The Swan Song

I received a surprise package yesterday. It ended up being my 5 free HD-DVDs that I sent in for nearly 5 months ago. I really didn't think that I was ever going to receive them since the HD-DVD promotional group was dissolved back in early March. So it was kind of a bittersweet moment, a final flourish on the defeated format. I say bittersweet because I only received one of the five "picks" that I made, the other four were a ragtag collection of shitty box office flops and one duplicate of a movie I had already bought. Hurray! I nearly doubled my collection of a dead media platform.

Again, early adopters deserve hugs and free beers.

I'll keep the place warm

Props to Kirby for this one. I remember seeing on Digg a while back but forgot how funny it was.

Flying Spaghetti Monster Wiki

A perfect companion for that is the best museum in the world (for intolerant, unenlightened morons that is).

Remember what the genius Bill Hicks said about dinosaurs (NSFW). I'm going to hell and you're all coming with me.

Lawyers fuck it up for everyone

Read this story and/or watch the video.

So this ship was carrying 4700 brand new Mazda cars and had a little accident. The ship didn't capsize and the majority of the cars shown in the video look to be very slightly damaged or not damaged AT ALL. Instead of trying to sell or part out the cars Mazda is having all 4700 crushed and scrapped. Does that make any sense to you at all? It's not like these cars were at the bottom of the ocean, most of them remained high and drive inside the hull of ship suffering maybe some minor body damage from smacking into one another. But Mazda claims they can't sell these cars because of the potential legal liability and the possible "erosion of brand image" that could be caused. Fine, I can understand not wanting to deal with the hassle of selling the cars as a whole but why not part them out? During the video they show some guy deploying the airbags on a car prior to it being crushed. Most car dealers charge HUNDREDS of dollars to replace deployed air bags...oh wait more legal liability there. Body panels, glass, interior pieces.....engines; you can't tell me that there's no value there that could outweigh potential liablity.

It just sounds so wasteful, which will surprise the hell out of some people that are reading this since "concerned about being wasteful" is generally not a statement that would be attributed to me.

This story will probably piss off my sister a whole lot. First because she needs to buy a new cheap car and a slightly damp Mazda 3 for a good price would work out nicely. And second, she's about the most environmentally conscious person I know AND she's a lawyer. Hey Sis! Stop killing the fucking planet with your wasteful litigation....lol.

Single? Looking for a date?

Are you lonely or single? Maybe you're just looking for a hot piece of ass. This is the site for you then.

I suck....and I'm old.

I stopped reading this article halfway through because I started weeping. It's all true and such a cruel realization for a fucking Monday morning.

Now I feel like I'm chained to the oars of the S.S. Oppression.

Weeeee!

Close only counts...in the Le Mans racing apparently. Bet that was a wild ride.

Daredevils wanted

Someone call up Rob and tell him he needs to apply for this job. I don't seem to have his email anymore.

Meh

My boss is out of town so I've been to busy to not work. Anyway here's a little ditty about the new Corvette ZR1, 600+Hp and 600+Torque. Holy shit that's like DeathStar powerful!

Educate yourself

I think being surrounded by chemists all day for the last 12 years is having an adverse effect on me. I say that because I think this Flash based Periodic Table is awesome.

Cruel world

Fat people are funny. We have to be to make up for our dramatically shorter life spans.

Apparently that video requires Flash 9. Here's the same video on Youtube.

Hug an early adopter

Stories like this one piss me off because the "average" person reads this and thinks that they are getting screwed by bandwidth hogs. You should really thank the early adopters and leave them alone. These crazy idiots (myself included) buy or use the latest and greatest technology when it first comes out and when it costs a fortune. So virtually every piece of technology you use exists because there were brave early adopters that were willing to throw their money away on technology that may or may not prevail.

This is also true of the internet. I've been a DSL subscriber since 1997, back when most of you were banging on fucking drums to send messages to each other. For the first couple of years DSL cost $80/month for relatively slow 768k service. It was "pioneers" like me that allow you to pay $20/month for a 3MBs DSL line today. Early adopters drive innovation on the internet making it a richer experience for you.

Besides, the 12 year old next door who spends all day watching soft core porn on Youtube is using more bandwidth than me now.

I hope you've got insurance

Take a $500,000 Carrera GT add it with a low budget tow truck, some wood and a guy that can't drive stick. What do you get? Tears....nothing but tears.

It takes all kinds

If you've never poked around on Flickr then you have no idea what you are missing. Just go to the Group Search and type something in, I would doubt that you could find a subject (possibly NSFW) that isn't represented. Like this group, defaced US Currency....hilarious.

