Y2HH

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Mar 9, 2011 -> 09:04 AM) Not really. He was in charge of fund raising, not programming or news editorial control. So, you claim he had zero influence, and no control whatsoever? Dubious claim. NPR is NOT balanced, just like Fox isn't balanced...everyone should know that by now, so who cares in either case.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Mar 9, 2011 -> 09:01 AM) lol, well, there goes the idea that NPR is a "neutral" news organization. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/08...ty-republicans/ Queue up the inevitable comebacks: "Faux News", "Fox Lies", and "Doctored Footage". Also throw in a, "Maddow says otherwise...", too.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Mar 8, 2011 -> 07:53 PM) I've seen some of your pics... I would love to do this sometime but a.) I'd die and b.) I'd die. It's not that dangerous, especially if you have someone with you that knows what they're doing. I went to BWCA, but NS is right, it's pretty crowded, going the Canadian way is probably a better idea, just have to pick the right time of year to go or you end up in black fly season. I have some really nice pictures of the areas I tend to visit, a few of my friends are photographers, so some of the shots I have laying around are pretty amazing.

QUOTE (Disco72 @ Mar 8, 2011 -> 01:58 PM) My wife and I are planning a trip to Australia for sometime this summer (May, June, or July). We're building the trip around 5 or 7 days on a live aboard on the Great Barrier Reef. Given schedules, we can probaby spend another week (maybe 10 days) in other parts of Australia. Any suggestions on "can't miss" things to see or do? We'd love to get to the outback, even briefly. A quick trip to Tasmania would be fun, but I'm not sure we can fit it in. We'll probably fly into Sydney, then take flights around Australia on one of the local carriers (Qantas, Virgin Blue, JetStar, or Tiger). The only other city we'll be in for sure is Cairns, where we'll meet the live aboard. Went there a few years ago for a few weeks, loved it! Do note that their seasons are opposite our seasons, so you're actually going during their "winter". Summer in Australia begins in late October and into what would be our Winter (November-January). Keep this in mind, because although it won't be "cold" in the northern areas of Australia during the months you are planning, it WILL be cold in Sydney, etc...which are coastal/mid/southern. Everything is opposite there. So don't expect 85+ degree weather...it can get quite cold there during the months you are planning. The problem with seeing the Outback is it cannot really be "brief", as it's not close to any of the other popular areas like Sydney/Cairns (pronounces Cans).

