Althouse: At the Electric Café...

November 11, 2017

At the Electric Café...

... you can go wherever you want.

(And please use The Althouse Amazon Portal.)

67 comments:

Original Mike said...: "... you can go wherever you want."

As long as it's less than 100 hundred miles away.; 11/11/17, 5:07 PM
MathMom said...: Better make that 50. You need to get home, too.; 11/11/17, 5:09 PM
Original Mike said...: Oh, yeah.; 11/11/17, 5:10 PM
Humperdink said...: If don't make it, just flag down some big honkin' diesel.; 11/11/17, 5:18 PM
Ann Althouse said...: It’s a hybrid.; 11/11/17, 5:22 PM
tcrosse said...: The electricity to power this is generated from Unicorn Dreams and Pleasant Thoughts, transmitted from the power plant by Mental Telepathy.; 11/11/17, 5:22 PM
madAsHell said...: OK....I give up! What is the make and model of the automobile?; 11/11/17, 5:22 PM
madAsHell said...: My wife is watching Chelsea Handler. That Handler woman is stuck on stupid.; 11/11/17, 5:24 PM
Static Ping said...: I somehow typed in the Althouse URL wrong and got this:

http://althouse.blogpsot.com/

(Note the typo.)

It's a VERY different site.; 11/11/17, 5:28 PM
Static Ping said...: (The link is safe as best I can tell. I have gotten there by accident multiple times without anything bad happening to my computer, as far as I can tell. It's just... weird.); 11/11/17, 5:37 PM
Jaq said...: 50 miles if you don't have to use the heater and defrosters.; 11/11/17, 5:47 PM
Bill, Republic of Texas said...: Explain to me how an electric car makes environmental sense. If your electricity is from renewables (like hydro) then sure it may make sense but if your electricity is from coal then it seems really stupid. Maybe natural gas is cleaner than an IC engine.; 11/11/17, 5:49 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: That's what I hoped the future would look like. I also assumed the adults of my childhood would make the future work. Unfortunately, I failed to include my peers in that calculation.; 11/11/17, 5:52 PM
tcrosse said...: Explain to me how an electric car makes environmental sense.

The car under discussion was not designed with the environment in mind.; 11/11/17, 6:01 PM
Unknown said...: Electric cars are stupid. No range, really, batteries suffer in cold weather, can't fuel up and go....

Hybrids are different. Personally, I'm waiting for someone to bring back steam power cars... the last Stanley Steamer could hit 70 and of course the torque was amazing. That was 1930's tech; I can't imagine what it would be like now.

--Vance; 11/11/17, 6:02 PM
Dave Begley said...: Worst Nebraska loss in 65 years. To Minnesota. Minnesota!; 11/11/17, 6:08 PM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/11/17, 6:09 PM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/11/17, 6:21 PM
Humperdink said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/11/17, 6:29 PM
Humperdink said...: Speaking of the House of Saud, Zero Hedge has a very good article on the current turmoil in Saudi Arabia. Hint: China and the Rooskies are making guest appearances.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-11-11/if-saudi-arabia-situation-doesnt-worry-you-youre-not-paying-attention; 11/11/17, 6:30 PM
David said...: ok. I'm stupid. what kind of car is that?; 11/11/17, 6:46 PM
Expat(ish) said...: I love to see my tax credit $$.

-XC; 11/11/17, 6:50 PM
Hunter said...: The car is a Porsche 918 Spyder, and it's a plug-in hybrid.

So it's like a Chevy Volt, except it has 887 hp and can break 100 mph in five seconds.

Here is the Top Gear review, worth watching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSqzp3kdAm4; 11/11/17, 6:50 PM
madAsHell said...: The car is a Porsche 918 Spyder, and it's a plug-in hybrid.

