Saturday, May 28, 2005
Want to see history re-written right before your very eyes? Check out this press briefing by Scott McClellan where he makes it clear that we're in Afghanistan and Iraq by invitation.
This reminds me of the old USSR claiming to have been "invited" in to Afghanistan some years ago. Those Afghanis must like having people over.
Posted 7:34 AM by whatley (4) comments
Comments:
- Andy - Last Monday I happened to notice you walking down the middle of Washington Avenue passing out candy to children. Lucky it was memorial day. Any other time you'd have been arrested.
- He probably should have been arrested then. I've found a really nice house a couple of blocks from mine that I'm thinking of getting invited to. Hope the current owners are as accommodating as our hosts in the Middle East.
Post a Comment- C'mere, kid. Want some candy? The best acts are the ones done in public. Like being the head of the FBI and overthrowing Richard Nixon. John Dean is pontificating on the revelation, and I must say that I half agree with him. Nobody that highly placed would have acted without underlings and minions doing the dirty work for him. Deniability is its own reward.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
The following is a direct quote, in context (my highlighting), from a speech the prez gave on May 24th. No fooling. It's on the White House web site.
President Participates in Social Security Conversation in New York: "Now, a personal savings account would be a part of a Social Security retirement system. It would be a part of what you would have to retire when you reach retirement age. As you -- as I mentioned to you earlier, we're going to redesign the current system. If you've retired, you don't have anything to worry about -- third time I've said that. (Laughter.) I'll probably say it three more times. See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda. (Applause.)"
Posted 1:25 PM by whatley (3) comments
Comments:
- Isn't that how the CIA and others use brainwashing? I bet he learned that from his daddy (who was head of the CIA before he wuz the Prez).
It is also how TV works. Since I kicked the tube-sucker habit, I have a much more sensitive rant-and-rave detection level.
- Speaking of propaganda and TV reminds me of a quotation I once read and never forgot. It was by Albert Speer, Hitler's architect and the longest lived of his inner circle. He was being interviewed shortly before his death about the rise of Hitler and nazism in general.
"If we would have had TV there would have been no stopping us."
Post a Comment- I'm confused. How can something be may personal asset and 'a part of a Social Security retirement system' at the same time? It can be an asset used in means testing but how can it be '... your own asset. It's something you leave to somebody -- whomever you choose.' and a part of the SS system?
duh?
Saturday, May 21, 2005
The Washington Post has produced a brief tutorial to basic online security that I think a lot of non-techy home users will find very helpful. As the intro below mentions you will need Flash and sound capability to view it.
"I wanted to call attention to a new resource on washingtonpost.com for people who need a little help getting started in securing their computers. We produced a series of video guides demonstrating some of the basic steps users need to take to stay safe online, including brief primers on choosing and using firewall and anti-virus software, downloading and installing the latest Microsoft Windows patches, and taking advantage of free anti-spyware tools.Note: Some of the utilities mentioned can be found on our "Cool Tools" page. Also, The Washington Post requires registration. If you don't have your own user/password get a temporary one at bugmenot.com.
These videos are by no means definitive guides, but I hope they will be of some use to those who find themselves completely intimidated by computer security.
One thing to note: If you're viewing the video page and see white text on a black background but no 'Click to start video' button, you need to install the free Macromedia Flash Player."
Posted 6:53 AM by whatley (2) comments
Comments:
- Unfortunatley, with a dial up, I get a few seconds of playback, and another 30 seconds of buffering. Its like trying to write a letter while hopping up and down on one foot.
Post a Comment- Yeah, things like that don't work well with dial up. I remember writing my first web pages when dial up (and we're talking 14k being considered fast at that time) was the norm. You'd agonize over whether to include any graphics other than basic color and patterns. When you did you'd use all sorts of techniques to minimize the file size. As dial up speed increased you could become more liberal but still had to watch it. Eventually "watching it" became considered a polite thing to do, not a necessary one. For example, a home page might first give people an option of selecting "high or low bandwidth" versions of the site. That was considerate but a lot of extra work. Today I don't think most people pay any attention at all to page size. It's never been an issue for them.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Pssst! Hey, kid! C'mere. Y'wanna buy some property? Florida land, no. Brooklyn Bridge, no. Ah! Got it. Here, kid. The White House. Yep. The real WHITE. HOUSE. Oval Office. Lincoln Bedroom. Monica. The woiks. Y'don't b'lieve me? I'm hurt, kid, really hurt. Whaddya think I am, some kinda con man? Tell ya what. I like yer face, kid. For you, only $23.99, and the real White House is yours, free and clear. Good decision, kid. You won't regret it. Now get lost.
