Car starting in Winter

Was talking to youngest son, who is out in Minot, North Dakota, about getting his car ready for winter.  Winter in Minot is really really bad.  I recommended he put in a block heater rather than a freeze plug heater, and carry a really long extension cord.  Northern NH winters are harsh, but not so harsh as to require block heaters, where as in Duluth, Minnesota, in which I spent three winters, every car in the city had a block heater. You could tell by the plugs hanging out of the grilles.
   Conversation moved on to other things, but later, I thought of  a number of winter car tricks that I hadn't passed on.  Hence this post.
    Cars have improved greatly since I started driving.  We have alternators now, which throw a lot more juice than the old DC generators,  keeping the battery charged.  We have fuel injection, controlled by clever microprocessors which are much better at getting the mixture right than feet made clumsy by ski boots.  We have solid state ignition that throws a spark so hot it will fire plugs burned out to twice the proper gap.  At 20 below, a 2013 car will most likely crank up and go, whereas a 1957 Chevy most likely would not. 
   One thing that has not improved is the battery.  Being chemical contraptions, they slow down as they get cold.  Batteries are rated for total capacity, (usually 80 ampere-hours) and cold weather cranking current at zero degrees.  (usually 800 amperes)  As the temperature drops below zero,  cranking current goes down. By the time forty below is reached, the battery may not have enough current to light the dome lamp.
   When the weatherman is predicting really cold, you can just bring the battery indoors to keep it warm.  In the morning, a nice toasty warm room temperature battery will crank with enthusiasm.  Or stick a 100 watt light bulb under the hood next to the battery.  Mechanic's trouble light works well.  Stock up on 100 watt bulbs, the greenies are banning their sale.  Or stick a battery charger on it.  The charging current warms the entire battery, as well as bringing the charge up.
   Batteries last three, maybe four winters.  Then they go weak, and won't crank in cold weather.  How to tell when the battery is getting old and tired.  Check the voltage with a multimeter.  A good battery, fully charged, and warm, say after a two-three hour drive, will show 12.8 volts.  As they age, they show less.  When the batttery gets down into the eleven volt range, it's time to go to Sears and get a  Diehard.  Battery voltage is measured engine off.  When the engine is running, what you see is alternator voltage, which needs to be 14 volts or a little more to charge the battery.  If alternator voltage is low, that's the reason your battery voltage is low, the alternator isn't doing it's thing and charging the battery.
When the car fails to crank over,  get out and touch each battery terminal with your bare hand.  If you feel one of 'em getting warm, that's a sign it isn't making good contact.  Couple of times over the years, I have gotten the car to go by pulling the cable off, polishing the cable end and the battery terminal and putting it back together.  You do carry tools in your car?  All you need for this trick is pliers and a pocket knife.
   The sun is your friend in cold weather.  Mid day sun can warm a car up to nearly room temperature, which makes starting more certain.  It may not help if you gotta get to work, but if all you have to do is go to the store, do it at mid day.  Brush the snow off the car so the sun can get at it.
    Back the car into the driveway.  Should you need to jump start it, it's much easier if the hood faces out to the street.  You do carry jumper cables?  It's also easier to ram out thru that snow drift the plow throws across your driveway going forward, rather than backing into it.  Leave the parking brake OFF.  It can freeze ON, and then you are stuck til it melts out.  

The Escape Hatch Opens in Syria

Looks like Obama has found a way to avoid striking Syria and saving some face.  Kerry proposed a deal where Assad gives up his chemical weapons and we don't bomb him.  And, bingo, the Russians take us up on it.  Details are unclear, but Congress will be able to avoid voting for military action that the voters are dead set against, and the democrats in Congress will be able to avoid hanging Obama out to dry. 
   Looks like the famous collision between the irresistible force and the immovable object has been side stepped. 
   Side stepping is so attractive to every one that it will probably take place.   
   Now we can get on with the debt limit, the budget, Obamacare, immigration,  IRS, EPA, and what to do about Detroit. 

