This program is a ways from being implemented I suppose, but I find the prospect fairly amusing.
Could playing computer games enhance mental agility enough to turn people over 50 into better drivers? Allstate Corp. wants to find out, and if the answer is yes, it might offer insurance discounts to people who play the games.
I have told Heather in the past that our generation will be playing video games in retirement, this may or may not play a role in that future 🙂
-Jordan
…and gas is selling for $3.16 per gallon at the station right by work. I will probably never think to dig up this post, but I am guessing that will seem shocking in six months. 🙂
also, labels I feel I should print off and use for something: here
-Jordan
I am still a little concerned this site is all just an elaborate ploy of some sort, but all the same I can’t deny my first thought was “HA!, at least its something other than WoW people are mad about”
-Jordan
Today be a truly red letter day!
tis be the day the cap’n let all we steady maties go ashore ‘n banter with the landlubbers. On such a day I be glad the mainstay of me communicating be use’n the electronic scrimshaw, where a sea dogs lingo shant be hindered by his lubbardly tounge. This day be more amuse’n than throwing chum ta sharks.
In the interest of fairness, I should pass along a proposal by Art for “talk like a Ninja day”:
Any messages for your coworkers must be left written in hurried yet stylistic kanji on pieces of paper left tacked to walls or other coworkers with shuriken
I really do have fun with TLaPD, especially on IM, sadly its almost over, untill next year…..
AAAARRRRRRR! 🙂
-Jordan
I read this article first thing this morning, and realized I had a pretty bad understanding of hybrid state-of-the-art.
On the first point I am still sort of torn on, it seems really dumb to have the extra drive-train for 2 engines, when you consider weight to be your number one problem for staying efficient. Even with the dual drive option, you are looking at using the gas engine outside its optimal operating speed at least some of the time. On the other hand, charging a battery is extremely lossy… it seems like 20-30% is the number I read not to long ago. Running your engine at optimal RPMs, you’re still bleeding energy all over, losses when you generate electricity, losses when you charge the battery, losses when you discharge the battery. I am really fascinated by the trade-offs there, I really wish hard numbers were more available. (Maybe they are and I just haven’t looked)
On the second point, I am really impressed by the performance they are getting out of a fairly small battery weight footprint. My personal experiences with lith-ion batteries haven’t been all that positive, but I think its because sooner or later my cell phone runs dead, and I hope that preventing that will extend battery life substantially. Its also interesting to me that they aren’t really charging the battery with the gas engine, just putting in enough power to keep the battery above 30% charge, so hopefully avoiding a lot of waste in the explosion –piston -coil/magnet-wire-chemical _reaction system they have to go through to charge the battery on the road.
I am still highly skeptical when it comes to the long-term viability of a battery powered car, the article claims they are shooting for 150,000 mile lifetime on the battery packs. If they make that, I suppose it’s loosely comparable to automatic transmissions.
-Jordan
It seems then I will have somebody to play games with in the house 🙂
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D937U9BO1&show_article=1
* edit a few minutes later *
for those of you who didn’t want to read the entire article, here’s the key quote:
“Ninety-seven percent of young respondents play video games. That’s 99 percent of boys and 94 percent of girls”
-Jordan
I was somewhat caught off guard by actual comments here, so I dug through the wordpress settings and made it a lot easier to post comments. We will also see how well the anti-spam plugin works, but then again I think for now this site is safely below everyone’s radar, meaning the spambots shouldn’t be a problem 🙂
also, I really want to build one of these: Ruben’s Tube
-Jordan
A week or so back, Heather asked me why anyone would spend the money on a car like a Lamborghini
Maybe this article explains it?
I don’t think this will factor into my car buying decisions any time soon.
-Jordan
Nelsons 