The Public Transportation Scam
Publicly funded mass transit wastes money. Gov. Jerry Brown of California wants a high speed rail connection northern California and with the Southern part even though there isn’t a great demand, will cost insane amounts of money and the state is broke. This is what statists do to look like they are doing their job. Wasting the public funds. Privatized rail is the only way to go.
Stout Scarab
Being a fan of art deco and old cars I recently learned of the Stout Scarab. Only nine were built and 5 exist today. It’s easily the world’s first minivan. Each was custom built and had an incredibly cool design,. especially in the back. Considered ugly in its day and really expensive it never took off. But to me ist a thing of beauty.
Lots of pictures here.
Iron Man Car
Marvel has a funny car exhibit at the San Diego Comicon, off site on 6th street. I went with a couple friends to check it out before dinner.
Welcome to the Police State
TSA at bus stations. Oh, joy.
16 Batmobile Mods
Some interesting and funky Batmobiles. Some are real cars, others are models or case mods. The corvette made me laugh, but it is a nice job, I have to say.
The Segway Chair
Doesn’t look like it’d be too comfortable for fatties, though.
Electric Cars
Heading off to LA on business tomorrow. I’m sure to be thinking about how lame these new Electric cars are. I like the idea of electric cars, but seriously, people, this is crap.
Here’s a site dedicated to them that has some odd ball stuff.
They better not try forcing Americans into these tiny clown cars. Make them work first,
Oh yeah, and improve the damn grid! The strain that will be put on it if we all went electric will shut it down.
Obama Outrage Dujour
The allegedly “green” president has just killed funding for hydrogen powered cars, even though they already work and were ready to roll out next year. Even though they work great and put out zero pollution.
In the newly released budget, the U.S. Department of Energy cuts $100 million from the hydrogen fuel cell program in fiscal year 2010 and transforms its name to “fuel cell technologies.” Hydrogen, of course, is just the fuel of a fuel cell—a device that recombines hydrogen and oxygen to produce water and electrical current. Still, the name change distances the Obama administration from the “hydrogen economy” goals of their predecessors.
“We asked ourselves, ‘Is it likely in the next 10 or 15, 20 years that we will convert to a hydrogen car economy?’ The answer, we felt, was ‘No,’” said energy secretary Steven Chu in a briefing on the budget for reporters yesterday, citing the need for better fuel cells and a near complete lack of infrastructure.
The 2010 budget now gives some $68 million for ongoing fuel cell research, primarily focused on the devices serving in buildings and other applications, rather than cars, compared to $168 million for the hydrogen program in 2009.
This is something I really wanted to see succeed. The reasons they give are absurd. They can easily be fixed. The truth is the call for green technology is a scam. They just want to funnel money down rat holes of their choosing.
Incidentally, this is amusing. The very idea of regulating green house gasses is such a joke in the first place.
Green Cars
So the Obama administration lent billions of dollars to auto companies with the expectations that they would make more electric cars. Did you think it would result in some Luxury sedan that could go zero to sixty in a second? How about this?
GM is betting PUMA’s more car-like traits — an enclosed compartment and top speed of 35 miles per hour — will lead to better results. GM didn’t say how much the machines would cost, but research chief Larry Burns said owners would spend one-third to one-fourth of the cost of a traditional vehicle.
PUMA would have a range of about 35 miles. GM said it aims to use so-called vehicle-to-vehicle technology to avoid traffic problems and potentially have it navigate itself through city streets.
Yeah, awesome. A car that can go only 35 miles per hour and 35 miles on a change. Thrilling.
This is what you get when the state starts dictating what you’ll be making and what you’ll be driving. In the Soviet era you had to wait 5 years for this piece of crap. Don’t be surprised when an over zealous Obama administration decides you need to drive more cars like the Puma and will “encourage you” to give up your current ride. It’s “green” after all.
and they’re still making it.
