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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Electric Vehicles

A reader sent me this pic and notes: Welp, time for my regularly scheduled bi-monthly “am I gonna make it to the gas station” panic.

My advice:  Find out how large your gas tank is and how many gallons of gas are required to fill it when your range indicator says 0 miles.  Act accordingly.

When I’m not running the air conditioning, my Prius gets 51 – 52 MPG, and my range indicator says 0 miles when I still have 1.9 gallons in the tank, meaning almost 100 miles.

When the range says 0, I reset my trip odometer to 0, and fill up when I actually am running low.  Saves time spent pumping.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Sustainability

Here are the words of American singer, writer, actor, and comedian Henry Rollins, and he’s not alone in this belief.

It’s certainly true that elderly people in the U.S. grew up in an era where bigotry was extremely common and almost universally accepted.  When they die, these attitudes go with them to the grave.

Another theory, however, is that prejudice is a natural result of hate, fear, hard times, and lousy education.

Hate and fear derive from the rise of social media and right-wing “news” sources.

Hard times come from wage stagnation and the growing chasm between rich and poor.

Lousy education is the result of a society that has simply lost interest in the subject, pays its teachers slave wages, and suffers from the cream being swept off the top and sent to private and charter schools.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science

In the days of antiquity, the victors in wars enslaved the people in the countries they had vanquished.

Now, at least according to the meme here, slaves are made in our universities.  Reading the world’s great books, asking (and attempting to answer) the questions that have challenged humankind since its inception, and, by far the most lethal, learning about science, technology, engineering and math, makes slaves of anyone foolish enough to attempt it.

If that makes sense to you, you have what it takes to be a MAGA American, and, by all means, jump right in.  You’ll be in good company.  In fact, there are entire broadcast media empires that will welcome you with open arms.  Wanna buy an overpriced pillow?

But wait, there’s more.

If you aspire for the very top, there is a civil war about to be fought for the purpose of making Donald Trump our 46th president.  And, if not a full-fledged war, at least another insurrection.

Pretty attractive, if you ask me. Why wait?

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

The video below is a piece of political satire I thought readers might enjoy.

It really has been a sad time for Trump supporters, though that’s not likely to turn itself around.

One has to love Lindsey Graham’s tearful plea: “Give the man some money so he can defend himself! Give the man some money!”

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

When one lives in a constitutional republic that is rooted in democracy, i.e., the will of the people, there is no mechanism to prevent the next Donald Trump. If the people of the land demand a sociopath, that’s precisely what they are going to have.

In fact, people of decency will be very happy to see the time at which we will have fended off the first one.

As Thucydides told us more than 2000 years ago, horrible people, when they rise to power, can be counted on to inflict great evil.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

NASCAR was essentially forced to sanction one of its drivers for mocking the torture-death of George Floyd at the hands of four members of the Minneapolis police department.

Those living outside the U.S. might find it befuddling, but here’s the truth: there is an entire “sport” here in America, if one can call it that, whose participants are worth hundreds of million dollars apiece, which fan base is heavily weighted in the direction of white supremacists.

NASCAR’s 2020 decision to prohibit displaying the Confederate flag at its events, a symbol celebrating the ~350 years of black slavery, was highly controversial and tightly contested.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Why are our minds so full of cognitive biases, those nasty systematic deviations from rationality, “subjective realities” that supersede our capacity for reason?

Mark Twain certainly made his own contribution, as seen here.

Astronomer Carl Sagan said essentially the same thing:

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”

― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

In a recent post I pointed out that Ben Carson will cause only a small number of Americans to: “Pledge (Their) Servant Leadership (whatever that means) to One Nation, Under God,” on the basis that “Much of our country has lost sight of our founding principles, (for example) faith as an American cornerstone.”

Perhaps the most offensive aspect to all of this is the line: (I pledge to) hold my neighbors accountable as we unite in an effort to preserve freedom in America.

Assuming my neighbors actually accept this garbage, they have no right to force me to buy into it too.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

We’ve all encountered the myth that Trump’s indictments have come from Biden’s Department of Justice, implying that the president is “weaponizing the DoJ” against his political opponent.  The meme here may go a long way to dispelling that.

Another point to be made is that, of the 86 witnesses that will be called in the trial against Trump for attempting to overthrow the U.S. government, every single one is a Republican.

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by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics

Being a disgusting pig is not a crime.

However, attempting to overthrow the United States government actually is a crime, and that’s what’s taking the former president down.

 

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