"driving" news and stories

In case you needed another reason to love chocolate, here it is: you can drive your car with it!

Well, OK, maybe not your car (not yet anyway), but these guys drove from the UK to Timbuktu using the "waste chocolate" from a chocolate manufacturer. They left the UK on November 26 and got to Timbuktu in about a month. The group, Ecotec, donated (and delivered) one of their biodiesel production units to a charity in Timbuktu.

Now that's alternative fuel. I wonder if we can get cars to drive on Yodels or maybe Funyuns?

[via Boing Boing]

I haven't seen An Inconvenient Truth yet, so I don't know if Al Gore covers this, but it looks like one of the biggest contributors to global warming is the food we eat and the processes that give us that food.

According to this press release from the Bon Appetit Management Company, "the average American creates 2.8 tons of CO2 emissions each year by eating - even more than the 2.2 tons each person generates by driving." The company is pushing a "Low Carbon Diet" and trying to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The first "Low Carbon Diet Day" will be held next April.

So the moral to the story? Just stop eating completely and drive your car more, you selfish jerks!

Burning your tongue on a hot drink is no picnic, but burning it while drinking from an insulated commuter mug is worse. Not only does the cup disguise the temperature of the beverage it contains, making you more likely to subject your tongue to overly-hot drinks in the first place, but they do not allow drink not cool down fast enough to prevent repeat burns. Combine that with a morning commute in rush hour traffic and you will probably discover the source of many cases of "road rage."

Fortunately, there is a cup that offers a solution. The Tip and Sip Cup keeps coffee hot at up to 205 degrees, which is the temperature that most coffee is brewed at. When it is tipped (for a sip), the coffee passes into a patented Temperature Control Chamber, which lowers the temperature of the coffee to the "Perfect Zone" of 150-170F, leaving you with a satisfying swig of coffee and no burns. The triple function lid has a spill-proof lock setting and a regular "sip" setting that bypasses the temperature control chamber, in addition to the cooling function.

It is available in raspberry, lime, orange, forest, black, or blue and is priced at $19.95. The cost of never burning your tongue again? Priceless.

[via book of joe]

Source

Even though it is dangerous to drive while eating or drinking, most morning commuters still want to have their coffee on the way to work. Car designers know this, which is why they install cup holders that are easy for the driver to reach. Audi took the idea a step further and designed their concept Roadjet with a fully-functional espresso machine (above left) on the arm rest between the driver and passenger seats. This enables the driver to get his or her caffeine fix without having to pull into a Starbucks, though hopefully they will wait until the car stops before pulling a shot.

One enthusiastic Audi fan couldn't resist making a mod with his own Audi and installed a Capresso 1500 (above right) in the back seat. It is securely tied down to the seat and is powered with an inverter that is mounted on the dash. It's also a bit safer than the Roadjet model because, since the machine is in the back seat, the driver cannot operate the machine while behind the wheel.

Some of you are no doubt familiar with the technique of cooking food on your car's engine while you drive. Perhaps you've even read Manifold Destiny. A great site called Instructables has a step-by-step guide with plenty of annotated photos showing how to make things like marinated chicken breasts, roasted potatoes, ramen noodles and apples with brown sugar. Mileage ranges and speeds are suggested, as is placement on different parts of the engine. The tutorial was posted by a mechanical engineering student who goes by Trebuchet03. He also adds that the striker plate inside your car door can double as a bottle opener in a pinch.