Formula 1 is incredibly competitive, with teams backed by major manufactures (Mercedes, BMW, Toyota, Renault, etc.) spending $500 million a year fighting over fractions of a second per lap.

Recently F1 has made some rule changes to all cars to include “Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems” (KERS). The idea is the extreme competitive pressures of F1 could be employed to create environmental innovation. Other environmentalists have tried to get F1 and motor racing banned altogether due to their carbon output. But we can all agree the total impact of that would be negligible. Having the best automotive engineers, in an extremely competitive racing environment, forced to make environmental innovations, however, could have a tremendous impact.

Early results are in, and they look promising.

It’s called a flybrid, a combination of flywheel and hybrid. Rather than capture and store braking energy as electricity in batteries as most hybrids do, it stores that energy mechanically in the form of a spinning flywheel. You know those toy cars you push along the carpet so the wheels will get an internal flywheel spinning, then let it go and watch it scoot across the floor? It’s the same idea, only fancier….

During braking the car is slowed down by the energy that’s mechanically diverted into the flywheel and the effort that goes into getting it spinning. As a result, it spins with ferocious intensity. The flywheel, which is a small cylinder made of carbon and steel that only weighs about ten pounds, is encased in a vacuum and spins up to 64,500 rpm….

What I find so intriguing about the flybrid is that it can easily be configured to use in everyday vehicles. Indeed, the companies that have developed this system claim it can boost the fuel economy of a vehicle by 27% based on the EPA driving cycle (FTP75). They claim they can offer a hybrid package that is half the size and weight of a battery-based system, at one quarter of the cost. It’s also made from fairly common materials that can be readily recycled.
(Autoblog.com)

The innovation here is not unrelated to the sport. One of the big issues dragging down the adoption of battery based hybrids have been their expense and weight. Even with tax credits and Toyota taking a loss, Hybrids still have a price premium that most studies indicate would take about a decade to make up for in reduced costs. The batteries themselves are very heavy (there by reducing their efficiency gains), difficult to produce and toxic.

F1 cars are dramatically influenced by weight. Entire race strategies revolve around timing refueling, as “running light” (carrying slightly fewer gallons of fuel) can give a driver a half to full second lap time advantage. Given that the top competitors are often separated by hundreds of a second, the success or failure of these strategies alone often decide races. Additionally, the extreme operating conditions of races (where is isn’t unusual to burn through an engine or clutch box every few races) demand mechanical elegance. Hence the “flybrid”.

The fact that the teams are almost universally backed by major car manufactures makes me hopeful that we will see rapid downstream adoption of the technologies. It isn’t hard to image simple, reliable and effective technology like this becoming standard on most vehicles in a few years. Good thing environmentalists didn’t get their way and F1 wasn’t banned.

Some gems, representing both sides of the debate:

If you really want to hurt your parents, and you don’t have the nerve to be a homosexual, the least you can do is go into the arts. But do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites, standing for absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.

Sometimes you get a glimpse of a semicolon coming, a few lines further on, and it is like climbing a steep path through woods and seeing a wooden bench just at a bend in the road ahead, a place where you can expect to sit for a moment, catching your breath.

Guliani has NO hope of winning the primary in Wisconsin (not that our vote will matter much, since it’s not until Februrary 19th) if news of this gets out: he refused to sign a Packers hat at a campaign event in Florida. The fan was upset, but Rudy held his ground - apparently he still thinks people in NYC like him and will get him the nomination.

And, senators from WI and NY are wagering about the outcome of this weekend’s NFC Championship game. The stakes? A cheesecake from Junior’s if the Giants lose, and a block of Wisconsin cheese if the Packers lose. Make sure to check out the comments on the article - my favorite is “To the Post-Crescent Headline Writer:”

Possible alternative headlines:
Schumer and Kohl Make Asses of Themselves.
Schumer and Kohl Make Asses of Themselves…and us.
Schumer and Kohl Waste Taxpayer Time and Money.
2 Dopes Try to Out-Dumb Each Other.
Politicians Spar in Cheesy Fight.
Politicians Pander to Fan Bases with Cheesy Bet.

The mayors of the cities - Michael Bloomberg and Jim Schmitt, have made a similar bet.

In other news, Packers fans (and people who hate Packers fans) go CRAZY during last weekend’s game:

According to the Portage Daily Register -

Matthew Kowald, 36, of Pardeeville is facing two felony charges in Columbia County Circuit Court, accused of forcing his 7-year-old son to wear a Packers jersey while they watched Saturday’s NFC divisional playoff game.

Kowald was expected to appear in court today on charges of causing mental harm to a child and false imprisonment. He also is charged with domestic disorderly conduct.According to the Columbia County Sheriff’s Department, the boy wouldn’t wear the Packers jersey so Kowald bound him with tape for about an hour and taped the jersey to him.

And according to the Lakeland (Fl.) Register -

A former Wisconsin man who ran a tavern in Lakeland, Fla., was beaten to death after a dispute with another customer as they watched Saturday’s game.

Richard Oaks, who ran the Par 33 Lounge, got into an argument during the game with his friend and neighbor, Alan Pierce. Oaks hit Pierce over the head with a beer bottle.While at the hospital getting 13 stitches to close a head wound, Pierce called his 17-year-old daughter at home and told her what had happened.

According to police, the girl and four friends — two 17-year-old boys, a 19-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man — went to Oaks’ home to exact revenge. They are accused of breaking in and beating Oaks to death.

Oaks was a Packers fan and painted the bar’s exterior in green and gold, according to the Tampa Tribune. “He was wearing his Packer jersey” on Saturday, Oaks’ wife, Stephanie, told the Tampa newspaper.

Apparently God, or at least a couple of nuns, are backing the Pack on Sunday.

Following her successful contribution to the Packers’ success in the Divisional game, Sister Marie Tobin has been asked to return to Lambeau for this weekend’s game against the Cowboys. She’ll be at midfield for the coin toss, after winning an essay contest to earn the honor of staring down Matt Hasselbeck on the 50 yard line. She’s a lifelong Packers fan:

The last game she attended with her father was the Ice Bowl. I know, everyone claims they were at that game, but she’s a nun so I believe her.

“This game was a challenge. I was stuffed, long habit and full garb, into a sleeping bag up to my nose, and almost bunny-hopped over the bleachers on the last play,” she says in her entertaining entry that beat out some 5,000 other hopefuls. It helps that she used to teach English in school.

“If the game had lasted any longer, my fingers would have been permanently stuck to my rosary beads.”

You can find more entertaining tidbits about Marie (including the present former coach Mike Sherman gave to her and the other ladies of the Lord) in the full text of the article.

And finally, a local Fox affiliate in Green Bay has tries to ruffle Eli Manning’s feathers…by preventing him from watching “Seinfeld” reruns.

WLUK carries reruns of “Seinfeld,” including at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

“That’s exactly when Eli will be relaxing in his downtown Appleton hotel room getting ready for Sunday’s game,” WLUK says in a release.The station has pulled the program.

“Why give comfort to the enemy?” said Jay Zollar, general manager. “Green Bay Packers fans do not want any of the New York Giants to get a good night’s sleep, and Fox 11 will do its part.” [You can vview *hilarious* announcement of the decision, in video, here.]

It’s up to viewers to vote for the substitute for the time slot. The choices:

A rerun of Monday’s “Inside the Huddle with Donald Driver;” an episode of “M*A*S*H”; an infomercial, “The Good Feet Store,” featuring retired running back Emmitt Smith; and a Vince Lombardi special, “God, Family and the Green Bay Packers.”

If you want to weigh in on the poll, you can vote at www.fox11online.com.