Cont: Luton Airport Car Park Fire III

[Matthew Best]

But you can tell the roof is straight just by looking at the video!!!!

 

[Darat]

This is a prime example of Vixens inability to grasp even basic concepts because of her need for fulfilment of her conspiracy theory...
This is a picture of a basic laundry room for example
[qimg]https://i.postimg.cc/gc12mX3t/Screenshot-from-2024-04-30-08-04-49.png[/qimg]
Plain, simple, very ordinary....
However- in reality...

[qimg]https://i.postimg.cc/fLpDzpSS/Screenshot-from-2024-04-30-08-05-07.png[/qimg]

For once the truth is shown! Big gravity has for years been trying to convince us that there is only one up and one down!

 

[jimbob]

I was about to say, I started in Mechanical Engineering and switched to Mechanical Engineering Technology, (more hands-on, less theory, less calculus), and I know relatively little about cars (which is slightly embarrassing). I have asthma, and I've always been overweight, so my dad, who taught power mechanics, always did any minor work on my car; anything major I had my friend the mechanic do, or else I took it to a shop. But I definitely didn't learn anything to speak of about cars in my ME or MET degree programs.

I do recall one time when my dad was working on mine, I asked him if there was a book I could read to learn to work on cars, and he replied, "No, you just have to do it."

Hell, even within my field of power semiconductors, I only consider myself an expert in a very small area.I can ask intelligent questions and contribute in a larger area, but technical subjects like engineering are difficult and complicated when you start to deal with all the factors that affect the outcome, whether it is the lifetime and safe loading of a bridge or the reliability of a jet engine.

 

[jimbob]

Didn't mean to put in the lightbulb icon

 

[SpitfireIX]

If you're inside the edit window, you can edit post icons.

 

[LondonJohn]

Haynes repair manuals are usually helpful. I learned separately how to work on cars, via working with knowledgeable people, following Haynes, and lots of other hands-on experience. One thing we actually tell people as teachers of engineering is, "Don't work on your own car." That's because you'll really screw things up going in with a head full of theory and no street smarts. The factory/manufacturer repair manuals are de rigueur, or the third-party ones like Haynes (most times).

"I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering" is not tantamount to, "I know the gory details of how cars—or some specific car—works.

I studied engineering at uni (and finance at post-grad) and I learned all my car mechanics firstly at uni from tinkering on my first cars (which were very cheap and very basic), and then from very careful adherence to workshop manuals. My last three cars have been Mercedes, and I am lucky to have the entire Mercedes workshop manual set and parts catalogues set, covering every variant of every model, sitting on my laptop.

Three maxims I've always made sure I follow: 1) Never ever attempt a job which looks like it should be a 2-person job; 2) Always have the right tools for the job (and don't try to wing it using incorrect tools); and 3) if in any doubt whatsoever as to the difficulty or safety of a job, leave it to the professionals.

I can do a pretty wide range of maintenance myself. Obviously I do my own servicing items, but I've also (for example) replaced suspension components, changed serpentine bearings and water pumps, rebuilt an automatic gearbox, and replaced exhaust components. I have a really good relationship with an independent garage that's close by - in fact my car is going into them next week to have a new fuel pump/filter/gauge assembly fitted (I definitely don't want to be messing around with fuel vapour and electrics on my own).

But in no way whatsoever would I ever describe myself as a car maintenance expert. I know a bit about it, sure, but on my own terms and with limitations.

 

[MarkCorrigan]

Ah well, I only ever saw three or four of his videos - rarely had time to watch all the way through. Seemed articulate enough.

Absolutely pathetic.

 

[JayUtah]

A friend of mine has a PhD in quantum mechanics. He can only fix cars if they're more than 1.6×10^-35m long.

"Quantum mechanic" is a military occupational specialty (MOS) in Forbidden Planet (1956).

 

[JayUtah]

But it DOES mean that I can tell a lithium ion battery fire from other kinds of fires, right?

If you say so only on YouTube.

 

[Vixen]

You know who else was articulate? Adolf Hitler.

Do you read what you write?

You believe that a goose-stepping raging lunatic who spoke with his arms and screamed out slogans, together with producing an unreadable book full of drivel with zero-literary merit, the epitome of 'articulacy'...?


Wow. Just wow.

 

[MarkCorrigan]

You believe that a goose-stepping raging lunatic who spoke with his arms and screamed out slogans, together with producing an unreadable book full of drivel with zero-literary merit, the epitome of 'articulacy'...?


Wow. Just wow.

Amazing that you miss the point so wildly in your flailing.

 

[Vixen]

Do you?

