The financial rescue bill (aka the bailout) contains substantial tax credits for plug-in hybrid vehicles sold after 2008. This could mean about $7,500 dollars for a GM Volt, based on the size of its battery. Here are some links: Green Car Congress on the senate bill Green Car...
This is just one reason to get solar sooner rather than later: Carbon Is Building Up in Atmosphere Faster Than Predicted (washingtonpost.com) "The new statistics also underscore the growing contribution to the world's "carbon budget" from rapidly industrializing countries such as China, India and Brazil. Developing...
OK, this is pretty trivial, but I was wondering how much area would be covered by 700 Billion dollar bills if they were all laid next to each other, say in a big rectangle. Let's play a game of powers-of-ten to get there. Given that each...
Looks like the Volt will be getting some interesting competition. The Register is reporting that an electric Mini test vehicle has been spotted driving around Munich, based on reports in Car Magazine. Car says: "...
We've signed off on getting a 3.85KWh solar photovoltaic system. Return on investment will be 10-12 years, probably less if we get a plugin-hybrid electric car in 3 or 4 years. The roofers will be here tomorrow to mark the joists, and sometime in the...
I know that many people will be gathering at watch parties this Friday, but I plan to watch it at home with Twitter. The 140 character format seems to be just right for getting a river of concise, first-blush commentary. I plan to spend this...
I'm glad to see that Obama is saying No Blank Check!: "If we grant the Treasury broad authority to address the immediate crisis, we must insist on independent accountability and oversight. Given the breach of trust we have seen and the magnitude of the taxpayer money...
My friend Mary Reynolds Thompson hosts teleclasses on writing at WriteTheDamnBook.com. Mary's coaching has helped many writers actually finish the book that they started. Coming up is a teleclass on blogging by expert blogger Britt Bravo, creator of the Changeblogger Network. Blogging has become an...
GM-volt.com has pictures of the production version of the Volt. I like it. Actually, I like it a lot better than the concept car. Meanwhile, it looks like GM and the EPA might argue about MPG. It all depends on the battery charge at the end...
It was interesting that Google used a comic strip to effectively communicate the reasons why they are introducing a new browser called Chrome. I was especially taken in by the discussion of processes and tabs, a topic that would normally be rather dry. Comics were recently...
I woke up this morning, my beauty sleep totally uninterrupted by that loud car honk sound I had selected on my iPhone for text messages. OK I admit it, I already heard the big news last night. But still...
Here is a nice Charlie Rose interview with Bob Lutz, talking about the ideas and progress of the GM Volt. It's about 56 minutes long. One of the things mentioned (at about 41 minutes in) is that the show car had a drag coefficient of about...
The exciting news is that 1BOG has selected an installation partner and the installer will be visiting my house tomorrow. I can't wait to see what the whole process is like. I have two questions in particular: 1) I will definitely be getting a plugin hybrid car...
Lot's of interesting news in the alternative energy field: MIT creates a catalyst based on photosysthesis that produces hydrogen from water. LS9 uses synthetic biology to produce oil from algae. Energy Innovations gets the first UL listing for a solar concentrator. ...
I saw an interesting demonstration recently of WiMAX (specifically the mobile version, 802.16e) and needless to say, I am impressed. The demo should consistent data rates exceeding 10 megabits/sec in a moving vehicle. The kicker was that upstream speed was better than 2 megabits/sec. Talk about...
CollegeDegrees.com has over 100 tips, tricks and hacks for your Kindle. My favorite tip is how to put your own reference content on the Kindle - I have over 300 pages on a personal Wiki that I would want to transfer....
I just discovered a nice in-depth article by Pat B Doyle titled Publish an Ebook in Amazonâ??s Kindle Book Store!. It includes a 8-point guide that includes formatting tips, setting up search terms, and how to prepare a product image. I'm looking forward to following...
This is totally cool...
Geeks3d is "All 3D Tech News, All The Time", and they just covered the Shapeways announcement. ...
Shapeways looks really interesting. According to Technology Review you upload a 3-D design to the website, and 10 days and $50-$100 later, you receive a polymer version of your design. I can see this as really handy for creating masters for items that I want...