Just as it has always been since the end of WWII.
This version, from Terrafugia, uses folding wings.
Look at the pictures though. I don’t think that it flies. It’s just so fugly that it repels the ground:
Category: Automobile
Novak’s Hit and Run Victim Still in Hospital
It appears that the victim, 86 year old Don Clifford Liljenquist, is in worse shape than previously reported, and is still in the hospital, though this may be complicated by his age and history of homelessness.
All Novak has gotten out of this is a $50 fine.
Considering the reports of witnesses, there should be further investigation…but there won’t be, because Bob Novak is above the law.
The Plame-Wlsons have issued a statement which bears repeating:
Our sympathies go out to the victim of Novak’s action. Once again Novak has demonstrated his callous disregard for the rights of others, as well as his chronic inability to accept responsibility for his actions.
We have long argued that responsible adults should take Novak’s typewriter away. The time has arrived for them to also take away the keys to his Corvette.
Indeed.
Novak Does to Pedestrian What He Does to the Truth
He ran down a pedestrian, and then tried to leave the scene of the accident, prompting a bicyclist to pull in front of his car to stop him.
Unfortunately, the man who gleefully leaked the name of one of the CIA’s chief covert operatives on WMDs is unlikely to get any jail time. He was only cited for “failure to yield.”
GM to Use LiIon Batteries in Hybrid Car Models
I think that it’s clear that the lithium-ion batteries chosen by GM are superior to the standard NiMH, they are more efficient and lighter, but there are problems.
The article mentions overheating, but they actually heat up less in use.
The real problem is what is euphemistically called “rapid disassembly” in battery manufacturing*, which occurs when batteries overheat or are overcharged.
Basically because of the chemistry of a LiIon battery, these can cause dendrites, basically metal whiskers, to form between anode and cathode, shorting out the battery and discharging all of its energy in a matter of seconds.
Think about the Dell exploding laptops on crack. It looks a lot like a flare going off.
Of course, this would not be a problem with a properly designed system, but we are talking about General Motors, the folks who used the same aluminum alloy as Mercedes Benz for its Vega engine, but but chose a coolant that corroded aluminum.
I’d wait for at least the 3rd model year before buying.
*I worked for a battery manufacturer for a while.†
†And now my regular readers, both of them, are wondering if there is any field of endeavor where I haven’t worked. Well, yes. High finance. If I had worked on that, I’d have the money to spare for a domain name.
Kentucky: Breathalyser Code Must Be Turned Over to Defense
This is a good decision. The idea that one is allowed to present a number from a black box which no one in the court can fully understand is ludicrous.
Excerpts from the Court of Appeals of Kentucky’s opinion:
A subpoena may be quashed only upon a showing that compliance therewith would be unreasonable or oppressive. We do not believe the commonwealth and CMI have made this showing.The request is not unreasonable because its purpose is to challenge the validity of the breath alcohol readings produced by the Intoxilyzer 5000 instrument, which is anticipated to be used at trial in support of the Commonwealth’s DUI charge against House. The reading was also used to support the aggravating factor of driving with a breath alcohol reading of .18 or more.
Relevant evidence is admissible unless excluded by some other rule. Because a flaw in the computer source code of the Intoxilyzer 5000 would be consequential to the accuracy of the reading intended to be relied upon by the commonwealth, such evidence is relevant and admissible. Accordingly, requesting the computer code to test the verity of the readings produced by the instrument is not unreasonable.
Top Gear, the Best Show Ever
Duration 7:36
In certain parts of America now, people have started to mate with vegetables.
Cthulhu on a Cracker!!!! This is What a Legislator Thinks is Improtant
We have unemployment rising, homes being foreclosed, Iraq and Afghanistan collapsing, and what does Delegate Lionell Spruill think is important? Truck nuts.
Yep, this man, to my great shame a Democrat, is proposing a bill to ban truck nuts, saying, “It comes to a point where there are certain things you just can’t do. And putting testicles on the back of a truck is just too much. So I am trying to stop it.”
About the only person that this benefits is David Letterman.
Driving While Lap Dancing
Well, it looks like everyone’s favorite drunken wife beating former congressman John Sweeney is at it again. After being defeated by Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, in large part due to allegations of drunkenness and spousal abuse, is at it again.
