Overview: Supercharger vs. Turbocharger
By Brian Ferrari
Jul 19, 2004, 17:00
The intention with this article is to shed some light on the theories behind turbocharging the modern engine, and the wonderful advantages it gives us in both speed and basic engine design issues. This post is also to try and give people a better understanding of supercharger systems and how they work to make such a simple thing as an engine even simpler (speaking in terms of tuning). I personally am tired of seeing people bicker over the differences between the two basic designs, and would like everyone to note the vast similarities among them instead. So without further delay... I will start with this simple statement:
"It makes no sense to build a naturally aspirated engine if what you are looking for is good power output."
To understand why this is so obviously true, we need to break the concept of an engine down into its simplest parts. There are 4 main parts to an engine that concern airflow:
-the induction system
-the cylinder head(s)
-the exhaust system
-the camshaft(s)
Now if you think of the engine in terms of airflow and forget about fuel for a minute, it becomes a very simple matter really. What we want to do is best flow air through the cylinder head, from the induction system to the exhaust system and then out into the world again. This is best & most naturally accomplished by pressure variation, because as almost anyone with a high school education knows, air naturally flows from areas of higher concentration (pressure) to lower concentration (pressure). Now let's assume for a minute that we are talking about an engine at or near sea level, well we can just forgo the exact physics of things and say that at both the induction system's inlet & the exhaust's outlet we have equal pressure (just under 15psi absolute pressure). So in order to flow air into this system we must always be working a balancing act between the three fundamental sections of the engine, which are exposed to each other only through the camshaft's orchestration of the valves. So forget everything else you know about engines and start thinking of what's under your hood in this way for the rest of this post :).
NA ENGINES (naturally aspirated)
These must work within a maximum pressure variation of 0psi (which is really hard to create without massive pumping losses) and 14.7psi (maximum atmospheric pressure @ sea level). To add to the basic problem of how to flow air into and out-of this system, both ends of the system start out at the same pressure, meaning air doesn't naturally want to go IN or OUT. This can be accurately termed as a “pain in the ass”. Now engineers and enthusiasts alike have long been fascinated with how to make power from this setup, but I am talking specifically about supercharged engines here, and as I already stated "It makes no sense to build a naturally aspirated engine if what you are looking for is good power output." So forget about how you can best accomplish this through piston movement and it's effects on cylinder pressures, and understand that it's just a whole lot easier to get an engine to work if it's supercharged.
FI ENGINES (forced induction)
From a pure engine design standpoint, it makes MUCH more sense to pressurize the intake system than to run NA. When only the intake system is running under pressure well above atmospheric, it becomes perfectly obvious that air is going to want to flow through the engine exactly the way we want it to, and both cam timing & exhaust sizing becomes much less important to getting the system to work right (as it was before in NA setup). The air will naturally want to flow into the cylinder head, and then after the very strong power stroke (thanks to all that air) it will naturally want to flow out into the lower pressure exhaust system afterwards. Everything in the engine will be working at pressure above atmospheric and the pressure differences will be greatest in the induction system, so all air will want to exit out the tail pipe quickly and efficiently. One other thing should be said here: turbos technically ARE superchargers. A supercharger is ANY device that pressurizes the intake to above atmospheric pressure, and turbos do this exactly like superchargers do. The only difference is in how a turbo gets the energy necessary to perform it's job, and also that the turbo contributes to supercharging the exhaust system (or more accurately a portion of it, the exhaust manifold).
THE CASE FOR SUPERCHARGING
Since a crank driven s/c (s/c = supercharger) is what people are normally talking about when they use the term supercharger, I will no longer say "crank driven" to make the distinction between it and a turbo. Now using a supercharger makes a ton of sense simply because it only has a direct effect in pressurizing the engine on the side we want it to, the induction side. Since pressures will always be higher here than in any other part of the system (except of course during the engine's power stroke, but that's always sealed off from the rest of the system so we can forget about that complexity), it's very easy to make this combination a powerful one. NA engines often use large amounts of valve overlap to get the whole system to work properly at higher RPM, which has obvious drawbacks in that it's possible for the intake system and exhaust systems to interact in a negative way (since they operate at similar pressures). It's sometimes just as easy to get air flowing backwards through the system as it is to go forwards in an NA setup, which is one reason camshaft choice is so important to where in the RPM band best power will be produced. And here is where the beauty of supercharging is; neither valve overlap amounts nor perfect exhaust system designs are completely essential to keep everything flowing in the right direction. No matter how long the exhaust is exposed to the intake system through valve overlap, air should NEVER pass backwards through the system unless the supercharger stops working.
THE EVIL OF SUPERCHARGING
The evil of supercharging is that some of the power we finally get from combusting the air/fuel mixture must go back into powering the supercharger. So here we have designed this whole system that works so well, yet we have to power it with some of our hard earned torque. This is not a good thing, but then again nothing so simple is ever going to come for free. Do superchargers work? Of course they do, which is why many racing engine uses the technology unless the rules prohibit it. The net result is more total power from the system, but a portion of this power must be sapped from our output to make it all work.
THE CASE FOR TURBOCHARGING
This section is easy to write, because it's exactly the same thing as the supercharger portion. We have all of the same advantages, except for one major benefit. That benefit is that turbocharging runs off what is largely wasted energy, so that damn drawback of needing to power the system with some of our hard earned torque is removed. In this way, a turbocharger addresses the one main drawback to using a supercharger, but as you will see in a second the supercharger addresses the one main drawback of turbocharging.
THE EVIL OF TURBOCHARGING
Hopefully you now understand why it makes so much sense to forgo designing engines for NA use and just supercharge the sucker instead, at least when we are talking about how to best make power. And if you have been following what I have said, you will also understand the bad effect turbos have on our little perfect world of pressure variation.
A turbo is an ingenious little design that harnesses the wasted kinetic energy we dump out through the exhaust system to actually force more air into the engine. This is good for the same reasons that supercharging is good, but it has one major drawback: it of course increases the pressure within a portion of the exhaust system. While turbocharging a motor increases the amount of air that can be flowed into it, it has a negative effect on how easily we can flow it back out again. This weakens our positive pressure difference between these two fundamental sides of the engine, and causes both cam timing & exhaust system design to again become extremely important to making good power. This is most certainly not a good thing, but can a turbo overcome this drawback with the other inherent good it possesses? It certainly seems so, because in most current forms of racing where the rules don’t probihit the use of tubos or slap restrictions on their use, the turbo reigns supreme in terms of engine power output.
Now I didn't post this to make a statement about which system will work better for your intended use, because the answer is (as usual) "it depends". Sorry, but if there was such a clear cut answer do you really think people would still be debating this topic? A long time ago someone would have proven everyone else wrong, and either turbos or superchargers would no longer exist. Remember, these systems were designed and in use on production vehicles long before most of us were born, so it's not like this is a new debate. The purpose here is to educate people on exactly why we would want to supercharge or turbocharge an engine in the first place. Also I wanted people to see, from a basic and theoretical perspective, how each system is different in its function and it's relative pros & cons. Hopefully this discussion of basic theory helped some of you come to a better understanding of FI engines, and that my leaving out any real world examples actually made it easier to understand. I have written an article concerning the technical differences of the common systems, giving examples of different supercharger designs and their advantages/disadvantages. You can read it HERE. And please, any questions or comments, post ‘em here.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
From the very first time I blessed my eyes on you, girl,
My heart says follow through.
But I know, now, that I'm way down on your line,
But the waiting feel is fine:
So don't treat me like a puppet on a string,
'Cause I know I have to do my thing.
Don't talk to me as if you think I'm dumb;
I wanna know when you're gonna come.
See, I don't wanna wait in vain for your love;
I don't wanna wait in vain for your love;
I don't wanna wait in vain for your love,
'Cause it's summer is here,
I'm still waiting there;
Winter is here,
And I'm still waiting there.
Like I said:
It's been three years since I'm knockin' on your door,
And I still can knock some more:
Ooh girl, ooh girl, is it feasible?
I wanna know now, for I to knock some more.
Ya see, in life I know there's lots of grief,
But your love is my relief:
Tears in my eyes burn - tears in my eyes burn
While I'm waiting - while I'm waiting for my turn,
See, I don't wanna wait in vain for your love;
I don't wanna wait in vain for your love;
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
NIRJARA
The word Nirjara is made up of "Nir" and "Jara". Nir is prefix while
Jara means to fall off. Hence, in the Jain philosophy Nirjara means
falling off, destruction, or removal of karmas from the soul. In the
discussion of asrav and samvar, we gave the illustration of boating.
Let us again go over that example which also explains how nirjara
works. Let us pretend, as if you went boating. You were having a good
time and suddenly noticed the water rising on the floor of boat. You
immediately felt that the boat had a hole and if leak was not sealed
the boat would sink. So, the first thing you did was to find a hole
and then seal it so that new water would stop coming in. Then, you
started pouring out the collected water so that the boat would be dry
again. This removal of water is called a nirjara. Karmas are
accumulating in the soul through asrava. These karmas cover the
attributes of your soul, and the removal or destruction of these karmas
is called Nirjara.
The more effective the nirjara, the faster the attributes of the soul
will shine. Once all the karmas are shed, the soul will go to salvation
and then, it will be able to exhibit all its attributes in a full
capacity. In fact, as we are constantly accumulating and stopping
karmas, we are also to some extent shedding karmas too. In respect to
quantitative shedding, nirjara is grouped into two kinds:
1) Desh (limited) Nirjara, and
2) Sarva (total) Nirjara.
In Desh Nirjara there is limited shedding of karmas, this is experienced
by all while suffering from adversity or performing austerities, or
prayers etc. This shedding is done during all the stages of
gunasthanaks.
Sarva Nirjara is the total shedding of karmas and occurs right before
the soul is liberated. Whenever the soul becomes a Kevali, it has shed
off all ghati karmas forever, but still has to shed aghati karmas. The
rest of the aghati karmas are shed off forever right before the soul is
liberated and achieves salvation. These souls are called Siddhas.
When karmas mature they give rise to their results and once these
results are experienced completely the karmas are considered shed off.
Nirjara can also be divided into two kinds by the process of shedding
karmas. They are:
1) Akam Nirjara,
2) Sakam Nirjara.
When karmas mature automatically at their due time they cause suffering
accordingly. Thus, we have no control on the timing of such suffering
and we have not put any special effort or shown special desire or
intention to suffer on our side. Once the supposed suffering is over
then those karmas which caused this suffering are considered shed off.
This natural process of maturity and shed off the karmas is called Akam
Nirjara. Example: When someone suffers from hunger not voluntarily or
willingly but due to unavailability of the food then those karmas which
caused these suffering will be shed off passively.
On the other side when karmas are brought to maturity ahead off their
due time by special efforts voluntarily or willingly to give their
results then those karmas will be shed off sooner then expected. Thus,
we have a control on to this process and this active process to shed
off the karmas prematurely is called Sakam Nirjara. Example: When we
perform fasting (not eating) voluntarily and willingly even though the
food was in abundance then we brought out suffering actively ahead of
the time which in turn will shed off the karmas prematurely.
Therefore in akam nirjara, conditions for shedding off karmas are ripe,
and karmas exhaust themselves after producing their results. When
karmas lose their bondage in this way, it is called swathaha,
self-destruction. In sakam nirjara, the destruction of karmas
occurring ahead of their natural time by special efforts, by means of
tapas (austerity), is called Upayanirjara, initiated destruction.
Our life is a live drama consisting of accumulating karmas and shedding
of karmas. This drama never stops until we reach salvation. Depending
upon what kind and with what intensity we commit sinful activities
(pap), nirjara may be easier or harder. In order to simulate the
process of nirjara, different examples are given to show how hard it
would be to remove dust or a stain from an article of clothing.
1) The easiest one is compared with how easily dust which becomes
stuck to dry clothes can be removed.
2) It becomes a bit harder to remove the dust if the dust is stuck to
clothes which are wet.
3) It becomes still harder to remove the dust if the dust is stuck to
clothes which are oily.
4) It would be ever more harder to remove a stain from the clothes of
those who work at a gas station.
5) It would be almost impossible to remove a stain when it is from
coal-tar.
6) There are times when you can not remove a stain and just have to
through the cloth away.
>From these examples, you can imagine how simple a process or how
complicated a process nirjara can be. In some instances, one would have
no choice but to bear the results of one's karmas. This last kind of
karmas are called nikachit karmas. At this time, it would be wise to
remind us that nirjara is done most effectively by humans only, because
other destinies have their own limitations. But for humans, the
limitations are set by humans only.
The special efforts to destroy karma is done through Tapas or
austerities. Austerity means restraint, which is done willingly by
giving away some of the bodily comforts to discipline our mind from
passions and pleasures. Austerities are performed at various occasions
and in various different ways. All austerities have their own
uniqueness. Austerities may be performed at two levels:
1) Physical manner or
2) Psychic manner.
In the physical manner the person performs the austerity, but does not
have the inner desires to change his or her life and therefore, it is
just a physical act. While in the psychic austerity the person controls
his or her inner desires along with performing a physical act. Unless
the austerities are performed in psychic manner, they do not produce
the much needed results. After all, the whole purpose of austerities is
not just to simply make the body suffer, but to change our desires.
Once that happens the person will be on the path to spiritual uplift.
Austerity is part of right conduct.
Austerities are categorized into two groups:
1) External, and
2) Internal.
1) External (Bahyantar): External austerities are noticed by others
because they have a greater component of physical than psychic manner.
2) Internal (Abhyantar): Internal austerities are not noticed by
others because they have a greater component of psychic than physical
manner.
Each of these two austerities are further divided in six types:
1) External (Bahyantar)
a) Fasting Completely (Anasan),
b) Partial Fasting (Unodari),
c) Limiting the number of items of food (Vruti Sankshep),
d) Limiting desired tasty food (Ras parityag),
e) Bodily Endurance (Kayakalesh),
f) Controlling of the Senses (Pratisanlinata).
2) Internal (Abhyantar)
a) Atonement (Prayaschit),
b) Politeness (Vinay),
c) Serving others (Vaiyavachch),
d) Giving away (Vyutsarg),
e) Spiritual study (Sajzaya),
f) Meditation (Dhyan).
1) External Austerity
a) Fasting Completely (Anasan):
Anasan means fasting, renouncing food and water, etc., for a day, for
many days or throughout one's life. One day of total fasting is called
upavas. Fasting completely until death is done when life is close to an
end. Such fasting is considered very auspicious and is called Physical
Anasan.
Bhav Anasan refers to the total control of our inner desires for a short
or a long time. If this austerity is cultivated then only will we be
able to strive for spiritual uplift.
b) Partial Fasting (Unodari):
Unodari means eating less than what one�s hunger is. The Jain dharma
prescribes thirty-two handfuls of food per day and in order to perform
this austerity, one may eat a few handfuls less than the prescribed
amount.
Bhav Unodari means to limit our desires to some extent. It may be more
difficult to do this than to control them totally, but once this starts
then we will limit our desires for things in our daily life.
c) Limiting the number of items of the food (Vruti Sankshep)
In Vruti Sankshep, we put a limit on the number of items we may eat
during a single sitting or throughout the day.
