With oil prices running a muck and most Americans finding themselves financially shortchanged, you wonder why our airwaves more recently are talking about hybrids or hydrogen vehicles when in reality the idea of alternative fuel / resources were being developed or in production since the late 1800′s.

Then you may ask, why did the electric vehicle disappear? Well, either you are driving one or a passanger in one — gasoline power vehicles. Ponder on the forces or situations that made the electric vehicle disappear not only in the late 1800′s, 1960′s, 1970′s, and 1990′s. The story of a fuel efficient electrical vehicle manufactured by General Motors called the “EV1″ and the journey it’s temporary owner had until they had to finally departed is an experience to be shared and an awareness for us all.

In my opinion, Director Chris Paine and his staff present severals prespectives from multiple sources in a fair way. He provides the stories of these vehicle, the people who leased them, their experience, the automaker industry, the government and other players. Also, check out the special feature it contains more goodies.

Here’s a pictures of some of the electric cars that could have been:

1) 2) 3)
4) 5) 6)

1) Thomas Edison 2)1901 Electric Ambulance  3) CitiCar-Vanguard-Sebring
4)Tropica – Renaissance Cars, Inc  5)EV1 – GM 6)RAV4 – Toyota

Luckily there are other manufactures that are interested in Electric Vehicle:

A) B)

C) D)
A)Tesla Roadster B)Fetish – Venturi C)ZAP Xebra Sedan & D)ZAP Truck Xebra PK

To learn more about Electric Vehicle and alternative energy visit:

Plug In America or The Electric Auto Association

Oh, there is one gentleman that really caught my interest his name is Stanford Ovshinsky. Self-made, has approximately 200 patents and a successful business in alternative energy. Sadly to say his wife Iris passed away in 2006. To learn more about Stanford Ovshinsky check out the article from WISE – PBS Alan Alda in Scientific American Frontiers here.

Saw this on a package of dish towels that Ev just picked up:

Have the better sop up water and decontamination.
Breathe freely is better, easy to desiccation, almost unable bacilli.

So, if anyone needs to decontaminate or desiccate their kitchen, just let me know. Though, I do agree that breathing freely is better.

I just finished a book called “One Man’s Wilderness” by Sam Keith. It’s the book form of Richard (Dick) Proenneke’s diary. Proenneke moved to Alaska in the late 1960′s and kept detailed diaries of his adventures.

It’s a great book for those interesting in reading more about someone who moved away from “civilization” (like An Island To Oneself). Proenneke, like Neale, wasn’t really a hermit like person. He liked other people. Both of them looked to prove to themselves that they could survive with their own hands. One man did it on a deserted island, the other in the Alaskan wilderness.

One of the really cool things that Proenneke did was take a 16MM movie camera with him. He used this not only to film the wildlife, but he also documented the construction of his cabin. Proenneke was obviously a master carpenter and all around handy-man. The construction of his cabin is nothing short of amazing. Luckily, much of the film has been transferred to DVD. A set of two DVDs and the Book are available from Bob Swerer Productions for $58.90. If you are interested in the wilderness and want to be in awe of what a man can build with his own hands, I recommend them. The book is really descriptive, but the DVD does better justice to the workmanship involved.

When watching the DVD take a look at how fit the guy is — he was in his early 50′s when we went out to the wilderness! This guy can haul logs around like they were toothpicks. In fact, he stayed in the wilderness for the next 30 years, finally leaving when he was in his late 80′s (and couldn’t handle the winters anymore).

If you’d like to learn more about Proenneke, there’s a decent (though incomplete) bio at wikipedia. The National Park Service also published a second set of his diary entries, but it’s hard to find. Luckily they have scanned the original and it can be download from here (it’s a very big PDF file). I’ve just started reading it (hard to read on the computer screen)–but it seems to have much more detail about his life than the limited wiki article.

I ran into an interesting project by IBM called Many Eyes. It lets you upload a dataset into their servers and then map/plot/graph the data in a number of different ways. There are a bunch of samples that others have put up there. Most of them are really awful, but there are a few insightful ones.

Also, an update on the Wii versus PS3: We went to Fry’s today and there was a stack of about 30 PS3s on the floor, but not a Wii to be found. They were all the high-end 60GB model (just like I saw at Target), so they aren’t sitting there because they are the “dumbed down” model. Well, at least Sony showed the industry what the price point for video game systems is: don’t go over $400.

I found this pic a couple of weeks ago and found it interesting. I like how the lights make a halo. As luck would have it, I also found a cool meter. Clicky to see it animated.

 

I finally crawled out of my cave today and checked on the car. It’s encased in ice. The side windows have about 1/4 inch–not too bad, but the front and rear windows have 3/4 inch of ice. The whole thing looks like it’s been put inside a giant ice cube. I probably have to go into work tomorrow, and I’m not looking forward to chipping away. Ah, well.

Other than that, things are thawing a bit. We’re supposed to get a “warming” trend (40s) in the next couple of days. It will be rainly, but at least it won’t be freezing rain.

Also: We finally got mail again today, but our local post office is screwed up big-time. All we got was some junk mail coupons. Nothing from out-of-town. Probably because a lot of semis have been stuck outside of town.

