Here’s an interesting observation, this year we bought our first turkey fryer for Thanksgiving.  We fried a turkey and chicken nuggets during the holiday and it was interesting that the new models all come with timers that only keep the flame burning for 30 minutes.   I’m fairly certain that the “timer” feature was a result of countless unattended oil burning over the past few years causing untold number of fires.    The explicit instructions that read, “DO NOT USE INDOORS” helps affirm my suspicions.

But we also recently bought a new George Foreman grill as the previous 10 year old one we owned finally burned out and that came with a timer that turns off after 30 minutes of use.   I can’t help but wonder if the next generation of stove tops, ovens, and other cooking appliances are going to have a 30 (or some time frame) limit on use.

Is this what our society has come to, the dumbing down of appliances to the point where they have to auto-shut off.   Is this what we can expect in the future for our cars and refrigerators?   I’ve heard rumors of giving the power company the power to shut down our appliances if there is too much demand for electricity.    And idle running cars should shutdown to save the environment right?