Bhav Vruti Sankshep means to limit our desires for some part of a day or
a whole day. This austerity will help us to control our desires so that
our mind will keep from wandering.
d) Limiting desired tasty food (Ras Parityag)
Ras Parityag means to renounce tasty foods which one likes very much. It
can be done partially or in total for short time or prolonged period of
time.
Bhav Ras Parityag is more difficult to perform than the other
austerities because in this we limit our most desired thoughts. An
austerity of this nature will help us to control our passions even in
the most tempting situations.
e) Bodily Endurance (Kayakalesh)
Kayakalesh means to stand or sit in a particular posture for a long
period of time. This austerity may cause pain, but one should ignore
the pain.
In Bhav Kayakalesh one stands firm in controlling passions even if
temptations are great.
f) Controlling of Senses (Pratisanlinata)
In Pratisanlinata one controls all types of senses in order to prevent
pleasant and unpleasant temptations. In order to perform this austerity
one may stay in isolation for one or more nights.
In Bhav Pratisanlinata one controls oneself from lying, telling the
distorted truth, or from participating in sensual activities. Thus this
austerity helps to control passions like anger, pride, deception, and
greed.
2) INTERNAL TAP
a) Atonement (Prayaschit)
In Prayaschit, one asks for forgiveness for the various errors of
commission and omission, the faults and sins committed knowingly or
unknowingly. This austerity may be performed in the presence of a monk
or nun or can be done alone. Prayaschit helps us to reflect upon
ourselves in a way that leads to self correction. Even for a small
fault we begin to say " Michchami Dukkadam."
b) Humility (Vinay)
One must cultivate humbleness towards everyone. This austerity leads to
tolerance and sympathy towards others and helps us to overcome ego and
anger.
There are four types of Vinay:
i) Jnan Vinay - One should be humble and respectful to those who are
superior in knowledge and wisdom.
ii) Darshan Vinay - One should be humble and respectful to those who
have
acquired the true insight of religious principles.
iii) Charitra Vinay - One should be humble and respectful to those who
have good morals and follow religious principles.
iv) Mana Vinay - One should pay respect and be humble to all saints who
help
others in their spiritual uplift.
c) Serving others (Vaiyavachch)
Vaiyavachch means serving religious teachers, ascetics, virtuous people,
sadhus, colleagues, and companions with devotion. One should especially
render services to the sick and weak. Though this austerity seems to be
external activity it makes a person humble and serves the purpose of
overcoming ego and hatred.
d) Giving away (Vyutsarg)
In Vyutsarg, not only one gives away sinful physical activities but also
gives away sixteen different inner passions.
e) Spiritual study (Svadhyay)
Svadhyay means to study scriptures or can also mean to understand the
self. Through study we try to answer the questions: who am I? Who
should I be? Through Svadhyay we realize that a soul is a pure thing.
This will lead us to contemplate on the question: what am I doing in
this body? Thus, study will lead you to be a pure soul. This study is
divided into five levels:
i) When one starts reading the scriptures it is called Vachana.
ii) While reading some doubts may arise and trying to resolve them is
called Prachana.
iii) After understanding what is right and contemplating on it is called
Anupreksha.
iv) After realizing what is right, one should contemplate on it again
and again so one can stay in focus. This repetition is called Amnaya.
v) After learning what self is one should teach others the same. This
is known as Dharmopadesh.
All five of above are external svadhyay, but they will lead us to do
internal svadhyay about the self. Thus, one will acquire right
perception and right knowledge which will lead to right conduct and
will open up the path to ultimate liberation.
f) Meditation (Dhyan)
Dhyan means concentration of thought. This concentration could arise
from intense passions like attachment, lust, or animosity or from the
search for the truth and from absolute detachment towards worldly
affairs.
Dhyan is divided into four categories:
i) Arta dhyan,
ii) Roudra dhyan,
iii) Dharma dhyan,
iv) Shukla dhyan.
In arta dhyan a person reflects on the i) loss of dear ones (Ishta
Viyog), ii) development of a new relationship with an undesirable or
unpleasant person (Anishta Samyog), iii) physical illness (Roga chinta)
and iv) future planning (Agrasocha or Nidanartha).
In roudra dhyan one is absorbed in taking total revenge for some damage
or loss caused by others. There are four types: i) Hisanubahndhi, ii)
Mrishanubadhi, iii) Steynubandhi, and iv) Samrakshanubandhi.
Both arta and roudra dhyan lead to accumulation of bad karmas and
therefore art and roudra dhyan should be avoided.
Dharma dhyan means reflecting on the ways and means towards realization
of self.
Shukla dhyan means reflecting on the purity of the soul.
Dharma dhyan and shukla dhyan lead to the removal of karmas. Therefore,
for the purpose of nirjara we shall contemplate on dharma dhyan and
shukla dhyan. If contemplation on dharma dhyan is at the highest level
then we can completely destroy Mohniya karma and within 48 minutes of
the destruction of Mohaniya Karma, Jnanavarniya, Darshanavarniya and
Antar�y Karmas are also destroyed and one becomes a Kevali.
Other Austerities (Tapasyas)
There are some other common external austerities. They are:
1) Navkarsi: One must take food and water forty minutes after
sunrise. Even the brushing of one�s teeth and rinsing of once mouth
must be done after sunrise.
2) Porsi: Taking food and water three hours after sunrise.
3) Sadh-porsi: Taking food and water four hours and thirty minutes
after
sunrise.
4) Purimuddh: Taking food and water six hours after sunrise.
5) Avadhdh: Taking food and water eight hours after sunrise.
6) Biyasan: Taking food twice a day sitting in one place.
7) Ekasan: Taking food only once sitting.
8) Ayambil: Taking food only once in one sitting. The food should not
have any taste and spices and should be boiled or cooked. Also, one
shall not take milk, curds, ghee, oil, and green or raw vegetables.
9) Upavas: One must not take any food for twenty four hours starting
from sunrise to sunrise the next day.
a) Tivihar upavas: One may drink only boiled water during upavas.
b) Chauvihar upavas: One does not even drink water during upavas.
10) Tivihar: After sunset no food or juice shall be taken, but one may
take only water until sunrise the next day.
11) Chauvihar: After sunset no food or water is taken until sunrise the
next day.
12) Attham: Upavas for three consecutive days.
13) Atthai: Upavas for eight consecutive days.
14) Masakshaman: Consecutive upavas for one month.
15) Navapad oli: During every year for 9 days starting from the 6/7th
day in the bright fortnight until the full moon day in Ashwin and
Chaitra months, one does Ayambil. This is repeated for the next four
and half years. These ayambils can also be restricted to only one kind
of food grain per day.
16) Other austerities are: varshitap, Vardhaman, and visasthanak tap,
etc.
In Ekasan, Biyasan, Ayambil, or upavas one drinks boiled water only and
that too only between sunrise and sunset. It is better if one can do a
chauvihar or tivihar day before starting these austerities. If any of
the austerities allow food, one shall not take raw vegetables,
underground roots, and raw grains while performing such austerities.
The word Nirjara is made up of "Nir" and "Jara". Nir is prefix while
Jara means to fall off. Hence, in the Jain philosophy Nirjara means
falling off, destruction, or removal of karmas from the soul. In the
discussion of asrav and samvar, we gave the illustration of boating.
Let us again go over that example which also explains how nirjara
works. Let us pretend, as if you went boating. You were having a good
time and suddenly noticed the water rising on the floor of boat. You
immediately felt that the boat had a hole and if leak was not sealed
the boat would sink. So, the first thing you did was to find a hole
and then seal it so that new water would stop coming in. Then, you
started pouring out the collected water so that the boat would be dry
again. This removal of water is called a nirjara. Karmas are
accumulating in the soul through asrava. These karmas cover the
attributes of your soul, and the removal or destruction of these karmas
is called Nirjara.
The more effective the nirjara, the faster the attributes of the soul
will shine. Once all the karmas are shed, the soul will go to salvation
and then, it will be able to exhibit all its attributes in a full
capacity. In fact, as we are constantly accumulating and stopping
karmas, we are also to some extent shedding karmas too. In respect to
quantitative shedding, nirjara is grouped into two kinds:
1) Desh (limited) Nirjara, and
2) Sarva (total) Nirjara.
In Desh Nirjara there is limited shedding of karmas, this is experienced
by all while suffering from adversity or performing austerities, or
prayers etc. This shedding is done during all the stages of
gunasthanaks.
Sarva Nirjara is the total shedding of karmas and occurs right before
the soul is liberated. Whenever the soul becomes a Kevali, it has shed
off all ghati karmas forever, but still has to shed aghati karmas. The
rest of the aghati karmas are shed off forever right before the soul is
liberated and achieves salvation. These souls are called Siddhas.
When karmas mature they give rise to their results and once these
results are experienced completely the karmas are considered shed off.
Nirjara can also be divided into two kinds by the process of shedding
karmas. They are:
1) Akam Nirjara,
2) Sakam Nirjara.
When karmas mature automatically at their due time they cause suffering
accordingly. Thus, we have no control on the timing of such suffering
and we have not put any special effort or shown special desire or
intention to suffer on our side. Once the supposed suffering is over
then those karmas which caused this suffering are considered shed off.
This natural process of maturity and shed off the karmas is called Akam
Nirjara. Example: When someone suffers from hunger not voluntarily or
willingly but due to unavailability of the food then those karmas which
caused these suffering will be shed off passively.
On the other side when karmas are brought to maturity ahead off their
due time by special efforts voluntarily or willingly to give their
results then those karmas will be shed off sooner then expected. Thus,
we have a control on to this process and this active process to shed
off the karmas prematurely is called Sakam Nirjara. Example: When we
perform fasting (not eating) voluntarily and willingly even though the
food was in abundance then we brought out suffering actively ahead of
the time which in turn will shed off the karmas prematurely.
Therefore in akam nirjara, conditions for shedding off karmas are ripe,
and karmas exhaust themselves after producing their results. When
karmas lose their bondage in this way, it is called swathaha,
self-destruction. In sakam nirjara, the destruction of karmas
occurring ahead of their natural time by special efforts, by means of
tapas (austerity), is called Upayanirjara, initiated destruction.
Our life is a live drama consisting of accumulating karmas and shedding
of karmas. This drama never stops until we reach salvation. Depending
upon what kind and with what intensity we commit sinful activities
(pap), nirjara may be easier or harder. In order to simulate the
process of nirjara, different examples are given to show how hard it
would be to remove dust or a stain from an article of clothing.
1) The easiest one is compared with how easily dust which becomes
stuck to dry clothes can be removed.
2) It becomes a bit harder to remove the dust if the dust is stuck to
clothes which are wet.
3) It becomes still harder to remove the dust if the dust is stuck to
clothes which are oily.
4) It would be ever more harder to remove a stain from the clothes of
those who work at a gas station.
5) It would be almost impossible to remove a stain when it is from
coal-tar.
6) There are times when you can not remove a stain and just have to
through the cloth away.
>From these examples, you can imagine how simple a process or how
complicated a process nirjara can be. In some instances, one would have
no choice but to bear the results of one's karmas. This last kind of
karmas are called nikachit karmas. At this time, it would be wise to
remind us that nirjara is done most effectively by humans only, because
other destinies have their own limitations. But for humans, the
limitations are set by humans only.
The special efforts to destroy karma is done through Tapas or
austerities. Austerity means restraint, which is done willingly by
giving away some of the bodily comforts to discipline our mind from
passions and pleasures. Austerities are performed at various occasions
and in various different ways. All austerities have their own
uniqueness. Austerities may be performed at two levels:
1) Physical manner or
2) Psychic manner.
In the physical manner the person performs the austerity, but does not
have the inner desires to change his or her life and therefore, it is
just a physical act. While in the psychic austerity the person controls
his or her inner desires along with performing a physical act. Unless
the austerities are performed in psychic manner, they do not produce
the much needed results. After all, the whole purpose of austerities is
not just to simply make the body suffer, but to change our desires.
Once that happens the person will be on the path to spiritual uplift.
Austerity is part of right conduct.
Austerities are categorized into two groups:
1) External, and
2) Internal.
1) External (Bahyantar): External austerities are noticed by others
because they have a greater component of physical than psychic manner.
2) Internal (Abhyantar): Internal austerities are not noticed by
others because they have a greater component of psychic than physical
manner.
Each of these two austerities are further divided in six types:
1) External (Bahyantar)
a) Fasting Completely (Anasan),
b) Partial Fasting (Unodari),
c) Limiting the number of items of food (Vruti Sankshep),
d) Limiting desired tasty food (Ras parityag),
e) Bodily Endurance (Kayakalesh),
f) Controlling of the Senses (Pratisanlinata).
2) Internal (Abhyantar)
a) Atonement (Prayaschit),
b) Politeness (Vinay),
c) Serving others (Vaiyavachch),
d) Giving away (Vyutsarg),
e) Spiritual study (Sajzaya),
f) Meditation (Dhyan).
1) External Austerity
a) Fasting Completely (Anasan):
Anasan means fasting, renouncing food and water, etc., for a day, for
many days or throughout one's life. One day of total fasting is called
upavas. Fasting completely until death is done when life is close to an
end. Such fasting is considered very auspicious and is called Physical
Anasan.
Bhav Anasan refers to the total control of our inner desires for a short
or a long time. If this austerity is cultivated then only will we be
able to strive for spiritual uplift.
b) Partial Fasting (Unodari):
Unodari means eating less than what one�s hunger is. The Jain dharma
prescribes thirty-two handfuls of food per day and in order to perform
this austerity, one may eat a few handfuls less than the prescribed
amount.
Bhav Unodari means to limit our desires to some extent. It may be more
difficult to do this than to control them totally, but once this starts
then we will limit our desires for things in our daily life.
c) Limiting the number of items of the food (Vruti Sankshep)
In Vruti Sankshep, we put a limit on the number of items we may eat
during a single sitting or throughout the day.
Bhav Vruti Sankshep means to limit our desires for some part of a day or
a whole day. This austerity will help us to control our desires so that
our mind will keep from wandering.
d) Limiting desired tasty food (Ras Parityag)
Ras Parityag means to renounce tasty foods which one likes very much. It
can be done partially or in total for short time or prolonged period of
time.
Bhav Ras Parityag is more difficult to perform than the other
austerities because in this we limit our most desired thoughts. An
austerity of this nature will help us to control our passions even in
the most tempting situations.
e) Bodily Endurance (Kayakalesh)
Kayakalesh means to stand or sit in a particular posture for a long
period of time. This austerity may cause pain, but one should ignore
the pain.
In Bhav Kayakalesh one stands firm in controlling passions even if
temptations are great.
f) Controlling of Senses (Pratisanlinata)
In Pratisanlinata one controls all types of senses in order to prevent
pleasant and unpleasant temptations. In order to perform this austerity
one may stay in isolation for one or more nights.
In Bhav Pratisanlinata one controls oneself from lying, telling the
distorted truth, or from participating in sensual activities. Thus this
austerity helps to control passions like anger, pride, deception, and
greed.
2) INTERNAL TAP
a) Atonement (Prayaschit)
In Prayaschit, one asks for forgiveness for the various errors of
commission and omission, the faults and sins committed knowingly or
unknowingly. This austerity may be performed in the presence of a monk
or nun or can be done alone. Prayaschit helps us to reflect upon
ourselves in a way that leads to self correction. Even for a small
fault we begin to say " Michchami Dukkadam."
b) Humility (Vinay)
One must cultivate humbleness towards everyone. This austerity leads to
tolerance and sympathy towards others and helps us to overcome ego and
anger.