Psst! Hey, lady! Howyadoin? You look like a classy dame. Howsabout the Arc de Triomphe? Yeah! That's it! April in Paris. Napolean. Nazi parade. Lon Chaney. That's the one. Only $13.99. Not interested? Well then what you really need is the Opera de Paris. Yup. For real. Includes big light fixture. Music of the Night. Mask. Phantom. Gar-on-teed. You bet! You got culture, lady. Lemme see - I can do it for $34.99, no questions asked. Thanks, lady. I admire yer discriminatin' taste. Beat it.
Posted 10:12 AM by Andy (0) comments
Comments:
Speaking of Road Trip - the Block Island Southeast Lighthouse has no ceramics except for the huge first-order fresnel lens. But even U.S. Grant, who signed the appropriation for its construction (finished in 1875), made a vacation visit. Can we do any less? They moved the whole 4-million-pound lightouse assembly in 1993 to escape the predation of the Atlantic. The same company who move the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse did the work. Another detailed description of the Southeast Lighthouse includes the fact that until 1990, the rotating lens was floated in a mercury (Hg) pool, which had mineral oil floating on top of that to prevent poisonous Hg fumes from evaporating. The oil could also evaporate over several years' time. Bearing technology was different in 1875.
More information on Lighthouse lamps and lenses at Pete's Lantern Room. A short animation at PBS' Legendary Lighthouses shows how a Fresnell lens works. It takes a couple of minutes to download, but highlights the complexity of the lens structure. The program also lets you look up lighthouses by region, including the Great Lakes. You can buy a model of a Fresnell lens at the National Lighthouse Museum for only $48. It runs on two AA batteries and will help you navigate the channel between your front door and your bedroom while in a fog.
Posted 9:09 AM by Andy (8) comments
Comments:
- I visited the Beavertail Lighthouse when vacationing last summer at Tony and Marsha's in RI. There's a cool little museum in the lighthouse building with exhibits about the history of the entire area.
- So if you'd made a road trip east in 1977 you could of had a beer in the kitchen and played poker with the lighthouse keeper ( which,except for a cruel twist of fate, should have been me). Or 16 years later you could have stood next to me and watch them move it. Now its just a stupid tourist "Interpretive Center", whatever that means, but the lens is still cool.
- I was, of course, refering to the Block Island Southeast Light to which I was assigned as keeper in 1976, but ended up as a boat cox'n at the Block Island Station because the other recently assigned Bosun's Mate turned out to be violently seasick on small boats. Quel domage, eh?
- From the site http://www.simpsonsfolder.com/special/faq.html that contains Simpons' faq and arcania:
In (the episode) Day of Jackanapes, Bob says: "Attention! The French club picnic has been cancelled. Quel domage" What does "Quel domage" mean?
Quel dommage means "what a pity!" It's a commonly-taught French phrase, the sort you'd expect American students to use frequently.
Post a Comment- As opposed to "Quel frommage" which means "What cheese" and is used frequently by discerning American TV watchers usually in response to Fear Factor or any given episode of "The Swan".
Monday, May 16, 2005
How about ceramics and superconductivity?
Brookhaven National Laboratory is looking at holes where electrons aren't as a possible explanation for high-temperature superconductivity. New Insight Into Origin of Superconductivity in Magnesium Diboride gives an overview of atom arrangments as seen through the transmission electron microscope.
They also have built a "perfect fluid" out of a quark-gluon plasma. A "perfect fluid" is one with extremely low viscosity and the ability to reach thermal equilibrium very rapidly due to the high degree of interaction among the particles. Predictions using string theory led to the investigation. String theory uses 11-dimensional interactions instead of the "normal" four of Newtonian and Einsteinian spaces (3-D plus time). I can't even fold a tesseract and you only need four dimensions for that one. Go to the Official String Theory Web Site to get tied into this information. Nova also gives us string theory in their production of The Elegant Universe.
