NASA, you rock!
August 21, 2017 - Amazing photo of Eclipse 2017
What an amazing photo this is of the recent ecplise.
I was ready with my ecplise glasses (donate your used glasses to Astronomers Without Borders!) and camera, but of course NASA was so much better prepared and made the day real for us all by capturing images like the one here.
I do hope that the National Aeronautical and Space Administration fights the good fight and keeps pushing us forward as they have thorughout recent memory.
Electric
June 16, 2017 - Why I bought an electric Spark...
We had been contemplating buying a new electric car for a while when I switched my thought process. What had once been focues on a new Chevy Bolt, or possibly the Tesla Model 3, now allowed for two electric cars instead of one.
WIthout much work, we were able to find both an Electric Spark for me (it’s too fun to drive) and a Fiat 500e electric for my wife. She loves how cute it is, and I give her that, it’s adorable. But the Spark won my heart with it’s sporty acceleration, 50:50 weight ration and great handling. It’s a vey fun car to drive, without a doubt.
0-60 in 7.6s, 400 ft-lb torque, 150HP AC Electric, A123 batteries… and did I mention fun?!
And at $0.07/KWh at our local utility, the cost to fill (on hydro power) is about $1.61 for a cost per mile of $0.02.
There are also free changing stations throughtout the area, which brings the cost down even more! Win-Win-WIn
Bolt in the future?
Why not?
The Chevy Bolt introduces a significant shift in electric vehicles, from low cost short range or high cost long range to the panacea, low cost long range. At 240 miles, the Bolt can go from Seattle to Portland without breaking a sweat, or at least not much of a sweat.
This is the first vehicle shipped that holds the world in it’s hands, will it deliver?
We test drove one, an awesome orange one, and liked it, except for the annoying American car failing headrests. It was actually painful to drive, coming from a VW TDI. So it’s not in our driveway yet, but maybe soon? We love the concept, and the execution is only a little less than amazing. WIll the Tesla Model 3 deliver where the Bolt comes up short?
"Eventually everything connects - people, ideas, objects. The quality of the connections is the key to quality per se."
Charles Eames