Today the 4th of July falls on our normal shoot day. We’re having a party for the celebration of Independance Day. This is the day we celebrate not being British which then allows us a sense of humor, which we weren’t permitted previously. And so we are no longer dour and puckish. God Save the King.
We still have the taxes unfortunately…. At least we can drink our tea on ice. Indeed, at least we HAVE ice.
In any event, there will be no show this week. I’ve got some new batteries in and things to talk about but they’ll just have to wait until next Friday.
Stay with us…. there’s about 300 reruns available for those who have to have it….
Hey Jack – your allowed to take your holidays…
But think what you are missing; since that experiment at making tea in Boston harbour with cold salt water, you have never altogether got the hang of what you call “hot tea”.
Still we love you anyway. And for all the flaws in the system at least you still elect your presidents. Unlike the EU.
John,
I am not sure Jack is talking about Her Majesty The Queen or the husband of Carla Bruni. I have heard him talking french after all.
Hot tea sounds like Old Crog, but he used rum not tea didn’t he.
Cheers
Peter and Karin
John, Who said Brits don’t have a sense of humor? …oh by the way “I wish to return this parrot!”
Thank the lord for the 300+ reruns. It’s downpouring outside (hurricane Arthur is at our doorstep), and the rain is supposed to last all weekend. Not a good time to work on your EV if you don’t have a garage. But great time to watch EVTV.
Happy Independance Day. God Save the King and may Obama have mercy on you and your children’s financial security.
You owe this much….http://www.usdebtclock.org/#
Happy 4th Jack! And to everyone else out there trying to keep our hard earned American dollars right here in the USA!
I didn’t get the sticker made in time for the back window of the EV!
Made in Japan
Re-engineered in America
With batteries from China
Top line half white/red.
Second line Red/White/Blue
Third line Red.
Don’t know how well it will go over!
All the best,
Aaron Lephart
http://www.smartcar451.com
Thank you for letting us know. It saves me checking every 2 hours to see of the new video had been posted. I wait anxiously each week for the new one. And yes you deserve a holiday once and while.
Jack, Hope you, family and friends had a great 4th of July. Thank you for all you do. You deserve a break from the long hours you and your staff put in. I too wait anxiously each week to see what you and Brian have to say. Each week I am informed to new and interesting items that I have not known before. It is people like you that help others have a better more meaningful life by being able to seek out new ways to cut costs, try something new, or just to have fun, and finding a place to buy or find new items needed to build electric. You are making the U.S.A. a better place to live one car at a time. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You.
Jack,
you saved my life gain.
We had a thunderstorm last night an this would have been the first show I would not have been able to download in a reasonable time.
Nothing big, only a splitter that separates digital data (DSL) from digital voice (ISDN) has been blown by a lightning comming out of the phone line. Got a free replacement and it seems to work.
Cheers to all those kings most of you are
We even had free fireworks with a lot of electricity to celebrate
Peter and Karin
Jack would you like to have your runabouts or one of these
http://www.tuvie.com/swath-electra-glid-megayacht-tender-is-the-worlds-first-carbon-neutral-solar-hybrid-megayacht-tender/
also do you thing Harley will have a bike with this mans help?
http://green.autoblog.com/2014/07/01/unexpected-connection-between-chevy-volt-and-electric-harley/
Steven
Coming from a country that has 50/50 British and American TV, gotta say British comedy is pretty good, just sayin.
Agreed … And now for something completely different…
Jack you and Brian deserve the well earned break. Take care and will watch again next week. The dedication of you and your team is truly inspiring.
One hell of a 4th of July celebration was had up here in Michigan. Our Governor changed our fireworks laws two years ago and now it pretty much sounded like Armageddon outside for the last two nights. I actually worry about our Vets of the wars and hope the explosions and such don’t bother them too much. On the other had it was one hell of a show and a neighbor 500 feet down the road was flying one of those GoPro quad copters, pretty cool. Hope all here in the U.S. has a great Holiday!
Yeah nothing like celebrating with fireworks. Something that is equivalent to putting 12,000 ICE vehicle on the road for a an entire year (60,000+tons of CO2)!
All the best,
Aaron Lephart
Hmmm, yummy. It’s like having your cake and eating it. Just worked this out.
60K tonnes of CO2 can be processed into 146,667 tonnes of Glucose/fructose/starches/fats or just plain old wood when plants apply it with an equal amount of water and sunlight. 😛
.
It’s a pity there are no human ways to turn this silently into electricity.