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 8, 2011 -> 11:27 AM) All over. I also run a small not-for-profit for wilderness travel. I'll PM you a link. You seem to like the Boundaries.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Mar 8, 2011 -> 11:22 AM) IF it is only 2 road trips, why not consider, renting an SUV for your off-road purposes and than having a more normal car the rest of the time. Just throwing out random options. And I'd hardly call the Grand Cherokee a soccer mom jeep. The thing has beautiful off road abilities. Maybe it doesn't have the ground clearance you need for whatever it is you are doing but its 4 wheel drive system consistently gets phenomenal reviews. Those are the only 2 "road trips", but they're not the only two trips. I'll take an average of 10 camping trips per year, ranging from Northern Wisconsin, to Michigan, to Kentucky, to Southern IL. And you can't rent SUV's for off road purposes...they'd never rent it to you because of the strain you put on the axels, etc. I'm sure they have rules about bringing them offroad, cracking an axel and saying that the insurance isn't going to cover the abuse. I've never tried that before with a rental, so I don't actually know. My entire underbody is practically covered in body armor...something most SUV's do not have, but is stock equipment on a Jeep Rubicon. And a Grand Cherokee is very capable, however, it's rimmed in plastic with low ground clearance...this does not mix well with real off roading, unless of course, you don't care about denting up and cracking the plastic ground effects. Unfortunately, most people with such SUV's DO care, very much, about not denting up the car.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 8, 2011 -> 09:46 AM) I got the Escape Hybrid, and have been very happy. Depends on the season and other factors, but we probably average 28-30 overall. Can be as high as mid-30's on a tank, or as low as mid-20's. The FEH is not full sized, but I can tell you from doing EXACTLY what you describe (you and I have talked about this before, we do a lot of camping), its been great. 3 people plus gear and a canoe on top works great. 4 people same starts to get cramped, but it can be done. More than that won't work though. We got the AWD model (its auto-AWD, kicks in as needed), and it handles dirt and gravel roads fine, as well as Chicago winters (but also gets a couple clicks less MPG than the FWD model). I wouldn't want to take it offroad entirely though. Where do you go camping and stuff at?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Mar 7, 2011 -> 04:48 PM) Yeah, just get the new Grand Cherokee like Rock has, and live with the average mpg... The only reason I'm even considering this in the future is for the massive fuel efficiency savings. If I have to stay all gasoline, I'm sticking with my real Jeep, the 4 door Rubicon...you'd not catch me driving a soccer mom Jeep like the Grand Cherokee sans the hybrid like MPG savings... As it stands, for highway driving, I get 18-20mpg with my current Jeep, around 16 in the city.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Mar 7, 2011 -> 04:15 PM) How about the Highlander? Link "just over 42 cubic feet of space behind the second row when the third row is folded" so that seems to be quite a bit, and converts into a 7 seater if needed. "The Highlander Hybrid has a base MSRP that ranges from $37,290 to $42,945 plus $810 destination charges. That’s approximately $3,000 to $7,700 more than the conventional gas-powered Highlander, depending on model comparison. But, for the premium in cost, the Highlander offers 10 more horsepower and 11 more miles to the gallon in the city and eight more on the highway. Plus, tailpipe emissions are cleaner." - So depending on your miles you can figure the time to recover costs. That's more like a station wagon to me than an SUV, that thing couldn't handle the off road stuff I'd need it for. My Jeep tires are 32"x10", for reference. While I don't need the eventual replacement to be quite that large, I need it to have enough wheel well space and tire size to clear some obvious off road obsticals...nothing huge like boulders, but bad enough that a regular car wouldn't be able to do it.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Mar 7, 2011 -> 04:10 PM) How many miles are you thinking you'd put on it in one year? Like you said, it's probably just not going to be worth it at this point. For reference, I have 50,000 miles on my Jeep Rubicon which I bought on 07/07/07. So I'd say probably around 13k per year or so...I don't drive far to/from work, just Clearing to Downtown 3 days a week...most of my bigger driving is when I take road camping trips...or to Kentucky or Wisconsin on other camping trips. I drove to/from Estes Park Colorado last year, and the year before I went to Custer State Park in South Dakota, both quite long trips.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Mar 7, 2011 -> 04:00 PM) How big of an SUV are you looking at? There are a few options at 28 mpg and higher but they aren't Yukons. Big enough for long road trips, for 3 peoples cloths, canoe, tents, fishing gear, food, odds/ends, etc...basically, as big as a 4 door Jeep, etc. In other words, A REAL sized SUV, not a fake mini-suv like most of those hybrid suv's I'm seeing on these websites. I do not consider, for example, a Jeep Liberty to be a full sized SUV, it's too small and you'd be better off buying a regular car (as they have the same amount of room in them). Also, for me, the SUV has to be an SUV that won't fall apart if I bring it off road (which I do with my Jeep). If it's driven by soccer moms, I'd tear it's axels off in about 5 minutes when I drive off road to get to some of my favorite lakes in Wisconsin that don't have paved roads leading to them.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 7, 2011 -> 02:15 PM) I have to admit, if the FEH hadn't worked out for us, we probably would have passed on the Hybrid thing this time around. It was the only SUV Hybrid that I found to be reasonably priced. I'm sure that will change over time, but for now, that's a tough market. What did you end up getting? Some of the SUV hybrids don't seem to get much more MPG that I'd even bother...when I think hybrid, I think 28MPG or better (preferably 30+), and some of them I'm seeing 20mpg. To me, 20mpg isn't enough to justify the huge price increase over the gasoline variety, even with the uncertainty of oil prices. I'm hoping that by 2016 or so, SUV hybrid technology advances considerably, gets better MPG and is MUCH more affordable, as that's the next time I'll be in the market for a car.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Mar 5, 2011 -> 11:54 AM) By the way, if people are ever looking for info on what hybrid cars and SUV's are currently available (also electrics), and what are coming soon, you can use this site. Further, if you go to their SUV section, you will find 16 different hybrid SUV's to choose from now, with more coming each year. Current alt-driven SUV's range in price from 30k to 90k, and from small to large in size. Take your pick. All told, there are about 50 different hybrid and/or electric car/truck/SUV models available now. I looked into some SUV Hybrids the last few days, and any of them worth having are WAY too expensive. The prices on these hybrids have to come down a good 10k before I'll even bother looking again...

