Well, good for you that you didn't need it, but that is beside the point. In countries with a cold climate, you could use the existing infrastructure for block heaters to keep the electric car's battery and interior warm. This will be beneficial for the range in polar conditions, i.e. you can make more miles on a charge. btw where I live a block heater is completely useless because the temperature rarely drops below zero, though some 'muricans still think we all wear wooden shoes and ice-skate on the canals to work :P

Of course, pre-heating an ICE will not affect the range of the car, but managing the temperature of an EV's battery pack will. Charging an EV from a simple block heater pole can be done if you have plenty of time, doesn't trip a fuse (especially if you are not the only one) and doesn't piss off the parking lot owner for upping his electricity bill :-D Though some have converted them to charge electric cars, see for instance this example from Finland: https://insideevs.com/finland-... Anyway, modern EV's do have sophisticated thermal management systems available, which eliminates the use of said block heater poles. https://insideevs.com/hyundai-...

Regardless of what "we" don't need to use, many car parks in northern Scandinavian countries have power outlets for block heaters, which can be used to great benefit for heating up electric car batteries and keeping the car's interior warm. This mitigates a disadvantage of electric cars in polar conditions. By the way, Diesel and bio-ethanol powered engines really do need to be warmed up when starting in extreme cold, be it through glow plugs (Diesel), auxiliary heater (runs on fuel) or an electric heater. Bio-ethanol or E85 is very popular in Sweden and winters are pretty cold there, hence the block heater in my flexifuel (runs both on E85 and petrol) Volvo.

They have this problem as well with fossil fueled cars, that is why many cars in colder climates (e.g. Scandiavian countries, Canada) are equipped with a block heater. My Volvo has one, plug it into mains an hour or two before you leave and a 550 Watt element in the engine block (replaces a freeze plug) will bring the coolant 20-30 degrees centigrade above ambient temperature. When plugged into a charger, many electric cars will do the same, they will pre-heat the batteries and heat up the car's interior when it's cold, to save battery consumption while on the move. Conversely, when it is hot summer, they will turn on the a/c.

...then it's surely a candidate for an Ig Noble Prize!

This may be a little late in this discussion, but I would say that perseverance pays off in the long run. It's like posting a resume on a job site and subsequent job interviews with much, much more emotion involved. It requires a lot of resilience, and you should be prepared for rejection. But most of all, you should have a clear picture of what you want in a realistic relationship, or what you would tolerate. It may even include someone who enjoys Star Trek even more than you do, who brings along more fantasy and scifi books than you could read in a lifetime and really does want to have a digital video recorder so we won't miss out on QI and Top Gear. The moment I'm writing this, she's explaining to her father what the The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is all about. I am wearing my wedding ring (with her name in Morse code on it) with pride :-)

Google acquired DejaNews in 2001, which was basically an archive of usenet posts. It gives you access to Usenet and several other groups, but there is no such thing as the Google monopoly to Usenet. ;) AFAIK there are no binaries in Google Groups.