Geek poetry

Great Craigslist post, I hope they find each other and get to realize that zombie slaughter dream.

Just don't get caught

If you're going to shoot down a Unmanned Aerial Vehicles you may want to put some thought into it first. Most UAVs are designed with one purpose in mind, ground surveillance from medium altitudes. This means that their cameras are almost always located on the "bottom" of airframe and have little or no ability to "see" things above and/or behind them. So if you're going to shoot one down and not have the event captured by the vehicle's high quality cameras you may want to keep that in mind.

Of course if you're Russian and don't give a shit, you just smile and wave at the camera while firing an AA-11 at it.

Trail rated my ass

If you've ever watched the BBC series Long Way Round then you'll have some perspective on this post. In that fantastic series you get to see just how bad the road "network" is in parts of Russia. Basically, parts of Western Russia are inaccessible by cars and trucks for large portions of the year. And that doesn't even touch on Siberia where there aren't any roads at all. So it should come as no surprise that the Russians have developed some military vehicles that have some simply unbelievable all terrain capabilities. Check out this video of the insane Vityaz.

I guess that means that Pre-Apocalyptic Russia is what every where else will be like after the Apocalypse.

Funnyman

Seth MacFarlane is a genius, I know a lot of people hate on Family Guy for having out of stream jokes just for the sake of making a joke but that is kind of the point of a comedy. Anyway, here's some clips of MacFarlane giving a speech at Harvard of all places. Watching him do the Stewie voice live is just strange and creepy but still funny as hell.

Dude, you're getting wood

This link leads you to a hilarious compilation of screw-ups from the various home shopping networks. This is proof that you can turn that community college degree in Video Journalism into a career.

Better viewpoint

You should read some British news from time to time. Why? The two best reasons are that you can get an "outsider" viewpoint of the United States and it will still be in English. Not to mention that the writing is British news outlets is generally better due to there rather rigid adherence to grammar rules. Take this story for instance, which takes the time to actually discuss how the Clintons are trying to burn the Democratic party to the ground and piss on the ashes. While most of the US-based news outlets are to busy focusing on the he said, she said bullshit going on between Obama and The Wicked Witch of the South/New York the international press is more concerned with the implications of this struggle on our entire political system.

Misunderstanding

So you've been entrusted with a $250,000 unique car that is essential to the filming of a multi-million dollar blockbuster movie, maybe you should be extra careful. Maybe he was confused and thought that this was a new "submarine" car like the Lotus from The Spy Who Loved Me.

Update:
Here's a video of the aftermath, sigh. Sounds like the guy was lucky to live though because the lake is apparently 150 feet deep where the car went off. Looks like the car must have hit the water shiny side down because the roof is completely flattened.

Ready to trip balls?

Have you recovered from that wacky Bjork video yet? I hope so because here's the complete HD trailer for the new Speed Racer movie. I wasn't at all excited about this movie until I saw this trailer....it looks insane!

Warning! These are massive quicktime files!

720P
1080P

Here's the 480P version for those of you with little girl bandwidth.....oh, did you get sand in your vagina trying to download the HD versions? Squish squish.

Whole lot of shaking...

I was awakened this morning by some seriously pissed off cats because there was an earthquake. May not be odd for some people but in Central Indiana its a fairly uncommon experience, I can only remember an actual detectable tremor two other times in my entire life. Anyway if you experience the effects of an earthquake be a sport and give the USGS a shout out. This link is for a earthquake "survey" page which you can use to explain your experience to the USGS. At the end you get to view the statics for all responses in the surrounding area....pretty cool stuff.

A minor apology

NBC still sucks but I did forget about 30 Rock. That is an original series on NBC that DOESN'T suck. Tina Fey, you rock but I hope Alec Baldwin never leaves....he makes that show brilliant.**




** This message brought to you by the committee to re-invade Vietnam.

FAIL!

Over the years I have seen some very poorly modified cars, I've even seen some cars that had a car stereo worth more than the car itself. I may have even done some shady mods to my own rides but I have never, ever seen anything like this setup.

I don't even have the strength to comment.....it hurts to think about. I will say that this has to be my favorite line: "We know it can't be easy to be a Cougar owner — who do you have to look down on? Topaz owners?"

HA HA, Kirby I hope you're reading this!

Free time!

When they're not filming bukkake videos or watching for Godzilla the youth of Japan are leading the world in the synthesizing of music via remote control car. That is pretty cool though.

