Obfuscating True Elegance

Time for the new puzzler. I'm excited about this one.

The statement of this puzzler is extremely simple. First of all, it is a non-automotive puzzler. It has nothing to do with cars. It is not a non-intellectual puzzler though.

The beauty of this puzzler really is its brevity.
It is elegant in its brevity and simplicity.

Here it is. In a nutshell, in all its glorious brevity.
You have 10 fingers, right? Five on each hand. Well, most of us have five on each hand. And you know that you can count to ten, but then I have to take my shoes off after that.

However, you can count to a much higher number using those 10 fingers and the question is, how high a number can you count to using those 10 fingers without any ambiguity or confusion? What I mean by that is, you can't say well, if I take my index finger, raise it a quarter of the way up. That's one. And another halfway up. That's two, and three... That would be ambiguous and confusing and would obfuscate the true elegant nature of this puzzler.
Just using your fingers, to what number can you count?

A hint! This requires a certain amount of dexterity, one might say. Mr. Spock from Star Trek may find this easier to do than us humans.
I can do it, but I find it difficult. And that's your hint. I think that's a big hint!

Answer the Puzzler »

Remember last week's puzzler?

Your Cooling System is Bleeding

Time for the new puzzler!

I have a great one. From my neighbor a while back.

We were talking about bleeding a heating system. He said to me, "Gee, you know, I've owned cars for about 100 years, and I have drained cooling systems, changed water pumps, put in thermostats... Done all kinds of other repairs to the cooling system of a car, and I've never heard of bleeding a cooling system. Of getting the air out."

Why do so many modern cars seem to need their cooling systems bled?

My first answer was something about destroying the rainforest... But I was just doing some footwork there to stall him because I truly didn't know!

So, the question is, how come some modern cars need their cooling systems bled?

And how come old cars never did?