"The Volt" May BE SCRAPPED!- NEVER BUILT!!

[Jammer]

I did a little reading on Google and found this great article on these prototype Volts that are said to being built about ten per week. (At least as of summer time) Also the link has some videos.

VIDEO: Quick Ride: Chevrolet Volt IVER prototype — Autoblog Green

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Jammer

...but if your going to rag on a man with a measly Harvard degree...

You missed the point I was trying to make. What I'm ragging about is not "Harvard degree", but "law school". Law just does not take that much intelligence, it requires a decent memory and, above all else, the ability to BS people, to persuade them that reality is what you want them to believe, rather than what the facts show it to be. Indeed, I'd argue that law is the diametric opposite of engineering & the sciences. In those fields you must work hard either to discover the truth of nature - science - or use those truths - engineering - to build things that work.

However you can not teach a dog new tricks

In fact, you can - and I have. Though I never knew her exact age, I got Harlie when she was at least middle-aged. She'd apparently had a rather deprived life, at least when it came to play - she didn't know what balls were, or how to swim, or any of a number of things. But she learned. She learned how to chase balls by watching the neighbors' dogs playing, then joining in. Learned to swim by seeing me swim out into the lake, and deciding I needed rescuing.

Many of us just want a job, we do not all have the brains to get these degrees you speak of. Surely you can understand that the average American just can not get these degrees you speak of, especially at middle age and older.

No, I don't really understand that. First, to get a job, you have to have some sort of skill that people want. Acquiring that skill may not require a degree program - my neighbors' kid makes good money without a degree, first as an electric lineman, nowadays installing wind turbines - but it does require some conscious effort.

Second, as long as Alzheimer's hasn't set in, you can still learn. The problem with many Americans these days is that they're in the position of a lifelong couch potato who's told he has to get up and run a marathon today. They've been told all their lives that "it's cool to be dumb", that people who actually like learning & doing things that require mental effort are nothing but geeks and nerds. Minds, like bodies, require exercise or they get flabby and out of shape.

[user removed]

Many people who live in economically depressed areas of the country make a living buying stuff and selling it on Ebay.

I haven't had a "job" since 1987, self employed, or building my own house.

Ways I have made money;

Cutting grass
Waxing cars
Harvesting oysters (Chesapeake bay area tributaries)
Paper route
Soda jerk
Bartender
Roofing
Painting
Auto body work
Auto painting
Auto parts sales
Mechanic
Shop owner-operator
Rebuilding total loss cars (200)
Buying low and selling high collectibles.
Welding

In 35 years working I only was unemployed for 3 months.

Not trying to say its possible to make a living in some areas of the country today, but if I had to I would find a way. Self employment has a way of making you adaptable.

Why wait for someone to hire you. Opportunities are there if you are willing to work and learn.

Two of those 30 years I worked over 2000 hours and made less that 1 dollar an hour trying to make my business grow enough to make a living.

One of the reasons I would have bought a less expensive car Jammer was because it would have made capital available to buy and sell stuff.

regards
Mech

[Christ]

Decidedly, I don't like the shape of the Volt in that image.

From the (rather misleading) advertisements about GM's fuel-efficient future - "And Someday, the VOLT - Capable of going up to 40 miles without using any fuel at all" (which is a lie, by the way.) The car looked alot lower, and more sleekly designed.

In that image above, it looks like it needs rear-end liposuction.

As a matter of fact, it reminds me of fat people. It just looks like the kind of car that screams "I'm only doing this because they told me it's the right thing to do!!!" or "I'd rather be sitting on the couch than riding a bike!"

[user removed]

LOL, GM needs liposuction and maybe a lobotomy, especially when they have about the same number of blue and white collar workers.

Thanks for the laugh Christ.

regards
Mech

[cfg83]

jamesqf -

Originally Posted by jamesqf

...

Second, as long as Alzheimer's hasn't set in, you can still learn. The problem with many Americans these days is that they're in the position of a lifelong couch potato who's told he has to get up and run a marathon today. They've been told all their lives that "it's cool to be dumb", that people who actually like learning & doing things that require mental effort are nothing but geeks and nerds. Minds, like bodies, require exercise or they get flabby and out of shape.

