Another big difference I forgot to add: the EPA changed the methodology for calculating MPG back in 2006 or 2008. The test is tougher now, with A/C on all the time (it was off in earlier tests), so the same car will score several mpg lower using the new testing regime.

> A small, portable power source that would be several orders of magnitude more powerful than what we have today, for one.

You mean more compact and more powerful than this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T... , which we have today?

Maybe you should re-evaluate your criteria.

Fission is already pretty up there in terms of energy density. Fusion is better (and we already have practical fusion power: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T... ) and antimatter is literally the physical limit, as no source of energy can ever be more dense than antimatter due to general relativity. We can produce and store antimatter; unfortunately production of antimatter is extremely inefficient due to physical law.

What I'm saying is that we already know what the physical limitations are. We don't need a 'new source of energy', nor would one change the equation that much.

Nonsense. Distance is immaterial (literally); the important thing is *time*. We can travel to the stars with current tech. We just can't live long enough to survive the journey. Even chemical rockets are 'good enough to travel to the stars.'

Which is why the real way to get to the stars isn't through a ridiculous 600-meter space colony carrying live humans. It's through robotics and frozen embryos (or just robotics).

We can start colonizing the galaxy *right now* - we just lack the will to do so.

The problem is the modern, computer on wheels vehicles where everything is integrated into a network and your car refuses to start when it notices the gas cap hasn't been screwed in completely.

Hmm, I just ran into this problem on my (highly-networked) 2005 Volvo, where my wife apparently didn't screw the gas cap on tight enough and it came off while driving. It ran just fine, it just lit up the check-engine light. I plugged in my handy little OBDII scan tool, it showed a code about a large EVAP leak, I checked the gas cap and found it sitting inside the little gas cap compartment, cleared the code with my scantool and everything's fine.

OBDII is a wonderful thing. I do wish they had made the standard a little better, with fewer ways for automakers to insert proprietary BS in there, but it's great otherwise. You just couldn't do this stuff on older cars; with OBDI, every make had a different manufacturer-specific scan tool.

3: Still another vehicle manufacturer, from overseas only warrants their vehicles to run B5. Well, guess what... you may encounter random gas stations and states which mandate all the way to B20. Fill that vehicle up with that type of diesel fuel, and the ECM will flag the warranty as voided, throw a check engine light, then go into limp-home mode (max speed 20 mph) until the fuel is drained and the dealer plugs in a device. The dealer might just demand all injectors and the high pressure fuel pump be replaced just for giggles until he resets the ECM as well.

Um, I don't see the problem with this one. Manufacturers have every right to require you to use a certain type of fuel; if you put diesel in your gasoline car, do you think the dealership is going to fix that mess for free? Yeah, it sucks that the grades of diesel available in the US are shit; in Europe, they use better diesel, and their cars are designed for it. That's a good reason not to buy a diesel car in America.

The other things are indeed BS, especially the battery thing. One requirement of any automotive electronic module is that it has protection on the power bus, to protect against overvoltage and even installing the battery backwards, and also something called a "load dump", where some moron disconnects the battery while the engine is running. This circuit protection has been standard for decades. Generally, you can satisfy these requirements with a rectifier diode on the input and a TVS (transient voltage suppressor) diode).

People have already been "rolling their own ECUs" for a couple decades now.

The Federal Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act should prevent any such state laws from being enforced.

The automakers have tried this before. The US federal government had to step in and fix it, with the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act, which makes it illegal for automakers to require you to use their dealerships or parts, or to deny your warranty claims based on this, unless they can prove the non-OEM part caused the problem or they give you the parts for free. (This also includes fluids; some automakers tried to insist that not using their $$$ manufacturer-branded oil or coolant was grounds for denying a warranty claim.)

Thanks to the DMCA, they're trying this shit all over again. Thanks a lot, Clinton.

it is not obvious to me that there's been significant improvement in gas engines over the past 20 or 30 years. I don't see a lot of similarly-sized new cars that do better than - or even as good as - my old beater.

It's not obvious to you because you aren't paying attention and looking at all the variables. New cars are different from early 90s cars in two big ways:

1) weight. 1a) crashworthiness: a new car will let you walk away from horrific crashes which your '93 POS will kill you. That alone should get you to dump that old heap. However, that crashworthiness comes at a price: cars are heavier than they used to be, usually by at least 500 pounds. Those 80s econoboxes were really small and light; you can't get anything that light any more. 1b) soundproofness: new cars are much quieter inside than your '93 POS. You're probably deaf now because all the interior noise in that thing. However, again this comes at a cost: the soundproofing adds weight. It used to be that only expensive luxury cars like Mercedes had this stuff, but now even $25k regular cars are super-quiet inside.

2) horsepower. New cars have a LOT more horsepower than your old '93 POS. Even "economy" cars are fast now. Back in the 80s, it was normal for an economy sedan to have 90HP and take 15 seconds to get to 60mph. Not any more; even "economy" cars now have sub-10s 0-60 times, and "regular" sedans can do it in 7-8s, which used to be sports car territory in the 80s-90s. No one wants slow cars any more, and in fact they can be considered dangerous since they can't merge properly. But again, this comes at a price: fuel economy.

New cars with GDI engines have truly impressive fuel-economy numbers these days, being able to push 3200-pound cars around with 200+ HP while still getting 37mpg.

Exactly right.

I will admit that MGM isn't as bad as FGM (plus, there's different degrees of FGM), but trying to say MGM is a good idea because of this is like saying chopping off your forefinger isn't as bad as chopping off your whole hand, so let's chop babies' forefingers off.

However, I will point out that it isn't "society" which thinks it's OK to mutilate young boys, it's American society (and Jewish culture too). The rest of western culture doesn't share America's puritanical sensibilities.

Remember, the entire reason America is so big on circumcision is because Dr. Kellogg in the Victorian Era pushed it as a way to discourage young boys from masturbating.

Your analysis is good overall, but there are a few sticking points. I don't know where you get the 33% efficiency figure from; it may be true for huge stationary turbines or turbines for large aircraft but it most definitely isn't true for turbines optimized for light-weight applications like rocket engines. 25% would be more realistic.

Also, we still don't know what the design looks like. It's possible they are using a design which trades off pump power with some other variable. One thing to keep in mind is that the turbopump also has to pump the fuel to power itself, and this is eliminated in an electric design (although the relative contribution of this is minor). Also, a lot of the pump power goes into cooling the engine; it's possible that an alternative cooling scheme is used such as ablative cooling (this is pure speculation on my part).

Wow, you have a short memory.

Um, I don't think they're using those in any modern headlights yet, except maybe for a handful of high-end luxury models perhaps. They still aren't installing xenon headlights on "normal" cars yet, only on the higher-end (30k+) models. They've come down some, but the $15-25k segment still uses old-fashioned halogens.

And xenon headlights are pretty easy and cheap to fix, at least if it's just the bulb; the bulbs are readily replaceable, no different than the halogens.

That's a cool theory and all, except reality. How do a couple of cameos count as "increased time"? I think the more plausible theory is that Lucas pandered to the audience by making Jar Jar responsible for the rise of the empire.