Well, after weaving, he was pulled over by the cops, and the “one-time STOP-DWI coordinator for Rensselaer County” blew a 0.18 percent, more than twice the limit.
The kicker, he had a 23 year old woman on his lap when he was pulled over.
Gotta love them Republithug values.
Honda to Use Ultracapacitor Tech in Hybrids
Honda will be putting ultracapacitors in their cars in the next few years. They will use it on a fuel cell vehicle to handle demand peaks.
Capacitors have some advantages and disadvantages relative to batteries.
The pluses: hey don’t wear out, and they can put out a lot of juice in a short time (they are in camera flashes).
The minuses: They slowly* leak stored energy over time., and they have lower energy density.
The technology is advancing rather quickly†, so the disadvantages may decrease.
You could also use the capacitors in conjunction with batteries to go with a higher energy/lower power battere (higher power means lower energy and vice verse),
*Very slowly, as anyone who has gotten knocked on their when they open up a TV that has been in a junkyard for two years can attest.
†When I was in school, I was told that a 1 Farad capacitor would be the bigger than a a pick up truck, now there are commercially available ones that are smaller than a thimble.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
OK…That’s odd, it appears that
a motorcyclist failed to notice that he had lost his leg below the knee: “Company worker Kazuo Osada, 54, was on a jaunt with 10 other bikers yesterday when he failed to negotiate a bend. However, he was ‘unaware his right leg had been severed below the knee apparently because his attention was focused on the strong pain he felt from the crash’, according to police.”
‘Tis but a scratchRemember, Always Wear Seat Belts…If Nothing Else
Here we have the story of a head on collision with a happy….relatively death free ending.
Collision involved naked couple
Investigators think that alcohol was a factor in a head-on collision in Comal County on July 18 in which two victims were pulled from their car naked.
“The only thing they had on was the radio . . . and their seat belts,” Department of Public Safety Cpl. Rick Alvarez said.
On the evening of July 18, Lisa Marie Bishop, 25, of Austin was driving north on FM 1102 north of New Braunfels when she went around a curve and swerved into the southbound lane, crashing head-on to a truck driven by Juan Montoya, 49, of New Braunfels, Alvarez said.
Montoya was not injured. Bishop sustained injuries that were not life-threatening, but her passenger, 26-year-old Robert Rydeen of Austin, was airlifted to San Antonio and was in stable condition Monday, officials said.
Bishop told investigators that she and Rydeen had been at Schlitterbahn Waterpark and had removed their wet clothes for the drive home, Alvarez said. Investigators found some wet clothes in the car as well as evidence of alcohol consumption.
Alvarez said that in his 13 1/2 years as a DPS trooper, he had never before investigated a crash involving nude drivers.
“But she’s from Austin,” he said, “and I figure Austin folks are a little different.”
You think?????
Bad Patent Applications
One of the ideas about patents is that the idea should be non obvious.
I saw this sort of display guidance 15 years ago on video games.
TomTom files patent for camera sat nav
By James Sherwood
Published Wednesday 4th July 2007 12:20 GMTTomTom is attempting to move up a gear in the in-car sat nav biz. It recently filed a patent for a GPS device that incorporates a camera to show the driver exactly where to turn off the road ahead.
…
Here is the picture of their device:
Does anyone remember the specific video game that had these sorts of arrows?
Shut Up and Drive
The following Notice is on the US Army Aviation Warfighting Center’s Website, “Drivers traveling on Fort Rucker must pull vehicles over or use a hands-free device when talking on cell phones.“.
I have never heard a military policy that I more whole-heartedly agree with.
I love Manual Transmissions.
But I’ve never thought of them as an anti theft device.
US car thieves floored by manual gearbox
By Lester Haines
Published Thursday 21st June 2007 10:06 GMTTwo US would-be car thieves failed dismally to make off with a Honda Accord after discovering it had a mysterious manual gearbox, RTÉ reports.
Having menaced the owner with a gun outside a pizza restaurant in Georgia, and relieved him of his wallet and car keys, the pair of teen master criminals prepared to make good their escape. However, according to an employee of the pizza outlet, “they could not start it because it had stick shift”.
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