Plug In Hybrid Conversion for Trucks and SUVs

Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technologies, Inc (HEVT) | An IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology) Startup in Chicago | News

This sounds like a great startup company. Watch the video, it is impressive. There are many who need pickups for their work, their farms, and other needs. This conversion makes them into high efficiency vehicles. This just proves that given the right incentives we can come up with solutions to the high price of fuel. Who knows? Maybe someday these power systems will exist even for motor homes.

Good summary of cause and effect for oil prices

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY BLOG - Solar-Energy-Wind-Power.com: Why are Oil Prices So High?

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Were per capita oil use in China and India to reach the same level as in the United States, this would fully deplete the world's remaining proven oil reserves in just 15 years and prospective resources, in 26 years.
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With a presidential
election this year in the United States and gas prices at record
levels, oil and energy in general is set to be a key issue. There is
the opportunity to have a serious debate about energy - a fundamental
part of our lives which has been taken for granted for far too long.
However the responses from the presidential candidates so far have not
been encouraging.

In 2002 McCain declared that ethanol is a
"giveaway to special interests in corn-growing states as the expense of
the rest of the country." In 2003 he put out a press release saying
"Ethanol does nothing to reduce fuel consumption, nothing to increase
our energy independence, nothing to improve air quality." He went on to
describe it as "highway robbery." Hillary Clinton signed a letter
saying that there is "no sound public policy reason for mandating the
use of ethanol".

McCain, Clinton and Obama all seem to have
drunk the ethanol Kool Aid and seen the bright white light that has
converted them to E85. In 2008 none of these presidential candidates seems to have anything negative to say about ethanol.

Solid State Laptops. The future of computers?

Samsung Q30 Solid State Laptop

Samsung
announced that next month it will begin shipping to the Korean market
its Q30, the first notebook PC with a solid-state hard disk. The
12.1-inch screen notebook will be equipped with a 32GB NAND flash based
solid-state disk (SSD).

The lack of moving parts will also allow it to go fanless, making it
absolutely silent, plus it'll be more efficient, boosting battery life.
Here comes the downside, though: it's going to cost $3700 for all this
solid-state goodness, and it's saddled with an old-fashioned Celeron M
753 (1.2GHz) chip. Bring on the Core Duos, and lower that price! Come
to think of it, it wasn't too long ago when all laptops cost that much
or more. Just think of this as a peek into the future.

From Gizmodo.com

Hybrid Future for Toyota

Toyota unveils plans for more fuel-efficient hybrids, revolutionary car battery - Forbes.com

Toyota also aims to develop a battery that significantly outperforms lithium-ion batteries,' Watanabe said.

Toyota, which has developed lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride batteries jointly with Matsushita Electric Industrial Ltd., will be setting up a specialized research department later this month to develop its new-generation battery, he said.

Hypermilers

'Hypermilers': Squeezing Out Every Mile Per Gallon : NPR

It may seem odd that a motorhome driver would blog an article about hypermilers. The reality is that motorhome and RV drivers are among the most eco aware people I have met. They know they are driving gas hogs when they move their base of operations, the motorhome, to a new location. When they drive they are trying to squeeze out the best mileage when driving the RV because a fill up is so expensive. It is when they switch over to the "toad", the RV'ers term for the car that is towed, that their concern for mileage is really intense. Maybe I should just say that is when "we" are more concerned about mileage. Having said that, this is a good article on driving to save mileage. It is pretty simple really. Slow your top speed down to 60 mph max, accelerate and decelerate slowly, and some even coast down long hills. Hope this helps you all save a few miles without being extreme "hypermilers."

Trip to See Friends and Family

View Larger Map

Rough estimates for the trip show a total mileage of around 2,000 miles with a total fuel cost of $983.16, lodging $206, and food $227.70. That comes out to about $59 a day. We will refine the numbers and add them here. Travel is still pretty cheap using a motor home. Considering that a motel/hotel would cost a minimum of $75 a day and all meals would be eating out, it looks as though traveling this way is still economical in comparison. Just as important is the fact that we know who slept in our bed the previous night. We did.

We used the spreadsheet below for keeping track of all of our costs. We didn't include the little extras we got for ourselves and friends. A rough rule of thumb for our motor home fuel costs is 50 cents a mile. The exact number is 55 cents per mile.

Overnight Stop in Jacksonville

Our overnight stop on the way home. This is Pecan Park RV Resort north of Jacksonville, Florida. It is a nice clean park with WiFi. It is not free WiFi but we can live with it for one night. We decided to try this one instead of our usual Osprey Park primarily because of the WiFi. Overnight cost $36. Not bad for a nice place to park our home.

The photo above is more interesting than it appears at first glance. Only Geeks will appreciate this but let me explain. The photo is a panorama made from joining four images taken with my Iphone. I emailed the images to myself and used my Linux laptop to download them to my hard drive. The panorama itself was created using a Windows program called Autostitch. The Windows program runs beautifully in Linux with Wine. Wine is a Linux program that runs a lot of Windows programs without Windows having to be installed. Geekspeak off.