Monthly Archives: November 2008

Louis gets smoked out. A nation of black lungs.

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By Louis the Scooterer

I don’t want to..BUT, Maybe move away from MyPoP

Well the story about the women walkers is something like this. A large factory from way down south, sends women workers from all departments in a couple of buses to spend a couple of nights and a few days at a beautiful hotel, where they are pampered in the spa and do early morning exercises, and some swim and a few pop into the gym. Then they go walking at their pace to many places in Netanya.

The majority speak no English and I really didn’t have much communication with the guides..

And as I settled down in my favourite chair at my favourite table at MyPoP, I began being bothered by my number one problem. That is breathing the smoke and smells of smokers, and when I looked around, couldnt believe my eyes..almost everyone there were smoking. The sporting people who ride bicycles and the surfers and the fisherman and the swimmers and the joggers and the walkers. Yes I couldnt believe it but my camera doesn’t lie, and some pics are telling the full story.Even the mother breastfeeding her baby was a smoker.

Oh well, I don’t smoke.


A few of my friends that don’t smoke:

Some of the animal visitors and birds and horses, and the rare “other person”. Oh hell I dont really want to leave this place, but maybe even the wind changing direction and bringing the smoke to me will be the decider. I felt that perhaps the partners / owners and all the staff are smokers, and that maybe they invited so many smokers to come and enjoy these beautiful surroundings. I wonder!

And guess what ? When I came back to the square to find a friend, there they were again. So many smokers, and I refused to take more pics, but one that caught my eye was this old chap with a long full white beard who always stands at the door of his office..smoking..this time I saw him flicking away a half smoked cigarette..and on the sidewalk, in front of his office, were more than 20 cigarette butts.

Bye for now, and please ..between cigarettes.. will you email me at
louisdrinkingt@013.net

Green Cars at the 2008 Greater L.A. Auto Show

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By Jeffrey the Barak

Are any of these cars truly green?

The Greater Los Angeles Auto-Show, Green Car Ride and Drive Event, November 20th 2008.

Participating Vehicles

  • Audi A7 TDI (clean diesel)
  • BMW 335d (diesel)
  • Chevy Equinox Fuel Cell
  • Chrysler Aspen (hybrid)
  • Dodge Ram 3500 (biodiesel)
  • Ford Fusion Hybrid
  • Honda FCX Clarity (fuel cell)
  • Mercedes-Benz ML320 BlueTEC SUV (diesel)
  • Mercedes-Benz GL320 BlueTEC clean (diesel)
  • Mercury Mariner (hybrid)
  • Mini E (electric)
  • Mitsubishi i-MiEV (electric)
  • Nissan X-Trail FCV (fuel cel)
  • Saturn Vue 2 Mode Hybrid
  • Smart fortwo
  • Volvo C30
  • VW Jetta TDI (diesel)
  • VW Touareg TDI (diesel)

I decided not to focus on any of the diesels and clean diesels, because it’s still diesel and it still stinks, even if you use much less these days and less smoke makes it out the end of the tailpipe.

Bio diesel has such a large eco-footprint that it’s barely worth pursuing. It does not help the environment whatsoever with it’s current method of growth, harvesting and distribution.

The hybrids use less fuel than similar non-hybrids, but the additional cost on the price tag requires a lot of high mileage driving to recover the cost, and you still need to burn gas in order to use them.

Small and light cars such as the Smart Fortwo, and the four seater Volvo C30 are normal cars, they just save money and the environment by being small. They are not the giant enormous cars that most Americans are convinced they need to transport one little person two miles down the road.

Fuel cell cars would be great if the hydrogen was not produced by dirty sources and delivered by dirty tanker trucks. But they are, so they are not so far in any position where they can be said to making the Earth any greener. It’s coal for goodness sake!

So that just leave all-electric. Again, most electricity is generated by the burning of coal so it’s tempting to rule these out as well, but with more wind and solar power coming online, then electric cars get greener all the time. The batteries are not exactly eco-friendly when they reach their end, but electric cars are still undeniably cleaner than combustion vehicles.

Mitsubishi and BMW have presented two real, in-production, practically non-prototype, definitely non-concept cars which are true all-electric cars.

