The Anti-Definmation League issued a statement on Expelled‘s lie of placing blame for the Holocaust on the Theory of Evolution:
"Using the Holocaust in order to tarnish those who promote the theory of evolution is outrageous and trivializes the complex factors that led to the mass extermination of European Jewry."
from Anti-Evolution Film Misappropriates the Holocaust
It was a beautiful day for just about anything, sunny, mid to high 60’s. A shakedown run in the Sparrow was no exception. I tried to get the 3.1 miles from our place up on Wedgwood, to the GreenMyRide show, up on Phinney Ridge. (Midwestern readers take note, that means 2 hills). This should have been well within my range. There was to be great charging options at the show, so I grabbed my 50′ 110v and my 20′ 220v charging cables and took off. She ran great. Wow what fun to drive. I made it down to Greenlake, and the E-Meter started screaming, then my speed was limited. The Sparrow has a built-in limiter that prevents the nut behind the wheel from damaging the batteries by limiting the speed. She got slower and slower. I pullled over and the E-Meter read 112v. Yikes. I sat for about 15 minutes and watched the E-Meter come back to 132v. There was no way I would make it up Phinney hill, and it was highly unlikely that I would make it back up to Wedgwood.
I needed juice. Not wanting to go knocking on doors begging for an outlet, I decided to run around the corner to the Greenlake PCC. Certainly, they would have some outside outlets and would be sympathetic to the cause.
Long story short, I pulled into the PCC, ran in, bought a drink for myself and asked for the Manager. Of course she let me charge, (I knew they would). So I plugged in outside and hung around for a couple of hours, talking to passersby (you attrach a lot of those in a Sparrow).
After 2 and a half hours, the E-Meter read 157, I figured that would get me home, so I left. Big mistake. I made it as far as Wallingford and 80th *about 5 blocks, before the speed limiter set in and I pulled over. It was about 3:30 at this point, and I needed to get home to get ready to go to the JOCO show, so I called for a tow.
$125 later I was home. Sparrow 1, Kevin 0.
After talking with another Sparrow owner, I’m pretty convinced that there is a bad battery in the pack. #7 is consistently reading lowest voltage, so I’m going to take it out of the series and see if I can get a better charge.
I’ve been meaning to get the Sparrow charged for some time. The batteries work, and I’ve driven it around the block a few times, but I know that leaving a set of lead-acid batteries uncharged is a reciepe for disaster.
So, I’ve been slowly working towards getting the charger setup. The car came with a PFC-30 charger. This is a pretty high-end charger that allows for charging a set of batteries with either 110v or 250v and up to 30amps. Problem though, as an after-market charger, it isn’t integrated with the Sparrow’s charging port. It sits in the back of the Sparrow currently. The Sparrow’s charging port is a Leviton 2613 (NEMA 630P), which is rated for 30A, 250V.
My sparrow came with a three-way dryer outlet style 250V, 30A charging cord. The 8-3 cable out of the PFC-30 ran to a 3 way ryer outlet plug, which then plugged into a metal wall box (with a 3-way plug), which ran to another 3 way plug, giving me about 20′ of cable. All of this appears to be 8-3 cable. Of course, my home dryer plug is a 4-way. *sigh*
I’m hoping to connect my PFC-30 to the stock Sparrow charging port, but in the interim, I want to get the batteries charged again. I went to the home depot and got two 3-way interlocking connectors (NEMA L630-C) nd 1 NEMA L630P plug. Each is rated at 30A, 250V. I made one charging cord out one of the L630-C’s and a 50′ 12ga extension cord (15a, 120v rating), red and black, to match the Sparrow :). This will be my portable cord for charging from standard outlets.
I took the 3-way dryer plug off 8-3 cord that is attached to the PFC-30, only to find the tape on the plug was the only thing holding the casing together. The cable is worn where the plug is cinched around it, and some of the bare wiring is exposed. It didn’t look like the 8ga wire would fit in the NEMA L630P. At this point, it started snowing again. Time to close-up the car.
I took another sunshine opportunity this afternoon (it’s been snowing/sleeting off and on for the past few days here in Seattle) and was able to get the NEMA plug installed on the PFC-30. I stripped the charging cord from the PFC-30 back another inch or so. Then I cut each wire off about ½ inch this took it back just past the point where I had the break in the shielding on the green. By cutting the wires and stripping again, they were clean enough to feed into the NEMA plug. I double checked that I had all the wiring matching between the two connections, (I didn’t, so I fixed that), pulled the big red button up, plugged it in, and flipped the switch on the charger and the PFC-30’s light and fans came on. Cool, it was charging. So I thought.
The PFC-30 comes with a potentiometer that allows the user to set the amount of amps that it draws from the AC outlet. After cranking this slowly to the right, I started to see amps feeding the E-meter. Eureka! The little bird is being fed. We’ll see what happens when I check it tomorrow morning….
There’s no doubt that conversions are rare, on both sides. And I also don’t think there’s any doubt that rational persuasion is usually ineffective. As anyone who’s debated a fundamentalist can testify, it’s all too often the case that even the most persuasive evidence and reason simply run off a sloping roof of blind faith. So, is there any point in debating believers at all? Are all our books and websites just belaboring the obvious, repeating ourselves to no avail putting forward arguments that are as true as they are ineffective? Are human beings, as a whole, too irrational for rational argument to ever make a difference.
John McCain is against Network Neutrality, a quick Live Search finds. Barack Obama supports network neutrality (link, listen). Which do you want to choose? If John McCain wins, you might not be allowed to read this by your ISP.
Here’s an abridged list of why I am supporting Barack
Obama for President:
·
He spoke out against the war early.
(In fact, my friends who still live in Illinois have told me that was
considerably unpopular downstate.) Iraq
·
He has pledged to support Net Neutrality.
If you haven’t heard about Net Neutrality, it is one of the most
important issues regarding the future of the internet. Microsoft AND
Google AND Amazon AND Lawrence Lessig all agree this it is important to support
Net Neutrality for free speech to endure on the internet. (I doubt you
could ever get all of those parties to agree on much else) Technology
·
He has an energy policy that will
raise CAFÉ standard, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and support our
economy (and it ain’t “See Exxon’s mission statement”) Energy and Environment
I have profound respect for Senator Hillary
Clinton. She would make a fine President. But now is not the
time for Hillary. McCain has the Republican ticket, and much of the
independent vote.
It’s time to elect a leader who is not known for
partisan politics.
It’s time to elect a leader who the world can look at
and see that America is moving forward.
It’s time to elect a leader who can bring hope to America.
It’s time to elect Barack Obama.
But you don’t have to take my word for it.
Lawrence Lessig as an excellent online presentation
that explains why he is supporting Obama.
Or you can listen to Will i. Am’s Yes We Can.
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This is where I put stuff. 