Fnord.

 
Neighbor Ben Darby down the street is an artist (news story here) who has what’s got to be the coolest Honda ever:

I just had to share, a bit more uplifting than the last post.

(Sung)

In the mornin’:

and in the evenin’:

Scales are in minutes, for the routes we most often take. This is computed by this Calit2 website, which is the single most useful thing I’ve seen to date. Quite cool, even has traffic cameras.

Email alerts, etc, etc. I’m just amazed that its not a spin-off corporation yet given its utility.

From this paper: (Subscription required, but that’s no problem).

The evidence is compelling that body-on-frame light trucks cannot safely coexist with passenger cars under existing conditions. That problem is critical because so many light trucks are used nowadays as car substitutes. Innovative technology with new materials is promising. Light and strong composite materials characterized by high absorption of crush energy per kilogram are being developed, and progress is being made in their manufacture.17 Such technologies could substantially reduce contact injuries arising from crashes between light trucks and cars. Moreover, these materials could yield vehicle designs that reduce mass for a given interior space. There is also a need for tests and regulations with regard to the crash compatibility of disparate vehicle designs and sizes. Currently no such tests or regulations are being implemented, or even developed, in the US.

Government regulation and manufacturer ingenuity have resulted in impressive technologies for improving the safety of motor vehicles. Zobel has listed such innovations in decreasing order of their importance to safety: seat belts, passenger compartment integrity, electronic stability control, and air bags. We see substantial opportunities for further progress in design: Passenger compartments can be made stronger. Belts and bags can be improved to restrict lateral movement and nudge occupants into optimal position when a crash is imminent. And front ends can be redesigned to increase overall structural interaction between colliding vehicles.

For me, the most interesting quote is this one:

We have found that among cars, risk correlates much more strongly with the blue-book price of the used car than with its mass.

Also, figure six from the paper:

Death risk for drivers of the struck car in front-to-side impacts, shown as a function of the type of vehicle whose front struck the driver’s side and normalized to the registered number (model years 1997–2001) of each type. (Data from Fatality Analysis Reporting System.)

Fabulous paper, well worth a read.

The two-seater buggy has unique capabilities: it can be dropped from high altitude, fly stealthily a few dozen miles under its own power and land on a postage stamp. Pack away the parafoil and it’s a ground vehicle capable of 60 mph.

After the job is done comes the clever part. With fifty yards of rough track it can get airborne again and head back.

It should go without saying that there is little I would not sacrifice to have one of these.

Personally, my favorite car info site is Edmunds, followed by CarTalk, and Kelly Blue Book for cross-referencing.

Just found out about

WikiCars.

Gotta love the net! Found via the excellent LifeHacker.