DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

This just in — SUVs still suck!

What is a “hollow” hybrid? The Union of Concerned Scientists writes:

Some automakers are trying to create a “green” image by putting one or two of these technologies into their conventional vehicles and calling them hybrids. The Chevrolet Silverado Hybrid and GMC Sierra Hybrid, for example, have idle-off capability but improve fuel economy by only one or two miles per gallon. Such improvements might be lauded if they were made standard options in every Silverado and Sierra, but producing a limited quantity and marketing them as hybrids will only dilute the term’s meaning and soften demand for hybrid technologies.

When evaluating hybrids, keep in mind that the environmental performance of specific models can vary. For example, Honda Civic Hybrids sold in California rate an exemplary 9.5 out of 10 on the EPA’s smog-forming emissions scale, while others currently rate just a 2. For a customized, side-by-side comparison of hybrid models-along with useful tips from technology experts and hybrid drivers-visit the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Hybridcenter.org website.

In related news, I was pleased to see in a recent Chronicle article that sales of big-assed SUVs are trending down, while hybrids like the Prius are selling well. See: America’s passion for burly SUV fizzles: Showrooms anemic, but customers paying full price for Toyota’s hybrid.

It was just a couple months ago that I quoted:

[Anthony Pratt, an analyst with J.D. Power and Associates] says he thinks demand for hybrids will peak around 2011, at 3 percent of the market, because there’s a limit to the number of customers willing to pay more for a vehicle that will save them a few hundred dollars a year on gas.

What if it’s a few thousand a year?

Fans of the Oktava/Guitar Center/McKay microphone controversy, told here in 3 parts (I, II, III), should check out this 127-post-long thread on rec.audio.pro, somewhat innocently titled Oktava update?

A few nuggets:

• A & F McKay Audio Limited of the UK is “in liquidation.” Some folks on that board speculate that this is an effort to escape legal obligations: shut down one company, then open another to continue the business of the first. I wonder if this affects the warranties previously issued by the McKay brothers for Oktava products.
• Aidan Humphreys conducted an A/B test of Russian and Chinese MK012 mics and posted WAV files of both. His site is set up to allow you to listen to the samples blind — it’s very well-done and worth checking out if you’re shopping. See: http://www.sound-patterns.com/mk012/
• Update 2005-09-05: not from r.a.p., but relevant, is the detailed review of the Chinese vs. Russian MK-012s on the gearslutz.com forum (may require registration)

Some interesting background information can also be found in the rec.audio.pro archives, such as this post full of legal actions and brimstone from Fergus McKay in February 2001, which itself spawned 120+ responses. Fergus McKay’s post struck a nerve, or 120 of them, and a lot of people who seem to know what they’re talking about posted some revealing facts.

On a side note, I’m happy to have re-discovered Usenet this weekend… I’d given it up for dead in 1992 when recruiters infested ba.jobs.

Quoting an emergency dispatch from the California Solar Center:

The California Million Solar Roofs bill (SB1), which would provide ten years of incentives to help Californians install one million solar rooftops by 2018, is facing a critical vote in the State Legislature. On Monday May 23, the bill goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee for a vote.

The opponents of this bill argue that California can’t afford to provide incentives for solar energy. But when all the costs of our dependence on fossil fuels are taken into account, the truth is that we can’t afford not to. Please let the Senate Appropriations Committee know how important it is for California to become the cradle of the clean energy technologies of tomorrow and pass the California Million Solar Roofs bill.

There are two ways to contact California’s senators:

• the renewableenergyaccess.com site
• the Union of Concerned Scientists’ solar action center

I always thought white asparagus was white because it came out of a can.

When our German friends found out we were headed to Germany in May, the first response — and this was universal; every one of them yelled and practically did a little dance — was to proclaim jealousy that we’d be able to eat lots of white asparagus. “Only in May!” they said, “white asparagus!” And I was like, canned asparagus has a season?

I have since been schooled in the ways of white asparagus. It’s a national delicacy (ranking right up there with currywurst). It’s white because it grows under ground — farmers mound dirt atop the plants, then cover the mounds with plastic tarps. I have no idea how it grows without sun. I have no idea why anyone would think, here’s an idea: let’s bury a plant in dirt so that it grows all pale and sickly-looking… and then eat it.

The season lasts about two months, during which every restaurant and market in the country hangs huge signs offering “Spargel!” I even saw a 10-meter-high inflatable SpargelMan, who looked sort of like the Heat Miser, albeit a tall, skinny, albino Heat Miser.

The Chronicle ran a nice interview with Larry Ellison recently. The first half is unusual in that it focused on human-interest questions like “What do you want people to remember you for?” and “Is it hard for someone like you to be friends with anybody?” In responding, Ellison let his hair down, which in the opinion of someone who let his hair down in 1992, makes for a nice change of persona.

I had a brief encounter with Larry Ellison many years ago. I was working for him at the time. Not that he’d have known it… Oracleville had only 3 of its current 6 towers, yet the complex was already big enough to sport five restaurants, a health club, and a shoe-repair business.

My group happened to work in the same building as the CEO’s office, and as I recall the nearest two parking spaces to the front door were marked “Reserved.” Presumably the executive managers’ time was so valuable that the corporation couldn’t afford the extra minutes it would take them to walk in from further across the parking lot.

Anyway, alongside those first couple reserved spaces was a striped-off area about ten feet wide, a buffer to protect the execs’ imported über-sedans from the less elite vehicles that could be afforded by the people who worked for them. This striped area was a perfect spot for a single motorbike, such as the beater red Kawasaki for which I’d paid $700. Yup: most days, I parked next to Larry Ellison.

My close encounter happened 100 yards away, in the left-turn lane from Marine World Parkway. At a red light, I checked my sideview mirror and found I was looking over the top of something low and sporty, a car I recognized as one of the few I spotted frequently in those top two parking spots. I had a brief vision of Ellison pulling up alongside as I parked my loud, farting, occasionally smoky motorbike. In the vision, I gave him a nervous wave and smile, and he called Security to have me and my p.o.s. motorbike towed up the highway to the Sybase parking lot.

So when the light changed, I did the only sensible thing: I circled the parking lot twice, waited until he was safely inside, and then I parked next to him.