Thank you! I was guessing a Japanese brand because of the plastic spoiler.; 11/11/17, 6:54 PM
Humperdink said...: Starting price $847,000 (US).; 11/11/17, 7:06 PM
AlanKH said...: I'd like to get some feedback on a Rush Limbaugh segment the other day, particularly his various accusations against "the left."

https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2017/11/06/the-left-encourages-violence-against-conservatives/

When I listened to the segment it never occurred to me that he was leveling those accusations against everybody in the country who is left of center, because I've listened to him long enough to know how he talks to and talks about liberals. His two sweeping characterizations of all that is liberalism is that is emotional and that it is a "gutless choice." But people who do not listen to him regularly perceive otherwise. How does his language come across to y'all? Is it common for people to use sweeping language without intending it? I know I've done it when I made the statement, harkening to the famous VRWC quip, "The right wing couldn't conspire against a hot dog stand - if they could trump wouldn't be the nominee." Obviously I was referring to GOP leadership.

On the subject of left-wing political violence, I don't think the number of people with the desire to do that sort of thing has necessarily increased. I think that decades of political and media leaders downplaying such violence, or in some cases showing little interest in the ideological motives behind certain incidents (e.g. 1999 Seattle riots), has encouraged them more and more to see what they can get away with.; 11/11/17, 7:11 PM
Hagar said...: Sally Hemings was 17 years old when she gave birth to her first child by Thomas Jefferson.
Stanley Ann Dunham was 17 years old when she became pregnant with Barack Obama Jr.

I could see an enterprising operator hearing about Roy Moore dating (and dating used to mean just that; going out on "dates") young girls, pricking up his ears and going out to scour the woods to find out more about this, finding the 17-18 year olds and this one one 14 year old who claimed she had "dated" Mr. Moor back then, and then pressuring this one for what she could "remember."

Not necessarily what happend - it could be on the level - but the timing and piling on for Judge Moore to immediately withdraw is suspicious, so I think I will wait a little and see what comes crawling out of the woodpile next before I jump on the bandwagon.; 11/11/17, 7:13 PM
rcocean said...: "Sally Hemings was 17 years old when she gave birth to her first child by Thomas Jefferson."

Read up on your history. Hemings didn't have her first child by a Jefferson. Proven by DNA. You're thinking of *some* of her other kids.; 11/11/17, 7:16 PM
rcocean said...: Nebraska is finished as a big-time champion football school.

In the old days, they could attract good black players who didn't want to stay in racist Alabama or Mississippi. Today, the black kids want to stay in Georgia and Alabama.

And no else wants to play there. Who wants to go to school in Omaha? Its like Boise - only without the mountains.; 11/11/17, 7:23 PM
eric said...: This is an actual tweet from today from our President.

"Why would Kim Jong-un insult me by calling me "old," when I would NEVER call him "short and fat?" Oh well, I try so hard to be his friend - and maybe someday that will happen!"

I so love this man.; 11/11/17, 7:26 PM
rcocean said...: BTW, do people understand that Moore is NOT being accused of having sex with a 14 y/o? Or having sex with a 17/18 year old? Do peeps understand that he asked the parents before he went out on a date?

There are no "sexual relations" involved in the 35 year-old "Roy Moore hoo-hah".

The age of consent relates to sex. There was no sex involved.; 11/11/17, 7:26 PM
madAsHell said...: Starting price $847,000 (US).

But all I see is a Subaru.....; 11/11/17, 7:33 PM
Humperdink said...: "Nebraska is finished as a big-time champion football school."

I thought my school (Penn State) was in the same boat. But we're clawing back. We can thank Bill O'Brien's coaching abilities, James Franklin's recruiting skills and largest dues paying alumni association in the world.; 11/11/17, 7:33 PM
cf said...: Alankh, I think left-wing political violence is absolutely on the Upswing, ratcheted up by the incendiary scripts of our Broadcasting overseers. this last 3 years Supremacist Authoritarians @nyt & @npr inspire the battalions with persuasive orchestrations of WhatToThinkNow.

