Posted By RichC on August 22, 2009
While buzzing around Liberty Township, the evening sky was pretty dramatic so I poke my Palm Pre phone out the window on Butler-Warren County road and included it. (Panoramio Location)
Posted By RichC on August 21, 2009
A 2009 Intellichoice survey compared the cost of ownership beyond the sticker price by factoring in depreciation, financing, fuel, Insurance, maintenance, repairs and state fees. By doing this, consumers should have a better idea of what a vehicle’s long-term ownership costs might be and better be able to decide which vehicle is a better overall value.
This year they reviewed 51 different hybrid and diesel model cars and have concluded ‘surprisingly’ that the maintenance cost of both the diesel and hybrid vehicles were on par with their gasoline only counterparts in a 5 year comparison*. They also describe ‘clean diesel’ vehicles as a “game changer” and the PDF charts show the Volkswagen Jetta TDI as the best return for the dollar (even in 5 years) when comparing its MSRP premium, fuel cost saving, maintenance and resale value.
* What it doesn’t show, and should be pointed out by those of us that drive hundreds of thousands of miles and keep their cars for more than 5 years, is that diesel cars and trucks have significantly higher resale values AND have traditionally had a lower cost of maintenance per mile as a vehicle ages. At this time, one can only spectulate that a hybrid owner will eventually face the high cost of a new battery on top of its internal combusion engine, which will most certainly impact long term values and the cost of owning a hybrid vehicle compared to both gasoline only and diesel vehicles.
Posted By RichC on August 20, 2009
One has to think twice before grimacing when seeing those tiny Smart ForTwo car(t)s rolling down the highway … especially if you’re in a bow-tied import like the Chevrolet Aveo (Daewoo Korean built Chevrolet). A recent report issued by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that the Smart ForTwo performed the best in tests designed to compare rollover occupant protection, where the Aveo received only a “marginal” rating.
News Release | August 20, 2009
Smart Fortwo rates good for roof strength; test is designed
to assess & compare occupant protection in rollover crashesThe Smart Fortwo has the strongest roof and the Chevrolet Aveo has the weakest among 2009 micro and minicars recently tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The Smart earns the highest rating of good compared with acceptable for the Honda Fit, Hyundai Accent, Mini Cooper, and Toyota Yaris. The Aveo is rated marginal.
The rating system is based on Institute research showing that occupants in rollover crashes benefit from stronger roofs. Vehicles rated good must have roofs that are more than twice as strong as the current minimum federal safety standard requires. The ratings, products of the Institute’s new roof strength testing program, add to consumer information tests that rate vehicles for front, side, and rear crashworthiness. The roof test is designed to help consumers pick vehicles that will help protect them in rollover crashes.
“We anticipate that our roof strength test will drive improved rollover crash protection the same way our frontal offset and side tests have led to better occupant protection in these kinds of crashes,” says Institute president Adrian Lund.
Roofs have gotten stronger during the past few years, Institute research shows. Part of the reason is that automakers have made structural improvements to earn better front and side ratings in Institute tests. Strong A and B pillars help prevent intrusion in these types of crashes. They also help hold up the roof.
“Small cars should have an easier time with the roof strength test,” Lund explains. “Their light weight means their roofs don’t have to work as hard to keep the structure around the occupants intact in a rollover.”
About 10,000 people a year are killed in rollovers. When vehicles roll, their roofs hit the ground, deform, and crush. Stronger roofs crush less, reducing the risk of injury from contact with the roof itself. Stronger roofs also can prevent people, especially those who aren’t using safety belts, from being ejected through windows, windshields, or doors that have broken or opened because the roof deformed. Roofs that don’t collapse help keep people inside vehicles as they roll.
The best protection is to keep vehicles from rolling in the first place. Electronic stability control is significantly reducing rollovers, especially fatal single-vehicle ones. When vehicles do roll, side curtain airbags help protect people. Belt use is essential.
How roofs are evaluated: In the Institute’s test, a metal plate is pushed against 1 side of a roof at a constant speed. To earn a good rating, a roof must withstand a force of 4 times the vehicle’s weight before reaching 5 inches of crush. This is called a strength-to-weight ratio. For an acceptable rating, the minimum required ratio is 3.25. A marginal rating value is 2.5. Anything lower than that is poor.
“Compared with the current federal standard of 1.5, a strength-to-weight ratio of 4 reflects an estimated 50 percent reduction in the risk of serious or fatal injury in single-vehicle rollover crashes,” Lund explains.
