The other day, I heard on the radio about the Maryland legislature voting to follow California car emission standards.
The news report contained a soundbite from an opponent to the bill saying that he didn't want to be governed by a board (of a dozen? or so) in California.
Too late. It's already affected me. When I bought my car, about 7 years ago, it had emission controls on it that lowered the horsepower a little, while meeting Calif. requirements.
I didn't quite understand how that happened to my car. But when I read an article about the vote in the Baltimore Sun, I remembered that my car came from Pennsylvania.
The article said that "about one-third of U.S. drivers now are in compliance with California's stricter pollution standards, including those in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey..."
When I bought my car, I'd gone to a dealer in Bel Air. They didn't have the model I wanted, a bottom-of-the-line stick shift. So they had to get one from a dealer in Pennsylvania.
Aha! So now I understand why my car was modified to satisfy Calif. standards.
The Sun article explained a little how the Calif. standards attained prominence:
"Under a 1977 amendment to the federal Clean Air Act, California is the only state that can regulate auto emissions. It was given special authority because it has the worst vehicle pollution in the nation. Other states were later given the option of following either the federal standards or California's stricter limits."
The ramifications of California's regulation on the car makers are undeniable. I saw acknowledgement of this a couple years ago, during a trip to Germany.
I was visiting the Audi car museum in Ingolstadt. (Just a fantastic collection!)
And one of the panels of text describing engine technology mentioned California's role in influencing car emissions (and therefore, engine design).
[I took a picture of the text, and I'll try to post it, when I find it and scan it.]
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I've been meaning to post this item for a long while...
It's not what you think it is.
It's not a dryerball, although it might substitute for one, if the temperature in the dryer were cool or warm. It seems to be made of a somewhat pliant plastic (vinyl?), but the spikes are not soft.
I bought it in 1999 as a stocking stuffer for my mother. I was walking through a department store in Frankfurt, Germany and spotted the prickly object in a section selling health items. A sales person explained to me that it was a massage aid.
Well, my mom didn't like it. Too uncomfortable for her.
So she gave it to me. And I keep it around as a curio, and occasionally roll it on an aching spot on a hand.
Last month, I finally saw a pair of dryerballs in a store. You know, the kind AS SEEN ON TV. (There is something affirming and validating about the use of capital letters, so let me repeat: AS SEEN ON TV!) They seemed to be about the same size as mine, but made of a different type of plastic. I think they were harder, but not heavier. Oh and they were colored a light blue.
(I should add that there's another brand with an oval shape. I'm not sure how they compare in size and substance.)
Since my curiousity has been aroused, I've been trying to find out more about these dryerballs, and the best I can tell, they were invented by a man in Vancouver, by the name of James Richards.
Somehow, the dryerball is related to a patent for a spherical hand-and-finger massage device that contains a vibration generator. (My description borrows language from the patent.) This massage device was invented by a man named Otto Wu of Taipei.
(You'd think with a name like that, he would've invented a nuclear fusion device or a perpetual motion machine, but I suppose resources in Taipei are not yet aligned to solve those types of problems.)
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You know, I don't know where this is all leading (or from what point it all originated), but I'll bet there's a fascinating story, here, that James Burke could tease out.
when I saw this phrase in a headline at the LA Times website, I had to read it...
here's a link to the original article from the Orlando Sentinel:
Space shuttle astronaut arrested at OIA on attempted kidnapping, battery charges
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My reactions:
Q: What word would you use to describe a relationship that is "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship."?
I guess this affair is what you would literally call "Space Opera."
Meanwhile, please refrain from jokes about astronaut sex.