Some soul should put together a comparison between the cello sad orchestrations by @npr during the Bush years + the Eternally smilING, twirping bird-like Sound poems that delivered the calming news all through the Obama years + the seething, distorting, sarcastic nastiness now. yikes, they are Pissed and want us all Pissed Off. Holy cow. (I continue to boycott my compassion, @nprNews can Go.To.Hell.; 11/11/17, 7:39 PM
Dave Begley said...: Rcocean

University of Nebraska is in Lincoln; not Omaha.; 11/11/17, 7:44 PM
320Busdriver said...: No shortage of Tesla v "put supercar name here" drag races on youtube. Yes, the cheap Tesla almost always wins.

I'd like to experience the max acceleration of the pedestrian Tesla.; 11/11/17, 7:44 PM
Hagar said...: @rocean,
Sorry, but you are full of it. This baby did not survive, and in fact some people claim it never even existed, so there could not be any DNA test to prove anything about this "ghost" baby.; 11/11/17, 7:49 PM
Ken B said...: Hagar,
Let me get this straight. You talk about a child. Rcocean call bs. You reject rcocean's claim. In your rejection you invoke the theory the child never existed. You don’t se a problem?; 11/11/17, 7:55 PM
rehajm said...: Explain to me how an electric car makes environmental sense

The idea being the electric car’s electricity wiil eventually come from environmentally friendly sources. There’s a bit if chicken and egg with the car/clean energy source. Lomborg has argued e-cars cause more carbon emissions than combustion cars when you take into account mining battery minerals is a carbon intensive activity...

There are big environmental advantages to having batteries in the mix where electricity generation is concerned. Not having to build additional capacity being one.; 11/11/17, 8:00 PM
rehajm said...: No shortage of Tesla v "put supercar name here" drag races on youtube.

There’s a critical shortage of Teslas running hot laps at Nurburgring. I’ll take Ann’s Porsche for that...; 11/11/17, 8:07 PM
Humperdink said...: rehajm said: "There are big environmental advantages to having batteries in the mix where electricity generation is concerned. Not having to build additional capacity being one."

What capacity?; 11/11/17, 8:07 PM
rcocean said...: Dave,

That's even worse. Lincoln Nebraska - it isn't even Omaha.

Imagine the recruiting problem.

Recruit: Nebraska sounds like a nice team. But i don't know if i could live in a small white city like Omaha.

Coach: Well, its actually Lincoln.

Recruit: What?!

Coach: But its only an hour from the big City and bright lights of Omaha!; 11/11/17, 8:08 PM
rcocean said...: "Sorry, but you are full of it. This baby did not survive, and in fact some people claim it never even existed, so there could not be any DNA test to prove anything about this "ghost" baby."

Don't really understand this. But there's no proof Jefferson fathered Hemings first child.; 11/11/17, 8:10 PM
320Busdriver said...: "There’s a critical shortage of Teslas running hot laps at Nurburgring. I’ll take Ann’s Porsche for that..."

I would be content with an S7, hell, an S3 would work too! At least something I can reasonably afford.; 11/11/17, 8:11 PM
Ken B said...: Rcocean

Hagar's logic is puzzling indeed.
Hagar: TJ fathered her first child.
Rco: Did not.
Hagar: How can you say that, there was no child.

Points for originality anyway.; 11/11/17, 8:15 PM
Ken B said...: It’s Remembrance Day. This is a much more solemn thing in Canada than in the USA. Here is one reason why. http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/memorials/overseas/first-world-war/france/beaumonthamel/somme

Instapundit has a link to Robert Fisk, scolding we who wear a poppy. Including pretty nearly every Newfoundlander. http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/poppy-symbol-of-racism-never-worn-one-never-will-robert-fisk-remembrance-day-first-world-war-second-a7394976.html; 11/11/17, 8:26 PM
Unknown said...: "Personally, I'm waiting for someone to bring back steam power cars... the last Stanley Steamer could hit 70 and of course the torque was amazing. That was 1930's tech; I can't imagine what it would be like now.

--Vance"

Mybe it will happen in California after they've banned internal combustion engines. Steam power is external combustion, so it might fall into a loophole.; 11/11/17, 8:49 PM
Unknown said...: Hybrid what?

