Consumer Reports recently wrote a scathing report on Government Motors new Wundercar -- the Chevy Volt.
Consumer Reports concluded that:
"When you are looking at purely dollars and cents, it doesn't really make a lot of sense. The Volt isn't particularly efficient as an electric vehicle and it's not particularly good as a gas vehicle either in terms of fuel economy."
They are exactly right.
In real world conditions, the Volt will go about 28 miles on a charge. It takes 3 to 4 hours to recharge it.
Contrast that with the Tesla Roadster (made in America) which gets up to 245 miles on a charge and the upcoming Tesla Model S sedan, which will get up to 300 miles on a charge.
Unlike the Tesla models, the Volt has a gasoline engine that kicks in to recharge the battery when it runs dry. As Consumer Reports concluded, the combination doesn't live up to GM's hype.
Plug-in electrics are not the future anyway.
I've been convinced for quite a few years that Hydrogen Fuel cell electrics are the future. Most of the major auto companies, including Mercedes, Toyota, and even GM, seem to agree.
Fuel cell cars are powered by the most abundant molecule in the universe -- hydrogen. They produce electricity through a chemical reaction that is caused by combining hydrogen and oxygen. That energy is fed into an electrical motor. The only tailpipe emission is water vapor.
GM has a pretty good fuel cell prototype in the Equinox Fuel Cell SUV. The Equinox is a full size SUV powered by a hydrogen fuel cell.
The Equinox will currently go 160 miles on a tank full of hydrogen in real world conditions. It can be refueled in a couple of minutes. On a fuel cost basis, it gets about 70 miles to a gallon of gas. Not bad. And it's electric, so you get close to full torque at all RPMs, even in reverse!
Toyota has been showing off a similar fuel cell SUV. Mercedes is currently piloting a small "B-class" fuel cell car, with plans for larger fuel cell cars in the near future. Toyota and most other car companies have major fuel cell efforts underway.
The big challenge to fuel cell adoption is the refueling infrastructure.
GM has partnered with the Hawaiian Gas Company, which is building hydrogen refueling stations across Oahu. Mercedes has formed similar partnerships with energy companies in Germany who plan to roll out 1,000 hydrogen refueling stations in Germany over the next five years. California already has a handful of hydrogen refueling stations, with plans for many more.
Tesla has proved that electrical cars can be sexy and powerful. The Telsa Roadster is a great looking car. It goes from 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds, which is as fast as the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, Corvette Z06, and Porsche 911 GT3.
Electric cars are definitely the future.
What we need is an electric car that can be refueled in about the same time as a gasoline car.
That is what hydrogen fuel cells provide.
Hat's off to GM for trying something new and innovative with the Volt. Innovations don't always succeed. I suspect that the Volt will wind up amongst the long line of failures that GM has tried to bring to market over the last several decades.
However, GM is also on the forefront of fuel cell technology. That's a good thing.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Random Thoughts on the Situation in Japan
Japan is suffering through a horrendous series of back-to-back catastrophes that are starting to make the world question whether or not Japan will survive.
I've been to Japan 25+ times. Japan is a great country. The Japanese are a great people. They will survive these catastrophes.
However, they may not be able to survive their own brain dead politics which have:
A.) Kept Japan in a rolling recession for 20 years because the politicians refuse to reform their financial system.
B.) Torpedoed population growth by discouraging young women from marrying and having babies. (Only single women can really have careers in Japan, so many young women just don't get married and don't have kids.)
As sad as it sounds, perhaps the Earthquake, Tsunami, and resulting nuclear challenges will wake Japan out of it's 20 year old slumber and ignite their spirit of quality, excellence, and results that typified Japan in decades after WWII.
I've been to Japan 25+ times. Japan is a great country. The Japanese are a great people. They will survive these catastrophes.
However, they may not be able to survive their own brain dead politics which have:
A.) Kept Japan in a rolling recession for 20 years because the politicians refuse to reform their financial system.
B.) Torpedoed population growth by discouraging young women from marrying and having babies. (Only single women can really have careers in Japan, so many young women just don't get married and don't have kids.)
As sad as it sounds, perhaps the Earthquake, Tsunami, and resulting nuclear challenges will wake Japan out of it's 20 year old slumber and ignite their spirit of quality, excellence, and results that typified Japan in decades after WWII.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Libyan War Hypocrisy
The reaction to the Libyan war on all sides has been hilarious and the worst demonstration of hypocrisy that I have ever seen.
Republicans who cheered Bush when he attacked Iraq are now up in arms about Obama doing essentially the same thing.
