This from Stock Car Science:
The Science of ...Missing Oil Tank Covers
Danny LaDue asks: Can you explain the location of a NASCAR oil tank reservoir and how the lack of one could improve aerodynamics?
Thanks for the question, Danny. I can–with a little help from Josh Browne, Chief Race Engineer at Red Bull Racing, who helped me disentangle a couple of things I heard on television.
First, the location. Unlike your car, the oil in a NASCAR car isn’t stored in the engine (which would be a wet sump system). NASCAR uses a dry sump system, in which oil is stored in an oil tank reservoir. The oil tank reservoir is located behind the driver’s seat and is surrounded on the sides and top by sheet metal, which forms the oil tank. You can see a picture of the oil reservoir in the Stock Car Science Building A Car section. The sheet metal plays an important role in minimizing heat radiating into the car, traps fumes from the hot oil, and serves as an additional firewall. This function is so important that NASCAR doesn’t allow the top of the tank to be attached using quick connect fasteners. The teams usually duct tape the lid on. The picture below shows the location of the oil tank with respect to the chassis. It doesn’t show the cover, which would sit on top of the tank. (added) The oil reservior itself is closed and pressurized.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Monday, October 6, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Hostages Freed in Nigeria
As always I am stunned by news out of Nigeria.
Hostages were released -- "militants" went and freed them from "pirates."
This can only be bad news -- waring factions and images to uphold. It is good news, of course when hostages are free -- but what do we know more about the situation there...
This morning three raccoons were fighting in a tree just outside my window. Screaming like pain and hatred -- I couldn't see exactly, but it looked like one was guarding food.
I thought about the state of affairs when beings have to protect what they have.
I thought about the state of affairs when beings do not have enough to eat.
Militants say Nigerians freed, foreigners still held
Reuters Africa
Sun 5 Oct 2008, 10:23 GMT
By Nick Tattersall
LAGOS, Oct 5 (Reuters) - The main militant group in the oil-producing Niger Delta said on Sunday it had released around 19 Nigerian oil workers kidnapped last month but was still holding two Britons and a Ukrainian.
"The Nigerian hostages rescued from pirates by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) have been released in Rivers state," MEND said in an e-mailed statement.
"Due to the location where the expatriates were kept for their safety, they cannot be released at this time because of security concerns," the group said.
Two Britons, two South Africans and a Ukrainian were kidnapped from an oil supply vessel, the H.D. Blue Ocean, after it was hijacked on Sept. 9 at the entrance of the Sambreiro River in the delta, a vast network of mangrove swamps.
...
Hostages were released -- "militants" went and freed them from "pirates."
This can only be bad news -- waring factions and images to uphold. It is good news, of course when hostages are free -- but what do we know more about the situation there...
This morning three raccoons were fighting in a tree just outside my window. Screaming like pain and hatred -- I couldn't see exactly, but it looked like one was guarding food.
I thought about the state of affairs when beings have to protect what they have.
I thought about the state of affairs when beings do not have enough to eat.
Militants say Nigerians freed, foreigners still held
Reuters Africa
Sun 5 Oct 2008, 10:23 GMT
By Nick Tattersall
LAGOS, Oct 5 (Reuters) - The main militant group in the oil-producing Niger Delta said on Sunday it had released around 19 Nigerian oil workers kidnapped last month but was still holding two Britons and a Ukrainian.
"The Nigerian hostages rescued from pirates by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) have been released in Rivers state," MEND said in an e-mailed statement.
"Due to the location where the expatriates were kept for their safety, they cannot be released at this time because of security concerns," the group said.
Two Britons, two South Africans and a Ukrainian were kidnapped from an oil supply vessel, the H.D. Blue Ocean, after it was hijacked on Sept. 9 at the entrance of the Sambreiro River in the delta, a vast network of mangrove swamps.
...
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
What Survives...
Palin to play ball with Big Oil
The Alaska governor may have raised taxes on the oil industry and scrapped a questionable pipeline deal, but in Washington she'll toe the party line.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Sarah Palin gets a lot of credit for standing up to Big Oil in Alaska, but if she and John McCain win the White House, don't expect some of her more populist policies to survive the move to Washington.
In her two years as Alaska's governor, Palin is credited with being tough on big oil, to the benefits of her constituents and bucking her own party.
…
But analysts - and the McCain campaign itself - are quick to note that Palin will toe the line on the energy policies of her potential boss, who unlike Barack Obama does not favor a windfall profits tax.
The Alaska governor may have raised taxes on the oil industry and scrapped a questionable pipeline deal, but in Washington she'll toe the party line.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Sarah Palin gets a lot of credit for standing up to Big Oil in Alaska, but if she and John McCain win the White House, don't expect some of her more populist policies to survive the move to Washington.
In her two years as Alaska's governor, Palin is credited with being tough on big oil, to the benefits of her constituents and bucking her own party.
…
But analysts - and the McCain campaign itself - are quick to note that Palin will toe the line on the energy policies of her potential boss, who unlike Barack Obama does not favor a windfall profits tax.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
The Morning After (California Dreaming...)
