Category Archives: PC

Bashing – I

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I followed a Subaru out the causeway the other day. It got me to thinking.

Coupla things have gone wrong for our kids in the past 40-or-so years. Unfortunately, it’s my fault. And Anne’s. And Bob’s. And Sal’s. And Dangerous Bill’s. And Linda’s. And Gene’s.

Ooh, there ya go. Let’s blame it all on Geno even if he is too old for the blame.

Our generation started out anti-war and ended up anti-everything. Want to put up a windmill to save us from imported oil? Somebody will protest. Want to shoot a terrorist? Somebody will protest. Want to manufacture widgets in Vermont, make some money and put folks to work? Somebody will protest. Want to cut a mangrove? Somebody will protest. NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) wasn’t coined by George Orwell. It came from the baby boomers.

That negativity has spread so it overshadows everything American.

We see one side of it in Jeremiah Wright who said blacks should sing “God damn America.”

We see the other side in that Subaru driver. See, there is a large and growing segment of America bashers who believe anything accomplished here is necessarily flawed and anything built here is necessarily shoddy.

Malcolm Bricklin made a deal with Subaru in the 60s to form Subaru of America and to introduce their cars to the United States.

I almost bought a Subaru Brat in 1978 or ’79. This scaled-down clone of the El Camino and the Ranchero from Chevy and Ford came with 4WD, an optional turbo charger, and standard rust. It was not a good car for Vermont and it cemented my expectations about Subaru quality for a couple of decades, despite the Legacy which was a decent, mainstream car and despite the fact that my daughter and son-in-law are on their third “Subi.”

I’ve looked pretty carefully at this now “National car of Vermont.” Subaru has built owner loyalty among yuppies by building what they see as an economical alternative to the Chevy, Ford, Jeep, and Volvo lines. It’s a worthwhile car.

Subi buyers, with their brethren Honda, Saab, Toyota, and Volvo buyers, won’t consider an American car. America-bashers believe German cars offer superior luxury and performance. America-bashers believe Japanese cars offer more dependability and fuel economy. America-bashers believe Scandinavian cars offer higher safety and quality. (It’s worth noting the Subaru plant in Lafayette, Indiana, the original Honda plant in Marysville, Ohio, the Nissan plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, and the Toyota plants in Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Texas, and Virginia. Saab is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors. Volvo is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford.)

Domestic manufacturers have cars that lead in all these areas. In the J.D. Powers June survey, Mercury passed Honda and the Chevy Malibu was one of the best new vehicles of the year. The Detroit News reports that the survey results are “a pretty good predictor” of long-term vehicle quality and consumer satisfaction. Despite that, the domestic manufacturers may never overcome the usually uneducated bias among America-bashers, particularly those in the general press.

I have examined and driven the world class cars from Cadillac, Chevy, and Ford. The big Caddy STS V-8 can out-luxe and outhandle the Mercedes C300 and it gets 25 mpg on the highway. (Don’t believe me? The 2008 CTS outscored both the Mercedes and the BMW 328i in Consumer Reports’ sport sedan review.) The Corvette can stomp pretty much any sports car on pretty much any road. And it gets better mileage than the Caddy whilst idling down the Interstate. And then there is Malibu. 30 mpg. Comfortable. Good performance. Good fit and finish. Anne drives an Accord. The Malibu is simply better. (Consumer Reports again: “This is a heavy hitter that competes head-on with Camry, Accord, and Altima … Really no reason for GM to build the G6, Aura, Impala, or LaCrosse anymore – just sell these instead.”)

I learned to appreciate the Subaru so it is possible to change people’s minds. Maybe.

I guess others think their “foreign” cars are better than “American” cars. I guess the America-bashers are wrong. Again.

For the record, I have indeed put my money where my mouth is. I own GM stock. I drive a Camaro convertible (29.6 mpg on I95 with the top down in October) and a Silverado.

Solar Energy a Tough Sell

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The Miami Herald thinks solar power is a white elephant.

The old saying is, “If it bleeds, it leads.” I guess there wasn’t enough blood in South Florida yesterday.

Florida Power and Light, the principle utility here, has “scaled back grand plans for solar energy in Florida. Sunshine may be free, but generating energy from it is still a costly proposition,” according to a report by John Dorschner in the Miami Herald.

It surprised me to discover that “Florida gets much less direct sunlight than some other places.” The Herald continued that “What’s more, solar can be considerably more expensive than other forms of energy, experts say.”

For the record, FPL Group has desert solar plants and wind facilities throughout the western states. It is the largest U.S. producer of wind and solar power. FPL serves more than 4.4 million customer accounts across Florida.

