Lunar Adventures: exploring a little bit of everything

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Brilliant idea of the day: Harness the wind!

Last week (I had this post in my head but didn’t get a chance to enter it in), we had a really windy day. Gusts to 30, 40mph, I believe the weatherman said, from the north.

Going to work, I drive north — so I was driving into the wind, and averaged about 16 miles per gallon for the trip to work. Going home, I drove south — with the wind, and averaged about 23 miles per gallon. Traffic was more or less the same each way — possibly a little heavier going home.

That’s a huge difference. So here’s what I’m thinking: let’s go back in time several hundred years and take better advantage of our friend Mr. Wind. How? With sails.

Now, I’m not talking huge, giant sails that would go bumping into overpasses. I’m talking small, subtle, yet still effective in a kite-like way sails. When you want to look cool, you could hit a button on the car to fold the sails in, sort of like on a convertable. When you want to try to harness the wind, you hit the button, the sail goes out, the car adjusts the mast to go with the wind as best it can. I don’t actually know how masts and stuff work, I’m a city boy. But I’m sure the idea will work. Brilliant, yes?

Mon November 21st, 2005 11:12 pm

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