How do turn signals really work? Many of you are already yawning and reaching for the mouse so you can find out how much Michael Jackson's nanny will make over the next decade. Go ahead. If you're still here, you're the kind of person who has a thirst for knowledge no matter how useless or arcane it may seem. You're among friends. Back to the question, how do turn signals work? Obviously there's a relay that flashes them on and off. But somehow they flash on and off even if your parking lights are on. If there is already current flowing into the wire on the parking light that the flasher would normally use to flash it, how can they work at night? I could explain it, but I found a fun video online that does a good job and is far more entertaining than reading another four paragraphs of my drivel. Check it out, and thanks to Junius for taking the time to put it together!

These days anything you can imagine needing is but a click away. We take for granted that if we need an oddball part the biggest part of our suffering will be an extra few days shipping time. Back in the day things weren't so easy. We had a stack -- a giant stack -- of catalogs and price lists in the shop. There was no central place to look things up. If you needed it, you had to find the right supplier, open the catalog and find the part. It was often tedious to say the least. One catalog that everybody had on hand was the J.C. Whitney book. Even if they didn't have parts to fit your make, you could find an endless array of useful tools and accessories inside. Of all the old standby catalogs, few have survived the jump to online sales. J.C. Whitney has more than survived, they seem to have really expanded their inventory of available stuff. Sure, there are some things I wouldn't order from JCWhitney.com, but they've still got hundreds of great deals and amazing values. Definitely worth a bookmark!

Wow. There's a $222 million-plus law suit pending against a group of Midas repair shops in Oakland, California for perpetrating the oldest upsell in the book -- rotors. Pretty much anyone walking into a chain store for brake pads can count on the rotors upsell. They lure you in with a very cheap brake pad replacement advertisement then hit you with the worn rotors bit. Before the chain-store flunkies start getting upset, I have to tell you that sometimes you really do need to replace your brake rotors. The problem comes with a shop telling everybody that they need that level of service. Time may have caught up with this shop. Read more at KCRA.com.