Woe Christmas Tree

Wal-Mart Buys Ornaments From a Chinese Sweatshop

And here on the Planet Orland, a new Wal$Mart Supercenter will be built in nearby Willows. And the residents of the planet wonder what has happened to the good old days, when they could shop locally for everything they needed. (I wonder if the clerks at the new Wal$Mart speak English?)

(Ex)Terra Incognita

(Fragments From Floyd)

Just 4% of our universe can be seen...(and we probably only understand half of that.)

Fascinating. Just think of the possibilities!

Looking for a Sale!

The middle of December already; time’s flying! And now I know why. The short story is that the brain needs to lay down, or imprint the ‘current’ memories into your cortex as they happen. This takes time. So, as a child, this seems to take forever. Each day is a new one for your brain to glean data and imprint it. But, as we age, the brain doesn’t have to work so hard; ‘been there, done that’ and the info is already on file. And so the time flies.

I have to include a photo of the cat here. This illustrates how much Boo loves a good fire in the winter. Normally, a small bundle of black fur, she luxuriates in the warmth from the woodstove. And the location she chooses to sprawl is right in path of traffic from kitchen to family room. Step right over her. She doesn’t mind!

And I suppose I could include a photo of our current Christmas tree. Our plan is to wait till later in the week and see just how low the prices go on the current crop of artificial trees. When the price is right, we’re buying a new one. We’ve had this tree for ten years; much to the irritation of our children. But, looking at the dollars involved, ($100, ten years ago = $10 per year) I think we saved enough to buy a couple of new ones!

Apparently I won’t be able to use a photo of the tree here. I took 6 shots, but they have all turned out to be less than flattering. Perhaps we really do need a new tree?

Federal shredding budget

soars -

Isn't it amazing; a simple little story that tells you so very much!

7-Ton Load

Falls

This was always my fear. Yet, in all of my years of hoisting material...I never saw a nylon sling fail.

You thought Tom did it?

Thank you, George Mason.

Ohio Election

Officials Calls Machines Flawed -

Duh! EVERY machine is 'crackable'... Now is the time to go all paper and all by mail. Oregon has it right and California is getting closer.

Defiant

FCC Chief Refuses To Delay Vote -

Who? Who does he work for? The public...or?

I guess the real question is, 'who will he be working for after the elections'?

Who Are You?

As I read the blogs each day, I’m always a little bit disenchanted with the tone of the discussions/comments that follow. Oops! Let me back up; it’s not all of the blogs. But it is the blogs where 90% of the comments are made by people who wish to remain anonymous. Newspapers, in general, don’t allow anonymous letters to the editor to be published. So why do bloggers allow it? Perhaps I should comment about that when I see it happening.

Bizarro:

A Politically Correct Christmas

A great one!

Success...but

Frustrating! The food give-away went well and we only ended up with 10 boxes left over at the end of the day. That’s less than 5% of those that signed up that didn’t get a box. Much better than last year. And the boxes included toys and books for the children as well as staples like rice, potatoes and meat. So what’s frustrating? It’s the continuing prevalence of machismo. At least 90% of the 350 recipients were women, and yet, when I would carry the boxes out to their cars, there would (sometimes) be a guy. And looking embarrassed, as he didn’t realize that someone was going to help with the groceries and would actually see him!

It didn’t happen this year as much as it did last year, but this crippling macho attitude is still around. And it’s not cultural as you might believe; I saw it happen with just as many Anglos as I did with Hispanics. The worst? A lady came in on crutches, surrounded by her children. These weren’t ‘I sprained my ankle’ crutches; these were serious, ‘this is how I live everyday’ crutches and she was moving quite slowly and deliberately. The kids and I took the food out to the car and that’s where I saw the man of the family, sitting in the drivers’ seat of the family van.

Now that I’ve had time to reflect, I have to admit that I assumed that the guy sitting in the van was able bodied. I don’t know that. Nor do I know anything at all of the life situations of those who received food yesterday. It’s all assumptions and it’s the easiest thing in the world, to criticize the poor. Especially from our vantage point, a few rungs higher on the ladder called ‘life’. Mea Culpa.

The Swamp:

As Iraq shifts, candidates do, too

These people amaze me. Would someone just ask them how they define 'victory'? Please!

Same Old

Starting the day in the usual way and I ran across this quote, “It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.
- David Brin” Well said! And who among us is sane?

On a different note; I’m a big fan of the Writer’s Almanac and I’m always delighted when I get a chance to hear it, but I have to be in the car at 9:00 AM or I miss it. That doesn’t happen often enough, so I went to their website and now I get the daily show delivered by email. And you can even hear the great voice of Garrison Keillor. Today there’s a note about Max Planck, the ‘father’ of quantum physics. Poetry and physics; that’s what I like about this 5 minute show. You’re never certain of what you will hear.

