You ever play the tabletop game Jenga? You know, the one where you pull blocks from the bottom and stack them on top?
Well, try to think of the economy as a big ass game of Jenga, with the banksters and their Smaug-esque cash hoards at the top, and all us regular folk making up the bottom; just like the game, unless you leave yourself a strong, solid foundation, only so many blocks can be pulled from the bottom before the whole thing comes crashing down.
There's no logical reason any individual person should have billions of dollars of personal wealth; Especially with an economy in the shape ours (USAians) is in right now.
Actually, that gives me an idea for a bumper sticker: You become a millionaire by spending money; you become a billionaire by hoarding it.
The fastest way to charge Tesla is a battery swap which takes about 30 seconds.
And that'll be a great feature when/if we get to a point where it can be done at every existing service station.
Of course, if more companies start mass manufacturing EVs it will be a less likely option, as few service stations are going to want to bother with carrying the 50 different types of proprietary setups that we both know will be the case ('Oh, sorry, we don't carry the packs for a GM, we only have Ford stuff.')
You might be able to, but as I already said the nearest Supercharger is ~1200 miles from me. So... not happening.
The number of superchargers is being multiplied by 3x by fall. Winter 2013 for coast to coast driving. 2014 for 95% of the populous in range.
Citation? As in, actual orders placed and permits pulled, perhaps a map of the intended sites? Or is this pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking?
Try driving from Florida to Vancouver for free with your diesel like a Tesla could do in 2014.
Considering that the base model Tesla S costs more than twice what I paid for my top-of-the-line diesel Jetta, I'm hard pressed to understand where you get the whole "free" thing from - even with fuel costs, it's still cheaper for me to drive the Volkswagen. Plus I don't have to stop for an hour (at least) every 250 miles. Plus I can fuel it up literally anywhere I go.
But what if I want to drive from, say, Kansas City to St. Louis? Not happening in a Tesla anytime soon.
The world's most efficient internal combustion engine is 50% efficient. It's the size of a house, and it's in a container ship. Very efficient automobile engines are around 25% efficient. These are expensive engines with direct injection and forced induction.
That's not precisely true - first, an average petrol engine in an average automobile is about 25-30% efficient. Second, direct injection and forced-air induction might have been the expensive option half a decade ago, but they're becoming standard technology, and increasing engine efficiency upwards to the 35-40% range. Not great, but not as terrible as you're trying to make them out to be.
Of course, you've completely ignored diesel engines, which typically run at around 40-50% efficiency. I couldn't find a good resource for how energy efficient a Wankel engine is.
Now, do the math again.
OK - 30% of 46 = 13.8; 95% of 9 = 8.55
The horrifically inefficient petrol engine still wins, it seems.
Nissan's way of hitting that lower price point is to use cheaper batteries than get more like 85-90 mile range. I have had my Nissan Leaf for about 4 months and I adore it. Not that many people need to drive more than 80 miles in a day. And even with a 250 mile range, road trips are not feasible in the near future regardless of what Elon Musk tells you.
I could live with the low range if the darn thing could be 'filled' from empty in the same amount of time it takes to fill my diesel (which, incidentally, has more than double the range of an S, and rarely dips below 40 MPG).
If I'm not mistaken, the fastest charging method for a Tesla is using one of the Superchargers (assuming they're available in your area - the nearest one to me is more than 1200 miles away), which still takes at least an hour to get an 80% charge... and that's assuming no lines at the "pump."
An hour waiting is bad enough, but if there's 2 people in front of me... that's 3 hours before I can get back on the road. Fuck that shit, I gots places to be.
GM wants to make cars that people want to buy. Most people don't want to buy electric cars that are twice the cost of a Civic and can only drive a couple of hundred miles before they have to stop for an hour to 'refuel'.
Exactly.
In this arena, Tesla actually has an advantage over the major auto manufacturers, since they are essentially a boutique supplier, so they can focus on the technology instead of worrying so much about selling products. TFS is essentially comparing Wal-Mart to that small time, over-priced organic foods market in the fancy strip mall on the nice side of town.
The correct question is: "is GM going to continue developing and improving electric cars?" to which the answer is already clearly yes.
Developing maybe, but improving?
That term keeps causing me to have flashbacks to the 1980's, when GM's "improved" vehicles, as an answer to the huge influx of fuel injected Japanese cars, were essentially the same cars as before but with an ECU wired to the carburetor*.
The system did not work out well.
* It was known as Computer Command Control, or C3, but there's no wiki entry and I haven't found a good reference yet.
So don't elect fascists and support policies that make sense.
That would work in a world where it's impossible for politicians to lie.
FWIW, I voted for Obama in 2008 because, after 8 years of Bush Inc, I actually believed his "Hope and Change" lie; in retrospect, I should have known he was full of shit - he's a politician, and his lips were moving.
That you find it insulting says more about you than it does about me. Why are you insulted? Because I'm unaware of any atheist groups that run soup kitchens? How is my ignorance damaging or harmful to you?
Here's a thought - instead of getting insulted, maybe you should provide information with which I can banish my ignorance. That is, if any such information exists.
