Safe Stops for Dummy Drivers

Brake lights

We're down one today as the Antisocial Network's staff geologist sits in the corner mumbling to himself and playing with mineral samples: Tectonics week was awfully hard on him... but life goes on. That's why we're handing out a Dumbass of the Day award in another category – cars – to eHow.com's Andrea Stein (a repeat offender), sharing her lack of automotive knowledge in "What is a Brake Light Switch?"¹ at ItStillRuns.com.

We caught on that Andrea was an automotive ninny just by reading her first paragraph:

"Cars rely on a number of systems in order to run properly. The breaking [sic] system in a car consists of both mechanical and electrical parts used to complete the standard breaking [sic] procedure. The brake light switch plays an integral role in this process."

The "standard breaking procedure"? First, you ignoramus, it's braking, and second, WTF is a "standard breaking procedure"? But the most ridiculous statement of all is that the brake light switch is integral to stopping a car. It isn't: the brakes work just fine without the switch -- which means it isn't integral. Look the word up, idiot!

Andrea has a BA in English (or claims she does), so we wonder why she says...

"A brake light switch is an electrically powered switch that triggers the brake lights to activate when brakes are applied." You do know "triggers to activate" is redundant,  right? "Brake light switches used for cruise control work by transmitting a signal to the car’s computer unit..." Ummmm - aren't you missing a verb there? And here's a good one for the knowledge-challenged working on electric switches: "When a driver depresses the brake pedal, a plunger device contacts a metal plate, which completes an electric circuit in the switch via the two wires."

We wondered, couldn't she have just said "closes the circuit"? Probably didn't know the phrase at all, what with having carefully avoided any science classes on her way to a BA in English -- which makes us wonder why someone so clearly scientifically illiterate writes (or at least tries to write) about science and technology. Oh, yeah, we forgot: she was paid to be a Dumbass of the Day.

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/facts_6909258_brake-light-switch_.html

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DD - AUTOMOTIVE