DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

I’ve only ever bought one car from a dealership. They played me like an AM radio. I was a novice and they knew it.

At one point, we’d been kept waiting for 15 minutes while the salesman supposedly convinced his manager to allow us to buy the car for such an amazingly low price. I got impatient and walked outside, onto the lot. Through a window I could see into the manager’s office. Our salesman and a couple more who looked just like him, jewelry and white Oxfords and ties, were sitting around drinking coffee and telling jokes and obviously not poring over our deal. Our salesman saw me, gulped, grab his paperwork and ran out to catch me. He thought I was leaving, and if I had it to do over, I would have kept moving toward my car. Every step would have been worth $250.

I’m not used to playing games when I don’t know the rules. Next time I buy a new car, I’ll be prepared, for I’ve just read the “cheats” guide to the car-sales industry.

Edmunds.com hired a journalist to get a job at a dealership and write about the dirty tricks employed therein. You’ve inferred many of these, but seeing them in print will likely still surprise you.

Well worth your lunch hour: Confessions of a Car Salesman

Clairvoyance = the Law of Large Numbers + Confirmation Bias

Or, coincidence does not equal ESP.

Experience more critical thinking at Skeptic Magazine.

The Union of Concerned Scientists is a non-partisan advocacy group dedicated to creating a “cleaner, healthier environment and a safer world.” In a February report entitled Restoring Scientific Integrity in Policy Making, 62 reputable scientists “charged the Bush administration with widespread and unprecedented ‘manipulation of the process through which science enters into its decisions.’”

Here’s one timely example, copied from a brochure they mailed me. (See a longer version here: Information on Power Plant Mercury Emissions Censored)

Mercury is a neurotoxin that can cause brain damage and harm reproduction in humans and wildlife. Coal-fired power plants are the nation’s largest source of mercury air emissions. Faced with congressional proposals to strongly regulate these mercury emissions, Bush officials suppressed and sought to manipulate government information about merucry contained in an EPA report on children’s health and the environment. After nine months, a frustrated EPA official leaked the draft report to the Wall Street Journal, which revealed one of the report’s findings that eight percent of women between the ages of 16 and 49 have mercury levels in the blood that could lead to reduced IQ and motor skills in their offspring. The finding provides strong evidence in direct contradiction to the administration’s desired policy of reducing regulation on coal-fired power plants… Perhaps most troubling about this incident is that the report may never have surfaced at all had it not been leaked to the press.

There is a pattern here; in August 2003, the Bush administration lied to New Yorkers about the presence of dangerous asbestos due to the WTC attack.

“I’m from the government; I’m here to help” really shouldn’t be the punchline to a joke.

The flu vaccinations your children receive may be exposing them to toxic levels of mercury. But numerous government agencies urge parents to continue having the vaccines administered. Insert your favorite conspiracy theory here.

The original report I read — or tried to read — runs for 11,000 words, or about 10,500 more than I have time for at the moment. It’s here: The Truth behind the Vaccine Coverup

Instead, I read the first half of this ~900-word article, by former US Congressman Dan Hamburg: The Thimerosal Controversy: An Overview

Here’s a summary of the overview:

• Thimerosal, which is approximately 50% mercury by weight, was a common vaccine preservative from the 1930s until recently.
• Due to reports of ethylmercury toxicity, thimerosal has been reduced or removed from nearly all childhood vaccines, except flu shots.
• Parents of young children should request mercury-free flu shots (or skip the vaccination altogether?).

More good info at the FDA site: Thimerosal in Vaccines

And even more at SafeMinds, “Sensible Action for Ending Mercury-Induced Neurological Disorders.”

Our photovoltaic array has five racks of solar panels. Due to the presence of nearby trees, the chimney and exhaust fans on the roof, and even more importantly to the fact that the most open roof space faces east rather than southwest, the panels were difficult to fit, given the design goal of maximizing exposure to the south/southwest sun.

There’s a problem: production is below projections. I think the core problem is that the projections are incorrect, but I’m eager to increase production if possible. The more power we generate, the sooner my PV system pays for itself. (This is a purely virtual goal — my out-of-pocket costs for energy are going to be very low for the next 30 years, regardless of when we cross the breakeven point.)

We had the panels inspected. They passed; the technician found no evidence that any of the panels were failing. Kudos to our installer for providing this check-up for free.

But a more sinister problem apparently exists: by mid- to late afternoon, our panels are creating their own shade. We knew we’d lose some afternoon sun due to tree cover, but this picture shows a much worse problem — really, a design flaw.

Photovoltaic arrays in California should be designed to maximize production during peak periods: 12:00PM - 6:00PM. The picture here was taken shortly after 5:00PM, indicating that we’re losing generation capacity during peak hours. Of course the amount of shadow depends on the height of the sun in the sky; still, any shadow during peak hours is a bad thing.

Research indicates that even a small shadow can cause a huge drop in generation performance:

Even partial shading of crystalline solar panels will result in dramatic reduction of solar panel output. One completely shaded cell can reduce a solar panel’s output by as much as 75%. Three cells shaded can decrease 93% of the panel’s output.

I think there’s a relatively easy way to move the last rack of panels out of shadow, by raising its standoffs. But the larger rack in the foreground of the picture will be harder to reposition. I’m hoping my installer has some suggestions.

What’s surprising about all this is that our PV installer ran numerous “shade studies” to illustrate the shadow of the chimney and the other panels throughout the year. They designed the racks to prevent exactly this problem.