And the first headline I see this morning is all about the use of steroids by the so-called athletes of baseball. After two years of investigation! Now that the confirmation of steroid use is finally out there for all to see, will the ‘fans’ do the right thing and avoid the major league ball parks as they should? Or will it be another ho-hum moment? Although the owners and the players did their best to foil the investigation, the ‘fans’ won't see that as a problem and will never give up their idol worship. Odds are it will soon be forgotten.

And at the local level, I will be busy all day, working at the parish hall, loading boxes of food for those residents of the Planet Orland that need some help this year. Unfortunately, that number is now over 365, countywide.

Wish I'd said it...

The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind. - HL Mencken

The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking. - John Kenneth Galbraith

There is no nonsense so gross that society will not, at some time, make a doctrine of it and defend it with every weapon of communal stupidity. - Robertson Davies

And I wish it weren't so darn true!

Stop Reading!

I’ve been looking everywhere but can’t find it. The really interesting headline news, that is. ‘California Republicans like Huckabee’. We’re doomed. May I suggest my pet rock as a more viable candidate?

And speaking of doom. Besides the Global Warming problems and the fact that Washington D.C. will soon be under 2’000 feet of water, there is the headline from this weeks Economist, ‘The End of Cheap Food’. And the article details the reasons for it. Some facts; wheat has doubled in price since last spring. All other food crops are at record levels.

Agflation has arrived with the emerging economies. A Chinese consumer ate 44 pounds of meat in the year 1985 and now eats over a hundred pounds of it. And it takes grain in a ratio of 8 to 1 to produce a pound of beef.

And our drive for oil independence is not helping. We (The USA) had a record corn crop this year, but one third goes to biofuel. And thanks to the ‘corporate farmers’ we have decided that corn is the ideal crop for biofuel, even when the rest of the world thinks otherwise. (It’s sugar cane, stupid!) Could it be lobbyists (and greed) for the corporate farmers that have caused this? Fill your gas tank with ethanol made from corn and you have consumed the equivalent amount of corn needed for one person for one year. But, you’ve made ADM shareholders happy. And that record crop of corn? Ethanol production takes half of the worlds stock. This drives up the price of everything else that uses corn. Yes, even candy. ‘High fructose CORN syrup’.

Throw in the worsening water stocks here in the west and we have a real problem coming. Obviously, I have to stop reading.

Ominous

Arctic Melt Worries Experts -

It's all Al's fault! We never worried about any of this stuff until he had to open his big yap...
And when the time comes, he's not getting on my boat!

BestBuy?

That's the old story...Man arrested, cuffed after using $2 bills.

And then there's the current story.

Besides being the ***** electronics store in town, they are simply ******! (I can't be too careful. These people have no sense of humor. Can I say that?)

A Drop in the Bucket

Life goes on. And with a 101 things to do. This task overloading happens every few months and then it takes a momentous amount of willpower to overcome my natural inertia and accomplish what needs to be done.

Big news story. Right near the end of the presidents’ news conference, there was the usual spontaneous combustion of the presidential pants. Unfortunately, this time they were unable to contain the fire quickly and the lectern was destroyed, though smoke damage to the room was minimal. This marks the 3,477^th time that his pants have been destroyed by flames. Cost to replace the pants has now reached $154,000 according the GAO.

95963

The Planet Orland, in detail

Finally

Well, I know what I want for Christmas now. A new vacuum cleaner. Ours died yesterday and will be headed to the dump in just a few hours. It wasn’t an unexpected failure; we’ve had this machine for longer than forever and I’m looking forward to a machine that really works. But, which one would that be?

Shopping for a new vacuum ranks right up there with root canals, for pleasure. Will I buy the right one? And exactly, how disappointed will I be?

Local History

On our visit to San Francisco we got a chance to meet Colum’s Great-Grandparent’s, John and Phyllis Moylan. They were most gracious hosts; and I was able to spend a few minutes talking to John, where I learned that he had been a member of the Plasterers Local 66; a Local that I knew of. And later, after my Google search, I found out that he had also been President of the Local as well as the Business Agent. Quite a history. John was obviously from the ‘old school’ of plastering and knew his trade well. I hope that someone is gathering together the rest of John’s history; Colum may never decide to be a tradesman, but I’m glad to know that two of his Great-Grandfathers were…

My Head Hurts...Still

I was just browsing the web and came across this comment from Ophelia Chong, “When I visualize I can see the solution to the problem, or the way to start. I see shapes, colors, images, and I move them around in my head. In school I succeeded in classes that let me use my imagination. Math was my worst subject; to me it was a solid mass that I could not move.