There are four types of Vinay:
i) Jnan Vinay - One should be humble and respectful to those who are
superior in knowledge and wisdom.
ii) Darshan Vinay - One should be humble and respectful to those who
have
acquired the true insight of religious principles.
iii) Charitra Vinay - One should be humble and respectful to those who
have good morals and follow religious principles.
iv) Mana Vinay - One should pay respect and be humble to all saints who
help
others in their spiritual uplift.
c) Serving others (Vaiyavachch)
Vaiyavachch means serving religious teachers, ascetics, virtuous people,
sadhus, colleagues, and companions with devotion. One should especially
render services to the sick and weak. Though this austerity seems to be
external activity it makes a person humble and serves the purpose of
overcoming ego and hatred.
d) Giving away (Vyutsarg)
In Vyutsarg, not only one gives away sinful physical activities but also
gives away sixteen different inner passions.
e) Spiritual study (Svadhyay)
Svadhyay means to study scriptures or can also mean to understand the
self. Through study we try to answer the questions: who am I? Who
should I be? Through Svadhyay we realize that a soul is a pure thing.
This will lead us to contemplate on the question: what am I doing in
this body? Thus, study will lead you to be a pure soul. This study is
divided into five levels:
i) When one starts reading the scriptures it is called Vachana.
ii) While reading some doubts may arise and trying to resolve them is
called Prachana.
iii) After understanding what is right and contemplating on it is called
Anupreksha.
iv) After realizing what is right, one should contemplate on it again
and again so one can stay in focus. This repetition is called Amnaya.
v) After learning what self is one should teach others the same. This
is known as Dharmopadesh.
All five of above are external svadhyay, but they will lead us to do
internal svadhyay about the self. Thus, one will acquire right
perception and right knowledge which will lead to right conduct and
will open up the path to ultimate liberation.
f) Meditation (Dhyan)
Dhyan means concentration of thought. This concentration could arise
from intense passions like attachment, lust, or animosity or from the
search for the truth and from absolute detachment towards worldly
affairs.
Dhyan is divided into four categories:
i) Arta dhyan,
ii) Roudra dhyan,
iii) Dharma dhyan,
iv) Shukla dhyan.
In arta dhyan a person reflects on the i) loss of dear ones (Ishta
Viyog), ii) development of a new relationship with an undesirable or
unpleasant person (Anishta Samyog), iii) physical illness (Roga chinta)
and iv) future planning (Agrasocha or Nidanartha).
In roudra dhyan one is absorbed in taking total revenge for some damage
or loss caused by others. There are four types: i) Hisanubahndhi, ii)
Mrishanubadhi, iii) Steynubandhi, and iv) Samrakshanubandhi.
Both arta and roudra dhyan lead to accumulation of bad karmas and
therefore art and roudra dhyan should be avoided.
Dharma dhyan means reflecting on the ways and means towards realization
of self.
Shukla dhyan means reflecting on the purity of the soul.
Dharma dhyan and shukla dhyan lead to the removal of karmas. Therefore,
for the purpose of nirjara we shall contemplate on dharma dhyan and
shukla dhyan. If contemplation on dharma dhyan is at the highest level
then we can completely destroy Mohniya karma and within 48 minutes of
the destruction of Mohaniya Karma, Jnanavarniya, Darshanavarniya and
Antar�y Karmas are also destroyed and one becomes a Kevali.
Other Austerities (Tapasyas)
There are some other common external austerities. They are:
1) Navkarsi: One must take food and water forty minutes after
sunrise. Even the brushing of one�s teeth and rinsing of once mouth
must be done after sunrise.
2) Porsi: Taking food and water three hours after sunrise.
3) Sadh-porsi: Taking food and water four hours and thirty minutes
after
sunrise.
4) Purimuddh: Taking food and water six hours after sunrise.
5) Avadhdh: Taking food and water eight hours after sunrise.
6) Biyasan: Taking food twice a day sitting in one place.
7) Ekasan: Taking food only once sitting.
8) Ayambil: Taking food only once in one sitting. The food should not
have any taste and spices and should be boiled or cooked. Also, one
shall not take milk, curds, ghee, oil, and green or raw vegetables.
9) Upavas: One must not take any food for twenty four hours starting
from sunrise to sunrise the next day.
a) Tivihar upavas: One may drink only boiled water during upavas.
b) Chauvihar upavas: One does not even drink water during upavas.
10) Tivihar: After sunset no food or juice shall be taken, but one may
take only water until sunrise the next day.
11) Chauvihar: After sunset no food or water is taken until sunrise the
next day.
12) Attham: Upavas for three consecutive days.
13) Atthai: Upavas for eight consecutive days.
14) Masakshaman: Consecutive upavas for one month.
15) Navapad oli: During every year for 9 days starting from the 6/7th
day in the bright fortnight until the full moon day in Ashwin and
Chaitra months, one does Ayambil. This is repeated for the next four
and half years. These ayambils can also be restricted to only one kind
of food grain per day.
16) Other austerities are: varshitap, Vardhaman, and visasthanak tap,
etc.
In Ekasan, Biyasan, Ayambil, or upavas one drinks boiled water only and
that too only between sunrise and sunset. It is better if one can do a
chauvihar or tivihar day before starting these austerities. If any of
the austerities allow food, one shall not take raw vegetables,
underground roots, and raw grains while performing such austerities.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
you confused tumb of nauseating dog meat
You pitiful apology for defective walrus blubber.
On we go…
You pitiful crock of dehydrated monkey zits.
You dismal lump of fossilised hog swill.
You demented sack of second-hand cow pies.
You insignificant box of nauseating stomach acid.
You atrocious crock of musty swamp mud.
You retarded ball of dusky dirty underwear.
You shameless eruption of fermenting kangaroo vomit.
Thou churlish, elf-skinned rudesby.
Thou roguish, pale-hearted waterfly.
Thou vain, rude-growing hedge-pig.
You pitiful apology for defective walrus blubber.
On we go…
You pitiful crock of dehydrated monkey zits.
You dismal lump of fossilised hog swill.
You demented sack of second-hand cow pies.
You insignificant box of nauseating stomach acid.
You atrocious crock of musty swamp mud.
You retarded ball of dusky dirty underwear.
You shameless eruption of fermenting kangaroo vomit.
Thou churlish, elf-skinned rudesby.
Thou roguish, pale-hearted waterfly.
Thou vain, rude-growing hedge-pig.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
this is the list of things that are bullshit:
1. wars overseas that dont mean DICK to the average US citizen
2. government cares more about special interest groups than its fucking citizens that pay all the fucking taxes.
3. war on drugs that wastes billions and billions of dollars that utimately doesnt accomplish DONKEY DICK!
4. everybody is fucking fat
5. everybody is fucking stupid
6. the media is full of horseshit. instead of presenting actual news stories without bias and presenting facts, we get this partisan horseshit and facsination with fucking dipshit celebrities that i couldnt give a fuck if they all were hit by a fucking bus right now.
7. these fucking dipshit morons that spew out words like "socialist" "nazi" "communist" "liberal" "conservative" "neocon" etc etc fucking etc, that get their info from the fucking television and couldnt point to a fucking country on a map if it meant the firing squad.
8. healtcare is bullshit. we have made the health industry a for-profit industry, which basically mean fuck everyone over we can and make as much money off the poor bastards as we can. if we spent half the money we spent on these bullshit wars and this bullshit nation building neo-conservative horseshit strategy we have adopted in this last century, we would pay for healthcare for every citizen many times over.
what the fuck happened to this country? we have lost our way. this could be the greatest country in the world, as it once was, but instead somewere along the line a significant few decided that making money and fucking everyone over was more important than basic human kindness. and THAT is FUCKING BULLSHIT.
remember, they want us to fight and be divided. united we stand, divided we fall. whatever.
if you disagree, at this point i dont give a rat's tits (or something like that)
1. wars overseas that dont mean DICK to the average US citizen
2. government cares more about special interest groups than its fucking citizens that pay all the fucking taxes.
3. war on drugs that wastes billions and billions of dollars that utimately doesnt accomplish DONKEY DICK!
4. everybody is fucking fat
5. everybody is fucking stupid
6. the media is full of horseshit. instead of presenting actual news stories without bias and presenting facts, we get this partisan horseshit and facsination with fucking dipshit celebrities that i couldnt give a fuck if they all were hit by a fucking bus right now.
7. these fucking dipshit morons that spew out words like "socialist" "nazi" "communist" "liberal" "conservative" "neocon" etc etc fucking etc, that get their info from the fucking television and couldnt point to a fucking country on a map if it meant the firing squad.
8. healtcare is bullshit. we have made the health industry a for-profit industry, which basically mean fuck everyone over we can and make as much money off the poor bastards as we can. if we spent half the money we spent on these bullshit wars and this bullshit nation building neo-conservative horseshit strategy we have adopted in this last century, we would pay for healthcare for every citizen many times over.
what the fuck happened to this country? we have lost our way. this could be the greatest country in the world, as it once was, but instead somewere along the line a significant few decided that making money and fucking everyone over was more important than basic human kindness. and THAT is FUCKING BULLSHIT.
remember, they want us to fight and be divided. united we stand, divided we fall. whatever.
if you disagree, at this point i dont give a rat's tits (or something like that)
Monday, September 21, 2009
I know you've suffered,
But I don't want you to hide,
It's cold and loveless,
I won't let you be denied
Soothing,
I'll make you feel pure,
Trust me,
You can be sure
I want to reconcile the violence in your heart
I want to recognize your beauty's not just a mask,
I want to exorcise the demons from your past,
I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart
You trick your lovers,
That you're wicked and divine,
You may be a sinner,
But your innocence is mine
Please me,
Show me how it's done,
Tease me,
You are the one
I want to reconcile the violence in your heart,
I want to recognize your beauty's not just a mask,
I want to exorcise the demons from your past,
I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart
Please me,
Show me how it's done,
Trust me,
You are the one
I want to reconcile the violence in your heart,
I want to recognize your beauty's not just a mask,
I want to exorcise the demons from your past,
I want to satisfy the undisclosed desires in your heart
Friday, September 18, 2009
Kingofsorrow2: Hikaru's Revenge
He's a prince of lassitude
a king of sorrow
as he sits on his throne
and looks out at tomorrow
He reigns over the kingdom
of the land of the dead
but he still hears the voice
of Hikaru in his head
As he sees her from a Distance
across the Deep River
It's Ultra Blue
and leaves him with a shiver
Can you keep a secret?
We will wait and see
I'm a prisoner of love
yearning to break free
It's the flavour of love
the flavour of life
It's a beautiful world
as I kiss and cry
She was my first love
but now she is dying
in the colours of passion
keep trying...
And I never fail to be overwhelmed
by my fascination
So meet me across the Ultra Blue Deep River
and be my last
at Heart Station.
He's a prince of lassitude
a king of sorrow
as he sits on his throne
and looks out at tomorrow
He reigns over the kingdom
of the land of the dead
but he still hears the voice
of Hikaru in his head
As he sees her from a Distance
across the Deep River
It's Ultra Blue
and leaves him with a shiver
Can you keep a secret?
We will wait and see
I'm a prisoner of love
yearning to break free
It's the flavour of love
the flavour of life
It's a beautiful world
as I kiss and cry
She was my first love
but now she is dying
in the colours of passion
keep trying...
And I never fail to be overwhelmed
by my fascination
So meet me across the Ultra Blue Deep River
and be my last
at Heart Station.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
I look around at the ignorant masses. smiling, laughing, joking. talking of their shallow music and movies. one look at them tells me they've never questioned their existence.
pretending to enjoy their alcohol and pot-smoking fuelled weekends. damaging their bodies, dieing younger. all the while unaware of how pointless their mindless existence is.
probably think they're going to "heaven". infact i find it hard to believe they actually think consciously. sometimes i wonder if they're free of anxiety at all times, on auto pilot. i thought the existential dread was engrained in the human psyche... but in these fools, im not so sure. I can't cope knowing all these morons don't know how pointless their fleeting existence is.
ah, to be a simple man. i wish to break free of this terrible existential struggle. my heart wearies. my will grows weaker by the day. Is it possible to escape this, in a world of morons?
pretending to enjoy their alcohol and pot-smoking fuelled weekends. damaging their bodies, dieing younger. all the while unaware of how pointless their mindless existence is.
probably think they're going to "heaven". infact i find it hard to believe they actually think consciously. sometimes i wonder if they're free of anxiety at all times, on auto pilot. i thought the existential dread was engrained in the human psyche... but in these fools, im not so sure. I can't cope knowing all these morons don't know how pointless their fleeting existence is.
ah, to be a simple man. i wish to break free of this terrible existential struggle. my heart wearies. my will grows weaker by the day. Is it possible to escape this, in a world of morons?
Monday, August 17, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
top 51 oxymorons
51. Friendly Weapons
50. Act naturally
49. Found missing
48. Resident alien
47. Advanced BASIC
46. Genuine imitation
45. Airline Food
44. Good grief
43. Same difference
42. Almost exactly
41. Government organization
40. Sanitary landfill
39. Alone together
38. Legally drunk
37. Silent scream
36. British fashion
35. Living dead
34. Small crowd
33. Business ethics
32. Soft rock
31. Butt Head
30. Military Intelligence
29. Software documentation
28. New York culture
27. New classic
26. Sweet sorrow
25. Childproof
24. "Now, then ..."
23. Synthetic natural gas
22. Christian Scientists
21. Passive aggression
20. Taped live
19. Clearly misunderstood
18. Peace force
17. Extinct Life
16. Temporary tax increase
15. Computer jock
14. Plastic glasses
13. Terribly pleased
12. Computer security
11. Political science
10. Tight slacks
9. Definite maybe
8. Pretty ugly
7. Twelve-ounce pound cake
6. Diet ice cream
5. Rap music
4. Working vacation
3. Exact estimate
2. Religious tolerance
And the Number One top OXYMORON:
1. Microsoft Works
NEWLY ADDED
jumbo shrimp
51. Friendly Weapons
50. Act naturally
49. Found missing
48. Resident alien
47. Advanced BASIC
46. Genuine imitation
45. Airline Food
44. Good grief
43. Same difference
42. Almost exactly
41. Government organization
40. Sanitary landfill
39. Alone together
38. Legally drunk
37. Silent scream
36. British fashion
35. Living dead
34. Small crowd
33. Business ethics
32. Soft rock
31. Butt Head
30. Military Intelligence
29. Software documentation
28. New York culture
27. New classic
26. Sweet sorrow
25. Childproof
24. "Now, then ..."
23. Synthetic natural gas
22. Christian Scientists
21. Passive aggression
20. Taped live
19. Clearly misunderstood
18. Peace force
17. Extinct Life
16. Temporary tax increase
15. Computer jock
14. Plastic glasses
13. Terribly pleased
12. Computer security
11. Political science
10. Tight slacks
9. Definite maybe
8. Pretty ugly
7. Twelve-ounce pound cake
6. Diet ice cream
5. Rap music
4. Working vacation
3. Exact estimate
2. Religious tolerance
And the Number One top OXYMORON:
1. Microsoft Works
NEWLY ADDED
jumbo shrimp
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Friday, August 07, 2009
Interesting?
A lesson learned in economics......
A college economics professor just failed an entire class...
