A friend of mine was there too. She worked for an alternative newspaper in the Bay Area at the time and was able to go backstage using her press pass. She was backstage at the time and still didn’t find out about it that day.
I don’t even know why this is being discussed in this thread. Whether the suit was frivolous is subjective, not not fact-based. As noted in the previously linked Wikipedia entry on this subject, similar suits failed in the U.K.
190 degrees is not an insanely high temperature for coffee; it is necessary to its preparation. That they maintained this temperature was a service to its customers who prefer their coffee hot and maintains a palatable temperature when cold liquids, such as creamer are added to it. It’s not unreasonable to many people. It also doesn’t take a genius to realize that balancing a hot cup of coffee between your knees is asking for trouble and Liebert was extremely negligent for taking that risk. Her injuries are entirely consistent with prolonged contact with a hot liquid due to the fact that she poured it onto absorbent cotton sweatpants. The liquid wasn’t subjected to air contact that would quickly lower the temp as it would on the tongue.
If anything, the case was poorly decided and the jury was wrong. That being said, it *is *a good reason to question the wisdom of drive-throughs.
Based on the research I’ve done, Georgia was chartered as a penal colony, but the idea was totally scrapped before it was actually settled. There is a list available of the initial Georgia settlers, and none of them came from debtor’s prison.
A mistake I made in the above: Oglethorpe was not a Quaker, though he did respect them. One of the reasons he detested the notion of debtor’s prisons was indignation over William Penn, who was a Quaker and who he greatly admired, ending up in one in his 60s.
The bolded part is bullshit. Have you ever measured the temperature of coffee you drink? I have. 140 is luke-warm at best (even though it’s hotter than my hands can stand). If a restaurant served me 140 degree coffee, I’d send it back. My preference is 170.
It’s not like restaurants all start serving coffee at 140 because of this suit, they just put warning notices on their cups.
I measured it when this lawsuit was first in the papers, and again one or more times when it’s popped up on the SDMB in the past. We had a glass cooking thermometer, so I already had the equipment I needed. I’ve done it enough that I now remember the details, so I didn’t have to run and get the thermometer this time.
I also measured the temperature of hot water at a faucet at work, where it was so hot it hurt to wash my hands, even putting them under the flow for short times. It happened to be 140, and I tried drinking some. In my mouth, it wasn’t hot, just warm, hence the “lukewarm” comment.
I don’t remember the specific temperatures that were thrown around at the time, but I do remember the woman’s lawyer saying McDonald’s served coffee hotter than other chains. I am also pretty sure that coffee at the temperature I get it (out of my coffee maker at work, at home, at 7-11, at the AM-PM) wouldn’t cause 3rd degree burns and require cosmetic surgery to fix if it spilled all over me.
Not a “good story”, just boring information, so I trust this more. This is about new methods being used to paint the bridge, though, so it’s still possible it was true at one time.
I’m not so sure it’s true that temperatures that won’t burn your mouth also won’t burn you inner thigh skin. It can be surprising how much less hot things can feel in your mouth than on your hands, and I’d expect thigh skin to be less tough than hands.
I’m not sure what you’ve quoted that is inconsistent with your link. On the contrary, it distinctly ignores the facts of coffee preparation and confirms her mishandling of the hot beverage and the fact that it soaked into her sweatpants prolonging her exposure.
Apparently, **ZenBeam **isn’t the only one curious enough to measure the temp. Of course, I’m not saying it’s proof per se, but it also should not completely surprising that coffee is usually served pretty close to brew temps.
Actually, I just like to mock people. I didn’t say you should. Did I say it serves no beneficial purpose whatsoever, or no beneficial purpose before running? I think I said before running. But here’s another link: Phys Ed: How Necessary Is Stretching? - The New York Times . There is little evidence that stretching before running helps, and several recent studies calling it into question. If you google “stretching before running myth” you’ll find many links to the studies.
That the Alpha Male is always the biggest, baddest jerk who gains his power through brute force, acting aggressively, and beating all the other males in combat. When it comes to dating advice, I often see people talking about the alpha male using examples from other species that always fall along these lines. While that can be true for some species, it isn’t true for primates.
I’ve been bitten by a bullet ant and I didn’t think it was that bad. Of course, I put Lanacane on it almost immediately afterwards, which probably helped.
The problem with scales of those types is that it is subjective for everyone since people react differently to stings and bites. One guy I worked with was stung by a scorpion and had to take the next day off of work, but another coworker who was stung three times in the night had no problem working the next day.
I have been stung three separate times by bullet ants, also bitten by them (they will sting repeatedly and while doing so gnaw away with their mandibles, which can give a surprisingly deep laceration), and the only thing that comes close in my experience is a stingray sting. Shocking, blinding, eclipsing pain.