It felt like a door that would not open, no matter how hard I banged my head against it.

If only I had learned how to look at Math visually.”

Exactly!

Politics in the Zeros

Britain’s wind power revolution

Why are we waiting?

PostScript

I was just thinking; with all of the camera ‘firepower’ that was available yesterday, and there was plenty! I wonder why no one, including me, went outside and took some shots of the neighborhood? The afternoon sunlight had softened all the edges of the houses and the colors were simply magnificent. But, like most people with a camera, I only think of the opportunities after they have passed. I think you have to train yourself to see the possibilities.

And the creator of a Daily Dose of Imagery, is able to do that...check out his archives. His shots of the 'ordinary' are always 'extraordinary'.

We Made It

We’re back from our grand adventure in San Francisco. Why are trips to the city such an adventure? Why can’t they be boring? We started off at a little before 10, in full knowledge of the fact that it would take but 2 hours and 23 minutes to reach our destination; St. Stephen’s church, located in the Stonestown district and close to the University of San Francisco. We had to be there at 1, but it was a bright and sunny day and we had an open road before us. What could go wrong?

Traffic, of course. Tons of it. And the clock kept ticking as we inched our way over the Bay Bridge. Denise had brought along ‘Maggie’, the Magellan GPS map reader for us to use, so we could see both the mileage and the time remaining, all at the same time. Counting down.

We arrived at about 10 after the hour, taking about 40 minutes longer than we had expected. But; surprise! Lots of us were late and so we found the majority of the participants standing outside and waiting for the latecomers. In San Francisco, you never have to invent an excuse for being late; simply shake your head as if you were really frustrated (you are) and say, ‘traffic’. Excuse accepted.

Once inside, the baptism ceremony went off without any problems. Colum seemed to think the whole affair was mildly interesting from a baby’s viewpoint and he seemed only a little startled when held over the baptismal font and the waters of baptism were poured over his head. A beautiful ceremony.

Afterwards, we went a few blocks away to Michelle’s grandparents’ house for the birthday party for Colum. A beautiful San Francisco house. I’m sure there is a name for the architectural style, but I don’t know it. But, as you stood outside and viewed the house and all of its neighbors, you knew you were in San Francisco. You couldn’t be anywhere else. It was the same inside; a warm and inviting house.

It was a grand party with great food and good company. And Colum endured, even without a nap. Then it was time to go and we bravely set off, with Maggie as our guide once more. Did I mention traffic? Well, it took us one and a half hours to get to the Bay Bridge. It’s obvious that at some point in the 1950’s, someone should have said, “Stop. We have enough people in the city now. We’re closed.”

Finally, at Vacaville, we found the 505 route and left the I-80 traffic behind us. Relax.

Colum in a contemplative mood...'what is this stuff?'

Why so depressed?

Creak and groan. A typical Sunday morning response after a Saturday morning ‘long walk’. 6.2 miles in 1:24. That was a 13.55 minute/mile average and darn good for the shape I’m in!

On the painful day after a good exercise like that, I spend a lot of time and mental energy thinking about the fact that I will have to do this for the rest of my life. OK, how fit do I want to be? And how much time do I want to devote to that endeavor? The short term goal is one more marathon in October of 2008. And then?

There won’t be any walking today; we’re driving to San Francisco for the birthday and Christening celebration for our great-grandson, Colum.

I finished the book, Commander in Chief, by Geoffrey Perret and I’m glad I did. It was fast becoming a very depressing read. And it was the poet Sir Walter Scott that noted “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!” Deceit seems to be the one thing that is common among the recent presidents. The tangled webs were everywhere!

And I just read this, "It is a very serious threat that a lot of major exporters that we count on today for international oil supply are no longer going to be net exporters any more in 5 to 10 years." AMY MYERS JAFFE, an oil analyst at Rice University.

So, what would happen if these countries, the major exporters, suddenly got smart and decided to start holding back some of their supply? Make it last a little bit longer and cause the price to rise? If you were in charge, wouldn’t you do that?

Must lighten up!

7 Years

Speaking of ‘common’ as I was. Huckabee is probably the most common of the currently popular candidates. And scary. We’ve already had 7 years of dumb, do we really want more? His latest story, the one where he will build a wall on our borders and have it completed by 2010, should be the best reason to not vote for the man. It’s obvious that he has never read a history book in his life. Nor does he have any clue as to how government operates. 2 years to build the wall? Make it 20 and they might be close, but then it will be time for a newer and more expensive version to replace what’s already been installed.

