WOW, it has been a really long time since I used this account. I've been using Wordpress instead. Even forgot I had this account! One bad thing about Blogger compared to Wordpress is that Blogger does NOT allow deletion of multiple messages at one time. Means I have to delete all of those 2002, 2003 and 2004 messages one at a time!

I use up a lot of time hanging around in Second Life and do plan to use this blog for posting related items. Click on the image for a link to Second Life. Great stuff!! Really amazing what virtual tools are available these days to make your mark in virtual space.

Lol, forgot to add the new required TM to that, getting worse in Virtual space than in RL (Real Life)!

I'm planning on adding lots of great links to SL. Another interest is writing and plan to add writing resources also.

I read 3-6 books a week and will post a few reviews here.

We do great deal of traveling and might document that too. I live in Houston but am in Virginia today. Planning to go to the Virginia Festival of the book in Charlottesville Va. tomorrow. They are here: www.vabook.org.

So, have fun and hope you enjoy some of these new posts. Leave me some mail so I don't get bored!

Tolo Lucerne in Second Life.

http://www.allisontransmission.com/news/Sept2002/154.jsp

http://www.shadetreemechanic.com/allison_hybrid_drive.htm

http://www.allisontransmission.com/product/electricdrive/

Allison Electric Drives has released it’s newest product for the transit bus market. The “EP-50 System” was designed specifically for articulated and suburban coaches. This system is referred to as “Split Parallel Hybrid Technology”, and is a design patented by Allison. It uses power from Allison’s advanced energy storage system that contains or uses no “Lead Acid Batteries”. The “EP-50 system combines the Allison automatic transmission with an integrated electric drive unit.

Still a good read. The drive has been out now for about 5 years and does a good job. Really good article about Detroit and Allison's new hybrid power plant. Neat stuff.

Not as good, IMHO, as the Allison, but it does work.

http://www.isecorp.com/

ISE has also developed a proven hybrid-electric drive system that "outperforms"??? (Their Claim) competing diesel hybrids. The hybrid system developed by ISE for these buses has several important features, many of which are not available with competing drive systems, including:
Drive System Features Pic

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Use of a smaller engines, which helps to reduce fuel consumption, emissions, and noise.
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Electrically-driven power steering, braking, and air conditioning accessories, which are more efficient than the engine-driven accessories used in conventional vehicles and competing drive systems, and which allow the engine to be stopped without loss of accessory functionality.
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Advanced control system featuring an automatic engine start/stop algorithm, which shuts off the engine every time the vehicle stops. This results in further improvements in fuel economy and emissions.
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Advanced nickel sodium chloride Zebra batteries, which carry 50% more energy per unit weight than the batteries used in the Allison drive system and 300% more than those used in the BAE drive system.

These distinctions are in addition to use of Siemens "ELFA" motors, controllers, and generators, which are more proven than the analogous components used in any competing heavy-duty hybrid-electric drive systems.

Why the Clintons' profiting off near-slavery is not a campaign issue

Interesting!! So my 401K which has probably hundreds of investments in companies worldwide could make me a "Slave owner"? LOL, I think not!!!


Why the Clintons' profiting off near-slavery is not a campaign issue:

"Last month, agents of the Brazilian Labor Ministry’s slave-labor investigations unit raided facilities run by Brenco (Brazil Renewable Energy Co.), a biofuel company operating in the states of Goiás and Mato Grosso, where some 1,500 workers, most of them cane cutters, were kept in what the ministry described as “degrading” conditions akin to slavery.

Workers at five separate locations inspected by the ministry “complained they were suffering from hunger and cold, and all of the locations were overcrowded and with terrible sanitary conditions. They were apparently held against their will in the abysmal housing provided them, not allowed to leave after their workday was through.

Details of the raids first surfaced in Folha de São Paulo, Brazil’s largest newspaper, on March 8. Hundreds of workers freed in the raids managed to get their final wages and a bus ticket home, most of them returning to the impoverished northeastern states of Ceará, Maranhão and Piauí.

What was also revealed in the investigation was that former US president—and husband of the Democratic presidential candidate—Bill Clinton was an investor in the firm."

This one was posted a long time ago yet is still a great site.

While driving through far Northeastern Alabama/ Northwestern Georgia border, found this Hang gliding spot on top of Lookout Mountain.


Hang Glide at LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN HANG GLIDING

With a telescope, could probably see Jeff Foxworthy!!

A neat place in Alabama. Found it while wandering NE Alabama while working a contract in Anniston Alabama.

LITTLE RIVER CANYON NATIONAL PRESERVE

Ever wonder why schools are overcrowded and failing, the freeways are packed, social services overloaded, retail service so bad, and taxes are so high??

Wonder no more. Read www.numbersusa.com and find out why. And you can do something about it!! Great reading.

Television Without Pity

Reviews top TV programs and pulls no punches. Review it here before you waste an hour watching a dog!!