Subterranean Power Line Blues

Undertoad · 01-23-2020, 09:58 AM

This reminds me of what happened when the gummint said "OK no more incandescent bulbs" -- people started to list the shortcomings of compact fluorescents. "You can't just throw them away!" "Dimmers don't work right!" "The light is a weird blue!"

But if we had started with CFLs, and then the gummint said "OK only incandescents now", people would have angrily listed all their shortcomings. "These things take up ten times the energy!" "They get really hot, you can't even touch them. I burned my hand!" "The light is a weird orange!"

"Batteries suck" sure, but if we had started with batteries, and were told to switch to internal combustion?

"This thing is really slow!" "I have to stand next to the car like an idiot to fuel it -- every 300 miles!" "It breaks down three times as often!" "The fuel got on my pants and I had to actually throw them away!" "Service the car every 7500 miles? Ridiculous!" "So you're saying I have to check the oil level with a little stick?" "You're saying if this fuel leaks out it could catch fire and maybe even explode?" "So I can't refuel it at home?"

01-23-2020, 09:58 AM	#9
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	This reminds me of what happened when the gummint said "OK no more incandescent bulbs" -- people started to list the shortcomings of compact fluorescents. "You can't just throw them away!" "Dimmers don't work right!" "The light is a weird blue!" But if we had started with CFLs, and then the gummint said "OK only incandescents now", people would have angrily listed all their shortcomings. "These things take up ten times the energy!" "They get really hot, you can't even touch them. I burned my hand!" "The light is a weird orange!" "Batteries suck" sure, but if we had started with batteries, and were told to switch to internal combustion? "This thing is really slow!" "I have to stand next to the car like an idiot to fuel it -- every 300 miles!" "It breaks down three times as often!" "The fuel got on my pants and I had to actually throw them away!" "Service the car every 7500 miles? Ridiculous!" "So you're saying I have to check the oil level with a little stick?" "You're saying if this fuel leaks out it could catch fire and maybe even explode?" "So I can't refuel it at home?"

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