Perkins, my engine light came on too last week. 20 miles into a new tank of gas from a new place and I just had work done on the car earlier this summer. I'll take it in maybe next week, but I'm looking funny at the gas. My mechanic says if the computer on my car (a nissan) throws any kind of error large or small, it will set the damned thing off. And mine won't go off until it's reset by some weirdo machine. So I'm driving with my thumb stuck out such that I don't see the damned light. It's kinda bright.
Vacuumed. Now to mop.
msbelle, I think it's tackastic.
That sounds like a compliment, Teppy.
I have read two books. seen guitars. eaten by th e pool and spa. had good conversations with friends, pleasant conversations with strangers. After catcing up here I will eith nap, watch a dvd, or flip channels. or a good combination of the above. Good thing I have plans tomorrow or I might actually become a slug.
Music helps small planes fly better:
Mr Salmon said engineers had known since the 1940s that blasting a plane's wings with sound helped keep air flowing over the wings. The concept had been demonstrated by placing speakers in a wind tunnel and bombarding model planes with noise.
However, Mr Salmon conceded yesterday, building giant speakers at airports was not only impracticable, it would anger local residents who are already annoyed by aircraft noise.
Instead, he has successfully experimented with covering the upper surface of an aircraft wing with thin film-like panels linked to wires. When the wires are electrified, the panels vibrate 400 times a second, producing an audible buzz.
In wind-tunnel tests at the University of NSW, "singing wings" were able to "fly" at much steeper angles - up to 22 degrees above the horizontal, compared with the normal maximum of about 17 degrees.
In his research, which is part of his aerospace engineer degree at the university, he even pumped music through his wing speakers, looking at how well the hard-rock Australian group Spiderbait made a plane fly, compared with the ethereal British band Radiohead.
"All we can say is that Spiderbait performs better than Radiohead," said Mr Salmon.
Teppy, are you feeling better?
I just took a very long nap. I haven't slept well for a few days, so I think I needed it, but now I am very gronky.
