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Comment Re:Change is coming for car dealers (Score 1) 455

Well, even with the future state Tesla supercharger map it will be nearly impossible to drive a Tesla from Cleveland Ohio to Cincinnati Ohio, there are no planned supercharger stations between the two cities and the distance is too far for even the largest battery pack version of the Model S to cover. Likewise there are no planned supercharger stations within range along south I77 from Cleveland. So, for my most frequent long distance trips, from home to the Florida Keys (we go every 2 years for xmas) both of the major north south corridors are out if you want to use a Tesla.

Comment Re:Friends dont let Friends buy Ubisoft (Score 2) 215

It might be but I'll never know until/unless it's released on GOG because I refuse to deal with DRM more restrictive than Steam, and I'm right in their target audience as I own every game in the series from the original Kings Bounty to King's Bounty: Warriors of the North, Ice & Fire. Ubisoft can go jump in a lake until they learn to treat their paying customers correctly.

Comment Re:Two-thirds of a metric *TON*?! (Score 2) 398

Three or four bombs won't devastate a continent. The tsar bomba, the largest device ever tested at 50MT, had a destructive overpressure radius of ~35km, enough to flatten a capital city, but hardly enough to scare a continent. Plus such large devices are impractical, you have to get a large slow bomber into enemy territory. No, a few dozen half megaton warheads like the W88 but with less precise designs (the W88 is designed to take out missile silos) would be sufficient for MAD.

Comment Re:Early days of KIA repeated (Score 2) 431

My personal favorite is engine compression. All things being equal, the higher the compression, the better the fuel mileage and the shorter the life of engine.

I'd love some evidence for this claim, compression has been rising since the early 80's pretty much on a parallel with increased engine reliability. I know everything isn't equal as engineering has obviously gotten better over that time period, but the only direct large scale evidence I'm aware of says there's no negative correlation between compression ratio and reliability. In fact some of the least reliable engines still sold are lower compression because they're based off older designs that haven't had a good clean sheet modern replacement done yet.

Comment Re:Whelp... (Score 1) 431

It makes it more likely I'll buy a Volvo, if they can get the cost of the V60/V70 plugin hybrid out of the stratosphere I'd buy one ASAP. Front wheel efficient diesel with hybrid AWD, just about perfect. One of the biggest qualms I had when buying my current car was the fact that AWD reduces fuel economy so significantly due to reduced transmission efficiency and the weight of the drive shaft for the rear wheels. Volvo solved that by putting the electric motors in the rear of a FWD design so you get the stability improvements of AWD with an increase in efficiency. The problem right now is they're north of $70k which is stupid money, if they can produce them in China and lower the price by 50% I'm in.

Comment Re:They'll probably see a spike soon (Score 1) 377

Lol, you think the majority of light truck and SUV buyers use their vehicle as a work truck?!? I bet it's under 50%. In fact the number of people who were selling almost brand new trucks and SUV's when gas first went over $4/gallon is proof that many don't actually need it. I'm not saying there aren't many folks that need a work truck or truck based SUV, or even use one for their favorite recreational activity, but there are very, very many people who buy they because they're not a minivan or station wagon.

Comment They'll probably see a spike soon (Score 1, Flamebait) 377

With the coming $4.50+/gallon gas coming this summer due to the combination of Ukrain and Iraq (plus screw you, we're big oil) I think you'll see sales jump up again. I wonder how many of the folks that bought pickups this spring (the big jump in US auto sales was mostly in the light truck and SUV segment) will be wishing they had bought something with a bit better fuel economy?

Comment Re:I flunked the AP CS test (Score 1) 293

All that said... yes, waaayyyy more than 10% of our high schools need to be offering the class. Every high school surely contains some students with both the aptitude and desire to take such a class.

That's what distance/online learning are supremely good for. If you don't have enough students at a single school to justify the resources to offer the class offer it through technology.

Comment Re:Average SD article containing TM unclear ABR in (Score 2, Informative) 293

allowing it (and its tuition) to be skipped

LOL, oh you're serious, let me laugh harder. If you think skipped courses due to AP credits reduce the number of hours needed to graduate at the vast, vast majority of schools you're mistaken. No, it will just let you skip an intro course and fill the hours requirement for your major for something a little less dull.

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