SDS

and while I am still fighting the good fight... there is something to know about some of the people who recommend the procedure after they have had it: "You've hit on a phenomenon psychologists call "cognitive dissonance." Here, it means that once you spend a ton of money on an irreversible procedure, with at least modest levels of discomfort or aberrations, you're likely to convince yourself you're happy with the results, in order to justify your decision, particularly with your surgeon insisting that you have a perfect result." I have seen this discussed about lasik for years...

I guess Kathy Griffin isn't all too happy above her 15 minute miracle... http://www.kathygriffin.net/lasik.php A summary from her recent interviews last week: "Kathy Griffin was a guest on Fox and Friends today, Wednesday June 22, from around 8:50 to 8:55 am (Eastern time). The first half of the interview was spent on what the host and she both called her "botched" Lasik eye surgery; the second half was spent trading quips and promoting a show she'll be doing in New York City this week. Her face and eyes looked perfectly fine to me (but that's true of a great many of us here whose problems are not visible to others in everyday life). Here's a paraphrase of what I recall her saying about the operation: It's about one month since surgery on her right eye to deal with epithelial ingrowth. The operation lasted 90 minutes and was done under general anesthesia (after which she threw up for days). The doctor put 17 stitches in her right eye; the stitches were recently removed. She says that the ingrowth is apparently gone, but the vision in her right eye is currently blurry, and she doesn't know if it will ever come back clearly. There was a brief exchange with a host about the issue of informed consent. Kathy Griffin said that in advance of her first surgery, she wouldn't have understood what "epithelial ingrowth" was, nor how it might matter to her as a patient."

Lawsuits commence against Alcon.... http://www.alconladarvision.com/ Their LADARvision machines seem to be very problematic. One shut down in the middle of surgery. FDA handing out warnings.... (I know I read that all these problems were "in the past".... I guess Alcon didn't get the message.)

If you are referring to me (in addition to Nick), I can say in my defense that I have a B.S. and M.S. in Optical Engineering and I have personally designed and aligned the beam-shaping optics on the front end of these types of lasers. While that doesn't make me an eye doctor, it does give me insight into the machines, the software, and the optical principles behind the procedure. BTW, the halo effect is often caused by an introduction of spherical aberration due to the fact that S.A. is strongly affected by lens shape. So at night, when your pupils are dilated the marginal rays are focusing to a different axial position than the paraxial rays. The transverse ray error at the retina varies as the cube of normalized pupil position of the entering ray.... But, I'm sure you know that already.

I don't mind being a bit in your face about it. So many people talk about it like it was a hang nail removal that it's hard to balance out the propaganda with just one voice. Here is another website where people talk every day about their experiences: http://surgicaleyes.infopop.cc/eve

You can focus on the success rate all day long. It appears to be very high - no argument there. But since it is not 100%, then to be truly informed you need get more than a paragraph of bad outcomes from an avalanche of positive propaganda. http://www.lasikmemorial.com/Home.htm Death and Dying Anonymous Author For the First Time Ready to Leave Broken By This Blow. This Low Blow At the Time When Possibility Lay Ripe. The Butchering Quick and Bloodless Consequences Hidden From Sight. The Damage Deep The Butcher Blissfully Unaware Of His Results. Yet Through it All The Organism Continues Its Struggle. The Mind Forced To Outwit the Body Utilizing All Its Trickery. Dying Can Not Be Followed By Death No Sir. Another Chance Awaits With Glorious Vision Restored and Whole. A Life Un-enslaved By Blurriness and Pain Constricting The Soul’s Flowering."

I didn't have it done. But I did research the cases that fail and what happens to these people. No one talks about them. No one hears their stories. Only a short list of watered down problems is presented.... Reading the accounts of some of these people at least bring into reality what could possibily happen. Only then does the patient understand the risk. Hearing "may cause dry eyes" doesn't quite compare to "I think about killing myself every day since my surgery...."

