Drew Dowdell

Notice how Balth’s dissent is still up and how it differs in tone and lack of bigotry? Do better and maybe your posts will stay up. I do not allow transphobic comments on this site.

And I bet you still complained about interior room. Why couldn’t they just build the car to seat 13 seven foot basketball players ?!

Over the course of CES 2021, Cadillac dropped a few bombs upon the critics and car enthusiasts with their PAV Pod and eVTOL. However, they also unveiled their “EV Flagship” known as the Celestiq. Following the recent reveal of what would be Cadillac’s first electric vehicle, the Lyriq, in August of 2020, the Celestiq will be a hatchback while the Lyriq is an SUV. The Celestiq will be a four-seat hatchback with standard all-wheel drive. However, it will come with up and coming technology in its four-wheel steering, allowing it to make sharper and more precise turns. The vehicle will also come with transparent glass roof panels that each passenger can control to different levels of transparency, as well as a large LED display that stretches across the entire dashboard and personal screens for the rear passengers. The Celestiq will be powered by a 100-kWh battery pack allowing it to have a 300+ mile range but will most likely come with a six-figure price tag. However, Cadillac asserts that it will be bespoke and hand-built in the Detroit area and be completely customized for individual customers. So if you are looking for a 4-seat luxury hatchback EV, start saving up for the 2025 release. View full article

The 2021 Consumer Electronics Show was supposed to be held in Las Vegas from January 6th to January 9th. However, because of the pandemic affecting normalcy around the world, it was moved to solely online for the first time since its inception. Companies still came to show off and show off they did. Cadillac, in particular, unveiled two new products from its HALO portfolio: the PAV Pod (personal autonomous vehicle), or more commonly referred to as the “Toaster-Shaped Party Bus”, and the eVTOL aircraft (electric vertical take-off and landing), or more simply a personal flying vehicle. This party bus is seemingly a driverless limo for the more elegant nights with friends and/or family. The vehicle comes fully equipped with technology to make the drive as enjoyable as possible for the guests by using biometric sensors in each seat. These sensors read vital signs of the passengers, which is encroaching on Big Brother territory and adjusts a variety of settings such as heat, lighting, and humidity. However, if you wanted a different setting, the pod allows for voice control and hand gestures to change the experience, as well as snap some selfies along the way to the club. As Michael Simcoe, the VP of Global Design at GM, says, the PAV is a “social space for a group of friends or family to spend time together on their way to a destination.” This is quickly obvious by looking at the PAV as it comes without any windows. If one doesn’t feel like chatting, however, it sports a full-length see-through roof so that the sky and skyline can be seen instead. And in case this pod hasn’t screamed luxury at you already, it also comes with a virtual fireplace, in case you want to have that cozy feeling of home within a limo. The eVTOL is a four-rotor aircraft that is more similar to a personal aircraft, rather than a flying car. This is based on the images provided by GM showing an aircraft with room for only one passenger. However, this aircraft is no slouch with its 90-kWh battery allowing it to travel up to speeds of 56 mph. And with the way transportation technology is going, it will most likely be an autonomous aircraft, allowing you to get around the city quickly and easily. Cadillac is not the first company to dabble in the eVTOL industry as Airbus, and Uber, as well as others, have presented ideas of aerial transportation. As both the Vahana project from Airbus and the Elevate project from Uber have closed or been sold to outside companies, Cadillac is now the new entry into the industry, sparking new debate as to whether this might become a reality with a new competitor in the mix. These concepts might become a reality in the future, or they might just be another idea to put on the shelf. Only the future will tell. View full article

Thank you for this post of yours every year. Happy, healthy, and Safe New Year to you @bobo

Yeah, it was intense. That was about 3 minutes of burning. The heat was so intense that plastic pieces of a light fixture in the next room melted. it melted the window frame. Brand new window too, put them in back in October. its been an intense day. I just changed my dressings about 30 minutes ago. The left hand isn’t too bad and will heal quickly. The right hand is pretty bad and from my palm to the tip of my thumb is going to be a problem. the nurse told me that burns get worse over time and the next 48 hours (from 10:30 this morning) will be the worst of it. Thanks all for the well wishes.

