Sunday, May 19, 2013

Squirrel in the Bird Feeder

Found this red squirrel in my bird feeder yesterday. While at first he appeared trapped, he wasn't, just came by for lunch...

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Nelson Mandela Quotes

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.

There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.

It always seems impossible until its done.

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all.

Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.

Money won't create success, the freedom to make it will.

To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.

I am confident that nobody... will accuse me of selfishness if I ask to spend time, while I am still in good health, with my family, my friends and also with myself.

Courageous people do not fear forgiving, for the sake of peace.

Any man or institution that tries to rob me of my dignity will lose.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Tesla Motors Outselling BMW and Mercedes - Big Step Forward for Electric and Hybrid Cars


A couple months ago Rambling Web noted that Porsche was breaking the mold for hybrid cars by developing a true hybrid super car - Porsche 918 Spyder Hybrid Blows Up Stereotypes. Yet the major question was whether the 918 Spyder would sell.

Well Tesla Motors, taking a different tact, is showing the an upscale electric car can sell quite well. According to 'Wall Streets Cheat Sheet,' Tesla's Model S is actually outselling BMW and Mercedes the competing cars in its class.

This is great news for the future of electric and hybrid cars.  It shows that as the quality of these cars increases that demand will likely increase too.  As 'Wall Streets Cheat Sheet' notes the success of the Model S opens the door for a more affordable model in the future.

Tesla’s Model S Is Shaming BMW and Mercedes
While Tesla faced huge criticisms about the Model S being too expensive, which would result in a stagnancy of demand, it appears the concerns were unfounded, and that the demand is leading the segment. Given the company’s limitations as a start-up with a product that has yet to become mainstream, these figures are especially impressive.

Moreover, the Model S was never meant to be an affordable, mass market car; the company was never aiming to build the next GM Chevy (NYSE:GM) Volt or Nissan Leaf. The Model S was designed from the ground up as a luxury car, meant to compete with the likes of the 7 Series and A8.

The company’s business model suggests that as electric cars become more accepted, and concerns over range anxiety and other problems subside, the high cost of electric car technology will slope downward. And when that happens, Tesla will be ready and waiting with an entry-level, ballpark $30,000 model to market to the masses.
Tesla Motors

Monday, May 13, 2013

Quotes from Oscar Wilde

I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.

Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.

Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead.

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.

Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.

No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.

A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.

No man is rich enough to buy back his past.

Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.

Who, being loved, is poor?

What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.