That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan."
All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.
The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.
As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the third test rolled a round, the average was an F. The scores never increased. Bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. Could not be any simpler than that.
A lesson learned in economics......
A college economics professor just failed an entire class...
That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan."
All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.
The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.
As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the third test rolled a round, the average was an F. The scores never increased. Bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.
All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. Could not be any simpler than that.
Monday, August 03, 2009
Saturday, August 01, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope
Reconsidering Star Wars IV in the light of I-III
If we accept all the Star Wars films as the same canon, then a lot that happens in the original films has to be reinterpreted in the light of the prequels. As we now know, the rebel Alliance was founded by Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa. What can readily be deduced is that their first recruit, who soon became their top field agent, was R2-D2.
Consider: at the end of RotS, Bail Organan orders 3PO's memory wiped but not R2's. He wouldn't make the distinction casually. Both droids know that Yoda and Obi-Wan are alive and are plotting sedition with the Senator from Alderaan. They know that Amidala survived long enough to have twins and could easily deduce where they went. However, R2 must make an impassioned speech to the effect that he is far more use to them with his mind intact: he has observed Palpatine and Anakin at close quarters for many years, knows much that is useful and is one of the galaxy's top experts at hacking into other people's systems. Also he can lie through his teeth with a straight face. Organa, in immediate need of espionage resources, agrees.
For the next 20 years, as far as 3PO knows, he is the property of Captain Antilles, doing protocol duties on a diplomatic transport. He is vaguely aware of the existence of the princess but doesn't know much about her. Wherever 3PO goes, being as loud and obvious as he always is, his unobtrusive little counterpart goes with him. 3PO is R2's front man. Wherever they land, R2 is passing messages between rebel sympathisers and sizing up governments as potential rebel recruits - both by personal contact and by hacking into their networks. He passes his recommendations on to Organa.
Yoda is out of the picture by this stage, using the Force-infused swamps of Dagobah to hide himself from Vader and the Emperor. Or something. He is meditating on the future and keeping in touch with Obi-Wan via the ghost of Qui-Gon Jin, which as comm systems go has the virtue of being untappable. Obi-Wan, on Tattoine, keeps in touch with Bail Organa and the other Rebel leaders by courier, of which more later.
As Star Wars opens, R2 is rushing the Death Star plans to the Rebellion. R2, not Leia. The plans are always in R2. What Leia puts into him in the early scene is only her own holographic message to Kenobi. Leia's own mission, as she says in the holographic message, is to pick up Obi-Wan and take him to Alderaan - or so she thinks. Actually, her father just wants her to meet Kenobi, which up to this point she never has. There's a reason for that.
Obi-Wan has spent the last 20 years in the Tattoine desert, keeping watch over Luke Skywalker and trying to decide on one of the three available options:
A) If Luke shows no significant access to the Force, then leave him alone in obscurity
B) If Luke shows real Force ability, then consider recruiting him as a Jedi. The rebellion needs Jedi. Now.
But, if Luke shows any signs of turning out like his father, then C) sneak into his house one fine night and chop his head off. With great regret but it'll save a lot of trouble later on.
Knowing this to be the case, Bail Organa (perhaps at the insistence of his wife) has found excuses not to send Leia to Ben for assessment of Jedi potential, largely for fear of option C.
To be fair to all concerned, Leia has shown no overt signs of a link to the Force. Luke on the other hand has. In his home-built hotrod aircraft, with no formal fighter pilot training and no decent instrumentation, Luke can regularly score centre-hits on 2-metre targets in complicated zero-altitude maneouvres. Until he attends the briefing on Yavin, Luke has no way of knowing that hardened combat pilots would consider that nearly impossible. To him it's easy. Obi-Wan, who saw Anakin's performance in the Pod Race, is nervous.
Much of Obi-Wan's behaviour in this film, and Yoda's in the next, can best be understood if they are frankly scared to death of what Luke might become. (Ben is also scared that he himself will make all the same mistakes he made with Anakin.)
Now, with the existence of the rebellion at stake, Bail Organa has finally told Leia to go see Obi-Wan and has sent her along with R2. The original plan would then be for Obi-Wan (with optional Luke and/or Leia in tow) to leave his exile and take the Death Star plans to Yavin, where they can be put to use. R2 (with Leia if Ben doesn't want to take her) would then carry on to Alderaan to maintain the cover story. The original plan does not survive contact with a large Imperial Star Destroyer.
R2 and 3PO bail out in an escape pod, landing in vaguely the right area of Tattoine, where R2's first priority is transport. He arranges to be captured by a group of Jawas and, once on board their transport, he makes a deal with them (possibly using emergency funds stored about his person) to take him where he wants to go. The Jawas refuse to go directly to Kenobi for fear of marauding Sandpeople but they agree to R2's second request : transport to the Skywalker farm. They even get to keep the purchase price if they can sell R2 and 3PO there. The Jawas shake on it and go through with the plan.
Seeing 3PO fail to recognise the farm where he worked for 10 years gives r2 a moment's amusement but, as soon as possible, he gets away and heads for Kenobi. Luke and 3PO follow, which may or may not have been part of the plan.
On first seeing R2, Obi-Wan has a twinkle in his eye and calls him "my little friend". Well, he is. However, when Luke wakes up and says that R2 claimed to be owned by an Obi-Wan Kenobi, he blandly says "I don't seem to remember ever owning a droid." Ben has in fact owned several but the remark is aimed at R2 and translates as "You keep quiet. I'm not about to tell him everything just yet." Obi-Wan thinks fast and tells Luke a version of his past that does not involve a father who became a dark lord of the Sith. He wants to examine Luke a lot more closely before he risks telling him the real truth.
Although the Death Star plans need to get to Yavin as soon as possible, Obi-Wan needs to make one more diversion first. If the Empire knows that Leia is a Rebel leader, then they also know about her father and the whole Organa family may need immediate evacuation. Fortunately, before coming to Tattoine, R2 had already arranged transport, which is waiting at Mos Eisley, under the command of the Rebellion's other chief field agent and espionage asset. Chewbacca.
20 years earlier, Chewbacca was second in command of the defence of his planet. He's there in the tactical conferences and there on the front lines and is a personal friend of Yoda's. When he needed reliable people to join the embryonic Alliance, who else would Yoda turn to but his old friend from Kashykk? Given his background, there is no way that Chewie would spend the crucial years of the rebellion as the second-in-command to (sorry Han) a low-level smuggler. Unless it's his cover. In fact, Chewie is a top-line spy and flies what is in many ways the Rebellion's best ship.
The Millenium Falcon may look like a beat-up old freighter but it can outrun any Imperial ship in normal space or hyperspace, hang in a firefight with a Star Destroyer or outmaneouvre a dozen top-of-the-line TIE fighters. It's a remarkable feat of engineering and must have cost a colossal fortune to build. How does Han come to own a ship like that? He only thinks he does, actually it's Chewie's. Half-way through RotS, we see the Falcon landing at the Senate building on Coruscant. If it's the same ship (which of course it is) then it was the personal transport of one of the senatorial delegations - a much more likely source to commission its design. That delegatino must have later joined the Rebellion and given it the use of the Falcon. In fact, if the delegation is the one from Kashykk, then the ship may have belonged to Chewbacca as early as RotS.
Han is Chewie's front man. It's much better, and safer for him, if he doesn't know what's really going on. Chewie used to work with Lando Calrissian in a similar way but Lando wanted to settle down, so Chewie arranged for him to lose the Falcon in a card game to Han Solo, an even better choice as partner. Han and Chewie's working method is pretty much what we see in the cantina scene: Chewie make the contacts and sets up the deals, then turns them over to Han who haggles over the price and gives the final yea or nay. This lets Chewie wander the seamy underside of the galaxy pretty much at will, making contacts, gathering and passing information with no-one was the wiser, especially not Han.
Chewie persuaded Han to do business with Jabba the Hutt so he could make regular runs to Tattoine, where Chewie could pass messages between Kenobi and Organa. When R2's urgent message came through only days before, the only way for Chewie to get back to Tattoine in time was to make the "mistake" that forced Han to dump his cargo to avoid capture. As a down side, this led to Solo's getting a death mark out on him from Jabba the Hutt. Chewie was a bit upset about the need for that but figured they weren't going to be dealing with Tattoine for much longer.
En route to Alderaan, R2 and Chewie play stop-motion chess. This is the latest in a series of games they've played over the year in the back rooms of space stations and cantinas across the galaxy, but this is the first time they've done it in front of their respective straight men, so they put on a big show.
Then it all goes wrong again. Alderaan is gone and the Falcon is caught and brought aboard the Death Star. Only Han, Luke and 3PO don't know just how much trouble they're in but Obi-Wan has a plan and seems confident (but Jedi always do). Soon afterwards, R2 finds Leia in the detention cells and shouts that they have to rescue her, to which Chewie can only agree. If Vader learns he has a daughter, then they're all in deep trouble, so Chewie does his bit to persuade Han to go along with Luke's plan.
Then, on the verge of escape, Vader himself turns up only yards from both of his children, one of whom is leaking Force all over the place. Obi-Wan stages a distraction by letting himself die and go into the Force while the others escape. At this point, Chewie suddenly realises that he's been left in charge, not only of the Death Star Plans and the survival of the Rebellion but of the secret son and daughter of Darth Vader. With the Organas and Kenobi all dead, only Chewie, R2 and Yoda know who Luke and Leia are. And only Ob-Wan knew where Yoda has been hiding. Chewie is stressed out by the responsibility and R2 (who keeps making crude jokes about the whole affair) is being no help at all.
Chewie's first problem is what is happening between Luke and Leia. With a psychic link they can feel but don't understand, thrown together in a life-or-death escape, they are looking at each other with a sparky intensity that Chewie gradually recognises as Romantic Tension. He's no expert on human relationships but Chewie is fairly sure that that's Wrong, so he does the only thing he can under the circumstances - he throws Han at her. Han is at first not interested but after a while starts to warm to the idea with an intensity that gives Chewie new worries.
When they reach Yavin, Han decides to take the money and run and Chewie decides to go with him. Looked at in cold light, it's for the good of the Rebellion. Even if Yavin is destroyed, there'll be one agent who knows what's going on who can try and put something back together, but he doesn't feel good about it. When Han decides to turn around and join the attack, Chewie is all for it.
Han and Luke get medals but Chewie doesn't. Actually, Leia offers him one but Chewie turns it down. He got one of those things from Yoda about 20 years ago, but there's no way he can tell her that.
As the film ends, the three founders of the Rebellion are all gone. Bail Organa is dead, Yoda is out of contact and Obi-Wan's ghost can only talk to other Jedi. (So that would be Yoda then.) Thus, the field leadership of the rebellion has just been turned over to the daughter of Darth Vader. Chewie is really hoping that someone with an official rank greater than hers will get here real soon before he has to think really seriously about option C.
© Keith Martin 2005
Reconsidering Star Wars IV in the light of I-III
If we accept all the Star Wars films as the same canon, then a lot that happens in the original films has to be reinterpreted in the light of the prequels. As we now know, the rebel Alliance was founded by Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Bail Organa. What can readily be deduced is that their first recruit, who soon became their top field agent, was R2-D2.
Consider: at the end of RotS, Bail Organan orders 3PO's memory wiped but not R2's. He wouldn't make the distinction casually. Both droids know that Yoda and Obi-Wan are alive and are plotting sedition with the Senator from Alderaan. They know that Amidala survived long enough to have twins and could easily deduce where they went. However, R2 must make an impassioned speech to the effect that he is far more use to them with his mind intact: he has observed Palpatine and Anakin at close quarters for many years, knows much that is useful and is one of the galaxy's top experts at hacking into other people's systems. Also he can lie through his teeth with a straight face. Organa, in immediate need of espionage resources, agrees.
For the next 20 years, as far as 3PO knows, he is the property of Captain Antilles, doing protocol duties on a diplomatic transport. He is vaguely aware of the existence of the princess but doesn't know much about her. Wherever 3PO goes, being as loud and obvious as he always is, his unobtrusive little counterpart goes with him. 3PO is R2's front man. Wherever they land, R2 is passing messages between rebel sympathisers and sizing up governments as potential rebel recruits - both by personal contact and by hacking into their networks. He passes his recommendations on to Organa.
Yoda is out of the picture by this stage, using the Force-infused swamps of Dagobah to hide himself from Vader and the Emperor. Or something. He is meditating on the future and keeping in touch with Obi-Wan via the ghost of Qui-Gon Jin, which as comm systems go has the virtue of being untappable. Obi-Wan, on Tattoine, keeps in touch with Bail Organa and the other Rebel leaders by courier, of which more later.
As Star Wars opens, R2 is rushing the Death Star plans to the Rebellion. R2, not Leia. The plans are always in R2. What Leia puts into him in the early scene is only her own holographic message to Kenobi. Leia's own mission, as she says in the holographic message, is to pick up Obi-Wan and take him to Alderaan - or so she thinks. Actually, her father just wants her to meet Kenobi, which up to this point she never has. There's a reason for that.
Obi-Wan has spent the last 20 years in the Tattoine desert, keeping watch over Luke Skywalker and trying to decide on one of the three available options:
A) If Luke shows no significant access to the Force, then leave him alone in obscurity
B) If Luke shows real Force ability, then consider recruiting him as a Jedi. The rebellion needs Jedi. Now.
But, if Luke shows any signs of turning out like his father, then C) sneak into his house one fine night and chop his head off. With great regret but it'll save a lot of trouble later on.
Knowing this to be the case, Bail Organa (perhaps at the insistence of his wife) has found excuses not to send Leia to Ben for assessment of Jedi potential, largely for fear of option C.
To be fair to all concerned, Leia has shown no overt signs of a link to the Force. Luke on the other hand has. In his home-built hotrod aircraft, with no formal fighter pilot training and no decent instrumentation, Luke can regularly score centre-hits on 2-metre targets in complicated zero-altitude maneouvres. Until he attends the briefing on Yavin, Luke has no way of knowing that hardened combat pilots would consider that nearly impossible. To him it's easy. Obi-Wan, who saw Anakin's performance in the Pod Race, is nervous.
Much of Obi-Wan's behaviour in this film, and Yoda's in the next, can best be understood if they are frankly scared to death of what Luke might become. (Ben is also scared that he himself will make all the same mistakes he made with Anakin.)
Now, with the existence of the rebellion at stake, Bail Organa has finally told Leia to go see Obi-Wan and has sent her along with R2. The original plan would then be for Obi-Wan (with optional Luke and/or Leia in tow) to leave his exile and take the Death Star plans to Yavin, where they can be put to use. R2 (with Leia if Ben doesn't want to take her) would then carry on to Alderaan to maintain the cover story. The original plan does not survive contact with a large Imperial Star Destroyer.
R2 and 3PO bail out in an escape pod, landing in vaguely the right area of Tattoine, where R2's first priority is transport. He arranges to be captured by a group of Jawas and, once on board their transport, he makes a deal with them (possibly using emergency funds stored about his person) to take him where he wants to go. The Jawas refuse to go directly to Kenobi for fear of marauding Sandpeople but they agree to R2's second request : transport to the Skywalker farm. They even get to keep the purchase price if they can sell R2 and 3PO there. The Jawas shake on it and go through with the plan.