Nope, it's clearly people who think different thoughts than we think that cause all these problems. After all, they kill other people who think different thoughts than they think to force them to stop thinking them, so we should force them to stop thinking their own thoughts so they can get busy thinking ours. It's just LOGIC, people, and I know it's right because I thought of it.
As does the atheist.
Both of which are welcome to hold that opinion; it's when they try to force their variant on everyone else that they become the dickheads of selfishness who fuck things up for the rest of the world.
Uh, perhaps I'm off base here, but I don't see what a game based on (particularly kick-ass) papercraft ships have to do with the creation of a land, sea, air, and space MMOFPS.
... the idea that RPG and FPS have never been "blended" is false. Borderlands 2 does it, and does it in a package that is great fun (good for 150 hours or so of gameplay if you want to reach Level 70)
Also, you know... pretty much every Bethesda game starting with Fallout 3.
There is also the Just Cause 2 Multiplayer Beta going on. That supports up to 2,000 players per server and is "FPS-like". http://www.jc-mp.com/ [jc-mp.com] What it lacks in RPG elements, it makes up for in terms of a huge map littered with vehicles you can drive, fly or float.
Well, 'right now' is a bit of a misnomer - there's an open beta once every 4-8 weeks it seems.
Regardless, I recommend anyone with a copy of JC2 to sign up, as it's fucking spectacular. No, really, you haven't had fun in a game until you've circled a gigantic yacht suspended from balloons with your military jet, while flying through a wall of 300 skydivers AND engaging in a dogfight with a tuk-tuk swinging from your tail section.
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You ever play the tabletop game Jenga? You know, the one where you pull blocks from the bottom and stack them on top?
Well, try to think of the economy as a big ass game of Jenga, with the banksters and their Smaug-esque cash hoards at the top, and all us regular folk making up the bottom; just like the game, unless you leave yourself a strong, solid foundation, only so many blocks can be pulled from the bottom before the whole thing comes crashing down.
There's no logical reason any individual person should have billions of dollars of personal wealth; Especially with an economy in the shape ours (USAians) is in right now.
Actually, that gives me an idea for a bumper sticker: You become a millionaire by spending money; you become a billionaire by hoarding it.
And is anyone actually being harmed by this "shadow banking"?
You mean, aside from every single person on the planet who isn't directly involved?
Cross reference with drinkypoo's post (the one I replied to).
Sorry, I meant ableal's (drinkypoo quoted the part I referenced).
Cross reference with drinkypoo's post (the one I replied to).
If it still doesn't make sense, that's probably because math is not my strong suit.
The fastest way to charge Tesla is a battery swap which takes about 30 seconds.
And that'll be a great feature when/if we get to a point where it can be done at every existing service station.
Of course, if more companies start mass manufacturing EVs it will be a less likely option, as few service stations are going to want to bother with carrying the 50 different types of proprietary setups that we both know will be the case ('Oh, sorry, we don't carry the packs for a GM, we only have Ford stuff.')
You can get 200 miles range in 30 minutes.
You might be able to, but as I already said the nearest Supercharger is ~1200 miles from me. So... not happening.
The number of superchargers is being multiplied by 3x by fall. Winter 2013 for coast to coast driving. 2014 for 95% of the populous in range.
Citation? As in, actual orders placed and permits pulled, perhaps a map of the intended sites? Or is this pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking?
Try driving from Florida to Vancouver for free with your diesel like a Tesla could do in 2014.
Considering that the base model Tesla S costs more than twice what I paid for my top-of-the-line diesel Jetta, I'm hard pressed to understand where you get the whole "free" thing from - even with fuel costs, it's still cheaper for me to drive the Volkswagen. Plus I don't have to stop for an hour (at least) every 250 miles. Plus I can fuel it up literally anywhere I go.
But what if I want to drive from, say, Kansas City to St. Louis? Not happening in a Tesla anytime soon.
You really think that every single American is making ~800k under the table per year?
Either that or he's implying that those jobs that only illegals are 'willing' to do actually pay 8-9 figures a year.
The world's most efficient internal combustion engine is 50% efficient. It's the size of a house, and it's in a container ship. Very efficient automobile engines are around 25% efficient. These are expensive engines with direct injection and forced induction.
That's not precisely true - first, an average petrol engine in an average automobile is about 25-30% efficient. Second, direct injection and forced-air induction might have been the expensive option half a decade ago, but they're becoming standard technology, and increasing engine efficiency upwards to the 35-40% range. Not great, but not as terrible as you're trying to make them out to be.
Of course, you've completely ignored diesel engines, which typically run at around 40-50% efficiency. I couldn't find a good resource for how energy efficient a Wankel engine is.
Now, do the math again.
OK - 30% of 46 = 13.8; 95% of 9 = 8.55
The horrifically inefficient petrol engine still wins, it seems.
Indeed; if GM had ever been serious about electric cars, we'd all be driving around in an EV1 derivative right now.
Nissan's way of hitting that lower price point is to use cheaper batteries than get more like 85-90 mile range. I have had my Nissan Leaf for about 4 months and I adore it. Not that many people need to drive more than 80 miles in a day. And even with a 250 mile range, road trips are not feasible in the near future regardless of what Elon Musk tells you.