I’m using one of my “my site, my rules” tokens to say: Fuck off 2020! If you haven’t done so recently, please take this post as a reminder to check your fire extinguishers, buy more to keep around the house, and check all of your smoke alarms. I had a house fire today and it all happened in under 3 minutes. I saved my house but I got 2nd degree burns on my hands and spent the morning in the ER. A stray broken match head ignited my shower curtain and destroyed my bathroom. Albert had a robe hanging in there and it refused to stay out even after multiple hits with a fire extinguisher. I managed to grab it and fling it into the tub and finally got it doused with water. At some point the heat shattered a glass doorknob and I apparently stepped on it and cut my foot. I bled all over the bathroom floor and into the rest of the house. Hope you all have a great holiday and stay safe.

Congrats @balthazaron the truck order! Happy Christmas everyone, and I hope a healthy and prosperous 2021. We had a white Christmas here with 3 inches falling overnight and another 3 - 4 inches falling until this afternoon. I've already been out with the snow blower and it made quick work of the driveway any my neighbors driveway. Since I wasn't going through 10 - 12 inches of snow this time the battery did all of mine and the neighbors with 60% battery left over. When I was done, I threw one battery on the charger and set an alarm for myself for one hour and then went down and swapped batteries. I like how low maintenance this thing is going to be.

The only issue with Jeep was w few years ago when you could stand on a Jeep lot and nearly every model with a Jeep badge was designed by a different company. You'd have the Wrangler harking back to AMC/Chrysler days, the Grand Cherokee with its heavy Daimler influence, the Cherokee by Fiat, and depending on the year the Compass could be Fiat or old DCX/Mitsubishi, and your choice of Renegade (Fiat) or Patriot (DCX/Mitsubishi). So durability/reliability was very very model and year specific.

When I was assembling the snow blower the other night, I looked up and was eye height with the installer's label on the water tank. It was installed in 1994.... hence the question.

It defenitely had enough power. The one I got was only rated for 8" deep max and we got 10-12 here. I was still able to do most of my driveway and my neighbor's driveway on a single charge. I did run out of battery before I finished my driveway, but again I was going through snow deeper than it was rated for and I covered enough ground to park 6 or 7 cars. The batteries charge in an hour or less, but I only have a single charger for now, so total charge time is 2 hours. Not related to the power train... it gets stuck on every minor imperfection in concrete where my old one would just slide over it.

@balthazar and @A Horse With No Name what’s the expected life of a water heater and should it be proactively replaced if it is well over that age but otherwise functioning normally?

I have not found any significant improvement in quality in the Icons over Trico NeoForms that justify the Icons being 3 to 4 times the price.

Mine is very much green rather than gray. It might get repainting to a lighter color in the summer. That color has been up 15+ years.

Cozy night

Yes Watson.

Don’t buy wipers at the store. Don’t buy wipers at Amazon. Buy wipers from RockAuto.com they are 1/3rd of the cost compared to any retail or Amazon. You can get the Trico bar wipers from the which are equivalent to Bosch Icons for like $6 each plus shipping. If you have a bunch of vehicles, order for all your vehicles at the same time and save on shipping costs. Getting 6 blades for my whole fleet was like $48 after shipping. That’s the same as 2 Bosch Icons at Amazon.

It takes 6 batteries? I hope you can just plug the mower in to charge instead of having to have a rack of chargers

The whole thread was super helpful. My gas powered snow blower bit the dust years ago and I’ve just been shoveling manually since then. With the first 8” of snow on the ground here for the season, I said Eff this. I dug myself a path out, put the Avalanche in 4 low, and crawled to Lowe’s. I picked up the EGO snow blower. I also ended up ordering snow tires for the truck because I’m still rolling on the OEs and they are dry rotted. Even with tread they are awful in the white stuff. So now Gus will be getting new Blizzaks on Dec 27th.

My ski slope is only 90 minutes from me. We’re getting blasted with snow today. 8 to 10 inches total expected here in the city. More out at 7 Springs.

I think in terms of the end of Next Gen / DS9 timeline. My Toronado is an old Constitution class Refit My Avalanche is a Galaxy class. Big. Previous generation of design. Versatile. Powerful, but not the fastest or most maneuverable, but definitely not something you want to pick a fight with. My Chrysler 300C is an Excelsior class. An old design that just keeps getting upgraded with the newest tech. Known for speed.

I got out a bunch this past summer. Not much else to do.

Tax avoidance is legal but a lot of it shouldn’t be. It doesn’t count as shortfalls