“2,000 miles of the current Mark VI Barrier will be replaced by the Improved Mark VII Barrier, which is similar to the Mark VI in all respects, but has a different color.”

Stars

Definitely cozy. The fire has the house at a little over 70 degrees this morning and the furnace remains off. But, in the back of my mind I am feeling guilty of fouling the atmosphere. The ashes will be put into the soil and that’s a good thing, but it still seems like I’m running a carbon deficit here.

I’ve moved along in the book, Commander in Chief, by Geoffrey Perret and I’m now up to reading of Nixon’s role in the Vietnam debacle. And as I read the statements and written thoughts of these presidents and those who surrounded them, I’m struck by how terribly ordinary these men were. ‘Common’ is a good word to use when describing them. (As in ‘common thief’) You keep hoping to see some brilliance in their planning and wisdom in their motives, but it’s all the same…common. This made them some of the most dangerous men in the world. Truth be told; you wouldn’t want to invite these men into your house to share a meal or a conversation.

It shouldn’t be a surprise of course. Look at how we elect them to office. The one that spends the most wins. Except when the one who lies the most wins. And since they all do their best to do both equally, it’s usually a dead heat. Shouldn’t they have to take a test first? You can’t drive a car without taking a test… or get a hunting license.

The author does get a laugh when he notes that politics is like movie stardom for the ugly.

Legal Action

by Inmates Could Close Guantanamo -

"Solicitor General Paul Clement, representing the US government, said foreigners captured and held outside the United States “have no constitutional rights to petition our courts for a writ of habeas corpus”, a judicial determination of the legality of detention."

How about their rights as human beings? The fact that during the past 5 years, hundreds have been released makes me wonder every time I hear one of the right wingnuts from the guv'mint exclaim that 'these are all dangerous terrorists!' If so, why do we keep releasing some? And wouldn't a trial enable us to get to the truth? Or is the truth not the objective?

No Room!

C.I.A. Destroyed 2 Tapes Showing Interrogations
By MARK MAZZETTI
"Despite requests and amid scrutiny about its secret detention program, the C.I.A. did not give the videotapes to a federal court hearing or to the Sept. 11 commission."

Let me guess. They just didn't have room to store them? I'm sure there's a plausible explanation.

A Big List

of Sites That Teach You How To Do Stuff

It's just what we need!

Pure Evil!

Also on my list of things to post is the good news about the Glenn County Seniors Thrift store. We opened in our new location about three months ago and it’s been a success ever since day one. I’m on the board of director’s which means that I get to build and fix things. Build cabinets and walls and fix toilets and sinks. But there’s more to it than that; the thrift store funds the Glenn County Seniors Center and provides for the Senior Nutrition site. And it’s the only one in California that doesn’t take government money. Sure, that money really does belong to us all, but if we take it, we also receive government oversight into everything we do. There’s nothing evil about that, unless you consider government mandated paperwork to be evil. (And I do!)

Food Fight

I suppose I should do a critique of yesterday’s cooking exercise. Everyone was fed (Only 14 showed up) and we were congratulated for our efforts. But, it wasn’t pretty. We quickly found ourselves limited to just one stove as we couldn’t get the larger double-oven stove lit. It’s an old-fashioned one that requires a match to light off the burners in the ovens. Now that’s scary! And the prep time for the cinnamon bun cake took longer than I had allowed for, making me late for everything else down the line. Then the angel food cake pan I was using for one of the cakes began to leak butter, sugar and cinnamon onto the bottom of the stove, forcing us to open the back door and turn on a fan to clear the smoke. At least it was only smoke…no flames! And some of that leaking butter/sugar/cinnamon mixture spilled down onto the toast we were trying to make. (We didn’t have a toaster?) This created a new item for our menu; ‘Sticky Toast’. What fun!

Good news!

Let it be recorded; on December 6^th of the year 2007, we lit the first fire of the winter…and so it begins. Once more we are slaves to the wood stove. Whenever we leave the house for any reason, we will think; is there enough wood in the stove to keep it going till we’re back? Every night before bed, the stove must be filled. Upon waking, the stove is filled again. Woe to me if there are only cold and lifeless ashes to be found, early in the morning.

But, we’ve made the cat happy! Boo can now be found stretched out, full length, in front of the fire. She’s usually a quite compact bundle of black fur, but give her a fire and she extends herself to capture every single free BTU radiating from the stove. Not a single therm escapes. Whoa! She must be 3’ long!

