from grandteuton.blogspot.com
I'm all for new tech and gadgets and toys and all that - probably more than I should be - but this drive for electric cars has me puzzled.
What we have is "a fledgling industry" that needs help to get its products out to the buying public. Once the benefits of this new tech is out there for all to see, there won't be a need for tax breaks or government co-pays and the like. At least that's what I heard an analyst tell us the other morning on the radio.
I guess it's just like when CDs came out to replace LPs. We all got rebates on the players and disks to help move the transition along ... oh, wait, that's not what happened. We all got to pay for these things ourselves.
OK, it must be more like when TV was coming out to (at least partially) supplant radio. The government paid folks to get TVs in their houses so they could all watch MIlton Berle or whatever ... nope. It didn't happen that way that time either.
What we really have is an industry making a product that doesn't really meet consumers' needs, and isn't really affordable. No wonder it needs help to sell.
Granted, the environmental benefits of moving the emissions from the tailpipe to the smokestack somewhere else may well be worth something - at least until we have to dispose of the toxic waste in the battery packs.
Still, who wouldn't want to pay that extra $10,000 or so for a car that can't handle the typical Detroit commute if it's cold out? (Try running the lights and heater the whole way on your batteries in the cold - batteries really don't like constant drains or low temperatures.)
On a good day, I might just make it back home from work, but then I'd have to stay there until it's time to go to work again while the car was plugged in to recharge the batteries, so it's clearly not a reasonable option as the sole car for anyone.
As an extra car, it has some appeal. It might be fine for shopping at a local store. It might be fine for quick local trips. It might.
However, I certainly wouldn't count on it to get me somewhere important when it takes four times as long to charge as the time it will drive.
Let's see, I can spend about four minutes filling my tank and drive 400 miles, or I can spend four hours charging my batteries (on a 220 custom charger) to drive 40 to 100 miles.
Doesn't make sense yet. Maybe some day, but not yet.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Monday, February 07, 2011
At Last, a Good Game at the Super Bowl
I wonder how many others of you thought it looked like a Grey Cup game between the Edmonton Eskimos and the Hamilton Tiger Cats?
I know I did.
I'm glad it wasn't, though, as the wrong colours won for a Grey Cup, but I was quite content with the NFL outcome.
I know I did.
I'm glad it wasn't, though, as the wrong colours won for a Grey Cup, but I was quite content with the NFL outcome.
Monday, January 24, 2011
A Christmas Carol (Yes, I know it's January)
from grandteuton.blogspot.com
Likely we've all seen multiple film versions of the holiday classic, from Mister Magoo
to Bill Murray
to the Muppets
. I know I have seen all of those and many more. I wondered, though, what was in the Dickens original, and what was the fancy of various filmmakers.
What to do? Aha! Read the book! and so I did.
Frankly, it was a good read. It's not terribly long, and it's not so Dickensian as to put off those who fled from both of the Cities in that Tale.
I was pleased to find just how true to the original most of the films have been (Muppets included), and to find a (very) few scenes which hadn't made it to any screen I've viewed.
It's available all over the place, (including free versions at Project Gutenberg) so I think - in spite of the calendar - that you'd be well served to find it and read it.
Enjoy!
Likely we've all seen multiple film versions of the holiday classic, from Mister Magoo
to Bill Murray to the Muppets. I know I have seen all of those and many more. I wondered, though, what was in the Dickens original, and what was the fancy of various filmmakers.What to do? Aha! Read the book! and so I did.
Frankly, it was a good read. It's not terribly long, and it's not so Dickensian as to put off those who fled from both of the Cities in that Tale.
I was pleased to find just how true to the original most of the films have been (Muppets included), and to find a (very) few scenes which hadn't made it to any screen I've viewed.
It's available all over the place, (including free versions at Project Gutenberg) so I think - in spite of the calendar - that you'd be well served to find it and read it.
Enjoy!
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Carnage du Jour - 12 January 2011
from grandteuton.blogspot.com
As we have noted here in prior posts, there is no more versatile cut of meat than a pork tenderloin, and that was proved once again in this dish.
Having noted a delicious looking salad (here) of roasted root vegetables, I found myself buying a nice bunch of radishes with roasting in mind. They took very little cleaning: I just trimmed the ends and cut most of them in half. Into a skillet with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper, then into the oven at 425F for 10 minutes or so.
In the meantime, I got some frozen brussels sprouts mostly cooked in the microwave (what a great way to cook frozen vegetables) and the mostly roasted radishes were dumped into the bowl with them to wait for the right time to join the pork.