Mitsubishi has their i-MiEV, a small car with four doors and room for four inside, and BMW has an all-electric version of their very successful Mini, except this one is a two seater.

The iMiEV has an onboard charger so you can plug into your normal home’s outlets, or into a quick charger, a few of which can be found in most cities. The car uses very efficient electric motor and high energy density lithium-ion batteries. It’s as simple as that and it’s ready to go, with more than enough range for most people who drive each day and return home each evening.

The BMW mini with it’s single passenger seat is clearly a bit less practical, but nevertheless, it’s fabulous and more fun than most two-seaters that are stinking around wasting fuel for no good reason.

These two very real cars are almost here now and setting the stage for our inevitable path to all-electric cars. All this other stuff, bio-diesel, clean diesel, normal diesel, hydrogen, gasoline hybrids, etc. is just a diversion. We have to head towards the electric light at the end of the smoky tunnel.

Of course there are others. To name a few there are:
Tesla Motors Electric Roadster (A Lotus Elan based two seater)
BYD (China) E6 Electric Car
Miles XS500 (retro-ugly small electric sedan)
Subaru R1e
Tango (George Clooney has one of these dragster-fast single-seaters that resemble giant work-boots)
Wrightspeed X1 (insanely fast street legal electric racing car)

So how do these two electric cars at the L.A. Auto Show event feel? How do they drive?

The BMW Mini E

The BMW Mini E has a very impressive driving range of “up to 150″ miles. It accelerates very quickly, going from 0 to 62 MPH in 8.5 seconds, and in such a way that gives you the kick right at zero, no delay as with combustion engined cars.

The Mini’s top speed is 95 MPH and it;s lithium ion batteries can be recharged from any standard power outlet. However the specially installed wall box can fully recharge the car from dead to full in 2.5 hours.

Releasing the “gas pedal”, which of course is no such thing, causes dynamic deceleration, meaning the slowing of the vehicle charges the batteries by using the motor as a generator.

But here is the catch, at least for now. Much like the old GM EV1 immortalized in the film “Who killed the electric car”, the minis will initially only be available on a one year lease with an extension option, and in three of the fifty United States only.

The driving experience in normal slow traffic conditions is much the same as that in the standard BMW mini, except you don’t hear an engine or an exhaust note or feel the rumble of a combustion engine. It is of course extremely quiet, the only obvious sound being that of suspension, wind, etc. The main difference in feel is when you take your right foot of the go pedal and sense the regenerative braking effect that helps give this car it’s impressive range.

The biggest difference visually comes when you look over your shoulder. Instead of the familiar rear seat of the Mini and Mini Cooper, there is a black box between you and the trunk space. As I said earlier, this is a fun car to drive, and let’s not forget it’s main points, no engine, no exhaust, no gas tank, no emissions.

The Mitsubishi i-MiEV

A good looking small car with plenty of room for two in the back, but nevertheless unconventional looking, as it can be since there is no engine. The rear end does look a bit odd, but there’s no reason it should look like a car with an engine.

There are about 30 or so of these running around Tokyo. But as the promotional video shows, at least one has been driven around in the Los Angeles area and it may well be the same on on the floor at the Auto Show today.

Again this car rests it’s hopes on lithium ion batteries. They are clearly the most promising rechargeables on the automotive landscape this year, and the i MiEV has 22 of them at the bottom of the car.

A good car to compare this to is the Mitsubishi i Turbo, which has a three-cylinder gasoline combustion engine. But the i MiEV’s direct-drive, no-tranmission electric motor will take it from 0-60 MPH in just under 9 seconds and the top speed is around 82 MPH.

But there are two driving modes, Sport and Eco. The latter takes away the racy performance, but increases the range. Even in Eco mode, it’s not a slow car and it’s still faster than the tiny cars on the road. Mitsubishi say the range is “up to 100 miles”. It may or may not achievable, but considering that Chevrolet is asking for billions of taxpayer dollars to be so gracious as to give us an expensive Chevy Volt with a pathetic “up to 40 mile range”, I say hats off to our patriotic friends at Mitsubishi. They are America’s friends, not the lunatics and national saboteurs over at General Motors.

