Tuesday, August 16, 2005

In the apparent theme of the day, stupidity

Some days it seems the news is all depressing and others like today? Most of what I'm reading is pointing out how stupid some of the people are we share this planet with.

From the CNN article linked above:

A rush to purchase $50 used laptops turned into a violent stampede Tuesday, with people getting thrown to the pavement, beaten with a folding chair and nearly driven over. One woman went so far to wet herself rather than surrender her place in line

People threw themselves forward, screaming and pushing each other. A little girl's stroller was crushed in the stampede. Witnesses said an elderly man was thrown to the pavement, and someone in a car tried to drive his way through the crowd.

And the award would go to?

Jesse Sandler said he was one of the people pushing forward, using a folding chair he had brought with him to beat back people who tried to cut in front of him.

"I took my chair here and I threw it over my shoulder and I went, 'Bam,"' the 20-year-old said nonchalantly, his eyes glued to the screen of his new iBook, as he tapped away on the keyboard at a testing station.

"They were getting in front of me and I was there a lot earlier than them, so I thought that it was just," he said.

Thankfully no one was seriously hurt, though I don't think it would have mattered to those like Jesse Sandler. Yes, this may be even snarkier than my other post but anyone else hoping the laptop he ended up fries out?

:-)

5 comments:

Cyberseaer said...

I refer to my post about the moron parent who wanted to know if she should take her less than two year old to a political protest.

Some people should just not be able to reproduce. This crowd killing each other for cheap laptops qualifies. This reminds me of the rush and riots at toy stores when those damn Cabbage Patch Dolls were first sold.

A person can be smart and reasonable, but people can be very very dumb.

Unknown said...

I've been having one of those days where I think I am about to have whiplash from shaking my head in disbelief.

At times it's easy to see why things are such a mess, look at who we are sharing the planet with. Not that I am trying to be superior but at least I do realize certain important things, like

A) do not take small children to war protests

B) a $50.00 laptop is not worth being injured over

:-)

historymike said...

My guess: they had some high-powered ad fueled by an obnoxious voiceover person screaming: "$1000 laptops just $50!!" in the days prior to the sales.

People did not get whipped into this kind of frenzy without some serious advertising.

Unknown said...

Well there you have it, the solution to prevent this thanks to you.

Our school system donates them to needy families that the school system selects from teacher referrals.

If they were going to sell them they could have done what Best Buy does here at the huge day after Thanksgiving Sale event, only allow so many people in at one time and have security there to enforce crowd control.

This has happened so many times before at other "sale" type locations you'd think by now they should know never to underestimate people's greed or lack of common sense.

:-)

Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

Re: the $ 50 laptop fiasco:

*df*,
There you go being logical, something that has obviously escaped the current school district leaders.

But then, they are probably shining examples/products of the very same (miserably failed) school system.

Obviously, someone has been cheating on the chlorine in the gene pool for many, many years.

And We (the residents of this planet) once has so much potential…


I’d blame it on the Gubment, but they’re also from the same under-chlorinated pool.

To quote Dr. Zachary Smith(Lost in Space), “We’re DOOMED…”


“The gene pool, like all pools, is tricky thing. If you back off on the chlorine, SLIME HAPPENS.”
-HT