another darwin candidate

[4deck]

After my third bike accident, I sold it.

The first one, was just me being stupid in a nice drizzle and goosing it a little around some turns in a local town. No biggie. Nothing really hurt on the bike other then the blinker.

The second one was a little more serious, broke my femur hitting a mile marker doing about 50, The 18 wheeler apparently didnt see me and cut me off on a hiway, I had no choice but to end up in the shoulder where there was some construction debri, and the in the middle of the night, I never saw the mile marker till too late.

The last one though, almost killed me, was coming around a curve in the road, and there was car passing another car, which wound up on my side of the road. Needless to say I had maybe 3 seconds to react, and I wound up going over a cliff. The car that was passed stopped, and thank god they had a cell phone. Bike was more banged up then me.

Needless to say I picked the remains up of the damaged bike at the police impound, put it in a van. Drove to a scrap yard, and kicked it out, and said here. I still owed about a grand on the damn thing too.

Helmets, yeah I believe in them.

[grizz441]

I think the negligence of not wearing a helmet stems from not really being able to quantify the small % of risk you are dealing with in any given ride.  Say you have a 1 in 5000 chance of crashing and hitting your head in any given ride over 5 miles.  That's a minute percentage in any given ride, hardly worth your attention.  However if you extrapolate that out assuming two 5 mile rides per day, you will likely crash at least once in 7 years which might kill you. 

[dedalos]

See Rule #14

[Tigger29]

I'm with Cap.  While I always wear my seat belt I don't agree with the requirement of doing so.  The whole "driving is a privilege and not a right" argument is the best one I've heard to date about it and some good points were made there but I still share Cap's opinions.  Same thing with motorcycle helmets.

Someone mentioned about hospitals being able to require payment up front or being able to deny their services to people who chose not to wear helmets/seat belts/etc... well that's just plain wrong.  That's a slippery slope you don't want to try to go down.  If something like that were to be practiced then what next?  A hospital doing the same because a person is obese?  Maybe a hospital denying emergency service to an elderly person who fell and broke their hip?  Then it comes down to who gets to make the decisions as to who is considered obese, or who was driving recklessly?  And I don't buy the whole "those kinds of people are why health care is so expensive" arguments either.  There are MANY factors involved in why this is and I don't believe that stupid/obese people are even near the top of that list.

Going back to the seat belt/helmet argument.   What really cracks me up is that it is required to wear seat belts and a helmet but yet driver's licenses are handed out to EVERYBODY!  I've known many people throughout my life that had absolutely no business being behind the wheel of a car (and especially not in control of a motorcycle) who have accidents on a regular basis and who actually have to budget their finances to account for traffic tickets!  It seems to me that stricter driving tests, required driver's ed, and harsher punishment of POOR DRIVERS would save many times more lives than seat belts, airbags, helmets, back up cameras, and accident avoidance systems combined!  One specific example is a friend of my g/f who has had her Mazda 3 for six months.  It's been in the shop because of accidents twice now, and there is a dent in her rear door from hitting a pole at a drive thru that she's afraid to report because she doesn't want her coverage to get dropped!  At least twice a month she has to fork out a few hundred bucks to a traffic ticket lawyer to get the points dropped!  That means that after at least a DOZEN tickets she still has no points on her license.  Tell me why the heck is she still allowed to drive?  These are the issues that need to be addressed - not miracle safety devices!

When I took my written test as a teen I studied the guide for less than ten minutes then passed the test.  Less than two weeks later I took the driving test (which was a joke by the way!) and passed it too!  It kills me that they focus more on your parallel parking skills than how well you actually drive!  When I took my motorcycle test several years later I was surprised at how much difficult its test was.  The written exam for the motorcycle test had a lot on there about defensive driving and reading other drivers' intentions and forecasting situations ahead... MUCH OF WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON THE NORMAL DRIVING TEST BUT WASN'T as far as I'm concerned.

But you know... that's how it is.  We'll keep giving every person who wants one a license whether or not they can safely operate a 2-3 ton vehicle.  It doesn't matter anyway as long as we have seat belts, helmets, and air bags right?  Those things are MUCH more important that teaching people how to actually operate a vehicle, right?

[CAP1]

I'm with Cap.  While I always wear my seat belt I don't agree with the requirement of doing so.  The whole "driving is a privilege and not a right" argument is the best one I've heard to date about it and some good points were made there but I still share Cap's opinions.  Same thing with motorcycle helmets.

