SKYLAB CHAT

[skylab]

Hey Terre Yeah, I've never ridden in an electric car. I imagine it would feel strange, more like whizzing around in a golf cart or something. The problem here is, we're right on the edge of town, so it's full of stores and busy streets, but rush hour is awful. Drivers are so aggressive, and with so many SUV's, it feels like you're surrounded by big trucks and tanks at the lights. So we only get a few hours a day where it would feel like we could just putter around town...early mornings on the weekends are the quietest times...but about 11:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, look out...haha. If it were not for the spill over from rush hour, I'd probably settle for something small to save gas since I don't do long drives on the interstate any more. In that electric car video it was saying that other engines would be obsolete by 2025....I don't know about all that...I have trouble believing that change will happen so soon.

 

[DanaTA]

I find it hard to believe, too...because Big Oil will not let it happen. That is why it hasn't happened already. What I fear is if they start putting extra taxes on those driving gasoline powered cars. I have a 2003 Camry XLE. It's a very nice car. I don't drive a lot, so my tank doesn't require filling a couple times a week. When I was still working in the Greater Boston area, I was filling it twice a week. But now, sometimes two or three days go by without the car ever leaving the driveway.

I've been in a hybrid, a Toyota Prius. One of my nieces had one. It's interesting in the city. They don't switch to the gas engine until you hit 40mph. It's so quiet. When I worked, I don't think a fully electric car would work out. It was 35 miles one way. Even today, I don't think they have a 70 mile range on a charge. And getting stuck in rush hour traffic in the Boston area is bad. One a good day, that 35 miles took an hour. On a bad day, it could be as much as two hours! I think that would probably drain the battery quickly.

Dana

 

[skylab]

Exactly. My 15 minute trip to work used to morph into an hour with no notice, which is another huge source of stress for career folks....so I agree with you, I can't see those folks opting for an electric roller skate that may or may not make it to work on time on its charge. And the road rage issues could end up expressing itself with something similar to the Reliant Robin soccer game...haha. I mean, can you imagine, getting aggressive in a Prius I tend to think that a solution could be working remotely from home, to eliminate some of the traffic, gas and vehicle expenses, and office space expenses on the job.

I've been thinking for some time that it's the solution for safely educating kids...that is, opting for online free home schooling...to keep children safe, solves the bullying, vaccination, and drug issues, eliminates at least half of the school facility and security expenses (the number of teachers is dropping anyway), and to potentially solve the college tuition problem by extending online high school for two more years, so that everyone graduates with at least an associate degree level. If it's done online, there could be the possibility of a free public education without raising taxes through the roof...and the best reason being children could receive a quality education and work at their own speed, with incentives to complete courses early if they apply themselves. With video instruction, it's possible for kids to choose a career path...the same way we learn from YouTube videos, they could learn courses at home, safely, and wouldn't end up with thousands of dollars in student loans, or hiding under a desk while some idiot is shooting up the place. Some people will always prefer public school attendance, though these days with current challenges, I'm not sure why.

 

[Terre]

Hey Terre Yeah, I've never ridden in an electric car. I imagine it would feel strange, more like whizzing around in a golf cart or something. The problem here is, we're right on the edge of town, so it's full of stores and busy streets, but rush hour is awful. Drivers are so aggressive, and with so many SUV's, it feels like you're surrounded by big trucks and tanks at the lights. So we only get a few hours a day where it would feel like we could just putter around town...early mornings on the weekends are the quietest times...but about 11:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, look out...haha. If it were not for the spill over from rush hour, I'd probably settle for something small to save gas since I don't do long drives on the interstate any more. In that electric car video it was saying that other engines would be obsolete by 2025....I don't know about all that...I have trouble believing that change will happen so soon.

That would require a massive breakthrough in battery technology that gets implemented instantly. The people who make statements like that don't live "out West" and have no clue about distances.