USBad news?

Are you facing the mortal peril of an unplanned pregnancy? Turn that crushing disappointment into a technological miracle with this USB Pregnancy tester!

Is it me or does plugging something covered in piss into your computer seem a little disgusting?

Seriously funny

Check out The Dancing Kitty!

South Park is still brilliant. I don't know what is up Matt Stone and Trey Parker but they have really stepped it up for this season. Last night's episode was just priceless....I'm seriously Over Logging.

Go Team Brazil

It appears that Brazil's state-run oil company, Petrobas, has discovered a huge undersea oil field. The oil field is estimated to be 33 billion barrels which would make it the third largest oil filed in the world. That represents an enormous increase in the amount of total marketable oil supply since this filed is previously undiscovered and untapped.

Of course news about oil typically means large shifts in the price of oil as traders (pirates) freak out. But this is good news and the futures markets should have reacted with a decrease in price since more oil in the FUTURE should mean a lower price. However, the price of oil actually hit an all time high since the announcement of this new oil cache. That makes a lot of sense doesn't it, does it? According to some experts the actual cost of getting a barrel of oil out of the ground in an established oil filed is as low as $10 a barrel. A far cry from the $100+ per barrel price being driven by the futures market.

Your life as a hamster

Check out this crazy time lapse video of a guy that is trapped in an elevator for 41 hours. Here's a story about how this event was so traumatic that it basically ruined the guy's life.

Personally 41 hours with no one fucking with me sounds like a vacation in paradise.

More Internet hilarity

What happens when you combine a few hilarious morons, one hot girl and a ton of booze? You get Tiki Bar TV of course. The show has no real point, the episodes are short but usually pretty funny. Plus most episodes feature a cocktail recipe so it's educational!

Fun Project

This looks like a fun project. That website has some seriously cool electronics projects on it, I know at least one person that may be reading this that will love the site. Of course he may not be reading since he never posts any comments, douchebag.....hear that Muke?

LOL long time

Laugh, then pray at least 30% more.

Equal time

So I posted an Anti-Bush thing earlier...so here's something for you Donkey Douches as well.

This clip is The Daily Show at its finest. Make sure you watch the whole thing because the end is great.

Great stuff

Will Ferrell is one funny guy. Check out this clip.

Pass the dutchie

I think the people that run Toyota/Lexus are smoking something. Let's look at Toyota first:

Toyota will soon be or may already be the world's largest car manufacturer and they've gotten to that position by focusing on fantastic reliability and solid engineering. However, the current Toyota range is about as exciting as poking a stick into mud. The most "exciting" car that Toyota currently produces is the Corolla S.....seriously. What happened to the MR2, the Celica and the mighty Supra? The big T pulled the both the latest generation Celica and MR2 from US dealerships in 2006 because they were just ok cars and not all that great. The amazing Mark IV Supra disappeared 10 years ago which just blows my mind. To this day the Mark IV Supra is highly sought after by the performance/modding community and can command huge prices for good examples. So where are the interesting/sporty cars Toyota?

Lexus as become the official car of CPAs and Real Estate whores. Most Lexus drivers have little to no personality and its no wonder, look at what they drive. When was the last time you gave a Lexus a second look? They are the automotive equivalent of wall paper. Now I'm not saying they are bad cars because they are in fact very good cars. But they lack any sense of beauty and provoke no emotional response....they are boring. They're trying with the the new ISF which is impressive but its still just too understated for my taste.

Now Lexus wants to build some $150,000 "supercar". Why? So that Lexus owners can drive it to the golf course? Come on Toyota give something like the Supra! Build a smallish RWD coupe with a twin turbo V6 and price it right around the Mustang....say $25-$35k. PLEASE!!

Truckin'

Based on this Jalopnik story it would appear that Chrysler is poised to become a manufacturer for hire. Interesting idea, using spare plant capacity to build cars designed and marketed by other companies. I guess if you can design a compelling vehicle on your own you can still make money this way and not have to scrap huge numbers of jobs and infrastructure. But still, helping to produce a competitor's product seems to be a little odd. Could it be that Cerberus will actually change the way people think about car companies?

Just give up

This is another Top Gear post so those of you (most of you) that don't care can just skip this one.

FUCK YOU NBC!

You haven't had a decent original series since Friends went off the air. So you just keep trying to rape other people's ideas and churn out more shitastic programming. I was going to leave you sorry ass alone until you started this misguided attempt to create your own version of Top Gear which I will now refer to as Bottom Gear.

