Plug in hybrids

Plug-in Hybrids are making news. What is a plug-in hybrid? Why should we care? Are our cars not sufficient?

Hybrids have long been around, using a variety of schemes to try and stretch gas, break dependency from gas, and to be more efficient. Reasons for this include environmental protection, independence from foreign oil, and cheaper transportation. The combustion engine has been around for over 100 years, and during that time, the principal still remains the same. Gas has long been the most efficient of these means, but the affects on the environment, price of oil, long term forecast that we are running out of oil have brought about a change in the way the automotive industry thinks.

Hybrid electric vehicles or HEV’s achieve their high gas mileage through an electric engine, smart electronics, and gas. Some achieve over 60mpg, compared to their counterpart non HEV’s of 25mpg. There are tax incentives to purchase these as well, making them an attractive option. They are never required to plug into the wall and for all intents and purpose behave the same as non-HEV’s. They incorporate new technology to save fuel, use battery when applicable.

Now the push is on for Plug in hybrids (PHEV). These differ from HEV’s in the fact that they are required to plug into a wall for re-charging. Currently they can get around 8 miles before requiring a charge, which takes around 2 hours. Not very efficient, not even practical, but it is a step in the right direction.

Currently battery technology is holding this back. Toyota is once again leading the charge for this by introducing a new version of the Prius. The Prius has extra nickel-metal hydride battery packs, to increase the distance it can travel on a charge. Nickel-metal hydride batteries are large, heavy, yet reliable. They are rather antiquated, compared to lithium ion batteries. Lithium Ion batteries are the next generation of batteries to be tested and used in these new vehicles. The problem with Li batteries is during testing, several have caught fire.

With Ford, GM and Chrysler jumping on the HEV/PHEV technology, it shouldn’t be too much longer until they start making their ways into more homes, reducing our dependency on oil, and helping the environment as much as possible.

Aquafina

Aquafina, one of the leading bottled water brands, is coming clean on their less then savory practices. It appears, as was reported today, that PepsiCo will begin printing on the label of the popular bottle, what it really is. Tap water. Yep. Tap water. I have a bottle in front of me right now, and it clearly states on the bottle, "Pure Water, Perfect taste, Purified drinking water". It appears, it is not pure, nor purified. Also appears that when enough bottles are emptied together, a stench begins to appear that rivals that of any compost pile.

And by no means is Coke and its popular Dasani let off the hook. They gather their water from public reservoirs as well. they report that they will post the quality process online in a month or so.

I see several lawsuits coming from this. It will be amazing if they survive this. I know I for one will not buy their water again. Nor am I likely to purchase any Pepsi products as my means of protest.

World of Warcraft: Warriors

The warrior class brings to mind plate armor, big weapons, fierce fighters, and damaging blows. In the World of Warcraft, this holds true. The warrior class is designed to soak up damage, or to deal incredible amounts of damage.

As it stands, the warrior class has many things going for it, and many things against it. Currently, the biggest concerns are Mortal strike warriors, fury warrior agro/gear, and protection warrior solo/PvP play.

1. Speced in protection, they are the best single target tank in the game, and the type of tank raids want as their main tank.
2. They get to wear plate armor, and have a large amount of health.
3. They work off the rage system. Meaning the more they get hit, or the more they hit, the more they can hit, and use more damaging abilities.

Some down sides to the warrior

1. Easily Kited and crowd controlled. Warriors have means to break crowd control, or sap, or fear, but they are on cool downs. It can be overcome with skill, and some masterful use of trinkets and talents
2. Can be kited easy. A warrior can close the gap on an enemy with 3 means. Charge( 15 second cool down, must be out of combat, requires battle stance), intercept 30 second, 20 second with talents, must be in berserker stance) and intervene ( 30 second cool down, requires defensive stance). Intervene is more of a PvE skill, and invaluable at that. A frost mage or hunter, or warlock, or shaman can usually quite effectively kite a warrior to death.
3. Magic damage: Without a shield, or resist gear, has no defense against casters, except to get in their face and pummel, shield bash, and fear them.

So, what is the deal with warriors? Three things, PvP, PvE, and solo as protection.