“I haven’t seen anything yet that shows solar is right for Florida,” Jay Apt, executive director of the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center, concluded in the Herald.

Now for the real story.

“Backers of solar power insist that costs would drop quickly over time if solar gets support from utilities and politicians. But those who study energy economics are skeptical.”

I want to know where they found these experts. Consider this:

1959: “Only Jules Verne can get a man to the Moon”
1969: “That’s one small step for man …”

1975: “The American automobile industry can’t possibly double the gas mileage on cars. Double? Are you crazy?”
1985: The Corporate Average Fuel Economy for cars reached 27.5 mpg.

1992: “The sweet spot for desktop computers is $3,000” (I paid $3,085 1992 dollars for an 80486-based Gateway 2000 in May of that year).
2002: Gateway sold Pentium 4-based desktops with Windows XP for under a grand (and some for half of that now).

2006: Google founder Larry Page and Silicon Valley venture capitalists John Doerr and Vinod Khosla lit a public fire under solar power with a California ballot issue.

Computer chips and solar cells are, at the engineering level, pretty much the same thing.

“A solar cell is just a big specialized chip, so everything we’ve learned about making chips applies,” Paul Saffo, an associate engineering professor at Stanford University and a longtime observer of Silicon Valley said in the International Herald Trib earlier this year.

That tells us we can link Moore’s Law and solar technology. Moore’s law states that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit doubles every two years or so; its corollary is that prices plummet at around the same rate.

In 2006, Solaicx was one of dozens of Silicon Valley firms driving the then-$11 billion worldwide solar energy market. Applied Materials, the world’s largest manufacturer of chip-making equipment, began selling machinery that manufactures solar wafers that same year.

In 2006, SunPower founder Richard Swanson told CNN the solar industry was like the chip industry 30 years before. “It was an extremely fun and dynamic industry,” he said. “But unless you were in it, it was practically invisible until the IBM PC came out in 1981.”

That was a couple of years ago, long enough for the news to reach Florida by now.

So. Mr. Dorschner thinks solar power is a white elephant. I think the Herald and Mr. Dorschner should maybe do a little more research. And maybe, just maybe, they should report what the solar industry is doing that will change the numbers instead of looking to spill enough blood to kill it.

Filed under Bad Journalism and Far Green Angst.Sources:
http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/561858.html
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/17/technology/PING.php
http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/26/magazines/business2/solar_siliconvalley.biz2/index.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore’s_law

Vamping Us

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The undead are popular this year. Moonlight, the CBS Friday night crime drama with a vampire as the lead detective, drew a 2.1 share last Friday. That may have been the episode in which our hero came back to life and then reverted to his nighttime habits, but the show is popular every week.

Vampire Power. David Pogue in the NYTimes calls it “the juice consumed by electronic gadgets even when they’re turned off (also called phantom loads, standby power or leaking electricity). They just sit there, plugged in, sucking electricity, at a cost to you and to the environment. According to the Energy Department, vampire gadgets account for about 25 percent of total residential electricity consumption in the U.S.”

Say what?

OK, I admit that we have a teevee or two, more than our share of VCRs that show the time rather than blinking, and a couple or seven electronic phones. We also have a refrigerator and two freezers along with a water pump to pump the water in and a sump pump to pump it out, an electric mattress pad, and an electric stove.

This household burns through 666 KW-Hrs per month or so. Vampire power measured in watts is 25% of that kilowatt load? So those blinking green lights would account for 167 KW-Hrs per month? 167 KW-Hrs??? I don’t think so.

This sounds more like the Far Green in action. I need proof. Like actual, measured data, instead of being vamped by hyperbole.


Congress is planning to announce a possible investigation into something. Whew. That ought to keep them out of trouble for the entire term.

Porn Shortage: The Ethanol Scam

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Sheesh.

A local radio talk show reflected on that shortage recently. Turns out they really said “shortage of corn” and were talking about how dumb it is to make biofuels out of the food on our table.

It’s worse than that.

Using just 10% ethanol-based “gasoline” decreases real world fuel economy by about 7% compared with burning 100% gasoline. (Using 85% ethanol-based fuel decreases real world fuel economy by about 37% compared with burning 100% gasoline. Fuel injection systems in FFVs are built to inject about 40% more fuel.)

Ethanol corrodes the ferrous materials and aluminum it comes in contact with. It eats rubber hoses. It is particularly nasty on some fiberglass fuel tanks in boats.

I reckon that means you get leaks.