Not interested in the “horse can eat it” thing.
About 10 years ago I took my two eldest Children to Yellowstone, starting the journey at Denver. We hit Laramie on the afternoon of the 4th July. I guess Iraq was still in everyones thoughts. There was an evening concert, with loads of country stars and other acts. When the performers came to the audience participation on obviously well known chorus lines, you could hear the tumble weed dancing over the stage. Even the applause was muted. A little later when the pagent on the homecoming soldier started and military dress hit the stage culminating in fireworks the audience finally came alive. We just dont get this here in the UK. While we may be patriotic, we also have a major belief in being cynical, and we couldnt do such a show of patriotism. We came away feeling sorry for the talented performers who had given their all to a dead from the feet up audience, and shocked that people who learly didnt understand the ramifaction of their Military activities were so willing to stand up and be counted. All this in a town dominated by the university and power of education such is Laramie.
God save America. God bless the Queen, and God help us.
Amen
If the English were that cynical of their government as you claim, they would not put up with the constant video surveillance. They might not have let their country be overrun with people who don’t want to assimilate either.
Remember what you are celebrating.
No representation means no taxation!
Hoping your Fourth of July was special and brought much joy.
.
From the enslaved of the UK 🙂
Oh and of course silly me. Forgetting the 4th of July celebrations. Jack, you buying a drone and all…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9KZ3jgbbmI
Time to… Say goodbye… That was the song.
Now they are trying to tax electric vehicles because they don’t use gas.
What do mean trying? In Washington state they ARE taxing EV’s to replace the gas tax! Last year it was $300, this year $276.
Yes, it is nearly inevitable that all states will start to tax EVs specially since they do not pay the gas tax. This both is and isn’t fair. It is fair in the respect that road maintenance is currently partly funded by the gasoline tax. So, EVs use the road but don’t pay that part of the tax. It is unfair in the respect that it is not right to punish someone for not using something or not polluting. The solution is to quit collecting gas tax entirely and switch to heavier registration fees which are based on vehicle weight instead of cost. It’s stupid that my 1985 Mercedes costs more than double to plate compared to a 2006 minivan that I’ve got. The van is probably heavier (though the older Mercedes were beasts). A semi-truck is extremely heavy and much more expensive to register but not quite to the extent of the weight difference. But, that shows people the true cost of road maintenance and politicians don’t want the people to know how much they are being screwed. One potential solution might be to still increase the registration cost but allow it to be paid in monthly installments. Then don’t charge any gas tax at all.
As a potential upside, the weight registration idea will likely cause people to quit putting 50 lead acid batteries in their little EVs until they look like drug runners in their low squatting ride.
There’s a “Trial Balloon Bill” in California to drop the $.529 a gallon state fuel tax and charge car owners based on miles driven; to be collected as part of the yearly registration fees. The tax proposed is currently 5 cents a mile. The need is based on the Federal Government infrastructure fund drying up because of a dysfunctional Congress and lower fuel sales as gas mileage increases.
Happy 4th you fire crackers you!
Glad I didn’t wait until the last minute to get my hotel room. Only two rooms left in the Drury over the EVCCon timeframe. Now only one. Good luck!
I booked my room back in February (or maybe even earlier) to avoid disappointment. EVCCON 2012 I was in your position and grudgingly accepted a smoking room – which turned out the be reasonably pleasant, contrary to my expectations. Nice to hear that all the ‘usual supects’ will be returning this year. Only 1 calendar month now until I hop on the plane and wing my way back to Cape !!
Aw crap. I’ve been waiting for the convention page to be updated with the 2014 promotion code. I just tried to book and everything is gone. I’m staying just down the street at the Pear Tree Inn.
According to our local Weatherman, Missouri is having some flooding along the Mississippi. I hope that all is well there at your place so close to the river. At least you’ve got some boats now. On a different note, I noticed that your shop-cam has a lot of dust or paint spray on the lens that shows up when it is darker in the shop.
Jack,
I heard both sides of the story between you and Otmar. I understand both sides. We all have common goals, can not we all work together?
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1093211_hack-a-tesla-model-s-and-win-10000
Too bad I’m not going to be able to make it to Beijing in 6 days. 😉 It’s interesting to see interest in hacking the car. I’ll bet 95% of the participants will try to hack the 17″ computer. That’s a dumb idea because Tesla actively monitors those things. It’s harder to hack the canbus comm but might fly under the radar a bit easier. Though, it would not be too hard for their computer to figure out that things seem to be operating outside of the car’s normal control mechanisms.
