1804 Tech Twofer

A couple of technological observations today. A tech twofer.
I saw this traffic jam recently. It was actually at a gas station. They'd had a promotion and for one hour their gas was $1.94.5 a gallon. It was amazing the crowd that formed. And it kept conglomerating as more people saw the crowd and joined in. It was like a gas mob.
But it led to one interesting picture. All the cars were literally bumper to bumper. And that meant there was a Prius backed up against another automobile, one of the Dodge muscle cars, so close that they were almost hooked up like a in-flight refueling between planes. In more ways than one--the Prius was backed up against a Charger.
Speaking of hooked up technology, I was totally amazed by the Olympic swimming competition. Most notably how close the winners are. And how it comes down to the final touch on the high-tech touchpad.
The race that got me most was the one between Le Clos and Michael Phelps that ended up with Michael losing. The media were all chortling to themselves with headlines like, "It was a Le Clos call" and suchlike, but my thinking was, "Oh my goodness--just five hundreds of a second?"
That's like the time it takes Google to load 50,000,000 search results, or so they say. Or how long it takes flatulence to clear an elevator. It's faster than the blink of an eye. Light could go only 9300 miles. Almost to London and back from Olympia.
It's quick. So you want a reliable touchpad. And not have one pad a quarter-inch thicker than another. Or with a bad relay switch. Or GFI.
And maybe, if you're a swimmer, this is not a good day to trim your fingernails.
America, ya gotta love it.