Archive for June, 2007

Hybrid Concept Cars, The Future is Now Conclusion

If you have missed the first two articles on this topic you can read them here and here. In this grand finale, if I may call it that, I will show you the best of the best (in my opinion) of the concept cars recently reported on on yahoo.com. These I thought were either really cool looking and futuristic or had really cool ideas or that I just kind of liked more than the others. Anyway, without further ado, let's start the "Hey, that's cool" category. In third place we have the Toyota Volta: hybridcars_130_toyota.jpg This car looks like it could go very very fast. It also looks like the maximum height you could possibly be to drive in this vehicle is 5'5" and that is pushing the limit. I don't know if this is the fastest electric hybrid on the market but with dual electric engines (one for each front tire) this car boasts that it has a 408 horsepower hybrid engine, the safety of all-wheel drive and can do 0-60 in just four seconds. Look at those desert dunes. This car is ready to climb them, but I am a little worried that the hills are too steep and those don't really look like tires that get the best traction. So, maybe it's not good to drive in the desert, but since no one really off roads their vehicles like they do in the commercials, I think this car might be OK.Second Place goes to GM Saab Aero X: hybridcars_130_saab.jpg How cool is this car? It's totally like a Back to the Future kind of futuristic car. Very nice, looks sleek but the only problem I visibly see with this vehicle is this: what happens when you lock your keys in the car? I really don't think the tow truck operator is going to be able to jimmy this particular vehicle. Well, I guess that is good b/c no one can steal your car that way but think about this, what are you going to do if the "door" stops working? I don't think climbing into the trunk is a viable option, either. This is cool, too: " the Saab Aero X's cockpit completely eliminating conventional dials and buttons. Instead, Saab displays data on glass-like acrylic "clear zones" in graphic 3-D images." Very futuristic. It has a 400 horse powered engine that runs completely off of ethanol. Over all this is the car of the future, as soon as we figure out how to open the door. And in first place in the "cool kids" category goes to the Honda FCX Concept  hybridcars_130_honda.jpg Look how shiny and aerodynamic. Look how many seats it has (prob the most in this category).  It also employs a concept call vertical gas flow, meaning that the car uses gravity to help it conserve energy and make it's fuel cells more productive and helps this vehicle to improve the fuel cell storage space to allow for a much roomier car.  "With these improvements, the FCX fuel-cell car now has a driving range of 354 miles—a 30 percent improvement from the 2005 model—and a maximum speed of 100 miles per hour"  Not too bad, if I do say so myself. Over all, I am very pleased to see that American car companies are taking the right step towards hybrid technology.    Hopefully we see continued competition to create more and more efficient and environmentally happy vehicles for public consumption without detrimental impact on consumer wallets.

Knocked Up and why I never need to enter a theater again

knockedup_resized.jpgI could turn this into a simple review of Knocked Up. I could say that, while funny, well-cast and full of Katherine Heigl hottness, its needless and mostly uncritical obsession over celebrity culture (and the repeated celebrity cameos) dulls it faster than an evening watching C-SPAN. I could point out the major disconnect of the main character's obsession with celebrity nudity with the fact that we never get to see any of Katherine Heigl's naughty bits, despite two sex scenes and a tub scene. I could list all the ways that Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen and all the supporting characters are interconnected in such a way to make Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon devotees cream their jeans. But no, the reason Knocked Up has me swearing off paying $8 for a theater ticket and another $8 for popcorns and sodas (yeah, things are cheap here in Vermont sometimes) is because I've already seen it. Sure, it's a largely original movie, and I'm not going to claim Apatow stole the ideas for it from an previous work (barring, perhaps, the Miracle of Life, that sex-ed film we all had to watch in the eighth grade). But if you've seen just one trailer for the comedy, then you've seen the whole damn movie. Nearly every comedic scene of that movie was in the trailers, either online or on TV, from Rogen's "You're prettier than me" comment to his buddy's attempt to help with the birth and subsequent warning not to go in the birthing room. While they were indeed worth a chuckle when first watching the trailers, nothing about those scenes evolved into something funnier in the theater. And everybody else in the audience noticed it too - hardly a laugh at the scenes already played over and over again in the trailer. The scenes that did elicit laughs never would have had a chance in the trailers, such as the constant ridiculing of the roommate who bets he won't shave his beard for a year or Ben's worry that having sex while Alison is pregnant will mean that the first thing his child will see is his cock in its face. And this phenomenon didn't just ruin Knocked Up. A good half of the movies my girlfriend drags me to nowadays suffer from the same syndrome - let's call it premature cachinnation. Theoretically, that's not what a trailer's for, to give the whole movie away. Instead, a trailer should entice you with just enough of a sneak peek behind the curtain to give you an idea of what the movie is about and just enough information to decide whether it will be worth your $8. But hey, I don't mind saving my money and hitting up the Apple trailers page. It's another dime the MPAA and the celebrity-industrial complex won't be getting from me.

