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Girl Claims Price Scanner Gave Her Tourette's Syndrome
Attorneys for Dominica Juliano claim that she was burned and developed psychological problems after a store clerk aimed a hand-held price scanner at her face. Store attorneys say their scanners uses a harmless LED light and that the girl had serious health problems before she was scanned. From the article: "Dominica Juliano was 12 when she and her grandmother entered the Country Fair store in Erie in June 2004. A clerk allegedly called the girl 'grumpy' before flashing his hand-held bar code scanner over her face and telling her to smile. Attorneys for Ms. Juliano and her guardian say the girl was sensitive to light and burned, and later developed post-traumatic stress and Tourette's syndrome."
"You're grumpy" *beep* OOOh...Sick burn!
The Judge that let this go to trial should be out of a job. Why waste the time of a jury and tax-dollars on such ridiculous claims?
If she's that sensitive to light, just a few seconds exposure to any amount of sunlight or even a 15W incandescent should have killed her years ago. I mean burned her to a crisp.
'Attorneys for Ms. Juliano and her guardian say the girl was sensitive to light and burned, and later developed post-traumatic stress and Tourette's syndrome.'
To fix that: "Ms. Juliano and her guardian say the girl deserves a Million Billion Gazillion dolars (and that she [Ms. Juliano] should be trustee)."
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
Easy to figure out, shoot her again and again to see if it still burns. Oh and never mind that Tourettes is an inherited neuropsychiatric disorder. Don't let a little thing like that stop you from filing a lawsuit though.
...just point a laser at the back of her head in court.
F*cking clerk! A*shole!
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
Some people have photosensitive epilepsy. Not saying that it's the cause here, but it's a possibility.
"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results" - Winston Churchill
I'd be swearing about it as well. PTSD, however, is real and can be caused in all sorts of ways. But probably not from this.
Welcome to the land of the "owe, i hurt myself, lets blame who's near my so i don't look like an idiot"
this is obviously a grab for cash, when genetic disorders like this cannot instantly be created from a flash of light, if she had a pre existing condition, light sensitivity, then i doubt she's gonna get that cash she so hope she would, poor girl is probably stuck in the middle of the greed from her parents.
It's not a typo if you understood the meaning!
Take a physics class you fucking dumbass.
Oh wait, that's right. She already knows. She is just lying to take advantage of someone, trying to exploit the legal system to steal their money.
It's easier than working.
Who else wants to show up with a laser pointer?
I'm betting we can chase her away from entering the court house...
-- Terry
Maggie Simpson is going to have a terrible case of Tourette's after being scanned every week for the past ~20 years.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
The article doesn't explain that it was the combination of LEDs and WiFi that causes this psychological problem. That or vaccines plus violent video games.
That's one way to get revenge. The scanner is likely to wind up short a few thousand dollars when it's all over, whether they win or not.
... the cashier's behaviour was inappropriate. That's not how to treat a costumer.
Well this thread gave me lupus.
Summary states:
but:
So the stupid girl is now 17 or 18, but apparently non the wiser. I really wonder why it took so long for their parents to get the idea that they might squeeze some money out of this stupid joke.
TFA does not say if the clerk was unhappy because the girl was grumpy or he was just trying to cheer her up (shock, horror). You on the other hand must be a riot at parties. You definitely showed what a grumpy cunt you are (oops, did I say that?), but hey don't let that dampen your sense of entitlement.
... are giving me Tourette's Syndrom. Can I sue?
Have gnu, will travel.
While the employees were obviously being annoying fucks, your response was much more obnoxious. I have a hard time feeling bad for the trouble they put you through, you sound like a real asshole to me.
Erm, sorry; don't mind me.
It would be different if it were a clerk at a handgun store and he shot her.
Much different ....
It's Pennsylvania..... which, like Florida, deserves it's own Fark and Slashdot tag...
Cartman: "I've got a tiiicket!"
If shining a LED in your eyes could give you turrets, I would SHIT CUNT FUCK have DAMN turrets pretty bad by now.
On a more serious note, that just doesn't work. All the scanner does is shine a LED and catch the light bouncing back, shining light into your eyes could not give you turrets, that's not feasible.
Five years of working retail from 14-19 certainly taught me to hate the vast majority of humanity and swear like a sailor.
However, the good customers made up for the meager paycheck and the idiot boss.
A far simpler would have been to get gas somewhere else and call the owner of the place.
Burned by an LED?
What happens if she's exposed to direct sunlight? Presumably it causes her to burst into flame, being tens of thousands of times more energetic.
I'm sure I've put a few in a wheel-chair just by me staring at the legs... ..
