I have implemented a new feature to my sidebar: The TJ’s Family Stress Advisory Level.

If you’ve been wondering why I haven’t been posting all week, this is it:

Original Cindy is in the hospital for reasons I will not write here. I will only say that its not life-threatening. Its been an emotional rollercoaster, however, and we are all trying to cope. Stay tuned.

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Last week, an exhaust pipe disenganged from Amber’s car. Yes, this is the car we just bought her for her 16th birthday. The muffler and exhaust system still looked fine, but two sections sorta came apart. Yesterday (Sunday), Amber and I headed out to AutoZone to fix it. At first, we joked about pushing the two disjoined sections together and wrapping it up with duct tape, but we realized that this wouldn’t do. We needed a more permanent solution.

We went into Autozone and bought a section of tubing to fit over the disjoined sections. It started to drizzle, and since I had to crawl under the car, I layed down a blanket on the wet ground and crawled under, keeping reasonably dry. The tube section was too narrow, so we had to return the tube and buy a wider one. Crawling onto the mostly dry blanket and under the car, I found that this one was too loose. Once again, we returned the part, and this time I bought a clamp.

The idea of the clamp was simple: push the two sections of pipe together, tighten the clamp between them, and - Viola! Good enough to pass inspenction in 38 states. Right?

Nope. I crawled onto the damp blanket and under the car, trying to clamp the two sections together. After 15 minutes of struggling and teaching my daughter a whole host of new swear-words, I realized that this elegant solution was not going to work. We went back into the store (the clamp was mangled - no returning that) re-bought another section of tubing and some . . . *sigh*. . . some duct tape.

I crawled onto the sopping wet blanket - a super-absobent blanket that was now, somehow, wetter than water, and crawled under the car. I jury-rigged the tubing and the clamp together, and duct-tapped the whole mess into place. We miraculously made it home without the entire exhaust system falling off.

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Diane Writes:

I just did an expperiment with two different versions of a gasoline
additive. I put a little bit of each version in a styrofoam cup and
suspended them each in a tall glass. One version ate through the styrofoam
in 3 days and the other version is still intact with no leakeage after day
6.

I don’t know the ingredients except to say that they are a combination of
200+ esters. Both cleaning and lubricating esters in a mineral oil medium.

One has a lesser grade mineral oil and the other has supposedly a higher
grade mineral oil and that is supposed to be the only difference.

Yet, they perform differenly in the styrofoam. This tells me something is
different with the formulation.

With this limited information, do you have any thoughts as to what could
make them perform differently?

The product that failed to eat through the styrofoam (a clearer version of
mienral oil)does not yield as good of gas mileage increase as the product
that did break down the styrofoam (A yelow version of the mineral oil.

Therefore, I am concerned that the clear version of the product is not
really the same formulation and may damage my engine. The product is put in
the gas tank as well as the crank case.

I would be grateful for any insight you can provide.

Thank you very much.

First of all, I wouldn’t worry about damage to your engine. Any product that is intended as a fuel or oil additive must pass EPA guidelines which state that the additive (1) must not damage the engine and (2) must not generate toxic emissions. If these products are made or sold by a reputable vendor based in the USA, then you should be safe.

The “styrofoam test” you conducted is probably not an accurate measure of the products’ cleaning power or engine-damaging potential. Since none of the engine parts, and none of the likely fuel contaminants, are likely to contain polystyrene, the test isn’t terribly useful. It does indicate that the two formulations are slightly different.

Ketones, such as acetone and MEK, will dissolve polystyrene very agressively (try putting a dab of nail polish in your styrofoam cup and watch it dissolve). Its possible that one of the formulations has a small amount of acetone or other ketone in it. However, if it took three days to break apart the cup, and acetone will eat through it in a matter of seconds, I would guess that there is a very very small amount in the formulation — not enough to help or damage your fuel efficiency.

What about your differing results in terms of gas mileage? Keep in mind that gas mileage is subject to a large number of variables. Your gas mileage can vary by 10 - 30% each time you measure it. Any apparent improvement in gas mileage may just be a result of normal variance.

Lastly, the AAA (American Automobile Association) has warned against any product that promises fuel savings. According to the AAA website:

“Some gasoline additives improve engine drivability by removing deposits from fuel injectors and other engine components, and others effectively deal with moisture in the fuel system,” says John Nielsen, Director of AAA’s Approved Auto Repair Network. “However, products whose primary claim is a major boost in fuel economy are another matter. Over the years, AAA has evaluated many such formulas, and has yet to discover one that can be proven to provide significant fuel-savings for motorists.”

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About a week ago, I had a psychiatric evaluation for some stuff. I just got a copy of my psych report. It opens:

Mr. [TJ] calls 35 minutes prior to his appointment to get the office address and directions. On arriving at the office he cannot find his insurance card, calls home to get the information, then finds the card. . .

You know something? Bite me! Okay? This is supposed to be a psych evaluation, not a “lets see what a disorganized loser the patient is” evaluation.

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About a month ago, I made a post about How to smoke a pipe, and then I followed it up with a post about Women pipe smokers.

Ever since that fateful day, my top hit from search engines has been “women pipe smokers”. Who would have thought that so many people wanted to see pictures of women and pipes?

