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That's certainly good news. I remember feeling claustrophobically cramped in my friend's Mitsubishi Precis about 15 years ago and I'm only 5'9". I hate to think how a larger person would have felt in that shitbox. Simple physics, really. A conventional car gets worse mileage in the city...

Honestly, I haven't a clue but it's been an observation of mine that most of the better sites(at least to me) tend to be ad free. I don't mean that they're better because they don't have ads, but rather that the content is more relevant to my needs. This includes manufacturer's sites with...

Why must M$ wait literally years after everyone else to do this? I tend to think popup blocking should be an integral part of any browser unless you're somehow getting paid off by the advertisers. They should also include something like AdShield. It's been so long since I've seen a popup(or...

The master device must be on the end of the cable if the controller is ATA66 or better(which means it uses the special 80-pin cable). If it is an older machine(either ATA-33 or DMA-2) then it doesn't matter, although I still follow that practice out of habit. In fact, I even use 80-pin cables...

I second the need for this, and I think it would be nice to include anything going back maybe three or four years so you can figure out whether some older card on eBay might be worth getting. Most important would be compatibility of various cards as it seems like a confusing mess to someone...

True that there are CAFE standards, but it's also true that those standards haven't been raised in years and that the automakers used the SUV loophole and clever advertising to sell the very types of unregulated vehicles that they make the most profit on. As a result, average fuel economy of...

If you think that's bad, my brother used to work in a pharmacy. It wasn't uncommon for him to see someone get a prescription paid for by Medicaid, and then get into a late model Cadillac or Lincoln. By and large the people he saw doing this were Russian Jews fresh off the boat(whom my father...

It's a shame that the average person can't be made to understand that, and even more of a shame that our government does little in this regard. I can't just blame the Bush administration. No administration in my memory has ever gone up against big oil and the big three automakers. It seems...

Very interesting-indium gallium arsenide is the same stuff they make some LEDs out of.

My point is that obesity can cause heart disease and diabetes to occur in people for whom there is no family history at all. Same with asthma, which is appearing in record numbers thanks to air pollution. Environment combined with lifestyle has a huge effect on whether a person gets sick or...

Yes, there are conditions that can cause a person to be chronically overweight but these are a minority. Being slightly overweight is not a big cause for concern, but being obese, and sometimes twice your proper weight, is. This is what causes me concern. People are heavier than ever, and...

This isn't something I think the majority of the public would be overly sympathetic to, especially given that these gang members call innocent bystanders who happen to get in the way of their bullets "mushrooms". As far as I'm concerned the public saved the cost of a trial and incarceration...

I also meant to add that all areas in which lights are on a good portion of the time are fluorescent. We have linear T-12 tubes in the entire finished basement, garage, and my bedroom, and T-8s in the kitchen. I can't convince my mother to part with the incandescent chandeliers in the living...

Since I still live with my parents I don't pay the bill directly, but it generally tends to run $200 to $300 per month in the summer(higher usage for A/C combined with a higher base rate during the summer). In cooler months it can be between $100 and $150. Don't forget this is for three people...

Devices that are off but on "standy" may only draw a fraction of a watt, or they may draw up to a few watts. Add it up nationwide and you have the equivalent of a few power plants producing electricity for...nothing. A terrible waste, and one that has caused the EU to mandate a maximum current...

The problem with the second model is that it has already been tried and failed miserably. Just ask our friends in the former USSR how wonderful life was when the individual's only purpose was to serve the collective. This failure wasn't necessarily due to any fundamental flaw in Marxism but...

Switching power supplies are nothing new, but it's only within the last decade that the electronics have gotten cheap enough to enable such supplies to be incorporated into low-cost consumer equipment. Besides saving energy(which is inarguably a good thing), there is less waste heat to get rid...

How about giving CEOs ridiculous pay packages and golden parachutes? This is what I think is mainly wrong with businesses in this country-the huge gap between the lowest paid worker and the CEO. If jobs are being moved overseas, and costs cut in other ways, then the money saved should not go...

Those seem cool but also $$$, and not as fun as making it yourself. The driving circuit for my headlight was built from spare parts not worth more than $1. I modified this circuit to drive 20 LEDs(in two series strings of 10) off of 5V(4 AA NiMH cells) instead of 1.5V. I used a 100 uH...

Candlepower forums is a good place to look for different types of lighting projects. They mostly modify flashlights but bike lights aren't much different. If you lived nearby I'd be happy to do this for you. Besides the headlight, I also put 5 red LEDs and a blinker circuit on a standard rear...

Looks like there's a new efficiency champ in town. 8) Good enough reason to resurrect this thread in my book. :mrgrn: 65 lm/W using industry standard packages and 74 lm/W using special laboratory packages! Better than compact flurorescent, and starting to approach T-8 linear tube...

Just like fusion-it's the power of the future and always will be.

I'm glad to hear the (relatively) good news. Now the big questions are can you nurse her back to health, and what exactly caused this problem so you can prevent it from happening again? I've never had anything quite like this happen to any of my cats, so much as I might wish to I can't draw on...

No mention of 0 to 60 time. I guess you have to keep the brakes on until the engine spools up for the best times(same as they do for airliners). Must be noisy as all hell, too.

So that's what happened to James. :mrgrn: I wondered why he hasn't been here for a while. Seriously, I hope this means I won't be getting that Nigerian bank scam crap in my inbox any more. Come to think of it, I heard that worldwide only a couple of dozen people account for 99% of the...

I really wish you lived near the vet I go to. Dr. Kirk has a reputation for diagnosing conditions in five minutes that other vets were puzzled by for weeks. Letters all over his office attest to that. I don't know if anything can be done long distance, but if you want to try, I can give you...

