So, just a fair warning — a completely random wall of text / life observation incoming ...
Have you ever noticed how often we just completely ignore posted signs, cautions, and public service cues? I guess we live in a world so full of all the legal disclaimers and warnings that we just start to tune them out. Case in point:
I was at the gas station fueling my car this morning, a ritual I have done countless times before, and I was annoyed by the pickup truck next to me who was clearly fueling his truck with the engine running. “Doesn’t this idiot know you’re supposed to turn off your engine while you fuel? He’s going to blow us all up to smithereens” were my immediate thoughts. So this prompted me to actual start looking for the posted cautions and warnings just to make sure I remembered the rules correctly. “Maybe it’s okay to leave your engine running,” I thought, “perhaps I’m mistaken.” These are the musings one has while standing idly fueling their car, I suppose.
So posted clearly above the gasoline dispenser display unit thingy (not sure what you call that) is a sign listing all the warnings and cautions. I’m sure I’ve blankingly looked at this sign hundreds of times, but I never paid any attention to it. First off, yes, the instructions say to turn your engine off while fueling. So I was right about that. However, I discovered that I was doing several things wrong this whole time:
Do not enter or leave your car while pumping fuel (I do this all the time if it’s cold outside. I have no idea why this is a suggestion)
Do not stand near the nozzle while fueling as the fumes have been know to CAUSE CANCER [emphasis is mine] in lab animals! (Good grief, I’ve been standing over the nozzle this whole time. I guess if you can’t get back in your car while fueling and you can’t stand over the nozzle, then you have to wander over to the other side of the car. Weird)
Do not use your cellphone while fueling (sheesh, I do that all the time too. I guess an electrical discharge from a device could cause an explosion?)
Do not smoke while fueling (this is a no-brainer, but I see people doing it)
etc, etc... a couple other warnings like do not let small children fuel the car and so forth.
Anyways, it struck me that there are so many of these signs that we see everyday and completely tune out. And I think that’s the problem — that is, constant exposure to something will desensitize and cause a person to subconsciously ignore it. The same occurs when you load up your computer or your PS4. I recall the warning screens that come up about seizures and some other stuff, but I couldn’t tell you much else about what they say.
Now, clearly part of our tendency to pass over cautionary warnings stems from not only the constant exposure to them, but also the fact that many of them are either ridiculous, common sense, or just plain impractical. Apologies to any attorneys out there, but the litigiousness of society has driven us collectively mad, so we’ve created this monster nanny state where we have to be sure and warn everyone about every single thing that could possibly go wrong, and we feel we can assume nothing in terms of a person’s ability to have enough sense to not stick their hand into a fire because it will burn.
Anyways, ... Friday mornings bring out the philosopher in me, I guess.
By the way, the truck next to me did not explode, in case you were wondering.
And yes, I do see the irony that I started this post with a warning. 😉
@Th3solution Litigiousness is absolutely it; also bolstered by so many people on the whole being either thick as bricks or willfully ignorant.
Re: getting in and out of the car - My guess would be that static build up could cause a charge and a small spark, or perhaps the triggering of the wiring by the door catch switches?
PSN: KALofKRYPTON (so you can see how often I don't play anything!)
Twitter: @KALofKRYPTON (at your own risk, I don't care if you're offended)
"Fate: Protects fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise." - Cmdr William T. Riker
@KALofKRYPTON 🤔 Makes sense. And to think, I’ve been putting myself in harm’s way this whole time.
I’d love to see a study that analyzed the number of gasoline combustions that were caused by being on the phone or getting out of the car while fueling your car.
@kyleforrester87 The bottle is too enclosed. The same amount in a dish would probably allow for the vapour to light, but it could possibly depend on how fast the lit end of the cigarette gets submerged.
PSN: KALofKRYPTON (so you can see how often I don't play anything!)
Twitter: @KALofKRYPTON (at your own risk, I don't care if you're offended)
"Fate: Protects fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise." - Cmdr William T. Riker
@kyleforrester87 Lol, and obviously he was using his phone (or other recording device) over the fuel and it didn’t burst into flames either. Could the whole concept of flammability be urban myth?
I watched a show on Netflix last week called “Adam Ruins Everything” and it’s basically a comedian named Adam who debunks common myths and misconceptions in a humorous way. I only watched a couple episodes but I quite liked them and they are only 20 min long. The first one was the concept of “Security Theater” which is to say the pomp and show of keeping us secure and safe really does little to do so but it just makes us feel like we’re safe. He uses the main example of airport security and all the security gymnastics that we have to go through and how studies show that all does very little compared to the other security measures that are occurring in the background that we don’t know about. But we, the naive and dense public, have to see this big open “theatrical” type of production to get a sense that we are being kept safe. Pretty good show actually and I recommend it, although I have only watch those first two episodes.
@Quintumply Apparently they've sent the codes, but I still didn't het any unfortunately. I'm not alone. I did sign up within a few minutes of the announcement, and people are speculating that the servers couldn't handle all the requests. It seems that all of the people who didn't get a code signed up immediately.
@Th3solution The mobile phone thing is probably just dated. There are still loads of signs saying not to use mobile phones in hospitals as it can affect equipment but I'm not sure that it does do anything I can think of and certainly doesn't stop people using them at any point (even in the middle of me doing an ultrasound scan on them).
@Thrillho I think it's just a case of better be safe than sorry. They just want to avoid all risks, even though it's probably a dated thing at this point.
@Thrillho Yeah, I think I read somewhere that even the mandate to turn off your mobile phone (or place it in “airplane mode”) during a flight is actually dated. They still tell you to do it but something about the current digital data frequencies used by modern phones does not actually interfere with airplane communication or functions.
I think.
Supposedly.
But please don’t take my word for it. I am not an expert and I always turn mine on “airplane mode” because I don’t want to go down in a plane crash because I couldn’t stop checking the Push Square forums. 😉
Forums
Topic: The Chit Chat Thread
Posts 1,641 to 1,660 of 9,752
Please login or sign up to reply to this topic