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SubscriptionsSites I Read
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| a technology called "engine stop-start" will allow engines to be turned off while in traffic jams or at a stop light. this technology is already in hybrid cars and will become a common feature for non-hybrid cars in the next few years. there is an article about a new non-hybrid Mini with this feature. this Mini matched the Toyota Prius for CO2 emissions and got 74 mpg (imperial gallons) and 61 mpg (US gallons) when driven with ultimate economy.
take that Prius, i am fat and you are ugly but i can loose weight.
nineyard
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| don't get me wrong, hybrids do get better mileage than non-hybrids but they are not as good as the marketing say they are. the EPA has finally revised how they test fuel economy to reflect real life driving and it will be on car stickers from 2008 and onwards. here is the truth about hybrid fuel economy (real world vs old method).
2007 Toyota Prius New (city 48, combined 46, highway 45) vs Old (city 60, combined 55, highway 51)
2007 Honda Civic Hybrid New (city 40, combined 42, highway 45) vs Old (city 49, combined 50, highway 51)
and just for fun ...
1995 Honda Civic with efficient manual shifting New (city 35, comb 38, hw 41) vs Old (city 42, comb 44, hw 46)
hybrids help a lot in city driving thanks to no idle and regenerative braking but it does nothing for highway driving, it's barely better than a 12 year old low tech car.
nineyard
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| quote from here. "Around two-thirds of the energy used by a mobile phone is lost when it is unplugged after charging but the charger itself is left in a live socket."
you don't have to hug a tree, just unplug your cell phone charger when you are not charging.
nineyard | | |
| i have always thought having the right to bear arms was a silly thing to have in the constitution since we are all born with two arms it makes sense that we have the right to bear what we are born with. what i find even more silly is how people interpret that into the right to own guns. bloody lawyers.
jokes aside, i really think the gun laws in america need to be completely overhauled. after speaking to many american friends of mine the common conclusion they draw is that "guns are bad and that it would be great to not to have them around, but it is too deep in the law and it is too hard to change". it is true that the second amendment is in the constitution and gun ownership is so ingrained in american culture that it makes it very hard to change. we often forget what america was founded upon, an idea that is even above the constitution, the idea that the people rule. democracy my friend makes everything possible.
what am i smoking you ask? do you want some? i am smoking statistics, here is what i found. in 1994 a survey was conducted and there are about 44 million gun owners in america [1]. yes, that's a lot of people with guns, but what i found in the year 2000 census is that there are 209 million people in america who are over 18 [2]. yes, that is people like you, people who can vote and exercise their democratic right.
guns are history, game over.
nineyard
for the detail oriented:
the statistics should have been projected from 1994 and 2000 to present day 2007. i didn't look into that and my gut feeling tells me in 2007 the number of eligible voters will still be many times more than the number of gun owners so the point is still valid.
[1] Guns in America: National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms
[2] Census 2000
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| i haven't posted in a very long time, a long time is probably an understatement, so here we go.
i moved last month to mountain view because my previous landlord was selling their house. i lived there since i moved to the bay area in 2003. yeah, i lived there for a long time. i was supposed to move some where else but it didn't work out last minute so i had to quickly find a new place. i like the new place as it is close to everything i want to be close to so i am glad the other one didn't work out. my mail forwarding is still semi-broken and that makes me unhappy. i am not going to forward my mail next time until i actually move into the new place.
on the manufactured holiday between christmas and mother's day a very lovely girl gave me a ps2. yes, that's not a typo, it's a new slim ps2, exactly what i wanted. i am not a serious gamer and i only play one game. i didn't have a TV, so i bought myself one of those LCD TV's for my room. the TV is awesome although my credit card bill is gonna suck.
some of you may know that i have been talking about getting something for years. yes, that's right, literally years. so long that some of my friends were betting that i am just all talk and would actually never get it. well, it's not never, just late. i finally got it and yes, it's awesome. to my surprise, i sold my civic in 3 days. i posted on to craigslist on saturday afternoon, a lady test drove it sunday afternoon and i gave her the keys on monday afternoon. amazing, i thought it would take much longer. good bye civic, you served me well for the last few years, you will be named "bot". the new sibling with 200 horses will be named "4bot". my civic license plate began with "4bot", it will run in the family now.
enough with the exterior, now to the interior. relationships are a lot of work but not in a bad way, kinda like going to the gym is a lot of work but it's good for you. i learnt a lot over the last couple of years about relationships and only now i think i am fully aware of what it encompasses. they don't teach you this stuff at school, parents don't tell you this stuff either, i wonder where other people learn it from. anyways, i gotta give big thanks to a lovely girl for being so loving and patient. she is awesome, more awesome than 4bot.
they say it takes 10 years to walk to the moon and i have been around long enough to walk to the moon and back and over half way there again. but only recently have i come to realise how old i am, i know how old i am, it's just i didn't feel my age until recently. anyway, it kinda hit me and got me thinking about stuff. a lot of stuff. i know all you "older" people out there will say "you are not old, blah blah" and all you "younger" people will say, well, don't say it.
i didn't know i could write so much. if you are still reading this i must congratulate you, you are awesome :)
nineyard | | |
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