On the other side, the same Democrats who attacked Bush are either cheering Obama or remaining silent.
The ONLY two groups who have been completely consistent are the far-far left (Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Nader, Cindy Sheehan, etc.) and libertarians (Judge Napolitano, Ron Paul, Rand Paul, etc).
Obama's foreign escapade has done a great job uncovering how screwed up things have really become in America.
Republicans who cheered Bush when he attacked Iraq are now up in arms about Obama doing essentially the same thing.
On the other side, the same Democrats who attacked Bush are either cheering Obama or remaining silent.
The ONLY two groups who have been completely consistent are the far-far left (Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Nader, Cindy Sheehan, etc.) and libertarians (Judge Napolitano, Ron Paul, Rand Paul, etc).
Obama's foreign escapade has done a great job uncovering how screwed up things have really become in America.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Open Season on Bureaucrats -- The Revolution Continues
Miami-Dade County Mayor Mayor Carlos Alvarez raised property taxes. He used the money to give huge raises to government bureaucrats.
Yesterday, he was booted from office in a landslide recall election.
200,000 people voted in the election, making this the largest recall election of a local government official in U.S. history.
88% of the people voted to toss him out.
This should be another warning to the cowardly and clueless politicians in D.C. who are still refusing to deal with the government deficit, debt, and economy.
Do your jobs, or it's your turn next.
Yesterday, he was booted from office in a landslide recall election.
200,000 people voted in the election, making this the largest recall election of a local government official in U.S. history.
88% of the people voted to toss him out.
This should be another warning to the cowardly and clueless politicians in D.C. who are still refusing to deal with the government deficit, debt, and economy.
Do your jobs, or it's your turn next.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
America is still the Land of Dreams
The continuing poor economic situation really got me thinking about what America is all about and what it means to be an American.
I don't like to write about my family, but given the ugly situation in Wisconsin and elsewhere, I feel the urgent need to write about my wonderful wife and how she is realizing her dreams in America.
When I got divorced a few years ago, a friend advised me to take a broader perspective on potential partners than women in my local area. During my career, I've traveled the world many times and I've met a lot great people. So, I took his advice. I found a great woman in the Philippines.
We were married in May, 2007.
My wife opened a home day center in the fall of 2009. She found the regulations, she passed her state inspections, she acquired customers, and she served her customers well. Her customers love her.
In her first year in business, my wife netted over $40K. Not bad for a girl from the third world in her first year as a business woman in America.
We are now saving so that she can open a large day care center. She has dreams of opening many day centers. She will do it.
In her short time in America, my wife already knows that your dreams can come true. She has seen it. She has done it. Her dreams are coming true every day. She is thankful for being in America. Nothing will stop her.
Unfortunately, American leftists just don't get it. They are so tied up in their income distribution, collective bargaining nonsense that they can't see the real America. To them, the entire concept of America is lost in the haze of political nonsense.
My wife grew up in a one room bamboo hut. She picked root crops for her grandmother's family business. Her daily shower was pouring a bucket of water over her head.
Now she is a successful business woman in America.
In spite of the county's problems, America is still the land of dreams and opportunities. My wife has demonstrated this.
All I can say is: Shame on the lazy. Shame on the government bureaucrats. Shame on the political left. Shame on them all for trying to destroy this country and what America represents to humanity across the world.
Shame, shame, shame.
I don't like to write about my family, but given the ugly situation in Wisconsin and elsewhere, I feel the urgent need to write about my wonderful wife and how she is realizing her dreams in America.
When I got divorced a few years ago, a friend advised me to take a broader perspective on potential partners than women in my local area. During my career, I've traveled the world many times and I've met a lot great people. So, I took his advice. I found a great woman in the Philippines.
We were married in May, 2007.
My wife opened a home day center in the fall of 2009. She found the regulations, she passed her state inspections, she acquired customers, and she served her customers well. Her customers love her.
In her first year in business, my wife netted over $40K. Not bad for a girl from the third world in her first year as a business woman in America.
We are now saving so that she can open a large day care center. She has dreams of opening many day centers. She will do it.
In her short time in America, my wife already knows that your dreams can come true. She has seen it. She has done it. Her dreams are coming true every day. She is thankful for being in America. Nothing will stop her.
Unfortunately, American leftists just don't get it. They are so tied up in their income distribution, collective bargaining nonsense that they can't see the real America. To them, the entire concept of America is lost in the haze of political nonsense.