Lately I was following a lady around in the mall with a soft-on bumping
against my zippergate and staring at the back of her legs. Well just
me looking at her provoked a full-blown Tourette attack. My stare is
pretty powerful so maybe I burned her, that patch of skin on her left
calf looked a bit red.. Well she called me a pervert and a bunch of
names and then started to scream for "Security" at the top of her lungs..
Luckily I removed myself before the security guards came around
because if she loses the use of her legs I'm going to have to pay her for
the rest of my life.
Go on tv with chris hansen!
She's lucky: if, instead of an LED she was exposed to a microwave and non-dairy creamer, she could've been turned into a mouse!
sic transit gloria mundi
They claim? As in right now? Not 6 years ago? Somehow I don't think this is a story.
priceless
Nullius in verba
That is what I did.
I do not care how sensitive to light you are, if you can survive outside and in a normally lighted room you will have no trouble with a price scanner.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Everytime I hear Sarah Palin gives me tourette's. Can I sue Fox "News"?
...this is not impossible at all.
Of course most people are very ignorant when it comes to those things, and we geeks tend to also be very incompetent in psychology.
But if you remember that a brain is nothing else but a network of trigger-nodes with pulsed communication between them, then pulsed input signals fit right in there. Now every input obviously has some effect on the brain. What we call “learning” or “imprinting”. A laser flickering across the photoreceptors is no different there.
Now if it happens, that the input signal is just right, it can e.g. raise the sensitivity of one neuron (or lower that of an inhibiting one), which then becomes able to trigger the swearing neurons for a lot of previously irrelevant input. It’s a wrong association. Like when you hear a song that remembers you of your ex loved one, and you suddenly get sad. That’s the trigger going across the association to the neurons for sadness.
The big problem that we have for everything mental, is that we can’t prove that what she says is true or not. At least not without serious brain scanning while creating those triggering situations.
But the good and bad news is, that it doesn’t matter. What matters is what that person believes. Because that will cause a feedback loop of self-fulfillment, that makes it true anyway (for the inner model in her brain).
So the neural wiring configuration is there in any case.
But luckily, what I described above works in every direction. So undoing it is possible with the anti-input of whatever caused it. A corrective re-learning/re-associating. Aka our good old friend, a behavior therapy. Even better with a kickstart trough creation of anti-congruent situations. (Or in layman’s terms: Make her experience situations that roughly cause that anti-input.)
Yup, that’s just the theory. But in my experience, mental problem are far easier fixed than most people think... IF done right, and IF there is somebody who is trained to keep cool (which is harder than you think), is free from having a twisted reality himself (even harder), and has the empathy and kindheartedness to be willing to do it (I can count the people on this planet, where I know that they are like that, on the fingers of one hand).
Conclusion: Cut the stupid jokes about it being “not real”. Reality is irrelevant for fixing such a problem. What counts is if that person believes it in her inner model, and if it makes her life bad from that point of view.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
However, if she hadn't been subjected to the coherent beams of non-ionizing radiation, she would have developed touretts from something else innocuous, like a Bee that buzzes too close to her head, that set off the tics.
Generally touretts develops around that age, however it is more prevailent with boys.
I would suggest that if she really wants to get rid of them she should take up smoking. The Carcinigens in the cigarettes will likely the cells in her brain dispose her to ticing. It will make her a little bit stupider, but such is the price for being normal.
-Regards
looks like _someone's_ got a case of the mondays!
Paying taxes gave me Tourette's Syndrome. While I'm writing the check I curse uncontrollably. I wonder if I should sue.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Did I just hear a collective banging of heads on desk from the science community?
Sometimes, lawsuits take a *long* time to get through the courts to the point where they're dismissed or resolved. Six years from incident to dismissal doesn't surprise me as much as I wish it did.
There's a book called "The True Stella Awards" by Randy Cassingham, which is full of documented court cases that waste time & money, set bad precedents, try to punish the wrong people, etc, and it's disheartening to see how long the process can take.
http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100414/NEWS02/304149909
Please? I'd award $1 - so that they can't appeal - they won, they got an award - now go away
-- 73 de KG2V For the Children - RKBA! "You are what you do when it counts" - the Masso
Thank you again, pseudo-science.
Does nobody else realize that the clerk attempted to scan the poor child? Didn't you people see the movie? I know that I would probably be scarred for life if someone tried to explode my head.
Wait. A BARCODE scanner?
Probably he didn't want to be branded a racist. And most people can't tell a price scanner from a taser.
Damping absorbs vibrations. Dampening is caused by moisture.
I get news blurbs from both Slashdot and The Onion.
It's stuff like this that confuses me as to which links I'm browsing.
Or that she is in her late teens and likely has the same disorder many kids that age seem to have nowadays, which is that the world is not handing them everything on a silver platter like Britney Spears and they are LIKE FUCKING REALLY PISSED OFF, LIKE FUCK, DUDE!
