It's a fact that electric cars exist. With the Hybrid car market booming, I wonder, why are we settling for 60mpg? Why don't we just ditch the whole gasolene thing?
Well, maybe electric cars have heavy batteries, can only drive for 100 or less miles, and accelerate from 0 to 60 in 20 seconds. Of course, we've all heard about the nuisance of plugging your car in at night, and that "you won't really save that much money because your electric bill will go up." I've decided to research these reasons and let you know what I find.
1) Electric cars have heavy batteries - Yes, this is true, right now. Just do a google search on lightweight batteries though and you'll see some amazing breakthroughs that we know little about. Just consider if we put $1 for every gallon of gas that the US consumes toward lightweight battery research, in one year, we might have some pretty darn lightweight and powerful batteries
2) Can only drive for 100 miles or less - this is true too, mostly, but somehow if you're willing to spend enough $$ you can get one that goes further. You could actually get a really nice one called the "Tesla" next year for only $100,000 (www.teslamotors.com/). This one can drive about 250 miles on a single charge. It's pretty nice looking too. Interesting that we can buy a sports car for $100,000, but we can't get a regular one that will go as far on a single charge. Hmmmm.
3) You won't really save that much money because your electric bill will go up. Well, yes, your electric bill will go up slightly, but there are several factors involved. First is gas price. Right now at roughly $3 per gallon, your price per mile on a 25mpg car is 12 cents per mile. If you have a hybrid that gets *60 mpg (I put the * there because that's under premium driving conditions, they usually only get 45 or 50) you would pay about 5 cents per mile. The charge for an electric car at night would be about 1 cent per mile. Now for those of you out there with SUVs that get 15mpg, you pay about 2o cents per mile. After 50,000 miles, you've paid $10,000 in gas, whereas the rich sportscar guy paid only $500. He still has another 200,000 miles to drive in order to save enough money to justify the original cost, but you see my point.
Enough of my rant. By the way, you can convert an old car to electric for $4,000 to $8,000 (http://www.evworld.com/).
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Monday, July 24, 2006
The e-book – for those of us who like to pay full price for all our books.
This weekend, as I was sitting down reading my Popular Science magazine, I read about a fancy new gadget that Sony is introducing called the Sony Reader. It's a really neat device that uses charged particles that they dub "E-ink". This "e-ink" is a great power saver becuase it only requires power to create the words on the page. After the words are electronically "written" on the screen, no power is necessary to maintain them. They will stay there without needing any battery power. It's a very ingeious device and a versitile new technology, but there are some drawbacks and I promised Kristen and Amanda that I would write about them.
The first of which is the cost. One of these babies costs as much as roughly 45 paperback books. But you don't get the books with it. You have to pay approx. $7 for each e-book that you want to read on it. In addition to that, I'm the kind of guy who likes buying used 50 cent books at yard sales. You can't do that with e-books. You have to pay full price for every book you read.
In fact, it seems the e-book and mp3s have many things in common. They are about the only two technologies that have no notion of what "used" means. It's no wonder music and e-book piracy is through the roof, the publishers and music producers are trying to eliminate "used" music and "used" books. They can charge full price for all their products indefinitely. Don't tell me that the music industry is loosing money because of the i-pod. And what about an e-book library? Can you go to the e-library and get e-books?
The technology is great for both e-books and MP3s, but someone needs to give us back our ability to re-sell something that we bought.
If nothing is done about it, here is my tip for you. Invest in music and publishing companies, their income will be through the roof in 20 years or so.
The first of which is the cost. One of these babies costs as much as roughly 45 paperback books. But you don't get the books with it. You have to pay approx. $7 for each e-book that you want to read on it. In addition to that, I'm the kind of guy who likes buying used 50 cent books at yard sales. You can't do that with e-books. You have to pay full price for every book you read.
In fact, it seems the e-book and mp3s have many things in common. They are about the only two technologies that have no notion of what "used" means. It's no wonder music and e-book piracy is through the roof, the publishers and music producers are trying to eliminate "used" music and "used" books. They can charge full price for all their products indefinitely. Don't tell me that the music industry is loosing money because of the i-pod. And what about an e-book library? Can you go to the e-library and get e-books?
The technology is great for both e-books and MP3s, but someone needs to give us back our ability to re-sell something that we bought.
If nothing is done about it, here is my tip for you. Invest in music and publishing companies, their income will be through the roof in 20 years or so.
New Stuff Added
I've added some buttons to the bottom of the list on the right of this page. There's now a button to add to your yahoo page. Another one if you want to be e-mailed every time I update this page. And another one if you don't use yahoo as your homepage. Enjoy :) I'll post something soon.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Crickets -- Nature's Thermometers
Interesting fact of today.
50 + ((# of Cricket chirps in 60 seconds - 50) / 4) = Degrees Farenheit
Pretty cool! Try it out it.
50 + ((# of Cricket chirps in 60 seconds - 50) / 4) = Degrees Farenheit
Pretty cool! Try it out it.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
About us
Hello again everyone. Most of you who have been reading this blog know about Maria. Kristen, Alanna and I are doing very well. There are several times during each day where we look back and wish to have her back or times when we are reminded by something we see and we think back to our time in the hospital with her and our parents. But we want you all to know that God is in control. God did not bring death into the world. And God did not take her from us, he gave her a soul and an eternity in heaven. Not a bad deal. If you want to be angry at anyone, be angry at Satan and us. He is the "Great Tempter" and we are the ones who sin and bring death. Jesus Christ brings life and healing.
In many ways I am jealous of our 6 day old daughter because she has an everlasting soul, just like we all do, but she gets heaven without having to face all the hurts and pains that the rest of us do. I have 50 to 70 more years here on earth if I'm lucky. One million years from now, when we are all in heaven with each other and Maria (if we accept the gift of life that Jesus so freely gives to us) these few years on earth will seem a distant memory.
I am sad that she isn't with us now, but I rejoice that God gave us the opportunity to add another soul to His kingdom. One with whom we will share only good times and memories for millions of years.
My readers, know this. The Bible says that we mourn, but not as those who have no hope. Until this ordeal I had no idea what "hope" meant in that passage. Now I have experienced hope. Hope is not a wish, it is confidence. I don't "hope" that Maria is in heaven. I know she is and I know I will see her again. We can't convince or talk ourselves into having this type of confidence, it is a gift from God at the same time as our salvation. If you don't feel this true hope, but you know you have accepted God's gift of heaven through Jesus Christ, you don't have to feel it. It's there, and it will come out when you need it, as it has with me.
I hope this finds you all well.
Jay
In many ways I am jealous of our 6 day old daughter because she has an everlasting soul, just like we all do, but she gets heaven without having to face all the hurts and pains that the rest of us do. I have 50 to 70 more years here on earth if I'm lucky. One million years from now, when we are all in heaven with each other and Maria (if we accept the gift of life that Jesus so freely gives to us) these few years on earth will seem a distant memory.
I am sad that she isn't with us now, but I rejoice that God gave us the opportunity to add another soul to His kingdom. One with whom we will share only good times and memories for millions of years.
My readers, know this. The Bible says that we mourn, but not as those who have no hope. Until this ordeal I had no idea what "hope" meant in that passage. Now I have experienced hope. Hope is not a wish, it is confidence. I don't "hope" that Maria is in heaven. I know she is and I know I will see her again. We can't convince or talk ourselves into having this type of confidence, it is a gift from God at the same time as our salvation. If you don't feel this true hope, but you know you have accepted God's gift of heaven through Jesus Christ, you don't have to feel it. It's there, and it will come out when you need it, as it has with me.
I hope this finds you all well.
Jay
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