And now for the news. It’s time to browse…

The news, but really not-news, was the story of Mormon as told by Willard. Please; it was simply a diversion. A little something to sell a newspaper. We all know that once someone reaches the office of president, all bets are off when it comes to faith. They don’t practice religion in that office, they practice power. Look at the current officeholder; how would you know that he’s a born again Christian? Only because he’s quick to tell you that he is.

Freedom for all

A little note from history… in 1948, 11 leaders of the American Communist Party were indicted on the charges of ‘harboring subversive thoughts’ and ‘reading disloyal literature’. A subversive thought? Can anyone define that for me? And who gets to decide what is ‘disloyal literature’? Scary!

Eternal Vigilance

Listics

"The last five years have seen a steady assault on every fundamental of our Constitution, …"

No, make that 7 years. Or more. The patriots? You won't find them on the Right.

Good news, good news

No rain, yet. But the forecast has plenty on tap for us during the next few days. And the chimney sweep has come and gone, leaving a clean chimney and I have stacked plenty of firewood…so let it rain! Oops! Just one more thing; I have to paint the top of the wood stove with one quick coat of the evil smelling heat resistant paint and then we’ll be good to go. Yes, it’ll be raining and we’ll have the windows open.

It’s early, 4:00 AM, and I’m getting ready for a cooking job this morning. I’ve volunteered to help with an early breakfast catering project at the church this morning and I’m cooking two of the cinnamon bun cakes. We’ll have about 20+ people for this breakfast and we’re having ham, eggs, toast, oatmeal and the cinnamon buns. This is one of the volunteer projects that I really enjoy doing and I’m hoping it will be more than a one time event. There’s something about cooking that I like.

Ever since I retired, I’ve been the cook here at home. It didn’t take me long to get used to doing that and now it seems perfectly natural. I’m still working on some bad habits of mine; I tend to buy far more than I need when shopping for meals. But, when cooking for just two, that’s always going to be problem. The good news; I’m getting better at it and I haven’t killed anyone yet.

Reason

Getting Trimmed

What's sad is the fact that we are no longer surprised by this kind of news...in fact, it almost seems normal.

Getting inside their heads

... really inside -

Definitely! But it will never happen. American's are in denial about mental health problems and always will be. (Does this tie-in with the last post, or what? I told you I was scared!)

Power

Lately, my days don’t begin as I would wish them to. Time Goes By, the Ronni Bennett blog that I’ve been enjoying for the past months or so, has shut its doors. That blog was usually my first stop of the morning. Now, where can I go?

I did find this final interview with Ronni on the Boomer 411 site. And this is from that interview…

“…Because American culture so adores youth to the exclusion of age, I think there is an idea, hardly articulated among us, that to retire is to enter another, less colorful country where we become different from what we were - less interesting and interested. That is wrong.

However, surveys show that retired women are much more likely than men to not only continue past interests, but to take up new ones. Men, according to surveys, appear to miss the status of their work life more than women do and that is something boomer men should consider and find a way to deal with before retirement.”

As usual, I’m different. I don’t miss my work life at all. Sure, I enjoy posting to my Working blog, but that’s history and memories of a far distant time. In fact, it was history long before I retired.

I’m living an entirely new life now and I find it quite interesting. I don’t have time to do all the things I want to do, but I do have the freedom to choose each day what I will do and I’m learning something new every day. My body still works, though it shows signs of wear. I could probably deal with a physical failure, but the thought of mental failure fills me with dread. That wouldn’t be living at all. I want to keep on ‘thinking’ at all costs.

And by the way, this stage of life is just like all the others; there are no instructions.

I’ve moved on in the book, Commander in Chief, by Geoffrey Perret and I’m almost finished with the Truman era. What a great read! I was 12 when Truman left the scene and Ike became president. And the names that I read are familiar to me but without any depth of knowledge. (At that age I read the newspaper every day, but television didn’t ‘do’ the news as we know it today. We were a radio family and the radio was always sitting on the kitchen table.) Clark Clifford, General Marshall, General MacArthur and Dean Atcheson are given in-depth treatment in the book. The only one who comes out looking good after this is General Marshall. He, at least, had the good sense to submit his resignation to Truman rather than going along with him.

What I’ve read so far also scares me. Truman pushed the ‘nuclear’ button without a lot of knowledge as to what was going to happen afterwards. He simply wasn’t that bright. Or caring. And since those days of atomic bombs, we’ve moved on to hydrogen bombs and increased the potential for the destruction of the human race to a level that should terrify us… if we only knew. And that’s the problem today; with only a few generations left alive that do remember the horror of the atomic bomb, the words have become ink on paper and have no power any more. It’s like reality television and no one gets hurt.

