And here is Chevrolet’s sporty little electric Bolt concept car, which will go 200 miles on a charge and will cost $30,000 after rebates.
I caught the Detroit Auto Show on Saturday afternoon. As always, it was great to see the concept cars of the future. But if you know me, you know I was there for news about electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrids. This is mostly just window shopping — most of the EV concept cars there are beyond a middle class budget. But then window shopping is fun, and there are some models that are becoming affordable.
Electric vehicles are best paired with rooftop solar panels, both for price reasons and to reduce hydrocarbon use (the combination typically pays for itself in 6 years, after which the free fuel is cream). I know everyone can’t afford an EV, though they are coming down fast in price, and nor can everyone put solar panels on their roof — even assuming that they are homeowners. But for those who can, it is really important to make this switch as quickly as possible. And better, it is a quite pleasurable switch that saves a lot of money, in my experience.
This is Chevrolet’s 2016 Volt, which gets 50 miles on an electric charge and has been redesigned very pleasingly. It has the longest range of any plug-in hybrid (it goes to gasoline when the battery runs down). You can now fit 5 in the car, something families with 3 children had been asking for. I have the older model and I think it is a dream car– and much more affordable, with the dealer price drop the Federal tax break, than is commonly believed. I love the way it handles on the road, and the new version is even better.
@ Juan Cole
Dancing With Fools 
Martin Luther King Day today and to show how racist this country still is the pointy white hat crowd took all the way to the year 2000 to ratify it as a State holiday in So. Carolina. Arizona lost the Super Bowl venue due to their stubbornness implementing the holiday.
Today with a Black President, things have tempered slightly but the US prison population says we still need to do more work against discrimination and racism.
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The Nation crowd thinks so as well.
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Headline of the Day: “Argentina struggles to absorb tampon demand”
Read the story HERE
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We never run out of tampons, greatest country in the world.
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Weather the same, nothing new to report. It got up to 35°, the trails I made with the snow blower are grass. Lots of places on the property are grass, still a lot of snow everywhere, too. It’s like half and half. The drive is still a sheet of ice. Took pleasure putting the brakes on on my way out today just to have a little slide.
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Just read an article about the deaths in U.S. prisons, especially in Florida. Another place cops are bumping people off and getting away with it. One mentally ill man in a Florida prison defecated in his cell so the cops took him to the showers and used a hose with 180° water and sprayed him with it. FOR HOURS! He died. When he was taken to the clinic the nurse couldn’t even take his temp, he was too hot.
An inmate was told to go clean up the shower. He found the dead man’s skin all over, and one shoe. He put the skin in the man’s shoe.
I don’t know what the outcome was on that story, it didn’t go any further.
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Over 55 minutes on the sticks today with some sun twxt the clouds.
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Another 3 day weekend shot, back to work tomorrow you workaholics, us retired folks have no schedule, >insert raspberries here<.
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Washington state has too much pot. Price down 40%.
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