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Touchy, Touchy Terms


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I keep seeing people talking about "styrene" in reference to model kits. Styrene is a volatile liquid; I'd be surprised if anyone really has large quantities of styrene in their house. The word you are looking for is polystyrene.

Before anyone says "it's just an abbreviation" - no, that would be 'styrene.

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This isn't a touchy term, but about 50% of all misspellings I notice are covered by "lose" being spelled l-o-o-s-e. I think you will agree those are two very different things...To lose a girl to a breakup is different than breaking up because she's loose. :)

:lol::lol:Well put, Tom. Also one of my pet peeves.

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Hmmm. Maybe his paws were too big for the keyboard.

I don't want to think about it.

Anyway, back to the thread, sort of. There are also a number of subjects, not merely words, that seem to peeve some people around here. Today, someone revived an April thread on building or buying paint booths, and who would have thought it would have created such controversy? My recent thread on eye candy coming up at Barrett-Jackson seems to have inspired some B-J bashing. And you can always get a rise out of someone over what's true or not true about the General Lee.

Etc.

Edited by sjordan2
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This isn't a touchy term, but about 50% of all misspellings I notice are covered by "lose" being spelled l-o-o-s-e. I think you will agree those are two very different things...To lose a girl to a breakup is different than breaking up because she's loose. :)

Some people use their spelling abilities more losely than others is all.

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It also bugs me quite a bit when decals or models are presented as 1/24-1/25 scale. Even though models may not scale out exactly to either scale, I'd at least like to know what scale they're TRYING to represent. I really don't want to buy, say, a Trans Am decal sheet, find out it's actually 1/24, and end up with an overly large bird on my 1/25 Trans Am. Or a tiny bird if it happens in reverse. Certainly whoever did the artwork must have had a specific Trans Am model in mind when making the sheet!

I know of an eBay resin seller that uses 1/24-1/25 scale to describe his resin cars, some of which represent, or are modified from, models of a known or stated scale, usually 1/25. Why not just say 1/25?

Again, I know models aren't scaled perfectly, but I also know I can get more 1/25 cars on a shelf than 1/24, so there must be a difference!

I can't imagine looking at a Lonestar on the shelf with the box claiming it was faithfully scaled using manufacturer's Cad drawings to an exact 1/24-1/25 scale. :huh:

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You mean the very first "motor cars" were electric??? :lol:

Actually, yes:

"Before the pre-eminence of internal combustion engines, electric automobiles held many speed and distance records. Among the most notable of these records was the breaking of the 100 km/h (62 mph) speed barrier, by Camille Jenatzy on April 29, 1899 in his 'rocket-shaped' vehicle Jamais Contente, which reached a top speed of 106 km/h (66 mph). Before the 1920s, electric automobiles were competing with petroleum-fueled cars for urban use of a quality service car.[21]

Proposed as early as 1896 in order to overcome the lack of recharging infrastructure, an exchangeable battery service was first put into practice by Hartford Electric Light Company for electric trucks. The vehicle owner purchased the vehicle from General Electric Company (GVC) without a battery and the electricity was purchased from Hartford Electric through an exchangeable battery. The owner paid a variable per-mile charge and a monthly service fee to cover maintenance and storage of the truck. The service was provided between 1910 to 1924 and during that period covered more than 6 million miles. Beginning in 1917 a similar service was operated inChicago for owners of Milburn Light Electric cars who also could buy the vehicle without the batteries.[22]

In 1897, electric vehicles found their first commercial application in the U.S. as a fleet of electrical New York City taxis, built by the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company of Philadelphia. Electric cars were produced in the US by Anthony Electric, Baker, Columbia, Anderson, Fritchle, Studebaker, Riker, Milburn, and others during the early 20th century.

Despite their relatively slow speed, electric vehicles had a number of advantages over their early-1900s competitors. They did not have the vibration, smell, and noise associated with gasoline cars. They did not require gear changes, which for gasoline cars was the most difficult part of driving. Electric cars found popularity among well-heeled customers who used them as city cars, where their limited range was less of a disadvantage. The cars were also preferred because they did not require a manual effort to start, as did gasoline cars which featured a hand crank to start the engine. Electric cars were often marketed as suitable vehicles for women drivers due to this ease of operation.

In 1911, the New York Times stated that the electric car has long been recognized as "ideal" because it was cleaner, quieter and much more economical than gasoline-powered cars.[23] Reporting this in 2010, the Washington Postcommented that "the same unreliability of electric car batteries that flummoxed Thomas Edison persists today."

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