However, with real-world range of around 60 miles, (using climate control and enjoying the occasional burst of gratifying speed), and a full recharge that takes 14 hours on a normal domestic outlet or about an hour on the wall mount, this car may not have enough energy capacity to be considered as your one and only daily driver. But it’s getting there and Mitsubishi have done a fine job using todays latest technology.

The i MiEV is not exactly here yet. It may be generally available to anyone in Japan in about a year in late 2009.

Is it time yet?

The consumer looking for an electric car in 2008 and 2009 might be best advised to wait, and in the meantime, lighten up on that right foot and drive in such a way as to conserve fuel. Eventually, range will improve and more electricity will be coming from non-polluting sources such as wind, and less from coal. Then we will be able to watch as more and more cars go all-elecric.

An inflatable, all-electric car?

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I really really really want this to be real. Really.

Inventor Bill Wright is about to present an “e-car” to congress that could turn the car world on it’s head. It has the unfortunate name of XP-Car, but we sincerely hope that it will not be anything like Windows XP.

Details of the concept can be seen at the web site myxpcar.com, but here is a copy of their amazing summary of features:

“Not just another electric car, a dramatic new type of ground transportation. Designed to beat all of the production models of GM, Ford, Toyota, Honda, Tesla, and all other traditionals. As a matter of fact, we have challenged all of them to a contest! In a head-to-head with EVERY regular and electric car in production, our technology is

  • More likely to save your life and protect you, and your family, from injury by a factor of ten over the competitors.
  • Able to look exactly like a “regular car”.. or not, depending on customer inclination.
  • Able to provide America, or any country, with 100% ENERGY INDEPENDENCE and JOBS!
  • Able to return investors money sooner because of a lower factory cost and a lower BOM, by many times, than our competitors.
  • Fueled, in part, by water and energy you can make at home.
  • Able to survive a 30 MPH crash without damage.
  • Faster per dollar.
  • Longer range by many times, (ie: it can drive across the U.S. without turning off the motor)
  • More durable. Even the most extreme body repair work, which it may never need, can be completed in under an hour.
  • Shippable to dealers on more types of carriers with more cars per crate than competitors.
  • Lower cost than any other electric car for the features.
  • More efficient.
  • Able to be supported by dealers with very simple repair and showroom facilities.
  • Faster and lower cost to road certify.
  • Able to be buiilt in lower cost factories with 70% less floorspace and manufacturing equipment which mean lower cost, higher quality cars for our customers.
  • Fueled by quick, hot-swap, cassettes.
  • Less toxic than the EMF battery/power system poisoning and/or gasoline carcinogens you may get from competing systems.
  • More sustainable.
  • Less taxing to the grid and able to operate entirely off the grid in one mode.
  • Easier to maintain by many times because of dramatically less parts to go wrong.
  • Less likely to have mechanical failures by many times because of dramatically less parts to go wrong.

Sound wild? This is actually run-of-the mill technology that industry has used for over 20 years but that our competiitors have not been brave enough to use. We have deployed hundreds of millions of dollars of real world tested materials to bring you a green, sustainable, safe, ultimate transportation machine! Think this is vaporware? Put your-money-where-your-mouth-is and bet us $50,000.00 (Escrow account at Bank of America) on each merit you dispute. We will match you.”

If that sounds amazing, here is their low-budget fantasy YouTube video for the concept:

SUV invasion at MyPop

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By Louis the Scooterer

Stinking cigars and running out of fuel = not a good start.. but it gets better….

The other morning…After having an early coffee at the square, and being chased away by the smoke from a guy smoking the stinkiest cigar I’ve ever smelled..pheeew.. he was sitting 2 cafes away !

SO… I was on my way to MyPoP, but I didnt get there. My scooter ran out of fuel, but lucky for me it was only a few hundred meters from my spare “bottle of petrol”, so I took a slow walk to my apt. but t’was hot and no crazy driver offered me a ride.and I admit I did not feel safe on the sidewalk. I feel safe sitting here at the keyboard…writing this.