One of THE best things about Top Gear is that they pull no punches. When a car is bad they say so, sometimes Jeremy Clarkson mocks bad cars for an entire series (or for years....Vectra). Of course this is a PR nightmare for the car companies and they get really pissed when Top Gear slams them. Sorry guys but that's part of the game, stop building shitty cars. Now this works for Top Gear because the show is produced and aired on the BBC which does not fund its programming with Advertising revenue. The BBC is funded by the people of Britain, the so called TV License Holders. So Top Gear does not suffer when a manufacturer gets mad, they just laugh harder.

Now along comes NBC with its 14-18 minutes of advertisements for every hour of programming. According to Nielsen four of the top ten advertisers last year were car companies spending a combined $4.5 BILLION dollars on television advertising. So you can assume that during the 14-18 minutes of ads during an NBC primetime show there will be several advertisements from car companies. So what brilliant and visionary idea has NBC come up with to get around the problem of angering car manufacturers with bad reviews and thus losing advertisers? They are going to be, according to Dan Neil who was in line for a host spot on Bottom Gear, "writing around the problem, by not doing car reviews unless they really love the car.”

Are you serious? What a bold journalistic stand to take! This car sucks so lets just pretend it doesn't exist! I only LIKE the Porsche 911 Turbo so we cant review it.

So I beg you NBC, please stop! This will only end in mediocrity and tears. Sell the US rights for Top Gear to HBO or Showtime, maybe they can do something with it since they don't need ad dollars to survive.

Attention Gamers!

Ten years ago the PC Gaming scene was far different from what it is now. Online multiplayer games were just beginning to show what the future of gaming would look like. One of the games that changed the landscape was StarCraft, considered to be one of the best RTS Multiplayer games ever created. The game is still hugely popular and even professionally played in South Korea to this day.

Fans of StarCraft have complained that Blizzard Studios has turned their backs on StarCraft to focus on their hugely successful Warcraft franchise. Well the fanboys are all a twitter because a sequel is finally forthcoming and could reach stores by the end of 2008. The website for StarCraft II is amazing and in-game footage looks unbelievable.

The bitter end

So You Suck at Photoshop started out great but slowly the quality went down and down. The last one, #9, ended with Donnie going to his "Special Place" which I took to mean that the series was most likely over. Now another video as been posted from Donnie's pal Sn4tchbuckl3r that is basically a long ass commercial/not funny site promotion. I'm not even going to link to it, it's not funny anymore.

Make me laugh Jesus boy

Religious kooks are like comedy gold. The thing that makes their awful television shows REALLY funny is that to them its no joke. Check out this link for a little story about a show called Bibleman. Keep preaching tolerance you Christian Soldiers, except to the Jews of course.

If that appeared as a skit on SNL some night it would be funny but instead it was made by "Christians" as a serious piece of religious edutainment. That makes it really funny.

My own personal apocolypse

When I read stories like this and I want to curl into the fetal position and sob.

Now, I'm going to say this nice and loud for all of you; IF YOUR INTERNET PROVIDER TRIES TO PULL THIS SHIT THEN CANCEL THEIR FUCKING SERVICE AND TELL THEM TO GO FUCK THEMSELVES! United we stand assholes!

Your tax dollars at work

I remember the last time I threw $1.2 Billion on the ground and burned it. What a blast.

You have to be sure

I say we shoot him. No. I say first we punch him, then we stab him and then we shoot him.

They're gonna need this.

It's funny because it's true

This video is a tongue-in-cheek look at the way investment banking and speculation work, or rather doesn't work. It's from a British comedy show so it's a bit Anti-American, but rightly so.

NSFW LOL

AsciPrØn rocks! Have fun, NSFW.

So soon?

Supposedly Nissan was going to encrypt the hell out of the new GT-R's ECU so that no modders couldn't do any black magic. This news makes me wonder just how hard they really tried. This is really no surprise considering that the Skyline has been the most modified car in Japan for years. The surprise was Nissan trying to cut out the modders. So again, how hard did they try?

Ready for some mind floss?

It's no secret that Björk is a bit on the eccentric side but her new video is just totally fucked up. I feel like I'm tripping just watching it, I can't imagine watching it while actually high.

Low Quality
High Quality (Freaking huge file, you've been warned)

Sweet T-Shirts

Great site with some cool retro-deco shirts. I guess this stuff is getting popular from a combo of Steam Punk and BioShock. Whatever the reason it's some cool stuff.