Just using your post as an example... How can you tell someone you have never met that shooting a laser in their is well worth it? What if he had 20/40 vision and only needed glasses at the movies? It would be a hard argument to make that lasik is worth performing on a pretty healthy eye in that case. It may have been worth it for you if your eyes were truly that bad, but the worse part about lasik is the casual "yeah, go do it - no worries mate" attitude that surrounds the entire industry.

so, you remember my tirade? For those whose eyes need mild correction - if you choose to have this procedure done than your mama raised a fool. The benefits of being w/o glasses prescribed for a moderate prescription can not possibly out weigh the real possibility you could become suicidal after !@#$ing up your eyes for the rest of your life. You see - they tell you about the success stories, but they really don't go into detail about the failures. What happens when they fail? I'm not taking about needing a "touch-up" because they didn't ablate enough tissue. I'm taking about what happens if they don't center the laser properly when burn the tissue off your eye. I'm taking about when your eye flickers and you have two decentered ablations. What do they do? They say "oops!" and say "you're !@#$ed". "Now get out of my office - there is NOTHING I can do." And that is the problem with lasik. There IS NO PLAN B. There is only plan A. Is ruining your vision for the rest of your life worth it? What about constant migraine headaches because you don't see right anymore? Are you willing to deal with pain in your every day for the rest of your life? Are you ready to be a pill popper? Now, for those who are nearly blind or whose prescriptions are soooo bad that they are nearly blind - I can see the benefit outweighing the risk. Afterall, your vision sucks so bad you can barely see anything anyway and thick, heavy glasses are problematic. But for those who want it done for vanity - I just don't see it. My 2 cents.

I guess I am officially out of touch w/ the common man. I don't really see how cost is an issue. When you travel across the country for an annual event - is there really a difference between $8 and $12 spent on a Sat night? Does $2 or $4 beers really matter much? I thought it worked well last year. Limited menu is fine. Heck, I'd pay $20 and expand the buffet to include all the items. Given the revelations in our tipping thread - I would collect $5 bucks per head for tips for the waitresses and bartender though.

We have only done that 2 times - once in 2002 and once in 2004.... so I guess that is why "yearly" didn't light my bulb. and FWIW, I have told many posters who I know aren't flush with excess funds to hang on to their good intentions...

I think you are talking about taxes (if not, then I have no idea what you are talking about). That brings up a bigger point - the IRS has been cracking down on servers and now have them pay a minimum amount in tax based upon expected tips and not reported tips. Therefore, they can actually pay taxes on money not earned from people who don't tip....

No. I guess you got me. Someone in some restaurant makes $6/hr so I guess you are justified in not providing a tip to any takeout person anywhere. It's comforting to know they are making that kinda jack. I almost wish that share a little of that wealth with me! From a tipping board: "I do curbside for Outback Steakhouse and I admit it is a really good job, especially for teenagers. We get paid 4.25 and hour and that is determined by our manager/owner. The rate varies from all over the country. Curbside at my store makes up atleast 1/4 of our business. So we are usually always busy. We are very grateful when people tip. Because are getting paid below minimum wage, we package food, we take orders, we bring them to car and we cash the customers out. Alot of people dont realize the amount of work we actually do. I think thats why many hesitate to tip. Tippin 10% is almost the perfect amount because it makes up for the cheap asses that dont tip. It drives us nuts when people have specialized orders and they want seperate bags, seperate checks seperate everything and it ends up being like a 100$ order and they dont tip anything. I take pride in my job and i work hard to satisfy the customers so a little tip couldnt hurt every once in awhile. The job really does get stressful though and very difficult." http://www.tipping.org/discus4/messages/9/...html?1118819224 If you want to pride yourself on treating the lower end of economic earners in the way you suggest than that is up to you. However, there are some who see some wise words written by BiB. I have never heard the words "classless" and "good tipper" used in the same sentence...

Because it is neither expected by the worker, the employer, nor the customer.

That's right. Like I said - $2 for a couple. Not an onerous amount. I'm not certain that the togo person always makes 3x the amount though across all restaurants. It is still lower than fast food though.

The employers don't give them adequate compensation BECAUSE of the tips they get. It is assumed in certain lines of work. There aren't that many of them, so it isn't that big of a burden.