My dad was part owner of a dragster when I was a boy. I think it had a Chevy chassis and body with a ford engine. Now that was a hybrid. It had a tiger stripe paint job and eventually was sold or donated to LSU.; 11/11/17, 8:51 PM
Big Mike said...: You can buy a base 918 hybrid for $850,000, but you probably want to option it up a bit. So that's basically one million dollars worth of car in the picture.

Didn't know that we did that much traffic for you through your Amazon portal.; 11/11/17, 8:54 PM
Big Mike said...: And a tick under 900 HP. That's a bit more than I need for driving to the local supermarket.; 11/11/17, 8:55 PM
Dave Begley said...: Lincoln is an official refugee city. UNL has great athletic facilities. Dr. Tom Osborne built championship teams in Lincoln.; 11/11/17, 9:01 PM
Humperdink said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/11/17, 9:22 PM
Unknown said...: Virtue Signaling for the rich.

I have a 70 mile a day commute on MD Rt 50. 80 mph in the morning, and anything from 80 mph to stop and go in the evening. I do it with an 11 year old Mustang GT with a manual trans. Great tool for the job. although the manual trans is tedious in the traffic home. Tell me that I'm doing this wrong.; 11/11/17, 9:35 PM
Jay Vogt said...: "Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines"

Enzo Ferrari; 11/11/17, 9:52 PM
Tim said...: the fact is, in most of the areas of the United States what you end up with is a coal-fired car.
One step removed of course, but let's get real. Coal is burned to create the electricity, the jasper who buys himself this shiny toy of a car plugs it in to the grid. Bob's your uncle, coal-fired car.
Too late in the day to recall if it was Newton or Einstein, but something about the conservation of energy comes to mind.

All the rest is hype and BS.; 11/11/17, 10:17 PM
chuckR said...: A hybrid is range limited by the size of its gas tank and spacing of gas stations along the way. The battery can be charged by the engine but more importantly by regenerative braking - when you brake, it charges the battery instead of throwing energy away as heat on the brake disks. You can select to run in pure electric mode on some but generally you won't get too far - 18 miles for the 918 pictured. On V8 power alone, you only have 600hp. Boo hoo. EPA puts range at 420 miles when charged and gassed, so no range anxiety there.

Want an everyman's hybrid - Toyota has a hybrid Camry that is rated at 50mpg, which I think is astounding for a car at 1/30th price of the cost no object Porker. (I think it may actually weigh less too. Technology is heavy.); 11/11/17, 11:07 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Lincoln is like Omaha without the Missouri River. Or Warren Buffett.; 11/12/17, 1:15 AM
stlcdr said...: Electric powered vehicles: I think most people rail against them because government and ‘others’ are trying to foist them on us. I’d include myself in that group (Toyota Pious, anyone?).

If industry was left to its own devices, the electric vehicle will be developed, anyway. All the drawbacks only look like drawbacks in comparison to what we use gas cars for, today. Does anyone remember when you didn’t have to charge your cell phone once a day, that a charge would last 5 to 7 days? (Maybe an unfair comparison, since the modern misnomered smart phone offers a lot of obvious functionality compared to older cell phones).

All electric vehicles certainly have disadvantages, today, with the current energy distribution infrastructure we have. But they are not insurmountable. As well, it’s true that it’s simply not possible to make an all electric F150 without making significant functionality compromises (making the whole thing pointless). But they can be overcome for 95% of the population - in time.

The picture of the super car posted may seem like it’s virtue signaling, but there are very real advantages to having such a car as a ‘hybrid’; using the torque from the electric motor to fill in the gaps of torque availability on a performance power-based engine is a pretty good idea, and now being realized.

It’s pretty cool. Much like the Tesla; it is actually quite a good looking car.; 11/12/17, 5:39 AM
Humperdink said...: "Electric powered vehicles: I think most people rail against them because government and ‘others’ are trying to foist them on us. I’d include myself in that group (Toyota Pious, anyone?)."