On May 24, Nova will also be airing a program about Mary Mallon. Popularly known as "Typhoid" Mary, she worked as a cook for well-to-do families in New York. She didn't believe in washing since she claimed that she wasn't dirty. But her gall bladder kept producing typhus without affecting her health, and she contaminated those she served. Her final 1915 incarceration and quarantine on North Brother Island in the East River served to keep her from spreading the disease.
North Brother Island is a rare find; an uninhabited island in the middle of New York City. It once housed unfortunate victims of the most hideous contagious diseases of the 19th and 20th centuries, but now is an unofficial bird sanctuary.
The National Lighthouse Museum recalls the North Brother Island Lighthouse, and the fire aboard the excursion ship "General Slocum" in 1904. The Slocum ran for North Brother Island when the fire broke out.
Posted 8:40 AM by Andy (0) comments
Comments:
Sunday, May 15, 2005
While researching different links about ceramics, and specifically the remote unmanned drone that will use the ceramic rotary Regi-Cam engine, I found testimony before the House Armed Services Committee by the Pres/CEO of Advanced Ceramics Research, Inc. (Tucson, Arizona).
The Testimony, dated March 12, 2002, includes military subcontract numbers and details of ceramic applications being done by this company. ACR was formed in 1989 as a spin off from work done at the University of Arizona.
This report reads like a who's who of leading Corporations, Universities and Laboratories. Military-funded research is alive and well across the USA. Your tax dollars at work. But the report goes to great lengths to emphasize potential domestic and economic applications and benefits from the research.
They are working on things like F14 engine parts as well as better drilling and machining tools. Also on things like leading edges for hypersonic vehicles, missle hot gas valve components, rocket motor casing mandrels, fuel cell structures, air ducting, water bomb casing mandrels, airfoil sections, fuel inlet sections, yacht bait well sections, bath tubs, showers, aircraft seats, and bus seats, to name a few.
The low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) surveillance drone is part of the SWARM system ( Smart Warfighter Array of Reconfigurable Modules). The SWARM is a small lightweight expendable UAV which costs less than $2,000 each, flies autonomously for 24 hours, has a 1500 nautical mile range at 60 knots, and will run on JP-5 fuel. The primary function of the SWARM vehicle is to provide very low cost aerial flight surveillance imaging for 24-hour periods with up to 1500mile range, while not requiring extensive operator training and or ground support operations. The vehicle is designed to carry sensor payload packages weighing up to 4 lbs and with power consumption of 25 watts or less.
The program includes development of high efficiency ceramic diesel engines for SWARM applications. The ceramics reduce the need for lubrication oil in the fuel and increase the operational temperature in the combustion chambers for more efficiency. "In addition, this technology when combined with high temperature polymer materials such as reinforced PEEK (polyether ether ketone)offers the opportunity to eliminate metal from the engine to improve detection avoidance and reduce weight."
The SWARM is of a modular design for easy interchangeability of wings, motor power modules, control system modules, and mission payload modules. Two nylon bolts are used to secure the modules together when they are plugged into each other. Four nylon bolts hold the wing on to a cradle attached to the payload module.
See ACR's Unmanned Vehicle Systems site. Check the Silver Fox UAV to see how the modules work together.
Another, more peaceful ceramic application from the University of Arizona and ACR has been funded by the Office of Naval Research. Navy Contract # N00014-00-C-0329 supports a program whose concept is to allow automated generation of an artificial bone segment from CAT scanned image files, which can then be directly implanted into the body. Existing bone material would then grow into the artificial component as the body degrades that artificial segment, thus leaving only natural bone. Not ceramic, but a Japanese group has recently developed a spongy artificial bone material that is replaced by real bone growth within 90 days. They plan to go to market in 2007 or 2008. Toshiba Ceramics has a bone substitute that allows bone to grow into it over time. NASA is researching artificial bone implants to improve replacement joint durability.
