Daytime running lights

I just have to say, I hate daytime running lights (DRL) on cars. Or more accurately, I hate automatic daytime running lights. Why you ask?

1. The thing that annoys me the most is the fact that you have no control over your headlights. It's not very often, but there are times when I want to turn off my headlights, but with automatic DRL I can't. There's one family member, when we visit them we like to sneak up to their house to surprise them. But when we show up at night it's hard to sneak up with your headlights on.
   
2. Most of the time DRL is unnecessary. There are some roads where having your lights on is a good safety feature, mostly county roads. But most of the time people are driving city streets or freeways where having the headlights on does no good.
   
3. It wastes energy and causes pollution. With the lights the drain on your alternator increases which in turn decreases your gas mileage. Admittedly it's not much, but it adds up. I don't know exactly, but let's guesstimate that headlights on lowers your fuel economy by 1/10th of a mile per gallon. Now let's assume the average car gets 25 miles per gallon. And finally let's assume an average of 15,000 miles per year. If you do the math this comes out to 3 extra gallons of gas per year. Again it's not much, but that's $12 in gas. Also, let's look at the big picture. There are over 250 million cars in the US. If you assume only half of those have DRL, that works out to $1.5 billion in extra gas each year. Not to mention all the extra pollution.
   
4. Because the headlights turn on automatically, so some people fail to turn on their lights when driving at night. Just this evening I saw a car on the freeway. The headlights were on because of DRL, but the driver didn't turn on the vehicle lights so the tail lights were dark. Talk about safety hazard.
   
5. Believe it or not, headlights on during the day can in some cases actually decrease safety. In WWII the US mounted lights on the leading edges of their fighter plans. When the plane was diving to attack a target they would turn the lights on. Because the sky behind them was bright, the lights make the plane harder to see. So if your headlights are on and you come over a hill, your vehicle against the sky behind is harder for oncoming traffic to see thanks to DRL.
   
6. DRL has to wear out the bulbs faster. Any light bulb, the more you leave that light on the quicker it burns out. So with DRL surely headlights burn out faster. I don't have any proof of this, but it makes sense.
   

I think manufactures should stop adding DRL as a feature to new cars. My truck has it, but fortunately it can be turned off. However, my wife's car has always-on DRL. I've gone so far as to research how to disable it. While it is possible, it requires cutting wires under the dash which I'm sure would void the warranty.

Dehydration

Dehydration is a simple process to understand - it's literally the removal of water. But understanding the different types of dehydration can benefit you in ways you may never had realized.

There are at least 4 main ways to dehydrate something.

1. Heat
Probably the most well-known method is heat. This is how most store bought food dehydrators work. This is also how clothes and hair driers work. But this method has its downside. What if the item you're dehydrating cannot tolerate heat?

2. Airflow
You can very effectively dehydrate something with nothing more than airflow. If you've ever seen carpet that was flooded, to dry out the carpet they place large fans on the carpet. Obviously you can't put the carpet into the clothes dryer, and too much direct heat could melt the fibers. So they just use air passing over the water to dry it out. This method works best if the air is dry (low humidity). If the air is already saturated with water, it won't pick up more water. Airflow is the means by which a swamp cooler works.

3. Cool
Yes, cool, the exact opposite of heat (number 1) dehydrates as well. I can't really offer a good explanation, I just know that it does. By far the best lesson to be learned here is bread. A lot of people buy a loaf of bread and when they get home they put the loaf into the fridge to keep it from spoiling. The problem is the cool air of the fridge dehydrates the bread and makes it stale. You're better off leaving the bread on the counter in an airtight container. Of course, if left out too long (days or weeks) it will eventually grow mold. If you need long term storage put the bread into your freezer. "But wait, you said cold dehydrates, so why put it into the freezer?" Well I actually said "cool" dehydrates, not cold. The thing with the freezer is the temperature is so cold that the moisture in the bread turns to ice before it can evaporate into the air. So the short take home lesson, leave bread in a sealed container on the counter, or in a sealed container in the freezer, but never in the fridge.

4. Absorption
The final way to dehydrate is through absorption. Obviously you can use cloth and paper towels to absorb water. But you can also use substances to dry out the air which in turn dries out the "wet" object. Have you even opened something you just bought and inside was this small paper bag full of little beads? That's called a desiccant, which is just a hygroscopic substance. Hygroscopic is just a fancy work meaning it absorbs water. Common hygroscopic substances include paper fibers, sugar, honey, and table salt. Another really good hygroscopic substance is uncooked rice. If you ever drop your cell phone or other small electronic device into water, place it into a ziplock baggie filled with rice. The rice will absorb the moisture out of the device and hopefully save it from destruction.

Well there you go, 4 different ways to dehydrate something.

Super Mario Bros. on Wii

I mentioned in a previous post that we recently got a Nintendo Wii. We bought the Wii to play the "Just Dance" series of games - not the type of games I would enjoy but I have to admit they are fun, and a workout to boot.

The Wii came bundled with "New Super Mario Bros. Wii," which is a heck of a mouthful. [Why they felt the need to put "New" in the title is beyond me.] At first I wasn't looking forward to this game at all. My reservations about this game were based upon the controller. To play the game you must use the Wii remote held sideways, you cannot use the Wii classic controller. To me the Wii remote is best described as "brick shaped." It does not look like a comfortable controller in the least. As such, I had no interest in playing the game.



As it turns out, I'm glad our console came bundled with this game because otherwise I would have never played it. This game is easily one of the best games of all times. I grew up in the 8-bit and 16-bit video game era. This is a time when the 2-D "platform" genre of games, like Mario and Sonic, were king. I personally feel that Super Mario Bros. 3 on the NES and Super Mario World on the SNES are probably the 2 best games of all time. Well this game takes everything that's awesome about those games and improves upon it. It is a true 2-D platform game, but the entire environment is rendered in 3-D. The graphics and animations are very fluid and sharp. And I have to say, for being a low-resolution system (640 x 480) the graphics are very sharp and clear.

I think one of the things I love about this game is the level of effort and thought that went into its production. One of the great things about this game (as well as SMB3 and SMW) is almost every level has something new, something you don't see on any other level. For example, one level has these giant caterpillars that you can jump on the backs of. No other level has these. So they programmed these caterpillars for one and only one level. I don't know how many levels there are, but it's a lot. So there's a lot of variety.

Now I'm not saying this game is perfect. I still feel like the controller could be better. The Wii remote held sideways is a lot better than I was expecting, but it's far from perfect. Probably my biggest gripe with this game is a feature found in Super Mario World. You could kick turtle shells straight up to knock out flying enemies or open high up question mark boxes. But alas this feature was not added to this game. But it's a small complaint given how great this game is.

In short; if you own a Wii and you don't own this game, you owe it to yourself to buy it. Especially if you are a fan of retro platforming games. If you don't own a Wii, I would argue this one game is good enough to justify buying a Wii! That's how much fun it is!