The Smart withstood a force of 5.4 times its weight. The Aveo withstood a force of just over 3 times its weight.
Cars have been built to meet the same roof crush standard, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 216, since 1973. The rule was extended in 1994 to include all passenger vehicles up to a gross weight rating of 6,000 pounds. Many SUVs and pickup trucks are heavier, so they’re exempt.
New federal requirements: In April the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ended numerous delays by unveiling a new rule that doubles the current roof strength requirement (strength-to-weight ratio of 1.5) for vehicles with weight ratings up to 6,000 pounds. Roofs on vehicles with weight ratings 6,000 to 10,000 pounds will be required to withstand a force equal to 1.5 times their unloaded weight. Another requirement is that roofs maintain sufficient headroom during testing. For the first time, the government also will require the same performance on both sides of the roof when tested sequentially. Phase-in begins in September 2012, and all vehicles must comply by September 2016.
“The federal government’s leisurely phase-in of the new standard means roofs won’t have to get stronger right away,” Lund says, “so we plan to continue rating vehicle roof strength for the foreseeable future. We want to reward manufacturers who are ahead of their competition when it comes to providing protection in rollover crashes. We want to help consumers identify the safest vehicle choices.”
Roof ratings added to award criteria: A good roof strength rating will be a new requirement to earn the Institute’s Top Safety Pick award for 2010. This is the second time criteria for this award have been tightened since the first winners were announced in 2005. Availability of electronic stability control became a requirement starting with 2007s.
“Adding roof strength to Top Safety Pick criteria means we’re going to see fewer winners in 2010,” Lund points out. A record 84 vehicles have qualified for the 2009 award so far.
Posted By RichC on August 19, 2009
August must be the month for reminiscing, as I recently posted on what I remember 40 years ago (Woodstock festival) and I also just clicked a ‘Years ago on this date’ link from 2006. I had a good smile remembering what it was like to be at 13,796 feet on 
Mt. Mauna Kea in Hawaii; it was enjoyable to remember these good times.
I also enjoyed connecting with another ‘blog post friend’ from the past, Pete Bethune from Earthrace. Besides setting him up with a Twitter name previously reserved for him (@earthrace), I had a chance to discuss what was in store for him and Earthrace. As an activist for admirable causes (previous was the alternative fuel ‘biodiesel’), Pete and his radical boat are planning to head for Antarctica where they hope to draw attention to the barbaric practice of high-tech whaling. There have been others, most notably Greenpeace, that are concerned over these factory ship operations and systematic slaughter of one of the Ocean’s most magnificent creatures.
I wish him well in this endeavor and hope to post more as his plans come together. Stay tuned.
Posted By RichC on August 18, 2009
Not only has the Cincinnati been a pioneer in using biodiesel in their city buses (PDF), but the Great American Ballpark is being praised as one of the greenest Major League Baseball facilities in the nation. 
The ballpark composts its grass clippings and convert all the cooking oil in the consession stands to biodiesel fuel according to a recent article. Reds outfielder Chris Dickerson, cofounder and CEO of “WePlayGreen.org,” says there has been great support in Cincinnati from Rumpke dispersing recycling bins to fans participating in efforts to use resources more carefully. Dickerson’s goal is to try and “instill consciousness” among Reds fans.
Posted By RichC on August 17, 2009
While visiting Spain last month I was surprised that even in the 21th century that there were towns along the Mediterranean coast (tourist area) who still enjoy a mid-day ‘siesta’ and have little problem with the loss of business For American who have grown accustomed to workplace praise for productivity or have been cultured in hard work, ambition an
d more money is better, the idea of losing a couple hours in every workday seems … well … foreign.
On the other hand, there are days like Sunday and Monday (today) when the temperatures inch into the mid-90s that I’m ready to put out the Gone Fishin’ shingle … or at least take an afternoon off to clean the pool. FYI … the water was cool and relaxing.
😀
Posted By RichC on August 15, 2009
Just in case you’re enjoying a weekend at the pool, here’s something to think about …
video removed
Posted By RichC on August 14, 2009
The word — the place — the music — the festival called Woodstock still evokes passion either ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ and the music, politics and lifestyle branded the generation who came of age in the 1960s. The 40th anniversary of the three day concert in Bethel, New York takes place this weekend marking the event that celebrated either “peace, love and music” or “sex, drugs and filth,” depending on your perspective. I thought it might be interesting to search my own memories of that time (BTW, age 10, I don’t remember much about the Woodstock event).
