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Post by fauxmaha on Mar 30, 2020 9:00:12 GMT -5
Just got a message from a friend who just had a near-disaster experience.
He's in the process of traveling cross-country. Stopped for gas. Started the pump, went into the C-store for supplies, pump failed to shut off, another customer comes in and says "dude! Your pump was dumping gas all over the place so I shut it off!", staff was alerted, cleanup took place, peace was restored.
I replied to the effect of "How in the blue Jesus did you of all people not know you don't ever leave a gas pump unattended?!?!"
This guy is five kinds of crazy smart. PhD, multiple international media and academic publications, ridiculously off the charts CV, etc, etc, etc.
And yet somehow the message "you don't leave a gas pump unattended" never got through.
That's just amazing to me.
Makes me wonder some things:
- What basic "truths" do each of us know (eg "never leave gas pumps unattended") that we would assume are universal but are not. - What basic "truths" are each of us missing? We can sneer/laugh/etc at my friend, but surely we are in exactly the same condition in some other contexts.
Maybe we are all just dumb luck away from a glorious, Darwin-Award-worthy death, and our last thought as the perpetual burden of consciousness slips mercifully away will be "As God is my witness, I never knew you couldn't do that."
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Post by Rob Hanesworth on Mar 30, 2020 9:04:35 GMT -5
Arthur Carlsen: "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!"
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Post by theevan on Mar 30, 2020 9:08:46 GMT -5
Darwin-ready hominid reporting for duty, sir!
I'm just one of those guys.
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Truth
Mar 30, 2020 9:28:37 GMT -5
Post by Marshall on Mar 30, 2020 9:28:37 GMT -5
Well, I've done that. Start the gas pumping and go into the store. Probably any number of times. It's called multi-tasking. Never seen a case where the automatic shut-off doesn't shut off. . . . EVER. Most times I stand there and it clicks off. And I pull it out. On rare occasions it clicks off when I'm just getting it started. Annoying. Pull it out slightly and start it over again.
Sometimes I leave the car running while pumping. But only if I'm going to stand there. If I'm listening to something on the radio, or I want the heat or AC to keep running.
Never in my lifetime of driving and pumping gas have I ever seen a spill at a gas station. On mine or anybody else's car.
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Post by Cosmic Wonder on Mar 30, 2020 9:37:50 GMT -5
Turn the car off. Don’t smoke. Don’t leave the pump other than to Wah your window. It’s not that hard to do the right thing.
Mike
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Truth
Mar 30, 2020 9:44:35 GMT -5
Post by aquaduct on Mar 30, 2020 9:44:35 GMT -5
I'd have to default to my standard "skin in the game" answer.
As an engine development engineer I've been confronted with the concepts of flash point and the like for quite a while. I know gasoline has a flash point well within the limits of a warm spring day. Diesel has a flash point decently above the range of normal ambient temperatures. However, the emissions reductions systems I worked with 15 years ago had a nasty way of increasing fuel tank temperatures making localized vapors around the tank fill pipe high enough to hit that flash point. A couple of experiments graphically showed pretty quickly what could happen if old habits like smoking while refilling were engaged in with the new systems. And when a diesel fuel spill combines with a gasoline fuel spill like in a freeway accident it's Katy bar the door and run for the hills. As a rule, I have a healthy respect for raw fuel and paying attention for the few minutes the nozzle is in the tank.
But normal folks don't know that. How could they? Even with multiple PhD's.
On the other hand, that's also why I don't attempt a casting furnace in my driveway. No skin in the game and no desire to learn the hard way.
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Post by millring on Mar 30, 2020 9:44:53 GMT -5
If I knew what I didn't know, I wouldn't be as ignorant as I currently am.
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Post by millring on Mar 30, 2020 9:46:26 GMT -5
Here's something handy you might not know: Things that are red hot do not appear to be so in full sunlight. Be careful when picking up the peep hole brick or when welding outdoors.
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Truth
Mar 30, 2020 9:47:40 GMT -5
Post by aquaduct on Mar 30, 2020 9:47:40 GMT -5
Here's something handy you might not know: Things that are red hot do not appear to be so in full sunlight. Be careful when picking up the peep hole brick or when welding outdoors. You're right. I didn't know that.
