Speedometers

It really grinds my gears when I see how absurd speedometers have become. I drive a '91 Toyota sports car, and the speedometer goes to a whopping 160 miles per hour. That's insane! I can't imagine ever going that fast in my life in my tiny car.

The absurd part about all this is that although my car's speedometer reads up to 160 mph, my car will never go that fast. Why? Because no car is not able to go that fast when it gets off the car lot. A major limiting factor in the equation is that tires would burst way before hitting the end mark because they are not designed for the speeds of the car they were put on! Tires have a rating of what speeds they can handle, and it would require expensive racing tires to fully experience the limits of a car's speed. It makes no sense why a car should have a speedometer and engine that are ready for insane speeds but have tires that aren't.

Another thing that grinds my gears even more is that since my speedometer goes all the way the way to 160, the markers are closer together and much harder to read! I almost never go 80 mph. I cannot remember the last time I have gone that fast. Even if I drive 80 mph constantly, I would still only be using 50% of my precious gauge! Imagine a world where speedometers are the same size, but they only read up to a rediculously fast 100 mph. The meters would be so much easier to read.

Perhaps I'm just growing old and appreciating the finer aspects of cars instead of the teenage-lust of high speeds. I appreciate torque, breaking power, cornering, safety, and interior comfort far more than I did when I was a teen. It grinds my gears to see many of these aspects of fine automobiles being ignored while top speed is idolized, even though those blazing speeds will never be seen by any sane person.

Adult Swim

Adult Swim grinds my gears. This late night cartoon block is the prime example of a sell out. Once upon a time, the shows on Adult Swim were witty. This was back when it only came on two nights a week - anime on Saturday and comedy on Sunday. Back in these days it had a modest little line up of hilarious, low budget cartoons including Space Ghost, Brak, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Harvey Birdman, and the awesome Sealab. This incredible line up was complemented by a cheesy scene between commercial breaks in which there were several elderly people swimming in a public pool. The pool scene was funny both because it had the elderly engaging in pool activities (hence Adult Swim) and because it reflected a terribly low budget.

Then the guys on William Street (the studio that does AS) got greedy. They moved their line up to every night of the week save Friday. They ditched their witty adult centered shows that played off of Hannah-Barbara cartoons and decided to appeal more to pop culture. I guess the loyal underground following they had was not enough. When they dropped all of their good shows (except Aqua Teen and Sealab) they began to merely rely on perverted sexual humor and foul language to get their ratings (which was previously present in a more moderate and humorous way). Now they decided to go over-the-top and to appeal to the immature high school kids. This grew to a point to where they featured Pee-Wee's Playhouse and Saved By The Bell in their line-up.

Presently Adult Swim has degraded to the point to where most of their ratings comes from programs that come from Fox network, including Family Guy and Futurama. Their original programs are absolutely horrible, no more entertaining than watching a blank screen. Just watch Saul of the Mole Men and you'll understand what I'm talking about. My theory is that Adult Swim fired all of the staff that was present at their genesis and hired a staff of high school students.

Adult Swim - once the best block on television, now its most creative shows are provided by another network. What happened?