Her guardian better beware, if that money gets awarded to Ms Juliano, said guardian probably won't see any of it...
SB
It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
At least, that's when I start swearing uncontrollably.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Speaking as someone with a mild case of Tourettes, you can't just "Get" it. You're either born with it or not.
However, many people with the faulty genes go through there entire life without noticing the symptoms until they experience a particularly stressful moment- at which point something "breaks" and it becomes a lot more severe.
I cannot possibly fathom a supermarket price scanner burning someone (It's just not possible), however it's possible the girl believed it did, causing her enough psychological stress to trigger the Tourettes.
However, if that was enough to set her off, she was going to get it pretty soon anyway with several years of stressful High School on the horizon.
Moreover, both of those reports were live hours before this story got greenlighted for the Slashdot frontpage.
Slashdot: Yesterday's News for Nerds. Stuff that Mattered.
~Idarubicin
It's spelled "Gordon Ramsay" you **** ****ing ***hole piece of ****.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
Should of told them you were clinically depressed and trying to refuse service to you was a violation of you ADA rights and you are going to sue them for the damages inflicted.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
costumers deserve candy, on october 31st
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Electronics causing (or at least triggering) a genetic disorder? It happens a lot. I know several people who have developed Tourettes after a few short hours of Mario Kart.
Bob Saget!
So, could I sue the oil industry for my Tourette's syndrome every time I look at the reader board when I pull into a gas station, let alone when I open my electric bill?
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
Hi guys, My sister has tourette's, and I feel obliged to inform you all that many people's "ticks" manifest in different ways. In her case, she jerked randomly, when she was younger quite often. Now that she's older she hides it much better, some of you may know someone with this without even being aware of it. I also find it hard to believe that it took her five years to make the connection between the price scanner and the tourette's, the whole story wreaks of unlikely. I don't understand how a scanner works, so all science aside, I suppose she can have the benefit of the doubt about that.
After the plaintiffs presented their case, the judge ruled for the defendant after a motion for no suit (meaning that the plaintiff has failed to present a case that can win, even undefended) from the defense. The sad part is that the defendant is still out money and time and a jury had a couple days worth of their life wasted just to get to that point.
I burst out in a profane tirade yelling at no-one in the room. Now I'm light sensitive to the color blue and I might have post-traumatic stress.
Do you think I have a claim on Microsoft?
I'll wait to display outrage until after a jury has issued a verdict and the appeals process has run its course.
I'm still willfully naive enough to believe that a competent defense and a motivated defendant with a solid moral grounding can teach the judicial system enough science to win.
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
Is there a disease that randomly causes you to punch people in the face? Because if I were in her shoes, that's probably what I would have developed.
I can safely say the beam can *not* give you Tourette's. It can, however, cause severe pseudologia fantastica, FFS!
This is one of the funniest things I've heard so far today. Let's be real here. Of course, I curse every time I go to the store too, paying outrageous prices for imported garbage...
It's always nice to see another STM fan.
.. did she scan?
Insert
1. The girl and her grandmother are a pair of wannabe victims out to make a quick buck, suing everyone they can find for anything they can think of. That's possible, but it strikes me that the success rate is probably comparable to that of buying a lottery ticket. I don't know of anyone who has actually seen this phenomenon in real life, despite it being a popular news topic.
2. The girl or her grandmother actually believed that the scanner caused the girl's problems. This would mean they somehow had to go through the trouble of finding a lawyer and possibly a doctor to support those claims without the fact that LEDs don't cause tourettes ever once making it into their consciousness. I knew someone who thought that an encounter with a sonar demonstration had left her with a previously undiscovered neurological disorder. Later she was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Such a case deserves some empathy.
3. The clerk was being a complete ass and the grandmother decided to return the favor. In her day that kind of crap would have earned you a paddle, but we frown on that kind of behavior these days so she settled for trying to eat up some of his time and money.
Given that the third explanation requires the least amount of extraneous speculation, I'm inclined to label it my favorite. Given how much of our tax money is wasted on truly destructive endeavors, I'm also inclined to ignore the minuscule cost and say "go granny!"
You wanna know how I got these scars?
Stuff that matters.
And this completely uninteresting piece of data ("Crazy girl complains about nonsense") is neither. Who cares about such crap?
Free PC version of ChipWits at http://www.breueronline.de/klaus/chipwits/
"I think the claims are ridiculous" is not a valid legal reason for denying the person of their right to seek justice under the law.
Correct, but it is the failure of the legal system that such types of ridiculous lawsuits can be launched with little risk of punishment. These lawsuits are thinly veiled attempts to blackmail the adversary into settling. In most cases attorney and court costs have to be paid for by the prevailing party as well, so in most cases companies have an incentive to settle, even if the lawsuit is obviously frivolous.
