Living at a time when a new technology is just developing is exciting. You get to watch an invention get out there in the world and develop over time. Sometimes, it’s an aggravating invention, like AI, and sometimes it’s wonderful, like electric cars. I wonder how people felt when steam cars were all the rage?
Jason wrote about a hero driving an 118-year-old steam car. Sid Bridge:
Husband: I said the car will be ready to go in 20 minutes! I don’t want it to blow up and kill us.
Wife: Fine. I’ll just start walking to the store. If you get the car ready, you can catch up to me.
Husband: But honey…
Wife: Don’t “But honey” me! You’re the one who sold the horse for this thing!
There was an old-timey diagram in that post, and Hoser68 has words for it:
Oh, my engineer side is massively triggered.
The diagram has an “emergency boiler check valve”. NO, NO, NO, a 1000 times no.
That is a Safety valve, not a check valve. Perhaps Stanley is so old it uses different terminology (although the term Safety Valve is from the mid-1800s). This is critical, because I’ve seen people put a check valve in place of a Safety valve and very bad things have happened.
So, a quick primer.
Check valve. Flows one way. If this was a check valve, it would either only flow into the boiler or out of the boiler. If it flowed in, then the boiler could build up to a super high pressure and the valve wouldn’t open. If it only flowed out, it would not build pressure at all. The drawing doesn’t show a check valve.
Safety Valve. Doesn’t flow until the boiler pressure is too high, then it flow. Someone will call it a Relief valve, although officially when it’s on a Boiler, it’s called a Safety Valve and slightly different. The drawing looks odd, but does look like a safety valve, with perhaps a condensate drain line.
The danger I see is AI. AI learns from diagrams like this. I swear, 99% of what AI knows about steam systems come from Steam Punk graphic Novels. It’s not just wrong, it’s dangerously wrong 90% of the time, and this graphic of the Stanley boiler looks like what AI would generate, especially with mis-labeling a valve..
Matt wrote about how there’s a new pink Ford Bronco. Elhigh brought up what I think is a valid concern:
Sorry, I’m going to try very very hard not to write the words “Barbie Dream Bronco” more than this one time, but it’s going to be difficult. They suggest themselves.
This smacks of a committee getting together to try to market cars to women specifically, and we know that that is always a big, dumb, really insulting mistake. If they move more than 100 of these over the entire interval that they’re available, I will be surprised. Considering how much extra this package costs, I’ll be surprised if they sell 50.
V10omous makes a very good point:
It’s literally just an appearance package.
It’s possible to simply prefer a pink vehicle without getting into gender theory or feeling insulted.
They will sell thousands of them, if the pink Jeeps are any indication.
Nsane In The MembraNe:
I am a man with interests that are of the “traditionally masculine” variety. Sports, heavy music, guitars, fast cars, cooking meats, etc.
…If these were more reasonably priced I’d rock one without hesitation and my favorite color is purple. I am heterosexual but I’ve never thought twice about going to a gay bar with my queer friends, and I’ve always had a great time when I do. I watch way more women’s soccer than men’s soccer because I think their game is a lot grittier and more entertaining.
The moral of the story is….who the fuck cares? Enjoy what you enjoy and do it proudly. If you’re secure enough in your own identity shit like a hot pink Bronco won’t bother you in the slightest. Hell, if you’re like the majority of the people here you’ll probably think it’s rad.
Other than the price. Dear god…
I agree. It’s one thing to make a car full of silly gimmicks and say it’s for women. It’s another to just give a pink paint job to an existing vehicle. I love the latter. More cars should come in pink! But that price is nuts. Cool colors shouldn’t be locked behind a huge paywall. Smart once sold Fortwos in a metallic purple in America, but the paint was a hefty upcharge.
Have a great evening, everyone!
Top graphic image: Jason Torchinsky
I guess the main thing I’ve learned seeing both men’s and woman’s soccer and basketball games is holy shit are men incredibly fragile. You just have to barely touch their shoelace and their ankle twists in half. Fortunately in the 10 seconds writhing on the ground that it takes a ref to get over there they heal themselves.