Chevy Camaro

Nice set of pictures here. Not a bad looking car. Wouldn't mind buying one just for the cool of the thing. I have to wonder about the horsepower claims on the V6. 300 horse from 217 cubic inches is 1.4 horsepower per cubic inch. That's a lot. Used to be hot rodders were doing well to obtain one horse per cubic inch and still have an engine smooth enough to drive in the street and pass inspection. I notice the V6 has double over head cams, 11.3:1 compression and the 300 horse is only obtained at 6400 RPM. The overhead cams are what lets the engine rev up that high. In the old days a push rod V6 wouldn't rev to 5000 RPM, the valves would float long before 5000 RPM was reached. Getting an 11.3:1 compression engine to run on regular gas is a trick for which Chevy is to be complimented.
Weight is 3750-3860 pounds for the various models. Wasn't clear about the weight of the V8. If the heaviest 3860 pound car has the V8, then Chevy has done a nice job keeping the weight down. It may be,since the V8 is optional at extra cost, the weight figures shown are for the 300 hp V6. That makes power to weight 12 pounds/horsepower with the V6, which is very hot indeed. My 99 Caddy Deville is about 18 pounds/hp and offers sparkling acceleration. The Camaro at 12 pounds/hp will be a hellova lot hotter. The V8 at 422 horse is overkill for anything but racing.
Gas mileage (26 mpg) is disappointing. The Deville gets 27 mpg highway. You would think a lighter car with a smaller engine would do better than a 10 year old Caddy. Not that anyone buying a hot rod like this really cares about a few mpg, but still.

AlGore on Meet the Press

Tom Brokaw interviewed Al at length this morning. Al is still beating the drum for "alternate energy". Mostly he made those innocous comments about "moving forward" and "thinking outside the box", stuff that contains no real information but sounds good. He now wants the entire economy converted over to solar electric and electric cars. Al said all we need is better electrical transmission lines to move the juice from producer to user. What Al didn't say is that you can only transmit electricity 500 miles before the line losses get so bad that it isn't worth it. Nor did he explain how to heat your house on alternate energy. Nor did explain where the batteries for electric cars are coming from. Current battery technology (lead acid) is only good enough for golf carts. The only difference between a golf car and an electric car is better batteries.
But Al is opposed to oil drilling because only running out of oil will drive Americans to the enlightenment of true greenness. Freezing to death in the dark is very enlightening.
Brokaw asked Al about his lavish energy hog of house, and Al said "I buy electricity from "green" producers and that makes it alright." He also claimed his house uses "geothermal" power which is a stretch, there are no volcanic hotspots in Tennessee. He probably means he has a heat pump working off a heat exchanger buried in the lawn. That's nothing new, I had one in a cheap garden apartment in Mississippi back in the 1960's.
Al again claimed that science is on his side, even though the American Physical Society declared that man made global warming is not scientifically accepted just last week. That means a small majority of physicists think man made global warming is balony, but a sizable minority still believes in it. If the majority were larger, they would have used stronger language to condemn man made global warming. Opinions of physicists counts, global warming is a heat transfer problem, which is squarely in the domain of physics.

Those that can't do, complain

Our energetic Democratic US reps, Hodes and Shea Porter, are complaining that the Low Income Heating Emergence Assistance Program (LIHEAP) bill pushed thru by Senator Judd Greg isn't big enough, according to the Union Leader. Greg's bill is $5 billion, the dems are whining because it isn't $9 billion. Jeeze, do something right, and they complain that it isn't better. Hodes and Shea Porter ought to be passing bills rather than complaining about those that do pass bills.
Of the $5 billion, some $50 million will come to NH. Divide $50 million by $2400 (my estimated oil bill for this winter) and that is enough to help 20,000 families. That's a start. Drop the restrictions on oil drilling and watch the price of heating oil come down. Then it will help even more families. Where are Hodes and Shea Porter on dropping oil drilling restrictions?

Tomatoes acquitted.

The Federal Drug Adminstration (FDA) finally admitted that the salmonella outbreak wasn't caused by tomatoes. I'm sure this brings great joy to the nation's tomato farmers. They were minded their own business, growing America's favorite veggie, when a few federal paper pushers caused them $100 million in losses. That's enough to bankrupt a lot of farmers.
FDA hasn't said just why they pointed the finger at tomatoes, but I can guess. They asked victims what they ate before contracting salmonella, and surprise, every one mentioned tomatoes. They are America's favorite veggie after all. I'm sure every one also reported drinking water too.
We ought to demand actual detection of a pathogen in real food before the government is allowed to declare crops to be infected and ruin farmers. Real food means food actually offered for sale, not weeds or plant cuttings or farm wastes. Actual detection means a real laboratory , running a standard test from a standard handbook, files a written lab report, on company letterhead, signed and dated by the person conducting the test.
As it is, the tomato farmers ought to sue the FDA. Go for damages, punitive damages, gross negligence.

USAF takes flak over luxury aircraft cabins

This ain't new. USAF had VIP kits for the C-141's at Dover AFB back in 1968. I saw them. There were two. A VIP kit was the size of a large travel trailer/small house trailer and fit inside a C-141 jet transport. Inside the VIP kit were cushy chairs, soft carpets, good china and silver ware, a galley, a bar, every thing to make a long flight comfortable. Even back then the VIP kits were "controversial", and kept pretty quiet. I can remember a base commander getting uncomfortable when I told him the auditors had been poking around the VIP kits.
Far as this taxpayer and veteran is concerned, VIP kits are a waste of taxpayer's money. VIP's ought to travel commercial, in coach, just like us citizens.

The north country need some real radio stations

Up here, north of Franconia notch, is a radio wasteland. The FM stations have innoucous and short playlists of goldie oldies. The tunes repeat after a few hours. Not bad tunes, but after hearing it six times we are ready for something else. Nobody plays anything that isn't at least 25 years old. We can't get Rush at all. No NH rabblerousers akin to Boston's Howie Carr. For that matter we can't get Howie either. No local news, no Concord news, hardly any local ads.
There is plenty of spectrum on AM and FM for new stations up here if anyone wanted to try it. Think about hearing local weather (not the Boston weather) , a summary of legislation going thru the mill in Concord, North country news. Skiing stories. Maybe some up to date tunes, especially from real bands as opposed to the boy bands/girl bands. There are a lot of drivers on the road up here, surely enough listeners to attract some paying advertisers.

Wesley Clark bad mouths John McCain

General Wesley Clark (US Army Ret.) was trashing John McCain's wartime service as "just another fighter pilot". And stating that his service in high command was far more relevant to the task of President than McCain's.
I served too. I was on the flight line, a junior avionics officer, supervising my men every morning. I saw the pilots man their planes, strap in and take off every morning. Same pilots, day after day.
Flying combat into North Viet Nam was incredibly dangerous. My wing lost a plane a day, for the first 90 days I was on base. As each pilot strapped in and lowered the canopy he knew that someone wasn't going the make it back that day. And it might well be him. The pilots of those lost aircraft either died in their aircraft from the impact of SAM's and ground fire, or died during ejection, or were taken captive by the North Vietnamese. Captivity was brutal, and long lasting. A very few, very lucky, fliers were plucked from the jungle by rescue helicopters before the North Vietnamese got to them.
Knowing the odds of death or captivity were high, the air crew kept on flying. So, call McCain what you like, but remember that he was brave. Brave to fly the missions in the first place, and brave under enemy captivity.