TeeVee has indeed made it worse, but this is not a recent phenomenon in American culture :

How Anti-Intellectualism Is Destroying America - August 15, 2008

Terrence McNally: Richard Hofstadter's 1963 classic, Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, described our anti-intellectualism as "older than our national identity." Yet our founders developed a form of government that demanded an informed citizenry. How do these two things fit together?

Susan Jacoby: That's really the American paradox. For example, there is no country that has had more faith in education as an instrument of social mobility. No country in the West democratized education earlier, but no country has been more suspicious of too much education. We've always thought of education as good if it gets you a better job, but bad if it makes you think too much.

Most of the time I hear how people can't wait to get out of school. If I were rich, I would become a perpetual student because going to school is "fun" for me.

In terms of rocket scientists and politicians with law degrees, I think we had a scientist called Jimmy Carter. I really liked him, but he has since been characterized as being ineffective when it comes to political skills. It's too simplistic to say that a rocket scientist is better suited to run the country. No matter how much you may dislike it, you need someone capable of winding their way through bureaucracies that exist in all political institutions. Maybe that doesn't require a lawyer, but it requires people skills that you don't always find in scientists. Like it or not, you need to convince a populace that conservation is better than gluttony.

CarloSW2

[Frank Lee]

That does not mean one would be paid enough to buy anything bigger than a bicycle to drive, and some don't get paid really anything because they are in prison for what we take for granted- like calling the leader of a government a nasty name.... It's really different. But we are told that it's an improvement for most of their way of lives.

We have more than a few rotting in jail over making bogus presidential "death threats" that were in no way real.

[cfg83]

Christ -

Originally Posted by Christ

Decidedly, I don't like the shape of the Volt in that image.

From the (rather misleading) advertisements about GM's fuel-efficient future - "And Someday, the VOLT - Capable of going up to 40 miles without using any fuel at all" (which is a lie, by the way.) The car looked alot lower, and more sleekly designed.

In that image above, it looks like it needs rear-end liposuction.

As a matter of fact, it reminds me of fat people. It just looks like the kind of car that screams "I'm only doing this because they told me it's the right thing to do!!!" or "I'd rather be sitting on the couch than riding a bike!"

What I want to know is whether it is a Volt or a Chevy Cruze mule.

In either case, as a compact car and from what I see, I like the design. I see it as pretty typical to have "large butt" ends to increase rear luggage space. At least one of the Volt concepts had a rear vertical window, and I am hoping the same is true here. It also may succeed in "tricking" the US populace into thinking they have a sedan instead of a hatchback, which they traditionally dislike.

CarloSW2

[Frank Lee]

CarloSW2:

A friend of mine was fired from his job 8 years ago for political B.S. reasons. He took a job at another company but lo and behold, the new boss is buddies with his old one. So he quickly got demoted from his professional spot to a crap entry level spot in phone sales, where he's been ever since. He periodically goes to Human Resources and begs to get a position that uses his skills but they say "What are you doing here? Why do you stay?". Catbert is a perfect caracature of Human "Resources" people; they really are sadistic and they are enjoying keeping my friend down- I'm sure they get a little extra spring in their step after he goes in there and whines. They look at skilled positions as something even monkeys can do- maybe they feel like all positions are something monkeys can do because theirs is??? As evidenced by their replacement of my friend with FOUR PEOPLE (prime examples of nepotism and political favoritism) who couldn't put out the quantity and quality of work that he alone did! It was WORTH IT to them, to put four extra people on payroll, just to carry their grudge. Their position is, they don't so much care about a person's credentials and qualifications- what matters is do they like you or not?

I relay this story because it's probably the same way for Presidents in that we have had some real buffoons in office and their credentials and qualifications were highly suspect; what mattered was, do we like them and can they "rally the troops"?

[overover]

Its nice that big business is taking all of our tax money and useing it on god knows what, but what about the little guys. Chevy has been working on the Volt wayyyy before we even heard of it! And lets not even gring up EV-1! But hey what about the little the guys, the DIY's, the home made mad scientist! Ive seen so many good home built plug in's. if most of these guys had the funding that big business had then there would be more EV's on the road today. Its funny how things go in the world.