Posted By RichC on March 5, 2013
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged Tuesday to its highest closing level ever jumping 125.95 points to finish above the previous record of 14164.53 set on Oct. 9, 2007. The low was a year and a half later bottoming out at 6547.05 on March 9, 2009. For those holding or buying “long” and in the right mix of stocks, the climb during the past 4 years has been a rewarding and welcomed return.
Posted By RichC on March 5, 2013
The weekend visit with my daughter Katelyn and her fiancé Drew left me scanning in a few more photos that they want to use in the wedding – yikes, a little more than a month away! The photo above, although not one that they are using, reminded me of the good times we had hiking each fall and spring with my friend Jeff and his dog Heather (below). Every year we would meet halfway to camp and hike in western Virginia to the mountains of Carolina (he lived in Florida) along the Appalachian trail. The kids loved it and Brenda tolerated it … the primitive tent camping part that is; she was quite happy when we stayed the cabins and had access to facilities. Katelyn remembered on year I put “amber colored sun glasses” on her during a frightening lightning storm to keep it looking brighter while following the wild horses … it was a close call. Ok, so “mostly” good times.
Posted By RichC on March 4, 2013
Posted By RichC on March 4, 2013
The 2014 Jeep Grand Cherokee diesel has a hill to climb if you are looking to save money on fuel, but with more torque than a hemi, “climbing the hill” is easy!
The new Jeep CRD diesel is receiving mostly positive reviews (The Fast Lane Car video above) from car journalists, but at $50,000, a Jeep diesel SUV is going to be difficult to justify based on saving fuel alone; I doubt it will be sitting in my driveway anytime soon. Without actually seeing or test driving the 2014 Grand Cherokee CRD diesel, my paper calculations show that it is a pretty expense way to go a little further on a gallon of fuel … still, the 420 lb.-ft. of torque, 30 mpg EPA highway numbers and 7.7 zero-60 times look appealing.
Unfortunately after some rough chicken-scratching (below) when looking at the gas (24 mpg hwy) and new diesel (30 mpg hwy) and after the $4500 diesel add-on sticker price, it is going to take a lot of miles in order to justify such a premium. In fact it is going to take roughly 2 million miles of driving based on today regular gas vs. diesel fuel prices (plus $100 in Urea every 10K). So IF you are only interested in fuel savings you might want to wait for something like the Volkswagen CrossBlue. On the other hand, those contemplating towing or serious off-road climbing may not be as disappointed.
Trying the new Penultimate app for the iPad (by Evernote)
Posted By RichC on March 3, 2013
It is during the challenging times when people know they are associated with the right groups and organizations. A couple groups I belong to demonstrated their true colors over the past few weeks. The TDIClub, a Volkswagen diesel car club of which our local CinciTDI is part, rallied around a long standing and giving member. Brian Johnson, known as “Oilhammer” on the forums, has been dealing with an onslaught of family medical and financial problems this past year. He has been a long giving and active member of the TDIClub and his expertise has been appreciated by all. A few friends (and vendors) in the club decided they might be able to lend a hand. I don’t think anyone expected the caring to be so overwhelming, but the generosity and compassion of “good” people was amazing. Our local CinciTDI group was chosen to hold the raffle this weekend and shockingly saw a simple raffle of parts raise $13,125. Wow, it feels good to have helped out and be a part of this great group of caring people.
Pictured: CinciTDI members Bruce, Matt and Tim at Saturday afternoon’s raffle drawing
Brian’s two sons have severe Lowe Syndrome. Here are some links so one can learn what Lowe Syndrome is.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1526415/
The only prognosis is that there is no good ending to this.
Brian was off work with out pay for several months last year for his own medical reasons, and Brian’s wife Lisa has had to take so much time off from her job to take care of the boys that she was let go from her job. One can only imagine the stress they are going through.
Brian has selflessly given a lot to TDIClub over the years in the form of technical help, especially the work he did to develop the fix for the B5.5 balance shaft/oil pump upgrade. We can and should be able to do something for him.
Thread LINK
Posted By RichC on March 2, 2013
Although one would think that after my years of reading, editing, writing, printing and 
publishing words on paper, I would know the appropriate usage of the word chimera. Embarrassingly I did not.
I came across it today and questioned the author of an article while reading copy. A little digging had me realize that the word was not only the “fire-breathing she-monster” usually represented as a composite of a lion, goat, and serpent, but it is also used as a noun to describe a “grotesque product of the imagination.” (TheFreeDictionary)
It is also an an actual fish … a Chimera (photo below). Hmm … who knew?
Posted By RichC on March 1, 2013
An automotive enthusiast friend of mine, Wayne Gerdes, is a noted “hypermiler” and posted a well documented write-up comparing three of the top selling hybrid cars for a CleanMPG report. His efficiently conclusion is about what my gut would have told me when looking at the car profiles in his photo above … Toyota Prius liftback #1, Toyota Prius V #2 and the Ford C-Max hybrid coming in at #3 from behind. I really do wish the "fun to drive" and better looking Ford could return the EPA 47/47 numbers … but that’s not the real world when it comes to boasting about high mpg’s.
Conclusions
Simply stated, Ford’s claims of the C-MAXs superiority in city, highway and combined fuel economy over the Prius v per its EPA ratings in press releases and advertisements continue even with the number of counter claims provided by journalists, automobile reviewers, and anecdotal comparison evidence by some very important automotive media outlets.
In this direct head to head fuel economy comparison between the Toyota Prius v and Ford’s C-MAX, the C-MAX lacks any credence for such claims. Given the various detailed tests spelled out above, Ford may be able to duplicate the EPA results but they certainly cannot duplicate the claims of besting the Prius v in the real world no matter an all-highway or an all-city commute.
While the C-MAX brings a number of class leading attributes to the table as pointed out in our review, fuel economy and cargo capacity are not within that realm. In a nutshell, the Ford C-MAX is a nice 41/37/39 rated Hybrid offering but is a terrible 47/47/47 mpg rated one.
Click for larger CleanMPG chart.
Posted By RichC on February 28, 2013
Posted By RichC on February 28, 2013
The United States spends more on education than any other country in the world. Is the money we invest in our children focused on teaching the correct disciplines?
Personally, I’m glad to have had math and science pushed during the space race of the 1960’s (thank you JFK) and the opportunity study engineering and technology in college (by choice). With my two kids just finalizing their education, I can tell you that they were not required to learn coding or anything beyond typing on a computer. There were optional classes, but a quick look at the graph below makes me believe “coding” should be started early and is crucial for all students throughout their schooling. Computers and associated devices are not going away and coding is becoming a critical skill for the decades ahead … and essential in order to keep the U.S. innovative industries competitive.
Posted By RichC on February 27, 2013
The carpet for the basement was delivered today … are we going to stay dry? The whole wet basement thing has me a little nervous about putting it all back together before spring weather.
