In other news...

[Michael Hopcroft]

One of my favorite fictional characters, the art student Sae from Hidamari (Sunshine) Sketch (the alternate title is for the North American comic translation into English), is a romance novelist. She won a contest run by a magazine at age 14 and has been writing for that magazine ever since. 

 

She says she based her teen romance stories on personal experience, a statement nobody believes.In fact, her main attraction it to her fellow student Hiro, a young woman who adores the person and not the writer. Hiro is referred to by nearly all their friends as "Sae's Wife", which she doesn't mind and which (at least publicly) embarrasses Sae. But at the end of their high school days, they move into a single apartment together (albeit with two bedrooms).

 

And Sae will be going to a Liberal Arts school with a good reputation for its Literature Department. They would probably push her boundaries If a professor were to find out her poen name, she's in for interesting times.

[archer]

On 8/5/2021 at 12:11 PM, death tribble said:

The Washington football team bans fans turning up in American Indian garb

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58099157

Washington's NFL franchise was first named the Redskins in 1933, when they still played in Boston.

 

That's an interesting fact I didn't remember. 

 

That suggests the Redskins name is a homage to the anti-British patriots who dressed as Indians for the Boston Tea Party.

[death tribble]

So the Internal Revenue Service is behind the change in name as no-one likes tax cheats.

[Michael Hopcroft]

1 hour ago, archer said:

 

That's an interesting fact I didn't remember. 

 

That suggests the Redskins name is a homage to the anti-British patriots who dressed as Indians for the Boston Tea Party.

At the time the Braves of the National League in baseball were letting an NFL team use their stadium during their off-season. The fledgeling NFL was not popular enough yet to justify owners investing in stadiums just for football. The Redskins name was cross-promotion. Unfortunately, Redskins carries many more negative connotations than Braves does (though there are probably people in Atlanta pressuring for a name change).

 

I'm actually not sue any NFL teams now share an arena with baseball. Once it was the norm, but not now.When the Chargers moved to LA they had to use a soccer stadium while construction was going on for the stadium they would eventually share with the Rams.

[archer]

10 minutes ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

At the time the Braves of the National League in baseball were letting an NFL team use their stadium during their off-season. The fledgeling NFL was not popular enough yet to justify owners investing in stadiums just for football. The Redskins name was cross-promotion. Unfortunately, Redskins carries many more negative connotations than Braves does (though there are probably people in Atlanta pressuring for a name change).

 

I'm actually not sue any NFL teams now share an arena with baseball. Once it was the norm, but not now.When the Chargers moved to LA they had to use a soccer stadium while construction was going on for the stadium they would eventually share with the Rams.

 

Ah, so happy accident.

 

Still, the team could spin it as historically it was the "Boston Redskins" who were patriots in disguise. Now the team is in Washington, the nation's capital, so let's do a more directly patriotic name.

 

How about: The Patriots?

 

< whistles innocently >

[Pattern Ghost]

On 8/6/2021 at 7:00 AM, Cygnia said:

Romance Writers Of America Was Doing Better With Race — Until A Recent Award Choice

 

That author needs to read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

[archer]

3 minutes ago, Pattern Ghost said:

 

That author needs to read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

 

With all the Wounded Knees, they could be in an Elder Scrolls game....

[Pariah]

1 hour ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

I'm actually not sue any NFL teams now share an arena with baseball. Once it was the norm, but not now.When the Chargers moved to LA they had to use a soccer stadium while construction was going on for the stadium they would eventually share with the Rams.

 

The last NFL team to share a stadium with a baseball team was the Oakland Raiders. 

[unclevlad]

Sharing a stadium with baseball always had serious issues for both sports.  

 

It's hard to recognize that most sports weren't that popular until relatively recently.  Baseball was...but that was, I think, because all the games took place during the day, and most when school was out.  Baseball was very much a game for kids and families, and that's why it was so successful.    It also had the advantage of easy access...more games, more days, more seats overall than football.  Football started to grow because of television.  Baseball is a *great* radio game;  every great, classic baseball play-by-play announcer had his roots in radio.  Football is a much better visual game;  yeah, I remember we'd sometimes listen to Bob Martin's radio call of the Broncos, but preferably....that'd be in conjunction with the TV pictures and the sound off.  The NBA...you can probably identify the turning point as actually the national championship game with Illinois State vs. Michigan State...Bird vs. Magic.  Then getting them to the 2 most historically important franchises, and culminating in their combined domination, and 3 head-to-head matchups in the Finals.  I remember, vaguely, NBA playoff games on tape delay...looking it up, the last one was as late as 1986.  

 

Network TV generally passed on live sports even longer...with the exception of football, because football was Saturday and Sunday during the day.  If not sports, then it'd be filler material.  And for playoff games that would have a broader draw.  Local OTA broadcasts were almost always non-affiliated OTA stations until cable transformed the landscape.  I didn't get cable until around 2001, when I finally broke down...to start watching sports in HD.  Might specifically even have been the Super Bowl.