Other projects mentioned include ceramic armor, metal-ceramic structural foams (light struts, spars, masts, antennas) and extensive research on Fibrous Monoliths (FM) for applications in casting, injection molding, lamination, and even in tungsten projectiles designed to replace depleted uranium for close-in defensive weapons systems (see the Phalanx system for example). As far as using depleted uranium (DU) goes, look at an article published in the January 9, 2003 Seattle Post-Intelligencer titled "Toxic ammo is tested in fish areas".
Posted 3:40 PM by Andy (0) comments
Comments:
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Tony wanted some ceramics tracking info.
First, things companies are doing now - HP Technical Ceramics in Sheffield, England has a good site that shows products and applications. They even make ceramic paper that can be used for heat protection wrap around things.
Next, things being developed on the leading edge. A web site has text (mostly theory and "what if", and hearsay claims) about a ceramic engine.
Another site talks about ceramic parts for cars but focuses on gas turbines that have been tried and hopes for the future using alternative tech (flywheels, for one).
Site by San Jose State University has commercial ceramic examples and applications.
Argonne National Labs has a page discussing ceramic engine component durability.
Potentially related is the discovery of water molecule beahvior at -500F inside carbon nanotubes. Ceramic nanotubes may allow selective permeability. Think about being able to extract oxygen from seawater without moving parts, or desalinization without pipes or pumps or electricity. Filtration and separation at the molecular level. Environmental cleanup. Material extraction on asteroids and planets.
Ward's Auto World has an article entitled "Tiny external-combustion ceramic engine planned for remote stealth plane." The engine in this little sneaker is the Regi Rand Cam rotary engine which relies on ceramics for light weight. Another article about the Rand Cam engine is found at the Auto Channel and discusses further applications. Regi Technologies site has additional information on the engine.
Posted 9:48 AM by Andy (0) comments
Comments:
Friday, May 13, 2005
I just tried to post a comment and got a Blogger error message that said "and engineer will look into it." Comforting. I look into things all of the time. And the world is still a mess. Go figure.
Posted 9:17 AM by Andy (1) comments
Comments:
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Do you like crossword puzzles? Want to try something different? There's a new type of puzzle that's becoming a huge hit in Great Britain. It's called Sudoku. If you wanna give it a try a puzzle archive exists here.
Posted 5:22 PM by whatley (2) comments
Comments:
Post a Comment- I am not going to do this. I am not going to do this. Iamnot .. gee, looks simple. Hmm, looks like fun... Uh Oh. I think I am hooked.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Well, if you live in a gated community and the neighbors are frowning over your 200 mile-per-hour banzai passes on Sunday afternoon down the main entrance road, and the Community Betterment Society and Landscape Club are unhappy that the start up flames from the exhausts of your turbine-powered motorcycle have crisped the dieffenbachia and day lillies half-way down the block, you need a change of pace.
Stealth biking is just the thing for you. How about an electric hog that does 80 mph and makes no noise? That plus other volt-wise two-wheel solutions can be seen at Electric and Hybrid Motorcycles. My favorites are the eCycle diesel/electric hybrid on page 2 and the Blackhawk on page 4 . Just the thing to recycle the oil poured on troubled waters.
Posted 9:12 PM by Andy (3) comments
Comments:
- If the group wants me to be the crash test dummy for this new and exciting technology, I am gleefully accepting donations toward the purchase price. I will provide food and housing for the creature and will allot time shares once the evaluation testing is complete.
Post a Comment- The hybrids are made in Temple PA, which is (kind of) on the way to Tony and Marsha's. Hmmmm..... Road Trip!
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Ok, so summer is just around the corner. What is the first thing you think of? Solstice, right? We haven’t had a summer solstice in a while even though somebody usually says they would like to host. We all know the kinds of excuses that can be made and many of them are pretty good. The one thing that isn’t said is, “I don’t want to have fun anymore. Fun is for young people who are too stupid to know how miserable life really is.” In fact, some of us are just having so much fun that we don’t get around to organizing a big spectacular party in celebration of this celestial event.
I worry about combining events of great importance together at the same time. My mother was born three days before Christmas. What did she always get for her present? You guessed it, “Here, Shirley, is your Christmas/Birthday present. See…there are two socks so nicely gift wrapped, and those pants come as a pair, why don’t those new PJs look nice with a top and a bottom!”