I could live with the low range if the darn thing could be 'filled' from empty in the same amount of time it takes to fill my diesel (which, incidentally, has more than double the range of an S, and rarely dips below 40 MPG).
If I'm not mistaken, the fastest charging method for a Tesla is using one of the Superchargers (assuming they're available in your area - the nearest one to me is more than 1200 miles away), which still takes at least an hour to get an 80% charge... and that's assuming no lines at the "pump."
An hour waiting is bad enough, but if there's 2 people in front of me... that's 3 hours before I can get back on the road. Fuck that shit, I gots places to be.
GM wants to make cars that people want to buy. Most people don't want to buy electric cars that are twice the cost of a Civic and can only drive a couple of hundred miles before they have to stop for an hour to 'refuel'.
Exactly.
In this arena, Tesla actually has an advantage over the major auto manufacturers, since they are essentially a boutique supplier, so they can focus on the technology instead of worrying so much about selling products. TFS is essentially comparing Wal-Mart to that small time, over-priced organic foods market in the fancy strip mall on the nice side of town.
The correct question is: "is GM going to continue developing and improving electric cars?" to which the answer is already clearly yes.
Developing maybe, but improving?
That term keeps causing me to have flashbacks to the 1980's, when GM's "improved" vehicles, as an answer to the huge influx of fuel injected Japanese cars, were essentially the same cars as before but with an ECU wired to the carburetor*.
The system did not work out well.
* It was known as Computer Command Control, or C3, but there's no wiki entry and I haven't found a good reference yet.
So don't elect fascists and support policies that make sense.
That would work in a world where it's impossible for politicians to lie.
FWIW, I voted for Obama in 2008 because, after 8 years of Bush Inc, I actually believed his "Hope and Change" lie; in retrospect, I should have known he was full of shit - he's a politician, and his lips were moving.
Where did the papercraft bit come from? My interest is piqued.
From the Away, Boarders! rules page:
http://warartisan.com/ships
That you find it insulting says more about you than it does about me. Why are you insulted? Because I'm unaware of any atheist groups that run soup kitchens? How is my ignorance damaging or harmful to you?
Here's a thought - instead of getting insulted, maybe you should provide information with which I can banish my ignorance. That is, if any such information exists.
Nope, it's clearly people who think different thoughts than we think that cause all these problems. After all, they kill other people who think different thoughts than they think to force them to stop thinking them, so we should force them to stop thinking their own thoughts so they can get busy thinking ours. It's just LOGIC, people, and I know it's right because I thought of it.
As does the atheist.
Both of which are welcome to hold that opinion; it's when they try to force their variant on everyone else that they become the dickheads of selfishness who fuck things up for the rest of the world.
board game.
Uh, perhaps I'm off base here, but I don't see what a game based on (particularly kick-ass) papercraft ships have to do with the creation of a land, sea, air, and space MMOFPS.
Makes you wish Planetside or Freelancer would get source releases. Imagine the possibilities when there's that kind of talent out there...
Man, that would make one hell of a combo, wouldn't it?
Like Star Wars: Battlefront II but with even more awesome.
They made a mistake of not releasing a cheap option that doesn't require you to volunteer to be anally rape by a telco.
FTFY.
the mistake from apple was that the C stands for Color and not Cheap. a 300 bucks, even if slower, iPhone would have flown off the shelves.
Sure, until the next week when phone companies start subsidizing iPhone 5's at 99 cents.
I know a number of folks who only have a smartphone because AT&T was giving them away for less than a buck a pop.
... the idea that RPG and FPS have never been "blended" is false. Borderlands 2 does it, and does it in a package that is great fun (good for 150 hours or so of gameplay if you want to reach Level 70)
Also, you know... pretty much every Bethesda game starting with Fallout 3.
There is also the Just Cause 2 Multiplayer Beta going on. That supports up to 2,000 players per server and is "FPS-like". http://www.jc-mp.com/ [jc-mp.com] What it lacks in RPG elements, it makes up for in terms of a huge map littered with vehicles you can drive, fly or float.
Well, 'right now' is a bit of a misnomer - there's an open beta once every 4-8 weeks it seems.
Regardless, I recommend anyone with a copy of JC2 to sign up, as it's fucking spectacular. No, really, you haven't had fun in a game until you've circled a gigantic yacht suspended from balloons with your military jet, while flying through a wall of 300 skydivers AND engaging in a dogfight with a tuk-tuk swinging from your tail section.
At night.
With your wings aflame.
It's, what, 2 months until the release of Watch Dogs?
Considering the plot, I'm surprised that one doesn't get more press 'round these parts.
One word for you: Planetside.
Also, though it's not an FPS, and the multiplayer element has been 100% designed and implemented by fans...
Just Cause 2 Multiplayer
Fun fact: a bunch of the guys on the JC2:MP dev team are the same people who developed Multi-Theft Auto (GTA multiplayer mod).
Well, see, now it has a name! All that's missing is a Wiki page.