Clouds of doubt are cut asunder

[austin_dern]

I'm confident that I've mentioned my desire to get a compass for my car. I still haven't got any actual need for one; it's just a little amusement for me. My first attempt was with a cheap dashboard compass featuring a suction cup base which believed every direction was south-westish and that went flying into the nether-world when I made a perfectly respectable turn. It eventually re-emerged, and since then has spent some time in the little store-bought cup holder next to the paint lid opener that I give the gas station attendant to open the gas door, except when I get tired with that and put it in the empty spot next to the cigarette lighter, where it never lasts because in there it rattles around endlessly.

But I was confident that I could do better, as what alternative is there to a compass like that, and I finally decided to break my long habit at Target of buying only peanut butter cups and Diet Cokes and instead bought a new dashboard compass. This was a much smaller unit, with a compass sphere itself only a touch wider in diameter than a nickel is, and has a frame of a nice little square-faced triangular prism with a couple of attachment options. None of them were suction cups, which is probably fine, but it could clip on to something, or be bolted on as who wouldn't use a screwdriver to attach a cheap dashboard compass to a car, possibly as a prank, or be adhered using that double-sided sticky tape used to hang stuff in your dorm room for about two weeks until you decide having stuff actually stay on the walls counts for more than being dinged for thumbtack holes by the RA.

So I clipped it to my overhead visor, and noticed as I drove that I was heading roughly south-west-ish although since I knew I was going roughly south-west-ish this was not particularly implausible, and I went home.

The next morning I got out to my car and found the compass had disintegrated: the prism had fallen of the clip, the ring around the ball had come loose from the mounting, and the ball itself had vanished. (I eventually found it under the floor mats.) Apparently cheap dashboard compasses are not necessarily designed to withstand the punishment of night.

I returned it to Target, for credit, and got a peanut butter cup and a Diet Coke.

Trivia: In 1820 Peter Barlow of the Royal Military Academy reported that more than half the Admiralty's stored compasses at Woolwich were defective enough to be useless. He reported the same in 1822, by which time nothing had been done about the matter. Source: Compass: A Story of Exploration and Innovation, Alan Gurney.

Currently Reading: Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide To The Elements, John Emsley. Yup, yup, it's thulium that's the boring one. Also it turns out that red giant stars produce technetium. Neat.

Comments

[xolo.livejournal.com]

Also it turns out that red giant stars produce technetium.

How unexpected!

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

And, remarkably, that doesn't even count as the ``Element of Surprise'' feature of technetium. That just came under ``Cosmic Element'', which is about, you know, what you expect it to be.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

That's unfortunate..
There are lots of choices when it comes to car compasses... I've had some pretty fancy ones, but eventually the fluid inside dries up or leaks, so I'd recommend just getting a slightly nicer suction cup one, but put it on top of the rearview mirror, but don't rely on the cup, use tape to affix it there.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Actually, I've been propping the defective but non-exploded ball compass, the one that likes everything to be kind of southwestish, from the spot between my overhead visors. Somewhere along the way I picked up a pair of sunglass filters to clip onto eyeglasses, and since I don't wear eyeglasses, I haven't had much use for them. But the clip fits pretty well onto the base for the ball compass, and the lenses can be fit underneath the sun visors -- I don't dip down the sun visors -- so it stays up just about as well as it could be expected to.

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Can't have coatis wandering aimlessly in traffic.. ;D

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty good about that, actually. For the most part I stick to my lane, whatever one that was I originally got in, for example. It's hard to get lost on that standard.

[moonfires.livejournal.com]

My current car is the first to have a compass in it. It's one of those electronic compasses in the mirror (http://www.mitocorp.com/flash/nightvisionsaftey_autodimmingmirrors.htm). It's interesting, but only somewhat useful. You know you have to go in a general direction, but still, if there isn't a road, you have to find one that'll get you that way.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I've looked quite happily at those, and the new Toyota Something has one too. I agree it's not really useful in figuring out directions, but I still want one. I've just always seen them as a pleasant little dashboard accessory.