Now I know why they say Maryland is the greatest state in the union

OK, so I'm a little biased, since I've lived in Maryland all my life. I never bothered to move anywhere else because, why should I? What do any of those other states have that Maryland doesn't? Nothing, if anything I suspect that Maryland is BETTER than most states.

And to confirm my theory, yesterday I found this article in the washington post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/20/AR2007022001665.html

ahem, allow me to quote:

"The House of Delegates overwhelmingly approved legislation yesterday that could make Maryland the 12th state to force carmakers to slash emissions thought to cause global warming.
...
The law is designed to raise the state's average fuel efficiency for new vehicles sold in Maryland to 43 miles per gallon. The current average for light trucks and SUVs is 22.2 mpg and for cars, 27.5 mpg.
...
The higher standards are to take effect in 2009"

I was eating lunch in my cube at work when I read this article, and it put me in a good mood for the rest of the day. This is FABULOUS! I can't wait until 2009, just you watch, cuz I'm gonna buy me an electric car!

I've been waiting for the electric car ever since I was in engineering school, when worked on the University of Maryland Future Truck team. This was when I learned the difference between a motor and an engine. An important distinction. And this is when I learned that motors are way better than engines in many ways (more torque, more efficient with less waste heat and friction, fewer parts, easier to optimize since there is no trade-off between torque and power, smaller and therefore lighter, can be used as a generator - the list goes on...)

The only reason whey we didn't start out driving electric cars is because the batteries were so heavy. But battery technology is improving in leaps and bounds. Just compare the Razor cell phone to the old school Nokias that we had five years ago. Most of the reduction in size comes from the improvements that have been made to the battery.

The auto industry hasn't taken advantage of any of this new technology, however, because they are behaving like a stodgy old corporate stick-in-the-mud. What advancements have they adopted in recent years? ok there's been some stuff, like the vtec engine, ABS, maybe airbags. But nothing REALLY good. Nothing as life-altering as mapquest and GPS. Nothing as important as 47mpg.

I would buy a hybrid. But I want to be able to drive it in 100% electric mode. My commute to work is only 30 miles and if I bought a prius, and modified it (thereby voiding the warranty) I could have a plug-in hybrid. I'd never need to put gas in my car. I kinda like that idea, but the thing that I don't like about it is the fact that a plug in hybrid still has an internal combustion engine and all the paraphanelia thereby required (coolant system, transmission, exhaust system...) Even if you never drive the car in gas mode. If I can drive all electric, why should I shlepp all that heavy steel engine junk around with me, everywhere I go?

No, I don't really want a plug in hybrid. I want an electric car. If it's a fuel cell car, fine, but I don't want to have to stop at any stinking wierdo hydrogen pump to refuel, I want to recharge my car at home. I would LOVE to never need to go to the gas station again.

The problem is that nobody sells electric cars, excpet for one company but they are racing cars and they cost $100k. www.teslamotors.com

BUT if Maryland is going to get its average fuel economy up to 47mpg, they are going to have to sell electric cars to bump up the average and compensate for the Hummers on the road.

This blog is hereby dedicated to Gasoline, the Ultimate Energy Drink

As a yo-yo dieter, a mechanical engineer, and an environmentalist, I think about calories a little bit too much. I try not to eat too many of them; meanwhile my honda civic totally pigs out every day (and never gets fat, which is so unfair....)

Here is a list of things that "Thirty Thousand Calories" could be used to describe:

1. fifteen days of sensible and most likely boring and unsatisfying eating.
2. maybe 12 days of food, when not on a diet.
   
3. 22 chipotle burritos
   
4. 222 ten-minute miles on the treadmill
   
5. 375 oreo cookies
6. 4.5 costco-sized barrels of utz party mix, which, by the way, should come with a warning because it's as addictive as a drug.
   
7. About 2500 brussels sprouts
   
8. 30 pints of cherry garcia
9. 900 strips of bacon
   
10. ONE GALLON OF GASOLINE

One gallon of gasoline = 2500 brussels sprouts or 30 pints of cherry garcia. That means that my car is glutton. My car burns about a gallon of gasoline just driving me to work and back every day.

I like to marvel over/torture myself thinking about what an amazing/inefficient invention the Internal Combustion Engine is. It's incredible that something with so many moving parts, operating at such a high temperature, is so reliable. My car has driven 90000 miles without a hitch. And it's like a rube goldberg under the hood. But what's equally amazing is that only about 30% of the gas that my car uses is converted into the motion that moves my sedentary ass from point A to point B. The other 70% is lost to friction and heat, mostly heat of course because the gasoline is being lit on fire inside the engine. Its almost immoral - that one vehicle could use so much energy. It's a good thing my car doesn't subscribe to any particular religion, because I'm pretty sure gluttony is considered a sin by all of them.

My car is a wonder of reliability and inefficiency.