Leaky valve cover gasket

The engine in our venerable Peugeot developed an oil leak that took a couple of visits to the garage to get fixed. Yesterday I had the relative pleasure of driving the car back home from work without smoke pouring from under the hood whenever I was stopped in traffic. The smell of burning oil would also come in through the vents. Of course, commuting at somewhat normal hours means that I routinely see somewhat heavy traffic which, queueing around me, must have wondered about the smoke. Though, I suppose that others must have wondered about the oil slick accumulating around my car when parked in lots.

Naturally, at times when I was certain the problem persisted I drove our Vauxhall instead as the Peugeot hardly leaked when cold. I resisted adding thickener to the Peugeot's oil because I wanted the problem to remain easily perceived and diagnosed by the mechanic. I always more greatly enjoy driving after I have been living with some issue that is now fixed.

In Ohio we routinely drove cars until they, sometimes literally, fell apart. It is odd now to live in Britain knowing that our cars will probably never get that bad given the annual inspections: it is the inspection failure that typically dooms them rather than the actual physical collapse. For at least a couple of our American cars their state was such that oil thickener was a routine additive for us.

My prior ignorance of Saturn's hexagon

It turns out that Saturn's North pole bears a cloud pattern that is strikingly hexagonal and so large that the Earth would easily fit inside. I watch a lot of science and space documentaries, I have read and watched much science fiction that included travel within our planetary system, I was awarded an A grade for GCSE Astronomy, so how is it only this week that I learned of Saturn's hexagon? Was it only me who didn't know or was it not widely considered to be remarkable? I can hardly imagine a better advertisement for why it might be interesting to study fluid dynamics. Now I come to try to learn more of the phenomenon I read that the effect has been recreated both in simulation and in the laboratory.

Video sharing: social media; contributed content

It seems that the kinds of website that carry a range of material contributed by the general public are increasingly carrying video. At one time we had text, things like newspaper story extracts, then plenty of still photographs, and now it seems video is the new norm. I find this a little inconvenient: I can rapidly glance through much static content for worthy nuggets but I am not about to spend some seconds on each of many items because lightly curated content is unlikely to be worth that much of my time. I also prefer not to wear headphones for prolonged periods and I am normally in company or listening to something unrelated. I sense that this may be yet another instance of my unprogressively becoming better suited for the Internet of yesteryear.