Here I wanna draw your attention to the fact that I see so many SUVs wherever I go, (why do they have block capitals)(we dont refer to a SEDAN or a TWO-DOOR COUPE). I don’t scoot to a busy road to stand around and count cars and take pics, or arrange carposes for my camera.These suv’s are just everywhere and I believe they give birth to other suv’s, and multiply.

I need to get this off-my-chest so I have brought here another story I wrote recently about SUVs, where I mentioned at an earlier time, that I may have seen 1 SUV in a few hundred vehicles..NOW I am seeing 3, maybe even 4 suv’s in every 10 vehicles (yes 30 to 40% of vehicles are suvs.), so dear reader, be a little patient and read on.

The story.

On the street where I live.. AND EVERYWHERE IN ISRAEL. I won’t mention the names of these vehicles as I have no favourites, but I know which one I would like to own ?

When I first arrived in my new city end of 1999, I saw a rare 4 x 4 jeep type station wagon..and that always driven by a male..I secretly wished I could own one and I believed the SUV was driven by an expert driver.

“A couple of years later”……The 2 farmers that I met on my scootering travels invited me at different times to ride with them as they showed me around..they did not know each other, and the one farm was in desert in the far south..and the other in the hills in the north. Both showed skill the way they handled their vehicles..the ride in the north was on a rainy day with water running on the road (sand track) and he negotiated the mud and rocks with great skill and I secretly wished I could own one.

So, I began noticing these jeep-type 4 x 4 vehicles, and as I began seeing the quantities that I saw in the city, the more I realised how wrong I was in assuming that the mostly male suv drivers were good drivers. They were mostly BAD drivers, doing all the wrong things that bad drivers do in all kinds of vehicles here in Israel…the usual ???

SO we jump to the present time.. NOW NOVEMBER 2008

I now see hundreds of these smart, very big 4×4 jeep-type family-size mini-buses every day, on every road in the city, and in the quiet neighborhoods where I scoot along singing my song..and on every major highway and all other roads as well, and MANY of them are driven by very bad drivers. I notice too, that many are driven by females, some of whom cannot see over the steering wheel..and these high powered (SUVs) are being used mainly “to go to the supermarket” and “to take the children to school”..and maybe the rare occasion will be used at the farm, or in the mountains or the desert roads. (A very important NOTE.. I do not wait for women drivers to pass me “they come into my view” more so, than men do.)

This disturbs me a great deal, as so many of these (big and high) vehicles are driven at speed through the quiet narrow streets, and clearly most drivers of both genders have NOT sufficient skills at being in charge of such a powerful vehicle. On (one) short scoot of 6 minutes and less than 3 kilometers..I saw 7 such vehicles, and on return a couple of hours later on the same road..I saw ten..also there were 3 in the parking lot of the place I was at.

SO..many of the crazy drivers here in Israel do ALL the wrong things..but its a fact that more female drivers than males, come into my vision while I scoot around, and now I have become more nervous than ever.

NOTE PLEASE,that in 8 1/2 years I have scooted all around ISRAEL, and have travelled more than 100,000 kilometers (yes ..one hundred thousand) on scooters (now on my 9th), plus a few more thousands of kms. in a rented car for one month during the rain season. SO.. my observations have some merit and are not aimed only at female drivers. I reckon that the accident rate will jump out of control unless these thousands of SUV drivers are forced to have driving tests for skill, and made aware of what power they have while behind the wheel..merrily smoking and talking on the celfone while they speed to the supermarket.

Many hundreds have small children as the passengers while they make u-turns without looking, and enter the traffic flow without looking, and open the drivers door without looking. Oops they do look in the mirror when they flick their hair into place, and what they do really well is honk the horn very loud and very often, and for no apparent reason !

I have mentioned in several writings, and letters to the press, and many “talkbacks” in newspaper articles about accidents and bad drivers that many female drivers (more so than males) have an obsession “to get in front of a two-wheeler…no matter what”.

This very dangerous action has NOT changed, and in fact has gotten worse, especially on a particularly dangerous curve on the narrow road, through a quiet neighbourhood..that I scoot on daily. Many seem to see this as a wide straight beautiful road that is inviting them to put their foot on the accelerator and GO.. OVERTAKE, and get in front…NOW ! !