Someone mentioned about hospitals being able to require payment up front or being able to deny their services to people who chose not to wear helmets/seat belts/etc... well that's just plain wrong.  That's a slippery slope you don't want to try to go down.  If something like that were to be practiced then what next?  A hospital doing the same because a person is obese?  Maybe a hospital denying emergency service to an elderly person who fell and broke their hip?  Then it comes down to who gets to make the decisions as to who is considered obese, or who was driving recklessly?  And I don't buy the whole "those kinds of people are why health care is so expensive" arguments either.  There are MANY factors involved in why this is and I don't believe that stupid/obese people are even near the top of that list.

Going back to the seat belt/helmet argument.   What really cracks me up is that it is required to wear seat belts and a helmet but yet driver's licenses are handed out to EVERYBODY!  I've known many people throughout my life that had absolutely no business being behind the wheel of a car (and especially not in control of a motorcycle) who have accidents on a regular basis and who actually have to budget their finances to account for traffic tickets!  It seems to me that stricter driving tests, required driver's ed, and harsher punishment of POOR DRIVERS would save many times more lives than seat belts, airbags, helmets, back up cameras, and accident avoidance systems combined!  One specific example is a friend of my g/f who has had her Mazda 3 for six months.  It's been in the shop because of accidents twice now, and there is a dent in her rear door from hitting a pole at a drive thru that she's afraid to report because she doesn't want her coverage to get dropped!  At least twice a month she has to fork out a few hundred bucks to a traffic ticket lawyer to get the points dropped!  That means that after at least a DOZEN tickets she still has no points on her license.  Tell me why the heck is she still allowed to drive?  These are the issues that need to be addressed - not miracle safety devices!

When I took my written test as a teen I studied the guide for less than ten minutes then passed the test.  Less than two weeks later I took the driving test (which was a joke by the way!) and passed it too!  It kills me that they focus more on your parallel parking skills than how well you actually drive!  When I took my motorcycle test several years later I was surprised at how much difficult its test was.  The written exam for the motorcycle test had a lot on there about defensive driving and reading other drivers' intentions and forecasting situations ahead... MUCH OF WHICH SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON THE NORMAL DRIVING TEST BUT WASN'T as far as I'm concerned.

But you know... that's how it is.  We'll keep giving every person who wants one a license whether or not they can safely operate a 2-3 ton vehicle.  It doesn't matter anyway as long as we have seat belts, helmets, and air bags right?  Those things are MUCH more important that teaching people how to actually operate a vehicle, right?

 you forgot about the automatic lane holding, automatic braking, blind spot warnings, etc.

[Penguin]

-snip-
Second, the medical personnel is not absorbing anything.  They are just getting rich feeding on peoples suffering charging ridicules prices for everything.  I have yet to see a doctor live an "average" life.  They have taken an oath and they should focus in fulfilling that and how to get richer instead of if you deserved your injuries.
-snip-

I don't know about the rest of your post, but this part is utter baloney.  The expense of becoming a doctor is staggering:

4 years to get a bachelors degree
4 years to get an MD
3 to 5 years of residency

That is 11 years just to become a general practioner.  Any specialty will add on many more years. Furthermore, doctors work far longer than the average person.  My mom (an endocrinologist) works at least ten hours each day; eight in the office and two to three hours at home.  She also has to be on-call 24/7, and rush to the hospital if her services are required.

Let's look at how much she gets payed:

$20 for each regular, scheduled visit.  These can last anywhere from half an hour to an hour.  That's only two dollars more than the barbers in our town.
$100 for each consultation, these can run from an hour to two hours.  These are not what you'd think, these are not scheduled, and she can be called in at any time.

Now let's look at her schedule, she usually works 11 hours each day, and makes $720 each day.  That makes for $65 dollars each hour.  My dad works for an investment company, and is only six years older than my mom.  He makes around $120 each day working 9 AM to 5 PM.  What did he do during his youth?  He did theater and worked in the municipal management system.  My mom spent her youth working over thirty hours at a stretch, and making almost no money.

Doctors are not monetary vampires, for the hours they work, the youth they sacrificed to study, and the stress of their work (do not underestimate the frustration crazy patients induce),  they actually make very, very little.

