Life in a Northern Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. B.M.A.T.C., and Etruscan typewriter erasers. Blogged by David Gorsline.
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Clibe Thompson test-drives the new generation of muscle hybrids, including the Lexus RX 400h and a one-off prototype developed at San Diego State. He offers a bit of explanation of the underlying physics and engineering, but I was left wanting more.
A car like the Prius derives its superb mileage from an elegant ballet performed between the fuel engine and the electric motor. The goal is to let the gas engine work only when it is most efficient to do so, which is when the car is running at roughly 20 m.p.h. or higher. A gas engine is at its worst efficiency in two situations: when it's revving fiercely to get a car moving from a standstill and when the car is idling at a stoplight and going nowhere.
The central genius of a hybrid is that the electric engine steps in at these inefficient moments. An electric motor, as it turns out, is far better suited to accelerate from zero because of a quirk of physics—when pushing off from a dead stop, an electric engine has much more torque than a gas engine. It's fundamentally suited to the task. posted: 8:16:59 PM |
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Documentary footage of champion hog-callers opens Junebug, an intriguing piece of small-scale Southern Gothic, the first feature directed by Phil Morrison. Willowy and sophisticated gallery owner Madeleine (Embeth Davidtz) drives to small-town North Carolina on the trail of promising outsider artist David Wark (played with scary, askew grace by Frank Hoyt Taylor), accompanied by new husband George (Alessandro Nivola), who happens to be a native. Or is the real purpose of this trip a homecoming for George, whose family views Madeleine as some sort of ethereal alien? Madeleine's deeply pregnant sister-in-law Ashley (who hopes to use the movie's title as a nickname for her baby), played by critically-praised Amy Adams, is the first to embrace Madeleine. A 21st-century Lena Groves, Ashley is soon brushing dime-store nail polish on Madeleine's expensive manicure. But it's George's father Eugene, confident in his woodshop but at sea when dealing with females of any stripe, who reveals the more subtle characterization, excellently played by tight-lipped Scott Wilson. This is a movie that isn't afraid to take its time to achieve its atmospheric effects. A woman looks out the window at a summer lawn with all the desolation of a Dixiefied painting by Edward Hopper. A man watches an air mattress inflate for a full ten seconds. An interested neighbor stands across the street, waves a silent greeting. At first viewing, it's hard to read some of the psychology in this movie. Does Madeleine have greater empathy with artist Wark than with her own husband and family by marriage? Or is she just more skilled at dissembling with her prospective business partners? In a late scene, she declines to contradict Wark on certain particulars of her background, thereby helping to close the deal. Between George and Madeleine, who makes the stronger connection with family? Is it George, who consoles a bereft Ashley in the hospital, but who otherwise spends all of his energy putting distance between him and his folks? Or is it Madeleine, who goes out of her way to help Eugene find a missing hand tool, and even finds a rapprochement with her prickly mother-in-law? posted: 8:08:59 PM |
 D. Gorsline, Proprietor
   
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