A few simple, common-sense measures would suffice:
- Attorney-client privilege should be lifted automatically after a case has been proven to be frivolous. The privilege is important to society when there is a serious matter and a real controversy, but in case of abuse it should be lifted (after the abuse has been proven), and the attorney should be required to testify whether he warned the client that the case was frivolous.
- The court appointed attorney mechanism should be extended to defend targets of obviously frivolous lawsuits (and judges would have the authority to give cases such a status with a lowered burden of proof), and attorney generals should be required by law to prosecute the perpetrators of frivolous lawsuits as well. Frivolous lawsuits are harmful to society and should be made criminal.
- The _attorney_ of the losing party should be required to pay all costs after the first loss, and to carry all costs from that point on (and pay the counter-party's costs as well) during the appellate stage as well.
- If a lawsuit is classified by the judge in such a way then the _defendant_ should have the right to ask for a bench trial and avoid the risks of a jury trial. (jury bamboozled by sobbing girl in all tears telling a story about how badly her eye is hurting). Currently plaintiffs have the right to pick the venue: they'll go for a home town jury, or they'll go for a court far away from the defendant's business and lawyers - increasing court costs (and increasing the willingness of defendants to settle even if the lawsuit is frivolous).
A few simple measures and attorneys would think twice before risking such a lawsuit.
Only in America...
Got flashed by a device installed by the police on the road side while doing 80 on a 60 zone. Got traumas from it! Must sue!
... and people wonder, that society "cools out".
Being friendly to a 12 year old: Lose your job, go to trial, never have a normal live again
Look away, when people need your help: priceless
This is *sick*
So the girl was sensitive to light? Why was she outside IN THE SUN at a county fair. Or even worse if it was at night, LEDs are friggin everywhere when it's dark out.
It's surprising she didn't spontaneously combust.
I got genital herpes from the same scanner, damn you BAR CODE SCANNER with LED lights and a soft rubber grip handle.
Maybe she got burned because the scanner was reading Code 93 instead of Code 39. I hear the photons produced by a Code 93 can kill small mammals.
My sympathy's are with the family. *FUCK*!
u arshole from cyberspace, i got tourette from reading this post! you fucking cock-sucking wanker!
FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, CUNT, CUNT, SHIT, FUCK, SHIT, FUCK!!!!!
o sorry it's my LED display which caused irreparable damage to my eyes, after reading that post (lol)
Same disclaimer: Sounds like BS, there had to be a pre-existing condition. However, there may be a case for assault.
As a parent of an autistic child I can attest to issues of sensory sensitivity, including light.
Although he didn't talk until he was 4, he was reading at a grade 12 level (not saying much these days ha ha) when he was 6.
My son had virtually x-ray vision when reading books: he could read the page he was on and the page underneath, backwards! I swear that you or would not see the bleed through but he could, as plain as day. It held him back in school until we discovered the issue and photocopied the material onto single sided sheets. Oh, and a sort of teal coloured green sheet increased his ability to focus because the paper did not glare at him. He also wears specifically coloured glasses to deal with other spectrum related problems.
When he was a baby, he would wake up to very odd things... like the dogs barking in the basement of a house three homes away. I couldn't hear it unless I opened the front door and walked out to the street.
Someone holding a scanner to his face would have caused great consternation, even trauma, but PTSD and burning seems a stretch.
That said, just because us "neural-typical" types sense the world in a certain way, it does not mean that everyone is like that.
We certainly ran into a lot of people (er... especially school principals) who thought it was BS.
BTW: he is now an honours grad from high school, a VG hockey player (voted captain of his team), and getting set to go to a trade school.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10104/1050455-100.stm
damnit if you would only post under your real name I would like to hear more about that. The fact that you're posting as AC only makes it seem totally bogus and idiotic. Sorry, but that's the price of anonymousness.
2^3 * 31 * 647
Maybe she was on meth, like the sheep on the other article? http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=10/04/14/2329223
It's about Tourette's and you're modding me offtopic and trolling? Wow. That's just.... Wow.
Ok mods, lighten up already. (oh, and I'm soooo not worried about the karma hit, just thought the mods were highly strung)
2^3 * 31 * 647
I have a relatively mild case of Tourette's syndrome, and flashing lights sometimes aggravate it. (Playing pinball is especially problematic for me.) I don't find it implausible that pointing a blinking scanner at the face of someone who has Tourette's could cause tics to show up. Of course, that doesn't mean that the flashing light *caused* Tourette's; it just brought out symptoms of a disorder that was already present. It's possible that Ms. Juliano had been asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic up until that time. My symptoms were worse during puberty than before or after, so the fact that Ms. Juliano was 12 is also significant here. I don't think this family is lying about the facts, just misinformed about what exactly did happen and how Tourette's works.