Needless to say, that engine won't fit inside a car. In fact, quite the opposite seems to be true. :mrgrn: Those cylinders are huge. I'm guessing it's used for either electrical generation or powering very large ships like tankers. Nothing else I can think of would require that much...

I thought this part was interesting: Sounds suspiciously like the way older(pre-thyristor controlled) subway cars used to work, except for having four motors and using series, series-parallel, and parallel. Yep, those old controllers only had three positions. You controlled speed by...

I'm really sad to hear about this happening to you right now, Mercutio, especially with all the other trials you've had in your life the past year. I hope Gracie can be cured of whatever she has. How old is Gracie? I'm asking because you say she's been on the skinny side her whole life much...

Thanks Buck. I've had the pictures on my hard drive for a few months, so all that's needed is to make the text to go with them, and also to brush up on my html. I'll give you a PM when it's ready to email to you(hopefully in a few weeks or less-I have writer's block right now, but I know once...

This has more to do with the quality of construction than with the lack of weight. For example, filling hollow spaces under body panels with some sort of energy-absorbing foam would give these cars a more solid feel and offer greater crash protection without adding much weight. The key to...

Does it have to be computer-related? A while back I was thinking of posting something about my thermoelectric temperature chamber project on SR, complete with lots of pictures. I never got around to it, mostly because I have nowhere to host the pictures. Assuming I write something, would it...

I'm sorry to hear this, even though we all knew it was coming eventually. Your dog died in your arms, as I'm sure he would have wanted. You did all you could, you cherished every remaining moment with him. He couldn't have had a better friend.

I mentioned somewhere above that a reasonable spread of weight for all types of vehicles, excluding heavy trucks and buses, would be a factor of 1.5 or less. If the lightest econobox is 2000 pounds, then the heaviest commonly used passenger vehicle should be 3000 pounds or under. Or you could...

Sounds like something from one of the MadMax movies(i.e. the one with Tina Turner). A mental picture of Mel Gibson shoveling pig shit just popped into my mind. :mrgrn: Still, it seems like a good idea-the CO2 put into the air by burning methane is taken up by the grass the cows eat. There...

Shame on all of you. :nono: Not a Yankees fan in sight. :( Seriously, if the Yankees lost today I would have had to listen to my father for the entire winter. :crucified: You wouldn't want to subject anybody to that, now would you? P.S. I can't afford to move out as much as I might...

A couple of interesting links I came across: Hydrogen Fuel Cells May Hurt Ozone Just Learn To Stop Worrying About Oil And Love Hydrogen Compressed Air Fuels City Cars

Visual linguist, Bill? Now that doesn't surprise me a bit. The whole Giver charade you pulled off was sheer genius. I don't think anyone else here(except maybe Tannin) could have fooled so many people for so long. :mrgrn:

You certainly bring up an interesting point here. Some people are just good test takers and do better at these types of tests than their intelligence in everyday life would predict. For others, quite the opposite is true. And remember, an IQ test only tells about one facet of how your brain...

Here's my results on that Super IQ test SteveC linked to: I'm guessing SuperIQ and regular IQ are measured on different scales. I've pretty consistently scored in the upper 130s on almost every regular IQ test I've taken. It's also funny how everyone else who has taken this test so far has...

I'll say this for it-about the only thing that can match the acceleration besides race cars would be fighter jets screaming down the runway. I'm not thrilled with the interior, either. A little dated for my tastes. I'm not a big fan of analog instruments because of their inherent inaccuracy...

This should read: "And as I said earlier, an SUV or econobox will both fare very poorly against a bus or truck, so no point even worrying about that type of collision." CraigLC, Point taken if you only drive 2500 miles a year in your T/As(I cycle more than that some years). However, there are...

It's only a factor in a crash because of the presence of monster SUVs on the road. If all cars were about the same weight there would be no advantage in a collision because of weight. And besides that, the restraint system is more important. The restraints on American cars stink, period...

Fuel cells still require fuel to make power. Current fuel cells will probably use fossil fuels, and future ones likely LPG or hydrogen. Thus there is still the need to conserve fuel. While you can make hydrogen from water, you need lots of electricity to do so. In fact, you put more energy...

:mrgrn: I have little doubt the IQ test was invented by someone like me. We engineers need to quantize everything. Anyway, I started this thread for fun. I don't put too much stock in tests like these, but the results so far confirm my suspicions. We're all in the upper 1% or 2%...

Without reading the article(because I'm too lazy right now to register) I'll say before what I've said again-I'm tired of hearing the words "we can't" from the US auto industry. You can build a 75 mpg vehicle today, and you can build a 150 mpg one by 2015(assuming we don't make the switch to...

Here's an interesting read I found: The Effect Of Urban Flight On IQ Distribution Merc, I see your point but consider that IQ is something you're born with, and isn't necessarily a predictor of success in any one endeavor. Sometimes perserverence makes up for a lack of IQ, which probably...

I was thinking the same thing. I'm also wondering about Tannin, cas, and Gary H., to name a few who I think would best the scores posted here so far. As IQ gets higher measuring it becomes more difficult for the simple reason few people are smart enough to think of hard enough questions...

Nice idea but I doubt Maxtor or anyone else would be able to get six platters of that density to work well together. Two-stage sliders would be one way, but I don't see that happening any time soon. Besides, the cost per GB for a 6-platter drive would be way more than for a 2-platter one. I'd...

I think the test score is adjusted for age for the simple reason a person with more life experience will get more questions correct than he would have when he was younger. As timwhit said, though, past a certain point age doesn't make much difference. Seeing that our ages here range from...