 

[skylab]

I'm one of those people who's never been "out west", so I know I'm clueless. I do remember over 30 years ago my pastor had driven out to Texas to visit family, and en route, passing through a section of west Texas, it was so dry, what we would call desert, that the dust ruined his engine (it was a very small car...he probably should have been in a truck), and he had to get another car when he returned to the east coast. So I learned through his experience to have respect for the idea of crossing the desert in a roller skate! But it's true of many things...not just vehicles...folks in D.C. often don't bother to think of the folks outside of the Atlantic coast. I guess that's always been true to some degree....we just passed the anniversary (May 10) of the completion of the railroad in 1869. And the Pony Express riders were another example of the clueless east coast, often sending out young slim teenage boys to make the amazing 10 day trip. And how the American Indians were treated...we were totally clueless and void of common sense...if someone had done to us what we did to them....and then we expected them to just quietly accept it in the name of our progress. It was all about the money...even the War between the States as it used to be called...folks have tried to re-write history these days, but that many people would never have died, even brother against brother, for any other reason than....money. So DanaTA's statement about Big Oil....I tend to agree...it would take some massive miracle for the wealthy investors to lay down and play dead at this point. I was reading recently where the wealthiest people have really gained an advantage with the new tax loopholes....that's a huge loss of revenue for the country, and a heavy burden being placed on the shoulders of hard working middle class....but it's in the DNA of our country, and repeats throughout our history. If we refuse to learn from the (...real, recorded...) history of our country, it will simply result in our having to re-live it.

 

[Janet]

I saw an article yesterday about how electric cars are taking away gas tax money from the states. So Washington is trying out a pay per mile program.

 

[skylab]

Well...there's the angle, always has to be one They sure don't make much off of gas from me. When I was working, I filled up twice a week, between job and church. Now I fill up no more than four times a year...haha....really, I'm not kidding

 

[Janet]

Wow! I live in the sticks. The nearest convenience stores is 5 miles away and the nearest grocery store 10 miles. The closest branch of my bank 20 miles in the next town. I fill up at least once a week.

 

[DanaTA]

The problem of the electric car's battery becomes worse on that commute I had. The major highway, Rte. 128, allowed travel in the breakdown lane during rush hours...that was 7:00 am to 10:00 am and 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm. So, there's no place to go if you break down. Well, you go to the breakdown lane if you can make it...then the highway becomes a parking lot, even worse than how it normally is.

It's really bad up there. Coming from Boston towards Needham, Rte. 128 passes a point where Rte. 24N merges into it. Rte. 24 ends there. You have two lanes from Rte. 24 merging onto Rte. 128, which has three lanes, plus the breakdown lane, so four lanes, actually. So, that's six lanes of traffic becoming four lanes. A recipe for a parking lot right there!

Dana

 

[skylab]

That's how close to the stores we are...our yard looks like we're in the country, but the pandemonium begins one block away I could get everywhere I needed to go on a handicapped cart...IF it didn't rain...haha....and I'd need a trailer hitch on it for trips to the store

 

[skylab]

Wow Dana...that does sound like a bottleneck mess...and they wonder why people just lose it on the interstates. We've seen on the news were people get so mad, they get out of their cars and pull the offending driver out of the car and start beating on them. At my age and being on a cane, I can't deal with all that. So, I do only local driving, plan all my errands for the same day, and mostly go out once every two weeks....typical little old lady stuff...haha

 

[skylab]

 

[skylab]

Just saw on the news where Tim Conway passed...sad. He certainly brought a lot of laughs during his life time.

 

[skylab]

I'm so excited...Forester got my Kinneret Boat to work...a major effort for her since it was originally created in older software, so some repairs had to be made in order for it to convert properly. Here are first test renders of the full sail version, with hot lights so that she could inspect the model. I'll be doing the sails up renders next, but wanted to post this very good news

 

[Miss B]

She did a great job. It looks wonderful!

 

[DanaTA]

Just saw on the news where Tim Conway passed...sad. He certainly brought a lot of laughs during his life time.

Sad. I loved his work! Always made me laugh, often uncontrollably.

Dana

 

[skylab]

Hey Miss B I agree, Forester did a great job on converting that 1st Century Boat...it was no easy task. I invited her to join in here at Hivewire forum so if anybody sees her stop by, you'll know who she is. She's very busy with projects, so she may or may not be able to...I just extended an open invitation should she have the time.

Here are the test renders of the sail up view.

 

[skylab]

Yes Dana, I also was sad to read that headline in the news about Tim Conway...I love good comedy, and he was certainly gifted with timing and spontaneity.

 

[skylab]

Not much effort went into setting this up, just wanted to see it on a water plane...Flink's Water 2 and the Poser 11 construct were used.

 

[skylab]

Here we go...first sailing test Reducing the frames to a .gif loop results in the choppiness...but the original .avi is smooth. Janet, the water plane is moving slightly back and forth on the x, and toward the middle of the video it rises slightly on the y, then everything returns to where it began on frame 1.