Ford's 999cc of Awesome!

Ford's new global engine for the Focus and Fiesta (as well as several other Euro Fords) looks to be one of the coolest pieces of automotive engineering from any company in a long time.

The Fuel Economy of New Hybrid Small Cars, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, is pretty good.  The best of the bunch, of course, is the 2012 Toyota Prius 1.8L at 50 miles per gallon combined city and highway.  That's good, but the other cars in that class range from just 34 (Honda CR-Z) to 44 (Honda Civic Hybrid) combined MPG.

And while these 40+ MPG small cars will help you save at the pump, the hybrid system is still heavy on the scales and on the pocket book, making these cars significantly less fun to toss around in the curvies and to write that payment check to your bank every month.  Under ideal conditions, disregarding maintenance costs, and with a pretty cheap hybrid Civic, you would still have to drive over 86,000 miles to pay for the hybrid option in gas savings.  Many people who buy new cars will never keep them that long (especially in a hybrid when you have to pay for new batteries at around 70k, yikes!), and therefore should not spend the extra cash, just to satisfy their green enviro guilt.

But I didn't start writing this post to bash on hybrids.  If that's what you gotta do to sleep at night, you go right ahead. ;)  What I wanted to write about is Ford's miniature new powerplant for their smaller cars.  It's simply a marvel of engineering and the most power-dense engine Ford has ever produced.

Ford's new 1.0L EcoBoost three-cylinder.  Kinda close to nuclear fusion efficiency.  (Photo: Ford)

The mini marvel I'm talking about is the new for 2012 (2014 in the States) 1.0L 125 EcoBoost.  This little thing (the block is about the size of a sheet of notebook paper) packs over two horsepower per cubic inch (which is a whole lot, fyi) and motivates the Focus 5-door to 56.5 combined MPG. That's right, one-point-zero-liters (999cc to be exact), three cylinders, direct injection and a turbo charger can churn out 125HP and 147ft-lb of torque, while still only emitting about 185g of CO2 per mile driven.  Pretty impressive efficiency and a work of engineering.  Its exhaust manifold is even integrated into the head so the hot exhaust can be cooled by the engine coolant to prevent burning up the turbo under part throttle conditions; instead of the current method of cooling them with extra fuel - which is effective, but not very good for mileage.

Read the Ford Focus 1.0 Ecoboost Zetec review at Autocar.co.uk and Motor Trend's 1.0 EcoBoost European Spec First Drive and imagine getting 50 MPG in something that is actually fun to drive.  Then be blown away that this Ford 1.0 is ‘to get 177bhp’ in different trim.

If you read the above linked articles, I'm sure you've gleaned this, but the 1.0 EcoBoost gets the same power as the current 1.6L un-boosted gas engine, a bit less than the U.S. 2.0L (but with the same torque - the stuff you feel in your butt when you accelerate) and crazy, better-than-a-hybrid, good mileage.  I'm sure it won't be a rocket off the line, but the smaller and lighter motor between the front struts should make it nimble and easy to drive through the curves.

Anyway, this motor is Europe only for now, of course, but I can't wait to give one a test drive when they hit our shores.  I'm also curious how our 5,000 foot elevation will effect the turbo motor compared to the serious tole the thin air takes on naturally aspirated motors.

Ryan Gosling's latest meme - Lindy Hopping!

I'm not sure if I fully understand this recent meme, but "Ryan Gosling, Lindy Hopper" is quite entertaining.  And you should probably check it out.

It's not included on the semi-reliable "Know Your Meme" website's Ryan Gosling page, but the evolution is obvious from what is already there.

I must not drink enough!

Today, on the anniversary of the beginning of prohibition in 1919, I came across an interesting (if not terribly well written) article in the NYT last week about the prevalence of binge drinking. It makes me look reealllly good.

However, I have two problems with the article, which are below. See if you catch the same things I did, or if I'm totally misinterpreting something.  (My emphasis.)