Should we take the chance that a solstice piggybacked on another event would make that event weaker. Some of you remember that Alice and I were married on a summer solstice 14 years ago. The solstice celebration actually took place at Johnny Pais’ following our ceremony in the park.
Official or not there will be another event taking place near the time of the longest daylight day of the year. Friends of Wetlands has hosted a picnic at about this time for several years. In the past it has been promoted as a Pig Roast. We have chosen to have a pot luck picnic instead. Some people just didn’t want to look at a dead pig. You may not want to call this a summer solstice celebration. You might just want to see a bunch of people that you would usually see at a summer solstice celebration. You might not want to call this Ray & Alice’s 14th wedding anniversary either but we would gladly accept your congratulations, a hearty handshake, hug, smooch, … uh , well hold on there, that’s far enough.
As far as we can tell the future, the FOWL picnic will be on Saturday June 18th on the Wheeler farm along the Huron River. Start time is noon. Music, water, frolic, laughter, food and good people are all on the agenda. More details, directions and a map will follow.
Posted 9:17 PM by Ray (3) comments
Comments:
- There are lots of ways you can help. If know of any musicians that aren't too shy to get up on a hay wagon, Let's try to schedule them around the announcements, eating, Tim, ubiquitous political rants, etc.
We need a tax collector, too. Someone large and innocent-looking (Andy) would be a strategic choice. By tax I mean $10 donation and or membership renewals of attendees.
I also want to collect names and email addresses of individuals to invite to join our list-serve. We are also organizing wetland monitoring. Some training is required and meetings to attend, etc. Let's see who is willing to get their feet wet (literally).
Material things...
Dining flys, tables, chairs, games toys, boats all these essential and elective things that make a picnic.
If you have time, jutzpah, daytime fun accessories let me know.
Post a Comment- I can do that, extort... I mean ... request $$ from small liberals with leftist leanings.
Better start now.
HEY! YOU!! Yeah YOU!! Gimme $$ and GIMME THEM FAST!! Or else. Heh, heh.
Friday, May 06, 2005
Thought you might like this Garrison Keillor essay in The Nation titled Confessions of a Listener. Here's an excerpt:
"After the iPod takes half the radio audience and satellite radio subtracts half of the remainder and Internet radio gets a third of the rest and Clear Channel has to start cutting its losses and selling off frequencies, good-neighbor radio will come back. People do enjoy being spoken to by other people who are alive and who live within a few miles of you."
Posted 7:08 AM by whatley (3) comments
Comments:
- P.S. On that same note here's a book I read a year or so ago and really enjoyed: 40 Watts from Nowhere: A Journey Into Pirate Radio. It's a quick and fun read.
- Sony just released a lap top with wireless inernet cell-connect capability built in. My brother's Blackberry does the same but has a stupid numeric keypad for text entry. Clumsy and slow. No stylus for Palm-type touch or scribble entry. Somwhere in between surely lies the answer. So we will be able to use these to eliminate broadcast radio, TV, printed encyclopedias, dictionaries, magazines, newspapers, audio CDs, DVDs, and cassette tapes. What is next to go? Vinyl LPs? 8-Tracks? Where will it all end?
Post a Comment- BTW - The auto industry has all but eliminated cassette tape players for their in-dash radios. The 2006 in-dash versions include 6-disc CD changers, MP3 disk compatibility, and satellite radio capability with an optional plug-in module and antenna.
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Now don't you worry your pretty little head about us damaging the ANWR while we drill it. We'll be reeeeel careful! Yeah, right. Oil projects may get less scrutiny: "A section of the energy bill approved by the House of Representatives last month would exempt many federal energy projects from the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act."
Maybe it's just me, but I would never have been aware of the above item if not for stumbling across mention of it on a web site. Is it not newsworthy? Doesn't it give yet more evidence of the neocon/republican plans to chip away our rights and heritage piece by piece? You'd think our major news outlets would be all over this.
You'd be mistaken. A more important story, one covered in depth by an ABC news segment last night and the front page of my local paper this morning, was the possibility of a judging scandal on American Idol. Not to say that this too isn't newsworthy. Perish the thought. Questions have to be answered:
1) Is Paula Abdul really screwing this guy?