PVP

Warriors excel in group PvP, are rough in solo PvP. However, the biggest complaint about them is Mortal Strike. This devastating attack (which is a 31 point talent, not every warrior has it) not only deals a large amount of damage, but applies a 50% healing debuff on the target. This appears to be the sticking point for PvP. But really let’s look at it. Healing gear allows some healers to heal large amounts for a long time. Mortal strike helps turn a fight that could drag on forever due to heals, shorten by a bit. People complain it makes a warrior needed, or it shouldn’t deal damage, or the debuff shouldn’t be as hard. If there was no debuff, then it would just be a gimped attack. If there was no damage, it would eliminate the arms warrior instant attack. It does make warriors needed, gives them a reason to be there.

PVE

Warriors who go the route of dps, with gear can put up some impressive numbers. However they have nothing to bring another pure dps class brings, nor do they have an agro reduction. This limits the space for dps warriors in a group. All other dps classes bring something to the table in forms of crowd control, major buffs, and agro reduction.

Protection

Protection warrior is the best raid tank, and single target tank. They have plate, 2^nd highest health pool, and the most damage mitigation/stay alive abilities of any class. Where they could use some help is threat scaling, and solo play. It takes a long time to farm/level as a protection warrior, and in PvP they are a novelty. Some moves need to have the threat looked at, including ways to generate more threat, and possibly give a buff to Devastate, the warrior 41 point talent.

All in all the warrior class is fairly balanced, in need of some minor tweaks, but overall pretty good.

Dave Landeo Band

Got the opportunity to see the Dave Landeo band live at Rookies sports bar the other night. They are an amazing band, great vocals, entertaining to watch, and just all around great music.

Dave has been performing for several years, and has won many local awards. They perform for bars, restraunts, and are available for weddings and other gathering functions. He has appeared nationally on several shows, and is a pretty well known artist in the knoxville area.

The show started out with a little conversation, then right into the music. Deep clear voice, strong instruments make this a rewarding experience. His schedule is on his website, be sure and catch them if you can, it will be a rewarding experience.

The Deathly Hallows: Review

Wow, thats all I can say, just...wow. JKR far surpassed herself with this book. Unlike previous books, there was very little down time in this one. From the moment the book starts, it is hard to find a stopping place. The book speeds along at a rapid pace, heroes fall, heroes rise, unexpected twist, deaths, and defeats. I did not like the ending too much, it seemed to rushed. I would have liked to have know a bit more after the fall of Voldemort, errrr He-who-must-not-be-named, but can understand why. At over 700 pages, it is a fairly long book, very well wrote, and did tie up most of the outstanding lines. Best line of the book goes to Mrs Weasley near the end, when she fights LeStrange.

I am hesitant to write too much, would hate to ruin it for somebody. Maybe in a few weeks, I will flesh it out a bit more.

Blog editing Websites, 3 column

Broke the mold today, went and fixed my blog up to the 3 column format. I am familiar with HTML coding, but not much else, XML throws me for a loop. But, I did find some websites that broke it down for me. Personally, I found that the basic template i am using now is one of the easier ones to manipulate, it just takes some getting used to and understanding some stuff.

1. http://beautifulbeta.blogspot.com: This is the one that ended up helping me the most. The basic numbering in the initial setup was a great help in understanding where exactly the new code goes. This is the one that finished off my learning, and is highly recommended for anybody wishing to just add a 3rd column.
2. http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com: This is the other website that helped me. Lots and lots of good information in here, has many more tutorials, and links to other sites, some with premade templates. Of course, I am stubborn and have to do everything myself.

If you decide to go to a 3 column format, and are a complete novice at web authoring, be sure and check these two sites out, the information is great.

Propel Fitness Water

Just recently started drinking this stuff. Can read all about it here. Primarily I drink water, decaf green teat, the healthy stuff. Every now and then, I need something more. I am rather addicted to the Grape flavored one at this time. The flavor is not overpowering, but refreshing. I don't much care for Gatorade or Powerade, and I despise Dasani with a passion, this bridges the gap quite nicely for me. Give it a try, you should enjoy it.