My wife grew up in a one room bamboo hut. She picked root crops for her grandmother's family business. Her daily shower was pouring a bucket of water over her head.
Now she is a successful business woman in America.
In spite of the county's problems, America is still the land of dreams and opportunities. My wife has demonstrated this.
All I can say is: Shame on the lazy. Shame on the government bureaucrats. Shame on the political left. Shame on them all for trying to destroy this country and what America represents to humanity across the world.
Shame, shame, shame.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Thomas Friedman and the Great Man Theory of History
Thomas Friedman recently wrote an article stating that Obama's racial make-up and religious ancestry are the root causes of the turmoil in the Middle east today. According to Friedman, people have decided to fight their governments because Obama is black and his father was Muslim. Here is what Friedman actually wrote:
Americans have never fully appreciated what a radical thing we did — in the eyes of the rest of the world — in electing an African-American with the middle name Hussein as president. I’m convinced that listening to Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech — not the words, but the man — were more than a few young Arabs who were saying to themselves: “Hmmm, let’s see. He’s young. I’m young. He’s dark- skinned. I’m dark-skinned. His middle name is Hussein. My name is Hussein. His grandfather is a Muslim. My grandfather is a Muslim. He is president of the United States. And I’m an unemployed young Arab with no vote and no voice in my future.” I’d put that in my mix of forces fueling these revolts.
Over the last few years Friedman has pretended to be some kind world authority because he's actually been somewhere other than Toronto and Cancun.
Well, I've been in 26 countries on 6 continents. I've been to many countries 20 or more times each.
I can tell you with complete certainty that Friedman has learned nothing in his travels around the world.
Thomas Friedman is trapped in the early 20th century "great man" theory of history. Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Roosevelt, Kennedy... "Great" men (not good men, but powerful men) changed our destiny. According to that view, a "Great Man" is the necessary catalyst for dramatic change.
Friedman desperately wants Obama to be the next "great man" who changes history.
The current reality is very different. The revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East are based on the availability of open and uncensored information. The same kind of open and uncensored information that Friedman and the mainstream American media views as a threat.
The Middle East has a very young population. They are on Facebook, Twitter, email, various discussion groups, and SMS (cell-phone text messages) interacting with their friends and relatives living in America and other western countries, as well as new acquaintances that they met on the internet. They also watch cable stations like CNBC International, CNN, and Al Jazeera. They know more about the world around them than any generation that proceeded them.
These people can actually see our freedom. They don't hate our freedom like Rudy Giuliani and other neo-cons believe. They are envious of it. What they hate are their own rulers who deny them this freedom.
In any societal disruption, changes in the environment build slowly. Eventually, those changes reach a tipping point and then radical change seems to happen overnight. This is what we are seeing in the Middle East today. The change that the internet brought to their countries has finally reached the tipping point. As a result, the people have awoken and the dictators are falling one by one.
I do agree with Friedman on one point -- we are only seeing the beginning of this revolution. There are dozens of tyrannies in the middle east and Africa that will eventually fall as part of this information awakening.
That is a good thing for them and eventually the world. I am glad to be here to see it.
Americans have never fully appreciated what a radical thing we did — in the eyes of the rest of the world — in electing an African-American with the middle name Hussein as president. I’m convinced that listening to Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech — not the words, but the man — were more than a few young Arabs who were saying to themselves: “Hmmm, let’s see. He’s young. I’m young. He’s dark- skinned. I’m dark-skinned. His middle name is Hussein. My name is Hussein. His grandfather is a Muslim. My grandfather is a Muslim. He is president of the United States. And I’m an unemployed young Arab with no vote and no voice in my future.” I’d put that in my mix of forces fueling these revolts.
Over the last few years Friedman has pretended to be some kind world authority because he's actually been somewhere other than Toronto and Cancun.
Well, I've been in 26 countries on 6 continents. I've been to many countries 20 or more times each.
I can tell you with complete certainty that Friedman has learned nothing in his travels around the world.
Thomas Friedman is trapped in the early 20th century "great man" theory of history. Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Roosevelt, Kennedy... "Great" men (not good men, but powerful men) changed our destiny. According to that view, a "Great Man" is the necessary catalyst for dramatic change.
Friedman desperately wants Obama to be the next "great man" who changes history.
The current reality is very different. The revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East are based on the availability of open and uncensored information. The same kind of open and uncensored information that Friedman and the mainstream American media views as a threat.