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Truth
Mar 30, 2020 9:48:08 GMT -5
Post by millring on Mar 30, 2020 9:48:08 GMT -5
Here's another: You can stop a fan blade (the kind of fan you turn on to cool yourself in the summer) without too much risk of injury, but you can't hold a sawblade between your fingers and stop it.
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Truth
Mar 30, 2020 9:49:18 GMT -5
Post by millring on Mar 30, 2020 9:49:18 GMT -5
You might find this helpful. With a parachute you can jump from an airplane, but you probably better drop from a helicopter. And don't wave before you do.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2020 9:49:37 GMT -5
I'll have to admit that leaving the car unattended while pumping gas is just nothing I ever thought of doing because, well, you just don't do that.
I associate pumping fuel with "Things That Can Go Wrong Quickly and Result in Death if Not Done Properly" and therefore, I try to pay attention while doing it.
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Post by aquaduct on Mar 30, 2020 9:52:32 GMT -5
And as an aside Jeff, I've been thinking a lot about some of your old posts (most likely lost in the mist now) lately with COVID and what all. They were the one's about religion essentially being codified heuristics that encode ancient truths whose wisdom may be lost in the fog of history.
See, sometimes I do learn shit.
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Truth
Mar 30, 2020 9:52:44 GMT -5
Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2020 9:52:44 GMT -5
Here's something handy you might not know: Things that are red hot do not appear to be so in full sunlight. Be careful when picking up the peep hole brick or when welding outdoors. Actually, I picked up that bit of knowledge from watching "Forged in Fire" in the episodes where they've forged outdoors. The bladesmiths have mentioned the difficulty in gauging the heat of their metal in sunlight.
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Truth
Mar 30, 2020 9:57:47 GMT -5
Post by brucemacneill on Mar 30, 2020 9:57:47 GMT -5
I did have a pump fail to stop once and put a lot of gas on the ground. Generally I pay first and then pump and it stops when the money runs out but that one time it didn't stop pumping when the money ran out.
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Truth
Mar 30, 2020 10:02:59 GMT -5
Post by Marshall on Mar 30, 2020 10:02:59 GMT -5
I reiterate: Never in my lifetime of driving and pumping gas have I ever seen a spill at a gas station. On mine or anybody else's car. Never. And nobody I've ever known has ever told a story similar to yours. I'm not saying you're wrong in your indignation. The negative consequences, though remote, are big. I'll probably be more consistently careful now. How dangerous is it plugging in your Tesla?
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Post by aquaduct on Mar 30, 2020 10:09:08 GMT -5
How dangerous is it plugging in your Tesla? From what I've seen, the danger isn't in plugging them in so much as the sometimes unpredictable way Lithium Ion batteries decide to explode. If you haven't seen that, it's quite spectacular.
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Truth
Mar 30, 2020 10:09:17 GMT -5
Post by Marshall on Mar 30, 2020 10:09:17 GMT -5
There are many "controls" in our society that we take for granted. Ask Michael about driving through an intersection when you have a green light? We take for granted that we can cross railroad tracks when the lights aren't flashing. We don't look both ways for a train first.
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Post by fauxmaha on Mar 30, 2020 10:22:55 GMT -5
And when a diesel fuel spill combines with a gasoline fuel spill like in a freeway accident it's Katy bar the door and run for the hills. Have I mentioned that I've developed a sure-fire (literally, you might say) method for lighting the fire pit? I keep a 5 gallon fuel can filled with a 50/50 mix of Diesel and waste oil. That is used for the foundry. When lighting the fire pit, I pour a generous measure (maybe a pint or so?) of that mix over the wood. Then I pour a small measure (maybe a cup or so) of gasoline on top of that. Stand a "safe" distance upwind with a stick match and let fly. The first time, I over-did the gasoline and got an impressive "WHUMP!" accompanied by a glorious fireball. That was last Halloween. My favorite part of that was my neighbor informing me of multiple reports on NextDoor to the effect of "What the HELL was that!!!! ??!!!!!" I've since learned a better proportion for the fuel mix, so chaos is minimized. Now, what was that again about things I don't know?
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Post by howard lee on Mar 30, 2020 10:39:23 GMT -5
Turn the car off. Don’t smoke. Don’t leave the pump other than to Wah your window. It’s not that hard to do the right thing. Mike
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