To think that bush has that power should scare us all…

Reason

- Daily Brickbats

Amazing stuff here...

Reason

- Patriot Games

Ho Ho Ho!

What’s So Great

about Gated Communities?

I love it!

Now, if only they would all go back inside their gated communities and close and lock the gate. Weld it shut...gotta keep the Walloons out!

Open Your Eyes

I have a new book to read, Commander in Chief, by Geoffrey Perret. I’m only about 100 pages into it, but it has been eye opening to say the least. Reading the files and letters that have been kept out of public scrutiny for all of these years, makes history come alive again for the Truman years. It’s amazing to me that we have made it this far after being led by so many people that were as dumb as fence posts. In fact, Harry could easily be compared to W, only without the mean streak that seems to run in that family. Harry wasn’t much for facts if they got in the way of what he wanted to do.

Yet again,

Bush does not let facts deter him

Why should he start now? Lies have worked for him for the past 8 years. Besides, it's a family tradition.

Good

and Decent Republicans? -

Jaime says it quite clearly...

"I am appalled by the hypocrisy of people who call themselves patriotic Republicans but who fail to raise their voices in the face of so many crimes against the nation they profess to love."

Oh, Ye of Little Faith!

All is normal this morning. The news is all about the gross stupidity of the current administration. Nothing new there. The biggest event on the horizon is the speech to be given this week by Willard Romney, all about his religion. He’s been trying to underplay his Mormonism for some time, but as Huckabee creeps closer in the polls, it’s time for him to do something; well, positive.

And as I was browsing, I ran across this… "I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end,'' JFK declared -- in 1960. “I am not the Catholic Church's candidate for president... I am the Democratic Party's candidate.”

Well, it’s almost 48 years later and religious intolerance is alive and well. Probably even stronger than ever because of the Republicans. After all, intolerance, of any kind, is as American as apple pie! But with the Republican brand of Christianity, (That’s the one with the big “C’) tolerance can be bought with money and Willard brings a lot of that to the table. So it’s going to be interesting to see the Religious Right contort themselves into impossible shapes as they try to remain focused on what they say they hate, Mormonism, while keeping one hand out for Willard’s money and patting Huckabee on the back with the other.

Wouldn’t it be great if we had a president who never said what his or her faith might be and we all assumed that he or she was of our own faith just because of the way he or she acted?

A christian should never have to declare their faith. If you can’t tell that they are christians by their behavior, they are not doing what they should be doing.

HybridCars

Frequently Asked Questions

This answers most of them...

As for the Honda EV... it looks like General Motors did them in with a sale of the patent rights for the battery to Texaco/Chevron. Patent fights ensued. Upshot was, no battery.... no Honda. And of course Texaco/Chevron is well known for encouraging the use of alternate fuel vehicles.

And GM plans on using the polluting NiCad batteries in its new Volt car. Of course GM is just giving the people what they want, as they always have.

All in all a good exercise. I now know more about these vehicles. But, would I look good in a Mini? A Mini-Cooper, that is?

Nissan

Altima battery power

Here's a good review of the battery debate...

Batteries

Just doing some checking, as my daughter reminded me that I should be conscious of the final disposal of the batteries in hybrid vehicles.

Here's one source,..."Toyota dealers and the nine regional Toyota parts distribution centers collaborate on battery recycling. That kind of networking is something Toyota generaly excels at. When a customer's Prius battery pack needs replacement, the truck that delivered a new one to his dealer returns to the parts center with the spent battery, and any other parts destined for disassembly and reclamation. When enough batteries have accumulated at a parts center to fill a truck, they are shipped to a recycle operation.
.
Not across the sea to Japan I’d hope?
.
No the final recycling steps for batteries are outsourced here in the US. "

Now I need to research the same thing for Honda and for Altima.

Iran has no nuke program

U.S. intel says - Los Angeles Times

Oh, no!!!! Now what will we do? Please President Cheney, tell us... oops! President Bush, please tell us what to think now.

America's top

anti-tech organizations -

One of my favorite subjects; the availability and cost of broadband.

On the Border

One of the big items for politicians to expound upon this year (and the next) is the issue of immigrants. And since I didn’t want to pick on the Hispanic population, the Hmong’s, or the French Canadians or any of the other popular groups to hate; I’ve decided to be against immigration by the Walloons. I don’t think there are any in my neighborhood, so I probably don’t risk a poke in the nose if I decide to ‘hate’ them.