The Middle East has a very young population. They are on Facebook, Twitter, email, various discussion groups, and SMS (cell-phone text messages) interacting with their friends and relatives living in America and other western countries, as well as new acquaintances that they met on the internet. They also watch cable stations like CNBC International, CNN, and Al Jazeera. They know more about the world around them than any generation that proceeded them.
These people can actually see our freedom. They don't hate our freedom like Rudy Giuliani and other neo-cons believe. They are envious of it. What they hate are their own rulers who deny them this freedom.
In any societal disruption, changes in the environment build slowly. Eventually, those changes reach a tipping point and then radical change seems to happen overnight. This is what we are seeing in the Middle East today. The change that the internet brought to their countries has finally reached the tipping point. As a result, the people have awoken and the dictators are falling one by one.
I do agree with Friedman on one point -- we are only seeing the beginning of this revolution. There are dozens of tyrannies in the middle east and Africa that will eventually fall as part of this information awakening.
That is a good thing for them and eventually the world. I am glad to be here to see it.
Friday, February 25, 2011
The Final Death of the 20th Century
The last few weeks have been among the most exciting and promising in recent memory.
People all over the middle east are rising up against the tyrants who have lorded over them for decades.
Even Colonel Gaddafi -- a brutal dictator, who has been in power for 42 years -- is fighting for his survival. This should tell us all that something very big is happening in the world.
The turmoil isn't just occurring in the middle east.
Beleaguered taxpayers in Europe and America have staged their own revolutions as well -- booting out fiscally irresponsible politicians who have run up their public debt and torpedoed their economies.
In America, the Tea Party movement helped spur an electoral revolution that saw the largest GOP gains in the Congress in more than a generation.
Expectedly, the forces of reaction are waging a bitter fight against change.
Government bureaucrats and others who live off of tax money have staged violent protests in Greece, France, and the U.K.
In the U.S., the teacher's unions are mounting an all out effort to hold on to the unchecked power that they have over our wallets and our children.
America has among the worst public schools in the developed world. Last year we were 25th out of 34th in math and science. People across the political spectrum understand that we need fundamental reform in education. Over the last three decades, every proposal by both Democrats and Republicans to fix the public schools have been met by bitter opposition from the NEA and other government employee's unions. The NEA has been successful in blocking any and all change.
Today, the NEA is fighting for it's very survival.
The more I look at what's going on around the world, the more I am convinced that we are witnessing the final death of the 20th century and the concept of the all powerful state that it spawned.
People from Tea Party members in America to lowly peasants in Libya are standing up and saying: we've had enough, NO MORE.
It's a great time to be alive to witness this monumental struggle for freedom against the state.
The sad part is that America may very well lag in this revolution because our vested interests are the most powerful vested interests on earth. It's going to take more than one election to push them aside.
Let's hope that our resolve remains strong and that we remain focused, so that America remains the leading beacon of freedom in the world.
People all over the middle east are rising up against the tyrants who have lorded over them for decades.
Even Colonel Gaddafi -- a brutal dictator, who has been in power for 42 years -- is fighting for his survival. This should tell us all that something very big is happening in the world.
The turmoil isn't just occurring in the middle east.
Beleaguered taxpayers in Europe and America have staged their own revolutions as well -- booting out fiscally irresponsible politicians who have run up their public debt and torpedoed their economies.
In America, the Tea Party movement helped spur an electoral revolution that saw the largest GOP gains in the Congress in more than a generation.
Expectedly, the forces of reaction are waging a bitter fight against change.
Government bureaucrats and others who live off of tax money have staged violent protests in Greece, France, and the U.K.
In the U.S., the teacher's unions are mounting an all out effort to hold on to the unchecked power that they have over our wallets and our children.
America has among the worst public schools in the developed world. Last year we were 25th out of 34th in math and science. People across the political spectrum understand that we need fundamental reform in education. Over the last three decades, every proposal by both Democrats and Republicans to fix the public schools have been met by bitter opposition from the NEA and other government employee's unions. The NEA has been successful in blocking any and all change.
Today, the NEA is fighting for it's very survival.
The more I look at what's going on around the world, the more I am convinced that we are witnessing the final death of the 20th century and the concept of the all powerful state that it spawned.
People from Tea Party members in America to lowly peasants in Libya are standing up and saying: we've had enough, NO MORE.
It's a great time to be alive to witness this monumental struggle for freedom against the state.
The sad part is that America may very well lag in this revolution because our vested interests are the most powerful vested interests on earth. It's going to take more than one election to push them aside.
Let's hope that our resolve remains strong and that we remain focused, so that America remains the leading beacon of freedom in the world.
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