2010 is the Year to Volt

In an unorthodox move, General Motors (GM) released a list of cars that they will be producing in America over the next five years. Among the list is the first serial hybrid produced by a major auto company in more than 100 years.

The car is not like a normal hybrid. In all hybrids built by major companies over the last hundred years, two separate engines, called parallel engines, drive the wheels. The GM Volt will be the first serial hybrid, which only one engine drives the wheels, since the 1901 Porsche.

The car does not need a plug. This is possible because a serial hybrid has an gas engine to recharge the batteries and electric motors in the wheels.

Unfortunately, since Porsche did not see reason to continue the production of a hybrid car (gas was reasonable cheap) they discontinued the idea. Now with gas prices rising with no signals saying they will be coming down soon, and constant electrical outages, the new hybrid can not get here soon enough.

GM’s decision to announce the list of cars, especially the hybrid, has brought about a debate between themselves, autoworkers, and critics (bloggers like myself). The decision was made after an agreement they made with the United Auto Workers. According to ecogeek blogger Hank Green, the list was never released before because they feared, “price undercuts and retaliations from other auto companies.”

The retaliation of other auto companies is not what concerns consumers like myself. In fact I find it good that by 2010 I, along with many other consumers, might have a choice of serial hybrid cars to choose from. What I don’t like is that 2010 seems so far away and a lot can happen to the concept of the car.

The first thing I can think of is that the technology may be too expensive. The technology, which has been produced before, has never been produced with the amount of power that is expected to be in the Volt. The car is expected to get at least 40 miles of all-electricity range without recharging. It may not seem like a lot, but it is a hybrid. 

The independent company that will be used to make the battery must find a way to decrease the 400 pound weight that current technology would suggest the battery would way and produce 60,000 units by 2010.

The idea is slightly crazy for a small battery company that has never produced on a large scale before. Even if they did manage it, the company may not be able to stay in a reasonable price range for the consumer. Bloomberg Press has rumored that the price the company wants to sell the car for is less than $30,000.

Another potential problem is that GM is believed to want to produce 60,000 units the first year. The demand may be too much to produce. Toyota produced one quarter of that number the the first year the sold the Prius.

The third an most conspiracy based theory is that how long will oil companies, one of the biggest industries in the United States, allow hybrid like this to exist without some kind of competition.

The last concern is hopefully completely ridiculous. People now know a few things that make it ridiculous. Gasoline prices are rising, the resource is disappearing, and hybrid technology is possible. But who knows with the way people allow big-business to manipulate society.

Without finding a way to compete with the new technology, oil companies, like us, must wait to see if the idea is too big for the time.

Inheritance Cycle

On Monday, fans on the Alagaesia network were notified by email, “Kvetha Fricaya! Be sure to visit Alagaesia.com tomorrow, Tuesday, October 30th, for an exciting announcement about the Inheritance series!” Random House Children’s Books had two very big announcements about Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Trilogy.

The first is something that fans have been waiting for ever since thr release of Eldest, and perhaps even Eragon. The third, so far untitled, book will be released in the United States on 23 September 2008.

What was not expected was the authors announcement that The Inheritance Trilogy is now the The Inheritance Cycle. Four books, instead of the of planned three, will be printed.

“I plotted out the Inheritance series as a trilogy nine years ago, when I was fifteen. At that time, I never imagined I’d write all three books, much less that they would be published” said Paolini. “When I finally delved into Book Three, it soon became obvious that the remainder of the story was far too big to fit in one volume. Having spent so long thinking about the series as a trilogy, it was difficult for me to realize that, in order to be true to my characters and to address all of the plot points and unanswered questions Eragon and Eldest raised, I needed to split the end of the series into two books.”

Why is this significant to more then the fans? Simple. The NY Times Best selling series is what Harry Potter is for Scholastic, on a lesser scale. They bring a lot income for the publishing companies.

According to the press release, “In its first week on sale in North America in August 2005, Eldest sold more than 425,000 hardcover copies, making Eldest the greatest single-week sale ever recorded for a Random House Children’s Books title.”

Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, which is printed on the covers of each, is a division of Random House and they are also publishers of Philip Pullman’s controversial series His Dark Materials and a variety of Tamora Pierce’s works. The company has been using the three authors to propel a campaign for fans of one author to read them all and hopes that the success of any of the books will lead to the success of all of them. 

 

Intelligent move? We know that the success of Eragon did not hurt the chances for The Golden Compass to get movie rights. Lets see what the three will do for the future of printed material, which some believe is a dying art form (a foolish idea if one were to look at the unmatched and unprecedented success of these books and others as of late).

Anti-Gay Church Punished

The Westboro Baptist Church, a religious group that have been anti-gay for years, has been sentenced by a to pay a hefty fine for invasion of privacy.

The church, who started out only going to funerals of AIDS victims, made the mistake to start going to funerals of dead soldiers to picket. The signs they carried often read, “Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” “God Hates Fags,” and “Your Going To Hell.”

The propagandist group have been told to pay $10.9 million dollars in damages to the father of Lance Matthew Snyder, a soldier who died March 2006 while serving in Iraq.

The group will appeal the decision saying they have the right to invade a private funeral because of the first amendment, which brings up a very important and controversial question. What kind of line is between invasion of privacy and freedom of speech.

A group certainly has the right to say whatever they want, but doesn’t that end in private affairs. Then again, is a funeral a private affair? Especially one that is in honor of a soldier. Either way, their argument for free speech does not make much sense.

The group goes to funerals to send a message, being gay is wrong and people are dying in Iraq as a consequence. Forgive me for my stupidity, but what does one have to do with the other. We are not in Iraq because of homosexuality. It is like saying I don’t like the government, so lets kill a whole bunch of innocent people. Or even, I think the children are the future so lets cut funding to schools. When did double-speak become a social norm for logic. Who taught these idiots logic?

The Cat That Could Save Us All

Cinnamon, no not the food, but the cat from Missouri, has just been helped cats become added to the 2 dozen mammals whose DNA has been almost completely decoded.

 

Why is this important? Simple. The National Cancer Institute claims that cats have over 200 hundred sicknesses that can be compared to human illnesses, including AIDS, SARS, and Diabetes. Now that scientist can tell how cells are affected in cats, it may be easier to cure the disease in the mammal. If that does happen, the same or similar procedure can be done with humans.

 According the AP article by Malcolm Ritter, “The new work identified 20,285 genes in the cat, probably about 95 percent of the animal’s full complement, O’Brien said. That’s similar to the 20,000-25,000 genes estimated for humans.”

The AP did not make clear how researchers experiment on cats DNA, but since Cinnamon is alive and well, it does not seem that it is harmful. And if they are looking for a cure in both felons and humans, I doubt that they want to harm the cats.

Lets hope that felons, along with the dozens of other animals, can help cure the diseases that are so far incurable.