GJ said about 6 hours later

And all too often, we forget how insignificant all that this world represents truly is. :)

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Geoff said about 22 hours later

that is incredible...what's more incredible is the notion you are actually looking back in time when you look to the sky. How many of those stars no longer exist? What does that tiny area of view actually look like at present time. Truly remarkable. It really makes our views on life seem utterly pathetic.

Here is a hi-rez image of the hubble pic:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Hubble_ultra_deep_field.jpg

Marc said 13 minutes later

I must say, I'm quite unimpressed with this vehicle (Especially after seeing and reading about the Tesla electric cars). The 40-50 mile range is OK, but not for the price. 40K is really steep for people trying to save money. That and the base Tesla vehicle is only slightly more expensive and you get 160 mile range on battery. It's also a much faster car which is a bonus. Keep in mind that plugging these cars in at night to charge is going to be like running an additional drier or refrigerator, so your electric bill will go up. At 40-50 mile range, you'll likely need to plug in every night.

The exterior of this car sucks. The front looks like a new Malibu, which is fine, but the back end looks like a Honda Insight. Why?! The black back looks OK in this color, but they had some white Volts here and it looked atrocious on those. I remember seeing the concept style for this car a while back and it looked awesome, but they dropped that entirely.

The interior of this car is odd. The dashboard looks better than the typical GM vehicle, but look at those yellow/greenish color door panels. That "accent" piece is all over the interior and is childish and ugly. The only reason the interior doesn't suck is due to the nice GPS/LCD screen in the center console.

I don't know enough about the technology, but I'm really surprised there's no regenerative charging. I assume it's too expensive, but when you're running on a combustion engine, it seems like a waste to not charge the battery. On a related and relatively funny note, the car has an additional 12V battery used when starting it. :)

I'm hoping GM didn't put all their chips in for this car, as I don't think it's gonna be a hit. It may not be a miss, but it's just a foot in the electric door for GM, it's not going to lead the pack by any means when its competitors still beat it in a lot of categories and have been out for quite some time.

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Geoff said about 1 hour later

Tesla is still a ways off. Production begins in 2012 for the $50k Model S...assuming it really even gets off the ground. So in fairness, I wouldn't compare the volt to the Tesla until they have a production vehicle on the road (and not the $100+ Roadster).

Having said that, the Volt will fail. It is far too expensive, and 40-50 mile range, which in most cases will be impossible to achieve unless under the optimal conditions, is pretty low. As I had said earlier when the Volt was really being pushed by GM, it would ONLY have a chance for success if gas was still above $4 gallon and rising. At $5/gallon, I think you could more than justify the costs to charge up the car for people with commutes like me where I'd should never have to fill the gas tank up going to work.

Since the climate has changed a bit, and gas is generally below $3/gallon, I think I'd rather own a Fusion Hybrid. For 27K, you get better styling, power, and really, a car that feels like a regular car...which just happens to get 40mpg on the highway. It is a practical sedan which gets killer gas mileage and just happens to be one of the best vehicles on the road today. Win win.

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GJ said about 2 hours later

Marc, the car does have a regenerative mode--when in that mode, the car works like an AFX car (no joke). Accelerator on, car moves, accelerator off, car decelerates due to regenerative action on the drive train (and slows considerably).

Overall, the car might make sense for a specific kind of buyer--that is, the one who will use it primarily as a commuter car and stay within its electrical range for most of their driving. The car has an extremely complicated transmission--I'd be very concerned as to the longevity of this car for both that and the battery pack. That plus the price is likely going to keep this a novelty for at least a year or two. While I think Geoff's argument about the Fusion being a better car has a lot of weight, I'd add that I'm not sure the Volt offers enough to truly distinguish itself from the Prius, which gets better gas mileage, costs less, and has shown already to be fairly reliable.

It's definitely not going to "save" GM. I think the Cruze is a far better shot in the arm for GM, in my opinion.

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Marc said about 2 hours later

The marketing guy certainly didn't know about the regenerative breaking and based on the article you showed me it does sound like a hidden and not too fun mode you can put the car in. I'm really surprised about the alternator though. Perhaps not enough power to give a decent charge back to the battery?

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Geoff said about 8 hours later

I wonder, does this car have two batteries? One for power and the other for typical accessories, lighting, etc...? I would think if it has two, the alternator has enough on it's plate.

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Marc said about 11 hours later

The marketing guy said the car has a typical 12V battery in addition to the rest of the batteries. He said it's used for just starting the car, then I assume the rest is taken over by the big batteries.

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Steve said 2 days later

Styling - I really like the car. It looks sharp, especially in red. I've seen a lot of them on the road, and the red ones are sweet. Why does it look like an Insight? Same reason that the Insight looks like a Prius. Aerodynamics. That's the shape you're going to get used to seeing on cars aiming for top fuel economy.

