Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA
>1. This was the initial design explored by Buckaroo Banzai, but later rejected in favor of the oscillation overthruster.

2. When I worked, briefly, as an auto mechanic in the 1970's, the automatic transmission mechanics were the high priests. They worked in as close to a clean room as you can find in an auto repair shop (had to - very, very small particles of anything can fritz an auto tranny faster than you can imagine), and could, at a moment's notice, discuss the workings of the transmission in terms that were about as transparently understandable as the video.

I don't know if this class distinction still exists; with the steady expansion of electronic controls on everything including the heater, regular auto mechanics may well have caught up.