On being overly cautious...

I just want to share a little email correspondence between my wife and I regarding our youngest son, whom I had to pick up early on Tuesday.  I started off the email:

 

When I dropped off Matthew @ daycare this morning Sandy asked me if Matthew was all better.  I said he was and that he hadn't had a fever all day yesterday, and what fever he did have on Tuesday was minor.  She then asked me what the doctor said.  I was kind of stunned by that and said "I'm not taking him to the doctor for that.  I'm not going to pay a $25 copay for that."  I don't think I need to pay $25 for somebody, even a professional, to tell me something I already know.  It's allergies.  Life goes on. 

 

I was just so stunned that it made me think about how some people feel the need to go to the doctor for any little thing that goes wrong.  You know, as grown ups who have been to the doctor before they should know that a fever is not necessarily bad; it's just a sign that the body is fighting something off.  And given Matthew's lackluster symptoms, it was no big deal.  Furthermore, the whole concept behind the copay is so people won't be inclined to go to the doctor for every little thing.  When I got in this morning Mindi was talking about how she took her son to the doctor recently and it turned out it was just allergies and the doctor gave her some free samples.  Ooh.  It still took a copay to get in there, and what he gave her probably would have cost less by itself than the copay.

 

Yeah, I'm not taking him to the doctor for something that's either allergies or a virus, because there's nothing the doctor can do anyway. It's wasted money. You would think childcare providers would know the difference between a cold, allergies, and something serious, but evidently that's not the case. Pretty stupid in my book.

Yeah.

 

I wonder how much of it is being slave to government money and working in an industry that is well-regulated, and how much of it is this paranoia that so many people have about taking their kids to the doctor anytime something is wrong because they "just want to make sure it's not something serious."  While that's good logic by itself and in some contexts can serve a good purpose, in this context it's overly cautious. 

 

I find this logic similar to the notion that anytime a mistake happens, something should be done so it never happens again.  While this is good logic by itself and can serve a good purpose depending on the mistake, in some contexts it seems overly cautious.

 

I completely agree. :)

UAV's

I understand the future of military aviation is supposedly UAV's, but something about this doesn't seem right.  It seems to me that if you're going to kill somebody in an act of war that you ought to have the decency to be there, even if you're 30,000 feet in the air.  I can understand the importance of UAV's in a limited sense, but I don't think this should be ubiquitous.

Cell Phones & Driving

Is this you: when you get to your car you get on the cell phone (to talk or text, it doesn't matter), then you start driving?

What could possibly be so important as to endanger those around you?  Oh I know, you can do both because you're competent enough; the problem is when everyone else does it.  I hate to say this, but you can't say your attention is unaffected by doing both simultaneously.  When I'm braking and I look in my rearview mirror, and I see you on your cell phone (talking or texting, it doesn't matter), I get scared of you people.  Is he or she paying attention enough to apply the brakes?  Geez, that was close. 

Check this out:
http://www.aolnews.com/health/article/texting-and-driving-is-growing-american-killer-study-reports/19650470?test=latestnews

The fact of the matter is if you're on the cell phone (talking or texting) while you're driving, you're part of the problem.  That's the societal part of the problem.  The legislative part of the problem is that our legislators are addicted to it too and don't want to give it up...except for a few school zones here and there.  Otherwise, "I'm too busy talking to my friend and tweeting to pay attention to the road".  If being on the cell phone while driving is comparable to drinking and driving, why is one highly legislated but not the other?  Seems like some people are talking out of both sides of their mouths.

Technology

Personally, I'm just not impressed by "touchless" stuff, like papertowel dispensers, trashcans, etc.  I've heard the arguments for touchless papertowel dispensers (disease control), but that kind of goes out the door when you touch the next door knob now doesn't it?  The touchless papertowel dispenser we have at my office says "Motion Activated".  You know what else is motion activated?  A friggin' lever.  What was wrong with the lever anyways?  Were people really contracting diseases enough to justify the existence of this technological twaddle?  Or is the lever too antiquated?  Or are we just obsessed with plugging everything in? 

So, in some places you'll find a motion activated toilet (but not toilet paper - or toilet tissue as some supercilious people quaintly refer to it as - dispenser), a motion activated sink spiggot, a motion activated paper towel dispenser or air dryer, but no motion activated bathroom door.  So, now we have one more thing that runs off of electricity that didn't need it in the first place.  (I know..."That's your opinion."  Yes, yes it is.  That's a very nice observation you made.  Do you not have any?)

We also had an iTouchless trashcan that went kaput after about a year or two, and for the last several months we had it the stupid door wouldn't lift so you could put trash in it.  Some touchless trashcan.  Yep, it was a touchless trashcan, until you had to change out the trashbag.  It was more deserving of the "touchless" title after it made it to the dumpster.  (Now we've got a Simple Human trashcan (that probably cost $120...it's an empty cylinder with a lid...come on) whose lid won't open via the foot-lever; the lid must by manually opened by your hand.  It's been like this for months, and we still have it.  Nobody knows why we still have it.  But that's a separate discussion.)

Yeah, the same people that buy into these touchless things (or otherwise justify their existence) are the same people that pick their nose but don't wash their hands afterwards, or never sanitize their cell phones and every other little thing around them. 

My point is that sometimes we have too much technology around us.  While technology still amazes us with things that are legitimately useful, other times something gets a dose of technological superfluousness that makes some of us wonder "why?". 

Squirrel pictures

Aliens have deactivated British and US nuclear missiles, say US military pilots

Check this out:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/8026971/Aliens-have-deactivated-British-and-US-nuclear-missiles-say-US-military-pilots.html

My great-granddad was a pilot for TWA a LONG time ago, and said he saw a UFO (cigar-shaped) while in-flight.