Fuel economy - 34 mpg is not correct. 34 mpg is what you get when the engine is running. Not the average fuel economy for normal drivers. Lots of magazines have been testing these cars, and in combined electric only and electric plus gas, they average 60-90 mpg. That's in one days driving. Sure, on a cross country trip where you can't recharge, you only get 34 mpg. But if you plug in every night, you'll get much better. One mag drove the car very hard and averaged 60 mpg.

Price - price is reasonable. The car is a sizeable car, not the size of a Prius or Insight. It's also going to give you the fuel economy of a Prius, and then some. It's also the first plug in hybrid being put up for sale to the public.

Tesla - I'll beleive it when I see it, them coming out with a good car for $50K or less. Same goes for Fisker, I don't think we'll ever see their car show up. That said, I saw a Tesla roadster run up the drag strip today, and wow that thing took off fast! Something about instant peak torque. Still only ran a mid 15 second time, not sure if it just runs out of juice at higher speed or what.

I think the Volt is a good thing for GM. They don't claim it's going to be their savior. The Cruze, Malibu, Camaro, Buicks, trucks, etc are what keep the company going. The Volt is a great move in the right direction, and will help expand the plug in hybrid field. For all those talking smack about GM and the Volt, I sure hope you're not the ones that were complaining when GM took back all of the Impact electric cars.

I give props to GM for going out on a limb with this car. I hope it's successful for them.

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Marc said 2 days later

I don't necessarily mind the shape of the vehicle, it's actually relatively normal shaped, especially compared to the Insight. But what the heck is the point of the random black trunk? The Insight has the same design, so I find it odd that GM decided to go that route unless there's some reason it's needed. I've always thought it was ugly on the Insight and it doesn't look any better on the Volt.

Perhaps GM didn't bring their 'A' game marketers, because they never mentioned anything about the combined MPG. They basically said 34 with the gas engine and infinite with the battery. Naturally telling me infinite is the fastest way for me to dismiss your claims. :) I guess you could blame me for not asking the right questions, but they should know 34 isn't exactly mind boggling, so throwing out numbers like 60-90 would be a good idea.

I don't think the price is necessarily unreasonable for what the car provides, but it's a catch-22. $40k is outside a lot of people's price range for a car. Even with the discount, $30k is outside the range IMO. The people who will want or need to save this money, may not be able to afford the monthly payments. Perhaps if they offered a nice low-price lease it would feasible, but I don't think GM is going to be able to do that.

Another note that I didn't mention is the life of these batteries. I asked the guy how long he thought the batteries would last and he said they can't give a definitive length since there's so many factors which determine battery life. That's a fair statement, but then I asked: "Well what happens if my batteries die 5 years after I bought the car" and he said they offer a 10 year/80,000 mile warranty which will include battery replacement. But if I drive my usual 15k miles a year, I'll hit that 80k in a little over 5 years, so it doesn't really solve my problem. I imagine those batteries are a several thousand dollar replacement, so that would have to be factored into the price savings too. I guess most people don't keep cars much longer than 5 years, so maybe it's not a big issue for most.

If it turns out that people really like the car and buy tons of it, I'm all for it, GM could use the money. But I think I'll wait for the next generation electric cars before I'll consider it.

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Geoff said 2 days later

I agree with some things Steve said, I think it is a move in the right direction, and if what he says us true about MPG, that's not too shabby. I'd like to know what real world driving puts the battery charge at. I imagine something around 30 miles. I still think the practicality of these is a few years off in development, but you do have to start somewhere I guess. I still have my doubts about it's success in the marketplace unless gas skyrockets again or until they can get the cost of the vehicle down to a reasonable level.

Interesting to hear about the roadster. They claim 0-60 in 3.6 seconds...but a 15s 1/4 mile run tells me the batteries don't have enough juice in the high end or perhaps the gearing is off (or it weighs too much). I guess could be a number of things, but I was watching American Chopper a few weeks ago where they were trying to create the fastest battery powered drag bike (and they did break the world record running a mid 7 second in the 1/4mile). I know they were about a second and a half off on their first initial runs and weight was a huge factor. Also needed to adjust gearing so it may not JUST be a battery issue. Either way, 0-60 in 3.6 seconds is plenty freaking fast!

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GJ said 3 days later

The Tesla, last I checked, is using a single gear. They've toyed with twin gears, but the torque band for an electric motor is nothing like a gas engine (read: it's way better) and so transmissions can be way less complicated. I think they may eventually go back to a two-speed in the Tesla, but you won't need anything like the four, five, six, seven speeds found on high performance gas engines due to their narrow power bands.