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 4, 2011 -> 05:49 PM) Well, you do realize they currently have plenty of long road-tripping hybrids right? The hybrid system does its best jobs on large SUV's; they get the largest percentage decrease in gas savings. A highlander hybrid, for example. Eventually they're going to have all-electric SUV's & vans, that'll take a bit of time. They've got to get the lines up and running, just like how the Prius came out. They roll it out in the small car format to get the lines up and running, then move on to luxury vehicles and SUV's in the next step. The time it takes for them to get to that next step, IMO, is going to depend a lot on gas prices. If this spike continues going up and doesn't stabilize or recede, you'll see a flood of all-electric or volt-style partial electric vehicles in the coming year or two. No, I had no idea they had big hybrids...I'll have to look at some.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 4, 2011 -> 05:40 PM) Here's my take. Nissan is first on the market with an all-electric. They've had prototypes on the road for a few years, but they have a major advantage being the first all-electric, especially if there's $5 a gallon gas in a year or two. If Nissan's batteries degrade in performance too fast, lasting only a couple years instead of 10-20, they're going to harm their image for a long time and they're going to blow a golden opportunity to be the first all-electric. I will say, they are taking a gamble. The basic principles behind everyone's battery design is the same (Li-metal battery; note, this is quite different from the Lithium Ion battery in your laptop), but Nissan runs theirs in a different way. They air-cool it, rather than having a heating/insulation system like Tesla does, which Tesla says will cut their battery life. They also run the battery much lower than Chevy does in the Volt; the Volt only takes slices out of the battery, Nissan blows through much of it. I'm not wealthy enough to be an early-adopter, so by the time I can pull one of these off, we'll have at least a few years years of usable, real world data on all of them, and we'll probably have a similar drive system appearing in a number of other vehicles. If I had the cash available, I'd strongly consider being an early adopter, but I don't. However, if we start talking about >$5 a gallon gas, it won't take long for everyone to figure out the electric car math. I hope they get some hybrids that have some actual space in them for long road tripping, right now this is one of the problems with these cars...too small for what I need...otherwise I'd get one. All electric for me is out of the question...not enough miles, I take 1000+ mile trips all the time during the summer, so all electric is a no go for me...but a hybrid of significant size that can haul my canoe + camping equipment + 3 people would be awesome.

QUOTE (hi8is @ Mar 4, 2011 -> 02:53 PM) I watched every pitch with a smile on my face. He's still recoiling a bit and not following through completely thou. ( I thought this was one of the issues that lead to his injury? ) I think many people claim that was one of the issues that lead to his injury, but they've shown no evidence of it. IIRC, people kept saying he was putting all of the deceleration pressure on his lat with that recoil he does at the end of pitches, however, from everything I know about that particular muscle, it's an acceleration muscle and cannot be used to decelerate...which would invalidate claims that he was using it to decelerate. Feel free to correct me if I'm way wrong on this, I'm not an expert in the field.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Mar 4, 2011 -> 11:34 AM) The explicit statement from Nissan and Chevrolet is that this generation of batteries does not have a memory. They expect, as others have noted, a small deterioration in performance over the space of a decade, but they literally told me in person that they have built next-gen batteries that have no memory. It shouldn't matter if you drive it to 20% power and then charge it versus recharging it every night at 80% power. The amount of power should not dwindle on every charge. Worth noting a comparison here...the Prius has been on the road for more than a decade, and I think in general people have been suprised that the batteries have lasted longer than expected, not shorter. The memory isn't really a concern, rechargeables haven't had memory since the nickle cadmium days, modern cell phone/laptop Li-Ion's don't have memory, either. It's the performance degradation I was concerned with, moreso than anything else.