 

Sharing a stadium between football and baseball now is almost inconceivable, barring the isolated game like the Pinstripe Bowl in Yankee Stadium (which is also long after the football season closes) because the geometries needed for the two massively conflict with the desire to maximize luxury boxes and other forms of elite seating.

[Cancer]

6 hours ago, archer said:

 

Ah, so happy accident.

 

Still, the team could spin it as historically it was the "Boston Redskins" who were patriots in disguise.

 

 

George Preston Marshall's failings are well enough known and well enough documented that there is no chance of being able to pull that off.

[wcw43921]

Markie Post Dead At Seventy

 

The Eighties doesn't seem that long ago, then something like this happens.  Godspeed, Ms. Post.

[Pariah]

She was seventy?!  Man, I feel old.

 

Rest in peace, Ms. Post.

[Logan D. Hurricanes]

NOOOO! Oh, I had such a crush on her when I was younger. RIP 😢

[tkdguy]

Rest in peace.

[unclevlad]

And Harry Anderson died 3 years ago, at 65.  Also relatively early.

 

We're getting old.....

[unclevlad]

The writing was on the wall when his son Terry left fall practices to head home, so it's no surprise at all, but Bobby Bowden died today.  

[death tribble]

Tower bridge is stuck open, stuck open, stuck open

Tower bridge is stuck open

Traffic is diverted

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-58149716

[unclevlad]

The new climate report gives the sternest, most urgent warnings to date.

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/09/1025898341/major-report-warns-climate-change-is-accelerating-and-humans-must-cut-emissions-

 

Among other stories.

 

It's already too late to roll back effects in less than a couple of decades.  Even if everyone embraced moving to electric vehicles, and heavy development in the complementary solar, wind, and perhaps tidal power generation, it will take years to transition.  And let's be realistic;  a VERY large segment is utterly addicted to their muscle cars, and won't switch.  They'll defend their right to gas guzzle with near-holy intensity;  the pushback against mask mandates will look like a murmur of protest by comparison.  In addition, a very large segment of the population can't afford a new car, and there's no used market to speak of at this point.

[Grailknight]

Affordability will be an issue for at minimum a decade. Hopefully new models like the Ford Maverick hybrid take off as the base model sells for right at $20K.

 

Not so widely known fact: Electric cars crush gas guzzlers in drag races. YouTube is filled with videos of Tesla's blowing away anything that they come up against over 1/4 and 1/2 miles runs. If you can get the prices closer, that market segment will switch.

[unclevlad]

But the switch won't be easy.

 

--If you live in an apartment, where are you going to recharge?

--Charging stations need to be MUCH!!! more common.  

--How long does it take to recharge if I'm on the road?  I drove from here to Denver several times...it's about 650 miles going straight up I-25.  How many stops will I need, and how long will each have to be?  Found this:

 

https://www.nrdc.org/experts/patricia-valderrama/electric-vehicle-charging-101

 

I'll ignore the cost for the Level 3 charging for now, in that economies of scale may help reduce those.  But even at level 3, over an hour.  That's a long time for me, and for the charging station.  When I'm using it, no one else can.  It would've added a good 2 hours onto the trip.

 

And here's another thought.  The car's sitting on the charger for 90 minutes.  It's not going anywhere...for a substantial period of time.  The turnaround is low because every car at every station is that way.  This isn't like a normal gas station.  So, this *darn* sure feels like a pretty good place for smash-n-grab operations.  

 

The article also points out that the connectors aren't consistent.  When you start talking millions of these, that'll be a much bigger problem.  

[archer]

2 hours ago, unclevlad said:

But the switch won't be easy.

 

--If you live in an apartment, where are you going to recharge?

--Charging stations need to be MUCH!!! more common.  

--How long does it take to recharge if I'm on the road?  I drove from here to Denver several times...it's about 650 miles going straight up I-25.  How many stops will I need, and how long will each have to be?  Found this:

 

https://www.nrdc.org/experts/patricia-valderrama/electric-vehicle-charging-101

 

I'll ignore the cost for the Level 3 charging for now, in that economies of scale may help reduce those.  But even at level 3, over an hour.  That's a long time for me, and for the charging station.  When I'm using it, no one else can.  It would've added a good 2 hours onto the trip.

 

And here's another thought.  The car's sitting on the charger for 90 minutes.  It's not going anywhere...for a substantial period of time.  The turnaround is low because every car at every station is that way.  This isn't like a normal gas station.  So, this *darn* sure feels like a pretty good place for smash-n-grab operations.  

 

The article also points out that the connectors aren't consistent.  When you start talking millions of these, that'll be a much bigger problem.  

 

Yeah, that long distance drive is the main obstacle for me going with an electric car. 