Marc said about 10 hours later

Is that a hammer? If so, I haven't seen a spider that big in NC yet. That thing is absolutely massive! Have you ever found Boris in your hockey equipment? If not, do you ever check? :)

He also takes up quite a bit of room, you charging that guy rent?

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GJ said about 11 hours later

That's not a hammer--it's literally a broomstick. We use it to help clear the iron ocher from the floating trench you see in the pictures. Anyhow, better scale--that trench he's next to is 2" wide. So, Boris' legspan from front to back is just over 2". His actual body sans legs is about an inch.

This is about as big as they get in NY. In Australia, he'd only be a squirt.

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Geoff said about 16 hours later

That is sweet. Thanks for the pics.

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Steve said 2 days later

That's freaking scary. I'm never coming to your house....

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GJ said 2 days later

Nah, scary is the fact that the one above is the larger female. The real Boris, a male, is slightly smaller and typically shows me two eyes in photos. And I have many more like these two in the backyard, but these two moved in some years ago and are quite content with their diet of wayward wasps, earwigs, ants and pretty much everything else down there. Haven't seen them take on a mouse, though--they're not *that* big.

Abby said about 2 hours later

hmm, neat :]

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Marc said about 7 hours later

I hadn't heard of a couple of those. Pretty much all of the dog ones and the Camahueto and Mermahuataur. I hadn't heard of a Narhwal either and fail to see how it somehow makes a mermaid. :)

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GJ said about 16 hours later

please. tell. me. you. are. kidding. about. the. narhwal. Here's a pic:

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Marc said 1 day later

I hadn't heard of one, Laura said the same thing like this silly looking animal was common knowledge. Guess I need to watch more Discovery Channel! I still don't see the mermaid. Typical mermaids (Yes they exist) have scales.

Not to mention, the Wikipedia page for mermaids makes no reference of ancestry with the Narwhal and you can't doubt the accuracy of Wikipedia.

I did a brief search for a Mermahuataur and everything links back to this diagram, except this. Sounds a bit fishy. Ok, I'm done. :)

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GJ said 1 day later

hahaha I saw what you did there!

Yeah, technically, the narwhal is a mammal lacking scales--in fact, a type of whale, so a mermaid is simply a half-fish, half-human. I really got a kick out of how they did Cerberus and Orthrus, though.

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Geoff said 4 days later

what did you guys smoke, and how much could I make selling it?

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GJ said 4 days later

Bumpy nerds, man. That's mah drug.

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GJ said 4 days later

Or Giant Chewy ones when it's not Easter season.

Marc said 9 minutes later

I think if I saw that first one while driving at night, I'd be pretty certain it was a Transformer (or I guess Decepticon to be more accurate).

EDIT: Just found out that Barrel Monster was in Raleigh! They're even closer than I thought!

Marc said about 1 hour later

Looks like a car mixed with a high speed rail train. Oh and it's hideous. :)

No side view mirrors?

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Darcy said about 3 hours later

Oh dear god, is that ugly!

Marc said 26 minutes later

Star Wars took place a long time ago in a galaxy far away, so it's entirely possible this is the death star, but in it's travels towards our galaxy it picked up a bunch of space junk, hence the filling of the trenches and most of the laser cavity.

That seems way more likely than being struck by some asteroid.

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GJ said about 3 hours later

Maybe it's just wearing a disguise.

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GJ said about 4 hours later

Btw, fun fact. The crater, named Herchel, is the largest known crater in terms of it's ratio to the size of the body it's on.

Geoff said 12 minutes later

Man you have way too much time on your hands.

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GJ said about 1 hour later

Nope, I just make sure to inject some fun into 70 hour weeks. Otherwise, you go nuts.

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Geoff said about 7 hours later

Define nuts. Injecting your printer with "Me Want Cookie" sounds a little nuts. :)

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GJ said about 12 hours later

Actually, programmers have been writing software bombs that do that and lock the hardware until someone enters "Oreo" on the terminal. So, to avoid confusion, it now says "WHAT ARE *YOU* LOOKING AT, BUB?"

Also, nuts is a relative terms. There's nuts, as in inherently odd (that'd be me), and nucking futs, as in shoot up a post office. I was referring to the latter term.

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GJ said about 12 hours later

Also, this isn't my printer. That'd be no fun at all.

GJ said about 2 hours later

Not looking for an argument...I just thought this sign was funny.

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GJ said about 14 hours later

Oh, and I think the word they really wanted here was "rationalization." That gem gets people in trouble no matter what their spirituality and moral compass.

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Marc said 1 day later

Maybe they meant "Reisen." It is Lent after all and those are delicious.

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GJ said 1 day later

Marc wins the internet today.

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Geoff said 2 days later

You can thank Al Gore. He did invent it after all.