Dont know if you have seen this:
http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1093126_stolen-tesla-model-s-involved-in-multi-car-wreck-in-west-hollywood
Looks like Hollywood? Yes it does.
Peter
The update to this is the thief died from his injuries in the hospital.
All the best,
Aaron Lephart
There’s a couple interesting videos on a Nissan Leaf disassembly and then operating out of the car: http://insideevs.com/nissan-leaf-motor-unit-disassembly-video/
I like the new intro and the quadcopter!
Awesome.
Never seen this quality video from a drone, not on u-tube at least.
Jack, those antlers become you well.
Cheers
Peter and Karin
Ditto, I was mesmerized by that new intro. Went back and watched it a 2nd time. The video quality is amazing and the scenery is great. I grew up on the Mississippi river and it was great to see the aerial view, the tug and barge, the bridge looks great. Loved seeing the new PV array on the shop and the “fly threw” the shop was really slick. The control / stability is incredible.
Will be interesting to see an aerial view of race day at the EVCCON this year !
Thanks
Oops. New Tesla didn’t make it out of the parking lot. http://www.wreckedexotics.com/wu-accident/16128?c=wu641
That new intro is inspired; really catches the essence of the show… the PV panels, the shop, the river. Excellent. I’d love to see another take of the shop fly through with Jack walking up to the garage door and waving you in like old times haha.
Poor Anne though; made it to the main credits, still too many o’s and not enough p’s in his name.
Love the new intro! Was the country music background at around an hour in on purpose or accidental?
Good morning Jack, watching the latest show and you mention about Obama’s war on coal. If you will do some research you will find out the war on coal is nothing more than a facade. I have been in the Boilermaker’s Union since 1980, working mostly in the TVA system throughout my career. A lot of years back I went back to school and became a iSeries programmer but I still have a lot of friends Boilermaking and in TVA. With the new found cheap Natural Gas TVA and Southern Power were already moving away from coal as a matter of economics. Obama was able to make an announcement on a crack down on coal that was happening anyway, with him or without him. With coal, a boiler for generation has to run whether the power is needed or not. With boilers you have to have enough generation running all the time to cover peak usage and the rest of the time the money spent running the boilers is just wasted. With Natural Gas, they can start the gas turbines only when they need them at peak times. So with Nuclear making up 30% of TVA’s power generation as base generation they start gas turbines a couple of times a day when the power is needed. The best I understand the cost of the generation of 1 KWH is close to the same as coal, it’s the cost of running a boiler when power is not needed is where the savings are. This has been planned in TVA since fracking first started and they mothball the coal plants one by one as they acquire gas turbines to cover the needs. Don’t hold me to this but I believe Cumberland City and Gallatin Steam Plants will eventually be the only coal fired plants left in TVA. This is a link to a page as to what was planned all the back in 2011: http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/14446684/tva-to-shut-down-18-coal-fired-boilers a little while before Obama’s war on coal and enviroment is what the news media was told. Environment had some to do with the decisions but the main driving factor was always the cost of generation and in the period of 24 hours the cost of generation by natural gas is way cheaper than coal. One boiler at Cumberland City will cost around $500,000 in fuel oil just to get the boiler up and running, and once running it stays running 24/7 until it is brought down for repair or maintenance whether they need the power or not. That’s a lot of wasted money. While I am mostly familiar with TVA, Southern Power and most other power companies all have similar plans in the works. While Obama will take credit for it, coal is a victim of technology and economics. It would have still happened even if Romney had won.
Jack, if you’ve got your heart set on the plasti-dip “Blaze Yellow”, I’d say go for it, even if only available in the spray cans. The dipyourcar site has special triggers and nozzles that improve the spray pattern, and the “paint” itself is remarkably forgiving. I think you could get a good result especially if applied by someone familiar with the material. I haven’t done a whole car this way but I did do a set of wheels with the spray cans. I was pleased with the results and pleasantly surprised at the durability. On painting day, ventillation will be a big deal. The liquid product is maybe 80% Xylene so there are some serious fumes while it flashes off.
Jack, regarding my encouragement regarding “Blaze Yellow”: I did some more reading on their website forum and it seems that the Blaze colors are prone to rapid fading. There was some talk about mixing in some kind of UV protection into a clear top-coat but unless you want to go down that road, you might be probably better off with the “normal” yellow.
ooh… bad editing