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Mar 4, 2011 -> 11:20 AM) Thanks for the input!! Personal 401k's are basically called IRA's, be it Roth-IRA, Rollover-IRA, etc...I personally dislike them. I have one, but only due to prior employment and rolling it over into a self directed IRA. I feel the give and take on them is too much give, not enough take...and while they serve as a tax deferred shelter...all the other tax shelter advantages of the market are lost in them. The problem with IRA's is that when you do come of age and being width drawling from them, they are taxed at ordinary income...this sucks. If you held these same assets in a ordinary brokerage account, anything you sell that you've held for more than 1 year would be taxed as long term capital gains...which is HALF of what ordinary income taxes are. Also, you cannot write off losses in them, and this also sucks, which means you cannot wash sale stocks in them. Then, as time goes on, tax laws change, taxes change etc...this also sucks because you are essentially locked into them, as the new laws would take effect over your IRA, which you can't touch touch due to the penalties incurred if you do. In emergency situations, you also take penalties and have to "borrow" from yourself in order to get to the money... Basically, I hate everything about them...so if you ask me, I say STAY away from IRA's. Use your companies 401k and just use a regular old brokerage account for investing purposes, you get more control over your own assets.

QUOTE (Cknolls @ Mar 4, 2011 -> 11:02 AM) Why is Greenspan still given a forum to babble? He said things are good if you don't count the Euro Zone weaknesses, the gas/oil spikes, and the massive budget deficits. WTF..... So let me get this straight...things are great so long as we ignore all the things that are bad?

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Mar 4, 2011 -> 10:46 AM) Do you now admit that it was a pretty s*** guess based on limited knowledge of the technology employed and that you have no valid reason to continue to expect the batteries to need non-warrantable replacement a full five years before the warranty period is up? I'll repeat it again, since you seem to have missed it: I said, from the start, that I did not know and was curious how it worked in relation to charging, the warranty, etc. Is something wrong with you or what? I mean, I'm honestly asking, because you seem hellbent on getting a person to admit that they don't know...when I sorta preemptively stated that from the start, and subsequently RE-stated multiple times because you have some sort of problem understanding the written word here...

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Mar 4, 2011 -> 10:17 AM) Does anybody have a good resource for salary comparisons? I know of glassdoor.com, but it's not always a great site for research. How would you guys go about researching salaries? It's hard, because most people who fill out such surveys lie...which can mess up the entire comparison process. The best way I've found is to have friends in the industry who will tell you what they make, etc...it's really REALLY hard to get a real answer on what a going rate is...because it depends on far too many factors.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Mar 4, 2011 -> 10:38 AM) I posted a rather simple answer to your postulation that the batteries will be dead in 3 years--your comparison was flawed. You're also the one who claimed GM's warranty was "sneaky" and "almost useless" based off of a bad comparison. I'm unsure of why you jumped on GM based on limited knowledge of how the Volt and its battery system operates. It an American car company warranty. It's sneaky. I guarantee it. And I know my comparison was flawed...it's why, from the start -- since you seem to dense to accept this -- that I said I did not know and was curious. Again. I did not know and I was curious how it worked. Get that yet? If not, I can repeat it again.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Mar 4, 2011 -> 10:35 AM) What's the charging mechanism when you plug it into a wall? The alternator is what prevents car batteries from draining as fast as say a laptop or cell phone battery. I was merely showing that I understand the basic difference in why car batteries would last longer in that sense of the word. The actual charging cycle, which is what you are talking about, is completely different from what I was even talking about.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Mar 4, 2011 -> 10:34 AM) Sorry, I dropped the probably in the last previous reply. My point is that your speculation that the batteries would be effectively dead in 3 years is pretty baseless since it's not comparing similar technology. Comparing it to standard alternator charging of lead-acid batteries in a car? Consumer electronics batteries with different chemistry and dumb charging? That doesn't make sense. It's why I posed the question. Again. I said I was CURIOUS about it and could only base what I know of batteries. Sorry for posing a rather simple question and for being curious. I'm unsure why you're jumping on me for this.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Mar 4, 2011 -> 10:31 AM) Like I said, even my power tool batteries have chips in them now for this. Software monitoring of internal battery parameters to control charging rates is what charges the batteries differently and more effectively, not just "LOL it's on an alternator!!!". Does it run it through an alternator when you plug it into the wall? Dumb question.