I'll bet that things go like this: The report will probably give a make, year and model (name seems redundant), though I can't be certain since I don't know what such reports usually contain. It will definitely comment on that the vehicle had a diesel ICE motor. I don't know whether they will have identified the exact cause of the fire.

You will go silent for a little while after the release of the report and eventually will return. You will start by criticizing certain aspects of the report, casting suspicions that it was influenced by the powers above and eventually outright saying that Car Zero was a hybrid or EV of some sort.

And so, in the end, the report will not influence your opinion even a little bit. It will just be another bit of evidence to overcome.

I look forward to seeing if I'm right. But if I'm wrong, I promise to admit it.

What on earth do you mean by this?

I appreciate facts. If the report is factual and detailed, as I am sure it will be, why would I be dissatisfied? The only problem I can foresee is government interference in facts it does not want the public to know. For example, the Russia Report, the Bullying Report (re a former minister) and of course, it has been decreed there will be no investigation into billions of recent missing taxpayer monies.

Let's see if there is any critical analysis of the presumed JLR vehicle involved.

 

[MarkCorrigan]

No, you don't appreciate facts Vixen, particularly when they disagree with your nonsense du jour.

 

[JayUtah]

You believe that a goose-stepping raging lunatic who spoke with his arms and screamed out slogans, together with producing an unreadable book full of drivel with zero-literary merit, the epitome of 'articulacy'...?

Straw man. Hitler was not the "epitome" of articulate speaking. But he is considered by many to be among the top public speakers of his day. Your opinion is noted, but contradicted by your betters.

Wow. Just wow.

Yes, wow. No one here is going to defend what Hitler spoke about. But that's kind of the point, which you missed spectacularly. What one says and the manner in which one says it don't always have anything to do with each other. You qualify your expert simply because you like how he speaks. Our standards for expertise require him actually to know what he's talking about.

 

[Vixen]

Okay, let's scratch him from the list of experts who suggest that the initial vehicle had a lithium ion battery.

That leaves us with the literally self-described Auto Expert. So, he has "a degree" in Mechanical Engineering. My guess is that it's an undergraduate degree, though if he did some accounting work afterward, I guess he could say he had postgrad work in Mechanical Engineering or something.

He also has worked as a journalist, specializing in autos.

So, is this the sort of expert that you have in mind? Is it just him or is there another expert or two you'd like to suggest?

In England, Jeremy Clarkson is revered as an auto expert - he presented a long running television car show called 'Top Gear' - yet he left school (albeit an expensive one) with just one O-level and expelled.

How do you reconcile that with your snobbish claim that John Cadogan "has "a degree" in Mechanical Engineering. My guess is that it's an undergraduate degree"...? Whilst academia is admirable, it's not the be-all and end-all. In my last employment but one, one of the partners was earning £2m a year having left school at fifteen. He was fortunate to have gone into the profession when paper qualifications were not compulsory. I know plenty of well-educated academic types who failed professional exam after professional exam. So your criteria seems to be based on pure snobbery.

 

[MarkCorrigan]

No he isn't except by the especially stupid. He's considered to be someone who knows about how a car feels to drive but he isn't an auto expert.

Even if the population of the UK did consider him an expert that doesn't mean much as he manifestly is not.

 

[JayUtah]

I appreciate facts.

No. Facts are not your friends.

If the report is factual and detailed, as I am sure it will be, why would I be dissatisfied?

Because you have a history of being dissatisfied with detailed factual reports that contradict your desired beliefs.

...government interference in facts it does not want the public to know.

This is your fantasy world intruding on real life.

 

[Vixen]

Hell, even within my field of power semiconductors, I only consider myself an expert in a very small area.I can ask intelligent questions and contribute in a larger area, but technical subjects like engineering are difficult and complicated when you start to deal with all the factors that affect the outcome, whether it is the lifetime and safe loading of a bridge or the reliability of a jet engine.

So your anecdata, where n = 1, settles it and applies to everybody?

 

[GlennB]

In England, Jeremy Clarkson is revered as an auto expert - he presented a long running television car show called 'Top Gear' - yet he left school (albeit an expensive one) with just one O-level and expelled.

...

One A-level, which suggests he had a handful of O-levels at least.

 

[JayUtah]

In England, Jeremy Clarkson is revered as an auto expert...

No, not really.

...he presented a long running television car show called 'Top Gear'

Which is a car-themed comedy show. Clarkson is primary a comedian, brought in to save the show from the insufferably cerebral James May.

So your criteria seems to be based on pure snobbery.

No, his criteria are correct. Your source claims to have a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Fine; that teaches on neither about cars nor about battery fires, unless one has gone on to learn that. In that case, the subsequent learning is the credential. Beyond that, your only qualification for him is that he seems well spoken.