Wake up, chump. Rapid charging is highly dangerous. Batteries which take a long time to charge are much safer. Any time you speed up charging, you get more heating and pressure buildup. Sorry, but TANSTAAFL.

Oh boy! An even better BOMB!

âoe...so you islanders can kick rocks.â

Sheesh. The line noise is really bad on your 1970 110 baud acoustic modem!

Chili has the other premier astronomy site in the world.

LOL. That's CHILE, chump.

A gas or diesel car's efficiency (and thus range) will have generally dropped well more than that by year 5.

Utter idiotic bullshit. My Golf TDI has now been on the road for 17 years, and gets exactly the same fuel mileage that it got brand new: about 45 mpg real-world. You're living in the 1930s or 1940s if you think annual tune-ups are a thing.

Oh for Christ sake. It's Java. Period. The same goddam language syntax as any other "edition" of Java. Why do you have to try to make it sound grand? Linux is written in C, not "Super OS Developer's Edition C". So it includes a whole lot of functions. So what.

You didn't answer the question. The question is, why can't the "platform" mumo jumbo just be furnished as add-on libraries?

they can't monetise it

You mean they can't FIGURE OUT HOW to monetize it.

You mean it only has a 1 in a million chance of recognizing you? I doubt very much if that is what you meant to say. Presumably you mean 1 in a million false-negatives!

'hybrid' can mean 'stop the engine at the lights'

No it can't. That's not a hybrid, idiot. That's a simple start-stop engine. Sheesh.

Biodiesel is NOT "vegetable oil". It is synthesized from vegetable oil and other bio sources by a complex chemical process of esterification. Idiots who burn SVO (straight vegetable oil) or WVO (waste vegetable oil) or any kind of "grease" in their diesels end up with a disgusting gooey mess in their expensive fuel injection system.

Even true biodiesel has its drawbacks. The viscosity isn't the same as the proper diesel fuel the engine was designed for. That matters when you're dealing with the 1000-bar-plus (15,000 psi-plus) fuel pump of a modern common-rail diesel fuel injection system. It gels and stops flowing at a much higher temperature, and the gelling is harder to deal with than normal diesel fuel gelling. The shelf life is shorter. It is harder on the fuel system seals. Completely unlike normal diesel fuel it is hygroscopic. Once it becomes contaminated with water, bacteria grow and rot filters. Most or all modern diesel engine designs are not rated for any more than 2%, maybe 5% at the most, of biodiesel mixed with regular diesel. The old 1980s-and-before designs were fine with 20%, 80%, or even 100% biodiesel, but those days are gone.

Biodiesel & Ethanol are boondoggles

I know that. You know that. Lots of people know that. You know who doesn't know that? Or, more likely, know it but would rather not admit it publicly? Legislators.

Legislators know a lot of things, but DON'T GIVE A SHIT.

How hard can it be to make an engine compatible with burning ethanol or bio-diesel?

Not hard at all, but there are tradeoffs. And what are you trying to accomplish? It certainly wouldn't eliminate exhaust emissions. And ethanol gives absolutely terrible fuel efficiency, and sky-high cost. Biodiesel is a much, much better choice, except that it is a problem with the insanely high-tech, high-strung injection systems that have replaced the dead-simple diesel injection of yore.

Author 2014

You have a funny way of spelling Arthur.

all FOUR of those cat 3 hurricanes ... packed winds higher than Harvey, the cat 4

That doesn't make sense. Category 3 is 112-129 mph sustained. Category 4 is 130-156 mph. It's in the DEFINITION of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.