Seeing 3PO fail to recognise the farm where he worked for 10 years gives r2 a moment's amusement but, as soon as possible, he gets away and heads for Kenobi. Luke and 3PO follow, which may or may not have been part of the plan.
On first seeing R2, Obi-Wan has a twinkle in his eye and calls him "my little friend". Well, he is. However, when Luke wakes up and says that R2 claimed to be owned by an Obi-Wan Kenobi, he blandly says "I don't seem to remember ever owning a droid." Ben has in fact owned several but the remark is aimed at R2 and translates as "You keep quiet. I'm not about to tell him everything just yet." Obi-Wan thinks fast and tells Luke a version of his past that does not involve a father who became a dark lord of the Sith. He wants to examine Luke a lot more closely before he risks telling him the real truth.
Although the Death Star plans need to get to Yavin as soon as possible, Obi-Wan needs to make one more diversion first. If the Empire knows that Leia is a Rebel leader, then they also know about her father and the whole Organa family may need immediate evacuation. Fortunately, before coming to Tattoine, R2 had already arranged transport, which is waiting at Mos Eisley, under the command of the Rebellion's other chief field agent and espionage asset. Chewbacca.
20 years earlier, Chewbacca was second in command of the defence of his planet. He's there in the tactical conferences and there on the front lines and is a personal friend of Yoda's. When he needed reliable people to join the embryonic Alliance, who else would Yoda turn to but his old friend from Kashykk? Given his background, there is no way that Chewie would spend the crucial years of the rebellion as the second-in-command to (sorry Han) a low-level smuggler. Unless it's his cover. In fact, Chewie is a top-line spy and flies what is in many ways the Rebellion's best ship.
The Millenium Falcon may look like a beat-up old freighter but it can outrun any Imperial ship in normal space or hyperspace, hang in a firefight with a Star Destroyer or outmaneouvre a dozen top-of-the-line TIE fighters. It's a remarkable feat of engineering and must have cost a colossal fortune to build. How does Han come to own a ship like that? He only thinks he does, actually it's Chewie's. Half-way through RotS, we see the Falcon landing at the Senate building on Coruscant. If it's the same ship (which of course it is) then it was the personal transport of one of the senatorial delegations - a much more likely source to commission its design. That delegatino must have later joined the Rebellion and given it the use of the Falcon. In fact, if the delegation is the one from Kashykk, then the ship may have belonged to Chewbacca as early as RotS.
Han is Chewie's front man. It's much better, and safer for him, if he doesn't know what's really going on. Chewie used to work with Lando Calrissian in a similar way but Lando wanted to settle down, so Chewie arranged for him to lose the Falcon in a card game to Han Solo, an even better choice as partner. Han and Chewie's working method is pretty much what we see in the cantina scene: Chewie make the contacts and sets up the deals, then turns them over to Han who haggles over the price and gives the final yea or nay. This lets Chewie wander the seamy underside of the galaxy pretty much at will, making contacts, gathering and passing information with no-one was the wiser, especially not Han.
Chewie persuaded Han to do business with Jabba the Hutt so he could make regular runs to Tattoine, where Chewie could pass messages between Kenobi and Organa. When R2's urgent message came through only days before, the only way for Chewie to get back to Tattoine in time was to make the "mistake" that forced Han to dump his cargo to avoid capture. As a down side, this led to Solo's getting a death mark out on him from Jabba the Hutt. Chewie was a bit upset about the need for that but figured they weren't going to be dealing with Tattoine for much longer.
En route to Alderaan, R2 and Chewie play stop-motion chess. This is the latest in a series of games they've played over the year in the back rooms of space stations and cantinas across the galaxy, but this is the first time they've done it in front of their respective straight men, so they put on a big show.
Then it all goes wrong again. Alderaan is gone and the Falcon is caught and brought aboard the Death Star. Only Han, Luke and 3PO don't know just how much trouble they're in but Obi-Wan has a plan and seems confident (but Jedi always do). Soon afterwards, R2 finds Leia in the detention cells and shouts that they have to rescue her, to which Chewie can only agree. If Vader learns he has a daughter, then they're all in deep trouble, so Chewie does his bit to persuade Han to go along with Luke's plan.
Then, on the verge of escape, Vader himself turns up only yards from both of his children, one of whom is leaking Force all over the place. Obi-Wan stages a distraction by letting himself die and go into the Force while the others escape. At this point, Chewie suddenly realises that he's been left in charge, not only of the Death Star Plans and the survival of the Rebellion but of the secret son and daughter of Darth Vader. With the Organas and Kenobi all dead, only Chewie, R2 and Yoda know who Luke and Leia are. And only Ob-Wan knew where Yoda has been hiding. Chewie is stressed out by the responsibility and R2 (who keeps making crude jokes about the whole affair) is being no help at all.
Chewie's first problem is what is happening between Luke and Leia. With a psychic link they can feel but don't understand, thrown together in a life-or-death escape, they are looking at each other with a sparky intensity that Chewie gradually recognises as Romantic Tension. He's no expert on human relationships but Chewie is fairly sure that that's Wrong, so he does the only thing he can under the circumstances - he throws Han at her. Han is at first not interested but after a while starts to warm to the idea with an intensity that gives Chewie new worries.
When they reach Yavin, Han decides to take the money and run and Chewie decides to go with him. Looked at in cold light, it's for the good of the Rebellion. Even if Yavin is destroyed, there'll be one agent who knows what's going on who can try and put something back together, but he doesn't feel good about it. When Han decides to turn around and join the attack, Chewie is all for it.
Han and Luke get medals but Chewie doesn't. Actually, Leia offers him one but Chewie turns it down. He got one of those things from Yoda about 20 years ago, but there's no way he can tell her that.
As the film ends, the three founders of the Rebellion are all gone. Bail Organa is dead, Yoda is out of contact and Obi-Wan's ghost can only talk to other Jedi. (So that would be Yoda then.) Thus, the field leadership of the rebellion has just been turned over to the daughter of Darth Vader. Chewie is really hoping that someone with an official rank greater than hers will get here real soon before he has to think really seriously about option C.
© Keith Martin 2005
Thursday, July 30, 2009
well, the lord came to me in the form of a pop-tart and told me that he was sending me his "tool". after assuring him i had no desire to handle his tool, he pointed out that i would be saving a great many people. he then told me that i would be the keeper of god's furnace-- see, the devil exists in all forms of printed money, and the only way to rid the world of his evil is to burn that money. thing is, if you burn it on a regular fire, the devil just flies off, or sometimes, he flies into you! with the furnace, i can capture the devil when he is released, therefor, money can ONLY be burned in MY furnace. i beg all of you to send me your money. please. for your OWN good. i am a servant of god and i am willing to RISK my soul for YOU. just please, send me all your cash. do it . today. it is the lord's will. i promised god i would devote myself to getting your money.
trust me.
trust me.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Today we’re going to take a look at a piece of automotive equipment that most people don’t give much thought to unless you’re blinded by them or forget to turn them on and get a freakin’ ticket. Headlights have been around for longer than automobiles (carriages used lights that were basically lanterns), but the vast increase in speed afforded by the auto meant that old technologies just wouldn’t cut it in the new order of things. Join us to explore how the headlight evolved into the high-tech device we know today.
Carbide (Acetylene) Lamps: 1880s to about 1900
Carbide lamp showing flame and reflector." title="carbide lamp" class="size-large wp-image-24952" width="500" height="551">Carbide lamp showing flame and reflector.
The earliest headlight technology was essentially a lantern with a reflecting mirror. This focused the light source though an opening in the lantern, but because there were no effective headlight lenses at this time, the beam was fairly unfocused and there was significant scattering of the light upwards as glare. This, combined with the low-candlepower light sources of the time, meant that they were a weak, low-speed-only means of illumination – unfocused and with poor range. Plus, a good gust of wind or a wayward splash of water could snuff the flame. The fuel was usually oil, or the more weather-resistant acetylene. Acetylene lamps were also known as carbide lamps, and had been developed for mining. Gas was produced by dripping water on calcium carbide, which produced the acetylene gas, which was then burnt in the lamp. However, the flame was sooty and the byproduct was caustic lime, a toxic substance that had to be disposed of. An improvement was badly needed …
Early Electric Lights: 1898
A Columbia Electric." title="columbia electric" class="size-large wp-image-24953" width="500" height="415">A Columbia Electric.
In the early days, when gasoline-powered cars were loud, dirty, and dangerous to start (before electric starters, the starter crank definitely could break your arm if you did it wrong), electric cars actually outsold them. So it’s probably no surprise that the first electric headlights debuted on an electric car, a Columbia. They weren’t necessarily an improvement right off the bat: they had weak tungsten filaments that often broke on the rough roads of the time. Soon they were adopted by gas vehicles, but at that point all gasoline-powered vehicles used dynamos rather than the alternators we know of today, and basically they produced a lot less electricity. The bottom line is that these headlights were dim and broke easily, and probably most importantly, still didn’t have a lens to focus their light. That innovation would come soon after.
Lens-Focused Headlight: the Corning Conaphore, ~1910s
The Corning glass company of Corning, NY, debuted their revolutionary Conaphore headlight in the 1910s. Borrowing a page from lighthouses and other lens-focused light apparatus, the Conaphore was the first modern headlamp (other than an early attempt by Hella to use a lens technology on an acetylene headlight) because it used the lens to direct light from an electric bulb down and out in front of the car, allowing more of the available candlepower to illuminate the road. It was billed as a major safety innovation, eliminating accident-causing glare and increasing headlight range. How effective was it? It’s hard to say how it would compare to a modern headlight, but it was leaps and bounds above anything at the time. It was also the direct ancestor of all modern automotive lighting.
Hi/Low Beams: 1915-1917
1917 Cadillac." title="1917 cadillac hi-low" class="size-large wp-image-24950" width="500" height="385">1917 Cadillac.
The next innovation was in the same vein as the Conaphore: a way to better direct light down to the road and away from other drivers’ eyes. The solution this time was a “dipping” light – a headlight that was physically moved to change the angle of the beam downwards. This reduced the range but also lowered the beam enough to not blind oncoming traffic. The first system, developed by the Guide Lamp Company in 1915, required the driver to physically get out of the car to set the lights to “low” beam. Cadillac improved on the system in 1917 with a lever in the car that did the same thing.
Two-Filament Hi/Low Beams: 1924 Bilux
This system represented the hi/low beam setup we know today: two filaments in the same lamp, where the lamp stays in the same position physically and the switch merely affects the light’s output (wattage). This lead to the dimmer switch, initially a foot-operated one, but eventually the stalk-actuated dimmer that we’re most familiar with today.
Sealed Beam: 1940-1983
Chevrolet Impala showing quad sealed beam setup." title="sealed beam impala" class="size-large wp-image-24962" width="500" height="260">Chevrolet Impala showing quad sealed beam setup.
Anyone who’s worked on an American-market car from 1940 until the early 1990s knows about these guys. Much like a household flood light bulb, these one-piece lights combined the filament, reflector, housing, and lens, meaning that when it burned out, the whole thing needed replacement. They improved reliability somewhat because there was no way foreign matter could find its way into the lamp, possibly causing hot spots and early burnout, but mostly they were a method for the US government to ensure that all cars were using the same government-approved lights. Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108 required that all cars use a system of two 7″ round sealed beam headlight until 1970, when the Feds allowed rectangular headlights to sprout from some lucky vehicle fascias … mostly trucks. The big change happened in 1983, when composite headlights were allowed (but not required) to be utilized. It would be a few years before sealed beams would be phased out in almost all applications.
Composite Headlights: 1983-Present
The famous Taurus composite headlights." title="taurus composite lites" class="size-large wp-image-24960" width="500" height="375">The famous Taurus composite headlights.
As noted above, headlight options were limited for US-market cars, but in Europe there was all sorts of strangeness abounding. Glass-covered headlights, such as on the Jaguar E-type and the Citroen DS were common across the pond but taboo in the states. Then in 1983, Standard 108 was amended to allow what were called composite headlights. Instead of replacing the whole unit, all you had to do with a composite system was remove the bulb – the housing, lens, and reflectors were all permanent. The first US market car to sport such a headlight assembly was the 1984 Lincoln Continental Mark VII, recently restyled as part of the first wave of “aero-” or “jellybean-designed” cars that you probably can best visualize in the first-generation Ford Taurus. This allowed all sorts of unique front end designs to promulgate, and became the standard headlight type that you’re probably most familiar with.
Pop-Up Headlights: 1936-2004
Mazda Miata showing pop-ups (with 7 inch sealed beam lights)" title="pop up miata" class="size-large wp-image-24963" width="500" height="332">Mazda Miata showing pop-ups (with 7 inch sealed beam lights)
Starting with the ‘36 Cord and ending only in 2004, when the Corvette was last produced with pop-up lights, this feature allowed for smooth, aerodynamic front ends and kept the lights clean when retracted. Of course, it added complexity and weight, needing motors or linkages to raise and lower the lights. In the 1960s, some cars were “required” to have them in order to meet US minimum-height laws for headlights. A majority of the reason that these lights have become less common is that European pedestrian safety regulations have rightly pegged a popped-up headlight as a hazard, and thus manufacturers have shied away from using them.
Halogen Bulbs
These could be more accurately called tungsten-halogen bulbs. As mentioned above, early electric headlights used tungsten filaments in a vacuum, which due to the properties of tungsten left the inside of the bulb blackened with residue. It was also not very efficient, needing a lot of power for a small amount of light. Enter then halogen lamp. Halogen is not a gas, it’s actually a group of gasses like chlorine and iodine. By combining a bit of one of these gasses with an inert filler gas, you can get a tungsten element to burn brighter with less energy … what’s not to like? Most modern headlights use halogen bulbs.
Projector Lens Headlights
Domed lens of a projector light visible on a Subaru Impreza." title="projector headlight" class="size-large wp-image-24958" width="500" height="357">Domed lens of a projector light visible on a Subaru Impreza.
Also known as polyellipsoidal lamps, these lights’ first use as the main standard headlight was on the 1986 BMW 7-Series. It places the bulb in the middle of a wine-glass shaped reflector. The light is focused into a convex lens, which then projects the light out into a very specifically defined pattern. A very sharp cutoff is achieved by blocking part of the light with an opaque shield, focusing more of the light down than in traditional lens lights. Some projector headlights switch between low and high beam by moving the shield, allowing for a higher cutoff. These are generally used in higher-end cars, notably BMW, Acura, and Mercedes-Benz.
High-Intensity Discharge (HID) Lights
A Lincoln showing HID lights." title="hid" class="size-large wp-image-24956" width="500" height="333">A Lincoln showing HID lights.
The most recent revolution in headlight design is the high-intensity discharge, or “xenon,” lights. These are actually metal halide arc lights, which use two tungsten electrodes to arc a powerful electric charge. This charge interacts with the gases inside and vaporizes metal salts present in the bulb, producing a plasma that emits a very intense light. This is in contrast to a normal halogen bulb, which simply uses electricity to heat the filament until it is incandescent, emitting light. Temperatures inside a HID bulb can reach 2000 degrees F. Xenon gas is used the help the lamp warm up quickly and produce light, unlike argon-based arc lamps commonly used as streetlights, which would take far too long to work in an automotive setting. HID lights tend to have a unique color based on the different spectrum of light emitted by this different process; usually, it’s tinged blue. They are used in combination with projector lens headlamp assemblies to produce a very effective light at less power consumption than a normal halogen bulb. However, any contamination like dirt or dead bugs on the lens can cause a great deal of glare to be directed up and towards other motorists, and so care should be taken to keep HID lights clean to avoid blinding other drivers.