-Penguin

[RTHolmes]

I can barely stem the flow of tears in sympathy for the average doctor making $190k a year. how they manage to get by on such a pitiful salary is beyond me. maybe we should set up some kind of charity so we can all donate money to them.




edit: btw $190k is for GPs, the average specialist makes nearly $350k. poor things

[dedalos]

I don't know about the rest of your post, but this part is utter baloney.  The expense of becoming a doctor is staggering:

4 years to get a bachelors degree
4 years to get an MD
3 to 5 years of residency

That is 11 years just to become a general practioner.  Any specialty will add on many more years. Furthermore, doctors work far longer than the average person.  My mom (an endocrinologist) works at least ten hours each day; eight in the office and two to three hours at home.  She also has to be on-call 24/7, and rush to the hospital if her services are required.

Let's look at how much she gets payed:

$20 for each regular, scheduled visit.  These can last anywhere from half an hour to an hour.  That's only two dollars more than the barbers in our town.
$100 for each consultation, these can run from an hour to two hours.  These are not what you'd think, these are not scheduled, and she can be called in at any time.

Now let's look at her schedule, she usually works 11 hours each day, and makes $720 each day.  That makes for $65 dollars each hour.  My dad works for an investment company, and is only six years older than my mom.  He makes around $120 each day working 9 AM to 5 PM.  What did he do during his youth?  He did theater and worked in the municipal management system.  My mom spent her youth working over thirty hours at a stretch, and making almost no money.

Doctors are not monetary vampires, for the hours they work, the youth they sacrificed to study, and the stress of their work (do not underestimate the frustration crazy patients induce),  they actually make very, very little.

-Penguin

  @ Penguin.  

[dedalos]

I can barely stem the flow of tears in sympathy for the average doctor making $190k a year. how they manage to get by on such a pitiful salary is beyond me. maybe we should set up some kind of charity so we can all donate money to them.




edit: btw $190k is for GPs, the average specialist makes nearly $350k. poor things

According to Penguin, less than 100K if only work 8 hours lol.


2 years ago, I had to get 9 stitches for a cut on my hand.  They billed my insurance 1,100$ and some change.  It took about 10 to 15 minutes to get them done.  I did not call them monetary vampires but man, he hit the nail on the head 

[APDrone]

That is absolutely insane.  Nobody ought to die just because human beings aren't 100% perfect decision makers.

-Penguin

Insane?  No.  Not at all.  This is fundamental responsibility and accountability.

You are responsible for whatever effects your initial action ( in this case, the collision ) causes.  If somebody dies as a result of events triggered by your action, you are responsible for that death.

This is basic stuff..     Would the person have died if there had not been a collision? No.  Did the person die because of the collision?  Yes. Did you cause the collision? Yes.  You caused the death.  End of argument.

 

[Penguin]

Insane?  No.  Not at all.  This is fundamental responsibility and accountability.

You are responsible for whatever effects your initial action ( in this case, the collision ) causes.  If somebody dies as a result of events triggered by your action, you are responsible for that death.

This is basic stuff..     Would the person have died if there had not been a collision? No.  Did the person die because of the collision?  Yes. Did you cause the collision? Yes.  You caused the death.  End of argument.

 

You missed my point entirely.  Did you even read the part about the child not knowing that a seatbelt would save him/her in a crash?

I can barely stem the flow of tears in sympathy for the average doctor making $190k a year. how they manage to get by on such a pitiful salary is beyond me. maybe we should set up some kind of charity so we can all donate money to them.




edit: btw $190k is for GPs, the average specialist makes nearly $350k. poor things

Really?  Then why does my mom makes $150k?  That's $200k below average.  She is a specialist, and apparently makes less than a GP.  She even owns her own practice.  Remember, there is more to work than just money/time.  My mom has to work during her vacation, and can never be away for more than a few days.

-Penguin

@ Penguin. 

Is that the best you can come up with?  Fail.

-Penguin

[grizz441]

Doctors are not overpaid.

[RTHolmes]

Really?

yes really. http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos074.htm.

[The Jekyll]

Absolutely agreed, doctors are not overpaid.

[Belial]

People who say doctors are over payed were to stupid to figure out how to make as much as them.


8+years of school average college 4 year degree 30kx4=120,000$
Oh and then medical schools start at 50,000$ a year.

Doctors sacrifice a lot getting to their positions.