Robert Hall

I used to have an office like that. When I was in grad school at the U. of Michigan, my office and lab was in the center of a building w/ no windows nearby. Often couldn't tell if it was 2pm or 2am..full of caffinated, exhausted PhD students typing away on their computers. And in winter, outside it was either dark or different shades of gray (little sun in a Michigan winter). Those were strange days..

I have windows nearby..with a view of a parking lot w/ palm trees and palm trees and desert on the other side. My department cube farm is mostly empty, most of the FTEs took PTO today, and a few of us contractors are here "making the sausages"..

Reality is complex. There are only shades of gray and many truths and many unknowns. I still haven't found what I'm looking for..still searching for truth and meaning in a complex reality. And bored out of my mind in my cube waiting for the holiday weekend to begin at 4pm. (Hadn't planned on working today, but had to).

obedience

Typo..I meant cruise control electronics. Tired today, got awakened at about 2am, really never went back to sleep.

Or real guns? Kids are so desensitized to killing by first person shooter games these days, are they going to be happy w/ real life war and murder?

I remember the cruise control fire thing..that was pretty recent, in the news in the last couple of years..something about brake fluid and cruise control fluid mixing or something...'80s-90s F-series, IIRC...burned down houses. Was on 60 minutes or another show.

Not sure if there is a US equivalent to this demographic, maybe the emo kids?

Nothing specific has been announced for NA yet, has it? I would assume it would be an automatic sedan only for NA. I just can't see Buick branded compact hatchbacks happening in NA..

Coincidentally, driving to work this morning, their was a report on NPR about the 'herbivore' youth culture in Japan today...i.e. 'ultra mild anti-macho' guys that don't date women (but are straight), don't like consumer consumption or cars, and write blogs and comic books about cupcakes, knitting, and baking. It's been defined as a reaction to the 'carnivore' generation of their fathers, i.e. the long hour hard working, hard drinking salary men of the 1980s in Japan...the report went on to describe Japan's younger generation today as having herbivore men and carnivore women. Very strange stuff from the land of the Rising Sun.

Beautiful car...probably my favorite of the '73 Collonade coupes...love the sculpturing on the Buick body. Taillights look very similar to the '71-72 Riviera units.

Sounds like a modern Vega. Imagine a Vega/Monza type car, w a few bodystyles, and excellent quality and value.

Not a car spotting per se, but going down the major street near home towards the freeway this morning, I saw a guy that looked just like Larry David driving a Segway down the sidewalk..strange. Saw a flat black w/ black bumpers '73 Chevelle 2dr in a driveway from a distance..

Woo.... I'll have to hit a Wal-Mart and a Target in the next couple days and look for that Firebird. I don't want to go anywhere near retail stores Thurs-Sun.

For something really small, I'd love to see a pure, minimalist sports car. 2 seats, open and closed versions, 2500lbs, 1.8 4cyl turbo. A 4 passenger vehicle in RWD as small as the Mini probably wouldn't work, the packaging too compromised (which is why FWD works better for subcompacts).

I thought that was Hughes that did OnStar. EDS is part of HP now (HP Enterprise Services). What I meant is GM doesn't own EDS anymore, hasn't since '96. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Data_Systems I interviewed w/ EDS back in the '90s, didn't pursue it because I decided living in Colorado looked a lot more appealing than living in Texas...

Pink Floyd - High Hopes

The Jetta and Golf TDIs are just so much nicer as cars than the Prius IMHO, not just the mileage numbers. I haven't driven a diesel, but I have driven an '08 Jetta...very nice car..felt quite solid, very nice interior design and detailing.

Well, I see Buick w/ the Regal picking up some of the Saturn Aura and G6 market and the Acacia getting the Outlook market. Not sure where Astra owners would go besides the Cobalt and Cruze, though the sales of the Astra were so small that it's not that signficant. And nothing currently for Solstice or Sky fans.

EDS is owned by HP these days..GM spun it off in '96. I'm sure GM marketing slices and dices all the data about their customers... I'm not a marketing guy, but as a database and enterprise software guy, I find data mining fascinating.

330D is cool, but it's 50 large...rather have a CTS for that price. I'd love to get something like a Caprice PPV w/ a diesel, or a Camaro w/ a diesel for $35k or so.... a full size sedan w/ a diesel and a manual or a coupe w/ the same would be so cool.

Been there, done that w/ 4.50 a gallon gas. Rather than a tiny subcompact, I'd rather have a Zeta (Camaro, Caprice, etc) w/ a diesel. Alas, GM has dropped the ball on diesels for NA.

It would be fascinating to do data mining on GM sales data from the last 10-20 years...see who was buying what where..

Ya, there were even some '81 wagons, specifically for the US Postal Service. (haven't seen this documented, but I heard it through an acquaintance that did Ford fleet sales back then that the USPS placed an order for Pinto wagons in '80 and they were titled as '81s because it was at the end of the production run).

Saw 3 2010 Ford models for the first time when I ran to Chipotle for lunch. A 2010 Taurus in white, looks great in person, looks smaller than in photos. A 2010 Raptor truck in a bright blue. Great presence. A 2010 Shelby GT500 coupe in bright red, white stripes. Looks great.