Amusing Aveo Commercial You should drive an Aveo because... it's not a dancing Transformer?

  ¶ 10:30 PM 0 comments

  Engineer Feeding Experiment After Passover, I had a few boxes of matzah left over. Matzah is that hard, dry, unleavened bread which the Haggadah calls "the bread of affliction". It has a texture and taste similar to stiff cardboard.

I decided to perform the following experiment.

Hypothesis: Engineers will eat anything, even leftover Passover matzah.
Equipment: 1 box of matzah, clock, coffee room, sheet of paper, pen.
Procedure: Box of matzah was opened and placed in the coffee room, near the community coffee maker. The words "Free Food" were written on the sheet of paper, which was placed next to the box of matzah.
Observations:

• 5 minutes: a coworker was spotted munching on a matza cracker walking down the hall.
• 15 minutes: a second coworker was seen trying to pull a piece of matzah out of the box while balancing a cup of coffee in the other hand.
• 30 minutes: half of the matzah was missing.
• 60 minutes: all matzah is gone, and the box and sign are found in the trash bin. A fan of matzah crumbs can be seen on the carpet around the door of the coffee room.

Conclusions: Engineers will eat anything.  ¶ 9:08 PM 1 comments

  Interesting CAFE Implication Part of the new proposed CAFE rules is that they will be applied on a scale that varies with a vehicle's "footprint", which is defined as its wheelbase x track. Vehicles with larger footprints will be allowed to have lower fuel economy than vehicles with smaller footprints; this is a way to (sort of) account for vehicle size. The NHTSA decided to use a sort of s-shaped curve called a constrained logistic curve, to map the footprint to the fuel economy target.

For cars, here is the proposed set of curves for 2011-2015 (copied from here, the NHTSA Notice For Proposed Rulemaking, p. 278). To get some idea of what this curve does to actual vehicles, I calculated the footprint of four vehicles and put them on the chart.























I think a possible side effect of this regulatory pressure could be that carmakers will increase the wheelbase and track of their vehicles, particularly vehicles with poor inherent fuel economy such as sports cars.

For example, if the BMW added added about 1.5" to its track and 2" to the wheelbase of the 328, it would go from a footprint of 44.8 ft^2 to 47 ft^2, and therefore from a 2015 CAFE requirement of about 37MPG to about 33MPG, or about a 10% reduction.  ¶ 9:51 PM 4 comments

  Matzah! A little somethin' for my peeps.

  ¶ 6:35 PM 1 comments

  2010 Taurus Spy Photo This photo is making the rounds on the net as a purported spy shot of the 2010 Taurus redesign.
Assuming it is, this a sharp looking car, and portends for a much livelier Ford in the future. From this view it looks like very little sheet metal is carry-over from the current Five Hundred/Taurus, although the pronounced arch of the roof line is still there.

It also signals that the tightly packed vertical grilles with large amounts of chrome are going away, and that Ford will go more towards its European design style, which is not a bad thing.
I do see a bit of Honda in the front end, and also, and maybe some Lexus. The shape is sharp, but somewhat generic. One good thing about the current 3-bar chrome grille that Ford is using is that it is a unique design.

It is amazing, to compare the 2010 with the 2008, how bland the 2008 looks.

Update: Someone pointed out to me, that this is probably not a concept car, but is probably a clay styling model. That is, a life size model of a proposed design made from clay and painted to look like a car. One hint is the "glass", which is painted glossy black. Also notice what appears to be another clay model, still clay colored, in the distance.

The point is, this car may be nothing more than a proposal by one group of designers, competing with other proposals. The final car may look very much like this, or it may look not much like it at all!
  ¶ 9:49 PM 2 comments

  Tasting 3.5 Year Old Budweiser So Passover is coming up and my wife says to me, "Are you finally going to get rid of the old cans of Budweiser you keep saving for beer-can chicken? They must be stale by now". As I am sure you know, beer is chametz, and as such, must be consumed, destroyed, or sold to a non-Jew before Passover.

In the past, I had "sold" the Budweiser ceremonially by putting it in with our other non-discarded grain products. I could never drink the stuff, being a certified Beer Snob, and somehow I kept forgetting to use it to make beer-can chicken. Every time I needed beer for chicken, I reached for whatever I was drinking at the time.

So, as a zymurgilogical* experiment, I decided to crack open and consume one of my Budweiser cans, which according to the handy "born-on date" stamp, was 3.5 years old. It had been stored on the floor of my basement, in a plastic crate, at a near constant temperature of about 70 degrees.