A giant among men

I once witnessed a friend drink 53 beers* (and half a bottle of champaign I believe) on Easter Sunday at The Shop, so I have a great appreciation for public displays of heroic drunkeness. That is why I was really surprised that I had never heard these stories about a childhood hero of mine, Andre The Giant.

Wow, seriously wow.

*see comments, my memory sucks.

Creepy?

So I vividly remember seeing The Sixth Sense for the first time, probably the best twist in movie history. That ending was so good that people took it upon themselves to safeguard others from spoilers so they could experience that holy shit moment for themselves. It was so good that M. Night Shyamalan (writer/director) was sainted over night by the movie making community. But his movies since have been a mixed bag since then with only Unbreakable really standing out. But his next movie, The Happening, looks like it could be awesome. But then again the trailer for Signs was pretty good as well but that one turned out to be a flop.

Never surrender

So Hillary refuses to quit, even though she continues her attempts to sabotage her own campaign. So my biggest question is this; If she were any other candidate would the DNC have already forced her to quit? By that I mean if she weren't the wife of a former President and was just another candidate. I bet you know the answer to that question.

Mortgage the future

This article really sums up just how bad off this country is now. We've spend 30 years shitting on our own economy and underfunding our education system. The days that you could work in a factory and make a middle class income are gone. Not only are those days gone but that is exactly what got us into this disaster we're in now.

The employment costs of Union dominated manufacturing skyrocketed, this forced the companies to invest in streamlining every other element of their production process in order to keep prices low and compete in a global market. So once the government lessened restrictions via NAFTA the companies realized their largest expense was their employment costs. Since they couldn't reduce their costs anywhere else out went the jobs. So the Unions in this country have been slowly strangling themselves for decades and they have finally taken the rest of us with them.

Now you've got foreign companies buying up the cheap broken pieces and paying much lower wages. Guess what, if your only skill is assembling refrigerators you now have to compete against an international community of refrigerator assemblers. Whomever can do it the fastest and the cheapest wins; and these days that person is not an American worker. Add to that the ballooning price of health care in this country and the problem looks even worse. Why would any company want to bring manufacturing jobs into this country? This is the only time that a sinking dollar will work for us because that means international companies get a virtual "discount" on paying US employees while the dollar is so low. If you had any hopes that our currency will rebound you should reconsider, it may end up being good for our economy.

The sad thing is that you used to have a chance at a good education. With the hopes that with an education you stood a chance of getting a "better" job outside of the manufacturing realm. But since we've basically let our entire education system either decay or disappear that's nearly impossible.

Make your nerd happy

I was cruising Thinkgeek.com and I realized that non-nerds don't know just how cool Thinkgeek really is. Here's some of my favorites from their vast array of geeky items.

Sweet BSG Poster
I was told I could listen to my music.....
Fucking Chain Mail!!!!!

If you can't keep it in your pants...

Ok, so this story is pretty disturbing. The only suffering party here is the poor bastard child that will end up with more genetic defects than a Jurassic Park escapee. I mean that couple is so disgustingly ugly that they have to actually be in love if they are having sex. So yes it is incest but holy shit! I say sterilize the pair of them and take the child away.

Umm....WTF?

If this product seems like a good idea to you then you should consider removing yourself from the gene pool.

Thank Dog

Hauppauge has an amazing new product that is sure to make the MPAA and content providers shit themselves. When their new HD-PVR launches you'll be able to record 1080i directly from any component video source. That means cable boxes, blu-ray players, etc. The only problem is $250 is pretty steep.....it will be worth it to finally use Vista Media Center to record HDTV without having to deal with cable card tuners.


Thank you Hauppauge.

Interesting question

This story from Jalopnik brings up an interesting question. How long before one of the former "Big Three" automakers starts selling of its old brand names? I bet it won't be long until some Chinese company offers Cerberus a ton of money for the Plymouth nameplate and starts turning out cheap little Neon-esque cars. And why not? Chrysler could certainly use the cash.

Pray for Mojo...

I feel sorry for people that can't or haven't experienced the Internet. Where else are you going to see shit like this?

Let there be light....emitting diodes

Mildly NSFW. You've been warned.

Here is the video from some tramp-off that is interesting for one thing. Check out the one girl's clever use of LEDs. I think there may be an untapped market here for LED bedazzled feminine hygiene products marketed specifically at tramps.

I would call them Twat Twinklers or better yet, Flood Lights. Wait a second....you'll get it.