Since I’m always eager to please my readers. . . here is Lisa Bonet smoking a pipe:

And this is a good time for a poll:

Why do so many people want to see women smoking pipes?:
1) Something to do with sex.
2) Some other reason.

Please post your vote in the comments sexion section

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Kenneth Asks:

I picked up a jar of an unknown (to me) substance that has unusual
properties. Color is clear. At around 70 F it flows like syrup. At about 90
F it appears as if it is set up. This can be cycled over and over. Substance
was in with a bunch of lab items. Any idea what this may be? What is the
property called where normal flow/temperature properties are reversed?

It won’t be possible for me to even guess what this substance is, even if I had it in front of me. We may be able to narrow it down to some possibilities if you can give any other information about it, especially in regards to its rheological properties. Try cooling the substance further to see if the viscosity continues to decrease. If it does, then you are onto something.

As for the terminology, I haven’t found anything, although I have some inquiries out in the lab near where I work. There are terms for how viscosity changes with changes in shear and also those that change with shear AND with time. But all of these terms assume a constant temperature.

• Newtonian Fluids: Viscosity does not change with shear or with time.
• Non-Newtonian Fluids: Viscosity is dependent on shear and/or time.
  • Time Independent: Viscosity changes with shear, but does not change over time.
    • Pseudoplastic: Shear thinning (the faster you mix it, the thinner it is)
    • Dilatant: Shear thickening (the faster you mix it, the thicker it is)
  • Time Dependent: Viscosity changes with shear and with time.
    • Thixotropic: Time thinning (the longer you mix it, the thinner it is)
    • Rheopectic: Time thickening (the longer you mix it, the thicker it is)

As I said, I have some inquiries out at the lab, and I will update this once I have some more information. If you are inclined to do some more experiments, please do, and post them here.

Thanks for the question!

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I signed up for my next MBA course, Operations Management for Leaders. I got a nasty shock when the receptionist told me that the college will no longer allow defered payments.

See, my workplace will reimburse me for my education, as long as I get at least an A-. This means that they don’t pay until your grades come back, which is usually several weeks after the class has ended. The college used to allow students to defer payment until their company reimbursement checks came back, so this worked out very well for me.

Now it seems they don’t do that anymore. Fortunately, my credit card company must have sensed this disturbance in the force, and just last month they proactively doubled my credit limit. This still sucks, because I’ll have to carry that debt for about 4 months, and the company does not reimburse me for interest accrued, but at least I am able to pay for the class, rather than wait until I have the money (which would be. . .oh. . we’ll say. . . NEVER).

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Modern Mechanix is one of the very rare original and fun blogs. But its a shame to call it a “blog” in the sense that the author does not post random blatherings, or pictures of his pet turtle. Instead he posts scanned images of old science and technology magazines. This website is a lot of fun, and proves the Pogo Axiom: “The future ain’t what it used to be.”

Below, I’ve reproduced a chemistry article from Popular Science published in 1942. Click on the image to view it full size

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Friday night, we celebrated Aaron’s birthday party. He turned 14 on July 28, but he was in Las Vegas with his bio-dad at the time, so we had a party here in Keene this weekend, just a week after he got back. We went swimming at Surry Dam, had a barbecue at the house, did a “make-your-own-sundae” and then had a sleepout/sleepover outside in the yard in tents.

Saturday, I was supposed to go to a friend’s big summer party in Alstead. I left late, since we were having dinner guests. I drove all up and down route 10 and I couldn’t find the road that my friend had drawn on the map. After burning up about 10 dollars worth of gas, and being unable to call my friend because I couldn’t get a cell signal, I headed home in some frustration.

Cindy had a “procedure” on Thursday, and she was a bit sore all weekend. They took some biopsies just to be safe, and the results came back the very next day (everything looked fine - Hooray! ). So, although she was sore, her spirits were high, and we had a good weekend overall.

My neice just had a 16th birthday party. This first one was for family, and she’s having another big bash for her friends on her actual birthday, which isn’t until Wednesday. It was good seeing the whole family together, and we had fun for the brief time we stayed.

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From Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon:

The room contains a few dozen living human bodies, each one a big sack of guts and fluids so highly compressed that it will squirt for a few yards when pierced. Each one is built around an armature of 206 bones connected to each other by notoriously fault-prone joints that are given to obnoxious creaking, grinding, and popping noises when they are in other than pristine condition. This structure is draped with throbbing steak, inflated with clenching air sacks, and pierced by a Gordian sewer filled with burbling acid and compressed gas and asquirt with vile enzymes and solvents produced by the many dark, gamy nuggets of genetically programmed meat strung along its length. Slugs of dissolving food are forced down this sloppy labyrinth by serialized convulsions, decaying into gas, liquid, and solid matter which must all be regularly vented to the outside world lest the owner go toxic and drop dead. Spherical, gel-packed cameras swivel in mucus-greased ball joints. Infinite phalanxes of cilia beat back invading particles, encapsulate them in goo for later disposal. In each body a centrally located muscle flails away at an eternal, circulating torrent of pressurized gravy. And yet, despite all of this, not one of these bodies makes a single sound at any time during the Sultan’s speech.

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