Here are my observations:

The pour:
Fizzy, lots of head. Good straw color, perfectly clear. Fierce bubble formation (dirty glass?)
Nose:
Hardly any smell at all. Slight notes of rice. Surprisingly, no metallic odor.
Taste:
Hardly any. The good news is that the can did not impart any noticeable flavor to the beer (I think the cans are plastic coated these days). Any trace of hops that was in the original beer, which would have been very little, is now completely gone. The stuff tasted just a little bit more beer-like than Zima. There is a hint of malt, some sweet rice, and a bunch of carbonation. Lots of mouth fizz.
Finish:
Slight rice sweetness. Very little aftertaste.

Overall, I was surprised and pleased with the results of my experiment, and I can offer this conclusion: if you don't like beer that tastes too much like beer, cellar some Bud for a few years to take the edge off. Serve cold, with a slice of lemon.

The other can was used to make beer-bread.

*Zymurgy is the science of beer.  ¶ 9:21 PM 0 comments

  Video: Dumb Bronco Tricks Another low-effort post on my part. Snarky comment: maybe better to clean off windshield before ramming your way out of your parking space. Watch to the end for the money shot, radiator fluid bleeding out onto the garage floor.


Why You Should Always Defrost Your Windshield - Watch more free videos  ¶ 2:50 PM 3 comments

  Video: Insane Motorcycle Guy Effing nuts.


Insane Motorcycle Dash Cam Footage - Watch more free videos  ¶ 9:44 PM 7 comments

  Video: Robot Big Dog This is a video of the "Big Dog" robot project, from Boston Dynamics. This is very impressive, especially how they programmed the robot to have reflexes, so that if it thinks it is falling or slipping, it splays out the appropriate leg and catches itself. The buzzing noise is from a small gasoline engine that they are using to generate self contained hydraulic power.


Awesome Lifelike Robotic Dog - Watch more free videos  ¶ 6:13 PM 1 comments

  Volvo Wagon VS Renault Sub-Compact Amazing video clip from 5th Gear. In a brutal 40mph (80mph closing speed) offset frontal crash, a newer Renault sub-compact just mauls an old Volvo wagon. Not the result I expected. This shows that maybe mass isn't everything, maybe it is better to buy a newer car with more modern design than an old "tank"!

  ¶ 10:25 PM 0 comments

  Video: Caterham Skills Guy can really drive.


Very Skilled Driver - Watch more free videos  ¶ 11:05 PM 3 comments

  AFA's Ford Boycott Is Anti-Christian A recent article I saw on Pajamas Media estimates that the ongoing American Family Association boycott of Ford is doing serious damage to Ford's sales. This is debatable. I propose that the boycott is actually anti-family.

The American Family Association is continuing to press its boycott against Ford, in an attempt to convince Ford to stop supporting homosexual community groups through its philanthropy, and to stop advertising to gay customers. The AFA chose Ford out of all of the automakers because at the beginning of the boycott, Ford was in financially the worst position. (I suspect that title may now actually belong to Chrysler, behind its private equity wall. )

The AFA's boycott is wrong, in my opinion. * First, on biblical grounds:

18:20 And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is
great, and because their sin is very grievous;

...

18:23 And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the
righteous with the wicked? 18:24 Peradventure there be fifty
righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the
place for the fifty righteous that are therein? 18:25 That be far
from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the
wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far
from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? 18:26 And
the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city,
then I will spare all the place for their sakes.

18:27 And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me
to speak unto the LORD, which am but dust and ashes: 18:28
Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou
destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there
forty and five, I will not destroy it.

18:29 And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there
shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's
sake.

18:30 And he said unto him, Oh let not the LORD be angry, and I will
speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I
will not do it, if I find thirty there.

18:31 And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the
LORD: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I
will not destroy it for twenty's sake.

18:32 And he said, Oh let not the LORD be angry, and I will speak yet
but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I
will not destroy it for ten's sake.

--Genesis 18, Project Gutenberg King James Bible

Granted, the bible says that homosexuality is an "abomination". But God was willing to spare Sodom from destruction if there were even only 10 righteous men in the city, which had a population of thousands. This is an illustration of God's attribute of mercy--even though the Sodomites were sinners, he was convinced by Abraham not to mete out collective punishment.

Ford has about 283,000 employees. Quite a few of these (probably the majority of U.S. employees) are Christians. Is it right to potentially hurt so many, not to mention the dealers, suppliers, and others who benefit from Ford's business because Ford sends some money to homosexual causes?

I have no idea how much Ford has spent on gay marketing and donations. The largest gift AFA mentions was $250,000 that the Ford Fund donated to build a community center. But compare this to the $87,000,000 total that Ford spent on philanthropy in 2006. Of that, $13,000,000 alone was given to United Way of Michigan in 2006 (Source).

