Base price for a Tesla $109,000(US), £86,950(UK) and €84,000 in continental Europe.
Language itself is a barrier.
17/01/2011
Tesla
This is not an ad for Tesla. I just happened to see one yesterday and thought it was pretty cool. Look ma. No tailpipe! The one true all-electric car. I am not a car nut but I do appreciate when beauty and function come together in an eco-friendly manner. There are less than 1500 on the road worldwide so that makes this an Official Sighting and the first in a new category here at the language barrier. I know who he is but I scrubbed the license plate because otherwise I would feel creepy posting the photo. That said, he was one of the first software engineers at Google when it was a start-up. These days he does his own thing which includes helping develop eco-friendly projects, education and the arts. Oh and don't miss the fuzzy dice. Pure cool.
13/01/2011
"Robust Discourse"
I used to wonder how the rising tide of hatred in Germany went unnoticed by its citizens, the ordinary people, but now I understand. It didn't. They embraced it in the name of "robust discourse". They felt empowered by it. Bigger than life. "Safer".
OTOH, if regular folks don't get that so many people tittering and winking about taking up arms doesn't effect crazies, I fear for us all the more. But our problem is not the crazy, isolated ones. Our problem is that supposedly sane public figures boast about using a "second amendment solution" and "gettin' 'er done". We all know what that means. Shoot to kill. As my NRA instructor friend once told me, you NEVER (emphasis hers) point a gun at anyone you don't intend to kill. Violence as "The Solution" is in the air just like it was in Germany. Don't think so? God help us.
How ironic that Representative Giffords was shot by a gun wielding madman. Welcome to the NRA's America. The NRA buys legislation that guarantees its members huge, ever increasing profits from gun sales. Conservative bastions like Arizona are model NRA communities. Everyone who wants one has a gun under their jacket or in their purse. Any crazy can walk in off the street and buy a gun as easily as buying a bottle of beer, hell . . . easier. A thirteen year-old kid can walk in alone, buy a gun, then walk out and shoot somebody with it, even an armed citizen carrying a concealed weapon for protection. It's the bullet you don't hear that gets you. Gun stores sell truck loads of guns to anyone with the cash, no questions asked. In Arizona it is even illegal to keep records of purchase. Perpetual war. It's the perfect loop. We're all being played.
US Representative Gabrielle Giffords warning
Sarah Palin "there will be consequences to cross-hairs map."
Sarah Palin "there will be consequences to cross-hairs map."
OTOH, if regular folks don't get that so many people tittering and winking about taking up arms doesn't effect crazies, I fear for us all the more. But our problem is not the crazy, isolated ones. Our problem is that supposedly sane public figures boast about using a "second amendment solution" and "gettin' 'er done". We all know what that means. Shoot to kill. As my NRA instructor friend once told me, you NEVER (emphasis hers) point a gun at anyone you don't intend to kill. Violence as "The Solution" is in the air just like it was in Germany. Don't think so? God help us.
How ironic that Representative Giffords was shot by a gun wielding madman. Welcome to the NRA's America. The NRA buys legislation that guarantees its members huge, ever increasing profits from gun sales. Conservative bastions like Arizona are model NRA communities. Everyone who wants one has a gun under their jacket or in their purse. Any crazy can walk in off the street and buy a gun as easily as buying a bottle of beer, hell . . . easier. A thirteen year-old kid can walk in alone, buy a gun, then walk out and shoot somebody with it, even an armed citizen carrying a concealed weapon for protection. It's the bullet you don't hear that gets you. Gun stores sell truck loads of guns to anyone with the cash, no questions asked. In Arizona it is even illegal to keep records of purchase. Perpetual war. It's the perfect loop. We're all being played.
12/01/2011
Day's end
Long day come to an end. Obama spoke at the memorial in Arizona today and he did a fine job but, like he said, "words cannot express". I did the moment of silence NASA held.
In his excellent article at Slate today (Palin Failed the Test), and indeed she did, John Dickerson linked a poem on grief by Philip Booth, "Sorting it Out". It's universal, not heavy handed. Just describes what we live with after everything is said and done.
Anyway, the flu/food poisoning whatever got bad for a while and now seems to be on the wane. Tonight I got to eat cheesy bread. It's that silver lining thing when you're sick, things you get to eat because you can't. Well, that's about all the news from out here along the language barrier. Next chance you get, be kind to someone in another species.
