Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: People did strange things yesterday

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Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 02-28-2010, 02:09 PM:

The Chilean tsunami alert was sounded statewide at 7:45 in the morning, yesterday and I had noticed people doing very strange things. First of all, I have been going to my local McDonalds restaurant almost every morning after my mother had passed away for coffee and a breakfast sandwich and read my morning newspaper there. Usually when they are busy, at the most, there would be about three people ahead of me, Yesterday was different. There were two lines with more than ten people in line and every table was full! I went to another nearby MD and found them closed due to the alert but the drive through was open and had noticed cars backed up to the entrance of the parking lot waiting to order their food. There must have been at least forty cars in line. Stores did a lot of booming business yesterday morning selling bottled water, batteries, and get this-toilet paper! Worst of all, TV coverage showed some people were surfing at Waikiki Beach at the same time the ocean was showing signs of the tsunami. If the waves were large instead of small, they would have all been killed. The police however did a good job getting people off the beach because it was clear and not packed like it was three hours earlier.

By the way, business at McDonalds was back to normal this morning.

-Claude

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 02-28-2010, 02:28 PM:

I don't know why people do the things they do, especially in group-think situations like this. Panic/stress reactions I suppose.

Reminds me of the crowds that gathered on SoCal beaches for separate incidents back in the mid-'80s: an expected tsunami and the arrival of the fallout wave from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown.

Check out Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress for a hilarious sci-fi description of such crowd behavior.

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 02-28-2010, 05:10 PM:

If I was about to be killed by a 100 ft wave...the very last thing I'd want to do is eat McChunder. [puke]

Posted by Ian Parfrey (Member # 5122) on 02-28-2010, 05:48 PM:

Hmm. What a choice. [uhoh]

100' wave or McChunder...100' wave..McChunder.

Ill take the wave. There's at least a 50% chance of surviving that.

Posted by Joshua Waaland (Member # 287) on 02-28-2010, 05:55 PM:

I remember on 9/11 every gas station that I drove by had lines of cars down the road. People were getting into fist fights over gas. It hadn't even occured to me to go buy gas when that happened. I think they all paniced thinking they wouldn't be able to get gas or that the prices would go up. I remember some of the gas station signs had prices of over $6 per gallon from the fear of a price hike. Those gas station owners later paid hefty fines and some even went to jail for doing that.

I can't imagine what it will be like if we ever face a real invasion or threat. We will probably all do the enemy a favor and kill each other off in panic before they do anything to us. People don't think when they are in a mob.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-28-2010, 06:32 PM:

What is wrong with selling gas for $6/gallon that would lead to fines or jail time?

I always find it amusing that people rush out to buy milk and bread (and snow shovels!) whenever a snowstorm is forecast. Do people really not have enough food in their houses to last for a day or two if they are snowed in? And anyone who lives in a area where snow falls and who does not own at least one snow shovel and an ice scraper is just dumb.

Posted by Elise Brandt (Member # 5552) on 03-01-2010, 09:25 AM:

Hehe [Big Grin]

as one who went shovel-shopping last week I call it thinking ahead [Big Grin]

see I didn't think ahead and go buy a shovel Before the storm, so after when our one shovel (strangely the other could not be found, I suspect the neighbor...) broke in half after the storm, those thinking ahead had gotten ahead of me and I was left with a seriously odd shovel. All iron, heavy and hard to use. One of the last ones in the store, actually.

Man I hate snow. *looking at the falling prices of real estate in Spain*

Posted by Jeremy Weigel (Member # 4208) on 03-01-2010, 10:55 AM:

quote: Scott Norwood
What is wrong with selling gas for $6/gallon that would lead to fines or jail time?

Simply put its called: Price gouging. There are many state and federal laws that regulate product pricing.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 03-01-2010, 11:38 AM:

The fellow who was Mayor of Lawton at the time of the 9/11 terrorist attacks was one of perhaps a handful of gas station owners who raised gas prices to very high levels. Most other gas stations in town kept things at pre-9/11 rates. A big public flare-up followed. Although the Mayor didn't technically do anything illegal his pricing change cost him his job later when he ran for re-election.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 03-01-2010, 12:28 PM:

quote: Jeremy Weigel
Simply put its called: Price gouging. There are many state and federal laws that regulate product pricing.

Or if you look at it a different way: price gouging is just the old idea of supply and demand.

Also, even where it is illegal to gouge you have to consider that when costs are sharply increased during disasters, that doesn't mean they did something illegal. Hint: During disasters, transportation costs for goods increase and it's not illegal to raise price due to that.

Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 03-01-2010, 12:35 PM:

Back in the 1980's in my SE Alaska days, we had a tsunami warning that was not expected to be a big deal for us (we were sheltered by other islands)...but that didn't stop a few hundred locals from circling a sheltered area LAKE in hopes of seeing the big tidal wave.

Mind boggling.

Posted by Joe Elliott (Member # 4006) on 03-01-2010, 12:36 PM:

It's just the beginning of 2012. Don't worry, we'll all be dead soon.