Into the now-vacated skillet went a tenderloin cut into medallions, seasoned with salt and beau monde (mmm!) to be seared on each of the flat sides.
Back into the skillet came the radishes, accompanied by the brussels sprouts, and all went back into the 425 oven.
They all roasted happily away as the now boiling water received its dose of egg noodles. They took their fairly typical seven minutes or so, and then were drained and a bit of oil dropped in to keep them separated.
A little bit of leftover roasted garlic alfredo sauce was added to the pork and vegetables, and then that mixture topped the noodles on our plates.
Very tasty indeed.
As we have noted here in prior posts, there is no more versatile cut of meat than a pork tenderloin, and that was proved once again in this dish.
Having noted a delicious looking salad (here) of roasted root vegetables, I found myself buying a nice bunch of radishes with roasting in mind. They took very little cleaning: I just trimmed the ends and cut most of them in half. Into a skillet with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper, then into the oven at 425F for 10 minutes or so.
In the meantime, I got some frozen brussels sprouts mostly cooked in the microwave (what a great way to cook frozen vegetables) and the mostly roasted radishes were dumped into the bowl with them to wait for the right time to join the pork.
Into the now-vacated skillet went a tenderloin cut into medallions, seasoned with salt and beau monde (mmm!) to be seared on each of the flat sides.
Back into the skillet came the radishes, accompanied by the brussels sprouts, and all went back into the 425 oven.
They all roasted happily away as the now boiling water received its dose of egg noodles. They took their fairly typical seven minutes or so, and then were drained and a bit of oil dropped in to keep them separated.
A little bit of leftover roasted garlic alfredo sauce was added to the pork and vegetables, and then that mixture topped the noodles on our plates.
Very tasty indeed.
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Privacy? What Privacy? - Updated
from grandteuton.blogspot.com
(update: Here's another treatment of the same topic from boing boing.)
I was asked about a site called spokeo.com the other day: apparently it poses as an online white pages on steroids.
What it really seems to be is a spam engine.
The basic idea is that they go out and scrape websites for any public information with a name attached, and then let everyone on the web search all that stuff to find their friends or acquaintances. There's nothing there that wasn't already made public by someone - whether it's the person in question or not. Any notes or tagged pictures that are there for everyone on facebook (or myspace or linkedin or whatever) can be scraped by these guys - regardless of who tagged you in them.
Not to worry, though. There's a privacy link at the bottom of the page where you can request that they not make those things about you public. Of course, in order to do so, you have to give them your email address. Oh, and they'd really prefer it if you'd give them your email and password as well, just because it makes it more secure (?!) that way. No one will have access to it - not even spokeo employees! (So, what's it for again?)
Hmm. So, I go into their system and find my data.
Then I tell them the email address that goes with that data.
Then I'm sure that no extraneous, unsolicited emails will appear in my inbox, right?
Oh, and they want me to pay them a monthly membership fee in order to see all this great data.
Good grief.
The regular journalists I noticed said they had no real luck in getting stuff get turned non-public, and that the data on them tended to be both incomplete and inaccurate.
Sounds like a moderately elaborate way of gathering probably real email addresses along with a bunch of data to flesh out the recipients.
I recommend that you stay away.
(update: Here's another treatment of the same topic from boing boing.)
I was asked about a site called spokeo.com the other day: apparently it poses as an online white pages on steroids.
What it really seems to be is a spam engine.
The basic idea is that they go out and scrape websites for any public information with a name attached, and then let everyone on the web search all that stuff to find their friends or acquaintances. There's nothing there that wasn't already made public by someone - whether it's the person in question or not. Any notes or tagged pictures that are there for everyone on facebook (or myspace or linkedin or whatever) can be scraped by these guys - regardless of who tagged you in them.
Not to worry, though. There's a privacy link at the bottom of the page where you can request that they not make those things about you public. Of course, in order to do so, you have to give them your email address. Oh, and they'd really prefer it if you'd give them your email and password as well, just because it makes it more secure (?!) that way. No one will have access to it - not even spokeo employees! (So, what's it for again?)
Hmm. So, I go into their system and find my data.
Then I tell them the email address that goes with that data.
Then I'm sure that no extraneous, unsolicited emails will appear in my inbox, right?
Oh, and they want me to pay them a monthly membership fee in order to see all this great data.
Good grief.
The regular journalists I noticed said they had no real luck in getting stuff get turned non-public, and that the data on them tended to be both incomplete and inaccurate.
Sounds like a moderately elaborate way of gathering probably real email addresses along with a bunch of data to flesh out the recipients.