Ford's gay support is a drop in the bucket.

The AFA, in its zeal to fight its culture war against the gay movement, is willing to destroy the livelihood of tens of thousands of Christian employees, and eliminate millions of dollars of charitable giving to pro-family causes.

Even if the AFA is successful, it isn't clear what they will accomplish, other than expanding their own influence.

Here is a list of other companies that are listed as being very gay friendly (100% score), according to the Human Rights Campaign report of 2004:

Fortune Rank, Company
108 Aetna Inc.**
305 Agilent Technologies Inc.*
110 American Airlines (AMR Corp.)**
69 American Express Co.*
301 Apple Computer Inc.**
40 AT&T Corp.*
401 Avaya Inc.**
n/a Bausch & Lomb Inc.
78 Best Buy Co. Inc.*
452 Borders Group Inc.*
200 Capital One Financial Corp.
n/a Cargill Inc.
402 The Charles Schwab Corp.*
n/a ChoicePoint Inc.
174 Chubb Corp.*
100 Cisco Systems Inc.*
8 Citigroup Inc.*
430 Coors Brewing Co.*
31 Dell Inc.*
n/a Deutsche Bank
149 Eastman Kodak Co.**
n/a Faegre & Benson*
4 Ford Motor Co.*
74 The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.*
11 Hewlett-Packard Co.
9 IBM Corp.
53 Intel Corp.**
26 J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.**
274 Keyspan*
n/a Kimpton Hotels & Restaurant Group Inc.*
n/a Kraft Foods Inc.*
113 Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
422 Levi Strauss & Co.
243 Lucent Technologies Inc.**
36 MetLife Inc.
n/a Miller Brewing Co.*
n/a Mitchell Gold Co.
n/a Morrison & Foerster LLP
61 Motorola Inc.*
118 Nationwide*
322 NCR Corp.**
499 New York Times Co.*
184 Nike Inc.**
350 Owens Corning*
62 PepsiCo Inc.*
25 Pfizer Inc.*
179 PG&E Corp.
57 Prudential Financial Inc.
n/a Replacements Ltd.**
n/a SC Johnson & Son Inc.
n/a Southern California Edison Co.*
n/a UBS Financial Services Inc.*
49 Wells Fargo & Co.*
161 Whirlpool Corp.*
n/a Worldspan Technologies Inc.**
130 Xerox Corp.**

It's clear why Ford was chosen from this list--it's high profile, American, and in bad financial shape. If the AFA had chosen Dell, for example, their leverage would have been dramatically less.

Here is a list of other automakers from the 2008 HRC report:

Company, Score
Chrysler 100
General Motors 100
Subaru USA 85
Toyota USA 90
VW USA 100

In addition, gaywheels.com lists BMW, Mitzubishi, Nissan, and Mercedes as being "gay friendly".
Which means that the only major companies left that are not are Honda, and Hyundai/Kia. The AFA web site does not endorse Honda, Hyundai, or Kia, surprisingly.

Whether we agree or not, all major automakers have some level of support for the gay community

*I'm ambivalent on this issue personally. I think gays should be treated with dignity, but I don't support the official redefinition of marriage to include gay unions.  ¶ 4:28 AM 7 comments

  Rally Racing, Michigan Style Subaru vs. deer.


Rally Car Crushes Deer - Watch more free videos  ¶ 11:20 PM 2 comments

  Michigan Speeding Warning Update: Yep, a hoax. I should have tried Google, as suggested. Here it is from the MSP directly.

I got this email forwarded to me, one of those friend-of-a-friend chains that goes through a hundred people and winds up in your inbox. I don't know if it is reliable, so take it for what it is worth. If anyone can comment on the truthfulness of this chain mail, please comment.

Subject: Heads Up in Michigan.

Heads Up, In February, Michigan will launch a 30-day speeding ticket
frenzy.

The state estimates that 9 million dollars will be generated in
speeding tickets. 1 million will go to pay state troopers overtime.

There will be 50 state troopers on duty 24/7 patrolling the
following highways AND MORE!

I-75 North and South
I-94 From Ann Arbor to Port Huron
Entire length of I-96 & I-696
I-275 North and South
M-10 Lodge Fwy


Now, 5 mph above the limit can justify a ticket, and every state
trooper is supposed to pull a car over and write a ticket every 10
minutes. They have issued 30 brand new unmarked Crown Victoria
cruisers and they are bringing all their part timers on full time.


* Wear your seat belt,
* have nothing hanging from the rear view mirror,
* do the speed limit - use cruise control if you have it,
* no cracks in your windshield,
* and use your turn signals!

  ¶ 12:11 AM 2 comments