Just kidding, but there is something to be concerned about in 2012. We will have the worst solar activity since the 1950's. Some people are predicting that it could effect the electrical systems of the U.S. and other countries, possibly causing outages that may last months. People act crazy enough when out of power for a few days, imagine how they will act with no power for a month. People can be more of a destructive force than nature, when properly panicked.

Here's the link to one of the many NASA web pages about it.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2006/10mar_stormwarning.htm

And one about the power problems it could cause.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20127001.300-space-storm-alert-90-seconds-from-catastrophe.html

Most experts are saying it won't be a problem if something is done NOW to protect the electrical distribution system, but no one is doing anything. You have to remember that Y2K was not a problem because the government and private companies started working on the problem a decade before hand. Thus a little hysteria saved us from having major problems. I'll be buying a generator just in case. Plus that, doesn't hurt to have a generator in the hurricane state!

edit: 3-1-10 1:48:00

Posted by Jeremy Weigel (Member # 4208) on 03-01-2010, 02:32 PM:

quote: Chris Slycord
Or if you look at it a different way: price gouging is just the old idea of supply and demand.

But that's the problem. There was no real supply shortage and the run on gas stations was caused by one or few gas station owners that "speculated" that there would be a shortage and began raising prices which in turn caused motorists to panic and other gas station owners to raise their prices. The panic then did create a temporary shortage. This is what got a lot of station owners in trouble after 9/11.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 03-01-2010, 02:58 PM:

I'd really like a definition of "price gouging." I just went to get a prescription filled for ACTOS Plus, a blood sugar medication. I ran out of my supply and didn't have my insurance card with me, so I thought I would just buy this refill with my own money. The pharmacist told me the price for a 3 months supply would be $780. I bought just 5 day supply (figuring it would give me time to find my card). In the interim I checked with a Canadian Pharmacy and they had the same drug from the same manufacture for $190! How come THAT is not price gouging?

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 03-01-2010, 03:41 PM:

quote: Frank Angel
How come THAT is not price gouging?

Because the government says it's not. [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-01-2010, 05:51 PM:

I love the title of this thread. It's so ambiguous, yet probably very true in most places.

Anyway, people thought they were going to die, so they headed to McDonald's because they no longer cared about their health and wanted some of its deliciousness. I plan on living, but I don't care about my health so I eat lots of fast food anyway. If I die from that then I will know I have led a happy and very satisfying life.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-02-2010, 12:24 AM:

A guy I knew had heart problems, so his doc wanted him to cut out all the foods he liked. He said, "Screw that, I would rather die happy than live longer and be miserable." So he ate whatever he wanted, and he did die early, but he enjoyed life more than most people.

My philosophy is to eat whatever I want but don't overdo it. Also, living in a small town is supposed to add years to your life, so I got that going for me, which is nice.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 03-02-2010, 12:41 AM:

I think it's a bit short-sighted to think that giving up some food you like will make you miserable. People's tastes change over time the longer you go with a new eating habit. Like not too long ago, I started eating (amongst other stuff) more broccoli because I knew it was good for me. And I didn't really care for the stuff that much. But now I like it quite a lot.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 03-02-2010, 01:14 AM:

The more I eat any given food (except cheeseburgers), the more tired I grow of it. You will not find a more picky eater than myself.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 03-02-2010, 09:49 AM:

Because my liver is such as jerk I have to watch what I eat or be prepared to pay for indulging with quite a bit of exercise to force my cholesterol level down into a safer zone.

I love a good burger, rib eye steaks, Tex-Mex food, Doritos™ and a lot of other things that encourage my liver to pump "blood mud" into my arteries as if it is the Play-Doh Fun Factory. Unfortunately I don't like the idea of dropping dead from a massive heart attack at a relatively young age either. Running, cycling and some moderate weight lifting seem to be doing the trick on keeping the cholesterol number below 200.

I'd rather go to the trouble of working out rather than merely get a prescription of cholesterol lowering statin drugs (such as Lipitor) because I'm not very comfortable about what those drugs do to stress out the liver.

My father gets on my nerves. He can load up on steaks, heavy breakfasts and ice cream yet still have a cholesterol level under 150. I think the difference is blood type (he's O positive and I'm A positive). According to the book Eat Right For Your Type I probably should be a vegetarian. Sadly, I like steak too much.

Posted by Chris Slycord (Member # 4239) on 03-02-2010, 01:37 PM:

Personally, if I had high cholesterol I'd first start out using herbal medicines instead of something like a statin. For instance, Bupleurum Root - Bupleurum chinense (or Chai Hu in Chinese) can help lower cholesterol and triglycerides while it also has protective effects on the liver and gallbladder. On the other hand, it doesn't lower cholesterol as noticeably as statins. But I think that's an ok trade-off.

Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 03-03-2010, 03:19 PM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
so I got that going for me, which is nice.

Bill Murray's going to contact his lawyers... [Wink]