How would I know if there were any Walloons in my neighborhood? Well, they have far too many children, they take all the jobs that good Americans should have, when they’re not working, they are on welfare, they look funny and they talk funny. They take all of the benefits of living in this country and contribute nothing. When’s the last time you heard of a Walloon doing something good? Well? Anything? See, I knew you couldn’t come up with anything…

ps. If you are a Walloon and are offended, let me know and I will change all references of Walloons to Moldavians. (Those darn Moldavians!)

What's new?

Well, that’s certainly different! 53 degrees at 4 in the morning… I suppose it’s the storm that was blown in yesterday that’s causing it this ‘heat wave’. Or is it, dare I say the words; global warming?

I’ve been looking at the headlines this morning and I read that, in Russia, Putin’s political party was going to be in power, elected in a landslide. Critics are saying that the election was rigged and I’m sure there were abuses. No country seems immune from that kind of thing. But, I’ve been reading over the years that the majority of Russians are opposed to democracy and want a return to being told what to do by a powerful and charismatic leader and Putin fills that role perfectly. “Allegations of ballot fraud are unlikely to strike a chord with the majority of Russians who, opinion polls show, want Putin to stay on as a “national leader.” The opposition parties most critical of Putin have marginal support.”

The story in Russia demonstrates just how fragile democracy really is. We say we love it, but we really don’t like ‘free speech’ or any idea that differs from what the collective ‘we, the people’ thinks. Critical thinking is demonized by the anti-intellectuals. Sadly, most people would rather be led; and told what to do.

On a different note; we’re in the market for a new car next year and so I look at the ads and dream of what might be. A Mini-Cooper? Cute, but impractical; I think? And then I ran across an ad for an Aura. Aura? Isn’t that something that is, somewhat, ephemeral? And the mileage is only 24/32. And since we know that those figures are lies, the actual numbers will be closer to 20/28. And to be honest, I’m afraid that GM will drop Saturn whenever it pleases them, just as they did with Oldsmobile. GM hasn’t spent a lot of money promoting the Saturn name and that has me suspicious.

I’ve also been looking at the Nissan Altima hybrid. It has a 35/33 mileage rating and a lot of standard ‘extra’s’ for your money. The design, the overall look, of the car leaves me disappointed, but it does look better than the Prius or the Honda hybrid. And the Altima uses the Prius hybrid engine and transmission, so you get the best of both worlds.

But… I hesitate. What if a better car with better mileage comes out just as soon as we buy? I know, I know; it’s the chance you have to take. Back in the good old days, it would take a full year or more before any new models would show up. In fact, we could depend on seeing all of the new models in October. Every year. Same time. And there would be a car show to go to where you could see and sit in every model of every manufacturer. The air just reeked of ‘new car’.

Being a vocal proponent of change, I really can’t complain that much. Change is good, even when it confuses me. And the good old days were simply the old days, not necessarily all that good.

872 Manhattan Beach Blvd

Manhattan Beach, CA, $1,247,000

Amazing! Look at the previous prices (lower right).

Funny, but we used to live only a house or two away from here; except there weren't any houses there at the time. A large vacant lot stretched from our little brick house all the way to the school. And the brick house? The only one in MB at the time and it even had a basement, or more properly, a cellar. Let's see... that would have been 1947?

Immigration Contractor

Trims Wages - New York Times

It's all so simple. Cut wages and production increases? Right ON! Yes, that's something I learned a long time ago. Fear and intimidation go a long way towards creating a productive workplace. Happy workers spend too much time grinning when they should be working. We should try this approach with Congress!

Fuel Bill

House Speaker’s Muscle - New York Times

Politics or common sense? Politics wins again. We need new fuel economy regulations now! Not 12 years from now. This just opened the door even wider for the imported cars that promise and deliver. Unlike politicians that promise and...

Sorapot -

Modern Teapot -

Just when you think you've seen every conceivable form of tea pot...here comes a great one!

Nonstop

Theft and Bribery Are Staggering Iraq - New York Times

Just in case you didn't know.

With all of the boring noise that the candidates are making these days, it's sometimes hard to remember that we're still very much engaged in Iraq. In a quagmire. All the way up to our wallets.

Book Review:

Global Warning

It sounds great, but I'm so opinionated! C'mon...a Reader's Digest book? I automatically think 'condensed'. And it looks more like a coffee table book. Nothing wrong with that, except it trivializes it for me. 'Serious' books don't go on the coffee table.

But, I could be wrong...

Practice makes perfect

After getting my housekeeping chores out of the way; reading the emails and deleting the ‘bacn’ (That’s Spam you actually subscribe to.) it was time to go through the feeds. And I was glad to see a new one from Eavesdrop Writer. Always great stuff here. In fact, as I was sitting in Cal-Java yesterday, I tried to overhear some conversations. Failure. With my personality type, INFP, I find it difficult to multi-task and my head pops up from the newspaper every time I try to concentrate on a conversation overheard. It’s not good form to stare and I’m afraid that will happen, so I went back to my paper. Maybe I should practice?

