Thinking about just cause and responsibility

[David Ziglin <davidz@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<<<<<     I got taken to task by David Ziglin for referring to
litigation and hot coffee.
I admit to ignorance of the details of the hot coffee
urban myth and I hate to think that I am being seen to
defend big business, especially Macdonalds, but even given
your explanation this still sounds frivolous. Everyone I
know makes coffee using boiling or nearly boiling water.
You therefore expect hot coffee to scald you. Even if
Macdonalds did heat the coffee more than usual they still
obey the same laws of Physics (now I am on home ground) as
the rest of us so they can't heat coffee past its
normal boiling point (unless they pressurise the shop).     >>>>>

I see that I may have done it; however, my intent was not to take John to
task - my apologies.

My intent was to make the point that we get terrible information from even
the supposed best sources.  In a sense my metaphors about spilled coffee
were poor information.  To have you undrstand or be shown that the hot
coffee litigation was far from frivolous, I would have to present you with,
in effect, the court transcripts and a variety of interpretations and
discussions of those transcripts.  Essentially, that is what the defense
and prosecution and jury had to experience.  If you do not accept my
metaphor, fill in the blanks yourself.  Every morning on the way to work
and school, you stop for coffee.  The routine is to have your child hold
the coffee while you buckle up.  Today, however, is different in that you
are wearing driving gloves and do not have a clue that the coffee temp
beginning today and as a result of someone's attempt at advertising is well
above what it is usually and commonly.  Whatever whatever.

BTW, coffee is made with boiling water, yes.  However, it very quickly
cools as a response to numberless factors.  In fact, because of this
natural cooling of a typical cup of coffee, McDonalds went to special and
unusual means in order to increase the temperature of a delivered cup of
coffee.  You may have noticed that if McDonald's has nothing else, it DOES
have control.   This was no accident and no "natural" event.

All of this is utterly beyond the point.  Please, my point is that things
are rarely presented the way "they are" and that without a deep skeptical
look, nonsense and distortion seems to shape minds quite easily.  Another
way to make the point is :  Given that John Day is the thoughtful and
informed person he seems to be, why did he not know the "details" about the
McDonald's case?  The details ARE the case.  This simple situation with the
McDonald's case is only one example out of a great many where "common
knowledge" is commonly dead wrong.  My Alfa Friends, there are STILL well
respected and "educated" people everywhere who go around knowingly
referring to Columbus having discovered that the Earth was spherical.  Good
Grief!!!  Examples of myth and misinformation are everywhere.



David

PS ........  One of the most common requests at the USA's space craft
launch sites and astronaught training facilities is to "see the
anti-gravity room."

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