There are easily well 200 vehicles in one salvage yard local to me with "$$ for clunker" or just "CC" written all over them in paint-pen. There are at least 100 more in the parking lot waiting for a place inside the yard. It is my understanding that the crankcases of all of these vehicles were drained of their oil and filled with sodium silicate.
 
For more information, google sodium silicate cash for clunker.
 
This renders the majority of the engine's internal components unusable, and has filled the salvage yard with vehicles that are very pretty, have great body panels, interiors, chassis, and so on.
 
However, these vehicles are entirely useless for things like:

• engine block
• pistons
• crankshaft
• camshaft
• cylinder heads
• valves
• timing chains
• rocker arms
• rings
• valve springs
• lifters
• timing gears
• oil pumps
• distributors

It's sad that they didn't just "destroy the oil filter sealing land and threaded fastener boss" to render the vehicle undrivable. This could have been a real boon for anyone rebuilding a vehicle, and for the salvage yards. What a waste!

An automatic transmission's torque converter effectively disengages the engine from the transmission for your purposes. Next time you park your automatic-transmission car on a hill, instead of placing the gear selector in park and setting the parking brake, just leave the car in reverse or drive and see how long the car stays put.

The parking brake is often referred to as the emergency brake.

The assumption your post relies upon only holds true if you are driving a vehicle with a standard (read manual) transmission.

The battery can be removed once the vehicle's engine is running. Its purpose is to be a store of energy for starting the vehicle. The alternator is the device that provides the electric power needed while the engine is running.

Automated external defibrillators, such as the Physio-Control LifePak 500, will only administer a shock if they detect a valid shockable rhythm, i.e. ventricular fibrillation. This AED will not shock anyone or anything that does not have that rhythm present.

Manual external defibrillators, such as the Physio-Control LifePak 12, which may only be used by EMT-I or EMT-P (Paramedics) in my home state, can be used to administer a shock regardless of the presence or absence of any cardiac rhythm. This requires a manual override, and from what I have seen, is used even less often than the precordial thump.

From IRC 501(c)(6) Organizations â" page K-4

7. Its purpose must not be to engage in a regular business of a kind ordinarily carried on for profit, even if the business is operated on a cooperative basis or produces only sufficient income to be self-sustaining.

  FAIL!

If it doesn't have redundant power supplies, then it doesn't belong in a server rack!

Bernard Vonnegut did something about it!

I remember learning about these three groups back in high school. Later in life, when I brought the topic up, people thought I was some kind of racist, or worse. I am glad to learn that I am in the right.

An ATM is not a desktop computer. WTF is an ATM doing running Windows?

This is not always the case. Have a look at the system on the top of page 246 of this textbook. There are two ropes supporting the load, but the mechanical advantage is 4:1 because of the change of direction that doubles the pull. It's like having a 2:1 system that pulls the working end of another 2:1 system that lifts the load.