The Future: LEDs?
Lexus LS600, first LED headlight car." title="lexus ls" class="size-large wp-image-24969" width="500" height="280">Lexus LS600, first LED headlight car.
Light-emitting diodes are the next big thing in automotive lighting. While currently expensive, LEDs offer several advantages. One of the most important is that they are low-heat producing, as they don’t heat up an element in order to produce light. However, there is heat produced from the back of the lamp, requiring complex and expensive heat sinks. That also means that in cold weather, you can’t count on an LED headlight to thaw ice or snow off of the headlight like you can with typical halogen or HID setups. They’re also temperature sensitive, giving different light levels at different ambient temperatures. Despite these engineering challenges, they give reasonable performance with lower energy consumption. The Lexus LS was the first auto to employ LED headlights beginning in 2008, although they’ve been used as parking lights, taillights, and turn signals for a while. Will they become the premium headlight technology of the future? Only time will tell.
That’s it! Hope you’ve enjoyed this quick look into something that most people don’t pay much attention to … unless they’re burned out, that is.
Thursday, July 09, 2009
Tringbago Humour: The Alphabet
The complete Trinbago Alphabet
The Creole dialect spoken by Tobagonians is a wonderful cosmopolitan mixture of words and expressions from many parts of the world, resulting from Trinidad's rich ethnic mix.
A
Ah - Substitute for 'I'
Allyuh - All of you people. A group
Ax (pron.Ask) - To ask a question
Aye-yah-yie - An expression of anticipation or pain, etc.
B
Bacchanal - Scandal, heavy quarrelling, big party, confusion
Back chat - Insolent response, especially from a child to an adult
Bad eye (cut-eye) - A look of anger, especially when looking from the corner of the eye
Ba-John - A bully or a really tough customer
Bamsee - The rear end, what you sit on
Bam-se Lambe - Rather attractive bamsee
Bol'face - A pushy person, unreasonably demanding
Broughtupsy - Showing that a person was properly brought up, decorum
Buh wait nah - But wait a minute, now hold on/it
C
Callaloo - A thick soup made from dasheen leaves, ochroes, coconut milk, seasoned to taste, invariably includes crab
Calypso - A musical and lyrical comment on any subject, usually composed for, but not limited to, the Carnival season
Calypsonian - One who sings calypsos
Cheups (Steups) - A noise made by sucking your teeth
Chinkee - Very tiny portions of anything
Chupid - Stupid
Chupidee - A foolish person
Coki-eye - Cross-eyed
Commesse - Confusion associated with arguments, gossip and slander
Cuff - Hitting someone or something with a clenched fist
Cyah - Can't
D
Da is you? - Is that you?
Dan-dan - Any sharp looking outfit
Dat good for yuh - Serves you right
Dat - That
Doh - Don't
Dotish - Silly, stupid, foolish and dumb
Dougla - Mixture of East Indians and African parentage
Drevait (dree-vay) - Wayward person who likes to 'knock about'
E
Eh - What did you say?
Eh-eh - No, no way, oh no
Eh-heh - Oh really? I understand. Yes
En'less - Plenty, endless
Ent? - Is that not so? That's true, isn't it?
F
Fall out - To stop speaking with someone or to terminate a friendship
Faddah - Father
Fed up - The state of being bored
Fete - A party, loud music, lots to eat and drink, dancing to wee hours of the morning
Fig - Banana (ripe fig and green fig)
Flim - Film
Founkie (foong-key) - Foul-smelling, stink odour
Fuh true/troot? - Yes that is true. Is that really so?
G
Goin'orf - Someone who appears to be going out of their mind, acting strangely
Gun talk - Fighting words, to threaten verbally
Gyul - Girl
H
Harden -Disobedient
Hototo (hotoetoe) - A very large amount of anything
I
I eh payin' tax fuh mih mout' - I could say anything I want
In ting - To be involved in current activity
Is so? - Is that so?
J
Jeez-an-ages - Used for any reason where an outburst is appropriate
Jook - To stab at anything
Jumbie - Spirit, ghost
Jus' now - In a little while
Jus' so? - Just like that?
Jus' so - Out of the blue, totally unexpected
K
Ketch - Catch
Klim - Any brand of powdered milk
L
Lef dat - Leave that
Leh - Let, let's
Leh go - Let go
Leh we - Let us
Lick dong - To accidentally hit someone or something
Licks - A beating, physical punishment
Like t'ing - To be somewhat mischievous
Lil'bit - In small meaningless portions
Lime - When a small group of people engage in a sometimes pre-arranged activity
Long eye - A person who is envious of the possessions of others
Look nuh! - An expression of annoyance
M
Maco - A person who minds other people's business for the purpose of gossip.
Macocious - A person having the trait of a maco
Maga - Very thin, skinny
Mamaguy - To make fun of, to ridicule
Mama Yo! - Expression denoting shock and surprise
Matter Fix - Everything is well organized
Mih han' slip - An expression used when too much of an ingredient is used
Mooma - Mother
Mout'er - A boaster
Much up - To pamper, to butter up
N
Nah - No
Nastiness - An expression of disgust applied to a good-for-nothing person
Never see come see - Someone who has recently been exposed to something new and who overdoes it to ridiculous proportions
Ning ning - Tired eyes
Now fuh now - Instantly
Nowherian - A person who does not have any fixed place of abode
O
Obzokee - Awkward in appearance, anything bent or twisted out of shape
Oh geed! - An expression used when an offensive smell arises
OH gosh! - Expression denoting shock, surprise indignation and admiration
Oh gorm man! - as above
Oh shimps man! - as above
Ol' talk - Idle chatter, social chit-chat
One set ah - A lot of anything
Own-way - Stubborn person
P
Pallet - Frozen lolly
Papa yo! - Exclamation of surprise
Pesh - Money
Pissin' tail - A person of no class or importance
Planasse - To hit someone continuously with the flat part of a cutlass
Playin' social - Someone who pretends to be of a higher social strata than they are
Pong - Pound
Po-po - Very small child, baby
Prim-prim - Disgustingly proper and formal
Q
Quenk - An irritating person
Qualey - Withered, dried up
R
Raff - To grab suddenly
Ragadang - Broken down
Ram-cram - Packed to capacity
Rumfle - Ruffled or wrinkled
S
Saga boy/girl - Flashy dresser, dandy
Shades - Sunglasses
Shif' yuh carcass - Move over, get going
Shub - Shove, move or cast aside
Skinnin' yuh teet' - Grinning
Skin up yuh nose - To turn up one's nose at anything
Sometimeish - Moody
Strims - Shrimps
Sweetie - Any confectionary
Swell up yuh face - To look angry, to pout
T
Tabanca - The forlorn feeling one gets when a love affair is over
Tanty - Aunt
Tight - Intoxicated, drunk, stoned
T'ing - Thing
To besides - Besides which
Too-tool-bay - A confused state, in a daze, also head over heels in love
Tot tots - Female breasts
U
Umpteen - Plenty of anything
V
Vampin' - An offensive smell
Vaps - To suddenly behave excitedly or in a strange manner
W
Wajang - A rowdy, uncouth person
Warap - A very weak mixture
Well yes! - An expression of disbelief
Whappen? - What's the matter with you?
Wha-happenin' dey? - What's happening
Whey - Where
Whey yuh say? - What did you say?
Y
Yampee - Mucus, found in the corner of the eye
You an' all? - You too?
You so - People like you
Yuh faddah head - An expression of annoyance
Yuh faddah is a glassmaker? - You are blocking my view
Yuh look fuh dat - It's your own fault
Yuh makin' joke! - You can't be serious!
Z
Zug-up - A rough and uneven cutting of anything
If more than three of these words are not familiar to you
YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY NOT A TRUE TOBAGONIAN!
The complete Trinbago Alphabet
The Creole dialect spoken by Tobagonians is a wonderful cosmopolitan mixture of words and expressions from many parts of the world, resulting from Trinidad's rich ethnic mix.
A
Ah - Substitute for 'I'
Allyuh - All of you people. A group
Ax (pron.Ask) - To ask a question
Aye-yah-yie - An expression of anticipation or pain, etc.
B
Bacchanal - Scandal, heavy quarrelling, big party, confusion
Back chat - Insolent response, especially from a child to an adult
Bad eye (cut-eye) - A look of anger, especially when looking from the corner of the eye
Ba-John - A bully or a really tough customer
Bamsee - The rear end, what you sit on
Bam-se Lambe - Rather attractive bamsee
Bol'face - A pushy person, unreasonably demanding
Broughtupsy - Showing that a person was properly brought up, decorum
Buh wait nah - But wait a minute, now hold on/it
C
Callaloo - A thick soup made from dasheen leaves, ochroes, coconut milk, seasoned to taste, invariably includes crab
Calypso - A musical and lyrical comment on any subject, usually composed for, but not limited to, the Carnival season
Calypsonian - One who sings calypsos
Cheups (Steups) - A noise made by sucking your teeth
Chinkee - Very tiny portions of anything
Chupid - Stupid
Chupidee - A foolish person
Coki-eye - Cross-eyed
Commesse - Confusion associated with arguments, gossip and slander
Cuff - Hitting someone or something with a clenched fist
Cyah - Can't
D
Da is you? - Is that you?
Dan-dan - Any sharp looking outfit
Dat good for yuh - Serves you right
Dat - That
Doh - Don't
Dotish - Silly, stupid, foolish and dumb
Dougla - Mixture of East Indians and African parentage
Drevait (dree-vay) - Wayward person who likes to 'knock about'
E
Eh - What did you say?
Eh-eh - No, no way, oh no
Eh-heh - Oh really? I understand. Yes
En'less - Plenty, endless
Ent? - Is that not so? That's true, isn't it?
F
Fall out - To stop speaking with someone or to terminate a friendship
Faddah - Father
Fed up - The state of being bored
Fete - A party, loud music, lots to eat and drink, dancing to wee hours of the morning
Fig - Banana (ripe fig and green fig)
Flim - Film
Founkie (foong-key) - Foul-smelling, stink odour
Fuh true/troot? - Yes that is true. Is that really so?
G
Goin'orf - Someone who appears to be going out of their mind, acting strangely
Gun talk - Fighting words, to threaten verbally
Gyul - Girl
H
Harden -Disobedient
Hototo (hotoetoe) - A very large amount of anything
I
I eh payin' tax fuh mih mout' - I could say anything I want
In ting - To be involved in current activity
Is so? - Is that so?
J
Jeez-an-ages - Used for any reason where an outburst is appropriate
Jook - To stab at anything
Jumbie - Spirit, ghost
Jus' now - In a little while
Jus' so? - Just like that?
Jus' so - Out of the blue, totally unexpected
K
Ketch - Catch
Klim - Any brand of powdered milk
L
Lef dat - Leave that
Leh - Let, let's
Leh go - Let go
Leh we - Let us
Lick dong - To accidentally hit someone or something
Licks - A beating, physical punishment
Like t'ing - To be somewhat mischievous
Lil'bit - In small meaningless portions
Lime - When a small group of people engage in a sometimes pre-arranged activity
Long eye - A person who is envious of the possessions of others
Look nuh! - An expression of annoyance
M
Maco - A person who minds other people's business for the purpose of gossip.
Macocious - A person having the trait of a maco
Maga - Very thin, skinny
Mamaguy - To make fun of, to ridicule
Mama Yo! - Expression denoting shock and surprise
Matter Fix - Everything is well organized
Mih han' slip - An expression used when too much of an ingredient is used
Mooma - Mother
Mout'er - A boaster
Much up - To pamper, to butter up
N
Nah - No
Nastiness - An expression of disgust applied to a good-for-nothing person
Never see come see - Someone who has recently been exposed to something new and who overdoes it to ridiculous proportions
Ning ning - Tired eyes
Now fuh now - Instantly
Nowherian - A person who does not have any fixed place of abode
O
Obzokee - Awkward in appearance, anything bent or twisted out of shape
Oh geed! - An expression used when an offensive smell arises
OH gosh! - Expression denoting shock, surprise indignation and admiration
Oh gorm man! - as above
Oh shimps man! - as above
Ol' talk - Idle chatter, social chit-chat
One set ah - A lot of anything
Own-way - Stubborn person
P
Pallet - Frozen lolly
Papa yo! - Exclamation of surprise
Pesh - Money
Pissin' tail - A person of no class or importance
Planasse - To hit someone continuously with the flat part of a cutlass
Playin' social - Someone who pretends to be of a higher social strata than they are
Pong - Pound
Po-po - Very small child, baby
Prim-prim - Disgustingly proper and formal
Q
Quenk - An irritating person
Qualey - Withered, dried up
R
Raff - To grab suddenly
Ragadang - Broken down
Ram-cram - Packed to capacity
Rumfle - Ruffled or wrinkled
S
Saga boy/girl - Flashy dresser, dandy
Shades - Sunglasses
Shif' yuh carcass - Move over, get going
Shub - Shove, move or cast aside
Skinnin' yuh teet' - Grinning
Skin up yuh nose - To turn up one's nose at anything
Sometimeish - Moody
Strims - Shrimps
Sweetie - Any confectionary
Swell up yuh face - To look angry, to pout
T
Tabanca - The forlorn feeling one gets when a love affair is over
Tanty - Aunt
Tight - Intoxicated, drunk, stoned
T'ing - Thing
To besides - Besides which
Too-tool-bay - A confused state, in a daze, also head over heels in love
Tot tots - Female breasts
U
Umpteen - Plenty of anything
V
Vampin' - An offensive smell
Vaps - To suddenly behave excitedly or in a strange manner
W
Wajang - A rowdy, uncouth person
Warap - A very weak mixture
Well yes! - An expression of disbelief
Whappen? - What's the matter with you?
Wha-happenin' dey? - What's happening
Whey - Where
Whey yuh say? - What did you say?
Y
Yampee - Mucus, found in the corner of the eye
You an' all? - You too?
You so - People like you
Yuh faddah head - An expression of annoyance
Yuh faddah is a glassmaker? - You are blocking my view
Yuh look fuh dat - It's your own fault
Yuh makin' joke! - You can't be serious!
Z
Zug-up - A rough and uneven cutting of anything
If more than three of these words are not familiar to you
YOU ARE OBVIOUSLY NOT A TRUE TOBAGONIAN!
Here are some definitions of RICE
Law#1-Pronounce N.O.S. as one word (NAWS).
Law#2-When you are outpowered, call people out with your friends car.
Law#3-Have an aftermarket body kit installed (Lips not included).
Law#4-Use neon or L.E.D to light up your car.
Law#5-Use an aftermarket tachometer...when your car already has a working stock tachometer in it.
Law#6-You must install a non-functional wing/spoiler on the back of your car.
Law#7-Names of performance parts on your car that you dont have.
Law#8-Claim to beat cars that your car is totally uncapable of beating.
Law#9-Magazine race.
Law#10-Install racing seats on a car that runs a 14 second or slower quarter mile.
Law#11-Listing stereo equiptment or any visual mod when listing all your performance mods.
Law#12-Believe that Honda invented VTEC.