I mentioned this to a lady driver who parks her SUV in the basement parking where I live, and when I asked her to explain why so many women drivers of ALL types of vehicles need to overtake to get in front..she said she did not do that..her answer really frightened me when she added “Maybe they dont see you! !” (I usually wear a white top when riding my bright red scooter so as to make myself “more visible”?)

Another lady I know piped up with “they can see your broad shoulders and back, maybe they want to see what you look like” ! Another woman who also rides a 2-wheeler said I should not allow them space to pass..but thats not a good plan when they sit 1 meter behind on my tail. My friend with the giant monster Harley says they dont try to get in front of him ! maybe I should borrow his Harley

My other “friend” who rides a police motorbike with blue lights also says they dont try to push in front of him. SO..usually my stories have some humor, but I find nothing funny in this very serious ongoing saga and of course most of these monster SUVs are fashionably black, which is slightly more frightening than other colors.

Oh well, it seems as though I will never have one..as it is fact that one of these high powered 4×4 jeep-type family-size mini-buses costs the same as 46 (yes fourty six) scooters of the type I have currently…maybe 30 scooters I could buy a lower price (badly used) SUV. They have exotic names like Tuareg, Cheyenne, Savanna, Uplander, Sorrento, Tucson, Rodeo, Liana, Trailblazer etc. and my guess is that every motor manufacturer on the planet makes a top notch SUV, especially designed and modified and raring to “go to the supermarket”? I even know one woman who drives her suv less than 400 meters to the gym, so that she can exersise by walking on the treadmill.

I have seen thousands of all types of vehicles with only one red brakelight working..and have also seen several of these brand-new 4×4 SUV’s that has only one red brakelight working. Since most of these drivers will speed merrily along with their eyes half open and not looking where they drive, and they will not be “hanging up their keys” and retiring from driving..perhaps I should modify my scooter and do my main travelling from “under my blanket”. I want to stop counting suvs so eff the soovs, and I wanna start looking at the scenery or beautiful women, like before.

On the way home I saw about 70 women, all shapes and sizes, all ages, on a walking tour of the cliffs and interest points near to where I live…thats another story, and thanks for reading, and please email to louisdrinkingt@013.net

Should we pay to save our big three?

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By Jeffrey the Barak

In the United States, not long after several “bailouts” of financial institutions, we are being warned and prepared for a similar round of bailouts, this time with the auto-industry as the beneficiary.

  • Do General Motors, Ford and Chrysler deserve to be saved by a government bailout?
  • What would be the consequences of letting them cease operations and closing their doors?
  • If the government offered to save them, but set terms dictating what they should and should not manufacture, is that too much government control for private industry, or does the government simply become the car maker

These are difficult questions to answer with yes or no.

It is all too easy for us to say “it serves them right” and pointing out that Toyotas have been chosen over Buicks because people think they are better, and it’s their own hard-earned money that Americans use to buy a car. But there are two sides to every coin. The number of businesses that depend on the big three to exist and prosper is considerable, and many American jobs are at stake, with not many vacancies at the factories that make so-called foreign cars on American soil.

Is the tradition of mass producing cars in the U.S. too valuable to turn our back on? Should we let the market forces give the big three what they deserve for failing to successfully compete? Let’s look over the borders and see. Canada and Mexico do not make Canadian or Mexican cars, they only have foreign cars, and like the Americans between them, they have foreign car makers operating their manufacturing within the countries of Canada and Mexico. So Canada and Mexico do not have to worry about bailing anyone out, and they can get all the cars they want! Fords, Nissans, you name it! If our own big three go away, there will be no shortage of cars, trucks or buses to buy in the United States

We all have our own experiences. I was always a lover of American iron and always bought American until it just became so obvious that they were simply inferior. Then for years I only experienced American cars if I rented them when traveling, and they were always beyond terrible and their designers always seemed to be having a cruel joke at my expense. But something happened. Around 2006, those Chevrolet rentals were no longer quite so terrible. Still not as good as Volkswagens or Hondas, but not quite so incredibly badly designed. So there is hope for GM, and Fords and Chryslers were always okay even at the worst of times. In other words, today’s American cars are not as terrible as we may imagine.

