just wish that $1,000,000 I "won" playing the game could be turned into real money.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Well, they had a lot of evidence in that case about what was/was not a "proper" temperature for hot beverages to be at in order to be considered safe for sale. As I recall, there was even a memo floating around that mentioned how dangerous it might be to sell coffee or other hot beverages at temperatures that were too high.
[COLOR="Red "]
But, hey ... it's sort of like Ford and the Pinto. They did a cost benefit analysis and decided that "most" of the gas tanks wouldn't explode, and that it would be much cheaper to fight lawsuits over those that did, rather than have a massive recall or to redesign the product.
[/COLOR] I HAD a pinto. I loved driving it. But glad to get rid of it.
McDonalds had more or less the same cost benefit analysis. It's just that the court disagreed with their logic.

As for the negligence of the lady who spilled her coffee. As I mentioned before ... the court simply decided that a reasonable person would not expect their coffee to be so hot that it would land them in the hospital for a series of surgeries. That's the standard that the courts generally use.

I have no idea if the attorney took the case on a contingency basis or for a fee. I do know that the injured woman had hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical costs to pay, as well as a hell of a lot of reconstructive surgery costs, and rehabitation therapy so that she could walk again.

I have no firm opinion on whether the attorney was sleazy or not. Some litigators I know are ... others not so much. I (and I may be a cheering section of one ...) happened to really admire the litigator who took on the KKK after they murdered one young (black) man, and forced them to give over their headquarters to the mother of the murdered man.

In short ... the court system generally does not set the "reasonability" standard for people in this country at a particularly high level. To me, that speaks more to the lousy education many of our citizens receive. Well, I may as well start another flame with you......as the parent of a second grade teacher, and one who does volunteer work at her school, I can only say.....Those students whose parents expect the best from them, and do not accept excuses about lost homework, mean teachers, 'she didn't tell us!", and who read to their kids and demand that they read, they do great. The others....a teacher can only do so much with the time alotted. If I didn't go in and correct,, listen to some read, she would have even less time. Its not fair or right that she has to take away time from those waiting to learn so that she can go over basics (for the umpteeth time) with a child that has no clue. And heres whats really funny. The parents then blame the teacher. Its disgusting when a child says she didn't do her 15 minutes of reading last night because "we gave our dog a birthday party." True story. Or a child consistently is tardy or absent because the parent doesn't care enough to see they get to school. Or to see a child come to school in slippers because 'mom was asleep when I left.' I guess what I'm trying to get at .....its not always the 'education system' I see a lot of parental neglect out there. And yes, rm, before you ask, I realize that there are horrible teachers also.

Oh .... and completely and totally aside .... today, when I went to visit Mrs. Moon, her family had given her a game called "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader." Now .... the fact that a group of (apparently) otherwise well educated people could find that game challenging is beyond me. Now, I just wish that $1,000,000 I "won" playing the game could be turned into real money.

HAVE YOU NEVER WATCHED THAT SHOW??? Oh my gosh.....I could not answer a lot of the questions. Especially on the math. They just use different terms.....I did okay on the english tho. I loved the show......

[daffy4u]

Man, I am having the worst time with this scanner.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

HAVE YOU NEVER WATCHED THAT SHOW??? Oh my gosh.....I could not answer a lot of the questions. Especially on the math. They just use different terms.....I did okay on the english tho. I loved the show......[/COLOR]

Nope ... I've never watched it. I wasn't even aware it was a tv show. I should add "game shows" to the "Shows I Never Watch" list.

I was on my math team in high school ... we actually went to math competitions. Can't you just guess how popular I was back then?? I've got four astrophyicists in the family ... so dinner conversations at our house ran to string theory and particle physics. I majored in biochemistry, did graduate work in health sciences and medicine ... wandered over to law school for a few years. I've been all over the damn planet, so my geography is fairly sound. I've been reading since I was two ... and love history ... got that covered.

I may not be as smart as some fifth graders ... but I can pretty much answer any questions that might be posed to one of them. The truth is ... most of the adults who play that game and are frustrated with it forget the fact that, they probably knew that stuff ... a long time ago. It's just that they dumped the trivial crap they couldn't use to earn a living or raise children. I mean really .... "what's the average life span of a human hair" ???? Duh ... ok, so I know that, but that doesn't make me "smart" ... it makes me Cliff Clavern.

It's really sort of sad .... I don't have a good dumping mechanism. It's just all rattling around in there ... popping up now and then for no good reason. Why do I know the French word for "gray"?? I don't speak French ... but, I know the word is "gris." Why am I generally not stumped by trick questions ... "what is the closest star to the Earth?" It's not Proxima Centauri ... it's the SUN ... oh gee ... really .. you don't say!!

Generally, once something is in my head ... it's just stuck there. Here's a great example ... a friend invited me over to show me a video game he was playing. One of the puzzles the player had to solve had to do with temperatures. So, he brings up the first question which was ......

"What is the flash point of paper?"

OK ..... everyone?? Farenheit 451.

My friend was just plain floored. How could I possibly know something as obscure as that!!?? And, I'm trying to explain that any Bradbury fan knows the stupid flash point of stupid freaking paper!!

I got off topic again ... didn't I??

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Nope ... I've never watched it. I wasn't even aware it was a tv show. I should add "game shows" to the "Shows I Never Watch" list.

I was on my math team in high school ... we actually went to math competitions. Can't you just guess how popular I was back then?? I've got four astrophyicists in the family ... so dinner conversations at our house ran to string theory and particle physics. I majored in biochemistry, did graduate work in health sciences and medicine ... wandered over to law school for a few years. I've been all over the damn planet, so my geography is fairly sound. I've been reading since I was two ... and love history ... got that covered.

I may not be as smart as some fifth graders ... but I can pretty much answer any questions that might be posed to one of them. The truth is ... most of the adults who play that game and are frustrated with it forget the fact that, they probably knew that stuff ... a long time ago. It's just that they dumped the trivial crap they couldn't use to earn a living or raise children. I mean really .... "what's the average life span of a human hair" ???? Duh ... ok, so I know that, but that doesn't make me "smart" ... it makes me Cliff Clavern.

It's really sort of sad .... I don't have a good dumping mechanism. It's just all rattling around in there ... popping up now and then for no good reason. Why do I know the French word for "gray"?? I don't speak French ... but, I know the word is "gris." Why am I generally not stumped by trick questions ... "what is the closest star to the Earth?" It's not Proxima Centauri ... it's the SUN ... oh gee ... really .. you don't say!!

Generally, once something is in my head ... it's just stuck there. Here's a great example ... a friend invited me over to show me a video game he was playing. One of the puzzles the player had to solve had to do with temperatures. So, he brings up the first question which was ......

"What is the flash point of paper?"

OK ..... everyone?? Farenheit 451.

My friend was just plain floored. How could I possibly know something as obscure as that!!?? And, I'm trying to explain that any Bradbury fan knows the stupid flash point of stupid freaking paper!!

I got off topic again ... didn't I??

I love it when you get off topic! You've led such an interesting life. I 'dumped' all that knowledge years ago. When I started making quilts, I re-learned my fractions quickly! And division, and mulitplication.......
I love Cliff. FOUR ASTROPHYSICISTS??
Are you related to Isaac Asimov? No, I know thats not what he does...but still........

[Nate the great]

Those are really the questions? Those don't test how smart you are, they test how well you retain and regurgitate worthless minutiae.

I hadn't realized the show title was a lie.Well, that's one more reason why I don't watch tv.

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Man, I am having the worst time with this scanner.

Oh.....Daffy Daffy Daffy.....tsk tsk tsk......you just lost a tail feather.......