Everybody’s Baby Got Back

The year was 1992. Although we didn't know it at the time, America was on the tipping point of a major paradigm shift in fashion, music, and body image. For years, Cosmo had been telling women that they were fat, and a self-reinforcing stereotype of beauty required that there be little, if any, junk in the trunk if a woman was going to be considered attractive. Sir Mix-a-Lot burst upon the scene with his seminal song and video, "Baby Got Back." Watch the video below and marvel at the audacity, the boldness of his declaration: "I like big butts and I cannot lie." [youtube]7Y3vqhpdnxE[/youtube] "Baby Got Back" has gone on to be one of the most frequently covered songs of all time. You may have noticed this if you've ever gone to a bar with karaoke. Baby Got Back is almost inevitably sung. This retrospective is not, however, about the drunk and deeply embarrassing crooning of your uncle about his anaconda. There have been many skillful reinterpretations of Sir Mix-a-Lot's masterpiece that we will examine today. It turns out that Sir Mix-a-Lot was not even the first to perform the song. He was actually covering an earlier version from Bob Dylan. It's a little known fact that Bob Dylan actually wrote most of the number 1 hits of the past 30 years (via LawGeek). [ifilm]2842442[/ifilm] Edit: for some reason iFilm isn't allowing embedding. Here's the link: http://www.ifilm.com/video/2842442 Jonathan Coulton gives perhaps the most soul-searching performance of the song. Where Mix-a-Lot employed bravado, Coulton exposes the layers of his soul. We truly believe he "wants to get with you, and take your pretty picture." Anyone who can watch this video without shedding a solitary tear, like a native American looking at a polluted landscape, is inhuman. [youtube]Ltjbnyvq_SI[/youtube] By this point it should be surprise you that "Baby Got Back" has made it's way to the stage as well. In this Gilbert and Sullivan production, a modern major general adapts Mist Mix-a-Lot's opus to instruct a lust band of pirates on the benefits of badonkadonk in order categorical. [youtube]qkJdEFf_Qg4[/youtube] Legendary lounge singer Richard Cheese contributed this late version, adding a certain sexual menace that was underplayed in the original. I dare any lady to listen to this song and not swoon, head-over-heels. [youtube]KCv2cgIlnHA[/youtube] In this final video, we have proof that the song is irresistible. Even the threat of Wal-Mart bannage is not enough to stop it. [youtube]1GKaVzNDbuI[/youtube]

Hybrid Concept Cars, The Future Is Now Part 2

So yesterday our cars of the future article was on "Didn't they do this already". I think today's category is "Wouldn't be Caught Dead in This". You can try to persuade me that people buy cars based on power and performance all you want but I am pretty sure that the look and style of the car is pretty important, too. Just like no one will ever want to be seen in the environmentally friendly Hummer, I can imagine the same will be said of most of these vehicles. In third place we have the Ford Mercury Meta One. hybridcars_130_mercury.jpg You may argue that this car isn't necessarily the ugliest car you have ever seen, in fact it's okay. Work with me here for a minute, if you please. Think back to that movie about the cars that try to kill people. You know the one, the really bad Stephen King movie, Maximum Overdrive? This car will eat you. And your children. And then your neighbors and their families until it runs out of gas, which will take a little longer than a normal SUV since this runs on nice and clean " hybrid transmission with a twin-turbocharged V-6 diesel engine calibrated to run on a bio-diesel blend". You can see how I feel this is potentially hazardous to everyone, right? Just look into those headlight "eyes". Those are the headlights of a killer. Second Place in the ugly stick contest goes to the Volvo 3CC: hybridcars_130_volvo.jpg This vehicle is kind of ugly. I mean, it's nice and aerodynamic and boasts that it can run on any type of power system (gas, ethanol, hybrid or electric). But, it looks kind of...lame. Like the vision of the future that they had in the seventies where the high fashion of the times happens to be tunics and tennis skirts. And it only sits three people and quite uncomfortably, if you really look at it. And it also takes 10,000 lithium-ion batteries (like the ones in your lap top) to power. Only 10,000? That's nothing. First place goes hands down to the Nissan Pivo for obvious reasons: hybridcars_130_nissan.jpg It's electric and it swivels. Enough said. Eventually I will get around to posting the best of these concept cars. Thanks for reading!

Hybrid Concept Cars, The Future Is Now

So a recent article on yahoo.com's main page is all about green concept cars. It has some of the main players and a lot of pretty pictures. Here are the cars listed with a brief description as to alleviate you having to go to another site to read all about them. I am saving you time, thus saving you money as well so you can save it up to buy one of these awesome cars when the time is right. I am going to break these down into three categories: Drivable/hey that's cool, Wouldn't be caught dead in this, and Didn't we already do this? Um, Alex, I would like to start with Didn't We Already Do This for 200 please. hybridcars_130_vw.jpg Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to introduce to you the 2010 VW Microbus, um I mean Chameleon. So, yeah, apparently the late 60's are back and we are all going to be peace loving pot smoking patchouli smelling hippies. At least we have the perfect vehicle for it, I mean this "new" vehicle is all electricity powered with 10 count them 10 30v batteries in the floor to power the vehicle. Oh, the surf boards are thrown in free of charge, they are fitted with solar panels for recharging the batteries. This is the vehicle for those fifty somethings to relive their youth in a perfectly environmentally friendly manner. Second place in the "Didn't we already do this" catagory is BMW X3: hybridcars_130_bmw.jpg

2009 BMW X3

VS:

2007 BMW x5

BMW X5, 2007 You know, they say that if you never change in business, you are insane. Well, BMW didn't listen. This car looks neither futuristic nor retro, meaning it just looks kind of now. It's not even trying very hard to be environmentally friendly. Instead of using a battery it incorporates a superconductor, which provides energy in short bursts. It gets an "A" for effort but nothing else. This concept car is only getting about 20% better millage than most of the cars that BMW currently produces (none of which are hybrids). This is a poor contending mom-mobile in the concept car to the future race. Third Place in this category is the GM Sequel. hybridcars_130_gm.jpg What is cool about this vehicle is that it runs on a hydrogen fuel cell and the fact that most of this car's engine components are located underneath the car and not under the hood.  It does make for a roomier car but the looks are just kind of standard, this car does not make me think that I am living in the 21st century at all.  I wonder what it is the sequel to?  Most movie sequels are not good, they are almost never as good as the original.  Just saying, it doesn't look good for this sequel, at least in my book. Check back later for the other two categories, it is sure to get interesting.