We have to be careful to examine the arguments appropriately. We cannot just blame the U.S. auto makers for being stupid for promoting S.U.Vs, because we were never forced to buy these thinly disguised, dangerous and dirty, old-fashioned trucks, and the foreign car makers also offered S.U.Vs to be used on the streets in place of normal smaller cars. And there is no evidence that medium sized American cars use more fuel than the same size Japanese, Korean or German cars. And we cannot beat up the big three for their bad designs, because design is a matter of personal taste. Away from the coasts, in middle America, people think Saturns and Mercurys look just fine. They simply do not see the same questionable aesthetic features that Californians or New Yorkers might notice in the very same, named-for-the-planets, plastichrome-adorned American cars.

If the argument is about pollution or using less gasoline, then we must remember that American cars are subject to the same laws, and are no dirtier and no more thirsty. Yes, some of the American hybrids use more fuel per mile than some non-hybrid imports with smaller engines and one battery, but at least they tried. If we want to legislate that car makers should only be selling clean and efficient vehicles, then the same laws will affect Pontiac and Audi and Kia alike.

So where is this argument going? It’s hard to say, because I’m a rambling old fart. So let’s get back to the three original questions and my personal answers.

Q: Do the big three deserve to be bailed out?

A: Only if it would cost Americans more money to let them fail. If not, then no bailout, bye-bye..

Q: What would be the consequences of letting them cease operations and closing their doors?

A: We would have to buy “foreign” cars, but those foreign cars would likely be made in America by Americans, who were members of the American Trades Union, and the car’s badge may say Hyundai or Subaru.

Q: If the government offered to save them, but set terms dictating what they should and should not manufacture, is that too much government control for private industry, or does the government simply become the car maker?

A: It’s not the American way to tell someone what they can and cannot do in business. We lost AMC and many other car makers such as Studebaker, Kaiser etc., so why not these three?

Conclusion. If Canada and Mexico can have all the cars they want but have no National brands, then so could we, and the big-three are asking for billions on top of the twenty-five billion dollars we have recently given them. It may be throwing money away to try to save them, and it may not make any difference, because they are not showing much promise of doing anything differently.

A Stirling engine, not on April 1st

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By Jeffrey the Barak

Usually, when a Stirling engine makes the headlines, it’s April Fool’s Day. Not this time, although once again it is so far only talk and no engine.

In 1816 Robert Stirling obtained a patent for his Stirling engine, which (very) basically uses the temperature difference outside and inside a closed cylinder to move the piston up and down and therefore act as an engine.

Stirling engines have been successfully used for this and that since 1816, but with the fossil fuel problems of today, they are enjoying more consideration than usual.

Enter one Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway. The Segway is quite remarkable, but due to the enormous anticipation that preceded it’s launch and the high price tag, it has always been widely regarded as a disappointing anticlimax, hardly worth adapting.

But here comes Dean again, in November 2008, with a plan to put a Stirling engine in a car. This time, it will not be used to power the car, but instead it will be placed in the trunk to power auxiliaries such as heating, air-conditioning and electrical accessories on a battery-driven sub-compact that uses parts and tooling from the old Think car that was mothballed in 2000.

Remember this is a Stirling engine, and it burns nothing and emits nothing.

But since the Stirling can be used to help charge the batteries, then under the right circumstances, this car could conceivably be a free energy machine requiring just a small input of energy, such as from a temperature difference caused by sunshine, to get it started in the production of more energy.

Dean Kamen himself is not touting the car as anything particularly amazing, but he cleverly states, “If we can demonstrate the utility of the Stirling engine by putting it in a car … it will leave me with an engine that I can use to supply electricity to the world.”

I say forget the car, put a black water pipe on a sunny roof and add a Stirling engine to run a generator to power a home. Then your car can be any plug-in electric, and the source of the power will have been hours old, or day-old sunshine.

Whatever happens, the Stirling engine might eventually have it’s long overdue day in the sun as an integral part of a pollution-free energy system.