Binge drinking prevalence increased with household income. About 20 percent of people who earn $75,000 or more annually reported binge drinking. However, the data showed that people with lower incomes tend to binge more frequently and consume more alcohol per sitting.

and

Over all, states with the highest age-adjusted prevalence of adult binge drinking were in the Midwest and New England, and included the District of Columbia, Alaska and Hawaii.

Now, in the first one, they may have meant that a higher proportion of wealthier people binge drink, but of those poor people who do binge drink, they tend to do it more frequently, but they didn't say it very clearly.

The second one has no explanation.

And while I consider the amount of drinking that I do to be on the higher side of what is reasonable for someone of my age, I'm apparently waaay behind the curve.  I don't remember the last time I had nine drinks in a sitting [wait a minute, could that be a correlation?], and I definitely don't do that five times a month!  Sheesh, bunch of drunks out there!  

Reminds me of this exchange from Marketplace Radio just before New Years that finds that walking drunk is 800% more dangerous than driving drunk (per mile traveled).  Worth a listen / read.  

Afilumaphobia - The Fear Of Running Out Of Yarn

Is there a name for the stress induced by the fear of running out of yarn when you are half way through a crochet project?  If there's not, there should be... Abibliophobia is the fear of running out of reading material, so I'm sure I'll think of something.  Just gotta figure out what the Latin for "yarn" is, and it should fall into place.

[Ten minutes later...]  Apparently there wasn't really a Latin word for yarn, but khorde is Greek for "gut string", which is probably what was used as one of the original yarn-like things.  Filum is thought to be the root of fiber, so maybe that would be the best fit.  Therefore, my newly christened word for the fear of running out of yarn is Afilumaphobia.  Not sure if that'll stick of not, but it's worth a shot.

The reason I bring this up is that Tuesday night I started (and subsequently finished Wednesday) a new crochet project with some really nice, expensive yarn.  It was a really neat pattern (which I kinda altered / flubbed), but the yarn I got was not the weight that I was looking for.  I was looking for a "super chunky" (4 wpi-ish) yarn that was part wool and part something exotic, but I ended up with a "bulky" weight (9 wpi-ish).  The yarn is really nice, 50% merino wool and 50% yak, and super soft, but because it was about half the weight I was looking for, so I decided to work it with two strands at once, trying to get the same chunky effect as with the original yarn, and although frustrating to get started, I think it went well.

Shot of my Yak cowl before blocking and while it's actually still a scarf.  Almost done!

But because of this change it took more yarn than I originally thought, so when I was a little less than half way through with the original pattern I started to notice the two balls of yarn shrinking much faster than I thought in the bag I was pulling them from and got really worried I wouldn't have enough to finish.  Each hank was only 125 yards, and i was using twice as fast as I thought!  (See Afilumaphobia, above.)

Ordinarily this wouldn't be too big of a deal -- just go to the store, try to find the same dye lot, and buy some more.  But this yarn was $20 a ball, and due to my lack of planning ahead, I had absolutely no opportunity to go get more before my deadline.  Fortunately it all worked out fine, and I just ended up making it one row shorter than I intended.

I think it will be fine, since the yak seems to have really good loft and did a lot of reading about "blocking" your projects as a final step to even out the stitches and get the fibers to relax and soften up a little.  To block a project you basically soak it in the sink, squeeze it out, and lay it out in the right shape, and let it dry.

I had never done a project that I figured could benefit from blocking, so I gave it a try this time, and wow, is really did soften up!  And even more surprisingly, it stretched out by nearly 20%!  Whoops!  I could have made it significantly shorter and added that last row to make it thicker.  Oh well, live and learn.  Now I've just got to turn the scarf into a Möbius cowl by giving it a twist and sewing it together.  I'll follow up with pictures of the finished product and maybe even a model shot!

So that's why they call it that. Or not.

Didn't see that one coming...

Just read it again.

See what they did there?

Yeeeaahhh... strange.