2) Is this a put-up-job, an plan by Paula's publicist to get her some media ink?
3) Is it a carefully orchestrated attempt by ABC to get ratings during sweeps week?
and the most important question....
4) WHO GIVES A FUCK?
Man 'o man. It all seems so hopeless sometimes. 'Nuff to make you want to crawl into a corner and play with your balls.
Posted 6:16 AM by whatley (3) comments
Comments:
- While driving along the sylvan back roads and gravel byways of Athens County, Ohio, I have crossed a stream that flows a startling blue. Why? Acid waste runoff from old coal mine shafts and tailing piles poisons everything even closely resembling life in the water. No microflora, no decomposing leaf mold, no moss, no amphibians, no crayfish, no tadpoles, minnows, water striders or fish. Now the "relaxed" enforcement will turn a blind eye to water runoff from methane exploration in coal seams. More of the same. Holy dying catfish and blind religious short-sighted suicide pacts!! As we sink into economic decline, the desparate will turn the wilds into the wastes of Mordor. But why are the energy companies (oil) booking huge, huger, hugest money piles? How much is enough? In the Capitalist ideal, too much is NEVER enough. Insanity.
Great balls of steel! What a great game!
Post a Comment- I've been playing with my balls for years, but I really like this game so maybe they won't be so red anymore. Yes, I to have been torn between news of Paula's peccadillo and the startling story of the runaway Geogia bride (insert your own inappropriate comment about southern reproduction) that I missed the story about the oligarch's religion adled proxies voting them the right to poison the rest of us in order to make amounts of money they will never be able to spend while the Chinese gear up to clean our clock in every concievable area of endeavour. Great. Bread and Circuses. Too bad the public isn't as outraged about the real morals of its so-called leadership as it is about those of a has-been quasi-celebrity.
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Contrary to the conventional wisdom here that U.S. media are the freest in the world, the United States has suffered "notable setbacks" in press freedom and has slipped among countries tracked by the New York-based rights group Freedom House. The United States was tied with Barbados, Canada, Dominica, Estonia, and Latvia at 24th place out of 194 countries covered in the survey.
From here, Britain certainly looks like a country where real people and real journalists reside. Where hard-nosed questioning is still fashionable and where prime ministers must account for their actions, at least at election time. Tony Blair takes more grilling in a day than American politicians do in a year.
History is tapping us on the shoulder and pointing. The sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz followed so closely by the popification of an ex-member of the Hitler Youth combine to force our attention back to the Nazi catastrophe.
IF A REPORTER who doubled as a gay hooker had visited the Clinton White House nearly 200 times, think it would have made the news?
All this, and more, at The Smirking Chimp
Posted 1:22 PM by Andy (1) comments
Comments:
Post a Comment- The Smirking Chimp's a pretty good example of what a politically oriented (and admittedly left wing) multi-contributor site should be. It reminds me of how over the years I've occasionally thought of including a list of recommended links somewhere on tRBT's main page but never did so, probably because it would have reflected what I liked rather than what the RBT community as a whole liked. If we ever do a link menu here I hope we remember this one.
Russ, your wish is my command. Go and drool over your very own jet turbine powered motorcycle. You too can travel faster than many small aircraft and never leave the ground.
Or perhaps you are interested in more practical transportation. The Retrorocket is a Chevy S-10 based platform that looks like a 1940 Ford pickup and offers a 300 HP turbine engine with automatic trans, air conditioning, power steering, power windows, cruise control. It can lead your boat to water, and drinks standard diesel fuel. In any color you want, as long as it is costly.
And here is how a gas turbine engine looks inside.
Posted 10:00 AM by Andy (1) comments
Comments:
Monday, May 02, 2005
Since 1992, Ohlins has developed a two-wheel drive motorcycle for Yamaha. Dedicated to off-road racing and rallying, the Yamaha 2-Trac uses an hydraulic motor in the front hub to drive the wheel.