 

I used to have the stamina to drive straight through a 13 hour trip to visit my wife's family in Colorado. I can't do that anymore so we have to add in rest stops, an overnight, and have my wife drive a significant part of the trip. So that's vastly complicated our trips.

 

With the range of the electric cars which were available a couple of years ago when we were shopping, we'd also have needed to stop for two hours for every hour of driving. And that's if we could have found charging stations along the way in the relatively unpopulated stretches of the states which surround Colorado.

 

Our alternative to that would be to have a car payment for a car which we couldn't use on trips to see family and instead have the added expense of renting a car for several weeks out of the year.

 

What I really wanted was a plug-in hybrid. But at the time, getting one with the (increased) size my wife wanted was prohibitively expensive.

[unclevlad]

The range has improved, but you're still looking at probably 3-4 hours of driving, then the extended recharge period.  I never could make the drive up without a break;  IIRC there was a rest stop near Las Vegas (NM, not NV) before you got into the main part of the New Mexico Highlands heading on into Raton.  I'd often take a half hour there.  My gas stops were Rio Rancho and Trinidad for the most part.  OK, I might eat at one of em...but not both.  And fast food doesn't mean an hour and a half break.

 

Side point...my uncle, I'm told, used to drive cross-country non-stop...we're talking Georgia to California.  So, what I'm wondering is...if you have to stop every 3-4 hours for an hour plus, beyond the overall increase in trip duration...wouldn't that break itself cause problems?  An hour with nothing to do feels very disruptive.  After 10-12 hours on the road, that hour seems like it'll send you right to sleep...and an hour's nap won't cut it, and often make things a whole lot worse.

 

Note that your 13 hour trip would still probably become 16, perhaps more.  That clearly can change whether you need to take an extended break.

 

But I think the access to charging for non-homeowners is a serious problem.  Yes, for sure...electric cars make more sense for those who only drive locally.  Charging requires a parking area reserved for MY use...garage, underground, maybe carport.  Homeowner?  Charging station in the garage.  Underground parking for a high-rise...ehhh.  Logistical issue.  SOME apartments offer covered parking...generally for a premium...and those could add charging stations.  But most parking, at any apartment complex, isn't set up for a charger.  

 

There's a secondary issue, too:  securing them.  Both in the sense of enforcing that only the authorized user can park there...a tow truck might be a real cash cow...and making sure that the charger itself is secure.  Even if we're talking nothing more than the cost of the electricity, 50 kWh is nowhere CLOSE to free.

 

This is all exacerbated if a rapid transition is desired.

 

Also note, we've only talked passenger cars.

 

 

 

 

[Grailknight]

3 hours ago, unclevlad said:

But the switch won't be easy.

 

--If you live in an apartment, where are you going to recharge?

--Charging stations need to be MUCH!!! more common.  

--How long does it take to recharge if I'm on the road?  I drove from here to Denver several times...it's about 650 miles going straight up I-25.  How many stops will I need, and how long will each have to be?  Found this:

 

https://www.nrdc.org/experts/patricia-valderrama/electric-vehicle-charging-101

 

I'll ignore the cost for the Level 3 charging for now, in that economies of scale may help reduce those.  But even at level 3, over an hour.  That's a long time for me, and for the charging station.  When I'm using it, no one else can.  It would've added a good 2 hours onto the trip.

 

And here's another thought.  The car's sitting on the charger for 90 minutes.  It's not going anywhere...for a substantial period of time.  The turnaround is low because every car at every station is that way.  This isn't like a normal gas station.  So, this *darn* sure feels like a pretty good place for smash-n-grab operations.  

 

The article also points out that the connectors aren't consistent.  When you start talking millions of these, that'll be a much bigger problem.  

 

I don't see North America going to completely electric cars in the foreseeable future. It may happen on the East and West coasts but the rest of the states and provinces  should be able to use hybrids.. Not a perfect emission solution but a big step.

[unclevlad]

And probably East Coast before West Coast.  The East Coast has much better-developed mass transit to go with the more tightly concentrated population, and that should allow a smoother transition.  The West Coast has the longer trips because the cities are far more spread out.  The interior parts will build out from the major cities...Dallas, Denver, Chicago, St. Louis, Phoenix...and from the smaller cities but where corridors can exist, like ABQ-Santa Fe.  Slowest rollouts would likely be the central and northern Plains, and much of the mountain West.  it seems rather likely that conversion patterns will look a lot like 4G and 5G coverage maps.

[Ternaugh]

1 hour ago, Grailknight said:

 

I don't see North America going to completely electric cars in the foreseeable future. It may happen on the East and West coasts but the rest of the states and provinces  should be able to use hybrids.. Not a perfect emission solution but a big step.

 

I went with a Prius several years ago, precisely because I don't have a covered parking area at home, and adding a weatherproof charging station outside my house would have added thousands of dollars to the cost of the car.