Law#13-Putting sub-brand labels on your car...example:Honda emblems on an Acura, Audi on a VW..ect.
Law#14-Install an aftermarket duel-exhaust on a 4-cylinder.
Law#15-Make your exhaust sound like a lawn-mower.
Law#16-Buy a nitrous system just to purge.
Law#17-Using car donughts and calling them "skinnies".
Law#18-Mounting smaller tires to decrease gear ratio.
Law#19-Multi collored body panels.
Law#20-Claiming horse power and quarter mile times with out testing or proof.
Law#21-Talk about how fast your car will be once you buy and install all the parts.
Law#22-performing the ricer flyby
Law#23-fliping your hazard lights,during/after a loss or during a flyby
Law#24-subscribing to super street/sportcompact car
Law#25-boasting about your interior/power windows/sporty looks
Law#26-Say you lost because your car is running on a ****ty tune and needs to be tuned.......... when you're on the stock computer...
Law#27-rev @ every car on the road that will eat you(no matter what direction they are going)
Law#28-if some challenges you 2 a race you have 2 options
a.race and when you lose go to ws and lie your butt off
b.tell em they are a waste of time
Law#29-my clutch is slipping,
Law#30-If lose i missed a gear,
Law#31-or my vtec was set to low,
Law#32-when the vinyl work is worth more than the car,
Law#33-also calling the skinnies here is known as dookies,
Law#34-when someone does a neutral drop in an automatic,
Law#35-bouncing off the revlimiter more than once
Law#36-I started in 2nd intstead of 1st
Law#37-My shift light went off late
Law#38-I didnt catch posi trac on that one
Law#39-My shift nob came off (srt humor)
Law#40-Did you know green meant GO!
Law#41-My vtec juice light was flashing
Law#42-my trunk was weighed down from my 12s
Law#43-my strut bar snapped
Law#44-my neonlight valve stem covers are robbing hp
Law#45-I didnt double clutch like i should have
Law#46-If I didnt blow the welds on the intake i sure poop my pants on that one
Law#47-If the wing is bigger than the blechers at your local high school
Law#48-When the exhaust consist of coat hangers and jb weld
Law#49-Yeah its got about 5000 dollars invested in it ( and it looks like poop)
Law#50-Its a prototype that no one has (built from duct tape and blue glue and pvc piping)
Law#51-driving in and out of traffic with your vtak thinking you have a fast car
Law#52-Getting your #s from a g-tech or some other similar meter.
Law#53-using chicken wire as a mesh grill
Law#54-Remove your hubcaps and paint yer steelies to match the car
Law#55-Account at pepboys
Law#56-own both F+F and have ticket reserved for the third
Law#57-Cutting your factory springs to lower your car
Law#58-Having gauges that do not work
Law#59-When one car in the whole world runs 10s and you think your car is faster.
Law#60-Having a body kit and no plans on painting it
Law#61-When you double side tape parts to the car and expect them to hold up at 100 mph
Law#62-"Yeah its VTEC, but its not hooked up yet"
Law#63-When you consider primer as a color choice
Law#64-When you tell people it has a 9000 rpm redline and can only turn 6700
Law#65-58 if your name is Goki
Law#66-z3 fender flares on an import
Law#67-if you talk about owning a skyline someday and you drive a civic
Law#68-having windshield washer squirters with lights in them
Law#69-Cutting your factory springs to lower your car
Law#70-You refer as everything being JDM
Law#71-someone asks you if you have a turbo and you reply "not YET!"
Law#72-Tell people you are running nitrous,when its really N.O.S. octane booster.
Law#73-when you drive around some highschool parking lot 3 hours after schools out trying to pick up chicks
Law#74-taking your 50whp civic to a dyno when it's stock
Law#75-When you manually shift an automatic
Law#76-Going to the dragstrip with slicks and running a 16.05 in the 1/8
Law#77-When you drive around months at a time with spare tires on the front and custom rims in the back.
Law#78-All you do is brag about how much of a street racer you are
Law#79-Asking about staggared fitment rims on a FWD car.
Law#80-When your car consist of a GTR badge on the car and is not a skyline
Law#81-Its got a rotary motor in it and you drive a mustang
Law#82-you claim your car is fast then get butthurt so you claim your car is an autoX car.
Law#83-you post pics of your parents car and claim it for you own
Law#84-when you compare your $35k car to a $20k car
Law#85-List motor oil as a mod
Law#86-When your car has more torque in the lug nuts than in the motor
Law#87-list winshield wipers as a mod and carbon fiber pedals
Law#88-When your car has more than one squash air freshner in it
Law#89-When you transform your car into something else with a headlight swap and taillight swap
Law#90-When someone ask you if its mandrel bent or crush piping and you have no answer
Law#91-When you stick the rim and tire out further than the fenders and you use curb feelers to keep from messing them up.
Law#92-when your body kit is held on by sheet rock screws and thumb tacks
Law#93-If you "fat arm" out the window with a sideways cap.
Law#94-If you are 5'2 and you drive in the back seat
Law#95-when you have more switches than a hydralic car and have no hydralics
Law#96-If you have to beg your parents to drive the civic
Law#97-when you de-badge your GST ecplise of LX civic because its the suck model
Law#98-windshield sticker saying powered by....(127 @the crank yeah thats power)
Law#99-When one car in the whole world runs 10s and you think your car is fast.
Law#100-when your sn is qwerty
Law#101-You remove every piece of your interior and you still run 15's
Law#102-you have diamond plate floormats
Law#103-you have a racing harness on your stock civic lx seat
Law#104-you make your own intake out of pvc pipe
Law#105-you know what jdm means
Law#106-you have hubcaps that resemble rims
Law#107-you drive any korean car and "mod" it
Law#108-if you have an AEM license plate frame
Law#109-if you put 18, 19, or 20" rims on a sport compact.
Law#110-Japanese writing on a domestic car
Law#111-Put racing gas in ur stock civic lx
Law#112-If you spraypaint your interior
Law#113-if you don't make fun of ricers
Law#114-If you are getting angry while reading this list
Law#115-the local tow truck service is on speed dial
Law#116-the local performance shop is on speed dial
Law#117-someone yells got rice and your mom pulls up in the catering truck
Law#118-your in the performance shop to look @ @!#$ you cant buy untill payday..and it never comes
Law#119-put lambo doors on
Law#120-You join CLUBRSX , not to goof on them, but because you actually think they are fast
Law#121-Calling your flat, bald street tires "Slicks"
Law#123-you drive in 1st gear 90% of the time so you can hear the vtec whine
Law#124-If you buy an srt design
Law#125-you have a bumper sticker that says drive it like you stole it
Law#126-your keychain says aem/tanabe/greddy/typeR/si/mugen/....
Law#127-you play nfsu2 everyday
Law#128-you try to spell as many words linked to honda with your alphabets cereal
Law#129-You treat your nfsu2 car like its a real car
Law#130-Type-R
Law#131-I will own you in the twisties
Law#132-You have a V6 camaro/mustang and spend enough money to buy a V8 just to make people think it's a V8.
Law#133-You've ever swung in behind a car (at 50 mph) in an attempt to draft.
Law#134-When you lose you say "But your car has 4 more cylinders"
Law#135-when you lose you say "Imagine if Honda made an engine as big as yours, because my 4 cylindler has 100 HP/Liter!"
Law#136-You think you stand a chance against all Mustangs and Camaro's because they are heavy
Law#137-You have a Vin Diesel poster
Law#138-You buy a civic, add a cold air intake and cat back exhaust, add 200 lbs of stereo equipment and brag about how much faster it is than when it was stock.
Law#139-You try explaining why vtec is better than a turbo charger
Law#140-You have to let the passengers know when you're flooring it (Thanks, Broken )
Law#141-If you know you can't win, you dump the clutch at 8,000 RPM's and say you couldn't hook up, but at least you looked cool
Law#142-The only 2 exotic cars you can name are Supra and Skyline.
Law#143-You think taking 200 lbs off your car will make up for being 200 HP underpowered in comparison to your opponent.
Law#144-You put slicks on your car and only agree to race in the rain, just so you have an excuse.
Law#145-If you tell the story of how your friend has such a fast car, he put a $10 bill on the dash, floored it, and you couldn't reach it on the dash because you were too pinned in your seat.
Law#146-When you claim to race a stock automatic cobra.
Law#147-When your cardomain site has a 'future mods' list.
Law#148-When you have 12 inch deep dish rims.
Law#149-When you can shoot a grapefruit from your exhaust tip
Law#150-LED exhaust tips.
Law#1-Pronounce N.O.S. as one word (NAWS).
Law#2-When you are outpowered, call people out with your friends car.
Law#3-Have an aftermarket body kit installed (Lips not included).
Law#4-Use neon or L.E.D to light up your car.
Law#5-Use an aftermarket tachometer...when your car already has a working stock tachometer in it.
Law#6-You must install a non-functional wing/spoiler on the back of your car.
Law#7-Names of performance parts on your car that you dont have.
Law#8-Claim to beat cars that your car is totally uncapable of beating.
Law#9-Magazine race.
Law#10-Install racing seats on a car that runs a 14 second or slower quarter mile.
Law#11-Listing stereo equiptment or any visual mod when listing all your performance mods.
Law#12-Believe that Honda invented VTEC.
Law#13-Putting sub-brand labels on your car...example:Honda emblems on an Acura, Audi on a VW..ect.
Law#14-Install an aftermarket duel-exhaust on a 4-cylinder.
Law#15-Make your exhaust sound like a lawn-mower.
Law#16-Buy a nitrous system just to purge.
Law#17-Using car donughts and calling them "skinnies".
Law#18-Mounting smaller tires to decrease gear ratio.
Law#19-Multi collored body panels.
Law#20-Claiming horse power and quarter mile times with out testing or proof.
Law#21-Talk about how fast your car will be once you buy and install all the parts.
Law#22-performing the ricer flyby
Law#23-fliping your hazard lights,during/after a loss or during a flyby
Law#24-subscribing to super street/sportcompact car
Law#25-boasting about your interior/power windows/sporty looks
Law#26-Say you lost because your car is running on a ****ty tune and needs to be tuned.......... when you're on the stock computer...
Law#27-rev @ every car on the road that will eat you(no matter what direction they are going)
Law#28-if some challenges you 2 a race you have 2 options
a.race and when you lose go to ws and lie your butt off
b.tell em they are a waste of time
Law#29-my clutch is slipping,
Law#30-If lose i missed a gear,
Law#31-or my vtec was set to low,
Law#32-when the vinyl work is worth more than the car,
Law#33-also calling the skinnies here is known as dookies,
Law#34-when someone does a neutral drop in an automatic,
Law#35-bouncing off the revlimiter more than once
Law#36-I started in 2nd intstead of 1st
Law#37-My shift light went off late
Law#38-I didnt catch posi trac on that one
Law#39-My shift nob came off (srt humor)
Law#40-Did you know green meant GO!
Law#41-My vtec juice light was flashing
Law#42-my trunk was weighed down from my 12s
Law#43-my strut bar snapped
Law#44-my neonlight valve stem covers are robbing hp
Law#45-I didnt double clutch like i should have
Law#46-If I didnt blow the welds on the intake i sure poop my pants on that one
Law#47-If the wing is bigger than the blechers at your local high school
Law#48-When the exhaust consist of coat hangers and jb weld
Law#49-Yeah its got about 5000 dollars invested in it ( and it looks like poop)
Law#50-Its a prototype that no one has (built from duct tape and blue glue and pvc piping)
Law#51-driving in and out of traffic with your vtak thinking you have a fast car
Law#52-Getting your #s from a g-tech or some other similar meter.
Law#53-using chicken wire as a mesh grill
Law#54-Remove your hubcaps and paint yer steelies to match the car
Law#55-Account at pepboys
Law#56-own both F+F and have ticket reserved for the third
Law#57-Cutting your factory springs to lower your car
Law#58-Having gauges that do not work
Law#59-When one car in the whole world runs 10s and you think your car is faster.
Law#60-Having a body kit and no plans on painting it
Law#61-When you double side tape parts to the car and expect them to hold up at 100 mph
Law#62-"Yeah its VTEC, but its not hooked up yet"
Law#63-When you consider primer as a color choice
Law#64-When you tell people it has a 9000 rpm redline and can only turn 6700
Law#65-58 if your name is Goki
Law#66-z3 fender flares on an import
Law#67-if you talk about owning a skyline someday and you drive a civic
Law#68-having windshield washer squirters with lights in them
Law#69-Cutting your factory springs to lower your car
Law#70-You refer as everything being JDM
Law#71-someone asks you if you have a turbo and you reply "not YET!"
Law#72-Tell people you are running nitrous,when its really N.O.S. octane booster.
Law#73-when you drive around some highschool parking lot 3 hours after schools out trying to pick up chicks
Law#74-taking your 50whp civic to a dyno when it's stock
Law#75-When you manually shift an automatic
Law#76-Going to the dragstrip with slicks and running a 16.05 in the 1/8
Law#77-When you drive around months at a time with spare tires on the front and custom rims in the back.
Law#78-All you do is brag about how much of a street racer you are
Law#79-Asking about staggared fitment rims on a FWD car.
Law#80-When your car consist of a GTR badge on the car and is not a skyline
Law#81-Its got a rotary motor in it and you drive a mustang
Law#82-you claim your car is fast then get butthurt so you claim your car is an autoX car.
Law#83-you post pics of your parents car and claim it for you own
Law#84-when you compare your $35k car to a $20k car
Law#85-List motor oil as a mod
Law#86-When your car has more torque in the lug nuts than in the motor
Law#87-list winshield wipers as a mod and carbon fiber pedals
Law#88-When your car has more than one squash air freshner in it
Law#89-When you transform your car into something else with a headlight swap and taillight swap
Law#90-When someone ask you if its mandrel bent or crush piping and you have no answer
Law#91-When you stick the rim and tire out further than the fenders and you use curb feelers to keep from messing them up.
Law#92-when your body kit is held on by sheet rock screws and thumb tacks
Law#93-If you "fat arm" out the window with a sideways cap.
Law#94-If you are 5'2 and you drive in the back seat
Law#95-when you have more switches than a hydralic car and have no hydralics
Law#96-If you have to beg your parents to drive the civic
Law#97-when you de-badge your GST ecplise of LX civic because its the suck model
Law#98-windshield sticker saying powered by....(127 @the crank yeah thats power)
Law#99-When one car in the whole world runs 10s and you think your car is fast.
Law#100-when your sn is qwerty
Law#101-You remove every piece of your interior and you still run 15's
Law#102-you have diamond plate floormats
Law#103-you have a racing harness on your stock civic lx seat
Law#104-you make your own intake out of pvc pipe
Law#105-you know what jdm means
Law#106-you have hubcaps that resemble rims
Law#107-you drive any korean car and "mod" it
Law#108-if you have an AEM license plate frame
Law#109-if you put 18, 19, or 20" rims on a sport compact.