That thrills me. Dripping a $4/gallon liquid from my 1980 Keyscar next to a person smoking in a parking lot (because no one can smoke inside anymore) is going to get exciting.

Ethanol doesn’t work with the capacitance-based fuel gauge sensors many auto manufacturers now fit in gas tanks. It causes sparks and increases internal wear in the electric fuel pumps most modern auto manufacturers also fit in gas tanks.

As an aside, doesn’t it seem really really really stupid to put something that makes sparks inside a jar full of high explosives? And they do it on purpose?

Mileage is going down here in the Keys as the Homestead, Florida-based Dion’s Mobil gas station/quick stop chain is now switching to E10 across the board. I think they are the first in Florida to do so. All other fuel distributors in Florida will follow suit.

Dion Oil CEO Sue Banks said she knew of no problems for cars running E10, although there was no cost savings to be had for the switch. She did say the change would cost distribution companies and station owners. Ms. Banks also doesn’t know if the ethanol-based fuels will bump consumer prices.

Swell. I get to pay more for something that corrodes my car, delivers lower mileage, and was promised to us as a way to save money. After all, corn is cheaper than dead dinosaurs.

Ms. Banks said the fuel switch is a mandate by the feds but darn it I can’t find anything to back that up.

For an oil company exec, Ms. Banks seems, um, underinformed.

Fortunately, there are _some_ other peeps noticing the drop in heating value: www.floridastategasprices.com

All this in April, the time we know know as Financial Literacy Month.

Earlier this month, Germany cancelled that nation’s proposed 10% ethanol fuel mandates.

I wonder what Germany knows that we don’t?

EPA has revised its methods for estimating MPG to better represent current real-world driving conditions.

The 2008 C1500 Silverado FFV with a 5.3 liter V8 and automatic transmission is a case in point. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) produce the Fuel Economy Guide. According to the guide, that truck gets 11/15 mpg on E85 but 15/20 mpg on regular unleaded gasoline. Since E85 is supposed to cost less, EPA says that means a $2,768 annual fuel bill on E85 v. $2,849 on plain gas. Of course this is based on 15,000 miles driven on $1.71/gallon E85 or $2.80/gallon gasoline. The Chrysler Sebring Convertible with a 2.7 liter V6 and automatic transmission is rated 13/19 mpg on E85 but 18/26 on regular unleaded gasoline. EPA claims a $2,401 annual fuel bill on $1.71/gallon E85, $100 more than the $2,306 bill with $2.80/gallon gasoline.

Naturally, there is no such thing as $1.71/gallon E85, let alone $2.80/gallon gasoline despite a 54-cent per gallon federal ethanol subsidy. In fact, don’t forget that Ms. Banks might charge more for the ethanol blend than for straight gas.

The Business Week Ethanol: A Tragedy in 3 Acts is good additional reading.

Press 1 for Spanglish

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I paid $3 to wash my truck in a $2.50 carwash over the weekend. That irritated me because I needed an extra few minutes to finish rinsing the thing and the Car Wash sign said “Add quarters for extra time.”

Of course, when I added the two extra quarters for extra time, it simply swallowed them and blinked at me.

Where are the illegal aliens when you need them? I would gladly pay $3 to some illegals to wash my truck. I went searching for some and got 3,170,000 hits in Google alone. Outraged Patriots leads that list.

Thirteen motel owners in Mesa, Arizona, were sentenced last week for catering to human smugglers and conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens. UPI reported that a US task force raided several Latino commercial establishments and arrested 49 people alleged to be illegal aliens who worked for a security company.

Huh. My great-x8-grandfather, Richard Barnard (ber-NARD), was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, and sailed for the New World about 1642. Richard accompanied William Penn to the fertile southeastern counties of Pennsylvania (1). I guess that means that to the Lenni Lenape, my great x 8 grandfather was an illegal alien. Good thing the Lenni Lenape had less Homeland Security than we have today. And that conquerors don’t have to learn the Algonquian language known as Lenape (now “Delaware”).

I can think of a few reasons we don’t want people coming here from other countries to do the work we apparently don’t want to do. After all, they might change the way we live, change the foods we eat, change the way we manufacture things, and teach our wimmens a thing or two about love.

I’m all for it. After all, I come from alien stock. Just ask my kids. So do you, and you, and you. That fresh blood is one part of what makes this country great. I say we should spend our security efforts filtering out the peeps who want to rob and rape and maim and kill us and then invite the others in for a good party.

As long as we quit telling them they don’t have to learn English.


Want more detail? I wrote the op-ed Norman – French – English – Italian – Dutch – American for the Burlington Free Press about a dozen years ago. You can read it here.