As a ten year old boy growing up in a rural place call Howard Farms just east of Toledo, Ohio, I was mercifully sheltered from the Vietnam politics and radical turmoil of the day. My biggest concern in the summer of ’69 was playing baseball and following the World Champion Detroit Tigers on my transistor radio. When school let out, kids from the city living in summer cottages would move to our sleepy street and we would spend day after day playing baseball in the backyard. 
Besides baseball we’d hang out on the beach and sleep in the treehouse (click image of a current day Google Cam photo of the house I grew up in and the ‘baseball diamond’ — backyard). Occasionally discussions would address the newsier events of the time, especially the racial issues my summer friends, “city kids,” faced. We’d also squabble over tuning the radio as music was a big deal to the teens of the group, but for the most part I was an idealistic kid dreaming about landing on the 
moon or being Tiger’s shortstop Mickey Stanley (and eventually Eddie Brinkman). Life was good when the only concern was listening to a music or a ballgame on a rainy day; I’m thankful never to have seriously pondered Vietnam or getting sucked into the hippie culture — ten was a good age for the trials of 1969.
Nevertheless, Woodstock mentality lived on well past the one event — it influence people and music for years to come. In my opinion, it did mark the 60’s generations conclusion of “peace and love” as the generation evolved with more “anger and hate.” The events during the violent year of 1968 may have accelerated the change, and to me it seemed to be reflected and amplified by the music. There was also real anger over its generations pointless dying in Vietnam and seeming futility in effecting change in a passive way.
In the late 60s, ballads of this hippie generation gave way to more aggressive and even violent rock n roll — perhaps it continued to co-exist? Harmonies and dopey (pun-intended) lyrics gave way to angry and strained vocals; acoustical guitar chords turned into to screeching electric “noise” … as my father was known to call it. As 60s icon Bob Dylan crooned earlier in the decade, “The times they are a changin’.”
A crowd of estimated at 400,000 attended the Woodstock music festival
What I remember about 40 years ago and the Woodstock Festival is not much … it is the celebrating and memorializing of the event that sticks with me. The movie, the photos, the stories and the music are what I know and remember … but just like listening to the Detroit Tigers and ‘knowing’ the players of 1969, I know the Woodstock performers. I listened to their music as I grew older the 70s and their performances in my mind are what I remember. As with the Tiger ballplayers I knew their stats and their stance at the plate; with the Woodstock performers I knew their music and their lyrics — that was enough (didn’t really need the drugs and mud). I may not ‘really remember’ Woodstock, but in my opinion growing up with the music and not living the music was a better experience.
Posted By RichC on August 13, 2009
As U.S. Congressional representatives sweat over whether to have townhall meetings in their states to talk healthcare during the August recess, I sweat over how to plan financial security for my family’s future, of which health insurance is a part. Years ago it seemed logical to just keep plunking away a few dollars into a SEP, 401K and IRA and ‘let it ride’ for the long haul and keep the rose colored glasses on that medicare will cover me when I retire. Nowadays, the entire paradigm has been shaken and very few financial investment experts, mutual fund managers or traders have answers as to how to best protect one’s savings and plan for a secure retirement. The daily statistical numbers coming from the Fed and Wall Street don’t help much when deciding if equities are worth the risk again or if the economy is heading for a recovery from recession or if we’ll see more pain this autumn. On Wednesday the Fed offered an upbeat assessment and this morning retail sales numbers fell despite the government’s Cash for Clunkers program (PDF). Who knows, but I’ll remain a “nervous market bull” and continue to stay in equities for now.
Although I’m not a supporter in the way government is currently getting involved in healthcare, the inevitability is that our growing bureaucracy with be controlling it more and more … be Democrats or Republican be in control — get use to it. Both parties are talking about reform and most Americans are sick (pun intended) of rising heath insurance premiums, reduced care and the convoluted gamesmanship of managing coverage and the associated red-tape.
The key for me is to prevent socialized and rationed medicine that removes investment capital from the equation. These models have been tried in other developed countries are are not ‘the envy of the world.’ When profit is removed from healthcare, be it pay for smart high quality doctors, well maintained hospitals or ROI for biotech and pharmaceutical companies, to the point that it pays more to sue doctors, hospitals and big pharma (ie. no tort reform even being discussed), then we’ll find it challenging to advance medical care in this country. By removing the profit incentive for investment capital, we’ll reduce competition (fewer companies) under government control we are bound to see overall quality of care to go down and will most definitely feel the inconvenience.