For decades, the Rokon has been another 2x2 motorcycle. Built for slow-speed, off-road, cross-country travel, it uses a chain drive to the front wheel. The darn things have 15" hollow drum wheels that allow 4.5 gallons of fluid storage (water, fuel, Canadian Club) in each one. With the drum wheels empty, the beast will float for easy river portage. It is rated for 24" water crossing depth under its own power. Beyond that, use it like a raft. It will climb a 60% grade and tow up to 3000 lbs. Torque converter with three speed gearbox. No clutch. Hand controls so you can use your feet to fend off grizzly bears. Check out the accessories list. Plow, harrow, three-point hitch, power takeoff. Everything the gentleman farmer needs.
One of the problems with front-hub motors like the 1921-1925 German Megola, is the huge unsprung weight. Every road jar beats the engine like it is being dropped on the floor. Not conducive to long bearing or metal casting life. The design came from the radial aircraft engine wherein the propellor hub is mounted directly to the engine crankshaft, or via a gear reduction from the crankshaft ( like the Megola). The Megola had no clutch. Every time you stopped, so did the engine. You had to push it to get it started again. There was no kick or electric starter. But in 1921 there were few traffic jams or stop lights.
Posted 9:22 AM by Andy (0) comments
Comments:
Sunday, May 01, 2005
An Adiabatic system is one in which no heat is gained or lost during the process. In a Diesel Engine the compression cycle is done adiabatically, with the air squeezing taking place in such a short time that the air heats up beyond the point where the diesel fuel bursts into flame. The heat is built up much faster than it can flow away through the cooling or oil lubrication system. That is one reason that diesel engines work best when they are hot, the combustion occurs more readily. Adding ceramic materials or coatings (like the tiles on the space shuttle) have two potential benefits: 1) they keep heat where it performs work (pushing pistons and not wasted by heating up the metal of the engine) and they may be engineered to be extremely hard and abrasion resistant. Cylinder walls have been impregnated with nickel - silicon ceramics for many years, both to increase heat resistance and to reduce wear. Ideally, an adiabatic engine uses all of the heat energy to cause mechanical motion, and none is sent out the exhaust pipe or through the water cooling system or through the oil cooling system. The ceramic materials can be both impervious to heat, and moleculary smooth and carbide-hard to resist wear without the need for an oil film lubricant. Ceramics are also more brittle and less mallieable than are metals, so are less suited to the hammering that takes place in a reciprocating piston engine. Jet turbines, with their inherent rotating smoothness, have used ceramics in combustion chambers and on turbine blades for a long time.
Home heating furnaces have benefitted from higher efficiency by extracting most of the heat energy from methane (natural gas) to put into the house. The most efficient furnaces have exhaust gases cool enough to use PVC pipe for a chimney stack. The heat is extracted before the gas is exhausted outdoors. Heat exchangers have been coated with ceramics for resistance to corrosion and acids formed in the gas cooling process.
Automotive catalytic converters are tightly cast honeycombs of ceramic material coated with molecule-thick washes of platinum or palladium. The ceramic substrate provides huge surface areas, while the metallic coating allows unburned hydrocarbons to oxidize at lower energy levels (temperatures) than normal. Too high a catalyst temperature creates NOx (oxides of Nitrogen) which contribute to pollution as much as do Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) or unburned hydrocarbons (HC) at too low a temperature. So the Heated Oxygen Sensors (HO2S) in the exhaust feed back to the engine brain to keep control of the mixture so it stays in the most effective range for the catalyst action.
If we could create hot expanding gas without making poisonous by-products, then we could do away with catalytic converters on the exhaust. Hydrogen makes water when it burns. But if there is too much hydrogen for the oxygen present, then other acidic or noxious compounds could be formed in the exhaust. If there are sulfur compounds in the air/fuel system, or if there is nitrogen in the air/fuel system, we are back at dirtier exhaust, even if we are burning hydrogen.
Posted 11:28 AM by Andy (2) comments
Comments:
- Oh, so that's how it works. Nice post.
"Jet turbines, with their inherent rotating smoothness, have used ceramics in combustion chambers and on turbine blades for a long time."
Please adapt one of those for use in my next car. Something sporty. Red would be nice.
Post a Comment- I've been on BI all week and haven't been able to check in. To echo Russell, Nice post.Very concise and actually informative. I give it about 78. Any leads on where to research or follow current trends in ceramics?
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