Me too. Probably the most accurate statement regarding E vehicles that I've read.
I'm still a rebel at heart. Eat your peas.

Do all E vehicles come with 20 bumper stickers?; 11/12/17, 5:49 AM
jeyi said...: Conceivably, even an all-electric— or a hybrid— car recharged by a coal-fired mains power could be demonstrably more energy-efficient overall than a combustion-only engined vehicle. Combustion engines necessarily convert so much of their fuel energy input to waste heat, and lose so much energy-conserving momentum from having to constantly to start and stop in real world driving conditions that they likely will never be comparably more efficient than a stationary coal thermal plant with all subsystems fully optimized. Electric motors are inherently vastly more efficient than combustion engines; and as noted above, the momentum loss from deceleration is significantly converted into battery recharge by regenerative braking, which itself reduces energy waste by conventional brakes. But yes, this puppy obviously wasn't a Green project from the outset.; 11/12/17, 6:23 AM
HT said...: Sally Hemings was 17 years old when she gave birth to her first child by Thomas Jefferson.
Stanley Ann Dunham was 17 years old when she became pregnant with Barack Obama Jr.

"Read up on your history. Hemings didn't have her first child by a Jefferson. Proven by DNA. You're thinking of *some* of her other kids."

I really don't know about the facts of the Hemings children, but I will point out that I read the commenter saying that said that she gave birth to her first child by Thos Jefferson, not her first child.

As for Ann Dunham, that is interesting. I'm not sure if we know without a doubt her age at conception, as it would have been on, after or just before the date of her Nov 7 18th birthday.

Roy Moore is trying to have it both ways: saying it's a long time ago and saying it's not true (the 14 y.o). But it was a long time ago. Giving himself some room there. It's interesting that he held a speech in Vestavia and not say northern Alabama. I guess he's got some consultants telling him to focus on the burbs.; 11/12/17, 6:50 AM
Rusty said...: Blogger 320Busdriver said...
"No shortage of Tesla v "put supercar name here" drag races on youtube. Yes, the cheap Tesla almost always wins.

I'd like to experience the max acceleration of the pedestrian Tesla."

With me it's a Bugatti Veron.

Blogger rehajm said...
No shortage of Tesla v "put supercar name here" drag races on youtube.

"There’s a critical shortage of Teslas running hot laps at Nurburgring. I’ll take Ann’s Porsche for that..."

I have a standing bet with any Tesla owner. Chicago to LA by the shortest route. I'll use a 2003 Nissan Pathfinder and they use their Tesla. Whoever gets to Santa Monica Pier first wins. So far no takers.; 11/12/17, 7:26 AM
MadTownGuy said...: Tesla vs Model T.; 11/12/17, 7:41 AM
Hagar said...: Ken B., HT, and rocean,
My answer above indeed made no sense, but the problem was a brainfart on my part.

Sally Hemings had six children born at Monticello, 4 of which grew up. 2 of these left and were never heard of again. Of the remaining 2, only one have known descendants living today, and those descendants are the ones who provided the DNA that proved relationship to TJ or one of his near relatives. DNA analysis being, of course, a very recent thing.

However, Sally and her children said at the time that she had seven children by TJ, but she conceived her first child by TJ in Paris and the child died before she returned to Monticello and thus was nnot "logged in", so to speak.; 11/12/17, 7:59 AM
320Busdriver said...: "With me it's a Bugatti Veron."

The Veyron is impressive, but for about 2.1 million $ less you can get the same 0-60 acceleration in the model S P100D.; 11/12/17, 8:15 AM
John derick said...: An intriguing discussion is definitely worth comment. I do believe that you ought to publish more about this issue, it may not be a taboo matter but generally people do not discuss these subjects. To the next! car window tinting near me; 12/11/19, 5:04 AM
John derick said...: An intriguing discussion is definitely worth comment. I do believe that you ought to publish more about this issue, it may not be a taboo matter but generally people do not discuss these subjects. To the next! car window tinting near me; 12/11/19, 5:04 AM