Those are good questions and all a part of becoming "grown up". Not saying you're a kid, but this is stuff that you learn along the way as you get older. Certain services assume tipping as part of their compensation. If you don't agree with it - then don't accept someone's service when their compensation is based upon tips. The bottom line is if somoeone wants to take a stand against tipping - the only people they are hurting are the people making essentially nothing. They are holding up their end of the social contract, yet others want to bail on their obligation. As Fez pointed out - the only way around it is to involuntarily pay MORE for your meal regardless of service. Either way, there is no free lunch...

Wow. Lotsa smart people asking some pretty self-evident questions... You all should just put down your lame arguments and just come out and say you are too cheap to give someone $2 for a service they are NOT compensated for by the restaurant. You tip your oil change guy when he makes $2/hr. You tip your propane guy when he makes $2/hr. You tip the guy at McDonalds when he makes $2/hr. You tip ANY person whose income is structured by employer and by social contract to include tips. It's really not that hard of a concept. I'm not certain where all this "ambiguity" of where the tipping starts and ends is coming from.... (actually I do, see paragraph #1). The to-go person probably does 90% of the job as the sit-down staff does. Other than a few drink refills, maybe an odd butter/new fork request, or maybe a recommendation from the wine list - the job is the same. Take your order accurately, put it together in a presentable manner, fill any special requests, and accept payment. Yet one gets 15-20% and the other gets stiffed? If you are too lazy to make it yourself and you can afford $35 to get take-out at nicer restaurant - you can afford $2 to pay the person making less than minimum wage who served you behind the scenes. If not - enjoy the extra "sauce" in your mashed potatoes....

I just went through researching this because everything is curbside these days in MD. The bottom line is that the curbside people should be tipped. They do more than just carry the food to you and give you change. They take your order, with all your hold X and extra Y and substitute Z requests. Then the pack it appropriately in all the to-go containers, making sure you have your side salads, bread, utensils, napkins, chips, dressings, and condiments. They do this for 1, 2, or 10 people per order. That is worth a couple of bucks or more depending on the size of your order. In fact, curbside service has nothing to do with the tipping. If you go inside and pick it up they should receive the same kindness for busting their hump to prepare your meal, so you can pick up and go. Oh, and don't think you aren't getting a spitter when you regularly stiff the to-go staff at your favorite place... The servers talk and they remember faces and names.

Well, FWIW - I'm not sure you have seen the Wegman's they have been building out of state the past few years. Disneyworld is not that far off of an analogy. I have never seen a NYS Wegmans like the ones we had in the Lehigh Valley.

I always find it curious when someone actively complains to the people engaged in conversation that THEY aren't talking about what that person wants to read. So, if you want more discussion on the Bills than perhaps you could try and be a part of the solution and start Bills-related threads yourself. Just a thought.

you have started 7 topics in 2 months... take from that what you will.

Yeah, whatever... We do two things and we do them better than anyone else. We have the finest message board community anywhere and we have the best article researcher walking the planet. So, you can get your news and then talk about it with your fellow fans. That is 99% of what 99% of fans want to do. If you want fan analysis then read the boards. If someone wants to spell check their work - I'll happily submit it as an article. But, I'm not losing any sleep over the lack of original content. Anyone who would write for us is on our message boards expressing their opinions every day, so it is there to read. Gary the article poster is the best there is. For years, we watched other sites take our articles every day for their own sites (we have documented this internally) because Gary is just that good. As for stats, etc... fine - I could put more up there, but then again with dozens of professional sites providing that info (which I would have to cut and paste from anyway) - I guess I no longer see the point in 2005. 1999 is in the rear view mirror and not every aspect of every site needs full duplication across every site. So, whatever. He is a guy who has a laundry list of things that he expects to see, but I doubt he has given it much thought to what it means to provide those "missing" pieces, the value of those pieces, and the demand for those pieces across a broad range of fans.

yeah, but you could let your leg hair grow out and it would look like he was eating grass.

http://www.krispykreme.com/