The end is near

Check out these awesome Space Shuttle pictures that will give you some perspective on how big that thing really is. Those pictures got me thinking about something. Do you realize that the Space Shuttle has been around nearly as long as I've been alive and it has been the dominate link to space since 1977. If you are an American in your 30s there is no way you that don't remember the Challenger Disaster of 1986, it's almost my generation's Kennedy moment. So it's sad to realize that the Shuttle is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2011, bringing to an end an entire era of space exploration. To most people the Space Shuttle defines NASA and I worry about the public perception once the shuttle is gone.

Now I'm not saying that its not time to put the Shuttle out to pasture but after 120 successful flights, and two disasters, it would be nice to replace it with a new platform. It looks as if NASA is going to kill the Shuttle with no viable replacement near completion. That just seems like a really bad idea, but then no one seems to give a shit about space exploration any more.

The loving couple

Here's a couple that were meant to be together...until one of them ends up running the other down with their car one day. At least the camera will be rolling....LOL!

First, the chick starts things rolling. Then the boyfriend gets his revenge. Cheap bastard could have at least bought a real pie.

You Suck

Here's my list of great TV shows that you don't watch. Get your heads out of your asses, download a torrent client and start enjoying the best that TV has to offer that you don't know about.


what - The Shield
where - On F/X
why - Talk about gritty and real sometimes it's hard to believe this show is on regular TV, it makes the Sopranos look tame. This show has given fans a real roller coaster ride over the last six seasons. Download or rent it as soon as you can!

what - Avatar
where - Nickelodeon
why - I know what you're thinking, I haven't watched Nickelodeon since Double Dare. Avatar is more than just a kid's show and it's more than just a cartoon. It really is the best new animated TV series that I've seen since The Family Guy started. Also, it's good enough to attract the attention of James Cameron who is directing/writing the big screen adaption scheduled for release next year.

what - Doctor Who
where - BBC/SciFi
why - The new Doctor Who series produced by BBC is some of the best scifi writing you'll find anywhere, not to mention great production quality and special effects. David Tennant is getting ready to start his third season as The Doctor and IMHO, he's the best Doctor yet.

what - Torchwood
where - BBC/BBC America
why - This series started as a Doctor Who spin-off that was a bit edgier than its parent show. While not as good as Doctor Who it is definitely worth a watch if you are into scifi.

what - Battlestar Galactica
where - SciFi
why - I've talked about this before, its a great show that you never watched and now it's going to be canceled after this season. Again, thanks for that one.

what - Top Gear
where - BBC/Torrents
why - The best show on television for anyone that is vaguely interested in cars. Also you have to be somewhat educated or at least enlightened due to the fact that the show is intended to be watched by a UK audience. Because of that the humor is very British and they frequently make fun of Americas and Americans. The only way for you to see Top Gear is to either watch badly edited versions on BBC America or download them e-legally via torrent sites.

FTW!

So the Internets were clogged yesterday with the hilarities of April Fool's Day. My personal favorite comes from Thinkgeek, priceless.

My runner up goes to the clever pirate that flooded the Torrent sites with a purported advance copy of episode #9 of this season of Lost, which doesn't air until April 24th. Douchebag.

How much?

So I've talked about the Chevy Volt before and how I thought it was going to be the first practical series hybrid that people could actually buy. Well Bob Lutz, GM's Vice-Chairman, as said publicly that the Volt's price could be as high as $48,000. Say what? Originally it was $30K then $35K and now it may skyrocket to $48,ooo!! Sorry, but at that price it will not sell in any significant numbers and end up a lame duck from the start. The only way it will sell is if the government offers SERIOUS tax incentives/benefits to purchasers which is not likely to happen and doesn't work very well any way. At that price the fuel savings would take 23 years to pay for the $28,000 price premium over an average 30mpg car that costs around $20,000.

Kind of related to that are the comments that Jim Press, current President of Chrysler, made in relation to hybrids and fuel economy. Press claims that the Japanese government funded the development of the batteries and "Hybrid Synergy Drive" systems in Toyota's Prius. And how does Jim press know? He used to be President of Toyota's American operations so he's probably a guy that knows a thing or two. Of course Toyota denies it but who do you believe?

So why does that matter and what does that have to do with the Chevy Volt? Simple, since the Japanese government footed the bill on most of the Prius development cost that meant that Toyota could sell them cheap without taking a huge loss on each car. General Motors is paying their own way with the Volt which means that it will either cost way more than a Prius or GM has to take a big loss on each one sold in order to compete. Somehow I don't think that, given the current financial situation of General Motors, they can afford to lose money on anything.