Yesterday I wrote about California -- what the governor there (famous actor whose name I can't spell at 5 a.m.) did to not quite enough strengthen reaction time laws to oil spills...
and so today I looked up oil spills -- which I haven't done for a while:
The Tribune (Canada)
DALHOUSIE - There's a big black streak down the side of the bright red ship that's tied up at the west wharf in Dalhousie. Although few details were available at press time, it is known that the MV King Darwin was carrying heavy oil from Venezuela for NB Power's thermal generating station in Dalhousie. The spill occurred Sunday evening, reportedly between 7:30 and 8 pm.
This from KFDM in Texas
September 30, 2008 - 6:13PM
Jessica Holloway
Residents in the Labelle area say a terrible odor prompted them to hire an environmental expert out of Houston to investigate whether a toxic chemical spill happened in their area during Hurricane Ike. The area is covered in a sludge neighbors in Labelle say smells like oil.
The Salem News
City on hook for oil spill at 70 Endicott St.
By Matthew K. Roy
Staff writer
PEABODY — The city is responsible for cleaning up an oil spill at 70 Endicott St., a former school administration building that has been vacant for more than two years.
The spill occurred sometime before Sept. 16, which is when the state Department of Environmental Protection was alerted of the problem, spokesman Joseph Ferson said.
The source of the spill was five 330-gallon oil tanks stored within the building. Someone broke in and removed copper lines attached to the tanks, and that contributed to the release of oil, Ferson said.
_____
Torrey Canyon Oil Spill Retold ; The Shocking Story of the First Major Oil Spill in the World Will Be Recounted at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth.
Posted on: Wednesday, 1 October 2008, 00:03 CDT
The shocking story of the first major oil spill in the world will be recounted at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth.
The oil tanker Torrey Canyon broke her back on a reef off the Isles of Scilly in March 1967, sparking an environmental catastrophe.
Sam Willis will tell the alarming tale of the disaster in a talk entitled Shipwrecks, the Torrey Canyon and History on Monday, October 6.
In a last-ditch attempt to send the supertanker to the bottom of the sea, the wreck was bombed and napalmed by the RAF and the Royal Navy.
With no infrastructure in place to deal with the catastrophe, detergent was heavily used to disperse the slick, with no understanding of the impact this would have on the wildlife.
Mr Willis said: "Throughout history, certain shipwrecks have changed the course of history or have changed the way that we understand our past, and now, with a major global political focus on the environment, the wreck of the Torrey Canyon has come to be one of the most important of them all.
"There is no better place to consider the significance of her wreck than Falmouth."
and so today I looked up oil spills -- which I haven't done for a while:
The Tribune (Canada)
DALHOUSIE - There's a big black streak down the side of the bright red ship that's tied up at the west wharf in Dalhousie. Although few details were available at press time, it is known that the MV King Darwin was carrying heavy oil from Venezuela for NB Power's thermal generating station in Dalhousie. The spill occurred Sunday evening, reportedly between 7:30 and 8 pm.
This from KFDM in Texas
September 30, 2008 - 6:13PM
Jessica Holloway
Residents in the Labelle area say a terrible odor prompted them to hire an environmental expert out of Houston to investigate whether a toxic chemical spill happened in their area during Hurricane Ike. The area is covered in a sludge neighbors in Labelle say smells like oil.
The Salem News
City on hook for oil spill at 70 Endicott St.
By Matthew K. Roy
Staff writer
PEABODY — The city is responsible for cleaning up an oil spill at 70 Endicott St., a former school administration building that has been vacant for more than two years.
The spill occurred sometime before Sept. 16, which is when the state Department of Environmental Protection was alerted of the problem, spokesman Joseph Ferson said.
The source of the spill was five 330-gallon oil tanks stored within the building. Someone broke in and removed copper lines attached to the tanks, and that contributed to the release of oil, Ferson said.
_____
Torrey Canyon Oil Spill Retold ; The Shocking Story of the First Major Oil Spill in the World Will Be Recounted at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth.
Posted on: Wednesday, 1 October 2008, 00:03 CDT
The shocking story of the first major oil spill in the world will be recounted at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth.
The oil tanker Torrey Canyon broke her back on a reef off the Isles of Scilly in March 1967, sparking an environmental catastrophe.
Sam Willis will tell the alarming tale of the disaster in a talk entitled Shipwrecks, the Torrey Canyon and History on Monday, October 6.
In a last-ditch attempt to send the supertanker to the bottom of the sea, the wreck was bombed and napalmed by the RAF and the Royal Navy.
With no infrastructure in place to deal with the catastrophe, detergent was heavily used to disperse the slick, with no understanding of the impact this would have on the wildlife.
Mr Willis said: "Throughout history, certain shipwrecks have changed the course of history or have changed the way that we understand our past, and now, with a major global political focus on the environment, the wreck of the Torrey Canyon has come to be one of the most important of them all.
"There is no better place to consider the significance of her wreck than Falmouth."
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