Thursday, April 01, 2010

More eccentric than a camshaft.

So, every now and again, my roommate will go on little YouTube video-watching binges. Given her interests, these could be anything from old radio station tours to steam engine demonstrations to god-only-knows-what-but-it-sure-beeps-a-lot.

Since my back is to her desk, I can't see what's going on, but I'll hear it. And since most of these videos are ten- or thirty-second demonstration snippets and she's in the throes of short attention spa... hey, let's go ride our bikes! ...it all sounds something like this:
"chukachukachuka... and these are WWTF's new 72 gigavolt transformers which... dit dah dit dit... chuffchuffchuff... bounce the signal off the ionosphere which... CQ CQ CQ... Bzzzzzt!"

Occasionally, really fascinating stuff makes me perk up my ears, like her recent safari that turned up the Stirling engine powered desk fan, which caused me to go on a YouTube safari of my own, which turned up this:


Ahhh... Proving, of course, that there's still no eccentricity like English eccentricity.

13 comments:

Jim said...

At least the bloke in the blue canoe has some some understanding of concept of metacentric height. :)

BobG said...

Seems odd to me to have a motor that probably weighs more than the boat. But as long as they're enjoying themselves, what the hell...

Anonymous said...

Why,why why, do people put a flippin soundtrack over top of the clip, when 80 percent of the attraction of watching it is to hear the sound the engine, device, weapon or whatever makes?

global village idiot said...

Tell the truth, Tam. Having a bit of sport at Roberta is fun and all, but the real reason you looked up Stirling engines is because The Peshawar Lancers piqued your interest.

gvi

Anonymous said...

Stirling engines are fantastic in that they're the closest thing yet to "free" energy, and they remind the aware that we're still living in the Steam Age (how do nuclear reactors generate electricity again?).

Anonymous said...

My kind of eccentricity, right there.

Jim

Tam said...

gvi,

"Tell the truth, Tam. Having a bit of sport at Roberta is fun and all, but the real reason you looked up Stirling engines is because The Peshawar Lancers piqued your interest."

That may have played a small part, yes. ;)

TXGunGeek said...

How many ADHD kids does it take to change a lightbulb?


Let's go ride bikes.

jbrock said...

Eccentricity ... That means 'the state of being Waythehell cool', right?

Anonymous said...

Hmm, so how big does the engine have to be to crank out 100 horses in the same conditions? Oh never mind. -- Lyle

Tam said...

Lyle,

I'm not sure that's really the point. :)

Fudgie Ghost said...

Visual version of "The New Yorker"'s 'There Always Be An England" blurbs. . .

B Smith said...

"I suffer from A.D.O.S.

(Attention Deficit---Oooh, Shiny!!!)"

WV-rhinato: Latino and horny. Best to avoid these.