Oh, and in case you missed it, the score in the inter-species contest Man vs. Dog is
In his excellent article at Slate today (Palin Failed the Test), and indeed she did, John Dickerson linked a poem on grief by Philip Booth, "Sorting it Out". It's universal, not heavy handed. Just describes what we live with after everything is said and done.
Anyway, the flu/food poisoning whatever got bad for a while and now seems to be on the wane. Tonight I got to eat cheesy bread. It's that silver lining thing when you're sick, things you get to eat because you can't. Well, that's about all the news from out here along the language barrier. Next chance you get, be kind to someone in another species.
Oh, and in case you missed it, the score in the inter-species contest Man vs. Dog is
Dogs:1 / Humans:0
Moving on
Another bleak day here. Yesterday was one of those do a million things, accomplish nothing kind of days and today looks like more of the same. Plus I'm feeling a bit sick. Maybe flu. I dunno. Headache, slightly nauseous, no appetite, general malaise. I washed my hands with sandlewood soap this morning and the fragrance is bothering me. That heightened sensitivity is generally a sign that it's more than a slow start. We shall see.
10/01/2011
09/01/2011
Time out
Keith Olbermann's commentary on the Arizona shooting is a must watch. Please do. I know it's more fun to play but take a time out... just for the next few minutes. Come on....
STOP - LOOK - LISTEN
(There will be a test.)
"Violence, or the threat of violence, has no place in our Democracy, and I apologize for and repudiate any act or any thing in my past that may have even inadvertently encouraged violence. Because for whatever else each of us may be, we all are Americans." - Olberman's concluding remarks. I could not agree more.
STOP - LOOK - LISTEN
(There will be a test.)
"Violence, or the threat of violence, has no place in our Democracy, and I apologize for and repudiate any act or any thing in my past that may have even inadvertently encouraged violence. Because for whatever else each of us may be, we all are Americans." - Olberman's concluding remarks. I could not agree more.
08/01/2011
Sarah Palin's America
Last year Sarah Palin called for conservatives to target Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. She marked Giffords district on a map with cross hairs and people have threatened Giffords in various ways ever since. It will be interesting to watch now how the blamestream media backs away from the criminal implications of their ongoing hate speech while continuing to goad people to, as Palin puts it, "take a stand".
Click to enlarge
Morning musings
An “actual” dove just dropped by the Bird Park. I say “actual” because, although pigeons are actually doves, Mr. Lee is given to calling them flying rats, as though rats and, by comparison pigeons, are somehow nasty. There are varieties of doves, just like there are varieties of people and yet we are all still people. Right? Cretin racists need not respond to this point. Racists do not deserve "equal time" because they do not represent a legitimate “other point of view". Anyway, pigeons are doves but, what people generally think of as a dove, showed up this morning and that's pretty cool.
What was I talking about? Oh yes. Bananas. I am having my breakfast at the moment, oatmeal with bananas, banana, and every time I open a banana I think of monkeys. And my Irish mother. How could she possibly have been an expert on the best way to peel a banana? But when we were kids we didn't question it. She taught us most of those little life skill things, but guess what? Peeling a banana from the stem down really doesn’t work as well as peeling one from the top down, not from the stem up. Which is how I do it now. However, every time I peel a banana I wonder about two things.
How much other childhood misinformation I still hold dear and how do monkeys open bananas? After all, they are the experts. I am always on the lookout for a monkey opening a banana whenever we're in Central America. So far no such luck so this morning I did a a little research. Thanks internet. I believe I finally have an answer.
What was I talking about? Oh yes. Bananas. I am having my breakfast at the moment, oatmeal with bananas, banana, and every time I open a banana I think of monkeys. And my Irish mother. How could she possibly have been an expert on the best way to peel a banana? But when we were kids we didn't question it. She taught us most of those little life skill things, but guess what? Peeling a banana from the stem down really doesn’t work as well as peeling one from the top down, not from the stem up. Which is how I do it now. However, every time I peel a banana I wonder about two things.
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| Click for tutorial |
How much other childhood misinformation I still hold dear and how do monkeys open bananas? After all, they are the experts. I am always on the lookout for a monkey opening a banana whenever we're in Central America. So far no such luck so this morning I did a a little research. Thanks internet. I believe I finally have an answer.
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