Being of a rebellious nature. I have always cringed at the preoccupation with safety in our culture.

a.Bike helmets

b.seat belts

c.radon detectors (thats radon not radar)

d.55 mph

e.step ladder instructions

f."CAUTION" coffee is hot

g.police officers in schools

Need I go any further?

Now to some people these and more are viable safety measures. Why then, is are safety preoccupied society, blindly ignoring the dangers that potentially lurk ahead???

Does'nt square!!

-- Dave Butts (dciinc@aol.com), August 31, 1999

Answers

great points!

I wonder how many people on the coast of NC this week, who went to Home Depot to buy their *hurricane* preps, have done anything for the rollover yet?

I heard on CNN this morning that power is out in some parts and could be for 2 weeks. Now, haven't we heard to date, to prepare for 3-5 days come y2k (ie a Hurricane)? Geez, if these folks only did that, they could be SOL indeed!

-- I'm (with@titude.now), August 31, 1999.

One comment: all of the safety precuations listed are a result of hindsight. Something bad happened first that caused injury, death or legal action. Then someone designed protective equipment or fashioned disclaimers or ...

Perhaps _after_ y2k we'll see a whole new line of 'safety' products (eventually?). Of course it seems like we're seeing a lot of disclaimers already.

One digression:

As to the 'blindly ignoring' part... Yes, there is a certain percent of the population who are aware of the potential dangers and who are ignoring them. Those blindly ignoring, however, I would count as the part of the population who has not been given adequate accurate information with which to make any decision. Granted, most people have heard the phrase 'y2k', but how many really know the implications behind it? Some probably really do think it means 'yes 2 kia'. I work in front of computer all day. I heard about y2k and thought of it in terms of being a data problem. Worried about my databases, then about work equipment failures. I didn't consider the ever expanding concentric circles that happen when you drop a stone into a pond. I didn't consider things like the grid, like embedded chips, like interconnectivity.

I probably first heard the 'y2k' phrase back in 1997. It was even addressed by someone on one of the software listserves I'm on-- someone who did present the big picture. I didn't get it then. It was a blip of a 2 day discussion on the list, nothing much ever came up about y2k there again, aside from a few people complaining about having to come up with 'y2k compliant' assurances and a y2k updater release.

Somehow, between the talk of preparing for a winter storm and problems with the 'updater', I went to the net and started looking for y2k info. Started to realize the implications. This was the end of June. 1999.

-- winter wondering (winterwondering@yahoo.com), August 31, 1999.

Winter, I agree that someone had to be injured some way before those rules were mandated. Seems to me most of them were due to litigation by plaintiffs who "were not adequately warned" - hot coffee, step ladders, etc. What are the odds some DGIs will sue their local government after Y2K hits the fan and complain they were not adequately warned? Will the local authorities then require that we have 3-day emergency kits in the future, and anybody who requests immediate government assistance without a doctor's note or other good excuse gets fined?

Police now fine people for false alarms of home burglar alarms - what if we refuse to prepare for likely emergencies when warned ahead of time?

hmmm . . . just thinking like a hall monitor . . .

-- Margaret (janssm@aol.com), August 31, 1999.