If you’d like to try an authentic iced coffee drink, try this recipe out. It was originally created in Greece in the 1950s. It’s nothing like the stuff you find in the chains.

The only hard part is finding the Instant Coffee. Yep, that’s right: you need instant coffee. But no Folgers here. You need Nespresso/Nescafe Classic Frappe Instant Coffee. Don’t be fooled: You may see some Nescafe that is made in Mexico–it’s not the same. Make sure that you get the one that is made in Greece (it is made differently and is critical to the recipe). The 200g can I bought has English on one side and Greek on the other. Says “Frappe” on the can and runs about $10. You should be able to find it in a decent “ethnic” grocery store.

Okay, got the special coffee? Then here we go:

In a cocktail shaker put in the following: 1/4 cup cold water, 2 tablespoons whole milk, 5 teaspoons instant coffee, 4 teaspoons sugar, 2 ice cubes.

Now shake away, for about 2 minutes or so. Then open up the shaker and be amazed. You’ll see that it has foamed up like crazy. Pour the contents into a tall glass (ice and all) and wait a minute or two for the foam to settle. Then sip away. Pure coffee heaven.

Note: Do NOT double up the recipe! The cocktail shaker can’t handle anything more than the above (it makes an 8 ounce serving). Trust me, I tried–and made a big coffee mess. You can also try batches in a blender, but make sure to leave plenty of room, as it foams up a lot.

Thanks to the Rosengarten Report for this tasty idea.

Update: My cocktail shaker is in storage, so I had to get a new one. Take a look at Target. They had a white OXO model on clearance for about $4–when most others were in the $15 range! It’s a really nice one, and is double-insulated. I’d buy it even at full price, but at $4 it’s a steal. Also, I have heard that you can tell how low the Target clearance is by the last digit. The lower the last digit, the more it’s been marked down. If you see a “4″ that is the lowest–from there is gets shipped off to places like Big Lots.

Here are pictures of the horrific storm we’ve had. Anyone in Chicago will get a good laugh. Click to enlarge.

Here is our iced down car. Too bad I left my scraper in Chicago. I’ll just have to wait until it thaws on Thursday:

The one palm tree did get weighed down quite a bit. Check out the warning sign:

Here’s a good picture of the massive amounts of snow we received. See! It’s there! Right under the tree! We’ll be digging out for weeks. I just hope our pool doesn’t freeze.

 

It’s really turning into a pretty nasty winter storm down here. Mostly ice, but not any snow. I forgot how cold 25 degrees feels.

The ice we’ve gotten down here is nothing like Oklahoma/Missouri, but it’s enough to screw everything up. Part of this is because many of the main roads (I-35, MoPac, 183, 290, etc) are elevated, so they freeze over very easily. Throw in the fact that they don’t have salt trucks and you can see where that heads. (They toss down sand and sometimes some chemicals.) Interstate 35 (the only interstate through Austin) was pretty much a ghost town, as even the truckers are pulling over because it’s too slick.

So, most of the roads are pretty deserted today, as most people (including ourselves) are staying home and waiting for the stuff to melt. Thursday morning is probably going to be better, which is good, since I have to work that day.

Update: It’s pretty amazing how not a whole lot of bad weather can shut down this town. Chicagoans would find it quite funny. Many of the stores are closed and mail delivery has pretty much come to a standstill. The post offices near us are all closed. Mail probably won’t start up again until Thursday, which sucks, since I’m waiting for a batch of medicine to come in. There is hardly enough freezing rain to speak of, but because there are no salt trucks everything is a huge mess.

Was at Target yesterday picking up the usual exciting Target stuff (soap, deodorant, shampoo) and stopped by the electronics area to see if I could spot a Wii. As I approached I saw about 6 Sony PS3s in the case. The 60GB “good” models. Well, I thought. If they have those, they should have some Wiis. Well, I look over and the Wii section is barren. No systems. No controllers.

It was also interesting that there were two young teen guys looking around, talking about how cool it would be to have a Wii and how the controller could be used in so many ways, etc. These were kids you’d think would be drooling over the PS3, but they could give a rats ass about the Sony machine. They were close to raving about how cool the Wii was. So the Wii, which was supposed to be a “little kids and old fogeys” machine is just as desired by the teenie boopers. And the PS3s are piling up.

Later in the day I stumbled on a couple of blogs that affirmed what I saw in Target. Lots of PS3s around, but the Wii is selling out as soon as it’s put on the shelves. One store kept track of the number of Wii versus PS3 calls they got in a day. There were 75 calls asking if the Wii was in stock and 2 for the PS3. That says something.

I’m sure that price plays a part, since the PS3 is hundreds more expensive. (But, But, But say the Sony fanboys–it’s the cheapest BluRay player! Yea, but who wants to own the cheapest Betamax player? It’s still Beta. Especially with newst that dual-format players and discs are on the way.) However, it’s those crazy motion sensor controllers that are really getting people excited. It gets peoples imaginations going as to how they could be used. This harks back to the original talk regarding the Nintendo DS–with two screens, one of them being a touch screen. Stupid said some, a gimmic said others (myself included–re: the two screens). Yet my fancy slick looking PSP gathers dust while the DS gets played almost every day. Interesting gameplay is where it’s at.