Currently, I’m in the waiting mode for a colonoscopy with “insurance company dictated” price controls (where there is at least some capital competition); how much longer do you suppose I’ll be waiting to get a colonoscopy when Washington dictates the price … or will they disallow my personal physician from even requesting it — that’s not to mention the quality of the procedure (paid by how many per day, not how well the scoping is done). Maybe its just me, but when someone probing ‘you know where,’ I don’t want an underpaid, under-incentified, less than qualified person doing as many colonoscopies in a day that they can when it comes to my colon. I can’t find one government run bureaucracy that truly runs efficiently … but would run out of space listing the number of industries that improve both product and service when competition is increased and incentives for excellent products and service are there.
A final point: While we talk healthcare reform, and no doubt it is a ‘huge’ undertaking for our elected representatives, is it so immediate that it must be ‘rammed’ through without reading the bill or discussing it with constituents. To me it seems an important enough, and expensive enough, issue to work on it methodically. Let’s not make the the rash ‘bailout’ style decisions with healthcare that we did with banks and automotive. Let’s not rush into change for change sake without understanding the consequences and long term costs in both dollars and care. If there is one thing different about healthcare from the banking and auto crisis is that there’s time to read, discussion, improve and understand what is being voted on and demanding of our next generation … because in the end, I’m sure of only one thing … government run healthcare will end up costing us all more.
EDIT: For Sirius/XM radio listeners, there is a good relatively non-partisan program on Doctor Radio Thursdays call Health Care Connect hosted by Andrew Rubin. Besides offering Health insurance advice, they do a pretty good job of dissecting the current legislation being proposed. I’m including a short MP3 “How are we paying for it” question from a listener that should give and indication as to the work that needs to be done on this bill, along with an interesting MP3 segment with Steve Forbes.
I found this conversation interesting … and more of the kinds of discussion that people need to contemplate when trying to understand where biotech and investing fits into “healthcare.” (CNBC video from 8/13/2009 below)
But
Posted By RichC on August 11, 2009
After reading and commenting on an article in the Wall Street Journal this morning regarding the upcoming Chevrolet Volt boasting 230 mpg, about all 
I can say is we (the EPA) needs to create a new system of calculating fuel economy. It’s a bit misleading for a family sized sedan to be able to claim that it can beat a 
1 liter vehicle designed for efficiency; its just plain deceptive to even repeat it. On the other hand, I do like the fact that GM is pulling out all the stops in order to compete with hybrid leaders like Toyota and Honda … and seriously wish them well in the gamble … one that I wish would have included diesel technology.
Here’s a snippet from one of my comments:
Call me a skeptic, but I’m more concerned with the total cost of ownership … initial investment + fuel + maintenance ‘minus’ retail value after say 5 to 10 years ‘divided by’ number of miles driven.
When that matches something like a Volkswagen TDI ‘clean diesel’ … then I be convinced that they are on the right path.
or …
Personally I think the old smaller hybrid ‘boost’ motor (or compressed air) linked to an efficient and clean diesel makes more sense. A small diesel is super efficient at highway cruise (American roads) and would be appreciably helped by boost when accelerator demand calls for it.
As for your ‘initial investment’ assumption … I’ll pit the diesel VWs against the Volt and even the BMW 3 series diesel against it. Take a look at 60% of the vehicles in Europe as the initial investment is not “a lot higher” as on respondent suggests.
On the other hand, they are not wildly supported by companies other than the Europeans due to biased EPA measurements toward gasoline and about a 15% tax disadvantage (also US consumer still remember the old diesels — there is no comparison). Too bad memories and manufacturers still want to promote gasoline as the new diesel technology is more efficient … and CLEAN — do a Google search for the 2009 Green Car of the Year (hint: 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI) As for other U.S. vehicles besides light trucks … the list is currently mostly European: VW, Mercedes, BMW. Audi and Jeep.
The demand is strong for a moderately priced diesel too … take a look at VW sales and try to find a TDI or even negotiate on one. 🙂 June numbers for the VW Sportwagen TDI were 81% of all their wagon sales … I’m sure the 40 – 50 mpg doesn’t hurt. If you’ve got a clunker and want part of the Obama stimulus thinking one of these VWs would be perfect (and you would be right), don’t bother since nearly all the 2009 are gone and they are waiting for 2010 models in November – get on the list.
My point is still that a moderately price diesel (VW TDI $24,000) would make far more sense when stacked up against the Volt when we’re talking total cost of ownership (and resale is currently stronger than about any other daily driver).