I recommend that you stay away.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Vegage du Jour - 19 December 2010
from grandteuton.blogspot.com
As you likely know, I'm not a vegetarian - of course, my sister displayed vegan tendencies by driving a Vega in high school. Still, I enjoy a good veg as much as the next guy, and make it a protein-bearing grain and/or legume, and I'm all over it - as long as it tastes good.
So, for a Christmas party, I made up a big batch of my quinoa and chick-pea stuff (I guess I need to come up with a decent name for this dish), and it was quite a hit - especially with me.
Four cups of red quinoa was brought to a boil in eight cups of home-made vegetable stock (asparagus, onions, and mushrooms were the base) and then simmered about fifteen minutes.
As that time ended, I drained, rinsed, and dried two cans of chickpeas and tossed them with some ground cumin, some white pepper, and some summer savory. Into a large skillet of fairly hot olive oil they went, where they got just a bit of crispness.
Next, in went a bunch of sliced scallions (not enough of them, as it eventuated), and once they were nice and a bit browned, in went the quinoa.
All of it then went into a crock pot for transport and serving (and keeping warm, of course). There you have it - gluten-free, dairy-free, meat-free and yet delicious. Give it a shot - it's quite tasty.
As you likely know, I'm not a vegetarian - of course, my sister displayed vegan tendencies by driving a Vega in high school. Still, I enjoy a good veg as much as the next guy, and make it a protein-bearing grain and/or legume, and I'm all over it - as long as it tastes good.
So, for a Christmas party, I made up a big batch of my quinoa and chick-pea stuff (I guess I need to come up with a decent name for this dish), and it was quite a hit - especially with me.
Four cups of red quinoa was brought to a boil in eight cups of home-made vegetable stock (asparagus, onions, and mushrooms were the base) and then simmered about fifteen minutes.
As that time ended, I drained, rinsed, and dried two cans of chickpeas and tossed them with some ground cumin, some white pepper, and some summer savory. Into a large skillet of fairly hot olive oil they went, where they got just a bit of crispness.
Next, in went a bunch of sliced scallions (not enough of them, as it eventuated), and once they were nice and a bit browned, in went the quinoa.
All of it then went into a crock pot for transport and serving (and keeping warm, of course). There you have it - gluten-free, dairy-free, meat-free and yet delicious. Give it a shot - it's quite tasty.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Carnage du Jour - 17 December 2010
from grandteuton.blogspot.com
Pork chops are a staple around our Cleveland, and it's no wonder, considering how versatile these little guys can be.
This time it was a simple sear and pan-roast operation. The butterfly chops were liberally salted, peppered and beau monded, then seared quickly in some olive oil.
While they rested on a plate, waiting for the rest of their cooking, into the pan went a large handful of grape tomatoes which popped nicely (although not nearly as dramatically as slow-motion popcorn!) in the pan. Then some jalapeno stuffed olives, some kalamata olives, and some nice pickled cocktail onions went in, along with just a touch of tomato sauce - which was simply tomatoes from our garden which Heidi had run through the Mouli
to keep that lovely garden-fresh flavour.
Back in the pan on top of all that goodness went the chops, along with a drained and rinsed can of cannellini beans. It was only a few minutes for everything to meld and finish up, then the chops were again removed and some cooked spaghetti was added to the pan and all was finished.
Oh, I forgot to mention the roasted asparagus that accompanied - just simply roasted with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper - delicious indeed!
So there you have it, or rather, then we had it, and it was a lovely dinner.
Pork chops are a staple around our Cleveland, and it's no wonder, considering how versatile these little guys can be.
This time it was a simple sear and pan-roast operation. The butterfly chops were liberally salted, peppered and beau monded, then seared quickly in some olive oil.
While they rested on a plate, waiting for the rest of their cooking, into the pan went a large handful of grape tomatoes which popped nicely (although not nearly as dramatically as slow-motion popcorn!) in the pan. Then some jalapeno stuffed olives, some kalamata olives, and some nice pickled cocktail onions went in, along with just a touch of tomato sauce - which was simply tomatoes from our garden which Heidi had run through the Mouli
to keep that lovely garden-fresh flavour.Back in the pan on top of all that goodness went the chops, along with a drained and rinsed can of cannellini beans. It was only a few minutes for everything to meld and finish up, then the chops were again removed and some cooked spaghetti was added to the pan and all was finished.
Oh, I forgot to mention the roasted asparagus that accompanied - just simply roasted with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper - delicious indeed!
So there you have it, or rather, then we had it, and it was a lovely dinner.
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