There must be consequences

For the use of poison gas.  So say Obama's guys, which includes most of the media talking heads.  But that's not the real issue.  Shall the United States take sides in the Syrian civil war against the current dictator, Basher Assad?  Doing so is highly likely to depose Assad and turn Syria over to the opposition, who are not nice people.  The opposition is largely al Quada and other Islamist crazies who have been video taped eating the hearts and livers of slain government soldiers. If they take power they will impose Sharia law, drive all but muslims out of the country, and line up behind the ayatollahs in Teheran.  The minority communities of Christians, Jews and Alawites are terrified. They know what an opposition victory has in store for them.
    Turning Syria into an Islamist republic will harm the reputation of the United States far more than failing to make good on Obama's idle threats.
    The decision to intervene in Syria must be based upon what it will do to Syria, not what it will do to Obama's reputation.    

Primaried

They had an ex congresswoman from California on Meet the Press this morning.  She was probably in her fifties, doing a fairly good job of looking like she was only 20.  Blond, Nice tan, good weight, good hairdo.  She said "I got primaried" in the same tone of voice she might have used to say "I got mugged".  Clearly she felt loosing her office in a primary election was dirty, underhanded, un American, and ought to be illegal.  Obviously, an incumbent like her was owed re-election.
   I got news for her.  We invented primaries to let the voters clear out dead wood like her.  Incumbents loose primary elections when they alienate their constituents. 

Times are changing

My college alumni magazine turned up in today's mail.  So I flip thru it looking for mention of any one I might still know.  It's been quite a few years.  So skimming the page of newly weds, all dressed in their best, we now have a gay couple smack in the middle of the page.  That did catch my eye.
   Times they are a'changing.

The first A stands for Aeronautics

NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space Administration.  This week Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator for aeronautics, laid out six goals for the aeronautics side of the house.
1. Safe, efficient growth of operations. 
2. Low Boom Supersonics
3. Ultra efficient subsonic commercial aircraft.
4. Low Carbon propulsion
5. Real time system wide safety assurance
6.  Assured autonomy

Growth of operations probably means advanced navigation aids to permit more aircraft to fit into the air.  Sounds good, but the current bottleneck to more flights, is the lack of runways to handle them.  Building new runways is not an NASA mission (it's FAA) and the major difficulty is the armies of NIMBYs who raise political hell every time airport expansion is proposed.

Low Boom Supersonics is more work on cleverly shaped aircraft that make a less noisy sonic boom.  It's interesting,  and a fine science project, but we tried supersonic transports 40 years ago.  They cost too much, both to buy and to operate.

Ultra efficient sub sonic commercial air craft.   At least they limited the project to subsonic.  Boeing and Airbus all ready put a lot of work into this, both companies have higher efficiency versions of their bread and butter airliners under development.  What can NASA bring to the party?

Low Carbon propulsion.  We looked into nuclear powered aircraft back in the fifties.  It got as far as test firing a prototype nuclear engine.  The program was dropped because of radiation safety concerns and the excessive weight and marginal thrust of the Kiwi A engine.  The other  avenue is solar electric propulsion.  There isn't enough energy in sunlight to achieve much more than a pedal power level of performance. 

Real time system wide safety assurance.  Not quite sure what that means, unless they are talking about a computerized system for accident reports, safety advisories, Notices to Airman, and so forth.

Assured autonomy.  We think this means figuring out how to allow unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or drones) to fly in US airspace.   Anti collision policy right now is "See and be seen".  Pilots are expected to look out for and avoid other aircraft.  UAV's are not so good at this, the microprocessors don't scan the sky. UAV's were invented to fly missions too dangerous to send real air crew on.  I was not aware of any places in US air space where the flak is that bad.  Are the druggies using shoulder fired anti aircraft missiles against the Border Patrol? 

Jaiwon Shin is hoping to get $560 million to spend on this stuff.  Down from $1.7 billion in 1998.  Aviation Week feels funding should be increased.  No surprise there. 

In real life, the improvements from the 707 of 1957 to the 787 of 2013 lie in better materials to make the plane from.  Better turbine blade material that lets the turbines run hotter, and better structural materials (carbon fiber) that reduce weight.  I note an absence of any material science research in this NASA program.

Firefox and Internet Explorer tie.

The two rival browsers are neck and neck with 31 % of page views here.  Chrome is coming on strong with 20 %.   Windows is still the dominant operating system, followed by Linux (12%) and Macintosh at 6%.