Law#110-Japanese writing on a domestic car
Law#111-Put racing gas in ur stock civic lx
Law#112-If you spraypaint your interior
Law#113-if you don't make fun of ricers
Law#114-If you are getting angry while reading this list
Law#115-the local tow truck service is on speed dial
Law#116-the local performance shop is on speed dial
Law#117-someone yells got rice and your mom pulls up in the catering truck
Law#118-your in the performance shop to look @ @!#$ you cant buy untill payday..and it never comes
Law#119-put lambo doors on
Law#120-You join CLUBRSX , not to goof on them, but because you actually think they are fast
Law#121-Calling your flat, bald street tires "Slicks"
Law#123-you drive in 1st gear 90% of the time so you can hear the vtec whine
Law#124-If you buy an srt design
Law#125-you have a bumper sticker that says drive it like you stole it
Law#126-your keychain says aem/tanabe/greddy/typeR/si/mugen/....
Law#127-you play nfsu2 everyday
Law#128-you try to spell as many words linked to honda with your alphabets cereal
Law#129-You treat your nfsu2 car like its a real car
Law#130-Type-R
Law#131-I will own you in the twisties
Law#132-You have a V6 camaro/mustang and spend enough money to buy a V8 just to make people think it's a V8.
Law#133-You've ever swung in behind a car (at 50 mph) in an attempt to draft.
Law#134-When you lose you say "But your car has 4 more cylinders"
Law#135-when you lose you say "Imagine if Honda made an engine as big as yours, because my 4 cylindler has 100 HP/Liter!"
Law#136-You think you stand a chance against all Mustangs and Camaro's because they are heavy
Law#137-You have a Vin Diesel poster
Law#138-You buy a civic, add a cold air intake and cat back exhaust, add 200 lbs of stereo equipment and brag about how much faster it is than when it was stock.
Law#139-You try explaining why vtec is better than a turbo charger
Law#140-You have to let the passengers know when you're flooring it (Thanks, Broken )
Law#141-If you know you can't win, you dump the clutch at 8,000 RPM's and say you couldn't hook up, but at least you looked cool
Law#142-The only 2 exotic cars you can name are Supra and Skyline.
Law#143-You think taking 200 lbs off your car will make up for being 200 HP underpowered in comparison to your opponent.
Law#144-You put slicks on your car and only agree to race in the rain, just so you have an excuse.
Law#145-If you tell the story of how your friend has such a fast car, he put a $10 bill on the dash, floored it, and you couldn't reach it on the dash because you were too pinned in your seat.
Law#146-When you claim to race a stock automatic cobra.
Law#147-When your cardomain site has a 'future mods' list.
Law#148-When you have 12 inch deep dish rims.
Law#149-When you can shoot a grapefruit from your exhaust tip
Law#150-LED exhaust tips.
Monday, July 06, 2009
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
- 11OCTT - 11 O'Clock Tick Tock
- 40
- 4OJ/FOJ - 4th of July
- AC - A Celebration
- ADWM - A Day Without Me
- ADKOB - A Different Kind of Blue
- AMAAW - A Man and a Woman
- ARATHH - A Room at the Heartbreak Hotel
- ASOH - A Sort of Homecoming
- Acrobat
- ADIHFABOM/K1 - Alex Descends Into Hell for a Bottle of Milk/Korova 1
- AATW - All Along the Watchtower
- ABOY - All Because of You
- AIWIY - All I Want Is You
- Always
- AFN - Always Forever Now
- ACD - An Cat Dubh
- AOH - Angel of Harlem
- AD - Another Day
- ATAP - Another Time, Another Place
- AYGWF - Are You Gonna Wait Forever
- AM - Ave Maria
- Babyface
- Bad
- BT - Bass Trap
- BS - Beach Sequence
- BD - Beautiful Day
- BG - Beautiful Ghost
- BGAB - Big Girls Are Best
- BI - Boomerang I
- BII - Boomerang II
- B(WNOY) - Bottoms (Watashitachi No Ookina Yume)
- B/G - Boy/Girl
- Breathe
- BTBS - Bullet the Blue Sky
- CHFIL - Can't Help Falling In Love
- COL - Cedars of Lebanon
- C(BPCH) - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
- COBL - City Of Blinding Lights
- C(TCAWTL) - Corpse (These Chains Are Way Too Long)
- CFYT - Crumbs From Your Table
- DGPFYCC - Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car
- DB - Dancing Barefoot
- DS - Dancing Shoes
- DITH - Deep In the Heart
- Desire
- DD - Dirty Day
- Discotheque
- DYFL - Do You Feel Loved
- DTYGTT - Don't Take Your Guns To Town
- DWTIME - Dreaming With Tears In My Eyes
- DM - Drowning Man
- ES - Electrical Storm
- Elevation
- EAA - Elvis Ate America
- EPAA - Elvis Presley and America
- ED - Endless Deep
- EBTTRT - Even Better than the Real Thing
- EL - Everlasting Love
- Exit
- FAYF - Falling at Your Feet
- FC - Fast Cars
- FBB - Fez – Being Born
- Fire
- FC - Flower Child
- FS - Fortunate Son
- Gloria
- GOYB - Get On Your Boots
- GPII - God Part II
- Gone
- Grace
- HHSC - Hallelujah Here She Comes
- HIAWG - Happiness is a Warm Gun
- H269 - Hawkmoon 269
- Heartland
- HS - Helter Skelter
- HMTMKMKM - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
- HJ - Holy Joe
- IFD - I Fall Down
- ISHFWILF - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
- ITABTAW - I Threw a Brick Through a Window
- TTYW - I Trip Thorugh Your Wires
- IWF - I Will Follow
- IGWSHA - If God Will Send His Angels
- IYWTVD - If You Wear that Velvet Dress
- IGCIIDGCT - I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
- IALW - In a Little While
- IGC - In God's Country
- ISS - Indian Summer Sky
- ITH - Into the Heart
- ITA - Is That All?
- IO - Ito Okashi
- JS - J Swallow
- JITB - Jack in a Box
- JC - Jesus Christ
- Kite
- LWTSH - Lady With The Spinning Head
- LNOE - Last Night On Earth
- Lemon
- Levitate
- LAS - Like a Song...
- LAPOE - Love And Peace Or Else
- LCT - Love Comes Tumbling
- LIB - Love Is Blindness
- LRM - Love Rescue Me
- LYLM - Love You Like Mad
- LT(HOTL) - Luminous Times (Hold On To Love)
- Magnificent
- Mercy
- Miami
- MD - Miracle Drug
- MS - Miss Sarajevo
- MLK
- Mofo
- MOS - Moment of Surrender
- MOTD - Mothers of the Disappeared
- MW - Mysterious Ways
- NS - Native Son
- NL - Neon Lights
- NLMG - Never Let Me Go
- NYD - New Year's Day
- NY - New York
- NAD - Night and Day
- NLOTH - No Line On The Horizon
- Numb
- October
- One
- OMW - One Minute Warning
- OSC - One Step Closer
- OTH - One Tree Hill
- OOTS - Original Of The Species
- OOC - Out of Control
- PIB - Paint it Black
- POE - Peace On Earth
- PTC - Pete the Chop
- Please
- Plot 180
- PM - Pop Muzik
- PITNOL - Pride (In the Name of Love)
- Promenade
- RAT - Race Against Time
- RHMT - Red Hill Mining Town
- RL - Red Light
- Rejoice
- RTSS - Running to Stand Still
- Salome
- SOL - Satellite of Love
- Scarlet
- Seconds
- SATT - Shadows and Tall Trees
- SAMTM - She's a Mystery to Me
- SAG - Silver and Gold
- SSTKC - Sixty Seconds In Kingdom Come
- SD - Slow Dancing
- Slug
- Smile
- SC - So Cruel
- SDABTO - Some Days Are Better Than Others
- SYCMIOYO - Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
- SE - Spanish Eyes
- SUC - Stand Up Comedy
- SATS - Staring at the Sun
- Stateless
- S(FSC) - Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
- SFB - Stories for Boys
- SIASL - Stranger in a Strange Land
- SM - Street Missions
- SIAMYCGOO - Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of
- SR - Summer Rain
- SBS - Sunday Bloody Sunday
- Surrender
- ST - Sweetest Thing
- TEC - The Electric Co.
- TFT - The First Time
- TF - The Fly
- TF - The Fool
- TGBHF - The Ground Beneath Her Feet
- THTBA - The Hands That Built America
- TO - The Ocean
- TPM - The Playboy Mansion
- TR - The Refugee
- TTS - The Three Sunrises
- TUF - The Unforgettable Fire
- TW - The Wanderer
- TFLGN - Theme from Let's Go Native
- TFTS - Theme from the Swan
- TTMAD - Things to Make and Do
- Tomorrow
- Touch
- TTATPG (PG) - Trash, Trampoline, and the Party Girl
- Trevor
- TTYW - Trip Through Your Wires
- TTTYAATW - Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World
- Twilight
- THBAO - Two Hearts Beat As One
- TSOHOSOS - Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad
- U(LMW) - Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
- UM - Unchained Melody
- UCOP - United Colours Of Plutonium
- UC - Unknown Caller
- UTEOTW - Until the End of the World
- VDL - Van Diemen's Land
- Vertigo
- VD - Viva Davidoff
- WUDM - Wake Up Dead Man
- WO - Walk On
- WTTW - Walk To the Water
- WILATW - When I Look at the World
- WLCTT - When Love Comes To Town
- WDIAGW - Where Did It All Go Wrong
- WTSHNN - Where the Streets Have No Name
- WAS - White As Snow
- WGRYWH - Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
- WH - Wild Honey
- WIR - Wild Irish Rose
- WITS - Window In The Skies
- Wire
- WAS - With A Shout
- WOWY - With Or Without You
- XAW - Xanax And Wine
- Yahweh
- YBR - Your Blue Room
- ZS - Zoo Station
- Zooropa
Thursday, June 11, 2009
New U2 Album Speaks from Christian Perspective
26 05 2009Recently we asked the Rev. Julie Golding Page if we could re-post her review of u2’s new “No Line on the Horizon” from the Diocese of Saskatchewan’s website. She graciously said yes, and we share it with you below…
by the Rev. Julie Golding Page
Die-hard U2 fans finally have their wish, after waiting five long years since the release of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. U2’s new album, No Line on the Horizon, is a carefully crafted series of songs about being lost, finding the self in God, becoming disoriented and lost again, and becoming re-oriented to God and the world. Musically, the album continues the U2 tradition of vigorous rock tunes, complete with the classic guitar riffs, but with the addition of Middle Eastern overtones in several songs, giving homage to the band’s time recording in the unusual location of Fez, Morocco.
As usual, U2’s lyrics give a combination of scathing critique and encouraging hope to the Western world. More particularly, the band’s political and religious exhortations are addressed to the USA and, it could be argued, equally to the Christian church.
The title track and first song, “No Line on the Horizon,” begins the album’s journey with a feeling of disorientation or lostness, with no distinguishing marks to provide perspective in modern life. This track is followed up with “Magnificent,” whose driving beat, proliferation of biblical imagery and confident, soaring expression of purpose under God – the Magnificent – make it the album’s closest facsimile to a gospel song and reminiscent of their 1987 hit “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” U2 lead singer Bono sings to God, “I was born to be with you in this space and time.” Yet this song is not a blithely upbeat denial of the very real disorientation we all feel in our personal lives in the modern world. He continues, “After that and ever after I haven’t had a clue.” This combination of honest confusion and hope in God is what attracts many to U2.
The next two tracks address God’s call to us but in modern idiom, using technological metaphors. “Moment of Surrender” speaks of a moment of clarity and surrender when one goes down on one’s knees and recognizes “vision over visibility” or, in other words, invisible faith over what is physically seen. Love, often used as a placeholder for God, appears in this song and throughout the album. “Unknown Caller” uses the metaphors of computer and telephone to instruct hearers who are “lost” to listen to God: “cease to speak that I may speak. Shush now.” Both songs employ organ music interludes to allow hearers time to ponder, as if in church after an altar call.
Now that the listener has been called by God and had the chance to be made right with him, the album invites participation in the political and religious realities of the world. “Get on Your Boots” and “Stand Up Comedy” are particularly pointed injunctions for Westerners, Americans and the Church to get ready and begin engaging in the world. If there was any doubt about equating the oft-mentioned “love” with God, it is made explicit in “Stand Up Comedy,” which says baldly, “God is love.”
Those who remain unsure of U2’s Christian content will appreciate “White as Snow.” Sharing its melody with “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” the song is a haunting retelling of the Advent hymn in U2’s vernacular. Bono sings of the great longing for the lamb as white as snow, who brings forgiveness to all – both Westerners and their current arch-enemies, the people of the Middle East, from places like Fez.
These “enemies” are considered thoughtfully in many tracks. The album leaves the listener with this poignant thought: “Choose your enemies carefully…Gonna last with you longer than your friend.”
No Line on the Horizon is satisfying musically for its fusion of rock and Middle Eastern melodies, and lyrically for its astute observations and insistence that political and religious inertia can be overcome. U2’s answer is God. May listeners come to the same conclusion.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Is there a way to tell you I love you,
Is there a way to tell you I care,
Is there a way to show you I miss you,
Is what I think in despair,
But soon the day shall grace our hearts,
When I’ll hold you in my arms,
After we’ve spent these days apart,
And my eyes will spin yarns,
I had dreamt of the unknown,
Feared being alone and lost,
But now I know my stars have shone,
When I have you to call my own ….
Your presence means the world to me,
Your laughter brings a smile to my face,
Your words turn around my tears to glee,
Your love from heart can never erase ….
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
The simple answer would be bring personal accountability back to America.
If you work, you eat.
If you don't, you lose weight, then maybe you'll be thin enough to work.
Too many people feel the government owes them. No one owes you anything.
Work for it.
I have been very poor and very well off at different times in my life. When I was poor, I didn't go out, drink, party, buy things, I worked 2 full time jobs and painted houses on the side, repaired peoples' cars, and helped another guy who was a handyman when I was free.
Too many people sit on their ass and cry how bad they have it.
if those people got off their asses, went to work, and took a burden off of the economy, then we could get rid of our crooked politicians and have a better run country.
If you work, you eat.
If you don't, you lose weight, then maybe you'll be thin enough to work.
Too many people feel the government owes them. No one owes you anything.
Work for it.
I have been very poor and very well off at different times in my life. When I was poor, I didn't go out, drink, party, buy things, I worked 2 full time jobs and painted houses on the side, repaired peoples' cars, and helped another guy who was a handyman when I was free.
Too many people sit on their ass and cry how bad they have it.
if those people got off their asses, went to work, and took a burden off of the economy, then we could get rid of our crooked politicians and have a better run country.
Lipstick Girl
It's lipstick girl
lipstick time
and that bitch Blossom
stole her line
Ever since
she was a little girl,
she had this dream
that meant the world
She wanted to know
if she ever met Robert Smith,
if she could ask him
if she could use his lipstick
so she (in a way)
could be closer to him
as she put it on
her lips
And now, twenty years later,
she's in a chain reaction
it's as if her vision
has a strange attraction
So put it on
my dear Cure sis
put it on
and let it blossom on your lips
And maybe one day,
Robert will come to
and realize that Blossom
was you.
It's lipstick girl
lipstick time
and that bitch Blossom
stole her line
Ever since
she was a little girl,
she had this dream
that meant the world
She wanted to know
if she ever met Robert Smith,
if she could ask him
if she could use his lipstick
so she (in a way)
could be closer to him
as she put it on
her lips
And now, twenty years later,
she's in a chain reaction
it's as if her vision
has a strange attraction
So put it on
my dear Cure sis
put it on
and let it blossom on your lips
And maybe one day,
Robert will come to
and realize that Blossom
was you.
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