Art First

I’m a little bit sore and stiff this morning. The longer walk (6.3 miles) in the park yesterday has revealed my true physical condition. Sad. But, I still have time to get ready for the Portland Marathon next fall. That’s about 10 months away; plenty of time to regain my race walking skills. And lose some weight. Also, I’m still looking for some brave soul that might want to try a marathon and walk with me. I can guarantee a good time in Portland.

I always enjoy reading the Daily Quotes on my Google homepage and this one, “If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them. - Isaac Asimov,” is already a favorite.

What’s that noise? Ah! It’s raining and that would explain the warmer temps this morning. And it looks like we’re safe from any more freezing weather for at least a week. But the wind will be with us, blowing the remaining leaves from the trees.

Speaking of trees, the walnuts decided to shed theirs yesterday. Funny tree, the walnut. It holds onto its leaves for most of the fall and then on some random date, known only to the tree, it dumps them all at once. Don’t be standing under it when it decides to let them loose! There’s still a few on the tree, ones that didn’t get the message, but the next few days of wind and rain will persuade them to make the leap.

Yesterday was Art First Saturday in Chico and we made the rounds of our favorite galleries; the Chico Art Center, All Fired Up, and The Chico Paper Company. And we also decided that spring, summer and fall are the best times for an art walk. It was dark, cold and windy last night, not at all conducive to art enjoyment. Even so, it was good to get our creative juices flowing again. And then it was time for dinner… something warm!

Mail Voters Rule!

Good news... I was reading the Bee and found that a new Field Poll shows that 4.2 million voters in California vote by mail. That's 27.2% of the registered voters. And in the 2006 Primary, 47% of the votes cast were mailed in.

Now all we need to do is convince the lawmakers to go to all mail voting as is practiced in Oregon.

Our day is coming!

Sudan protesters

seek Briton's execution -

How do you talk sensibly with idiots? This is beyond comprehension.

Changing Aging

You said, what?

And with the privatization of Social Security, you can expect these things to happen hundreds of times a day...

President Bush's

travel entourage -

Can anyone tell me what this works out to as a cost per mile? Just curious.

Quotes

Food for thought

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.” - Henry Ford

And learning means change...

(Henry Ford was not a role model for anyone...but he was right about this.)

Dark Roasted Blend

Liquid Art & Droplet Photography

You have some extra bandwidth that you don't know what to do with? Use it up here.

Buy n Large

Buy n Large is now my favorite website!

Don't worry...I know it looks a little scary, but just check out their privacy policies and EULA's at the bottom of the page.

Fed Lawyers

Did Fed Lawyer Use Geeks-on-Call to Erase Gov't Computer Evidence?

Nah! I'm sure he was just trying to get rid of those pesky virii. But... wouldn't he have had an anti-virus program on his government owned computer?

Odds and Ends

And here’s some links that I found. All sounded interesting.

For the first time in more than 25 years, Americans aren't getting any fatter

By Karen Kaplan and Denise Gellene

The percentage of overweight adults has stayed the same recently, but it's still at an all-time high. 'You can only get so fat,' one physiologist says.

I’m afraid it will have to stay that way. Weight reduction would cause a dramatic drop in cotton sales worldwide. Farmers would default on their loans. Cotton pickers would have to go on welfare. A million Chinese workers laid off. A tragedy!

FDA contemplating crackdown on salt

By Ricardo Alonso-zaldivar

The AMA, which says Americans should consume 50% less sodium, has joined consumer groups asking for government intervention.

It’s about time. I’ve seen people putting salt on pizza. What are they thinking? People; we’re our own worst enemy.

And then I was thinking about John Adams. Yes, that John Adams; the great patriot. He was the one who pushed the Alien & Sedition Act into law. With an administration like the one we are enduring right now, you have to think about history…a little bit. And so I searched and found this commentary from 2003.

And then there are the quotes to look at.

Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor by the well-housed, well- warmed, and well-fed. - Herman Melville

You can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, place it in the navel of a firefly and still have room enough for three caraway seeds and a producer's heart. - Fred Allen

His lack of education is more than compensated for by his keenly developed moral bankruptcy. - Woody Allen

Fools rush in where fools have been before. - Unknown

Science is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science. - Henri Poincare

Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.
- Will Rogers

I don't deserve this award, but I have arthritis and I don't deserve that either. - Jack Benny

On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time. - George Orwell